Protostar: Cursed Calamari

Protostar: Bastion of the Cosmos was out on a late evening patrol, soaring over Detroit River. He was behind schedule about half an hour. Early he had been thwarting a slave caravan on Mercury, and the slave traders were defiant scoundrels. The job was done, however, and Protostar was looking forward to wrapping up this patrol and go home, to a nice bowl of cam chowder.

Then an ominous figure burst out of the water, several of its limbs flailing about as if to snag hold of the night clouds above. It appeared to be a...squid? Protostar hovered in the sky shocked, as squid don't normally appear in fresh water.

The squid must have been well over 60 feet tall, at that. He wondered how it could be hiding in such small body of water, and for how long. It was enormous, and appeared obese, surprisingly. It had the general look of a squid, but it had a thick carapace covering most of its bodice.

The squid lashed a thick tentacle towards Protostar! The galactic sentinel had little time to react, but react he did, and dropped down to the water, floating right above the once calm river.

Moments ago, Protostar had sent a distress signal out to CRP, trying to get assistance to at least subdue the monster. Three heroes banded together: Phalanx, Plume, and Phaseon, arriving quickly to the strange scene.

Protostar belted towards the giant squid. The three stood on a ledge overlooking the river, and were at eye level with the monster. The water splashed violently into the air whenever the squid moves, limbs thrashing about in the polluted city river. Just then, one tentacle connects, and sends Protostar flying towards the three heroes.

Plume, after arriving, dove towards Protostar, flinging her hands forward both to catch him, and to aid him wit a gust of wind, slowing down his velocity so the Snakebird could grab hold of him easier.

Phalanx shot down from the sky like a shooting star, banking to skim the water at such a speed as to cause a streak of rain behind him. His eyes locked with his target, the cursed calamari, in time to see Protostar knocked away. His eyes track the battered hero, but does not change course upon seeing Plume save the day. The yellow skinned alien offers a thumbs up to the rescue and powers toward the squid like a runaway train.

Phaseon flew onto the scene, pausing to take the sight before him. Catching himself before he thought too deeply on how such things could happen, he grouped with Protostar and Plume; watching the squid thing should he need to provide support.

"So...what now?" Phaseon asked, directing is question to the two on the ledge.

Protostar shook his head after being caught by Plume. He turns to Phaseon, but then shifts his attention to Phalanx. The squid snarls, flailing its incredibly strong tentacles to bat away the yellow-skinned hero.

Plume let go of Protostar now, as he's been caught and saved, assuming the galactic hero can fly on his own. she flaps her wings, going above the group a bit, and reaches behind her. She produces a bow from her back feathers, pulling back the string. An arrow of hard light magic forms and glows. She pulls back a little further, before releasing the missile aimed to the creature's eye.

"What's the story with this thing? Did it just pop outta nowhere?" Plume asked as she hovered in the spot.

"Yeah, it just sprouted from the water." Protostar responded, moving to float up just near Plume. He brushed off some dirt and debris from his outfit.

Phalanx barreled and dodged quickly to one side, evading the first lash of the massive tentacle, but didn't fare well one the back swing. Like a ricocheting bullet he collides then spins back up into the air. He took a few deep breaths and shake the concussive disorientation from his head.

"Well, it would seem a direct approach s not terribly efficient." He looks down to the other heroes and evaluate their numbers. "Unless we believe it to be purposefully malicious."

Plume looked over to Phalanx. "Where can we drive it back to? We've only got lakes on either side here."

Phaseon held his hands out in front of him, about a foot apart. He begins to energize the air molecules in between, transforming them into a charged mass. "This should make it think twice...I hope."

Phalanx nodded back to Plume. "It has come from somewhere, my serpent friend. We encourage it to go back!"

The squid glared at Phalanx, but slowly, it turns to stare at something down the river. Just about a mile or so down is the Qularr Mothership, chained down after the Qularr invasion. It has sat there quiet, dormant, tranquil, for years now. The squid begins to crawl through the water towards the downed vessel.

Phalanx now noticed the thick carapace protecting the squid. "Take to the air, my friends! Tell me what it is you see. I do not believe this creature to be native, or even natural."

As the cursed calamari approaches the Qularr craft, Plume's arrow strikes its eye! It does little more than make it shriek and flinch, however.

Protostar, now back in the game, clenched his hands into fists, unleashing a volley of solar energies towards the monstrosity.

Plume put her bow back in its place and gets ready to fight...for real. Twirling her hands into the sky, the Snakebird began to manifest her air powers rather dramatically. She flew up out of the reach of the squid as best as she could. Slowly, clouds began to form in the night sky, water vapor pushing together by the air.

Aiming at the creature's body, Phaseon launches the charged air blast towards the creature as sub-sonic speeds, intending to dissuade the creature from its attacks rather than inflicting serious injury.

Phalanx looks to Plume as she does what she does best. "What is your plan?" He directed his question to Plume. He drifted forward to keep pace with the moving creature. "Perhaps we can manage to collaborate on this?"

"Well, uh, I just sorta figured--Wait. What's it doing?" Plume suddenly stopped messing with the clouds. Rather, instead, she uses momentum she'd build up to try and push the squid back a bit in its movement. The giant squid could get underwater, however, so she was probably doing that for naught. Still, the longer she was left out and about, the more momentum she was building up!

Phaseon looked at the squid as it neared the Mothership. "Might it be trying to breed? The Mothership is quite large, with arms it might think are tentacles. I read an article about endangered birds humping similarly colored decoys."

Phalanx lifted a brow at the statement of mating birds and chuckled. "Protostar, Phaseon. Help me super heat the water around the beast. Plume, do what you must to drive the beast away from the Mothership." He paused and looked to each in turn. "Unless we have other ideas?"

"Well, I had other ideas, but this'll have to do! I don't wanna know what'll happen if it gets injected with crazy leftover Qularr stuffs!"

Protostar was not far behind the creature, keeping a good distance near Phalanx. He brushed his dark blonde goatee in stoic musing. The air blast from Phaseon did minor damage, he noticed. Then he looked as the torrent of air shifted the creature's path towards a small sailboat...upon closer inspection, it was far enough away to avoid the craft.

Then Plume's zephyrs struck the beast, and was about to slam into the boat. Plume shifted the air a bit on one end, blowing the sailboat along out of the way. She kept pushing the squid away from the Mothership, down the river again towards Lake Erie. The air was not traveling that fast, however, just pushing it in that direction.

Phaseon looks to object Phalanx's plan, but with no counter-proposal, he falls quiet before he even speaks. Flying to link up with Protostar and Phalanx, he began to speak with the yellow skinned hero. "At best I can only heat it with friction, and there's a whole lot of water down there."

Phalanx streaked after the creature, eyes starting to smolder and glimmer red. Satisfied with his range, he widenshis eyes and blast a swathe of water in front of the beast with super-heated rays of cosmic energy.

"Focus where I am. you should have little issue agitating what I heat." He speaks plainly, not looking to Phaseon for obvious reasons.

Protostar clenched his hands again, blasting the waters with solar rays, the water burning in a bright display of blue, white, red, yellow, and orange. The water began to cook the squid as one of Plume's bursts knocked it into the water.

"Needs a bit of butter." Protostar teased a bit. The sailboat was just out of range of the boiling water, luckily, and the squid began to flail its limbs once more in a fit of pain-infused madness. It reaches out to grab whatever hero it can.

Plume was just out of reach, intentionally. She was free to continue pushing her winds against the squid a bit, straining to keep it away from the Qularr vessel.

Phaseon focused on the water, rapidly emitting charged blasts into the simmering waves. Unlike Plume, he isn't out of harm's way, and s inexperienced enough to be grasped by a flailing squid limb!

Phalanx continued focusing his optic beams on the water, but the assault cuts short as the beast grapples him, its tentacles wrapping around his body and immediately constricting with lethal intent. The brassy-skinned alien grunts and pushes back against the beast, but the giant squid doesn't give him the chance. It swings him like a hammer, arcing to smash him against the surface of the water, then back in the opposite direction for more of the same brutal treatment, before it releases him like a skipping stone across the water.

Phaseon's blast was striking the squid's midsection, burning the out layer of the carapace. Plume's gust struggled and struggled to keep the creature back, and for the most part, was successful.

Protostar hadn't time to think or figure out a way to one-shot end this whole ordeal. He darted towards the creature, fists outstretched, rocketing forward at sonic speeds. He slammed into the creature right where Phaseon was damaging. He pushed the creature and assisted Plume's wind.

Plume kept her windy push. With a flick of her hand, another burst of air would slow Phalanx's knock back. The Snakebird pulled out her bow again, and notches another light arrow, aiming at the tentacle ensnaring Phaseon. She was managing to support the group rather nicely.

With one arm free now, Phaseon focuses his particle charge into a tight, consistent beam; a drill to hopefully punch further through the creature's carapace.

Phalanx surged from his water resting place and streaked into the air. "I see this creature will not be dissuaded from its course of action."

As Plume's arrow freed Phaseon, Phalanx bolted at the creature, his form shifting and mass increasing to monstrous proportions as he crashes down from the sky. He uses bot strength and speed to be a hammer blow!

Protostar and Phalanx both team up and slam into the creature, sending the squid skidding back along the water. The steady beam of energy from Phaseon finally burst through the midsection's thick plating, spewing force squid innards to cover Protostar and Phalanx's hands and arms. Plume's gust further pushes the two heroes along, all adding to significant injury to the cursed calamari.

Freed now, Phaseon fell a bit before hovering back up to altitude, gasping for breath. Adding a second drill from his free hand, concentrating his fire power on the point of attack.

Phalanx works to ensnare any rogue tentacles that come his way using his own extremities, pincer fists hammering down in a torrent of powerful blows against the beasts exoskeleton in an attempt to subdue the monster.

Protostar assisted Phalanx, his own blue hands glowing with the power of the Sun. They became white hot and singed whenever a punch met the squid's exposed, softer flesh.

Plume shrugged as they seem to both be pounding the creature instead of much else, and the powerful gusts of wind that have been building up around the squid seem to dissipate for a moment.

Then the zephyr smashes down with harsh force upon the squid, away from the heroes, in pinpoint crashes of painful forced air. The squid momentarily reaches three tentacles below the surface, hooking onto the land. The air strikes it hard and it disappears below the surface almost instantly. The water rises several feet into the air, nearly striking the flying heroes.

Plume suddenly drills the forced air that shed been building up in momentum down through the water, separating the waters in a circular area, down beneath the squid. Plume then uses her might to send the air, and the squid, flying upwards, forcing it to take more and more punishment from Phaseon's energy drills. the squid is skewered by the blasts, leaving a sizable gaping hole. The squid screeches and it falls into the simmered waters. The smell of cursed calamari fills the air as the tentacles drop to the river.

"hey! I think we got it!" She cheers as the air slowly dissipates.

Phalanx hovers above the water, eyes shifting to inspect the vitals of the fallen beast. The water is stained a dark, murky green color from the blood spilling out of the giant squid. Phaseon cuts out the power drills as the water rushes back in, floating gently back to the ledge overlooking the river.

"Well...that was something. Imagine seeing a freshwater squid."

"This was not an ordinary squid."

Phalanx folded his arms across his chest, glancing to the gathered heroes. "I do not believe this was a squid at all. Not in the usual sense, at least."

"Probably not a normal squid. Well uh...it's not like it could pollute this river much worse!" Plume nodded matter-of-factly. Detroit River was terrible.

"I will contact the local authorities." Phalanx added. "Perhaps the environmental protection agency as well."

Protostar gave the group a slight bow. "Thank you all for responding. The help was much needed."

"It was my pleasure to be of assistance."

Phaseon gave Protostar a thumbs up. "Wouldn't have missed it for the world. Shame we couldn't have subdued the creature."

Protostar frowned. "What're your names?"

Plume smiled. "I'm Plume, this was no problem! How 'bout you guys?"

"Vik'tar Canni, though I am often called Phalanx."

"I'm Phaseon, pleased to meet you."

"I am Protostar, Bastion of the Cosmos. Huh...all "P" name. I like that." he chuckled a bit. "Plume, Phaseon, Phalanx. Enjoy your evenings."

Phalanx smiles at the statement."it has good symmetry."

Phaseon nodded to Protostar. "You too. no more fishing."