World of Heroes -- Reboot

"odd... now there's one more" Malandros said to himself as Jay appeared, should he, or anybody else really, look up they would see a man walking perfectly upright, perpendicular to the wall he is on. He watches on.

Josh stared bleakly at the obviously-charging weapon. "Enough of this," he sighed. Raising a hand high above his head, he grabbed something unseen, then brought it down.

An impossibly light and sharp laser blade the length of a football field came down in his grip, its clear purpose to cleave the machine in two before it fired. Not a terribly creative solution, all things considered, but at least an efficient and direct one.

Even more direct would have been to think the tank into exploding all on its own, but it wasn't a sure thing that he could influence others' constructs with will alone, and now wasn't the time to find out. Scio could see where this was headed a mile away, and a schoolyard-like, endlessly-escalating battle of imagination didn't sound terribly appealing at that moment. There would be plenty of time to feel out his limits after Kali had been rescued.

"It appears that you've finally cut me to the quick," said Comedy rapidly, peering out the hole and looking on as Isacc careened towards the very floor he was standing on. He then leaped out of the way, beyond where he could be easily seen. Of course, the floor itself only fell, and not the ceiling; even with three fists covered with spikes leading the charge; Isacc would have had to send himself through the ceiling to break that. But regardless... it had seemed to be for naught.

"'The best laid plans...'", quoted a familiar voice, one still within the building. Sure enough, the voice belonged to none other Comedy; thanks to a quick use of his powers, he was now floating effortlessly in mid-air; his arms were folded, and his swords were swirling at rapid speed in mid-air. "This might not be quite the same as true flight," taunted Comedy, "but I still think it does the job, don't you? Care to have another go?"

Unfortunately for the old man, he had made one very important oversight; he had forgotten to come up with a method to see what was occurring outside of the tank. Because of this, he could not foresee the giant lazer-sword splitting the tank in half; and nearly himself as well. He let out a loud yell, yet, just as he saw the sword come crashing down, he was able to will himself to safety, appearing a good 20 ft away from the tank, before appearing right back in front of Scio once the explosion was over and done with.

"I'll admit," said the old man wryly, "you got gumption, I'll give you that. But if you want to free this young girl," he continued, giving Kali a swift kick to the back in the process, causing to scream out in agonizing pain, "you'll have to take it up a notch!" The old man then became not just one man, but millions; the entire area was filled with replica's of the old man, all letting loose a deep, throaty laugh, under a wide, toothy smile...

Meanwhile, back in the real word, more gigantic roots sprouted, all across the city, with more appearing by the minute...

As our heroes chased the Radical's, they eventually started to notice something... odd. The Radical's continued run on and on, never erring from their set course, never pausing... and apparently, never stopping before running into a building. In fact, they didn't run into the building; they ran through it.

Something ought to have set off at least one alarm bell...

Malandros stopped in its tracks seeing the vanishing group of heroes "Ghost images?" He smacked himself in the forehead "I can't believe it, fooled by the oldest training trick in history" he muttered as he walked down to ground level. "Oh well, at least I found the shelter" he said to himself, a few minutes later, as he entered the homeless shelter.

Jay had second thoughts about this. On one hand, running through a building might have been just another one of their super abilities, and on the other, it was weird that they did not tire out at all. But just as he was about to reach a conclusion, something caught his eye.

Something...green.

edited 31st Oct '12 7:52:57 AM by eternalNoob

Back in Kali's mindscape, Scio was standing unnervingly still. "You know, since you're not just a figment after all," the cloaked man replied, tone perfectly casual though his fists were tight with rage, "I was thinking about letting you live."

As he bit out the last word and willed himself over to where his alien friend lay chained, a hail of perfectly-aimed thunderbolts rained down from the empty nothingness above them, striking the enemy and each and every one of his copies not once, but three times for good measure.

"How stupid of me."

edited 30th Oct '12 9:05:30 PM by darksidevoid

With the Exiles emergency systems in full gear, Arguma was able to keep the ship from hitting the homeless shelter, thought not without taking out a small section of the buildings roof. Still, it was better than smashing through the building itself.

With at least a few moments left in the air, Arguma did his best to try and spot the best place to land the ship. Nearby - close enough to land at least - was what looked like some kind of sports field. Better yet, it was currently unoccupied.

The Q'oton immediately pointed the ship in its direction and tried to bring the Exile in for as soft a landing as was possible. The first impact skimmed the ship across the far end of the field, shaking the ship and everyone aboard it as its pilot tried to hit the breaks. The second landing brought the ship to full contact with the ground, but it still had enough momentum to continue to slide the rest of the way.

When he saw they were going to hit the wall, Arguma held his arm out to keep Wildcard in place just before impact.

He wasn't sure how bad the impact was, but Arguma did know it hadn't killed him, but it hurt. Immensely. Enough that soon after they came to a complete stop, everything went black.

edited 30th Oct '12 9:16:48 PM by SpaceJawa

"Hey, we're not dead," Wildcard quipped as he got up, with Arguma's arm and his sack of pilfered guns having softened the blow. It was one hell of a thrashing nonetheless. "Thanks for the save, so I guess now we have to explain this to Robert."

He took a good look at Arguma. "Hey, uh, big guy, I'm not a fancy alien doctor, so how do I tell if you're alive?" He softly poked the alien in the neck.

The old man, upon seeing this thunderous force, did not quiver in fear, or cry out in terror; instead, he was preoccupied with a sudden other matter; Luciandutus was dead.

...And, unfortunately for him, this caused a mental backlash of such proportions that all of his copies disapeared, leaving just the one, and even before the bolts struck, he let out a terrifying yell. And then, they struck. And when the smoke cleared... the old man was gone. But whether or not his influence followed was another matter; Kali was still reeling on the floor in agony, as if Jake had a more lasting influence on her that what had seemed to be at first, with the consequences being felt in the real world...

While Arguma didn't react to Wildcard's poking, it was still safe for any onlookers to assume that he was still alive - he looked like he was still breathing from the way his body subtly moved, and listening closely would allow Wildcard to hear the sound of his personal breathing system still fixing the atmosphere he was breathing so that he had access to his own native air.

Mr. Cliche paused as he watched the group pass through the wall. He could go through walls to as he had unfortunately found out after being thrown through them.

It occurred to him that this could be a glitch in the game, and he would need to access the cheat code for that. Unless they weren't in a game and one of the heroes had the ability to phase through walls.

As these thoughts occurred to Mr. Cliche he saw that Clown Kid was starring off in the distance at something. "What do you see!"

"Yeah, you're probably okay," Wildcard said to Arguma after his field examination. "Oh yeah, where's that jackass? Maybe we lucked out and he got cut in half." Wildcard shook a leg to see if he could get rid of that 'just crash landed in an alien spaceship' it had, and then went to where the old man was, checking if he was alive.

Jay didn't get a very good view, but he could definitely make out something plant like, and slowly spreading throughout downtown Megapolis. Now what kind of creature could be causing something like that...

Within a few moments, he made his way to the deeper parts of town, deciding that the chase for the "Radicals" was a futile effort, whether the men they were chasing were fake, or the real deal. He almost forgot about Mr. Cliche, but luckily, he remembered just in time to give him a "follow me" gesture.

Entering the shelter, Evan devised the strange group of costumed people in the line for food, he walked towards them "Hey... aren't you the people that were running out there? ...or rather ghost images of you"

"Kali! Hey!" As the chains restraining his comrade vanished with a thought, Josh crouched down and lifted Kali up into a hug, careful not to actually touch any of her wounds. His grip was firm, but not overly tight, more to keep Kali from flailing around and hurting herself than anything else. Looking down over her shoulder, the telepath bit his tongue. The external damage to the alien's mental self was more extensive than he'd realized, and that was to say nothing of the fact that she was totally out of it.

Though still unsure if it was actually possible, he did his best to imagine Kali's lacerations and other "physical" injuries healing and threw most of his willpower behind making it happen. At the same time, the empath took a shuddering breath and attempted to utilize his emotion-related powers in a new way, trying to both project a soothing feeling of calm onto the woman's psyche and siphon away some of the pain she was experiencing into himself.

"Ninety-one bottles of Dr. Thunder on the wall, ninety one bottles of Dr. Thunder..."

"I thought you said we had reinforcements on the way!" Alex interrupted Kara's song, frustrated.

"I thought we did too," Kara admitted, "Not much else we can do but wait, though, so I'm just passing the time."

"Dumb way to pass the time, if you ask me," Alex grumbled, "And what the heck is Dr. Thunder anyway?"

"You don't...what?" Kara blinked, speechless.

"Never mind," Alex muttered, turning and beginning to pace. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, as the root in the center of the room looked bigger. Probably just her imagination.

Mr. Cliche ran until he saw roots and slid to a stop. He swung his right arm back as if he had a sword and brought down at the root. Where once there had been no sword there was one that sliced cleanly through the root.

He stopped for a moment looking for Jay before slicing a path after the clown themed hero.

Immediately, the Radical's vanished from Morandu's sight once more, causing everyone in the shelter to gasp in astonishment. But if they did not appear to be there, then where were they?

If you can't figured out where the Radical's are now, feel free to ask. Although, you might not need to look very far...

As Scio transferred part of that stinging pain from Kali into himself, it began to show on himself, or would have if he wasn't fully clothed. His back would start to slowly show various cuts, slices, and lashes, and his right eye would steadily becoming bloody and bruised. And in the real world, the effects began to take their toll as well. One by one, the various monstrous roots began to receed back into the ground they sprung, though as the damage to Kali was still not fully healed, the roots were likewise not gone entirely just yet, including the one in the Police Station. Trading off of that however, Scio's physical body began acting strangly, stumbling about and smashing&throwing tables, chairs, lamps, etc. Scio himself was not aware of this; all he could see was the current mind-scape with Kali's subconscious. So he might not be aware that, if he was not careful in transferring Kali's pain, he would not just be getting rid of one threat, but also perhaps turn himself into another...

Uncle Dimitri was, in fact, alive, as were all of the test-subjects, though both Dimitri and the subjects were all sporting various bruises and burns; nothing that couldn't be mended or healed, however.

Malandros blinked "more ghost images, interesting bunch" He began to look around on the spot.

Enlighten me, if you please

"How ironic," Wildcard said, placing a hand on Uncle Dmitri's neck and feeling the pulse. "That the criminals who came here to kill the big guy, wreck his shit, and rescue you ultimately caused your accidental death," he put his right hand around his neck, his left hand on one of his arms, and threw the old man headfirst against the front wall of the Exile.

edited 1st Nov '12 8:28:33 PM by nman

"What the hell?" Alex stared at Scio, who had began to flail around. She ducked as Scio nearly punched her in the face. His own expression was completely blank, so she guess whatever it was he had tried to do had backfired.

"What the heck did he do to himself?" Kara asked. Alex blinked, wondering if this could get any weirder.

"I thought you were the expert on this!" Alex complained, "Well, get in there and do something!"

"We will!" Kara answered, starting to fly in circles around Alex, only to suddenly dive forward at her...and bounce back. "Hey, what's up with you?

"What's up with you?" Alex shouted, "Don't try to possess me like that!" While being partnered with Kara was one thing, there were limits, after all.

"But I...fine," Kara grumbled, "Guess I'm doing this myself," The ghostly girl turned, and focused her mental attention on Kali...

edited 2nd Nov '12 4:56:26 PM by TotemicHero

Saltire had been standing still long enough. He turned his mask face to the officers accompanying him.

"You boys better hang back," he said to them. "Things are hot enough as it is." There was a dip in his head. "Hot enough that even kevlar won't save your ass."

The officer who seemed to be in charge, a sturdy SWAT veteran gave Saltire an even look through his blast visor. Finally, the man said, "Your funeral, sir." With a quick series of gestures, he pulled his three man team back into whatever passed cover, leaving the masked vigilante alone by the approach to the lobby.

He drew his pistol and checked his ammo. All six rounds, should be fine... He slapped the cylinders back into the pistol and held it at the ready. Saltire took a slow breath.

"Ready or not," he called into the lobby. "Here I come! Anyone in need of an assist?"

Without waiting for a response from within, he carefully advanced into a scene of utter devastation. "Ho-lee..."