NO SANITY CLAUSE [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

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!"

Comments

[katsudork]

WASH

It wasn't that Yuuri hadn't gotten any training or schooling in this stuff. From the moment he agreed to the Legion oath onward, he'd actually been putting in the time and effort to learn. He wasn't a stranger to training hard for something, after all. And this was important, far more important in the grand scheme than anything he'd trained for before. The rest of the Legion needed help and a monster was threatening to consume his world and everything and everyone he loved.

Still, superhero lessons, simroom sessions, and even field exercises were nothing like the real thing, especially when the first time he was facing the real thing was even more chaotic than a typical Legion mission. They'd been given some basic orders, but the sheer mayhem of the situation demanded that they respond with their own judgment and adapt to each new situation, too.

Yuuri wasn't exactly a coward. He wasn't weak, even though sometimes he thought of himself that way. But in this moment, being faced with the first time with screams and explosions and fires and a cackling supervillain on every screen, advertisement display, and monitor in the city, his brain went completely blank. It was like it was suddenly filled with white noise.

As he stood there frozen, eyes wide, his heart pounding in his ears, he was a sitting duck.

JASON GRACE

Robots! Okay, if there was a single cool thing about something so horrible, it was giant robots.

Except for the fact that they looked less like mecha and more like giant nutcrackers or something.

And also except for the fact that they were terrorizing a metropolitan area.

Okay, so maybe that meant they weren't that great, but the idea of fighting them got Yuuri feeling more competitive than overwhelmed. He'd played a lot of computer games with robots, he had this.

That was when the robot threw a car at him, one that he caught with a wall of ice only just in time.

"Bwah!"

Okay, maybe he didn't have this. The guy making distressed vaguely incoherent noises needs a little help, Jason.

OPEN

It wasn't long before Yuuri was looking a little battered, his brand new uniform torn and burned and dirty in places. Sweat was pouring down his face, leaving streaks of grime. This whole thing was the hardest thing he'd ever done, harder than any bit of training, more stressful than any competition.

But he was settling into some kind of weird high octane state of anxiety that was actually working in this situation. Every nerve was buzzing with awareness of the situation around him. His ears were straining for the sounds of incoming attacks or civilians in need of help. His eyes were shining slightly as he looked around to find whatever he needed to solve each new problem. He was lucky that the strapped on safety goggles that he'd been given for field use to replace his glasses had some kind of anti-condensation coating on it or they would've long since fogged over.

And to anyone looking at him from the outside, it likely seemed that no matter how many times he got knocked down or how many exhausting hurdles he tossed himself over, he wasn't even slowing down. He was now past the point that many sentients would've found themselves collapsing with exhaustion, and yes, he felt the ache and burn in his muscles, but his limbs didn't even tremble.

He'd pushed himself this far before, but now he was pushing himself even farther -- because this time, it was so much more important that he did.

"Hey!" he waved both hands frantically, after seeing one of his teammates. "Uh. You!"

Crap, he'd forgotten their name.

"That!"

He pointed at a situation nearby, then mentally cursed himself for his relative incoherence. 'Hey! You! That!' So articulate. But he couldn't really help it. His brain was too busy just keeping him going to make his words coherent.

"We have to, um -- go!"

The thing! They had to go do the thing! Help him do the thing!

[unrecovered]

There are some people who would take advantage of sitting ducks. In this situation, one such person happens to be wearing a clown mask and carrying a length of heavy chain attached to a wickedly curved hook. He loosens a length of the chain, ready to swing it, when-

"Hey, Ghost Rider!"

-he looks up in time to receive a stun baton brutally across the face, courtesy of Wash. The thug crumples into a heap, partially from the impact of the strike and partially from the stun function of the baton. Wash lands easily, kicks the chain away from the thug's outstretched hand, and catches sight of-

Oh, shit, it's one of the new guys, and he's pretty much frozen. Wash has seen this kind of combat stage fright before, and it tends to be a really good way of getting killed. Shit.

"Hey. C'mere." He grabs Yuuri's arm and pulls, aiming to lead (or possibly drag) him into the nearest open building - in this case, a convenience store that has long since cleared out.

[katsudork]

His eyes are still bulging wide as Wash grabs and drags him into the store. He looks at the downed Joker gang member on the ground, barely even registering how close he'd been to getting killed.

By the time they get into the safety of the store (ravaged, most of its shelves overturned, the lights broken and flickering), he's trembling from head to toe.

He's still speechless. The cogs inside his head are jammed, completely still, as he tries to process it all -- and tries to work through the anxiety clutching at his chest and throat with an iron grip.

When he finally finds words, they're not even close to coherent.

"It's -- how --"

Another explosion booms in the distance as one of the very alien explosive devices goes off. There's a bright flash of light and a shockwave that breaks some of the windows of the shop. Yuuri staggers back as if he's been shot, his back slamming into a wall. He sinks down to his butt on the floor and closes his eyes tight, expecting another shockwave or explosion to come, but it doesn't.

[unrecovered]

There's no way to secure the location, but hopefully it won't have to come to that. They shouldn't be here long anyway.

He follows Yuuri towards the wall, flinching and covering his head as the shockwave rattles the shop. Dammit, they should be out there - they don't have time for Yuuri's breakdown!

But if Yuuri goes out half-cocked or wrecked because of Wash's impatience, it's on Wash if he dies. Neither of them need that right now, and the team can't afford to lose a Legionnaire, and...dammit, Yuuri has no combat experience, but he's here anyway.

Wash thumbs the seals on his helmet, removing it as he takes a knee in front of Yuuri. "Hey," he says, placing a hand under Yuuri's chin and gently but firmly lifting it. "What's your name?" He knows - right now, he's just trying to establish a baseline.

[katsudork]

The chin tilt helps. The contact brings him back out of his head to the here and now. He opens his eyes and tries to get his breathing under control.

"Yuuri."

He doesn't even think to give his codename. It's not his name. He's not one of the people who feels like having a codename is a natural fit.

He's just Yuuri. He's just a dime a dozen figure skater, and in the face of something as big as this, a sport is silly. It's nothing. He's nowhere near close to being a superhero. He doesn't even have Victor in the stands, cheering him on. Or Minako-sensei. Or his sister.

He's alone and what's outside the store is just so big. How can he be expected to actually do anything to help fix it?

[unrecovered]

It looks like Yuuri is starting to come back to reality. That's progress, at least. "Good. What's your codename?"

[katsudork]

He grimaces.

"It sounds really dumb."

At least embarrassment is a better reaction than shock.

[unrecovered]

"Still. What'd you go with?"

[katsudork]

"Mr. Ice Guy."

He suddenly laughs but it's a nervous laugh, that slips out because the absurdity is getting to him, even now. He claps a hand over his mouth and it turns into something closer to a whimper.

[unrecovered]

Jesus Christ.

For a moment, Wash simply doesn't react - his poker face is intact, but wow is it ever a struggle to keep it in place. Well, he'd asked. "Right up there with Justin Time, huh," he says as levelly as he can manage.

Well, he'd been planning on a 'be Yuuri on your own time; when you're out here, you're Codename' speech, but there's absolutely no way he can make Mr. Ice Guy sound good in that context. It sounds more like a shitty Schwarzenegger pun than an actual superhero codename, but-

Fuck it. They're here now. He hates improvising, but that doesn't mean he can't do it.

"Yuuri, I don't know what the Legion oath meant to you the day you took it, but right now it means you're the only thing between those people out there and the fucking maniac trying to wreck their planet. You have abilities they don't, and you've promised to use them to help others, and right now they need that help." He pauses for a moment as another blast goes off - close enough to be heard but far enough not to rattle the shop - and continues. "Look, it's a shitshow out there. You know it as well as I do. But it's a shitshow no one asked for, and it's one we promised to clean up, and the people out there who can't fend for themselves are counting on us to do it for them."

[katsudork]

They're just normal people, and it's a normal city. The Carggites were probably all out having a normal day before this started. He thinks of Hasetsu, quiet and peaceful by the sea, and imagines a threat like this happening there. What if it was his family and friends, running and screaming? What if it was his parents and sister, and Minako-sensei, cowering at the inn with the guests, hoping that the explosions and flames didn't reach them?

He looks out the broken windows again and sees civilians running away from explosions and fires, trying to find somewhere safe. Two Carggites, a mother and father, sweep triplets -- no, a single Carggite, but split apart, she looks like triplets -- up into their arms, running with their triplicated daughter as fast as they can. For just a moment, in Yuuri's mind, the family members have different faces: the parents are Yuu-chan and Takeshi, and he sees their triplet daughters in the Carggite girl's place, crying and terrified in their arms.

If it was the people of Hasetsu and his family and friends, and someone had the power to help and didn't, he'd never be able to forgive them. So, if he doesn't help...how can he ever forgive himself?

The empathy he has for the scared Carggites is plain on his face for a moment, etched into the tense line of his jaw and the worried crease in his brow. Then it's replaced by something else, something harder. This isn't the first time he's become someone new, or done something unexpected. He already did it once, for a different, less important reason. His jaw sets and his hands clench into fists, and when he breathes in deep, the calm finally comes. There is a place his mind can go -- the place he works best in -- during those times that he dances across the ice so fast that he leaves the fear and anxiety behind. He finds that place again now.

Yuuri looks down at his clenched fist, at the gold there, on his finger. He might die today. He might die before getting the gold that he originally wanted, but this means something, doesn't it? They gave it to him too soon, but he can still earn it, still try to be worthy of it.

When he looks up at Wash again, he nods once, abruptly. And then he happens to glance outside again, and without another word, he hurtles himself out of the shop. For half a second it looks like maybe he's running away and ditching, but no, that's it. It's because of what he just saw.

His ice powers let him skate across the ground like he's on an ice rink, leaving twin slicks of ice behind him. He streaks right in front of the family he saw moments ago, in between them and the Jokerized Carggites that were about to attack them, and a massive wall of ice springs up between them. Rather than leaving it a wall, he skates around the Carggites in a full circle, spreading the ice wall, leaving the Jokerized Carggites harmlessly penned in with the ice walls too high for them to climb out.

It happens in mere seconds due to how fast he can "skate," and when he finishes, he faces Wash and the shop again, looking awkward because of how he'd just run off without a word.

"Um. Am I supposed to do it like this?"

This is what he's supposed to do, right? He just did it right...right?

[unrecovered]

Wash is expecting pushback, because that's what always happens in these scenarios. He has to damn well work to reach past trauma to wake up the frozen rookie, and rarely do they snap right to combat readiness. He's fully expecting to have to put in a hell of a lot more work here in order to make sure Yuuri doesn't get killed.

So the set of the jaw and the nod are unexpected, and then Yuuri is out of the building so fast Wash has a split second to wonder if the kid isn't a speedster on top of everything else as he snaps up his helmet and sprints after Yuuri, running through the half-second of blindness as his HUD boots. He finally makes it outside to see-

To see Yuuri, who'd been paralyzed with fear thirty seconds ago, neatly wall off half a dozen Jokerized Carggites like he'd done it a thousand times before. It's like flipping a switch, and this is the result.

Hot damn.

And then Yuuri stops and asks for approval, like he doesn't understand that a maneuver like that is pretty damn good for his first time out. This kid is just full of surprises. "Yes! Exactly like that! Your focus is helping people - now get out there and do it again!"

[katsudork]

Now that Yuuri isn't panicking, he holds a hand to his telepathic earplugs, which are relaying all the audio from his omnicom. They're being told orders sometimes -- at least when the comms are working. It's clear that something was breaking them up sometimes, almost to the point of uselessness.

He hears Brainiac 5's voice on the other end.

"Brzzckst -- need assist. Mr. Ice -- actually, I'm not calling you that name, it's ridiculous. Yuuri, or Blue Rose, we need an ice manipulator two kilometers south of the capitol building. The fires there are too out of control for automatic fire suppression and the firefighting teams are overtaxed. Start working your way there."

"I -- I'm on my way."

Fires. He can do fires.

Of course 'start working your way there' implies there's a lot to work through. Probably more of these crazed people, more bombs, more Joker gangs...

More possible death.

But... 'Your focus is helping people!'

Yes, he can keep doing that. He can do focus.

He starts to skate off, briefly turning backwards as he skates to look at Wash.

"Thank you, um...whateveryournameis! I'llgetyournamelater, bye!"

Then he turns to face forward again and he's off.

[notthatjason]

You might think that a Roman demigod would not have faced something as technologically advanced as a robot and on that thought you would be wrong. Granted, automatons were powered by a combination of circuits AND magic they were still as close an approximation as Jason had ever gotten. He preferred when he was fighting things that were less prone to stepping on him, but when you could fly it was a little easier to dodge such things.

There was a lot of chaos on the streets and honestly it was more difficult finding a place that WASN'T in need of a rescue. Jason preferred this kind of work to the survival of the Murder World though so he dove right in and didn't think too much about it.

He was flying overhead when he caught sight of the current battle taking place. The robot didn't seem to have anything particularly in mind to smash -- just general chaos and flinging cars. It wouldn't be easy, but Jason hadn't been on the field for long so at least he was still feeling energetic. He glided in just in time to see a wall of ice shoot up from the ground and block a flying car. From his position in the air it gave him an idea and he dropped down.

"Hey! Nice catch." It wasn't until he was on the ground that he realized the other hero was looking more than a little panicked. Jason glanced back at the ice wall and the robot, yeah, this might be the guy's first battle. Jason had seen this before in his fellow demigods back home. It's not like everyone grew up with the weird. The best way to combat it though was to stay focused on the task at hand. The question remained if Jason could get through his fear, "If you can set up more walls like that we can block this thing's progress and I can see if it's vulnerable to a little short circuiting," Jason held his hand up to show static electricity generating itself between his fingers.

"Or you could make it a little slippery on the ground. Robots aren't exactly walking around with ice skates."

At least he hoped not.

[katsudork]

"Okay. Okay okay okay."

It's definitely more okays than absolutely necessarily, but Yuuri just doesn't have this battlefield banter thing down yet, and probably will not, in fact, ever get it. So mostly he's just babbling. (Babbling is a lot like banter, right? It, um, also starts with a 'b'?)

Right now, Yuuri is depending heavily on the experience of the heroes around him, and causing a robot to slip sounds reasonable enough, so he "skates" across the ground, using his power to propel himself across it like he's skating on ice, leaving a trail of ice behind him. The robot throws another hover-car, one that looks like it's surely going to hit him --

And nope. He does an insane backbend under it, screaming the entire time. He doesn't stop screaming, even after he successfully ducks it. He only stops screaming as he skates in just close enough to ice up the ground the robot is about to step on. After laying down a very thick layer, he skates away, back towards Jason, flailing slightly as he does it.

He wheels around, watching as the robot steps forward, and starts slipping on the ice.

"Like that?"

[notthatjason]

Jason isn't going to start judging someone for that. If anything he's understanding because he's seen it play out so often. For the moment he just nods, smiling slightly as he says, "Okay."

Right, so he may have been teasing a little -- it's hard not to come across that way. But, hey, whatever motivates you, right? As soon as Yuuri skates away, Jason turns his focus back on the robot. He needs to make sure his timing is right -- the robot has to be focused on the skater and not the flier -- which can be difficult since something moving in the air is going to be distracting for anyone. Still, Yuuri's movement catches the robot's attention fairly quickly and Jason moves carefully in the opposite direction -- getting into position for a good shock.

The screaming is probably a little unnessarry, but Jason is impressed by the move all the same. He's fully charged now and as soon as the robot starts teetering Jason focuses the electricity around him and thrusts a javelin he'd been carrying towards the towering construct. He isn't sure where to aim exactly -- but the head seems like a good enough target. There's a loud BOOM as his lightning makes contact and electricity arcs all over the robot's body, sparking and flaring in places. Jason makes sure to stand closer, in case he needs to "catch" any of the errant electricity that might come from the robot. Between the ice on its feet and the lightning arcing through its body even if it doesn't short circuit it's falling backwards now.

The ground shakes when it lands and Jason nods at the question, "Exactly like that."