12837/Space Seed

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Space Seed
Date of Scene: 02 October 2022
Location: The Bronx, NYC
Synopsis: The Legion is thwarted, NYC remains un-blown up, and Mania tastes something new.
Cast of Characters: Clark Kent, Natasha Romanoff, America Chavez, Wanda Maximoff, Karen Starr, Andi Benton, Grail




Clark Kent has posed:
    It started as the sun rose over the city.

    The Legion, as they had been dubbed in the media, had been quiet these past two weeks. No sightings above ground, and only the scientists trying to study them had seen anything of them in the tunnels below.

    That lull ended as an abandoned building started to groan and shatter, bricks and mortar breaking apart in tiny detonations of stress. Cracks appeared in the walls, widening quickly until the building could take no more. The collapse threw up a thick curtain of dust, concealing exactly what was going on until it settled.

    Where the building had been, there was now a pile of rubble surrounding what looked like a gigantic flower. It stood over ten stories tall, a dark red collar surrounding a massive seed. Moving up and down the brown stalk was a horde of Legion drones, busily engaged in doing, well... something to the flower. Exactly what it is they were doing was anyone's guess at the time.

    The military and SHIELD were called in to help evacuate everyone in a ten block radius before bringing in the scientists to try and figure out the purpose of this new incarnation of the Legion. Air samples, watching the drones interacting with the flower and even a sample taken by a courageous agent from an exposed root had only gotten them so far. The morning passed and the scientists continued to observe and take notes.

    Finally, one of them came to a conclusion. This was how the Legion traveled from word to world, a seed fired into space with embryonic Legion inside, dormant until it impacts another world. The method of the launch was the problem, however.

    Explosive might be an understatement. As has been seen before, the Legion tend to transform the air around them into almost pure gaseous oxygen. When the seed launches, the explosive force needed to fire it into space will easily wipe out a good portion of the city. The evacuation has already begun, but with the number of people in the city every bridge, tunnel and road are already helplessly clogged, leaving millions in the blast zone if nothing is done.

    The military is preparing to attack, and the call has gone out for any heroes available to help the military remove this threat by any means possible.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
This is dangerous. This is worse in some ways than the Chitauri attack that lead to the formation of the Avengers. This is time sensitive, and failure will lead to the loss of millions. Along with part of the SHIELD contingent is Natasha Romanoff. She's packing a heavy nozzeled and reinforced backpack with a nozzel on it and a gas mask. Several different grenades are on her hips and slung over her back is a very large pulse rifle.
    "If we fail here, millions will die." That's all she needs to say on the matter. "We go in, disable and destroy them, and ensure that there's no further threat from this hive." For which she has heavy weaponry, several detonators, and some of the most powerful beings on the planet along with the rest of the attack team.
    "Stay in communication along comms and we'll need an operational battle plan."

America Chavez has posed:
    America Chavez hasn't engaged in an city ending event in this universe in some time, but this particular event can't be ignored. The eruption of the 'launch pad' in what she considers her back yard can't be ignored by the Multi-universal Hero. And she lands on a roof not far from the staging area with one of her teammates, in this case, Mania. "Alright. I'm going to difer to SHIELD's actions in this... unless it proves to be ineffective. From what I can gather these are just your standard run of the mill alien bugs. I don't think they have any particular strengths or weaknesses beyond standard above human enhancements. Still... best to be careful" she says to her ally.

    "They're probably going to be hellbent on protecting their egg sack too" she says looking up at the stalk and the seed high above. "But we have to bring it down." She coughs a bit as the air thickens with oxygen. "I know most of your kind can travel in vacuum, when not bonded. If you can fall back on that it might be best given what the air is turning into. Also... I'd avoid fire if you can manage it. Place is turning into a powderkeg by the second." The air won't be a problem for her, she doesn't technically need to breath, but others... she's not so sure.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
    The Scarlet Witch doesn't bother with civilian clothes for a superheroic moment. Space wobbles and spits her out in a small patch of tired chrysanthemums and a spindly maple filling someone's modest garden. Dust and debris from the missing building coat her boots. Her hooded cloak sways behind her, the tangled lines of her tiara glowing on her brow in soft red.
    Subtlety and words are out the window. The tick-tock of a doomsday clock practically plays in her ear. "SHIELD has evacuation and an established perimeter?" Natasha can confirm or deny the fact. She looks over the large flower, the stalk in particular. "Would cutting off the seed from the supportive stalk stop the launch?" Some questions are best left to experts.
    Her thumb rolls side to side. A simple act to weave a protective spell around herself.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Sitting in a chair in a room on the moon is one Power Girl, currently leaned dangerously far back in a chair. Legs up on the console in front of her, it doesn't take long before Monitor Duty actually ends up coming to some sort of fruition. She could put out a call, and dispatch others to take care of this... Seed, thing. This weird flower. And, to her credit, she does- putting out the call to all League resources in the area to divert and assist with evacuation efforts and stopping the launch.

    What /isn't/ necessarily allowed while on Monitor Duty is to, you know, leave. That is, of course, exactly what she does, ushering the first League member she can find into the Monitor Room to take over while she departs the moonbase not through the teleporters- but through the airlock.

    The atmosphere of the moon is thin enough that she can launch to speed without endangering anyone- and she reaches the Earth in mere moments. To those that look above, there is a blazing line cutting across the sky, a white hot curve splitting clouds and approaching the ground at an obscene speed.

    While the military might still be preparing, Power Girl has no intention to let them lead the charge. By the time the tanks roll in, she'll have already made landfall at what amounts to the front door- or where the front door of the building used to be- the pink blur of the blonde landing with a thunderous crash, that she aims to make sure draws all attention to her.

Andi Benton has posed:
Arriving with America, Mania strikes an odd presence of her own. Seen occasionally via social media and in person, the vigilante-like hero is not an unknown, but there are still mysterious in place for those who aren't very familiar with her. Secrets have been cautiously kept as well as possible, overall.

The black-clad heroine with the white spider insignia stares from America to the seed, pod, flower..whatever it really is, along with the alien creatures that are scuttling about, doing what they do. "It is an actual hive," she says, crouched atop the building as she peers more closely at what the Legion are up to. "We are not afraid to fight them if they want to, but we will keep that in mind. No fire is good. We can tell the oxygen level in the air is much higher."

The mention of SHIELD causes her eyes to narrow, solid white as they are and overly expressive, but there is no further response to that except for a grunt.

Thoughts are interrupted by Power Girl's obvious arrival, causing Mania to straighten.

Grail has posed:
A low whistle comes out of no where even as there's a burst of wind and a woman seems to appear out of no where. Now, for the more speedy inclined folks, they can see what happened. Grail simply came in at incredible speed and alacrity, arms idly held behind her back and once she reached the proverbial front lines, she simply did a flip in the air, sailing over all the rigmarole of the SHIELD agents and military. She lands ahead of the group that will likely go in and just looks up at the rather impressive seed.

"I don't know what that is but I doubt it fits with my plans." She chuckles lightly to herself and looks back and over at those who are here before looking then up in time to see the incoming Power Girl. She is no Kryptonian but her eye sight is good enough that she can see roughly who it is. It's not like many are built like that one.

"Hey, you human types going to do something about this thing?" She asks and gestures at it as she looks at the others here before turning her attention back to the thing and starting to casually walk toward it. No sense in rushing in even as she considers the air, sniffing at it as she moves. She doesn't really require that whole breathing thing either, doesn't mean she can't smell. Her hands remain behind her back as she walks, casually holding one hand with the other as she approaches the seed.

Clark Kent has posed:

    Another blur streaks across the sky at high altitude to avoid disrupting things below as he travels. As he approaches New York, he drops below the speed of sound and angles to land among the SHIELD contingent, since they usually have the best intel on whatever disaster is approaching. Superman touches down lightly beside Natasha and asks "Have any weaknesses been found yet? We have to be careful we don't set off the explosion we're trying to avoid here."

    SHIELD personnel are moving through the assembled heroes and soldiers, passing out basic comm units to everyone involved. They may have to drop the frequency they use in the future since some of them will undoubtedly end up in the wrong hands, but today everyone needs to communicate.

    The oxygen content in the area is indeed rising fast, and every human in the area is already wearing breathers so they can continue to function. About a half mile from the site attack helicopters hold positions in staggered lines, waiting for a target. The military hasn't brought in tanks due to the streets being jammed with people trying to leave the city, so the helicopters and several hundred troops on the ground are all that they can provide at the moment.

    Anyone who checks on the current scientific findings will be given a range of opinions, everything from 'attacking it will set it off' to 'it should be safe, if it was already explosive it would have gone off already.' Hard to get a definite answer on something nobody has ever seen before.

    Taking a handful of communicators, Superman takes a moment to zip around the area, leaving one with every hero. Once they all have a unit (They can of course drop the thing if they want), he ends up hovering about twenty feet above the command post.

    "Ok folks, we've got a dangerous situation here. What we've seen of the actual Legion creatures indicates they aren't up to a fight with heroes, but this flower is a huge danger to everyone in the city. I'd prefer if we come up with a plan before going the brute strength route, as we don't know what might set it off."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Ther'es a nod given over to Wanda, "As best as we can. We're trying to maintain a perimeter and get as many civilians out of the area as possible." The arrival of Power Girl and the unfamiliar Grail is met cautiously. "We're going to need to work together on this and cooperate. So that means we have to communicate and coordinate to take these things out." She would take a breath over.
    "So that means a sweep and clear operation. These things are hostile. We neutralize them quickly and efficiently. THey've so far mostly deployed drones and a few heavy units that seem to be some sort of soldiers. They've swarmed around chokepoints. If we weren't on a timeline we could just brace a chokepoint and thin them out."
    She goes to do a frequency check. "So spread out, neutralize them in clusters, and find their launch points and shut them down."
    Because if not, they all must die sometime.

America Chavez has posed:
    America grins as the various big guns arrive in their own way. "Looks like the cavalry got the memo. That makes things a lot easier." She blinks as Superman deposits a commlink with her and she offers a far too late thumbs up in appreciation before fitting it into her ear, gesturing for Mania to do the same--if she can.

    She listens to Superman's briefing and offers her own piece of the puzzle. "I could probably teleport it to another dimension--or no where at all if you'd prefer--but I'd need time to build up the portal, given the size and I doubt these things are just going to let me start punching the ground around their precious launch pad without offering their own resistance."

    Is it a sort of easy out of a move? Absolutely. But does it stop these things from going anywhere else without furthering the damage to the city? Also, absolutely. America would rather limit the collateral damage, structural and Terran together if she can.

    Nevermind the fact that destructive bugs are sort of a sore spot for her and these creatures are too close for her comfort to live and let live be an option.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
    The fast-moving colored blur of Grail and Power Girl catch the Scarlet Witch's attention out of habit. Her brother moves through the world at a blur, by now it's innate to check. "The Justice League sent representation. I'm glad, we can use the heavy-lifting expertise." Grail is just as unfamiliar to her as Natasha, given the nod directed to the warrioress.
    She smiles at Superman stopping by, however short that is. "It's good to see you here." The communicator ends up clipped to the inside of her hood where it picks up her voice and stays out of the way. Faint shimmers roll over the device when the spell integrates it into her protective field. <Testing.>
    She ascends slowly to the air, buoyed up for a better view above the line of rubble and surroundings. Light glows under her palms, completely not reacting to the enhanced oxygen in the atmosphere, proof they aren't incendiary sources of energy. Wanda's concentration stretches out the silence around her except for the backwards momentum of her cloak, slowed ripples as though underwater. <A source of energy is fueling the seed from below the street. I can see the volume increasing, but unclear on what kind of source we're dealing with. We have a distinct time limit.>
    Her palm rises, shading her brow against sunlight that isn't there. "For one, I'm fine with removing this entirely from our reality. We need to offer cover against that. I can balance out the odds--a bit." From the wry smirk, that's understatement.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Ever the friendliest one of the bunch, Power Girl's voice comes over the comms after tuning into its frequency on her own unit- After all, she has both League and Avengers comms, so it isn't hard to get a third in there for this operation.

    <The plan is attack, Superman. I'll draw their attention the surface. Some of you get down there and stop them from fueling up, resistance should be lighter once I get to punching.>

    And with that, she starts striding forward. The oxygen content of the air is no problem for her- but it is noted. She can see the relative saturation of oxygen molecules, and that instantly writes off using her heat vision save for an emergency situation- such as if they happen to need an explosive fire right then and there.

    Without hesitation, she'll keep a human pace to walk right up to the flower, staying visible, making sure that she's the object of attention: A vaguely threatening thing, all things considered.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's head cants toward one side after Superman's come and gone with a means for them all to communicate easier. A claw-tipped hand raises the device up to where an ear belongs, just enough of the symbiote peeling back so it can be fit in place before covering back over.

"We are not familiar with these bugs, but if they need to be slowed down...we are not afraid of them. We are not the ones to figure out any scientific or magical things." The voice, for those unaccustomed to it, is a dual blend of someone female and something alien, not of this world.

<<Mania>> I wonder how they taste, Andi.
<<Andi>> I'm not into eating bugs. Not even chocolate-covered ones, and we don't have enough for those things.
<<Mania>> That is too bad. We could still sever their heads. Shred them to pieces. Crush them.
<<Andi>> Yeah, yeah. We might get that chance.

The internal conversations are just the most interesting things, sometimes.

Aloud, Mania adds, "When the newspapers write about this, do not forget to tell them the Young Avengers helped, too." Already, she is making her way down from the building via lines of webbing shot out from the hands, or thereabouts.

Grail has posed:
Blinking at the so called Man of Steel, Grail stares at her for a long moment before she looks down at the communicator. A big part of her considers tossing it aside but it might be interesting to hear what they have to say. Get into their minds. So, she puts it on and listens. As she learns of the various things going on, she considers the words before smirking and adding in.

<A part of me wishes to see what the Mighty Window can actually do in combat but, if there is fun to be had below...>

Grail simply walks toward the nearest manhole cover and casually rips it out of her way. She looks down for a momment and then leaps in without missing a beat. Those with the senses for it, can see her casually kicking off at impressive speed right for the underside of this seed and it doesn't appear she is letting little things like solid structures slow her down much.

Clark Kent has posed:
    "That's perhaps a little more direct than I was thinking Power Girl. But then, it's not like there is much the scientists can agree on, so seeing how they react probably isn't a terrible idea. We do also have the dimensional choice from Scarlet Witch and Ms. America, it seems. Are you sure you can manage to move something that big?" He pauses as Grail vanishes into the sewer system then adds, "Looks like we'll be testing them in multiple directions."

    As Power Girl moves toward the base of the stalk, Legion drones burrow up out of the ground when she's about twenty feet from the thing. Without missing a beat they attack with the sharp points of their limbs, which have absolutely no effect on the Kryptonian whatsoever. They continue to swarm her to the point that all that can be seen is a mass of drones trying to pile up on her. Not great if you're entomophobic, but so far the response is one that can be managed by every hero on the scene.

    In the tunnels below, Grail has no problems running through walls, cables, pipes, and a swarm of the drones, who are just as effective against her as they are against Power Girl - that is to say, not at all. When she nears the stalk, the tunnels all end, feeding into a large cavern that was not a feature of the city the last time anyone looked down here. Water spills into the area from multiple broken pipes, splashing into a pool that covers the bottom of the area. The stalk gets even wider down here, branching off into what look like roots digging further down.

    Legion drones swarm around the roots and around a very large Legion creature that looks something like an ant queen. It's huge abdomen seems to be attached to the stalk, ripples moving down the abdomen and into the plant in a recurring pattern. Larger versions of the drones with more armor and spikey bits charge towards the intruder in their hive!

    On the surface, soldiers move to create a perimeter around the stalk, staying well away from it. They are mainly there to stop any drones from walking out of the area now that heroes are on the scene. It's not a glamorous job, but it does need to be done.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Let hte heavy hitters handle the threat. That means they can neutralize the opposition, draw them off, and engage them. And htat means for the Black Widow, it's hunting time. She seems tos himmer in and out of existence as a SHIELD camo-cloak flickers around her, making a near mirror about her, light waves bending about as the electro-camouflage mesh goes to make her virtually silent and invisible hopefully to all senses. Attuned to the corpses of the Legion that SHIELD had spent time studying.
    And while the others go to deal over with the Legion itself, Natasha goe sto drop over into the hive. Her intent is to avoid as much of the drones as she can. She's going deeper in, with a sack full of explosives, and for places she can plant them to cripple anything wihtin as possible to slow down the launch. And hopefully take down some of it with her.

America Chavez has posed:
    As Mania and the others set to it, America jumps and flies in closer. "<<I can do it... I just need a bit of time. Five shots and it should be a matter of will at that point,>>" she says as she makes her approach. "<<And I've got more than enough will to send these bugs to literal nowhere.>>"

    She notes the advance of Power Girl and the drones covering her as well as Natasha's infiltration maneuver. "<<Mania, see if you can play interference for Black Widow... if you've seen the Predator movies... she's the thing mimicing the bad guy in them. Keep her covered and free of harrassment.>>"

    Swooping in on a long arc she makes for the base of the stalk and makes a request she never thought she'd ever make. "<<Scarlet Witch, I might need your assistance. We can work together or you can keep them occupied and off of me. As a senior member of the Avengers, I leave it to your discretion. Just let me know so I know what to expect.>>" Another shake of her head and a smirk as she veers toward portal point one before she gives this plant it's own Walk of Fame moment.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
    The Scarlet Witch gives a wordless look somewhere between disapproval and uncertain consideration when Grail makes a run for it underground. She mouths 'Well?' at Natasha. The Black Widow is their tactician, and the witch accepts whatever blame's going to be landing on her shoulders. The Russian taking her leave to start the heavy hitting is the best signal to move on.
    She breaks into a smile at America's offer and salutes audibly over the comms. <Coordination is better than randomly shooting at targets. I'm used to it by now. Tell me what you need and I'll provide.> Reality shifts like putty in her hands to form a protective sphere around her that expands the magical shell outwards. Not by a lot, but enough to sustain her own ability to breathe and levitate at speeds. The drones would need a pretty long metallic proboscis to touch her, and that without the magic or her mutation reacting badly.
    <Taking high. Show them what you have.> Encouragement via non-crazy witch, this is starting off well enough. An array of mental daggers spin through her thoughts, gearing up to move in hexwork swarms.

Karen Starr has posed:
    As the drones start swarming her, Karen lets them surround. When one of them ventures forwards, the strikes from their blades clanging off of her skin as if it were metal, not even penetrating the suit she wears.

    The strikes in response are titanic, and the drones splatter and in many ways, /shatter/ with each hit from her- yet, purposefully, it is not fast enough to hinder their swarming.

    Eventually, in their number, they crawl atop her, atop one another, each one slashing and clawing futilely at the blonde. She disappears entirely from view.

    Then, there is a literally thunderous noise, a sudden and incredible shockwave that blasts apart the drones coating her as bees would a hive.

    Striding forward, now clear- for a few moments, Karen calls into the comms once again: <I've got an idea. Should take care of things on the surface. If anyone's nearby, stay out of the tornado.>

    It's then that Power Girl pushes into the air again, and starts swirling around the plant- she becomes a blur almost immediately, and that blur slightly tints the resulting vortex pink, as the air- oxygen rich as it is- starts to get sucked into a whirling, Kryptonian fueled tornado. Centered right atop the plant.

    <Gonna ignite this in a second. Plantlife won't like that.>

Andi Benton has posed:
"Yes, we are familiar with it. Schwarzenegger movie," Mania states over the comms, relative to America's mention of Predator, adding, "We're gonna have us some fun." Not an Arnold line, but a modified one nonetheless. A camouflaged Black Widow could be a challenge to spot, but that may not be necessary as Mania dips into the underground area nimbly, all-white eyes taking in the details that can be seen while the symbiote filters the air that's even more oxygen-rich.

She may draw some attention as a result, whether from drones or others in the insect hive, but one hand is already reshaping into a sharp battle axe, the better to slice with. The other? A spike-laden mace ball, good for tougher armor and chitin. The spiky extensions of the symbiote self along forearms and shins stick out more than usual, an extra line of defense. Thus far, Mania's mouth remains hidden, the seamless mask in place of it, but anyone who has encountered Venom before might know what's possible there. Noise from above, along with Power Girl's warning, leads to a need for caution - especially on the part of the creature that shares a bond with the young woman.

<<Mania>> Fire, Andi?
<<Andi>> Steady...

Grail has posed:
Walking through the drones, Grail doesn't even pretend to care about them. She just knocks them aside casually, smashing through them and mostly ignoring their attacks. She's kinda busy not caring about that at all when she realizes what she is seeing. She lets out a sort of ah sound as she looks at the queen and then looks to the larger, meaner drones and grins.

<<I have found the source. It appears they have some kind of queen or the like. The oxygen and also the seed all come from here.>> She states simply enough into the comm and then lets out a light sigh. She considers the larger drones. She starts toward them and casually wonders to no one in particular.

"Does your kind know fear?" She laughs lightly to herself and then she lets them attack her, just to see how strong they are, holding up her arms to take any attacks they might send her way, casually wondering if these larger, meaner drones can prove a challenge or a threat.

Clark Kent has posed:
    Superman has ascended to get a better overview of the battlefield, as it were. He's not really worried for Karen, but keeps an eye on her nonetheless. Unless something really bad happens, he's content to coordinate between the different heroes on the scene. It also leaves him able to respond to any emergencies as the others test the limits of the Legion and their launch vehicle.

    "Be careful with that Power Girl, remember there's probably more oxygen under the surface than there is up here, we don't want to chance that igniting."

    When Grail checks in with her findings, X-ray vision comes into play as he looks down through the asphalt and various manmade items and into the cavern. "I see it down there. I'd agree, that would be what we need to deal with."

    Once Karen has gotten up to speed there is a new response from the Legion. Hundreds of them erupt from the ground, taking flight directly towards her. Most get sucked into the funnel cloud above her, others manage to ram themselves into her. Of course, this only results in them being thrown away from the spinning Kryptonian, but they seem willing to keep doing it. So many, in fact, that they actually threaten to clog the space between her and the funnel cloud, as if they are trying to cut it off from it's source.

    At this point, the whole area erupts into chaos as the entire hive responds to the multiple threats against it. Drones are everywhere, attacking anything they can reach. Burst fire from the soldiers fills the air with sound and the smell of cordite as the soldiers fire at the drones charging them, staccato pulses of noise. Continuous fire from heavier weapons also fills the air, ripping apart drones as they attack.

    In several places huge mounds of dirt and asphalt rise from the ground, then fall free of the enormous Legion creatures that caused them. About the size of a tank, these soldiers move ponderously towards the lines of soldiers, bullets bouncing off their thick exoskeletons.

    Below the city in the cavern the soldiers rush to attack Grail, which pretty much answers her question. <cont>

Clark Kent has posed:
    Natasha is able to make her way forward right until the swarm starts. At that point, there are so many that there simply is nowhere to step to sneak past them. She knows they can hurt her, but also knows all their weak points from SHIELD's examinations of the dead ones. Mostly they are just running into her, since she doesn't register as a threat to them at the moment. Andi would find herself swinging through a cloud of Legion flyers, but off the ground she can maneuver around them, or even use them as flying steps, for that matter.

    Superman checks oxygen levels, nods to himself and starts cutting swathes from the flyers out of the sky with his heat vision. "Whoever can get there, get below and deal with the queen. And I think the soldiers are going to need help with the really big ones."

    Putting action to words he turns in the air and speeds over to one of the massive ones, then punches it. And doesn't break through the armor.

    This could be a problem.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
And this is what Natasha has brought along some of her heavier weaponry for. Including that big tank over on her back. She's figured out where it's dangerous, and where she can safely use it. Here is one of those safe areas she can. So with gas mask on, she goes to sweep it out. And then behind the mask there's a rare, rare twisted grin from her as she goes to take out the funnel..
    And from it would blast plasma-borne flame. A long arc of fire erupts from it, coating over any of the Legionaires with it's contents. The material lightly adhesive, if it worked sticking onto their exoskeletons so they couldn't just snap it off or roll it off. From there, Natasha goes to hopefully thin out the immediate area, the heavy outfit she had on sealing her off from the heat, the inferno, and the bugs.
    Presuming all that goes well, she goes to click on her comm <<Status update. Does anyone require assistance?>> Then it's heading in the direction of where she thinks a good demo drop point is. And trying to switch back to stelath mode if at all possible so she's not going to have to do this again. She's not one of the Kryptonians.

America Chavez has posed:
    America nods to Scarlet Witch's statement. "<<Got it. Going in low.>>" And she does just that, skimming over the ground at subsonic speed as she approaches the first point of contact. As she nears the stalk she cuts up in her flight and then hammers down with her fist. A bright point of blue light starts to shimmer in place as she lifts her hand.

    "<<Point one, done. Heading to point t-->>" she's cut off as some of the drones swarm to her location. Their blades hack and attempt to cut her but do little more than shove her around a bit. "<<Scarlet, need a bit of interference here!>>" she calls to her Avenger's companion. She swats at them to try and push them back but they only press in tighter around her and it's all she can do to defend, surprised by their speed and tenacity as she was.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
    Power Girlnadoes, heat vision, and bullets clear out many Legion drones. The Scarlet Witch watches the ground turn into a crazy quilt of heaps and depressions. She soars on a ragged trajectory closer to the ghastly flower that blooms in their city, an ugly kudzu vein packing the destructive force of a VEI 6. She may regret that dive down the USGIS rabbit hole about volcanoes and supervolcanoes.
    Superman colliding with something on par with a flying tank ought to put the Legion resistance out of commission. It turns out even a Kryptonian fist cannot immediately penetrate through the heavy exoskeleton of the alien. She can't see any sign of his foe going down. Another call in her ear rings out as a soft reminder, chiding as she accelerates into a turn and reaches her apogee while streams of smaller drones converge on their interdimensional teleporter.
    <I'm still with you, America. Throwing a stone at two hundred birds.> Her voice warbles through a bit of distortion on the commslink. The crackle isn't a failure on part of the technology. She reaches out to the skeins of probability, instinct pushed to the forefront. Pomegranate-red darts take form in a ring around her. Flicked wrists send the bolts showering past her in most directions, a shower pouring in sparkles to strike drones and very large Legion bodies alike. They're pretty indiscriminate except for striking at the alien life forms, stinging when they fall. Little darts to shove and chase, to sting and push away. Key there, a lot.
    The woman with the glowing red eyes concentrates on a massive figure, shifting her wrist around in a circle. The red shimmer rises on a nice juicy target for guns or Kryptonian punches, the larger bug and several smaller ones harassing America in her line of sight. "No more armour."
    Gooey outer bits will do just fine, though, or brittle papery ones.

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Yeah, that's right," Karen mutters, as the bugs fling themselves into her as if she were a windshield. "Just jump right in. Let's all get caught up in the vortex.

    In response to Clark, Karen comes up over the comms again. <I've done the math, Superman. I aced the exam, remember?> There's no need to double-check her work. She has to do this now, anyways- so there's no /time/ to second guess. As the battle is going to take place down below, there's more likelihood that a crack onthe surface opens up.

    As a result, and as more and more bugs leap at her, Karen does what should be impossible: She speeds up. The intensity of the tornado she has created redoubles upon itself. The radius expands, as Karen blows past the speed of sound time and time over, the vortex almost hungrily seeking to suck up the bugs surrounding- to prevent them from stopping her.

    Regardless, even if they can keep their maneuverability- The time is now. There is a red flash from within the tornado, as a tiny spark of heat vision hits the oxygen.

Andi Benton has posed:
Not only are drones responding, but more types of Legion bugs. This includes ones capable of flight, and Mania dives into the freshly-minted battle with aggression, cutting here, mashing there, and the resulting mess is not pretty at all. It was never going to be.

There are attacks that force her to regroup and change tactics, but there isn't much sign of them getting through whatever bodily defenses she has. Whether it's simply a tougher natural hide or a hardened exterior to compensate for the efforts of those bugs, it's hard to be sure.

"There are a lot of them, but they are falling to our strength!" Mania reports, amid switching off to cast out sticky lines and blobs of webbing that tangle up some of the wings of the airborne ones. That will only delay them, but in some cases it opens the door for killing blows from the one seeking to help give Black Widow some extra breathing room.

That is, until the molten flames begin to spread out over masses of Legion enemies. There is a near-immediate recoiling on the part of Mania, and a sense of panic conveyed from symbiote to host.

<<Andi>> Hold steady! You're stronger than this!
<<Mania>> Fire and heat! It terrifies us! We must not get too close!
<<Andi>> She's not aiming it at us! It's killing the bugs!
<<Mania>> We must keep away from it!

There isn't much choice but for Andi to let Mania keep some distance from Black Widow, and a widening of the eyes might be the only real outward sign that something is amiss. It's covered for with the distraction of more exterminating of the giant insects. Some of the noise from above suggests big things going on, but down below it's tough to suss what that could be.

Grail has posed:
Oh, they are brave. Grail smirks as she actually expects to just wipe the floor with these larger ones but then down comes an attack and she winces as it hammers her. While the blade doesn't break the skin, she is surprised by just how tough that armor that hit her is and she whistles. She stares in surprise before she slams her own hit home and sees that the skeleton doesn't break. She chuckles lightly and nods her head.

<<Now, this is more like it. The big ones can take a hit. Ya know, this would be vastly easier if I could just ignite all of this and call it a day.>>

She lets eeryone know her thoughts and then gets hit by the other tankier one and looks over at it before considering. When another hit comes in, she causally dodges it, testing the creatures for speed befores he hammers a fist right into the same spot she punched before. Once more she dodges and then hammers another hit into the same spot.

She seems to be getting deliberate, hitting the same spot repeatedly with massive strength until she pauses in her hammering before the fourth fist lands and she looks briefly at the queen. Then she changes tactics, trying to catch one of the attacks from the spikier, more solider like creatures and she considers. If she can get a hold of it, she spins around twice before simply attempting to throw the larger creature right at the queen.

"Lets see how well that tough armor does against your mother..."

Clark Kent has posed:
    Nat's flamethrower clears the path for her, most of the unfortunate drones she set on fire actually exploding once the fire gets through their carapace and releases the pressurized oxygen they use to move. With most of the extra bugs taken to the air, she can once again make progress towards the stem to set her explosives.

    Superman pauses for a second at the armor actually stopping his punch. He's about to try something else when the armor suddenly changes in front of him, thanks to the Scarlet Witch. He realizes that even if he does punch through it, his arm isn't long enough to do anything significant. With a bit of a sigh, he backs off a bit then speeds forward, both fists out in front of him. He plunges into and through the bug, dripping with miscellaneous bug guts. Shaking his head to clear his eyes, he looks around to see how the rest of the battle is going as the huge soldier falls behind him.

    The drones mobbing America start to fall to Wanda's darts and gunfire from the surrounding soldiers. They probably shouldn't be shooting in her direction, but they might be a little freaked out at the moment and firing a little bit indiscriminately. Either way, America can now make progress around the stem.

    Even keeping away from the fire as Mania wishes, the webbing and weapon arms work quite well against the bugs. A good number are either hopelessly entangled or are out of the fight from wounds they inflicted.

    When heat vision meets bug infested tornado, the force of the explosion pretty much knocks everyone and everything to the ground, causing a pause in the gunfire. Oh, and blows out every window for blocks around. That's going to be one hell of an insurance claim.

    Below the city, Grail's attacks hammer home, but something about the armor absorbs kinetic attacks. It isn't rigid, so doesn't crack, and is thick and flexible enough to absorb those punches. She does move the thing backwards as she punches it, because all that energy has to have an outlet somewhere. They are not overly fast, so catching a limb and throwing the thing towards the queen is easily accomplished. Not being a winged variety, this will be it's first and last flight as it soars across the cavern and smashes into the queen, tearing her abdomen away from the stalk and piercing her in multiple places.

    When that happens a glow begins to pulse up the stem, slowly at first, but starting to increase in speed. The drones redouble their efforts but Wanda's darts and the soldier's gunfire has started to whittle away their numbers, especially given how many were caught in Karen's private tornado.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Taking a moment to review comms and updates, the Black Widow fades again into the darkness. The nozzel of her flamethrower is tucked back, and she's heading along. She's coming to the first possible shatterpoint. She takes out a C9 Demolition charge, tags it in place with an adhesive, and then goes to set it for passive detonation. Which means she can set it off by radio signal.. Or if the detonator's scanner finds that the radio signal is blocked, it will go off anyways. It's an insurance policy.
    She pays attention to the rest of the team, swinging out of the way of the rushing Legionaires, and goes to dart through another tunnel. Slowing her pace now as she tries to not move too far ahead or risk stirring up more enemies. Now she's picking up the pace, going to sweep for the next areas she's planting the small charges.
    By the sounds of the melee and the fighting, eveyrthing about the surface seesm to be going as well as can be expected. No one seems to have died yet.

America Chavez has posed:
    As the swarm over America clears she breathes out a sigh of relief. "<<Thanks!>>" she offers, even as she takes a few stray bullets from the soldiers. They sting, but only enough to be noticed by the Multi-universal hero. With her path clear she speeds around the base of the stem.

    Another two points of her five pointed star get set giving off their own faint blue glow. "<<More than half-way there... coming around back towards the front. Clear a path>>" she chimes in, unaware that the path is already well underway of being clear by the heavy hitters among them. <<How you holding up Mania?>> she adds over the comms, getting a sit-rep on her teammate. "<<Still pounding out that aggression, right?>>" the note of hopeful banter in her tone might belie her own levels of distress.

Wanda Maximoff has posed:
    <I can see the pattern now. If anything threatens to come through, I will shield you.> Wanda has the advantage of height to see America's emerging star pattern and the side effects of what happens in the battle under the plant. She does not like the glimmer in the thick stem emerging from the ground, a frown at her lips and a tightening in her gaze. Her hands poised over her head focus her energy to chase after the Young Avenger, anticipating the protective defenses from the Legionnaire bugs. The larger scarlet bolt forming an unstable ball between her hands expands in size, oscillating like a drunk fratboy, until the spiderwebbed energy throbs.
    She hurls it away from herself, trailing after America in an overexcited state of red energy. Unlike her smaller darts, the globule packs a far nastier magical punch. On contact, the detonated force flares in and outward both. Fireworks to punch through something a little too excited about eating the enemy!
    It won't do much about bug goo and juice, but her work to disassemble exoskeletons for the heavy hitters hopefully makes up for the ick factor.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Unbelievably, at least for those who haven't worked with Kryptonians very often, as the dust clears from the explosion, there floats a lone figure in the air, unharmed.

    Spare seconds are taken, then- the surface bugs are decimated- at the very least. Perhaps, with the aid of the other heroes, eliminated. That means that the stalk is open, vulnerable on the surface.

    <Keep the surface team safe, Superman. I'm going for a ride.>

    It's then that she shoots down to the bottom of the seed, and does what she does best. Lift. "They want this thing in space so bad? Let's lend a hand."

    At the base of the seed, Power Girl disregards any threat that is bound to come her way. Small insect, large insect, capable of hurting her or not, she has one job. Move the seed. It seems an impossible task- something that takes a city destroying fuel source to provide enough force to create lift, the seed itself the size of a building.

    Connected at the stalk, still, her muscles flex, and she puts her back into it: Trying to tear the seed from the stalk now that the resistance has thinned, and push it into the sky- to fly with it, and get it off of her planet.

Andi Benton has posed:
Even after a couple years or so of the bond, there is still hesitation on Mania's part when certain dangers are close. There's more discomfort around burning flames than there is in dealing with otherworldly bugs. "We are alive," is all the response America gets over the comms, broadcast to the rest as well. The sound of that dual voice is strained.

Fortunately, the further apart she gets from the fires Black Widow's started, the better. Mania's done her part, /their/ part, and from here it's taking out any more threats that decide they want a piece while the heavier hitters and the more powerful people lay waste to the battered bugs. Web here, axe there, and more fall before Mania's might, though she is giving ground in order to be away from whatever's about to happen next with the main focus.

Clark Kent has posed:
    The light pulsing up the stem continues to speed up, and the stem begins to puff up as if filling with gas. The remaining drones simply stop where they are, like toys with a dead battery. The few remaining fliers scatter in all directions, vacating the area as quickly as possible. The attack helicopters start pursuing the ones that fly near them, waiting until they are over open water before opening up on them. Some do escape in other directions, but there's no way to tell if they will be a problem or just quietly die out. It's something to keep an eye open for.

    With the drones no longer moving, Nat can easily place her explosives where she needs them to be for greatest effect. Grail has the only bug still moving, the second huge one in the cavern, distracted from anything except the small creature that keeps throwing it around, so Nat is free to even move around the main cavern at this point.

    The soldiers make an even better showing of themselves as two missiles from man portable launchers are fired into the huge bugs, bringing them down now that their armor has been compromised by the Scarlet Witch.

    America will have no problem making her way around the stalk now, and given how it is acting will likely be running around the plant before the Bad Thing happens.

    Superman sees what Power Girl is attempting, and zips up to her level, then adds his strength to hers to tear the seed free. Once it releases, there is a gale force rush of oxygen from the stalk and the pulsing light goes out. Clark lets go so Karen can do whatever she had planned with the seed as America reaches the location for her final punch. The gunfire has faded now that the Legion are immobile or gone.

    Andi and Mania ended up making quite a dent in the masses of the Legion, and with some in the webbing, scientists will have the chance to examine live members of the species. SHIELD agents are actually already moving in on them already with various capture devices.

America Chavez has posed:
    America manages to find the last point of her star and with a great stomp of her foot, the portal opens. A massive five pointed star, rimmed in blue light, opens up a few meters below the base of the massive stalk. She didn't forget about the queen bug? Not at all.

    The area beyond the portal is dark, cold, and empty of anything. A place in between one universe and another. Literally no where. Literally no when. "-Hasta luego-" she mutters as the stalk begins to plummet into the dark abyss.

    She looks up just as the Krytponians are moving to dispose of the seed itself, ridding the city and any other planets free of the threat of these creatures. "All in a days work..." she mutters to herself before turning to find her companions.

Andi Benton has posed:
In the end, the threat is averted, the city and people saved. As America said, all in a day's work.

Mania trudges back out as agents rush past to get their hands on a few specimens, and it's clear to see bits of bug stuck to her, impaled on some of her own spiky protrusions. "Oooh.." comes a voice that is more symbiote than host, attention shifting toward the left arm, the hands having reshaped back to normal after previously becoming lengthening tendrils to grab and smash a few more Legion.

<<Andi>> No! I know what you're thinking! Don't do it!

The demand is ignored, that mouth finally splitting open to reveal the rows of teeth that come to needle points, followed by a lengthy, slick tongue. Before any further objections can be raised, a few chunks of insect are slurped up and consumed, followed by a satisfied 'chrrr' of sorts - again, from the symbiote itself.

<<Andi>> Ugh. Why, even?
<<Mania>> Because. You do not enjoy the taste? We do.
<<Andi>> No!

In unison, that combined voice speaks again to say, "We require chocolate for dessert." The grin that follows is an exaggerated, toothy one.

The things Andi has to put up with, sometimes.

That mouth fades away again, and Mania heads over to give America a nudge. "It is time for us to celebrate, right?"