A/N: Apologies for the very long wait between chapters, I've had to do some university work over the summer and that took away a lot of my time. Now that's done I can get down and hopefully finish this before term starts in October. Do give me a message or a review to let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Midway City. OMHR Agents are arresting non-registered Justice League members who attempted to break up a protest outside a government office building.
The protesters were absolutely dominating the area. Hundreds of people camped outside an OMHR building in the centre of the city. Bricks and debris was being thrown through windows, banners were being held everywhere. Two costumed men stood outside the door trying to dampen down the uproar.
"People please! This isn't the way to go about making complaints" Blue Beetle said, avoiding all manner of things being thrown at him. "I didn't want this to happen as well, if those of us who are against registration want to get something done we need to do it legally!"
"How?" One of the protesters said, "They have control over everything!"
"We'll find a way. They haven't got everything covered" Booster Gold said.
"They've covered enough! You're breaking the law just by being here!"
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Everyone looked around to see Captain Atom hovering behind them. Underneath him followed a squadron of US National Guard soldiers.
"Hey there Nate. Let's not make this worse than it is." Blue Beetle replied.
"Sure, just come along with me and we'll say no m…" Captain Atom was hit in the face with a brick.
"We don't want you here!" A protester shouted, "you're part of the problem."
"Sir, we're just trying to help you." Atom replied.
"With guns pointed at us?" A female protester said.
"She has a point, Cap" Blue Beetle said.
"These are my orders, I gotta follow them" Atom put his hands on his hips as he flew down to meet Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.
"Well you better tell your boss that his pointy eared cowl might be on a bit too tight, because the Batman I knew would never aim guns at civilians." Booster Gold said, pushing his finger into Captain Atom's chest.
"Maybe you never knew Bruce at all." Atom replied, flicking Booster Gold's hand away and landing a clean right cross to his face.
"I'm starting to think you're right" Booster Gold said, wiping his bleeding nose.
"However," Blue Beetle stepped in putting his hand on Atom's shoulder, "One thing that hasn't changed is that to take down Bruce, you have to out-think him." Captain Atom suddenly heard a small beeping. He looked at his shoulder to see a small device slowly pulsing faster. He sensed that it was slightly irradiated and he immediately flew backwards away from the crowd.
"This is Captain Atom to all points. Code Red. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold have engaged me and…" Atom screamed as the device exploded. Wounded, he used all the energy he could muster to absorb the radiation.
"That'll take him some time but he's called backup, time to call ours" Blue Beetle said to Booster Gold. Booster Gold pressed a button on his wrist. A small robot flew out from his back.
"How may I help sir?" The robot said.
"Make the call, Skeets" Booster Gold said. Blue Beetle stopped focussing on Captain Atom and turned his attentions back to the crowd.
"Get out of here, people. It's not going to be pretty."
"Hey, Blue" Booster Gold said, "Why haven't the soldiers fired at us yet?"
"Maybe Bruce hasn't changed that much?" He replied. Meanwhile Captain Atom had just absorbed the last of the radiation.
"You're gonna pay for that" he said. He flew down to the ground and turned to his troops. "Make a perimeter, I don't want any civilians within a 2 block radius." As the soldiers fanned out, Atom saw a black vehicle heading towards them. Just as it came within the perimeter, it drifted to the side and its roof opened. Leaping out were Green Arrow and Black Canary, who landed either side of Captain Atom. As the car screeched to a halt, the driver's door opened and out stepped a casual Nightwing.
"I was hoping we'd find you two fellas sooner or later" he said, sauntering over toward them, "I've missed you guys" he welcomingly held his arms out as he stood just in front of Captain Atom.
"Once this is over, Dick, we'll go grab a drink together" Booster Gold said.
"This?" Nightwing replied, "This doesn't need to happen. You can come with us, register and we'll all be fine."
"And if we don't?" Blue Beetle said.
"Well, we're gonna take you with us anyway, but you'll have a bit more than a broken nose…" Nightwing gave a disappointed frown as he pulled out his escrima sticks. Green Arrow drew his bow ready, whilst Black Canary cracked her knuckles.
"Is that so?" Blue Beetle said, smirking. Suddenly, a rift of wind came from behind Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Appearing behind them was Flash, closely followed in the air by Guy Gardner, Robin and Deathstroke. Blue Beetle looked around at his team and turned back to Nightwing. "I'm afraid mine are bigger than yours."
"5 points for a dick joke, but its minus 50 for getting your ass kicked." Nightwing leapt into action followed by Arrow, Canary and Atom. Atom went straight for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle but Flash zipped in behind and grabbed Atom's foot, throwing backwards and smashing him into Nightwing's car. Booster Gold followed Flash, while Arrow and Canary advanced on Blue Beetle and Guy Gardner. Nightwing made a deadline for Robin. As he drew nearer, Robin pulled out two sharpened batarangs, but Deathstroke stepped in front of him, drawing his sword.
"Let the big boys play, boy" He said, huffing at Robin as he advanced on Nightwing.
"Happy to take you down, Slade. Didn't think Supes was that desperate?" The two of them started to circle each other like hawks.
"I'll take any chance to take on your boss, especially after the shit he's been pulling" Deathstroke pressed a button on his helmet and his visor arched down over his face. Nightwing made the first move, swiftly jabbing the electrified end of his escrima stick towards Deathstroke who parried it and went in for a countering lunge. Dodging out of the way, Nightwing backhanded Deathstroke on the head and threw a batarang at Robin, who caught it mid-air.
Meanwhile, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were proving too much for Captain Atom to handle. They were relentless, energy blast after energy blast.
"You can't win, Cap" Booster Gold said, dodging a wild punch.
"Really? A scientist and a model against a United States soldier with complete control over his atomic structure… sure you've got this in the bag" Atom replied. Booster Gold threw a punch himself, but Captain Atom caught it. He smirked as Booster Gold screamed out in pain. Captain Atom's hand started to glow and smoke began to rise.
"Get off of him!" Blue Beetle shouted, tackling Captain Atom to the ground. Booster Gold fell to the floor, holding the clump of melted flesh at the end of his right arm. Blue Beetle raised his arm, morphing it into a large battering ram and slugged Captain Atom over the head with it, knocking him out. He dropped him onto the concrete.
"Jesus, Nate" he sighed.
Back with Nightwing, he was being horribly outmatched, forcing him to change his tactics. As Deathstroke came in for an attack, Nightwing knew that he couldn't match the force so he dodged away towards Robin and parried his weaker attacks.
"You can't outrun me, boy" Deathstroke said, spinning his sword. "Robin, manoeuvre 24B." Robin was surprised that Deathstroke knew about the League of Assassins' training regimes, but gave a nod. The two of them retreated momentarily, before closing in together and attempting to corner Nightwing up against the battle between Guy Gardner and Black Canary. Robin attacked Nightwing's legs while Deathstroke swung his sword at Nightwing's head. Nightwing pulled both his feet up and tucked his head into his chest to dodge both attacks simultaneously. Kicking Robin away before he landed, he sprung up and flipped onto Deathstroke and pushed himself backwards, sending Deathstroke in the opposite direction. As he flipped backwards, he spun around and landed a mid-air roundhouse kick to the face of an unsuspecting Guy Gardner. Gardner swore under his breath, and shot a pulse of rage energy towards Black Canary knocking her backwards, before turning his attentions to Nightwing.
"Let's move it, people" Blue Beetle said, "Booster's going to need serious medical attention. Let's not add another person to that list." Deathstroke and Robin immediately sheathed their weapons and turned away from the battle Guy Gardner grit his teeth and growled at Nightwing. He didn't break eye contact as he moved towards the teleport opened up by Booster Gold. Green Arrow fired an arrow at the teleport. Guy parried it away, still not breaking eye contact. He stepped through and the rift closed behind him.
Nightwing turned off his escrima sticks and put them away.
"Shit."