The Offensive
With the prejudice of twenty-one pink artillery batteries, Cyrus's army patrols the reinvented Lincoln City. Fitz isn't taking this city from them; let alone his old home...as if the one in Bakersfield that he was raised in was ever broken...
Okay, so...the elephantfish are hypocrites there, being EAF-native. Even so, they HAD to leave their home, to keep from getting killed by the straight male majority in that lake. FITZ left his home because, quite frankly, becoming the mayor of Bakersfield, or what not, just isn't as boon-mongering as becoming the fucking president of the fucking NAU...
OTOH, Cyrus and his pack DID turn the sky pink... But then, how else is society supposed to learn to love gay men, if gay men don't stand up and sing their best music to the world? These three elephantfish are doing in three days what most gay men have been too wussy to do in the past three centuries. Technically, Fitz still has command over the NAUDF...but even so, it's nice for Cyrus and his pack to know that if Fitz orders an airstrike on all the gay men in Lincoln City, and while they all look this good, he WILL lose his bid for reelection in a few years...
Throughout the streets, the patrols are still active. Fitz is nowhere to be seen, of course. But he's out there. Their boss just knows it...
Fitz might not love the Grey House obviously, but he sure loves Olivia Pope. THAT much WON'T keep him away from those ice walls, that Iceman has sprayed up around the city...
In long files, down the streets, the Orders of Springfield, Watertown, and Good Zion are on patrol, in JLTVs; higher-tech Humvees. These vehicles are SO much funner, and not to mention SO much more secure to drive in battle, than those awful holy transports their bosses from their own times/realities made them travel in.
For some, there weren't even any combat vehicles, in the wars they fought in. Some idiot forgot to invent the combat vehicle before their war began, they imagine...
In the middles of the roads, the vulturine guineafowl cocks become more fierce. They feast upon the carrion of the Whiterobes, as if they thought they were vultures...
Overhead, the Fish Eagle Force passes. It hesitates, and looks down upon the carcasses, with narrowed eyes.
The cocks look up, and shrink away from the carcasses...
The Fish Eagle Force smiles, reaches down with its humongous beak, and nips a piece off; a protection fee, for the bagman. The Fish Eagle Force snarfs it down, and moves on, over the city, like that airship in Aeon Flux...
Relieved, the guineafowl return to their scavenging. Ah, how they love the smell of a straight man's corpse in the pink-dawned morning. Thanks to their boss, it's now ALWAYS a pink dawn in Lincoln City...
Over the creepy quiet of the city, they hear a noise. The feasting guineafowl stop, and listen. Some raise their plumes. That sounded like...
It SOUNDED like Tony Goldwyn's rendition of Tarzan, making his famous jungle cry. But, how can that be?"
The streets clear, as more and more of Cyrus's forces creep towards the ice wall around the city. They've got a feeling they're about to be called to arms.
Within the Fish Eagle Force, the Eye of Sauron appears, peers over the ice wall, and narrows. In black speech, Sauron/the Fish Eagle Force calls all of Cyrus's forces to arms.
Right on cue, a pair of bull elephants barrel right through the ice, and right into the city. Nobody moves to stop them.
From above, an enemy air force swoops in, and gets to work on tearing down the wall. If Fitz was indeed leading this army, Ronald Reagan would be proud of him...
Fitz has assembled his Marvel and DC characters, too. They're on the front lines of the striking air force.
Dr. Light flies all up and down the ice wall, melting it with her light. She's got quite a bit of it to spare...
Nite Owl II flies in his owl-themed hovercraft, gunning the ice wall down, wherever he must. The windows in that cockpit sure are big...
Ancient One hovers in place, and shatters parts of the wall with her magic. If she weren't bald, she looks like she could be the White Witch, in the Chronicles of Narnia...
Ramon Zero appears, clad in a samurai-themed exosuit. He draws katanas, and starts slicing the ice to bits...
Sunfire flies down, and starts melting the ice with his fire. If they asked him, they should've sent HIM to do this, first...
Sam Wheat, as Ghost, descends, and phases through the still-intact parts of the wall, several times, to humiliate the wall's maker. Iceman crosses his arms, and sighs...
From history, Fitz has recruited, and summoned, nine of California's old right-wing governors, who had military careers. The latest ones fly, via winged harnesses, and help out with tearing down the wall. They're Knight, Wilson, Iron Duke, and Ronald Reagan. (Ah; so Reagan IS smiling down upon Fitz, right now. Just...not the version of him who's been president of the NAU...)
A time-displaced Huo Yuanjia descends from the sky, via meditation, and helps Ramon Zero slice up the ice, with his own katanas...
Below them, the grounded part of Fitz's offensive assembles. There sure are a lot of elephants, and heavy tanks...
One of the tanks is manned by Sergeant Joe Gunn. He bears the likeness of a younger James Belushi…
The Order of Statham has manned a whole troop of tanks. Deckard Shaw is just sad they can't charge as fast as the cavalry horse can...or faster. If HE had his way, he'd be doing this with Apache helicopters instead. Around him, fellow Order of Statham members Frank Martin and Handsome Rob seem to agree...
A time-displaced Idi Amin commands the Order of Whitaker. They're a tank troop, too...albeit Amin himself rides a barded elephant. Ghost Dog, Col. Weber, Big Harold, Jody, and Tom both drive tanks, though. Tom's a marine from the How It Ends universe, Jody's from the Crying Game universe, Harold's from the Platoon universe, and Weber's from the Arrival universe; the first might or might not have geology-control powers... Near them, Saw Gerrera has given his tank a few upgrades; interstellar ones, in fact...
Zuri's here, as the Black Panther. Behind him, atop a tank, he summons the rest of the Chaste, as they've come to help Fitz take back the Grey House.
Vanisher's footsteps can be heard, on the surface of a tank. Alas, the mutant's invisible; some of the Chaste are pretty sure he's not really here.
Thing mounts a tank, hammers his own rock-hard chest, and bellows. NO one messes with his blind sculptress of a girlfriend...
Silver Samurai, a Japanese mutant in an exosuit, mounts a tank, and draws a pair of adamantium katanas. This exosuit feels SO much better than a black archer's robe...and also a bit better than a Hand ninja's outfit...
Revanche, a mutant who's been body-swapped with Psylocke, mounts an elephant. She generates purple-lit whips and katanas from her hands, and swipes and lassos them, warming up for the big fight...
Professor X, a mutant, rides an elephant. To him, this is SO much funner than a wheelchair...and yet, a bit less convenient than a hoverchair...
Nomad's shield flies around, above the grounded troops, like a black discus. It returns to its thrower, a supersoldier in a black costume, who flexes his stuff, stands atop a tank, and expects the worst...
Man-Ape mounts one of the elephants, in his white gorilla attire. He's got a spear, and that's not all...
Makoto's in a pair of short shorts, and stands atop an elephant, with a pair of katanas at the ready. With luck, Cyrus has recruited some vampires who need her to slay them...
Ka-Zar's here, aback an elephant. He feels bad about leaving the Savage Land alone for as long as he must...but Professor X, an old friend, recommended him for this job, for a reason that remains to be seen...if it hasn't already been heard...
Amadeus Cho, the Korean nerd, sits aboard an elephant, and anticipates action, excitedly. Ah, if only he handled that Hulk with half the care that his mentor, Bruce Banner, once did...
Fantomex, a mutant Sentinel cyborg, leaps from elephant to elephant, and from tank to tank, showing off his stuff. EVA, his hovering AI robot, follows him around, seemingly a bit annoyed...even if she is a robot...
Deathlok's atop a tank. He's a cyborg, and he's armed and dangerous. He's armed with prosthetic arms, as well as actual, and much more dangerous, ones... He's got a squad of Deathloks behind him...
The Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator is among them, as is a younger Dennett Norton, as RoboCop... As is Marion, a cyborg from the Nemesis universe, whose human parts bear the likeness of Thom Mathews...
Armor, a mutant, rides an elephant, dreading the worst. She's just a little Japanese girl; but Professor X insists she's got potential, so here she is...
Akihiro, the half-Japanese mutant son of Wolverine, is here too. He rides aback an elephant. He would ride on a tank, except everyone's worried he'll draw his adamantium claws, and shred it to shrapnel, out of impulsive rage. He's not the Hulk, but even so, like his father's, his temper seems to have no limit...
The Order of Mathews has only assembled four facets of Fitz's old shipmate; Tommy Jarvis, Marion, a zombified Freddy Hanscom from the Return of the Living Dead universe, and Francis Kelly of the Dirty Dozen. Jarvis is a slasher, and wields a pair of knives, for the occasion.
The Order of Pitt has recruited and fielded eight facets. Besides Vanisher, they're Tristan Ludlow from the Legends of the Fall universe, Sinbad, Rusty Ryan from the Ocean's Eleven universe, Paul Maclean from the River Runs Through It universe, a time-displaced Lt. Raine of the Inglorious Basterds, a time-displaced Louis de Pointe du Lac, John Smith from the Mr. and Mrs. Smith universe, a time-displaced Jesse James, and a time-displaced Achilles. Ludlow and James seem to be getting on quite well...so much, in fact, that they're standing atop the same tank...
The Order of McAvoy has recruited five facets of Fitz's fellow POW captive. Besides Professor X, they're Wesley Gibson from the Wanted universe, Robbo from the Filth universe, Robbie Turner from the Atonement universe, Nicholas Garrigan from the Last King of Scotland universe, and Jade from the Unbreakable universe. Turner is dressed, and prepared, for war. Garrigan rides a blue-painted elephant.
The Order of Oldman has also recruited eleven facets of Fitz's old fellow POW captive. Besides RoboCop, they're Viktor Reznov from the Call of Duty universe, TAU the AI in the body of a synthezoid, Sirius Black, a time-displaced Norman Stansfield, Lord Shen, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg from the Fifth Element universe, George Smiley, Igor Korshunov from the Air Force One universe, Drexl Spivey from the True Romance universe, Charlie Strom from the Sin universe, and Carnegie from the Book of Eli universe. Lord Shen is a white peacock atop a tank with a supergun, and Sirius Black is a black dog, who slithers among the tank treads and elephant feet, waiting for his moment... Of them all, Strom seems to be the most excited about being here...
The Order of Statham also includes Terry Leather from the Bank Job universe, Rick Ford from the Spy universe, Agent Crawford from the War universe, Chev Chelios from the Crank universe, and Arthur Bishop from the Mechanic universe. Crawford seems insecure, a sole federal agent among thieves and spies...
The grounded part of the Order of Bakersfield includes California ex-governors Stephens, Pacheco, Markham, Warren, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger is in Styrian battledress. Warren's got a 91st Division patch on his shoulder. Markham's drunk on Milwaukee beer...but can still fight.
This myriad, of course, is merely PART of Fitz's offensive. Needless to say, Cyrus's army is starting to feel overwhelmed by it, just by staring at the many tanks and elephants Fitz has scrounged up.
"That's it," Livewire hisses. "He's broken the deal!"
"He hasn't broken the deal," Sir Louis insists, "until they've trespassed the High Pink Castle lawn. They're still a long way from that, as any fool can see."
"Besides," Citizen Illinois insists, "we don't know that's President Grant II's army. There isn't a single warrior in that assembly who so much as LOOKS like Grant II..."
TAU, an AI possessing a synthezoid, rises above the grounded part of Fitz's offensive. He flashes several lights, and messages the Order of Goldwyn to advance, and be recognized by the enemy...
Below, Citizen California, the advance guard, bursts through the front lines of the phalanx. He wears a white costume. He carries a round metal shield that's white, and has a grizzly bear's head symbol in its center; like the Chicago Bears. The shield's outer fringe is red, like the bottom of California's state flag.
Without further ado, the Order of Goldwyn advances to the head of the phalanx. And its assembly is VERY impressive...