7432/Metalek Menace!

Metalek Menace!
Date of Scene:	18 August 2021
Location:	Daily Planet Building - New Troy
Synopsis:	The Justice League and friends stop an alien invasion of earth, and reveal it was all a ruse by Lobo to escape the planet with a captured Superman! It's all a little embarrassing for the Man of Steel, but the day is saved!
Cast of Characters:	Clark Kent, Billy Batson, Hal Jordan, Ruth Kincaid, Carol Danvers

---

Clark Kent has posed:
Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow. Today!

"This is Jimmy Olsen reporting because someone has to fly the helicopter." Jimmy Olsen says, sticking his head out of a commandeered Science Police chopper and taking a few pictures. "We're tracking what seems to be some kind of construction equipment riot! Machines are ripping up the road, demolishing buildings, and have engaged with the Science Police, who are trying to-woah, that's a rocket!"

Jimmy tries to look conspicious, fails, and hits his Superman Signal Watch. Hopefully the big guy is okay!

As far as the situation on the ground goes, it looks a bit like this: suddenly the construction and demolution machines in a work pit came to life, turned on their operators, and started smashing things. The machines used the raw materials they siezed to build new machines, all while almost chanting a grim refrain.

"ME! Ta! Lek!" The machines chime, a caterpillar ripping open a power line while a large, humanoid looking robot engages the sleek anti-meta equipment of the responding Science Police!

But where is Superman?

Miles away, hearing a familiar kree kree kree subsonic pulse, the Man of Steel stirs. It's dark, he thinks, and I can hear, but not see. Why can't I see? Superman focuses his eyes, and he notices a familiar color. At last.

The sickly, deathly green pallor of Kryptonite. "oh no." Superman breathes, struggling. Where is he?

Billy Batson has posed:
It was Billy Batson's intention to sleep all weekend. He messed that up already. Sitting up in his dorm room he grabs his phone to check the news. You always check the news when you wake up. You just do... he ponders some decaf coffee. He sees the scene on CapNewZZ and stops. What the fudge? What are those things? Where are those things? Metropolis?

Fine Big Blue can get it.

The Titans are in Metropolis. Irie is in Metropolis possibly.

"Shaz-fricking-zam. Oh that didn't work. Shazam!" The window frame vibrates with the speed of his passage.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Sitting in the Hall of Justice monitor room because, well, somebody has to do it, Hal pulls Jimmy's feed to the main monitor to better see what is going on. Given that these things seem to be building their own reinforcements, he hits the alarm, summoning any nearby Leaguers to the scene.

With that done he takes to the air and flies out of the Hall, heading directly for the uppity construction equipment. Coming to a stop and hovering above the area, he takes a moment to see just how many of the things are active.

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    "Dispatch, this is Aerial, deploying to Metropolis. I understand we've got wounded?" Ruth's navigation lights bloom as she takes off, a jagged red line blurring through the sky.
    "Affirmative."
    "Okay, what hospitals are open for receiving?" The jagged line binks down as if swatted out of the air, and Ruth comes to a stop flat at a bit of an angle against the ground before bumping just slightly up. Hazard warning tape in hand, she flies a few laps around the affected blocks to ward off anyone from coming in.
    "Met General will be standing by." Ruth trades the hazard tape back into her backpack for medical kits, flicks on flashing red and white lights and siren, and heads in. Tethers fired from her red flight suit stick to and claim wounded into zero-g with her power, reel them in, and she rattles off the injuries into her radio while applying first aid to stabilize those who need it.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol is tired.

Not really physically since that isn't as much a thing when you are sustained like she is.

More mentally.

She is up on The Peak in her office reviewing a lot of information for an upcoming trip when an analyst routes a video clip to her. "What now?" she asks then sighs.

The SWORD Analyst "Uh one of the keywords you have us cycling for showed up.. "

Watching the video of the rogue construction equipment she just sighs, a deep weary noise. "Metaleks.. I swear to god." and pushes up to her feet heading to a transport pad.

On comms to the League, it is Metropolis <<Excercise caution in the Metropolis situation. I think those might be Alien Robots in origin and annoying. En route to confirm.>>

Clark Kent has posed:
There are currently give Metalek scouts; one's taken the shape of a cement mixer, one a crane with a demolition ball, one a bulldozer, one a hunched over car with long, delicate hands for ripping into the ground and constructing, and one a building sized humanoid robot with a Science Police APV for a head and large, lego-like hands, currently ripping another anti-meta tank open.

The Science Police are well equipped, but not for giant robot. It's all they can do to hold the scouting probe from spreading to other areas of the constantly under construction city of tomorrow: the whole city could be weaponized if the Metalaks can turn every construction site in Metropolis into a Metalak factory!

The big guy with the crane looks up at Hal, and tiny robot eyes narrow in hate. "GREE." "NN LAN." TERN." The crane pulls back, and swings at Hal! "FRIEND OF." "SUPER" "MAN."
    he other robots chant in grim, hateful unison. "SUPER." "MANNN."

"Huh." Superman groans, hearing the commotion. His hands, he realizes, are chained behind his back. Rope would've been for preference, but maybe if he moves just like this..

:"Aah." Clark groans, as he tries to move his wrists and brings his chest closer to the sliver of Kryptonite currently crippling him. "Got to. Get out."

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Construction equipment, even self aware construction equipment is big enough to dodge fairly easily, but Hal goes with a different tack. As the wrecking ball comes his way, he creates an oversized bat. Lining up his shot, he swings as the wrecking ball comes in, hitting a line drive directly towards the humanoid robot.
    While the wrecking ball is in flight, he heads for the bulldozer, bat in hand.

<<Green Lantern engaging the enemy, could probably use a hand or two.>>

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam was taught to figure out what you want to accomplish, and then the most straightforward way to do it. Well he wants the robots deactivated. The fender face making more robots is going to make that hard to accomplish. So it is priority number one. He aims for it fists in front of him -then swerves out of the way of the wrecking ball.

"Hey Green Lantern!" he yells before flying at the constructor.

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    "Green Lantern, good to have you." Ruth chirps into her comms, "I'll be with you as soon as the civilians are out." She gathers up all she can find, and then jolts over through the air to a pile of rubble, yanking the string of floating wounded behind her like a mass of party balloons. They bump around against each other in a way that looks silly, but without any inertia to put force behind the blows it's all perfectly harmless. Ruth grabs a slab of concrete foundation in her hands, focuses into it for a bit, then jerks it up into the air to set aside so she can get at another victim.
    "Dispatch, this is Aerial. Evacuating with wounded, back soon." Her red and white lights and siren flick off and the navigation lights turn back on. Then she's gone in another jinking red line.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Meanwhile Carol continues to watch the various reporting and coverage on a holodisplay as she steps onto a transport pad.

<<Hal. Will be there shortly. Try to keep them from converting any other machinery. Can't let the things spread. Oh hey, sic Shazam on them.>>

She nods to the agent operating the pad and the teleport fires up. A short moment later Captain Marvel materializes on top of a nearby building and lifts off the roof to float over to the edge and study the scene with her own eyes, and scanners, instead of footage. "I swear to god I am going to put up message repeaters on the edge of the solar system with a list of consquences up to and including flying to whatever homeworld you have and sticking my boot all the way up whatever god emperors ass you have if you enter uninvited..."

Clark Kent has posed:
"It's the Justice League!" Someone shouts. Someone's always there to shout in Metropolis. The people are amiable enough, but there's a certain love for street theater you don't get in towns with a better track record with robot invasions. Some kid's livebloging this whole thing.

Oh that's Jimmy Olsen. "Hey!" Jimmy shouts to Hal, taking a picture and dodging a hunk of edifice that would've crushed his head to pulp, "Is it true you and Superman are fighting, GL? Can I call you GL?" Click.

The bulldozer Metalak charges to intercept Shazam, moving to protect the core processing Metalak. Hal manages to deflect the wrecking ball, but has to deal with the cement mixer shooting a strange, glowing mixture of cement at him! Chances are it's not just going to stick. They don't pursue Aerial, allowing her to escort the worst of the injured towards Met General, where her scanners can pick up a faint residue of radiation.

The big toy robot looking one starts moving, again. It's looking right at you, Carol, and some sort of energy seems to be building up inside of its tank face.

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam braces himself for the impact. Okay, bulldozer moves in the way, it goes down. Shazam increases his speed and bears down on the construction machine. The impact shakes it and he digs his fingers into the metal and starts pushing. Greco-Roman wrestling is a thing! He has to forget the constructor for the moment and concentrates on forcing it away, to clear the run at the maker.

And he feels like he's missing something obvious while fighting giant robots!

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Spotting the goop coming his way, Hal lets the bat fade and creates a large U-shaped tube with a funnel on the top end. With this, he tries to not only catch the goop that has been shot at him but also redirect it to cover the the mixer in it's own goop. Better it than him, is the basic thought here.

    He's happy to see the wounded getting taken to safety without any problem from the construction equipment. Seeing Shazam move in on the main machine, he lets the tube fade as soon as the goop is headed back to it's creator. Taking aim at the humanoid robot, he lets fly with a blast of pure Oan energy from his ring, not even bothering to form this attack into something. Sometimes energy bolts are just the right way to go.

    <<Good to hear your voice, feel free to disassemble something that shouldn't be moving but is before they spread.>>

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    After landing on the helipad, Ruth sets the patients down on the waiting gurneys and disconnects the tethers, before taking to the air again.
    "Dispatch, on my way back but I'm picking up a... strange radiation leak?" Ruth raises a hand to the side of her helmet and spins up a flywheel to add more power to her sensors and get better resolution.
    She squawks comms, "Lantern, Marvel, I'm sharing my feed. Either of you recognize this emission spike? It's showing up as a radioactive noble gas with a peroxide bond on my end, that's gotta be a glitch, right?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol lifts a hand and scans the energy build up. A bit wary since the whole Shi'ar thing. Still it seems pretty straight forward.

So she lifts further off the roof and flies right at the alien big toy robot. Looks like she seems fine with letting the tank face blast her if need be. She just did not want it blasting her on a roof top.

"Rock'em Sock'em." she says chipperly outloud and over the comms.

Picking up speed and slams her shoulder right into the big robot's midsection... whether or not it is blasting her.

Though with that quip she probably should have punched it's head off...but then it might spread vs. just being pulverized.

Clark Kent has posed:
"I know that." Aerial, there's a weird kid (is he a kid??) looking over your shoulder. It's like if someone decided Tin Tin should be real, with bright red hair and distinctive freckles and a big bow tie. This is Jimmy Olsen, one of the most accomplished, hard bitten reporters in the word, and everyone's pal. But mostly Superman's. "That's the chemical register for Kryptonite! Someone must have taken it past here without any lead shielding! Maybe that's where the big guy is!"

"...sorry, for following you, just seemed prudent."

Shazam, your powers can easily match one robot. The problem is that you aren't dealing with one robot! As you struggle with the bulldozer, the constructor moves to free the cement mixer from its own toxic cement; just as you throw the dozer out of the way, the mixer is freed, and fires at you!

Hal, Carol, you double team the tall robot. It moves a part of its body as Green Lantern moves in. Carol's shoulder punch hits it in the shoulder, sending its deadly beam up over the horizon where hopefully it won't hit anything. However, she can see a large, mirrored platform in the machine's guts, as it has its midsection ripped apart by Hal. It uses the space mirror to try and redirect some of that green light at Carol!

The wrecking ball, meanwhile, has partially recovered, and is building up to take another swing!

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam could easily dodge that stream of goop normally. He can dodge or catch bullets if he's ready. Dodging while holding back the dozer not so easy so he tries a reversal, hauling the machine in front of him to shield him from the goop.

Lightning, use the lightning! Will it work? Sure! It's a ROBOT. Shazam channels the full force of his lightning into the machine, watching it crackle down his arms and spark from his eyes and emblem.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    With the humanoid robot on it's way out from his blast and Carol's attack, it's time to deal with the wrecking ball. Forming a large boxing glove encasing his hand, he zips towards the crane, putting all his momentum into the punch to the wrecking ball. He's come in at an angle so that the cable holding the wrecking ball will wrap around the crane's arm, tying it up and taking that swinging ball out of commission, possibly even breaking the arm off the crane.

    As Shazam's lightning strikes down on the bulldozer, Hal takes a moment to scan the area to see where the biggest remaining problem is. It's probably the constructor, so he takes a moment to form a large spear and dives towards it, trying to impale the machine before it can add to the problems by making another robot.

    <<Dodge that energy blast Carol, didn't expect it to have a mirror in there. Sneaky buggers.>>

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    Right. New priority then, tracking down that trail. Ruth answers Jimmy with a, "Lead shielding... Thank you, sir," adjusts some settings on her scanners, and she's off, bouncing from wall to wall down the street with a moment's pause between each stop to get her bearings, in the direction of the warehouse...
    "Sorry for the delay, Lantern. I'll be a moment more." Okay, that's a much stronger signal than she was noticing before. So it might be here that she'll find the source of the radiation. And a human sized thermal bloom? Someone's in there.
    "Dispatch, I've got a signal here. Standby." She lays one hand on the wall by a door to secure herself with gecko grip-- doorknobs are hard for someone with no traction --and then opens it and slips in, hazmat containment bag in hand. "Hello? Aerial, search and rescue!

Carol Danvers has posed:
Well.

<<Should be fine Hal, don't worry about grazing me .. make sure that crane is handled>> Honestly Carol just lets it redirect the ring energy right into her, which is a nice topup of Oan energy as she starts to glow a bit brighter there. "Thanks Rockem." she quips to the giant robot.

She shifts her footing, which is most she shifts the position she is hovering and moves to try to get a much better grip on the robots frame.

Which is when she starts to just rip her way into it trying to rip it assunder and down to the components.

There are little cascades of cosmic energy off the heorine as she starts ripping it apart.

<<Hey ... the radiation.. get in there and see what is going on ASAP>> that is sent to Ruth, as an after thought. She hopes it isn't what she is worried it might be.

So much multitasking.

Clark Kent has posed:
This is about where it all goes to hell for the Metalak.

Shazam's lightning penetrates the bulldozer, completely overwhelming its advanced alien sensors. It screams as it overloads and is reduced to a normal piece of machinery again, and then so much slag. This clears the way for Hal to cripple the wrecking ball, and then turn around and hurl a sharp object at the controller, who is damaged but not out quite yet.

Then Carol rips the siege weapon straight in half. There's a horrible crunching sound as Captain Marvel tears the machine apart, its alien screen audible throughout the city. The cement mixer moves to desperately fire hunks of cement at the super-heroes, trying to cover the converter's desperate retreat towards a transmat pad!

Meanwhile, Aerial finds a small out of the way warehouse. Following the signal, she can find a metal ball, about the size of a human being. Her sensors can detect some kind of life sign inside of there, and the tell-tale radioactive ping of Kryptonite. Has someone captured Superman?!

Worse, is that someone still here? "Oh hey Lobo." Jimmy Olsen says, snapping a picture. "New haircut?"
"Swell of you t'notice, twerp." The Man Man says, grinning evily.

Billy Batson has posed:
Shazam throws more lightning at the builder. In fact he lets out quite a fireworks show, trying to blanket the baby robots as well as the mother. Short them all out! Lightning is good and in the Shazamily it's his own specialty. He's come a way from melting people's phones. Maybe he can even get a comm bud, the the other heroes. They seem to be talking a lot. He catches Captain Marvel's eye and points to his ear and emotes, 'I can't hear you!' before continuing his onslaught.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Escape is not on the menu today for the Metaliks, at least if Hal has anything to say about it. Upon spotting the transmat pad, he creates another spear and whips it towards the center of the pad, hoping to destroy it so they can't escape with the equipment they have already taken over. For good measure, he encircles the transmat pad with a ten foot high green wall of hard light. Between the spear and wall, hopefully nothing is going to be using that pad anytime soon.

    He was about to shout to Shazam to hit the others with lightning as well, but the hero seems to be ahead of him on that score. Hovering above the transmat pad, he whips up a machine gun, aiming at the approaching Metaleks and opening up on them.

    <<Looks like we're on cleanup here. I thought Superman was in the area, strange he didn't at least check in.>>

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    Ruth looks from Jimmy -- why is he still here! This is dangerous! -- to Lobo -- some kind of zombie punk rocker? She cuts off her outside speakers, opaques her visor, and whispers "Superman likely imprisoned with kryptonite in metal sphere. Subject identified as 'Lobo' on scene. Improvising on own recognizance. Please advise of any powers and countermeasures. Feed is still shared." into her comms before turning them back on. Try to just grab and go without saying anything, or try to talk it out, or...? She's not the picture of confidence right now.
    "Hello! Lobo is it? I'm Aerial." She smiles and floats cautiously towards the ball. "Mind telling me what this is about?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol floats free of the debris, shaking off chunks of construction equipment.

She lifts a hand up and blasts some of the desperately flung cement <<Still need to shutdown that cement mixer>> she shouts it out loud and over the comms pointing to it and flinging soem photon blasts that way.

Then her head cocks to the side. <<Lobo?>> is the reply back to Ruth over the comms.

Well that explains why he wasn't around with the Shi'ar.

Crap. Sigh.

<<Headed there now>>

Carol shifts in her flight and burns off into the sky arcing up and coming back down. She is coming in pretty hard on the location Ruth .. Jimmy... and evidently Lobo are.

<<Make sure the robots don't escapoe GL!>>

Clark Kent has posed:
With the Controller defeated, the Metalax are easy enough to mop up for Shazam and Green Lantern. That gritty little cement mixer makes its last stand against Hal's giant green gun, being ripped apart by giant willpower charged bullets!

Lobo grins. He looks like a seven foot tall alien biker with cold, calculating red eyes. He takes a step towards Aerial. "Well."

"I used the Shi'ar poozers t'get close to Superman, then slipped him some Green K and trapped him in that there ball. I'm gonna sell him to this 'Collector' guy for enough money to buy my own solar system. He's real into getting the last of things, y'see." Lobo steps closer. "And I'm only bothering to tell you this because, lady, there's nothing you can do to stop me. So get out of my way before I twist your head all the way around and see if it swivels."

Jimmy Olsen snaps a picture right in Lobo's face, with the flash on. "Aaah!" The biker shouts, holding his eyes, "Fraggin rakkin frakkin!"

It's only bought everyone a second, but that may be all everyone needs.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Once all the Metalax have stopped moving, Hal rises into the air and shoots off after Carol. Lobo is majorly Bad News(tm), and without Superman to face off against him, they'll need everything they can scrape together to have any chance of stopping him. Just to be safe, as he heads from the frying pan into the fire, he takes a second to drop a cover into the wall around the transmat pad, just in case any of the enemy are still mobile.

    Zipping between buildings, he will reach the building Lobo and Aerial are in slightly after Carol gets there. Taking a second, he communes with the central computer on Oa, pulling all info on Lobo, especially anything regarding weaknesses. Possibly a wasted moment, but they need any advantage they can get.

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    Each step Lobo takes makes Aerial change course, shifting aside, trying to keep distance and keep the sphere positioned between herself and him. Jimmy's camera flash worked? Bright lights work! Well, that's an idea worth stealing, then! Click, whirr, flywheel maxed and-- If... only... everyone else wasn't showing up at the same time to get hit by it! Ruth's eyes widen as her visor darkens to black. "Ah! Sorry! I already pushed the bu-" Ruth's navigation lights buzz and then flare. Before, those lights were dimmed. She was at street level. Among people. But these lights are meant to be used on aircraft. In the sky. And to be visible during the day. From 100 miles away. Because Aerial has to coordinate with air traffic. Red light blares from her left glove, green from the right, blue from her boots, and white from her helmet, turning the warehouse into a disco inferno. She jolts forwards to get a grip on the sphere, and then sharply away trying to launch the ball out through a window and fly up to catch it again.

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol was going to burst through that window.

This is convenient. Hell she will even pretend like they planned this all along.

Tactics.

Teamwork.

Look at the good guys go.

Captain Marvel catches the large sphere as it is launched right at her through that window and she actually drifts back with it as she catches it "Aaaand you're out!" okay she had to quip. Still she digs in her fingers, the same glow of cosmic energy dripping off her as she concentrates and digs her hands into the metal and then wrenches her arms in opposite directions twisting to attempt to rip the prison open.

Clark Kent has posed:
Lobo is, briefly, distracted by Aerial's strobe lights. It's just enough time for her to grab the ball and bail, while the biker curses and Jimmy Olsen gets the hell out of dodge. Lobo gets a warning from his bike's microcomputer; Green Lantern's on his way.

This might just be a fight worth his time. "Hah hah." Lobo says, drawing a plasma revolver from his boot.

Unfortunately for Lobo, Carol grabs the prison ball and rips it open. Superman's in there! The Kryptonite falls into Metropolis bay, and the Man of Steel sort of floats for a second, just breathing.

His muscles ripple, and he stretches his arms, and Superman shatters the chains binding his arms with a simple flex of his pecs. The Man of Steel groans, rubbing his neck. "Thanks for the save, everyone." he says, sheepishly, and then his face sets into a scowl.

There's a crack of air as Superman tears into the warehouse. "Lobo."

"Supes!" Lobo almost sounds happy, even as he immediately shoots at his enemy.

Clark ignores the burning superheated plasma, pulling a fist back. "Get off of my planet."

The building shakes as Clark hits Lobo nearly as hard as he can, sending the mad biker hurtling out of the building, the Metropolis skyline, and...and did he really punch him out of the atmosphere?

"Okay." Superman breathes. "That happened. Is everyone okay?"

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Watching Lobo blast through the building and dwindle into a tiny dot vanishing into the sky, Hal just shakes his head. "Man, I wish I could do that sometimes. I've known a few people I couldn't mind sending into orbit."

    <<I'd ask if you were ok, but the amazing vanishing Lobo trick tells me you're doing just fine now.>>

    Hovering near the grouping of heroes, he switches to regular voice instead of comms. "So think the Metalax were tied to Lobo, or just coincidence that they showed up now?"

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    Ruth stares and watches sidelined as Lobo gets One Punched into a Team Rocket exit. "There were a lot of people hurt, sir," she offers sheepishly. "I haven't checked back yet to see if they're going to pull through." She hesitates, looking up, adjusting the zoom on her visor, "How far is he going to..." and then her eyes widen. "Can he breathe in space?! Do I need to go catch him?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
"And he is out of here ladies and gents." Carol quips and then dusts her gloves off. "God I hate Lobo .. maybe he will stay gone for a while this time." she muses.

"I mean.. it pains me to say it GL but I imagine he is smart enough to let one of their constructors loose as a distraction as he tried to kidnap Superman..."

She pauses and looks at Ruth. "Uh... that was Lobo. He is fine. I mean... if I wasn't so damn tired of everything this week I might fly up there and see if throwing him in the sun worked but ... honestly he would probably survive even that. He is like a cockroach."

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman blinks.

"Oh, you're new." Clark says, "Good instinct, but he'll be fine. He's got a space bike."

"If everyone's cool, I'm going to go take a shower." Superman has one of those frustrated looks on his face; greatful, but annoyed it had to come to this. He'll be fine. "Nice work." He says to Aerial, winking, and then is off with an, "Up, up and away!"

Ruth Kincaid has posed:
    "Okay," Ruth says, looking to Hal, "So... is this a space crime thing? Are there space cops to call to pick him up? Would a black hole work? Because I'm gonna have to do /paperwork/ later, and if I wanna write down perp out of juristiction, I gotta say whose he's in now."