17th November 2017
09:40 GMT -5
Walker takes a step
sideways as I come in, trying to keep us both in sight.
Pi-
Then he leaps at
me while Diana gets a face full of asphalt. I
dodge right, because this time he was ready for me to dodge forwards. I-.
-ng.
Brannon's dead? Good. Message Batman, ask him to check the corpse, then retask the drones for Thundermind because I have
lost patience.
Ping.
Make sure that they're
just helping with the evacuation, then ignore them.
Walker stops leaping and starts walking, his motions faster than his size implies that he can manage, arms lashing out to grapple rather than punch. Misses involve him throwing things at either me or Diana, releasing bricks or lumps of concrete to distract or obscure our vision. I've learned not to flinch and let my environmental shield handle the dust but at this point Diana's eyes must sting something fierce even from the hits she blocks. Two slam into her bracers as I
dodge towards them to make a second swing awkward, Walker aiming directly at her head each time. She blocks the third brick only for a fourth to hit her bare left thigh hard enough to make her stumble.
Walker turns from me and
lunges while she's off-balance, and
I send the Sword of the Fallen darting in to
slice through at least
some of his Achilles tendon before
pulling it back.
Ping.
Then one over their heads. The rest go into them if they don't get a clue. And deploy more death ray drones
here.
Ping.
That's the
least of my concerns.
Diana has her sword en garde to block any attempt Walker makes to grapple, but he manages a solid punch on her left shoulder. I hear her bones
crack as she goes spinning backwards from the force of it.
"
Ah!"
BOOM!
Good. Those drones won't need me to maintain concentration, and they're at least
somewhat hard for him to detect. But the slice I made is already almost healed and it didn't stop him knocking Diana-.
No, she's back and doing low level flying while holding her sword in one hand. I
could ask J'onn to heal her but that's probably not a good idea on a compound fracture-.
**Manhunter, troops are approaching the city. Please use your civilian identity to keep them away.**
**I will.**
Okay, how do we actually get Walker to stay still? How do we land a meaningful hit? Particularly with Diana completely unable to wrestle with him one-armed.
I consider the ground we're standing on. Walker can't fly, and the road is increasingly being churned up by the force that he's using to leap at us. Based on the strength he used to rip my arm off I don't actually think that he's leaping at full force. But the more smashed up it gets, the slower he'll be able to move. Leaping or walking.
Can't really communicate that to Diana. Just have to hope that she noticed.
Okay, targets are his eyes and ears.
**And have you seen Thundermind?**
**[An image of the wounded Thunderminds merging together and Physician doing
something which turns him back into his school teacher mode.**
I move in, trying to tempt him into attacking me without getting close enough to initiate an attack myself. Walker's switching his attention between us, presumably trying to come up with a plan of attack. Or trying to work out what I'm planning.
**Good. Try and get him out of the combat zone, time allowing.**
**[An image of Subjekt-17 tearing his now-helpless body apart.]**
…
I suppose he had it coming.
Walker decides to advance on
me, and I
give him more room while maintaining eye contact.
"Diana, how bad's your shoulder?"
"I will live."
I don't speak, I just
glare at her over Walker's shoulder. That sort of combat banter isn't appropriate for a disaster like this, and if she had more experience then she'd know that by now.
Walker swings at me with his left, flinging rubble at my face with his right. A
construct catches the rubble and throws it back while I use my aero discs to move slightly aside then
slash with the Sword, not at the arm but at his newly rubble-covered eyes. Got him! Clean cut
through-.
He lunges-. And the rubble beneath his feet gives way, making him fall on his face and slide forwards instead. And then my death rays light him up, preventing his eyes healing while I
send the Sword of the Fallen into both Achilles tendons. Success! A bit of a fiddle with the spurs, but he's now hobbled.
He tries to stand, and-
"Uuuuh!"
-he can't, clamping his hands around his ankles to… Try and hold them together? Shield them from the death rays?
Diana's closing the distance, sword extended-.
"Wait!" She halts her advance, frowning at me. "We've got a chance to talk him down! Physician is healing his parents as we speak. There's enough of his mind left to recognise them."
"He will heal-."
"What did you think the purple beams are for?" She looks up at them, nodding. "Is your shoulder fractured or just broken?"
"I am not sure."
Keeping a good distance from Walker, who appears to be listening intently but isn't trying to drag himself around with his still-functioning arms, I approach her, left hand
glowing orange.
"Let me check. Depending on how your powers work I
should be able to heal you." She nods, gingerly tilting her head aside while still watching Walker. "Adam!"
I take a closer look at her shoulder,
scanning… I'm getting better feedback from her than Diana 16 ever gave me.
"Good news. Multiple breaks, but they're all relatively clean. I've no idea what any anaesthetic I could use would do to you and we don't know each other well enough for me to use magic, so this will hurt."
"I am prepared."
Orange light flows through her, pulling bones back into place. That's actually an advanced technique I learned from a parallel universe version of the man I was before becoming Grayven: using the subject's own desires to bypass some of their defences. Then I
take out a purple healing ray and play it over the injury site.
Adam floats down, metal skin regrowing to cover his holes. "Yeah?"
"Help with recovering civilian casualties. I'm not expecting further attacks, but stay on guard just in case."
"Sir." He starts to turn away and then hesitates, frowning as he realises what he just called me. Then he brushes it off and gets back to work.
Ping.
Good. Bring the Walkers through.
