MAGNETIC SITUATION, PART 2.
Diamond District. 16:10
Diana and Shayera got out as fast as they could. Unfortunately, a cyclist passed through the base gate at the same time the two Rangers were exiting. His bike practically rose off the ground as it began chasing them.
Despite seeing that a bicycle was chasing them, the two of them kept running. They didn't think too much ofi t when it came to runnining, but when they realized they had reached a place full of bicycles, motorcycles, and outdoor food stands, it was too late.
Although bikes and heavier objects still did not stick to them, metal cutlery, some metal signs and coins that had fallen to the ground or were in people's pockets and bags were so fast that they were hit on various parts of the body. Even Diana got several coins stuck to her face.
The two Rangers continued, but had to stop. Upon reaching a street in the Diamond District, the magnetic field emanating from their bodies had reached greater proportions. They had to stop for a second to turn around, but that was long enough for a vending machine to crash into Shayera's back, knocking her to the ground.
"Shayera!" shouted Diana.
"Forget about me! Run!" Shayera yelled at her as she searched for her Morpho. In that short time, a bicycle had hit Diana's back.
"Sorry!" Diana said before running again, leaving her alone.
"No problem!" she managed to scream.
Seconds later, she managed to reach her Morpho, pressed the button, and transformed. Now, she was knocked out, but her suit would protect her from being crushed by the metal that kept crashing into her body.
As she continued to run with metals stuck to her body, and many more chasing her, she knew that she had to go somewhere outside the city where there were no metals.
"Just like Shayera said, I wish I had Barry's speed," Diana said aloud, believing that Barry must have escaped in time. He must not have metal objects behind him.
Despite what she believed, Barry was having a worse time than she and Shayera. Even though he was faster than them, he quickly went through the worst possible places. Those places were metal recycling centers, places where they sell propane tanks, and the place where beverage containers went.
"Oh, why does this have to happen to me?" Barry asked aloud. It was obvious that he couldn't stop himself or the result would be catastrophic for him. So, he would have to keep running for too long.
Meanwhile, Kal and John left the same way, but they were only halfway there. While John had carried Kal a good distance, he couldn't do it for long. Unfortunately, the two of them were trying to advance at any cost, even John created stronger legs in order to advance.
"We just need to go with that bastard to get me off you," John said.
Even though they were moving forward, he was using his power to create things on a great level. The physical strength he demanded was starting to beat him.
"We have to do something. We can't fight like this," Kal said, fed up with being dragged along by John, but he didn't want to fight with him. He wanted to reserve energy. At that moment, his Morpho sounded. "Commander, what is it?" He asked him.
"This is J'onn, Kal. Polaris went to Chinatown. He has been dragging many mailboxes and metal cutlery to attack people. Go before he leaves," he said, attentive to the disasters that Polaris caused, but there were still no sign of Ra's Al Ghul.
"There's no time to lose," John said before loading Kal onto his back again.
"John, stop carrying me around like a backpack!" Kal yelled as he squirmed.
Another difficult thing was happening with the commander who was helping people who had been trapped with some dangerous metal object, such as knives, grills or very large signs. However, he was also being careful to dodge the objects as he kept away from civilians.
The magnetic field was still present on everyone affected by Polaris, and the last thing he wanted was to be hit in the face or left out of combat. This was also a great disadvantage for him, since he could not use his sword. He even had to remove his belt because it also had metal on it.
It was best to fight with his fists rather than become magnetized to a civilian. He expected Ra's to attack at some point, but since J'onn hadn't called him, he would continue to protect civilians until that happened.
In Chinatown, Polaris had stopped attacking people to steal money from every place. Some policemen even went to arrest him, but since they did not have any weapons that he could not control, he stopped the bullets that were fired at him and returned them, wounding them.
"You've gone too far already, Polaris!" John yelled as he ran with Kal still on his back.
"I cannot believe that you have decided to come confront me even in this condition, but I'll enjoy tearing you to pieces anyway," Polaris said.
"Put me down now, John, so I can transform!" Kal yelled, squirming.
"Willdo," John said and lowered Kal.
The two of them tried to grab their Morphos, but John had to wait. One needed to grab him before the other, but not at the same time because he made their bodies twist.
"Ready?" Kal asked.
"Justice League, actívate," John said without waiting for Kal and transformed.
"Hey, let me give the orders," Kal said before saying the same words as John to transform.
"I don't think they have a chance against metal," Polaris said before waving his hands, causing the coins to go towards them. Kal thought about using his heat vision, but John created brick walls around them.
"Let me do something," Kal said.
"You are very slow to think, and you are distracting me," John said.
"Let me do something," Kal said again pulling John.
It broke his concentration, causing the brick walls to break and damage the coins. It made Polaris laugh, but Kal took the opportunity to shoot him with his heat visión. It caused him to take a few steps back, but this infuriated him.
"Wow, stroke of luck, but see if you can block all the forks and knives I have," said Polaris, waving his hands and all the cutlery went to them, but a little more slowly.
John recreated brick walls to block them, but he also created a green man to go fight Polaris.
"John, stop acting alone," Kal said.
"You can't do anything but shoot beams from your eyes, I'm the most useful right now," John said, not looking away from his green man's fight against the criminal.
Polaris saw that John's shields were difficult to break. Grabbing a grenade, he put it in front of John, which detonated and knocked them down.
"They entertained me long enough, now I better go to a better place to create problems," said Polaris before leaving again with many metallic objects following him.
"We have to stop him," John said trying to get to his feet.
Kal used his arms to get up easily, though he struggled to balance. "Yes, I already figured it out. But I'm not going to do it glued to your back! We have to get unstuck first," Kal said.
"And how do you suppose we do that? Neither Diana nor Barry nor Shayera could do it," John said.
Kal pause to think for a few seconds, until he pulled out his Morpho and called J'onn. "J'onn, send Stewart's jet here," he said, avoiding confusion.
"On the way, Kal," J'onn said, while at the same time he was alert for signs from Ra's and the League of Assassins, but there was no sign yet.
"Now, I have to find a metal column," Kal said.
"Oh great," John said. He was sick of being glued to Kal, and most of all, he didn't have any confidence in whatever it was that he was trying to do to get unstuck.
"There it is. Follow me," Kal said.
John walked as fast as they could towards that metal columna. Kal hugged the column with his arms and legs.
"You're already scaring me. What are you doing?" John asked.
"Your jet is on its way. Get hooked on it and try to get it to pull you away from the magnetic field that Polaris created. It's the only thing I can think of," Kal replied.
"It might be weird for me to ask, but why don't you try it?" he asked again.
"Because I once tried to hold on to a chain and ended up breaking it in training. It's safer if you're the one hooking onto the jet," explained Kal.
"Good," John said.
Honestly, this had surprised him. It was the first time he had seen that Kal had a well structured plan that didn't inclue using brute force. Seeing his jet arrive, he created a chain with his mind and threw it into the jet. Then, he used his Morpho and the jet began to move forward. He felt hhiser arm and his body stretch beyond his capacity.
"Come on, John, you can do it," Kal encouraged him, looking at the jet.
John commanded the jet to go with all of his might and finally felt like he was detaching from Kal. It only took him a few seconds to finally get rid of the magnetic field and get on his Jet.
Kal pulled his Morpho out. "J'onn, do you know where Polaris is?" Kal asked.
"Wait a minute. He headed to the Industrial District. You have to stop him fast. If he manages to control the metal in some important building, like the steel mill, who knows what damage it could cause," J'onn responded to Kal's Morpho and John's jet.
"We're on our way," John and Kal said at the same time.
John began piloting his jet and positioning it in the direction of the city's Industrial District, but before he could fly forward, the jet was pulled the other way.
"Now what is happening?" John asked.
He used the jet camera and saw that it was Barry, who was running without stopping. Seeing this, John knew that he could use it to his advantage, so he called him with his Morpho. It took him about ten seconds to respond.
"Not a good time," Barry said.
"Barry, take me to the Industrial District. Polaris is there," John said, quickly.
"Guide me. I've been around too many times and I don't even remember where I am any more," Barry said.
Although he did not like to hear this, it was necessary to guide him to stop the criminal, so he got to work.
XXX
Polaris had already arrived at the city's steelworks entrance. It had been a long time since he had fun using metal and its magnetic fields to annoy people. Even something inside him wanted to laugh too much at how easy it had been for him to upset a squad of Power Rangers.
However, before he could do so, he received a huge heat vision hit that knocked him to the ground and caused him to lose his concentration. The metal objects fell to the ground.
"You seem to be magnetic to failure, Polaris!" Kal yelled.
"Can not be. How did you manage to escape from my magnetic field?!" Polaris asked angrily.
"Your magnetic fields only affect a certain distance, but that doesn't matter. Now that I'm free, I can finish you," Kal said.
"Well good luck, because I am the Doctor of Magnetism, and no one, not even a snooty Ranger can finish me off," said Polaris.
"Justice League, activate" Kal said and transformed.
He shot him with his heat vision, but Polaris created a wall with metal that resisted his attack for a few seconds. The criminal already had another attack ready and that was the attack of railings that were on various sides of the steelworks. Kal had to turn off his heat vision to avoid creating more damage. Unfortunately, he was a bit slow and took a few metal hits, but he managed to grab two rails to block several hits.
Seeing this, Polaris gathered as much metal as he could and created a giant ball and threw it. Kal managed to stop it with his force, but Polaris picked it up and tore it apart so that all those pieces fell on Kal.
It seemed that Kal was not going to be able to continue in the fight until a scream was heard.
"Kally!"
"Barry?!" Kal asked.
"Finally, I arrived! I was hanging out all over town before John caught up with me and led me to find Polaris, so you better step aside!" Barry explained.
Kal, who knew that Barry had a plan, removed the rubble in a few seconds and stepped away from Polaris. Neither Polaris nor Kal saw that John's Jet was coming behind Barry. He was ready to crash into Polaris, who raised his hands so he could stop the jet and crash it into Barry. However, the jet did not move.
"No! I hate when they use magnetism against me! Thanks to the magnetic field that I put on the yellow, I can't control anything that is attracted to it," said Polaris, expressing his frustration before launching a lightning bolt towards Barry that took away the magnetic field. Many metallic objects that were chasing him fell to the ground, but he didn't count on Barry continuing to run towards him, as did John who was still in his jet.
"Justice League, actívate!" Barry and John said at the same time as they transformed.
Barry kept running towards Polaris and punched him hard in the face, knocking him down and even destroying some of the concrete. Polaris re-controlled the metal that was still in the street and tried to throw it at Barry, but now, he was determined to avoid any metal object and fight hand-to-hand. He was making it difficult for him with every object that stood in his way.
While this was happening, John jumped out of his jet and created a giant hammer to take down Polaris. Distracted, Porlais realized a bit late but just in time to prevent the hammer from finishing him off. Although that attack did not work, John landed on the ground and threw an anvil that he created with his mind at Polaris that caused the criminal to take a few steps back.
John then created a metal fist with claws to hit him, but got too close to Kal. They were again attracted by a magnetic force, causing John to create a chain with his mind and tying it to a pole. At the same time, Kal managed to grab onto a pole that was nailed to the ground thanks to Polaris.
"Ha! I knew it. My magnetic field is still too strong for you," said Polaris.
"John, you have to keep your distance," Kal said.
"You don't say anything. You were about to be beaten by him. I think you should say thank you," John said.
"I'm not going to do it when we're about to be defeated by Polaris," Kal said.
"Good thing you can admit that I'm going to defeat you," said Polaris, laughing and throwing metal objects at them, but Kal managed to destroy them with his heat vision while John created a shield.
As he continued to destroy debris, Kal saw that Polaris was close to getting in the way of the two, so he had another idea. "Barry get him in position!" Kal yelled.
"What are you talking about?!" Barry asked as he kept dodging the metals Polaris was throwing at him.
"Look what's between us," Kal said.
This made Barry see what Kal was telling him to do. "No problem, Kally!" Barry said.
He grabbed every metal object that was on the ground and started throwing it at Polaris. The criminal began to slow down all the objects that were being thrown at him. As he did this, Kal knew that he had to communicate his plan to John.
"John, we have to work together!" he yelled, putting a lot of emphasis on the last word. This made John see the situation. He understood what Kal meant much faster than Barry.
"Good," John said.
He created strong arms to pull the chain and get to the pole. Thus, he could propel himself while Kal managed to stand up and pull the Morpho out of him to draw a sword. John created the same with his mind.
Seeing that Polaris had already created the shield, he used all the speed he had and hit it to break it, making him recoil. Ready and in place to make things easier for Kal and John, Barry jumped up and gave Polaris a quick blow that knocked him to the ground.
"Now!" Kal yelled and released himself from the railing.
John also let go of the pole and the two were pulled towards each other by the magnetic force. Polaris got up and was ready to attack again, but Barry ran away. Before he could control another metal, he was stabbed and crushed by Kal and John. A few seconds later another explosion occurred.
Kal and John were out of their suits and sprawled on the ground, but Barry came back to watch the scene.
"Hey, they're not magnetized anymore and Polaris is in very bad shape" Barry said when he saw the appearance of Doctor Polaris after the explosión. He had many scratches and burns, and his suit was totally ruined.
"I think by beating Polaris we eliminated all magnetic fields," John said.
"Oh, this is wild," Barry said.
"Don't even mention it," Kal said.
"Hey, what happened to Shayera and Diana?" John asked.
"First, let's call for help and then we call them," Kal said.
XXX
Once Polaris was defeated, the metal objects that were stacked on top of Shayera fell off, freeing her from the heavy weight on her. She was able to lift the vending machine off with some effort, but she was free. While she wanted to go to the base, she threw herself on the ground and went back to rest. She needed some rest after all the weight that she had to bear.
XXX
Diana kept running through the outskirts of the city. Getting there had taken a lot of effort, but it was better than risking civilians with the magnetic field. Deep within her, something wanted revenge on Polaris for putting her in this situation, but if she returned to the city, more metal objects would stick to her. She would put more civillians at risk so she decided to keep running.
There was no interruption until, a few meters away, Lady Shiva appeared. Although this time, she did not have her confident smile, but a serious face with a pursed mouth.
Diana didn't know what to do. On the one hand, she wanted to keep running and let the metal objects hit her, but that involved a great risk that would also harm her…that and that would probably kill Lady Shiva. Just by following the moral code that the commander and the League represented, she decided not to, but now she had little choice.
"It's reckoning time, Blue Ranger," Lady Shiva said, although she had to speak a little loud because the metal made a lot of noise.
"Before you wanted a fair duel, Shiva, now you want to kill me when I am at a disadvantage," Diana said.
"You are always at a disadvantage, Amazon," Lady Shiva told her. "You are always weak because you never have the guts to do what is necessary. This is what I must do to regain the trust of the great Ra's Al Ghul," she finished before drawing her sword and pointing it at Diana.
Thanks to the magnetic field, Lady Shiva's sword, and Lady Shiva herself shot at high speed towards Diana, ready for the death blow. She was six feet away from hammering the sword into her when the metal objects fell off, including her sword. She eventually fell to the ground.
"I believe my friends defeated Polaris before you could do what you wanted, Shiva. But don't worry, I'm going to please you and give you a fight," Diana said before taking the Morpho out of her. "Justice League, activate" She said and transformed.
"It does not matter if it is now a fair fight or not. The only thing that matters is eliminating you," said Lady Shiva, rising from her ground and grabbing her sword.
Diana used her Morpho once more to draw her sword. Now that the two were ready, Lady Shiva launched the first attack with a downward blow, but Diana blocked it. Shiva took advantage of this to launch a spinning kick to the ground, but Diana realized it too late.
She fell to the ground, but quickly got up and launched a horizontal blow. Shiva dodged these blows, showing great speed and flexibility before hitting Diana with her elbow and driving her back. Diana got back into position and threw a slash to the head that Shiva dodged, and then another slash to the knees. That slash was also dodged by Lady Shiva with a jump, a jump that Diana was waiting to do the same and unleash a spinning kick at her which sent her a few feet away from her.
Diana ran towards Lady Shiva and threw two side cuts that were blocked by Shiva. After those attacks, she stood up and cut Diana in the stomach, then jumped up again to launch a cut to the head. The attack that didn't work, but she fell behind her and slashed her again followed by another kick. Diana blocked the cut, but not the kick, staggering a few steps in front of her.
Upon seeing this, Diana had already understood Lady Shiva's attack pattern, so she took the sword from her with more force and ran towards Lady Shiva to deliver three quick cuts. Lady Shiva dodged the three cuts, but Diana elbowed her, making her go back.
She attacked again, but this time it was Diana who blocked all her attacks, taking advantage of one of those hard attacks to land four quick attacks on Shiva, causing some sparks to fly. Lady Shiva tried to hit her with her hands, but Diana grabbed her wrists and knocked her to the ground.
Lady Shiva rose once more and threw her cloak at her to distract her, a new move that disoriented Diana and prevented her from blocking three slashes. She recovered and blocked the last slash before leaping up and using all her strength to kick Lady Shiva in the stomach, throwing her several meters forward.
Diana took the sword from her once more.
"Blue cut," Diana said, preparing her sword before launching a lightning cut at Lady Shiva, who could not do anything to block it. She was very weak, causing a small explosion.
Once the fire from the explosion had dissipated, there was still Lady Shiva, only weaker and with a few scratches that took away the attractiveness of her fine face. However, this was only the beginning of her troubles. She was already too angry to be reasonable after losing again to the Blue Ranger.
"How did you beat me this time?!" Lady Shiva asked.
"Something crucial for the Amazons is experience, Shiva, and our previous battles have helped me learn your movements," Diana replied, still pointing her sword at her.
"Enjoy this victory, because later, I will be the one to eliminate you," Lady Shiva said before taking out another smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, Lady Shiva was no longer there.
Diana could have gone to the base, but seeing that the path was too long, she threw herself on the ground. She heard the Morpho call for her.
"Yes?" Diana asked.
"Diana, are you okay?" Kal asked.
"Yes, I only need a few minutes to get back to base. I just got to the outskirts of the city," Diana answered.
"It's understandable, but don't be late. Wayne won't be happy if you're late," he warned.
"Funny," Diana said before hanging up.
XXX
Base of Zone C. 19:30
"Rangers, good job stopping Polaris. Now, he is on his way to a prison from which he will not be able to escape for a long time," Commander Wayne said.
Hey, stop. How are they going to lock away a guy who can control metal in a metal prison? " Barry asked.
"The League had already designed a prison for him, Cadet Allen. That prison is designed of plastic so that he cannot control it," Commander Wayne replied, somewhat annoyed by how irritating Barry was with his questions.
"Oh ok. That's a good idea," Barry said.
"Well, since there is nothing at the moment, you can retreat, cadets," Commander Wayne said.
"Yes sir," the five Rangers said in unison.
With the Rangers out of the conference room, the commander and J'onn could talk.
"I can't believe Ra's hasn't attacked in all this time," Commander Wayne said, looking at the monitor.
"This is really suspicious. I don't understand how he used this distraction so that in the end there were no signs of attack," J'onn said.
"So I think Ra's managed to bribe or infiltrate his people into the ion shell facility, unless he has another plan to destroy zone C," said the commander, knowing how his rival operated.
"If that's so, then he could search all the weapons buildings for anything that was stolen," J'onn said.
"Ra's is very good at covering his tracks, J'onn. That would be a great effort, but without any possibility of it working," the commander said without looking at him.
"Then what do we do?" J'onn asked.
"Ra's will attack at some point, J'onn, so all we can do is wait. We must not lower our guard and you better not say anything to the Rangers until that happens. It's not at all likely that he will go after them after what we did on televisión," the commander replied.
"Got it. I just hope we can find out in time before it's too late," J'onn said.
"But, if you were looking for a job, I found it. There is something I need you to do," said the commander.
XXX
20:00
In the entertainment room, Kal and John were sitting eating sweet buns while Barry and Shayera had fallen asleep.
"It's strange to see Barry falling asleep, considering how much energy he has," Kal said.
"I think it's because he had to run all day feeling a lot of stress from hitting something," Diana said.
"Yeah, but at least it keeps him from bothering us for the rest of the day," John said.
"That's true," Diana said. "Do you think Ra's will attack soon after what Polaris did?"
"That would be very logical," John said.
"However, that would be quite strange. Wayne didn't tell us anything that he stole something," Kal said.
"That is quite strange. I suppose Ra's will attack before we know it, especially if we don't have any clue as to what he's doing," John said.
"I hate having to wait for them to attack. I'm sick of facing Lady Shiva," Diana said.
"Yeah, I'm still sick of this. Sometimes I already want to go and leave this," he added, still showing his distrust of being in Zone C.
"I'm desperate, but I wouldn't leave people unprotected," Diana said.
"Neither do I, Kal," John said.
"Sorry. It's just that I don't feel comfortable here yet," Kal apologized.
"We've all been through a lot to get here, Kal. Even I miss my mother and sisters, but I feel good about helping people," Diana said.
"Me too. It always feels good to make a difference and make the world a better place for my family," John said.
This made Kal think, at least a little. He still didn't like Zone C, but he had met Lois. Plus, he was doing good.
"By the way, you had very good ideas today," John said, getting up.
"Where are you going?" Kal asked.
"To my room. I'm tired too," John replied.
While they were making progress, the great attack from Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows was near, and they did not know what he was going to do. But for now, they could rest.
XXX
Unknown location
"Thank you, Polaris," Ra's said. "Honestly, I thought you could keep the Rangers busy longer, but your distraction served to get me these resources right under Wayne's nose. Soon, Zone C will be destroyed, but I still need another distraction. Shiva, if you want to remain trustworthy, then go to this place and bring him here to give him an incentive to serve our purpose," he ordered Lady Shiva, who was still being bandaged in some parts of her face and body.
"Yes, master," Lady Shiva said very submissively. She had already lost again against the Blue Ranger, but in that state, she would do everything not to lose all the trust that Ra's had in her.
Now, she would go there, and she would bring an enemy that would change the combat environment in a very drastic way.
NEXT: DANGER IN THE SEWERS, PART 1.