Shopping at Stark Towers (Team B)

October 10, 2018:

Team B of the Titan's ad-hoc crew go after a device for Fairchild's anti-portal device.

Stark Industries Tower

The demon-infested Stark Industries tower.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions: Misfit, Starfire

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

(Continued from http://cmbeta.wikidot.com/log:8102)

With the Titan team broken into two squads, Cassandra Sandsmark, Superboy, and Maxima are heading deeper into Stark Tower to find the inventory control room. It's where some of Stark Industrie's best equipment is kept, and unfortunately, it's right through a nest of demonic spiders. Strange arachnids the size of big dogs skitter across the walls and ceiling, laying down resin-like webs that mute the emergency lights and bar doors shut. A few of the larger gorilla-esque demons are lazily walking the halls, tails lashing angrily and periodically shoving at one another in a dominance display if they get too close to one another.

The stealthier route would be through the spiders, which largely seem undirected by any higher intelligence or order. The direct route is through the bigger bruisers, and with their fangs and talons they are nothing to be taken lightly.

*

Looking at the area ahead, Maxima considers and looks at the other two. She looks to Kon first and then turns her gaze to Cassie. She hmms as she looks at both and then sucks in a breath before gesturing, "I say we go after the big things." She gestures at them and then looks back at the pair, "We are trying to call attention to ourselves, are we not?" She asks and tilts her head before looking then to Cassie, "I'll leave it to you two so I keep up with the group, eh?" She then idly stands up straight and crosses her arms, "Would hate to fall behind."

*

Cassandra is more than a little angry, and the Silent Armor keeps buzzing. It wants her to do something, it yearns to be free. Still, watching the team split makes her frown in worry. This is not how she would have called. Never split the team, and if they, never put her and Kon on the same team.

NOT ONLY because they work so well together and never bicker, but Wonder Girl can shield the likes of Misfit. She worries for them more than she cares to smash demons no matter how angry she is.

"Our mission here is to get the waveform modulator" - so she WAS listening - "and return to them as fast as possible. It is not like Starfire or Fairchild can be subtle. They are going to get seen and they may need our help. We are going to fly fast and through the spiders. They are disorganized, and with my shields we may be able to avoid the webbings just in case they are stronger than they seem. We go in, get what we need, and we get out."

She eyes Kon, trying to not give in to Maxima's goading. She knows he understands how important it is they are back with the others as fast as possible. "Can I count on you to spearpoint this?" And then, finally, "Do not fall behind, please. I would not like to come back for you." If people want nice amazons, they need to poke Donna and Diana!

*

Superboy casts an uncertain side-eye at Wonder Girl when he's pretty sure she's not looking. He's actually done it a few times, by the time they near their objective. What is she -so- pissed about?!?

"You don't even need to ask." He answers Cassie's question readily, similarly ignoring the second attempt at goading him with something he already rebutted!! Kon'd be just as keen to go through the gorillas as through the spidercides, but Wonder Girl's logic makes sense, and lines up with his own that indirectly prompted this. They need to be fast.

In this case, the direct route down the stealth path looks a lot like Superboy barreling along wall and ceiling at blurring speeds blasting lasers from his eyes to incinerate webbing and throwing a spider end over end down the hall into its brethren.

"Keep moving! Just push through to Sanchez's stockpile!!" Kon calls out— mostly sincerely. This is who they are. That stealth option? Still pretty attention drawing.

*

The stealthy, FAST path it is! The three superhumans plow through the spiders so swiftly that there's almost no outcry at all. Just the sounds of webs and spiders and sizzling demon ichor, as Superboy's eyes sear demon flesh and set alight the webbing. It burns readily, if low, red tongues of flame licking the walls in his wake.

Low, for now, but it doesn't seem to be extinguishing itself, either.

The trio pushes through the hall and into the access area for Inventory Control. More spiders await them there, easily dispatched singly but en masse, provoking a threat. Several fling spinnerets of demon silk at the superhumans, trying to slow and entangle them. One, with acid drooling from sharp mandibles, spits demonic acid at Superboy as he blows into the entryway and the (fortunately) still-secured door to the warehouse.

*

Shaking her head a little, The woman considers this plan before just letting them go. She could mention the fact that she has things she can do, too, but she decides against it for now. Once they arrive, the acid is flying at Superboy and Maxima whips up a hand. The acid hits some invisible force about a foot in front of Superboy and she then flicks her hand and it flies back at the spider that spit it.

Maxima lands and lets one of the lines of web hit her arm and she then grips it with a tight hand and twin beams of compressed telekinetic power flows from her eyes right at the spider before she then burns the web off of her, "Which is the device that Caitlin wants?"

*

When Cassandra lands, she isn't worried about the scorching hot flames that they left in the previous room or the dead spiders. They have more pressing matters, such as getting what Caitlin wants them to.

She quickly looks around, using a recollection from her memory of the description Fairchild gave her. It isn't easy, but thankfully Cassandra is VERY experienced at finding just the artifact she needs from a description alone.

Thanks mom! And Caitlin, for being so thorough!

Eventually she finds it, a boxy looking mcguffin full of coils and sciency looking things, and when she does, she lets the others know it. Carefully, she takes it, and envelops herself on a forcefield to protect the thing. "Okay! We are returning now, Superboy! You all right?" She eyes Maxima, for injuries, and finding none, she lets Kon take the point again, since she is carrying sensitive material!

*

"The waveform modulator." It's all so simple, substituting for thanking Maxima for the save. With the amended shielding, he's left to speed for the stash's terminal. Using the access code provided by Fairchild, the Dude of Steel skims through the inventory at Kryptonian rates, settling on the right entry and punching up the data.

"It's this thing!" Cue triumphant display of the screen's display, showing the picture of the item Cassie's picked out from memory. "That thing. That you found!" He's maybe a little embarrassed, but far from disappointed.

Silken strands from the multitude of spiderdoggos try to pin him in place, but a heave and a lunge and he has several wrapped in the stuff, loosing it from his grasp via biokinetic sheathe in a sling of spattering spiders.

If he stuck around, they'd pin him down, spray him with some acid, perhaps, but Kon-El doesn't stick around— he tosses a lazy salute to Wonder Girl and hurtles back the exact route they came, sucking a tremendous breath into his lungs and blasting fire and lesser demon alike forcefully out along his path, the artificial wind roaring, howling through the hall.

*

Something Else is awake now. Not just spiders or the bruisers. Something improbably large, with a basso growl that barely resembles a yawn. There's a sense of 'something' shaking itself awake in the floors below them.

Heat and noise reverberates from the elevator shafts nearby. Ruddy orange light flickers behind the doors and grows in intensity before their eyes. Something is coming— something that seems to make the air murky, dragging at the limbs and the will like trying to slog through heavy, wet sand at high tide. None of the trio are immune— not Superboy with his Kryptonian heritage, not the proud Queen of Almerac, not Wonder Girl, daughter of Zeus. It's not a malaise of the body, but rather of the spirit, sapping at their very will to fight or flee. Ennui, given form.

*

A blink and she nods to Cassie, "Excellent." Maxima nods her head and then looks back at Superboy before rolling her eyes. She follows them out and as they reach what seems like a point of escape, she slows to a stop. She blinks a few times as she staggers to a stop and then blinks again. She looks around a moment and then rubs her head, "What…is happening?" She blinks her eyes closed and then she looks up and then down before saying, "Who…dares…" She nearly drops to a knee and then pushes herself back up only to stagger again. Maxima seems to sway between this odd tired and anger that tries to pull her back up, "Whoever is doing this…I will…destroy them…" She holds on to a wall suddenly.

*

Cassandra is ready to fight when she hears something awakening, but there is more than that about this creature. It isn't just some brute, it is a dangerous thing. She can feel its aura for what it is fast, draining her will, and the more it does, more of her armor manifests. By the time Wonder Girl realises what is going on, her right leg is fully armored with the golden platings and spikes of the eldritch artifact around her.

"We need to go. WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"

This is going to get so bad. Her voice is as booming as it will ever get, and although she is a little scared, it doesn't show it. Her eyes, though, will, and she looks at Kon urging him to not argue right now.

She throws the waveform modulator to the Kryptonian, just in case she gets left behind, or the armor finishes forming around her. "This might be a striga! Messes with our heads! GO and FIND the others, Kon!"

She flies away too, not meaning to stay behind to lose her mind and maybe her life, but if Maxima doesn't, as much as she has her problems with the girl, they matter exactly nothing at this moment, she will go back for her.

*

Stuck in sand at high tide or not, Kon-El strides onward, pushes forward, fights the malaise that afflicts his spirit, that saps his speed. He feels slothlike indeed, clumsy as the modulator soars to him, nearly drops it. Then it's tucked like a football in a field of TACTILE TELEKINESIS, and Superboy nods once, firmly.

Still, he doesn't entirely obey— there's no effort to outpace Cassie or Maxima, if in fact he actually could, but the Kryptoclone does offer an alternate solution, "We need to clear the building, come back at the rest from.. another way.. get to the windows!" Those are a lot closer as a goal than the rest of their teammates, just now.

Even if his masterstroke does amount to 'we should break two windows', it's a big step up from putting up with this much longer, right? They delved too deep!!! A defiant fist seeks to punch an adjacent door towards the tower's exterior, and that's just Superboy's target.

*

The monster is close, and every moment it gets a little nearer. The elevator doors, stuck partially ajar, begin to creak open as the creature creeps up the interior of the elevator shaft. Long fingers, too long, reach around for purchase as black nails as sharp as talons scratch up curling chunks of steel from the elevator's platform edge. The intensity of the aura of despair and depression alike ratchets up. Sleep, it urges. Sleep, to find relief from the pain of life…. it's a murmuring whisper spoken only the back of the mind, but clearly comes from the hunched, limping figure enshrouded by black robes that now stands on the tile floor near them.

Distantly, Caitlin's voice can be heard over the comm net, crackling in and out as the <We've got the reflector and prepping exfil on the east side of the building. We'll meet you—> there's a loud CRASH, screams, and the sound of gunfire and Kori's starbolts. <Misfit! CHARLIE!> Caitlin screams, and then the line buzzes angrily and disconnects as something overwhelms their communications.

*

Staggering still, Maxima clenches her jaw and closes her eyes a moment. She twitches slightly as she opens her eyes to see the strange creature with long talons and black robes. She stares at it a moment, hearing its urging in the depths of her being. Then she hears the comms and blinks a few times. She looks at Cassie and then at Superboy before she sucks in a breath, "I am Queen Maxima of Almerac…" She clenches and looks up at the creature in black, "I have the very spirit of Almerac within me…" She forces herself to stand up straight and clenches her jaw even as her body shudders in imagined weeriness, "I will not be so easily defeated by some worthless filth that imagines itself strong amongst its peers." Spit comes from clenched teeth as her fists do the same. She looks then down at the floor and focuses her strength into a twin pair of eye beams hot enough to burn through potentially a floor or three. She shoots the beams quickly along the floor to the left of the thing and then to the right creating an angle of a crack on the floor.

She staggers back from the exertion and then points down, "Break…the floor." She sends her own wave of telekinetic force at it but it took a lot for her just to cut the way she did and the floor only shudders a little, "Hurry…"

*

Nice catch, Kon!

Cassandra smiles at the boy's cheating football catch. At his suggestion, she nods. Good thinking, really! If it doesn't fly, just… go outside! Where there is nothing but sky!

But Maxima has other ideas. As she starts to attack the floor, the blonde takes a moment or two even figure out what she is doing. When Wonder Girl does, she takes a moment to look at Kon and then back at Maxima.

"It is going to climb back, and it can affect us from afar! Stop wasting time, and stick with the group!" Cassandra doesn't have any energy blasts to attack the floor with, and she wants to get to her friends fast. If Maxima is dead serious about her plan, Cassandra helps by throwing a piece of marble at the direction of her blast, which is the extent of her willingness to help. Soon she is back after Kon, so they can leave this place and take the others with them.

"Now, lets BAIL! It is going to come back." And others will probably follow. This horde is never ending.

*

Sleep, release. Peace. It's a comforting thought, a safe thought, and if it were just Conner— he might do just that. It's not, though. The static in his ears came from the peril of his friends and allies, the screams that preceded it could just as easily be any of their own, as well, as the demon advances.

No, it's not just him, and Superboy cuts his swath to the most impromptu of exits with sodden heaves of heavy, tired fists. He's still plenty strong, if nowhere near as fast, nowhere near as relentless— but it gets the job done through sheer defiance. It probably helps that fighting past exhaustion is a thing he does on a regular basis. When the window is reached, though, it's time to invert his modus operandi.

Rather than waiting for the other two to clear the building first, Kon /hurls/ himself through the class, shattering a brilliantly shimmering shower of reinforced safety glass outwards as he fearlessly leaps clear. A terrified race to the out of doors, putting as much distance between him and that thing as possible? More likely, he just wants to find out how much shit he might be in before subjecting anyone else to the plan.

*

Caitlin's voice crackles over the commlink. <Cassie, can you read me? Evacuate, evacuate now! We're blown! We're falling back to the rally point!>

*

Stumbling back, Maxima glares at Cassie before she follows them. She glares back at the strange creature and then she continues away from it. It is not in her nature to retreat. This thing isn't in her power to beat but it is not something she likes. She then follows Kon out the window and growls under her breath. Part of her really wants to do more but for now, the mission is complete and the others are in trouble.

*

The team reunites at the pre-designated rally point, the roof of a diner a few blocks away. Superboy, Maxima, and Wonder Girl are drained and reeling from psychic poison. A striga, a cruel and powerful spirit, had attacked them and nearly killed all three with her oppressive aura suppressing the very will to live. But aside from some scratches and bruises, they seem otherwise well enough— and Superboy has in his hands the modulator that Caitlin's machine requires.

Caitlin and Starfire are covered in dust and debris, and minus Misfit. Tearfully, Caitlin explains what happened— ambushed, attacked from below, and an army of demons that nearly overran Starfire and Fairchild after some giant snake had taken Misfit from them after the requisite equipment had been safely located.

It's clear there was no way to stop the demons from taking Misfit prisoner, but all the same, Caitlin looks stricken with grief and self-chastisement.

Immediately, plans are discussed to retrieve their missing comrade from the clutches of the enemy who has her in their claws. Because they know two things from Misfit's emergency beacon: that she's still alive, and she's in the sub-basements of the tower itself.

And a mission isn't over until everyone's home alive again.

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