Log:Big Bug Attack at Steel's

2020/02/05 	 Golden Girl Union Victory Copycat Sentinel Thunder Baker Allison

1

Copycat is training in the workout room against a simulated punching bag. Her strikes still aren't hitting hard, but her form's improving.

Baker enters the training room, back at it again. While he still isn't the maestro with the controls in here that others are, he's improving. Not that those are the skills he's specifically here to improve. Today, it must be more of the physical, given his athletic wear. He spots the familiar cotton-candy coifed copier and offers a grin and wave. "Hey. Still beating up on evil sandbags?"

Copycat throws another punch, then shakes off her hand like it could be getting a little sore. She throws a smile over her shoulder. "Yeah. The battle is never ending! Though I'm already ready for a new lesson from Victory."

"Uh oh," Baker chuckles. "We're in trouble now. In couple weeks, you'll be knocking or throwing the rest of us to the ground. Probably teaching the next course."

The opens to reveal Griffin in his Sentinel uniform with a smile on his face, already glad to see his Handwarmer+.

Copycat sprouts up a good foot taller and looks much more...patriotic. "I could do that -now-," CopyVictory smiles. Though Kat feels quickly self-conscious in the skintight outfit, since her mind is still in control. The clothes glow green and quickly reconfiguring into sweatpants and a long-sleeve a-line black t-shirt with hand-wraps. He blinks as Griffin is suddenly there. Kat hasn't told him about this trick yet. He waves sheepishly. "Hey, Griffin!"

Baker smirks at the sudden change into CopyVictory. Not as surprising, now that he's seen it at least once. "Cute. Well, no. You were cute before... but I think that's cheating, isn't it?" He then turns at the latest entrant and offers a casual wave. "Welcome to the training room."

If Griffin hadn't come in when he did, he knows he would have lost track of his HWP so he looks a bit relieved, despite Kat having switched into someone else just as he arrived. He takes it in stride though, at least until he sees shim switch her dupe's apparel on the fly. That prompts a very surprised look on his face. Very. Surprised.

Griffin gives Baker a half salute. "Thanks- I just spotted a familiar someone inside, so I thought I'd say 'hello'." He replies as he walks to VictorKat so he can give shim a hug before turning to Baker and offering him his hand.

"I'm Griffin, Griffin Freeman. Pleasure to meet you." He says in a friendly manner.

Baker takes up the offer and gives a firm shake. Quite firm, though not what he presumes would be painful for the Colonial Bay Sentinel. He also offers a smile. "Your reputation preceeds you. Jack Baker, Agent of Starguard. A pleasure."

CopyVictory is standing near a simulated punching bag. He's wearing dark gray sweatpants and a long-sleeve black underarmor t-shirt with white hand-wraps. And he's got a dumb, smitten smile at seeing Griffin. He clears his throat and tries to look more...respectable. "Yeah, I've been really training with control. My clothes already change when I do, so..." he starts, then gets surprised by the hug. He returns it with a pat on Griffin's back, but now he's smiling smittenly again. And lost his train of thought.

The Super SOldier smiles at Jack, appreciating the mans firm handshake. "Ah- well, Agent Baker- I'm even more pleased to meet your acquaintance." He says happily before adding, "Always a pleasure to meet someone in a uniform of any sort that's served. But after taking on the Moon situation with you boys watching our six- well, lets jsut say you get a special appreciation fighting side by side with another regiment." He pats the man on the shoulder congenially before stealing a glance at VictorKat, and then double taking to give his full attention to them.

Griffin has gotten a good deal better dealing with the 'Kat inside Random-Person' situation, so he still enjoys seeing that smitten look on whatever face she's wearing at the time. "That's pretty cool. I mean- I know you've gotten more control, but that's like next level control. That's like... I dunno. James Blond- 007 quick change watch cool." He sounds pretty enthusiastic about her progress.

"Understood and appreciated," Baker offers in return to Sentinel. He's then quiet a few as the two discuss the apparently recent new trick. He knew it was a trick, just didn't realize it was something new. Baker does finally speak up, if just to potentially excuse himself. "Were you interested in more hand to hand practice?" he inquires of CopyVictory. "If not, I can leave you two...gentlemen alone to talk fashion all you'd like." A bemused chuckle follows.

In a fluid sort of state, just in case someone rounds a corner and makes physical contact, Mercury moves in relative silence and slither of her metal mass. An uncertain pause comes, her attention upon each present party. She guages the situation from a spot that does not block travel through the Workout Room's entry.

Those just joining will find Jack Baker- Agent of Starguard, Victory- Agent of Starguard & Griffin Freeman- Free Agent Meddler standing around talking in a friendly manner. Jack & Victory seem t be in workout gear and Griffin is wearing his Sentinel uniform.

Griffin grins, letting a bit of a laugh loose at Baker's comment before looking to Kat and back again. He claps his hands & then rubs them together eagerly. "Hand to hand huh? That sounds fun. You guys mind if I get in on that? Better than taking swings at the bag I'd bet." He says willingly with no lack of zeal. He's always been one to practice and practice and practice and then double down on that practice with painful, repeated, application of methodologies on a regular basis in between bouts of practice.

Victory steps into the workout room as well, and finds...well, a copy of himself standing there. Based on context, it doesn't take him long to figure out who it is. He remains by the side of the gym and folds his arms to watch.

Golden Girl hasn't checked through the workout room window from the reception area. So she a little surprised at the number of people in there as she enters. "Uh. Am I intruding?" she asks hurriedly.

CopyVictory is standing near a simulated punching bag. He's wearing dark gray sweatpants and a long-sleeve black underarmor t-shirt with white hand-wraps. And he's got a dumb, smitten smile at seeing Griffin. Still. He grins a bit at Griffin's 007 comment, his back to the real Victory. "007 quick change?" He asks in amusement. His clothes glow green and reconfigure to the typical James Bond tux. He adjusts his cufflink--well, pretends to--and says, "The name's Lockwood. Wade Lockwood." There's a pause as he gets a bad feeling. "Aaaand he's right behind me, isn't he?"

Victory doesn't immediately say anything, letting Copycat feel nervous. Instead, he waits a long moment and then says to Golden Girl, "I'm afraid I've just arrived myself. So I can't answer that. I do feel like I interrupted something myself here."

Mercury becomes a flatter mass against the wall beside the entry, slithering back out. This is clearly not the correct moment for what she has in mind, and she withdraws before her presence becomes demanding of attention.

Griffin laughs and the looks up at the new arrivals before nodding to Kat. He covers his mouth but his laughter is clear enough.

CopyVictory rubs the back of his head and chuckles nervously. Kat briefly wonders if she could copy Chen and blame it on her, but it's a brief thought she wouldn't do. He turns around slowly, hoping they were kidding. Alas, Victory really is there. "I, um. Sorry," he stammers, then shrinks down to Kat again, back in her usual skinsuit and leather jacket. Her cheeks are bright red and she looks all levels of embarrassed. Where did all that confidence go?

Golden Girl turns to Victory and hesitantly extends a hand, "Hello. I'm Li.. uh, Golden Girl." Kat's morphing catches her eye. "Wow. Is that Chen Li?" she says in a almost awed tone.

Victory shakes Golden Girl's hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Wade Lockwood. Victory. And the genuine article. That isn't Chen. That's Copycat. Similar power set, but some differences." He smirks and looks over at his former doppleganger. "Speaking of...why were you copying me? Just to make fun of me? Or was there another reason?"

Griffin puts his arm around Kat's shoulders, still laughing but shaking his head at Wade. "We were just talking about doing a little hand ot hand sparring. I'm pretty sure this one..." He gives Kat a gentle squeeze. "...was planning on kicking our butts. Then I brought up James Blond... and here we are." He explains, trying ot take any heat off of Kat that might be there. He gives her a look, finding her pink, embarassed cheeks endlessly endearing.

Baker did his best to remain stonefaced when Victory arrived and CopyVictory flashed the License to Kill. When Wade asks about the doppling, though, he breaks silence to offer, "We were discussing hand to hand..." He trails off and nods sidelong at Griffin. "Pretty much that, yes."

Copycat blushes guiltily and quickly waves her hands. "No, no, sorry! I was trying to learn more hand-to-hand techniques and thought I'd check on the next lesson ahead of time, and then...yeah, what Griffin said. I -was- making a joke, but I wasn't meaning to make fun of you," she squeaks out, her voice getting quieter as her rambling explanation goes.

Golden Girl smiles and extends her hand to Kat, "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Golden Girl."

Union steps into the Workout Room, planning to practice some of the new moves she's been learning, and finds in full of people - most of whom she knows at least a little. She waves to Victory and Mercury.

Copycat shakes Golden Girl's hand with a gloved one, smiling shyly. "Nice to meet you, too."

Thunder wanders in, not long after Union. But the teen's more focused a bit before he blinks a few times at well... all the people. He shakes his head before looking to Union, "I think we came in at a bad time?" He looks over at the others, obviously looking curious as to what is going on.

Victory nods slowly as Golden Girl goes to introduce herself to Kat. He turns his attention back to Copycat. "I should remind you: You were taking the class to learn how to fight in hand to hand with your own abilities. You said yourself that you would lose what you learned if you were in someone else's form. Unless I'm mistaken?"

"You're correct," Copycat agrees. "But I was hoping to practice to see if I could try and hold on to -some- knowledge. Or at least show Agent Baker the next step so he could teach me back once I switched, but...I got distracted when Griffin arrived."

[To Thunder] Union says, "I think we may have walked in on a class, but I didn't notice anything on the schedule - and it sounds like we might learn something too."

Griffin, the Colonial Bay Sentinel gives all the new arrivals a brief nod or wave after making cursory eye contact with them before returning his attention to the conversation being had.

He shrugs to Victory. "Not going to apologize for that one, Lockwood." He says with a grin to the other Super Patriot. "Though I did drop in on her... so yeah. I'll take the wrap."

Golden Girl goes over to Thunder, "Do you really think this is a training session?" she asks him hopefully."

Copycat looks to Griffin with big, doe eyes. "I wasn't trying to blame you, I just..." she looks on the verge of breaking down. "It's my fault. All mine," she says as she drops her head to look at her feet.

Victory smirks at Griffin's comment. "We're all responsible for our own actions, aren't we?" He looks back to Kat, and considers his options. If he doesn't act like an authority, then he loses credibility later. But he also doesn't want to come across as harsh, either. "I'll let it slide. But don't do that to make fun of me again unless you like push ups. Lots of push ups."

Copycat looks back up at Victory and nods quickly. "Again, I wasn't trying to make fun of you...I'm sorry if I did unintentionally."

Victory nods and waves Copycat off. "It's okay. Just giving you a warning for future reference."

Union smiles at Golden Girl and nods.

He remembers a time, over half a century ago when he got caught pulling something similar and had to scrub the latrines for a week. He resolves to tell Kat that story later, to cheer her up.

Copycat gulps and nods. Her scrawny arms may fall off after pushup number 5.

Thunder gives a nod towards Union, "Maybe? I admit I came down because I wanted to experiment with my sword and all, not to mention help with any moves you might need a partner for." He turns as Golden Girl speaks to him and raises an eyebrow. A frown comes on his face for a moment, "Ah, yeah. It can be." He blinks a few times, "Supergirl?" He frowns, "No, wrong symbol..." He looks to Union, then to Golden Girl. "I take it you are new?"

Golden Girl nods to Thunder. "Pretty much, yes. But I'm determined to be the best I can be. An All American Superhero!"

Thunder smiles, offering a hand towards Golden Girl, "My name is Thunder. You look like you're the same age as myself and Union. High school?"

Golden Girl nods to Thunder, "Yes. I attend Colonial Heights High School." Golden Girl shakes hands.

Victory says as an aside to the trio near the door, "Not an official class. I just walked in on people practicing." He takes a deep breath and looks back to Copycat, "I didn't mean to interrupt, by the way. You can continue, if you like."

Union says, "We're familiar with that school. Better atmosphere than Bayside Academy."

Copycat rubs her right arm while it dangles, looking nervous. "Well, there's so many people watching. I was warming up alone at first..." she says shyly. [To Victory] Union says, "You said something about 'taking the class'..." Golden Girl nods to Thunder and Union, "I've been told that. I don't know anyone who goes to Bayside so I have no personal experience."

[To Union] Victory nods, "I teach a class in hand to hand combat at Starguard for agents there. Copycat is in the class, as is Agent Baker."

"Come on- you guys can take a couple of swings at me, take your mind right off of it." He says, looking from Kat to Baker and back again.

Thunder smiles, "It's a fun school." He comments towards Golden Girl, then looks to Victory. "Ah, I don't suppose you know much on weapons by chance? I recently found out I have a shapeshifting sword."

[To Victory] Union says, "Ah, I'm learning a new style myself."

Golden Girl asks Victory, "You mean martial arts? You teach martial arts?"

Copycat blushes at Griffin's comment. "N-no. Maybe with some cheating." Since she thinks using her mimicry is cheating. She does smile a bit for Griffin, his playful look encouraging her.

Thunder shrugs, then looks to Golden Girl. "Ah, a lot of us know martial arts in some form or fashion. It helps to survive, even when you're incredibly tough against things like bullets."

Victory shakes his head and says to Thunder, "Not much with swords, I'm afraid. I'm decent with a shield, however." He then says to Golden Girl, "Yes, martial arts. Though not that formal. There are no belts, for example. And no philosophy, other than...what will get the job done."

Golden Girl says, "I wonder..." Golden Girl starts saying. Then shakes her head. "No. I already tried once, when my sister.. I mean a coulpe of years ago. I have no aptitude for martial arts at all."

Union says, "Do you dance at all?"

Victory says to Copycat, "If you want to copy my skills for practice, you can. I'm okay with that."

Thunder nods at Golden Girl. "Well, not all martial arts is about just hitting things. Some of it is also about getting out of the way or making sure you get the least amount of force applied to you. I'm still new to it, but an example is knowing how to get out of the way of an attack rather than face it head on sometimes." He explains to Golden Girl. Then he looks to Victory, "Drat. And I'm not sure if it can even do shields. I'll have to ask on that one. I know they said it could do staff, sword, spear, ah... what was the other one? Something longer than a spear... I didn't learn that one yet."

Copycat looks up at Victory in surprise. "Really? I promise I won't make jokes or anything!" she says excitedly.

Victory nods to Copycat, "Seriously. It's fine. Just keep in mind what your goal is." He then says as an aside to Golden Girl, "Martial arts just...require practice. Anyone can learn. It's just a matter of how much time you put into it."

Union says, "I heard a story that a girl at CHHS took on one of the football team. He ended up smashing his hand into a locker, and never laid a finger on her."

Copycat nods, thne turns to Griffin and smiles. "Okay, time to take some lumps! But first!" She steps up on her tiptoes, places a gloved hand on his cheek, and kisses the back of her glove. Proxy-kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for trying to take the blame. You didn't have to," she smiles.

Griffin grins at Kat after his proxy-kiss. "Of course. You know how much I like playing Knight in Shining Armor." He says to her before flash stepping a few meters away and looks at his Handwarmer+ expectantly.

"Bring them lumps on." He says beckoning her towards him as he prepares to see what she can do now. He's always so amazed and they've spent so much time running from emergencies to each other, their regular practice sessions have petered out. In the end, it seems se didn't need him for that- and that realization brings a proud smile to Griffin's face.

whump

A singular vibration is felt through the floor, as if significant mass shifted or impact nearby.

WHUMP

There it is again, a moment later. Stronger, certainly conspicuous, and enough to set hanging heavy bags, lights, or other dangling fixtures, holographic or otherwise, to swaying. Suspicious rings of ripples form and fade in cups, footprints, or other open containers of standing water.

Victory feels the vibrations in the floor. "Hmm." He turns on his shield and looks around warily.

Thunder frowns, then looks around as he feels the vibrations. "Uh... that's not one of us, is it?" He asks the others.

Union says, "Is there a live dinosaur exhibit in town?"

Golden Girl shakes her head, "It's not me."

Copycat gets ready to face off with Griffin. Before she can change, the first impact hits as she wobbles. "Wha..?"

Union looks at Thunder and extends her mind out to him for a link-up.

Griffin cuts formerly expectant eyes to meet Kat's. His face is suddenly concerned and his eyes likely tell Kat much more in the intervening moments where he uses his energy sense to try and detect what's happening outside of the Workout Room.

WHAM!

The third time is nearly the charm. For one, it localizes the source, as portions of the far (away from the street and gym proper) wall and floor of the room crack and crumble.

The fourth causes the cracked sections to bulge and rise upwards, then drop back and below ground level as they're no longer supported. A sinkhole? A very angry sinkhole?

Thunder frowns, then moves to a more combative stance, stepping up to play human shield just in case for the trio at the door. "What is this? Attack of the mole men or something?"

Golden Girl says, "Should we go and see what that is?"

Copycat stumbles a bit at the fourth impact, blinking at the sinkhole. She immediately worries. Her fists begin to glow bright green as she heads for the sinkhole, taking off after a few steps to fly over with a green trail behind her.

Union says, "Union says to Golden Girl, "Thunder and I have a mental link that lets us communicate. Do you want to join in?"

Golden Girl nods to Union, "Sure. You're heroes. I can trust you in my mind."

"No. No we should not." Griffin answers. "I've got 'eyes on' and it's coming this way. Its very large so we may want to think about.. .figuring out a way to redirect it elsewhere. Not sure how or when we'd have the time though. Or even if I could lift the thing in general."

Victory nods and says to Griffin, "Can you tell waht it is? We looking at one of those bugs?"

Union says, "They're big enough to do _that_?"

Golden Girl suddenly grins, "Wow. That's so cool."

"I can only see its bio-energy... so its fuzzy at best." Griffin says as he holds his hands out towards the thing, using the nanoweave in his suit to enhance the fidelity of what he senses.

Thunder shakes his head, then looks to the others, "Can we get out to the street and find a way to head it off somewhere? I can't dig like whatever is doing this."

A number of questions are are possibly answered in short order.

First, if there was any uncertainty of the destination, there should not be now as ...it... bursts through the weakened floor and wall. Primarily floor; the wall just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Next, Griffin is correct. It is rather sizable, as emerges from the opening to take up a quarter of the room (and this is a very large room). It is at least 5m tall, perhaps 20m long.

So, what is ... it? It vaguely resembles an elephant, just larger and without the cute proboscis or floppy ears. Instead, it's covered in dense, dark chitinous hide, with a very large, broad head-frill that covers much of its back. In addition to the four trunk-like quadrepedal limbs, a pair of extremely long horns.... spines? blades? extend from either foreshoulder, splaying out and open after it clears the room. Each is easily 3-4 meters long on its own.

"... ew." Thunder states, looking at the thing. He looks to the other heroes, "So we punch it now?"

Union says, "Does anyone know how to override the safety protocols and use the room against it?"

Victory looks to Union, "I don't know if we have time to program an antagonist that would help us. It would turn it into a three-way fight."

Copycat floats back from the giant creature. "Oh my..." she gulps.

"All good thoughts but we're out of ti..." Griffin is saying as the bug-megabeast breaks through the ground and shows everyone it is definitely bug or bug-adjacent. He sighs and takes the creature in, hoping it came to chat though he thinks thats about as likely as the creature paying the inusrance premium for the damage its caused already.

As he gets closer his bio-electric field glows a bit brighter as he begins suffusing it with cosmic energy.

Golden Girl rushes forward too immediately after Griffin.

Victory calls out, "It's likely a transformed person or something else! So don't kill it! Just knock it out!"

Union moves up beside Victory and Copycat, "I have a link-up going. Either of you want in?"

Victory shakes his head, "No...I think not this time."

Copycat shakes her head as well. "I have enough people in my head as-is. And I have to keep their secrets safe. Sorry."

"Alright. Anyone have a nice way of knocking Bertha out?" Griffin inquires. "Not sure a lulluby is going to cut it with this one." He makes a face like it doesn't smell great as close as he is.

Golden Girl rushes in and attempts to land a heavy punch to the cheature's head. No style or grace. But a goodly amount of str.

THUD. The very large thing is punched. Heavily. Golden Girl can confirm that this big boy(?) eats his wheatflakes. He's solid. He felt it, surely, but it's hard to tell much more than that.

Where the creature forced an entrance, Allison merely rises up out of the floor on the lift installed invisibly there. "Julius. I think we need to refuse service to this visitor. Activate scenario... laser grid. Remove safeties, and cover only the area that includes the back half of that thing." she says aloud, mostly so that everyone else can hear what she is saying and will be aware of what is coming.

That said, she starts to bulge with emitters for her Gravitic Shields, and then surrounds herself with a blue-ish purple-ish glow as her barrier comes up.

Victory repeats for Allison's benefit, "That bug is likely a human or an animal that's been transformed. Don't kill it."

Sentinel looks back to Kat and then Victory. "Let's coordinate our attack." He says, "We're going ot need ot if we want it to feel it. If you guys press, I'll do my best to defend you and potshot when I see an opening." He says as he tries to find a suitable tactic that won't get anyone killed.

He flashsteps closer to the BFB tryig to draw its attention and show it that he is the alpha here.

BFB, aka Big Freakin Bug had its attention grabbed by Golden Girl. Now, also by Sentinel, so both succeeded in their intentions. The quartet of large, scytch-like spine-blades then sweep in from either side. Not unlike a tandem pair of pruners. Very large pruners.

Golden Girl is knocked back several meters and lands on her rump. Even so her flash of annoyence is aimed at Griffin rather than the beastly bug. "I'm a big girl now. I don't need baby-sitting. And if I did it would be more sensible for me to bug out rather than have a far more experienced and capable hero spending his time looking after me." That's what she says to Griffin.

Thunder runs up to the beast, then brings his fist back, as if trying to figure out where exactly he's about to punch the thing. Or... concentrating something? There's a faint, slight haze around his fist as he seems to be concentrating and preparing to swing at the big bug thing.

Victory doesn't throw his shield. Instead he rushes forward, closing the ten meters or so to the creature, and he leans into a jumping side kick.

Copycat swoops down and aims a blast beside the same spot.

One, two, imprint my shoe. While Victory's strike may not leave much more than a dusty bootprint on the hide, it does help tenderize it for Copycat's blast. Which leaves a reddish mark!

Union gets in closer and prepares to attack.

This is why he doesn't work with teenagers.

Thunder finally makes his move, swinging quite hard. And with quite a bit of power. Enough that when his fist impacts the shell there's an audible boom. Note, it's a teenager doing this, too. The impact is pretty harsh. Thunder rubs his knuckles afterwards as he looks to see if that even did anything to the big, ugly, uhh... beetle thing.

Union moves in close alongside the bug, behind the blades, and punches it where the front leg attaches to the body.

"Okay Julius. IF it is a mutated person... go with something non-lethal. Electrify the plates under its feet or something. I trust your judgement." says Allison as she drops her shield, transforms her arms into Ion Pulse Blasters and fires a volley at the creature.

The ion pulses stitch scorches into its hide. It's not that it's not being impact, just that there is lot of it to impact.

And after firing, Allison strides boldly forward, placing herself RIGHT in the face of the creature. "Hey!" she yells, "Any time now Jules!"

That done, and hopefully with its attention on her now. I mean she's what, inches from its pincers?... she waits and waist.

Golden Girl stands back up onto her feet. Staying where she is she begins building up a thermal eye blast, the golden aura around her intensifying as the energy starts to surge.

Victory spins and lashes out with another kick. The first one bounced, but perhaps he just hit at an odd angle that first time?

Copycat syncs up with Griffin and Victory. She's trained with Griffin for a long time, and been both of them enough to know what to prepare for. She shifts into a copy of Griffin, golden eyes charging up before firing on the Big Bug.

Sentinel kickups, takes a leading step and then leaps into the fray again, hoping to deflect, distract & defend for his allies until they can find a less than lethal way for the beast to be brought down. He's afraid his eyebeams will hurt it but Allison's Ion Pulse blasters sizzle across his perception- drawing his attention to their impact points. It seems to be a fairly good shot and seeing he can certainly hit those power levels without accidentally murdering the beast is a great relief.

As he nears he sees an opening as Victory & Copycat lash out. He switches tactics smoothly as he sails towards the beast. He pulls his fist back and lashes it out with incredible force & skill just as he gets into striking distance of the BFB.

Zip, zot, pow, biff and other onomatopeia come to mind with the 1-2-3 combination. The BFB is momentarily rocked. ... or at least very, very annoyed. It thought that Thunder was the more annoying little bug-like creature in the room. Obviously, they have proven it wrong. So, rather than stomp on him with a several dozen tons or so, it swats at the cloud of annoying heroes buzzing around it. With blades.

Victory catches the brunt of the attack on his shield, and he nearly manages to roll back to his feet after being thrown backward, but he slips and falls.

He clenches his fists and jaw, leaning his shoulder in to take the brunt of the blow. He holds his ground.

Union finds that the Bug is more flexible than she anticipated, as she gets sideswiped by one of its blades.

The golden aura around Golden Girl flares and fades back to normal intensity as a pair of searing hot eye beams lance out at the enomrmous bug.

The Sentinels two are not the only ones with laser eyebeams, it seems, as Golden Girls' unleashed beam burns significantly into the thing's hide. It is starting to look battered, bludgeoned, holed, beatdown, singed, and otherwise in more than gently used condition. Warranty may be voided.

Shields holding. In her HUD, Allison sees the readout that displays...

Shield Strength: 37%

She narrows her eyes and says. "If we can have people hang back and attack from range while I soak up its attacks, this could work."

Union says, "Some of us have to get up close and personal."

"You heard the woman. This is her house. Let's be gracious guests." Griffin says as he prepares to move to a ranged position. He doesn't mind someone else taking the facepunching for a while as long as they can take it. Allison isn't the type to exadurate.

Victory nods to Allison, "Those of us who can, though...move to range."

Thunder comments, "Sorry, I'm all strength. I'll be sure to ask for some sort of fireball or something when I speak to my relatives."

Golden Girl asks Thunder, "Is there a weight training room? I'm reluctant to use my heat vision again. I injured it. Maybe we can throw heavy weights at it?"

Victory calls over to Golden Girl, "Just dial it back a bit, if you can. Don't go all out."

Union tries to time her attack to coordinate with Thunder's, punching the bug again in the shoulder joint.

Since the thing's occupied by other heroes, Thunder takes the time to charge up another punch. And then swings again, another loud boom coming from the impact as he lands another hard fist to the shell(?) of the creature.

The creature takes another uppercut in the uppergut from Thunder the thunderous, not to mention Union slugging the bug in the shoulder. Convertibles are still work more.

The creature drops to its knees, blades and legs tucking in and then seem to... shrivel up? Merge? It is changing, exterior damaged chitin changing from heavy, thick, broken, scorched and/or burnt to ...membranous. Pulsing. Sloshing green behind it.

Victory blinks. "Wait! This reminds me of what happened at the coffee shop! Don't attack it. That's going to be acid that'll spray! Hold off!"

Griffin nods. "Everyone back! That stuff ate through my last suit!" He warns Golden Girl was backing off anyway. Also looking as if she's trying very hard not to throw up.

"Oh no...," CopyGriffin states and starts to get ready to drift back. But the Griffin part of Kat is waiting to see if anyone needs an emergency save.

Copycat calls to Allison, "Can you get Julius to get a barrier around it before it blows?!"

Union runs to find cover.

Victory sees Union running for cover, and he moves to cover her retreat, putting himself between her and the creature. HE then hunkers down behind his shield.

Seeing what is coming, and more importantly, being told it is an acid explosion, Allison narrows her eyes. This is one of those moments when she does -not- overthink things. She surges forward as everyone else is moving for cover and to get away. She needs to save the lab down below. And the hardware she has Paragon's memory dumps stored on. She must protect her sister's memories, and Julius.. and everyone else. Herself? Well, she hopes she'll survive it.

But she surges forward on grav-pods... the shield winking out before she lands RIGHT on the thing and with a shout from the effort, she extends her shield outward larger than usual... defending pretty much everything except the exterior wall.... and herself.

Thunder hears the acid call and well, he high tails it out of there. Top speed at that. Best to get the hell out of dodge quickly, after all!

CopyGriffin glows up, turning into a being of light that extends its hand to form a barrier of light.

It seems that Allison has timed her leap quite well; that or her landing was the last bit of prodding needed to rupture the several-tons pressurized bag of... slime. Good. Ick.

It splatters everywhere... or it would have! Much of it spatters the back wall, either initially or reflected off of Allison's splayed shield. Most of the rest just covers Allison and the shield, with the excess sloughing off to puddle onto the floor immediately nearby or drain into the hole the creature emerged from. Spatters outside this are light, and avoided by interposed barriers, US-Made shields, convenient things in the way, or not being there. See? That wasn't so bad?

At least for the second or two delay before the viscous, vicious stuff starts eating into everything its stuck on.

CopySpirit drifts closer to the ground. "That...that was a person...or an innocent animal before..." his voice echoes a bit.

Golden Girl tries to spread her eye beams and burn the slime off anything valuable before it does too much damage.

Covered in the goo, Allison lets her shield drop. When she feels it starting to burn.. she feels pain. Weird how she feels damage to her liquiform data storage crystalline body as -pain-. Anyhow, she doesn't bother speaking now. She simply transmits to Julius, 

Golden Girl has a greenish face as she asks the room in general, "What WAS that thing?"

Once the acid his been dealt with, Union wanders over the the big hole in the floor. "I wonder where this goes?"

Victory coughs a couple of times and brushes his wet hair out of his face. "There's a...hive of some kind under the city. The 'mother' of it has been converting people to use as bugs in teh hive. And use as weapons. I'm not sure waht that was originally, but it could have been a person. Or...a dog. Something. It was turned into a bomb to get our attention."

Thunder looks curiously at the hole as well. "Well... I don't think it's a good idea to go down there, really, 'cause... uh... I don't think any of us can dig really good?"

CopySpirit lands somewhere free of acid. In a flash of light, there stands Copycat. Though she's pretty calm. "We should collect some of the DNA for the labs. In case we can identify the victim and notify the family."

As she gets washed off, some of her body sloughing off as well, and Julius begins forming grav/tractor wedges to push the goo and the creature down into the hole it made on its way in. But Allison is definitely suffering as she absorbed a huge dose of the stuff and it takes a bit of time to clean it off. Especially since most fire suppression systems aren't just water hoses these days. But either way, she is showering it off.... and only has serious, not super severe burns by the time she gets clean.

"Agreed." says Allison. "Julius, let's collect some of that. I'll run the DNA myself."

Golden Girl looks even greener in the face, "That might have been a PERSON?" she asks fearfully. "In the books the villain is also a darkly handsome dude. This.. this is just sick."

The hole in the floor leads to... the ground under the floor. Possibly a small portion of the basement (though not any used corner). The tunnel, itself is collasped in and/or filled with material removed to create it.

Copycat nods. "We warned that right at the beginning."

Union says, "That wasn't _the_ villain, just a henchman/victim I think."

Copycat raises a brow at Golden Girl. "Handsome villains? What gave you that idea?"

Golden Girl says, "The new Dark Supers book series."

Copycat sighs wistfully. "Yeah, if only things worked the way they do in that series." She blushes, realizing she's admitting she may have read some of it.

Thunder looks at the others, then shakes his head. "... I'm not commenting there... so we can't follow the tunnel... uh... is it possible to repair this place?"

"Repairs are absolutely possible, and will be done quickly." offers Allison. "But we will also find a way to get down to their base. I will be researching a number of things. This thing invaded my house, threatened my cats, and my work. I will -not- just sit back and accept that. Julius?" she asks...

And his Holo-head appears. "Yes Ms. Temple?" he asks.

She smiles and adds, "Download everything you can on Chemistry and Bio-Chemistry. It's time for another cramming session."

Union says, "With the number of metas that work out here? I'm sure they have repair crews on speed-dial."