34 Having A Rogue Good Time
(Third Person POV)
-Central City Train Station: Train A4-
It was a simple plan. The train from Gotham that goes to Star City often has rich investors and their kids, so the plan was to rob the train's riders. It would be an easy job since the heroes were busy with Metropolis, and Superman and Flash were MIA.
In the beginning, it was as Abra Kadabra stalled the train with Weather Wizard blocking the tracks with ice and snow while Golden Glider, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Mirror Master borrowed the train raider's stuff or wallets.
As they went from train car to train car, they were raking in the dough, making bank in jewelry, wallets, watches, and other accessories. Thanks to Mirror Master, the stolen goods are then thrown into the mirror world. They managed to go from the first three cars untested as Heat Wave burned a seat to a crisp to show they meant business.
But then, as they started to walk down the aisle in the fourth car, Captain Cold was holding a mirror like a money-collecting basket in church. The riders would put all their cash and cards in the mirror, and the Mirror Master would catch the loot and keep it there.
As they made their way to the back, they noticed one of the orders asleep, and as Heat Wave wanted to burn the seat next to him to wake him up, Captain Cold stopped him and said, "Don't do anything reckless, Heat Wave I have my own way." He then pointed his cold gun into the sleeping man's face.
The effect was immediate as the man's eyes shot open. As he woke up, Captain Cold asked in a faux polite tone, "It seems you had a nice nap. Now empty your wallets, please. It's time for you to pay your toll."
The man simply eyed all of them and then the windows and, after doing so, said, "You know, I would have thought the Flash would be here, but for the fastest man alive, he always seems to be late."
Captain Cold chuckles darkly and says, "Yeah, he's not coming now. Empty your wallet unless you feel like this is your last stop." He then charges up a blast in his gun, and as he does so, the man simply smiles.
"You know, after that little dream of mine, I needed some stress relief, so thank you for this." The Rogues looked confused as the blast fired but went right through him. As his kin peeled back to show a costume with a white hood and skull mask staring at each one of them.
As Heat Wave goes to burn him, he simply absorbs the flames and reaches through them, but not before throwing Heat Wave through the window into the Mirror Dimension.
Captain Cold then fired another shot, and as it froze the seat where the guy was sitting, tendrils of flesh gripped him and threw all of the Rogues into the mirror dimension.
Kadabra and Weather Wizard, noticing the silence, crashed through the roof and saw the skull-faced man. As Kadabra tried to blast him, the skull face man dodged the blast and, seemingly using some kind of force, extended his hand to the both of them, throwing all the rogues into the mirror dimension.
As the skull faced man is about to jump in himself one of the passengers asks "Who are you?"
The man, before jumping in, simply says, "Taskmaster."
-Mirror Dimension-
"What happened back there, Snart?! " the Mirror master asks as the rogues try to run through the dimension to the mirror in their base. Yet before they can gather up the loot, all of them hear a man slam down next to them.
"I thought the rogues were professionals, but this is just sad. I can appreciate a villain group with a code for no killing, but really, robbing a train in broad daylight?" The skull-faced man says as the rogues get ready for a fight.
"Well, you surprised us for one. Now it is seven of us versus one of you, and you are not a hero, kid." The skull-faced man simply looks at them as he eyes them up one by one.
Golden Glider then makes the first move as He separates herself from her body, And that's super speed. She attempts to punch the man in the face, to which the man simply sidesteps the punch and summons what looks like a small knife and throws it into the Glider, and as the woman expects it to go through her, she doesn't attempt to dodge.
And while the knife doesn't do any damage, she finds herself struggling to move, to which the man throws more knives through her and into her projection. As he does this, he takes one of the knives and cuts nearly all the ribbons she uses to hold her soul in her body. Now, as she tries to break free from the knives, she screams in pain as the ribbons that hold her body and soul together are cut.
"Lisa!" Captain Cold then blasts the knives with his cold gun, with Mirror Master using his control over the dimension to grab the knives and send them to the bottom of the ocean. As Glider is freed, she hobbles back into her body as the skull-faced man garbs Heat Wave in confusion and tears the heat gun from his hands along with his hands.
The gun seemingly disappears into nothingness as the hands are then devoured by something, and as the flesh is torn away, Heat Wave screams in pain as his hands are torn off.
Kadabra then tries to blast the man in a rage with his wand, and as he tries to do this, the man dodges in a way impossible by a normal human. And using that to his advantage, the skull-faced man takes his wand and punches him multiple times in quick succession, knocking him out.
"How is he dodging us so easily?!" This question runs through the minds of each and every one of the Rogues as they all try to gang up on him in their own individual ways.
As Mirror Master tries to grab him by the leg, he scoffs and phases through his grip, breaking the mirror below him before snatching the wand from Kadabra's hand and placing it into nothingness.
"This is just sad. You all are boring. You're boring me." The man's comment only increases their rage as Captain Cold yells out.
"And who are you to feel that way? In fact, why even do this?!" The man stares them down, his yellow and red eyes boring into each one of them. Their lack of emotion unnerves them, and as the Rogues prepare to fight, a large boom can be heard.
"Late as always, Flash," the man says as he hears this. As the sonic boom goes off, he rushes to Mirror Master, grips him by the neck, and snaps his neck like a twig in one swift motion.
As he does this, tendrils appear from the man as he grips the man and proceeds to tear him apart and absorb his very being. As the man stumbles slightly, the rogues are left stunned at the sudden death of their comrade, with Captain Cold yelling in frustration as he tries to blast the man with his cold gun again.
The man raises a mirror before him, so the blast hits Captain Cold instead. As a scarlet speedster can be seen outside the mirror in the train car, the skull-faced man grips the cold gun and takes it from Snart, then summons a mirror to get back to the real world, and as he sees a mirror connected to the men's restroom he hops through but with a new face.
The rogues are left in the mirror world of the train car window as The Flash sees them defeated. A man with a skull mask throws the loot to him before disappearing.
(Nathan POV)
As I hopped through the mirror into the train station of Central City, I kept my new face on and my camera scrambler on as I opened the door to head out as I needed to find a new train.
Wait, no, I don't.
As I looked at my inventory, I took a power boost card and used it on my new ability to travel between mirrors. I could feel my understanding of the mirror grow as I could feel my ability to travel between mirrors grow in tandem.
For now, though, I should get out of here. I am going to need to train this new power before I can hop between mirrors at longer distances. I notice the police rushing in to help with the victims. I do hope the Flash can get them out of that window on the train, but I could care less at this point.
Honestly, I'm happy that I was able to devour Mirror Master, grab Kadabra's wand, and use both the hot and cold guns. However, I wasn't able to get any boomerangs, as both Trickster and Captain Boomerang were in Belle Reve.
I'm tempted to take out all of the stuff and start studying it, but I'm going to need a more private setting, so as I exit the train station, I head to one of the Rogue's hideouts in the city.
As I walked through the city, the difference between this place and Gotham was staggering. It's cleaner, and I can't hear someone getting mugged next to me all of the time.
It does make me wonder why Gotham is so bad even without the influence of the dark Multiverse or the curse from Dr Gotham. Maybe it's just a continuity thing, or the universe is trying to find similarities between each other in order to keep them together. The city itself just feels brighter in a way, and I even noticed multiple shrines dedicated to people who died in Metropolis.
Although the hero worship is still a thing which became apparent as I passed by multiple Flash merch stores which I assume will go out of business soon enough when the Regime becomes a thing. For now, though, I arrive at one of their hideouts and open the door after putting in the password.
It's a standard place, nothing too special, but the best part is that there are multiple mirrors here that I can use to practice, and since I have changed my face again, no one will be looking for me.
But Taskmaster will definitely be on a watch list now, as the league may hunt me down for what I just did and my possible involvement with the nuking of Metropolis.
For now, though, I just need to keep running and assimilating my templates, which have grown a decent amount:
[Sheev Palpatine (Star Wars Legends): 54%]
[Alex Mercer (Prototype 1&2) 85%]
[Emiya (Archer) (Fate): 55%]
Alex Mercer is almost complete. I feel the virus growing stronger with each day, and thanks to its adaptability and devouring capabilities, it will be my trump card for now.
Once this assimilation is done, I will probably assimilate Robot next, as his increase in intellect and relatively low power level will make him an amazing and fast pick.
Thankfully, the templates assimilate a person based on their personal power level, not on their power level when equipped with their general equipment, and since Robot only has his hyperintelligence, it will be a relatively quick assimilation.
For now, though, I saw on the television how the Rogues were trapped in the mirror dimension and how the deaths of Heat Wave and Mirror Master were being put out. Truly, their sacrifice will be well worth my time, even if Heat Wave is only useful as biomass. I am just satisfied that I read the world of an insane pyromaniac.
Reaching my hand towards a mirror, I begin to try to manipulate it. I find it warping and cracking in quick succession, but with every second, my adaptability and blank essence fill in the gaps along with the man's memories, making the process all the more seamless.
