A/N: Here it is: the moment you've all been waiting for. I won't waste time with the intros, though: I'm sure you all are waiting for the good stuff, so I'll give it to you right away.
Padawan Rage
"I feel I should warn you: even with all the necessary precautions, this kid is dangerous," stated a man over the phone. "Oh, don't worry: I'm prepared for anything," replied one Eva Talega, "but I'll contact you if the need arises. Have a good day." Once the phone was hung up, she turned to the boy in the room with her. "Why don't we get started, young Jedi?" she stated.
"What do you want?" replied Darth with a scowl on his face. "I figured you'd be suspicious, seeing as you managed to absorb some knowledge from one of my guards before I tasered you," Python replied, before stating, "However, this isn't about what I want: it's about what YOU want, or didn't you know that I'm aware of your TRUE potential?" "You don't know what you're talking about," the teen retorted.
"I knew you'd have some doubts, which is why I brought something that will demonstrate my point," the business woman stated, before activating her intercom. "Bring her in." At that moment, a guard brought a sleeping teen into the room. "Kirsten?" Darth questioned, to which Python replied, "Oh, don't worry: she's just sedated. After all, we don't want things getting too cold around here."
"What are you talking about?" Darth demanded, to which the adult women replied, "Oh, that's right: you weren't there when the Khaki Barn employees took possession of the mall. Before you ask, though, I'm not aware of where Miss Wong was during the riot, other than she wasn't directly involved." "How could those jerks take control of the entire mall?" the teen boy said confused.
"Why don't you access her memories?" the business women offered. After a little hesitation, Darth reached out and touched the mall patron. Almost immediately, he felt different. Stumbling back a little, he happened to graze a pot of coffee in the room, which instantly froze solid.
"So that's how they did it," figured the boy, to which Python replied, "Yes, and I believe that we can help each other. You see, the same so-called heroes who brought you down have expanded their numbers. I wish to bring them down before they become unstoppable, which is where you come in." "I'm listening," was Darth's only reply.
Unaware of this development, Jonsey was meeting up with his friends, discussing something VERY important. "Okay guys: without all that philosophical stuff, which came first: the chicken or the egg?" "Not that you haven't proposed an intriguing question," stated Wyatt, "but we should REALLY be discussing what we call ourselves when in disguise right now."
"Oh, right: I was thinking of 'Flint' for myself," Jonsey remarked. "Nice: I'm calling myself 'Mystic Maiden,'" Nikki remarked, to which Jude remarked with, "Rubber Man's my name: fighting crime's my game." Catlin smirked and stated, "Bonus points with the rhyme: I'll be going by 'Alley Cat.'" "That just leaves you and me, Jen," Wyatt remarked, to which she retorted with, "Actually, you're on your own, seeing as I've decided on 'The Sprint.'" Wyatt then sighed, and stated, "Alright, fine: I guess I'll call myself…"
Just then, an explosion was heard coming from the mall entrance. "Really: the probability of that happening is…" Wyatt began, to which Jonsey interrupted with, "You're seriously doing that now? We need to see what's going on." With a sigh, Wyatt followed his teammates.
When they got to the entrance, the teen heroes were a bit confused. All the damage present pointed to the former employees of the Khaki Barn, but that wasn't possible since the Clones were all in custody. Deciding to chance it, Jonsey ran up and yelled, "Okay, ladies: play times over." "You tell them, buds," Starr/Gargoyle Girl stated, "Night Owl will be here shortly: he's currently following a lead on the possibility of a new super."
"Good, I'll take him or her down, too, once he or she shows up," stated someone telepathically. "Alright, Chrissy: it ends now," Jude declared, to which a cloaked figure stated, "Do I look like a 'Chrissy' to you?" "Darth?" Nikki exclaimed, to which he calmly stated, "The name is 'Padawan Prince,' and you might have defeated me last time, but things have changed since then."
As if to show what he meant, he ran up and grabbed Starr by the throat. Instantly, she found herself getting weaker, losing her strength and her wings. "Let's see you stop me now," the phony Jedi declared as he began to grow wings of his own.
The next few minutes could only be described as hell: in mere moments, with the exception of Jen, who avoided Darth's grasp with her super speed, the entire roster of 6teen had lost their powers to the former geek. "This is too easy," the teen terror exclaimed, "Is there no one who can challenge me?"
As if on cue, a piece of rubble was thrown at the Star Wars fan. "Leave them alone, you big bully," demanded none other than Talon. "I'd stay out of this, if I were you," Darth advised, to which Talon replied, "As helpful as it sounds, I don't take orders from those on the Dark Side." "Besides, I brought him here," stated Night Owl, stepping out of the shadows.
"Night Owl: I'd take your powers, but they appear to have been bought at the hardware store," Darth said with some wit, before turning to Talon, "As much as I want to prove you wrong, you're really of no threat to me: why should I be scared of you?" "Simple: you're making me angry," was his simple reply.
Darth responded to this by shooting a massive fireball at Talon, knocking him through a nearby wall. "Now to deal with you," he stated, as he prepared another ball of fire. It was at that point that the sound of growling and clothing tearing started to fill the room.
Starr, who happened to be nearby the destroyed wall, woke up just in time to see Talon start to turn silver and grow large amount of muscle, destroying his clothing, leaving only a sliver of his shirt and what would function as a pair of shorts behind. "Well, that was unexpected," remarked the teen villain, "but no matter: I'll just absorb your power as well." As he said this, he held out his hand and stated, "Why don't you just chill for a moment?"
"Um, shouldn't something be happening?" Starr pondered out loud, to which Darth responded with, "What's going on? The bird boy's helper should be an icicle right now?" Night Owl smirked and stated, "It seems your power drain is only temporary." "I might not be at full strength, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just give up," retorted Darth, "Not even the brute that was once Talon can stop me."
As if trying to prove his point, Darth rushed over and grabbed the now enraged Talon. Instantly, the fire powers that the teen had absorbed from Jonsey were involuntarily hurting Talon, but that was the only noticeable change. "What's happening? I can't stop: it's like trying to quench the thirst of the Sahara!" exclaimed the Jedi wannabe. "Get off of me!" Talon demanded, smacking him away with his free hand.
"I don't understand: I absorb everything when I touch someone, so why does it seem that I'm unable to with this beast?" Darth pondered, to which Night Owl simply replied with, "Remember that lead I was following? It seems that Talon's strength is keyed into his anger level: the more he feels, the more powerful he gets. In other words…" "When I touched him while I'm a walking furnace, I just made him stronger," Darth said with a bit of nervousness in his voice, "which means I CAN"T absorb everything off him."
"Just give up now, and I'll let you keep some of your limbs intact," Night Owl declared, to which Darth simply chuckled. "How are you going to take me down," he began, "when you've got another crisis to break up?" As if on cue, multiple armed men burst into the room and surrounded the group. "Call off that monster, or we might have to test out these new fire arms," demanded the teen.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Night Owl asked Talon over his shoulder. "Probably not, runt: just smash!" Talon stated. As if on cue, the men unloaded their guns on the duo. Night Owl managed to dodge the barrage by grabbling upwards, but Talon wasn't so lucky, who soon fell to his hands and feet. Just when it seemed that the bullets had done their work, however, Talon straightened himself and had his wounds heal over.
"Well, you're just full of surprises," Darth declared, "but it'll take more than some fancy toys or a temper tantrum to stop us." With that, he shot a fireball into the air, severing the line the vigilante was tethered to. Pointing a gun at his head, Darth stated, "You've lost: any last words?"
As if on cue, the teen was grabbed from behind and brought face to enraged face with Talon. "Put me down, Talon," Darth demanded, to which he responded by slamming him into the ground and declaring, "Not Talon: Brute." A quick snarl shortly afterwards sent the armed men heading for the exit. One of them, however, soon found himself knocked down to the ground.
"I'm going to give you three seconds to tell me why you're socializing with a known criminal before I feed you to Brute," Night Owl demanded. "I'm not telling you anything," the henchman declared. "Three," began the teenager, to which the goon stated, "The boss will get you for this." "Two," continued the hero, causing the thug exclaim, "Okay, okay: I'll talk! Uh, I honestly don't know who put us all in contact: all of us were just hired by that kid as his back up. To be honest, though, he seemed to be working for someone else." "What 'someone else?'" Night Owl questioned, to which the ruffian (a/n: real word, by the way) responded with, "I don't know: honest. The only thing that any of us were aware of was that the kid was a little annoyed by some of the things he was discussing over the phone: something about getting tired of all the snake references. That's all I know, okay?"
"That's fine," replied the vigilante, "I already have a good idea of who it was." "Does that mean you'll let me go?" pleaded the thug, to which the teen replied with, "Maybe, but I doubt you'll be moving from that spot for a while." With that, the goon soon found himself unconscious.
Jen slowly approached her boyfriend. "Looks like we won," she said carefully. Night Owl sighed and stated, "We may have won the battle, but something tells me that the war is just starting." Unknown to him, a woman in a suit had been watching all this and smirked. "Count on it, boy," she remarked, "for no one escapes the grasp of the Python."
A/N: Intense, isn't it? Next time, we get a closer look at what happens when some animals play in the mud, or something to that degree. You'll understand when I post the next chapter. Until next time, remember that you shouldn't try any of the stuff you see in this story at home (or anywhere else, for that matter).