“Alright, let’s go.” Mr Perfect said, as the van came to a stop.
Pixel nodded, grabbing a hold of Mr Universe, the pair disappearing with a pop.
Mr Perfect opened the van door and shot out, reaching the roof of the studio in seconds, startling the first armoured figure with a shoulder tackle, knocking him to the ground.
“What the hell? Someone’s here to rescue them already?” The second figure shouted.
“Don’t just stand there idiot, radio for backup!” The first replied, pushing Mr Perfect off from on top of him.
“They’ll figure it out soon enough.” Mr Perfect said, as he flew directly at the second man, punching him in the face, leaving him prone.
“It’ll take more than that to take down a Sickle Armour.” The first laughed.
“Sickle Armour?” Mr Perfect asked, taking his first good look at his adversaries.
Both men were clad in gunmetal grey armour, consisting of interlocking plates, allowing for maximum movement, without giving up much in protection.
“They were developed by the Russians in 1995; they tried to rip off the Patriot’s armour. They didn’t quite get it, but they made up for it with sheer numbers… Of course, they had to sell most of them to us, and because of that, the Human Right Initiative has an army that can take you scum on in a fair fight. We’ve got strength, speed, resilience… And my favourite…” The armoured figure chuckled, as a pair of gun barrels manoeuvred from his back onto his shoulders.
“Oh crap.” Mr Perfect didn’t have time to dodge, as the first guard opened fire. Instead, he took the shot full-force in the chest. “Oh, that’s right… I’m bulletproof.” He finished. ’Yeah, trash talk them… Don’t let them know that actually hurt.’ He thought to himself.
“You might be bulletproof, but can you survive without air?” The first man stopped firing.
“What do yo-“ Mr Perfect was cut off, as the second man wrapped his arms around his throat, cutting off his air supply, and getting him in a fairly effective sleeper-hold.
“It seems you have allies in the building already, but they’re not really a concern. Once you’re taken care of, the others will fall to our superior human might!” The man hanging off Mr Perfect’s back said.
“No help is coming? No matter, we’ll take care of you ourselves…” The first walked towards Mr Perfect, fists clenched, before punching the young super-hero square in the jaw.
Mr Perfect just smiled, as he made his move, grabbing his attacker by the arm and taking off into the air, both armoured soldiers in tow.
“What the hell are you doing? You’ll kill us all!” The man on his back wailed.
“Shut up you fool! Show no weakness!” The other shouted.
“These armours can’t fly! What will we do when he drops us?!?”
“He won’t drop us, he’s a super-hero. They think they’re above killing. They think they’re above humans!”
“He’ll pass out any second now!”
“Then let go you idiot!”
The man loosened his sleeper hold, which was the opening Mr Perfect needed, reaching his free hand over his shoulder and grabbing the man by his shoulder, flipping him over his head, and crashing him into his partner, before beginning his dive towards the building…

<><><>

“You won’t get away with this!’ Hyper Girl shouted.
“Who’s going to stop us?” Her guard replied, kicking the girl, who was bound to a chair.
“The other Hire-A-Hero agents.” Hyper Girl said defiantly.
“You mean those guys we’ve trapped like rats in their own base?” The guard laughed.
“The East Coast Boomers then.” Hyper Girl argued.
“In Miami, fighting the Order of Darkness.”
A look of resignation appeared on the young heroine’s face, there was no getting out of this one.
“What are you going to do with me?” She asked, tears forming in her eyes.
“We’re going to unmask you on national TV… And then execute you. As a message to the rest of the scum like you out in the world.” The guard laughed again.
“You can’t do that! It’s not our fault! We were just born like this.” She protested, tears streaming down her face.
“And as such, are abominations against God, who must be destroyed.” And with that, he slapped the pretty young teen across the face.
“To coin a phrase… Where is your God now?”
The guard spun, to see an office chair hurtling at his head. He laughed and took the brunt of the shot.
“You see this armour? It’ll take more than that to breach it!” The guard laughed.
“I know. I was just distracting you. I thought Hyper Girl would want to do this herself.” Mr Universe said, as Pixel disappeared into thin air.
“Do what?” The guard began to turn back.
“THIS!” Hyper Girl unleashed a blast of energy directly into the guard’s chest, knocking him past Mr Universe and into the wall.
“’Where is your God now?’? Really?” She asked.
“You’re welcome.” Mr Universe said.
“I was about to thank you… Just couldn’t get over that line.” Hyper Girl teased.
“And what witty one-liner do you have? ‘Stop hitting me! You’ll never get away with this! Someone turn off my inhibitor collar please!’” Mr Universe said.
“Oh sure, make me relive the trauma.” Hyper Girl joked.
Mr Universe didn’t have time for a comeback, as the roof caved in…
When the dust cleared, the two heroes saw Mr Perfect standing on top of the rubble, two unconscious Human Right Initiative members lying at his feet. Mr Universe and Hyper Girl stared at him.
“What?” He asked.

<><><>

“Let’s do this with minimum casualties.” Belle said, as Firestorm blew the front door open ahead of them.
“Sure, take all the fun out of this.” Firestorm replied with a grin, as the two members of the HRI began to open fire.
“Wow, you guys shoot like Storm Troopers!” Belle exclaimed, before unleashing her psychic scream on one of them. The armoured man dropped to his knees, clutching at his head.
“And they’re about as easy to beat…” Firestorm added, engulfing the second in a huge fireball, causing the Sickle Armour to glow red hot for a moment, before the man collapsed, overwhelmed by the heat.
“What did I say about casualties?’ Belle asked.
“He’s only unconscious…” Firestorm replied, pulling the man’s helmet off and checking for a pulse.
“Mine is too.” Belle replied, gesturing at the victim of her sonic scream, who had collapsed completely.
“This is going to be easier than I thought.” Firestorm commented, before falling on his ass, as Pixel appeared in front of him.
“Oops.” She said with a laugh, as Belle stifled her own laugh.
“It’s not funny.” Firestorm mumbled, before pushing past the youngest member of their team, to head up the stairs to the next floor.
The three emerged to find three HRI members in full Sickle Armour, all with their mounted guns pointed at their hostages.
“Stop right there mutant freaks, or we’ll waste the hostages.”
“Crap.” Belle said.

<><><>

‘Kev, we’ve got a situation on the first floor… They’ve got their guns on the hostages.’ Belle’s voice rang in Mr Perfect’s head, as he dispatched the final HRI member on the second floor with a well-placed punch to the chest-plate, disabling the armour completely, causing the man inside to topple over, not strong enough to support the hundreds of pounds of metal.
‘We’re on our way.’ Mr Perfect thought, knowing Belle would be reading his mind, awaiting a response.
“Ok guys, be careful coming down to the next floor, they’re waiting for us there… They’re threatening to kill people…” Mr Perfect let his order hang.
“What about us!?!” One of the executives they’d just freed piped up, as Mr Universe unlocked everyone’s handcuffs.
“Stay up here. We’ll take care of things downstairs and then everyone can go home.” Mr Perfect said.
“And who the hell are you to guarantee that boy? My son is older than you are!” The executive was on his feet now.
“I’m Mr Perfect, that’s who. And your son may be older than I am, but I’m pretty sure he can’t fly.” Mr Perfect said, before turning to Mr Universe and Hyper Girl, “Let’s go free the others.”
And with that, the trio headed downstairs, where they found Belle’s assessment of the situation to be true… Twenty hostages laid on the floor, handcuffed and gagged, with three HRI members standing over them, each with a gun pointed at a different hostage.
“More of you? You’re like cockroaches!” One yelled.
‘Katie, are you on me?’ Mr Perfect thought.
‘I thought you might want to talk.’ Belle replied.
‘Ok, we’re going to have to take them all out at once, but if any of us make a move on any of them, the others will open fire, and there will be casualties… I’m going to need everyone to work in unison… Here’s the plan…’ Mr Perfect relayed his plan to Belle.

‘Everyone got it?’ Belle asked, ignoring the HRI’s mad rant about ending the mutant menace once and for all, awaiting her allies’ affirmative responses. ‘Ok then… GO!’
The Brat Pack and Hyper Girl snapped into action, with Hyper Girl and Firestorm both blasting their nearest HRI member, as Mr Perfect charged forward, putting himself in the line of fire, saving one of the hostages from the HRI member who was opening fire on him, as Mr Universe moved a table into the path of another, with Pixel teleporting the third target out of harm’s way as Belle took down the final HRI member with a psychic scream.
“I love it when a plan comes together.” Mr Perfect said.
“Ugh… ‘The A-Team’? Really?” Mr Universe and Hyper Girl said in unison.
“Jinx! You owe me a Coke.” Hyper Girl said.
“Damn it.” Mr Universe exclaimed.
“Lucky she didn’t just decide you couldn’t talk… Not sure you’d be able to handle it Universe.” Belle laughed.
“I totally could… Remember that week in third grade?” Mr Universe replied.
“You totally had to have cheated…” Belle retorted.
“Guys, try to look a little professional.” Mr Perfect said, gesturing to the hostages.
“Oh… Right.” Mr Universe said, unlocking all the handcuffs.
“Professionalism is over-rated.” Belle said, drawing a glare from Mr Perfect. “What? Just saying.”

<><><>

“This just goes to prove what we were trying to say in our story… Young heroes are a menace!” The executive yelled.
“Are you serious? We just saved your asses!” Mr Universe yelled back.
“You know how much money today lost us? We lost our interview; half our studio is damaged, most of our staff will need counselling. It’s a disaster! You’ll be hearing from our lawyers!” The executive roared.
“You want your interview? How about you get one with a big name? You guys can have an exclusive interview with the one-and-only Mr Universe. For free.” Mr Universe replied.
“Why didn’t you say you wanted an interview? How’s the day after tomorrow?”
“School day. Tomorrow night?”
“Done.”
“Uhhh… Guys… We’ve got a problem…” Belle said.
“What’s up?” Mr Perfect was on his feet.
“I’ll just replay the message to all of you… I think I can do it.” Belle said.
‘Belle! It’s Link from D13… We need backup, and it can’t wait until Captain Awesome turns up… We’re pinned down, and they’re going to start killing hostages now that they know they can’t win over at Fox Studios.’ Link’s voice echoed across the psychic link.
“Wow, it actually worked… Cool.” Belle said.
“Focus Belle.” Mr Perfect ordered.
“Yeah, you’re worse than Pixel.” Mr Universe added.
“Hey! She is not!” Pixel said.
“Yeah, no-one’s that flaky.” Firestorm chimed in.
“Shut up, all of you. We’ve got to get there… Now. Hyper Girl, lead the way. Brat Pack… Assemble!” Mr Perfect said.
“I’m sorry… What?” Mr Universe choked.
“I thought we needed a rallying cry… Doesn’t work?” Mr Perfect asked.
“’Assemble’ sounds a little cheesy.” Belle offered.
“We don’t need a rallying cry you idiot. Let’s just go.” Firestorm said.
“Guys… Can any of you say ‘New York Traffic’? Most of you can’t fly.” Hyper Girl pointed out.
“Mr Universe, you got us covered?” Mr Perfect asked.
“You bet.” Mr Universe replied, lifting up a damaged satellite dish with his powers, “Hop in.”
“Try not to spill us this time.” Belle said, hopping on top, quickly followed by Pixel and Firestorm.
“Happy?” Mr Perfect asked Hyper Girl.
“Sorry I asked.” Hyper Girl replied, as the heroes took to the sky.
“Hey! That’s my dish!” The executive shouted, shaking his fist at the disappearing heroes.

<><><>