[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/oT61jg2.jpg[/img][/center]

The wind ran through Booster Gold's hair like a whirlwind as she flew over the streets of New York, barely skimming over the honking, cursing traffic below her. She smiled as the sun hit her armor, reflecting the gold in a brilliant way that caused everyone on the street to look up in awe. It felt good for them to look up to her with hope. She had to admit that. After how jarring everything had been since coming to the past, not to mention the new view on super heroics that the government had, it was refreshing to have people actually want her around. 

All she had in this world was Skeets, and he wasn't necessarily the most enjoyable of company. Not that he didn't have a ton to say, of course. In fact it was kind of impossible to get him to shut up. He was always rattling off some figure about the past or another. He knew too much, probably. He kept telling her that she couldn't mess with the timeline too much, or it'd break.

Still, he was having more and more glitches. She wasn't sure why. She never was a technical person. At least she didn't think she was. She couldn't really remember. But either way, Booster had no idea who she could even take him to to get checked out. It's kind of hard to have someone understand future technology, no matter how smart they were.

"Ma'am," the robot's voice echoed through her comms over the din of the rushing air, "we need to take a right in two blocks. The robbery should be happening at any moment!"

"Okay, okay, Skeets," she tried to call the robot down. He got way too excited too often. "I can fly. The traffic isn't going to be an issue."

She banked hard into the turn, corkscrewing a bit to show off for the people below, who applauded in return, painting a sly smile across her face. It was cheap, sure. But she liked some applause now and again.

As Booster made her way towards the bank, the front door exploded outwards in a cloud of smoke. A guard was tossed out at a high velocity, and Booster sped herself up to intercept him before all his bones were crushed by a hard impact with the building across the street from the bank. She swept in, passing right between a tractor trailer and a UPS truck by the skin of her teeth. She managed to swoop between the guard and the building, catching him in the nick of time.

"Wow! Thanks!" he exclaimed in surprise. 

"Don't mention it. When you're celebrating your non-death later, make sure to do it with some Bud Light!" she exclaimed and shot some finger guns his way. "Dilly dilly!"

Bud Light was swill, that much she knew. But they paid her more money than she could count to say that every once in a while after she saved someone. It was worth it. Who needed self respect when you had a guaranteed five-figure paycheck roll in each month?

From the smoking hole that had once been the front entrance of the bank stepped a huge, imposing man in a suit of gleaming, onyx armor. Her heads up display showed his armor wasn't all that different from hers, even if it was technologically inferior.

"Ma'am," Skeets's voice echoed through her ear, "looks like he can produce energy weapons from his gauntlets. Best disable them quickly."

"Thanks, bud," she responded to the small bot. "Any idea who this guy is?"

"Records say his name is 'B-b-b-lackguard'," Skeets seemed to stutter for a moment. "My records say he is of little note, but a villain is a villain, Booster."

"You're damn right, Skeets," she smirked to herself and sped off towards the bank robber.
[hr]
[b]Roxxon Headquarters[/b]

Dario Agger took a seat at the head of the long table, and folded his hands, smiling at the men assembled in front of him. Being the CEO of the largest oil company in the world wasn't always the most popular position in the world. Environmentalists wanted his head even though he had overseen Roxxon's foray into the solar energy sector. All because a few birds got covered in some oil after an idiotic shipping captain decided to have a few too many beers. Politicians wanted his money...his company's money all because they had the audacity to make a lot of it.

But among his fellow captains of industry, gathered here at his building, he was a god. The youngest CEO Roxxon had ever seen, and he was the one leading them into the future. That felt good.

Today's meeting, however, was not about oil, or solar panels, or fuel cells. No, this was about what was playing behind him. Booster Gold, his newest investment, was about to take down some form of ridiculous criminal or another. Agger had to admit the world he lived in was odd, but the potential for profits were still there. Booster would bring them in. He was sure of it, and no one else was even thinking about tapping into this kind of market.

"Gentlemen," he smiled and motioned towards the live feed, "you see behind me a feed of our in-house super hero, Booster Gold. Some of you probably think I'm insane. Hiring a superhero in the current climate? It's suicide. But, gentlemen, you would be wrong. While it is true the nanny state, the ever present hand in all of our lives, has put into motion the mechanism to shackle superheroics, our internal polling shows a silent majority backs the heroes. In the weeks since Booster has been our public face, our favorability rating as jumped fifteen points. And, may I remind you, we're an oil company."

A murmur of laughter rolled through the meeting as Agger paused, "So I come to you with the next wave in advertising. The Metahuman Media Movement! Now you can get in on the ground floor of this exciting new opportunity, with Roxxon and Booster Gold."
[hr]
Blackgaurd swung his energy mace in a large, circular motion towards Booster, who slipped deftly under the blow before it ever came close to finding its mark. He had quite a bit of power behind those swings, that much was obvious. But he was as slow as molasses in that big, clunky, suit. He couldn't come close to hitting her, and she was making sure to rub that fact in. 

"Aren't you supposed to be, you know, fast? At least when trying to get away from robbing a bank?" she asked as she flipped away from another attempted slam of the energy weapon. "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be fast."

"You don't need to be fast when you can do this!" the large, hulking crook growled and turned to pick up a wrecked car. He lifted it over his head, and Booster prepared herself for the car to come flying towards her. Instead, he turned and flung it at the assembled crowd, who screamed in terror.

It never came close to hitting them. Instead, it stopped in midair ten feet off the ground, snagged by one of Booster's force fields.

"No need to fear, citizens!" she smiled and waved. "Booster Gold is here to protect you!"

With that, she flung the car back at the would-be bank robber. He tried to deflect it away, but he wasn't quick enough. The metal slammed into his arm, knocking him down to one knee, which was the only opening that Booster needed.

She pushed off the ground, closing the gap between the two of them in a blink. He swung around wildly to try and bat her away, but she caught his arm using one hand and her heightened reflexes, which drew an ooh and an ahh from the crowd. With her other hand she blasted the gauntlet off his arm with an energy blast.

"The energy source of his suit is that glowing orb on his belt, Booster," Skeets advised, and she quickly fired another shot at the circle, destroying it and powering him down.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAA!" he growled at her, unable to move in his dead suit. "I'll get you for this!"

"What are you gonna do? Fall over on me?" she chuckled back at him. "I'll make sure not to be directly underneath you. Like ever."

She strolled over to the crowd, a huge smile painted across their face as they applauded wildly, "Thank you! Thank you! I don't do it for the applause, everyone...but it sure helps!"

The crowd laughed and she continued, "But I can't do it without the power from Roxxon Energy, and the great taste of Vitamin Water!"

With that, she took off and headed for home, certain that a villain had been stopped, and her bank account would be going up by a few zeroes.