| This looks like a job for... | |||||
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| What: Lois Lane is in distress. For better or for worse, it's Superboy, Impulse, and Troia who show up to save the day. | |||||
The first question that needs answering is: how the HELL did Lois get in this position? The second is: WHY is she always getting in these positions?
...that's not the kind of position I was talking about, you sick puppies!
Clutching onto a crane for dear life, a flash drive held precariously between her teeth, Lois Lane's trademark violet eyes glare defiantly at random metahuman number 16 and his pack of red-shirt wearing drugged out goonies.
"Big bad reporter's not so tough without Big Blue around is she," taunts the meta. Heat waves ripple up his arms. The goonies behind the leader display their various makeshift weapons: a length of chain, a steel pipe, a louisville slugger.... Of course, they all also have small side arms, the kind you can steal from pawnshops...
Lois looks down at the ground, some twenty stories below, then back at the goons. She shifts a bit, loosing a shoe to the dizzying height.
Superboy flies low to the ground alongside Impulse, the pair of them conversing as they zoom along at incredible speeds that are just baffling. He holds his hands out to the side, flying along on his back like he's resting on a therapist's couch, "Tell me some stuff about the future. Like -- "
He is about to ask a question when, from his vantage point, he spots the woman dangling from the crane high above. He immediately deviates his course, shooting up through the air towards Lois and her tormentors. He does whistle to get Impulse's attention before he heads off that way, though.
Some people might take issue with being whistled at like a dog told to come following. Some people, apparently, are not Impulse. He's about to answer Superboy's question when they abruptly change direction, the speedster having little trouble keeping pace as he moves that way, and as soon as he sees the thugs, he cranks up the speed and, moving so fast as to leave the normal human eye completely stymied, moves to relieve the thugs of their sidearms.
It just seems to be a day for teen supers to converge, doesn't it? It's only seconds after Superboy and Impulse show up on the scene that Troia makes her appearance. With Superboy aiming for Lois and Impulse removing their firearms, Troia takes it upon herself to remove their other weapons which would, as far as she can tell, leave them defenseless.
Heatwave, the hot-headed meta number 16, brings a hand up. In his palm a mote of red appears. He shifts his body, pulling that hand backward. He seems about the attack the reporter with sleek, black, and sparkly flies down. "Frakking supers," he growls and shift his stance. Like daning, he pulls his hand back, then shoves it away from himself and toward Troia. The tiny red mote sails out to Troia, unassuming and spritely... only to explode in a fireball as soon as it gets within a foot of her. "Finish the reporter, then deal with her resuce," Heatwave calls out, watching the firey explosion.
The other goons, now without side arms, look about confused, not able to keep a visual track of Impulse. That is, until one slender girl with long jet black straight hair which falls to cover half her face steps forward and seems flings a hand forward. A glittering blue white bubble pops to life directly in front of Impulse; a forcefield bubble meant to be a wall of force for him to slam into.
Another goon, not yet having seen Lois, steps toward the crane attaches to building and stomps a foot onto the cement. There's a soft rumble, and then a slab of cement lifts itself from the building and floats to the meta's shoudler. He shifts, sets up Earth Binder style, and flings it at the reporter.
Seeing the rock hurtling toward her, Lois cringes and screams ineffectually past the flash drive.
Superboy is swift to act, flying towards Lois at speed and catching one arm around her waist - slowing just enough to not injure her as he grabs her from her perilous position. He catches her just in time to avoid the slab of cement which flies through the air that they were both occupying a second before. Flying with the feisty reporter in her arms, he looks at her and tilts his head to one side like an alien examining some interesting artifact he has never encountered the likes of before.
"Are you alright?"
Impulse's speed, fortunately, does not begin and end with moving fast. He literally perceives the world in slow-motion around him, watching the bubble wink into existence. So, as he appears, he sticks a foot forward and begins running right up and over it. That plan goes somewhat awry when the force-bubble vanishes from under him -- Impulse goes tumbling to land flat on his backside, but the speed he's built up keeps him propelling forward, skidding along the ground at great speed toward the nearest thug. "Ohwowlookouteverybody!" he blurs as he goes.
Troia has only a splits second to cross her arms in front of her, head instinctively turning away even if the fire won't really hurt her. When it disippates, she's still floating there. A smirk forms on her lips. "Sorry. Guess you aren't as hot as you thought." Knowing Lois is safe means that she doesn't have to worry about the woman. Her eyes do, breifly, go to Impulse. It takes her only a split second to weigh her options, pull lasso from her hip and toss it out to encircle him and slow him down as much as possible if it wraps around him.
At the jerking sensation of being plucked from her perch, Lois acts on what is quickly becoming instinct. She transfers flash drive from mouth to hand, then clomps her arms about Superboy's neck and clings perfectly to make his flying a bit easier. She peers back at the quickly retreating rooftop.
"Thanks, Superman, I'm fine," replies Lois, spotting the yellow blur,sparkling black flying girl, AND the distinct lack of a cape on her rescuer. It's the latter item that garners the reporter's full attention and she turns her head to peer at him. "Where's your ca-" her voice cuts off in that heartbeat as she peers into that sparkling youthful face of SuperBOY, not the slightly older SuperMAN that's she's familiar with. "Another one," she squeeks out, eyes wide with surprise.
Beelzebubble grins as she watches Impulse go down. She grins as the lasso sweeps around her victim, and she sends her trademark force bubbles rolling after him, two to be exact. It's time to play 'bowling for supers'. Unfortunately for her friends, with Impule AND forcebubble bowling balls hurtling at them, they don't stand much of a chance, and down they go!
UPset that the explosion did nothing, Heatwave shouts out, "Cinder Block!" The Binder looks over and nods. Another stomp and another slab hefts itself from the roof near his foot and he flings it at Troia. This while Heatwave flings another explosive mote against the slab, turning it into hundreds of shards of shrapnel, hurtling at the flying wonder girl.
Superboy looks a touch bashful at being called Superman and then, when Lois speaks again, he nods his head and even lowers his voice a little to sound a bit more heroic. It's an obvious act, of course, but he's doing his best to live up to Lois' mistaken assumption.
"Yes, ma'am. It looks like my friend needs some help, though, so I'm just going to set you down here, alright?"
He flies down towards a rooftop not far from the fighting, eyes narrowing as he focuses on what is going on and spots Troia whom he had previously missed, "Make that friends."
Impulse finds himself lassoed, and he hangs on to the rope, making him whirl around and snap back toward Troia like a yo-yo. At his speed, that sends a vortex of air whirling around him, probably causing no end of havok to the other thugs nearby. "Okayyoucanletmegoanytimenowhoaaaaaaaa!" comes his voice from within the mounting air funnel.
Lois keeps a hold of the Superboy, smiling gently at the bashful nature and forced lowering of his voice. She knows it's an act, and yet, she moves to play her part well, and so when told he's going to set her down, the reporter nods. Agreeing to be set down and actually allowing oneself to be set down - entrirely different things! The trouble is that those others.. are they kids?!... are probably going ot need his help.
Lois Lane nods to the Superboy, settling her feet to the ground, and pulls her arms away from around his neck by dragging them along the tops of his shoulder. "Then go see to them," she prompts with a gentle shove in their direction.
With Lois settled on a rooftop out of harm's way, Superboy snaps back around and flies at speed towards the metahuman who tried to hurl the ball of cement. Confident that he can take being hit by chunks of flying masonry, Superboy charges the man bodily and sends him flying through the air. Unfortunately for cement-thrower, this isn't the end of his troubles. He keeps pace with the villain as he flies through the air, catching him and whisking him down towards the street where he wraps him tightly in a commandeered lamppost.
One down! He flies back towards Impulse and Troia.
When Troia swings Impulse back around and releases the lasso, he turns into a whirling cannonball of speedy destruction. Spinning right past Superboy and Cinder Block, the speedster suddenly straightens up and twists into some kind of probably technically impossible drill-kick, striking Heavwave in the shoulder and knocking him down, hard. Impulse proceeds to hit the ground, running in a tight circle to kick up a cyclone and launch the villain skyward, intending to set him up perfectly for Superboy to finish him off.
A silvery-blue energy surrounds Donna's hands and two quick shots of it are fired off at Beelzebubble, taking the girl to her knees before she collapses. It's then that Donna swoops in and picks the girl up before lowering them both to the street and wrapping her arm with her partner then taking severaal steps back and lifting her head to make certain that Superboy has the one Impulse setup for him.
Superboy does just what he's expected to do, his fist striking the villain's jaw as he sails through the air before he catches him by his belt. Holding the unconscious bad guy many feet above the busy downtown street, he calls back to Troia and Impulse, "You got those guys?"
Impulse blurs out of sight, appearing in brief flashes as he begins to bind the various goons hand and foot with whatever items he found nearby. These range from old shopping bags to lengths of twine, even -- no telling where THESE came from -- a set of ladies' undergarments. Impulse pauses to flash a thumbs up to Superboy. "Got 'em good!" he calls back.
Getting all the nasties bound up with Impulse's help, Troia looks up at Superboy and nods her head. "All taken care of." And it's true! There's not a goon one left that hasn't been properly handled. With everything, and everyone, all nicely tied up, Troia looks around to obseerve those she has worked with this afternoon.
Superboy quickly whips his captive down to the waiting police before returning to the rooftop, landing alongside Bart and looking to Troia. He extends a hand before himself, smiling, "I'm Superboy. This is Impulse." Just in case they hadn't already been introduced.
Impulse throws up a hand to Superboy, grinning pretty much from ear to ear. "We totally kicked their butts!" he announces brightly, obviously having enjoyed every bit of their tussle. "And we saved that reporterlady too!"
Troia touches down lightly on the rooftop and reaches out to take Superboy's hand. "I'm Troia." And yes, her hair really is shimmering. Her eyes then dart to Impulse and she quirks a brow, lips twitching into a hint of a smile. He's so... exuberant!
Superboy looks at Bart's hand, blinks at it a couple times and then reaches up to take it by the wrist and pull it back down to his friend's side - like it were broken and moving of it's own accord.
"Somethings wrong with your arm," he whispers to Bart, trying not to draw Troia's attention to it.
He shakes Troia's hand, that being one social gesture he does know, and smiles, "Cool name."
Impulse stares at Superboy for a moment, then he nods -- very slowly for him -- and says, "Oh, riiiight. Okay. WhateveryousaySuperboy." He laughs a little, then holds out his hand to offer to shake Troia's hand as well. "Nice to meet you, anyway!"
There's a slight tilts to Troia's head as she watch Superboy lower Impulse's hand. Kind hard to miss a movement like that and, whispering around her? Yeah, that doesn't really work so the words are caught and causes her to arch a brow slightly. Obviously, however, it wasn't meant for her to hear so she doesn't draw attention to it. Instead, she gives Superboy a sweet smile while just the barest hint of pink touches along the area of her cheek bones. "Thank you."
Her hand is with drawn from his and she reaches out to shake Impulse's hand, grinning. "Nice to meet you as well." And then blue-green eyes shift between them. "Both of you." She peers over the edge of the building where the police have collected the baddies, questioned Lois and sent her on her way. She then looks back at both of them once more. "And thank you both for the help."
"Thank you, too," Superboy answers, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly for a moment before he looks at Impulse and then back at Troia, "Can we go get milkshakes?" He's recently experienced that little slice of heaven and is quite eager to have another one.
"YES!" Impulse declares, pumping a fist into the air. "MILKSHAKESAREAMAZING!" He zips around to the other side of Superboy, tugging vaguely at his elbow with one hand while flapping the opposite arm up and down. "Can we get FRIES too because fries and milkshakesgoreallygreatogether!"
At Superboy's words, Troia's right hand lifts and the heel of it is pressed to her temple, eyes closing for a moment. When she opens them, after several moments, they look a little distant and slightly troubled. "Milkshakes?" A moment of hesitation before she nods her head in a silent agreement. "I should change first though..."
"Why?" Superboy asks, looking Troia up and down then at Bart and finally his own clothes, "You look fine like that. Come on."
He nods his head to Bart, sharing in his enthusiasm, "Fries and cheeseburgers, too." He glances back over his shoulder at Troia, waiting to see if she'll come along.
(Fade to junk food.)