Star City- Heroes of Tomorrow IC

Shadow on the Sun

Jaime was dreaming as he slept in a two room flat located somewhere in the Glades. His muscular frame twitched and spasmed, sweating with the intensity of the nightmare. Finally, with a deep, horrified gasp, he sat straight up, awake.

He panted for air as he slid his legs over the edge of the bed and sat with his face in his hands. All he could see was a camp in the woods of rural Virginia...

Jaime had worked hard to earn a doctorate in Abnormal Psychology, joining the FBI and becoming a criminal profiler. It had made sense at the time, the perfect cover for a crime fighter. He had access to law enforcement data bases and resources, but since he was a specialist, he had more freedom than the average field agent.

He didn't take into account the emotional cost of the work. It was one thing to go up against evil aliens or multidimensional creeps. Even mutated people could easily be classified in his mind as 'monsters' and the fallout of dealing with them overcome. But what about human monsters who didn't have those excuses?

Three years into his career, Jaime got a case to hunt down a serial killed called The Skinner. Dubs so because his victims were found hanging from meat hooks, completely skinned and drained of blood, like a hunter would field dress a deer.

For 9 months Jaime used everything at his disposal, even the powers of the Blue Beetle, to find the killer. When he finally tracked him down, the real horror was revealed. Ryan Gates was a local Sheriff in Loudoun county, Va. He had a home just outside a small unincorporated town called Bloomfield. A small place, just a log cabin his grandfather had built and his father expanded.

It was isolated, but close to populated areas. Hard to get to, but easy to reach anywhere you wanted from. Ryan used his authority as a police officer to pull over college co-eds and other single female drivers, and he kept them all chained in a concrete bunker, like a kennel. On full moon nights, he would run them through the woods and hunt them like game.

Jaime went in alone and freed the girls, who had been physically, emotionally and sexually abused, some of them for months. Then he went looking for Gates...

The man bragged about what he had done and offered to 'let Jaime in on the game'. That was when Jaime killed him.

It was Jaime. Not the Scarab. Not some alien urge to destroy, or some compulsion, but a cold, rational choice. Jaime had pulled his sidearm and put a .40 round through the face of a fellow human being, not even blinking at the muzzle flash, or the warm blow-back that spattered his face when Gate's brains blew out the back of his skull. For long moments as night rose up around him, Jaime just stared.

He destroyed the body, using the Blue Beetle armor to desentigrate it with a molecular destabilizer. No modern forensic science would be able to find anything but trace evidence. Then, Jaime turned in his resignation and walked away...

Now, almost a year later and he still woke up every night from the memory of it.
Still breathing erratically, Jaime stood and walked to the dirty curtain over his single window, glancing out on the night. He wondered what he hoped to find in this city. Was it his destiny? Or maybe his punishment?

Jaime had never felt so cold or alone in his life.
 
Venom

Sound...then the female archer landed on the rooftop. Oh he knew she didn't like him, she didn't need to like him, she just needed to work along with him. He was aware of an entity shadowing him as he had moved through the city, but it was most likely the second speedster. Then Artemis joined his vigil,

"What do we got?"

He looked at her, he could feel the animation of the mask, knew that it drew into an almost puzzled look.

"No movement, there is no marks near the exit, will be on the look-out for anything that resembles a threat."

A tilt of the head, "Perhaps I should leave the hostiles for you, my idea of ranged attack is kinda...deadly." He looked back down, scanning the crowd like the trained sniper he was, checking for anything suspicious, slowly sifting the information, moving his line of sight higher, scanning windows, looking for any backup which could hinder them.
 
"You wanna court the little lady, you gotta be a straight shooter, do ya got it?"

(Artemis)

He looked at her, he could feel the animation of the mask, knew that it drew into an almost puzzled look.

Oh, good. Even when he makes facial expressions it looks like goopy tar sands.

It wasn't that Artemis didn't like Venom.

Well, she didn't like most people. Except Felicity, and sometimes Ray. She respected Ollie, but she didn't always like him, either.

But the barrelful of sweet crude that he used as a uniform set off primal squick factors in the young blonde Crock-- almost prehistoric responses of fight or flight. Like something her ancestors once fought.

Plus, who knew what kind of sway it held over him? What was that crap doing to him? Artemis didn't know about things like Venom's super-steroid secretions and stuff, but Team Arrow did have a family history with substances that supercharged your body and damaged your soul.

Again, he had the yes-check from the upper-ups, so she'd roll with his involvement. If he did his job well, she might even respect him.

But Venom was right. She didn't have to like him.

That was a hard thing to earn, with her.

"No movement, there is no marks near the exit, will be on the look-out for anything that resembles a threat."

"Yeah," Artemis nodded, shaking loose her shoulders a bit, twisting her bow in her grasp from side to side, eager for a target.

"I'm sure Arrow and them will give us a heads-up if they flush any tangoes our way. Good to know they won't know we're waiting for 'em."

A tilt of the head, "Perhaps I should leave the hostiles for you, my idea of ranged attack is kinda...deadly." He looked back down, scanning the crowd like the trained sniper he was, checking for anything suspicious, slowly sifting the information, moving his line of sight higher, scanning windows, looking for any backup which could hinder them.

Artemis deadpanned: "Oh, because pointy sticks at high F.P.S.es are soooo nonlethal."

She could thread a needle with her arrow shots. Thread a needle half a football field away while backflipping upside-down off of two androids she'd kicked in the face. So yeah, she could shoot to wound.

But she never kidded herself about her chosen weapons' invented purpose, never let herself forget why her parents had forced her to take it up.

Immediately, she shook her head dismissively. "Nah. Look. Arrow said they had to be alive, but not how alive. We take 'em down, we take 'em down hard. And if you rupture someone's brachial artery I'll just do some first-aid with a glue-bomb arrow."

And then she made a wincing, squicked face. "So. You can do ranged attacks. Like-- projectiles? What, do you have rocket launchers that T-1000 out of your shoulders?"
 
Last edited:
Venom

He didn't even look at her, there was no need. "The suit has a space in which it keeps certain objects."

Show her

He sighed, 'Fine.' he held out his arm and opened his hand, palm upwards. The suit started to move, pulling away from his hand, moving further away from his hand, yet seemingly to cover a cylindrical object. It stopped moving roughly 38 inches from his hand and withdrew, slowly forming into the shape of a rifle. Finally the last of the suit withdrew, leaving a Heckler & Koch HK417 sniper variant in his hand.

"And that is why you have to take the shot, when a .308 round hits the target, death is kind of the idea." The suit flowed back over the weapon and he lowered his arm, allowing the suit to seemingly absorb the weapon once more. "And we need them or him or it alive."
 
Archers: making their enemies fight in the shade since 480 BC. (Artemis)

Artemis stared-- her revulsion mingling with fascination now at the sight of this-- process-- regurgitating a weapon-- and not a small one--

"...huh," she responded, as if vaguely impressed.

"I wondered why no pockets or utility belt. Guess now I know."

"You get the up-close work, then. That should be fun for you."

"...I'll make it rain."
 
Last edited:
He didn't have to look at her to sense the revulsion, he remembered what his thoughts were the first time the suit showed him what it could do. This was practically nothing and it seems that the longer they spent with each-other, the more things the symbiote seemed to "remember", like that flying or rather gliding stint earlier on.

"Close up is exactly what I've been aching to do. At least you have something to do. I have to sit around, filling out forms, going through test and try look happy doing it." OK so he sounded like a petulant child, but it was the truth, they didn't seem to trust him enough to do anything but fight for them. Super soldier in the suit, Joe Nobody out of it. He kept scanning the buildings making sure that he missed nothing, in a trap it was always bad to find yourself in a trap when you think that you're springing a trap of your own.
 
Preludes and Nock-Nock Jokes. (Artemis)

"Close up is exactly what I've been aching to do. At least you have something to do. I have to sit around, filling out forms, going through test and try look happy doing it."

"Funny," Artemis drawled, eyes half-lidded, "considering how much downtime I was drowning in when this came down the horn."

"Lotta hurry-up-and-wait in this life," she noted, triple-checking her sightlines and wind velocities as Venom vetted their perch. "Whether you're a-- uh-- desk jockey-slash-lab rat, or a P.A./bodyguard for the boss' wife."
 
Last edited:
"My Immortal," by Evanescence. (Rose)

September 11, 2006.
********​

Five years old, Victoria Rose Grant wandered into the living room of their little Keystone Heights home and found her mother, tear-streaked, hugging a pillow on the couch as she watched the TV.

Rose stopped for a moment, stunned, gazing at the TV, then at her mom, then at the TV again--

--on the screen were two dark towers, burning at the heart of a city skyline, and as the two Grant women watched, one of those towers fell, and Ceri twitched and covered her eyes with her hand and wept.

Rose hurried over to the couch, clambered up beside her mom and threw her arms around her.

Ceri was usually so cool and strong, blithe and Zen, almost nothing perturbed her. But right now she was a broken doll.

"Oh, that day, Rosy," Ceri shook her head, glaring furiously at the screen as talking heads commentated on the five-year anniversary. "That bluddy day. It took so many things from so many people-- why couldn't it leave us alone?"

Rose gazed puzzled at her mother, and did her best to wipe away at Ceri's tears-- like Ceri would have done with her in times past if Rose had fallen in the park and skinned her knee. "It took my dad."

She had heard about that day before, of course, had Rose. Heard about it in the background noise of her entire life. It seemed like the world had begun in that moment far away, with all these people springing to life scared and angry and demanding that something be done about it. But of course Rose had no comprehension of the enormity of it all.

She just knew that there was a man she'd never know because of-- that day.

"He wasn't flying," Ceri shook her head, "that day, he wasn't-- intended to be at The Towers-- he was just in New York, there was a sales meeting, he was just in New York-- but when that day happened--"

Her shoulders rose and fell and she smiled a broken-hearted smile utterly un-self-conscious of the gap in her teeth. "--his mobile stopped working, and-- and he went missing and--"

Ceri gestured helplessly, "--we've just sort of been left to carry on."

Rose pressed her hand into Ceri's, and had no idea what to say. No idea at all.

So she said the only thing she could think of: "You do a good job, Mum. Being my mum and my dad. We do a good job carrying on."

Ceri smiled a smaller, less-broken smile, then. "We do at that, Rosy. He'd be proud, he would."

She sniffled, and dabbed at her nose with a Kleenex. "He was a good man. A special man. He-- he kept me safe, kept us safe. Made the world a better place."

"I thought he sold things that let you see underground," Rose frowned.

"'Ground-penetrating radar imagers,'" Ceri reminded her. "And yes, he did that. He was doing that when I first met him, moving to Keystone with a freshly-minted archaeology degree and ready to work for Fairfax. But yeh'll understand when yeh're older-- there's the job that makes us money, and there's what we really live for. And he lived-- to keep good things safe. We were partners, he and I, in that endeavor, and to my blessing that partnership led to you."

Ceri quieted, and hugged her daughter close, and kissed the top of her head.

"I hope that becomes yehr credo someday too, darling, though of course yeh should find yehr own way. We must always strive to make the world a better place."

She gestured to the screen, where the images of the dark towers smoldered again in September morning light. Rose followed her gesture, and frowned at the screen in pensive contemplation.

"Better than that."
 
Last edited:
"Hey, Jude," by The Beatles. (Rose)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010.
********​

"REEDY!"

The chant echoed off the school's brick wall, off of the asphalt playground, off of the nearby basketball hoop. It almost seemed to make the autumn-colored trees shudder with the sing-song taunt. Over and over again.

"REEEEEDY REEEEEEEEDY REEEEEEEDY!"

And nine-year-old Robby Reed found himself, completely perplexed, surrounded by over a dozen of his new classmates as they mocked his surname and grabbed at his things.

--the blueprinted pieces of paper that he'd had carefully folded into his second lunchbox for easy transport, the pencils and drafting tools he'd used to work on those schematics, the rocks he'd used as paperweights on the picnic table to keep the schematics from blowing away--

"Hey," Robby shouted, helpless, ineffectual, grabbing yet again at a sheet of paper before yet another student yanked it away out of his reach, "hey, come on, please be careful with that--!"

Pretending to ignore him, though he could hear every word, this particular burly student then crumpled the schematic up into a ball and tried to shoot it into the basketball hoop.

He missed by a mile, but he shrugged gleefully at the rest of the posse, as if it didn't even matter that he'd missed, that's how little he cared about that little ball of paper.

"No, no, this isn't right," Robby mumbled.

But no-one cared. They just drowned him out with

"REEEEEDY REEEEEEEEDY REEEEEEEDY!"

until suddenly

"YOU GUYS LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Robby glanced up, startled, to see a redhaired girl with fists balled at her sides standing on top of the picnic table.

"PUT HIS STUFF DOWN AND LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

There were twelve of them versus Robby and this-- whoever she was--

--but she spoke with such authority, such fire and brimstone, that the group actually stopped what they were doing for a moment.

"Who's gonna make us, Grant," rumbled the burlier student who'd lobbed that air-ball, "you?"

"If you make me make you, then yeah," Grant replied, jumping down from that picnic table and standing between Robby and the bigger fella. "You ever see a nice person go nuts? It ain't pretty. You wanna see how many of you guys I can feed gravel before the teachers pull me off of you? Even if it's just one, I'll make it count."

The bigger bully scoffed derisively, but he hadn't seen any deceit in her eyes, any wavering. "I just decided this little bug isn't worth my time. Enjoy your new pet freak, Grant."

He beckoned to the rest of the posse. "C'mon you guys. We'll come back some time when Grant doesn't have a deathwish."

Rose stood there, fists at her side, trembling with fury, watching them all scatter slowly like some sort of Diaspora of James Dale Robinson Elementary.

Behind her on the ground, Robby gathered up his things, mumbling tearfully to himself as he scrabbled on hands and knees in the autumn dirt.

Rose walked over to where the balled-up schematic had fallen, picked it up, and brought it back to Robby, crouching to offer it to him gently.

Robby looked up at her, and then at the ball of paper, and then at her, and gingerly, warily, took it back from her. "...thanks."

Rose smiled at him, tucking a lock of her hair back behind her ear. "Of course."

Attempting to unwrap the ball of paper as slowly and carefully as he could, Robby nevertheless accidentally tore a corner, and winced furiously. "Ah, sockamagee...!"

"You're new," Rose attempted to make conversation.

"Oh, you noticed the welcome wagon," Robby snuffled, and refused to look at her, through the cracked lenses of his round glasses.

Rose frowned apologetically, and reached to fish Robby's protractor out of the dirt. "What... what is all this?"

"It's my, pro--" Robby caught himself halfway into a shuddery, anxious sob, but managed to settle, and try again, "it's my hobby. I want to create a remote piloting system for airplanes involving neuromimetic telepresence. Like if something happens to the pilots of a plane, they-- the people on the ground could-- land the plane safely as if they were right on board. Just-- I just-- I thought it would help make the world a better place."

Rose stared at Robby for a long, long moment, and right before Robby exploded at her for "ogling the freak," she reached out and, firmly but gently, took a hold of Robby's scraped, dirty hand.

"You and me," she decided, as he gazed down at that hand with surprise and then at her face, "we're gonna be partners."

Robby's eyes were wide with surprise, but for some reason, like that crowd of bullies, he found his sense of reason bowled over by the force of nature that was Victoria Rose Grant.

"Oh," he mumbled.

"Kay."
 
Last edited:
Royal Flush Gang

Jack continued to blast away at Static, but the damned rodent wouldn't stay still long enough for his lasers to connect. More of the building started to collapse as Jack's intense blasts struck randomly, but the masked-villain was able to move out of harms way without too much trouble.

He almost had him.

Almost.

Jack could feel like he was getting better at it.

Almost.

He widened his attacks.

So damn close.

Static was clever... trying to distract him by sending his discs to circle around him like busy little bees.

Jack was forced to use shorter bursts to try and take care of some of the discs so that he could focus squarely on Static.

"Nnn," Ten whined as she started to regain her senses, and she looked up to see her partner get blindsided by the masked hero.

Everything was falling apart, and not just the building.

The plan was failing.

"Oh, I think it's time to go."

Ten knew when to quit. Pulling out a card from her pocket, she stood up onto her feet and then threw it towards the ground. When it expanded, she hopped up onto its flat surface and rode off towards the King and Queen and hopefully salvage the entire operation.

~ ~ ~

Tiny sparks flew out of Ace's body as he crashed to the floor.

As far as King was concerned, it was an acceptable loss.

"Keep her busy," he instructed his partner.

"I'm... trying," Queen said, and her eyes focused on ShadowPax when she dodged another focused blast.

The dark-haired Queen scowled at her opponent, and as she raised up her scepter for another attempt, dark webbing shot out towards her weapon, and the Queen was unable to keep it from being pulled from her hand.

"Dammit," she complained.

Losing Ace was one thing.

Having her weapon stolen was an entirely different matter.

King turned to her in disappointment, but it really didn't matter anymore.

He had found it.

"It's time for us to leave," he said as he pulled out a card from his jacket.

But it wasn't a traditional playing card...

This one was special.

Both sides of the card were black, and they prominently featured a skull and crossbones.

"I was hoping to save this, but I guess it can't be helped," he said.
 
"Edge of a Revolution," by Nickelback. (Rose)

Royal Flush Gang
The dark-haired Queen scowled at her opponent, and as she raised up her scepter for another attempt, dark webbing shot out towards her weapon, and the Queen was unable to keep it from being pulled from her hand.

"Dammit," she complained.

Narrowing her eyes in a subtle, intense bit of celebration, ShadowPax hauled the scepter towards herself and, as it neared the ceiling, she fired out another blurt of webbing that glued the weapon to a ceiling tile near ShadowPax' head.

"Spare the rod," she snarked.

"It's time for us to leave," he said as he pulled out a card from his jacket.

But it wasn't a traditional playing card...

This one was special.

Both sides of the card were black, and they prominently featured a skull and crossbones.

"I was hoping to save this, but I guess it can't be helped," he said.

ShadowPax hurled herself from ceiling to floor, landed taking a knee, yanked her swords up out of the floor.

"Royals these days," she opined with clenched, bloodstained teeth, "no social graces."

And she bounded for King, crossing the distance between them in one arching bound, hoping to disarm him before he could bring that card into play--

--carving the air as she went, with blades akimbo--

"But if your dance card's full, I'll just have to cut in."
 
Last edited:
"Funny," Artemis drawled, eyes half-lidded, "considering how much downtime I was drowning in when this came down the horn."

"Lotta hurry-up-and-wait in this life," she noted, triple-checking her sightlines and wind velocities as Venom vetted their perch. "Whether you're a-- uh-- desk jockey-slash-lab rat, or a P.A./bodyguard for the boss' wife."

Ray Palmer, roughly the size of an action figure, popped up out of Artemis's quiver, grinning. "Try being the shamanic ruler of a sub-atomic peoples that are convinced that you are a god from the heavens. Talk about a lot of sitting around. I spent over a year in the throne of that little tribe. Thank heavens I have a knack for language. But still. Anyway, kids, what I am getting at is, well... the stuff we have to deal with day to day. The little challenges, the hassles. All that. That is what makes us he hero. Not the life saving, not the power set. It is the grace and the learning we do every day. It is the person we are, the person we become because of those challenges. Trust me. I have seen good men become dark because they couldn't handle the challenges of every day life." Palmer leapt from Artemis' shoulder, tucking and rolling a perfect flip as he grew... he became a full sized man. He stretched and rolled his shoulders. "Besides we have work. Oh, by the way, I made a couple changes to a couple arrows. Don't shoot the one with the green stripe unless I tell you. Its... a surprise. I have a hunch and if I am right, you're gonna need that. Oh, and I added a new one. I designed it myself. The blue one, it creates a localized field similar to my belt. I figure if the kids are all close, within about twenty meters, we should be able to bring them all down to about an inch in size, lasts only about ten minutes. though. But might be easier to get them safely out. It will send out a swarm of nanites that will attach to any living creatures within range, shrinking them by a percentage. Boring math, blah blah blah. Anyway they run out of juice and when they die, the subject grows back to normal size in about ten seconds. Totally safe. I think."

Palmer thought for a moment more before responding to Felicity. "Yeah, I remember Keith. He was brilliant. A lot of my earlier tech would have been a lot more time consuming without him. He had a nervous breakdown though. Snapped. We caught him trying to sell some military designs to terrorists. The bust went down in Central City, during the STAR LABS collider situation. The warehouse he was hiding in, had a lot of military ordinance, when the wave of energy hit... BOOM. He was lost in the explosion. There were two deaths as I recall. Him and a Detective Black that was leading the raid. I was working with the authorities. I provided support in identifying the remnants of the gear he had stolen. This wasn't there, but he may have had other locations. And as we know, not everyone we thought died that night did."

Palmer toggled his belt and shrunk beyond the sight of man. He needed a minute. Old wounds being opened. This wasn't like Keith... they had been in college together. Had been roommates. Best friends. He wasn't violent. Never hurt a soul. He was greedy, envious, and a jerk toward the end, but violent? Never. Maybe he was back at it. Selling tech again. Time to find out.
 
As Oliver and Diggle took position and scanned the scene they were feeling quite confident. One target. He was behind the children but between the pairs marksmanship, this should be fine. The duo made brief eye contact and nodded as they move.

The first arrow was parried deftly by the target's hunting knife. Quickly he dove behind cover as the taser rounds tagged the wall behind him. The kids began to scream as they crowded toward the wall to the left.

"Arrow, Guardian... figured you two might show up. Back up too I bet? S'Okay, I got friends too." The Knife-wielding psychopath moved quickly, toggling a switch on his belt and shrinking to a minute level.

"Dammit! He used the device. We have to get the kids out of here, no telling where he is."

"On it. Cover me!" The Guardian burst into the tunnel, moving toward the kids. Quickly he counted the kids. "Where are Sarah and Billy? We have the head count from your tour. They aren't here!" The voice distortion device in The Guardian's helm disguised the fear and slight panic rising in his voice.

Theo, the bully from the museum answered between sobs, "They escaped, took off down the tunnel. He let them get away cause he was worried we would all get away if he went after them."

Okay. Move. Stay close head toward the way you came in." Diggle wasn't sure if he felt better or worse. But at least they hadn't been killed... or worse.

As The Guardian and the kids moved, the psychopath reappeared before The Arrow. Blade and Bow flashing and clashing as the two began tearing at each other. The Arrow got a quick shot in, driving the grip of the bow into the psychos jaw and then shooting a bolt through his left leg. Quickly he toggled the dial again and shrunk down, slashing a gash into The Arrows left thigh as he shrinks.

"AHHH! DAMMIT!." Blood began splattering as Oliver crumples. "Need help." The inguinal ligament and femoral artery have been sliced in two causing Oliver to quickly lose a lot of blood and barely be able to stand.

From out of the nowhere he appeared. The Martian Manhunter didn't wear the guise of the human form he often used in public. He stood in the dim tunnel in the full glory of his visage. He moved with speed and determination. Using a combination of his Martian vision, shape-shifting and telepathy he quickly put Oliver in a state of hypnosis to slow his heart, and in turn the rate at which he gusher blood onto the floor of this tunnel. His head and body morphing into a long sinewy form, much like a serpent he slipped his head through the gash and using his vision cauterized the artery. Luckily it wasn't cut in half but sliced lengthwise, better to exsanguinate the victim. The Martian was able to stop the worst of it, but Oliver would need help. He returns to the form of he Manhunter and takes The Arrow into his arms as he dematerializes and takes off toward the brownstone.

"The Arrow is down. I have him. He will be fine. Back up teams, move in." The Manhunter generally let Oliver lead this team. He was there as counsel. As a friend. But now the team needed the Martian to provide more direct counsel. "He has take to the sub-atomic scale. Ray, can you pin point him? Artemis, Venom. Close the entrance. Flash, exac the citizen on the street. There will not be civilian losses on this day. No more hostages."

"On it." Barry leveled his eyes on the child that stood before him. This wasn't how he had wanted it. But he had no choice. "Ok. Bart. This is your time kid. Help me. We need every civilian in a 1 mile radius evacuated. Gone. Get them to the high school on Ignacio. Can you do that? You want to wear the suit, you want to be a hero. Time to step up. Get moving. RUN!" With that Barry Allen, The Flash, patted the kid on the shoulder and ran. He knew what kind of stakes they were playing for. If this guy took down Oliver he was seriously bad news. He could theoretically kill any of them without being seen. Just shrink down and enter through a pore and kill them off. They all needed to work together.

While Barry ran, the Martian saved The Arrow and The Guardian guided the kids out, the Psycho made his move. As he exited the tunnel he grew once more into the full stature of his form. He lobbed a small metallic box into the air... and all hell broke loose.

The box imploded. There was a sound similar to a sonic boom, as the box tore a whole in the fabric of space, opening a doorway. Through that door, came the friends the man had mentioned. Three beings stepped into the world from where ever it is they came from. And they were ready for a fight.

"We got Company! Take them out!Grundy, Icicle, Doctor Light, lets tear this shit up. Then we can collect the kids and get our pay day."
 
As the trio stepped up to their apparent leader the Icicle shook his head.

"She ain't gonna like this. Supposed to be in and out with the kids for the buyer. You dropped the ball Dwarfstar."

"Discuss later. Right now, lets get the children." Doctor Light grinned as he adjusted his gauntlets. "Grundy, if anyone interferes, tear them in half."

"Hrnf. Grundy rip. Grundy crush."
 
Quivering with Fury. (Artemis)

Ray Palmer, roughly the size of an action figure, popped up out of Artemis's quiver, grinning. "Try being the shamanic ruler of a sub-atomic peoples that are convinced that you are a god from the heavens. Talk about a lot of sitting around. I spent over a year in the throne of that little tribe. Thank heavens I have a knack for language. But still."

Artemis squinted at the doll-tall Atom, and cracked sardonically: "And here I thought it was against your programming to impersonate a deity."

"Anyway, kids, what I am getting at is, well... the stuff we have to deal with day to day. The little challenges, the hassles. All that. That is what makes us he hero. Not the life saving, not the power set. It is the grace and the learning we do every day. It is the person we are, the person we become because of those challenges. Trust me. I have seen good men become dark because they couldn't handle the challenges of every day life."

"No offense, Professor," Artemis harrumphed. "But putting up with peppy optimistic moral-of-the-story speeches is challenge enough for me."

Palmer leapt from Artemis' shoulder, tucking and rolling a perfect flip as he grew... he became a full sized man. He stretched and rolled his shoulders. "Besides we have work. Oh, by the way, I made a couple changes to a couple arrows. Don't shoot the one with the green stripe unless I tell you. Its... a surprise. I have a hunch and if I am right, you're gonna need that. Oh, and I added a new one. I designed it myself. The blue one, it creates a localized field similar to my belt. I figure if the kids are all close, within about twenty meters, we should be able to bring them all down to about an inch in size, lasts only about ten minutes. though. But might be easier to get them safely out. It will send out a swarm of nanites that will attach to any living creatures within range, shrinking them by a percentage. Boring math, blah blah blah. Anyway they run out of juice and when they die, the subject grows back to normal size in about ten seconds. Totally safe. I think."

"Hey," Artemis sputtered. "You know how many times Arrow makes me go over each time I load a quiver, memorizing the exact number of each kind of arrow, their position in the quiver, so that every time I reach for an arrow it's the exact right kind by instinct, by muscle memory? And you're just-- rearranging crap? Now I have to second-guess and double-check every arrow I draw, you know how many tenths of a second that'll cost me in reaction times? Come on, Professor. You don't mess with an Arrow's arrows. Do I mess with your-- atoms?"

Growling and stalking in an angry circle, Artemis gesticulated to the air. "Yo, Boss-Lady, all those times you were dating the pretty-boy superheroes, you never thought to teach them boundaries?"

Covering her face with her hands back at the office, Felicity shook her head helplessly. "Some men you just can't reach, Art. Atom, uh, Kenyon?"

Palmer thought for a moment more before responding to Felicity. "Yeah, I remember Keith. He was brilliant. A lot of my earlier tech would have been a lot more time consuming without him. He had a nervous breakdown though. Snapped. We caught him trying to sell some military designs to terrorists. The bust went down in Central City, during the STAR LABS collider situation. The warehouse he was hiding in, had a lot of military ordinance, when the wave of energy hit... BOOM. He was lost in the explosion. There were two deaths as I recall. Him and a Detective Black that was leading the raid. I was working with the authorities. I provided support in identifying the remnants of the gear he had stolen. This wasn't there, but he may have had other locations. And as we know, not everyone we thought died that night did."

Palmer toggled his belt and shrunk beyond the sight of man.

Felicity digested this information, and narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. Her hacktivist senses were tingling-- she initiated another search, this time crossreffing the digital-DNA profile in Kenyon's Palmer Technologies file to an interagency genetic database...

"The Arrow is down. I have him. He will be fine. Back up teams, move in." The Manhunter generally let Oliver lead this team. He was there as counsel. As a friend. But now the team needed the Martian to provide more direct counsel. "He has take to the sub-atomic scale. Ray, can you pin point him? Artemis, Venom. Close the entrance. Flash, evac the citizen on the street. There will not be civilian losses on this day. No more hostages."

The chill that raced up and down Artemis' spine, infecting every chakra in its path-- those words-- 'The Arrow is down.'

What could do that? Take out The Arrow so quickly? The dude survived Ra's al Ghul stabbing him through the fucking chest. What the Hell were they up against?

Don't think about it. Do the job. For Ollie.

While Barry ran, the Martian saved The Arrow and The Guardian guided the kids out, the Psycho made his move. As he exited the tunnel he grew once more into the full stature of his form. He lobbed a small metallic box into the air... and all hell broke loose.

The box imploded. There was a sound similar to a sonic boom, as the box tore a whole in the fabric of space, opening a doorway. Through that door, came the friends the man had mentioned. Three beings stepped into the world from where ever it is they came from. And they were ready for a fight.

"We got Company! Take them out!Grundy, Icicle, Doctor Light, lets tear this shit up. Then we can collect the kids and get our pay day."

"Professor!" Artemis cried, hoping Ray could hear her down tiny. "I got eyes on the size-changer-- and he just called in reinforcements through some kinda-- Warp Zone?"

As the trio stepped up to their apparent leader the Icicle shook his head.

"She ain't gonna like this. Supposed to be in and out with the kids for the buyer. You dropped the ball Dwarfstar."

"Discuss later. Right now, lets get the children." Doctor Light grinned as he adjusted his gauntlets. "Grundy, if anyone interferes, tear them in half."

"Hrnf. Grundy rip. Grundy crush."

That chill was back again in Artemis' spine, in her chakra, in her meridians.

Actual superpowered baddies, and The Martian and the speedsters were on MedEvac detail.

By the numbers. Ollie's grilled you on the files. You know what to do. Or at least what to try.

"I'm goin' loud!"

Even with the split-second hesitation that came from not knowing which arrows Ray had muddled with, Artemis' precision and swiftness and accuracy lived up to her mythological name.

Four arrows, one right after the other, raining down on the baddies from her perch with Venom.

Grundy: a glue-bomb arrow. One of Artemis' favorites, especially against super-strong bruisers like Danny Brickwell: a rapidly expanding industrial-strength adhesive foam that would hopefully contain and restrain.

Light: a smoke-bomb arrow: hopefully the massive puff of black smoke would inhibit Light's access to his photokinetic abilities.

Icicle: a thermite arrow: an incendiary explosive, no icemaker's gonna love that.

Size-changey-- guy?: a taser arrow: hopefully whatever size-changing circuitry he's got going on, that'll give it a hiccup?

She didn't imagine she'd take all of them out in the first wave, no illusions about that at all, but hopefully she could soften them up before Venom reached them to lay the spidery smack down.

In any case, she'd just given away her position, gotta stick and move, couldn't let 'em put a pin in her or she'd be done.

As soon as she'd loosed the taser-arrow, she drew another grappling arrow and fired it off, ready to get a new vantage point in a hurry...
 
Last edited:
Artemis squinted at the doll-tall Atom, and cracked sardonically: "And here I thought it was against your programming to impersonate a deity."



"No offense, Professor," Artemis harrumphed. "But putting up with peppy optimistic moral-of-the-story speeches is challenge enough for me."


"Hey," Artemis sputtered. "You know how many times Arrow makes me go over each time I load a quiver, memorizing the exact number of each kind of arrow, their position in the quiver, so that every time I reach for an arrow it's the exact right kind by instinct, by muscle memory? And you're just-- rearranging crap? Now I have to second-guess and double-check every arrow I draw, you know how many tenths of a second that'll cost me in reaction times? Come on, Professor. You don't mess with an Arrow's arrows. Do I mess with your-- atoms?"

Ray grinned as he readjusted. "I messed with one. I added the second. The blue one is a tenth of a millimeter thicker. Weighs precisely 6.2 grams more than the heaviest of the others. As for the one I adjusted, well, try not to shoot the oh shit arrow. It is now the heaviest. About 2 ounces heavier. Sorry, I know that will require compensation. But I also know your up for the task. Wouldn't be here if you weren't."

Growling and stalking in an angry circle, Artemis gesticulated to the air. "Yo, Boss-Lady, all those times you were dating the pretty-boy superheroes, you never thought to teach them boundaries?"

Covering her face with her hands back at the office, Felicity shook her head helplessly. "Some men you just can't reach, Art. Atom, uh, Kenyon?"

"I am right here... why do women talk about us like we don't exist when we are clearly standing right in the vicinity?" Ray shrugged and looked to Venom for support.

Felicity digested this information, and narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. Her hacktivist senses were tingling-- she initiated another search, this time crossreffing the digital-DNA profile in Kenyon's Palmer Technologies file to an interagency genetic database...

The chill that raced up and down Artemis' spine, infecting every chakra in its path-- those words-- 'The Arrow is down.'

What could do that? Take out The Arrow so quickly? The dude survived Ra's al Ghul stabbing him through the fucking chest. What the Hell were they up against?

Don't think about it. Do the job. For Ollie.

"Professor!" Artemis cried, hoping Ray could hear her down tiny. "I got eyes on the size-changer-- and he just called in reinforcements through some kinda-- Warp Zone?"

"That is... amazing! Sorry. Right. Stop the baddies." Ray came over not the sound waves but the telepathic link that they now shared. "I got the shifter."

That chill was back again in Artemis' spine, in her chakra, in her meridians.

Actual superpowered baddies, and The Martian and the speedsters were on MedEvac detail.

By the numbers. Ollie's grilled you on the files. You know what to do. Or at least what to try.

"I'm goin' loud!"

Even with the split-second hesitation that came from not knowing which arrows Ray had muddled with, Artemis' precision and swiftness and accuracy lived up to her mythological name.

Four arrows, one right after the other, raining down on the baddies from her perch with Venom.

Grundy: a glue-bomb arrow. One of Artemis' favorites, especially against super-strong bruisers like Danny Brickwell: a rapidly expanding industrial-strength adhesive foam that would hopefully contain and restrain.

Light: a smoke-bomb arrow: hopefully the massive puff of black smoke would inhibit Light's access to his photokinetic abilities.

Icicle: a thermite arrow: an incendiary explosive, no icemaker's gonna love that.

As Artemis flicked her hand from the quiver, taser in hand, The Atom was riding the waves of kinetic energy she had previously emanated. Using the force of her motion to ride the currents of air to the shaft. In this size he weighed less than a micron. He was fairly certain he wouldn't offset her aim. He hoped.

Size-changey-- guy?: a taser arrow: hopefully whatever size-changing circuitry he's got going on, that'll give it a hiccup?

She didn't imagine she'd take all of them out in the first wave, no illusions about that at all, but hopefully she could soften them up before Venom reached them to lay the spidery smack down.

In any case, she'd just given away her position, gotta stick and move, couldn't let 'em put a pin in her or she'd be done.

As soon as she'd loosed the taser-arrow, she drew another grappling arrow and fired it off, ready to get a new vantage point in a hurry...

The glue arrow flew true toward the giant gray monster. Just before detonation he clapped his massive hands around the flechette and held in the force of the explosion. The rapidly expanding foam was isolated. While his hands were now bound, that was about the only effect.

"HRMNF!!! Grundy hate sticky! Now Grundy smash pretty girl!" Despite his hands being turned into a single massive bludgeon, he was still formidable. He levered those giant paws under a nearby car, heaved the vehicle into the air and spun in a complete circle before crashing his double-fists into the vehicle at an upward angle sending the car careening through the air. Just missing Artemis as she swung up and to the side on her grapple.

The smoke bomb hit just before Doctor Light as she had intended, but then a strange thin occurred. The small flash of the detonator that created the smoke was intensified beyond measure. Doctor Light sent a wave of Hard Light Energy back toward where Artemis and Venom were taking vigil. The wave was roughly fifteen feet wide and a foot tall, almost like a scythe of pure light energy. It cut cleanly through the edge of the building heading toward Artemis and Venom.

The Icicle was expecting fire. As the Thermite flew toward him he grinned as he condensed the moisture in the air. The Arrow suddenly became covered in a sheen of ice, causing it to fall from the sky a good distance from the target. "Gonna hafta do better 'en that chicky. My Turn!" The Icicle sent tiny darts, hundreds of them, showering down on the area above the archer and the shadowman. The darts rained down, shredding through any unwary birds that happened to flew below the darts as they rained from a hundred feet above the buildings. "You need a quiver, I need moisture. Guess who's gunna run out of ammo first ya bitch!"

Dwarfstar saw the arrow coming. He flung a small blade from his belt, meeting it in mid air. As the arrow blasted out the jolts of electricity, he was only barely tingled by the taser round. However, he wasn't counting on the fist that came after. In a split second The Atom rode that burst of created lightning, moving at nearly 3,700 miles per second. If he had not done the math correctly there was a good chance they would both just explode. However, he was able to adjust he controls of his belt accurately, and instead he just delivered one hell of a left hook. Dwarfstar staggered back. His nose had practically exploded and his face was painted a crimson smear.

"Not only did you steal my tech, you hurt my friend. No one does either of those." Where it came from The Atom may never tell, but in his hand he now held a very unique blade. Clearly crafted from some unique material and of a design no human had conceived. "You like blades huh? Well, I was the defacto king of a tribe once. Had to learn how to fence. Not the traditional circles and all that, but I think it will do." The Atom lunged for the shape changer and there was clash after clash of steel and... whatever it was The Atom was wielding.

"Yeah. This might have been a mistake. Someone take the big guy huh?" Atom again availed himself of the telepathic link. He realized that he was now surrounded. Sure he could shrink and likely evade, but if even one of these guys landed a solid shot, that could be the end.
 
Venom

As the car thrown by the big guy reached their position, he grabbed hold of it. Metal shrieked, glass shattered, but he held on, claws springing from his hands to hold the car, then he threw it back towards the big guy, at the same time the building imploded underneath him. Webbing towards ground level, yank hard, speed...webbing, yank...speed...somersault... His feet impacted with Doctor Light's chest, sending him crashing against the wall, cracking the plaster. The next thing he knew, he was flying backwards, crashing through the wall on the other side of the street. He felt the change, he was growing, vicious fangs erupted from his jawline, covering his teeth, he grew to twice his size, along with this height came muscles, he could feel the power flushing through him. It had to be Grundy who hit him, none of the other two was that strong.

You OK in there?

"What are you doing?"

Making us combat-ready

He erupted from the building, though only gone for a second or two, the transformation was done in seconds, what came out of the building was not the same thing that went in through the wall. He threw webbing out, yanked hard and slammed into Grundy with the force of a freight train...which had just ran into a solid steel wall. The both of them crashed into the building, Venom knew that the big guy was much stronger than him, there was just no way that he could take him down in a straight fight. He fired webbing at the Icile, forcing him to defend himself, with the other hand, he fired a whip-like appendage at Doctor Light and yanked him hard towards the rising Grundy.

The impact was enormous, but he knew that they still had lot to do if they wanted to take down or even survive these guys. A huge grin split his face, tongue lolled out, he realized that he was feeling nigh-invulnerable, yet his sane mind kept telling him to be careful. He lunged at Grundy again
 
"Who else is gonna bring you a Broken Arrow?" (Artemis)

Okay, yeah.

She hadn't imagined she'd take everyone out in one fell swoop. Even she wasn't that good.

But holy shit, that went way worse than she could've thought.

Dr. Light's hardlight scythe was only a foot tall, that was easily cleared, she was already jumping, though she cringed at the destruction it caused behind her.

The car was--

--even as she swung the car was coming at her and in a clenched-teeth bit of adrenaline-fueled parkour she ran along the roof of the car as it sailed past her even as she clutched white-knuckled to her grapple line--

"Nyyyaaaahhhhh...!"

--and kicked off the back bumper, swinging hard for the next rooftop.

But she didn't make it.

Razor-sharp hailstones fell from the sky like coins tossed from The Empire State Building and while she juked to avoid them one glanced off of her left shoulder and another tore straight through her grapple-line and her bowstring in a single, gut-wrenching, horrifying instant.

The grapple-lines used by Team Arrow were two-ton test, but ice powers were lethal and versatile and physics tended to get wonky around them.

Growling in frustration, Artemis twisted as she fell, reaching up with her uninjured arm and grabbing an arrow out of her quiver and flinging it down ahead of her hard towards the ground--

--a crash-mat arrow.

Similar in principle to the glue-bomb arrow, Ollie had started working on this one once after fighting The Flash and having his grapple-line severed unexpectedly-- an expanding gel cushion rapidly formed on impact, inflating to absorb the shock of a falling body.

It hadn't fully deployed by the time Artemis landed on it hard, but it was enough to save her life-- and enough to save her shoulder further injury.

Struggling out of the green goop, Artemis took an instant to take stock of the situation.

Venom had-- whoa-- Venom had gotten ginormous, and he had teeth like razors--

--and he was seriously mixing it up with the bad guys. Well, three of them.

Good thing he's on our side.

Ray was fighting the size-changer guy. Professor had skills, Artemis had to give him that. Not that she wasn't still mad at him.

Using a hi-tech bow-stringer to re-string her bow took all of a second, but Artemis didn't immediately trust her shoulder to fire her longbow.

But that's why she carried the spare.

Sweeping up her crossbow from her hip, she unfolded it, loaded another taser arrow and-- waiting for a clean shot so she didn't tag Agent Venom or The Atom-- she fired it at The Icicle.

He was gonna use moisture to stop her arrows? Fine. Electricity fucked up moisture something awesome, maybe if he tried that freezing trick again on this arrow it'd just chain-lightning him.

"Let's see who's the bitch now, bitch," she growled.
 
Last edited:
Doctor Light was no slouch, but this kid hit hard. He as still staggered when the shadowy tendril began yanking him toward Grundy. Light shifted his weight, pushing toward instead of trying to pull away. Using his light manipulation he created a jet of power by repulsing the photons behind him, giving him enough oomph to overshoot the intended mark. In the split second he had he also managed to encase himself in a hard light aura. While he still felt some of the shock of the landing, the armor took the brunt of it. Grudy batted him away, pushing him along his intended trajectory.

Doctor Light landed beside Artemis. His light armor faded and he grinned. ""Oh.... just what I wanted. A new toy. Trust me darling, I am going to enjoy you." The foul Doctor snapped his hands into the air, twisting them like a fire juggler would control their chain. Suddenly light was spinning all around he and Artemis. Lights from every spectrum. Blurring, Blinding. Doctor Light began bending the wavelengths of these lights. He began to detonate various patterns of the lights. Enough to induce seizures or worse on most. Potentially even those of a lethal variety.

Meanwhile, the Icicle was busy. He had undergone a transformation of his own. Ridges of ice had formed along his hands and arms, razor sharp, viciously seeking through the air, slashing the webbing as it came toward him. This was enough though. He didn't have time to properly defend against the second volley from the archer.

"NNGGHHAAARRRR!" Icicle had tried to deflect the bolt with a frost wave but doing so only intensified the force of the taser arrow. While he didn't take the full effect due to the spreading of the amperage through the frost field, it still hurt like hell. "Damn! Light, you better save some of that for me. I don't usually like sloppy seconds, but that little girl is gonna pay for that!" The Icicle cringe as he struggled to regain his feet. The force of the shock had driven him to his knees, and he was still trying to get his muscles and nerves responding correctly. The left side of his body was also slightly charred from the dispersal of the electrical current along his ice-covered form.

Dwarfstar and The Atom were striking and parrying one another's blows, left and right. Ray wasn't sure who this guy was but he was definitely gifted. He was almost as good as he was at manipulating his size and mass to his advantage. Almost.

The Atom quickly parried a blow as he shrunk in a microsecond just enough to evade the knife. As he did, however, he didn't see the second blade coming from the other side. If he hadn't been in the process of shrinking it likely would have killed him. Cut right into the arteries in his neck. Instead, it sliced a vicious gash across the top of his scalp.

Okay... just a flesh wound. But head wounds bleed. Damn. Gonna be in my eyes in a second. Can't afford to lose visual on this guy. I may be better with the belt, but he has me with the blades. Think Ray...

The Atom shrugged back from a series of quick jabs with both blades. Narrowly evading the lethal pair. As he did so he saw Grundy...smile. If thats what that was supposed to be. It wasn't a look he needed to ever see again. Quickly he did the math. They were in trouble. The kid with he skin suit may be able to hold Grundy for a bit, but he didn't even look phased from the impact a moment ago. And whatever the hell Doctor Light was doing to Artemis couldn't be good. It hurt his head to see it from here, had all he could do to remain upright. Okay, at least the Icicle was hurt. This was going to suck.

"Hey Artemis! Remember that thing I told you not to do? I lied! Do it! On my mark! Regroup. Now. Back to back!" The Atom shifted quickly through the spectrum of sizes. There was one advantage he had.

His previous belt could access only a fraction of sub-atomic scale. His could go much smaller. He shifted quickly into the sub-sub-atomic realm. A world where he had once been a god. A chieftain and a shaman. As he dropped into the realm he sprinted. Blood was starting to pour from the head wound. His vision was obscured. But he had distance to cover. He latched onto a rogue electron, a by product of all of the extra energy put out by Artemis' taser arrow. He road the electron back toward the building Venom had just crashed out. Though on this level that no longer existed. As he hit the dial again on his belt he prayed he had done the math right. Otherwise he could be trapping himself in the wreckage under tons of debris. One misplaced shift of which could cause a collapse and kill him.

He had done close enough. He was about three yards short of where he intended. But it was close enough. Assuming Venom would listen, and that whatever effect Artemis was being put through that she would have the ability, the willpower to push on and get to him.
 
Grundy shrugged off the impacts. Grundy felt no pain. Grundy felt little besides Rage. Rage, Vengeance and Hate. They were what pushed him on at this moment. The promise that he would get to take Vengeance on the men that had taken his life. The men that had twisted his mind, his body, and turned him into a monster. He had not always been a good man in life. But it was the brainwashing of Brother Blood that had brought out the inner beast. He was then gifted strength, durability, and power beyond anything he had ever known. Just as Brother Blood had promised. But then he had been a liar. He intended for him to be a pawn. He throw him away. It was all his fault. And now he could never properly get his vengeance. Because of the Arrow. He would have to settle for breaking The Arrow's toys instead.

"HRNAAAAAAWWWGG! GRUNDY KILL TOOTH MAN! GRUNDY BREAK YOU LIKE HE BROKE OTHER ARROW!" Grundy charged the lunging Venom. What Venom lacked in raw power he made up for in agility, quickness.

Grundy attempted to swat him out of the air like a bug. Grundy wasn't exactly slow. He moved faster than most humans could in a fight to be fair, but compared to the symbiote empowered soldier, he was definitely a step or two behind. His fists shattered earth, tore through cars and other obstacles as the two went round for round. Grundy may not have hit every shot, but he didn't need to. It would only take a couple to make the difference.

As The Atom called out an audible Grundy roared. "GRHAAARRHHG! STAND AND FIGHT TOOTH MAN! FACE GRUNDY, DON'T LISTEN TO TINY MAN!"

Grundy's Fury was palpable. He sought the death of these heroes. He clearly didn't care about the kids, this was personal.
 
Quarreling. (Artemis)

Artemis had next to zero chance to celebrate taking Icicle down a peg.

Doctor Light landed beside Artemis. His light armor faded and he grinned. ""Oh.... just what I wanted. A new toy. Trust me darling, I am going to enjoy you."

"Everybody wants to play with me," Artemis snarled, "it's a curse. But seriously, games and I do not have the best history."

The foul Doctor snapped his hands into the air, twisting them like a fire juggler would control their chain. Suddenly light was spinning all around he and Artemis. Lights from every spectrum. Blurring, Blinding. Doctor Light began bending the wavelengths of these lights. He began to detonate various patterns of the lights. Enough to induce seizures or worse on most. Potentially even those of a lethal variety.

Reflexively, almost instinctively, Artemis slammed her eyes shut, threw her injured arm across her face--

--but it wasn't good enough. Light's pulses had enough frequency and amplitude that she could see the scattering shattering lights right through her eyelids, she'd only bought herself a little time, she could feel herself shaking and twitching, involuntary muscle spasms, the build-up to something far more horrible--

But maybe a little time was all she needed--

--she dropped her crossbow--

--even as her injured shoulder screamed at her, both her hands swept up for her quiver--

--came out again holding broadhead arrows, ones whose heads were painted with nonreflective coating for stealth missions, they wouldn't even glint, and with a fierce cry she stabbed for where his hands would be.

...even if Ollie hadn't trained her in blind-fighting, the number of times Daddy Dearest had dropped her in a pitch-dark room and forced her to fight her sister...

Even with her eyes shut, she could see the lightshows Light was casting, his juggly little hands were right at the center of those pyrotechnics, she just aimed for the dark places at the heart of the light.

Tried to drive those arrows through his hands.

And whether she successfully hit his hands or not, she was ready with a follow-up, had to keep moving, had to go go go--

--put a pin in her she was done gotta keep moving stick and move--

--still with her eyes closed, she moved to run up Light's chest, to parkour off of him like she'd done with the car in mid-air--

--aiming a toe-kick center-mass at his jaw as she back-flipped away, fell back to regroup...

"Kiai!"

"Damn! Light, you better save some of that for me. I don't usually like sloppy seconds, but that little girl is gonna pay for that!" The Icicle cringe as he struggled to regain his feet. The force of the shock had driven him to his knees, and he was still trying to get his muscles and nerves responding correctly. The left side of his body was also slightly charred from the dispersal of the electrical current along his ice-covered form.

"All this talk about seconds," Artemis growled as she blinked bleary eyes, dogged by afterimages, floating patches before her retinas, "and you haven't even bought a girl dinner."

As she fell back from Light, her right hand went for her quiver again, drawing another arrow, flinging it like a dart--

--a magnesium flare arrow.

The kind that would burn under water.

"Hey Artemis! Remember that thing I told you not to do? I lied! Do it! On my mark! Regroup. Now. Back to back!"

Atom changed position almost like he could teleport, and Artemis, still shaking off the effects of Light's epileptic barrage, snapped open her longbow again-- she'd had to ditch her crossbow in the tussle with Light-- and-- after a couple of tries-- located that arrow that was two ounces heavier.

She put the arrow to string, drew it back, her ice-battered shoulder braying with protest as she nocked the arrow-- she clenched her teeth and pulled through the pain--

"--okay, Professor," she grimaced as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, "but since you fail at full disclosure-- how do I use this thing? Where do I fire it? Who do I fire it at? These are things that could be good to know!"
 
Last edited:
Even with her eyes shut, she could see the lightshows Light was casting, his juggly little hands were right at the center of those pyrotechnics, she just aimed for the dark places at the heart of the light.

Tried to drive those arrows through his hands.



She had to keep moving, had to go go go--

--put a pin in her she was done gotta keep moving stick and move--

--still with her eyes closed, she moved to run up Light's chest, to parkour off of him like she'd done with the car in mid-air--

--aiming a toe-kick center-mass at his jaw as she back-flipped away, fell back to regroup...

"Kiai!"

The arrows didn't pin cushion his hands, but they tripped him up enough to break his concentration. The violent, fatal, aurora borealis-like effect began to fade quickly as his hands tripped over the arrow. There was a pop as the arrow caught between his hands and his left wrist popped. The wrist began to swell almost instantly as the radius popped as he suffered a grade III sprain. His wrist, now useless, he screamed out in pain.

He lost sight of her for only a moment as the pain caused him to see a bright white burst as the nerves in his wrist and hand were overloaded in pain. But that was all it took.

Artemis drove her left boot hard into his hip joint as she sprinted up his body. Her right caught him square in the solar plexus, knocking the wind from him, her left then came down again on his right shoulder, shoving him off balance as she drove her right foot squarely into his face. His nose exploded under the pressure of her boot, and he was sent reeling, collapsing in front of the Icicle, struggling to catch his breathe and regain his footing.

"All this talk about seconds," Artemis growled as she blinked bleary eyes, dogged by afterimages, floating patches before her retinas, "and you haven't even bought a girl dinner."

As she fell back from Light, her right hand went for her quiver again, drawing another arrow, flinging it like a dart--

--a magnesium flare arrow.

The kind that would burn under water.

The arrow lacked the force that it would have had, which was all that gave Light the chance he needed.

Light blocked out the pain as best he could, he again pulled the photons in the atmosphere together into Hard Light Shield, similar to the heat shields used by the space programs for pods reentering the Earth's atmosphere. As the arrow exploded, the intense heat washed over the shield, burning at over 5600 degrees fahrenheit, the heat was immense. However, Magnesium burning in open atmosphere creates an amazingly bright light, exactly what Doctor Light needed to cannibalize the flame. Drawing on the light, he created a hard light bubble, pulling it in around the flames he was able to put suffocate the flames, though doing so took a great deal of energy and concentration. Light was starting to feel the exertion.

Icicle ducked behind Light. While Light absorbed the flames, Icicle administered first aid via his freezing touch. Numbing Light's injured face and wrist. "That should help the pain. She can patch us up when we get the kids back."

Atom changed position almost like he could teleport, and Artemis, still shaking off the effects of Light's epileptic barrage, snapped open her longbow again-- she'd had to ditch her crossbow in the tussle with Light-- and-- after a couple of tries-- located that arrow that was two ounces heavier.

She put the arrow to string, drew it back, her ice-battered shoulder braying with protest as she nocked the arrow-- she clenched her teeth and pulled through the pain--

"--okay, Professor," she grimaced as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, "but since you fail at full disclosure-- how do I use this thing? Where do I fire it? Who do I fire it at? These are things that could be good to know!"

The Atom put his hand on Artemis' shoulder. He pressed his third finger deeply into the soft tissue, shifting it he pushed on the nerve cluster in her shoulder. Effectively disabling the nerve cluster temporarily.

"That should help. Amazing what you learn when you have actually been in the human nervous system. Innerspace was right, hilarity ensues." Atom removed his hand and looked at her for a second. "Oh. Right. Target. The Atom looked at the Villains. Icicle was busy helping Doctor Light, looked to be about twenty-one feet. Grundy and Agent Venom were still slugging it out. They were within range though. But he didn't want to get the Agent in the effect. Dwarfstar had just joined his comrades. Again speaking in the link created by the Martian, "Ok. Listen. I know your smarter than most give you credit for. I know you have insane training. But I need you to trust. Too hard to explain. Just launch it in their general direction. It'll do the rest.
 
Venom

This was insane. The symbiote was giving it his all, punching and kicking with power which hurt even hurt John's hands and feet. Grundy just shrugged them off and kept coming, it became apparent that speed was the only thing that kept Venom in this fight. It also meant that he could not really do anything to help with the other villains. He ducked under fists, jived that millimeter out of reach, jumped, dodged, slid and rolled out of reach of those fists and feet. All the while trying his luck at hitting back, he was too slow a few times and those fists connected. Solid shots, shots which would have broken bones, created internal hemorrhaging and just overall pulverized the normal human form.

But the symbiote absorbed the punishment, it didn't hulk out, it didn't grow any further, and John knew why, they needed speed and bulk denied them that speed. He knew that falling back too soon would bring Grundy towards the Atom and Artemis, he sensed that the time was right, a combination of combat awareness and the symbiote's senses. He hit Grundy with a left hook, more a taunting shot, danced backwards, towards the other three. As Grundy charged after him, he moved forward, jumping at the last millisecond, the fist barely missing him as he fired the webbing, but not at Grundy's feet, or arms, but at his eyes. The webbing blinding Grundy for that precious few seconds, Venom jumped again, twisting in the air and landing in a crouch next to Artemis, ready to attack if necessary. "Go."
 
"You switched off your targeting computer!" (Artemis)

The Atom put his hand on Artemis' shoulder. He pressed his third finger deeply into the soft tissue, shifting it he pushed on the nerve cluster in her shoulder. Effectively disabling the nerve cluster temporarily.

"That should help. Amazing what you learn when you have actually been in the human nervous system. Innerspace was right, hilarity ensues."

"Hey," Artemis snarled, "seriously, boundaries."

But then she paused, and rotated that shoulder, and stared in surprise at it. "Okay. I guess atomic accupressure beats having to ask Coldsore over there to put ice on it. Again."

Atom removed his hand and looked at her for a second. "Oh. Right. Target. The Atom looked at the Villains. Icicle was busy helping Doctor Light, looked to be about twenty-one feet. Grundy and Agent Venom were still slugging it out. They were within range though. But he didn't want to get the Agent in the effect. Dwarfstar had just joined his comrades. Again speaking in the link created by the Martian, "Ok. Listen. I know your smarter than most give you credit for. I know you have insane training. But I need you to trust. Too hard to explain. Just launch it in their general direction. It'll do the rest.

Yeah.

Trust. Not so easy.

But if there was one thing Ollie had taught her, there was a time to go on instinct-- when all the tactics and experience in the world had failed you, sometimes you just needed focus.

And right now that focus-- that instinct-- was telling her to play along with Palmer's half-baked scheme.

The webbing blinding Grundy for that precious few seconds, Venom jumped again, twisting in the air and landing in a crouch next to Artemis, ready to attack if necessary. "Go."

She pulled back that arrow again, leveled it at the approximate center of the knot of villains.

Artemis nodded to Agent Venom.

"I'm already gone."

Nimble fingers released the string and the mystery arrow speared through the daylight...
 
Last edited:
"Leave it," King said to Queen as she seemed eager to retrieve her weapon. The dark-haired woman was more than a bit antsy to get it back, but she knew that doing so would put her at risk.

"You can get another one," King added, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

He turned his attention to the meddling ShadowPax, and as she drew closer he held up the card towards her.

At first nothing happened...

... and she was getting closer.

Then the card began to glow.

When King finally let go of it, the card remained floating above the ground, and the dark color on both sides slowly changed from black to red.

He turned towards his partner.

"It's time for us to go."

The House... always wins.

King's card locked onto ShadowPax, and it shot towards her as if it were focused solely on her and nothing else. It cut through a chunk of the ceiling that fell as if it were made out of nothing but paper... and continued on its way without even slowing down.

The card would follow her every move...
 
Back
Top