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Staren                                     2407 AD                                    
                   CS El Dorado - Formerly known as Arkansas                    
                                 CASTLE REFUGE                                  
                          HOME OF THE TOMORROW LEGION                          

    Emerging from the warpgate, the group sees a medieval castle with the occasional hint of modernity -- a radio dish here, an autocannon turret there -- with a paved road leading up to it past a 20th-century-looking village center. All manner of people are here -- humans and dwarves are the largest minorities, but beyond that anything goes. An elf here, a large crocodile-man there, a cactus person there, a floating blob with tendrils that may or may not be a person -- all kinds are here. In the sky, the occasional flying power armor or wizard returns from patrol or sets out. And besides the castle of adventurers, the campsfolk go about their day outside its walls.

    But you're not here for the tour. That can come later, if you wish. No, you're to head south, along a dirt road that leads through the countryside, winding around mountains and along a river. A patch of broken paved road or ruined building here and there is all that hints at the civilization that was here 300 years ago -- Nature has reclaimed it. Which means there's plenty of wood for a new civilization to build with!

                                    2407 AD                                    
                   CS El Dorado - The Newest Coalition State                    
                               ONYX LOGGING CAMP                                
                         FRIENDS OF THE TOMORROW LEGION                        

    The camp is surrounded by a wooden palisade and is, unsurprisingly, constructed mostly of wood, though with techniques and sensibilities that wouldn't look too out of place on modern Earth; There's electric power and running water. At the moment, though, the camp is eerily quiet; the citizens appreciated any help preparing for the evacuation, and were grateful for Kotone's help with their vehicles; the camp is now deserted but for a dozen local defenders keeping watch, a mix of humans and beaver-people called hoorians, wearing non-environmental body armor and armed with laser rifles and grenades. They're tense, some looking nervous, others looking eager for the fight to come now that their backup has arrived.

    The heroes of the day can have arrived early enough to improve fortifications or scout the area if they wish.

    The first sign of trouble is picked up by Kotone's cameras near the (temporarily abandoned) logging operation a few miles away: A pair of dead boys (Coalition soldiers in black armor with skull motifs) and five skelebots (just picture a Terminator with no flesh) blast the few buildings there with their laser rifles, but finding the area deserted, the humans stop to look for things to loot while the skelebots stand guard.

    The second sign of trouble is picked up by cameras closer to the main camp: Another squad, three dead boys and four skelebots, heading right towards Onyx.

(Image reference for Dead Boys: https://www.deviantart.com/chuckwalton/art/RIFTS-CS-Squad-DeadBoy-Squad-Preview-679504923)
(Image reference for Skelebots: https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0284/35/1385211972886.jpg (Giant spider mecha not included, you hope))
Kotone Yamakawa Given the prep time, she'd had thanks to Reyes? She'd had time to one help the locals get all their vehicles up and running. Giving them the means to get all the camp's non-comabtnats the heck out of the town.

Which has left only the dozen or so local defenders who chosen to help defend their homes and businesses. The humanoid beaver though had been something she was not expecting at all, and them being involved in the forest industry was well almost expected once she saw them.

She'd also set up her camera drones to give them an early warning system of sorts, which any allied defender of the town would be patched into by her.

<<Kotone here I have contacts the Logging site has two dead boys and five combat androids with them and seem to be intent on looting.>>

The next warning comes from closer in.

<<Three more Dead Boys and four more of the androids.>>

Kotone is located in the main settlement and is keeping cloaked for the moment with the androids she's got a plan to reduce the attackers' firepower but she somehow expects she has not seen all the CS troops who are on this operation.

<<I'm going to make a go for trying to subvert or shutdown their drones when I can manage an attempt to do so.>>

She doesn't move she waits for them to get closer before she makes her attempt and she also has made sure to keep the town's defenders in the loop.
Reyes     Reyes arrived some time ago, before the summons would've reached most. And why? Because he was the one who uncovered this attack plan and has been of a mind to show those who help the Tomorrow Legion that they WILL be helped in their time of need.

    And so, with Kotone's efforts to setup remote cameras in order to pick up what's coming and from what angle, the first thing that Reyes did when he got a chance was dart into their projected path and plant some gadgets camouflaged in foliage and underbrush, perhaps neatly and carefully attached to tree branches.

    They're Netguns of Adhesion, perfect for trapping basically anything and binding it in place. All he has to do is link them into Kotone's network and trigger them at the right time...

    He hopes.

    Of course, it's the second squad that he's able to hopefully head off and capture...

    Reyes himself is wearing his Techno-Wizard enchanted Environmental Battle Armor, wings retracted. He's holding his revolver in one hand and the ORIGINAL TW-Net Gun of Adhesion in the other, keeping behind cover while monitoring Kotone's sensors and waiting for the right time to spring the trap!
Alexis There's a wise old saying across Kanto about how Trainers rarely go looking for trouble, because it always seems to find them. Sometimes in double. Sometimes with cheesy motto recitals.

This was a case that straddled that line. Alexis hadn't been specifically looking for problems, but when she caught wind of a big evac and possible fight following she felt like doing as her ilk are like to do. Poke her nose in things, see if she can do anything to help, and maybe kick someone's ass eventually.

The trek from 'Who put a medivial castle in former Arkanasa??' to 'creepily abandoned villiage' wasn't a hard one to make, though notibly in that it's one made riding her trick cycle in off-road mode rather than tip her hand too far into revealing what pokemon she's packed. It was one she was there she actually let one out, the falcon-esque Talonflame perching atop the fortifications. And careful not to set them on fire. She's got a keen view of the surrounding area from there, and lets out a warning screech about the same time Kotone is radioing about incoming.

"About time," Alexis chuffed as she pushes herself off the wall she had been leaning against. She looked up to the perch, where Talon jestured a direction with one wing. Easy enough. She tapped a pokeball free, and a tan colored canine appeared in front of her. "Okay Howlinger." She gestured in the same direction. "Let's give them a proper reception. Stealth Rock." "Ruff ruff!" The Rockruff hunches forward and shakes his tail a few times, forming and disloding several splinters of stone. They arc forward to dig into the ground in front of the incoming force's path, from where they'll spring up as large jagged spikes at the first foe to step into their location.

Then the duo resume hunkering up against the wall to stay out of immediate view, since Alexis still has her bird's eye above to give them any more warning.
Staren KOTONE:
    Kotone can sneak up on the approaching scouts no problem. Invisible opponents are a psi-squad's job, not theirs. There is a slight complication though: From hanging around the squad, Kotone doesn't detect the constant wireless traffic she might've been hoping for to sniff and subvert. It seems the skelebots have directional radios, and at least at the moment, aren't communicating with eachother much. She may need to execute a more physically direct hack, or get them to give her some more traffic to observe.

ALEXIS:
    The skelebots are the first to walk into the trap. They're banged up and need some time to extricate themselves -- it's easy for Kotone to pick up some more data to sample, though it's still coming slowly. The three /humans/, on the other hand, immediately cry out "Magic!" Into their radios and point their laser rifles this way and that, looking for the unseen enemy.

REYES:
    Shortly after the dead boys cry out in alarm, Reyes's net guns immobilize them completely -- they struggle, but are bound by MAGICALLY STICKY NETS that are stronger than they are, and they're paniccing uselessly!

    At the same time, the humans at the other site hesitate, then gather their bots and start moving back the way they came. Triangulating both paths gives an indication of the main force's location, assuming the second squad is retreating.
Alexis Alexis chuckles softly to herself as the troopers get jumpy and start swinging their guns around, leaving them wide open for the actual attack in the form of Reyes' super sticky net. Stealth Rock did exactly what it was suppose to do -- put the enemy on-edge and off-balance before the battle really starts. Didn't matter that it likely did little more than plink actual damage to the robots.

Kotone is suppose to have those under control, so Alexis looks up and makes a twirling motion over her head with one finger. Her 'scout' pokemon are trained on gesture cues so a vocal command isn't necessary.

Spitfire spreads her wings and takes off from the walltop perch. She doesn't go after the incapacitated men however. The fiery avian cruises high overhead to circle the area and look for any other groups moving around in the forest. Last thing they need ruining their defensive stance is an ambush from another direction.

Though it looks like the only other visible squad is now moving in the opposite direction. Unless they decide to double back.
Reyes     BANG! The net guns went off! And everything worked without a hitch. Reyes is... surprised as he surveys the footage being recorded a scant forty feet away from his hiding place.

    Things NEVER go that smoothly when Multiverse folk have gotten involved, he's noticed... this is a nice exception!

    So he makes the most of it, and dashes through the trees, but keeps one big tree between him and the captured soldiers. "/MAGIC./" He echoes affirmingly. "Some heroes of humanity you guys are. Skulking through woods, opening fire at whatever and whoever... why don't you Dead Boys about face and go find some ACTUAL demons to shoot? Because it's either you guys leave nicely, or I gotta get creative."
Yuli Sin     The logging camp is a simple affair. The situation itself is just as simple to grasp. The jackboot heel of the guys wearing black armour with skulls and spikes is descending on a quaint and rustic free community for racial reasons. Beat it back. A good old fashioned frontier fort defense situation against marauding forces.

    If only it'd stay like that.

    Since getting here, along most of the path coming from Castle Refuge, there'd been a tiny sliver of black on the western horizon, essentially invisible at first, before starting to look more like an odd shadow of the weather, taking on a hair fine layer of shimmer easily attributed to the heat. Setting up at the fort and waiting in advance, one has plenty of time to watch the surroundings, and eventually, catch on to the fact that the shimmering black band is growing steadily thicker. Bit by bit, it's advancing towards the logging camp from the west.

    Beyond that slightly ominous symptom, the first sign that anything is wrong is incredibly sudden, and happens right under the logging camp's and the Dead Boys' noses. A patch of the brush rustles a hair, like by the movement of a predatory animal, without an animal noise or heat signature to go along with it. There's a ripple of air, and then one of the skelebots is abruptly yanked under as if snatched by a shark. The unbelievably violent sounds of crunching metal and tearing ceramics sound out for several seconds, going on like several car crashes played back to back for ten seconds, until it goes dead silent again. A few more spots of vegetation shudder under the swift passing of several somethings coming from westward.
Staren ALEXIS:
    Flying even higher, the sharp-eyed bird may notice that a path is being carved through the forest as something knocks down trees. Investigating that reveals dozens of humanoids jogging through the forest, hard to get a clear look through the trees, and a 20-feet-or-so tall robot which is what's knocking over the trees. They are heading to reinforce the trapped group!

REYES:
    Reyes shows himself! One of the soldiers manages to think of giving the command "SHOOT ALL UNIDENTIFIED TARGETS!" Which causes the skelebots, now getting off the spikes, to shoot at him with a grenade and some lasers! The amount of traffic goes WAY UP, and Kotone can get a good sample of their traffic now!

YULI SIN:
    A skelebot is yanked into the brush by SOMETHING, and goes crunch. "MONSTERS!" The dead boys try to warn, hoping they left their radios on. The skelebots move to interpose themselves between Reyes and the monsters, and the three dead boys, ready with built-in grenade launchers to try and flush out whatever's attacking them!

    The other group changes direction and picks up pace. Then they realize they'll be too late, and order the skelebots to run ahead. Everyone will meet up soon!
Steve Rogers      This is a mission to Arkansas.

     Steven Rogers has been to Arkansas. Not this Arkansas, and not in this life, either. No, he was in Arkansas a long, long time ago. The mountains remind him not of heroic action and a hard-fought war but of a unicycle and a dancing monkey. The river's beat isn't the beat of the drums of war but of stage-girls dancing in high-top shoes.

     Steven Rogers doesn't like Arkansas.

     Nonetheless, Steven Rogers has never been the kind of man to turn down a mission. Even when he was nothing but a dancing girl he did it without complaint. He walked into the jaws of humiliation and came out determined to make a difference. He's certainly not the kind of man to let memories of a long-dead life get in the way of helping people.

     He's late, only a few minutes, because he got caught up in an ambush on the way to the warp gate. When he emerges, he emerges with his hood down, those blue eyes with just a hint of green gleaming in the light, that blonde hair ruffled, scratches across his face and his inspiring red-white-and-blue uniform torn. He's a symbol of America in a land that no longer knows what it means, scuffed and beaten down but still standing strong, and he wastes no time whatsoever in getting into action. There's no need for prep time for Steve, no need for complex planning. He does his best planning in the thick of battle.

     From one fight to the next. From one war to another. A man who needs a war.

     He goes up and over. He vaults one-handed over a log, swinging past the invisible monster that's grabbed a skeleton-machine, swinging past Reyes's /magic/ and Alexis's pokemon and Kotone's scouting. Captain America has one job in a group like this, and it's to make himself the biggest dang target he possibly can.

     He lands on the other side of the logging camp, planting himself between the incoming main force, the running skeleton-bots, and the camp itself. He straightens, shield in hand, and holds it up.

     Steve Rogers slaps the shield once. It does not ring. Vibranium does not ring.

     "C'mon," he says, his blue eyes hard, "Take your best shot."

     Steve Rogers is the tank. He is the tank in Red, White, and Blue, and in this land, he is probably a mythology unto himself.

     If they don't break and run, he'll actually be impressed.
Yuli Sin     Grenades fly into the untamed vegetation of reclaimed Arksansas, and begin quickly turning it into a barren wasteland like the good old days again. A saturation attack of grenades lands in the long grass, and throws dirt and rock sky high. The rustling in the brush becomes completely inaudible under the bombardment, and the visual evidence is erased by the blast waves rolling the stalks this way and that. The only stand-out is the odd sound of bits of rock plinking hard off glass, then dead silence again.

    Did they get them? The wrecked, burnt, and cratered field looks pretty still.

    There's a trio of soft crunches by the wooden palisade, blurred and indistinct translucent shapes arc over it quicker than blinking, and disappear into the cabins and sawmills. The rapid pitterpatter of churning dirt goes silent again, replaced with the electric tingle of being watched.

    The brief hope that a mutual enemy of the Coalition States might have come to the logging camp's rescue is extingushed. This time it's one of the beaver people that is so unfortunate. Like an only semi-visible hallucination in one's peripheral vision, something lunges out from a defensive installation, and tackles a brave defender out behind a building at a snap speed so quick that blinking at the wrong time creates the illusion he'd disappeared like magic.

    The unfortunate is precisely the one furthest from any given Elite's ability to intervene. It's mostly a question of who notices, rather than what they'll do, because the beaver-man won't be given time to so much as scream before there is a loud, grotesque crunch, and blood spills out from behind the barricade. It's behind their lines now as well. Twice in a row, picking off whichever target is the most isolated at the fringe. Almost like hunting, but, both living people and hardened combat robots?
Alexis Seeing the large robot tearing through the forest is all the raptorial scout needs to see. Spitfire pulls a u-turn loop with an hit of Agility to boost her speed even farther and makes a direct line back towards the original counter site.

Alexis makes a face at Kotone's radio comment, and looks down at the Rockruff at her side. He lifts his head a bit as if sniffing at the air, but then shakes vigorously. He can't -smell- anything nearby. "That's... peculiar..." But as she's puzzling that there's a scree from above as her other critter swoops in. Alexis holds out an arm in classic falconeer fashion for the Talonflame to land on, the thick sleeves of her overcoat protecting her arm from the sharp claws that are part of the pokemon's naming. But rather than settle Spitfire squacks sharply, gesturing the way she came with a wing, holds her wings out spread wide, then raising them both up with another screech to indicate some manner of large group with a really big member.

Alexis immeadiately taps the comm piece for her C-Gear transmitter. << Eyes up folks, we've got something big coming in! >> And cue the Star Spangled Soldier whipping by so fast he's already well ahead of the scene by the time Alexis' ponytail has finished flapping in his wake. "Whoa! What wa--wait is that?!"

Actually there's no time for questions like that. Control of the situation has been taken hold by the man with a plan. "Keep an eye on things," she remarks to Spitfire and jostles her arm for the avian to take off again. Then she turns on her heels and heads back into the encampment with Rockruff following at her heels. "Give me a siren, Howl." "ROOOOO RUUUUUUUUUUUU" the rock dog lives up to his name, blaring loudly to get the few remaining defenders' attention.

"YOU HEARD THE HERO!" Alexis shouts as she holds her hands up to her mouth for a makeshift megaphone. "EVERYONE ELSE is to fall back and let the Off-worlders handle this! There's a big force and an even bigger threat inbound!" She stops a moment, puffing to catch her breath, then adds "You need to get back to your families and friends, because if we can't hold that line out there, nothing can!"
Reyes     Oh that is SO PREDICTABLE. Reyes... frowns as deeply as he can, scowling and scoffing at the reflexive panic and violent intent of these poor souls. He wastes absolutely no time willing his mystic energies forth from his body and flowing through the power armor. Circuitry and runes light up an otherworldly shade of blue along the surface and instantly project a stylized hard-light-energy 'suit of armor' with a mishmash of futuristic and archaic aesthetic. Some of the wild shots splash into this holo-armor, causing sparks to spray every which way as the power's absorbed and dispersed... but the energy shield can only take two or three direct hits like that.

    Reyes, spotting the Skelebots on approach, activates all of his self-enhancing spells. The armor surges with an additional layer of swirling energies. He drops the Net Gun - though it contains floating in the air behind him. In its place, a his TW Saber flips up into his grip, three rings rotating until a selection of gems locks into place. Then, with a final injection of power... the hilt births a blade of pale and clear ice that branches off this way and that with nasty-looking spikes.

    The grenade, though...

    Reyes simply stares at it.

    The grenade never gets more than two feet past launch. It simply floats there in the air. Erm, that might be a problem for the Skelebots!
Kotone Yamakawa Thankfully now with things going the way they are now? She has the data she needs to spoof commands to the Skelebots now and that' how thing are going to get. Without warning, Captain America shows up and she's glad to have him here. She now is going to start hacking the skelebots she knows she does not want to risk taking long term control.

So her idea is simple. Kotone starts spoofing to the bot that each other is unidentified targets hoping to get the drones to shoot each other.

Hopefully her plan to thin the enemy's ranks pans out. She could have tried to fully take over? But she doesn't want to risk that. It's better for her to just get them out of the picture.

With that underway she'll track the Skelebots with her camera drones as well.

She also starts to factor in Captain America himself being here is a big boost in mortal and what the force defending the town can do.

The mystery monster, however, concerns her, who is it? What is is? Is there something seeking to capitalize on the attack? She doesn't know and has to worry about the CS troops and drones right now.
Staren Steve Rogers is the first to see the main force as he plants himself right in their way.

    Running ahead of the group are... three anthropomorphic dogs in spiky armor, and another dead boy with a helmet covered in spikes. The dogs sniff the air. The man with them holds a hand to his helmet. "He's not magic, ma'am." Behind those four are 15 skelebots and the big, nearly 20-foot tall robot (with a skull head, of course) and behind THEM, just over two dozen more dead boys. Two of them have slightly different helmets, with sort of fins extending back from the sides of their helmets.

    The skele-bots run past Rogers. The giant robot hesitates, and then one of the dead boys with a different helmet waves for it to move on and it does, along with the dogs and the spikey-helmet guy.

    The two-dozen dead boys aim their laser rifles at Steve, but have their fingers off the trigger and don't fire. One of the commanders speaks up: By the sound of it, a young woman: "I'm 2nd Lt. Andrea Carmichael, Coalition State El Dorado armed forces. I'm giving you one chance to surrender -- there's no need for men and women to die defending the monsters that live here."

YULI SIN:
    "Bob? Where'd you go? Where'd Bob go?!" One of the defenders cries in alarm, and then there are panicked shouts at the crunch and gore. Only two of the group manage to keep heads cool enough to think of lobbing grenades at where the crunch came from.

ALEXIS:
    The defenders descend into chaos. The two who kept their cool try to gather those nearby into a fighting retreat. Others shout 'This is our home! They can't tell us what to do!' Yet others shout 'We're going to make them pay! For Bob!' and start to advance on the unseen monster...

REYES AND KOTONE:
    The stopped grenade would be a more impressive and terrifying trick if everything wasn't going to hell. The skelebots, now that the monsters(?) are gone, turn their focus on Reyes. They're smart enough to notice that grenades didn't work and switch to lasers. They aim their rifles at him... and then two of them blow eachother up with their grenade launchers! He can cut through the last one before it can do much damage to his shields.

    And then Reyes hears angry barking and growling as dog boys and their handler join the fray and more laser shots come from deeper into the forest! One problem down, and another takes its place!

(Image reference for Dog Boys: https://www.deviantart.com/chuckwalton/art/Rifts-Psi-Hounds-and-Psi-Stalker-the-DogBoys-679534279)
(Image reference for UAR-1 Enforcer: https://www.deviantart.com/almanegra/art/Savage-RIFTS-characters-group-4-661776638)
(Another good Dead Boy/Dog Boy picture: https://www.deviantart.com/chuckwalton/art/Rifts-Board-Game-Box-cover-rev-679549359)
Steve Rogers      Something tries to run past Steven Rogers.

     This is a *tremendous* mistake. Steve grabs the first skeleton-bot by the head and slams it into the ground. His foot swings up to catch the other one by the head, superhuman force applied to robotic face. The star-spangled man leverages his foot hard enough to send the thing into the giant robot face-first, lowering his foot only when the main force has gotten the hint: you /don't/ walk past Captain America. He draws the line. You stand still and you listen.

     Those blue eyes stare down the laser rifles with the look of a man who's daring them to blink first. He's armed with nothing but a shield, planted firmly in the ground, both hands on the edge, and he looks absolutely certain that not one of those men is going to walk away from him. When the lieutenant speaks up, those blue eyes swing around to her.

     "Captain Steven Rogers, *United States Armed Forces*." The phrase hangs in the air like a word of power in a distant land. "Those are civilians, ma'am. I don't care what they look like or what shape they take. This is American soil. Those are American citizens - if not in name, then in blood."

     "And it'll be a cold day before a bunch of thugs with laser rifles convince me to give up American citizens to a firing squad."

     The man's confidence is absolutely unshakable. His chest is huge, and the star on it - the star, the only thing unscratched by his prior fight, untorn, bright white and fierce and full of fire - is presented forward like a target. His eyes are sharp and hard. His handsome face, cut and bloodied, is set. His jaw is firm.

     "You should step back," he adds, "There's an invisible monster that I've ordered my squad to drive up to us at any minute now."

     "You probably don't want to be here when it arrives. And it's as good an excuse as any for you to retreat."
Alexis Alexis ... just puts a hand to her forehead for a moment. There's always those few that think they need to be big damn heroes only to make big damn fools of themselves. Or big dead fools.

"I'm getting too old for this shit," she mutters. Which is kind of sad when she's technically only in her mid-twenties. "Yeah, and if you die here who's gonna protect the REST of your people?" This wasn't the situation she cam prepared specifically for, but she's prepared in a way that can handle it, and releases an Ivysaur. "Sorry boys, there will be no matyring tonight." The saurian leans forward enough to tilt it's flower like a mortar, and 'fire' a gassy cloud towards the group getting ready to rush out foolheardly. Who needs tasers and beanbag guns to prevent a riot when you've got Sleep Powder?
That's followed up by releasing an Arcanine for the men to be put on. Between that and the Ivysaur's vines there's more than enough presence to carry people and make sure no one else gets uppity.

With that matter hopefully handled Alexis and her Rockruff make there way up onto the ramparts to see how things are actually going outside, while her Talonflame is still circling overhead.
Kotone Yamakawa Staren's world hits her hard really to see her homeland in ruins and only an echo remains with another part control by a very hostile government. To see America also like this is saddening to her but this is A version of Capt's homeland, and she's come to see him as what was good about the old nation of America on her world and she knows he damn well means every last word of it too.

She also sees what's going after Reyes.

<<Reyes keep them distracted I got an idea, those humanoid dogs have exposed armour and I doubt their handler much stronger than a normal human. At least that's what she'a banking on, she'll trust in Captain America and his plan.

She'll attempt to stalk up on the dog boys and with one hand she'll lob a freezer foam grenade at them and their handler, followed by her falling on them with her tasers she's intending to disable them and take them out of the fight not outright kill them, as she recalled what Reyes. She is moving now and given dogs boys they can damn well smell something in all likelihood.

<<I'm on it Reyes!>>

It seems Alexis is almost done getting the last of the locals out too, good news here. They cna fully focus on the fight at this point.
Reyes     Put frankly, the amount of energy that Reyes is pouring into his gear like it's nothing is no meager thing. Few human mages his age would have this much power so readily available, and he's not showing any sign of stopping. System after system in his souped-up armor comes to life the moment that he hears that barking. Because under that armor his blood's running cold. Dog Boys. Dog Boys, who are specially trained to fight magic users and know most of their tricks. Dog Boys who are almost certainly being guided by a Psi-Stalker...

    And that's the REAL TROUBLE for him.

    Elaborate clockwork mechanisms mounted to his armor's back spring into action, unfolding a number of delicate metal rods. Energy thrums along the extending wings, filling them out with a thick glowing substance that takes an almost feathery texture. He simply KICKS off the ground, taking to the air instead, while the Skelebots are busy shooting each other.

    A fact that he quietly cringes at, as in the back of his mind, the sheer destrucction of the technology he loves so much, his connection to it... owwwwwwwww. His particular form of machine empathy is not that great when one's opponents are merciless combat robots!

    "If there's one thing I hate the most about their forces it's the damned Skelebots!" He curses aloud moments before he finds a branch halfway up the tree to perch on, feet easily gripping for super traction as the Boots of Adhesion enchantment takes hold.

    His visor springs to life, scanning the forests in the direction of all the barking. He's hunting for both the invisible stalker (using thermal readings and magical detection) and the Psi-Stalker, who he's hoping to get the drop on in some fashion... or at least steer clear of.
Staren STEVE:
    The thirteen remaining skelebots walk on obliviously. The dead boys are actually too stunned by all this to change their orders. Even the mecha pilot is given pause, checking sensors frantically for a giant invisible monster. There's some quiet radio chatter, but the squad now shooting at Reyes doesn't *sense* a giant monster. But it could be just out of their range.

    Rogers's rhetoric also seems to give some of the dead boys pause. El Dorado only recently joined the Coalition States. Some of these people had nonhumans living amongst them before they joined the CS for protection.

    The commander tries to rally them: "There WERE no D-Bees before the rifts. Keeping them out is the only way we can keep the /Coalition/ States safe! The only way to protect your human sisters and brothers!" There's more murmuring. Some of them take aim at Rogers again. "If he's not with us, then he's against us! We can HANDLE an invisible monster, we've got the Psi-Hounds and an Enforcer! I'll have you all court-marshalled if you listen to this fool! Now MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF HIM!"

    Okay, what he did was pretty impressive, but at the moment there's more of them and they don't like his chances.

    SOME of them actually shoot. Including the giant robot pilot. He shoots that big ol' shoulder railcannon!

ALEXIS:

    The flamethrower is enough to scare the locals into line -- any who aren't immediately chomped by INVISIBLE MOSNTERS start retreating in earnest.

    KOTONE is invisible, but she doesn't SMELL like forest. The dog boys know something's up, and when a foam grenade appears out of nowhere, one actually LEAPS ON IT for his team, and ends up stuck to the ground. The other two dog boys and their handler retreat into the forest. The mage is a problem, but they're a bit overwhelmed and have a GIANT INVISIBLE MONSTER to find. Besides...

    Just as REYES curses those damned skelebots, EIGHTEEN MORE step into the area from two directions. One of the netted coalition soldiers shouts, "SHOOT THE UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN! THERE'S AN INVISIBLE ENEMY!" Seems he noticed Kotone's grenade too! Some of them initially try grenades again, but Reyes suddenly has a lot of lasers to deal with! Although this time, if Kotone fires another projectile, some of them turn to grenade the attack's unseen origin!
Yuli Sin     The air goes still again for just that short moment after a rolling pool of blood begins creeping out from behind the log wall, like the long cut of a horror movie death that's usually supposed to follow a lot of loud struggling and screaming instead of dead silence. That awful moment only lasts for a second before all the commotion starts, with the main Coalition force rolling out of the trees and making first contact with Steve Rogers, shortly followed by the defenders panicking and hurling their ordnance inside their own walls, sure to attract the Coalition's notice.

    Another pair of explosions go off, but this time without the tall grass, they can catch a glimpse of what speeds out of their blast radius, moving like a lightning bolt. It isn't so much invisible, it seems, but rather, half-there. It's like looking at a skeletal suggestion of something, in silver and black, with only the implication of a 'rest of a body' about it. Something man-height, slender, bipedal, therapod-shaped, with a long and sleek bodyplan that runs in eerie quiet despite its insane speed, and turns like a gyroscopically balanced motorbike. Even in that split second glimpse, a viewer gets the barest impression of intricate moving parts within moving parts.

    A vibrating electronic snarl warbles from one of the nearby buildings, and then two more from reverse directions, forming a triangle between them that the advancing defenders are in the middle of. Just as they close with the building Bob died behind, two more creatures lunge out from their rear, and crash into the back line, leaping into the air and kicking both legs out and down so as to smash defenders into the ground and punch lethal black bladed talons through their entire torsos. One of them leans its head down on a flexible neck, which splits in half, and then chomps down on its prey's skull, with a toothed vise inside, twisting its neck with the required motion to bloodily tear its chosen mark's head off and fling it away.

    The both of them then begin a stalking advance on the surrounded group, postured low and aggressively. Up close, it looks like most of their body is translucent, made of layers of some perfectly transparent material that creates a shimmer effect around their bodily outline as the light refracts through it, tracing a ghostly silhouette around complex mechanical skeletons of almost magically floating parts. They're vaguely like very large velociraptors in shape, with no arms, segmented tails, and eyeless, oblong heads. Opening their 'jaws' and letting loose garbled, digitalized 'roars' reveals crimson lights glaring within the apparatus that fills most of their heads.

    The one flushed out by the grenades approaches as soon as their attention is turned, crashing into the hemmed in group like a set of bowling pins, pivoting and turning its entire body to swing its tail out in a 360 degree traveling sweep. It only turns out to be a lethal attack when the air shrieks and body parts still in the way come flying off, because the fact the tail is a ridiculously sharp blade, and thus now an arcing blender, is indistinguishable by the glass outline.

    Pointedly, so far only the beaver people have been targeted. The humans are just being Overtly Menaced.

    It's actually worse, because if they're all put to sleep by the sleep powder, the monsters just come out and start executing the D Bees one by one in their sleep, tearing them in half without eating any of it.
Yuli Sin     It seems like the situation isn't just getting rapidly worse for the defenders though. The brush suddenly ripples to either side of Captain America as four more shapes move past his flanks, ignoring him for the moment, and advancing towards the Coalition States lines. They pick up speed as they go, until they're easily tripling what a skelebot can do, and then like a set of snipers were lined up on the walls, they smash right through the parts of the line held by combat drones, blitzing right past the Dead Boy troopers and carrying away their robots like they were hit by semi trucks. Dog Boys are also valid targets, just like the beaver men. If they're covered in freezer foam, so much the better. Instead of tackled to ground and mangled, as is the MO with the drones, the new, larger squad of monsters snatching up anything fleshy end up shaking and shredding their victims on the run, like a crocodile tearing chunks off a wildebeest.

    Also the black band on the horizon has gotten progressively closer, It's probably within a mile now.
Steve Rogers      It is tremendously unfortunate for everything that goes on right now. The skeleton robots moving past Steve are noted in the back of his mind as the woman talks. Steve stands firm as the men level their rifles. "Ma'am," he says calmly, "People have been calling other people nonhuman since before there was an America to set 'em straight."

     And then he's at it.

     His foot snaps upwards, kicking the shield up. The railcannon fires, and the shield meets it, ringing out furiously as it goes from 'in air' to 'pressed against Steve's chest with the force of a train'. His fingers grip the sides of the shield and dig in. Rather than flattened, Steve stands strong as the lasers are fired on just a moment's delay.

     This is a mistake.

     The lasers are caught and rebounded by the vibranium shield. They're absorbed and redirected, a flowing ballet of impossible motion. They're redirected into the skeleton drones that are now perpendicular with him, thanks to the shot from the rail cannon - lasers caught and bounced with superhuman skill. Steve Rogers has a shield in his hand, and he might as well be invincible.

     He can bleed, though. One stray shot catches him in the side, burning through his uniform to the (perfect) abs underneath. One shot catches him in the chest, and the smell of burning flesh fills the air.

     Steve goes to the side. He grabs one of the skeleton robots and *hurls* it into the giant robot's cockpit. He's not the Hulk, but they're skeleton robots - he's punched bigger and harder than that. He turns around and smashes his shield into another one, opening himself up to another shot across the cheek, which blackens his flesh and burns his skin.

     He grits his teeth and keeps on going. He jumps, crushing a skeleton-bot's head between his knees and riding it down to avoid more laser-fire. He rolls and springs back up, ready to go. He's already in a boxing stance.

     Whatever the invisible monster is going to do, he saw that ripple. He's pretty sure that's going to break their ranks. They're not soldiers, they're bullies. They're not disciplined enough to stand up to *his* gaze - let alone something unexpected happening like that. Shock value is more effective than bullets at breaking disorganized ranks.
Reyes     LASERS! A TON of lasers! Reyes is caught almost by surprised by them, what with trying to track down the strange, minimalistically-designed THING skulking around and the Psi-Stalker. He'll... just have to let Kotone deal with the Dog Boys and Psi-Stalker and hope for the best... because THAT THING OVER THERE, that's something that maybe only he can deal with in a reasonable period of--

    "GAAAAAH!!" Lasers strike the tree around him, reducing a huge pile of it to ash and cinders and setting leaves smoldering. Another laser strikes near his arm, glancing along his shield... and the third blast pierces the shield and strikes the armor of his left leg.

    Reyes tumbles backwards and flails for a moment, but regains control with a flare of his wings... and decides to DIVE STRAIGHT DOWN into the Skelebots' midst.

    The one thing that he told NOBODY TO EVER DO.

    He's got all of ONE CHANCE TO MAKE THIS WORK and for the sake of what's happening over in the camp...

    In the infinite time between heartbeats, he gathers an obscene amount ot focus, his awareness expanding out to his surroundings and touching all of the skelebots in rapid succession. His will gathers and pierces out like a finely honed sword, aiming straight for their orders... and attempting to subvert them. "DIRECTIVE FROM HIGH COMMAND. FORSAKE ALL LESSER ORDERS. SEARCH AND DESTROY THIS TARGET, THAT WAY." He sends an image of the THING he saw and the coordinates it was last spotted in.
Alexis If it isn't one thing it's another.

Alexis is trying to get caught up on what's going on outside and see if they need any help. "I swear, he's got to be part Steel type with that shie--" She stops as her Rockruff abruptly bolts from her side, looks down as he goes running back down the ramparts. "What is it?"

It's total chaos, that's what it is. "Arceus dammit all... Howlinger be careful!"

But she didn't tell him to stop.

The canine barrels towards whatever is savaging the beaver-men, lunging past them and hurtling himself physically into whatever it is thrashing about to knock it away!

It's okay, he's a Rock type. He can take it (hopefully). It also means he's stronger than you'd expect for his size.
Staren YULI SIN:
    The defenders who WEREN'T knocked out concentrate their laser fire on the beast making a spectacle of itself chomping beaver skull. They don't even SEE the other one until it's too late. They are wearing advanced, futuristic armor, but the part covering the torso is soft and not particularly great against knives. Down goes another one. Nine left. Six of them turn their rifles on the new threat while the other three try to finish off the monster chomping people.

    The skelebots and dog boys are fighting with Reyes and Kotone, no longer near Captain America. If the other dead boys could see clearly what was happening through the trees it would be pants-shittingly terrifying. Three skelebots are taken down in an instant, and the glued dog boy is messily devoured. The handler and remaining dog boys keep retreating. Radio chatter reaches the others -- one of the dead boys shouts for the skelebots to bring them back to the other troops, and a couple of them try to drag the two back.

STEVE:
    A few more go down from Rogers's bounced shots through the woods, and another to a punch and then he crushes another between his legs. One is thrown into the mecha's cockpit block, but it will take more than that to take down a giant battle robot.

    The chatter is coming over the radio about not one big invisible monster, but a bunch of little ones. Tearing through them like nothing. Andrea gives the retreat order, and they begin to back off. The mecha pilot is last out, watching Steve warily but more concerned about the invisible monster.

REYES:
    The remaining skelebots aren't anti-MAGIC. Well, PSIONICS. The ones he touches take their new orders, ignoring all other targets. There are only a few left at this point, plus the two trying to drag off the netted dead boys. Given what they're fighting, they're not much of a threat anymore.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa does not lob another grenade she had planned to close and it does not help that she does indeed not smell like the forest ht dog boys know something up, she's got one dog boy out of the fight and keeps moving as she's going to go after them. They are making this hard, but that's how it has to be right? Alexis is getting the last of the locals out, while the Captain is showing his power to the CS forces. The strange attacker has been flushed out and she's not sure what to make of it but it seems to be on one's side. Reyes jacks some of the Skelebots and sends them after the thing, she sees the dog boys who are still alive and their handler are still running, she's going to let them do so, these unknown things are going after the people they came to defend as well.

The Death of the dog boy also does not sit well with her whatever these unknown things are they are a clear and present danger likely some new horror that crawled out of the rift, she'll switch weapons.

She'll use her matter manipulator to swap out her rifle for a heavy well used, but clearly high tech-looking minigun, it spins up and she'll start laying down fire at the thing or things that are not with the defenders or the CS troops.
Yuli Sin     The trio of surrealist ghost-machine predators attempting to slaughter the whole group of fleeing non-humans is interrupted by Alexis' pokemonster barreling through their midst. It's a tiny dog still short of ten kilos, so it doesn't exactly sideswipe the lot of them, but it knocks its chosen target off of its own chosen prey, and draws their attention as it rolls and vaults upright again.

    All three of them swivel to face the Pokemon simultaneously, locking onto it as one, despite it only being visible to one of the trio. They maneuver away from the hapless defenders, slipping adroitly into a new flank formation. Surreal mechanical jaws flex open. Harsh, digital growls sound out, rising into pitched, incendiary hiss-shrieks. A trio of red dots appears on the rockruff. The crimson glow inside the creatures' throat apertures flares bright, into a fractal cross of glaring ruby light. The red dots are now the ground zero for a massive thermal detonation, where three overpowered lasers converge on a single point and turn a big spherical chunk of the camp into a mushroom cloud.

    The explosion from within the walls is visible from a distance outside of them. The dirt usually thrown up into the air quickly burns away into a shower of molten material, coruscating with electricity, making for an extremely bright and obvious beacon, followed by a wash of heat. The four ghost-machine raptors that blew through the Coalition line circle back around, discarding mangled robots and a corpse as they accelerate back in, attacking from all four directions this time, eerily and perfectly synchronized.

    The skelebots all turn on the nearest targets, as directed by Reyes. They fire their laser rifles, which mostly strike on-target, as the enemy doesn't even try to avoid them. The laser light strikes their transparent exteriors, and then refracts into a million little micro beams that 'splash' on and through the monsters, largely burning their surroundings, and causing only minimal damage to the machinery inside. Kotone opens up with her minigun and manages to walk her fire into one of the assault creatures, strafing across its side with a string of heavy metallic thwacks and pinging cracks, sending it tumbling off course through the grass, spinning out into the dirt, then heaving itself upright again, rejoining the advance with dozens of bullets lodged in its transparent flank.

    When actual weapons fire is levied at them, they respond in turn, letting loose their own digitized shrieks and fixing their heads in gyroscopically in place such that they appear to freakishly hover against the swaying running motions of their body, kept perfectly on target.

    A series of laser blasts, much more powerful than standard infantry weapons, lands in the CS's ranks, slagging and detonating whatever they hit, causing airbursts of plasma and throwing molten shrapnel everywhere. The grass ignites around the edges of where it turns to ash, starting a brush fire.

    The minute that Reyes says 'thank the gods', he, Kotone, any trooper with powered armour, and the giant robot pilot, are all assaulted with a barrage of jangled forced radio and laser intrusions, randomly hammering their systems with a million different kinds of nonsense. Motive systems sputter, lock up, release, and then stutter again. HUDs are filled with grainy visual static that distorts and warps the surroundings. Phantom pings appear all over radar and motion trackers. Targeting indicators wink out of existence, and are replaced with geometric red flower designs. Status uplinks to other people have their names scrambled and blotted out.

    The auditory feed transmits a rendition of five different people all saying at the same time: <<THERE ARE NO GODS HERE BUT ME.>>
Staren     The moment a laser shot 'splashes', the skelebots start trying different frequencies of laser. If any of them make it out of here, their data will be shared for future encounters.

    After the laser blasts hit the retreating line, any surviving CS troops get back up and drag injured comrades away. They're retreating as much as they can! The mecha pilot fires some missiles at where he THINKS the shots originated from as covering fire, and backs up after the retreating troops.

    Then his shit gets hacked and a VOICE comes over the radio. The dead boys shout at eachother to keep moving, and the mecha pilot tries to regain control, turning off radios and rebooting and such.
Kotone Yamakawa There is good news the CS is running, there is bad news one some of the local defenders have been killed by something unknown, the Dog boy she tried to take alive, got killed in a way she wouldn't wish upon an enemy, the strange alien things are still lost. This day only gets stranger as while she scored what seemed to get a hit, but the things are damn durable in a way that reminds her of a few old things and if it's remotely like them?

Oh this will be bad at some point or another as she's making ready for another shot she gets hit with the massive super comm attack she drops her weapon collapsing to her knees crying out.

"GET out of my head."

There are no gods but me? There is a fear she could be compromised somehow by this and that fills her heart with terror as she tries to push back and get back to her feet.

"uggg... get out..."
Alexis You would think being out-numbered and outmatched in size would be a good time to turn and run. But the smaller Rockruff stands his ground, growling and bristling up defensively even as the three robo-things turn their focus on him. With their little red dots, which are usually followed by very big shooty type things.

Alexis shouts something from up on the rampart, but seems to be lost in the cacophony of heavy weapons fire. Followed by the upending explosion and the blast wave that follows. She's forced to crouch down to keep from being blown off her perch, holding an arm over her face to shield it from the dust and debris flung into the air as it's vaporizing. It's a tense passing moment before she dares peer out of the crook of her arm.

The remaining dust is settling in the smokey remains of the explosions center... And there still stands Rockruff, surrounded by the crumbling remains of the earthen barrier that had been Alexis' nearly lost command: Protect. He's not unscathed, there's scorch marks in his gritty fur and he's huffing a bit, but he tanked that assault like a champ.

"That was a little too close for comfort." Alexis gets back to her feet and back into action. If she knew what was going on with some of the others at the moment she'd probably be glad she doesn't have any of that bionic stuff. "They're disrupting lasers, use something more else!" Now the focus that goes into Protect requires a bit before Rockruff is going to be able to fling an actual attack out again.

But he doesn't have to, as this is when the Talonflame comes literally blazing down into the fight at rediculous speed, aimed at the robotic fiends like an fiery kamekazi!
Steve Rogers      Steve doesn't really like letting Nazis go. On the other hand, he saw the look in some of their eyes. The hesitation in the trigger fingers. He saw it, and he heard Erskine's reminder: the first country the Nazis ever invaded was their own. It's a chilling reminder here in a ravaged America, and yet it's also hopeful - in those eyes he saw men who might be willing to fight it off. Who might be willing to do what Erskine did, and act bravely in the face of wrongdoing. So that problem is solved. He doesn't need to pursue them. Better he doesn't - better to let them see how weak their ideals are when faced with real challenge. Better to let them see that you can win if you don't let the other guy have his way.

     Still, that's secondary at the moment, because primary in his attentions is the giant explosion and the four ghost raptors running towards it, and the five-part voice speaking in perfect synch.

     Steve delivers his Witty Avengers One-Liner over the radio, but it's pretty clear they want to do it the old-fashioned way.

     So he goes to it. Arms pumping, muscles racing, Steve runs alongside the raptors like a scene out of Jurassic Park (he hasn't gotten there yet, don't spoil him), body moving in perfect harmony until he gets a moment.

     At which point he leaps onto one of the raptor-things (which he still cannot see, but which he is letting instinct guide him through, and the element of surprise) and grabs it by the mouth (or nearest equal dangerous appendage that he can find with a bit of blind groping around) and pulls it backwards as hard as he can to restrain and ride it like a fucking horse.

     Steve Rogers has ridden a horse exactly once, at Becky Hallbeck's birthday party when he was eight years old, and it immediately threw him off into the dust.

     Like hell he's gonna let that stop him.
Reyes     There go the Skelebots! Reyes is pretty happy. ... Though he remains kneeling half-assedly on his wounded leg, hissing at the injury done to him. Slowly the pain's going away... but it's nothing compared to the POUNDING in his head, his thoughts going dizzy as they've ever been and then some. He flails an arm outwards and then plants his ice blade in the ground for support, gasping for breath while hoping his head will stop POUNDING soon...

    No chance of that. The Mad Tech-Goddess's broadcast catches him unawares. Spluttering, he yoinks his helmet clear off and looks about wildly for the source...

    Panic half-over, he slams the helmet back on and makes more scan attempts to track that down using his gear.
Yuli Sin     The variable frequency lasers pierce into their targets. Each different frequency gets to a different depth into the chosen mark, before breaking and scattering on a different layer of translucency, the myriad different refractive indices creating the shimmery outline effect making it pretty much totally implausible to deal serious damage with individual laser shots short of getting into the gamma spectrum.

    Skelebots are shot and torn up. The dog boys have already fled. The giant robot launches its missiles into the grass, and finally blows one of the 'raptors' sky high, more visible due to the jagged crater and network of deep cracks running through it creating a sort of glowing web pattern as it is hurled through the air, crashing through a tree and smashing it in half. It rolls to its feet anyways, slowly standing, but then it tilts heavily towards the side that's missing most of its exterior, exposing the bizarrely hard black skeleton, testing its mobility with a few limping strides, and spitting molten sparks from its mouth, it seems to decide it isn't combat ready, and then . . . turns and leaves at a limping gait.

    Back inside the camp, the trio of predators circle in around the rockruff as its barriers lower, their heads twitching and tilting back and forth, their sights strobing across the Pokemon, clearly assessing the damage and evaluating its physical makeup. One of the leans low and then lunges across the ground in a single step, hitting the dog Pokemon more like a diving falcon than a land animal, but is intercepted by the talonflame blitz, knocked out of the air and explosively put through one of the cabin walls, its side now host to a huge glowing bloom of orange hot material.

    One of the creatures ignores the assault and leaps on the rockruff next, aiming to kick down and crush it until its talons, then savaged bite and tear away at it, with claws and teeth easily qualifying as militarized even in this world. The other turns its attention on the talonflame, tracks the bird, fires its laser with another searing line of plasma bloom, roars out, and then some of the 'vertebrae' of its internal skeleton extend out through its back like a row of pistols, snapping open and firing off a volley of vertical-launch micro missiles into the air. Half a dozen hissing points of light swerve through the air and Itano Circus on the flying Pokemon, blowing up in fierce, concentrated explosions.

    Steve *leaps* on one more. The head seems to be just one big fused piece when not open, giving him nothing to really grip onto, until it swivels said head a full 180 degrees to aim at him on its back. He grabs it just in time for the laser to blast right past his ear instead, the backwash of heat still absolutely blistering. It begins trying to crush his fingers into bloody pulps in its 'mouth', applying way too much force, albeit not quite enough to stop Captain America from wrangling it. The one damaged by Kotone immediately recognizes its packmate's plight without looking, and breaks off the pursuit of the CS instantly, charging at Steve from the side and jump-tackling him like a classic prehistoric velociraptor strike.

    Contrasting to how they'd dealt with the robots, beaver D-Bees, dog boys, and Pokemon though, it spreads its ridiculous talons around where Steve's vital organs and arteries would be, aiming to stab into his muscles instead and take him to ground in that way apex predators do with large game.
Yuli Sin     The remaining, undamaged, eerily lifelike phantom machine out in the forest, seems to be unaccounted for, as if it'd vanished. It reappears a minute later by falling right out of trees directly over Reyes. The digital assault strikes simultaneously to scramble his sensors and freeze up his powered armour's physical actuators, just as the laser strikes the ground below him, explodes on his energy shield, and craters the dirt he was just standing on, timed for an instantly ahead of landing on him. Given the opportunity, it begins sinking its teeth into chunks of his armour, emitting a high pitched electronic sound as it goes. Said teeth power saw through plating in moments, allowing it to grip and tear away components away wholesale, stripping and shatter the powered exoskeleton away layer by layer like selectively ripping flesh off of bone.

    The HUD distortion quiets down somewhat, but the red geometric floral emblems remain, unevenly pulsing and flickering like audio visualizers. <<THiS LAND HAS BEEN CHOSEN FOR CONSECRATiON. BLESSED BE THOSE WHO REMAiN TO PRAiSE iTS DiViNE BENEVOLENCE. ANNiHiLATiON TO THE CURSED AND TAiNTED. BANiSHED ARE THOSE WHO WORSHiP FALSE iDOLS. LAY DOWN ARMS AND GIVE PRAiSE. SUBMiT USER iNPUT WiTHiN TWENTY SECONDS TO COMPLY. LETHAL ELiMiNATiON OF HUMAN COMPONENTS AUTHORiZED.>>

    Take a look around. In the places where the skelebots had been taken down and mangled in the brush, the grass and trees are already starting to wither and die off, leaving creeping spots of cleared dirt that is swiftly being regularized into glittering silver sand. The blank space is overtaken by tall, thick, rubbery textured carbon black fronds and bracken and curling shoots, blossoming with glittering platinum and glass flowers. The trees around them are being converted wholesale, bark replaced with more of that ghostly shimmering glass, their heartwood eroding away to reveal complicated silver support skeletons and conduits and arteries of black wire. Their leaves shed away and turn to ash in the air, replaced with iridescent, hexagonal-patterned blue-black blades.
Steve Rogers      It's a close one. It almost takes his head off with the sheer heat from the blast. It's a lot worse than those Nazi laser guns the black-suited jackboots were waving around, that's for sure. If that one hit him dead-on it might actually seriously, maybe mortally, injured him.

     So it's a damn good thing he pointed it away.

     The jump-tackling one gets him, though. It knocks him off his mount and onto the ground, where he rolls until he forces a stop by jamming the shield into the ground.

     "Alright," he says to himself, "New plan."

     He stands up and crouches low, lower to the raptor's level. He bases himself out. He's probably got a broken rib from the sheer force of that impact, but he'll worry about that later. Right now, he's low, fists clenched, in a much lower stance.

     He moves forward slowly, but surely, until he can connect his fist with the raptor's jaw. It's probably hard - but he's willing to bet his fist is harder. And if it's not, he's damn sure willing to bet that it's enough to distract the raptor from the vibranium shield uppercut backed by the full power of a rising Captain America on those legs that can outrun a jeep, with those arms that can out-fight a helicopter.

     The consecration speech comes out. Steve purses his lips. He's really tired of fighting would-be gods. He's especially tired of fighting would-be gods who can turn invisible (or semi-invisible, or what have you) with magical corruptive powers. If he'd known that that's what he was signing up for when he'd been offered the serum...

     ...nah, he'd've done it anyway. Not a second thought in Steve Rogers' mind.

     "This isn't your land," Steve says, "And you don't have any right to be here. You can keep fighting and you can try and wipe us out but trust me - a lot of people have tried, and I'm still standing. This place is more trouble than it's worth for you, and you'll have to spend a lot more effort than these robots to get what you want."
Alexis The first attempt to attack the rock dog is intercepted by the Flare Blitzing Talonflame and knocked away. The third is surprise rodeoed by Cap. Leaving only the middle one to actually succeed at plowing into the pokemon. The impact alone enough to send Howlinger tumbling backwards across the abandoned camp. He rolls back onto his paws though just in the nick of time to jump away from the beast trying to grab and crush him. The Rockruff may be brave, but he realizes he's outmatched and goes running back to Alexis.

Spitfire succeeded in blasting one of the beastily machines away from him, but soon has her own issues. The raptor pulls up and spirals into the air, weaving away to avoid the mini missile barrage. But a plasma blast comes through the middle of it all and knocks the Talonflame into the far wall.

Rockruff jumps into the crook of her arm just as Alexis is pulling one last pokeball out. If she'd known something like -this- was around she would of brought Wildfire... She'll keep that in mind next time.

Hopefully there will be a next time...

Switching gears Alexis releases her Flygon, the insectoid dragon scoop her up before she's even finished manifesting. She can sense the aggitation in her trainer and this was one of those times she wasn't being brought out to fight. Instead her dragonfly wings buzz rapidly to life, and the so-called Mirage of the Desert takes off with speed befitting of the name, winding close enough for Alexis to retrieve the collapsed Talonflame before she's mangled by the machine monster, and pulls up into the air.

"I hate to be the downer guys, but everyone else is out of this hole. Nothing left here worth dying over!" Thank Mew someone thought to have most of the civilians evacuated beforehand. Alexis spurs the dragonic beast into the air, as doing so Mirage also lives up to her name as multiple other Flygons appear to be flying in different directions, distracting reflections made via Double Team. Then takes off in the direction that the native defenders and her other two pokemon had left.

Fighting was hard. Knowing when to stop fighting could be even harder. But this was one of those times that Alexis realized that it was time to run away to be able to fight another day.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa has had a lot taken out of her by the unexpected machine 'god' appearing and its digital shouting. She will get back to her feer and go autistic mode to give herself hopefully some level of defence, at this point she drops her cloak will recover her weapon and move to head in again as Captain America is in trouble and like heck she's going to leave him to fend for himself, or any of her other allies, she's going to have to be more careful.

To her horror she sees whatever this thing is infesting the local area, memories of a job some time ago come back to her and she shudders. Could something like that be starting here? It damn well could and they may be the only thing that could stop it, she has an idea, she'll pull a grenade off her belt with one hand, while using her superhuman strength to hang on to her mini gum, them lob the plasma grenade at the warping sustain trees, hopefully that will get the thing's attention, or at least make for a distraction. They also now have a whole camp worth of homeless people. There's also a disturbing thought they may have to reach out to the CS to deal with this, she feels dirty for this thought. Hopefully her plan will draw some heat off Captain America.
Reyes     "CRRRRA--" Reyes is, for lack of a better description, completely wompastomped by the ambush. He's slammed by the explosion and hurtled backwards, slamming hard into a tree, only for the beast to set upon him. The advanced ceramic materials are tough as they come, but the shrieking machine getting straight at him is making mincemeat of it.

    Reyes... begins to panic and flail! After everything he just did, his inner strength reserves are pretty low... but not dry

    The TW-Saber's gems spin and reconfigure, and a fresh injection of power sees the ice exchanged for blazing white-yellow-orangg flame. With a scraggly gasp he aims to slam the blade straight into the beast and melt its important bits off!
Yuli Sin
    When Alexis quits the field, the remaining synthetics watch her leave for a couple of moments, until she crosses some kind of threshold of maximum aggro, and they turn right back to the rest of the mess.

    Reyes responding to his aggressor by jamming the fire energy magic saber through his target meets with vastly more success than all attempts at shooting them have been so far. The fire magic passes through it relatively easily, skewering the delicate-looking but surprisingly hard black and silver skeleton of esoteric floating parts inside, rapidly heating them to red, then orange, then yellow hot.

    Detecting that its internals are reaching critical failure points, the creature leaps back off of him and gains a good twenty meters or so (unfortunately tearing off a couple more pieces of his technowizard suit with its claws), then stops warily at that distance. The segments of its tail extend, and begin venting pale blue steam into the air, probably expending most or all of its coolant to prevent its parts from warping, as a strange sort of survival instinct. It assesses him for several more seconds, but instead of lasering him whime he's down (and has most of his armour gone!), it slinks backwards and melts into the brush again.

    The one that Steve punches reels with his fists several times, bashing its head away multiple times where it tries to bite or shoot him, until he hears something metallic stress out and snap in half, leading to a descending electric whine and a spray of sparks into his eyes. It lifts one of its feet and stomps his hand with its full weight, apparently okay with clenching its bladed talons between his fingers and severing all the lovely vulnerable tendons and muscles in the soft spaces of the human hand, before the vibranium shied kick takes it.

    Whatever stupid super materials it's made out of, it's not vibranium. The edge of the shield bites into its exterior, then splits it like a rock chisel, caving in its 'ribs' and compromising something crucial, which begins spitting out heinous amounts of waste heat that now feels like he'd curled up inside an oven. The creature begins bleeding orange molten goo, and staggers off into the grass again, venting huge plumes of steam behind it in an attempt to stabilize and control a core leak. i.e. he'd nicked its heart and it's stumbling away trying not to bleed out.

    The two fresh assailants from the camp, evacuated by Alexis and all the loggers, leap up to the edge of the palisade, taking a high perch. They extend their micro missile arrays from their spines as well, painting Steve and Reyes with red dots, until Kotone gets her shit together and sets off a plasma grenade, where they then immediately turn their attention to her and shower a dozen whizzing high-speed explosives on her head, leaping down and pursuing her, away from the others.

    The creature beat up by the talonflame blasts its way out from the inside of the wooden wall, as the heat damage to one side seems to have compromised its ability to super jump. With Steve delivering his side of the heroic opposition speech, it looks at him, and the radio echoes . . .
Yuli Sin     The same thing as before. 'Consecration. Praise the divine. Benevolence. Annihilation. Cursed and tainted. False idols. etc.'

    It hits him immediately: that's a first contact message. It's delivered in the same way and same tone as a blind human attempt to communicate with whatever alien species they might find programmed into a space exploration drone. There is no guiding intelligence directly behind it. They're probes. Probes probably spawned by the terraformed area to the west, slowly growing for several days now. First wave constructs, hunting down things made of metal, killing them, turning their husks into more terraforming plots, and blind-firing communication attempts at intelligent beings.

    It probably hacked all that stuff because it recognized radio channels and electronic displays before it did 'people using their mouth words to talk to each other'. A more 'native' means of communication. That would also mean it didn't recognize either the D-Bees or the Dog Boys as intelligent beings at all.
Reyes     With most of his torso exposed and his armor in shreds, Reyes's Techno-Wizard systems are... failing him, to say the least. The power surrounding his wings fizzles out and much of his power-boosting magics fail. He's hoping that the THING he's facing down won't realize that, though...

    And the fact of the matter is, he's still pretty dangerous, leaving his trump card in reserve for the time being... for several very good reasons.

    Still, he flips to his feet with remarkable ease, almost like a martial artist might. the flaming sword's brandished at the creature... until it goes away.

    Like he's going to trust -THAT- appearance. He carefully takes stock of his situation, picking up critical pieces of his broken armor and tucking them away into other compartments while preparing to flee...

    All until he gets a TERRIBLE feeling, and notices the laser painter. A hiss escapes his lips and he begins to chant and gesture, blue energy swirling around his fingers... but the danger passes mid-casting. Nevertheless, he carefully completes the chant... and the original version of his energy shield, the dwarven-made Armor of Ithan, manifests around him in translucent glory. It looks pretty odd overlaying the actual armor he's wearing...

    "We... we'd better just get the hell out of here until we know what we're dealing with!" He announces over his radio, turning to flee himself.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa has made some 'friends' as it were and she's also pulled some heat off of Captain America, which is good, it's time to get the hell out of dodge she finds she's coming under fire. She starts to run but can't get away from all of it, she's fast she's agile but she still get caught one of the blasts tears a portion of her armour, synth skin and get into her body's internals as she just runs for all she's worth now as Reyes is right, she needs to get the hell out of dodge so they can plan, she's knows staying longer is foolish, they have to get to the legion to plot and plan what to do next.

<<Capt we need to go.>>
Steve Rogers      Steve Rogers is a man who would keep fighting past any amount of first contact. He's already done it once, when monsters invaded New York City to call it their own. So he's obviously not inclined to accept this kind of situation, even with a damaged tendon, burned abs, a nearly-burned ear, a definitely-burned cheek, broken ribs, and all the other damage piling up. No sir, Steve Rogers is a man who'll keep fighting through to the end of time if he has to.

     But none of his allies are. Reyes turns tail and makes it obvious, and Kotone urges he leave.

     With the bluff broken (and the allies the same), Steve reluctantly starts heading backwards. He's not happy about this. It's plain in the look on his face. They might've saved the people, and that's a start, but running away from invading aliens doesn't feel right, and who knows how long it'll take for the thing to get its roots in and *spread*?

     And then who knows what'll happen to those people they saved?

     He'd better get others in on this.