December 29th - 2013.
I'd managed to set myself up in an abandoned factory district in the glades much like how I'd had the office setup before, it just seemed like nobody would notice a squatter, and it'd give me a good central point to monitor this hive of scum and villainy. At least as much as I could when I wasn't doing like before and offering work in exchange for resources, with a recent P.O. box being setup so S.T.A.R. Labs could send me something from Cisco's workbench to try out, apparently there were a lot of research opportunities from having an uber as a test subject, plus I was getting paid.
For some reason, Cisco seemed to think my EMP had something to do with the electrolyte levels in the ambulance and the much lower ones now. As such, he was having me try to generate a low level current and test it with a modified voltmeter/ammeter he'd set up that takes readings by contact and sends them back via satellite communication. I've been wearing it on my arm with the conductive arm-band he'd sent here yesterday, and it was my job today to take readings as I did various tasks today, eating, sleeping, exercising, to see if that had any noticeable change.
Today though, I had a mission I'd set out for myself, hoping to protect those teens who keep getting into trouble, especially Roy because he didn't get superpowers this time. As such, I made my way from the abandoned factory and took what I knew about the recent Starling Slasher murders and managed to get a general area where it was going on. I moved quickly after I heard a scream racing between alleyways, seeing a lady of the night pinned against a wall by a fairly bulky man, he looked like a body builder. I quickly noted his hand around her throat, which was consistent with previous murders, but for some reason he didn't have a knife out. Something wasn't right however because as the episode came back to me this guy was supposed to be a regular human not a seven-foot giant.
"Crap, ok, this isn't normal, the guy is either heavily using steroids or this is not the original starling slasher." That was when I noticed the blood on his shoes as he held her there before a quick hand jerk, and she was silent, collapsing on the ground. You've got to be kidding me, that was way too brutal!? I started taking deep slow breaths trying not to panic before picking up a piece of rebar that had been left on the ground, spinning it like the staff I was trained years ago.
His movements were strange, they were smooth and overly precise but also like he wasn't used to his own skin, then I noticed it, a red glow behind his eyes as a streetlight flickered immediately sending me on high alert. As he got closer I began spinning the staff moving it in front of me in long sweeping motions to try to maintain some distance, I wasn't sure how I was going to hold up to what looked like superhuman strength. He suddenly lunged in, so I swung high, the rebar impacting the side of his head, sending him sprawling to the ground with a clang like metal on metal.
That gave me a moment to think as I noticed the rebar was bent on the end and there wasn't very much blood on it at all, his face reflecting with a metallic shine where the rebar had hit him. What the hell is he, a terminator?!, some sort of body snatching cyborg?! I immediately turned the rebar around and threw the straight end like a spear where the rib cage was supposed to be at full strength, trying to pin it to the ground and give me a chance to escape. The rebar pierced the thing and went solidly into the ground, cracking the concrete from the force of the impact, the rebar standing straight up.
It stayed there staring at me as I immediately got my phone out, I was going to need serious help and Oliver might know something. That was then it started clawing its way up the rebar, pulling the rebar through it's pierced torso. No no no, this is bad, really bad. I sent a quick SOS to Oliver and Felicity's phones before snapping a picture of the monster and sending it as well, praying I could get help.
"You have been selected for termination by Lord Savage, Escape is futile" it stated in a cold almost mechanical voice. At that I broke out into a full speed run, I'd mostly been jogging before, but this was a full on sprint. Sparing a glance behind me to see it making chase, just keeping up with me, possibly because of the damage I'd inflicted on it. I'd been running for two blocks taking as many turns as I could when I heard a twang and the sound of a projectile impacting against metal before looking back to see that thing stop for a moment and begin searching the area before another one, this one with an explosive charge, impacted on its skull and detonated leaving more metal visible but otherwise not doing much but charring what looked to be an outer skin layer. Oliver dropped down next to me, taking stock of the situation as I picked up a piece of discarded pipe on the ground and pinched one end of it together as a makeshift spear, I'd managed to lead the thing into a construction site which had plenty of makeshift weapons.
"You didn't tell me about this guy" mentioned Oliver, his voice deep to hide his true voice
"This is new, he wasn't supposed to be here. Wrong universe, I think?" I replied back testing the weight of the modified pipe in my hand and finding the center of balance.
"You think?!" He fires another arrow, this one in the hole I made with the rebar, and detonates it inside the machine's torso, having a more noticeable effect.
"Well I'm not sure If you guys have the terminator movies here-" "Sure, who hasn't seen terminator, time travel, evil AI, changing the future." Felicity's voice comes over my phone despite not having called her, blasted techno wizards, I haven't figured that one out yet.
"Right, well back home there was a comic where superman of metropolis ended up fighting skynet in the future, I'm not sure if you have him on your earth, but that's for later." I paused, trying to organize my thoughts.
"Oliver, have you ever heard of Vandal Savage?" his expression seemed to indicate he was searching through his memories before Felicity interrupted again, apparently she'd found something. "Says here he's a conqueror and warlord and, wait, this can't be right, I'm finding records of him going back centuries."
"No that's right, he's immortal, there's a long story there, but more importantly where did this fracking toaster come from, that's what I want to know. It said Lord Savage had selected me for termination."
I threw the makeshift pipe spear at the machine's eye, shattering the lens and the pipe wedging its self in its skull, with the machine malfunctioning a bit but grasping the pipe and trying to pull it out. "Damn, I thought that would work"
Suddenly the machine ran at me, having forgotten about the pipe lodged in its skull and knocking me down gasping as it slammed its arm into my gut before standing over me yanking the pipe out of it's eye socket and aiming it at my chest.
"You will be terminated" It stated before another arrow was fired at it, this time the machine catching it and the explosion detonating in its hand damaging it, it's foot still pinning my chest to the ground.
It was distracted as Oliver was firing arrows at its head, one went wide and landed right next to me before I quickly realized that was on purpose because Oliver never misses, he trains for that on purpose. I grabbed the Arrow and jammed it into the thing's lower torso right at the leg joint and covered my face as it detonated, causing the machine to fall backwards without one of its legs and getting me free.
I quickly got up, nursing my bruised ribs, and saw a manhole cover yanking it up off the ground near where some workers had obviously been earlier. Another Arrow detonated against the machine as it was clawing it's way standing against the wall. At this point most of it's endo-skeleton was exposed, so I took the opportunity and grabbing the manhole cover by the edge and threw it like a Frisbee with the weight and force sheering the torso in half leaving the machine without its other leg and clawing its self forward with its good arm. I grabbed the pipe and ran up to it, this time aiming for the neck as it began clawing at my leg, digging deep gouges into my skin before I jammed it between the head and neck and trying to wedge it apart before a loud pop was heard, and the thing finally shut down. "Hasta la vista, you scrap heap."
I brushed myself off and began tending to my leg wounds, when noticed the meter on my arm was much higher than earlier, possibly because I may have been generating a lot more charge as my stress levels increased. Oliver grabbed the head as I hefted the rest of the machine's parts over my shoulder, and I followed him back to the arrow cave to figure out what was going on. Maybe Felicity can get some info out of what's left of the machine's computer with her techno wizardry.
