Crime Punchers, Issue 1: Atlantis Rising

[Overcast]

He shrugged, he was pretty much useless while flying anyway, it took both his mind hands just to keep him up, stable, and moving. A terrible waste of hisCLANK! He ducked reflexively even though it was a second late as he stared around at what had just happened, watching as the Sergent shot out the side at whatever was trying to kill them this time, barking out the order that if they could fly they should get out or shoot if you could do that.

He could do neither.

"Gonna try my own approach on this one sarge. Hope you don't mind."

He leaned over the side looking to the coming missiles and readied his mind hands, growing them till they were big enough that throwing the psychic mandibles in a flurry of punches to the obnoxious crab subs and their artillery would be a good idea and started swinging.

[TheBlindMime]

Eli had to grab ahold of Sentry to avoid falling when the missile hit, not that it seemed to even register with the robot. He motioned to Rockwell's door, "Well Robot, you wanted to know about hostiles didn't you? They're all yours!" Moving to the other door he grabbed onto the frame for stability and leaned out. Drawing his pistol from what any observer would have thought was nowhere, Hood took aim and waited for his moment. The helicopter was beginning to stabilize, the missiles were flying and weaving almost too quickly too follow, almost. His time spent in a spitfire had prepared him for something like this, he would wait for his moment and insure that every shot counted when it wa- "Bloody 'ell!" His pistol fired all seven shots in no time at all.

The missile which had startled Eli took at least two in the head and a few had caught the spinning blades sending the monstrosity spiraling to the sea below. "Ha, Ha, ha, heh.... oh, bollocks." A blade of ice was piercing the wall only a few centimeters over his hand, he lowered it and gripped the wall a little more gingerly. Almost unconsciously his shadow reloaded his gun and he resumed aiming. "I shouldn't be here."

[Toastburner B]

"You'd be a pretty horrible human being if you just wrote one of your team off though."

Sentry nodded, and made sure to mark the statement for future reference. Should they survive this mission, he would study the statement in more detail in hopes of making his human act more convincing.

It was about then that the helicopter was struck. Sentry's stabilizers were able to keep him from stumbling, but one of the other occupants, Eli, had to use Sentry as a brace.

"Well Robot, you wanted to know about hostiles didn't you? They're all yours!"

Concern for the helicopter's survival made it necessary for Sentry to ignore the robot remark, despite the fact it struck close to home. He leaned out the window and made a few calculations: Damaged military helicopter, I should be able to keep up with it. Small arms fire seemed to be enough to destroy the missiles. Unlike their namesake, these missiles didn't explode on impact, but rather seemed to use some kind of cutter beam. Letting them near the helicopter was unwise. Lethal missiles likely effective, but are to be saved for use against the Neptunians. Non-lethal missile and blaster effectiveness unknown. Missile closing in, no time for testing.

Making a few more calculations, Sentry hurled himself out of the door as another missile swung in behind the helicopter. After a few tumbles, Sentry righted himself, and aimed his flight right for the trailing missile. He figured crashing into the thing would be enough to disable/destroy it. Just in case, he started to direct power to his cutting beams should they be needed.

[Astral Harmony]

Alice sprung into action. She didn't have firearms and could not fly. She only knew how to dive into water and jump down from a considerable height in a way to minimize bodily damage. That wouldn't save her out here.

But this military helicopter, like most of the ones she had ever seen, hopefully had a little defense of its own. She used her sunglasses to spot the weapon for her. As fast as she could manage in the cramped compartment of the helo, Alice set up the tripod, then managed to heft the empty minigun onto it. After a deep breath, she found an ammo box and fed the belt in.

With a quick glance around, Alice donned some protective earmuffs and readied it using the training she recieved from Sulphyr & Brymstone. "Just in case of the uncommon possibility of midflight combat," Alice grumbled to herself. "Couldn't have a peaceful first mission, could I?"

Despite the fact that she did recieve practical training on it, Alice did have some trouble hitting the missiles. At this distance, the missiles were quite small. The helicopter was jerking this way and that. She had to manage her own balance. The targeting assistance in her sunglasses helped, but not by very much.

[TheBlindMime]

Eli looked from the tiny girl firing a minigun to his own pistol and back again. "Bloody Americans." He continued firing but his pop gun was almost entirely ineffective at such a distance, he watched the stream of bullets from Alice with a great deal of envy.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

The craft’s rocking began to subside and Adya stood deliberately. Bowing her head, she tilted up the rim of her hat and pressed at a nickel-sized, circular ingot on her forehead with a gauntlet-clad forefinger. A weak but sonorous hum announced the activation of the device and then melted away, becoming a vibration and then a feeling of restlessness as the other ingots cascaded to life. She raised her head. A sanguine hue glittered in her eyes.

With no more hesitation, Vulcan rushed to the door of the helicopter and dove, arms at her sides, adroitly from the edge. As she cleared the other heroes, the two elytra of her brass pack snapped open. Four insectoid wings unfolded in clipped bursts. With a whine, the brass and crystal wings accelerated to a glittering blur and Vulcan sparked forward.

Amid a yell—the type that can only be delivered in a charge—Vulcan dove headlong into an alien weapon, jarring it from its course. The pair tumbled, locked together: eight wings fighting for control of their flight. Clockwork servos ground as Vulcan gripped the ice-thing. Her eyes blazed. She pulled her sabre from its sheath awkwardly, holding it underhand. The blade sung as it came to life, and Vulcan stabbed.

[Arhra]

The alien weapons were almost squid-like, a tapered frozen mass at the front, four ribbon-like appendages trailing behind to act as flight control surfaces. A metallic spine-like structure stuck out behind the 'head', the spherical lump of machinery it connected to embedded inside the icy shield. Grouped around the spine were sacs of fluid, this reservoir of stored water being sprayed out behind at high speed to thrust them through the sky.

They wove unpredictably, spinning and twisting to avoid the shots coming at them as they made their second attack run.

Cosmic dove out of the side of the chopper, concentrating his energy an firing off a blast. A missile fell from the sky, remains of its head wreathed in blue energy. Sentry dropped out next, the heavy armour tumbling in mid air before his boosters kicked in. Last was Vulcan, her brass backpack opening up like a beetle's wings.

From those still in the helicopter came pistol shots. Extending and expanding his mind hands, The Force swatted at a kamikaze missile. It bounced off, recovered and shot forwards once more. With a whir and then a sound like tearing fabric, a minigun was added to the mix. Two of the Neptunian squid-missiles fell out of the sky, one torn to pieces by the heavy weapon.

Sentry rammed into his target like a freight train. Its nose smashed and the water sacs behind ruptured, whatever force that was holding them together unable to withstand the impact. The liquid limbs splayed forward to grab at him, the half of the head that remained raising up to bring its cutter into play. Sentry obliterated the ice and the machine inside with his cutting beam.

Vulcan was tangled in midair with the last airborn missile, jamming her saber into the ice shielding the core. Its flight surfaces twisted forwards like tentacle to grab a hold of her and it deactivated its jets entirely, trying to drag her down into the sea.

SPLOOSH

The missile that had been dislodged from the helicopter shot back out of the ocean, armour and water sacs restored.

[Overcast]

A mind hand shot out at the returning missile and crushed it in a psychic grip as the other flew to the aid, as unneeded as it might be, of Vulcan catching her with her missile to give her some time to escape and another point of exit to renew her attack on the creeps down below. He himself might have taken the time to jump into one of his hands if he weren't so sure that his ability to fly, while probable, had nowhere near the speed to keep up with all his enemies.

The hand that gripped the remaining scrap of the missile wound itself up for a pitch down at the creeps below, hoping they enjoyed accelerated hunk of metal when it came to their dishes of choice. He couldn't do much from this far away other than throw things at them, and unfortunately he just didn't have enough things.

Of course all of his bad ideas started from such thoughts,

"Vulcan! When you're done with the missile mind me tossing you at those bastards?!"

[krogothwolf]

Cosmic grinned as the one he blasted fell from the sky. He then noticed that the one that had previously hit the water come rushing back up from the water heading straight for the helicopter.

"I'll handle that one!" Cosmic said aloud as he flew towards the missile blue energy forming in his hands as he closed the distance. Focusing on the machinery of the missile he fired a blast of energy from his hands at it, hoping to destroy it before it reached the helicopter.