Log:New Starguard Adventures, Scene 6

New Starguard Adventures 2016/03/21 	 Chen Grimm Malcolm Torus Victory 6

Chen watches the two basketball players leave with relief. . o O(Okay. No more innocents around.) Holding onto the beast she tries for a dunk shot, stretching her tentacles to lift it to roof level and then trying to slam it down through the hoop.

Chen laughs as the beast's head gets encircled by the basketball hoop as she slams it down. Admittedly she's wrecked the hoop but the comic effect is worth it.

The hell hound snarls as Chen slams it down through the hoop, smashing the backboard, and toppling the stanchion. It's still struggling against her, but the continued grappling is starting to sap the fight from it.

Victory runs over toward the beast, and followsup with a flying kick. He's starting to flag a little bit, but he puts as much into the strike as he can.

Victory leans into the kick, letting out another kiai shout. His boot strikes solidly, and he land on his feet, breathing heavily. Thankfully, the beast keeps over.

Grimm is doubled over in the air, arms wrapped around herself as she's half-fetal from the flames that washed over her a moment ago. As she begins to drop, she extends her legs and uncurls from a ball, landing on her feet roughly after a sudden drop. Her arms spread out to keep her balance from her hard landing.

The robed wizard floats towards where Grimm has landed, hovering 2m up and 4m away from the hero. "See that we're not disturbed," he instructs the hell hound, gesturing with his staff towards where Forge has crashed. He never takes his eyes off of Grimm, however. He points his staff towards her. A portal opens above her and blast of icy air swirls downwards, threatening crystallize the very air around her.

Meanwhile the dog beast pads over to put itself between Malcolm and the confrontation between the mage and Grimm. It snarls menacingly.

"R-ready...to give up?" Gabrielle taunts unsteadily after just shaking off the worst of the firey blast. She pats out her smoldering shoulder, her t-shirt now sporting a sleeveless look. She narrows her eyes suspiciously at Bonefinger, expecting something from an unexpected direction. She feels the cold air proceeding the icy air and reacts. Grimm's form darkens and becomes monochromatic, until she's just a semi-transparent shadow of her former self. A living shadow in Gabrielle's outline. And shadows aren't affected by the cold.

The mage seems annoyed. "So, it seems you've learned something about how to control one of the elements," he says. "That won't save you against one who's a master of several."

Chen gives the beast a final squeeze, just to make sure. "Any idea how the others are doing, Victory? I'm an occasional pro-term probationary SGG member. So I don't have a SGG comms unit." she says.

Victory works on catching his breath while he calls in to SG. "The situation at the university is under control. How are the others doing?"

The Torus tightens the restraints it built around the HellHound.

It calculates the different tolerances involved and double checks its work.

With Psyn guarding the downed mutt, the Torus teleports away to see how the other strike teams have fared against whatever it is they found at their various locations.

First location- to Grimm and Malcolm's location in the city's center.

Forge takes a few seconds to shove himself free of the ruined masonry his impact with the storefront caused. He takes a staggering half-step toward the dog beast as it interposes itself between the metal man, Grimm, and Loaner Austin Powers villain Bonefinger. Promptly Malcolm drops to his knees, fists slamming into the pavement as his chest heaves to suck up as much air as he can.

"You can do this, Grimm. You're strong," groans out Forge as his headset starts lighting up with Victory's radio call. Glancing toward the icon, the connection activates, "We could use a hand in the Alien District. Kind of a situation here."

The Dog Beast stalks closer, watching Malcolm for any sudden moves.

The mage raises his skeletal hand and levels it at Grimm with the thumb, pointer, and pinky extended and the other finger curled. He utters a word in an otherworldly language to fire a blast of crackling blue energy at Grimm.

Gabrielle's confidence is boosted by Forge's words. She's got this. She's strong. She's...not nearly fast enough! Mostly because she was overconfident that her powers would keep her safe.

The blue bolt of energy slams into her sternum. In fact, it pierces right through her shadowy form, leaving a patch of light shining through her as she's knocked clear off her feet and slammed shoulder first into the street, feet hoisted into the air. But instead of an impact, her disrupted form, which is starting to gain some color, disappears straight through the concrete, vanishing below.

Torus double checks its sensor data.

The answer to Torus' internal query on how the other strike teams are doing is answered fairly quickly upon its arrival.

The bolt of crackling energy hits Grimm hard as she disappears below the surface of the street.

The Torus' first instinct is to follow behind to retrieve or revive the downed heroine, but that would greatly stack the odds against StarGuard Agent Malcolm Gibbs.

After facing the hellhound down with Psyn, it reviews its options. Then a change of tactics crosses its processor and it acts accordingly.

The sphere of programmable destrum that makes up the Torus disappears, reappearing nearest Malcolm.

With Grimm unaccounted for, he becomes the target of The Torus' protection.

A portal opens up in front of the pair and a wave of black spills out, rushing for the HellHound in an attempt to restrain and encase it.

The demon disappears beneath the swirling dome of black energy.

Wham! The demons doing something to try and break out of the dome, but it fails.

Victory says to Chen, "We need to get to the Alien District. Apparently they're in trouble over there."

Chen shifts into a oversized golden labrador with six legs, "Hop on, Victory. I'll take us there as fast as I can.

Torus confirms that the wave of destreum its its mark, and instructs it to harden as it touches the HellHound, encasing it.

The Torus takes this opportunity to sync up with his latest ward.

A disembodied voice rings out near the Torus. "Agent Malcolm Gibbs- I suggest we coordinate our efforts against the remaining adversary. He cannot be allowed to injure any others."

The Torus locks on to Malcolm and begins to orbit him as we've seen before.

Victory raises a brow, "Uh...okay?" He gets onto Chen's back.

"... ohsh- ..."

Forge's eyes widen in horror as the crackling blue bolt sizzles toward his girlfriend. The moment of impact is horrendous, Grimm's intangible form lurching backward and downward into the street as light streams through her chest in a fashion that Forge recognizes is bad. A split second later, the Torus appears in the periphery of his vision and swiftly comes to the center of Forge's field of view. Black matter spews forth toward the Dog Beast, ensnaring it in rapidly configuring destreum bonds as Forge heaves himself to his feet.

"Ha," starts Forge, "Ha ha. Ha ha ha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

The metal man's legs shift into industrial springs and liquid metal flows down Forge's right forearm to coalesce into another sledgehammer radiating out from his clenched fist. Forge keeps laughing as he crouches in preparation of a leap, then *SPROING*s over Torus and the Savior's Aegis toward Lionel Bonefinger as he swings his solid metal sledge around in preparation of striking.

As Forge drops out of the sky, aiming to drive his sledgehammer's head into Bonefinger's face, Forge abruptly stops laughing. In a perfectly deadpan sort of voice, he sourly comments, "Looks like you boned yourself good."

Chen takes off for the Alien District. The ride is remarkable smooth thanks to six legs being in use rather than just four.

Bonefinger spins towards Forge, swinging his staff. He parries the sledge-fist with his staff. Despite the attack, he looks down towards the stretch of pavement that Grimm disappeared through. "No..." he says, "Something is off."

"Yeah," comments Forge, "You fight like a god damn Kung Fu Tortoise. What's up with that?"

"You're meddling in affairs beyond your ken," the mage says to Forge. "That girl possess a power that was meant for a special purpose. Something more important than... beating up purse snatchers and burgulars."

Grimm becomes completey realigned with this dimension and solid as she crashes into the wet, gross sewer below., almost blacking out for a moment there. Her whole torso feels like it's on fire. She rolls onto her side, coughing up some blood. Sucking on her teeth, she spits out the coppery taste.

She can't stay down here. She needs to help Forge and stop that crazy guy. Her thoughts aren't all that clear on her own condition aside from being in too much pain to think. She just has to keep going.

She pushes herself up off the ground, head turning up towards the street above. Her shadow senses can feel what's going on above.

Pressing her hand against the grievous wound as her clothes are stained, she flickers out of existance and reappears on the street several meters away from Lionel, and even further away from the dog beast. Her hair drips and clings to her as she sways. "I'll...show...you...purpose," she growls out, eyes acutely narrowed at him.

The mages eyes narrow as he feels the mental attack. "Unimpressive," he says through his teeth. "I've seen creatures that would turn the strongest men into gibbering children, and I have tamed them!"

Foosh! The demon tries to blast its way free fro Torus's prison with fire, but it fails.

The Torus vanishes as its disembodied voices alerts Malcolm, "Higher priority target in need of defensive assistance. Lock realigning."

No sooner than the words are transmitted the Torus appears next to Gabrielle Grimm.

It melts into pool about 2 feet tall, washing around Grimm in a torrent as it prepares to protect the injured heroine.

"No, this is not right," the mage says aloud to himself, with his attention focused on Grimm. "You are not ready. The power within you is not ready. It must be tested. Trained. Tormented. And only then, when it's ripe and full of potential can it be harvested."

Chen continues running at her best speed towards the Alien District.

"And when that moment comes," the mage says. "I, Lionel Bonefinger, shall return to claim that power. In the meantime, I will let my demon continue the process of feeding that darkness within you." He points his skeletal hand towards the dome of energy. With a word, he shoots a blast of dark, crackling energy at it.

Bonefinger's blast destroys the field trapping the hellhound.

The Torus continues swirlling at Grimm's feet as its dome of hardened programmable metal explodes from the force of Bonefinger's finger blasting.

Grimm sways a litlte on her feet, about ready to pass out. But not yet. Not. Yet.

She raises the back of her hand shakily. "You won't get the chance," she growls hoarsely, with a wet rattle in the back of her throat. She flicks her hand in a little slapping motion. A dark portal opens up near Lionel and a shadowy tendril from Beyond flicks out at him.

Bonefinger floats aside, just out of the way of Grimm's tendril of darkness. "Yes! That's the spirit," he says with a dark smile coming to his expression. "Fight. Struggle. Grow."

"Torus, get her the hell out of here," intones Forge. He promptly swings with his sledgehammer again, attempting to backhand the smug right out of Bonefinger with the heavy biometallic construct.

Bonefinger grunts as the Malcolm strikes him. The medallion at his collar glows as a field of energy flares up to protect him, but part of the shot gets through. Malcolm's blow elevates him and knocks him across the intersection, into a second-story office building.

Now freed, the Dog Beast tries to breath fire at Grimm.

Bonefinger floats to his feet. The medallion around his neck glows. He vanishes, fading slowly as he teleports away.

Torus considers Malcolm's command. It is logical and sound. Grimm's condition seems to be slipping with each breath- though he notes that true 'old-style' humans are much frailer than he originally believed. Then again so is it since it's arrival in the 'present'.

"Confirmed." The whipping, waving destreum says with a disembodied voice.

"Returning Subject to Base. Alerting Base Medical personnel of incoming medical emergency." It informs in a generally loud 'voice' as the circle of material reaches for the sky so enclose around Grimm and teleport her away before she herself can teleport out of The Torus's grasp.

The Torus has considered Malcolm's command to get Grimm away from here and is priming its TransWarp systems as the HellHound sets its sights on Grimm.

It throws away its pending log of things it intends to do, like enshrouding Grimm in a shield of destreum and teleporting her to the office where they were debriefed, or that nagging need to alert base medical personnel to her injuries.

Instead, the spinning whirlpool leaps inwards towards Grimm, sheathing her in the programmable material.

The blast is on them quickly- the Torus doesn't even have time to give her a snazzy suit of armor the way it did Psyn.

The hellfire hits The Torus.

It shunts the heat away and holds as long as it can before its systems go blank from the intensity of the blast as before.

Boom- The Demiurge's psionic feed goes blank as the materials bonds begin to break and The Torus is overloaded.

Material is blown away by the blast, leaving behind a relatively unharmed Grimm inside a broke shell of destreum.

The Torus has considered Malcolm's command to get Grimm away from here and is priming its TransWarp systems as the HellHound sets its sights on Grimm.

It throws away its pending log of things it intends to do, like enshrouding Grimm in a shield of destreum and teleporting her to the office where they were debriefed, or that nagging need to alert base medical personnel to her injuries.

Instead, the spinning whirlpool leaps inwards towards Grimm, sheathing her in the programmable material.

The blast is on them quickly- the Torus doesn't even have time to give her a snazzy suit of armor the way it did Psyn.

The hellfire hits The Torus.

It shunts the heat away and holds as long as it can before its systems go blank from the intensity of the blast as before.

Boom- The Demiurge's psionic feed goes blank as the materials bonds begin to break and The Torus is overloaded.

Material is blown away by the blast, leaving behind a relatively unharmed Grimm inside a broke shell of destreum.

Frustrated by Torus's sacrifice play, the demon snarls and inhales deeply. It roars, shooting another jet of hellfire Grimm's way.

Grimm flinches and braces, averting her gaze from the first place before getting showered by tiny specks of destreum. She blinks and looks back at the dog beast, just in time to stagger rapidly out of the way of a hellblast. She doesn't glare at the beast. Instead, she stares at Malcolm with a sad expression of betrayal. "You can't! I...I can still fight," she huffs. The only person she's fooling is herself.

Forge's pulse is pounding in his ears as he watches Bonefinger smash into the second floor of a nearby office building. He looks primed to leap after the dark wizard, but he can just barely see the sorcerous schlub fade out of existence. The metal man promptly turns around, eyes narrowing as he notices the Dog Beast and the jet of hellfire belching from its mouth toward Grimm.

"Bad. Dog," growls Forge. He takes all of a step forward before Grimm's huffing voice freezes him in place. Looking at her, Forge's expression wavers for a moment in spite of the metal relief in which his features are cast.

"You're hurt, Gabrielle. You're hurt bad. They're baiting you - GOADING you - into this fight. The only person whose life is at stake here, right now, is your own. I can't..."

Shaking his head, Forge abruptly *SPROING*s toward the dog beast, swinging his sledgehammer around. Hitting the ground, Forge aims to slam the head of his hammer down on the canine demon's skull.

"I won't have that on my conscience, Gabrielle."

Forge's fist connects solidly, and the dog's head smashes down into the pavement, buckling it. It shakes its head, flicking bits of ashphalt left and right.

The dog turns on Forge. It leaps and tries to bite down on his forearm.

Forge twists his body around, offering the monstrous mutt the metal-coated forearm that doesn't have a sledgehammer gripped in its accompanying hand. He howls in pain as the teeth sink into his pliant biometallic second skin, crushing and grinding against the flesh and muscle underneath. Slowly Forge's sledgehammer dissolves back into his Colossus' Flesh as Forge glares daggers at the hound trying to wrench his arm off.

Grimm was never one to listen. She's supposed to be a part of this time as a helping member! Not protected as Malcolm's girlfriend. She bites her tongue at his words, a part of her realizing he's completely right. But that's not the part of her making decisions.

She can help without Forge even realizing it. She remains standing just barely, her eyes drifting to the dog beast as it bites down on Forge's arm.

The dog howls in anguish! It's still up, but clearly in pain.

Gabrielle's mind tries to draw out the worse nightmares a dog beast can have. Maybe its bone was stolen. Or it's getting hit with a rolled up newspaper. Or something much worse. Gabrielle's shoulder dips as she feels woozy. Her powers take their toll on her already weakened body. A thick line of blood drips from her nose as she strains to manifest the nightmare in the beast's mind. Gabrielle's eyes flutter as she drops to her knees and crumples to the ground.

Forge grits his teeth as the beast howls in pain around his forearm. He knows Grimm is the source of its anguish, but he doesn't have time to look her way or to scold her or to fight about this. Breathing deep, Forge sweeps his legs around as he drops into a martial arts stance - whose art is unclear, it's not one of the common sorts, that's for sure - and utters a sibilant hiss as he jerks his maw-entangled forearm toward himself.

In the same motion, Forge lurches his entire upper body into a fluid motion. Forge appears to be trying to wrest himself free of the dog beast's jaws by poppin' and lockin' it.

Forge slips himself free of the monster's mouth and remains in that low, serpentine stance. Blood drips from the row of gashes across his otherwise metal-clad forearms as he faces off with the beast.

The Dog goes for Forge's leg this time, trying to sink its teeth in.

Forge weaves his body sinuously around the dog beast as it rushes him again, snarling and snapping its jaws. Of course, the dog beast doesn't seem to care about Forge's body this time as it snaps its jaws down on his metal-covered leg. Looking down and back, Forge plants a hand on the pavement as he tries to pull his leg free of the mangy demon dog's dirty mouth. It doesn't appear to have done anything at all to Forge's leg.

The beast tries to pounce on Grimm, and drag him to the ground.

The beast tries to pounce on Forge, and drag him to the ground.

From The Demiurge's vantage point in the quantum foam between universes a slow trickle of data begins to trickle into the forefront of his consciousness as the bond between Post-Post-Human mind and Synthetic Sentient Crystal is reestablished across time and space.

As the others fight on, the impossibly fine dust that makes up the primary material of The Torus begins moving on its own, as if caught by some invisible wind.

As the particulates intersect, they glob together and search out for more parts so that The Torus might be restored.

The Torus' systems are too busy putting themselves back together again to send the current status of his allies to The Demiurge.

"This is just getting ridiculous," growls Forge as the dog beast overwhelms his secret (not actually) kung fu stance, wrestling the metal man down to the ground. Letting out a small roar of frustration as his head is smashed into the pavement hard enough to crack the asphalt, Forge looks up at the monster mutt atop him.

Forge balls his hand into a fist and concentrates on it intensely as the biometal covering his fist starts to warp and twist strangely. Grinding his knuckles across the asphalt causes friction and sparks for a few seconds before his fist explodes into intense white flame.

"THIS HAND OF MINE IS BURNING RED, ITS BURNING ROAR TELLS ME TO SNATCH VICTORY AND DEFEAT YOU! THERMITE PALM!"

Promptly, Forge palm thrusts his flaming hand into the dog beast.

Eventually, the heroes are able to defeat the remaining hellhound.