Keystone City University
August 25, 2017
18:19
McKenzie slid underneath a long and narrow cafeteria table while Victoria vaulted over it with ease, lasers ricocheting behind them loudly. The two girls ran, retreating towards the back of the dining hall, their chests heaving. While hidden behind a pillar, Victoria pressed her finger against her ear.
Once her communication link beeped, signaling that her microphone was turned on, she spoke into it. "Watcher, how much longer until you finally dismantle the bomb?" Her question was directed at Oliver, who resided in the basement level of the building they were in along with Yessenia and Noah.
Oliver bit his lip in concentration, his brain attempting to find a solution to the bomb's algorithm. Inside the bomb, multiple wires zigged in and out of ports, lighting up the dash board colorfully. The wire cutter gripped inside his gloved hand itched closely to a black string.
From the other end of the communication link, the skilled technician replied, "Two more minutes, baby girl." Victoria peered out from behind her and McKenzie's hiding space, mentally counting how many robots were still standing. It was easy to ignore Oliver's flirting while being attacked by an endless herd of enemies.
"I don't know how much longer Adder and I can hold the robots back," Victoria confessed earnestly, losing count after reaching fifty androids. Half way through her sentence, a laser beam whizzed past her head, scorching part of her cape's hood. The clothing sizzled for a moment, the purple fabric turning black and shriveled. As she pressed her back once more against the pillar for protection, the archer looked down at McKenzie with a disdained look before mumbling a measly 'great'.
I can't be rash and impulsive, I have to find a plan, Victoria reminded herself, taking a chance to look around the cafeteria for ideas. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of a fire alarm across the room and the plan formulated instantly. With a deep and nervous breath, the Huntress trainee ran out from her position, her crossbow aimed.
With her free hand, she stabbed the closest robot to her in the chest, using his body to shield her from any upcoming attacks. She placed the crossbow on top of its limp mechanical shoulder for balance, aiming her arrow towards the alarm. She released her weapon's trigger accurately. Thwip! The arrow rushed past the assailants, etching itself into the fire alarm. The system's breakage resulted in water draining from the ceiling, short circuiting the droids in the cafeteria.
Not allowing herself to celebrate prematurely, Victoria's attention shifted back towards McKenzie. As the demigod walked towards the archer, she wiped an excessive amount of blood off her face with the back of her hand. "You okay?" Victoria interrogated the younger and smaller girl. Victoria brought her hand up to inspect McKenzie's lacerated cheek, turning the demigod's face to the side for a better angle. Even though the archer held no medical proficiency, she deduced that McKenzie wouldn't need stitches.
"I'm fine," the girl assured her leader, yet the blood still didn't stop seeping out from her cheek. It wasn't severe, but Victoria couldn't help but be concerned for the younger girl, the habit being formed since the moment she met the serpent months ago.
McKenzie shuffled around the base slowly, the energy that was usually laced in her actions long gone. Her face was swollen, red, and hot in sickness, her nose managing to be both leaking fluids and be stuffed all at once. The demigod shivered as she moved, the thought of calming tea motivating her to continue her trip to the kitchen. When she finally entered her desired location, she allowed herself to be vulnerable. She didn't want to risk the chance of someone finding her sick on her way to the empty kitchen.
The demigod couldn't control the urge to cough into the crook of her arm loudly, which gained the attention of Victoria. The archer, who previously sat in the lounge completely her school work, followed the noise into the kitchen. Her eyes widened when she noticed McKenzie's broken stature.
"Holy shit," the Italian said in a startled, yet concerned, tone. She was by McKenzie's side in an instant, her eyebrows furrowing as she attempted to diagnose her sick friend. Accessing all of her symptoms, Victoria settled on the possibility that McKenzie was suffering from the flu, which Victoria herself suffered through some time last week.
"I'm fine," McKenzie obviously lied, her voice raspy and strained. Victoria looked at the girl with a soft expression, understanding the want to always look powerful in front of others. Without another moment's thought, Victoria picked up the serpent girl bridal style, ignoring the demigod's protests against it.
Victoria walked down the halls of the base in pursuit of the younger girl's bed room. In a slightly amused voice, she spoke down to McKenzie, "Stop resisting. I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not." Her words must have sparked something in McKenzie, because the girl instantly stopped fighting against the archer's hold. "I'll go find you some medication and make you dinner. You'll be okay," Victoria didn't need to say her final sentence, McKenzie already knowing that whenever the older girl was around, everything would be more than okay.
Oliver's tongue stuck out of his mouth slightly, sweat beading off his forehead in nervousness. The wire cutters in his hand snipped at a red wire, which successfully halted the chances of a detonator triggering the explosive; however, it didn't stop the potential of the bomb going off. He continued his work as Yessenia and Noah fought off the androids protecting the basement.
Yessenia smacked her shield on the back of a robot's head, the sound of metal against metal resounding through the air. Without hesitation, the girl flung the short circuited robot's body into three other assailants. Similar to dominoes, they all collapsed towards the ground.
Unlike the herd of nanotechnology Victoria and McKenzie had been struggling with, the amount of robots in the basement were manageable for the teens. "On your right!" Noah shouted from across the room, resulting in the Amazonian girl to release a high pitched canary scream at an ambush of machines. The high frequency caused the androids' heads to erupt, oil spattering throughout the room unevenly.
"Gross," Yessenia sneered, wiping the thick black liquid off of her face. The Amazonian girl's face twisted in disgust when she noticed the stains on her tan leather jacket, her tongue sticking out momentarily. She was used to oil stains, but not oil stains that resembled blood from fallen enemies. Her disgust was quickly followed by determination as she bounded towards Noah to provide the necromancer with aid. "On your right," Yessenia said in a cheeky and mimicking tone, punching an android who loomed over her smaller team mate.
Noah smirked, shaking his head fondly at the banter the two were sharing. Out of all the team members, it had been easiest for Noah to befriend the Amazonian goddess, her perky and 'take no shit' demeanor complimenting his personality greatly. She was an instant friend to him, their relationship constantly mirroring bickering siblings.
"Can you hand me a wrench?" Yessenia pleaded, briefly glancing up towards Noah as she spoke. The Amazon was currently laying on her back in the hanger, her hands under her favorite ATV, which was black and canary yellow. After her last ride through Happy Harbor, she had noticed the lack of professional performance in the vehicle, thus the reasoning on why she was fixing it. The necromancer shifted the tools around in the tool box momentarily before plucking out the desired appliance.
Handing it to her, he began speaking, "Do you like riding?" He knew there was an obvious answer to his question, but the look of joy plastered on the girl's face whenever she mentioned the vehicles convinced him to ask. He had first noticed this when walking into the Amazon's room days ago and seeing her abundant amount of riding gear, posters, and trophies displayed everywhere. Forgetting about his search for a pen, the two had a three hour discussion on one of the girl's favorite hobbies.
Yessenia smiled largely, her toothy grin matching his. "I love it!" She said, her hands still working, "You should come ride with me next time I go, you'll enjoy it."
Her genuine tone brought comfort to the boy as he agreed to her offer. It wasn't always the easiest task to join an already formed team, and he often felt excluded from their inside jokes and stories, but Yessenia's friendship and assurance made him feel as if he belonged. She would always go out of her way to make him feel welcomed.
The Amazon stood up abruptly and dropped the wrench onto the floor, which clanked noisily. As she was clapping her hands free from dust, Noah joined her by her side."Think it will work?" He inquired.
With a devilish look to match her grin, she faced the boy for a split second. "Only one way to find out," Yessenia smirked as she grabbed her helmet from the storage space behind her. She looked at the necromancer for an awaited period, her expression impatient yet kind. "Grab a helmet already Tiny, I don't have all day!"
Separate from the rest of the team, Raja and Logan kept the assailant busy. While on campus, the two had located uniformed lab coats from a nearby supply closet and after covering their hero suits with the new garments, they used their new disguises to blend in with a group of hostages. They were both sitting in a smaller lab on the second floor, both bound and tied next to the other captives. Despite their predicament, this was all according to plan.
Raja twisted his wrists around uncomfortably, bitter that instead of fighting like the majority of his team mates, he was stuck zip-tied next to Logan. The older, yet smaller boy, seemed unfazed compared to his impatient and somewhat violent team mate. Even though the rogue scientist was reciting a thought out monologue to the hostage group, the innocent bystanders paid no attention to him as Logan questioned if they contained any physical injuries.
"They cut my program, so now they will feel my wrath. If they are unable to provide me with the resources I need to complete my research, I will destroy this entire campus!" As the criminal nearly yelled his reasoning behind his attack, Raja rolled his eyes at how cliche the situation was. His fingers twitched behind his back as he played with the plastic bounds, his annoyance only growing as the lead nanotechnology scientist continued talking. Throughout the entire dilemma, the criminal's thumb hovered over a detonator as he threatened the group with activating the bomb every other minute.
Raja smirked as Noah's voice crackled in his ear, the smaller boy informing the team that the bomb was successfully disarmed. Without hesitation, the Indian boy broke his bands. At the sight of the enraged hero marching towards him, the belligerent miscreant slammed his limb against the supposedly dangerous button. Almost instantly, the scientist realized his plan had been foiled.
The scientist screamed in protest when no explosives sounded, bringing joy to Raja's ears. The ironic mission was now in the boy's favor as he closed the distance between him and the assailant, grabbing the man by his lab coat and lifting him in the air. His position was nearly comical as his feet dangled in the air pathetically.
"Next time, make an appeal to the campus about your funding," Raja advised in a low and dangerous tone. Before the malefactor could respond, Raja punched him in the temple forcefully, knocking him unconscious instantly.
As Raja grabbed the assailant and flung him over his shoulder fireman style, Logan freed the remaining three hostages. After their release, the captives fled the tiny lab in pursuit of safety with the emergency responders outside, leaving the two boys in the room with the rogue scientist. "Did you read him his Miranda Rights?" Logan questioned the larger man, who pushed past Logan towards the door.
"I'm not going to read him his rights, especially since he's not awake. Don't be pretentious," the tone was harsh and cold. Logan watched as the man disappeared through the door with their criminal, frowning slightly at his words.
Mount Justice
August 25, 2017
20:22
Yessenia grinned wickedly, her eyebrows raised up in amusement. Her hand was interlocked with Raja's as both teenagers attempted to win at their arm wrestling battle. "Ready to give up?" The Amazon princess taunted, confidence laced across each of her features. Her eyes challenged Raja as well as her position.
"Never," The Indian boy retorted in an even voice, his gaze shifting from their hands to Yessenia's eyes. The banter between them remained unrelenting as both of them planned to beat the other in the childish game. Despite how childish the game was, Victoria, Oliver and Noah appeared to be fascinated, placing bets on what the outcome would be. While the necromancer firmly believed that Yessenia was holding back her strength and could easily beat the other, Oliver remained faithful in his training companion.
From her position on the couch, McKenzie's gaze constantly shifted from her book on to the competition. Even though she wasn't technically involving herself in the sport, she hypothesized that Yessenia could easily out match Raja. She giggled slightly as Oliver and Victoria bickered back and forth about the mission's outcome.
Victoria, with annoyance evident on her face, rolled her eyes at the boy. "An EMP wouldn't have caused the bomb to detonate earlier, if anything it would have canceled the link between the bomb and the device," the Italian argued her position fiercely. After the girl had found out that Noah contained an EMP in his utility belt and didn't use it to disrupt the androids' programming to stop their attacks, she became angry. More so at Oliver who had told him not to use it, which resulted in the gash on McKenzie's cheek.
Oliver sighed, "Come on Beautiful, don't be mad at me. There was a chance that there was a fail safe mechanism in the bomb which would have gone off if the link had been destroyed." At his explanation, Victoria muttered a 'whatever' quip, which was closely followed by Oliver smirking.
McKenzie's eyes filtered over to Logan. After addressing her facial laceration when they returned to the base, he had taken up the action of typing up the mission report on his laptop. The demigod was grateful that after their past two negative mission experiences, this report would finally be positive. After all the team has been through, they deserved a win. Thinking briefly at the idea, the serpent closed her book. "We should celebrate," she said to the group, gaining their attention.
The small girl was often quiet and reserved, but whenever she spoke she knew that everyone in the room listened to her. As she suggested a celebratory activity, Yessenia dropped hands with the Indian boy, her hands clapping together happily.
"We can go down to the beach and swim!" The beach always reminded her of Themyscira, creating a home in Happy Harbor away from her actual home. Her enthusiasm was plentiful as she glanced around her team mates for their support.
Noah snorted, "Oh yeah, take the kid who controls the shadows onto the sunny beach, that sounds practical." If there was one thing Noah hated more than the beach, it was having to be dressed in swimming attire, which made the young Bat uncomfortable. At his exclamation, Yessenia tapped her chin in thought, still trying to ponder the perfect activity for the group that didn't involve their usual video game or movie shenanigans.
Victoria, the overgrown child that she was, sprouted at the mention of a new activity. "We can go down to the park and have a picnic!" And play on the equipment, she added internally, a smile gracing her face.
"I'll make the food!" Oliver said, speaking before anyone could suggest something more age appropriate.
At Oliver's excitement, Raja stood up with a sigh. After befriending the eccentric male weeks ago, the Indian boy knew that whenever Oliver wanted to do something, there was no talking him out of it. "I guess we are going to the park then," he said in a near monotone voice. Victoria and Yessenia could barely contain their joy as they jumped up to pack small activities for their trip.
Sorry for the short (and late) update. I am trying to give you all a break from the constant angst, so this chapter and next chapter will be a lot lighter. If any of you have park activities in mind or conversations you want to happen, let me know! Also, if you want to pitch me mission ideas, challenge ideas (for the blog), or AU's you would like to see, tell me about it! Don't be afraid to communicate with me I love hearing from you all :) Talking to me about your characters will help me make the story better for you all. As always, thank you for reading and let me know what you all think!
1. What's one thing you want me to do for character above all else (one positive/one negative)?
2. What's one thing you want to see from any character besides your own (could be either positive or negative)?
3. If one character where to die, who do you think it would be and why?