Log:Rift Crisis II, Scene 9

Rift Crisis II 2019/03/15 Jackie Paragon Sentinel Spirit Union

9

The weather today is a lot better than it has been lately. It's hardly summery, but at least the excessive cold has been driven away, for now at least, by warmer winds from the south. Some people are taking advantage of the warmer weather to engage in outdoor activities, but basically today is a day like any other. In the bay, ships make their way by, some to or from the port of Colonial Bay, while others go on to Baltimore or other ports further up the bay.

Jackie doesn't normally make housecalls. Or tend human non-meta patients. But when it's one of the Consultants at the CBSU hospital exceptions are made. Having finished the call she's taking the scenic route back, heading towards the beach. If she can find an early season beach vendor open there's the prospect of a chocolate and mint ice-cream cone. Small size of course.

Spirit is on his way back from a trip to Tranquility. He arcs down over the bay, leaving a trail of light behind him as he flies. His mind is elsewhere, though...now that he's had word that Syphon returned, at least to some extent.

Paragon is taking advantage of the good weather to try and construct a small child playset by one of the private beach homes. The old Guardians base is no longer in disrepair. In retirement, Paragon has finally managed to patch up all the battle damage of the past, with no new villains to punch new holes in it.

Jackie is in luck: a hopeful vendor is open for business. She hands over the 'small' cone, asking with a grin, "You're ok to carry that?"

Lizzy is lost, plain and simple. She was on her way to Chinatown, but must have gotten off at the wrong ML stop.

Jackie chuckles, "Thanks," she says as she pays.

The sight of a ship listing to one side is hardly unusual. But it's a fairly calm day, and only one ship seems to be having that trouble. And it's one of the larger ones, at that.

Spirit gets the radio distress signal as well as noticing the tilting ship. "Hmm." He arcs downward to get a closer look at the vessel and the situation in general.

Sentinel flies over the East Coast, preparing to circle around and grab a strawberry banana smoothie from his favorite coffee shop in Colonial Bay- that is until he hears the maday call go out over the radio bands.

He comes to a sudden halt as he attempts to zero in on the source of the SOS and then angles towards the vessel reported.

Oh dear. One of the ships was listing...any people on board might need help! Lizzy mutters "E Pluribus Unum", becomes Union, and sprints toward the ship.

Paragon hammers in a poll with a metal fist before lifting a helmed head and panning in the direction of the ship after hearing the radio mayday. "Hmmm." Paragon's eyes glow white within the recessed holes in their helm. Those eyes draw down to the water, Paragon's eternal foe, before the hero starts marching to the water. The old armor clanks with each step.

Jackie spots a ship listing. Years of watching movies tells her that's a sign of it sinking. Hurrying to the nearest child she hands over the just purchased ice-cream cone. "Here. Hope you like this favour." Then she shrinks out of her everyday clothes and takes to the air. Spotting the armored Paragon she swoops down, "Hi Paragon. Would you like a lift out there?"

The ship continues to list, revealing more of the underside of the hull to those on land.

Paragon nods and raises a gauntleted hand up. "It'd be much appreciated," comes the tin-can echo, jovial and as boyish as the masculine armor.

Spirit arcs down close to the boat, his hands glowing brightly. He lets loose with a blast of energy at one of the large tentacles trying to pull the boat underwater.

Spirit transmits over the emergency band, << We have some kind of undersea creature trying to pull the boat under. This is Spirit from SGG. I'm engaging it now. >>

Jackie reaches down with a tiny hand, "Hold tight." Then she recalls what she's heard about Paragon. "Not too tight," she qualifies her initial statement. When Paragon does so she flies out to the ship, accelerating at a, for her, moderate rate to avoid dislodging Paragon - or ending up with a dislocated shoulder.

As Union continues to sprint toward the ship, she sees other heroes flying overhead.

Paragon holds on tight for a normal person, but delicately for Paragon's strength levels. "No worries, not too tight."

Sentinel flies straight for the side of the ship being lost to the sea in hopes of dipping down into sea so he can push it back above the waves.

He's about to chime in on the emergency band when Spirit's communique comes over.

He responds. <>

Paragon says aloud while radioing <> Looking up to Jackie, Paragon asks, "Perhaps you can kindly drop me on the giant squid?"

Jackie shouts over the wind rush, "Yes, Of course. But where is it? I can't see any squid."

Paragon adds to the comms <>

Paragon's eyes blink off and on at the realization. "Oh, yes. It's been a while." Pointing to the opposite of the ship, Paragon says, "Get to that side of the ship, and I'll guide you before giving you instructions to drop."

Jackie shouts, "Will do." and goes where Paragon indicates.

Spirit can tell the creature is huge....might as well go for a full strength beam. It looks like it might be necessary. He gets it relatively close, and taking care to not hit the ship, he lets loose with a laser fired with both hands at a tentacle.

A writhing of the tentacle indicates the creature felt that. But it doesn't let go.

Jackie asks in a shout, "Paragon, how tough are you. I could do a cannonball drop-by?"

Facing the underside of the ship from the dock, Union looks for a way to get inside the ship to help anyone aboard.

Union spots a dinghy not too far away. Promising herself to return it, she jumps in and casts off.

"Quite tough. Cannonball special away!" Paragon says enthusiastically. "Just be sure not to miss it. And fish me out if I sink."

Sentinel replies- the confusion only half heard in his voice. <>

And that's when he spots the tentacles and the body attached to it. <>

The SuperSoldier arcs towards one of the tentacles attached to the ship. He also knows squid loose tentacles all the time. He angles a tight laser beam at his target- hoping to incite it to remvoe itself from the hull.

Paragon's mechanical mind quickly plots a course and points to a two meter square spot in the ocean. "If you can throw me exactly there, I should be able to hit the creature head on."

Jackie nods to Paragon on hearing the instructions and hums the Dambusters theme loudly to herself as she swoops over the superstructure of the ship and than flies vertically down like a demented Ju 87D Stuka dive bomber on steroids, shouting to Paragon "Bomb away" just before she starts to climb up, letting Paragon go in a plunging arc straight at the giant squid.

Paragon hits the water at a speed that would kill a normal person. The armored form slows as it pierces the surface tension, the momentum carrying them to their calculated destination. Just close enough to sock that poor thing in the eye.

Paragon's fist pierces the eyes - and the squid goes limp for a moment...

Two twin beams of cosmic energy erupt from Griffin's eye sockets and lance towards the great giant squid and then into its flesh.

Its tentacle writhes but that's about all the effect he has on the beast.

Paragon flinches away after the blow lands, feeling a deep twinge of guilt immediately.

Paragon says words of apology, but they just come out as bubbles until there's no air left in their lungs.

Union steers the dinghy around the bow of the ship and sees the squid for the first time. She pulls up close to a massive tentacle.

Jackie flips over in the air and arrows down again, striking the ocean with almost no splash and continuing at a velocity undiminished from her flight speed. Diving further down she grabs Paragon and carries her back up to the surface. "I forget to ask, do you need to breathe?"

Paragon looks up, grateful at the catch. Water drains out of the seams of the armor, proving it isn't water proof. When Paragon speaks, there's some gurgling as water empties from their lungs and they can take a breath to speak. "I'm unliving, so I do not. But air is useful for speaking. Thank you for the retrieval."

Spirit fires again at the same tentacle, trying to get it to let go of the ship. One at a time. There's a need to be methodical here.

The limb goes limp and starts sliding away off the ship.

Jackie chuckles, "Glad to help. Now, I think by maritime law I'm entitled to claim 10% of what you're worth as salvage. But I've heard of you, so I'll settle for a home cooked meal."

Paragon laughs jovially at Jackie's salvage claim. "The meal would be worth more than I am. But I can promise a fantastic meal. I haven't had the opportunity to make something truly extravagant for a while."

Griffin floats towards Spirit and joins in, moving his target to the next tentacle. He doesn't have quite the output Spirit does with out being pushed to extremes- which with the body of the creature mostly unconscious, this is not that kind of situation any more.

His eyes glow brightly as he changes tactics and flies nearer towards the the beast's next tentacle in hopes of grabbing it up.

The squid ignores the slight sting of Sentinel, and has lost track of the creature that half-blinded it. Spirit, however, it has in its sights. It tightens the hold on the ship, not least for balance, and swats at Spirit with a tentacle from the depths.

Griffin's hands sing into the rubbery flesh of the giant beast. <<"Is this thing bigger than usual or something? Seems awfully strong.">> He says with surprise as his field arcs over the tentacle he's grabbed. He holds on tightly hoping his enrgy field will chip away at its grip.

Spirit is caught unaware by a large tentacle. He hadn't been expecting it would notice him, though in retrospect, perhaps he should have. The tentacle slams through Spirit, sending him tumbling away from the scene, leaving him rattled for the moment.

Jackie says to Paragon, "If I drop you on the body can you hold on to it? Please don't hit it in the eyes again. You'll injure it."

Union sees that one of the tentacles is badly damaged. She pulls up to that one and, focusing her energy as her grandfather taught her, punched it with all her might.

"I can grab hold of it, but it's so big. I'm not sure that will help, but I will try. Or I can try to loosen its hold on the ship," Paragon offers. "And...I'm afraid I already injured it. Parts of the body don't seem as tough as the tentacles." What did she expect?

Jackie tells Paragon, "Get ready. I know about the injury. I'm going to heal its eye when I get a break from catching falling heroes."

As Union's punch lands, the dinghy moves in the opposite direction, lessening the force of the blow.

Jackie swoops down over the body of the squid and drops Paragon on the fly before racing off after the stunned Spirit to try and catch him.

Jackie grabs Spirit and halts his fall towards the ocean. "Just like old times."

Spirit shakes his head, recovering his wits. As he realizes he's being carried, he says, "Thanks for the assist. I should be okay at this point."

Sentinel starts to take things a bit more serious when the tentacle takes a swipe at Spirit and sends him careening towards the ocean.

He's about to fly off to grab him and thus relinquish his grasp when the mote of energy that is Jackie jets off towards him. He lets out a relieved sigh and then wills himself to take it up a notch and wrench this tentacle free.

Jackie smiles, "Good. Hey, I keep meaning to visit you and Zeal but you wouldn't believe how busy I'm being kept at the hospital. I'll make one of these days I promise."

Griffin must not have eaten his Wheaties today because that giant tentacle doesn't move one inch, despite him summoning all of his usually very mighty strength.

He's jsu tglad Kat isn't here to see this embarassing turn of events.

Paragon makes a calculated fall again while splashing into the water. The armored hero tries to grab hold of the gian squid this time with a big bearhug.

Paragon squeezes the rubbery body so tight that that part of the squid goes numb.

The squid's tentacles thrash about....

Union pulls back up to the damaged tentacle (1), grabs it, and squeezes.

Paragon gives the best hugs. But the squid disagrees.

The tentacle goes limp in Union's arms. She releases it, and it slides into the water, causing a wave that pushes the dinghy back a few feet.

Jackie checks to make absolutely sure Spirit has recovered his senses. Then she flies back toward and over the ship at a height that allows Spirit to initiate his flight safely, then dives into the ocean down to the squid's injured eye.. and tries to heal the physical damage.

Jackie observes some of the ruptured flesh knit together. She hasn't fully healed the damage but she's making progress.

Whether the squid understands why its eye no longer hurts as much as it did is unclear. But it has other concerns - the tiny creature which has pinched a large section of it's body into numbness. Leaving go of the ship, it grabs at the source of its pain with four huge tentacles, even it propels itsself downwards away from the other nuisance with its other three working tentacles.

Paragon gets tangled up in tentacles by surprise. As the squid starts to drag them both down, Paragon uses all of their strength to break free by creating enough space between the tentacles to slip free. But now Paragon's in free-fall..er...sink.

The released ship starts to right itself - good for it. Not so good for small boats hit by the wake....

Union sees the squid take to the depths, dragging Paragon with it. She takes a deep breath and dives into the water, hoping against hope to reach the armored heroine.

Jackie cannot help but think oO(again?!) as she pats the squid's eyelid oO(I'll be back to finish healing.) Then she's accelerating, her wings swept back and propelling her through the water at an astonishing speed to once again grab onto Paragon and start raising her toward the surface.

Spirit steadies himself and flies to a position where he can see well, checking to see if anyone needs rescuing from the water.

Paragon waits for her lungs to clear out all the water. "That's two meals I owe you now."

Paragon says something that just comes out as bubbles and incoherent yet calm noise.

Sentinel instinctively lets go just before he's pulled under, not realizing Paragon is in tow until he's already flying to get ahead of the wake- trying to figure out what to do. If Lightning were here he'd just zip everyone to safety- but if he tried that, well things would get messy.

Then a thought occurs to him- he flies over the water as his eyes begin glowing- then he spreads the energy out attempting to flash vaporize the wave while its still small enough to contain.

The wave rolls towards the shore and Griffin chases after it- gaining on it rapidly, then as he passes it the energy doubles and steam starts rising form the wave rapidly as his eyes scan across its wake.

He pours it on until the once tumultuous wave is barely taller than its natural kin.

The squid apparently decides this meal is putting up too much of a fight. It swims away down, down, into the impossible depths.

Union keeps swimming downward, trying to find Paragon.

Griffin's energy sense is not obscured byt he steam he's made- so he flies through it confidently now that the danger to the boaters has passed. His brief bout of success bouys him a bit too after finding himself so out-classed by the monsterous squid.

As it swims down only then does he notice how deep the bay is.

<<"Guys- that thing is swimming WAAAAAAY down... way deeper than the bay goes.">> He reports over the emergency band.

Jackie continues swimming up, passing by Union in the process and signalling him to rise with Paragon and her, easily reaching the surface.

The boaters who miraculously weren't swamped cheer Sentinel.

Union doesn't see Jackie and Paragon, and keeps going down.

Spirit flies down closer to the water, and reaches down with strands of solid light to grab Union and try to pull her upward.

Jackie shakes her head on reaching the surface, "I've swum all around this area clearing junk off the seabed. The bay just isn't that deep. What on earth has happened?"

Spirit shakes his head as Union shrugs off his tendrils. "She has no idea who I am, I'm guessing?" He dives straight into the water, not slowing down at all as he strikes the surface. He moves right in front of Union, and generates some words with light images, with an arrow pointing upward. 'Where are you going? It's gone. Everyone is on the surface.'

There's a sudden turbulance in the water, as if currents are being altered...

Union gets pulled up to the surface.

Union starts yelling, "Paragon's still down..." She trails off as she sees Paragon, held by Jackie.

Just in time - the bottom of the bay returns just behind Union....

Spirit looks from Union to Paragon and back. "That explains that."