Phoenix Dawn, Draig, Wraith, Shift, Victory, Shrike, Silent Sleeper and Foo Dog
And with the MIGHT of Dawn and the SPEED of Draig, the hellephant was knocked off balance as power unmatched rocketed up its fore leg. The hulking beast was lucky to not be uprooted from the spot by such awesome combined strength.
Phoenix leaped from the hole, his arms a golden glow and his fists a blaze just as the hellephant recalculated its balance and gave a trumpeting roar.
"I'm getting tired of you throwing your weight around! It's about time we put this beast down for good! For JUSTICE!"Dawn leaped forward as the elephant began to swing its trunk in another blast of fire. Dawn knew this move and would punish it for its lack of creativity. He seized the fire spewing trunk, keeping the hose firmly out of the way. Dawn dug in his heels as he wrestled against the weapon.
Victory sprinted down the now abandoned streets, vaulting over a hood of a car that was joining in on the endless cacaphony of car alarms squealing their discontent. The elephant was attempting to escape Phoenix Dawn's oh-so mighty grip, backing up while spewing scalding flames out of it's trunk. As Victory entered in range, she created a 30 foot wide wall of Hard Light behind the elephant, preventing it's escape.
"Ramp!" Victory called out, once again shouting a noun in the general direction of the polar bear. A Hard Light skate-boarding like ramp appeared at an angle to the elephant, in Shift's path and to the left of the currently occupied Phoenix Dawn.
"Gwar?!" The slight panic was audible even in the inarticulate rumble of the polar bear, its steady gait faltering briefly. However in a moment Shift seemed to steel herself and bolted forward towards the ramp. At the top the great beast leapt, and with a crash the ton of bear weight landed on the back of the mechanical elephant, long claws digging in to keep from sliding right off from momentum. For all her extra weight, the ... 'hellephant' as Phoenix Dawn dubbed it was still bigger.
Nonetheless, now on the back of the creature, Shift dug her claws in deep before raising up. In a specialty of natural polar bears' hunting she rose up before slamming her paws down, causing the metal beneath her weight to dent and crack. The creature struggled, but between the wall at its back and the hero holding it at the front slowly but surely Shift was getting through.
And like the mammoth hunters of old, Victory used the last of her effort to summon a long spear into her grip. She flanked the elephant and rammed it into it's back-right mechanical knee, slightly jamming the mechanism and using the length of the spear to keep her distance while further restricting it's movement.
"This is what I signed up for..," Miles managed a soft sigh as he pulled himself towards the edge. Indeed, he had earned a badge of bravery for his battle against the mighty fiend now gathering a series of sparks upon the rooftop. As he struggled back to his feet, Shrike felt the pain of a shockwave's unforgiving blast echoing throughout his back, enough so to cause the young soldier to tumble forth.
"How are the others doing..?" He continued, groaning softly as he struggled through the pain, leaning against the concrete railing.
Devastation was a word quite amply used, considering the circumstances.
"Good to see you in shape, Dawn..," Shrike managed a soft smirk as he zoomed in on the battle raging across the streets. Phoenix Dawn was handling the situation quite well, greeting brute force with an opposing reflection of the very same. It was now that Shrike could offer assistance. Firing wildly would manage naught but casualties. Rather, the marksman braced his rifle against the railing as he fell to a knee. Comfort assisted in aiming, something he was grateful for. If the boy was to believe what had been displayed in front of him, his body was operating at twenty-five perfect.
"Weak points spotted. I'm taking the shot." Pulling the trigger once, Miles fired an armor piercing round which evened the distance between the barrel of his gun, and the foe at hand. Within mere moments, the bullet forced its way through the elephant's joint, severing some of the metallic sinew maintaining its leg. As expected, the process sent the enemy off balance, allowing Dawn a golden moment to display...Justice.
But before said justice could be delivered, the metallic quadraped had some shots of it's own to deliver. Two cannons, mounted on the sides of the elephant just out of reach of the polar bear began charging with green energy. Having revealed himself to the elephant, the beast shifted, pulling against Phoenix Dawn to face where the sniper. One of the cannons burst forth with plasma energy, a searing bolt launching itself with precision towards Shrike.
Disengaging the target, Miles leaped to the side, a searing beam of energy cutting through the concrete railing.
"Why do they always have lasers..?" Following him like a vengeful beam of
injustice, the cannon was unrelenting. With a graceful backflip to evade the destructive attack, Miles shot his grappling wire into an adjacent building. It quickly pulled the agent a safe distance from that of which attempted to end him, allowing for a moment's breath.
"Wouldn't want it to get boring..," the boy sighed, locking onto the enemy as a circular target fixed its focus on the elephant's cannon. Firing three consecutive shots as he traveled across the air, Miles soon landed on a large, exclusive balcony.
Had they enjoyed the view? Well, one could not fault the rich for basking in what they could, from the safety of a penthouse.
"Thanks," Miles spoke, his visor shifting and folding to leave his face and head completely uncovered. Wrapping his fingers around a soda bottle, the boy found himself in the center of attention, several eyes once enjoying the confines of a pool party now mesmerized by his presence.
"Are you winning!?" Came a voice, nary interrupting the assassin's drink as he downed the beverage.
Victory followed the bolt go towards Shrike, her vision obstructed by the preceding explosion of energy. The second canon was only a foot or so away from where her spear was lodged, so Victory got a good view when it suddenly shifted, fully articulated it seemed, and pointed right at her. Her eyes widened and the spear, the wall, and the ramp all vanished as Victory summoned an outer shell of Hard Light to protect her as the blast slammed into her body, knocking her several feet back. She slid in the dust, her back colliding with a building wall. The cannon remained locked on her, and still disoriented from the blast, Victory attempted to stand, maintaining the damaged shell. The cannon fired again, shattering the shell and launching Victory into a shop window with a crash of shattered goods and glass. Luckily, Victory was out of sight of the cannon. Unluckily, she was struggling to stand, putting a hand to her helmet and coughing.
Looking down the edge, Miles inhaled a sharp breath before answering the civillian's question.
"Yeah, sure," he returned the bottle to where he had found it before leaping off the side of the balcony. If he stayed, that cannon would waste no time before blasting it from place, along with the civilians. Instead, the agent was greeted by an unforgiving beam heading straight for him as his lithe frame traveled down the immense distance between himself, and the elephant.
"Locking on target," Miles raised his rifle, firing another shot before shooting his wire to the next building. Swinging his way across the cityscape, Miles took potshots as he could, each round cutting at the cannon's structure until eventually, it was shot from place.
"Cannon disabled," Shrike hung onto a building wall, his breath heavy from the procedure.
"You guys still on your feet?" Dawn caught a glimpse of the metal menace strike at a building where his comrade Shrike was being pelted. Thankfully the swift movements and quick work with his weapons had began to provide some much needed covery fire. An explosion atop the Hellaphant meant that something had been done.
The beast on their side, Shift immediately followed suit, no doubt showing this fake what a real animal can do. He grinned madly, the battle was surly within their grasp. Just then though, another plasma cannon blast wrought forth. And with a grunt, he saw as the white glory of Victory was struck.
"VICTORY" Came a titanic yell as Dawn gritted his teeth. He was angry now.
He stamped his feet and began to flex his arms, his hands, digging into the phant's trunk. He wrenched back, pulling with both hands on the plate in different directions. Slowly the truck began to crumple, the fire bursting in places where the integrity was compromised. In a conflaguration the metal groaned and ripped from its moring. The elephant had lost its trunk.
Dawn stumbled back with his new weapon, he hefted it over his shoulder.
"Mess with my friends will you!" Dawn swung the trunk at the monsters head, beating it like a wet pool toy noddle that was made of titanium plates. BANG BANG until the creatures face was smooshed in on both sides.
"DRAIG! WRAITH! Go check on Victory and then lets end this thing! TEAM EPSILON!"Wraith held his head as he stood, the pain easing up once he stopped using his powers. He needed to rest them for a bit, but there wasn't time for that here. He could power through it for now. He hung back for a little bit longer, if not just because the others looked like they had it under control. A small rest to regroup, then back into action.
He saw the cannon blast Victory, and flew after her without hesitation. She wasn't his favorite person in the world, but he wouldn't wish her harm. And, he owed her.
Wraith flew down to where Victory had landed and scooped her up to carry her further from the battlefield.
Victory startled when she felt something pick her up, but relaxed when it was just Wraith, and then slightly tensed up again when she realized it was Wraith.
She looked shaky on her feet and was wheezing; she'd been hit pretty hard. He set the woman down behind a discarded minivan, making her feel silly for being nervous.
"Stay here for now, we've got this." She'd done her fair share. Wraith turned and flew up again, heading back towards the fight.
"Thanks, Wraith," Victory said shakily. That would leave a bruise. She closed her eyes for a minute, and a warm light could be seen forming under the armor around her ribs. A flare of pain ran up her spine, and the warm light faded. It was more difficult to heal herself than it was to heal others.
The elephant had just lost it's trunk. It was roaring a low, guttural tone that genuinely sounded like a very pissed off elephant. The beast lowered it's head and began to charge wildly towards Phoenix Dawn. Wraith was sure the man could hold his own, but they really couldn't afford any more collateral damage.
Then, from the top of a nearby pawn shop, a strange hero in a boldly colored outfit appeared.
"Aw, don't tell me I'm late to the party. It's okay guys, I'm sure my invite got lost in the mail." The brightly dressed hero spotted the elephant's rampage towards Dawn and leaped into action. As he flung himself off the edge of the building, he began to shift in mid-air.
Admittedly, Silas had been on the edge of passing out as he watched his fellow heroes struggle with the beast. Dreamwalking was tiresome despite the fact that he was
literally asleep. He trusted that his teammates could handle the giant hunk of sentient metal. He was always sure to congratulate them after missions ended, they were quite a tough bunch.
He had been startled to attention when the vigilante joined the fray, it was definitely shocking because he couldn't ever place a time that one had jumped into their mission like this before. He had once wanted to be a vigilante himself, though that had ended badly, he still appreciated what they did when New Horizons wasn't interfering.
He sat up a bit straighter to watch, it was definitely a treat to see something new.
"Come on Shishi, let's show 'em what us freelancers can do." A bright light engulfed his body as it shifted from that a man to that of a beast. The creature was lion-like, with bright crimson fur and a golden mane. The beast let out a deafening roar as it appeared. It landed with its forepaws against the elephant's front shoulders, followed by its hind legs. It pushed off hard, sending the elephant stumbling over and crashing to a halt.
The polar bear atop the elephant had started with the appearance of the beast, seeming to freeze up for a moment as Shift gazed wide-eyed at the giant feline creature that had appeared before her. That hesitance, not to mention the lack of dexterity in the bear's lumbering form, caused a strange yelp of surprise to escape her maw as the elephant started to teeter over. Those long, vicious claws dug in but as the mechanical creature crashed to the ground the polar bear went tumbling - at least ripping out a large hunk of the hull with her.
Wraith paused at the sight, unsure of this stranger interfering with their mission. But as the beast landed nimbly on its paws and didn't proceed to attack his cohorts, he realized it must have been a good guy of some sort. To him, any help was good help.
The elephant began to slowly stand, shaking off the blow. Wraith picked himself up off the ground and flew towards the robot and phased into the machine itself. There wasn't much room inside, but there was just enough for him to become solid again. Wraith began pulling at wires and jamming whatever objects he could find into the motors that controlled the legs. The beast slowed its advance, and then finally came to a stop.
Wraith phased back out, floating over to stand off to the side to look over his work. The elephant tossed its head and bellowed loudly, unable to reach the heroes to cause further damage. The battle was almost won.
'Structure integrity at ten percent, a robotic voice filled Miles' ears as he remained with a fixed gaze at the elephant. The creature was nearing its end, and his allies were bringing forth unrelenting justice with each fluid motion of prowess. Sliding to the streets below, the agent allowed his long, slender wire to retract and return to its home, as his attention shifted between the ongoing battle, and the scarce amount of civilians watching it unfold. Miles proceeded to reload his weapon, locking his sights on the new arrival. An unauthorized crime fighter? A vigilante? Clenching his teeth, the boy aimed his gun before speaking into his headgear.
"An enemy of Horizon? Should I engage?""No," a voice returned, undoubtedly one of Horizon's own, "we will deal with the vigilante later. There is no need to further strain the situation. Stand down."
"Affirmative," Miles responded, lowering his rifle.
"Analysing data, downloading and sending.""Received," the voice offered, "we will look into this man. Focus on the elephant, it's nearly destroyed."
"Affirmative," Shrike finished.
The trunk was reduced to next to nothing as he caved in the Elephants head with it. He tossed it aside to free his hands for the charging retaliation. He roared in defiance.
"The problem with robots. Just don't know when to quit! Come on then!" He wanted to destroy it in one blow. He rolled his arm back.
"SLEDGEHAMMER F-"Suddenly there was a tiger, but it was... wrong somehow. Dawn's eyes seemed to follow it.
"Shift?" He never saw her turn into something like that before, but then he saw the elephant fall over and a polar bear roll off from the sudden force. Dawn barely got a moment to respond to the new comer. It was like everything happened in slow motion.
"Who- ?"It was then Wraith who knocked the thing out for good, the shadow of his form merged into the body, and after some showers of sparks, it ceased it senseless kicking. Now was the chance to bring peace to the city, with MAXIMUM JUSTICE!
Dawn went back to the issue at hand, standing and flexing his muscles.
"Right! Fear not Horizon and citizens! The Dawn will bring this to its final JUSTICE!" It was a not so subtle way of saying, get to a safe distance.
Dawn leaped to a building smashing into the top corner of it, and this was merely a launching off point as he immediately took to the sky, nearly a mile over the street.
"Off of the top rope!" He positioned himself over the speck of an elephant below as his body curled sideward and he raised his elbow and then began to descend, his body actually lighting on fire as if he was falling from the stratsophere.
He always wanted to try this...
"HEAVENLY METEOR HAAAAAMMMMMMMEEEEERRRR!!!"
And then dropped the most GLORIOUS of elbows on the Elephants exposed side! There was a moment of metal clanging, the scene seemed to hold its breath, before the machine erupted into a massive explosion that pushed back the cars nearby and blew out every window on that side of the city blocks. The metal monster crumbled like paper under the blow, and so did the street beneath it.
When the dust cleared, there was no elephant, just a hole in the middle of the street and the sound of water from broken pipes being poured into the new bus sized pothole. The elephant now lay as scraps of metal at its bottom. The city was lucky there wasn't a subway under that particular street. Over the sound of water was a rising laughter, long and loud and bellowing. He was crawling out of the hole, his clothes tattered and skin nicked and scratched in dozens of places. He was smiling proudly.
"WHOOOO! Did you guys see that!? That was awesome!" He announced.
It was hard not to applaud such a brilliant display of good old fashioned
justice and Silas was as impressed as he always was with his fellow heroes. He was well out of the way and he was glad for that but he called out a nice, "
Good job, Dawn!"
"Good work, everyone. You did good." Victory set through her headset, having watched the spectacle from a little ways down the block. She hadn't yet noticed the vigilante.
Watching the display with a soft smirk making its way to his lips, Miles was unable to stifle his chuckle, before contacting Horizon.
"Mission successful, returning to base."
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