"I... Love... METROPOLIS!!!"
"A little louder, Bunker. I dont think they could hear you in Gotham..."
"I can't help it, Red! This town is amazing!"
Bunker, Arsenal, Solstice and Cyborg, all of them in their civies, sat at an outside table of a café, each of them with a cup tea or coffee.
"I mean it, San Francisco is a huge city, but this place... it makes me feel so small! Not as in pathetic-small, but as in... It's like looking at... a big... animal. It's so much bigger than you, and you feel... awe. Freaking awe!"
"You got to admit..." Solstice said to the others. "He has a point. It's all so big, but not in a bragging way. It's not self-promoting, it doesn't have to. It's Metropolis. And just to top it all, it's also the hometown of..."
"THERE IS SUPERMAN!!!" Bunker yelled, as he pointed at the air. In the sky, a red and blue streak could be seen, as the Man Of Tomorrow flew through the air. "THAT WAS FREAKING SUPEFFF"
"Bunk..." Arsenal had place a hand on Bunker's mouth. "Shut up, or I swear.... I will take an arrow, and show it up where the sun always shine..." A waiter came, took away their cups as she mumbled something about tourists.
"So..." Solstice remembered that there was a reason to why they were in The Big Apricot. "How long until we can go in and save Impulse?"
"Don't know." Arsenal answered. "All we can do is wait."
"This is just silly." That was the first thing Cyborg had said all day. He wasn't used to having to hide his metal body or the public, and being dressed in a trench coat with a hat he was pretty sure got outdated along with the black and white movies was starting to get on his nerves. "It's right there." He pointed at a book-store at the other side of the street. "It's not like it's a heavy-armed fortress. I say we just march in and get it over with."
"Go ahead, Stone. I'm not stopping you."
"... Well... I just have to finish my coffee..."
"See? That's what I'm talking about."
"Talking about what?" Bunker asked.
"Bunker, try and enter the shop."
"But you said..."
"I know. Just... Go and open the door."
"Um... Okay..."
Nothing happened.
"Bunk?"
"Hey, easy. I'm gonna do it." He stood up, walked toward the book-store... and paused. "... Look, can I do it later?"
"Why?" Arsenal took a sip of his tea. "You want to help Impulse, right?"
"Yeah, but... I don't know... I just dont want to go to the book-store. It's so... uninteresting, I guess?"
"Exactly. That's how they keep people away. Every time someone sees this store, they feel no interest for it at all, and everything else seems more important. It's a telepathy trick, and much more effective that a steel-fortress or something like that."
"This sucks..." Cyborg groaned. "I don't know what I will do if we lose him like..."
"Like Kaldur?"
"... Yeah... How come we never talk about him?"
"... Because we miss him, and it hurts talking about it?" Solstice suggested.
"Oh... right..."
"That's just how it is. When we put on our costumes, we all know that we may not see tomorrow. Consider yourself lucky that death haven't become a part of this job... Yet."
Arsenal's grim statement had killed whatever enjoyment anyone at the table had about being in the world's greatest city.
In the Brain Trust's base, in the underground of Metropolis...
SLAM!!!
The world disappear again, as Impulse was locked inside his cell again. Now came the REALLY risky part.
He slowly stepped forward, placing his hands on the wall.
Alright. I'm in cell 52. He thought. Rose is in cell 50. So I have to get to the second cell to the... left.
He moved by the wall, until he could feel that he had reached the wall to his left. And then, he vibrated.
...........
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
Impulse gave Arsenal a are-you-for-real look.
"Impulse, as far as they know, you are a untrained superhuman, still getting used to his powers. They will throw you inside a cell with walls that not even a hand-grenades can break down. But they won't suspect that you can just phase through the walls."
...........
As he phased into the cell next to his own, he hold his breath, afraid to wake up whoever was inside. Slowly, he managed to feel his way to the next wall, phasing through it as well.
"Rose?" Impulse sweated a little. "Rose are you heAAARGH!"
"Sorry, SORRY!" Rose voice could be herd in the dark. Hand her hand around hit neck. "You scared the crab outta me."
"Haven't you hurt me enough!?"
"Come on, don't be such a softy." She laughed. "Okay, so you can leave your cell, and get into mine. Good. Now you have to tell me how to de-robofy the not-special class guys."
.................
"White is the key to it all." Arsenal explained.
"The guy I'm suppose to lie to?" Impulse asked.
"Exactly. He is the one who make all the kids into good little soldiers. The Brain Trust has operated a mechanic device into his neck, so that he can use his psychic powers unconsciously on all the students."
"So they depend on just ONE guy? Seems a little risky... For the Brain Trust, I mean."
"It would be, if it wasn't because of the fact that the guy is invulnerable."
"... Invulnerable?!"
"And he has super-strength."
"... So, all I have to do is taking out a super-strong telepath, who are invulnerable AND has an army of mind-slaves. Gee, piece of cake! I might as well be fighting Superman!" Impulse yelled.
Arsenal smiled. "Oh, but just like Superman, Mr White has a fatal weakness..."
..........
"You know..." Rose said, after having thought of what Impulse had just told her. "That actually explains a lot. We might actually succeed in breaking down this sick place."
"Wait." Impulse interrupted her. "Can't I just get you out of here? You can depower all the guards, and then we can shut this joint down."
"It's not that simple." She explained. "My damping power only works in a radius of 20 feet. And I only damp powers down, so all I can do is making someone not as strong, not as invulnerable, or, in your case, not as fast as they usually are. So they would still have their powers."
"Wait, I was still superfast? How come you beat the snort outta me?"
"I also have precognitive vision. I can sort-of 'see' my opponents next move seconds before they act. And the rest is push ups and sit ups."
"You're badass!"
"I know, Softy. I know. Anyway, Joey says that if are suppose to start a riot, we need a whole days rest. So here is what we do..."
The next day...
"You still think you're better than me, b%tch?!"
Impulse ha thrown a shoe at Rose's face. It was thanks to the fact that they had planed it and her precognitive vision allowed her to turn her head at the right time.
"You little piece of sh%t!" She grabbed a small dumbbell. "Come here and fight like you got a pair!"
No one in the room interfered. All of the students new that what someone would call a "disturbances in class" coach called it "a surprise lesson."
"You think you can take me on, now that I'm not caught inside a square?" Impulse ran past Rose and slapped her in the face several times. When Rose tripped(on purpose), he started to kick her as she lied on the floor. He stopped, once he was hit in the head by Rose's brother Joey with a fighting-stick. Rose, now with Joey, proceeded to kick and stomp Impulse.
"Alright, that's enough!" The coach, now with arms twice as big as they were before, grabbed Joey and Rose by he neck of their shirts, and dragged hem away from Impulse. "Congratulation! All three of you just got yourself 12 hours isolation. And Rose..." He whispered, so no one but Rose could hear it. "Can't believe you needed help to take care of the new guy. Without your brother, you would still have been on the floor, getting your ass handed to ya. Like a little b%tch."
Later that night...
Impulse woke up, as he heard a hatch being opened, and a tiny amount of light came into the cell, as Impulse received his dinner. The only meal he had been given all day in his isolation. He managed to find the disk with food, and dropped half of it on the floor as he ate it in the dark. After eating, he phased himself into Rose's cell.
"I'm done eating." He said, waiting to hear her voice.
"Good." Rose's voice said in the dark. "Now, you get us both into Joey's cell. Three cells from here to the left. Grab my arm. AW!"
"Sorry..."
"That was my eye, jackass!"
"I said I was sorry..."
Impulse finally got a hole on Rose's arm. They felt their way to the wall, and phased through it.
"What... Who!? WHAT!?"
As they phased into the second cell, they woke up whoever was inside it.
"Go to bed, or be severely punished." Rose said with a cold voice.
"... Yes, ma'am."
"How the heck did you know that would work?" As they entered Joey's cell, Impulse simply had to know.
"You'r kidding, right? This is 1984, Softy. No one dares opposing ANYTHING that sounds like an authority. JOEY!"
No answer. Not one by sound, anyway.
"Good to see... feel... whatever." Rose talked to Joey in the dark. Her mute brother communicated with her by tabbing signals on her hand. "He says that he's ready."
Rose helped Joey getting a hold of Impulse, as he made them all three phase out of the cell. The got the attention of Plastique, who were on guard-duty at the moment.
"Hey! How did you ge..."
She didn't get to say more, as Joey... jumped inside her. That's what it looked like to Impulse, anyway.
"Joey, you alright?" Rose asked Plastique.
"... Yeah..." Plastique said. "... So weird talking again... among other things." The possessed Plastique took a quick look at her torso.
"Stop goggling yourself, Joey! Just... get us to the gym."
"Wait... Rose." Impulse whispered, as they were seemingly escorted to the gym by a guard. "Joey can just posses people like that?"
"Only if he can get eye-contact. So the guards force him to use a pair of contact lenses. Now, be quite. We are getting into the gym."
As they entered the hall, the coach was there, pumping iron.
"Chappell!" Joey said through Plastique. "I don't know how, but two of the students got out of their cells."
Coach dropped the lever he was excising with. "Now, that's interesting." He picked a remote from his pocket. As he clicked on it, the doors slammed. "Don't worry, I will keep them... busy, as you contact the other guards. But before you leave, Plastique..."
"Yes?"
"You always call me Champ, when the others aren't around."
SLAM!!!
On the floor lied an unconscious Plastique. Joey lied there as well, but he quickly got back on his feet, only to get slammed into a wall.
"You kids are toast!" Coach said with a sadistic smile.
"What are you gonna do?" Rose held two bats in each hand. "Call the guards? Like a little b%tch?"
"HA!" Coach took something out of his pocket. It looked like a patch, and slapped it on his neck. "I like YOU, you know that, Wilson? Ya got moxie!"
Impulse gulped, as he saw the coach grow.
To be continued...
Log in to comment