I half snorted at Superboy’s outraged cry and the stunned expressions on the rest of the Sidekick Squad.
Did they seriously think I’d vaporise Miss Martian like that?
She was the one that kept the Mountain stocked with baked goods. I’d never do that over what was essentially a slightly more serious spar.
“Oh, relax. She’s fine.” Well, as fine as she could be after getting blasted several miles away into a cliff. Even if I shielded her a bit with my own Ki to make sure she didn’t get burned up by the Ki blast, that still had to hurt. “I’m just putting her in timeout so you can’t rely on telepathy anymore.”
I gently landed back on the ground and faced off against the remaining Sidekicks.
“So let’s see what you can do without her coordinating you all.”
“Stick to the plan, but be careful of your surroundings. We can still do this.” Aqualad encouraged his teammates and whether intentional or not got both Donna and Superboy to go back on the offensive.
Superboy charged in from the front while Donna did her best to harass me from above, but it was immediately clear that without Miss Martian’s mental link helping them coordinate they were getting in their own way a lot more than the previous almost mechanically precise teamwork they showed off earlier.
So much so that I was able to go back and forth with the two of them fairly easily and keep an eye out for Aqualad lingering off to the side with his magic water weapons at the ready when normally Donna alone would have my full attention. Three on one would still have me tire out before they did though, so I was fairly serious about winning quickly before they could pull off their plan.
Superboy was also a lot more put together than the last time I’d seen him. For one he actually had the basics of how to fight down instead of just swinging wildly, but still definitely a novice at hand to hand. So when he fell for a fake opening I’d left around my ribs, I used the opportunity to pull him into a knee strike that left him folded over holding his stomach.
The perfect position to get a free hit in, but I ignored him in favor of cupping my hands over his back and firing a ki blast at a surprised looking Aqualad.
Sorry buddy, this wasn’t a fight you could tag in and out of.
The blast didn’t hit him completely unprepared since I saw him form a water shield out of his weapons before it hit, but he still went flying backward despite that.
Good thing too, because something had just bumped into my foot telling me Robin had managed to get one of his gadgets that close even though I was keeping an eye out for specifically that.
I kicked away from Superboy and shielded my eyes expecting more flashbangs only to curse under my breath when I heard hissing gas instead. Dropping my arm confirmed that Robin used one of Batman’s fast acting smokescreens.
They didn’t want me seeing something coming.
From what I could sense, Superboy and Aqualad recovered from the attacks they got hit with and grouped up with Robin. My guess was that I had thrown off their prepared plan of attack enough that they were coming up with something new.
Which meant Donna was going to be in charge of giving them a moment to talk. I’d need to watch—
Just as I thought that I sensed the Amazon flying towards me.
I turned to face her just in time to see her burst through the smoke and my eyes immediately widened as the TREE she had picked up hit me like an oversized baseball bat and sent me skidding over the ground.
“Okay, wasn’t expecting that.” I muttered as I spit out a wad of dirt that got in my mouth and then looked at the Amazon. “You seriously hit me with a tree?!”
“You know most of our normal fighting styles so we need to be a little unconventional if we want to surprise you.” Donna tried to justify, but I could see the little smug smile she had!
I was definitely getting her back for that one.
Later though.
Because Aqualad charged at me again with a giant water hammer that I had to block and then move away from when I noticed he charged it with his electricity powers. Thankfully, blocking for a moment didn’t shock me too much, but the spots he ended up hitting felt tingly.
At least until I decided to reveal my new Ki hardening trick that let me basically form a thin armored layer that blocked nearly all of the shock!
Aqualad definitely wasn’t expecting me to go from minimizing contact with his weapons to just catching one straight on with my left hand. The momentary shock at my change in behaviour was enough for me to get a solid right cross directly on his jaw and change my focus back to Donna.
Unsurprisingly, she had been waiting for an opening to hit me with her giant stick again, but a quick Ki blast to the base splintered the whole thing before she could build up an attack again.
“Hah! Now what are you going to do?!” I gloated only for the Amazon’s smirk to grow to a full grin as she tossed something at me.
“Distract you long enough to use this.” She said as I snapped my focus to the object heading towards my face.
It was another one of Robin’s gadgets!
What was this one going to be – flash, sonic, explosive? Not smoke again. Not when the others were too far away to do anything before I could get my guard back up.
It had to be — the disc shaped device burst into another cloud of gas and for a moment I thought they messed up their strategy, only for my mouth, nose, and eyes to all start burning as I got a faceful of whatever chemical the little bird themed menace had used.
“Did you just pepper bomb me?!” I shrieked as I tried to force my eyes open despite the tears and burning.
“Of course not!” I heard Robin shout from where he was over by Superboy. “I’ve seen you handle twice that level of heat for lunch. That was bear mace!”
“I’m going to hang you from a flagpole by your utility belt after this, you birdbrained idiot!” I roared and gathered my energy.
One hand pointed directly at Donna, and the other at the two boys.
I was ending this!
Before I could actually fire an attack, Superboy launched Robin towards me into the air – which was actually fine by me since I didn’t have to hold back.
I rapidly fired two large Ki blasts at the two and didn’t stop even when I felt the attacks hit, but even then I was very aware of Robin landing close by and no doubt about to use another gadget while I was mostly blinded.
Not wanting to let him do that, I stopped my energy attacks and swiped at him. He ducked under it and jabbed at my face with… something. I still couldn’t see clearly, and I wasn’t about to let him get another shot at my eyes if I could help it.
I caught his fist in my hand and squeezed lightly. Enough that Robin grunted in pain and quickly wiggled his hand out of whatever he had on it. I wasn’t letting him get away though and snagged him by the front of his uniform before slamming him onto the ground and pinning him there with a foot to his chest.
A quick look around confirmed that none of the other Sidekicks were getting back up.
“And that’s the last of you dealt with, looks like I win!” I taunted Birdbrain with the most victorious smile I could pull off right now.
I was covered in dirt, had scuffs and rips all over my outfit, could barely see thanks to the tears and snot dripping down my face, and was panting heavily from fighting the five of them at once… but I won.
“You sure about that?” Birdbrain wheezed. “Then this might be a little shocking to you.”
“Oh, you little–” I began to curse as I felt the device I’d grabbed secured itself to my wrist. The little menace had never intended to hit me with the thing, he was just trying to attach it to me! Less than half a second after that, I couldn’t help but scream as a ton of electricity was suddenly dumped into my arm and then coursed through my body.
I fought back by focusing my Ki, but it wasn’t super effective when I’d been practicing against incoming attacks, not something attached directly to me. After what felt like several minutes – but what was probably only a few seconds – the battery on Robin’s device ran out and the device automatically fell off.
I was left twitching, struggling not to pass out, and smelling like burnt hair – but most importantly still standing.
“Yeah… I won.” I growled down at him.
He wasn’t looking all that hot either. The electricity must have been conducted partially down to him too.
That didn’t stop me from kicking him hard enough that he went flying back towards the hole I had blasted Superboy into.
I took a moment to just breathe and once the worst of the shock faded, I looked around at each member of the Sidekick Squad. Or at least the ones that were still in the same clearing we were in.
Aqualad was up… kinda…
From the look of it I probably gave him a concussion which is why he was slow to get up again even though he took relatively fewer hits than Superboy or Donna.
Superboy was dragging himself out of his hole, but he was going pretty slow. So he was probably feeling that energy blast more than I had expected.
Birdbrain was talking to him though, so they were both probably fine.
As for Donna and Miss Martian, they had apparently met up since I’d apparently blasted Donna in the same direction I’d sent Miss Martian accidentally, and the both of them dropped onto the ground near their other teammates. Clearly not capable of continuing either.
And the last ki signature…
I paused just to be sure, but yeah – there was another Ki signature heading our way.
“So just to be clear, you guys didn’t have backup on the way or anything did you?” I asked, though I felt like I already knew the answer.
“No, but it’s not like we hid our intentions.” Donna snarked. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the older heroes noticed what we were doing and are coming now that they know where to find you.
“We might not have beaten you–”
“Came real close though.” birdbrain interjected.
“– but guess what? We. Win.”
The Ki signature got close enough that I could tell who it was despite how quickly it was moving.
Wonder Woman.
And while I normally would be excited about an excuse to fight someone on her level, I had to be honest about my current condition.
Tired, electrocuted, and still struggling to see/breathe thanks to getting a faceful of bear mace, I was in no condition to fight a warrior on her level. And that was assuming the Sidekick Squad wouldn’t recover a bit more and decide to jump in either.
“Kaaaa…Meeee…”
That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try though.
“Wait… are you seriously going to…?” Donna asked incredulously, as I pooled every scrap of energy I could on short notice.
“Haaaa…Meeee…”
“She seriously is. I didn’t think she was suicidal.” Aqualad muttered. I think he was holding a grudge for that hit to the head.
“Should we, um, stop her?” Miss Martian asked.
“Meeee…”
Superboy shook his head. “Too late.”
Wonder Woman appeared in a blur, though I couldn’t tell how much of that was because of her speed or the tears still messing up my vision.
Good thing I didn’t need to use only those in order to aim.
“Enough! All of you are going to stand dow—” Wonder Woman started, but I had finished charging my attack.
“HAAAAA!!!”
I threw my hands forwards and a wave of blue energy practically swallowed the Amazonian Princess completely.
I still couldn’t beat her in a straight brawl, but let’s see what everything I could throw at her would do!