Saint reaches the river and Skylark. "Sky, cover me please. I'm going to get Apollo and Star out of there," she said after a quick assessment of the situation.
Wren notes Hope's intent on going to the boardwalk as well, and takes her along with Nitro and Optic. Turning to Optic, he asks, "Optic, can you get a location on Star and Apollo with your visor? Lock onto their equipment signals or something?"
Optic sends this information. This will come in handy quite soon. Meanwhile, he analyzes the spores while waiting for Wren to teleport him. He tells the group
"These spores are from a Animus Serpent, a Queen. Aminus Serpents are small parasites that live in the human brain and feed off certain chemicals and brain matter that lead people to unreasoned hostility and violence, and telepathically suggest they act on these things. The queens reproduce by producing spores that enter people's minds and grow...this is just the first step. Eventually these things will take over their victims...and they can spread the infection through bodily fluids...and if two of them produce a child, that child will be a queen. The bad guys could have harvested spores for this, and may have a queen on their side. She'll be humanoid, but appearance and powers vary widely since they are all hybridized with their hosts' DNA. By the way, Devil Ray is Crime League...where there is one, there may be more..."
"Thanks," Hope said, looking concerned. "If I can't get them both out, Sky will have to get the other." she added.
Hope assesses the situation, considering her decision to lift them out. It would be a huge waste of effort. "Change of plans, Skylark, I thought I could lift them out, but it looks like you'll have a better chance of getting them both out then me, I'll cover you if you could lift them out."
"Roger that, Hope. Two vicious blighters in the water, and there may be a sniper, so visual cover would be ducky. I can see through fog and dust and such using gravity waves."
"I wonder how well they can swim in a box of air?" Hope cracks. "Alright, get Star and Apollo out and I'll trap the fins and or take a crack at the sniper, whichever one I can find first. Oh, I can see through that mess using the air currents, fun huh?" she said, making sure that Skylark was appropriatly covered.
.
Hope tries to cover Skylark as best she can, blowing water and dirt around, but she cannot fire her lightning while Star and Apollo are in the water, and she also can't suck the bad guys into the air...there is too much water in the way.
Meanwhile, Wren teleports Optic and Nitro to the boardwalk.
"You fascist thugs are going down!"
Wow, John, I bet no one has ever used that one before
[sblock] Nitro tries to get into position to Shockwave (11 dmg, 110 ft Cone) as many of the skin heads as possible without hitting bystanders (using his move action to jump if necessary), then uses Move-by Action to end up not right next to all of the spores/possibly behind partial cover if it looks like they have projectile spores that could reach him. [/sblock]
Nitro jumps into the air, claps his hand together, and sends a huge burst of air towards the skinheads. The cone of force pulverizes a van and sends most of the skinheads around it flying. Most don't get up. Nitro breaks some windows, too, and wrecks a trash can and a bench, but avoids harming any bystanders He flies over the infected area, trying not to breathe in midair, and lands behind the Adam portion of a giant statue of Adam and Eve in a fountain in front of the Paradise Hotel. He creates quite a splash, but the giant Adam blocks provides convenient cover.
Suddenly, a blue, humanoid creature of pure energy phases through the the floor right behind Nitro. It's Hiroshima Shadow. "YOU THINK YOU COULD KILL ME!!!," he roars, and strikes Nitro, sending him flying into the status of Adam and shattering it at its center point. Water spurts in all directions (injury, bruise, stunned, energy damage)
.
Optic's suit catches a high-caliber bullet, knocking him back a step. Even he can't figure out where it came from. (injury/buise). He gets charged by a few Skinheads, but their bats do nothing to him He hopes the one spraying spores hasn't infected him. One of them sprays him with a MAC-10, and a bullet gets through his suit (injury/bruise).
It looks like some guys from the Paradise hotel are fighting back. A number of armed men, a mix of security guards with tasers and pistols and some better-armed mobsters (including a few with energy weapons), take up defensive positions using pillars and other scenery, and take down a few of the skinheads.
Devil Ray shoots at Skylark, but misses without Hope needing to deflect it with her winds.
Skylark does manage to lift Star and Apollo, as well as enough water to to display a whale. The altered gravity allows Star and Apollo to float to the top. Apollo manages to shake off the effects of the electricity. (Ya know, Hope can heal Star...)
The shark does another jump, this time at Hope, but misses.
Next to Wren, a car suddenly explodes. He manages to react rapidly, summoning an energy bubble to entirely contain the blast and save many civilians (rolled a 20 on his save)
From one of the villain vans, a bearded man, wearing silver gauntlets and a black suit with a purple star in the center, and glowing with purplish-black light, floats over to Wren. "hard light constructs. Interesting. I thought I had the monopoly on that power now that Star knight is out of the way. I guess I'll have to rectify that." He fires a blast of black light, but it misses Wren.
Hope and Skylark are also approached by a new villain. He floats in the air and wears a red and yellow robe. Lightning crackles from his fingertips. He fires a blast at Skylark, and is not made to miss by Hope's windy smoke screen. Skylark is hurt (bruised), but not that badly.
Optic shouts
"I'm not so sure this IS Barrington...this is just about the whole damn Crime League, though...Devil Ray, Dr. Stratos, Black Star, Hiroshima Shadow...and maybe others...!