Dragonfly, Interim.
By: Set3
Team Valiant had just arrived via one of Copy Cat's teleport cubes on a building high above the streets. The team looked around themselves quickly to ensure there were no surprises in their immediate area. With the rooftop secure, they moved to the edge to see what they were dealing with. The area had been cordoned off by the police shortly after the disturbance happened. Apparently, a super villain who had been responsible for kidnapping several Broadway musical groups had shown up and caused chaos in the street but haven't moved much beyond the area. With the villain's reported henchmen, the civilians that were caught up in this debacle needed help fast.
On reaching the edge of the roof, they surveyed the street. What the team saw was utterly bizarre.
"Oh my god," Copy Cat exclaimed in disbelief facepalming heavily.
A musical was going on the left side of the street. Presumably, some of the super villain's henchmen were dressed up in bug costumes and singing the same song, which appeared to be "In the dark of the night" from the Anastasia cartoon. On a loop.
"They are quite good," Dragonfly remarked out loud.
On the right side, a few dozen people were dressed in a sort of uniform consisting of blue overalls and yellow t-shirts and various types of goggles varied by the person.
"What are they doing?" Halt asked, referring to the group on the right.
Evangel quirked his head, "They appear to be stringing up various pieces of pork products," he answered plainly.
Halt furrowed his brow, "...Why?"
"This can't be happening..." Copy Cat cried out, still in disbelief, if not more so.
"What?" Halt asked, turning to her.
Copy Cat finally pulled her hand from her face, "Remember last month, we stopped that mad scientist that tried to take control of the world by destroying all the coffee beans?" she countered.
"Yyeeahhh..." Halt said slowly, "If memory serves, you wailed on the poor guy pretty hard once we got past his defenses."
"This is worse," Copy Cat replied, ignoring Dragonfly's stifled snort when she got what was happening.
"Sooo, what's going on here then?" Halt asked, still not getting it.
"Didn't you hear what the police said the super vilain was calling himself?"
"The Pundant, right?" Halt answered, "What's that got to do with this?"
It wasn't till we got here and I noticed the guy in question that it isn't 'The Pundant' but 'The Pun-Dant'" she explained emphasizing the space between the words.
"Sooo," Halt prodded further, still not getting it. Dragonfly was struggling not to laugh out loud at his obliviousness.
Copy Cat gestured wildly at the street below to the villain in question who occasionally joined in on the musical. He was wearing a deep/dark purple bodysuit with the word "Pun" in yellow on his front and followed by a dash and "dant" was splayed across his back. He had a utility belt on his waist and what looked like a collapsible bo staff strapped to his back. He was holding a futuristic-looking gun that he fired occasionally at random civilians hitting them with a beam of energy that engulfed them in a ball of light. When the light dissipated the civilian was trapped in a human-sized coffee cup.
"He bases his shtick on puns! His 'minions' are literally hamming it up while he's "mugging" random people," she spat it out as the team moved into action seeing said villain firing his gun off.
"Well," Dragonfly said in bemusement, "Bad puns aside, he's still causing a massive disturbance and kidnapped several people, and may be using unknown means of coercing them to help him. Let's finish this up quickly," Dragonfly said at last as she took off into the air. Dragonfly flew up and over above those in the street aiming for the Pun-Dant.
Evangel simply jumped to the street below, doing a tuck and roll onto his feet, both swords in hand as he ran forth. Copy Cat and Halt's descents were softened by an anti-gravity grenade that Copy Cat threw down ahead of the two that cushioned their fall.
As the team of heroes approached the mass of henchmen, the group noticed that the 'minions' were each dragging a tank with an oxygen mask. Each took a breath from the tanks occasionally. Copy Cat noticed that, as she got closer, each 'minion' was speaking Spanish. Augmented by the gas they've been breathing in, their voices were higher-pitched, giving them squeaky helium voices. It was almost funny, if not for...
When one of the 'minions' saw them approaching, he pointed them out while another almost lazily pulled an rpg onto his shoulder to take aim. It was evident that whatever gas he was breathing impaired his footing as, as soon as he fired, he fell back on his hindquarters as the rocket shot out. His aim wasn't sure as well as the rocket shot wide and sailed over the heroes' heads arcing til it hit a man hole cover. The heroes were equally surprised by the lazy shot as they were by, instead of a deafening explosion, there was only a loud "pop".
"Are they using airsoft toys?" Copy Cat wondered out loud.
"You want them to use actual explosives?" Halt shot back as he ducked prematurely when the one holding a rifle began shooting in their direction with plastic BB's. Putting his arm down, Halt straightened himself out, "I really should be thankful this guy isn't crazy enough to give doped up people real weapons, let's go already!" he muttered.
Copy Cat only smirked at his reaction, but, silently agreed with him and followed him as they made their way to the villian in charge.
Evangel was already upon the "minions", using the flat of his blades to knock the wind out of them while using the edge of them to slice the airsoft weapons in half just in case they did secretly prove to be deadlier than originally suspected.
Dragonfly decided to fly up higher to check out the area as it felt like things were going too easy. Something just didn't feel right.
The dancing singing minions seemed oblivious to the heroes as they approached and continued to sing and dance while the super villain in question was busy removing hinges from another door. Halt and Copy Cat were almost upon the villain when he abruptly turned around to join in his singing minions when he spied the two. He quickly pulled out his energy pistol and shot at them. Out of reflex, Copy Cat pushed Halt out of the way before getting hit by the beam herself, screaming in surprised as the energy enveloped her.
"Copy Cat!" Dragonfly shouted as she banked down landing beside her as the energy coalesced into a giant human-sized coffee cup. Dragonfly peered over the lip as Halt stood in the line of fire to brace against the villain's next attack. "Copy Cat! Are you ok?" she asked worriedly.
There was a moment of silence before a small voice trailed back, "Please don't tell anyone I got mugged, yeah, I'm ok. I just can't move," she answered in embarrassment.
Dragonfly couldn't help let out a quick chuckle as she turned away, "Ok, I'll get Evangel to cut you out soon, once I take care of the bad guy, that is. Halt, stay with her."
"I'm never going to live this down," Copy Cat muttered to herself quietly.
Dragonfly took flight again heading straight for the Pun-dant who was running away from them. Just before the beam would have hit Dragonfly, she pulled to the side where it hit Halt instead. Thanks to Halt's power, instead of being engulfed and trapped in a giant mug, the energy beam instead reversed course straight back to the villain who let go of the weapon as the energy swarmed over the weapon trapping it in its own sized coffee cup. The mugged weapon had barely hit the ground when the Pun-dant pulled the bo-staff from his back and readied himself for Dragonfly's attack.
Dragonfly pulled out her throwing knives and threw one, willing it to split apart into three. The Pun-dant batted them aside with surprising expertise considering everything so far. The throwing knife reappeared in its sheath as Dragonfly threw her other one in distraction readying herself to kick the villain. The Pun-dant stepped back as he batted the new knives aside and braced against Dragonfly having somehow anticipated her kick landing on the middle of his staff. Having finished her attack, Dragonfly took advantage of the Pun-dant's braced stance by pushing off his bo-staff landing in front of him by a few feet, already having both knives in hand as she stared him down.
She didn't have to wait long as he was already moving forward. There was a smirk on his face as he brought his staff above his head for a downward strike from above. Dragonfly heard him muttering something about raising the bar on heroes. Hearing this made Dragonfly let out a frustrated growl, that could be confused for a angry groan of frustration as she caught the bo-staff in mid swing.
"No more puns!" Dragonfly growled as she brought the staff in the crok of one arm while bringing the other one down onto the middle of the bo-staff breaking it in half. Without losing momentum, Dragonfly used the half still under her arm and used it to wallop the villain knocking him off his feet. As the two halves of the villain's bo-staff clattered around him. He slowly sat up in a daze for a few seconds before shaking his head and getting to his feet.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good staff you can depend on in this city?" the Pun-dant asked. Dragonfly couldn't be sure if he was angry or not from the tone of his voice. "It took me nearly an hour! Twenty minutes of looking through the yellow pages of the phone book. Thirty seconds of realizing everyone who's anyone posts their stuff online. Five minutes of a google search. Ten minutes of looking for my phone because I keep misplacing the damn thing. And a seven minute conversation of telling the supplier of what I wanted and finally two minutes of finalizing payment!"
Dragonfly brought her fists up, forgoing her throwing knives, "With all the puns I had to endure up till now, I think I've more than paid the price of breaking your stuff!" she retorted running forward taking a swing at the Pun-dant. The Pun-dant expertly dodged her fists giving ground as she pressed her attack. The Pun-dant was completely on the defensive as Dragonfly kept punching at him and even threw in a few kicks as well. Despite this, Dragonfly was able to get a few through and with a cross-check with her right fist across his face she landed a left fist into his stomach. She then finished off with a knee to the face when he doubled over from the hit to the gut. Blood exploded from his nose as he fell over backwards to the ground.
"Wait!" he called out as he slowly got to his feet. He reached into his utility belt and pulled something out and unfolded it before gently placing it on his face. It turned out to be glasses. "You wouldn't hit a guy wearing glasses would you?" he asked shakily, a goofy grin on his face.
Dragonfly slowly took the few steps closer to the Pun-dant, "Oh Pun," she said softly as she gently pulled the glasses off his face, "You aren't wearing any," she stated as she drew back with the other and hit him again sending him flying back to the steps of a building entrance behind him. Surprisingly, the Pundant was still conscious. Dragonfly was only puzzled by this for just a moment before she groaned in realization, "You were rolling with my punches weren't you?" she asked him candidly.
The Pun-dant let out a small giggle, "You know it!" he said with a bloody smile.
Dragonfly sneered at that, "Since I've got you down there," she started as she looked over her shoulder seeing Halt rounding up the costumed henchmen while Evangel was cutting Copy Cat out of her mug, "Were you the one that kidnaped those Broadway actors and are they all here now?"
The Pun-dant laughed, "I always wanted a theme-song to play while I worked, don't you?"
"How did you brainwash them to do all that?"
He rubbed the back of his head before cracking his neck, "Just take off the band on their heads and they'll return to normal. It's not my style to do any lasting harm apart from my bad puns," he explained, the smirk never leaving his face.
"Just... What kind of person are you? Why would you do all this?" she asked waving at the scene behind her, "You can't seriously tell me it was all just for a bad joke!"
"While, I admit, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition..."
The Pun-dant was cut off by the door behind him suddenly swinging open to reveal three men clad in red robes. The leader of the trio wore a wide-brimmed red hat while another had an old pilots helmet on his head, the third was wearing a ski mask with the face cut out to show said face.
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" the one in front shouted.
The Pun-dant burst out laughing til he was crying, "I always wanted that to happen," he weased between tears and laughter.
Dragonfly's mouth hung open as she saw the trios shocked expressions on seeing her, "Who are they?" she demanded.
"College students," he answered, "It's surprising what you can get them to do when you pay off their student loans for them." Seeing suspicion creep up on her face he wave her off, "I only paid them to wait behind that door and come out and say the line, they have nothing to do with me beyond that. Hardly the beginnings of a criminal life I'm sure you'd agree."
As much as Dragonfly hated to agree, he was right. She wasn't going to condemn three kids for something so minor, even if this whole situation gave her a huge headache. She took a calming breath, "Okay, lets just rap this up," she said.
"When the reporters report on this," the Pun-dant started, pulling a red ribbon from his utility belt and tying it around his head. He then pulled on a hidden tread on his shoulder that removed the "-dant" from his back, "Call me: "The Crimson Pun"!" he said with his hand on his hips, a less dignified stance since he was still sitting on the ground.
Dragonfly looked nonplussed at him, "Punny, I'm calling you mud" she declared as she caught the cuffs Copy Cat threw to her.
Shortly after that the "Crimson Pun" was arrested and handed over to the police. The singing troupe were returned to normal just as the villain said. But, they were still sent off to get look over just in case. The same was done with the "minions". The "Spanish Inquisition" trio were given a stern talking to by the police but were otherwise released. After checking the area for anything lethal beyond another hidden bad pun, Team Valiant returned to base and began debriefing. Once that was done, each went their separate ways.
Halt was heading home after a quick grocery stop to a local mom n pop shop. As he was passing an alley he could hear sounds of a scuffle causing Halt to stop and listen. He could hear some one getting beaten up and inwardly sighed. "I suppose one more won't hurt," he said to himself as he place his grocery bag down by the wall, hoping that no one would take it in his absence despite how empty the street seemed at this time of night and quickly made his way down the alley. When he came around a corner, he saw two teenagers beating the ever loving hell out of a third. Halt grimaced as he stepped up behind the two, grabbing both by the back of the collars and yanked them back and threw them as hard as he could down the alley.
"I think it's time you two run home now, don't you think?" he said threateningly. The two teens eyed him disbelievingly before turning to each other and deciding running was the better idea. Halt turned to the kid that was still on his feet giving him a shocked look before turning to look after the other two. "You should probably make your way home too kid," he said more softly as he turned to head out the alley the way he came. He picked up his back of groceries, which thankfully were unmolested, and was on his way home again. Minutes later he stopped at a crosswalk waiting for the light to change when he heard the quick footsteps of someone running up behind him. Halt turned his head to see the kid he rescued in the alley so decided to fish out is cell thinking the kid wanted an autograph or a pic for his social media page. "What's one more?" he asked himself with a smile. He was flipping through the apps when he stiffened on feeling searing pain stab him in the back. He turned his head and saw the same teen with a wild look in his eyes as he felt him pull the knife out only to shove it back in again almost in the same spot. He dropped his groceries.
"It's all your fault!" the teen whispered hoarsely, "All I had to do was let them canonize me and they'd let me in their gang. Now," he stabbed Halt again, "They say I gotta kill you before I can get in," He stabbed again, "It's your fault I had to do this!" he shouted.
With one more knife in the back, Halt fell to the street on his back, he could feel the warm slickness of his blood puddling around him as he laid there. He looked up at the teen, he looked terrified. The teen turned to leave. Halt's hand shot out grabbing the kids ankle as hard as he could.
"Just one more put away," Halt thought. "Just one mor...," and he was gone.
Unbeknownst to the teen, Halt had activated a panic button on his phone after the kid stabbed him the first time. This would alert the rest of Team Valiant to his position. The team arrived too late for Halt unfortunately. What they saw on arriving was Halt. laying in a pool of his own blood with a literal death-grip on some teenage kid's ankle. When Copy Cat checked Halt's phone, she played back the audio while the teen was telling Dragonfly and Evangel of some crazy guy who jumped Halt and started stabbing him. He was in the middle of saying how he tried to go after the murderer when Halt reached out to stop him to save his life when the two heroes saw Copy Cat stiffen hearing the playback. She played the audio for the other two. The kid tried to run, but, Evangel quickly grabbed him and held onto him till the police arrived when Copy Cat called them. They recovered the knife the teen tried to ditch when he saw the heroes come up. Brief words were exchanged with the police when they finally arrived and Copy Cat gave them a copy of the audio recording of the kid admitting his guilt and a scan of Halt's body on a flash drive for more evidence. Once the police left with the teen in the back seat, the heroes recovered Halt's body and returned to base and discuss future plans to mourn the passing of their comrade.
---
Far above the earth, just behind the moon, a small ship blinked into existence from FTL. The small ships lone occupant looked over the readouts from its passive sensors. Seeing what it was looking for, the occupant smiled, "At last, I've found it!" the occupant remarked.
END
Dragonfly will return.
