11455/Peacekeepers: Desperation

Peacekeepers: Desperation
Date of Scene:	10 May 2020
Location:	Central Business District, New Troy
Synopsis:	Thor, Buffy and Phantasm assist Team Luthor in dealing with a combined mercenary and robotic attack on a LexTech facility, with the LexKnight providing support.
Cast of Characters:	Lex Luthor, Buffy Summers, Phantasm (Drago), Thor
Tinyplot:	Peacekeepers

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Lex Luthor has posed:
Metropolis is known for being relatively peaceful compared to its' neighbors. The hyperrail system pioneers public transport here... and behind the scenes, Lex Luthor is vigilant about maintaining 'his' cityas a bastion of prosperity, even as he keeps the underworld in an iron grip.

*BOOM!*

Tonight, explosions have shattered that peace in the beating heart of Metropolis, not even a couple miles away from LexCorp Tower itself. A LexTech complex encompassing most of a block has pre-placed C4 charges planted at the cargo bay that explode, sending massive chunks into the sky, and opening a massive hole deeper into the complex at the opposite wall into the sleek grey and white exterior. Two buses full of people in quality security gear immediately drive up to the cargo yard... and the people dash madly into cover towards both that cargo bay door and the hole itself.

Twelve and twelve race forwards. In the LexTech complex, carbines and shotguns begin blazing as meager security forces try to cut them off, only to get pinned by return fire at both the hole and the loading bay itself. A shooting standoff rapidly develops as the initial security forces are slowly pushed back, cars and various lights and signs taking damage from the firefight.

It?s obvious the attackers will win the initial engagement soon... even as security falls back with wounded and civilians scream and scatter from the sudden assault.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers was in the neighbourhood, planning on staking out Wolfram and Hart for something or other, and so when she caught wind of some terrorist attack or something going on nearby, she was already dressed in her slayer gear, complete with red leather pants and black leather jacket over a black tank top, utility belt with stakes and holy water, crossbow strapped to one arm and bladed tonfa strapped to her thighs.

She was about to search for more of those ghouls when she sees the explosion and frowns, calling for backup before nearing the building, eyeing fleeing civilians and steps towards security, scoping the place out before making a move.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Well, what a way to endcap an already busy week! If it wasn't for Buffy, Nick would not have been in Metropolis when the fan started dispersing unwanted waste. But here he is. Not exactly how he wanted to visit the city but, such is life.

With some advanced warning from the Slayer, he has pre-emptively tapped into his powers and so, the rocker has taken a much more managable size in the form of a purplish black Corvid that flies along, not quite following Buffy's route but high above, getting an arial view of the compound as they arrive. While Buffy stops, the raven continues on, circling the complex to get a general idea of what is going on.

Thor has posed:
For some reason, the weather suddenly takes a turn for the worse. Drastically worse. Unnaturally drastically worse. A thunderstorm begins to gather over Metropolis. It's rather shocking just how fast that thunderstorm gathers. Thunder booms in the sky, with flashes of lightning arcing from cloud to cloud. The wind begins to pick up rather drastically, and for sure, none of this was on the local weather report.

The weather continues to get progessively worse, as now rain falls from the sky...and it's amazing how quickly that rain peaks in intensity. Because it goes from dry as a bone to mist to rain to really hard rain at a definitely unnatural pace...

Lex Luthor has posed:
The cargo yard itself is fairly big; a necessity, considering the amount of material that the complex uses... and discards. Tests and all kinds of projects are done here, and it shows clearly from the number of cargo trucks and contained around, maintained in an orderly fashion.

Or it was orderly, before explosions and gunfire began to cause collateral damage.

One truck suddenly explodes from stray gunfire to it's fuel tank. It explodes, in dramatic fashion, sending vehicle debris everywhere.

Those outside, seeing the weather turning, begin to push into the complex proper.

Then, two more trucks can be spotted as they suddenly ram through the gates into the yard itself. Their cargo containers bounce as they speed up even *more*, heading directly for the wall between the hole and the cargo bay itself.

Seconds before impact, the drivers do a sharp turn, and they 'skid' the containers to each side, almost perfectly in line with both entries... and their doors suddenly blast open.

Out of those containers... dozens of robotic entities begin to 'crawl' out, before *snapping* into place as they go to two legs... and begin to run towards the entrance, following the mercenaries into the complex.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers blinks slowly, peering up at the sky, "Oh joy, looks like a Storm is coming." she sighs, wiping the rain out of her eyes and zips up her jacket as she nears the scene of the crime so to speak. She's not really into law enforcement but she was in the area, and is grateful for Nick's backup too, smiling and waving to the raven.

Hopefully he can give her an update later. For now she's got her eyes on the Robotic creatures..Whatever they are. Right, better stop em before they add more fuel to the fire so to speak. Buffy sprints after them, aiming a couple of crossbow bolts at their legs, hoping to trip em up or otherwise slow them down before they can reach the security guards.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
With the increase in the stormy weather, the bird's flight is oddly not too badly affected. At first. But Thor's storm is not sheerly natural and the raven does experience a bit of a drift.

Who are we kidding? When the magic boosted wind picks up, the raven ends up flipping and ends up flapping harder to right himself. "Son of a b-"

He flies down towards the ground, muttering obscenities, moving back torwards where Buffy is located. "Well so much for surveilance." He states to the Slayer. Perching upon her shoulder.

Thor has posed:
As if the weather wasn't obvious enough as to what's probably happening next, a streak of light comes down from the sky...and as that streak actually holds in place, once can see what appears to be a rainbow arcing down from the sky, into the middle of the battlefield.

It isn't long after the Bifrost makes an appearance that a certain iconic Hammer makes an appearance. With the Storm in full roar above, the lightning bolts now start streaking down from the sky. As Mjolnir flies at robots, the lightning bolts follow the hammer like it's a conducting rod, and woe to whatever poor bot happens to get hit with a lightning bolt charged hammer.

However many robots Mjolnir strikes...or doesn't strike...it finally returns to the Bifrost...and out of it step the God of Thunder, Thor Odinson, who catches the hammer as usual. Thor expects to draw the attention of pretty much all the bots, which will hopefully keep them away from Midgardians.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Mjolnir... makes an explosive entrance.

Or rather... *electric*.

A half dozen of the robotic entities... sieze up as their systems fry from the outside, in. The others? Some get hit directly, but only smoke and sieze up briefly, before continuing on.

If Thor was expecting to draw their attention... he is mistaken. Those near him change their charge and lunge for the Odinson. Those not within melee distance? They *IGNORE* Thor, and run in to support the mercenaries!

However, one of the squads turns back around and races back out of the cargo bay, aiming their rifles right for Thor... and Buffy, as they see her. Those iron bolts? They bounce right off those legs, completely ignoring them.

Inside the complex, explosions and gunfire erupt, as do screams and the sounds of people dying.

It's total chaos, inside and out.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers glances at Nick and frowns, "What's it look like up above? Any idea what they're after?" she glances back at the mercs and robots as some if them aim their gunfire towards her. Narrowing her eyes she ducks and rolls behind anything big enough to shield her. Hopefully there are dumpsters or large vehicles around.

Once she spies a clearing, she aims more of those bolts at those mercs, trying to get nearer to both mercs and bots, searching for any weak point on the robots.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"I got blown away before I could see anything worthwhile." The raven snaps. "Looks like a research place so.... I'm guessing research or a researcher." YEP. That narrows it down.

There is the odd visage of a raven riding a Slayer into battle, and perhaps, in calmer times later, the two might reflect upon the ridiculousness of the imagery. Heck, Thomas may even commission an art piece of it. But as of the moment, the bird observes the scene as Buffy leads them forward. Frowning as the bolts bounce off he launches himself off of the slayer, flying towards one of the robots adjusting his tangibility with the intent of phasing through the exterior shell.

Thor has posed:
Ya know who finds it perfectly normal to see a Raven sitting on a warrior's shoulder? Thor. His dad had his two ravens, Thought and Memory, sitting on his shoulders all the damn time.

But then, there's robots heading his way. Thor merely smiles. He's just getting warmed up. "...Have at you."

Thor spins his hammer, leaps high into the sky over the robots...as he twirls the hammer, a lightning bolt from the sky crashes right into it, and when Thor lands among the robots, the lightning explodes around him violently. And whichever robots survive that, he gleefully engaged in melee, swinging Mjolnir right and left. He is careful to make sure it's robots he's swinging at...robots are not alive, so he needn't hold back, but taking lives was frowned upon on Midgard, so he generally avoided it.

When and if Mercenaries close with the Thunder God, he notably checks his swings...he has had plenty of experience to guage what kind of hits mortals can take without dying, so he's not going to cause any accidental deaths. But if a bone or two gets broken...well, they did make the error of charging the God of Thunder.

Lex Luthor has posed:
The mercenaries don't even try to get into melee with Thor. The new model attacking Thor? He's close enough to see their body details... and he notices something odd.

Most of these entities seem to be entirely robotic, but when his lightning hits, a couple of them actually scream...

He can easily tell there are cyborgs mixed in with the robots, and adjust his aim accordingly.

Someone.... has been making Peacekeeper knockoffs. These are different from the original prototypes that went rogue, and have no shields. What they do have? Are missiles and machine guns, and those engaging Thor begin to open fire with them. It's a coordinated dance. The robots are *far* more agile than their chassis would have one believe, so they actually dodge Thors hammer occasionally. Those he hits... tend to get smashed away into the walls... only to get right back up and charge again. It's around a dozen or so engaging Thor right now, and they're holding their own, for now.

At least, until that green and purple armored suit lands at the far end of the cargo yard. Bolts of purple energy begin to fire into the melee around Thor from the palm projectors, sending the robots *SMASHING* into the wall as well, giving him support as both hand projectors begin to rapidly fire at those around him.

<<Go, I can deal with these.>>Comes the synthetic voice of whoever the pilot is, <<They're pushing inside and are killing people to progress. I'll cover you.>>

Phantasm manages to get into one of the entities... only to realize that while the majority of the one he's in is mechanical, but there are organic components; namely, the brain and a pouch of organs in the center. Of course, there are other robots around, with different looks. Maybe the others have different designs?

Buffy gets behind a container without a problem, the mercenaries aiming bursts of gunfire her way. The iron bolts do actually embed themselves into the armor and knock them over, only for another to move up to take their place as medics take care of the wound. She's at least keeping them busy, though.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers has heard of the legendary Norse god of thunder, but it's her first time seeing him in action. Needless to say, she's quite impressed, and glad he is on their side. As he charges for robots and mercs, she does the same, attempting to tear through robots with her steel blades tonfa, although they already seemed to be able to effortlessly repel her bolt attacks. Still, with any luck she may be able to tear some gaping holes in them with super strength applied to each strike.

But she focuses more on taking out the mercenaries, not killing but definitely injuring and knocking them out so she can put them out if the game if possible. And she may not be Thor level strength but her superhuman levels of strength, agility and speed are nothing to scoff at either as she does her best to keep up with merc and robot alike, not one to go down as easily as a normal human. No doubt, these robots are super agile too. Hopefully she can still get in a hit or two...

She pauses at the sight of the green and purple armoured suit guy. "Please tell me you're on our side.." though she smiles faintly as he talks to them and peers towards the interior of the building, doing her best to charge through those in her way to get there.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"The f-?" Not expecting that, the bird launches himself out of the no longer classified robot. "Cyborg!" He declares, using the only word that comes to mind to describe what he saw before diving into another design to check it.

Thor has posed:
Thor has seen that particular Green and Purple suit before. He last saw it while fighting a resident of Jotunheim, as he recalls. But then the Thunder God nods, "Very well. May your fist strike true."

And then Thor uses Mjolnir to fly inside the building where there's more people and more cyborgs...and more robots. As before, the Robots are his first priority, since he need not hold back with those. And now that he can tell cyborg from robot, he can adjust his striking power to compensate. The robots, of course, he feels confident in smashing without mercy, and if one of them dodges once in a while, he merely laughs, for he has plenty more swings where that came from. With Cyborgs, he aims for the more robotic sections, as he wishes to disable and not kill.

And since there's entirely human mercenaries inside, well, the storm is sadly outside, and he's now inside, but he's fine anyway. So he'll tell the mercenaries, "...I'll accept your surrender." They deserve at least one chance to choose wisely before they start trying to shoot him or whatever.

Lex Luthor has posed:
<<I'm here to keep this complex from suffering anymore damage.>> Comes a reply from the powered armor suit. Then, with the sounds of metal on metal and gears moving, one of the flaps on the armors shoulder deploys, aims, and fires some sort of cylinder directly into the middle of the robots. A massive high pitched sound suddenly screams into the air. Not enough to hurt... but those sensitive to sound might wince.... and a couple of the mechanical entities fall, their power sources depleted by the sudden EMP charge.

A number of the robots and cyborgs manage to stave off the EMP bomb though, and continue fighting.

Those around Buffy, however.... slow down... and the mercenaries suddenly scream as their rip their headsets off. At least four mercenaries fall to the attacks of Buffy as she charges, as they?re distracted by their gear suddenly losing all power and frying.

Then, that green suited man activates thrusters, and charges into melee. A purple plasma blade erupts from the right gauntlet, and it engages point blank with the metallic hostiles.

Seems like whoever it is... is going to keep those outside busy.

Inside? Inside is chaos. Inside... is destruction. Inside, is blood and gore and bullet holes. The sounds of gunfire can be heard deeper into the complex as Thor presses in... and about thirty seconds inward, he can see a large group of mercenaries and those robotic entities fighting in a massive battle with Team Luthor forces... who are, somehow, keeping them back. Explosions and gunfire rock both sides as grenades rock the complex and pipes rupture.

The damage... is immense.

"Get him!" One of the mercenaries says, and the robotic entities charge right for Thor. Over two dozen suddenly charge at him, blindly firing machine guns at him as a few at a time get into melee.

They may be pincered, but they don't seem to be going down without a fight.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers is thankful for the EMP bomb, at least as it fries the robots attacking her, making it easier to finish them off. The mercs are easier to handle, easier with the noise distraction and she too, follows after Thor, but pauses briefly for Nick, "Hey, mind phasing me through that gunfire? Just need to get close enough so we can get behind them..Stay close to me." and she follows after Thor, focusing again on mercs moreso than robots. Hopefully Nick will phase her out of direct gunfire though.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
As the Phantasm exits the bod- err, robot, Buffy's request reaches him. "Sure, same rules as before." He flies over, perching upon her shoulder to lend over his ability, taking away the sense of taste, touch, and smell from her but granting her something in return. "RUN. You can still strike. Just, don't look directly at the bullets."

Wait.

What?

Thor has posed:
Thor goes headfirst into battle this time, wielding Mjolnir in melee. He lays about him with powerful thunderstrokes, striking robots with furious abandon. "Indeed, this day shall not end well for foes of metal." Probably won't end well for the mercenaries either. He already told them he'd accept their surrender. Woe to them if they declined to take him up on that.

Thor swings Mjolnir in a mighty circle, and slams it into the ground, and once more, electrical energy bursts out around him, plenty to fry circuts that happen to not be shielded against ridiculous amounts of electricity.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It's actually comical, how badly the attackers suddenly lose. Between Buffy being phased *through bullets* and Thor laying the smackdown with his hammer in close quarters with Team Luthor support? Robots are annihilated, mercenaries are slowly but surely subdued or knocked out, and the cyborg variants are disabled, their torsos and heads separated from any useful movement.

Slowly but surely, the fighting slows. Thor has taken some solid hits, for sure... but he is Mighty. These knockoffs are at most half the ability of the original Peacekeeper models... and there are dozens of them about him now, like so much debris.

"Team 1, advance!" Comes a voice from across the testing lab that the two opposing forces were engaging in... and Team Luthor security begin to subdue and cuff the remaining mercenaries as Buffy and Thor flank them. "Your help is appreciated, both of you. We can take it from here." The Team Luthor Squad leader informs them.

Buffy Summers has posed:
Buffy Summers nods to Nick, sailing through bunkers while dealing out major damage to mercs and hopefully smashing a few robots as well. She grins at Nick, "Thanks for having my back, and you too, Sir.." she glances towards Thor, not sure how to address him. "I've heard of you but it's honour to finally meet you..Thor, isn't it?" she smiles, bowing her head to him.

To Team Luther she nods and steps back, letting them deal with clean up. "Glad to be of assistance."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
After Buffy's wild ride through the battle, the raven takes the pause in fighting to give a sigh before looking to Buffy. "Well, more shoulder but close enough." He jokes.

He looks to the team leader, giving a croaking sound in response to the miscount and waits for the man to walk away before looking over to Thor, lifting up a wing in greeting, "Funny meeting you here. I don't think I've seen you since that dimensional tear in Greenwich."

Lex Luthor has posed:
With the immediate threat dealt with and the mercenaries in custody, Team Luthor spreads out, handling the aftermath. In the back, near the entry, that green and purple powered armor suit comes into view, watching what's going on.

Moments later, it's thrusters engage at the feet and back... and it flies up, heading away from the complex now that the danger is passed.

Outside, the sound of police and emergency crews can be heard coming closer.

Better late than never, right?