Yue

 21st October

21:13 GMT -6

Standard defence against phased particle weapons is wide area plasma fields. Standard counter to plasma fields is cold guns.

Cold gun constructs appear around me, searching for targets.

**Something triggered, prepar-**

**Aagh!**

**-for attack.**

White-red light flickers all around me, turning into dots moving! Phased particle beams fly, blasting holes in the ceiling, walls and floor as well as eating away at my construct armour! Cold guns fire back on automatic as I duck and dive. I'm never going to dodge them all in close confines like this, but I shouldn't have to worry much about them breaking my constructs unless they all start hitting the same point or something.

My return fire is… I can't tell. Ring, what the heck is this red stuff?

Readings consistent with models for temporal displacement technology. Return fire partially- I hear a muffled explosion. -successful.

Observe patterns of incoming fire. Are they-

Two shots hit my construct faceplate at the same time, making visible cracks on the surface. Phased particle beams are designed to penetrate before detonating, but that only works well against conventional matter; my constructs are turning it aside reasonably well. Which is good, because my power armour isn't really designed to do much more than ablate in the face of attacks like this. Could create a plasma field, but I'm not sure how that would react with the temporal displacement and I really don't want to create a plasma bomb underneath my team mates.

-using temporal manipulation to predict my shots or just firing and vanishing?

Reaction speed too rapid for definitive judgement. If the former, they are prioritising hitting you over their own survivability.

They're also not moving. The ring is showing me the pattern of their activity, and their displacement is regular to within two seconds. Rather than displace, wait to recharge and then reappear the moment they left, they're gone for the time it would.. probably actually take a weapon like that to recharge. Not true time travel, but it would still be blooming useful to get my hands on one.

And the ring's right, there are definitely fewer incoming shots. **Orange Lantern to team, under attack by drone weapons.** The red light has faded as the drones are destroyed. I… I guess it's a side effect of the displacement effect. I'll send the file to Dox when we're finished, see what he makes of it. **Drones are using phased particle beams as their primary weapons and what appears to be temporal displacement technology. Attack was triggered as soon as I entered the underground part of the facility.**

…

The last drone weapon falls silent and I take a moment to replenish my construct armour. Okay, let's take a look at-.

Small devices shaped like mushrooms sprout from the wall more armour!

There's a crackle of ionisation in the air as the plasma initiators activate, then the air turns to white light! Constant pressure on my shield, bearable, but I'm not going anywhere like this. Bit of an extreme burglar alarm; it would be lethal to anyone not shielded or super tough.

**Additional defences include a plasma initiator system.** The plasma initiators burn out, letting the gas in the room return to its natural composition and pressure. And.. that destroyed the drone remains, darn it.

…

**Please respond.**

**We're… Mostly okay, Oh El. Ow.**

**Do you need me back up-?**

**No.** Kaldur sounds a good deal more okay than Wallace did. **Keep looking. I will join you in a moment.**

I nod, replenish my construct armour again. **What happened?**

**Some sort of automated weaponry. Fortunately, I was its initial target and my armour turned its energy aside.**

**Good to hear.** I'd considered using arcane metamaterials in my armour, but I felt that phasing and invisibility were more useful. And I'd have to wear it throughout the mission as I wouldn't just be able to subspace it whenever I felt like it.

The metal making up the walls of the corridor is more than a little melted, and the damage to the stuff they're using to deceive my ring scans is enough that I'm getting slightly more helpful feedback now. This facility still doesn't appear to be particularly big, but there are a couple of rooms to take a look at. Hm. If they'd just had the production upstairs here we might not have thought that there was anything untoward going on here. Was the automated defence system a response to me, or to the other attacks that are going on?

Ring, show me everyone else's progress.

Compliance.

League attacks on what Mister Hunter assured us are their main centres are going well. Some resistance, about half of which is 'high end' rather than conventional guards. Huh. And a couple of whiffs as members of the world's premier superhero team turn up somewhere that genuinely doesn't have anything suspicious happening at it. Plastic Man and Green Arrow probably can't be redeployed fast enough to join in anything else… The rest of my team are doing fine, though Kon and Canis are reporting injuries. Probably had to tank the automated defences.

Kaldur drops down the hole and nods to me. "Are you injured?"

"No, raring to go." I lumber towards the end of the corridor at a jog, crumbler gauntlet construct out in front of me. "Are the forges-" The doorway disintegrates, revealing… Ah, rats. "-in one piece?"

What look like banks of computer equipment are either destroyed or.. missing, perhaps displaced in time to somewhen Eliminations, Inc can recover them.

"Much like this, I am afraid."

Scan… No, no more plasma weapons. Just… Destroyed equipment.

"Darn. Ring, anything worthwhile left?"

"Affirmative."

The ring highlights.. some sort of tachyon fountain. Which being tachyons, means that it's still working in the future. A marker? A beacon of some kind? I walk towards it. Should probably see if I can turn it off. I imagine that Doctor Palmer would-.

Red bubbles precipitate into existence to our right! I immediately aim my cold guns and Kaldur… Ah, calls up a.. sphere of water with ice sigils floating inside it. Beams of phased particles considerably more powerful than those fired by the drones fire back, knocking him backwards into the wall and straight up blasting chunks out of my construct armour. Dodge dodge! Ring, am I hitting-?

The fire cuts out, revealing four humanoids in full black and red body armour. They're carrying what I immediately recognise as phased particle beams, though the weapons look somewhat the worse for wear. Frost covers the exterior of their armour in several places but it looks like it's got the sort of insulation that can actually prevent cold guns scoring instant kills. They freeze for a fraction of a second, then the red bubbles reappear and they vanish.

"Kaldur?"

"I am well. And it seems that Doctor Mist was correct about them having no defence against magic." He pulls himself upright and walks to my side. "It is mildly reassuring that at least one of our foes does not work with the others."

I take a moment to look around. Guess we're done here, then.