A/N: Behold, another chapter of The Chimera! And now, the reviews:
Death Fury: I'm glad you think so. Personally, I think Spurn was my weakest chapter so far due to issues with the chapter's plot, one of them being Black Canary's scene.
Triple Js: Your comment about the Black Canary scene pretty much sums up part of the reason why I feel like Spurn was the weakest chapter so far. I'm not sure about a beta, but I might consider delaying chapters if I deem them poor quality.
Shadey Hoe: He will do so. In fact, that's what this chapter is about.
Shogun lord poke burst: Yes. I'm addressing that in this chapter. I honestly feel that there's a sort of rule that all Omnitrix SIs must address Necrofriggan pregnancy at some point, y'know?
Gotham City Sewers
August 27th, 2010 04:49 EDT
I stifle a yawn as I walk through the Gotham City sewers with Aqualad, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Robin and Superboy. Even if I'm not gonna land in the water, my uniform is going to need an intense wash and I'm going to have to take a steaming hot shower.
I muse on the mission assignment that led to this mess.
Mount Justice
August 26th, 2010 21:08 EDT
So, there I was, in the Cave's mission room lounging about, fiddling with my infinity cube after talking with Kid Flash, when all of a sudden, the telecommunications screen came on.
"Attention, Team" Batman appears on the screen with Robin in one of his many Bat-vehicles, and both are covered in some sort of mud. Batman takes one look at me before returning to address the Team, "And Chimera." Okay, that hurt. Just because I'm on break doesn't mean I'm off the Team, Mr. I-Work-Alone. "Take a Zeta Tube to Gotham City and rendezvous with Robin at these coordinates."
"What is the mission?" Aqualad asks, trying to get as much information as possible. Given the mudlike substance on their bodies, I'm guessing that we're dealing with the debut of (a) Clayface.
"Shouldn't we wait for Artemis?" Kid Flash replies with concern. Awwww, he's in relative denial. Now if only they would just realize their feelings for each other are love. For the love of Tom Baker, even I can tell they're in love and I've never dated!
"Don't wait. There's a creature loose in my city." Batman sternly orders. Creature? Wow, speciesist much?
"If it's your city, then why are we hunting it?" Superboy asks, aware of the League intercity rules determining when Leaguers can interfere in other cities on a whim. Notably, Batman's one of a small minority stating that other heroes usually have to be invited for crime fighting.
"You are not to hunt it or engage it. Track it until I return with the solution." Batman replies sternly.
"Uhhh, Bats?" I raise my hand. "I know I'm on break, but can I join?" Previously, I would sneak on a mission if I felt like I could contribute, but after one time where I accidentally committed arson while attacking one of the Snowflame Cartel's labs, the phrase 'It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission' no longer applies to me whenever I'm acting as the Chimera regardless if it's Team buisness or not.
Batman sighs. "I know I'm going to get complaints from the Lanterns and Canary for doing so, but yes, you are allowed to join. However, your break is extended for as long as this mission takes to complete."
"Understood." With permission granted, I change into my Chimera uniform in the locker room before I head back into the Mission room, activating stealth tech as I do so. We all nod at each other before we all walk in the Zeta Tube.
Gotham City Sewers
August 27th, 2010 04:49 EDT
Before I can process anything, I feel myself pinned against a wall. Looking around, I see a blob of clay shooting out many arms, aiming one each for one of the Team. I hold the Omnitrix out, yell "Omnitrix, Berzeliusan Transformation!" and I turn into CheMystery before blasting out nitrogen from my arm to freeze Clayface's arm.
I then yell "Omnitrix, Segmentasapien Transformation!", transforming into Construct before I turn my two arms into Bloxx lobbers and firing blocks at Clayface's frozen arm, turning it into chunks of ice. Given the fact that everybody else also timed their attacks at the same time as mine, Clayface screams in pain before running away.
"That was unpleasant. Like tangling with a rabid Ma'alefa'ak on Mars." Miss Martian sighs. Given that I have no idea what the fuck a Ma'alefa'ak is outside of a shapeshifting animal from the comment, I express myself hidden worry at how Miss Martian knows what a rabid Ma'alefala'ak is like given what she told me about her troublesome home life.
"Unpleasant, sure...but kinda easy," as soon as Kid Flash says those words, my instincts flare up and I turn around to see Clayface about to do a sneak attack. I retaliate by firing exploding bits of me from my Bloxx-lobbers.
Clayface screams in pain before he retreats, and I growl at Kid Flash "First rule of life: Do not tempt fate!"
Kid Flash motions his hands in a pushing motion. "Okay, okay! I get it!" He replies with a shaking voice.
A few seconds later, Aqualad pushes a finger to his ear. "Yes, Batman. Though the encounter was far from successful." A pause. Ignoring Kid's complaints about a lack of awareness regarding Artemis's whereabouts, Aqualad responds. "The creature ambushed us and Chimera used CheMystery to freeze a portion of the being before using Construct to break off the frozen mass. The creature fled after Chimera managed to counter his sneak attack."
Aqualad puts his finger down from his ear. After that, I detransform upon making sure we're safe and we all head our way to the Bioship, where most of us changed into our spare, outdated costumes.
"Man, I need a shower...I mean, what's the point of putting on a clean costume-when I'm not fresh?" Wally asks.
"Oh, Wally. You're always fresh." M'gann tries to comfort Wally, unaware of how she accidentally flirted with him.
"At least you have a clean costume." Connor grumbles, disappointed at the fact that nobody has made any backups for him. Hmmm, that's something that I should remedy.
"Yeah, an old backup! No stealth-mode! It stinks!" Wally complains.
"Beggars can't be choosers, Wally." I point out.
Dick steers the conversation away from Wally complaining with "What about the creature? Batman wanted us to track it."
"Why settle for that?" Wally speaks up. "Okay, sure, it got the drop on us. But now we know its tricks!"
"Yeah! We split up! Then whoever finds old Clayface radios the team…" Dick trails leadingly.
"We converge and kick some clay-butt!" Connor finishes.
"Zeke, Kaldur, what do you think?" M'gann asks, deferring to our leadership skills.
"What? Oh, yes. It seems we have a plan." Kaldur states, somewhat distracted. I blink before going "Yeah, a bad one. If we split off, then it's easy pickings for us. Which is why I'm taking over due to doubts over Aqualad's strategy."
Everybody grumbles, knowing that it's true. I take back control from the frustrated gremlins with "So, here's what we're going to do. Aqualad and I will blast Clayface with electricity while everybody else will try to contain him. Any objections?"
Seeing that nobody's objecting, I reply "Good. Now, let's get this show on the road. Miss Martian, pilot the bioship to where Clayface is going to be."
During the flight to Clayface, Robin raises his hand. "Hey, Zeke? How are you sure that electricity will work on Clayface?"
I respond as blunt as possible, given the fact that Clayface is a new threat in this universe. "I'm not. It's just that electricity is a useful way to stun someone, and given what little ideas we have about his nature, it could work. Besides, I'm planning on using Brainstorm. A combination of neuroelectricity combined with magically summoned electricity should be more than enough to stun him."
Robin looks at me like he's trying to figure me out. Is he a bit suspicious of me and my metaknowledge? Best to try to keep him guessing and making him draw wrong conclusions until I'm comfortable sharing my origins.
Eventually, we arrived at a warehouse. Looking around, I see nothing out of the ordinary. Seeing that there's nothing else, I shout out "Yoohoo! We're out in the open! Come and get us!"
A guttral voice shouts out "With pleasure!" And we see Clayface just slither in to face us. I waste no time and dial in Brainstorm, while Aqualad summons some water and makes his tattoos glow. A wave of water flows onto Clayface, and both Aqualad and I blast Clayface with high voltage electricity. Clayface screams in agony, and he just collapses. After checking to make sure that he's done for, I detransform.
A few minutes later, Batman flies in, having fallen through a skylight and starts to aim his taser before processing the fact that we managed to defeat Clayface. "Report. Now." he commands.
I step up, being the current leader, even if it's temporary. "After your call, the Team decided to go ahead and track Clayface by splitting up and radioing when one of the Team found him, despite common sense dictating it stupid. Aqualad agreed with the course of action, but I did not, and I temporarily took command due to my concerns over Aqualad's leadership. Upon doing so, I formulated a plan that would quickly incapacitate our opponent. It succeeded, as you can see."
"Yes, I can see that. I want everybody to report to the Cave ASAP." Batman practically growls. "We will discuss more there."
"Yes, sir!" I do a salute, and I motion for the Team to head to the Bioship and fly back to the Cave. As I walk with the rest of the Team, I hear "Chimera, wait. I need to discuss your strategies with you."
I turn around and say "Of course." before telling the Team "I'll catch up with you. Or Zeta to the Cave. It depends on whether or not I'm feeling socialable right now."
"Alright. Guess we'll see you later." Wally states before speeding off.
"Hopefully we'll talk more." Connor smiles before flying away with M'gann in his arms.
"Don't keep us waiting." And with that, Dick throws down a smokebomb and just vanishes, with only giggles to indicate his fleeing presence.
Batman takes one look at me and switches from his 'I'm the leader of the Justice League and as such, your boss' voice to his 'Tell me everything you know about this, Ezekial Arakelian' voice. To the untrained ear, they are the exact same, but if you look at Bats' expressions, you'll see he's a lot kinder through his eyes. "Data report. Now." And by kinder, I of course mean he becomes as intimidating as a 'very concerned strategist' instead of a 'strict leader'.
I point at the inert clay pile. "Clayface, real name varies depending on who's been horribly mutated, but Matthew Hagan's the most frequent one followed by Basil Karlo. Usually, they're actors who got deep into super shady chemical skincare products to continue their acting careers that eventually mutated them into… Well, Clayface. Their primary power is shapeshifting and since they're actors first and foremost they usually go with sneak attacks instead of brute force. I would recommend searching to see what exactly happened. Electrical charges, explosives and nonlethal chemical weaponry could be used to fight him, and airtight containers should be used for a prison."
Batman looks at the clay like I look at my math tests: blankly. "Hmmmm, I did research the possibility of electrical charges and explosives, but why nonlethal chemical weapons?"
"To mix stuff in him. He's nowhere near baseline human physiology, sir. Just a living clay pile with some human functions."
"I see. And investigating his background?" Batman questions.
"He's literally the most inconsistently backstoried rogue of yours, not counting the Joker who never had a consistent backstory in the first place beyond 'dived/thrown into a pit of chemicals' and will most likely never officially have one. The description I gave was literally the barebones basics of what the general public expects from Clayface, not Matt Hagan or Basil Karlo."
"I will investigate Clayface's civilian identity further. You are dismissed." To cement the point, Batman pulls out his grappling hook and aims it upwards without looking, zooming out of the room. I say the only thing that comes to mind when dealing with the Batfam for months in person.
"Showoff." I scoff.
Once I said that, I walk towards the Zeta Tube, eager to change into clean clothes and shower in hot water.
Mount Justice
August 27th, 2010 07:58 EDT
The Zeta Tube whirs, announcing the arrival of the rest of the Team and Batman speaks up. "I need to speak to Aqualad. The rest of you, hit the showers and head home."
We then grab a fresh change of clothes, walk to the lockers and put all of our costumes into the dirty clothes pile. We then grab our towels, walk into the main shower room, and walk into individual shower cubicles before we turn on the water and start talking.
"Argh, why does Kaldur get to stay behind and talk to Batman?!" Dick screams in frustration.
"Because Batman wanted to talk to him about his screwups regarding Clayface. I don't get why you're jealous over Kaldur recieving a scolding." I point out.
"It's because we should know why he's getting scolded." Dick smugly points out. Does he not know how relationships work?
"Frankly, it's obvious. He led the Team poorly, forcing me to pick up the slack despite me not being allowed to do so." I point out, and Dick deflates.
"Huh, I didn't realize that." Dick admits.
"Yeah, you still have much to learn about being a leader." Wally points out.
Dick sighs. "That's true, I guess." Glad to see he's learning that he doesn't know everything.
Now that Dick's calm, we shower in relative peace before I decide to part ways with everybody. I turn off the water, dry myself off, put on some underwear and then I change into a spare set of my civilian clothes in the locker room. After that, I grab my cell phone from my locker, walk into the Mission Room's Zeta Tubes and I punch in the codes for Coast City.
Coast City, Oregon
August 27th, 2010 05:30 PDT
Looking around, I see that the sun hasn't yet shined upon this glorious town of ours. Feeling that I could do with a coffee of all things right now, I decide to walk to a nearby Sundollar that I know is open 24 hours a day and I walk up to it.
I wait in line and after ordering, I decide to strike up a conversation with a stunning tall Latino woman with long brunette hair in a green beanie, flannel jacket, and blue dress shirt. What's concerning is the scar that's surrounding her left eye.
"Oh, hello there." I begin. "What's a young woman like you doing in a Sta-Sundollar at this hour?"
"Nightmares." She grumbles, half-tired. "You?"
I decided to go with half-truths. The best lies are truthful, after all. "Work kept me up later than I expected. It's not unexpected, I occasionally go for a day without any sleep and you won't believe just how much it fucks up my sleep schedule."
"Sounds like a shit workplace." Oh, how wrong you are, random lady.
"Actually, it's a very nice workplace if you ignore the crazy hours. There's a free therapist, free room and board, and a great gym." I point out.
My conversor stares at me with wide eyes. "What do you do? Cause I can't think of a lot of places that have that sorta stuff."
I think of a suitable description that's both truthful and misleading before it hits me. "I work for a government organization that's dedicated to dealing with supervillains through people with unique skill sets such as myself."
She looks at me curiously. "Must be one powerful organization if they can do something like that and keep going without issue."
"Oh, they are. The fact that they're using teens as operatives is something that's oddly accepted." I respond before I put on a look that says 'Don't worry about it.'
My conversor gets the hint and backs up. I continue the conversation with "But enough about me, tell me about you." Upon seeing her tense up, I placate her with "Just whatever's enough that you feel comfortable sharing,..."
"Jessica. Jessica Cruz." Internally, I sigh. What is it with me acting as a superhero magnet? First Batman knocks me out then takes me to the Batcave, then I'm a partner of all three Green Lanterns, then the Team declares that I'm the second in command and now I meet a potential Green Lantern.
"You okay there, Mr.… ?" Jessica asks me.
"Ezekial Arakelian. Zeke for short. And to answer your question, I'm fine. Just thinking about life and stuff."
"You must have a crazy life, Zeke." Jessica deadpans. Understatement of the 21st Century here. Much like '2020 wasn't great' back home.
"You have no idea." I reply in an equally deadpan tone.
"So, getting back on topic, I'm an avid outdoors enthusiast. Love hiking, fishing, and all that jazz. Or well, I loved it, until those bastards happened." Up until the last bit Jessica replies in a peaceful tone. When she reaches the last sentence, a truly dark fury erupts from her, making me shudder. I can see a Red Lantern ring in Jessica's future before a Green one.
Shortly after that, Jessica goes into what I presume is a nervous breakdown, which I stop by placing my hand on her shoulder. After a while, she calms down and blinks, looking at me. "Sorry about that."
"There's nothing to be sorry about. I'm occasionally prone to mental breakdowns as well." I reply sincerly.
Before we can discuss things further, I hear Jessica's name being called from the counter. "That's my order, so I gotta get going."
"What's the rush?" I ask.
Jessica clicks her tongue. "My family doesn't know I snuck out, and they'll panic if they wake up and find out."
Something crosses my mind. While I consider walking home with her, that doesn't sound like the right thing to say so I ask her "Isn't it unsafe to walk home alone at this time?"
Jessica reaches into her pocket and grabs a metal pole that turns into a baton. "I stand corrected." Jessica collapses her baton and puts it in her pocket as I grab my phone and hold it out to Jessica. "Do you want to exchange phone numbers so we can keep in touch together?"
"Yeah. Sure. It was nice talking to you. You sorta get me in a way nobody else does." And with a flourish, Jessica produces her phone and I give her my civilian phone number before Jessica gives me her number before she grabs her order and walks away into the early morning.
I hear my name being called and I grab my order before walking home. Once home, I drink my half-caffinated coffee (more like forcing it down my throat as I never really admired the taste of coffee) before I brush my teeth, having not done so in over 24 hours.
After doing so, I crack open my copy of the Oregon Driver's Manual, and I grab some pen and paper to write down some notes for my upcoming written driver's test. Contrary to the Team's frequently held belief, I can't drive whatsoever for a variety of reasons, all of summing up to 'I wasn't motivated'.
Once I'm done with all the tiring note taking, I decide to head to my bookshelf and grab my copy of Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and I read through it until I fall asleep.
Casa De Ezekial
August 27th 2010, 16:24 PDT
I stretch my arms, yawning as I do so. Looking at the Omnitrix in it's disguised form, I find out it's been nearly ten hours since I fell asleep. Checking my phone I see some texts from an unknown number.
(541) xxx-xxxx: Hey, Zeke you there? It's Jessica from the Sundollar.
(541) xxx-xxxx: Zeke? Are you there?
(541) xxx-xxxx: dammit zeke
I added the phone number as 'Jessica Cruz' before replying.
Me: I'm here. I was just asleep until now.
Jessica Cruz: And you said your sleep schedule wasn't shit.
Me: I never said that. I said that my workplace wasn't shit. I never denied my sleep schedule wasn't shit.
Me: Anyway, what's on your mind?
Jessica Cruz: Nothing much. I got yelled at for sneaking out before getting teased for meeting a boy and exchanging numbers with him.
Me: Must have been exhausting.
Jessica Cruz: Oh, it was. They were concerned about you overworking and mentioned that they would've called your folks if they knew their number.
Jessica Cruz: They want to meet them, btw.
Me: That's a shame. We've been… separated from each other for a few months now. At this point, they probably think I'm missing, if not outright dead.
The traditional three dots implying somebody's writing a message appears on the screen for a few seconds before a new text pops up. While those dots do so, I think of a more 'mundane' explanation of my past.
Jessica Cruz: OMG, why?
Me: Circumstances out of my control resulted in me being forced to cut off all contact with people I knew and unable to reestablish contact with them. Combined with the fact that I'm living under a fake name and being very far away from my home, it feels like I'm in witness protection.
I wince at the falsehoods in my text. Lying by omission will cause a lot of problems if Jessica finds out I'm The Chimera, whether it be me revealing it to her or it being accidental.
Jessica Cruz: Are you?
Me: Even if I am, I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you.
Jessica: Understandable. Still, how are you living?
Me: By myself. Don't worry, I'm emancipated so I won't receive any undue calls from Child Protective Services.
Out of the blue, the phrase 'Child Protective Services' reminds me of Frostmite potentially getting pregnant just like Big Chill did with Ben and the other Omnitrix wielders. I sigh. This is gonna be awkward to explain, won't it? "Omnitrix, how long until the next Necrofriggian pregnancy cycle?"
The Omnitrix responds with "Approximately 17 Earth days."
Upon hearing that I'm going to be pregnant in less than three weeks, I do what any reasonable person would do under the situation: Yell "FUCK!" at the top of my lungs.
Once I calm down, I check the calendar and I respond with "Are you 100% positive that my Necrofriggian sample will become pregnant within three Earth weeks?"
"Affirmative." I breathe in and out, deep breaths. Off all the things to fuck up my PR, I did not expect a pregnancy to do so.
I decide to make a note of it before responding back to my texts, only to see Jessica say her goodbyes and I write my goodbyes to her. I then open up the secure group chat dedicated to people in the know about me (Basically the League Founders, John Stewart, Black Canary and M'gann M'orzz) and I compose a message.
In The Know
Me: ...There's no easy way to say this, but Frostmite is getting pregnant in 17 days.
Batman: You will be benched for the week and any available Team members will be assigned to handle the situation if there is evidence of you losing control of Frostmite.
Me: Thank you.
Flash: what
Me: Frostmite. Is. Getting. Pregnant. In. 17. Days.
Green Lantern Alpha: *sighs* What do we need to do?
Me: Get as much scrap metal as possible and keep property damage to a minimum. Necrofriggians are quite the hormonal parents, and will go on rampages eating anything metal in sight for their nests.
Superman: Don't you mean 'mothers'?
Me: Necrofriggians are sexless.
Flash: Seriously, is nobody else freaked out about this?!
Miss Martian: I am!
Flash: ...Why is Miss Martian in this group chat?
Me: She was literally the third person outside of the League founders to be invited here because she read my mind during her stay at my home and dug too deep, reaching my memories of the first meeting between the League's founders and me before bringing it up in discussion. How did you not notice?
Flash: I don't really check this group chat often.
Batman: We willbe having words about ignoring critical information, Flash.
Green Lantern Beta: Back on topic, what'll happen to the kids?
Me: They'll fly to their home planet-which doesn't exist in this universe, mind you- after eating their nest.
Green Lantern Beta: Can you give me a description of their home planet so I can guide them to a nearly identical one?
Me: Here.
Chimera has attached
Flash: Do you have PDFs of all of your aliens?
Me: Nope! I just used the Omnitrix to convert it's data about Kylmyys into a pdf and sent it to my phone.
Green Lantern Beta: Thank you, Guy and I will get right to work locating a suitable planet.
Me: And telling the Guardians about my pregnancy making a new species, won't you?
Green Lantern Beta: That too.
Me: Right, I'm gonna head out now. Ciao.
I take a look at the goodbyes before putting my phone away. When did my life get so weird?
I shake my head, telling myself that it got weird since I woke up in a forest a few months ago with nothing but my pyjamas and the Omnitrix. I still have those pyjamas framed (after cleaning them, of course), as a memorial to my old life.
Once I finish my texts, I put my phone away, ready to make myself lunch. A delicious Monte Cristo sandwich is all I'll need to process this info.
Snowflame Cartel Police Raid at Englehart & Bates
August 27th, 2010, 21:30 EDT
After eating my Monte Cristo, I get an interesting phone call on my burner SIM from Detective Nicholas Gage. Apparently the CCPD has gotten permission to launch a raid on the center base of the Snowflame Cartel's main distribution center in Coast City, and Snowflame himself is going to be there to deal with me, which is why the police asked for my assistance through Gage.
I accepted the offer, of course. Who wouldn't want to go head to head with a cocaine powered superhuman drug dealer?
Flash forward to now. I'm in a spare Chimera uniform standing right next to Detective Gage and in front of CCPD's best and most trustworthy SWAT teams, several other normal police officers, a few medics and a few CSIs.
The plan was simple: The SWAT teams and I head in, and arrest whoever is in the building. If they try to kill the SWAT officers or me, then lethal force is authorized (much to my annoyance as my protests against attempted murder against me being enough to qualify for lethal force was dismissed). After I fight off Snowflame, the rest of the police will arrest everybody still alive (There's no way fatalities are going to disappear completely with my presence) and the CSIs will go over the scene with Detective Gage to leave no stone unturned.
"NOW!" Gage shouts, and SWAT enters the warehouse followed by myself as Shockhenge.
Entering the warehouse, I see lots of chemistry equipment being defended by a bunch of criminals and a hispanic plantinum blonde man in a red plaid business suit with white markings around his eyes standing on a catwalk. Snowflame.
"Who dares disturb the worship of our almighty god?!" Snowflame yells. Oh right, I forgot that Snowflame is a ham who actively worships cocaine.
"The CCPD and The Chimera!" I yell back.
"So the mighty Chimera decides to demean himself by working with the police to prevent the rightful worship of cocaine as deemed under the first amendent of the Constitution? I THINK NOT! OPEN FIRE!" All of a sudden, the Snowflame Cartel opens fire only for SWAT to retaliate and Snowflame himself inhales a bunch of cocaine before jumping onto the ground.
With a manic gleam in his eyes, Snowflame runs up to me and tries to punch me, only to fail as I put up an electrified forcefield, shocking him enough that he takes a step back. "You dare defy your natural fate? Bow down to me and I shall make your death swift."
"What makes you think you're all powerful?" I snark back. "I've dealt with Marine Maurauder's invasion, Tiger Shark's zoo stampede, the rampages of Major Disaster and Speed Demon, assassins from the League of Shadows, and members of the Justice League. Face it, I'm out of your weight class."
This does nothing more than to tick off Snowflame. "You're dismissing me?! I AM SNOWFLAME! Every cell of my body burns with white-hot ecstasy. Cocaine is my God- and I am the human instrument of its will!" Snowflame angrily and meaninglessly boasts.
I nod. "Cool, cool. Just because you're cocaine's instrument doesn't mean anything. Case in point-" I use Shockhenge's Atmokinesis to generate a fog cover, then I use Shockhenge's Electrokinesis to generate a few balls of electricity which I 'detonate', causing a blue flash of light and Snowflame to stagger as he's been hit by a strong charge of electricity. "-you should pay better attention to your surroundings."
After recovering, Snowflame generates two white flames and sneers. "Fool. I've been holding back my divine gifts in the faint hopes that you'll see reason, but I digress. You're worthy enough to face me at my full pow-" I enlarge my fists and punch him, making sure to add an electric charge upon impact.
"Will-" I punch Snowflame. "You-" I punched him again. "Stop-" Once more, I punch Snowflame. "PUNCH-" At this point, take a wild guess what happens. "ME?!" I land the last punch and I smirk. "Sure, since you got so pissed off at me for doing so." I wrap Snowflame in an electrical field and I start smacking him into things using my electrotelekinesis.
Eventually, Snowflame falls on his knees from my repeated one-sided beatdown, if we're being honest. Detective Gage walks up to me and puts Snowflame in an inhibitor collar before cuffing him and turning to me and asking if I could wake him up. I do so, and Detective Gage turns to Snowflame. "Stefan Nevada aka Snowflame. You've built quite a rep for yourself. By the way, you're under arrest for running a cartel, distribution of drugs, possession of firearms without licenses, attempted murder, first degree murder, second degree murder, money laundering and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. You have the right to remain silent…"
And with Gage reading Snowflame his Miranda Rights, one of CCPD's SWAT walks up to me and tells me "Thank you. Your presence here saved lives."
I hit the Omnitrix Symbol and detransform before I shake the SWAT officer's hand. "You're welcome, officer. Just remember, I'm always a call away if you need my help."
Once I finish getting thanked for my efforts in The Fall Of The Snowflame Cartel (as the news will surely call it), I walk away. After a few minutes walk, I get a call on my cell phone through the burner SIM card. Checking the number, I see that it's Artemis calling. Now why would she call me at 1 AM EDT?
I pick up the phone. "Hey there."
"Oh, hey Zeke. Whatcha doin'?" Artemis asks.
"Nothing much outside of walking and talking to you. Speaking of which, what's with the call? I highly doubt you'll call me at 1 AM EDT for no reason at all."
"It's got something to do with my civilian life." That's concerning. Must be something if she's stressed out like that.
"Go on…" I trail leadingly, trying to get her to open up, knowing that her secretiveness will probably be the death of her.
Artemis speaks rapidly, clearly stressed. "A few hours ago, I got a letter from Wayne Enterprises, saying I've won their scholarship despite the fact I never applied in the first place. After calling Gotham Academy-who said it was legit, by the way- I'm here calling you because I have no idea how I got it."
I think of the best way to explain the situation without hinting Bruce Wayne is Batman. "So you're calling me because I'm the only one at your recruitment that you can contact reliably?"
"Actually, it's because when I called Green Arrow, all he said was 'Batman works in mysterious ways'." Artemis confirms.
Hmmmm, if nothing else I can tell a misleading version of the truth. "Well, as far as I can tell, Bruce Wayne owes Batman a lot of favors for saving his life many, many times and Batman cashed in one of them to get your scholarship."
I can practically hear the wheels in Artemis's head turn. "Huh. That makes… a worryingly large amount of sense. Thanks, Zeke."
"It's no problem." Artemis hangs up and I decide to walk to my changing spot to go from The Chimera to Ezekial Arakelian.
A few minutes later, I appear in my civvies and I head home. I have a bit of a busy day tomorrow (what with standing in line for the DMV for my written driver's test), so I'm gonna need to head to sleep early. Well, early for me.
Coast City DMV
August 28th, 2010 07:50 PDT
….And I forgot that the DMV is closed on weekends. I really should've checked the times online.
I sigh. Complaining about my situation wouldn't really help me, but venting will. If only something interesting were to happen that being the Chimera would-No, stop that. I need to be Ezekial Arakelian for a bit.
Knowing that sulking won't get me anywhere, I open up my to-do list. Hmmmm, what's next (Since I can't take my written DMV test anymore)?
I take a look and I see grocery shopping as my second item. Huh, isn't the grocer a bit of a walk away from both here and a short bus ride away from my home?
I open my phone and check the map. Yup, it sure is.
Toole & Sons Grocers
August 28th, 2010 08:10 PDT
"Everyone down on the ground NOW! Or else somebody's gonna get shot!"
Sounds like a scary hostage situation, right? Nope. It's the Condiment King and he's threatening to shoot people with pressurized condiments. I take a look at where he is from the canned goods aisle, grab a can of chopped pineapple, and I throw it as hard and fast as I can to Condiment King's face, the only part of him not covered in that stupid pickle/cucumber helmet and I see Condiment King looking at me. He glares at me and shoots ketchup and mustard.
Given who I am, I walk up to him and I knock him out with one punch. I get applauded, and I do a little bow before I dial the cops and report the incident. Shortly thereafter, the Police arrive, cuff Condiment King and take statements from everybody.
After that, I headed up to the cashier. She takes one look at me and says "It's on the house."
"Don't be ridiculous. You need the money, and this isn't a restaurant." To support my point, I put down a few dollars covering the cost of my groceries (including the can I threw) and I push it towards the cashier.
"But sir-" She wimpers.
"But nothing. You are working a job in one of the most stress inducing environments-retail-and you're practically working minimum wage. The least you could do is accept me paying for my groceries." I cross my arms and glare at her.
The cashier sighs, and she gives me my change. I walk out, and I head to my house to put the groceries in my fridge and pantry.
Casa De Ezekial
August 28th, 2010 12:16 PDT
After finishing all of my chores, I decide to crack open a copy of Stephen King's Firestarter to pass the time with. It's a book I've been meaning to read for a while, long before I even ended up in this universe.
Just as I start to open up the book, I get a phone call from Detective Gage. I pick up the phone and answer it with "Detective! What can I do for you?"
I hear Gage grunt a bit. "The higher ups and I are in agreement to tell you this. We're transferring Snowflame to a federal holding facility today, and I'm calling to inform you about it. While we might not need your help, we're letting you know about the route and time just in case the Snowflame Cartel decides to retaliate."
I nod in agreement. "Wise choice. I'll be there in the transport."
"What? Can't you drive a motorcycle?" Gage asks, flabbergasted.
"I don't own one, but I'm working on it." I respond. Which is semitruthful, as I first need to get a motorcycle and a helmet for one, then somewhere safe and secure to store it.
"Well, arrive at the precinct at 3:30 PM today. We'll make sure to get a spot in the prisoner transport just for you." Gage informs me.
"Thank you, Detective Gage. I'll be there right on time." I hang up the call, set up an alarm for 2:30 PM, and I open up Firestarter.
CCPD Downtown Precinct
August 28th, 2010 15:15 PDT
I walk into the police department dressed in my Chimera uniform and I walk up to the front desk, flashing a 'I'm-a-superhero' smile. "Hello there, I'm looking for Nicholas Gage?"
The secretary doesn't even look up to me and disinterestedly states "He's busy."
"Oh, I know. Just tell him that The Chimera is here, will you? He invited me over to help with today's prisoner transport, y'know." I reply in a semi-interested tone.
And with those magic words, the secretary stops what she's doing, goes from disinterested to very interesting and looks up to me. I hear "Oh, shit" underneath her breath before she calls somebody and tells them "Detective Gage, your 3:30 is here" before hanging up. "He'll be down to meet you in a few minutes, sir."
"Of that, I have no doubt." I smirk and I walk to one of the seats.
A few minutes later, Detective Gage walks in and I wave to him. "Ah, Chimera. How are you?"
"As well as you can expect. We're nailing a fucking cartel leader and making sure the charges stick. How can I feel anything but job satisfaction?" I smirk.
"Understandable, but I have to ask something: Do you even get paid for being The Chimera?" Gage asks. Not sure why he immediately jumps to that so I'm just gonna fuck with him.
"No. Well, not directly at least." Translation: I get licensing funds from my merch and a stipend for being a member of the Team in an anonymous Cayman Islands bank account set up by Batman, of course. "Why do you ask?"
"A bet that I lost. How do you get paid indirectly?" Gage asks curiously.
"The bank account isn't under my civilian identity. So, are we going to do this?"
Gage shakes his head. "Yeah, we are. We just need to wait for a bit. The FBI, ARGUS, DEA, and a few other alphabet soups" Alphabet soups being slang for 'Federal Agency' here, "are keeping a close eye on this, and they want to make sure that this goes as smoothly as possible to avoid another Great Juridistriction Fuckup."
"Ah." I sigh, remembering the Great Juridistriction Fuckup (officially known as the Superhero/Supervillain law reforms of '98 to '02) from my 'catch-up lessons'.
Long story short, after the first 'modern' supervillain was arrested, people started asking questions about how to deal with it as the laws for imprisoning supervillains were revealed to be outdated after the JSA disbanded. Lots of politics over Supervillains later, 'Supervillian' was established as a legal term. To qualify, you had to commit several crimes with superpowers (i.e a good chunk of supervillians), bleeding-edge science (The Rogues Weaponry, Sivana), very specialized training (i.e Deadshot, Shiva) or any combination of the above. Disappointingly, Joker counts only as a criminally insane criminal somehow despite his Joker Toxin among other things.
Since Snowflame was a cocaine fueled superhuman (metahuman's not yet created) son of a bitch leading one of the largest drug cartels this coast of the US, normal law enforcement want to flip him while superhuman law enforcement want to throw him away in Belle Reve. If this goes wrong, then the case could be revisited, potentially leading to Snowflame's freedom, potentially leading to lots of future vigilantes losing faith in the justice system and as such becoming the very definition of 'He who fights monsters…'.
I silently curse the randomly omnipotent bastard who sent me here. If I wanted to deal with superhero politics, I'd be in Wildbow's Worm, not one of many DC Universes.
After I finish cursing, I hype myself up. This is it, the dawn of a new day. No more cartels to spread their drugs in this- no, my- city.
En route to a federal holding facility
August 28th, 2010 15:46 EDT
Sitting in the federal transport right next to Snowflame was a bit taxing, given the fact that the man kept ranting about how his 'fellow worshippers' would free him so he could continue his 'holy mission'. If I had no modicum of self-control, then I'd be arrested for 'superhero brutality', but I have experience with more annoying personalities when I was in summer school. It's a long story.
All of a sudden, the federal transport flips and we hear gunfire coming out. "Finally! The day of judgement is nigh! You will be punished for your sins!" I hear Snowflame claim.
"Oh, shut it you wannabe high end supervillain. You're dealt with, and we're going to finish the job." With that off my chest, I dial in Solarion and I walk out of the flipped transport.
I use my Superhearing and Supervision to assess the situation. 16 men with guns, probably AK-47s, definitely rapid-fire machine guns assaulting the transport. 12 wounded on our side, two deceased. One RPG, not yet fired, in the hands of the Snowflame cartel remnants.
Without another second wasted, I fire off invisible bolts of heat vision at the hands of the cartel remnants. Not enough to injure, but enough to get them to drop their weapons. A mildly difficult trick to master, but a useful one. The key was to make sure that you concentrate less energy into it, something that Connor never thought of when he practiced with it.
Dammit, focus! After that, I supersped, knocking out the cartel remnants with flicks of my fingers on their foreheads.
"Seriously, what part of 'I'm out of your weight class' did the cartel not get?" I grumble as I flip the van to its wheels before detransforming and sitting back down. Why is it that challenging fights only happen twice a week, give or take?
Eventually, we reach the federal holding facility, where Snowflame is thrown into his cell. Good riddance to a cruel sadsack of a man.
Once I say my goodbyes, I transform into Solarion again and I fly to my training spot. Once I land, I switch into Frostmite. With it being my newest alien, I need to have more practice with it.
First things first, I practice with how fast I freeze things. So far, I can freeze something in a sheet of ice in five seconds, but that's if I unleash my freezing breath in an unconcentrated stream. Now, what would happen if I were to concentrate it?
I focus my freeze breath, aim it at a tree, and I fire it. In two seconds, it's completely frozen. Hmmm, has potential but not useful for capture outside of those who can handle losing an arm.
Next up, we have icicle breath. I focus my breath into a few 'bullets', and I fire. Instead of forming icicles in mid-air, I get a few patches of frozen land. I wonder why, and then it hits me. Frostmite- and by extension, all Necrofriggians- have freeze breath. They can't freeze gases because there's nothing to touch, whereas solids and liquids freeze because freeze breath hits a point of impact.
I grumble over my oversight, and I wonder if I can create ice spears via touch. I experiment a bit, and it turns out I can. I throw the crude spear, and it shatters upon impact. Eh, at least it works. I just need to refine the idea a bit more into something more practical.
Next, I try combining the intangibility with cyrokinesis to make sure that anything I phase through becomes frozen. A bit of experimentation later, and I think I got it. Testing it out, I see that it works. Huh. Best to reserve that to people who either need to be put down or robots.
I think of what else I can practice before I hear the familiar beep beep beep of detransformation, so I touch the ground and I land gently before I detransform. Great, now I have to wait five minutes before I can head home.
Casa De Ezekial
August 28th, 2010 17:42 EDT
After the whole day, I decide to do one last thing before I call it quits. I open up my presumably bugged Wanyetech laptop (an unfortunate but necessary condition of my living arrangement) and I wait for it to load before I open up the internet browser. Seeing the familiar Google search page, I google 'John Constantine' only to get a load of unrelated nonsense. I then add 'Mucous Membrane' to the search, and I get a Wiki article about him.
I do a cursory glance at it, and holy shit does John Constantine have a fucked up history. I knew some of it, but the universe seems to kick him while he's down.
According to the wiki article, Constantine was born May 10th, 1973 to a mom who died giving birth to him and a soon to be abusive alcoholic father, ran away in the 1980s after his dad suddenly became permanently frail for 'no reason', eventually rooming with Francis Chandler. In the mid 1980s, he joined up in occult circles and formed a punk band named Mucous Membrane that dissolved after the Newcastle incident.
Details of said incident are scarce and classified to the general public, and all that's known is that Astra Louge disappeared during it, half of Mucous Membrane died with most other people in the club, and the surviors (Constantine and Chandler) are on and off patients at Ravenscar Psychiatric Hospital.
Seeing that all the article has after that is association with Zatara that dissolved after Snidella (Zatara's wife) died in the late 90s, supposed ties to 'The Swamp Thing' cryptid, a few public appearances here and there, and is now a freelance global practitioner of petty magic, I decide to stop reading.
I then open up the League/Team records on a very secure client and I check to see what they have to say about him. After skimming the file and comparing the two, the only differences I note is that Constantine's part of the 'Laughing Magician' bloodline (magicians who specialize in synchronicity and outwitting and tricking powerful magical beings), that his dad's condition was caused by a magic curse, Snidella's death was caused by a magical ritual to banish something instead of a car crash (said car crash being faked to cover the death), The Swamp Thing being real (with a link attached to the appropriate database file), a few warings about associating with him (one about friendship with him usually ending up tragedy and another about Zatara's hatred towards him) and contact information for Constantine.
I grab my phone and I start dialing Constantine to call him with the Burner SIM. Then I remember that Constantine might be in a time zone very far from me, so I decide to call him another day to deal with him. Having a magical user that isn't Zatara, a skilled manipulator, isn't afraid of fighting dirty and has a known connection to Swamp Thing is a massive advantage to the League.
But contacting Constantine is a thing I think would be best done tomorrow. You'll never know if a magician decides to teleport to your home and attack if you piss them off.
I then open up my folder full of blueprints and I open up my file for invisible camera drones before I grab my laptop and I head to my shack in the backyard before turning into Brainstorm to work on it all throughout the night.
Mount Justice
September 3rd, 2010 17:42 EDT
Recognized, Chimera B-0-4
With that, I walk out of the Zeta Tube and into the mission room uniformed to see the Team (sans Aqualad) presumably waiting for a mission from Batman.
After a chaotic week, I'm glad things are back to normal. Well, as normal as they can be for an Omnitrix wielder. Not only did I get Constantine to offer his services whenever I needed shelp, I also managed to get him to give me Abby Holland's number in case I needed to contact Swamp Thing for reasons related to the Green. Training with Frostmite is going swimmingly, Snowflame's cartel is permanently gone with the resulting power vacuum being dealt with harshly, and let's not forget that my mandatory civilian life building break has been over for a few days now.
Meanwhile, my civilian life is also looking up. I passed my written driving exams with flying colors, and I'm striking up a beautiful friendship with Jessica which will come in handy when (not if, when) she becomes Green Lantern. Cash is pretty good as well, and I got some more patents down.
I walk up to the Team and I greet them. After that, I ask them how their week was and I get told that nothing extraordinary happened to Robin, Kid Flash got grounded from being Kid Flash for two days, Superboy and Miss Martian spent some time doing nothing and Artemis spent some time at home working with trick arrows.
Recognized, Aqualad, B-0-2
We turn to the Zeta Tube and see Aqualad walk up to Batman. "Made your decision?" Batman asks in lieu of a greeting.
"The decision is made. I am here. One hundred percent." Aqualad replies.
As we walk up to Batman, he responds "Just in time for your next mission." With that, Batman pulls up a map of Bialya with a hollow red circle pinging at a certain point. "The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan Desert. Spectral analysis reveals elements non-terrestial in origin with no conclusive matches. Find out what happened at that site and what landed there."
Batman changes the map into an image of Bialya's ruler. "Biayla is a rogue state ruled by Queen Bee and not a member of the League's UN charter. All communications are subject to interception. Maintain radio silence at all times. Assume everyone outside of the Team is hostile unless proven otherwise."
Queen Bee, huh? Wonder if I can get a scan of-No, wait, that's Zazzala. This is the one that Earth-27 took inspiration from for the looks and the whole 'being Biyala's dictator' bit.
Batman changes the image of Queen Bee to a map of what I presume is the Quarac-Biayla border, which looks similar to the Iraq-Iran border back home. Something to look into, I guess. "You will land in Quarac, two klicks away from the hot zone. If it is at all possible for you to do so, extract the object that caused the power surge and steal whatever knowledge the Biaylans have on it. I cannot stress how dangerous it could be if somebody as unscrupulous as Queen Bee weaponized whatever caused the surge. Am I clear?"
I nod my head in an agreeing way. "Crystal, sir."
The projections disappear and Batman waves his hand. "You are dismissed."
And with that, we walk down to the hangar to new adventures with a reunited team in places unknown.