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The Silhouette and The Forge
Chapter 64
The floor opened, and a massive metal hand grabbed Superman when he looked in time to see the looming shadow.
“Superman!” Wonder Woman cried out in concern, turning her back on us.
Without a word, Raina and I fled the area, rushing through various corridors in the labyrinthine structure. “Appreciate the help.” I said, moving along and sealing various bulkhead doors while the sound of fighting could be heard through the various layers of metal and rock.
It sounded like Superman and the others were having a fun time with an exaggerated part of American history.
“A chance to have a fight with people who can handle me not holding back? You sure know how to treat a girl.” She gave me a sultry smile.
Before she could say anything further, another passage opened up. “That will lead further away from the fighting and closer towards a long abandoned series of tunnels closer to Gotham.”
A strong grip on my shoulder had me stop in my tracks. “What about you?” Raina was concerned about me.
“I’ll be fine, just need to give the Bat a little parting gift before we call it a night.”
My hand touched hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. I didn’t flirt back or do anything forward with her, thinking about Pamela. I needed to sort things out and figure out what I want in life when it comes to relationships.
Raina eventually relented and let me go before blowing a kiss and racing down the tunnel in a burst of speed I couldn’t keep up with. Swiftly making my way through the corridors, finding what I was after.
Sitting nice and pretty was a highly upgraded car. Getting into the driver's seat, the car roared to life with a purr. Putting the pedal to the metal with me applying some Jet in my internals to avoid scuffing the all-black paint with some red edgings, the car immediately went to one hundred and eighty miles an hour.
Moving through the tunnel as it began to slope up before gaining some air and seeing the stars and moon shining brightly. It also helped that it was the backdrop to a fight between a giant two mile tall robot yelling obscenities from the Cold War at the Justice League.
The car hit the road, and off I went. Of course, not without a certain pesky detective bound and determined to give chase.
…
“How dare you wear the American colors, you Communist cocksucker!" The robot boomed, throwing a surprisingly fast punch for its size right at Superman.
Superman, realizing he couldn’t dodge, braced himself. The fist slammed into him, sending the man of steel flying several miles away, impacting the earth, and digging a trench into the ground. Wonder Woman and the others looked on in concern before she directed her fury towards the iron giant.
She blasted it with her lightning. Instead of it breaking under the fury she commanded, like those insults to her, the giant glowed where the bolts struck, even leaving a few holes in it, but it remained standing and unfazed by her attack.
Several weapons rose up out of hatches on its shoulders: various cannons, machine guns, and missiles. “Never send a woman to do a man’s job! Communism cannot be defeated with weakness, only democracy!"
The giant boomed, its form oddly deceptive with how capable it is. The guns began to fire, lasers poured out of it, and missiles flew through the air like birds of prey. The various heroes avoided what they could, with Hal Jordan blocking what he couldn’t avoid. Flash ran along the ground doing what little he could do.
J’onn phased through the solid projectiles while avoiding the lasers when the trees and ground below were incinerated from the energy blasts. He wasn’t taking any chances after what Silhouette had done to him. He was lucky he backed out of his mind when he did. Never in all his life had he encountered such a mind that was an inescapable labyrinth if he so much as tried to go around a corner to observe a memory.
The missiles sailed past him, detonating when they went through him after he adjusted his density enough to disrupt the old technology in them. The giant loomed, taking several quick steps that belied its great frame. The thing was colored red, blue, and white, with stars adorning it like the American flag.
Yet the giant had rust forming at the edges of it, and its booming voice sounded scratchy at times. Who knows how long it had remained buried in that facility? Liberty Prime slammed a closed fist where Wonder Woman had been, only to miss with her circling around the gargantuan limb, peppering it with more lightning, and doing more damage than the robot had accumulated over time.
“What was that about sending a woman?” She retorted back, not liking this machine. The longer it went on, the more she began to think she hated it more than those mockeries of her face.
“Communism will never beat Democracy! Embrace or be eradicated!”
Both arms were aimed at them, with numerous panels opening up along the length of the arms. The gathered heroes' eyes widened at the sheer number of weapons installed on the giant. Wonder Woman all but teleported in the others' eyes, dodging the barrage that all but overtook the stars and moon in the sky, blotting them out.
Liberty Prime's attack was unrelenting, a seemingly endless barrage of bullets, missiles, and lasers. The ground turned into a lifeless, barren stretch of land as any form of life, from animals to plants, was eviscerated, mulching anything to shreds and burning what was left to ashes. Then the ground was further torn apart, soil upturned and blown away, rock shattered, and the fragments melted down.
The heroes on the ground quickly avoided such areas, Flash simply ran out of the way, while Manbat, with some preternatural sense, avoided the attacks while giving the others early warnings of when something was getting too close.
Manbat proved helpful when he helped coordinate them better through the telepathic link, showing some members where to go to avoid the attacks.
“Where’s Batman?” Hal asked, blocking a series of lasers that chipped away at his wall construct.
He was struggling more than he should be, after having his confidence shaken, his constructs were not as powerful or durable as they should be. He was still angry and ready to go after Silhouette, but his concern for his friends and fellow heroes kept him here with them.
“He told me to assist you guys while he went after Silhouette.” Manbat told them across the mental link.
“Of all the times to leave us while going after Silhouette.” Hal’s anger at Batman bailing on them could be felt across the group in his thoughts.
“Everyone clear the area. When it goes down, try to pin it while Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter try to take it out.” A blue and red blur slammed into one of the legs of Liberty Prime, uprooting what trees and foliage remained, sending the great machine toppling over when the rest of the team, heeding Superman’s words, got out of the splash zone and followed the plan.
The metal colossus hit the earth, cracking it, and shaking the ground for miles. A gust of wind that nearly knocked over some of the others followed in its collapse. The heroes got to work, Green Lantern forming several giant green staples that slammed down onto the machine's limbs when it tried to get back up.
Superman used his heat vision to try and weld its joints as he made slow progress. He suddenly stopped and instead opted to slam and press down on its back when it began to get back up, managing to shatter several of Hal’s constructs. Superman grunted, pressing down on it even harder, managing to temporarily keep it down before it began to rise once more.
Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, seeing them struggle, moved faster, knowing they didn’t have much time. Wonder Woman brought lightning down from both herself and the sky, impacting the frame of the robot. The metal, unlike before, glowed far brighter, even melting in patches, each bolt aimed for a limb.
The bolts moved and curved in unnatural ways, avoiding Hal’s constructs that were being chipped away at despite him doing his best to keep Liberty Prime down. Even the electricity was localized to the limbs, not going towards the torso or surroundings. Her control over it had grown since she first awakened her divinity. She would not have had such fine control before when she clashed at the gala, and she knew she could go even further with it.
Martian Manhunter changed his density, quickly going into the robot in hopes of finding its central processor or other vital components to take it out quickly. He moved through the internals as he disrupted them wherever he could to slow it down and buy himself time.
Halfway towards the machine's head, after disrupting its internals along the way, he paused when the machine rumbled. "Death is a preferable alternative to Communism!”
He felt the temperature swell to staggering levels, swiftly leaving the machine. Martians could adjust their density to move through most substances, but they were always vulnerable to fire and extreme heat. He got out just in time to witness the machine turn a glowing orange, illuminating the landscape for several miles. Green Lantern’s staples finally broke apart, and Superman cried out in pain when the heat became too much for him.
Manbat froze on the spot before his mind screamed across the link. “We need to run. Now!”
His mind showed them images of what was about to happen. The gathered heroes, wide-eyed, quickly got some distance between them and the mechanical menace that was proving to be far more difficult to take down than they had thought it would be.
The ground around the machine exploded out as every weapon on its frame began to glow before firing a barrage of lasers and highly heated shells that, for a brief moment, hit everything around them before it detonated in an eye-searing bright explosion.
The heat was so intense even as far away as they managed to get, it could be felt, briefly making the area they were in feel like Death Valley with all the moisture flash-evaporated despite being near Slaughter Swamp.
Superman turned towards their newest ally. “Thanks for the warning, Manbat.”
The man nodded towards Superman before bringing his guard up. “Don’t thank me just yet. It’s not over just yet.”
Superman nodded as the others looked concerned when the massive machine stumbled out of the smoke looking worse for wear. An arm was gone, its chassis was molten, with parts of it dripping off of its frame onto the ground, hissing and steaming.
“Freedom for all! The right to bear arms against tyrants.” The machine blabbered on.
Manbat had an idea and quickly shared it with the rest of the group. The others all shared a look before nodding, accepting it as their current best option since this thing was proving to be more difficult to take down. If it kept going, they ran the risk of this fight finding its way into Gotham.
“Whoever made this thing really needs to tone it down with the patriotic rhetoric. It’s giving me a headache.” Hal Jordan's thoughts reached the rest of the group flying around the giant and peppering it with emerald blasts that punched through the molten metal of its outer frame.
The blasts managed to pierce it unlike before, with the metal now far softer. Then it did something that no one but Manbat seemed to expect as he directed Hal to do what he needed him to. The remaining arm expanded and shifted, turning into a massive cannon aimed right at him.
“Feel the fire of an American gun!” The glowing heat around the machine dimmed as if all of the heat was being absorbed and directed towards the cannon.
Hal and the others flying beside him did some evasive maneuvers, evading the energy beam that exited the gun, impacting some trees miles away, and missing them. The trees and the surroundings were vaporized, as if a nuke had been dropped on them, completely destroying the landscape.
Not even ash or dust was left.
The group now turned towards the deceptively dumb-looking machine in a new light. “We need to hurry. If a shot like that hits Gotham…”
Manbat didn’t need to say anything further as the group realized they needed to get this thing to the coast. Wonder Woman’s lightning, Green Lantern's ring, and Superman’s heat vision and his freezing breath got its attention.
The machine lumbered after them, swinging and shooting with the few weapons left functioning on its body. That was until a slot opened on its back, bringing three tentacle appendages with old-school science fiction-looking cannons at the tips.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Flash said beside Manbat, eyes wide as each tentacle fired energy beams that exploded around the area.
“I guess our government wanted to be sure,” Manbat said to the speedster in an impressive display of strength, speed, and flexibility, evading a shot fired at them far faster than any normal person could hope to avoid. Not just the speed the energy projectile moved at, but the blast radius was enough to level a city block. “That our country was safe during the Red Scare.”
Flash was going to grab him but realized the new guy could hold his own. Didn’t mean he would leave him on his own either, he’d rather not have the new hero's death on his conscience when he could avoid it.
"Well, next time they can maybe disarm the weapons they make for a potential threat so we don’t have to deal with it.” Flash said with a smile, one that Manbat returned.
“Trust me, I agree after being a part of all this in my short time doing this.” Manbat said to the group, though it was more directed at Flash.
“Uh… sorry. Didn’t mean that in a bad way.” Flash thought back, having forgotten that his thoughts were directed towards the group when in the link.
Manbat waved him off. “Don’t sweat it. Superman, do you think you can freeze the metal if it heats up again?”
“Not the entirety of it, but with enough time I can do it.” He said back as the group was trying to think of a better method than dunking the hulking behemoth in the ocean after it heated up.
But the plan went awry when it used the heat on its body and weaponized it. The problem with Superman’s current method is that they couldn’t keep it pinned down long enough to do that. It’s now slower than it was before, but not enough to let them harden its frame so it couldn’t move.
“We need to figure something out before this escalates…" Manbat trailed off when the sound of thrusters had garnered everyone’s interest.
“It can fly.” Flash stated, looking stupified by what he was witnessing.
The thing rose into the air with jets of flame coming from its feet. The thing lifted off with enough thrust to keep it airborne and continue on despite how much it had to weigh as the flames bathed the land under it.
Flash, realizing the flames were headed for them, grabbed Manbat and quickly got out of the area. The others in the sky watched the metal giant loom closer before a fist tried to hit Wonder Woman, who was about to hit it back.
Someone grabbed and pulled her out of the way, and she glared up at who was revealed to be Superman. “Don’t. We can use this to our advantage. Lead it to the ocean.”
Wonder Woman and the others realized he was right and followed his lead. Liberty Prime was relentless, never once giving up in its attempts to attack them. The tendrils on its back fired blasts they avoided, occasionally attacking it to keep its attention.
The ocean grew closer as they led it away from any people, and anyone who was in the path, Flash and Manbat got them out of the way and to safety. The stump of what was left of its other arm began to spark and whir before the metal slid back and shifted.
A round disc formed on it, spinning before a hum filled the air. A slot opened on the spinning disc before the air shifted and changed. Small orbs that nearly blended in with the surroundings shot towards them faster than the previous attacks.
A warning through the mental link had them take evasive maneuvers. One of the blasts passed by Superman with an ear-piercing boom, followed by air scattering the clouds. The group was buffeted by the wind from each blast, forcing them apart.
Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern were together, with one of the blasts getting too close to them. Martian Manhunter was forced further away when a superheated energy blast got too close for comfort.
Hal raised a barrier when he couldn’t avoid a compressed air blast. The shield cracked and then fragmented to his horror as blood came from his nose, mouth, and ears before he began to fall. Martian Manhunter grabbed him as more blasts were fired.
That stopped the instant several bolts of lightning impacted the frame of Liberty Prime, drawing its attention. The bolts had enough force behind them to knock the giant off course temporarily. Unlike before, the lightning was able to carve its way through the machine, cutting far deeper. Not enough to destroy it outright but enough to deal meaningful damage.
The weapons stalled, the lightning messing with its internals, yet the machine was undeterred. Its form began to glow, illuminating the surroundings. For a brief moment, the countryside and the city of Gotham were bathed in a dull light. Nothing quite like what the sun could do, but it was enough to light the darkness around it all.
“Now!” Superman said, as Wonder Woman with glee let loose the charge she had been building in the clouds above.
The bolt slammed down onto the robot's legs, severing them from the main body as they flew off haphazardly. Both Superman and Wonder Woman watched with concern when they were not stopping. Wonder Woman and Superman pursued the legs as they spiraled out of control.
A quick zap from her and the leg sputtered out, falling into the water below. Superman, on the other hand, was struggling to both keep up and grab the leg that was nigh unpredictable with its movements. Up and down, end over end, then spiraling in confusing loops.
Superman’s face became set in stone the moment he realized it was going to enter into city limits. He zipped forward, followed by the air cracking. The fire washed over him, and despite the brief pain and discomfort, it was nothing compared to his heart clenching at the thought of people dying.
The smoke and fire poured out of it with the leg still out of reach. More. He pushed himself to go faster, his outstretched hand almost there. A high-rise building was close by. His eyes narrowed, and he pushed a little more and… got it!
His hands clamped down on the metal, managing to sink into it, and pulled with a great heave. A grunt of exertion left him as he adjusted how much strength to put into it. Too much, and the metal rips and tears, and it might fly off again. Too little, and he won’t stop it in time.
Like always, he adjusted how much strength he used, always afraid he would lose control and everyone would suffer because of him. A world of glass around him, he always had to be careful. At least he did until the pain in his face, where he knew a bruise had formed, showed him that the day may come sooner than he thought when he would have to let it all out.
His gaze swept over the city, his eyes locked onto the various people in the building. All of whom were oblivious to what was about to slam into where they worked and take their lives. Strength filled his limbs, his pull on the leg became stronger, slowing it down. Dozens of meters slowed to a few each second, then feet. It eventually slowed enough that the leg was held tightly in his grip, the thruster still moving, dare he say there was even more power in the thruster than it hadbefore?.
Yet it didn’t budge an inch. A curtain was pulled aside, and a woman with bags under her eyes, with a baby crying in her arms, wiped an eye to see what the racket was. Her eyes widened comically when she saw the massive metal leg held in Superman’s grip as his cape billowed behind him while he smiled, looking down towards them.
He turned his gaze towards the limb and used his heat vision for a dozen seconds, carving into it and severing the control mechanism that had been locked in place for the thruster. It sputtered briefly before finally dying. He let out a sigh, looking towards the others, seeing what was left of Liberty Prime reaching an arm out towards Wonder Woman, who looked down at it coldly.
The arm was still just like the rest of it as the superheated metal steamed with the ocean water washing over it. The thing slowed to a crawl before finally freezing entirely. Its metal armor was now its prison.
“Better DeAd ThAn RED.” The gargantuan machine said in garbled words before shutting down.
He looked towards where Manbat and Flash should be, yet they were gone.
…
My ride moved faster than any car had any right to beyond something out of indie racing or NASCAR. With my knowledge it proved difficult but still possible to design it so it would remain closer to the ground despite moving a little over two hundred miles an hour, and that was going slow.
The car raced through the terrain as I saw what was left of my facility, half-built and demolished, as the ground sank into the ground with a giant metal hand reaching high into the sky out of it all. The massive frame of Liberty Prime pulled itself out with the League fighting it.
Oddly enough, no Batman… a glance behind me told me all that I needed to know. The Batmobile moved behind me like a ghost in the night, quiet as the grave despite the speeds it had to be going to even keep pace with me. The various displays and buttons set an eerie glow over my face as I shook my head in amusement.
Letting out a sigh at Batman’s antics. “Guess he didn’t learn his last lesson. Never leave technology that can be hacked unattended around me… wait a second.” As my car and the pieces of tech stored inside of my body were activated to start hacking his vehicle, they were slow going, and the pieces of tech they managed to get access to were simple things that had no greater control over the Batmobile.
“Did… did he air gap the Batmobile?!” I couldn’t hide my surprise, nor the smile that formed at the thought of Batman actually finding ways to counter me even if it wasn’t in direct combat.
"Well, this just got interesting.” My smile grew an edge to it as my Dark Rider picked up speed, beginning to leave Batman behind on the winding back roads. Despite the speed I was moving at I should have lost control especially on turns in the roads or even a slight angle change yet I didn’t.
A sudden hard curve to the left had the car seamlessly drift to the side, staying on the road. My reaction time was enough to react and keep up with the speed the car was moving at. Even without Jet in my system, it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
Batman was struggling to keep up with me, not from speed alone, but from all the winding turns and curves. So instead of trying to beat me on my terms, he flipped the table and changed the rules of the game. Two massive trees that had long since died off were in the way between the road ahead of them as I drifted around the bend in the road.
A hatch opened on the sides of the Batmobile, revealing two missiles. The black missiles hissed and flew off, curving through the air like fish in the sea before detonating at the base of each tree. The trees splintered and cracked, angling further down as they both were now at an angle he could use.
The Batmobile hummed and revved, picking up speed as it slammed into the trees, the tires angled perfectly to use them as a makeshift ramp. He zoomed up and finally off the tops of the trees, his car's shadow cloaking mine in it. The Batmobile slammed down right beside me, gaining more speed and managing to just keep up with me.
I turned as the tinted windows shifted, showing my form to Batman, who turned to scowl at me. That expression morphed into shock when a quick turn of the steering wheel had me slam into the side of his car. Then his glare returned. His car was almost pushed off the road and into an oncoming stump before he pushed back.
Sparks formed between the two vehicles, the Batmobile slowly pushing my Dark Rider back, narrowly avoiding the stump. My fingers drummed along the steering wheel as the radio was turned on, playing my attempt at recreating Killswitch Engage’s Holy Diver cover.
My car swerved back to its side before slamming into Batman's, who was already doing the same. Our cars did this several times, neither side getting the advantage. “See his stripes, but you know he’s mean!” I sang along to the lyrics, seeing a fun opportunity.
Another curve came as Batman disengaged, but not before one love tap from me had him almost spin out of control, with me whizzing past him chuckling like this was some racing game with a friend and not us going nearly two hundred miles an hour, where even the slightest mistake could have us crash and burn.
Looking at the image of the Batmobile falling behind again, I should correct the numbers. I was going nearly two hundred while he was struggling to do eighty. Even with Jet, his ride wasn’t as advanced as my own. The fact it could handle what it was showed just how awesome the Batmobile was. He was quickly falling behind even while taking shortcuts courtesy of the numerous sharp turns and curves I excelled at doing with absurd levels of speed, whereas he couldn’t hope to keep up.
The temptation to slow down was there. Batman, despite his grumpy exterior, was someone I had fun doing stuff with, even if he couldn’t hang with me on the higher levels. Honestly, it’s like the few friends I had as a kid. Some games they couldn’t keep up with me when I went all out, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t slow down because they were just too much fun to curb stomp like that.
But with my goal accomplished, and sticking around with him for too long would lead to trouble that was best avoided for now, I grudgingly started to go faster, leaving him in my dust. I was until he barely got into the straight stretch of road when that feeling came over me again.
Turning in time when a harpoon with a cord attached to it sailed past me and struck a tree, going through it and several more. “Okay, no scratching the paint job.”
Pressing a button with Batman using his afterburner to close the distance, a high-viscosity liquid was dispensed onto the road, making him swerve and veer off, struggling to get any traction. No matter how capable he was, even with super drugs helping him or as upgraded as his sweet ride was, he would spin out.
And spin out he did, eventually losing control as he crashed into a tree, toppling it. A deep, throaty laugh that Bender Bending Rodriguez would be proud of escaped me. It was something I could check off my bucket list was do my own attempt at a James Bond car chase and use some gadgets to get away.
Just when I thought I was safe moving along the roads, weaving a complex trail to reduce the chances of them tracking me, something popped up on my console. My head tilted, seeing Black Canary was nearly right on top of me.
Swerving to the side, avoiding the motorcycle ramp off a fallen log, her bike revved, managing to keep up with me. Another blip appeared courtesy of my sensors detecting the varying light levels. Even if they had wanted to come at me with their lights off, good luck to anyone, myself included, driving at near-dark levels with no street lights in Slaughter Swamp.
Another car nearly wiped me out. My quick reflexes and car that could keep up with me, almost an extension of my body, obeyed the command and drifted around, curving past the green colored muscle car that had been heavily modified. Inside of it was none other than Green Arrow himself.
He nodded towards Canary as the two pursued me. Like Batman, Green Arrow couldn’t hope to compete with me on the curves or when it came to speed. Not that he was lacking. If anything, I’d say he was doing better than Batman with better reflexes, he just lacked the equipment Bruce had at his disposal.
But then I guess it made sense that a guy's whole power was being scarily accurate with a bow and arrow, being DC’s equivalent to Hawkeye. To be capable of hitting targets and doing it non-lethally while some of them have powers and speed beyond a normal person, you had to have speed, accuracy, and, above all, damn good reflexes.
Something he showed when he took a brief moment, hands off the steering wheel, as he lined up a shot with that bow and let loose a trio of arrows. The arrows were aimed for my tires. A quick turn and a use of the hydraulics had me hop over the third and land where Canary would have been when she went through a small opening she could use with her motorcycle.
She quickly peeled out of the way and continued giving chase. She opened her mouth with her helmet's visor tilted up but stopped when the oil slick was used again, making her and Arrow struggle. Both immediately took the off-road option right when the trees finally became sparse.
Glancing to the side, I see Liberty Prime duking it out with the League, feeling pride that something simple I had made like that was giving them a run for their money when it was one of the less advanced machines I had created to date. It took a lot of resources to put together, but it was worth it. My only regret was that I couldn’t make him like a Gundam or Transformer with far more advanced weapons.
The most advanced thing I could give him that would fit the Cold War era weapons he was meant to impersonate was the lasers and the mechanism that would let him harness his generated heat and use it as a weapon.
Another arrow, this one with electricity sparking off of it, nearly hit Dark Rider's side. Whatever was telling me these things was proving a nice boon that saved me from some minor headaches. The arrow missed its mark, and I knew I was starting to annoy Green Arrow. Like Hawkeye, he took pride in his skills, and seeing someone manage to avoid several of his shots… well, that tends to rankle his pride.
Black Canary couldn’t keep up in raw speed compared to me, but her motorcycle compensated by having better agility. Sharper turns, better acceleration and deceleration, capable of going off-road and taking shortcuts. Give Green Arrow this, his muscle car was keeping pace despite all the bumps he was taking.
Just when I was deciding on what I wanted to use, the next thing I knew, another motorcycle joined the fray. Having had enough of the surprise for today, the button to the miniguns was activated.
The sides of the car near the front, where the headlights would normally be, a pair of miniguns popped out of the sides, and with robotic arms extended out, they aimed to the right, where Batman was currently.
The man didn’t even hesitate to press the brake, avoiding the rounds flying through the air. The guns swiveled around, aiming for them all. The three worked in tandem, preemptively dodging where the guns were aimed while they focused on two one would try and close the distance. Only to back off when the guns would prioritize them.
It lasted a few seconds before two arrows hit them and detonated, taking them out. Canary and Batman both take the sides off-road while Green Arrow comes after me on the road.
“Not today, guys.” I said before pressing a button. The back of the Dark Rider shifted. I had taken inspiration from the Men in Black films when I had it made. Two turbines came out of the back before the car shifted, becoming even sleeker and more aerodynamic.
With a blast, the car shot forward and off into the distance as I, for a moment, used the most potent hit of Jet I had, letting me keep up with the speed. The three heroes didn’t even have time to try and stop me as they became specks in a second, and then there was no sight of them at all.
Letting the autopilot take over as it weaved its way back to Gotham with none of them even close as I watched Liberty Prime struggle till the end and even clapped when Superman saved the day, stopping one of the legs that had malfunctioned after Martian Manhunter messed with its internals.
Relief filled me that the job was done as I contacted the online ID Ra’s had reached out to me with.
The_Shadow: What did you think of the show?
Hewhocommandstheblade: An enjoyable one. You have quite the talent as a showman.
The_Shadow: They make it far too easy.
Hewhocommandstheblade: Most I have heard about would disagree with that notion. You will be contacted soon for the first meeting.
I rubbed my hands together as I perused through my most recent gains. The book was filled with stuff that I could use despite not having the natural magical power necessary to command them. But who said I had to do it all naturally?
Create and unleash Liberty Prime +50
Trick the Justice League into believing Liberty Prime was created to fight communism +50
Have a nice race against Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary +50
