13th January 2004
10:26 GMT
Garrick!
In utter horror I watch as the intercontinental ballistic missile comes in, my cutting construct crawling through the air too slowly to reach it before it hits the ground and the boom tube aperture materialising far too slowly to catch it!
Fuck! Flash is in motion, grabbing Nightwing and.. sending lightning crackling across his head? She can share speed?
She looks at him imploringly. "What do we do?"
He looks at the missile. No, he'll take too long. "Grab Supergirl and have her heat vision the warhead. That'll stop it going critical."
She looks at me in confusion for a moment and then returns her attention to Nightwing.
I frantically signal the drones to open fire on the blasted thing. Not sure that I'm getting through at this speed.
"That should work. Do it."
At what point do nuclear missiles detonate?
It's practically on the ground already. Most likely multiple warheads so… Twenty four terajoules? A
wee bit above the largest explosions I've ever tested my construct armour against.
Ah shit, multiple warheads.
There's no way she's going to be able to-.
Beams of red outrace my yellow projection, painting the outer casing of the missile. As I abandon my attack construct and try
fortifying my armour I notice that things are starting to speed-.
BOOM!
Still alive and not standing in a plume of super hot irradiated plasma? Golly gosh I am.
I extend an atmospheric purification construct outwards, removing smoke and debris from the air. I also gather up pieces of highly radioactive plutonium and lock them in a shielded box construct.
"Good work girls." / "Good work, Flash and Supergirl!"
Nightwing and I share a disquieted glance for a moment, then avert our eyes.
Marvel looks at the wreckage of the missile. "I thought nuclear explosions were bigger than that."
Nightwing nods. "Supergirl burned through the explosives around the plutonium so they didn't compress it enough to go critical. That explosion was just the detonator."
"I realise I'm trying to make political capital out of a near-tragedy here, but I think this rather proves my point. How many people had to okay nuking Washington?"
"A few." Gonzo steps up to me and shoves a briefcase into my hands. "It'll be less tomorrow."
I take a look at the case.
What exactly-?
Garrick!
Two balls of white expand through the material of the case, consuming it and eating at my construct armour.
Shield, contain the blast!
Corpsman, your priorities-.
Don't argue with me, Sinestro!
Calculating radius. Filaments extend outwards and bend, starting to form a dome around me.
There are other superheroes, you know.
I get half a relative second of Flash staring in horror before my vision goes white. Armour construct.. holding for the moment. The radiation doesn't bother me too much but the heat and the pressure -particularly given that I'm containing it- is getting to be horrendous, even given the small size of the device. Sinestro,
is it holding?
You have about eight seconds, Corpsman.
Transmit a message to Lantern Rayner.
Get him to put a barrier around us to replace it.
Message sent, but I should probably warn you-
Something hits the centre of my faceplate. It's too bright for me to see the damage, but I'm still getting some feedback from my ring. Ring,
adjust vision to allow for the plasma field.
-that Gonzo's trapped in here with us.
His body is displayed as matte black, with the red tron lines of New God technology densely covering the visible surfaces. Of course, that's probably just my ring trying to make sense of
anything visual in here. He swings his fist again, glacially slow at first then gathering speed as the Garrick Formula wears off. The duration's getting shorter and shorter each time… I move my right hand across to turn the blow aside-
I don't recommend that, Corpsman. Any pressure on your armour construct-
-and my hand presses against the back of his left forearm and pushes
YAAAAAAGHH!
-would probably cause it to breach.
Gonzo's arm -
agh- is diverted but my gauntlet construct gives way, exposing my armour to the inferno. The pain in my hand is -
urghgh-
excruciating as my divine resilience and Apokolips tech armour try keeping my body in one piece against the raging atomic fury. Ordinarily, I'd say that losing an arm would be inconvenient; it would grow back eventually just as my intestine did. In this case the fact that my power ring is on that hand makes the issue a little more pressing. I
extract a small x-ionised blade from subspace and try pressing it into Gonzo's arm. Hopefully his innards are no more nuke-proof than mine. It lasts just long enough to make a tiny nick before being vaporised.
Bahgh! The pressure just broke several bones in my right hand!
Sinestro, please tell me-.
He's doing something. Whether or not it will hold-.
It'll have to. I
force myself forwards and strike Gonzo in the che
ERGHEHAGHGHH!. Keep…
Keep an e-environmental shie-shield around the x-ionised blades.
Stab the bastard!
Oops.
My construct armour disappears and I'm exposed to the full force of the ongoing thermonuclear reaction.
Even through my eyelids it's blinding bright and I can feel both the armour and the outer layers of my skin burning away.
Ring, re-establish armour!
Quite impossible under these conditions. The best I can suggest is- Lights flare and then go black as first my eyelids and then my eyes are burned out, the feed from the ring the only way I have to perceive my environment.
-reinforcing your environmental shield.
Do it! Another blow hits me in the chest, causing the flesh to give way.
Dragh!
You also lost control of your containment construct. Given that the pressure isn't dropping I'm forced to conclude that the Rayner child has the matter in hand.
Guh-huhugh.
Anything else?
That idea about the x-ionised blades was decent enough. Oh, and twenty two percent charge remaining.
Thank…
You…
The pain decreases a little but I still can't see. Sinestro,
filaments. Find him.
Got him. One metre twenty ahead and slightly to the right.
I have absolutely no need to focus further on fear as I desperately stab at him with my entire arsenal.
Red lines blink out as the blades sever them and his outline starts to shimmer and lose cohesion.
Don't hope.
Hope is the trap.
You're still being slowly incinerated.
Gonzo falls backwards, his central mass shimmering and drifting apart.
Good news, Corpsman. The external pressure appears to be dropping off.
Ugh.
He's… He's right. I can feel the burning getting mildly less intense. Though that could just be my nerves getting incinerated. Uhh. Just.. just hold on a little longer.
