Chaos, Steel, and Wolves (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

"You must hate shopping for gloves."

The mouth full of metal fangs smirked at that, a sight that would have left some organics shaking with a fair bit of fear, but that the many-handed robot simply ignored. Fenris gave a shove to give himself precious inches, before crouching down for a split-second. Before Hekatoncheire could try and strike again, there was a flash of light, and suddenly Fenris was on a small observation balcony several feet behind his opponent, and almost as many feet up. Still plenty close enough.

"You'll have to let me know how these-"

Whatever he was going to say dropped off as the lightning-bolt shots from his PPCs went wide on either side of the robot. Metal fangs ground together for a moment in frustration.

"Great, now the alignment's off."

[Raveled]

Ironclad frowned as the purple-suited villain ran away from her and Bee-Keeper. That... wasn't how things normally went. If she had charged while screaming about "impudent, nosy heroes" Ironclad would know exactly how to respond, but this wrong-footed the heroine for a moment. Bee-Keeper's voice brought her back to reality, though. "Both of us," Ironclad said. "But first, we have to make sure this isn't going anywhere." She routed power away from her wrist blasters and to the suit's servo muscles. She gripped ahold of the rail car, and it was the easiest thing in the world to flip it off the track, crushing a couple of the loading arms in the process. Then she walked in front of the car and took hold of the rail set into the floor. She heaved and with a scream of parting metal it came up, a fistful of tempered steel in one hand. She walked forward and repeated the process, then again and again, until almost ten feet of bare concrete, shards of metal, and free-standing bolts stood between the upturned rail car and the remaining rail.

Ironclad turned to face Bee-Keeper again, her breath coming a little faster than before. "Now," she said, "we go find Professor Plum."

[Fox]

Dragonfly flinched as the wave hit her, but even as it pushed on her mind, her mind pushed back. Years of over-exposure to telepaths and their ways had left her numb to their methods, half a lifetime of psychic scar tissue...though the static that filled her mind when they tried was no more pleasant, and it certainly didn't improve her mood any.

She growled, snapping out a hand to grab the woman by the shoulder and, with an ominous clicking sound, linked her gauntlet's plating directly into her suit's capacitors.

[SpicyWaffle]

Between the screaming of tempered steel as Ironclad worked her mechanical mojo and the screaming of metal being torn asunder down the corridor the mysterious woman had run down, the Bee-Keeper's agitation almost seemed to boil over as he served as the impromptu bodyguard in silent agreement to Jessica's plan. But as soon as his much more intelligent counterpart had finished her deed, Baxter was all too ready to begin this new round of Clue in pursuit of the eloping purple-clad woman and find the missing super-weapon.

Wings once more beating with great rapidity, the Bee-Keeper set himself on the path down the tunnel after the escaping suspect along with Ironclad, tapping his helmet lightly to bring up the communications channel the serendipitous league of armored heroes had been sharing.

"Yo! We zzabotaged one of their railcarzz, and think we found one of thozze zzuppozzed zzuperzz you mentioned, 'Fly. There'zz zzome purple-haired woman running through one of the tunnelzz," Bee-Keeper explained, unsure exactly where the tunnel lead as he barreled down it as fast he could muster in hot pursuit. "Don't know where zzhe came from, but zhe'zz decked out in zzome kind of armor. Me and Ironclad are chazzing after her now."

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

The green and white gynoid observed Dragonfly's reaction with no outward emotion. The fact that the electrical surge did exactly nothing seemed to factor into her nonchalant response.

"Hekatoncheire, deal with the one who is giving us free power charges. I shall deal with the one who hides in the rafters."

Casually sliding the armored heroine's hand off of her shoulder, Arachne floated almost serenely into the air before turning to face Fenris on his new perch. She waved a hand in his direction.

"You are inferior, and you will fall."

An invisible wave of mental force slammed into the wolf-suited man, but he had braced himself for the blow, and it rolled around his form like water around a rock. Perhaps in time the waves would wear away the rock, but at this juncture, the rock stood firm. Arachne simply narrowed her eyes slightly.

Meanwhile, the many-handed robot turned and inexorably moved over to Dragonfly. Once within reach of his many, many hands, a rain of blows similar to the one Fenris weathered rained down on the insect-themed heroine. Most of his fists struck home; any one blow would be fairly minor, but with so many landing so quickly, it was a force to be reckoned with.

Even as those fights raged, the purple-haired woman (or was she?) sped into the room as a blur of motion. She glanced at the fights already progressing, before nodding to herself. She moved to one side of the door, entering a basic "ready" stance; a crude "trap" to spring upon whichever hero first came through the doorway!

[SpicyWaffle]

Racing down the hallway as fast as he could without having a face-to-wall meeting with the interior, the Bee-Keeper was mad-intent on finding this mysterious woman bedecked, whipping his way through the opening like a man possessed. As ready as he was for some answers, however, he almost wasn't ready for the ambush around the corner as the armor-sporting woman sprung her ambush, Baxter's eyes going wide first at the sight of the multi-limbed assailant, and then as purple-haired martial artist's fist narrowly missed his helmet by mere inches. Were it not for the last second duck and furling of wings, indeed, the Bee-Keeper III might have earnestly had his block knocked off; but instead, the tables had turned as they presented him with a golden opportunity to subdue his opponent before she got any further!

Hitting the ground with a palpable grinding of metal against concrete, the only rudimentary trained boy spun on his heel, aligning himself square with the female antagonist who'd so boldly tried to flee the scene with a harsh cross to her face! No way he was going to let her take a swing without giving one in return!

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

Empousa frowned as Bee-Keeper dodged her blow. Her eyes widened as he slammed an armored fist into her midsection, letting out a surprisingly human wheeze of pain as she took a half step back, clearly trying to clear the stars in her eyes.

*********************************

Meanwhile, Ironclad was taking a last look at her handiwork when her suit sensors detected...something...in the barely-audible sound range. Too late did she realize it was right behind her. Air "whooshed" as a black metallic fist slammed right in between her shoulder blades, the impact giving off a loud *ring* of metal-on-metal.

From thin air, a human-looking android seemed to melt into existence, light slowly un-bending from around his body. The "shades" over his eyes gleamed in the light as he crooked his mouth in a bit of a grin.

"Need to learn to watch your back or stay with backup, little girl."

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris grit his metallic teeth. While the sensation wasn't truly painful, the waves of psychic force lashing against his armor caused an unpleasant near-stinging sensation. After the attack abated, he lowered his arms and gave Arachne a look that might have sent lesser beings quailing in fear.

"My turn."

And with that, he held up his right arm, steadied by his left, and charged his PPC for a moment. As his HUD flashed a solid lock and sounded a tone, he sent the mental "trigger". A bolt of coherent near-lighting slashed through the air, leaving a scent of ozone lingering for a few moments. The lightning struck Arachne in her glowing midsection. The gynoid seized and shuddered, the high-powered electrical blast having left a scorch mark, and clearly having pushed through her tough construction. The psychic robot was left floating there, only half-aware of her surroundings as some of her internal systems worked hard to reboot themselves.

[Raveled]

Thanks to her three hundred and sixty degree vision, Ironclad actually got to see the human-looking figure de-cloak behind her, before the fist slammed into her back. The layers of metal held beautifully, though, and she turned with ease to catch the follow-up blow on her arm. "Ironclad, mark 6. Top of the line armor." The combat bot's other arm whipped around and Ironclad caught it, as well. "Designed by me. Produced by Dawes Tech." The servos worked and began forcing Kobalos's arms down to his side. "Still, I should thank you for the vote of confidence. You stole from the very best." And her head whipped forward, the bare metal of the helmet meeting the built-in glasses with a crack. "You're just not good enough to get away with it."

[Fox]

Dragonfly weathered the many-armed attack fairly well, considering - her force field took the worst of it, and her metal plating took the rest, though when one strike managed to solidly connect with one of the joints in her armor she winced and decided enough was enough.

Her wings flared into being, four blades of neon-tinted energy that, motionless, shot her up and away from her attacker. [bg=#555555]"I don't like you,"[/bg] she announced, raining twisted space down onto Hekatoncheire's head. [bg=#555555]"Don't know why you wanted what you stole, don't really care. Stops now."[/bg]

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

The two enemy women (well, one gynoid and one...armored woman?) in the room seemed to sway in place, unable to do much. Arachne was still rebooting and rerouting her systems, and Empousa was trying to shake off the ringing in her head from Bee-Keeper's blow.

But mighty Hekatoncheire simply stood and weathered Dragonfly's attack. Some metal plates peeled off his structure, and one of his pinky fingers snapped off, but overall he seemed to be entirely functional still. The large robot stared up at Dragonfly for a few moments, before turning away.

"Following orders. Reassessing targets. New target acquired. Moving to Empousa's aid."

With that, the many-armed robot stomped over to stand next to Bee-Keeper. Its eyes glowed for a moment, before suddenly a torrent of punches flew out, striking against the Apian Avenger's mighty armor! It was clear this robot cared only for removing threats, whoever the threat might be.

[SpicyWaffle]

"Alright! Zzpill it! Where'zz th--" began the Bee-Keeper, his inquisition sure to be swift and merciless... or it would have been, had a many-armed robot-thingy not suddenly sauntered over and started trying to clock him in the face a billion times! Catching just a glimpse of the multi-limbed monstrosity, Baxter was barraged by a flurry of blows, fists held up over his face as the rain of attacks pelted the armored frame of his armor. While most of the strikes were repelled harmlessly either through sheer pluck on Baxter's part of the armor he wore, one or two found their mark as a wave of pain rocketed through the young teenager's chest and abdomen.

Shaking the cobwebs from his head as the ringing subsided, the Bee-Keeper turned to face his new opponent with grit teeth and a serious demeanor as he clenched his fists in eager retribution!

"All right! You guyzz wanna do it like that? Fine! Guezz I'll juzzt have to beeat the anzzwerzz outta you!" he yelled. Whirling around on his heel like a man possessed, the Bee-Keeper struck out against the purple-haired woman who'd so brazenly tried to ambush, socking her again with devastating force! Unrelenting in his assault, the Bee-Keeper wasn't done as he took hold of the armored female soldier in a vice-like grip and without missing a beat, hucked her like some sort of discus straight at the metal monstrosity attempting to beat him to a pulp! With a telltale thud, the impromptu weapon hit home, much to Baxter's delight as a small grin creased its way up his face at the sight of his success.

"Nobody ever wantzz to juzzt do it the eazzy way. If you guyzz would juzzt tell uzz where the death-lazzer izz, we could zztop punching you in the fazze."

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

The lady clad in armor slammed into the multi-limbed robot in a blur of movement and a clamor of sound. The larger bot seemed somewhat shaken and battered, but still had its wits about it. The purple-haired woman crumpled to the ground unconscious. Where her armor promptly started folding back into her body, leaving a basic morphic molecule jumpsuit behind.

Meanwhile, the floating psychic's systems had partially rebooted, though she still seemed to be in trouble....

****************************************************************************

The "man's" shades fell away, revealing eyes that at a glance might seem human, but on closer inspection bore telltale technological signs. Otherwise he seemed unharmed, and just grinned.

"Kobalos. Mark 2. Designed by Talos. And I stole from the Swede."

He took a couple steps back, his eyes flitting about for a moment....before he swiped his right leg in a powerful kick aimed at Ironclad's waist. The armor-clad heroine managed to not only sidestep most of it, but swat the rest away.

"You had training?"

His voice was almost....conversational.

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris smirked as Arachne floated there, the damage more evident now that the shock had faded from her systems for a few moments.

"You made a mistake targeting who you did. You thought these companies wouldn't get help from superheroes, when the likes of the Foundry were involved? Especially when the owners put together what you were building? You're lucky half the Freedom League isn't on your heads. That's okay though. I like getting a chance to kick a few faces."

Letting go of his right arm, he again targeted the mind-walking gynoid in front of him...and missed wide as his arm twitched at the last moment.

'Nerves. Blast.'

[Raveled]

"I've had experience," Ironcald retorted, dancing out of melee range. "Which is something you can't program into a robot. Trust me, I tried." She fired her thrusters and rose into the air. "Besides, stealing the VES units is still taste. Of course, if someone just told you to, I guess that just makes you a high-powered thug." She fired a blast from her wrist blaster, but Kobalos managed to dodge out the way of it. "An annoyingly agile thug. Stand still and get hit, dammit. You know how this is going to end!"

[Fox]

No sooner had the purple-haired woman (cyborg? - curious - study later - stop now) fallen aside than a series of bolts of twisted space rained down on their many-armed adversary, Dragonfly still hovering in the air and letting him have both metaphorical barrels. One down was good, but with the way that thing punched they would be better off with him joining his comrade on the floor.

[bg=#555555]"Probably want to just give up now,"[/bg] she suggested - apparently to the psychic robot still floating nearby, though she didn't turn to look. [bg=#555555]"Heavily damaged, could destroy yourself by trying too hard. Alternatively, try anyway - pretty sure I could patch you together before you failed completely, and would save us a little trouble."[/bg]

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

The bolts of more-than-space slammed into the many-armed-robot's body. More armor plating twisted. A couple of arms snapped off entirely. He swayed in place, sparks emitting from a few places. He seemed intact overall, but definitely paused in his relentless assault.

Meanwhile, Arachne's artificial brain took in the whole scene, even as her frame shook and sparked.

"You speak as if this shell is the entirety of my being. I am not limited like you collections of water and carbon."

With a surge of green energy, she turned and fired a faint green wave of energy at...

Bee-Keeper! The already-struck hero found himself the target of a near-solid wave of energy that battered him mind and body!

Meanwhile, Arachne's force shook, before flares of light and sparks ran over her frame as she dropped to the floor. Her outer shell flowed like wax, leaving behind a green-accented metallic skull and skeleton.

"Y-you have on-only delayed the inevitable. We are patient. We are eter-ter-ter-ternal. The machines wi-wi-will RISE."

There was a brief surge of data that Dragonfly and Fenris both felt, and the metal skeleton seized and sparked, clearly slagging itself into useless metal.

[SpicyWaffle]

All things considered, Baxter was feeling quite proud of himself for how far he'd come alongside all the science-type people and their techno-babbling ways. Decked a bunch of robots, laid out a lady trying to kung-fu him in the face, severely damaged the multi-armed brute who'd dared to challenge him in unarmed combat... really, things were going pretty great! He wasn't sure exactly what Ironclad was up to, but he trusted her -- indeed, the lot of them seemed pretty competent, Dragonfly and Fenris raining blows from above. They were going to win; it was practically in the bag!

"Aaaargh!"

... Riiiiight up until the poor, disillusioned Bee-Keeper took a solid blow from the odd floating automaton. With a painful wince and a phenomenal wave of torment washing over him, the yellow-and-gold hero crumpled to his knees, hands instinctively rocketing up to his noggin even as his body screamed in agony in some vain attempt to silence the obnoxious throbbing. It was like the pounding aches were in stereo; he couldn't think or move, the only option his body providing him with being to sink to the ground, clearly in more than just winged by the last psychic emanation of the now defunct robotic psion. Whatever the robot had done, it had clearly proven more than effective in the wake of all the physical punishment the Hero of the Hive had taken beforehand!

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris actually paused and tilted his head to one side, his metallic ears unconsciously flicking in an almost curious expression.

'Odd that she would...Wait.'

"She uploaded somewhere else! We've got to make sure to lock and wipe these computers; we'll be lucky if she didn't have the plans memorized!"

With a new found desperation, he focused his fire upon the many-armed robot. He took a moment to triple-check his target lock, the HUD flashing red as he ignored the world around him. His mind "squeezed the trigger", and twin arcs of manmade lightning flashed forward. They struck almost the same spot in the robot's back, burning deep within his systems...

[KnightDisciple]

GM Post

Hekatoncheire had been repeatedly battered by the heroes, once by his own teammate. At this point, his frame was just too damaged; Fenris's attack didn't just peel away armor, it tore in and attacked his power source.

Which was why, after a brief "data surge" like what Arachne had given off, the many-armed combatant simply imploded, his whole body folding and crumpling in on itself until there was nothing but a pile of scrap left. The room was suddenly rather quiet, as one enemy lay unconscious, and two lay as piles of scrap.

**********************************************

Ironclad's foe, Kobalos, seemed disoriented still, his eyes actually showing a few flashes of what might have been static. Perhaps he was almost too lifelike, and thus vulnerable to being "knocked for a loop"?

[Raveled]

Ironclad floated in the air and quickly ran through her options. She could continue trying to dismember him, but those cybernetic upgrades were a work of technological art; she didn't want to destroy them, especially if they could lead back to the ones responsible for this whole mess. So with a blink-click she switched her suit over to a less-than-lethal option, and came to almost a dead stop in the air as she focused both hands on Kobalos. A pair of tiny oblong pucks tore through the air, exploding centimeters from Kobalos and covering him in sticky foam, which expanded and dried in the air. "I'd make a 'stick around' pun," Ironclad said, "but I'd really rather know where you do your shopping. I could use sunglasses like those."

[Fox]

Dragonfly wasted no time: with no clear threats left she turned her attention back on the assembly area, flying back down to the ground and tearing into it with her spatial blade. Even with the androids around - especially with the androids around - she couldn't be sure how automated the assembly process was supposed to be. She wasn't inclined to take any chances.

[bg=#555555]"Assembly's shut down,"[/bg] the heroine broadcast, letting her sword unfurl back out of existence. [bg=#555555]"Any more threats in the area? Might be good to sweep before law enforcement arrives, if civilians called them. Also need to find any sort of central archive, make sure no records of stolen plans and technology survive."[/bg]

[KnightDisciple]

Fenris blinked from sight and reappeared next to Dragonfly just as she finished tearing up the waldos and welding arms around the wrecked laser. The room was half-full of automated equipment, and much of it was still untouched. He cast his gaze around for a moment before pointing to a wall lined with terminals, only about half of which had actual keyboards.

The lupine hero walked over to one, his fingertips now smoothed over, and he began typing. His mind quietly pushed at the computers, the barriers already weakened by the effort of transmitting...well, likely transmitting the minds of the 2 disabled bots.

"It looks like we lucked out. They have all the info on file here, but hadn't downloaded any of it into themselves yet. Except...hm. Well, nothing except a couple of the alloy formulas, but honestly I can live with that. Those robots always seem to be using wacky new metals anyways, right? As for the data...I can root it out, but Dragonfly, I'll need your help. Ironclad, bring your prisoner in here, we'll pile them all up and poke at them later. We should wipe the drives first, before the computers fall back on a failsafe and try to transmit everything in a data dump. I've stripped most of the firewalls at the moment."

[Raveled]

"Right. Pick him up. Ssssssssure." Ironclad approached the ensnared criminal, eying him closely. There didn't seem to be any part of his body that the sticky pellets hadn't covered, or at least not enough for Ironclad to get a handle on. "Okay, plan B then. If you move, Kobalos, I'll start unplugging things, so help me God." She approached him and reached out, a nozzle appearing from the wrist of her suit to spray... something on his legs and ribs. Whatever it was the foam began to bubble again and flake away, letting the armored heroine get a good grip on him.

Lifting the assumed-cyborg over her head, she marched down the hallway, into the room where the other armored heroes had congregated. She leaned him against a nearby wall, pointedly dusting her hands off before turning to the computer Fenris was working at. "We should insert a worm as well," she pointed out. "Something that can get a GPS coord wherever it ends up and email us back. Might figure out who these guys were working for." She paused and added, "Did anyone find the orbital vessel?"

[SpicyWaffle]

Staggering back up to his feet, the Bee-Keeper wobbled only slightly as the pounding in his temples began to fade away, slowly but surely. It looked like everything was winding down now; the bad guys had been beaten, the ultimate laser of super-doom rendered useless, and Ironclad had even managed to snag some pretty sweet swag in the form of a non-exploded, non-busted prisoner! But for all the technobabble and computer-lingo that he couldn't follow and the throbbing in his noggin, the Bee-Keeper was feeling glad it was all over.

"Think zzo," Baxter chimed as Ironclad showed up unharmed, robo-jerk in-tow as she inquired about the mysterious doomsday device. "It'zz right over there. And... uh... over there. And zzome of it'zz over there. Zzorta lookzz like it got zzplattered like metal pudding, but I mizzed it," he said, arms finding their way to his waist as he beamed over the scene. Turning back to face Ironclad and her impromptu prisoner, the apiary-themed teenager couldn't help but cock his head as he surveyed the mechanical man all trussed up.

"He give you much trouble?" inquired the Hero of the Hive, stepping up alongside the well-armored scientist.