Obsessions and stolen convictions (Forcie-Ranger)

The ground would continue to rumble as something rather large approached them from underneath the street they were standing on. It got closer and closer still. There was no doubt that whatever was underground right now, was after them. "Run, now." he yelled as he began to turn to run in the other direction. He didn't get very far however, as those two guys they had been chasing earlier were sent flying into the air and out of sight when a manhole cover came rocketing upwards. The manhole cover wasn't the only thing that came up though. So did the thing that had been causing the ground to shake.

It was a massive skeleton slug. That was the best way to describe it. It really was. A rather radioactive looking one too. Well, they may have found the thing that really attacked the plant. The slug swung at them with one of its arms, yes, it has arms. Forcewave jumped back to dodge it and sent a blast of lightning at it to deter it and test out just how much it could take.

He saw Ranger firing arrows at it. It looked like he was looking for a weak spot. Forcewave took a few steps back to create some distance between himself and the kaiju slug. He was standing near Ranger now as the archer shot another arrow at it. Despite the fact that they were facing a giant monster all of a sudden, neither of them was exactly panicking. In fact, Ranger made a quick joke about Forcewave being able to fire salt rounds as a power. "I wish I could do that. Could make a fortune selling it." he said before firing a volley of energy blasts at the creature, and watching what happened as they hit. "Hey, if you can cover me for a moment, I can defeat this thing really quickly." he told Ranger before taking a few more steps back as he prepared to gather energy.

Exanimous' sluggish body reacted to the arrows, a quick slime coating over the skeletal figure the arrows would make contact with the silvery-grey slug before turning a caustic glowing green and literally melting to the ground with a couple acidic hisses. Forcewave and Ranger seemed to be making jokes about salt, which caused Exanimous more pain than either of their attacks. The creature didn't exactly take well to the humor apparently, though if it was because of the salt or the strange humor was unknown. Forcewaves energy blasts hit the creature, but it did quite literally nothing to stop this monster, not even leaving a mark.

  Exanimous heard Forcewave request cover. Much like a video game boss, as to Ranger's logic, the boss says "No, fuck you, this is Dark Souls." and prioritized Forcewave. It's not like there was anything Ranger could do to stop a sixty foot tall creature. In all reality all it had to do was fall forward and crush them both. The creature lunged its massive body forward, outstretching it's arm and sending it crashing down at Forcewave. Forcewave was slightly more skilled than Exanimous and that would be helpful to him, but he still lacked the means to damage him at this moment in time. As it lunched forward with it's mighty arm flop of terror, the slug like tails both flew up into the air and very quickly began expanding, growing longer, segmented and much sharper. The thing grew two horrifically long and sharp tails, each one shooting out at each different enemy. One flew at Ranger, slashing diagonally down while the other tail would aim for Forcewave either way, even if it needed to pierce its own arm. (if Forcewave is under the arm the tail will pierce through the creature's arm to make sure it gets Force, if not it will attack Force wherever he goes.)

  The collection of energy didn't worry the creature too much as it scanned it's surroundings. It was a typical city block for the most part....save for Sluggysaur here in the middle of it. It quickly analyzed every building and let out a loud chuckle as it watched the masses clearing out of buildings.

(( I feel the need to clarify that I'm not legit saying F-You to anyone. I love you guys. Party on))

Party on with slug monsters:

A slew of arrows and lightning bolts hit the creature, and seemed to do damage that was extensive and perforated deep into its slimy, gelatinous body, but disappeared shortly after. Okay, so it was easy to damage, but hard to kill? Forcewave observed that it must have some kind of natural healing power that works at a very fast rate. A regenerating kaiju with a taste for nuclear energy? Wow, that was something that had never been seen before by anyone ever. Kaiju seemed to fit this thing. Not the first time he had encountered a kaiju. There was that one in Kansas city that retreated and kind of disappeared. It has not been since that day.

Forcewave had stepped back a bit to give himself some space in order to attack this thing in a way that would defeat it. The creature seemed to notice his tactical movements as it started moving right towards him. It was extremely slow though. You could barely tell if it was moving at all, and despite its size, Forcewave was able to easily dodge its arm thrust. He took a few more steps back and energy started gathering around him. The creatures tail would shoot out a large dart and he would dodge that too before unleashing a blast that split into a few smaller ones and they all moved at different speeds. The creature's eyes would be targeted first before the others went for the crystals on its back and shoulders. Forcewave took a few more steps back and prepared to strike again if need be as he watched the results of this attack unfold.

The creature was unsure what to suspect at this point to be entirely honest. It saw the energy blast, but then it seemed to diverge into smaller sub-strikes of energy. The creature's natural instinct told it to defend the skeleton, but also to defend the crystals that ensured it's faux-immortality. The ooze did what it could to alter and move around the crystals, but the strike to it's eyes was indeed a very distracting blow, which actually opened up just enough of an inherent reaction to move the ooze around one of the crystals, allowing it to be blasted by Forcewaves energy. The shard wasn't damaged to the point of breaking, but it fractures and cracked, instantly harmless glowing green gas was emitted and the crystal's color faded. Exanimous let out a blood curdling screech as he uses the ooze to shake his own head. He then arched back, ready for his own attack. (Forcewave successfully destroyed a crystal)

  Throwing it's head forward, tucking it to the chest, covering the skeleton and somersaulting forward as it's two tails shot out and grabbed to two electrical posts. The large blob apparently intended to flop itself into Forcewave. Size itself was going to be a problem here. Fortunately as the creature was pure liquid it would form and fit around the infrastructure, minimizing damages to the nearby area, but things would soon change, providing things went as the skeletal being planned.

Forcewave had used a spread attack with his energy against the slug monster. A move he had used on quite a few occasions. It had consistently shown to be quite effective regardless of whom he was using it against. It worked here too. It temporarily deterred the creature's attack and had damaged it. He had hurt it in a way that its regeneration couldn't just fix up without a problem. One of those crystal spire things on its back was damaged seemingly beyond repair. An action that left the creature enraged at him.

The creature roared at the skies as it prepared to retaliate. It looked down and glared at him before attempting to propel itself forward as best it could at him. He briefly saw its tails wrap around a pair of electrical poles before he took off to get out of this thing's way. Forcewave kept checking behind him by looking over his shoulders as he cleared the area where the creature would land. Instead it just sort of stayed in place with its tails wrapped around those poles. The way this thing reformed its body made it seem like it was mostly liquid. Wait, besides the skeleton and crystals, it might as well be entirely liquid. That seemed to be what allowed it to regenerate, and generally how it even moved. Though it could also work against it.

Forcewave positioned himself after he stopped running and then quickly fired another blast right at its face. He then fired two more at the electrical poles that its tails were wrapped around to attempt to completely envelop the thing in electricity. Essentially roast him like chestnuts over a campfire.

Forcewave had yet to be touched, and this was indeed a problem. Then again Exanimous was not created to destroy or capture Forcewave, he was designed to ensure The Agency didn't get their hands on powerful metahumans like "Subject: Forge" and "Subject: Meltdown." and further their plans. Exanimous had found himself getting zapped, though not entirely killing him or roasting him. Electricity hurts less when grounded, and that's exactly Exanimous' logic. Forcewave used lightning, so it would be more grounded, reducing any potential damages he could cause. Unfortunately, Exanimous misjudged quite a few things in this conflict, because it's reactions were to fit that of another people(s). Exanimous roared when it felt the joint crystal's on the base of it's tails shatter, leaving a singular one on it's back shoulder blade. The blobish creature took this time to maneuver and find manholes, sinking into them anbd draining itself into them. The first priority was the skeleton as it slipped into the under-works of the city, fleeing into the sewers and leaving the singular crystal that had yet to be destroyed behind. The skeleton slumped into the sewers and the remaining liquid entombed it and it floated with great haste out of the area.

Forcewave was above ground, likely still distracted by the last crystal and the plethora of ooze that the skeleton could have been submerged under. To keep suspicion form being drawn to the sewers, the ooze continued to function independently, upon orders form the skeletal core that was now detached and moving far away very quickly. The sluggy residue formed up and growled as electricity still surged from it, sparking. Now it was a sparking slug monster...but despite all of it's ominous appearance...it was finished. It was only a matter of time.

To be honest, Forcewave wasn't sure what this thing was trying to do, but the things it was trying to do made him believe it was capable of rational thought. This monster, may be more than just a monster. For a second there he wondered if it was capable of speech. If so, could he talk to it? Was that even possible? If it could, Forcewave would ask why it attacked the power plant and why it came after them? He had questions that seemed would remain unanswered.

The thing that made him start to think this thing could think was its attempted body slam by wrapping its tails around a pair of electrical poles. It kind of backfired though when Forcewave attacked the poles themselves. A massive stream of electricity would wind up surging through the body of the gigantic slug mutant, and the crystal spire things on its tails would break apart. It lost its grip and began to fall to the ground. It hit the ground with more of a splash than a crash due to it being more liquid than solid, and seemed to collapse under its own weight from the impact.

The creature was attempting to retreat underground. Its amorphous body was barely in one piece anymore as its skeleton was seeping underground through holes in the street caused by its emergence earlier. It was struggling to get below though. Forcewave saw that the last of its crystals was still above ground. He aimed at it, prepared to fire and destroy it like he had the rest, but was hesitant. Would destroying the crystal result in the creature's death? If so, he may never find out what this thing really was. But if he didn't, and it was as destructive and dangerous as it seemed, he would be endangering the lives of many people. His desire for answers vs the safety and well-being of the public. Yeah, this one wasn't a tough call to make. Forcewave fired a blast at the crystal, aiming to destroy it, and possibly the creature along with it.

Forcewave was successful in defeating the threat, but if he had the gut feeling this wasn't over, then he was absolutely right. True enough, the crystal was destroyed, and the blob suffered the damage of Forcewave's wrath. It bubbled and evaporated into the atmosphere, leaving no trace of it ever having existed but the sheer memories of the witnesses whom had encountered or seen the large creature. Unfortunately the skeletal creature escaped, the slime still pulsing with the electrical damages and fragments of the shards wedged in it's solidified sarcophagus. The skeleton would soon be withdrawn, however and a little man with an interested smile peered through his goggles as he rolled the slime over.

  "Well well well, let's see what I can learn from YOU my little enigma." The little man cooed happily as he withdrew an energy reader, and a pin-pointed to several types. The man's eyebrows arched as he gave a rather wolfish grin to the washed up skeleton, whose liquid began to ooze off of it and bleed into the sewage off to the side.

  "Unhand me!" the skeleton snarled in a ghostly voice from it's unmoving voice. The ooze reacted and fired out to try and grapple the small man, but the liquid was fried like a mosquito to a bug zapper.

  "Yes, well. That's quite enough of that." The man stated as he pressed a button on his belt as he removed more scanning gear. This thing was interesting. Utterly stupid and pointless, but interesting. It was like a bent fork really. Unique and some people called it art...he didn't see how but hey, every puppy has a different sickness. Regardless...it was unique, but not useful. "Oh-ho-ho what have we here? Strange electrical patterns, imprinting. Hmmm.... yes.... Yes, this will do nicely. This is the last thing I need." The man said before walking past the skeleton, nudging it with his foot and causing it to fall int he water again after he had collected enough ooze for a sample or two.

  The media would swarm to the area, questions for everyone and everything nearby, trying to get the story of the large blob and the escaped metahumans.

"Was that it?" Forcewave asked himself. With the last of the crystal thingies destroyed, the remnants of the creature seemed to evaporate into thin air. The slug monster appeared to be dead, but was it? The body was gone, but that skeletal structure had gone underground. Forcewave knew of this creature's very strange biology, and for all he knew, it could be below him right now preparing to attack again. Was it really dead, or was it simply biding its time until the right moment arrived for it? Considering that he believed it to be somewhat intelligent and could not confirm that it was dead, Forcewave had to be on the lookout.

For several minutes he walked up and down the street expecting to see it rise from the ground below and attempt to lay waste to it surroundings or something. Nothing came though. No rumblings of its titanic body moving through the ground. No cracks forming as it pushed against the underside of the concrete to burst through. Just a whole lot of nothing. Perhaps it was truly defeated. Those crystals may have been not its source of power, but its means of survival. So the thing that was most likely responsible for the devastation at the power plant was no longer alive. At the very least, people were safe.

Speaking of people, while he had been searching for any signs of the slug monster, people had converged on the area. Mostly media folk though, but still people. They wanted to know about what had happened here with the slug monster and the escaped suspects of the power plant attack. Forcewave didn't want to be giving any interviews right now, or ever really. If he could find somebody from the police to report what had happened, it would make things easier. All in all, he wanted to get out of here. What could he even say though? Just tell them what he knew? It was probably the best thing to say since it was honest and all.

"The two fleeing suspects were met and are not responsible for the incident at the power plant. It was most likely the monstrous slug creature, but that cannot be confirmed at this time. Further investigations are underway. If you'll excuse me." he said and then walked away. He had to go either try and find those two guys or find out more about what was going on. Those two things could easily be linked. Hopefully he could find out something.

Agency vs Renegades

Spoiler:

Net values.
Morale: 15 and 25
Political: 0 and 0
Human Sympathy: 0 and 5


Thread concluded.