Chapter 4
Danger of the Dazzlings
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those who have read the previous chapter and noticed a slight inconsistency with Alvin's superhero name, I will explain. I accidentally forgot to replace Gnat with Hornet as I was finishing up the chapter. The mistake went unnoticed until I looked at the chapter on the site. Rest assured, though, Alvin's superhero name is indeed the Hornet. Hopefully this clears things up for those who might be confused. Anyways, on with the story!
One stormy night at a highly guarded prison in New York, various guards were on patrol making sure that none of the prisoners had escaped recently. One of the guards, Johnson, an anti-mutant male human with short, brown hair and green eyes was getting a bit nervous around Adagio, the leader of the Dazzlings. This was the fourth time that the villainous trio had been arrested thanks to the efforts of the C-Team. The prison came prepared this time, however, and had put inhibitor collars around their necks. These collars prevented any mutants from using their powers at all. As Johnson passed by her cell, Adagio couldn't help but let out a smug grin.
"Is there something you find amusing, sweetheart?" Johnson grumbled.
"I see many ways in which to escape this prison. Most of which have already been attempted by other prisoners," she said slyly with her arms folded. "But we don't need to use such inconvenient methods. Our rescue will be here shortly."
"Forget it, mutie! You and your sisters ain't going nowhere! This is a state-of-the-art hi-tech security prison. Ain't no way you three little delinquents are getting outta here!"
As soon as he finished speaking, however, various prison lights on the outside started to burst and explode from the lamps.
"What the hell's going on?"
Adagio threw back her head and laughed triumphantly.
"What do you think? Our rescue party has arrived," she said as lights continued to burst outside.
Some of the guards readied their guns and started shooting towards the sky at whatever it was that was taking out the lights. Suddenly, the electric fence was disabled by an incredible amount of magnetic power. Sonata woke up from her cell bed and smiled smugly.
"He's heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeee," she said.
"Can it, sweetheart. Or else!" Johnson threatened.
Just then, Adagio's cell wall broke loose and Johnson's gun started floating outside.
"Sargeant! Sargeant! It's him!" he shouted as he ran away from her cell.
As soon as he did, the cell door broke loose and destroyed more of the wall. Adagio coughed as the dust got in her face. As soon as it settled, she saw who it was that was attempting to break her and her sisters out. He wore a red-and-purple suit with a red helmet and a purple, flowing cape. The man's name was Magneto.
"I knew you'd come for us," Adagio grinned.
Using his magnetism powers, Magneto destroyed the inhibitor collar around her neck, allowing her to use her mutant powers again. Just then, one of the incoming guards pointed a gun in their direction.
"Freeze!" he ordered.
Adagio turned around and gazed into his eyes with a hypnotic stare. After a while, the guard was completely under her control.
"Relinquish your cell key," she said.
The guard did as he was told and handed her the key. She then used it to unlock the cells holding both Aria and Sonata. Magneto then destroyed their inhibitor collars, allowing them to use their powers again. After he did so, some more guards ran up to them and aimed their guns at them.
Aria noticed the lightning outside and smiled sinisterly.
"Perfect," she said.
She raised her right hand upwards and started producing electricity from it.
"My powers are amplified during thunderstorms such as this one. Now you'll face the full fury of Thundara!"
She slammed her hand on the ground, causing the lightning to travel towards the guards, which ended up shocking them. After taking care of them, Sonata saw that there was only one guard left.
"Freeze!" he ordered, pointing his gun at them.
"Whatever you say," said Sonata.
She then extended her right hand towards the guard and shot out streams of ice at him. The ice then froze the guard completely solid as if he were a human popsicle.
"Come. We must hurry!" said Magneto, pointing to Adagio's open cell wall.
"Come on, girls. Let's blow this pop stand!" said Adagio.
The three of them joined Magneto as he created a magnetic force field around the four of them. He then escaped the prison by using the force field to fly off into the sky.
"So, why exactly did you bust us out of that prison? Aside from us being mutants, that is," asked Aria.
"Quite simple," said Magneto. "We share a common enemy."
"The C-Team," growled Adagio.
"Correct. I personally want to see their leader, the Green Laser, fail in her attempts to follow Charles's dream."
"And you want us to help you simply because we can't stand them even more?" asked Aria.
"Precisely. And this time, there will be no failures. Not if they don't know where you are."
"You mean-? You're going to split us up?" asked Sonata.
The conversation continued even after they reached Magneto's hideout.
"Exactly. You've continuously fought the C-Team as an entire group and were always outnumbered six to three. But if the three of you were in separate locations at the same time, the C-Team would be too distracted by one person and not pay any attention to where the others were."
Hearing this made the Dazzlings grin sinisterly.
"Deal. Where do we start?" Adagio asked sinisterly.
The next day at the Daily Bugle, Eleanor stormed into Mr. Jameson's office, and she was not happy.
"Four times! FOUR TIMES!" she griped.
"What are you complaining about, Miller?" he asked.
"Mr. Jameson, this is the fourth time I've had to report on the Dazzlings' escape from prison!"
"So what? Those three have caused more headaches in this town than anything Spider-Man could have done! And it's our job as a reliable media source to inform the public about this little excursion at the prison where they're keeping that deranged scientist."
Furious, Eleanor stormed out of the office and went straight to the water cooler. She poured herself a cup of water and took a sip from it.
"Stuck reporting on the Dazzlings again, sis?" asked Jeanette, who was wearing pink reporter clothes.
"What do you think, Jeanette? Every time they break out of prison, it always has to be me covering the story!"
"Look, I get that you're upset, but complaining about it isn't going to solve anything. Everyone around here knows how Jameson is. The moment he sees a potential story, he wants us to get coverage of it as soon as possible."
"I know. It's just that… Every time I hear that those three escaped, I just want to…"
Eleanor then crushed her paper cup in her hand and threw it onto the floor in frustration.
"Come on, let's get this story covered before Egotistical Eddie decides to do it himself," she said, dragging Jeanette by her right arm.
Sometime later at the prison, Jeanette was interviewing one the guards while Eleanor took notes on a notepad.
"So, exactly how did they escape?" asked Jeanette.
"It was the strangest thing," the guard replied. "First, all the lights went kablooey. Then there was that mutant freak, Magneto, who just burst into one of the cells and helped them break out of here."
"Magneto! I should've known he'd be involved in this!" thought Eleanor.
"Well, you heard it here first, folks. It would appear that Magneto, one of the most dangerous mutant criminals, is on the loose again. And he's apparently aided in the recent escape of three other dangerous mutants, the Dazzlings," Jeanette said as she was reporting. "The big question is: What is it that they are planning to do? For J3 Communications, I'm Jeanette Miller."
As Jeanette was reporting, Sonata, who was now wearing a dark, magenta-colored suit with a symbol of three icicles on the chest, along with bright magenta-colored boots, blasted the television that she was watching with her ice powers at Magneto's base.
"Damn those filthy rodents!" she cursed as the television broke from being frozen. "Every time I see them, I just want to freeze their sorry little asses!"
"So do I, Sonata," said Aria, who was now wearing a light-green suit with a symbol of two intersecting lightning bolts on the chest, along with silver-colored boots. "But instead of freezing them, I'd rather see them get electrocuted."
"We all want revenge on them," said Adagio, who was now wearing a dark purple suit with a symbol of an orange gem on it, along with lavender-colored boots. "But like Magneto said, if we take them on all together, we'd just end up behind bars again. We need to be more strategic this time."
"Precisely," said Magneto as he looked at his control computer.
"So, how is it that you plan on disorienting them, aside from splitting the three of us up?" asked Aria.
"Quite simple. Have the three of you each target a location where humans are most likely to be in danger."
He flipped through various locations until he came across a chemical plant, an electric plant and a cryogenics factory all owned by a company known as OsCorp.
"So, OsCorp, is it?" asked Adagio.
"Precisely."
The Dazzlings grinned ear to ear and laughed sinisterly at the plan.
"This is perfect. At long last we can get back at those who wronged us before we met the C-Team. I still remember it. We were the top three junior scientists at OsCorp working with our father, Harold Daniels. I was the one responsible for perfecting the prototype chemicals for the company. And did I ever get any thanks? NO! I was overshadowed by the founder's daughter, Tia, commonly known as Twilight Sparkle. Aria was the head junior scientist at the electric plant, while Sonata took care of things over at the cryogenics factory. And yet, we got overshadowed by the Osborns themselves! Norman, his son, Harry, and his daughter, Twilight! Those fools will pay! Let's go, girls!"
And with that, the three of them were off to each of the plants to cause chaos.
First, there was the cryogenics plant. Plenty of people were working there that day. Everyone was going about their daily duties until they felt something shake the factory. Suddenly, a blast of electricity blew a hole through the roof. Sonata then jumped down and started freezing some of the workers.
"They don't call me Ledus for nothing," she smirked.
She then set her sights on some of the equipment. She blasted one of them with her ice powers, causing the machine to explode and instantly freeze the workers that were nearby.
Next was the chemical plant. Inside said plant was a girl with light, purple skin and dark, purple eyes. She had darkish, blue-colored hair tied in a ponytail with purple and magenta-colored hair streaks. She was wearing black, angled glasses on her face, a grayish-blue shirt under a white lab coat, purple gloves, light blue socks with a star pattern, and navy-blue shoes. Her name was Tia Osborn, often referred to by others as Twilight Sparkle.
Adagio entered the plant without much trouble thanks to her hypnotic abilities. She noticed that Twilight was hard at work and barking orders to some of the workers.
"Laurie, I told you to get that formula perfected by yesterday!" she barked.
Laurie was a woman in her early 20's with short, brown hair and dark brown eyes.
"There was a slight miscalculation, Ms. Osborn," said Laurie.
"I DON'T WANT YOUR EXCUSES! MY FATHER NEEDS THAT FORMULA BEFORE WORD OF THIS GETS OUT TO THE PUBLIC!"
"Yes, ma'am. You heard her, people! Work faster!"
"Jesus, what I have to work with on the weekends."
She then looked up at what appeared to be a large vat that was filled with chemicals.
"At least the prototype chemicals are still as good as ever."
"Oh, Twily, if only you knew the hell I had to go through to get those things right," Adagio snarled quietly.
She then used her mental powers to make one of the valves on the pressure gauge turn. In doing so, she increased the pressure inside of the pipes, causing the factory's alarm to go off.
"Oh, shit! The pressure valve!" Twilight exclaimed.
She ran towards said valve, hoping to relieve the pressure in time. When she got there, however, it was too late. The pressure was already at its max on the meter.
"Pressure's unstable! EVERYBODY GET OUT! NOW!" she shouted.
The workers did as they were told and ran out of the factory just before the pressure valve could burst. Once it did, the chemicals inside the pipes blasted all over the lower level of the factory. Twilight thankfully managed to make it to the upper level before the pipes could burst.
"That was close," she gasped.
That wasn't the only catastrophe happening, though. At the OsCorp electric plant, Aria, using her Thundara persona, caused a bunch of conductors to short circuit with her lightning powers. The resulting explosions caused many of the workers to flee the factory for their lives.
"It feels so good to cause chaos again!" Aria laughed.
The Dazzlings' deeds did not go unnoticed, though. As soon as they started causing trouble, the Dazzlings' locations showed up on the C-Team's main computer. The signal was immediately transferred to Eleanor's communicator watch just as she received her part-time paycheck at the Daily Bugle.
"Crap! Not now!" she thought, covering her watch.
Thinking fast, she made up an excuse about needing to use the restroom in order to get out of Jameson's office. Thankfully for her, he bought it. Once out of his office, Eleanor ducked into the restroom and turned on her communicator watch. The screen on her watch then brought up the footage of the Dazzlings attacking the three OsCorp plants.
"What the hell? They're attacking OsCorp?"
Suddenly, she saw video footage of Twilight spraying water on the lower level in order to wash away the dangerous residue from the chemicals.
"Oh, no! Twilight! This is bad! If the Dazzlings get to her first, she could get into serious trouble!"
She then switched her communicator watch over to contact mode and the other members of the C-Team became visible.
"You'd better have a good reason for calling us, Eleanor!" snarled Brittany. "I was just getting my hair done!"
"Brittany! This is more important than getting your hair done! It's a Code Emerald!"
"Code Emerald?! Uh, Eleanor, listen, I'm just about finished with my hair, so I'll meet up with you guys when I can."
"You and your dumb beauty salon appointments! Look, just meet up with Alvin at the OsCorp chemical plant when you get finished, all right?"
"Sure thing."
And with that, Brittany switched off her communicator.
"As for the rest of you, listen closely. The Dazzlings are at again. This time, they've gotten smart and have split up their attack patterns. Alvin, you take on Dazzle at the OsCorp chemical plant."
"Roger," said Alvin.
"Simon, Jeanette, you guys go after Ledus at the cryogenics factory."
"Understood," said Jeanette.
"We'll take care of her," said Simon.
"Theodore, you and I are going after Thundara at the electric plant. Your speed will be perfect in outrunning her lightning bolts," said Eleanor.
"O-O-O-O-Okay," stammered Theodore.
"Don't worry. I'll cover you if I need to. Now, let's make all the bad go away!"
Eleanor switched off her communicator and ran outside the building. She then ducked behind a tree and unzipped her shoulder bag. She took out her Green Laser outfit and put it on. After putting her mask on, she flew off towards the OsCorp electric plant.
As she was flying, she was soon met with Spider-Man, who happened to be swinging next to her.
"Spidey, what are you doing?" she asked.
"Guess you could say I was just in the neighborhood," he responded.
"You're worried about Harry, aren't you?"
"Well, of course. He is my friend, after all."
"All right, fine. But tell me this, which factory are you going to?"
"The cryogenics lab. Harry's helping his dad out with some of the projects out there."
"I see."
She switched on her communicator and contacted Batmunk and the Vanishing Genuis.
"Batmunk, V.G., you guys are going to have some extra help in taking out Ledus."
"Let me guess, Spidey's with you," Vanishing Genius sighed.
"Look, he's worried about Harry, all right? Is that so wrong? And besides, you guys know how ditzy Ledus is."
"Oh, yeah. Having one extra will surely confuse her."
"Exactly. I'm almost at the electric plant. Keep me updated on how things are going."
"Roger."
"Green Laser out."
She switched off her communicator and the two superheroes went their separate ways.
Back at the chemical plant, Twilight was both tied and gagged by Adagio, or Dazzle, as she preferred when in costume.
"Well, well, Twilight. Remember me?" asked Dazzle. "Your old friend, Dazzle? Not that it matters, really. For you see, I have special plans for you."
She then took her over to a vat that was filled with purple chemicals.
"You see those chemicals? They're quite dangerous, you know. Oh! I'm sorry. I forgot that already knew that. Hahahaha! Silly me. But I bet what you didn't know was that I was the one who perfected them in the first place! Three years of experimentation with those things just to get them right! Three years of research with my father! With me! Adrianna Daniels! Me and my sisters, Aria and Serena worked our asses off at the places we were stationed at! And yet we never got any of the credit! None. All of that hard work and you three egotistical jerkwads took all of the credit for it! We never even got as much as any sort of recognition for our contributions! And now, I'm going to show you exactly how we felt the moment you betrayed us!"
Just before Dazzle could do anything, however, she felt a blast of bioenergy hit her in the left eye. Looking around, she immediately saw the Hornet right in front of her face.
"Hornet! I should've known you'd come to save your friend."
She then attempted to swat at him as he buzzed around her. Every time she tried to hit him, though, she missed. He was just too fast for her. It didn't last long, though. He was eventually outmatched when she clapped her hands together, ultimately stopping him. The impact of which sent him crashing to the ground. She bent down and picked him up by his suit's right wing.
"Not so tough, now. Are you, Seville?" she chuckled.
"PUT MY BOYFRIEND DOWN!" a voice suddenly called out.
It was Brittany in her alter ego as Solarbeam. Startled by her demanding voice, Dazzle let go of the Hornet's wing just before the superheroine could punch her clear across the walkway. The impact of the punch sent the villain flying into a pile of wooden crates. Solarbeam gently picked up the Hornet into her hands.
"Are you okay, hon?" she asked as she fixed the wing that Dazzle nearly broke.
"I am now, babe," he said, looking at her through his helmet.
"Thank heavens. Let's just hope the others are having an easier time taking on her sisters."
Meanwhile, at the cryogenics plant, Batmunk, the Vanishing Genius and Spider-Man were having a really hard time battling Ledus.
"How is she even that fast?" Spider-Man asked himself before she attempted to blast him with her ice powers.
Thankfully, he dodged the blast just in time before it could hit him.
"Do you dorks really think you can beat me?" she asked.
As she was talking, she failed to notice that Vanishing Genius had managed to turn herself invisible. As the conversation continued, Ledus was eventually interrupted by a sneaky punch to the jaw. Vanishing Genius reappeared so that Ledus could see who it was that beat her.
"Damn you and your invisibility trick," she snarled.
After she had been beaten, Vanishing Genius placed an inhibitor collar around her neck.
"Where the hell did you get this?"
"We keep a couple of them just in case Green Laser goes berserk," Vanishing Genius replied. "It's only happened once, and I'm hoping we don't have to use one on her again."
"You may have won the battle, but the war is just beginning," laughed Ledus.
"That's enough out of you! Spidey, leave her for the police, will you? They'll be going to a place that's just perfect for lunatics like her."
"Y-Y-Y-You don't mean-?"
"Ravencroft Institute, Daniels!"
Ledus gulped. Ravencroft was the last place that she and her sisters wanted to be imprisoned at. It was a state-of-the-art maximum-security prison for insane criminals. Vanishing Genius was just handing Ledus over to Spider-Man when her communicator watch started beeping. She answered it and the Green Laser appeared on the other line.
"V.G., how are things going with you?" she asked.
"We just apprehended Ledus. Spider-Man's about to leave her for the police to be taken over to Ravencroft. What about you guys?"
"We had a little bit of trouble, but we managed to stop Thundara."
"I'll have Spidey come by to pick her up, as well. Heard anything about Dazzle, yet?"
"Not yet. I just hope that they can beat her. She's the toughest of them all."
Back at the chemical plant, Solarbeam was working as fast as she could to untie the ropes around Twilight. She eventually managed to get her arms free, allowing Twilight to rip off the piece of tape that was gagging her.
"Thanks for that, guys," she said, gasping for air.
"No problem. Now, let's get you out of here," said Solarbeam.
Before they could do anything, however, Dazzle emerged from the crates, ready for another round.
"I don't think so, rodents!" she snarled.
She then used her mind powers to attack Twilight's mind. The pain that was being caused by Dazzle's abilities eventually led her to trip over the railing. Just before she could fall into the vat of chemicals, however, Solarbeam grabbed her right hand. Twilight looked over her shoulder and saw the chemicals inside the vat bubble as she dangled above them.
"I can't hold on forever, Twilight!" said Solarbeam. "Give me your other hand!"
Twilight extended her left hand towards Solarbeam's but struggled to reach it.
"Hurry! She's coming right towards us!" she said to Twilight as Dazzle moved closer towards them.
"I'm trying!" strained Twilight.
Just before Dazzle could get any closer to them, she got blasted in her left eye by the Hornet.
"Damnit! Why won't you stay down?!" she snarled.
"That's because hornets aren't that easy to get rid of," he retorted.
While he was distracting her, Solarbeam continued to struggle pulling Twilight back up. She eventually lost her grip on Twilight's hand, causing her to fall straight into the vat of purple chemicals below.
"TWILIGHT! NOOOOO!" she screamed.
"Well, well. I guess you're not as reliable as you make yourselves out to be," Dazzle mocked.
"You… monster!" Solarbeam snarled.
As if by instinct, Solarbeam began powering up and slowly moved towards Dazzle.
"Hey, uh, w-w-w-w-w-w-w-we can talk about this," Dazzle said nervously.
Solarbeam clenched her right fist tightly and delivered a punch so hard that it knocked her opponent out cold. She breathed heavily as the Hornet returned to his normal size right next to her.
"You okay, Brittany?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine," she answered.
Just then, his communicator watch went off. He pressed a button on his helmet, allowing it to open so his face could be visible. He then answered his communicator and saw the Green Laser on the other line.
"This is Hornet."
"How are things with you guys? Do you need assistance?" the Green Laser asked.
"No. We just finished up. Dazzle's been knocked out cold. Unfortunately, we were unable to save Twilight from falling into the chemicals."
"I see. We'll be right over with assistance for the police to pick her up. Stay right where you are. Green Laser out."
And with that, she terminated her line and ended the conversation.
Sometime later, the Dazzlings were dangling from a pole thanks to Spider-Man's web while wearing inhibitor collars.
"Looks like the C-Team did it again," one of the officers said. "And with Spider-Man's help, no less."
Once the Dazzlings were inside the police van, the driver immediately took off for Ravencroft, as ordered by his superior.
"I sincerely hope that those three will stay locked up this time," said Batmunk.
"We can only hope," sighed the Green Laser. "And I'm hoping that Twilight somehow managed to survive those deadly chemicals."
Little did she realize that that was exactly what happened. As the Dazzlings were on their way towards Ravencroft, a dark purple figure fell out of a tube that connected the vats to a nearby lake close to the chemical factory. Twilight emerged from the lake's polluted water and made her way towards the shore. She had swallowed a good bit of those chemicals when she fell in, which caused her to cough and gag as she struggled to regain her balance. She tumbled and started to look at her reflection in the lake.
"Oh, God! It burns!" she said, referring to the chemicals that she swallowed.
"I'm so itchy. What's happ-?"
Twilight froze as she looked at her reflection in the lake. Her skin was now a darker purple, her sclera was a spooky light blue, and dark purple wings had formed on her back. In place of her glasses was a light blue colored mask over her eyes and emitting from her forehead was a similar-colored unicorn-like horn. It took her a moment to realize that the person in the reflection was her. Once she realized what had happened to her, Twilight finally cracked.
"Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee! Hahahahaha! Haha! Hahaha! HAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Twilight continued laughing through the night. The chemicals had made her go insane. She was no longer the rational person that she once was. All those years of being tormented for being a mutant like Sunset and Eleanor had finally caught up to her. All she needed was a catalyst to allow her vent up anger to finally get released. The C-Team didn't know it, then, but they just had a brand-new adversary. One who would prove to be their most dangerous of all.
TO BE CONTINUED…