2013.06.25 - YAL: World on Fire: Part 4

Fifteen minutes ago, the same routine that's happened twice before heralded another video from the group of teenage villains that have come to be known as the Young Masters. Unlike the previous videos, this one is focused on a young man. At least it seems like it's a young man. Dressed in orange and black with an unusual metal collar on his shirt, this young man is green and his head is rather deformed. Rather than hair, he's got a few bumps and veins around them. Pupilless eyes focus on the camera and a sinister little smile forms on his face. "Good evening. Twice now, you have seen us at work. Work to make this world a better place. And tonight we will achieve our goal. Tonight, you inferior beings will be purged from this city so that your betters can make the world the great place it can truely be. So tonight I present you with one final show. A front row seat to the beginning of a new world. A better world run by your Superiors."

With that the picture cuts out. When it comes back, it's focused on another scene entirely...

"Alright g-g-guys, this is definitely the place," Axiom, in costume and armor, whispers to his teammates as he crouches in a stairwell. He's examining what looks like a burnt section of railing that seems like it was made by a flaming hand. He and the rest of the Young Allies have been tracking down the Young Masters for some time and tonight they've finally found their lair. Outside looked 'normal' but inside reveals another story. "We're probably g-g-going to have to fight all of them..." Axiom trails off quietly, starting to climb the stairs again.

Over the nine or so months since he's really gotten into the hero biz, Speedball's been trying to get some kind of handle on his abilities. He's getting a little better with his aim, and he's learning a thing or two about what he can actually pull off. He defers to Axiom in this case; he doesn't see himself as a leader type. While his costume is on and some bubbles float around him, he takes the stairs carefully, trying not to trigger a noisy and damaging rebound and tip off the Masters to their presence.

"Probably," he says. "C'est la Vie."

Wiccan, teenaged hero and mystical backup for the Young Allies creeps silently up the stairs just behind Axiom. In the newest version of his heroic costume, Silver Circlet with Norse runes on it but no wings red cape and shirt patterned after 'Thors' armor and black pants with a galaxy of silvery stars and swirls going up the sides of his pants and shirt, he nods to the teen acting as leader for this mission. "It happens, when we go in I am going to try and take as many off the field of battle as I can fast if there are a lot of them. After that I know I am going to have to concentrate on keeping the crazy blond busy."

"We can handle it," Zenith says as he follows along behind the others, dressed in his kryptonian uniform, as usual. He, too, glances at the handprint, but doesn't pause. He is a little bit nervous, it's obvious in his expression, though he tries his hardest to hide it, trying to seem as confident as Superman always does.

As the group climbs higher, they'll find more signs of people having lived in this seemingly empty building. Specifically teenagers. Empty wrapers, signs of damage to the building, and general mess. It's at the very top that voices and the hum of machinery start to be heard coming from beyond the door. Peeking in will reveal the remaining members of the Young Masters gathered around the large device in the middle of the room. Singularity, Mortar, Ember, Enchantress, and the now floating young man with green skin known as the Superior. Superior is busy typing at a console attached to the device while the others are just standing around. Most don't seem to be in a good mood.

"I can't get in touch with Warhead or Radioactive Kid at all," Mortar sighs as she pokes at her phone.

"It doesn't matter," Superior snaps.

"But with the others caught and now Match missing too..."

"I said it doesn't matter!"

Back in the stairwell, Axiom frowns and looks to the team. "Go for it, Wiccan," he whispers, only suggesting since he really doesn't think of himself as a leader.

Peeking over Axiom's shoulder, Speedball studies the scene before him. He's balancing on the balls of his feet, keeping the railing in a death grip to keep from moving off before he's ready.

"Okay," he whispers. "On your signal. Want me to paste Brain Boy over there?"

Wiccan nods as he gets the signal and moves into position. He closes his eyes taking a second to marshal concentration since they have not been spotted yet and have a chance to get the drop on the Young Masters. "Blunt the knives, break the plates..." He mutters to himself getting in the right mindset before he starts his chanting, "Hitthemwiththierweakness, Hitthemwiththierweakness, Hitthemwiththierweakness!" A his hands crackle with a bluish white energy for just a second before a wave of chaotic magic erupts from them cascading out through the door into the room roiling and changing becoming what would most effect those that it hits. Because that is what Bilbo Baggins hates.

Zenith floats up into the air just slightly, trying to get a better view without giving himself away, his attention mostly on the device that Superior is typing on, using his enhanced vision to look closely and trying to identify it. Then, very softly, he says to Axiom, "Who should I go for?"

The device is made up entirely of devices stolen from the police warehouse. If he's educated enough, Lor-Zod might just recognize the device as a bomb. A big one. And if he peeks with X-ray vision well, there's a lot of lead shielding. He might even catch sight of a sticker or two warning about radiation...

Axiom frowns slightly. "The guy in black. Him and the green k-kid should be our biggest problems," he says to Zenith. "If you c-c-can hit him, go for it. But be careful, I'm pretty sure that's their telepath," he adds for Robbie.

The wave of chaotic magic from Wiccan sets off a chain reaction. Mortar is the first one hit, ice creeping up her body and freezing her normally fluid state solid. Singularity pushes away from her slowly with a yell as the others turn. Enchantress springs into action, casting a counter-spell to force the wave back. Superior turns with scowl and telekinetically rips the door off its hinges. "Kill them!"

"Th-that would be the signal," Axiom calls, diving into the room and out of the way as a fireball comes flying their way from Ember.

"Kill them? That's it? How old-fashioned!" is Speedball's response to the Superior's command as he lets go of the railing and throws himself into the room. His impact on the floor creates more kinetic energy bubbles, and throws Robbie against the ceiling. The angle he hits the ceiling at is going to make Speedball making a direct hit on Superior. Which would be bad, if Robbie wasn't in fact aiming for the computer the big-headed boy was working at...

Fire balls? Psssh, nothing to worry about there. Any flames that leap past the door way towards Wiccan and the others fan against a shield he had prepaired for the inevitable counter strike once his spell goes off. As the spell gets coutnered before it can take out more than one of the group Wiccan shrugs and points at Enchantress II. "Catchmeifyoucan!" With a flash of light he is gone, sort of. Instead he appears standing behind the girl, as well as off to the side behind Ember, and at the base of the stairs they had crept up, and two of him floating in the air outside the door. Wiccan has been studing, and learned a thing or two in the last fight he had with Loki. Lets home he learned the right things.

'The Guy in Black' and the 'Green Kid' it is! Zenith flies into the room fast, leading with his fist at the former as he lashes out his his heat-vision at the other. Even as he flies in, he figures out what he was looking at, "Bomb! Radioactive, I'd guess nuclear."

Superior just smiles, waving his hand and turning on the cameras. "The world should see you heroes crushed," he remarks. As Speedball comes in, Superior just smiles and his eyes glow. Speedball may find the sensation that hits him strange as he's stopped in mid-air by telekinesis. "Pathetic," he snaps, sending Speedball flying right at Axiom. Zenith's heat vision gets deflected by telekinetic shielding, glancing off the bomb before the green kid redirects it to carve glowing lines in the ceiling. Singularity scowls as Zenith comes his way, raising a gravimetric shield. Zenith will find himself punching what seems to be solid, syrupy air before a wave of gravimetric enrgy is throws his way to send him flying to a far wall. "Of course it's nuclear, you little runt. We're going to destroy this entire city," he says, floating into the air after Zenith.

Enchantress just smiles. "The more of you the better!" she calls, mystic energy flaring around her. Seconds later, several duplicates of her spread out and rush the various Wiccans. The real Enchantress goes after one of the ones floating by the door.

Ember meanwhile laughs, flaring up and stalking towards Speedball and Axiom. "I've been waiting for a shot at you little freaks."

"Oof! Sorry!" Speedball mumbles to Axiom as he collides with his friend. "Should've thought he'd do that." It didn't hurt Speedball, at least. Save for his pride. It was a good plan: get them! After all, /their/ plan was 'kill them.' He rolls off of Axiom, eyes widening behind his goggles as Ember burns their way towards them. "A girl wants a shot at me?" Speedball laughs as he rolls forward into a short-bounce towards Ember for a kinetic punch. It's fire. Energy. His field's not as good, there, and it's going to hurt. But, it will get her away from Ax. "You'll have to take a number, like /Five!/"

"Wish I could say the same." All of the duplicates of Wiccan say at once. As each of the duplicate Enchantresses make contact with a Wiccan that Wiccan flashes into light and vanishes. As the real Enchantress II goes for the two flying ones they both move, mirror opposites of each other they dodge her smirking just a little as they say, "The real thing would be embarrassed you're using her name. Should have told her when we had the chance a couple of days ago." They say in stereo on opposite sides of the blond girl. Wiccan waits for a reaction, be it confusion, anger, or what before making a move.

Zenith hits the wall he was thrown at with a crunch, but it seems the entirety of the damage hit the wall, as Zenith is unscathed as he picks himself up again. "Okay, maybe I should've done that the other way around." And, it seems like he's going to do just that, flying with a punch towards Superior while looking with glowing red eyes towards Singularity. In actuality, no heat vision is fired, as he instead focuses his strength to try to punch through whatever telekinetic defenses Superior has. Singularity doesn't stand still. He rushes forward and swings a hard punch at Zenith's face with what might be surprising strength. "More like you should have never shown up, twerp!"

Enchantress' doubles vanish much the same way as Wiccan's while the real deal looks between the two remaining. "You met the original Enchantress?! You are so lucky! You -have- to introduce me to her! We can even double-date with her and Thor!" she calls, casting a spell and sending glowing green chains flying at both Wiccans to bind them.

Ember almost stumbles, the fire flaring around him. "Who the fuck are you callin' a girl you little nancy boy?!" he snarls, sending a stream of fire at Speedball. The punch sends him spinning back a few steps. He rubs his jaw before scowling at Speedball. "You and your boyfriend there are gonna burn."

Axiom? He's sprawled out on the floor. "Ow," he mutters, sitting up...only to be send rolling as he's hit with a telekinetic attack from Superior. "We don't have time to play around! Finish them!"

"Aaaah!" Sure, Speedball can hit Ember, but that fire aura is actually going to hurt him. He stands there, clutching a smoldering hand. Luckily, a punch is a quick contact, so his bare hand will look like it got a really bad sunburn. "It's Speedball, not Nancy," he mutters. "Ember. Ghost, guitar, I love that show." He considering hitting Ember again, but the throbbing in his hand stops him. What...

He looks up, and smiles. He jumps up about half a foot, landing downward to activate his kinetic field hard enough to send him hurtling towards the ceiling. Most places have a sprinkler system, and he's hoping to bust it wide open...

"Pathetic." The two Wiccans say as the greec chains pass through them and they flicker just a little bit like Al used to on Quantum Leap when something passed through him. There is a sudden sharp smell of ozone near Enchantress II and then a little bolt of electricity goes up from underneith her, followed quickly by a giant crack and a big bolt of lightning follows it back down. Miss or hit, the big bolt will channel straight into a wooden staff covered in clowing runes right under the blond the excess energy from it safly grounding outunder it. The staff, the first time seen in this fight, is in the hands of the real Wiccan standing on the ground. "Yeah, not going to happen. One I am taken, and two last chance I had to meet the woman was at Thor's wedding to Sif."

Zenith catches the punch on the jaw, not prepared for the sudden attack, though he manages not to get knocked back by the force of it. Zenith doesn't complain about the hit at all, just taking advantage of the close quarters to try to trip Singularity with a hooked foot and smash him to the floor.

Singularity curses as he's struck. He hits the floor and crashes right through it. It doesn't seem to damage him too much thanks to that field around him. Zenith gets a new opponent quickly enough. One in the form of a painful telepathic attack launched right at his Kryptonian brain. The Superior floats forward, eyes on Lor-Zod.

Enchantress yelps as the first bolt goes up behind her. She dodges the brunt of the attack but still gets sent flying. Slamming into a wall, she slumps downwards and scowls. "Don't lie! There's no way Thor is married and I'll kill that little fanboy freak that thinks he's dating you!"

"I don't care what your name is," Ember snaps, tossing fireballs at Speedball now. When the masked marvelous kinetic hero bounces up into the ceiling he'll find a lot of extra wires in there. And while the sprinkler system isn't fully functional, some of the pipes start pouring water down causing Ember to backtrack quickly.

Axiom groans slightly as he pulls himself back to his feet. Seeing the bad guys otherwise busy, he sneaks his way over to the console and looks at the screen. "Guys! This thing is c-counting down!"

Landing to a standstill, Speedball flashes a wicked grin. "Thought so," he says, and uses a hand to try and deflect the spray of water more in Ember's direction. He starts humming as he baits Ember. Those into older song might recognize the old song 'Waterfalls.' Though, he loses concentration for a moment as Axiom exclaims about the countdown. "That'll explain all the extra wires up there. Yank 'em all!"

Wiccan tosses a lightning bolt at Enchantress again where she is slumped. "Married on the solstice. The Real Enchantress took it with much more dignaty. Same goes for her sister. Everyone with the slightest real connection to Asgard was there." He talks and walks getting closer to the girl dropping more bolts of electricity. His voice sounding harsher and more snearing with each sentence. Wiccan's eyes, visable only to the Enchantress II where they are, glow red for a second. "And if you ever so much as come close to Hulkling, I will use the same knife that Sif used on Loki to cut your heart out too. Pain." The spell is cast with little more than a whisper while he summons up a ball of black and blue crackling energy and throws it at her. Hearing the comment on the thing counting down Wiccan's head snaps up, and he snaps out of whatever it was he in the middle of. "Oh, crap." Enchantress forgotten he is suddenly up and flying heading for the machine.

Zenith actually cries out in pain, sounding far more like the kid he is as he's hit by the telepathic attack that not only was he unprepared for, but one he has no natural resistance to. So, as Superior gets closer, and Axiom calls out about the bomb, he doesn't do much but clutch his head in pain.

Enchantress raises shields to deflect the lightning, sending some bolts wildly off in other directions. One even strikes the bomb where Zenith's deflected heat vision did earlier. Her expression slowly sinks to one of fear the harsher Billy sounds even as she gets to her feet. "Who's Hulkling?" is all she gets out before that ball hits her. Then it's just screams.

One of the water streams hits Ember's leg resulting in a stream of curses and a cloud of steam. When Speedball's guard is dropped though, the fiery villain charges to hit him with a flaming fist.

Superior keeps the telepathic assault on Zenith going right up until Axiom distracts him. "Get away from there!" he snarls, hurling Axiom at Wiccan now with his TK.

He sees it just as it's too late. Speedball is punched in the face with the fiery fist, which leaves burn marks on the left side of Robbie's face. The impact is enough to send Speedball moving. The young hero shrinks in on himself, curling into a ball. "Sorry about this," he says. They're running out of time, so it's time for a little high-grade random destruction.

As Axiom goes flying towards him Wiccan holds out a hand. "Catchhim, Catchhim, Catchhim!" Willing a wave of energy to appear in order to keep his friend from hitting him, or getting hurt. Wiccan takes a second to see what has been going on while he was outside the major fight zone dealing with the Young Masters' magic support. Seeing Zenith in pain, and Speedball about to go off like a pinball machine just before it flashes TILT he pulls up a forcefield around himself and Axiom while chanting a new spell to go with it. "Music, Music, Music!" As he chants the air near him shimmers like it is vibrating and suddenly blairing at far too loud to be safe a single song gets blasted towards Superior. The song of choice, Carameldansen. If that is not distracting enough to make it so someone can smack Superior then the fact that Wiccan starts to dance with it should be.

As soon as Superior lets up on his assault, Zenith is speeding towards him, going so fast he's barely a blur, fist extended ahead of him. He says nothing, and does nothing, to give Superior any kind of advance warning that is attack is incoming, hoping to hit while he is distracted.

Ember grins as his blow lands. Careful to avoid the water, he starts hurling fireballs at Speedball again. "Hold still!" he demands.

Axiom flails and yelps as he's caught, ending up floating upsidedown in the air. "Th-thanks, Wiccan," he calls.

Superior gets a double dose of distraction. First he has to yell at Ember to stop being so reckless. Then there's a magic-based musical assault. Green hands go to the oversized head and he snarls in Wiccan's direction. A powerful telekinetic assault crashes against Wiccan's forcefield, starting to crack it. But then there's Zenith to the rescue. Superior gets sent flying, smashing into the side of his bomb and bouncing off it much like Speedball does everything else. The metal groans and starts to fall down. And what's revealed isn't pretty.

Inside the bomb are two young men, both glowing a sickly radioactive green. Radioactive Kid and Warhead, both stripped down and out cold. They're hooked up to all manner of wires and tubes. Between the now exposed power source of the bomb and Speedball's rampage, it's starting to get very hot inside the room.

Once he hears enough things being destroyed, Speedball attempts to come to a stop. Grabbing a doorframe, or a bolted down table, he tries to get his bearings and see what's going on. What he sees makes his sense of humor go on vacation. "Dude," he says. "Dude...that's just wrong."

Dancing and fun aside, as the melon headed green guy gets taken out and the fuel source for the bomb gets revealed the mysticaly boosted music dies. That, is not right. At all. Sure the guy is evil, comes with the villian role, but using his friends/hench people as the fuel rods in his nuclear device is just...wrong. "That...thats...dude." He stares at the bomb and its fuel for a second before something pops into his mind. Radiation! "Inedleadboxes, Inedleadboxes, Inedleadboxes!" He chants trying to create, or at least summon from someplace they are not as needed as they are here, a pair of lead lined boxes that could be used to contain the unconcious Warhead and Radioactive Kid.

"Yes," Zenith cheers as Superior goes flying, but his eyes widen when he sees what's revealed inside the bomb. "I'll try to unhook them," he says as he floats forward quickly, once again speeding into his superspeed as he works to put his technological knowledge to use, to figure out the connections and how to unhook them safely and, if uninterrupted, carrying each gently but fast to one of the lead boxes Wiccan has summoned.

"What the fuck?" Ember exclaims when he sees what's going on in the machine. Singularity rises from hole in the floor shortly afterwards and starts looking around for Zenith only to stop at the sight of teammates strung up like that. "What's going on?"

As soon as his feet touch the floor, Axiom rushes over to the console to look for some kind of release button. Zenith's task is made easier when Axiom finds it, a few tubes unlocking and disconnecting themselves. Both teens are incredibly hot to the touch and several of the removed wires result in bleeding. They're easy enough to set in the boxes, just deadly dead weight right now.

Superior pushes himself off the floor and rises back into the air. He lashes out with a telepathic attack at Speedball since he's the first in his line of sight. "You dirty little fools are done getting in my way!"

Billy Kaplan all but growls as he turns to face Ember and Singularity. "What do you think?" He asks them as Superior lashes out. When he sees Robbie get knocked unconcious he throws out a hand and responds by throwing bolts of lightning at the green skinned psychic. "Your 'friend' here is planning to use two of your team mates to fuel his bomb. What to be he was not planning on any of you surviving the blast too?"

Zenith, once the last of the pair are in the lead boxes, turns to the others, "He was making a bomb out of your allies. Pretty dumb working for a jerk like that." But when Superior attacks and knocks out Speedball, he's again on the move, flying in to try to punch Superior once again.

"Speedball!" Axiom exclaims, tempted to rush to his friend's side. But when he sees what's on the console screen, the power booster's eyes go wide. "Zenith! Wiccan! We need to get this out of h-here! It's not a n-nuke anymore but it's still a bomb!" he calls.

Superior forms up a shimmering telekinetic barrier to block those lightning bolts. Zenith's punch makes the barrier ripple and crack before telkinetic shockwave start smacking into him. "They were inferior. Being used to bring about our new, perfect world should be an honor for them!" Superior snaps. "Now take them down!" he calls to Ember and Singularity. The two villainous teens share a look before splitting. Singularity starts to levitate the unconscious Enchantress and the frozen Mortar as he heads for a window. "I'm done with this crap."

Ember meanwhile just flares up again. "Like I care!" he laughs, running at Wiccan.

Wiccan's eyes glow as he hears Axiom. There is a second where he debates trying to get the bomb somewhere else before he decides that it would be better to just get everyone to safety instead. "Iwantussafe, Iwantussafe, Iwantussafe!" He chants before gesturing and sending out a wave of energy ment to catch and teleport everyone in the room far enough away from the bomb to prevent anyone from getting hurt including the two villians in the lead boxes and even Superior and possibly the retreating others if they are not to far away by the time the spell works. Once everyone is teleported though he ends up dropping to his knees after pushing his power just a little too far.

Zenith gets knocked back by the shockwave, but turns at Axiom's shout to fly towards the bomb, probably having intended on flying it away, but on finding them all teleported away he stops, looking back to Wiccan, "That was cool." Of course, he then remembers Superior, turning towards him in a defensive stance again.

The sudden teleportation catches everyone off guard. When it finishes, they're in a small nearby park. Only seconds later...

KABOOM

The building they were in is still visible. And the windows on the top three floors were all just blasted out from within, flames and smoke coming from the windows. Even as Wiccan falls to his knees, Ember keeps charging at him. He draws back a fist...and gets a boot to the face from Axiom. The power booster lands and turns towards his friend.

Superior floats there for a few moments, rage building. "This isn't the end!" he snaps, lashing out with a telepathic attack meant to keep the heroes in place while he flies off. Even with most of the villains escaping it seems the day is won...

Wiccan is waiting for the hit, he does not have the energy to defend himself after the teleport. Thankfully his best friend is there to protect him. He start to draw up what little energy he can to try and prove Superior wrong when he is hit by that telepathic attack that simply knocks him to his backside. At least with most of the bad guys getting away there are the two in the lead boxes. "I...am gonna take some time before I can do anything like that again."

Zenith lets out a yelp again as he's hit with the telepathic attack, and he too falls to the ground. He picks himself up after it stops again, but says, "That *really* hurt." He looks back to Wiccan and asks, "I can fly you back to the Terminal if you want."

Axiom ends up knocked on his rear as well by the telepathic attack. Getting back up, he takes a few deep breaths before looking to his friends. "I think we c-could all use a rest b-b-b-but we've got a little more work to do," he says, gesturing at the bad guys knocked out and in boxes near them and then pointing at the building they were in. "I c-c-can handle things if you want to bring Speedball and Wiccan to the Terminal," he offers to Lor-Zod.