| The Advent Returns: Curse of the Nekojin! | ||
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| Summary: Continuing from last time, Superboy and Satyrn make their way to the UR only to be interrupted by the return of the one person Satyrn has vowed to destroy...    |
The saiyan emits a light grunt, which might be a thanks, as she feels like her body is getting lighter. Okay. That's...useful right now. She focuses her chi on her wounds, forcing the blood there to hold in place so it starts to clot. It's not like she has a lot of energy right now, but bleeding out is never a way to recover faster. "What? Why in the dry wells are you calling Twisted Street your mother's base?" And he used to be part of TASK? She doesn't remember him. Oh, he must be from the reformed TASK that let all the Kept escape and cast the Keepers to the winds. At least that's her interpretation of events.
The ever helpful Superboy tilts his head at that one. "Mother's Base...?" Like a base of operations? Mother? Mom? Oh, Ma-base. He shakes his head a little, "Mabase. Weird word. There's some record of some city ruins from back in the day called that and now somehow that's the name of this city. It's a little less confusing than everything named Twisted-something at least." He shakes his head again, "Also, do NOT try to use the library to find this stuff out. There's like, nobody keeping anything organized anymore. Had to spend half a day in there speed-reading everything to connect anything around here." "It was better back when all the little kiosks worked right, but Bishop stopped updating them." He ponders a moment with a frown, "Actually Bishop rarely even makes an appearance. No one does. It's why I went and joined up with TASK for awhile thinking it'd help with the whole saving-people schtick, but Cosgrove is so hands off it's like there might as well not even be a police presence around here." It's not even occurring to him that Satryn might not be following any of this, but then he's not here half the time himself so what does he know? After a moment's thought he adds, "Also, sorry about the whole walking thing. I'd normally just fly us there but that burning guy kinda sapped me. Feelin' better though. How about yourself? What's your name, anyways? They call me Superboy, but my friends tend to call me Kon or Kon-El." He grins proudly, "It's like my legal name, I guess, but not officially." Sure. That makes sense.
"-uck?!" The latter half of what was almost certainly inappropriate rings out across the Twisted Street. It actually... it doesn't even sound like it's nearby. Someone was just really really lou-- "What did you do to my city?!" Oh, sure. No, it's fine, it's not like I was narrating or anything. Please. Finish your rant. A continuation of said rant begins, but unlike those first bits, it's not loud enough to be clear. There's just some voice that is *still loud enough to be heard a good distance away* yelling things that are probably best not heard. Huh. Voice sounds oddly familiar. ...It's probably nothing.
She also hears the distant voices, but they're distant, so, she disregards them for now.
He DOES like to talk! Thank you for noticing! "Geogshi? The old angel/synth-chick?" How many Gegoshis does he know, exactly? "According to the records she got her freedom, got invited to join a new Council when Setsuna Meioh took over from Senor Diablo, and then for some reason everyone just kinda checked out and vanished." He shrugs again, "Far as I can tell Setsuna is still in charge. Some place called 'The Cradle' claimed they made Gegoshi and sent Bishop to take her place running everything." He gives an apologetic smile, "So, uh. Part of the whole being-a-clone thing makes me a bit of a book nerd. When I got told to come help out here, first thing I did was read everything I could get my little gloved hands on." He IS wearing little gloves, aww. "So I've got you covered on the history lesson." Whether he doesn't know Crux or simply skipped over the question is hard to say. He's been hearing the man rambling himself for a while, "Jeeze, I wish he'd give it a rest. Some people just love to hear the sound of their own voice."
Satyrn furrows her brow at that. Checked out and vanished? She growls lowly. "The Cradle? The Core made Gegoshi. I've never heard of Bishop." People are always getting things wrong. No one ever knows the truth. People have probably forgotten all about Concordance at this point. Not that it matters. Why does she even care? None of this matters anymore. But her elders forced curiosity into her being when she was growing up, made her always want to learn more about the enemy, opposition, and everything else. And she's not going to risk ripping a hole in the dimensions only to end up in another hell to escape this place. She's having multiple dilemma's which, when you get three or more, they start becoming a crisis. She takes him saying people checked out and vanished to include Crux. That...that angers her, because she wants to take every piece of his existence and tear it to pieces with her bare hands. Everything is his fault. "Have any of the gods retur-" Is the start of her next question, but then a semi-truck spirals and slams into the street nearby. She looks around for threats, probing out to sense any threats, her body already tense for battle anyway. Then again, this is Twisted Street, these kind of chaotic things are expected. And no, techincally, Satyrn never turned in a resignation. Do they not fire for absenteeism? Maybe they don't. Does she get back pay? Not that Satyrn thinks any of this, just...saiyan.
Superboy, of course, tenses up. If he didn't quite literally have his hands full he would have been all over that truck, but at least no one seems to be hurt. Instead he releases Satyrn to stand on her own, "Just a sec..." before throwing himself into the air to stop whatever that man-sized blur that's flying through the air in an attempt to stop it from crashing, not that there's enough time. If he'd been more on top of his game he might have caught up, but instead all he can do is watch it hit about 100 yards away with a wince. He calls out with a bit of hesitation, "...you okay, buddy?" Let's just hope the man-sized blur was in fact a man, or this whole exchange is going to look really weird.
Surprising noone with a basic grasp of ballistic arcs, the white hot streak slams back down into the parking lot about a hundred meters past the crumpled cabin of a truck, just as Superboy likely predicted. The pulverized asphalt and rock dust alone kicks up a nice cloud of black, don't-breathe-this smoke around the landing point, and there is a low, offended cough from inside the plume. "...Good to be home." The voice is gravely, sarcastic, and has about a century's worth of exhaustion behind it. There's a long, drawn out breath, and then two golden lights blaze from within the smoke, each roughly the size of an eye, and spaced apart the right amount too. Glowing golden eyes. Cool, cool. Only a moment passes before there's a low skree-ing sound and a tiny red ball of murder comes screeching through the air at nearly the same speed as the other two objects - it's a little imp demon that can't be more than a foot tall, but it's flying and holding what looks like rear-axle of a semi-truck - perhaps the SAME semi truck? It rears it above its head, clearly aiming to clock whoever's in the cloud of smoke with it, but then it... disappears? No, wait, it reappears about twelve meters back, still screeching, travels another twelve meters, and disappears again, doing the re-appear and disappear trick once more. This continues for a bit, until the momentum of whatever leap the thing took starts to fall off, and that's when one might notice the ripples in the air - one where the thing is disappearing, and one where it is reappearing. The "disappear" ripple is slowly getting lower with each arc, like it's a catcher's mitt and whenever the demon is caught, it is launched out of the first one again. Well, this IS an odd show. Slowly but surely the ripples move closer to each other now, so that the arc remains uninterrupted, and the demon that is effectively falling sideways looks as perturbed as one has time to look while in an infinite portal loop. "Well, I'm not *great*," says the low voice in response to Superboy's question. "But I'm also not surprised. What does that say about me?"
Satyrn settles her feet under herself as Superboy releases her. That's for the best. She needs to see where she's at. Whatever that is it could be a threat, something to attack, defend, or kill. She rests back on her heels, letting her tail relax. Multiple lesions across her body, hair's a mess, and completely black, her beautiful grey dye having burned away through her travels. Her tail's black too. And her clothing is tatters, but enough to hold in place, she is good with a needle and thread, or a small horn and some intestine. Sometimes you use what you're given. The saiyan glances at Superboy, who obviously has a 'I need to help others' beat into him, likely the same way her elders raised her, though with different mantras. She looks at the smoke, cloud, and the imp portal show. A weird pang in her heart hits her, things just happening like this, it makes her think of home. Of Twisted Street. She really wanted to forsake this place for the rest of her life, but here she is. She holds back a sigh.
As the demon shows up swinging a truck axle, Superboy just gestures at it incredulously. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" He points towards it, and then back at the man in the smoking crater, "We JUST went through this." He looks down at the remains of his jacket, sighs, and then ponders punching the imp that seems strangely under control. So instead he offers a hand to the stranger to help pull him up. "Y'know, this is why Gotham doesn't bother me anymore. Sure you can't throw a rock without hitting a supervillain, but at least there's not a weird tear in reality twice a week."
"You would think," The low voice begins with some regret, "that I would have learned how to properly call Diablo by now. But apparently..." From within the cloud, the eyes rise up toward Superboy, and there's a swirling motion as the man inside takes the offered hand and stands. With his other hand, he tries to fan some of the smoke away. "...I'm still an idiot." As he succeeds at dispersing the asphalt-smoke, and rather slowly at that, the image of a man with a brown leather jacket and black trousers slowly appears. Well. The Jacket is more...black with brown highlights now. His hair... is also black, but given the environment he's standing in, it was probably a different color a minute ago. Same with his black shirt underneath the open jacket. That one was almost certainly white; it's a jersey tee, you can tell how those things stain. He coughs again, for good measure. "Thanks. Give me a second." The man steps past Superboy, looks past him too, and squares his posture as he strides towards the looping demon. He clenches his right hand, which is wearing a black fingerless glove, unlike the left which is wrapped in black bandages, and as he clenches it, you can actually *hear* the tendons tightening, but perhaps more alarmingly, the air around it ripples, like it's being forced away by the strength of that fist. And then he pivots and drives the fist towards the demon, but riiiiiiight at the point of contact, instead of the man's fist, out of the ripple tears an actual Freight Train, accept no substitutions. It plows through the demon and carries it a good three feet before disappearing in another ripple, leaving ten feet of continually moving freight train to tear through the air for a good twelve seconds before finishes its journey and the tail end of the train comes out of one portal and leaves through the other, both closing afterward. "... ...And just like that I'm feeling better."
Satyrn stands there watching as Superboy goes to help the being obscured by smoke. She turns her head, looking around the area. Parts look familiar, but is this place really Twisted Street? It could be some kind of weird semblance. She doubts that though, it would tend to just absorb those into itself. She lets out another sigh as she thinks of everything she's lost, Concordance, The Council, TASK. Maybe she was wrong and this place doesn't need anything. Maybe those gods like Power won't ever return. She looks back towards Superboy and the entity as the smoke clears to reveals him and her entire body freezes in place. She stares. And stares. And stares as he goes and deals with the imp by opening portals for a Freight Train. It starts at the tip of her tail, the smallest of twitches. The goosebumps that'd been occupying her skin disappear as her blood starts to run hot, her heartrate increasing with every millisecond. Edges of her hair start to wisp out from her. It's him. It's him. o O ( It's him. It's him. It's him. IT'S HIM. ) Her mouth won't even let her say words, her teeth clenched together as fury ripples its way through her. The bane of her existence. The cause for all of her torment for over thirteen years of hell dimensions. The reason she's not even a full saiyan anymore. The reason Concordance is dead and everything fell apart. "CRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUX" she finally finds her voice as a black and grey aura explodes around her, bricks, loose debris, dirt, and even some cobblestone that was certainly solid a moment before erupting away from her in all directions with murder levels of velocity. Sorry windows and walls. The aura starts to shift to a golden hue, her hair starting to spike, but then...fatigue. Her chi levels give out, she falls to a knee as she emits a gutteral groan from the depths of her soul. Her aura doesn't disappear though, rage, if nothing else, is going to get her what she wants.
The Boy of Steel can appreciate a good leather jacket, not to mention obliterating an annoyance in the most video-game special attack he's ever seen outside a screen. "Dope!" Really? Really. That's when the noise starts. The low, primal, guttural yell that seems to cut through everything like a wrecking ball. He turns, notices the woman he was helping clearly doing something that normally only happens in anime, and takes a step to the side a little further away from Crux. "Y'know, she was fine until a minute ago. I take it you two have some history?" What could have given him that idea?
The man, (Crux, apparently?), straightens up from the rather dramatic-looking punch and cricks his neck, taking a slow breath. Then as he looks down at himself to survey all the asphalt-soot on him, he notices that some of the pebbles and asphalt start lifting up into the air. "...Hold on. I've seen this before, I think it's what happened whe--" He is cut off by Satyrn's rage-scream, and he looks a bit surprised and turns to face her. Hah! See? That's what it's like you interrupting little sh-- "Nice lung capacity, there." Oh come on, you did that one on purpose. He examines the Saiyan as she rages. He actually still doesn't have a ton of experience with their race, but he knows enough to understand they can be cosmically dangerous when provoked. So who the hell is... Oh, hey. "Oh! That reminds me." He gestures to his left and another ripple opens up. He leans in to the ripple, his upper torso disappearing, but his voice can still be heard. "Satyrn! Hey! I found a girl out here who kinda reminds me of you! She looks real strong, you should come... ... Satyrn?" He seems to be just sort of leaning half in, half out of this ripple, which ... is almost certainly a portal to another location. "Did she LEAVE?! Who leaves?!" The man pulls his torso back out and looks at Satyrn, finishing tracing her temporal trail to see what happened. Oh wow. Ohhhhhhh wow. Oh wow. He sort of glances towards Superboy without actually taking his eyes off Satyrn. "Yeah, I guess I put her on a time-out and she decided she'd rather go to hell than spend another minute with me." A long pause, a beat. "...Honestly that seems fair."
The seething rage does not stop for the saiyan. She feels like she's going to vomit. Some of her wounds, recently clotted, re-open, blood slowly oozing out of them, floating around her in small globules as they're caught up in her aura of animosity. Her lips pull back exposing her teeth like some kind of weird animlaistic smile, or more likely anger expressing itself in ways she can't really control. "You." She seethes. And then...and then he LOOKS for her. He actually LOOKS for her in that pocket dimension he stuck him into. The one that made her miss the battle with Concordance, where SHE could have turned the tide, and everything would be perfect, the way it was, when her life was ordered and she would deal with portal trespassers contaminating pure untouched worlds. But oh no, all that's gone now. Lost in time like tears in the rain and all that philosophical madness that Satyrn actually likes. Satyrn's eyes scrunch, twitching, everything about her is twitching now. "You only think to look. Only now? ONLY NOW?!" Her normal expansive vocabulary has been buried beneath the rolling ocean of tsunami rage. That's it, she doesn't care. She doesn't care how humiliating it is. The ground, nay, the air itself begins to shake. Her aura explodes outwards, the black and grey starting to shift colors to something more akin to red and silver. Small bumps start to form on either side of her head. Maybe they're horns? She has been through a lot of hell dimensions. Of course, if Crux just looked through her entire existence he knows what's coming. The saiyan slowly pulls herself back up to standing, then floats off of the ground, more from her aura starting to expand with untold of power than conscious effort.
"Okay, in my defense, if you hadn't left, you'd still be there and I could've pulled you out like five seconds after I put you there from your perspective." Crux says, sounding surprisingly calm, and his voice... is weirdly easy to hear over the raging aura that she's putting out. He stares at her like he's trying to see through her, and then blinks and glances at Superboy. "Hey, Saiyans get really strong when they do this thing, maybe you should..." His golden eyes swirl with black flecks for a moment as he looks the kid over, and then he blinks and laughs. "Oh... Oh, nevermind, you're Kryptonian. Yeah. Wow. You're gonna be fine. I'll just ... juice you up with some yellow-sun rads if it gets dicey." He reaches out and pats Superboy on the shoulder, leaving asphalt soot dust all over the poor kid's jacket. His confident smirk turns to an apologetic look at that. "...Sorry." He turns his attention back to Satyrn. "You know," He begins, cupping a hand up to his lips as if it will help her hear him, which it will not, "if you keep stressing yourself out, your blood pressure's gonna cause you to lose too much blood and then I'm gonna have to pick you up off the floor after you pass out. You sure you want that? Because I don't have any Saiyan blood and you're gonna have to just take some of mine." He... he doesn't even sound a little afraid. The *nerve* of this man.
Satyrn hears what Crux is saying. She can process it, even though her bottomless rage that feels like a never ending full well (that analogy makes a lot of sense to her don't worry about it too much), but... "You think I CARE for your EXCUSES?!" Everyone knows saiyan transformations take forever, and this one for Satyrn is no different, thankfully finding the source of what she believes to be everything wrong with her life is making up for the fact that she's physically and mentally exhausted. She'd swore on her elders that if she ever found Crux again she'd fight him when she was well rested and had a solid plan. What plan? Satyrn could never come up with a good one, she knows Crux has insane powers, but she also knows that sometimes if you hit something hard enough, even dimensions, they'll break for you. Her aura is definitely red now with silvery veins pumping through it in time with her heartbeat. "You stole victory from Concordance! You made me go through over a decade of hell dimensions! You made me experience things I'll never recover from! You...you changed me! The humiliation of this." She sneers, knowing what she's saying probably makes little sense to anyone but her, well maybe Crux if she knew he just theater played her existence a bit ago. "But it's worth it. I'm going to destroy you." Her voice breaks a little, like she's about to cry, shaky, frail, a bit of a contrast to the raging aura that's cracking and breaking everything around her from its intensity. The bumps on her head push out further, and then with a massive outrush of energy and power releases in a shockwave from the saiyan. Her black hair flashes, changing to a blood red with silvery tips, then back to black, then back to the colors. Looks like she's just about there. But again, long transformation sequences the first time they happen on screen, what can you do.
There a long inhale and exhale from Kon as he takes all this in. This is about to be bad, isn't it? He doesn't want to pick sides here, but he knows from experience that person A is probably not going to stop until person B is in pieces from here to Keystone. He glides over, holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture. Putting two and two together he assumes her name is Satyrn and addresses her thusly. "Satryrn? I think I get where you're coming from. You sound like you have every right to go on a rampage and obliterate everything in sight." Superboy drops to the ground, walking slowly towards the warrior powering up before him. "But can we take just a moment to think about the people who live here?" He gestures around at the street around him, pausing on the wreckage of the S-Mart parking lot and mentally kicking himself because it looked a lot better than this just an hour ago. He gestures down the street in the direction they where already traveling before Crux made his grand return. "There's an arena just at the end of this street. It's contained. I'm sure it has some wards of some kind to prevent blowing up this city and all the innocent people in it." At this point he's almost arms length away and leaning into the power emanating from her with a little effort. "We can take this whole show over there, you can get it out of your system, and hopefully no one else has to get hurt. I'll even still buy you dinner, alright? Can we make this happen?"
"O-Oh," Crux actually lets a little laughter creep into his voice and then immediately feels bad about it, "is that what you think happened? That Concordance *lost*?" The man just runs his hands through his hair, trying to get the soot out and at least some of the original silver color is showing through now. He turns his head like he's about to shake it the way a dog shakes their fur to get everything out, and then glances at Superboy apologetically. No, he's not going to do that to the poor kid. It's fine. Whatever Satyrn hits him with will probably bleach the skin and muscles from his bones, let alone the soot from his clothes. He can be patient. His dignity isn't really salvageable at this point. "...Woman, she *left*. I don't know what happened after that because I haven't seen her since, but..." There's more of that laughter, and this time he doesn't bother holding it back. "The only thing that defeated Concordance was public opinion." He shrugs, waiting for the blow that'll just clean him out entirely. When Kon suggests that there is a safe place for the fight, Crux blinks, and then turns to look at the Metropolis kid again. "The Metropolis Kid, huh? Thanks for the idea." Crux's eyes blaze gold again, and he lifts one hand up. The end of the S-mart parking lot, like the entire damn skydown to the pavement, ripples. He makes a quick gesture, a flick of a finger, and the ripple travels towards them all at the actual speed of light, no dramatic exaggeration, just swallowing them up... and actually nothing happens, it just passes over them and hey wait they're in the Arena now. The other end of which ripples briefly and then the ripple fades out. "Sometimes I forget I'm not the only one who stands to get hurt. You probably just saved some lives. ... ... Okay, the kind of lives that shop at Wal-Mart, but still." S-mart, dude. S-mart. Like K... nevermind. Of course... he brought Kon with them. Maybe not full marks for this effort. The Arena - Pit(#5278R) Well, this is lovely. After dropping from the entrance gates above, competitors on the pit floor are greeted first by the heady stench of sweat, blood, and other less-savory bodily fluids, and then by the squelching sensation of their feet being enveloped by the same. Nobody has cleaned this place in... well, ever. It's a plentifully large area to work with, at least, with a good thirty feet of headspace at the highest point. From this side it's apparent that several monitors have been slung up inside the cage, so those not able or bold enough to press themselves against the cage can be sure not to miss anything, but the experience is clearly geared toward the fighters more than the audience. There's liable to be plenty of fallen weapons around, and any attempts to flee are met on the outside with blistering metal spikes, rough-textured truck tyres, and plyboards covered in rusted tin cans and broken bottles. It's a whole mess of tetanus waiting to happen, just for you, and you! There is one apparent exit; a small, unassuming door on the east side of the pit. It's stalwartly locked, and apparently unbreakable, so long as more than one person remains conscious and/or breathing inside. Upon a combatant achieving victory, it 'pings' open with a delightful little fanfare - customized to the participants... somehow - and allows the winning competitor to make their dramatic exit. The loser... who cares? Probably they'll be hauled out and left up top somewhere, where their miserable fans can kiss them better. Satyrn screams, straight up, at Superboy. "You think I give a droplet about insane people who CHOOSE to make their home on an UNSTABLE place like this?! Two dimensional tears opened up here and a freight train came through. They knew what they were doing when they decided, against ALL REASON, to live in such a place! They can go dig a well in a connected world!" She's probably operating on old principles, but, ya know, the rage and all. She has little patience right now, and to be fair she normally has quite a bit for her race. None of this is calming her down. And as Crux blathers on about Concordance, she continues to scream, "AS IF I DON'T KNOW HOW CONCORDANCE'S EXISTENCE WORKS?!" She started a church! She had worshippers! She was bringing her back! Oh, oh if this is not the end of the desert caravan she doesn't know what is. She doesn't even register the scenery change. Her aura explodes outwards in multiple shockwaves, if buildings were still around they'd be getting leveled, broken up, and destroyed, including the people in them. She does care about life, in general, just not right now. Not with Crux here. The bumps on her head fully form, into a pair of cat ears! Adorable. Her hair goes fully red with silver tips and stays that way. Power, strength, beauty(cute), exude from her as she goes fully super saiyaneko. Her time spent in the catgirl hell dimension really, really messed her up, but this new form came with it. She hates it for how it makes her look, and the slight mind alteration that comes with it, but she hates Crux more.
Superboy's fist tightens as Satyrn damns all of Twisted. He was starting to like her before she went full villain monologue. He does notice the change in scenery, and is grateful for it despite the immediate threat in hand. Even though he knows she's probably past hearing him, he tries anyways, "These 'insane people' didn't have a choice! I don't know what this place was like when you were here last but most of the people living here are refugees from worlds that collapsed or realities that moved on without them. The old guard is gone. Take out your rage, but if you go after anyone else outside of this arena, I'm rescinding my offer for food." With that, less than stellar ultimatum, Superboy floats up, giving the two the floor. There's a part of him that feels like he should apologize to Crux for getting him in this situation, but he did bring it upon himself from the way he described it. At least Kon can try to keep it from getting out of control.
It's been a long time since Crux was faced with anything else that can move as fast as he can. Longer still since faced with anything that can hit as HARD as Satyrn can. And yet, he has dealt with things that are much, much scarier, just in a different way. He would've tensed before. Would've tried to stop her. Would've moved to do something to slow her down. But instead... he just waits. His pupils dilate. His perception of time dilates. Kon is probably experiencing something similar next to him, if not in response to Satyrn, then in response to the portal. After all, that's how Kryptonians work, right? Crux is pretty sure they scale to the speed needed same as anyone with speed powers that let them remain rational and sane. "She doesn't mean that, she was a good cop. Saiyans just have this weird rage thing. If one ever got one of those red rings, I'm pretty sure they'd hard-delete their universe." Scary thought. At any rate, because of this time dilation, it is with wide open eyes and full focused speed that Crux watches Satyrn... turn into a catgirl. Yup. A Super Saiyan Catgirl. A Super Neko-jin as it were. "I have the most profound sense of Deja vu." When she starts raging further, he just shrugs. Indifference, that's how he meets her insane battle rage. "...Then you know there's nothing you could've done to change it. And I wasn't even there, you know, I was busy getting my clock cleaned somewhere else." There's a slow pause and a beat. "...I'm guessing you'd be thrilled to watch THAT. I can give you a recording later. I died sixteen times in the first minute, Locke was really in a groove that day." ...Not even a hint of animosity or fear, even still. "...Probably gonna be more satisfying than what happens here. No offense, I'm sure you're unreasonably strong. But..." He points at Satyrn's wounds again. "I already told you what's going to happen. You sure you want my blood coursing through your veins? Because I'm not gonna let you die."
Satyrn's transformation complete, she revels in her power. This form is incredible, beyond anything she every imagined or dreamed was possible. Speed. Strength. Durability. Self-healing would be nice, but she's just ignoring the blood loss at this point. Who cares if she's oozing out of multiple wounds and likely going to pass out rather quickly, she certainly does not. "Oh I could of! I could of obliterated everyone wanting her gone!" Her body shakes, she knows Crux can die and somehow not die, she doesn't know how he does anything he does. And Gegoshi isn't around to get information from. But you know what, whatever. "You won't be around to put blood back me. I'm going to obliterate you, right here, right nyao." Did she just kind of...meow there? The saiyaneko blinks out of existence, or rather, travels as such an insane amount of speed, it looks like she disappears. Some eyes might see better than others. Either way, she'll end up next to Crux, swinging her fist with every ounce of strength, power, and chi she has within her, a red silvery blaze rippling from her entire arm. The fist is, of course, aimed right for Crux's face. These are the kind of punches that obliterate planets. One might note, she is angled slightly, so she's punching upwards at a slight angle, so any energy that goes past, or hopefully through, would go into the skies above. Maybe she did listen to Superboy a bit, and again she hasn't even noticed the location change.
Superboy hovers above the stands lining the four walls of the arena, looking down into the blood soaked pit that drops down to the dusty floor below. He watches the catgirl move at a speed that would impress the Flash and winces from the thrown punch that should have easily taken his head off. Speaking of moving fast, he really wishes Impulse was around right now. At least he'd go get them some popcorn or a pizza or something. Wait. Catgirl? With a moment to breathe, Superboy finds himself struggling not to laugh, especially at the 'nyao' thing. Twisted is always interesting, at least.
"I'm not sure you understand how this wo--" Crux begins to attempt to explain, because unlike those annoying cryptic god-types, Crux is an actual person that talks like people talk. Since he's not afraid of Satyrn, he is more than happy to explain how his powers work. But he made the mistake of thinking she was going to continue listening, so that's what he gets. Despite being fully dialed in, he doesn't even notice her move. It's not a matter of seeing. People at these speeds don't rely on sight; Photons have to bounce off your target and then your retina for you to see. No, they rely on additional senses, and Crux has a pretty good one: when he's nice and locked in, Crux can tell when his target even *brushes* a photon. It's really hard to photon dodge, even for crazy fast people, so this is a pretty foolproof sense in most of his considerable experience. However, there's this tiny limitation. So... his brain processes things at lightspeed - the literal speed of light. Dramatically, dramatically faster than normal human thought. But it still takes an (incredibly small) amount of time for that warning to travel from the part of his brain that sensed it to the part of his brain that needs to know it. Why are we having this anatomical breakdown of Crux's powers, you might ask? Because the time between Satyrn nudging that first photon, and Crux getting walloped in the head, is actually shorter than the time it takes the thought to travel through Crux's brain. From Crux's perspective, she's still not moved yet when his head explodes. Ok, explodes is the wrong word. Can something really be said to explode when it atomizes? I think we can agree that the answer is no. One minute there is a Crux there, the next minute there is not. If he died the way normal people die, the entire half of the arena inside the ballistic trajectory of Satyrn's fist would be lightly coated with carbon and other atomic debris as the air literally undergoes fusion around her fist, pushing the gas molecules past their Columb barrier and into a state of highly excited plasma. This, incidentally, is what's left of Crux, a blazing pillar of plasma that used to be organic matter, as it rockets into the wards of the arena, tests them, finds them a bit wanting, and then is joined by the photonic boom and coruscating fusion wake that hits a nanosecond behind it. Did you know the Arena roof can have a hole put in it? That's something you know now. As the purple Cherenkov radiation settles from the blow, there is no physical sign of Crux to be seen. He's just... gone. But in fairness, wouldn't you be?
Satyrn connected. She actually connected. She didn't think she would connect. She didn't think she'd actually managed to get next to him, much less touch him, but she actually hit him, and he vaporized. He vaporized like anything else would if she hit with this kind of insane amount of power. She floats there, fist outstretched, heaving in breaths, blood floating out around her wounds, many of which have opened up further from this exertion, in disbelief. Crux can use portals and do all sorts of unexplainable nonsense. At least, she thought he could. Is this really a different dimension like she'd assumed? It can't be, can it? Tears edge up in her eyes, and she doesn't have the will to stop them anymore. Her body slowly descends downwards towards the arena floor as her aura fades, her hair returns to black, and her cat ears recede. She settles down on a knee, gritting her teeth as she starts to straight up sob into her sleeve. "There's no way he's dead. I'm sure of it, it's all a trick, but I got to explode his big stupid sand filled head off." She weeps, talking to herself even though Superboy is present. She's been alone a lonnnnnng time.
Floating quietly, Kon-El just observes. He's nowhere near Flash-speed, but he can see enough to realize Satyrn is right and Crux is in some other state of being. He watches her collapse and hesitates. He knows about pride and exhaustion, so he gives her this moment before going to offer any kind of comfort. Instead he looks up at the new skylight with a slow shake of his head. At least no one innocent died. That's win right? Why doesn't it feel like a win...?
It takes a moment. Actually it takes several moments, but eventually, some of that flickering Cherenkov radiation seems to distort. The purple light that came from extremely localized atomic fusion and atmospheric ionization warps, brightens, and becomes white. After a moment, that white light twists and alters into the form of a humanoid. It's not REALLY a man, more like a brilliant light shining through a man-shaped aperture in the fabric of space-time. Two blazing aureate orbs form in the light, somehow distinct from the white light, appear, and track to Satyrn. She's bleeding on the ground. What are the odds? "Satyrn Tarn." The voice isn't... a voice. It's a reverberation in space that just... exists. It's not audibly coming from anywhere, but it's no stretch to guess it's from the humanoid shape that is probably Crux. "I see you." The orbs blaze intensely, as if trying to connect with her soul. After a brief delay, there is a... crack? No, a line of light that resembles a crack in reality as a wing crowds through into this dimension. Much like the shape of the man, it is more like the suggestion of a wing, it is identical when viewed from any angle, unshifting, unchanging. Another joins it, and after a moment, there is the sound of a deep, deep sigh. The figure sweeps a hand below it, creating a horizontal line of light. This movement is at exactly light speed, so to Satyrn it would have been objectively slow a moment ago. Maybe it still is? Regardless, the humanoid figure seems to fall down through that line of light, and Crux, this time without the soot stains, falls out the other side. His jacket is clean. His hair is clean. Without the soot covering his face, it is clear to be seen that he has not slept in... longer than you can live through not sleeping. Probably much longer. He lands on the arena floor next to Satyrn and crouches next to her, hoping she won't erase him from existence again, it's *really* frustrating and he'd JUST promised not to make a habit of it. "...Nice punch. Poor girl." He looks at her for a moment, then looks up to Kon, who very smartly got the hell out of the way, unlike Crux. "...Hey, kid. What's your bloodtype?" Uh...
oO(Welp, guess I'm back in this.) Superboy descends finally, keeping his distance just in case tempers flare up again, "Type-O-Clone Virus." He shrugs, "Look, I don't know what I'm carrying, but I know there was a whole clone disease and it's probably better off not testing the waters to see if what I've got running in my veins is compatible with..." He frowns, looking at Satyrn, "...whatever the bleeding, sleepy kitty is." He just keeps expecting her to pull a Deadite, fake death, and murder someone the second she's touched. That's just what they /do/ in fights like this. "Maybe give her a chance to cat-nap before you try to rebuild her? No one goes through all that just to die off-screen in a dirt pit." Off-screen? Well, at least he doesn't fancy himself the main character unlike SOME people we could mention.
Satyrn would probably have yelled at Superboy if he'd come over and tried to comfort her, so he's right in his decision to stay a bit back. Then again, a burger sounds nice about now. Either way, her body wracks itself with a ugly sob as she hears that voice. Crux's voice. Of course. She knew. She's not surprised. She knew this would happen. She doesn't know how to kill him, she hasn't taken the time to study her opponent, learn everything about them, figure out their weaknesses, and any other number of things she'd sometimes do when facing such an enemy. She looks up through her tears, wiping at her face with her sleeve as he fully manifests next to her. Unphased. Untouched. Pristine. "I hate you." She growls...maybe hisses...maybe a combination of both, but despite her words will actually reach out to try and grab his leg, or arm, or whichever of those two appendages are close, and bury her face into it. She's close to passing out, she knows it. She's gone over the limit, and all she can do is sandstorming cry into this entity that's occupied her every waking moment for the last thirteen years. It's a matter of seconds before her consciousness goes byebye. She is going to just NOT process Superboy's kitty comments as he floats down next to them.
"Type-0-Clone Virus?" Crux looks at Kon in consternation. "That's not a real blood.... type..." He continues to stare at Kon for a LONG second as he tracks through his temporal trail alllllllllll the way back to the beginning. "...Kid your origin story is really messed up." He turns his attention back to Satyrn. "You know, it's subtle, but I'm starting to get that impression you don't like me." He lets that sit for just a beat, and then taps two fingers on the side of her neck, somehow exactly tapping her carotid artery through the skin. His eyes blaze gold for a moment as he analyzes the Saiyan's blood by examining it through a micrometer long portal he opens inside the blood vessel, and sighs. "...Sorry, Satyrn. I stock a lotta stuff, but not blood. I did warn you." And with that he opens a similar one inside his aorta, and just quietly pumps blood into the girl at a rate faster than she's losing. Once he's sure he's got those portals locked conceptually to their locations, he stands and looks to Kon. "I can stop her from passing out. She's going to need SO much food, and I'm... ... ninety percent certain she's not a psychopath." He shrugs at the Superboy. "...They still have the Pizza Cats' place 'round here?"
Superboy tilts his head to the side at the question, "Yes and no.... it's around, you can order stuff." He looks up at the hole in the ceiling, "I just have no idea where they're coming from. Plus, uh. Don't know if Pizza CAT is the best idea at the moment." Assuming she doesn't always turn into a catgirl when she's pissed. That's possible, after all. He shakes his head and sighs, "Either way the UR is just up the road." He just assumes the Crux would know the Usual Restaurant. Most people do. "I've probably had enough time to recoup and fly her there if need be." He looks down at the woman ugly-crying on his cuffs and mutters under his breath, "Can't say the same for the jacket, but I've been needing a fashion update for a while now anyways."
Satyrn has, more or less, given up on controlling any semblance of consciousness. The edges of her vision are growing dark. She doesn't want to pass out here, in front of people, but she doesn't have a choice either. She finally got to do SOMETHING about all of her pent up rage and anger. It probably wasn't enough, but getting the murder punch in broke the dam on containing her feelings. That, and she was already exhausted from getting out of the most recent hell dimension. Sanding black fire monsters. Then, Crux does his blood portal thing. It's not like she really feels it right away, she's not monitoring her blood with her chi at the moment, but the fact that her breathing starts to become more regular and her vision doesn't get completely black are indicators. She pulls her head and arms away from Crux, realizing what she's doing there. Ugh. Still, despite it all, she remains on one knee. She won't fall until she's actually out, which doesn't look like it'll happen. "Did you kill the gods too? And Gegoshi?" That is probably out of context, but it's addressed at Crux. Her stomach...it rumbles loudly as they mention food.
"Which ones were the gods? I've killed like five people tops since I got here, and those ones tried to kill me first." Crux says, not bothering to explain that the Council was *discussing* killing him rather than in the process of it. When people have you prisoner and are discussing your execution, you're basically dead. "Well, technically Iloken and Harpanic were dead for a minute. But I had that fixed." He blinks again, and then tilts his head. "And Gegoshi's not dead. She's fine. Well. She's Gegoshi." He shrugs at that, like Satyrn would know what that means. "...I guess the Usual works." He reaches down and hefts Satyrn up by the underarms unless she actually tries to kill him for the endeavor, in which cause he either becomes immaterial, dropping her, or dies, dropping her. You know. Standard responses. Either way he grumbles afterwards. "Come on, on your feet, walk it off."
Superboy hovers down, shakes his head at Crux trying to help her to her feet, holds both hands up dramatically a moment before reaching over and touching them both on the shoulders. They'll feel gravity stop affecting them almost instantly. "Or I could FLY you there, like I offered a few moments ago." He shakes his head again, "Look. Don't count out the Kid with Tactile Telekinesis. Useful for stopping bullets, disassembling equipment, saving damsels in distress, and escorting new friends to the best burger joint in Mabase." He shrugs, leaving them with their feet still planted about an inch from the ground, "Or you could walk...?"
Satyrn emits an exasperated sigh as she wipes at her face. She can't believe she cried. It's a waste of good water. "Power for one." What were the other names? Oh. "Chaos and Order." And...she can't remember the others. It's been a long time. It's not like she was a big student on all that nonsense. From what she was told they wouldn't ever come around unless what happened happened, and that seemed like an impossibility to her. "And if Gegoshi were fine, I wouldn't have got stuck in my pocket dimension, and my G-PADVII would be working." She grits her teeth as she's lifted and does steady her feet. Her vision is starting to clear up. How is Crux doing that? He mentioned blood. Oh. Is he actually somehow putting blood inside of her? She's not going to think about it right now. She doesn't want to risk losing it all over again. "It astounds me how ignorant you murderer existence destroying types are." Her stomach grumbles again as gravity stops affecting her and let's herself get floated, or whatever. She looks at the ground, builds up some moisture in her mouth, and spits. The most offensive thing anyone could ever do. At least where she's from. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. I just want food." She wants to say please, she almost does, but it's Crux, she isn't going to say please to Crux, so Superboy doesn't get to hear it either.
"It amazes me how many people have accused me of being a murderer or destroying existence after I save their lives." Crux muses aloud, and then watches Satyrn spit. "...Twice actually, since someone I know was tried to kill an Uchiha and she was going to die." He looks surprised for a moment when he and Satyrn start floating, then looks to Superboy. "Is that how that works? That's... honestly really nice. Thanks, kid." He tests his limb movement for a moment, and then looks back to Satyrn. "...I think it's probably better if you take her alone. That is not the look of someone who is going to enjoy a burger with me around. I'll just monitor her vitals until she seems stable and then break off the connection. That way she can heal, have her burger, and complain about the terrible Doctor who's kept her alive twice now despite her trying to kill him. He's a real monster." Now that Satyrn basically doesn't weigh anything , he can just sort of hand her off to Superboy and wash his hands of this whole thing. Now what else did he have left over to do? Bitch at Diablo, failed. Release Satyrn before she realizes he's been gone, failed. ... Get Lain takeout? ... Surely he can't fail at that too.
Superboy isn't really carrying anyone, so much as letting them have a moment without the pain that gravity causes beings with fleshy-hurty insides, so he's quite confused by the spit and just assumes it was directed at Crux. Meanwhile Crux makes a bit too much sense, so he releases his shoulder and lets the world claim him again. "Alright, suit yourself." With a quick glance at Satyrn to make sure she's not going to murder him even if she did say 'whatever' he launches upwards through the hole in the ceiling, making his way South. Out of respect for what he's sure is some kind of warrior pride, he ducks through the trees, bringing them around the back side of the Usual so no one can see, and then moves his arm to a more supportive looking gesture around her waist to walk her around the parking lot and into the front door. "For the record the way you punched him was crazy bad-ass. I've seen speedsters run around worlds who couldn't have taken someone's head off like that." Is he saying this because he means it, or to make her feel better? Then again, does it really matter which it is?
Satyrn is absolutely not thanking Crux for supposedly saving her, much less twice. Her life would be easier if she were dead. Well, maybe. She might be in a hell dimension AND dead, that would probably be worse. As she starts to get floated away by Superboy, she stares down towards Crux, her black hair trailing off. Frazzled ends. Unkempt. Dirty. Like her life. She'll probably never see him again. She doesn't know how it happened so quick on her return. Fate or destiny maybe. Oh, that was the name of the other gods. Whatever. They didn't seem like the intervene on a single life type people if Power was any indication. "May your well run dry and your sun never set." She says towards him, though she barely means it. She doesn't even know how to feel towards the gross creature that is Crux. Whatever dimension created him should be sorry for what its done. She looks over at Superboy as she's brought down behind the back of the UR. Figures that of all things is still here. She even found one in a hell dimension, but she couldn't get inside, it had some weird barrier pass that only allowed entry to the dead that belonged there. She shakes the thoughts of hell dimensions away, though they'll likely plague her dreams. "Thank you." She responds to the clone boy. She'll never forget how good it felt to land that blow.
Crux glances at Satyrn when she speaks to him again, and opens his mouth as she drifts away. "..." He doesn't say anything snarky. Why bother? "...Live well, lady." Once they're gone he heads off on his own. Hell, where was the exit again? Well. Noone's around to witness his embarrassment if he just portals out instead of remembering how to leave. | |
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