Earth 3

Jessi/The Flash: "Footloose and Fancy Free."

"No," the word escaped Tara's lips before she knew it.

Jessi's dark brown eyes ached at that. At the pleading in that.

She hated to do this. On the verge of a modicum of emancipation, she was snipping it away-- but people could be dying, and-- they didn't usually run in this town, but if Superman was off in orbit or another country or something--

"No, please, take me with you, I can't go back in there. Its so close, I can FEEL it!"

'...that's what she said?' The Flash mumbled, but Jessi could tell her heart wasn't in it, Tara's desperation was too--

Tara spun and grabbed the control pad from Jessi's hand, and jumped back.
She stared at the stunned girl, and giggled a little maniacally.

"Hey!" Jessi blinked, her hands grasping at empty air.

'Nice moves, slowpoke,' The Flash opined wryly. 'You win any FPSes with reflexes that good?'

Jessi didn't bother snapping back at The Flash, there was no way she'd be able to explain it--

"Look," she shook her head, "please give that back. Dr. Sovette'll never forgive me if you break her frammistat on my watch."

"Or maybe I'll take you with me."

A fingertip along the touchscreen slider.

Neither Jessi nor The Flash had any comprehension of the epiphany that Tara experienced as The Chaos Field ebbed at her touch.

The theophany.

The geophany.

All they knew was that they felt The Earth move and not, as The Flash would ruefully note, in the fun way.

She rose, the stone beneath her feet lifting her and and the other girl higher, higher, a singular plateau, a new feature of the landscape.
Made for her.
Made by her.
She would leave her mark upon this world, create monuments to Stone.
And there, on that plateau, that pinnacle, she looked down into the eyes of the girl standing so close to her.

Jessi stared at the ground below, at the improvised edifice that held them aloft, and her breath was taken away. Tara's abilities were more dynamic than she'd realized from reading the report, there was an elegance to them, an otherworldliness.

"Hi. Um, yeah, I'm sorry about that. But I think you can understand why I had to do it, right? I mean, look at why I had to do it?"

They were easily 60 feet high, on a slender spike, like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon.

The Flash didn't miss that imagery. 'Heehee, irony.'

"I don't--" Jessi started. But she did. Or thought she did.

"And I can hear them, Jessi. I can hear the stone. They've been waiting for me and we've just been getting in the way."

Tara's hands hand found their way to Jessi's arms, gripping gently, but firmly.

Reflexively, Jessi wanted to pull away, she didn't like to be-- touched-- but-- the imploring, the heartbreak.

"The voices you're hearing," she babbled, "they're probably just synaesthetic effects from your brain's interpreting the geomagnetic field--"

Except what if they weren't? This was fringe science, what if they were the fringes of something totally unexpected.

"If I go back in there, if I let them put me in the box again, they'll never let me out. Can you imagine what that would be like? I can hear the world itself. How could I go even a single moment without that again?"

The Flash was quiet for a moment, which didn't happen often. 'She's got us on that one.'

Jessi knew this. Tara had them cold. And she reached out and touched Tara's face gently, cupped her cheek. She wasn't usually given to such signs of affection, but-- the moment demanded it.

"Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the things, the people you love," she murmured. "Sometimes you have to put your own needs and desires aside for the-- the greater good. I do this every day."

"But if you're lucky," she mused, "you find the right person, then they'll do the same for you in equal measure, you take turns and you give turns and one good turn deserves another."

"Right now there are people out there who could be suffering and I could alleviate that suffering by giving into life's ever-present coefficient of risk."

She stepped back out of Tara's grasp, and nearly teetered on the edge of the pillar. "Sometimes, by giving something up, if you're lucky, if you're really lucky, you'll find that you're equally rewarded. You just gotta-- and this is weird saying this, as a scientist --take a leap of faith."

And she stepped off the edge.

She dropped out of sight.

And as she fell she reached back into her mind and she flicked that waiting switch, that "on" switch, the mental trigger that took The Flash out of the waiting room and put her in the front seat.

Golden lightning crackled around her, faster than gravity, so very much faster than 9.8 m/sec/sec.

Her hair changed hue. From reddish brown to molten golden.

Her eyes glowed.

Everything slowed.

The Flash grinned against the slipstream of the fall and then her hand shot out and grabbed a handhold in the pillar, yanked herself in towards it... within the same instant she was sprinting down the side of the pillar, accelerating into gravity, running facing the ground, her body parallel to the surface of The Earth, her body perpendicular to the pillar...

...and she came rushing up the other side clad in her full Flash regalia, having shed the accoutrements of her scientista counterpart and stowed them away in the flick of a hummingbird's wing. She came running up the other side of the pillar and she gathered Tara up in her arms and she was yet again running down it and through Metropolis with a beautiful stone cold fox cradled against her.

"'Sup?" she greeted Tara. "I'm the Flash. I move quick. So, moving right along... you feel like doing that earthbendy voodoo you do to some bad dudes?"

The distraction caused by the two that had crashed the party was exactly what Clark needed to sneak away. Once out of sight he changed into his suit and took to the sky through one of the upstairs offices in the museum. He watched as the young man held several of the men in some sort of force field. He was amazed, many more people with powers had been appearing since he started to publicly help people. He wondered if this was what Jor-El meant by that in time they would join him in the sun.

He snapped out of his momentary revelry when he heard the leader tell the young man about the explosives that they had strapped to their bodies. Clark focused on each of them to see if the man was lying. But thanks to his x-ray vision he was in fact able to see that the leader was telling the truth. He was fast, but he doubted he was fast enough to disable all those bombs before one of them got lucky and managed to set one off. To many lives were at stake, and he had sworn not to allow innocents to suffer again because of his actions. So he had to figure out a way to disable those bombs without risking the lives of the hostages. “Come on Clark think.” He said to himself as he continued to look on from high above the clouds.

Jessi/The Flash: "Ingress, Regrets, and Digressions."

'Wait,' Jessi demanded.

'Waaaaaaaait.'

'What the Hell are you doing?'

The Flash didn't reply out loud, just ran a little faster.

They both knew that neither of them had the heart to return her to the lab so soon after she'd been given leave to go walkabout.

They both knew that the ability to disrupt the ground under a thug's feet would be invaluable in a crisis, let alone summoning terrestrial projectiles.

And the Flash, for one, knew in her heart of hearts that she was fast enough to protect not only any innocent civilians that were present, but a-- something prevented her from employing the term sidekick-- an inexperienced superpowered individual presently under the unofficial but de facto mentorship of another.

Those knowledges in mind, The Flash didn't hesitate one moment from bringing Tara Markov with her into the lion's den.

Vail_Indigo said:

She smiled.

"No, that won't do."

She squirmed and threw herself from the arms of the very, very delicious speedster.
And half-regretted it the moment she did.
With a touch of a thought, she called out to the stone.
She pulled two from the earth, one for each foot, and let them carry her alongside the Flash.

"This is better. Much better."

Tara pushed ahead, and turned, flying backwards, showing off just because she wanted to.

"And you can call me Terra."

Click to expand...

"Nice footwork, Terra," The Flash grinned, tossing Terra a wink. And then added, largely for Jessi's benefit: "You're a natural."

Jessi made an incredulous scoffing noise in The Flash's mind's ear, as though she washed her hands of the situation.

The museum approached at a rapid clip, and The Flash looked ahead.

"Okay, Terra," she began. "There's dudes with guns at this here artsy-fartsy shindig and we're gonna put the kibosh, you down?"

'When you get there,' Jessi prompted, resigned, 'the first thing you should do is get inside--'

At those words, The Flash put the proverbial pedal to the proverbial metal, accelerating ahead of Terra, blowing into the museum and screeching to a halt in the middle of the floor, bellowing at the top of powerful lungs: "I CAME IN LIKE A WREEEECKING BALLLL."

'--recon faster than they can see and get back out so we can come up with a plan,' Jessi finished, horrified.

"Oh," The Flash frowned, though her superfast eyes were already registering the details of a very complicated situation. "Now you tell me."

Bombs, guns, civilians-- some of them One-Percenters, some of them more on the 99% side of the economic spectrum-- a couple superpowered people-- well, there was a cute retropunk dude with a magic flying Flash Gordon walking stick and a complete ladyhottie with a feather fetish and with the wind knocked out from beneath her wings-- yeah, this was a party all right.

"Hello, everyone," The Flash waved, playing into the awkwardness of the moment. "Everyone, hello."

Jessi couldn't resist a bitter, bitter biting remark: 'Doofus.'

The smaller group had spilt again until it was just one person teams going around looking for the items they had been told to look for. However only one of them knew what was really being sought and when he found the item he gathered it up and left. The others had been paid well, and yet knew nothing so he and his people would never be connected to this. The larger group would be declared terrorists that were trying to disrupt the nation’s economy by kidnapping or worse killing one of the country’s richest men. By the time they were dealt with he would be back and they would have the first treasure. “One down, six to go.”

The Man From Mars

"Johnny!" Captain Tern shouted as J'onn (in his guise as John Jones) stepped towards him. "Glad you're here," Tern announced.

J'onn carefully avoided a few of the SWAT officers who were prepping their weaponry outside the perimeter of police cars and yellow tape. He made his way to Captain Tern, who stood in his patrol commander's uniform just beside a marked police car.

Tern wasn't his superior as J'onn was a member of the Criminal Investigations Division. But, he and Tern had made fast friends over the past few months, despite J'onn's disdain for Tern's favoritism towards the use of expletives.

"Status?" J'onn inquired.

"Terrorists," Tern responded. "Robbery in progress. Hostage situation. Take your fucking pick."

J'onn nodded. He then focused his powerful Martian eyes into the interior of the museum.

What he saw astounded him.

Tern looked away towards the SWAT team just behind him. "I'm not sure what SWAT has up their sleeves," he remarked, "but we're sure as shit going to need to get a line of communication going with these fuckers."

Tern turned back towards John.

But, John wasn't there.

Tern shook his head. "I fucking hate it when he does that."

Invisible and intangible, now, the Martian Manhunter moved through concrete, rebar, and steel walls of the museum. He settled into the interior, quietly watching the events unfold.

The Hawkgirl was engaged offensive with the enemy. She was joined by an individual with a staff of power. And, presently, a flash of movement and a hearty cry heralded the arrival of another super-powered female.

Surely, J'onn thought, the Kryptonian would be somewhere about as well.

One of the bad guys, perhaps to get a better tactical position on the winged warrioress, nearly ran through J'onn's intangible form. But, when the enemy had gotten close enough, J'onn stretched out his arm and made it solid as steel. The bad guy ran into the Martian Manhunter's arm and completely clothes-lined himself to the floor.

As the man looked up from the floor on his back, J'onn slowly materialized in the full uniform of a Manhunter.

The enemy looked up into glowing red eyes.

Those red eyes gazed back at him.

The faintest hint of a smile moved at one corner of the Martian Manhunter's mouth.

Green Knight

Dropping low to avoid any radar or eyes in the sky, the green glowing form moved at speeds no ground craft could handle. Hell he should have been higher up. A lot higher up. The sonic booms would be coming soon, and a few windows would be rattled. A lot would even be shattering.

And the pillar of stone rising up from nowhere surprised the living shit out of him. Jigging to the side he rolled and looked back at the two figures. The one in the ultra tight red spandex outfit was pleasing to the eyes.

Very Pleasing.

And then they were a blur themselves as they began to move. But he didn’t have time to chase a skirt, or skirts. Focusing on his goal he saw what he wanted to look like in his minds eyes, and form reflected imagination.

Sweeping along the ground the Dragon rose up alongside the building as the Green Knight flipped head over heels. Dropping through the hole in the roof he crashed into one of the hostiles, armoured knees forced the foolish man to the ground, knocking the wind out of him even as a gauntleted fist knocked the consciousness from his skull.

Green vines snaked outwards enveloping hostiles and innocents alike. Green seed pods of energy snapping around everyone they touched.

Looking up, with visor closed, the Knight took in the room with his own eyes, even though he already knew where everyone and thing was.

When the next arrival crashed through the roof, all attention focused on the new-commer, even the two attackers who had almost made their way to him. Ollie on the other hand did not look, he acted, drawing his fist back he threw a devastating right hook into the spot behind one thug's ear. He went down in a heap, unconcious, as his partner turned Ollie's fist connected on the side of his head, the man reeled back, sat down heavily and collapsed backwards, arms and legs flung apart.

"Where did that come from?"

It was one of the socialites, he didn't know her, but she definately knew him. He massaged his hand, it should be hurting right? Then he gave her a wry smile,

"Rocky Balboa...I just think that I did it wrong, it hurt like hell."

The fallen thugs had drawn the attention of another thug, who turned towards Ollie and the group around him, the snub nose of a SMG swiveling towards them. Ollie knew he had to appear who he was while doing what he must...didn't make sense, but dual personas seldomly did. He grabbed a diamond necklace from the neck of the socialite and threw it, of course it would hurt nor disable, but the necklace did hit the thug over the eyes, making him flinch away, the spray of bullets firing randonly into the top floor. Next followed a handbag, the lady Ollie snatched it from cried in alarm, but the heavy bag sent the gun slithering away over the tiled floor.

"Wow, it actually worked."

Ollie had time to rearrange his face into a mask of shock, then he grinned,

"Red Socks of course."

The thug produced a knife and came for Ollie,

"Uhm...sorry?"

Ollie started to back away from the pursuing thug.

Jessi/The Flash: "Out of The Frying Pan and Into the Mine Field."

The super-people were coming out of the woodwork like whoa.

First there was that tall dark mysterious drink of shamrock shake doing a fade-in out of nowhere, and then some fella in similarly verdant armor did the opposite of raising the roof, complete with a quite-contrary garden. (Wait, bringing the house down, that was a thing, duh.) Each of them seemed like eight tons of bad-ass in a single-ton container.

One of the one-percenters showed he knew how to put his money where his knuckles were-- only to get shot at and almost knifed.

'Things are unraveling fast,' Jessi noted. 'If those bombs are real, then one of them could pop at any second. We need to strip them off of their goons and get them out of an enclosed space with people in it, for starters. Maybe Miss Markov could muffle them under a stone-dome? ...she's still outside.'

"I'm on it like feathers on the chica-dee over there," The Flash hissed, and then cupped her hand around her mouth, calling upwards to the floating guy in the leather jacket.

"Hey! Johnny Ramone 2099! Looks like you an' me missed the memo that all the heroes in The Big Apricot that aren't Superman gotta wear green, huh?" she hollered. (Of course, neither of them had seen Ollie in-uniform yet, so she didn't know that the trend went even further than she thought.)

"You wanna drop those guys like they're hot? I got this juggling routine I've been meaning to practice and I'm fresh outta chainsaws!"

Jessi/The Flash: "Taking a Digger."

For those in the room with senses in the normal range of human perception, the bombs would appear to disappear all at once, between heartbeats, in the very blink of an eye.

Even for those with vastly accelerated sensoria-- certain Martians, perhaps, or certain Kryptonians looking on from on high --the bombs would seem to vanish one by one, but onebyonebyonebyone, like a letters being gobbled up by a cursor as someone mashed down on the delete key. The cursor, in this instance, would be a continuous streak of red and gold leaving hammerblow footprints in its wake.

From those that had been force-fed to forcefields, and from those who had been clamped by the Oan equivalent of Venus flytraps, and from those who were still standing (after all this time), their explosive vests just dropped away.

...far away.

Initially, The Flash had been about to dump the lot of them outside in the street-- but there were cops out there, oops, she must've steamrolled right past 'em coming in, so instead--

--The Great Lawn at Centennial Park was just a synapse leap away. Hopefully it was far enough away that the blast wouldn't damage Jessi's favorite memorial monument--

--oh right the blast.

--doofus.

The world blurred once more, there and back again, and Tara Markov would find herself propelled all-but-instantly to that selfsame spot.

"LUDO!" The Flash begged her, with eyes wide behind her goggles as she frantically gestured the shape of a dome over the bombs. "CALL THE ROCKS!"

The goon which had advanced on Ollie suddenly stopped and looked down at the disappeared vest. Unfortunately for him, he had backed Ollie and himself close to one of the drapes which hung ceiling to floor. The moment his eyes dropped, Ollie struck. Solar plexus, jugular, temple...Ollie took hold of the limp form and stepped behind the drape with the goon, testing the window and finding that it could crack open without an alarm and that he could slip out and close it without any further alarms.

Ollie slipped away, he knew where his car was and it took him mere moments to reach it. The Police had massed at the front and was only busy spreading out now. Ollie quickly slipped into his uniform, Lex would have to wait, he was sure there would be enough time during his stay to confront him. In uniform now and bow in hand, Ollie found that a car was missing...he frowned, he really had to take a quick count when he gets the time, perhaps somebody had slipped away.

Turning back to the building, it took him mere moments to slip passed the spreading Police cordon and back inside the way he had come. Once inside he found that Lex was still threatened by the leader, what was it with the man? Ollie knew that Lex practiced martial arts, why would he stand like a deer in the headlights? Shrugging, Ollie fired an arrow. It struck the gun and ripped it from the grasp of the man holding it, some of the other goons still had the prensence of mind to turn their guns on the hostages and Ollie knew he could not disarm them all in time...

Clark had never stopped watching as he tried to figure out what to do about those bombs. He was taken aback by the red / gold blur that seemed to hit each of the criminals and remove the bombs from them. He thought about following the streak to see where it went with the explosive devices as he began his decent to the museum. But even though the men didn’t have their bombs they were still dangerous with those guns. Guns they soon wouldn’t have as Clark began to focus his heat vision on the weapons and watched them become too hot for them to handle.

As he flew in through the skylight he had expected to have more men to disarm, however it seemed someone else had already done that with arrows. Clark however near the ceiling as he looked around the room and saw the leader advancing on Lex and another arrow shoot out and strike the man’s weapon. Clark looked to where it had come from and his theory about who could have been responsible was confirmed. He then looked back towards Luthor who still looked afraid of the man it was as if he recognized him somehow.

“You will pay for you did to me Luthor. You thought you had gotten rid of me, but you were wrong.” The man said.

“Look Corben, you should still be in the facility. We told you that the accident had caused some damage and we needed to repair it.” Luthor was talking calmly, but he wasn’t sure what the man would do. Usually when he talked to people he had a sense of what they would do, but Corben was no longer the man he had known.

Not knowing what was going on Clark landed next to the two men and put his hand on the other man’s shoulder and picked him up by the scruff of his neck. “Don’t worry Mr. Luthor I don’t this gentlemen will be bothering you anymore.” He said in a slightly disguised voice.

“Isn’t this something the alien shows up to protect you. If he only knew.” Corben said. However he didn’t say anything else. Instead he let his actions speak for him as he kicked the Kryptonian and sent him flying through the far wall.

Jessi/The Flash: "Down in The Underground, You'll Find Someone True."

Beneath palms of stone the bombs' concussion became little more than percussion, and The Flash punched the sky even as the reverberation faded beneath her bootsoles

"Hah!" she roared. "Helping Hands! Kind of mixing your Labyrinth metaphors, there, but I can dig it."

Zipping over to Tara, she threw an arm around the beauty's slender shoulders, gesturing grandly to the stony dome. "In fact... you remind me of the babe. Y'know, the babe with the power..."

'Right, so,' Jessi hesitated, 'now that we're done taking undue risks with a patient's life...'

The Flash's reply to that was little but a snort. "I'm betting that you're in no hurry, Terra, to go back to that oubliette, am I right?"

Green Arrow

Well that was something new, he had seen what Superman could do, could withstand, but a kick that sent him flying like that? That was just strange. As the man turned towards luthor again, Ollie pulled back with an arrow notched and let it fly, he had aimed for the thigh, but the arrow clattered harmlessly away,

"Right."

A pistol shot rang out, a wicked projectile buzzed passed his face. He ducked away as more shots rang out, breaking the window behind him. He was on the move, arrows flying with unnerving accuracy, hitting weapons, cutting open hands, thudding into shoulders, by now most of the attention was on him and soon he had to take cover, half of the remaining thugs had been taken down. Pistol fire smashed into the pillar, keeping him pinned down.

"Guys? Round about now would be great?!"

The Last Son of Krypton had revealed himself.

J'onn J'onzz, however, had little time to make introductions.

Another had joined the fight, himself clothed in green and loosing arrows in a re-imaging of Legolas Greenleaf (no coincidence there, either).

J'onn also immediately recognized one dressed in the uniform of a member of the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians of the Universe were well known to the Martian. After all, was it not the Manhunters of Mars whom the Guardians themselves had crafted their own Manhunters?

Martian Manhunter was taken aback when he saw the human kick the Man of Steel with enough force to send the Kryptonian flying. J'onn's brow furrowed and he moved to spring into action. He then remembered the bad guy whom he stood over. J'onn struck him quickly in the side of the neck sending him to a quiet unconsciousness.

J'onn's first action was to rid the room of three of the thugs who were actively engaged against the archer. He reverted to the invisible, moved swiftly to where they stood, and reverted back to the visible in front of them. He had hardened his body to impenetrable form, and their bullets ricocheted off him. With lightening speed he reached out with both hands, grabbing their weapons from their grasps and crushing them in his hands. For the third one, J'onn's eyes glowed fiery red and beams of pure energy lanced out and melted the bad guy's gun into a molten puddle of metal.

The three men simultaneously gasped and looked at the Martian.

They met his gaze.

Their eyes locked.

And the mind of one of the most powerful telepaths in the known universe connected with each of theirs.

Through the link, the Martian Manhunter sent images of nightmares. Horrible and terrible things assaulted the thugs' small minds.

They shrank in terror. They cowered in fear. J'onn severed the link and left them there on the museum's floor curled into balls and sobbing like the infants they were.

Turning, he saw a girl moving in a flash, spotting her here and there as she moved with incomprehensible speed. He knew that to human eyes she would be invisible. She and one who seemingly held the power of Earth herself were dealing with the explosives placed about the museum. The Martian Manhunter, seeing things were well in hand, turned to the man who had struck Kal-El.

Martian Manhunter ignored Lex Luthor.

"Surrender," he offerred. He then added, "for you have no idea of the things I can do."

Jessi/The Flash: "A Lesson is Learned But The Damage is Irreversible."

Vail_Indigo said:

"Fuck it. Lets go."

[/COLOR]A stone carpet rose under Terra's feet, carrying her back to where all the hitting was happening.

Click to expand...

The Flash lit up at that, at that fierce declaration and that earth-roiling departure.

"It's all in the name of Science, Jess," she pointed out, as the geokine surfed the turf away from them. "We're stress-testing the suit."

'...you're stress-testing me. You're stress-testing me.'

"Please," The Flash dismissed. "I keep our blood-vessels in tip-top working order, you're not gonna pop one. Just like I'll keep the bad guys from popping Tara. Mmmkay?"

'Arglbargle.'

...but then The Flash was zipping to catch up with Tara, easily changing gears to keep pace with the terrareformer with a breezy backwards jog.

"Hey, you like Scrabble? We could play Scrabble later. When you're ready to let the dust settle."

It's only in your head.

Inside the mind of the unconscious Shiera Sanders all hell was breaking loose. The past lives were in chaos all trying to think of someway to get her back up.

From the depths of what made Shiera who she had been in all of her past lives came a sound like a door breaking in. The chaos came to a total halt. "$%#43ER$##% *&)$#w#WQW" came the strange voice from the depths.

"She's free," Cinnamon said, "That thing is free. We can't let it get ta Shi shi. Y'all know that right?"

"We shall not let it," Exoristos said, "We have locked it away before, and we will again."

The Wingwoman was in a fury. Lieutenant Nara Ral Advanced up the pathways of the shared mind. Too many lifetimes had passed without the wings being downloaded and purged. Add to that the fact that most of the mind prints were of a savage backwater race and this spelled no end of trouble.

The animals had no idea what the wings could do, but if Nara could get to the current mind, she would be glad to show them. She would one way or the other return to her world to make report on this dirt ball.

"Savages! You will make way and allow me to pass. If you do not stop me I will insure that you will have the honor of having your mind prints placed into the database. This is an honor never before given to a non-Thanagarian."

Chey'ra advanced at the front of the others. "I know not what you are saying fiend, but you shall not pass." Cinnamon and Exoristosat her side. She remembered when it was just the other and she in the depths of the wings. They would go through periods of battling and times of loneliness. Until Shiera had put on the wings. Until the soul that had been Chey'ra's made contact and the wings downloaded every single "soul sibling" of Chey'ra's between she and Shiera.

Three crashed into one. The Wingwoman buckled back, but in a rage surged forward. To be stopped dead in her tracks by a press of "bodies". The rest of the interloping trash. Nara screamed in outrage and frustration as the others pushed her back and back. She would squirm free of some and others would grab her and push her back again and again.

Finally the animals slammed her back into her "cell" and slammed the door shut. "I will be free again." Nara growled.

With the force of the Wingwoman being put back in her cell the psychic burst hit Shiera, snapping her back into consciousness! "The hell," she said, "Oh, yeah, big fight. Umm, mace." reaching into the feathers she withdrew the mace. "Let's get this party going." She scanned the room. Big guy and green dude faced off. Green glowing guy with a whole bunch of baddies restrained. Chick on a bedrock flying carpet incoming with someone running besides the flying carpet. Civilians. Get the remaining civvies out of the building. She began to move.

Green Arrow

Ollie had no idea who did what, but when the barrage of gun-fire slowed down, he garnered a peek. Three thugs were on the ground, screaming like mad men, three men were out of action with arrows in their shoulders, two men were clutching their hands, but looking for weapons. Now facing the obviously super powered man there stood a massive green guy with a curious set of clothing. He ducked behind the pitted pillar as two thugs saw him, he popped out the other side, leveled his last arrow and fired. It hit the thug to the left in his left thigh, sending his stumbling into his mate.

Ollie ran towards them, vaulting the huddled down guests, dodging a display case and reaching the last two thugs. He slapped their pistols from their grasps, using the bow as a bo, he delivered blunt impact hits to their nerve points. As he moved on, the two men lay crumpled on the ground. It was clear that the thugs had hit the museum expecting trouble, but up close, they were pathetic, as the second wounded thug found out as the bow slammed into his lower back and the base of his skull. Ollie did not really think that the last of the thugs he had wounded would find a pistol, yet he had. Ollie did not take into account that the man would turn this weapon on the hostages as he did. A shot rang out and a shriek of pain rang out.

The broken wrist could be explained to fury, the wicked slash of where the bow string had cut the skin open to the bone could be explained to blind rage. The unforgivable was Ollie stradling the thug, trying to strangle him with the bow,

"Coward! You wanna shoot somebody you shoot me!"

How ironic that the bullet which slammed into his side and throwing him from the barely alive thug came from a thug who sported an arrow in his leg. Ollie rolled with the movement, got to one knee and threw the bow, breaking the thug's nose and not for the first time in his carreer Ollie was thankful for the kevlar in the suit. The thug who had shot him was out, Ollie looked around, it seemed like most of the thugs were down and out,

"OK people, run!"

How was he to know that the woman with feathers had the same idea?

Clark had crashed through one of the Jeffersonian’s walls and across the street into a parked truck. “Wow… wasn’t expecting that. Haven’t been hit that hard since Zod.” He thought to himself as he got up. “Can’t let that slow me down, there are people in there that still need help.” With that last thought he sped off back to the museum. This time he would take the man much more seriously.

MEANWHILE:

Martian Manhunter ignored Lex Luthor.

"Surrender," he offerred. He then added, "for you have no idea of the things I can do."

“Really?” Corban asked with a smile. “Why don’t you show me?” he said as he looked to his left just in time to see Superman come fly back in. “Or how about you Superman… since you seem eager to fly to your death.”

“Don’t count your corpses before they croak big guy. As you can see I’m not dead yet.” Superman said as he land and began to formulate how he was going to do this or even if the green guy was going to act first. Or maybe they should just jump this guy at once. It might save the city billions in repairs if they could stop this guy fast.

J'onn

The Martian Manhunter shifted his red-eyed gaze to Superman as he touched down on the museum's floor.

“Don’t count your corpses before they croak big guy. As you can see I’m not dead yet.” Superman said as he land and began to formulate how he was going to do this or even if the green guy was going to act first. Or maybe they should just jump this guy at once. It might save the city billions in repairs if they could stop this guy fast.

J'onn turned back to look at the man, then again he ever-so-slightly caught Superman's eye. Martian Manhunter reached out to the Last Son of Krypton with his powerful mind.

Trust, he sent through the telepathic link. For together we are unbeatable.

Then Martian Manhunter faded from view. He moved, now invisible, behind the man, between he and Lex Luthor. J'onn then reverted back to the visible. He tapped the man on his shoulder and then violently pushed him with both hands towards the Man of Steel.

AmenRa said:

The Martian Manhunter shifted his red-eyed gaze to Superman as he touched down on the museum's floor.

Trust, he sent through the telepathic link. For together we are unbeatable.

Then Martian Manhunter faded from view. He moved, now invisible, behind the man, between he and Lex Luthor. J'onn then reverted back to the visible. He tapped the man on his shoulder and then violently pushed him with both hands towards the Man of Steel.

Click to expand...

Clark had a rather surprised look on his face when he heard the other man's words. But it felt very similar to when he and Zod talked in his mind on the Black Zero. Only this wasn't using Kryptonian technology, was this man telepathic? That was a question that Clark put aside as he saw the leader pushed towards him. Clark didn't hesitate this time as he did his best to land a haymaker on the man which sent him flying.

But what was surprising was that the man got up and jumped right on top of Clark. "I'm not some human punk you can layout with one punch." he told Clark as he landed a right to CLark's gut. "I've been rebuilt. My body was nearly destroyed in a helicopter crash in Afganistan. But my brain survived, and lives on." The man said as he continued to pound away on the man of steel. "I'm going to live forever now Superman, this body will never wear out! Not so long as it's powered by my Kryptonite heart!" With that last sentence the man kicked Superman again sending him flying.

Clark was stunned and feeling weaker by the moment. He didn't understand what was happening. He felt weaker, in a similar way to when he was first introduced to Kryptonian atmosphere. But he eventually adjusted to that. This was something different. He felt warm as if he were getting what humans would call a fever. His strength though still there was fading, and he was starting to feel this man's punches and kicks. They were doing more damage each time.

The Last Green Martian

LuckyVic said:

But what was surprising was that the man got up and jumped right on top of Clark. "I'm not some human punk you can layout with one punch." he told Clark as he landed a right to CLark's gut. "I've been rebuilt. My body was nearly destroyed in a helicopter crash in Afganistan. But my brain survived, and lives on." The man said as he continued to pound away on the man of steel. "I'm going to live forever now Superman, this body will never wear out! Not so long as it's powered by my Kryptonite heart!" With that last sentence the man kicked Superman again sending him flying.

Clark was stunned and feeling weaker by the moment. He didn't understand what was happening. He felt weaker, in a similar way to when he was first introduced to Kryptonian atmosphere. But he eventually adjusted to that. This was something different. He felt warm as if he were getting what humans would call a fever. His strength though still there was fading, and he was starting to feel this man's punches and kicks. They were doing more damage each time.

Click to expand...

The Martian Manhunter listened to this human. He was unsure what exactly the man referred to when he spoke of 'Kryptonite', but J'onn was instantly intrigued by it.

J'onn was also intrigued by how this human was obviously getting the better of the Man of Steel. Kal-El appeared to be weakened by the human, and he seemed to be growing weaker by the passing second. Was this affliction something to do with the Kryptonite the man spoke of?

J'onn resolved he would learn the answer to this question soon enough. Right now, though, his first priority was to deal immediately and decisively with this super-powered individual. The others seemed to have things well in hand in dealing with the rest of the museum robbing thugs. So, the Martian Manhunter brought his full attention to bear on the one who appeared to be determined to kill the Last Son of Krypton.

As the man's attention was focused on Superman, he did not see when J'onn stepped up behind him. Martian Manhunter reached down and picked the man up by the scruff of his jacket and spun him, and then with lightening fast strikes he hit the man squarely in his torso. One, two, three, then four strikes in quick succession. Martian Manhunter then stepped away quickly and launched a side thrust kick that sent the man flying across the museum and into one of the support pillars.

J'onn was on him before he could recover. The Martian's arms became liquid, gelatinous, and wrapped around him. J'onn's arms became solid again, covering him from neck to waist, pinning the man's own arms inside a solid carapace of an impenetrable cloak.

J'onn looked up to the museum's skylight. Still holding the man immobile, though he struggled fiercely, the Martian Manhunter rocketed through the museum's open roof and into the sky.

"No matter how powerful you may be you still require oxygen to breath.", J'onn noted against the rushing of wind that blew past as they accelerated into the upper atmosphere.

Within seconds they reached the outer fringes of atmosphere, where oxygen was nearly non-existent.

J'onn knew the man would soon feel the effects of hypoxia. His body, starved for oxygen, would begin to shut down. J'onn counted on this, and when unconsciousness took him, he would descend again to Earth.

He would, however, need a contingency plan when the human awakened.

Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter sent with his powerful mind, be ready with a containment field upon my return to the surface.

J'onn looked into the man's eyes. As I told you before, 'you have no idea of the things I can do'

AmenRa said:

Within seconds they reached the outer fringes of atmosphere, where oxygen was nearly non-existent.

J'onn knew the man would soon feel the effects of hypoxia. His body, starved for oxygen, would begin to shut down. J'onn counted on this, and when unconsciousness took him, he would descend again to Earth.

He would, however, need a contingency plan when the human awakened.

Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter sent with his powerful mind, be ready with a containment field upon my return to the surface.

J'onn looked into the man's eyes. As I told you before, 'you have no idea of the things I can do'

Click to expand...

The man struggled with the Martian frantically as they went higher and higher. Then when they reached that point that the Manhunter had intended the man's struggles grew weaker and less frequent until finally he stopped and went limp.

As was J'onn's plan he began to decend now that he had the man unconcious. And made his plans to contain him upon reaching the ground. However what J'onn hadn't expected was that the man had no need for oxygen. After a few moments the man thrust his head back making contact with the Martian's own head with the same kind of force that the man had attacked Superman with.

Green Lantern - Ground

Looking up the mental words ripped into his head, Kyle shrugged, he was getting used to impolite people that poked around in your noggin. Most of the upper echelon Lanterns did it all the time.

Weaving a containment field of Vines and green energy, he set it in place for the green man and waited. Watching as yet another individual went about getting their ass kicked.