London's Bridge Had It Easy (Heroes Reg. or Titans) - Russian Attack!

Bio ducked as the robots exploded and then felt things heat up. The bus was leaving with the last of civilians and others were literally taking their chances and jumping off the bridge. He couldn't blame them, the survival rate was much better. He looked over at Hotspot and scratched his head. The guy was overheating and just going balls to the walls with his efforts. Bio leveled his gun at the chest in a last ditch effort to save the meta. Something had to be up for former heroes to just up and attack innocent civilians and with such ferocity.

Even though Flux had ruined any chance of negotiation, maybe he could save Hotspot before it was too late. Staying on the bridge a few seconds before the collapse he concentrated and fired shots around the perimeter of Hotspot. Maybe the healing gas would save him before the whole place was bombed to hell. Exhausted, he then jumped off into a dive from the bridge, deciding to leave the danger behind for now.

Deadlock lifted her gaze as the explosion of force she'd expected didn't happen, and was just in time to see the huge cannon she'd torn off came right back at her. It wasn't all that heavy, and it was a simple enough matter to shift her stance wide and bring her arm around, smacking the hurled projectile aside and into the sea. Her attention was taken away from the men firing on her as one might fail to notice flies when something began to squawk at her in the cockpit of the inevitable. Eddie shifted her gaze upward - and three... four forms were in low altitude, flying in tight formation. A fighter pattern?! Bombers! They were heading for the bridge! And that wasn't the only piece of bad news.

Her gaze shifted again, and landed on Argent. The inevitable's metallic, fanged skull visage could not show an expression, but it could have been perceived that her eyes narrowed, that her jaw set. So that explained something. The hand that had defended the ship's control room enlarged and made to Swat Deadlock into the sea and off the ship. But... Deadlock was not someone that could be 'swatted'. Her feet planted, her body hunched like a linebacker, her arm raised into a block, and... she stopped Argent's hand dead, the resultant shockwave of force making the deck of the ship bend and buckle under the tremendous play of forces in the clash, flinging men into the sea.

The impact had rattled the heroine's teeth and left her ears ringing, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't sweating it - Argent was a powerhouse, no doubt about it. But she couldn't shift her stance and not be flung into the sea! Her fingers flicked on the thruster controls, and she loosed a scream of effort and bowel-knotting defiance as she tensed her muscles as hard as she could. Air, a lot of it, suddenly roared from the surface of the black iron giantess's body, and the every last man that was left on the deck of the destroyer was launched bodily into the bay. Argent's hand projection suddenly had to contend with something slippery via air pressure, and Deadlock was already moving forward - and out from under it.

Eddie glanced at her power supply remaining - 75%, and reactor three was looking bad - it was nearly out of energy entirely, and needed time to recuperate. She obliged it, cycling 1, 2, 4, and 5 to take up the extra strain more evenly as she grabbed one of the radar dishes that had miraculously survived the fight so far. She paused moment, calculating trajectory as she wound up the throw. Argent was about sixty feet from the deck and a bit out over the sea. Now... the deck was bent here at a thirty degree angle, and the dish had this much flexion... and the back wall of the control center was at this angle... yes. She threw it - poorly, it seemed.

The discus bounced down off the deck, wobbled drunkenly as it regained altitude, ricocheted with a CLONG off the steel of the control tower's wall, and shot, straight and true, directly at the back of Argent's head.


==========



It... worked? Flux could hardly believe it - she moved forward to render aid to the fiery hero as he reverted to human and coughed up blood - he looked a lot less threatening like that, and maybe she wasn't as cautious as she should have been... but she didn't get all that close before things got really hot. Heat like that, you don't even need to be directly exposed to it to be cooked alive like a ham roast. Flux backpedaled, shielding her face a moment until she was some small distance away from him.

Things weren't going well from the bridge. The last bus was leaving, escaping the carnage and destruction, but even amidst the sounds of havoc, she heard something like a wildcat's scream... and looked up. Jets?! Bombers, she was sure. And... they were on a crash course for the bridge. But... there were still people on the bridge - Hotspot, other heroes! And what if Hotspot burnt through the bridge, and made the giant below them lose his grip?

Heat that intense... it was melting the car behind Hotspot, and making the concrete he stood on bubble and boil like water. She couldn't withstand that kind of heat - it was well outside her personal limitations... but... but people were going to die - hotspot among them - if he brought down the bridge before everyone could escape. Flux stepped back a pace... and shot her hands out to either side, gripping one of the the bridge's support beams and a light post... and started walking backward.

No, she couldn't withstand Hotspot's fire. Not for long. But... maybe for long enough? This was a desperate move, one she would never have considered normally - it was, to the untrained eye, an act of suicide. Maybe it really was. But... this was why she'd become a heroine - she'd chosen... to live for others.

If it came to it, she would die for others, too. Flux thought about her mother, about her father, her little brother. She imagined them... happy. She saw them, in her mind's eye, as she always saw them, when she thought about her family - smiling.

As crystal began to form, as she began to sink into a ball, pushing her core into the center of her mass, she thought about someone else, too - someone she hadn't expected to think about at a time like this. Hotwire! He was always there for her! He was a goofy kid, but he was kind. He'd saved her live, and she'd saved his... and she remembered meeting his eyes in the lab that night she turned blue - how she'd felt when it happened, the way her heart... fluttered. The goo-girl heroine hadn't analyzed the feeling before now... but she desperately wanted to impress that man, wanted him to approve of her. That's... why she'd modified the rogue titans' communicators on her own initiative. She'd wanted to impress him! She...

No. Now was not the time to think about such things. If she lived though... she swore she would talk to him about it. Yes - that would be fine... she just had to live.

Her expression as the last parts of her compressed was one of intense concentration, mostly, but she finished balling herself up as tightly as she could, forming a sphere four times the size of a basket ball made of her solid state crystal... and shot forward into the flame.

The temperature rose rapidly past the melting point of iron as she got close to Hotspot, and the meteorite sphere of Flux's body seemed to moisten, leaving a comet tail behind her as inches were sloughed away, flashing into steam, but while she could not withstand that kind of heat for long, she was a steaming meteor aimed directly at Hotspot's center mass - he could not vaporize her nearly quick enough. She would take him with her to the bottom of the sea if she had to!

 
 

Meta ducked under a punch, he weaved around the robot and placed his hands on it, one on the back of it's head and another on it's arm. He pushed against it's head and pulled on it's arm, tearing both it's head and it's arm off. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed that most if not all of the civilians were gone, this was good, Meta's job was almost over.

The robots all opened their chest cavities, releasing explosives to damage the bridge, Meta knew he had to take them out fast. He turned into paper and zoomed over to the next one and swung at it's face, turning into steel to add impact to the fast but ineffective punch that it would have been, taking it's head clean off.

He ran to other robots using similar strategies to take them out, trying to defeat them as fast as he could. He was so busy with this that he did not notice the fighter planes riding towards them to blow up the bridge. Just as he was crushing the body of a robot he had floored underfoot, he heard a loud whistle and turned to the sound of the whistle, it was a girl who did what he instantly recognised as the military hand signal for imminent air strike.

This had probably saved his life, if it weren't for her he would have not noticed until it was too late. He looked towards everyone who didn't seem to be aware it was time to abandon ship Hey! You, guys! Get off the bridge! It's gonna get blown up!

He just had to hope that everyone would heed his warning as he jumped off the bridge, streamlining his body so that there would be little impact against the water. He looked around to see who else had gotten off the bridge, with a sickening realisation, he realised that neither of his team-mates had gotten down yet! He felt sick, he had just jumped off without them, he hadn't thought about them at all!

He looked back up at the bridge, he couldn't see Hotwire, but he saw Flux going into the fire to try and save Hotspot, whom Meta had not even noticed was blazing because he was just that busy. Meta looked at the heroic actions of his fellow Titan, who made him feel completely inadequate in comparison to himself.

The civilians had gotten to safety. Good. Now to take care of the rest of these-

*BOOM*

The explosions rocked hotwire's position as the planes whizzed overhead. His little sphere of safety he had built was reduced to exploding rubble as another bomb drop came in.

*BOOM*

His shield would shatter in a pretty little explosion that knocked hotwire all the way to the edge of the bridge. As he managed to get up and stagger forward a few feet, another explosion rippled a meter or so away from him. Then... he was airborne. It was all spinning... Faster and faster... then he hit the water. He tasted blood in his mouth as his consciousness began to fade.

(Is it over?)

((God I hope not - this is a terrible place to stop!))

The planes were approaching their target, however one had to veer and shoot down a giant hurtling piece of debris Colossus had thrown. The missile collided with the flying debris and created a shock wave from the nearby airborne explosion. The same plane having wasted it's ammo decided to unload heavy fire on Colossus who was wading across the bay towards the frigate.

Meanwhile, Deadlock threw a disc that Argent originally assumed had missed until it ricocheted into the back of her head and knocked the girl out of the air and into the wrestles waters below. The men on the ship continued to unload everything they had at the flying robogirl after seeing ace plummet into the ocean. The brawl with Argent had actually given them enough time to retrieve the RPGs and fired three rockets at her from the deck of the ship!

At the same time the ship began pulling away as many of the heroes had already presumed the bay bridge was done for, Mission was compelte success with the possible casualty of Hotspot and maybe Argent if they didn't retrieve her - noble casualties of war sadly.

On the bridge Hotspot was heating up just as the jets flew into striking range. The giant had moved it's hands causing the bridge to break apart more rapidly. The foundation lurched but did not crumble thanks to Hope's efforts. The former honorary hothead stumbled but still would not yield. This goo girl stood before him and had straight pissed him the #^&$% off! His rage was his fuel and he would burn everyone to ash with his fury. This pain he felt was only nourishment for his temper and his fire, this...pain?

Hotspot was actually feeling pretty good.

Gas from Bioshock healed his wounds; nulled his injury; subsided his pain. The odd feeling/sensation was all that was needed to stall and decrease the temperature and potency of his fire. During this cool down Flux's last ditch effort worked! Hotspot was struck and had the wind knocked out of hi by her crystalline mace. The teen gasped and doubled over before dropping to the ground completely unconscious. This day the new triumphed over the old in an epic clash of the Titans.

The victory would be short lived, as would anything else on board that structure at this point. One of three missiles struck the side of the bridge connecting to the shore - blowing rock, metal, and anything in the vicinity into the atmosphere. The second hit one of the main support beams, blowing a large hole into it which sent that bridge area slipping into the bay - similar to a devastating avalanche of concrete. A fourth missile would've been aimed at those atop the bridge to annihilate all chances of survival but that plane was averted and currently laying siege to Colossus. Nonetheless the final third missile hit dead center of the bridge, the impact sent Hotwire, Flux, Hotspot either flying through the air like a rag doll or vaporized them in a wave of burning death or even possibly left splattered remnants of their existence all about. The bay bridge was still standing after the damage from the missiles, in some areas, but it had been blown to just a few parts and segments.

Of course Mav herself needed to get out of there as the planes closed in. She figured the big guy wouldn't mind if she hitched a ride on his shoulder, which she did after the giant threw a rock at the incoming squadron. He didn't bring any of them down but managed to disrupt the 4th enough so that it couldn't unload its missile at the bridge.

"Not bad big guy."

Behind them, 3 missiles made their mark. Some parts of the bridge were miraculously still standing but it was clearly going to be out of commission for some time. Meanwhile back in front, the 4th plane was intent on getting a little pay back on the giant for his interruption. While the big guy shielded himself with one arm, Mav jumped from her position to deflect a few rounds herself. It wasn't much but she wanted to do what she could. She landed on Colossus' free hand and looked up at the jet again. That was when an idea hit her.

"Hey big guy! This probably sounds crazy to you, but at this distance I think we can make it! Throw me up there like you did with the rock earlier! Let's take that guy down!"

After demonstrating her impressive toughness so far, there shouldn't be any hesitation on executing this plan. She crouched down and prepared to be launched as a human missile.

Flux felt the heat, felt her body sloughing away, felt the heat rake and tear at her, making her meteorite smaller and smaller, burning her water away and drawing nearer and nearer to her core. She would have grit her teeth if she could have, would have screamed her defiance and fear to the sky if she'd had her voice at that moment, but she didn't chicken out - she didn't change course. The goo-girl heroine soared as she flew, and felt the impact of something soft as she impacted Hotspot like a wrecking ball, right in the solar plexus. The wind was slapped right out of him with a WHUMP and a wheeze, and the man crumpled, his fire dying away as he became human again. Flux, just under half her original size,, rose in the molten earth and squeaked as she fought her way out of the molten goop ontop him, the small area of cool ground. She steamed even now, heated to an uncomfortable temperature.. but... but she'd won?! Holy flying monkeys! She'd gone and beaten him!

The tiny flux didn't have a chance to squeak her defiance and triumph to the four winds though. She was exhausted, hurt everywhere, and was desperately hungry, and the heat was still getting to her - she was steaming even now! But Hotspot... she looked down at the boy, and set her jaw. By chance, she looked over to where Hotspot had been and realized he was now... very important to her indeed. He was nowhere in sight - only a crater where he'd been, with him flying backward into space out over the water!!

"HOTWIRE!" she screamed, her voice cracking in the middle! Bombs were falling - and a third would hit too close to where she and Hotspot were currently. There was just no way in snot they'd survive if it hit, but... Flux was too tiny to pick up the former hero in her arms! Well. Good thing she had more than arms to work with.

Flux formed her lower body over his chest... and shot her arms out, thickening them with as much mass as she could manage, and yanked, as hard as she possibly could with elastic tension. She screamed with the effort, but Hotspot came loose and flew with her, flinging them both off the side of the bridge bodily. As she fell, as she watched Hotwire falling dully, time slowed for her. She was thinking clearly... since she was about to die, probably - the mind was taking everything in, in as much detail as it possibly could. She formed around Hotspot again, a toddler sized girl clutching him against her. How she wished this were Hotwire... but something was uncomfortable  - in her chest... it was...

... a funky metal device, a bottle of water, and a box. What good were these things to her, she thought dully? She wouldn't need a thermos of water or nutrition supplements, or a medkit, when she was dead.

... WAIT, WHAT?! The penny dropped from orbit and pwned Flux utterly, kicking her brain into gear at long last. She spun off the cap of the pressurized tube of water, emptying it in one go, even as she hit the release lever on the injector. Water and nutrients hit her muzzy thoughts like a wave of awesome, and she furrowed her brow. If spiderman could do crap like this, so could she! She shot her arm out, and grabbed some crumbling debris a moment, turning their outward arc into a curving backdrop, pulling her under the bridge with a YANK. She let go, and let her body billow out. She would need to be thin to do this... but taht wouldn't be a problem either. She pulled her hang glider trick, with Hotspot as the main spine of it, and swooped.

She jinked and weaved between falling clumps of debris, quick as a bird, and just before Hotwire hit the water in a backflop that would have murdered him as certainly as a bullet, she scooped him in against her and changed her profile before they hit the waves, the trio of heroes hitting the waves like a bullet instead of a brick. They rocketed maybe twenty feet down before Flux brought their arc upward, and did her squid impersonation. She'd gotten pretty freakin' good at this trick since living under da sea. It was true you know, about it being better down where it's wetter. She swam like a streak of blue in the burning water, the two heroes held deep within her body, safe and sound as debris rained around them. She was like quicksilver as she moved, darting this way and that to get out of the way of falling cars and blocks of concrete the size of trucks.

When at last Flux emerged, she billowed out as she converted some of her mass below the surface into gas... and formed like two life vests around the boys she'd just rescued. Once on shore, she bound Hotspot up tight from head to toe, leaving him only room to breathe, and took the time to form a proper nucleon as crystal formed around him. He'd be out a while... but he'd be fine.

But he wasn't so important now. She kept Hotspot attached... but... Flux... bit her bottom lip as she looked at the unconscious Hotwire, and brushed his hair from his face as she scooped his head into her lap. The blue heroine bent her ear over him, trying hard to feel for his breath...



===



She shoots, she scores! Deadlock cackled with mad laughter inside the mechsuit, seeing (and re-seeing, since slow motion action replay is such an awesome thing. She wouldn't have to gloat - eating popcorn as she watched the replay twice more was more than braggery enough. It was at this point that an RPG hit her full on in the face. Well... not her precisely. Deadlock recovered in a couple steps backward towards the water, and dismissed the replay, just in time to get another faceful of rocket propelled grenade, from russia - with love. Her ears were ringing by now, and she was certain she'd never hear again.

Eddie's eyes flicked to the suit's energy monitors. 50% and holding. She took the next shell to her crossed arms in a defensive block, and saw it drop by a solid 10% in a go, and that was with reduced surface area. Her arms ached - everything was aching... and she realized her nose was bleeding half a tick later. The suit was a phenomenal defense - they just couldn't get through the armor, or even scratch it - apart from the repulsor that had taken a lucky hit, she was without a scratch... but she couldn't put up with this forever. Especially her - a bleeding nose meant...

She gave the men on the ship an ironic american salute, and fell backward into the water. They had learned that their bullets did nothing to the Inevitable... And they had run out of launchers that were loaded - best to get away, probably - so they made all haste away from shore, towards... well, wherever it was they were going. That left deadlock... with a difficult choice to make. From within the Inevitable, she could see two things happening.

Item 1: She saw Ardent sinking. She would not survive if she was not saved, and Eddie couldn't let her fall back into enemy hands either way, and a hero wouldn't let the girl die.

Item 2: the destroyer was getting away. The Russians likely had some kind of forward base to be launching those bombers - planes like that do NOT have unlimited range, due to fuel and payload considerations. They would be close - maybe a couple hundred miles away, but close.

She could not do both. Or... could she? She clicked her tongue stud against her teeth once or twice as she shifted frequencies to the encrypted control channel she'd built for Deadlock, and said "I'm leaving you for now, Deadlock. Go and retrieve the target, Argent. Restrain her, level 5, and make your way towards shore at the closest point."

Understood. the AI responded. Then, fitting the skullsuit's helmet and air supply, shutting the intake valves, and fastening everything tight, Eddie braced and...! Hit the eject button!

The water hit her like a hammer, flooding the compartment as she was propelled outward forcibly by a burst from her repulsors. They weren't really built for underwater operation... but they did work, jerking Eddie forward through the water as she strained against the water tension. It felt like she was standing in 6x gravity or something, and everything pushed on her, tiring her, but... she had to do this. Her hand was already pulling at the pouch straps that held her tracking devices as the ship sped closer and closer.

She touched the butt. With a magnetic click and a few sparks, the device welded itself tight to the destroyers hull as it lurched, stricken, towards the rendezvous point, away from Jump City. Eddie looked back - how was her other little task going?

As Ardent sank, as she began to drown.. something loomed from below her - a great pair of black iron hands, two blue lights from within a skull marking the Inevitable's presence below her. It pulled her gently into its open chest, then shut behind her. Safe, as the chamber flushed of water and filled with breathable air, Deadlock began the precursor to CPR, pnumatic motions and air tanks beginning to work on the girl, even as the machine bound her bodily, giving her not an inch of motion as she was held in active ion powered alloyed steel. She wasn't getting loose.

Success. Returning to shore.

===

Eddie surfaced, a tencount later, gasping and opening the intake valves in the same motion. Her lungs had felt like they were going to explode, but... there was still work to do. Colossus was taking fire from the bomber, and she wasn't sure about his durability... or her own, come to that, after those rockets - she felt like hell would be an improvement... But... even so.

So, Deadlock clenched her cheeks together and sucked it up. There was work to be done. So when Maverique landed and demanded that she be tossed at the oncoming jet like a surface to air projectile girl, there was a roar of repulsors, and a very soggy skull-helmed girl in black leather armor, with a baseball bat of all things, landed on him right beside her.

"Toss me!" Deadlock said, in a quite passable Gimli impersonation. Mav wouldn't be able to tell due to her helmet, but Eddie was grinning like a demon, her face a sheet of blood. You only live once, right? She revved the baseball bat in her hand, and a distinctly unpleasant humming noise came from it as it... glowed blue a moment.

She raised a finger at Maverique as if laying down a condition, and, still in that accent with suppressed laughter in her voice "Uh lad... Don't tell the elf." she added, and braced herself. This was going to get rough.


===



From the sea just a few meters away from Flux, Hotwire, and their prisoner rose... something absolutely huge - it was around four meters tall, and had to weigh a metric crapton, judging from how the sand shook at its footfalls. Some seaweed had gotten on it, but it was definitely the technological reading from before, its blue eyes blazing like two portals to a frozen hell in the depths of its skull.

Flux regarded Deadlock.

Deadlock regarded Flux.

Then, ponderously, the iron giant broke the moment of tension as it dragged itself out of the surf, paying no more mind to the waves than one might regard a splash of bath water. It disregarded pair of heroes and the former titan andt turned back out to sea once it was ashore... and lifted its huge, cumbersome head skyward, to the giant Colossus still in the bay where... mother... was now. Very slowly, its gigantic fists clenched, and creaked. Flux blinked at those huge hands... then followed its gaze.

It was up to those three now.
[/color]

(Basically my exit post)
(This thread is by far the most metal thread I've ever seen)

 Bio hit the water headfirst, not the best executed of dives but it would do. With that he got around to the business of getting out of the area and onto the beach. The cold water spurned him on to begin swimming despite how much of his power he had used. He surfaced and looked around only to be immediately cut off by a blunt force crashing down on his head. He immediately began to lose consciousness. Then something sharp impaled him, causing him to slowly sink under the water, blood pouring out.

 Stuck in a state of semi-existence, Bio greeted approaching death with a peaceful surrender, his life flashing before his eyes. He could start to see his own body as it sunk into the depths.

What am I really fighting for? were the words that were caught in the ether. Being a superhero all felt meaningless to him, it was just a simple balancing act of life and death before inevitable death swallowed everything.

He then thought of his sister, Chad, and others he had begun to know on his travels.

I'm not the only one who feels this way...

his memories latched onto the people he saved, those he knew in the city, DJ Tap Master, Kirk the first criminal he fought, and all others who could so easily be snuffed out in seconds without anyone caring. Was saving lives really all there was to the job? His eyes suddenly widened as he realized where these words were leading him.

I can change them! It doesn't have to... be like this...

Bio instantly became willpower as his body repaired itself. The moment his eyes opened he pulled the metal rod that had impaled him out of his stomach. He was now just a human with so much of his power used up, but he had solidified his purpose and why he was here. He tried moving his coffin of a body, but realized how low on oxygen he was.

****, I'm too late.

Suddenly he realized he was being pushed towards the surface at an incredible rate. The next moment he felt air forced into his lungs and consciousness was being forced back into him. He then saw an ambulance, defibrillators, all with death lurking in the background compelling him to leave the world. He heard EMT's talk about how amazing it was that he was still holding on for life. Suddenly he got up, clutching his stomach and gasping in a cold sweat. The EMT's looked at each other in amazement. His breathing suddenly calmed and he fell into a deep peace.

"I'll be okay Athena. Thanks..."

He learned that their was a refugee camp, set up at the stadium, so he asked to be transported there, explaining to the EMT's why he didn't need to go to the hospital.

Meta looked up at the explosions pelting the bridge, he saw bodies flying off of the bridge, Hotwire, Flux and Hotspot, as well as a fourth girl he did not recognize. He was safe on the shore, away from the rubble, but they weren't. He ran forwards and dived into water, swimming after them.

He saw that Flux had saved Hotspot and Hotwire, hand gliding them to safety, but the girl he had noticed was not so lucky. He took a deep breath before going under, scanning the surroundings for the girl. There was rubble from the bridge everywhere, even a few floating metal parts from the robots they fought.

He spotted her among the rubble and swam towards her, as he got closer, he noticed that she had blue skin, but he paid that no attention. He grabbed her around the waist and swam upwards, he was getting pretty short of breath, but she was probably even worse off than him, so he had no right to complain.

They broke the surface and he gasped, sucking in air and making sure her head was above water, before he swam to the surface and dropped her there. He was vaguely aware of the fact that Flux and Hotwire were okay, but the girl still needed her help. He put his hands to her chest and his mouth to hers and started to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation.

When her breathing was back to normal, he would pick her up and take her to some medics, assuming she was not well enough to do so herself. Once she was taken off his hands, he would walk towards Hotwire and Flux and see the state Hotwire was in. He stopped in front of them and sat down How's he doing? Does he need CPR?

He was definitely breathing. A little shallow, but he was breathing. He slowly felt consciousness return to him. Just as Meta walked up to him, Hotwire began to cough up some salty seawater as he jerked up from out of flux's lap.

*Cough* *cough* "Oh man..." *Cough* "What happened?" He began. He looked around, his head spinning. The first thing he saw was a behemoth. It was that strange technology signal he saw before... it was a mech suit... and it was powered by... what was that?

But his attention was diverted by another sharp cough, which forced his gaze to Flux and Meta, standing around the defeated Hotspot. "You guys made it!" He yelled happily.