World of Heroes -- Reboot

"Well, I'll just see about that, Aladdin" Wildcard said, suddenly pushing the button on his dimensional transporter.

Chronus had used the tunnels before on Earth-1 and, for him, memory was no issue. The armoured hero sped up his personal time in order to go faster and entered the maze, trying to use the knowledge of what routes were safe to locate the intruders.

Despite the other man's half-baked assurances, Scio could clearly tell that Cliche's anxiety regarding whatever it was about this universe that troubled him ran far deeper than the telepath had previously realized. He mulled over how to drag the truth of the matter out of the other hero without violating the sanctity of his mind for several seconds, only to be interrupted by Baal's questioning of the Earth-1 gang's trustworthiness. Naturally, he found himself agreeing with Wildcard's swift counter, and raised an incredulous eyebrow at the Arabian's insinuation that someone else was acting "holier-than-thou".

It was only scant moments later, however, that the base's intercom began to blast awful classical music, apparently some kind of alarm from Robert's hasty explanation. As the resistance leader perfectly articulated the extent of Strix's madness to Wildcard - Yep, that's Strix alright - and was subsequently harried by Mr. Cliche, Baal had another short exchange with Wildcard and stalked ahead of them toward the way they'd first entered, practically ordering the resistance leader to look after his "girl". Glaring after the dark-haired man's back with undisguised contempt, Scio nodded to himself at Wildcard's quick thinking and tapped Cliche on the shoulder even as he tried to gain Robert's attention.

"Sorry, friend, need to ask our glorious leader a quick question myself. I've got a plan, you see."

"Hey, Robert," he began, "If they're already finding their way through the tunnels, this whole base is essentially compromised, isn't it? Why don't we fall back to our - I mean, my group's - dimension? It might take a little while depending on exactly how many people you've got here, so we might need several to stay until the last minute and hold off the tide, but Wildcard and Arguma's memories of the laboratory are based in my universe anyway, so it might be easier for Transporter to do his thing that way, and it's better than having to beat down waves of enemies, since I'm sure they'll be sending more than a few."

edited 3rd Feb '13 10:38:52 PM by darksidevoid

Robert closed his eyes, giving Scio's proposal considerable thought, at least as much as he was able to give, given the current timecrunch. If they were able to get everyone out in time, then great! They'd all be safe, and it'd be hard for the enemy to follow them. However, if they didn't have the time...

"...We'll go with your plan," said Robert, "but with a bit of a modification. I can't take chances that we won't all get out in time, so we need to send at least a few men in there to hold them off. Yeah, I know, they might not get out there alive... but I need to think about the safety of the Resistance as a whole. Now, as for who send..."

"I'll go," said said Mathew, pushing back his glasses and smiling ruefully. "Sort of. I can send in Kara, and with her help, she can let us know what's down there. Unfortunately, in order to stay in contact with Kara, while I don't have to actually enter the tunnels, I still must stay here, in this dimension. Which is a shame, really..."

"Well, I appreciate it," said Robert.

"And so do I!"

Loud, obnoxious, and just a tad-highptiched, Strix's voice announced his coming in such that it would be hard to believe that you couldn't notice him, which wasn't the case at all anyway. Dressed in his full-spandex-suit of blacks&greys, with his owl-shaped cowl and attached goggles ready to go, and complete with a black&grey cape as well, Strix was ready for action.

"I suggest," he went on, "we rush straight in there, nearly get ourselves minced to ribbons, and allow those still alive to get away scott-free! After all, if some of us are going to die anyway, we might as well get it over and done with instead of delaying the inevitable."

"Right," said Robert. "That's a couple of volunteers already, and I think there's already a few down there. Anyone else wants to help, fine, but otherwise, you two — and anyone who's still down there — will have to help cover our escape. But if we can, we'll take quick look back, and see if the other can escape as well. But in the meantime..."

"Got it," said Mathew, and before Strix could say, 'I'm cuckoo for cocoapuffs, seeing as they aren't the only cereal brand not trying to kill you!", they both of them had ran off into the tunnels below...

And off in the distance, on particular superbeing in particular was waiting — just waiting — for her chance; the chance to get even for a grave offense that been inflicted upon her earlier. She also wondered what it would be like to kill someone a second time — and at this, her lips curled up into an all too-sinister smile, and her lips soon opened as well, revealing her sharp, pearly-white teeh. Soon enough, she would beface-to-face with the man she killed once already. And she would be so incredibly happy at that....

edited 4th Feb '13 5:28:53 AM by kkhohoho

Mr. Cliche gave the resistance an unreassuring smile. "I would like to...blood."

He blinked and placed his right hand to his temple, "I mean I would like to help defend. I'm pretty hard to kill. I should make a pretty good meat shield."

His hand gripped the air and with a swift jerk he pulled his sword out hammer space.

"Excuse me Miss..." He paused, realizing he wasn't sure how to address a spirit "Miss spirit, I'd like to know exactly where am I and how to get back to the Terrace, I have grave news to relay"

Thankfully for Malandros, Kara had yet to actually enter the tunnels.

"Shouldn't be a problem," said Mathew. "Kara?"

And within seconds, Morandus suddenly knew all the possible ways to get to the Terrific Terrace and back, as if some large databank was being directly uploaded to his brain.

"Is there anything else? I really need to get moving..."

And so, Wildcard soon found himself in the other Strix's base. Aaaaaaand, as luck would have it, the alarm system — exactly the same as the one he had just heard, in fact — began booming throughout the entire base...

It took 3 entire casings of bullets, but the metallic Saltire-look-alike abomination eventually fell...

edited 4th Feb '13 1:57:24 PM by kkhohoho

The alarm ringing wasn't a very good sign, but since nothing was shooting him at the moment, Wildcard wasn't going to complain. He ran into the armory to see what was lying around.

"Thanks, that would be all" Malandros got on the move, using the shortest route possible, he thought "Prehaps there are followers of The Path in other planes"

Out of frustration and sudden panic, Saltire began kicking at the twitching gynoid after he'd emptied his shotgun into it, all the while cursing at it.

"Bastard, bitch, cock-mongling-" His boots were doing no harm, other than dislodging a few odds and ends, but the masked man, who wasn't masked in the meantime, vented his fury and fear by mean of kicking. When he was finished, he took a deep calming breath.

There was little else to do, Saltire decided as he fetched the data recorder, which had been tossed about in the resulting hullabaloo. He gave the findings a quick once over, even as he began work on his next project.

And luckily, there was a weapon that seemed just ready for the job... It lay in one of the lower benches, a tangle of parts and wires. He recognized it as a later version of a lightning gun. With a few tweaks, the amnesiac mechanical genius thought as he gathered it into his arms, it could prove to be a very effective weapon that unleashed a leaping arc of motherboard-frying energy that lashed out in a crazy arc.

Provided that he'd have time, of course. But Saltire fancied that if he could knock out a Hind with a feather boa and Roman candle, it wouldn't take too long to rig up his new tool.

The armory in the base of the Strix of Wildcard's home dimension was actually a step below that of the other Earth's Strix; boxes were littered all about the room, weapons were scattered across the floor, and there emptied booze bottles strewn about the area. Presumably, it was Strix's allies on Earth-2 that were responsible for actually tidying the base up, and without them, it was something of a mess. Wildcard hadn't seen much beyond the armory so far, but perhaps it would best the armory was the one&only part of Strix's base he really saw...

Despite an obvious lack of cleaning skills on Strix's part however, one particular device stood out; it actually looked like a black, sleek electronic watch, but then what would it be doing in the armory? Interestingly enough, there was a small bright-white button on the side...

...And soon enough, Saltire's weapon was complete...

edited 6th Feb '13 8:06:25 PM by kkhohoho

Mr. Cliche ran after Mathew and Strix. "Wait for me! I'm coming to help."

He winced and used the wall as a crutch as his skin began to feel like it was crawling around his bones. He let out a breath of air and ran on.

And so, Strix, the older Kara, and Philosopher all raced — or in Kara's case, flew — straight into the tunnels, all to buy some much needed time for everyone to get out.

"Right," said Robert, "everyone", he barked out, "let's move! Move it, move it, ''move it!" He then turned to face Scio. "Now," he said, "how exactly do you plan on getting us all out of here to begin with?"

Meanwhile, in the tunnels, all those on foot made careful not to set off any traps, as they all knew the way. But so did the intruders, apparently, as there were no loud noises or screams of agony from within the tunnel, or beyond it's brown, stony walls either. However, once the group had gotten far enough in, they could see a... bright light of sorts, in the distance, and with it, they could hear the sound of foofsteps, growing ever closer and closer. As the person of whom the footsteps belonged to grew ever closer, his or her form could be more clearly made out; it was a woman, to be sure; she had long hair, dyed lightning-yellow, that went right down to the waist, and she was wearing a sharp black business suit, with a yellow tie shaped like a lightning bolt. Her left hand was held behind her back, but her right hand was held out in front of her, emitting a small spark of energy; small, but bright enough to light her way. One had to wonder just why she did this, considering that there were lightbulbs on the ceiling already, but they didn't seem to be working, for whatever reason; in fact, it seems as though every time the women went under a lightbulb, it too ceased to function as well. And when she got close enough, she could be fully seen; her lipstick was bright yellow as well, and her brown eyes were filled with sheer intensity. And when she herself got a good luck at her opposition, she grinned, cheek to cheek, like a maniac.

"So...", she started to say, looking at the other Kara in particular, "either you're that same Kara that gave me several scars I'll likely have for hell knows how long — not that I would ask — or, you're my Kara, which might mean that your Mathew is also here. You've got no idea how much this means to me!", she continued, placing her right hand over her heart. "I get a chance hardly anyone ever does; I get to kill him again! But... I've also got orders. Orders that I'll only do if they happen to go along with what I wanna' do, but still, orders are orders, I guess. And those orders are to fry each and every poor bastard here. And this time... we're on my turf. Oh, and by the way, for those who don't know me — and for those that do — the name used to be Charity, I don't really think that particular name suits me at all. Call me... Livewire!"

And so, fully intent on turning everyone — except for Kara, but only because she was already dead, and thus completely intangible and untouchable at present — into smokey, charred corpses before her 'teammates' caught up and could intrude on her fun, she lashed out with an intense blast of electricity, straight at Mr.Cliche's heart, and it he didn't act now, it could very well prove fatal...

"Well, what do we have here?" Wildcard said to no one in particular as he picked up the watch-looking thing and pressed the white button.

"Oh!" Scio rolled his shoulders and worked out a kink in his neck. "That's the easy part. Here, lemme show you." As he spoke, he projected a crude diagram◊ into Robert's mind so that the commander could see his intent more clearly.

"With Cliche and Wildcard having run off, we have eleven inter-dimensional transport watches left. Ten of us go over to the other side at once, plus me, then I grab the watches off the newly-arrived ten with telekinesis, port back over here, slap the watches on the next ten people - with telekinesis - and then press all the watch buttons at once. With telekinesis. Have I mentioned how much I love telekinesis? It makes life so convenient. Anyway, we just rinse and repeat until everybody's out, and then we're home free! At least, unless the enemy's got watches on them too, but that's pretty unlikely, and if they did, then at least we'd be in more friendly territory and could actually hide somewhere that isn't in the middle of a hostile dystopia."

edited 6th Feb '13 9:27:49 PM by darksidevoid

Mr. Cliche saw the arc of electricity and smiled at the turn of events. He swung his blade with confidence at the bolt expecting to return it to sender. Unfortunately for Mr. Cliche reality did not take a backseat and let him drive and the lightning traveled through his sword.

It was as he [[{Harmless Electrocution}} electrocuted]] that a beam launched from his sword and at the Hotwire. Mr. Cliche let out a puff of smoke before falling over and giving a slight twitch.

edited 6th Feb '13 10:02:03 PM by Philosopher

Robert slowly scratched his head, trying to take in all of what Scio had described to him, before slowing getting out, "I... guess. Yeah," he went on, his speech picking up, "yeah, I guess that's work. Well, get on it! We don't have to lose! We—"

"Like you wouldn't believe!". Kara flew right though the upper wall of the tunnel, and then quickly hovered straight down to the others.

"What's the problem?", said Mathew, scratching his chin, his eyes focused on Kara.

""It's... it's Charity, except our Charity. The crazy one. Except she's called Livewire now, and... look, what matters is, she's here, and she's dangerous and, from what she said... I think she's the one who killed you, the other you, back on that other Earth. And I think she wants to do it again. Oh, and she also said there's reinforcements behind her, but..."

Mathew's eyes had widened as soon as Kara had said, '...killed you', and even more at, 'do it again'. After racing through his thoughts, for what seemed like an eternity, but was really more like a second, he darted over to Alex.

"You knew about this, didn't you?", he said, loudly, but firmly. "You told me I was killed back on your Earth, yes, but I don't recall you bothering to tell me how. And right now, we need to know all we can about my 'assassin'; if she can kill me, she can kill again, and not just me either. But you — or rather," he said, turning towards the younger Kara, "you beat her before, didn't you?"

edited 7th Feb '13 5:20:29 AM by kkhohoho

If there was something that described Baal's style was that he was cold and unforgiving, like the passage of time that tormented him. And so, when he noticed Livewire, he didn't rise. He didn't stop and boast, much like many of the superheroes. He usually thought strife was to be avoided. He didn't react to the foe's threats.

He waited.

However, it was also equally true that if there was no way to avoid confrontation, he would play dirty and give no quarter. The little charade of Livewire showed danger and intent of intimidation. She had launched a fierce attack at Mr Cliche.

So wide open. Baal frowned, as he zeroed his sights. Livewire was making one hell of a show, with sparks and lights stopping working. But that also meant more shadows he could hide within. The sparks meant also his target, Livewire, was well lit.

Baal pulled the trigger, his rifle shooting at the psychotic foe's vitals, at the same time Cliche's beam had been launched, exploiting thus the distraction it would surely produce. A cheap shot from the shadows, with no warning, when they least expected it. Baal was no hero. But then again, he was older than the concept of hero himself.

edited 7th Feb '13 8:03:31 AM by AtomicNut

Unluckily for Baal — and perhaps everyone in the immediate vicinity — Baal's shot did not hit the target. It wasn't actually any fault on Baal's part at all; had everything gone as planned, his shot surely would have sent Livewire to the grave. However, everything did not go as planned.

Livewire said that reinforcements were following behind her, and it seemed the first one had made it's move. It moved straight in front of Livewire the moment his finger pressed the trigger, and perhaps 'it' was a more accurate term at that moment in any case. It was tall and lanky, with short red hair covering every single inch of it's body, including two female breasts. It had long fingernails that might as well have been claws, and sharp, gnashing teeth. Yet, for all that, it had a surprisingly youthful, pleasant face, with large yellow-green eyes. It's smooth pink hair flowed all the way down past it's rear end. It's nose was animal like as well; all it would need now is a couple of translucent butterfly wings to complete the image of, perhaps, one of the fairfolk of the old legends and folklore, though it didn't seem to have them at the time.

The thing, having appeared seemingly out of nowhere, raised one finger at seemingly lightning-speed, and then the bullet just... stopped. A playful smile, with all it's teeth bared, then rose as the bullet dropped to the floor. And then, with a high-pitched voice that seemed to echo throughout the entire tunnels, she said...

"Redcap wanna' play."

edited 10th Feb '13 1:33:06 PM by kkhohoho

As soon as Wildcard pressed the button, a most spectacular sight unfolded before him. The device was now projecting a hologram, of a vast 'map' of sorts, that seemed to contain numerous different Earth's. But, before Wildcard could explore the device further, he could... something... from behind...

It was none other then Strix, clad in his familiar black&grey owl-suit, holding an owl-shaped, razor-edged boomerang in his right hand...

Before even turning to look around, Wildcard instantly pressed the button on Uncle Dmitri's shield.... and kept a finger ready on the dimensional transporter as well. "Hey, Strix buddy. What's up? Funny seeing you here, I'm just in the process of saving your ass in the future - well, more like, you know, the present, but a different present, and everyone looks much tougher in that present. And their haircuts - why is everything so much cooler over there? Anyway, you got these people breaking into your base, so I came back from the future that's really the present to see if the you that's you had any cool weapons to help out the you that's him. But all I found was this wristwatch."

Chronus, meanwhile, was in the tunnels near the gathering of allies, Livewire and the new villainous arrival. Redcap's introduction was hardly subtle. He materialised his blades and took a running start, then sped up his personal time, and with a great deal of momentum and acrobatic mid-air positing leaped over his allies and dived at Redcap blades-first.

"Recap.", Mr. Cliche pulled his up where he could see the hairy monstrosity, "Oh Red Cap."

He leaned up into a sitting position while never taking his eyes off Red Cap. "What happened to you? What did these monsters do to...urk." Mr. Cliche bent over clutching himself as the pain began to intensify.

"I got something for you to play with, you red-hatted loonie!"

Saltire yelled from the back, his hat and mask once again on his head while his free hand was closed firmly on his Webley. The hand not free held the newly-improved Senora which he threw down and popped open to reveal a hissing and sparking monstrosity of a turret tracking for a target.