April 19, 2011

"The waiting. That has to be the worst part in the entire world." Richie said, his feet dangling off the edge of a roof. Anasha hovered just beyond the roofs edge, her ability to control her flight power little better than before. She would create small balls of solid ice and hurl them in every direction, Richie using either his improved accuracy with guns, or a quickly evolving electrical power to turn them into ice dust.

Anasha turned to face Richie. Her uniform still felt uncomfortable to her, though she had been wearing it for a few weeks now. It was mostly made of a durable leather, the top half a tight jacket with a large collar. The center and back were a muted shade of pink, while down the left and right sides were strips of an equally muted shade of purple. The bottoms she wore were leather as well, with a pair of heeled knee-high boots. Over her face she wore a large mask shaped like a pair of pointed wings. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Getting used to these ridiculous uniforms are the worst part. I can hardly take myself seriously. I feel like a super-stripper," Anasha said as she hurled a large ball of ice behind Richie. Without looking he pulled a pistol from its holster, pointed it behind him, and fired. He was rewarded with the sound of ice shattering behind him.

"Hm. Well Meribelle wouldn't make something for you just to embarrass you. Honestly, Booster told me most Meta's have gone to her for decades." The sound of claws on cement caused him to look down and see Kacia quickly scrambling up the building. As she crested the roof, she launched herself into a somersault and landed in a crouching position facing Ritchie's rear. She wore almost nothing save for a small pair of skin tight shorts, a sports bra, and some fingerless, padded gloves on her hands.

Shortly after her landing, Geena shot up from the other side, riding a large rock as though it were a surfboard. She jumped off of it and clasped her hands together watching as her power crumbled the rock into dust and pebbles and the wind quickly carried them away. Wiped her hands on the yellow skirt that was part of her uniform and adjusted the belt that gave her powers. Over her hands she wore yellow gloves supported by Ancient Greek wrist cuffs, a pair of yellow boots, and a yellow top with green stripes running along either side. She wore a simple green mask over her face that covered her eyes.

"How long has it been since we put in our registration papers? Like a week and a half now? How long until the JLA gets it in gear and sends out their rep to meet with us?" Geena walked over and sat next to Ritchie. Kacia walked over and leaned against a large air conditioning unit on the roof.

"At least it's given us time to get used to our powers. And the villains have left us mostly alone..."

"Because we aren't rushing to fight any real villains. The most we've tried is someone as green to their powers as we are. And four on one is really unfair odds," Ritchie cut her off, "Besides, it's not like we were a well oiled machine. We fell all over each other. Kacia got her tail frozen, Geena almost whacked Anasha with a boulder, and I almost shot all of you."

"That's why we don't bring real ammunition to a fight with villains," came an unfamiliar voice behind them. The small group all prepared to fight as they struggled to turn around swiftly and carefully. Ritchie hopped up from his perch o the side of the roof and nearly fell back, spinning his arms wildly until Anasha sent a blast of cold, icy air to push him back up. Geena used the stones from the bundling to twirl her into the air and onto her feet. Kacia did a cartwheel and a front flip to land near her friends.

The voice in question came from a petite blonde girl who wore a red, white, and blue uniform covered in star shapes. She carried a twisted staff with a white rock glowing on top. Geena was the first to comment, "I don't know if I should salute you... Or attack you." The blonde girl smiled wide, and retorted.

"Banter. Banter is good. The question becomes, are you bantering while sizing up your foe, allowing your teammates to get into position for a predetermined attack formation, or to see if the new arrival is actually a threat." Ritchie wanted to chuckle, but couldn't decide if his life was in danger or not, and instead just smirked.

"I bet the answer is the last one." He whispered to Geena, who shot him a sharp look. The blonde girl stepped forward, with her hand outstretched.

"My name is Stargirl. I'm with the Justice League of America. I'm your local representative... Here to... Uh... I had this memorized..." She stopped, resting her palm against her forehead as she tried to remember the rest of her speech. She tapped her staff impatiently before finally shrugging her shoulders. "Basically, I'm with the JLA and I've come to see what you guys can do. Then I'm supposed to take you back to the Watchtower to discuss further options." She flashed her wide smile again.

Everyone stood frozen for a while. Geena looked to Kacia, who looked from Geena to Anasha, who looked to Ritchie. He took a deep breath and marched out to meet Stargirl. "Hi, I'm Rit... Uh, Breechblock. And these are my teammates Geena Adamos," Geena nodded, "Wyntra," Anasha gave a small salute, "and Violet Claw." Kacia smiled politely, though forcefully. "So, are you going to test our mettle or do you just wanna see our powers?"

As if in reply to his question, Stargirl gave Ritchie a smart rap on his head with her staff. Ritchie fell to his knees immediately, seeing spots of light before his eyes, a sense of nausea overcoming him. The girls took the assault as the sign of an attack and reacted quickly. Geena summoned a chunk of rock from the ground below and launched herself off the roof at it. She landed on it and zoomed up above the roofline with it, getting her balance and allowing the rock to swallow her feet.

Summoning up her power again, Geena tore small chunks from the rock and launched them in Stargirls direction. Stargirl wasted no time jumping out of the way and taking flight. The rocks shattered all around Ritchie, shards scratching at his suit and face. The sensation of pain and blood caused his nausea to worsen as be began to vomit on the roof. Geena saw what she had done, and distracted by her own guilt, never saw Stargirl coming. A bright blast of white light engulfed her rock from the bottom and shattered it into pieces.

Anasha took the time that Stargirls back was turned to create three large, sharp icicles and launch them at her. Having more training with the navy, she kept control of the ice and allowed it to follow Stargirl like homing missiles. Sadly for Anasha, these required more concentration the she realized and didn't notice Stargirl changed course and was heading directly for her. Before she could change their course or move out of the way, the three ice missiles collided with each other, and with Anasha, causing her to hit the roof hard. Her body bounced along the length before coming to a halt after colliding with Ritchie.

Kacia saw Geena heading for the ground and used her agility to launch from the roof and grab her. She quickly landed on an adjacent building and laid Geena down in time to see Anasha getting blasted by her own ice shards. Kacia shook her head. These team was terrible. There was no communication, no sense of team, and they rightly deserved what they got. Watched as Stargirl landed on the roof near Anasha and Ritchie and took off at a run. She hurtled the gap between the buildings easily, twisting through the air like a seasoned gymnast as she dodged a flurry of light attacks from Stargirls staff. Landing on the roof, she quickly tapped into her real power of illusion. With no more than a thought, Stargirl saw 7 versions of Kacia escape her barrage of lights.

Each version moved independently, and they all looked identical. The few seconds of trepidation was all Kacia needed before all 7 began to close in and assault Stargirl. Each punch felt real, each kick knocked even more wind from Stargirls lungs. Every time she tried to strike back, one of the illusions stopped her. Griping her staff tightly, she called forth an immense power and unleashed it, knocking the real Kacia to the ground, and causing the illusions to deteriorate before her eyes. Kacia breathed heavily, trying to stand up but feeling too tired to even move.

Stargirl huffed and stood, using her staff as support, she smiled. "I'm thoroughly impressed. You might not work well together yet, but you look out for each other. That's rare with such a new team. You have each others best interests at heart, but you lack foresight. Allow us to teach you to work together. You will be assigned a mentor, access to our equipment, medical teams, and anything else you might need. I promise we can only make you better, and we can even back you up!"

Ritchie finally, slowly, painfully stood up. He pushed Anasha off him as he wiped his own vomit from his suit. Geena slowly made her way over, clinging to a few small rocks to hover her beaten form over. Anasha was the last to mange to sit, still dazed from the impact of the ice. The team looked at one another before Ritchie took the lead. "We signed up. We won't back out now. But we have demands... Or, caveats as part of our contracts with the JLA."

Stargirl reached up to her ear and pushed on a hidden earpiece. "Watchtower, this is Stargirl. We have confirmation. Beam us up!"