Log:Accession Announcement, Scene 2

Accession Announcement 2020/05/01 	 Artemis Cade Crichton Magus Relic Riptide Ryosei Spirit Starlight Union Ambassador Hrauraaghhhugharrrhr Earth President Liisa Koskinen Conviction Decibel Gatekeeper Stinger Vector

2

During a public announcement that United Earth has been admitted to Guild Accession Stage 2, the 12' tyrannasauroid Ambassador Hrauraaghhhugharrrhr was shot by a sniper atop one of the buildings in The Towers. While the presidential bodyguard got the Earth president and her aides, and the ambassador's aides, to safety, and other authorities tried to herd the crowds to safety, the heroes tried to save the ambassador's life and locate the perpetrators.

Starlight has been fighting the high-tech bullet that struck the ambassador, which is growing tendrils that burrow and cut through the flesh; so far she has undone the wounds, but cannot keep the healing up forever. Dorian has begun assisting by draining energy from the bullet, but it has proved to have a greater charge than he expected. Magus had an idea to try to teleport the bullet and its tendrils from the body, but instead been dodging attacks from RACE meant to prevent the heroes assisting the ambassador.

These attacks were made through a portal opened by Gatekeeper, which has since been closed because he was stunned. Only Conviction passed through the portal, and so is currently in a position to try to stop Starlight, Dorian, Magus and Union from saving the ambassador. Stinger, Gatekeeper, Vector and Decibel, at the far side of the closed portal, are facing off against Artemis (who has been deafened by Decibel and stung by Stinger). Ryosei has change to hero form but has not yet engaged.

Meanwhile, Crichton has flown at incredible speeds to engage the sniper! But the sniper spotted him and has fired a couple of shots, delaying his approach. Finally, though, Crichton has the initiative! 

Crichton focuses on the sniper ignoring his weapon as he slows down from his frantic flight- hoping to separate or at least delay another round from being fired while moving to land on the rooftop so he doesn't inadvertently fall to his death.

Then with an act of almost nothing but his own will he tries to force the sniper's eyes clsoed now that he's closer.

The sniper, eyes forced closed, cries out into, one assumes, a radio; "I need help! Been blinded!"

Artemis is still hard of hearing at the moment. "NOT YET SURRENDERED? VERY WELL. YOU BRING THIS UPON YOURSELF!" she warns, unable to hear surrender unless they visibly do so. She moves to choke slam Decibel.

Artemis's arm swings overhead as Decibel ducks out of the way.

Waving his arms and chanting, Gatekeeper summons a disc of whirling light which clears to reveal a new portal - this time to a rooftop with the sniper and Crichton.

Vector promptly fires a beam of energy at Crichton, straight through the new portal!

Agent Crichton is flung up and away from the portal, flipping head over feet a fair distance away. He lets out a yipppe of surprise but his personal defense field protects him from the worst of the blast.

Union replies to Conviction, "Race traitor? I remember that term from the history books. Ancient history. I thought we'd outgrown being afraid of the dark." She follows up her prevoius punch by trying to bring him down to the ground.

Conviction is thrown - but lands on his feet anyway, his flight enabling him to right himself. "History repeats itself, especially if people don't learn from it."

Starlight continues healing the damage caused by the growing tendrils. "Dorian, is draining the bullet working? If it is can you give it another shot?

For the first time Starlight fails to close the wound completely.

Starlight says, "Come on. I need some help here. I'm losing him."

The sniper cam't make sense of what's going on. So he just ducks down behind wall going round the top of the building, taking cover.

Spirit mutters, "Working on it. I think I might have the bullet shut down in a moment."

Conviction hears that. "Not if I can help it!" He launches himself at Spirit.

Spirit gets knocked a good twenty meters away, and he lands in the grass, looking woozy.

Decibel, seeing that Vector has failed to do much to Crichton, screams through the portal....

It's not as if Jamie Jericho knows why she is here. Sometimes the Relic just tells her... 'you need to be on hand'. It's really annoying that way. But either way, she has a really sucky costume. In essence, it's a black BDU type pants, black turtleneck sweater, and a black balaclava. Sure, she might get mistaken for a terrorist at times. But she's a poor college student who is trying to do the hero thing.

Nevermind the fact that she doesn't have any powers innate to herself. But with a phase shift, she ended up on a nearby rooftop to watch the goings on. And when the sniper began shooting.. she stepped off of the roof and flew closer.

Little known fact, not everyone who flies or teleports can go super fast, or really long distances. So she's been arrowing for the ambassador for a few seconds now... coming down to land and saying, "Save him. I'll cover." as she goes into defensive mode.

Now, it should also be noted that for her, defensive mode means... the little floating energized mote that looks a lot like Cursor from the old 1980's TV show Automan, floats before her, energy tendrils linking it to her in a manner that even among the guild, is only whispered in ancient legends of super advanced, super ancient tech that vanished eons ago. However, seeing the single target left on stage... yes, she started trying to intercede when things were different and she's just too slow for her own good. She turns her eyes towards the enemy on stage and thinks, 'Relic. Blind that guy.' just as a flare of power comes from the little glowing thingee, zapping towards the big guy.

Crichton's Starguard Field training and his new CVI integration cause him to act on reflex and he flings a wave of force ahead of him, neutralizing the oncoming sonic blast. He grits his teeth but seems intent on staying the course.

Vector flies through the portal so she can get a clear shot at Crichton even now - she tries to blast him back into another scyscraper....

Crichton pulls his hands back and then throws them forward once he sees Vector line him up. THe wave solidifes the air as it passes through it like solid wall to absorb the force imparted. When Vector's blast hits it the wall quivers and then fades away.

Union says, ""And that's why I'm trying to stop you. I've learned." She closes the distance, moving between Conviction and the Ambassador, and attempts a knee strike to a major ganglion."

Conviction wobbles in the air, but only briefly. "So you say. But you seem to lack the strength of your convictions. Or at least of mine."

Starlight braces herself against being knocked away from her patient and continues healing.

The wound heals over again, for the moment.

Stinger makes another attempt to sting Artemis - having at last discovered a target susceptible to her power!

Artemis reaches up to hold the stinging wound again, sweat beading up on her brow. The wound looks aggravated.

Spirit shakes his head, getting his bearings.

Artemis feels her strength beginning to fail her. She tightens her grip on her blade as she squares off with Stinger. "Try that once more," she threatens as she steps forward and swings back her blade. It's a large wind up before she tries to bring it forward to strike at Stinger.

Stinger goes flying back into a wall, despite the fact Artemis's blow mostly went *through* her.

The jellyfish woman is flattened against the wall and sticks there quivering for a while.

With Artemis seemingly on the ropes. Decibel follows Vector through the portal to save the sniper from Crichton. More screaming ensues....

Crichton throws out another pulse before him- deflecting the wave of sonic energy bearing down on him. The might be keeping him busy but they certainly aren't disuading him.

Conviction takes a swat at Starlight, since Spirit isn't a problem for the moment...

Starlight speaks to Union, "Are you okay? That was brave of you my friend. Thank you."

Union manages to get in the way of Conviction's "swat", which sends her flying about a dozen feet.

Okay, she knows she hit. It was dead on target. But the target seems to have ignored the neural overload. "Fine." mutters Relic in black. She steps forward so that she's basically right behind Conviction.

"What you are doing is wrong. Surely you can see that. There is no betrayal here. There is right and wrong and killing one who happens to disagree with you is wrong. I mean unless your name is Adolph Hitler, but he was just insane... oh skip it." she mutters as the little floating mote drifts to her left to blast at Conviction from that side. Any knockback will send him laterally to the right.

Okay, she knows she hit. It was dead on target. But the target seems to have ignored the neural overload. "Fine." mutters Relic in black. She steps forward so that she's basically right behind Conviction.

"What you are doing is wrong. Surely you can see that. There is no betrayal here. There is right and wrong and killing one who happens to disagree with you is wrong. I mean unless your name is Adolph Hitler, but he was just insane... oh skip it." she mutters as the little floating mote drifts to her left to blast at Conviction from that side. Any knockback will send him laterally to the right.

Conviction is blasted some 6m away, again landing on his feet without obvious acrobatics. "The Fuehrer was not insane - his vision stretched beyond that of most men!" For the first time, he seems angry, not infuriatingly collected.

Union says, "But not to being able to paint people in his cityscapes."

"Oh god, that explains it all. You actually idolize the worst example of humanity for centuries." mutters Relic as she shakes her head, "So not only are you stupid. But you are gullible enough to believe that your Fuehrer was anything but a nutjob?" She turns her head and says, "Okay folks. It's all explained. This loser believes in the Nazi ideals and he has the temerity to call -us- traitors!" Yeah. She's goading him. Trying to pull him away from Spirit and the Gang.

Gatekeeper, standing in his portal, chants and waves his hands through it in the direction of Crichton...

Some 10 metres underneath Crichton, a portal opens up, unearthly writhing tentacles grasping about into our dimension, but finding nothing but air.....

Riptide finishes transforming, then looks to the stage. Union has help. That's good enough for him. But what's going on around the corner? Heading that way first, he stops as he sees... yeah. Okay. Then he picks up speed quickly as he tries to charge through the portal at at whichever poor villain is on the other side of his charge to end up getting punched!

Decibel is caught totally by surprise! Stunned, he's knocked forward - and off the roof..... His screams shatters windows for half a mile...

Riptide, after coming through the portal, pauses as he hit a bit /too/ hard. And he leans over a bit to look over the edge, "Oops." He looks a bit sheepish as he looks to Vector, the sniper, and Crichton, "Sorry, I don't know my own strength sometimes?"

Vector flies over the edge of the roof and bounces her beam off three building, knocking Decibel neatly into her arms. "MONSTER!" she yells at Riptide.

Riptide calls back, "I said sorry!"

Starlight once again has the wound itself - as opposed to the network of strands - stable.

Artemis's limbs feel heavy as the stinging poison courses through her, setting her nerve endings on fire. There's a terrible red spread from where Stinger's stinging touches made contact, with the red traveling past the large blotches along her veins. With heavy breathing, she takes another step towards Stringer to fight. The next step falters and she drops to her knee. Her vision blurs as she tries to keep her sights on Stinger, but everything starts sounding very far away. With a groan, Artemis falls face forward and collapses into deep unconsciousness.

Stinger peels herself off the wall and assumes semi-human form again.

Spirit has his bearings now...and he flies over to where the ambassador is, trying to quickly finish draining the 'bullet' of energy.

Spirit saps all but the very last drop of energy from the bullet!

Crichton keeps charging on- especially when he hears the horrors that come from behind him. It reminds him of that Lancer Grimm's magic. He definitely isn't going ot look back- instead he pushes himself to the rooftop and lands.

Then he throws his hand out and attempts to capture Vector and Decibel in one of his TK bubbles.

"Yoyu deal with that guy!" He shouts to Riptide nodding towards Gatekeeper. "And try to keep him on the roof!"

Cade's mind forges a scaffolding of solidified air molecules suffused and held together by willpower fueld telekinetic force. That field surrounds the pair of villians in short order.

"You guys might want to sit tight." He says firmly as he concetrates on holding the field together.

Much as Gatekeeper dislikes opening portals to the Realms Unspeakable this close to him, the fact that Riptide has just been instructed to attack him makes him take the risk.... He casts a spell to open another portal where Riptide is....

A portal open up just where Riptide is and horrible tentacles whose touch makes the skin crawl grab Riptide - fortunately not getting the best of grips...

Then the magician shrieks and backs away from the horror, closing the portal from where he is to the roof!

Riptide, getting... well... tentacled has only one answer for Crichton, "Gladly! This guy just put tentacles on a teenager, for crying out loud!"

The tentacles seem to be trying to pull Riptide through the portal they're squirming from...

Union rolls smoothly to her feet, and moves back into the fray - with another knee strike on Conviction. "I figured you were either a ratzi or a klansman, thanks for clearing that up!

This time, he's hovering just a bit higher, and her blow falls short.

Starlight heals the Guild ambassador again, noticg the bullet has ceased growing additional tendrils, "Thanks, Dorian. Looks like that did it. I'm going to stabilise and then let a surgical team take over. If I fully heal the damage around the invading tendrils surgery will be more difficult." Then she looks up at the ACE villains. "You're the next item on my list."

Spirit nods to Starlight, "Good, glad to hear it."

The sniper has recovered his sight, and almost wishes he hadn't. Vector and Decibel are in a bubble. Mere feet away, tentacles of god-knows-what are reaching out from god-knows-where... Meta-fights are not his thing. He grabs his gun and runs, getting through the roof door down into the building...

Spirit stands...and flies away from the ambassador to give some room, and plants his feet on the ground bfore he raises his hands and fires a beam of energy at Conviction. No banter at all from Dorian. Just a laser.

Spirit misses wide, not getting terribly close to actually hitting.

Crichton taps his Starguard communicator and says, <<"This is Crichton- I've got a pair of the RACE agents held in a bubble- I'm with a Minor Metahuman on the rooftop the shooter was on. The shooter is attempting to escape down the rooftop stairs- send backup immediately to this tower. I can't stop this tentacle thing and catch that guy while keeping these guys held.">> He reports, maintaining his focus on his bubble.

Conviction *should* tell his comrades that the day is lost, that the ambassador us saved, that they should retreat. But someone has insulted the Fuehrer - insulted the very bedrock of what he has been brainwashed since birth to believe in so fully that his psionic might is almost unbreakable. In short, he is angry. It is best not to say exactly what he says as he flies full out toward Relic...

Spirit says over the SG comm channel << We still have an active attacker right near the ambassador. That takes priority for me at least. >>

Riptide calls to Crichton, "I've got this! These things aren't that strong!"

The villain ploughs into Relic, who is thrown back into the reinforced building in which the dignitaries are sheltering.

As Conviction turns his attention towards her, Relic, aka Jamie... rethinks the wisdom of her plan. "Oh poop." she mutters in a voice that has a definite squeak sound to it. Just as he rushes her and shoulder-rams into her shields. Shields that appear just as she is struck. Kinda like that Star Trek thing where you never see them until they get blasted. But she is sent flying back and impacts a wall... spread-eagle on it. "Nazi -and- Bully. Shoulda known...." she mutters as she slides down and ends up on her knees. But still conscious. She even sticks her tongue out at Conviction.

Crichton looks back and forth from the sniper to Riptide. "Don't make me regret this kid- if you let those tentacles kill you I'm going to have Starguard bring you back and shake you silly." He gives the kid an approving nod before taking off after the sniper- taking off the ground and flying straight for the door.

En route he reports back in, <<"Copy that Commander. The kid says he can handle the tentacles- I'm moving to catch the sniper unless help is still needed at the Ambassador's location over.">>

Spirit replies, << I don't think we need help yet. The brute opened himself up by charging. He's not exactly a tactical genius. >>

Riptide calls back to Crichton as he struggles against the tentacles, "Get in line! My ancestors got dibs on me first if I go down to this!"

Decibel attempts to scream his way out of the bubble!

Riptide breaks free of the tentacles pretty easily. Almost just walks out of them. Then he turns to look at the portal itself, then over at the bubble. Moving over to said bubble, he pick it up, and moves to plug the tentacle portal with it. He makes sure that Decibel and Vector can see what he's doing. Seriously, who would break that thing now?

Riptide also pulls out his PDA and sends a message to Amelia since this is waaaay out of his ball park. And Ellbeth. One of those two hopefully can close it.

It was a good plan. That bubble was clearly a good size for plugging the smaller portal. Except maybe force fields don't hold up so well when stuck into a hell dimension. Or whatever. In any case the bubble seems to collapse and the two hapless villains are dragged screaming through the portal, which closes behind them....

Of Gatekeeper and Stinger, no trace remains - they seems to have scarpered. Likewise the sniper. Somehow he vanishes...

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Relic glances over and does a doubletake. "Did... I just watch a giant hamster ball of bad guys get sucked into hell?" she asks aloud. Not sure if she saw it or hallucinated it.

Riptide opens his mouth, realizing too late what's about to happen when the bubble pops. Right after he hits send on the PDA. He looks up just in time to see the two get sucked in and moves to reach for them. By the time the portal's closed, Riptide might have just been in reach. Maybe. Said PDA ends up crushed in his hand as as he falls to his knees in shock at what just happened.

Conviction, whose psychological weak spot was found by Relic, fights longer than he should - and so is captured. Even with his willpower, there's a limit to how many blows he can take when faced with multiple heroes.

As for the ambassador - after some nailbiting surgery, he's restored to full health. In gratitude for the heroes saving their life, he invites them, a couple of weeks later, to dinner....