"Whatever
we do," Quinn says, "I don't think we should split up. I'm thinking we're
all kind of new at this, so teaming up sounds like a good idea. So whoever
votes for DC, hands up!" He raises his shield.
Vina
raises a gloved hand, on which a small bird is contentedly roosting.
Chin-Su
shrugs and raises his hand. Then stretches his other hand over to behind Greg
and raises that one to make it look like Greg is voting, too.
Ian
raises his hand to make five, er four. "Let's hope the Secret Service figures
out quickly we're there to help."
Roy
shouts, "Green bubble!" and encases everyone in a green bubble. Therefore,
everyone looks green, because only green light can get through.
And
WHOOSH! The five substitute Leaguers are surrounded by blurred ground and a
brighter, but equally blurred, sky. There's no sensation of motion other than
visual, which could cause motion sickness, except that the ring takes care of
that.
The
green bubble comes to rest in front of the Capitol building, which seems fine
except for the police cars lining up in front of it. So Roy whisks the bubble
over to the White House, in front of which three tanks are stacked one on top
of the other.
One's
upside-down.
Spheres
pop out of the lawn just inside the White House fence, projecting green beams
of light. They zap the tank stack, causing a guy in a leather vest and Joker
t-shirt to step out from behind it. He's got remnants of white makeup on his
face and a livid, angled red scar across his neck, which appears to have been
accentuated by makeup.
The
green illumination makes the guy look really corpse-like, even discounting the
makeup.
"Beams,"
he says, his voice slightly grating. Apparently it's a real scar.
"Zipperneck
ain't got time for beams," he says, and thin red lines of searing heat
stab out of his eyes, tracking across the spheres and exploding them one by
one.
A guy in
black and gold powered armor leaps over an abandoned panel truck to land just
next to Zipperneck. The armored guy, with an American flag on his shoulder
plate, swings a chrome-steel quarterstaff which hits Zipperneck right in the
side of the head, and flashes as it unloads a massive taser charge into his
exposed skin.
Zipperneck
seems to blur, and the guy's armor flies apart, each piece going a different
direction, while the guy inside the suit pops high into the air like a flipped
penny.
"You
keep this up," Zipperneck says, "an' the Prez is liable to get
killed. And that'd piss me off."
If the popped armor guy is within stretchy-reach, Chin-Su reaches his arms out towards him to retrieve him and bring him back to the group.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes up must come down. Lady Hawk flies to intercept the now non-armored hero as he plummets.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Government Armor Guy is in good hands! Chin, he got thrown so far up in the sky that you can't reach him until he's on the way down. Fortunately, if Lady Hawk can slow him down (she can) you can bring him the rest of the way. Which means she doesn't have to land, which saves time.
ReplyDeleteI'm just sayin' .... when you're fighting a guy with super-speed, saving time can be important.
DeleteChin-Su weaves his fingers into a net to catch the fella wherever LadyHawk chooses to drop him.
ReplyDeleteVina tells the guy she's planning to drop him into a net.
ReplyDeleteHe says, "Thanks! Here I thought mr. Luthor''s anti-Superman defenses were paranoid ... but at least we tried."
"So, are you from Krypton too? Reason I say that, the President''s got three more Superman defenses in play, so you might find your powers getting a little unreliable ... which could be way up in the air like we are now."
ReplyDelete"Nope. These are Thanagarian wings. Mechanical. I would think they'd be fine."
ReplyDeleteShe is kind of amused he did not notice the wings.
"Isn't Superman one of the good guys? Of course, that didn't look exactly like Superman."
"Yeah, I know, right?" says the guy. "But the President thinks Superman might turn evil one day, or get mind-controlled. Glad this joker isn't him."
"Well, who is he?" Vina asks.
ReplyDelete"What, you don't know either?" says the guy. "He's just some whackjob with super-powers, that's all we know!"