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?
