A/N
Please feel free to review with any criticisms or to ask anthing you want answered.
Sorry for yet another long wait, I've been completing a lot of things, including preparing for the third- and final?- installment in this adventure. A lot of things which occur in this book will tie into the third book, which will be a massive CRISIS on the scale of Flashpoint, Zero Hour, etc.
Do you want the name of the crisis? It might be a spoiler, but I think it sounds cool/smart.
Episode IV: One's Left Behind, Part I
More pain. But, he can't give up now- so much relies on him keeping Blockbuster occupied.
Whilst the school is being evacuated, he has to keep the villain as far away as physically possible.
Blockbuster's slams his massive hand onto Superboy's chest, and he's taken off his feet easily, body flying into a nearby shop, and crashing into an aisle full of canned food.
Pulling himself to his feet, he charges back out into the street and bounds after the villain as he tries to interrupt the evacuation process.
Children are being shepherded into buses, teachers shouting instructions. What's worse is that M'gann's friends are undoubtedly being evacuated with the rest of them.
He doesn't really consider them to be his friends. The only friends he has are the ones he's spent the day with, and even then, the relationship has become strained at best.
Speaking of the team, its surprising they haven't tried to contact him yet, or at least come back and find him.
It doesn't matter anyway. He can take Blockbuster and any other super villain who thinks they can terrorise his town. Superman doesn't need the Justice League to deal with his villains, and neither does he.
"I'm over here!" Conner yells, trying to refocus the villain on him instead of the evacuation efforts.
Sprinting forwards with his arm cocked back and ready to deliver a powerful punch, he lands a strong blow to Blockbuster's chin, rocking the villain and putting him off-balance. Though, it does not hold back the villain for long as he quickly recovers and grasps Conner by the arm, flinging him into the ground.
Immediately leaping up into the villain, Conner tries to wrestle the super villain down to the ground, being unsuccessful.
Back being pelted with powerful blows, he abandons the unfruitful adventure and jumps, smashing the back of his head into the bottom of Blockbuster's chin.
Roaring, Conner continues his attacks with a brutal ferocity, pressuring the villain with everything he has. Surprisingly, nothing he seems to be doing is causing any serious damage as Blockbuster continues to battle back and send Conner into yet another wall.
Conner might not have the strength or speed of Superman, but at least he has the durability to withstand such incredible punishment. Not many heroes could take a clean punch from Blockbuster, especially the majority of members on the team.
But, that's not much of a major advantage considering three of them are humans. Still, he's always admired Robin's toughness despite his young age and fragile body.
Got to get back up, he wills himself onwards, thinking of the students counting on him to buy time. Superman wouldn't stay down. He wouldn't even consider it.
Gathering his body, he wipes the thin trickle of blood from his lips and concentrates on Blockbuster, who is staring back at him darkly.
Good. Keep your eyes on me.
"What are you doing here?" he interrogates, creating some more time for him recover. "Or do you even need a reason?"
No answer.
Okay, now you're really starting to get on my nerves.
Patience running thin, Conner engages with an added sense of annoyance. However, it does not aid him as the villain utilises it against the clone, countering and effortlessly pinning Conner against the ground with his foot.
Grasping the heavy foot, he twists and pushes up, standing back up and attacking his opponent with as much force as he can muster. His blows stagger the super villain, but with every punch thrown, Conner begins to tire himself out, and it's beginning to take its toll on him mentally.
Anger bubbles within his muscles as he ferociously hunts down his prey.
Sidestepping, Blockbuster punches Conner with enough force to send him straight through the school's roof, landing on an unfortunate pupils locker.
Barging through an entrance, Blockbuster grunts and charges down the hallway towards Conner.
With a primal roar, he returns the charge with one of his own, being rewarded by having his body catapulted into the cafeteria.
Blockbuster follows, but with a clear difference in his steps. Whereas Conner is still relatively fresh, his enemy seems a lot more fatigued and weary.
Since he cannot beat him with brute strength alone, Conner formulates the best approach would be to initiate a war of attrition. His Kryptonian physiology should give him a distinct advantage in this regard, as long as he doesn't get knocked unconscious.
He's too strong for any of the others. I can take him.
Unfortunately, his mental encouragements do not translate to physical success as he is once more sent flying into a hard structure by a powerful punch. Although, he does note how the wall actually stops his body instead of caving in from the force. Apparently, Blockbuster is starting to wane in strength.
Making a tactical retreat, Conner hastily runs away towards the gym, stopping in the middle of the area and awaiting his foe.
Completely ignoring the door and instead crashing through the wall, Blockbuster wastes no time on theatrics and stomps towards the clone with ill intention laden on his the villain by throwing basketballs directly at his face, Conner follows up the last ball by leaping into the air and crashing down on top of Blockbuster, grabbing on.
Clinging on to his back, Conner pounds his head before wrapping his arm around the neck.
Before he could try and squeeze, Blockbuster flings him off like a tourist would to a pestering bug.
Landing on his feet, he takes a moment to think of something Kyle would say in moments such as these. Perhaps annoying the super villain would elicit a much more emotional response.
"You're ugly, aren't you?" he awkwardly comments, not used to hurtling insults. "Wonder what your mother looks like."
What he didn't expect was Blockbuster smirking.
"How does it feel to be such a failure?" the villain retorts, "Don't worry, what you're feeling now is nothing compared to what's coming."
"What are talking about?" Superboy questions, attempting to keep his face from turning red with unbridled anger.
No response.
Only a cold laugh from the hulking behemoth.
"You won't find my fists funny."
Wally's haphazardly constructed theorem didn't go as planned. He intended to hit Ivy square in the chest and quickly handcuff her, thus saving the day and catching the criminal.
Unfortunately, he didn't plan ahead for a massive tree to abruptly sprout from the ground and clobber him like a baseball bat to a wiry and ginger baseball. In hindsight, maybe he should have accounted for Ivy's incredible ability of actually being quite intelligent.
Him, on the other hand, might have just lost a few brain cells from the impact as his body soars to the ground, only surviving from his superhuman healing taking effect in the time it took to slam against the unforgiving earth.
"You okay?" M'gann asks, concerned.
"Dandy," he replies sarcastically, picking himself up and cracking his back and shoulders. "I think we're going to need more than speed for this one."
"Hey!" he yelps, squishing a plant which was creepily worming its way up his thigh. "That was creepy."
He should be at school today, having a nice relaxed lesson, maybe get thrown out of a few for inappropriate remarks. But no, he's here running around, trying to avoid being dismantled limb from limb by huge plants. It's weird how being in a life or death situation makes him want to be back at school.
"Not today," he grumbles, chopping through a thick branch using a super fast karate chop.
Checking up on his comrade, he sees her dealing with multiple plants at the same time, using her telekinesis to disintegrate the growing fauna in its tracks.
Her face is scrunched up with concentration and exertion, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. Body locked in a graceful dance as she weaved around to dodge the vines, it would almost seem biblical from an outside perspective.
She's the angel, fighting downwards against the fiery demons attempting to grasp at her legs. Though, unlike an angel, she shows signs of fatigue and concern.
By the second, her resistance falters, her flight becoming more sluggish and tired as the vines grow more eager and hungry. In this scenario, the demons may just grab hold of the angel.
When that happens, it will be him alone against the darkness. No-one to aid or support him.
Superboy and Artemis aren't present. Chances are, they won't show up to help.
It leaves him abandoned and alone. For all his training and experiences, the thought of being alone against the tide is frightening. He has nobody to prop him up and provide him with a target for his panicked humour.
Barry didn't raise him to be a coward, but at the moment, he feels like running away and never looking back. However, to do so would leave M'gann by herself. He won't ever leave a friend alone, no matter how scared or intimidated he is.
Long ago, he made a promise to himself that he wouldn't ever abandon the ideals he's fighting for. In this world, a hero without those ideals is no more than a hollow shell.
"Come on Ivy, that can't be all you have, right?" he asks, warming up his legs.
Go for a nice stroll in the park, Robin said. And I thought, well, it couldn't possibly go wrong.
Nocking an explosive arrowhead, Artemis fires into the group of plants clustering in front of her. She isn't the betting type, but she assumes the plants which grow here aren't this naturally animate.
A vine leaps at her, and she mentally swears she could hear it faintly hiss. "And aggressive, too," she mumbles.
"I'm having a really bad day, so try me!" she shouts.
Hostile plants trying to suffocate her, untold damage done to the town via a stampeding Superman clone and Blockbuster, and Robin- the apparent leader of the team- being absent from the mess- deep down, she's worse than irritated.
A part of her thoroughly wishes the plants can feel the destruction she's about to rain down upon them. She wants them to squirm and writhe as she tears them apart.
Despite the team constantly taking aim at Superboy for his aggressive behaviours, Artemis might need to channel her inner Conner to deal out the growing pressure in her veins.
"You're first," she states, aiming at the first plant to catch her attention.
Firing, the arrow lands firmly in the head of the plant, and as she rolls away to avoid the imminent explosion, the warhead erupts, destroying a multitude of the plantlife around the target and thinning out the horde for the moment.
It's only a matter of formality to deal with the remainder, using the sharp edge of an arrow to slice through the various species of vines, roots and plants. A few of them give more resistance to the cold metal, but with an extra push, they eventually all succumb to her improvised blade.
Faintly hearing the familiar crackle of electricity which follows a speedster running, she's momentarily relieved.
"Finally," she sighs, legs carrying her in the direction of the sound.
As she comes closer, the crackle abruptly halts, and it forces her to pick up the pace and transition into a light sprint.
Suddenly tripping up, she face-plants the ground and looks towards her right leg, grabbing the root wrapped around her ankle and slicing it off in a swift and clean motion.
Still on the ground, her eyes rest upon the two unconscious bodies of her peers as they are swallowed by vines and branches and led away, Poisin Ivy at the helm with a cruel smirk plastered on her discoloured face.
"You not going to come and get me?!" she screams at the villain, wrestling to get up as more minions arise from the soil to pin her down. "Big mistake!"
"I'll be the judge of that, little girl," the villain calls back, blowing a kiss at her coldly.
Little girl? Oh, now I'm mad.
"Get off me!" she continues to needlessly yell at the mindless shackles.
Resorting to utilising her teeth to chew through a thin branch, she breaks free enough to wield an arrowhead and slices herself to freedom.
Rolling around to her belly and lifting up, her target has long since left the scene of the crime.
"Damn it," she curses, "I need to get Superboy, now."
Effortlessly ripping off a door from a nearby car, he spins and hurtles the sheet of metal at the villain in a bizarre form of shot-put. Comically smacking Blockbuster on the forehead, it buys the clone enough time to rush forwards and punch the villain's knee with what's left of his might.
Brought to one knee with the effort, Conner's persistence doesn't pay off as his follow-up attack ends with Blockbuster swatting him away like a human-sized fly. Adding another crater to the cracked and twisted landscape- created by the super powered battle- for a brief moment, his brain confused its surroundings with that of the moon. Though he quickly shakes it off, it's not a good sign for him or the councils repair bill once this is over.
Massive hand suddenly clamping around his head and tossing him back into the main road leading to the now-evacuated school, he clambers to his feet in time to witness an arrow embed itself into Blockbuster's chest, exploding with minimal damage, but dazing the mutated man.
"I got this, Artemis!" he yells at his peer, somewhere between irritated and internally relieved.
"Well, they've got KF and Miss Martian," she retorts from a few metres down the road, firing off a few more arrows.
"What are you talking about?" the clone snaps, delivering a vicious uppercut to Blockbuster's jaw.
"Poison Ivy's in town," she responds with a noticeable hint of regret. "I didn't get there in time to help them."
I'm getting tired of this, Conner grunts mentally, exorcising his frustration through loud roars and powerful punches. We have to rescue Wally and M'gann.
Newfound energy ripples through his muscles as he combines forces with Artemis, and launches his attacks in between the archer's explosive arrows, inching closer to victory. It's so close his enhanced sense can taste it's sweet aroma.
But then, he realises it's simply Artemis' perfume.
"Really? You had time to put on perfume?" he angrily questions.
She gives him a sarcastically apologetic shrug. "A girl's gotta smell good."
I should have stayed with CADMUS.
"They don't treat you like Superman."
"Wh-"
Before he could ask who that cold, hollow voice belonged to, he was cut short by a sharp fist to the gut, and a painful shot to the cheek for good measure.
Quickly glancing over to Artemis to see whether she heard something, his only sight is her steely gaze down upon him, warning him not to stay down.
If he was beaten now, he'd probably never hear the end of it, and how she 'saved' him.
Not willing to gift her such embarrassing ammunition, he grabs Blockbuster to the arm and moves him straight into the trajectory of another bunch of explosive arrows.
"Why won't this guy go down?" Artemis tiredly groans, shifting to another suitable firing position to support Conner.
"Oh, he will," Conner mutters quietly.
Raw strength isn't the only thing which makes Superman powerful, Conner, it's his ability to use his head every once in a while, Conner recites one particular lesson he learnt from Black Canary.
"Time to think smart."
He uses the momentary pause in combat to formulate a hasty plan. Astoundingly, he actually manages to come up with a somewhat decent plan which doesn't end with them both being sent into orbit.
Creating distance between himself and Blockbuster by throwing him further down the street, he quickly runs over to Artemis.
"I have a plan," he states.
She clamps her lips shut, obviously attempting to refrain from laughing at the statement.
"How much tranquilliser do you have?" he asks, and she looks at him quizzically.
After a brief count, she answers, "Enough to put down Blockbuster for a while. But, I can't get through his skin."
"Leave that to me," he commands, face transforming into a determined frown.
As he bounds towards Blockbuster, he swears he could barely hear her mumble, "And there was any doubt he's like his dad."
With his risky plan, Artemis will only have a brief instance to release an arrow before the opportunity is lost. Luckily, she's not one known to crumble under pressure and miss shots when there's a demand for pinpoint accuracy. Conner can appreciate her skills in that regard, but nothing a mere human can do will carry the team into safety in his mind.
Being part-human weighs him down, and keeps him less than what's needed to save his friends. It was his weakness and vulnerability which led to Kyle's death.
At times, he wishes Lex Luthor wasn't his human donor, and instead it was another Kryptonian or an alien race with special powers. But no, it was a simple human with delusions of strength.
Real strength comes from his other father; Luthor's a part of him which is a parasite, feeding off the power he desperately needs.
Right now, he needs real strength.
Being the arrogant and villainous psychopath, Blockbuster casually waits for Conner to reach him, and the clone returns his patience with some of his own, stopping short of his target.
Time to think like Kyle would again... this is stupid.
"Hey you!" he shouts at the villain, who is clearly confused. "I think you need some moisturiser for that face of yours."
Since Blockbuster refuses to take the bait, he's really going to take it up to the extreme.
"I remember the scientist you were before all the ugliness settled in, and I have to tell you, I didn't think you could get anymore hideous," he taunts, attempting to imitate Kyle's childish insults. "Then again, there must be a reason you joined CADMUS anyway- lack of love from your mother, maybe? I wouldn't blame her though... just look at you."
Roaring with rage, Blockbuster charges at the clone with dangerous intentions. Though, Connor anticipates the attack and ducks, climbing onto his back and grabbing his jaw.
Forcing it open, Superboy calls out, "Now!"
Right on cue, a few arrows explode directly in front of Blockbuster's open mouth, filling his throat with the powerful sedative gas. It takes a few moments, but the giant finally collapses, Superboy leaping to his feet before the body completely hits the ground.
"Nice shot," he compliments.
She doesn't really acknowledge the comment, instead saying, "We need to get information out of him quickly. Wally and M'gann need our help."
A/N
Question Time!
1) What's your favourite large-scale crisis in the comics?
2) Do you want the name of the Third book?