2102/Apokolips Now: Darkseid's Last Stand

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Apokolips Now: Darkseid's Last Stand
Date of Scene: 30 September 2017
Location: Metropolis
Synopsis: The battle continues ... and the heroes rally against the monstrous threat that is Darkseid.
Thanks to: Karen Starr
Cast of Characters: Power Girl, Terra, Molly Millions, Miss America, Super-Man, Speed, Martian Manhunter, Breath, Andromeda, Thor, Armor, Surge, Crusader, Stardust, Wonder Girl, Phoenix
Tinyplot: Apokolips Now


Grace Choi (994) has posed:
    ... the hereos of the Justice League, the X-Men, Teen Titans, and others had all begun to realize, very quickly, the boasts of the Furies and Kalibak, the worry of Barda - they were not arrogant boasts. Darkseid had already left his mark on many. He'd torn the Phoenix down, manhandled the Martian Manhunter, and rebuked the God of Thunder.

    Those who had boasted of Darkseid's defeat, that they would turn him, now, face the very real mental awareness that it is they who could lose this day. It is they, who might be defeated. And, the Earth may very well come under Darkseid's heel...

    Desaad had been left dead. And Darkseid had taunted the heroes for killing a man not even in the fight, even as he prepared for victory ...

Power Girl has posed:
    Darkseid couldn't help but laugh at the name of the 'Justice League' when one of their allies killed a man that wasn't even fighting. Just about all of the defenders of earth were hurt, knocked away from the fight. He was also willing to kill them to get the vistory he seeked and enslave the rest of the populace, of burn the planet to the ground. "The high and mighty Justice League, The Avengers, the X-Men. The Justice League has proven that their brand of 'justice' means nothing. The Avengers will have nother to avenge, and the X-men are simple humans that have powers that make them only a little above normal humans. I would say come with your best.....but if that is your best, humans.....then you had better surrender now."

Terra (1034) has posed:
    It's the final battle...and the increasingly desperate fight draws everyone available to it. Even those who technically have no business getting out of bed to teleport down. Critically injured in the battle with the Furies, Terra has had only perhaps eight hours to stay in a healing coma, enough that she's at least mobile and able to breath normally again. It does nothing for the pain, and the bandages that slather her left side that are visible under her costume definitly suggest she's still hurt, even if she wasn't moving a bit stiffly.

    But she didn't volunteer to be a champion of Strata to sleep through the final fight, when every hand is needed.

    So, Terra is here, arriving in a flash of teleportation from where she was recovering at the Watchtower with other fallen heroes and heroines, the ground starting to tremble as she limps forward, then inhales, wincing, before she focuses, a platform of rock rising up under her to float into the air, with others pulling free to rotate around her, reforming into shields. Other start to twist and grind, becoming long lances of stone and metal, until the young geokinetic is at the center of a rotating system of shields and spears

    "We are not done yet." Terra says, determination in her eyes. "And you are still not welcome here."

Molly Millions has posed:
Molly, at least, had so far managed to survive essentially unscathed. The lean woman in black, whose 'costume' consists of black street clothes, a bandanna tied around her face and a pair of silver lenses, is currently perched on one of the lower local buildings, with a sniper rifle. She'd be the one responsible for Desaad, the bullet-shaped hole through his head sort of the give-away for that. Oops. She's not bothering to try and aim at Darkseid again in favor of hunkering down where she is, the feed of a drone overlaying the view from inside her lenses.

The drone, matte black metal and red LED 'eye', in the form of a backpack-sized metal spider is currently making its way down the building and over to the corpse of the clone of the clone of the ad nauseum of Darkseid's majordomo. There might be some small traces of apologetic guilt there, that the more visible people are getting tarred with the fallout of her actions... but it doesn't make her opt to stand up and draw attention to herself from the grey-skinned guy with the omega beamy destructiveness.

Miss America has posed:
    The Phoenix. The manifestation of that raptor of pure, psycho-cosmic flame is enough to draw even America Chavez to a pause after she impacts the Dark God; the bird reflects in her dark gaze for the precious handful of seconds before it actually detonates and leaves Jean flying. "... Tch," she grunts out, brows furrowing faintly. All that, and it was just enough to barely deter. To lessen.

    It's a second's worth of critical reflection about their situation that costs America in the long run. In one precious second, she gets to be introduced to Thor in a very direct way. Invulnerable Asgardian meets invulnerable Utopian in a runaway superdense collision; the CRACK of impact resounds like a peel of thunder as America is shot out of the air.

    Little known fact: Being hit by a god wielding another god like a baseball bat?

    Hurts, just a little.

    CHOOM!

    The sound of her screaming collision with the devastated street reverberates through the earth in a tremendous shockwave, concaving everything beneath that impact point for dozens of feet around its epicenter. Street and concrete crack and fall, tumbling over America and burying her in her own, self-made debris much like the God of Thunder.

    When she -smashes- her way out of that pile of rubble, blowing it away from all around her, her clothes are a mess, dust caking her hair and sweat-smeared skin. Blood rolls down the corner of the invulnerable superwoman's lip -- a coppery tang at the tastebuds of her tongue that she hasn't tasted in a long, long time. She looks upward, staring balefully cold at the New God of Apokolips. She bites the inside of her cheek, feeling the painful sting of bruises and symphony of a rib now broken demanding attention across her nervous system.

    "... Yeah. I'll get right on feeling bad for the asskisser of a genocidal asshole," she spits, as she drags herself back onto her feet, and looks around. Fighting, but scattered, injured, struggling... and with no apparent strain on the part of Darkseid. She listens to the Phoenix's mental assessment.

    "Dammit," she mutters, half to herself, feeling the fire stoked within her, brown eyes rolling Thor's way. "Hey. Thunder God. Gonna try and give you an opening. Make this pendejo eat dirt."

    With that? She -lunges- forward, starting to kick and throw titanic chunks of rubble from the wreckage of the building Darkseid's way with the velocities of runaway meteors, one after the other in rapid succession. Thrown strong enough, fast enough, to damage -- but also, mainly, to distract. To eat his attention, hopefully just long enough to matter.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan has been making his way through the underground...the sewer pipes and utility tunnels under the city. He was using his X-ray vission to locate Darkseid and reach a point rirectly below him. The power stomp he did cracked the pipes and sent some pieces falling near Kenan, but he finally has reached the right place. Kenan puts all his power into his hands, granting him immense strength, and slams upwards, thrusting the earth and stone into the grey alien from below with enough force to wreck a skyscraper.

Speed has posed:
It was all going to be so simple, he was just going to make a run to Metropolis and make some cash, forget this hero business. It didn't work out that way. After that first battle there were these kids that needed help and then another thing came up and then another until he was running to a battle with a fricking giant and bunch of heroes he'd only heard about and a lot of others he hadn't. But hey, if they couldn't pull it out of the fire, it wouldn't matter how far or how fast Speed could run.

He zooms into the scene of the battle coming to a skidding halt when he sees Darkseid, his eyes go wide. "Damn, they weren't joking about the giant part," he breathes.

Glancing around to well, anyone who might have an answer, he asks "So, what's the game plan?" even as Darkseid makes his boast.

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    J'onn stands as tall as Darkseid, his bruised face quickly healing before the tyrants eyes, to the gathered heroes the Martian's voice sounds in their heads <Remember what the Phoenix said earlier. Speed is the Key against him.> His red eyes take in those that have gathered to fight this impossibly strong opponent. "Well Darkseid, it seems you have not been able to send any of us off yet. I believe you love the sound of your own voice."

    "Your words are empty..." J'onn floats to the ground, and moves in the direction of Darkseid, "...Shall we continue our dance?" Then he adds to the assembled heroes mentally, <Remember his Eye Beams. They are incredibly powerful.> The Martian Manhunter stops an arms distance from their foe.

Breath has posed:
Breath just wanted to stay at home. Why protect the world when it doesn't even like her? Then she thought about the people close by, and now? She is here. And she knows that she can't make a difference to this fight, not really. But she knows that she's a part of the team. She's not going to win any medals for this. She's not getting into the news. In all likelyhood, people are going to remember her as being useless. But darn it, she's going to help those people who CAN be cheered by the news as much as she can!

Nonetheless, she stays behind buildings. Out of sight. Out of the main fight. And listens and watches to see what the heroes are going to do, and where she might actually be able to apply her little bit of leverage. If anywhere.

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel picked herself up from the ruins of a building she had been knocked into by Darkseid's handclap. She hadn't taken much damage from the fight so far - he had mostly ignored her, but she wasn't going to let that happen much longer.

    Still, she checked herself quickly for damage she hadn't expected, and not really finding any she took to the air again. She noted America tossing rubble at the Apokalyptian, so this seemed an opportunity - Laurel blurred out, accelerating to top speed in an instant, a sonic boom exploding the remaining windows nearby - she intends to hit Darkseid in the knee she lasered earlier, hopefully a weak spot in the back of his leg. She'll be going fast too. Very fast. Perhaps a little heat vision to herald her appearance too?

Thor has posed:
The last of the ongoing battle had seen the God of Thunder flung into some far-off building, and not for the first time in the course of the fight. Although it was the first time he was used as a convenient bludgeon in the process. In either case, it's surely a routine that is growing a little frustrating for mighty Thor. One might even make the brief mistake of thinking him out of the fight, burried in a collapsed building... although that would suggest a fairly limited knoweldge of his durability and sheer stubborn tenacity.

Despite the structure's collapse, proof of the Asgardian's continued stubborn endurace is heralded by the faithful return of Mjolnir, the hammer flying back from its prior use in the midst of Darkseid's attack on Jean, smashing into the pile in its unerring mission to seek out its proper wielder. Moments later, it blasts upward, dragging that wielder behind it, lifting Thor free of the pile of rubble and debris with an explosion of the same.

Moments later, he is hurtling back toward the fight, even as the stormclouds rumble above, although, at least for the moment, their power seems somewhat expended, so much having been used in the failed team up of the Thunder deities with Cassie. Thus, for once, his return is not entirely a hurtling charge into the midst of battle. For once, the Thunder God pauses to... consider the situation. Perhaps this itself is a sign of the seriousness of things, that bravado and raw force for once fail him, though it also speaks to the greater depth of the power at the Asgardian's disposal. Eventually, he hangs in the air some distance from J'onn, as they try and formulate a plan.

<< If he can vanish at a whim, even Mjolnir's speed, which is the stuff of stars in flight, is not enough to strike him. We must reduce his abilities, somehow. Perhaps I can contain him... though it will leave me disarmed for the fight itself. A proper brawl. >>

Armor has posed:
IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY, EARLIER

'He is the Tiger-Force at the edge of the universe.' (Or was it center? Hisako can't quite recall what Illyana said.)

'His power is mighty.'

Hisako Ichiki stares dead ahead at the horizon.

I wonder what it says about me, Hisako thinks, that even now that I cried the frightened tears, what I really want is to prove them wrong. Wrong? I don't know if that's the right word.

Hisako looks at her unremarkable hand, the skin on the back still untanned from Magi(k)cal healing.

NOW

A Stepping Disk discharges two women near Speed. One of them, Hisako, looks right at him. "Hey," she tells Speed. "I'm gonna try to beat his ass because I can take it." At this point she hears J'onn's instruction, nods to herself, and then looks at Noriko, who - perhaps annoyingly to Speed - Hisako addresses in Japanese.

"<I'm going to go be stupid. I don't think it'll work, but look for an opening. I can take a couple of hits. Thanks for everything.>" Then she smiles, takes a deep breath, and red light forms around her - it is not as dramatic as it might be, just sort of pouring up around her legs and reaching her head. It's kind of tight and slim today, with protruberant swept-back V-locks on the top of the head.

Armor looks forwards. AND

LEAPS under the cover of thrown shrapnel, legs windmilling as she throws herself forwards, watching Darkseid with a pounding heart. She tries to clamp down on the terror, and as explosions and sonic booms start echoing, she SLAMS her fist down on the residual pavement as if to say: 'hi there!'

Tiger-Force at the edge of the universe, or something, Hisako thinks. She drags her head up by main force. How many people has he already killed.

"Heard you were talking shit," Armor says to Darkseid. Then she goes for a low straight at his abdomen with a sudden ragged shout, even as her eyes detect the blurring form of Laurel - his leg? No time to think about it, Armor decides, before shouting in the face of the tyrant despite the tremble she's confining to the small of her back, "GET OFF MY PLANET!"

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida had responded to a call for reinforcements, hopping down from the stepping disk next to Hisako, arcs of electricity crackling across her power gauntlets. ...This is bad. Really bad. Can't show that though. And at least they're not alone on this one.
     Surge grits her teeth, staring up at him defiantly. Hopefully someone's playing mental relay... <Keep going fast. Got it> And then to Armor, "<You set him up, I'll knock him down.>" As the fight starts, she disappears into a streak of blue light and sparks, circling around behind Darkseid and tossing crackling bolts of lightning at him.

Crusader has posed:
The rubble of rocks that was on top of Crusader shifts several times before going still for a few moments more. Soon enough what appears to be liquid metal seems to flow through the rocks and reforms ontop of them Crusader standing tall as he rises with the other Heros of earth

Soon enough he sends a message over the mental link <<"If One can get closed enough - one may be able to help Restrain and reduce his abilities...or at the very least give you a marker">> he broadcasts.

He rises into the air and soon enough joins the other flyers in heading towards DarkSied, clearly with a purpose to help take him down and out. But he knew that wouldn't be easy <<"But whatever we do....we cannot faulter!">>

Stardust has posed:
So it's come to this. Final battle time. Time for the strongest of the strong to stand up and protect the world. Some rather less strong such as Stardust have settled for fighting the occasional parademon up to now, but maybe now it's time to throw in everything? Particularly for a part-time Titan who knows her friend Cassie is in the middle of that battle.

^^This is a bad idea.^^ The thought isn't hers, it's a mind that inhabits hers, and grants her some limited power. As she flies towards the battle, she argues, internally. "It's necessary," she thinks in response. ^^You're not ready for this. I could switch off your powers to stop you.^^ the voice replies. "Then I'll walk." So the argument is won, but that voice inside her head is not happy with this. On the other hand if that voice inside her head /did/ believe Stardust to be 'ready' then it might be granting her enough power to be of real use. Instead it sighs mentally to itself, and gets ready to channel power into protecting its headstrong host.

Stardust flies in through looming, dusty, stormclouds, and the as the fight finally comes into her view she, pulls up, floating. Maybe the voice was right; doubts assail her. She looks at the stolen parademon spear she's holding, then looks at the distant figure of Darkseid and those fighting him, and lets the spear drop onto the rooftop below her. "Don't bring a table knife to a nuke fight, huh? Oh well, there's got to be something I can do..."

^^I recommend turning back.^^

"Oh shut up."

Wonder Girl has posed:
Cassie fortunately made it through the last round of fighting without (for once!) getting thrown through a building herself. Blasted by a big old shock-wave, sure, but on the scale of colossal smashery, she can handle that, tough little demigoddess that she is.

The bigger problem is that all of her own best efforts to this point had amounted to nothing, even those in concert with the other heroes presence. The empty noose of her lasso, hanging limp near one hand, is proof of that failure. They'd had the bastard right in their sights and... nothing. She doesn't even like calling on her family for favors, and that had been a big one, all amounting to a big pile of squat. This has left the Wonder Girl a bit frustrated, as one might imagine. On one hand, that's good, because she tends to be stronger when she fights angry.

On the other hand... it leads to some real bonehead decisions. Like right about now, she's in the process of making one. Well, technically, she started making that bad decision a few hours before she showed up. Shhh.

For now though, she sees some of the others forming up, so she's not about to lead the charge in ahead of the Thunder deity that isn't her dad. She spots Colette joinin the fray and moves over to hang near by. "Hey, welcome to the party. Except there's no mustard pizza and the host is a real dick. Also... he teleports and has bendy-lasers. Just FYI."

Power Girl has posed:
    "The air you push is nothing but lies, Martian. You and your friends, like many others, will fail, and your adopted world shall fall. I have given you the option to surrender....and the offer is still there." Darkseid is looking at the martian, so he's rather taken by surprised when Terra attacks with pointy rocks, and followed by Laurel and Armor and America's attacks actually knock him a little off balance.

But a distant sonic boom heralds a much larger surprise.

Seemingly in slow motion a trail of blonde and white appears when Darkseid in knocked off balance, and using both hands, Power Girl connects with a rather wicked uppercut that, instead of rocking Darkseid......knocks him nearly into orbit with a rather substantial shockwave. "Asshole."

Once Darkseid in temporarily out of sight.....karen uses her heat vision to make an 'X' on the ground....where he'll land. "Well....we've got a couple of minutes before he lands....and it should be right around where the X is. I'm not going to cushion his fall....."

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    J'onn re-establishes the mental link to all those battling Darkseid that wishes to participate. The request will come as a tingle in their mind, and once they are connected they can coordinate with all the others with but a thought. To the group of heroes, J'onn adds <Our goal should not be to beat him into submission but to remove him as a threat. If we can send him back to his Planet by forcing him through a portal, then close it, we may be able to lock down his ability to open additional portals on Earth.>

    J'onn was ready for the fight to begin, and he got exactly what he wanted with Darkseid monologuing. Even better when he senses and feels the presence of Karen coming in. His eyes drift up as their enemy flies off, "Well Played, Power Girl." J'onn says outloud, "We can attempt to keep him contained while someone can work on a portal off of Earth. I have yet to discover a weakness from him..."

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra withdraws her stone as she sees the blur coming in, making a clear path for Power Girl to slam straight into him as she shades her eyes as Darkseid goes waaaaaaaaaaaay up...out of sight for the moment. "Very nice hit!" Terra exclaims, grinning fiercely, then hmms. "Well...if he's not able to fly...then..."

    Those violet eyes sharpen as the Stratan focuses, flattening out a hand as she concentrates. The ground starts to shake, before the ground drops at the indicated spot, forming a neat square a good thirty meters by thirty meters, the X a good thirty down, providing a nice 'fish in a barrel' style place for everyone to aim.

    This is followed by the ground shaking as spikes of rock start shooting upwards, extending a good fifteen feet in the air...from the floor, from the sides...until it looks like a giant stone sarlaac waiting for Darkseid's return, the spikes trembling with readiness as they all point at the X. "...ready..." Terra says, her voice a bit strained as she holds it.

Crusader has posed:
Crusader looks up and than at Karen "One will" he broadcast over the connection. That exactly what he needs to get up close and personal. The large being jumps into the outlined 'X' and liquifies before becomming invisible. Even if Darkseid simply stops short of landing, he should be to grasp onto the the figure "One will attempt to immobalize him alongside Thor through alternate method....so Do one a Favor and do punch him off course from this spot"

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan was getting ready to strike, but sees Power Girl hit Darkseid first. He switches to invulnerability and waits...he is sure that the alien will impact HARD unless something stops him. Plenty of time for a surprise attack after he comes down. And he should be able to tell when he hits...

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida jinks to one side to dodge the incoming Kryptonian, skidding to a stop and looking up as the invader disappears into the distance. "...Huh. Thor, if I start to slow down, charge me back up, okay? LIke, not a /direct/ hit, but..." She shrugs, twisting a few knobs on her power gauntlets, ready to give it all she's got as soon as Darkseid lands.

Miss America has posed:
    A proper brawl. America Chavez watches Darkseid rocket skywards. Her hands clench into dangerous fists.

    {{Just how I like it.}}

With Darkseid removed from the playing field for the time being, America takes a moment to take stock of her surroundings. The environment, buildings -- how much has been ruined, versus how much more will be before this day is over. Things she can use to her advantage in this fight.

    The girl from outside space and time looks towards the rest of those assembled. Familiar faces, some in more ways than one -- and some unfamiliar. Her brows furrow. Her muscles tense. Bloodied and bruised and all fired up; she's as ready as she can be. Ready to fight as hard as she can.

    {{Keep 'em locked down, Thunder God. We'll do what we gotta.}}

    Until she gives her last drop.

Armor has posed:
Hisako wonders to herself how those eye beams will feel. Concussive force? Like the burning blast of Mad Harriet? A horrible cold? Simple death and annihilation, an unholy nirvana thrust upon her b-

fweeeeeeeeeee FWAM

Armor slowly straightens up.

"That was awesome," she tells Power Girl, eyes wide. Then she looks upwards, wary of parting eye beams.

Her Armor vanishes because if they have like two minutes she's going to relax for a moment. Her cheeks puff out and she sweeps a hand through her bangs, before calling over, "Surge! Actually hold on."

She waves her arms around a little. "Can any of you like -- make that a super-tough spike or something for him to land on? I know that's super unfair but this guy's invading Earth and I guess he can't fly!"

Thor has posed:
Whatever Thor was planning, as he begins to whip Mjolnir around his head in an arc of gradually increasing speed...

...well, he pauses, or at least merely keeps swinging it around at normal speed, when a zoom of motion appears and the dude gets punched into orbit. The Asgardian glances up, perhaps watching his progress, before turning a glance toward the woman responsible for the blow.

"Fair lady, thou must be another of the sun-warriors of Krypton," he announces, once her eye-beams mark her as another of that identifiable bunch. "Is there cause, even, to allow the monster to return here? If we can take the fight beyond the firmament of Midgard, then we ought do so. Much harm may yet be done to this world and its mortal inhabitants."

Naturally, Thor is totally up to fight the guy in space! Nevermind that not everyone can just randomly decide they want to go to space! Still, he glances side to side among his fellows, and particularly again toward J'onn, with whom he is not being a bit more tactical in the planning of their collective efforts. < Mine hammer can open gateways, although Darkseid's realm seems a... most distant one, from what little mine father's eye was able to show me. Or I might create a zone where certain power would be contained, but I know not how this might affect a being such as he. >

All of this said, the Thunder God remains ready to strike if Darkseid truly does plummet back to Midgard in such... predictable fashion.

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel blinks as PG appears and knocks the seemingly into orbit. She simply can't believe it... the thunder god, an Amazon, a Daxamite, a Martian, a Utopian... none of these people could even cause the lord of evil to pause, let alone knock him off his feet. "And I thought I was as strong as a Kryptonian?" she tells herself. "What is she?" she wonders.
    She sighs in relief. "Well, we're going to win for sure now. Maybe the rest of us can take the rest of the day off?" she calls towards Karen with a grin.

Speed has posed:
Over J'onn's mental link Speed asks <Wait? Me? Oh, you meant speed not Speed, heh. Okay when you guys get a plan let me know if I can help > Then there are Japanese girls appearing and it seems like one of them has a plan. "Be my guest," he says to Armor before the conversation switches to Japanese and he turns to watch the fight. There was a lot of power here a lot. He stifles crushes down the nervous twitch in his legs along with the urge to turn and run, "Nowhere to go remember," he tells himself.

Whatever the girls were saying is done and they're gone. He makes himself breath deep again before he sprints in after them coming to a halt when Power Girl arrives punching Darkseid into wherever he takes a moment to watch, looking skyward with an amazed grin on his face. "Cool," he says before zipping to the group gathered around the alien's intended landing zone. He shakes his head to Armor. "Nah, but if someone can make one, I can make it blow up when he lands on it."

Armor has posed:
"Yes, exactly like that, awesome!" Hisako says, seeing belatedly that Terra had the same brainwave as her, but better and also able to actually do it. Terra gets enthusiastic thumbs up.

After this she sort of tapers off for the moment.

Stardust has posed:
"Teleports and has bendy lasers," Colette repeats with a raised eyebrow and a wave to Cassie. "Yeah, I think Star's mustard pizzas sound like they would be more fun. How do we defeat bendy lasers? Funhouse mirrors?"

  Colette no, fun is over, back to Stardust bobs in the air in surprise at the arrival of Power Girl and her uppercut. "Yeah," she drawls to Cassie. "Not sure I'm going to be much use here, but I came. Extra target or something. Actually..."

Stardust darts down and recovers the parademon spear she'd dropped earlier, then darts in to the X and jams it in the ground amid Terra's spikes of rock, pointing up, and backs off again with a shrug. Hey, one more spike can't hurt.

  Yeah even she's not taking that too seriously.

Unknown to Stardust, the Starstrider Complexus she is host to is arguing with itself. Sub-personalities split and join into factions of thought, power-blocs of point of view, an internal debate that rapidly coalesces into two 'voices'

This matter is too serious to stand by. We exist to fight such battles.

There will be more battles to come. We cannot risk the host.

We should take the host over and fight. We might tip the balance. To refuse is to gamble with this planet.

- To engage is to gamble with the future. This planet is well defended. The host not ready. Overruled.

Breath has posed:
Breath nods at the voice. "Okay." She's.. kind of good at 'push', but nowhere near as good as the Ms. Punch Into Orbit types. Instead she starts looking at the other junk and debris in the area. Cars, pipes, debris.. She picks up a rock and starts wrapping some napkins around it, then starts dragging a chunk of water pipe into position. She stuffs the rock into the pipe and turns the whole thing towards the X. She mutters to herself, "Okay, so this is, like, a really stupid idea. Just, you know, let me know if there's anything I can do that's not a total waste of time."

Wonder Girl has posed:
Obviously, everyone is just totally ready to charge in and pound the guy, Cassie included... before he gets his ticket to orbit punched, so to speak. She looks to the woman responsible, and up into the sky, then back to Karen with a certain awe but then kind of glances around uncertainly. They've tried a good bit of casual punching so far, and it didn't exactly seem like it was doing a lot of good.

"So like, what's the plan here? We all just pounce him when he hits X-marks-the spot?"

For Colette, she doesn't have any good answers really. "I dunno. They seem to zig-zag around anyone who tries to block them. I've got a plan but uh... it does kinda rely on hitting him. We tried lassoing the jerk, and even double-teamed with Thor for like SUPER lightning, but he just vanished right out of the thing."

Really, all she can do is wait with the others. Though the moment of 'breather time' DOES grant her a second to do something, reaching around behind her back to a pack she wears. The sword and shield are still hanging on it, but that's not what she goes for, instead fishing around inside.

Thus continues her somewhat bad idea plan!

Phoenix has posed:
Half-buried somewhere near the Hall of Justice, the dented Daily Planet globe stirs, and the earth surrounding it trembles.

{{I'm going to assist with laying a distraction to occupy him upon his landing,}} Phoenix transmits as rubble - drawn both from that which is strewn about the street and from buildings which a brisk scan assures her have already been emptied - breaks off and snaps towards the Hall, where it orbits the globe, growing increasingly, neckbreakingly swift. Jets of flame arc between rubble chunks, and as they whip themselves into an earthen tornado, the globe ripples, then unwinds itself until it resembles a mesh more than anything, still floating at the eye of the Phoenix's telekinetic storm.

{{And then, I'm going to provide him with an object lesson in what 'simple humans' are capable of.}} Arcing flames coalesce into a single, massive column consuming every bit of collected wreckage for several seconds more as burning wings tear across the astral plane with a piece of her consciousness cradled lovingly.

When they finally subside, they reveal a glistening, 8' facsimile of Phoenix rendered in miraculously reinforced steel and stone, complete with a bird-shaped hole across its torso. The statue merely looms for a beat, only for the fires in its chest to ignite once the astral package reaches its mark.

{{Jean Grey of Earth,}} she whispers as life floods its eyes and it raises its chin, {{wake up-- there's work yet to be done.}}

This elicits-- a gasp from earthen lips, followed by a shocked moment of staring down at rebar and steel fingers, after which it-- she-- gives a slow, creaking headnod before stomping towards the 'X' while balling her fists.

{{What'd I--}} Jean transmits before stopping herself to simply think, {{-- hokay-- so, T-minutes what until Fuckface lands?}}

Molly Millions has posed:
{{His man has a device on him.}} Molly's mental voice is slow and precise, endeavoring to project in unfamiliar ways to her. Though her silver lenses are turned towards the X on the ground, her attention is on the drone as it endeavors to divest Desaad's body of devices,{{Perhaps how they open the portals?}}

Her rifle is absently stowed as she straightens from her spot, stuck with the way unflashy way of getting down the building commonly known as tying off a rope and rappelling her way down she drops down to street level to trot over in the direction of the body,{{ I'll try to work out how it works.}} added on as she does so.

Power Girl has posed:
    "He doesn't react to anything but brute force." Power Girl says to Cassie. "And don't pull your punches with him. Punch through him." She then smirks at Cassie. "Or cut throguh him. That might work." She then looks to Thor. "You'd be.....mostly right, Thor. I'll explain later." She says looking up into the sky and.....seeming to track his flight up....and the beginning of his flight down. "I'd move from that spot, Crusader. I want him to impact. After he hits.....then you can wrap him up......then everyone can hit him with everything they have......" She then looks to Thor. "And...I don't want you opening a portal Asgard, so he can possibly take it over and come back."

She then looks to Molly and smirks. "That's the perfect idea." She then ponders.....and writes something down.

No, don't ask where the notepad came from.

"Once you figure it out....use these coordinates, but don't open it until we're able to wear him down."

Gee...someone has confidence.

Still in orbit, Darkseid actually rubs his face.....and a little bit of blood off of his lip. Power Girl DID hit him that hard, after all. It was then that his descent began........

Martian Manhunter has posed:
"The ability to lock him down so that we can minimize collateral damage is certainly a priority. Those who are capable of taking sustained punishment from him should be the ones that focus on controlling his movements. The rest can focus on keeping him off balance with coordinated attacks..."

    His mind reaches out to the extended group, <Thor, if you think you can help lock him down then that would be preferable...> Then he hear's Molly's thoughts <..we could use their own device to open a port to send him back. Perhaps with that device we can also learn how to disable their transportation system.> A mental thanks is sent Molly's way.

    Looking to Karen, he says, "You and I can attempt to keep his attention. I am sure he will be upset with both of us when he lands. We are also the ones most likely able to survive a prolonged fight in close quarters with him."

    His red eyes look up again, focusing on the falling figure, "If anyone has any additional suggestions I am open. We will need to work together for this to work. Are we ready?>

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra says, a bit worriedly. "Um...if he's going to hit at terminal velocity and he's a lot more dense than most things hitting from that height would be....it's...probably going to be very explosive?

Armor has posed:
Hisako's armor reconstitutes itself in reply to Terra.

"Should I punch him up or down?" she asks aloud. (Jean - Phoenix - whoever, her superior mutant officer, gets the same question along with a telepathic emotional burst to the general effect of 'oh thank god')

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida <<Oh thank god, Jean's here.>> She nods at Terra's comment. "...Good point. I should probably find some cover. But yeah, I can hold a lot of power, but only for a little bit. If Thor charges me right before he lands, I can discharge right away. If he's blinded by all of that, the rest of you guys can hit him while he's disoriented."

Crusader has posed:
"How about One outlines it instead" Crusader replies back simply

The liquid metal flows out of the 'X' and instead forms a large ring around it so that Darksied can make proper impact "Once he lands...One will attempt to ensnarl his legs and keeps his torso and head open for other strikes" he broadcast over the telepathic link. Hopefully that will give them something to work with

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan thinks through the telepathic link, (So far, our opposition has shown no signs of enhanced senses. He also has a humanoid form, he might possibly be vulnerable to attacks from places he can not see and hear. If something can be done to stop his teleporting, this might be an advantage.) He adds after a thought, (His energy beams...if those of us with heat vision and the like all ues beams of energy at his eyes, do you think it might block them?)

Molly Millions has posed:
"Right." Molly agree's as she snags the paper from Power-Girl and keeps moving, because she's got no interest in being anywhere near that 'X' when he hits the spot. Especially when Terra makes note of 'explosion', the lean woman picking up the pace to join her drone and collect the device. The nearest... mostly structurally sound structure, gets to be the place she ducks in to and hunkers down for a crash course in alien tech.

For the moment at least the cyborg's mental voice falls silent, she might be looped in on the chatter but her focus is entirely on trying to fathom the device's function without just randomly button mashing until something happens. A little smudge hoping she hasn't picked somewhere too dangerous hopefully unnoticeable except to those sensitive enough to pick up on the quiet mental chatter of her brain as she works on a portal out for their unwelcome 'guest'.

Miss America has posed:
    And America? She just shoves her hands into the mostly in-tact depths of her red hoodie's pockets. She fishes around for a bit, before producing a single stick of Doublemint Bubblegum.

    And then she just pops it into her mouth and chews at it mildly as she watches a Phoenix of steel and stone and astral flame make itself known.

    "Yep," she says to no one in particular, rolling her neck with a crack. "Time to maximize the badass for the end times. Let's do this."

    And so, America waits, blowing a minty-fresh bubble as Darkseid begins his descent.

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra looks over at those who seem to be heading for cover, then focuses, as thick rock and stone blast shields burst up out of the ground near them, providing them with safe places to shelter. Bunkers, almost, if crude ones.

Phoenix has posed:
{{I'm going to gather a portion of the collective psychic energies of every mutant mind on Earth,}} Phoenix offers, as if describing the process she'd use to make a salad, or parallel park a car, {{and use them to mount an offensive directly upon the seat of his consciousness. This should render him susceptible to whatever further punishments you wish to visit upon him, as well as provide extra time to find a way to remove him from this planet for good.}}

To Hisako, she simply states, {{Whichever direction would give you the most satisfaction,}} before falling silent, pressing her fingers to either temple, letting out a slow, bracing breath--

-- and then allowing her consciousness to expand, focusing intently upon emptying herself of everything save for her determination to protect the planet, and allowing the link - which seems to lose clarity in short order - to persist, a tiny corner of her brain remaining dedicated to processing it.

In a matter of heartbeats, the other mutants present on the field feel a tingling warmth radiating from their crown chakras through the rest of their bodies as the Phoenix takes the first steps towards mounting her final assault.

Thor has posed:
"I can open gateways elsewhere, my lady," Thor does point out to the Kryptonian. "I would not expect my family to fight on my behalf. But if thine intention is to use his own portal against him," and the hammer-hanging Thunder God glances down to Molly as she begins to put whatever plan she has in place, "then I shall use the hammer to restrain his powers otherwise. Perhaps this shall prevent him from avoiding our attacks in the way he did once before."

The plan that Thor hints at is unveiled moment by moment, as he begins to swing Mjolnir around his head in a wider circle, somewhat like the motion often seen when he hangs from the hammer in the air, but larger and more exaggerated. This continues, accelerating to a rapid blur, the hammer's path as wide as the reach of his own arm... and then beyond.

Of course, this doesn't mean his arm should stretch, or the hammer likewise, but rather that he finally gives flight to it, releasing Mjolnir from his hand with a powerful final whipping motion of his arm. And though a normal object would simply sail outward on a single, straight trajectory at whatever point he released it... Mjolnir is about as far from a 'normal object' as one could find.

Released from his hand, the hammer continues its circular path, orbitting Thor at a rapid speed. This path begins to grow outward, and yet despite the greater distance traveled every moment the diameter of its path widens, it never loses speed. After several moments, the hammer can no longer be seen at all, creating a whirling boundary at the edge of all the heroes, a circular arena of sorts around them, with the 'X' at its center. A few buildings might get totalled in the process... but they were probably gonna end up that way anyway.

"When he falls, I shall seal the circle into a dome, and hopefully, this Darkseid of Apokolips will not so easily be able to slip our grips again!"

Stardust has posed:
"It would be nice if terminal velocity really were terminal in this case," Stardust observes, "but it's slow enough that it shouldn't be very explosive. More thump than boom."

Stardust, lacking much in the way of an obvious method of attack other than say throwing stones very hard, hovers ready to be a distraction, more than anything else. She does at least do pretty well on the resilience front. "Someone's got his portal device?" she muses. "So maybe open a portal where he's about to land, that opens out at another portal just above it so he just keeps falling in an eternal loop? Then we could like take turns in kicking him each time he flies past. What, did nobody else remember that old game?"

Speed has posed:
Speed withdraws to what he guesses a safe distance zooming to stand next to America. "Not sure if you're going with the whole throwing rocks thing again, but if you are, I can make them explode," he offers, talking fast, then adding. "And you can throw bigger ones than I can. If not. Got an extra piece of that gum? Got nothing else to do."

Breath has posed:
Breath gets behind cover, abandoning the pipe.. thing for the moment. She finds a container of table salt and stuffs that in the pipe too, because hey, why not? And some pepper too! And some hot pepper! Because hey, if there's an abandoned restaurant here, why not? There's obviously some sort of thought involved in this bit of silliness, but not even she seems to think it's a very good plan. She turns the pipe so that she can be behind a corner as she does this.

She blinks at the weird feeling in her head. "Oooo-kaay. Girl, haven't you ever heard of consent? Jeez. Whatever, I mean, go ahead, but you could at least ask first..." Hmph. She's not actually all that angry, it's just kind of creepy when people do stuff like that so *casually*.

Wonder Girl has posed:
"So your plan is that... I just wait and hit him?" Cassie blinks once or twice at the simplicity of it all. But you know what? Simple works. "Cool. I can totally do that."

She's still using the moment's pause in the combat for her... wardrobe change? She's slipped something from her pack onto her arms, in place of her normal bracers, as handy as those are. These, unlike the pure silvery sheen of the normal pair, with their distinctive star shaped markings, are gold, a little shorter in length, but with a loop that extends further up the arm. They look, well, vaguely Greek-ish, of course. Once she's got them on, she cracks her knuckles. "Diana might be a little mad, but this is going to be freaking epic."

The thing that makes her *second* time 'borrowing' the Gauntlets of Atlas from Diana such a terrible idea is that she has no clue just how strong they'll make her, now. The first time she wore them, she was a mortal twelve year old and managed to help fight a clone of Doomsday. This time, she's totally unprepared for just how strong they're going to make her.

Still, it's go time. Once she's got them on, she goes for the sword and shield as well. Full Amazon mode, engage. "I uh..." Collete's idea seems cool but she has no clue how to pull something like that offf. "I'm just gonna do what the lady who punched him into space said and stab him really, REALLY hard."

Power Girl has posed:
    "Just saying, Thor, I'm just going to need your hard hitting talents, along with Cassie's, J'onn's and others who can actually take a hit from him as a bit of a distraction while she...." Power Girl points to Molly. "Figures out the device. If the hard hitters hang back.....well...you saw what happened to her." And she points to Jean. "We have to keep him distracted from her and the rest."

It's only then the fireball that is Darkseid arcs down and......impacts the exact spot Power Girl indicated, even leaving a small crater. Power Girl actuall waves away the dust so she can see.....but what most of everyone else can see is RED....then Power Girl Screaming from intense pain. Whomever is mentally connected with Power Girl will feel intense pain.....from Darkseid's Omega Beam. "Well well. Another Kryptonian. I am not surprised to see you here....." He says as he emerges from the dust......

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida pops up as soon as the shrapnel stops flying, unloading everything she has in a crackling bolt of energy straight at Darkseid's face. Some battery life in the area may suffer, and emergency generators chug harder under the load. Surrounded by a coruscating blue corona, she glares up defiantly, ready to move as soon as his eyes start to glow. <<If Anyone's got spare charge, I could use it right about now!>>

Crusader has posed:
Crusader quickly reacts and he flows in on Darkseid. He quickly flows up over Darksied legs, trying to encase and immobalize him for the other to go to town on. Other tendrills snake up and attempt to constrict Darksied arms and even throat, anything to try and annoy him "Hit him now, hit him hard!"

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra doesn't hesistate as Power Girl screams out....she focuses...and the entire hole around Darkseid snaps shut like a beartrap, razor sharp rocks slamming into him from all sides, angled downwards to push him towards the spikes that remain on the ground under him. She's not expecting it'll penetrate, necessarily...but it'll certainly force him to expend some of his attention...and it'll hopefully hold him still for the other attacks coming. "Now!"

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    As Darkseid lands, J'onn created a telekinetic bubble that confined the explosive landing to the area around the people who wouldn't notice the shockwave. He nods in agreement with Karen, "That is a logical assessment..." and as soon as Power Girl is attacked, J'onn is on the move.

    He increases his Density which also increases his Durability and Strength as he disappears from one point and appears behind Darkseid. Two of his arms attempt to grab onto Darkseid's right arm, while his Second Set of Arms works to pull his head back so that he's staring at the sky.

    Mentally to the others <Coordinated Attacks. Do not hold back. Power Girl and I are capable of taking the punishment if it hits the area.> At the same time, J'onn lifts whatever rubble is in the area, and pulls it to him and Darkseid with his telekinesis. The pieces flying around friends as if a guided missile.

Molly Millions has posed:
Crash course in alien linguistics a go! Molly has the advantage of already having a few languages under her belt, and access to Google, and a head full of electronics to help her with deciphering. Still, sometimes you've got to crowd source this sort of thing with brighter brains than one's own. The reinforcement of her chosen cover is noted, absently, even if the unfocused thought offering thanks likely doesn't make it very far.

With her communications suite in her skull she outsources, subvocally pinging questions off of experts greater than her. And a Martian, to a lesser extent, not wishing to distract J'onn from the actual fight but, well, under the circumstances there's no option for failure and she's pulling on whatever resources she thinks might be able to help.

Externally it might look confusingly dull; the metal spider crouched nearby, the woman squatting and seemingly staring at the device in her hands with a sub-audible hum of conversation. The idea is not to press anything until she's sure she knows what she's doing, too easy to break it, or put him somewhere inconvenient, or worse... wind up letting his army to complicate matters more.

Miss America has posed:
    Brown eyes roll slowly Speed's way as the whip-fast mutant darts to America's side. In stark contrast, she seems to take everything, including his rapid-fire words, with remarkable, serious deliberate, brow arching and bubble blowing and blowing bigger and bigger in lieu of any actual words. Darkseid falls... and falls.... and makes impact with an EXPLOSION of dust and debris. That bubble pops the exact moment the evil god makes landfall.

    And America slides a slip of gum into Speed's hand just before the dust engulfs them.

    "Got you covered, chico."

    He emerges, in a baleful glow of red eyes. And if America Chavez has anything more to say, she doesn't give voice to it. She's already moving; she's fast, far faster than that calm demeanor might suggest, pushing into the sound barrier with a destructive boom and then -past- it with ease as concrete churns a deep furrow beneath her. She doesn't let herself hesitate or slow, not for the sight of Power Girl in such trouble, not for the pain blazing in her ribs. Not for anything.

    And for now -- for now, she takes the fight directly to the God himself, the invincible girl from Utopia looking to jackhammer a fist into Darkseid's midsection. She's strong. Strong enough to rival the strongest. And right now, she doesn't hold anything back, straining herself to the point that muscles protest with the force of that blow, before she attempts to follow it up--

    --by lunging forward to headbutt a god to aid in Martian Manhunter's efforts. They want the sturdy ones front and center? She'll be as front and center as she can possibly be.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan waits for the impact, then checks with his X-ray vision and sees exactly were Darkseid is, as well as J'onn. He brings all his force to bear, slamming into Darkseid from below and behind like a crashing airplane. Driving a piledriver blow into what would be his kidneys if he were human. Hopefully it hurts him.

Thor has posed:
"Fear not, Lady of Krypton! Even without the hammer, I am still Thor, God of Thunder! Long before I did prove myself worthy of blessed Mjolnir, the days of my youth were spent questing with mine companions and fighting many great foes. At the moment of need, mine weapon shall always find its place in my hand."

Translation: Thor knows what he's doing! Mostly! Or one would hope!

In any case, there is little sense of arguing the point. The burning comet that is Darkseid comes crashing down toward the earth, and as it passes inside the area he has designated, Mjolnir's whirling path completes, fully enclosing their little battlefield within the boundaries of its inthinkably swift path. But the hammer is not only a physical boundary: as it orbits them, it directs the full of its energy absorbing powers inward on the field it designates, focusing on the strange Omega energy they had only just encountered earlier. Whether or not he can fully contain it... perhaps it should grant the heroes some small edge.

And then Thor? Thor hurtles forward and outright leaps to tackle the guy, joining J'onn in a simple effort of restraint. If hammering is his major, one might call wrestling a minor hobby for the God of Thunder! "I have wrestled larger creatures than you since my infancy!"

Armor has posed:
Jean says she's going to tap the minds of every mutant on the planet. Hisako blinks twice in her armor and glances towards Noriko, but then she offers another statement. Whichver direction she wants.

Armor shifts, bracing herself.

How many mutants are there? Hisako thinks. Then: My family are probably mutants too, huh. Honorarily even if they don't have my powers. Like mom didn't, and brother...

Armor falls silent, mentally and vocally. Her thoughts turn backwards. When the screeching fireball of the falling dark lord descends, her right hand curls slightly. It still aches despite the magi(k)al healing. The pain isn't unpleasant. Her armor shimmers faintly, rippling with the subtle ebb and flow of psionic energy traversing through her mutant frame.

He impacts. The bursting artillerist's roar of his impact makes Armor raise her left arm, unneccessarily. At that point there is a red glare - Power Girl - something about Kryptonians -

Armor lunges in.

She does not just go for one big punch. Instead, a series of consecutive punches, helped by the fact that Armor's slim /actual/ arms are not directly involved in the process, aims to smash at the tyrant. His height advantage is, in the large part, nullified by her armor. As others wrap around him she aims to work stony jaw and barrel-like chest.

She can even talk while she's doing it. "You were saying - about the X-Men? I bet you - don't care - but we're about peaceful coexistence... But you sure aren't acting like that's something you're - interested in!"

A lull as she catches her breath. Then America comes in and Armor says something cryptic aloud while she draws back her red right hand. It's something in Japanese: "OKKUSENMAN"

What?

She swings her brutal fist forwards even as the thick armored gauntlet is de-resolving, the outer edges degenerating into a cataclysmic psychokinetic explosion aimed to accompany an up-arced punch at Darkseid's breadbasket. Hisako's possibly-last thought, other than 'i hope this won't blow up this other strong lady,' is 'I can't believe I shouted an attack name.'

Then the armor around her fist explodes like God punted a football composed of a loosely X-shaped explosive charge.

                  ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MILLION PERCENT PUNCH                  

Andromeda has posed:
    "What's going on?" Laurel asks. The person who came along and totally destroyed Darkseid when noone else could scratch him is suddenly incapacitated. "This makes no sense." she mutters.
    Still, as the Apokalyptian crawls out of the rubble and the Martian grabs ahold of him the Daxamite moves again. Waiting for America's headbutt, Armor's billion percent punch and Thor's tackle to happen, she then attempts to end up at Darkseid's head. She's going to cover his eyes with her palms and dig her fingers into his skull... he might burn holes in her hands, but at least he won't be knocking people off of him with his Omega Beams, right? It also gives her a chance to use her heat vision up close and personal, a tight intense beam.

Speed has posed:
Speed watches as America headbutts a god. "That works too, I guess," he remarks before popping the gum in his mouth and scratching the back of his head. "Ahhh hell, better help out anyhow," he says then in whirlwind of motion he picks up what Speed-sized rubble he can find and blazes forward charging the first rock and letting it fly for the dark god's face. Then he turns, runs, charges and throws again. And again, and again. Reloading as he needs to and targeting whatever opening he can find. He may not hit like the big boys and girls but he does know how to annoy the crap out of someone.

Stardust has posed:
She doesn't shy from being close in and being another body in the line of fire, but Stardust focuses on being a distraction rather than a threat. There are others, stronger, attempting to engage Darkseid directly, but while others throw in their attacks or attempt to hold the dark god, she mostly darts around, waiting for an opening to... yes, Stardust has a stupid plan of her own too. She might not have the strength of some here but she can kick hard, so wait for the right moment and kick just /there/... surely even Dark Gods will wince at that?

More usefully, the Starstrider Complexus in Stardust's mind has found something it can do to contribute without revealing itself. The great virtual archive stored within it has many millennia of alien knowledge stored within it. Subtly tapping into the link, it anonymously adds its own unique expertise to the outsourced flood of help Molly seeks to translate the controls of the device.

Wonder Girl has posed:
Once she spots the big dude coming down, Cassie is ready to act. Forget anything fancy, forget the lightning shenanigans from earlier. With her strength increased ten-fold, to a level so massive she is yet to even begin to fully comprehend the danger it represents, the adoptive Amazonian and daughter of Olympus charges the falling figure like a blonde missile of her own.

Her and... every other hero, more or less. It's gonna be quite a melee!

In her case, she still cedes to the 'senior' heroes on the fight, letting the heavies like Thor and J'onn get in to try and pin Darkseid in place. Assuming he doesn't go blinking around too much, that will make him a much nicer pincushion target, right?

Her own charge is initially shield-first, the maneuver and her form one taught to her by her fellow Amazons on Themyscira, drilled into her through their brutal training. It provides cover and a (hopefully) shocking initial impact force, followed by the thrust of her sword from behind it, into whatever part of the giant freak she can find.

She has a battlecry, though it's a bit more blockbuster movie than Themysciran: "Don't mess with earth!"

Breath has posed:
Breath moves to do something.. but no, everyone is piled on, now, and she doesn't want to make things *worse*.. and everything she can do is going to hit everybody else far more heavily that it's going to hit Darkseid. Heck no, I am not going to be backstab girl! She hides behind the car, because if there is anything she remembers from movies, it's that in a moment, the bad guy is going to dramatically throw everyone aside.. and THEN she can make her move.

Phoenix has posed:
Reinforced by will transmogrified into several dozen tons worth of telekinetic might, Statue Phoenix waits until J'onn slips in to try grappling the God of Evil before throwing a haymaker at his chin, then ducking and weaving backwards the way Jean remembers from all those Ted Grant fights she made herself watch in her formative years. America, Armor, Thor, and practically everyone else throws themselves into the fray shortly afterwards, leaving her to circle the crater for a beat before finally settling for throwing her arms back and letting tendrils of cosmic fire lash out from the furnace in her chest and rake across what they can reach of Darkseid's stony flesh.

And simultaneously--

{{I,}} echoes between the ears of practically every mutant in Metropolis, {{am fire and life incarnate, She who presides over beginnings and ends,}} as burning wings unfold in their psyches, sending warmth through bodies and souls. {{I am the Phoenix, and today-- the champions of this planet face an enemy who would break the wheel of existence across his knee to satiate his own petty delusions of grandeur!}}

With every few words, the sphere of contact expands; by the time she moves on to casting images of the battle out into astral space, mutants in New York and New Jersey are beginning to receive them.

Power Girl has posed:
    J'onn manages to grab him from behind, and Thor from the front. America Headbutts Darskeid and Laurel lands a solid punch on the overlord and most of the people simply pile on to Darkseid.

And, as predicted, Darkseid throws them ALL off rather easily.....

*THUNK*

And Darkseid's eyes open wide as Collette actually manages to kick him between the legs....not only does it catch him by surprise, but it proves he's male, and shocks him with....actual pain.

*THOOM*

And the world fist from Jean makes the dark skinned wanna-be god disappear in the asphault....for the time being.....

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    J'onn provides to Molly access to his various Alien Languages and Technologies that he's worked with in his many many years. He is not a specialist on the particular device she is working with, but he has dealt with similar technologies that can help key in on useful functions of the device.

    J'onn then senses what Jean is attempting on the Astral Plane. The build-up of power is unmistakable to someone of his specific talents, and in an effort to pull out all the stops he attempts to assist her. A link from the mind of the Martian moves out towards Jean, a quick pulse to notify her of his attempt, and then the link left available if she wishes to draw on his own psionic resivour.

    J'onn is then thrown back in a violent manner, his extra mass digs a deep trench in the ground, and he focuses on his ability to fly in order to stop and reverse direction.

    J'onn uses the momentum of the throw to fly high into the air, and then he pauses in order to scan the area. Mentally, J'onn searches for the unique signature of Darkseid's mind, as well as using all the various types of vision available to him to try to actually see the tyrant.

    <I have not detected him yet... be on your guard...>

Super-Man has posed:
His punch having had no noticable effect, Kenan was crushed down beneath the dark God, he happened to be a bit lower down and behind when Darkseid was hit that way. Fortunately he was strong enough to take the impact....at the moment. He decides to try to help grip the monsterous alien and...well he probably can not hold him, but just possibly he can apply leverage and slow him...

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra can't see the dark god as the combination of lightning, blasts, punches, headbutts...and one well placed kick...followed by the Phoenix's fist of god hammering him down.

    But it's not like she needs to see him to feel him...not when he's surrounded by earth. And she doesn't believe for a moment he's out for the count. She's SEEN horror movies. She hated them, but she's seen them.

    Her eyes suddenly as she suddenly points. "There! He's coming there!" She can feel the tremors as the dark god rips his way up from where he was buried towards the surface...

    Which is why a mass of rubble in the area pulls together in a swirl, compressing, growing larger and larger right above that spot...because she's gonna play whack-a-mole...well, whack a villain. Moles have done -nothing- to deserve that terrible game! They're actually very loving pets!

Molly Millions has posed:
It's not a time for... well, questions about who someone is, at least. The wealth of knowledge from the Starstrider Collective is accepted by the mentally frenetic cyborg without question. The coordinates provided by Power-Girl being translated numerically as well as mathematically to match the controllers system.

Some distant part of Molly is aware, can hear the sounds, the booms, the torrents of masonry that are knocked loose but she doesn't dare divert the attention from her current task. Time's being bought in pain and blood out there and she's acutely aware of it.

Not many would accuse the cyborg of rampant nerdery in and of herself, but she gets to be a vessel through which vociferous arguments are being held. Is it structured this way, or that? Does it bear a greater resemblance to the Vogsphere's pedantry or the Kree? And what's that guy going on about ancient Mayan linguistics? It's enough to make her head hurt as she tries to keep up with the wealth of super-scientists doing a battle of the Rosetta Stone in her skull.

Somewhere on the planet, professional rivalries are sparked by the human 'experts' she starts cutting out of the conversation in order to draw more upon the aliens better versed in intergalatic linguistic morphology and the kind of mathmatics that make her eyes water. At least, by small measures, concensus is slowly beginning to form. She hopes.

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida ceases fire, the smell of ozone in the air, panting for breath. She's starting to look a little drained, and if she runs out, she'll be in trouble. Clearly, a change in tactics is called for. <<Trying something new. Get me a clear shot if you guys can." A few blocks back, she'd noticed a fire hydrant that had been sheared off from the pavement. Crouching, she grunts as she hefts what has to be at least a hundred pounds of cast iron into her arms, shifting from foot to foot as she waits for movement.
     Once he's getting up and nobody's in his way, she starts to move. Slowly at first, she accelerates even faster as sparks crackle around her, the New Mutant disappearing into a blur as she charges forward. At the last second, about thirty feet from Darkseid, the blue streak diverts ninety degrees, the hydrant continuing on its course. Noriko stumbles to a stop, trying to catch her breath. Yeah... Could REALLY use that recharge right about now.

Crusader has posed:
Crusader was virtually ripped in two when DarkSied managed to get them all off - as he was encasing the being. But that hardly keeps him down. One half reforms into a Crusader of similar size while his other half slowly soaks into the ground. He was going to feel THAT in the morning
    That being said, he wasn't abaout to get in front of a giant builder. Instead he flies up into the air incase Darksied manages to dodge the boulder. But for now he merely goes invisible as his form begins to change...

But into what is hard to say.

Stardust has posed:
Most people pray to gain the attention of gods. Some make sacrifices to their deity of choice. Some cast heartfelt pleas or passionate imprecations to the heavens. Who but they can know if the divine respond.

Colette apparently gains the attentions of gods dark ones, at least by kicking them in the (stony) stones.

It's probably not a method that should be recommended to novices.

  Or anyone else.

"Ummm..." says Stardust, peering very cautiously down at the trembling ground into which Darkseid had vanished as she hovers above. "Did we want him angry? 'Cos.... yep."

Speed has posed:
Jean's attack brings Speed to a stop and he's grinning. Whatever she was doing in his head was amazing and the urge to run and hide? That was yesterday's news. He takes a moment to blow and pop a bubble before Terra's warning has him jumping into action again. He zooms to a rubble pile and grabs a rock, a good hundred pounder and then begins to charge it, running in circles to build up speed. He felt like a million bucks right now, so it was time to go big or go home.

Armor has posed:
In the aftermath of the sheer bursting force around the alien tyrant, Armor has been knocked back about two yards and has crouched downwards. The psionic energy around that arm is more of a glove now; it makes her look asymmetrical. "H... heh... I guess someone like you deserves - to be dis..."

"Oh come on!!" she shouts in frustration when it becomes clear that Darkseid IS... not dead.

Armor lumbers over towards where it looks likely to happen.

She tries to push a psionic inquiry. <<His leg was injured, right?>> Mostly to J'onn; she doesn't want to get in Phoenix's way. Noriko gets another glance, but she seems temporarily de-charged, not... maimed; even so, Hisako positions herself so Noriko is 'behind' her, relative to the predicted point of DARKSEID'S RETURN

Thor has posed:
Thrown off beside J'onn, Thor stops himself in a somewhat parallel fashion, although there's less mass adjustment and more manly grunting involved. Look Martians have their way of doing things, and Asgardians have their own! Still, he bears witness to the two blows landed on their foe, and while Jean's is of the more earth-shattering variety, it's Colette's that makes even the God of Thunder wince in sympathetic pain. "Verily, that must have hurt."

With Darkseid vanished beneath the ground, Thor, unlike some, is not content to wait. People know him best as the son of Odin and God of Thunder, but Thor's mother was the earth goddess herself. And so he has some dominion there as well, such birthrights requiring not the power of his hammer.

Hearing Terra signal the dark god's movement, he turns toward the burrowing menace's direction, and as she raises a column of earth in preparedness to strike him, he slams his own fists down onto the ground. Through them, a tremor rocks forward toward the point of Darkseid's would-be emergence, not merely a physical echo of the blow he lands on the ground, but a sympathetic reaction of the earth itself in the form of a localized, focused tremor. It provides some counter-force against the surfacing villain, and more than that, helps thrust him in the direction of Terra's waiting earthen fist.

Andromeda has posed:
    Laurel looks at her hands. "Why am I even here? I can't even touch the thing. I guess I should just go see if Lyle or Brainy have an idea on what to do?" She floats back a bit from where the angry god will rise again.

Breath has posed:
Breath waits.. waits.. She watches for movement and Terra's guidence, puts her mouth to the end of the pipe, moves to adjust, pauses for the right kind of motion, the kind where he rises back out of the ground to act, then puffs out her cheeks and BLOWS. The rock, and the napkins, and the T-shirt, and the pepper, and the salt, and the cayenne powder, and the bottle of hot sauce all go roaring down the pipe at increasing velocity, breaking up into things like gravel and broken glass and stuff, only to explode out the other end of the pipe at hypersonic speeds in a shotgun blast of irritating stuff, aimed.. more or less at Darkseid's face. Though since the pipe isn't exactly a precise instrument, and she's not that practiced, and the scene is pretty chaotic, it's a bit more like "in a blast that will probably hit Darkseid, among other things", loaded with things that make most people sneeze, or close their eyes, or otherwise give them a really annoying day.

The pipe itself doesn't survive, of course, the end exploding into shrapnel and twisted, jagged pieces of tortured hot steel. This is pretty much the best she can think to do, though. As the pipe explodes, she lightly lets go of it, and the tornado winds emanating from her mouth catch it, and moments afterward, the mid-size car she was standing behind. They are sucked up into the air and hurled into the air to tumble end-over-end at increasing speed towards the hopefully distracted Darkseid. Bracing herself, she walks sideways, sucking another car up into her exhalation to spin sideways through the air, cartwheeling across the ground at Darkseid's legs before she finds something suitably large to step behind and suck in a deep breath.

Sadly, with all the heroes rushing to get on top of Darkseid as he comes out - a couple of them are probably getting hit full force too.

Miss America has posed:
Knocked into the air with a crack of invulnerable fist against invulnerable bone, America goes spiraling upwards like a shot. There is the brief glimpse of the stars tattooed on her wrists, the stars on her outfit, glowing a faint, ebbing blue shade...

    ... before the soles of ruined red sneakers touch upon the solid surface of a bright, blue, five-pointed star etching its existence into time and space.

Hovering in the skies, that star stops America's momentum, acting as a convenient landing pad. She touches down on it, powerful thighs flexing as she bends at the knees -- and then launches off like a shot, ricocheting herself off that star as it shatters behind her like so much cosmic glass, riding that violent acceleration knee-first towards Darkseid --

    Only to hit solid earth as Jean launches him deep into the earth beneath. Concrete cracks beneath America, cratering further inward as she lets out a soft 'tch.' Brown eyes snap around; he's down, but probably not for long. She hears the familiar voice of Terra, shouting her warning... and that intense gaze snaps Speed's way.

    "Hey. Chico," America asides, hands pressing to the ground. "Time to do your thing."

    And with that, the Utopian girl launches off in a blurry smudge of patriotic colors, stressing that injured body all the more. Speed is grabbing his own rubble, while America? America goes soaring in the direction of one of those ruined spires of rubble that were once buildings, landing with a solid crack of impact to start tearing up literal tons upon tons of debris in preparation for when the dark god comes calling.

Phoenix has posed:
Fire creeps across the walls of the boutique that Phoenix currently inhabits and swirls wildly through whatever merchandise remained within. Her mind continues expanding outwards, the message beginning anew in waves so that - ultimately - everyone is treated to the full breadth of her plea:

{{I implore you, in the name of all that you hold dear: lend me your faith-- lend me your determination, your rage, your passion-- give me every shred of love you can muster for this beautifully broken world and those you share it with! Help me teach this arrogant tyrant to regard you with the respect you're due,}} ripples across the Eastern Seaboard and beyond, and already, J'onn is helping to prime the pump by letting her drink deeply - greedily, almost - from the well of his psionic energies, {{and send him to his fetid home, humbled before us!}}

"Oh, no you do-- augh, damnit!" Jean meanwhile exclaims as the statue she's piloting spots Terra's pointing and takes off running in that direction. Without the benefit of tremor senses, she nonetheless intends to make her Whack-a-God game into a two player affair-- which winds up putting her in the perfect position to take a car to the flank on her way in, tilting her off-balance for a beat or two as the vehicle spins away.

Wonder Girl has posed:
Cassie might be pushed off... but not far, her feet digging in against whatever backblow, and her own body barely moving before Darskeid is shoved below the earth. It's the first indication, the first hint of her vastly increased strength, and it also demonstrates the danger: while she doesn't move much, holding her shield against whatever strike back from the Apokolipsian, the force has to go somewhere, and much of it dissapates around her, shattering the ground around her feet or pulsing outward in the air.

And yet, unmoved, her target is gone, vanished beneath the earth, which is frustrating, to say the least.

Like Thor, she looks to Terra for guidance, although she lacks any earth-y powers herself. But what she does have is a plan of where the dude is going to be, a second X-marks-the spot of sorts. And launching into the air, she prepares to strike for everything she's worth, propelling herself high above the target spot, and then flipping heels-over-head into a straight doward dive, sword-firs, one fist holding the sword's grip, while her shield-hand presses over the pommel for extra grip and downard leverage.

Power Girl has posed:
    *BOOM* And Darkseid emerges from the earth with his eyes an angry red. He GLARES around at everyone, even Andromeda as she starts to float back, away from him.

Then he spies Collette, and points directly at her. And proceeds to threatn her.....

In the highest pitched voice anyone has ever heard.......

"You will PAY for that human!"

The effect is quite lessened when your voice has change to a deep baritone to what sounds like after you've been inhaling helium.

As of right now, as he smacks J'onn away, and lowers his shoulder against Cassie and America....his blows don't quite have the force they once did. Perhaps he's actually tiring.

Super-Man has posed:
Kenan is dragged behind Darkseid...while he may have slowed the alien slightly, he did not stop him. The sudden pelting by a cloud of fast moving and sharp smelling debris causes him to drop off, coughing and with his eyes watering as he tries to switch to invulnerability and hope it helps...

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    J'onn can sense the stress on Molly's mind via the link, and starts to sort his information in a more orderly fashion to lesson the mental load she has to endure.

    The psionic energies that the Martian can bring to bear are immensely vast, and with a better idea of what she is attempting to accomplish J'onn puts no restraints on the amount sent to help accomplish her goal.

    Then, without warning, J'onn is blasted away from Darkseid with a lightning fast blow. As J'onn works to control his flight a second time, he pushes himself to provide Colette a telekinetic Shield, and he adds <If he fires his Omega Beams at Colette I won't be able to stop them with my energies diverted.>

    Once he has righted himself, he doesn't fly at Darkseid, but instead looks to intercede himself between Darkseid and Colette in case he uses those Eye Beams on her.

Speed has posed:
"On it!" Speed calls to America as his tight loop has him racing faster, and faster, there is a crack when he hits mach one and his whole form begins to blur as he hits two and three in turn. For him though the world is finally moving at regular speed, and combined with Pheonix's touch in his brain he feels amazing. He presses his hands hard against the rock transferring speed directly into the molecules, agitating them, sending them bouncing off one another, faster and faster. He sees Darkseid and he turns sharply at the end of his loop and races towards him the vibrating stone raised above his head. When he's close enough he leaps swinging the stone hard and vibrates his own molecules to let him pass through the dark god and carry on through the other side while the rock hits and explodes. At least that's the plan, who knows if he can even pass through whatever it is Darkseid is made of.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust points dramatically down at her foot. "I still got my boot," she yells back at Darkseid. "If you don't want to spend the rest of eternity singing falsetto, get the hell off our planet!"

Molly Millions has posed:
Molly doesn't just dismiss them, but when she's certain of it, the call is released and slowly she gets up,{{ I have it. }}

Three simple words offered across the link, of course, it means squeezing out of her hole, pulling down her bandanna so she can turn her head and spit on the ground as she emerges into open ground.

It's just like this, plug it in, point it roughly where X marks the spot and... that sound, so distinctive for the last few days, makes her teeth hurt when it opens up.

{{ I'm opening it on the X, good luck.}} she knows this is the easy bit, that the hard bit is going to come from the rest of them. Still, she tries her best to give them a place to aim.

Armor has posed:
Irritation. Petulance. A moment of almost sympathy at the pained voice of Darkseid. Why does Armor feel that moment of sympathy?

It is a mystery.

(It involved a training accident.)

But then Darkseid's going for that strong woman in the like, normal clothes. Armor throws herself forwards, and the result is that the great Shoulder of the Revelation smashes into her back!

Fortunately Armor does not immediately die, but the 'plates' of her suit do dimple in to the point of nearly contacting her body, and the translated force throws her to the ground. "Ghk!" Hopefully Ms. America can follow up!

Crusader has posed:
It was time to reappear! Crusader saw that Darksied was tireing and decides to try and act on it, to push them towards victory

The sound of.....a sawblade echos in the air. Loud enouhg to resemble those cut down by trees. And than it appears - a giant glareing blade about as large as a car

It was flying towards Darksied meanacingly - and well if the man can dish out omega beams, surely he can take this...but it may help

As it closes in the blade alter angles as to not hit any of his companions and than *SNAP* the a piece of the blade beneath falls off and hits the ground - leaving the hurtling blade to possibly slam into Darksied.

As for the piece that fell off - well it was tiny and on the ground by now. A 1-inch tall Crusader. Welcome to the Mini-Crusade.

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida sees her fellow mutant in trouble, and drained as she is, can't really leave her there. THe blue streak dashes in again, before shooting back out and sputtering to a hault, revealing Surge with Hisako's arm draped across her shoulders, a few red lights glowing on her power gauntlets. "I... I'm just gonna..." Her legs buckle, Noriko dropping to her knees.

Breath has posed:
Breath sighs and runs back across the field, rushing to where some other people look hurt and blowing another parked car at Darkseid, not really expecting it will DO anything. "Are you okay?"

Wonder Girl has posed:
Cassie's sword-charge shows the degree of her heightened strength, though also the dangers of it: Darkseid turns into her charge, meeting it head on, and that crash itself sends out a shockwave. She manages to strike him, and whether it causes injury or not, the reverberation of the blow is enough to jar the blade from her own hand, and leave her shaking it out as she yelps in unexpected pain.

A moment later, and the sword is forgotten, continuing with the weapons she has: she whacks him with the shield, a blow hard enough that even the God of Apokolips will feel it, only to be struck backwards in return, the resistance of her feet against the broken asphalt again causing cracks not just in the blacktop, but tremors through the grounds, fractures and rifts in the earth itself around her. Blow for blow, the collateral damage seems to build around her, like the eye of some miniature storm, dangerous even to her friends.

Yet for all her strength, Cassie is not as skilled a fighter as her mentor, and her blows are often sloppy and a little dangerous. She takes hits, and keeps on swinging, the fight degenerating beyond any sort of Amazon elegance in to the dirtiest of close quarter brawl, the girl raging, screaming, swinging...

Miss America has posed:
    Foundation groans. Trembles. And -rips- out of the earth as America Chavez heaves up what was once the cornerstone of a skyscraper into the air. Stone crumbles like little raindrops of debris over her head as she levels that dangerous, dark brown glare at Darkseid. She seems wholly prepared to take that shouldercheck if it means the opportunity to fly swat him with a building, but--

    --someone intercedes. Someone wearing some sort of strange, translucent energy armor. America blinks, and concern briefly makes its way to her features as Hisako goes groundwards. But -- no. She doesn't let it get to her. The X-Man gave her precious time. So she's going to make use of it.

    "Seen a lotta people like you, in a lotta worlds," America utters, her voice like gravel as she makes her way forward. "Sometimes they lose, sometimes they don't. Sometimes, they win. Get everything they want. But them? They always end up fucking it up. Screwing themselves over. Know why?"

    And as the rest do what they do best, America waits for the perfect opportunity to just -leap- into the air and -slam- the entirety of that building foundation into Darkseid with every ounce of her prodigious strength that she can muster, feeling damaged bones crack against the strain as she puts every ounce of herself into it.

    "Porque eres los ¡CABRONES!"

Stardust has posed:
Do not attract the attention of Dark Gods in the most painful way possible. Do not taunt them afterwards. Particularly if they fire Omega Beams from their eyes, because that's how such booted prayers are answered. Still, she did essentially come here to be a target and keep him distracted from attacking less solid types, so job done?

  Stardust banks hard as the beam arcs around the Martian Manhunter and lashes out towards her. She dodges the initial blast as it drags through the shield thrown up by J'onn J'onnz, but it turns sharply back on her. She zips away again... leaving a second Stardust in her wake. "Hell is," says the second Stardust, before disappearing as quickly as she arrived.

The beam crackles around the Martian as he tries to intercede his body, and drags a second time through his telekentic barrier, giving the original Stardust barely enough to duck beneath it. She blasts straight up into the air as once more it folds back on itself to pursue her. Again, another puzzled Stardust is left in her wake. " Going on," this one says, before vanishing.

The third banking turn is one too many for the novice superhero, and the weakened beam catches up with her. When faced with serious energy like this, her powers of self-preservation go into overdrive, surrounding her in a cocoon of folded time to bleed off energy. Normally this would freeze her in time, but temporal manipulation can interact chaotically with Omega Beams. The silvery cocoon surrounding Stardust spins rapidly, shedding wisps of black energy in a miniature vortex. Then the cocoon, and Stardust, vanish.

Moments later Stardust reappears, looks around in confusion, says "What the..." and disappears again.

Thor has posed:
Leaping forward, Thor joins the massive fray as he had once before, fighting hand-to-hand as comfortably as with his hammer. There, his first blow lands among a storm of others. Tales will be told of all the heroes he fights beside, of the Crusader and his technological wonders, J'onn of Mars, mighty Cassandra of Olympus, America of... America? He's not sure about that one. And for a few moments it is only a simple brawl, if one on the most epic of scale. But it's soon to become more.

The orbitting presence of Mjolnir may well have been forgotten in the unfolding chaos of the all-out melee with Darkseid, but the hammer serves its role, restricting the the fight to what it is, to this full knock-down, drag-out brawl, rather than a time and space-bending battle with his Omega beams and spatial warping powers. Yet above all things, beyond the many powers of its mighty enchantment, Mjolnir is one t hing first and always, a weapon.

And with the boom-tube open, Thor is ready to fulfill his original promise to Power Girl: that the hammer will be there when he needs it.

The portal appears, and Thor lifts his hand, summoning in an instant the faithful hammer from its place at the edge of the fray to his grip. And he strikes downward once, staggering his fellow 'God', and then raises it to swing again...

Yet without the field still protecting them, Darkseid summons his greatest weapon again in his own last laugh, blasting the Asgardian in the chest, concetrating the beam against him, driving him back. Strong as he is, the pain overwhelms him, and he flies backward, yet in that last moment, tosses the hammer toward the power-amped Olympian even as he hurtles from the fray: "Now!"

Wonder Girl has posed:
Cassie sees Thor fly, and the hammer fly toward her. "Ohshit," escapes her lip as the thing lands up in her hands. She can only act on instinct, and the only instinct she has is to HIT THAT GUY. So with all her ridiculous Zeus-given, Atlas-enhanced strength, she swings the Asgardian weapon right at Darkseid's chest, the force of the blow aimed backward at the tube.

And then the power of the impact causes a shockwave that probably wrecks *everything*, including her.

The hammer drops from her hands like a stone, suddenly unable to hold it, leaving it at the center of the ensuing shockwave and crater.

Phoenix has posed:
Burning wings unfurl, and an instant later the boutique is reduced to dust, leaving a woman whose entire being has become raw, boiling psionic puissance and stellar flame. Reaching full extension, the massive wings suspended at her back slice through several buildings, then shears their roofs clean off with a single flap.

Flaming threads from every corner of the world reach across astral and real space alike as psionic tithes weaves themselves through the air about her, thousands upon thousands of fibers coalescing into a soaring raptor vast enough to blot out the moon and dim the stars. There are hold outs, there are missed connections; there's hate, anger, despair, and fear aplenty from those minds who hear her and acquiesce, and every bit of it flows through Phoenix on its way to being folded into her aura. From somewhere - not far away - a veritable anaconda of psionic might finds its way to her, leaving behind fleeting visions of a broken world ruled by a tyrant not unlike the God of Evil before it coils around the raptor's body, heightening its radiance several times over.

Tears of blood and fire streaming down her cheeks, Phoenix finally withdraws her focus to the battlefield and immediately fixes her attention upon Darkseid.

{{DARKSEID OF APOKOLIPS,}} she roars as the raptor's beak splits, {{your time draws nigh-- return to the hell you call your domain, the taste of defeat lingering bitterly upon your tongue for all of eternity!}} and bathes Darkseid in a mutant-fueled firestorm that rages through the exhausted city without burning a single building, body, or blade of grass-- nothing at all, save - hopefully - for the New God's mind. Love, hope, and determination rapidly catalyze, all for the sake of crushing Darkseid's own titanic will beneath the combined weight of a people that refuses to bow to an oppressor-- even if only for as long as it takes Thor and Cassie to remove him from this world.

Terra (1034) has posed:
    And then...TERRA HITS HIM WITH A ROCK! (Well, really, throws the massive thing through the boom tube after him).

Armor has posed:
Armor finds herself suddenly moved - and starts shouting at Noriko, "Idiot! I'm armored up! C'mon!" The shoulder-hoist gets ducked and reversed as Armor draws backwards - "I think Thor's busy," she tells Surge. America's advancing, for better or for worse, and she watches America go for a second or so.

Armor's eyes turn towards the wrecked cars - "That Volvo's electric, c'mon!"

And it is this determination and team spirit that are Hisako Ichiki's final contribution to the act of Phoenix. "Ghah-"

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida leans greatfully into Hisako's support. "Your armor was getting smaller!" ...OH hey, she's right. Surge can feel the charge sitting within the chassis of the battered car, and a quick punch knocks the charging port open. There is a hissing crackle as power jumps the gap, the red lights on her gauntlets fading out again. Stretching out her free hand, she fires the power at Darkseid's face again as fast as she can drain it, before ducking down behind cover as the debris wave hits.

Power Girl has posed:
    Kenan manages to grab onto Darkseid at JUST the right time...to hold him in place as America hits him with a cornerstone of a building. Darkseid also manages to to glare at Collette in all of his anger, and his eyes flash a brighter red....but it's not from his Omega Beam....

It's from Karen's heat Vision, to temporarily blind Darkseid....just as Jean's mental speech gets through to him.

Robbed of his main weapon, Darkseid can't even see Thor's hammer hit him the first time, nor cassie's return of the hammer.

Which hits darkseid on the face and knocks him straight into the Boom Tube.

And the Boom Tube CLoses behind him.......

Breath has posed:
Breath shrieks as an exploding shockwave forms, and BLOWS into the shockwave to try to blunt it and blow a hole in it. It still picks her up and throws her a ways back, leaving her crashing across the sidewalk into the outside of a bunker, hardly the intended purpose for it. crunch. ow. yowch. ack. pain. gah. head ringing. She blinks stars out of her eyes and looks around for Stardust, crawling to her knees.

She coughs, and starts, "Is everyone-*" Uugh, no, voice too deep and gravely, no good, no good. She swallows and raises her voice to a more feminine squeak, "Is everybody okay?"

Molly Millions has posed:
FWOOOOOM. How many people from Molly's world can say that they have stood at ground zero in a battle of gods? Just the one. At least the controller doesn't blow up in her face... it works! It works! And she barely has a moment to realize just how fantastic that is before all /hell/ breaks loose. Beams and hammers and things she can only feel so deep down in her marrow that she'll never understand them. It's chaos and ash and flame that she doesn't even have the time to consider getting out of the blast radius of, she's just picked up like a ragdoll and flung with bone shattering force into whatever's left of the building behind her.

Being surgically inset into her flesh might help stop her from losing them, but it doesn't exactly do a damned thing to prevent the collective force from shattering the left one. Or the more than slightly fried state of her hair or uncovered skin. Hell, she's no doubt got J'onn to thank for not simply being vaporized on the spot, for all that all that's left of the spider shaped drone is a smear of oil and well machined electronics... a desultory leg left hanging in mid-air like the arachnid it resembled.

It takes three attempts, to thumb the button for 'close', the device shoved awkwardly in to a pocket as she decides, yep, here is good. She'll just... wait there for a while, having to actually close her eye to see all the scrolling messages of frantic alarm from the nanites informing her (like she didn't already know) just how badly that hurt. Note to self... in future... do not stand at ground zero.

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    J'onn slowly drifts to the ground, obviously battle weary, and looks around to the rest of the heroes, "Well Done, All." he says simply. He disengages all the mental links he established, and begins scanning the area for any serious injuries.

    "I will have the Justice League immediately begin working on figuring out how to disable the portals..." J'onn looks to Jean, "If any of the X-men are capable of participating we would greatly appreciate their assistance. We have bought a reprieve, but we will need to figure out a way to stop this method of travel as soon as possible."

Terra (1034) has posed:
    Terra brings two of her shields together in front of her, planting them to shield her from the worst of the blast and flash, then lets them flow back into the ground with a rumble as she falls on her butt, panting a bit, sweat running down her skin, much like the bit of red is spreading across her bandages. She definitely popped a stitch there. She leans back on her hands, a bit shakily as the adrenaline starts to recede. But...at least he's gone. And hopefully he won't be right back tomorrow...

Crusader has posed:
Mini-Crusader flies up and is immedaitly blown waaaaaaaaaaay back for several miles due to being the size of a bug! But he none the less managed to see everything that happened and flies furiously agaist the shockwave
    As the shockwave subsedes he buzzes with fury towards ground Zero and takes stock of the everyone there. Of course he can't do much at this size, he'll need to assimilate some proper food and metals. But he can at least begin helping where he can
    He flies towards Molly saying in a squeeky voice to J'onn "We have one down so far" as he passes him. He lands next to Molly. He does a few scans to see how bad of a condition she might be...taking note of...nanites? He blinks at this realization, and see if he can interface with the nanites to 1 - get infomation 2- see if they might tell him more about how to help her.

Armor has posed:
"I shot like a third of it at Darkseid!" Armor answers Surge, irritably - before there's a distinctive BOOM -

"Reinforcements, look --" Armor stops dead, possibly not stopping Noriko from charging up on some poor dude's electric car.

The man from Mars addresses them. Hisako's shoulders sag. "We... won...?"

Miss America has posed:
    It's almost like being at the epicenter of a weapon of mass destruction going off. It's not exactly the first time America's felt the proximity of a god smiting something. It might not even be the first time she's smote a god. But...

    It's still an experience, every damn time.

    The shockwave is deafening in a way that makes her ears ring in glorious protest. As the first kinetic shockwave comes roaring through, the Utopian girl SLAMS that foundation between herself and the ground zero of Mjolnir's impact, creating a buffer between herself and all that ripping, torrential force. It's like a hurricane was spawned right under her feet -- but she weathers it, even as her barrier breaks apart. She stands her ground. She never gives a single inch as that foundation rips apart and batters her with chunks of rubble.

    Because she watches, to the bitter end, as Darkseid goes through that boom tube. To make sure he's gone. To feel the dimensional rift seal.

    And to present him with the middle finger so that he can -very clearly see it- before it all shuts off.

    Slowly, everything dies down. America, clothes tattered, body bruised and ravaged by a god of gods, leans on whatever remains of her impromptu bludgeoning stick as she sucks in a breath... and releases it with a painful rattle of ribs.

    "Hah," she breathes out, a rare, smug smile drifting across her normally stoic features.

    "Get... wrecked. Bobo."

    And with that, that rubble falls with a cacophonous crash, falling apart under all that collective strain. Her legs feel like rubber as she forces herself a single step forward, reaches out, and looks to pat Cassie exactly once on the shoulder.

    "Nice shot, chica."

    And those are the last words she manages before the accumulated stress of the New God's abuse and weathering that shockwave just send America Chavez toppling over, face-first, into the rubble, consciousness seeping from her like blood from a wound.

Surge has posed:
Noriko Ashida slowly stands up, still low on power, but not shaky and staggering any more. "Yeah, you did, and then he hit you even harder and it caved in." The car's not gonna be damaged, guy just won't be driving without a recharge. ...Not that it matters given the road conditions. She stands up, looking up at J'onn reaching out again to squeeze Hisako's shoulder. "Y-yeah. We did." And then America goes over. "We need healers! I... I'll pass the portal message on to Beast. He might be able to figure out this stuff."

Speed has posed:
Speed lands on the far side of Darkseid and staggers as he speeds up into a run, but his attack has drained him and he can't outrun the shockwave, it lifts him off his feet and flings him towards a building, he hits hard, feeling bones give at the impact and the air forced from his lungs. Then the second shockwave hits him full in the back and his vision goes dark. He'll live, but he's not getting up in a hurry.

Wonder Girl has posed:
Cassie is no more prepared for the shock of the impact if anyone. Perhaps she is the least prepared, focused as she is at the very center of it. For those few instants where her hands gripped the Asgardian weapon, where her whole body seemed to surge with the power of multiple divine pantheons at once, for every bit of power in that moment, she is equally unprepared for the consequences of it, for the implications of unleashing such forces in the world. There's a reason Diana doesn't use the Gauntlets. And there's a reason not everyone gets to be Thor.

The impact itself shatters multiple bones in her hands and forearms, and even were it not for the hammer's enchanment, there seems little hope she would hold onto it. At absolute point blank ground zero for the impact, Wonder Girl then takes the brunt of the ensuing shockwave, too close to the origin for any intervention to catch her quite in time. In a somewhat similar situation to America, somehow she stands there surviving it all, the Gauntlets giving her some added durability and more than enough strength not to simply be flung away, yet not further bolstering her beyond that. And so that little compliment serves to do about the same as the other woman does moments later, to topple Cassie over from whatever braced stance she was in, as she collapses in place from the combination of strain and full-body injury.

Phoenix has posed:
Another flap--

-- leaves Phoenix grounded, flanking Armor, and dangling an arm off of psychokinetic plates. The vast raptor is no more; having already tremored dangerously in the wake of Old vs New God combat, its constituent fibers fade into the ether so as not to burden her with maintaing their cohesion for a moment longer. The fire that briefly composed her spirals in towards her breast, and out where her eight-foot double fell still in her pursuit of the burrowing deity, a carved out firebird gutters out, allowing transmuted steel and stone to collapse into a jagged hill.

Cold; leaking blood from eyes, ears, and nostrils; gasping out quick, ragged breaths as already cracked ribs remind her that she just survived witnessing a clash of titans; she looks up and over long enough to murmur, "... basically, yeah," and flash a tight smile before letting her head sag and a grimace overtake her features.

Phoenix has posed:
Phoenix adds, after a couple of shallow breaths, "I'll-- see if we can get our biology guy on it," with a glance up at J'onn.

Stardust has posed:
72 million years previously...

A herd of Alamosaurs browse the high trees growing in the thick Cretaceous swamp. On a spit of high land, a lone tyrannosaurid, possibly a Lythronax, looks on hungrily. The vast herbivores are placid creatures, but huge and heavy. Dangerous prey, especially in such numbers.

The tyrannosaurid is startled as the air opens up and deposits Stardust onto the ground in front of it. "..right now?" she says in the second before she vanishes back into the timestream again, leaving a severely puzzled dinosaur behind.

  Well, she may be temporarily unmoored in time but at least it got her out of the way of Breath's pepper spray, not to mention shock blast of the Asgardian-Olympian double-team.

Thor has posed:
Under the combined final attack of Darkseid and the subsequent blast that heralds his defeat, Thor himself is thrown from the field for third time in the day. Does he win a prize? At least by now, no one is likely to be too concerned for his health, as there's only so many times a person can get thrown through buildings before it all gets a little routine and people stop bothering to worry about you.

Thus on the far side of several concrete walls with new Asgardian-shaped windows, the God of Thunder enjoys a brief rest well-earned, laying amidst whatever new fresh pile of rubble as comfortably as the last. Some time may pass before he rejoins the other heroes still conscious: his body seems to instinctively know when battle is over, when it is won, and it is happy to lay there a while, if no one comes over to poke him.

Yet eventually, Thor does rise, pushing and clambering his way of whatever new pile of debris. Mjolnir, until that moment, has rested silently at the center of the crater, untouched by the devastation its own impact did create, though finally, with a brief rocking back and forth as if it was stirring from its own slumber, it does finally lift and fly (seemingly a little more lazily) back to Thor's hand.

"My friends, it seems the day is won. Let us gather our wounded and bear them inside the Hall. Then, we shall celebrate with lattes most vanilla. Mine treat." (Ok, maybe Tony's)

Breath has posed:
Breath checks herself over carefully. Pretty calmly, she calls out, "I think I have some stuff broken..? And I kind of think I need an ambulance. I don't think I should be moving around much. So... uuuh... Ambulance away, please?"

Martian Manhunter has posed:
    Moving to support Jean, J'onn nods his head, at the same time that he telekinetically lifts Cassie and America carefully to stablize all the injuries they've sustained. "Agreed Thor. Come to the Watchtower, and we will provide immediately medical attention to all that need it...".

    "All are welcome to find rest and comfort for recovery. I would appreciate everyone providing input to the report I will build on all of the enemies we've seen..." The Martian continues, a sigh coming from him, "...I"m afraid it is not the last time we will see them."

Power Girl has posed:
    In a distant far off galaxy, the boom tube opens....tossing out Darkseid and closes right behind him. Where Darkseid is? Even he doesn't know. For he has emerged in a far off point in another galaxy and uncharted starts. And as he floats past your viewpoint....he also freezes over.......

Molly Millions has posed:
Molly's alive. See? Granted, there's not much focus in the damaged eye that squints at the inch-tall Crusader and makes the mistake of attempting to laugh. Yeh, that was a mistake. 'Phone home' is the next thing on the E.T. play book, but it's on the list of ultra-low priority intervention per the nanites. So for now at least she simply opts to stay still.

Given the non-organic structure of her hands, at least one finger can be raised to wag in the vague direction of the tiny Crusader. S'okay. She's got this. At least as far as she's concerned.