PoNK: Orange City [Invited]

[Hal Jordan]

Players: Gemini, Black Canary, Red Hood
Location(s): All over Gotham
Plot Summary: Larfleeze's Orange construct forces have invaded Earth and are targeting Gotham.


The day was only hardly just beginning and already destruction had fallen over Gotham city. The few pedestrians that had crowded the streets during the early morning now huddled closely together under any structure they could find that (they hoped) could keep them shielded and protected from the orange creatures descending from the skies all over the city. Many of the living constructs appeared humanoid, but a large few of them were simply grotesque monsters painted in an orange shade; thoroughly terrifying the citizens of Gotham.

The orange constructs that now pillaged Gotham were not thinking creatures, they were simply tools created by the villain Larfleeze and carried out any instruction he gave to them, which today was to conquer the Earth after they had already taken over the planet New Krypton. The swarm of orange creatures crashed into windows of Gotham's large skyscrapers and came crashing out of the other sides with helpless victims in their arms, dropping the people to their deaths before continuing on to spread more mayhem. Screams filled the city as people were attacked mercilessly, some refusing to go out without a fight as they attempted to fend off the constructs only to be overpowered by the hardlight beings.

Though it was not something they were used to handling, the police were on the scene almost immediately. Not long ago Commissioner Gordon had been kidnapped and held hostage by the Joker but he did not let that slow him down in the slightest as he led the charge of his department against the orange invaders. The entire city was under attack, it kept the police department fairly stretched out but Gordon was going to cover as many bases as possible. "The news is reporting attacks like this in other cities, we'll just have to try to hold our ground as long as it takes for reinforcements to arrive." Gordon spoke over the radio to his officers, hoping that the army or the Justice League were already on the way.

As Gordon drove his squad car speeding down the street the black ground before him suddenly exploded. The commissioner swerved and stomped his brakes, forcing his police car to skid and tumble over where it crashed on the sidewalk near a group of screaming citizens. Dizzy and ears ringing, and also upside down, Gordon peered through his window through cracked glasses and saw two men dressed in attire very similar to what he recalled the New Krypton Kryptonians wearing, but also orange rings on their middle fingers.

Gordon's attention then snapped to the screaming people his overturned vehicle had nearly crushed, "Get out of here! Run!" Unfortunately Gordon's words were too little too late and before a single civilian could turn and flee the two Kryptonians eyed them and unleashed devastating waves of heat vision upon them; incinerating the group on the spot. Jim Gordon quickly undid his seat belt to drop from his suspended position and went for the gun on his hip but when he turned back to open fire (though already knowing it'd make no difference against Kryptonians) the two men were already gone.

{OOC: When everyone has responded that will determine the order of posting for this thread, also this will be my only post in this thread; each of you can handle the NPCing of the constructs & 2 Kryptonians in your posts. Any questions, just PM me!}

[Gemini]

Thanks for the lift... hard to find a ride out of the city during all of this. Her voice was haggard and hoarse like she'd spent the whole night partying. Something like that.. She didn't exactly remember what happened last night. One moment she was at the restaurant, dancing with Harley... god she was amazing. Not in the sack or anything, she wouldn't know about all that... but she was amazing in other ways. Like she was smart and kinda funny yet also kind of not.. and she was properly vicious. Anyone who could go toe to toe with Bats had to be... 3rd more vicious sidekick right under Ravager. The first should've been obvious. The driver was not the talkative type... that was alright, Gem didn't really need anyone to talk to for this one .. this one? It was supposed to be real cut and dry.

Gotham was under siege. Some ugly orange boar had taken over Superman's peeps and was sending them like mortar shots into the city.. wrecking things and causing a general ruckus. Issue? Hell no. She was trying to leave. It wasn't her job to save Gotham, it wasn't her job to save anything. She had to get back home to Ivy and hide there until the fighting was done.. or until Ivy went all Green Peace on Larfleeze for wrecking her giant marble. Whatever she'd let Ivy and Jade deal with that. Lanterns were not her cup of tea. She could hear the driver praying in.. whatever language it was he spoke. She could make out only two words, Allahu Akbar, and she knew her goose was cooked. Something like a rhino fell on top of the cab, spiking it into the ground and sending her face first into the roof and then down again to be crushed by the condensing rear end of the car.

The glowing orange behemoth rumbled around on the hood, as if it were confirming it's kill before it tried to take off. Tried. An olive arm shot out of the crushed metal of the roof, wrapping around the beasts back and using him as a tether to pull the rest of the body out. I hope you understand... JUST how rude that was! She emerged, a look of anger on her face that she had learned from her big sister. She didn't know constructs could feel fear, but the shivering as her grip tightened on it brought a smile to her face. She launched on top of it, wrapping her arms around it's neck over and over again until the point where a normal creatures wind pipe would've been decimated. She unwound her hands as fast as she could, rotating the behemoths neck until it made a full 1080, shattering the construct. She climbed off the roof of the car, running her fingers through her jelly-like hair before sighing.

She was never going to make it to New Bludhaven unless she transformed... and if she did, they'd find her again. She should have left last night when the pizza was done.. she groaned before turning back to Gotham and beginning her walk back. She figured that if she killed one of the people with a ring.. she'd be able to cut down the construct population by half... though from what she'd learned from Jade, Orange Lanterns were the most greedy.. there was supposed to be like.. one at a time. The Singular Agent Orange.. acting like the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Her walk turned into a run and eventually a full on sprint as she made her way back to Gotham. As soon as she got off the bridge, she powered her legs into a jump, sprouted wings and flew towards Wayne Enterprises. She'd be able to see everything from up there.. maybe find a plane or something and get home... that was the plan until she felt a searing, blinding pain in the back of her head, ripping through her rubber and her muscles before she ditched her wings and fell, trying to get out of the attack.

She crashed into a building, her skin bubbling and falling off, out of her control as she saw an orange.. kryptonian staring her down. She should've left last night..

[Red Hood]

What kind of self respecting aliens deployed an invasion so damn early in the morning? That was the question Jason Todd mentally asked to himself as he sprinted along the Gotham city rooftops. He had just turned in from the prior night's patrol just a few hours earlier, not much sleep had been had by the running vigilante, the quick cup of coffee he'd had would have to do the job to keep him alert - if the invasion itself weren't enough. While darting rooftop to rooftop Red Hood ran with a black dufflebag slung over his shoulder hanging down his back, the appropriate bit of weaponry needed for taking care of large scale invasions. The police scanners in his apartment alerted the helmeted vigilante of the planet wide attack but now that he was outside and racing along ledges Jason stared suspiciously at a sky void of invader spaceships.

Just what the hell kinda invasion was this?!

Holding onto the strap of his bag so that it did not jostle too much on his back Jason stepped onto a brick ledge and leaped three feet across to the neck rooftop. While in midair he felt himself suddenly snagged, his body suddenly becoming weightless and not landed on the other side like physics said it should have. Making sure his grip remained on his dufflebag Jason craned his neck to look about himself and assess the situation, quickly spotting the cause of his sudden defiance of gravity. A clawed orange beast held him up by the scruff of his jacket, its orange glass like wings beating the air a mile a minute, yet virtually making no sound at all. The thing's large round head rolled and it looked down at Jason with a million tiny little eyes before gaping open a mouth that looked to be designed for mincing meat. Orange tentacles slithered out of the mincer and snaked their way toward Jason prompting him to act quickly.

The bag weighed on his back as Jason dug into the sheathe on his side and fished out a khukri dagger. Twirling the blade in hand Jason lashed out at the translucent claws digging into his jacket and slashed the hand they belonged to deeply. Cracks spread in the construct from the point of Jason's cut until finally the creature's entire arm shattered and the Red Hood was freed from its clutches. Recaptured by the force of gravity Jason dropped onto a rooftop and led himself into a roll before standing swiftly and placing his dagger back into its sheathe. "Get off the roof! Get off the roof! Get off the roof!" Jason repeated to himself as he raced for the edge of the rooftop, all the while the one armed orange construct sped after him. Finally getting to the end of his path Jason leaped and spun around, glock in hand, and fired three shots into the constructs orange face all before crashing into a pile of trashcans.

[Black Canary]

She knew better than to call for back-up right now. Word was that these things were attacking cities all over the planet, so the odds of there being any decent number of reinforcements being on their way was slim to none. The League would send someone if they could, but for the time being, they were on their own. "Tell me where I'm needed, O!" Dinah yelled into her comm-link as she sped away from Wayne Manor. Her first priority had been making sure that Sin was somewhere safe, and the Batcave was about as safe as it got in Gotham. There would be no repeat of Star City if she had anything to say about it.

"Everywhere," came the strained response from the other end of the line. "God, these things are all over the place, just get back here and do what you can while I try to find someone who can help." Dinah's jaw tightened as her motorcycle sped up. "I'm going as fast as I can, I'm almost downtown." "Good," Oracle sighed. "It'll be a miracle if I can coordinate with everyone so we can get an organized effort going - oh god." The blonde's grip on the motorcycle tightened at her friend's tone of voice. "What?" "I just saw my dad's squad car on one of the traffic cams," Oracle's voice was hoarse. "It rolled, I can't see..." "Where is he?" Dinah shouted over the sound of the bike and growing roar from the city. "23rd, right by the Starbucks, there's... there's a huge burn mark right next to him."

Dinah swerved sharply to the right as she headed for the corner. Dodging the constructs and those screaming and running for their lives didn't make her task any easier, but it fortunately only took several minutes to get to her destination via some of the lesser known alleyways and side streets. The blonde jumped off the bike before it had even come to a complete stop, racing over to the overturned squad car. "Jim!" she yelled once, then again as she crouched down next to the driver's side. "It's empty, O." There was silence for a moment. "Did they...?" "I don't think so," Dinah answered, surveying the interior of the car. "It looks like he just got up and - agh!" The blonde woman went flying as something crashed into her side, sending her sprawling to the ground several yards away. She cringed a moment before her eyes widened at the sight of an orange construct looming over her. Despite the throbbing pain in her side - if her suit wasn't so well-designed she would probably be sporting a few broken ribs - she scrambled backward, then unleashed a high-pitched cry at the construct. Cracks slowly began to spread throughout the creature before it shattered a few moments later. Dinah sucked in a deep breath of air as she pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the pain in her side. "Dinah, you okay?" "Yeah," she wheezed. "I'm gonna have to call you back. Let me know if you manage to scrounge anyone up."

[Gemini]

Now.. I don't know if you've ever fought a Kryptonian head to head.. no adjoining forces or nothing to get in the way... but most people, that aren't Batman will lose. That being said, A Kryptonian being brainwashed by overwhelming greed..., blessed with a lantern ring and knowing that heat vision was your weakness... well Gem didn't expect to make it out of this scrap alive. Pulling herself together, and trying to keep her skin from sizzling off at his supernova-like glare, the threw a punch at the support of the building she was in, causing it to crumble around her, saving her.. for a moment. The floor crumpled and fell around her, dropping the above 3 floors around her, stopping the kryptonian from finding her. Must've been lead in the walls... thank god.

She rested in her soft cocoon of demolished building, trying to think. There were no plants around here.. she couldn't try and invoke Ivy to call her. She wasn't going to be able to beat up a Kryptonian.. maybe dying here in the building would be the smartest thing to do.. It was pretty cozy. Hard rock to lay her head on, hard rock to lay her body in.. and when this invasion was over and the Earth was overrun by Space Pigs, they could find her perfectly preserved corpse and know what the women of this world looked like. That was her plan honestly, it was gonna be a good plan until she heard that familiar 'Woosh' of sound accompanied by a Kryptonian flying away to do.. whatever. She was safe! For now... Closing her eyes, she affected her body's chemistry, returning to a liquid like form and oozing through the cracks and crevices of the building, coming out on one of the floors below and stepping up to one of the shattered windows, sighing.

The city was dying. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder was foaming up about their waists and all the whores and politicians were looking up and shouting "Save us!"... and she could only look down and whisper Gemini Rules... Musing on more Watchmen quotes, she heard gunshots ringing out through the din of war. This usually wouldn't be anything to shake a head at, but when her eyes followed towards the source, she saw an orange construct being abused by someone. Someone she could help! Someone with a gun she could use to steal a car and get out of dodge. This was a win win. Grabbing a bundle of rebar connected to a large piece of cinderblock, she launched out of the window. She fell through the air before stretching parts of her skin making a pseudo wing-suit for her to glide towards the source. As soon as she was above the brawl she pulled up, soaring into the air with the remainder of her momentum until she stalled, gravity's forces throwing her back towards the ground, aided by her abandoning the wingsuit and pulling her arm back, holding up her Rebar Sledge with a laugh.

BANZAI! She twirled in the air, gaining as much momentum as she could before straightening out, slamming the cinderblock into the beast's head, unleashing a mighty crack along it's already damaged body. She was going to be proud of herself... until she saw just who she had saved underneath the thing. Hey there, Redboy... long time no see.

[Red Hood]

Jason missed the days of flimsy tin trashcans, the type that bent under the slightest bit of pressure and weren't that disastrous when being crashed into. Jason hated these new model thick plastic cans that were essentially the equivalent to crashing into a brick wall when falling from such a height that the Red Hood had traveled. Something was broken, of that much the vigilante was sure. He lay still for a moment, the pain he felt in his left arm and ribcage suggesting that he stay out of this fight and just rest a while. But Jason never was all that great at listening, even his own injured body couldn't tell him what to do or not to do. With a soft groan he blocked out the aches of his body and kicked a cracked trashcan off of him, just as he heard a somewhat familiar voice speak to him.

Pushing a bag of garbage off of his masked face Jason sat up and looked over the slender woman standing over him. "Small world." He muttered as he climbed to his feet, a burn running up his entire left side. There was probably a lot broken there; so much for armor. "Taking advantage of the situation or...?" Jason didn't really want to finish the question because it seemed a little too absurd to think of Gemini doing anything that wasn't helpful to herself alone. He turned his back on the shapeshifter for a second to dig in the pile of trash and scoop up his duffle bag. "I'm sure you've noticed the world's gone to hell. We can try to kill each other later," After a quick assessment of his bag's contents, making sure everything was still in its place and accounted for, Jason finally turned back to face Gemini. "Deal?"

The couple standing around in one place for too long was apparently not such a bright idea as the building they stood in the shadow of (the very same Jason had just leaped from) began to crumble down falling toward them. Orange light refracted over the entire block as a large orange colored sperm whale fell from the sky and belly flopped onto the slab of back alley where Jason and Gemini were. Quickly Jason slung his bag over shoulder and began pushing Gemini toward the street, "Go! Go!" A number of buildings on the block crumbled under the mammoth weight of the whale construct, Gemini and Red Hood just barely making it out from under the construct's impact zone seconds before it crashed into the concrete floor. Rubble and dust sprayed them at a high velocity and knocked Jason back to the ground.

His half open bag fell beside him and without the slight inclination of hesitation Jason extended a hand into the duffle and from it he drew a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Aiming while laying flat on his back was slightly difficult but as big as the construct was there really was no chance of missing. Jason leveled the RPG at the construct then paused and glanced toward Gemini, "I'm embarrassed I don't have anything witty to say." After a small moment of pause Jason shrugged his left shoulder and then fired. The rocket shot off with great speed and did a slight corkscrew spin through the air before hitting its arch and sinking back downward upon the enormous construct that flopped around onto the smashed buildings. An explosion lit the sky, fire works that seemed almost lost in all the orange that surrounded it. The whale burst under the burning power of the grenade and as the hardlight shards of the construct flew up into the air the sunlight refracted off of them in a multitude of colors. It was almost beautiful, if you could ignore the sheer destruction that was taking place everywhere else.