Midway City, Michigan
Sundown...

The Green Lantern made quick work of most of the rampaging civilians. Not many of them had weapons, so the majority of them were fine in the labyrinth like maze Alan constructed to separate them. Brainwave was several blocks up, floating in front of the Police Station. There weren't many officers at the Blue Valley Sheriff's Department, but there was at least half a dozen with a decent amount of firepower. They were picking off civilians from the parking lot with rifles. Cars were getting overturned, places of business were on fire, and the new recruits were nowhere to be found.

"The crowd back around Robotman's old HQ is probably holding the rest of the team behind. Or maybe something went wrong with the cartoon girl. Either way I've gotta get those police to quit shooting civilians..." Alan thought strategy flying straight for Brainwave and the insane cops.

"Oh... what have we here? A Justice League founder? This should make a good impression..." Brainwave said floating from above.

Alan used the power now coursing through his body and fired beams of energy from his hands that targeted the guns and ammo of the cops, melting it down to nothing. It took little effort putting the cops in their own holding cells. As the new recruits approached the scene, Brainwave let it be know telekinesis was also within his range of brain power and threw a couple police squad cars at the heroes before turning to Alan who was still busy with the cops.

"Looks like I'll have a new agent of chaos. TAKE CARE OF THEM FOR ME..." Brainwave instructed as a dead expression washed over Alan's face and he was heading at his own team. Rage and hate were about to pour out of him in the form of emerald energy...

"You bunch of SLACKERS!" he screamed as energy fired from his hands and giant construct dragons were suddenly perched on larger buildings and attacking down below at the team with fire breath. The sun was setting but the emerald fire from the construct dragons lit the night air ablaze.

-00492

---

Also tagging: @FiroIV & @Experiment 249

---

Not much time had passed since Green Lantern went off to contain the civillians, the team in Robotman's HQ trying to gather and prepare to head out having to wait for a few members to make their way on the teleporter. But that short time where the heroes walked out trying to locate Brainwave was enough for the villain to get the best of their mentor, Green Lantern. Having fallen to the villain's sort of mind control, GL started to attack the group of heroes with fire dragons made out of his own ring energy, obviously not himself.

"Welp, this is what happens when you go off alone instead of waiting for the team vs someone who can do this kinda stuff..." Toon Girl said with a sigh, having seen this exact thing in many different movies. At least looking up at GL also revealed Brainwave nearby, floating above him and probably giving him orders.

Shazam floated slightly behind Toon Girl, and observed the situation at hand. At Toon Girl's remark, he smirked. For this, he didn't need the Wisdom of Solomon to know what needed to happen next: they had to take Alan down, and they had to do it quick. There was also the problem of those massive emerald dragon constructs. . . and their fire. It seemed like even with the Wisdom of Solomon, he'd be put in an odd predicament .

"It is clear we have to fight him." Perhaps Marvel's name should actually be Captain Obvious. He paused for a moment, and continued.

Then it struck him. The dragons were just constructs; constructs can be beaten until they no longer existed. Genius. Marvel figured he would handle the dragons, and Toon Girl. . .

"You--you do not seem to be much of a fighter. What is it you are good at?"

Looking at the big cloaked Shazam guy with a slight 'really?' look on her face, Toon Girl said. "Oh, I'm really good at distraction, taking hits, giving super hugs, stuff like that." Though she wasn't sure what to take of being called not much of a fighter. It was kind of true, she didn't care much for it, but she wasn't bad at it. Shazam seemed to take the situation at hand more seriously than her though. Pulling out her portable hole from her dress, she said. "So, you wanna do some punchies and stuff? I'll go and 'distract' Greenie til ya get there."

Throwing her portable hole on the ground in front of her, Toon Girl jumped into it, a second hole appearing behind Alan. Since Green Lantern wasn't much himself at the moment, it was pretty safe to teleport behind him. And once behind him, Toon Girl gave him a huge hug, pinning his arms to his sides and holding on tightly since she herself couldn't fly. "Aww, Greenie! Why are you so angry? You should be happy! You found Mr. Crazy bringer and just have to hit him with a hammer to win!" She said playfully, her tone contrast from the strength she was using to keep GL in place with her nearly constricting hug.

Meanwhile, Shazam took the tops of the buildings; he hovered in the faces of both dragons, arms folded. In his eyes sparked the mystical lightning of Zeus; his arms soon followed. He bellowed out to the emerald entities,

"Cease, or you will be put down." The dragons were unamused. They turned their fire on the Captain, who made deft dodge out of imminent harm.

After managing a narrow escape, he bulleted forth, a streak of yellow lightning trailing his flight path. He reared a lightning-encoated fist back while in mid flight, and soon as he closed the distance between himself and the first of the green dragons did he thrust a devastating blow to the dragon's torso. If felled, he now had to deal with the second dragon, who had promptly sensed the peril of his kin and turned its focus on the Captain.

Marvel was too slow to react, and was met with a hail of emerald blaze which not only seered his clothing, but sent him careening into a steel barrier that broke beneath the velocity of his density and did nothing to stop his inevitable crash into a steel wall atop the roof of the next building over. His body pressed a dent in the wall, he pulled himself out.

This was going to be harder than he anticipated.

Being under the control of Brainwave, Green Lantern wasn't going to have any of Toon Girl's shenanigans. "Why you.. GET OFF...ME..." Alan said as he tried to wiggle free from her grasp to no avail, Toon Girl just hugging tighter when he tried. Green Lantern grew impatient with the mocking nature of the little Toon Girl and in an area blast big enough to level the nearest building to them his energy burned everything in its wake.The bit of Toon Girl that was facing GL was completely covered black from the ash of the emerald fire.

"'cough' Really?" She said, as the wind blew away the bits of her that were ash, her eyes falling down to earth from the sky. Popping back to normal a moment before she hit the ground, she left a deep imprint of herself on the pavement below, a loud 'THWAK' sound being heard as she bellyfopped when she hit the pavement.

Ya know, it was times like these that made Duncan realize he had it pretty good.

Sure, his car was a piece of junk, he came home every day covered in grease, soot and diesel and whatever wages he brought home were gouged to absolute shit by both the Federal and Provincial governments... but that was alright. Because he was lucky enough that anytime he so wished it, he could come sit here in his Granddad's garage and have a fucking beer.

Doubly lucky today, in fact, his Dad had just got back from the Labrador coast and actually had the energy to stay awake and talk to the two other generations of his blood he was sharing space with at the moment... well, mostly. It was pretty clear that if the big damned family dog wasn't stealthily, but consistently trying to worm it's way onto his lap on a chair that very clearly was not going to be holding them both, he'd be passed right the hell out right now.

It was pretty damned entertaining to watch, truth be told. He stifled a chuckle, even as he took a drag from his cigarette and went back to pretending to listen to his Granddad tell that same old story about how Wildcat had saved him and his entire platoon from an elite Battalion of Nazi SS hopped up on super-human drugs in the Ardennes. It wasn't that he was ignoring the old guy, far from it infact- It's just that he'd heard it so many times in his life that he could recite it word for word; dramatic pauses, colourful profanity and all.

No, what Duncan was paying attention to was the old man himself.

The scars on his face gained over the course of two separate wars, the way his eyes got all bright and fiery when he slung expletives or sang praises about people long since dead, how he sometimes paused and tried to hide that little smile whenever he caught the muffled sound of Duncan's Grandma walking through the house singing to herself in Acadian... that's what had his attention.

The guy was getting old, and even if he was, as a typical MacAodhan, too damned stubborn to even acknowledge it, the fact remained that our man Duncan probably didn't have that many of these moments left with his Grandfather, so he wanted to burn every moment and everything about the old man he could into his memory.

Though very suddenly, he found his attention diverted by the sound of the garage door opener coming to life, and after a few moments, in entered his Mom, right on queue, holding two big bags of food she brought back from her diner... and closely followed by Freddie Fucking Mercury who entered holding a two-four of beer under one arm and big damned carton of smokes under the other, grinning in awesome benevolence as a triumphant chorus of guitar chords announced his presence like the arrival of a fucking GOD.

"...Wait, what?"

Very suddenly, his grandparents' house, his family and all the warm feelings associated therewith were gone, leaving only his room at the Metro tower and the few lights coming in from the still-sunless city of Metropolis. Freddie was still there though, over the radio at least, signalling that it was four in the morning and time to get his ass up.

"Awww, shit..."

Yup, this was still his reality.

And he still didn't like it.



Looking like all kinds of hell, what with the bloodshot eyes, the nasty shiner he was sporting that engulfed much of the left side of his face and the way the old, slightly too big for him JSA tracksuit Green Lantern found lying around haphazardly garbed his body, Duncan, or rather "The Rookie" (as somebody had scribbled into his file) half-walked, half-dragged his sore and exhausted self through the deserted corridors of the Metro Tower at an hour even death would find a bit excessive, headed for the kitchen. It had taken him a solid week just to wake up after that sound beating Metallo had bestowed upon his skull back home in Halifax. Enough time for his now-least-favourite bat-themed acquaintance to thoroughly study him and come to the conclusion that, although he could spin a full-sized family sedan around on his pinky finger, was very literally as weak as he was physically capable of being.

He didn't like that much.

And Duncan learned not to like him much for that opinion. Mostly because it led directly to three days now of having his ass handed to him day in and day out by another freakin' robot in a training room equipped with a gravity-well so powerful it made his intestines feel like they were gonna exit his body stage-rear.

Speaking of which...

"Good morning, Mister MacAodhan."

The lad blinked blearily for a few minutes at the rough, synthetic voice, but responded all the same as he flopped down in the seat across the table from the matte-blue robot.

"Mornin', Ajax"

Ajax, (or A1-AX, if we're being rude), was one of Superman's older bots, the first one he built specifically to help him in a fight, in fact. Built tougher, leaner and a helluva lot meaner than those tinfoil things Solara tore through for kicks when she was having a bad day (which, as far as he could tell, was every day), he'd been the second part of the greater headache that had been ripping the inside of the Rookie's skull apart since he woke up here.

Partly because most of the time Duncan saw him, he was punching him in the face.

And partly because he was too damned nice.

Seriously, if science-fiction is to be believed, superpowered warmachines who achieve sentience on their own are supposed to go on murderous genocidal rampages or at least burn an orphanage or two. Not tend gardens, cook food and dispense oddly-sage advice with a distinctly robotic voice, and definitely not read Mark Twain in the kitchen whilst humming a jaunty (yet still robotic) tune at four-something in the goddamn morning.

The Rookie couldn't help but just stare at the relaxing machine before him. Not the craziest thing he'd seen recently, by no means, but still just slightly left of centre.

"Couldn't you read that whole thing in a matter of seconds?" Duncan inquired finally, yet flatly. "Why even bother sitting down?"

"Now where would the fun in that be?" The machine in question replied with a slight shrug as it pushed a glass toward him. "Now drink up."

The glass in question, of course, contained the beginning and end of Batman's diet plan for him; a thick green sludge that looked like beer-shits, smelt like roadkill and tasted like Satan's toe-jam. Apparently it was good for him, though his gag-reflex usually disagreed quite vehemently on that.

Delaying the inevitable, the Rookie found something new to talk about.

"So... " He began, subtly sliding the glass off to the side "What's on the agenda today?"

"I have some cherry trees to plant in the greenhouse." the machine responded, just as subtley sliding the glass right back to where it was "You may go take it easy and do some warm-up exercises for a few hours until your instructor arrives, you are probably going to need it."

"...Wait, Bats brought in someone else?"

Again, the glass slid away from the Nova Scotian.

"I am informed that it is to be a surprise." And again it slid back, a tiny umbrella and a straw in it now. "Now please drink your juice."

---

Sometime later...

'Holy shit, is that fucking Wildcat?'

"The Rookie eh? I appreciate the humility."

'Holy fucking shit, it is.'

It took physical contact with the man for said Rookie's brain to fully process that one, leaving him to subtly glance down at his hand with a small expression of disbelief as the feline-themed crime fighter traded (slightly less friendly) greetings with the other recruit in the room and goodbyes with Batman. Sure, he'd had some weird and new experiences this past week and a half (fist-fighting robots and going to a baseball game with freakin' Superman among them), but meeting and shaking the hand of the guy who'd saved his Granddad's life back in the day and thus allowed he and his Dad to exist in the first place pretty well topped all that.

"Alright you two, let's see what I'm working with here, why don't you two go a round or two and then I'll step in."

That snapped Duncan back to reality, as he blinked in surprise for a few seconds but quietly obeyed and headed for the centre of the room with his taller, more hairy companion, before facing him and taking on the stance Ajax had drilled into his head these past three days. That said, he did look visibly unsure he should be doing this in the first place on account of not knowing much about his opponent or, more specifically, whether or not he might accidentally reduce the guy to a red paste with a poorly timed right hook.

It wasn't that long ago he was brawling with Metallo, he saw what his fist did to that guy when he actually managed to connect, so he had a fairly good idea what would happen if he cut loose and hit someone made of flesh and blood.

Still, this was the Justice League, so maybe he didn't have to worry about that.

Worth asking about, either way-

"Hey, uhh... don't take this the wrong way, but... how tough are you, exactly?" He asked, opening his hands and shrugging, though still holding his stance "Because there may be a few... ground rules... we wanna lay out before we do this."

"Now why'd you go and turn my chain into slag to make cuffs, girl? We ain't going steady!" Lobo screamed busting out of the weakened metal around his hands and wrists and backhanding the girl away several blocks towards downtown.

The Czarnian ran over to Clutch's car and lifted it into the air as if it were nothing and threw it at the Kryptonian female with the driver still in it. He turned to see Bulleteer approaching but the man in the mecha suit was nowhere to be seen. James Barr came in and foolishly tried to go hand to hand with the pale monster. While James had a better fighting style, Lobo was a brawler and an alien juggernaut. The metal still around his wrists and on his body in the form of buttons, zippers, etc. made it easy for Bulleteer to use his anti gravity maniuplation on the mustached maniac. Again it was something similar to moves seen in the Matrix films. After so long the Czarnian's attacks made it closer and closer to the hero and within six strikes he finally broke through Bulleteer's protective aura.

"Give me that helmet junior, you won't need it where you're going..." Lobo said reaching down for the hero after he landed a crucial strike.

"Keep your damn hands off of him..." Superman said, suddenly on the scene with Polarity Man directly behind him and Solara flying towards them in the distance.

"Oh shiiii--" Lobo began to say as Superman cracked him in the jaw and sent him into the air.

Superman flew into the clouds as night fell and pummeled the alien biker. Grabbing him by his hair he threw the Czarnian towards the ground from miles above the city and Bulleteer flew at top speed from the ground and nearly took his head off. Still falling to the ground it appeared one or all of the others got shots off with their heat vision, car weapon systems, and radioactive electricity. Superman topped it all off by flying down at Mach 5 and stomping into the gut of the pale enemy currently in a crater the size of a swimming pool.

Suddenly, Warp showed up and teleported Livewire and Captain Boomerang into the battle field as well.

"We'll take the alien, Superman." Warp declared as if Superman would just let them walk away with such a loose cannon.

"Like hell you will." Bulleteer replied.

-00492

---

Jim was pretty amazed at seeing the female Kryptonian's powers close up. This was the first time outside of a YouTube video where he saw a Kryptonian in action. He got a little annoyed when Solara caused the alien mercenary to crash into the ground right beside his car. Then the blonde opened her mouth and once again said something that Jim could only interpret as moronic, especially coming from Superman's cousin of all people.

"Solara. You're standing here with the Justice League and your cousin within ear shot thanks to his super hearing, and you're telling me that Batman could fight Superman to a stand still? A being who can tow the earth on a chain and is faster than light? Do you understand how asinine you sound right now?" he said through speakers with a shocked tone of voice.

Seriously this chick has to be an idiot or maybe it's her time of month? Do Kryptonians even have periods? he thought to himself. Jim let himself get distracted and he barely noticed Lobo move towards at incredible speeds, but he did notice when his car was suddenly picked up by the pale alien. His stunned silence turned to fear when Lobo tossed him and his car right at his Kryptonian teammate.



Jim screamed louder than he had ever done before. This was the first time that something like this had happened to him and he prayed that this wouldn't be the end of his hero career, he hadn't even gotten a chance to pitch Lex Corp's life insurance to the league.

Why me? Jim thought to himself as he closed his eyes bracing for the imminent impact.

Solara caught car guy's car making sure to put dents in it. It was to shiny and new looking, plus it would make Luthor have to pay more to fix it. She then looked him right in the eye. "I am telling you I have seen the footage, it is on the internet. I thought you humans were obsessed with that thing, you must be a real loser not to have seen it. I found it in less than five minutes when researching them. Bats probably could not now with his advanced age, but in his prime he could. Clearly you are not an example of intelligent human beings if you think one could tow a planet with a chain." She rolled her eyes at the imbecile. "One last thing I am not his cousin, his great great great grandparents weren't even born when I left Kyrpton. I walked this planet during what I believe you humans call the Ice Age." She then threw the car out of her way, it landed in fountain. She was beginning to understand why she overheard someone refer to him as corporate shill hero wannabe, she wasn't sure what a shill was, but she understood enough to know it was an insult.

Solara didn't know who the newcomers were and she really didn't care. They were probably in one of the files Batman gave her, but she used them for kindling. They maybe metahuman but they were still just human and humans squish real easy. She really didn't even care about dealing with the Czarnian. She just hovered near the Czarnian. She decided to wait and see what Kal did.

Nebraskan Airspace

“Deep breaths, Patroller.” Perhaps it was the damage sustained by the onboard computers but the scan for the Kryptonian felt like it lasted for ages. While Lawrence appreciated the reprieve, the Czarnian was surely enjoying his absence from the fight as well. If his mech was starting to break down, then surely the lesser armored Leaguers would soon fall. However, the solution to this alien menace was quite easy to find. Literally.

Two traces of Kryptonian DNA were found in the immediate area but one of them was already on top of Lobo. This meant the other had to be the Man of Steel. As Polarity Man raced towards the Superman’s location, a blur whizzed past him with the force and speed of a bullet but it wasn’t James Barr. The dot he had traced on the Patroller’s tracking screen corresponded with what just passed him. A cheap shot wasn’t going to keep Superman down and out, it seems.

“Trying to catch up to a post Mach two speed ally. Didn’t this just happen, Patroller?” said the lieutenant as he redirected his flight path back to the battle. As he got closer to the fight, Superman was already making headway and just absolutely manhandling Lobo. Of course, Polarity Man wasn’t going to just fly there and do nothing so another concentrated blast of electricity, albeit not as intense as the opening beam, was fired at Lobo as he descended to the ground. A crater roughly the size of the space bike’s crash now formed where the Czarnian laid.

Lawrence thought it was over, and so would the Patroller if it had a mind of its own. The loud beeping and WARNING signal for a space distortion begged to differ though. The League’s villain database was readily available to Lawrence but he didn’t need to know them to figure they were trouble.

“Patroller, pre-target Warp for electric cannon and track energy signature for future analysis. Await firing signal from Superman.” If this particular rogue teleported the rest of his team in, Polarity Man obviously had to disable him first to make sure Lobo didn’t fall into their hands. All he had to do was wait for the command, and his trigger finger was itching.

Blue Valley, Nebraska
1:56 PM MST

"Superman hit the scene only a few minutes ago and the crap has already hit the fan. He gave that pale skinned alien biker guy the beating he was asking for. No idea why he was looking to steal my helmet, unless he plans on using it to fly. Then these three badguys show up and declare they're taking the alien." Bulleteer thought, standing ready behind Superman.

Lobo was in the crater he'd made when Superman gave him a crushing blow from the clouds. The additional blasts he took from the others and the torpedo like strike of the Bulleteer had him on the ropes now and under the hovering Kryptonian called Solara.

"What do you want with the alien?" Superman asked standing ready for anything.

"Maybe I just thought he was cute, S-Man. Why don't you and the Justice League losers get outta the way!" Livewire screamed firing electrical blasts at Superman, Bulleteer, and Polarity Man.

Clutch pulled out his energy pistol and fired off a few rounds before Warp teleported out of sight and it was taken out of his hand by Captain Boomerang and his pinpoint aiming with projectiles. When Livewire turned her power solely on Superman who was simply walking through it, Solara left her post to help those she thought were amateurs. This split second was all the time Warp needed to grab Lobo and make his escape one member of the Society at a time leaving the heroes dumbfounded. Nothing left but the wrecked car of Clutch and the remains of the alien's space cycle.

"That guy looked like something out of an 80's hair metal space opera. What do you think those guys wanted with him Superman?" Bulleteer asked.

"Livewire, Warp, and Boomerang have never worked together before. And that Lobo guy had strength on par with mine... They're putting a team together...." Superman proclaimed looking up at the sun peaking up over the trees now.



-00492

Things weren't going so well with this telepath. Gypsy was off on crowd control duty with GL being distracted by Shazam, while toon Girl was on the ground, dazed after being blasted and incinerated by GL. Seeing stars with birds floating above her head, Toon Girl groaned inside the Toon Girl shaped hole she left. After a few moments, she got up and shook herself off. Still a bit dazed, she looked up at the fight above her, Shazam still battling GL's dragons, and above them, the person behind all of this.

A bit annoyed at how downhill things were going, how one member wasn't even anywhere neatby and how a founding member couldn't control himself considering his main power was his willpower, she figured that it might be best to just subdue Brainwave. With all his support being controlled by Gypsy or distracted by Shazam, Toon Girl took the opportunity to teleport behind Brainwave using her portable hole system. And doing what she did to GL, grabbed him in a huge hug.

"Hey buddy..." Toon Girl said in a cheery whisper. "You really should stop all this and give up. You had your fun, but things will go very badly for you if you cause any deaths." she continued, finishing with a grin.

---

Brainwave was caught by surprise by the living cartoon. Her mind wasn't effected by his power. So it was time his telekinesis came into play. With a smirk and a thought, a food vendor's hotdog stand lifted from street level and flew towards the villain and would-be hero. Crashing into the girl, Brainwave had a second to breath and shifted his attacks. This cartoon girl wanted to tell HIM not to kill anyone. "Let's see if she can keep from it herself..." he thought.

Dozens of adults and children alike went after the Toon Girl after she hit the ground covered in hot dogs, water, and condiments.

"Come now Lantern, we can do better than dragons can't we? This isn't Game of Thrones..." Brainwave commented, still hovering over the chaos in the streets.

The emerald construct dragons that were currently in battle with Shazam shifted into something much more. Where once there were two large dragons, now in their place was roughly eight large snakes that looked like anacondas and each was well over forty feet long. Reaching from his own mind, Brainwave then had the hero create a construct Superman.

"Let's see how tough you are big man..." Brainwave taunted at Shazam as the construct of Superman flew straight for him.

The construct snakes seemed to go after the girl swaying the crowd of mad civilians by also attacking the civilians themselves. Toon Girl was also targetted and one of the snakes quickly coiled around her. It almost looked as if she thought it was giving her a hug. The man called Judgement seemed to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and shifted into his angelic form, flying above the madness for a few moments.

Toon Girl's plan hadn't gone the way she had hoped. Of course it made sense, the guy was a villain after all, but she figured he'd be a bit smarter realizing what was going on. Well, that didn't matter, because being hit by a hot dog cart, falling into the same hole she made earlier, and finally being picked up and snuggled by a large green snake was a bit distracting. Especially that last bit, considering how tight the snake was squeezing her.

"This isn't the most pleasant hug I've..." she started to say, letting out a chew toy squak as the snake squished her. Apparently a bit surprised at this, the snake relaxed a bit, Toon Girl also expanding, before it squeezed again, making her squeak again. "Stop that!" She said, using one of her free arms to smack the snake hard on its side.

This would be somewhat of a problem, as since this snake was made out of light, she'd have to probably wait for her siphoning ability to destroy it if punching it really hard didn't do much. Which when she thought about it was realy weird. Why could GL even make strong constructs like this if his power worked on Willpower, yet he was not controlling hiw own will?

"Hey Shazam, little help here! 'Squeak'" toon girl said, waving her hand in between punching the snake to get Shazam's attention.

Marvel noted the Superman construct darting toward him, and he met the charge. At the last second, however, he curtailed right beneath Superman's grasp and volleyed a strong uppercut into the hard light construct which, if it did not break him, would send him flying int othe clouds above. Within thirty yards the construct disipated into nothingness and there was one less problem for the heroes. With one construct indisposed, Marvel turned his sights on Toon Girl who was--to say the least--having a rough time. Marvel figured the snake would only squeeze tighter if he tried a frontal assault, and so he devised another method.

He shot toward the pavement below, where all kinds of cars and other objects that would serve as hazards if destroyed were situated. He picked up a taxi cab by its bottom and flew upward; then he tossed the vehicle directly at Brainwave, if only to throw him off focus for a moment and as such momentarily loosen his sway over Alan's mind. Meanwhile, he zipped forward toward Toon Girl.

"You really are bad at this fighting thing, I see." WIth that, he placed his hands atop the coiling snake construct and let loose a current of Zeus' lightning. It would probably hurt Toon Girl, but it should be enough to dispose of the snake. Of course this also had the lovely side effect of zapping Toon Girl, her skeleton showing as she was getting zapped.

". . . Shouldn't burn [that much. Note to self; learn to control power of lightning." Shazam said as the snake exploded, Toon Girl standing a bit thin and dazed form the ordeal. Shaking herself to recompose herself, she noticed how thin the snake had squeezed her. She blew into one of her fingers, popping back to normal, then waved to Shazam. "Thanks buddy! You're right I wasn't burned that bad!" She said with a laugh.

Looking up, Toon Girl said "Where's Brainwave?", noticing he wasn't in the same spot as he was before. "So, new plan. Ignore GL, target Brainwave. GL can't really hurt the two of us anyway." Toon Girl said, noting at how easily Shazam blew up those constructs that GL had made.

Marvel glanced over at her, his eyes sparking with lightning beneath the hood,

"Your body twists in strange ways, cartoonish one." In some odd way, it was the closest Marvel could come to a compliment. He, too, grinned from beneath his hood before he spoke again.,

"You know, where I come from, we do not take lightly having our bodies squished and contorted by sentient constructs of light; what do you say we finish this?"

"Ain't that what I just said?" Toon Girl said, looking at him slyly.

Oh. Right.

"..." Embarassed, he darted off. Other note to self; listen to Wisdom of Solomon more.

"Guy needs to learn how to take teasing better." Toon girl thought to herself while chuckling at how Shazam flew off.

---

Gypsy never liked using sustained illusions. Sustained illusions, like the snow, was difficult. They depleted her energy reserves, made them easy to break, and, and worst of all maintaining such illusions required her to focus. While distracted by the snow and taking down civilians with her hand to hand combat skills made her susceptible to a sneak attack.

Busy taking down the last of the half confused half mad rioters Gypsy was overwhelmed with force from the side. It was the green snake construct with its large maw opened and facing her pinning her in a nearby wall. Her magic protected her from any serious injury but Gypsy knew there was going to be a bruise. Using both her hands it took all of her human strength to try and keep the mouth open enough for her to phase through the wall escaping inside a jewelry store. Without taking a breath she turned invisible and left the building.

Gypsy made for a running dash outside of the store and back out into the middle of the street still invisible. The snake that attacked her before was now flying above terrorizing the few mad civilians, nearby was another. "Well aint this this is just dandy" Gypsy said with some resignation.

Turning visible again she shouted ""HEY MR. AND MRS. BIG AND SCALY OVER HERE"" Gypsy shouted. Her screaming got the attention of the construct from before and flew towards her and the other that was attacking civilians. Once she got their attention she ran as fast as she could away from the civilians and straight towards a building on the other side of the street. Running as fast as she could with the snakes inches away from she became intangible and ran into the building. The force of the impact was enough to destroy the two contructs and leave a large hole on the side of the building.

Remarerializing Gypsy took to the streets and looked for her teammates, seeing them nearby she dashed towards them. "Toon Girl! Captain!" Gypsy shouted. The two were quite good to see again. The ordeal with the snaked and the civilians felt like it took forever to the young hero.

Marvel was mid-flight when he heard the beckon, and thus he stopped and spun around to the shouting.

"Been hiding, have we?" He suddenly got an idea. It was crude, but it was something. He zipped down to where Gypsy was, and he sized her up.

"You have the body of an athlete." Was that rude? Probably. He noted once more to himself that he should work on his social ettiquite as well. Still he continued, eyes training to and fro from the stationary Gypsy to the floating Brainwave who sat smug above the city streets,

"Have you ever played a sport?" he inquired of Gypsy.

Toon Girl meanwhile was busy thinking of some way to end all this as it was getting rightfully boring. Being swarmed by people wasn't the most fun thing in the world. Heck it was getting so bad she had to take off her gloves and use her claws to dig a tunnel out of the crowd that Brainwave had sent on her so as to not hurt any of them.

Digging a tunnel, she followed what she thought was Shazam landing from his flight, popping her head out of the ground when she got to the spot. Considering he was with Gypsy, Toon Girl waited a bit to see how things played out, only the top of her head popping out of the ground.

What an odd thing to say Gypsys thought at the Captain's statement of her athletic body. Unsure of how to take it Gpsy decided to accept it as a compliment.

"Thank you dear Captain, and yes I do sports. In my civilian moments I play, but i dance way more than i play. Are you asking me to play with you my dear Cap-?" Her last bit of thoughts were cut short at the appearance of the the other one, the girl that radiated of whimsy and chaos. Paying little attention to what seems like a normal routine for the cartoonish hero Gypsy wondered what the captain who was not a captain had in mind.

Does she call everyone 'dear'? If his hood hadn't shrouded much of the top of his face, one could see the pang of confusion resting on it. Such confusion would have made Najee shutter. Najee would have understood Gypsy's use of endearing phrases was none the course for anything romantic and was likely just the way she talked--Marvel was not so privy to such overtly kind language.

"I meant no ill. I have no particular interest in you romantically, only as an associate and friend." He fixed an awkward smile beneath the shroud.

"You can... 'disappear', yes?"

It was around this time Toon Girl couldn't help but chime in. After all, there was a ripe joke here just ready to be used. "Ahem. Lady, this guy can't handle a little teasing. I think flirting might send him over the edge." She said, pulling herself part way out of the grund with a popping sound. She got stuck though when she had to pull her hips out. "Uh... give me a minute..." She said, trying to pull herself free.

"And I meant no such thing either" Gypsy commented hoping to rectify the issue. Thinking to herself 'do i really flirt that much?' Helping Toon Girl stuck in the ground, Gypsy kneeled and extended her hand while continuing her reply. "I believe that two or more people can play without it being romantic. Isn't that right Toon Girl?" Gypsy finished just as the other hero popped out of the ground.

"Yep yep. Or be friends with benefits, that also works." Toon Girl said laughing, happy that Gypsy helped her get out of the hole she had dug herself. "Hehe, but enough about that. Whats this disappearing plan thingy?" Toon Girl said, putting her gloves back on.

Once settling herself straight after helping out toon girl Gypsy replied to the good Captain. "Yes I can disappear, but any moment I am being touched or disturbed will immediately cancel out my power. Such a tragedy if I say so myself" Gypsy hated that part of her ability. There were many things she wished to improve upon. "What, dear Captain do you wish for me to do, or rather what do you wish to do to me?"

---

The world outside was dark as Chester wandered back into his erstwhile bunkroom, the window beginning to glow with the sunrise. Chester looked at his unsullied bunk, cover still tucked in neatly at the corners, and sighed. Difficult to sleep these days. Too often he dreamt of his mother. He missed dreaming about the ranch.

He was snapped out of his stupour by the crackling of his room's intercom sparking to life. Chester wondered if it was supposed to wake him up, or if his mentor knew he was already awake. Either seemed in character for Bruce.

"Chester. Gymnasium. Canteen. Training Room. That order."

Gymnasium. Chester had just come from there - if he couldn't sleep, he theorized, he could tire himself out until he could. Again, he wondered if Bruce knew. Again, neither option seemed out of character. He sighed, and changed his t-shirt before turning around to leave the room - but not before grabbing his Stetson, rooting it firmly on his head. He glanced at himself in the mirror, nodded once, and left.

-

A few hours later, after Chester's 'warm-up' and breakfast/brunch/lunch combo (he had found himself particularly hungry after his own overnight workout and Bruce's morning regime), he found himself in the training room - or a training room, at least, he was sure that the Justice League had more than one, given their inflating ranks of late - and meeting, for the very first time, one of his apparent peers. 'The Rookie', apparently. Humble, if nothing else.

Obviously, this man was suffering under Batman's doctrine as much as Chester was, but it was apparent that the two of them weren't exactly recieving similar treatment. Chester studied his face - wasn't this the guy who punched out Metallo? He looked down at his own chest; firm muscles, to be sure, and protected beneath the thin-but-strong layer of underarmour that comprised Chester's 'Recruit-Suit', but a far cry from the sheer steel of his comrade's previous opponent.

Batman was out of the room within seconds - as was often the case when Chester attended training - but Chester could still feel Bruce's eyes on his back, and today's 'commanding officer' seemed just as fierce. Wildcat. The man had a hell of a reputation behind him, and it showed in every bristling muscle that shaped his body. If the passage of time had fatigued the aging vigilante, he refused to let it show. He stood tall and proud, greeting each recruit before standing back to size them all up. Wildcat looked to Rookie, and then Chester.

"Alright you two, let's see what I'm working with here, why don't you two go a round or two and then I'll step in."

Wait, what?!

Chester...gulped, mentally. He let nothing show in his demeanour as he took off his Stetson, carefully placing it on a nearby bench, before following Rookie to the center of the room. He thought about his armour, and Metallo's chest, and then his own chest, and then he looked at Rookie's arms, hands curling and uncurling as he warmed up fists and took a stance, ready to engage. Chester responded with a guarding position - he thought to try and minimize damage to himself, rather than attack a man who could take on living titanium. Apparently, Rookie was thinking much along the same lines.

"Hey, uhh... don't take this the wrong way, but... how tough are you, exactly?" He asked, opening his hands and shrugging, though still holding his stance "Because there may be a few... ground rules... we wanna lay out before we do this."

Chester nodded carefully. "Ground rules seem...sensible." He said slowly, thinking how best to explain the situation. "I'm no meta, alien, or paranormal, so don't paint me across the back wall. Other than that, don't damage the hat, and, uh...try your best." He smiled slightly before dropping into stance - and then, just as Rookie fell back into his position, Chester jabbed forwards. Sparring, he often found, was fun; sparring with a meta?

It felt like the Justice League was really welcoming him into the fold.

Midway City, downtown...

The plan was simple, at least Gypsy though it was. It made effective use of everyone's skills and hopefully achieved the intended goal. Shazam's question not withholding the man's plan was basically to use Gypsy's powers to distract the psychic villain, the way he asked was odd but it made sense; his comment on whether or not he disappeared was just a nice segue into his plan.

A short discussion later the plan was being set up in action. Gypsy was off hiding on the roof making sure that Brainwave didn't see her. Once well hidden she did her part. Mustering all the power she could she made floating versions of the Captain and a small number of Toon Girls bouncing around. The psychic would no doubt easily tell these things were illusions, but as they were magic based and not psychic illusions, but purely visual it was enough to get him distracted to get subdued by Toon Girl.

Enacting on her plan, thanks to Gypsy's illusions, Toon Girl did the same thing she did last time, giving Brainwave a big ol' hug by appearing behind him with her portable hole. But this time she got him in a much more aggressive hug, holding onto him much tighter than before. It probably wasn't the most comfortable thing for him.

It was time to finish this. With the constructs destroyed, and Brainwave momentarily distracted, Shazam figured he would go in for the kill. Down both arms sparked Zeus' magic lightning, and in his eyes swelled the lust of battle; he streamed forward, a blitzkrieg assault. He bared no caution in his approach, and was flying fast enough to blast through any solid constructs which sought to deter his advance. Once he got close enough, he went in for the KO.

With one powerful swing accompanied by some shock treatment, Shazam blasted Brainwave with a hefty hook and enough force to knock him out with little resistance. Moments later the Green Lantern came to his senses and whatever constructs he was forming dissipated into the air. He touched down on the street where the civilians came to their senses as well. Approaching the heroes, the Lantern commented...

"It looks like Judgement bowed out. Some people aren't ready to join the big leagues. You three did good work. I was wondering when you'd go from defense to offense. After Brainwave wakes up from that one hitter quitter, I'd like to ask him some questions.... like what reason he had to attack Midway..?" Alan said to Gypsy, Toon Girl, and the hooded Capt. Marvel.

Across town, at the Midway City Museum...

"Should we go back for Brainwave?" asked Doctor Polaris, his odd shaped helmet and metal armaments reflecting the flashing emergency lights of the building.

"I can teleport in and get him out of anywhere. Luthor wants to test his loyalty." Warp said picking up a metal relic from the Egyptian exhibit.

"The first and second rule of the Society is you don't talk about the Society..." said the Scarecrow as he watched two security guards cower in fear.

@Archmage MC @FiroIV @Afro Samurai

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