"Girl in the Metal Suit" 2 w/ Mayabird, guest-star

[Redleader34]

Pwnt...This battlw will be an exclent one

[Steve]

Gunfire echoed in the room, all of it directed rather foolishly at Amy and not at the unarmored, depowered heroes whom it would actually have hurt. She raised her arms in reply and fired the plasma guns, hitting one and then another of the assembled goons. Zaia leapt out from behind her, tossing a 'rang that knocked the gun out of a third's hands.
The other heroes didn't remain bystanders. They leapt into the fight, each one going after a thug as they were all distracted trying to shoot Amy and Zaia.
With the thugs grappling the heroes in hand-to-hand, and losing, Amy went straight for Elizar. She lifted him up by the robe and tossed him against the far wall. As he tried to recover, Amy reached out in either direction and ripped away the restraints holding the Blackthorne children to the wall, allowing them to run to their parents.
Amy stomped up to him and her left hand grabbed Elizar by the collar, pulling him into the air. Her suit's right hand flamethrower nozzle slid up into place. "Okay, mister conquer-the-world-with-demons, it's time to be set on fire."
"No you fool, you must let me... Aaaaahh!" Flames poured over Elizar's robe and left him thrashing in Amy's grip. Amy tossed him to the ground and brought up her extinguisher, dousing the flames with it as Elizar rolled around. "You... you don't know what you've done..."
"Mum! Da!"
Jhelian's voice made Amy turn... and she saw the children as they were immediately sucked into the vortex in the room. Coming up right behind them, grabbing for Jhelian's leg, was Zaia.... who also disappeared "Oh no... What did you do?!" She snatched Elizar again. "Don't make me burn you again!"
"Idiot," Elizar rasped. "I wanted the demons' powers.... not them.... I would have controlled the transfer so that their essence came through the portal but not their physical form. But you made me drop the Eye, and I cannot control the transfer any longer...."

At that point there was a roar and the portal expanded a bit as it accompanied the shifting of a larger form. A massive clawed foot hit the ground in front of the portal, attached to a thickly-muscled leg of black-red flesh. The rest of the form came out, a demon of about seven feet in height with a large horned head, eyes and nostrils covered in flame, and a wingspan the same as his height. "It is good to be in your mortal plane again. I sense so much life... so much to feast upon."
"Lord Khorak," Nitram said.
Khorak's flaming eyes looked to Tevar where she was on the ground, a bloodied hand over her gunshot wound. He reached out and created a flame that struck and covered Tevar, causing her to scream. "Despite his treachery, I may let Elizar stay here as a reward for giving me such delicious suffering for feed."
"Cease!" The Valkyrie charged forward, sword raised. Khorak extended the other hand and a flame reached out, not just striking Valkyrie but actually enveloping her and lifting her into the air. A wail came from her throat as she thrashed about in the demon's grip. Khorak grinned wickedly, seeming nourished by what was happening.
As Claymore and Sunhawk charged at the demon, Sakura shouted, "We've got to get out off here! We're no match for him without our power!" As she did so, flames erupted from Khorak's eyes and enveloped Claymore and Sunhawk as they had Valkyrie and Tevar.
"Let's smash that talisman thing," Ladyhawk said, running to the table and snatching the Talisman of Dumakal up from the table. As she went to throw it against the wall, a flame from Khorak's mouth reached out and grabbed her, pulling her away and causing her to scream from the agony it created, the suffering that Khorak was now feeding on.

It skittered to the floor, and Amy ran over and snatched it up. Using her suit's power she placed it between her hands and squeezed. As she began, Nitram raised a hand and shouted, "No, stop!"
But it was too late, and the talisman crumbled in the vise grip of Amy's suit hands. A massive light rippled from the talisman and outward. At that moment Sakura's flame aura re-ignited. Iceberg lifted his hands and a pillar of ice shot out, slamming Khorak through the opposite wall and out of the building, causing him to release his victims in the process.
Nitram's first act, with his powers recovered, was to turn to his wife and raise hands toward her. He spoke an incantation and an eldritch glow came from his eyes and enveloped the bullet wound on Tevar's body. The bullet came out and dissipated after it left her skin, her wound healing as it exited.
"Well, now that you're back at full power, how do we deal with him?"
"I was going to retreat from the room and try to cast magic to keep him restrained long enough for you to follow Zaia into the portal to get our kids back," Nitram said in irritation. "But by destroying the talisman you not only recovered our powers, you also stopped it's draining effect upon Khorak. He's going to be at full power now."
"Um.... ooops?"
"'Oops' is an understatement. A British understatement." Nitram sighed and looked to the portal. "Very well, I suppose this will work better anyway. It's only a matter of time before Azrael comes through as well, so I will take a few of us through the portal while you and the others stay here and hold Khorak off."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Amy muttered as Nitram and Tevar got Sunhawk's attention.
At that moment Khorak appeared in the gap of the building and growled in rage. Before he could seize any of them with his flames Amy ignited her foot jets and struck him head on. It was like hitting a solid titanium wall, and the reactive force made Amy's shoulder ache, but it did knock him back out of the chamber and caused him to hit the ground. She brought up her shoulder cannons - the ones with the wicked recoil - and fired both. On her feet she still had trouble holding back from the recoil, while the twin lances of energy struck Khorak directly and literally shoved him further into the ground, a cloud of dust and sprays of grass and soil erupting from the hole he created in the ground.

From the hole a stream of hellfire erupted and enveloped Amy before she could move. It completely ignored her armor and seemed to strike her directly as it had the others. She screamed, every nerve in her body feeling as if it were on fire.
Sakura came around the ziggarut, hovering in mid-air with flame aura active, and pointed her hands at Khorak as he emerged from the hole in the ground. A stream of flame erupted from her hands and struck the demon lord directly, but it was clear that it was little more than an annoyance for him as he projected another stream of hellfire that enveloped her and hurt her as it did the others.
The roof of Elizar's ziggarut came off of the rest of the building, masonry cracking and crumbling from the force used against it, and the roof began to hover slightly in mid-air as it was moved into position by Ladyhawk, visibly straining and exerting much of her strength. She grunted and hurled the roof down on top of Khorak, causing him to release the other two as he was smashed into the earth again.
He quickly broke free from it, a shower of shattered masonry and dust around the point where his massive body shot through the disembodied roof, and took to the air. He looked up in time to see Ladyhawk soaring at him at full speed. She plunged into his belly, fists first, and the two flew at high speed into the ground, creating a trench by the sheer force of their impact and slide across the ground.
Amy had recovered by now and saw Valkyrie as she came toward the opening, intending to join the fight. "Here, let me," she said to the Scandanavian girl. She picked Valkyrie by the ankles and began to hover in mid-air as Ladyhawk and Khorak exchanged punches at the end of the trench they'd formed in the ground. Amy used the suit's jets to spin in mid-air, holding Valkyrie out by her ankles, and finally tossed her straight at Khorak - aided by her suit's computers, which projected the release point - with a shout of "BLONDIEDOKEN!!!"

Valkyrie screamed a war cry in mid-air and plunged her sword into Khorak's chest just after he had snared Ladyhawk with hellfire from his eyes. He released his prisoner and his screech nearly deafened every hero present, his demonic form being directly assaulted by the holy powers in Valkyrie's Asgardian sword. He brought a clawed hand up and swatted Valkyrie away, her sword still embedded his his body. He grabbed it and pulled it out, throwing it at Valkyrie. Before she could react it went straight through her armor and her lower right side, barely missing her spine. She cried out and collapsed, blood pouring around the blade on both sides of the wound.
"Sakura, get that sword out of her and cauterize her wound," Iceberg ordered, taking charge as the senior JF team member. "Everyone else, pour it on!" He followed Claymore down the ice slide he'd created to the ground, a column of ice erupting from his outstretched hands and slamming into Khorak as he reeled from Ladyhawk's blows. He took the impact standing before growling in rage and sending his hellfire straight through the column, vaporizing a hole through it before striking Iceberg, letting Khorak feed off the resulting agony he felt from the magical flames. A second strand again seized Ladyhawk, and a third took Claymore as he tried to close to attack with his own enchanted sword.
Before a fourth and fifth could grab Sakura and Valkyrie, Amy flew down from above and fired her shoulder cannons again. The recoil made her shoot straight upward, but she had been prepared this time and managed to keep herself directly above the demon so that the energy only hit him. Khorak was pushed into the ground by the power of the blasts, losing his grips on the others. At that time the energy dissipated as the cannons' charge ran out, and Khorak was able to recover... at least for the moment until Ladyhawk began to punch away at him again, trying desperately to keep him off balance.
Valkyrie moaned, holding back the cry that began to form in her throat, as flames from Sakura's hands licked at her bloody wounds, burning and sealing the opening in her flesh so that the bleeding stopped. She gripped her sword and stood to her full height before running back into the fight.
I really hope the others are having better luck than we are, Amy mused to herself as she watched Khorak again snag Ladyhawk and some of the others in hellfire for his feeding.


Zaia had found herself in something... not very hellish when she went through the portal. Instead of a cavern-like place with firepits and the like that existed in the popular imagination, she found herself in a dark and barren landscape where there was no light and yet there was, as if the landscape itself eminated just enough light to be visible.
The children were nearby, surrounded by a bunch of demonlings not too different from the ones they'd fought at Blackthorne Manor, and Jhelian was projecting some kind of defensive field while Sean-Eric remained beside her, clutching her waist and looking very frightened. Zaia went to help them when she felt something snatch her right wrist. She turned to see tendrils or tentacles of some kind literally reach out of the landscape and ensnare her. She struggled against the one holding her wrist until another one grabbed her other wrist, and two more grabbed her ankles. Struggling in vain, she was lifted into the "air", such as it was, and her body was pulled taunt with her arms and legs spread-eagled in the air. In front of her, a massive demonic beast materialized, as if he were fading into existance. Fire came from his nostriles as a clawed finger came up and gripped Zaia by the cheek while she tried to free herself. "You are a brave fool, girl, coming here when you possess no defense against the things of this plane. Now you will provide me a delicious snack."

"What.... who are you?!" Zaia tried not to look too deeply into his flaming and evil eyes, terror already beginning to fill her.
"I am Azrael. And while my brother Khorak prepares the way for our conquest of your world, I shall feed on you until you become nothing more than a jibbering mortal husk." At that point flames came from Azrael's eyes and enveloped Zaia.
There were no words to describe the pain she felt, save that it was far worse than what she had suffered against the incubus. It filled her, literally, from head to toe, each and every body part suffering an excruciating pain that made her screams fill the landscape.
This ended abruptly when an explosion of magical energy struck Azrael, tearing Zaia loose. Sunhawk's solar blasts struck the tendrils binding her wrists and ankles, freeing her and allowing him to grab her. As he flew upward and around back to where Nitram and Tevar stood, he looked at her and grinned. "You know, you look really good tied up. Would you mind trying it out with me later?"
"Shut... up... perv," Zaia groaned.
"I'll take that as a maybe," was his cheerful reply.
He retreated with her back to the edge of the portal, while demonlings advanced on Nitram and Tevar, Azrael standing back and observing. "I'll get the kids," Sunhawk volunteered, flying off into the air and over everyone to where Jhelian and Sean-Eric were huddling.
"Ye damned fool, get back 'ere!" Tevar shouted after him, her defense field holding against the press of the enemy demonlings while Nitram kept sweeping them away with his own magic.
Sunhawk swooped over the demonlings and toward the kids. As he descended toward them, a blast of fire came from Azrael and knocked him out of the sky. He landed with a hard impact.

Azrael advanced toward Sunhawk and was about to take him by the hand when a blast of pure green energy struck him directly. Jhelian's voice echoed over the landscape, shouting, "No, stay away from' 'im!", and she was now hovering in mid-air, an eldritch glow in her eyes. Sean-Eric held on tightly as Jhelian's energy struck out once more, ripping through the demonling army almost completely to where her parents were. She moved them through the gap toward them. Sunhawk got to his feet and took off, firing solar blasts into the demonling ranks as he also made it back to where Nitram and the others were. "Okay everyone, back through the portal!" he called out.
"You shall not escape!" Azrael shouted, throwing all of his power toward them. Tevar cried out, struggling with all her might to resist the demon's force against her protective field.
Jhelian took her mother's hand, and her other hand was taken by Sean-Eric, who clasped hands with his father in turn. All four members of the Blackthorne family concentrated and directed their magical power, raw as it was in some cases, into the field against Azrael. Both the family and the demon strained against each other, their metaphysical energies equal for the moment.
One of Zaia's 'rangs flew out of the magic field and struck Azrael square in the eye. Concentrated as he was on trying to force his way through the Blackthornes' protective field, he was unprepared for the simple but effective attack from the Lady Avenger and allowed it to disrupt his concentration. This slip allowed the Blackthornes to strike, hard, and the magical feedback ripped through the hellfire and enveloped Azrael in a white and green energy field that stunned him heavily.
"Through the portal! Now!" Nitram stayed beside the rotating, wavering pool of blackness as his family jumped through, followed by Sunhawk and Zaia. Tevar and Nitram were the last through, going through together.

When they arrived back in Elizar's citadel, they found his chamber was now without a roof. Dark clouds swirled in the air around them and were blotting out the sun, a black wind laced with terror surrounding them. In front of them, Iceberg and Sakura laid unconscious, Valkyrie further to the side and Claymore just outside where the door once was. Amy was nowhere to be found, though the magic-users soon sensed her on the ground outside, as unconscious as the others.
Ladyhawk's bloodcurdling scream was filling the air, and it was evident why when they looked in the air and saw her in the grips of Khorak, writhing and twisting in his hellfire aura as he fed on her agony and terror. He looked down at the Blackthornes, Zaia, and Sunhawk, and growled, dropping the metahuman superheroine to the ground where she fell unconscious. "Hmm, you are far stronger than I imagined, but no matter!" Khorak lifted his clawed arms into the air and a hellfire aura surrounded him. "I have fed well on your mortal heroes and their futile struggling. My power grows with each second in this plane, and when I finish feeding upon you, I shall be supreme on this wretched mortal world." Khorak laughed, his deep demonic laugh echoing, it seemed, in all places at once.

[Vehrec]

Blondiedoken? Oh man. You just won the internet. Or at least, this webpage.

[phongn]

GO SAC GO!

[Redleader34]

We need help... The magic is beating our tech....

[LadyTevar]

Weel nowe, yer in luck. The Blackstone family t'is t'gether nowe... an' tha wee demon's 'bout ta see jis' why Jhelian an' SeanEric are so dang'rous. All they're needin' t'is a bit o' control 'n guidance, as it were.

[Steve]

The first to strike was Sunhawk, who sent solar blasts at Khorak with both hands. He shrugged the blasts off and struck back, a bolt of hellfire striking at Sunhawk's feet as he jumped backward to avoid it.
Khorak was about to follow up the attack when a bolt of pure magical energy struck and encased him. The Blackthornes had joined hands again, Tevar and Nitram channeling the raw magical energy their children could call upon to add to their own with the benefit of their control. Khorak growled in rage and began fighting back, gathering his hellfire aura and pushing against their magic until both sides were equal.
Sunhawk and Zaia were about to attack the disabled demon when a pair of red bolts struck them from behind, making them cry out and fall to the ground, knocked out. The Blackthornes were too occupied with Khorak to do anything when Elizar stepped up beside them, the Eye of Nicodemus in his hand and a shard of the Talisman of Dumakal in the other. He began to chant an incantation and a stream of magical energy leapt from the eye and the talisman, it's absorption abilities reactivated partially by Elizar's magic. The bolt struck Khorak and he began to screech, the black energy of it then following down the stream of hellfire and green magic that linked Khorak and the Blackthornes to encase them. They began to moan, and Sean-Eric whined loudly. "Mum.... wha'.... wha's 'appenin' ta my magick?"
"Elizar, what are you doing?!" Nitram demanded to know.

"Through the talisman and the Eye of Nicodemus, I am channeling all of your energies into me." A bright eldritch glow filled Elizar's eyes, the same color eminating around him as an aura of magick. "Such power! Power as I have never imagined! I.... I will be a GOD!"
"We've..... we've got to stop casting the magic," Nitram told the others.
"I can't, Nitram! It... it's as if ma power's....out o' control!"
"No... no you cannot!" Elizar laughed, feeling the power filling him. "For an eternity I have waited to bring Order to this wretched planet. An eternity of waiting that will end now! At long last, the World of Order is at hand!"
"Treacherous sorcerer!" Khorak's nostrils flared. "Lord Khorak answers to no one!"
A stream of hellfire followed the path of the energy stream to Elizar, grabbing him and his artifacts. He snarled and fought back. "No you don't, not now Demon Lord. My power grows faster than your's wanes! I will have all of it! ALL OF IT!"
Nevertheless Elizar began to struggle against the force of Khorak's attack. "I'm going to regret this...." Nitram looked to his family. "Tevar, see if you can direct your energy to help the Demon!"
"Are ye daft?!"
"We have no choice! We have to overload Elizar before his power..... Aaaagh!"
From behind hellfire lashed out at both Khorak and the Blackthornes, striking and weakening them as Elizar continued to draw the magical energy out of them. Azrael stood at the entrance to the otherworldy portal, the origin of the attack. "What treachery is this?!"
"You allowed your hunger for the mortal realms to blind you, Khorak, to my plans. I have no desire to feast once when I can feed for an eternity as the lone ruler." Azrael's nostrils flared. "This Human and I made a pact to eliminate you long ago, when we first allied with him."
"TRAITOR!!! I WILL CRUSH YOU FOR THIS!"


A killer headache - hell, a bodyache - made Amy groan when she woke up and found herself looking up at a sky covered in dark clouds, with a massive array of light coming from the top of the ziggarut. She remembered being snatched by Khorak's hellfire, a great deal of agony, and then hitting the ground and passing out.
The roar in the air of demonic and Human howls and the wind surrounding the energies was great, but even then Amy decided to activate her stealth buffers on her foot jets when she zipped up into the air to see what was happening. Aw HELL was the ironic thought on her mind at seeing a second demon with Khorak, the Blackthornes, and Elizar, with various energy and hellfire streams linking them like some insane web.
Amy, being intelligent, noticed the aura of energy around Elizar and the shard he held in his hand and knew what it was. She brought her right arm up and activated one of her plasma guns along with her suit's targeting systems. I have one shot before they see me.... one shot.... gotta make it count.... She made sure the crosshairs were over the shard and fired it.

The bolt of energy erupted from her suit gun and whipped across the distance, smashing into Elizar's hand. He screeched and dropped the shard out of surprise. The stream of energy linking him and the shard with Khorak dissipated immediately.
In a fit of rage, Khorak - freed of Elizar - turned to Azrael and smashed into him. The two demons exchanged blows, snarling and raging at one another. The Blackthornes, relieved of the attack on them, wearily turned toward Elizar, the children dropping to their knees and even Nitram going to one knee - Tevar remained on both feet but was almost trembling with effort to remain standing.
Elizar, having recovered, went straight for the glowing shard. He fell to his belly, having misjudged how close it was in his frantic desire to reclaim it, and reached for it on the ground. Amy swooped overheard and came down just as his left hand passed over the shard to snatch it.... her right foot crushing both. An inhuman scream of agony came from Elizar at the crushing of his left hand. When he yanked it back instinctively, he only recovered the stump of his left arm, his hand literally crushed off just below the wrist. He screamed, grasping the limb with tears of pain in his face. Amy snatched him by the collar and raised him up again. "Didn't you learn from the first time I set you on fire?"

"Miss Chan, the Eye!" Nitram finally got back to his feet. "Destroy it!"
"No. No!" Elizar, in desperation, lashed out with energy and knocked Amy back, forcing her to let go of him. He dropped to his feet in time to turn toward the Eye. "I can't let you...."
From the side, Zaia leapt back into the fight, her right foot connecting squarely with Elizar's jaw and knocking him out of the way, allowing Amy to stomp up to the Eye. Her robotic left foot came down on the black pearl, crushing it into pieces. As she did so, a massive release of energy caused her to instinctively fall back, a wise thing as staying would have cost her the entirety of her left leg, both the suit's and her flesh-and-blood leg. The outpouring of energy swirled around the rift and around the demons. Khorak screeched in rage as he and his traitorous peer literally faded away with the rift.
Above them, the dark clouds literally ripped away from each other, revealing the beautiful orange and red hue of a sunset sky. The black winds stopped and a refreshing mountain breeze whipped around them.

Elizar cried out in rage and anger. "Don't you know what you've done?!"
"I can tell her easily enough," Nitram said from where he stood. "Your magic power was bonded to the Eye to hold the rift open for so long, and when she destroyed the Eye much of it dissipated instead of returning to you."
"So, like, I depowered him?"
"No' complet'ly, bu' 'e'll be kep' ta cheap tricks fer nowe on." Tevar stomped past Amy and Zaia and up to Elizar. "Ye bastard sassenach! This..... this is fer me gettin' shot!" She slugged Elizar with a punch to the gut. She followed up with a right hook that sent him against the wall. "An' tha' one is fer ma wee ones ye scared 'alf ta death!" A left punch struck him in the other jaw, knocking a tooth out. "An' tha's fer comin' after ma fam'ly!"

"Okay kids, you've used your magic well so far," Nitram said to the kids, ignoring how his wife was giving his family's ancient foe a beating. "Please go heal the others enough that they can wake up."
"Right away, Da!" Jhelian shouted in glee, running off to the unconscious form of Sakura.
"....fer bringin' demons inta...."
As Tevar was about to hit Elizar again, his right eye swelling shut from one of her punches and his nose crooked from another, Zaia put a hand on Tevar's shoulder. "Say, Tevar, considering that Amy crushed and severed his hand, cost him most of his power, and set him on fire, don't you think he's suffered enough?"
"NO!"


The night air was crisp and clear over Blackthorne Manor when the heroes teleported back to it, unconscious villains in tow. After they arrived, Ladyhawk crossed her arms. "Do you know how pissed off Dad's going to be that one of the jets got wrecked?" she said to Zaia and Amy. "Do you?!"
"If he's like any Dad.... yeah, I can imagine," Zaia giggled. "But you can just blame us."
"No, because he'll blame me for not putting enough security on it."
"Given that we ended up saving the day, I think he'll be more understanding," Amy remarked. She looked to the Blackthornes. "Okay, so we all go home now? I'm sure Yancy is worried sick, and the last thing I need is him blabbing my secret identity in a panic."
"You and Zaia will be returned momentarily." Nitram looked to the JF members. "You will take Elizar and the others with you?"
"Yeah, we can drop them off at an Army base near home and then fly the rest of the way," Sakura replied.

"It was a grand bit o' adventure, lads an' lasses," Claymore said happily, pounding Iceberg on the shoulder with a friendly pat. "We'll 'ave tae do it ag'in sometyme."
"Yes. What has happened here today is a story worthy of the warriors of Valhalla," Valkyrie boasted..
Nitram extended a hand and teleported Claymore and Valkyrie away. He looked to Sunhawk, who was standing by Zaia. "Say, I know you copped a feel," he said to her. "Maybe you'll let me return the favor...?"
Zaia smirked. "I copped a feel so that you wouldn't notice this." She reached around his back and brought her hand back, showing the small transmitter she'd hidden on him. "GPS transmitter so I could track you to Elizar's HQ."
"Beautiful and smart and you look really good tied up. You were made for me, Lady Avenger."
"You're assuming I'd be the one tied up," Zaia replied with a smirk, her expression a mixture of amusement and slight irritation.
"I don't mind switching places..."
"Yeah, whatever you winged perv."
"Back to Arizona you go, Sunhawk, before you cause her to slap you." Nitram raised a hand and cast his teleportation magic.
"Awww, come on...." Sunhawk disappeared in an aura of magical energy.
As the JF members gathered around the unconscious and bound villains for teleport, Iceberg looked to Zaia and Amy. "So, you ladies helped save the world. Think you could get used to it?"
"Just what do you mean by that?" Amy asked.
"Justice Force could always use more members," Iceberg replied, looking back at them. "We've been thinking of expanding to the East Coast anyway. A little talk to Hawk and you two could be founding members of Justice Force East Coast."
Amy and Zaia looked at each other. It was Amy who replied first, saying, "Uh, sorry, I got into the game to set stupid criminals on fire, not to regularly save the world."
Zaia nodded, adding, "I work better alone anyway."
Iceberg shrugged, and after he did a large magical field surrounded him, the other two JF heroes, and the villains, and all disappeared. This left just Amy and Zaia. "Well, I guess it's our turn. Back to Atlanta we go."
"Yes." Nitram nodded, and he and Tevar clasped hands. "It was an honor working with you. Despite your feelings, Amy Chan, you may be a greater hero than you realize."
"Take care, ladies," Tevar added. "If ye're e'er in Wes' Virginia, giv' us a call, it'd be nice ta 'ave some company o'er."
"Oh, sure," Zaia said. "But only if you agree to cook again, otherwise I'll have to find a Waffle House first."
They all began to laugh.


Upon re-materalizing on a rooftop in downtown Atlanta, Zaia and Amy looked to each other. Then Zaia raised a hand. "It was nice working with you. We'll have to do it again some time."
"It was pretty cool. I don't work with others very well, but you're pretty kick-ass for someone who doesn't set crooks on fire," Amy replied pleasantly. "If you want, look me up if you're in town again. We'll hang out, give me some time away from Yancy, who I'd better call now."
"And I'd better go find Patrick." Zaia took out her grappling gun and looked over the side of the building. "Um... yuck, kinda high up. Mind giving me a ride to one of the smaller buildings so I can start swinging my way back to the hotel?"
Amy smirked and knelt down so that Zaia could get on her suit's shoulders. "Why not?" After Zaia sat across her neck, Amy jumped off the edge of the roof and fired her foot rockets gently, descending slowly to the next building.


Yancy was asleep in the workshop when Amy got back. She opened up the suit, and as she tried to sneak away to go to the bathroom he woke up. "Oh thank God you're back! What happened?! I've been freaking out all day...."
"Oh, the usual hero stuff. Got teleported across the Appallachians, worked with some other heroes, saved the world, that kind of thing...."
Yancy's eyes widened. "....saved the world?"
"Yup, stopped an evil sorcerer planning to conquer the world with demons from Hell."
"That's so cool! So, who did you team up with? Justice Force? The Truth and Justice Foundation? Did you meet Rocket Girl and Omega Paladin? Did Rocket Girl offer you more cool upgrades for your suit like SG-14 did? Did you get to meet Tron and see him use those cool eyeblasts? Or that new redhead flame-firing hottie they've got in the JF? I have a poster of her that they printed after her first appearance, she's really sexy.... think you could get me her autograph? Oh, demons, so did you work with Professor Maxis? What's he like...."
"Yancy!"

[Redleader34]

Nice end.. for now.. This story was nice... So These upper level deamons always get betrayed?

[Steve]

Nice end.. for now.. This story was nice... So These upper level deamons always get betrayed?

Who said the story was over? I have yet to post the epilogue, but I have to cross-check a fact with Misty first.

[Steve]

Epilogue


The prison transport to the Pit - the ultra-max security prison that the United States had build into the ground of the Nevada desert at "Fort Bryan Nelson", named after the experienced meta-hating Army general - was rumbling it's way along the fifteen mile long access road. In the rear storage area, Elizar stood encased in a solid titanium alloy shell that resembled a coffin, his mouth covered by a metal gag to prevent him from speaking and his wrists and ankles tightly shackled by metal restraints. He glared hate in the only direction the restraint shell would let him. His hand was still gone, though he expected this weakling mortals would give him a prosthetic, and his swollen eye, broken nose, and missing teeth remained from the enraged blows he had taken from the bard Tevar Blackthorne-NicIomhair.
His heart burned with hate and rage. For the Blackthornes, as always, and for that girl in the metal suit... the girl who had taken his hand and humiliated him. He wanted revenge, and he knew he would get revenge. Somehow....

Suddenly there was a rapid shaking. The guards - wearing powered armored suits that reminded him of the accursed girl who had mutilated him - scattered around to fight whatever was attacking. Animalistic growls and the cries of a fierce battle came to his ear. Something lifted the truck up, and Elizar cried out in surprise as red energy rippled around the frame of the transport, tearing it in half. His restraint shell did not hit the ground as expected, but was instead surrounded in some kind of red energy aura which held him in mid-air. He saw energy blasts of white, red, and green zip around until the cries of the fighting stopped. When the fight was over, the shell was lowered to the ground and, to his surprise, a buzzsaw made of pure red energy formed in front of him and cut along the vertical axis of the shell. Both sides fell away, and bolt-cutters formed from the same red energy stream to remove his restraints and the gag.
By this time he saw figures emerging from the darkness of the near-moonless desert night. From right to left, they consisted of a wiry, sickly-looking man with tattered dark cloth; a thin man in a silver suit; a massive furred beast-humanoid with wild white hair in stretched out trousers; and a nearly-as-massive mutated humanoid, clearly metahuman, wearing dark trousers and with an armored carapace over his back and hunched shoulders, his head hunched down and level to his shoulders with eyes glowing with power.

From above them a dark-haired, dark-eyed man descended, wearing a jumpsuit-like garment of black and dark red trim with a dark red field on the chest that surrounded a black star insignia. He was surrounded by a red power aura that Elizar could tell to be the origin of the energy constructs that had freed him. He landed to his feet in front of Elizar. When he spoke, it was with a menacing baritone voice. "You are the sorcerer Elizar recently apprehended by members of Justice Force." It was more statement than question.
"I am Elizar the Immortal, known and feared by some as the Dark Lord," Elizar replied.
"Ah, very good. I have need of a man like you, with knowledge of the ancient magicks. I would like to propose an alliance."
"I am interested in just such a thing," Elizar admitted. "But first, I want to know who I am working with."
"Allow me to introduce my Horsemen." Moving from right to left, the figure stated, "This is Jacques, Plague; Antony, War; Sorborus; and , Jones, known as Death."
"And you are...?"
The figure in the red power aura put a hand on his chest at his uniform's star insignia. His eyes began to glow red from the energies he controlled. "I am called DarkStar."
Elizar nodded at that. An agent of Chaos, I am sure, but still.... he is of potential use to me.... "Well then, DarkStar..." He extended his remaining right hand, which DarkStar took. "It will be a pleasure to work with you."


THE END....... FOR NOW.

[Vehrec]

. . . Darkstar.
Fuging Darkstar.
Anyone wanna have a drink? I can only hope he's a more effective villian than in real life.

[Singular Quartet]

Stravo wrote him pretty damn well.

[Redleader34]

Oh shit..... Its the Darkstar.... will RDA be making an apearence next time...

[Steve]

Oh shit..... Its the Darkstar.... will RDA be making an apearence next time...

Richard Dean Anderson? As MacGuyver or O'Neill?