Eric - The only other name I remembered Tim useing was his Mr. Sarcastic one. Don't remember if there was another one. And I think a Meta gene is random upon conception, which is the only exclamation I think Slade would have a super powered offspring. That or he gained powers unnaturally.
Black Victor Cachat - You're right with that guess. I alluded to that little fact when BD was using all his strength in his attacks.
3.
Jump City
October 06
09:21 UTC
Hitting the paved street, a bound Batman lay at the feet of Superman. As good as the Dark Knight was, he was no match against the Man of Steel without Kryptonite. The fight between them did not last long, but was not a short as it should have been as the two members of the trinity of League heroes fought different battles. Batman, from being possessed, was fighting to take Superman down by any means necessary while the face of the League fought to subdue without injury.
"Sorry about that, Bruce. But I know you'll come to forgive me. Sometime after you've died most likely."
With Batman tied up with his own line-fed Bat-A-Rang, Superman looked himself over. His hand had a nice slice on top from being struck with one of the bat shaped projectiles. It was an unpleasant surprise to discover his weapons were infused with magic, making the Kryptonian rely on his speed more in this little skirmish.
Raising his hand to his earpiece, he hoped someone was nearby and not out of range to pick up his signal. "Superman to Alpha. I've subdued Batman. Going back to check on Hawk-UGH!"
Flying through the air from a hard hit, Superman crashed into a series of parked cars, which exploded from the force of his impact. Shrugging off the sudden hit out of nowhere, the red and blue League leader kicked one of the cars away and emerged from the fire around him, then saw batman standing back up.
"(Sigh) Figures."
Hovering over the now free Batman, after cutting him loose, Green Lantern Guy Gardner stared at Superman with Batman covering himself with his cape.
"Superman to Alpha, I'm held up. Provide the distraction without me."
Hovering in the air, Superman cracked his neck and readied himself for whatever Guy and Batman would throw at him. Donning armor, Guy resembled a futuristic warrior with what resembled jagged buzzsaws at the ends of his forearms. They then began to spin at a high rate of speed and were no doubt infused with Trigon's energy capable of harming Superman if they connected.
"Hey!"
Looking up, Superman saw his cousin, Supergirl dropping to where he was.
"Thought you could use some help over here," the blonde Kryptonian said.
"Where are the others?" Superman asked.
"Regrouping."
Seeing Batman and Guy move to flank the two Supers, both Kryptonians went back to back.
"They fight with magic," Supergirl told her cousin.
"I know. Just stay away from them and bring them down without too much injury."
"You now I still hate Batman, right?"
"I know. Just, go easy on him. He's not that bad if you ever get to know him."
Looking at Superman, Supergirl rolled her eyes.
"Fine. He's as bad as you think. But he's my friend. I guess."
Moving his cape to the side, Batman brandished a grapple gun and fired it over the Kryptonian's heads while Guy flew low to the ground. Each was looking to put the two down hard and fast with their battle cry issued by the demon god, "Hail Trigon!"
(-)
"Think we can get over there without to much attention?" Securing his bow, Green Arrow knelt beside the Amazon princess who scoped out the distance they would have to cover between the end of the mainland and lone island in the center of the harbor.
Situated in an empty apartment on the fourth floor of a large complex overlooking the water, the five man group looked over a large gathering of possessed people. All looked upon the resting Trigon who seemed to be asleep. Over half of the people were kneeling with others standing at full attention. Red eyes scanned the sky and streets for anyone left with free will or stood against the red skinned demonic giant.
"Doubt it," Wonder Woman replied. "Beta's not checking in after being separated. As it is, we just need to get you to the rear of the island and distract Trigon ourselves."
"Then who is the bait?" Starfire asked.
"I'll provide the distraction. Hawk, Dove, you're with me. Once we have their attention, Starfire, you take Arrow to the rear of the island. Stay low to the water and keep close to the building as you drop him off. Be ready to get him out of there when it's time."
"The Roger, Wonder Woman," Starfire replied.
"Finally, some action," Hawk said as he tightened his fingerless gloves.
"I know you're anxious to get out there," Wonder Woman told the punk styled teen sibling, "but I need you to remember, these are civilians we're going against, innocents made to serve a demon bent on making our universe his."
"But doesn't something like this happen every year or so?" Dove asked.
"More or less. Get ready to move."
As the group prepared to move out, a round object crashed through the window and rolled on the floor. Red lights began to blink as the five's eyes grew wide at the sight of the bomb, forcing them to dive out any window they could get to. Without much time to clear the building, the object detonated and silently blew apart the building's interior, knocking the group further away from the structure as it caved in on itself.
Hitting the ground, Wonder Woman was immediately surrounded by a large group of possessed civilians who did not give her time to get back to her feet when they jumped her. It was like a pack of wild animals as they tore at the Amazon until she burst out from the dog pile and sent a number of them flying. Another jumped on her back but was flipped off over her head before she could do anything besides pull Wonder Woman's dark locks.
"Ragh! Ragh! Ragh! Ha! Rah!" Firing her starbolts, Starfire held back several dozen of the citizens. Each energy blast was low in power so as not to permanently injure anyone.
"Stay away, please!" the alien woman yelled as she created a large circle around her for space. "I do not wish to harm you!"
"Starfire!" Green Arrow called. "Just get me to the island!"
Firing trick arrow after arrow, Green Arrow slowed a number of the approaching people down. With nothing able to completely stop them, the possessed civilians just kept marching towards the heroes. Knocking another gel impact arrow, one of the few he had left, he aimed it at the feet of the lead civilian and fired a moment before Starfire lifted him into the air.
Holding on, the green archer felt his feet skim the surface of the water as Starfire carried him by his bow. He kept his head on a swivel in time to see an approaching individual coming in from the left.
"Starfire, move!" His warning came too late as he saw the white shaded Blue Beetle fire one of his staples at the Tameran queen.
Letting out a surprised yell, Starfire fell from the few feet of sky she was flying in and hit the water hard, skipping for a few meters before coming to a rest and floating under water. Bursting up from the harbor, Green Arrow gasped for breath before searching the sky for the possessed black ops member. Seeing they were clear for the moment, he turned his attention to finding Starfire and noticed she had yet to surface.
"Star?! Starfire?!" Diving underwater, the League's archer attempted to locate his partner when he was lifted from the water by the Tameran and flown towards the island.
"I have got you," Starfire told him. "I will get you to the island to put an end to the Trigon's rule."
Flying even faster now, Starfire had her eyes charged incase Blue Beetle was to return. Below her, Green Arrow helped keep an eye out when he saw the armored teen approaching again.
"Starfire, flip me!" he ordered.
"What?"
"Flip me! Grab my feet!"
Doing as he ordered, Starfire tossed Green Arrow forward then caught him by the ankles. Grabbing his bow, the archer carefully aimed and fired an explosive tipped trick arrow at the incoming Beetle. His shot missed as Blue Beetle dodged and returned fire with one of his staples. Starfire took over from there and shot the blue prong down. As if challenging them, Beetle then fired two staples, each one shot down before they could reach the two while Green Arrow continued to return fire.
"Sorry to do this to you, kid."
Loading an EMP trick arrow, Green Arrow carefully aimed and waited until just the right time to fire once Blue Beetle drew close to twenty yards away, and formed scythes on each arm. Drawing his bow string back, Green Arrow was just about to let it go when Starfire banked hard to the right as a streak of red and black flew by.
"Who was that?"
"It was the Wonder Girl!" Starfire answered.
Having to now avoid two flyers, Starfire banked and faked as fast as she could while trying to maintain speed. Had it have just been her, she would be reaching speeds triple what she was doing. Add Green Arrow, a normal human, and she could not take the chance of breaking him in half with how she flew.
Flying behind and above the two, Wonder Girl streamlined her body to build up speed. Her earlier attempt to ram into them had failed, but now, she was in a much better position to launch an attack. Grabbing her lasso, the blonde demi-Amazon climbed just a little higher in the sky then flung the open end at Starfire. Snaring both her feet, Wonder Girl gave the Tameranian a hard yank backwards, causing her to drop Green Arrow.
Not being able to keep the archer safe, Starfire had lost control of her flight and was now in a spin. With Wonder Girl picking up speed, Starfire had no choice but to bear it as much as she could. What started as an Amazonian powered teen roping an orange skinned alien by the feet and spinning her around, now resembled a tornado above the water. One could barely make out Starfire's yell as she resembled a blur from the circular motion when she was let go of and shot back towards the mainland with Wonder Girl floating in midair with her lasso reeling in. She watched as the Tameran landed somewhere in the city with a large explosion erupting shortly after.
The moment after the sudden stop, Green Arrow was flying and falling through the air when he was caught by Blue Beetle. Rising a few feet, the armored teen stared into the archer's eyes and seemed to study him by tilting his head right and left.
"Ack, k, kid," Green Arrow strained to say as he also tried to breathe. "If there's any part of you in there-"
"Hail Trigon," Blue Beetle hissed.
"Guess not."
Rearing his hand back, Blue Beetle formed a fist with rounded studs pointing out in all directions. Green Arrow knew what would come next but could not defend himself as his bow was floating somewhere in the harbor and he could not reach for an arrow. He could reach for his boot knife, but it would do nothing to the armor covering the Hispanic teen hero.
Extending his fist, Blue Beetle sought to connect with Green Arrow's face when he was struck in the back by a bright light. Quickly turning. and feeling the sting through his armor, he saw a teen girl dressed in white and blue floating a short distance behind him.
"Dove," Green Arrow yelled, "get out of here!"
"Kid Flash said you might need help," Dove answered. "And that's what we're here for."
Clamping her hands together, Dove created a white light to encase them. A second later, she fired another white light, striking Blue Beetle in the side and forced him to lose altitude.
Tossing Green Arrow away, Blue Beetle formed his scythes again and growled as he charged forward. He was intent on keeping any and everyone away from the island where his master occupied and sought to bring down the woman in white.
(-)
Back on the rooftop where the young members of the Batclan fought, possessed Jump City civilians fell constantly to the trio taking them on. Plastic zip cuffs were used to, for lack of a better word, 'wrangle' the fallen up to make sure they did not get back up to rejoin the fight.
In the middle of it all, Vibe and Guardian were taking pot shots at the three. Vibe kept Red Robin off balance with his sound blasts, always waiting or him to be preoccupied with one or two civilians. The result was the elder Robin's knee throbbing from being forced to move in different directions suddenly.
Across the rooftop, the younger Robin was close to not holding anything back. For someone so young, he was highly skilled in combat and was using his size to his advantage by sliding through legs, leaping on shoulders, and flipping over heads to deliver knock out shots to the temples. Of course, the hits only stunned the people as they just would not stop attempting to bring the heroes down.
Dodging a right cross, Batgirl cartwheeled out of the way as Guardian sought to put her down. The enhancements to his suit enabled him to move faster, hit harder, and become more nimble than a man his size would normally be. It still was not enough to keep up with the black clad Batgirl as she performed a one handed flip over his head and landed behind him. A swift low kick knocked his feet out from under him and gave her time to slap on the zip cuffs she held. The way he snapped them apart a moment later was like paper mache keeping an elephant from stampeding.
Looking up at the standing possessed hero, Batgirl narrowed her eyes behind her mask, not that anyone could see her do so. With his red eyes settling upon the asian teen, he charged at her with a growl, hands extended and seeking to wrap around her throat. Timing her move perfectly, Batgirl backflipped off the building and fired a grapple line as she crossed her ankles around his beefy neck and drug him after her.
Her plan worked as the large man fell onto the fire escape and glanced up at her as she hung on the side of the building. Drawing another gadget, she aimed a gas powered gun at him and fired a rubberized net. Wrapping around him, Guardian fought to get free, but the special material it was made of stretched with his movements and snapped back to keep him down, although one arm remained free.
"We're waisting too much time here." Using his staff, Red Robin nailed a reverse hit on Vibe, knocking him off his feet. "We need to find Beast Boy and the others!"
"Then go!" Robin yelled. "We got this!"
With an eskirma stick in one hand, the small Robin struck the back of the knees from under a possessed citizen and performed an impressive spin move above him to tie his feet and hands together with a couple of zip cuffs.
"And leave you two alone?"
"You have a choice?"
Flipping back over the edge of the building, Batgirl took hold and threw a Bat-A-Rang in one fluid motion. The rope it was tied to wrapped around several of the citizen's legs, bringing them down.
Growling, Red Robin round house kicked another of the civilians before collapsing his staff and slipping it back into its pouch on his belt. "Don't make me regret this."
"I know, no lethal attacks," Robin said before he caught another civilian off balance. "Just go!"
Limp running, Red Robin headed for the end of the rooftop, leaving his partners to finish up with the horde and Vibe. Halfway to the drop off, he pressed a switch on his glove, making his cape go from a solid form, to resemble long strips connected by a thin membrane. Reaching behind his head, he unbuttoned a small pouch and brought up a black mask, covering his head and most of his face with only his mouth exposed.
"This better work."
Picking up speed, Red Robin grabbed the ends of his cape and leapt off the roof with his arms held out in front of his body. Falling to the street below, he activated a switch in his left glove between his thumb and index finger, sending an electrical current through his utility belt and into the fabric of the cape. Instantly, the material spread out and stiffened as he spread his arms out, catching the air beneath him, and sending him skyward.
Red Robin could now fly.