tenhawk
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SCAU-DC 14
🕑 Added 2023-01-02 03:36:33 +0000 UTC*****
Xander clutched at his heart as he slowly lowered himself back into the seat, ignoring the stares that had now been directed in his direction by everyone in the diner. It wasn’t like they weren’t going stare anyway, after all, whether he was floating in the air or not was a minor thing compared to who was sitting beside him.
“Kara,” He said mildly, nodding to the girl in costume who was smiling wide at his reaction. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Her smile dipped a little at that, “You know my name?”
“So it seems,” Xander said, cleaning up the mess he’d made in front of him and looking carefully at the plate in front of him before he waved to the server, “Better make that another plate of fries. This one got… messy… somehow.”
The server just laughed at him, having apparently watched the whole scene, but nodded and swept by to pick up the first plate.
“Sorry,” Kara told him with a grin and a shrug.
“I’m sure,” Xander said dryly as he sighed, “So to what do I owe the pleasure of my own super-stalker anyway?”
“I’m not stalking you,” She said, affronted. “I’m just following you around without letting you know I’m there.”
Xander let his head slump, “This is about the news video of me and Batgirl, isn’t it?”
“That and you chatting with my cousin in plain daylight in front of the entire city,” She told him, “Can you blame me for being curious?”
“No, but I can blame you for ruining my plate of fries,” He said sourly.
“Plate up!”
A new plate slid to a stop in front of him as Supergirl just smirked at him.
“Oh shut up,” Xander grumbled as he took a bite, steeling himself for some other shock that didn’t come.
Kara was particularly amused by it all, or so it appeared to him as he chewed deliberately and slowly under her gaze.
“So how did you and Batgirl meet?”
“Seriously? Are you seriously pulling the interrogate the boyfriend gag?” Xander asked, rolling his eyes.
“So… you’re going out?” Kara’s gleamed as she leaned in.
“We went out, once, with no hint of a repeat thus far,” Xander corrected her. “I’m not her boyfriend, despite you and Nightwing seeming to assume otherwise.”
“Oh, he got to you first?” Kara pouted. “Ruins some of my fun.”
“Go play with Batgirl instead,” Xander said, before leering obviously in her direction, “Please. I’d be wiling to watch.”
That got a bit of a reaction from her, if the hint of color in her cheeks was any evidence.
“You pervert.”
“I’m not the stalker here,” Xander reminded her, amused by the defensive tone and body language she was putting out. “Seriously, a new meta shows up out of the blue and you think surprising him is a good plan?”
Kara rolled her eyes, “You’ve been vetted by Batman, and had a long peaceful chat with my cousin. It may not be completely certain, but I doubt you’re a threat.”
“Even if that’s the case, you shouldn’t make a habit of surprising metas,” Xander admonished her. “What if I’d struck out on reflex?”
“I bet I could take it,” She smiled blindingly at him.
“I’m a Mage.”
The smile dropped off.
“Yeah,” Xander shook his head, “you’re lucky I didn’t transfigure you into a little flying mouse in a cape, girl…”
She started to object, but he just held up a hand.
“Yes, I could do exactly that,” He told her firmly, humming the tune to ‘mighty mouse’… not that she seemed to get the reference. “Or, what if I’d tried to blast you and missed?”
He looked around the diner, pausing briefly at the patrons who were mostly trying notget caught staring.
“Fine, I get it,” Kara grumbled. “You’re as bad as my cousin. It’s always responsibility this, careful that. A girl just wants to have fun time to time, you know?”
Xander was about to respond but a rumbling sound caused him to break off and both of them to turn back out to the street beyond the diner. He didn’t see anything, but slid off the stool anyway as a want slid down into his palm.
“See the cause?” He asked, wand aiming slightly off to the right of his body and at the floor as he walked slowly toward the door.
“Just a lot of smoke down the street,” Kara said, joining him. “Wait… oh crap.”
“What is it?”
“It’s Metallo.” She said, sounding distinctly concerned… not that he blamed her. “I… I better go.”
“Hold on,” Xander barred her way with his left arm. “First, figure out the situation, then build up a plan. Metallo has a kryptonite heart, so you do not go charging in to save the day without a plan.”
“People are getting hurt!”
“And the only thing that changes in that, if you charge in blindly, is that you add at least one more person to the list,” Xander countered as he flicked his wand up and started casting on the building.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Just some warding,” He answered, raising his voice. “This building will be the safest place around for a while. Everyone, stay inside and move away from the windows… just in case. I think I’ve braced them enough, but better safe than in the ER with a shard of glass in your eye, right?”
The people there seemed to mostly agree with him, moving quickly away from the windows. Xander ignored the few who hadn’t, figuring that he’d warned them, what happened after was on them.
“Ok, come on,” He told Supergirl as he lifted off the ground. “Let’s go.”
Kara nodded firmly, joining him as Xander glanced back to the counter.
“Hey, hold that meal for me. Be right back,” He grinned as they headed out the door and into the street as the cloud of rolling smoke moved past.
“You got it,” The server said. “Be safe, both of you!”
*****
Xander and Kara headed in the direction of the commotion, lifting up over the smoke as they flew. Below, he could see people with weapons drawn shooting it out.
“Are those cops beneath us?” He asked, nodding down. “I’m showing what looks like service automatics for the most part.”
Karta looked down, through the smoke, and nodded. “Yeah, I think they’re shooting it out with… yeah, definitely looks like Intergang.”
“Explains the fact that I can’t see any weapons on them,” Xander grumbled. “don’t have those high tech blaster things coded in. Ok, have a quick and dirty plan, up for it?”
“What do you want me to do?” She asked, eagerness tinged with a clear bit of fear.
“First, stay away from Metallo,” Xander stressed. “We’ll deal with him next. Right now, we drop into the smoke, give the cops cover and some help, and deal with the shooting threats.”
“Metallo is the bigger threat!” Kara objected.
“And he’s probably baiting Superman, so he’s not going to do anything crazy just yet,” Xander countered. “The cops and civilians down there are choking on this crap and getting shot at. They come first.”
“Oh… Fine.” She grumbled, but quickly dove into the smoke.
Xander rolled his eyes and followed suit.
He landed behind a police officer who was covering his face with one hand while trying to aim through the smoke with the other. A quick tap on the shoulder from his wand set a bubbleheaded charm over the man’s head, but also caused him to swing around fast with the gun as he reacted to Xander’s presence.
“Whoa there, buddy,” Xander caught the arm with the gun, “Just helping you breath is all.”
The officer blinked, taking a couple breaths and realized that he wasn’t choking on the smoke and dust anymore. He slowly relaxed, allowing Xander to let go of his arm.
“Who are you?”
“Call me Magus,” Xander shrugged. “Cheesy, I know, but it works for now. Going to need you to contact anyone else in the area, let them know that Supergirl and I are here. We’re going to start clearing this smoke and putting down the Intergang idiots. Tell your buddies to get the civies back and as far away from that metal idiot as you can, alright?”
“Magus? Never heard of you,” The cop said as he reached for his radio.
“If your bosses need a reference, tell them to call Gordon in Gotham,” Xander grinned, saluting sloppily. “But I need to get to work, and so do you.”
As he vanished into he smoke, he could hear the cop on the radio, calling it all in.
*****
Supergirl grinned as she dropped in behind one of the Intergang thugs, took his weapon from him, and crushed it casually into a ball as he turned to look.
“I’m sorry, did this belong to you?” She asked, holding the remains up in one hand. “I seem to have broken it… terribly clumsy of me, but humans and the things you build are so fragile. It’s so hard not to break every… single… bone… in someone’s body when I grab them, you know? Say, would you mind surrendering?”
She looked down at herself, “Blood is really hard to wash out.”
The thug, backpedaled and was going for his sidearm when her words penetrated. Slowly he moved his hand away and fell back on his ass with a thump as he moved to put his hands on his head.
“Good move,” She said, taking the sidearm from him before using the remains of the larger weapon she’d destroyed to secure his hands together. “Now stay, don’t make me hunt you down.”
The thug just shook his head in fear, but she was already gone, moving on to the next one.
*****
“Damn, Metropolis PD must have insane response times,” Xander said as he dropped a bubblehead charm on the last cop in the area. “You have a half dozen uniforms here already?”
The woman, who was still coughing from the dust in her lungs before Xander got to her, looked up in confusion.
“Who are you?” She asked.
“Magus,” Xander said, “I asked the other cops to let people know.”
“Radio’s busted,” She admitted. “And we were investigating a lead on Intergang when that damned robot freak blew out the side of the building and everyone started shooting.”
Xander nodded, understanding, “Well, Supergirl and I are already here… and I honestly doubt that Superman is more than a few more seconds away, so…”
He paused as a gust of wind blew past, sweeping up the dust and smoke, then turned upward, sucking it all well above the street as a red blur seemed to spin it all into a tornado.
“Right on time,” Xander tipped his head. “Leave the walking toaster oven to us, ok? You guys get the civies back and clean up the Intergang thungs that Supergirl has been littering the streets with… I swear, it’s like that girl has no sense of the environment, just throwing all that trash around.”
“I heard that!”
Xander looked around, “From where!?”
The cop just laughed, “The moon, probably. Ok, go. We’ll handle the rest.”
Xander grinned at her and went.
*****
Comments
Frank Agora
Thank you for posting new things. I know novels are great. but it's good to see shadow council and SCAU being added to
Matt Harris
Nice piece. Intergang thungs should probably be "thugs".
