Post by dans on Apr 6, 2024 17:12:55 GMT
Back to Work
At the Overlook Hill Air Base, the defenders were still having a hard time believe the attack was over and they had vanquished the powerful, deadly attackers. One very important task still remained; they gathered the defeated villains together, dumped them unceremoniously in a pile, and bound them securely.
"This is unethical," a medic muttered as he moved from prisoner to prisoner, injected each in turn with a syringe of carefully measured pentobarbital, putting them into induced comas. "It might kill them." His mutters were ignored; he'd made the same protests earlier when he had been given his orders.
"We need to create new protocols for containing individuals with super powers," Major Dahl, the commanding officer of the Base, had justified his order to the medic. "None of our cells is designed to hold super powered beings, but we can't risk letting them escape! And we need a solution here and now, not after years of ethical debates!"
Now, he turned to the assembled heroes. "We own you a tremendous debt of gratitude!" he acknowledged enthusiastically. "Without your assistance, we couldn't have stopped them from destroying the base and killing us all! I'll thank you properly later, but right now we still have rescue and damage assessment operations ongoing." With an apologetic shrug, he saluted and turned away. But then he spun back around, adding quickly, "If you need anything from me, check in with Corporal Moog!" And with that, he hurried off to oversee whatever urgent tasks required his immediate attention.
The heroes stood in a circle, reveling in satisfaction of their triumph. None of them had yet encountered such dangerous foes in their solo careers to this point, let alone partnered with another hero.
"Nice work, Deann! You took down three of those super powered villains on your own!" Jack Bradley couldn't contain a hint of surprise in his tone as he spoke to her. After all, none of the heroes had ever seen Mirror Girl in real-life action, and her main power of intangibility didn't really inspire awe or fear.
"Well, I DID have help from the soldiers and Bruce's Vertigo Projector," she replied modestly. "But it really was time for me to cut lose - I have been getting really really tired of the growing notion that I'm the ‘weakest by far’ among this gathering of the Greatest American Heroes. I'll hear no more of it!" she growled.
"Yes, ma'am, whatever you say, ma'am!" Jack agreed meekly as everyone else chuckled. “You are indeed a force to be reckoned with!”
"Say, Jack," Lady Fairplay asked curiously. "Why don't you carry around a hammer and whack yourself in the head every time your Fearless Flint powers wear off? It seems really dangerous to be jumping in the path of bullets or a speeding car or whatever without your powers and hoping that changing to Flint will protect you.” She paused for emphasis. "What if you're squished flatter than a pancake before your powers kick in? Your allies can't always be following you around whacking you with steel sticks in the middle of a battle!"
"Hey, what's this, 'Jump on Jack Day'?" he quipped instantly, to the slightly mocking laughter of his friends. Some of them had privately wondered the same thing. But he considered the question for a second - and was astonished as he struggled to give them an answer. His throat was so tight he was almost choking, and he finally knew fear - fear he somehow knew was coming from the magic that gave him his powers. He had difficulty even talking "You know, somehow I've never once thought of that before this instant!" He had to stop and force himself to breath and relax. "I've known for a long time that steel triggers my powers, but it has somehow never occurred to me that I could trigger them on purpose!" He looked around at the expressions of disbelief on all their faces. "I guess it's occurred to all of you, though, hasn't it? I must be really stupid!"
"Maybe not, Jack," Dr. Diamond spoke up thoughtfully. "You know, I get my powers from magic, as you do. When you're in your Fearless Flint form, you are the most powerful of us all. In both your forms, you are incredibly reckless with a total disregard for danger. It's possible that the spell that gives you your Flint powers prevents you from changing intentionally as a safety measure against going rogue. It would be nearly impossible for the rest of us to stop you."
"That makes sense," Mirror Girl agreed with a thoughtful nod. Her own magical powers came with restrictions as well; she could only access them when wearing her enchanted Gossamer Garment, and it would never allow her to use its powers for evil purposes
"Hiwalani was thinking about this kind of danger, too, when she suggested my name," Lady Fairplay added. "Every time I see or hear my own name, I'm reminded that Fair Play is the responsibility that goes along with having great powers."
The group stood in silence for a few seconds, contemplating this reminder. Jack was stunned to realize that his fear had vanished and the tightness in his throat was gone!
The Corporal ran up to them from the temporary command post that had been established in one of the base's undamaged buildings. "I just got a phone call for you guys from the studio - they want me to remind you that we're back on the regular schedule tomorrow!"
"Yes, indeed," Blue Fire summed up with dry irony. "With great powers comes... a time clock!"