[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/7ieqwfU.png[/img][/center] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/KmqWLfa.png[/img][/center] [img]https://78.media.tumblr.com/59fd56dc36f6b6492b2e459f0712b8f9/tumblr_oy5k3g7SsS1u8l1i9o1_1280.png[/img] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/UBtQFSZ.png[/img][/center] The turrets on the Finger of God opened fire of the heroes even as they approached the deadly satellite. Finding himself slowed by the lack of gravity in the Earth’s orbit, Icon was nevertheless able to avoid most of the laser blasts. Fortunately, the few blasts that did strike home had little effect on the hero. Then, a shiver ran down Icon’s spine as something began to happen at the satellite itself. The Finger of God’s main weapon, the cannon that had wrought so much destruction already began to glow with a red hue. [i] My god, it’s powering up.[/i] Icon thought to himself as he pushed himself to move faster toward the satellite. Unable to communicate directly to the others, he gestured toward the main cannon accelerated toward the satellite. However, he was met with a barrage of cannonfire. Though the individual energy blasts did little to harm him, the more sustained barrage made it nearly impossible for him to get too close to the satellite. He circled back around to get out of the crosshairs of the satellite’s defenses and regroup. It was clear to him that a direct assault on the main cannon was out of the question, the defenses were too powerful to get close enough to take it out right away. He also knew that they were running out of time. He made another pass at the satellite, this time flying alongside the Finger of God, striking at its defenses with optic blasts, then as he pulled away from the satellite, he hit it with a pair of energy blasts from his fists. Icon circled back around to where some of the others had gathered which afforded him a better view of the satellite. While his attack had damaged the Finger of God, it hadn’t disabled the weapon’s defenses. They still had a lot of work to do, and they were running out of time. Voyager, meanwhile, had pressed herself against the side of the satellite when the weaponry popped out to fire at the oncoming heroes. She braced her PsiBarrier in the expectation that the lasers would turn around to blast her off too, but they seemed to ignore her in favor of keeping the others at bay. Charging up her PsiBlast, she tried to find an angle of attack to let her rendezvous with the other heroes, but couldn’t find a shot that wouldn’t leave a lot of those turrets left to pick her off. Abandoning that plan, she vaguely wondered if she could channel enough power into a PsiBeam to punch through the satellite and disable it that way, but putting everything she had into a shot like that wouldn’t leave much power for a second attack, and judging by how hot the metal felt under her PsiBarrier, there was no time left for a second chance. She had to meet up with the others and somehow work together, maybe by firing all at once. It was a big dumb solution to a big dumb problem, but it was the best chance they had. But how was she going to run the gauntlet in time without being made into swiss cheese by the time she reached Icon and the other heroes he was leading into the fight? David had a decent amount of heroing under his belt too, but there was no question that Icon was probably a little more experienced, so as soon as he gestured towards the satellite cannon David immediately followed his lead. [i]Hit it hard and fast, gotcha.[/i] He flew towards the underside of the satellite, trusting in the others to take their own angles. However, much like Icon, David also experienced the barrage of laser blasts thrown his way. He tried to dodge them, but was forced to cross his arms in front of him to guard his body. The consecutive blasts pushed his body back uncontrollably and spun him every which way for a few more seconds before he was able to stabilize himself. [i]They can’t even make a normal satellite.[/i] David saw Icon move off to hit the satellite with some of those energy beams of his and he almost flew off to join him but stopped himself. He had a lot of powers, but it didn’t really seem like some would work in space, the Earth was a little ways away, and lightning probably needed some atmosphere. He might be able to use some kind of solar beam, but the most he got out of those were a type of flashbang, and with the fate of hundreds of lives on the line, this was definitely no time to experiment. “We’re running out of time dammit.” He angrily muttered, but the in the depths of space nobody should have been able to hear him. He had meant that to just vent his frustration, and yet, that had actually helped. He could hear himself, in space, and that got him thinking. His power to control earth, to move stone, it could affect asteroids, those little bits of former planets and moons floating around everywhere. “Hey, all of you! Come to me, I’ve got an idea!” David shouted at the top of his, well, whatever he was using to talk, and flew a little closer to the other heroes. “Stick behind me, I’ll get us past those turrets!” As David said that he reached out to the stars, grabbing at the smaller asteroids and bits of debris near him, gathering them closer, and closer. All to form, a shield, a thick barrier between them and those cannons. The pieces of rock, mineral, and metal turned into a mushy substance as it all blended together into a large bulwark. David then quickly pushed forward, it wasn’t long before the defense guns opened fire again, burning and blasting craters into his wall, the area around them lit up like fireworks in the night sky. ((But just a few more moments later, it opened up, it’s pieces jettisoned across the area, like a glass mirror being shattered.))moving maybe)) Those fireworks were Voyager’s cue, as she took notice of the fiery display and zoomed out from cover, throwing PsiBlasts to confuse the turrets and provide more cover as rushed to join the other heroes. The heat of the sun, it permeated the entire solar system, its energy was the beginning and end of it all, and David remembered he had gathered that same energy once before, just smaller. So he channeled it towards his arms,then as if taking a slow deep breath, he pushed that energy towards his hands, he brought his hands toward his chest, as if he was holding a ball. A brilliant aura of energy surrounded his entire body, folding, and bending itself to his will, gathering into his hands, forming a fiery fusion of red and yellow energy that danced about in between his hands. He then carefully expanded his hands till the gap was as big as his chest, giving the energy room to grow, the orb greedily ate the energy David fed it, and it pulsed as if it was alive. The asteroid wall was taking a beating and David was folding the outer edges in to buy them more time. The alien heroine arrived seconds later and, spotting David gathering his energies, nodded to show her understanding and began gathering psionic energy in her own hands as her eyes began to glow more intensely. “We do this at the same time..” As the heroes stayed behind the asteroid wall, the bright red light emanating from the Finger of God’s main cannon grew brighter and brighter with each passing second. Icon knew that whatever they were going to do, they needed to do it fast, The only shot that they had to save the city and the countless millions that resided there was to hit the satellite with overwhelming force, and pray that it was enough. [i]We need to take this thing out, now.[/i] Icon thought to himself as fear began to grip him. Fear that whatever they would do would be too late. Then, just as it seemed that the bright red light could not possibly glow any brighter, that the destructive cannon would finally fire and lay waste to yet another city, instantly vaporizing countless lives… The ominous red glow went dark. The cannon did not fire. To Icon, it looked as if the immediate threat to the city had passed, for now. Icon then took his place beside Terra Firma, who was seemingly in control of a pulsating orb of energy, and then he heard the impossible...the other hero spoke, telling them to combine their efforts in one massive strike against the satellite. Icon looked to Terra Firma, then the female heroine who had rejoined the group, as well as the massive mech suit that was still floating out there, using bursts from its thrusters to keep from floating off into space. Icon then looked to the satellite. His lungs burned from a lack of oxygen, but he forced the anguish from his mind. He dug down, and his fists began to glow a bluish hue as he allowed the energy to build. [i]This is it.[/i] He thought to himself as he prepared to unleash hell upon the Finger of God. “We hit it at the same time.” The glow leaving the cannon was their signal, David cast off their shield, sending it flying off into space, like pieces of glass from a shattered mirror. With the wall gone the turrets now had an opening, but they wouldn’t be firing for long. “Now!” Taking Terra Firma’s words as a queue, Icon unleashed a massive energy blast directly at the satellite. The sheer force of the blast impressed Icon, and even scared him a bit, as he had never used that much force in a single assault before, and to be perfectly honest, he did not know that he was capable of such a feat. However, that was not all, as Icon also assaulted the Finger of God with a powerful, sustained optic blast, which pounded the satellite even as the others joined in. David gripped the miniature sun he had been nurturing until now with one hand, he shifted his arm back, then launched it forward, tossing the orb like a baseball. His blast incinerated even more of the armor, striking at key components and the inner structure with a massive flaming explosion. This was something he definitely would never use on Earth. Just a little more now. The glow in Voyager’s eyes intensified to a nearly solid shade of purple as she pressed her hands together and unleashed a full force Psionic Beam. Wisps of psionic energy arced from her hands and eyes as she sustained the intense beam of energy right where Icon and Terra Firma aimed their own energy blasts. Voyager was taking no chances; she was going to make sure this thing never razed another city again no matter what. Opening up with every gun he had, including the Hellbeast laser, Equilibrium stared at the rapidly decreasing power and ammunition gauges on his HUD in dismay. It’d take days to siphon all this energy out of the power grid of Lost Haven without being detected, but even with the satellite shutting down, it was in his best interests to destroy the superweapon, should it ever be used again against Metas. He did make sure to save enough power for the shield on reentry, however. Just because he was being altruistic didn’t mean he had to be [i]stupid[/i]. The Finger of God was a technological marvel. Originally created by an artificial intelligence light years more advanced than anything that mankind could possibly conceive. It was designed to be an instrument of good, as a means of protecting the people of Earth from things out there in the cosmos that would do them harm. However, after that artificial intelligence was destroyed, man took control of its greatest gift. First, S.T.R.I.K.E., which simply kept it hidden amongst the numerous other satellites which orbited the planet, just in case it was ever needed to be called upon to serve its original purpose. But then, S.T.R.I.K.E. fell, and the Finger of God fell under the control of Travis Murdock and his Hounds of Humanity. They corrupted it, turned it into a weapon of terror to be used against the very people that it had been created to protect. It wiped entire cities off the face of the Earth and left another in ruins, a twisted monument of hatred. The Finger of God buckled as the combined powers of some of Icon, Terra Firma, Voyager, and Equilibrium bombarded it. The turrets that protected the satellite began to crumble and break away from their moorings. A combination of steel and other alloys bent and twisted under the combined assault, until finally the Finger of God collapsed in on itself before erupting in a brilliant, yet silent explosion which cascaded out from where the satellite had once orbited the Earth in a spectacular light show, the magnitude of which had not been seen since the Allies had dropped The Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the light from the explosion faded, so too, did the threat posed by the Finger of God. [i]It’s over.[/i] Icon thought to himself as he watched the fading of the light from the explosion. [i]It’s time to go home and finish this, once and for all.[i] He thought as he turned away from the now vacant space which had once held the Finger of God, and headed back to Earth, with the others following in his wake. Voyager stalled a bit as the resonance from her psionic blast echoed back at her, but shook off the hazy feeling and quickly zoomed after Icon and the others, thinking nothing of the strange images that just flashed through her head.