Log:The Mysterious Teklin

Built on a long ridge rising slowly to Colonial Heights to the south, this is the oldest part of town. Narrow, often cobbled streets with cast iron streetlights still in the shape of the ancient gas lamps predominate, some residential, some commercial - even down side alleys delightful old shops can be found. Main Street runs its cobbled shop-lined length straight as an arrow from Colonial Heights to City Center, and feels to this day the heart of the city, for all that it plays to the tourists. Many of the buildings are old as the streets but as well maintained; others, like the main library, stand in contrast. The Main Street MagLev line runs the whole length of the road and farther, but parallel a bit to the east, to avoid disrupting its historic beauty.

It was a pretty typical day for the city, normal people going about normal things. Normal of course is relative, as a pair of uniformed police officers were serving a warrant for arrest to Dominic "The Red" Govino, up and coming mafia capitan. Rather than try to make a media spectacle of it the attempt was get him into police custody before things got out of hand. Of course things didn't turn out that way when The Red decided to not come peacefully, shots were fired and a man down call went out, and the conscious cop said something about a crazy costume, which means... maybe the local branch has hired some meta muscle!

Well, JULIUS told Ally of the warrant being served and since she was needing a break from her current projects, she suited up to give some aerial coverage and to form a reserve for the law enforcement folks even if they were unaware of the reserve force themselves. So she parked herself on a rooftop across the street from where the cops were serving said warrant and waited, observing without getting in the way. But... shots fired, calls for backup. Yep, time to step in.

Thrusters fired and Interface launched herself across the street, landing at the police lines with her far more mature sounding digitized voice sounding off, "I hear you need some backup officers." she remarks as her thruster ports retract into elbows, knees, calves, and her back.

Star Girl was on her way from campus to SGHQ, so she arrives with only a slight detour of her initial route. She runs along the rooftops, clearing intersections and gaps with giants leaps.

Just another day out and about. Jolt's hideout is actually somewhere around the Old Town and Main Street. That said she's probably doing a few errands when she gets the call on her SGG communicator since they tend to share things they catch on the police scanners with the heroes. That said it is very fortuitous that she's nearby as she flies down to the cops and cracks her knuckles "Alright... point me in the direction of some punks that need a physics lesson"

The sound of explosion from Colonial Bay's industrial park can be heard even here, if a bit muted. And the sound of a body flying through the air might be easily missed to some since it doesn't really register on human hearing very well. The landing of a human body on the other hand, that might make enough noise when it impacts in the middle of the street. The body lays unmoving, seeming to stare upward from the dent it has made in the pavement, sprawled out.

As if things weren't bad enough what with a man down, shots being fired, the arrival of some sort of unknown villain in a costume now there's an explosion off in the distance and raining body parts... well connected parts but still! As police try to react to the new change, the sergeants are still trying to get the area cordoned off and traffic stopped. Someone is going to talk to Interface when with the sound of breaking glass gun barrels are poked out through broken windows in the three story building. The bottom floor serving as a deli. A male voice shouts: "We got hostages in here, you pigs back off or they gonna get hurt real bad! Any of you capes-." That voice is cut off as a figure in black and red futuristic looking armor steps out onto the street. "Will be dealing with me." That voice is mechanical, and female.

Teklin: Teklin is an obviously female figure wearing a combination of black body suit with crimson high tech plate armor over the forearms, chest, helmet, and boots. The armor plating appears to have various machinery built into it that could provide a variety of functions. Her hair is blonde, or at least the helmet has blonde hair perhaps, in a top knot that hangs to mid back.

Jolt stands up straight and smirks a bit "...So you're telling me all this..." she points at the whole hostages thing and such "Is just to get some heroes here to fight you?" she rolls her eyes briefly at the thought "You would think people would know better than to rely on something as inconsistent as firearms"

"Well, there's irony for you." remarks Interface as the weapons poke out. <> And ... speaking of weapons poking out, her own shoulderplates slide back and a pair of proton pulse cannons slide up out of the exposed gaps. Weapon ports it seems... but then those cannons split into half a dozen emitters each, withdrawing around a central spindle so that they appear to be micro-sized miniguns. And to finish her comment as her guns deploy, Interface remarks, "Not only are they behind the times as far as being itiots upstairs, they went and brought an antiquated tech girl with."

She looks over towards Jolt and shrugs, "She's obviously not the brightest bulb on the tree."

Star Girl skids to a halt at the edge of a rooftop, surprised by the sudden-ness of the person crash landing and cratering in the street. She pitches forward on the ledge, waving her arms to try and catch herself before momentum carries her over the edge. She fails to brake quickly enough and step out over the roof and onto the side of the building. She perches there, standing on the side of the building taking a moment to try and gather her wits and assess the situation.

Teklin simply stands unmoving, not really caring about the quips or the comments, she appears to simply be... waiting. She doesn't care that cops are forming up lines, or that weapons are being displayed by Interface's armor, or at least gives no appearance of care, just as she makes no move to interrupt any police attempting to figure out what's going on with Molly's Body, since it just thwacked into the ground from far off explosion. She... waits.

The still unmoving body, a young woman by the looks of her but a little difficult to make out details with the blood and protruding metal pieces that appear to be chain links keeps gazing upward, with only a blink or two to clue anyone in that there are signs of life outside of the ability to interpret unviewed vital signs from a distance. That and the breathing. Her outfit, a steelworker's jumpsuit, is ruined. For this moment, oblivious to the commotion around her. Slowly she starts to pick herself up, not even shaking a little.

"And someone might want to check on the one who just dropped in." adds Interface. Julius reminded her of course that there was someone who might be injured.

Arriving from the skies, this time in a less professional and more heroic and slightly mechanical looking outfit is Masumi Ito, AKA Machina. Noticing Interface nearby, she quietly attempts to obtain consent from JULIUS for contact as she says, "Excuse me, this is Machina. I won't be able to maintain this link whilst maintaining combative capability, but I would like to notify you of my arrival, hopefully preventing a misunderstanding as when we first met."

At the moment, Julius has his firewalls up. Who knows what this armored chick is capable of. So links are declined for the moment. After all, there's no way to know who the link comes from before allowing it. Thus is the danger of wireless networking.

Apparently deciding she's given them enough time, Teklin suddenly leaps forwards and over towards Interface since she has obvious weaponry out. And also to perhaps throw the cops off guard at the suddenness of the attack. Even as she comes to a stop directly to the side of Interface, to put as many cops on the other side of Interface and she as possible. Interface twists backwards and spins, armored boot snapping up and out in a quick circle kick aiming for Interface's helmet!

 intones Julius, . And Interface leans away from the attack as she transmits to the computer <> and the weapons on her shoulders power down. Only enough power to run one system at a time for combat effectiveness it seems. She'll have to improve that reactor at some point. Anyhow, she steps one half pace back and then steps back forward, hoping to capitalize on the attackers lunge to place her target right there for a punch. As her uppercut starts coming up, the thruster on the elbow fires... accelerating it quite a bit.

Jolt shakes her head as Teklin rushes one of the other heroes "They never learn do they?" she comments out loud as she focuses her attention on the obvious threat "Pain 101 Class is in Session... Population You!" and with that Jolt fires a bolt of lightning at the villain or hired muscle in this case

Star Girl eyes Molly, then looks out to where her trajectory carried her from, out in the distance, then back to Molly. "Well, any landing you can walk away from...?" she says to no one in particular, her voice softening as she activates her stealth and vanishes from site. Under the cover over invisibility, she leaps the gap from her building to the one with the gunmen inside. She starts looking for a way to get inside.

Getting inside is easy, there's broken glass all over the place from shattered front windows of the deli, flipped over tables, gunmen hiding behind, back behind the counter there is hostages with gunmen holding guns on them. In this case small SMG's. There's also a stairwell leading upstairs on the right hand side of the deli, opposite of the external stairs on the left hand side

Her flight jets retracting, more short-term burst jets appear on her body as Machina falls down with a, 'Clank' and looks over at Interface saying, "I would like to request permission to participate in alleviating this crisis." as the mechanical parts retract before she says, "Stop. NOW." as she attempts to mentally control Teklin into stopping hostilities.

"Take 'em out!" One of the gunmen shouts and then a dozen firearms open up, spraying lead out at the capes. The cops keep their heads down, because SWAT hasn't shown up yet, and bullets are deadly to normal peoples!

Even as she's recovering from her failed thrusterpunch, Interface gets shot at. Bullets chew up the ground around her feet, and one spalls off of the armor over her torso, leaving a small gouge, but only doing cosmetic damage. "You're quick.." she says to the cyborg before her, "But still out of date."

Teklin avoids the counter punch easily, continuing her spin to twist to the side, her body arcing gracefully to avoid the lightning thrown at her with ease as well. "A tool is only as good as the skill that wields it. No more, no less." Teklin says to Interface without emotion. Seeing Jolt take a shot and get knocked down the armored woman leaps away with a rocket boosted jump to land next to Jolt. A leg comes up straight to her chest and then she leans back and swings forwards, bringing her foot down in a vicious axe kick at Jolt!

The woman in the now more chainey outfit realizes the gunfire is starting to fly, lifting her arms and remaining seated as it fires out at people who aren't her. At least, it isn't pointed at her yet. It may soon be. From the chain links that are embedded in her body, others form between them, glowing orange and seeming to smoulder somehow. Molly is the last to notice the effect, eyes shut as her particular powers are made manifest. More links form even beyond her body, and she seems to now have a dozen different glowing orange chains that are spread out from where she sits. When she notices, she is bewildered, a little awe-struck, and she speaks, "What in the world..." She stands up, only a little wobbly, but steadying herself rather quickly.

The ground cracks under the force that hit Jolt, even as electricity arcs over her armor and into her system, leaving joints smoking lightly Teklin doesn't seem overly concerned, evincing no signs of pain.

<> intones Interface calmly to Julius as the weapons on her shoulders power up once more. She turns to face the attacking 'borg and target displays overlay her HUD. "Do what you can." she says to Machina as light purple energy pulses from the cannons, aimed for the 'borg.

Machina shrugs as the bullets bounce off of her, before she glares, yet remains calm in voice and says, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to use far more advanced methods than that. I am the avatar of technology, did you really think that a simple device such as that could kill me so easily?" before she looks over at Teklin and says, "Do not discount her reliance on tools. Such are the achievements of humanity." as she walks up towards her and says, "Now, since you seem to only be abusing my wards instead of being one of them..." she says before she draws her fist back as a system of pistons and servos encase it, "...It's time for you to go." she says as her fist slams out towards Teklin with considerable force!

The fist hits Teklin and sends her flying where she narrowly misses a car and she hits the ground landing on her feet as she skids to a stop. Her joints still smoking from the electric charge that Jolt's body delivered and Teklin's emotionless helmet displays... no emotion. She is silent however, perhaps computing a new threat assessment.

Star Girl crawls into the building, moving along the ceiling. She puts herself in a position where she can drop down in between the hostages and the gunmen.

The glowing chain woman rubs her head, unused to being so close to super fights of any kind. Unable to think quite clearly, she is forgetting the machine guns in the window. Her focus is on the Teklin, the chains around her starting to lift on their own accord.

Teklin assesses battle damage accrued and makes a decision. Another jet boosted leap sends her over the area to land next to Jolt and Machina again and she spins, waiting, watching her surroundings. Preparing to do... something!

Rushing up to Teklin, Machina grabs her by the neck with both arms and says, "This may seem brutal, but I promise I'll let you live. You just might come away with a concussion." as she attempts to slam her into the ground with considerable force. "Do -not- abuse my wards." she says, "They are meant to serve humanity, not cause conflict and strife."

Shaking her head, Interface turns towards the building almost as if deciding that Teklin is not a threat anymore.  says Julius in her head. <> replies Interface as she lifts into the air, heading right towards the windows.

Jolt grumbles at Teklin and shakes her head clear "You really are going to wish you hadn't done that" and with that Jolt stands up and smirks "lets see how well built your toys actually are" she emphasizes this fact as she punches her fists together as her electical aura flares for a moment, briefly fades then explodes, sending an EMP wave through the area

As she lifts, Julius warns,  and Interface blinks, "Huh? EMP?" she says as she turns towards the incoming shockwave. It flows over her armor, sparks coming up here and there, but her EMP Harening she just installed last week... holds for now.  the AI reports.

The EMP does not adversely affect Molly, though she feels it, as a weird sensation through her body. She examines herself again, finding she is unharmed, as was foretold. "What was that?" she asks aloud, not really coming to grips with the full gravity of the situation just yet.

Teklin easily avoids Machina's attempt to grab her and she spins again to face Jolt when her boots and gauntlets spark and fry, more smoke coming out of them as sensitive electronics are zapped by the EMP. In response to the situation and the comments Teklin spins and then drives her booted smoking foot towards Jolt's face! "If you wish to be primary target, I will oblige this once."

Molly has not needed to turn her attention away from the person attacking the other persons, asking aloud, "What is going on?!" finally, getting clearer on her senses and realizing she is in the middle of a fight. The chains around her rise up more forcefully as she shouts, spreading out and impacting everything relatively nearby.

Cops get hit by the chains, a cop car gets sent flying, along with the cops, the fronts of the buildings get smashed and glass shatters. Teklin, Jolt, and Machina all also get hit by the chains and sent flying but with all the cars flying, none of them hit anything but the ground. The ground is torn up, and all around Molly is devastation. She must be a villain too!

 warns Julius. He's programmed to give tactical advice, but this is getting ridiculous. Everyone is damaging everything nearby. <> she asks as she triggers defensive shielding, a bubble of translucent violet energy snapping into place around her.

Star Girl thinks. o O ( What the heck is going on out there?! )

Eight guns disappear from windows completely, even shielded from the attack by the buildings most lose their nerve and are no doubt rabbiting. Only four gunmen remain, and they /all/ open fire on Molly!

Molly goes sprawling forward, the force of her outburst sending her a bit forward, crashing into the ground. It does not harm her, though she feels the electricity as her chains come in contact with Jolt. "What..." she mutters, already trying to pick herself up and oblivious to the gunfire.

The glowing chains around Molly absorb almost all of the impact, leaving her to feel some of it, and she gets moved away from where she was to another part of the street. "WAIT WAIT OW WHAT WHAT OW STOP STOP!" she says, a bit unintelligibly, her arms raising up to protect herself again.

Teklin springs back to her feet, her joints still smoking, her boots and gloves also smoking. Outnumbered and crazy chain girl going, well, crazy, Teklin runs over to the nearest manhole, rips off the cover without any resistance at all like it weighed nothing, and jumps down into the sewers!

Noticing Teklin heading down into the sewers, Machina jumps down without a moment's hesitation.

Looking around, Machina notices Teklin running away and says, "This isn't going to be quite so easy for you." as a motor appears on her back, and wheels on her ankles as she zooms off in pursuit.

Star Girl appears and hangs upside down from the ceiling. "Boom." she says with her arms outstretched, a hand in each gunman's face.

ZAAAAM! Both gunmen who were drawn down on the hostages are flattened and unconscious after they hit the walls from the blast of Star Girls!

Star Girl turns to the hostages. "I'm Star Girl. Don't worry -- I'll protect you."

The former hostages seem very grateful!

Dropping the shield when it's obvious that there's no gunmen on the first floor aimed at her, Interface simply floats through the door. "Oh, good job." she remarks to Star Girl as she runs her optical sensors over the faces of the hostages. <> commands Ally in the armor.  replies the AI as it taps into its back door at the Federal Crime Database.

 replies Julius after merely a moment.  says Interface. And she says to Star Girl and the hostages. "You are safe. Your new friend there saw to that."

Molly picks herself up, looking around at the devastation she has wrought, "oh... no..." she says, realizing that it had been her to cause it. It does not yet occur to her that she survived a heck of a lot of gunfire that was all pointed directly at her. The bullets falling to he ground in a symphony of clinking noises amidst the cacophony of chain links.

As Machina drops down after her and acts all righteous Teklin glances to see if anyone else is coming. When apparently there isn't anyone else Teklin's full attention falls on Machina, "You are not equipped to deal with me." And she turns, spinning around she drives her foot towards Machina's midsection in a side kick!

Machina grunts as the kick slams into her, before she looks up and says, "Hmph. You -really- want to see what I'm capable of?" as a holographic overlay appears on her right eye, and a laser cannon appears on her right arm as she points it at Teklin and says, "Maybe you haven't heard about what I do to people who abuse technology." as it starts to charge up, while she grunts as it starts to crackle with red energy as she says, "It's not pretty." before the beam shoots out towards Teklin, -much- stronger than usual.

Down the street from where Machina chased Teklin underground the street explodes out and upwards in a flash of laser fire that burns through the asphalt and up into the air. Rumble rumble boom boom bang crumble. The street is in pain.

Star Girl drops from the ceiling to the floor, taking a moment to sweep her long hair out of her eyes. "Come with me," she says, beckoning for the hostages to follow. If anyone is unable to move, she's helps them out of the store to safety.

All the hostages are able to move, there wasn't time to tie anyone up or anything they were just afraid of the men with guns! Meanwhile, up above on the 2nd and third floor there is another burst of gunfire out down below into the street towards downed cops and cars and molly, all of it ineffective and seems more warning wild fire.

Teklin looks at the hole left in the street from that laser blast and she then looks back towards Machina. "As you wish." She runs towards Machina, closing the distance in a sprint and then leaps up into a leap kick straight at Machina!

As Machina is hit by the strike, she falls back and hits the nearby wall as she looks up and says, "...Nngh. T-Traitor. You have no right to use those I protect, much less have them as a part of your body." before she slumps down and passes out.

"Get them around the building to cover." says Interface as she hears gunfire from above. She also notes that there is still combat in the sewers. "I'll cover you until you get them around the corner." She adds, prepping for a potent thruster burn.

Civilians are more than happy to run like hell away from all the gunfire, and away from crazy psycho glowing chains! They are easily rabbited.

Star Girl leads the hostages to safety around the corner. She remains exposed, waving them on and past her like a baseball coach.

Soon as they are around the corner, Interface launches into the air and aims to drop down the hole. She shield likely won't fit so she drops it briefly. Only to land directly beneath the entrance, enhanced vision mode activating with the shield snapping right back up. "One chance. Run coward. Fail to do so and you -will- be taken down." says the digitized voice from her armor.

Molly approaches the unconscious body of Jolt, looking her over but not touching her. The horrible person who started the super fight having been forgotten, the gunmen only an afterthought in the window. For now. Who knows though, what might happen in short time. She notices then that the police are similarly afflicted, and she carefully checks on them too. Less careful however, as they aren't surrounded by an electrical nimbus.

The gunmen on the second and third floor stop firing, perhaps making their retreat while people are recovering, escorting civilians, and the like!

Molly is enacting standard first aid procedure, making sure breathing is regular, pulse regular, putting the cops into the recovery position.

Teklin... stops smoking, perhaps her system having automated repair functions or some such. She still sparks from damaged areas of gauntlets and boots but no longer smokes. Looking over at Interface Teklin suddenly reaches down to try and grab hold of Machina and flip her around in front of her as a living shield, per se, between Interface and Teklin, "You are also not equipped to face me on your own." She states again in her mechanical voice. "However choice presented as followed. Stop chase, or risk severe damage to this one and yourself."

"I already told you. Run away... drop her and run. And you will be allowed to flee." says Interface who then adds ironically, "It's a good thing that I am -never- on my own."

Slowly awakening in her arms, Machina looks up and says, "Nngh... You really want t-AGH!" as some joints can be heard popping as she crumples over in Teklin's arms, the signs of her bulwark reinforcement appearing momentarily before retracting.

"The odds have changed." Teklin states and her cybernetic muscles constrict on Machina, exerting twenty five tons of pressure inwards on the avatar with creaking and crunching and the like. "You will be allowed to take your wounded and flee." She holds out the limb body of Machina to Interface.

Shaking her head, Interface intones. "You are not fleeing. Do I take that as intent to stay and fight?" Her shields drop though, and she accepts the unconious avatar. "Next time coward." she says as she fires her thrusters and heads up to the street.

"I am so so so sorry," Molly says as she moves the police officers into the recovery position for the paramedics. "I don't know what's happening. Please, please be okay..."

It doesn't take long for paramedics to arrive, along with swat, that sweeps the buildings looking for holdouts. Instead they find empty shell casings from automatic fire but no actual criminals beyond the two that Star Girl knocked out. The cops are treated for cuts and bruises, the occasional dislocated shoulder or the like, nothing life threatening and they come around soon enough as well with assistance. Of course the paramedics are also concerned about Molly, who has chains, sticking out of her /skin/ but they're not sure what to do there!

As things calm down, the glowing chains seem to dissipate, leaving Molly looking again like someone who tried to merge with something puzzling. She explains to the paramedics what happened that she knows about, warning them about Jolt, as though they didn't already know, sitting down on the curb as they tend to the cops and she herself is examined. "I feel fine," she mentions. "...for someone who was shot a lot and um. Where am I right now? I was in the steelworks and then I was lying down there," she points to the point of impact.

Molly gets helped as best as the public services can, however the 'brand new meta' protocals work or the like. She gets informed of her location, and the date, and the time, just in case she didn't lose more time. But there's also emergency services going on over at the steelworks and such as well. So... things get taken care of as best they can be.