Vina says, "I do?" She looks down at a very scripted gold S on a green tabard. That wasn't there before...
"Maybe I -do- have some of Superman's powers. It's...complicated. Can you tell Mr. Luthor, Mr....?"
"Rumlow. Brock Rumlow," says the guy. "I'm an agent of Checkmate. Kind of the government version of you guys? For when you aren't around. Which, I'm glad this ain't one of those times!"
"Go on. I'm good. Go take care of business."
Vina then drops him, and goes off flying to punch Mr. Zipper-head-super-guy in the kisser. Rumlow lands in Chin-Su's interlaced fingers, whose springyness is such that he doesn't fall very far at all once he hits them.
The Flash comes buzzing up. It's hard to see him because he's flickering back and forth as new ideas occur to him.
"HeyItookcareofCaptainColdthat'swhoitwasCaptainColdandthemosquitoeswerehallucinations! Whew. Just like heat can cause mirages, intense cold can warp the air layers to create hallucinations. Flash fact!"
Ian breathes a sigh of relief as Vina and Chin take care of the public servant.
"With super speed, he could have killed that guy if he wanted. I'm going to go find out what his issue is."
Ian then phases through Ray's green bubble and sets down (still phased) about 10 yards away from Zipperneck. "Sounds like you're on the clock," he says, with his hands raised and open. "Feel like telling us why you're trying to do this the hard way?"
Zipperneck raises his head, which just makes the scar more obvious.
"I gone about as far as I can in the Jokerz mob; I get any bigger, Joker and Harley are gonna get excited an' kill me like they do when you get to be one a the personal henchmen. And hey, Superman's gone, right? So I'm the baddest thing on the planet. I figure I get to be the boss, too."
"Coulda killed Joker, I guess. But where's that get me?"
He fingers the scar on his neck.
"Nobody's gonna kill me now, though. Not while I got the S."
And, indeed, the Joker face on his shirt is kind of pentagonal, with the grin distorted into the familiar S shape. Kind of. It's really a stretch. You wouldn't notice unless he'd told you.
"So how we gonna do this, flying guy?" Zipperneck wants to know. "Cause I got some demands to make. S'gonna cost Lex Luthor a lot to be my friend today ... what are you, the good cop? I gotta see who you got to be the bad cop. Cuz ... Superman. He even got killed once, he got back up. Who YOU gonna call?"
Quinn watches the conversation from a distance. "So, what," he mutters to JimBob and the others, "we're just talking to him now? I'm all for settling things peacefully, but he's sort of a 'hit first, ask questions never' kind of guy. We should be ready for anything."
ReplyDeleteJimBob chuckles. "Well, we've got him monologuing. That's half the battle right there. Although Ian's providing a pretty good distraction for us right now. Who's our shapeshifter again? I feel like the likeness of Lex Luthor would be useful right about now."
Delete"Pretty sure that was Ian . . ." Quinn turns to the others. "Anyone have kryptonite handy? That's green, right? Can you do it, Lantern?"
ReplyDeleteRoy says, "As far as I know, if it's green, I can do it!"
ReplyDeleteHe concentrates, and a bright, searing, sizzling, acid-tinged green WRONGNESS begins radiating out of his ring.
Everyone exposed to it feels revulsion, as though in the presence of something that simply SHOULD NOT BE.
"Uh-oh ..."
JimBob is not a fan of wrongness, and will therefore hide behind the nearest rock or tree, stretching himself if necessary to be completely blocked from exposure.
ReplyDelete"Can . . . can anyone hold that thing . . . until we need to use it?" Quinn stutters, crouching as low as possible behind his shield. "Or . . . I don't know . . . throw it at the . . . bad guy?"
ReplyDelete"Huh. I guess you do have an S-thing going on there," Ian says, squinting to make out the letter from Joker's expression. He then takes a quick peek to see if Vina is still planning on swooping down and decking the villain.
ReplyDelete"As far as who I'm going to call, I don't think 'Bad Cop' is fair. Let's just call her 'Harsh Dose of Reality Cop'. And she wears the S better than you do."