Futuristic Arcadia: Heroes World Brave

[Wing06]

Klaus cocked his head to the side, contemplating Akiko's proposition. "Why not?" He said with a shrug, taking her hand. She pulled the time traveler into the abandoned office space and, looking at the state of the room, told Klaus everything he needed to know about their predicament, "What mess," he sighed. "I suppose the obvious would be to look through that sorry excuse for a desk," he said, gesturing toward the makeshift desk against the far wall. It was an old door across a three-drawer filing cabinet on one side and three milk crates on the other. The stack of milk crates and filing cabinet weren't perfectly even, so the door rested on a slant. A cup filled with pens and markers sat next to a dusty computer monitor from the previous century.

Kalus sat in the broken office chair left between the "legs" of the desk and pulled open each drawer, surprised to see relatively new files inside. "For all the work they've done making this seem abandoned, it's clearly all a front, or they truly hope someone without a lick of sense breaks in and just quits looking after seeing the state of the place." He peered over the top of the ancient computer monitor to see what luck Akiko had, sifting through a stack of sticky notes on the end table next to the stained and decaying couch.

 

[druidquest]

"...Besties?" Lynne repeated quietly, ends of her hair beginning to turn pink.

It took a moment for her to register the offered hand, and in a panic she lunged for Klaus'es other arm as he started to disappear through the wall. A moment too late - she smacked face-first into the side of the building, rebounding onto the old concrete.

"Oooow...." She sat up, rubbing her nose.

"You said you wanted a blackout, right?" Lynne asked, looking up at Henry. "I guess I missed the bus on post-it hunting, so does anyone else wanna run around smashing cameras?"

 

[DarKnight36]

"Naw I got this," Albert said, hopping over a nearby fence and grasping one of the generators with both hands. "Y'all might feel a slight tingle."

The hum of electricity grew louder as the power plant began to be affected of the voracious energy vacuum in its midst. Electricity flooded into Albert, small sparks flicking off him. Perhaps surprisingly, aside from the audio cue and visual effect, Albert draining the power was clean and quick. The noise of the plant quieted to a whisper and then vanished completely.

The nearby city lost power quickly throughout its sections. Backup generators would kick on quickly, but for a moment, the almost ever-present hum was silenced.

Albert let go of the generator and shook his hands, his fingers slightly numb.

"Well, let's see if that worked," he said, hopping back over the fence. Concentrating, he focused on the ground. And indeed, he did feel a slight surge of power.

"It's... really deep but it's there. Like I'd say several hundred feet down. Looks like this really is the place. Or a place." Albert looked up the others. "The access has to be here somewhere but maybe Shinigami can get us down there either way?"

 

[obscured_light]

Shinigami was currently looking up from a sticky note with a drawing of a cat on it; seeing, or rather not seeing in the darkness that now enveloped the makeshift space. She blinked a couple times and then pressed the sticky note to her chest. There was a slight shuffling in the distance and just as she was about to call out to Cobalt, there was a soft tick in the distance. Akiko nearly missed it had she spoken a moment sooner and then in her hesitance, another, slightly louder, tock.

"Cobalt, if this is your idea of a joke," Shinigami began in a warning tone when another tick went off. The exact source was hard to pinpoint but there did seem to be a slight sense of pressure coming in from all around them. In the distance, more shuffling, but in more than one direction.

 

[Wing06]

Klaus froze as the lights went out. "That's not me, Shinigami..." He whispered, activating his suit. Scans showed nothing, but something was off. "We aren't alone anymore."

 

[obscured_light]

The ticking continued but a new sound overcame it. It was the loud, grating noise of concrete and metal being dragged along concrete. Akiko moved her head in what she suspected was where it was coming from and it stopped. When she moved her head, it began again until she turned back. Tick, tock, tick. Shinigami took a step back but the ticking continued steadily. She reached a hand out, whispering loudly, "Cobalt, are you near me still? We need to get out of here."

 

[PiePillager]

"Lets see if I can get her on comms." Henry asked after a moment. He out a hand to his ear to try and raise her on the communicator. "Shinigami, come in." Next He tried Klaus. "Cobalt, are either of you getting this?" He asked. He turned to the others. "I don't think anything getting through. Wherever they are communications are jammed."

As he spoke it became more and more difficult to hear him as the wind had picked up, tremendously all of the sudden. Leaves and small debris were being blown the Brave's way and soon enough it became difficult for all three of them still on the surface to keep their feet planted on the ground without considerable effort.

"Alright!" Henry shouted over the winds. "Let's try and find ourselves another entrance. And quick!" Henry looked up in the air and squinted. In the direction the wind came from, something was darting around in the sky. Smallet than any aircraft and more agile from the looks of it. "Seems like the welcoming party finally decided to come greet us."

 

[DarKnight36]

"Well we did figure this would attract their attention," Albert said, activating his power again and regaining his footing. The kinetic energy from the wind was absorbed, although this caused its own set of troubles for the hero. Still it was enough to allow him to take cover.

"The entrance must be inside or near the building," Albert called to the others. "Perhaps the power outage may have forced it to reveal itself."

 

[Wing06]

Klaus held Shinigami's hand tightly and agreed with their point. He hoped that whatever was happening would soon be over and they could go back. Klaus then tried to contact his teammates, Henry and Albert, through his earpiece, but all he could hear was static. He became worried that they had lost contact and hoped that Shinigami's spectral abilities were not being affected by whatever was happening.

 

[obscured_light]

When Klaus grabbed her hand, Shinigami momentarily forgot to keep her attention in front of her. When she looked over to try to get a better look at Klaus in the darkness, she heard the grating sound again. By the time she had turned back, it was too late.

Shinigami went flying but instead of flying through the wall, she collided and fell to the floor. She screamed as pain coursed through her with her back feeling like it had collided with a hundred tubes. The lights came on and indeed Shinigami had collided with cable wires that had completely covered the wall like a thick mesh of vines.

Besides Klaus there was a humanoid looking shape made of concrete and the same wires that now covered all the walls. It had no eyes but the way it haphazardly turned its "head" made it seem as though it could still seem him.

 

[druidquest]

The sudden gale almost lifted Lynne straight off the ground and she was back on her feet, arms floundering for a sense of balance in the storm. She raised a hand to shield herself from the debris whipping across the yard, looking around to orient her position with the others before glancing up toward the sky, catching glimpses of something zipping back and forth over their heads.

"Are we gonna fight now?" she shouted, barely audible over the howling winds. "Or should I try to break our way through a wall?"

 

[PiePillager]

Henry was about to reply, when suddenly the fierce winds began to give way to an icy chill. A visible layer of frost began to creep over the environment.

"How about both?" Henry shouted soon after. "I'm gonna go look for Shinigami and Cobalt. Make a way out of here, and then you can decide if you wanna follow me or take on whoever's causing this!"

The figure behind the winds could be seen rapidly approaching, the silhouette becoming more clear as it neared the group. The sounds of something akin to a spinning turbine could be heard growing louder with the silhouette's approach.

 

[Wing06]

Klaus felt Shnigami's hand ripped from his own and watched her collide with the now cable-covered wall. He looked over to see a creature of concrete and cabling standing on the far side of the room. His suit detected no life signs, but his eyes were not betraying him. This "Gollum" was on the attack. A quick flick of his wrist and his time-stasis disks closed the gap between Klaus and the construct. Trapping a non-organic thing out of time was tricky but possible, and right now, Klaus and Shinigami didn't have the luxury of what-ifs.

The disks made contact and began to hum, resonating with the time particles that filled the air around them; the creature showed no signs of stopping, raising what passed for its arm into the air, cables darting toward The Cobalt Clock. Klaus threw his arms up just in time to see the cables freeze mid-strike. His tech worked! He'd bought them some time.

"Hey, can you stand? We need to figure out how to get out of here..." He exclaimed, kneeling beside Shinigami and offering his hand to help her up.

 

[druidquest]

A way out of here? They were falling back?


Wait, no. No. A way out of this situation. Make a way out of this situation. By “here”, Henry meant “the situation we’re in”. Out of “trouble”. Out of “danger”. Okay.


Lynne’s hair lit up with soft silver light, nearly invisible against the dust and frost of the windstorm. Henry was on her right, Albert a pace behind. She could feel the fuzzy tingle of static electricity where the billowing winds stopped dead in his presence, all their kinetic force converted to stored energy within Albert’s body, and peering up through the gale she could still see that figure flitting back and forth overhead, drawing closer with every pass. Along with the muffled drone of turbines.


“Baron!!” Lynne shouted the hero’s title as her only warning, rushing toward Albert and grabbing him by the belt. She spun quickly on an axis, hefting the man off the ground as she did, then with a burst of strength launched him into the sky. The winds around them was blown back by the force, creating a temporary pocket of calm within the storm.


Maintaining her momentum Lynne launched herself at the metal bay door of the garage, blasting it inward with her shoulder before the winds could reclaim their hold on the yard. “This way!!” she called out, hoping the others would be able to hear her as the windstorm resumed its assault.

 

[PiePillager]

"Classic team tactic, very respectable," Henry complimented Lynne as he watched her sudden launching of Albert created a brief calm in the storm. He quickly followed her lead and made his way towards the now open garage, making his way inside.

As Albert was launched through the sky, the figure behind the frosty winds turned and watched, chuckling in amusement. "Hoho, very good maneuver, interlopers, very good," he complimented. He was a tall human figure, though much of him was more mechanical than organic. It almost seemed as if he was half plane.

Much of his chest and upper body were in a sleek shape of a fighter jet, including his homelike helmet which covered most of his face accept his mouth. Wings sat atop his shoulders and in front of each were two massive turbines, which had begun to slow their spinning to a halt. On the armor on his back were four thrusters, keeping him aloft. The rest of his body was quite similar in this regsrd; armored and mechanical.

Spying Lynne and Henry near the garage he smiled. "Oh no, friends, you are not running away so soon, are you?" He asked in a hardy voice as the turbines quickly began to rev up once more.

***
Near undetected by Klaus and Akiko as they tried to escape the creature was a small drone hovering closely behind them and monitoring their every move...

 

[DarKnight36]

Albert tackled the turbine warrior, driving a burst of energy akin to a solar flare straight into his gears, and catching "Jetman" (or so Albert had nicknamed him) completely by surprise.

To be fair, Albert had not expected the sudden liftoff, but kept his powers working until the others could make it to safety. As he flew, he'd noted Jetman's location, and utilized his powers to boost back with bursts of energy from his hands.

"You're pretty neat," Albert noted, cocking his fist back. "But you should have brought backup."

 

[PiePillager]

At the creation of the solar flare the was a big explosion of chilling wind, and a massive coat of frosty mist fell upon the area.

"Whew!" a voice breathed in relief, the voice of the jet-like cyborg assailant called out. A giant, crystalline structure stood between Albert and he before it fell to the ground, the ice layered around it so heavily that it didn't even shatter upon hitting the ground. "Very good, interloper! Very good!" the man clapped. "You are the backlash boy, yes? You want me to bring backup? No fun in that! Battles are best when living on the edge! That's how Cryojet likes to fight!"

Cryojet flew around Albert the air around him getting colder and colder as he moved about. He wagged his fingers in a taunting motion. "You almost get me, boy! Such blast could've killed Cryojet maybe. Or at least put out of commission for long time. Survived by luck. Was about to blast your comrades with absolute zero particles but you got in the way at right time!"

His speed picked up, his jets not detered by the cold at all as he continued to laugh. "We both think the same, yes?" he chuckled tapping his helmet. "Hit opponent with full power! HOHOHAHA!" he laughed like one hanging out with an old friend and didn't stop laughing even as a volley of missiles launched from his shoulders at Albert.

 

[DarKnight36]

"If you know who I am, you should know how my power works then," Albert said, his voice confident even as inwardly he began to question how good this matchup was for him. There were three problems - one, the opponent could fly. Albert could float, sort of, but it was complicated enough to simply do that. Cryojet (although Albert preferred Jetman, being a fan of Megaman) would certainly be able to outmaneuver him.

Second, the opponent was using wind. Albert could cancel the kinetic energy and absorb it, but this created the unfortunate side effect of rendering all air immobile. Thus he literally couldn't breathe. Perhaps with practice this wouldn't be a problem, but Albert had to hold his breath if he wanted to absorb the power.

And finally, Cryojet had mentioned absolute zero particles. Although it was probably just some fancy name for something really cold, Albert had no idea what being hit by them would do to him. One way to look at cold objects was that they didn't have energy inside them, thermal to be exact. Although Albert could suck the heat from a flame, it was the reverse with ice. He would need to expend energy in order to avoid being frozen, and since his solar blast had been completely nullified, it would probably require quite a bit of energy.

Albert clicked his tongue in aggravation. So he had an opponent who would force him to expend energy constantly, with no way to recover that energy, and who was much more agile than he was.

The missiles closed in, and Albert dropped to the ground, unwilling to chance the missiles containing the absolute zero particles. He would need to be careful.

 

[obscured_light]

The garage Lynne and Henry had burst into was empty for the exception of three things. Shinigami and Cobalt Clock accounted for two of those with their bodies laying in the center on the floor, one hand stretched out towards the other, fingertips barely touching. Something was off however. It almost looked like there was a layer of dust on their bodies and there wasn't any movement from their bodies, even with the commotion of the heroes' entrance.

Between them was what looked like a tiny golem made of gravel and wires wrapped into a haphazard human shape. It sat on the ground, hands held up, with a wristwatch laid on top. It was a plain watch with dark brown, leather straps and a simple face with gold lines where the numbers would have been. It currently indicated 3:25.

Near the ceiling, another small drone hovered.

~*~

Shinigami nodded and took Klaus' hand to get back up. The golem was frozen for now but Akiko could hear the faint grinding of it trying to burst from its temporal confinement. She squeezed Klaus' hand tightly.

"Yeah, time to go though," she said before turning intangible and then moving towards the cable entangle wall to get them out. The moment she touched the wall however, electricity ran through their bodies. Her grip loosened and she fell to the ground, gasping and no longer intangible.

Not comprehending what happened, Akiko tried again but through the floor. Again, electricity ran through them and from behind, the golem was starting to get more frantic in its efforts to break free.

"Cobalt..." Akiko said through pants. "I... I think we're stuck."

 

[Wing06]

Klaus's armor locked up as the pair was filled with electricity. "I think you're right," Klaus gasped, trying to catch his breath. "My suit is shot, going to take some time to reboot, but If I had to guess, we need to take down our new friend if we want to escape..."

 

[PiePillager]

"That thing has them ensnared within its trap somehow...Think it'll be too dangerous to just try and get them awake or else we might fall prey to it too." Henry scanned over the situation and was silent for a moment. "First thing's first..." He stated, suddenly drawing out his blaster and shooting the drone. The first shot was a stun blast, to determine the drone's defenses and when that shot landed, he switched settings with a flick of his thumb to the weapon's heat ray mode and blasted the drone apart. "Now's the hard part. I think I can try and seperate it from them. Try and draw out it out by force." He turned to Lynne. "Gonna go off comms for a bit," he shrugged. "Sorry, but I know you can handle things while I'm gone." With that said, his weapon suddenly split apart to cover his hand like something akin to brass knuckles as it glowed with a red and blue light.

Within a second, a human-sized Macroman hovered in the middle of the room and without really moving, maneuvered, at first upside down, and then sideways, facing down parallel to the floor. He seemed to shake violently almsot as if maintaining that size was difficult. As if to confirm this, he very quickly floated above his two unconscious teammates and the odd creature between them and made a circular motion with his arms. A barrier was cast forth, his Aaru Field, which surrounded both him and the small golem made of wires...before they both disappeared from sight, leaving Lynne and the unconscious Klaus and Akiko in the room.

After he left, a small panel in the upper corner of the room opened and another small drone flew out. This time a voice emitted through it, speaking in a hard to discern accent. "Tsk. Was it arrogance on the part of my superiors not to raise security to the recommended standards? I understand the urgent nature regarding Koschei's return to this operation butitshouldnot supercedesomethingascrucialascarefulintellgencegatheringsothatincidentssuchasthese,whereaponcautionisthrowntothewindinfavorof-" he ran on and on each word, his speech quickening with each passing word until it became nigh-indiscernible to the average ear.

***

Macroman and the tiny golem fell through a wormhole in a bizarre/alien sky. Within the Aaru field was a massive subspace, filled with nothing but a black and purple cosmos swirling around a field of massive asteroids. Macroman's full size was restored here as he fell along with the tiny golem his descent completely controlled as he stared at the small thing, waiting for it to make a move of some sort.

***

"That I do, boy!" Cryojet called out as Albert dropped to the ground....and the missiles followed. "The ice missiles, they are heat seeking, by the way!" Cryojet cheerfully explained as he followed the missiles in their chase of Albert. "And your powers generate a lot of heat! Hohohaha!" the cyborg laughed, before suddenly speeding ahead of Albert, his arms folded. "But say, what happened to the plane of yours? Shame if you did not pack it with you. We could've had dogfight of century!"

 

[druidquest]

Lynne inhaled slowly as Mini-Macoman vanished, leaving her alone with Klaus and Akiko. "Okay!" she announced to herself, striking her fist into the palm of her opposite hand. He had trusted her to handle things, and that's just what she'd do!

Lynne looked down at her charges. She... probably shouldn't try to move the two of them, huh. Not without knowing exactly what they had been afflicted with. She could still hear the storm outside anyway, so she would likely be camping here for at least a few minutes, in case more bad guys showed up.

The drone appeared almost on a cue. Lynne's first thought was that it was a replacement for the observation drone Henry had shot down, but this one spoke, so it was different, probably. She idly wondered how many drones these guys had, and if another would pop up if she destroyed this one. Maybe that one would have even further functions? A coffee dispenser, maybe?

"Ah, hold on!" she interrupted, catching herself. "I just missed everything you said, sorry. Was it important? Something about Koschei and operational intelligence? What kind of operation was it, again?"

 

[obscured_light]

Akiko nodded at Klaus and looked up to where the strange being practically vibrated in its temporal confinement. As she got up, there was the sound of grating and from the ceiling dropped down two more golems, one on top of each of the heroes. Shinigami went intangible and the thing fell through her, giving her a chance to see it was another of the same creature as the first one. This one shrieked and Akiko could feel herself materializing. She gritted her teeth, fighting to keep herself intangible as she stepped away from the shrieking granite creature. Its shriek didn't let up however until Akiko finally fully materialized. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and fatigure began to set in already.

Then the creature leapt at her.

~*~

Once Macroman and the golem disappeared, only the watch remained. It ticked and tocked until 3:30 hit.

Then it stopped.

~*~

The golem spun lazily in the cosmos for a few minutes though it was hard to tell in the area Macroman had brought it. It eventually did grow however into what could have been Akiko and Klaus' child if it was made of stone. It seemed rather dusty however, covered in the same fine material that coated the two heroes. It looked at Macroman with sightless eyes, tilting its head just a bit as it gazed at the other in curiousity.

 

[DarKnight36]

"I'm not some street magician that can pull it out of a hat," Albert retorted. He hadn't considered that his powers produced heat. It's not like he needed a coolant or... Wait, he was getting off track.

He sprinted forward, concentrating and leaving a heat bubble behind him. The rockets exploded early, as Albert closed the distance between himself and Cryojet.

 

[Wing06]

Klaus prayed that the nanobots in his suit would hold as the new golem crashed atop him. He could see Akiko from the corner of his eye, and she, too, was struggling with a new assailant. "Come on, come on...." He muttered, his suit finalizing system checks as each nanobot rebooted from the electric shock. Klaus felt the pressure of the golem as it pushed his locked form around the room, like a cat toying with its prey. He couldn't help but feel like a child in the previous century waiting for their computer to connect to the internet, praying their mother didn't pick up the phone and interrupt the connection.

After what felt like an eternity to the displaced time-traveler, his suit came to life with the familiar whirls of the machinery suit's HUD flashing his signature logo. The Cobalt Clock was back in action.

The golem swung its granite arm over its head, ready to deliver what it hoped would be a fatal blow to the human trapped inside a mechanical suit, but to its dismay, the human managed to roll away.

Klaus thought he heard the creature growl in frustration and smirked beneath his mask. "What's the play, Shinigami?" He called out, hoping that Akiko was faring well against her golem.