Rising Phoenix Gaming

Tempest grunted, that was one of his stronger attacks, and even combined with everything else, they'd still not brought the beast down. They'd already seen it regenerate damage before, and they had to take it down now before it could again. "Bring it down now, before it heals again!" he called out to his comrades in the fight, even as he created a larger ice spear than he had before. He only hoped their combined efforts would be enough. He grinned, though no one could see it, as the mighty spike of glacial ice skewered into Gargan.

The monster reels fromthe blasts and seems weakened by the drones elimination. it takes a shaky step, it head swiveling back and forth between he two versions of Atalanta visible then it decides which to blast! Its head locks onto Ignoring everything else and its eyes glow and spark and...fizzle. No beams flash out and the beast staggers and shakes its head making a guttural rumble deep in its chest.

The remarkable tall archer streaked away and Jack wasn't about to chase her all about the battlefield, especially since he couldn't catch up her, probably not even with his car, if she didn't want him. And not when a stomp of Big Boy's massive foot knocked him to knee, which naturally landed right on a pointed rock. With a grimace, Jack climbed back to his feet. The Little Boys had been taken down by the young woman with stronger magic than his own and the guy with the sword, so Jack turned his focus back on Big Boy, hopefully enough of them targeting it would overwhelm its recuperative abilities. "I couldn't be so lucky as to die. It's been that kind of day," Jack snarked, though Atalanta was much too far away to hear it. Or was she, since she appeared to be right by Big Boy. No, she was still over by the ambulance and tent where the remains of Mr. Invincible lay. He shook his head. As long as she stuck around so they could talk afterwards. "Whatever. Big Boy, you're standing in the way of a beer after a long night and a terrible morning." The tattoo on his burned with the familiar tingle as he threw two more arcane spades at the creature, both striking true, piercing thick scales. He wasn't calling down the storm like Tempest, but his spades struck with satisfying retorts. Then Jack shuffled to the side, looking for any hint of cover in case he drew Big Boy's ire.

Triessa hurled more blasts of magical energy at the towering monster, walking towards it as she started trying to think about what to do next. Watching her mystic bolts spatter almost harmlessly off its hide made her realize that she needed stronger magic here...and unfortunately, most of the spells she knew that would be good for that required her to be close in. Like, touching range. Just thinking that was terrifying...but she closed in anyway. The beast shifted then, sending water surging towards Hex and nearly kicking her all without even noticing she was down there...when suddenly out of the bushes nearby exploded a large dog; built like a German Shepard with oddly tufted ears and unusually stocky around the shoulders. His tail too had an almost leonine tuft at the end rather than just tapering to a point. "Hubcap!" Hex shouted in dismay. She hadn't even realized he was around here! But it shouldn't have been a surprise...he rarely let her stray far... The dog, Hubcap, rushed past her and leapt on one of the monster's toes, snarling. He dug his muzzle in savagely, biting down. To Triessa's astonishment, a scale actually came loose in his jaws, and was pried out! Hubcap emitted a growly bark then, and seemed to implode to a point and vanish. At nearly the same instant he appeared beside Hex in like manner, sending a puff of wind outward with a sort of whooshing noise. At the expression on his doggy face, fierce but proud, and clearly expecting praise...Triessa reached down and scritched between his stiff ears with a sigh. "Good boy. Just...be careful. This thing is..." She looked up. And up. "...well, you can see it."

Directly attacking the giant beast didn't have the desired effect, but Shift wasn't surprised; it had been a bit of a longshot anyway. Instead, the infiltrator decided to play to their strengths by increasing the chaos factor for their foes. Spotting a nearby rock outcropping, Shift ducked behind it...and Atalanta emerged on the other side! Or rather, another Atalanta, as the original was still actively engaged elsewhere. Considering how much footage of the Paragon Shift has analyzed, it was a relatively easy duplication. 'Atalanta' shouted out at the beasts pursing her, "Come at me, foul creatures!" The impersonations was quite impressive.

Tempest grunted as he dodged the energy beams, knowing he did not want to get hit by one of those. "Fine. You want to throw around energy blasts, let's just see how you handle it when I turn it up." The sky darkened and lightning crackled through the clouds, coming from all directions, moving towards where Tempest flew in the air. "Taste the storm's wrath, wretched creature." He held his hand up and the gathered lightning in the clouds struck his hand and seemed to move over his body as he held his hand towards Gargun., from which streamed forth a blast of lightning much larger than any single bolt most had seen before. Only those who remember his father had seen such a display. Unlike before, the blast was much larger and more intense, lightning up the sky with an actinic flare, the smell of ozone and burning flesh permeating the air as it struck Gargun squarely. Tempest's eyes shone blue with the same actinic fire, and his lips curled into a satisfied smile. He didn't think that it was enough to kill Gargun, but he knew that had hurt it.

Between Hex and Squire all of the drones on the ground were neutralized in short order. Shift tumbled down off the gargantuan body of the monster to land in the sand with a wet thud. Gargun raised its massive foot and brought it down with terrible force with the intent to crush The alien robot but Shift managed to roll ou tof the way and the giant foot smashed nothing but sand. At the same time Gargun who was still reeling from the blast Tempest had hit it with focused his laser eyebeams on the flying hero. The monsters eyes crackled with energy and those twin beams flashed out at tempest but the hero had been ready and with aerial ease had dodged the twin beams of fire which sailed off into the sky. The remaining drones leap from Gargun and chase after Shift.

Hex was about to cast another spell. The words of power trembled at the tip of her tongue, and her hands were already sketching out the sigils...when movement at the corner of her eyes arrested her. She looked over to see police officers, woefully unequipped to deal with this kind of threat, fleeing from several of the smaller beasts that had been unleashed. The others were focused more on the big creature...which made sense. This spell had done real damage to it as well, one of the few truly devastating incantations she'd mastered. But what was it for, if not to protect lives? If she didn't save those cops, even if it meant the huge 'main' threat was destroyed, what had it meant? She swiveled, and completed the incantation; the same one she'd cast before. And once again Hex felt something vital in herself stretch outside, leaking into the world. The air twisted and curled, light passing through blueshifted into a funhouse carnival mockery. Just behind the fleeing police, shrubs and grass flared into brief spasms of growth, then immediately withered and browned. The creatures too were affected, and more viciously by far than even the larger monster had been. More temporary in nature to start with, they immediately stumbled and plowed into the ground, shrieking unearthly wails as their bodies began to deliquesce and dissolve into a thick substance that resembled mucous laden with coal dust. In seconds of outside time, they had aged to oblivion. Leaving only foul-smelling puddles to mark their passing. Unfortunately, Hex could feel herself tiring quickly. That spell was almost certainly outside her reach now. She'd have to use weaker magic...against the strongest foe. Not great, but at least she'd saved them.

Atalanta looked down at the magical detective, already stringing another arrow to her bow. Her smile was hidden behind her mask, and features faintly blurred by her own activated speed, but the amused quirk of her eyebrows and tone of voice was clear enough. "A pleasure, I'm sure," she responded, "Try not to die before we have that talk." There was an almost audible crack of displacing air and snapping fabric when the amazonian huntress erupted forward pushing another dreg of speed out of her muscles, more heat along her nerves. She refused to think about how much bigger the creature looked now that she was so much closer and fought down the irrational impulse that it might have come for any one of the gathered empowered humans. That would be insane. Mr. Invincible himself didn't rate this kind of attention. Enough woolgathering though. The world stuttered into slow-motion as she came to a halt next to the tent hiding the body of the fallen hero and her arm shifted up, lining up to arc a shot into the beast's giant eye. Snap! Her bowstring barely had a chance to return to recover from its recoil, the wheels on her compound bow to spin back before unnatural reflexes had a second arrow out and set and flying after its twin. She tracked the shots with her eyes, world snapping back to normal pace.

A grunt of disgruntlement interrupted Jack's huffing efforts to reach Atalanta. Not only were Big Boy's wounds crusting over before his eyes, he was also... spawning. Several were rushing the police line, but a guy with a sword was engaging them. The others were going for the brave woman scaling the gargantuan biological war machine. Woman? It was a damned robot, apparently! But brave all the same. Jack's fingers danced, the tattoo on his shoulder burned, and a spade of dark magical force flashed towards two of the Little Boys assailing the robot lady. He'd focused on Big Boy, even attuning arcane hunter's insight on it, but he thought he could give the robot lady some space. The spades spun and slammed into the blob babies with small explosions of dark concussive force. Jack swore that he heard a pair of bloops as the blob babies expanded, then contracted back into their semi-solid forms, seeming to have swallowed his blasts, relatively unscathed. "Well... crap. The Little Boys are tougher than they look too." Jack gasped, catching his breath, the looked up at Atalanta. She was a whole lot of woman, he had to admit, most of a head taller than he was, and by no means a waif with it either. "Atalanta, right? I'm Jack Spade. A local PI. We gotta talk after we deal with Big Boy and his Little Boys. Over a couple of beers." He frowned wryly. "It's been that kind of day."

Infiltrator 3675445AF was caught quite off-guard by the goo-based mini clones now engaging with them. In a show of inhuman reflexes and agility, the unit flipped and spun around, always maintaining one point of contact on the great beast while twisting their body out of the way of the hail of blows. However, it was just a matter of time before a lucky hit made contact, and soon there was s shriek of metal as claws ripped through their exoskeleton. A surprisingly human scream could be heard as the hit struck home, tearing into the left shoulder and exposing the inner workings to the salty air. Coming to the conclusion that this assault was only making things worse, Shift opted to disengage; shoving off from their current position with a graceful arch, the infiltrator attempted to tumble down Gargun's leg end over end, using their claws for purchase.

Joe looked up at the small ones budding off the large Kaiju. "You've got to be kidding me. Budding, AND regeneration!" He turned and noticed the lesser ones were going for the cops. He began to run to catch up with the lesser kaiju. "I'm going after these... Keep focusing on the big one," He shouted to the others. Squire began another attack sequence, his focus completely upon the one in front of him. His blade moved quickly, light glinting from the edge as he slashed. His first cut aimed at it's spine, and his second attacked one of it's legs. His front kick was easily avoided by the creature, due to sloppy footing. His gaze then shifted to the cops, as he watched their attacks do minimal damage. "Get out of here. Get the civilians to safety," he screamed at them.

Even as the smaller Gargun made their way to the police, Tempest remained focused on the Larger beast itself. From what he'd observed, the others would have better chances of eliminating them quickly, as most of his abilities were single target, or would envelop the police in them as well, should he try to use said powers for crowd control. Instead, ice bolts formed once again and he sent them through the sky at Gargun, satisfied as they hit the massive beast and producing a light rime of frost where they hit. The next attack against it would be slightly easier, due to this, though it wouldn't last long.

The various attacks the Paragons were putting on the monster seemed to strike home but at the same time the monster seemed less bothered by them, or at least it was ignoring them. Of utmost concern, as the beast searched for Atalanta was Shift's imminent peril. The ooze bubbling from the cracks in Gargun's hide coalesced into a good dozen small one meter oozy versions of the giant beast, half of which lept off the monster and began to run toward the police line ignoring the bullets, which passed harmlessly through their gooey forms, which said police poured into them. The other half dozen scrambled for Shift who was still clinging to the monster.

Hex's initial burst of triumph faded quickly as the creature proved more durable than she'd expected. That spell was her strongest magic! It had clearly been hurt, but was far from the point of surrender. More arrows flew, and when the monster focused in on someone, Hex risked a look back. Atalanta? Why was it so intent on her? She retreated as the wave of water pushed ahead of that titanic thing splashed up onto shore, meaning to regroup with Atalanta and try to coordinate. As she went, Hex's hands blazed with swirls of violet light that she hurled at this persistent enemy. This time her aim was true, and the magic blasts erupted into incandescence as they struck! Even so, they seemed puny indeed compared to Gargun's sheer bulk. "Atalanta!" Hex called, waving. "What IS this thing?!"

Jack's mouth tightened into a thin line. His signature arcane spades were only marginally more effective than throwing playing cards at, well, Godzilla. Maybe if he could hit an eye? Infuriate the kaiju at the least- -it seemed something did infuriate it. An arrow. No, not quite infuriate it. It had a different tone. One of victory. The beast's eyes blazed once more and Jack's gaze followed the beams of plasma to where they struck, just barely missing a very tall (relatively) female figure. A person he believed he knew, from reputation and description, if not in person. Atalanta. Jack let out a sigh that was more agitated than exasperated. Seems like he wasn't the only one who was looking for the Amazonian Archer. Why? Why, why, why? His long-finger hands wove another mystic mudra, his voice reverberating strangely, and another pair of arcane aces coalesced and flashed towards Big Boy's deeply set, incandescent eyes, black-light erupting in flash against burning orange. Then Jack was running, knees coming up high, he breaths coming in panting puffs, as he heading towards the new clearing an arrow had coming from. Bloody Hells! Lady can move. I'm too old for this. Not even sure I could keep up in my car! Jack wasn't even sure what he was going to say or do, if and when he managed to catch up to the seemingly very much in demand Atalanta.

Showered in burning splinters, Atalanta counted her blessings that her cloak was at least mildly fire-retardant. She dashed forward through cover, a thought niggling at her. She was hardly the closest of this kaiju's many Paragon foes, and it didn't make sense that a beast or a thinking mind would pick her out. And, great as the M'Kari were or might still be, she was hardly worth the dispatch of a creature this large. Still, if by some fluke, she could draw the fire away from the ones valiant enough to *climb the beast's legs* like it was a particularly impressive red wood. She needed to ask Hex if she wanted to drive there again come elephant seal season. After the dust settled from this. The amazonian huntress skidded to a halt in another clearing, notching an arrow to her bow. An exhale marked her letting it fly once more.

Squire let his focus on the bow go, and it dissolved slowly into the ether along with the arrows at his side. He grabbed at the empty scabbard at his waist, and suddenly a sword appeared in his right hand, and a shield adorned his left. Underneath the mask, Joe was smiling like a little kid who got the best gift of his life on Christmas. He ran forward, towards the creature, sword drawn back ready to strike. As he came upon the creature, the sword glinted in the air as it slashed at the creature, slicing through some of the weakened skin. After the sword cuts, Squire reared back and threw a pair of kicks additional, one of which connected. Joe chuckled and crouched a bit so the shield on his arm partially covered his face. First attack Attack 2 Third attack(Bonus unarmed) Spending a point of focus for a second bonus attack. Damage - 7, 8, 10.

3675445AF continued to climb their way up the great beast's leg, moving towards the back of the knee. Once there, the infiltrator extended their wicked claws and buried them deep into one of the fissures Hex's spell opened in its skin.

Tempest saw the opportunity that the others had bought with their own attacks, and Gargun had been hurt, Tempest called upon the Storm. Lightning arced along his legs up his body and along his arms to his hands, gathering as it arced between his hands. Then in an almost blinding flash, and with a rumbling boom of thunder, a crackling torrent of Lightning shot forth from his hands in an azure-white line briefly connecting Tempest to Gargun as he blasted it with one of his stronger blasts, a directed Lightning Bolt.

Gargun pauses at the edge of the shore, still in the water as its gargantuan head swings left and right as if searching. The arrows and playing cards of mystical energy barely a nuisance, Tempest flying in the wind, earned a swat of annoyance as the electricity crackled around the monster harmlessly, but then the mystical energy of Hex struck true and Gargun recoiled. The spell lashed at the monstrosity causing it to reel, to an outside observer it seemed as if he were coming apart into pieces and reforming several times a second! The police stopped firing, had the heroes spell slain the monster? Hex's spell wrought its worst and the shimmer faded, Gargun still stood, whole but instead of the rocky brown he had been now his hide was grayish and cracked with oozing veins. The beast staggered and looked ready to fall. Then Atalanta stepped from behind the tree and let fly an arrow which sank into one of the oozing cracks to the fletching! The Beast roared! However the roar was not of pain but of Triumphe, its prey had been found! Garguns eye flashed and the twin beams lashed out, Atalanta rolled away from her cover just as the beams met at her tree which exploded sending flaming splinters flying!

Battle was always one failed test of nerves away from infectious chaos, so the rumble of Triessa's text and lightshow was missed, the amazonian huntress closing more of the gap between the beast and herself. Pick your shot, pick your shot... If she could get close enough, she could start spotting weak points and targeting them. Something this big? They'd have to level a good chunk of the city to bring it down with brute force the way it was shrugging off some of these Paragon attacks. Heartbeat pounding in temple on overdrive, she ended her sprint back to a tree, readying another arrow. She popped out into view, launching her arrow upwards at Gargun, green eyes tracking the shot enroute to it's target.

If the infiltrator had a jaw to drop, it would be hanging a foot below their face: both Atalanta and Hex were in sensor range at the same time. And both were exposed and focused on a threat. After three years of waiting, planning and assimilating into human culture, they had a lock on both targets, the entire reason they'd been sent back in time to Old Earth. True, the other Paragons might destroy 3675445AF immediately afterwards, but that was acceptable; the mission parameters would have been successfully met. And yet.. The smooth metal head swung over towards the massive immediate threat, a creature that could wipe out thousands of meaningless human lives. Like Carmelita's coworkers on the campus police force. And all the young students studying for their degrees. And the children playing in Golden Gate Park. "Shit." In an instant, Shift was charging pell mell towards Gargun, robotic limbs ratcheting at high speed. The infiltrator leaped towards the beast's gargantuan leg and stuck there like a fly on the wall. This is insane.

Seeing the thing peppered with arrows and...playing cards?...Triessa realized the thing was just too big. Nothing she had would make a dent in it! Well, almost nothing. There was one arrow that would bring even the mightiest down. If she had the courage to fire it. She texted Cora. <I'm here at the monster. If you're here too, I could use some cover. I need to get closer.> Then Hex took off running. Towards the beast. It didn't feel like the smart thing to do...but it was all she had left. At the shoreline, Gargun seemed to be as big as a mobile skyscraper. He loomed in a way that laughed at physics with its paltry square-cube rule. It made mockery of the natural order of things. But he wasn't the only one who could do that. Hex held her hands out and began to speak. Her voice reverberated strangely, picking up an unnatural overtone as if her words were being spoken simultaneously by other people. As the incantation progressed, that overtone became more severe, more unnerving, with the 'voices' in her voice moving slightly more out of phase with each second and turning the result into a chorus, like a music-less song. "Arescet et labe... Sicut anni praetereunt... Accipere mortem amplexus, Capti impetus temporis." The grass around Hex's feet sprouted and flowered and grew in fast motion, but then inevitably browned and withered and dried out in fast motion. A circle of dead earth spread a few feet out from her, then swept forward. Shrubs and bushes dropped their leaves and became skeletal dead wood. Lichen crawled madly over rocks and then decayed to smears of brown. Those were just side effects though. Gargun himself bore the brunt of the attack. Time's arrow, launched at his heart. "Prevaricator quid frangi, Cede omibus nostris... Tolle quod potest amissa, Et numquam reddere...numquam reddere." As time flexed, light itself shifted within the area the spell affected. A cone of impossibly warping, distorting space that rippled with blue, indigo, and black zones of ultraviolet wrapped around Gargun afflicting his body with years stacked on years, flowing in pockets around him. Then it ended, Hex gasping for breath as she lowered her hands and tried to understand what she'd done, and what the consequences would be.

It had been less Jack Spade's attempt at charm then the wounded melancholy in his eyes that made Officer Linda Lancer relent and allow him pass the police cordon. Her tight smirk and his wry grin suggested they both knew the real reason. Jack had barely gotten a glance at the scene when the newest interruption arrived. The sheer force of the ginormous creature's landing knocked him off his feet even from that distance. He was dazed for a moment until he felt an elbow jab him in the ribs. Hard. He had instinctively fallen to protectively cover the short policewoman. Lancer was having none of it. "Offa' me, Spade!" Officer Lancer growled, shoving the PI to the side and rolling to her as she drew her sidearm. Her pistol was steady, but her eyes were wide as they traveled up and up and up at to see what she was facing, only her eyes able to move through her instant of paralysis. Jack rolled over with a cough, spitting out his gum and climbing with less grace than Officer Lancer. "This day just keeps getting better and better," the occult detective drawled with fatalistic nonchalance. "It's too god-damned early in the morning for Godzilla." He didn't know what it was, though some refugee from a Godzilla flick seemed apt enough. It didn't come across as a Great Old One or some other Cthulhoid analog to him from what he had read. The urge to run was there, but how could he when others were still standing their ground, even as the beast's eyes ravaged the ground with photonic beams of destruction. Jack slunk to the side, trying to make some distance so Knockoff-Godzilla couldn't take them all out in a single, encompassing attack. Sharp eyes and insight studied his Brobdingnagian adversary for any weaknesses or vulnerabilities. It was very quickly clear guns weren't one of them, the arms of the first responders affecting Big Boy less than gnats. Fortunately, Jack didn't rely on guns. On the other hand, Big Boy did seem to notice the several arrows that pierced its heavy hide. Jack damned himself that his first thought upon seeing that was that it meant the Hero Hunter Atalanta must be relatively close and that it might present him with a terrible opportunity. Big Boy would draw just about every paragon in San Francisco. Everyone but one, now, he privately amended. It was far too coincidental. Mr. Invincible's unlikely and untimely death. His heart in his bloody living room. The extortion for Atalanta's head. And now Big Boy's arrival. Jack just didn't have enough piece's yet to get a hint of what the puzzle could even be depicting. "Bullets don't have enough punch," Jack shouted back to Officer Lancer as he continued towards the side, trying to flank Big Boy with whoever was shooting arrows at it. "Have the PD get the civilians out of here or get heavier ordinance." Jack intoned an arcane word and gestured, feeling the tattoo on his shoulder burn for an instant as he marked the gigantic monstrosity with an invisible, eldritch sigil, forming a link between him and Big Boy, naming it his quarry. "Let's see how good you are at cards, Big Boy," Jack muttered. He gestured again, more intricate this time. The illusory image of a playing card manifested just before his outstretched fingers, formed from lines of dark blue, almost black, light. An Ace of Spades, the single spade in the middle the size of a fist. His fingers tightened into a fist, an a spade limned in dark flames shot toward the towering monster, followed by another. The eldritch spade slammed into the creature's chest with a cracking retort, the second spade spiking in after it, burying itself even deeper. Big Boy roared, the basso tone making the water ripple, ground shake, and Jack's ears pop.