Caz awoke to the sound of gunfire. For a moment, he thought he'd left his video game on, but after shaking the sleep out of his eyes, he realized the sound was coming from outside. Instantly transforming into Cazmonster, he ran to the 7th floor window of his dorm room.
Outside, just up the street, a line of very nervous looking campus police was trying to get organized. Further up the street was a well armed force that seemed to have phenominal aim and reaction speeds, firing some sort of automatic weapons.
Turning on his internal phone, Cazmonster dialed the rest of the Infinite Seven. "This is Cazmonster! Looks like they're bringing the violence right to us again! There's an army outside Langley. Get there as quick as possible!" With that, the cyber-wolf lept from the window, covering the distance to the police line with a single jump.
"Gentlement! Maybe I can be of assistance! I'm..." suddenly a bullet struck him in the shoulder. Wait a minute, thought Cazmonster. That HURT. Looking over at his arm, he noticed he was bleeding. These were no ordinary guns. And those were no ordinary troops!
Cazmonster pursed his lips in anger and furrowed his wolfy brow. Picking up a nearby compact car, he launched it through the air into the army, knocking down several of the invading troops. He was astonished when one of them lifted the remains of the car off his fellow soldiers. Cazmonster couldn't believe it, but he'd swear the armored troops were Nexers!
From behind the line, a flash of pink and orange flew past Cazmonster faster than he could see, and in an instant, Triumph stood before him, having disarmed several of the troops. Dropping the pile, he ran back into the fray. The American Attitude bounced off a nearby squadcar on his skateboard, and distributed the advanced rifles to the police.
"These are gonna do a lot more good than those pea shooters you're using," he said, refering to the nine-mil pistols the police had.
"What about you?" one of the officers, a heavy-set woman with curly red hair asked him as she took aim with the new rifle.
"Not my style," The Attitude said simply.
The Attitude turned back to Cazmonster who, amid the violence, was looking for something heavier to throw.
"Hey, CM. Nice of you to join us!"
"Join you?" Cazmonster asked. Settling on a massive air conditioning unit, Cazmonster ripped the object from it's concrete moorings and launched it into the air. It landed close, but unfortunately for the defending police, there were now invading Nexer troops at close range. A few of them didn't get back up.
"Yeah, we've been fighting these guys for about an half-hour. It took them fifteen minutes to take out most of the Stevenson police force. We rendezvous'd here hoping to regroup with reinforcements."
"Sorry, didn't know," Cazmonster said, leaping now into melee with a dozen or so Nexers. They quickly began flying every direction, including straight into the pavement.
"Yeah, well, you would have if you'd let us join!" The Attitude said, leaping into action. He was good, Cazmonster could tell. Not as good as Dragonfly, but he certainly made original use of the staff and skateboard that were his trademark. He managed to down two of the Nexers, but Cazmonster could tell his stamina was beginning to wear down.
From out of the sky, a dark form flew directly overhead, strafing several of the approaching troops with high-speed metal spikes. Palisade was here!
"Hey, Cazmonster, giving the newbees some lessons?" he asked. As he doubled back and landed near the police barricade, several of the spikes he fired began spewing some type of gas. Soon, several Nexers fell to the ground gagging. Palisade popped one in the helmet, breaking the glass and the nose underneath, and that Nexer fell as well.
"Lay off the newbees, er, new guys. They've been holding down the fort waiting for us!" Cazmonster downed several more, but they just kept coming. Since the heroes had arrived, however, no more police had been shot.
Triumph came running back behind the lines and slowed to a halt, where he promptly fell and skidded several feet. Cazmonster hadn't seen him long enough earlier to notice he'd been shot at least once, and was badly bruised. Just then, several bullets nailed Palisade and sent him flying through the air.
As Cazmonster watched, wondering if he could somehow catch Palisade, a huge plot of earth flew into the air and did the job for him, carefully depositing him on the ground in front of Langley. The Gray Robe had joined the party, and that probably meant...The Adept!
Cazmonster turned to face the invaders and watched as the street opened up beneath them, swallowing a dozen or so. "Cazmonster, thanks for the call. Is that Triumph?" The Adept asked, pointing to the wounded hero.
"Yeah, he and The American Attitude are here!" The Attitude landed blow after blow with his staff and skateboard as Cazmonster continued wading outward.
"Does anyone know what the hell's going on here?" The Gray Robe asked, hovering over the battle and launching clods of earth at her opponents.
"Not really," The Attitude snapped. "Cops are dead; lots of cops. No idea who these guys are or what their plan is."
"I wish Dragonfly was here," The Adept said. "He was the expert on this Nex stuff."
"Yeah, we all do," Palisade said; already the bullet holes had healed over, and Palisade looked as good as new. "But I'll settle for her!" From a side road walked a figure cloaked in darkness, a young woman all in black, with pale skin and brown hair.
"Angela! I think that's everyone, well the new everyone," The Adept corrected.
The new team was fighting the invading, and quite well armed and organized, Nexers successfully. The Adept wielded mystic portals and magical energy blasts, both quite effective against their current opponents. Cazmonster threw around dozens of them like rag dolls every few seconds, and shrugged off their bullets despite the large number of minor injuries he was taking. The American Attitude, longest in this battle, fought on, despite exhaustion. Palisade took to the skies, and between he and the Gray Robe, provided an air advantage. Angela the vampire did what vampires do best, and she did it viscously. Triumph even managed to get a second wind, and began punching Nexers at high speed.
The battle lasted another 15 minutes before the National Guard, or what was left of them after a pre-emptive strike by the Nexer army, arrived from behind to reinforce the police. By the end of it, everyone in the Infinite Seven was bruised and bloodied: Cazmonster had been shot several times, Triumph once (though his wounds were already healing), and Angela a few times as well. The bullets pierced her, but they seemed not to impede her as they would the living. Palisade had managed to mostly shield the Gray Robe, though she'd been graze once across her cheek and was bleeding heavily. The Adept had been caught unawares by a Nexer who'd crossed the lines toward the end of the battle, and knocked unconscious.
By the time the invading army had surrendered, many of them were either passing out or having cardiac events due to the amount of Nex in their systems. None of them seemed to remember, when asked, how they'd gotten the weapons, or why they started the battle.
"This does not bode well," The Adept said once the heroes had gathered at their HQ later that night. The American Attitude and Triumph had been allowed into the HQ with the provision that they enter through one of The Adept's portals so they didn't know where the HQ was or how to get there.
"Sure as hell doesn't! There are dozens of cops dead, and we're wasted! We need to help with regular street crime until the police can get some recruits," Attitude said, leaning back in Dragonfly's chair.
"Not a bad idea, but not what I meant," The Adept said. "The Nex pushers all but moved out of town. We haven't fought Nexers in quite a while, with the exception of a few Angela handled over the break. Why would they come back HERE, in force, and organized?"
No one was able to answer the question. "It's a good bet we're not the only target," the Attitude said ominously. "Imagine an army ten times this size marching down State Street in Chicago."
"We need to keep our eyes open, and put all our resources toward figuring this out," Adept concluded.
"As such, if there are no objections, welcome to the Infinite Seven, gentlemen!" The Adept held out his hand to the Attitude, who hesitated, but then took it and shook it solidly.
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