Earth 481
Sara Lance was gasping the breath. She also felt bruised and battered. She stared down at the unconscious woman lying next to her.
''You were the toughest I've ever fought'' she told the oblivious General Laurel Lance. And that included the early stages of her training for the League of Assassins.
She and the General had been fighting for quite some time and she hoped the noise hadn't attracted attention. The upper hand in the conflict had gone back and forth, back and forth, with neither able to gain a definite advantage. In the end Sara had won by a hairs-breadth of skill. She forced herself to get moving and removed the other woman's weapons, which turned out to be quite an arsenal - two guns, five knives, a short night stick and a pair of knuckle dusters, plus a balaclava. She rolled the General onto her stomach and used the woman's own handcuffs to secure her wrists. After a moments thought, she used the balaclava as a gag, not wanting her prisoner to alert any locals that happened to be nearby.
Then she sat down and waited. In a few minutes, the General came round, staring at Sara in silent rage.
''On your feet'' Sara told her calmly, pulling on the other woman's arm to get upright. ''Now walk.''
X
Leonard slipped silently behind a bush, then threw the small branch he was holding further along the path that he'd been - noisily - following. It worked - to a point.
The Earth Xer chasing after him had run past the place where he was hiding. In a few moments, he realised he could no longer hear the sound of his quarry crashing through the undergrowth. He stood still, then turned around slowly, gun held in readiness, scanning the undergrowth for anything that looked out of place.
The man gasped in shock and then dropped the gun that had suddenly become ice-cold in his hand. His shock intensified when the weapon shattered on contact with the ground.
''I could do that to your hand - or any other part of you'' Leonard announced in a calm tone, as he stepped out of over. ''So let's do this in a peaceful way, shall we?''
The man swore and lunged for his knife. With a sigh, Leonard froze both knife and hand. The man let out a scream.
''You'r going to lose that hand - I did warn you. But there's an upside. The A. I. on our ship can make you another one, as long as you behave from now on?''
He gave the man the lightest of mental nudges, but felt himself sweating as a result. He was right at the limit of what he could do without -. Morris was going to give him an earful.
X
In his Time Master memories, Rip had once trained in Wild West style boxing. Rip Hunter, author, had once studied kick-boxing when he needed it for one of his stories. Combine those two skills and he had a fighting style that his adversary had never encountered before. Which was just as well, since the other man was younger and fitter than him.
The two men lurched backwards and forwards for a few minutes, landing blows on each other, before Rip managed to get in the knock-out one.
''I'm getting too old for this'' he said, to no one in particular.
He used his foot, to roll the man over on his front, then handcuffed him.
Like Sara, he had to wait a few minutes for his prisoner to come round. He used the prisoner's own gun to prod the man into moving in the right direction.
In a few minutes, they were back where Carter and Kendra were hiding out. In a few more minutes Leonard and his prisoner appeared, followed shortly after by the two Lances.
'They waited for a few minutes, then Rip asked ''Where's Naomi?''
''Over there'' Leonard said, pointing in the direction he'd seen the girl going. If he tried to find her telepathically, they would have two invalids to take back to the Acheron.
X
Naomi had defeated her target more easily than she'd expected to. The man had seen her as little more than a girl and hadn't anticipated the skills that Sara had taught her.
Now she sat down next to his prone form and thought about the situation. It had been agreed that they would try to take the Earth Xers alive and that, she presumed, was what the others had done or were doing. But her eyes narrowed as she continued to look at the man. Maybe he hadn't killed Floyd but there was a good chance that he knew who had. Floyd, who'd been the first man in her life to treat her decently.
By the time Rip came to find her, she had her story ready.
''I'd didn't have a choice'' she managed to sound regretful. ''He said he'd kill me after he'd-''
''It's OK'' Rip appeared to believe her.
X
Getting everyone on board the Acheron took some planning. First of all the four of them marched the three captives to the brig. Then Rip and Kendra helped Carter hobble back to the ship, taking him to the Med Bay. Leonard, Sara and Naomi took charge of the dead man, taking him to the aft storage area.
''At least he won't be here for long'' Sara commented.
She was feeling unsettled about the death - that knife wound was very precise for something done during a struggle. But Naomi had been important to Floyd, who'd been a friend. She didn't want to accuse the young woman unfairly.