[18th July 2010]
[Happy Harbour, Rhode Island]
"Okay then...let's all rush into the large power plant without scouting or a plan, sounds a great idea. Yes it does. Yessire" I muttered, largely to myself it seemed, as my 'Team' dashed off to just that. Bloody idiots. I was surrounded by bloody idiots in my view.
Or at least the non-Robin part of said 'Team' as I could hear his 'scary laughter' faintly from inside as M'gann complained of him being just here he needed to work on that too, it just didn't have the 'terror of the night' factor yet in the laughing. Gods above but Rogue class characters and their tendency to just rush on ahead and screw things up for parties just bloody annoying all around. Even worse with a party like ours that had never worked together, and right now were all super eager to rush in and 'prove themselves' as individuals more than a group. Well I took up the rear for the moment with my slower stride; and reaching into my magic murder-bag to recover helpful things like my combat mask.
Placing it to my face I triggered the spell that I liked to think of as 'rushed combat equipping' and felt the basic combat gear seemingly flow over me like some black ooze and then solidify into place. The windows on the power plant's upper floor exploded outwards as I moved and I could hear the sounds of things being smashed on the inside as the others vanished from my sight and through the large roller door inside. More loud smashing sounded out, along with muffled shouting, just I neared the doorway and fastened my gun harness my chest and pulled one of the pistols free and into my hand. The other and my mind were pouring out power as best I could to handle this without any prep time.
Protection from Missiles. Stoneskin. Mage Armour. I managed to grind out before I strode into the building to find several of 'Team' getting off the ground as Robin faced down either a large robot or a man in a suit of power armour. Probably a man as Mister Villain was blowing on threateningly even as they all emerged into my line of sight.
"...prepared to be challenged by a superhero..." I placed by my pistol back into its holster. Normal bullets probably wouldn't dent a automata and I opted for a spell to test the waters before reaching for the more powerful ones I'd crafted "...I was not however expecting children..."
"ACID ARROW" I muttered in the modulated tone of the mask and finished the hand gesture in the direction of the machine man attacking the others. Out from my hand flew an bolt of sickly green, a vaguely arrow shaped bolt of course that sped through the air towards my still talking foe.
Just standing there and talking down to my teammates like he didn't have a care in the world right now. Robin seemed about to say something back judging from his body language...at least before he rolled to his side and looked back at me in shock as the green beam flew past him to smash into Mr. Villain. As did the others as I arrived. Really guys...rushing into battle wearing just you bloody civilian garb? What about concealing your secret bloody identities people?
Well Mr. Villain seemed to momentarily shut up as the bolt staggered him a moment and acid splashed over his shoulder and face with a sizzling sound. I resisted snarling as I saw powerful gusts of wind seemed to encircle the machine-man's body as his arms with the weird blue tubes coming out of them rose up protectively before the tornado engulfed him. Evidently blowing off the acid it seemed as a moment later the swirling winds cleared revealing only minor damage to his face as a hand point in my direction. I was already moving as...
"SHIELD!" blue energy enveloped my body just as the almost drill shaped pillar of wind slammed into me. Even with that defence and my bracing for the attack I found myself forced into a crouch and sliding back along the concrete by the force of the blow. Oh just fucking great a bloody robot airbender! Just what we needed to face on our 'team building' day...at least the attack ceased after a few moments and I found myself pushed back to knell on knee about a metre or two from where I was.
"We're not children!" Robin was shouting I saw as he moved slash rolled at an angle to Red Tornado wannabe and flung something things at the machine-man. Things that exploded one after the other...but caused little damage it seemed as the machine-man almost contemptuously flicked away the second of the throwing weapon explosives.
"Objectively you are. Don't you have adult supervision? I find that disturbing, as does the garb of..."
He's still speechifying at us that we're children? Fuck, that's convenient! Well just keep standing their yapping dude...
I thrust out my hand as I came out of the crouch and that hand became a flamethrower as I finished the silent mental chant. The almost solid bar of flame surged through the open space between me and Mr. Airbender Machine with a sizzling heat as I made sure that I didn't accidentally incinerate anything, or anyone, important in the process. I advanced slowly, concentrating my will and power to the task as the flames slammed home and flared up all around the enemy that had finally shut up. Taunting us of course...successfully judging by the faces of my so-called teammates; anger and concern filled me as I recognised the winds fighting off my flames at the other doorway...
"We need to fight as a united party here! Robin, M'gann, ranged support! Aqualad you've battle magic use it now! Superboy you're our front-line, hit'em hard after we do! And M'gann tell Kid Flash to attack from the other side now!" I roared out at them with as much authority as could muster with the mask's slight voice modulation. The lack of coordination was killing us right now and someone needed to take charge or one of us was going to get dead. Or worse lots of other people would when this lunatic went off somewhere else and play Evil Red Tornado!
A squeak from the green skilled girl "I thought I wasn't supposed to..."
"DO AS I COMMAND NOW!" I snapped back as my fires began to exhaust themselves and our enemy's winds exploded away from him to reveal only minor battle damage from my attack. I rolled away desperately as another powerful drill of condensed air flew through the spaced I'd been standing in just a moment before. After being startled a moment, an angry retort seemingly on the lips of one or two, this attack seemed to galvanise the others as I came out of the roll and started to chant my next spell. Well that and angry robot shouting from Red Tornado's evil twin.
"DO YOU HAVE NO RESPECT? YOU LITTLE BRATS ARE.GOING. TO. REGR..."
Robin was doing likewise on the other side of the room, albeit far more acrobatically than I was, and flung an explosive projectile or two in the direction of the enemy. Metal bars rose from the ground before me to fly forward under the command of Miss Martian I assumed as they thundered towards Mr. Still-Hadn't-Learned-His-Lesson-Yet who was shaking angry fist at us I assumed from the gesture. Unfortunately he managed to dodge the flying metal, though this thrown explosive from Robin managed to connect and damage his right arm as air whipped up all around us as the machine-man moved...
...before a flash slammed into him and sent him staggering forward to one knee. Our foe flung an arm back, winds whipping angrily around it, to where Kid Flash had attacked from...but had already disappeared from as the air-drill snarled through the empty space. For a moment our enemy was distracted from us, my hands already going through the gestures and mental chant as power, furious, raging power, followed through my body with eagerness as it emerged as arching streams of electricity as I got within striking distance of my foe. Something that Aqualad had also managed as bolts of...water-electricity?...smashed into our foe at the same time as my own to drive machine-man back almost into the air...
"SUPERBOY NOW!" I shouted as the dying embers of my lighting attack poured out of my fingers and into the damaged and angry sounding machine-man. Truth be told Aqualad's attacks were doing more visible damage as they tore away chucks of metal but I hoped my lightening had done to some severe internal damage to the software and circuitry beneath.
Like a black clad blur the roaring form of Superboy charged forward as my lightening and Aqualad's ceased; the machine-man managed to desperately catch the first punch...but Superboy merely grabbed the large metal arm and tear it off with an enraged cry...
'Holy shit he just tore his arm off!' part of my brain said to me as I watched the metal arm flew back behind me and the others...
...but there was no let up in the attack now even as Mr. Villain tried to push us all away with another gust of wind...a far weaker one than before sadly for him as we all stood our ground before it. Kid Flash dashed in to stagger the foe once again as Superboy continued to trade blows with the metal colossus. Aqualad was suddenly there wielding blades of water and magic that put paid to the left leg and damaged the other arm with the attacks.
The sound of breaking metal filled the air around us as our now crippled foe flew back through the air with violent force to slam against the concrete wall of the factory thanks to Superboy's last attack. Another explosive projectile followed into rapid order from Robin...alongside a metal spike that slammed into the machine-man's shoulder to pin him against the wall as we stood around him in a crude semi-circle. Aquadlad spoke for us as we all stood waiting for any further attacks from our foe.
"I suggest you consider surrender now or we shall have to continue our attacks"
A snap-hiss noise alongside the chest of the enemy opening followed in response as I, and the others, tensed up at the movement. Or at least till a man in a green popped...or rather fell...out of what was evidently power armour of some sort. Ohhh...I wanted this power armour for my own. Oh yes did. These thoughts almost distracted me from the whiny voice emerging from the occupant of the armour.
"Foul, I call foul..."
Or at least that's as far as he got before a metal spike buried itself in his head and slammed him back into the wall with enough force to fling up a curtain of dust around the body. I blinked...then blinked again in confusion behind the mask as Aqualad shouted out something like 'M'GANN NOOOOO!' or something such. I glanced back at the green skinned girl and then at the others as I found my voice.
"Umm...I was under the impression I wasn't allowed to summarily execute surrendering enemies. Batman was quite clear on that point in fact. Does that rule just apply to me for some reason?" because that'd be quite unfair in my opinion. It really would. Maybe I was in some really messed up DC verse...oh gods...that could be a problem now couldn't it?
Well at least Robin stepped up to answer that question for me as he gesticulated angrily at the Martian girl "I don't know how things are done on Mars but on Earth we don't execute our captives..." he motioned at me "...even the Team's token evil maybe-supervillain knows that!"
"I am not a supervillain" I replied to that insult. Though seemingly nobody seemed to listen as Miss Murderous Martian actually smiled at Robin and others glares and said that we should trust her or some such. Gods it was like being back in a past life and having to give clear instruction about not just killing surrendering enemies out of hand. After all you...usually...needed them alive to get the most relevant information out of them in the after battle interrogations!
Miss Martian waved her hand at the dust pile to reveal not a scene of blood splatter and gore like I'd expected but rather of an impaled metal android with a shattered head and exoskeleton "That's why! And that's why I couldn't even detect any mind in the battle like I couldn't with Red Tornado earlier! Not even those mental barriers John has up. Just nothing there at all with this villain! He was a machine all along!"
I blinked once again in surprise as the others seemed to nod in agreement with her after a few moments of reflection on her statement. Hmmmm. This represents a worrying set of personalities in a young superhero team with non-human creatures. I really had to ask about this "I realllllyyy would like to know why that makes it okay to just kill him out of hand?"
Confused glances at me just made me worry more about the Young Psychopaths I was on a team with. And I thought John was bad with his wanton destructiveness and possibly murderous arsonist tendencies "Yes he wasn't human...but he was clearly sentient. Are we saying it's okay to just randomly murder non-humans? Because like..."
I motioned at the pretty little killer "...Martian female..." a confused looking Superboy "...Kyrptonian Clone. And Red Tornado is a machine-man as well. I just want to clarify what's on this 'okay to kill' listing of sentients you all have going right now?"
Because that would make dealing with certain alien threats in this dimension so much easier. Like Apokalips for instance could be sorted with certain measures if that was the case. I glanced around at my teammates and waited for an answer that would hopefully make my future crime fighting career so much easier...
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