Kill A Man: Rusty Cage (IC)

[Gizmo]

Having retrieved a wealth of information as he was searching for the crystal deposit, Midnight was well prepared to transport them as required. "Give Persephone this," he instructed Hellion, displaying a scrolling list of data on his handheld tablet while the device streamed it wirelessly to the cambion's comlink system.

As Edge's uncharacteristically taciturn update crackled over his own communicator, the black clad hero felt his mist infused blood run cold. Adamant... The malicious armour was neigh unstoppable; it could only be delayed in its rampage. "Persephone, now," he demanded as bright light washed over the entire area, teleporting the two young men and several hundred pounds of daka crystals to their teammates' position.

[Avenger Assembled]

Phalanx and Psyche's joint effort dealt with the monster of adamantium in seconds: the two titantic teens swept in and pulled Adamant up and away, a well-placed tractor beam from Hellion's orbiting spaceship pulling the immortal, invincible killing machine up into the stratosphere with no more than an anguished howl from the unkillable monster that had posed such a threat to the world for so long. That left Wander, Edge, and Midnight to face off against the Beast of Kilimanjaro itself, a huge, hulking creature with gray armored skin like a rhino that towered as tall as a great bull elephant on two legs. Though it had been nearly double the size of Adamant, and was much larger than any of the kids, the great beast didn't look that formidable...until it suddenly gave a cunning leer and vaulted away in a high, surging arc that carried it over the side of the mountain.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Holy macaroni!" Edge exulted at the rapid-fire capture of Adamant and just as rapid escape by the giant Beast. Gathering up daka crystals, he said "Okay, Wander, grab me and carry me along! Midnight too if he doesn't have his jetpack handy! Looks like the Beast is headed away from the city, so we don't have to take him down immediately, but we'd better do it fast! If he gets out of Dakana and away from all these daka crystals, there'll be no stopping him! Remember, we're the best there is, and we're going to show that Beast that freedom never sleeps! Go Young Freedom!" As usual with Mark, the sheer power of his belief made his words especially weighty.

[Electra]

Erin scooped Mark up and looked back at Trevor. "We need a cage for that thing if we have any hope of containing it," she told him. "Edge and I can drive it back here!" With that, she was off in a single great leap, following the monster down off the mountainside and trying to get it in range for a hit. Mark's presence made just slugging the thing a lot more complicated, but his powers would make actually being able to catch the thing a lot more likely, so it was a decent trade, she figured.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sensing pursuit, the great grey beast turned and bounced unexpectedly straight for Wander. It landed hard, digging its claws deep into the Earth and giving a terrible roar, before pulling back its fist for a devastating blow straight to Wander's midsection! She brought up the bat and absorbed the punch with the solid impervium core, feeling the impact go shooting up her arm and down into her body: that was quite a punch that thing had! Towering at twice her height and roaring defiance like an unholy merger of rhino and dino, the Beast of Kilimanjaro was not going to go down without a fight!

[Gizmo]

Left standing by himself in the middle of a crater full of raw daka crystals, Midnight took a moment to watch Wander leap off to do battle before turning his attention to the problem at hand. Clearly the radiation from the powerful ore had a hibernation-like effect on the beast. Takes hold too slowly; concentrated blast. Cracking his black clad neck once in each direction, the mechanically inclined youth began emptying his jacket pockets and belt compartments of tools and components, ruthlessly cannibalizing his devices for parts, scrounging about himself for the best crystals in the pile and incorporating them at the heart of his creation. With surprising speed, he cobbled together a cylinder roughly the size of a blueprint tube, an ominous glow coming from the end facing away from him as he hefted it into his arm. A net of wires and crystals woven across his dirt and dust smeared uniform activated with a final circuit connection as a similarly luminescent aura surrounded Midnight, offering a modicum of protection.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wow!" said Edge, the shocked exclamation pulled from his lips as Wander absorbed the fantastic blow from the huge beast without a scratch. "That was awesome, Wander! This may be the Beast of Kililmanjaro," he cheered, "but you're the Wreck Room Wrecking Ball! Show this bad boy how we do it Freedom City style!" he added, hanging on tight. "Hey, big boy!" he yelled at the monster, getting the Beast's attention as it glared at him. "I bet you're too slow, fat, and stupid to follow us! C'mon, you big baby, your fist can't hit what your eyes can't see!" Fully confident Wander would do what he was hinting at, he gave the Beast a big ol' raspberry.

[Electra]

Taking Edge's cue, Wander blew a raspberry at the huge beast, then leapt away, slowly enough to make sure that it could follow. She hated running from a fight, but she trusted the intel that said this was the surest way to deal with this particular baddie. Trevor would have the cage waiting, she was sure, and hopefully the others were doing all right with Adamant up in space. That was a fight she was very concerned about, but no time to think about it now, not when she herself was up to her neck! "Come on," she taunted the thing, a little halfheartedly. "Can't you do better than that?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander leaped and landed safely, Edge clinging to her with great fervor and little grace, and just in time, too! With a mighty roar, the great beast came hurling after them, pounding up rocks and debris as it leaped a good quarter-mile to come crashing to Earth mere inches from Wander and Edge. The two heroes raced towards Midnight, pursued by the mighty monster of the mountain, the creature bellowing cries like something from a lost age. "Do it now!" Edge called to Midnight, trying to make his voice heard over the monster's ear-splitting bellows. "Do it now!"

[Gizmo]

"Bad day for breakout." Placing one foot back a step to steady himself, Midnight triggered the makeshift cannon, letting loose a torrent of daka radiation, the unleashed energies leaking into the visible spectrum with a blinding light. The beam struck the beast unerringly as it leapt after Wander and Edge, pumping it weakening rays into its flesh at several times the dosage of mere ambient exposure. His target stumbled as it landed, legs buckling. The creature tried to raise it's massive bulk, but under Midnight's assault instead collapsed clumsily into the crater, sliding helplessly down into the pile of gathered crystals. As its eyes fluttered, then closed again, the black clad vigilante finally released the firing stud on his weapon. "Have plans tonight."

[Electra]

Wander leapt to the edge of the volcanic crater, next to Midnight. She set Edge down and kept a very careful eye on the Beast, lest it get a second wind somehow and come after them again. It didn't seem about to go anywhere, though, so after a minute or two, she relaxed fractionally. "Good work, guys," she murmured. "We'd better get in touch with the King again. They'll probably want to put another permanent enclosure in place over this thing before any other villains get ideas."

[Avenger Assembled]

There was much to do in the hours that followed: Edge and Wander helped reassemble the daka cage that held the Beast of Kilimanjaro, while Psyche, Phalanx, and Hellion returned from space with news of their successful placement of Adamant on a near-Earth asteroid that would hopefully pass well out of the Solar System: a grim exile for a grim monster, impossible to contain in any more safe or merciful way. After that was celebration and congratulations from the king and the people of Dakana: Young Freedom had saved the city, the nation, and perhaps the world from no less than two rampaging, unstoppable monsters. Again!