//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Shard of Magic [Worm crossover] // by blake0831 //------------------------------// Starburst and Vista stood there on one side of the empty street, facing Cricket and StormTiger on the other side. There was an ugly sneer on the scarred woman's face, while the man had a condescending look instead. Vista gave Starburst a nervous sidelong glance but stood up and tried to appear confident. Starburst was mentally panicking a tad, and whispering to her headset. "Console. We have Cricket and StormTiger here. And I think the other cape I'm picking up on the Radar is Hookwolf. Please get that backup here faster!" "Armsmaster here" Said hero's gruff voice cut in over the comms. "ETA three minutes." Kid Win chimed in. "PRT squads are on the way. Ten minutes." "Well, look who's here." StormTiger intoned mockingly. "The Eidolon-lite." He grinned and flexed his arms. "I wondered how I'd stacked against you." Vista muttered to Starburst over the headsets. "Starburst. We have to get out-" Then Vista suddenly wobbled and fell to her knees. Starburst looked at Vista in surprise, just as her power alerted her to Cricket. The Radar marked Cricket with an additional tag, labelled 'Source of Auditory Disorientation attack'. The Radar power must have filtered it out and prevented it from reaching Starburst's own ears and affecting her. Starburst had wanted to just activate her Flight power, grab Vista and fly them both out of there; but then StormTiger had swung out an arm. The Radar immediately screamed at her of an incoming attack, highlighting in Starburst's vision of a vertical translucent red column of... something cutting through the street heading right at her. Starburst stumbled back and to the side to dodge it and the column passed by, scouring a large vertical gash in the wall of the office. 'Oh' Starburst looked at the damage in minor shock. 'Radar can detect StormTiger's aerokinesis attacks and mark them.' she mentally faintly noted. Recovering from her shock, Starburst saw Cricket started running towards the still incapacitated Vista. Starburst fire a Punch Blast to intercept the villainess, but said woman had simply gracefully dodge the fast moving ball of light. Starburst was about to fire a second blast when she had to hastily dive out of the way of the horizontal air-slash from StormTiger. Starburst fired at StormTiger from her prone position, but he had dodged it by hopping to one side. 'They're toying with us.' Starburst thought as she rolled to dodge another vertical air-slash and snapping off another Punch Blast at Cricket to keep her away from the now-retching Vista. 'They're too agile and supported each other in a fight.' she thought as she threw herself out of the way of an air-slash. 'I need something to pin them down. Stop them from moving so much so I can stop them.' Starburst rolled to her feet and snapped off a retaliatory Punch Blast. 'Stop them with what? What do I have now? Wait a minute...' Jumping over a horizontal slash, Starburst gathered the energy, and unleashed the power as she landed. "You two! Freeze!" she shouted as she activated the power. The wave quickly swept away from her out-stretched hand in a cone shape ahead of her. Both Cricket and StormTiger eyes widened and they tried to dodge it, but they froze in place as the wave hit them and encased them in a softly glowing light teal shell. Starburst quickly switched tracks and rapidly fired 'Sleep-Blasts' at the two now stationary targets, ignoring the slight mental strain of holding them in place. Once Starburst saw that their eyes had slid shut after being hit, she released them from the 'Crowd Freeze' power and ran towards the woozily crouching Vista, ignoring how Cricket and StormTiger had bonelessly slumped onto the pavement, fast asleep. "Vista!" Starburst asked, her hands helping her fellow Ward up. 'Are you alright?" "Ye- Yeah." Vista stuttered slightly. "Just a bit dizzy." "Come on-" Starburst started to say, before a crash startled her into letting go of Vista and snapping off a Sleep Blast at the source of the sound. Vista caught herself and stayed on her feet, her head looking at where Starburst had fired at. Near the hole in the front of the warehouse, a man partially covered in shinning steel blades lightly dodged the wildly aimed shot with a bloodthirsty grin on his face. "Well now," he said, with a quick glance at the downed figures of the E88 capes. "You want to play? Let's play!" With that shout, the man charged at the two Wards, his body shifting into a vaguely lupine four legged form that's composed entirely of sharp blades. Within what it felt like a blink of a eye, he already covered half the distance between them. 'Oh Crap!! It's Hookwolf' Starburst mentally panicked. 'What to do!? Why didn't SafeGuard affect him?! Did he make new blades?! He's coming here!! He can dodge my shots!! Where is Armsmaster?! Help! What to do?! He's getting way too close!! He'll shred us to bits!!' Out of pure panic, Starburst did what she could think of at the time. A pair of teal green hands, each the size of vans materialized and slammed together onto the charging Hookwolf with a thunderous BOOM!! There was a moment of stunned silence, with Vista and Starburst both frozen at the sight before them, Starburst's hands still clasped together. The teal green giant hands were only barely a body length away from them. Had she been a bit slower... The moment was broken as Armsmaster pulls up to the two frozen Wards on his Tinker tech motorcycle. "Are you two alright?" He urgently asked, looking around. "Where's Hookwolf?" Vista weakly raised a shaky hand and pointed at the teal green hands still clapped together. "Is- Is he alive?" Vista weakly asked Starburst. Starburst blinked out of her stunned state at the question and looked at the Hands with the Radar, her own hands still clapped together. "I- I-" she swallowed. "I think so. Radar is still picking him up." Armsmaster unslung his halberd from his motorcycle and readied a containment form grenade. "Starburst" he firmly said. "When I say so, dismiss your projections. I'll contain him. Don't look. You too, Vista. Close your eyes." Starburst nodded, and at his command, de-materialized the Hands. She only got a glimpse before she looked away and Armsmaster foamed Hookwolf, but what remained looked a bit like a flattened pile of silver pennies with a reddish splotch in the middle. "It's okay now." Armsmaster announced once the foam completely covered Hookwolf. "You two can open your eyes now." He strode around and put restrains on the still snoozing Cricket and StormTiger. "Starburst, is there anyone else? Where's Hellhound?" Starburst blinked, having forgot about the Undersider during the short fight. Eyes widening in realization, she looked at warehouse with her Radar. "She's...she's not here." She said in a slightly stunned voice. Even the beast that had gotten thrown through the front of the warehouse was gone. How did something that big sneak away unnoticed? How did four of that plus one rider got away? Armsmaster grunted. "Pity. But the Undersiders have a reputation for being escape artists for a reason." He looked at the captured villains. "Still, we managed to get these three." He looked at the two Wards, both of them having sank to their knees in relief, Starburst de activating her Radar. "Why don't two rest a bit while we wait for the PRT vans to arrive?" Vista simply let out a weak "Okay." while Starburst just nodded, their adrenaline rush fading. As they waited, Starburst felt a familiar mental sensation. 'Huh. The anti-Shatterbird power is done' she thought to herself. 'Took three days this time.' (Royal: Persistent Wide Area (Target: Silica)-kinesis Nullification and Interdiction spell matrix)