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[sub][h3][color=SKYBLUE][b]M A D I S O N   S Q U A R E   G A R D E N[/b][/color][/h3][/sub][hr][sup][color=darkgray]Present Day  |   Manhattan, New York[/color][/sup]


[color=#507de5]“What did you do?!”[/color]  Ted heard through the Comm-link.  He was back at the tower after it had started making some curious new noises.

[color=SKYBLUE][b]“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!  What makes you think this was me!?”[/b][/color]

“Vhat did you do!”

[color=SKYBLUE]“Look!  It--  It wasn’t me!  It got an outside ping!  It was sent a new command from…”[/color]  Ted brought up the Command List from System diagnostics, triangulating, triangulating…  [color=SKYBLUE]“Four Freedoms Plaza, Madison and 42nd!  Wait-- Four Freedoms Plaza..?”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“Well, shut it off!”[/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“I can’t!  Just like I made this tower the master signal for the drones, they’ve locked me out and made their signal the master and locked me out for this self-destruct function!”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“Well, why didn’t you take command of that function here too?!”[/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“Because I didn’t know that function even existed!”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“Really?  A self-destruct setting?  You didn’t know a self destruct setting existed?  Because that’s pretty much Super Villainy 101.”[/color]

“Ja.  Ja, zat’s pretty much Super Villainy 101, Beetle.”

[color=SKYBLUE]“Alright!  Don’t gang up on me!  I’m learning on the run here!”[/color]

Ted sighed, flop-sweat dripping.

“Vell, can you disarm it manually?”

[color=SKYBLUE]“I could, but I’m just as likely to blow us all to Hell in the process.  Probably more likely, if this thing has any kind of hidden tricks or booby traps.  Which-- I mean, you said Super Villainy 101...”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“Get away from there, then, if you can’t do anything about it!”[/color]

The two acrobatic superheroes back-flipped away from their rejoined combat with deranged, infected civilians.  Spider-Man, web-lined back up to the rafters, sweeping through to scoop up the Blue Beetle once more on the wa through.  Nightcrawler teased the mob, teleporting back a few metres at a time whilst the pair swung away, before one final ebony puff of smoke saw him teleport with the pair up to the rafters.

Ted saw the dark blue metahuman land on a handrail, on the catwalk they were on, but that was where everything turned bad.  An energy blast hit Nightcrawler in the back and sent him dropping onto the catwalk.  Ted and Spider-Man hurried over to his side, as smoke and an acrid smell rose off of his back.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“You get one chance to walk away.”[/b][/color]  Stryfe’s voice was loud and clear, the exaggerated baritone drowning out the din of the frenzied crowd.  [color=PaleVioletRed][b]“I suggest you take it.”[/b][/color]

[hr]

[color=SKYBLUE]“Take him.”[/color]  Ted turned and said to Spider-Man.  [color=SKYBLUE]“Pick him up, and swing him to hospital.  It’d take me too long.”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“What?  And leave you to the Tin Man’s angry brother?”[/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“With him down there’s only the two of us left who know that there’s a little girl circling the city in an experimental, all-but-invisible aircraft.  Besides, I can tell by your voice.  You’re a kid.  It’s bad enough I let you tag along this far.”[/color]

[color=#507de5]“What are you going to do?”[/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“I’ll figure something out.  I always do.”[/color]  He tried to offer a confident grin to the Spider-Man, but the closest he could get was an expression that looked strained, pained, and frankly somewhat constipated.

Spider-Man gently scooped up Nightcrawler, and swung away, through a gate on the opposite side from Stryfe.

Ted gingerly got up, and dusted off his suit.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“So what’s it going to be?  Are you getting out, are you coming down here or am I blasting you up there?”[/b][/color]

Ted stretched out his leg on the hand-rail, before swapping sides and stretching out his other leg, stalling.  [color=SKYBLUE]“Hang on, hang on...  I’m coming down.”[/color]

He walked to one end of the catwalk, then turned around and walked back the other way.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Just a minute.  I’m looking for a ladder.”[/color]  He kept walking across.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“Look, just…  just use the web-line.”[/b][/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“Oh sure!  You’d like that wouldn’t you!  Fall and break my neck before I can come down there and hand you your ass!”[/color]

Ted walked back to the middle.  [color=SKYBLUE]“It doesn’t look like there’s a ladder.”[/color]

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“Just use the web-line!”[/b][/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“No!  I’ve-- look, I’ve got my own little grappling hook in here.”[/color]  He said fumbling around his belt.  [color=SKYBLUE]“Aha!  There!  Told you.  Just let me get down there and, let’s see…”[/color]  He clipped the hook on the handrail, and gingerly stepped over pulling to test it would take the weight.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“Oh you’re kidding me…”[/b][/color]  Stryfe said, watching the Blue Beetle slowly winch his way down from the ridiculously high rafters.

[color=SKYBLUE]“This is as fast as it goes!  But I’m coming!  Here I come!  You’re gonna get yours, buddy!  Just you wait!  I’m--”[/color]  The Beetle stopped in mid-air, twisting around on the line.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Oh, wait!  That’s the winch, it does this sometimes.  It’s a safety precaution for when the line gets too twisted, give me a second I’ll twist back and--  Ah!  There it is!  You’ll rue the day you messed with the Blue Beetle!  Your uppance is about to come, sir!”[/color]  

The Beetle continued to slow winch down, before stopping three metres before the ground.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Hup!  It’s done it again.  No wait, the light’s flashing.  That’s not the safety mechanism, I’m out of line.  Huh…  Maybe I SHOULD go back up there and come down the webline…”[/color]

With a blast from his gauntlet, Stryfe severed the grapple line and Ted fell the last three metres landing flat on his back on the hardwood floor.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Ah!  God.Damn.  That one hurt.  Right on my coccyx.  Right on the bone.  Ah.  Time out!  Ah, Damn it...”[/color]  He rolled on the court for a few seconds, before whining at the villain.  [color=SKYBLUE]“My grappling hook’s stuck up there now?  Well that’s just great!  How am I supposed to get that down?”[/color]

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“No. More. Stalling.”[/b][/color]  Stryfe echoed.

Ted gingerly got to his feet.  His mind continued to race.  Here he was, a regular guy, with a bad arm and broken ribs from his fight at the Expo.  What did he have left in his bag of tricks?  Bring the Bug into it?  That magnetic plate would sure come in handy with tin-man here.  But he meant it before when he spoke to Spider-Man.  He wouldn’t risk that little girl’s life.  He had ‘Plan B’, but when he thought up that it was more with the little drone bugs in mind, not some monstrous guy in another suit.  Even if it did work he’d have to get in too close to try and make it happen.  And that was a big ‘if’.

So here he stood.  A grown man, battered, broken and bruised, and armed with what was ostensibly a modified hairdryer.  Right after it looked like he was actually going to get a girlfriend.  He used to joke about exactly this sort of situation.  The world never letting that come to pass.  Sorry Tora, date night’s been put on… ice.  Huh.  That one liner actually works.  Heh.  Ha Ha...

[color=SKYBLUE]“Bwa Ha Ha!  BWA HA HA!  BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”[/color]  Ted started laughing to himself at his own joke.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“Pitiful.  And thus without a flicker another meta-flame is extinguished.”[/b][/color]  Stryfe raised his gauntlet towards the blue fool.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Human.”[/color]  Beetle corrected.  [color=SKYBLUE]“And don’t take yourself so damn seriously.”[/color]

The man in the suit was taken aback, by his comments.  He almost seemed to stumble backwards at Ted’s revelation.  Checking he heard correctly, before quickly trying to re-gather himself.

[color=PaleVioletRed][b]“Wh--what?”[/b][/color]

[color=SKYBLUE]“I said, don’t take yourself so damn seriously.  Now are we doing this, or what?”[/color]  Ted quickly drew his B.B hairdryer.  Stryfe re-raised his gauntlet...

...just in time for Wonder Woman to sweep in from the side and punch the metal meta-villain into the stands.

[color=SKYBLUE]“Ohthankgodforthat…  Ohsweetbabyjesusonajetski… OhhhIthoughtIwasgonnadiethere…”[/color]  Ted uttered, looking up to the sky and patting his body down all over, checking for blast scorch marks.

[color=#FCDA63]“Hurry!  Get out!  I’ll take care of this… Stry--!”[/color]  Wonder Woman yelled, just before a gauntlet blast sent her hurtling out an exit.  With Stryfe ominously in pursuit.

Ted quickly ran up the stairs and out a different exit, not needing to be told twice.

Four Freedoms Plaza.  That’s where he had to go.  Fortunately, he knew the layout since he’d been there once before, a much younger man.  When he first met Reed Richards.