Log:Campus Clash

2013/06/04 	 Alistair Bee Darklight Star Girl 1

The campus is pretty empty, only a few students still around since they're making use of the library or science labs due to working on more advanced degrees. The majority of the campus is empty though, students having gone home for the summer, or at least gone to find summer apartments and summer jobs. Summer courses are never as busy as main season courses of course but that doesn't stop a fair number of people from putting in extra units all year round.

It's probably a good thing that the campus is mostly empty as it seems the 'unstable' tectonic plate which the city rests on is up to no good... except that it really should be quite stable. A localized earthquake seems to be hitting the campus, and more appropriately, over by the science building itself! The ground ripples like liquid and three individuals rise up out of the earth and concrete like it were water or simply not there since they are perfectly clean. Even as they are coming to the surface the older of the three, Ripcord, is already commanding. "Secure the Area. Firefly, block off the streets to keep the bluecoats away. Atlas, you're on duty to stop any armored vehicles if they breach the flames. They're here, it's the only place they /can/ be now. Don't let them escape."

Ripcord: A handsome gentleman in his early fifties perhaps, greying hair cut fashionably. Where's exceedinly sharp tailored suits of charcoal grey. Carries himself well and speaks with a british accent.

Atlas: 10 feet tall, made of solid stone, a greek statue given life perhaps judging by the look of him. Fortunately, not a nude statue, wearing a toga.

Firefly: An attractive young woman, perhaps in her late teens. She has long black hair that is straight, pale faced with dark makeup. She wears a black silk victorian half-dress, black opera gloves, and knee high black combat boots. From her back sprouts 'insect' wings made of flame, her eyes burning with fire and smoke comes from her mouth when she breathes.

Bee is only now recovering from the effects of War's assault on the city. To a lessor effect, each mind caught in his miles wide effect was a personal assault on Queen Bee's soul and both she and the Hive offices show the damage. However, people have an amazing power to forgive - to let old grudges and fresh wounds slip aside; and Bee has grabbed onto that Hope to pull herself out of the mental pit where War tried to shove everyone.

Currently, Bee is flying above the city, trying this 'patrolling' thing that she has heard so much about in comic books at least one more time. Mainly, she is just enjoying being able to fly. Suddenly, she feels a disturbance: some of her people near the campus are alarmed - possibly in danger. Raising her wrist to her lips, she says, "One to teleport to above CBSU campus" and a moment later disappears from Harrisbug to reappear over the campus.

Localized earthquakes tend to draw the attention of the authorities. Malcolm Gibbs, as it so happens, is both a member of the authorities and in spitting distance of CBSU's campus on an unrelated matter. His Starguard-issue hovercycle has a deep bass rumble as he (and it) zip across campus toward the epicenter of the quake. Still a minute or so out, Malcolm tucks in low against his hovercycle's frame as he tries to discern an obvious cause for the reports of an earthquake - presumably he hasn't noticed Ripcord & Co. yet.

Casey's hair is still wet as she crosses campus, having just come from a swim. She looks around, panicked for a moment as the ground rumbles. She spots the trio of Ripcord, Atlas, and Firefly appear and her eyes narrow. Resolutely, she turns and runs to find someplace out of sight to slip into costume.

 offers Julius. After all, Allison Temple is in her dorm room and is totally focused on her work as she does some design theorizing in her virtual computer link world whatever. At first, she mentally brushes Julius off. 

Sighing dramatically, Allison disconnects and peers out the window. "... crap.." she mutters as she steps over to the closet and opens the back panel before stepping into the armor there.... pulling on her undersuit before powering up. <> she commands Julius.

After a few moments, the security cameras that watch the area are stuck in their loop once more as the armor somehow manages to take off without announcing itself to the world. The window shuts behind her and she lifts into the air to survey the goings on on campus.

As per usual, Alistair has no idea what the hell is going on. When does he ever? He's just a guy who is unfortunate enough to find himself in strange situations at inopporitune times, and he's too nice of a guy to just stand by and watch with his mouth agape and his eyes wide like some kind of useless, non-powered person. Although it's been a while since the half-demon has been active in crime fighting, a localized earthquake seems like it would be the right type of situation for him to handle, especially since he was already nearby when the tremors started.

The first reaction he had to the strange shaking is to teleport himself to the top of something study enough to get a clear view of the campus.

Even as people start arriving, teleporting into the air, cruising in on hoverbikes, changing into costumes and flying out of windows along with teleporting onto the tops of nearby buildings Ripcord is already adjusting. "Change of plans. Sigma Sigma Alpha. Engage." The older man snaps his arms out to the side and white energy whips protrude from his palms with a static-hiss of power.

Firefly takes up into the air with a bored sigh, "Hopefully that costumed girl shows up so I can cook her." Of course /which/ costumed girl is impossible to say given how many their are.

Atlas nods, "Sure thing Rip." And as he starts to walk, the earthquake gets /stronger/ with each heavy stomp of his feet...

Bee, with a quick drum of her fingers on her palms, kicks her wings from flight mode to silent gliding. Swooping toward the trio, she hurries and flips some flash grenades in their direction while they are still clumped together.

As the flash grenade goes off Ripcord covers his eyes with an arm, trying to shield them from the flash but as is usually the case, far to late. "Omega Three." He calls out in his code, blinking sightless eyes as he moves towards the door of the science building, since it was straight ahead, one arm out in front of him so he doesn't run into the door face first!

Meanwhile, Atlas and Firefly just smirk at the flash, "Firefly, you know what to do babe." The stone man says with a rumbling grating chuckle. Firefly rolls her eyes, "Don't call me babe." She mutters angrily.

<> suggests Allison to Julius. <> And as she says that, and as the flash grenade goes off down below, Interface drops in to land nearby, "Whatever you all are doing... you had best stop now." she calls out in her digitized voice.

Tigress heard things as well as saw others heading for the campus and decided to head that way herself. She is on top of one of the buildings in her weretiger form. Her massive furry figure looking down on the scene and then she leaps to try and land just behind Ripcord. "Hello."

Ripcord hears something behind him! Something big and scary. At least judging by landings and also by voice! And unfortunately, Tigress is close enough that he can easily make out where she is. As he turns he whips out with one of his energy wipes, swiping at Tigress and trying to send her flying!

SMACK! Ripcord's energy whip lashes into Tigress and sends her flying twelve meters back across the quad!

Alistair says, "Bad guys always gotta be doing this kinda thing, don't they? Nobody can just not go and rob college campuses or convience stores or whatever. Alistair, from his perch on top of the science building, watches as things go down, and then Ripcord breaks off from the other two, leaving them to handle what appears to be the grunt work. Well, if that tells Alistair anything, it's that the dude off on his own is the leader of the group.

The last time he was in a situation like this, he let that guy get away. That's not gonna happen this time. He steps up onto the edge of the roof, and vanishes in a burst of hellfire, only to reappear on the ground next to, and slightly behind, Ripcord. He ponders saying something wity and cool, but nobody is really paying attention at the moment, so it would be wasted. Instead, he solidly plants his foot, pushes off of it, and aims to clothesline Ripcord in the back of his head and neck, hopefully totally blindsiding him (no pun intended) while he is busy with Tigress."

Ripcord gets hit and sent flying, struck from behind, while blinded from Bee's flash grenade. The old fellow is awful spry though, already moving to adjust for the impact, and the flight, and when he hits the ground he's trying to roll to his feet!

Firefly /was/ about to fly up into the air and deal with Bee, but seeing Ripcord get hurt, she totally changes her track, "How dare you!" She screams at Alistair and then she flies directly overhead of him. She inhales a deep breath and exhales a tremendous gout of flame at the demon! Which may, or may not, be a good idea.

Star Girl radios on emergency channels: "To any heroes in the vicinity of CSBU. This is Star Girl responding to a supervillain threat. Ripcord, Atlas, and Firefly have been sighted here. These guys are pros, and tough to beat. Ripcord is the leader, the guy in the suit... maybe if we can take him down first, the rest will be easier." And to that end, she rushes towards him. "It's Star Girl, Ripcord. You're under arrest. Surrender now. There won't be a second warning!" She turns towards Firefly and Atlas. "Same goes for you too!"

Atlas looks over towards Star Girl, "Be still my heart, you've finally come to run away with me. That is so sweet honey." He rumbles in his boulder grating on boulder voice. "But we don't do the arrest thing, not even on a third date like this." And he moves over towards her, earth shaking with every step before he stomps the ground, cracking the cement and shattering it to send a spike of stone, earth, cement, whatever, up at Star Girl from her feet!

Shaking her head... Interface says, "Well, you all have had the chance to surrender and quit this stupidity. Looks like you'll need alternate convinciing." And then her shoulder-mounted cannons pop out, crosshairs resting on the boss, so to speak. Purple glowing energy builds up and releases in a pulse towards Ripcord.

Star Girl sidesteps Atlas's attack calmly and easily. "I'm not the same newb as the last time we met, Atlas."

"You." Firefly's voice drips venom as she looks over at Star Girl, "We'll just see about that won't we." And she flies over through the air on flaming dragonfly wings to hover over Star Girl. She inhales... and everyone knows what's coming next, oh yes they do. She exhales an intense gout of fire down at the heroine!

Star Girl jumps backwards, trying to get out of the way of the blast, but Firefly is too fast. The blast of fire strikes her solidly and propels her backwards. In midair, she twists and manages to land on her feet.

Fire is a demon's best friend. However in this case, it's not his own, so it still manages to sting a bit. The force of it manages to take him off of his feet, however, and send him rolling a couple of yards. As he rolls to a stop, however, he rolls his feet back up into the air, and then kicks them downwards, lifting his whole body off of the ground like he sees guys do in movies all the time. He is actually a little surprised that it works, but he does his best to not let that show.

Ripcord stands ready, expecting more attacks, his energy whips lashing around seemingly aimlessly beside him, coiling about, sizzling across the ground without burning it. He continues to try and blink his eyes clear, still blinded, for the moment...

Although recovered from the initial fire attack, Alistair isn't quite up to re-engaging with Firefly where she is currently. He needs her closer to the ground. So for now, he starts with teleporting around the battlefield, appearing for only a moment before vanishing again, in order to make himself a much harder target for the villains to hit.

It looks to Malcolm like it's raining heroes and heroines down on the trio of apparent villains. Star Girl's radio message comes in loud and clear over Malcolm's headset and he frowns slightly. Another trio of professional villains. Revving his hovercycle's engine, the tall man hurtles across CBSU's relatively empty campus and turns to power-slide to a halt at the edge of the fracas.

Stepping off of the bike, Malcolm discards his helmet and flexes his hands into fists while his headset lights up the HUD on its visor. Liquid metal quickly starts seeping out of Malcolm's pores, engulfing his body in moments and changing his appearance from man to statue. Almost before the metal finishes streaming over his body, Forge crouches, metal taking on the faint appearance of coiled springs before he launches forward and toward Atlas.

There is a *tink* of metal on stone as Malcolm's blade impacts Atlas's stone hide... and doesn't even leave a knick in the surface. In fact, it doesn't even look like Atlas noticed he was attacked, at all, he certainly doesn't respond to it.

Tigress growls as she manages to keep her feet after having been knocked back and watches the flying girl hurt a few with those flames and decides to try and do something about it. She gets a running leap and throws herself through the air, slashing with her claws as she tries to go through Firefly and land some distance beyond.

Narrowing her eyes, Interface simply fires her thrusters and surges forward. "Seriously, you all need to cut this out." That digitized voice continues speaking as she takes aim and fires once more, "If you don't stand down soon, I will have to begin to use lethal force." she warns.... bluffing maybe?

Ripcord gets hit and wobbled by the blast, staggering him but he doesn't fall, catching his balance as the energy blast tears into his suit, ruining it and leaving a nice bruise underneath no doubt! "Seriously? Do you honestly expect us to give up simply because you say so? We have a job to do and we're going to do it. This is Colonial Bay, the arrival of you so called 'super heroes' is part of the plan." He still can't see though, blinking his eyes, trying to clear them. Maybe it's not /all/ going according to plan...

Star Girl is still smouldering a little bit. She glares angrily at Firefly. She considers blasting her back, but thinks better of it. "I think I know why they're here, guys. Hold them off -- I'll try to get some help." She fades from sight as she activates her stealth system. She heads into the science building through another entrance

"One could hope you might spontaneously develop intelligence. Lord knows you haven't so far..." replies Interface in her arrogant, mocking tone.

Star Girl radios: "Can anyone read me?"

Bee pauses, watching the heroes scurry back and forth between targets like ADD toddlers on cocaine. The frown below her cowl grows deeper until Malcolms arrival snaps her out of her reverie. "Forge! Welcome to the party!" she yells. "Stop playing around with Stargirl's date and concentrate on getting the flying girl with the wings on the ground. Star Girl, keep your boyfriend busy. Everybody else, we still have a leader standing and his sight will be returning soon."

Queen Bee then drpos like a stone away from where she made all the noise and silently glides in a high-power dive in a sharp curve toward Ripcord

Malcolm radios: "Affirmative."

 <> ..... "Star Girl, Interface here, I read you."

Star Girl radios to the others: << I think Ripcord and Co. have been hired to find Halflife, a meta with radioactive powers. I'm guessing she's hiding in radiology in the basement of the science building. I'm gonna try to get to her first. I dunno what I'm going to do if I find her. If we can sneak her out to SGG, then Ripcord might just bug out."

Bee silently curses herself for making a audible specticle before trying a silent attack and her flying kicks swooshes past Ripcord harmlessly.

Ripcord twists away from the sound of kicks flying at speed out of reflex, but it's not really that big a deal since Bee's aim is... significantly off. "Atlas, return to the original plan. Let her go. She isn't important. Rattle cage, get our prize out of the ground."

Atlas looks over at Star Girl, tracking her as she goes running and he frowns, "Awww man Rip... but I like her..." And then he /STOMPS/ the ground. Hard. A shockwave goes rippling outwards, the seismic force hitting /everything/ on the ground... well... every building at least, and vehicles... and trees... and other inanimates.

Buildings rumble and shake! Cracks starting to form in walls and ceilings! It's... not good!

Ripcord, can see, and he smiles as the ground shifts and rumbles, "Now we are back on track." He looks at Interface, "You were saying? Still care to fight us now? How many lives do you intend to risk hmm?" Terrorism at it's finest. He does however, snap his energy whips out and then flings one at Bee since she's the one with the blinders, the white energy cable goes to try and wrap, and squeeeze....

Firefly frowns as Star Girl runs off all invisible and then sighs, "Fine fine FINE!" She shouts, going off on another one of her tantrums... sort of. She flies over towards Interface and... well, another blast of flame is exhaled out at the armored heroine this time!

Bee grits her teeth in pain as the energy lash sqeezes her.

Seeing the flames start up, Julius advises Allison to... oh she's already activating defensive shielding. The shields snap up, and immetiately the flames melt away one entire facing of them. But... it doesn't penetrate further.

Alistair The half-demon realizes after about fifteen rapid teleports that none of the villains are coming after him. He supposes it's probably more helpful when he's fightining one on one to use that particular tactic, but he's still new at this, so rookie mistakes are to be expected.

He stops teleporting in order to re-orient himself with the battlefield, and immediately finds Ripcord again. If he takes the leader out, the other two should surrender, or at the very least, retreat. Head of the snake and all that. He vanishes again, this time appearing right above Ripcord.

"Hey, old timer! Think fast!" He calls out, as gravity takes hold, and caries him the last couple of feet before he thrusts downwards with both of his sneakers, intent on putting all of his force into this teleporting dropkick, and send Ripcord flying once again.

Ripcord gets caught by the kick and sent rolling, but he comes up on his feet, energy whip still wrapped around Bee with one hand. "No respect these days." He brushes himself off with his free hand and then flicks his hand with the whip, intending to slam Bee right into Alistair!

Bee calculates quickly, commands "port n6" and reappers five meters away from her initial location. She flicks another flash grenade, but at a piece of rubble several meters away from Ripcord instead of at him directly.

As another flash grenade goes off, Ripcord is caught by the blast but, this time it isn't fully in his face! So while he is not amused, chances are... he won't be blinded as long either! "Atlas, deal with these two. The prize should be coming out anytime. Firefly, keep an eye out."

Bee says, "Atlas has a date"

Firefly, has always been the loose cannon in the group and she flies over and above Bee, "You know what bugs dooooo when exposed to open flame?" She asks in a too sweet voice before inhale, and... exhale! Right at Bee.

Star Girl continues to report via radio: "Ripcord is working for this evil scientist called Dr. Graff. Half Life is one of the victims of his research experiments, one of the survivors."

"Fantastic, but how does -that- help us right now Star Girl?" replies Interface as she contemplates her failing shields.

Forge's steely fist impacts Atlas' stony hide and does little save throw up a shower of sparks. The metal man frowns slightly, considering options as Bee starts shouting orders. He glances in her direction and then looks toward Firefly, but finds his attention drawn back to Atlas by the earthquake.

"Bee, I'll handle Rocky. Get everyone else organized."

Turning toward Atlas again, Forge closes his right hand into a fist. Metal starts streaming outward from his hand, forming into a long staff... Or is it? The one end of the staff starts growing a squared off mass until, after a few moments' work, Forge is wielding a sledgehammer of considerable size. Forge whirls the hammer by its haft in his one hand, hardened metal seemingly inseperable from the softer metal of his Colossus' Flesh.

"HEY, BIG MAN!"

With very little pomp, Forge twists and swings his sledgehammer at the back of Atlas' knee, hoping to hobble the stone giant.

though as he grunts and shakes his leg out, "New plan." He rumbles, "You die first." He pops his fist into his hand as he turns on Malcolm.
 * CRUNCH* Atlas knee buckles, briefly, but he doesn't move. He clearly felt it

Atlas withdraws his stone first from the palm of his other hand and simply steps in and forwards, slamming a fist right towards Malcolm's face in what would be a gut punch almost, if Malcolm were ten feet tall, like Atlas is.

Ripcord blinks his eyes clear of the explosion of flash and he smiles, "You can't expect to get anywhere with the same tricks time and time again." And he snaps a hand forwards with a twist, to snap a whip at Bee as he walks casually towards Alistair.

Bee barely manages to activate her force field belt before Firefly then Ripcord send her tumbling. Both times, she manages to get tumble acrobatically and remain standing, but the lady inside the technology is fragile and the beatings leave her wobbling.

Alistair The demon doesn't seem to be letting himself get intimidated. Even after Bee manages to slam into him as a result of the telekinesis from Ripcord, and then gets thrown off again, leaving Alistair to face the villain on his own, he doesn't let himself look intimidated.

"Okay dude. You know what, now I'm starting to get a little bit upset." He clenches his fists, and then moves towards Ripcord in return. He will wait, until the opporitune moment, and then he will strike.

He looks over at the other battles being waged, Forge and Atlas in particular, and makes a mental note that he needs to actually get a weapon some day. Maybe a crowbar. Those make good weapons, right?

Refocusing, as he gets within range for what he wants to do, he blinks out of sight again, covering the distance between him and Ripcord in the blink of an eye, his blow already in motion as he reappears, moving to deliver an open palm strike to the older gentleman's solarplexus, and hopefully knock the wind out of him, and put him down for the count.

Ripcord is quite spry, and he's now expecting teleports, he twists to the side reflexively as Alistair re-appears, the blow going wide and the older man tsks softly a few times, shaking his head sadly.

Firefly laughs as Bee goes flying and the teenager turns her attention towards the demon again. She's supposed to be on the lookout for the 'prize' whatever that is to appear, but she just gets caught up in the battle! When Alistair attacks Ripcord again she scowls and flies over him with a zip of flaming dragonfly wings. "I'm getting tired of you heroes not catching the drift." She inhales and then exhales another gout of flame, this time at Alistair!

"You think so," starts Forge when Atlas presents the standard Brick Mating Call of fist into palm. Forge draws back with his hammer again, at which point Atlas' fist comes flying for his face. The metal man's expression drops and his eyes widen as he manages a fearsome battle cry of, "Oh ball-" before being
 * SMASHED* clean off of his feet.

Somewhere in the air, Forge recalls his training and twists. He swings his hammer around, using its weight to stabilize his flight before he hits the ground. Forge rolls and tumbles expertly, years of training paying dividends as he comes rolling back to his feet almost three dozen yards from where he started.

Drawing in a deep breath, Forge's legs take on that spring-like appearance again as he prepares to leap. There is a tremendous *CRACK* as his "spring legs" launch Forge on a shallow ballistic arc toward Atlas again, leaving a small crater and shattered plascrete where he was standing. Arcing through the air, Forge looks to be trying to smash into Atlas headlong.

SPANG! Malcolm slams into Atlas who folds backwards slightly but the stone man doesn't move. He looks down at Malcolm and blinks a few times, wobbling... at least for a moment. Finally he rumbles. "Ow." in a low slow groan. He /felt/ that one! A lot!

Up towards Firefly, Interface mutters, "Hey Pot, how's that kettle doing... still black?" And then she drifts a bit closer to Ripcord... cannons repowering as she fires a burst towards the leader of the pack.

Atlas is still standing there, wobbling back and forth even as Malcolm crumples to the ground. He shakes his head, clearing it, rolling his head on his shoulders, "Felt that... damn..." and he brushes himself off.

Forge hits Atlas like a bullet. He wasn't expecting the stone giant to stand through such a tremendous hit. As Atlas recoils ever so fractionally, Forge ricochets off of Atlas' stone form with a spray of sparks and hits the ground, rolling limply to a stop a foot or so in front of Atlas.

Ripcord looks over at Atlas's comment, surprised, and it shows on his face. "Really? Interesting." He twists to the side, avoiding Interface's shot out of habit and then flicks his wrist to send another energy whip lashing out! This time towards Interface! *SNAP*

Force field or no force field, Bee knows she is going down on the next hit. She says into her wrist communicator. "One to port home in thirty seconds." Then rushes toward Ripcord. At the last second she spins, drops her force field and lashes out with the shiney cattle prod that serves her boots as a heel

Seeing the target evade her blast, Interface narrows her eyes, "You know... Dr. Graff was wrong. Your target isn't here." she says aloud as she twitches mentally, shields engaging just as the energy whips lash out. Just in time too, because the whips weren't dead on, and as such the shielding deflects them harmlessly.

Down in the hallway to Radiology, Star Girl can /feel/ the heat rising, a lot, the door is starting to glow slightly radiating dull red light. Also shadows seem to seap through the seams of the door, under the cracks, something ain't right in Radiology!

Meanwhile up above: Bee lands her super mega kick and sends Ripcord stumbling backwards, rolling to his feet for just a moment before he drops to his hands and knees, wheezing, wind knocked out of him... and Firefly /screams/ in pure unadulterated hatred!

Bee thinks at the sound of rage .oO (This is going to hurt. Move girl, move!)

Star Girl's alien suit sparkles, reacting to the increased heat. She drops her cloak, redoubles her efforts, and speeds up. "Half Life! Ashes! Darklight! It's Star Girl... Listen to me! I'm here to help!"

Alistair manages to weather the assault from the flames once again, and decides he's had enough of that flying firey bitch. He rises from where he had been pushed down, and throws off his coat, which had burned away to almost nothing as it was. He makes a mental note to some day get an actual superhero costume, but that'll have to wait. He blinks out of sight, and then reappears right in front of Firefly, reaching out to grab a hold of her, to make contact with her. Once he does that, that's all he'll need to do.

Assuming he actually manages to grab her, he'll begin to flash in and out, all over the battlefield, hauling her with him as he goes. Over top of Ripcord, and then gone. In front of Atlas, and then gone again. Upside down thirty feet in the air and then out once more. She may fly, but this sort of repeated appearance and disappearance is disorienting for all but the strongest of stomachs. Her little ride ends after he finally throws her towards the ground, from about six feet up, before falling to the ground himself.

Firefly is grabbed, and ported all over the battlefield, and she's struggling to break free the entire time until in a moment it's over and she's back where she was! She shakes her head, looking a little dizzy for a moment but it passes quickly. Scowling she turns her attention from Ripcord and Bee... to Alistair, "Nobody gets to touch me and survive..." She hisses, sucking in another deep breath and then she breaths out a veritable torent of flame that burns... and burns... and burns some more!

Tigress growls as she watches Forge go down. She leaps trying to catch him by suprise and let out with a slashing of claws.

Atlas is struck by the claws, and rocked by them but as before he doesn't move, but he seriously feels it as those claws rake across his stone rock hide and threaten to get at the soft squishy bits within, assuming he /has/ any. He grunts and shakes his head, "Rip... I think it's time to go... Can't keep this up." He looks over towards Ripcord is... not even capable of moving, "Yeah. Firefly, we're leaving. Get your skinny ass to Ripcord."

Meanwhile, down in the radiology department of the science building the door opens and then shuts a moment later, right in front of Star Girl. Ashes slips out of the room and says, "It is to late. Halflife is dying. Darklight is going to take her to the center of the planet and return so she is no danger to anyone..."

Bee can't use her energy heel through her own force field and wonders at the brilliant stupidity of even having both pieces of equipment in the same kit. The kick on Ripcord landed with picture perfect form, but she still feels more like a target doing a spread eagle than a martial artist as she twists in midair to avoid the attack that never comes. Looking about wildly, she smiles in satisfaction as Firefly inherits problems of her own. But the smile quickly turns to a frown as Alistair takes the brunt of the little fireball's anger and she realizes another of her side is also down. Turning back to the men, a grim determination bubbles up inside her.

Queen Bee declares, "If it takes my last breath, all three of you are going down." Then gasps as Tigress singlehandedly nearly makes her prediction come true. Noting Ripcord's recovery, she spins for another kick.

There is the sickening crunch of breaking bones as whatever defenses Ripcord had up at the beginning of the fight, apparently did not survive this far into it. The old man crumples like a ragdoll, coughing up blood even unconscious as he is.

Alistair raises one of his arms as the flames blast over him. It hurts, no question about it, but he's not about to give up. That should have taken her out of the fight entirely, and he's not sure why it didn't, but he supposes he'll have to do this the old fashioned way. He vanishes out of the way of her flames, and reappears in front of her. He knows he'll only have a moment to strike before gravity takes over, so he has to make this count..

Once he's within range, he hauls back with his right hand, and swings a haymaker towards her throat, trying to cut off the source of her powers and, well, shut her up at the same time.

Firefly is hit, and it sends her flying up further into the air with a cry of pain but she shakes her head, not quite out of it enough to stop flying or the like. "Oh you are /so/ dead." She says in angry teenager fashion.

Tigress thinks she did well but does not let up she lashes out again not wanting to let them get away.

Left unmolested after knocking himself out cold on impact with Atlas' impossibly resilient stone body, Forge twitches. Tendrils of metal that splayed outward from his body on impact with the ground - the cold, unforgiving ground - twitch just as surely as his fingers and legs. Faintly, Forge utters a low and gravelly groan, but doesn't yet seem to do much else.

Consciousness is a cruel and fickle mistress like that.

Atlas rocks under the impact, but he doesn't fall, and he remains standing, "Seriously?" He asks Tigress, "Now I know why I'm not a cat person..." But he isn't falling quite /that/ easy.

Star Girl's eyelets widen. "No... There's got to be something that can bit done, Ashes... Starguard has a ton of good scientists. Maybe there's a way to save her!" She'll enter the room, passing Ashes if she allows.

Firefly looks over at Atlas and then down at Ripcord. She gasps, angrily, and then flies down towards where Ripcord lays on the ground. She goes to pick up his unconscious and bleeding body as best she can, but really, he's to heavy for her to lift all on her own. But her eyes flare angrily and she turns her attention on Bee, "You did this. All of you. You're all going to /pay/." Her voice shaking with emotion now that she remembers that they're supposed to be leaving, and why. She sucks in a breath, staring at Bee as she unleashes another hellish blast of flame, just like the one she used on Alistair moments before!

"Actually, Dr. Graff did this by sending you here on a useless and stupid mission." offers Interface from the safety of her armor and shielding.

Down below, Star Girl isn't stopped by Ashes, though Ashes does say, "She is about to go critical meltdown, but it is your life." The girl who looks like a fire elemental rolls her shoulders in a shrug and moves to follow Star Girl in.

In the Radiology lab Halflife is in a containment unit, looking like not much more than skin and bones wrapped in her labcoat and green costume, her hair and eyes pulsing, flickering brightly and then weakly. The living shadow that is Darklight is within the containment unit as well though her shadows are /everywhere/ making the whole lab seem dark, gloomy, dreary as death itself.

Meanwhile Atlas sinks into the earth, disappearing from view with another earthquake rumble before he reappears right in front of Ripcord and Firefly, "Grab onto me." He rumbles to the pair. Meanwhile Ripcord is just... completely out of it, he's still breathing though, so likely isn't full on dead dead, but he's still bleeding also which means he likely does need serious medical attention.

Bee starts to cry out "Look out Atlas will...." then falls, smoking and burning after Firefly's attack washes over her.

Star Girl radios: "I have a situation here. Half-Life is going critical and about to die. Do we have anybody here who is an expert with Physics, Radiology, or Meta Biology?"

Star Girl explains to Ashes. "My suit protects from radiation. How long do we have? How do we save her?"

"Hold the phone guys. We have an emergency down below. Critical mass nuclear style." says Interface aloud, "Is anyone here a radiology or meta biology expert?" she asks before transmitting to Star, "I'm good at physics. If she's going to explode, I've got good radiation shielding.... and I can get to space pretty quick. Need to field test my interplanetary drive anyway."

Star Girl radios back: "I need you down here hella fast. I'll see if I can reach Quinn, too."

Ashes shrugs, "We don't know. When she starts to crack, that's when Darklight is taking her. Personally... I don't know why she's waiting so long. It must be hell."

Firefly grabs hold of Atlas as tight as she can, making sure to prop Ripcord's unconscious body up against him also!

Star Girl radios Quinn: "Quinn? Tony! Please be there... It's Star Girl -- I have an emergency at the CBSU Radiology Department."

Alistair can't really help out down below, so he's not gonna let the bad guys run for it. After all, they're the cause of all this, as far as he knows. He may well be wrong, but he won't know that at this particular juncture. He teleports himself away again, this time popping back up near where Atlas has grabbed a hold of Ripcord, and Firefly is holding him.

"Going so soon? I don't think we're done here yet!" He vanishes again, only to pop back up immediately behind Firefly, whipping his right foot around to try to smack her in the side of the head with it. If he knew about the dangers that are about to befall the campus, he'd probably be less concerned with stopping the villains from escaping.

Firefly cries out in pain at the kick, but she doesn't let go of her boss, nor of Atlas, "So much for super hero honor!" She spits, venmously, little droplets of fire flecking from her lips.

Slowly Forge seems to come back to consciousness, the small runs of metal tendrils starting to tighten up against the rest of his metal-coated form. Groaning, Forge climbs to one knee and clutches his forehead with one hand while the other presses against the ground for balance.

"Did anyone get the license plate of the blue whale that hit me?" Forge pauses as he becomes aware of people yelling, both in the meat and in his ear - thanks radio! - at one another. With a frown, Forge calls, "Could you stop screaming?"

Who knows if Malcolm's actually aware of Ripcord & Co.'s hasty retreat?

Atlas takes hold of Ripcord and Firefly, the ground rumbles, ripples, and then the trio sink into the earth leaving no trace of their passage, other than the damage to the city that the villains did of course, and the damage to people! There's also a fair amount of Ripcords blood on the ground, also.

Star Girl looks to the other woman in the Radiology center. "Ok, got it," she says, acknowledging Ashes's plan. "Let's stay calm for now though. I'm calling down every expert in Physics, Radiation, and Meta Biology I can reach."

Bee stirs. slowly gaining consciousness. Groaning, she rolls over then yells as she tries to sit up. "Get Atlas off the ground!"

"God, my head," grouses Forge as he slowly gets to his feet. The metal man flexes the hand not clutching his face into a fist and out a few times. When Bee yells, Forge stagger-steps and squeezes his face harder with one hand. "Urrgh. Do you have to yell?"

Pausing, Forge spreads his fingers and peeks around. He may have just remembered there was a fight.

"Especially since the fight looks over?"

Star Girl radios: "I just felt the earth move again. What's going on out there?"

Down in Radiology the meters are not looking good. The heat coming from inside Radiology isn't actually from Ashes, it's from the raw amount of Radiation that Half-Life is bleeding out as her system starts to fail. Of course. As the shielding starts to fail alarms are starting to sound. Darklight looks over at Star Girl and shakes her head sadly. Ashes says, "I think we are almost out of time."

Forge radios: "I don't know. I just came to. What's going on?"

"Damnit." He can't believe he let them get away. Again. Every freaking time he manages to let the bad guys get away. He thinks he's only caught one of them this whole time. He vanishes from his previous spot to appear right next to Forge, "You okay man? You took a hell of a shot there." He offers, the shirtless half-demon trying to help steady his friend upright, "They got away. I guess we ran them off from whatever they were trying to do."

Star Girl walks up to Half Life. She offers her hands to the radioactive meta for comfort. "You just gotta hold on, help is coming. Try to hold on..."

Bee sits up and only now notices that Forge is still worried. "What is going on?" she asks.

Half-Life looks at Star Girl through flickering eyes, "It is ok..." She whispers, her voice crackly, hard radiation leaking through her lips at every word. "I got them out... keep them safe from... him. Without me to track... they can have lives..." She looks over towards Ashes, "You be... a good girl... now. Listen to Darklight." Ashes nods, looking a little sullen though.

Forge tilts his head, looking at Alistair very seriously for a good five seconds. "You know you're shirtless, right?" The metal man slowly drags his hand away from his face and blinks a few times, looking around. Memories seem to be coming back to Forge now as he seems to startle at Alistair's mention of 'whatever they were trying to do'. Looking at Alistair, Forge replies, "They were looking for someone. She's down in... God, remind me not to do that again. My head feels like Alistair's been using it for an anvil." Pause. "Radiology. They were looking for someone down in radiology."

Star Girl frowns. Reluctantly, she tells Half Life, "I... I will."

Space, as they say, is big. Unfortunately that also happens to be where Quinn was working. It may not take any time for radio waves to cover the short distance to orbit but unfortunately even at the rate his armor can carry him it has taken him precious time to reach the school. Diving down at nearly ten times the speed of sound he slows only enough to make sure he's on target for the window of the radiology department and then to make sure he can stop once inside. Glass shatters before his sonic boom even arrives as Quinn comes bursting into radiology.

Bee looks over herself. The armored quinntex of her costume is melted in places and will probibly need to be replaced, not to mention the stinging reminder that the costume wasn't the only thing with serious injuries. "Radiology. As in nuclear radiology or nearly harmless x-ray research?" A sinking feeling tells her what the answer will be as she attempts to calculate the exact position of the radiology lab for a teleport.

Already in the radiology department, Interface is looking over the systems and computers and readouts. "I must admit, radiation is not so much a specialty, as a byproduct of the physics I usually work with. But, is there anything we can do to stabilize her? I have a micro-sized cold fusion reactor built into my armor... maybe it can help somehow?"

Forge transmits: "Where in radiology are you?"

Star Girl replies over the radio: "In the basement door at the end of the hall."

"I know I'm shirtless. It's a good look, actually. I think I'll sport it more often." Alistair remarks, before he's forced to duck for cover as whatever little glass wasn't shattered by the earthquakes is shattered by the sonic boom, "Dude sure knows how to make an entrance."

He turns to look back at Forge, "So should we be getting people out of here if something is radioactive or something? I mean I'm sure most folks are gone now...Is it like a nuke or something? I mean I'll help if I can but I ain't exactly a rocket scientist or nuclear physicist or whatever else you need to make a nuke."

Star Girl explains to Interface and Quinn. "Unless you can save her, Darklight is going to take Half Life to the earth's core before she goes critical. What can we do?"

Darklight finally speaks up as people come crashing in, fortunately Darklight, Ashes, Star Girl, and the dying Half-Life are in a containment cell, which, is having issues. Alarms are going off about small radiation leaks now as the heat from the radiation is taking it's toll. "Her cells are breaking down." Darklights voice is hollow, cold, echoing, like she were empty. "She wasn't supposed to survive. What Dr. Graff did to her is unstable and... her body simply cannot withstand anymore. When her skin starts to crack, that is when I will take her. You have until that long." Meanwhile Ashes simply looks over the drama like it doesn't really have that much impact on her... but for a girl who looks like she does... that's not surprising.

"Earth's Core? Wouldn't it be safer to like... get her way the heck out of here? Like towards the sun?" asks Interface. She's also not a geologist... and shrugs

Bee ports, knowing that one wrong calculation can mean a world of hurt, but manages to arrive in radiology unharmed

"My range is limited to a hundred thousand kilometers." Darklight explains to Interface.

"I recently upgraded my drive to attacin approximately one percent C. I might be able to get her far enough away... " offers Interface verbally as she consults scientific reference material via her link to Julius.

"Doesn't matter which rad lab they're in, Bee," comments Forge as he considers the heroine. He rolls a shoulder and tries to straighten up - Alistair can probably hear joints creaking and cracking inside of Forge - which results in a pained grunt.

"Your suit's a mess, you look pretty beat up, and I don't even know if you can survive in radiation."

Then there is a sonic boom. Forge drops to his knees and clutches his head.

"Urgh. I'm fuzzy on the details. Their target was a girl who survived some kind of mad science. She's down in radiology, going critical. You two should get clear of here."

Anthony looks at the dying Half-life. "I need colloidal silver now!" he says. "Silver is a major component in control rods, so it's possible that we can interrupt the chain reaction with it."

Already starting to disassemble various parts of her armor, Interface is pulling panels off and plucking at emitters for her shield system as well as the proton pulse cannons. "Q. Help me here. I need parts to make a projected stasis emitter. Short term for now until we can stabilize it. That's the only -real- way to put a stop to this entirely. Silver might slow it down, but this will hit the pause button."

It appears that Anthony's silver treatment is helping to an extent, but what really makes the difference is Bee and Interface colluding to modify Interface's stasis shielding in her armor to expand the effect into a bubble to encase Half-Life into a null-stasis field... at least until her armors power supply holds out! So the risk, is, for the time being... negated. Of course Half-Life can no longer respond, being held in stasis!

Bee says, "Anthony," Bee says tersly when she and Interface complete the stasis device. "Think outside the box. Than we shunt the excess energy transdimesionally? Leech her, so to speak?""

Quinn nods to Interface. "Just trying to slow things down to give you enough time for the generator," he says. "You only need to power it for maybe 10 minutes and by then we can get her over to one of the high energy labs in Quinn Tower where we can get her hooked up to the Q-Drive. After that we can look at siphoning off her excess energy the a dimensional rift."

"Well, the shields won't work till I overhaul'em, and they -were- effective today to say the least. Though I should figure out a way to give them better thermal induction properties." offers Interface. "My power cell will last a while. You go ahead and prep a stasis pod at your tower." she says to Quinn. "I'll transport Halflife."

Quinn shakes his head to Star Girl. "It's going to take a lot of power to keep the stasis field running," he says, "and my labs are better than Starguard's. I can put up Darklight and Ashes as well while we try to come up with a cure for Halflife."

"So go Mister Quinn. The sooner you prep it, the sooner I can stop powering it myself." says Interace. "Seriously, why are you still here?"

Star Girl says, "Quinn, Ripcord might make another attempt to catch Half Life. You might be putting your staff in danger if you take her there."

Darklight looks at Quinn, "We don't need to be 'put up' anywhere. You couldn't hold us if you tried." She looks back at Half-Life, one can almost hear the frown in her voice, even though all expression is unreadable due to her being, well, a shadow of a woman. Literally. "Dr. Graff wants us all... he won't stop. If not Ripcord and them since they've failed so many times... someone new. Someone else."

"Prep it?" Quinn says, an eyebrow arching behind his silvery faceplate. "What do you think the equipment in the high energy physics lab runs off of? 120 volt wall outlet? It's already prepped." He turns to Stargirl. "Yeah, I know," he says, "but it's still the best solution at present. Fortunately the satellite is just about done, so I'll move them there where they'll be much safer as soon as possible."

Rolling her eyes in her helmet, almost audible in her digitized voice, Interface remarks, "And it's ready with a bed to place a radioactive, decaying superbeing in already? Your precognative abilities impress the hell out of me Mister Quinn." She shrugs and says, "Okay, the field is as stable as I can make it, so why don't we transport her now while the bad guys are licking their wounds?"

Shadows begin to grow and flicker all over the room, "We are not pets, we are people, we decide where we go and with whom." Darklight says seriously, "Ashes, go, now. Go hide and I will find you." She snaps towards the burning girl. Ashes nods and takes off, at speed, fwoosh-boom! Quinn isn't the only one who can go supersonic!

"She's in a stasis field," Quinn says. "It's not like she needs to be made comfortable." He starts to turn toward Darklight and says, "And by 'put up' I...oh Hell..." he is interrupted by the suddenly departing Ashes. "I meant that I've got spare rooms," he finishes to Darklight. "That way you can sit with Halflife whenever you want."

Star Girl sighs, shaking her head.

"So let's get going." suggests Interface. She watches Ashes depart and snorts, "We weren't even talking about.. oh pisser." She extends her arms and lifts the stasis wrapped Halflife by the frame of emitters holding it in place, "Shall we then?" she asks as she starts heading out.

Star Girl says, "I'm trying to help those two. Well, saving one out of three isn't bad. Good work guys.""

Quinn nods to Interface and starts to head out with her. If Darklight wants to come along that's fine but he's not going to try and force help down her throat if she doesn't want it.

Darklight says, "We were caged as animals, we were experimented on... turned into this. Half-Life would not want to remain like this forever, so fix her, or give her to me to take her where she wanted to go." She looks towards Star Girl, "I will be in touch. I will check up on her." Then the shadows flare outwards before collapsing in on themselves and Darklight... is gone also.

"Stasis is a preventative. I plan to work on a solution..." says Interface. She doesn't try to -convince- Darklight of that. She simply states it before she lifts off and heads towards Quinn tower.

Once the situation is resolved, with emergency and clean-up crews on hand, Star departs. She sends a text message to someone: 'u free? theatre rooftop?'