The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent
vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums
here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules
document is now in effect.
[IC] M&M: All Star Justice League
Posts
"Uh," she said. A memorable quote indeed, right before staggering over to a trash can and... well, the Tapas and Jujubes were not playing nice with the severe gut punch.
Even more flash bulbs went off.
"That's right folks, Knockout just got knocked out by Supergirl! Any questions?"
"Is she throwing up?"
"No, she's just a little camera shy. Next?"
"Seriously, is she throwing up?"
"No. She's very humble, much like her late cousin Superman, whom we all loved. New and more appropriate questions please. Next."
"Are you and Supergirl dating?"
"NO. What is wrong with you people? You're talking about Supergirl. When she's old enough to date she'll be out of my league. And yours too. And also yours, Ralph. I'm not taking questions from you. Next question... how about you over there."
"Is Supergirl still recovering from her fight with Blockbuster."
"No comment. I'm not her boyfriend or her agent guys, maybe you could ask something I'd actually know."
"Is it true that your company is in bankruptcy once again?"
"No comment. Next."
"Booster, is this an isolated incident?"
"That is actually an excellent question. It's too soon to say, but I am working with the police on tonight's events right now, so please disperse and allow me to get back to that. I'll update my twitter account with any new developments and exclusive photos of tonight's events will soon be uploaded to boosteriffic.com"
One thing you had to hand to Booster Gold: he knew how to work a crowd. Reporters immediately turned back to their cameras to begin sending the breaking news back to their various employers as Booster made sure Kara got a wide berth and got the attention of the ranking officer.
"Any more activity in town? Do we have reports of any more meteors, or are we looking at a single attack here?"
Sighed, softly. She knew who she needed to contact.
She reached into one of her utility pockets and withdrew a small earbud, a tiny piece of technology that served as a communication device between other compatible devices within a certain distance - or any others linked through Oracle's network and mainframe.
Flicked the power switch on and stuck it in her left ear, waited for the soft buzzing to stop as it re-connected after a year or more out of service.
"Oracle," Huntress said, trying to remember how soft you could speak on this thing.
Silence.
"Oracle," she tried again, "I know it's been a while, b-"
"No, it hasn't been 'a while'," came the voice on the other end, which swelled with pent up anger with every word, "It's been over a year since you last talked to anyone in the network, let alone me! Dinah went underground with Ollie, Hawk and Dove left for greener pastures, and then you decided that trying to take Batman's place in Gotham was more important than working with the few of us who remained! You abandoned us, you cold-hearted bitch, do you expect me to start making the tea and talking like it was old times?!"
Abandoned was a harsh term.
"I did what I thought was right," Huntress said, trying to remain calm though she felt her hands shaking with her own frustrations, "But we can argue this another day. Right now we just had a meteorite land and expel twelve Apokolyptian soldiers and goddamn Knockout. Me and Supergirl managed to take her down, but I need to know if there were any more that landed. Fill me in."
Silence, again, though Huntress was sure she heard Oracle tapping away frantically on a keyboard in the background.
"Alright Skeets. They say a picture's worth a thousand words. So what is a video worth? Let's get to it."
It quickly became obvious that a hospital didn't have much of anything in the way of video analysis equipment. Best he could do is burn a copy and pull out a close up of the nurse's face.
"Ok, I think we're done here. This entire business stinks to high heaven. Blockbuster is checked into the hospital and within six hours a fake nurse, wearing the correct uniform no less, has replaced his morphine drip with a chemical that keeps him in a coma and systematically destroys his impulse control. So was Blockbuster the target or just a target of opportunity? Either way, there was a plan set up and in place when Blockbuster was brought in."
"Who's plan was it? Who's responsible? Why do this? I want answers." Dr. Palmer looked at the screen. "And this video is the next clue. Time to get this to someone with some decent image analysis capability and see how many words it's worth."
"Skeets. Get Booster back on the horn. What's his situation?"
So not good, she thought. At least she was starting to feel better... and her ear twitched, picking up a conversation. Not the normal din of the officers sealing off the scene and the media trying to get their questions answered, but a word drifted down from a nearby rooftop thanks to her super-hearing.
Oracle. Yeah, she could hear Huntress now - hear her heart beat accelerate a little bit as she shared heated words with Barbara Gordon.
With a blur and a breeze, the Maid of Might knelt behind Huntress and whispered into her ear. "Hey O."
Huntress nearly jumped out of her skin and threw Supergirl off the roof.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, Sir. However, he has sent me a text message indicating that he believes there is a pattern to the attacks. They all have a common denominator, so to speak."
"Really? And what would that be?"
"Supergirl. Booster and I think she is being specifically targeted by an antagonist that is currently unknown."
"I take it this isn't verbatim."
"No, sir. I'm translating from Esperanto, of course."
"Jesus," came Oracle's voice, "You really are working with Supergirl. That isn't going to end well."
"I had a hunch," came the reply.
Huntress tried not to say anything about Oracle taking the Lord's name in vain.
"The feeds are only just coming through," Oracle continued, her tone now less confrontational, "But it looks like ten or more meteorites have crashed to earth everywhere from Gotham to Metropolis, maybe further, I'll keep you updated soon as I hear anything. Um. I'll assume you're near the one that crashed in Bludhaven, gathering by the retweets coming from Booster Gold's official account. No mention of you, though, Huntress."
Huntress nodded, a gesture that seemed to come from pure muscle memory. She looked at Supergirl and said, "We should move to the closest one first, probably either in or near Gotham. The city is barely holding itself together since Batman died, Lord knows what'll happen if a new enemy gets a foothold in there."
Standing up from her perch, Huntress looked over at the Gotham skyline and wondered, when the voice in her ear buzzed, "Hey, don't get yourself killed out there."
She assumed Oracle was talking to Supergirl.
"Yeah, I can see the smoke coming up. I can hear people starting to panic. We have to get over there and help... and I don't think you and me alone are gonna cut it."
She gave a sharp, shrill whistle that rang in Huntress' ear. "Booster, let's go! We've got more around the surrounding countryside."
Kara looked back down at Huntress. "Look, okay, this isn't going to get any easier to ask no matter how I phrase it, so: do you want me to carry you, or Booster?"
"Just call me Booster."
"Booster, it seems several comets have --"
It was then that the ear-piercing whistle broke the window of the nearby police car. Luckily, Booster was still able to hear Kara shouting at him.
"Welp... it's been great but I think there's more of a city to save, Lieutenant. See you on the other side of town."
Booster flew off in the direction of Supergirl's whistle.
"I once cut a man's tongue out of his mouth in front of Batman, before he died," she said, looking up at Supergirl and locking eye contact with her, "I'd sooner do that again than have popcollar down there touch me for even a second."
She double-checked her gear, made sure everything was secured, then put her crossed her arms and looked as Booster Gold came flying up from his impromptu press meeting. He was still holding his phone, for some unknown reason, and as he rose up, they exchanged a look of utter disdain.
"Let's go, then," she finished, then relaxed her muscles a little and got ready for her first air-lift in quite a few years.
What do you say to that?
"Okay, uh, I don't usually do this except for like, kids and stuff," she said, hoping it would make things less uncomfortable. It didn't.
With a clearing of her throat, Supergirl swept Huntress off her feet. "Put your arms around my neck."
The look Krypton's Last Daughter received could have cut through solid steel.
"...So I don't drop you when I hit three hundred miles per hour..."
The only sound accompanying the tension was the sound of Huntress's leather creaking as she very deliberately and stiffly did so.
Supergirl rose gently into the air to the accompaniment of several cries of excitement and camera flashes from the assembled media below.
Booster threw on his practiced smile and gave two thumbs up to the cameras as he flew out alongside Supergirl... who was looking unfortunately awkward. He punched a few keys on his phone.
"Skeets. Atom. It's Booster. Track me down quickly... we have a situation unfolding."
"You said at least twelve, that's only ten." Huntress replied.
"One in Smallville, another just outside Metropolis city limits."
It burst out of Supergirl's mouth involuntarily. Of course she heard it. And Booster immediately followed up.
"WHAT?"
Huntress rolled her eyes as some incomprehensible mutual misbelief passed between Supergirl and Booster.
"Okay, Kara, just calm -- OKAY STOP TALKING -- look... you and Huntress go save like a million people, alright? I am going to Smallville, okay? Get Atom on the phone, get as much info from Skeets as you can and stay in touch. But I am going to Smallville. JUST ME. Someone's trying to call you out and we're not going to play that. I've gotta take this one. You've got to trust me on this one, Supergirl."
Please say yes please don't fight me on this one Kara this has extreme crap that you shouldn't know about all over it and there's things that you just shouldn't know.
Booster's thoughts raced. This is why he really had come back. He'd only realized it a few years ago. When Superman isn't supposed to be dead and Apokalips targets Smallville... unfortunately he had become the man for the job.
"Michael, you... you can't make me make that choice! Please let me go to Smallville and you take Metropolis! I don't care if it's a trap!"
She knew what it meant to have a place you needed to go.
"It's your choice to make, Supergirl, not his."
Booster started to say, "You don't get a vote in this," but was interrupted by Huntress, who replied, "You're damn right I don't get a vote in this, and neither should you! This is Supergirl's fight to choose, not yours! If going to Smallville is a bad decision, then it's her bad decision to make, and God forgive you if you try and interfere with her right to own her own choices!"
"Just... make sure they're okay for me, Michael. Do that before you do anything else, okay?"
"I promise I will, Kara. You didn't even have to tell me."
Supergirl nodded and then looked down at Huntress. "We're going to Metropolis."
"Incoming reports are rather scattered, but seem to indicate a few general locations that have been hit. Lexcorp, the Daily Planet, S.T.A.R. Labs, Metropolis University, Metro Square, and the Superman Memorial Statue."
"Copy that, Bluebird. I'll be in touch. O out."
Kara looked down at Helena. "Guess we're going to be working together for a while longer. Hold on!"
--
A handful of minutes later, Supergirl touched down on one of the buildings a few blocks over that overlooked Metropolis Park and, of course, the Superman/Superboy memorial statues. She set Huntress down carefully and put her foot on one of the ledges, resting an arm over her knee, scanning the area with her super-senses.
"How do you want to go about this? I'm not the greatest tactician."
Everyone has their methods. She was entirely unsure just how Supergirl would react to her less-than-honourable ones.
"I can barely remember the terrain," she replied, having a glance around the layout, "But we should approach the meteorite seperately, if at all possible. You draw their attention and I can take out the outliers while you focus on the big bad, if there is one. Or we could strike in unison and team up to take down whatever's there."
Cracking her knuckles, she glances towards the plume of smoke rising nearby and nods.
"Play it by ear, blondie. I'm sure we can adapt."
On one of the raised cement platforms of the Superman Memorial, stood Amazing Grace.
"So what? It's just a statue, we might be needed elsewhere--"
"It's Superman Memorial. If that falls, the spirit of Metropolis falls with it. You take care of the chick in the robes, I'll keep the people away from the statues!"
With a leap into the air, Supergirl was off like a bullet towards the statues; she landed impressively, her cape flapping in the breeze, and began taking a deep breath.
1d20+9=21, 1d20+1=15, 1d20+4=12 which means the order of initiative goes Huntress, Supergirl, then Amazing Grace.
Reaching for her crossbow, Huntress tried to assess the woman on the platform, clearly the one in control of this strangely uncharacteristic mob of Metropolitan citizens. Her hood, her tights - apparently the New Gods didn't have costume designers from beyond the 1980s - and finally her eyes.
The eyes that locked with her own.
Muttering a curse and then a silent prayer, Huntress forgot her crossbow and instead pulled out her grappling hook gun, aimed and fired, watching as the hook spun out and wrapped itself around the Superman statue's neck. Then it tightened and pulled, and so she was flung forward, unsheathing her staff mid-swing and listening to it clack into full shape. Over the crowd, and finally she released the cable, landing with a thump on the same platform as Amazing Grace.
There was a moment of pause, and the woman pointed a hand at Huntress, opened her mouth to say something, but before she could express a single syllable, Huntress had unleashed a wide sweep across Grace's legs, knocking her off her feet, and followed it with a straight vertical smash down onto the woman's solar plexus, her ribcage audibly cracking under the ferocity of the sudden strike. Then she landed on the ground with a thud and a ripple of cloth, coughing out a spray of blood before her head wilted and fell to the side.
With her foe collapsed on the ground, Huntress stood up from her landing pose and looked down at the body.
"Sure as hell don't match the only God I know," the vigilante muttered.
Hoo... hooray?
When Grace's unconscious body hit the ground, Kara let loose with an ability the Huntress had heard about, but never seen: gale force winds suddenly smashed into the rioters, pushing the people in front into those behind, and pretty soon the entire mob was in a confused, disoriented pile on the ground as the combined blow and lack of a guiding hand shook them from their frenzy.
Kara let out a whew and looked at the Huntress, who stood over Grace like, well, a hunter who just downed a game animal.
"Nice work! I got the rest."
In a blink Supergirl gathered up Amazing Grace and deposited her into the meteor-pod from where she had come. She bent the 'petals' back over the bud of the pod and welded them shut with heat vision before hoisting it up with one hand. She spun around twice and... woosh! It was sent out of Metropolis, out of the state, and off planet.
She clapped her hands and Huntress raised her eyebrows. "Did you just..."
"Yeah. Apokoliptian tech comes equipped with motherboxes most of the time. She'll get picked up sooner or later. Ready to go? We need to get to the square."
Putting a finger to her ear, as Supergirl carefully flew down and put her hands on Huntress, she started relaying the latest information to Oracle.
"Situation by the statues dealt with, the New God has been launched into space by Supergirl. Moving on to the Square now."
"Noted," came the reply, "Oh, and hey, Huntress?"
Supergirl picked up Huntress, the latter's legs sliding and being locked in the crook of Supergirl's arm, and they both waited for Oracle's next sentence.
"You two make a lovely couple."
Both Huntress and Supergirl immediately noticed the security camera pointing at them from underneath the nearby lightpole.
"I'll pass the picture around to everyone who missed the ceremony," Oracle continued, stifling a giggle.
Huntress gave the camera the middle finger, and as their ever-watching friend burst into laughter on the other end of the commlink, Supergirl lifted off, carrying her new partner over the threshold and off to their next battle in Metropolis.
"Skeets."
"Yes, Sir!"
"How's it going with Atom?"
"Wonderful, Sir! We were just --"
"Yeah, whatever. Look, I need you to scan your records for a meteor attack... I need to know as much detail as I can about it, and what happened afterward. It'd be nice to have some advanced intel on Smallville in particular, I'm headed that way."
"Scanning database..."
Listening to where the meteors had hit, Atom made a choice. "S.T.A.R. Labs. There's tech in there I don't think anyone wants Apokolips to have. Not to mention enough chemicals, some explosive, to level half a dozen blocks if it blows. ... Time to make a phone call." The Atom went looking for a phone. Skeets followed behind quietly, having just received Booster's call and was talking with the golden boy.
The nearist phone was at a nearby nurse's station and Atom picked up the receiver and started dialing a number, "Skeets, get close. We're taking a trip." As the phone started ringing, Dr. Palmer triggered his shrink belt once again. By the time the call was answered, he and Skeets were small enough to slip through the holes in the microphone piece of the handset. The pair entered the microphone and were quickly swept through the phone electronics and into the telephone wires. Carried at the speed of the data transmission ,near the speed of light, the miles blew by in an instant.
There it was. *click* "Hello?" The call had been to a random home in a suburb near Metropolis. Atom and Skeets fairly flew out of the speaker at their destination as the confused resident wondered who had called her phone. Grabbing Skeets in an underarm carry, Atom jumped for the nearest window. He slipped between the atoms and was out into the Metropolis night. Once they were outside, he grew slightly to just under five inches.
"Hang on." The Atom was bounding from roof to roof at breakneck speed, raising his mass on landing and lowering it on takeoff. Soon he and Skeets were nearing S.T.A.R. labs and it was clear that the scientific facility was in trouble. Smoke was billowing into the sky and screams could be heard on the wind.
=====
As Atom approached S.T.A.R. Labs, he could see that the Apokoliptian meteor that had impacted the building had torn through hazardous containment. If something wasn't done to contain it quickly, there would be trouble for sure. But he'd have to get into the building before he could do anything.
=====
As Supergirl and the Huntress flew over Metro Square, they could just make out the bloomed Doom-Pod. The entire place was a wreck, as it usually was in the aftermath of a fight between capes. As they got closer however, Supergirl realized that the Apokoliptians in the area were all defeated. Unconscious at best, at worst...well, she didn't really want to think about it. In the center of it all was an impossibly tall, muscled, albino man in a tattered suit.
Solomon Grundy.
"Supergirl," she said, still not looking away from the scene of destruction below, "Have you ever actually fought Grundy before?"
"No," came the reply.
"I've only ever faced him once, when Batman was still around, and he had a simple piece of advice on the matter of trying to defeat him."
"Which was?"
Huntress turned to look right in Supergirl's eyes.
"Don't."
They both took a moment to quite understood what that meant for the upcoming confrontation. Huntress was glad she had brought her crossbow with her, tonight.
The unnerving part was, there were no people around. No bodies either. Had Grundy decided to defend the city against the attackers...?
"This doesn't make any sense. I can see him from here, he's not doing anything except talking to himself. Why would he defend Metropolis?"
"Blondie, Grundy's not really a man. He's more of a force of nature. Anything he does or doesn't do is led by impulse."
Krypton's Last Daughter put a hand on her hip and looked over to Huntress. "Fine, I'll follow your lead on this one. And my name's Kara, not 'blondie' or 'miniskirt' or whatever."
"-upid rock. Hit Grundy on head and now Grundy can't remember what Grundy wanted! Was it pants? No, Grundy already have..." the rest he mumbled so heavily it became incomprehensible.
"Sounds like he's confused... like he doesn't know what he's doing here."
"Well," Huntress said, a smile slowly growing on her face, "We might not be in so much trouble, after all. Grundy is a hulking brute, alright, but generally he's pretty good at being really gullible if he doesn't know what's going on. If we can convince him to just walk on out of here, we might get out of this without needing to get into a battle at all."
Putting a hand on Supergirl's shoulder, she decided not to tell the Kryptonian wonder about how the last time they'd come face to face, Grundy had developed a certain... attraction to Huntress. Hopefully this incarnation of the swamp-thing wouldn't remember the unrequited fascination, but still, something to keep in mind.
"Let's get going then, Kara. Put on your nice face."
"Sure. If things go wrong, I don't want to be the one getting pounded into the pavement."
"...Thanks. Now or never, I guess. Let's go."
Supergirl once again whisked Huntress off her feet and gently began to descend to the ground a little ways from Solomon Grundy. She made sure she landed nice and slowly and within Grundy's field of vision; she didn't want to risk the consequences of catching a being who could level an entire Apokoliptian drop brigade by surprise.
Not that she was nervous or anything.
The Maid of Might set Huntress down, straightened her hair, shirt, pressed out the folds in her skirt, and looked at her uncertainly. "Just stay back here and I guess... watch my back?"
Helena nodded and Kara strode forward carefully. "Hey Grundy, what do you have there? My name's Supergirl, I heard you were looking for something, I think maybe I can help you find it...?"
Booster zoomed toward the nearby Doom-Pod, ready to open fire on whatever malevolence was to pour from it.
Belt: Force Field 7, Life Support, Immune (Critical Hits), Subtle (2 ranks)
Suit: Enhanced Fortitude 5, Enhanced Dodge 5, Enhanced Will 5, Enhanced Ranged Combat 1
So his defenses are...
Dodge 11
Fortitude 11
Toughness 13
Will 11
And IIRC the initiative roll I made before ye crash was 16.
The tiny titan jumped down the building, swooping down and out towards the burning Labs. First priority, find the Doom-Pod and whatever forces rode it down. Second, stop or contain anything else. The fire would have to wait.
"Sir! I am armed with a small fire extinguisher! How may I assist you most effectively?"
=====
Booster Gold got a glimpse of a shaggy man in strange armor before he got smacked in the face with a club. It was Kalibak, son of Darkseid.
=====
Atom and Skeets flew through the building, it wasn't hard to see where the Doom-Pod had gone. Whoever had ridden it down into the Earth however, was gone. Doubtless somewhere still in the building, but where?