Somewhere in Lost Haven
"I prefer the term sexually active." Thunderbolt complained. "But sure, insult the man who saved your life." The two speedsters glanced at each other wearily as Pendragon started shouting into the air. "Who...Who are you talking to?" Boom asked. Her question was answered in the form of a woman appeared before them, seemingly out of nowhere. Thunderbolt jumped, frightened by her sudden arrival. He tried to play it off as nothing and listened as the two ladies conversed. The giant tentacled dinosaur was (apparently) something called a "Thorian Thrasher" and seemed to be some sort of magical entity. This woman, who looked like a slutty Gandalf cosplayer to Harvey, admitted to having brought the creature here. The two speedsters stood silently by and tried to piece together what the actual hell was going on. It was quite a confusing mess, but their objective was clear enough when slutty Gandalf revealed the beast's primary weakness: a gem, buried within its disgusting body. In the background, the monster was beginning to rise to its feet once more, its regeneration proving extremely annoying to deal with.
Yet, the Swordswomen started another conversation with some unseen, unheard being. Thunderbolt and Boom, standing behind Pendragon, attempted to communicate their confusion to each other through a series of ridiculous hand gestures. It wasn't until the girl abruptly turned around that the two froze, with Boom attempting to look as nonchalantly at the obviously insane woman as possible. "Magic. Yeah. Of course." Boom said with a nod. She looked over Pendragon's shoulder at her brother, and Thunderbolt gave her an assuring thumbs up. "Not that your plan isn't...workable, but I think it'd be a good idea to...expand upon it. Just a bit. I'll knock that thing on its ass while you use chop up its insides and look for that gem. Thunderbolt'll run interference for us and keep the...Thrasher...from blindsiding us. Sounds good? Alright. Here we go!"
Thunderbolt was the first to run in. He waved his hands around like an idiot and shouted at the Thorian Thrasher in an effort to get its attention. "Hey! Over here! Look at me, ya stupid lizard!" When the dinosaur turned its attention to Harvey, Laura disappeared in the opposite direction. A second and a half later, she appeared on the other side of the street, slamming into the back of the Thorian's right leg with her shoulder. But the monster only stumbled. Thunderbolt stopped dodging the Thrasher's tentacles and jumped up, punching it right in the nose. While the lizard was temporarily stunned, Thunderbolt dashed over to its other leg. He rotated his hands at mach 600, effectively turning them into superheated plasma chainsaws. Harvey then plunged his arms into the Thorian Thrasher's leg and sliced it in half. The behemoth fell to the ground with a loud crash. Boom went to work ripping into its stomach in a similar fashion to Thunderbolt's earlier attack, hoping that Pendragon was doing the same somewhere else. Thunderbolt stayed near the front of the creature's maw, pulling off its rapidly regenerating tentacles at lightning speeds. Once its face was turned to mush, he raced to the back of the monster and sliced its tail off.
"I found it!" Boom shouted. She grabbed the bright crystal from its place in the moving, contorting mass of flesh, attempting to pull it out. But the thing wouldn't budge. "Thunderbolt, I need-" She began; but her brother was there before she could finish speaking. He grabbed Laura by her waste and tugged with her. The two speedsters fell backwards as the gem became dislodged, a giant tentacle still attached to the shiny, slim covered rock. The moment the 'master tentacle' left the Thorian Thrasher's body, however, all hell broke loose. Tentacles shot out in all directions from its writhing corpse, latching on to anything it could and pulling it into the center of its fleshly mass. "Holy crap!" Thunderbolt shouted as he batted away a hundred tentacles a second. Boom tried to do the same, but she wasn't quick enough to fend them all off and found herself being dragged by dozens of tentacles towards what remained of the Tyrannosaurus Rex wannabe. Her screamed alerted Harvey to his sister's peril. The speedster rotated his arms as rapidly as he could, creating hurricane-force winds and throwing the grabbers off of Boom. "I've seen enough henta-" He began to quip, only for Boom to smack him upside the head. "DON'T. YOU. DARE." Thunderbolt blushed. "Sorry. I got carried away- Hey, where's Pendragon?"
The two speedsters turned, hearing something that sounded like "Bloody" and "Pay attention" and a possible "twats." Thunderbolt climbed over the Thrasher's body, dodging its tentacles to find Pendragon struggling toward the gem. She sliced a good chunk of flesh off the master tentacle, but couldn't finish the job before the tentacles wrapped around her and dragged the teenager away. Thunderbolt danced around the monster's graspers and yanked the gem off the tentacle where Pen had done the most damage. Everything stopped. The tentacles fell to the ground, lifeless and dead. Thunderbolt tossed the gem to Pendragon and gave her a salute before going to check on his sister. "Are you-" He began, but she stopped him with a wave. "I'm fine. Really. How's Pendragon?" Thunderbolt shrugged. "No worse for wear; but she looks pretty pissed."
The two speedsters regrouped with Pendragon after a moment's respite. Harvey placed his hand behind his head and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry about earlier." He said. That looked to be the end of it, but one super-speed glance at Boom told Harv that he wasn't done yet. "You're just..pretty stunning. Well, both 'pretty' and 'pretty stunning,' but- Uhhh. You look older than you sound. So I'd like to apologize for making advances on you. Didn't know you were so young. It was really out of place. And. Uhm." Boom stepped in at that point. "If you're ever in trouble, give us a call and we'll be there faster than you can say 'Help.' That's a guarantee." Laura handed Pendragon a business card with their superhero names at the top and a phone number across the bottom. The cellphone it connected to was a specially made, untraceable phone they had designed specifically for contact with other heroes.
"Oh, but don't use your real phone unless you absolutely have to. Try a burner or a public phone. We don't want to know who you really are." Boom added.
"We gotta go. Like, now. The world still need's saving. We'll see you around." The two speedsters gave the girl a wave before disappearing in a flash of bright light and a cloud of smoke.
Undisclosed Location
A Few Minutes Later
The speedster's timing was less than impeccable. They were the last two to arrive, almost a full minute after Iron Knight had said "we." They came running in, a trail of torn up dirt and grass rocketing into the sky behind them as they attempted to stop. "There was traffic." Thunderbolt quipped, strolling forward confidently. Boom, however, was leaning over with her hands on her knees. "Never ran...so fast...before.." She wheezed. When Laura recovered after thirty or so seconds, she joined the rest of the team surrounding War-Pulse. She tried to look as passive as possible. But on the inside? She was winded and nervous. Perhaps even a little frightened. Her usual confidence and aggressive behavior was not as evident as usual. She'd just finished the most taxing run of her life, right after an intense battle with a tentacle monster and an entire night out with Brooklyn.
To add to all of that, she might have to fight a mercenary as strong as Icon. The rest of these clowns were at least on par with this 'Winter Soldier' guy. But Boom? She wasn't even on their tier. Her only hope is that War-Pulse would focus on the rest of them while she hung back, only intervening when entirely necessary. Even then, she wouldn't be much help. And if War-Pulse decided to attack her, she didn't doubt that he could put a hole in her chest.
In conclusion: Today sucked.
