posted
This is actually part 2 of The War of the Fatal Fives, a storyline I'm currently running through my fanfic series (link in my sig). It's pretty self-contained though and I haven't posted anything in here for a while so I thought I would see if anyone is into it...
********* RIMBOR Metopolia Central Morgue "Down!"
Ultra Boy hurled himself across Invisible Kid and Lieutenant Am Jya, switching his ultra-energy into invulnerability just in time to protect the three of them from the lethal discharge of bright green energy washing over them. Standing too far away for Jo to reach, Infectious Lass ducked behind one of the morgue's examination tables.
Roaring with laughter, the villain before them admired the destruction he had wrought. His intended targets were unharmed, but the wall and floor around them were a charred mess. "This thing's not so hard to get the hang of!" he gloated, raising a thumb towards the Emerald Eye flashing above him. "Now I know how the Emerald Empress felt all these years!"
"You're crazy, clone!" Lieutenant Jya shouted, squirming out from beneath Ultra Boy and drawing her gun. "You could make a life for yourself away from this violence but just like all criminals, you come back to it the first opportunity you get!" She crouched and took aim, ready to fire at will. "I'm warning you now, step down."
The bald man laughed again, standing with outstretched arms as hardlight green armour grew around his bulky frame. "I'm crazy?" he mocked her. "Lady, this is the Emerald Eye of Ekron. I'm not the crazy one...go ahead. Shoot. See how far it gets you." He looked straight at her, his wicked gaze meeting hers through the eyeslits of his helmet.
Jya's own eyes narrowed as she fired, but in a blur of movement she was on the other side of the room before she'd even registered her shots ricocheting harmlessly off of his armour. "Let me go!" she complained, trying to wriggle free from the speeding Ultra Boy's grasp.
"You've got guts," Jo smirked, "But this guy's way out of your league, trust me Lieutenant. If he's half as deadly as the Empress was, the three of us are going to have our work cut out for us as it is." He quickly fled across the room once more, the Emerald Eye shooting at where they had been. The lieutenant opened her mouth to object, but Ultra Boy interrupted before she could say anything. "Invisible Kid, get her out of here," Jo commanded abruptly, shoving her towards his Earth-born teammate. "We'll try and keep the Persuader busy until you can get help."
"Oui," Jacques Foccart replied, grabbing Lieutenant Jya's arm as softly as he could given the circumstances. Before the two of them could move however, a gleaming green axe whizzed straight between them. It smashed an instrument trolley to pieces, and Jacques uttered a curse in his native French. Peering back, Jacques could see Ultra Boy grappling with the Eye itself while Infectious Lass freed herself from rubble felled by one of the artifact's stray energy blasts. The Persuader's clone however held another green axe in his hand, and it was aimed squarely at Am and Jacques.
Jacques for a moment was frozen. He could turn invisible, but that would only serve to make Lieutenant Jya the killer's sole target. There was only one thing to do. Holding Lieutenant Jya close to him, he grimaced. Concentrating until it hurt, he watched their reflections in a warped piece of metal as they slowly faded and finally vanished from sight altogether. The axe flew towards them, and even with Nyeun Chun Ti's aim thrown by their eerie disappearance the construct still slashed Invisible Kid's hand open.
Running outside, Jacques turned them visible once more as soon as they were out of sight of the doorway. The Legionnaire doubled over in pain, cradling his wounded hand as blood gushed everywhere. "Congratulations," he gasped, "I have never used my power of invisibility on another before today. Now make sure my effort is not wasted Lieutenant, and summon whatever help you may. I have a feeling we may need it."
"You're not going back in there?" Lieutenant Jya protested. They could both hear the sounds of pitched battle behind them. "You'll bleed to death!"
"I am a Legionnaire," Invisible Kid responded. "Besides which," he held out the remnants of the small blood-streaked golden band which had been his flight ring until a moment ago, "My communications have just been severely hampered, non? It seems you must call for help if we all are to survive."
********** Inside the room, Infectious Lass watched as the Emerald Eye blasted Ultra Boy into one of the corpse lockers. Despite himself, Jo uttered a cry of disgust. Now was her chance. Drura had not been able to use her powers until now...in such close quarters, she couldn't guarantee that she could affect the Persuader's clone without also laying Ultra Boy low. And Ultra Boy was the only chance any of them had against the Emerald Eye. Terrified, she stepped forward and reached out with shaking hands. "Stop right there, Persuader!"
The man in glowing green armour turned to face Infectious Lass, completely relaxed. "You know, you people keep calling me that," he said calmly. "But you should know, the Persuader is the one who tried to kill me. I started life as his clone, but the Emerald Eye has made me so much more than that. I think you should call me...the Emerald Emperor." He raised his arm and the Eye generated another hardlight axe in his grasp, an axe he then used to swipe viciously at the heroine. She screamed as she leaped backwards out of its path.
"How--?" Infectious Lass started, dodging again and again as he swung at her. It occurred to her he was putting no effort into this. He was playing with her. Why couldn't she infect him?
Before the self-proclaimed Emerald Emperor could respond, twin beams of heat struck his helmet. Knocked off balance, he spun to face Ultra Boy's flash vision. Ultra Boy himself was filthy, covered in decaying matter and not at all happy about it. He swore under his breath as his eyebeams flared even brighter, until Infectious Lass could feel the intense heat herself. The Emerald Emperor seemed completely unfazed however, walking casually towards the Rimborian hero. The Eye hovered silently as ever above its current master.
"Ultra Boy, I can't reach him!" Infectious Lass shouted. "The Eye must be protecting him somehow!"
The Emerald Emperor's axe grew in size until it resembled an irredescent halberd. Using both hands, the Emperor swung his weapon towards Ultra Boy's neck. With a defiant roar, Ultra Boy intensified his flash vision until stars danced in his eyes. The two energy wavelengths cancelled each other out with an explosion of light, and Ultra Boy and the Emerald Emperor were both knocked on their rear ends.
While Ultra Boy lay in the wreckage of the morgue groaning in pain, the Emerald Emperor got to his feet. "You should have kept your invulnerability," the Emperor gloated. "It might have been the only thing that would have saved you, boy." He gestured and the Eye flashed to life, lifting Ultra Boy's insensate form into the air in a green forcefield. Infectious Lass physically attacked the Emperor in desperation, but he threw her aside easily. Slowly squeezing his hand into a fist, the Emperor watched as Ultra Boy's body began to fold.
Confident that Ultra Boy was held tight in the Eye's power, the Emperor turned to face Infectious Lass directly. "You tell your friends," he snarled, "You tell them there are two Eyes now, and this one chose me. It brought me back from the brink of death, and together we're going to kill Ultra Boy, we're going to kill the Persuader, then we're going to kill you and the rest of the Legion...and you can use your disgusting power on me as much as you like girl, but I know you; the Eye knows you. This armour is better than any transuit, your diseases wash off me like--" The Emperor's monologue was cut short as he was suddenly swept off his feet by some unseen force.
The Emerald Emperor's helmet was yanked from his head, and Jacques Foccart shimmered into view, casting it aside. "Indeed it may be," the now visible Kid taunted, "But a transuit only guards you from disease so long as you wear it. Ma'amselle?"
Infectious Lass saw the blood from Invisible Kid's wound pooling against a skintight field and didn't miss a beat. Jacques was wearing a Science Police regular-issue transuit and ironically, the Emerald Eye's own power shielded Ultra Boy. Without his helmet though, the Emerald Emperor had no protection against airborne virii.
She bit her lower lip and glared at the Emerald Emperor. He rolled onto one side and started violently throwing up. His whole body wracked with shudders, he hollered out something intelligible and Ultra Boy fell to the ground released from the Eye's power. An instant later, the room filled with a flash of green light and both the Eye and its master were gone.
Ultra Boy rubbed his eyes, squinting at his teammates. "We beat him?"
"We drove him away," Infectious Lass said timidly. "But if the Eye could bring him back from the brink of death, it can cure him of a case of Rimborian Flu. He'll be back."
"Something else concerns me," Invisible Kid added soberly. "I was in the room this whole time, waiting for my chance to strike. I heard everything just then, and my friends...he said there are two Emerald Eyes now...
...just as Dream Girl warned."
-------------------- Read the alternate adventures of the Legion after Legion of Three Worlds! postlo3w
Registered: Nov 2009
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
Interesting choice of team, raz.
I like how Ultra Boy's limitations kept him from utterly dominating the situation, and allowed Invisible Jacques and Infectious Lass a chance to shine.
I'm not sure if you pre-picked the characters to allow for this sort of situation, or just picked the characters you wanted to use and then adapted the situation to allow each of them a moment in the sun, but, either way, that's some good writing.
Registered: Aug 2006
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The team was a bit of a fluke...I am trying to push Jacques and Drura together more to allude to 5YL stuff a little, and I haven't really written Ultra Boy much so I wanted to rectify that.
This overall story arc involves the Legion fighting a slew of different Fatal Fives, so hopefully by the time it's finished everyone should have their moment in the sun.
-------------------- Read the alternate adventures of the Legion after Legion of Three Worlds! postlo3w
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted
This was fun Raz, a great team to use and an interesting villain. Unfortunately when I tried to read the rest of your war of the Fatal Five the links didnt work and all I got were 404s
-------------------- "Tempus Fugitive" the final part of the Adventures of Dream Boy series, set in the Three-Boot Universe. Read it only in the Bits o' Legionnaire Business Forum.
From: here, more often than not | Registered: Sep 2003
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