Rebel_Scum

((If no one minds me joining in...))

The various henchmen aiming weapons at the building found themselves with unexpected backup in the form of a standard squad of six robots, the same drone- protector- and assault-class bots that many masterminds used for their proven reliability. The seventh figure that landed just slightly behind her minions wasn't easily recognisable despite the rather distinctive teal and black powersuit as she liked to keep a low profile when she could. It was half the reason she hadn't been caught yet, the six heavily armed bots being the other half.

Deactivating her rocket boots as she landed, she brushed a stray lock of black hair out of her face and turned to the one who appeared to be commanding this little operation. "Got room for a little extra help?", she asked. "Was planning to just cause a little mayhem but if you've got something more interesting I'm all ears."

((Oh yeah, she's a bots/ff mastermind if anyone's wondering.))

Alyssa roared again as the incendiary round set her alight, thankfully quickly extinguished again by the ship's sprinklers. She made a grab at Acid as he was flung backwards, but missed as Brushstalker's mace blast knocked her off balance. She had to do something about him, he was becoming a significant problem.

Blasting him with another barrage of thorns she charged forward, one massive armored fist swinging not for him but rather for his mace, aiming to deprive him of his weapon and thus make him and easier target.

Alyssa didn't even react to the sniper, his round not even reaching her thanks to Acid's hastily erected energy shield. In truth she thought he'd shot at someone else. Brushstalker however she did notice and react to, roaring in fury as his mace left a deep gash in her side before retaliating with a barrage of thorny spikes. The wound he'd inflicted was already healing, the severed vines rapidly growing back together.

((Edit: damn you Devious))

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Behind him, a purple glow from where he'd tossed a breakfree onto Alyssa showed that it was probably working.

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Indeed it was, as Alyssa's eyes slowly pulled themselves back open. Only problem was, the presence behind them either wasn't Alyssa at all, or she was in an unimaginably foul mood. She sat up slowly, and as she did so the leaves on her hands, feet and head started growing into long vines that wrapped around her, weaving between each other to create a thick armor not entirely unlike that used by some stone-based tankers, with the exception of course being that it was made of living plants rather than of stone.

With that done, she crossed the room far faster than most would believe such a bulk could move and practically echoed Danny's actions, spraying thorny spikes all the way down the hall. Satisfied it was clear, she took off down the hallway in the direction the Malta soldiers had retreated earlier.

((As said, the armor is similar in concept to granite armor, but far less durable. Survivability comparable to the average scrapper, with a noticeable weakness to fire. If I'm being a little too out there with this then say so and I'll delete this post.))

Alyssa's altered physiology kept her safe from gas of most kinds, but this was powerful stuff. "I knew this was a bad idea..." she said before dropping to the ground, unconscious. The flytrap sat beside her. Eventually the gas would get it too but until then it wasn't letting anything near her.

Alyssa had been trying to work out what the ninja and the alien were going on about, something about quantum physics was all she could understand. She looked up as Danny called from inside, and made to follow him inside before Acid's comment made her burst out laughing. "Not scaly, but you do look kinda like a lizard. Something around the eyes maybe", she said with a smile before resuming her interrupted path through the door, the flytrap following.

((Aww, and I was all hyped up for a fight too, or I would have been if the thread hadn't died for a week. ))

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The Malta Operatives that had accidentally intercepted the heroes beat a hasty retreat. They didn't need to run into the group at this stage, and damned if they would.

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Alyssa relaxed as the last soldier disappeared back around the corner. "Somehow I don't think little old me scared them off, why would they run like that?" She turned to Acid, he seemed to be the expert on Malta so he might know.

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There were five of them- a four-man cell and their leader. Two wielded the horribly blue-glowing sapper rifles, one appeared to be an engineer of some sort, one was mostly non-descript, and the boss had a ludicrously incongruous cowboy hat perched on his head... although the heavy-barrelled revolvers riding in his holsters were anything but laughable.

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Alyssa hadn't run into this particular villain group before and didn't know what those energy rifles did, but neither was she particularly keen on finding out. She swung one arm in a wide arc and a cloud of seedlike objects flew down the hallway towards the soldiers, aided by a gust of wind she sent after them.

Bursting on impact, they released a powerful hallucinogen, causing the soldiers to temporarily forget who their friends were and attack each other. The gunslinger was unaffected by it, but what he was affected by were the thorny spikes the flytrap was shooting at him and the miniature tornado that Alyssa summoned around him. He was flung backward by the intense winds, then picked up and smashed against the wall.

((Incidentally, do malta guys have any protection vs confuse? Or knockback for that matter?))

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"I don't - this does." was Henteko's enigmatic reply, "It's magic. Good question, though. I hadn't thought that far. Oh well. It's a mystery I'll figure out later. By myself. Because you will be dead."

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"Same bloody thing, whether they come from you or from some trinket you're still the one wielding them. Anyway, not-so-obscure video game references aside, is it safe to breathe in there yet?" Alyssa didn't trust him, even more so now than when she'd met him in the bar before. Wannabe or not, she got the sense that the man could be incredibly dangerous if she pissed him off.

Just as Danny had, Alyssa jumped at the sound of another voice behind them. She spun round fully ready to blow him off his feet, but stopped as she realised who it was. "Oh hey, I remember you. Thought you said you didn't have powers, hmm?"

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"D'either o' you two ha' anythin' t'pop thi' open easier'n me? I dinna want t'break it, but there doesna seem to be a lot o' other options."

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Alyssa looked over at the door. "Nope, nothing here either. Unless you want me to blow it off its hinges but that comes back to the whole 'breaking it' thing doesn't it."

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Spare me th' high'n'mighty lecturin', please, an' we'll be gettin' along a wee better.

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That seemed a good enough idea to her. "How did we get to arguing about bugs anyway?", she asked absently as she followed his lead in going from almost hovering to something approaching her top speed. "And about the ants," she said as she flew along beside him, "they'll decompose into the soil and help the grass grow or something, dunno how it works but I'm sure it does." She was struggling to not burst out laughing now, having finally realised how rediculous their argument was.

((From the post in question:

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"Huh, I didn't know they made arrows with that, thought they stuck to blades. Anyway are we going or not, thought you were the one that was hurrying?" She turned and floated over to the door, looking back at him and Acid as she landed to make sure they were following before setting off down the corridor in the direction Danny had indicated earlier.

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Ok, so maybe she was using Hover rather than Fly but it still counts. Although admittedly I could have been clearer about it, and she was on the ground from just after Acid gave her his little psi blocker thing to the bit quoted above.

Incidentally, at this point she's properly trying to make him look like a moron because he's annoying her, unintentionally yes but he still is.))

((That's wierd because I wasn't trying to be and in real life I'm pretty good with kids. Maybe she's just not good with Danny. ))

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"Na', c'n we be gettin' on wi' things, or do I get to harp at ye in return, f'r th'ants y'stepped on and didna eat on our way out o' th' tree room?" he said, pointedly not looking at Alyssa. The combination of offended pride, hammering headache, and sanctimony was making it difficult for him to view her in any kind of charitable light.

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"Well you could if you really wanted to, but you might end up as food for Snappy here." She patted the Flytrap as she spoke, and it produced a sound that could be laughter. Setting off down the hall in the direction Acid had indicated she continued, "And if I remember rightly I flew out of that room, so no actually I didn't step on anything."

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"Don't go looking for a truth of all." Acid merely remarked cryptically, carrying a gentle smile as he continued to follow the two, "You'll never see your home again..."

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"Aliens. I've yet to meet one who makes any kind of sense." Alyssa sighed, unknowingly mimicing Acid's tone from before.

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Acid only smiled as they walked, looking to Alyssa for a moment, who'd reliazed the meaning of the reptilian's remark with near-instant aptitude, "Heh, guess my 'humans' comment may have been a bit premature. Do tell me, did you gain your understanding of other lifeforms by some means, or were you born with it...?"

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"Umm... I'll get back to you on that one when I figure out what the hell you're talking about", Alyssa replied in a confused voice before turning back to Danny.

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"Right." the boy muttered. "An' so, wi' th'vegans an' now you lot, humanity starves t'death less'n we poor unenlightened slobs learn t'photosynthesize." he grumbled. Danny shook his head, then blinked as Alyssa's finishing comment and the flytrap's odd head-bobbing.

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Stabbing him with that arrow was looking more and more appealing, but she again resisted the temptation. "I never said that. There's a big difference between killing something you intend to eat, or use for some other purpose, and killing something just to show off. And incidentally photosynthesis isn't that bad, all that time spent eating that you can use for other stuff."

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"Hurtin' summat?" Danny echoed, a little incredulously. "Right. An' next ye'll be tellin' me tha' th'tree be havin' nerves, an' could feel th'hole I put int'it." The little archer shook his head irritably. "T'isnae lasting damage." he frowned.

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Alyssa was very tempted to grab the arrow he was still holding, stab it through his arm and repeat his comment about 'no lasting damage'. She didn't know exactly what stopped her doing it, but luckily for Danny something did. Instead she replied, "Maybe it can't feel it the same way as you or I can but yes, it does feel it in its own way."

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"Well, they dinnae give these out like party favours, neh..?" he said, then trailed off as she started to walk out. "Aye, an' t'is t'be like tha', is't?" he grumbled as she headed down the hall. He rose into the air to follow her. "If I do nae answer y'r questions, then I'd be a brat, an' unworthy o' speakin' to. An' if I do answer y'r questions, alla sudden now I'm th'one wastin' time."

He shook his head, and growled "Women!", unconsciously echoing Acid's disparaging tone almost exactly as he flew smoothly down the hallway.

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"I never said you were wasting time, and if I implied it then it was unintentional. As for you being a brat, you said it before I did but even then it wouldn't make you unworthy of speaking to in my opinion. Still, you might work on being less annoying when you have a moment to do so." Coming to a corner she stopped, looking down each hallway before turning back to Danny. "So which way do we go?" Amusingly, the Flytrap at her side also turned its head towards him when she asked.

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"Eh?" he questioned, blushing a little. "T'wa' just a wee bit o' showin' off..." he mumbled, not even really registering that she was talking about the tree.

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"Yeah but you could have done your showing off without hurting something", Alyssa replied irritably, gesturing towards the tree.

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There was a *CRACK* and then an ongoing slight hiss as the Talsorian arrowhead flared to life, casting an odd, greenish light over the surroundings. "Well, now... 'tis nae much tha' can stop one o' these." he commented offhandedly.

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"Huh, I didn't know they made arrows with that, thought they stuck to blades. Anyway are we going or not, thought you were the one that was hurrying?" She turned and floated over to the door, looking back at him and Acid as she landed to make sure they were following before setting off down the corridor in the direction Danny had indicated earlier.

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Another shrug, this one immensely dismissive. "They haven't managed to screw up anything major yet, and thus far the details they've given out about "The Coming Storm" haven't been too wildly misleading, so we're mostly leaving them alone." The Warshade, too, didn't bother to clarify what was meant by 'we'.

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"Like I said, never liked them. Too secretive for my tastes", the Peacebringer added as the Warshade fell silent for a moment. As he finished she continued, "I'm starting to feel out of place here, all you lot seem to know each other already. Incidentally, who is this 'we' you're talking about?" She looked over at the Dapper Lad, expecting him to either answer or make excuses.

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"If I really wanted to do that...well actually I did do that once, ruling the universe is a little tiring, and not nearly as rewarding as working to maintain it and ensure my species gets their fair shake in the universe...interpret that how you will."

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"Yeah but who determines exactly what their 'fair shake' is? Some species I've heard of firmly believe it's their god-given right to rule the universe and it's the rest of us that are deluded. Of course some people on Earth believe that too, but they're under control. Mostly."

She suddenly realised she hadn't introduced herself. "Anyway, I'm Paxtera, or so it says on the card anyway. Shorten it to just Pax if you like, most people tend to but I don't give a damn either way."

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Louder, he commented "Aye, an' I'm sure tha' their snipers are terrible an' all, but..." his bow was out and an arrow loosed in pretty much the same motion, the arrow slapping into the wall on the far side of the room, having punched straight through a tree. If Acid's eyes were sharp, he'd notice that there was a fly cut neatly in half (lengthwise) and tumbling slowly out of the air, about halfway across the room.

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Alyssa twitched slightly as Danny shot the tree. "Was that really necessary?", she asked him, obviously not approving. "Incidentally what are those arrows made of? Don't think I've ever seen one go straight through something before." Despite her disapproval of the act itself, she seemed genuinely curious about how he'd done it.

As the spoke, the giant flytrap she'd summoned earlier wandered over and ate both halves of the unfortunate fly.

A look of annoyance crossed the Peacebringer's face as all the guns in the room disappeared. Great. Bet they're going to blame me for that too. She decided to stop talking since that only seemed to make things worse, instead merely sitting there as the old guy made the usual references to possible fates and messed up timelines that she expected from people who claimed to know the future.

She was distracted however by the arrival of the warshade and the man in the mishmash armor, both apparently time travellers themselves. The warshade in particular seemed slightly off to her as she returned his nod but didn't say anything. "So I take it none of you are affiliated with Ouroboros then", she commented more to herself than to them but probably loud enough for them to hear her anyway. "Good thing too, I never liked those guys."

((I wasn't trying to derail the plot. Most people would be fairly irritated about being randomly pulled out of their life without so much as a hello first, superheroes I assume being no exception. And don't worry, though she might make a few threats she wouldn't actually attack without a decent reason, especially once she realises that the one who brought them there is likely the only one who can send them back.

Real post coming in the morning when I'm not so bloody tired.))

((I always did like time travel stuff. Incidentally, is this hero, villain or both?))

"Yeah, I got one", said an irritated voice belonging to an equally irritated redhead. A Kheldian, if the blue-white energy leaking from her eyes was any indication. She was wearing a fairly typical superhero costume, starburst patterned blue and white tights with loose sleeves and winged boots. From where she was and the faint energy trail behind her one might deduce that she'd rather hastily pulled up to avoid colliding with the wall, having been zapped here in mid-flight.

Pushing her way to the front of the crowd she continued. "I'm not usually one to agree with the darkity dark types but in this case he has a point. Why shouldn't we just kick the crap out of you and be on our way? Dunno about the rest of you," she shot a look at the others, "but I don't take kindly to someone ripping me away from my life without so much as a warning, let alone actually asking permission."

She sighed to herself, realising that since he'd brought them all here without asking he likely wouldn't give the the option to back out now either. "Since I'm guessing saying no isn't an option, where and when are we going and what's wrong there?"

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Y'said they use tech t'stop supertypes... can y'stop th'stoppers?"

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"Dunno about him, but I've found in the past that being tangled in vines stops someone rather effectively. And if that fails I could always pin them to a wall with a portable hurricane, that's usually pretty effective too." Alyssa considered summoning said hurricane as a demonstration, but decided against it. "And for the record, I'm not drunk", she said over her shoulder as she turned to leave. "If I was, I'd have lost control over my powers and half the ship would be overgrown by now." Anyway, off to activate this radio beacon I guess since everyone seems to think attacking them directly is a stupid idea." It probably was just that, but Alyssa wasn't known for being cautious.

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Then he smirked faintly at Alyssa. "Wi' th'number o' supertypes we seem t'have runnin' about on this bloody outsized tub, y'could prolly just get a few t'whistle up a whacking great storm for ye. Not that it'd matter much, mind... fro' what I've heard, this beastie ha' so many stabilizers tha' th'ocean'd have t'be flippin' upside down afore they so much as broke a dish..."

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"Hell I could do that myself if I wanted, but large scale stuff like that tends to upset important things like global weather patterns if you don't do it very carefully. Butterfly effect or something they call it I think."

She stopped as Acid continued, going on about assault rifles and such. "Yeah, I'm not much for getting shot at myself but sometimes you just have to. Although you do have a point, reinforcements of some kind or other might not be a bad idea. There's probably a hero or two at least on the ship somewhere that we could get to help us."

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"Weed 'troller, neh?" he asked Alyssa, with a raised eyebrow. "Why'd ye take a cruise, then? Most o' th'close-t'Earth tree-hugger types tha' I know of tend t'be uncomfortable when they're awa' fro' th'plants n'moss an' whatnot. And, as Acid has pointed out, there isnae a lot o' that on a ship."

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"I won a ticket in a competition, thought I might as well use it. And in case you haven't noticed, I carry a fair amount of the plants with me. Besides, the ocean has its share of wonders as well, the storms out here get way bigger than ones over land sometimes." She was secretly half hoping to see just such a storm while they were out here.

As Danny doubled over she rushed forward to help, but he recovered before she even got there. "You ok kid?", she asked with a hint of concern.