Chicago, Illinois, March 30, 10:56 PM
Chills went down Kat's back as she slowly stood back onto her feet. She stared at Dylan's dying body, he was losing a lot of blood. A large crimson puddle seemed as if it was draining from his left lung. With his accelerated healing the wound can heal, but he would probably still bleed out if it wasn't patched up. He was going to die if she didn't do something, and do it now.
"Talon, uncloak." Ace said, then behind Kat a boy in a suit that resembled Robin's, except black was it's primary color, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She jolted her head to look at Robin's wanna be rival, he was almost six feet tall, had dark red hair and he covered his brow eyes with a black domino mask. Kat snarled at him, she then looked over to Bryce. He looked pissed, heartbroken, and lost, he clenched his right fist and was glaring hard at Ace, ready to pounce. Then, Talon shoved Kat aside and walked over to Bryce with a pair of handcuffs.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this Bryce." Ace said. He wasn't in the least bit sorry. Talon stood directly behind Bryce, grinning like a lunatic. Mainly because he was one. Bryce sighed and growled at Ace's remark.
"So, are you going to arrest me?" He asked, putting his hands in front of his chest sarcastically, "Or are you going to kill me here and now?" Ace shook his head and laughed, he then snapped into his serious face and and turned to look at Talon. Ace nodded at the Robin poser.
Talon then grabbed one of Bryce's arms and went to cuff it, Bryce then set his wrist on fire. Burning Talon through his gloveless hand. Talon shrieked in agony and grabbed hold of his right hand with his left. Bryce then took the opportunity to snatch a remote out of a pocket on Talon's utility belt. Talon then growled at him, drawing a spear from a sheath on his back and swinging it at Bryce. Bryce sidestepped and kicked Talon in the side of his chest. Talon crunched over, Bryce then grabbed hold of his cape and pulled on him and threw him to the ground. Bryce then put his own mask back on and pulled up the remote. The collar's remote. With a flick of a switch he shut off the collar holding Abby.
He turned his head to her and looked at her sternly. "You and Nightshade get Arrow and Velocity out of here, get Dylan to a hospital, I'll hold these goons off as long as I can," He said to Abby who stared at him wide eyed as she ran over to Dylan and picked him up into a cradling position in her arms. She opened a portal a few feet away and motioned Kat, who had Hanna with an arm wrapped around her for support as the walked towards it.
"I can walk." Hanna reassured Kat, who gently released her hold on Hanna to let her enter Abby's portal. Abby approached with Dylan and started walking in, but stopped when she saw Kat starting to walked over to Bryce.
"What are you doing?" Abby shouted towards Kat, who didn't turn to address her and kept walking. She took her staff back out and spun it in her hand.
"If Dylan makes it out of this alive, I don't want to be the one to tell him that I let his boyfriend die saving our lives." Kat said, continuing her stride towards where Bryce was standing off with his former team. She then stood up straigt next to him and glanced over at Bryce.
"What are you doing?" He asked quietly. Kat bit her lip and told him that she's making sure they both survive.
"You take Rumbler and Talon, I got Ace and my ex." Bryce said, not even looking at Kat as he balled a flame in his hand and readied himself to fight. Kat then eyed down Talon and Rumbler, she spun her staff in her hand and gritted her teeth.
Silvercut glanced at Ace who was growling as he pulled a short sword from a holster on his boot. Silvercut then looked back over to Bryce longingly. 'If that's all I am to you.' He thought to himself as he ejected blades from his gloves. He looked at Ace, who started walking in Pyro's direction, and Pyro walking in Ace's. 'Crap.' He thought, he started marching next to Ace trying to look fearless and cold, but failing ultimately. He breathed in the air of the old steel mil and kept walking, till he saw Nightshade dash passed he turned his head starring her down, then a fist came right into his jaw, he jolted to see Bryce standing in front of him. And Ace behind him.
"Bryce I don't want to hurt you." He said, putting his hands in the air palms open. He pleaded to Bryce without uttering another word, but Bryce saw right through him and grimaced.
"We are passed that Trent." Bryce murmured, Trent looked down at his feet and sighed. He kept looking at himself kicking at his own feet as Ace and Bryce battled in front of him, he gritted, his teeth and his closed his eyes, scowling.
Bryce fired flames in Ace's direction, but Ace dodged it and slide right under the array of fire erupting from Bryce's direction. He then swung his sword at Bryce's feet. Bryce leaped when he saw the blade come close to his legs, it only grazed the bottom of his boot, cutting off the heel. Ace then went back to a standing position next to Silvercut, he turned to him and glared at him.
"Wake up! I don't care if you like him, you will either kill him or die trying." Ace said to Trent who glanced back up at him. Sorrow filled the boy's eyes as he then turned to look at Bryce who started coming closer.
"Now hold him, Savage needs me at base." Ace said running off to a railing, leaping over it. He ran right through where Kat was battling Rumbler and Talon, throwing a dagger at a batarang she threw at him. He then dashed out of the door and called to his boom tube to take him to 'The Oasis'.
Trent then glanced at Bryce who extended a fist at his face. Trent then grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder and slammed Bryce into the ground. he turned around to face him, Bryce stood back up and wiped a bit of blood from his lip.
"Bryce, please, it doesn't have to be this way." Trent pleaded, as Bryce threw a ball of fire at him, in return Trent used the blade on his left arm to cut right through it, saving himself from any major burns. He then pulled a pistol from his hip and spun it on his trigger finger. He bit his lip and pointed it at Bryce. Bryce in turn prepared to fire on him. They stood there, staring at each other. Waiting for the other to make a move.
"Trent, I- uh, I, it does, I'm sorry but it does have to be this way, my allegiance is to Dylan and as long as you're with Ace, you're the enemy." Bryce stuttered, choked out forcing a tear back into his eye. Trent bit the inside of his cheek and gazed at Bryce, he tried to look strong, he tried to not break down by firing his gun at Bryce. Hitting him in the leg with rubber bullets multiple times. Bryce growled and then ran towards him, arms extending outwards. He shoved Trent down to the floor and pinned him, he started punching him in the face over and over.
Kat swung her staff at Rumbler's legs, tripping him over and she then flipped over to a hand stand and kicked him with her right leg right in the throat. He tumbled down clutching his throat gasping for air.
"Karma's a bitch, cunt." She spat down at him, then the blade on the end of Talon's spear flew next to her face, she turned and brought her staff up to hit him in the face. Talon reacted by blocking with his weapon, they locked weapons and eyes. Talon laughed like an idiot.
"I was hoping for Robin, or Nightwing, honestly I'm underwhelmed." He chuckled at her. Kat smirked devilishly at him with a toothy smile.
"Then get whelmed." She said playfully, she then kneed him in the hip and leaped backwards. He grabbed his hip and growled at her, he rested his spear at his side and cursed under his breath. Kat then spun her staff in her hands and slammed the end of it into the bridge of his nose, he toppled backwards and grabbed his now bleeding, broken nose.
*Surge to Nightshade.* Kat's comm went off, Rupert was calling her.
"Nightshade here, Rupy I'm sorta busy." She said into the mic, Rumbler then used this as an opportunity to punch her in the back. She dropped her staff and fell forward. She went into a push up position and preformed a burpy, at her jump she spun around and kicked him in the mouth.
*Hanna briefed me, Abby will be opening a portal, back up's on the way.* Rupert said on the com, Kat smiled and punched Rumbler in the jaw. He then punched her in the side, she then gave him an uppercut, and kicked a now standing Talon in the rib cage.
"Did she tell you about Pyro?" Kat asked, elbowing Talon in the shoulder and punching him in the groin. She then pulled a knife off of Talon's belt and threw it into Rumbler's knee. She then used her foot to push it deep into the brute's leg. She got no response.
Then a portal opened and Blue Beetle, Hawkgirl and Supergirl ran out. Almost as soon as they exited Rui transformed her arm into a blaster and shot at Rumbler with a clamp, stapling his foot to the ground. Then Savannah threw her mace at his head, he fell backwards, and Hawkgirl used a magnet on her suit to summon her weapon back to her side. She grinned as she spun it in her hands and gripped it with both hands.
Rumbler then ripped the clamp off and ran towards Savannah, then Elena jumped up and landed in front of him, digging her shoulder into his chest, pushing on him to stop in his tracks. The two, almost equal in strength pushed on each other, trying to get the upper hand.
"Girly girl, give it up." Elena mocked Rumbler who gritted his teeth and pushed harder. Elena in response stepped on his foot with all her might, crushing the bone underfoot. Rumbler yelped in pain as he toppled to the floor clutching his foot. Savannah looked at Elena scary like. Elena put her hands to her sides and shrugged giving her teammate a confused look.
"What?" She said, then Talon threw a blade into her side, it stung her like a bee. She recognized the feeling instantly. Kryptonite. She clutched her side in pain, a mere flesh wound and slowly approached Talon.
"Should have brought a full rock." He said, his voice cracking as the kryptonian grew closer. Then Rui snuck up behind him and tassed his neck, he fell in shock nearly electrified.
"Nighsthade, Pyro, come with us, the cops are on their way." Rui said, as she patched into the police radio. Kat then ran for the portal, she stood next to it, as Hawkgirl and Supergirl ran through. Pyro jumped up off of Silvercut and ran for it, he waited for Blue and Shade, he saw Silvercut running for him and he frowned. He looked at the portal.
Face justice with them, or them. What could go wrong? He thought to himself as he surrounded Silvercut in a circle of fire. He then ran into the portal retreating the scene.
"Bryce!" Trent called at him as the portal closed behind Pyro. He stepped out of the fire. He ran over to Talon and helped him up.
"Come on, before the cops arrive." Trent said to Rumbler and Talon as they stood next to each other and pulled out a mother box.
"Home." Talon said, and they were teleported back to base.
Cave Justice, March 30, 11:11 PM
Bryce slowly walked into the cave through the Zeta Tube after Kat.
*Authorized access, Pyro, A32* The computer said as he walked in, he looked around. Soaking in his new surroundings, he gazed at The Team's HQ. People glared at him as he approached the center of the room. He heard the whispers, the little bad things the Team and Titans were muttering about him to each other. He sighed and took off his mask and buried his face in his hands. Then Dick Grayson, wearing the bat suit and The Flash approached him.
"Bryce is it, come with us, the rest of you report to Red Robin for mission briefing." Dick ordered. Everyone scurried to the former Robin known as Red Robin at the other side of the room and reported the missions results to him. Bryce followed Batman and Flash to a conference room where Wonder Woman and Superman were waiting with Green Lantern and Red Arrow. Dick and Flash sat in the two empty seats on either side of Superman, Flash to the left and Dick on the right. Wonder Woman gestured to and empty seat across form her and Bryce slowly pulled the chair from the table and sat in it.
"Bryce, we know of your past as an enforcer of The Light, and of your relationship with my son," Flash said, that last comment made the blood in Bryce's face fall cold and his heart nearly stop. He knew that there were two people currently wearing the cowl, one in Keystone and one in Central City, he was speaking to the defender of Keystone. Wally West, the father of Dylan West the boy he just got hospitalized.
"Sir I am so sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen, I should have listened to Nightwing's warning, I am such a foo-" Bryce intreupted Flash, begging forgiveness, a hand then rested on his shoulder, he glanced over to his right and saw Green Lantern teling him to calm down.
"Kid, it's not your fault, we just have some questions to ask you then you can be on your way." Lantern said, Bryce didn't know his name, but he knew this Lantern was Flash's age. Was it Rayner, it was probably Rayner.
"Bryce, as Flash said, we know of your paste few months, but we want to give you the opportunity to remedy it." Wonder Woman said, this had to be the first Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, she looked like Diana but Diana was dead.
"Bryce, now usually Waller would put you in task force X, but we weaseled a way you could make up for your mistakes, which from what Cosmo and Arrow told us you regret." Batman said, folding his hands on the table. He was one of two men acting as Batman, he had to be the one who worked as The League's leader while the other worked in Gotham.
"Now if you will accept we would like for you to work with our team for a while, it'll shave time off of your prison sentence, and keep you from running from The Light, the law and us." Red Arrow said folding his arms to his chest. Bryce nodded to show he was following along.
"Yes I'll do anything, I need to fix this, to have any hope of being forgiven for what I've done." He said, "So if it's intel you want I'll tell you all you need to know."
"Well, not that I don't appreciate that, first, you'll need to meet with Red Robin and designate a number to your new communicator." Flash said, sliding a ear piece over to him, Bryce took it and put it in his ear.
"Yes sir." Bryce said, biting his lip.
"Your dismissed." Batman said, Bryce then walked out of the room shutting the door behind him, Flash then peeled his cowl off and so did Dick.
"Are we sure about this." Wally snarled, staring off at the door Bryce just exited out of. Dick sighed and put a hand on Wally's shoulder.
"Don't worry Wally, Dylan will be okay, he was just transferred to the best hospital in Gotham, also Terry and Valerie know what to do if it looks like he might turn around and stab the team in the back." Dick reassured Wally, but as expected Wally sighed still unsatisfied.
Abby with Brendon walked into the training room where she spotted Bunker observing her little brother, Carson, trying to get used to his new powers. She walked over while Brendon planted his feet in front of the vending machines. She stood next to Bunker and glanced at the tall lantino man.
"So, anything new?" She asked him, the drill was the same every day. Go into the training deck, watch Carson make no new progress in getting a hang of his developing powers, then go home. An apartment in Central City that Abby rented when she fought the court to get her life back and be emancipated so she could be her brother's legal guardian. She swore today wouldn't be any different.
"Not much, though me and Atom think we finally got our heads around what exactly his powers are." Bunker said, Abby glanced at him curiously. A thud was heard behind them as Brendon charged his shoulder into the vending machine to retrieve the $10 bill he inserted when he meant to put in a five. Abby sighed and looked back at Bunker who pulled up a computer screen and showed her a file on Carson.
"Like yours, your brother's powers are cosmic in nature, but while you are able to teleport and open portals to certain locations he's able to manipulate his own magnetic field, and the gravity around him, in other words when it seemed he shielded you from a bullet not too long ago, he was actually forming a field of negative energy around your body to repel the bullet," Bunker said, Abby raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips.
"Which is why it's been hard for me to teach him, as his powerset is way different than my own, and he's kinda stubborn, as am I, we clash heads a lot." Bunker finished, Abby nodded and glanced at her brother on the other side of the glass. He was battling against repurposed Slade robots, used as training decoys. A total of three surrounded him. He punched one in the side of its head and extended his arm and pushed it backwards into a wall. He turned and kicked one in the leg and seemingly threw him into the glass without touching it.
"It's not telekinetic, it isn't coming from his mind we ran the test, but it operates in a similar field." Bunker explained, "Curiously, he hasn't been able to 'throw' a living thing yet, but repelling a living organism, oh, he can do that well, ask Rush."
Abby glanced at Brendon who walked over with a Hershey's bar in hand. He smiled an nodded, taking a bite out of the chocolate, extending his arm, offering it to Abby. She shook her head and Brendon shrugged in response and took another bite.
"Oh yeah, because Terry was too scared to volunteer I did, my rear still hurts from hitting the wall so hard." He sad, rubbing his behind. Abby rested her forehead in her hand and smiled.
Bryce walked into the main room of the base where Red Robin just sent of Surge and Batgirl on a mission in Hedi. He watched as they ran passed him into the Zeta Tubes.
*Surge, C08,Batgirl , C15* The computer read off as they exited the base, Bryce then walked towards Red Robin, folding his hands behind his back.
"Pyro, Batman told me about the situation, why he can't put you in the system himself beats me but let's get this over with," Red said tiresomely as he extended a hand towards Bryce. Bryce put his new ear piece in Red Robin's hand. Red then took it to the computer and set it on the desk. Bryce walked over and peered over Red's shoulder as Red did some stuff on the computer, then a red light blinked on the ear piece and then turned blue.
"Done, now stand here," Red said, gesturing to a footprint. Bryce walked over and stood where Red Robin told him to, then a red light scanned him. Bryce stood still for a solid minute before Red gave him another command.
"Now I'm going to enter your designation as Pyro," Red said, he grasped the keyboard and started to type. Bryce then walked over to Red and spoke quietly.
"How about we change that to something else?" He asked, Tim turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
"Such as?" Red Robin asked, Bryce looked around the room and bit his lip. He knew he wanted to distance himself from 'Pyro' but he had no ideas. Then he glanced at the TV, he saw Brendon sitting watching a cartoon from the 80s, he glanced to the character on screen. A red robot that turned into a fire truck. He smirked.
"How about Inferno?" Bryce said, Red nodded in response and smiled.
"I guess that'll work." The titan said as he put that into the computer instead. Bryce smiled as he folded his arms across his chest. 'Inferno', cliche but, straight to the point.
"Okay you're set," Red said, then a red light flashed and Tim rolled his chair over to a second computer screen and pressed a button.
"All Team members to the mission room, asap." He said, he then stood up and walked to a raised platform. "Stay here kid, you're now on the team."
The Team, and Bryce, stood in front of Tim as he told them about a weapons smuggling at the harbor in Metropolis. He said that Deadshot had been seen overseeing the unloading of weapons from two large barges. The daughter of the original Deadshot. He also said that this mission required stealth above all else, and that most team members could not go.
"Robin, Rush, and Maine, the three of you will go," Red Robin said, then Bryce glanced at them as they readied themselves to go.
"Red Robin, can I go?" Bryce asked, Tim shot a confused look, "I know Deadshot, more than any of you, I worked with her, I worked on those smuggling ships, I know how to get on and shut them down." He explained, Tim rubbed his chin.
"Very well, you have a minute to suit up and get out." Tim said, then dismissing the others. Bryce then walked over to the lockers and grabbed his mask and fingered it in his hands. This is insane. Then he saw Rush and the others walking to the Zeta Tubes, "Coming?" He heard Robin's voice ask.
"Yeah." He said, running over, throwing his mask in the trash as he approached the Zeta Tube.
*Rush, C03, Marine, C13, Robin, C19, Infero, C23*
Metropolis, Delaware, March 31, 12:06 PM
Robin and Rush leaped down onto a tractor trailer and signaled for Marine and Inferno to do the same. Once all four of them were there they crawled to the front and lied flat on their stomachs.
"Okay, you're the expert." Rush said, the scorn in his voice stabbed right through Bryce who then looked out and spotted Deadshot and Ace speaking to one another.
"Looks like Ace crashed the party." Robin said, she then reached into a holster on her leg and pulled out her batons. Bryce shot a hand in front of her.
"Not yet, look." He said pointing at a man in a yellow Flash suit, watching the entire operation. Reverse Flash.
"He's mine." Rush said, grinning like an idiot. Bryce sighed and glared at him.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" He asked, "Seriously, take a moment and think, why would a top liutenit of the light be at a small smuggling ring?" Bryce asked, Brendon shrugged.
"Because Red Robin was wrong, it's not just weapons." Valerie said, pointing at a large container. That in big, red letters written on its silver surface read. Doom. It could only be one thing. Doomsday.
"We should have brought Supergirl, and Superman, and Jon, and a hell of a lot of kryptonite." Brendon gulped.
To be continued
