1968 - Black Storm

A tallish man of Eastern European descent causally strolls down the road, hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket. His hair is of medium length and is black with brown streaks. His shining blue eyes glow and crackle with power. His brown trousers are rugged while his white cotton shirt is slightly wrinkled.

Power and confidence seems to radiate from him. The half a dozen men and women following him only help him seem more dangerous, especially as they are wearing the same sort of clothing as their leader. Two even have flak jackets.

The man grins as he approaches the line of police cars that has formed there to stop him and his followers.

“Let’s get started shall we,” says man in Bulgarian.

The police cars began to rise into the air. The man laughs as the police officers panic. They are unprepared for such as threat and only two of the nine officers on the scene are armed with guns. Even then, those guns are only small sidearms.

The Bulgarian raises both of his arms, one hand aiming at each of the armed police officers. Beams of lightning leap from his hands and electrocute both of the officers, both of them going flying.

Whether or not they survived, the Bulgarian doesn’t know. Not that he cares either way.

The police cars stop rising before being slammed hard into the ground by the same force that raised them into the air in the first place. Another two officers are crushed by the falling cars whilst a third has his legs trapped.

The remaining officers scattered. With no way of fighting back and half of them already down, it is the only thing they can do.

The Bulgarian lets them go. He already has an objective and this attempt by the local police to stop him was nothing more than a minor distraction if that. The city hall is only a few blocks away.

He and his followers are almost there when another police car intercepts them. The Bulgarian scoffs at this foolishness before unleashing another blast of lightning at the car. Both the vehicle and its occupants are fried and the police car slams through the wall of a building on the other side of the street

The Bulgarian smirks and stops in front of city hall. The large building rumbles and collapses in on itself.

Nothing in this town can stop me. Not until the League of Heroes shows up and even then they’ll have their hands full.

The Black Storm has arrived

***

Lantern drops from the sky, landing next to Commando by the rumble of Birmingham’s former city hall.

“Lightning bolts from his arms and some sort of gravity powers,” says Lantern, “At least that is what the locals are saying. He also has bunch of followers, but they didn’t seem to do anything. Nobody actually saw the gravity powers being used by the person, just the effects so it might be one of his followers. Oh yeah and the guy calls him the Black Storm.”

“He is powerful alright,” replies Commando.

“Any idea on what he wants?” asks Lantern

“I think he might want a war,” answers Commando, “It is my guess he is trying to take a chunk of land to rule and he has chosen here, either has his city to rule or the starting point for his future empire. Unless he just wants destruction or was hired, it is the most likely explanation.”

“I hope you are wrong friend,” says Lantern.

“Me too,” agrees Commando.

“Heroes!” suddenly yells voice with a Bulgarian accent.

“Oh @#-fudge,” curses Commando as he draws a pair of his combat knifes and Lantern floats back up into the air.

“What do you want Black Storm?” demands Lantern as the hero turns to face the villain and crosses his arms.

“Why,” replies Black Storm as he steps out from amongst his followers, “I want a kingdom to rule of course. I wield immense power and I have the capabilities to bestow lesser powers upon my followers and soldiers.”

“You think he’s joking,” whispers Commando over their communicators.

“No, not about either bit,” Lantern whispers back before replying to Black Storm, “I’m afraid we can’t allow that.”

“Of course you can’t,” smirks Black Storm.

“We’re going to have to bring you in for what you done,” continues Lantern regardless of the interruption, “You killed over two dozen people and put another fifty in hospital yesterday.”

“I know, I was there,” drawls Black Storm.

“Surrender!” demands Commando as he takes a pair of steps towards Black Storm and his followers.

“No,” replies Black Storm as he rises into air, until he is at eye level with Lantern, “I don’t think I will.”

Black Storm raises his arm at Lantern, who in turn flies at Black Storm. The aspiring supervillain fires at both a bolt of lightning and a sonic blast at the hero.

Lantern is dazed and staggered by the unexpected strength of the attack. His own attack is halt and he is knocked backwards through the air.

Meanwhile the ground, Commando is fighting his own tense battle. While he was put on guard by Black Storm’s statement about giving powers to his followers, Commando was still mentally unprepared to face a large amount of supers, no matter how weak their powers.

One of the men tosses an ice shard the size of a water bottle at Commando while another sends a fireball no bigger than a tennis ball towards the hero. With his enhanced reflexes, Commando easily blocks both attacks with his knives  

One of the men has some limited superspeed, nothing faster than particularly fast car, but with his own limited superspeed, the veteran soldier catches the speedster with a fist to the gut. The speedster flips over and goes crashing to the rubble of the city hall.

Commando bats another ice shard and fireball aside with his knives before rushing the other followers of Black Storm as Lantern fends off their leader above them.

The two ranged members of their group pull back along with a woman while the remaining man and woman counter charge Commando. Commando punches the man in the jugular and he staggers backwards.

The woman is even more unsuccessful as Commando easily dodges her swing and stabs one of his knives into her knee. The woman drops, screaming in pain, before Commando grabs her with his now free hand.

He pulls her in front of him, using her as a human shield as third ice shard and fireball comes his way. The fireball misses both of them, but the ice shard cuts into the woman, entrenching itself just below her shoulder.

Already a great deal of pain, the woman faints and Commando tosses her body into the man who charged him. Both go tumbling into the ground together and Commando rushes at the other three.

Time to take out the ice shard thrower and fireball thrower.

Suddenly another pair of men appears in front of Commando.

Invisibles? Teleportation? Commando considers and disregards these possibilities in a spilt-second. He can’t hear or smell usual stuff he would from real people that he would given his enhanced senses. They even look fuzzy to his superior eyesight.

Illusions. There must be what that woman does.

Commando runs through the illusion men, but they block the next ice shard and fireball from his sight until it is too late for him to dodge.

The ice shard and fireball both hit him, but his cos-mat costume easily absorbs their blows.

Commando slams into the illusionist woman, knocking her backwards before kicking the ice shard man in balls. He grunts in pain as he drops to the ground, clutching his injured privates. Commando quickly takes him out of the fight proper by kicking him in the face.

The other man takes a swing at Commando, both of his fists engulfed in flames.

Not just fireballs, but weak pyrokinesis.

Commando rolls back and prepares to attack when his side flares up in pain. The hero looks down and sees that he has been cut through his cos-mat costume.

That should have happened. Sentinel’s cos-mat can resist any normal sharp attacks. Unless...

Commando tries to step to the side, but his attacker nicks him in the shoulder, leaving Commando with a light cut. A fireball hits his injured shoulder, cauterising his wound.

“Damn it!” yells Commando as he realises the source of his troubles is the speedster using the knife he left in the woman who charged him.

Now knowing what he is dealing with, Commando is much better prepared to face his foe and is able to parried the next two strikes with his own knife

Unfortunately, Commando also has to dodge another fireball and that leaves an opening for the speedster. The speedster stabs Commando in the stomach, leaving the knife lodged one of Commando’s organs.

The hero grunts in pain before pulling out the bloody knife. At least he has both of his weapons now.

Another fireball hits Commando dead the chest, but his costume takes it again. Commando waits before slicing the speedster in the arm as he goes past. The man cries out in pain before tripping as he tries to hold his injured arm.

Moving quickly, Commando tosses one of his knifes into the chest of the pyrokinetic. The man falls backwards and Commando doesn’t particularly care if he survives.

Shouldn’t have fought me in the first place if he didn’t want to get hurt.

This doesn’t feel like busting some criminals to him. Instead, it feels like a battle in war, something Commando knows all too well.

Only one more to go.

Commando rushes the final man, swinging at fist at him. The man catches and squeezes. Commando winces as the man uses weak super strength to crush his hand.

I am so glad my power allows me to block most of the pain.

The superhero headbutts his opponent before stabbing his remaining knife into the man’s thigh. His opponent lets go Commando’s mushed hand and Commando grabs his throat using his other hand.

His opponent gargles for a couple of moments before going unconscious. Commando laughs. He might have multiple cuts in him, but he has won. Only person still able to fight is the illusionist and her power is useless against Commando.

Commando stops laughing when he sees Lantern slam into the ground behind him.

“Damn it,” mutters Commando as he looks up in time to get a lightning bolt to the face.

He staggers backwards. The bolt didn’t hurt that much as Commando can take the blast between his powers and costume. But his wounds give him some weak spots against the electricity.

“You hurt my people,” growls Black Storm from above Commando.

To Commando’s surprise, Black Storm sounds genuinely angry and upset over what happened to his followers.

I guess he actually cares about them unlike a lot of those we face.

Black Storm tosses lightning bolt after the lightning bolt at Commando whilst unleashing a wailing shriek at him with his sonic powers.

But Commando weathers the attacks. He is a tough old soldier and despite his injuries, he gone through much worse than this.

Eventually it starts to become too much for Commando to bear. He drops to his knee, barely staying conscious.

“Die Commando,” hisses Black Storm as he picks up one yanks one of Commando’s knives from the body of one of his followers.

“No!” yells Lantern, his voice echoing and a flash of light blinds Commando.

***

Lantern gets to feet before just standing there panting for a moment. Black Storm ended up being a tad too strong and he got knocked out of the sky by Black Storm’s gravity powers.

He looks over at Commando, Black Storm and his followers and freezes at what he sees.

All of Black Storm’s followers are down on the ground, but Commando has just dropped to one knee. His fellow Leaguer has smoke coming from his stomach and shoulder and Lantern can smell roasted flesh.

Black Storm lands and acquires one of Commando’s combat knives.

“Die Commando,” hisses the supervillain.

Lantern can’t allow this, he just can’t. Not the death of one of the League of Heroes.

His powers run on willpower and at the moment, Lantern’s will is the only thing keeping upright and awake after the beating Black Storm gave him.

But this is different. When he is particularly determined about something, Lantern has had temporary power boosts before. At the determination to keep his friend alive and stopping Black Storm, something powerful is building up inside him.

“No!” Lantern yells and a beam of white energy bursts from his eyes, going through his visor.

The beam hits the stunned Black Storm straight in the chest, sending him flying into a building across the street. With a resurgence in power, Lantern rises into the air.

Today they won this battle, but not without cost. Commando needs urgent help.

Lantern swoops down and picks up his fallen teammate. Not risking Black Storm or some of his followers finishing the job themselves if he takes Commando to the local hospital, Lantern flies Commando to the hospital in Coventry.

He quickly returns to the Birmingham’s former city hall, but by that time, Black Storm and his followers are long gone.

Why can I shake the feeling I have just fought a battle in a greater war?