Young Writers Society

William West | Infirmary


West paced back in forth in the waiting room, not caring about the damage he was doing to the carpet as he sped across the room. The infirmary didn’t have a massive staff, so all hands were attending to Will, they didn’t want a Dimitri on their hands. West starred at the clock, suddenly realizing his stupidity. “The faster I go the longer the wait,” he muttered, taking a reluctant seat by the door.

It still took awhile for West to get any news, but when it came it was good news.

“Captain!” West ran over to the large, almost godly, Doctor Woodcomb. Referred by all as Captain Awesome, because he was just that amazing. “How is he?”

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” He asked, taking a seat next to West.,

“Good news,” West said.

“Well we got him stable, and the pain is manageable now, but-”

“There is always a but.”

“but he’s stuck in his wolf form for now, we hope he will be good enough to get out by tonight, but no promises.”

“Can I-”

“Right now Will needs rest, you can come by latter, but for now just let him sleep. Just know that he is doing awesome.”

“Alrighty. Maybe I can plan something for him. Probably should avoid dogs and stuff, and no more booze after last time...maybe a giant trampoline or a pool...oh laser tag! He would love laser tag! Oh yeah. Challenge Accepted!” West’s speech began to pick up in speed, becoming a jumble of strange sounds to a much confused captain awesome. “wellthankyoucaptainawesome” West added before running out the door.

As West ran with no destination in mind he tried to think who could help him, and of those who would want to help him. Wayne was a prime candidate to help him build a gun, but it would be a challenge to get her to want to help. A destination set West did a quick turn, slamming into a freshman as he did. He yelled back a sorry at the student, leaving him confused like he did with most people.

West slid to a stop in front of Wayne’s window, tapping furiously at it trying to get her attention. “Wayne! Wayne it’s me!” West yelled as he started to bang harder. The window shot open, slamming into West’s face and causing him to fall onto his glorious ass.

“Ah good you’re awake, look I need your help with something-” Wayne leaped out of her window, a kick ready to dig itself into West’s gut. “Wow! That was close.” Wayne crashed into the ground, West moving out of the just in time. She was up quickly, a fist formed and her eyes aimed at his gut. West ran behind her before she could attack. “Can you just listen please? I need your help. I’m trying to make a laser tag game, and I need someone who can actually do tech stuff. It’s for Will, he’s in the-”

She stopped for a moment. “Not interested.”

West frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Very,” She said, West could tell she was annoyed, and an annoyed Wayne was not a fun time.

“Alright, but you should come there. Lasers and guns, what could be more fun?” West took off again, there was only one other person he could think of who might help him, but that would mean getting past Bri.



West slid messily to a stop at Bri’s Bootcamp, quickly raising the attention of Team B. West picked himself, waving before brushing the piles of dirt from him. “Hello Team B. I need a quick word with your devi sergeant --I mean drill sergeant.” West did a quick dash over to Bri.

“Hello Bri, I hope you are having a good day, mine has-”

“Get to the point, Premature,” Bri looked past West at her team. “Did I tell you to stop working? GET!” she ordered into her megaphone.

“Right to the important stuff, I like that about you,” West saw her getting annoyed and hurried up. “I assume you have heard the news about Will.”

“No. I haven’t heard that news, what happened exactly?” Bri smirked slightly, but West could tell there was a tinge of worry behind it.

“Well no need to worry, he is recovering fine, should be back on his feet soon. That’s why I’m hear, I was hoping to do something for when he gets out, but I am far out of my-”

“Point. Make it.”

“I need to borrow one, maybe two, or your team members for a little tutorial. Dimitri would be perfect for the job.”

“The job is what?” Bri asked, she was curious now.

“Laser tag, yeah I just need Dimitri to show me how to make one, then I can do it myself. Mass production is pretty easy for me. You guys could come to, we could have a One vs B battle, see who is the superior...at laser tag.”

Bri took a moment before speaking. “The thing is, we won’t be here tonight, that’s when we leave for our mission.”

‘Oh...Well I guess I could get a few freshies in a room and we could snipe them...that could be fun. But what about Dimitri? it would only be for a bit.”

“Sure, you can take Dimitri, but I need something in return.” Bri smiled.

“I can...um...just tell me? Do you want money?” West grabbed his wallet and frowned at it’s empty state.

“I don’t need money, but you and Will are really close, you probably know all sorts of things about him.” West winced. “If you give me some information on your furry friend. Something embarassing, some you can borrow Dimitri.”

“Fine....Well this one time,” West laughed. “We were at this greasy old diner, and this post man comes in, and Will goes mad. he starts barking in the middle of the diner, then he runs at the guy and tears the back of his pants off, underwear and all. True story.” Bri grinned. “So that’s enough?”

“I suppose it will do.” Bri picked up her megaphone. “But really West, if you had just waited a few minutes we would have been done.” Bri raised her megaphone and ended the training, alerting Dimitri and West needed to talk to him.

“You really are a -” Bri pressed a button on the megaphone, causing a loud “beep” to cover West’s speak.

Dimitri | Training Room

“…Laser tag?”

Dimitri put his hands on his hips, breathing heavily. Fortunately for him, his other form wasn’t used during practice, but he certainly was still worn down from the physical training. Now he had to think about making… laser tag?

“Yeah, laser tag. Dude, can’t be that hard, can it?” West asked. “It’s for Will when he wakes up. You’ve got ‘til tonight to get it rollin’!”

Dimitri looked at him, the crease appearing in his brow as he thought. Laser tag wasn’t easy as it sounded. That required all sorts of optics and programming. Granted, he didn’t have to build a whole room to compliment the equipment – If West expected that, he certainly thought wrong. – but he could work up some rifles, battery packs….He didn’t have guns to work with, though.

“Alright,” Dimitri said with a nod. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Awriiight!” West slapped Dimitri’s shoulder. “Let me know when it’s done!”

Dimitri looked at him—

—and he was gone.

“Sup, D-Boy,” Bri said, putting an arm on his significantly higher shoulder. Finding the height awkward and the fabric damp, she took her arm away and put it on her hip. “You hot under there? Consider the shirtless route.” She lightly slapped his abdomen. He buckled at her move, fearing for the worst, then stood straighter. “So what did Flash boy want?”

“Laser tag,” Dimitri said and watched her brow lift at that as well.

Bri shrugged. “You can take JARVIS, but I need something in return.”

Dimitri smiled. “Nice try, but he’s been downloaded into Connie’s system now.”

“Without my permission?” Bri said, offended. She shooed the thought aside. “Fine, you can take my lab since I know you’ll need more than what your pathetic little room could possibly have, but I need something in return.”

“Is it Make A Deal With Bri Day?” Dimitri asked.

“You know you’re interested,” Bri said, prodding him with a finger.

“Alright, what would you want if I hypothetically agreed?” Dimitri could use the extra hand from JARVIS, and the only place he could get optimal assistance is in Bri’s lab.

Bri grinned evilly. “I get to help, too.”

----

Dimitri went to the shower room first, however. After that intense training, he certainly worked up more than a sweat. And though his current jumpsuit is actually an X-Men uniform designed to withstand a transformation like his, Bri was right. It would have been better to take off that final layer – top half, of course.

When he arrived at Bri’s workshop, the door was already open. To his surprise, Dove was standing at the door. She turned and gave him a nod of acknowledgment.

“Checking up on Bri?” Dimitri asked, helping himself inside. Bri glanced at the door from the computer.

“Felt something was up,” Dove said with a shrug. Dimitri caught the double-meaning there. His fear of Bri’s involvement was undoubtedly something to worry about.

“Got JARVIS working on the parts,” Bri interrupted, sounding impatient in their too-casual conversation. “We just need to figure out what we’re doing to them.” She stood up and spun a monitor in Dimitri’s direction as he walked up. Dimitri’s brow furrowed as he looked through the plans.

“Is Connie nearby—”

“Right here,” Dove said. Dimitri looked over to find Connie enter the door and park herself right below Dove’s floating feet. Connie looked up at Dove expectantly.

“Connie, come here,” Dimitri said. He looked to Bri. “Your plans include laser rocket launchers and laser grenade launchers.”

“That explains that,” Dove muttered. She floated over and sat at the work bench.

“It was part of the deal,” Bri said, daring Dimitri to argue.

“You made a deal with her?” Dove inquired.

Dimitri took a moment to let both women cast daring looks in his direction. This was a situation he did not anticipate and a situation no guy wanted to get stuck in.

“Look at it this way,” Bri said after heaving a heavy sigh, “this is my lab, and I have all the equipment you need to get this done by tonight. Breaking our deal will involve you getting stripped of your lab rights as well as your ass kicked by my super suit when it’s finished and fully locked and loaded. I’ll also sic Sorm’s artistic endeavors all over your dorm room.”

Dimitri threw his head as if hoping this newfound headache could drain back into the confines of his subconscious for later.

“Fine,” Dimitri said, “we’ll do it, but we’ll put in different settings to indicate what weapons are set.”

“Deal.”

“I’ve got some rough programs we can work on. JARVIS, good afternoon!”

“Good afternoon, sir,” JARVIS said.

“How’re those parts coming along?”

“Building according to Miss Stark’s plans,” he replied. “Estimated time of completion: 37 minutes.”

“Alright, keep it up,” Dimitri said. “Connie, let’s download those programs so we can work them out.”

Coding was easy enough, but the optics complicated things considerably. When the parts finally came out, Bri and JARVIS started putting it together. Dimitri resumed the seat at the computer and punched in the code as Bri built it behind him. Dove left temporarily, but she arrived later with perfect timing – the first two sets of laser guns and packs were finished. JARVIS merely duplicated their finished first set, which only took about fifteen minutes.

Bri and Dimitri strapped the things on, standing in the cleared area of her workshop. “Alright!” Bri said, holding up her laser gun. “Get ready for some major badassery!”

Dimitri smiled weakly and held up his gun, pointing directly at his team leader. Neither moved.

“Start?” Dove muttered.

They started circling waiting for the other to shoot yaaaay.

Connie snuck up behind Bri, making Dimitri pause for a moment. His instinct was to call out her name, so he did: “Connie, no—”

“Ah!” Bri jumped, and her trigger finger fired. Dimitri fazed himself instinctively, but that didn’t stop the laser from hitting his vest. They both checked the score on their rifles:

Bri: 1
D-Man: 0

A smirked appeared on Bri’s face. She switched the setting, aimed, and hit another button. Dimitri let the much larger, slower laser rocket hit him and looked at his rifle.

Bri: 3
D-Man: 0

“It works,” Dimitri said, his face brightening.

Bri snorted, holding her gun up like some fighter chick in a movie. “’Course it does.

“And the grenade gets an entire area of people for one point each within ten feet of the target.”

“Lock and load, baby.”

Damage | Doctor Headmaster's Office

Released from lockdown, Damage felt compelled to make up for lost time. Doctor Headmaster revoked his lab privileges for reasons. The green-eyed felon solemnly nodded at the news. Once excused, he sauntered off.

Damage fought hard to suppress a wicked smirk: "As you wish."

He made haste. His window of opportunity closed with each passing moment.

Damage drummed his fingers against the cart. Something is missing, he frowned. Taking stock out in a muted whisper, the hero in training idly pushed his load down the hall.

Table sugar, check he mumbled: "Sucrose."

High-nitrogen fertilizer, check he knew something was amiss, "Ammonium nitrate."

"Potassium chloride," he tapped his thumb: salt substitute. Check.

The aspiring chemist nodded at the ping-pong balls and stack of guitar picks: "Celluloid." Check -wait, hold on.

It came to him -metal.

A visit to the junkyard was overdue; he made his way to Stark's lab. The underclassmen populace easily overlooked the vertically challenged fellow . . . if he weren't beaming with a toothy grin.

In the midst of Dimitri and Bri's experimentation, Dove levitated towards the door. She rubbed her arm. Something irked her, but what? After all the brunette was only armed with a laser. What could possibly go wrong?

On second thought, why was she going through the door? Unlike the training rooms, the labs were not magic-proof. She phased through the wall, discovering what seemed to be the source. This rough looking individual all too happily collecting scrap metal.

What was he doing the random supplies: guitar picks, ping-pong balls, fertilizer, salt, sugar, and scrap metal? Dove crossed her arms, "What in the world are you doing?" She lowered herself to the ground. Even grounded, the magic user looked down at his short stature.

"Huh?" His dark eyebrows came together. She wasn't there a moment ago. Where in the hell did she come from? Damage prided himself in being aware of his surroundings. A burst of air escaped his nostrils. His evergreen eyes appraised the stranger, "I like to recycle and repurpose metal."

Dove didn't buy it for a minute. He was up to no good. Her intuition told her so, but the powers couldn't read -hold on. Was short stuff here actually contemplating killing her? She clenched her jaw, "Look here, I-"

Damage's eyes darted to see a jogging horned individual.

"Hey, Dove!" She panted with a chuckle. AT glanced at the Russian's goodies and smiled, "Nice going." The troll looked back to the simmering hot Dove. This was not her usual state -this was not a good sign.

"What's going on here?"

Damage shrugged, "I was only collecting scrap metal-" Dove glared. Not a good sign at all, the troll noticed Dove was close to tripping her globes.

If he continued he would be bulge deep in the fecal matter of a wildly incontinent hoof beast.

"For a troll game of mine." She saved the prospective bulge bumping pupa pal, but only because she needed Dove's energy spent on Wayne. Which now that she thought about it was probably closing in on her. Haha, that silly human forgot that practice ended when the training room was in shambles, but Wayne liked her blood.

Dove and Damage raised an eyebrow at the out of this world visitor. Did she just say troll?

She did not want to know what they considered to be a game in light of the things AT had touched on earlier. Even so, she gave the boy a look: I'm on to you.

"Oh!" The troll chuckled, "Wayne's on a tirade." She noted: "I may or may not have had a hand in that."

Dove departed, but not before staring at Damage. I have my eyes on you, she left with an exasperated sigh hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with whoever that was. The young woman had to defuse Wayne's thirst for blood.

Waving at the peacemaker, the troll shifted her attention to the stranger: "AT at your service, now I have been up to my pointy nubs in suspense and intrigue for long enough." She pointed at his cart of goodies, "What's that really for?"

"The name's Damage." He scratched at his beard.

"Little old this?" Running his hand against his buzz cut with a smirk, "Recycle and re-use."

"How about I flip a troll caegar?" She added good-naturedly, "I'll let you pick heads or tails." AT showed him her currency.

"Tails."

Good, she flipped the double-headed troll caegar.

Damage shook his head, "Bombs."

"I'm in like a little honey pajama'd pupa nestled in his cocoon!" They collected some more scrap metal before scurrying off to the man cave. "You aren't pulling my frond, are you Damage?"

"Frond?"

She mulled it over, "Arm!"

"I believe you meant leg?"

AT waved it off, "You humans and your strange sayings." Says the troll.

Revealing the abandoned headquarters of the janitors, the work began. He handed her a knife, "I trust you can handle cutting ping-pong balls." Damage set forth combining high-nitrogen fertilizer with salt substitute to create an aqueous solution of the desired potassium nitrate. Or as it is commonly known saltpeter. The skillet heated, the chemist enlightened the troll of each step. The table sugar tossed with the saltpeter caramelized creating the fuel for his special brand bomb.

Meanwhile, the scrap metal needed to be smelted and then formed into canisters. His supply had gone up in the explosion of Ethics.

Sufficiently pleased with their progress, Damage thanked her for her aid. In gratitude the man presented her with a twelve-gauge shotgun. AT made a queer sound in her glee.

"Hold on," he showed her the basics: how to cock it properly, loading the bean bag rounds, and -of course- some shooting practice with scrap metal that didn't make the cut.

Pesky as it was, the ammunition specialist warned her of the risk involved with beanbag rounds: "Heads, the solar plexus, and ribs are off limits if your target is without proper gear." Considering that the rounds went ninety meters per second. It distributed the force of the impact with a measly six centimeters -it was a reasonable request. Damage made her aware of this and that it may become inaccurate over six meters. A minimum of long-term damage, no penetration, and only a painful muscle spasm he dubbed this friendly fire.

The troll found this all fascinating. She made a mental note to visit the man cave. Toys galore were to be found, but Damage knew better to leave the good stuff in plain sight. Oh, the things they could do together if they combined their efforts!

Damage nodded with a minute smile, "You're welcome here anytime." He mentioned he had other rounds available should she feel her supply was dwindling. The expert felt that he had adequately compensated her for her time.

The troll held onto the shotgun, petting it fondly. "Should you have any more troll games-"

"You'll be the first one I'll look for."

"Good," she purred, "Good." AT ran off with her precious, eager to try it out on moving targets. Bri came to mind.

Bri Stark | Bri's Lab

The laser tag testing war raged on in Bri’s lab. Bri, having dodged a surprisingly artful string of laser shots from Dimitri, was in the process of launching herself from the top of one of her workbenches into a forward tuck that would have made Addy proud of all the hours she spent trying to force Bri on top of a balance beam in the gym.

Mid-tuck, Bri sent a continuous round of shots right into the front of Dimitri's chest plate censor, effectively running down his life points and claiming victory at last.

Unfortunately, she miscalculated her velocity and instead of landing on her feet as she intended, she landed in a roll directly on her shoulder. She popped up, an adrenaline pumped smile on her face. "I am the motherfucking queen!" she shouted, throwing her guns into the air only to freeze, gasping in pain.

"Ow," she whined, letting the guns drop. She brought her arm down, cradling her shoulder as she assessed the damage. “Well that didn’t feel good,” she murmured as she ran her fingers along the lines of her bones, ensuring everything was still in the right place.

"Bri?" Dimitri dumped his own guns on the table and came running to her. "Bri, are you alright?" He tentatively reached for her shoulder, his eyes laced with concern. "Can you move it? Does it hurt? I'll go find Dove--"

"I'm here," Dove said, hovering near Bri's shoulder.

"Relax," Bri said, inching away from the overbearing concern of Dimitri and Dove. “It’s not that bad, I can manage on my own.” She let her arm go, lifting it slightly only to let out a soft whimper as her shoulder began to throb.

Dove rolled her eyes and pressed a hand to either side of Bri's shoulder. "I can take a bit now, but you’ll have to wait until we get to the infirmary to take care of the rest.”

With a huff and an angry pout, Bri sat still long enough for Dove to stave off most of the bruising on her shoulder. “Really, I don’t need to go to the infirmary. I’m a Stark. I’ve got the genetics of a man who replaced his own heart.” As soon as Dove finished, she pulled the sleeve of her t-shirt back down over her shoulder. She winced, but turned and strode toward her computers in an attempt to hide it.

Behind her, Dove cast an undoubtedly annoyed look at Dimitri. Bri assumed so, at least, considering she had her fingertips to her keyboard no more than three and a half seconds before she was being lifted from the ground and slung over Dimitri’s shoulder.

“Put. Me. Down,” Bri growled, thrashing her fists against Dimitri’s back.

He glanced at Dove, who only nodded. He tightened his grip around Bri’s waist and headed for the doorway.

Sometimes, she really loathed the creepy secret-sister-mental-communication thing those two had going on.

Dimitri carried her all the way to the infirmary, not once giving in to her threats. Not even when she was screaming his banishment from her lab to a string of freshman girls they passed coming out of one of the training gyms.

While Bri was certainly discontented to be carried through the school by anyone, she had given up most of her protests by the time they reached the medical wing. At least she hadn’t seen anyone she knew, and as soon as Dimitri set her down she could make a break for it before anyone caught on that Briana Stark had been manhandled by the charmingly nerdy engineer from her own team.

Just thinking of it, Bri seethed.

Yet, just when she thought she was in the clear, she heard the voice of the very last person in the entire universe she wanted to see her like this.

Will. Dogface. McCoy.

“Well if it isn’t Briana Stark. I’d recognize that ass anywhere.” Will called, followed by a fit of mocking laughter as he rounded them, whipping out his phone to snap a picture of the glorious moment.

Bri laid her most devastating glare on him. “William. McCoy. If you tell anyone, even a single soul, I will launch the most earth shattering revenge on your precious puppy reputation that you could ever imagine.”

He only laughed, pocketed his phone, and sauntered triumphantly down the hallway.

“You hear me McCoy?” she shouted after him. “I swear it!”

Dimitri set her down in the middle of the infirmary, a ridiculous smile on his face as he watched her burn in rage. “Calm down,” he said mid-chuckle. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, planting herself on one of the infirmary beds. She set her stare on Dove as she rolled her sleeve up over her shoulder again. “Well come on, let’s get this over with.”

Dove | Infirmary

The doctor went to Bri first, explaining what had happened and what would get the most impact. Rarely did they let Dove just heal without any supervision— she would've killed herself from wounds several times over had that happened. Thank God Addy had been around a few of those times...

She put her hands on Bri's shoulder. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

White magic tinted with bright green flowed out of her hands and into Bri's shoulder. Dove felt herself slip into her trance, pain not registering as she pulled it into her body. Only doctors lifting her hands got her to snap out of it and realize she was now sore.

The doctor moved her father away, if only to get access to Bri's shoulder. "How's that?"

Bri rotated her shoulder, face pulling slightly. "Better."

Dove wondered if she'd taken the brunt of it, but it was probably better not to ask. She didn't want to rotate her shoulder in front of her team leader, yet. She could stand the pain.

"Ready for laser tag?" Dimitri said.

Bri grinned. "Bring it!"

Dove managed a smile. "I don't think it'd be fair if I played."

Bri glanced at the mage, then at Dimitri. "What would it take to make these magic proof?"

Dimitri thought a moment. "I'm not sure we have the time for that."

Dove blushed slightly. Everybody knew trying to get her to stop using magic was next to impossible, considering she wouldn't be able to take anybody in a fight. She didn't even know how to use a gun.

She waved a hand. "It's fine. I'll just..."

"Stick close?" Dimitri finished.

Dove nodded.

Academy For Heroes-In-Training
Redux-Redux-Redux
Reboot

Issue #402
Something, Something, Dark Side

Will “The Druid” McCoy

“Wait, wait, wait,” demanded Will. He had his sneakers up on the table again, and The Doctor was making Eyes at him. Will dropped his legs and stood up, slamming hands down on the table to mimic how The Doctor stood. “You’re telling me that our team arrangements created a universal whatnow?”

“Paradoxical Schism.” The Doctor affirmed. “In words that you could understand, Will, Very Bad Things will happen unless I step in now and correct them. The time whirlpools don’t lie.” He clicked on a button, pulling up a screen with a planet blowing up. “That particular planet, while having nothing to do with this predicament, shows you quite well the consequences of your darts game with Briana.”

Will’s eyes narrowed and he sat back down. “So what? Who do I get on my team now?”

“Let’s start unalphabetically. Your lancer will be--”

“--Rachel Wayne,” Will called, eyes scanning the briefing room. He hadn’t slept in three days since The Doctor gave him the news. He was pretty sure he’d found gray hair in the shower drain that morning.

A paper airplane flew across the long executive table, hitting West in the eye. He blinked so quickly so many times that the goddamn plane shot backwards and flew backdraft across the table, back to--

“AT, my wildcard. My Criminal Minds partner.”

She shot him a finger gun and returned to her 3DS.

“Dimitri, Dove, AT, Wayne, West, and, counting myself, McCoy.” He shuffled through papers. “Do you guys get the gist of what’s going on? I mean, it took me a while to catch on, but--”

“--we’ve been reassigned because of a looming paradoxical schism in the spacetime continuum, which disallows us from following our allotted course of action, lest we risk house and home of all our universes.”

Will let his tired eyes fall on West. “Smartass.”

West shrugged. “I like to read.”

Will sat down in his chair and kicked up his feet, garnering a disgusted scowl from Rachel. “We embark on our first mission tomorrow at 0900 hours, though I think that means 9:00am. Stark was pretty clear on his part, though he can’t count hours,” Will snorted, “to save his life.”

Dimitri "The Russian" Rasputin

Dimitri's brow furrowed at Will's odd sense of humor.

Will tossed the papers back onto the table and leaned back into his chair, staring up at the ceiling. He crumpled up a stray piece of paper Dimitri hoped wasn't important and started tossing it into the air. "So what do we know? 123go."

Dimitri exchanged looks with Dove. AT wasn't paying attention to their quiet, notreallytelepathic conversation, as she was busy pouring over her handheld game. West entertained himself by darting Will's pen at the ball, then dashing back to pick it up and return to his seat. Rinse and repeat.

"We know absolutely nothing," Will stated, not looking away from the ceiling.

A continued silence. Wayne started popping bubblegum.

Will sat right back up and stared at them. "Okay, really?" He sighed and stared at the papers in front of him again. "Man, I don't want to read another mission already... Still recovering from our last one."

"May I?"

Will looked up at Dimitri, shrugged, and slid the stack over. Dimitri picked up the papers and scanned them one by one. He had them positioned in Dove's direction as well in case she wanted to review them as well.

"Not quite sure how kicking off invisiboy was a smart move," Will continued. He leaned right back into his chair, threw his feet up again, and started tossing that damn paper ball for West to throw pens at.

"I presume getting into the Death Star isn't a concern at this point," Dimitri muttered.

Will shrugged. "We'll figure it out when we get there. It listed all those defenses in there. Something about having firepower greater than half the starfleet. The main part is sneaking around in there, aaand..." He eyed Dimitri.

Dimitri didn't make eye contact, but he flipped to a different page, saying, "We'll be fine. We work with our strengths for now and focus on team management afterward."

"You can phase through walls and stuff, yeah? That'll be useful for ganking the blueprints. Stick to the phasing thing. I'll tank if it comes down to it."

Dimitri stacked the papers back up and slid the stack toward Will.

"Well, I like the whole bonding time we've got going here, but winging it worked out pretty well for us last time." He paused. "...well enough anyway." Will stood up and stretched. "I'm hungry."

"What're they serving today? Chinese?" West said, standing up as well.

"Mexican. You're not eating that tonight. Especially with a mission tomorrow morning. Oh, and hey--" Will pointed at Dimitri. He paused and looked confused, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember what he was just thinking. "Oh. You've got a robo-kitty? Is she prone to going mad and breaking everything?"

Dimitri shook his head, sighing. Will has frequently been used in class as Dimitri's dueling partner or opponent for the sake of tanking. As a result, Will's had far too many bumps and bruises, so to speak, as a result. Dimitri couldn't blame him one bit for not trusting him as a tank. "No, but she can easily store information and transport it if needed. She can also hack into the systems if needed, though I can also do that--"

"I'll think on it, then. Robocat may or may not be coming. Aaaand splitting you two would be a bad idea. You've got a grasp on him?" he asked Dove.

Dimitri's jaw tensed as Dove replied with a, "Yes, don't worry about us."

"Good. I'm all done. Anyone wanna fetch some grub--" His words cut off by the crumpled up paper ball Dimitri through over his head and out the door. Will chased after it without another word.

Will “Streak” West

“So!” The Doctor twirled into the transporter room, giddy as ever. “Are you all ready to save the blue prints?”

“Not particul-”

“Perfect! Always best to keep on your toes!” The Doctor slammed the switch, wishing them luck as they evaporated from the room, the flurry of swears censored as they left.

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As their atoms reformed they found themselves in a pitch dark room, cramped and pushed against one another. Let there be light! West through, his goggles responding to his brain’s message, a pair of blinding spotlights aimed at the ceiling. “Looks like we’re in a janitor's closet.”

“Why would a janitor need a giant tub of acid?” Will said, squirming out of their cramped line.

“Dissolve the bodies,” AT and West said in near unison. “I thought you watched Breaking Bad,” West finished.

Will ignored the comment, instead focusing on trying to find the door to their janitorial prison, which seemed to be a completely solid cube. After a bit of scurrying around Wayne found a control panel, hidden behind a barrel of lasers marks “For Cleaning Only”.

“Alright, every stay calm and be quiet, we have no idea what is on the other side of that door,” Will said in a hushed tone. “Wayne, you go out first, scout to make sure we’re alone, if you have any trouble-”

“I’ll knock them out and drag them in here.” Wayne was already pounding at the control panel, slipping out a small crack in the door. West almost felt bad for the bad guys.

“Intrud-”

The group went on alert, everyone ready to pile out, but Will guarded the door, telling them to keep calm. After a series pews from outside, and a couple of thuds the door slid open, Wayne holding a laser pistol in her hand, several unconscious goons in white armor decorating the floor.

West wrangled them up in a second, shoving them into the closet as the group filed out, shutting the door back, and sticking a “CAUTION DO NOT ENTER” sign he had found in the closet on the door.

“I placed a few scramblers around the hall, hopefully they mess with whatever cameras they have around here, if not we better hurry up.”
“We would know if they knew,” Will said, trying to thinking up a plan. “We already broke the ‘No bashing’ rule. AT , Wayne, West and.” Will glanced at Dimitri, changing his thought mid sentence. “Start searching for a computer, we need a map of this place, hopefully we can find out where the weapon blueprints from there.”

They nodded, West and Wayne were the best suited for infiltration, and AT was the best back up they had. Dove would have been perfect too, but Dimitri still seemed to make Will uneasy. West made a mental note to try and do something about that, Dimitri didn’t seem that harmful, even in class he was so polite after he beat you up.

“Meanwhile, we stay put. We’re making this closet our base, for now at least, if anything goes wrong,” He glanced at the other three. “Make your way back here, don’t get too cocky.”

West put his arm around Will’s shoulder. “Us? Cocky? Never.”

“I am the master of caution,” AT said with a grin. Wayne just smirked, holstering her new pistol.

“Just get out here, we have a time limit. Once those rebels get here we’ll be blown to kingdom come.”

West tapped his costume, the flashy red fading into a gray-white to match the hallway, and strapping his goggled on. Start Radio Scan: All Types he thought, and the goggles hummed in response, the top of the lens flowing with numbers.

“Try and keep up.” West said, streaking down the hallway, his blur nearly impossible to spot against the walls. “Woo-Hoo!” West screamed, unable to contain his excitement, sure it was a stealth mission, but how often do you get to invade the base of a Planet Destroying Super Villain? It was a heroes dream.

“For a moment he seemed competent,” Wayne said, her and AT chasing after him.