Times Square, New York City

Andrew swore as he was transported by Thom. At first the Lone Wanderer thought he was being abducted by those fucking aliens again, but then his feet were planted solidly on the sidewalk. The man glanced to the side at some robe-wearing dude with a staff next to him. His robe reminded him of Elder Lyons, but he didn't really have time to thank the guy as he disappeared right after.

The Knight turned and broke into a brisk jog down the street, cradling his M199. It'd take him at least thirty something seconds to actually reach the Behemoth and bridge. At least they had a plan, seemingly. Drown it. Hell, Andrew had done that to an Overlord that was hanging around the Citadel when he got into hand-to-hand with the damn thing.

This monster was going to harm the innocent. This was not going to happen, not today. Her sword, this holy sword, while not the strongest, would be her weapon tonight, along with herself. The self-proclaimed Seeker readied her weapon, the Holy weapon reflecting the light cast by the moon. It'd only been an hour sense her spirit was summoned to this world, or so she guessed. She had a a fairly good sense of time. Johanne kept the Widly at her side, jumping back, almost seven stories in the air. Her gravity defying powers were being put to the literal limit, with the amount of power expended sense that clown had teleported her. She was almost out of spiritual energy, though she had the Familiars to feed off of. She hoped she didn't, however. She would need them.

She landed almost at the top of the ramp into the bridge, the Behemoth closing in. She'd make her stand here, where it was less likly to smash her into a wall, or something along those lines. She raised the little used widly, and squeezed the trigger, firing off a small volley of three shots at the creature face in a mere few seconds, standing her ground. This wasn't good; she doubted she could last long against it in melee combat. But guns weren't even working at this point... at least she had the high ground. This was her line in the sand; if she retreated, then the innocents behind her could very well die. That was not an option.

With their resident pain-in-the-ass about to charge down a woman armed with a fire arm and a sword, Nova thought quickly. Nothing they threw at it was able to bring it down in time before a bunch of civilians would be turned to paste and she wasn't sure whether everyone had enough eplosives to bring down the bridge.

Wait, tha cables! she thought as she stowed her rifle. With the cables gone, all they would need to do is get everyone they could off of the bridge, then lure the Behemoth onto it. the being's weight and sheer bloddy-mindness would do the rest.

Unsheathing her psyblade and, with a thought, activating it, she scrambled towards the nearest cable, intent on getting to work...

A 17 year old male by the name of Anthony Cano sat on a couch in the living room of his home in West Virginia. His family had left for the groceries, leaving him at home alone as he flipped through channels on the television, only lingering on each station for only a moment or two. He flipped across CNN without a thought, but just as he was about to press the button on the remote to change channels again, his eyes went wide as he realized what he had glimpsed, and he flipped back to the news station. On the television, an Asian looking reporter by the name of Trisha Takanawa, was talking about an attack by a large yellow creature in New York City. "...and now we go to Jim Gardner on the scene.
"It appears that we have a large creature of some sort lumbering through New York here. It appears that a group of five oddly dressed individuals trying to get this...thing out onto the bridge and possibly further." He turned back and caught a glimpse of Nova's blade as she went to cut one of the wires holding the bridge, but he wasn't exactly sure what she was doing. He had a fairly good idea. "It...it looks like one of them may be trying to cut the bridge supports."
At just that moment, dark shadows passed overhead leaving the man with a cold feeling, leaving him to shiver before to dark cloaked figures appeared on the bridge, each with some kind of chains wrapping around the bridge supports an pulling in an attempt to break them as they constricted and cut into the metal but could not completely cut. The reporter turned back to the camera, "We are going to go to the Helicopter to get a view from above.
~~~
The Scene cut to the view from the helicopter as a camera aimed shots down at the bridge, getting a shot of the creature from above and catching the group, of now seven, trying to collapse the bridge. "It looks like we have seven oddly clothed people who seem to be exhibiting strange abilities as they attempt to bring George Washington Bridge down underneath the creature. We are now going to try and get a shot of the creature's face." The helicopter managed to get around in front of the abomination and get a clear shot of the scrunched yellow face.
Anthony, who had been staring at the television, a ham sandwich in hand, felt his mouth drop open, luckily he hadn't bitten into the sandwich yet. "Holy shit...is that...that looks just like a super mutant." The camera panned down and zoomed in on the beings below it. "That looks like Spawn and Leon from Resident Evil. Is that...is that a Quarian? What the fuck is going down?"
~~~
Lia had closed on the creature and noticed a woman in white armor with a faintly glowing blade as she made for one of the thick steel cables that suspended the bridge. She fired into the creature's leg in an attempt to attract its attention and stop it or at least get it to turn back so the others would have more time as the slow thinking creature walked back across the center of the bridge, still in the area they planned to drop.
The hellspawns had given up on their chains and instead turned to using agony, their capes. The capes morphed into twin axes and they took these hell sent weapons to slice through the steel supports. They gave way after a few powerful swings, the bridge sagging almost imperceptibly after the loss of a couple of supports but more and the sag would be noticeable.

Having severed one of the cables near the centre of the span, Nova, through the cacophany of the engagement, people panicking as they scrambled to get off the bridge and the roar of helicopter blades, she noted what looked like a couple of persons from the local press.

Fighting her way past panicking civilians, she temporarily sheathed her blade as she urged, "What are you doing here? Get off the bridge! Run!"

Jim was looking into the camera when Nova ran up to him, "...no one knows what this creature or where it-" Nova interrupted him. He signaled for the camera man to cut the feed and the news station switched back to chopper cam. Jim spun around, "What? No! I am not leaving, I need this footage. Aren't you one of those loonies out there trying to stop that beast anyway?"

"If you mean, trying to stop THAT..."

Nova gestured to the Behemoth, who was currently being stalled by Johanne and what few police officers had managed to make it to the bridge thus far.

"Then yes. So, footage or no, you can either die here, either by drowning or being pulverised to death, or you can run and live another day."

She retrieved her rifle once more as she concluded, "Your choice."

The little conversation was interrupted by the girl holding the super mutant off flying towards them at break neck speeds, so fast she was a blur. Moving so fast was out of her abilities to defy gravity, or teleport out of, so she attempted to slow the speed down by stabbing the sword into the bridge. Though she was extremely lucky not to hit cars, being on the pedestrian portion she was still moving at extreme speeds, the sword simply cutting through the cement, rather than slowing her down any.

She then lifted her arm, and punched down into the ground at her full strength, hoping her gauntlet would hold against the raw amount of power. Instead, it stopped her with a jolt, almost ripping her hand off, and sending her at still high speeds into a abounded semi-trailer truck. Most of the frontal portion of the truck was completely caved in from the force of impact, the girl relatively intact however. Of course to a normal human, this had only taken a few seconds to a go down, and thus, it wasn’t easily tracked. There was metal coming through portions of her body here and there, and blood freely seeped to the ground, Joyeuse lying completely unharmed laying a few feet from Nova, and the reporter.

She moved her head slightly, releasing trying to release herself from the hold of the truck, and hitting the ground on her knees. For the most part however, the metal hadn't impaled her, somehow. She stood up on her wavering knees, sacrificing an enormous amount of her familiars to heal so quickly from such an impact. She was lucky to have concaved the metal to form a (shield?) to stop the metal from fully impaling her; otherwise she would be dead right now. Considering what just happened, it was a watered down version of what had happened to Andrew earlier, she just had time to slow herself down. She probably had an untold amount of broken bones, and internal injuries, but she stood anyway. She didn’t have the strength to retrieve her sword, or re-engage for that matter.

Jim had begun on his way to the edge of the bridge, camera man in tow. He felt a strong gust of wind and heard a lout crash. When he looked at the source of the noise, there was the sword wielding woman, laying in a caved section of the truck. He saw her sword not to far away and watched her climb out and stand. It was unbelievable, but he continued anyway, not sure staying around was the best idea if he wanted to continue the story.

Lia had planted a few of her grenades on a bridge support and triggered the high explosive detonations, the cable weakening with a groan before a snapping sound could be heard.

The Spawns had another 2 cables free, axes tearing into the cables with every swing.

Swinging her psyblade in an arch, Nova hacked several times at her third cable, wincing and quickly stepping back as the cable snapped and whipped away from it's other severed half. There was no noticable change in pitch ... yet. Of course, some of the others were busy at their own sabotague.

Hearing a roar further down the bridge, she picked up her pace. Johanne and the others who were delaying the Behemoth could not last for longer, surely?

Jim watched as from the distance the bridge began to sag as more an more cables were cut. Six were free and only a few more and the bridge would be ready to crumble under the creature. The Spawns had decided that maybe a little power use would be faster. Despite their hatred for using the necroplasm that coursed through and composed their bodies, they each knew that the creature couldn't be contained for long. Sharp claws on their hands glowed green as they severed the cable in swipes much faster than with the axes.

"Come on, come on," Collins whispered. There was a gasping woman, of approximately 26, clinging to his shoulder right now. She was gasping, maybe having an asthma attack; he wasn't sure. After every round of her heavy, quick breaths she heaved and stopped altogether, bending over. She'd actually spewed a few times already.

He'd been following the group for no reason at all- he was simply drawn to the action. He would watch from a safe distance, though, rather than risking anything more than cuts and bruises. He'd had to push through enormous crowds of screaming people fleeing from the monster, but he was here now. His more rational than creative mind had known instantly what the plan was- lure the beast onto the bridge, and cut it. However, something had said he needed to go onto the bridge, now almost empty of people, to save this woman. She reminded him of someone he'd known, long ago. A memory, buried under childhood trauma.

He sits next to the creek at which he occasionally speaks to his dead mother. He is twelve, now, no longer the child that had once twirled and swirled at the phantom produced by a crippled heart- but that story is for another day. The phantom he sees precedes this memory, but it is not what he thinks of now.

He'd been with his best friend at the time- Hope. Yes, she was female and he'd taken flak for it during the school hours, yes they weren't dating. They were friends, now- maybe one day it may have become something more, but probably not. Now, though, they sat by the creek the frequented. It had taken them hours to come out here in the deep, crunchy winter snow. A blizzard had just finished turning over their neighborhood, and Hope had convinced Collins to follow her here. She'd wanted to see the creek snowed over.

Then, as the laid back on the soft snow, their winter clothing protecting their skin from cold, but still leaving a cool bed, the blizzard had come back. It wasn't supposed to, either. The damned weather man had fucked up.

Within minutes, it was too heavy to see anything. They had crawled under the shelter of the forest, but it didn't do much in these conditions.

Ironically, it hadn't been the weather that had killed her- in a sense, yes, but the direct cause had been her asthma. After a full night under their tree, she'd breathing heavy. By the following morning, when the storm had stopped, she had chocked to death on her own phlegm.

Just like this woman was doing now, actually. And now Collins had a purpose- being brave really did boost your self esteem. As it turned out, it only boosted your self esteem when the bridge wasn't shaking under you- and, surprise, Collins, it was now. They'd gotten through the support structures much faster than he'd anticipated. Now there was a much larger threat than the already significant one of the beast. The bridge leaned to the right, severely, and some cars actually smashed through the thin rails and into the ocean. Great, wet smacks roared up from under as they hit the ground. Collins counted 4 of the crashes. He slipped, and both he and the woman fell- but he was determined this time. This time, he could save Hope- this time, he had a choice in the matter of her death. He was the intermediate. They both slid aways down the side of the street, colliding with a car. The car stopped their fall; it saved them from falling into the all consuming waves. The thought struck Collins- how many bodies could be down there, waiting for friends? Collins wasn't sure he wanted to know.

They struggled up together and started the long move to the end of the bridge, moving on both shaky and tilted ground. Eventually, they'd both traveled off the bridge, completing their shared odyssey. Now they were safe.

Then that roaring beast actually got hit- it was a small, speeding brick. It hit the woman, somehow sparing Collins, and drilled into her brain from the back of her skull. She died instantly- Collins did too, in a manner of speaking.

He saw her already dead body fall simply to the ground, with no fanfare. It had fallen backwards, and the woman's head made a muffled plop as it connected with the asphalt under them. Who knew how many pieces of gum had gotten inside her head from that fall? There certainly was a lot of the shit on the street, growing all around like some kind of weed.

And here, Collins had failed. And there, five feet ahead, starting the move on, sort of accepting what had happened, Collins broke. His five feet, ten seconds of freedom from thought had ended.

She's dead.I've let Hope die twice now.

He collapsed on the street.

Having ensured she had cut enough cables, Nova figured that now might be a good time to try and pull back a bit while she had a good chance. She sheathed her psyblade and took off, sprinting through the petering out throng of people that were crowding the bridge in an attempt to put a little bit more distance between her and the Behemoth.

Unfortunatly, as she approached the opposite end of the centre span, a series of violent jolts threw her off balance, sending her stumbling towards one of the edges and nearly causing her to fall over the side; she hastily snatched a still attached cable and hung on for dear life, stopping herself from being consigned to the river below.

Grunting, she hauled herself up the cable and back onto the bridge, where she intended to make, what she assumed, was her final stand. She had an extrodinary escape, but it could have ended very quickly for her.

Luckily, nothing vital had been harmed, or pierced. With the monster out there, across the bridge, she was safe for now. The cables were being cut down by this point, though she doubted it would she could walk this off so quickly. She was almost out of energy as it was, and was beggining to draw energy from her famaliars. With so much energy loss so quickly, she'd fade within a day, maybe two. She needed a Master. Johanne looked up towards the top of one of the builings across the bridge, past the raging super mutant, and teleported, simply fading away. Nobody seemed to see ot notice her use of the last bits of power she had, that was good enough for her.

To the relief of those civilians who had bolted from the combat zone, a number of Humvees pulled up on the cityside bank as National Guards piled out. While most of them cordoned off the roads leading to the bridge, the others filed onto the bridge proper, weapons blazing as they attempted to try and bring down the monster that had caused their city so much grief.

***

Despite the arrival of more soldiers, Nova felt that time was more or less up. The creature had been delayed long enough and now, for better or worse, she will do her part.

She had only attempted this ability once, way back in the past - a psychic blast powerful enough to level a skyscraper - and it had been learned at the cost of nearly 415 lives. It would take at least a couple of minutes in order to charge, so she sprinted behind an abandoned vehicle and tried to hide as she prepared herself for what could be her final action...

Lia felt the bridge waver and shake as its supports began to strain from being cut one by one. She quickly made her leave, backing away and spraying the behemoth with assault rifle bullets as she did so. Before long she was back, close to the National Guard lines.

The two Spawns, sure the bridge would fall now, scaled the behemoth and tore at its flesh with their claws.

Jim watched as the National Guard appeared on the scene, shoving the civilians back to safety and beginning to fire on the beast. He turned back to the camera and said, "It looks like the National Guard have appeared on the scene to stop the creature that has been rampaging through the city. It is now detained on the bridge and we will return to our helicopter camera to get a better view of the scene.

Anthony had been staring at the screen, eyes glued to the scene as it unfolded. He had always thought these things were all fiction, and he had been fairly sure, but now he had his doubts.

Nova could do little as the conflict raged between the Behemoth and the others. Hugging the improvised cover as best as she could, she could feel her power building up. All of her anger and rage were starting to be made manifest into one, terrifying explosion.

All she needed was at least a minute and a half, then it will be unleashed.

Lia continued to fire on the creature, her bullets doing nothing to the beast. Her gun overheated and began to beep while the greens lights flicked red to indicate overheating. "You stupid bosh'tet of a gun!"

The two cloaked beings continued to hack away at the beast, not doing much damage, really just pissing it off. It managed to grab Al off its back and attempted to crush him, but failed to kill him as it had tried to do. Instead Al suffered from having his body partially crushed by managed to get back to his feet and heal his wounds, using precious necroplasm to do so.

Feeling raw, almost uncontrollable, psionic power flowwing through her, Nova stood and strode towards the centre span of the bridge, a mixture of nostalgia and anxiety temporarily passing through her mind - this seemed all so familiar somehow, yet she could not pin down on wha that was.

And what if our plan doesn't work? she reflected as she clenched a fist. What if what we do kill more lives then save?

Lia had been firing at the beast when she saw Nova emerge from her hiding place, walking toward the humungous abomination unarmed. She had no idea what was about to happen but she didn't like that Nova didn't have her gun or blade in hand.

She-Spawn had given up on hurting the beast, and had decided to retreat back a bit. She could feel the raw energy seeping from Nova. Spawn could feel it too. She was radiating power.

"It appears that the others are backing off, and one of the fighters is approaching the creature. What do they have planned next? Let's find out."

Nova planted her feet on the centre span in defiance as the Behemoth noted with it's beady eyes the newest arrival to its little skirmish. As the beast let out a roar and charged, Nova brought up a fist and, screaming in what could be described as rage, slammed it into the concrete and asphalt ground she stood on.

Simeltaniously, her world flared white, she felt the grond beneath her give way and she felt a sudden loss of gravity as she fell...

***

"Something is happening down there-"
"What appears to be an explosion of epic proportions-"
"... to appear to have have set off some kind of nuclear explosion, I can't say from here-"
"... beast's rampage seemed to have finally brought to a violent conclusion..."

As Sheppard moved down the street towards where the monster had been, an A-10 flew overhead. He heard gunfire when it left his field of vision, and a roar to accompany it. A smile came to his face at the familiar sight of Air Support as it's warming sound faded away. He crouched in the shadows and attempted radio connection. He switched to the National Guard's frequency.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard. Do you copy, over?" he asked over his radio. Several long seconds dragged on, before a little bit of static sounded and a voice was heard.

"This is command. We read you, Sheppard, over."

Relieved, John smiled and asked: "Would you mind telling me what is going on right now, over?"

"Would you mind telling me from what unit you are from, Lieutenant Colonel, over?"

"I'm a pilot. USAF." John frowned, telling him his previous job as he was confused he seemed anonymous, "Maybe we should get down to business before our huge green friend tears apart this place, over?"

"Copy that. If you want in, head to Washi--- SHIT. Bridge went down. Head over there ASAP and check for survivors, over!"

"Roger. Sheppard out."

Ten minutes later, the officer was standing looking at the debris swirling around in the water. But his eyes, for some strange reason, seemed to be fixed on the monster, as if it was more interesting than the bridge. Well, seeming as though he could become alien food anytime soon, it was a pretty big deal. A few rounds from his P90 hit it somewhere on the chest, before the officer looked into the depths of dark, murky water.

She was falling. Somewhere, in a river hundreds of thousands of miles away from her home planet.

She was drowning. The strength that had fueled her anger had left her and her few futile gestures to return to the surface were, thus far, resulting in little. Thus far, she had remained close to the surface, but now, she was almost done for.

Help! her mind screamed out to anyoe that could "hear" her. Help!

Andrew finally rounded the corner towards the bridge...

... and was knocked flat on his ass as and explosion tore through the area. At first he thought it was the MIRV, but then he knew better. It looked different more... clean. Andrew stood up just in time to see the last of the bridge collapse, the Behemoth wasn't in view. And the rippling wake of the river was still spreading out.

The Knight stood at the edge of the river, looking out over the scene when suddenly he heard a desperate call for help from the river. He didn't know how he heard it, or how he knew exactly where the person was. But he didn't really question it.

Andrew dived into the river, the murky water seeped into the joints on his T-45D, weighing him down. But the 'Marine' struggled down, towards the bottom. He hadn't taken a full breath, you shouldn't fill your lungs completely with air. He couldn't really see, the visor allowed him to keep his eyes open. But the water was so polluted and muddy it didn't really matter anyways. He groped around, lungs burning, until his hand grasped someone's arm. He didn't bother looking as he desperatly kicked off with his feet. Heading towards the surface, which the light was barely visible through.

Is that Behemoth drowned yet? Or is that thing still alive? Andrew thought to himself, as he finally broke the surface, with Nova in tow. He gasped for breath, as water drained from his Power Armor. The Marine drug Nova onto the shore, where he laid her limp figure on the ground; removing his helmet and setting it on the grass. He then began to press on her chest, trying to force the water out in standard CPR.

Just as it seemed as if she was about to join the choir invisible, Nova felt a gauntlet grab her and she was pulled out of the water and onto the shoreline. She was barely aware of being dragged into an upright position and someone pounding her chest (possibly trying to get the water out of her system.)

Coughing up water, she slapped a gauntlet onto the chestplate of her rescuer and shook her head. "No ... need." she stated weakly, spitting out some water she had accidently ingested onto the grass.

She glanced back at the severed bridge and murmured, "Did ... did we kill it?"