The Legion [Mods] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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legionmissions2017-01-03 06:11 am
letsgolegion) wrote in legionmissions2017-01-03 06:11 am
NO SANITY CLAUSE [modplot]
Who| Open to everyone not in "Silent Horizon"
What| An alternate version of The Joker, Herald of Chronoblivion, wreaks havoc on Cargg
Where| Relegg, capitol city of Cargg
When| Shortly after the other half of the team is deployed to the Silent Horizon
Warnings/Notes| Bombs, madpeople, forced drugging/torture of civilians, creepiness, and chaos
It starts with a bang, of course. Bombs going off, Joker gas making innocent Carggites go completely mad. Joker gang members, paid mercenaries and criminals, pour out into the streets, damaging property and attacking whoever they come in contact with. It's all one big nightmarish surprise -- but one that clearly took a lot of planning. All these bombs, and gas deployment systems, and tech suppression devices, and all these minions... it's random and yet not, calculated and improvised all at once.
This universe hasn't seen a villain like this in 1000 years, and last time it saw it, it was the same one, albeit a version native to this dimension. This one's from another similar dimension, but he dances around in the middle of it all the same way, laughing. Floating cameras broadcast his face to every viewscreen in the UP; he's taken over all the channels.
His body is strange, the colors of his skin and clothes and anything he touches black and white and inverted, like the negative of a photo, but that wide Cheshire grin is just as sinister as it's always been -- in the past or present, in this universe or any other.
"Hellooooo United Planets! Are you sick of having most social ills abolished? Tired of languishing under the heavy burden of an actually functional justice system? Are you bored with never wanting or needing for anything?" He waves both arms with a flourish and does a little soft shoe. "Then it's your lucky day! For a paltry sum of absolutely nothing, you can have your very own Joker! I slice 'em, I dice 'em, I make julienne surprise! Which you need desperately; just admit it, living in a perfect universe is a drag! Humdrum! Tedious!"
He blows a raspberry and waves a hand like it's the worst thing he's ever heard.
"It's a bunch of hooey, I tell ya'. Fortunately, for you, I'm here to blow the galaxy wide open!" Explosions go off behind him and there's a chorus of screams. "Literally!"
He lets out a chilling laugh, like someone's just told him the funniest joke he's ever heard.
"I even recruited a motley crew of madmen to help me with this momentous occasion -- including some UP citizens I tortured to insanity in my Ha Ha Hacienda, my own little homemade Arkham just outside the city. I missed some old friends, don'cha know, from the golden days when psychotics could roll through the revolving doors of the nuthut and freely wander the streets. I couldn't get any of them crazy enough to put on a bat costume -- that was a little too nutty even for them, hoo hoo! -- but I managed to get some familiar faces grinning back at me again, with only a turn or two of the thumbscrews."
His smile widens, even though that should be impossible for it to get any wider.
"This is just the start! Because your precious heroes, those brave souls in the Legion of Superheroes -- they've kept a little secret from the fair citizens of the UP." He leans in close to one of the cameras. "And it's that I'm just the opening act! The warm up! The main event is still to come. Y'see, I'm good pals with Chronoblivion, a monster from outside of space and time that's almost as maniacal as me, and after I've set the galaxy on fire -- and made sure it's well done -- he's ready to settle in for the main course, i.e. you. Your whole universe is going right down the hatch!"
He sweeps both arms out.
"Until then, sit back and enjoy the show, kids! I promise it'll be a gas!"
Another bomb explodes, filling the area around him with Joker gas. Screams in the area around him start turning to hysterical laughter that matches his own laugh, which bursts out of him like a living thing.
"HA HA HA HA! AHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"
What| An alternate version of The Joker, Herald of Chronoblivion, wreaks havoc on Cargg
Where| Relegg, capitol city of Cargg
When| Shortly after the other half of the team is deployed to the Silent Horizon
Warnings/Notes| Bombs, madpeople, forced drugging/torture of civilians, creepiness, and chaos
It starts with a bang, of course. Bombs going off, Joker gas making innocent Carggites go completely mad. Joker gang members, paid mercenaries and criminals, pour out into the streets, damaging property and attacking whoever they come in contact with. It's all one big nightmarish surprise -- but one that clearly took a lot of planning. All these bombs, and gas deployment systems, and tech suppression devices, and all these minions... it's random and yet not, calculated and improvised all at once.
This universe hasn't seen a villain like this in 1000 years, and last time it saw it, it was the same one, albeit a version native to this dimension. This one's from another similar dimension, but he dances around in the middle of it all the same way, laughing. Floating cameras broadcast his face to every viewscreen in the UP; he's taken over all the channels.
His body is strange, the colors of his skin and clothes and anything he touches black and white and inverted, like the negative of a photo, but that wide Cheshire grin is just as sinister as it's always been -- in the past or present, in this universe or any other.
"Hellooooo United Planets! Are you sick of having most social ills abolished? Tired of languishing under the heavy burden of an actually functional justice system? Are you bored with never wanting or needing for anything?" He waves both arms with a flourish and does a little soft shoe. "Then it's your lucky day! For a paltry sum of absolutely nothing, you can have your very own Joker! I slice 'em, I dice 'em, I make julienne surprise! Which you need desperately; just admit it, living in a perfect universe is a drag! Humdrum! Tedious!"
He blows a raspberry and waves a hand like it's the worst thing he's ever heard.
"It's a bunch of hooey, I tell ya'. Fortunately, for you, I'm here to blow the galaxy wide open!" Explosions go off behind him and there's a chorus of screams. "Literally!"
He lets out a chilling laugh, like someone's just told him the funniest joke he's ever heard.
"I even recruited a motley crew of madmen to help me with this momentous occasion -- including some UP citizens I tortured to insanity in my Ha Ha Hacienda, my own little homemade Arkham just outside the city. I missed some old friends, don'cha know, from the golden days when psychotics could roll through the revolving doors of the nuthut and freely wander the streets. I couldn't get any of them crazy enough to put on a bat costume -- that was a little too nutty even for them, hoo hoo! -- but I managed to get some familiar faces grinning back at me again, with only a turn or two of the thumbscrews."
His smile widens, even though that should be impossible for it to get any wider.
"This is just the start! Because your precious heroes, those brave souls in the Legion of Superheroes -- they've kept a little secret from the fair citizens of the UP." He leans in close to one of the cameras. "And it's that I'm just the opening act! The warm up! The main event is still to come. Y'see, I'm good pals with Chronoblivion, a monster from outside of space and time that's almost as maniacal as me, and after I've set the galaxy on fire -- and made sure it's well done -- he's ready to settle in for the main course, i.e. you. Your whole universe is going right down the hatch!"
He sweeps both arms out.
"Until then, sit back and enjoy the show, kids! I promise it'll be a gas!"
Another bomb explodes, filling the area around him with Joker gas. Screams in the area around him start turning to hysterical laughter that matches his own laugh, which bursts out of him like a living thing.
"HA HA HA HA! AHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"
Blue Rose and Yuuri Katsuki | Firefly
"Look at how they dance. So beautiful."
There are forms that look like people dancing in the flames; they move like living things as they spread and try to consume the actual people running from the fires springing up.
Powers: A human, with no natural powers. However, he has a flame gun that lets him set things on fire, and even cause explosions. His antigrav wings let him fly and his clothes are completely fire retardant.
no subject
But there were more trying to get out of the burning buildings nearby. He couldn't fight Firefly and free them at the same time.
Luckily he wasn't alone. Not far off he saw a flash of blue.
"Blue Rose!" Yuuri called out. "I need a hand!"
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Oh. Yuuri. What was his codename again? "Sloshy" had to by a joke of some kind. She skims over, flying over the rubble to avoid having to land, and settles down near the skater. Already maxed out on rescues, but... She'd already gotten the full score, the polite thing to do would be to let Yuuri handle the burning building while she dealt with the firebug up there. But she'd seen him at work and, while there wasn't exactly no talent there, people's lives were at stake. Points didn't mean anything if she was the sure rescue.
"Distract him. Don't try to fight, just distract. I'll join you as soon as I've put out that mess." Not waiting for a confirmation, Blue Rose snapped out her orders, then flitted up into the air, blasting ice streams from her liquid guns through every open window she could spot.
Her methods were cool and methodical. If you took away the flying it'd be something she'd done dozens of times before. But there was a lot of fire and a lot of windows. It'd take her good while to put out everything and make ice slides for the Carggites to exit with, and paying attention to a raving pyromaniac wasn't something she could manage while busy with everything else.
no subject
He skated forward, still preferring his feet on the ground. It was a neat little trick he'd learned, using the ice powers to glide across the ground, like the entire world was an ice rink.
"Hey, stop!" he called out to Firefly, aiming blasts of his ice powers at him in the air. "Um, you're under arrest!"
That sounded at least vaguely authoritative, right? If it seemed like he was just trying to bring him in, it'd seem less like just a distraction.
no subject
no subject
Thankfully, she was wrapping her end up quickly. She couldn't just flash-freeze the buildings, not with people inside. But they were rapidly evacuating and she was hearing less urgent reports of little old ladies or children a few rooms down. Whether that meant she'd taken too long or she'd cleared them out, Blue Rose didn't know. She preferred to t0 think it was the latter.
"I'm nearly done over here. Listen." This was someone else's job. She wasn't suited for coordinating or anything like that. "I just came out of one of the tech suppression zones. Three blocks east. Can you make it there or do you need help?"
no subject
"I can make it." Yuuri was sure that someone else (someone confident like Victor) might have made a crack about Firefly being hot on their tail, but that someone wasn't Yuuri. "...I think."
The problem here was that he couldn't just turn tail and run or he'd get fried. He had to be able to look at Firefly. Now, he could skate backwards, but he also had to make sure he didn't accidentally run into anything.
But this was a problem he could handle. It was like a complicated step sequence, right? It was just like him dancing his away across the ice.
...Except, you know, for the fact that if he didn't dodge the fire, or if he tripped or ran into something, he'd die.
Still, he fought down the fear and he danced and twirled, alternating between zipping forward and turning back to dodge fire every time he heard the crackle of Firefly's fire-shooting gun powering up. Occasionally, he antagonized him, firing ice blasts at him, or causing ice to jut out from the ground or from the sides of buildings to try to hit him. He was careful to put walls of ice up if the blasts seemed like they'd hit buildings that possibly still had people inside.
Yuuri managed to get him in range of the place Blue Rose spoke off, in a way that seemed like him trying to simply fight him off to escape, and he was careful to not telegraph where she was by looking for her. If it was an ambush, then he had to make it seem like he was fighting Firefly alone.
no subject
Glancing to the side, someone shouted that he was the last one in the buildings, and the other had been totally empty. Satisfied, she nodded and, with a harsh crackle and a flash of blue, froze everything in both buildings, extinguishing the flames and coating either structure in a layer of frost. A little cruder than her usual, but time wasn't on her side. She had to get out before Mr. Nice Guy there got himself killed playing decoy.
Time to move. She'd had the techs connect her minicomm with her HeroTV bracelet, allowing her to call up a hologram with Yuuri's location. Much better than scanning the streets for bursts of flame. Spotting his ring signature on an overlaid street map, she took to the air and cut a direct path to them.
It didn't take much time when she could soar above the buildings like this. No wonder Sky High had such an easy time of things sometimes. With a ring like this, she could have been the King of Heroes years ago. Yuuri wasn't exactly making a bad showing of himself, once she got to a bird's eye view of things. Definitely had a sense of style, though she wasn't sure that fleeing from a man like Firefly was the time to show it. Not too far from the edge of the null tech-zone, either. She held her breath for a moment, glowing blue, and gave them just a little bit more to close in on the border.
Firefly looked like he realized where they were, he was trying to pull up. No time for grace, then. She spun both of her freezing liquid guns around her fingers and fired down, twisting the streams together to form an open hand the size of a car, a slap from the heavens rapidly covering the distance between herself and the twisted arsonist.
no subject
Letting out a wordless noise of defiance, he twisted in the air, bringing his flame gun to bear. He triggered the secondary function once, twice, three times, catching the hand in a trio of explosions that shattered the windows around them and turned the ice sculpture into a mess of hail flying right back at Blue Rose.
Clumsy. He should've been watching his back. He keyed the controls to his anti-grav wings, trying to slide away from the domed null-tech field that he'd nearly brushed against. His equipment was powerful, but there's no way he'd stand a chance against two elementals like this with no technology.
no subject
One surefire way to drag him down was to weigh him down, so now that he was in range, Yuuri blasted his ice powers at Firefly's wings, adding extra weight. He wasn't sure how they worked but whatever tech made them work would probably would be interfered with by the cold and ice, too.
"Blue Rose, what now?"
He was figuring this out as he went, but he didn't know what to do next. He was relying on her judgement.
no subject
Suddenly, the yank of gravity jerked her out of the sky. Had the edge of the zone been that close? She tumbled for a moment, then pointed with a finger, generating an ice ramp, gathering her feet underneath her in a practiced maneuver, and sliding in a long, looping spiral to bleed off her speed as she approached the ground.
The impact caused her to gasp again, hissing under her breath, and she tapped her side with a hand, coming away with a streak of red on her glove. Wonderful. She pressed her hand tightly to the pained area, winching as she covered it with another sharp crackle of ice. "Don't just weigh him down! Encase him in the ice! That suit of his will keep him insulated and it should be supplying oxygen, so don't worry about that and just make sure he doesn't escape!"
no subject
"Amateurs!" His voice was muffled, but clearly understandable. "Should've just taken the advantage from the start!"
He couldn't outrun them like this. Not with this much weight on him. But in the null-tech zone, without those flight rings of theirs... Laughing, he blew the connection between him and his anti-grav wings, sending him spiraling up into the air, then an explosion of flame carried him across the street, through a window, and into the dead area. The flame gun was now dead weight, he ditched it. He'd have to build another. For now, though, his best bet was to make it through the building, lose himself in the rubble and wreckage surrounding them, and come out after they'd given up looking.
no subject
"I'll cut him off!"
If he took the ground level and Blue Rose followed him in on the second level, they could make sure to corner him.
no subject
She went in on the third floor. No way had Firefly beat her there. The pain in her side made her a little short of breath, but she pushed through it and moved towards the stairs and elevators. No power to the elevators meant that they wouldn't be moving, but she still used her ice as a battering ram to blow the doors open, then fill the shaft with a column of ice.
Methodically, she continued to the stairs, sealing the stairwell behind her and coating every surface with a layer of frost. There wouldn't be any escape past her, but it would be best if Firefly were trying to go up.
It's when Karina was rounding the corner, on to the second floor, where she slipped on the stairs. Fortunately, she caught herself with the railing, but she had to stop for a second to catch her breath, holding her hand to the patch of ice on her side. Shaking her head, she fought off a wave of dizziness and recomposed herself. What would her fans say if she'd seen that display? Embarrassing.
no subject
The other guy, though? He reeked of someone who'd never seen a real fight. That, Firefly could push past.
He took a moment to prepare himself, then ran out of the stairwell, hurling the can at Yuuri as soon as he spotted the skater. He followed the can, of course, one hand sliding behind his back and grabbing a rod. Flexing his wrist, a small, hand-held fire axe snapped out of the rod, swinging from the side to catch Yuuri in the ribs.
no subject
The only way to do that without losing his whole arm was to try to move his arm with the direction of the blow, and that meant he was thrown off balance. He stumbled towards a wall, slamming into it and turning around to see Firefly swinging the ax at his head.
He yelped in alarm and dropped to the ground, sliding down the wall so that the blow hit the wall over his head instead of his neck or face. Then he kicked Firefly in the knee, which made him stagger backwards.
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"My ice may be a little cold..." She cocked her thumb forward, sending a solid ram that enveloped his arm, axe and all, freezing it in a thick coating. The impact spun him around, leaving his arm dangling by his side. "But your crime has been completely put on hold!"
She cocked her arm and smiled for the utterly non-existent cameras, catching Yuuri's eye and jerking her head slightly. Something like this, delivering the final blow to his first real villain would be one heck of a confidence booster, if she was any judge.
no subject
She said that his suit was insulated so Yuuri quickly climbed to his feet again, held out his hands and encased Firefly in a column of solid ice, immobilizing him. He left a few air holes around his mouth, just in case his tech that produced oxygen wasn't working because of the tech suppression field.
"You--um--"
'You stay put'? That sounded really dumb so he didn't finish the sentence.
"I don't really have a catchphrase or anything," he admitted to Blue Rose.
Still, he...he actually felt like maybe he could do this superhero thing. He'd just helped someone catch a bad guy and saved a lot of people. That was pretty heroic, right?
no subject
"Most heroes don't." She planted her hand on her waist, over the cut. "I mean, there's me, Sky High... 'Fire' isn't much of one, so Fire Emblem's out, and Wild Tiger doesn't use his so much anymore." A good thing, too. It would be damaging to Barnaby's image. "Just don't go with anything as lame as Mr. Ice Guy."
She gestured, forming an ornate throne of ice, and settled down on it, propping her cheek on her fist. "We're not far from area where the technology works, but one of us is going to have to guide the police here. Why don't you handle that while I make sure he doesn't escape?" Not moving around for a while, waiting for her side to stop hurting so much, was just what the doctor ordered. It was a good thing she was a good actor, but it was getting harder and harder not to wince whenever she moved.
no subject
It wasn't like she couldn't take care of herself, but there was a lot going on. There were plenty more bombs, Joker gang members, crazed Carggites, and villains out there.
They were all supposed to help each other.
no subject
"Shoo. The sooner you're back, the sooner we can both be out there."
no subject
He knew he couldn't say "right away." He'd possibly have to fight his way to get to other Legionnaires or the Science Police and there probably would be people that needed to be saved along the way.
He skated out of the building and went off to find who he needed to. It took longer than he would've liked. There were some Jokerized Carggites that he had to stop from attacking some civilians and since they were mid-fight he couldn't just ice them in a pen like he'd done near the soldier guy. He had to separate them first and lure them off so that he could trap them.
With the comms working so shoddily, he couldn't just buzz the Science Police either. It was at least fifteen to twenty minutes until he found him, and even longer before he returned to the building, leading them in.
"This way. Blue Rose stayed behind to guard him and --"
When he saw what lay before him, he stopped dead in his tracks and his blood ran as cold as the ice he could now make. Yuuri clasped a hand over his mouth and tried -- and failed -- to hold in a shriek.
In the center of the room, where the ice column holding Firefly had been, there was now a gruesome sight -- a bubble of water that was boiling, and what was clearly the remains of a now-dead man boiling in it, both his body and his insulation suit breaking down under the onslaught of the heat. What was even more strange and horrifying was that this bubble was still perfectly preserved within the column of ice, like the heat wasn't affecting it at all. It was like some kind of miracle -- or maybe "abomination" was a better word for it.
Yuuri gagged at the sight, and had to work hard to keep himself from throwing up. If it wasn't for the fact he was used to having to swallow down bile every time he got nervous competing, he probably would've lost his breakfast. One of the Science Police officers -- a rookie -- wasn't so fortunate, and he threw up on the floor.
But the more shocking sight was what was next to the ice throne Blue Rose had made, which was now melting. Several Carggite civilians had taken shelter in the building and they were trying to help Blue Rose, who lay still and pale on the ground. Her side was soaked with blood, that pooled on the ground around her, the costume completely soaked through. One of the Carggites was holding a cloth to the wound at her side. Another was performing CPR. A third was holding up her legs, as if trying to treat her for shock.
For a moment, Yuuri could only stare, mouth hanging open, face pale, eyes wide and watering.
"I don't -- I don't understand," said Yuuri weakly. "She was fine. When I left, she was..."
One of the Science Police officers took out a med kit and a scanner and dove to her side, trying to help.
"A man told us we would be safe here. A man in a green jacket," said a Carggite, standing there, looking distraught as her other two triplicated selves performed chest compressions and rescue breathing. "When we found her, it looked like she'd been trying to keep that wound iced over but couldn't manage anymore, so we -- we tried to help her."
"The man in green just stood there, like -- like he was waiting for her to die," said another Carggite, a triplicated twin to the ones putting pressure on the wound and holding up Blue Rose's legs. "The moment she stopped breathing, he -- he did that."
The Carggite pointed to the boiling remains of Firefly and shook his head, looking away like he could barely keep his eyes on the sight.
"The man didn't try to help or anything," he went on. "He just waited until she...until she...and then he said something about judgment and did that. Then he left."
"How long?" asked Yuuri, dropping to his knees near Karina, ready to scoop her up and run with her if he had to. "How long since she...since she...? This is the future, right? Your technology is so much more advanced than back home. I bet they can still revive her! I just need to get her to a threshold gate and back to the Medbay on Legion World--"
"Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty," said the Carggite giving CPR.
The Science Police officer looked at his medscan and shook his head unhappily. "That's too long, even for our med-tech. She's...she's too far gone. The scans show too much neural damage. Resuscitation might be possible, but not neural regrowth and reintegration."
The officer place a hand on Yuuri's arm and Yuuri's heart sank.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing that can be done for her now. She's gone."
The Carggites finally stopped giving CPR, finally acknowledging that it'd long since stopped being a futile gesture, and stepped back to give the officers and Yuuri some space. One of the triplicates of the Carggite man that had been putting pressure on the wound comforted the female triplicate who had been doing chest compressions as she started crying.
Now that there was space, Yuuri crawled up towards her head, looking down at her pale face.
This is your fault. You're supposed to look out for your teammates and you didn't make sure she was really okay before you left, said the horrible little voice that always chimed up when he needed it least. You're a failure.
This was the worst he'd ever felt, worse than even his dismal failure during the last Grand Prix Final. His life had been too shallow to feel guilt like this; competitions paled in comparison to life or death struggles, to the opposing forces of shame and responsibility.
His face screwed up, he pressed his knuckles against his closed eyelids, and he let out a screeching noise of distress that made it so the officers and Carggites were looking at him with pity when he finally opened his eyes again.
Then, his expression going blank, tears still rolling down his face, he reached out for an errant blanket that they'd clearly tried to use to keep her warm at some point, judging from the blood stain. He covered most of her body and face with it, and lifted her up in his arms.
"We'll...we'll take care of...that," said one of the officers, pointing at the boiling mess inside the ice. "Whatever it is. You...you just worry about taking care of her, and your people, okay?"
Yuuri didn't offer a response as he walked out the door with Blue Rose. As her hair started to thaw out, her tiara fluttered to the ground, forgotten.