An Outsider

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

I think Accelerate might have a slight inferiority complex, he got pretty nettled.

Super nettled.

@Hillan

Still did what he was told though, and that's all that matters.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Blue Paladin IX

Mal glanced down at the proffered communicator. Even without his scanners he could tell this particular piece was based on the Barret communications VHF. The teen-genius shook his head in pity, a sharp, condescending snort escaping him.

"Seriously? You might as well be using your iPhones for all the security those'll provide." He didn't even enlist the suits AI to patch in, instead just manually jumping on to they're frequency. It was sad to think that the Titans, the worlds premier Teen super-team, was in such dire need of some upgrades.

He began to swivel around, scanning the area for any more zombies, while almost absent mindedly addressing Sentinel. Almost like he didn't consider the Kryptonian worthy of his full attention.

"Salvage? Man, you're cold." He began. "Though I didn't kill them. Those blasts were carefully calculated to inhibit higher level brain activity, but not stop it entirely. In layman's terms they're currently in and altered state of conciousness, though I wouldn't expect you to know anything about that. Wouldn't suggest doing it to a regular person, but because these lads seem to be missing a lot of the vital processes to begin with I thought I'd take a gamble, and it paid off. Those guys'll stay down for a while, but they'll get back up soon. I estimate they'll be getting back up in eleven minutes and forty-eight seconds, based on previous data."

"All that said I'm not so sure we can salvage them. Beyond those higher level brain functions I mentioned, there's really not much going on our swiftly rotting friends. For all intents and purposes, they're dead. I've only spotted one so far that was anything other than an incredibly mobile cadaver. I assumed he was the leader, and tried to engage, but he got away from me. Some emotion coloured Mal's voice at that last bit. To the keen observer it may have sounded something akin to shame.

He had indeed found an anomaly in his scans that may have been the source of this catastrophe, moving slowly through a tenement building several blocks from their current position. He had moved to engage, hoping to put a swift end to this catastrophe, half his mind on the battle at hand, and half on the plaudits he would earn as the man who saved San Fran from the Day of the Dead. He had been careless though, and before he knew it, and long before he reached the anomaly, he was ambushed by over fifty of the shamblers. He panicked then, engaging his flight jets in a mindless bid for escape. Several of the rotting horrors had clung to his armour though, and it was that that forced flight control out of his hands, and caused him to crash into the block. Thankfully it seemed he was successful in playing it off as a deed of heroic derring-do, rather than a near catastrophic failing.

"Funny, I can't see him anymore though" He muttered, more to himself than to Sentinel. He turned full circle, facing the Kryptonian once more, starting backwards slightly as if he had forgotten that he wasn't alone. With a grunt he engaged his rockets, hovering slightly above the street.

"I can get clearer readings from above the streets. I'll see if I can't find our mystery man from the air. I'll need you to disperse the larger groups of undead. The more there are in one place, the stronger they collectively become. Break em' into manageable chunks. And get Kid Flash to widen the evacuation area. Past the city limits, ideally. Everyone out, cops and emergency workers too. Hit the walkers where it hurts, in their stomachs. Deprive them off a food source."

"Oh, and Superboy? Don't let them touch you. I have reason to suspect they don't just feed on flesh, but off your life force too." Mal didn't suspect that. That was entirely scientifically unfounded. But it was something the Father Box believed, and in his short experience with the machine he had found the Father Box to always be right. A bit like himself in that regard. "An undead Kryptonian is a big no-no in my opinion. So, while I know it may be taxing for you to exert the self control required, try not to punch, huh?" With that he rocketed into the air.

"Scream if you need me!"

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Even though it's going to fail miserably I'm looking forward to JC's first mission as leader.

@King Kindred

Is he? I was under the impression that he THINKS he is the leader, while the decision is still very much up in the air.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Most are in the Tower, loading up in the T-Wing to get to the crisis. Sentinel, Accelerate and Paladin are in the city fighting THE UNDEAD!

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

I should proabably mention that there's a quick picture reference for the Paladin armour in my CS, in the notes section. It isn't exactly how I picture him, but it's a close I can find right now.

Also, Mal has never met any of the other Titans, and isn't actually a Titan himself. He's just shown up to lend a helping hand lol.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Oh that's going to get a delicious reaction.

@Lord Wraith

I imagined as much.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Blue Paladin IX

"Jesus, is that a missle!" Cried out an officer standing near Sentinel and Accelerate, hand stabbing out at an object that had just cleared the city skyline several blocks away. Several sets of eyes swiveled towards the scene. If it was a missile then it's flight path was erratic, darting this way and that, etching across the sky in a confusion of zigs and zags. It swiveled once more, now pointing directly towards the police cordon, shooting towards the block with alarming speed.

The officers, nerves frayed already thanks to a zombie apocalypse, reacted typically: They panicked. Cries rang out as they ran for cover, some going so far as to drop their own weapons. You can run faster without a gun. Any that waited behind realized all was not as it seemed though. The closer the missile got the less it looked like a missile.

The not-missile crashed through the corner of a nearby bakery before careening into the street, brick and mortar sent flying through the air by the impact, thick, cloying dust obscuring vision. From inside the cloud came the deep groans and low growling that the officers had come to associate with the undead.

"They're shooting zombies!?! Game over man, GAME OVER!" Cried out one of the officers. Suddenly a bright blue beam of energy exploded from the cloud, ozone blistering in it's trail. Another followed it. The smoke began to recede, revealing a silver figure grappling with one of the walkers, two more undead lying motionless at his feet. The figure lost his hold on the slippery zombie, which immediately pressed it's advantage, jaws latching down on the figure's shoulder. Rotting teeth ground against metal armour. One has to imagine that if zombies felt pain then he'd be feeling a lot of it now.

"Someone's gonna need a dentist!" A voice rang out from the figure, robotic undertones part-way concealing a Welsh accent. The zombie moaned in reply. The figure smashed his armour plated fist into undead's rotting face, his foe dropping without much more sound. The armoured figure seemed to regard the fallen enemy for a moment, before shooting it in the face with another blue blast from his gauntlet. He murmered something to himself, always double-tap. Then the figure's helmet, fashioned to resemble a streamlined knights greathelm, turned to Sentinel and Accelerate.

"Superboy, Kid-Flash! What're doing just standing there, like a pair of spare nerds at the prom? There's a zombie apocalypse going on out there, in case you hadn't noticed! It's full on Romero out there! I could use a hand!"

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

He's not the devil, he's just horny.

...

I'll leave now.

@Lord Wraith

The reason for this whole 'Evan growing horns' subplot just became a lot clearer.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

| NAME: |

Malcolm 'Mal' Summerhold

| ALIAS: |

Blue Paladin 9

| ABILITIES/SKILLS/EQUIPMENT: |

• Genius Level Intellect – Mal will announce at every available opportunity that he has an intellect so advanced that modern IQ tests can't accurately identify his intelligence level. He has figuratively broken the mould. A prodigy in the fields of theoretical and experimental physics, he has also picked up his uncles affinity for engineering. You could count the number of people able to keep up with Mal's mental processes on one hand.
• Paladin Class Warframe Armour – An entirely experimental prototype armour, developed by Summerhold Armaments engineering, financed by a coalition of western governments, using reverse engineered terrestrial and alien technology as it's basis. The armour is psionically, genetically and bio-metrically linked to Mal, meaning no one but he can use it. The armour provides Mal with the strength, power, speed, and endurance to go toe-to-toe with Superman level threats. Instead of traditional CPU and VI elemants the Paladin Warframe makes use of a scavenged Father Box, a small Apokoliptian super-computer. It also contains several armaments including, but not limited to.
  
  • Forcefield Generation
  • Self Contained Enviroment
  • Hardlight Melee Weaponry
  • Concussive Energy Blasts
  • Rocket Propelled Flight
  • High-Yield Explosive Missiles
  • Hush Tube teleportation
• Combat Stimulant Cocktail - Having advanced armour doesn't mean one is qualified to start fighting the likes of Darkseid, Reverse-Flash, or Brainiac. After all, theses creatures fight and react at much higher levels than any human could ever hope to aspire to naturally. To combat this Summerhold Armaments developed a highly potent 'cocktail', designed to increase the imbibers senses, speed and reactions to superhuman levels. Based on the Miraclo formula, each dosage lasts about eight hours, after which the user must endure an uncomfortable detox period. it also eases user neural interface with the Warframe.
• Wealth - Mal comes from a wealthy family, Summerhold Armaments once being a billion dollar company, though they have recently fallen on hard times. Still, as the saying goes 'a broke billionaire is still a millionaire.'

| LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES: |

• No real combat experience. He's only started his hero career recently.
• Combat stims have a time limit. Once he's gone over them his effectiveness in the Warframe will be compromised.
• A lot the technology in the Paladin Warframe is alien in origin, and it's safe to say that the Summerhold's don't quite understand what they're dealing with. The Father Box in particular has the potential to be very dangerous if they're not careful with it.
• They have yet to find a truly suitable power source for the suit. They have incorporated Kryptonian solar absorption cells, and the Father Box does allow a degree of passive energy absorption and re-distrubution, but at the moment these are both 'soft' energy replenishment utilities. For 'hard' energy supply Mal currently uses an energy cell derived from Promethium, which would usually be more than enough. However due to the tremendous energy draw from the suits main functions he runs a very real risk of depleting his power supplies during a longer battle.

| SAMPLE POST: |

Sometimes in science, as in life, you just have to roll the dice. Take the plunge. Strike the drum. That's why Malcolm Summerhold was booting up the Paladin Class Warframe IX for the very first time, when his elders, and supposed betters, insisted that the armor should be left inactive. They claimed there was too many unknowns with the technology, too many anomalies in the software, too many alien variables, to declare the Paladin ready for a live fire test at this stage.

That's what they claimed anyway, but Mal knew the truth. They were afraid, afraid to take that last step, a step that would plunge them into a great unknown. But they had to, because the path to true greatness lead through the unknown. Mal knew this, but they would not listen to his arguments, so stubborn they were to keep their faces thrust firmly in the dirt. Well he would take the decision out of their hands, and then they would see. Then they would thank him!

The armory was still in a dim gloom, no one being around at this time of night. There was some visibility though, supplied by the blinking status lights on the monitor, more than enough for Mal to see by. He'd spent so many hours in this workshop that he could have traversed it in the dark anyway. He strode to the centre of the circular room, knowing time was against him now. He would have flashed up on the security systems by now. He hadn't bothered disabling them, knowing he could easily do what he had to in the time it took his father and uncle to rush to the lab. Just meant the Paladin would have an audience for it's first test run. Historic moments like this needed witnesses.

“Paladin Class Warframe IX initialisation startup. Startup code INV-641-I810F. User Malcolm Summerhold. Password blue skittles.” As soon as his voice rang out a halo of light burst into life in the centre of the room. The floor tiles slid apart, revealing a cylinder of revolving shining steel, five feet in diameter. The cylinder slowly corkscrewed into the air, until it stood over eight feet tall.

“User retinal and palm scan required.” A robotic, faintly female voice sounded. Mal input the relevant information, anticipation building. The cylinder began to break apart, unfolding like a butterfly's wings to reveal it's precious cargo, the greatest feat of human engineering of all time.

The Paladin.

Mal allowed himself a moment to admire it's splendour, the lights dancing upon it's shining silver breastplate, running his eyes along the subtle curves, as soft and proactive as a woman's. Fashioned to resemble a knights armor, it was as close to it's inspiration as a Lamborghini was to a horse drawn cart. Finished in gold trim, it was an eye catching piece, possesed of a cold beauty that none could deny. Mal still couldn't believe that his uncle didn't think it was ready. It was going going to change the future.

Mal didn't know how right he was.

| NOTES: |

-Ever since the initial bonding process that linked him to the Paladin Warframe he has been having recurring and troubling dreams, visions of a hellish, fire-ravaged world, and occasionally hearing a sibilant, nebulous voice. He tries not to sleep because of this.
-The stim cocktail is mildly addictive. The dosage is carefully measured for his body type and size.
-He has not made his heroic début as of yet.
-Is a practical joker, and enjoys annoying people, especially towards those he is fond of.
-The armour is similar to this, but doesn't feature the dragon across the chest. It has two eyesholes instead of the red V, and all the lights are blue instead of red. The armour features gold trim.