7786/Alpha-Omega: Down Among The Dead Men

Alpha-Omega: Down Among The Dead Men
Date of Scene:	23 September 2021
Location:	Beneath Manhattan, New York city
Synopsis:	Beneath Manhattan, the Forces of Apokolips emerge.
Cast of Characters:	Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, Tim Drake, John Stewart, Selina Kyle, M'gann M'orzz, Karen Starr
Tinyplot:	Alpha-Omega

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Bruce Wayne has posed:
The clues pointed this way.

An odd, winged creature spotted near the home of William Bates - billionaire philanthropist and murder victim. The same creature appearing elsewhere throughout the greater New York area, either in the sky or scouring the ground. Almost entirely in rural places, giving rise to a series of conspiracy videos and images on the internet about the 'Bird-Demon of Great Neck'. The investigations had yielded little except strange, unidentifiable energy signatures leading down into a network of tunnels.

First, they were sewers, the existing infrastructure for the city's storm water. Then there were holes that broke through the concrete into lowers tunnels - dug seemingly by hand and leading over a distance to abandoned subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. Deeper still, and the pits seemed made of something altogether stranger and more alien. Dark metal buttresses and stones that seem to weep with a viscous, glowing red allow for a great and empty space far beneath the City

From small ledges build into the rough-hewn walls, one can see a vaguely-spherical cavern. An island of stone has risen in the center, and upon it stands what looks like a great statue of a broad and muscular figure. Between his spread arms, a wall of head and energy like the air over molten steel shimmers. From it, one at a time, emerge creatures with wings and vicious features. They chitter at each other in some insectoid approximation of language before taking to the air, buzzing about like so many moths drawn to the flame.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    It was a slow week.

    Slow weeks were rare at best for Hal, but there it was. Given the lack of world-ending catastrophe, the reports of the bird creature became first an amusement, then a genuine interest as reports kept coming in over the Watchtower's various monitoring systems.

    And so it was that towards the end of the week, he was in the tunnels under the city following an unusual energy reading, pausing to carefully look around the cavern from a spot near the entrance to see if anything here is familiar, accessing the Corps database to look for any similarities. Always best to go in with at least a little knowledge rather than charging in blindly.

Tim Drake has posed:
    As a rule, Red Robin generally sticks close to home. Gotham has more than enough trouble needing dealt with, and aside for the occasional foray into the big wide world to dela with threats aimed *at* Gotham, Tim keeps to his creature comforts.

    There's no city with architecture fit for brooding like Gotham.

    But sometimes, you just can't pass up on a good mystery. Some people binge-watch Snapped on their couch. Tim dives down into an alien substructure beneath the New York City streets.

    His hand has hardly left the control panel on his left gauntlet since he's broken through into the pit. Right now he's crouched in the shadows, breathing and heartrate slowed through long practice and intense training to keep him from attracting attention. The processing power of his computer system back home in the Roost, tied to the Batcomputer, is pulling double-time today as it tries to run analyses. There's almost too much information scrolling across the HUD of the lenses set into his domino mask for Tim to parse.

    Even sub-vocalizing into the comms-receiver at his throat is deemed too much of a risk at the moment, so he's sending out text-based messages updating his status and observations. Along with a healthy dose of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" and other Lovecraftian references, because even with that horde of creatures flying overhead, Tim can't resist a little bit of snark.

    Plus, well. Look around. If the shoe fits!

John Stewart has posed:
Initially, it was a hunt for a potential wild beast. Initially. The second he scanned the aftermath of the attacks though... that all changed. He had been getting experience with cosmic powers recently. It only seemed fitting he'd start to get experience with things not even of this universe.

So it was that John has started treating this new problem as a priority, patrolling for patterns and clues to find a source... and it led him down into the sewers. Floating along slowly, he grimaced, "Can't be in a damned cave?" John mutters in a resigned tone as he went along. He had had more than enough experience with sewers during his military days... this was not a pleasant deja vu.

Then, he started seeing pits. "What in the... guess I spoke too soon, made their own damn caves." John said with a flat tone.

Then, he came out into the cavern, his glowing green eyes looking around... and finding Hal down here already. "Slow week? I'd have thought the League would have you busy repairing your moon base." John asks as he looks around, his right hand aiming the ring out as he tries to scan the flying creatures. Do they have the same energy as the victims?

Selina Kyle has posed:
    "You take me to the nicest places." Catwoman half-whispers half sighs in the general direction of the Dark Knight.

    This may be the second or third time Catwoman has said this to Batman, with varying degrees of irony or awe depending on their exact surroundings at any given moment of their descent into the caverns. This isn't exactly Catwoman's normal scene, but she's been... gathering experience, let's just say. Testing the waters on a different lifestyle. Though in this case, when she heard what Batman was planning and why, her motive was something more along the line of "What? Shut up, no you're not. Oh, I've gotta see this."

    Saying Catwoman's impulsivness and curiosity brings her trouble is like saying the sky is blue. Too late now, though. With her back pressed to a wall, Selina looks from Batman, back to the last place she saw one of those creatures fly.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
Tim isn't alone, not far from him floats his fellow Outsider Miss Martian. Though she is not visible to most, not only because of the gloom of the place but because the light literally seems to bend around her rendering her invisible.

<<Have you found anything?>> M'gann's mental voice joins Tim's thoughts, no sub-vocalization necessary.

For her part the Martian young woman reaches out with her powerful mental senses, feeling for the minds below, trying to get a sense of what sort and how many creatures are down there.

<<This seems like a scene straight out of one of those movies from movie night.>>

Karen Starr has posed:
    New York is not entirely Karen's usual haunt. She had set up a Starrware Industries office here some time ago- but that building served as a Just In Case cover should she need to linger in the city for longer than would seem appropriate for Power Girl- or just to provide a reasonable excuse for her to exist in two separate places and maintain her identity.

    The signs of any sort of extra-terrestrial incursion, especially one with certain signifers such as this, trips many of Karen's alarms. The Big Apple may be the Avengers' territory, and Power Girl herself merely an associate, but there is little that could keep her away from events like this.

    Most of her investigation has been tuning some of Starrware's sensors to pick up the strange readings emanating from beneath Manhattan, and though she has had no success in pinpointing it exactly, the depth to which she'll need to go is somewhat startling: That deep should only be dirt and rock, well below the subterranean developments of even a city like New York.

    Cautiously, Power Girl floats into the depths of the underground, making only so little noise as the wind. Her eyes turn pale for a moment, and while it does help her get her bearings, there are large swathes of the tunnels beneath that she can't penetrate.

    Not exactly the stealthy sort, as she continues to descend further, Power Girl's voice alights on both Avengers and League communications alike. <<"If anyone else is down here, I can hear you- but I can't see too deep. Looks like something isn't normal, but the readings and materials I'm seeing are too dense and too deep to be anything we'd expect, so if anyone can hear me, stay frosty.">>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The majority of the trek to this strange cavern had been aboard a strange variation of the Batmobile. A machine that drilled its way through earth and stone, creating a rubble-filled tunnel of its own for Batman and Catwoman. They'd gotten out at the opening of another, smaller tunnel and moved through until they found themselves on a high ledge overlooking the cavern.

<This is Batman,> his voice rings down all radio communication channels, even those he's not expressly allowed to be on, <If you're reading me, avoid immediate confrontation. We need to know what they're doing. If they bring the whole place down on our heads, chances are they'll take a chunk of the East Midtown down with it. New York doesn't need a sinkhole.>

Scans, enhanced senses, alien databases all reveal the same thing. These creatures, whatever they are, are strange. Strange matter, materials with atomic compositions not native to this part of the universe nor any the Guardians of the Universe have surveyed in their billion-year lifespans. They chitter madly, insect-like as they swirl in a widening vortex throughout the cavern. Some cling to the ceiling, upside down and baring broad, flat teeth.

Down on the plinth, something else begins to move through the odd, shimmering portal. A man by the looks of him, only scarcely above five feet tall. His dark hair is slicked back, and he wears what can only be described as the uniform of a Prussian military officer from over a century prior. One eye is partly concealed behind the reflective surface of a monocle.

"Enough," he announces, a heavy German accent bouncing off the walls in a reverberating echo, "This should be enough."

Behind him, the portal flares for a moment and closes with an audible boom.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    With the Oan database coming up empty on the things, Hal has to figure he's dealing with either magic or dimensional travel. Neither of these can generally be labeled a good thing when hiding underground.

    Over the Justice League comms he replies <<Yeah, wasn't planning to go charging in without more info, but good to know you're here. I'm going to give the comm frequency to my fellow Lantern so we can coordinate more easily.>>

    Using the Ring, he reaches out to John. <<Glad to see you poking into stuff. We've got at least one more person down here, Batman is also poking around. Use comm frequency *blah* so we can all talk.>>

    While he's at it, he scans the man who seems to be in charge to see if he at least is known in this universe.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The mini-contingent of Outsiders currently down here are, at least, already abiding by the Dark Knight's command to keep a low profile. Well, Miss Martian has the lowest profile of all, being that she's actually invisible.

    Meanwhile Red Robin is just tucked away into the shadows, but for all the superpowers the Bats profess not to have, they are very good at being sneaky.

    <<Too much,>> Tim reports to M'gann, over their mental link. <<And for most of it, I don't even know what I'm looking at. These sensor readings are--they aren't even off the charts, they don't even register on the charts in the first place.>>

    He's shifted his position subtly so that he can hold up his left arm, somewhat above his right shoulder, so that M'gann can float over and check out the readings displayed there in the dimmest screen setting that the control panel has. <<Not of Earth, at the very least. Possibly not of this universe. Does this look like anything you know?>>

    And then there are things happening down below. Red Robin's weight moves again, ready to propel himself forward towards the portal--or backwards, should that become the wiser option--at a moment's notice.

John Stewart has posed:
Hearing Batman, John grunts. Then, John starts to float around the island's perimter studying... he does agree with the assessment though, and keeps out of immediate sight of the man as he goes about doing whatever he's doing.

This could potentially turn very bad, very quickly. To Hal and the rest, John mentally comms <<These things have committed murder already topside, but we have no motive... and now they're using portals. Feels 'staging ground' to me>>

Selina Kyle has posed:
    Catwoman tilts her head slightly, giving a small smirk as Batman speaks, and mouthes something to him silently so he can lip-read it without her speaking over his comms. Otherwise she keeps an eye on the area, flinching a little everytime there's motion from something well outside her area of expertise. She actually recoils a little when a new figure arrives via flashy teleportion, staring for a long moment, her head dipping forward.

    "... I'm gonna... come clean here?" She says softly, as if they're at risk of being heard from inside the car, "'Invasion' crossed my mind... but the Germans were not on my culprit list."

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
M'gann floats weightlessly through the air, drifting over to look at the dimly glowing display on Tim's wrist. <<It doesn't look like anything I remember from Martian records either and about matches up with what I've been sensing. There's a lot of them and they seem completely alien.>>

Until that is, something far less alien appears down among the horrors. M'gann's eyes lock on to the figure dressed in the Prussian military uniform, trying to feel for his surface thoughts, though careful not to probe too hard or too deep in an attempt to avoid notice. You never know with strange figures in the bottoms of pits.

<<Looks like a ringleader has arrived.>>

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen isn't exactly swooping through the tunnels at max speed, instead spending a short time awaiting for a response from whatever massive thing she can hear literally digging its way down to them.

    <<"Good to hear you, Bats.">> she responds, her hand leaving her ear for a moment as she takes off, cutting down a full ninety-degrees into the Battunnel until she came out behind the stealthier pair. She doesn't fully make her way down the tunnel as yet- especially not at that speed.

    <<"Oh, and we have /two/ lanterns. Great.">> The lanterns aren't exactly high on her list of Fun People ever since her excursion to Oa. It might not have been Her Krypton, but she still isn't happy with even what they /hinted/ at for their involvement. <<"I'm not far behind you Batman. Listening in, but you tell me when you've learned enough, and then I'll play the role of the can of Raid.">>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
The diminutive man standing on the platform is himself not of this world - or universe, to boot - but that doesn't mean his clothing isn't. Even a cursory scan will show the clothing is modeled after the Prussian military of the 19th century and the man, specifically, seems to be wearing an exact replica of a uniform worn by Otto von Bismarck. He walks with an almost ludicrous precision across the platform, pausing and then producing from within his coat a metallic cube. He holds it out in the palm of his hand, clears his throat, and speaks aloud.

"I am here now, mein herr," he speaks to no one in particular before a flittering orange hologram projects from the cube in such a way as to dominate the entire cavern. The projection appears to be a face of some kind, although it contorts and changes so that it never truly has a single 'appearance'.

>... g - guh - gooooooood. Gooooooood. Find ... fuh - fuh - FIND. Find ... or ... or ... DIE.<

The short man with the monocle frowns, not exactly fearful but more affronted. The projection quickly disappears, and the chattering, winged monstrosities interrupt their buzzing to repeat those same words - 'find or die' in a broken, gargling chorus.

"He's not German," Batman answers, glancing sidelong at Selina, "The costuming is exact, but it's replicated. I'd need a sample to say for certain, but it seems almost like he's playing a part. But you're half-right. It looks - " He trails off, speaking into the comms again.

<If this is an invasion, it's not full-scale. They're looking for something. Something that Bates had or at least knew the location of, it seems.>

The surface thoughts of the man can be picked up by M'gann. A strong desire to find something that is lost, and the excitement of what glory and power awaits him if he does. Also, resentment for the creature in the hologram, whom he thinks of only as 'the good doctor'.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Still in observation mode, Hal raises an eyebrow at the rather labored speech coming from the hologram. <<Interesting, out of date uniform on a person who isn't from these parts, apparently answering to something that can barely speak coherently. There is some major weirdness going on here.>>

     In the meantime, he has continued scanning the cavern and it's inhabitants to add to the Corps database in case any other Lantern runs across these guys at any point. All information helps where possible opponents are being observed.

    <<Ok, sounds like there's a number of us down here, do we want to consider moving in on these guys? I'd bet our counterfeit Kaiser is the man we want to talk to, at least he'd probably be easier to understand.>>

Tim Drake has posed:
    While M'gann leans over to give her assessment of the sensor readouts displayed on the control panel, Tim lifts his hand to touch two fingers to the side of his mask. That gesture coupled with a few small movements of his eyes is enough to queue his computer system to run a facial recognition scan on the man on the platform.

    Which pulls up nothing. Red Robin pinches the bridge of his nose, through his domino.

    <<Historical Cosplay Man is either fully off the radar or not local, either,>> he thinks, at M'gann. <<Are you getting anything from him?>>

    Then, finally, after hiding out like he's a little kid that snuck into the back of a camper van on its way to a mysterious island full of dinosaurs--look, Tim has had Jurassic Park on the brain for a while now, but the analogy is still apt--Red Robin speaks up over comms for the first time. "<<William Bates seemed like your pretty standard billionaire with a good PR team on the surface,>>" he reports to, well he assumes everyone, given that Batman is on location and has probably already hacked into any secure channels that he wasn't already granted access to. "<<But in a twist that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, he had some shady dealings with secret societies and cults. There could be a mystical angle to this.>>"

    And making that supposition is about the extent of Tim's magical understandings.

    "<<Also he used some dodgy financial tricks to buy his own Caribbean island, but what billionaire hasn't?>>" Heavy on the snark, that last bit. You take the Robin out of Gotham, but....

John Stewart has posed:
<<I love you too, Power Girl.>> John quips right back at her as he floats back to the edge of the cavern, studying the flying creatures. Disposable hunters? <<Give me a moment, and I can check for the weak points in this cavern, if we're lucky, we can defend those well enough that risking a capture could be a potential plan here.>>

He might be a newcomer to this superhero business, but he's always thinking ahead. It's easy for Hal to see why John is so respected by the rest of the Corps.

Indeed, he floats up to the roof of the cavern and starts to scan along it and the side walls for structural integrity. Being an Architect doesn't really translate... but weak points are weak points, no matter the material.

<<All but confirms they're from an alternate universe. I haven't seen multiverse stuff outside of the database. This should be fun>>

Selina Kyle has posed:
    Catwoman is mostly silent peering curiously at what she can see from the vehicle's vantage point, occasionally catching glimpse of one of the others as they work. "If I'd know there'd be so many space cops around here, I would have worn a less recognizable costume." She mumbles mostly to herself and frowning at the unknown Kaiser.

    Her eyes flutter briefly with recognition, and she looks towards the speaker, eyebrows raised. "Oh my god, is that Robin?" she says with muted delight, loud enough to just be heard over the comms. Said delight is quickly replaced by befuddled worry. She doesn't SAY 'how'd he end up down HERE?' but her expression kinda does.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
M'gann floats over next to Tim now, crossing her arms. <<He wants to find something that is lost. Perhaps something from wherever they are from was brought here somehow. He is excited for the power and glory that he believes the recovery of whatever this thing is could bring him. The one he is talking to he regards as 'The Good Doctor' but that is as much as I can get without invasively probing deeper.>>

<<Should be capture him, or let him lead us towards whatever he is looking for? Whatever it is, it probably isn't good.>>

Karen Starr has posed:
    <<"You can't hear it right now, but I'm /this/ close to hurling.">> Karen speaks, over the comms.

    Back in the tunnel, her arms fold. Batman said stay put, so she's staying put. The fact of it is, that there /is/ valuable information here to be reaped through temperance.

    <<"The accent's not German, he's right. But this guy is trying /real/ hard. Either he's got a fetish or he's under the impression he's filming a period piece and is really trying to ham it up. Are they giving off any sort of inclination to what they're looking for? I can't see through the metal.">>

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"Red Robin," Batman says to Selina, muting his comms for a second, "He's ... grown up."

<We need to shut this down before they move to a second location. Lanterns and Power Girl, you need to make sure that the roof doesn't cave in when the fighting starts. I'll identify load-bearing points. Red Robin, apprehend the leader - but take it slow. You don't know what he can do. Ms. Martian assist Red Robin. Catwoman and I will create the distraction.>

The Dark Knight seems to have no issue laying out orders, having reviewed the situation with a master tactician's eye. He reaches into his belt and produces a small launcher, narrowing one eye to aim it and then firing a number of miniature darts. They hiss through the air silently, deftly missing the winged creatures writhing through the air, and embed themselves in the stone. A moment later they begin to hiss, letting out trails of blue smoke to identify them easily to both the Lanterns and Power Girl.

Patiently he turns to Selina, catching her eye and saying simply: "Jump."

As they leap down into the cavern the great black, bat-themed tunneling machine emerges behind them. The stone and earth is churned away by the bores affixed to the front and side, tearing noisily through the ground before it comes to a rocking halt on the same ledge that Batman and Catwoman occupied a moment ago. The great floodlights affixed to it turn on with a 'thunk', immediately drawing the attention of the creatures as they turn as one to glare and hiss at the machine.

And then it starts firing, miniaturized riot-suppressor rounds hammering through the air. Several of the demons topple towards the ground, dozens more descend upon the car.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    Once Batman has the attention of the creatures with a rather flashy entrance, Hal shoots up into the air. With a slight smirk, he encases 4 of the winged minions in round spheres of green force, then calls "Side pocket" as he shoots another sphere of green from his hand to slam into the occupied spheres, shooting them out one of the tunnel entrances. Hopefully even multidimensional critters get dizzy.

    In all honesty, that was just another flashy move to try and distract all the enemies in the cavern so Red Robin has less attention on him as he goes after the leader.

    After his opening gambit, he creates a green sword and shield and dives into the flock, blocking blows and slashing back, especially at the wings so the creatures fall out of the air. After his first pass through the creatures, another 3 fall to the ground and he's bleeding lightly from a gash on his arm. A second's concentration and green energy washes over the wound and it closes up as he takes a moment to look around and see if anyone's attacks have threatened the stability of the cavern before planning his next attack run.

Tim Drake has posed:
    As he's unaware of what Bruce says to Selina during that momentary period of comm-silence, Tim helpfully pipes up with a: "<<One of the previous models. Did he at least take you somewhere nice before dragging you down here? New York is awful but you don't get the same quality of shows in Gotham as you do on Broadway.>>"

    That's all the time they have for Tim's well-established dislike of NYC (and basically any other city that isn't his hometown). Batman starts calling the shots, and Red Robin turns to where his... mental approximation of Miss Martian's position is. He nods at, well, maybe her, maybe an empty space, but she'll see it anyway, and then he stands.

    Immediately, chaos erupts further along the pit. When Batman says distraction, he really means distraction.

    <<Stay hidden,>> he tells Miss Martian over their mental link. <<We have our target. Try to psionic blast-->> yes that is a D&D reference <<--him unconscious, but if he shows even the slightest hint of any kind of mental abilities of his own, pull back.>>

    As he's communicating with her, Red Robin is on the move. Sticking to the shadows, avoiding the gaze of any creatures whose attention might not have already been drawn away by the Bat Drill's (that's what it's called now, sorry) emergence. He's light on his feet, maybe not as much as some of the more notably acrobatic of the Bat-family, but his ability to analyze targets for blind spots helps to offset that. A few quick tumbles to get him between cover rapidly has him closing in on the platform and their target for a potential quick swing-in, grab, and swing-out if M'gann can knock him out.

John Stewart has posed:
<<There, there, and there...>> John aims his ring at the rooftop, green energy firing off as John paints his own targets as well. <<If it comes to it, me and my partner can share most of the load; we can fire at range.>> John informs the group as he turns around and finds a nice place to land near the roofs.

Within seconds, a highly detailed anti-air flak cannon is constructed -Far more detailed than anything Hal creates- and Green energy projectiles start firing off into the mass of flying creatures, adding to the chaos as the Green Lanterns flak shells add to the chaos.

All the while, he has his ring set to inform him if anything looks about to hit the cavern walls or roof, so he can intercept it.

Selina Kyle has posed:
    "Did he, now?" Catwoman says, her tone pondering even if the words were meant to be playful. "Hmm. I guess graduating to this stuff was probably half the point." Selina looks a little conflicted. On the one hand, she typicall stuck to the 'real world' whenever she could. On the other hand, this is kind of exciting, and it's not like she never bothered Superman. Long story.

    Given an order with no context or warning, Catwoman gives a rueful little smile and a salute with two fingers pressed together before she takes just a tiny hop to the side - still facing Batman - and plummets off the side of the cliff.

Her hand's on her whip when she sees what becomes of the space they just occupied, looking surprised, first, then oddly delighted, giving a wicked grin.

    Once an adrenaline junky, always an adrenaline junky, it seems!

    Catwoman's whip lashes out, wrapping around an outcropping with a sharp snap that brings her swinging towards two of the creatures. One of them catches both boots in the side of its head - punting it into the wall beside them - before she uncoils her whip and lands on the second creature's back. The creature struggles under her weight - and the elbow she drives into the top of its head doesn't help, bringing her close enough to the ground to leap off, flipping once and landing on the ground safely in a crouch. She pivots in place, turning towards Batman and putting her arms out in ballerina-esque pose, and an accompanying little bow.

    Showing off, it seems, is not JUST genetic to Robins.

    Then she spots the oncoming frenzied rush of those creatures. "... Ah." Catwoman says softly, and brings her goggles up into place over her masked eyes. "Well then."

    Catwoman unsheathes her claws and scratches one down the side of its face as she side-steps it; backflips over another in mid-pivot so that it passes under her, and lands on one leg, putting her momentum into a quick spin that lends a brutal momentum to the next crack of her whip, which lands across a third creature's chest.

    "So, I meant to ask!" She calls out to Batman, her voice strained with effort as she stomps on a creature's foot, brings that leg up to drive her knee into it's chin, then thrusts that same leg out to kick it straight in the chest and knock it away from her. "Where do these things rank on your 'no killing' scale? Because as much as I love a good handicap- UHG!" Catwoman is interrupted as she narrowly avoids being clawed by one of the creatues, and is instead shoulder-checked hard enough to bounce off of a nearby mound of rock. She grunts and holds her side, wincing in pain. "... *Fuck* these things."

    That could honestly have been the end of her previous sentence, or a newly inspired summary of the enemy. Either way.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
M'gann returns Tim's nod, not that he can actually see it but somehow there is a mental sense that he has been nodded at. Telepathy is weird.

<<Okay, Psionic Blast it is.>> The Outsiders play D&D because of course they do, it not only provides good tactical exercises but makes for good shorthand, as well.

Floating forward, M'gann briefly allows gravity to take hold of her again as she freefalls down towards the platform.

About ten meters above the man in the Prussian military uniform, she abruptly arrests her downward motion again before the active camouflage bleeds away from her green skinned red haired form. There is already a distraction, no sense in holding back to be sneaky.

Her red eyes flair with bright light as she glares downward at the man, gathering all of her mental strength to temporarily will his mind into shutting down.

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Fucking finally," Karen says, unfurling her arms from themselves and shooting forward. <<"We'll see about that. I'll avoid punching any pillars or throwing any bugs into them. The lanterns can handle the rest, it's about all they're good for.">> Fired out of that tunnel like a damned /bullet,/ Power Girl's first action is to twist mid-air, and slam her first down onto one of the flying aliens in the center of the room.

    The hit is like thunder, and the thing goes hurtling down towards the ground, its impact making a horrible noise, despite that it clearly isn't, you know, dead. It just... It just may never have a good day after today.

    That'd be all well and good. It's a fantastic announcement of Am Here Am Stronk, and frankly, it's what she's best at.

    The response is about what can be expected. A demon tackles her, launching itself at the flying blonde and momentarily latching on, as it staggers her momentarily in the air. This one she practically rips off of herself, and bodily hurls it down onto its brother that she'd already folded like paper.

    That, too, is all well and good. Am Here. Am Stronk. Everything's going /great./

    Then there are three of the aliens, and they're all tackling her at once. The blows keep coming, and these are much less flashily dispatched, one swung into the other, and the third slammed by an overhead blow with both of Power Girl's fists clenched together.

    Am Here. Am Stronk.

    Then there are five coming at her at once, and she's still visible amongst them, and /definitely/ audible, the /words/ she's using. Then, the next five tackle the five that Power Girl is dealing with, and, hey, she's not visible anymore.

    She'll be... She'll be /fine./

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"Gott Im Himmel!" cries the man with the monocle, turning suddenly to stare at the wall as it explodes outwards, "No! Not just the car, idioten! There are others!"

<Support the ceiling!> Batman growls into his comm, landing in a crouch near to Catwoman, <We're not 'chalking up kills' here, damnit.>

His grapnel gun is produced in a fluid motion, firing off to wrap around one of the creatures. He yanks it back towards him, the creature suddenly hurled through the air towards him only to be met with a vicious elbow to the face. He regards it's broken, bloodied features for a moment.

"Looks like bio-engineering," he answers, before looking to Catwoman and driving a booted foot down onto the creature in a terminal way as though to outline his point, "Enjoy yourself."

On the platform, the man with the monocle begins to run back towards where the portal opened. He holds the cube out towards it, baring his teeth angrily when it fails to respond.

"My lord!" he shouts out in his thick Prussian accent, "Please, they're - "

Suddenly, a deep rumble causes the entire cavern to shudder. From above, a chunk of stone comes loose and plummets down through the air. It catches one of the demons, crushing it like a bug beneath it as it strikes the platform and tears a chunk away. The small man perches precariously on the ledge, withdrawing what looks like a broomhandle pistol from his belt. He fires several bursts in the direction of Hal and John, though rather than bullets it sends sizzling beams of energy hissing at them.

He turns the pistol towards the suddenly-appearing M'gann in time for the psionic blast to hit him. He reels, covering his eyes with his forearm and staggering backwards. Remarkably, however, he maintains his footing. The strike landing against what seems like something far less pliable than a human mind. Almost as though something far away is shielding it.

"Agh! The green ones!" he commands, his voice full of authority as the demons begin to peel away from the car to swarm the Lanterns, "Bring them down!"

As the rubble begins to tumble from above, the Bat grits his teeth and turns to Catwoman with a sudden look of genuine concern.

"Get to the car. They're going to let the whole damn place come down."

Hal Jordan has posed:
    When the roof starts to break up, sword and shield vanish. Holding out his hand, the Ring flashes green as a solid dome of green force covers the entire cavern, falling rocks hitting it and rolling off. He may not be as flashy as John, but it's hard to find stronger constructs, and that's what they need now, someone who can hold up tons of rock. He extends the dome to include the Bat-Drill so that people can get into it and escape that way.

    With his attention on the dome, he can't really fight the critters and energy beams, but he is agile enough to dodger them for now. Once the dome is in place and holding, sword and shield come back out, almost without thought. It seems this is a common construct he uses often. With the demons being ordered to John and himself, he pulls a Captain America move and whips the shield at the oncoming demons, bouncing from one to another, dropping a couple more before it reappears on his arm as the demons get into melee range.

    Moving into well-practiced melee combos, he opens the comm channel <<Geez, what's this 'get the green ones' crap?>>

    Having a moment to look around as he slams the shield into the face of the closest demon, he notes the mass of demons that now occupy the area Power Girl was in a moment ago. Skipping subtlety (big surprise there) he just raises his ring hand and lets fly with a green bolt of force, knocking a number of the demons away from her. This attempt to help someone else is paid for as a demon slashes it's claws across his back. <<Ok, I'm tired of these guys.>> Sword and shield wink out of existence, replaced with a green, belt fed M60 that he opens fire on the incoming demons with.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The lack of immediate crumpling on the not-German's part is enough to tell Tim that he was right to be vaguely suspicious, in that Bat-way of his, of exactly how much an unknown quantity their target is. <<Change of plans>> is what he says (in his head) to Miss Martian, as he reaches for his staff, clipped to the back of his utility belt. A quick twist and it telescopes out, and in the space of a heartbeat Tim has thrust the staff against the ground and used it to vault himself out into the void. <<Cover me!>>

    He lands with an efficient tuck and roll onto the platform, and as he comes back up he tosses out a stun-Batarang towards the short man yelling commands at the bug army zooming around in the air above them.

    Right now, Red Robin isn't concerning himself with them. He has Miss Martian above to watch his back, and he trusts in his teammate.

    The same could be said of the threat of falling rocks. Hopefully nothing's going to come crashing down on his head.

    Less trust in the batarang, though, because he's on the move, following its path through the air on foot. If it hits its target, it discharges all of its stored energy upon impact, and Tim's suit is pretty well insulated against electric shock anyway. But even if it doesn't strike true, Red Robin throws himself at his target, trying to swing around onto his back and use his now-condensed staff as a makeshift garrote.

John Stewart has posed:
As Hal and John suddenly find themselves targets, John allows his cannon to disappear, and suddenly his ring is in front of him as he focuses a frontal shield to deflect the incoming as he rises up again.

Wrapping himself up in a personal shield, he turns towards the ceiling, puts his left hand on his right arm, and aims for a massive section of the western portion of the cavern. His minds eye scans through the structural reports and he starts creating green load bearing beams here and there as he reinforces the rock.

If it's as bad as he thinks, this won't hold forever, but it'll hold long enough for the group to finish their work and get out, at least.

Selina Kyle has posed:
    Catwoman gives Batman a grimacing little smile to Batman and says, "And they say you're no fun~" before she latches onto the nearest creature, puts two hands worth of claws into its neck, and then tears in both directions with a catlike roar.

    She... goes on like that. She's not superhuman, but one may be given cause for relief, retrospectively, that she never went full murder-villain.

    Batman gives the command, and for once Catwoman can't find it in herself to be catty about orders. "Oooohhhhh my actual god." she moans with alarm, briefly struck by the sight of what's happening around them before she makes a dash for the car.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
The bugs were better off when Miss Martian was focused on the Herr Himler cosplay wannabe. With Tim springing into action the change in roles is seemless as M'gann rises further up into the air intent on controlling the space.

For a moment her arms draw in before being flung out to her sides. As she does so a wave of telekinetic force flows outward from her clearing the immediate area. Once that sphere is established, she then goes to work with her Martian Vision, searing red heat rays blasting out from her eyes as she begins picking any of the creatures that attempt to get close out of the air.

That is how it was ideally supposed to go anyway, and it does for awhile, but there are just a whole lot more bugs than there are Miss Martians and if there's one thing bugs are very good at, it is swarming.

It is a slow unraveling. First things are under control. Then a few bug creatures manage to land glancing blows only to be greeted with vicious green spikes emerging from her body to impale them.

The first sign of real trouble though is when a vicious barbed stinger emerges from her chest, one of them having managed to impale her from behind. Though this creature too is dealt with as her head swivels around like an owl's turning an impossible number of degrees for her otherwise human seeming form to disintegrate this one as well with those red eyebeams, wounds closing back up as if they'd never occured as she does.

<<Tim, please hurry! I am not sure how long I can hold them back!>> A rising sense of urgency accompanies M'gann's mental voice within Tim's mind.

Karen Starr has posed:
    For a few short moments, the world has been blissfully minus one Power Girl, which likely to most is going to make the world just a little more pleasant. Really, the bugs are probably the heroes here.

    Then, that bliss is interrupted by a loud, and sincerely /angry/ call of "GET. OFF. ME." Through the cracks in the Bug Sphere that has swarmed Karen, a red light begins to emerge, and with a thunderous CRACK, she launches nigh upon a dozen bugs off of her body- the lucky ones, at least, as many of them are vaporized. She is visibly harmed- they haven't broken her skin, but they've clawed and slashed through a supposedly indestructible Kryptonian synthetic fabric, which is likely the cause of some of her genuine fury. Her breathing is deep, and idly she reaches up, pulling a clawed forearm- that is no longer attached to a bug-thing- from where it has lodged itself on her person.

    <<"Lanterns. Put your /backs/ into it because it's about to get muddy down here. We /have/ to clear the air or else we're going to be a bunch of bodies with a roof over our heads.">>

    You could /bottle/ that disdain and sell it to all of your kind or mild-mannered friends to level them out.

    Her arms shoot wide, and she slams her hands together, issuing a mighty /clap/ that results in a powerful shockwave that she hopes will take the fight out of the bugs, and give them the freedom they need to get the job done.

    She's Helping.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
"Hnh!" the Dark Knight growls as the Kryptonian-powered clap shakes the very walls around them. He clambers up the wall after Catwoman, making sure she's climbed into the Tunneler and then pressing two fingers to his earpiece.

<I've got you, Lanterns. Just hold it up a little longer.>

"Fire," Batman snarls into his wrist, glancing up as two slender 'wings' appear from either side of the tunneler. What look like long, metal torpedoes are launched with a blast of compressed air before retrorockets adjust them to land nose-first in the cavern floor. They move above, as though looking for certain angle, and then dig their way into the stone. Moments later, the ends erupt open to send support beams rattling upwards before they branch out to embed themselves in the ceiling. Metal cables are fired between them, creating both tripwires for the demons and support beams for the ceiling.

On the platform, the diminutive pseudo-Prussian is busy firing wildly at the Green Lanterns and Ms. Martian. He turns to see Red Robin only when it's too late, grunting as the batarang strikes him and sends threads of electricity coursing across his body. The kick is like striking a wall of solid stone. Whatever the man is made of, it's far stronger than it looks.

"Pitiful welp," he hisses in his false German accent, "Who do you think you stand against on the field of battle? Some pathetic Earthman? No - it is VIRMAN VUNDABAR! High General of the Armies of Apokolips!"

He turns as Tim maneuvers behind him, his pistol in one hand and the strange cube in the other. He levels the gun on Red Robin for a moment before smirking viciously.

"You think a general goes into battle without a plan for tactical withdrawal? Nein!"

It's in that moment that a sudden, ear-splitting boom fills the air. A circle of bright, white light momentarily surrounds both Red Robin and Virman Vundabar. The gravity around them seems to lessen, prompting rubble and scrap metal to shake violently as it is drawn upwards off the ground. Another boom, and the pair disappear from view entirely. In the same moment, those of the flying creatures that remain begins to scramble and flee. They make for every possible opening and tunnel.

"Tim ... " the Bat murmurs to himself, eyes widening as he looks towards the now-empty platform.

Hal Jordan has posed:
    When Batman fires his stabilizing framework, Hal lets the dome vanish, watching the ceiling carefully to make sure the framework is sufficient to support the cavern. Other than that, his gun is blasting bullet sized holes through any of the demons that come his way. Unlimited ammo is always a nice thing.

    When Virman has his say and vanishes with Red Robin, any number of curses can be heard over the general cacophony. He lets himself drift backward so none of the demons can get behind him and continues firing until they are all down.

    This is actually a good thing, as Power Girl's handclap doesn't send him reeling into a wall or anything since he's got his back to it already. He's had the ring on scan and record, sending all the info back to Oa. Maybe the Guardians can make something of it, especially the method of Virman (and Red Robin's) escape from the area. He'll be running through every moment of the event for most of the evening.

Tim Drake has posed:
    <<Working on it>> is the mental reply Miss Martian gets from Red Robin, while he's pivoting on his heel, having maintained most of his momentum after the man on the platform no-sells the kick. At least he didn't put his weight into it for real, otherwise Tim would be limping away with a broken foot, probably.

    Not to say it doesn't hurt, but he can put his weight on it still. <<He's tougher than he looks!>> Though M'gann has already discovered that, probably, when he shrugged off her mental blast.

    After the--well, now everyone knows his name is Virman--twists out of his way, Tim lands past him on the platform. He's crouched half-on the floor, staff in hand, about to make a split-second decision in regards to which way he's about to throw himself to avoid being shot. "Armies of Apocalypse?" he asks. "Come on. That's a bit on the nose!"

    His muscles tense, but Red Robin never gets the chance to dodge. The area fills with white light and noise, and then he's gone.

Selina Kyle has posed:
    Catwoman scrambles back into the car, eyeing the ceiling warily in the brief time it takes Batman to join her. The hatch is unlikely to protect them from their entire environment dropping on their heads, but its closure is a sort of comfort.

    Tim's disappearance, however, is not.

    "Kid!" Catwoman cried out in contrast to Batman's quiet reaction, lurching forward and slamming her palms down on the dashboard. "Is he-?" Catwoman looks to Batman "Can you-?" she looks up as the area shakes again, cringing briefly with indecision, before she grabs Batman's arm and says "We need to get out of here!"

    Selina Kyle HAS always put self preservation above most things.

    But in fairness, she's... not wrong, right this second.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
She was just about to intervene, to impose herself between Tim and his now clearly superhuman foe. Just about to, and then they are gone.

M'gann floats there staring at the spot where Tim and the strange evil cosplayer disappeared. "No... no, no, no, NO! RED ROBIN!!!"

The Martian girl's red eyes begin to glow with an even more frightening intensity, which given they were already disintegrating things is saying something.

A flick of the wrist and unseen telekinetic force grasps one of the demonic bug things yanking it towards her like an invisible lasso drawing it straight into her other arm which as become a vicious blade that she impales through the creature's chest, much in the same way one of them recently impaled her, only this time there is no regenerating as she neatly bisects the thing before moving on to another. She flies right up to and stares straight into its eyes before filling them with disintegrating red heat energy from point blank range.

It's not enough though, it is hard to contain the anger bubbling up from that side of her she always tries so hard to suppress, but losing another teammate on her watch, it's too much.

A second pair of arms sprout from her sides and then a third. Though the term arms is applied quite loosely here as they are more like flexibly protrusions of organic blades that she just starts shredding through parademons with, zipping through them at high speeds like a flying green blender set to puree.

Eventually the carnage slows. <<Tell me someone knows how to find where they went.>> Every mind in the area can hear the Martian girl's mental words quite clearly.

As M'gann's breathing slows though and she looks down at herself, the green girl seems almost shocked and horrified by what she has done, covered as she is in severed creature bits and ichor.

Bruce Wayne has posed:
<He's got a tracker,> Batman says into the radio, loud enough for Catwoman to hear as well, <I don't think he's hurt. This Vundabar used the same mechanism. Mentioned tactical withdrawal. We'll find him, M'gann.>

The rubble continues to fall, the blasts from M'gann enough to destroy numerous parademons as well as the strange statue that formed the portal below. Batman descends through the tunneler's hatch, switching it to reverse and rumbling back up the tunnel it just made.

Inside the cavern, the supports do enough to keep it from collapsing in on itself. But by now most of the parademons have fled, and much of the strange machinery has been destroyed in the conflict.

<Lantern, I'm bringing something to the Watchtower. I need you to run containment for me.>

Not long after, the scene of the battle is empty. Only smoking rubble and distant echoes. Somewhere in the piled heap of slain parademons, one shrugs its way free from the bodies of its compatriots. Slowly it claws its way up the side of the cavern, insectoid wings fluttering behind it lamely. It doesn't make it much further, succumbing the injuries with a rasping death rattle on its lips.

" ... fffFfFoOoRr ... DaAaaRRrrk ... seeeEeeEid ... "