20 Chapter 20: Mr. Twis-
[AN: Got a window in between my midterms so I thought I would post this chapter while also explaining something. The story might jump from one part to another because I want to create the feeling that every plot does not go in a straight line. There are some people who scheme in the dark, others minding their business and such.]
[Third Person's Point of View]
"Tornado's keeping us busy again."
Robin says spitefully as the power plant comes into view.
"Well, a simple fire led you to uncover some secret underground facility that was building up Sentient weapons. We should find out what caused the alert."
M'gann says.
"I think I know the cause."
Kara says, pointing out the window. A large funnel of wind is coming straight for them. M'gann's face turns serious and her hands grip the orbs more firmly. She is too late though, and the bioship gets caught in the twister, spinning wildly and losing its camouflage.
M'gann concentrates fiercely and manages to pull the ship away from the tornado, landing in the parking lot. A hatch in the floor opens and the Team drops through, instantly assailed by the sights and sounds of terrified people running out of the power plant.
"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?"
Kaldur asks.
"Robin?"
He, Kara, and M'gann turn to where their youngest member had been only a moment ago. His impish cackle echoes through the area.
"H-he was just here."
M'gann says, trying to find him without reading his mind. That had not gone well the last time.
"He pulled a Batman. How could he have gotten away without us knowing? There's no cover for him to hide behind and I have super hearing and vision? Are you guys sure they don't have superpowers?-"
Kara tries to reason.
*BOOM*
She is cut off by a powerful explosion from inside the plant, and all the windows blow out at once, showering the perimeter in glittering shards of glass. The Team recovers and dash inside, just in time to see Robin fall onto the concrete floor.
Supergirl, now in her uniform, lands next to the sprawled and winded boy wonder.
"Who's your new friend?"
She asks, but she spots the attacker and flies to engage him without waiting for an answer.
"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kinda rough!"
Robin shouts after Supergirl.
"My apologies."
The enemy say in , a masculine, menacing robot. It is composed of a dark red frame and black markings. Several blue air hoses attached to a wind generator on his back snake down his shoulders and arms, connecting them to his wrists.
He is otherwise unadorned, with the exception of a brown scarf over the lower half of his face. His mechanical voice is somehow capable of sarcastic and condescending tones.
"You may address me as Mister Twister."
The villain begins rotating his red and black arms at superhuman speed, generating a fearsome force of wind through the air hoses. The manipulation from the robot's arms continues, and two tornadoes spring to life in front of the very surprised young heroes.
He flings the powerful funnels at Supergirl, who uses her super breath to counter the powerful funnels and manages to cancel them.
"Apologies not accepted."
Supergirl smirks as she strikes a pose in the air, her hands curled into fists and placed on her waist. Wally deliberately dons his specially designed goggles for eye protection as Robin struggles to his feet, groaning slightly.
Kaldur and M'gann exchange slight nods, a silent understanding passing between them. Almost as one, the heroes attack Mister Twister. Wally speed toward the villain. Faster than the eye can follow, Wally flips onto his hands, allowing his feet to shoot over his head and directly into Twister and kicking him with the full force of his momentum.
He never gets to land a hit as Twister points his hands up and moves them in the direction of the power plant's back door. The sudden wind that results plucks Wally up and throws him outside, sending him tumbling across the terrain toward the trees where he mercifully skids to a stop.
Mister Twister turns towards the others as M'gann and Kaldur start to get close. Two well-aimed tornadoes send them hurtling back the way they had come. Now only Robin is left standing while Supergirl is still floating above ground.
This had been what she had seen her cousin do sometimes. He let the other heroes do their part first and aided when he felt that it would not hurt their ego though that was under the premise that the situation did not endanger innocent people.
[AN: Laugh all you want but I remember in one of the comics Superman thinking something like this. It was the comic where the Batman who Laughs infected Justice League members, I think and he was watching Batman take out a few drones before he steps in.]
"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero."
Twister sneers. Stealthily, Robin removes several of his exploding disks out from behind his back wherever he hid them.
"I was not, however, expecting children."
"We're not children!"
Robin growls, throwing two disks at the tornado-generating villain, distracting him as M'gann and Kaldur regain their feet. Twister, of course, creates wind to blow the disks away. They explode, and Mister Twister stops, leaving an opening for the Boy Wonder.
His third disk embeds itself in the center of Twister's chest. He quickly yet calmly flicks the disk away.
"Objectively... you are."
He replies in a condescending tone as the disk explodes behind him.
"Have you no adult supervision?"
"You want supervision, I'll give you super vision!"
*FZZZZZ*
*BOOM*
Kara retorts with a wordplay as she sends her heat vision at the villain. The villain not being an idiot decided to dodge the heat vision which collides with the wall and breaks part of it.
"I find your presence here quite disturbing."
He says as he looks at Supergirl.
"Well, we hate to see you disturbed. Let's see if you're more turbed once we kick your can!"
Robin retorts. M'gann reaches up with her telekinesis and pulls a large fan cover off the ceiling above Twister, blasting him with steamy air. While he's distracted, Supergirl flies up. But this time, Twister forces Supergirl away with his wind, sending her flying into M'gann.
Kaldur activates his electricity and runs forward with Robin, but Twister punches the ground with air hoses blowing full blast. Twin tornadoes fly out and catch the two heroes, spinning them dizzy, then smacking them into each other before leaving them to crash onto the floor.
"Indeed."
Twister says in a sarcastic tone, using his wind to lift off and fly out the door.
"That was quite turbing. Thank you."
The heroes groan and start to get up as he leaves. Outside, Wally sits up from where he lays. Looking around he spot the villain, floating out the door and over the grass. He stands up and speeds over to Mister Twister.
"What've you done to my team?!"
Wally asks angrily.
"Embarrassed them, largely. I think I might have ended their whole career."
Twister replies, then creates a single large tornado that sucks Wally in. It moves over to the power plant, crashing into the wall. When the dust clears, Wally, tensed for impact, finds himself instead suspended in the air, unharmed.
"Don't worry, I gotcha!"
M'gann says, gently releasing her telekinetic hold on the two heroes.
"Whoa! Thanks."
Wally says.
"I would have thought you had all learned your limitations by now."
Twister says.
"What do you want?!"
Supergirl asks, annoyed with this high and mighty robot villain.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Twister asks, rising to float higher.
"I'm waiting for a real hero."
"Read his mind, find a weakness."
Kaldur orders M'gann. The young Martian looks nervous.
"I thought I wasn't supposed to do that."
"It's OK with the bad guys!"
Robin yells at her.
M'gann holds two fingers to her temple and closes her eyes, trying to get a reading off Mister Twister.
"Nothing, I'm getting nothing."
M'gann says, trying harder. Suddenly, she opens her eyes and palms her forehead.
"Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise! He's inorganic, an android. How many androids do you know that can generate tornadoes?"
Kaldur takes her thinking a step further.
"Red Tornado sent us here."
"After saying we would be 'tested' soon enough. This is his test, something to keep us busy!"
Robin adds angrily. Supergirl thinks for a moment. The logic makes sense but she suddenly has a weird feeling.
"Speedy called it, we're a joke."
Wally says bitterly. Kaldur punches his palm in anger, then starts walking to where Mister Twister hovers.
"This game… so over."
Wally says as he and Robin follow Kaldur. They stop on the grass in front of Twister.
"We know who you are, and what you want!"
Robin yells at him.
Kaldur raises his hands as a challenge.
"So let's end this!"
"Consider it ended."
The villain says ominously, then raises his arms above his head. The sky turns black and the wind starts to howl.
"An impressive show."
Kaldur yells before adding.
"But we will not indulge you! We will not engage!"
The sky grows darker, roiling with thunder and lightning.
*KRAKOOM*
"Uh, can Red Tornado do that?"
Wally asks, looking worried.
"You think I'm Tornado?"
Twister says incredulously.
"Ironi-"
*FZZZZZ*
*THUMP* *THUMP*
Before Mr. Twister could finish, two laser beams bisected him vertically from crotch to head slicing him into three pieces. Two containing one leg and one arm along with thin part of his body each and the last one containing most of his torso, abdomen, and head.
The young heroes watched in bewilderment as the last part of the villain opened up like a hatch and came out a small man who groaned as he fell on the ground.
"Foul. I- I call fo-"
*WHOOSH*
*Thud*
Before he could even finish his sentence, Supergirl whooshed toward him and delivered a karate chop that beheaded cleanly much to the horrors of her companions. Robin is the first to recover and stomps over to Kara after the head drops the the floor followed by its headless body.
"Don't know how things are done on Krypton, but on Earth, we don't execute our captives!"
He roars.
Kara smiles at him before putting her foot on the severed head and stomping it.
"This was not an execution."
*CRUNCH*
She raises her foot, and Robin turns to look. He is surprised to see no brain matter, at least organic ones. Just broken machinery that was once a robot. The Team walks over to get a better look.
"That's why I couldn't read his mind."
M'gann states finally understanding the situation.
Wally moves closer and bends down, picking up the eyeball, which somehow remained intact after popping out.
"Cool, souvenir."
He grins.
Kaldur puts a hand on Kara's shoulder.
"We should've had more faith in you."
He says. M'gann's shoulder slouched down as she realized that she almost put the team in danger.
"Guys, I- I'm sorry for putting you guys in danger."
She said in a meek voice before Kara came up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, it's an honest mistake plus we are the ones that chose to believe it since at that moment it made sense. It's just that I have learned the hard way to never let my guard down."
She shudders at that last part much to everyone's surprise except Kaldur who asks.
"Acnologia?"
She nods as she confirms it.
"Acnologia."
---
Brom Stikk watches the video feed transmitting from the still functioning eyeball, the only piece left of the robot that had been made in his image. He is watching the five teenage heroes closely, and so misses the sound of footsteps approaching him.
"Now Brom..."
The new voice laughs, startling the other man.
"Aren't you relieved I didn't let you wear the armor?"
"Extremely, Professor."
Brom replies, switching off the video and turning to him.
"But, you're not upset?"
The professor smiles.
"I'm convinced our tracking system was operational, and that Red Tornado was somewhere in the vicinity since they mistakenly believed that it was him as Mr. Twister. Besides, you know science advances in fits and starts. Even failure can be constructive, and I'd say we learned quite a lot today."
---
Back at Mount Justice, the Team had collected the remains of both robots after scanning them to make sure they didn't have tracking bugs. Kaldur is giving a debriefing to Red Tornado.
"After extensive scanning from Robin, we discovered that it was most likely created to sabotage or destroy you."
Kaldur says.
"Agreed."
Red Tornado replies.
"Is that why you asked us to go there?"
M'gann asks.
"No. I was not aware of it but even if you had requested my help prior to learning of its origin I would not have helped you."
He says.
"Why?"
M'gann inquires.
"This was your battle."
Tornado responds.
"I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you. Nor should you solve mine for me."
The other four who have not yet spoken stop looking over the robot remains and look at their supervisor.
"But, if you're in danger-"
M'gann starts only to be interrupted.
"Consider this matter... closed."
With that, Red Tornado leaves, his measured and metallic stride sounding down the hallway.
"Batman, Aquaman, and Flash, they'd have jumped right in to fix things."
Wally says.
"Guess if we're going to have a babysitter..."
Robin replies before adding on.
"... A heartless machine is exactly what we need."
"Dude, harsh."
Wally says.
"And, inaccurate..."
Red Tornado interjects before continuing.
"...I have a heart made of carbon-steel alloy."
He turns to look at the Team.
"I also have excellent hearing."
Robin laughs nervously.
"Right, sorry. I'll strive to be… more accurate."
"And more respectful."
Kaldur adds, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. Red Tornado walks away, and M'gann looks after him, then turns to the rest of the Team. Kaldur, Robin, and Wally have taken another hallway towards the living area.
"Speedy was so wrong."
Wally says.
Robin speaks next.
"This team thing-"
"-might just work out."
Kaldur finishes.
"What are you doing, let's go celebrate our first victory as a team."
Kara says to M'gann who smiles before they turn together to rejoin the rest of their team.
[Batman's Point of View]
I have managed to extract all the information from the intruder. Michael Carter and his sister Michelle Carter were born as twins to a loving mother and an irresponsible father in Gotham City in the 25th Century. He is from the future.
On their fourth birthday, their father left the household to pursue his true love, as he stated, gambling, leaving a huge gambling debt behind for the struggling family. Michael became a football player in college with the nickname "Booster", hoping that he would make it into the big leagues when his mother was suffering from a debilitating disease that required a treatment that his family could not afford.
Turning to the same vice as his father, he made bets and purposely threw games in order to earn enough money for the treatment. After his mother was cured, Michael was arrested and put in jail for gambling, instantly breaking his mother's heart.
After he was set free from jail, Michael managed to get a job as a security officer for the Metropolis Space Museum, where he saw images of superheroes from the 20th Century that were legends of his time. Deciding to change his life and become a superhero himself, he stole some artifacts from the museum as well as the security robot Skeets and used Rip Hunter's time machine to travel back to the early 21st Century to become a superhero.
He knows most of the superheroes' Identities because we become famous in the future but he does not know much about our future since he never paid attention to our history. I would like to say that it was my detective skills that managed to get this much information but no, he just does not know when to stop talking.
What little relevant information that I managed to gather was that his power suit is made of tachyon threads that protect him from his mere presence disrupting his past. It also protects him from man-made changes to the timeline to a certain extent.
I have kept his suit away from him as well as his robot, I need Wonder Woman's lasso or Martian Manhunter's help to verify his claims once more. Meanwhile, I will study his suit and also put a virus in both his power suit and robot helper in case he ever goes rogue or is not who he claims he is.
One can never be too careful when fighting against crime.
[AN: If you think this is going overboard with Batman paranoia, then read Injustice or better yet watch the movie. Spoiler alert:
Batman uploaded a virus inside Cyborg a fucking day- no the moment they met. I am not trying to do some Batman slander just taking inspiration from things Batmans have done.
Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]
