ENDGAME PART 3

[letsgolegion]

ENDGAME PART 3


They all manage to break through somehow, all their alternate selves recombining again so that they remember every iteration of the scenarios they went through. Their passage through Chronoblivion's outer shell leaves them falling through portals into...

A desert. In the middle of nowhere. It's a wasteland filled with the detritus of dead worlds.

"Green Legion, Quantum Legion!" cries out Shikari, pointing in one direction of the wasteland that looks pretty much like all the others...unless you squint. And see that there's some massive structure in the distance. "That way!"

Kid Quantum moves to fly but can't get off the ground. Brainy tries too.

"Brainy!" Kid Q calls out. "Why can't we fly?"

"This pocket dimension potentially has different physics altogether," Brainy says, scanning his flight ring with his omnicom. "The Valorium in our flight rings isn't interacting with gravity the way it does in our own universe. They're effectively inert."

"We still need to get the device closer to Chronblivion, right?"

"Yes. Due the nature of dimensional space within these pocket dimensions, we're going to have to get it much closer - I estimate it'll need to be within approximately fifty feet of Chronoblivion's core self."

"Then we're going to have to have any natural fliers like Shikari try to carry the device and as many Legionnaires as they --" Kid Q stops talking as she hears a rumbling in the distance, coming from the opposite direction from the one they have to travel in. Something is kicking up dust in the desert, something big and loud. The ground is vibrating under their feet.

"Everyone, get ready, we may have another fight on our hands!" says Kid Q.

It's a caravan of tricked out vehicles. Cars, trucks, motorcycles -- if it guzzles gas, it's in the caravan. They're all covered in an odd mix of dust and rust and gleaming chrome. Those that fought in Murderworld might recognize the vehicles as being from the arena, somehow here, despite long since having been confiscated by the Science Police.

For a moment, it seems as if people are coming to hunt them down, that the past is coming back to haunt them, except as the caravan of outlandish vehicles gets closer, they can see things on it that make it clear they're not facing enemies. Legion symbols have been affixed to the grills of trucks, have been spraypainted wherever there's room.

"What the sprock...?" says Kid Q.

As the cars and trucks get closer, they can see two little mechframes clinging to the tops of two of the trucks. In the cockpits of those mechs are two very, very tiny figures, one a blonde little girl, the other an unmistakable shade of green. The caravan stops before it reaches the Legionnaires, with the two mech-bearing trucks rolling forward slowly ahead of the others before stopping, too.

A familiar Legion staffer from the Outpost, one of the cruiser pilots, leans out the driver's window of one of the trucks.

"Looks like you all could use a ride!"

Brainy's eyes pop open wide at the sight of the green figure in the mech.

"What are you doing here?!" Brainy cries out shrilly, waving his hands wildly. "I told you that under no uncertain circumstances were you to leave the Outpost--"

"Father, you could't possibly expect me to --" starts Merl, rolling his eyes, as he makes his mech hop off the top of the truck.

Valeria cuts them off as she makes her mech hop down from its truck as well.

"I told you, Merl." Val's eyeroll is just shy of audible. She knows how grownups get.

She turns to look at Brainy instead of her partner in crime, smiling with the sweet innocence of a Machiavellian little monster who knows she's holding all the cards. "We can go back if it's that important to you."

"The universe outside is decohering," says Merl, with a smug look identical to Valeria's. Neener neener, they can't send them back. "The Legionnaires that were outside are still alive - their fight with with the Catastrophists has moved inside the outermost layer of Chronoblivion's shell, but our universe is starting to come apart at the seams. Valeria and I have run the calculations, and at its current phase, defeating Chronoblivion before It has entirely consumed our universe may allow it to recohere again. But it was becoming...inhospitable. So we engineered a way to allow the Outpost to crash through to this layer. We were fortunate that the universe falling apart afforded us a chance -- the physical laws are mere suggestions now -- and also that the team's transport through helped break down the walls and provide us easier ingress."

Merl shakes his tiny head.

"There's nothing out there, father. There's nowhere for everyone on the Outpost to go back to. And we're not sitting back when we can help," he says, jutting out his tiny chin. "The staffers and Valeria and I are are as fond of material existence as all of you."

"Why is something from Murderworld here?" asks Kid Q, looking at the caravan. She recognizes it from the footage. "These vehicles..."

"The universe is decohering and being drawn into Chronoblivion's body for consumption. That means alongside the wreckage left from other universes, anything from any point in time can be drawn here randomly from our universe," Brainy theorizes. "our presence alone may possibly warp reality to draw in random objects and entities from our recent histories."

"Well then..." Kid Quantum jumps onto the ladder and climbs to the top of one of the semis, and is joined there by Valeria, who climbs back up in her mech. "Legionnaires, looks like we've found our ride!"

Merl climbs back up on the other truck in his mech, triumphantly joining Brainiac 5 there.

"Kid, we've got company!" Timber Wolf calls, staring into the distance behind the caravan.

There's more dust on the road: another caravan, making the grounds shake this one outfitted with skulls, driven by people that are definitely not allies.

It's the mercenary Warboys from Murderworld, ripped out of the past. They're joined by clouds of Catastrophists with jetpacks, swarming around their caravan. Only a fraction of the outside forces have broken through but combined with the enemies this dimension is spontaneously manifesting, their forces are formidable.

As the Legion caravan starts moving again towards their end goal, and the team prepares to face the other caravan of enemies rapidly catching up, a way-too-enthusiastic staffer, eager to face some real action, leans his head out of a window and screams:

"ROAD WAAARRRR!"

The Miracle Machine has to get all the way to the end of the road to work. If it's activated with the wrong wish, or too far from Chronoblivion's core self at the center of all his shells, they lose.

If the void of nothingness that's following along after the caravans, consuming the landscape left behind, catches up to them before they reach the end of the road, they lose.

If the Catastrophists and Warboys manage to steal it and toss it away in the void threatening to consume all of existence, they lose.

No pressure.

Comments

KEEP AWAY

[letsgolegion]

The Miracle Machine is palm-sized, a small metal disc with a Legion symbol that looks almost like a Legion belt buckle.

Brainy is the one that's been guarding the Miracle Machine, since his shield power will make it difficult for anyone to get it out of his hands. But the Catastrophists are well-equipped and in a twisting set of dimensions influenced by thoughts and desires, getting their hands on some heavy duty handheld weapons wasn't difficult.

A blast from one of the weapons slams him against a ladder on top of one of the monstrous vehicles that leads to a bit of scaffolding. Another blast collapses the scaffolding on him. There's a chance he can work his way out but with Catastrophists approaching on top of the truck, he's not taking any chances.

"CATCH!" Brainy cries, taking the device out of a pouch in his belt and tossing it at another Legionnaire, starting a game of keep-away that might save existence.

[ooc: Please see the instructions for this thread in the ooc post.]

Re: KEEP AWAY

[rushing_by]

"I got it!" The Flash shouts, plucking the Machine out of the sky. He zips out of the way of various blasts of energy. Unfortunately, even as fast as he is there's only so much dodging he can do. One of the Catastrophists gets a lucky shot with a cold gun in, slowing Barry down considerably. Barry just manages to pass it off to the next available Legionnaire before having to grab onto a truck to keep from being left behind.

[ordinarily]

Danny managed to grab the machine, just barely. Given he was holding onto the side of one of the trucks with one hand, and sticking his other hand out way too far to be considered safe, it was lucky he managed to catch it at all. Since he couldn't fly, he hesitated to try going intangible, since it meant he might've just ended up falling through the ground.

But it didn't mean he couldn't turn invisible, and make himself harder to find.

And so started the most dangerous game, of an invisible fifteen year old climbing all over the trucks, and jumping between them. Taunting the parademons with a disembodied voice, and just overall being the most obnoxious nuisance. It was working pretty well for a bit, since no one could really tell where he was. At least, until someone got lucky, and nicked his shoulder.

"--GAH!"

He fell on his side, on the back of one of the trucks. Invisibility dropping, as he very quickly tossed the machine over to the closest legionnaire he could see. "HOT POTATO!"

[unspeakablyevil]

Unfortunately, a Catastrophist intercepts, knocking the device to the ground and in the path of oncoming vehicles. Seeing this, Aku dives upon it as several warboys pile atop him with their weapons drawn. But unlike some, Aku has no issue with being as brutal as possible.

With the device curled safely inside his being, he shapeshifts into the form of a giant ball covered in sharp spikes. A storm of sand billows up as he begins to roll, keeping pace with the caravan. Enemy vehicles that dare cross his path are bumped aside or steamrolled without remorse. But as effective as he is at destroying enemy vehicles flanking the Legion's caravan, he can't keep it up for long.

Finally, he morphs back to his default form and leaps onto the back of a truck where he tosses the Machine to the next Legionnaire.

[orbislife]

The recipient was most likely meant for another. Zenyatta is not fast when he cannot rely on his ring's flight, so tossing something to him is either a mistake or a desperate option. But... the vehicle jolts upwards and causes the intended Legionnaire to hit their head and lose consciousness. Zenyatta barely catches the Miracle Machine with his orbs before the Machine is out of reach.

A number of mercenary warboys spot him holding the Machine, and engines rev up to catch up with their targeted payload. Besides the driver, who is busy, Zenyatta's the only one on this vehicle who can now ferry their objective to another location.

He needs to be fast.

Zenyatta takes a deep breath before his entire being bursts with golden light. Six golden arms sprout from his back, and he lights up the nearby area. He's Transcends and channels all his omnic energy to move. He swears he hears familiar voices telling him that he has their strength; were they from the Iris or his fellow Legionnaires?

Warboys and Catastrophists start firing on him as he dashed from vehicle to vehicle. People he passes by may find their health renewed, but Zenyatta only feels the strain of channeling the Iris and the bullets hitting him. It gets to be too much for his body to handle.

Just before his connection with the Iris breaks, Zenyatta shoots his orbs towards the next Legionnaire and drops the Machine into their hands before recalling his orbs once more. Zenyatta collapses into the bed of the truck, most of his energy spent and numerous errors flashing in his vision.