Adventures of Superguy

August 3, 2010 - Gotham City

Gotham City Academy

21:36:07

“Girl, am I glad to see you…” Superboy begins as Kid Quick helps him to his feet, his toes sliding on the parquet floor. 

“What happened to your shoes? Never mind, save it for later, we got bigger fish to fry.” Kid states, turning to face Darci in her Captain Atom get-up. The gynoid doesn’t waste any time, raising both fists to unleash twin atomic beams at them. Kid goes right, zipping away while Superboy rolls to the left. Each blast tears apart the floor even more, while the Toyman claps with sadistic delight from the bleachers. 

“A new player enters the game! I think that calls for an upgrade. Darci, darling; power princess!” Toyman barks, and Darci’s eyes lower in resignation for a second before the same flash occurs around her and within the doll box next to Toyman. When it fades away, she takes a heroic pose in her new costume.

Well, shut my mouth. Linda Carter Wonder Woman.

Darci is wearing what looks like a satin version of the classic ‘swimsuit’ costume, complete with silver bracers and a gold cord lasso. Her blonde hair has even been styled like the TV star, flowing around her tiara. Like the Captain Atom costume, it looks weirdly incongruous on her. Having seen the real Wonder Woman in costume, hers can only seem like a childish copy.

She’s just not tall enough. Or jacked enough.

Kid doesn’t waste any more time, either, and rushes at her blindingly fast. But smoothly and faster than a human can blink, she catches Kid’s punch and throws the speedster over her shoulder, sending her tumbling ass over teakettle towards the other end of the gym. Superboy is already moving in, smiling as he recalls his lesson with Wonder Woman earlier.

Let’s see what I’ve learned…

He charges at her, but learning from Kid’s mistake, the overhand blow he winds up with is a feint, and he dives feet first into a slide tackle that takes out her legs. Darci lands hard but immediately springs into a backflip to create distance. Rising back to his feet, Superboy comes at her again, and throws a quick 1-2-3 combo that she smoothly blocks. Remembering what comes next, he centers himself and tenses his legs for the retaliatory sweep. When it comes, Darci’s leg hits his knee with a bruising impact that almost buckles it, but he doesn’t let it undermine him.

Grinning, he moves forward to press his attack again, but Darci responds faster than he expected. She counterpunches, and his offensive is suddenly on the backfoot as he retreats across the gym, blocking and weaving where he can. The sudden pressure is relieved when Kid returns, back on her feet and fighting mad. Instantly behind Darci, she delivers a flurry of machinegun blows that force Darci to turn and face her. By the time she does, Kid falls back rapidly, leaving Darci open to a haymaker from Super boy.

Winding up with everything he has, his blow catches her in the face and snaps her head to the side. But as she does so, her eyes snap back to glare at him even as her head is rocked back. With impossible grace, she rolls with the punch and turns the knock back into a rising kick that catches him on the chin and sends Superboy flying away. 

“Let’s see some hustle, Darci dear! Quickly, now!” Toyman exclaims, sounding like a helicopter parent screaming at their miserable young athlete from his spot in the bleachers.

In a flash of blue light, Darci is… the Flash. Just as Superboy remembers the iconic costume, complete with the hooded mask worn by several Flashes. Not like Jesse Quick’s mask though; Jesse’s mask ends above her brow to let her long, blonde hair flow freely behind her in a casual, windswept way. With that difference, she just looks like a very curvaceous and sexy female Flash to Superboy. 

Superboy doesn’t even see the blur of Speedforce movement when Darci hits him, and he is sent flying through the gym wall, shattering cinderblocks into dust as he hits. He lands half in the gymnasium and half in the girl’s locker room. The blow stuns him enough to scarcely notice the forbidden territory he’s been knocked back into.

Oof. I forgot that Jesse’s super strong AND a speedster. She hits like a rocket powered semi-truck. 

Clambering out of the pile of rubble, he sees Kid try to run away from Darci’s impersonation of her mentor but the gynoid is far faster, catching her in a bear hug from behind. Darci begins to squeeze and Kid cries out in pain, sending a stab of fear through Superboy. It inspires him to make all haste, which seems woefully inadequate against someone who can copy the powers of the Fastest Woman Alive. Before he can reach the two, someone else intervenes.

A billowing white championship banner falls from the ceiling, and riding the cross bar it hangs from is Robin, her cape billowing as she rides it down. Superboy catches a glimpse of a confusing logo and embroidered words ‘Gotham City Academy Grackles’ comes down over Darci like a weighted blanket, tangling her up. Superboy can’t see exactly what happens beneath the fallen banner but it looks like a cartoon Tasmanian devil is wildly attempting to escape its confines. Kid crawls out from under the banner, and the three teammates reconvene, even as Darci tears her way through her cloth confines in a crimson cyclone. 

“Another playmate! How exciting! Darci, darling; green thumb!” Toyman cackles, and as he speaks, Superboy’s eye is drawn to the demented toymaker. 

He’s got the watch out… the WATCH!

The flash comes again, and Superboy realizes what is happening, and knows he only has seconds before Darci has changed powersets (and costumes) again. Hurriedly he draws his teammates in and whispers urgently to them. 

“Toyman controls her with the heart shaped watch! We gotta get it away from him! If she’s not under his control, she doesn't wanna fight us.” Superboy hisses, but Darci is newly transformed and advancing.

She looks like she’s been painted a different color; green this time, of course. Her costume looks like this Earth’s Martian Manhunter, if cut a bit more masculine. The turned down boots are only knee high, and her red harness covers a bit more than J’oann’s does. Darci’s skin looks rubbery and dark, not matching the real Manhunter’s. She’s also bald like J’oann is, with the heavy brow ridge and large cranium. The consistency of her ‘flesh’ reminds Superboy of Gumby, which would have raised a wave of nostalgia if her arms didn’t grow as long as the gym floor and lash down at them like whips. The three dive out of the way, and Superboy can only hope the others believe him and follow the plan. 

Realizing that someone must keep Darci busy, he reluctantly accepts that ‘someone’ is him. For a moment, he desperately wishes it was someone else but he gamely forges ahead. Darci’s arms writhe like snakes and she has little difficulty using one to harass Robin while fighting Superboy with the other. Her body has become as rubbery and stretchy as certain beloved children’s toys, and when Superboy does hit her, it feels like punching a solid rubber ball. A little tough give and take, but a great deal of resistant mass to try to move.

Robin is doing cartwheels and hurling birderangs while dodging Darci’s snaking green limb. She doesn’t bother aiming at the arm that vexes her, she throws directly at Darci’s head. It’s a curiously large target with an enlarged cranium, and Superboy belatedly realizes its a bald cap concealing her hair. The realization almost makes him laugh but he has to duck a shattering blow from Darci so it is interrupted. At the same moment, the birderangs seem to impact but then Darci turns intangible and semi-transparent, and the throwing weapons fly right through her and embed in the floor.

But Kid Quick makes use of the distraction her teammates provide, driving straight for Toyman. As she climbs the stairs of the bleachers at superspeed, the troop of robot monkeys guarding him launch at her with their chorus of cackles. 

“Chee... hee... hee!" 

Kid ducks and weaves and hurls one monkey into another at superspeed, but the delay caused is enough for Toyman to pull a jar of marbles out of his pocket and cast them down the stairs towards Kid Quick. Instantly they snap together and form a rolling carpet that gets under Kid’s feet and immediately trips her up with a yelp as she falls. As the marbles trip Kid Quick, the remaining robot monkeys seize Toyman by the shoulders and fly him away from her.

“Swap dance partners!” Robin shouts, and with a glance over his shoulder, he nods and hurls himself towards the opposite stands where the robot monkeys alight with Toyman. He smashes down like a meteor into the stands, sending Toyman sprawling, and swats monkeys out of the air with contemptuous ease. Robin hurls a fistful of her explosive shuriken at Darci, but again she turns insubstantial and they fly right through her. Darci is, however, solid again when they explode at her back after impacting the floor. She is sent tumbling but swiftly recovers. 

“Darci, darling! Your loving boy-toy needs a little help!” Toyman screams in a panicked soprano as Superboy reaches for his backpedaling foot. In a green blur, Darci is there and in his face, her now red eyes back to the same sad look and her pert mouth frowning as she entangles him in tentacle-like arms. She squeezes like an anaconda and Superboy grunts in pain, feeling his ribs creak and his back pop from the sudden compression. Toyman takes the opportunity to find his feet and sprint away, but his little legs don’t carry him far before Robin grapnel swings her way in front of him. 

The diminutive mad toymaker skids to a halt, his penny loafers squeaking on the gym floor to stop from running right into the Girl Wonder. He reaches into his waistcoat for some other toyetic gizmo, but Robin hurls a birderang with a quickdraw that Vigilante would be impressed by. It smacks into Toyman’s hand and the squirt gun pistol with an ominously glowing green tank goes skittering across the floor. Before Robin can seize him or the clockwork heart watch, Darci grows a third arm that snaps out toward Robin like a striking cobra, forcing her to desperately dodge out of the way. 

Superboy grunts, desperately trying to free himself from her python clutch, but can’t seem to find the strength. His vision begins to grow dark at the edges, but going after Robin has distracted Darci momentarily. Summoning his strength, he snaps a vicious headbutt into the side of Darci’s unsuspecting head. His skull rings with the blow, but so does hers as she stumbles back, her grip loosening enough for him to break out. He takes a heaving gasp of air as he does so, shoving her back. 

Suddenly, Kid is there and gone, a blur that passes right by Darci and goes straight for Toyman. This time, she is almost too slow to react, and Kid reaches her erstwhile master and seizes the clockwork heart watch from Toyman. She holds it up triumphantly, but its still connected to the madman by his watch fob, leaving him dangling by it. Toyman flails as she tries to shake him loose. 

But before anyone can react, Kid freezes mid-motion. Every muscle in her body tenses and Superboy can hear her heart racing even faster. Toyman is unaffected, but is dangling from the watchfob as Kid’s eyes dart around in desperation. 

“NOBODY! STEALS! MY TOYS!” Toyman shrieks with unrighteous indignation. He is crawling up the fob’s chain to reach the watch, trying to pry it out of Kid’s frozen grip. Superboy glances at Darci, seeing her red eyes glowing, and is shocked by her sudden master of Martian telekinesis to freeze their speedster in place. She is standing stock still, red eyes glowing with her hands outstretched, to lock Kid Quick in place. 

Robin recovers first and hurls another birderang at her face but only one eye flicks in her direction, and the projectile halts in mid air before hurtling back at her. Robin ducks and weaves but Darci’s telekinesis has turned it into a homing missile, and the birderang barrel rolls and continues its assault at far greater velocities than Robin threw it. Spurred by Robin’s attack, Superboy launches himself at Darci’s unprotected back, bringing both fists down in an axe handle smash that stumbles her. 

He winds up for another one when he feels a lurching sense of weightlessness as she effortlessly levitates him into the air while continuing to hold Kid and pursue Robin with her own weapon. Superboy thrashes desperately, but he can’t reach the floor anymore and has nothing to push off of. 

Shit, gotta zero g float, or something! No, damnit! I’m not weightless, she just picked me up! Think!

But nothing springs to mind. He thinks of making a thunderclap but that would probably just hurt his friends more than it would hurt Darci.

“Darci, darling! Pop this little hero like a weasel, would you? She won’t… let go… of my WATCH!” Toyman shrieks, and Darci’s eyes narrow in focus as Kid cries out in pain. Superboy realizes she isn’t just restraining Kid anymore, but crushing her. Fear spikes through him and he screams in frustration, unable to do anything as he floats helplessly in Darci’s telekinetic hold.

Robin is leaping and dodging across the gymnasium, and hurls a birderang at the one pursuing her. But it just halts in mid air and joins the first to hunt her down, and she redoubles her evasion with a groan. Kid’s scream grabs her attention, and she calls out to her desperately.

“Vibrate your way out!” She commands, and Kid groans as she attempts it.

Kid begins to blur at the edges, and Superboy can see the slight distortion limning her that must be the telekinetic field around her. But the blurring fades after a second and Kid gasps in pain and exhaustion.

“I…can’t… !” She wheezes as she blurs again and again, but for less time each attempt.

Superboy begins to panic as Kid screams once more, desperately wishing for the rest of the team right now. Toyman is hanging off of Kid’s arm, trying to pry loose his precious control watch. But he is having no luck, and Superboy has a terrible image of what is about to happen in front of him to Kid while he watches helplessly.

Then a blurred projectile impacts against the watch in Kid’s hands and there is a burst of that familiar blue-white light that blinds them all momentarily. The weightlessness disappears and Superboy crashes back to the ground. He can hear as Kid hits her knees with a gasp of relief and pain. Birderangs clang to the floor as they cease their murderous hunt, and Robin catches her breath. Toyman thuds to the floor and wails piteously as he apparently coops up the watch. As the flash fades, Superboy can see Toyman on his knees, cradling the shattered remains of the clockwork heart watch. There are far stranger parts in his pile than springs and gears. 

There, on the floor by Toyman, is an arrow embedded in the gym floor, still quivering from its impact. There are red fletchings on it, and Superboy looks around quickly to find Speedy or Red Arrow. But there are no archers waiting in the wings he can see nor hear, and he is momentarily baffled by it.

Does Batwoman give all the normal guys vanishing lessons?

“Darci! Darci, darling! They broke my toooooooy! KIll them! KIll them all!” Toyman shrieks in escalating volume, pointing at the heroes.

“No.”

There is a pregnant pause as Toyman ceases his whining, and slowly looks up at Darci.

“What did you say, darling? I know I didn’t hear you say what I thought you said…” Toyman rambles as he rises to his feet, his creepy mask cocked at an angle as he stares at Darci.

“I said no, Winslow. I’m not your toy anymore!” She shouts, still in her Martian Manhunter guise. With a wave of her hand, Toyman rises into the air with a strangled gasp, grasping at his neck and choking while his little legs kick desperately. Darci’s face is a mask of rage and her hand curls into a claw, and Toyman begins to gurgle as she bares her teeth in a snarl.

“Dar-ci… dar-ling…” The Toyman sputters as he dangles in her telekinetic grip.

“I’m not your ‘darling’, Winslow! You may have created me, but you don’t own me, you little creep! Do you hear me!?” Darci screams as her rage pours out in a cathartic flood.

She’s going to kill him. Superboy realizes in a flash, remembering how this story would have ended if not for a similar method of control Toyman had installed in her. It would appear that this time, he put all his control into the clockwork heart watch, in some twisted game. That game, it seemed, has finally turned in the other player’s favor. 

I should stop her… he thinks, but seeing the visceral rage on Darci’s face, he’s not sure he can. The gynoid has been unexpressive or depressed at her situation, regretful of having to hurt him and his friends. But he can see she has no compunctions about visiting that hurt onto her creator and tormenter. Superboy is suddenly glad of his lack of X-ray vision, since he cannot see Toyman’s face right now, but the pencil neck sticking out of the bottom of that awful mask is turning purple as Darci strangles him telekinetically.

He knows his duty, though. 

“Darci, don’t do it.” 

The gynoid freezes, and Toyman takes a shuddering breath that makes her glance in hatred at him, before turning back to Superboy.

“Why shouldn’t I?” She asks coldly, her crystal blue ices frosty and calculating. Her pert mouth is now in tight and angry frown. “You don’t know what he’s done to me! The… games he’s made me play with him!” 

Superboy winces, realizing he can’t and he would rather not, but he takes a deep breath and tries to think of the right words. What Superman would say, to talk someone off a ledge, before they made a terrible mistake.

“You’re right, I don’t know. Only you know. But I believe you, Darci. I know he’s done terrible things to you. But this… you can’t take this back. He made you do the rest of it, but if you kill him, now? Then that’s on you. You’re a person, Darci, not a toy. And you’re free now. The fight with the Guild, they can paper over that. It wasn’t your fault, it was his. But if you kill him, they’ll hunt you down. You don’t want that.” He pleads with her, meeting those cold eyes, hoping he can thaw them.

“So I just have to live the consequences? I have to be willing to be a fugitive, but I can do it?” She replies venomously, turning back to Schott’s dangling form. He tries to speak again but she closes off his voicebox with a squeak.

“No! That’s part of it, but no! Don’t do it because you don’t want to be like him!” Superboy shouts, glancing at Kid and Robin who are sidling their way forward. Robin nods at him, following his lead, and Kid reluctantly acquiesces, though her fists ball.

Darci freezes at his words, her face falling.

“Be like him… ? If I was going to be like him, I’d lock him up in a dungeon for years, YEARS! I’d make him… !” She chokes herself off, too angry to even speak aloud what she would do. 

“Don’t let him make you into something you’re not, Darci. Don’t repay evil with evil. Just give him to us. We’ll make sure he can’t hurt you, or anyone else, ever again.” He vowed, and hoping in his heart it would be true.

They don’t have prison breaks here like they do in the comics. I already checked. I can’t imagine living in that kind of merry go round where lunatics like Schott get off or break out all the time. Take away his tech, and he’s just a little guy in a big prison.

“...He should pay for what he’s done.” Darci mutters darkly, glaring at Toyman with her back to Superboy, her caped shoulders hunched.

“He will, I swear. But don’t be like him. Don’t crush people just because you can, because you have more power than they do. Don’t treat people like they’re… disposable. Things. Extensions of you, for you to control what happens to them.” 

“...Like toys.” She says quietly, and her shoulders gradually relax.

“Like toys.”

She slumps, defeated, and Toyman crashes to the floor with a heaving gasp as he is free to breathe again. Superboy sighs heavily, and Kid zips to Toyman, cuffing him and rifling through his pockets for a toy chest’s worth of bizarre and dangerous high tech toy. She and Robin drag Toyman away and out of Darci’s view, eyeing her warily, but Robin nods to Superboy as he approaches Darci’s back. 

She is downcast, looking at the floor, and he lays a hand on her shoulder. WHen she feels it, she looks over at him, tears in her eyes. 

Darci weeps, tears streaming down her face as she turns and he opens his arms to hug her. She buries her face against his shirt and weeps, and he lightly wraps his arms around her shoulders. The others back off as he holds her in what he worries is the first genuine human affection she’s ever felt. After a minute, her sobs cease and she gently pushes him away.

“Thank you.” She says, wiping away her tears.

“Its going to be okay…” he begins, but she interrupts him.

“I’m not going to stay.”

Worry erupts in his gut as he  hears the resolve in her voice. He chooses his next words carefully.

“The Guild will understand-”

“I don’t care. I’m not going to let anyone control me. Not again.” She declares, and her eyes narrow.

For a moment, he weighs the options.

If she runs, they’ll never stop looking for her. But with the Guild’s powers at her fingertips, could they? If she didn’t want to be found? Maybe. She’s loaded up with Ivo’s Amazo tech, and Toyman’s robotics. Darci’s dangerous… but so am I. 

Looking at her, he can see she is like a cornered cat, her hackles up and ready for a fight. 

He doesn’t want it to come to that. He looks around; Robin and Kid are outside, calling in the Guild to detain Toyman. Its now or never.

“Go. Now. Before the Guild catches up.”

Darci looks up in startlement, and her crystal blue eyes sparkle with life.

Nothing like a doll’s eyes.

“Thank you.” She says, and there  is one last blue white flash as she changes to her Superwoman costume. In a blur, she has the dollbox under one arm, and is in front of him. Startled at her speed, he freezes and she places a gentle kiss on his cheek. 

Then in a burst of speed she is flying out through the hole he made entering the gym, and disappears in a blue and red blur.

Kid Quick bursts back into the gym as Superboy lays a hand in bemusement on his cheek.

“What happened?” She demands, looking about in frustration.

“...She got away.” 

Kid groans in response, throwing up her hands.

“Well, that’s just great.” She says, pacing in frustration.

Superboy elects to deflect to another topic. Walking over to the spot where Toyman’s clockwork heart watch lays in pieces, he plucks the golden fletched arrow from the floor and holds it up for her attention.

“So do we have Speedy to thank, or Red Arrow?” He asks, waving it demonstratively.

Kid’s face screwed up in confusion.

“Who?”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!