Sanctuary: Panacea

[Electra]

Fleur gasped as the android's rifle fired its deadly payload at the defenseless Scraps, sending the child tumbling backwards. Gaian Knight's protective wall rose around her as she knelt beside the stricken little boy, enough to prevent further damage, but not enough to stop what had already occurred. "Stop the android!" she called to her comrades, even as she fumbled to find a pulse on Scraps. She breathed a sigh of relief to find it steady and fast, but that relief would be short-lived if they couldn't turn the tide of the fight soon. Gabriel needed to be free to fight, she realized, not trying to pummel the Grue into submission.

Through the opening in the wall, Fleur could just see the Grue captain, reeling and helpless, but still active enough to be a threat. The broken vines that surrounded the android came to life again, this time snaking towards the Grue version, wrapping him up in a hold more implacable than the tightest ropes. Within moments he was trussed up like a Sunday roast, just in time for a rather malevolent-looking red and white flower to open over his head and engulf him, leaving only empty space behind.

[Supercape]

GM

"Yes, get them to safety!" yelled the android captain, even as he turned around to the sound of Fleur's voice.

"And duck!" he yelled, just in time, as he brought his powerful Rifle to bear and sent a beam of searing hot plasma just above Fleur's head, punching into the bunkers walls and cracking overhead beams. Much more insult, and even the sturdy construct might be in danger of collapsing.

As the Grue leader dissappeared into Fleur's flower, his underlings gibbered and wailed, in despair, anger, and confusion.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight's earthen wall extended grasping tendrils in an attempt to tie down the android captain, but the distance was simply too great to grab him before the attack could be noticed and dodged; the hero made something akin to a growling noise.

His distraction didn't help matters. He had as much of his attention as he thought he could safely spare directed up to the overhead beams, privately wincing the damage they'd taken. "If too many more shots like that end up hitting the room, I'm going to have to pay less attention to the people trying to kill us and more on keeping the building from crushing us all."

[Supercape]

GM

The gibbering mutant Grue shrieked and jabbered, frustrated at their inability to rend Giain Knight's rock and earth. They seemed driven half mad - or fully mad - by their insane fervour, and whatever organisation they had was now a memory.

A few of them scrabbled on top of the earth, wailing despair and crunching their fists and nails into the hard rock with little effect - although their fanatic devotion would no doubt unearth the children given enough time, even if they had to gnaw the rock down with broken teeth.

Some leapt over to Giain Knight, the master of earth who had deprived them of their devotion, tearing and slashing at him...

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel breathed a couple quick sighs of relief as the horde of insane Grue were distracted by scratching at rocks (though also a bit at Gaian Knight, though thankfully it seemed his armor helped him, as well), and the organic Captain was whisked away to the plant-space-between (courtesy of Fleur). That left...

He almost cursed as he saw the Android Captain still firing away at Fleur and the children. His face hardened as he knew what had to be done. He gripped his shining spear in both hands, and his voice rose above the din as he looked directly at the Android.

"I'm sorry."

And with a whisper of air and sound, he was flying across the room, spear held forward. For a moment, his aim faltered, but he corrected himself and held his weapon steady, right up until the moment the tip slammed into the friendly Captain's side.

"I'm sorry, and we'll do what we can for you. And protect the children. I promise."

His voice held compassion, but his expression was one of pure resolve.

[Supercape]

GM

"Yes! Strike me down with all you might!" shouted The android as Gabriel charged, and charged true. The spear rammed straight through the simulacrum's side, the tip pointing out of his back, sparking electricity and a thick oily grease.

The android arched his back, sparks arcing between his teeth.

"Aaargchhhh...." he clicked, a voice half static, half scratched record.

"Not...n-n...n-nnnnn-not hard-ha-ha-har-huh-huh-huhuhuhuhard enough!" he chastised Gabriel, in the style of a MC of considerable skill.

[Electra]

With the blows and shots still flying, it was tempting for Fleur to remain engaged in the fight until she was sure it was safe. But Gabriel and Gaian Knight were holding their own, and she had other priorities right now. Moving awkwardly with the weight of the boy, and nudging the girl as well, she scooted them all to the corner of the room, well behind the wall and out of eyeline of the door.

"Stay close to me, Penny," she instructed, giving the girl a handful of leaf-wrapped sap balls from her pouch. "I need you to help me take care of Scraps. Whenever I tell you to, give me another one of those. Scraps, honey, I need you to open your mouth for me," she cooed to the injured boy. "This will help you feel better." She tucked the first herbal concoction into his mouth, then began unwrapping the rest of them to paste over the hurt places. The improvement was rapid, burnt skin quickly scabbing over and flaking away from healthy new skin beneath.

[Fox]

Other than doing his level best to not give any Grue room to get past him and through the opening to where Fleur and the kids were, Gaian Knight paid his attackers as little mind as he could. Most of their claws seemed to meet an unusual amount of resistance anyway, for human flesh - the only one that got a piece of him couldn't do more than scratch him.

Though, apparently, that was enough - only seconds later the hero's stomach turned over, and he took a deep breath to try to focus on what was important. Not the aliens attacking him, of course, but if those others managed to break through that rock....

With apparent disregard for the more immediate, clawed threat he swept out a hand, bits of stone from the top of his wall breaking off and raining down into the Grue trying to tear earth away from the coffins.

[Supercape]

GM

The Grue were study, but despite their frenzied fanaticism, their bodies were failing from the unrelenting onslaught. Two more of their number flew away, knocked out stone cold.

"No! Noooo!" they yelled.

"Release Pandora! Release Pandora!!!" came the screams. For all their strength and ferocity, they did not more than chip away at the mountain of rock covering the Grue twins. Their eyes turned to Giain Knight in frustration.

"Release her!!!" they yelled at him, before leaping with startling speed to rend the hero with their razor sharp claws...

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel struggled not to grimace at the damage he was doing to the Android Captain. Part of him knew it was necessary, there was little time to try a more esoteric method, and Gaian Knight was too busy trying not to die. Still, he hoped the damage wasn't permanent, and one of their more tech-savvy allies could repair him.

'At least the children can't see us.'

It was a small mercy, but he'd take what he could get.

"I promise we'll get you back to as good as new when this is done, Captain."

With that, he took several steps back, and with an offhand wave of his right arm, send a couple of bolts of sonic energy slamming into the still-skewered Captain.

[Supercape]

GM

Meanwhile...

Penny, aghast at the site of her 'father' having a spear through his body, thrust herself forward, eyes wet with tears.

"Leave my daddy alone!" she cried, jumping into the fray to everybody's surprise, throwing herself infront of the android to shield him from Gabriel.

"You are a nasty man!" she screamed at poor Gabriel.

And then...

Scraps, fully healed, darted forward after Penny.

"No Penny! get away! You'll get hurt!..." he tried, vainly, to explain, pulling at her rags to get her away. He was slightly older, and had a better understanding of the situation...

"He isn't your father!" he shouted at her, much to her horror.

And furthermore...

"Children! Get away! I have to *bzzzt* *crackle* kill all humans!"

[Electra]

"Penny, no!" Fleur shouted, lurching to her feet to try and stop the little girl. As soon as she let go of Scraps, he too was gone, back into the fight. "Dammit!" she muttered under her breath, letting bandages and poultices spill from her pouch as she sprang to her feet. Holding her breath, she sprinted to the door, watching as the children darted right into the line of fire. In desperation, Fleur pointed to the vines that littered the ground beneath the android, pouring her raw power into them till they spilled forth clusters of giant flowers that momentarily obscured most of the cave with massive purple blossoms and the choking scent of hyacinth. Scraps and Penny were both completely enveloped by the mass of flora, disappearing from view in the space between eyeblinks. Just as rapidly, the flowers wilted and shrank away to nothingness, but not before they'd swept the children to safety along with!

[Supercape]

GM

Dropping his rifle to the floor, the poor android grasped Gabriels spear with both hands.

"Effective weapon! Don't let me...use...it....*bzzzt*" he crackled, as his powerful artificial limbs pulled the spear out of his body, to the tune of many sparks and arcs. His eyes briefly glistened with powerful electricity as he hefted the mighty weapon.

"Oh dear...." he commented, as he took the weapon with both hands. The Android was clearly strong, fast, and capable. He was just as deadly with the spear as he was with his rifle that now lay on the floor.

He shoulders hunched, his legs coiled, the android advanced towards Gabriel...

[Fox]

"Not going to happen," Gaian Knight countered, weathering the combined attacks of the Grue surprisingly well...albeit not perfectly. Though he looked no less ill (for better and for worse), the hero seemed more than capable of shrugging off the worst his foes could offer. Unfortunately, his response was similarly ineffective - his nausea and the close proximity of his targets was enough to throw off his aim, his volley of stones not connecting enough to matter.

"You realize that even if you kill me, that rock isn't moving, right? It's rock, not-- oh, why do I even bother...."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel had taken a step back when Penny had flung herself at him. But not because he feared her or, as much as he cursed himself for it, because he feared taking the Android Captain down in front of her. No, he feared the girl getting caught in the crossfire, or being attacked by the Captain, something none of them would be able to live with. He breathed a sigh of relief as the children were swallowed by a plant.

"Thanks for clearing the field, Fleur."

With that, he willed himself backward through the air, trying to at least make the Captain work for getting in close with him. When he'd gotten what distance he could out of the deal, he raise his arm to fire another sonic barrage. Just before he released it, he frowned and used his other hand to steady the shot, which flew out and struck true, but only just.

'Ugh. The attacks from the others must be shaking me up more than I thought they would...'

[Supercape]

GM

The blast caught the Captain on his shoulder, releasing a blossom of electricity where it ripped open his artificial skin. The android was lifted from the ground, spinning, and sailed over to the other side of the bunker, collapsing in a heat.

"Not hard enough-uff-uff!" he jabbered, vexed at Gabriel's seeming lack of effort.

"You must stop me...permanently! for...for Penny!" he said, an artificial tear running down his cheek.

He convulsed briefly with an artificial seizure...

[Electra]

Fleur pursed her lips as she looked at the pitable yet dangerous figure of the android captain, held hostage by his own programming. With the air clear, her powers were quickly returning to full potency, putting the color back in her skin and the green back in her hair. "Gabe, help GK," she told her comrade, even as she raised her hands to once again stir the plants.

The vines near the captain rose at her silent command, sliding over the android captain where he lay momentarily prone from his fall. In moments they were cinched tight around the metal body, pinning him implacably. "Is there a way we can deactivate you?" Fleur asked the Captain, hurrying over to the nearly-mummified figure. "If we can turn you off, there are people who can help free you from the implanted programming."

[Supercape]

GM

"Yes...there is...." squarked the Captain in Response to Electra's reply, as arcs of elictricity danced playfully between his perfect teeth.

"You just need to create a quantum uncertainty flux in my primary neutrino capictors which are located in the posterior region of my intrathoracic simulacrum. Then, you carefully eject the primary and secondary plasma couplings in a reverse nth dimensional loop before finally selecting my fusion electr-magnetic convergance to a mirror parallax configuration..."

"*Bzzzt Hzzzt*...It's quite simple once you switch off my *hzzzt ruzabababa* and then rotate the hzuhzuhzu* degrees in a *thzthzthz*ockwise fashion...."

[Fox]

"I'm really hoping that made sense to one of you," Gaian Knight called out from behind the cultists, glancing over to the mechanical captain with no small concern. More concern than he was showing for his own plight, certainly: though the Grue continued to wear at him, he was looking significantly less green around the gills and and was standing against their combined assault like...well, like a rock, though he didn't seem to have much of a chance to counter-attack. "I'd sure sleep better at night knowing that I didn't make a little girl cry."

[Supercape]

GM

"Just keep her safe!" replied the convulsing, sparking Captain, trying to waving Gabriels spear, but held fast by the vines of Fleur.

"bzzzt....kill all humans...." came the automated message from his mouth.

"Aiii! Aiii! Kill all humans!" screamed the Grue, echoing his advice in a frenzy, full of ecstasy and rage in equal parts. The insane mutants would not stop, it seemed, intent on rending Giain Knight to pieices if it meant they could get access to the holy children encased in rock.

"Kill!!! Kill!!!" they wailed as they gnashed their teeth, and, encircling the poor hero, once again leapt at him and struck with left and right claw, and alien muscle and nail...

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel winced at the volume of the cry, along with the garbling wail that went up after it. His sides still hurt from the minor wounds he'd already taken. He tried to steady his breathing as he lined up a shot at the Drone that seemed most injured.

"Hang tight, GK, trying to thin the herd for you!"

And of course between a sudden, brief burst of blurriness in his vision, and the strangely-tangled nature of the group of drones, his shot went wild, blowing away a few chips of stone from the roof of the room, leaving a trio of smooth, thin lines for several inches along its surface.

"Oh bloody hell."

[Electra]

Fleur looked from the android captain, struggling against his bonds with prodigious strength, to the deformed Grue fighting GK and Gabriel to at least a draw. "What we need are some reinforcements," she muttered. Reaching into her pouch, she selected seeds by touch, then tossed them to the floor in a wide arc. Plants sprang up, but these were different than usual. Instead of rooting in the ground, these grew roots almost like tripedal legs, then sprouted woody trunks and leafy branches. In seconds, there were five small trees in the cavern, and all of them were walking. "Attack the Grue!" Fleur called to them. "Help Gabriel and Gaian Knight!"

[Supercape]

GM

"Good thinking those plants will help us! *bzzzt...destroy all plant's*" said the Captain, as his powered limbs strained against the vines and vegetation that had wrapped around and around him, binding his limbs tightly. He had little leverage to move, and could only wiggle a little, as artificial metals and plastics pitted themselves against organic strength. The android was strong - he would eventually break free but for now, he was ensnared.

The Grue, if they were shocked, did not show it, wrapped up as they were in their own frenzy - by now they were quite beyond reason, entered into a frenzied blood lust.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight continued to stand strong against his attackers, albeit increasingly less strong as time went by - even his coat was starting to take some abuse, cuts and small slashes appearing where one of his frenzied enemies had found purchase. It was with visible effort and no small concentration that he threw one hand into the air, a stream of stone coming down out of the wall behind him to drive into the most injured-looking of the Grue as his hand dragged forward through unseen resistance, as if it was his own fingers that moved the river of earth.

[Supercape]

GM

The Grue was no match for the concentrated power of Giain Knight, being struck full on, his unconscious body flew to the ceiling and across the way, only to be brushed aside mid-air by a vexed tree.

The Grue responded in kind, turning their attention to the tree's and Fleur. Perhaps plant life was a particular irritant to them - given that the prion's had attacked Fleur's gardens first. Whatever the reason, they leapt about and slashed with renewed vigour, breaking twig and branches with every swipe. Their pure rage and superhuman strength was a dangerous combination, snapping some of the threes into pieces.