Log:Icelantic Holiday, Scene 9

Icelantic Holiday 2014/05/15 	 Cecila Eve Harlequin Paragon Rift Sukeban Titan Anthony Quinn|Anthony

9

In the Abandoned USAF Base
The combat rages in the abandoned USAF base. Reaver is twelve metres south of the ruined device. Qul'Stal is eight metres north. Terminax is eighteen metres west and on his butt after a Titan punch.

Harlequin stands on the other side of the open Gate. With a snap of his fingers blue and silver disks swirl into orbit around the mage. Harlequin otherwise just waits it seems.

Paragon steps through the Gate as flame and thunder abate, taking in the situation with a hand raised to shield her eyes from the chaos of the fray. Seeing Terminax take a hit from Titan and still look unphased, she takes a quick leap towards him. As she lands lightly in front of him, she intones cordially, "I'd usually give you the courtesy of surrendering before engaging in combat, but I'm afraid a country destroying device precludes you from that. Make this easy on yourself and power down your weapons if you wish to surrender, please." That said, Paragon clenches her hands together and raises them over her head with a creak of metal, preparing for a powerful overhand blow.

Terminax can see Paragon preparing to strike him but ignores her. He can't believe a pitiful human can hurt him. Titan's blow just got lucky. He wasn't ready for it.

Terminax is still conscious after Paragon hits him. Kind of stunned though. And eight metres down in his own Terminax shaped vertical pit from the force of the impact.

Terminax shakes his head to regain his senses. Astonished at the sheer force of the blow he took.

Harlequin watches Paragon smash Terminax deep into the floor. He thinks. o 0 (Note to self: Never get Paragon angry at me.)

Rift assesses the situation and was going to try to get the armored one but isn't as worried about him now. She eyes the foes and then her form shimmers and then she appears behind Reaver, slamming a punch at him, her hand seeming to shimmer as she does. Then she vanishes just as suddenly appearing back where she started.

Reaver is affected by Rift's action. He's still in action but is starting to look a little worse for wear.

Ten shouts, "The reptile with the Swiss army sword is mine!" as she charges Qual'Stal, swinging her staff (seemingly) wildly.

Qual'Stal is flashed and unaware of his surroundings which makes him an east target for Ten's staff. Ten knocks him back 14m. Only he doesn't go that far. He goes back 12m and slams into something that isn't there visually.

"Mind the invisible ship," Quinn calls out. "I'll be wanting to take that apart later on."

Qual'Stal isn't stunned but he looks quite badly shaken up.

Ten grins. "What, you mean I can't take it apart *now*?"

Qual'Stal gets to its feet and extending the variable sword to it's fullest extension he swings it blindly

The variable sword swings a little low, cutting a slit that's carved into the floor as the almost invisble blade slices almost effortlessly through steel and rock.

Ten says, to make sure the others take the hint, "Like I said, this one's mine."

Sukeban walks toward the Grey, ignoring the micromissile circling around behind her for another run, embers floating from her hair as it waves in the thermal generated by the flames swirling around her. She raises her hand, white-hot flames spiraling around her arm as she points the alien, "Sayonara."

Reaver is struck by Sukeban's white hot flames and tossed back several metres, ending up on the floor in a slightly smoking heap twitching slightly but only semi-conscious.

Reaver recovers consciousness but is still down on the floor. Meanwhile the micro-missle comes around for another attack on Sukeban.

With Sukeban's attention on Reaver, this time the missile hits her.

Sukeban is blown foward, but her flames absorb most of the impact and she rolls smoothly back to her feet. "Cute toy. Might actually make me get serious."

Suddenly Anthony feels a familiar presence in his mind. Peter is contacting Anthony as Anthony is the only hero Peter has had mental contact with before. Anthony 'hears' Peter's voice and senses the near panic in the boy's mind. "There's been a terrible earthquake. All the buildings have collapsed." Then Anthony can sense through Peter's telepathy the face of Mr. Kirk in front of Peter. Peter getting shaken by his shoulders by the teacher. "Peter, you all need to help. It's time to be heroes." Peter's panic ebbs and you sense him searching mentally for the injured in the collapsed buildings and starting to give verbal instructions to the other meta children. The presence fades as he lets the telepathy lapse.

"Sure thing, Ten," Quinn calls out as he takes to the air even as the missiles home in on Sukeban, "but I hope you don't mind if I take care of this sword. I'd hate to have him carve up something important like their ship." He flies toward the flailing reptiloid and points a finger, the pencil thin beam of a laser flashing forth. "I mean the odds of it not getting blown up by either Major Disaster or General Destruction here aren't all that good to begin with," he adds, "so why make them any worse?" Despite his tone, however, there is a certain grimness to his voice. They need to get these guys contained quickly so that they can go and assist with disaster efforts outside.

Ten says, "What, don't you want to take that apart, too? I mean, the slow way...."

The variable sword hand unit sparks and fizzles as Quinn's laser burns into it. The force blade vanishes.

"Sustained force field with a molecular width," Quinn says, "Not really that difficult to make. We need to get these guys down and contained. There's a lot of damage outside."

Titan sees that the armored one and the Grey seem to be under control. And...well, Ten's warning must have been meant for the others, not him. So, he leaps over to Qual'Stal and takes a swing with an uppercut.

Qual'Stal is hit by Titan's punch. The reptile is fairly tough and is still going although with his main weapon out of action he isn't that much of a threat any more. He slams back into the invisible object behind him.

As Harleqin steps through the Gate it closes and disappears behind him. His gaze sweeps the room then comes to rest on Reaver. A grey beam flashes frmo the eyeholes of his mask as the temperature seems to drop and a faint hint of decay wafts on the air."

The Grey is enveloped by a, well, grey mist that dissipates after a moment. The alien seems to rigidly paralyzed when the mist is gone.

Paragon unclasps her hands as she straightens herself out, looking down at Termanix still moving about. "You're pretty tough," she says in sincere admiration. "But I'm afraid if you don't surrender, I'll have to get more serious. Make this easy on yourself," she extends terms of surrender, as honor dictates, but until Terminax gives the word, she doesn't hold back her assault. Not with the safety of a country at stake. She leaps up nimbly over the crater she created with Terminax, then drops down swiftly, extending a plated knee aimed at Terminax's stomach.

Paragon crashes down on Terminax, driving her knee hard against Terminax's abdominal plating as she lands on top of him.

Rift frowns for a moment and then makes a choice. She vanishes from her location in a flash of red and appears next to Qual'Stal. She throws a punch and vanishes to appear on the other side of him throwing another punch and then tries to appear behind him to throw a final punch and then reappears back where she started.

Ten thinks. o O (So much for 'this one's mine'... though Q did what I should have done. Can't really complain.)

Rift manages to actually connect with two of the punches before bouncing back to her starting place and wincing from hitting something that's invisible.

Terminax's shoulder mounted autocannon swivels up to point at Paragon and three balls of plasma shoot from it.

Struck by all three of the plasma balls Paragon is lifted half way up the vertical Terminax shaped shaft.

Still flashed and unaware of his surroundings the reptile fires his secondary weapon in a random direction in his forward arc.

Paragon takes the brunt of the plasma shots square on the chest plate, pushing her up the shaft. Smokey tendrils rise off of her, but she remains undeterred by the blasts. "So the hard way, then," she has her answer.

A pale force pulse shoots out from Qual'Stal's secondary weapon, missing everyone, and impacts against a wall denting it.

Ten uses her staff - variable quarterstaff? - to push herself hard *through* Qual'Stal, hoping to take the reptile down before someone gets hurt. Besides, she said he was hers.

Ten crashes into the lizard, carrying it with her *through* the side of the suddenly-visible Guild orbital shuttle behind it.

Titan grins, looking to Ten. "Nice shot."

Rift pauses to take stock of the situation.

Paragon drops herself back down the shaft with her fist drawn back, her muscles making the sound of tightening rope as she winds it up. As she lands on Terminax, she holds him down with her free hand, then with a resounding >CLANG!<, she cracks her plated right fist across his jaw and knocking out the power armored villain. She raises her fist again to strike, then pauses, seeing that her opponent is out. Standing up, she dusts off her chestplate from the plasma marks left behind. Leaning down, she grabs Terminax by the arm and braces her legs on the sides of the hole before leaping out with her opponent. As she touches down at the hanger level, she drops Terminax down carefully.

Sukeban sighs and walks over to the motionless grey alien, white hot flames whipping around her right hand. "Ya know, it would take a real bastard to hit ya when yer like this. But, eh, I guess I'm a bastard." She punches at it with her burning hand.

The paralysed Reaver grey alien is knocked unconsious by Sukeban's flaming punch and the alien slides a couple of metres back along the floor.

Quinn sighs. "We don't have time for this," he says. "Cecilia, how quickly can you get back to the city? Your powers are probably one of the best for trying to prop things back up."

Rift looks at Quinn and then the others, "I can get her there instantly." she says softly, "And one or two others."

Ten comes out of the shuttle, a bit sheepishly. "Sorry, Q."

Titan raises a brow and looks to Ten, "So...what were you worried about with the reptile guy? He didn't seem like a big deal."

Sukeban lets her flames sink back under her skin. "Stupid jerks. I mean, seriously. They should have surrendered as soon as they saw us."

Cecila hrms "Ah right... time to go clean up my mess... well my top speed is a good chunk faster than highway speed"

Ten says, "Last time I saw someone with that weapon - assuming it's not the same one - they were astounded that it didn't cut me. Apparently that sword will cut just about anything but me or questonite. Maybe you'd be ok, but I didn't want to chance it."

Quinn nods and looks at the assembled people. "Right," he says to Rift. "Cecilia, Harlequin, and me, if you can handle all three of us. "Titan, you guys can secure these guys, right?"

Ten says, "Of course, once he was disarmed it didn't really matter."

Harlequin does not say anything but twists his hand in a compicated gesture. The Gate opens once again and beyond it one can see the market square in Reyjavik. "Is this close enough?" he murmurs.

Titan nods to Ten, "Ah...fair enough. But yeah, I'd have been fine." He looks over to Quinn, "No problem. We can secure them."

Ten says, "Looks good to me. Should we go back right away? Don't want to leave the kids longer than we have to."

Once the gate is open and the market square can be seen through it, the thing that instantly strikes Harlequin is the scene looks normal. People are shopping. The market is in full swing.A couple of windows of buildings facing the gate are cracked and in one case broken but there's no apparent structual damage.

Sukeban nods, "Yeah. They're good kids... but they're also good at gettin' in to trouble."

"Go for where the kids are," Quinn says. "They were much closer."

Rift frowns inside her helmet but they no one can see it. She doesn't answer as it becomes mute when the gate opens. She just looks around the place, using her spatial senses to see if anything else might be cloaked in here.

Harlequin's smile is hidden behind his mask as he says, "Apparently they build well in Iceland. Shall I bend the Gate to the lake?"

Titan goes about securing the villains, using various bits of metal to bind them.

Ten says, "Yep. The faster we get back, the better."

Paragon walks over to the gate, looking through. "Well, that's a relief. Seems like superficial, minimal damage. Can you make a gate to a security facility to detain these villains?"

Rift speaks up, "I can take all three of them to Starguard HQ back home and have them detained there." she offers.

Titan nods to Rift, "Sounds good to me. That would be great. They'll have to process these folks, I'm sure."

Quinn shakes his head. "Harlequin," he says, "open the gate to where the kids are at the lake. The energy of something like this drops off at an inverse to the distance and they were only about 12 miles away."

Harlequin looks over at Q then to Rift. "That seems like a good idea." After a beat he adds, "And something I cannot do. I do not have the, hmm, range to reach the Bay." Then at Quinn's request, he closes this Gate and opens one to the lake the kids are. More specically to behind the shed the team left behind of.

Ten says, "Right - I'll get back to the kids then!"

Rift nods her head and smiles, "I could leave them in orbit if we would prefer but that would probably be bad." she says and then moves over to the three, "One trip to Starguard HQ then will be back in a moment." she says, "Anything before I go?"

Sukeban withdraws her flames from her hair and eyes and reactivates her holodisguise.

Back at the Lake
Ten hurries through the portal, hoping the kids have managed to stay out of trouble for half an hour, for a change.

Titan sees if any of the aliens are awake, to hopefully ask a couple of questions before they're turned over. He shakes his head to Rift, "I don't think so. Just let them know what's up. If necessary, I can answer questions for them after the fact."

Ten remembers herself and changes back to Eve before anyone spots her.

When the gate opens Harlequin can see the shed isn't there any more. Just a pile of rubble. Both changing rooms and the tourist shop are collapsed as well. The twins are flying, moving chunks of building rubble away from the shop ruins. Mark and Patrica are clearing away slightly smaller chunks. Graham is cutting through tangled metal sheeting and steel beams from the roof with a pin-point electric arc. Peter seems to be co-ordinating the work.

Paragon motions over to the damaged earthquake machine. "Don't forget to confiscate that. We can't leave that here. They may have accomplices that know where to find it."

Eve hurries over. "Is everyone ok?? Anything I can do to help?"

Peter tells Eve, "There's two trapped in the boy's changing room, one in the girl's changing room, and four in the shop."

Quinn immediately begins to head through the gate. "Go back and secure the base," he says to Eve. "Your abilities are going to be of more limited use here and we don't want any of those guys leaving with any of the equipment." He takes a look at the area and starts trying to figure out where best to put Cecila's abilities to work.

Eve says, "I'll do what I can...."

Lady Nienna is busy healing injuries with a queue waiting for her attention, mostly damaged ankles or strained wrists from falls when the earth quaked.

Harlequin says, "Keep an eye out for Leonid. I will stay here and kep an eye on everything."

Rift cocks her head to the side and then smiles and from where she stands by the three, she ports over and gets the unconscious doctor as well and back to the other three and then while touching them all she takes the four of them and herself back to Colonial Bay and Starguard HQ.

Paragon switches on her hologram and heads through the gate to look after the kids. Seeing the collapsed buildings, she runs to the tourist shop. Looking around, she tries to do a headcount of the kids. . o O (Who're we missing?)

Cecila smiles some and hmms "Maybe I should get back with the kids" she offers Quinn as she activates the disguise mechanism once more "Do I look ok?" she asks

Sukeban steps out of sight, turns of her holodisguise and lets her flames out agains. She comes back and starts using her focus flames around her hand to cut away wreckage and open access to where people are trapped.

Eve heads to the changing rooms to try to get people out of the rubble.

Paragon's HUD switches over to infrared vision as she scans the ruins for heat signatures to help her know where to dig. She carefully starts removing bits of rubble, careful not to move anything that's load-bearing.

Peter is directing the rescue efforts. He seems to know exactly where every trapped person is. With the help of the adult heroes and the children working as well it's not long before all the trapped people have been rescued and Lady Nienna is able to treat them.

Quinn just abandons the pretense of pretending to be a normal chaperone for now, especially with Patricia and Mark dashing about. He sets to work with his cutting and welding lasers and the enhanced strength of his suit.

Peter sags looking worn and exhausted. "That's all of them." he says with satisfaction as the last trapped person is freed from the rubble.

Sukeban waves to Patricia and Mark, "Good job squirts," She thinks for a moment, "Huh. Is this the first time ya've seen the real me?"

Anthony gives a nod to Peter. "Good job," he says to him. "How are they? Do any of the people seem to have any life-threatening injuries?"

Patrica nods to Sukeban, "Yes." she says. And then she's running over and hugging Sukeban. Mark is doing the same to Anthony.

Eve breathes a sigh of relief to see everyone doing ok.

Harlequin steps through the Gate into the sunlight by the lake. He looks around then calls out in Russian, "Leonid? Where are you?"

Peter tells Anthony, "Some did but that lady with the pointed ears healed them."

A few moments after Harlequin steps through the gate he's got an invisible child hugging him tight.

Anthony returns Mark's hug a little awkwardly due to his armor. "All right," he says to Peter. "Thanks. You guys did a great job, all of you." He musses Mark's hair with a gauntleted hand. "Come on," he says, "let me get out of this and back into some street clothes."

Harlequin reaches down and hugs the child. He says, "Everything is alright, my little wolf. I told you I would come back. I always will."

Paragon folds her arms over her chest as all the injured get tended to, keeping lookout for any other possible dangers while the kids go to their caretakers. . o O (Villains, I understand. But kids? The Guardians never taught me about that...).

Sukeban ruffles Patricia's hair, "Hope yer not disappointed."

Leonid comes back into visiblity. "I was scared." he admits.

Patrica grins, "You look beautiful, Mo..uh.. Anego."

Cecila makes her way through the gate after getting her disguise back on and is glad to see everything is going alright. She finds a rock to sit on and think. After all she's at least partly responsible for the mess here anyways "Well at least everyone seems to be alright" she comments out loud

Harlequin nods slightly as he continues to hold the child. "I know. And until you are older, what you did is the right thing. being scared is not a weakness." He then looks over at Cecila. "Yes, so it seems. And it is better than what that trio planned for Iceland."

Eve says, "But *why* were they doing that? That's the question."

The senior guide comes over to the group of heroes and meta children. "You saved many people today. Thank you." He looks at the kids, "Next year you come back. It will be free. We show you a good time, yes?"

Sukeban grins at Patricia, "OK, first thing I'm goin' to do as yer provisional mom is take ya to get yer eyes checked."

Patrica says, "But you are. My eyes are fine."

 Harlequin says, "Because they were hired to do so. I overheard that much when I scryed them"

Cecila nods a bit in response to that "Oh definately. As for why... well when you consider the fact this is all geothermal and there's what a super volcano on the island they were probably trying to trigger some sort of cataclyismic eruption"

Eve says, "Of course - but why?"

Paragon says, "That's not motivation, though. That's doing it 'just because'. You're saying they did it because it was easy."

Sukeban says, "Lower property values, makin' it easier to buy the Earth for cheap?"

Cecila says, "Trying to block out the sun and cause chaos across the entire planet? Hell if I was a villain I'd try to set off a volcano rather than sticking my lair in one like most of them like to do"

Paragon rubs her chin. Her hologram follows suit, rubbing a stubbly face. "Is Earth really on the market? I don't know much about intergalactic real estate. But there had to be something to gain from it."

Patrica asks Sukeban, "A villain did this. The earthquake?"

Sukeban nods, "That's right Patti-chan. Yer anego and her gang beat them up and made them stop."

Quinn sighs. "If Earth were undergoing the kind of ecological disaster one can expect from the eruption of a super-volcano," he says, "we would become a prime market for commodities from other planets. Food and medicine immediately followed by technological and reconstructive assistance."

Patrica hugs Sukeban, "Good. It was bad but it wasn't as bad as the China earthquake. That would have been really bad if it happened here."

Harlequin shrugs slightly as he says over the comm, "I doubt any Earth-based villain hired these mercenaries. I would imagine if one could trace the payment, it would lead to someone off this world. I do not know who hired them but the presence of a Guild shuttle might point to someone with access to the Guild, no?"

 Titan says, "We'll be back once we hand these guys over to Starguard."

Paragon frowns a little. "Super-volcano? Cancelled flights, volcanic ash in the atmosphere, environmental and climate change. *If* the device was powerful enough to make that happen, would there be anything to gain from that for Guild members?"

 Titan says, "In case anyone...like say, Lady Nienna asks about our whereabouts."

Eve says, "Darn aliens, coming over here, taking jobs from our super villains...."

Paragon says, "Earth's managed in the past without alien intervention. It doesn't sound like it would be enough drive to make it a commodities market for aliens."

The senior guide, Haraldur Sveinsson, tells everyone, "We'll arrange transport back to the hotel. I've spoken to the hotel staff and they say there's no damage in the city other than a few broken windows. We'll refund a quarter of the cost of the holiday as we need to cut it short. I'm sorry. But we can't plan for natural disasters.

Cecila hmms and nods some to Quinn's assessment "Probably the prime reason some alien entities would want us in a bad position. We'd have to trade for basic necessities and what do we have on earth that there isn't a whole lot of out there? I dunno but obviously someone is going through a lot of trouble to get at it"

Quinn shakes his head "Volcanic ash and canceled flights are the results of regular volcanoes," he says to Paragon. "Super volcanoes are orders of magnitude more destructive. You're talking about significant and sudden climate change that could last a century or more, and if you're playing a long enough game there's probably plenty of things on Earth that would be worth causing that kind of damage."

Sukeban pats Patricia on the head again, "All right. Time for us to head back. I guess me and Quinn will need to talk to Steel before long, and set up yer summer trip."

Mr Kirk is also on his PDA. He announces, "I've spoken to Lord Markham, children. He sends his congratulations for a fine job. And so you don't miss out, tomorrow you all go to Euro-Disney with unlimited passes to all the rides."

Eve says, "Do they need escorts for that too?"

Mark and Patrica hug their respective 'Mum' and 'Dad'. "I'll talk to Col Steel as soon as I can. Patrica tells Sukeban.

Mr Kirk smiles, "You're all included." he tells Eve and the rest of the heroes.