Hot Rod wandered aimlessly through the streets on his patrol. As if Thursday hadn't been bad enough, yesterday Lightning of all people had given him an earful.
It was humiliating to lose. Especially when his opponent had been a wimp like Sleeper. Then, the military's pet just had to add insult to injury. Even if she hadn't negotiated with them, there was no way the military could catch Hot Rod - or any other member of the Legion, for that matter. They were too clever to be captured.
Achilles and Ben were taking extra measures as well. They were looking for a new place for headquarters, a place Lightning wouldn't know of. The plan had been discussed with Hot Rod, Barrier Maiden and Light Master that morning - Rose, Prime or Alchemist might tell Lightning. They couldn't let the info leak before they were ready.
In all honesty, Hot Rod thought they should just cut loose the extraneous members of the Legion - the wimps and useless wastes of space. The core group would be him, Achilles and Light Master with Prime and Barrier Maiden as support. The rest could just disappear for all he cared. Jumper was flaky, Lightning was a snitch, Alchemist did nothing, and Rose was a pathetic little wad of dirt.
Frankly, Barrier Maiden was only somewhat useful as well, but she could get away with it because she was pretty. Eventually, he'd get with her, and he very well couldn't expel his future girlfriend. Her pretty face and powerset were perfect for supporting a leader like him. Barriers could minimize the damage from his flames, allowing him to go all-out.
Really, she was perfect. Even her personality seemed tailor-made to him.
Maybe when he was patrolling with her tomorrow, he'd put on some moves.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he quickly checked the text message. It was from Light Master. An incident was in progress a couple levels below.
Hot Rod ran towards the nearest elevator, pushing a few people out of his way.
"Legion business!" he called as he went, but people still gave him glares. Ungrateful fish turds.
A short elevator trip and another run later, he caught up to Light Master.
"Hot Rod! Get him!" Light Master struggled with a long, thin chain connected to a man in full mask and hood. The chain seemed to be trying to wrap around Light Master's neck.
Hot Rod didn't need to be told twice. He unleased the biggest fireball he could, making sure Light Master was away from its direct impact.
It worked wonders. The man fell back, holding his arms up to defend against the fire. The chain went limp, and Light Master was able to pull it off before unleashing a few bolts of his own.
"Looks like I've got both of you," the man said as the flames subsided. A grin spread across his face as Hot Rod prepared another fire blast.
"Who are you? Are you with Team Chaos?" he asked, holding the flame on standby for now. Light Master prepared his own blasts, but held them back until they got an answer.
"You think I'm with them? Quite the insult. I have a far greater purpose than those pompous attention-seekers." With a flick of his wrist, a new chain flew towards Hot Rod. A quick flame shot deflected it, of course, but then he found himself on his back with a fist coming at his face.
Lasers blasted the man from the side, but he managed to give Hot Rod another good hit to the face before rolling away from Light Master.
Hot Rod groaned and held his aching head. Everything was spinning, and he felt strange. Sounds came from the direction the villain had gone, but he couldn't quite make everything out.
Shake it off! What kind of pathetic showing is this?
With another shake of his head, he stood up and tossed a fireball towards where he thought the man had been. It missed, vanishing into nothing against a wall.
He caught sight of their enemy out of the corner of his eye and threw another fireball.
"Over here!"
Light Master's cry was enough to reorient him. The person in his periphery hadn't been the enemy. Who they were didn't matter. They'd made the mistake of getting in the way.
The real fight was a bit further behind him. Light Master was wrapped up in silver chains, struggling to move his arms enough to aim his beams. Well, not for long with Hot Rod around! He threw two more fireballs at the hooded man, then leaped to the side, hoping to break his concentration so Light Master could escape.
More importantly, though, he was going to be the one to take this jerk down.
More thin chains, no larger than those used in jewelry, came at him, and he barely had enough time to toss small fireballs at them. They fell away, but more kept coming. And, of course, throughout all this the villain himself remained unflappable.
"Actually, maybe you can help me. I'm looking for the remnants of the Phalanx," the man said, almost as if he wasn't in the middle of a life-and-death fight.
"Why would we know anything about that?" Light Master asked. He'd managed to free himself from his bindings, and started firing lasers once again. At least with two of them attacking, they had the advantage.
"We'd like to know where they are too, actually," Hot Rod added. "We still owe them a thrashing."
"Not as much as us." He was on the back foot now, barely able to dodge or block their attacks.
Hot Rod held back for a bit, charging up a large shot to end things while Light Master kept him busy.
"If you're going to be in our way, then we'll have to kick all of your butts!" Light Master yelled, firing laser after laser. He didn't seem to notice the slender chain slithering towards him.
"Watch it, kid!" Hot Rod called, tossing a small ball of fire at the chain. With that, he also let loose the large fireball he'd been charging up. It exploded, letting loose a blast of heat and smoke.
Light Master scuttled away from the blaze, a look of slight panic on his face. Hot Rod held back a laugh. Was the heat really that bad? He didn't notice a thing.
When the smoke cleared, though, they realized that their quarry was gone. Only a web of smoking metal links was left behind.
They spent the next several minutes scouring the area, but no sign of him remained.
Dammit!
How could they have let him go so easily?
