Blight on the Big Apple IC

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The Lone Wanderer

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#1  Edited By The Lone Wanderer

9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

New York City...the most iconic and populous city in the United States. Some would say it is the home of the superhero and supervillain as we have come to know it. Some would say that it is the very emblem of freedom. Some say it is the greatest city in the world. Millions call it home, even though in the past five years it has been levelled by Rikti Invasions, Martian Invasions, Legionarre Invasions, Black Hand take overs, Ork invasions, the Vine Villains, pretty much everyone and their grandmother has done catastrophic damage to the city at some point.

Some even say, in jest, that New York City is cursed, or that there's some giant neon red sign in the sky shouting "VILLAINS ATTACK HERE!" In giant letters that can only be seen by supervillains. And yet the new yorkers endure, which they claim reinforces the adage "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." And it is true that the New Yorker has an indomitable spirit, one that refuses to be bowed despite the Universe seeming to have a particularly strong loathing of the place.

But the New Yorker spirit needn't stand alone against the hordes that seek to humble them. New York is also home to perhaps America, if not the world's largest metahuman population. Thus, some have called it "Superhero city" in reference to the amazing density of heroes who call the place home. But of course, where there are heroes there are villains. Not only does the Big Apple have the World's potentially largest superhero population, it is a good contender for having the world's largest supervillain population.

But when combined with an ever more effective governmental ability to deal with metahuman threats and brave non governmental organizations, typically the side of good is able to keep the villains off the streets and force them to lurk in the shadows, something for which much of New York is grateful for. With a proud hero tradition and some of America if not the world's bravest and most dedicated people sworn to it's defense, it's hard to believe anyone would dare attack this gem in the American crown.

And yet...Someone did just that...In times square, the mutilated body of what might have once been some young mutant was laid on the streets. The corpse was bleeding out of every orfice, his eyes and eardrums had ruptured as if exposed to some deathly noise, his teeth were shattered and his tongue was mashed into a pulp. No one saw how the X-man was killed, but there he lay, dead for all to see. In truth, the mutant had ran afoul of Eliminator Omega, who got the drop on him while he was out on a date and exposed him to a blast of a basilisk frequency modulated to be fatal to humans.

By the time he knew what hit him, the sound had killed him by mulching all of his organs and softer tissues, leaving only skin, muscle, and bone left in a horrifying mess of blood and guts. This was not the first such murder of a superhero. Yesterday a hero famous for his powered armor suit, developed with the assistance of Tony Stark, was found dead in his suit, or more accurately a green radioactive gelatinous puddle of him was found in his suit.

The day before that, an animal controlling villain was found, riddled with countless superheated bullets while his crocodile minions were skinned and laid out in the new york sewers, his human henchmen all having cleanly placed shots in their heads that caused them to rupture like overripe watermelons struck by a sledgehammer. Before that an evil sorceress was discovered electrocuted to death and hanging from the top of the brooklyn bridge, her own hair used to hang her.

For months now one villain or hero a day would turn up dead, and the populace; both normal and metahuman, were starting to get scared. Speculation abounded as to who was conducting all of these brazen murders. Fingers were pointed at Tenebrasque, people blamed the Black Hand which had recently conquered the Great Lakes region, some even claimed that Ork Kommandos had killed them. But the truth was far more dire. For intellects far more ancient and terrible than man had seen the Earth's metahumans, and deemed them a threat, and thus they dispatched a terrifying assassin.

Eliminator Omega...the Lone Wanderer, so named for it's prediliction for venturing forth from the endless mechanical hordes of the Electrical Protectorate's infinite army. A cold and calculating genius with seemingly limitless talent in the field of the murder of the superhuman, It was currently tracking it's latest target, the X-man Wolverine, who was busy drinking in a bar. It's optics magnified on the target, which it had stalked for days now, uncovering every potential weakness he had.

"When I find the bub who offed that kid..." Wolverine snarled in between gulps of Vodka, having had come here to investigate the murder of an fellow mutant. But he never got to finish his sentence, as by then Eliminator omega had levelled out it's sonic rifle and fired off a sound laser with ultrahigh frequencies and a devastating volume right into his closest eardrum, overwhelming his extremely keen senses and causing him to double over in pain as the sonic beam cut through the intervening glass like nothing.

Quickly moving down and activating it's stealth cloak to render itself invisible, it stepped into the establishment, taking out it's electrostaff which crackled to life, purple arcs surrounding it's head before the right tip smashed into Wolverine's adamantium skull to incapacitate him. "Agghhh! What the fu-" He said as he got up and unsheathed his claws, only for a devastating metallic knee to slam him in the gut and send him sprawling one again.

Looking around, wolverine assessed that his assailant was invisible, so he grabbed some coloured liquid; a startled patron's beer, and threw it forth; letting it splash his assailiant and render it partially visible. Knowing that it's stealth cloak had been foiled, Eliminator Omega returned itself to visibility. "Alright bub, I'm going to slice you to pieces and mail you in a pretty little box to your maker!" He said as he leapt forward at the Eliminator, who gracefully sidestepped the attack and brought out a speaker to let loose a basilisk signal.

"I apologize, but I do not comply." The Lone Wanderer droned in a monotoned voice as it released an unearthly wail that was fatal to humans. Every person in the bar dropped dead as their organs, eyes, and teeth ruptured in a gory explosion. Only the obscene regenerative abilities of Logan kept him alive, but he was in utter agony. "W-wha..." He garbled, choking on his own blood before he saw the glowing barrel of a fractal gun pointed at his face. "Logan Status:Terminated." The Machine said without a hint of emotion as a cone of energies unknown to human science spewed forth from the barrel, consuming the mutant and shattering him as if he were made out of glass, the splinters themselves shattering and those splinters of splinters shattering until there was nothing left to regenerate from, not even the adamantium skeleton remained.

Looking to a bar security camera that had recorded him, Eliminator Omega raised the fractal gun and fired at it, cutting off the feed right then and there, though the footage remained on the database for those who deigned to investigate. It's job done, the Eliminator walked out of the bar and reactivated the cloak. There was still much in the way of murder to be done...so many heroes to eliminate...But it did take a trophy from Logan's corpse, or more correctly, it stole his motorcycle; to appease an odd habit of taking trophies from victims. It was time to Blight the Big Apple.

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_Quickster_

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#2  Edited By _Quickster_

 Liberty Island

  
  "The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata, that is, a tablet evoking the law, upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States." 

"Man, what a grogfest." 

"Snoresville!" 

Most of the class seemed completely unenthused about the Statue of Liberty tour and information session. When they'd come on the trip they expected the excitement of big city life, not another museum. they had a museum in Mazomanie. New York was supposed to be the land of excitement, opportunity. But so far, the Big Apple seemed more like a rotting apple. The exception, as always, was Maxwell Ferreolus. He'd already known most everything about the statue anyway, but that did nothing to detract from the excitement of seeing it in person. For him, every bit of New York was an excitement, and on the tour, he was at the head of the pack, the reasons twofold. This kept him from being bullied by the kids at the back, and ensured the guide that there was one person interested in what she had to say. They'd become very well acquainted because of this Unfortunately, he would soon be called away due to a phone call from his friend and superhero radar Felicia. 

"Max, problem on the mainland." 

"What? Now? What is it?" Max said, annoyed but falling to the back of the group to have his conversation in private. 

"I'm...not...entirely sure. It looks to be a robot of sorts but it's not like any robot I've ever known. It seems almost sentient, like there's a touch of human in its mannerisms and speech." 

"Awww. Alright fine. I'll be there." 
 
"Can you get away from your tour?" 

 "Hell-lo. Major nerd here, surrounded by cool kids. I've got this." 

  Hanging up the phone, Max sighed, then found student Jeremy Stockholm in the crowd and gave him a smack upside the head. Jeremy turned around, saw it was him, and punched him square in the nose. The teacher and the guide rushed over to him, pushing the other students aside.  "Oh my God, what happened?" Max was pretty upset having been interrupted.  This better be good to make me skip out on the Statue of Liberty.


Back on the harbor




"Way to go, man. Nice job slugging him like that." Because of the "fight," they had gone back to the harbor and were heading back to the hotel, much to the delight of the other students, who had been given time to themselves and even going out, so long as they stayed in groups. Max and Jeremy had been sent back to their room. Of course, Jeremy's friends would stop by to pick him up a little later. As soon as he was left alone, the door shut, Max suited up. A  light armor polymer made from an alloy of vibranium and spandex, his special goggles, and the earpiece that kept him connected to Felicia. Grabbing a quick snack, he was up and out the hotel front door faster than anyone could notice.


"Alright, so what am I looking for here?" Standing on the roof of the hotel, Felicia talked into his ear, the video feed from various traffic cameras showing on his goggles.  "He was last seen at the Rum house, located on North Broadway, but area officials say he's left since then on a  1963 Harley Davidson  DuoGlide FLH. Traffic cameras show him headed down West 42nd street, near Times Square." " Alright, I'm on my way. This looks like a job for Quickster!" he shouted jokingly like an old comic book hero, at was quickly down in the streets.  "Oh, an Max. Be careful. Whatever it is, it just murdered Wolverine." So surprised by this, Max nearly tripped over his own feet.  "Seriously!? Then why are we sending me!?"


Quickster came up quickly on the motorcycle with the robot on top, staying behind the cars a few blocks back, his mind working like a super computer.  First thing's first, catch him off guard. If I can cause a sudden interruption in momentum, I can get the jump on him. Glancing around, he caught a glimpse of a construction worker with a crowbar, sped over and grabbed it, and kept going, speeding up so that he could catch up to the machine on the machine. Once close enough, he thrust with the crowbar, aiming into the rear wheel of the motorcycle to try to throw it off and the robot forward. The drawback was that he himself was lurched forward and stumbled a bit, but regained his footing and came to a screeching halt, looking back to survey what he had done.
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The Lone Wanderer

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#3  Edited By The Lone Wanderer

Having made a fairly clean get away, Eliminator Omega decided to take it's new motorcycle out on something of a joyride, having some of the nanites that composed it's body flow into the bike and upgrade it, reforming it into a more...protectorate style of vehicle, which is to say it's colours were primarily chrome and purple, it's headlights changed to resemble the glaring yellow optics of most protectorate units, and it gained a sleek sort of space-age aesthetic with just the right amount of silver age sci-fi boxiness to appeal to Eliminator's aesthetic tastes.

Driving the motorcycle out to the nearest protectorate base to equip it's new trophy with some weapons modules, the machine seemed to have little concern for the numerous traffic laws it was violating, going well beyond the speed limit. The motorcycles new M-brane engine was highly advanced, using the energy given off by disassembling the barriers that keep the dimensions of space separate, bringing into full view and tangilable existence the theoretical dimensions of superstring science, it easily exceeded any power source on earth, as it defied all laws of conservation of energy or mass, allowing the new vehicle to run extremely fast.

Slipping through traffic, Eliminator passed by a traffic Camera that was modified to deal with a problem many traffic cameras not designed to deal with supercrime had, the problem being an inability to register something moving at over one hundred fifty miles per hour, or non-radar reflective substances. To deal with this, they swapped out the radar set for laser scanners with much faster processing times, allowing them to deal with super speedster criminals, and thus; be able to detect the motorcycle even as it clocked over three hundred miles per hour.

Not knowing this at the time, Eliminator continued to go right on through, not knowing that he had attracted an unknown element. His thermal scanners indicated a rapidly moving warm blooded entity gaining on him as he went on, but as it turned around to see the source of it's thermal radar's warning, a crowbar was jammed into the spoke of the wheel of the Motorcycle, causing it to grind to a halt and flip over.

But with a computerized mind that worked at incredible speeds, the robotic assassin reacted in time to leap off of it's now destabilized vehicle, leaping forward into a aerial somersault, as it spun through the air, it brought out it's electrostaff, timing it's aerial spins just right to land on it's feet with a clang of metal on asphalt. Turning around to see the perpetrator of it's loss of balance and a new trophy, Eliminator saw a red haired boy in a rather glaringly yellow and red suit.

Scanning the teenager, it determined that he was an adolescent caucasian male in the start of the late stage of puberty, that his suit was made of a polymer-vibranium mesh, that his metabolism was working extraordinarily quickly; signifying that he was likely a speedster of some sort, that his brain activity indicated heighthened intelligence, his goggles were connected to external software networks, and a penetrative scan showed that his blood vessels were consistent with someone suffering from asthma, his corneas were deformed in a way that was consistent with someone near sighted, and that his internal structure displayed the signs of Morquio syndrome.

Analyzing the united states citizenry database, the machine calculated his likely identity by analyzing the list of caucasian adolescent males. It then eliminated those younger than fifteen and older than seventeen from the list, then further narrowed down the list via filtering the list for those with green eyes and red hair. It went on to check for those of a similar bodytype to the boy before it, with a height of five feet and five inches judging by it's scans. It then filtered out those matching this profile who lacked medical records of having had Asthma, Near sightedness, and Morquio syndrome.

Out of a database with millions of people, it had narrowed it's choices down to less than a dozen in a matter of milliseconds. Judging by the commlink to governmental authorities, it used this last piece of data to eliminate those who were unlikely to receive such close government assistance at some point in their lives, leaving only one Maxwell Ferreolus. Turning to a nearby security camera and frying it with a yellow arc of electricity from it's staff, the machine then focused it's attention on Max once again.

"Maxwell Ferreolus...you're a bit early for someone supposed to be in school..." The machine said coldly, hoping to intimidate him with his knowledge of his identity, ascertained with nothing more than access to some databases and sheer, unrelenting, number-crunching and probability calculation. Not quite in the mood for listening to anything he had to say, ignoring any responses he might have gotten, Eliminator took out an acid grenade and lobbed it at a nearby building, spraying the deadly fluids in the structure and starting to rapidly corrode it to nothing, deadly fumes rapidly necrotizing the occupants of the structure.

Turning to a line of cars, Eliminator fired a rapid series of fractal gun blasts, breaking them and their occupants as if they were made out of glass. It then turned to a group of pedestrians and had it's gatling automatic module rev up to life, it's barrels spinning at obscene velocities before spewing out a hellstorm of superheated lead, chewing them to pieces while a virtual continuous stream of tracers spewed out from it's multiple barrels, the high pitched whine of a rotary gun firing filling the air.

Turning to a traffic helicopter, the lone wanderer fired off a pair of cryo-missiles from launchers on it's shoulders, which streaked out from behind it and swung out to the aircraft, icy blue trails following it before they erupted around the helicopter, spraying forth liquid helium and supercooled water that almost immediately froze around the aircraft as ice, killing everyone inside with temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero, their fluids freezing almost instantly and expanding into ice crystals that ruptured their cells.

As the helicopter crashed to the ground, the lone wanderer activated it's stealth cloak to flee amidst the chaos, walking away as fire erupted all around and the wounded and dying cried out for help. By the time the frozen helicopter hit the ground and shattered into ice covered metal shards and chunks of frozen flesh and equipment, the Wanderer had disappeared, it's tracks hidden by the sheer devastation it had caused.

A little later, it had picked up the trail of it's next target, Tony Stark...Iron man. The closest of the avengers, a team that the protectorate determined had to be eliminated to secure control on the Earth. Having stalked Stark on and off for a week now, Omega viewed him make a public statement in his iron man armor; a statement to his growing paranoia as more and more metahumans were being murdered.

Using the advantage granted by it's stealth cloak, it moved in close, setting it's weapon to the quantum disentangler module; which destroyed nonliving matter exclusively. Very useful against enemy robots or technology reliant foes. It would fry every bit of non living matter on his body, down to his clothes, leaving him vulnerable to a follow up shot from it's Rectrospectrum Pulsar gun. Getting in position from a building overlooking the statement, the machine pressed the stock of it's gun to it's shoulder and took aim.

A strange sort of energy flew out from the bizarre raygun, easily outpacing the warbling whine it generated while the iridescent beam of physics bending energy flew out, but by then Iron Man's suit had warned him of an unknown energy buildup, and he flew off the platform just before the light speed beam hit the platform and rapidly renderred down it's atomic structure, causing it to glow in various colours briefly before disappearing.

"Alright, come out now with your hands up!" Stark growled through his suit, his repulsors ready, but a leaping arc of yellow lightning blasted him out of the air, while a storm of launched cryo-missiles impacted the crowd below, freezing them in ice and eliminating their ability to function as witnesses. As stark hit the ice covered ground, his suit whirred and whined as he pushed himself up, firing off a wrist mounted missile at Eliminator, smashing into it's chest and gouging out a sizable hole in it while the fireball and shockwave bloomed out.

But stark was surprised to see that the robot was still standing, with seemingly minimal loss of function. The missile's jet of molten metal; designed to defeat armor, was the wrong type of weapon to use against the walking mass of nanites that was Omega. As it started to absorb matter from the iced over ground to repair itself, it's nanites converting the chemicals into the metals needed to build up it's body again, it raised it's incendiary module and fired off a stream of burning tracers.

Iron man's suit flashed and beeped with warning signals as the obscenely hot bolts exploded onto his armorsuit and covered it in burning compounds that started to burn the paint on his suit and melt some of the metal. This prompted Iron man to fire off a plasma disc, sending a red orb towards Omega, forcing the droid to duck underneath the searing orb of superheated matter and retaliate with another electrical blast from it's staff.

Flying to the left; Stark fired off his repulsors and scored against Omega's armor, causing it to fall backwards, giving him the chance he needed to get up close and threaten it with a point blank blast from his uni-beam. "Well, I can find out whatever the hell you are when you're in tiny little pieces." Stark chuckled as his beam charged up. But he didn't see that Omega's own chest mounted Kinetic beam was already fully charged. "Perhaps you should spend less time gloating and more time observing your surroundings?" The machine shot back before a massive incadescent white beam shot out of it's chest optic and sent Stark flying head over heels, tearing out a chunk of his armor and sending him sprawling on the ground.

Trying to push himself up on all fours, Stark felt the Rectrospectrum Pulsar carbine's barrel press against his now exposed chest, protected only by the undersuit. "Tony Stark: Status Update: Terminated." The Machine reported before the strange modulating warble of the pulsar filled the air. If he fired from a greater distance, a green wavelength would have been seen making it's way to him, but at this range, Stark was hit instantly, and his body melted into translucent glowing green radioactive goop surrounding a rapidly liquefying charred black skeleton.

The machine leaned over and picked up Iron man's now empty husk of a suit and took the ripped off torso plate and walked away, no doubt the Quickster would be back once he had sorted out the mess that the Lone Wanderer had created, but it was using this time gained to formulate a plan of action to deal with him. A problem existed however, in the fact that as the Quickster was very new to the hero scene, the machine had very little data to go off of in terms of his fighting style, this could be a problem...Still...that was a problem for another time.

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_Quickster_

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#4  Edited By _Quickster_

Quickster turned around with a smirk which quickly faded assessing the damage to the robot as nothing at all. "Well, what'd you expect from somebody who can beat down Wolverine." Max stared at the robotic being, scanning for data. A microscopic zoom revealed it to be made of nanites, but not much else. Well, it's too bad I don't have an EMP generator, he thought. I could end this quickly and still make it to that Iron Man speech"Alright, bozo. Why don't you just come quietly and sav—""Maxwell Ferreolus...you're a bit early for someone supposed to be in school..." the robot cut him off. "Well, y'know, they don't call me Quickster for being late. HEY! And not so loud with the identity! It's secret for a reason," he quipped while dashing for the building for which the grenade had been thrown and getting as many out as he could before it went down. No time to stop, he immediately went to trying to save others from falling victim to the villain's attacks. He looked up forlornly at the helicopter, knowing there was nothing he could do about that as he couldn't fly. But he could try to minimize the damage to the surrounding area. Thinking fast, Quickster spun himself in a circle and moved about the area like a tornado, drawing the tornado and the flames toward himself rather than the civilians. "Ah ah! Hot hot!" He spun out, dizzily swiping at his heated suit. Though the suit absorbed most of the thermal energy and prevented it from reaching dangerous levels, Max still felt some heat underneath. 

Max looked around and the villain was gone. Hunching over in a complaining manner, he groaned. "Awww. Where's he at now? Felicia?""He's not invisible. Even if he was, the goggles would still allow you to see him. So he's either gone from the area or right behind you. Pray it's the former."  Max did a quick scan around from where he was, then zipped up to a rooftop to get a better vantage point. He scanned the area literally a thousand times and found nothing. Deciding it'd be better to get going somewhere than sit there, Max zipped off, ranting. "Darn stupid robot. Ruin my New York trip, trying to off heroes. And if he's killing heroes, why not me? I'm not worthy? I bet if I was Iron Man or somebody...DUH! Felicia, where's that Iron Man press conference at today?""Madison Square Garden, and you'd better hurry. Looks like he's in trouble." she chirped in his ear. "Remind me why I'm the one trying this all alone again," he joked. "Because it doesn't find you worth killing. Naturally, you're the best choice to catch it by surprise." she retorted with a joke of her own.

Quickster zoomed up the streets and just arrived on the scene and stopped to catch his breath when he saw the robot holding a breastplate of steel. "Are you kidding me? What is this, Rise of the Imperfects? Well, Dr. Niles is about to get a wake-up call."  Hoping to create an air of mystery, he zipped around the area with incredible speeds to try and avoid visual detection, while speaking in a heightened voice to try and sound more grown and authoritative. "Wow. Worf must really be sick today! But I'm here to tell you, he's all better now, so get ready! Here he comes!""Alright we get it, Quipster. Now go get him."

 Ending his sporadic pattern, Quickster now began to circle the enemy quickly in order to whip up a tornado to lift him up in the air, at which point he'd use his powerful leg muscles to leap into the air and smash it down with a double axe handle smash.