Origin Story: Part 14

“Stay out of the ocean!”

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Madeline slowly got to her feet while meeting the eyes of the five angry superheroes staring at her. “You have to listen to me. Somebody is trying to—”

There was an ear-splitting tone as Madeline was hit by a screech from Sonicgirl, sending Madeline flying backward. After Madeline hit the ground, she quickly got up a forcefield that deflected the intense soundwaves as Madeline returned to her feet. Next, she saw the Amazonian coming at her with a giant mace, and Madeline dodged out of the way. She saw movement from the Cowl and got a forcefield in place just in time to deflect some throwing stars. The distraction allowed the Amazonian to land a blow; it hit a forcefield, but the force of the impact sent Madeline back to the ground.

Madeline saw the Quickener start to move and knew what was coming was his famous speed punch. She got a forcefield up at foot level just before the Quickener charged, and it tripped him and sent him flying. He landed hard against the ground. “Ah! My hip!”

“Oh no! I didn’t mean to!” Madeline gasped in horror but was interrupted by the Amazonian’s mace. Once again, she deflected the mighty blow with her forcefields, this time barely keeping standing. The Amazonian then came with an overhead strike, smashing into the forcefield and bringing Madeline to the ground. The Amazonian kept pressing against it, and Madeline strained to keep the forcefield in place but felt herself failing, the mace held just inches from Madeline’s face.

A tree collided with the Amazonian’s head, and she fell unconscious to the ground. Holding the tree was Harvey, a jeep behind him. “I hit a woman with a tree!” he exclaimed with a big smile. “I can be a feminist!” He was cut off as the Cowl did a flying kick into him. Madeline ran to help but then spotted Sonicgirl and got her forcefield up just in time to deflect a sonic screech. Sonicgirl braced herself for an even more powerful screech, but just before she released the blast, Madeline put a curved forcefield right in front of her face, which deflected her screech back at Sonicgirl and sent her flying.

As Harvey kept fighting the Cowl, Madeline saw one more foe facing her down: Splash. He had a determined look which Madeline met with her own intensity as she surrounded herself with pink forcefields. Splash then grimaced. “I just came on the off chance you tried to escape by a boat or something.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Madeline told him.

Splash got a determined look again and stared down Madeline again. “Stay out of the ocean!”

Madeline nodded. “I will.”

Splash seemed satisfied and turned and walked away. Madeline once again ran to help Harvey. The Cowl’s blows seemed to do little to phase Harvey, but Harvey was unable to land a punch back with the Cowl’s athleticism.

“Ah! This guy knows all that chop-socky stuff!” Harvey exclaimed.

Madeline projected some forcefields around the Cowl, binding him. “You’re not going to get away with this, Madeline!” the Cowl exclaimed, struggling against her power. “If we couldn’t take you down, the U.S. Army was coming next.”

“We need to get out of here,” Madeline told Harvey, motioning to the jeep. “Grab the Cowl and take him with us; maybe we can explain to him what’s going on.”

Harvey nodded and lifted the bound superhero.

“So you really are her henchman?” the Cowl asked.

“It’s an equal partnership!” Harvey exclaimed as he dropped the Cowl in the back of the jeep and then got into the driver’s seat. “And mainly, it’s just been a lot of fleeing.”

As Harvey drove the jeep away, Madeline turned and faced the Cowl. “You have to listen to me. I’ve been set up.”

The Cowl seemed skeptical. “So you didn’t kill Mokovia’s leaders?”

Madeline grimaced. “It’s... complicated. But I definitely did not kill Fly-Over! And I didn’t post those things online saying I’m happy for what happened with Mokovia’s leaders. Someone is trying to make me look like a supervillain.”

“Who?” the Cowl asked, still skeptical but listening.

“I think this rogue superhero called the Armored Justice,” Madeline said. “He’s who talked me into coming here and gave me the communicator watch that emitted whatever it was that killed Fly-Over.”

“Why would someone set you up?”

Madeline let out a frustrated growl. “I don’t know, but it seems super mean.”

“Well, we know where Armored Justice is,” the Cowl said. “We tracked his location to a nearby military base. We were going to check it out after handling you.”

“Well, I guess we’ll check that out together,” Harvey said, a scowl creasing his face.

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