Note: This Issue takes place from Diver's Perspective.
Oh. Also special thanks to @knightofthechronicle for inviting me to this crossover.
Indigo City Docks
"It'll be pretty messy."
"What?"
See? This is what happens. This is what ALWAYS happens to me.... every single time I try to go out for a nice, relaxing midnight swim in the ocean, I always end up overhearing something that I'm not supposed to hear.
"Stardust. You're buying right?"
My name's Ed. Ed Turner. You probably haven't heard of me... my adventures haven't been what you'd call... high profile. By which I of course mean, I haven't been running around showing my face to the cameras and the public. Sure... I blew up a building a few days ago, but that's pretty much child's play in these parts.
"Yeah, man."
Stardust... no idea what that is... but it doesn't sound good. This is the problem with people like me... always trying to do the right thing. It's going to be a problem one of these days... I burst up out of the black, silent sea and soar into the air and land upon the metal barrier between the sea and the land. It's a dark night... probably midnight, I wasn't keeping check of the time. Just enjoying myself. Three guys stare up at me in surprise, two of them carrying weapons... and the other carrying what seems like a bag of white powder in his hands.
"It's the guy!" One of them, a beefy bald guy yells, wielding a small rusty knife. "That new guy that's showed up recently!"
"That's me." I mutter, head darting around trying to pick out which of these guys is going to attack me first. I've had a few of these incidents recently... drug dealing in Indigo City has always been a popular hobby for the city's delightful inhabitants, yet recently it seems to have reached an all time high.
Not that I deal with that sort of thing on a regular basis. I leave that up to the costumed idiots running around in tights.
"Who?!" The guy with the power asks, his eyes twitching nervously. I see one of the dealers reach for his gun and leap forward.
"The guy they call-"
KRACK!
Diver.
My fist cracks into the gun wielding idiot's cheek before he can even bring his weapon up to aim. He's sent tumbling backwards into his friend, knocking them both to the ground. The gun guy is unconscious... yet his trigger finger still pulls off a shot, his bullet smashes into the wooden dock below, doing very little damage.
"Crap!"
I turn towards the buyer and can't help but smile as I stand up to my full height, towering above the cowering criminal before me.
"Wait..." I realize something. "Do you have a cellphone?" I ask him. "I need to call the Cops... and I haven't got any change for the pay phone."
BLAM!
A bullet whizzes right past my head, I turn quickly to see the bald goon holding his unconscious friend's gun, he's still slumped on the floor with the other guy's body on him... yet the gun's still aimed straight at me.
"Die, Carrier!" He snaps before pulling off another shot. I quickly step to the side, the bullet shooting past and eventually sailing over the sea. The thug pulls off several more shots, each of which I dodge... and each time I dodge him I get closer.
KLICK!
The bald guy looks at his empty weapon in despair, I loom above him and quickly bring my foot crashing down on his skull.
"Now..." I turn back towards the junkie scumbag. "Where were we?" I ask just in time to see the guy snort the white power. His eyes flash bright yellow and almost a second later I feel a powerful blast slam into my chest and send my soaring down the docks into the side of a Seafood Restuarant.
It's called "Wind and Water." Sounds like a type of soap....
"Ow." I mutter, rubbing my head before standing up and looking down the docks. "That's new." Looks like I'm fighting another Carrier. And since I have the most underwhelming powers in the history of powers it seems like my goose is well and truly cooked.
"Oh man..." The junkie mutters, appearing before me in a bright golden form of energy. He rematerliazes into his shaking, trembling human form. "...they weren't lying about messy..."
"You're cleaning up." I mutter before picking up a piece of nearby concrete and chucking it at the guy. That was a pretty good one... I'd better write that down for further use.
FWAZAP!
The concrete bursts into small little chunks, courtesy of the junkie's energy beams. Before I can even react he fires another blast directly at me, zapping me by my right shoulder and knocking me back down to the ground.
Double ow.
"This is great..." He mutters, his fist covered in golden shimmering energy. "Once I kill you... what did he say your name was? Diver? They're gonna HAVE to let me into the gang!" He looks down at me, a grin on his face revealing filthy, chipped teeth. "Nothing personal." He mutters just as I close my eyes.
THWACK!
My eyes bolt open just in time to see the guy's body slump to the ground. For a second I think he might have overdosed on the drug and I just got lucky.... but a quick check of his pulse reveals he's still breathing.
"Neither was that!" A voice yells. I look up to see a figure dressed in a skintight black, blue and golden costume hovering towards me. A golden cape streaming behind him like some type of sun ray. I know who he is... I've seen him on TV.
"Oh god..." I mutter, feelings of irritation filling the pit of my stomach. "...Wind Duster." The CBTF's glory hound lands upon the dock right across from me, he glares at me through his mask... and even though I can't see his face I can tell he's not sure what to make of me.
"So, we meet at last." He says slowly. "Peacekeeper."
Who?
"What?!" I ask, surprise and confusion washing over me. "No! I'm... I'm not Peacemaker!" I yell. "I'm Diver!"
Wind Duster seems surprised by the idea that he was wrong about something.
"Oh." He mumbles. "Sorry. There's so many of us now... what did you say your name was?"
"Diver."
"Oh." He says again. This time seeming disappointed. "I was hoping to meet Peacekeeper."
We both stare at each other awkwardly. Finally, Wind Duster picks up and asks the question I was wondering.
"Are we going to fight?" He asks. "Or are we just going to stare at each other?"
"I don't know." I admit. "This is my first encounter with one of your kind..."
"Usually whenever I meet another Carrier I end up fighting them." Wind Duster pauses. "And by 'usually' I mean 'always'."
The two of us stare at each other again. More awkwardness spreads between us.
"Well..." I mutter, voice growing nervous. "What are you doing here?"
"I was patrolling and heard you beating up some guys."
"Well... these guys are Drug Dealers."
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
Silence passes by.
"So we're on the same side?" I ask.
"I guess we are." Wind Duster says. "Glad we could avoid any misunderstanding."
Wind Duster's the first guy to continue talking. He walks forward, his left hand extended.
"Nice to meet you." He says. I grip his hand firmly and we shake.
"Same here."
Now that he's up close I can make out his costume a bit better. It's mostly skin tight, with a blue, black and golden colour scheme, in comparison my own costume is black and blue. In similarity to my name, it's more of a pimped out diving suit with some pretty cool wrist gloves.
"So...."
My god this is awkward.
"Are you going to arrest me?" I finally ask. Wind Duster seems surprised by this, somehow his mask's eyes widen... even though they shouldn't be able to do that.
"What?!" He asks, voice rising. "Why would I do that?!"
I'm starting to get the feeling that there's more to this guy then meets the eye...
"Don't you work for the CBTF?"
"Yeah. So?"
"I.... I'm a vigilante."
"Oh. Cool."
"I.... I just feel like we should be fighting. Isn't this what usually happens in-"
FWAZAP!
A flash of golden energy shoots straight at us, I jump out of the way, Wind Duster vanishes in a pop of purple energy sending a loud "PWOPPING" noise through the air. Part of me is glad that this awkward situation has been interrupted.
"TIME TO DIE!" The junkie yells, firing bursts of golden lightning straight towards me in arcing positions. It's too late for me to roll to the side, so I simply brace myself for pain.
"You're supposed to be unconscious!" Wind Duster reappears in the air, surging towards him, he shoots a blast of wind towards me, knocking me to the floor and causing the lightning to pass above my head before slamming into the ground and landing a swift kick in the junkie guy's stomach. "Get back to being unconscious!" He snaps. Wind Duster turns towards me. "You alright?" He asks.
"Holy crap!" I yell. "That was amazing!"
"Yeah, well..." Wind Duster turns back towards the lightning Carrier. "...I do this sort of thing a lot."
"I know you!" Junkie guy yells. "You're on TV!"
"Do you want this one?" Duster asks me.
"What?" I realize he's talking about getting the next punch in. "Well, sure I-"
Before I can even finish my sentence, Wind Duster has already scooped me up in something similar to a wind funnel and shot me towards the guy. I burst forward in the air, fist at the ready.
KRACK!
I roll on the ground before getting back up.
"Nice!" Wind Duster reappears next to me. "That should be our combo move!"
He holds his fist out towards me and I realize he's trying to do the fist bump thing that all the kids are into nowadays.
"Boom." I mutter as we bump fists together. This has got to be the best team up in the history of Superhero team ups...
"So. Do you handle this sort of thing often?" Wind Duster asks, nodding towards the drug dealers lying on the ground.
"Started recently." I explain. "Was quite busy before that. Living underground and stuff... it's a whole thing."
"Guess I understand. I've been doing this stuff for AGES." He sighs. "Jeez... 4 or 5 months now."
"Well at least you're not alone anymore. You've got your Response guys helping you out."
He stares at me for a second. Almost like he's saying, "Are you insane?".
"Oh shoot!" Wind Duster yells, his head snapping to the right. "Bad guy's getting away!"
I follow his gaze and sure enough, the Carrier is running down the pier.
"Then let's get after him!" I yell before dashing after him, Wind Duster watches me running before simply flying up into the air and shooting past me. "It's not a race!" I tell him as Duster cracks after the criminal.
PWOP!
In a couple of seconds my body is destroyed and recreated in a different location. My stomach lurches slightly and I begin to feel sick. Wind Duster is stood before me, we're now in what appears to be a grassy area, with the Junkie guy stood cowering in front of us.
"Damn. This guy is really hard to knock out." Wind Duster mutters, his costume rippling in the air. He glances at me, bending over trying not to throw up. "You alright, Diver?" He asks.
"Yep..." I lie. "I'm fine...."
"You're... you're not going to catch me!" Junk Man stammers, backing away aganst a tree.
"I highly doubt that." Wind Duster mutters, almost completely confident. He's probably done this sort of thing a million times...
"I've got friends." Junk Man smirks slightly before revealing a lit up Cell Phone. Before any of us can even ask what he's talking about, rustling fills the air. I get back onto my feet and see... oh crap... quite a few figures appearing around us.
"What's going on?" Wind Duster asks, his originally confident appearance having changed to someone that's unsure about himself. The various figures around us begin to morph.... some cover their limbs with strange materials... some light up their bodies with fire.... and it's at that point when we both realize we're surrounded by a gang of Carriers.
"It's what he said..." I mutter, bracing my fists for combat. "...he's got friends."
Wind Duster backs up towards me. The two of us glance at each other before preparing for combat.
"So have we." He glances at me and nods slightly.
"Let's kick some ass." I mutter. The two of us both take a deep breath before chargining forward into the crowd.
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