2964/Doom Over Metropolis - Pre-Alpha

Doom Over Metropolis - Pre-Alpha
Date of Scene:	17 August 2020
Location:	Downtown - New Troy
Synopsis:	Doomdrones and Doombots attack Metropolis but the heroic efforts of America, Power Girl, Cyborg and Princess Crackaboom (Mary) save the day!
Cast of Characters:	Victor Von Doom, America Chavez, Victor Stone, Karen Starr, Mary Bromfield

---

Victor Von Doom has posed:
It's your standard afternoon in Metropolis. A clear blue sky, traffic, the sounds of a lively city all around. So it's easy for many to dismiss the low rumbling sounds that seem to be coming from the east. That is until those sounds continue to get louder and louder and then a large shadow starts to be seen over the city.

A massive twin-zeppelin style craft can be seen heading directly for Downtown Metropolis. It is a plain white color and the sound of large fans moving the airship into place overhead seems to be the source of the rumbling.

Then it stops it's forward movement and hovers in place, two large doors opening from below. Several small drones fly out and enter into a square formation in which the holographic image of Doctor Doom appears. "Citizens of Metropolis. For too long alien menaces have ravaged my world. Fear not, for the Champion of Earth, Doctor Victor von Doom, will free you!"

And then those drones separate and fly back into the airship.

Only for a whole host of new drones to emerge and start swarming into the center of the city.

America Chavez has posed:
America had been walking along in her blue shorts, white and red shirt, and black jacket with the silver star etched into the back of it to strech her legs, and go and get a rueben and chips. She was just finishing the corned beef delicacy on a bench near the vendor from where she bought it at, when the display comes up.

"America is already free," she declares under her breath, with a bit of a glare. And, without further thought, or hesitation on the matter regardless if she knows, or does not know who Victor Von Doom is, the young Titan bursts up from the ground into a high speed flight path straight towards some of the drones that are descending closest towards her, smashing her fist into one of them, her foot into another for a savage one-two combination.

She yells at the blimp, "Call them back, or I'll smash all of them. Get them out of here! Now! We don't need no stinkin' drones!"

Victor Stone has posed:
Vic Stone is in the process of unclogging the filter in the Titans' rooftop pool when the droning airship comes floating in over the harbor. He stares upward, the lens of his artificial eye snapping over to a telescopic mode so that he can check for weapons emplacements -- big ominous blimps flying over Metropolis are usually not great news, and when the holographic mask of Doom pops up like some old-school Starfox boss, Cyborg sighs deeply and runs downstairs to change into his aerial combat limbs.

One exciting pit-stop sequence later, he's jetting upward from the hangar on a gout of rocket exhaust, targeting drones through an augmented reality HUD that only he can see. He tracks America easily enough -- she's not what you'd call 'subtle' -- and comes in to tail her in a standard wingman slot behind and to her right. "Got you covered, Chavez. Not that you need it," he tells her with a grin, already firing off a pair of laser-guided missiles from his shoulders at two drones that strike him as a little feistier than the rest.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Near the heart of Metropolis stands a thirty story building bearing the logo of Starrware Industries. At its apex, sitting at an unassuming desk made of sleek black metal and glass that retains an almost impossible level of polished clarity, is Karen Starr. Currently the titleholder of World's Least Enthused Billionaire, she boredly fills out various forms of paperwork at- dramatic sigh- Regular Human Speed.

    Directly outside of her office at a much more intimidating desk- Mahogany, these details are important- is a different secretary than usual. Her Metropolis secretary is on vacation, so the one from New York gets to stay in Metropolis and be Secretary Prime for a week.

    The movement of the Doombots outside catches her attention, and she calls to the secretary without, seemingly, needing to use an intercom.

    "Hold my calls and appointments for the rest of the day." There's a slump to her shoulders after a moment, and Karen pulls the coke-bottle glasses off of her face. "Yes, I know this is the seventh time we've had to reschedule Mister Yoshinori- I-" A sigh. "Listen, with the amount of money I'm paying these people..." another pause, "It's KILLER ROBOTS, Harl. Don't take this from me."

    Without any further argument- Because, really, that's all she had to say- Karen takes to the balcony of the highrise and is off into the sky, changing from the disguise of Karen Starr and emerging clouds as Power Girl. Floating down from above and ensuring that the Doombots will need to address her rather than the citizens of Metropolis proper, she folds her arms in silence- awaiting the Doombots' (and others') response to the threat of her mere presence.

Victor Von Doom has posed:
Once the airship has deployed it's load of Type 1-Doom Drones, two other larger figures hop out of the airship. Both of these are wearing heavy armor with the green tunic and cloak of Doctor Doom, except they are about twice the size of a human. As they fall to the ground, their chest cavities open up and each deploy their own pair of normal size Doombots. The chests of the larger Doombots close and the six Doombots begin to hover in mid-air, fists extended. When they speak, all six speak at once with the voice of Doom: "Doom does not take orders from you, girl." This directed specifically at America. A small group of combat drones begin to bank in her direction, each firing green laser beams.

The drones that Cyborg fires at both explode into pieces as the missiles hit them. One of the Doombots turns its attention on the Booyahest of heroes, and charges him, also bringing with him his own flock of drones, six in all. "You dare to fire upon Doom's superior technology? See if you can handle one of my Doombots!" As the Doombot moves towards Vic, it raises a hand and begins sending green energy blasts in his direction.

When Power Girl makes her presence known, the two larger Doombots both turn to face her. "I was expecting Superman. Who are you? Oh, no matter. None is a match for Doom!" Both say in unison and they turn towards her and raise their hands, firing energy blasts in her direction as they both head towards her.

The three remaining regular-size Doombots continue to stare in the direction of the city, though one does seem to be the one controlling the drones heading in America's direction.

America Chavez has posed:
"You're the best!" America calls to Victor as he arrive to back her up, she grins brightly at the coolest cyborg teammate that anyone in any dimension could have, before Doom is addressing her, and then out come the lasers. She dodges the first one cleanly, and tries to air-dodge the second but it hits her and causes her to spin backwards for several hundred feet until she pulls herself to stop short and cursing, "Ow! That hurt," she complains, looking darkly at the firing Doombot.

"That's it. Gloves are off." She punches her fist into her open palm, and a brief, but visible star-pattern shimmers around the center of the punch extending out from her. "Cyborg - attack pattern kick their asses," she declares, boldly, and then she's flying at full speed straight to that second Doombot that hit her with the laser, fist lurching with all her might to the Doombot's head in retaliation.

Victor Stone has posed:
"How'd you know that was my favorite attack pattern?" Vic calls back to his dimension-hopping teammate, giving a big, sappy sniff that probably got lost in the windy air, unless you have Power-Girl-level hearing.

He banks and swoops away from the incoming energy blast, firing off another pair of rockets at the drone escort, but as he executes a jetlike flyby of the Doombot, he abruptly unlocks his limbs from dogfight position and boosts on a reverse couse with his extended jet-boots, spinning midair to try to crash into the humanoid robot and cling to it in piggyback position.

"Are you kidding me?!" he hollers through an enthusiastic grin, a cutting laser on his arm already searing the bot's metal armor as a glare shield extends over his human eye. "I would give three of my best right arms to handle an actual Doombot! Honest-to-God Latverian tech, right in my lab? I think I just died and went to robot heaven."

He's getting a little cocky, here, to be honest -- with the two powerhouse women around to keep the Doomswarm busy, he figures he can take a little time to cut some chunks off the Doombot for later analysis. He's not too focused on its personal defenses, or whatever remains of its drone escort.

Karen Starr has posed:
    At the retort from Doom, Power Girl unfurls one arm, from which she extends a single finger on her hand. It touches her earring for a moment. "Yeah he just asked who I was. Expected Superman, apparently." The cackling of her secretary is just barely audible for a moment.

    She has enough time then before the two doombots fire on her to bring her arms up in a boxer's block, holding both gloves in front of her face. The energy blasts strike her forearms and the sound of her boots scraping along the asphalt can be heard before she stops moving, the energy washing over her. The Doombots' aim is spot-on, but perhaps the weaponry needs some further testing (not that Power Girl could have known that was the intent) as once it disperses, she seems none the worse for the wear.

    The gloves drop, and her immediate response is a low "My turn." Before the unyielding heat of the sun rips from her eyes, and blazing through the air towards both of the hostile bots, raking from one side to the other.

Victor Von Doom has posed:
The Doombot that America is swinging at veers suddenly to the side and with a hand brings up a number of drones to act as a shield. America's fist demolishes them all in one big punch and they all explode and burst into tiny pieces. "You think to attack Victor von Doom?" The bot screaches at America while kicking its jetboots into full power and aiming itself at her midsection!

More of the drones that were attacking Cyborg all burst apart into pieces as his missiles hit them. "Fooo---" The one Doombot says, interrupted by Vic landing on its back. It twists and turns trying to throw him off, but nothing's doing. "YOU THINK TO LAY HANDS UPON VICTOR VON DOOM?" The words boom out of the voice modulator and then electricity shoots out all over the Doombot's form, in an attempt to separate itself from Vic.

The first of the two large Doombots facing Karen is caught slighlty unawares at the eyebeams coming from her, and before it can get it's own defenses in place, enough has been pierced that it causes it to malfunction and fly off erratically towards a nearby building. The second Doombot activates it's own energy shield and is brought to the ground as all power is sent to the shield. A signal goes out and the three remaining normal-size Doombots up ahead all fly towards Karen at full speed in response.

America Chavez has posed:
"Bye-Bye," America says as the broken pieces of emergency-deployed drones go crumbling down onto the streets and rooftops below. Her mouth twists as she realizes she's hit them, instead of the nefarious Doombot.

She turns back to the Doombot making it's declaration of impunity and disdain at her, and she smiles, wickedly as it rockets towards her. And, she swing a massive punch, far before the Doombot is going to arrive, as if she's miscalculated the timing, and indeed, will suffer a brutal knockdown, likely to the Earth below, as the Doombot might connect with her midsection and send her rocketing and plummeting to create a crater below.

But, that doesn't happen. Instead, the star sigil appears again - but this time instead of the dim outline, there's a sharp and bright light that appears, a star emblazened in the sky shining brilliantly for all to see -- and, for the Doombot that's rocketing towards her to go straight into. As soon as it does, that Doombot is just -gone-. Gone from any tracking that even Victor Von Doom might have, catapulted to a wasteland dimension from which it will never return or be able to report.

"Sorry, VICTOR VON DOOM. Guess I just punched you so hard, you just don't exist in this reality anymore."

She turns, sees the 'large' Doombot that's slowly heading for her. "Cyborg, I said to kick their asses, not play cowboy! Hurry up!"

Victor Stone has posed:
Through all its aerial thrashing, Vic clings to the Doombot's back more tenaciously than a suburban redneck to a mechanical bull, the actuators in his mechanical limbs clamping on with unremitting strength as his cutting laser continues to do its work. He starts to protest, "I wouldn't grab Doom himself, I just want some Doombot parts to hang above the mantelEEEAAAARLGGLARGADAAGLK--"

He's interrupted by the snaking traces of rogue electricity running amok throughout his circuitry, which have the twin effects of scrambling his RAM and causing his actuators to go off at maximum in random intervals. He'll give a bit of the damage he's getting as his stubborn cling turns into a crushing grip capable of flattening most alloys, but almost as quickly, his limbs throw themselves open and he starts to plummet earthward, his flesh and blood systems stunned and his mechanical ones going through an emergency purge/reboot. If he can't manage to get himself functioning and his engines firing again in the next few seconds, he's going to end up Metropolis's best-loved mechanical pancake on the pavement below.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Off in the distance, there's a distant *KRAKABOOM!* of thunder, which is odd, as no storms were forecast for Metropolis on this fine evening...

As Cyborg plummets to Earth, there's a red and gold blur flying up and under him, as Thunderbolt makes the catch, "Gotcha, Vic!" She keeps a hold of him to make sure he's alright as she soars over towards her fellow Titan, America.

Then she smiles a little wryly over at her, "Well, should we get to it then?" And she actually doesn't fly in on the very Large Doombot. Instead she just looks at it and shouts, "SHAZAM!"

And from the skies above, a massive arc of mystical lightning crashes down, the intention to impale the Large Doombot and hopefully cook its CPU to a delightful crisp. Sure, it might be protected against a typical lightning strike, but this isn't exactly 'typical'...

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen lauds herself silently for a moment following her destruction of the first bot and the very-temporary incapacitation of the second. While it hunkers down beneath its energy shield, three more doombots of the smaller variety are headed her way- this is a detail she can hear, but she has no reason to stop or intercept them. As much attention as possible is better- keeps more off of the younger heroes, and especially the innocent bystanders.

    This is why as they approach, she shoots forward, cutting her heat vision off and lunging through the air, a loud crack issuing as she momentarily breaks the sound barrier.

    Taking the fight to a melee might not be well-advised, and simply letting the other Doombots roll up on her and get the first move is a tactic lacking caution as she isn't entirely sure what all they can do: But, for now, the larger ones are likely the greater threat. That's why they're bigger, right?

    As such, she draws back, and turns all of that momentum and a healthy amount of her own strength into a frighteningly mighty punch aimed right at the chest of the previously shielded Doombot. Whether it had enough time to change modes- or even needed to- she had no idea. She just knew that if it was trying to defend itself, it might not be dropping any of its ordinance on people that aren't Power Girl.

Victor Von Doom has posed:
Somewhere in his underground lair, the real Victor Von Doom blinks as the data reading for Doombot F-4821a-1 completely disappears. "Interesting. Make a note of the time." He steeples his fingers and continues to watch.

---

America's Doombot does indeed vanish and is never heard from again, and Cyborg's death grips do cause his Doombot to start failing and spinning and spiraling down towards the ground below. Small sparks seen to still be coming out of different parts of it, and at some point during it's fall the faceplate falls off, revealing all sorts of techno-innards.

Then Vic is rescued and the Doombot continues to fal and fall and smash. It lands right on top of someone's pretty little Tesla.

---

The remaining large Doombot continues to hold it's shield firmly in place, though it does little else as all power is routed to it until that moment the heat vision is cut off. Though the Doombot and the ground immediately under him is still fine, there's plenty of melted asphault all around it. "DOOM PREVA--" The commentary is cut off as Mary comes in from above and launches a lightning bolt at it. And at the same time Karen's fist goes right through it's chest. The combination of the two hits just causes it to shatter apart into a bunch of different pieces, all of them flying all over the place.

The last two Doombots take in everything happening and pause in their descent and hover in mid-air, and begin to indiscriminately begin firing at America and Karen, not trying to aim as well as try to take up most of their attention.

It's at that moment the giant airship makes a loud hissing sound as panels open up and the air inside it comes wooshing out, and now it is falling down towards the city and everyone below!

America Chavez has posed:
"Cyborg!" As her favorite metal-man starts to plummet, she moves to dive-bomb to save him, until Thunderbolt shows up. She watches, as the word - however strange it is - is called, and the lightning cracks from the sky.

"Excellent timing, Princess Crackaboom," America calls, giving her other teammate a thumbs-up.

There's a glance to Power Girl, to see how the other hero is doing before she re-orients herself. "I'll take care of these other Doombots, Princess," she says, confidentally, looking up at the sky and the deflating airship. "Can you handle that thing with her?" A head gesture to Power Girl.

She waits only a moment for Thunderbolt's affirmation, or at least, willingness to try before she rockets towards the two Doombots, dodging their laser-shots as best she can as she moves to attack them head-on. There's a guttaral scream from her, half-joy, half-rage, as she feints, seeming to attack the first but at least learning from her mistake; she rockets past the first, to slam her fist into the second, and then intending to grab the metal body of the Doombot with her other hand and -whip- it around like a club to smash it into the first as fast, and as hard as she can.

Victor Stone has posed:
It doesn't take long for Vic to come back to life after Thunderbolt catches him, but it would have taken even less time to hit the pavement, so it's a good thing she was in the neighborhood! When he does reboot, it's with a full-body judder of mechanical parts realigning and a quadrophonic rendition of the first several bars of Brian Eno's 'Kites III' -- a startup theme by the very same man who composed the Windows XP fanfare! And, uh, some other stuff, too, probably.

"I'm here! I'm awake!" he says, nearly leaping out of Mary's arms as he reflexively jerks awake. "Did we beat--" He stares upward as the Doomyear blimp above deflates and starts crashing toward the ground -- and them, too. Now he does leave Mary's arms, although it's in a controlled roll rather than a reflexive jump, and he catches himself on columns of fire from his rocket shoes.

"Y'all worry about the blimp! I'll cover you!" he shouts. With no more time taken for discussion, he skates forward like the space werewolf from Jupiter Ascending -- but way more handsome than that Channing Tatum schlub, obviously -- and throws out a large gray-violet force shield on which he'll soak as many hits as he possibly can.

He slews back and forth to 'catch' the Doombolt blasts like a highly caffeinated, flying hockey goalie, keeping the air clear so that Thunderbolt and Powergirl can work unimpeded while America brings the hurt to Doom's minions.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Since Victor's alright, Thunderbolt looks over at Power Girl and nods, "Thinking we can haul this out to a nice open space!" With that, she launches herself towards the blimp, flying underneath it and then trying to catch it.

For something like this, it's not a question of weight so much as leverage, but making it a team effort should be pretty easy for the pair as she hmphs, "You're a worse sore loser than my little brother, Doom, and he's twelve!" She then looks over at Power Girl, "What do you think, park or harbor?"

Karen Starr has posed:
    At first, the Doombots firing on Power Girl elicited a response in her hooking an arm up to reflexively protect her face. Though, with the scattershot formation of fire she's taking, it isn't exactly required as much as it gives her a moment to consider how she's going to fight through it to get to the threat of the airship that is now falling towards the city.

    However, she doesn't have to think about this for long at all before America and Cyborg are taking point on the remaining bots and freeing herself and Mary up for the airship... Which is really great, because she's honestly used to being shot in the back a multitude of times while trying to Lift the Heavy Thing, so this is an altogether pleasant change of pace.

    Her only response to Mary is verbal, and though it -seems- like she says two words, the only one that's properly -audible- is "Mars." before she surges into the air, turning into a pink blur that finds itself almost immediately below the airship, hands pressed into its underside.

    She seems quite confident that they can move it wherever they choose if she's suggesting Mars, but all the same... It doesn't seem like a small task.

Victor Von Doom has posed:
Both of the remaining Doombots are quickly handled by America and her mighty DOOMFIST of PUNCHINESS. Perhaps some good news for Cyborg though, in that there -are- some pieces that are somewhat intact for him to study later. What remains of the smaller combat drones begin to self-destruct in small little explosions that

From somewhere inside the collapsing blimp comes a voice, though clearly it is over a communicator: "What makes you think you have won or that Doom has lost? Perhaps Doom simply wishes to make you heroes do his clean-up work for him." Then the voice is gone and a loud crackling sound happens as the electronic equipment inside the cockpit all short-circuits.

Princess Crackaboom, aka Mary and Power Girl both lift the remains of the airship over the city, and aside from the remains of the balloon part of things folding over, it remains in one large piece so it's easier for them to carry off to whatever location they decide upon without worrying too much about it shattering into pieces and causing more trouble.

Back at his underground lair, Victor looks over data and begins to make some adjustments to various calculations and other designs.

America Chavez has posed:
America whirls around as the remaining parts from the Doombots fall down to the earth below, seeing the sky is clear, she checks upwards to make sure that Mary and Power Girl are unmolested as they move to dispose of Doom's weird airship, and then she looks at Cyborg, grins, and gives him a thumbs-up.

"Mission: Punch All The Doombots is complete." She looks more than satisfied, even as she looks up towards Princess Crackaboom, "Damn that girl is scary," she says, with a wide grin. Then she looks aside to Cyborg, "Huh. You wanted parts? Let's see what we can find before the clean-up crews arrive, yeah?" And, willingly she'll go help Cyborg find a few of those odds and ends that can be salvaged and studied for whatever Cyborg's crazy intentions are.

America's a good friend to have around - not only does she give you cool nicknames, but she's willing to help scavanage Doom Tech for you too.

Victor Stone has posed:
Once he's done playing goalie to keep the heavy lifters clear, Vic jets forward into America's wake and zips around to catch the largest bits and pieces of the Doombots that go flying out of her fists' demolition range. He doesn't catch much that way, but with her help retrieving the fallen pieces, he ends up with quite an impressive little stash. When all is said and done, he's grinning from ear to ear.

"You're damn right we got 'em all!" he says enthusiastically, including the whole group in his comments. "Great work, all around. We make one hell of a team!"

He's going to have all sorts of fun taking apart, rebuilding, reverse-engineering, and incorporating these components into his own designs over the next few weeks. After all, what possible downside could there be to cramming spare parts from Latverian Doomtech into, say, his Roomba army? None, that's what. /Obviously/.

"Thanks to Thunderbolt, especially -- too bad no athletic scouts were there to see that catch! But if you're looking for a football scholarship, I know some guys. I can put in a good word."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Thunderbolt hmmms at Power Girl, "Mars? I appreciate the sentiment, and it wouldn't take /that/ long... but thinking a nice park would be a good spot for Richards and some others to study the tech..." She pauses, hearing the electrified remains of the computers inside the blimp, then sighs a bit, as if knowing Cyborg isn't gonna be happy...

"Well, what's left of it anyway? Just a thought." She hmphs at Doom's parting shot, responding testily, "Perhaps Doom should keep his Damage Control account current instead!". She looks a tad annoyed at the supervillain's dismissal, then gives America a bit of a wry grin as she helps Power Girl haul off the blimp.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Hoisting the ship onto her shoulders along with Mary, there is only a small discussion when the matter of Park or Harbor is brought up. She seems quite adamant that total destruction is the only way to handle the thing, even if the technology is suitably advanced to be worthy of study.

    "I'll compromise and call it at the Moon. If people want to study it they can go find it there, but I'm not causing thousands in property damage when there's another option, and I can think of two people who would give me more than they're worth in trouble if we threw this into the harbor."

    With that said, once it hits the upper atmosphere- and, possibly even before then, depending on the weight of the thing- Power Girl can handle it on her own. If allowed, she'll deposit it near the League's headquarters on Luna.