The Exemplar: Engage

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[Attn: Closed]

Armada, Attack!
Warriors, Rise!
Exemplar...Engage!


I've forgotten how long it's been since my dad passed away. It feels like it's been years. God knows my sense of time is terrible. The Exemplar disbanded not a month later. That was one heck of a decision. Then again, most of them have gone and settled into normal lives. When daddy died, I guess it scared a lot of them. The chance to have a normal life isn't something to take for granted, I suppose. I still see some of them every once in a while but...I miss it. I miss going out and smashing bad guys' skulls together. Ah, come on, Polly, how would Liberty or American respond if you'd said that out loud? "It's not about that. It's about helping people and doing the right thing." They're right but...god beating up bad guys was fun.

The Exemplar, the debatable greatest superheroes on the planet, disbanded some time ago. This woman, the jovial young Paulina Powers, walks in through the front door of her large suburban home, feeling strangely empty. It was a feeling she'd hand since the day her father perished, helping to defend Earth's Greatest Champions against their deadliest foes joined under the title of "The Nefaria". She lived alone now but that wasn't it. She'd lived alone before. Now was simply the first time she actually felt...lonely.

Then, as if a star listening from the sky had heard her wish, something truly unexpected occurs. As Paulina sits at her reading desk, she sees a light approaching the window. Using her psionic powers, she wills a barrier of psychic energy into place. It helps nothing. The figure is the mighty demigod, Gladius, powerful enough to level the entire building ten times over. As he crashes through the window and the floor, Polly looks to him as he lies in the basement of her home. Forming butterfly-like wings upon her back, she floats down to him. "Gladius! What are you-"

"Mortal friend, Powers," Gladius says as she helps him up. "This world is in dire need of its greatest champions."

"So you came to ME, of all people? Not American or Liberty, or-"

"You were the nearest and know, by heart, the whereabouts of the quarters where the rest lay their heads."

Super Criminals and Villains were at large by the dozen in the bustling city of Skyline as of late. Meanwhile, more and more heroes were beginning to decline. The Exemplar, the shining examples of heroism in this city, had gone. The next best thing, the Warriors, had only just disappeared. The city was falling into chaos. But Polly hadn't the faintest idea of how bad it was until she saw this, the Exemplar's biggest gun, second only to the nigh omnipotent Number 7, battered and thrown aside. "What did this to you?"

"I am unsure. But if I were to venture a guess, they will have been the cretinous demi-devils known as the Negative. There were but three of them. They attacked, having taken me unawares. Fight, I did, but their power was great individually. When combining their efforts..."

The Negative...the Warriors tended to take care of situations involving them. They had the only usable weapon against them in the city; Scarecrow. The Negative were a high level threat. They would need to be dealt with in high level response. They'd need the Exemplar treatment. "Come on," Polly says, deciding to help the injured demigod outside. "Try not to change back into your mortal form. I have a feeling this one is the only thing keeping you alive right now. I'm getting you to some place where you can get medical attention. Then...then I'm getting the band back together," she says as she moves him toward the garage where her car sat.

[Attn: Open]

"These weapons are like nothing I've ever seen. Try not to get hit!" Bates shouts as he ducks from another shot and keeps low, following American's lead.

Silk and Wild-Child duck and weave through the shots like trapeze performers. "And how long was your Common Sense need to tingle before ya came to that conclusion, Captain Obvious?" Wild-Child remarks.

"I have never though the Syndicate more than an annoyance," Gladius remarks. "But now...now they are simply being a pain in the-"

"NECK!" Polly shouts over Gladius as the scion of the gods rips one of the turrets from the wall with his hands. The throws up another wall of psionic energy to shield herself as she races forward.

"Osmund must be behind this," America says as he leaps over a particle beam shot.

Man-Monster transforms into a large, black serpent and slithers about to avoid being struck. "This does look like technology that he and his understanding of alien technology could scrape together," he says.

"There's a door down this hall. I can see it! Gladius?" Polly says.

"Aye," Gladius says, tearing down the hall like a missile and slamming through the security door like paper. "Syndicate! Reveal yourselves, cretins!"

[ATTN: All]

Sentinel cut her thrusters, landing in a full sprint after Gladius as he slammed through the door. She glanced behind her, finding Coir and slowing enough that he caught up and could run by her side.

[Attn: Open]

A middle aged man in a tattered lab coat with glasses and greying hair stands at console, hooked up to a small device in the center of the room. "Doctor?" Devlin says as he steps through the door.

The man looks up from his work and over his shoulder before returning to his work. He seemed almost dead. His eyes were lifeless voids and he muttered incoherent babble to himself as he slaved over the machine before him. "Doctor, where are the people who forced you to come here and work on this?" Polly says.

"They have my daughters. My little Mabel and Annie. And their babysitter, Karen. Said...they would kill the girls if I didn't finish their weapon."

"Doc, you know that if they're having you make an ethereal bomb, they're dead anyway. As well as a quarter of the eastern seaboard," Polly says.

The doctor pauses and looks into Polly's pink eyes. "Bomb? What's this about a bomb?"

"You...you said in your log that you were making an Ether Bomb for them."

"What log?"

As Polly prepares herself to respond, she screams out, having been struck by some form of strange bolt. Then she drops to the floor, followed by Wild-Child, Silk, Officer Bates, and Man-Monster. "The log that brought you suckers here for the test run," a woman says, materializing over Polly in a flash of red light.

"Streak! Vile witch," Gladius says. "I will-". Suddenly some form of flying saucer-like machine hovers down from the ceiling and fires some manner of ooze at the demigod that even he can't seem to tear himself from. "By Olympus! What manner of- U.F.O. You should have stayed dead, cretin."

"You assume too much, 'god'. Who said I ever died to begin with?"

American looks to Coir, Sentinel, and Scorpion. "Quick, scatter!" He shouts before suddenly being struck in the back and dropping to the ground, revealing a man seemingly made of some form of energy behind him.

"I have been waiting to do that for so long, American," the familiar voice of the Russian soldier, turned living nuclear reactor known as Ruin says. He then looks up ate the remaining three. "Rubber, the door."

"Way ahead of you," the rubber skinned woman says, stretching herself to seal up the doorway.

Ruin then steps on his long time adversary and looks to Coir, Sentinel, and Scorpion, with Streak appearing at his side and U.F.O's saucer hovering over them. "So...only three left. Pfft. The original Exemplar would have at least made this a fight," Streak says.

"The original Exemplar wouldn't have fallen for this in the first place," Ruin adds.

[ATTN: All]

For a moment, Sentinel was overwhelmed, uncertain, scared. All their backup suddenly taken out in moments; what was she supposed to do that they couldn't? I'm just a kid in a suit...

Coir muttered to her, and she snapped out of it, forcing herself to calm down. "Right," she muttered, steeling herself, and as Coir rushed forward she sent off one of her concussive rockets ahead of him at the trio, before she took off and followed.

(ATTN: All)
Scorpion didn't need to be told twice, he was off like a shot, using his clawshot to fling himself over their heads and across the room. He skidded to his feet and readied himself for a fight.

He'd never come to blows with another super before- not that he doubted himself.

Absolutely not.

Totally no.

His talons had extended- readying his stance. Whoever they were, he hoped they were ready for a fight.

[Attn: Group]

"I'll take care of the Tin-Can Kid," Streak says as her body transforms once more into a living laser, darting across the room.

"Leave the jumping one to me," the U.F.O says in its cold, robotic voice, hovering toward the Scorpion.

Ruin, the nuclear nightmare, turns to Coir. "Hmph. A little American boy? O' how the mighty have fallen," he says.

Streak beams around the room, bouncing from wall to wall, tagging Sentinel on occasion. "C'mon, little girl! Keep up!" She laughs.

U.F.O, the man whose mind inhabited a Martian flying saucer, neared Scorpion. The saucer extends two long, flexible, metal arms with pincers at their ends. Electricity surges through them as he nears the hero. "Come along now. This will be quick and...very painful, honestly. But quick."

"Hold still, boy," Ruin says as he punches into the ground where Coir had been. "I promise not to kill you. You will all die together. Less lonely, that way, no?" He says as he pulls his hands out from the floor and aims a radioactive bolt at him.

Meanwhile, Gladius struggles to get himself free of U.F.O's latest trick. This liquid metal, as it seemed, wouldn't let him up. It constricted his every move, forcing him, the strongest person in the room, to watch.

[ATTN: All]

Sentinel could only try to avoid her as she flew about the room - it wasn't like you could hit a laser.

She flitted about the room best she could, trying her best to keep up and avoid getting tagged - her suit really didn't appreciate the laser. There's gotta be some way to get back at her...

(ATTN: U.F.O, open)
"I'm sure it will be." Scorpion scanned the...thing. His mind racing a mile a minute. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie...and sounded like one too. He probably would have laughed at it, if it hadn't just incapacitated the strongest person in the room.

And it had singled him out. The guy whose powers relied on toxins. Him. Simply wonderful.

But...he could make any toxin imaginable.

'My goose might not be cooked just yet..'

"So, lemme ask you something E.T. Did you manufacture that metal pancake yourself or did you buy it off ebay?" He aimed his stinger above him, shooting up to the rafter, swinging himself up and over, crouching on the exposed beam. "Not to insult your obvious artistic sensibilities." He stuck his tongue, pulling out one of his daggers- which he had luckily actually remembered to bring along today. He ran his tongue along it, a sickly green mist coming off the blade. He'd have to be quick if he didn't want to completely screw himself over.

[Attn: All]

Ruin catches the irradiated slab of metal in one hand. "You boast great strength, boy," he scoff before throwing it back at full force. "But not great enough, no?" He floats toward him. "I cannot help but wonder what use these legendary heroes have for you."

Streak's laughter can barely be heard over the sound of her beaming around, teasing the little girl in her precious suit. "I'm gonna burn you outta that scrap heap, girlie," she sneers.

U.F.O pauses and adjusts, following his agile foe. "Oh, terrific...a comedian. And here I thought we'd already dealt with the one who didn't know when to be quiet," he says, in reference to Wild-Child. He then extends one of his arms out to try and snare Scorpion.

Speaking of Wild-Child, the young hero begins to stir, groggily picking herself up and holding her head. Regen powers weren't nearly as immediate or graceful as they were in the comic books. "Ow...someone better have gotten the license plate number," she says, trying to shake it off.

[ATTN: All]

Sentinel grimaced inside her suit, picking up her pace. She darted to the wall, shoving up off it to dodge another tag and flipped to land on the ground on her feet. You have to be kidding Coir, she thought, overhearing him. "Coir... we're not... the Sailor Scouts!" she yelled at him as she leaped back away from Streak again.

(ATTN: U.F.O, Open)

"I know when to be quiet, I just don't think I need to be polite and not try the patience of the guy whose little glorified tinsel gang are trying to put me and mine in cages...or maybe worse." Scorpion twirled the knife, still steaming and covered in the acidic liquid that had come off his tongue, around his finger and threw it at the glorified aluminum plate, right before launching himself once again across the room with his clawshot, landing once again in the rafters. He preferred to stay close to the ceiling, and with all the obstacles up here, it'd be more difficult for him to be snared...and he didn't want to find out what any of those super-nutjobs had in store for them.

[Attn: All]

Ruin stands there, planted like a boulder. As Coir swings at him but he parries the strike then grabs the boy by the back of the head and shoves him, face first into the ground, not at full force but enough to hurt. "The best military training and education money can buy, vast levels of enhanced strength among other superhuman abilities...and I am reduced to meeting a juvenile in battle. A shame it could not be the American at my mercy at this moment. He is at least worth the effort."

"Which is why you knocked him out ahead of time, right? Afraid he'll kick your butt like he did the last hundred times?" Wild-child says.

Ruin glances back at her. "You? Awake?"

"Hey there, Nuclear Breath...eyes on the prize," she continues.

He hears a whistle and turns, just in time for Silk to shoot him in the eyes with her webbing. "Coir, to for it!" Silk shouts.

"Grah! You impudent little-!"


"I wonder what'll happen if I get into that thing's battery and overcharge it. Ooh, maybe that suit'll blow up and blast you all the way to the morgue!" Streak sneers, making a beeline toward Sentinel.


The acid coated dagger bounces from U.F.O's rotating disc body and flies across the room. "Cages...you should be so lucky," he responds. "Was your little dart meant to do some form of damage?" The dagger lands in the polymer holding Gladius down and slowly began eating away at it, unbeknownst to the space aged villain.


Suddenly Silk notices something and tackles Wild-Child away from an oncoming attack, The two of them get up to find Rubber standing over them, her hands turned to solid weapons. "Oh right...you were here," Wild-Child says.

"You and the professor need to try and disable that machine. I'll deal with Rubber," Silk says.

"If you say so," Wild-Child nods. "These guys are about to get their butts thoroughly handed to them by a bunch of kids. O', the indignity!"

(ATTN: U.F.O, Group)

Scorpion had half seen that coming. "It was worth a shot," He shrugged. "And I might not have the shiniest toys or the coolest superpowers- and Rome might not have been built in a day, but I could sure as hell take it down in one." A mighty boast, he realized. But there was probably no way he could beat this guy directly, no matter how brainy he was.

He observed the other two, his mind shifting to an technique he had seen in a television show from when he was a kid.

All he needed to do was get someone to switch with him, some skin, some human-ness. What was he going to do to this guy? Spit him to death.

Wait.

Spit him to death.

Or lick.

Wait that sounded wrong.

"So, you glorified tin can. What are you going to do to me? If you manage to catch me. Which I doubt you well- considering you're basically the product of a box of aluminum foil that made love to a frisbee."

[ATTN: Streak, UFO All]

Sentinel grimaced, pushing off the wall to try and avoid her again - Oh. Duh.

She was ashamed to not have thought of it earlier. She leaped into the air, hovering a moment as Streak raced for her. UFO hovered not far behind her. I really am an idiot. "Toro, toro," she muttered under her breath.

A moment of pause - and she killed her thrusters, curling up and dropping just under Streak as she passed overhead.

[Attn: All]

"Professor?  Hi, I'm the girl who's going to be saving you today.  In the event of any complications, please refer to The Courier, publishing slanderous articles toward me since I debuted.  Any questions?"  Wild-Child says as she drags the professor to safety near the Ether Bomb.  As she pops open a pouch on her gloves and pulls out a tablet of some sort, she waves it in front of his face.  It was some sort of Smellingsalt.  As he came back around from his lethargic state, Wild-Child stashes the tablet.  "Hey there, Doc, and welcome back to the land of the struggling to stay living."

Blaine glances up at her then realizes something.  "Oh, god.  The girls!  Listen, you have to go and get the girls!"

"Huh?  They...they aren't with you?"

"They're in a bunker beneath here. I designed it to withstand the blast if and when the bomb was set off."

Bates overhears and shakes off the stun effect of Streak's shock.  "I'll go get them," he says, rushing off.


Meanwhile, Streak suddenly slams into U.F.O.  The living laser is pulled directly into the space age Gillian's internal power core.  "What?  You Idiot!  What did you-?!"  The ship drops like a fly and Streak is flung from the shell, converting back into solid form once free and hitting the wall.


Ruin slams to the ground and the webbing burns away from his face, revealing a fury in his eyes.  "I will bury you for that, whelp," he growls as he picks himself up.

"Ruin!" Gladius says as he manages to pry himself from the corroding polymer.  "You and your cohorts have annoyed me ENOUGH this day."

Ruin says nothing.  He'd paused, the moment he turned and saw the mad demigod rise.


Silk manages to leap around the room, creating a wide spray of webbing that eventually ensnares Rubber within an enormous ball.  "No superhero puns.  Just gloating.  You got beat by a teenager with bug powers.  No wonder everyone always forgets about you," she says.

(ATTN: U.F.O, Group)
Scorpion drops from the hair, landing gracefully on top of U.F.O as it goes down. He looks up at Sentinel with a wide eyed blink.
"Thank you!" He shouts with a thumbs up, allowing her her own victory with the lazer- beam-whatever she was. He looked down at the ship, opening his talons with a metallic scrape.
He hopped off the large metallic disk, looking down at it.
"Are you familiar with the technique of cracking open a nut? Because if you're not, you're about to get very unpleasantly acquainted."

[ATTN: Streak, Group]

As Streak returned to physical form, Sentinel was immediately on her, slamming a punch into her gut and grabbing hold of the front of her shirt. "This is much better," Sentinel said, slamming Streak hard back into the wall again. "Night, princess," she said, winding up and delivering a hard punch to the temple.