Difficulty
Day 97
17:02 GMT -5
"Ah?" Mr Lawton looks up from the briefcase he's packing with paper money taken from a cash machine someone ripped open. "Oh hey, you're that guy with the Green Lantern fixation, right?"
A short way behind him, Volcana is sending a torrent of flames into an office block while Star Sapphire is
taking shots at something I can't see. Kalibak is lifting a car over his head, presumably intending to throw it at the police forces forming a barricade down the street.
The slave-animal is to prioritise the study and acquisition of the Zamaron crystal.
As you wish, Master.
"I only hunt Green Lanterns in order to recharge."
"Whatever, man." He starts straightening out the bundles of notes to fit them in better. "Go find your own ATM. There's plenty-."
Armour forms around my body as a bolt from Master hits him in the chest, tossing him back and spinning him around.
"Professionally, I hunt
assassins."
He recovers and raises his hand-mounted guns-
No useful data is derived from this fight. The slave-animal will engage the Zamaron slave-animal.
-and I
fire a small bolt through each gun. He takes a moment to look at his ruined right armature.
"Well
that's awkwa-."
I bring a
bat construct down on his head. He goes down with a
grunt, then groggily tries to rise. I suppose that I haven't really practised non-lethal options. And I'm not carrying handcuffs or anything like that. Master-.
I grunt in disorientation as Master generates a… A nerve jammer construct, a far more complicated device than I could hold in my mind without Master's…
Help. Mr Lawton convulses for a moment and then collapses fully. He should be out for… A while, without
much long term injury.
Thank you, Master.
"And who are you supposed to be?"
I
rise up into the air until I'm level with Star Sapphire. No idea whether or not it's Carol Ferris under there, though the accent
suggests not.
Was there ever an English Star Sapphire? I don't remember. This one didn't really seem to be an intelligence-orientated supervillain so I've made a point of avoiding her. Under other circumstances, talking to her to discover her background might be useful, but the situation
here is that supervillains are rampaging through a city.
I fire a
bolt and she
parries with a glowing violet shield before
firing a beam at me from her headdress. I
jink to my right and the beam flies past me-.
I hear the sound of breaking glass. Right, city I'm.. trying to protect. It's a novel thing to have to worry about. The Shadows didn't usually use heavy ordnance like that. She
fires again but this time I
add a shield to my armour and tank the shot.
"Green Lantern usually manages to fire back. Are you n-?"
I stick my right arm out to the side while my left supports the shield and
send a bolt around in an arc. It
strikes the side of her headdress-
"Agh!"
-and makes her wallow clumsily in the air, and I
take the opportunity to surge forward-.
Lightning crackles around my armour, which insulates me completely from the attack.
"
Hey, what
gives?!"
I ignore
Ms Willis for now and roundhouse punch Star Sapphire in the right eye. Her environmental shield appears to take most of the hit, but she jerks back woozily once more. Two more punches to the head and then I drop my shield construct to
grab her around the throat, my right hand
glowing as I reach forward-.
Her eyes focus for a moment and
the gem lights up-.
I'm flying backwards, though my armour construct is holding against the force of the blast.
I reinforce it as I try and catch sight of Star Sapphire, to spot whether she was actually hurt or just playing possum.
Master-.
Bwougpf!
Something
heavy hits me and then I'm surrounded by
fire and
pressure. I
focus on
my armour and on
gaining height and I swiftly rise above-.
Kalibak's second thrown car sails underneath me to his evident disappointment. I reach out with my right hand,
generate a large hand construct, catch it and slam it down on him! The car comes apart as it hits his head and he barely grunts, and the ignition of the fuel from the petrol tanks apparently doesn't warrant any more of his attention. Okay, I can dodge cars, and this area should be evacuated sufficiently that-.
Bolts of energy slam into my armour, though some go past me into the night sky. Looks like punching her did
some good. And there isn't anyone to
hit if she aims at the sky. I
surge again, moving in a tight arc to a position directly above her, then I
surge downwards,
construct bat in hand. She spots me, eyes wide, about half a second before I
slam it directly into the jewel on her forehead. Her environmental shield
wavers and she collapses bonelessly towards the ground, striking the tarmac and rolling in an uncontrolled tumble until she stops, unmoving.
Good enough data?
The abilities of the enemy slave-animal were pathetic.
I drop down,
thrust my hands through her blinking environmental shield and pull off her headdress. Her costume immediately begins evaporating, replaced by a white business blouse and calf-length skirt.
And as I look at the Star Sapphire jewel for one glorious moment I imagine putting it on and being freed of Master's influence permanently.
No. I wince as my armour -which
apparently had decayed into nothing as I stared transfixed at the jewel-
flares back into existence just in time to block the column of fire spewing forth from Ms Selton's hands.
"
Back off."
"
Her environmental shield is off.
I can take this.
She can't."
The fires fade, flames limiting themselves to dancing around her fists. "I thought you were a serial killer."
"
I'm a bounty hunter. The commission was for 'dead'."
"What, did
Metropolis hire you?"
"No. Superman did me a favour. I'm repaying-" She
winces. "-it. I assume that you don't-"
My construct fist grabs Mr Doe out of the air and
squeezes until I hear his ribs snap. "-feel the same sense of obligation."
"
No education, no records, and the people who did everything to me got away with it."
"Do they live in Metropolis? Do the people who let them go live in Metropolis?"
"Ye-."
"
In any of the buildings you just torched?"
"Ah, probably.. not."
"Then what the fuck are you doing? If you were attacking the actual people you wanted dead I'd get it, but you're attacking people you don't even want to hurt? The fuck is wrong with you?"
She.. doesn't appear to have an immediate response.
"Shut the fires down and maybe I'll forget that I saw you."
Right. Now for Kalibak.
