Dervish:Part 4 of 5.
Note: Due to the demands of the story this now takes place from the 3rd Person Perspective.
Indigo City
His name was Diver, part time superhero, part time walking fish tank. He'd been around for awhile at this point, a couple of months of adventuring had given him experience, along with friends and a new sense of purpose. One of those friends was Mark Brooks, Wind Duster, so when he'd gotten a call from Mark's daughter, Daisy asking for help he'd headed to Mark's apartment as quickly as he could.
At the moment he was in for the fight of his life.
"Oh god..." Diver muttered as the alternate version of Mark Brooks rose up into the air and glared down at him with pure anger. "I am in SO much trouble." He observed while cracking his knuckles and preparing for a fight. By his feet was the still breathing body of Alexander Wolffe, Ed had never met the man... but he'd heard about him. The fact that he was down for the count gave the aquatic avenger an idea of how this battle was going to go.
"Ed Turner. Diver." The imposter grimaced slightly, a cool breeze whipping around his body as he demonstrated a mere fraction of his power. "I barely remember you." He admitted. "And I'm the one that killed you. What were your powers again?"
Diver smirked slightly, nerves shaking through his body. Any other man would have fled in terror at the mere sight of the almighty Carrier, but Diver didn't. If he ran ever time he went up against a Carrier with unmmatchable power he'd spend his whole life running.
"My power." He said. "Is that I never, ever give up."
"I'm unimpressed, your whole world seems to be having that effect on me."
"Let's change that!" Ed yelled, leaping up and gripping the doppelganger by his leg and dragging him down to the ground in punching range. Diver landed a powerful punch into his opponent's chest and followed it with an uppercut to the man's chin, however the Carrier simply shrugged it off.
"I've had worse." He stated before flicking his wrist towards Diver, knocking him back towards the hole in the apartment wall. "You're going to die, Diver." Mark Brooks said, hovering above the ground like some sort of god. "And then I'm going to kill your wife."
Diver gritted his teeth and got up to his feet, however before he could make a move his opponent sent him smashing back down to the ground.
"I'm going to kill your daughter." He added, hovering in the air with a miniature tornado around his feet. "Just like in my home dim-"
Before the Carrier could finish his sinister promise he was interrupted by an invisible wave of telekinetic power that knocked him into the ground of the apartment.
"The only person dying today... is you." Alex Wolffe grumbled while leaning against an overturned coffee table.
Diver got to his feet and looked at his new ally, the beaten and bloody Alex Wolffe looked back, the two Carrier legends nodded respectfully to each other before turning towards their common enemy.
"Oh look." The monster known simply as Dervish cackled while returning to his full height. "You've made a friend." His face turned to a dark, mocking expression... with anger and rage filling his eyes.
"That's to be decided." Wolffe told him, unsure about his new ally.
"Doesn't matter." Dervish said, completely uninjured in comparison to Wolffe who looked like he'd just had a skydive into the middle of the pavement. "I'll kill you both."
Wolffe and Diver both stood back to back, both ready for anything that the Carrier might throw at them. Dervish's eyes darted between the two figures as he plotted his next move.
"Later." He decided. "I'll kill you both later."
PWOP!
With a flash of blinding purple light the Carrier vanished into thin air.
_________________________________________________
Her name was Cassiopeia Williams, otherwise known as Peacekeeper... and at the moment she was right where she belonged. Among the dirt and grime of a messy crime scene she was allowed to user her brilliant, strategic mind without hinderance. Rain fell around her, she ignored it while investigating a large bruise lying on a corpse that had been left in the streets.
Dead bodies.
It was like Christmas had come early.
"Diver." She sighed while standing up, behind her stood the out of breath hero. "What do you want?" Peacekeeper asked with a hint of irritation.
Ed looked tired, his costume was slightly torn and what appeared to be bloody was dripping from a small cut on his lip.
"How... how did y-" He started to ask.
"You smell like sewage." She explained, stepping out from behind the police barrace to join her friend. She noticed the worry on Diver's face and frowned. "What's wrong?"
Diver took a deep breath and looked at his ally.
"We really, really need your help." He told her. Peacekeeper looked into the young man's eyes, in the back of her mind she heard a sinister voice whisper to her.
"Ooh. What little adventure has the all powerful Peacekeeper discovered this time?"
"I'll do whatever I can." She said, ignoring the evil within her.
____________________________________________
Alexander Wolffe felt warm tears fall down his shoulder as he commented the weeping body of his friend's daughter, Daisy. Around him were the destroyed remains of Wind Duster's apartment, usually that would have drawn a lot of attention from the neighbours, police and the general public, however Wolffe had put his powers into effect and ensured nobody would even notice the damage.
Planting mental images into people's minds had become exceptionally easy in recent times.
"It's okay." He told Daisy while letting her release all her emotions. "We're going to get him back." Alex couldn't help but notice the pieces of her hair sticking up from her head, a memento for where the duplicate of her father had grabbed her.
"Why would he do that?" Daisy sobbed, looking at her friend with red eyes. "Why would he-" With a moment of concentration Wolffe reached out with his mind and calmed the girl, showing her images of his family and letting the emotion's he'd felt when he was with them. Despite being very smart for her age, Daisy was still young and incapable of fully understanding the chaos going on around her.
"Uh... are we interrupting?"
Wolffe turned to see two men dressed in costumes stepping through the hole in the apartment. One of them was dressed in bright red and was the size of a small van, while the other had a black recurve bow in his hand and was dressed in black, leather armour with a hood dran over his head.
"Who are you?" The giant dressed in red asked.
"I'm the big, bad wolf." Alex answered, stepping up and staring at the uninvited guests, unsure of what to make of them. "Who are you?" He asked, already having an idea on who it was he was talking to.
Once again it was the archer who spoke. "We're the Response." He said. "And we want to know why our teammate's apartment just exploded."
Apparently the mental image wasn't as easy as Wolffe had thought. His eyes narrowed at the two Carriers, if they were the Response... then they were the Carrier Blight Task Force.
Wolffe hated the CBTF with a passion.
"It's a long story."
The three men all turned to see Diver and Peacekeeper walking in through the front door.
"And we don't have time to explain." Peacekeeper said.
The Response members, Alan Maystrike and Freight Train both glanced at each other with uncertainty at the new factors they were encountering, after a moment of silence between the two teammates it was Maystrike who spokse first.
"Who are you people?" He asked. Diver, Wolffe and Peacekeeper all looked at each other before turning towards their opposites in the Response.
"Isn't it obvious?" Diver said, trying to pull off the friendliest face he could muster. "We're superheroes!"
"You're the strangest superheroes I've ever seen." Freight Train admitted while shrinking down from his combat size and back to his normal stature.
Five of the most dangerous people on the planet all looked at each other uncomfortably, on a nearby settee Daisy Brooks was almost in a trance, peering through the memories that Wolffe had given to her.
"So what's going on?" Freight Train asked after an awkward silence, all of the heroes were uncertain about what to do next.
"Wind Duster's in trouble." Peacekeeper told them, keeping it short and simple. "We're trying to help him." She got to her knees and took a sample of a small piece of dirt lodged in the carpet. "We..." She gestured to Wolffe and Diver. "We're going to find him." She paused for a moment while thinking about her next choice of words. Wolffe shot her a glance from across the room. "While you..."
"No." Alex growled. Peacekeeper ignored him and continued.
"You two are going to protect his daughter." Gaia decided.
"No!" Wolffe snapped, sending dust flying in a sudden burst of telekinetic energy. "I'll never work with those dogs at the CBTF!"
Diver looked at the White Wolf in surprise. "Dude. Calm down."
"I'm working with you." Peacekeeper pointed out. "And you tried to kill me a few months ago."
Wolffe and Gaia both shot each other glares before returning their attention back to Freight Train and Maystrike who were both watching the trio with unimpressed faces.
"If we don't work together something terrible will happen." Gaia explained to her new teammates. "Either Wind Duster's daughter will be kidnapped."
"Or Mark will die." Diver finished, grim look on his face. Peacekeeper nodded.
"If this is going to work we need to put aside all our personal differences and come together as one, single unit." Freight Train said, getting into the vibe of the meeting. "We'll take Daisy to the CBTF Headquarters." He decided. "She'll be safe there." The young hero smiled at his sudden rise in confidence while Maystrike looked at his teammate with an ounce of surprise on his face.
"All right." Gaia said. "It's settled." She looked at her ally. "Right Wolffe?"
The Carrier let out a loud grumble.
"Right?!"
He let out a long, drawn out sigh before finally rolling his eyes.
"Fine."
"Good. Then let's get to work."
A few minutes later and the two seperate teams were on their way, Diver and his squadron of vigilantes took to the streets while Freight Train, Maystrike and the unconscious Daisy all leapt across the rooftops in an attempt to get to the safety of the CBTF building as quickly as possible.
"What are you smiling about?" Maystrike asked upon noticing a small grin on Freight Train's face.
"Oh... it's nothing." Freight Train muttered, Daisy lying in his giant arms. "I've just never been part of a superhero team up before."
After what felt like hours the two CBTF superheroes arrived just outside their destination, the CBTF Tower stood above them like a pillar of hope, letting them know that they would be safe the minute they were inside.
"Did you hear that?" Maystrike asked just as they were about to step through the door. Freight Train followed his friend's gaze and noticed the black shape shooting towards them through the night air.
"Oh sh-" The two started to say just as they were both knocked back by a blast of wind coming from the shape's arm. Freight Train was sent smashing into the building's main reception area while Maystrike landed successfully right by the front entrance, he drew his bow and fired a flare arrow in the target's general direction, hoping to illuminate his quarry.
"I want my daughter!" Dervish yelled upon slamming down into the road just before the building, he was clad in normal civillian clothing... however his body was shaking with raw power, and Maystrike would have been lying if he'd said he wasn't terrified. Several CBTF Security Guards formed around the archer and aimed their weapons.
"Fire!" Maystrike ordered before releasing his arrow, the guards followed suit unleashing bursts of bright blue energy, if they'd been firing at a stationary target it would have been obliterated in seconds.
However they weren't firing at a stationary target, they were firing at a Carrier who was fast enough to dodge a speeding bullet with ease. Before any of the guards could even react, Dervish had teleported right beside them. He landed several blows on the closest guard before following a similar patern on all his colleagues, defeating all of them with utter ease and without being struck.
Maystrike pulled a pistol from his belt and fired at Dervish, the villain ducked out of the way and lunged towards the archer before gripping him by the throat and effortlessly lifting him into the air.
"Where is she?!" He screamed, draining the life out of the marksman. "Where is sh-"
A thick, slab of concrete shattered against the man's skull, forcing him to drop his opponent and sending him crashing down into the street. He looked up to see Freight Train charging towards him, grown to full size and clearly not in a good mood.
"Let's see how you do against another Carrier!" He bellowed, voice having grown deeper from his transformation. Dervish smiled at the new challenge and charged towards his opponent, slamming into Freight Train's chest and blasting him back into one of the CBTF building's support columns.
Freight Train and Alan Maystrike both lay on the ground, surprised by the power of their opponent. Both of them had sparred with Wind Duster, their Wind Duster anyway... and never had they thought he could fight with such ferocity and power.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" Dervish screamed until his voice began to crack. "Tell me where my daughter is!" He demanded. "Or I'll kill every person in this city until I find-"
PWOP!
"HEY!"
Suddenly a shiver went down Dervish's spine, he heard a familiar heartbeat and felt unbelievable rage flow through his body. Behind the heartbeat stood four of Indigo City's greatest heroes... and as he turned to face them he noticed a familiar costume, worn by an all too familiar person.
"Get the hell away from my friends!" Wind Duster yelled, his costume somewhat torn and scraped from the hell he'd just been through. With a blink of his eyes the masked hero teleported his two allies from the Response to his side, both of them slowly got up and readied themselves for combat.
"You." Dervish snarled, self hatred in his eyes while staring at his duplicate. "I told you what would happen if you came after me." He glared at the collected heroes all rallying up against him and understood he was in trouble. "How did they even find you?!" He snapped.
"Well..." Wind Duster muttered, trying to think of a witty pun that fit with the situation. It didn't.
"You know what they say... X always marks the spot."
To be concluded!
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