THE SPIES WHO SPROCKED US - modplot

[letsgolegion]

Who| Everyone who signed up
What| The Espionage Mission Against the Council
Where| Brainiac 3's abandoned asteroid base.
When| Set during the same time as "Through the Looking Glass"
Warnings/Notes| Potential gore, due to the plan to fake a betrayal. Also potential mind-borkery, due to the Herald involved. (Think similar to telepathy or empath powers).



The abandoned base of Brainiac 5's grandfather, Brainiac 3, is simultaneously perfect for a secret meeting and perfect for an attack. Built into the asteroid itself, it had labyrinthian tunnels, extensive computer monitoring systems, and countless security measures. And a faked radiation spill means very few would risk going to it.

But all the things the Council-members and the Herald are using to guard the meetup can be used against them as well. The tunnels, ducts, shady rafters, and countless levels provide ample opportunity for hiding, sneaking and bypassing certain areas to avoid getting caught. The security systems -- everything from alarms to wall-mounted stun blasters, to capture droids -- can be hacked and exploited, either by the hackers among them, or by security bypass devices similar to the ones that were used during the heist on Rimbor. Even when these devices fail for whatever reason, such as security code shifts and updates, the hackers can gain new security codes and bypasses and send them to their compatriots.

The most dangerous part of this mission is the use of the Nysheef, Harrubian ninjas that have been lent to the UP Council-members as security from the pissed off Harrubian elite that were arrested by the Legion. Juuust on the off chance that the Legion might come snooping around. But with the right amount of stealth and subterfuge, the Legionnaires can take out the Nysheef without raising the alarm, and there are plenty of places to stuff their unconscious bodies.

Brainiac 5 went all out to make sure that the Legionnaires are well equipped for this mission. Before it started, they had access to a tech armory that let them get their hands on a wide variety useful tech, such as: security bypass devices, mini-computers for the hackers, stun weapons, smoke bombs with stun gas that can knock out most sentients for hours, hard-light holographic projectors that can cast illusions over an area or disguise an individual (which can scan new things to create new disguises), stasis field devices, personal cloaking devices, high-tech anti-grav climbing gear, recording drones, grappling hooks...

Basically, if the Legionnaires needed it for the job, they got it. As usual, they also have their flight rings, omnicoms (which have useful scanners), and transuits.

A sensor sweep indicates that the Herald and the six Council-members are meeting in a particular central chamber -- with an addition two unexpected life signs -- but with the team's plans, powers, and equipment, it's Mission: Highly Probable instead of Mission: Impossible.

And the Council will never see them coming. (Which is kind of the point, really.)

Comments

♫ MISSION IMPOSSIBLE THEME ♪ - AKA ALL THE SNEAKY BITS

[letsgolegion]

There really should be sneaky music playing. But since this is a stealth mission, everyone will have to just imagine it in their heads.

Whether it's climbing through ducts, swooping out of the shadows to knock people out, phasing through walls to open new sections from the other side, using equipment to get past dangerous inexplicable fans with an undetermined purpose, taking out Nysheef ninjas, hacking systems and siccing internal security on the ninja mooks, or...anything else, the Legionnaires can do it.

And they'll need to. There are quite a few levels between them and the meeting between Council-members and the Herald. And they'll really be much better off taking out all the Nysheef ninjas quietly rather than leaving them conscious to intercede in the final confrontation.

[ooc: For all the stealth sneaky.]

[vata]

It's like breathing, missions like this one. Shrugging off the second skin of her alias and making the transition between kind, attentive Azúcar and Sombra: a creature invisible on digital pathways, quick to cut a practiced course through whatever defenses she can find. A habit she exercises right from the beginning— camouflaged as she clambers up into the vents from the outside, hunting for wiring or any accessible digital markers.

Eventually, she scores. A maintenance hub that's been fed by cables run close to the ventilation shaft. It's not a backdoor to the entire system, but it's eyes wherever the Legionnaires might need them, visual feeds running circles through her skull as she calls out across her earpiece.

"Looks like the back entrance is swapping out shifts. Bypass the alarms and be quiet about it, and ahí está — you'll have yourself a ticket inside."

[rushing_by]

After the guards clock out and leave, there's a blur too fast for the cameras to pick up, and each of their replacement are quickly knocked out before they notice anything is happening. Barry takes their ID cards and comms just in case they wake up, and then phases through the door.

Quick use of one of the ID cards once inside means the alarms in this section of the base won't be going off anytime soon.

"I'm in. What's next?"

[mylawn]

76 might not look very well suited to stealth, what with the jacket and visor and the sheer size of him, but he's much better at it than he lets on. He moves quietly, efficiently, and though he doesn't exactly have the tech know-how of some of the others on the team, he's more than capable of taking the brunt of any physical contact with enemies.

They're trying to avoid it if possible, of course, but sometimes there's no other way around it. That's where 76 comes in.

He'll only engage the Nysheef if there's no other way around it, and he holds out a hand to whoever he's with (that's you), indicating that no one should go any further. Talking more than a few whispered words at a time is too risky, so 76 motions to indicate what's around the corner.

"I'll take them."

[touchmydragon]

This was where Genji tended to prevail too, his lights turned off for the sole purpose of not standing out like a traffic signal. It was a handy feature on his cyborg armor that helped make him not seem like a useless ninja.

The Shimada gave a nod at Soldier and sent a signal back. It was probably language Soldier hadn't seen in a while but when you spend time together as a team, albeit reluctantly on Genji's part, silent language became part of the dialogue. And Genji was asking Soldier to wait one moment. He could at least get them to look in another direction for one quick moment.

Silently, three shuriken slid into his hand and he gave them a quick toss after confirming a short nod with Soldier. He aimed them at the ground to minimize noise, instead relying on the whistling noise of them as they sped by the enemy to cause them to turn their heads away.

[fantasmaniac]

Reaper stays in range of Widowmaker, able to place his trust in her sight without thinking too much about it. If he needs her input, he can just communicate with her over the comms. Just another day infiltrating a secret base in broad daylight (baselight?) without being seen.

He quietly seeps into the ventilation system, unrestricted by the size of the shaft or its entrance, and takes his time scoping out a good place to watch the rendezvous go down. Even sensors have a hard time picking up on his gaseous form, though the density of it discourages him from simply passing through any laser sensors. He just goes around them, or through the spaces. There's a lot of moving parts in this mission, and as usual, messing up on any part will prove disastrous.

Not impossible to salvage, but disastrous nonetheless.

He pours out of the vent, weighing himself close to the ground. Even if he's not exactly hidden, the sight would mostly confuse someone rather than alarm them straight away. Any Nysheef ninjas unfortunate enough to cross his path are quickly taken down, however. Just step on him, he dares them. Whoever is shadowing him to find unobstructed routes has a clear hallway to run through.

[steelandtemper]

"Somebody didn't file changes with the Planning Board." Because evil masterminds are very concerned with filling out the proper forms.

That sure is a blank wall standing where the blueprints say there's supposed to be a doorway. Cortana briefly considers and immediately discards the idea of telling Locus to get his fingers in a seam and just plain rip away the metal--even if he were strong enough, that would be the opposite of sneaky. Not every problem needs to have the Master Chief's brand of destruction thrown at it.

Hence the reason she's riding with Locus in the first place. He's no Chief, or even Sombra, but he's a professional and she finds his armor comfortably familiar, albeit something of an economy hotel compared to her usual digs. She likes the integrated cover shield, and the only thing stopping her from trying to install a similar system in the Chief's armor is the resigned awareness that making him invisible will not actually render his preferred full frontal assault combat style any stealthier.

Having most of her resources currently devoted to cyberintrusion, the digital equivalent of what they two of them are up to in the physical world and just as invisible to their organic targets as Locus is, Cortana isn't sparing much thought to how she's mad at him for missing the point of the Human-Covenant War entirely. Hardly relevant to the mission, anyhow, since Locus is unlikely to stop and commit genocide for the cash on the way.

Cortana is growing as a person, since she doesn't vocalize that last thought.

"Okay, rerouting. Backtrack a bit. We can go through the warehouse hub. Lots of moving machinery, good audio camouflage." She adds a navpoint to his HUD. "I thought this was too easy. Expect patrols."

[agnominal]

Given his strength? He probably could dig the panel open. But it would be inefficient in the long run, and finding another point of entry would maintain the element of stealth. That was, after all, why she was coming with him. Yes?

"Acknowledged."

The words are toneless. There's no time to feel starstruck, ashamed, or any other number of things one might feel having a very judgmental AI belonging to a hero of yours riding shotgun. Missions aren't a time to feel anything at all, and he's locked down as much as he can.

Backing away from the door, he makes his way towards the navpoint. For as heavy as the armor is, he's relatively quiet in his movement, practiced in this form of stealth from years of experience. And he's keeping an eye out, as she requested. The patrols so far seem to be on the quieter side, so it'll take focus to pick them out.

[leverageintceo]

It feels good to be working with Hardison again.

Sneaking Parker can do and has done on her own, for most of her life even, though it doesn't usually involve ninjas sneaking around as well. Or space, but space is outside and she's inside, so that doesn't really count. But she's been sneaking for over half a year without her hacker running commentary in her earbud and it's nice to have that option back again.

"I think we're clear," she whispers, peering down from the grating in the duct work.

[age_of_the_geek]

"All right. Gimme a sec to check the data feeds."

Hardison was a smudge frustrated. It would have been far more open and annoyed if it hadn't been for Eliot rubbing off on him after so many years, but in getting used to the new tech he had to learn a whole lot very quickly. He was at least passable in his future hacking. Some tricks never change, just their mode of transmission, but others he'd have to relearn his playbook.

"Okay, I...am...into their feeds. Looks like you got a patrol of guys coming in right below...above you? I don't have the best read-out. Two seconds."

[wallsofjericho]

Perhaps, somewhere in some Legionnaire's head, this is the sneaking music of choice, but Joey's preoccupied listening to something else right now, the steady step of at least two people who aren't as concerned as normal about being stealthy.

From Joey's position, it's easy to see why. With the help of the flight ring, he's pressed up against the ceiling in that partial blind spot of space just above a door, listening to people in the hallway through that door and trying not to be distracted by the smell of burnt popcorn and coffee that lingers every break room for all eternity.

That's why he knows they don't care about being heard. It's the break room; the only thing to fear is expired food in the snack machine. It's not where Legionnaires have ducked to ambush them, oh no.

FAKE OUT TAKE OUT - THE FAKE BETRAYAL

[chronoblivionnpcs]

When they reach the final chamber, they'll see something a little stranger than expected. Yes, all six Council-members are there -- from Cargg, Daxam, and Naltor -- and the two Carggites are currently conveniently in their single-person forms.

But two prisoners are with them as well. They're dressed strangely, as if their clothes and gear were cobbled together from various different worlds. Some of it looks strangely organic, while other parts of it are clearly synthesized. Their hands are cuffed behind their backs in restraint cuffs, and they have power restraints on their necks and hoods over their faces.

The Herald the Council-members are talking to is not the one that bragged about being in a meat-suit, judging from the way her own very solid body looks just like the Joker's -- she looks like a living photo-negative.

She looks like a very, very strikingly confident photo-negative, armed with a whole arsenal of high-tech weapons, and even a sword.

Legionnaires, meet the Herald called the "The Wheel of Fortune" aka: War. A literal Herald of the Apocalypse, conscripted from a world that Chronoblivion ate when it was in the midst of another more biblical apocalypse, she was conveniently already gung ho about being a harbinger of doom.

And boy does she love her job.

They have a chance to listen in on the exchange -- and record, if they're quick and smart -- to find out more about what's going on.

"--now, see here, Naltor only agreed to work with you because of the visions some of our people had that the Legion would fail against you. We want assurances that Naltor will be spared," says Lural Nol, the female Naltorian Council-member.

"We want the same for Daxam," says Corl Dem, the male Daxamite Councilor. "We know we have to put up with these...sub-sentients surviving after it all, with us, but --"

"Grife, Corl," says Lural, "it's bad enough to be locked into this mess with you, but can you silence your disgusting xenophobia for five minutes? We're just working save our world -- you and Tela actually like that the rest of the UP is going to be destroyed."

"You bet we do," sneers Tela Nik, the female Daxamite Councilor. "Provided they'll come through and spare Daxam, as promised, they'll be doing the great work we always wanted to do for us."

"Disgusting," says Meranu Vigo, the female Carggite Council-member, to the other woman.

"Oh, like you have room to talk," says Rina Tal, the male Naltorian Councilor, "You're just doing this for power. We're doing it for our people."

"You're lucky I don't kill you where you --" starts Meranu, and as she nearly gets in a fist-fight with the Naltorian, the Herald just smiles, clearly pleased with their infighting.

"Now now, there's no need to quarrel," War says, smiling like even if there's no need, that it's a delight. "You've been so obedient with your cooperation: every decision you made helped us strike at the heart of the UP -- and weakened the Legion."

"And those decisions hurt our people," says Rina. "Thousands died because we allowed your forces to sabotage the gravity generators on Naltor."

"And we lost dozens on Cargg, thanks to the Joker," says Meranu. "Herald--"

"War," she corrects, her voice as sharp as the edge of a knife. "My name is War."

"War," Rina says. "You've done nothing to demonstrate that it was worth it, haven't given us anything but your word that--"

The Herald holds up a hand to silence them.

"My word is all you'll get. I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation. I owe you nothing. My master owes you nothing. It's only through his magnificent benevolence that he's extended this offer to you. This is not a negotiation -- this is you paying the proper tribute."

She steps forward, her body language slow and lazy like a jungle cat -- and her smile like a very hungry jungle cat.

The Council-people all fall silent and back away as if she's not so much a person as an advancing forest fire, threatening to surround them.

"Speaking of which," War nods at the two prisoners. "You said who they were in your message. Is it true?"

"Yes," says the male Carggite, Yelik Melinko. "Luckily the Science Police officers that picked them up were loyal to us, so they weren't able to contact the Legion, or the UP government, or any allies."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

War bends down to look closer at one of the prisoners and lets out a throaty laugh of amusement at this sudden wild card -- the laugh almost sounds like the stutter of machine-gun fire.

"What an interesting development. They're supposed to be dead, you know. Did you question them? Ask how they survived? Ask how many of the others still live?"

"We had some telepaths in our employ, they interrogated them, but both proved to be very...resistant to their efforts," says Tela. "Which is no surprise, given their reputations."

"Oh well. We'll find out more soon enough. I supposed we'll just have to torture them. I'll be taking them with me; my master will be pleased with this gift."

The conversation is damning enough -- but the Legion can take things further, if they dare to try. This is their chance to find out more about the corruption in the UP, and Chronoblivion and the Heralds.

[ooc: This is where the Legion can do its fake out betrayal. Please keep all fake betraying and the faked deaths in this thread. The final talk between the fake "traitors" and the npcs, and the trap will be set up in another thread below. Characters can use their holographic devices to simulate what they need, and can also be armed with other gadgets to fake injury, blood, etc.]

[vata]

"He might be less pleased when you and your marionetas are dragged away in Legion custody for the whole world to see."

Galaxy. World. Whatever, ask Azúcar if she cares about the semantics when she dismisses her thermoptic camouflage with a flick of her claws, perched near the far end of the room— one hand on a door panel that's already been thoroughly (and discreetly) overridden to let the rest of her companions through, the ones less capable of slinking through ventilation shafts and reinforced maintenance routes.

The symbiotic nature of brains, brawn, and bypassing security routes like a 1980s basement hacker. Good times.

[araignee_du_soir]

Having taken an obscure route that took advantage of high places and ventilation ducts, Widowmaker emerged silently via a carefully removed grate to look over the room. Getting to the meeting point took surprisingly less time than expected with the facility's layout turning about in her mind, even with a few unwanted encounters with Nysheef along the way, and she was grateful for this new power of hers. What an advantage it could provide her in the future.

Knowing she was ahead of the bulk of their force, she surveyed the room and moved herself deftly, lightly, to a well-positioned overhang where she could set up. A little too short for her prone body, Widowmaker's legs folded up as the back edge pressed just above her knee instead of being left dangling where they could be seen. Sniper rifle loaded with stun rounds at the ready, she lowered her visor down, her vision washing with heat signatures and all the screens she had. As she set the screens to focus on the various delegates, the unknown woman and those hostages, she also had her 'eyes' set to where the room entrances were.

Over the team comms, her accented voice slipped softly into the ears of the rest as she spoke no louder than absolutely necessary. "Widowmaker in position. Well, well... It is indeed Daxam, Naltor and Cargg. They are with a monochromatic woman; she is the real threat. Unexpected - a pair of hostages."

She affixed the recording device to her scope, the rifle's barrel clear in the video feed, and held it perfectly still as she activated it. "Recording now. ETA?"

[agnominal]

Whoever had invented helmet-cams had a lot coming to them. It turned out to be the perfect way to record the conversation, even while invisible, waiting in the shadows and in position to move in at the right moment.

War. She's the one they'll need to convince, to impress. But doubtless he'll have an advantage the others don't. He's not the hero of this story, after all. His bloody, war-riddled past is on display for all to see.

Washington, on the other hand? Taking such a risky mission is expected of him, particularly with so many lives on the line.

INFILTRATION

[chronoblivionnpcs]

The dust has settled, and the "traitors" need to make things very convincing to ingratiate themselves so that the Herald and the Council-members reveal more.

And then they need to trigger the trap.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" says War.

[ooc: For the fake "traitors" to gather intel and then trap the bad guys with a stasis trap.]

[mylawn]

Interesting is one word for it. In a former life, 76 had a knack for this diplomacy thing, and might have done fairly well stepping up to the plate and convincing War and Friends™ that they are totally legit and definitely on Chronoblivion's side forever and also the Legion sucks. As it stands, however, he knows that at least one person in the group of fake traitors is better at talking than he is, nowadays, so he considers leaving most of the grunt work to them, relying instead on his generally deadpan demeanor and his poker face to be as convincing as he needs.

And he has a great poker face, which he'll make full use of as the group is put under not-undeserved scrutiny.

"Got tired of swallowing what the Legion tried to feed us, that's all."

Keep it simple--he has no idea what the council members know about him or anyone else on this little traitor squad, but 76 has been vocal about his distaste in the Legion before. It's not a stretch for him to take that and run with it, using his very real feelings to create a convincing excuse for why he'd turn on his teammates.

DEFEATING WAR - Locus, Soldier 76, Sombra

[chronoblivionnpcs]

With War's distracting power surging through the room, and War herself armed to the teeth, the assembled heroes have quite a fight on their hands.

Locus has already brought the fight to her, so she tries to put a little distance between herself and him.

Reaching to her belt, she throws a grenade between them and the explosion is concussive, enough to force some distance between them. She uses the kick-back from the blast to roll backwards, and rises again with her sword in hand. After the shimmer in the air from the blast passes, she looks...different. Like she's unraveling around the edges. Her physical form can still be made out, so that they can see what they're doing as they fight her, but there's something...underneath, something that burns black. It's almost like she's starting to look like the idea of what war is.

She is just a concept, after all. Something born of the minds of mankind, simply pulled away from her old master to serve another.

When she talks, the words even start to sound less like words and more they're alien shapes imposing themselves on the air.

"It was always meant to be this way. It didn't matter who brought the end. It was always coming. You can't stop it."

She lunges at them, sword raised, and while a sword is usually a bad thing to bring to a gun fight, that's not the case when its wielder is fast enough to deflect bullets with it and it's enchanted to cut through just about anything.

[vata]

Recovering from the initial intensity of that rolling hatred takes...a little longer for Azúcar than it should, considering how saccharine a creature she tends to be. Still, lucky for her, she'd perched herself towards the rear, and luckily for everyone involved, Jack Morrison has worked to bridge the gap between enemy and friend. Mending wounds, knitting together motivations and understanding.

But Locus, she trusts.

He's the anchorpoint between her instincts (to target an ex-Overwatch agent) and the real target of this mission, and when he aligns himself with 76— eventually so does she. Mentally, not physically.

Physically she lets them take the brunt of War's attack, continuing her retreat to hunt down a few active defense systems worth twisting under her control. If the internal force fields and stun tech that this building employs are also this room, they might be in luck for ending this without a fatal blow.

Give her a few to get her hack on, compadres.

DEFEATING THE NALTORIANS/SAVING THE PRISONERS - Elphelt, Widowmaker, Genji

[letsgolegion]

All they have to do is get the hostages away from the Naltorians and one of their teammates like Reaper can safely transport them away. But right now, the two Councilmembers, Lural Nol, and Rina Tal, stand between the Legionnaires and the two hooded hostages.

Unlike the Naltorian Legionnaire, Dreamer, Nol and Tal haven't trained their natural Naltorian precognition to be used for anything more than prophetic visions -- but with modern technology, they don't need to. The two Council-members each affix a device to their temples. Precognic enhancers. They won't grant the power for more than a few minutes, but now the two can use their visions for short-term flashes of the future they can use in combat.

Nol pulls out a blaster and she smiles. Tal pulls out a dangerous laser whip.

"With our precognic enhancers, you don't stand a chance against us," says Nol, dragging the hostages behind cover and laying down deadly pulse fire with her blaster. "The Legion is soft."

"Most of the lost Legionnaires would've died if they'd faced what we did when we were deployed against the Roboticans," says Tal. "I doubt you'll be any different."

Unfortunately for the Legionnaires, these two aren't just stuffy politicians. Both of their highly successful political campaigns were hinged on their status as decorated combat veterans in the war against Robotica.

This part of the chamber has some of Brainiac 3's strange whirring machinery. It means there are places to find cover and sneak around -- but also places that Tal might be able to pop out from with his laser whip to attack. Nol, at least, won't be as much of a problem since she can't go far the hostages. But the Legionnaires do have to take care and make sure she doesn't get the chance to kill them if she decides the potential sucking-up to Chronoblivion isn't enough to make them worth all this trouble.

Of course, with War's power cascading through the room and heightening everyone's aggression, making them want to fight each other, concentrating on the task in front of them won't be easy.

[araignee_du_soir]

It washed over her - the hot wave of rage, hatred and anger - grabbing and clawing at anything it could, trying to gain purchase on the smooth walls of thick ice that metaphorically encased Widowmaker's emotions like a prison. It rolled about, climbing higher in search of a chink in the armor of her Apathy, but none was to be found. Unaffected for even the slightest of moments, coldly and calmly the eyes in the sky took stock of what was going on after having scored two wonderful headshots on those Daxamites. Reaper wasn't going to get to the hostages in time; he'd been too far away. Another set of temporary allies were going to be needed in the meantime.

Ah. Shimada was right there as was that idiot girl that wanted a husband. They would do.

"Cyber Ninja: Get between Nol and the hostages. Guns and Roses: Focus on Tal. Keep their attention on you," she spoke to them over the comms as she centered Nol in her sights, ignoring the pointless bravado coming from the Naltorians' mouths. "We shall see whose sight is better." Theirs or mine.

Before she even finished her own words, Widowmaker fired two successive shots at Nol. Her target: the precog enhancer on the side of her head. The first one was directly at it, the device centered nicely in her scope. The second shot was just a little to the side. If Nal had a flash of her shot, with the arrogance these two were displaying, she theorized the Naltorian would move her head just enough away from the first shot so it would miss her - to show off how 'superior' they were with those devices. And that would move that enhancer right into the path of her second shot.

At least if the first hit, the second one's impact on her forehead wouldn't kill her thanks to the non-lethal rounds. Sadly, she wouldn't die.

DEFEATING THE DAXAMITES - York, Wash, Reaper

[letsgolegion]

Widowmaker's stun rounds to their noggins accomplished 3 important things with the Daxamite Council-members:

1) They at least made the two Daxamies stagger back.
2) They left them so dizzy they can barely stand up straight.
3) They tore their transuits just slightly in their facial areas, enough that the transparent fabric can be seen subtly hanging in tatters from their shoulders.

Unfortunately, that's not that much of an advantage when facing bargain bin knock offs of Superman, especially when said knock-offs aren't actually that knock-off-ey. It isn't so much that Daxamites are weaker than Kryptonians as that whole "lead hurts us" thing is a bit of a downer when most worlds contain lead. (Brainiac 3's base might have some somewhere too -- some of those pipes look promising).

One thing's for sure: with the Daxamites left dizzy, the Legionnaires need to move fast before they recover.

"I'm going to find the filthy genescrape that shot us and tear them limb from limb," Tela Nik growls to her fellow Councilor, Corl Dem.

She'd probably be saying that even if War's power wasn't cascading through the room and making absolutely everyone feel the urge to kill one another. While the Legionnaires can maybe fight past that feeling, you can bet the Daxamites won't bother.

[unrecovered]

Wash is back on his feet the second the tables turn, eyes on the closest targets - the Daxamites - as Widowmaker's shots hit them and they stagger-

And the rage hits him like a goddamn tidal wave, burning in his chest and rising in his throat like bile. He has live ammo - it would be the work of a few seconds to switch to live rounds, put a shot through the torn transuits, angle it to rip through the Daxamites' heads, and that problem would be fucking solved-

'And now I get to spill your blood, and make you spill each other's-'

This isn't him.

He knows his own rage intimately - he let it fuel him and consume him for the better part of a fucking year before it nearly destroyed him, to the point where a lack of anything to fight and an unexpected act of mercy were the only way to put out the flames. He burns cold, a fury fueled by calculation and determination and a complete lack of self-preservation. This berserker rage came from somewhere else.

He feels it burn acid in his throat and swallows it back anyway. This is not the time.

Instead, he glances around to see the two people nearest to him but still out of range of his powers - York and Reaper - the urge to kill rises again and he forces it down - they cannot afford infighting on a battlefield - and opens a private comm channel. "I'll shut down the Daxamites' powers - you two subdue them." He barely waits to finish the sentence before he's off, sprinting towards the Daxamites, fake blood dripping from his armor. He drops into a slide just before he reaches them, setting off his power nuke and striking at their ankles as he goes. Best case scenario, he knocks them flat or at least off-balance and his momentum gets him out of the way; worst case scenario, he's within arm's length of two artificially enraged Daxamites and in for a world of hurt.

DEFEATING THE CARGGITES - Barry, Parker, Hardison

[letsgolegion]

The problem with Carggites is that a fist fight can turn into a brawl in a heartbeat. Both Meranu Vigo and her partner Yelik Melinko immediately triplicate, each of them splitting into a set of triplets.

They all move quickly, in unison. One of Meranu's triplets activates some of Brainiac 3's security drones, which add to their numbers and float towards the Legionnaires with tentacles that crackle with electricity.

"We didn't want it to come to this Legionnaires," says Meranu 1.

"We were just trying to save our world," says Meranu 2.

"He can't be stopped," says Yelik 3.

"Oh, don't lie to them, Meranu," says Meranu 3. "We do want it to come to this."

"Killing them all actually does sound surprisingly appealing," says Yelik 2.

Re: DEFEATING THE CARGGITES - Barry, Parker, Hardison

[rushing_by]

Barry's been subjected to externally-induced rage before. This time, however, it's not the uncontrollable, all-encompassing anger Rainbow Raider induced in him. This time the anger manageable, which is what allows Barry to keep a rein on his temper once he realizes what's happening.

"You want to know the saddest part about this is? The fact that you actually expect Chronoblivion to keep his word. Or that you'll be happy with the results if he does."