They finished two jobs in Vibora Bay when there was an alert that went out to all superheroes. Valerian Scarlet was in the museum, trying to rob it of a newly brought-in artifact. Toxicon mentioned they should do that, but Starcrowe waved his hand. “It happens all the time. There’s plenty of heroes for it. I’m getting some free food at Windsong.”
Toxicon stared at him. “I don’t care if it happens all the time – they’re calling us specifically, and we should go do it.”
“We don’t have to – ” Toxicon walked by Windsong Mall, heading toward the plane. “You don’t understand! There’s other heroes–Oh, come on!”
Toxicon crossed the street and started to the pier. Starcrowe looked at the mall, looked at Toxicon’s back, and sighed. “Dammit,” he hissed, following Toxicon.
On the plane ride back to Millennium City, Toxicon had pulled out his phone and was texting someone. Starcrowe pulled out his phone and played Bejeweled. He didn’t want to talk to Toxicon – he, in fact, didn’t want anything to do with him at the moment, he was that angry at him. When they touched down at Millennium City, Toxicon found out there still was an alert in place. He immediately started running, with Starcrowe in flight close behind.
When they arrived at the cordon around the museum, there were three other heroes. He was shocked – out of all the other heroes in the city, only three others showed up. Did they all have Starcrowe’s attitude?
One man didn’t look much like a hero, but the other two women did, dressed skimpy as they were. One had a demon’s tail but no horns. One of the women looked serious, however scantily clad she was. “All right,” said the policeman on duty, and went to hand Toxicon a comm. Toxicon shook his head, and pointed to Starcrowe. The women pouted. The man sneered. Starcrowe took the comm.
“You have to take out those guys first,” said the cop, and he pointed out the Trey Kings.
“No worries,” said Starcrowe, and looked at the other heroes, all of them who were older than he was, and none of them looked ready to trust him. Starcrowe screwed up his courage and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
They easily and efficiently cleaned out the immediate area of Trey Kings. The swordsman who didn’t look like a hero kept sneering at Starcrowe, expecting him to make a mistake, or expecting him to get knocked unconscious. He didn’t, and wouldn’t give the guy the satisfaction. Toxicon was able to send out beams of toxic rays from his hands that dripped onto the museum floor and ate at the marble. He wondered if he was going to get charged for that.
Finally, Valerian Scarlet was at the end, with her back to them. The swordsman sneaked up on her, but Toxicon ran up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She screamed in agony, broke away from him, and hit him with a beam of magic. Toxicon went sprawling, slammed into a set of glass, and lay there.
Starcrowe stared at him, and that’s when the shadows appeared and attacked. Starcrowe helped with the attack, all the while moving to Toxicon. He checked on him, careful not to touch his face, but touched his suit, shaking him. He moaned, while Valerian Scarlet readied another volley right at him.
The shadows distracted her, and the beam of magic hit above his head, barely skinning his skull.
“Stop her,” he heard Toxicon say. He tried to get up.
Starcrowe turned from Toxicon and with a yell of rage, went at her. She didn’t expect this pipsqueak to run at her, and she sent Trey Kings at him. He cut through them like a hot knife through butter, then got to Valerian Scarlet and punched her solidly in the face. Combined with the hits from the swordsman and the Galactic Girl’s force beams, in addition to the demon-tailed woman’s mind games, she finally fell.
Starcrowe heard someone demanding what was going on. He hit the comm. “Valerian Scarlet down. We have a man down.”
“I’m up,” Toxicon said. The other heroes had disappeared, without even saying thank you or “Good job, kid.” He was disappointed.
Toxicon felt his back. “This stuff is amazing. Not one hole.”
“We’ll have to tell Mike it’s worth it.” Cops came in and cuffed Valerian, dragging her out the door. The head cop came over and Starcrowe handed over the comm. “Nice work. Where did everybody go?”
Starcrowe shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You two kids okay?”
They both nodded. Then they both started out the museum. “Still pissed off at me?” asked Toxicon.
Starcrowe shook his head. “No. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good,” Toxicon said. “I’m going to head home.”
“Same here, I think.”
“I’ll see you again soon?”
“Sure. Mike’ll probably pair us up again.”
Said Toxicon, “I hope so.”
Starcrowe suddenly smiled. “Me too.”