Post by Wachter on Jun 8, 2018 1:28:47 GMT
The Initiative Reserves #2
Earth's Mightiest Hero
Jackrabbit?
The congestion on Star Bridge was expected at this hour but that didn't make it any less frustrating. Especially given where the partners had spent their afternoon. Tensions ran high. Roy Harper, Special Agent of the D.E.O., radiated a sense of urgency to be gone, to be out of this city as he kicked his feet up on the dash. They weren't here for any professional reason. It was that time of year again. Worse than usual actually. He thought he had put it past him, moved on. His disheveled appearance, the stubble across his jaw and uncombed red hair, said otherwise.
"Should have turned at Winnick," he grumbled.
"Winnick would have taken us ten minutes out of our way."
"Compared to being stuck on this bridge for nearly fifteen? You should know this. Weren't you a fancy Uber driver here before Stew recruited you?"
"Do you want to drive?" his partner nearly shouted back. John Diggle was ever the professional, his appearance a stark contrast to the younger man. Almost twice his size, hair closely cropped, dressed in the suit that was as much his uniform these days as the fatigues had been when he was in the army, Diggle bit down on saying anything he might regret.
"Loved to. Can't. Ever since Stew put on the big boy pants, he's been riding me about that DUI. How's it feel being demoted back to chaperone so soon after becoming special?"
"Roy, I will knock your ass out if it'll get me a quiet flight back to HQ."
"Fist or tranq 'cause I'll admit that the second option holds some appeal."
Muscles went taunt as Diggle squeezed the steering wheel tight. The men had each other's backs when down in the foxhole together. Roy was half the reason he pushed past his hang-ups to get Special Agent status. But sometimes he was an insufferable, sarcastic asshole with a drinking problem to rival Tony Stark though without the money for the good stuff. Today, he could be forgiven. That didn't make it any easier to hold back his own views. There'd be no scaring straight a guy who had faced down murderers, rapists, and supervillains when he was a kid clad in tights.
There had been sincerity – you don't work together as long or as close as they had without picking up the minute cues – in his admission over the tranquilizer. Sleep could be hard to come by in their line of work. There'd been a couple of missions they had returned with less than he could remember using. He'd have to keep an eye out in the future. Roy was his partner. Practically a brother at this point. It was still his job to look after him.
Fingers tapped the wheel idly. Silence had finally fallen. Roy stared out the window, watching the bay beyond the edge of bridge not pass them by. Diggle stared ahead. That's why he saw it first.
"Roy, put your glasses on."
"Huh?"
"Put your goddamn glasses on!"
"What?" Roy looked up, seeing what Diggle saw, the press of people running down Star Bridge towards them, screaming in terror. "Oh shit."
He fumbled open the glovebox and pulled out his nonstandard D.E.O. glasses with their signature crimson tint. His mouth opened in a repeat of "Oh shit," before pushing open the door and going straight for the trunk of their nondescript government issued sedan.
"What?"
"Giant monster in the Orchid Bay area," he shouted back, slamming the trunk closed after he pulled out his duffel and bow. "This is why I told you to pack your gear. I didn't have my techs in my Arsenal outfit you just so you could go into a fight with only your trusty Glock for protection. I learned that lesson in an oddly similar situation from a kid in tighter tights than me."
A grapple arrow hissed in his ear even as Diggle called the threat in. Roy was off, suddenly full of energy or a least having found a target to vent his frustration on. He cursed and chased after his partner on foot, pushing through the throng of people smart enough to run from danger.
To fight the battles that the people of Star City never could.
I just never imagined one of those battles would be against a giant twin-headed serpent.
In nature, chances are you wouldn't find a hare with green and red fur. Jackrabbit wore those colors as a painful reminder of the heroes who had abandoned his city. This was the legacy he carried on alone with only guts and no thoughts of glory backing him up. His mask was a glorified faceplate, the ears flipping back over the top of his head, his dark hair left open to the elements. The lower half featured ventilation holes for breathing among other things. It wasn't a proper heroic cowl but it did the job. Not like he could afford better.
His body often reacted before he could even think it. Another reason for his mask to cover only the front portion of his head. It sometimes felt like his hair could to detect the minute changes in the air, warning him of danger before it happened. Same with the goggles built in and the ventilation holes. It helped him to help himself.
One such reaction was the high leap that had him flipping over the car the serpent's tail sent careening his way. It crashed into the building behind him, the smell of gasoline filling his nostrils. Jackrabbit jumped immediately on his landing, keeping the beast focused on him. Just in time too. Turned out it could spit acid. The sidewalk melted with a hiss. He landed on its scaly back, running up the neck trying to toss him off but he was the king of the bucking bronco. He wrapped his legs and an arm around it once he reached the head and just wailed on it with his free fist as mad as a march hare.
The head reacted enough to the onslaught. It certainly felt it. His strength was a bit more than you'd expect for a kid his size. And when he saw the second one's jaws open wide, he somersaulted backwards, a quip on his lips, "That's how you take a bite out of cri – "
A barbed tail slapped him to the ground in midair. He landed atop a double-parked truck, metal groaning beneath him. Jackrabbit groaning too. The tail raised to smash him again, the head spitting out sizzling flesh from the first one. He rolled free as it impaled itself on the vehicle, stuck momentarily. It was only about two stories tall, three maybe four from the tip of the tail to steam blowing nostrils. Not all that big in the grand scheme of things and the former was just the correct width for him to wrap his arms around it and pull with all his might.
The serpent didn't budge. That was fine. Jackrabbit didn't think he could have even if it hadn't dug its claws into the street. It was all about that misdirection. All eyes on him. Letting civilians get free, letting them escape. He also had the inklings of a plan to take one weapon out of the monster's arsenal. Neck sizzling, it spat another glob of acid at him. Release. Jump. Flip.
Scream.
The both of them. Three of them if you counted all the mouths.
The creature screamed at the sudden loss of most of its tail. Jackrabbit screamed when a cloud of steam seared through the openings of his cracked faceplate, pain enveloping him as his uniform melted from the intense heat. He fell on his side, still moving, never stopping, a parking meter found its way to his hands when ripped out of the ground and stabbed downward at snapping jaws coming for roasted rabbit. Greenish go melted through the metal. It was only a momentary success just like the tail.
Jackrabbit didn't release in time. He went for a wild ride. A head butted him, sending him smashing through glass, burying shards into his skin before he could skid to a halt amidst a bunch of empty cubicles. The pain was unimaginable and yet he had to ignore it. Two heads snaked into building, smashing through the nine-to-five workspace, trying to find him after he already ran for his dear – and extremely precious – life. A kick sent a chair spinning across the office building. A distraction. He was out, landing in a crouch, sweeping up a broken car door to be used as a battering ram in one fluid movement.
Charging, he built up momentum and tackled the beast right in its bloated chest. It didn't do a damn thing. Not even a stumble. The heads were out, focused on him with four serpentine eyes, slithering tongues tasting the air… tasting him. God, its breath was foul. He gagged just smelling it, his senses overwhelmed momentarily.
The remnants of the tail caught him by the legs as it spun to face him. Quickly, he braced himself against a column outside of city hall when he discovered he could fly if he just believed hard enough or was hit with enough force. He preferred thinking the former. Waiting. Just waiting longer than he should have. He pushed off it, launching himself back into the air and straight into the beast's open mouth. Bad idea but he had reached no other option. He hated this. Yet his preferences were of no matter when his city, his people were in danger.
Jackrabbit bit down on his lip to keep from screaming as claws popped out of his wrist painfully. There was no holding it back once the scolding steam scorched his body, blistering flesh, melting the fabric of his costume. Yet here, in the mouth, he stabbed upwards, the yells turning to fury as gooish blood drenched him. Both heads whipped back and forth, trying to dislodge him. That was okay. That was part of the plan. As it threw him in the air, he dove straight back down, burying his claws into thick flesh, barely seeing through half his busted mask to cling to the lashing neck. He stabbed and stabbed, sawing his way around it until the whole thing had been severed.
Now it was time for the serpent to cry out in pain. But not for long. He'd have that second head cut… off… shortly.
Even as he made for remaining head, he could feel the tingle of something not right. His eyes comprehended what his mind was already five steps ahead over.
Jackrabbit had cut off one head only for two more to take its place.
This wasn't a twin-headed serpent.
It was a goddamn hydra.
"If you're seeing a fucking hydra then I'd say that's a yes."
Diggle zoomed in between the traffic, jumping up on the curb and onto the sidewalk when he had to. Wasn't the safest thing under the best circumstances. He made it worse by wearing his D.E.O. issued glasses. Every new generation seemed worse than the last, with apps and features that your average Special Agent let alone the plain old Agents didn't need. That's what came of trying to reverse engineer the Stark 20/20 and adding your own spin to it instead of just paying the man. No wonder Roy preferred his custom pair and had set up Diggle's helmet to the same specifications.
But that helmet was on the opposite coast of the country. For now, he'd have to put up with the heart monitor showing the partners heartbeats, the miniscule GPS, and spare the top left corner a glance whenever he checked in on Roy. He really didn't want to tell the man he was right. Taking to the roofs would have been so much quicker. And in that corner that let him see through Roy's eyes, he saw a three headed dragon or serpent. A goddamn hydra based on the long necked head oozing atop a crushed car.
"When did we start fighting hydras?"
"During the 1940s."
"I said hydras. No capital H."
"Same answer. I'll tell you about it on the flight home. Or I can regal you with the Labours of Hercules. Aced that class." Roy had yet to join the fray based on his vantage point. He was actually observing before acting for once. "Kid's not half bad."
Diggle cursed his partner just loud enough for it to be heard through comms yet low enough that the exact words could not be made out. He took the corner tight, tires screeching as he did an almost 180 degree turn to go down the cycling path that would take him straight to city hall. Gotta love that Star City was one of the greenest cities in the states. Or rather, it had been before the CEO of Queen Consolidated went off on indefinite sabbatical to god knows where.
Bicyclists got out of his way as he revved the engine, zooming down the path. Roy, strangely, was still watching. His heartbeat and breathing were erratic. The one and only time Diggle had seen readings like this was when he'd been doped up on a special blend of Vertigo. Okay. Okay. Remind him of the job. Keep him focused. Don't let him think about having failed this city or the young woman he had just said goodbye to at Starling General.
"Roy… Roy… Harper!"
"What!"
"Zoom in on those claws."
Records showed the kid as Jackrabbit. Rather low on the D.E.O.'s watchlist currently given his low profile and the fact helped little old ladies more than leaving behind beaten and broken bodies. Based on what Diggle was seeing, he could definitely leave them broken if he wanted to. The boy ducked and dodged attacks from the mythological beast, stabbing it repeatedly before diving to safety from spitting acid even as his suit melted around him. That had to hurt. Sound tactic if one didn't have a burning brand. He was trying to see if he could bleed the monster dry.
Diggle didn't bet on it working. If it could regenerate a head then what was the loss of gooey gallons of blood to it?
"The kid is a Weapon X," Diggle's exclamation came out as a grunt as he went off road, taking a shortcut through the park.
"No way, he's a, well, kid."
"You've never been on the frontlines to see their trail of bodies. The way he fights, those claws, how the hell did he soar under the radar?"
The motorcycle zoomed up one last grassy knoll and kept going even as Diggle jumped off, rolled to a stop with his gun drawn and shoulder aching to shoot the gas tank with a single squeeze of the trigger. The hydra's roar of pain accented it staggering down the street after the explosion. Damn. Sometimes this job made him feel like a nineties action star.
Jackrabbit just stood there at a loss, swaying, pus dripping down the lengths of his claws. He barely reacted when Diggle tackled him out of the way of three globs of acid spit, sizzling body-sized holes in the street beneath them. The two rolled to a stop behind a van that began melting not long after that, the metal leaving behind toxic fumes. This kid was about done. Half his costume was gone. His mask was barely there. The injuries… God damn it. This shouldn't be asked of him even if he was a mutant and potentially a manufactured weapon.
"Think you can cut off the rest of those heads?"
"…yeah."
Not exactly a confident answer.
"Good. I have an eye in the sky that can finish the rest. Just need you cut, dodge, cut some more. Can you handle that?"
"…yeah." Jackrabbit turned away from Diggle and took a couple woozy steps forward before finding his equilibrium and charging like a beast.
"You keeping up, Harper?"
"Thermal arrows ready, Iolaus."
Jackrabbit was far quicker than peak human and no man could leap as high as he did without there being something special about him. His claws were already sawing their way through the neck of the first head before Roy had finished talking. With a roar from both the kid hero and the monster, it fell to the ground as he flipped backwards, dodged a blast of steam from flaring nostrils, to impale a second head on the tip of his claws. The thermal arrow went off, cauterizing the first.
Monster it was. Mindless it was not. The hydra caught on to the tactic quickly, thrashing and whipping trying to throw Jackrabbit off as he doggedly cut his way through muscles, tendons, and whatever else, clinging on for his dear life yet not once looking like he'd fly free even when he was down to holding onto it with a single hand. The last head screeched, spitting acid. The green clad hero reacted at impossible speeds. His cuts took the attack while he spun around to its underside, making the hydra finish the job as he physically ripped the second head off what little remained attached to the rest of the body.
Roy's second arrow sealed that one as well. The rookie hero tossed the twitching head aside and readied himself for one last go.
"So, uh, we might have a problem, Dig. A hydra is supposed to have an immortal head and since those two obviously aren't…"
Any questioning the veracity of the myth was instantly put to the test as a glowing noose of hard light stopped the final head in its tracks before it could have an unseasoned hare for its last meal. The noose tightened, sizzling flesh smoking free of loose scales until it finally crashed into the side of a bank, headless and in its death throes.
A figure atop the dead beast's back whipped the noose back into a hilt-like object. Black catsuit (ears included), goggles, a scarf just for flair… Diggle recognized the small woman from the D.E.O.'s database. Problem was she should have been in California and if she was here then he knew what that meant. It meant their job got a lot harder.
"Shadowcat and the Last Lantern here to save the day at the eleventh hour," the girl laughed, backflipping into the air and dancing in the sky above as the monster's body started to bubble beneath her.
A blue-green dome expanded over the creature just in time for it to explode in a hiss of steam, acid, and putrid blood. It came from a ring of a second figure. A young man with red hair poking out of an outfit that was part uniform, part costume, as if even all these months later, he'd yet to pick a side, waved at Diggle.
"Sup, Dig? Congrats on the marriage and promotion."
"Wally…"
"Nuh uh." The teenager indicated his blue and green suit. "It's Lantern. Or Flash. Kid prefix entirely optional."
Roy landed beside Diggle to provide support. Though he didn't know it, Jackrabbit was positioned perfectly between them, the object of an unspoken argument that had happened more than once. The injured hero's claws slowly retracted as he sank to his knees.
"Harper."
"West."
The catgirl pouted as she settled to the ground next to her partner, holstering her hard-light emitter. "Why am I always ignored?"
"You're not going to let us bring the kid in, are you?"
"West, that mutant is going with Special Agents Harper and Diggle. End of discussion. He's extremely danger –." the voice spoke out from Wally's ring.
He clamped a hand down on it, releasing the bubble he had created, letting the sickening toxic smell into their lungs. The two new arrivals were protected by their little forcefields. Roy and Diggle didn't have such luxury.
"I didn't hear that. And since I didn't hear it, I'm pulling rank as Space Cop."
"It doesn't work that way."
"It works whatever way I want," an ounce anguish entered the young man's voice, "You heard Shadowcat. Last Lantern. I follow whatever laws I want and I'll be damned if I'll let you blackbag another kid with special abilities. Oh, hi Lyla!" Wally looked over Diggle's shoulder and waved again. "Mexican standoff here we come."
Diggle wasn't going to fall for the oldest trick in the book.
"John!" Okay, that was the voice of his wife. He turned around, seeing his wife and her long, blond-haired partner from SHIELD pick their way through the rumble. "What the hell happened here?"
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he smelled the crack of ozone. "They're gone, aren't they?"
"Yep." Roy answered laconically.
"Why didn't you stop them?"
"I have a bow. He has one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Do the math."
Diggle watched his wife approach, finally recognizing her partner in a black leather jacket and understanding why she'd be in Star City at the same time despite the two of them working for entirely different government organizations. At least he wouldn't be the only one in for a surprise when Roy deigned to turn around.
Reunions for everyone.
Fury really was a heartless son of a bitch just like they said.