... in Philadelphia

[jla_extras]

An army tears down Broad Street in Philadelphia, looking like something out of an apocalyptic movie. Some brave civilians run up the costumed characters. Some are familiar. Is that Dr Mid-Nite? Is that Flamebird? Where did they come from? Why are they doing this

Comments

[jla_villains]

"Hyur hyur hyuurrrr..." Parasite's long proboscis-like tongue lashes out and licks his puckered lips. "Come out, heroes. I know you're there..."

He sees a replicant repeatedly stabbing a dead body. "You! Snap out of it and find someone fresh!" Parasite knows where he's going. The Liberty Bell.

[3x2_9yz_4a]

Jesse was halfway into the city before hearing Batman's annoucement about which replicants were out there.

Oh, crap. A few seconds later she's back out on the street, costume changed into something other than the distinctive red and yellow. She could be anywhere, and part of her wants to try, to help.

But here, first -- she needs to stop her city from being destroyed, and find Parasite.

[jla_villains]

"Hyurrr..." Parasite is right outside the museum now, and looks up. The Liberty Bell smashed would be fulfilling his part of the deal, and then he can get on with random death and carnage.

And then Jesse Quick comes into view. Parasite squints before he recognises who it is. "Come to papaaaa..." He reaches out, ready to embrace the speedster.

[3x2_9yz_4a]

She's there and landing punches at superspeed, angling them into his torso.

[brainiac_lives]

The replicant twitches at Parasite's command, and as he turns away it takes a great deal of effort not to continue attacking the corpse. But the Flamebird replicant, with great resolve, launches itself at a fat businessman who stayed out a little too late.

[mrpierce2u]

The replicant is stopped in mid-leap by a wall of static electricity. It lifts off of its feet, twitching rapidly before exploding into superheated bits.

The reason why barks at the businessman, sending him racing for cover. Black Lightning sees another Mid-nite replicant moving towards them, and fires a ball of light that shatters it in the chest.

[brainiac_lives]

Despite the one downed Mid-Nite, another is only a short distance away and sees what happens to his companion. With a keening roar, it lets loose with an automatic that it happened to take from a murdered policeman.

[mrpierce2u]

"You're mocking a good man." Black Lightning claps both hands together and sends a high-beamed electrical wave out that stops the kinetic energy of the bullets.

They hang for a moment, and then dart back at the Mid-Nite robot, riddling it with holes before he bolts its torso off.

[saw_bones]

The Titans can cover Frisco, the JSA will be all over New York, the Flashes have Keystone...

Philadelphia is WAY too close to the nation's capital for comfort.

Which is why Director Bones is mobilizing a DEO strike force to pitch in, because he's not sure if there are enough Titans in Philly to handle a monster like Parasite.

D.C. is on high alert, locked down.

This is when he needs a group like Helix to send in.

[jla_extras]

"Sir!" A captain salutes Bones after rudely bursting into his office at the Department of Extranormal Operations. "Sir! A small number of the enemy have been seen to be leaving the Philadelphia perimeter! Do we have permission to shoot to kill?" Usually permission would be sought from someone at the military, but this operation has a distinct extranormal feel to it...

[metromarvel]

"The replicants are so intricately made that they honestly believe themselves to be the beings they're impersonating." A booming voice says, suddenly speaking from behind the soldier. If he looks to his left, he'll see the floating form of the Man of Steel...

...Superman! "I'm not going to tell you what to do, Bones." Superman says, and he means it for once. "I just thought you should know, before you make your decision. I'm going to focus on the people behind this. Good luck, either way."

There's a blur of red and blue, and he's gone as quickly as he came...

[saw_bones]

Bones is a bit surprised at the sudden visit from Superman, but you'd never know it by looking at his face.

He gives those words some consideration for a moment, then turns to his captain.

"If Superman didn't tell us not to kill, we've got a gray area of sentience that even he hasn't figured out. Indiscriminate mass-murdering does not earn these A.I.s the benefit of the doubt."

An exhalation of cigar smoke as he turns back to the monitors.

"Permission granted, Captain."

[brainiac_lives]

A Jason Todd replicant bursts into a homeless shelter with an armful of scrap metal, a sick grin on his face. "All die!" He throws the scrap like daggers at any human he sees.

[damage_granted]

Reports had been flying fast and furious over the Titans' communications band - something about clones running around causing mayhem. Grant Emerson, clad in his superheroing duds, lands with a loud THWAM! on the pavement outside the homeless shelter, the concrete buckling and cratering under the impact of his mile-long leap.

"The hell...?" Damage asks, hearing screams coming from the shelter.

Pushing aside the door as it dangles on its hinges, Damage squeezes his hand into a fist, a shimmering aura of bio-energy radiating around his closed fingers. "Hey, pal - try me!"

[brainiac_lives]

The replicant slowly turns, and grimaces at the sight of Damage. Quickly assessing the situation, it drops the assorted pieces of metal and instead goes for the grenade that Brainiac had equipped. "Fire in the hole." It just clutches the grenade and walks over to a group of the homeless.

[damage_granted]

"Aw, man!" Grant exclaims, racing forward, reaching for the replicant's hand, closing his fingers around it tightly - anything to keep that damn grenade from going off.

"How about we take this outside?" Damages asks rhetorically, grabbing the replicant by the back of its collar, lifting it fairly easily, and makes for the exit, hand firmly wrapped over the hand grenade.

[x_superkara_x]

Landing at ground zero in Broad Street, Supergirl looks around. All this carnage... She doesn't know that these costumed replicants are replicants. They just look like any other costumed hero or villain. "Hey!" She tries to get the attention of a Flamebird holding onto a civilian. "Let her go!"

With no visible signs of her freeing the captive, Supergirl flies over her and kicks her firmly in the face. "I said let go!"

[brainiac_lives]

The Flamebird replicant's face comes loose somewhat, after the hard kick to the head. She squeezes the human tighter. "Going to have to kill me."

[just_donna]

So this must be Supergirl, Donna thought as she flew towards the young hero.

She had dealt with these before, during the incident with Morrow and Diana. "It's okay Supergirl," she said, aiming a solid kick at the Flambird replicant's neck, hopefully hitting a pressure point of some kind. "You don't have to be afraid to use full force-these 'heroes' are merely the creation of some sicko."

She turned her attention to "Flamebird".

"You might want to let him go-NOW," she said to the fake, narrowing her eyes.

[brainiac_lives]

The Flamebird replicant shows a hint of being scared, as Donna arrives, and the blow to the neck capitalises on her emotional change as she drops the woman and falls to her knees. "K-ill y-ou." It goes for a gun at its side.