Gyro's echolocation would indeed yield some results. Well, a result, to be more specific. Behind some rubble in the corner of the area, there seemed to be an unconscious woman. She was just... lying there, so it could be assumed that she was unconscious.
Well, everyone seemed to be alright, so that was good. A sigh escaped Joel - a weary, tired sigh. Things had gone from shit to more shit to most shit this whole fuckin' day. He'd been reunited with Sarah... only to have her snatched from her. Forced to fight some damn flying monster he knew nothing about - one who was hundreds (if not thousands) of times stronger than the average man, had powers Joel had only seen in Ellie's comic books, and was resistant to basically anything the group could throw at him.
His thoughts flickered to Sarah. He hoped she was okay. If that bald fuck or his cronies even laid a finger on her, then Joel would make sure there was hell to pay. Even if it killed him.
He closed his eyes, then, thinking of Ellie as well. He hoped she was alright, wherever she was. She probably was, but Joel couldn't escape that nagging feeling that she wasn't regardless. Maybe when this was all over, he'd introduce her to-
His thoughts were interrupted when he felt someone tap his shoulder. Joel turned, then, furrowing his brows as his gaze met the fancy looking man in the bowler had. And his... assistant? Joel hoped it was his assistant, because he didn't wanna think about what she may have been otherwise. Regardless, Joel sighed and shook his head before he brought his hands down to his hips and their gazes met.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you just woke up here." The man said, his tone dry and - more importantly, tired. And then the guy in the spider costume seemed to intervene. Okay then. Joel slowly backed away and pursed his lips as he watched the interaction play out from here. Ain't no way he was gonna be caught in the middle of whatever the hell was about to go down between those two.
More than enough time had passed since getting on the plane for you all to rest up. Whatever fatigue or injuries you'd sustained in the previous fights were given at least enough time to be patched - if not entirely healed. Casual chatter and silence had permeated the aircraft as it continued its thus far fruitless search for Superman. But despite every effort made by Lex and those searching in the surrounding skies of the jet, no such progress had been made. No leads, no sightings, no anything. It was like he just vanished out of thin air.
"Alright," a slightly defeated sounding Lex could be heard sighing over the aircraft's intercom. "It's getting rather late. I'm taking you all back to Lexcorp. Those of you who can fly and are outside the jet, follow behi-"
Before Lex could finish giving out his orders, loud static began to fill the aircraft's intercoms. It was static was loud and high-pitched, piercing the ears of both everyone on board and everyone surrounding the plane. It had been enough to wake Negan up from his nap with a jolt.
"The hell...?" the older man asked groggily as he rubbed the side of his ear with his flat palm. Joel just covered his ears and winced, not saying anything. But regardless of how everyone reacted, the static soon came to an end (well, it was still there, but it was drowned out) thanks to a rather upbeat sounding track that began to play through the aircraft's speakers.
"Sorry for the sudden intrusion, Lex-y!" A new voice with the same upbeat tone as the music could be heard accompanying the rather obtuse track. Lex gave no response - in fact, it was almost as if whatever this intrusion was had locked him out entirely. The new voice was much less crisp-sounding than Lex, if the aforementioned static wasn't a dead giveaway. It was like wherever he was intruding from had piss poor signal... and he was talking on a literal toaster. How this kind of equipment managed to hack what was apparently multi-billion dollar tech was anyone's best guess.
A bright light soon filled the surrounding windows. It was hard to make out at first, but it soon became very apparent as it grew closer.
"But these scurvy little intruders will soon be leaving the airwaves!"
It was a fucking missile.
Any attempts to take control of the jet were useless as the missile struck the side. All the while, that voice began to let loose increasingly manic laughter. No breaks were given in it other than when he absolutely had to breathe. All the while, the missile struck the outside of the jet. Little could be done to stop it from the outside (though luckily it narrowly missed the lot of you brave souls who were out there). This was because of the fact that a strange green gas seemed to be spraying outward from the missile. No matter who you were... it got into your lungs somehow. Within seconds, everyone on the outside was out, and began to drop from the sky like flies.
"Well... shit."
BOOM!
And just like that, the missile struck the jet's wing, and it was immediately sent spiraling down to the ground. The doors still wouldn't open and the windows were reinforced, meaning that you all were pretty much trapped in this spiraling death box until it finally crashed moments later.
Hours Later...
When you all finally awoke, you found that for the most part... you all were miraculously unharmed. Sure, a few of you may have had some sort of cuts or bruises, but no serious injuries had happened despite the sudden drop from thousands of feet into the air. Call it an act of God or luck... but it was soon became obvious that this was the plan all along as you got a look at the area around you.
"JOKER'S FUNLAND", the sign above you all screamed in neon green. Negan stood up and got one good look at the sign, before ultimately just rolling his eyes and turning away. Old bumper cars and their rusty tracks stood beneath your feet, as you were surrounded by even older looking statues of toy soldiers and nutcrackers. The whole place just screamed "uncanny", especially given the fact that the room you were in seemed to have once been a part of some old Steel Mill...?
Joel was the next to stand up, wiping away some dirt from near his mouth as he did so. "Is... is everyone alright?" he asked to you all, brows furrowed as he glanced around at the group. All of you had been accounted for, luckily enough... except Happy Chaos and Nahobino. They were just nowhere to be found. But to make up for their presence, some new people seemed to be here in their place. More than a few, too.
Better introduce yourselves, then. Or at least check up on your allies.
"We're pursuing Superman, as I already said," Lex once again explained over the jet's intercom - tiredly, in fact. "And if you don't come, then you'll be stuck out of a way home."
"They weren't working together." Lex explained over the intercom, his voice flat as ever.
Negan, meanwhile, furrowed his brows in response to Eric. He looked down at the "L" he was offering, before smiling politely. He held up a hand, then, and shook his head. It seemed as though he was declining the offer.
After doing their respectively arduous tasks, the group found themselves confronted by the true culprit of the building's explosion: Firefly. Hellbent on killing the group, the pyromaniac Gothamite first took out their only lead, before turning his attention to the group at large. Now, the group has no choice but to fight him, before more innocents are hurt.
Shantae's feathers didn't really do much to Firefly - aside from just knocking him off balance a bit. He fell back in the air with a loud grunt, before redirecting his attention to the pesky bird who'd made said attack. "Piss off, Birdy!" Firefly exclaimed as he attempted to simply thwack her out of the air with his flamethrower in retaliation. However, this left him open for AMAZO to deliver his bomb-throw web-smash combo, which sent Firefly careening to the ground! A loud CRACK! could be heard as he collided with the ground and was launched back into the air - only to then be punched head-on by Diamondhead and assaulted by Sougo's drill simultaneously!
Firefly didn't have any time to reorient himself before Bardock delivered his subsequent punch, and then was promptly assaulted by Perni's javelins, Turing's rubble, and finally Fret's electrified punch! This barrage of attacks was enough to send Firefly hurling back to the ground, the man not standing a chance as he flopped and slid across the pavement like a fish that had just been chucked out of the water by a bodybuilder! And boy, did that do a number on his jetpack, too. Chunks and bits of metal and wire were spread across the ground in uneven sections, resulting in a mess all the way down the street. And then, just as he was about to get up and go for another round, All Might came in for his Texas Smash finisher! That mammoth of a punch sent him flying back all the way down the street - and landing in a crater that literally formed from the force of his impact alone.
And wouldn't you know it? Just when he was starting to pick himself back up, all Firefly could really do was gasp for air as Schezo sent a flurry of lightning bolts crashing down on him! Chunks of heavy metal flew from his suit and wings with that. Both his eyes and part of his mouth were now exposed, revealing even more the horribly disfigured man underneath. Somehow, despite this, his wings still worked. Albeit, it did take a moment or two for them to actually come online, with the jet thrusters sparking in and out of life until he was finally lifted back into the air.
And just in time, too! He narrowly avoided Red's flying rocks in the process. Firefly's breaths were coming out in what sounded like heavy gasps at this point. It was like that suit had been helping him breathe. Now that it was coming apart, he was having a harder time than ever! But despite that, he shakily managed to lift his flamethrower and take aim at Red below... only for Otto to knock him back more with his own explosives. By now, there really weren't any explosions left, thanks to his efforts - as well as Penny's, Lucifer's, and AMAZO's.
Before Firefly could even hope to recover from those bombs to the face, however, Maisha had wrapped his fibercord around his leg and started blasting away! The up close assault left him absolutely no room to fall back and avoid any shots, meaning that his armor was now taking the brunt of all that fire and missile! Slowly, with each hit, much smaller chunks were ripped off in pieces. This lasted a good bit, until Firefly finally managed to speak again,
"GET... OFF!!!"
His words came out in a pained gasp as he kicked his wing's thrusters into a clear overdrive and attempted to take off into the sky - with Maisha attached! Firefly's hope was that Maisha would dislodge both himself and the rope that was still attached to him. His movements were erratic and uncalculated - like a literal bull in a China shop. It was during this time that Sanford managed to latch on with his hook as well. Now, he had two grown-ass, armored men weighing him down. And it was starting to show as Firefly's descent became faster and more apparent by the second. And then, on top of THAT, Voss joined the party too, and began to rip away at his wings like others had before. Smoke was flying out of the jetpack now, getting all up in the thief's face as he ripped apart what remained of his wings. High-pitched whirring noise of pure malfunction screeched from the jetpack's compartment.
But Firefly very well knew what was happening. A loud, sharp cry escaped him as he reversed the thrusters of his jetpack and flew right back into a nearby building's wall. His goal was now to crush Voss - as well as hopefully kick both Sanford and Maisha off as well. But just when he (presumably) got them off, Trevor wrapped his own weapon around him, only to follow up with a punch to his face! Over half of his mask had broken off at this point. All that really remained was his upper mouth, nose, and half an eye. The rest had long since broken off in fragmented, shattered pieces. Following this, Firefly shook his head to reorient himself... but then Julia leaped up and wrapped herself around him. A deep-rooted, inhumane growl left Firefly then, as he used whatever energy was left in his jetpack to try and knock the bitch off him! He couldn't really speak anymore, but his displeasure was being put out in the open.
But still, she did hold him in place, Happy Chaos' shots all hit their mark with pinpoint accuracy. Each one chipped away just another large chunk of his armor, making it fall to the ground in pieces. His wings also sustained heavy damage during this onslaught as well. And as the final culmination of all these attacks, Cole's heavy lightning attack was enough to finally do Firefly in! It struck his winged jetpack head-on just as he'd planned, and that, combined with all the other attacks, had been enough to literally destroy the jetpack entirely!
The ensuing explosion was enough to knock Julia off of Firefly entirely, as well as send him falling to the ground one last time. He landed with a loud cracking noise, as yet another crater was formed in his wake. He laid there, twitching on the ground. The once confident arsonist was just like putty in the ground now. It wasn't even very clear if he was conscious or not.
"WOW!" Negan exclaimed from the side as he walked over to Firefly's twitching body. He crouched down next to the downed maniac, giving him a nudge with good 'ole Lucille. "You really did a number on this asshole, huh?" Lucille went up under Firefly's mask, digging his head out of the pavement where it was buried. Firefly's was surprisingly still conscious, albeit barely. His eye was violently twitching - both of them having been practically swollen shut. His mouth was hung agape as he struggled to breathe in, although it was very clearly a struggle to do even that.
Negan winced at the sight before removing Lucille from under his mask and promptly standing back up to his feet. He shook his head, "Yeah, sorry pal..." he grinned a sadistic grin as Lucille was slowly raised above his head. "But this is for your own good..."
CRASH!
Before Negan could bring down his prized bat on Firefly's head, however, a large crash was seen right across from where he stood. It was on the other end of the small crater that had formed in Firefly's wake. The resulting shock from it was so heavy that it shook everyone that was on ground level. A ton of rubble was tossed up into the air, spewing all over everyone nearby - including Negan. A large cloud of smoke and dust formed around that spot. Negan tried to look up behind his arm, maybe get a view of whatever it was. However, as two bright, red silhouettes could be seen in the center, it could be seen who it was.
"Oh... shit..."
Without a second thought, Negan turned and booked it behind one of Hershel's makeshift shields. He hid behind it like the other refugees, although he kept his head poked out to see who it was. Luckily for him, Superman didn't seem to be focused on him - or anyone from the group, really. The clouded figure simply made his way over to Firefly and reached down. His grip was so tight that the loud crack of his suit's miniscule remnants could be heard, as Firefly was effortlessly lifted into the air. Those two red eyes only glowed brighter, and brighter....
The last thing that was heard from Firefly was a loud, horrific scream as Superman's lasers burned right through his mask. His body went limp in seconds, and his now faceless body was effortlessly dropped to the ground. Back into the crater from where it came. And then, slowly, Superman turned to all of you, just as the smoke began to clear...
And then, he turned to the air, and flew off.
By the time the smoke cleared, he was entirely gone from sight. Negan sat there for a moment, lips pursed as he looked around. Joel stood up too, keeping Tess in his arm as he did so. "Was... was that it...?"
"No."
The familiar voice of Lex Luthor's could be heard over what sounded like an intercom. If any of you were to look around for a source, then you'd soon find the answer to be quite obvious...
A large, semi-futuristic looking jet hovered above all of you, before slowly landing in the street. It landed in a safe area so no one was crushed, of course. Its back was turned to the group as a whole, and slowly, a platform began to descend from the bottom. "Get in. Your work's done here. Those of you who can fly, stay on the outside. We're pursuing Superman."
Not seeing much of a choice (especially since he was partially injured), he helped Tess into the jet slowly. Negan followed behind, whistling to himself like nothing had happened as he just casually waltzed inside. Of course, the rest of you had your reservations against Lex... but for now, what choice did you have?
Once everyone was inside the jet, it slowly lifted into the air, and began to take off.
Samus' first two homing missiles were narrowly avoided thanks to Firefly's impressive flight skills and itchy flamethrower trigger finger. However, the last one struck him head on, sending him spiraling back a bit. He let out a cry as the missile stung against his arm - although his suit seemed to be protecting him from any true, vital damage. The subsequent redirected plasma shot had struck Firefly head on, causing him to scream out in pain as it struck his arm. The plasma was hot enough to melt past his suit and single his arm a little. Smoke quickly began to pour from the bubbling wound, which Firefly quickly covered with his other hand.
"Gaahhh... you'll... PAY for that!" Firefly cried as he lifted his flamethrower and shot a large burst toward Schezo.
Whether or not the fire struck Schezo, he still managed to get his shot off when it came to his dark matter balls. Firefly growled as they began to chase him, trying their best to surround him. His jets were pretty fast, though, and his goal was to hopefully just outrun them so they didn't do whatever attack they had in store. However, this manic flying came at the price of being completely oblivious to Luigi's next attack! The mighty swing of the plumber was an instant success, landing on Firefly's side and sending him skyrocketing toward the ground with a sharp yell!
The only problem? Schezo's dark matter balls were now focused on Luigi.
Unfortunately, Firefly was quick to get back up. So quick, in fact, that Ciri missed her mark entirely as he flew back up into the air! Yup, even her blinking couldn't save her from the speed of his thrusters. He simply dodged it like a pro, watching with a snicker as she fell to the hard ground below. This time of inner-gloating proved to be detrimental, however, because Tess had actually managed to get a shot off! The bullet struck the back of his jetpack, sending sparks flying from it for a moment. It remained in tact, however, and before Tess could reload, Firefly had already turned around.
"You think that PEASHOOTER will stop me!?" The pyromaniac shouted to Tess as he reached into his pocket and produced several more bombs. He threw them at the group angrily, mostly aiming for Tess.
"SHIT!" Joel shouted as he stood up and broke out into a full sprint toward Tess. He leaped into the air just before those bombs went off, arm wrapping around her stomach and pulling her out of harms way - just as the bombs went off. Hopefully everyone behind them got out safely as well.
Firefly was about to open fire again, when Ben made his move. Diamondhead's... well, diamonds, were unfortunately pretty visible in the bright, sunshiny area. One of them had managed to strike Firefly's wing just barely, though the rest were dodged pretty swiftly. AMAZO, meanwhile, may have stopped the building's upper level from blowing up... as well as successfully attacking Firefly. The sticky web wrapped around him long enough for him to get blown away by his own bombs. Another shout escaped him as they all exploded in his face, sending him flying back through the air and into the nearby building.
AMAZO's subsequent scan would reveal that he was weak to other sticky-based attacks like the web, as well as physical attacks. Fire-based attacks like the bombs, on the other hand, wouldn't do much against him. His suit was pretty much indestructible when it came to anything fire-related. This much was obvious as Firefly soon re-emerged from the rubble moments later with a growl, and began to fire a huge burst of flame toward AMAZO - as well as Ben.
During this time, Red managed to strike him head on with her scissors! This sent him fumbling in the air for a bit, before the water came pouring down on him as well. The water... really didn't do anything besides make him wet, unfortunately, but at least the scissors seemed to hurt him a bit. He rubbed his head and growled for a moment, before raising chucking a few bombs in the direction of Red... wherever she landed, that is. Before he could do any further attacks, however, he turned just in time to see Jeff flying toward him with both knives in hand.
Firefly quickly changed the direction of his thrusters again, sending Jeff flying right past him. The pyromaniac turned to laugh at his expense, only to be met with Duke's pipe bomb to the face. That sent him flying again, crashing into the side of yet another building. But once more, he was unharmed, due to the aforementioned fire resistance. A growl escaped Firefly as a bomb of his own was sent flying down towards Duke. Lucifer had managed to leap up and ram into him while he was focused on the action hero, though, which left him open to Cloud's attack!
All those slashes did quite the number on his jetpack - enough to actually send him flying back by the time it was all said and done. But unlike before, his jetpack was very clearly becoming damaged. Smoke rose out of its center as sparks began to fly out. Firefly growled angrily as this happened, and reached behind him.
"I WON'T... LOSE!!!"
Firefly's angry exclamation was followed by him throwing his biggest heap of bombs yet. They were all sent flying down toward the group, each one landing all around the ground level groups. Hershel's shield managed to protect anyone who got behind them - but everyone else? Well, there were enough bombs at this point to line the entire street, and all of them were set to go off in a couple of mere seconds. So... do the math.
Negan was luckily hidden behind the shield during all of this, but Joel? Well, Joel didn't have any such luck. The best he could do was hunch over and flinch, holding onto Tess all the while.
Firefly had no idea what Maisha was saying in that nonsensical language of his, but what he did no was an oncoming attack when he saw one. Quickly, those thrusters turned into reverse, pushing the pyromaniac out of the way of the oncoming blast of plasma. He laughed, then, as it struck the building behind him. In fact, it was actually the building Cloud, Sephiroth, Schezo, and Hel were on!
"Nice try!" Firely exclaimed as he began to fire a large burst of flame from his flamethrower in Maisha's direction. The Hunter still managed to get a shot-off in the meantime, however, but other than slightly deterring Firefly's fight for a moment... it really didn't seem to do anything.
Before he could go and deal with The Hunter or Maisha personally, however, Fret made his grand reentrance and began to riddle bullets in his direction! The Firefly held up an arm at that, as his hand bullets merely bounced off his armor. He was just about to surge forward and tackle the boy... thing, before a rather giant bullet was hurdled in his direction.
"SHIT!" Firefly shouted as he quickly changed his flight trajectory - narrowly missing the bullet in the process. He growled and prepped his flamethrower, only for Lilith to suddenly appear behind him and hurl spikes at his jetpack! They didn't pierce the outer metal, though they did send him wobbling in the air a bit. He turned, then, so he could attack Lilith... only for Duke Nukem to hurl Jeff onto him. "GET... OFF ME!!!" Firefly shouted as he began to slam his foot into the killer's face until he inevitably let go and fell to the ground.
And it was in this moment that Otto had landed on his back, only to begin trying to rip apart the machinery that made his jetpack work. Firefly growled as this happened, before reversing his thrusters yet again. Before long, he'd slammed his back into the building Hel, Schezo, Sephiroth, and Cloud were on, with the intention of crushing Otto... or at the very least getting him off his back. Assuming he was successful, Firefly recovered just in time for that large chunk of rubble to be hurled right at his face. He swiftly dodged it, and as a counter measure, Firefly chuckled and reached into his pocket. It was then that he produced a handful of several tiny... bombs? Yes, bombs. With a manic laugh, he chucked the handful of bombs right into the building's massive hole. Within seconds, they detonated, causing the upstairs room to start collapsing! And it easily would have wounded anyone else in there, should they not escape in time.
[center]Name's Store. Guy. StoreGuy. But you can call me whatever you'd like- just don't call me late for dinner ahahahahhahaha
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96xtck4va5Q&ab_channel=Theanythingshow[/youtube]
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<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center">Name's Store. Guy. StoreGuy. But you can call me whatever you'd like- just don't call me late for dinner ahahahahhahaha<br><br><iframe src="//youtube.com/embed/96xtck4va5Q?theme=dark" frameborder="0" width="496" height="279" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div>
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