The New Guardians #389

Winter always seemed to come late to Toronto. After the light and mirth of the holidays came the dark and dreary cold. Even though there was the promise of spring to come, there was never much to look forward in the coming months, except blizzards and ice rain.

That was why cafes like Joan’s Coffee were such bright spots in months like January. Always well lit, always warm drinks and foods, and open almost all the time, Joan’s Coffee was frequented by many people near Toronto’s downtown core. It was a place of warmth and comfort in the coldest mornings and nights.

Nestled in the first floor of an apartment complex in one of the many different urban districts of Toronto. The road was lined with other places to eat, grocery stores, bookstores, small businesses and big businesses, among countless other things that can fit in the nooks and crannies of urban living.

When in Joan’s Coffee, it would take something substantial to ruin the good cheer that permeated the café. It would need to be something along the lines of being laid off from your job, a long-term relationship ending, or the death of a loved one.

Or another supervillain attack.

Just as the sun was rising, an explosion rocked the street just outside the café. Cups and plates rumbled on the tables as people walking were tripped by the shaking floor. A parked car flipped over into the middle of the street, the explosion having landed just underneath. Cars swerved to get out of the way, others slammed on their brakes. Pedestrians screamed and ran for cover, some making their way inside the buildings, any cover they could find.

This time people saw the blur of purple energy as it flew in from the sky, colliding with the middle of the road, just missing the cars. Concrete blew away as the blast left a crater, many of the pedestrians covering their heads as large heavy chunks rained down upon them. A third blast came and hit another car, making it explode on the spot and lurch forward.

Patrons of Joan’s Coffee ducked and hid under their tables, while others moved towards the back kitchen, following instructions of the staff to find shelter. A brave barista ran towards the door of Joan’s Coffee, throwing the door open. He stood and waved for people to head into the café for safety.

Even though it was dangerous, he risked being caught in the damage, the barista knew it was his responsibility to help. Looking up into the sky, the barista saw a blur of black and purple fly by thirty feet up in the sky. It left a purple glowing trail as it flew. The early morning sun gleamed off it’s shiny and metallic form.

Even the barista could identify that the villain was Necro-Bot. If Necro-Bot was in Toronto, it likely meant that more supervillains weren’t far behind. Necro-Bot liked to travel in packs. Supervillain attacks had become like natural disasters. While they didn’t happen every other day in every other city, they happened enough that emergency protocols were always ready at every workplace. It didn’t stop some people from thinking only about themselves when supervillain attacks, but others more readily stepped up to help others, like in any crisis.

There was always a hope in despair. A light in the dark.

Just as the last pedestrian the barista could see clambered into the café, the barista turned to run inside. Just as he did, Necro-Bot turned around and fired another shot seeing one more civilian to hit. The blast hit just outside the front entrance of Joan’s coffee, shattering windows and knocking over tables and chair. Many of the patrons screamed in terror, some in pain as glass showered them. The barista was thrown from his feet, his world tumbling head over foot.

When he came to, he had been fallen forward out of the café. His ears were ringing and his vision blurred. He shakily stood up, trying to orient himself. He looked over his should and saw Joan’s Coffee. Just as he started to turn he heard an odd scraping noise coming from above. Looking back, he saw a humanoid figure sliding down the apartment building wall, claws grating into concrete and slowing its descent.

It let go of the wall and landed, it’s bulky, hairy form coming into view. Standing at seven feet tall, large muscular shoulders hunching over its head, was a human and wolf hybrid. Drool oozed out of its large pointed mouth, slipping just in between rows of razor-sharp teeth. What was most disturbing to the barista, was the ripped and torn pink floral pajamas the wolfman wore, complete with the bonnet on its head.

Grandma Wolf, the barista recognized. The number of times this villain had been mocked on late night television, the number of times the barista had laughed at jokes made about the twisted nursery rhyme came to life, paled in comparison to the level of terror it actually inspired standing in front of him.

Grandma Wolf howled and the charged the barista. The barista raised his arms and covered his eyes. Between the slits of his arms, he saw Grandma Wolf close in. The thrashing maw closed in. The barista knew it would be the last thing he ever saw. He closed his eyes.

At the moment the barista thought his life would end, it didn’t. The sound of steel clashing against teeth reverberated in the barista’s ears. He slowly opened his eyes, and standing in front of him, between him and Grandma Wolf, between him and certain death, was one of the most incredible, spectacular, amazing thing he had ever seen.

A superhero.

Wearing silver, shining armor with gold accents that covered her entire body and a flowing blue cape, she stood there with her right arm raised in the air as Grandma Wolf’s jaws clenched around it.

Her armor was thicker in some places, like around the forearms where Grandma Wolf tried to bite through, and around the shins and shoulders. Her red hair was tied back in a ponytail.

“Ugh, I am never going to be able to read Little Red Riding Hood ever again. You are disturbing,” she said, her voice commanding every word.

Grandma Wolf thrashed and tried to bite through, its claws coming up and trying to dig at the hero’s right arm. It’s growling intensified as the hero reached between her back and cape with her left arm. Then with a swift motion and the sound of grinding steel, the hero pulled her right arm down.

Grandma Wolf’s head followed with it and the hero thrust her right knee upwards with amazing speed. The knee connected with Grandma Wolf’s chin, making Grandma Wolf relent and release her arm.

Grandma’s Wolf snapped shut as she let out a quiet whimper. In one swift motion, the hero pulled out a small pole that was attached to her back with her other left arm and pushed a button on its side. It suddenly extended into a long metal Bo staff and as the hero brought her arms around she smashed it into the side of Grandma Wolf’s head.

Grandma Wolf stuttered away for a moment but then as it recovered, it suddenly pounced forward. Pushing another button on her staff, the hero let the staff shrink back to the small size as she ducked down underneath the pounce. As Grandma Wolf cleared over top of the hero, it looked like she would impact the barista instead. The barista started taking a few steps back as the snarling wolf neared him. Then suddenly the hero activated her staff again, and it shot straight up into the wolf lower stomach. The wolf yipped and its momentum was suddenly altered. It flipped over the top of itself and crashed onto it’s back at the barista’s feet. The barista stared down in amazement at Grandma Wolf, and just as he was worried it would get back up, it received a punch to the face from the hero who had spun around. The wolf’s eyes closed and its tongue hung out, lying undignified on the sidewalk.

The barista watched as the hero stood up, the tall woman pushing the hair out of her face as she put the pole back in its small form behind her cape again. For the first time, the barista could see on her chest was a golden G, with J that hung down from the middle of the G. The G, he realized, stood for the Guardians. The Guardians were the world’s premiere superhero team, and they also shared that name with their owners and the global defense organization. The J that hung down represented her code name, her superhero name, Justice. The barista couldn’t believe his eyes that the leader of arguably the greatest superhero team in the world, Justice, had just saved his life.

Justice looked forward at the barista, her slightly freckled face and green eyes that were mostly hidden by a domino mask inspecting the barista. Her face was hard but soft. Strong but delicate. With just a look at Justice, the barista felt safe and vulnerable at the same time.

“You okay?” she asked.

The barista subconsciously patted himself down to check for injuries and unconsciously nodded as doing so. She smiled at him and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. The pat almost knocked him off his feet, and while he could tell some of the strength came from the armor, he could also feel her immense strength that was her own.

“Go get somewhere safe,” she instructed. “It’s only just kicking off out here.” The barista nodded, and after one more look at Justice, he bolted back to the café. Justice quickly radioed in an extraction from Grandma Wolf, and then looked forward. She could hear more the sounds of more explosions and sirens up ahead and knew that she needed to get into the action. With a single bound she jumped up several stories of the apartment building. Planting one foot down on a ledge she then rocketed herself up the side of the building, launching herself ten to twenty more stories along the side of the building.

Her cape billowing behind her, as she slowed down she reached for the small handhold a window ledge granted her. Gripping onto the ledge with her hand, her fingers digging into the thick concrete, she then used her arm and core to throw herself up the rest of the way up the building. As she cleared over the edge of the roof, she flipped forward and landed gracefully on the rooftop. Having not exerted herself at all in scaling the thirty story building, Justice walked forward and scanned the horizon of downtown Toronto.

A large, blue-whale-sized, dark airship slowly moved through the air just above the skyline of the buildings. Large round thrusters jutted out each side of it with red energy funneling out of them, keeping the airship flying, and its front end rounded into a smooth circular dome, while from its back floated metal tendrils. It was the aircraft and warship of Death Seeker, or, as he had been unfortunately nicknamed by many due to his cumbersome name, the D-Seeker.

It was a shame, as he was a villain who took himself so seriously to the point where it was almost comedic, but he was still no less dangerous. He had a tendency to draw a pack of other villains who were mocked by the general populace for their outlandish personas. It didn’t help that Seeker had named the group the Death Demanders, which had been similarly nicknamed.

While Justice never took their persona’s seriously, she always took a threat to people very seriously. Bounding forward, Justice leaped from one building to another with a single stride of her legs.

Putting a finger to her ear, she activated her team’s communications.

“Alright team, Grandma Wolf is taken care of, I’m on my way,” she reported.

“Ugh, Grandma Wolf. I’m never going to be able to read-“ a male’s voice started to chime in, but Justice cut him off.

“Already made that joke,” Justice commented.

“Just because you’re the leader it doesn’t mean you get to monopolize the quips, that’s my job,” the voice quickly responded.

“Warp. Report. Now,” Justice said.

There was a small sigh, and then the male voice, Warp, kept talking.

“D-Seeker and his boy band are downtown, they don’t seem to have any real goal, just continuing their rampage they started back in New York,” Warp said.

Nearing the action, Justice quickly surveyed the battle more closely. Different coloured energy blasts were being exchanged from different sources as her team engaged the Death Demanders. A few explosions went off on the street level and some higher up as blasts would connect with the side of buildings. Sirens could be heard, and as Justice surveyed the streets, she took in all the damage the battle was causing.

“Aimless but catastrophic,” Justice commented. “Civilians?”

“I got them,” a female voice chipped in. “I made them see the clearest path to the safe rooms, and I helped the emergency responders find the wounded ASAP.”

“Good job Mirage,” Justice replied.

“Yeah, until the Death Demanders realize there are no more civilians to terrorize and they’ll blink out of here again,” Warp dryly muttered. This was followed by the sound of an energy blast whizzing by over the communications, making Warp yelp in alarm. Justice smiled as karma was instantly in action at that moment.

“Not this time,” Justice said. She extended one leg back while bending one knee. She placed her fingers on the ground and then looked forward. Death Seeker’s warship was roughly a hundred yards away. She could make that jump.

Then she broke out into a sprint, moving faster than an Olympic athlete could dream of.

Reaching the edge of the rooftop, she leaped. She was a gold and silver blur with her blue cape trailing behind her sailing through the air in a small arc. With incredible ease and grace, she landed on the ship of Death Seeker. She ran towards the front of the ship to finish the fight, knowing that her team, The Guardians were working just as hard.

Clad from head to toe in dark navy green and grey robotic body suit, Warp flew backward into a car. The car leaned back on its two left wheels until it fell back down, Warp sliding down from where he impacted it. Even in his armor, Warp was shorter than six feet, and his form was scrawny. The armor seemed to all perfectly work as one unit, almost seemed to be one complete form-fitting armor instead of several different components put together. There was a triangular visor that covered most of his face, but nothing could be seen through it. People would be forgiven for thinking Warp was a robot of some kind. But in spite of everything he was, Warp was one of the most human members of The Guardians.

“You jag’s sucker punched me, two on one is not fair,” Warp said as he stood up. In front of him was a man almost twice his size in a business suit with a bald head and a pencil-thin mustache. He was holding a comically large briefcase, that was likely the size of Warp, and even had a nice Warp sized dent in it from where it hit him. Flying in the air behind and above the first goon was a man in a mechanical flying suit. Unlike Warp’s his was crudely put together, large wings and a jetpack keeping afloat. Attached to his arms were two large flamethrowers, which had been the source of danger Warp had been dodging before the aforementioned sucker punch.

“Scorch Wing, you I’m familiar with,” Warp commented looking at the flying foe. “But you’re new. What’s your deal?”

The man in the business suit adjusted his tie and stepped forward.

“I am Corporate America!” his deep voice proclaimed.

Warp visibly slouched, groaning.

“I get it because you’re big and you step on little people…awesome…” Warp groaned. Scorch Wing then fired two fireballs down towards Warp. Warp quickly dodged out of the way with a roll. Coming up to a kneeling position, he faced his palms behind himself. Then materializing out of thin air in front of his hands, large pillars of green energy blasted outwards. It propelled him forward off his feet. Just before he would have touched the ground, similar energy rocketed outwards from his feet, and he used to them to avoid touching the ground, using them to skate along the ground. The energy left sparkling trails of fire as they emitted, and Warp started using a serpentine maneuver to avoid more fireballs being fired from Scorch Wing.

Then Corporate America stepped forward and swung his briefcase at Warp. Warp suddenly jumped, looking he was going to hit the briefcase dead on. However, suddenly materializing in front of Warp in an outlined in a green glow was a small chunk of brick wall suspended in mid-air. Warp planted one foot against it and propelled his momentum off it, jumping back into the air. Just as Corporate America would have hit the wall, the brick wall vanished. More fireballs were sent Warp’s way, and suddenly another brick wall appeared in front of Warp higher up in the air. Warp used that as another springboard and launched himself back towards Scorch Wing, letting the fireballs fly under him. Scorch Wing was caught off guard as Warp fired more blast from his palms and feet, propelling himself at rapid speed. Stopping the blasts, Warp pulled a fist back and then slugged Scorch Wing in the face as he tackled him.

Scorch Wing grunted and fell backward out of the sky. Warp turned his descent into a front flip, launching a few more blasts to slow his descent as he came towards the ground. He turned around and saw Corporate America heading his way again, briefcase lifted above his head. Warp braced himself, when suddenly Corporate America stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide. He pulled his briefcase down to his eye level, and Warp watched in confusion. Then Corporate America let out a high pitched scream and started slamming his briefcase into the ground, smashing it into pieces.

Warp stood up and watched as Corporate America destroyed his weapon, seemingly terrified of it. Once it was gone, there seemed to be a moment when Corporate America realized what he had done. He slowly looked over to Warp. Warp remained in place and then punched his fist to the side. A tear in thin space opened up, outlined by that green glow, and Warp’s fist for a moment disappeared.

Until it reappeared as it slugged Corporate America in the jaw. IT came out of a similar tear in space right next to Corporate America’s head, and the impact knocked Corporate America senseless. The big brute of a man collapsed to the ground, and Warp retracted his fist through the portal. The portal’s both closed, and Warp looked behind himself to see one of his teammates laughing behind him.

“What’d you do, Mirage?” Warp asked.

Clad in a white dress that dropped down one shoulder, with the other shoulder covered in an ornate golden eagle, Mirage was a tan-skinned woman with an egyptian headdress. Some might mistake her for someone portraying Cleopatra in a film, but it was all part of her design.

Laughing, Mirage replied, “I made him think it was the Communist Manifesto.” Warp laughed with her, and then looked back up to see Scorch Wing was back in action. Warp launched himself skyward, and Mirage ran off to see who she could help

Necro-Bot’s flight came to a halt, and he hovered in the air overlooking a group of pedestrians. They were banging on the door to get into a store that had been locked, trying to escape the chaos in the streets. Necro-Bot raised a hand up, and suddenly four smaller versions of Necro-Bot flew in beside him. The civilians heard the rush of engines as the smaller androids came in, and they screamed and cowered. The androids all raised and pointed their fists at the group, preparing to unleash hell upon them.

A loud, guttural roar cut through the chaos. Suddenly two of the androids, one on the left and one on the right, went crashing forward, sparks exploding from their backs. A large hand ax was embedded in each android’s back as they fell to the ground offline. Necro-Bot looked at his two destroyed drones in confusion, when a loud grunt made Necro-Bot start to turn around. It turned to see a large man who was leaping through the air tackle into another of his androids. He and the android crashed into the concrete. The android was still sparking and not offline yet, but the large man was back on his feet. He picked up the android before it could react, and with his python-like arms rippling with strength, he ripped the android in half.

The Highlander, as his codename was called, looked like he had been pulled out of Scottish folklore. Standing almost eight feet tall and the size of several men put together, Highlander muscles seemed to be desperately trying to escape his flesh. He wore a black shirt with a green and blue kilt. His long, rugged brown hair was only beat by the length of his long brown hair. The Necro-Bot knew what it was fighting then, as the Highlander grabbed his axes from the corpses of the destroyed androids.

“Is that all ye got, ye wretched pile of scrap and crap,” Highlander spat as he walked towards Necro-Bot.

Necro-Bot remained motionless for a moment. And then ten more androids flew in beside him to support him. Highlander let out a small, humourless laugh. And then the street exploded into fire and fury.

The Highlander ripped his way through the androids as they came at him, decapitating one with his ax while digging his ax into another. An android with a power infused fist charged at him and using the one stuck on his ax Highlander slammed the corpse into the would-be attacker. The two exploded and through the flame, an android dashed at Highlander and latched its arms and legs around him as Highlander used his other arm to cut an android in half who was flanking him. The robot clutched to Highlander self-destructed in a fiery explosion, as other androids backed off and fired missiles at the hero in every attempt to quell the monster. Every missile found their mark, more explosions seemingly laying waste to the Highlander. As the explosions calmed down and the smoke settled, The Highlander walked out of the smoke unharmed.

“I was hoping for a challenge!” Highlander declared.

Letting out a high pitched whistling noise, Necro-Bot pointed behind Highlander. With a raised eyebrow, Highlander turned around and saw two of the androids he didn’t have a chance to destroy, lifting a large eighteen wheel truck up into the air, getting ready to throw it on the group of civilians.

“No-!” Highlander shouted as the robots tossed the truck at the group.

In the last few critical moments, before those civilians would have been crushed, a form ran in the way. Wearing a purple mask that covered most of his head except his mouth and nose with blue goggles over his eyes, the fit man crouched his legs as he watched the truck descend upon them. He was wearing a purple one suit with blue lines around the elbow and knees, there were small vials clipped on his suit around the arms, legs and his back. The vials were filled with different coloured liquids, and as the man spread his arms out wide, one vial on each arm drained into an unknown source.

His arms suddenly expanded out beyond normal human means, the skin turning to wood. His fingers spread out into large branches as branches extended from his arms which grew larger and thicker. In a heartbeat, his arms had become like large trees, and he lifted them up and caught the truck.

The eighteen wheeler rested in the branches almost perfectly, but the man grunted and fell to one knee as he strained under the weight of the truck. For a moment he leaned back and the truck swayed dangerously over the civilians, causing a few more screams. But then he was able to wrest control and he leaned forward, bringing the truck back down forward. It fell from his grasp and crashed onto the ground, falling to its side, but away from the civilians.

The two androids remained in the air from where they had thrown the truck. The man’s arms returned to his normal arms, suit intact, and he remained still for a moment. But then two vials drained from his legs. And his legs suddenly turned into large springs and he was launched upwards towards the two androids. Two vials drained from his arms, and they transformed into saw blades than spun rapidly. He slashed at the two droids and cut through them like paper. As their two halves fell to the ground, the man’s arms returned to normal, but his legs remained springs, and he landed on a front flip. Crouching down low from the landing, he launched himself over to stand next to Highlander, his legs still springs making him rock up and down on the spot.

“And you said tree arms and leg springs were dumb,” the man said, a cheeky smile on his face.

“Yer still a nerd, Captain Chemical,” Highlander said with an eye roll. The two then looked to Necro-Bot, who was summoning more androids into the fight. The two shared another look and then leaped into action.

Jumping out of harm’s way of an incoming explosion, Gecko Gal landed on the side of a wall, her hands and feet landing flatly on it. Defying gravity, Gecko Gal stuck to the wall with ease, and then with a writhing movement, she hurried along the wall, all four her limbs moving like her namesake animal as she more explosions rocked the side of the building. Wearing a light green spandex one suit, with black scale outlines, that covered her entire body including her head with diamond shaped eyes, Gecko Gal was a bit of a cartoonish outlier in The Guardians lineup. An explosion came closer to hitting its target, and it rocked the wall underneath Gecko Gal. With a small scream, the teenage hero dropped towards the ground.

She managed a small flip in her fall and landed into a somewhat graceful pose. Gecko Gal was clearly still getting used to her powers, and it was something her two opponents, the Badda brothers, were taking advantage of. Dressed like they had walked out of a performance of West Side Story, the two brothers looked almost identical, save the colour of their suits and fedoras. The one in yellow was Bing and the one in red was Boom.

“Hey, if you guys could give me like five minutes to catch my breath, that would be swell, fellas,” Gecko Gal stated as she stood up, brushing off her costume.

“That’s a no can do lady,” Bing said as he adjusted his sunglasses.

“Come on…didn’t your mother ever tell you how to treat a woman?” Gecko Gal asked, one hand on her hip.

“Our mama also told us to always be good,” Bing said, pointing his finger at Gecko Gal, his hand shaped like a gun. “And we ain’t so good at that.”

Suddenly a little spark appeared on Gecko Gal’s chest. As soon as it did, Boom swept out his hand to the side, yelling his name, and Gecko Gal just leaped out of the way of an explosion that rocked the building behind where she was standing. Bing continued to point everywhere Gecko Gal moved to, and Boom continued to wave his arm back and forth as explosions rocked where she just was.

Lithe and nimble, Gecko Gal jumped behind a truck, and then on all fours laying her body close to the ground, she crawled across the street at an incredible speed. She rolled behind another car just as it exploded. Bing and Boom ran over to the car, trying to find the young superhero. The scene of the explosion didn’t have any bodies, and the two brothers looked at each other in confusion. Then from behind Bing Gecko Gal asked, “Looking for me, boys?”

Bing spun around, and for a moment there was no one there. But then suddenly coming from into view from being invisible, Gecko Gal slashed upwards, her fingers curling into sharp claws. She cut through Bing’s suit and drew a small amount of blood as Bing grimaced and fell backward. Boom gasped and then swept his arm to the side. Gecko Gal braced herself, but no explosion went off around her. Confused she looked around as Boom continued to swing his arm around in an erratic motion. Suddenly Bing started laughing, and Gecko Gal looked down at him as he clutched his wound.

“You think explosions are our only parlor trick? Rookie,” Bing stated. Boom then pointed up and muttered in his deep voice, “Boom.”

Gecko Gal followed Boom’s finger and saw several tennis-ball sized meteors falling towards her from the sky. She yelped and went to start moving, but her legs wouldn’t obey her. Gecko Gal looked to her legs and although they appeared fine, they wouldn’t obey her normal commands. Bing laughed harder, and a quick look at him revealed his hand was outstretched and seemingly clasped around something that wasn’t there.

Straining against her own body, Gecko Gal tried to run but wasn’t able to. Panicked she looked up as the meteors were about to hit her, and she covered her head in terror. Just before they could, a form flew through the air, and like the blink of an eye, the meteors were suddenly cut into multiple small pieces. They fell to the ground harmlessly around Gecko Gal, a couple pebbles just bouncing off her head. She looked up into the sky, and Bing and Boom did likewise in confusion.

Floating in the air, black trench coat fluttering in the wind, Rising Sun seemed to be standing on nothing, with a katana made of pure flame in his right hand. The air seemed to be rippling underneath, hot air suspending him. He wore army combat boots, black body armor with his family logo on his chest, the Japanese man looked down at Gecko Gal with a slightly condescending smile.

“You got careless,” he shouted down at her.

Gecko Gal shrugged her shoulders.

“It is okay, you are still learning,” he followed up.

Bing grunted and then pointed his finger up at Rising Sun, and with a sweep of his arm Boom made the air around Rising Sun explode. Gecko Gal gasped but then forgot what Rising Sun’s power set was. The explosion suddenly inverted into itself, seemingly be sucked in by a vortex. As it cleared, it was revealed to be sucked into Rising Sun’s hand. Rising Sun closed his fist as the explosion completely dissipated. Bing and Boom shared quick looks and then started running as multiple fireballs fired from Rising Sun’s hand. They exploded around Bing and Boom, the tables turned on them, and then suddenly the fireballs turned into a stream of fire as Rising Sun chased after them, small bursts of fire launching from his feet as both palms were outstretched towards them, the fire generating from them. They were so preoccupied with avoiding incineration that they failed to notice Gecko Gal flanking them. She cut in front of them, punching Boom in the jaw. The stream of fire stopped, and a fireball exploded at their feet as their momentum was halted, launching them both up in the air.

They both crashed over each other upon landing, and Gecko Gal shared a quick look with Rising Sun.

“I’d say I’m learning from the best,” Gecko Gal said, winking beneath her mask. Rising Sun smiled, and the two prepared themselves to keep fighting Badda Bing and Badda Boom.

Justice reached the front of the ship, and standing at the edge of the hull was Death Seeker. Wearing chains in a criss-cross pattern across his chest and armor that was shaped to look like bones protruding from edges and points, Death Seeker turned to address Justice. He peered at her through her skull-shaped mask, his beady eyes judging the hero. In his left hand, he had a large mace, and he began to pace back and forth.

“Ah, Lady Justice,” Death Seeker shouted, his arms outstretched wide.

“Just Justice is fine, thank you,” Justice quickly shot back with a curt smile and nod.

Death Seeker laughed and then pointed his mace at her.

“Have you come to die?” Death Seeker asked.

“Nice Voldermort impression, but no, no I haven’t,” Justice said.

Grabbing her small bow staff, she pulled it out while pushing the button. Spinning it around in the air she held it behind herself horizontally in a combat stance.

“No I’m here to shut this down,” Justice said.

“Ah, here to be a hero then,” Death Seeker proclaimed.

“Your words, not mine,” Justice quipped back. “Just doing what’s right.”

Death Seeker snarled and charged forward. Justice returned the charge.

Warp engaged in a mid-air clash with Scorch Wing. Mirage helped civilians remain calm as they evacuated. Highlander and Captain Chemical tore through more androids on their way to Necro-Bot. Rising Sun and Gecko Gal flanked the Badda Brothers on either side ready to strike. And Justice and Death Seeker neared each other to do battle.

As always, whenever villains would rise, heroes would rise to meet them. Wherever there was darkness, there was light to quell it. For there be no more noble cause than to be what someone else needs you to be, whatever that may be. This was a world filled with people like that.

Heroes.