World of Heroes -- Reboot

It is a bright sunny morning in the city of Megalopolis. Citizens walk every inch of the street, merely trying to go about their daily lives. Yet amongst all the seeming normality, there is one particular object of note that isn't so easily dismissed; a 60ft wide crater smackdab in the middle of the city. It's a grim reminder of the tragedy that occurred just a couple of months ago, in which many lives were lost — and in which many found themselves reconsidering just who they had been calling 'heroes' up until that point. Regardless of any particular individual's opinion on the matter, the facts is that, now, an act has been recently passed — one whom's purpose is to subdue said 'heroes'; either they work for the government, under lock and key, or they don't work at all.

However, all of this is — for the moment — rendered mute. Without warning, a 40ft tall robot materializes out of nowhere. It has a human shape, but is of the color grey, and instead of two eyes, it possesses a giant lens on it's 'face', and has no mouth or nose. It's purpose is unknown, but what it appears to be doing is obvious; it is making a slow swatch of destruction across the city, demolishing with his bare hands and feet whatever it comes across, or alternatively, annihilating it with energy blasts from his hands. This is an emergency situation, one that's being broadcasted all over the radio, with the last sighting being near the old 60ft crater — and apparently, the robot hasn't budged from the area. It simply stands there, staring inventively at the crater below. Which would make this the perfect chance for striking back against the abomination...

edited 8th May '12 11:56:41 AM by kkhohoho

The quiet, poignant scene of what appeared to be a massive robot solemnly paying its respects to all those who had fallen at the site was shattered as a thick cloud of obscuring smoke poured across the shattered landscape.

At the exact same time a soft phft! might be heard as a pair of taser darts shot from the smoke to adhere to the robot's foot, unleashing a massive electric jolt on the gigantic automaton, hopefully overloading it or at least causing some kind of internal damage.

As the smoke began to clear away, the familiar figure of Strix's dark, owl-like profile revealed itself. The golden, bird-of-prey like lenses that covered his eyes flickered through several different visual options to try and get a read on the robot. He hadn't been sighted for the past few months, and even then daytime sightings of the so-called Nocturnal Knight had always been rare. His typical M.O. was to fight under the cover of darkness, creating fear and confusion amongst the criminal element before vanishing without a trace. Some even believed him to be a wrathful spirit or some sort of man-owl hybrid.

Even then he wouldn't be the most unusual thing in this city, though.

I always suspected it was just a matter of time until a colossus of this magnitude showed itself, though if They are going to flush us all out of hiding, there must be more than meets the eye about this thing.

edited 8th May '12 12:02:36 PM by Dblade26

As the shock of the tasers resided, the robot appeared to be practically unfazed from the attack. As for the mysterious attacker, he did not seem to be of any true concern, nor was he listed for disposal in it's orders. No, it's orders were simply to watch, and observe — for now.

Anna Alexandria Allison was doing what she did best: Pounding the crap out of evil-doers with her fists of justice.

Enemies fell before her in waves, droves. Against her spectacular might, speed, grace and luck, these weak little mooks were nothing. Not even the big boss dude had a hope in hell, she could read his moves so easily...

"...Where's Lyna when you need her?" Lady Justice sighed, pausing the game. "She at least knows how to hit me..."

The young woman - apparently a paragon of justice if her 'hero' title was any indication - was currently unaware of any monster, robot, thug or mutant attacks going on in the city. She had a game to play, after all. And besides, if there was anything really important, Lyna would probably know.

...Besides, it was hard to do heroics when everyone decided that was a villainous thing to do. All because of one little accident, too! Honestly...

Anna flopped to the floor, forgetting the game for a moment as she regarded the ceiling. She's have a much easier time hiding in her own house maybe, but they'd except that, wouldn't they... nah, under a random girl's bed was definitely the place to be right now. Made for an awesome base of operations to brag about as well.

edited 8th May '12 12:02:36 PM by TroperRoxas

A masked figure made its way to the top of the closest building to the robot, pausing a moment once he reached the top to look at it in the distance. Its lack of retaliation required investigation. Wildcard leaped from the roof, opening his coat at the apex of his jump as he glided down towards the robot, trying to land on its head.

edited 8th May '12 12:08:56 PM by nman

No response. Obviously not meant for hunting the unregistered, then, and no retaliatory protocols in place. Hunting a specific target perhaps? But not me. Unusual but useful, either way the big guns will probably be here soon so no sense sticking around..

His tone of voice was clipped and precise.

"SOPHIA, keep a tab on our big, metal friend here in case he decides to move, but while you're at it, search all relevant police channels and accesible security cameras for criminal activity. There's no sense loitering while there are leads to track down and criminals to punish."

Yessir.

The computer then tapped into police radios and private security terminals, where it would scan through them for keywords of interest or alerts that might indicate criminal activity before bringing them up on the HUD of Strix's cowl after eliminating anything that wasn't current-events. There was a reason criminals thought he could see into the minds of men, and it was called illegal surveilance.

the Owl-themed vigilante took notice of Wildcard's presence, but decided not to act on it unless the other man attacked first. No sense in antagonizing the Reggies while he looked for other dangerous crimes.

edited 8th May '12 12:24:49 PM by Dblade26

"So, Wildcard is already heading to the scene?" Matthew asked. Just as well, as he could use some backup.

"Correct. Meet with him there," the police radio crackled.

"On the way. Wallace out." He put the car into drive, turning it around and heading down the street. "Are you ready?" he thought, trying to decide what the report meant. Giant robots did not drop in on the city every day, of course.

"Of course, Matt. So, we get a giant robot this time, huh? Sounds fun." As usual, Kara was being humorous.

"Yes, because that's just what I always wanted," he thought sarcastically. He heard her giggle mentally as he drove down the city road, towards where this strange attacker had appeared.

edited 8th May '12 12:36:34 PM by TotemicHero

As the man in white glided down towards the robot, trying his best land on it's head, the robot suddenly jerked his head straight towards the man in white, his lens almost appearing to be staring deep into his soul. A strange, metallic voice then came from somewhere on the robot.

"'ANOMALY DETECTED". The robot then put up his right hand, palm thrust outward and glowing, preparing to blast the 'anomaly' away. If said 'anomaly' wanted to escape this deadly peril, he would have get out of the way ASAP...

edited 8th May '12 12:32:01 PM by kkhohoho

Lucas was at home still in bed dreaming about clouds or something fluffy, imagining that he didnt have a care in the world as he layed on top of the white fluff. However that didn't last long as a small girl with brown hair and blue eyes that had one's and zero's running across it appeared at his side.

"Minutemen alarm initializing. Preparing to wake. Activating high frequency pulses and shutting down mental visualization in 3...2...1...", as soon as she finished the images of clouds went away and a loud alarm activated with Lucas's head. His eyes snapped open and his hand instinctively went to his nightstand, hoping to find a snooze button that didn't exist.

"Okay okay I'm wake! Turn it off! Snooze! Disengage!", he yelled out as the sound rang through his head. Shortly after it shut off and the girl appeared before him, standing off to the side of his bed. "Lucas there is an urgent matter at hand. We must...", "Didnt I say that if your gonna wake me up to do it in a gradual process?", "Yes you did, but that was for your daily morning alarm. The minutemen alarm is meant to awaken you at a moments notice so that you can be prepared.", the girl as she crossed her arms, "Now get up there is much time. There have been several broadcasts across the radio waves reporting a metalic automaton at the crater in the metropolis."

For a moment Lucas stared at the girl before she said, "There's a robot destroying the city.", in flat tone. "Oh right, gotcha.", he said as he got out of bed and got dressed, grabbing some jeans and a wrinkled up shirt, "Great...just great, my day off and the city is in danger.", he grumbled to himself as he finished up and started to head out the door.

"Wait!", "What?", "You forgot to brush your teeth. Oral hygiene is...", "I think that not really important right now Ibbie. I'll do that later, just give me the direction to the place.", and with that Lucas got into his car and headed for the crater.

edited 8th May '12 12:35:15 PM by DAcriznips

Typical muggings mostly, sir. Though Lady Justice appears to be fighting some...was the word "Criminal Scum", Sir? Oh, and both Ms.Ibbie and Detective Wallace are on their way to your location, presumably with his partner in tow.

"Thank you, SOPHIA. I think I'll stick around and observe how the Reggies play with the robot for now, unless things get too bad for Ms.Justice. Combat Data is invaluable after all.

Strix watched both Wildcard and the robot with interest. Everyone knew that a lot of the big names had joined up with the government, but so far it seemed They were just sending the small fry to deal with the metallic threat. Interesting.

edited 8th May '12 12:40:15 PM by Dblade26

Wildcard drew in his coat, altering his flightpath by plummeting instantly.

" Interesting" the masked man muttered as he fell. " It doesn't like me."

edited 8th May '12 12:40:47 PM by nman

As the man in the white coat fell to the ground, the robot's blast seemed to withdraw.

"REARRANGING MIND PROCESSES," it said in that same grating voice. "IT WOULD BE BETTER TO CAPTURE ANOMALY, FOR LATER DISSECTION." The robot then started to crouch down, and tried to use his right hand to grab the 'anomaly'. However, the hand was coming at the 'anomaly' rather slowly...

edited 8th May '12 12:48:35 PM by kkhohoho

'Twas a beautiful day for racing motorbikes. Or at least Kali thought so. Mmm, wind through your hair, the rumble beneath you, that look people gave you as you sped by that made you want to say, "Yes, I am that badass." Sure she could fly, but to Kali, this was just so much more fun.

She approached a stoplight, and decided that since she was in no rush, she'd heed the blinking red annoyance for once and stop to smell the roses. Kali pulled to a stop, and took off her helmet for a breath of fresh air. It was a nice, lazy day.

BOOM

Kali's motorbike tipped over as the ground shook, sending her crashing down along with it. Okay, perhaps not. She re-mounted the bike, and sped through the light, trying to track down the direction of the shockwave. She didn't exactly have far to look though.

"Oh come on." she said, staring at the giant robot she'd somehow missed right around the corner. She sighed, and walked over to the nearest parked family sedan she could find.

"Oi, Wildcard, you might want to move," she bellowed. Kali clamped down on the body of the sedan, lifting it into the air. Then, with all the grace and finesse of a screaming, angry ape, she chucked the tacky beige hunk of metal right at the robot.

Ah, and here's Kali herself. Figures it was too good to last.

Strix was torn between wanting to help defeat the robot and making himself scarce. He was, after all, an unregistered vigilante technically being hunted by the government and its various powered and non-powered agents.

He settled for stepping back into the shadows to observe. If things got too dangerous for Kali to handle, he should probably just leave.

" Sure thing, sugar." Wildcard chuckled at his no doubt unparalleled charm. He opened his coat for the second time and maneuvered away from the flying car towards the newcomer.

On most spaces on the robot's body, the car wouldn't have even made a dent. However, the car was thrown at the one spot that was truly vulnerable; the lens. The lens did not shatter into a million pieces, but it was now cracked, enough that the robot's vision was now obscured. Halting momentarily, it then put both knees on the ground, and immediately started frantically lashing both arms out, close to the ground, as if were desperately trying to both capture the Anomaly, as well as fend off any attackers, at the same time — all in a sheer sense of panic.

"OPTICAL LENS DAMAGED! VISION SKEWED! VISION SKEWED! CANNOT SEE FULLY! CANNOT SEE FULLY! MUST CAPTURE ANOMALY! MUST ALSO DESTROY ATTACKER! CAPTURE! DESTROY! CAPTURE! DESTROY! DESTROY!"

edited 8th May '12 1:12:35 PM by kkhohoho

Now why didn't I think of hitting it in the giant, glowing eye? Well, live and learn. The more important question is, why did They send this thing out?? Well, maybe I can find some answers eventually.

With this in mind, Strix loaded a tracking beacon into his pellet-launcher and fired it at the Robot's ankle where it would hopefully stick in case either the authorities moved the robot or it returned to wherever it had come from should it escape. Of course, if it was destroyed that would mean yet another loose end, but unless it was atomized it might be possible to recover a piece of it from whatever disposal facility they carted it off to and subject it to further study.

"Great," Matthew muttered as he drove up, seeing the robot flailing around madly.

Looking around, he groaned. The unregistered were out in force today. The last thing he needed was the district chief chewing the entire department out for not arresting the unregistered.

"Looks like a real party, doesn't it?" was all Kara had to say.

"Just get inside that thing and stop it," he told her silently. The robot did take precedence, after all.

"Right!" Kara flew up, invisible to everyone except him, and quickly dove right into the giant robot's body.

Immediately as the strange ghost-girl flew into the body, the robot immediately jumped, and started flailing and hopping all over the surrounding area.

"ABNORMAL ENTITY INSIDE SELF! CANNOT EXPEL ENTITY CANNOT EXPEL ENTITY!! CANNOT EXPEL ENTITY!!!"

Meanwhile, perhaps because of it's sheer panic concerning other matters, it failed to notice the tracker that just been placed on it's self.

edited 8th May '12 1:36:44 PM by kkhohoho

"Yeah, just keep yappin' pal." Kali said, cracking her knuckles. "Maybe if you say it enough, someone'll care."

Then, before you could say, "with the jump force of a flea", Kali was on the robot, digging into its cracked eye as it flailed about. Preparing the death blow, Kali kicked a hole in the rim of the lens, and planted her feet in it. She'd need stability for this. Summoning up a force over 850 times her own weight, Kali threw an unrestrained right hook straight into the robot's eye.

edited 8th May '12 1:46:00 PM by KSPAM

"CANNOT SEE! CANNOT SEE! CANNOT—" And within an instant, just within that instant, the robot was gone. Competently and utterly vanished, just as how it had first arrived, with the expectation that there was now a strange ghost girl seemingly floating in mid-air. This also meant that Kali now had nowhere to stand...

edited 8th May '12 1:56:24 PM by kkhohoho

Strix wasn't exactly surprised, but he was somewhat intrigued, cycling his vision through the electromagnetic, infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, trying to determine exactly what happened and making sure as much data as possible got sent back to SOPHIA for later analysis. He also brought the tracker up on his HUD, though he doubted it would do much good.

So...the robot vanishes as quickly as it appears. Clearly the work of Them. Or perhaps one of Their agents..possibly related to the tibetan mess from last year? no, that would be rediculous...but not impossible. Either way I should start working on tracking it immediately. The circumstances are far too complex to allow things to go uninvestigated...

As wrapped up in thought as Strix was, he hardly noticed that he'd moved out of the shadows to get a better look..

edited 8th May '12 2:10:27 PM by Dblade26

Lucas had parked his car several blocks away, since the commotion had backed up traffic from people trying to get away and was now jogging towards the scene. He could now see the robot, and from his perspective it was on a rampage. He could see that someone had jumped on top of the robot was now punching it. It was obvious that the registered hero's had already arrived on the scene and he didn't want to be found out.

"It appears that there are four others fighting the robot, which make the chances of being seen high. what course of action would you like to take?", Ibbie said observing the area. "I'm gonna at least try to provide some help from a distance.", he said but then the robot vanished. "Whoa wait whats going on?", Instantaneous teleportion it seems...", she said as she surveyed the area.

And just as the robot disappeared, a grin appeared on the face of the masked man that stood on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. He continued to observe the situation, wearing some sort of hoodie, pants and a gold and gray mask. As he took a step forward, his bare feet making little to no sound, he crossed his arms, waiting for something to happen. The only reason Lucunditas was there was to simply make sure that the giant robot didn't destroy one of the corporations that his gang controlled- a laboratory working on new medicines for the benefit of the people of Megalopolis. Well, the part about it being a laboratory was true, but no one really asked what kind of medicines were being created there, and who exactly did those medicines benefit...

He sighed, sitting down, cross-legged, and waiting for something to happen. Or for someone to stumble upon this non-registered hero. Anyway, he didn't want to go back to headquarters, nothing fun was happening there, so he continued to simply watch the situation, bored out of his mind:

"Hooray for Megalopolis."

"OH YOU MOTHERFU-" Kali landed, impacting on some poor sap's car. Owowowow. Pain. So much pain. Owwww...

Rubbing her head, she got up, the small cuts and assorted bruises sorting themselves out. Her bones were thankfully a-okay (it would've been a bitch to set those back into place), but she hurt all the fuck over. Every square inch screamed in protest as she started to move.

Hauling herself out of the smashed car, she stood over the crater, looking for the robot. "That... was weird." She drew in breath sharply, still recovering.