The Trial of Captain Knievel!

[N/A]

The Scarab grunted and grimaced behind her helmet and clutched her side. Broken rib. Maybe two. She grabbed onto one of the more stable piles of broken brick and asphalt and pulled herself to her feet. DarkStar bought us some time. I'll do my best not to waste it. We need to get this situation under control. Right now, it's anything but.

The Scarab concentrated on twisting the minds of those around her in one direction: Do not see me. To DarkStar and Arrowhawk, she appeared semi-transparent, like viewing a ghost through a soft-focus lense. She floated up out of the hole and soared up into the air.

[angrydurf]

Ace was getting a bit desperate but with the more supernaturally enhanced heroes dealing with the explosions he had little chance of keeping up with Knieval if he decided to run. Thinking quickly Ace fabricated a cresting swarm of biting insects, it was a paltry illusion but should serve to keep the Captains attention a little longer. With a smirk he pointed behind the Captain, "They say otherwise." he said as the swarm began to envelop the fleeing villian.

[Geez3r]

With a groan, Malice sits back up. As he stands, his armor changes shape. He know resembles a tank more than anything else. From his posture you can tell that he's taking the gloves off. "I came here with the sole purpose of averting a miscarriage of justice; at any cost. You have forced my hand. I am sorry." This was his least favorite weapon to use due to the collateral damage, but if there was any one in his arsenal that could bring these heroes down, it was this one. Malice unleashed a massive store of energy and engulfed the entire area in a gigantic plume of devastating energy.

[Warmonger]

Ronin took a second to gloat over the devastation from his explosion. Then his lip turned into a snarl, when he saw quite a few people still standing. Even as the dust settled, he caught the gleam of metal as an arrow zipped out of the dust, he batted it aside with his palm. It was that archer! Why wont your people die? He raised the Rocket launcher again intending to level the rest of the street.

As he raised his gun he saw the armored villain seemingly morph before his eyes, there was a flash. Ronin saw the expanding sphere of energy like a massive tidal wave, and the not the 900mph blast it was. Giving him all the time he needed to break into a sprint. Ronin vaulted over the building's side even as the wave smashed into the Library. Ronin was deafened, as glass and cement exploded. Ronin's hand shot out and grabbed the edge of a window sill as he pivoted in the air. His arm pulled taught barely catching himself, he banged against the side of the building. Ronin blinked away the smoke and took a glance around.

"Show off."

[quotemyname]

"Ahhh!" Captain Knievel yelped when the swarm started gathering around his legs.

He began stomping on the bugs that had begun to swarm in from seemingly nowhere. That was when a massive explosion rocketed the entire building.

"THE @#$% WAS THAT?!?!" He yelled his head turning towards the sound of the explosion. The bugs around his feet were completely forgotten. as the building rocked and dust fell from some new cracks in the ceiling. "Whatever it was, I am VERY glad I was inside when it happened!"

Ace Danger was also momentarily forgotten during the chaos. Unfortunately, so were his plans for escape!

[Warmonger]

When his ears stopped ringing, Ronin climbed back up to the roof. He moved to the building's edge. He barely noticed that half of the building had been blown off,, because his gaze was transfixed on the smoking crater. He could see the armored villain, his body glowed with heat. Above him the Dark apparition still hovered, a penumbra of energy faintly outlining its form. Ronin whistled. This guy was tough cookie, but on the plus side he didn't see Scarab anymore and the guy with the bow.

This sort of fight was clearly beyond him, he hadn't even phased this thing. Well he had better things to do than fight a ghost, like complete his contract, but just in case. Ronin took a canister from his belt and leapt down from the building. Before he dropped he threw the canister at the wavering form. Maybe its eyes worked like everyone else.

[Cyroa]

As the energy blast faded, leaving the wreckage behind, Dark Star floated exactly as he had before, unharmed. Below and to the side, he noted the figure running by before a second burst of sound and light happened all around him. It did managed to blind his normal vision, but it wasn't much of a problem at the moment.

"You choose to inflict pain, suffering and misery on all these innocents people and this place just now. You were not forced. I am becoming rather cross with you Malice. I take no joy ni this, but you need to be stopped." He raised both hands, the black glow building up around each hand. Two seperate graviton beams shot forth, each slamming hard into Malice.

[Geez3r]

The smoke cleared, and Malice still stood just as strongly as he had done the moment before. Dark Star's attacks didn't seem to have any visible effect on Malice. He did appear to be a bit disoriented from the flash bang because when he talks, he's not quite looking straight at Dark Star. He also seems to be a bit out of breath, not surprising considering the heat his suit just generated; it must be unbearably hot in there. "My actions are for the greater good Dark Star. It gives me no pleasure to do this, but I am left with little choice. If my friend hadn't been subject to this farce of a trial, I would have let the legal system turn as normal. If you were not here, I would have used conventional weaponry. But neither of those two options came to pass so here we are."

[angrydurf]

After the explosion Ace realized the others may not have things as under control as he had hoped. Knieval really couldn't get far if he did get away and right now there was something blowing the heck out off two historic landmarks and likely some of his fellow heroes. Sure there might not be much Ace could do against firepower of that kind but that had never stopped him before.

Leaving Knieval to sort out reality on his own Ace rushed to the front of the courthouse arriving just in time to hear Malices crazed rant. Personally Ace blamed Fox News.

"Hey Big, clunky and soon to be incarcerated you're buddy's already back in custody and the whole damn League is gonna be here at any moment." He accented his point with a gesture to a lingering jet contrail that just might be mistaken for an incoming Captain Thunder and allies.

[Geez3r]

Malice was already hot, tired, sore and low on energy. Dealing with whoever this new arrival was, along with the league was certainly not very high on his to-do list. What was high on the to-do list however was regaining the ability the see. Malice rapidly blinked his eyes and shook his head trying to get his vision back, while giving the new voice a rather rude hand gesture. Though you can tell from his body language, he's serious considering booking it as soon as he can see again.

[Warmonger]

Ronin dodged and weaved through the charred landscape heading for the courthouse. Then the door busted open and some man came out. Ronin quickly realizes he is one of the heroes when he threatens Malice and points at some Jet trail. Was this guy serious? What was he talking about? In a flash Ronin vaulted over rubble and towards the hero, drawing his pistols and opening fire on the hero.

"Good. I hope they brought a garbage bag for your corpse."

[Avenger Assembled]

Though it was perhaps an inglorious moment for the city's superhuman population, fortunately the many explosions in front of the courthouse had destroyed the security cameras in the area. So there was no one to see the daring Ace Danger be shot in the back (just like in Ace Danger #405 "Aces and Eights!", available from a Castle Comics retailer near you) or the radiant Dark Star take time out to heal his badly wounded comrades, thus giving the bad guys the window they needed to charge the courthouse and rescue the unfortunate Captain Knievel.

With a flash of light and a roar of patriotic rocket engines, Knievel and Malice flew away together into the sky, a lucky reporter for an out-of-town newspaper catching a single memorable photograph that would later lead to a complicated series of online supervillian fan-fiction and flamewars that would ultimately culminate in the mysterious destruction of an entire server hub (as if by cannon fire) in Connecticut. But all that was weeks in the future; what mattered for the moment was the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Freedom City property and the successful escape of Taylor Rogers, aka Captain Knievel, and the gang of his minions who'd come to break him out.

---

When the Vestige woke up, the first thing he sensed was the powerful anti-magic field permeating the specially reinforced cell all around him, suppressing the energy that suffused his being. The second thing was the face of Bill "Bulldog" Maddicks, the commanding officer of STAR Squad, and the massive stun rifle in his hands. "Hey there. You're under arrest." And with that, he fired the rifle again, and the Atlantean sorcerer once again slipped into the deepest unconsciousness of all.