#FriendsRising
The super teens untied once more, they currently made their way back to Metropolis via 'magic' carpet, courtesy of Jessica's power ring as they soared through the air steadily. Their spirits all the while lifted.
"Well, after all that, I'd say Diana successfully passed her first normal teenager lesson." Spider-Man chuckled.
"Yup! Lesson #218: Disobeying your mom. Congrats, Diana! You're officially in the big leagues with that." Barbara chipperly declared.
"And on behalf of all of us, I say welcome to the club, newbie." Zee joked, smiling as she gave Diana's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
Diana smiled appreciatively, their 'welcoming' boosting her confidence. "It would not have been possible without your aid, my friends. If you have not decided to come for me, I would not have acquired the strength needed to convince my mother to let me go. So, from the very bottom of my heart, I thank you all for not giving up on me." She said sincerely, giving each of them a grateful glance.
"There's no need for thanks, Diana. That's just what friends are for." Jessica said, giving Diana a side hug.
"Mhm! The best of friends." Karen added, joining the love as she came between them, hugging them both as she giggled. Of course, they gladly reciprocated.
"Yeah, don't mention it, princess. That rescue was on the house." Kara smirked, secretly enjoying the sight of her friends embracing. "Anyway, now that we got her back... What now?"
The group was lost by the question, thinking it'd be kinda weird to end the night without doing something to celebrate.
"We could hit up the pier again?" Barbara suggested. "Anybody know when it closes? If it hasn't already."
"Oh, it closes at 2 AM. So, we still got... a good hour left." Zee answered, checking her phone for the time.
"Sweet! That's good to know. Well, shall we, ladies and gent?" Down for another fun go at the pier, even if it's late, Batgirl waited for her friends to decide to join her. And much to her excitement, they all ultimately accepted to go after doing some thinking. Well, almost all of them. The only one to not make up their mind was Izuku.
"Bestie?" Babs called, her and her fellow girls waiting to hear his choice. The most hopeful of them was Diana, sensing that their time at the pier wouldn't be too enjoyable without his presence. Needless to say, she really wanted him there. But, she wouldn't be selfish as it was his decision.
Izuku was torn. Half of him wanted to go home and get some sleep, but the other half didn't want to disappoint his friends. Selfishness proved to be tempting in this case. But, shame he couldn't go through with it though. He looked to the girls hesitantly, wincing when noticing the pleading expressions of both Barbara and Diana, complete with slight pouts. '...Dang it..'
Their stares unrelenting, Izuku couldn't bring himself to fight them, sighing in defeat when he finally chose. Honestly, how could he say no to them? Plus, sacrificing just one more hour of sleep wouldn't hurt too much, right? "Oh, alright. I suppose I can join the party if it's just for an hour. I did have fun the first time." He said with a gentle smile, making no big deal of the result.
Ecstatic, the girls cheered at Spider-Man's bold move. "Wooh! Let's do this then!" Batgirl yelled, grinning as she pointed towards land. "Green Lantern? Full speed ahead!"
"Aye aye, captain!" Jessica acknowledged the 'order', putting more speed into their carpet ride as the pier was visible in the distance.
When hovering above the pier, the teens looked down to see the place still somewhat packed and lively. That surprised Izuku, not expecting there to be so much people still up and about at this hour, especially during weekdays. Meanwhile, the sight seemed to please the girls, observing the bustling crowd below with serene smiles.
"There's still so much people out. Is this normal in Metropolis?" Izuku questioned, a brow raised as he glanced at his team.
"Eh, kind of." Jessica answered. gesturing 'so-so' with her hand. "Usually, it's just fun areas like the pier that can be crowded at a late hour. No matter the day. 'Cause, you know, who doesn't love to have a good time under the beautiful night sky." She chuckled, making her point known as she aimed a finger to the cosmos.
Izuku 'ah'ed as the night was indeed beautiful. "I see.." He shrugged, not thinking too much on the subject after that. Not that he'd have a choice as come a few seconds later, Izuku tensed when his spider-sense suddenly went off. He looked over to the streets leading to the pier, grunting in alarm as trouble quickly approached; taking the form of a robot army. Upon closer inspection, they were the same type of robots that destroyed Sweet Justice..
"Oh, crap.. Bad news, guys! Looks like this night ain't ending how we hoped it would." Izuku warned, waving the girls' attention over to the bots as they entered the fair grounds.
"Wha-! Seriously?!" Supergirl exclaimed in agitation.
"Ah, man, not these things again." Bumblebee groaned, the group unnerved upon seeing the machines. Except for one.
"Fear not, my friends!" Diana spoke, standing tall with her sword and shield in hand. "These infernal machines may have bested us before. But, not again! Not this time! This time, we will show them what it means to suffer the wrath of teamwork, to experience our strength when we are truly united! This time, we will win! Who... is ready to gain some payback?" The Amazon smirked, her speech a success on inspiring her 'sisters'. Izuku grinned under his mask as he's more than pumped, too.
"We are!" The team cheered in unison, raising a fist to express their readiness.
"Good. Now, let us go." Wonder Woman said before jumping off the carpet, the rest of the team following suit.
Prepared to give it their all as a team, the super teens landed before the robots just as they about begun their invasion, forcing them to halt. The girls came to a fight-ready stand, powers summoned while Spider-Man remained in a low crouch in front of them, glaring at the bots as his masked eyes sparked.
The sudden appearance of the heroes and machines swiftly garnered the surrounding citizens attention, looking uneasy as they didn't know what to make of the situation.
"You are interfering with the lawful demolition of this business or dwelling, citizens. If you do not vacate the area immediately, you will be removed by force. You have 10 seconds to comply." The bots warned the teens blocking their path, their words having no effect as the supers held their ground. As for the civilians, they immediately panicked, making the smart move as they took their leave in a frantic hurry. And with them out of harm's way, the young heroes were relieved.
"You scrap heaps got it twisted. It's you guys who got 10 seconds to scram before we take you apart bolt by bolt!" Kara threatened, pounding a fist into her opposite palm as she's determined not to lose again.
"And that's our only warning to you." Izuku added, ready to pounce into combat.
Before any fighting could commence though, the teens froze when the ground started shaking, causing confusion among them as it got progressively more intense.
"Am I the only one feeling this?" Spider-Man asked.
"Nope." Batgirl answered.
"Cool. Just making sure."
Then, the sound of very heavy footsteps hit their ears, the team gasping in shock when seeing a HUGE humanoid mech stomp up behind the smaller bots. Their eyes wide, they observed as the mech stood at about a dozen stories tall. Although, from their angle, it seemed a hell of a lot bigger.
"By the gods.." Diana gasped, both amazed and horrified by the metal colossus.
"Damn... Talk about a boss level.." Kara nervously uttered, the crew gulping as they felt that.
"Oooh, boy.." Izuku muttered.
"Hmph! Well, if it isn't the super ZEROES who messed up my bots earlier." The giant mech taunted, speaking with a voice that's clearly male... at first.
Before any of them could retort, Barbara gasped upon noticing the Lexcorp logo marked on the mech's belly, confirming the fear she'd been carrying since shortly after the Sweet Justice incident. One that she hadn't revealed to the team yet. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh! Lex Luthor is the one behind all this! Ha! I just knew it had to be him! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Barbara yelled as she rapidly shook Karen, giddy at having suspected the right culprit. Composing herself quickly, she then cleared her throat and released a now dazed Bumblebee. "I mean, I knew it was him." She nonchalantly added.
"Uh... what?" Zee responded, speaking everyone's mind as they all looked to the redhead curiously.
"I'll tell y'all about it later." Babs waved off their curiosity, focusing on their current predicament. Just like that, the matter was put on hold as the others followed her lead.
"What?! You think this was Lex's doing?! Ugh! Give me a break!" As if a voice changer was deactivated, the mech's voice now sounded female. However, the teens had another reason to become bemused as the new voice sounded rather... young.
Things were cleared up when the pilot window on the mechanical goliath's chest opened up, revealing an angry little blonde girl actually operating the dang thing. "Listen here, you super teen dolts!" The brat pointed down at the team, upset for having been assumed of being her brother. "Two things! One, you're stupid if you think Lex is capable of pulling this kind of genius off. And secondly, the name's Lena! Lena Luthor!" 'Lena Luthor' revealed herself, closing the pilot window again after reeling her hand in. "Honestly, you lot have gotta be the biggest dopes on the planet if you thought my dumb older brother can plan something this good! Ugh, ridiculous." She said in disgust.
Silence took over as the teens didn't know how to react to this development, blinking dumbly as one simple fact caused quite the storm in their minds. 'We're really going up against... a child?' was the baffling concern, the crew glancing at each other to see if any of them were hallucinating. They weren't.
"H-Hold on." Jessica spoke up. "You're... Lex Luthor's kid sister?"
Lena sighed in exasperation before replying. "Unfortunately." The mech crossed its arm, slouching slightly.
"Oh, right!" Barbara snapped her fingers in realization. "Now, I recognize you! You're the little kid that appears at the end of all those Lexcorp commercials. Yeah, I saw one just this morning."
"Yeah, yeah, that's me." Groaned the child, the mech's head rolling as she hated being famous for such a reason.
"...Moving on.." Izuku intervened, looking to the battle robot inquisitively. "I believe you mentioned something about a 'genius plan'. You care to share it? If you don't mind me asking." He asked of Lena, remaining on guard as obviously all this robo madness was her doing. Now, they just needed to know why.
"Pfft! Figures you teenage bozos wouldn't know genius if it was waving around in your faces. I mean, you all think you're soo smart with your staying up late, and your driving cars! Not to mention your commercials! But, noo! You're all so dumb that you can't even catch onto the most obvious of evil plots! Well, allow me to make it MORE obvious that even you dummies can't miss it. Now, listen up! First, I reprogrammed my brother's worthless VR glasses to make those wearing them into hypnotized morons. Then, I hacked into these demolition bots that the city contracted my doofus of a brother to make. And with said bots under my control, I used them to wreak chaos across Metropolis! Destroying every last FUN and/or COOL place for you stupid teens to hang! And when all is said and done, you teens will have no choice but to indulge in MY VR world to find any sort of mindless entertainment, trapped in it FOREVER! But, don't worry, I had it tailor made for every last lame-brained one of you!" If they had a pair of VR glasses on them, the team would've been greeted to the sight of an adorable puppy sneezing, being the cause of the city wide hypnosis amongst their fellow teenagers. Weirdly enough. "Then finally, once you simpleton teens are out of the way, children will rule over Metropolis!" Upon unveiling her goal, Lena broke out into a fit of 'evil' laughter. Instead of sounding intimidating, her laughter just sounded silly. Even more so when she began slapping her knee and taunting the supers in a way a child would.
As for the teens, they remained in a stupor as they couldn't take Lena seriously, waiting for her to settle before saying their piece. Izuku snickered once things have quiet down, fully processing the stupidity of Lena's less than thought out plan as he struggled not to burst out laughing himself.
"Huh? What's so funny?" Lena asked.
Izuku let a chuckle slip before calming down, breathing deeply to settle his hidden grin. Or so he tried. "I-I'm sorry, but that plan is... It's just... It's the dumbest plan I've ever heard!" The temptation proved too much for Izuku as he lost himself then and there, laughing uncontrollably as he held his head and gut after coming to a stand. It didn't take long before the girls joined him, Spider-Man having read their minds as they thought the exact same thing.
Obviously insulted by the comment and their reactions, Lena growled before voicing her frustration. "No, you're the dumbest plan I've ever heard!" Great comeback. Not about to take the ridicule, Lena huffed as she set out to complete her original objective. "You know what, just for that, as soon as I'm done demolishing this pier, I'm going to enjoy crushing you jerks beneath my warsuited foot!"
Their fun ruined by the threat, the teenagers instantly calmed themselves before putting on their game faces, prepped for combat once more as they knew she wasn't kidding.
"I wouldn't underestimate our strength if I were you, little one. Unlike last time, you won't have your way this time around." Spider-Man said as he flared his bio-electricity throughout his upper body, startling the girls a bit as it's the first time they witnessed it. And as curious as they were about it, questions would have to wait.
"Yeah, what he said!" Babs concurred. "We'll stop you if it's the last thing we do, Lena! That you can count on! So, you might as well give up now while you have the chance! Try and destroy all our favorite places you want, but if there's one thing you won't destroy, it's our friendships!" The redhead proudly declared.
"Yeah!" The team cheered, empowered by Batgirl's words.
Lena sneered at the teens' sickening optimism, all this cheesy friendship talk making her eyes roll. "Whatever then, it's your funeral." Pressing a button on her warsuit's console, Lena proceeded to give the order for her demolition bots to resume their jobs. "Boys! Get back to work!" At the order, the bots got to it, whipping out their bladed weapons as they moved.
"Looks like she chose the hard way." Spider-Man scoffed, getting back into his crouched stance.
"Get ready, my friends!" Wonder Woman said, gripping her sword and shield tightly. "It is at this pier that our friendship had been set in stone, and it is here that we also become... heroes!" Aiming her sword to the enemy, Diana glared before giving her own order. "Chaaarge!"
The others teens gave their own warcry as they obeyed the command, dashing towards the bots to commence the final battle.
One way or another, they will save this pier. Even if it kills them. Boy, is Izuku ever glad that he didn't go home.
A/N: Sorry for this short chapter, but don't worry! Next chapter will be longer, and will actually conclude this arc. I swear, this time. XD Alright, have a good one, guys.
Harem is still the same! See chapter 13 (#BlastOfATime) for the list if you need a reminder!
Until next chapter, deuces!