| DC/Marvel: Age of Infinite Heroes | ||||||||||
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It's been a long, exhausting day for the Titans. A series of bomb threats going all over the city have spread the team thin helping out the local authorities in investigating them. For the moment the Titans are managing rotating teams, letting one group go out and rest while others are helping search the city and track down those putting bombs around. For the moment, one such exhausted group is arriving. Starfire goes in to land in the lobby, soot sloshed over her, her normal glow a bit dimmed.
Superboy has been out as well, using his speed, flight and X-ray vision to quickly, and safely, separate actual bombs from empty threats. He doesn't get physically exhausted the way he once did, but mental fatigue effects him the same as anyone else, especially when some of the powers he's been forced to use today still require some concentration from him for the precision use that his closest relatives accomplish so effortlessly. He lands after Starfire, following her into the building.
Arsenal has been high strung to say the least. He already strongly (understatement) suspects it is Cheshire behind all of this and has already warned the Titans to be wary of tricks out there, and to be aware of any security risks at the Titans Tower. He is at the Titans Tower, strapped up in his uniform and gear and ready to head out with a slight twitch included. He can't help it. He has been keeping in constant communication with the crew and not really resting on his 'time down'.
Cassie arrives moments after Kory and Kon. "Hey, guys." she offers, still being in a good mood. "Well.. That was interesting." she says as she enters the lounge. "We're all in one piece?"
The exhausted looking Starfire gives a nod, "Yes, fortunately we.." Right in time for the power on the first floor to dim as the electricity goes out, a half second later the backup generators kicked active.
Then a fireball goes to blast over in the front doors, melting them off their hinges as a woman flies in, her body sheathed in orange flames, and followed by a blue bolt of lightning as the doors are blasted and melted in! The effect of the shock on the front doors has the effect of disrupting the Titan Comms as well as the Titans are faced wtih a trio of adversaries!
Superboy recoils at the blast of heat, blue eyes wide as not one, not two, but three villains fill the doorway, only one of which he really recognizes with any sort of familiarity. "Is everyone alright?" he asks, quickly looking around to the others, searching for the only member of the group without at least some form of invulnerability.
Arsenal almost jumps out of his skin! He visible pales, which reflects his severe paranoia. He already is tapping his comlink, "Speedy, barricade, security lockdown," he orders and even as he speaks he is already moving, racing toward the stupid waterfall fountain to hide behind and pull an arrow out...this one being a fire extinguisher arrow. Hey, it's the thought that counts!
As Roy rushes down the hall to meet with the others, the melee begins! Starfire goes to charge over towards Cinder, her fists swinging over to meet the other woman then as Cinder dodges, going to blast over at KOry and sheathing her in a blast of fire as she was blasted backwards, Starfire's body smoldering!
Livewire grinned at Kon-El, "It's been too long! How about I be the big buzzkill?" Her body glowing with electricity, trying to blast over at him!
Meanwhile, the Tatooed Man groaned, "You know the drill. Secure the area." His tatooed body glowing, a massive looking Komodo Dragon coming out of it to go charging down the hall to intercept any reinforcements!
Superboy glances quickly behind him, seeing that, if he dodges, the bolt will hit the waterfall Arsenal is hiding behind instead. He can take it better than the archer, so he simply tanks it, trying to deflect some of the blast with his teke. However, he hasn't even practiced that trick, so he's basically taking the full thing to the chest.
"You all have this under control, I think. I'll go make sure Lian's alright!" Cassie calls, and then she's gone in a puff of wind, heading upstairs as quickly as she can.
A release of the fire extinguisher goes flying at the flamer girl from Arsenal's bow. His teeth grit to the point he thinks he is making his gums bleed, but it doesn't matter. His friends are getting hurt and...it's all his fault. That is when Arsenal really let's loose. Suddenly an acid arrow is shot toward the dragon and then a freeze arrow is shot toward the Tattoo man. Of course, this leaves him open to potential attack by Livewire as he rapid fires his eyes.
The Tatooed Man's dragon is quickly melted down, literally, over by the acid arrow shot from Roy in cover, it sparkling to nothingness. And the Tatooed Man himself is flash frozen just a moment later. He's just an ordinary man, ultimately in a world of powered peoples!
Starfire is going to flank over towards Livewire now, her firing Starbolts over at her as Livewire goes to dodge as Kon-El is blasted through the side of the fountain by Cinder. Cinder smirks over at Kon-El, "You know, this is my first time doing this. NOt everyone gets to kill a Kryptonian, even a little one, first day on the job."
Livewire hisses, "He's mine!" Distracted by the 'dibs' on Kon-El, her body sizzling with electricity!
Cassandra is heading upstairs to help protect Lian and the upper levels in case this is just another trick of Cheshire's to get them all downstairs!
Superboy lets out a hissing breath, Livewire's blast having stung, and Cinder's having been pretty bad too. He pushes too his feet, the fountain having gotten the worse of it. He mutters, "why couldn't I have gotten the frost breath?" He looks to Cinder. "You know," he says, standing in the water. "You might need to come over here to properly finish the job," he says. "I mean, anyone can take someone out by exploiting a well documented weakness, going toe to toe with a Kryptonian and coming out on top? Now that's impressive."
Speedy is already locking the top stairs and as Lian hiding in Roy's room under the bed of all the silly places. Still, Roy's room is a mess, tough to find her in there! Furthermore, shutters are drawn down over the windows on the top floor for additional protection. Speedy has her arrows ready and the door to Roy's quarters locked and secured. She speaks into the comlink, "Nothing yet," she says carefully, on high alert.
Arsenal is moving again while Livewire is distracted, "Don't stand still Superboy," his command sharp. Water would do damage to him too if Livewire got close enough. He is already pulling another arrow thinking fast of what to do against Electricity Girl or Flamer Girl (pet names). He finally pulls out an electric arrow, and shoots it toward the Flamer Girl, his body twisting and rolling and as he comes up he fires another arrow toward Livewire, this one a Stun Grenade. The ONLY reason Arsenal is even able to be this efficient is all because of Starfire and Superboy, taking the blunt of the attention and going toe-to-toe, taking physical damage and pain with suffering from the villains, leaving Arsenal free to maneuver and plan.
Starfire does a quick level of calculations - she does not know who the flaming woman is, and Livewire is after Superboy. ARsenal is targeting the two. That means she goes for the Flamer Girl. Starfire charges towards Cinder, fists flying to try and smash her over in the face then as the electric arrow is literally melting from the amount of flame the girl puts off as she brawls with Starfire, the heat going off her literally disrupting the shockhead of the arrow so it just bounces off her, digging at her flesh!
Meanwhile, Livewire lets out a yell as the stun grenade goes off, blinding her as she hisses. "Come out, comed out where EVER you are!" Firing electric blasts wildly, not able to see!
The commlink for Speedy upstairs still gets static, even as the systems are still offline. Then, as Wonder Girl heads up to meet her, literally bouncing 'off' her side comes a shrinking pair of molecules, instantly growing up to a full size humanoid as Cheshire and the Captain Atom villain called DWARFTSTAR grow to full size. Dwarfstar grunts, "I got you in, and that's all I'm paid for."
CHESHIRE'S eyes flash, "Very well. I am here for my daughter." Gonig to start towards Mia and Wonder Girl with her blades on out to face the two as DWARFSTAR shrinks down again to vanish!
As the pyrokinetic doesn't come any closer to the water, tied up by the 2nd time he and Starfire have switched 'dancing partners' Superboy lets out a displeased little noise and, a spray of mist behind him, he charges the disoriented Livewire, clotheslining her in the blink of an eye. "Ground her!" he calls to Starfire.
Arsenal is already moving behind the flame woman, "Over here Livewire! Can't hit a broad side of a barn!" He is trying to cause friendly fire, already whispering in the comlink, "Move Starfire," his voice hissing. The static suddenly on the line distrubing, and his stomach drops when Speedy doesn't respond from a gasping call.
Just because the other two are trying to ground Livewire, doesn't mean she isn't wildly shooting about in the meantime!
And Starfire and Superboy 'switch it up' again as Livewire is hammered hard in the chin, blitzing over into the center of the fountain while blinded and disoriented, and the water impacting her HARD as she lets out a shriek, unleashing all the energy as she goes still and quiet. Starfire goes to fire her starbolts over at Cinder again, getting out of the line of fire of Arsenal as she flanks Cinder!
Cheshire has plenty of tricks up her sleeves as they say. A timer bomb and a spritz of poison toward Wonder Girl gives her plenty of time to blow off the door, knocking Speedy back, the notched arrow knocked from her bow. She rolls to grab it back up to try and notch it once more for take-off, when the whip comes out through the smoke and debris.
As upstairs Wonder Girl and Speedy face off over with Cheshire, Cheshire's fingers whip up and over as she slashes Speedy over in the face with her deadly poisoned nails before Speedy can cock an arrow up at close range, her other hand whipping up to toss a vial of paralytic hallucinogens to the face of Cassandra as Cassie brings her wrists up to block, the small vial shattering and blasting her with a potent full dose of the drugs!
Cheshire, blades in front of her, adversaries falling behind her goes over towards Roy's room, stalking towards with her twin blades out!
Superboy hears the static, and focuses on speed. He moves in quickly, and, looking none too pleased about it, grabs hold of Cinder, quickly trying to extend the air tight bubble he uses to survive space around her, his hands getting red in the process.
So...while Arsenal is panicking inside, he draws attention to himself from Flamer Girl without Livewire getting a shot off in her direction. "This...sucks," and boy does he RUN! He has long legs for a reason people. He leaps, rolls, dodges, ducks, and flings himself behind a now burning front desk. Yep, it pays to be quick, course he is getting plenty of curses from the supervillainess as he keeps dodging! "Damn it Speedy! Answer me!" Fear is in his voice, and not for his own life and limb either.
As Speedy goes down, she can feel her heart seeming to skip a beat, and the world becomes distant. And while Wonder girl just thought she could dodge another small spray or a silly vial, Cheshire shows how easy she can use anything as a deadly weapon of mass destruction.
Still, there is a quiet whimper from Lian as mommy quickly finds her. "No...," the little girl whispers in actual fear, trying to get to the further side of the bed, away from her mommy.
Cheshire betrays a softness, going to gently take out a small jade figurine of a dragon, "Come, Lian. Come and be iwht mommy now." She half pleads, her own voice quaking, going to approach her daughter if she can and wrap her arms around her. "I need you.. Please."
At the same time downstairs, Cinder is slammed into the wall, hit with Starbolts by Starfire, and then any attempt she might make at recovery is doomed as her eyes were drawn by the yelling Roy, right in time for Kon-El to finish her off!
Cinder tries to burn Superboy, and somewhat succeeds, but, with the air tight bubble around her, burning hotter is the last thing the woman should have done, and Superboy allows the bubble to pop as soon as she passes out from burning up all of her own oxygen. "She's gotten to Lian," he says, and doesn't waist a moment grabbing hold of Arsenal and flying out the door, heading up towards the floor where Cheshire is trying to take her daughter, burned hands holding the girl's father as he tries to burn his way through the shutters on the window.
Upstairs, Lian is hesitate, but her mommy looks like she is about to cry. She's a soft-hearted girl in the end, just like her daddy. She slowly moves out from under the bed and reaches for her mommy, "Don't cry mommy," her voice very soft. The little girl looks like she is about to cry as well. So easily manipulated emotionally...but then again her dad is like that too.
Well, good thing to know cursing at Speedy did some good in his life after all! But Arsenal is soon up to his feet, moving to shoot another fire extinguisher at the fiery desk as he's moving toward the access-way to upstairs. "Speedy's communications are cut off! Must be something upstairs causing interference, we got to get there /now/! Superboy," Arsenal's voice is pleading, knowing the young man is so much faster than him.
Cheshire's voice breaks out in sobs then, "I'll keep you safe. I promise. I won't let anyone hurt you." As she goes to grab at her daughter in a deep hug, her hand going to activate her teleporter as Superboy and Arsenal go to run upstairs and fly as fast as they can, leaving Starfire down there for cleanup of the trio of unconscious villains, the fire retardant foam blasting over the unconscious Cinder and Livewire as the Tatooed Man's popsicle drips on the floor.
The shutter begins to melt, and Superboy powers through, hitting the room running, setting Arsenal down as he calls out, "LIAN!" Then Cheshire teleports away, Lian in tow, just as Superboy reaches where the pair had been, grabbing for empty air.
Article: SFH: 2013-06-27 - Bombs Abound