The new Firestorm stared down Miser, who still had his captive. Miser narrowed his gaze at the interloper and turned towards him.
“Who are you, ” he asked.
“Good question, wish I knew. I’m not like any other Firestorm you’ve ever seen. For now, just call me Nu. So why don’t you let her go and I’ll give you a real fight?!”
Miser clicked his tongue in annoyance. “As amusing as that would be, I still need to kill this –”
In the blink of an eye, Sunset was teleported away from the light construct, now at Nu Firestorm’s side. The crimson Firestorm blinked in confusion, looking between Miser and the blue flamed Firestorm now holding her princess style.
“Oh, you’re cute too,” he commented.
Sunset glared at him and delivered a swift punch to his face, making him release her. The Firestorm rubbed his cheek and chuckled at how fiery Sunset was.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked.
“I’m fine, but who’s this joker?!”
“Call me Nu, but I’d have no qualms with either of you giving me a different name, so long as it’s cool.”
Sunset and Twilight glanced between each other, not sure how to take the appearance of this new Firestorm. Miser, on the other hand, didn’t take too kindly to the intrusion of their battle. His fiery aura raged up as his eyes glowed bright, gritting his teeth at how they were just ignoring him as if he wasn’t even a threat anymore. “YOU!!! HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!! ”
Nu Firestorm, Twilight, and Sunset, turned in the direction of the super powered chairman of the Organization. The cocky Firestorm glanced back to the two girls and held up a finger. “Give me one second, ladies.” Nu Firestorm walked towards Miser and pointed at him. “My friend, I’m not sure what the problem you have with them is, but from what I can tell, you’re the bad guy right? Right?”
Sunset and Twilight nodded firmly.
“Good, then I won’t have any issues beating up an old man.”
Miser’s glowing eyes widened with surprise, now he was less irritated and more concerned as to why this being knew who he was. Figuring that this person was too dangerous to let live, Miser floated off the ground and hurled himself towards Nu Firestorm. His right fist balled up, coating his fist and forearm in a sheath of dense graviton energy. Within a few seconds Miser closed in on the unknown warrior and struck at full force.
A resounding shockwave bellowed out in all directions, shattering what glass that remained and throwing the few vehicles that did remain into the buildings.
Miser grunted and growled angrily, seeing that his graviton punch did not make contact. Nu Firestorm had caught Miser’s punch with his left hand, the vermillion tribal markings glowed brighter as if in response to a growing power Nu Firestorm was mustering. His eyes glowed the same color as his markings, his blue flaming hair began to rage like a wildfire.
“Huh, the voices are telling me about all the bad things you and others like you have done, what you’re going to do with this power, can’t let that happen.” Nu Firestorm tightened his grip around Miser’s fist, making the Armored Firestorm wince in pain. “I just got here, too much to see and do to let you snuff out my flame. ”
A surge of power erupted from Nu Firestorm, causing the graviton energy around Miser’s fist to evaporate into nothingness. Now exposed, Miser was feeling the full strength of Nu Firestorm bearing down on his fist and causing him to grunt in pain from the sheer strength of this being. Miser quickly focused his atomic energy into his left hand and fired a point blank shot right at Nu Firestorm’s midsection. The sudden attack caught Nu Firestorm off guard and forced him to release Miser in that instant.
Now free, Miser speed warped as far back as he could. Miser held out his right hand and summoned fifty dozen orbs of luminescent light. With a wave of his hand, the lights shot off in streaks towards Nu Firestorm. The first wave was closing in and Miser’s grin grew, knowing that he packed enough destructive power into the orbs to level a building. Suddenly, the entire area around Nu Firestorm went up in explosions, creating a dust cloud that the rushed over his target’s position. Miser was sure that they hit their mark, but just in case he readied the next dozen to launch.
But before Miser could fire, beams of blazing blue light shot out from the smoke cloud. Miser’s enhanced mental processing allowed him a brief moment to witness thirty beams strike thirty orbs around him, and detonate them in less than a second. Miser flew up into the air, readying to fire again. But another wave of energy blasts shot through the cloud of smoke, shooting out each of the orbs of light that Miser had set up to fire.
A pressure wave erupted from Nu Firestorm’s position. The azure Firestorm was carrying something in both hands. They looked like pistols, but were cylindrical, with markings all about it. Nu Firestorm’s vermillion cape flapped in the crossbreeze generated by his power, eyes glowing a bright white was he locked onto Miser.
Enraged, Miser summoned more orbs of light. Dozens upon dozens of orbs formed around Nu Firestorm, even getting Twilight and Sunset in attack range.
“You two might want to hit the pavement,” warned Nu Firestorm.
Twilight and Sunset didn’t argue and quickly dropped flat against the ground. Immediately afterwards, the orbs discharged, firing directly for Nu Firestorm from all directions. But the blue flamed Firestorm showed no fear, his cocky smirk never leaving for even a moment. In the next moment, Nu Firestorm began firing at rapid speed, each blast hitting the incoming beams with deadly accuracy. His rate of fire became quicker and quicker, spiraling around and shooting with inhuman accuracy and precision, it almost appeared as if he fired a second shot with the first pull of the trigger. Faster and faster, an afterimage appearing from where he last shot, and was going to shoot, no one could tell which was the real Nu Firestorm.
Twilight dared to look up and sneak a peek at the fight, her eyes widened at what she saw, but for more than one reason.
“That shooting style…”
“What?! What did you say?” Sunset asked.
Before Twilight could reply, a symphony of explosions raged around them as the beams hit their marks and destroyed every orb at the same time. Miser floated there, dumbfounded by what he just witnessed, but his astonishment didn’t last long. Nu Firestorm turned both guns on Miser, the barrels charged up with pent up, fiery atomic energy. With a pull of the trigger, both barrels unleashed twin column sized beams of blue and vermillion light, Miser had only a brief moment to erect a barrier around himself, but it wasn’t strong enough to repel the beam, but just enough to shield him.
However, the twin beams pushed him, higher and higher into the air, it took most of his strength just to maintain the barrier much less fight against the beam. Miser continued to rise higher into the sky, Miser used the last remaining resistance of the barrier to angle himself away from the beam, allowing it to fly off into the sky and further beyond. The Armored Firestorm panted and heaved, not understanding how this new Firestorm managed to overpower him so easily.
Suddenly, a flash of azure light went off a few feet ahead of him, and in that instant, Nu Firestorm appeared. “Probably wondering why I’m way stronger than you, huh? I’d tell you, but you’re not going to believe it.”
“THE HELL IF I CARE!!!” Miser shouted. “I am a titan! A god! I am beyond humanity!”
Nu Firestorm tsked and wagged his finger back and forth. “Careful old man, you’ll raise your blood pressure or pop a blood vessel if you keep that up.”
Miser roared in fury, calling on his atomic might. Without warning, his entire body erupted into flames, the flames grew bigger and bigger, making Nu Firestorm actually look upon Miser with seriousness. The flames continued to grow until it appeared as if there were a raging inferno in the sky. The flames began to take shape, growing arms and legs, and a head, within the flames was a bright glowing skeleton, and around the chest cavity, four glowing stars. Titannus glowered down at the tiny speck of a nuisance, grinning wickedly with its skeletal face.
“Well, bigger isn’t always better, and with that size you’ll be way slow--”
Before Nu Firestorm could finish his sentence, Titannus struck him with a swift punch sending the blue warrior spiralling downward until he flew into the side of building, creating a giant hole. Within the hole, Nu Firestorm had a surprised look on his face, a piece of rubble fell and hit his head, making him growl in annoyance.
“Ooookay, so you’re stupid fast even with that size, probably manipulating the gravitons to decrease the amount of weight you have, while still keeping your strength,” said Nu Firestorm.
Nu Firestorm rose from the rubble, but before he knew it, Twilight and Sunset arrived in the hole with worried looks on his face.
“Are you alright?!” Twilight asked.
Nu Firestorm dusted himself off, his smug expression still prevalent. “Don’t worry, I’m tougher than I look.”
“Better be, as big as you talk,” said Sunset.
Twilight looked up at the giant of fire monster, trying to figure out a way of countering him. But Nu Firestorm strode passed Twilight, patting her shoulder confidently. “Don’t sweat it, Twily, I got this.”
“What did you call me?!”
No answer was given as Nu Firestorm teleported away from them, reappearing before Titannus once again. “Guess who’s back, big guy!”
Titannus leered at him and began throwing punches at the little Firestorm, Nu began dodging them with as much ease as he thought. The huge fist would whizz passed him, creating a slight whirlwind effect around them, Nu’s vermillion cape flapped in the cross breeze, it then wrapped around him, becoming a tornado of orange flames and began weaving around the punches, going all the way up the behemoth’s arm and landing on Miser’s shoulder.
The blue Firestorm created its constructs pistols, blasting away at the face of the monster. Titannus shrugged his shoulders, shaking off Nu. The blue Firestorm growled, finding it hard to believe he hadn’t felled the monster yet. Titannus opened its mouth and bellowed out a roaring inferno of atomic power. Nu was enveloped in those flames completely, being washed out like a pebble in a river, but the flames suddenly parted down the middle. When the flames died out, within Nu’s hand was a claymore sword, constructed out of unknown materials.
“Well this might be a little more difficult than I previously thought,” said Nu.
“HEY!” Sunset shouted.
Sunset and Twilight flew up to Nu, flanking him on either side. Nu smirked and chuckled as he saw both girls stand beside him.
“I knew it, you guys want me,” said Nu.
“Shut up before we regret helping you,” said Sunset.
“Look to Titannus’ chest, the Firestorm Protocols are there! This is the first time they’ve been this exposed! If Sunset and I can get to those, then we can take away his power and he’ll be nothing,” said Twilight.
“Gonna be hard to do, we can’t get close to him the way he is now.”
Nu narrowed his gaze. “Let me worry about that. When I give the signal, move in, got it?”
“Care to let us in on the plan?” Sunset asked.
“Nope!”
Nu Firestorm flew up high into the sky grinning with confidence, the blue Firestorm threw off his vermillion cape, and twirled his sword around, taking a fighting stance, Nu air dashed for Titannus. The giant of fire clapped its hands together, creating a giant shockwave of the rocked the entire city. Nu Firestorm decided that this was going to end, otherwise the entire city would be wiped off the face of the Earth. Nu’s tribal markings glowed brighter, his eyes becoming pools of glowing white light as his atomic power surged forth, making even the giant Titannus feel uneasy.
“THIS IS IT BIG GUY!!!”
The blue Firestorm channeled that energy into his sword and fired a raging tornado of fire and energy that roared towards Titannus. The giant Firestorm unleashed another hellfire stream at the tornado, with a mirthful glint in his eyes, Nu poured more power into the tornado, making it slam up against the hellfire stream. Suddenly, the atomic flames began to swirl into the tornado, increasing its size and strength. Titannus poured more power into his stream in a vain attempt to overpower Nu.
However, this proved to be a futile effort as the tornado continued to roar towards him, and eventually, engulf the giant in towering tornado of intense power. Nu flew up to the top with great haste, appearing over the mouth of the tornado and twirled his sword around. The blue Firestorm then nose dived into the mouth, the energy of the tornado was absorbed by the blade the further down he went, causing it to burn white hot.
Nu then brought down his sword on the flaming giant, cutting it right across its chest. A wave of energy surged along the path of the cut, exploding outwards and creating a huge gash in the giant’s energy layer. “NOW!!!”
Sunset and Twilight jetted straight for Titannus and entered the gaping wound. Sunset quickly took position of two of the Protocols and Twilight gathered up the remaining two, Twilight took Sunset’s and immediately teleported them out of Titannus’ construct body, reappearing outside of the tornado.
The tornado was cancelled out and, unfortunately, the giant was still standing, but not by much. “Y-You think this will stop me?! The nanomachines and my body have absorbed enough the Firestorm Protocols! You have n-no chance of beating me!”
Nu Firestorm deconstructed his sword and rematerialized it into a drill bit. “Don’t you know, nothing is impossible, not for me!”
The blue Firestorm rushed towards Titannus, the drill continued to spin faster and faster until Nu’s body was completely engulfed in blue flames, recreating the drill as a giant blue fire construct. The drill struck the chest of Titannus, and in one powerful burst, blasted through Titannus’ chest and out the other side. The giant Firestorm’s body began to destabilize, Titannus looked over his shoulder at Nu, his expression looked as if he was in pain.
Nu glance back and released the construct drill. “You’re done.”
The energy of the strike surged through the body of the giant, spiraling at the center and sucking him up until he was utterly, and completely sucked into oblivion. Nu sighed, “You brought that on yourself, old man.”
Sunset looked to Twilight, she had a bit of a pained expression on her face. “Are you going to be okay, Sparky?”
Twilight took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s fine, I won’t let this hold me down. I’ve learned, remember.”
Sunset smiled at her girlfriend, suddenly the Firestorm Protocols they were holding rose up. Two zoomed straight into Sunset’s sun emblem, while the other two went into Twilight’s emblem. Nu still held his cocky grin and chuckled. “Well ladies I’d call that a big time win, high fives!”
Nu was suddenly surrounded by a transmuted metal cage, and with Sunset pointing her right hand at Nu, which was now brimming with aquamarine magical light. “You’re coming with us.”
In an instant, all three were gone.
MILES AWAY…
Twilight and Sunset reappeared in a forest, far from the city of Baltimare, with Nu Firestorm in tow. The blue Firestorm had sat down in the makeshift cage, cross legged, and looking a little annoyed. “Girls we just beat a baddie, and I helped you. This isn’t a real good way to show gratitude.”
Twilight waved her hand and dismissed the cage, changing into sand. She then strode towards Nu, despite Sunset’s warnings not to get too close, and got right in Nu’s face, making him feel really tense by the glare in her eyes, and the raging inferno of her pink fire hair. “Earlier, you called me ‘Twily’! You called me ‘TWILY’! Only my big brother ever called me that! How do you know that?! Why do you know that?!”
Nu looked a little nervous, glancing about as if looking for help. “Well…um…that is…”
“Twilight…” Sunset whispered.
Twilight’s glowing eyes began to cry tears of liquid light as she continued to glare at him. “I need to know, are you…are you my brother? Are you Shining Armor?!”
Sunset hovered over to her lover and rested her hands on her shoulders. “Twilight, don’t do this to yourself, please.”
Nu rubbed the back of his head, growling in frustration he walked away and stood alone for a second. “Ugh, I can’t stand to see girls cry……I know that would make her feel better, but what guarantee do I have?!……Okay, alright, but you get thirty minutes…….Fine, two hours, but then you bring me back!”
Sunset and Twilight looked to each other in confusion, Nu turned around and sighed. Without warning Nu Firestorm released a brilliant cerulean and orange flash, both girls had to close their eyes from the intensity of the light, but once it faded, Twilight’s eyes bulged, her irises becoming the size of pinpricks, and instinctively making her revert to her normal form.
Standing before her now were the two people she’d thought she’d never see again. Professor Bill Neigh, still rocking his tan sweater vest, and Shining Armor, still wearing his combat gear and weapons. Sunset shook her head in disbelief, Twilight however ran towards her big brother and tackle hugged him to the ground. Tears of joy ran down her cheeks as she sobbed into his armored chest.
“Shiny, you’re here, you’re alive!” Twilight cried.
Shining Armor, after getting over the initial shock of getting tackled, smiled and stroked Twilight’s hair in comforting fashion. “We’re back Twily, we’re back.”