[h1]Scars & Stars - Chapter: 1[/h1]

"Supergirl, Starbolt!  Drive Toby towards the ground.  Miss Mountain, prepare to open a small crevice in the earth.  Once Toby is back on terrafirma close the crevice around his ankle, keep him from taking off again.  Ditto, stand ready to physically subdue him.  Leave the ring to me."  screamed the man without a face.

"The duplicate that jumped in the line of fire to protect the Question must have told him what must be done. Sometimes I wonder if the duplicates are all developing their own individual personalities. It's merely an afterthought as I put my attention back on the field. Charles Ditko is still a child like the rest of them, if I read his file right he's not even legal age to vote. He doesn't need to be the hero, bear the burden. The team itself is in disarray, we've never faced something like this before... even with me being the most experienced and a founder I can't recall a time where we've dealt with Lantern tech before. Q's plan to contain the Red Lantern is sound and it would seem the group has come to the same conclusion...." the original Kilian thought while still providing support for the rest of the team. 

After her body was completely healed up, Supergirl heard no-face shout more orders. "Leave the ring to you? Gonna quip him into handing it over?"She mumbled but rigidly nodded. "Making the girls do all the work huh?"She yelled. Hands thrown upwards, she reduced her elevation and made her way near Starbolt. SG grinned at the orange skinned vixen. "Ready when you are, hun." A fierce expression took over her face as she eyed her target.

I had not taken long for thing's to move on and despite that the plan was not to attack head on, Starbolt felt she had no choice because she needed to come to the aid of her team mate. Supergirl had since took off to catch some rays to heal herself, while the Tamaranian was still on the ground. She was amazed as the Lantern climbed back out of the crushed car, having never faced a Lantern before. Now was not the time to fear and stick to the plan. 

And that plan came from Question, his tactics were sound and despite being new, Starbolt knew this would be their best chance to try and contain this guy and get that ring of him as the orders where given out. Apparently they had to drive Toby to the ground, despite he was still standing on said ground. Starbolt assumed that herself and Supergirl would have to combine their efforts to [i]keep[/i] him grounded. She elevated into the air, something she was thankful for was her flight ring to do so. 

Starbolt smiled at the responses from Supergirl as they came to each other level assessing the Lantern. 'Make the girls do all the work huh' she mused to herself in her own thoughts. Her grin got more sly when Supergirl claimed she was ready. Eyeing the target Starbolt spoke up to her flying partner. " I suggest we keep him grounded by circling around across from one another getting him into a cross fire, We can use our height advantage and agility, It should keep him distracted enough to not know which target to attack"

"Come on, come on!" Cassandra shouted at the various civilians, gesturing wildly with her hands for them to move away from the battle, away from the chaos. Every so often, she would glance over her shoulder to check the status of her teammates. They seemed to be coping, at least as well as they could given the circumstances. At one point, her eyes turned towards the Question and one of the Ditto duplicates, allowing her to witness as the duplicate pushed Question out of the way of another one of the Red Lantern's blood attacks, saving the faceless hero but ending up getting himself burnt and destroyed. Upon witnessing this, she felt a momentary stab of panic, forgetting, if only for a second, that Ditto had plenty of 'selves' to spare. 

Still, it was mildly disconcerting, watching one of Ditto's clones die like that. Even more disconcerting was that Ditto could [i]feel[/i] the pain his clones felt the moment they 'bit the dust', as it were. The idea of having to experience the pain of death over and over again...

She didn't even want to think about it.

Just as she was about to turn back to the civilians, she suddenly felt lightheaded before a flash of pain ran through her mind and she suddenly became momentarily blind. The feeling had been so overwhelming, it had taken her a moment to realize it was a vision, just like those she felt when she herself was in immediate danger. Except... it felt different. She couldn't describe how or why, but she didn't feel like she was in danger, she didn't feel that urgency, that fight-or-flight instinct that normally accompanied her 'danger sense'.

When her sight returned, she found she was looking at Ditto again, or at very least one of his clones.  Then, all of a sudden, she saw multiple Dittos, all standing around before suddenly, with another rush of pain in Kendra's temples, each of the Dittos started.. to melt. Melt in the way she had seen a candle melt, a slow and painful dissolving of one's form. She wasn't sure how long she stood there, watching these fluxing humanoid forms liquefied until they no longer resembled anything remotely human, but it felt like hours. Then, when only one Ditto was left, he fell face down to the ground, crumpling, folding.

Then everything went black for a second, and when the darkness cleared, Kendra found she was back on the football field. She blinked a couple of times, allowing her sight to readjust. 

Question barked some more orders, which luckily this time Miss Mountain managed to pay attention to. Her job was simple, she just had to lock the villain’s lower legs and ankles within the earth’s confine to prevent his escape. That wasn't too hard, actually it was pretty easy. The catch was just that she was essentially immobilizing this kid in preparation for his impending death. That was a little bit harrowing. A little…
 
The red-ringed villain currently had his sights on the two YJ members with the ability of flight. Dana guessed this was her time to get close in case things didn't go as planned. She lowered herself in a position that would extend more power through her core and started punching the ground in quick, repetitive jabs. These motions weren't normal punches, however; her earth-manipulating powers granted her the ability to make way through the ground like it was nothing, burrowing like a gopher. She made it so there was standing room underground and thrust her hands forward in a blasting motion, pushing the ground and earth in front of her forward. She kept doing this until she was in striking distance of Toby and then burst out of the ground not too far away from the Red Lantern. She waited for Supergirl and Starbolt to pin him to the ground so she could go to work.

The two of them were off to the races, circling the the villain escaping his gaseous red liquid through the amount of speed and wind they were producing. The pair of them giggling caused their foe to become angry and unnerved as he got ready to start up the beams. The pair would throw a light punch (for Supergirl anyway) here and there to knock his concentration as they awaited MM's attempt at making his legs immobile. SG had to admit, there was a certain amount of satisfaction in annoying the guy, the two of them like flies to him. Catching a glimpse of Starbolt's eye, SG nodded as they both upped the speed causing him to be swept by a small sized whirlwind. Quickly, SG stopped circling and flew upwards ahead of the red lantern and punched him back down towards the earth with Starbolt ready to pin him to the ground.

The time was now. Ditko's plan was being set in motion and when Miss Mountain, Starbolt, and Supergirl had the enemy planted on the ground at least a dozen Ditto duplicates dog piled the teen.The consciousness of the original Carggite moved through the bodies until it reached the one closest to the teen's right hand. He'd be damned if Ditko... the Question... was going to bear the burden in what was to be this teen's imminent death. The ring burned bright, and before the prime consciousness of Kilian could move away to another duplicate away from the battle the Lantern exploded with red energy. Several Ditto's simply burned away in the blast shielding his teammates. The original still made an attempt to move his mind into that of another duplicate but it still didn't matter. A handful of Dittos died and faded away after being partly burned to death, the original... blacked out from the mental strain. The telepathic link the duplicates shared was gone. The team was caught in the explosion and while most remained unharmed, at least one or two felt great pain. Who knew when the duplicating man from Cargg would awaken.

~YJ~