What's Under the Armor, a boy or a Mandalorian? (Trog)

How a seven foot tall asian girl would vanish in the area was a mystery. However, searching low, Caleb would soon find himself as though in a whole new world altogether.

The area Caleb found himself in was a quiet part of town, business that were closed for the night. But it was far too quiet. Street lamps were not functional. There were police cars with their blinkers still on and doors ajar. Police barricades were set up in the street but no one manned these stops. On closer inspection, it was the scene of a shoot out- spent casings and blood littered the ground, and not far from the barricade were the bodies of several... creatures, strange fish-amphibian things, which were nothing more than teeth and legs. They had a wretched smell as they rotted in the street, but their recent wounds indicated they had clashed with the police and reached them, likely having overwhelmed them with numbers.

Further down the road, the flash and sound of gunfire rang out, four figures were making their stand in a large butcher shop. The streets ran slick with the blood of the foul Amphiboids, but more of them swarmed the butcher shop,

"I don't know how much longer we can hold em off!" a female voice rang out, as a bright round object zipped through the air.

"We can't leave Wombat!" Another man said, dressed up like a construction worker and whacking the creatures out of the air with a shovel, or caving their heads in with his tool.

"You have to leave... get help... leave me..." A third figure huddled behind the counter said.

"We ain't havin' none of your crazy talk, partner! I'd go down fightin' these here varmints than let em take you!" A third figure, dressed up like a cowboy and wearing a bandana to conceal his face, was shooting off his period weapons, taking out the creatures. These four were in grave danger, as another wave of Amphiboids were emerging from the very sewers- they would spot Caleb, and rush him- their disproportionate legs carrying them, their hungry, fang filled outs wanting to tear him to pieces. Their hissed and screamed like no other creature of this earth did...

Calebs eyes widened as he saw the scene in front of him. As if the ninjas and the Monster had been enough, but now this whole mess too? Whatever this whole mess even was to begin with. He had gone off in search of a pair of missing kids and ended up in the middle of what looked like an alien-attacks-style science-fiction movie. There were even bodies of what was either aliens or mutants lying around, stinking up the place. If this was a science fiction style of adventure it was the weird sort from the seventies with giant ants or outer-space locusts from dimension X or some such. However, fortunately this was right up Caleb's alley. He might feel a bit left out when he was up against ninjas or soul-sucking monsters, but Space-aliens invading earth? This was right up his alley! He had watched enough Science fiction to feel right at home in this situation.

With a few quick key-strokes at his left-top the laser-gatling-gun ascended from its niche and quickly took aim at the approaching monsters. Now that he had gotten a closer look at them he definately did not want them to get too close. He was rather fortunate to have completed his new weapon earlier this week, as he had built it more or less precisely for situations such as this. The barrel of the weapon started rotating as a flurry of undending laser-bolts shot through it, less designed for hitting than obliterating Caleb's foes in an unceasing hail of laser-beams. However, one of the monsters had managed to avoid the blasts and leaped at him, ferocious teeth bared.

Caleb was frozen for a few seconds as he saw the monster fly at him. So this was how it ended? Eaten by a fish-amphibian-thingamabob in the rough part of town. Sure, his mother had warned him from going here, but he expected she had not thought about him getting eaten by aliens when she did so. However, just about when the monstrosity was about to attack, Caleb reflexively swatted it aside by a block. . .

His heart leapt with joy! If June was here he would bloody well give her a big wet kiss! He took ain with his laser-gauntled and fired a salvo into the creature once it was stunned as he ascended into the air. Hopefully these things could not fly. The gatlin-gun still spun furiously dispensing death en masse to the ailens. "Hold on, I'll try to give you cover!" he announced to the people in the store, his cool, Darth-Vader-esque voice sounding more bad-ass than ever!

Today he was Caleb the Blocking Wonderboy!

The amphiboids, genetically programmed with maximum aggression and no sense of self-preservation, did not falter in their wave attack even against Caleb's effective crowd-killer weaponry. The attack dog sized monsters exploded in disgusting showers of gore as the laser beams superheated their volatile bodies.

While Caleb blocked one and flew off, a couple more reach for his limbs, their stubby little reptilian legs carried them as quickly as they could and leaping at him, reacting instinctively and piling, climbing over themselves. Even for a fraction of a second their bite force was very high, then they were promptly shot.

Pistol rounds from a genuine Colt Single Action Revolver, or the "Peacemaker", flew in 6 rapid successions, almost simultaneously offing the last of the creatures.

"YIPEE KA-YAY! Looks like we done got ourselves another he-ro! over here pardner!" The cowboy said with a very enthusiastic cowboy slang, twirling his revolver (a very dangerous act) and holstering them. He waved Caleb over into the butcher shop which, ironically, was now filled with dozens of dead amphiboid bodies, the display freezers malfuctioning.

Inside the building, the lights were switched on, letting the carnage of the evening be plain for all to see. They had come in from nearly all sides, the heroes backed into this exposed position. The aging man with the hard hat, domino mask, shovel and chain mail extended a gloved hand in thanks. He was an all american, average joe type with a Brooklyn accent. His real name was probably Joe too. "Thanks for the assist. We were sure we were done for... you wouldn't happen to have some a medic kit to go with your toys, do you? Captain Wombat took a nasty bite."

The midwest lady with the heavy goth make up and less than ... superhero looks, wearing high cut steel toed shoes, jeans and a checkered shirt and hood, had her magic orb (bowling ball) come to her and she stowed it away in a bowling ball bag. She was a bit short, and a bit chubby. She checked Caleb's gear out and spoke with admiration for his gear. "That is really cool armor kid, you look like a real Mandalorian. Made it yourself? Oh, I'm Mistress Shadowsong by the way. The guy with the Shovel is... Shovelist... and Tex here is ... ugh... Highwayman."

"Durn tootin', little lady. So, you lookin' for them missin' youngins too I reckon? hoo-wee, didn't gander that we'd run into nasty sewer critters. You city slickers got some pretty nasty stuff down there, hoo-wee." He asked Caleb. He too wore a bandit mask like the lone ranger, and pulling down his red bandana he had a full white beard, and wrinkled features. Seemed Highwayman may have been as old as Willie Nelson. He spent this downtime to reload his six revolvers, as well as his lever action rifle, wearing bandoliers of ammunition under his poncho.

Wombat was in bad shape, the creatures biting through his armor... rather, costume... which looked home made... and rather basic. "Clearly... they're... lovecraftian horrors... from... beyond what man was meant to know... I can't... aah... thank you enough... for saving us. When we heard... kids were... going missing... we had to help." Wombat said, sounding alot like Adam West trying to sound brave when he was missing a couple pounds of flesh.

Caleb felt relieved as the last few monsters that were about to get physical with him were dealt with by the Cownboy-fellow and his entourage. He slowly descended and strode toward the other heroes in the butcher-shop. He desperately hoped that this was the last of the Feral, Frothing, Foul-mouthed, Fangly-Faced Freaks but he did not dare to be positive. Just in case he opened his left-top and with a quick series of key-strokes he had ordered his drones to scout the area around their little hideaway, just to see if there were any more of the creatures on their way to attack them. As one, the little purple-coloured metal balls shot of in various directions to follow the command of their leader.

They were an eclectic bunch to say the least. The old man dressed as a cowboy seemed to be the one to lead the group, which may or may not be a good idea given his seemingly reckless attitude. Nevertheless he seemed to be both brave and care about his friends.
The woman was probably the voice of reason of the group. Her Goth-style choice of fashion made Caleb uncertain if she was even wearing a costume at all, or was caught in this whole mess in her street-clothes.
The big, armored construction-working fellow who had so expertly wielded his shovel was probably the strong silent type of their little band. As Caleb shook his hand, he feel that there were quite a bit of strength in that grip of his.
The last man looked like someone who shared his fate of operating throughout a garage, but unlike Caleb this guy probably did not benefit from the capability to build mandalorian armor. He seemed to be pretty beaten up

"Sorry man, I've got nothing of the sort. Maybe they have a first-aid kit somewhere here. I mean, It's worth a shot, right?'" Caleb responded to the hard-hatted gentleman as he asked about wether or not he had a first aid-kit in his suit somewhere. Maybe he aught to add one. Could come in very handy in situations like this.

Caleb grinned like an idiot as Goth-girl AKA Mistress Shadowsong praised his gear. It made him especially happy that she recognized the Mandalorian design. Not many people seemed to get that. In fact apart from Edwin the only one who had gotten it was Diana, and she had stubbornly refused to admit it afterwards.

"Thanks! I'm glad someone recognized it! Yeah, the basic design is basically a Mandalorian armor. I even had a jetpack before I came up with the designs for the antigrav-pack I use now. Unfortunately that meant that the flamethrower had to go, but I'm working on a. . . . " He started to ramble on excitedly, but then realized that this was definitely not the best time for it. Also the Darth-vader-style voice granted by his voice-modulator was horrible for rambling, it basically took all the bad-ass credit away from it.

"Sorry to go on a tanget. I really like your codename. It's pretty awesome. " he finished off.

He then turned to the Highwayman (a totally awesome name!) and nodded to him.
"Yeah, though I'm not sure we're looking for the same kids. The pair I'm searching for are called Finn and Jake and they disappeared on their way home from school not too long ago. I pretty much started looking less than five minutes before I ran into you guys. Y'reckon you could fill me in about what happened here and what these things have to do with this mess?" He asked the Highwayman, nodding to a pile of the dead amphibian thingamabobs. Hopefully his newfound friends knew more about this than he did. Now as the adrenaline was losing its grip on him he could not help but to wonder what in the blazes he had managed to stumble into this time.

"Oh... okay... I guess I'll... take Highwayman's remedy then..." Wombat said with great reluctance, and Highwayman brought out the whiskey container. Wombat took a big swig and drank deep, as Highwayman started a fire using one of the fish bodies and used that to heat a knife.

"Now yer gonna wanna bite down on this here bullet." The cowboy got pretty medival with his medical treatment, letting Wombat bite down on a bullet. He put the white hot knife to his wound, a bit too eager to re-enact how things were done in the old west. Wombat thrashed and convulsed at the pain, gritting hard on the bullet to avoid screaming out too loud.

Goth Bowler looked at the method with great disdain. It was so machismo and stupid. "Men... That is so getting infected. I'm calling an ambulance, like, now." The girl quickly gets her phone and calls emergency services. "Hello 911..."

The Shovelist looked away from the very crude cauterization of the wounds, and kept an eye out the windows, keeping vigil against any more monsters. He kept his shovel ready, holding it with both hands at all times. Once most of the cuts were closed, Highwayman dealt with Wombat's bruises by putting some steaks on them. They were in a butcher shop after all, and had plenty around.

"Too many kids been disappearin' in these here parts, and there ain't no sign o' no crime syndicate or ransoms. S'also real strange too, since it's a safe neighborhood Heck Wombat here reckons it must be the same folk who took your Finn and Jake." Highwayman speculated, while he held a big red steak to Wombat's bruised face.

"Ambulance is coming. We'll probably need to keep someone here to watch out for Wombat, while we go look for clues." Shadowsong hung up her mobile phone.

"I'll do it. Think those critters got a bite in my leg." Shovelist said, stoically resisting his injury, only now walking with a slight limp.

One of Caleb's scouting probes eventually beeps him when it detects the presence of a fight not too far from the butcher shop. Apparently at an truck stop, there were car sized UFO's flying about.

"SO YOU GUYS ARE BACK!" A woman's voice rang out, and she leap into combat against the UFO's, literally jumping thirty feet into the air to grab one of them and throw it back down into the concrete near Caleb's probe. A second later, a very loud, very painful screeching noise could be heard over the audio...

Caleb swallowed hard as he saw Cowboy start the fire. He had seen enough westerns to know where this was going. He honestly thought they would be better off trying to get him to a doctor or something. He really wished that he had spent more time working on his Anti-grav pack like he was supposed to. If he had done that it would actually be strong enough to carry both him and Wombat at impressive enough speeds. However, at the moment he could do little more than hover and slowly float from one place to another if he was carrying a passenger.

When the Cowboy told Wombat to bite down on the bullet Caleb felt his stomach tighten. This would not be pretty. he clenched his fists and waited for the inevitable. As Wombat was given the bullet to bite, Caleb knew that this would be bad. Even worse than what he had imagined. And it was. The shrieks and convulsions were bad enough. Even though his helmet was sealed and contained an air-filtration system, wich meant that no smell could actually enter his nostril, he could still smell it somehow. He expected that this was some sort of Psychosomatic thing. His hands reflexively moved up to cover his mouth but instead did nothing but collide with is visor with the dull noise of metal hitting metal

As Mistress Shadowsong decided to call an ambulance our hero could not help but to nod insistently. This was probably the best thing he had heard all day.

"Alright, that makes sense. Though if it was these things, I uh, reckon there's a chance they're like. . . y'know" Caleb said dejectedly as The Highwayman explained the situation. He was unwilling to finish the sentence. However, he w as fairly certain that everyone knew what it was he was trying to say. The kids could in fact be dead, eaten by these monsters. Fortunately, his thoughts were interrupted by Mistress Shadowsong, telling them that the ambulance were to arrive in a few minutes. at least that was one thing less they would have to worry about.

When the Shovelist agreed to stay be hind Caleb nodded appreciatively. he was glad that they did not have to argue about it, because, for some reason he expected that the others would have asked him to wait. It was understandable from a certain point of view. They seemed to know one another, and he was not only an unknown, but also a newbie and a wildcard. and, depending on wether they had figured it out or not, pretty much a kid himself.

Alright man, stay safe. he said as he prepared to head out. However, that was when one of his drones activated his alarm. Apparantly there were honest-to-god UFO's flying about not far from here. This day had started out pretty great, but now it had degenerated into nothing but dangerous crazyness. He knew it was a rather unheroic thing to wish for, but he nonetheless wished that he had headed home instead of looking for the boys. Well, at least part of him was.

"Guys, you should see this!" he said, holding up his left-top for the others to see, maximizing the picture to be as big as it could on his little screen. Suddenly the picture dissappeared and a screeching-sound was heard. From the left-top it was not that hard due to the limited sound-system, but in Caleb's headphones it was much worse. A quick key-stroke cut the audio, and with another, swift series of keystrokes he ordered all of his drones to converge around the place, so that they hopefully could give them a better view of the situation as it progressed

"Follow me!" Caleb said decisively, finally using his vader-esque voice in the way that nature had intended. He quickly took to the air and heading towards the place where the drone had last transmitted from. Fortunately his GPS told him it was not all that far. He also made sure to not go too far ahead of the others so that they would be able to find the way.

Highwayman and Shadowsong watched the video earnestly, the cowboy looking mighty enthusiastic at the sight of the Truck Stop. "Yeah I know where that place is! S'where I... uh... my ... uh... friend.... stops by! between shifts!"

Once outside, Highwayman put his fingers to his mouth and made a loud whistle. Like some old western movie, a horse complete with bit and saddle came from out of somewhere. The old timer still had some moves and was able to mount his steed in a single move.

"Come on lil' missy! Hiya!" Highwayman helped Shadowsong up onto the back of the horse, and with the white stallion's help they kept up fine with flying Caleb, neighing and galloping at full speed. Once they were in visual range of the Truck Stop, several of the trucks' containers were already perforated by the UFO shapes.

The female figure fighting them grabs one midair and lands ontop a container, denting it heavily as she pummels the sealed up UFO with her fists. The all white metal disc UFO's converged on her, but she used one UFO to bludgeon the others.

Caleb and his trio would be confronted with one slightly damaged UFO that had landed in a dumpster, slowly getting out of the dumpster and 'deploying', the UFO undergoing a limited transformation into a quadruped like, crawled creature with a cluster of cybernetic eyes focusing on the new arrivals. It made some mechanical sounds, as two ray guns emerged from its shoulders.

Always quick on the draw, Highwayman lets Shadowsong off and circles the creature, shooting at it with his pistol. Then Shadowsong uses her mystical bowling ball, the skull-embedded crystal sphere travelling at high speed to smash into it.

The thing's angular armor deflects it, and in retaliation, unleashed a directed sonic attack against the offending mystic. The girl quickly loses concentration, her ball falling to the ground, clutching her ears in pain as she fell to her knees. But, from anyone else's perspective, it seemed like The cyber-beast just looked at Shadowsong and she started to collapse in pain.

"SONG! DAMN YOU, VARMINT! " Highwayman angrily lights a stick of dynamite with a short fuse, and chucks it at the cyber-beast. He blows up the dumpster, getting garbage everywhere, but the UFO was only Shaken, and once again 'folded' into its UFO form, becoming speedier and tougher. Highwayman shot at it a few more times, switching guns and emptying revolvers in frustration.

Normally Caleb would be somewhat taken aback to see UFO's in real life. Especially of the iconic saucer-variety. After ally, they had been floating around somewhere in the borderlands between the two fields of science fiction movies and ancient conspiracies, sometimes crossing over from one side to the others, but rarely taken seriously by anyone. Of course, the existence of aliens were a fact. there were quite a few known one on earth, not to mention all of the weird claims of various metahumans, but these were not the dull, I-pod looking technology that aliens usually showed up with, these were flying saucers, the genuine article.


Caleb was not surprised when Highwayman whistled, perhaps it was the triggering sound to some sort of automated vehicle or somesuch. He should really look into getting some manner of transport himself. Something with plasma-cannons and laser-guns and. . . If he had not worn his helmet, the others would have seen his jaw dropped as a horse came running along the street. A honest-to-god flesh-and-blood horse. In the middle of Washington D.C. Even his super-brilliant brain could come up with any excuse for this, except 'He's a cowbow, he's gotta have a horse. It's tradition' This was not the right moment to get into an argument, but after this was over, and let's say for the sake of argument that the two of them survived, he would ask about the practicality as well as the ethical ramifications of having a horse running around in the middle of the city

On the bright side, the horse allowed the other heroes to keep far better pace than they would have otherwise, and considering speed was likely of the essence this was a good thing. A few weeks ago he would have expected that he would be flying in a mandalorian-style knock-off suit of armor next to an honest-to-god Cowboy and Goth-witch wielding a magical bowling-ball riding on a horse on their way to stop flying saucers. As they arrrived

Sure he knew that they were what expected him, since he had seen it on his drones screen, but there was something special about seeing an honest-to-god flying saucer in real life"No. Freaking. Way. Flying saucers!" Caleb said, sounding more excited than terrified. However, it did not take him long to recover from being star-struck, especially when one of the saucers seemingly transformed into a robotic beast. the wheels inside our hero's head spun with increased speed as his subconsciousness intuitively wrapped its head around how this thing worked. As for now, he could not get more than the gist of it, but it was definitely working along scientific principles that had not even been conceived of by most minds on this planet. suddenly the cyberbeast shouted at Shadowsong who fell into a heap of agonized suffering.

Caleb flew upwards and with a quick tap on his left-top his laser-Gatlin sprung to life and fired upon the Cy-beast. He then proceeded to take aim and launch a glob of capture-foam at it's 'eyes' and mouth hopefully managing to blind it temporarily whilst at the same time allowing Shadowsong time to recover. Hopefully these things had some sort of weak-spot he could use against them somehow.

Laser blasts proved less than optimal against the Cyber-beast, as it turned on a dime mid-air and let the beams be deflected by its clearly durable white UFO shell. It glowed from the heat but maintained integrity, the blast ricocheting into a nearby office building... where the missing kids were being kept in alien stasis pods. The aliens' tech had a sharp, angular aesthetic, made of black metal, while the missing kids were suspended in some kind of glowing green liquid.

The Cyber-beast turned to retaliate against Caleb, but did not expect the foam; its optics disabled, it tried to revert to its much more survivable UFO form, but the foam made it hard.

"That's the way, pardner!" Highwayman cheerily said, capitalizing on the Cy-beast's difficulty and made a called shot at its more vulnerable inner components, causing it to shudder midair and then fall to the ground. "That's what you darn deserve, you varmint!"

Dragon Girl finally joins the other heroes, landing near the opening where the stasis pods were. With two Cy-beasts in hand, she smashes them together and smashes them into the concrete until they fall apart. It was clear they were trying to get away, trying to use their sharp claws to get free, but the girl's skin alone couldn't be pierced.

"RAAAAAGH!" Dragon Girl continued beating one Cy-beast to death with another, screaming until they were nothing more than scrap. Once she was left with just a mechanical tail in hand, did she stop, and take a moment to breath. She was focused on the children inside the stasis pods, but she also noticed Caleb and Highwayman. She raised her hands in a show of non-hostility but remained quiet.

Highwayman let out a whistle at the sight of the display of superstrength. He nudged Caleb in the side. "Cowboy, You go deal with the Super over there. I gotta go make sure Song's alright." With that, Highwayman went to help his downed teammate, leaving Caleb to deal with Dragon Girl... and the children in stasis.

Caleb quickly stopped firing his new awesome guns as soon as it was apparent that his lasers did nothing against the aliens. suddenly overcome by a childish fit of rage he barely managed to stop himself from crying out in anger and going on a rant about how unfair it was that they were immune to his lasers. He realized that this immature display would do nothing but shatter the (probably very fragile) respect and camaraderie he had forged with the other two supers. At least some good came out of it. His errant laser-beams had revealed the whereabouts of the missing children

Instead he decided to look at the technology in question. maybe there were inherent weaknesses which could be used against them. The wheels started turning in his head, as he understood scientific fields and processes that there was not even a name for yet. There was so much he would be able to do. So much potential that he could harness from this alien knowledge. Immediately new designs started popping into his head, New weapons that would be superior to both the aliens and his own species. . . .

. . . But not until after the kids were safe, of course. Fortunately it seemed that his capture-foam was efficient enough to at least temporarily inconvenience the cyber-Ufo-beast-thing. It once again seemingly tried to transform into it's pure U.F.O form, and Caleb realized that this was his best chance. It's outside was capable of bouncing lasers away, but maybe it's insides lacked that capability. Caleb flew in closer aiming for the cracks and crevices that had opened in it's cyber-shell, however before he had time to do anything his 'Pardner' In heroism had taken the shot, downing the thing in one shot. Even if he felt as though the cowboy had stolen his 'kill' somewhat, he could not deny that it was an impressive to end the enemy.

Then, out of the blue his Taekwando instructor shows up swinging two UFO's around like they were nothing but toys. Sure, June was definitely on the bigger side of average, but this wen't beyond 'big and strong', this was superpowers, and superpowers of the highest order too. A proper superhero, that one. Then the Highwayman suggested that he was to deal with her while he looked after song.

"Hey, uh, you. We're totally on your side, man. Like, fighting the aliens and looking for the lost kids" Caleb said uncertainly, whilst very happy that his voice-modulator made his voice virtually unrecognizable. he landed on the ground hesitantly walking towards the super-powered giant.

"I'm Captain Awesome, the cowboy-looking guy's the Highwayman and the woman is Mistress Shadowsong. She does magic." he continued, a little less more hesitantly. The super-teacher had yet to make a move that indicated she wanted to squash him like a bug.

"I think I've understood enough about how all this works to could get the kids out of those stasis-pod-whatchamacallems if you'd keep me safe in the meantime" he continued, outline the embryo of a plan that had formulated inside of his mind.

Dragon Girl couldn't possibly be June! June was a meek, kind girl who was a bit of a dork and wore baggy clothes... Dragon Girl had a commanding posture, and presence, and wore form fitting alloyed scale armor that made her look like a warrior, her fists wrapped in gauntlets. Ah, but Clark Kenting hardly works anymore. She should really wear a mask.

Dragon Girl's voice was different too. June spoke with a halting English that was sadly typical of east Asians, but Dragon Girl spoke fluent American English. "...Shoot. What gave it away..." She approached and took a few sniffs. The armor didn't quite hide the scent of the wearer. "...Caleb?" She said, not liking people figuring out her identity in a heartbeat. "So... you're a superhero? Why did you enroll in Taekwondo?"

"Anyway, you've got a deal. These aliens don't give up easy, they'll be sending heavy firepower soon. If I see it, I'll draw its fire so you can get to work." Dragon Girl spoke with a bitter experience against this enemy, and while they did come up with new monstrosities every time, the roles they filled were all the same. She jumped up onto the roof of the next building- a ten storey apartment- in a single bound, and kept an eye out for the 'Firepower'.

Caleb would have an alien computer and stasis matrix to contend with, far beyond what ordinary earthers could conceive. To make a point of it, the alien machinery started making those alien beeping sounds when Caleb entered the vicinity, the Phase Constructor device assembling a new stasis pod in a free space- a scientific mind would see that it was converting energy to matter! Once the pod was ready for its new occupant, An alien robotic Glados type overseer machine emerges from the floor, with wicked surgical instruments. It looked at Caleb with confusion.

" *Wierd Alien language-speak* (New subject not yet prepared for stasis. Rectifying.)" Again, it pulls out a device to attempt to subdue Caleb, for lack of a better term an alien dubstep gun. Using harmonics, it emits alien wubs that attempt to incapacitate him with vertigo...

"Because I can't fight, Okay." Caleb responded responded in an exhasperated fashion.  His lack of close combat ability was a bit of a sore thumb, considering most superheroes had this, either from the obligatory years and years of training or as a freebie from their immense physical prowess. Caleb had neither. He had to make do with his gadgets and trust that his Purple Mandalorian armor would be enough to compensate for this fact. And to be fair most time they had more or less kept safe, but after the whole run-in with Diana and her genin he realized that this was quite the handicap in the heroing-community

"Like, I don't do close combat and I don't have any powers, It's kinda why I built the armor, and even though it worked out for the most part this Ninja I know told me . . . I'm rambling, and I seeriously need to stop doing that." The wanna-be-hero rambled on, his Darth Vader-style Voice being what it was made a very poor choice of voice for ramgling. He was feeling very nervous right now and nervousness tended to make him far more talkative than he usually was. He knew that this brief chat was nothing but abrief interlude before leaping back into the action, but he desperately wanted to extend it a bit further. Just a few seconds longer so that he wouldn't have to fight more of the horrid monstrosities. He swallowed hard as he felt his resolve quell the fear within him "Yeah, let's save those kids!"

Caleb quickly flew into the office-building where the Stasis-pods where located. It was quite clear from the get-go that this technology was so far above earths own that earth would need a telescope to look at it. suddenly, there where quite a few pods placed in rows along the walls of the former office and in the middle of it was a huge machine, that Caleb immediately realized was the main controll-unit, but that was not all that it was. It was also the creator of the pods.

Before Caleb had any time to wonder just how it created the pods, it did just that. The pod was seemingly formed out of nothing in mid-air, but our hero quickly realized that it was not forming out of nothing, but out of energy! This was a piece of truly righteous technology! Caleb quickly approached the machine, the wheels within his mind spinning furiously, figuring out how this weird machine worked. Normally this ability worked nearly instantaneously, but this time it was different. He could feel new concepts forming in his mind, merely as waypoints to understand the complex working of this device. He felt famished, as well, as his brain consumed more and more resources to deal with the weirdness around him.

However, before he had time to go to work, a strange machine erupted, seemingly from the floor. It seemed to be some sort of unholy mix between survelience-camera, computer and robot, but at the same time, it was none of the above. It gurgled something at him, sounding like Microsoft sam attempting to speak Braille, and produces a device similar to the UFO they had met earlier. The sound-gun. Our hero immediately realized that the 'sound-proofing' on his helmet is not enough to withstand the blast, and quickly starts to lose all  sense of direction, including up and down. His limbs feel oddly out of proportion and he has to hold on to the alien computer as if to not lose his footing entirely.

However, his suits onboard-computer has no problems with this, and at it's masters mental command it quickly takes control over the laser-Gatlin-gun and fires a burst at the alien dubstep-cannon.

The pod guardian glowed for an instant, before the laser beams melted its out shell and punched holes in it, causing it to thankfully not explode. It simply slumped down in place, on fire, like some tired old geriatric.

It seemed the pods should have been more guarded, but that overseer was the sum total of the pod area's defenses. Caleb was now relatively free to access the alien software and deactivate the pods to free the children. Now there was just the matter of all the tubes and wires on their bodies holding them in place. And said children waking up in horror, naked, covered in alien goo and covered in wires, a tube down their throat. And some of those kids spontaneously using their powers... fun powers like turning into wolfkids... or living metal... or a human torch.

The kid closest to Caleb though was some sort of shapeshifter... the sort that could stretch his limbs out quite far. In a panic and seeing Caleb in his suit, he tries to fight by wailing on him with his stretchy fists.

Meanwhile, June is having the most awesome, earthshaking and heroic off screen battle against an alien tripod, which I won't describe.