Post by redsycorax on Jan 27, 2023 0:58:03 GMT
Batboy, Beast Girl, Hippolytus, Starbolt and Ms. Flash. Together, they are the Young Defenders, the next generation of superheroes after their mentors in Earth-500's Justice Alliance of America. As their lives evolve from companions and sidekicks in ensemble groups, how will they change?
++
DEFENDERS DISC:
The klaxon rang loudly within the Young Defenders airborne floating base, causing Tom (Batboy) Gordon to fall out of bed. He hurriedly dressed in his action uniform and ran to the bases command centre. Around him, the others were responding to the sudden alert. Beast Girl (Gina Logan) had reformulated herself to green-skinned human from her dogform, while Toshi Sato (Ms Flash) sped into the room from Keystone City and Hippolytus and Starbolt descended from the air portal, given their flight capabilities:
"I thought it might happen one of these days. The Alliance are away on an interstellar mission, so we need to step up and intervene this time." Batboy observed.
"Are we ready, though? We tend to fight small scale villains compared to the ones that the Alliance takes on." Ms Flash asked.
"That may be the case, Toshiko, but if that's what has to happen, it has to happen." Hippolytus replied.
"It's hardly as if we're unblooded anyway. It isn't as if we lack combat experience in our past lives and we've worked for years as companions to established mentors in some cases." Starbolt noted.
"What is it anyway, Tom?" Beast Girl prompted.
"It looks like the new villains in the Injustice League- Black Banshee, Elasti-Man, Silver Cyclone, Furnace and Satanna- have been training their own proteges. Can't say much for the originality of the name of the group or their line up. "Young Offenders" isn't exactly original. Let's see "Screech Owl" has to have been trained by Banshee, Ductility is obviously with Elasti-Man, Stormfront may be a fellow T.O. Morrow android to the Silver Cyclone, and Satanik is probably a homo magus, perhaps related to Satanna."
"So some of the darksiders are insuring generational continuity? I don't like this, Tom. Although I guess you're used to it when it comes to Batman and Robin in Gotham, and I am when it comes to Tanaka in Central City, given his rogue's gallery's level of organisation, what about the rest of you?" Ms Flash said as they examined the background data.
"Sure. It's not as if the Doom Patrol didn't have our own regular protagonists when Claire, Ronny, Leila and Nell Caulder were still around in my case. Dane? R'yandr? What about either of you?"
"Don't worry about me, Gina. Tamaraneans are a robust species."
"Much the same applies to the Amazon men of Hephaestuscyra. We may have been the lovers of the Amazons, but we were expected to be able to protect ourselves and defend our communities."
"Which raises the question- what about the experience level of our opponents?" Ms Flash raised her hand.
"Stormfront is an android and probably shares the abilities of the Silver Cyclone, which means that it's programmed into him or her. And from our mentors own encounters with Satanna and other examples of renegade homo magii, we know that they're trained in the mystic arts from an early age. So Satanik is likely to be our secondmost effective antagonist. Screech Owl and Ductility may have acquired their abilities more recently, so lack relative experience."
"I've had experience working alongside Ronny as the real Elasti-Man before Menta went rogue and destroyed the Doom Patrol. And frankly, any protege of that darkside wannabe Dibny has to answer to me for besmirching the memory of a good man." Beast Girl said, with determination.
"Added to which, this Screech Owl dude probably isn't ready to confront an alien with a different aural physiology to that of Terrans, so I'm going after his number."
"This should be interesting. I wonder what the ILA hopes to accomplish by pitting their second stringers against us anyway?" Batboy mused.
"Probably much the same reason as the Justice Alliance hoped when it encouraged us to establish the Defenders. Lessons in teamwork and shared effort." Hippolytus offered.
"Come on, then. When are we going to take them on?" Starbolt grinned.
CENTRAL CITY:
As the Young Defenders neared, their newfound adversaries stood their ground, ready to take on their chosen opponents. Starbolt accelerated away from the others, intent on tackling Screech Owl. Predictably, the inexperienced young villain opened his mouth and emitted a sonic cry, but was startled to realise that the Young Defenders had inbuilt defensive earplugs. He tried to use his judo and karate expertise against Starbolt, but R'yandr hit him with one of his sunbursts and Black Banshee's protege was the first to fall.
Ductility was next, trying to entrap Beast Girl within a coiled choke hold, but she grinned as she transformed into an elephant and Ductility's coils fell short. With her elephantine trunk, Gina picked up the hapless elastic villain and threw him against a tree, knocking him out.
Satanik began to intone a spell and perform magical gestures, but his opponent was Ms Flash, who gagged him and tied him up before he could speak them and deposited him in an adjacent jail cell, also disposing of the fallen Ductility and Screech Owl en route. Of the villains, that left only Stormfront to encounter. He feinted downward toward Hippolytus and Batboy, but the latter were ready for him. The android was taken aback to witness holographic ersatz images of Batboy and fake biometric readings and surmised too late that his operational interface had been compromised by prior hacking. While he hesitated, reconfiguring his firewall to take care of the intrusive subprogrammes impairing his response, the android was rocked by the impact of Hippolytus, who showered repeated blows on the platinum shelled android. Stormfront's emergency response system cut in and he threw off Hippolytus, accelerating away toward T.O.Morrow's interdimensional facility and relative safety. Ms. Flash tried to pursue him to his point of origin, but was startled to find a vibratory block in place, obstructing her interception of the android. She abandoned her apprehension attempt, and returned to her companions:
"Damn it. I wanted to make that a clean sweep."
Batboy looked at the others: "Fairly good for a first effort, though, everyone. Nice try with the android, but he was always going to be the toughest prospect in tactical terms."
"I know, Tom, but I wanted to count coup on him. Disappointing. Now we won't know what T.O.Morrow's stake was in all this." Hippolytus replied.
"Possibly funding the ILA and Young Offenders? That would make sense, but this Stormfront development is ominous. He's clearly improved on cybernetic design from the days of Nell Caulder and Will Magnus." Beast Girl said pensively.
"One thing's for sure, the Young Offenders are inexperienced at teamwork. I suspect their mentors won't be happy at how easily we took them out." Starbolt grinned, in contrast.
"Have we forgotten Stormfront, though? I get the feeling that the android was probably recording all that for their own version of tactical training and strategy sessions. This won't be the last time we deal with them. They'll learn from this. Next time, we'll probably face off against a Satanik who has single word spell casts, a Stormfront with better firewalls against my hacking forays, a Screech Owl more accustomed to non-Terran conflict, a more...adjustable... Ductility and possibly additional assailants. When we get back to the Disc, I'll need to talk to Bruce and Helena about what we do next and intel sharing. Still, not bad for a first field mission. Don't feel too bad about Stormfront escaping, though, Tosh. I don't know if this is the same Thomas O.Morrow who used to exist on Earth-Two, but if it is, he's had time to improve on his original android design. Perhaps you should ask Tanaka about his field combat experience against Silver Cyclone for some pointers? Added to which, though, the damage that Dan inflicted on the android means that we do have some leeway. Okay everyone. Back to the Disc."
And with that, the Young Defenders flew away, highly satisfied at the outcome of their first active field mission. Batboy was gratified to find that he hadn't lost any precision or focus since his initial outing against Deaths Head Moth in Gotham and that the others had worked together well to achieve their outcome. However, he also reflected, this was only their first joint mission. Would the future be so convivial and friendly to them?
THE END [12.30 AM, JANUARY 28, 2023]
++
DEFENDERS DISC:
The klaxon rang loudly within the Young Defenders airborne floating base, causing Tom (Batboy) Gordon to fall out of bed. He hurriedly dressed in his action uniform and ran to the bases command centre. Around him, the others were responding to the sudden alert. Beast Girl (Gina Logan) had reformulated herself to green-skinned human from her dogform, while Toshi Sato (Ms Flash) sped into the room from Keystone City and Hippolytus and Starbolt descended from the air portal, given their flight capabilities:
"I thought it might happen one of these days. The Alliance are away on an interstellar mission, so we need to step up and intervene this time." Batboy observed.
"Are we ready, though? We tend to fight small scale villains compared to the ones that the Alliance takes on." Ms Flash asked.
"That may be the case, Toshiko, but if that's what has to happen, it has to happen." Hippolytus replied.
"It's hardly as if we're unblooded anyway. It isn't as if we lack combat experience in our past lives and we've worked for years as companions to established mentors in some cases." Starbolt noted.
"What is it anyway, Tom?" Beast Girl prompted.
"It looks like the new villains in the Injustice League- Black Banshee, Elasti-Man, Silver Cyclone, Furnace and Satanna- have been training their own proteges. Can't say much for the originality of the name of the group or their line up. "Young Offenders" isn't exactly original. Let's see "Screech Owl" has to have been trained by Banshee, Ductility is obviously with Elasti-Man, Stormfront may be a fellow T.O. Morrow android to the Silver Cyclone, and Satanik is probably a homo magus, perhaps related to Satanna."
"So some of the darksiders are insuring generational continuity? I don't like this, Tom. Although I guess you're used to it when it comes to Batman and Robin in Gotham, and I am when it comes to Tanaka in Central City, given his rogue's gallery's level of organisation, what about the rest of you?" Ms Flash said as they examined the background data.
"Sure. It's not as if the Doom Patrol didn't have our own regular protagonists when Claire, Ronny, Leila and Nell Caulder were still around in my case. Dane? R'yandr? What about either of you?"
"Don't worry about me, Gina. Tamaraneans are a robust species."
"Much the same applies to the Amazon men of Hephaestuscyra. We may have been the lovers of the Amazons, but we were expected to be able to protect ourselves and defend our communities."
"Which raises the question- what about the experience level of our opponents?" Ms Flash raised her hand.
"Stormfront is an android and probably shares the abilities of the Silver Cyclone, which means that it's programmed into him or her. And from our mentors own encounters with Satanna and other examples of renegade homo magii, we know that they're trained in the mystic arts from an early age. So Satanik is likely to be our secondmost effective antagonist. Screech Owl and Ductility may have acquired their abilities more recently, so lack relative experience."
"I've had experience working alongside Ronny as the real Elasti-Man before Menta went rogue and destroyed the Doom Patrol. And frankly, any protege of that darkside wannabe Dibny has to answer to me for besmirching the memory of a good man." Beast Girl said, with determination.
"Added to which, this Screech Owl dude probably isn't ready to confront an alien with a different aural physiology to that of Terrans, so I'm going after his number."
"This should be interesting. I wonder what the ILA hopes to accomplish by pitting their second stringers against us anyway?" Batboy mused.
"Probably much the same reason as the Justice Alliance hoped when it encouraged us to establish the Defenders. Lessons in teamwork and shared effort." Hippolytus offered.
"Come on, then. When are we going to take them on?" Starbolt grinned.
CENTRAL CITY:
As the Young Defenders neared, their newfound adversaries stood their ground, ready to take on their chosen opponents. Starbolt accelerated away from the others, intent on tackling Screech Owl. Predictably, the inexperienced young villain opened his mouth and emitted a sonic cry, but was startled to realise that the Young Defenders had inbuilt defensive earplugs. He tried to use his judo and karate expertise against Starbolt, but R'yandr hit him with one of his sunbursts and Black Banshee's protege was the first to fall.
Ductility was next, trying to entrap Beast Girl within a coiled choke hold, but she grinned as she transformed into an elephant and Ductility's coils fell short. With her elephantine trunk, Gina picked up the hapless elastic villain and threw him against a tree, knocking him out.
Satanik began to intone a spell and perform magical gestures, but his opponent was Ms Flash, who gagged him and tied him up before he could speak them and deposited him in an adjacent jail cell, also disposing of the fallen Ductility and Screech Owl en route. Of the villains, that left only Stormfront to encounter. He feinted downward toward Hippolytus and Batboy, but the latter were ready for him. The android was taken aback to witness holographic ersatz images of Batboy and fake biometric readings and surmised too late that his operational interface had been compromised by prior hacking. While he hesitated, reconfiguring his firewall to take care of the intrusive subprogrammes impairing his response, the android was rocked by the impact of Hippolytus, who showered repeated blows on the platinum shelled android. Stormfront's emergency response system cut in and he threw off Hippolytus, accelerating away toward T.O.Morrow's interdimensional facility and relative safety. Ms. Flash tried to pursue him to his point of origin, but was startled to find a vibratory block in place, obstructing her interception of the android. She abandoned her apprehension attempt, and returned to her companions:
"Damn it. I wanted to make that a clean sweep."
Batboy looked at the others: "Fairly good for a first effort, though, everyone. Nice try with the android, but he was always going to be the toughest prospect in tactical terms."
"I know, Tom, but I wanted to count coup on him. Disappointing. Now we won't know what T.O.Morrow's stake was in all this." Hippolytus replied.
"Possibly funding the ILA and Young Offenders? That would make sense, but this Stormfront development is ominous. He's clearly improved on cybernetic design from the days of Nell Caulder and Will Magnus." Beast Girl said pensively.
"One thing's for sure, the Young Offenders are inexperienced at teamwork. I suspect their mentors won't be happy at how easily we took them out." Starbolt grinned, in contrast.
"Have we forgotten Stormfront, though? I get the feeling that the android was probably recording all that for their own version of tactical training and strategy sessions. This won't be the last time we deal with them. They'll learn from this. Next time, we'll probably face off against a Satanik who has single word spell casts, a Stormfront with better firewalls against my hacking forays, a Screech Owl more accustomed to non-Terran conflict, a more...adjustable... Ductility and possibly additional assailants. When we get back to the Disc, I'll need to talk to Bruce and Helena about what we do next and intel sharing. Still, not bad for a first field mission. Don't feel too bad about Stormfront escaping, though, Tosh. I don't know if this is the same Thomas O.Morrow who used to exist on Earth-Two, but if it is, he's had time to improve on his original android design. Perhaps you should ask Tanaka about his field combat experience against Silver Cyclone for some pointers? Added to which, though, the damage that Dan inflicted on the android means that we do have some leeway. Okay everyone. Back to the Disc."
And with that, the Young Defenders flew away, highly satisfied at the outcome of their first active field mission. Batboy was gratified to find that he hadn't lost any precision or focus since his initial outing against Deaths Head Moth in Gotham and that the others had worked together well to achieve their outcome. However, he also reflected, this was only their first joint mission. Would the future be so convivial and friendly to them?
THE END [12.30 AM, JANUARY 28, 2023]
