El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
There's not much time to clean up. It's all of a day before the skies cloud over with even more of the attacking aliens, in larger bulk this time. Exhausted and worn as they are, the heroes of the city band together to fight yet again...
The SHIELD Agents on are armed with bullets that contain nanites that should be able to shut down both the biological and electronic systems of the Chitauri at once, they are more prepared for that threat than before, but the Chitauri have brought with them beasts that Earth has not seen before. These have been shared, at this point, with anyone else on the ground with weapons that can utilize them.
A thunderstorm has come in with the arrival of the Atlanteans, filling the air with rain and lightning. The unearthed Reaver ship is in orbit at this point, brought by the Svartalfar on Earth, and battling the enemy ships in orbit.
You are allowed to control as many enemies, allies, and civilians in your posts as you need to.
Event thread should take priority over other threads.
You will have three days to post once its your turn. If you are late, you automatically forfeit your turn that round. If you miss twice, your character may receive a more serious injury that will disqualify them from further phases. Please note:The Admin are keeping a close watch on this Phase, as it is a time-sensitive one.
Some of you will want to injure your characters too badly for them to continue fighting during this phase. Simply make note at the end of the post in which they do so that they're dropping from the line-up.
Available Enemies:
Chitauri: Garden-variety Chitauri soldiers; the weapon crafted by Tony Stark and Bobbi Morse will work to shut them down. They are hive-minded. Armed with Chitauri guns or spears. (Approx. 300)
Leviathan: Large, flying, whale-like creatures built for destruction, the nanites are not effective on them due to their size. Armed with teeth and size. (Approx. 3)
Chitlian: Bulked-up Chitauri soldiers that are more machine than biological. The nanites will take them down for brief periods, but they do reboot the system. Stronger than regular Chitauri and exempt from the hive-mind. Armed with Chitauri guns and spears. (Approx. 150)
Svartalfar: The Dark Elves are superhumanly strong and excellently trained. They will sometimes have various kinetic abilities in addition and carry weapons similar to the Chitauri. (Approx. 100) SEE: ALLIES
Available Allies:
SHIELD Medics: Deployed to assist with the civilians more than anything, they are not particularly useful for fighting.
SHIELD Field Agents: Deployed to help take down the aliens, they are armed with the weapon in their favorite gun, in addition to a close-quarters weapon.
SHIELD Snipers: Deployed to buildings and surrounding areas or in choppers and planes above the battle with long-range weapons, they function as eyes in the sky and long-range gunmen.
Brotherhood Mutants: Morrigan brings with her some of the members of the Brotherhood, who jump into action as protection for their own kind.
New York Police: Armed only with their issued weapons, the police will mainly handle crowd control.
Atlantean Soldiers: Strong physical fighters, they are good at what they do. Atlanteans have ranged energy weapons.
Atlantean Elite: Armored, the Atlantean Elite represent the Empire's best, and they are skilled in a wide array of weapons, from several types of ranged energy weapons to melee weapons. Their armoring makes them considerably more durable than the average soldier, and their experience and skill is unmatched.
Asgardian Warriors: Superhumanly strong and with the occasional magical ability, these are highly-trained warriors with centuries of battle under their belt. Only a small group have made their way to Midgard for this battle, but they have spread throughout the city.
Svartalfar: The Dark Elves are superhumanly strong and excellently trained. They will sometimes have various kinetic abilities in addition and carry weapons similar to the Chitauri. (Approx. 100)
There's thunder in the sky that has been brought along by the arrival of the Atlantean army. Rain is coming at a steady beat, although not a heavy one. SHIELD is all over the area, and they've handed out their nanite-filled bullets to those in the area that prefer such weaponry. The NYPD is on-hand, helping to escort civilians to safety as people are still being dug out of the rubble of the first attack. The flash of the Bifrost was seen in the early pre-dawn hours over Manhattan, heralding the arrival of the Asgardians to the city, at their head travelling Thor and Baldr behind their Father, Odin, who many are in awe of though he does not seem pleased to be there.
It is still early when sirens breach the air, leviathans breaking through the clouds to deliver Chitauri to the ground in another attack, in larger numbers than before. With them are strange creatures of blue and purple skin; the Asgardians identify them as Svartalfar. There are occasional flashes in the sky that one would have to look closely at to discover they are not lightning; the Chitauri motherships are being fired upon by an ancient ship of Svartalfar make.
Behind these alien attackers, and not yet having reached the planet's surface, Thanos comes. His eminent arrival spreads a feeling of doom in the air that cannot quite be pinpointed by those on the ground - yet.
The Bronx was left relatively untouched in the previous attacks, and as such the civilians are not prepared for the army that rains down on them. The attack here hits near Kingsbridge Armory, spreading North.
Post by Natalia Romanova on Mar 28, 2016 15:52:57 GMT
Natalia’s eyes danced around the vicinity, trying to take everything in all at once. This was hell again, though, and chaos reigned supreme. Her jaw hardened as she watched from half a block away as a Chitauri managed to break past a soldier’s defenses in order to impale him upon its spear. A small lull had fallen on the area around her, thanks in a major way to the highly trained agents comprised of this little quintet.
Three SHIELD agents, one ex-HYDRA asset, and a Black Widow…
“Arthur!” she barked, turning towards the trio of agents. “Take Jenkins and Calhoun and help that barricade. Looks like they’re getting overwhelmed. Sofia.” Her chin tilted as she looked towards the young woman standing beside her. “You’re with me.”
It hadn’t been difficult to find Sofia once she’d got back from the west coast, stitched herself up, and dealt with a bit of personal business. The corner of her lips twitched upward at the thought, and her eyes drifted up, as if to assure herself the borrowed toy was still aloft. There was no way to tell in this torrential downpour, but she had faith it was there all the same. One hand dropped down to rest upon Sofia’s shoulder, and her fingers gave it a gentle squeeze as she jerked her head to show they were moving out. Before she had a chance to move more than half a step, something caught her eye down another street and she paused.
While the SHIELD agents moved north towards the barricade, where a large amount of sparks seemed to be emanating from, Natalia motioned for Sofia to follow her east towards a group of blue-tinted individuals - and one human-toned man with dark, slicked back hair. She realized her error before they reached the group - the man wasn’t quite the right height, and didn’t brandish a trident -, but still, something pulled her closer. A pair of nanite bullets sailed out from the pistol in her left hand, sinking into two Chitauri aiming to flank the man she’d thought was Namor from a distance.
They fought in relative silence for a few moments, until the enemies in the immediate vicinity were fully decimated. Natalia focused on maintaining an even rate of breathing as she stood back to her full height (easily a foot shorter than most of the Atlanteans surrounding her) and offered a tight smile to the group. <“Good to see you all made it to the party. Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the Big Apple,”> she drawled in Latin, bowing her head in greeting. As it lifted again, her bright emerald eyes drifted around the group, taking in the sight of them all. Most of the warriors seemed perfectly content to fight with nothing to protect their flesh, but there were a few wearing armor. Whether that was a personal choice or some sort of rank denotation, she wasn’t sure, so she made sure to give everyone in the group at least a bit of her attention. Despite having been Namor’s lover for some time, and his friend for even longer, she’d never met any other Atlanteans, save Aquaria.
On the one hand, she was more than a little excited to finally meet some of his people; perhaps she would have held more delight had the situation been somewhat less dire, however.
<“My name is Natalia Romanova. I’m a.. friend.. of your King.”> She wasn’t entirely certain if that was the correct title, but it seemed more polite than simply using his first name. Her eyes paused on the man in the group whom she’d originally thought was the Atlantean monarch, and she canted her head. Gods, but he was nearly the spitting image of Namor. Before she could think to say anything else, a monstrous roar echoed out throughout the area, heralding the arrival of a Leviathan. Glancing skyward, she squinted through the rain and let out a quiet sigh. “Suppose this means break time's over…”
It was chaos everywhere but that was fine. It was chaos Sofia could deal with. As long as there were enemies she could be pointed at like the weapon she was. This time she was happy to have enemies she felt actually deserved it and the person giving orders was someone she actually trusted. Those changes were all it took for her to actually feel eager about the fight ahead of her. For all the very understandable issues Sofia had with HYDRA, she did actually enjoy fighting. She could never be sure if that was some aspect of her personality she always had or if they had made her that way but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
She smiled just slightly as she stepped off the quintet. There wasn’t much she felt she could do but this, this was a problem she could solve. She nodded when Black Widow told her she was with her. That made the most sense anyways. Especially considering out of all the agents in their group Arthur was the only other one she knew and she could hardly consider their relationship friendly. She’d work with him if she had to but it was better not to have to. There was a ghost of a warm smile on Sofia’s face when the woman she was starting to consider as her mentor squeezed her shoulder.
She followed her mentor towards the group of mostly blue people, although one looked human. She didn’t know exactly what the plan was but she trusted Agent Romanova to know what she was doing. A half second after the older woman started shooting, Sofia found her own targets to aim at. While she wasn’t the best shot by HYDRA’s impossible standards she was good enough to hit her marks and take them down.
It was silent as they fought until all the enemies near them were down. Once that was done she glanced around at the unfamiliar and rather large people around her. Sofia tilted her head as she watched as Agent Romanova talked to them in a language she didn’t recognize. Tuning the words out mostly Sofia instead observed the various warriors around her. No armor was an interesting choice, but she supposed they had their reasons. Her eyes widened just slightly when she recognized Alex. Why in the hell was he here and not tucked away somewhere in Germany?
Her head tilted again as she looked him over. ”Fighting with the good guys now or should I be worried?> she asked him in German before a loud roar echoed through the area. With a sigh she turned her gaze away from Alex and up towards the sky. ”Guess so..” she responded to Agent Romanova as she tried to peer through the rain. This whole fight would be so much easier if it wasn't for the damn rain.
Post by z inactive ashermaestas on Apr 3, 2016 19:22:25 GMT
ELECTRICKERY
Rain. Of all the times for it to rain, it just had to be when aliens were flooding the streets for the second time in three days. Normally Asher liked thunderstorms--they'd made his abilities feel more.. natural when he was younger. But he'd never tried to fight in one. Sure, the lightning was great, but seldom did you get thunder and lightning without the accompanying water falling from the sky. And the latter was going to put a major hamper on his usual fighting style. He'd even gone to the trouble of picking up a couple more tasers in the lull after the first battle, but it didn't seem like they were gonna do him as much good as he'd hoped. It was dangerous for him to hold a charge when he got wet, but he didn't think he'd do much good hiding out in the armory where it was dry. And he wasn't about to sit on the sidelines, especially after learning how effective his abilities were against the aliens in Brooklyn.
But for now, he was gonna have to figure out a different way of using them, so he opted to take some of the unique ammunition the various SHIELD agents were supplying. He was above the required military age and he had the pistol he'd retrieved from the Institute yesterday, which seemed to be good enough for them. Maybe they'd caught word of his actions in the first battle, or were simply too overwhelmed to stop and check that he wasn't a civilian. Either way, it was better than nothing.. even if one small gun didn't seem like much against the larger wave of aliens this time around. There even seemed to be some new species he didn't recognize, and from a distance at least, they didn't look as cybernetic as the Chitauri.
Luckily, though, humanity had come better prepared this time as well, and though Asher only recognized a couple faces, he knew they had far more combatants than they'd had for the first battle. He could tell the Atlanteans by the colors of their skin, the Asgardians by their armor, and some of the Brotherhood mutants were vaguely familiar. Most everyone else wore some sort of uniform to identify the agency they were a part of, even if he only actually knew two of them by name--Sofia, and of course, Black Widow. Surprised to find himself fighting beside an Avenger, he made a mental note to ask her what'd happened on the West Coast when the battle was over. He'd sooner save any bad news that might throw him off even worse than the rain was for when he wasn't about to engage in another fight for his life.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to be having as much of an effect on their otherworldly opponents, and the arrival of the first Leviathan signaled the real start of the battle. Figuring he couldn't trust lightning to strike them from above, he had to hope that someone else on the battlefield had to ability to take the beasts down, since he doubted the nanite bullets would do any good against something so large. They seemed effective enough on the Chitauri, though, most of which were falling from a couple bullets from his or another's gun. He wasn't a great shot, but he had enough target practice with his abilities that a gun wasn't too different, and the number of aliens rushing the barricade made it easy enough to hit something, even if it wasn't exactly what he was aiming for. The sparks flying from the resulting short-circuited Chitauri only made him loathe the rain that much more.
Of course when my powers would be most useful is when I can't use them properly, he groaned inwardly, ducking behind the nearest armored vehicle to avoid the next hail of bullets(or whatever they were) from the aliens' guns, and reload his own. What he would've given for Storm's abilities just then, if only to clear the rain.
There had been a short but tenuous respite in the action after the first attack on the world had happened. The chitauri had struck in devastating fashion, but at the end of the day it had been for nought as they were beaten back from whence they had come.
But a respite is all that they had been granted, a few moments of silence to stand still at the destruction that such a small strike had caused on the areas around them. Livelihoods destroyed and families torn apart in a timespan that had been less than a quarter of a day.
Even on his flight back to New York, Jonas had known that he was fighting against a force that could’ve so easily snuffed him out in the first strike. They had done so to Amora, whom had been nigh-invincible compared to the squishy standards of humankind. He had gotten a brush with death falling down a building, only for his fall to be broken by a towering mountain of flesh that he had taken with in his fall.
The scrapes and bruises, possibly a broken rib or two on top of that weren’t important though. He had taken whatever painkillers the medical outposts would offer him and he had reported to SHIELD like the good soldier he knew he was. And at that point he had known that what he had experienced was just a prelude to something infinitely more destructive. A concentrated attack with bigger and badder opposition in greater numbers on top of that.
If New York was recovering from what had happened in 2012, and was still reeling from what happened just a few days ago… The storm that was brewing would blow it out of the water and potentially level the entire city in one fell mighty alien swoop.
Whoever Thanos was, he must’ve been very pissed when he conjured up the plans that were coming to fruition right now. But what the big-bad’s plan was didn’t concern him, the only thing that mattered was living to fight another day, taking as many of the aliens with him.
He had his orders from the Black Widow, his job was set in stone and clear for him. Keep the perimeter from collapsing under the strain of droves of aliens, more than he could keep track of.
Taking a long glance around the field, at the cratered remnants of what used to be a bustling street. It having been turned into a complete warzone, littered with debris that could be used as rudimentary cover if things got hairy. “Ok guys, you know the drill.” slinging the assault rifle around his back and into his hands, he unfolded the stock and chambered a round. “… The bigger the bastards are, the quicker they need to be dead.”
The recognisable sound of his colleagues preparing their arms filled his hearing, under the stress of the imminent chaos his lips curled into a wry smile. If he was going to die today, at least he’d go out doing what he did best...
But he’d take every single one of them down into the abyss with him…
Post by Alexander Cuvier on Apr 6, 2016 2:26:50 GMT
Alexander was not in the best of moods, which was saying something considering his general demeanor. He did not like the whole weird mental link whatsoever, and had made his intense dislike of it known, using colorful language. Unfortunately, it was magic or something...another thing he didn’t like. It was just so...weird and Dorma never did anything cool with it, at least from what he’d so far observed. He still didn’t really get why they were on the surface, but he wasn’t complaining about that fact that much. There were lots of enemies to fight, and he was going right through them. Man, these things were just terrible at doing anything right. At least killing them was cathartic. He, like Namor, was not completely naked, wearing not the scaled underwear, but rather slim swim trunks. Armor and weaponry was unnecessary for him, after all.
There were other people in Armor too and Tigershark also didn’t care to notice the too different people within the ranks of the Chitauri. If they were fighting with them, that made them enemies. Too bad for them. As long as they were on enemy status, he cut through them as well. Trickier, the Atlantean knock offs were, but he managed to get through them too. He was the greatest after all.
He didn’t get to fight too many of the initial aliens in the area, due to the Atlantean back up. When it was all said and done, one of the SHIELD agents approached the group, he largely ignored her, though there was an obvious twitch of annoyance when the redhead mentioned ‘friend of the king’. He did understand what she was saying, as did the other Atlanteans, who nodded in response. While the two quickly exchanged information, Tigershark glanced over and then had to look again. What the hell was Sofia doing there? “<Just stay out of my way.>” Tigershark growled out in Latin in response to Nat’s last comment.
Sofia then promptly decided to piss him off by speaking. [“Fuck off. At least I don’t need someone to carry me, unlike you.”] Alexander said in response. Really, Sofia? The girl that couldn’t handle killing anyway and had no other skills of note. Why did SHIELD even want her? Questions that might never be answered.
Before she could think to say anything else that would probably make him lose his resolve, a monstrous roar echoed out throughout the area, heralding the arrival of a Leviathan. Finally, something that could put up a real fight. The flying beast let out another roar, which only served to irritate Tigershark.
“Stand back and watch how a real man gets things done.” Tigershark said, sparing only one glance over his shoulder at the two of them. Largely ignoring any of the other ‘allies’ that arrived in the fight, Alexander focused on priority one aka who else but him could take out the Leviathan? That’s right, no one.
And then Tigershark did a maneuver only the stupid or crazy would do; he leapt right at the Leviathan itself, no weapons, nothing but himself. He was more than enough, after all. Landing on top of the creature's head, he was immediately beset by Chitauri soldiers, who he either tossed off the side of the creature to the streets below, or crushed some of the others before their bodies joined their friends. Pulling back a fist, Tigershark slammed it straight down through the Leviathan’s skull, cracking the plating and already beginning to slightly crush it's skull. The metal plating was tough to get through.
The Leviathan, not exactly thrilled with this plan, started trying to shake him off, crashing its head into buildings as it did so. Tigershark held on, still trying to get through the beast’s skull.
As the battle rages on, a murmur starts up amongst the Dark Elves, spurred by the arrival of a lone warrior. The squadron retreats from combat with their current foe as the word spreads throughout the ranks. Just when it seems they’ve stopped fighting for good, one warrior bursts forward, sword raised “For the Princess!” he shouts, the Allspeak letting his words ring clearly for everyone in the area. “Down with the Mad Titan!” His voice is joined by others as the squadron charges back into the fray, viciously hacking down the Chitauri in the area.
Admin Note: The Svartalfar are now ALLIES.
Contact with member issues and questions relating to site events and character development.
Post by Natalia Romanova on Apr 7, 2016 22:49:48 GMT
Keeping tabs on Sofia while in the middle of an intense combat situation wasn’t exactly an easy feat, but Natalia had years of experience with such a task. She and Clint had all but mastered the skill of watching each other’s six on mission without even consciously focusing on doing so. With Sofia, she didn’t expect the young woman to be as on the ball as Clint was in regards to reciprocating the acute level of awareness, but nor could she be mad. She’d never been sent on mission with the ex-HYDRA asset - there was a bond, but it wasn’t a well-oiled working cohesion built over years of familiarity.
There was an unfamiliar face on her other side, she noted. The kid seemed almost high school age, if she had to wager a guess by physical appearance. Maybe early college age. His aim wasn’t bad, per se, but it was clear to the veteran shooter that this was one of his first times wielding a gun - possibly his outright first. “Breathe out before pulling the trigger,” she advised, offering the young man a small, but encouraging smile before turning to provide an example for him.
The Atlanteans seemed to understand her words, and Natalia smiled despite herself. She’d been studying their language on and off for years, but didn’t dare risk accidentally saying something incorrectly. Not now. There were inflections she just couldn’t pronounce properly without the right vocal anatomy. Thankfully, Latin was good enough to get her point across, though the Namor look-alike with them seemed more than a little displeased at what she had to say.
That displeasure was considerably more recognizable when he growled out a warning to keep out of his way in Latin. One eyebrow arched, but the apparent leader of this Atlantean squadron suggested she disregard the comment. Her brows knitted together at the sound of Sofia’s voice and she turned to see who the young woman was suddenly speaking to in German, only to find her eyes locked onto the rude Atlantean. <“Friend of yours?...”> she asked in she and Sofia’s native tongue, just before the kid in swim trunks let his mouth get the better of him again.
<“Didn’t your mother ever teach you it’s rude to swear at a woman?”> she snapped in German - the language they’d been utilizing - with an expectant look on her face. Clearly, the young man had an attitude problem. Were the circumstances different, perhaps she’d be willing to teach him a lesson. The sound of the Leviathan’s arrival put a stop to the tense conversation and Natalia let out a quiet sigh. There was nothing she could do to help with the monstrous beasts.
Lucky for her, it seemed, she didn’t have to.
Despite her irritation at his parting words, a part of Natalia wanted to be impressed at the display of bravado. Instead, all she could think of was Namor. From behind, the young man certainly looked the part - especially as he charged head on into battle against a creature no less than thirty times his size.
“Suppose we should offer the real man some cover fire,” Natalia drawled, watching as he was instantly beset with Chitauri. Lifting her gun, she alternated between dropping the Chitauri on the Leviathan, and the enemies here on the ground. Her nanite bullets seemed to be less effective on the Dark Elves, but the Atlanteans seemed to have no issue with the tough aliens.
Natalia was locked in hand-to-hand combat with a Dark Elf when the murmur washed over them. Her enemy shoved with a considerable amount of strength, knocking her backwards a few feet, before withdrawing from the fray to join his comrades. Were they planning something heinous? She grit her teeth, silently swearing at Prince Amalroos for giving in to cowardice. She and Steve had introduced him to Namor. They had found the Reaver. Was this how the Dark Elves repaid kindness?
Picking up a discarded Chitauri spear, Natalia was about to take aim at the group of Dark Elves when a cry rippled out from their midst. The Princess? The Princess! Natalia’s anger washed away in an instant as realization slammed into her. The Dark Elves were turning sides, their weapons and abilities lashing out at the Chitauri they’d arrived with. Alflyana must have survived by some miraculous force of nature, and now must be somewhere in the city, if she was inspiring her people to turn on the tyrant who’d held their civilization captive for the past sixty years.
“This is Agent Romanoff. The Dark Elves in this sector are friendlies!” she called out over the comms as her senses returned. “I repeat - the Dark Elves in this sector are friendlies!”
Post by z inactive ashermaestas on Apr 12, 2016 5:40:34 GMT
ELECTRICKERY
Well, his suspicion that the aliens wouldn't go after him quite so much without the use of his abilities seemed to be proving correct. With nothing more than a pistol he was far less of a threat, and that probably made him a low-priority target next to some of the heavy hitters.. like the guy who'd just tackled a Leviathan. The whole hive-mind thing saw to it that more forces would rush to take out whoever was causing the most problems.
Great for Asher, but bad for everyone else. Fortunately or unfortunately, however, he was neither selfish nor a coward, and he didn't like the idea of leaving the brunt of the work and danger to everyone else.
So he nodded his thanks to the Black Widow--he'd leave his surprise at getting advice from an Avenger for later--and exhaled before emptying a few more rounds into the oncoming Chitauri. While it hardly made him an expert marksman, he did notice a small increase in accuracy, hitting a little closer to where he'd been aiming.
But while the advice might've helped him take down a couple extra Chitauri, it wasn't enough, and Asher knew the gun would only last him so long besides. He'd run out of ammunition eventually, and he didn't have the stomach to go rifling through the fallen combatants pockets for another magazine. So he needed to figure out a change of tactics.
Luckily, the confusion rising in the Chitauri's ranks thanks to the.. Dark Elves, it seemed they were called? Abruptly changing sides actually gave him a minute to think. And without the imminent threat of being shot or impaled on something looming over his head, it wasn't actually that hard to come up with an idea.
Waiting for the other aliens to push back the ones he was familiar with, Asher flicked the safety on and tucked his gun into the waistband of his jeans, then ducked out from behind the "safety" of the barricade. With plenty of the Chitauri having fallen to the nanite-imbued ammunition, it was easy enough to find one of their spears and wrench it free from its former owner's grip.
Thanks to the rain, it was going to be difficult, if not impossible to use himself as a conductor. The previous battle, though, had proved that the enemies' spears were fairly conductive on their own, and the excess of water would only help with that. Lacking the time to modify the weapon as he would've liked, he made do with tearing off a couple strips from the bottom oh his shirt, tying them around either end of the rod of the spear; makeshift handles that wouldn't be quite as conductive as the rest of the weapon.
The spear by itself didn't help him a whole lot, though. And while he was probably one of the most likely people in the world to be struck by lightning, he wasn't quite powerful enough to call it down from the sky, and he didn't have the luxury to wait on something as unreliable as luck. So he went on improvising, kneeling down and drawing the remaining electricity out of the lifeless Chitauri, directing it into the spear rather than himself. A useless weapon for anyone else, but for an electric mutant.. Asher didn't think it was half-bad on short-notice.
A less-dead Chitauri, however, didn't seem to agree with him, as it was on top of him before he could move out of the way, forcing him to the ground and trying to wrestle the electrified spear from his grasp. Smart enough not to grab the weapon directly, it instead clutched his wrists to try and break his grip, and Asher cursed as it nearly did just that. The alien didn't seem to account for exactly how his abilities worked, however, and a quick exertion of will shot some of the electricity from the spear into the Chitauri's chest, barely leaving Asher time to break its weakened hold on his wrists and roll out of the way before it could fall on top of him.
"Well, that's gonna hurt in the morning," he sighed, pressing the point of the spear to the ground so he could lean on it, flexing the wrist of his free hand, sure there'd be a ring of bruises around both of them before too long. They hurt now, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with, and worrying about it was sure to earn him a worse injury, so Asher turned his attention back to the battlefield, hoping to find where he'd be the most useful.
Planting a few shots between the eyes of chitauri, they dropped to the ground. He had never fought together with these agents, but they could hold a line with the best of them. There were a few here and there that broke through, but they’d be quickly struck down by the mutants, or the fish-people, or the Shield snipers, and the… Dark Elves?
Well, he didn’t see that coming himself. Needless to say, that they just raised a different banner and started to fight by their side was something he had no issues with. It meant he had to waste less bullets shooting opponents.
“Just because some have jumped ship, don’t think they’ll stop fighting any harder.” dropping an empty magazine onto the ground, he rummaged around into his satchel for a new one. He had brought plenty, but with the endless droves of angry aliens rushing their positions he wondered if his stocks would last. But in that eventuality he wasn’t afraid of showing off his real training by chopping them down the old-fashioned way.
But still, this alien army had to start suffering from the vast attrition at some point, right? Even alien armies had a point where they knew that throwing more bodies at the situation wouldn’t fix the problem, and at that point they would no doubt be ready with heavier handed measures to quell the human resistance.
Thinking of the devil, he heard a few rumbles from the apartment beside him. And he could barely react in time as some of the bigger aliens decided to take a detour through the building and come out swinging on the other side, slamming their oversized bodies through the wall and right into the flank of them.
A few agents were the first to get flung off their feet by the big sledgehammer-like arms, the agent named Calhoun emptied his handgun into the chest of the brute but it just shrugged it off before grabbing the agent and using him as a human sized baseball bat against anyone that tried to stop them.
Calhoun really never stood a chance, but he wasn’t going to follow him into the abyss. Dropping his rifle, he unsheathed his sword and rolled underneath his flung around ex-colleague before plunging his blade deep into the spine of the angered brute, a few aggressive yanks made sure that even if it would survive they would need a wheelchair for the big alien asshole.
A second brute noticed what he had done to his buddy, and reacted in the only way he had expected, frothing blind rage and throwing his arms at him. But he could deal with anger, anger was easy to read even in aliens it seemed. He dodged blow after blow, chipping away at him with the blade trying to find an opening that could get him down.
Enabling his comms, he continued dancing circles around the beast. “You know I can keep this up all day, but I could really use some assi--” he wasn’t able to finish his request for help, a third Chitlian stepping up to the plate and smacking his blade out of his hand, before getting hit across the chest and being flung at high speed into the side of the van.
Dropping to the ground, he coughed and knew there was something very wrong. But before he could shrug it off, his body told him ‘no’ and his world faded to black…
Post by Alexander Cuvier on Apr 17, 2016 3:48:42 GMT
Tigershark was clearly surprised that she spoke German, but for some bizarre reason she had some sort of attachment to Sofia, considering her snapping at him. “<I don’t have one.>” Tigershark said, with a sneer and another growl, before he leapt off into action. He didn’t choose to explain that response, but it was the truth. Tigershark was a terrible liar. Besides, Sofia was there, she could explain it if she wanted to. Or at least part of it, since the other former HYDRA agent didn’t know all that much about him. He leapt off to fight the leviathan, channeling his aggression and annoyance into his fight, which he was enjoying to a major degree.
After landing on the Leviathan and fighting the Chitauri and Chitilian on it, with the SHIELD agents shooting the aliens, not that he needed their backup anyway. His repeated punches to the flying beasts skull managed to finally crack the plating and the full strength behind his arm easily crushed the bone of it’s skull, sending the Leviathan that had been writhing around in the sky plummeting to the ground, and by some stroke of luck, on an empty stretch of pavement.
More so because of the Atlantean troops that were keeping civilians out of the way, because it was going to become very obvious that Tigershark did not care about that factor, aside from the fact that Namor would be angry that he put civilians in danger. Tigershark leapt off the corpse of the Leviathan, looking for any other fight, which wasn’t hard to find in the chaotic situation. He spied the other blonde guy, and had angry, disgusted expression at the sight of the electrified spear.
The Chitilian that was maneuvering behind Asher to sneak attack the young mutant found its own arm being ripped off and being beaten with it. He looked back at Asher. “Don’t shock me, got that?” Tigershark said in a warning to the mutant, not that he was completely aware that Asher was one. He just knew that he had an electrified weapon and Tigershark really didn’t like being shocked.
He also disliked being shot with energy beams, which is what happened again when he’d paused to threaten Asher. He growled out in pain, and turned his ire on the Chitilian that shot him, and the poor boy might see more death closer up than necessary, as Tigershark was allowed to go all out. Moving faster than any normal person had a right to, the hot headed young man easily closed the distance between the Chitilian that was firing on him and ripped the weapon out of the alien’s hands, jamming the rifle like gun straight through its head, breaking both the alien and the weapon.
He noted the Atlantean knockoffs changed sides; smart. They probably already had seen him in action and just didn’t want to die that day. The Chitauri around the area were definitely concentrated on the partial Namor clone, since it was clear he was the heaviest hitter, with a group heading over to try and subdue him, and a second Leviathan was slowly moving inward as well, though several of the Atlanteans and Asgardian warriors and sorcerers were already moving to take that one down.
Another energy bolt was fired toward Tigershark, and he barely dodged out of the way of the shot, managing to take out one of the Chariots with gunmen on it by tossing the dead Chitilian at it.
Post by Natalia Romanova on Apr 19, 2016 15:43:10 GMT
A twinge of something tugged at Natalia’s chest as she watched the next few shots taken by the young man to her right. Pride? Damn Namor and his suggestion yesterday. “Next lesson,” she murmured to him, turning her own pistols on the advancing group of aliens. “Shoot where they’ll be - not where they are.” Moving targets were considerably more difficult to hit, especially for beginners. She’d learned to shoot with stationary targets, but this poor kid didn’t have such a luxury. He was doing fairly well for himself all the same. Perhaps they’d make a SHIELD agent out of him yet.
Granted, she wasn’t even sure he was a SHIELD Academy recruit to begin with, she realized. He’d been with the group on the quinjet down to this sector, but his face wasn’t familiar and he didn’t have any sort of insignia on him. Perhaps he was just a civilian who’d wanted to help after the last attack. There were plenty of those around. That was a question to answer later, however. For now, there were enemies abound.
And snippy Atlanteans.
Natalia prided herself on remaining as calm as she had in the fact of this egotistical young man. He almost reminded her of a young Namor - the one she’d not had the pleasure of meeting, during the War. All accounts suggested his ego had been more than a little unchecked, and his ire had been legendary. Perhaps it was lucky she hadn’t been assigned a job with him until after he’d calmed sufficiently.
“Pity, that,” she drawled. It was sad, not growing up with a parent, but she’d managed well enough without either. Suppose that answered a few other questions she might have as to the manners of the… Atlantean. He had to be. The pointed ears, sharpened canines, durability… Perhaps Namor was no longer the only human-toned of his kind. Rest assured, she’d be mentioning this lad to him when she saw him at their post-battle meeting a week after the safety of the Earth was assured.
The sound of Agent Arthur’s voice on the comms caught Natalia’s attention and she paused as the Dark Elves swept over the battlefield again, giving her a moment’s reprieve from the battle at large. What came through the static wasn’t a good sound, unfortunately. Whether Arthur was dead or merely down, she wasn’t certain, but she did know he wasn’t alone in that area. If any could be saved, they needed to be. “Delta Squad, we’ve got some men down in Charlie. Intercept and assist,” she barked out over the local communication channel. An affirmative answer hit her ears from the Delta leader and she turned back to the Atlanteans.
Manners or no, at least the young man was powerful. Thank whatever higher beings were out there - excluding Asgardians, of course - that he was on their side. She only watched for a few moments, but it seemed in no time, the Leviathan he was ripping into began its descent towards an empty stretch of the avenue. She really wasn’t a religious or superstitious person, but any higher power that wanted to take the credit for that stroke of luck was welcome to her gratitude - may as well take it while it was being offered.
Turning back to Sofia, Natalia shifted so that she was back to back with the girl, their pistols barking out in a symphony of death to the aliens near them. As they finished with one group, Natalia noticed the lack of the young blonde and let her gaze sweep across the area. It wasn’t hard to find him - or his electrical spear. He seemed safe enough for the moment, what with the pale-skinned Atlantean nearby, but he was still outside the barricade. “Hold the line,” she called down to one of the NYPD agents who seemed to be keeping their cool despite the hell going on around them. “Sofia.”
She didn’t bother telling Sofia what to do. The quick use of her name implied she wished the girl to stick close. There was more danger out here, but Natalia trusted herself to keep Sofia safe than she did the men and women in blue. Another Leviathan had moved into the area, but Natalia could see a contingent of Asgardians and Atlanteans surgining in on the beast. A squadron of Dark Elves leapt into the fray as well, and soon enough, there were three different types of magic converging on one target.
The beast didn’t stand a chance. It probably suffered less than the one that kid had nearly torn apart with his bare hands, but even so… Focusing on the task at hand, Natalia holstered both pistols as she moved, her feet carefully picking their way over the rubble covering the ground. One hand lashed out, snatching a discarded glaive from the ground, and she used it to rid the Earth of two more Chitauri closing in on the human spear-holder. “That you?” she asked, nodding towards the bits of electricity running through the spear. Reaching behind her, Natalia removed a few tiny discs from a pouch and handed them to Asher. “If electricity is your game, kid, hold down on the button on top: it’s enough to knock a grown man out.”
They were a useful little toy when in situations where she was alone against a group, but she hadn’t had a chance to try them out against the Chitauri quite yet. “If it’s not, click and throw. I recommend aiming at the bigger guys - they’re more cybernetics than organic, I think.” Shifting the glaive into her other hand, Natalia followed suit by handing a few of the discs from the other side of the pouch to Sofia. That only left her with two discs for herself, but she had more than a few other tricks up her sleeve still if it came down to it.
She caught on pretty quick that the special bullets weren’t doing much against the Dark Elfs. She was about to blast one of them with her power when he turned around, and then started to attack a Chitauri. Sofia watched in shock for a few seconds until Agent Romanova came over the comms alerting everyone to the fact that they had new allies in the Dark Elves. Sofia was close enough to the woman to nod her agreement, even if the Dark Elves sudden change still shocked her.
She couldn’t focus on that for long though. Not with many more aliens to take care of. She turned to another one and sent a blast of electricity towards its chest, taking it down. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Alexander beat one of the Chitilian’s with their own arm. She shook her head slightly. It was effective at least, if a bit ridiculous. She turned her attention back to Agent Romanova when she heard her name, which was order enough.
Sofia stuck close to the older woman, taking a shot that took down another alien. She followed her mentor as she headed towards the blond boy who was trying to help them. She took the discs that Agent Romanova handed her. She put all but one in her pouch. Looking it over she held down the button and took a few steps to throw it at one of the Chitlian. It barely left her hand before another Chitauri came up on her unguarded flank.
She turned to blast him but she wasn’t fast enough. He knocked her hand aside and picked her up. She ended up flung a few few away, hitting the ground hard. Her head spun and her vision started to go blurry. She attempted to sit up and her vision went completely black as she passed out.
Post by z inactive ashermaestas on Apr 23, 2016 7:44:52 GMT
ELECTRICKERY
The second tip on gunplay would probably come in handy later, but for now.. he had bigger problems. The man who'd just taken down one of the Leviathans with his bare hands was approaching him, and from the look on Alexander's face, Asher half-expected the other guy to attack him, and was raising his stolen spear to defend himself when the Atlantean went for the alien behind him instead.
Somewhat.. disturbed by the guy's method of fighting, Asher blinked and swallowed down his nerves. "Uh.. yeah. Sure thing," he offered, immediately sure he didn't wanna piss this guy off. He looked like Namor from the pictures Ash had seen of him, but he lacked the.. regal presence that he was pretty sure the King of Atlantis would have. So his best guess was that the guy was some other Atlantean. Maybe a family member? Either way, Asher wondered if he could even keep up with him at full strength. Definitely not something he wanted to find out anytime soon, so he'd have to be cautious not to zap him by mistake. Which the rain was just going to make more difficult.. Damned weather.
Turning away from the Atlantean before Tigershark's gory fighting style could turn his stomach, Asher looked back to the spear in his hand, debating on how best to use it. He might be able to control it somewhat, while the electricity was running through it. Lacking any weapons training, though, he didn't know how effective he'd be with it. Probably better to use it like a staff, since he guessed he'd have more luck landing a hit that way than if he tried to stab the aliens. And one good hit was really all he needed for the electricity to do its work.
Either way, he was gonna need to figure something out. Whether it was because the aliens were reducing their numbers, because he'd started using his abilities, or both, he'd become a bigger target, as both the Atlantean and Black Widow were quick to make him realize, taking out Chitauri around him before he even knew they were there. Man, he was really gonna get himself killed if he didn't watch it.
"Yeah," he offered simply, glancing down at the spear hanging loosely in his grip. Not like there was much of a point in concealing his abilities anymore. He'd taken down three Leviathans a couple days earlier. With help, of course, but still. No chance he wasn't on some radar or other now. Besides, why hide his powers from an Avenger? They were supposed to be on the same side.. even if he couldn't speak for the other guy tearing the aliens apart.
Atlantean aside though, she'd given him advice already and now was offering him additional weapons. He was pretty sure he could trust her. "Thanks. These should.. actually be pretty useful." He would've loved to take them apart and see how they worked, but now wasn't the time for it. If they were enough to take out a full-grown man, he figured that made them at least as strong as the average tazer. The rain still posed an issue, but.. perhaps there was a way he could work around that.
But he wasn't gonna have the chance to find out. His attention was pulled from the battle yet again when Sofia was sent flying, and it took him only a couple moments to realize she wasn't going to get back up again anytime soon. Must've hit her head. Which meant she was in no condition to keep the alien from finishing her off.
Not trusting that he was fast enough to intercept it, Asher did the next best thing: He threw the spear. His aim wasn't great, but the electricity running through it allowed him enough influence over the alien weapon to make up for his lack of practice, and it struck home in the Chitauri's back. Whether it pierced any vitals or not he couldn't say, as the voltage in the spear had it crumpling to the ground regardless.
With the threat taken care of, Asher rushed over to check on Sofia and retrieve his weapon. She still had a pulse and didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere too badly, so she'd probably just gotten a concussion when she hit the pavement. "Sorry." He'd only met the girl once, so he wasn't close to her, but maybe if he'd been faster.. Well, at least she was still alive.
Only pausing long enough to be sure he wouldn't be assaulted by another alien in the next few seconds, Asher grabbed her pouch and dumped out the discs she hadn't gotten a chance to use. No point in wasting them, given how useful they were likely to be against the aliens. And.. particularly useful to him.
They were supposed to have been more prepared for this fight, but their allies were still falling. People that no doubt had years more training and experience than he did. If he didn't do.. something, he was gonna end up in the same situation as Sofia, or worse. And without the luxury of time or safety to sit down and run any calculations or test anything.. that meant he was going to have to wing it. Wasn't like he would last much longer anyways. Might as well give it his best shot before he got taken out.
Sticking his spear into the earth hard enough to hold it there, Asher lined up the discs in both hands, held them to his chest, and pressed the button on each one.
A few heartbeats later, the explosion of electricity dropped him to one knee, and he only hoped the roar of battle drowned out any pained groan. The mass voltage racing through his body made his clothes steam, and before the rain could get him wet again, Asher took it all in and threw it into overdrive.
Limbs tensed as electricity coursed through every vein and tendon, forcing adrenaline through his blood stream and rerouting his nervous system. His eyes lit up as his hair stood straight with static, and Asher could only clench his teeth as the electricity rushing through him overstimulated every muscle well beyond their limits. Even in his body, he could only hold so much electrical current, and now it arced over and around his body. A good thing, actually, because while the rain drew sparks wherever it fell on him, the electric heat turned it to steam before it could drench him again. So long as the rain didn't pick up too much and nobody was waiting around to splash him with a bucket of water, it hopefully wouldn't be too much of a problem.
Adjusting to the seldom-used technique's effects, Asher turned to the Black Widow. "I'm gonna be useless in a few minutes. Try not to let the aliens kill me then, will ya?" Asher managed a grin, then turned to grab the arm of the Chitlian that'd been attracted by the flashy display. His touch electrocuted the thing, but before it could fall he lifted it into the air, twisting it around and throwing it into the nearest group of Chitauri, knocking them over like bowling pins.
"And you," he started, turning his attention back to the Atlantean. Having opted out of rubber-soled shoes years ago, the water and puddles at his feet were electrified where he stepped, and sparks raced through the rain that fell around him. "Keep your distance if you don't wanna get shocked."
-------------
OOC: Asher'll probably drop out in a post or two now. Let's see how many aliens he can take out before then. Also, reference to the glowy eye thing.