Dragonfly, Part 5

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They materialised on the roof of a relatively short building adjacent to the city's main street that ran through the heart of office and business buildings. Even though they hadn't taken a look there was no mistaking the sounds of chaos down below at the street level with shouting and what could be assumed some one throwing around vehicles onto other ones judging from the sudden groaning and smashing of metal.

While Copy Cat was fishing out goggles and earphones for Halt, Dragonfly decided to try her new powers to get a discreet look down below. She formed two dragonfly sprites and sent them down to street level. Closing her eyes, she focused on the visual input from her sprites. The sight of the streets match the sounds they heard when they arrived. Practically every vehicle on the street were smashed, overturned, on fire, or just smoking from having finished burning. Dragonfly was shocked to see bodies in several of them as well as littering the road and sidewalks. It was then she saw that not all civilians were killed. There was a whole crowd, or more accurately a mob, of people that were running around smashing what ever they could find that was still undamaged and beating one another to bloody pulps. As much as Dragonfly wanted to jump in to stop them, she forced herself to remain still as she had her sprites look for the instigators of this death and chaos. It didn't take her long to find them.

She found four villains just past the unruly mob of people not seeming concerned about anything at all and appeared to be waiting for something.

"Or some one," she thought to herself grimly.

Drake, refusing to call him Dragon, stood amidst three dozen animated Tara kata warrior statues, no doubt conjured by Drake. With that many conjured, it was likely that only two or three of them were solid. The Tara kata warriors stood at attention surrounding Drake who himself made no move in participating in the destruction of the street. He only looked around as if he were waiting for something. Princess was nearby sitting in an office chair pilfered from a business nearby. She was surrounded by a crowd of people she placed under her control as well as what looked to be robotic forest animals like small birds, doe's and rabbits. Princess herself looked bored out of her mind and seemed to have a group of people acting out some sort of play for her.

When she turned her attention to the third that she spotted some one that made her stiffen as she felt a chill run up her spine. There, conducting a dissection on some one was the infamous villain know as "Idle Hands". He was a man who met and exceeded every definition of the term "mad scientist". He was more than willing to get his hands dirty to the point that a few years ago, shortly after his appearance, he removed his own hands and replaced them with robotic clawed facsimiles. It was public rumour that he did so without any form of anesthetic. He was a man who'd build terrible weapons for other villains and erratic nations just for fun, so he says himself. If he was here, then whatever that was going on here was far more dangerous than just Drake and Princess teaming up with a third unknown member. The last one she noticed was a brute of a man, standing at eight feet tall, it looked like he was covered in flat pieces of stones, the sharp edges of which pointed out from his skin. His name is Shale. He is incredably strong and combined with the way his stone skin creates a natural defense/offense, engaging him in hand to hand combat was like willingly giving yourself road rash while hitting a brick wall. A relatively local muscle for hire, he was the only one who was still tearing up the street by throwing vehicles around into the nearby buildings and where ever else he seemed to fancy.

Dragonfly relayed the information she spied to Copy Cat and Halt. Both were grim as she told them of who was down there. Both stiffened themselves when she told them about Idle Hands but kept their composure. Both voiced their concern for so many civilians still in harms way. Dragonfly had to agree with that concern. Like her companions, she'd have rather found a way to separate the civilians from their enemy but with princess involved it was impossible. The longer Princess was on the loose, the more people she'll put at risk. As much as she'd hate to admit it, they had to go now before just one part of this threat would take over the city.

"We have to go now," Dragonfly told them, "Before this gets worse." As she moved to the edge of the building Copy Cat stopped her, turning back she could her see pulling something out of her satchel. It was a pair of goggles and head phones.

"I'm not sure if you're still immune to Princess' powers without your old helmet, but just in case, you should take these," she said as she handed them to her.

Dragonfly put a hand to the gemstones on her tiara. Some of her gauntleted hand brushing some of her nose and face. She felt a brief smile on her face and felt immediately guilty for it in consideration for what was happening down below. She took the small items gratefully, "Thanks," she told her friend as she pulled them on. "Any word from Evangel?" she asked off handed, he was actually overdue to return from where ever he was at.

Copy Cat shook her head, "I tried calling home base while you were looking around..." she gave a listless shrug, "He didn't answer." She then reached into her satchel, "On the bright side," she said as she pulled out an over-sized hammer that glowed with a blue energy, "I've been itching for a bad brick to test out my grav hammer on."

Dragonfly gave a small smile as she turned to her team mates, "Ok, here's the plan: Copy Cat will test out her new toy on the brick down there. Take him out or keep him down long enough so we can get the civilians out of the danger zone. I will fly in and carry Princess out of the area and immobilize her, maybe leave her on top of a high building somewhere. Halt, I hate to do this to you, but I want you to defend and escort the civilians out. Get them out the quickest way or keep the bad guys attention on you while the civilians get out. It's not going to be pretty but I'll be as quick as I can in dealing with Princess and come back to help you take Drake and Idle Hands down."

Copy Cat nodded with an eager grin as she shifted her grip on her hammer. Halt still looked grim, "What should we do if it doesn't go as plan?" he asked.

Dragonfly let out a concerned breath, "If we can't contain the brick and get Princess out as well then we will have to do all we can to keep the bad guys on us and away from the civilians that are still under Princess' control." She grimaced as she added, "If a civilian attacks you, try and be gentle and knock them out where they won't get hurt," she said, not sounding convinced herself that it would be as easy as she put it but it was the best she could come up with at the moment. Gritting her teeth she turned back to the edge, "Copy Cat and I will go first to keep their attention on us. Every one ready?" she asked. The other two nodded and with everything that's been said Dragonfly flew off into the air while Copy Cat made a running leap off the side, her glowing hammer at the ready.

As Copy Cat lept off the building her landing point was as she measured to be right on top of Shale, who was picking up the back half of a car to throw it down the street. Halfway to her landing spot, she pulled the glowing hammer back behind her and swung it forward as she was right on top of Shale who was getting ready to throw. When her hammer touched the scrap that Shale was holding the glow from the hammer erupted into a field of energy that enveloped Shale in a bubble. Once fully encapsulated, Shale was forced to the ground with the scrap of metal falling on top of him pinning him there as the gravity inside the bubble was magnified by eight times the norm. Copy Cat knelt on the shaft of the hammer making sure to keep watch on her trapped foe as well as to draw the others attention to her.

Dragonfly flew in from another direction heading straight for Princess. Just as she was getting ready to scoop Princess up, the robot animals jumped up between them hitting Dragonfly sending her off course. She was able to stabilize her flight to avoid the group of people that were amusing Princess and landed behind them. The people that were entertaining Princess immediately stopped and were beginning to gather around the grounded hero while she growled as she got to her feet.

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy," she grumbled and readied her knives, making sure to hold onto the bladed ends as she prepared to fight the brainwashed civilians, grimacing having to do so.

Princess adjusted herself in her chair as she eyed Dragonfly with contempt, "You look like a bug," she said coolly.

"And you look like a spoiled bitch," Dragonfly called back to which Princess narrowed her eyes and sneered.

"I hate bugs," she declared, "My subjects, kill this bug and receive a reward, your Princess demands it," she commanded with a gesture. Instantly, what ever reserve the crowd of people had was gone as they stormed forward with rabid abandon followed by Drake and his minions. Shale Face was still trapped under Copy Cat's grav hammer but was slowly getting to his knees.

Dragonfly stepped back avoiding a middle-aged man who swung at her with a bat. As the bat hit the ground missing Dragonfly, she hit the handle just above the man's hands knocking it from his grip. She then followed up by placing a hand to the man's chest and used her strength to push the man away sending flying over to the group of people, knocking some back on their rears. The small group quickly scrambled back to thier feet while blocking others that were running nearby. Seizing the moment, she barreled through the crowd knocking people over and out of the way hoping that she could get to Princess. Without her, this brainwashed army would be freed and they could focus on the real villains.

She was a few dozen feet as she continued to push her way through when she looked passed the mob and saw Idle Hands stepping up in front of the robot animals that were still guarding Princess. He still had a maniacal grin as he brought his clawed hands up, his "fingers" twitched with eager anticipation.

"If you're so eager to face us then I'll just have to carve my way through aallll these poor empty headed people," he taunted as he placed one hand around a woman's neck that stood in front of him, a few droplets of blood fell down from under his claws as he turned back to Dragonfly, "What say you hero?" he asked in a playful tone, "If you want so desperately want to face us then I'll have to cut a few of these..." he paused thinking of the right word, "...Road blocks down. After all, nobody cares about the minions so we may as well move to the fight everyone wants to see. And I confess, I'm eager to see what you can do too." His grip tightened slightly on the woman's neck.

Dragonfly frozed. There was no way she could move fast enough to save Idle Hands' hostage. With reluctance, and hope that her retreat would dissuade Idle Hands from killing the woman, she flew off backwards over to Drake. When she looked over her shoulder she let out a sigh of relief when Idle Hands tossed the woman aside who got back up a moment later.

Dragonfly landed in front of Drake separated by several dozen of his Tara kata warriors. Dragonfly felt much more confident in fighting Drake, more so since he only had illusions and constructs to protect him.

"Your armor looks familiar," Drake said to her as he stood making no effort to move. "Were you my adversaries' protégé?"

Dragonfly's upper lip quivered as she tightened her grip on her throwing knives, "You could say that," her voice trembled slightly in anger, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Dragon." She glared at her killer, "And I certainly wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you 'Drake'," she said emphasising the man's name knowing that it would get a reaction out of him.

It worked.

Drake's previous calm poise demeanor of self assurance fell to one of pure hatred.

"That name that you THIEF of a mentor bestowed on me no longer holds its chains on me. The title of Dragon is once again mine as it has been my ancestors before me!" Without anything further to say, he conjured a Chinese style sword in his hand and stood ready. But he made no move towards Dragonfly and gestured with his other hand, three of his Tara kata clay warriors advanced on her.

Dragonfly stepped back and readied to throw one of her knives while holding the other in defence just in case. She was far enough back that she could hit two of the clay warriors. It was a gamble as just one could only be solid or none of them and she would have wasted tossing her knife and not have it for defence if Drake chose to rush her. Deciding to throw her knife, she aimed for the one directly in front of Drake and the one off to the left. The one to the left dispelled into nothingness as soon as her split knife touched it, the other struck the other solidly dead center in the chest. The clay warrior shuddered and fell away in a whisp of smoke as it dispelled. Dragonfly's eyes widen in horror. The Tara kata warrior wasn't an illusion without substance or a solid construct. It hid inside itself a woman who was now bleeding from the knife she just threw into her chest.

"No!" she cried out and with a burst of speed, aided by her wings, practically flew over to the woman that had now fallen to the ground in a heap. She knelt down on her knees forgetting about her surroundings and did what she could to stem the bleeding.

Copy Cat was still perched on her grav hammer focusing on covering Halt with her stun rifle against the mob of people that tried getting around behind him as well as keeping Idle Hands busy by shooting at him as well. She was so engrossed in this that she jumped when she heard a crash below her, she glanced down to see that Shale finally got the large scrap of car off of himself and was slowly getting to his feet and reaching up to her.

"Oh, no you don't," Copy Cat chided as she reached down to the hammer, her fingers danced over the interface to change the parameters inside the bubble. Shale suddenly lurched up before falling back to his knees then raising slightly before falling back to the ground as the gravity inside the switched between 5x to15x normal gravity in random succession.

However, Shale would not let this stop him and he slowly got up, adapting to the rapid changes that was holding him down, using the 'lighter' shifts of gravity to get to his feet and reached up with a large hand and wrapped it around the head of the grav hammer. Copy Cat barely had time to swear as she jumped from her perch as Shale crushed the device causing the field to explode, throwing Copy Cat to the other side of the street closer to Idle Hands. Shale roared at having been contained in such a way and since Copy Cat was no longer nearby, he decided to take his anger out on Dragonfly for now and marched his way over.

"I'll teach you heroes to insult me like that," he growled gruffly as he stomped over to his still distracted target.

Dragonfly barely acknowledged the explosion and Drake was just inside her attention as she continued to do what she could for the woman she injured. Since Drake himself and his forces seemed content on watching her trying to save the woman. They didn't need to do anything anyway as Shale was almost apon the two.

When the hulking humanoid of sharp rocks stood over them he wound back to throw a punch, hurried footsteps could be heard running up behind them, Shale's massive fist was three feet from contact of obliterating the undefended hero and the injured woman to be stopped by the flat edge of Evangel's blade. The pressure wave from the punch hitting the sword washed around the swordsman and was felt by Dragonfly who looked up for the first time noticing the danger she was still in. Evangel, for his part made it seem effortless as he held one of his blade over his shoulder, continuing to fight Shale as he tried pushing against blade before reeling back his other fist. Having glanced this over his shoulder Evangel pulled the handle of his sword forward, Shale's fist slide up and he was thrown off balance as the whole flat of the blade smacked the underside of Shale's arm. Evangel twisted around and used the flat side of his other sword hitting his off-kilter opponent on the side of his head and sending him sprawling to the street, face first. Ironically, Shale would have had some bad road rash had it not been for his rocky skin.

With Shale momentarily stunned, Evangel turned to Dragonfly, as usual his face devoid of emotion, "I'll take care of this one. The police have cordoned off the area in a five block radius, take the woman and get her to one of the checkpoints, an ambulance should be waiting. Now go!" he told her as he turned back to Shale who was once again getting back to his feet.

Dragonfly looked to the woman in her arms for a moment before getting up and hefting her in her arms so she could carry her, "No one dies today," she said with determination as she flew off into the air away from the mob and fight that was still continuing. It didn't take her long to see the checkpoint, the street was full of police cars fire trucks and most importantly, several ambulances. She landed as gently as she could by an ambulance where the paramedics ran the short few steps over to her with a stretcher that Dragonfly once again placed the woman as gently as she could onto. The paramedics gave he a once over before rushing her into the back of the ambulance and took off once the doors were closed. Dragonfly gave a silent prayer before turning to a policeman and updated him on the situation making it clear that Drake was using his powers to disguise some of the hostages as his constructs and illusions as well as Princess being there turning the people into her willing army. The officer nodded saying that they won't put any strike teams in.

Dragonfly nodded, and without further time wasted, flew off back to her team. When she returned, she could see Evangel fighting both Shale and Drake. Halt was still doing his best knocking out the mob of people that surrounded him, and Copy Cat was now using a futuristic-looking battle ax with a short handle as she fought against Idle Hands and several of Princess' guarding animal robots.

Dragonfly could see one of the robots had circled around Copy Cat to attack her from behind while she was still focused on the other robots and the crazed super villain and dived down pouring on the speed readying her knives. On closing to thirty feet she let her knives fly, letting them split into six spinning blades. With the precision she had long mastered, all but one of the blades struck the robotic deer, one buried deep into its neck while the other four struck the joints where the limbs met the body. One limb was nearly severed as it fell to the ground in a shower of sparks, Dragonfly landed soon after just behind Copy Cat as she pulled out her reformed throwing knives from her waist ready to back her team mate up.

Idle Hands jumped back on seeing her arrive and, with his ever-present predatory smile, wandered over to Princess standing behind her still sitting in her chair, he caressed the top of the chair with his clawed hands and bent down to one side near Princess' ear while Copy Cat and Dragonfly were still busy with the robots.

"My dear Princess, I think it would be time to show them your new royal knight, yes?" he prodded.

Princess tilted her head while touching a finger to her chin in thought for a second before showing an evil smile towards the heroes, "Yes, it is time to have my knight teach these peasants a lesson for defying me," she turned face Idle Hands, "You make a great royal advisor, I should add you to my court."

Idle Hands grinned wider, "You flatter me, my dear Princess, I am not worthy to council some one of your grace," he said.

To anyone else they could hear the sarcasm overshadow the words but in Princess' pompous mind, Idle Hands sounded genuinely humbling and pleadfull to her ears. Princess smiled pleasantly as she decided to be gracious to the man, "Very well, but my offer stands." She then put her hand to an earpiece in her ear and spoke into it, "Come to me my knight. Your Princess commands it."

Immediately following Princess' order a woman dropped out from the sky and landed in front of Princess in a gust of wind bent down to one knee awaiting Princess' further command.

"Rise," she told the woman.

The woman shifted to her feet in a smooth motion revealing her ebony dark-skin origin. She was wearing a dark gold colored body suit that covered her from the neck down and had a violet jagged streak that ran from just under her right arm down across her chest to the left of her hip. Her costume was a modified, highly stylized, glide suit used by cliff jumpers where the 'wings' looked more like a cape than wings on the suit. Her hair was short and bleached a gold color and was done up in cornrows. An old vertical scar over her right eye which itself was slightly discolored from the other. Both Copy Cat and Dragonfly recognised instantly. Her name is Windscar.

And she is a hero.

Windscar was one of the solo heroes in the city. And a very powerful one at that. Her powers allowed her to control air with such finesse that she could hit you with a punch of hurricane wind or use her precision control to use the air like a cutting tool. The two felt a chill seeing the hero clearly under Princess' control and looked at each other in worry.

"My knight," Princess started as she pointed to Dragonfly with a look of distaste, "Kill that insect, your Princess commands it," she ordered.

"Yes Princess," Windscar said without hesitation as she turned to Dragonfly.

Dragonfly backed up away from Copy Cat, "I'll take to the air and get Windscar out of range of Princess. You keep trying to get her contained. When I get back, if she's still here, I'll help Halt with the people."

"Just hurry," Copy Cat replied as she rolled one man over her shoulders that rushed her. Idle Hands, for his part had began skipping over to where the fight between Evangel Shale and Drake intent in joining their fight.

Dragonfly didn't respond as she pushed several people back into a rush of others knocking them over to get enough space to flap her wings and get airborne. Fortunately, the few seconds reprieve were more than enough and she was high above everyone only pausing to look back at Windscar to gauge what she would do.

Windscar gave her a look of contempt and anger as loose dirt and debris swirled around her by a sudden wind. As the wind got stronger she opened her arms allowing the wind to catch under her glide wings lifting her up into the air. With a gust that bowled over several others nearby she was up in the air and chasing after Dragonfly.

Dragonfly flew as fast as she could while still keeping Windscar close enough to keep her attention on her. She lead her on until they were three miles out from the battle when she looked back at Windscar and was surprised to see that she was still following her with the same determined murderous look.

"How the hell?.." Dragonfly muttered to herself. They were well outside of the influence that Princess would have had on her. She didn't have much more time to think on this as Windscar gestured at her and she was suddenly hit by a sledgehammer of air causing her to tumble through the air for a few seconds. Getting her barrings again she straightened out and flew farther away hoping to break Princess' connection with Windscar.

"Windscar, you got to fight her! Don't let Princess control you and make you do something you'd regret!" she called out before getting hit by another sledgehammer of air.

"I will kill as many insects as my Princess commands as she sees fit," she called back gesturing at Dragonfly again hitting her with air again.

Dragonfly grimaced. "Why is she still under her control?" she wondered as she flew up and around in an attempt to avoid her attacks. But how can you avoid something you can't see? It was then that she felt her lungs start to burn. It was as if she couldn't get enough air into her. She looked back behind her to Windscar who was still behind her, her hand was outstretched towards Dragonfly, and she knew exactly why she was having trouble breathing. Windscar was literally pulling the air from her lungs. Dragonfly had to come up with something fast as she was already starting to feel light-headed. It wouldn't be much longer until she fell unconscious, and hitting the ground from this height the wrong way would undoubtedly kill her.

Her mind racing and falling into panic being unable to breath. By sheer survival instinct, maybe, she spawned a sprite and sent it directly into Windscar's face. The distraction more then served its purpose as Windscar smacked herself in the face to get the sprite away which in turn released her hold on Dragonfly allowing her to suck in much lungful of the much needed air.

It was during this brief respite that she saw through the eyes of her sprite and noticed something strange. She could see a small white mist-like aura that was enveloping Windscar, which Dragonfly assumed was her using her powers to keep herself flying, but there was another haze pink in color that surrounded her as well and trailed off back into the city in a thin line. Out of curiosity, she sent her sprite to follow the trail and avoided another sledgehammer of air that Windscar sent at her. With her altered vision, she was able to see when Windscar used her powers.

She flew off again with Windscar in tow as it were, determined to kill her, and attacking her with more sledgehammers of air and what she swore were attacks to cut her limbs off but thankfully her armor protected her against that kind of attack. Dragonfly grimaced. While Windscar had no problems attacking her, she was more than reluctant to return the favor. It was slowly turning into the first time Princess took over the city. As she flew she looked back at Windscar to see that she was getting ready to pull the air from her lungs again. She gritted her teeth as she saw Windscar's aura slowly leech up at her. There had to be something that she could do. As she turned she noticed that the aura didn't turn with her as fast and seemed to disperse a little before chasing after her.

"That's it!" she thought. If she made her movements random enough then Windscar wouldn't be able to use her powers on her effectively if at all. She spawned another dragonfly sprite to watch the both of them from a far enough distance so she wouldn't have to keep looking back. With three sets of eyes now, all in different locations, she was starting to feel dizzy but pushed through it. Through the eyes of her second sprite she could see the way she was flying and the realisation hit her instantly. She was flying like a bird or a plane, which in itself was fine for everyday flying, but in combat like this... It was time for her to fly like her namesake suggests.

"Besides," she said with a grin at last, "If both Princess and Windscar were calling me an insect, then I may as well fly like one," she stated as she caught Windscar off-guard by suddenly flying sideways and stopping long enough to let Windscar soar by with a sharp expletive. Dragonfly smiled at that and flew after her.

Windscar slowed down and turned around to face Dragonfly ready to fight again. Dragonfly carried on past and spun while using her taloned hands to slash through Windscars' right wing, tearing large holes in it causing Windscar to lose stable control of her flight. Windscar had to use more of her power just to keep stable and compensate for her shredded wing.

"You insect, how dare you!" Windscar spat as she swept her arm at Dragonfly hitting her with a wall of wind.

Dragonfly tumbled through the air but quickly caught herself. She dodged to the side as another wall of air was thrown at her while she looked through the eyes of her first sprite. It had made its way back to the fight that was still going on where the trail her sprite followed split, one path leading to Princess, the other larger path had spread out all over reaching all those affected by Princess' power before continuing on to a secluded building several blocks away from where the fighting was taking place. Outside the police cordon. She had to find out who was pulling the strings and had her sprite follow the path onwards. Distracted she was hit by another wall of air by Windscar sending her tumbling through the air.

Shaking her head to clear the wooziness from her head, she turned to her opponent, "Okay," she said to herself, "Let's get back to it."

And Dragonfly flew right at Windscar.

Meanwhile the rest of Team Valiant were still fighting.

Halt had knocked back another group of people and stepped back himself to catch his breath. Thanks to Copy Cats weaponry he was able to hold the crowd back, but they kept coming. It surprised him that the stun rifle he used had actually ran out of power. All he had now was a pair of stun wands that Copy Cat managed to toss to him in her own short respite in fighting Princess' robot animals and other people under her control.

"Something's wrong," Halt thought. This "mob" of people was just too organised. It just wasn't Princess' style. She preferred to just give her victims a basic command and leave them to their own devices to carry out her command. But right now, these people were attacking in coordinated waves wearing him out but for some reason not overwhelming him. If they had attacked as a mob then this fight would've been over long ago, with him either dead or under Princess' control.

"Who's controlling all of you?" he asked. The next wave came in while another group pulled back the ones he knocked out. He readied his stun batons for another fight. "Who's pulling the strings?" he asked as he rushed forward again. There had to be some way to free these people, there was always a way.

Copy Cat was running around between her own mob of people, her short handled battle ax had turned into a small shield and she was using it to stun people with electrical shocks. Some were knocked unconscious getting in the way of others behind them. She gave a quick glance to Princess and almost spared herself a smile as, for the moment, her robot guards were out of the way and gave her a clear shot. Copy Cat spun around another person that rush her and in one smooth motion she pulled out a stun gun from her satchel and aimed it at Princess. Just before she pulled the trigger, the gun vanish from her hand.

"What the?" she asked perplexed but couldn't put anymore thought into it as she ducked as a woman swung something at her head. "There's a teleporter here somewhere," she called into her earpiece to her team mates. There were some swears of acknowledgement from Dragonfly and Halt.

The teleporter in question was a man by the name of Danny Whirste. He was standing well away from the fight but still close enough to blend in with the crowd. He was a small time thug whose been convicted several times and suspected of several more incidents of turning otherwise peaceful protests into violent riots costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage as well as numerous severe injuries and related deaths. He looked at the gun in his hand hefting its weight.

"Sorry luv, we can't have that now," he said to himself as he raised the weapon aiming it at Copy Cat, "Cheers luv," he said in farewell as he pulled the trigger. The gun sparked, giving him a shock before falling apart in pieces. Danny shook his hand out, "Bugger that! No fair luv," he swore as he looked at the apparent teen, completely oblivious of his own underhandedness just moments ago. Shrugging it off he turned to see how Shale and Drake or Dragon or whatever he wanted to be called now. The 'hero' Evangel was fighting the two off quite successfully even with Idle Hands joining in. "Maybe I should make things a little more fun, right?" he said with a smile as he pulled out a mechanical gauntlet. "Let's see if the mad doctor's contraption works as advertised." He slipped the device on and concentrated. Danny's power wasn't strong enough to allow him to teleport small objects to himself as long as he was in a certain distance and he could see what he was taking. The glove that Idle Hands built for him was suppose to enhance his ability. So with that in mind, he reached out with his gloved hand and concentrated on taking one of Evangel's swords.

As Evangel fought the trio of villains he seemed to know which of Drake's Tara kata constructs were just that or had brainwashed civilians inside. He destroyed the pure constructs and knocked the disguised ones out and away from the fight. He ran at the three ducking under Drakes sword swipe and used his sword to block Idle Hands' claws as he ran pass straight at Shale who was using a parking meter as a bat to try and hit him. Evangel shifted his stance as he aimed to block Shale's attack with one sword and to cut the same arm off with the other. Seeing this, Danny focused on the sword that was going to cut Shale's arm.

"The bugger better appreciate this," Danny said to himself as he used his power.

As he intended, Evangel smacked Shale's fist to the side with his right and was already bringing it into position to parry Drake's own sword while he swung down with his left sword. Just before the sword made contact with Shale's arm it vanished from his grip.

Danny fell to his knees in exhaustion, his head pounding, "Blimey," was all he could say as he panted recovering from the unexpected drain.

Evangel seemed to freeze for half a second before moving in a flurry of motion again. Spinning around hitting Shale in the side with his remaining sword somehow able to force Shale off of his feet and send him flying through the air towards the brick wall of a building. Drake was unfortunately too close and got caught by Shale's flying body. It may have been sheer luck or by Evangel's design that the two villains hit the wall in such an angle where Shale's head hit the wall saving him from crushing Drake who was stuck under him, Drake himself was only had the wind knocked out of him when he hit the wall but was trapped under Shale's stunned body when he collapsed on top of him.

With the two disabled for the moment Evangel turned bringing his sword up to defend against Idle Hands' raking claws. As the claws scraped down the length of the sword Evangel gave him a left hook across the jaw dropping the mad man to the ground. With the immediate threats out of the way Evangel turned staring directly at Danny and began a swift march towards him. More Tara kata warriors approached him, he fended them off easily knocking those that contained people to the ground and running his sword through the empty constructs bisecting them at the waist before they vanished.

By this time Danny had recovered enough to look up and was startled to see Evangel walking straight for him. "Oh bugger," he grumbled. The damn sword gave away his position. "That'll show me to help some one else," he muttered as he glanced around for something to defend himself with. The sword itself felt too heavy and unwieldy for him to use and he wasn't an idiot to think he could use a sword effectively against some one who fights with swords 24/7. He saw a police officer near Princess and smiled at seeing the gun he had in its holster. Smiling at this he reached out with his hand and the pistol materialised in it. "Sorry luv, but you got more than enough nutters to keep you safe," he said as he brought the gun around and aimed it Evangel firing off several rounds. Evangel deflected them all effortlessly with his sword, sending the third bullet right back into the muzzle of the pistol causing it to jerk back painfully in Danny's hand. Danny swore dropping the gun and shoving his pained hand under his armpit, still for some reason holding onto Evangel's sword that he teleported. "Bugger, that hurts you twat!" he shouted. When he looked up Evangel stood before him a look of moderate anger on his previously emotionless face. Danny fell back a step in surprise and started to bring the sword in his hand up in defense but frozed when Evangel put his free hand around his throat.

"Let me show you what will happen if you continue with this decision," Evangel told him coldly. His eyes started to glow until a bright light shot out into Danny's own eyes.

Danny couldn't move. When the light hit his eyes images flash through his mind, too many and too fast, and yet he could comprehend every single one in all their horror. He could see a monster destroying the city killing everyone then move on to the closest town or city to do the same. He saw heroes try and fight it but fell to its fury. He saw governments trying to destroy the monster, nuking it multiple times but it still lived, still killed, still moved on. Everywhere it went there was death. Heroes and villains banding together to fight it, dead. The entire armies of the whole world, dead. Every person who lived on the planet, dead. The entire Earth and everyone who ever lived on it, dead. They were all dead and it was all his fault. His hand that held Evangel's sword, white knuckled from gripping so tightly, relaxed. Evangel released him from his power and grip and picked up his dropped sword and turn back to resume his fight with Shale and Drake. Danny fell to the ground, no longer seeing the disturbing images, he took his first breath since Evangel grabbed him and screamed. He kept screaming, pausing only to breath before screaming some more. Until finally he curled up into a ball whimpering.

While Evangel made his way back, Halt was fighting yet another wave of hypnotised civilians. He was ragged at this point and beginning to be unsteady on his feet. His movements were slowing down considerably and when he swung one of the stun batons at a man aiming to hit him in the side of the chest but he saw him coming and pulled back causing Halt to miss by inches. The baton carried on it unobstructed course where it hit a teen aged girl in the side of her head. As her head went sideways something fell to the ground.

"No!" the teenager screamed as she grasped her ear searching for something, "I can't hear my Princess' voice any more. Where is it?" She dropped to the ground on her hands and knees searching for something until she found a Bluetooth ear piece and quickly shoved it back in. Her brief moment of content was short lived as she pulled it out and looked at it before going into hysterics, "It's not working! I can't hear her voice, the stupid thing is broken! I..." she paused as if waking up from a trance as she looked around at the chaos as if for the first time. "Wha-what's going on, what's happening?" A man, still under Princess' control grabbed her arm and began pulling her back into the crowd of people towards Princess no doubt to bring her back under her control directly.

As the girl struggled against the man, Halt dropped one of his stun batons and grabbed the girls free hand and started to pull her back while swinging his one baton at the others also trying to pull the girl back, "Let her go!" he called out. But in his exhausted state he was already losing ground and the girl was slipping from his grasp. He suddenly stiffened when he felt a jolt in his back and he was suddenly full of energy. Turning back he saw a woman had pick up the stun baton he'd dropped earlier and was trying to use it on him. He smiled at that. Part of his power that he'd intentionally left out of the public eye is that he keeps part of the energy he reflects back, just enough to recover to full strength. He didn't get any stronger but going from tired and worn out to fresh faced was quite an advantage to him. Shrugging off the bruises that still affected him he made a sweep with his stun baton knocking several to the ground and reasserted his grip on the girls hand and gave her a strong tug finally freeing her from the man. The girl's wrist was probably going to hurt for a while but she was free now. Halt pulled her a distance away from the crowd and pushed her away down towards the empty street, "Run! I'll hold them back for you to escape. Just keep running down the street and you'll reach a police blockade, they'll keep you safe," he told her as he clotheslined a well muscled man and using his baton to stun another that tried to get by him. The girl hesitated before turning off and running down the street. Glancing back and seeing the girl was gone Halt rushed ahead knocking several off their feet, he then knelt down and started yanking the earpieces out of the ears of anyone he could reach. He then turned to the comm in his own ear, "Every one listen up! Some how the bad guys are using a device to extend Princess' powers. It's some sort of Bluetooth in their ears. Pull then out and they'll be released from Princess' control." There were a few grunts of acknowledgement telling Halt all he needed. He moved on to the next group of people to do the same and free them too.

Dragonfly was flying a distance from Windscar trying to think of what to do when she heard Halt's message. The two had done a number on each other fighting back and forth. Dragonfly could swear she was seeing things in double thanks to how many times Windscar had hit her with solid air but gave her share as well her glide wings were practically in tatters and she was barely able to stay airborne. It was at this point that Dragonfly wasn't sure what to do. If she cut Windscar's wings, he would fall straight to the ground, powers or no. And she wasn't sure if Windscar, in her brainwashed state, would allow her to save her. But with Halt's message, there was another option. She pulled out one of her knives and threw it hoping that she aimed right. The knife spun through the air heading to the earpiece she finally noticed on Windscar who dodged to the side well before the knife would hit when it suddenly split forming a second knife that surprised her. Before she could react to the new blade it had already struck through the earpiece in its miniature camera.

"NOOO!" Windscar screamed as she reached after the broken parts as they fell to the ground far below. A second later she blinked in confusion aware of her surroundings for the first time. And no longer using her powers to keep herself aloft she began to fall. She tried to catch herself but the renewed gust had torn her already tattered glide wings to rags and she continued to fall.

"Shit," Dragonfly muttered as she flew after her to catch her. However, this wasn't needed as once Windscar got her bearings she pulled on a hidden cord at her shoulder which deployed a parachute. With a minor push of her powers she was able to maintain her altitude. She took a breath to slow her heartbeat before looking up at Dragonfly.

"Ok, what the hell happened to my gear, why am I up here, and who the hell are you?" she asked in rapid-fire questions, a hint of accusation in her voice as she looked at Dragonfly as she came in beside her.

"I fought you, Princess took control of you, and I'm Dragonfly a member of team Valiant," she answered each in order.

Windscar bit her lip before cursing herself, "Fuck! I should've known better." She then took another moment to look around herself. "How could I 've been still under her control if I'm all the way up here? I don't even know what direction she's in."

Dragonfly grimaced, "The bad guys had some kind of headset that's somehow expanding Princess' powers," she explained, "I don't know how it works but..." she was distracted by her sprite finally reaching the end of the trail. She had her sprite fly in through the open window to see a largely empty room that had what looked to be a large computer tower hooked up to some sort of helmet attached to some one who was sitting in a lazy boy. She instantly recognised the person sitting in the chair as he was on the list of person of interest for the government wanted list. His name is Remote and he had the power to assume control over anything that operates by remote control. He's on the wanted list for suspicion of taking control of several military drones and crashing them in the middle east as well as several suspicious auto accidents of high-profile people in the US. It was obvious that the machine he was hooked up to was enhancing his powers to allow him to control all the brainwashed people.

"I just found out how they're doing it. It's Remote, he's using some kind of machine to help him control the people," she told her.

Windscar just nodded at that, "Great, now we just have to get to him and make him release everyone, any ideas how?"

"Yeah," Dragonfly replied, "He's alone and it's the machine he's attached to that letting him control the people. So, destroy the machine and free the people. Remote's easy to deal with on his own," she explained.

"Sounds like a plan," Windscar stated, "Lead the way and lets stop him!"

"Actually," Dragonfly started, "I need to get back to my team. They're facing four villains down there, not counting everyone under Princess' control, they're a little outnumbered right now." She then turned her head not wanting to show the hatred on her face, "Besides, I have a bone to pick with Drake."

Windscar was perplexed, "Well, I can't go with you since Princess might brain wash me again, so how am I going to find Remote if you don't show me where he is?"

Dragonfly produced another sprite, "This will show you where he is," she said simply before banking away back to the fight.

Windscar looked after Dragonfly for a minute before following the little sprite, "I hope you don't take things too far," she said wistfully. She had heard of what happened to Dragon and if this new girl Dragonfly was taking his death personally... She shook her head only hoping that everything worked out for the best. There were still brainwashed civilians that needed to be taken care of and if what Dragonfly said was true then this would be the fastest way to do it. And with that she used her power to increase her speed.

Dragonfly was now in sight of the battle still going on and she could see Evangel fighting Shale and Drake. Halt was slowly freeing the civilians and she could see a slow trickle of people leaving the area. Copy Cat was doing the same using her small futuristic-looking shield that seemed to have a Taser function and hitting the controlled people on the side of the head with it which seemed to overload the earpieces they wore, she also was just pulling the devices straight out when she was able to. She was doing this all while fighting the robot animals that Princess was controlling.

When she looked back to Drake, her fists clenched involuntary in anger. She could also feel an uncomfortable warmth in her chest where the gemstone sat. Ignoring it for now she flew forward at increasing speeds right at Drake.

"Evangel! Move out of the way now!" she shouted. At the last second Evangel ducked out of the way and pushed into Shale knocking him back as Dragonfly plowed into Drake sending him flying several feet and hitting the ground hard actually flipping once. Dragonfly pulled herself back landing where she hit Drake and waited for him to get up, her knives at the ready.

Drake got up slowly until he was standing straight up. He paused a moment to wipe the road rash on his cheek as well as check the popped stiches in his arm before he looked up at Dragonfly with a look of derision on his face. "You have a lot of determination for some one I have never fought before young one," he said before forming a sword construct and shifting into a ready stance and stood waiting.

Dragonfly let out a growl before rushing forward, throwing one of her knives whole thrusting the other ahead of her. Drake deflected the tossed knife with his sword while in the same motion brought it up to parry her thrust to his gut. When they were close enough Drake used his sword to hold Dragonfly's knife in place lest he carve it up her abdomen while he had his free hand grabbed Dragonfly's empty hand as it reached for the reformed knife in its sheath bringing each other in point blank for spitting distance. "In what manner have I deserved this determination girl?"

"Do you really need to ask after what you did!" she accused as she tugged her hand free and used her wings to pull herself back a few feet avoiding the slash of his sword. She threw a knife again willing it to split into three. Drake deflected one with his sword he dodged another aimed at the top of his chest by ducking to the side and lifted his right foot to avoid it getting skewered by the third. All of this had set Drake off balance and Dragonfly took advantage and rushed forward again. Dragonfly grabbed the bottom of Drake's hand that was holding his sword and used her knife to drive it into his leg on the side above the knee. Drake gave out a satisfying scream of pain as he clutched his leg with his free hand. He then swung his sword down. Dragonfly was about to tuck and roll behind but stopped short as she realised that her wings would trip her up. She swore to herself as she brought her arms up to cover her unprotected head. She was going to have to trust her armor.

"Let's clip your wings first girl," he said angrily as he swung down aiming for two of her wings at the base of her back. When his sword came down the response from her wings was akin to a ball in a pinball machine hitting the bumpers. When his sword hit the two wings, they hit back smacking his sword to the side hitting the other two which batted back. The sudden unexpected reaction caused Drake to wrench something in his wrist forcing him to drop his sword. The construct vanished as soon as it hit the ground. Not wasting the chance she got up and grabbed both his wrists and twisted until she felt something snap under her grip. Drake screamed in pain again but he had enough focus to kick her away from him with a force that surprised her.

"You bitch!" he shouted as he stared at his arms, now unable to hold anything. A dozen or so Tara kata warriors vanished, some revealing people underneath them. "You'll pay for that dearly girl." The look in his eyes showed one of absolute hatred and murderous intent.

Dragonfly had seen this look twice before, once when they first fought when she was still Dragon and the last fight they had before he put a hole in her chest. "Oh, I'm going to do more than that after what you did to Dragon you coward!" she spat back as she pulled the knives from her sheathes to get ready for another round. She was sure that she wouldn't have to worry about him brandishing a weapon again after what she just did but he was still dangerous. She should have done more to make him suffer than just breaking his wrists. "There will be plenty of time for that yet," she thought to herself enjoying the dark thoughts that danced through her mind in revenge for her murder. The uncomfortable warmth produced by the gemstone in her chest grew into a noticeable burning pain as in answer to her dark thoughts.

As Drake pooled his power the remaining Tara kata warriors disappeared leaving emptiness in their place and a hand-full of people previously disguised. Two eight feet long Chinese dragons, each letting out a low roar at Dragonfly as they half-walked/half-flew (or floated?) towards her, their mouths open wide ready to bite. Drake had encased himself in traditional Chinese warrior armor the grieves and hands of the armor were modified to compensate for his broken wrists giving the visual effect of elongated forearms and larger hands. He then produced a spear and held it in an aggressive stance. "I look forward to doing the same to you as I had that thief. I want to see the life drain from your eyes as I run my spear through your heart," he spat, his upper lip quivered in barely controlled rage.

"Like I'm going to give you a second chance to do that," Dragonfly responded with equal resolve as she flew up into the air to draw Drake's dragons away. They followed after her.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Evangel and Shale were still fighting one another. Evangel was running around and dodging Shale's fists and thrown objects while he removed the earpieces from the controlled people and got them out of harms way and returned to harass and keep Shale's attention solely on him. Shale went to punch him but Evangel countered by slapping it aside with the flat of his blade.

Shale stood back getting frustrated. "Stop dancing around and stand still you pansy," he goaded, "I heard you were tough. I'm almost embarrassed to put you down. Not much for braggin' rights if your this soft," he prodded further. He then stormed forward ready to throw another punch.

Evangel gave a small smile, "If I fought at my best then you would have fallen when we first met," he began to run forward as well, "How about a taste then?" he said as he brought his sword above is head readying a downward strike.

As the blade came down, Shale grinned, "Got-ya!" he then shifted and grabbed the sword in mid-swing. He then started laughing, "So, this is the sword I've always heard about? It's more like a butter knife if you ask me. These'll never cut me," he stated as he laughed some more.

Evangel only gave an amused grunt in response before shifting his grip. His sword sank into Shale's hand by an inch. Shale stopped laughing and looked at his hand in surprise as he saw blood dripping down the edge of Evangel's sword from his hand, "This is the first time since you developed that you have seen you own blood is it not?" Evangel queried.

Shale took several steps back staring at his hand in shock not believing the deep cut through the palm unable to say anything at the blood seeping from his grey rocky skin. His eyes darted to a few nearby brain-washed hostages wondering if he could use one as a shield or toss a few to distract the hero so he could get away.

"Attempt to touch any innocents here and I will ensure you fail to do so," Evangel warned.

Before Shale could respond in any fashion the controlled people around them suddenly started screaming and shouting at suddenly being in the middle of a superhero battle and began running away from the heroes and villains. With his only means of escape running away Shale breathed a contemptuous sigh of defeat and raised his hands in defeat, his head drooping, "Fuck it, you win," he mumbled. Evangel nodded and gestured for him to sit down. He did so belligerently. With nothing to restrain him Evangel had to stand watch while his teammates continued their own fight.

Copy Cat was thankful that the people seemed to break free of their mind control and run off to safety. She was even more thankful that Princess didn't seemed to notice and was fixated squarely on her and was too busy controlling the robotic animals. Copy Cat guessed she was more then a little vindictive about sticking her in her satchel. She was currently facing off with a robot deer. And now, with the civilians out of the way she can finally go on the offensive. With her other hand she grabbed the bottom half of the handle of her shield pulling out a full length futuristic sword. She then pushed a button on her shield turning it back into its battle ax form. She finally slid the hilt of the sword into the top of the handle of her battle ax creating a new unique weapon. The deer robot charged her. She eyed the sharp pointed hooves as she stepped to the side and slashed it with her weapon across its side where it sparked angrily and fell to the ground jerking in spastic motions, it internal mechanisms damaged. With the last of the big robots out of the way she turned back to Princess who was still sitting in her chair. Copy Cat took a step forward but was thrown off her feet when an oversized robotic hare jumped out of no where and grabbed her sword in it mouth tearing it from her hand and knocking her off balance. When she steadied her stance Copy Cat could see Princess was clapping her hands gleefully and giggling like a little girl bouncing up and down in her chair.

"Oh, I am sick of your little princess shit you fucking bitch!" Copy Cat swore as she reached into her satchel for another weapon and pulled out an energy pistol and fired it at Princess. She in turn threw her hands up in defense and several of the robot animals jumped in front to protect her successfully guarding her from Copy Cat's fire.

When Princess brought her arms back down and realised she was unharmed she laughed again in snobbish superiority, "You do realise, as your Princess, that you should throw yourself down at my feet and beg for my forgiveness for all my subjects to see."

Copy Cat smiled at that, "You were so stuck up in yourself that you missed your 'subjects' running off on you. So much for your 'kingdom'," she prodded.

Princess looked around herself suddenly aware that aside from the robot "forest" animals, she was alone. She began breathing heavily until she let out a scream of anger then pointed straight at Copy Cat, "YOU," she shrieked, "You will bring everyone back and serve me at my feet now!," she screamed petulantly standing up from her chair and stomping her foot to empathise her point.

Copy Cat shook at her head as she brought her gun up again, "I don't think so 'Princess'," she responded with a smirk and fired again.

Princess had her robots block her shot again while sending several flying bird robots at her. Copy Cat shot at the robot birds as they dived bombed her reducing several to small scraps of metal. She wished that she still had her ax sword but the damn robot still had it and was sitting next to Princess behind her small army of woodland robots. As she shot at the birds several cut her arms with their small feet when she tried batting them away. Eventually she got the last one by winging it, watching it smash into the ground in angry sparks letting out a puff of smoke. With the birds out of the way she began shooting at Princess again but the robot animals kept getting in the way. Growing frustrated at the impasse Copy Cat tried to think, what she needed was a distraction, but what? When it came to her she reached into her satchel again to pull out what she had in mind while keeping Princess occupied.

Princess was getting more than angry at this point. That commoner bitch Copy Cat was shooting at her again. Her of all people, "Doesn't she know you're not supposed to shot at princess'?," she thought. When the shooting stopped she lowered her arms to see what she would do when she saw a flash of silver metal coming at her. She instinctively put her hands up to protect herself again, her robot pets jumping in to keep her safe. She heard a light metal on metal ding. This puzzled her and when her line of sight was clear she looked down at the ground to see what it was and saw... A stainless steel sink. "A sink? You threw a SINK at me?" Princess asked incredulously still staring at the fixture when se felt something bap her on the back of her head. Before she could turn around, her vision was awash in blue energy and immediately after she fell away from the world.

With Princess out of the way Copy Cat made short work with the rest of the robot animals with another weapon she pulled out of her satchel. Now that the area was clear she put the weapon back in her satchel and walked up to the device she had built earlier and picked it up. The device was a small ball with the bottom half the same color as her trade mark glossy blue and te top half white making the ball look slightly like a poke ball. She pushed a button on the side and the white side of the ball turned clear revealing a black and white colored Princess standing in a stone bedroom that would be able to fit in any castle you would see in a Disney movie.

"Yeah I did," Copy Cat answered with a satisfied smirk as she put the ball in her satchel and walked away, "And Dragonfly thought I put that in there as a joke," she said to herself with a grin. She walked over to Evangel and pulled out some specialised restraints for Shale. Once she was finished Halt came walking up and handed the stun baton back to Copy Cat.

"I got all the civilians are out of the area," he reported, "So how's everything here?"

"Great!" Copy Cat chirped, "I caught a Princess, no chance of her evolving ever," she joked and nodded to Evangel, "And Evangel has Shale here sitting pretty like a kindergartener art project," she quipped. Shale glared at her but didn't say anything.

"And I see that some one knocked out Idle Hands," Halt stated in satisfaction. Copy Cat nodded at that while pulling out another set of restraints and fit them over his wrists. Halt then looked around, "Where's Dragonfly?" seeing their lack of response he began to worry, "Is she still fighting Drake?"

Copy Cat looked up in the sky, "... Yeah," she responded quietly.

Meanwhile, up in the sky above them Dragonfly was in the midst of fighting off on of Drake's dragon constructs. The serpentine creature had its body wrapped around Dragonfly preventing her from flying herself. The dragon snapped at her trying to bite her, a tough job as one arm was partly in the wrapping of the reptilian's body. Also unfortunate her trapped arm was the one holding her knife, the other was trapped in its sheath irretrievable with the dragons body in the way. It was bad enough that she had to fight of the dragon that was trying to bit her head off but the situation was made worse by Drake, who was riding the other dragon would occasionally fly close enough to try squering her with his spear. When he pulled away the dragon wrapped around her darted its head at her again with its sharp-toothed jaw opened wide. Dragonfly threw her arm in the way and the monster bite down hard on it. She let out a gasp as she felt the strength of the bite through her armored appendage, not enough to feel pain but still more than a noticeable pressure baring down.

Seeing her immobilized Drake threw his spear, aiming for her head. Seeing this in time she flapped her wings hard enough to shift her position and was lucky enough to catch the spear with her trapped arm. The dragon biting her other arm let go and drew back for another strike. As it launched forward again Dragonfly, in two quick motions, transferred the spear from her trapped arm to her free hand and used the spear to drive it up through the dragon's head using its own momentum against itself. The dragon fell silent and relaxed its grip on her, the spear tip could be seen poking out the back of its head and it faded back into nothingness freeing her completely.

Now flying under her own power again she turned to Drake seeing that he created a bow with a quiver of arrows and was tacking aim at her. She zipped to the side as an arrow passed by where her head was a moment earlier and returned the gesture by throwing her knives at him willing them to split into six, tree hitting the dragon her was riding and the other three hitting him in the shoulders. While each knife hit their target they each bounced off the hard armor much to her annoyance. She dodged another arrow. Deciding to end this now she moved forward and threw both her knives again having them split to keep Drake off balance. As she approached Drake was able to shoot two more arrows which she dodged easily. When she was close enough Drake had his dragon swing its head up to both block and bite her. Not deterred she flew around the monster surprising Drake as she plowed into him knocking him from his mount, both surprising and winding him. Even in mid air the two developed continued to fight each other hand to hand, Dragonfly using her wings to increase their speed towards the ground and punching him to direct Drake's falling trajectory. As they got close to street level Dragonfly hit Drake once more in the side of Drake's face before pulling away. Drake hit a car, caving in the roof, and bounced off it before hitting the ground with a dull thud. The dragon that was following them down disappeared as well as the armor that he was wearing.

Dragonfly touched down in front of Drake's unconscious form and knelt down grabbing his shirt pulling him up into a loose sitting position. Drake's head dangled back like a puppet with its strings cut but let out a low moan.

The action made Dragonfly's face furrow in anger, "Still alive, huh Drake?" she asked in contempt as she brought her other arm up with her taloned hand pointing straight out in preparation to run it through the man's chest, "Let's fix that. At least I have the decency to do it in front of you," she spat.

"Dragonfly stop!" Copy Cat cried out, running over and stopping Dragonfly just before she did the deed. "This isn't how we do things, this isn't you."

Dragonfly looked up at her seeing the desperate worried look on her face then turned back to Drake and saw what she was about to do. She let him go and stepped away suddenly afraid of herself, the uncomfortable pain she felt around the gemstone in her chest cooled to a pleasant warmth as she hugged herself. Tears fell down her cheeks, "Thank you," she said quietly as she turned and walked away not trusting herself near Drake again. "Cuff him please," she asked as she walked back to her other team members. Copy Cat did so.

Soon enough the team were back together waiting for the police to come and take care of the villains. They were tired and worn out from the battle Dragonfly herself was understandably frazzled about what she almost did and if Copy Cat hadn't stopped her. Dragonfly shuddered at the thought not wanting to think about it.

It was almost startling how calm and quiet everything was now that the battle was over, the silence only broken by a fire hydrant that was knock over with the sound of water splashing the ground as it fell.

They then heard the sound of a low giggle that slowly increased in volume until it broke into a full on laugh. The members of team Valiant turned to see Idle Hands on his feet still laughing at them as his claws of his 'hands' bent backwards each claw producing a cutting tool that cut off his restraints.

"It's too soon to end this now," he said with a look of glee on his face. He then snapped his claws producing a clicking sound, "I still have a toy I want to show off and more of you still need to die anyways so there's still time for fun," he said as an object fell from the sky hitting the ground with enough force to form a crater in the pavement of the road. When the dust cleared a humanoid shape stepped out of the crater revealing it to be an eleven foot tall robotic minotaur.

"BEHOLD!" Idle Hands declared, "I call it my 'Tantamount robot'," he said with glee and another giggle in his voice.

The robot opened it mouth showing a maw of sharp teeth. A glow in its mouth grew in brilliance. This action set off warning bells in Dragonfly's mind.

"Scatter!" she shouted pushing Copy Cat away, the others broke into action and darted away.

A Brilliant laser beam shot out hitting where they stood before. This fight wasn't over yet.

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Comments

Delighted that you have returned

I was worried that this story that I really like was going to be one that ended without completion. Now I can stop that concern andenjoy it's return.

Someone callously killing people

has forfeited their right to live. under the right of self defense and defense of others, gotta keep your priorities straight,or you are aiding and abetting mass murder.

Looks like Idlehands needs to

Looks like Idlehands needs to lose a couple of hands or at least most of his fingers or whatever he calls them, so he can't continue to escape or cause harm to others as he is doing now.

I just knew it

She had to throw it, didn't she? I knew the kitchen sink would have to come back some time.