15972/Metropolis Maulers! No, not the football team.

Metropolis Maulers! No, not the football team.
Date of Scene:	27 September 2023
Location:	Eastside - Queensland Park
Synopsis:	Mark runs into trouble with the Mauler Twins, and gets a much needed assist from Kara! They promise to meet again later and maybe not pound someone. And introducing Mauler 2.0.
Cast of Characters:	Mark Grayson, Kara Danvers

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Mark Grayson has posed:
The Eastside of Metropolis is maybe the worst area of Metropolis, which is probably still better than the normal areas of Gotham. Industrial plants and warehouses line the streets, and it is at one of these that a pair of figures has broken in, and are currently loading up on high strength steel.

The pair of blue-skinned humanoids are each about seven foot tall a highly pronounced muscular body and very tall, easily dwarfing most humans, aliens and other sentient beings. Each one has broad shoulders and shaved heads with square facial features. Their main article of clothing is a black, sleeveless leotard with a white "M" stretching from the chest all the way to their legs. They also, oddly enough, are both barefoot.

Mauler Twin One is laughing as he loads up some steel beams. "This will prove I am the original and therefore superior clone! When our mechas are complete, we will be able to weave a path of destruction through any city!"

Mauler Twin Two snorts. "My mecha will be able to transform into a vehicle so I can carry more off, clearly making me the orginal and you the clone."

"Aren't you both too old for toys?" Comes out a voice from the opening that the Maulers crushed into the wall. In the moonlight, a figure of blue, yellow and black floats in the sky. "Why don't you go ahead and put down the steel and come along like a couple of soon to be residents of Belle Reve."

The Mauler Twins snort in unison. "Kid, there's only one of you and two of us. You're going to rush us, we'll pound you, and still get away. So run on along!"

Invincible steels himself against what may be a losing fight, but he's going to try anyway. "Then it looks like the hard way it is!"

And that is when one of the Maulers throws a steel beam directly at Invincible!

Kara Danvers has posed:
That beam never actually hits Invincible, but more on that later.

Kara Zor-El, or Kara Danvers as she's known at work, has been having a major crisis of identity trying to blend in with humanity the last few months. It's not that she cares about them any less, that's obviously not the case... but it's so hard to accept that what she's doing, donning this disguise, this fake identity, isn't lying to preserve herself... and who is she even protecting?

Going through the mundane activities of daily life is... well.. okay it's beneath her.

Which is probably a terrible thing to think isn't it? God, she knows it is. She knows that she shouldn't feel this way, since people everywhere on Earth do this every day of their lives. She is not every one or Earth... she's nothing like them. Not better, she genuinely doesn't think that, but certainly not the same.

Which is why she relishes the sudden screams of dock workers. Anything to give her an excuse to break away from the menotony of 'daily living'. Tearing off her clothes as she takes flight in a blur, rushing across the city she knows so well, and coming in like a bullet in the night. Right in the path of the hurled beam...

Where were we?

Oh right...

Kara, tiny, demunitive, Kara Zor-El... extends her hand and catches the javaline throw of a metal bar right in her palm like a baseball beamed at a pitcher on the mound. "Okay.." *CLINK* as it's tossed aside, hands patting together as she steps forward. Her cape snaps around her tall red boots, her skirt flares around her thighs. "I don't know who you guys are paying for those ugly ass costumes, but can we, collectively, agree that you look silly?" Her accent is hard to place. If based on Earth venacular, it sounds vaguely Swedish. It is, in fact, Kryptonian.

With an up nod at Invincible, glance back to the Mauler Twins, "I'll take the original." Pointing at one of them, because she'd heard their little argument and it it is just as likely to piss them off enough that even as strong as they are, they'll be prone to mistakes. "You." The hand turns over, curling towards her,

"Come get hit by a girl."

Mark Grayson has posed:
Invincible has heard Swedish, we mean Kryptonian, accents before. Having gone on the New Krypton on the excursion to unbottle the city and the subsequent attack by the Green Lanterns. Thankfully Kyle seemed to avoid trouble for turning on his masters. For now.

He was bracing to catch the beam when suddenly there's a smol Kryptonian in front of him, catching the large piece of iron and casually tossing it aside. Invincible smiles broadly. "Oh man, you're screwed. Even odds!"

With Kara calling out her target, Mauler Two hehs. "See, even the skirt knows I'm the original!" With that, he starts to rush after Kara, with a surprising amount of speed for someone that is so bulky. Just as it looks like that he is about to launch into a headlong attack, Mauler Two goes down to his knees, sliding beneath Kara, "Calling us silly, when you're the one in a skirt and go go boots?" he asks, holding Kara's attention.

While he does that, Mauler One launches at Kara. He easily closes the distance between himself and Supergirl and aims to clock her across the jaw while his clone keeps her distracted. His fist comes down with the weight and power of a fully loaded semi-trailer truck!

Mark, in the meantime calls out, "Heads up!" trying to give Supergirl a warning on the tatic, he's seen it before. But he has help currently. And that is always nice to have when dealing with multiples. Launching forward in flight, he attempts to intercept the second Mauler before he can bounce up from his slide and slam into Kara from behind. "Sorry, no tag team for you tonight!" he cries out as he rams shoulder wise into the Mauler and drives him back into a pile of steel beams, scattering them about the floor!

Kara Danvers has posed:
This would be a perfect team Titan fist bump moment if there weren't two big brutes very angrily attempting to smash her pretty face into the cement right now. "Raincheck on fist bump." She says, but then she's a blur of motion, closing the distance between Mauler Two before he's even had a chance to start sliding. Which doesn't do much to keep her from being drawn into the distraction and is very nearly clocked in the back of the cranium by the double fist overhead semi-truck of an ax-handle from Mauler One.

Thankfully, Invincible takes the first one out of the equation. Which puts Mauler One into a precarious position of, when his double fisted punch lands, only jerking her down a little. Truly, if that'd been anyone else... there would be parts seperated from other parts. She is not anyone else: She's the Maiden of Might. Which, objectively, is a pretty sexist moniker, can we agree on that?

The double fists hit her square on the side of her jaw and knock her head around, bending her down onto one knee. ... But it doesn't knock her down. Point of fact, when she turns her head fractionally up to stare at him from the corners of her eyes, it looks to have pissed her off.

Fun fact about Kara:

She has a terrible volcanic damn near nuclear temper.

"Oooh...." Her hand moves so quickly it defies all physics and wraps, tiny and smol, around the big guys wrist. "You're definitely going to wish you hadn't made fun of my boots." Levity, if only to defuse some her murderous rage. Her tiny shoulder jerks forward against the anchor of her hand around his wrist, pulling with that hand, to jerk the big man over her shoulder. Her other hand comes up, grabs him by the center of that ridiculous M, and pushes downwards.

With enough force to crack concrete.

Then she kicks him in the side of the head and sends him sliding across the floor in a pinwheel twirl into a stack of the same super strength steel stacks they were trying to steal.

Her palm comes up and runs along her jaw, turning it over with her head tilting slightly as blood runs from the tiniest little cut on her lip. It brings a smile to her face. "Oh so you're strong strong... Good, lean on that. You're going to need it."

Mark Grayson has posed:
First we're going to deal with Mark and Mauler Two second, because Mauler One and Kara really do earn a closer look at their fight because the Maiden of Might - which is both appropriate and sexist - has gardner the casual log readers attention.

As his fist slams down on that pale and well-sculpted jaw, Mauler One laughs, "You should have taken Invincible out of here and gotten some coffee or something!" he gloats. And he would have continued to gloat were it not for the fact that Kara grabbed him by the front of his tunic and slams into the concrete.

His body is the buffer between Kara and the ground, and the concrete cracks, caves and dimples into a six inch depth before hitting the rebar beneath that reinforces the place. She can hear the cracking of several bones, the woosh of breath -- and the smell of the liver and onions he had for dinner -- rush into her face.

His arms, the size of beer kegs at the biceps reach up, grabbing the pretty blonde by her hair on other side. "Oh yeah, I'm strong strong, and you're just in my reach!" His head goes up, attempting to slam his heavily inforced forehead right into Kara's nose and face as he pushes with his legs to try to shove Kara off of him.

Now we return to our regularly scheduled Mark pose. As he and Mauler Two slam into the steel beams, Mark comes floating out backwards as Mauler Two is swinging a steel beam like a baseball bat, trying to catch Invincible in the side. "Come on, kid, I'm gonna knock you outta the park!" he calls out, a heavy whiff at Mark as he Invincible skids an inch off the ground, before rushing towards Mauler Two.

The Mauler Twin tries to catch him on the back-swing, but this time, Mark takes it. The beam slams into his side and Invincible barely moves. The Mauler looks confused. "Have you gotten stronger?" he asks Mark in confusion.

"You're about to find out!" Swinging his arm around the beam, he twists at his hips and uses the beam as a lever to throw the Mauler aside. He goes flying, tumbling along the ground and crashes into the foreman's shack. He manages to get to his feet, just in time to see Mark rushing him again.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Supergirl is also strong strong.

The sudden belch of liver and onions hit her in the face almost as heavily as the forehead is about to. "Oh god, people still eat that crap?" She gags out, when Mauler One's forehead connects with the bridge of her nose in the kind of high volocity speed that can create shockwaves. Unstoppable force meeting unmovable object... There's a *BOOOM* as the headbutt lands.

Then a *CREEEE CREEA* when Kara goes flying backwards against the wall. She hits and OOFS out air when her shoulders connect with solid concrete reenforced with metal rebar. Cracks forming where she collids... blood oozing from her nostrils as she pulls herself out of the dust and falling concrete chunks from the upper levels of the structure. Grinning... ear to ear grinning.

Gravity means absolutely nothing to someone like Kara Zor-El. She lifts her feet against it's meager, fragile, pull, and pushes off the wall at Mauler One. Moving far faster than anything has any right to move on Earth. It hits him in the abdomen, bends him over her shoulder, and hoists him straight up in the air with his arms wrapping in under her underarms.

Up onto flexing, pwoerful, thighs and then down. She jumps and dives into the foreward slam that deepens that dip in the concrete by another six inches. While she's swatting at his hands, working her knees up to hold him in place with one on either side of his shoulders. Getting into a mounting position like this is UFC.

Only it's UFC with a pissed off Kryptonian.

The first punch is a career ender. Her fists are small, passing through his guard as her other hand swats his hands trying to defend himself out of the way. Right between the eyes. It snaps his head back against the concrete.

The second is a falling meteor. With her other hand grabbing his wrist to hook it beneath her ankle. Leaving his face a clear target. BAM... BAM... BAAAM...

Raining punches down on him as blood pours out of her broken nose. From her smiling face between her otherwise pearl white teeth. She'll have a black eye for a few minutes, maybe. Six... seven.. blows. Rocking the good sense out right out of him... but he's tough right? He'll bounce back. "If you're the original, I bet your clone is an absolute dumptruck of trash."

Mark Grayson has posed:
Mauler One was knocked dizzy by slamming his head into Kara's face. He stumbles back, trying to get his bearings, but he's grinning ear to ear as well. "So she /can/ bleed." He will totally be making a note of that in his logbook of the Kryptonians. Then she sees the way she's smiling and unhinged and he blinks. "Bloodlust, intrigu--"

The rest of what he was going to say is lost as suddenly Kara's small fist slams right into his solar plexus. The shockwave from Kara's raw power slamming into Mauler's armored hide sends out a shockwave that shatters every window in the factory, sending the glass shards spilling like glittering diamonds all over the ground.

The defenses, whatever defenses that that Mauler attempted to bring up, Kara removes them as easily as swatting away a fly, he was attempting to keep her at bay to try to punch her again. Instead, he finds himself slammed into that crater again as she starts to wail into him. His face disfigures, lips bruised, nose bleeding, eyes swelling shut. The pounding that Kara delivers is equal to a brutality, and soon, the Mauler Twin is tapping Kara's thigh. If this is the UFC, he's tapping out. "....no... no... more..." he gasps.

Mark rushes Mauler Two, slamming into him. The Maulter twin slams into the wall, and tries to bring his hands down in a two-fisted axe strike on Mark's back. Instead, Invincible starts punching him in the side. Over and over. Like Kara, perhaps he's drawing inspiration from her!

But inexperience comes into play as he Mauler Two slams Mark into the ground.

And while Mark is temporarily down, the Mauler starts to run for the door that they made, attempting to escape. He can always clone himself, and then he'll be the original. Unless of course, he is already the orginial.

It's complicated.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Insanely complicated.

Kara very rarely gets to let the chains off. To really cut loose and take this Yellow Sun fueled strength go out for a spin. The reality is, if she were in a fighting game, she wouldn't have a health bar... the things around her would. How much punishment can she do before the world breaks? That's Kryptonians. That's the reality of what Kara Zor-El lives with on a daily basis.

As she slams her fists, both of them together in a huge knot, right into Mauler One's forehead to knock him out of the fight... Is about when Mark is being slammed and Mauler Two is making a break for it. She's sweating, which is rare, bleeding which never happens, and giddy as a school girl... which feels kind of good. There was a lot of aggression she needed to work out.

So she has no problem letting the other Mauler Twin escape. If only so there can be a sequal.

Besides, she has a promised fistbump.

With a palm flat on a bruised Mauler face, she pushes up and out of the crater and very nearly stumbles. Arm dragging across her face, coming back a little bloody. It's not a facet, but she does, in fact, bleed. "You alright?" She pushes hair out of her face and holds a hand down to Mark who probably is in a lot better shape than she is.

But then people wonder why she's having trouble fitting in with humanity?

Mark Grayson has posed:
Kara may be /okay/ with letting the Mauler twin escape, but Mark was trying to get to his feet in an attempt to prepare to pursue. He glances over to where Kara is pushing up, seeing the blood on her face, and his lips purse in concern.

The Mauler will try to rescue the other sooner or later, that much is fact. He laughs as he runs out the hole, looking down at his communicator - already, the two are sharing info on Kara's blood that smeared all over Mauler One's face. When they next need to make a clone because one has died -- which Mauler One may do soon...

Mauler Twin's next update may have some fledgling Kryptonite powers. They may stand a chance against the Mighty Mini.

Accepting the hand up as Kara offers it, she may notice the bruising on Invincible's face. It's not new bruising, he's healing. Just not as fast as Kara could. "I'm good, I'm good. You alright?" he asks her in return. "I don't have any pockets for a Kleenex in this costume." comes the sheepish admission. "You let your hair down for this one, didn't you?"

And he remembered. His arm raises, fist out. Titan's fistbump, right?

Kara Danvers has posed:
That's a future Kara's problem.

Present Kara fistbumps Mark with knuckles that aren't cracked or bruised, but definitely show the signs of having hammered a solid surface of which even Kryptonian skin is not impervious. It's refreshing to know something like that exists. At least, it is for Kara. Who has only found such challenges off of Earth.

With a smile on her face, bloody perhaps, but still quite jovial. And a blackeye, which will heal in a matter of minutes, she nods enthusiastically, "I needed that." She admits with no small amount of relief. The general tone of her voice is one of absolute relaxation. As if she'd not just beat someone half to death. But he definitely deserved it okay? All you neigh sayers out there that say Kara was too rough on him, you're enablists. You're the reason Lex Luthor keeps getting voted as President.

"You totally had that under control, but I appreciate you letting me slid in there." Her fingers swipe out side ways in either direction across her shoulders, "Get some of this off my back, ya know?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
"I can totally get behind the whole idea of having to shake it off sometimes and unload and rewind." Mark admits, taking a moment to appreciate Kara's handwork. Man, he could have really used her when Juggernaut was beating the piss out of him.

He'll remember to contact her if he comes back in the future for another round. If he doesn't get stupid stubborn again and try to handle it himself. He does that. A lot.

"And I'm always good with team-ups, builds good team relations and makes me wonder if I should be more confident in opening up my identity to the Titans. It's not like I'm anyone famous or the like." Mark shrugs his shoulders. "It's more because..." he glances over at Mauler. "Another story, another time, am I right?" he asks with amusement.

He lowers his arm and gives Kara a toothy smile. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I appreciated the assist and if you ever need it, I don't know... hit me up?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Identities come up. That's Serendipitus. Is that how you spell that? Really, Kara should be better at spelling if this is going to be a hobby she's done for over two decades amirite? Whatever... It's that word.

She inclines her head and nods slowly, appreciatively, at his observations. "Well, I'm Kara. Zor-El." Whether or not they've appropriately met, it doesn't matter, this is the first time THEY have MET. With her hand extended to him and a slightly bloody grin on her otherwise pretty face. Which is already starting to heal, so that's nice.

Imagine if she had prom tonight or something.

Alas, no. Not that young.

"I try not to bother people. Besides, most of my nemesis' are just crazy, not particularly dangerous... out of context anyways. Livewire can be just that... a livewire." That's more Karen's villain, but.. they're the same person right?

"You good with handling public relations on this with the Metropolis Police? I don't really want them to see me bleeding..." Identity. It's important that people never see her bleed. At least, to her.

Even if she clearly enjoyed it.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"Nice to meet you, Kara. I'm Invincible, as you know. When we next meet, hopefully I can introduce myself more formally." Mark proises as he dusts off his hands. When Kara makes her request, he can just hear what she hear a full minute ago, the sounds of sirens approaching as Metropolis' finest are finally making their way to the scene.

"Never let them see you sweat, huh? Even if it looks good on you. Not the blood though." Mark allows and then he gives an upnod of his head as he heads over to Mauler One. "Go, I'll deal with the authorities and make sure that you kicked ass but were just too cool to stick around for the interviews."

He casts a wink over his shoulder.

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara grins a little wider at the compliment, even if it shouldn't please her so much to hear she looks good with blood (OR WHATEVER). "Charming." Said with a wink and a nod, already hovering off the ground in a slow backwards motion towards a giant hole in the wall that will be perfect for a speed, Kryptonian, escape.

"That one's going to need plastic surgery." Pointing over at Mauler One. Who, she hopes now that the adrenoline is wearing off, is still breathing. "Anyways... I'll see you later, Invincible. We can talk about how strange it is to talk to each other using super code names later?"

Lingering hover, long enough for him to answer... but not long enough for the police to arrive.. and then she's just gone. On a curtain of air that takes her right back to her day job.

Where she'll have to explain why she has a healing blackeye.

Ol clumsy Kara Danvers. Didn't see that filing cabinet...

Pretending to be human is stupid.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"Sounds good!" They can also talk about being alien without home planets, dating humans, all that fun normal human stuff. When you're really an alien. Can write a book about.

Hell, his dad wrote a whole series on it!

It failed. It failed terribly. He has boxes of them in the garage. Mark hands them out at Halloween. They are /that/ house. "I'll see you later, Kara."

And with that, he goes over to check on Mauler One. And... he's barely breathing. Even after the paramedics arrive, it will be touch and go for several days. Until one night, five days in the future...

Mauler Two will come in through the window to visit his clone. "I have the new program completed. But you know the rules. Can only be two of us." The first Mauler barely nods as Mauler Two injects a serum into his IV to rush his pulse and crash his heart. He is well gone by the time the Code Blue crew arrive. Back to their lair.

Where Mauler Two, now Mauler One, drops the Kara and Mauler blood in the machine, and starts the process of cloning Mauler 2.0.