Thoughts
Computer Speech
"Speech"
Disclaimer: DC and the Dragonball Franchise belong to their respective owners; I own nothing.
Chapter 35: Nightfall II: Panic
December 19th
Age 762 (2012), Metropolis, Daily Planet Rooftop
Superman's eyes narrowed as he glared at the purple starfish that was latched onto Jimmy Olsen's face. The teenager's heartbeat and other vitals appeared to be normal, save for monstrosity that was feeding off his energy. As one of Superman's closest confidant's, Jimmy's life had been put in danger more times than Clark could count. But this situation was different, much different. Something was literally controlling Jimmy's actions and movements.
"I don't know who you are or what you want, but you will let Jimmy go!" Superman stated the words with authority, hovering closer to the edge of the rooftop where Jimmy stood.
"Go? What an ironic use of words." A sick and twisted smile spread across Jimmy's lips before the redhead suddenly jumped off the ledge.
Clark didn't even have time to scold himself for his poor choice of words before dashing off to rescue his friend. In the blink of an eye, Jimmy was in his grasp being pulled to safety. But as the man of steel was floating back to the rooftop he failed to notice something creeping up his cape.
"I told you that it was inevitable Superman."
Clark's eyes expanded in horror as he saw a starfish wrap around his neck. He dropped Jimmy to the ground and tried to pull the invader off his skin, but it was far too late. Before the man of steel could grasp the starfish with both hands, it latched onto his face.
December 19th
Age 762 (2012), Gotham
Batman's muscles seemingly moved with a mind of their own as he ducked, dodged and evaded blows from multiple assailants. For the past five minutes, the caped crusader had been in the fight of his life. Dozens of Gotham's citizens had flooded the streets with the sole purpose of attacking him. It was obvious that the starfishes attached to each of their faces were causing them to work in unison. They were essentially stripped of their free will, which made it harder for Batman to fight them.
With a normal thug or villain Batman wouldn't hesitate to dispense brutal punishment to incapacitate them. But this crowd of attackers was filled with innocent civilians, some of them even being children. A punch or kick too hard could seriously injure them. With that in mind, Batman had been pragmatic, choosing to stay on the defensive instead. Unfortunately, that came with a great deal of personal risk to his health.
After evading yet another failed tackle, Bruce hopped onto the roof of a nearby car hoping to get a better vantage point of his terrain. His teeth grit as he saw more and more citizens stampeding into the streets. All the knockout gas he had used had been for naught. How had the city been taken over so quickly from right under his nose? But that was a question for another time. This was a losing battle and he had to escape.
Pressing the bat symbol on his belt buckle he signaled for the Batplane to come and get him. The estimated time of arrival was two minutes away though, which meant he would have to hold out till then. Arming himself with two batarangs, he prepared for the worst. The new crowd that had flooded the streets only moments earlier surrounded him from all angles. The odds were not in his favor but Bruce was never one to back down from a challenge.
"Bring it on."
December 19th
Age 762 (2012), Washington, Argus headquarters
The alarms in the laboratory blared loudly as Chichi and Steve Trevor crouched behind a toppled desk. Their breathing was frantic as they shared a panicked glance. As the commander of Argus Steve was supposed to remain cool, calm, and collected under any circumstance, but what he had just witnessed disturbed him greatly. The test subject that had been under his secretary's watchful eye had broken free. Before everything had gone to hell, Victoria October had warned Steve of the starfishes parasitic nature.
It was one thing to be warned, but completely different to witness it firsthand. When the starfish had first broken containment Steve hadn't thought much of it. Sure, it was parasitic but there was only one of it. That logic was quickly disproven however as the starfish reproduced at an alarming rate managing to fill the entire lab. All the scientists who had been examining the starfish were quickly subdued and brainwashed.
The protective glasses and metals that were supposed to shield the lab from the rest of the facility were quickly brought down by the scientists inside. Though the starfish bonded and took control of its hosts minds it appeared that a person's memories and knowledge stayed intact. Once the protective walls had collapsed, things had become a free for all. The remaining Argus agents had been taken down swiftly.
Victoria October had screamed ferally as she was drug and forced to accept a starfish. Steve had tried to save her but had been thrown off course as multiple of his forces had swarmed him. If not for Chichi and her fast thinking he would have been taken down. She flooded the room with Ki blasts, enough to knock them out, but not to seriously injure them. Unfortunately, they hadn't stayed down for the count. In what felt like seconds, they were back on their feet threatening to do harm once more.
Hiding behind a toppled desk they waited and watched as their mind controlled friends circled the room attempting to find them. They were in a tight situation. Once shutdown protocol's had been enabled nothing could escape this floor of the Argus facility. The only reason the scientists had even been able to escape the lower lab was because of the access codes they knew, but escaping the whole floor and reaching the other levels would be nearly impossible.
"Steve!" Chichi's voice jolted the colonel from his thoughts. "I know what I'm about to say might sound harsh but it's our only option at this point."
From the look in her eyes, Steve didn't even need to hear her finish her sentence. "No, we're not taking that route."
Cold eyes stared back at his as a scowl formed on his girlfriend's face. "Killing them isn't something I want to do either but it's the only choice available to us. Even if we somehow escape from the lower levels of Argus, what's to say that they won't follow?"
Steve sighed deeply as he rubbed his temples. Chichi was always the yin to his yang. Most times it worked out perfectly and helped to balance one another out, but sometimes it put them in contention with one another. Chichi always operated under the big picture and wanted to save the most lives as quickly as possible, even if a few people had to die. Steve though, was more of a pacifist and tried his hardest to save every single life that he could.
"Those are our friends Chichi. How can we just give up on them like that?"
"Just like you and I, they knew what they were getting into when they enlisted in Argus." Though her words sounded callous Chichi struggled with the decision to go through with this herself. Steve's secretary, Victoria, was one of her closest friends. It would not be easy to pull that trigger if the time came.
"I understand where you're coming from but we will find another…..!"
Steve's words trailed indefinitely as a mind-controlled Argus agent towered behind Chichi. Without hesitation, he rose and tackled the man to the ground in one quick motion. Steve had him pinned down but the large thud as they hit the ground alerted the rest of the room's occupants to their location.
"Chichi you have to make a break for it!" Steve shouted as he struggled to keep the soldier pressed down. "One of us has to make it out of here and warn the rest of the facility."
"But Steve…."
"Just go!"
The rise in her boyfriend's decibels made it unequivocally clear that there would be no swaying him. As she stood up and turned to run, Steve tossed her his command key. It would grant her access to the most forbidden parts of Argus and possibly provide her with the tools to fight back against these parasites. Chichi would still have the challenge of escaping this floor's shutdown protocols, but if anyone could do it - it was her.
December 19th
Age 762 (2012), Keystone City
"Oh Vandal, come out and play!" Flash yelled as he sped through a seemingly abandoned warehouse, scanning every nook and cranny before reappearing at its entrance.
"Can you be quiet you fool? If he's still here you might have alerted him to our presence!" Aquaman growled through clenched teeth as he clutched his trident. He was quickly beginning to regret their alliance.
"Oh, sorry about that," Barry nervously chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. "The whole superhero thing is still pretty new to me." A lump formed in his throat as the king of the seas pointed his trident in speedster's direction.
"Subtlety is of the essence," Arthur warned before taking a step into the warehouse to properly evaluate it for himself.
Hours earlier one of his Atlantean sources had informed him Vandal Savage's possible location. After meeting up and agreeing to team up with the Flash, something he was slowly regretting, the duo had decided to verify that information together. But as Arthur surveyed the spacious, but empty warehouse, that information appeared to be false.
"Remind me again, who told you this info?" Barry asked as he took a second superspeed look around the warehouse. Still nothing.
"Are you doubting my sources?"
Barry's hands immediately rose to dissuade the notion, hearing the testy frustration behind the king's voice. "Of course not. I'm just wondering so I know who to thank later one once we do capture Vandal."
"Well if you must know, it was Tula. She's my sidekick of sorts."
"You have a sidekick?' Barry was genuinely surprised. Aquaman didn't seem like the type that played well with others.
"I can tell by your tone that you're shocked huh?" Aquaman chuckled to himself as he leaned against a wall.
"Well….yeah. You aren't exactly the nicest guy, well not to me at least." Their first encounter hadn't gone as smoothly as Barry would have hoped.
"It's not just you, it's all land dwellers that I find issue with." Aquaman quickly rebuffed.
Wow, that makes me feel soooo much better. Barry inwardly rolled his eyes.
"What your people have done and continue to do to my oceans is nothing short of abominable. I too am a land dweller, at least partially, but I'm reviled by your actions."
"Wait, hold on. Are you telling me that you're part human?" The Flash couldn't believe what he'd just heard. How was that possible?
"I am. My father was a land dweller like you. In fact, for most of my life, I didn't know that my mother was an Atlantean."
"Then how did you become their king then?"
"He became our king due to necessity, but he is no longer needed. Starro is our new king."
Immediately, Aquaman was on high alert at the sound of a new voice. It was distinctly feminine and sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place his finger on who it was. Tula!?
"Uh, does she know you?" A perturbed Barry asked as he glanced back and forth between Arthur and the mysterious woman. Why does she have a starfish on her face?
"Something isn't right," Arthur shook his head as he gripped his trident. Per his orders, Tula should have been in Atlantis by now. What was she doing here? And with that starfish on her face? "The words you have just spoken are treasonous! Who is Starro?"
Tula's lips stretched wide, all thirty-two of her teeth showing as she flashed an almost inhuman smile. "Starro is who you will serve when you join us."
A big thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 34!
A/N: Wow, it's been over a year but I'm back. Long time no see right? Lol. I know this chapter is shorter than my usual output, but I wanted to put out something after so long. I'm flirting with switching the chapters to 2-5K words, weekly, which would increase my chapter output significantly. I have a new poll on my profile though, so make sure you vote so I can hear your opinions on this story's chapter lengths.
I also have another question that I wanted to pose to my readers. How would you feel if I did a summarized version of the Namek saga? If you remember how I did quick little info drops on the Dragonball era portion of this story, it'll be the same for Namek. My reasoning for doing this would be to avoid unnecessary writing. Tbh, not much is going to change about the Namek saga so I don't really see a point in covering it totally. But tell me how you feel about this idea though.
