Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Ten: A Stroke of Bad Luck
"Scarab, are you sure that we're still following that radiation trail?" Blue Beetle asked.
(Of course I'm sure.) It responded, sounding insulted.
Though the sapphire superwoman had long ago learned not to doubt the scarab's sensors, she couldn't help but be skeptical. She had been following the trail of the saboteur who had blown up the JSSDF base for some time now, and it wasn't taking her to the kind of place she would have expected.
If I'd just left a bomb in a military base, I'd want to get to a road and just drive the hell away as quickly as possible. I sure as hell wouldn't have come here, she thought, looking out at the ruins of a coastal city.
Like many of the areas near the shore, the tsunamis on the day of Second Impact had effectively wiped it off the map. The water had receded significantly since then; most of the city was actually on dry land, at least during low tide. However, it was still very prone to flooding during any heavy rainstorm. As the population of Japan remained far less than what it had been, the city had been allowed to molder and decay.
(This place is kind of eerie.) The scarab thought as Blue Beetle stepped onto the derelict streets.
"Yeah," Blue Beetle agreed.
Someone who'd been in the military and seen combat, such as Misato, would have figured it out sooner. Ritsuko Akagi had never been a solider; though she was employed by a paramilitary group, she was still very much considered to be a civilian.
However, she was also smarter than average, so she managed to glom onto it in time.
"This is an ambush," she said, unable to believe it had taken her this long to figure it out.
It was none too soon. The instant she made the connection, an enormous chunk of broken concrete rose up from the city ruins, as though lifted by the hands of an invisible giant, and went spiraling toward her.
"Oh, crap!" Blue Beetle hissed.
She tried to get out of the way, but the scarab had, as always, run the numbers, and it knew that simply wasn't a feasible method of not getting squished. It frantically took control of her right arm, and the armor on it shifted and changed, becoming a wicked looking firearm. It released an electric buzz for a moment, and then a pulse of bright blue light shot out of it, striking the flying chunk of concrete.
BOOM!
The massive, multi-ton piece of artificial stone exploded into countless smaller pieces, several of which pelted harmlessly against the Blue Beetle's armor. Unfortunately, it also had the effect of filling the air with dust, blinding her.
"I can't see," the sapphire superwoman complained, coughing.
(Oh, no problem. I just saved your life. No need to thank me or anything.) The scarab responded sarcastically.
Yes, that was very nice of you, Blue Beetle mentally growled back. Now would you please get some sensors or something working, so we don't die anyway?
(I can't! Something's interfering with them all of a sudden! I'm trying to compensate!)
Before Blue Beetle could tell the scarab to compensate faster, a bright beam of yellow light cut through the dusty gloom, striking the ground a good ten meters away from her feet. The cracked asphalt erupted, and the sapphire superwoman was sent flying by the force of the blast, colliding painfully with the wall of a nearby building.
Not my day, Blue Beetle decided as she shook out the cobwebs.
She did get one small piece of good fortune, though. A strong breeze came in from the nearby ocean just then, blowing a great deal of the dust out of the way and allowing her to finally see her foes.
One was a tall, lithe woman with long blond hair, who was standing upon a large boulder that was hovering over the ground, impossibly defying gravity. She was clad in a black tank top and yellow shorts, she couldn't have been more than 20, yet the armored superwoman could easily see the malice in her pretty blue eyes.
The other woman was a lot more unusual looking. Wearing jeans, a camouflage print tank top, combat boots, and dog tags, she almost might have passed for a normal soldier in some country's military if not for her skin. Every square inch of it that Blue Beetle could see was metallic and shining, like living steel.
(Well, now I know where that radiation was coming from, and what's interfering with my sensors.) The scarab said.
Blue Beetle didn't even have to ask to know that it meant the metallic woman.
"Hey, there, insect," the young woman in question greeted the Blue Beetle, smirking down at the sapphire superwoman.
Scarab, scan them, Blue Beetle ordered. See if they have any weaknesses we can exploit.
(I can't. Not until I figured out how to get past the interference!) It replied.
Great, she thought.
"So," Blue Beetle said aloud to the two women, hoping to stall for time, "are you two the ones who blew up the base?"
"That was all my handiwork," the silver-skinned woman boasted, clearly not suffering from even the smallest trace of guilt over the people she'd killed. "Terra here just offered moral support." She hooked a thumb toward the blonde, who scowled in response.
"And who're you?" Blue Beetle demanded.
"These days, everybody who knows me calls me Bombshell. You have to admit that it fits," she said with a smirk.
"Enough talk," Terra said. "Let's just do the damn job already!"
Blue Beetle didn't have to ask what exactly the job was; it was incredibly obvious that killing her was it. Terra spread her arms, and several rocks, pieces of asphalt, and chunks of concrete rose up into the air. Then they all went whizzing toward Blue Beetle.
"Oh, damn!" the sapphire superwoman exclaimed.
Immediately, she started firing at the rocky missiles coming at her, and with the scarab's help, she was able to shoot faster and with perfect accuracy, destroying two dozen of them in seconds. Unfortunately, there were more than two dozen.
A lot more.
Cursing, Blue Beetle abandoned the gun, instead summoning forth the large shield from her armor, the one that looked like a beetle's wings. She could feel the impacts traveling up her arms and to her shoulders as the barrage of rocky missiles hit the shield. Even with her enhanced strength, it wasn't long before she ached like hell.
"Come on, Terra! That's barely hurting her!" Bombshell chided, laughing. "Turn up the heat!"
Blue Beetle risked a peek around her shield, and saw the silver-skinned woman's hands glowing with a fierce yellow light. She ducked back behind her shield just as Bombshell loosened two beams of energy at her.
The sapphire superwoman grunted as the energy blasts impacted against her shield with the force of a battering ram. The temperature of the air around her seemed to spike; she could feel herself sweating heavily beneath her armor.
(Hey, Ritsuko? I really think you have to stop playing defense like this, and soon.) The scarab spoke up, sounding distinctly nervous. (Look!)
She did, and her eyes widened in alarm as she saw that two spots on her shield were actually glowing red with the heat from Bombshell's attack. As she watched, they visibly increased in size. Even if her armor was able to insulate her from the heat (unlikely), her shield looked ready to melt any second now.
Here goes everything, she thought.
The sapphire superwoman flipped into the air, being careful to never let Bombshell's attacks strike her directly. Not even wanting to try letting her armor reabsorb the superheated shield, she simply dropped it on the ground, where it steamed when coming into contact with the cool, damp earth.
Scarab, the suppression rifle, Blue Beetle ordered curtly.
(You got it.)
A second later, the armor on her right arm had morphed into the desired weapon, and the Blue Beetle aimed at Terra, desperately hoping to neutralize the blonde before Bombshell could redirect her own attacks.
"Say goodnight," she said and fired, sending a blast of blue light streaking toward her enemy.
"I'm not tired," Terra said, making wide, sweeping motions with her arms.
Several large rocks burst up from the ground, spraying dirt and gravel as they emerged, and flew right into the path of the blast. The discharge from the suppression rifle splashed harmlessly against the rocky shields.
"You look like you could use a nap, though," the younger blonde added.
With one quick gesture, she sent the stones that had been her impromptu shield careening toward the sapphire superwoman at the speed of bullets.
Blue Beetle quickly shot up higher into the air, barely missing the hail of rocks. The stones crashed into the derelict buildings behind her, striking with a series of loud crashes and easily punching holes through the steel and concrete.
"Well, what do ya know? She's actually got some fight in her!" Bombshell said. She sounded delighted.
"More than the two of you can handle!" Blue Beetle retorted, firing several blasts from her rifle at the silver-skinned woman.
Bombshell didn't even try to dodge, letting the bolts of blue light splash harmlessly against her metallic hide. Smirking, she took off into the air, headed straight toward the armored superwoman.
Fine, the sapphire superwoman thought, scowling. Low tech it is, then.
She threw a punch at the approaching attacker. Bombshell smartly caught Blue Beetle's fist in her palm, then lashed out with her free hand. The sapphire superwoman cried out in pain as Bombshell's fist connected with her face.
Before she could try to strike back, the silver-skinned woman grabbed her arm with both hands and performed a simple flip, sending Blue Beetle careening toward the ground. She crashed into the street, shattering the asphalt beneath her.
(She's strong.) The scarab groaned.
Yeah, I noticed, Blue Beetle replied. She knew that she should be getting up right about then, but somehow she couldn't quite muster the will to do it. Any luck scanning them?
(Not yet. Try and survive for another minute or two.) The scarab replied.
Before Blue Beetle could come up with an appropriately sarcastic response, Bombshell appeared in her field of vision. The silver-skinned woman was using both hands to heft a small car over her head.
"It's been fun," Bombshell smirked, just before she brought the car down.
Blue Beetle phased just before the car hit her, becoming invisible and intangible to the rest of the world around her. Taking a second to catch her breath, she watched as Bombshell lifted up the car, only to frown in surprise when she failed to find any sign of her enemy.
"Where the hell is she?" the silver-skinned woman wondered aloud.
Blue Beetle switched from the suppression rifle to the annihilator beam and went back into phase with the rest of the world. "Right here," she said, and fired point blank.
A single, continuous beam of destruction erupted from the barrel of her weapon, striking Bombshell right in the stomach and sending her flying. She soon crashed into the side of a building and was kept pinned in place by the force of the attack. The wall she was stuck against soon began to crack.
"Ah!" Bombshell cried. "Quit it!"
"First, tell me who sent you," Blue Beetle demanded. "Was it NERV?"
"Go to hell!" Bombshell barked, firing several blasts of yellow energy at the sapphire superwoman, which she easily avoided.
"Talk! Now!" Blue Beetle demanded.
Before Bombshell could respond, several tendrils of earth rose up around the sapphire superwoman, then quickly wrapped themselves around her, snake-like. Blue Beetle let out a cry of surprise and fear as the dirt converged on her, covering her from the neck down and forcing her to relent in her assault on Bombshell.
"We don't talk about our employers," Terra informed her, voice cold. "We're professionals."
"You're mercenaries. Assassins," Blue Beetle said.
"Duh," Terra replied, just before the earth rose up further and covered Blue Beetle's head.
The sapphire superwoman inhaled sharply, feeling panic grip her at the thought that she'd just been buried alive.
She might have completely lost it if the scarab hadn't spoken up. (Um, hello? I can keep you alive in outer space. You think you're going to die now that you're surrounded by dirt?)
Oh, sorry. Instinct, I guess, Blue Beetle replied, feeling sheepish. You have any ideas how to get out of this?
If the scarab had a face, it would have grinned.
"Really? The old 'buried alive' trick?" Bombshell grumbled as she pulled herself out of the now rather deep indentation in the side of the building. "We're facing off against the most interesting enemy we've ever had, and you dust off that old thing?"
Scowling, Terra rolled her eyes. "Like you have any right to complain," she retorted. "Blue Beetle was handing you your ass until I jumped in."
"Yeah, thanks for being so quick about that, by the way," Bombshell said sarcastically.
"God, you always have something to complain about, don't you?" Terra said, exasperated. "Look, she's dead, and we're not. That's a win, so can we just call this one and wrap and collect our money?"
"Are you sure she's dead?" Bombshell asked, studying the lump of rock and dirt that Blue Beetle had been trapped in suspiciously.
Terra allowed the floating boulder she was standing on to slowly descend to the ground. "How could Blue Beetle possibly still be alive in there?" she asked. "If the pressure hasn't crushed her, then she has to have suffocated by now."
"I don't know about that," Bombshell said. "I dropped a car on that bitch, and the next thing I know, she's standing right next to me and hitting me with a damn laser."
Terra shook her head. "Geeze, Amy, you are way too—"
She abruptly stopped speaking as the mound of dirt that Blue Beetle was trapped inside started to tremble noticeably. A second later, several cracks formed along the length of it. Shafts of intense blue light could be seen streaming out of them.
"You were saying?" Bombshell asked.
"Shut up," Terra grumbled.
What was supposed to be Blue Beetle's tomb exploded, sending dirt and rocks flying in all directions. The armored superwoman who emerged looked none the worse for the wear.
Bombshell reacted immediately, firing energy blasts from both hands at the Blue Beetle. The sapphire superwoman's armor changed and shifted, until she had two small cannons on both of her arms, which she fired back at the silver-skinned woman.
The blasts met at the midpoint between the two, and though there was a good deal of light and sparks where the two pairs of energy streams met, the explosion Bombshell had expected never came. Instead, she could feel a type of pressure as the Blue Beetle tried to push back her attack.
"Oh, hell no!" she growled. Intent on winning, she redoubled her efforts, the yellow beams growing in brightness and intensity.
She pushed Blue Beetle's energy attack a bit, but then the armored superwoman grit her teeth and poured on the power herself, bringing them back to even.
Clenching her teeth, Bombshell dared to take a quick look at Terra. The blonde was back in the air, her boulder levitating several feet off the ground again. Otherwise, however, she had done nothing since Blue Beetle had busted out of her earthen prison.
Probably waiting until I need help, Bombshell thought sourly. Wants to look like the damn hero. Again.
Deciding that she wasn't going to give Terra the chance, she threw every ounce of effort she had into her assault, but Blue Beetle was again able to match her. The silver-skinned woman had almost resigned herself to their contest being one of endurance when the sapphire superwoman's armor released a single, loud beep.
It reminded Bombshell of the sound her microwave made when it was finished making popcorn.
Abruptly, Blue Beetle leapt into the air and stayed there, terminating their contest. Bombshell's energy blasts slammed into the ground, shattering the sidewalk and sending chunks of concrete flying everywhere.
"Know what that sound meant?" Blue Beetle asked.
"You just got an email?" Bombshell suggested flippantly.
"It means I can finally scan you," Blue Beetle replied.
"And? What's that mean? You can see through my top?" Bombshell asked with a snicker.
Blue Beetle smiled wickedly. "It means I know how to deal with you now."
Then, the gun on her right arm shifted and changed, becoming a different, larger firearm. With inhuman speed, she took aim at Bombshell and fired, dousing the silver-skinned woman with liquid nitrogen and freezing her soundly in place.
Nearby, Terra gasped. There wasn't a whole lot that could hurt Bombshell; she was pure energy contained by an outer shell of nearly indestructible metal. However, an attack like that would force her to keep still until she thawed, lest she break her suddenly brittle suit. That would have catastrophic results.
At least it would be catastrophic for Bombshell, anyway. Terra had always been dubious of the other woman's claim that it would also result in a nuclear explosion. More likely the silver-skinned woman had just said that in hopes that Terra and her other associates would make certain to protect her.
The bottom line was that Blue Beetle apparently wasn't bluffing when she said she knew how to deal with them now.
Immediately, Terra sprang into action, extending her arms and reaching out with her powers. Artificial stone like concrete and asphalt had always been a little harder for her to control than dirt and rock, but she wasn't about to be picky. She lifted up everything she could grab with her powers and hurled all of it at the Blue Beetle.
However, the momentum was clearly on the side of the sapphire superwoman now, and she seemed to know it, too. Blue Beetle confidently navigated her way through the hail of stone, blasting some of the larger pieces to gravel.
"When it comes to you, I have to admit I'm embarrassed I didn't figure out how to deal with you without the scan," Blue Beetle said, chuckling to herself. "I guess I'm still a little new at this."
"Shut up!" Terra growled as her fear grew.
Drawing upon reserves of power she didn't want to know she had, the blonde spread her arms, then slowly began to raise them, a grimace on her face and beads of sweat running down her brow.
Behind her, two dilapidated skyscrapers rose off the ground, pieces of them crumbling as they moved for the first time since a tsunami had hit them on the day of Second Impact.
"Deal with this!" she screamed, and with a mighty mental heave, send the two buildings flying toward Blue Beetle.
The skyscrapers obscured her sight of the armored woman long before they hit her, but Terra noted how Blue Beetle hadn't been making any attempt to dodge, apparently paralyzed by fear. The lithe blonde grinned in savage triumph.
Then the two buildings crashed to the ground with a spectacular crash, the impacts causing the earth to briefly tremble beneath them and kicking up an enormous cloud of dust.
Confident that Blue Beetle was dead, Terra allowed herself several seconds of rest, wiping the sweat from her forehead and panting heavily. It was only when she felt somewhat recovered that she reached out again with her powers. Waving her hand in a dismissive manner, she caused the great cloud of dust to disperse.
Only to reveal Blue Beetle hovering in the air before her, completely unharmed.
"No way!" Terra exclaimed, even as she leapt into action.
Calling upon her powers again, she commanded the boulder she was standing on to break into pieces, which quickly moved to cover her body from head to toe, leaving only her face exposed and giving her a rocky suit of armor that would (hopefully) protect her from Blue Beetle's energy attacks.
"Bring it on!" she exclaimed, pounding her fists together and generating a satisfying thud as stone met stone.
Blue Beetle replied by shifting her weapon again and firing, but the beam of blue light that Terra had expected never came. Instead, a high pitched whine filled her ears, causing her to grimace.
"What the hell?" Terra groaned, putting her hands over her ears as best she could while clad in her rocky armor, only to discover that had virtually no effect.
"Sonic weapon," Blue Beetle answered. "Your rocks don't do anything to block this. In fact, solids transmit sound better than the air, so…"
Terra didn't hear any part of the explanation after that, because the sound assaulting her eardrums was only growing louder, even as the pitch became higher still. Crying out in pain, the blonde moved to lash out at the Blue Beetle, fearing that her head would explode if she didn't stop that awful sound.
Unfortunately, her aim was a little off thanks to the agony she was in, and the rocky missiles missed their target by a wide margin. With her ability to think straight or focus her powers properly diminishing rapidly, Terra soon resorted to using the rocks that composed her impromptu armor, sending them whizzing toward Blue Beetle and leaving only enough to keep herself suspended in midair.
Despite the speeds at which they were moving, the small rocks bounced harmlessly off of Blue Beetle's armor.
Well, crap, Terra managed to think.
Immediately, the sapphire superwoman raised her free arm, the armor over it changing into another gun. She fired, and this weapon spat out a bolt of blue light.
Terra scrambled to dodge, but she could barely keep her balance anymore, thanks to the sonic assault she'd been enduring. The blast hit her dead on, and her world went black.
"Whew," Blue Beetle said as she looked down at her immobilized foes. "That was even worse than fighting Green Lantern. I really thought they were going to win for a while there."
(Yeah, they were really kicking your butt at the beginning.) The scarab piped up.
"They were really kicking our butt at the beginning," Blue Beetle corrected it. Then she softened. "Good work with getting past the interference. That really helped."
(No problem. Now what?) The scarab asked.
"Now we take them to the JSSDF," Blue Beetle answered. "Hopefully, they'll talk and implicate NERV."
(I don't see why we can't just—) The scarab abruptly stopped. (Ritsuko! There's someone else here!)
Before she could even ask where, the scarab was directing her to the proper direction. Not that it would have been difficult to spot the man; he had emerged from wherever he'd been hiding and was now standing in plain sight behind her.
(Nice getup.) The scarab commented.
The man was clad almost entirely in black, with several bulges beneath his clothes hinting at the presence of body armor. He wore tan gloves, boots, and a mask that covered his whole head. The right side of the mask was that same tan color, while the left side was completely black and had no eye hole. An ammo belt was slung across his torso, and she could see the hilt of a sword that he had strapped to his back rising above his left shoulder.
Scarab? She asked.
(Scanning now.) It said. (I'm reading some strange chemicals in his body. It looks like they've enhanced his physical capabilities beyond what's possible for normal humans, but not that far. He shouldn't give us nearly as much trouble as the other two.)
Good to know, she responded.
"So," she said aloud to the man, "who're you?"
"In my professional life, most people call me Deathstroke. I'm Terra and Bombshell's employer," he introduced himself, his voice cold and his demeanor completely relaxed. "I'm quite disappointed with the two of them."
Without needing to be asked, the scarab immediately connected itself to the Internet and started searching for any information on Deathstroke. (Nothing concrete. Just a lot of rumors.) It reported. (Seems like the guy is some elite, high priced merc and hitman.)
"I don't suppose there's any chance that you'll just surrender peacefully?" Blue Beetle asked.
Deathstroke chuckled darkly. "No."
"Didn't think so," Blue Beetle replied.
She brought up her suppression rifle and fired. The distance between them was no more than a few feet, and she used the scarab's capabilities to aim and shoot faster than any ordinary human could hope to.
Deathstroke dodged the blast easily, flipping out of the way with a level of agility that would have turned Olympic gymnasts green with envy. Before Blue Beetle even realized that she'd missed, let alone fire another shot, he had unsheathed the sword he carried and swung it at her. The blade somehow managed to penetrate her armor, leaving a long cut along her arm.
"Ah!" she cried out in pain.
"First blood," Deathstroke noted, even as he went in for another attack.
Blue Beetle morphed the armor on her right arm into a blade, parrying his next attack. She brought up her left arm, which still had the suppression rifle on it and fired.
Deathstroke quickly went into a crouch, avoiding the blast, and lashed out with his foot, knocking her legs out from under her. Blue Beetle crashed to the ground, landing hard on her back.
Not wasting a second, the mercenary took hold of his sword with both hands, raising it high as he prepared to run Blue Beetle through.
(Oh, hell no!) The scarab thought, and the jets on the bottom of Blue Beetle's boots activated, pushing her out of the way and causing her to go sliding at high speed along the ground.
Which, unfortunately, was full of rocks and debris.
Turn it off, scarab! Blue Beetle demanded, feeling as though her back was being tenderized, even with the protection her armor offered her.
Immediately, the jets fell quiet. Groaning, Blue Beetle slowly got to her feet.
Only to discover that Deathstroke was standing right in front of her.
For a moment, Blue Beetle just blinked stupidly at the assassin, uncomprehending. Those damn jets must have sent her skidding at least a quarter of a mile in under five seconds, so how in the world did he—?
Deathstroke attacked before she could even complete the thought, firing a high powered shotgun he'd produced from somewhere at her. Blue Beetle groaned, doubling over in pain; he'd used slugs rather than buckshot, and even though they didn't manage to penetrate her armor, the damn things had hit her in the abdomen with the force of a small battering ram.
With lightning fast movements, the assassin pumped the weapon, releasing the spent shell casings, and fired again, this time hitting Blue Beetle right in the chest. She let out a cry and staggered back a step.
Scarab, help, she thought desperately.
The piece of alien hardware inside her body didn't need any more invitation to jump in. Seizing control of her body, it reached out as Deathstroke prepared for a third shot, grabbing hold of the twin barrels in her left hand and crumpling them like soda cans.
Deathstroke retaliated with a knee to her gut, causing her to double over in pain. A fierce blow to her back followed, and the next thing she knew, Blue Beetle was face down on the ground.
This shouldn't be happening, she thought with rising dismay. Unless the scarab's scans were seriously off, her powers far exceeded Deathstroke's own. She was stronger than he was. She was in a symbiotic relationship with an advanced alien super weapon, for god's sake! Yet he was winning—easily.
She couldn't help but feel that was terribly wrong, like the universe wasn't playing fair.
Heh, since when has life been fair? Never, she thought bitterly.
(Um, Ritsuko, we might want to think about phasing out and leaving right now.) The scarab suggested.
She was fiercely tempted to take the scarab's suggestion and just leave. She might have signed up with the JSSDF, but she had never volunteered to have her ass handed to her in this way. Besides, Deathstroke and his associates weren't Angels; it wasn't as though they'd go on some sort of killing spree if she left. They were only after her.
But if she left, she would probably never get her proof that NERV had been behind the explosion at the JSSDF base. Bringing in Deathstroke and his underlings meant she might finally be able to win her personal war against NERV. She couldn't pass that up.
For Misato, for Shinji, for everyone in the world, she had to keep fighting.
With a colossal effort, she flipped herself over and got to her feet. Deathstroke responded by grabbing a small metal baton that was clipped to his belt. The thing immediately extended, becoming more like a staff, both ends crackling with electricity.
With a grunt, he slammed one of the ends into Blue Beetle's stomach, and even her armor couldn't protect her from it. She cried out in agony as electricity swept through her body.
But she did not fall. Gritting her teeth, she reached out, grabbing hold of the staff with both hands and snapped it in two.
Deathstroke actually looked surprised.
Blue Beetle didn't give him enough time to get over it. She raised her suppression rifle and fired, hitting him right in the chest. A normal human would have been rendered instantly unconscious. Deathstroke staggered back a step, looking dazed.
It was enough. Commanding her armor to revert to its normal form, Blue Beetle punched Deathstroke, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at her, his one visible eye clouded but defiant.
Think you can pump up the power on the suppression rifle, scarab? She asked. Enough to knock even this guy out?
(No problem.) It replied cheerfully.
Her armor shifted back into the now familiar weapon. She took careful aim.
BANG
The sound of a gunshot erupted in the distance, and a round from a high-power sniper rifle slammed into the side of her head. It wasn't enough to kill her, but it did shatter part of her helmet, leaving almost half of her face exposed.
(There's someone else out there!) The scarab realized while Blue Beetle was still reeling.
"God damn," Ravager breathed from a hidden sniper's nest in the derelict city. "Never known Dad to need help with a single person before. This Blue Beetle is something else."
With a smirk, the assassin reloaded the gun and took aim again. "Not too much for me, though."
BANG
Deathstroke watched as another sniper shot collided with Blue Beetle, this time striking her in the shoulder and taking another portion of her armor. It would have hit her in the now exposed portion of her surprisingly pretty face and instantly killed her, but she moved at the last second.
He shook his head. The fog was clearing fast, but that blue beam weapon had all but knocked him out. Blue Beetle was certainly one of his more interesting foes.
BANG
The sapphire superwoman lost a piece of the armor on her side now, and Deathstroke scowled beneath his mask. Couldn't Ravager hit her in the same place twice?
Then Blue Beetle managed to steady herself. She gazed toward the cluster of buildings where Ravager hid, raising her arm and taking aim with the rifle on it.
It didn't look like the non-lethal one she'd spent most of the battle employing.
Despite his wooziness, Deathstroke reacted automatically. Sword in hand, he lunged at Blue Beetle.
"Die!" he roared.
Blue Beetle's armor was tough, but not tough enough. His sword plunged into her abdomen, going almost all the way to the hilt.
The sapphire superwoman released a wordless, strangled gasp of shock. Her exposed eye stared up at him in stunned surprise for a second before it rolled up into her head.
Deathstroke pulled the now red stained blade out of his target, allowing Blue Beetle to fall face first to the ground. A crimson puddle quickly formed beneath her.
The mercenary stood there, allowing himself a moment to recover. With the target dead, he now had that luxury.
A minute later, he heard Ravager coming up behind him. "Father, are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Deathstroke replied. "We should get out of here. Terra's theatrics have no doubt gotten the military's attention. It won't be long before…what?" he asked, noticing the shocked look on Ravager's face.
Ravager raised a shaking hand, pointing. Deathstroke turned, his good eye widening.
Blue Beetle was on her feet, standing before them as though she was perfectly fine, even as her stab wound bled freely. Her eyes, both the one that was still covered by her helmet and the one that was exposed, were glowing with an electric blue light.
Deathstroke had gotten a good look at her naked eye before. It was green.
"You hurt her," Blue Beetle spoke, but it didn't sound like her voice anymore. The voice that now came from the armored woman's mouth was strangely androgynous, powerful, and resonant.
Alien, almost.
Deathstroke didn't hesitate. Sword in hand, he charged toward Blue Beetle, intent on piercing the woman's heart this time.
Blue Beetle raised a hand, the armor on her palm shifting into something that looked a lot like a tiny satellite dish. Tongues of electricity erupted forth from it, converging on Deathstroke. The elite mercenary cried out in pain, staggering backwards. It was an attack that would have instantly killed a normal human being.
Wordlessly, Blue Beetle raised her arm, the miniature satellite dish collapsing and folding itself back into the armor. In its place, a gun formed, one that was unlike any Deathstroke had seen her use so far.
"Run," Blue Beetle commanded them.
A sphere of dark blue burst forth from her weapon, flying high into the air. Deathstroke watched as it slowed, coming to a stop, and then abruptly split into about a dozen smaller spheres, which quickly started to come back down.
"Go!" Deathstroke roared at Ravager. "Get Terra! I'll take Bombshell!"
He broke out into a sprint, rushing toward the silver-skinned woman. Gathering her up into his arms, he lifted her with a grunt. She was ice cold and weighed a ton, but he ignored his discomfort, running away from Blue Beetle at top speed. Out of the corner of his good eye, he could see Ravager doing the same with Terra.
The blue spheres made contact with the ground and exploded with tremendous force. The slowly decaying buildings all around them started to collapse like dominoes, kicking up enormous clouds of dust and debris.
The force of the nearest explosion nearly threw him to the ground, but Deathstroke managed to keep his feet. Grimacing, he swore that he would not die at the hands of an empowered amateur like the Blue Beetle.
(Oh, god, Ritsuko, please be okay.) The scarab said desperately as it led them back to her home, phased so that they were invisible and intangible to the rest of the world.
The blonde woman inside the armor, who was deeply unconscious and half dead, didn't reply.
(Don't die, damn you.) The scarab commanded.
Ritsuko, of course, still stayed silent.
The scarab's scream of frustration burst forth from the sapphire superwoman's mouth. Oh, how it wanted to go back and make sure that Deathstroke and his colleagues were dead. It could have cheerfully decimated the population of Nippon right then, if that was what it took to be certain those people were dead. Those people who had had the gall, the arrogance to wound its host in such a way.
It would have, too, if Ritsuko's life hadn't been rapidly ebbing away. Even now, it rushed to heal the worst of the damage, to staunch the bleeding, to slow down her bodily functions so she expired more slowly.
Unfortunately, there was a limit to the number of highly complex tasks that the scarab could perform at once. Transforming Ritsuko's somewhat out-of-shape body into a near perfect example of physical fitness had been simple enough; the blonde had been safely asleep in bed at the time, and so the scarab hadn't had to do anything else. Now, it was trying to heal her wounds while also keeping their vibrational wavelength slightly out of synch with the rest of the world and flying them home.
It needed to get them to a safe place. It needed to get them home, so it could work without worrying about those other things, not to mention keep Ritsuko still.
(Stay alive, Rits.) It urged her. (I'm not meant to be a one bug act, you know. I need a partner, and you're it.)
After what felt like an eternity, they reached Ritsuko's home. The scarab immediately guided them into basement, where it allowed the blonde's slowly dying body to lay on the floor as it made their vibrational wavelength synch up to the rest of their reality.
Almost as an afterthought, it activated holo-Ritsuko's projector. Running that thing took only a tiny fraction of the scarab's processing power.
Then it turned to the business at hand.
(Don't die, Ritsuko.) The scarab told its unresponsive host softly. (Don't die.)
Several hours later, a battered and bruised Deathstroke made his way to Gendo Ikari's office, now dressed in a very respectable looking business suit. He knew that, given a night's rest, he would be good as new again. Ever since he'd been injected with the experimental serum during his time in the US military, his body would recover from even the most grievous injury with a few hours of sleep.
However, he knew his team wouldn't be feeling nearly so good in the morning, with the possible exception of Bombshell. He owed it to them, and his current employer, to make this report now.
"Wilson," Gendo greeted him curtly as he approached the man's desk. Seated in a small chair off to the side, Fuyutski said nothing.
"My team and I confronted the Blue Beetle earlier today," Slade Wilson said.
"So I gathered," Gendo replied, obviously having heard about the coastal ruins which had been reduced to so much rubbles by their battle. "Is she dead?"
"I do not believe so, no," Slade answered.
Gendo's brow twitched. It was almost imperceptible; most people wouldn't have noticed it, but, of course, Slade Wilson was not most people. "What do you mean?" he asked.
Quickly, Slade gave him an overview of the battle, describing in detail how he had run through Blue Beetle with a sword, only for her to get up and unleash a devastating attack.
"I will get her," Slade vowed. "For now, though, I thought you might appreciate some footage we took from the battle." He held up a zip drive.
Gendo wordlessly accepted it and plugged into his computer. A hidden panel on the side of the wall slid out of place, revealing a large screen behind it.
Slade waited patiently as Gendo reviewed the footage, his expression never changing.
Until they reached the part where Ravager's first bullet blew away part of Blue Beetle's helmet, then Ikari's eyes widened slightly.
He stopped the recording. "Mr. Wilson, your services are no longer required," he said.
"What?" Slade demanded.
"I do not want Blue Beetle killed any longer," Gendo answered. "I have other plans for her now. However, your efforts have been very helpful to me, so I will pay the rest of your fee."
"Very well, then," Slade grunted, surprised and somewhat disappointed.
He had wanted a rematch with the Blue Beetle, but it was best not to let personal desires get in the way of work.
"That will be all," Gendo said.
With a brief, polite nod, Slade turned and walked out of the room.
"Ikari, what are you playing at?" Fuyutski asked once the two men were alone again.
"You recognized the Blue Beetle's face, didn't you?" Gendo asked, giving his former teacher a shrewd look.
"Yes, I did," the older man confessed. "Though I'm not sure I believe my eyes."
Gendo just grunted, smirking very slightly.
"But even if Dr. Akagi is the Blue Beetle, I don't see why you dismissed Wilson like that," Fuyutski continued, actually saying the scientist's name with the greatest reluctance. "After all, wouldn't you still want her…?"
Gendo shook his head. All these years by his side, and Fuyutski still hadn't learned the finer points of scheming. "Why should I destroy something I am able to control?"
Author's Notes: Well, here's hoping I did justice to Deathstroke. He's one of those characters who, on paper, is not really very powerful by the standards of the DCU, yet people are terrified of the guy anyway. He's like an evil Captain America, really.
Anyway, I'm not sure if we'll be seeing more of him or not. Gendo might commission him again if events in the near future don't go as he expects, or a new threat may appear instead.
Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.