ic Pale Moonlight (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm going to KICK YOUR ASS, Warp!" spat Quickstep a moment before she vanished into a swirling portal of energy and suddenly emerged just inches from Warp's back. "I'll show you what it means to go against the power of the TERMINUS," she added with a hiss before suddenly the air tore open and a jet of molten lava poured from a vortex over their heads! Quickstep dodged away using her powers, but a cascade fell near Warp, so close that the sheer flaming heat of the burning rock seared her already-bleeding skin. "Maybe I should go back and find that ax again and use it on your face! I'll chop you down to size! Ahahah!" She did a little dance on the stage and pointed to the fleeing crowd of civilians, adding with a shout, "And if any of you stand with this dirty Judas goat, you'll get more of the same! T-babies aren't going to stand for this kind of treatment anymore!"

[Ari]

Everything had changed in the span of a few seconds, and Heraldo was stuck staring in horrified confusion as Tona started sending bladed shafts into the defenseless crowd, eyes wide and jaw agape as a relatively normal day in Freedom City became a nightmare. He vaguely recognized the girl in fatigues bursting out of the sky, she had been in an alien civics class with him a few times.

Blodeuwedd's call again jolted him out of his funk, the arrow Blue Jay shot into his neck bouncing off without him even bothering to try and dodge. Catching the bag as it was tossed to him, he neatly extracted the familiar Chessboard from its depths and slid it over his mask. Blinking a few times to get used to seeing the mystical auras surrounding him and a rather large amount of the other people in attendance, he suddenly caught sight of Dorothy throwing lava over Kat. He heard Blodeuwedd distantly trying to reach out to their comrade turned slaughterer, and realized that Kit had appeared to vanish. Now more than ever he wished that the Blue Dame let him shoot lasers from his eyes.

With a thud that echoed through the ground, El Heraldo shot through the air, gave Quickstep a vicious punch in the face, and flew silently down near to where one of the Freedonians had collapsed. "Need to get the people out of here." He said aloud to himself, striving to keep calm and prevent himself from falling to the ground and sobbing.

The shock hadn't quite set in yet. He was still not quite realizing the fact that the people lying still with the arrows sticking out of their chests and heads like standards were not merely stunned.

[Curious Key]

Kat had never seen someone die before.

Death was supposed to be slow, it was supposed to be dramatic and bloody. It had happened so fast; the twang of an arrow, a shaft through a chest. There wasn't enough warning, and there wasn't enough blood. Warp stared, her expression almost comically confused. Whipside couldn't be dead, be realistic, that went through the hear— No. She couldn't be dead. People didn't just die like that.

A voice. Dorothy? Kat turned to look at her enemy, puzzled. It didn't make any sense, it didn't make any sen—

Another twang, and this time Warp looked up in time to see the hail of arrows. Instinct kicked in, but not soon enough. She held up her arms to shield her unprotected head and the steel rain hit her trusted suit, that'd kept her safe through so many fights. It slowed her arrows, but it cut through the nanofiber and into Warp's skin.

Warp turned to where Quickstep had stood, unharmed by the hail. The arrows in the ground around her painted a picture; none had strayed too close to her at all. And . . . Wait. Where had Dorothy gone?

She got her answer from behind, and by the time she had time to register what was happening she felt a wave of heat over her skin as lava poured. Trying to move, Kat danced back far enough to avoid being burned alive, but the proximity was enough. The heat was excruciating, sizzling straight through her armor. There should have been a quip, a comeback, a something . . . They'll die. They'll all of them die, if they stay here.

For the moment, Warp ignored her rival. "You've got two choices!" She shouted over the crowd. "Stay here and maybe . . ." Her tongue couldn't form the word. "Stay here under an arrow rain, or let me save you!" They were frightened, Warp could tell, frightened of her. Maybe they found some comfort in the fear she shared with them. More likely, they would have let anyone take them away as long as it meant getting away from the homicidal archer.

Warp closed her eyes and drew from the vile core of her that wanted to eat the world. She flashed through an entropic tear, appearing and vanishing in the space of a second, touching the fallen and injury and just plain frightened with a hand and pulling them with her. Even the ones that were very still, very quiet, and did not move at all. A hospital, yes, they needed a hospital. She would send them there.

In a flash of red-and-black Warp reappeared exactly where she'd vanished, but the civilians were long gone.

[Raveled]

Blue Jay looked around as Blodeuwedd landed on the roof near her. "Hello, Blodeu," she said, her voice quite calm and even. "I remember. You're going to help me go back home and kill all of the Terminus." She glanced back at the stage and loosed three arrows that stitched across Hammerhead's legs. "Just think of this as getting started early. I told you it wouldn't be like any fight we've ever had before. What did you think I meant, that it's just be really hard? Like camping all the time? No." She drew again and put an arrow through Hammerhead's heart, then into one of his eyes. "Being in the Terminus means being ready to kill, all the time. Kill anyone, if they turn."

The archer surveyed the stage, but she couldn't see any more of the T-Babies. She turned to her friend, grinning from ear to ear. "Quelle supris! If it's all this quick, I'll be done tomorrow! C'mon, Blodeu, come and help me kill them all."

[Blue Rose]

Sam watches from her hiding place as Tona continues her spree, positively giddy. She's never seen a human act like this, so gleefully, pointlessly malicious. Ghosts, demons? Yes. But never humans.

She wants to rush out there, to talk some sense into her, but stops herself. She won't reach her. Right now, Tona doesn't need Sam. She needs Kit.

And so, Kit falls back on her training, to the thief's first lesson. Patience. Take your position. Watch the mark. Wait for your chance. She studies Blue Jay, her firing, her gear. When Blodeuwedd enters the scene, she beats down the urge to stand by her side and chalks it up as a distraction. Possibly useful.

Then, another volley. It's time. As Tona draws back for another shot, Kit darts out, going for the quiver while both arms are up. With a flick, she unclasps the strap and whips it off in a moment, then with a twirl she flicks it in Blodeuwedd's direction. "Cerys, destroy it!" she calls out to the girl with the flaming sword.

"I don't know what you are," she says to the thing in Tona's body, refusing to acknowledge that anything in it is her friend, "But I won't let you make her hurt anyone else."

[Tiffany Korta]

"I'm not some silly teenage girl who dreams of a peaceful world of Unicorn and magic pixies. I was raised from birth to be a warrior, with everything that entails. My family has been fighting against supernatural threats for millennia. I was trained to kill when necessary, but only as a last resort and never the innocent. Precise surgical strikes that only take out the guilty. You don't cure the cancer by the killing the patient."

 

Without a second thought Blodeuwedd kicked Tona the quiver off of the building into the flow of lava below them.

 

"Let's see if we can get that bow to join it."

 

Then with a sudden movement she attacked, locking the guard of Dyrnwyn around Tona's bow in an elegantly simple movement tried to twist the bow out of her hands.

[Ari]

"'Jay, that's a ridiculous argument! Spewing arrows at people who can't hurt you, and raving about how you have to be ready to kill 'anyone who turns', pathetic!"

Heraldo felt enormously sheepish when Warp had so deftly and efficiently transported the wounded out of the fight, thankfully there was plenty else to focus on, like the lava incinerating the stage he was on. Lifting off it, he turned to face Quickstep only to hear the exchange between Blodeuwedd and Blue Jay, tears welling up as he saw Hammerhead get cut down in seconds and crash onto the frozen roof, which he viciously(and only partly successfully) fought back.

His heart leaped when Kit suddenly leaped into action, seizing the quiver from their murderous comrade and throwing it to Cerys, who quickly saw to its destruction! Heraldo changed course in an instant, rocketing straight for the disarmed Blue Jay so they could put a final end to her brief reign of death and terror! Keeping a careful eye out for any signs of mystic power surrounding Tona that might lead to her controller, he streaked through the air like a red, blue and gold bullet trailing gold.

As he flew he went on "Blodeuwedd! Kit! I'll try and get her in the air! Be ready when 'Heh, not "if"'"she escapes!" then dove straight into the erstwhile heroine with arms outstretched to pin her arms to her sides and grip her like bands of iron!

"Have you gone crazy archer? Nothing you're doing makes the least sense unless you just want to kill people!"

[Curious Key]

Their homicidal archer had hit everyone on stage but Dorothy. But she hadn't missed anyone she'd meant to hit. It was easier to think of that than the look on Whipside's face when . . . Anyway, Blue Jay had shot down civilians, shot down heroes, shot down a senator, but Quickstep had been excused from doom. Why? There was a connection between the two of them. Could they be working together?

Warp turned toward Quickstep, her smile wry. "Dorothy? Is that really you?" Her words were full of contempt, but her hands were shaking. It was too small a detail for Dorothy to notice, she hoped. "It's gotta suck," False sympathy, a smile that belonged on a cat with a canary between its jaws.

A flicker of entropy and Warp was behind Quickstep, leaning in toward the girl's ear. "Being so lonely you have to play pretend with people you hate, just so you'll feel apart of something." A bark of a laugh. "You're the most petty, pathetic girl I've ever met, and I fought Silver Scream."

Course it was a load of bull, but if Dorothy was anything like the other baddies Warp had faced she bet that the girl would trip over herself trying to prove Kat wrong, trying to justice herself . . . And tell Warp everything she needed to know.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm just teaching them who they should be afraid of, you filthy, stinking sack of entropy-ridden meat," said Dorothy with an eerie look of calm on her too-young face, her voice as void of emotion as if she was reciting a laundry list. "And now it looks like it's time for me to go. I'll see you again soon, though," she added coldly before stepping back into a portal behind her, the air rippling as she tore open a wormhole to a far-distant dimension. Warp just had a glimpse of a dirty-looking warehouse and the distinct droning of what sounded like some sort of gigantic mechanical bee before the portal slammed shut again, leaving her on the stage with the murderous, albeit disarmed, Blue Jay.

[Raveled]

Blue Jay was shocked by Kit's sudden appearance, and then Blodeuwedd's sword slipped through her guard and flipped her bow into the lava that was quickly demolishing the stage. She still had enough presence of mind to roll as El Heraldo swooped in from overhead, coming up with an angry snarl on her lips. "That's it," she spat at her former friends and allies. "I thought you would help me, that I count on you. But right now I can see that you're just a bunch of spoiled brats. You can't see the danger when it's right in front of your eyes!"

Jay rushed froward. She anticipated that Heraldo would move to protect Blodeuwedd, so instead Jay grabbed Kit by the arm. "So maybe it's just better that none of you have a chance to fail like this ever again!" And she hauled with more than human strength, turning like a pendulum and tossing Kit into the air. The last thing the illusionist saw as she went over the edge of the roof was Blue Jay's face, full of spite.

[Blue Rose]

Nice one, Cerys, Kit thinks to herself as her friend sends both quiver and bow into the lava. Though the next part...

Blue Jay starts moving.

The next part...

She's right next to her.

They have to...

She has her arm.

Sam seizes. She can't fight Tona. She can't.

And then, the world turns. Up becomes down, and in an instant, she's staring at the sky. She doesn't make a sound. She's too far in shock for that.

So this is falling. Thinking back, she'd never actually fallen before. She'd always been good enough to avoid it. So, she digs through her bag of tricks. No shadows to jump into. Burrow into people's minds? Not gonna help. Hellfire? On what. The thousand tricks of a thief? Not much use when you're floating in mid-air with a slab of concrete approaching entirely too fast.

"Damn." She does the only thing she can do at this point. She relaxes every muscle in her body, slams into the ground, and goes out cold.

[Tiffany Korta]

Even in her state she hadn't expected Tona to attack Sam, not the woman who as far as Blodeuwedd knew Tona loved. But now was not the time to deal with all the emotions, if she survived she'd have time to process everything later.

 

Still there was a chance that Tona could still be reached, be reasoned with, or at least distracted. Or did she just need to say these things? Maybe she wasn't coping as well as she liked.

 

"Is this what it's come to? Hurting the woman who cared for you, who loved you?"

 

She knew she had no time to wait for an answer so as she finished speaking she was already on motion.

 

Jumping off of the side of the building she aimed a kick at Tona's face, then using her momentum she spin around as she landed, lashing out with Dyrnwyn.

[Ari]

Heraldo shrugged "Well, Tona would never use her life as a club to win an argument, and she definitely wouldn't throw her girlfriend off a roof" he carefully beat back the waves of self-recrimination at not thinking to try and intercept Kit instead of Blodeuwedd. Another thing that would drive him into a sobbing bundle by the time this was done. The Blue Dame was doing a commendable job of keeping him focused, he had to say!

Raising the Banner, he said aloud "Comrades. We will destroy this creature, and end its evil! But before we crush it beneath righteousness' fist," he glared down at the raging Blue Jay "we will discover where our friend has been taken from it!" as he spoke, a wash of golden smoke curled around Warp, Blodeuwedd and himself, filling them briefly with a shout like soldiers preparing to charge! A strength flowed through them, and everything seemed possible.

[Curious Key]

Angry? Warp could deal with, petty she could understand, jealous she could get. But the Dorothy she heard was so cold Warp nearly shivered at the sound of it. It wasn't until Heraldo sang his battle cry that Warp was pulled out of the dark place that her mind had gone. She took a stance and shifted forward, reality rupturing as she slipped out on the roof next to Blue Jay in the others, the red-black taint of entropy clinging to her body.

No quip. No jokes. No screwing around. Warp snarled and drove her palm deep into Blue Jay's gut, solid for the fraction of a second it took to get a hit before the vapor was all that was left of her, and Warp was standing again on the boards of the ruined stage, well out of range of retaliation, lava hissing at her back as she stared up at Blue Jay's silhouette.

[Raveled]

The kick snapped Blue Jay's head back, and the blow from Dyrnwyn landed heavily on her shoulder, wrenching it out of the joint. She screamed more in pain than frustration, her entire world going dim with pain for a moment even as Heraldo cheered on the remaining heroes.

And then Warp appeared from literally nowhere, Jay unable to mount any sort of defense against the blow. She was thrown back against a chimney by the blow, the lip of the brick catching her in her lower back. The young archer's back continued while the rest of her body was stopped cold, and she ended up bent back, her spine at nearly a right angle. It was painful for any human to look at -- and the she sat up, her bones audibly cracking as she forced them back into position. The blow from Warp was still visible on her skin -- not as a reddened patch of flesh, but as an indentation in her body.

Whatever this was that was posing as Blue Jay breathed heavily, glaring at Heraldo and Blodeu. There were no more words to say, so she didn't waste her breath with them.

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd luckily hadn't had to use Dyrnwyn on people often, but she had spent many hour fighting other human being. So she knew how it felt to hit flesh how it reacted and how it felt and reacted to blows. And this Tona didn't feel like that, there seemed only one conclusion.

 

"This isn't Blue Jay it's some kind of doppelganger. I think it's might be some kind of machine."

 

It was a relief, she wasn't relishing fighting her friend. She banished the thoughts of where Tona was right now, there would be time to worry about that later.

Springing back to her feet she rained a series of rapid cuts on the fake Tona the swords blue flames leaving faint blue traces in the air.

[Ari]

Heraldo's eyes widened, his hands inside his gloves grew slick with sweat, and skin crawled on his back as he saw, for the first time, a very real indication that what they were figthing wasn't even remotely human. He struggled with a wave of horror as further revelations slid through his brain: 'She...it knows us! Calm down, Herald, it cannot know all- It knew I wouldn't think to dive for Sam! It knew us, our names, personalities, our history with Tona! Oh God, what could have happened to her?! Be still! You will gain nothing by panic. Follow the lead of-there!' At that moment Blodeuwedd launched her next attack, calling out

“This isn’t Blue Jay it’s some kind of doppelgänger. I think it’s might be some kind of machine.â€

With a weak grin Heraldo answered, darting into the opening his close friend and comrade left "Well gee, Blodeu, I had no idea, I thought she was a leprechaun!"

Slamming his foot into the frigid roof, he carried forward a tremendous punch that slammed directly into the phony archer's face!

[Curious Key]

Warp had hit people before, hit them hard enough to break things, but she did not recognize the way Blue Jay's skin had caved at her touch. She thought of Quickstep's voice, cold and empty.

A flicker, a flash of red light and Warp was standing in front of Blue Jay, her expression twisted into a snarl. Warp shoved the thing wearing Blue Jay's skin back against the chimney, and hit her square between the eyes. She felt it caving inward under the force of the blow, and she reveled in the sensation of it.

Another flash, and Warp was back where she'd started. Kat blinked up at it, not quite sure what she'd done to the thing, but relatively sure that it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

[Raveled]

Blue Jay -- or the thing calling itself Blue Jay -- recoiled from the blow. It hit the chimney again, and when it sat up this time Blodeuwedd and El Heraldo could see that its skull was split and partially caved in. "F-f-f-foolish heroes," it said, its voice stuttering. "You can n-n-n-never underest-- underest-- underest-- underest--" The Blue Jay bot twitched, and collapsed.

And then the entire roof was engulfed in green flame, as the core of the robot detonated and flung burning plasma in a wide arc around itself.

[Ari]

Shuddering and staring in horror as the robot's head, otherwise a perfect replica of the real thing with torn flesh and blood streaming over glaring eyes, lolled open to reveal its electronic core, Heraldo was almost unable to evade the sudden blast of emerald fires.

They leaped up and onto him, almost before he could hurl himself away with a flash of golden light and wordless shout of surprise, landing with a crushing *THUD* on a roof only a few yards away in a smouldering heap. He got quickly back to his feet, looking in quiet shock at the broken metal carcass that had just blown itself to pieces. His hat, mask, shirt and coat were gone, and most of his pants had been seared clean off, but the faint gilding around him had guarded his flesh from the plasma, and he was unhurt.

Shaking his head in disbelief, he glanced back at the ground below him, and gasped on catching sight of Kit. He took a lurching step, and with a breathless mutter banished the tiredness from his body in a wash of golden flames. Soaring down to her, he bent down and placed a hand on her side. It glowed faintly, and he sent a surge of power through the fallen girl in an attempt to heal the worst of her injuries. A faint cry sounded out, like ancient soldiers on the edge of triumph.

"This...I'm sorry, this is the best I can do right now." he told her glumly "I shouldn't...probably can't even hear me, can ya? I should have thought the thing would go for you." he glanced back at the roof dismally "What can we even do now?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd must have sensed that something was going to happen to the Jay-bot as she was moving before she exploded.

As the explosion subsided with the tinkle of metal she noticed that it was to quiet, there was no emergency services no STAR or AEGIS or even other heroes. There was a chance it was nothing, or something serious was going on in the city.

But first thing first she crouched down beside Sam and her voice was soft and laced with concern.

 

"It's okay that thing wasn't Tona. It was some kind of robot. I'm not sure who or why, but we're going to find out"

 

She straightened up and was all business.

 

"Heraldo make sure that everyone alright, try and keep things calm. Warp try and contact the school in case Blue Jay's not the only doppelganger I'm going to try and find out what's going on."

 

She made for one of the big Outside Broadcast trucks that the studio's used for events like this. Finding one that was still manned she popped her head inside to see if they were monitoring what was going on, if anything, in the City.

[Curious Key]

Kat hadn't expected the explosion. She held up her hand to shield her eyes, the same look of blank horror she'd worn when Whipside had taken an arrow to the face. When Heraldo and Cerys descended, no worse for wear. Kat's shoulders sagged with relief and a little of the life came back into her eyes.

"I took everyone to the hospital," Kat said, and hoped it would be enough to save them all. "They should be okay." She plucked her cell phone out of entropic space, slid it open and dialed the emergency number they handed out to Claremont students on their first day. They were taken care of here, but Cerys was right. Claremont needed to know.

[Ari]

"I'm glad you're okay too, princess." Heraldo called glumly after Blodeuwedd, levering himself to his feet with great difficulty and having to rest on the magnificent Banner for a few moments, the healing having taken a lot out of him. Bowing his head, it was the work of a moment to erase the bloodstains and tears in Kit's clothing, which vanished and were mended under a faint stream of gold light. Surveying what was left of the crowd, the bedraggled youth quietly flew over to them, repairing his almost totally incinerated costume with a brief flicker of power as he went, not bothering this time with the hat, which wasn't quite suitable for the weather anyway.

He moved quietly to whomever was left, briefly explaining that while neither he nor anyone else at the moment knew for sure what was going on, apparently the archer heroine had been kidnapped and replaced with a robotic duplicate, possibly as an assassin of some kind, "As soon as I know more for certain" he told all of them "I'll try and let you know. But odds are folks from the Lab or the Freedom League will know all about whatever this is long before me. I-I'm sorry we couldn't stop her before she killed those people. We'll make sure that this never happens again."

While he spoke, he let the Banner flare, bringing a renewed feeling of hope swell in the hearts of those around him. That done, and not knowing what else to do, he gathered the bodies of Hammerhead and the other T-mutants who had perished in the attack, carrying them to the stage while he listened for further orders.

'"Foolish heroes" it said. I wonder what other clichés it would have spouted before it exploded?'

[Blue Rose]

"Ugh..." Well after Heraldo moves on, Sam looks up into a big gray blur. Scratch that. A big light blur. No, more like a blinding wall of fire. Why does the sun have to be so bright?

She rolls onto her knees, head pounding but fairly sure most of her bones are intact. Head's still pounding, too, and she can feel the massive lump forming.

Then, she starts growing more aware of her surroundings, and her training kicks in. A blackout in a fight is never a good thing, and if one ever truly loses their bearings when things get hot, there's only one thing to do; she darts to the nearest shadows and leaps somewhere almost random to hide, to think. Of course, there's only one obvious first thought. Tona.

Another hop through the shadows and a pained pull up, and she's back on the roof, only to find a disaster area. "What the Hell?" she asks, stunned.

[Ari]

Heraldo called over as he passed her, Hammerhead's corpse in his arms "You know the archer that looked just like Tona and killed all those people? It-it was actually a robot." he glanced over at Kit and winced before he went on guiltily "The robo-...we couldn't capture it. It exploded when Warp smashed it's head." he explained. Laying the body gently on the platform he flew back over to her "Um...are you feeling any better?" he asked without much hope "At least we know she's been kidnapped and whoever did it uses robots?" the stocky young paragon looked away when he saw her expression "Sorry, that was even dumber'n usual. Blodeu's in that van. She'll know what to do, pro'lly" he jerked a thumb over at the news van Blodeuwedd had gone into to try and get a handle on what was going on.