basic_powers | Seattle Summer Showoff

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Seattle Summer Showoff

As they exist from the narrow door of the linen closet for his apartment, Dinah will see two doors down the hallway to her left. One has a biohazard sign hanging from it, and the other is part-way open, enough that one can see the window and bed inside. There's a couple of photos hanging from the wall, one of Beauford and a blonde young woman laughing with the lights of a carnival in the twilight background, and one with Beauford and a reddish-brown haired man in a repurposed tan flightsuit, grinning in front of a college graduation ceremony.

To her right, she'll see that Beauford was infact not exaggerating at all about the shoebox size of his apartment's kitchen, as there is only a tiny island seperating it from the small living room. There's a well-used black futon and coffee table with a little black laptop on top of magazines and comic books. Against the wall there's a shelf with a flatscreen tv, several videogame consoles and a dvd/bluray player. Light filters through the curtain outside and Dinah can likely see the door out of the apartment with three bicycles hanging from hooks beside it on the wall, and pannier bags for the bikes hung with coats and hats from the coat rack.

It doesn't take much guessing to figure out that the blue and gunmetal bike is Beauford's from the homemade welds and adjustments given to it.

"Welcome to my humble bachelor pad...I'd give you the tour but this is pretty much it."

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Dinah's cursing herself for not having a wig on her, but she just doesn't have time for a costume change. Diving out of the window as the monster clips them, she hits the road at a roll and leaps to her feet, crouching and staring at its retreating back.

"Hey, ugly!" She yells, just to get it's attention before taking a deep breath.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"

And that's to really get its attention, by way of hitting it with a sonic tank.

....Yes, Dinah you have gotten it's attention. The Godzilla Octolobster just let out a howl of some crustaecean rage before pivoting on those jointed legs, tail fanning at the source of what just hit it. And then charging back at the source, screaming.

Dinah, if your plan was to bring it back....

Wait, where did the fireball that just hit the creature in it's eyestalks come from??? And that blue blur that just flew through the air that punched it right under the jaw??????

Turning her post-uppercut momentum into a turn about the creature's head, 84 takes a quick look about to gauge the scene.

"Guys, I said I wanted seafood for lunch but this is a bit much," she quips in a loud enough voice to be clearly heard from the street as a show of confidence will usually prevent any panic. "I think I might just have to share."

In a lower voice, for the Bluetooth in her mask set to the team's frequency of the day, she says, "Alterity, do a run around to make sure no one's seriously injured and see if you can't clear the area a bit. Sentinel, try and keep that things attention. See if you can't get it away from the tourists. No property damage this time. Did anyone else catch that sonic burst? I think we might have an anonymous meta, so keep your eyes open."

By the time she's finished her third sentence Alterity has cleared any seriously injured, elderly and children from the area and Steel Sentinel is blasting away at the creature while grumbling something like, "It was just a little bit of damage."

Well, it's about time a team showed up.

Dinah, understanding the importance of a team dynamic, and aware that drawing unneeded attention to herself would be a bad idea right now, does what every fibre in her body screams at her not to do.

She turns tail and runs, slipping into the crowd that are now gathering around at a distance mob-rule has decided to be a good compromise between safety and a good view.

There she stops, and turns. She wants to see how this team operates.

Two more players are staying up high, one large, armored, male, big brown-gold eagle wings is carrying a team mate dressed in something almost like a grey and white kimono, armored pants and a helmet. One who is notably starting to throw something firey at the creature before stopping, extinguishing and turning with her partner towards the crowd.

"84, Uplink says she's going to do a scan through the most recent uploads to Youtube and Twitter for any images prior to our arrival, Crusade and I will see if we can't move that crowd back a little farther." Hat Trick calls to the team leader, tapping her helmet.

"I will search the crowd from above, she can work the crowd from below." Crusade adds, banking down to carefully drop Hat Trick just inside of the border of the crowd.

"Alright folks!" The young woman calls out waving the crowd back with her hands, which if Dinah is close enough to see, are each missing the ring and pinkie fingers after the first joint. "Back it up, this could spread out..."

"Roger," 84 replies at the end of her orbit of the creature's head, "but let's focus on the creature. That's our main target unless the anonymous meta is controlling it. Wait, is anyone controlling it? And let's not forget the banter people. Remember the crowd needs to know we do this all the time and they can count on us."

She lets her flight carry her farther out and then comes zooming back. In a loud voice she calls out, "I call a claw!" before catching one and wrenching it into a painful looking angle.

Steel Sentinel cringes at the bad pun but continues blasting. "You want it cooked?"

"Or how about a tentacle?" Alterity calls, his voice oddly distorted by the Doppler effect, as he grabs one of the creature's tentacles and runs towards Sentinel to give him a shot.

Dinah smiles to herself even as she moves back with the crowd, not trying to press against it. She sees one speedster, whose doppler effect makes him sound like Barry. The girl who seems to lead could be J'Onn in disguise, or mayeb Superman from the powers. Carter, obviously. The first guy could be Hal... her parallels are running out.

And now the crowd is pressing and they look like they don't need any help. She drops back a few rows in the crowd away from the crush, cursing the summer weather for her lack of layers in case she needs to go more incognito.

The banter causes her to look up, and smirk. Maybe it's because she and the boys are always exchanging back and forth barbs. This souonds forced.

Everyone's a critic, really.

"You know, I think the FDA would like to have words with you about this!" Hat Trick shouts, loud enough for everyone to hear as she runs back into the fight. "This thing is OBVIOUSLY not fit for human consumption! Tweety, could you gimme a lift?"

She then takes three exponentially larger leaps into the air, to be picked up at the apex of the third jump by Crusade.

"Juggling electronic tasks is my specialty, boss, I can scan for abnormal frequencies AND hit up the internet at the same time." Uplink's crackly voice comes in over the frequency of the day. "Lobsterzilla has...oh, not one but five nodes inside that scurulous carapace..."

"Guys, why has no one claimed the tail yet? It's obviously the only thing keeping this sucker balanced enough to move." Hat Trick, added as Crusade threw her towards the back of the beast, skin changing from human to burnished steel scales and fingernails sharpening. "Seriously, one of these days I'll introduce you all to the finer points of cooking seafood."

And while the team is bantering away and focused on the monster...Beauford's slipping through the crowd to find Dinah as quickly and quietly as possible, with her backpack and their goods in his arms.

Well the team is still working some things out but they do work well together.

"Hey, if you wanna chase some tail go right ahead Hat Trick, I'm spoken for!" 84 calls out while she dodges a tentacle or two. She's still got a hold of the claw and is keeping a good watch for when Hat Trick does her thing so she can help through Lobsterzilla off balance.

Sentinel blasts at the tentacle Alterity had been holding for him as he calls out, "You girls have one track minds!" But then quietly asks Uplink to send him targets zones for those nodes.

Alterity keeps running around and making tentacles vainly grasp. "You can keep the tail, calamari's my thing!"

Dinah's near the back of the crowd now; she still has a view above, but she's gone from the crowd of spectators the the milling around of we wanted to walk down this street.

She looks over a shoulder and catches Beauford's eye, heading over at a casual pace.

"Thanks for watching my things."

"...No problem, hopefully there won't be any invasion to ruin the ride next time." Beauford says, handing her the backpack, pizzabox and his spare sweatshirt hoodie, before looking back up to watch the fight for a moment.

And for a moment, his expression is...something Dinah's probably not seen before on his face, but just... He's entirely focused on watching one person, and she's flying up there in blue and lavender.

"Honey, you know the only tail I go for is feathery!" Hat Trick laughs as she hits the surface of the tail...and unexpectedly shatters through the shell in steel shape, feet first into joint of the tail. "...oh crap, change of plans, I'm hip deep in this sucker...and augh! Okay! BAD PLAN."

At the crunch of it's tail being shattered into, Godzilla Octolobster starts bucking and thrashing trying to reach at the source of the new pain in it's existance.

"Hold on, Hat Trick. Sentinel, my big ol' lump of titanium armored warrior, I'm forwarding the location of the transmitters and.....oooh Hey, guy where this fella's heart is guys!" Uplink calls out. "No wonder he's spazzing after that hit, Hat Trick, you're only a few feet away from his heart!"

Crusade meanwhile has joined 84 in flying about and attempting to distract the tentacles from Hat Trick. "Then I say we turn this to our advantage, unless you have some qualms about killing this creature, 84."

Decisions like this are what make being a leader really suck. Time freezes for 84 as her thoughts race. So many ways to do this... She starts to worry about what to do but then that old voice speaks up in her head. Be the person people need not the person you worry people want.

"I'd rather not," she says out loud, all banter gone. "Is it too hurt to be saved? Any signs of sentience? And where the hell did this come from?"

Too many 'if's! But if it comes to the city or this creature, well the answer's much easier then.

Dinah pulls the sweatshirt on, tucking her hair in at the neck but not putting the hood up quite yet, as she stands by Beauford and looks up.

And then she grins. For a second, because she'd figured out what he's looking at.

"No containment," she remarks, using casual tone that's just a touch above a mutter to herself. "It's all offensive, no grapple. They're going to have to kill it, aren't they?"

The Justice League would have...

...wait, is she turning into her mother?

"They're new to being a team...to goals...84's new to being the leader. Give her a moment." Beauford answers quietly, almost a little bit defensive.

...Dinah can probably recall why.

"I'd say it came from the ocean, and not too long ago, judging by how it's still wet!" Hat Trick calls as the joint she's accidentally gotten stuck in tries to either spit her out or suck her in. Befores she adds on the blue tooth. "...let's see if we can't convince this guy to get back into the water? Maybe carry it there, gimme a sec and I can restrain those claws!"

"...for how long, love?"

"...forty five minutes," Hat Trick replies, squirming out of the tail covered in ichor and black ink.

"If this guy is sentient, he is already in a lot of pain and probably pissed the hell off at all of this." Uplink adds as Steel Sentinel's helmet gets an image display of where the five transmitting devices are. "I know gentle isn't your strong point, but let's go for glancing blows at these transmitters."

"Hey, I can do love taps," Sentinel replies taking aim and readying a spread across three different spots.

84 notes those same spots and the others (thanks to a certain over ride the helpful friend who built these masks included in her leader unit) and dives for some love taps of her own on the final two nodes. "If we can knock it out, we'll get it back home!"

Alterity for his part starts working defense, knocking tentacles away from Sentinel before they can get a grip.

Dinah instantly picks up on the defensiveness and shuts the hell up, watching with one hand at her throat and the necklace hanging there. Which just happens to be where her JLA signal device is hidden.

On her own world, she'd have Arthur calling the shots here.

She's on the balls of her feet, up to the occasions when she realises this and forces her heels down, only to have them pop back up again whan she watches the fight.

This is killing her.

It's killing him too, but for entirely different reasons.

"...come on....come on...you can do it..." Beauford murmurs under his breath, hands clenched at his sides. "I've seen you lift battleships with less effort..."

As the five hits crack and disrupt the transmitters, Godzilla Octolobster shakes wildly, lashing out at one unfortunate building with his tail, giving it a whack strong enough to shatter several windows. The tentacle claws are another problem, as they aren't moving with a purpose, they're just flailing wildly, and two of them score lucky hits on Hat Trick and Crusade. The eagle-winged man recovers quickly, while the young woman bounces off the side of a brick wall and crashes into the asphalt of the street, leaving some dents in both before standing back up again.

"Ooogh." There is an audible wince over the frequency from Uplink's side. "Hat Trick, you alright?"

"Been better. Let's rubber band those things, alright?"

Nonononononono! Scream 84's panicked thoughts as she sees her team mates hit and the shattered glass fall towards the street. Remember that blue blur from before? Now it's a blue streak as she races to catch the glass before it shatters and sprays the crowd in shrapnel.

Sentinel keeps blasting hoping to drive the creature back while Alterity runs to deflect falling glass as well.

As 84 flies, doubts and worries fade like fog and she's solely in the moment. Glass taken care of, she turns to the monster with a determined look. She flies straight at it but the thing seems to have guessed her intent as it...well sits on her.

The crowd gasps in shock and her team mates freeze but then the creature starts to wobble and nearly falls over as it slowly rises off the ground.

"A little help here?" Lifting a giant monster that's shifting all over the place is harder than you'd think.

Dinah looks down, one hand covering her mouth to hide a laugh. It's not a cruel laugh by any means, more a symathetic one.

"Happened to John once," she says, figuring pronuonciation is close enough that he'll know who she means.

"....having a monster sit on him, or getting smacked like a tennisball?" Beauford asks, wincing as Hat Trick gets picked up by Crusade again and carried around the tentacles.

"Okay, just tell me what you want me to do, 84." Hat Trick replies into her headset as Crusade flies her over. "You still want me to play rubber band on the tentacles?"

"If you're still up for it," 84 manages through clenched teeth. "Keeping those things from any more property damage would be good. Or if you could make this lighter?"

"Sentinel, try and blast any that she misses or get free. Then maybe help with clean up, I'll be back for you. Alterity, Uplink, clear a path for me to the harbor. Warn Police and the Coast Guard. Also, Uplink try and get as good a picture of those controllers as you can. Some one is going to pay for this."

Carefully, the group begins the laborious flight to Elliot Bay and beyond to Puget Sound.

Hands in pockets, Dinah watches, letting the crowd following the team pass them and move on.

"Both," she says. "You want to follow and catch the aftermath?"

"I'll grab em, and then i'll see what else I got that could help." Hat Trick replies as Crusade swings her out....really out like a long line of silly putty to wrap around one claw and hold it shut, and then around to the other tentacles. Soon enough, Hat Trick has wrapped most of the tentacles...but sadly can't grab anymore, so it's the next best thing and chanting out a spell to make Godzilla Octolobster here weigh half as much as he did before.

"...I'd really like to but..." Beauford looks torn for a moment, as the group gains speed, passing out of sight behind a few buildings. "If we go after them, there's a greater chance of you being found out."

And without any sort of identification in this world beyond a few fake ids...which are great and might hold up to Uplink's scrutiny, but not her level of curiousity.

"...we'd better go. Unless you want to say hi to the group, and spend an hour answering questions."

"I don't mind answering questions," Dinah says, "but I don't want to get you into trouble."

Because let's face it, Dinah has nothing to hide from fellow heroes. In this world, the Bar is not her secret to keep.

"...let's stick to the story you thought up for if you'd meet Julie." He says after a moment of deliberation. "You're here visiting a friend of a family friend, who's showing you around Seattle while you....make up your mind if you want to start over with college here or not."

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