2706/Black Ice

Black Ice
Date of Scene:	01 August 2015
Location:	Brockton Bay
Synopsis:	Brockton Bay gets a taste of what happens when a Tinker and a Technopath join forces.
Cast of Characters:	368, Blurr, 554, 707, 762, 834

---

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
NEWS FLASH! A fairly generic looking woman reporter appears on screen, a news van behind her... and is that frost on the side of the van? "This is Misti Lakes reporting from the main throughway of Brockton Bay, where traffic has been brought to a halt by a sudden flash icestorm type event. No, you heard me right, an -ice- storm admist the hottest part of summer. Authorities have issued a no travel advisory until this can get cleared u--" She's cut off by someone screaming from off-camera "LOOK OUT!" just before a massive ball of snow and ice slams into the van, and the view goes to a cockney angle as the camera is dropped then fizzles out.

Moments later it the news camera back on, save this time to the grinning visage of the same woman that terrorized the Summer resort a few weeks ago. "Hellooooo Brockton Bay! Remember me? I hope so. Because now is going to be the WINTER of my discontent!" Stratos ends with a villainous laugh as the camera feed goes dead again, this time for good.

After her little triad Stratos tosses the camera off into the icy ditch and wanders back across the frozen highway. She passes several entirely frozen over cars as she does so, people pounding on the windows inside or desperately cranking up the vehicle's heating to stay warm. The woman is dressed as before, though this time her skirt has a pattern of snowflakes and icicles, and she's wearing a pair of earmuffs to go with her scarf.

"Heh heh heh." She stops at the back of a large industrial truck that looks to have been modified to resemble a 'stormchaser' vehicle, turns and leans against it. "If that doesn't get some attention..."

The truck is audibly running still, sporting what might very well be the weapon that shot that snowball upon the back section. Though even it's cab windows have frosted up to the point that other than vage shadows it can't be seen clearly if anyone is actually inside...

Jazz (762) has posed:
Ice and snow doesn't happen in the middle of summer, that just doesn't happen. In this case of a news reporter yelling for help and things just going tits up, someone is responding alright and roaring in at faster then highway speeds.

While cars are backing up, a white Porsche like vehicle races right around the vehicles. The engine roaring as it speeds by like no one's business. Even as the cops start to put up barricades, the vehicle doesn't care beyond a male voice calling out, "Excuse us!" As it races on by.

Closer to the source of the problem,. the headlights can be seen turning on. It wasn't long till those tires hit the ice, which is fine because that car--- transforms into a giant robot! More correctly into Jazz who flips up and then slides along the ice, "Here we go!" He says with a chuckle as his metal feet easily move along the bridge's rails, before flipping over to swing on one of the cable supports to then flip himself up to the top bar.

His speed carries him along that before he flips off of there and then lands down past the bridge and his feet impact into part of he snow as he slides back a bit in a three prong stance. His heel--- coming pretty close to the building, though he amazing somehow doesn't cause Earthquakes with all that nonsense!

Jazz then stands up as he whistles over to the female villain of the day, "Yo, cold heart! Why you gotta be messin' wit' summer, huh? Got some gig of a payback or jus' wanting to chill out wit' tha snowbirds early?"

Defiant (554) has posed:
     A roaring sound splits the air, the sound of a number of powerful engines. At one end of the main throughway, a quadrupedal dragon-themed mech sets down. Oh yeah, Stratos' little stunt appears to have gotten some attention and weapon turrets swing to bear on Stratos and her vehicle, but they do not fire.

     From inside the mech comes a pair of power-armored figures, green and gold, with armor that is quite similar in theme if not in actual design. Their armor is emblazoned with scales and etchings of dragons. Clearly, recognisable to all, it's Defiant and Dragon, the superhero partnership from the Canadian Guild. Or, perhaps to Stratos and Tesla, it's the deluded disgracted Tinker and the bloated AI with delusions of grandeur.

     Their power-armored feet crunch along the ice and snow. Dragon calls out, "Stratos! This is your only warning - stand down at once!"

     Dragon might not be armed, at least not obviously, but Defiant holds his massive two-pronged spear in one hand, relaxed but ready.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
If Xiaomu had known a giant transforming robot was on the way, she PROBABLY would have gone out of her way to hitch a ride with him. As it is, she comes in on foot.

"XIAOMU SURFING!"

.... okay, so she's balancing on a magically-conjured block of ice as more of her magic propels it along the streets from the warpgate. That counts as 'on foot,' right? At least it's faster than walking and less tiring than running. Her conjured ice-sled slides to a halt a few yards short of the Stratos-inflicted icy patch, and Xiaomu dismounts with a casual jump before strolling onwards, using her staff to help ensure that she doesn't go sliding all over. "So yeah, I know summer heat is a drag and everyone wishes they'd build air conditioning for the world?" she calls out to Stratos as she comes within sight of the villainess. "But trust me, summer heat has its place, winter ice has *its* place, and 'right in the middle of each other' isn't the right place for either one. So, what's it gonna take to thaw the place?"

She comes to a halt, planting her staff next to her in such a way that it stands upright unsupported, and .. the sage fox just kinda stands there, hands planted casually on her hips. She probably ought to draw her handguns, but that feels like it might be a LITTLE premature. Give the villain a chance to stand down first, and all that.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    There's a *BLIP* atop a nearby building and-- "YEEEARKCGH!!" Valentha misjudges her teleport by several feet and nearly enters free fall. But somehow she clings to the edge of the building she MEANT to appear a few inches above and land on. Better than a few inches too low, at least.

    But she still effortlessly maintains a grip despite the building's edge frosting over, because her fingers have actually crunched INTO the building material.

    After swinging herself back up to the rooftop she pulls out some binoculaurs and begins surveying the situation below...

    Because the last time THIS particular problem showed up, she wasn't alone. Valentha's here for a little payback for making a fool out of her!

Blurr has posed:
    Along with Jazz is Blurr, weaving quickly and deftly in and out of the standstill traffic. It's a good thing agility is one of both of their strong suits. Having caught the transmission from the unfortunate Misti Lakes, the Autobots are here to save the day, and hopefully figure out what Tesla's deal here is.

    Speaking of which, Blurr is already wondering. Does she have something against someone in the area? Or is this just a distraction for something bigger? As the two of the move in, he scans the surroundings, making note of the large modified vehicle Stratos is leaning against. As a first glance doesn't reveal much, he tries a deeper scan to see if he can determine if she'd hiding the weapon in the trailer. "Scrap, what's this lady's deal?" he comments absently to Jazz. "Winter of discontent about what? Maybe she's got a vendetta against this place."

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
A sports car almost adds to the mess on the road, only to turn into an equally stylish robot on the fly and slide to a halt, the other little more than a blue blurr of speed. Followed by a woman with animal ears and weird ?dreadlocks? (what else do you call that fox-tail hairdo?) at least getting into the spirit of the moment a little with her ice block snowboarding.

But it's the dragon-like mech at the two forms that depart from it that gets the focus of Stratos' attention. As Defiant and Dragon enter the scene she pushes herself back onto her feet, and takes a moment to adjust her scarf like one would adjust a tie for a big social event.

"Well well, if it isn't the Bay's own knight in rusty armor." And by that sly grin she's not talking about his appearance. "Guess a few faces changed after I was put in the icebox for a while." All the same apparent odds does a good job of extruding supervillain smugness, even as she holds her arms out in a wide gesture indicating around them. "Come on now, I couldn't leave my grand return to the city to just some little league bank heist. That'd just be drops in a puddle... Besides. You shouldn't presume..."

Stratos drops her statement off as the cab door of the truck slams shut, and heavy boots crunch through the iced terrain around one side of the vehicle. "That she's alone," finishes Tesla as she strides almost casually into view, her own power armor humming faintly as it's environmental controls keep her resonably comfortable in the cold conditions.

"And the toy dragon has been put together as well." The technopath merely folds her hands behind her back, apparently unbothered by the odds gathered around them either. "Tch. Death is so little more than an inconvenience these days." By the tone of her voice, something about this is quite amusing to her.

Stratos, on the other hand, just grins as she waggles a finger at the group. "Betcha all feel pretty confident just because you have the home field advantage, huh? Well it isn't going to warm up this cold fr--"

Tesla holds up a hand without diverting her gaze from D&D. "Please, if you're going to insist on making puns, save them for an appropriate moment."

Jazz (762) has posed:
Jazz glances over to Blurr and shrugs his shoulders, "Maybe she jus' wanted ta get frosty with it." He says in almost sing song way, before Telsa at last makes her own appearance. "An' there we are. Man, I remember 'em days when they use to come in singles, now they seem to be commin' in a double pack."

"Maybe ya'll outta change ya names ta Spear an' mint, for all that gummin' y'all are doin'." Jazz comments at them both before he steps toward them both, hands kept to his sides. "So wha's tha deal? Revenge? Ego boost? Eco Boost? Villains have rights movement?" He isn't going to make a move just yet, but he is waiting for it.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"EVERY moment is appropriate for puns," Xiaomu retorts. "I just figured the ice jokes were gonna be overdone to the point of exhaustion before I could get any good ones in." ... or any bad ones, but she's been beaten to the punch on THOSE already.

"Besides, Dragon's nobody's toy, and if you figured you were going to change *that*," Xiaomu looks acidly at Tesla, "you'd better go back and crunch your numbers again. Two of you, five of us ... if you've got mooks or henchmen or something, isn't this the part where you call 'em out and we spend some time plowing through 'em before we get around to focusing on you two?"

And with that, Xiaomu *does* draw her handguns from inside her vest. But she isn't shooting QUITE yet.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     "Tesla Armadia," Dragon remarks coolly, almost as cold as Stratos' little experiment. She disengages the gauntlets of her armor, letting them drop to the snow-covered ground. Her hands, dark-skinned, are set against one of the cars. Steam rises and, despite the smell of burning flesh rising from her hands, Dragon seems quite intent on defrosting that car - and then, presumably, the others.

     She seems less concerned with maintaining her cover, too.

     "You've had your warning, Stratos," Defiant continues, turning his spear into a wide arc, "The Birdcage is no more. You have a kill order and you're outnumbered. But first," he says, "I'll deal with you, Armadia." The techno-paladin moves into a charge, from zero to /fast/ in a split second. His augmentations keep him moving over the frost and ice like it's barely even an issue, spear raised!

Blurr has posed:
    "Yeah," Blurr never really understood how Jazz picked up on all the colloqualisms of Earth so easily. "yeah frosty..." he mutters his reply as he is going over the data from the scans, which have returned a scrapload of machinery and coolants. Pff, no surprise there. No doubt that's the thing that's been causing all the havoc.

    Well! What is everyone waiting for, good Primus! Waiting is terrible. Waiting is the worst thing ever. Waiting never benefits anyone. Okay, that particular perspective might be severely exaggerated but honestly this is Blurr we're talking about. The faster the better that is literally his life motto. So shoot first and think later kind of follows from that. Because thinking requires waiting with inactivity and that is something the speedster actively avoids.

    Therefore as Defiant begins his charge at Tesla, Blurr raises his own weaponry, aiming them for the truck instead with the intent of destroying it in its entirety.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    "Nothing hidden this time. Seems she's gotten her own slew of enemies though! ... Villains...hrmph." Not happy at all, this mysterious voyeuristic blonde. To interfere or not to interfere? On second thought, vengeance is rather petty and pointless.

    But this stupid weather does need to be stopped!

    Valentha LEAPS free of the building, which should be a SUICIDE ACT if she were actually human.

    DOWN she goes, only to slam into the pavement hard to crack the forming ice. And she's right in the path of Blurr's shots! A bracer-equipped arm is raised. Filmy blue light spreads out into a round, warped shield-shape... and TAKES those shots. Most of them slam into it as she expertly manuevers the shield around. An intense war of magic and plasma ensues, with Valentha pushes back over the slippery ground and into the truck's side. But she SHOVES back after using it for footing. Now she's got Blurr's shot, somehow suspended within a crackling web of blue light. "Hey, no vaping the loot! Let me fix your aim!"

    Of course, she couldn't stop ALL of them, but the point is that she's gathered LOTS of blasts...

    "Hey tiddlywinks! Remember me?!" This abrupt greeting's accompanied by her swinging the collection of shots at Tesla's armored legs and unleashing a big GLOB of roiling plasma. How the HECK did that even work?

    Well. It's magic.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
At the remark from Defiant, Stratos responds in appropriate kind... By blowing a nice loud raspberry at him. Though it's brought short when Blurr starts firing at the truck and she, on reflex, ducks. Even though the gun shots rattle off the vehicle it must be made of sterner stuf as other than some rocking and impact marks it's not blowing up. What mad scientist(s) make there stuff able to be destroyed in the first minutes of a fight, after all? Granted that someone else gathered them up also helps.

Doesn't matter when Defiant turns his attention, and his charge, fully towards Tesla. Whom despite the danger continues to stand there, impassivley. "Tch." It's not until what seems like the last moment that she moves to grab Defiant's spear. Even with deterring that strike the force of his charge is enough to skid backwards, heels of her boots digging up snow and ice before she finally pushes away from the weapon and comes to stop. Only for Valentha's collected blast to hit the ground, forcing her to back off farther instead of returning an attack. "If I cared for your inclinations I'd be flattered by the animosity."

Stratos recomposes herself from the little panic moment. "Com'n boss. Let's show em what we can really do together."

"Yes, of course." Though as Tesla agrees, instead of attacking the two jump onto the sides of the truck. On one side Stratos takes one of her manipulator weapons off her belt and shoves it into an activation port. On the other side, Tesla just puts her hand against the side, her eyes glowing ominous beneath her visor as she uses her powers in conjucture, activating more machinery within the vehicle.

And, as the Transformers present might say, the truck proves to be more than meets the eye as it heaves and machinery reconfigures in ways that don't look like it should be possible. The bottom half of the vehicle is replaced by four multi-jointed legs, ice and frost of an icy black color from the hardeners within it coating the surfaces of the limbs, and turning the ends of the hands into icicle tipped claws. Similar slicks over the large arms that unfold in defiance of its previous size from the interior, and over the blockish body that remains. Even as dark snow and ice coat over that 'body' a set of 'eyes' from what had been the headlights and foglamps of the truck illuminate in what was now a bloody red light. Snow churns out of the two chute-like stacks jutting out of the shoulder area, matching that when the construct opens its mouth with a mechanical roar instead of teeth it has two spinning protrusion edged tumbles like a snowmover would feature.

Stratos is practically giddy now, as the monstrousity wraught by Tinker and Technopath alike looms up, the multiple segemented legs standing even taller than the Cybertronians. "Oh, oh, oh, NOW can I?"

Tesla rolls her glowing eyes, but relents. "Yes, now would be appropriate."

Stratos fistpumps at her side, and then makes a dramatic point as the machination lifts up one of its legs. "I hope you super zeros are ready to deal with--"

The leg slams back to the ground, sending a shockwave of ice and frost surging across the ground at the various gathered heroes.

"THE ULTIMATE SNOW JOB!"

Blurr has posed:
    Oh my Primus, it's another Transformer! That is not Cybertronian! Which means that though it is on the bigger side, it must certainly be of inferior construction. Also, it's ugly as slag. At least according to Blurr, but he tends to have pretty high standards. Still, despite that, some part of him is glad to have something his own size or even a bit larger to kick at. Easier to dodge 'em.

    "Good grief, you people have like, no taste." He begins with an insult to the robot's looks. "Well at least when I reduce this thing to a screapheap, I won't have to feel bad about it." The Autobot says as he lets loose with another salvo of high-energy photons at the truck now turned Abominal Snowblower.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The Shinra sage fox glances up at the spider-walker as it unfolds and reconfigures from that truck, then re-holsters her handguns and grabs her staff. Right in the nick of time, too, as that shockwave comes thundering towards the group - and Xiaomu leaps up and over it, pushing off from the ground with her staff for a bit of extra lift. She lands afterwards in a three-point crouch, possibly wincing a bit as the impact proves harder than she expected, but she shakes that off, rising back to her feet.

".... wow. Do you even HAVE a day job? Because that was so lame I'm not sure it even counts as a pun," the sage fox casually disses Stratos's attempt at wordplay. "I mean, do you even know what a 'snow job' *is*? Seriously ..." Xiaomu trails off, shaking her head -

And then she charges, half-running, half-skating as she zig-zags towards the snowspider mech. She's still evaluating the situation: her handguns won't do much to a machine that size, although that doesn't mean they're useless, and while Suiren could be quite handy, the ice-elemental magic with which the blade is imbued PROBABLY won't do a whole lot of good. That narrows her options down quite a bit, although she still has a couple to choose from ...

For instance, a grenade. She produces one from inside her vest, pulls the pin as she gets closer, and tries to pitch the grenade into the mechanical monster's mouth before speeding on her way.

When the grenade goes off, its true nature is displayed - it's been enhanced with fire magic, making for a substantially hotter explosion than your standard off-the-shelf hand grenade.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     The two tinkers pause - Defiant, in preparing another attack, Dragon, in defrosting another vehicle.

     That giant /thing/ is obviously not what they had expected. So, when the Ultimate Snow Job opens fire with its shockwave of ice and frost, the two green and gold armored figures vanishes under the icy surge.

     Dragon reappears first, bursting through the impromptu blizzard on a winged jetpack of blue fire. She points at the four-legged mech and, up the other end of the highway, the dragoncraft comes to live. The Melusine-class of dragoncraft wasn't as combat-capable as the Cawthorne, however, it'll still prove to be an issue with claws, teeth and a wicked tail. Steam rises from its mouth as it stomps up the road, managing to navigate past all the various frozen vehicles.

     Defiant comes marching out of the blizzard, spear held behind him. The two prongs are engulfed in a gray corona, one that vaporises anything it comes into contact with. He's heading for the snow-mech with delibrate steps, braced for another snow front!

Jazz (762) has posed:
Jazz stands ready, which is about when the vehicle transforms into a robot which is taller then them. He tilts his head to the side and whistles in some appreciation for it. "Ok. Now ya got my attention, ladies." Which some deal with those two and Val uses Blurr's earlier attack for her own.

The Spec Ops of the Autobots is quick to move as ice and snow comes roaring at him. He leaps out of the way with one hand out to spring a flip off of it as ice covers over where he was. The Autobot lands back down on his feet, before he shoves off and with a flip kick, goes to round house the ugly mug right in the side of the head!

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    This turn of events leaves Valentha just sort of STARING for a bit. She's impressed, make no mistake. VERY impressed. "Why is it all the disagreeable people get the cool toys?"

    And the worst names for them. "You're teasing the ratings of this hero thing in the wrooooong direction, woman." The blonde blurts out next... before backflipping and going skidding over the snow-covered ground. But she pulls up a revolver, takes aim, and FIRES.

    "Soooo I should've left those shots be after all. Still want to loot this thing when we're done! Try not to vaporize it!"

    Her shots are NOT bullets. They're telekinetic bolts with FAR more punch.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
"Yeesh, everybody's a critic," Stratos grumps at the various disses of her punnery. "What did you want, something cliche and old like 'have an -ice- day?'. Or 'There's no business like snow business?'."

"Appearances tend to take a back seat when you have two different styles working together," is the only flat response to the complaints on appearances that Tesla has. Most of her focus is on her powers at the moment.

Photon blasts and telekinetic bolts smash chunks of the hardened ice and frost off the mechanical monsters. It seems to be serving as an ablative armor of sorts, meaning it's going to have to be worked through before the mechanization in itself can be heavily damaged.

A fire grenade is a very good start in that direction. Not just because it melts a large portion of ice-armor, but the heat slows down how quickly the frosty covering can reform.

Followed by fancy robotic acrobatics slamming a metal foot into the thing, cracking more of the coating while Jazz looks like a cool robot Jackie Chan in doing so. Not to mention the Melusine coming into play, and while it hasn't directly attacked yet, the presence of another large machine does limit the available space for the Abominal Snowblower to move about.

Especially since, if anyone watched closely enough, they'd notice it's stomping gait actually stepping over frozen vehicles. They're just showing off and a bit of ego stroking, Tesla is avoiding actually killing anyone. Because then there would be no one to show off for, prehaps. Might give Defiant his chance to get in close while they've got other things to focus one.

Likewise, as she gets cars defrosted Dragon would find that that's just it, they've been frozen over. As long as people stayed inside they haven't been harmed other than maybe a bit of chills and frostbite. Certainly enough to scare someone though.

"Oh, I know." Stratos is making up plenty of talking for the both of them with her snarking though. "You want something like me to shout CHILL OUT a few times?"

Though when says that the Snowblower stops, digging all four legs into the ground to brace itself. Because the rest of it's form starts to spin around, and true to the 'snowblower' part starts spewing out great gouts of freezing snow and ice in multiple directions, trying to accomidate for having so many attackers to deal with at one time.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Actually," Xiaomu calls out, "I was thinking -"

The Abominable Snowblower comes to an abrupt halt; as it begins spinning and blowing cold all around. Fortunately, she's close enough at the moment to have one relatively convenient option for coming in out of the cold ...

Namely, diving between the thing's legs and hunkering down underneath it. She attempts to do so.

... of course, there's the question of whether that's a relatively SAFE option, convenient or not. But while she's down there she's going to take a look at the machine's underside, checking for weak points that somebody might be able to capitalize on. How fast the thing is spinning (and whether the legs are ALSO spinning, or just the 'upper' part of its body) is going to factor into her analysis as well.

Jazz (762) has posed:
Jazz gets ready to move back in, that was until the slagging machine starts up a snow storm, "Slag!" He barks out as he gets down low as the snow moves over his already white armor. The cold bites over his metal, which was steaming at first from the heat output, but was starting to chill it down.

The Autobot grits his teeth before a moment as his visor flares to life, then with gentle 'tsk'. "Ya know, I dun mind snowboardian an' winter spots, but this is gettin' a bit icy on tha hood." Jazz breaks free from the snow and his black hand retracts back as he then starts to twirl his grappling hook around.

"So allow me ta change the forecast from blizzard ta chill ya damn intakes!" Jazz roars out as he then flings the grappling hook right for the mouth of the mighty machine. He has no plans to hook the blades, oh no, he is going to give it as much cable as he can to gum up the works if it succeeds.

Defiant (554) has posed:
     As the air fills with snow and sleet once again, courtesy of the Snowblower, the Melusine kicks its clawed 'feet' into the ground and lets loose with a gout of blue-white plasma. It doesn't quite stop the snow from doing much except obscuring the dragoncraft, really, such is the weight of snow that Tesla-Stratos combo vehicle is putting out.

     However, between the momentary vision afforded by the Melusine and its powerful sensor package, plus the sensors in Dragon's own android body, it gives a set of data to Dragon, who relays it to Defiant. With that, she can triangulate the location of the Snowblower.

     With that, Defiant knows where it is. He trusts the numbers given to him, where Dragon tells him to align his spear. He readies it like a javelin and, with a quick one-two step, Defiant hurls his nano-disintergration weapon towards the Snowblower, aiming for the centre of mass, leaving a grey haze of vanished snow in its passing!

     Dragon, for her part, streaks down towards the top of the Snowblower, aiming to land on it - a tricky proposition, given that the top of it is spinning around!

Blurr has posed:
    Hmm. Blurr notices that the fire grenade was rather effective against the icy armor and now wishes he'd brought a flamethrower or something. But then as the thing starts blowing snow around, causing him to stumble backward a bit, he gets an idea.

    The thing might be spinning around and around but the speedster has no trouble keeping up with its movements. He scoops up a bunch of the chunks of broken ice armor from the earlier attacks and attempts to shove them into the chutes the snow is coming out of as Jazz tries to jam the 'mouth'. "Speaking of intakes, how about your own armor all up 'em!"

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    "Oh, that's a clever trick." Valentha comments, genuinely appreciative of that use for ice. She also takes this moment to examine the path this strange contraption's taking. Well, at least the local civvies aren't being disregarded. She's be genuinely infuriated instead of still jovial if that were so.

    In answer to all of the jokery though... she waves her arms up high. "I can see that it's time to defrost the ice que--" WHUMPF!

    Valentha's BURIED under a huge drift of snow. And abruptly silenced.

    After a second or so, she starts wildly gesticulating. The muffled words of a spell squeeze through the snow as she rapidly shakes her head. Most of her body's covered but she continues the casting motions.

    Until... "Ee--...ee...ee...EEEEEE...." The casting pauses at a critical moment, and a ton of gathered magical seems to disperse wildly. Just as...

    "EEAAAACHOoooooooooooOOOOOO!!!!"

    *FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSHH!!*

    Seemingly as a result of the spell going awry, Valentha's chilled sneeze erupts with an ENORMOUS PLUME of focused FIRE. It's no simple flamethrower, but a grand stream of the purest flames. They're hot enough to turn the falling snow to steam, sublimate the ice off the ground, and turn the highway's asphalt sticky and hot as the tarry components melt. Somehow the fire maintains a MOSTLY straight trajectory instead of fanning out into a cone, putting the Snowblower into its direct path!

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
It's one thing when a bunch of heroes show up and just sling their attacks back and forth at the Monster of a Week.... It's another thing when instead those heroes actually work together to some degree.

Blurr lives up to his name, easily outpacing the speed the Snowblower is spinning since they were going for area saturation, and snatching up some fo the debris to shove into the snow-spewing chutes. It doesn't stop the blizzard effects but it certainly takes some of the bluster out of it.

Makes it a bit easier for Jazz's clever thinking and getting a clear shot at the 'mouth' when it starts to sputter from the blockage. The grappling hook easily snags on the whirling inner workings and swallows up more and more of the line. Not to mention the centrifugical spinning yanking it around, snagging cable on other pieces of scenery. If Dragon's quick she could probably get the dragon-craft to grab the line, now that it's plasma blast has helped clear up the blinding snow, and help anchor it.

Tthere is a loud audible *THWANG* of the cable pulling taunt and machinery screaming as it wrenches to a halt, spin and snow spewing alike.

"Gaaah!" The 'scream' also backlashes through her technopathy, causing Tesla to lose her focus from the outburst in her head. Where everyone else just hears the machinery grinding to a stop, it's like millions of voices howling in pain to the technopath.

"Oi! I think it's time we like the snow and drifted." Stratos grabs onto Tesla as the latter faulters, and jumps off the Snowblower to slide down one of its legs. Xiamou might catch a glimps of them reaching the ground, buuuuuut she's also gonna have other things to worry about from her position.

Defiant's disintergration spear hurtles fast and true now that ther is no snowy blasts to blow it away, slamming right between the legs portion and now jammed body portion of the machine, vaporizing another huge portion of the contraption. The fiery dragonic sneeze blasts into it even as it was already starting to collapse under its own weight, but at least it also gives it enough of a blast to make it fall more to one side instead of straight down.

Xaimou probably -really- wants to move though. Or maybe someone that's -really- fast should swoop in to grab her.

Jazz (762) has posed:
Jazz has his foot slammed on the ground the best he can when the line goes to taunt and he tries to hold his own arm steady. He can feel the pull on the grappling device and it isn't the most pleasant of feelings at all. However when Summers has her explosive sneeze Jazz acks and rolls suddenly out of the way as he watches the fireball go racing by. "Damn woman! May want to have that looked at."

Its hard to say if he is joking or being serious, then again-- this is Jazz, its always hard to tell!

Yet when Tesla does scream in pain and it looks like the two bad guys had enough, Jazz lets the line break free and almost falls over backwards. His inner workings sparking a bit, before his hand clearly gets back out, leaving him to rub his wrist joint with a minor grimace on his face.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches with satisfaction as the team's rather well-coordinated efforts really pay off. The machine splutters as the debris jams up the snow chutes, and especially Jazz's grappling hook appears to do a lot of damage. Then Valentha's fire and Defiant's spear causes even more damage. Heh! Did those fleshies actually think their little contraption was -any- match for Cybertronians? Glitcheads.

    But then, Xiaomu is in harm's way! And Blurr definitely qualifies as a -really- fast person! He dashes toward the underside of the collapsing abominal snowblower, grabbing her as he slides past to get her out from under the thing before it can fall on top of her. Once she's safe, he glances over at Jazz, "You okay mech?"

Defiant (554) has posed:
     As Jazz releases the grappling hook, the Melusine lurches forward, jaw open, and snaps it up in its mechanical maw. Dragon settles onto the dragoncraft forward shoulder-turret and, courtesy of her calculations, the dragoncraft helps bring the Snowblower down without risking crushing any unfortunate bystanders.

     Defiant raises his hand and summons his spear back in a flash of light. Then, he pauses, turning his helmet and piercing the gloom with his sensors, trying to spot any sign of Tesla or Stratos.

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    "... Oh, oh boy!" Xiaomu's in danger and Valentha can see it pretty clearly. She acts at about the same time that the others do. Without any time between her being in one place and the other she's suddenly in the path of the toppling technological terror!

    Both arms are upraised to catch it - which should really, REALLY not be possible for someone of her size.

    BUT.

    WHAM!

    While Blurr's on the rescue, Valentha SOMEHOW snags the falling mech and keeps it from ENTIRELY hitting the ground like a sack of bricks. Instead she slowly sets it down once Xiaomu and Blurr are clear...

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu had just come to that conclusion as well, that she should probably not stick around to watch the fireworks from ground zero.

SUDDENLY BLURR

Then the sage fox is at a safe distance from the collapsing Abominable Snowblower, probing her neck gently with her fingers to test for whiplash, and relaxing as she doesn't think she got hurt in the process of that high-speed rescue. "Thank you! Blurr, right? I owe you one and I'm not entirely sure how to pay you back for a rescue like *that*!"

Fangirling? Not really - but she *is* appreciative, and she doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to get put back down.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Oddly enough, even though Valentha catchs the Snowblower and prevents it from smashing on top of anyone or anything, it just sort of... falls apart in her grasp. Leaving just heaps of cooling equipment, tanks, and truck parts around her.

But true to supervillian form, in the ruckus of the final moments of the fight and the lingering end of the snow conditions, the evil genius and her weather jockey have managed to slip away from the scene.

Jazz (762) has posed:
Jazz looks over to Blurr with his visor slightly dim. "Yeah, jus' gonna have ta hav tha Doc probably check the linkage... probably pulled somethin' outta place." He shakes his hand slight as he watches the giant robot be brought down. His sights slowly drifting to the two making their way out of here. He can track where they were, but there is now sign of them now.

Shame that. "Looks like our two ladies of tha hour got away. Shame tha', would of love ta ask for their number." He smirks faintly before stepping away from the group. "If tha' be all, I'm gonna hit tha road an' let tha authorities know ahead wha' tha situation is."

The Spec Ops doesn't even wait for a confirmation, instead he takes off and once clear enough from the snow and ice, transforms making his way out of the area.

Blurr has posed:
    "Yeah," Blurr nods in affirmation of Xiaomu's speculation about his name. "But there's no need to pay me for anything, we're on the same team, remember?" He smiles and puts her back down as gently as possible. "Besides, it was nothing. Effortless. That thing was like a bunch of ice and scrap metal haphazardly thrown together. It was hardly a threat. Heh, maybe they just wanted an exciting way to get rid of it or something." Yeah she just stroked an already sizeable ego.

    He watches Jazz take off, satisfied that he seems to be okay. Jazz has certainly seen worse, he might just have to get Ratchet or First Aid to see to the servo joints.

    He begins to scan the area for traces of Stratos or Tesla but it seems they've both slipped away. "Well I can track which direction they might have gone, but it looks like they've evaded apprehension this time."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Well, the damsel in distress is supposed to give her knight-in-shining-armor rescuer *something*, right?" Xiaomu grins as she stands on the ground, using her staff to help recover her balance (and/or to maintain it; is the ground still icy?).

"Alternatively ... do you think you'd be up to run me over to Domino City? Just something I need to take care of out that way."

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr peers at Xiaomu curiously, tilting his head slightly to one side. What did she just say? "Damesel...in distress?" He glances down at himself. "Well I guess I am kind of shiny. Compared to you, anyway." That was weird. He will have to search the datanets later.

    The Autobot nods at her request, his body already starting to fold down into itself as it reformats into his hover speeder form. "Sure thing just get me the coordinates and we'll be on our way."

Valentha Summers (834) has posed:
    Being nearly BURID under a bunch of random parts that should NOT have fallen apart like that leaves Valentha sputtering. "WHAT." She flails about in the junk pile ineffectually, despite somehow having caught the whole bloody machine in the first place.