-

This fight had turned confusing very quickly. Lychinus had thought himself in a good position; his attack had been blocked by some trick that he didn’t fully understand, but the Splatterer was restrained and toppling over with the help of a mystery combatant. Then the water came, and a moment later the tangle of grappling heroes and villains was broken up and scattered. Lychinus found himself tumbling through the flood head-over-heels, accompanied by wayward car parts and wooden chunks of water tank.

In a moment of clarity among the daze, he found himself thinking it was fortunate that he had no lungs. If he did, they would’ve either been forcefully emptied or filled with water. That thought also brought him back to reality. He had to react and recover from whatever this was before the Splatterer did. Charging power to his wings, he launched himself in the direction that he figured was up. A moment later he crashed out of the roiling surface of the water with a violent splash and rose to about thirty feet in height, his flight wavering like an insect.

He’d gotten out early: the water below was still rolling and spreading, though it wouldn’t be for long. Lychinus used this moment to recover from his daze and reorient himself. His sword had somehow gone lost in the chaos, but he still sensed its signature under the water, so he thrust his arm downwards and willed it to himself. A moment later, the energy-based sword burst out from the surface as well and returned to his hand.

With his fighting posture regained, he looked around to see the Splatterer washing up a small distance away. It seemed dazed, but recovering. Lychinus wasn’t sure how much another straight stab would do, given its defences, but he could at least attempt to keep the Splatterer down until the other heroes could get themselves together. Thus, in a move that might seem like a déjà vu for the victim, he launched himself downward at the Splatterer with his feet forward, aiming to plant them firmly upon the target’s chest and smash him back into the ground before he could fully regain his posture.

The best outcome for Daniel would have been to stay back and steal the deal the final blow on the Splatterer, making these heroes do all the work for him, but neither Dan nor his passenger wanted this so he was glad to have finally landed a blow, it’s just unfortunate it was only a diversionary strike to save a hero. Daniel backed off when the fiery hero returned and started her flamethrower attack again, she hadn’t left him much time since it looked like she wanted to follow up on the Splatterer’s knockdown. It was tempting to assist but he wouldn't have time for that as General Freedom had blasted off to knock over a water tower.

A torrent of water washed Daniel down, his suit was filtered, but did not have its own air supply. Meaning he struggled for a few moments as the water flushed in and out of his mask as he was thrown around, luckily, he had the foresight all those years ago to make his suit waterproof so its electronics would be perfectly fine. His body was continually thrown around like a doll before he slammed his knife down, helping to keep himself oriented.

Daniel’s body and armor would survive being thrashed around, but that doesn’t mean it would feel good, that’s for a different kind of hero. Daniel collided into a car a few seconds later, giving him a chance leave the water and look at his surroundings, along with time for the water to drain. He couldn’t spot the others from his angle, but he could see that pseudo angel and the Splatterer just fine. As of now that angel looked to be trying something again, maybe it’d work out for him, but for now Daniel would make his own turn.

The former hero put more strength into his legs as he rocketed high into the sky, using the vents on his legs to gain more altitude, hoping to make use of the sun’s brightness to hide himself and his next attack. As he reached the peak height in his jump a panel on his head opened revealing his hidden beam mount, and a stream of energy quickly shot out towards the Splatterer. The stream burned bright, and it curved slightly, reflecting the point at which he began to fall. The air around the beam distorted in its wake as it sped towards its target, Daniel wasn’t counting on it to seriously damage him, but he was hoping that it would distract him or take advantage of another’s distraction.

As Daniel fell back down he threw his knife at the Splatterer as well, sending all his strength into it once more, drops of blood periodically fell to the ground below as the knife cut through the air. To control his landing Daniel activated his vents to aim himself towards a building, he forced himself into what used to be an office building, using several of the cubicles to stop himself.

General Freedom watched the activity below. It seemed everyone survived with little but bruises and perhaps bruised egos. So be it. A little-injured pride was far better than having that mad god detonate. Counting the other three heroes, General Freedom dropped a little lower from his elevated position. He'd have to act fast, these guys wanted to continually get in close with the Splatterer, which played to his strengths. They needed to weaken him first before getting into a melee.

Scanning the debris field below, he found what he needed. Racing down towards the wet streets, the blue-clad hero dropped into a hole that had exposed much of Gotham’s wonderful substructures. The arcs and sparking of the power line was music to his ears. Grabbing a conduit, General Freedom yanked it free to a loud sizzling zot.

Rising slightly, he orientated himself on the Splatterer. There was still water around him, and between them. Enough that the introduction of the power line into the water would create a surge of energy that would electrify everything that was in contact with the water. If this worked it would either stun the misshapen creature or it would force him to take evasive actions to save his life that would allow the others to strike while his attention was focused on the energy spike and General Freedom.

Plop plop plop!

Evvie’s feet splashed through the flowing water as she was making her way towards the action. She had been far enough away to have only been caught in the outskirts of the downpour, allowing her to recover not too long after the others despite her unsightly tumble. She managed to restrain her muttering well enough to get her focus back on the situation at hand and reanalyze things. This lead her eyes towards the man in blue as he mysteriously dove down into a hole. What was he up to? He better not by trying to run away!

Her question was soon answered when he popped back up while holding an electrified cable. She looked between him, the water, and her feet back and forth as the realization slowly dawned on her. She’d been electrified her fair share of times and most certainly wasn’t in the mood to have it happen to her again. Her wings were tired but had enough juice in them to allow her to flap up into the air a couple of feet. She hoped that the electricity would pass before they tired out and she’d fall back down again.

-

Just when Lychinus thought he had the Splatterer in a compromised position, a scorching beam unexpectedly struck him from behind, flaying away layers of his flesh suit like a blow torch on an onion. He flinched but didn’t yield, instead turning his upper body to face the source while keeping one hand on his restrained sword. The beam was just coming to an end, but he had turned just in time to see the red glint of a follow-up attack. Raising his free hand, he caught the murderous knife on his forearm, where its supernaturally-sharp point pierced through his flesh and stabbed shallowly into his crystalline core, where it remained with a soft thrumming sound.

The attacker was disappearing out of sight as it happened, so there was no telling whether the attack was deliberate or not. There wasn’t much time to think about it either, because a moment later a city block worth of electrical power surged into him, conducting up through the body of the Splatterer, with his deranged approximation of a grin. This is where being inorganic really pays off. A human would’ve been well and truly fucked, but Lychinus had no muscles to spaz out, no brain or nerves to overload, and no heart to stop. That left the ionizing heat of the current as the primary hazard. Damaging, for sure, but not as debilitating as it could’ve been.

As black Lichtenberg patterns burned their way up his sword, arm and legs, scorching his flesh and rattling his core, he struggled to force a new surge of energy into his wings, propelling him upwards. He let go of the sword and ceased his concentration upon it, causing it to shatter under the electric current and the Splatterer’s iron grip. The Splatterer now had a decision to make: release his psychic grip and be left in the electrified water, or be lifted into the air by the torso. If the Splatterer released, Lychinus would merely fly up further to create distance and recover. If he held on, Lychinus would fly to fifteen foot height before turning his attention downward and firing a scorching energy beam of his own from his eyes, directly at the Splatterer’s disturbing visage.

Daniel shook his head disapprovingly, as his own earlier attacks caught one of the heroes in the back, but he noted that the other hero caught his knife. Would he use it? If he didn’t it would be no loss, the knife didn’t break and could not be lost. Dan also noted that their poor coordination was holding them back, the angel had blundered into ‘friendly’ fire, the woman had barely gotten away from the electricity, and that water tower stunt hit everyone.

They need more than super strength, they needed to start communicating, and even he did that back in his heroic days. How could these heroes neglect to talk to each other for so long? Since they seemed reluctant Daniel elected himself to begin dialogue. Reaching out with his telepathy to talk with people felt odd since he only ever used it to taunt his prey, and he would have preferred it to say like that, but nonetheless the situation called for it.

Daniel directed his telepathy at the angel, General Freedom, and the woman.

"Don’t be alarmed, I am communicating with my mind, you will only hear my thoughts to you, and vice versa. We need to start coordinating so we only hit the Splatterer. I plan to continue to attack at range, I’m setting up another barrage for the Splatterer in a building near you. My aim is on our enemy, don’t get hit." Daniel said, or thought, at the heroes. He took a second to give them a soft image of the building he’d dived into, not intrusive enough to distract them, but more like giving them a new memory.

"You, woman with the fire, unless you’re sure you can do damage stop trying to touch him. You burned him with your fire earlier, do it again."

Daniel considered that to be enough and slid back into position again, as of now he and his clones were prone on the floor, hiding out of sight until they were all ready, and now that they all were the time was now. Dan can’t produce enough clones to completely take up the floor space, but this number was enough to fill the side of the building, each clone stood roughly shoulder to shoulder.

The plumes on their helmets opened up to reveal their hidden beam mounts, over a dozen streams of heated super plasma burst through what was left of the windows, and trailed towards the Splatterer; and their small size should give the angel hero enough room to avoid being hit again.

Evvie was concerned for the winged allies safety, thinking about what she could do to help when all of a sudden thoughts that weren’t hers filled her head instead and interrupted her. Her flapping stuttered from the surprise, almost causing her to dip into the electrified water before she could recover her altitude. She had no idea who had invaded her mind at first although pieced together that it was the person who had attacked from behind.

“I’m sure I can damage him however I want,” she thought matter of factly, not overly fond of taking orders from others, especially random people she didn’t know, and being in a rather foul mood due to how the battle had gone so far. She flapped in closer but didn’t engage in melee range yet because her fire breath may indeed be the best option and she didn’t want to get friendly fired in the coming attack. Her eyes carefully focused on the two below her to see if the two separated so she could get a better opening.

She regretted her tone but couldn’t apologize right now. She took a deep breath to ready herself for her attack which would come as soon as the opening was achieved. If the two remained together she’d have no choice but to drop down and get a better angle to only hit the splatterer more from the side.