7036/Wormhole Woes: The First Test

Wormhole Woes: The First Test
Date of Scene:	25 March 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	The Light turn on a prototype machine in the Nexus to bridge reality... only to unintentionally bring a new enemy to their door
Cast of Characters:	Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Shredder, Dracula, Crossbones, 7407

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Lex Luthor has posed:
It's been a long time coming. Research and development had been jointly conducted by the biggest technologists of the Light. Lex Luthor had spearheaded the initiative under LexTech, away from prying eyes... but the practical technology had been a combination of attempts at reverse engineering Zetaport technology, and the reports and notes surrounding the wormhole that brought the Chitauri to New York all those years ago.

Lex thought they could do better than Zetaport technology, making an actual tunnel in space-time to another point in space entirely... and the prototype was just completed a week ago.

Installed in the hangar bay of the main mountain chamber of the Nexus, it was a massive, /complicated/ system. In theory, it could tear open a hole through space so getting from point A to point B was instantaneous. It was installed in this specific portion of the Nexus, obviously, to put in behind the massive technological, organic, and magical defenses the Light could offer, in case this went wrong.

For Luthors part, he's wearing his assault variant Warsuit. Bulky and massive, it nonetheless was interfaced by hand probe into the machine. His synthetic voice speaks aloud, "Field test one is ready when you all are."

Doctor Doom has posed:
Doctor Doom is there in his armor, fine tuned for the possibility that things may go horribly awry; defensive and offensive capabilities at max capacity, fully charged and ready for bear. His head turned minutely in Luthor's direction, speaking succinctly.

"Proceed."

All that's left now is for Lex to turn on the light's new creation and see if it works at all, let alone correctly.

Shredder has posed:
    Shredder has taken time from his efforts to see what his investments could have shown. Accompanying him is not an army, but instead, Baxter Stockman, mechanical genius who has joined to oversee the structural integrity of the portal. His ego is every bit as large as Lex's, and he stands by in the safety of the control room, working with his team. "We are ready up here," he announces, "Let's see if this is all worth our trouble."

    Shredder himself stands in his normal armor, having no indication that he feels the need for anything beyond his normal armaments.

Dracula has posed:
Carrying no weapons, wearing no armor, indeed dressed for an evening ball, Dracula arrives adorned in a red Victorian era suit, blood red in fact. His top hat is black as always however, and is removed once he is in the company of his fellows. If he suspects danger, he doesn't show it, "We meet at last gentlemen." It is extremely rare for him to bother to meet anyone in person but these are not ordinary men.

Crossbones has posed:
Brock Rumlow wears his own 'official' Crossbones raiment, his sharp-edged visage hidden behind his skull-marked mask, strapped over his head to make his shaved skull obvious. His arms are left bear beneath a flack vest with pouches, heavily muscled and leading to gloved hands. He's probably armed, because he's the type that tends to go armed, but a knife and a pistol is, to him, the equivalent of stripping himself of weapons. He's willing to be polite, but he's not going to be stupid. He doubts anyone here is particularly threatened by conventional weapons anyway. He has no illusions about the pecking order. He is a henchman, a crude weapon crafted for chaos, and these are all hands that might wield him.

Which wasn't the same thing as owning him. No one owned him, except maybe a certain scarlet-faced German who was currently MIA.

Lex Luthor has posed:
As Stockman and Brock watch the proceedings from above on the catwalks, Luthor turns the probe with one hand, and the cyberpathic interface brings up a coding screen in his vision as he starts to program a destination. The sounds of whirring machinery powering on can be heard echoing through the hangar, and the visuals of the defenses activating throughout the chamber can be seen. Autocannons, chainguns, rocket and grenade launchers, hired soldiers of the Light in ready positions. It was quite the sight.

*KRA-BOOM!*

Something deep inside the complex explodes, and klaxons alerts of critical damage can be heard. Those with magical senses will feel something very /weird/ in the air... before they feel the magical wards built into the mountain suddenly go into overdrive. That only means one thing: there's something very hostile on the other side of that wormhole that's opening above the chamber.

The blue edges of reality warp and bend as the wormhole opens... then goes square shaped, and pear shaped, then uneven. Black, red, purple, orange. It's changing colors at a fast rate.

Over the alarms, Lex can be heard over the loudspeakers as he mentally speaks over them. "Cause undetermined. Working to stabilize."

Doctor Doom has posed:
Doctor Doom doesn't flinch, though one might notice a slight increase in the glowing of the glowy bits of his armor. He watches the wormhole quietly, analyzing it with his armor's sensors.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The opening suddenly flexes, straining against the rift. Suddenly, the wormhole inverts, a long tentacle like mass of writhing energies pluming into the room. From that tentacle, a sudden release opens, and pouring out come all sorts of horrors. Large gorilla like monsters with huge fangs and claws, small mouse sized flying creatures, something that looks like an elephant with five trunks, they all come pouring out, attacking without reservation or warning.
    Due to the inversion of the hole, they do not have the disadvantage of being funneled through an opening, but rather they burst out of the distortion in all directions, instantly filling the room.

Shredder has posed:
    Shredder's eyes widen as he sees the monsters spill forth, and he unfolds his arms immediately coming to a ready stance. He leaps into the air at one of the gorilla like monsters tines stabbing forth for a blow through the eyes.

Dracula has posed:
Dracula watches the portal open. It's nothing he hasn't seen before, be it from his own experiments, or the work of other sorcerers, portals are in fact an interest of his. However the creatures springing forth FROM the portal are something else entirely, "Devas perhaps?" But there isn't time to debate on their nature. His question is mostly rhetorical as the creatures attack. With a sigh Dracula lunges forward and catches one of the gorillas by the throat and crushes its' neck. He is starting off slow, trying to gauge their strength. Centuries of combat have taught him not to assume that they are all weaker than him however, and he does not rush to meet his next foe, instead watching them to see how they react to his own display of strength.

Crossbones has posed:
Brock Rumlow leans forward over the railing to get a look, "I'm gonna need a bigger gun," he says, smacking one of the flunkies in the shoulder and sending him back on weapons duty. The man returns with a gunney sack full of guns and explosives, picking up first a sniper rifle and lining up the scope towards the gorillas.

"Ain't never killed a gorilla before. I wonder how they taste," he says, starting to take shots and rapidly cycling the chamber to fire again at the invading beasties.

Lex Luthor has posed:
The static defenses all open fire, almost at once. Chainguns pour heavy caliber rounds into the Gorilla looking entities; they're big targets, so the rounds will be fairly accurate. The autocannons switch to low yield explosive shells, working on thinning the horde of bat sized flyers with localized explosions. Those with rifles fire off precision shots to protect the big guns.

It's a fairly professional army, all in all, working on covering gaps in defenses. The magical wards flare up, and the air starts to energize defensive magics stored for just this occasion, causing local fireballs to erupt at random in the horde coming through. Lightning follows shortly after.

It doesn't take long for the far side of the hangar chamber to turn into a warzone as the entire space around the wormhole is attacked from all sides by the forces of the Light.

Meanwhile, Lex has turned his warsuit just enough to allow the sensors to get a good read on what's going on, using both it and the Nexus itself to work through probable scenarios for the disruption. Occasional plasma bursts can be seen coming from one of his shoulder cannons as he multitasks, trying to give some additional firepower to hitting the Elephant like entity.

It soon becomes apparent that the wormhole itself is unstable though, as the occasional entity trying to come through to this side of the wormhole comes through shredded, or pulped... or just completely on fire and dead instantly.

Doctor Doom has posed:
Another continues to analyze the wormhole - Doom. He only engages in what combat he absolute must to keep himself free to continue analysis, trusting in the Light's defenses, manned or otherwise. He had a hand in some of them himself, after all. Even so, his sensors can handle the data collection, allowing him to keep an eye on the unfolding chaos. If need be, he's prepared to engage that elephant thing to ensure it doesn't wreck anything that would be catastrophic and of course allow the base's weaponry to tear it to shreds.

"How much longer?" he inquires of Luthor without any urgency; Lex is capable in his own right, and Doom trusts he needn't treat the man like a simpleton.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    As the rounds plow into the gorillas, they thump bluntly into them, taking several rounds of ammunition on each before they go down. The one Shredder stabbs through the eyes screams in rage before dropping lifelessly to the ground beneath him, only to be replaced by another that comes bearing down with a violent slam of its fists.
    The small batlike creatures swarm grabbing at autocannons as several of them are shredded, but their combined power starts to tear the defenses out of their place, while more of them still swarm in the direction of Luthor and his suit. Of course, the auto cannons and their explosive rounds are tracking those same batlike little creatures as they start to attach themselves and gnaw at the power suit viciously.
    Crossbones round finds its target, but it's clear that they are not lightweight creatures, as another looks up and then leaps unbelievably high toward the sniper, claws extended.
    As Dracula crushes the throat of his target, it struggles to fight back, claws trying to reach out even as it dies to claw the undead lord.

    Meanwhile, the Elephant is taken by several large rounds, ignoring most of the firepower that lands upon it, and one large trunk tears down an entire row of the automated defenses. The automatic weapons don't look like they will hold up long against the defense, and while some are shredded by the rift, a large handcomes through, easily the size of the pacadermish demon. If whatever that hand is gets through the rift, it will certainly bring the entire Nexus down, for it could potentially be the size of the building.

Crossbones has posed:
Brock Rumlow reaches over his shoulder and takes a grenade launcher from the flunky behind him, hefting it up as he sees one of the gorillas arc through the air up towards him. Superhuman monkeys. Great.

He cuts loose with a couple of grenades to intercept the thing in mid-air, raining a few more down on those remaining. He'll leave the heavier stuff to the heavy hitters - a man's got to know his limitations, as Clint always said.

Dracula has posed:
Dracula snaps the grasping appendage of his dying adversary with his free hand as the battle escalates. Taking in the chaos, he raises a brow in surprise as the elephant creature not only soaks enough fire power to destroy a modern entrenched defense, but then proceeds to attack at seemingly full strength unphased. The King of Vampires does not like to exert anything close to his full power, it is unbecoming most of the time, however the situation has become dire. He hisses quietly, telekinetic force erupting from the power of his blood towards the elephant. He will lift the creature off the ground, if only to keep it from causing anymore casualities while the others decide what to do with it. He isn't unaware of the battle raging around him however, and is read to dodge, or defend as needed, even if it means releasing the elephant once more to its' rampage.

Shredder has posed:
    Shredder tucks forward and around the next target, gripping the dark and coars fur with his fist and vaulting up above it to deliver a stab to the back of the head, aimed at severing the spinal column, and looks back at the rift. "Luthor!" he calls out. "We must close the rift before whatever belongs to that appendage gets through. It will destroy our investment in the Nexus." He's not worried about dying, just the setback, apparently.

    Stockman, above, slams his fist on the dash. "I have severed the power, but the rift is not closing!" he announces. "It seems that something is trying to solidify the wormhole from the other side!"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"It's the only explanation." Lex states finally as he finishes his own calculations. "Even in this rough state, I didn't program the coordinator to go to another plane of reality." Lex unplugs the probe as the bats try to gnaw at his forcefield: The warsuit was designed to handle the likes of Superman, so all they're doing is being pests.

"Doom. The problem is on the other side. We're no longer in control of the cycle!" Lex states as he activates the electrical field on his warsuit. Massive jolts of electricity start to dance over the outer layer of the warsuit, enough to potentially daze even Superman. Meanwhile, he's turned fully in the direction of the wormhole himself. "The only way we're closing that is disabling or destroying the power source on the other side, or need to disrupt the wormhole itself."

As he speaks, Lex himself is diving into the fray, thrusters engaging as he brings up his right arm, and a plasma blade materializes from his forearm. Gauntlet projectors start to blast attacks at the Elephant like entity as he gets closer; each blast enough to send medium battle tanks flying with armor breached, intending to get into melee with it. It seems to be fairly powerful, and the warsuit is the best thing to go toe to toe with it probably.

"Stockman, start bringing the secondary grid online. If power fails, we lose the hangar!" Lex barks out as he engages the large elephant entity.

Dracula has posed:
Dracula grins as the helpless elephant can do nothing but be barraged by Lex's assault. Petty as it is, he is enjoying the creature's torment, as it and its' ilk have disrupted his evening untaunted, assaulted civilized proceedings. He preserves his strength, even as few actions as he has taken so far. There is no telling how long the battle will rage.

Doctor Doom has posed:
"Indeed." Doom intones calmly as he likewise throws himself into the fray; thrusters engage and he's zipping around, circling the wormhole as he blasts bats and gorilla demons alike as they get in his way. That, however is not his main goal.

Drawing on his wealth of Dimensional Magics, Doom starts to rake the wormhole itself with potent arcs of mystical energy, alternating with barrier fields that seek to both excite and contain the out of control energy of the portal. He seeks to weaponize and contain the wormhole and force that thing to draw back or lose its hand; that in itself could prove a nice prize for all their trouble tonight.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    As the Elephant is lifted into the air, it flails madly, swinging the many trunks in different directions, mostly aimed at Dracula. It seems to know where the attack is coming from innately. The barrage tears holes in the elephantine creature, and it lets out a moaning roar of rage, one of the trunks snapping out at Lex's warsuit, swatting it down and toward the rift.
    Stockman finds as the power comes on, that something starts to siphon it from the other side.
    The grenade tears a chunk out of the center of the gorilla demon as it descends at Brock, allowing an easy sidestep to avoid the mass of flesh that lands, but...well, he's going to need a shower, since much of the spatter goes all over him.

    As Doom's magic takes effect, The barrier starts to cut into the massive hand, and it claws outward to grab the Shredder blindly, desperately trying to attack whatever is stopping its advance, but it doesn't retract the hand.

Shredder has posed:
    The Shredder was just pulling his tines out of the gorilla when he finds the massive clawed hand closing around him. He reaches out, stabbing at the middle finger on one side, the thumb on the other to prevent the grab. If it closes, it will be painful, though possibly more painful for him than for whatever owns the hand. He doesn't back out, though, growling against the attack with determination.

    Stockman brings up the systems and frowns. "No, there is something taking the energy," he says. "I'm shutting back down the secondary systems, it'll sap us dry. We need to stop whatever is taking control of the system now, or we may find that we have overstepped our knowledge." He mutters to himself. "Fools, I could have told them all this was a bad idea."

Crossbones has posed:
Brock Rumlow doesn't mind being spattered in gore, shaking a bit of it off with a feral grin beneath his helm. "This is my kind of party," he laughs.

He throws a rope over the side of the railing and, taking a few more weapons, rappels down, unleashing a mixture of explosives and heavy firepower along the way, until he lands on his feet, "I'm gonna get me some skins."

Lex Luthor has posed:
The massive hit sends Lex out of control, unable to balance himself out as he tries to counter the massive kinetic force. "RNNNGGGH!" Lex roars in frustration as he heads towards the wormhole. His thrusters kick on as he tries to redirect himself to the side. "Need-"

The warsuit winks off this plane as Lex disappears into the wormhole. He's gone.

Meanwhile, with the first layer of fortification breached by the horde, the forces of the Light fall back to the secondary defenses under the cover of the army and the Councillors. Autocannons and chainguns are being torn apart, though the wards are holding steady as they continue to ruin the army with fire and lightning.

Soon, the secondary defenses engage as flamethrowers, more chainguns, and grenade launchers pop out of the ceiling and the floor. The first layer was designed for precision. This layer was designed for massive amounts of destruction.

If the first layer fell, they'd hardly need to worry about collateral damage to the rest of the hangar, after all. Still, they won't last too long, since power is being drained.

Dracula has posed:
Dracula shrieks like a dragon as Lex is knocked down. It's all or nothing at this point. He burns a chunk of his potent blood in order to increase the force of his telekinesis and exerts force considerably beyond his baseline. The elephant flies towards the open portal. He is still trying not to expend much of his power and certainly does not want to risk extensive collateral damage. He is certain that the battle is not yet desperate enough to risk the facility itself.

Doctor Doom has posed:
Aaaaand Lex goes into the wormhole. There is an audible sigh over the comms, proceded by Doom's voice calmly stating, "Retrieving Luthor; we will attempt to close the breach from the other side." Fortunately he has everything he needs to survive excursions of this sort all in that suit of his. Hopefully Lex's suit is outfitted as such.

Doom rockets at the wormhole, kicking in enough thruster to outpace the flying elephant thing and... Zzllrrt. Gone.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    As the elephant slams into the barrier, it takes a chunk out, and a pulsing energy slices it unevenly in half. There is a gurgling roar that is broken off, the flesh of the creatures slamming into the ground.
    The hand restricted long enough by Shredder's claws that it is severed, dropping around Shredder limply, adding to the carnage as Brocks firing cleans up the remainder of the enemies. The barrier holds, and the impact on the other side of the elongated rift is stopped, the magic holding it in place, the barrier preventing anything from entering or exiting.

    On the other side of the portal, however, things are not so peaceful. As Lex comes through, the first impact is not physical. A psychic scream attacks, a maddening assault against the mind for the human genius. The realm is putrid and gagging, requiring the suit even to survive the elements. Doom enters to find the same thing, the rift behind them convulsing. It doesn't close, but it may be difficult to safely pass back through it as it is contained by the barriers.

    Creatures lurk here, hideous beasts in the dark, hard to see in the dim reddish light of the burning realm.

Shredder has posed:
    Shredder shrugs out of the dying hands grip, staring at the portal. "And so, now what, Stockman?" he asks, looking back at the control room, and then to Dracula and Crossbones. He glances at the bloody masses and carnage covering the room. "The rift is no good to us if it cannot be controlled. And the man who was supposed to be the brains behind it has been removed from the equation." He frowns, though it couldn't be seen behind the mask, and flicks some blood from the claws.

Crossbones has posed:
Brock Rumlow mounts the chest of a gorilla demon knocked down by one of his grenades. He drives a bowie knife down through its gut and starts to slice upwards, working to skin the animal alive even as it screams and thrashes beneath the skull-faced fascist, Crossbones even more of a figure of horror as he's drenched in blood and innards from his other kills.

"Long as his checks clear, I could give a damn," he snarls, jamming his hand into the demon beast's chest cavity and pulling out its primordial silacrum of a heart.

"Basically? Not my problem, pal."

Dracula has posed:
Dracula dusts himself off as the elephant meets its' end. He is satisfied with the additional damage inflicted upon the Light's adversary as a whole as he observes, however the battle isn't over yet, and Doom has just jumped in after Lex. Dracula steels himself in case more enemies attack, allowing Doom to risk the rescue mission.

Lex Luthor has posed:
There's no AI support for the suit, so there's no pilot for it as Lex is suddenly screaming into his helmet from an attack on his mind. He's had technology to cover himself before... but nothing could prepare Lex for the sheer intensity.

It's a good thing that his mental capacity is being attacked, but not shutdown... which means the suit systems are still functioning, but at a reduced capacity for now.

His suit thrusters fly around in circles as Lex slowly works on adjusting to the sheer force brought to bear on him in this realm.

"Gnnnnhhhh." Is finally given as just enough coherent thought comes back to him to bring the sensor suite online and start to scan his surroundings.

"Where... what is this place?" Lex muses aloud. Loud enough to be heard over the comm by Doom.

In the Hangar, the remaining mercenaries are grumbling as they start to clean up the mess, giving a look to Brock of respect as things finally settle down. The secondary defenses have been locked in place from a lack of power... but they?re mostly not destroyed yet, at least.

Doctor Doom has posed:
Psychic screams. "How quaint." Doom intones with a surly mien, briefly glancing back at the portal to assess its state before forging on with a plan; find Luthor, find whatever's meddling with their affairs, and put an end to it. They'll need to find another way out.

There is something akin to a low growl as Doom surveys the burning lands here, that noise coming from himself whether he'd admit to it or not. Ah. There, Luthor not /too/ terribly far from the portal. "Hell, or somewhere close enough by the looks of it. Still, the differences might matter." he replies over the comms. "We need to find our interloper, and deal with their meddling. Are you up to the task?"

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The beastly noise and attack gets stronger, something inside Lex's mind systematicly trying to work its way through it and break it down. Having a strong will is one thing, but whatever it is, this presence is powerful. Even Doom might feel the pressure, though his strong resolve can decidedly hold it off, something is currently attacking, and the creatures of this world watch, as if vultures waiting for a dying animal to give up the struggle. What will happen? They will need to find a way to stabilize the rift, whatever is affecting the tear most certainly need to be dealt with before they can return home.