Scars & Stars - Chapter:2
At first the darkness was all consuming, pressing down from every direction, and upon every sense. Slowly, oh so slowly, feeling began to return. And with it pain. His flesh seemed to writhe, bones grinding against each other like restless tectonic plates. With a groan the teen known as the Question pushed himself to a sitting position. A quick inspection of his person told him that nothing seemed to be broken, so there was that small favour to be thankful for, though he was covered in cuts, grazes and burns, his hat no where to be seen and his overcoat little more than a smoldering ruin. He clambered groggily to his feet, a battered prize-fighter stepping onto the canvas after the thirteenth starting bell. His coat was cast from his body, leaving him in shirt, waistcoat and tie, as his quick eyes considered the field before him.
It wasn't good.
Ditto was down, that much was an easy deduction. The original was slumped in unconsciousness, while several duplicates milled around in an almost drunken confusion. Their telepathic link is gone, Question realized with a start. The rest of the team seemed discombobulated by Garrison's attack, though none seemed as damaged as Ditto or Question himself. Those two had been closest to the epicenter of the Red Lantern's blow, both racing to remove his ring, and they had paid for their impetuousness.
The Lantern in question surveyed his handiwork with a satisfied grin, his countenance frog-like in it's smugness. His back was to the Question.
"Young Justice, heh. What a joke!" Garrison said to himself, punctuating his statement with a mocking chuckle. He took a step forward, the way he held himself and the set of his hips telling Question that he meant to take to the skies, perhaps to make good his escape while the team were on the back foot. The masked detective refused to let that happen. He broke into a mad run, ignoring the protestations of his battered body.
"Team, strike now!" He commanded, his voice raw and hoarse. "Do not let him escape!" The Red Lantern turned towards the source of the commotion, a ghost of confusion on his face. He had no doubt figured he had crushed all resistance. Question took the opportunity to catch him on the chin with a wild hay-maker, all his rage, frustration and pain concentrated upon this one strike, praying that he could end the conflict with this singular crazed blow.
Garrison staggered backwards with a pained
*ooof*, white ivory flashing in the noon day sun as a tooth came flying from his mouth.
Fall, Question willed,
just bloody fall!It wasn't enough.
The rage Lantern reared forwards, a crazed look in his eye. The masked detective reeled backwards, trying to give ground while firing another straight jab towards Toby's face, the Lantern catching his fist with an almost contemptuous ease. Question struggled vainly in the vice like grip, desperate to free his trapped fist. He was still trying when Garrison slammed his head into Questions masked nose. A choked gurgle sounded through the material as a red stain welled up from the inside. Toby repeated the maneuver twice more before letting Question drop to the ground.
"What was that you said about my dad?" Garrison snarled, stomping Question's form again and again, grinding him into the blood-mingled dirt.
As Cassandra had been on the sidelines with the civilians, still caught in a shocked trance after her vision, the explosion didn't cause much damage to her, though it did knock her off her feet and cause her to land face down on the ground. It took her a moment to recollect herself, lying on the floor as she waited for her momentarily stunned senses to return. She then pushed herself back to her feet and scanned her surroundings.
Ditto was down, it seemed, all but seven of his bodies reduced to ashes. Kendra inwardly cursed herself for not acting on her vision immediately but she didn't wallow in her self-pity for long. Her eyes were drawn to the Red Lantern, who was standing menacingly over the Question, the latter who was lying on the ground, a red stain forming on his mask.
Grabbing her spear, which had flown out of her hand in the explosion, Kendra gave a shout.
"Hey!" she called at Toby.
"Hey, ugly!" As Toby started to turn his head towards her, Kendra threw her spear, aiming it at Toby's shoulder. It struck, its point burying in the Lantern's shoulder, causing him to give a cry of pain and rage. Kendra took this opportunity to charge towards him, aiming to essentially rugby tackle him to the ground. Not the best plan, she knew that, but with her other teammates probably still recovering from the blast, it was up to her to keep up the fight.
However, Kendra wasn't quick enough to reach Toby before he recovered and he angrily kicked out at her, slamming his foot into her stomach. Cassandra gave a choked cry as she was winded, temporarily stunned as she tried to get the air back into her lungs. Toby slammed his fist into the blonde girl's face and she fell backwards to the ground.
Toby pulled the spear from his shoulder, snarling in pain as he did so. It had buried itself deep, but the wound didn't phase him nearly as much as Cassandra had hoped it would. Toby stood over Cassandra, glaring down at her fiercely before bringing up the spear, aiming to skewer the super-heroine through the stomach with her own weapon. Weakly, Kendra attempted to roll herself out of the way, and while she was able to avoid being stabbed in the gut, the spear instead struck her arm, digging so deep into the flesh above her elbow that it actually went completely through her arm and into the ground, meaning she was now literally pinned down. Wincing and gritting her teeth in pain, Kendra tried to move her arm. This turned out to be a terrible idea, as it only served to worsen her wound and she bit down on her tongue to stop herself from crying out.
After pinning him and allowing the Ditto's to do their thing, Supergirl moved back and hovered near the scene. The next thing she knew was an explosion that sent her spiraling towards the earth half in confusion and half because she didn't have the mental capacity to focus for flight. Picking herself up she could hear Kendra's taunting. Trying to reap all the benefits of Kendra's distraction, Supergirl raced to move her fallen teammates further back on her side of the field. In the time allotted, she grabbed Q and a couple dittos (unsure of which was the prime) before turning her head towards Kendra.
Now pinned down, Supergirl had no idea how to help her -- whether pulling it out or leaving it in was the best situation. She certainly had no medical training in her three years on this earth and her power-set didn't include super-healing.
"Kendra! Hang in there!" she yelled. Gliding through the air, she met Red Lantern as he moved towards her comrade and began a barrage of punches with no holding back.
"Heh, you hit like a girl" he snarled before hitting her with another beam of red light that sent her back. Unlike the other times, he didn't turn this off and she was pushed back. She tried her best to push forward through it but found her energy quickly becoming drained and next her legs involuntarily falling to her knees.
How are we supposed to fight this monster...There was an explosion in the distance. Uh-oh. He was present during the mission debriefing, but still hadn't felt quite well enough to go. He'd decided since then that they needed him there. Back to the explosion, again, not good. That only confirmed that things were
not going well. When he arrived on the scene, he was greeted by a less-than-favorable situation. Ditto and Question were unconscious, Cassandra had a spear outright pinning her to the ground, and Supergirl was struggling to fight again the Lantern's beam. He sloped downward to reach his top speed.
"Hey!"A wall of ice rose in front of the Lantern's beam, shielding Supergirl, as the voice called out.
"You can sit down later," Frostbite quipped as he sped by. He swept her up onto his ice platform and out of the way just as the ice wall broke.
"Wow, that was close. You okay?" The Lantern, not seeming to appreciate the rescue, started throwing short red blasts at the pair. Frostbite swerved to dodge them, almost losing Supergirl's hand on the turn.
"Supergirl," he started,
"I'm gonna have to let you off here soon." He looked down to Cassandra.
Defend her for now, okay? At least until everyone else comes to. And... I wouldn't pull that spear out." It struck him immediately after that he just gave somebody orders. He glanced around the field. Was anybody left his senior? Whatever. That could wait.
"Okay, ready?" The path they were skating on started to split into two, the new path sloping towards the ground. He almost suddenly slid Supergirl down it, back into a safe position on the ground.
"Sorry!" he yelled down.
"I'll distract him for a bit!" He shot a few icicles towards the Lantern to recapture his attention before speeding on ahead and circling him.
"Hey, Blondie! Red isn't really your color, pal!.."Miss Mountain regained consciousness, the Red Lantern's repulsive counter-attack left her feeling groggy and weak. Her vision was blurry, so she used her remaining muscle to turn to her back and prop herself up on her elbows. There was definitely action going on, she could tell that much. She tasted something warm and distasteful in her mouth; it was blood. She wasn't sure if it was just from some teeth that she got mashed in or maybe it was from her nose and it had dripped to her mouth. She spat out in disgust of the taste, and sure enough some chipped pieces of her teeth along with a large amount of blood spewed from between her lips.
She cursed under her breath, rage replaced all other thoughts in her brain and the bruises swelled with pain and the cuts burned in the filthy air that encompassed her. Toby Garrison did this. Some stupid loser from this stupid high school thinks that he can mess with me? Dana White? Miss fucking Mountain? she thought, blind anger taking over her instincts and reasoning. The ground started shaking beneath her and she stood to her feet with ease, all her pain and soreness subsiding as the natural and mental steroids of absolute hatred made them seem like nothing but annoyances. Her chest rose and fell at an alarming rate, breathing heavily as she felt the earth around her... trying to draw all the power she could from her surroundings.
Rocky humanoid hands burst from the ground, wrapping around the airborne Lantern's ankles and pulling him to the ground. Miss Mountain had pulled him straight from his fight with Supergirl and Cassandra, wanting to inflict pain on him by herself. Toby fought and struggled against the bonds on his legs, keeping him from taking off. Dana put together a massive boulder and rolled it in his direction, where she hoped it would crush him. Dana wasn't herself, she was attempting to kill him in a completely painful and evil way. This rage clouded her feeling of good, and right now she was just focused on making him pay. What she was making him pay for she didn't even really think about.
Toby yelled in rage as it neared close, managing to break the earthly bonds with his ring's blasts and dodge the rolling boulder right before it flattened him. She smashed the ground with her fists and starting violently launching chunks of rock at him in the air. He flew away from them with cocky ease. The earth was dangerously quaking around her, the area was unsafe. Tears swelled in her eyes, she continued to fling earth at him. She didn't even know what she was angry for, she just had this urge to maim Toby Garrison. Perhaps she had been keeping this evil inside her for a long time, but one thing was for sure. Someone or something definitely had to calm her down before she destroyed the environment.
The Red Lantern responded to Frostbites taunts by spewing his bile in a large swathe, the burning substance covering everything in Beck's immediate area, some even getting on the cryokinetic's clothes. If he didn't remove it quickly then he would be badly hurt. Toby tried to continue his attack, but was impeded by Miss Mountain.
Miss Mountain was mad, but Garrison was madder. With a roar that sounded like it tore his throat bloody he charged towards the heroine, smashing clods of earth out of his way with furious and contemptuous strikes. As he neared her he pulled back his fist, striking her before she could get up any defenses. She fell hard, the quaking that had signaled her loss of control ending on a tremulous note. He began to kick her in the side, venting his frustrations upon her prone form.
Someway off Question came back to with a start, choking and spluttering. With a sluggishness that spoke of head trauma he realized the fabric of his mask had welled up with his own blood, making it difficult to breathe. He tore the mask off, wincing at the pain incurred. Things were definitely broken now, of that much he was sure. On top of that his thoughts were all a jumble, disconnected and hazy. That terrified him, more than anything else Garrison had done so far. Ditko's steel trap mind was his greatest weapon. Without it he was. . . useless.
His eyes, slower now than they had ever been before, scanned the battlefield. He gasped when they alighted upon Cassandra, the prophet speared upon her own weapon. He began to stumble to her aid when he realized that Miss Moutain was in even more dire straights, being accosted by the Red Lantern. He had forgotten about him. Somehow.
At this stage Question was really at a loss at what to do about him. The Lantern's raw power seemed to be too much for anything the team tried. Brilliant strategy, cunning misdirection, brute strength; none of it worked! All he knew was that he had to stop Garrison from pounding on Dana. Though attacking the lantern directly hadn't worked earlier, and he really didn't think he could survive another beating.
"Oh God!" He choked, Toby looking up in vague annoyance that turned to pure hatred when he realized that one of his foes were still standing. Charles was struggling to believe it himself at this stage. Still, he had committed to distracting Garrison from Quinn now, he might as well throw all that he had into the performance. He began to gesture into the distance behind Toby's back.
"Green Lantern, thank God you're here to save us!"This was what he was reduced to. The old 'Whats that behind you?' trick. Unbelievably it worked, as Garrison turned around and squinted into the distance. Ditko began to ready himself for the inevitable beating that would follow, surprised when it never came. He looked up to see that there really was something behind Garrison, but it wasn't a Green Lantern.
In fact it looked like a . . .
"Spaceship. . ?" as improbable as that seemed.
Yup, definite head trauma.