RANKED 2nd BY VOTERS IN CHARACTER CREATION CONTEST #75!
Date | Paulette & Chaffin: The War on Wishes #3: | View | Read the... |
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08/05/18 | The Last Wish | (Blog) (Forum) | Disclaimer |
Rating | Rating Explanation | Last Issue: |
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T | Drug dealing discussed (fictitious drugs). Mild cursing. | What do you wish for? |
Norfolk, Virginia - Three Days Later - The West Liberty Street Underpass of the Liberteens
Agent Salt and Scarlet Fist stood back-to-back, taking swings at Flipside as he teleported around them. They had landed a few punches, but mostly they were missing.
"This is getting us nowhere!" Crystal shouted in frustration.
"Stay focused," huffed Fist. "We'll get him eventually."
Just then, a wild swing by Salt clipped the teleporter. Flipside fell back into one of his own portals, tumbling out in front of Scarlet Fist, who decked him with another blow.
"Finally," said Fist as he dropped to his knees.
"Amen, brother," sighed Salt as she sank to a sitting position, and leaned against his back. "Where the hell is Corsair? We haven't seen him yet."
***
Heironymous was busy with Solid- a hulking juggernaut with a smooth, stone exterior, and super strength. They had been trading blows that were shattering car windows all over the lot, knocking each other on their butts, and destroying cars when they landed on them.
"I can do this all day, grandpa!" taunted Solid.
Having tossed his trench coat and suit coat aside early on, Heironymous began rolling up a sleeve of his shirt. "Son, I'm about to show you your limits."
Taking a deep breath, the humanoid dragon let out a stream of fire that caught the rock-bodied teen full in the chest. Solid kept advancing on Heironymous, his torso starting to glow a fiery orange. He slowed some, and as he got within arm's reach, the agent punched him full force in the solar plexus. It sent Solid tumbling, and bits of rock flying off of his body. His body landed hard in the dirt and dug a trench for several yards before he came to a rest, unconscious.
Heironymous picked up his coats and snapped them in the air once to shake off the dirt. Grunting, he said, "Damn. That boy's tough."
***
Detective Paulette was mostly getting tagged by the invisible woman they called Fade. Specter Zero was using all the illusions at his disposal to try to trick her into showing herself.
"Your tricks are useless against me," came a voice that seemed to float on the air.
"Are they?" asked Specter Zero as he dropped some smoke pellets.
In the smoke, the outline of Fade's body appeared. Mary smiled as she moved in. "Now we're on an even playing field."
***
Hot Sistah began glowing red hot, and started to advance on Detective Chaffin. "I'm gonna burn you, pig."
Gragg gritted his teeth. Realizing that his baton was only going to melt against Hot Sistah's heat, Gragg dropped it, pulled his gun, and shot Hot Sistah four times in the chest. She dropped unconscious, scorching the grass around her, and immediately started to cool to normal. Chaffin could see that her fiery exterior had been hiding a bulletproof vest. "Lucky girl. I see this isn't your first firefight." Shaking his head, he holstered his gun, and pulled out his handcuffs. "I'm getting really sick of this," he said as he locked her wrists together.
***
Soundstorm gave off a sonic scream; the sound wave crashing into C-Note's slightly more powerful scream. The sound bounced around them, shattering windows out on the street, and causing small cracks in the support columns of the overpass. Soundstorm stopped screaming when C-Note suddenly grunted and fell to the ground. She saw Detective Paulette slapping her baton in her open palm, smiling mischievously.
"Thanks," she said in a small voice.
"You're welcome," Mary said brightly. "Good job."
***
Jetwave was chasing Coolbreeze all over the lot, the two speedsters ducking and dodging various projectiles being thrown by the other. Rocks, old window handles, a rear view mirror, broken bottles, and even a car door.
"Even a race car can't beat me!" called Jetwave. "I'm going to catch you!"
"We'll see about that, brat!" shouted Coolbreeze, just before he was clotheslined by Super Duper.
"Cool your heels, 'Breeze," said Super Duper, a grin spreading across his face. "God, I love this!" he called out, high fiving Jetwave as he ran by.
***
Rebel Angel and Dark Geist were in a full-on hand-to-hand battle with Throwdown and Freestyle- a ninja and a pulp hero trading blows with a brawler and an acrobat. In the end, it was no contest. Throwdown and Freestyle lay defeated. Rebel Angel pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and Dark Geist produced a long ziptie. Securing their opponents, they shook each other's hand, and dragged the teens over to the pile of Liberteens being made by the group of officers and heroes.
***
"That wasn't fun at all," Gragg muttered aloud.
"Speak for yourself," said Super Duper, clapping him on the back.
"How did you two get powers?" Heironymous asked Soundstorm and Jetwave.
Soundstorm looked at the ground for a second, then looked up and winced. "We're really not supposed to tell," she said.
"Yeah, it's our secret origin!" chimed Jetwave.
Mary half-grinned, but then groused, "What I want to know is where the heck is Corsair? We haven't seen him the entire time we've been here!"
"And where's Smackdown?" asked Salt. "He's the only one that seems to be missing."
A voice that seemed to come from everywhere answered, "The answer to both of your questions is above you."
The group looked up, then quickly stepped back from the piled gang as the unconscious body of Smackdown fell from the shadows of the underpass. Attached to a climbing cable, he decelerated safely to just a few inches short of the pile before the cable snapped off his belt and dropped him onto the heap. Then Corsair appeared from the same shadows, sliding gracefully down the cable, and making the small jump from the top of the pile to the ground.
"I was busy rounding him up," he said to Salt, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at Dylan Smack.
"'Bout time you showed up," Heironymous said gruffly.
"I was complying with a wish," said the black-clad hero. "I was busting a Liberteen drug deal, and that Freestyle kid popped a pill and wished for me to disappear. So I dropped smoke pellets and did just that. I granted his wish, but wasn't able to reveal myself again until one of you knocked him unconscious."
Mary nodded at the hero's explanation. "Great, so we got them all. Now what?"
Heironymous sighed. "Now comes the hard part- rounding up the Wish supply, and taking out the other networks that are springing up. Unfortunately, the Liberteens aren't the only supply of this anymore."
"Not hard at all," came the voice of Corsair.
The group looked around, and the hero was gone. Looking up, they saw a pale blue light shining in the shadows, barely illuminating the dull metal mask, and almost lighting up the stylized skull and crossbones on his chest. "I wish," he started as they all gasped, "that the pill I just took was the last pill of any supply of the drug called Wish, and that no more could ever be made."
***
Norfolk, Virginia - the Warehouse of the Wishing Demon
There was a bright blue flash as the barrels of Wish that the Wishing Demon had conjured all evaporated into nothing. Realizing what had happened he stood silent. His rage built, and he shook until he let out a guttural, "Nooooo!" flailing his fists at the sky.
He fumed over his loss as he cast his gaze around the empty warehouse. Then he sighed, which turned into a light laugh. "Oh, well," he said with a wave of his hand, "it was good while it lasted. Back to doing it the old fashioned way." With that, he disappeared. And then so did the warehouse, leaving only a windblown lot.
Please let me know what you think, and thanks! -cb | Originally Presented In: CCC #75. |
Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.
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