[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/H3gQQuc.jpg?1[/img][/center]
[right][sup][b]Beetle Base. Westchester. New York State.[/b][/sup][/right][hr]Ted leaned back in his chair as the facial recognition information for the STAR Labs scientists that had been involved in the break in the other night. The three of them had all been members of Doctor Jeremiah Duncan's vaccine team, one of the first to develop a vaccine for the recent pandemic. None of this boded well, and Ted had to make sure Duncan was safe. It wouldn't be difficult to do that. Duncan was an old friend of Ted's, and an old lab partner from college. He was a biological genius, and even smarter than Ted was in the field. That was saying something, if Kord allowed himself some vanity. He'd give Jeremiah a call later.

But first he had some new toys to play around with.

The new gauntlets were slightly heavier than the other ones, but considering all the hardware packed into their slim casings, that was hardly a surprise. Kord was flabbergasted that they didn't weigh more, if he was being honest. But the teachings of the Scarab ran deep, and the BB Guns, as he had named them in jest, were proof of that. 

[color=6ecff6]"Okay, Kha,"[/color] he called out to the AI as he stood in the large, open part of his underground base of operations. [color=6ecff6]"Training simulation twenty-five."[/color]

In the blink of an eye, a holographic room appeared around him. It was populated by crates, barrels, and boxes, like a small storage facility. It was also filled with eight angry men who wanted to tear his head off, virtually speaking, of course. 

The first two came from behind him to the left. He spun and flicked his left wrist down, pointing it at their faces. From the top of the gauntlet came a blinding flash of light. While the men weren't real, the holographic projectors/receptors that created them recognized that this light would stun a normal man for at least a few minutes. The light constructs recoiled in pain, and with another flick of the wrist, a small wire shot from another compartment of the gauntlet. It attached itself to one of the holographic crates, and with a yank from Ted, flew through the air and crashed into the attackers.

Before he could savor the easy victory, three more men rushed from behind him, their heavy footsteps giving away their attempted attack. He spun to face them, rotating his right wrist clockwise and his left one counterclokcwise. From the gauntlets came a compressed blast of air that struck the three of them and sent them flying through the air with more force than Ted had anticipated. He winced as one of them smashed into the far wall head-first with an impact that almost surely would have killed a man. He just needed to knock a man down, not an elephant.

[color=6ecff6]"Kha, tone down compressed air shot by, oh, fifty percent,"[/color] he commanded as two of the final three training dummies came his way. Instead of using one of the weapons he had already tested out on them, he wanted to try something new. He fired another shot from the zipline shooter, but instead of aiming to turn something into a projectile, he attached it to the ceiling of the room and brought himself through the air. He landed on the other side of the men, and with a quick sweep of the leg, caused both to crumble into a heap.

The final holographic training dummy was the biggest of the men, as Ted had designed the program. The gauntlets were charged by solar radiation, and were still at nearly a full charge, but Ted wanted to make sure he used all the weapons in his arsenal. There were bound to be times where he ran out of charge, or ammunition for one of the various gadgets included in the BB Guns. For those instances, he needed to be ready and able for anything the world was going to send his way.

The brute of a hologram cracked its knuckles as it made its way towards Ted, a little flourish he had Kha add to the training modules. It was always nice to feel like they really wanted to pull his head off if they ever got the chance. 

With a large swipe, the hologram attempted to snare Kord in one of its frying-pan-sized hands. Reverting back to his old gymnastics training, he bent over backwards and performed a backwards somersault, putting some distance between him and the much larger combatant.  That just seemed to piss the training module off, and it rushed his way, swinging wildly. Blue Beetle easily stayed out of its reach, flipping, twisting, and vaulting away from every potential haymaker. 

Ted wasn't merely keeping his distance, though. Every time he escaped one of the blows, he was looking at the hologram's fighting style. Kha liked to switch up what got put into the training scenarios, but this time he just threw in a guy who was bigger and stronger with little to no training. That was going to make this all the more fun.

Blue Beetle waited for the opportune moment, as one of the hologram's mighty fists came crashing down towards him. Ted slid out of the way, and the hologram began to lose its balance. With a flourish, Ted fired one of his new restraining bands at the program's wrist. The U shaped projectile hit the wrist, the momentum causing the arm to come all the way down to the leg, and then wrapped itself around both extremities. The very large man looked like a cartoon bear who got stuck in a honey pot.

Without saying anything, the Beetle delivered a roundhouse kick to his jaw, knocking the hologram out. In another blink, the training program dissolved into nothingness around him.

"Well done, sir," Kha congratulated him. "A new record."

[color=6ecff6]"Thanks,"[/color] Kord smiled and looked down at his gauntlets. Now he really felt like he could take on anything a criminal threw at him.

"Sir," Kha continued, "while you were training, a new alert on my crime detector appeared. Would you like me to display it?"

Ted was surprised by that. He had thrown together a simple algorithm for Kha that would allow the AI to scan social media, news trackers, and police scanners for possible locations of interest. He figured it would have taken longer for the program to really gain its footing and spit back any results.

[color=6ecff6]"Sure thing."[/color]

The surprise faded when he saw the news report now being broadcast on the television. Gotham Central Station was under attack.

[color=6ecff6]"Kha, when did this come through?"[/color]

"Just now, sir."

Without another word, the Blue Beetle hopped in the Bug and was off.