Log:Tip of the Serpent's Tail

2017/09/18 	 Ranger Lightning

1

It's been covered a lot by the news lately. COIL has been moving some of its operations closer and closer to the east coast from Millenium City. In just the last month, they've been pretty active in the tri-state area, specifically New York and New Jersey, with a series of heists and attacks on heroes. They're well armed with an arsenal of gear, fanatical, and well-coordinated.

This is of particular interest to Griffin because he knows from the tales of his favorite handwarmer than COIL is run by a mad megalomaniac who wants to see her dead after her clashes with them in Millenium City. In fact, her last encounter with COIL is what led her to end up in Colonial Bay for treatment, and left a good part of Millenium City in ruin from King Cobra setting off a series of hidden bombs in the city. When she first arrived in the Bay area to see Doctor Silverback, she was still pretty beat up from the fight. And to this day, Millenium City is still recovering from the attack.

It goes without saying that COIL's activity this close is something for the Colonial Bay Sentinel to keep an eye on. Which is why he is alerted when reports go out that COIL is in the midst of a battle with globe-trotting hero, Lightning, in Philadelphia. Outnumbered, Lightning must've thought he could handle them alone, based on the live video feed from a news helicopter shows the street battle.

Philadelphia's about 275 miles from Colonial Bay. A mere 4 or 5 second run/flight for Griffin.

Griffin places the upturned vehicle onto its wheels and before the passenger can thank him, he's gone- off to try to help his buddy. He's found that running up things is far easier than getting off the ground like other fliers. He in fact isn't too thrilled by this ability- but he's making great strides in its use. This is thanks to his dedication to training and the love & attention of Kat who is doubling down on her duties to Griffin, adding 'Flight Trainer' to her currently skill set.

Griffin sprints up the side of the building- instead of running up and over the rooftop, Griffin hurls himself into the air. He waves his arms at the peak of his supersonic speed enhanced leap and manages to stop his fall and then clenching his shoulders together he forces himself forward- using the adrenaline from being this high and totally untethered to find whatever it is inside of him and use it.

For once, he does not worry about the sonic boom from his movements- his buddy's life is on the line.

The SuperSoldier ruminates en route, thinking on how best to deal with COIL. He has a personal grudge with them- and a strong urge to protect his Hand-warmer/Flight Trainer.

He's also seen their 'slavish loyalty' first hand. Its a terrible thing to behold- seeing someone stripped of their ability to choose for themselves.

8 Seconds later (gotta work on that take off!) he's flying over Philadelphia, PA- be lining it for the street mentioned on the newscast.

Griffin can spot the two news helicopters circling over part of the city in tight circles, filming the street below. His GPS confirms he's closing in on the right street.

As he flies over it, he sees...a snowstorm? A flurry of ice and snow being emitted from a small grenade-like device that hovers in the middle of the battle field, with Lightning caught in the middle and the COIL agents just outside its circumference. Pavement turns to ice, cars get frozen over, and icicles form on Lightning as his running speed slows while his limbs are quickly frozen.

Frozen in place, Lightning is sheathed in a few inches of ice. The device deactivates and drops to the ground with a few clunky bounces, its charge spent. And that's when they close in.

One of the agents is wearing a military-grade powersuit. Griffin has probably even seen it covered in the news before. It has a jetpack for short bursts to assist in leaping, protective armor, a combat HUD and comm systems, and can be modified to house a variety of weapons. This one has the BREACH upgrades; arms built like battering rams.

The Demo-Agent trudges its way towards Lightning. It would be too slow and heavy to hit the speedster usually, but now that Lightning can't move, it has no problem. It's right arm cocks back, a port opening up behind the elbow. A split-second later, rocket exhaust spews from that port and rockets the arm forward into a devastating punch that slams into Lightning's chest.

The ice cracks around Lightning and shatters as he's sent flying into a building wall with a meaty thud and a crack. He sticks there for a moment before peeling off and landing face down on the sidewalk with an agonized groan.

Aside from the Demo-Agent, there are four others dressed in COIL's BDUs with chestguards and a variety of weapons. One has a flamethrower, another an cryo gun, one with a grenade launcher, and the other with a standard military loadout of automatic rifle, probably loaded with Hero Killer amo.

Griffin has to double-take as he spots the snowstorm freezing his pal, Lightning in place fall away and then a rocket propelled suckerpunch drop him. "I hope Cryostatic never sees this footage." Griffin mutters to himself as he changes his trajectory sloppily and shifts his reserve energies into his bioelectric shield. Now diving straight towards a spot between a possibly fracture Lightningcicle & COIL agents (Demo-Agent) included and strategizes. He decides on a classic. He opens with the standard superhero entrance- falling from the sky and landing in a threepoint stance on some of the remains of Lightning's icy-shell.

As the SuperSoldier stands, his eyes are already aglow and his voice is filled with a quiet warning. Stand down or be hurt. He scans the on coming horde- and make no mistake, he knows that as brainwashed these people are that is exactly what they are; a horde.

Finally, after what seems like a long moment but it may have only been a heartbeat Griffin speaks, "Halt your movements and put your hands up in the air." His eyes linger on the Demo-Agent who shoud now be nearest to him. "Especially you- I wouldn't want to break your fancy suit." There is no question of whether this is a request or not. "Failure to comply will result in my kicking each of your butts in rapid succession." He crosses his arms, hoping to spook these guys into giving him enough time to inspect Lightning with his energy sense. He's looking for a steady (or rapid) heartbeat and electrical activity in the brain, secondly he's looking for signs of movement.

The ice shells crunch under Griffin's epic superhero landing. That must be bad for the knees; good thing he's a SuperSoldier!

From ground level, he can get a better look at the agents. Though the four with regular military gear have helmets and visors, only the lower-half of their faces are visible, and these are scaley to varying degrees. That flamethrower guy's mouth also seems unnaturally wide. King Cobra's mutagenic touch affects everyone to varying degrees. Some just get slit eyes, or a forked tongue. But the ones who become so changed that they could never pass as human agents are put into COIL's armed squads. The one thing all have in common is unwavering loyalty to King Cobra, with no sign of a cure.

So while Griffin's offer would tempt most, these agents aren't swayed for a moment. Flamethrower guy is lifting up his gun as Griffin checks out Lightning's energy signature. It's still there, in fact it's flowing better than ever due to the cold chill. However, the thermal energy he normally has is way low, and that isn't doing Lightning any good. He's still laid out flat on the ground, covered in light frost, but at least no longer in a frozen block. He may need a moment or ten.

Ony can only imagine how gleeful Cryostatic will be when he sees this on the news.

"I suspected as much, the Cobra's touch huh?" Griffin says, refusing to give that idiot such a glamorous title before explaining. "Well, I won't take any pleasure in this, ya'hear? Just doing what needs to be done."

With Lightning alive, but chilled- Griffin decides he's best left to resting for now. Griffin doesn't seem particularly interested in the on-coming storm of fire and bullets and hopefully some lasers too.

He's more focused on keeping COILs fire on him and off the civilians and his pal.

He scans the crowd trying to decide how to best incapacitate everyone without causing too much harm to them.

He decides to let them come frist, he'll deal with their siege on blast at a time.

The flamethrower agent decides to flash-fry Griffin. The guy with the cryopack attacked to as similar looking gun to the flamethrower raises his gun as well, while the guys with the grenade launcher, rifle blaster, and the tankbuster wait in the wings.

The dual agents attack one after the other in quick succession. A wave of flame engulfs Griffin, followed by a white wall of frost that puts him out and causes steam to billow off of him to such a degree that they lose sight of him for a moment. Such temperature extremes may break metal, but not likely our Hero. They wait as the smoke and mist begin to clear to see what has become of Griffin Freeman.

Griffin's instincts are confirmed when the worst of the effects slough right off of his bio-electric field or is neutralized by the other. He smirks as he's covered in steam- these guys are just helping him out now.

When the steam clears the COIL members find the area they were just attacking void of SuperSoldiers.

Griffin shifts into 'hyperspeed'- vanishing out the back of the cloud and going up and over- landing near Mr. Grenade.

"You look like you'll be trouble." He says to the Reptilian-Mutated Grenader. "Can't have you just blowing things up in such a populated city."

Just as suddenly as he appears, his arm lashes out towards this man who threatens to cause the most collateral damage. His goal is to put him down quickly, without killing him- but part of him knows that would be a mercy.

The grenade launcher wielding agent is sent spinning into the concrete from the punch. He's certainly alive, and certainly unconscious as he falls into a heap.

The agent with the CB-A5 "Sledgehammer" Blaster Rifle braces it against his shoulder and looks down his sights. This thing is big, with a long barrel, and it, too, is attached and powered by a backpack to charge it.

The Cobra-Armor Mark II stomps forward, fist cocking back. The knuckles have for cone points that look like they may hurt.

Three blasts patter around Griffin, but don't find their mark. But while Griffin is dodging those, in comes the tankbuster from the left with a rocket-powered right hook.

Griffin rolls for HAP's and gets 2 for this scene.

Griffin tries to dodge the rifleman's shots but looses track of th tankbusters mean suckerpunch and somewehre between they all cross paths.

The strike levels Griffin, sending him flying back and cartwheeling end over end for a dozen meters at least. He hits the ground so hard the pavement buckles and piles up behind him.

He attempts to stand up, spitting blood out of his mouth but a smile follows that up immediately. He tries to stand but stays down on one knee. He clearly felt that.

"Now we're talkin'. Someone put on their big boy pants today." He says as he wipes his busted lip on the back of his glove. "Good." He says as dust falls away from him. He cracks his knuckles, reprioritizing the Tankbuster unit to the top of his list. He doesn't want to take any more of those if he can help it- that hurt way more than he let on.

Tankbuster resets his fist as the suit's forearm clicks back into place. "So the mighty Griffin Freeman -can- bleed," the electronic voice broadcast's over the suit's speaker. Griffin can hear the sneer in the agent's voice.

The SuperSoldier uses this rare opportunity to reset himself and take a deep breath. Perhaps with luck the Tankbuster will think he's done his job well and already put a stop to Griffin's rolling justice.

Griffin's head hangs low, he puts his right hand down on the ground- his fingertips splaying out to hold him up then... suddenly he's gone. Appearing next to the Tankbuster once more.

The SuperSoldier uses this rare opportunity to reset himself and take a deep breath. Perhaps with luck the Tankbuster will think he's done his job well and already put a stop to Griffin's rolling justice.

Griffin's head hangs low, he puts his right hand down on the ground- his fingertips splaying out to hold him up then... suddenly he's gone.

"Oh- I bleed. Just like anyone else - but I don't stay down." He says to the mysterious voice ont he loud-speaker before attempting to drop kick the mechasuited man. This strike is being used to get the vocie talking and reestablish his dominance on the field.

The Tankbuster says, cool as a snake, "We'll see if that's another myth about you." He pivots on his left foot and brings his right fist up in a jab towards Griffin's face.

The Tankbuster's fist takes a light juke from Griffin to avoid. He can feel the breeze from the hit buffeting him as it passes.

The guy with the flamethrower twists part of the barrel, as does his icy counter-part, narrowing the barrels now that their man is in the way. Rifle guy is charging up his back, the LEDs on the gun lighting up one by one to denote a large charge building. The trio take their turns firing on the hero, trying to coordinate.

Griffin is knocked back a few feet by the onslaught. This was not what he was expecting when he flew to Philly to help deal with some scaley pop-gun users. He certainly didn't expect for this to happen and for him to take such a pummeling.

He decides to play more defensively, and exploit his manueverability and speed. Not just that, but the man needs to get some breathing room.

Griffin tries to position himself between each of the armed men left, hoping a few stray shots will help him manage this situation.

His eyes flash as he aims a salvo of his own laser fire at the man with lazer rifle that threatened to overload his bioelectic field. That cannot stand.

The tactic works in Griffin's flavor. He unloads a pencil-thin beam that hits like a truck, knocking the guy onto back into a parked car. The windows break on impact, and he slides down into a slumped sitting position.

The Tankbuster turns towards Griffin and crouches. The pack on its back lights up and the heavy suit leaps into the air and lands in front of Griffin with a heavy clunk.

"Seriously, that's a nice suit." Griffin says as it lands with a thunk in front of him. "I know just the guy for something like this. It'd sure make our sparring sessions a lot more fun. Let's see if you can keep up- yeah?"

Griffin's leaps don't require jump-jets for stabilization, lift or range.

Griffin 's muscular legs explode beneath him- leaping 28m straight backwards. His eyes never leave the Tankbuster- even as he lands and skids about a half a meter back. He grins at the man in the suit as his eyes ignite with cosmic energy.

Two bolts of light leap as thin as razorwire are released towards the heavily armored tankbuster.

You must enter an integer for your Stun.

The Tankbuster's armor is left with two small smoking holes that carve through the armor plating. The armored agent doubles over in pain, sparks flying from his armor.

The two remaining agents start running towards Griffin, but they're still twenty meters away when they open fire. He has the advantage of range on them. Lightning still looks down for the count, and now maybe Griffin understands why.

The Tankbuster steels himself and leaps after Griffin again with a blast of its backpack rockets. But it can't keep pace with the SuperSoldier.

He grits his teeth, taking a couple of steps forward- then he opens fire on both of them simultaneously, his eyes flashing 5x rapidly as his head bounces between the two.

The two agents get raked by a swath of cosmic energy. One just crumples backwards, but the other gets hit by an extra burst of initial energy, sending him flying back into the gutter.

The SuperSoldier speaks aloud, for the looky-loos and media who disregard their own safety to witness these extreme happenings. "Testing me isn't an option. Attacking cities isn't an option." He says loudly- ut its clear he's really only talking to the voice. "Tell Cobra I'm coming. That's lower case c, no King. The Eastern Seaboard won't live a day under COIL rule- not while I'm alive. Not after either. You think you can..."

Griffin leaps backwards again- this time just maxing out the jumpjets of his enemy. This way he can still be heard reliably. "....just bully your way into one of the Jewels of this great country?! You think Philly will stand by and let you snakeheads run things? This is AMERICA- land of the FREE. Our national icon is what? An Eagle. Come on Philly- you know abou tthe EAGLES right!?!?!"

The bystanders erupt in applause and cheer. The Philadelphia Eagles are their home team after all.

"That's right you do." Griffin smiles. "Eagles eat snakes. Lizards. Reptiles. So- before I kick your heavily armored man's tin-butt into a concave shape, Mr. Voice- why don't you tell these great people what it is you want?" He crosses his arms as his eyes begin to glow brightly- he's charging up the blast for one final push.

Griffin's soliloquy is rewarded by the roar of the growing crowd- bolstered by the fact that most of the danger is over with, their city defended from evil by an old friend.

After running out of time before the Tankbuster would be able to close the gap, the SuperSoldier decides to end this fight now, before anyone is injured. He's been lucky so far, tactical too- but still he's grateful for that fact.

His whole scalara begins glowing, followed by an area directly around his temples- rendering the thin veins here visible to those with the proper eyeprotection and magnification.

Then suddenly- to the onlookers and Tankbuster both- everything goes bright yellow. For a split second it seemed as if Griffin called a tiny sun into being- brighter than all the ambient light around.

That blast strike home HARD- sending the armored man on to his a** before crumpling inside. If it weren't for the armor- that blast may have vaporized him. But Griffin's energy sensing sense electrical activity in the brain and a weak, but still healthy heartbeat. Another thing to be grateful today he recokons.

Now all he has to do is make sure the Fastest Man on Earth is ok- but only after closing the gap, to make sure his blast didn't damnage the speakers of the tankbuster unit.

Griffin waves to the overjoyed public before vanishing- reappearing, standing over the Tankbuster unit.

"Don't tell me you don't want to talk now?" He asks a bit pedantically, rocking the armor side to side. Not to stir the man inside, but just to hopefully grate on the nerves of the operator on the other line and get a response.

The tankbuster armor rocks side to side like a turtle on its back. The speakers look in tact, but there's no response. The voice must have been the suit wearer themselves.

"Damn it." Griffin says, hoping to have had a lead- but he knows he's spent enough time chasing off snakes.

He vanishes once again- appearing once more for a moment before being spotted by onlookers next to Lightning, who if conscious would think Griffin moving terribly slow.

Once next to his pal, he does the standard check for broken bones, pulse, all the classics.

Meanwhile, back in Colonial Bay, Kat was just plopping down on the couch after getting home from work. She turned on the news just in time to catch the live feed of the second half of the fight. She sees the scrolling titles listing the location as Philadelphia, realizing she can't go to help. All she can do is sit, and watch, and chew on her lower lip. But as Griffin gives his victorious speech, her eyes grow wide with admiration and she stops fidgeting.

Lightning's still face down, but as soon as Griffin touches him to check his pulse, he groans audibly. "Did someone...get the license plate on that cruise liner?" Cruise liner? Yeah, he's loopy alright. He tries to move and lift his head as Griffin starts checking on him, then hisses and holds his ribs where he was punched. "That...probably left a mark. So where are they?" he asks, trying to get up, wobbling, and collapsing again with a groan.

"You got 'em bro. I just cleaned up the last... one or two." Griffin says, not wanting his friend to feel anything less than awesome despite having just been hit with what he can confirm felt like the mass of a cruise liner dropped from about head height onto your waiting abdomen. He pats Lightning's shoulders. "You'd think your body would just be so used to fixing those ribs by now..." He says playfully, standing and offering Lightning a hand and then a shoulder for balance. "I've got ya buddy. Just take it easy." He'll say after they're situated.

"I...I did?" asks a punch drunk Lightning as he just tries to sit up and laugh at Griffin's joke. "Yeah, they're used to it. Just...just need a few minutes is all, bro." He gladly takes his pal's hand and gets to his feet, but Griffin does most of the lifting.

Lightning puts a hand on Griffin's shoulder and leans a bit of weight on it, looking at the devastation. "S' funny...I sure don't remember knocking any of them out," he murmurs with dazed suspicion.

"Well they were definitely all worked over." Griffin backpedals. "You know, like when you struggle witha lid and the next person- like a 6 year old girl from Harrisburg right after the fall... and they just come along and *pop* that thing right open?" He chuckles, easily lifting his friend. With Lightning's arm over his shoulder, Griffin takes his arm around his friend's shoulder, bracing him before he takes off as Lightning has done with him so many time- his target? That rooftop over yonder, right where the sun is setting so they can look ultra heroic watching the local emergency services do their thing. COnsidering everything was televised, Griffin isn't worried about leaving a statement.