Cat-astrophe in the City

Grand Central Station was packed.

The crowds of people moved around like bees in a hive; each moving with purpose and intent, never stopping, or slowing. There was almost a pattern to it all, the flow of them moving through halls and tunnels, up and down stairs and escalators, and getting onto or off their trains. There were places to be after all. It was always like this in the station, for most hours of the day and night, from open 'till close. That constant flow and pattern of people, those busy bees, never once stopping, barely even slowing, for anything.

Until all at once, they did. In a single moment, every single person in the station stopped.

There was a single intense rumbling through the building. Everyone froze, most because they felt the rumbling, others because they saw that everyone else had stopped. Those in the central hall cast their eyes upward, staring at the now flickering lights. Down below in the tunnels and on the boarding walks, the people stared at the trains whose doors had just abruptly shut and then as they started to roll down the tracks, only stopping a stone’s throw away from them. There was a panicked murmuring from the people who stood still, rumors quickly spreading, as they all watched and waited for whatever was happening to reveal itself in full.

Then it came. Then they came. The screeching of trains suddenly roared down every track, heading towards the boarding area. Their approach caused the stations to rumble and shake, some dust falling from overhead. The people below, now terrified that the ceiling was going to come down on them, started to move away, rushing towards stairs, flooding them, and stalling their flow. Those that couldn’t make it into the flood stood as far from the edges as they could, taking cover behind whatever seemed sturdy.

What came was not expected. The first oncoming came to a steady, smooth, rolling stop. It was a clean, white color, not dull and dirty like the normal trains here. The windows held frosted glass, obscuring the onlookers’ vision. And…the front of the train, the locomotive, the front of it had a simple cat face painted on it, with two cat-like ears protruding from the top. It was, honestly, adorable to look at. Soon, every track in the station would have one of their adorable cat trains for the onlookers to gape at.

The people not caught at the center of the flood or those who were pushed to the top of the stairs all stopped, now for a second time. They stared at the oddly cute train that had rolled up and stared…and waited. Some let out chuckles, some actually finding it funny, and others…others out of the sheer absurdity of it.

When the doors opened, though, whatever small levity had washed over the people was suddenly gone. Suddenly charging out of every door were beasts of metal and claw! The shouts of “Lion!” could be heard from those in the central hall of the station and the people there now began to run. Those still down on the track tried to flee, but most would be suddenly pounced upon and then struck with a sudden blast of golden light, and left alive, but motionless on the ground.

In less than ten minutes, the mechanical lions, the Pridebots, flooded through the station and then poured out of every subway entrance and exit throughout the city. The streets were swarmed with these metallic lions, all randomly chasing down and stunning their prey, leaving them wherever they fell. The only ones who died, mauled to death by the Pridebots, were those foolish enough to try and fight back. Chaos was quickly spreading through the city that never slept, and all of it seemed to flow out of Grand Central Station, a hive of bees that suddenly turned rabid.

And once the station had fallen back into that initial silence, walking out of that first train that arrived was a young, well-dressed man, at first accompanied only by a white cat, and then by the sound of heavy, marching steps.

The cat looked up to the man and his collar suddenly blipped with light, “Prepare phase two of the plan.”

The day started off like any other for Ethan.

The Heart was a strange place. It looked like a lounge, a speakeasy from easily a century ago with the feeling of smoke that flowed through and colored the air despite it not affecting his ability to breathe. Settled into one of the large cushioned seating chairs, he was pressing away on the buttons of a controller. Despite the dated room, electricity coursed through its core and technology wasn’t hampered in any meaningful way.  Today was a calmer kind of day, just one he wanted to kick back and enjoy his time. Afterall, this was practically a free home with no chance of him being evicted from it. That made it feel like he didn’t have to worry about anything like a job, aside from giving the city a few extra impromptu tattoos while he was out.

It was one of those mind numbing games he liked to play when there was nothing else to do. Something that let his mind drift away, enough to ignore the world around him. The faint, nagging voice in the back of his mind that grew louder by the second. Wait. Was that always there?

ETHAN LISTEN TO ME! The feminine voice shouted loud enough now in his mind to hurt. Like someone had stabbed him through the eye, causing the youth to pitch forward and let the controller clatter to the carpeted floor below.

He paused for a moment, the sound of his game still going on in the background. It sounded like he was dying now.  By The Great Spirit I thought you were going to just ignore me all day, She continued, sounding as if she were going to keep rattling on. His head hurt enough as it was.

”Fuck, could you shut up for like five seconds,” He hissed, covering his eyes with the palm of his hand. Saying that he felt something ripple through his body and then the pain melted away.

Sometimes forget how fragile the human body is, The voice was quieter than before yet lacked any apologetic tone. Was it just the way of the city to be like that? Not like he had room to judge, so he didn’t complain much.

”Better hope you didn’t break my fucking controller, those cost money ya know,” Of course he was worried more about his items, picking it up and clicking a few buttons before sinking back into the couch. Sadly this place couldn’t just print money.

Your toys aren’t exactly my problem. What is however is that tremor I’m feeling,

”Tremor? What do’ya mean by that?” He sat up now, feeling a strange pit carve itself out of his guts.

A tremor. Something happened like before the Sun Fell on Me or when that Mad Doctor unleashed it own kind of hell. A sort of crux event that could lead to my further weakening. I fear He may have something to do with it, Cryptic as ever she was.

Despite that he hopped to his feet, drawing the longs sleeves of his hoodie down so they stopped before the tip of his middle finger. ”So what? Am I supposed to be playing hero now?” He questioned, an obvious irritation entering his voice. He didn’t choose this life, especially protecting people and especially not protecting the city. This just seemed like an easy way to live the life he wanted, with even less ways for people to control him.

You’re my champion, of course you’re supposed to protect this city. What do you think happenes if the core of the city gets damaged?

He paused for a moment and then swore under his breath, pulling the hood of his jacket enough to obscure his face. Without another word he picked out the nearest door, stepped through and towards the source of the tremors. Drawn there as if by magnetism, a pulling within his gut all he needed to reach the destination. By this point the concept of moving from one point in the city to another didn’t even warrant a small amount of awe.

He stepped out through a glass door onto a street not far from what he could feel was Grand Central Station. People screaming was what he first head, as well as saw when a few ran past him. Not even contemplating the unkempt person with their hood pulled up. He fished a ski mask with some holes cut into and quickly slipped it on, covering his face and likely keeping anyone from recognizing him further. Maybe a short someone with worn jeans, a jacket and shitty mask on wouldn’t draw as much attention as any heroes who would come to the scene as well. Strange metallic constructs walked the streets, some spattered with blood.

”Okay, this is not good,” Ethan muttered, eyes narrowed as he drew on some of the powers he had.  That was when one of them turned to him, seeing someone likely not running away from them. He didn’t really think from there, feeling cold running through his veins and large shots of ice shooting through the air like buckshot.  One of them reared, ice shearing through metal and revealing more delicate circuitry beneath it.  One found its exterior ripped into as well but not as damaged. ”Okay robots, just fuckin great,” Without thinking he turned and cut into a pathway between this building and another, hearing the sound of metal grind against brick as one of them squeezed into the space after him.

These things were fast he could tell, fast enough hat he knew he couldn’t exactly outrun them. The clacks of their metal claws against the concrete were getting closer and closer.  Darting past a dumpster nearly full to the brim, he commanded it fly behind him and collide with one of the Pride constructs chasing him, and sending it careening.  It was enough to slow what he imagined was another one chasing him as he emerged onto the street beyond, seeing more running. Shit, this was not going good.

"Bad kitty! Very bad kitty!" Toxin called out as she held tight to the strands of neon green webbing that restrained a giant robotic lion that was attempting to pounce on a fleeing family of tourists. She turned and pulled, using her considerable strength to lift the automaton off the ground and pull it towards her in order to deliver a punch that crumpled the steel of its metallic body and sent it tumbling down 45th Street. Skye had no idea what the fuck was happening, but it was definitely outside of her usual pay-grade of muggers, gangsters, and the occasional cat stuck in a tree.

Her Spider-Sense blared in warning and she backflipped instinctively, landing on the back of the giant metallic lion that had just attempted to leap onto her back.

"Who makes lion robots?!" she demanded as she used her wall-crawling abilities to stick to the robot's back and looked for some kind of access panel or weakness. Finding none immediately apparent, the young heroine elected to grip the lion's metallic head and pull it free of the robotic body just as the machine began to react to Toxin's presence. As the metallic body crashed to the ground, her extrasensory abilities once again warned her in time to allow her to bring the robot's head to bear in order to smash the first automoton's head into so much scrap metal, stopping its momentum dead mid-pounce and causing it to crash noisily to the ground.

Toxin tossed the ruined heap of scrap that used to be one of the Pridebot's head to the side before she executed a backflip that naded her about 45 feet up the side of a skyscraper, allowing her to get a better overview of the chaos that had erupted in Midtown. Several cars lay in burning heaps on the road, and waves of lion robots chased fleeing civilians down the street. The lions seemed to be coming from the direction of 42nd, which probably meant Grand Central, but Toxin hadn't been able to confirm that.

One second, the neon green heroine had been doing her regular midweek patrol of Midtown, and the next thing she knew she'd been forced to fight desperately to save the lives of New Yorkers from the cantankerous kitty-cats. There were quite a few bodies laying in the street, though the majority were merely unconscious,a fact that she could find some small comfort in.

"Well, one thing's for sure: whatever this is, I'm gonna have to figure out how to stop it," she mused to herself as she took aim and fired a web to a nearby building. She began running along the wall before taking off, using her web-slinging to head in the direction that the lions were coming from. She sailed over the running forms of the metallic lions and several pockets of NYPD officers fighting against them, using shortguns and M-16's to hold off the metallic menaces as best they could. Skye grimaced beneath her mask at the sight and tugged hard on her web, going as fast as she could to reach the source of these things.

Toxin ended her swing with aflip in order to land on her hands and feet on the side of a skyscraper, looking down on the stone and glass roof of the New York City landmark. The lenses of her mask narrowed as she applied the zoom function, allowing her to see the unconscious bodies that littered the street and steps leading into the underground station. Almost like they had been attempting to run away.

"Well, I guess this is the place..." she muttered before a roar and the sound of grinding metal drew her attention to to fight between a scrawny young man and about three pridebots, two of which were dealt with by some kind of elemental manipulation.  She scaled down the skyscraper as fast as she could, leaping off at the last second and doing a flip in order to drive both of her feet down into the robot's shiny head, crumpling the metal and cratering the pavement beneath where she landed. She looked up and stared at the ski-masked individual with her blank white lenses.

"So, uh, ski masks making a comeback in the fashion world? Did I miss a memo?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she regarded him.

Deimos was having a lazy sunday, a nice nap in the backyard sun. The massive dragon curled up in the grass, just the end of his snout peeking in the open back door as his mother scurried around cleaning up after cooking lunch and his father was busy reading the news paper at the table. His grandparents were coming over, much to his dismay. His parents were lovely in every way, his father’s parents? Lets just say they weren’t pleased with their children forgoing the opportunity to have children themselves and raising a dragon hatchling instead. Nevermind the fact it’d been twenty years and no child had manifested itself, but they didn’t care for that excuse. Lulled from his light doze by the dread of his grandmother, he noticed an uncomfortable squeeze from the wooden fence as it creaked under the strain as he stretched a wing out. He used to fit fairly comfortably here and now his wings draped over both fences and his ribs jammed into the side of she shed. Had he grown? That was a whole new problem in and of itself as if he outgrew the backyard he’d have to sleep in the house as a human… in a bed… bleh.


A plate hitting the ground had Deimos’s full attention as his mother’s platter of sandwiches had shattered to the ground in pieces. He snorts and moves to stand before realizing what had caused her klutziness. The news cut into her soap opera to a scene of New York in carnage. Robotic beasts tackling people to the ground, flooding from almost every subway station in the city. The dragon snarls, baring teeth before laying down again with a stubborn snort of air.

“Oh come now, Deimos.” Kathy scolds, pulling the broom from it’s hiding place between the refrigerator and the wall. “You know you won’t be forced to go.”

“Nope. Not going.” The dragon growls in the booming draconic nature to his tongue. He turns his head, averting his eyes from the screen and closing them to try and resume his nap. “Can you change the channel?”

His father picks up the remote and moves to change channels, but each one tells the same story. “Sorry. The news is interrupting every broadcast, kid.”

Deimos only groans, standing, shifting rather to block the back door with his tail end and his massive head coming down to rest gently against the edging of his mother’s rose garden. As much as he tried, he just couldn’t go back to sleep. Memories of London flooding back in his mind. The worst day of his life, the day he was thrown from his mundane boring life and into all the superherodom he did everything he could to dodge. All through school just because someone developed powers it was like their future was set in stone, Deimos was lucky enough to be born into the race of dragons and yet he would trade all the magic he had to just be human. His hopes of being a boring pharmacist in some one horse town completely dashed in one day. The worst day of his life, however, did not seem too bad compared to the people who lived in London though. Sure half of them were spared, but their entire city was leveled, over night the central power of the united kingdom crippled and most of their leadership incinerated in an instant. And that wasn’t even the worst of it… a ‘hero’ was responsible. A hero that if he could get his hands on, he couldn’t trust himself not to turn to violence. Ascendant had ruined his life and the lives of countless people all over the world through just cause and effect.

Was he going to be just as bad if he did nothing here though? The only reason London wasn’t a complete wipe out was because he and Jordan flew there to help. He was in the right place at the right time. For all he knew for New York this could be a same situation except this time he was choosing to not be at the right place. He groans, hauling himself to his feet with a yawn. Why could New York not get overrun with lions at night when he’d be more awake.

“Save me a plate mom, and tell grandma I’ll be back tonight.” The dragons wings spread, blotting out the sun for a moment as stars swirl along the insides and with one heavy down thrust he was off.
XXXX


The fly from upstate New York to New York City only took ten minutes on a leisurely fly, Deimos however, was not flying at a casual pace. He’d caught a tailwind, wings angling up to save him some work as he climbed higher into the clouds. The sun shined against his obsidian sheened scales as the skyline came into view. He’d stay hidden in the clouds, back to the sun for now getting an idea of what was happening. Sure enough, lion-like robots mauling people in the streets and leaving them laid out like that. Not just one subway station either, multiple bleeding robots meeting minimal resistance.

He stops tracing out buildings and high concentrations of lions and low concentrations of people, mapping a path to deal some damage to only what he intended to. His eyes trace back to a brawl going on near one of the lion-dens. Magic crackles to life around the dragon as he conceals himself with the sun as his dorsal fins begin to light up with the tell-tale glow of the dangerous radiation his breath entails. Dangerous only to beings hit by the light as the energy would sit and decay on the targets but wouldn’t spread to any bystanders or leave a nuclear quarantine zone wherever he went. As his breath weapon ripes he could feel the crackling energy arcing between his teeth, jumping from one horn to the other, and illuminating the cloud he was hiding in with radioactive lightning. He then reorients, his wings tight against his sides, as gravity pulls him into a free fall. He gained speed, reaching terminal velocity quickly as the pavement came closer and closer.


All at once all four wings snap open, pulling him from the nose dive a mere ten feet from the ground and blasting the opening of one subway station he’d scouted from the sky, noticing all humans gone from it and only robotic beasts. He however, did not linger as he was taking a tight curve around a building, his lower wings descending to ensure not a single windowpane touched as he uses another chaotic blast to send another pride of lions to the scrapyard as they closed in on a bus full of bystanders, leaving them a melted pile of metal on the drive by. Blindingly fast Deimos works his way through two more groups, covering three blocks in less than a minute. He could feel the energy waning, the crackling around him fading to a sizzle. One more good shot and he was right on track to where he needed to end up. He’d seen a girl in a bright neon green suit fighting these things, which he could only assume was someone else called in by this mess, and she was with a man also wearing a mask who may or may not be here to help deal with this. If he was honest… he was trusting the green girl as so far everyone with green in their color scheme he’d met had been trustworthy. It was his last stop and his last blast of his breath weapon saved for them. There were a good amount of lions all around and as his wings snapped open and his speed declined with the air resistance, energy crackled across all his scales blasting a heavy beam of starlight through one alleyway as it only seemed to grow in intensity. His wings remained spread, stars stirring in the underside like an angry galaxy. One side of the street cleared, the other behind him still swarmed. He turns, lowering his head and crouching on his front legs. Any threat head on would be met with horns first.

Sadly the threat was closer to his two new friends than to him so he quickly dashes forward, long legs covering more ground that a beast the size of a two bull elephants should be capable of in one charge as his wings close down around them. To the pairs right would be one of his tree trunk sized front legs to which Toxin’s eye level would only come up to the joint of his front knee. To the left was the underside of Deimos’s magnificent wing still alive with the night sky.  An effective shield as a few to the robots made it through the fire, red hot and leaping for the dragon’s face, throat and shoulders.

Deimos roars in annoyance, the lions digging in as he slams his head down into the pavement, crushing one and knocking one off the armored fans protecting his jugular, one scaled down the membranes of his wings, claws tearing into the flesh of his right wing as he ducks, tail swinging around to stake is two foot long thagomizer into the mechanical beast then flick it away, into the streets. This street is clear for now, but it wouldn’t be for long, there had to be thousands of these things circling the city and he was doubtless more would find their way here if they sat long enough.

With a heavy huff Deimos folds his wings up against his body, a small trickle of dragon blood splashing to the ground from a small cut left beneath his left eye, but luckily it was superficial. He backs up to give the pair some room. “We have a few minutes before we get swamped again I-” Deimos’s voice boomed in the commanding tone of draconic. A loud and exotic language…, but not one most humans could speak or understand. Sometimes he really wished he could speak the common tongue as a dragon, but the tongue and palate of a dragon were not suited for many components of human language. Changing back to a human form would take time they possibly didn’t have so it seemed writing would have to do.

The dragon resorts to drawing with his claw, the pavement giving way and crumbling like sand with ease. "Why lions?" He scribbles as star filled eyes switched between the two, looking for answers.

Above the city, the young hero felt weightless, as he hovered in place, eyes closed, as he scanned the entire city like a radar, picking up on every small noise. He tried to tone out the excess noises, focusing primarily on what’s important, like sirens, screaming, police scanners. This was a daily routine for the young hero, as he was training his senses, learning to amp his hearing, while not being drowned in a sea of noise.  

”Ya know, the lab has state of the art radars and sensors for a reason, right??” Among the many voices below, one cut through, as if it was talking directly to him.  

Frontline let out a chuckle, turning his communicator back on. “I’d prefer not to become solely dependent on technology, especially not when my powers are much better.”

”Well, you have an appointment in a half hour...” Speedrun replied. ”You were going to introduce your new friend to the Boss, try and find her a job, remember??”

Damn, he had nearly forgotten that was today. “Of course I remembered...” He scoffed playfully. “I just like to make an entrance, ya know, show up a bit late, maybe fly in like a badass??”  

”You forgot, didn’t you??”

“I completely forgot.”  

Before they could continue, however, the city came live with the sounds of screams and panic.  

“Upper East Side is under attack!” Frontline stated, before taking off from his idol hover, leaving behind a sound burst, as he took off at Mach 1.  

“Mommy!!” in Central Park, a young boy cried out, unable to move in any direction, as the crowd of panicking civilians managed to just avoid running into him as they ran in panic. He looked around, crying as he couldn’t see his mother, who had told sat him down at a nearby bench, and told him to stay there until she came back from the station. He was a good boy, and sat there as long as he could, but he eventually got hungry. He saw the nearby vending machine, and decided to grab a snack, and hurry right back to his seat. He had only gotten halfway back to the bench, before the crowd burst from the station, and trapped him in place. “Mommy, where are you!!?”  

Suddenly, the boy found himself standing alone, as the crowd dispersed in every direction, as if they were trying to get clear from something. There was low, mechanical growl from behind, as he turned to see one of the Robotic lions had downed one of the many trying to escape, and had now locked its sights on the boy.  

“Somebody do something, he’s just a kid.”  

“Do what, that thing will kill all of us if we don’t run.”  

“We can’t leave him!!”  

As the adults argued, the robot lunged, claws and teeth bare as it went for the kid.  

There was a series of gasps, screams, and other panicked noises, as everyone witnessing the scene closed their eyes, not wanting to see the horrific outcome.  

It was quiet, much quieter than anybody had thought it would be, perhaps the kid died quickly, or the creature took out his ability to scream.  

Eventually, people opened back up their eyes.  

Instead of a bloody murder scene, however, there was a costumed figure standing in front of the kid, holding the robot by its open mouth. It swiped it’s claws across the heroes chest, which did nothing to him, but ended up damaging the claws themselves.  

“Man, I knew I should have brought my spray bottle out with me today.” Frontline quipped, grabbing onto the cats torso, letting it bite down on his hand still holding its upper maw. With relative ease, the hero managed to pull the head, as well as what would be considered the robots spine, clean from the body, tossing them both aside, before turning to kid. “Are you okay, buddy??” He asked, giving the kid a smile.  

The kid smiled back and nodded, before looked behind Frontline, and pointing. “Uhh, mister!”  

The hero snapped back around, seeing a small group of lions approach. “You...” He pointed to a woman nearby, who had been watching. “Take the kid and run, there’s an emergency shelter just down that path there, Police will help the kid find his mom, now go!”

The pack of lions charged in as the civilians made their escape.  

There was a quick burst of wind, as blue blur rushed past Frontline, making contact with each robot, which would collapse into pieces immediately after. One by one, the pack collapsed into scraps, and the blur vanished.  

“Sooo...” From Frontlines left, a figure dressed in a black and blue costume had suddenly appeared, moving fast enough to even surprise Frontline. “Scans have the source of this little robo-kitty invasion coming from Grand Central Station...” He nodded off into the distance, in the direction of the Station. “Some mad scientist type pulled up in his own private train, cat themed, of course, and let the cats out the bag...” He looked over to Frontline. “Current reports show he’s still there.”  

As the two took a second to plan their moves, they were interrupted as a Dragon dropped from the sky, cascading lightning-like energy from its mouth, which struck at the larger groupings of Robots. The Dragon left just as fast as it had arrived, flying through the buildings, spreading its attack.  

“Was that a Dragon spewing lightning?” Speedrun pointed towards where the Dragon had flew off.  

“I believe that was.” Frontline slowly rose in the air, moving above the trees to get, unobstructed view. “Either way, they’re on our side, and we could more help if want to push these robots back...” He looked down to Speedrun. “They went down 9th, I’ll head in and clear 8th and 7th, You sweep 6th and 5th.” He then disappeared, rushing off towards the fight.

“Right, got it, o-capitaine.” Speedrun stretched out, moving into a running position.  

What was once a city bustling with chaos, was now standing completely still, as the young speedster moved up the two avenues, using the grid to cross between. He used the momentum of his speed to hit every robot on the way, from simply tapping them in vital areas, nudging one into others, and even using loose objects.    

Once he reached the end of his sector, he turned around, slowing his body down to enjoy the next few seconds in real time.  

Suddenly, the attacking lions were suddenly breaking down right in front of their potential victims, as some seemed to react like they were hit with bullets. Others found themselves flying into others, smashing into nearby walls, or even struck down by objects that seemed to appear out of nowhere, like a stop sign, which split one lions head clean down the middle.

As the scene came to an end, Speedrun spotted the Dragon a few blocks over, it had apparently landed, though from a distance, it was hard to make out why.  

“Frontline, the Dragon has landed, corner of East 47th and 3rd...” He rushed over toward the creature, seeing that it was trying to communicate with two others.  

“We have a few minutes before we get swamped again I-” The Dragon stated in Draconic, before giving up, and deciding to write out a simple “Why lions??” in the ground with its claw.  

Speedrun stepped up to the group. “The person behind this attack clearly has a thing for cats...” He stated. “Scans show they're currently holed up in Grand Central Station, what their plan is, I have no clue, but like our big friend here said, we don’t have much time before they’re on top of us again.”  

Landing beside the kid in the ski mask, Frontline looked around at the group. “We still have too many civilians out there trying to get to the shelters, and these things are pouring out of every subway station like a swarm...” He then looked to Speedrun. “Civilian safety is our top priority, and we cannot make any moves on Grand Central until the streets are clear, and everyone is secure.”

Chie tapped a foot impatiently as she stood at central avenue station. The train had been late for nearly twenty minutes now and she was struggling to mask her irritation as she stared at the bored-looking announcer who had yet to give her any sort of explanation. Try as she might the young woman could not shake some uncanny feeling that something was wrong. Not just her missing her volleyball game either, something truly abhorrent.

"Well no wonder they haven't shown up" Came the voice from beside her, as Sam, a blonde-haired friend of Chie's shoved a bright phone screen into her face.
"Central Station is under attack" She said rather casually to confirm Chie's suspicions.

The screen showed a video of heroes and large feline robots battling in the streets. She did her best not to show any sort of reaction to seeing Frontline as he bravely protected a small child from harm's way. As seemed typical from the heroic powerhouse, he seemed unafraid of the damage the lions could deal to him, as their claws proved inefficient against his mighty chest. Sam seemed to recognize the shock in her friends eyes and turned to see the screen herself before smiling ruefully.

"Oh, is this a hero you like? Never thought he'd be your type" She teased, before sliding her phone back into her shorts and letting out a defeated sigh.
"Well, guess the game is canceled. Wanna get froyo?" She added, unphased as ever. Living in new york, you get used to these sorts of deadly inconveniences.

Chie waved her friend off, chuckling at her comments about Frontline. Nevertheless, after their last battle together she worried he might get overconfident once more. Frontline was strong, sure, but he was prone to draw attention to himself. Furthermore, there was enough of a mechanical menace here that he would need backup.

"Eh, I think I'm going to head home. Gotta study for my ACT" Chie replied wearily, already starting to backpedal up the stairs.

"Didn't we do those last week?" Sam replied with a tilt of her head.

"Y-yeah, but I want a better score! See ya!" Chie replied hastily before turning and bolting up the stairwell. She'd need to find a place to get into uniform, somewhere secluded, in downtown new york. Time was of the essence today. As much as it pained her she didn't have the time to give a more worthwhile excuse.
"Get home safe!"
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Shuriken burst out of the bathroom of a now abandoned local coffee shop, now in uniform she came running at break neck speeds towards the scene of the crime. By now, the lions had spread out into the streets. Cops had set up barriers that where currently being overwhelmed. As a lion raised up to swipe at a particular officer, a shuriken embedded itself deep in the lion's head, and the robot sparked and stuttered before falling to the ground. A dozen more shurikens hit their marks in similar fashion and soon after the hero who had thrown them came running past, hopping the barrier and expertly weaving past a series of deadly lunges and claw swipes that came at her. In a matter of seconds she had amassed a lot of attention and pridebots where swarming her. Thinking fast, she leapt up to kick off one of the robot's heads and jumped high into the air, flinging more of her throwing stars into the crowd gathering under her. When she landed she didn't stop to look at her handy work, only continuing to run fun sprint towards grand central station, throwing her namesake weaponry with reckless abandon as more and more robotic beast came towards her.

In her rush, a stray claw swiped against her arm, and Chie shouted in pain, before quickly turning and instinctively punching the robot with all her might. While she may not posses inhuman strength the robot recoiled as she left a heavy dent in it's metallic cranium. Chie whimpered as she held her aching fist, but quick to finish things she landed a solid kick in the same place as the pridebot lunged forward once more. This time her foot embedded in it's head, and she quickly rushed on, holding the bloody scratch on her arm.
"Ugh, mom's going to kill me" She said to herself.

After a while Chie's stamina started to give out. She had been running and fighting for a while and her lungs where burning with exertion. As she neared central in the distance, she noticed the wreckage of other pridebots unmistakable not from her own devices. These ones where ripped asunder, battered to pieces and a nearby alley smoldered with the charred and melted remains of pridebots. Clearly Frontline and his cohorts had been here. Unfortunately, Chie was less safe than she expected.

A partly destroyed bot, one she had assumed to be destroyed, lurched to life and sprung towards her. Caught by surprise, the heavy beast managed to push it's claws into her and Shuriken hit the ground with a thud. As it opened it's mouth and prepared to bite down on on her throat, Shuriken grabbed her extendable staff and sprung it forward, letting the end of the staff slam into the pridebot's mouth. With surprising strength she lifted and shoved the pridebot to the side. She got to her feet just as it reoriented itself, and she slammed the staff over and over into it's head until oil splashed out and she was sure it was finished. Now she had another pair of fresh wounds, this time in her shoulders, and another set of tears in her costume.

Not wanting to risk another encounter she hurried on, now following the trail of brutalized robot carcasses to find the other heroes hard at work. Hopefully she could be in less of harms way with a large group.

What...

The...

Fuck?!

Stareater flew across the world an hour or two ago, and sat atop a skyscraper in New York City to rest and recharge in the sun. The famous Big Apple that all the movies talked about didn't seem very fancy to the young Canadian hero. She could imagine it smelled awful, if she could actually smell anything anymore. It was in the midst of her relaxing that she saw terror break out below. Screams of panic and fear filled the air so much that Astrid could hear them from thousands of feet in the sky. When she looked down she could see people running away from a train station, and... They were being chased by fucking robots. If there were two things in this wide world that Astrid understood, it was being a hero and working with weird technology.

"This city sucks."

Astrid grabbed her metallic gloves and slid them back on, clicking the WS modules on and running for the ledge of the roof. She leapt off with the grace of someone who was used to falling from high places, and suddenly the sky over New York was decorated in a spectacle of black and white energy, like a comet falling through orbit. Stareater soared over buildings and streets in a display of brilliant majesty. By her observations, these lion machines were attacking people and rendering them unconscious or dead outright. Bodies were littering the streets. If Astrid had any facial features, she might've scowled. From the sky, she rained down bolts of Whitespace energy. Like lances from the very heavens themselves, pillars of white light that bubbled with spots of black struck clusters of lions and exploded with the force of a mortar. What the lasers touched was disintegrated in an instant- Matter phased out of existence by detonating in a cascading effect that tore the machines apart from the inside.

Clusters of the machines fell all at once, while the very air around the energy rumbled and collapsed in the wake of her blasts. The ground beneath the ruined Pridebots suffered gashes and cracks, but windows were broken from the sheer force of the blasts. From where Stareater was, she didn't realize just how heavy-handed her artillery strike was. The lions were flooding the streets in droves, and all she could do was-

Was that a fucking dragon?!

She had to quickly swing a sharp right to avoid smacking straight into the multi-winged lizard that looked to be doing the exact same thing as her. She caught the bolts of weird lightning he seemed to be firing at the robots. From his perspective, Astrid might've just been a shooting star. She checked the screen on her wrist, and read a 38% drop in her energy reserves from the time she started this bombing run to right now. She was at just under half her reserves now. This wasn't sustainable, so she turned and went for the ground around the alleged source of the attack. As Stareater began to touch down, she saw one of the Pridebots chasing a car. The car itself looked to be shredded in the back by metal claws, and there were sparks coming out of its undercarriage. She picked up speed to intercept the bot, and went through it. There was an explosion, like a grenade going off, and shrapnel scattered outwards around a smoking crater where both Astrid and her target used to be.

Where she landed, there were traces of glowing white energy sparking and crackling around her. Bits and pieces of rubble and metal fell around her from above. Astrid looked around and saw she was now underground, with the sun pouring in from overhead. This was Grand Central Station, and she didn't appear to be alone. Other dead robots littered the ground, surrounding a cape in green holding some stringy stuff, and another person in a ski mask. They didn't appear injured, so they must've done this themselves. Astrid pulled herself out of the miniature blast crater she made and approached them both, the energy around her fading back into nothingness in seconds.

"Do you two have any idea what the hell is happening?" She asked through the energy-filled helmet. Her voice came out distorted and reverbed, almost entirely synthetic in its tone.

In the mere minutes that proceeded the heroes’ arrival, they had already dispatched more than a quarter of the Pride that had gone to prowl the streets. They were effective, but that was all according to plan.

Somewhere in the city, far from the heroes, a young man still a senior in high school, turned a corner and tore down the near empty alleyway. His gaze unfortunately turned over his shoulder, desperately watching for his pursuer. A moment passed. He kept running. Two moments. He was further down the alleyway. Three. Still nothing. He almost sure that he was safe, but when his eyes turned forward again it was just in time to see the brick wall that he had been running to.

Ironically, it was a dead end. He crashed against it and fell in a heap to the ground. He heaved heavy breaths, using this forced respite to try to compose himself. Such efforts were worthless as a breath caught in his throat as the sound of a low, mechanical growl echoed from the other end of the alleyway. He turned slowly just in time to see the silvery gleam of the mechanical lion turn the corner, its glowing red eyes affixed to the student still on the ground. He froze in place as it drew nearer, each step sounding a loud mechanical scrape against the cold ground.

Soundless breaths of panic left him as it drew closer and closer until it was not only inches from its face. He could almost feel the coolness of the metal and the hot steam of breath that left the machine. The lion opened its maw revealing sharp, steel-like teeth that could tear into the boy like a hot knife through butter. The boy closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable pain. It would happen any moment now, the cool of steel and the hot rush of blood. He would be dead. He was dead. This was it.

This was…

He opened his eyes. There was nothing. Nothing at first, but in those last moments he caught the gleam of a steely tail disappear behind the far corner of the alley. It had left…it had left and gone somewhere else?

All over the city, people, like this young student were experiencing the same thing. They were chased, pinned, attacked and then…all at once, all the lions left and hurried off somewhere else, like they were retreating. Some celebrated their retreat, while others just breathed relief. Only a small handful of those spared came to the correct conclusion.

The lions were not retreating. They were regrouping.

---

On the street, by the alley where the heroes had all convened, the Pridebots began to swarm, prowling in rhythmic patterns, pacing back and forth, as they seemed to wait. Some managed up onto the roofs and catwalks above, staring down into the alley, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. Their numbers perhaps weren’t as intimidating as some other threats these heroes may had to face, perhaps around eighty of the damned felines. Yet still, none seemed to act, as if they were waiting for something else.

Then, in a boom choir, all the Pridebots emitted a sound, played in unity. A voice. A single, booming voice spoke to them. “Quite right, quite right indeed! You all are purrforming marvelously!” The speaker’s tone didn’t indicate any sort of gender, though it was a bit haughty at best. “By my count, you all shall be finished with my Pride and joy in no time. When you finish cleaning up here come find me down below!” There was a diabolical laugh in the tone of the speaker, taunting them in an almost classic, villainous way. “I am quite afraid though there are some people here who are little tied up though, so do be careful how you purrceed. You’ll find me down in Grand Central stations at one of the platforms. I’m looking forward to our meeting.” The voice went silent and a stirring resounded from the pride.

With the voice cut out, all at once, the Pridebots leapt into action. Groups of ten seemed to target each hero, each group trying to draw their hero out. Their tactics seemed basic enough; a few would try and draw someone’s attention, while the others in the group would lash out while they distracted. Some would lash out with steel claws and fangs, while others would fire off blasts of energy meant to stun or at least slow their targets! It was basic animal hunting tactics, only these animals seemed to pack a heavier punch.  

---

Down below at Grand Central, one of the platforms Mathias, the small white cat, padded back and forth. He watched as the well-dressed man, Jamie, worked on the device Mathias had labored over. The man was a recent graduate from a college and recently found employment as a mind controlled slave to Mathias, which honestly was not all that different from other employment options graduates had. The machine he worked on looked like a large, oversized computer with large cables that attached to the nearby cat trains.

Mathias watched as Jamie clacked away at the keys, finishing the program that he had worked so hard on. It was really a stroke of genius and with it, in time; it would be exactly what he needed to best the heroes who now fought in the streets. With a final click of a key, the monitor buzzed to life and without warning, there was a sudden buzz that ran through the air of the city streets and tunnels below. Something had just been activated…

Ethan had no interest in fighting and especially no intentions to be a hero. Heroes went out, endangering their lives and fighting nutcases who were more interested in blowing the city up, if they weren’t just killing people for some reason. There were the bank thieves too, though he heard they were slowing down as of late. Something about it being too cliché, though he never even wasted time in robbing something like a bank. Capes always rushed to those kind of situations first.  Despite all of that he found himself turning on a good collection of those robots, shape like lions that were going to rip into him. Already his mind had conjured up images of what they would do and it was enough to ignite his panic centers even more.

That was when a green shape blurred into view and smashed one of them into spare parts.  Metal bits and parts skittered across the street, one of them thudding against his sneakers. ”I feel as if I know this one,” The spirit chimed in, and the information that came to mind was cloudy at best. Why did she always have to include unhelpful information? Instinctually he took a couple stes back, considering the person with a critical eye. Were they a they a threat? They did destroy the Pridebots which meant that might not have been the case, but Ethan didn’t know for certain. He didn’t even want to be here right now. That alone would have been enough but include a dragon, and it’s all falling to pieces.

Really.

There’s a dragon just swooping down from the sky and growling at them.  All he could do was look at it, wide eyed and surprised at what he was dealing with. Wind whipping from massive wings, sending Ethan stumbling back a few steps with the idea of running away becoming even stronger.  ”What the hell. Guess this is just a freakshow at this point,” Ethan muttered to himself, massaging he bridge of his nose through his mask and taking a second glance at the situation. No. It was a guy, not a dragon, or maybe the dragon turned into a guy. Either way he was dealing with usual cape shit.

By the time two more appeared, he was all in all sure he wanted to just leave everything to them. What could he do anyway?  No defaulting out of this one Ethan, The spirit in his head  chided, leaving him in an even worse situation. No wait, the speedy guy and the other one weren’t the last to show up.  This point they were practically an entire team, and he had to help them anyway.

Now add in the remaining robots opening their mouths and speaking, well you had a villain. With that done the pridebots all moved into action, a massive hoard with only one intention; to harm them. Ethan didn’t know if they were going for the kill and he didn’t want to know. ”Yeah no,” The concrete yawned open beneath him, swallowing Ethan up before rapidly closing.  Depositing him into one of the subway tunnels that ran throughout the city.  The lights were low, faintly illuminating the area around him and giving Ethan enough sight to see what was around him. He had a feeling that he knew where this mastermind would be and the robots were more nuisance than anything else.  

Leaving them to deal with the lions share of the work? He didn’t dignify that with a response, instead  conjuring a sphere of yellow in his hand and casting even more neon light outwards. If he could find a door, that would lead him to a shortcut to the station. He was maybe a good few blocks away, which meant either making a run for it or porting. Ethan preferred the latter. Something buzzed around him, which meant he needed to act quickly.

Deimos takes note of their merry band, one of each somehow knowing draconic much to his both shock and great appreciation for someone with at least an ability to communicate to some effective degree. A light rumble trickles from his throat in a tired yet agreeable trill. “So a crazy cat lady in the subways did this? Great.” The draconic voice lulled into a low tone that almost suggested a growl. [color=#00FFFF]“Clearing them would be good but… I think there’s way too many without it becoming a time consuming game of whack a mole. Besides… they seem to be at least attempting not to kill anyone.”/color] As much as Deimos hated to trivialize, there was not as much blood in the streets as there should be for this. Yes a few died here and there, but the streets should be littered with the dead and maimed by now if they had a kill order. “I can clear a lot of them at once to get us to the subway but once we're there I’ll need a minute to go with you all.” He was well aware only one person here could understand him, but he could only hope they’d be willing to translate.

As far as he could tell these were capable people. A typical superhero in black and blue, a heavily armed woman who’d been busting up lions so effectively he’d seen it from the sky, a woman with a helmet who seemed to almost pull at whatever reaction inside him gave him his breath of radiation, and a boy in a ski mask. A merry band indeed. That is until his friend in the mask was suddenly swallowed up by the streets.

A scaled ridge above his eye rises as if it were a brow. As much as he definitely felt the urge to hit fuck it as well the disembodied voices from the machines ahead draw his attention. The puns. As if his eyes could roll further back in his head. All of this was a game to whatever mad man was in charge, baiting them to whatever hell was waiting for them in the subways. How lovely. And now there were twenty lions going for his face. He didn’t know what he expected when the audio cut out, but it wasn’t getting bum rushed by a good amount of lions and getting pelted with lasers from others. The flashing forced the dragons eyes closed as he tilts down the crown of horns and lashes out viciously with a clattering snarl.The thrash with his horns did good to reduce some to scrap but a good amount of the pesky buggers dug in, claws scraping against scale, dislodging a few loose scales and drawing blood beneath his eyes. When his head twisted to the right to latch his teeth around the midsection of one lion, another got behind the bony plating of the fans on his jaw and dug teeth into the softer flesh of his throat. Blood rushes from the cut and more pile on catching him under the chin and going for the throat.

Reptilian eyes snap open as the dragon rears in rage. He couldn’t risk coming down on top of anyone, so he’d risk losing an eye for that. Luckily the painful sting of a claw to the cornea never happened and he was able to take a calculated lunge forward into the incoming crowd of lions. The concrete splinters under the weight and dents around where his forearms crushed around five lions each. Another swipe lept cleared out three more leaving one left clinging to the left side of his throat. His annoyance wells into anger as he slings the lion from his throat. It hits the crumpled pavement still clutching a small chunk of dragon flesh in its teeth as blood steadily trickles from Deimos’s neck. It moved to lunge again but this time a scaled hand catches it mid-leap and pins it. Rather than crush his jaws open and a torrent of flame bathes the retching machine until red hot… then white hot… then molten into the cracks in the street. Overkill of course but there was no greater way to infuriate a dragon than to inflict pain.
Deimos shakes his head as a seemingly alarming amount of steaming blood hits the pavement. He ducks around lashing a tail out at the onslaught just trying to limit the amount of robots going for his new found companions. As much as he hated it, there was no way he could accompany them into the sewers like this. He was tougher and more durable as a dragon but way too big of a hazard when risking collapsing the whole system was on the table. Thus time for a change.

The outline of the obsidian dragon seems to melt away into a liquid orb of shadow and moonlight. After a few seconds of shrinking and rippling the shape of a winged man solidifies as Deimos wipes the blood from seemingly superficial cuts from his face and neck. He was of good height and stature, if a bit underdressed in a pair of lazy gray sweatpants and a navy tee. His wings tucked up neatly against his back, the weight pulling up his regal posture as the mage hives a light quip of his hand to the frontline. Magic flows from him as a fine dust of silvery blue forming into a shield to bear the brunt of whatever hell comes toward him as he steps back out of the way to support from a distance. He’d taken out more than his share of lions, but the others still had some worth harassing.

“Keep fighting, I’ll support you with spells.” He shouts to the group. The draconic mage’s hands glow and crackle with magic as he looks for where to help next. He knew the next stop was definitely the subway, which wasn’t super fun, but at least he could hold a normal conversation with those who couldn’t speak draconic.