12th July 2012
13:00 GMT -8
Oh-.
I
shoot into the sky,
colossal construct insects appearing in the streets and grabbing hold of the buildings, both preventing the upper storeys falling and blocking further shots with their bodies as I frantically look around for the attacker! Glass sprays from the superheated glass panes as they explode,
my shields only covering-.
I need help.
Drones.
Sinestro, confirm alert.
Get Iname-
A rainbow beam flickers out of nowhere and one of my constructs
vanishes.
-
and Knockout.
Your children?
The genomorphs can do bodyguard duty. I need people with resistance to magic. New Gods.
Order sent. Circe would-.
Circe got the same alert
I did. She'll come or she won't. Same with Adom. Now try-.
Another rainbow beam, but this time
I drop an armoured hull plate out of subspace and the construct being targeted uses it as a shield. It hits dead centre and… Does nothing. Some sort of 'activate when strikes' banishment effect, perhaps?
But if you like magic so much…
THIS LAND ABHORS YOU!
I
summon a new insectoid, noting as I do so that alarms are ringing and people are fleeing. Good. A couple of members of Uncorp security are trying to direct the mad scramble, but they're mostly being ignored. Keeping one eye on my constructs I fly over, landing forcibly in front of them.
"What's going on?"
A woman with elven ears and a peculiarly angular face shakes her head.
"Damned if I know, Mister Grayven. Was a pretty normal day a minute ago."
"Know where Cranius is?"
The gecko-featured man next to her shrugs helplessly.
"Dude, we're park security. I haven't seen Cranius since my procedure."
BO-
Iname appears before me.
-OM!
"Search and rescue. Go."
She nods, and in a black blur fleeing civilians start disappearing. Knockout appears a moment later, armour glowing and fists balled. She looks
excited.
"Knockout. Wizard hunting."
"Steel yourself."
"Yes, Grayven."
"I'll cast fist!"
No more rainbow rays or lightning blasts, and the screams are dying down as people turn their lungpower to the task of fleeing better. My drones dip in and out of tangibility, removing glass and shooting the injured with healing rays.
Onwards, then.
I take to the air and head for the medical complex, Knockout following me on the ground. As I get above the surrounding building-.
A five metre wide lump of rubble flies through the air, hurtling toward me! Acceleration and probable mass-. I
generate a baseball glove construct around my right hand and field it, absorbing the force with my own strength and then-. Yes, ground's been cleared, dropping it to the street below.
The air shimmers as two beams
of gamma radiation strike my armour to little effect as I get a clearer view of the entity that's assailing me. It's a humanoid about twenty metres tall and made of dark grey rock, with green-glowing veins of metal running throughout its body. That says 'dumb monster' and 'distraction' to me, but it's still capable of killing plenty of people.
My goggles show it firing into the building at the same time as it's firing at me. Those eye holes are for show.
And… Not mentally complex enough to feel fear, but there are plenty of people
feeling fear in the building.
I generate a thick cylindrical construct around it, blocking its shots at the entire city. Gamma beams are still coming, but they're bouncing off the interior and either hitting the elemental thing, hitting the ground or heading off into the sky. It responds by raising its hands and
shoving outwards, straining against the containment.
Scan it.
The grey blur flashes by and enters the building. Iname is trained in how to handle hospital evacuations and..
should be able to walk off radiation exposure. The radioactive rock creature is straining against my construct but doesn't
appear to be strong enough to break it. Which means that if it's important its creator's going to appear in a few seconds and get a face full of purple death ray. And if it's
not important then I'm wasting my time. Aberrance has safe storage sites for radioactive materials but they're rather built on the assumption that the radioactive materials won't be actively trying to leave under their own power. And destroying a being like this is likely to be a good deal harder than containing it.
I
form a rock crusher construct above it and bring it down forcefully on its head, teeth whirring and grinding. Sure, I could shoot it, but it clearly doesn't have vital organs and appears to be lumps of rock held together with magic. Breaking it apart with brute strength will
hopefully prevent whoever made it just feeding it more power.
It doesn't make any noise as it crouches slightly and raises its arms above its head. All that really achieves is to destroy its hands a little faster, but if the radiation beams come from its main trunk that might be worthwhile as a holding action. Ah… Oh, looks like it's trying to melt the ground beneath it. I
add a bottom to the container, foiling its effort.
I am mildly pleased that it remains silent as
my construct surges down, chewing through what's left of its arms and enveloping its head and upper torso. A spray of rock later and it's done, the broken remains of the creature falling inanimate to the ground. I focus
on the lingering fears of the remaining watchers that it might return and transmute the material into blocks of pure silica.
"
Grayven to Cranius, please respond."
"Laboratory."
I
fly, ignoring the blasted and torn form of the chirurgical centre and the.. horribly burned corpses that were its employees and patients. A surprising number appear to have been decapitated, which implies that there are conventionally sized infantry sword-fetishists around here some-.
And then I see Cranius and realise that I wasn't taking the location into account.
Otto is naked, and attached to his neck, chest, thighs and arms are… Heads. Most appear to be unresponsive, but-.
"Niko?"
She blinks at me as Cranius drags another bleeding head over and readies his chirurgical engine.
"Cranius, what-?"
"I will save all I can! But zhe lunatic threatened to go after zhe insectoids! You must-"
The machine finds an artery, and there's a patter of blood on the floor as Cranius wires in the next head.
"-stop him before he can-"
Shit. Boom tube!
Ping!
"-doom us all!"
