[ Written by Joygirl. Plotted by Joygirl and Avenging_X_Bolt. ]
For the rest of WotRL, future updates, and a glance at the full roster, check out (and make sure to recommend!) the Wrath of the Red Lanterns user list, which will be acting as the library and central hub for this title!
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“You'll never stop me! The Man of Steel isn't here to save you, Metropolis! Hahahahahaaa!” Hiro Okamura – better known as the latest incarnation of the Toyman – screamed with ecstatic frenzy as his gigantic robot trashed through Metropolis, sending a skyscraper tumbling with one enormous mechanical spider-like leg. “The city belongs... to me!”
Lois Lane inhaled deeply, waving a hand to Jimmy who snapped a quick picture. “Superman nowhere to be seen. Second-rate villain destroys the city and everyone in it... nobody saves us.” She exhaled, lowering her eyes from the destruction. “Not a very good headline. Good thing I'll never have a chance to print it.”
“It'll be okay, Lois,” Jimmy said with an uneasy, yet optimistic smile. “Someone will save us.”
“Yeah... I'm sure,” she said, jotting something down in her notepad before looking back up, whispering under her breath. “Where are you, Clark?”
Hiro noticed nothing of what was happening around him, too intense in his focus, too blissful in the chaos and the calamity. He was winning. He finally got his due. He finally got to be the villain who destroyed Metropolis. The villain who won. “Nobody can stop me!!”
“Mew?”
“Wha?” Toyman turned within the cockpit of his enormous spider-mech, lifting and directing his venom-cannon. “What was that?”
“Nyeeow.”
“Dammit, what is that sound? Is that a cat?!” he roared, distracted from his moment of glory. It was only a few moments later that he removed his goggles from his eyes, looking at the plate glass window in front of him. Hovering contently in front of him was a bizarre, blue-furred cat, wrapped in a sort of black-and-scarlet membrane and wearing a tiny red band around his tail.
“Get outta here! I hate cats!” he screamed manically, blasting a bolt from his cannon in the direction of the hovering blue cat. There was a quick flash as a crimson barrier erected itself, easily absorbing the venom blast.
“...Hsssssssssss.”
Hiro's eyes widened as Dex-Starr, the only Red Lantern of Earth, shrieked wildly and charged, a gush of thick red plasma spewing forth from his small mouth and enshrouding his spider-mech, corroding the parts within seconds, seeping into every gear and working part. “No! No, you idiot cat! Stop that!” Toyman wailed, searching for the eject button.
“Mrrrroooow!” Dex growled, a gigantic red cat-paw suddenly batting the entire mech to the side, the legs giving way and the whole thing collapsing. Hiro scrambled for the button, finally finding the clutch and yanking on it hard.
As Hiro Okamura soared up into the skyline of Metropolis, he cursed that cat. Cursed the thing that had stolen his moment of glory from him. First Superman, and now this... but next time. Next time the Toyman would have the moment he deserved, and his jet-pack would be more than fast enough to get him out of town before–
“Nyaaw?”
“...Oh, crap.”
Hiro forgot about his thoughts of vengeance as cosmic bile seared the flesh from his skull, reducing him to a frail, charred skeleton. In fact, he forgot pretty much everything.
Dex-Starr's ring glowed briefly before opening a simple screen in front of him, one that showed Atros's face. “Is the deed done?”
Dex-Starr closed his eyes and purred softly, licking the plasma from his whiskered muzzle. “Prrrrr.”
Atrocitus showed a rare smile – a true smile, not a grimace or scowl or one of those constipated looks he sometimes got. A genuine smile. “Good kitty, Dex.”
Dex kill Toy-boy. Save Metropolis. Dex is hero of Earth. Dex is good kitty.
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