Team A
The best laid of plans...
Everyone ends up in a bubble, with the exceptions of Nick, Faust, and Big Wing. While the giant chicken continues to do battle with an army of shitty demons, Captain Chicken finds herself in the same bubble as Natural Twenty. Surprisingly, nobody gets chickenated (or stabbed, or shot, or whatever). Nobody can see what the two of them discuss, but they're clearly talking, and they're not hurting each other. At some point, Big Wing makes a point of knocking their bubble into a sunken courtyard outside of some shops. Perhaps he's figured out that Captain Chicken needs line of sight. Meanwhile, Flashback remains in her bubble in a world of thankfully-not-life-threatening pain. She's safe but helpless for the time being.
Force isn't about to take this lying down, however. Hammering at the inside of her bubble with a utility knife with such force that she eventually snaps one of its blades, she propels herself towards The Bubbler. Then, just like that, he's gone. There's a moment where Elisabeth could swear that she saw a black blur working its way through the debris, but then... nothing. She turns her efforts towards Sour Cherry Blaster, and their bubbles collide, but one does not absorb the other. She settles for using all of her built-up strength to slam her bubble into her enemy's. It careens, out of control, into a storefront, rebounds equally hard, and eventually rolls to a stop with the villain unconscious inside. Then... she's gone too. There's the same black blur. Sour Cherry Blaster disappears, and Force is left with nothing to do. She heads for Big Wing, but there's no way to absorb him. Maybe she can play some giant chicken bowling. She has one go at his legs and then a second, but his strides are colossal, and he's able to dodge her both times without much effort. He hops back onto a rooftop where he was earlier, clucking angrily at Faust, who continues to launch the occasional halfhearted demon attack.
Then that wheelchair girl... what was her name? Rolling Thunder? shows up. She comes to a stop in front of Elisabeth's bubble. She's saying things, but nothing makes it through the bubble. Cuing in to that, she reaches in her backpack, takes out a paper pad and pen with superhuman speed, and writes something. "Can't reach you on MODS. Hang tight. Try to get somewhere safe. Bubbles expire after an hour. I'm gonna catch up with Nick. He's found Hackslash. She's okay but she's bubbled too." Then, she zips off towards the store that Nick's been hiding in, taking a moment to haul herself awkwardly up a couple of steps. Meanwhile, somewhat alarmingly, Big Wing turns back into a pelican, and then back into a person. It takes Elisabeth a moment to figure out that he and Faust are talking. About what, infuriatingly, she can't hear, but about
something.
Nick, having taken a risk and dived for cover in a building instead of a bubble when Roxy's duffel bag of death blew up, is not regretting his decision. He's found Hackslash and he's found a personal tablet belonging to Walter Weissbach - Big Wing. Calling in Amber was his idea, and she's already carted two badguys off to a police station. Now, he sits in the ruined shop, his wound freshly (and sloppily) patched up, going through the contents of the tablet with Amber. That's when he finds out about Project Hiroshima. That's when she jets out the door at full super speed, sending out a warning across MODS:
"This is a systemwide alert. Big Wing is attempting to link up with Photobomb. They're gonna use her powers to kill everyone at the game in the Tesla Center!"
Even as that message sends, he can see Big Wing scooping up Flashback's bubble. He goes for Force's next. Faust is rushing towards him, alarm written plainly across her face. "We need to regroup," she's saying, "Figure out how to handle this." In the middle of the boulevard, Force is picked up and tossed back into the great pelican's pouch. He hovers mere feet above the ground, starting to lift off. "Team!" comes a message through MODS, "It's Hank! I'm on my way to the Tesla Center along with everyone else we could scrape up! This is an emergency evacuation! If you don't have anything to do there, join Team B. You
need to stop Photobomb before Big Wing can reach her! Recoil out!"
Team B
The Narcoleptic, exhausted, staggers back into the hovercraft and sits down. Meanwhile, The Amazing Black Hole can do little but slowly slide forward in the direction that his momentum is carrying him. Strange, he's suddenly started feeling really,
really sick to the stomach! That
never happens! Nearby, Orange Marauder, gathering juice for another precision blast, doubles over suddenly and full-on vomits all over the pavement. Jackson's spirit, however, is a little bit tougher than your average human. Photobomb stops dead in her tracks, in a tighter area of the restaurant between a quartet of support pillars, and faces the team, preparing a deadly selfie. An pair of orbs start to materialize right in her face, but she dives to the side, predicting the attack. The spheres expand rapidly and then... they get stuck: on a pillar, indelibly stuck. Photobomb doesn't score the finisher she was hoping for, but she still snaps off a shot. Nothing seems to happen. Perhaps her phone has packed it in.
The Spirit can simply dematerialize his orbs, but it seems as if Photobomb has found a protected area. The pillars are close together and they're coated in something... the opposite of whatever Tony is sliding around on. The big guy actually seems to be winning that battle. He starts licking up whatever the substance is, finding a bit of purchase and pushing himself forward.
That's when a second wave of pain hits the spirit. It forces him nearly to knees. Between this odd sensation and his enthusiastic orb use, he can feel that he's going to switch back with Jackson soon. Tony, charging through the doorway at Susie and the other villains inside, also stops dead in his tracks, feeling an unfamiliar feeling. He tries to hold it all down and catch the witch.
Then, exactly ten seconds after Photobomb snapping that selfie, one of the unconscious citizens explodes. It's grisly and shocking, and Photobomb smiles. It's not the only bad news. Conrad Medvedev hurtles around the corner of the restaurant, arrowing straight for the reeling Black Hole and rearing back in a ferocious punch! Tony's able to get a sizzler up just on time, and deflect the hammerlike blow, but he's on the back foot.
Things only get worse. An emergency message from Amber blares out across MODS:
"This is a systemwide alert. Big Wing is attempting to link up with Photobomb. They're gonna use her powers to kill everyone at the game in the Tesla Center!"
The villains keep coming. From behind, Spooge charges, leveling a shotgun at Orange Marauder and unloading. His shot wings her in the leg and she crumples to the ground. Photobomb goes for another selfie, denied in the nick of time by the Spirit, though he can feel himself fading. Spooge stalks forward, lining up a second shot before...
Out of nowhere, Silent Spring materializes, tripping the villain. He staggers and falls, dropping the gun as his hands shoot out instinctively to protect his face. April dives for the firearm, grabs it, and comes out of a roll, pointing it his face. "Not another move."
Conrad swings again at Tony, and the two big guys brawl. Tony's not at his best. His cast-iron stomach is uncharacteristically queasy and it's distracting and worrying. Clara jumps in, charging out of the restaurant, and swings at him. Tony smacks into the wall, taking a bite out of it and spitting the chunks of rubble in his opponents' faces. It barely slows them.
This is it. He knows their powers! Things are about to get -
SMACK!!!
Clara folds like an accordion, propelled into a nearby pillar with inhuman force. Rolling Thunder, moving so fast that the momentary lack of friction doesn't faze her in the least, stops, turns, and accelerates towards Conrad and Tony. Using the momentary distraction, Tony bites down and flings the big brute away. Rolling Thunder powers right through him and he's thrown away like a ragdoll. She doesn't get it much better, hitting a piece of his spat-out rubble from earlier, her wheelchair tips and she crashes spectacularly.
Rolling Thunder is out of the fight, along with the Narcoleptic from earlier. Orange Marauder might as well be. Tony's on his last legs, as is the Fighting Spirit.
The villains aren't in any better shape. Green Freedom and both Knuckle Twins are unconscious. Spooge is being held at gunpoint. Susie Biscuits is virtually useless, especially with The Amazing Black Hole present, but there's still Photobomb. Photobomb and...Silent Spring? Is she visible? Is she not? Somebody is going to have to get up in Photobomb's face and mess her up and they'll have to do it before Big Wing reaches her. What happened to Team A? Why haven't they stopped him?
Can they?