7

I picked up the signal on my internal radio receiver the same time the bioship's speakers came alive with Red Tornado's voice. "Red Tornado to Miss Martian, a red alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbor power plant. I suggest you investigate, covertly. I'm sending you the coordinates."

"Would this alert having anything to do with a whirlwind tearing up the place?" I asked as I pointed out the window, but even as I did my view of it was obstructed by a hill as it moved out of sight.

"What whirlwind?" Robin asked as he craned his neck to see what I was referring to. "You sure your eyes are as good as you say they are?"

I frowned as I looked at him. "It was there a second ago. Just keep your eyes open as we go in."

M'gann didn't say anything, but her hands moved across the glowing control spheres next to her seat and the bioship started to bank as we headed to our target. I felt a bit of anticipation chittering in my… well, everywhere, as I wondered what was going on. Maybe it was just a freak bit of weather…

Yeah, it sounded dumb in my head too.

It was only a couple of seconds before we had the power plant in our sights, a long building next to a row of trees that reminded me of a very large warehouse with smoke stacks. At first glance everything seemed perfectly normal, but it was Superboy who saw it first. "I see it, off to our right!" M'gann was already banking the ship out of the way as the small tornado seemed to come out of nowhere, tearing across the parking lot towards us. It managed to catch us in the edge of its cyclone and caused the bioship to spin, but M'gann quickly regained control before heading towards the parking lot below.

If I had a heart, it probably would have been pounding.

The ship hovered about 10 feet off the ground before a hole opened in the center of the command deck, and the rest of us promptly jumped out. The moment we hit the ground I managed to catch Robin dart to the side and around several cars with my blindsight, covering the distance towards the power plant with impressive speed. That's a baseline 13 year old? I thought to myself incredulously.

The whirlwind had swung around and headed back towards the main building, and employees were fleeing the premises with all due haste. "Robin, are tornados common in New England-?" Kaldur started to say before he looked around and saw the boy was no longer there. "Robin?"

I pointed. "He ran off that way," I said just as Robin ducked into the building through one of the lower windows. A second later all of the windows along the top of the building started to blow out one after another. The rest of us present looked at each other before a silent consensus was reached and everyone bolted forward. I hung back for a second before I followed suit. I was supposed to stay in the back during combat after all.

We entered through a large service entrance just in time to see Robin being thrown across the wide open floor of the plant and slam into a concrete pillar before crashing to the ground. Standing on the other side of the floor was who I could only assume was the cause of all this. It was a nine foot tall robotic humanoid, with a combination of red and black armor plates making up its chassis (and oddly enough a brown scarf covering the lower half of its face). It also had a pair of tubes leading from a small structure on its back to its arms, of all things, with glowing blue lines on its hands and feet.

I had no idea who he/it was, but it looked like my first villain fight was against either a robot or a guy in power armor. All I had to do was get into close range, and hello upgrades.

Superboy was the first in and his jump landed him next to Robin's prone body, briefly making sure the young boy was ok before he asked with a growl "Who's your new friend?" He didn't even wait for a response before he made a beeline for the target.

"Didn't get his name, but he plays kinda rough!" Robin called out as he got to his feet.

"My apologies," the villain said in a lightly synthesized and deeply resonate voice before he raised his hands towards the charging Superboy. "You may address me as Mister Twister." With that, cyclones formed around the limbs before blasting towards Superboy, the force of which was able to slow his charge to a near halt. With a gesture and a powerful burst the wind suddenly launched the teen back through the air, and I winced as the concrete wall near me cracked from the impact of his body.

Even as I moved to catch him, Kori - no, we're in combat now, I need to start using titles, even mentally - Starfire was already flying in with a yell, arcing high before coming down almost on top of Twister. The villain raised his arms and sent a swirling blast of wind toward her as well, but while Starfire slowed to a crawl through the air she didn't stop completely, inching closer and closer to the metallic man. Twister seemed to realize that he couldn't stop her like that and pulled an arm away, pointing it at Kid Flash who was running towards him in a blur (also, damn was that interesting to watch). The speedster tried to do a sort of running drop kick, but Twister took control of the action midair and flung him straight into Starfire. The two collided and with another gesture a blast of wind tossed them out the building through another service entrance behind him.

Aqualad and Miss Martin tried to rush him from both sides before he could recover, but the villain simply gestured before his body was surrounded by a whirlwind and the two were tossed away like ragdolls. Robin stayed where he was for the moment, opting to regain his footing before he went back in.

Ok… maybe I should hold off on going into close range, I thought to myself as I helped Suberboy to his feet. I mean, I was pretty sure I could end it quickly, but Mr. Twister seemed very intent on keeping anything from getting that close. And the several attempts I had just witnessed told me I couldn't just blitz him.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero. I wasn't expecting children." Mister Twister remarked with a condescending tone, looking at the lot of us scattered about the building. He finally seemed to notice me hanging in the back as he looked in my direction. "And how about you? Are perhaps you a real-?"

That was as far as he got before my right arm shifted into a laser cannon and shot him.

I may not have been a marksman, but I had put in a little practice over the week, and hitting a target of that size with a laser wasn't terribly hard. The red beam struck him in the chest for a moment before he brought his arms up to block it. I held it for a few seconds before I stopped firing to see how the attack fared. Thermal imaging showed only a mild increase in Twister's temperature as he lowered his arms. "Is that the best you can-"

That was as far as he got before I upped the yield of my cannon from 25% to 50% and resumed firing.

Twister staggered back a bit at the renewed force hitting him, and I could see the metal of his body start to heat up and glow red. "If there's someone in there, you might want to tell me before it gets a little too hot for you." I called out.

Twister's response was to sweep out a hand towards me, causing a whirlwind to form and surge in my direction. I had been expecting something like this however, and the moment I saw this spikes shot out from the bottom my feet and impaled the concrete beneath me, firmly anchoring me to the floor. As the wind swept over me I buckled slightly, but I managed to remain standing under the assault. As the wind cleared I considered my options. I could keep upping the power of my laser, but I didn't want to actually damage Twister too much. Both because I didn't want to accidently kill him/it, and because I wanted something left over for me to consume. That meant I needed to focus on disabling him somehow.

So, I formed my left arm into another laser cannon and tried firing at his hands.

The villain let out something like a growl as he flinched to the side to avoid the second beam, the wind cutting off as he moved. "This is becoming less and less amusing." He said as he cast his hands downward and kicked up a whirlwind around himself, picking up dirt and debris that had littered the floor. My beams moved as I tracked him, but all the junk that was starting to get in the way cut down how much actually got through, and I could see that the wind was starting to cool his chassis. Through the swirling mess around him I also saw him lift his hand and lightning start to crackle in his palm. "Perhaps this will fix that."

I tried to move, but the spikes didn't retract into my feet fast enough. Oh shi- AARRRRH!

My body spasmmed as electricity surged through me, and everything blurred and lost focus. As soon as it started though it seemed to stop. My body slumped over a bit and I had to take a few seconds pulling myself back together… and I was a little surprised to find that it was not literal. I had partially melted the last time I had taken a shock like that, so why-

I realized it as the spikes finished retracting into my feet. Huh. I'll have to remember that for later.

Refocusing on the fight, I saw that Mister Twister had refocused on the others. Superboy had re-entered the fray with a steel beam in his hands, yelling in fury as he tried to crush the villain with it. Twister pulled back across the room as he sent another wave of miniature tornadoes in his direction, battering the teen and ripping the improvised weapon out of his hands. Miss Martian flew in with a small cloud of metal debris orbiting her before she threw it all in a barrage, but most of it was deflected by the winds already swirling around villain, and his armor plating took care of the rest. Mister Twister tried to retaliate with a bolt of lightning, but Aqualad was there, intercepting the bolt with his hand and somehow blocking it. Didn't know he could do that.

For the moment I stayed where I was, remaining hunched over and looking weakened. I didn't trust my aim with all of my teammates ducking in and out of my line of fire, so I decided to wait for the right moment to act. For his part, Mister Twister seemed to be getting his momentum back even as he blocked or deflected all the attacks coming at him. "I will admit, you children have more power than I thought, but you are still no substitute for a real superhero." Twister said as he simply rose into the air to avoid a leaping kick from Robin. I noted with some curiosity that he didn't seem to have any thrusters or propulsion, he just... floated. "Is there not one of you who can provide- Aargh!"

The villain was cut off as a salvo of green energy bolts slammed into his back, and the rest of us looked up in time to see Starfire flying back into the building, her hands brimming with power. Twister cast out his hands and sent more whirlwinds out to knock her out of the sky, but there was a sudden blur of motion that rushed in to meet them first, moving around them in the opposite direction and cutting off their rotation. After the wind died down the blur resolved itself into Kid Flash, sliding to a stop next to Aqualad and Robin. "Ooo, right in the middle of his monologue too. That's some serious points off his villain cred." The speedster quipped with a grin.

Aqualad stepped forward as he looked up at the floating villain. "Surrender now, and I promise you will not be harmed."

Mister Twister of course just laughed at that. "Oh please. You think that because you got a few lucky shots in that you can actually beat me? You will need to hit me at least twice as hard to-"

And that was the exact moment I formed another two laser cannons on my shoulders and opened fire with all four at once.

"Oh come on!" Twister shouted as the lasers struck him, his metal visibly glowing and warping at the points of impact on his torso. I tried to readjust my aim to hit something a bit more disabling, but Twister decided to exercise the better part of valor and flew out the service door that he had previously tossed my teammates out of.

"After him!" Aqualad called out, and we all bolted out of the building after the villain, out into the open field nearby. Mister Twister had floated to a stop about 50 feet above the ground, his arms spread wide as wind and lightning started to pick up around him, a much larger cyclone beginning to form.

"Enough of this distraction. I have better-" He started to say, but Starfire was having none of that though. She immediately flew at him firing more starbolts, small explosions detonating all over Mister Twister's body as they came in contact. When he was visible again he looked worse for wear, but he still growled in anger before lashing out at the Tamaranian with lightning. Starfire dodged the bolt (somehow) and opened fire again, but this time the villain moved from his spot. The two started to maneuver around each other in midair, each trying to land a solid hit on the other. I also noticed that while the proto-cyclone above us had not disappeared, it was starting to slow the more he focused on her.

While this was going on, Aqualad turned to our other female teammate. "Read his mind, find a weakness!"

The green girl blinked in surprise before she looked at me. "But, but I thought I wasn't supposed to do that!"

"It's acceptable in combat, do it!" I yelled back. In truth I'd probably have to explain and break the complicated topic down for her later, but now was not the time for such nuance.

She nodded and closed her eyes, and for a moment nothing happened. "…Nothing, I'm getting nothing." Her eyes then shot open and smacked herself upside the head. "Hello Megan, Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise!"

"...What?"

"He's inorganic, an android! And how many androids to you know that can generate tornados?"

I stared at her incredulously for a second before I said "M-Miss Martian, Red Tornado would not threaten people's lives and destroy a power plant as part of a training exercise. Also, Mister Twister's tornadoes are very distinctly not red!" I know for a fact that we had both seen Red Tornado use his abilities before, but I guess she hadn't realized that was where the 'Red' came from.

Miss Martian flinched back from me at this, which made me feel guilty, but we didn't have time to talk about it. A loud boom brought our attention back to the fight in the air in time to see Starfire tumbling away from Mister Twister before she righted herself in the air. The cyclone gathering around what I now knew was an android started to pick up the pace again before Starfire could reengage.

I racked my brain as I tried to think of what we could do. Miss Martian was the only other one of us that could fly, but she didn't have anything that could get through Twister's defenses. The only one besides Starfire who had a decent ranged attack in the group was myself, but my lasers weren't quite effective enough. Now that I knew that he was an android, I could make some kind of EMP weapon... if I had the slightest clue how (never mind how badly it might hurt me as well). It would still be optimal if I could just actually touch him, but how-

Then an idea came to me, and I felt dumb for not thinking of it sooner.

All of my laser cannons melded back into my body with the exception my right arm, which instead started to expand. I still hadn't figured out exactly how many watts I could put out total, but practically speaking the amount of energy I could channel through my laser weaponry was linked to their structural integrity. Put too much through and my arm starts getting all hot and melty. At the moment the best way to get around that was to just build it up. As the cannon grew its form became heavy and more angular, its weight was such that I was forced to grab a handle that grew from the top with my free hand. The barrel widened as more structure formed under it, adding more capacity as well as something extra just below. I just had to wait for the right moment…

I got it a few seconds later when Starfire rushed at him and he was forced to dodge towards me. "Hey Twisty!" I yelled. Alright, not A-grade banter I'll admit, but I was new to this and it got Twister's attention just the same. I pointed the cannon at him, and the barrel started to glow ominously. "Block this!"

With not enough time to change directions, Mister Twister brought his arms in a cross in front of him to block the shot, but I wasn't sure if it would help. With a gun that big, the laser was going to do a lot of damage to him.

Which was why instead of actually firing the laser, I instead fired the under barrel grappling hook at him. The line shot out and latched onto his arms before he realized what happened. Gottcha!

There was only a moment before the grapple's head unfurled into assimilation spikes and buried themselves into Twister's gauntlets. Unfortunately, due to the relatively low mass of the grapple head there was less to work with, and the grey material spread up twister's arms slower than I thought it would. "What is this?! No!" The villain yelled as he struggled to get free. Lightning arced across his body and I screamed in pain as it came into contact with my mass, causing the absorption to stop. At that moment Twister wrenched in midair with such force that his partially consumed arms simply tore off his body and fell to the ground. He listed in the air as he tried to rebalance himself after losing his limbs.

Starfire didn't give him the chance. She shot up above him before coming back down, smashing into the android with enough force to send him crashing into the ground. Even as he tried to get on his feet, Superboy had already cleared the distance, laying into the villain with a shout and a rapid series of punches that drove him back.

Would have thought he'd change it up a bit, but hey if it works, I thought as I pulled my new mass back to my body. I then called out to the teen, ignoring that small rush I felt as my body started to pick apart what I absorbed as I tried to yell. "Superboy, don't-!"

Before I could finish, the teen let out a roar and put his fist through Mister Twister's torso. Twice.

"...Never mind." I muttered as my arm shifted back into its normal shape before I settled into a stance. "Just pass him this way!" I yelled out. As I planted my feet and drew my arm back, it started to shift into a creation all of my own. I may not have been hyper-cognitive, but the principles of an electromagnetic piston were simple enough to grasp. My arm widened and lengthened as a piston grew out of the back of my elbow, and spikes grew out of my knuckles. Electricity crackled along the limb as energy built up, rings along the outer edge spinning faster and faster as the potential grew.

Superboy finally managed to disentangle himself from the android and grab what was left of its shoulders, and with a spin he flung the thing straight at me. I knew that technically the attack had never been named as such, but as my target came flying towards me I couldn't help myself. "Cast in the name of God..." I said, unable to keep a grin off my face as I swung my fist. "Ye not Guilty!"

The moment my fist connected with the Twister's sternum, the piston fired, and there was a massive crash as my limb went clear through, impaling and grinding him to a stop before me. "Let's try this again," I said as spikes erupted from my arm inside of him.

It was much faster than before, but I still kept a tight rein on it, as I didn't want to accidentally eat whatever part his mind was located at. His legs went quickly, and the torso started to peel back layer by layer. I briefly felt an electric current surge before it cut off as I consumed its source from the module on its back. As I started to pick up the pace though, I noticed something odd. The torso was a lot more open on the inside than I would have thought, as well as holding a pair of... legs? Mechanical, but human sized, and connected to a torso, arms... There was a smaller android piloting this thing, and oh shit I was about to consume its head-

In a sudden panic I threw the now much smaller body away from me, stumbling with the motion as the extra mass had yet to fully incorporate itself into me. The pile of metal and circuits landed with a thump on the ground about 10 feet away, right at the feet of Kid Flash. He looked down at the mess before looking back up at me and made a face. "Now that's just freaky."

"Something wrong?" Miss Martian asked as she floated next to me. "It's just a machine, you don't need to worry."

I looked at her as my body finished sorting itself out. "So am I. What's your point?" I asked, and I didn't wait for her to respond before I walked over what I now knew to be the remains of a power suit, digging through the refuse till I found it. I stood back up with a (mostly) intact head, which looked to belong to a man in his thirties with shaggy hair and sideburns. At a glance I would have sworn that it was a human head if it wasn't for the few spots where its synthetic skin had been torn, and all of the wires and metal bits sticking out of its neck stump. It was made more unsettling with how it was clearly still active and looking at me before it made a face. "Well, this is awkward..." It said with a slightly broken voice.

"It's not any less weird for me either." I remarked flatly, though internally I was letting out a sigh of relief. "Mind you I could have kept going, but I decided that you wouldn't care to be completely 'disassembled'. So I think that at the least you owe us a bit of an explanation as to why the hell you did all this."

"Alright, alright." The head responded. "It's like this-"

And then the head exploded.

--------------------​

A few hours later the lot of us were back in the Mountain's tech lab, the remains of Mister Twister and its pilot on a slab in the middle of it. A number of sensors swept over it and data displayed on one of the nearby monitors, but all of it was telling us the same thing. "You seriously can't tell us anything about who this guy was?" Wally asked Robin as the boy poured over the data.

"All of these parts are custom made, right down to the transistors." Robin said as he typed away at a keyboard. "And none of the metals are unique enough to be traceable, so there's nothing really to follow up on."

Kaldur grunted at that. "Unfortunate, but it seems that all we can do is keep an eye out in the future."

I only half payed attention to them as I leaned against the nearby wall, my thoughts still preoccupied with going over the battle. It had been my first real superhero fight, and I kept going over in my mind, how fast it went, things we did wrong, what to look out for in the future. Mostly though I did it to avoid thinking about the thing that was actually bothering me.

Unfortunately, Kori had other plans as she looked in my direction. "Why are you so distant, Jacob? We were victorious and stopped a villain from destroying the livelihoods of many."

"I know, I know," I said. "I just... I've never had someone commit suicide in my hands before. I can't shake that off very quickly."

"Your concern, while appreciated, in unnecessary." I turned my head to look at Red Tornado, who had been standing silently nearby the remains. He continued. "Scans indicate that the remains of the more human head did not contain the needed elements or components for any known configuration of a Sophant Processor. It is far more likely that it was simply being controlled by remote."

"Really? That... makes me feel a lot better actually." I said as I stopped leaning on the wall. "Of course that means we'll probably be seeing him again someday..."

"Indeed." Red Tornado said with a nod. "Past experience with such characters has shown me that they tend to take such defeats personally. Your team may have acquired its first nemesis."

"Yes, score!" Wally yelled before he and Robin hi-fived.

I arched an eyebrow at that. "Not sure that's a good thing..."

M'gann looked at Red Tornado in concern. "But, if he shows up again, would you help us? His powers were similar to yours, so you might be able to counter-"

"No." The android interrupted. "It is not my place to solve your problems. Besides which, you seemed to be perfectly capable of handling it on your own." He then turned and walked out of the tech lab without another word. He's rather fond of abrupt exits, I thought to myself.

Robin scowled as he watched Red Tornado leave. "Would have thought he would be a least a little interested, especially considering this guy was stealing his whole windy theme."

Wally just shrugged. "Eh, it's probably not the first time a wind powered robot has shown up. Speedsters pop up in Central City to challenge the Flash all the time." Then Wally seemed to remember something before he turned to me. "Oh yeah, didn't you say that you could copy tech you ate? Does that mean you have Twister's wind tech?"

I let out a sigh. I hadn't had a lot of time to experiment with it but… "Kind of." I stepped away from the group towards an open part of the lab, internally forming a device I had absorbed at the end of the fight. The air around me started to dance and swirl erratically as the wind kicked up, forcing my teammates back from me a bit. Anything that was not nailed down was pushed around the room, and several pieces of equipment rattled.

Holding his hand in front of his face, Robin frowned. "What do you mean, 'kind of'? Looks like you have it."

The wind cut off and I shrugged. "Not all of it. I can make blasts of wind, but they're not very controlled. No creating whirlwinds I can shoot at people, and no flying." That was disappointing, let me tell you. I gestured vaguely. "I don't know if it was mostly controlled by software, the holes Superboy put in him, or the fact that I stopped consuming him partway through, but the Aerokinetic core I can make is... incomplete for lack of a better term."

Superboy shifted uncomfortably at that. "Uh, sorry."

I waved him off. "Don't worry about it. It was the first time we've been in combat and we never talked about it. I'll just have to work on it later. Besides which, it wasn't like I didn't get anything functional out of this." I raised my arm off to the side, and the plates gave way to several short spines that grew along the limb, its form twisting just a bit as its internals changed. Just beneath the surface of the limb my nanites formed into a fine, highly conductive mesh that formed a basic Faraday cage to keep the rest of my body protected. "The Aerokinetic core also had secondary electrical manipulation abilities. Those seemed to be a bit more intact, and combining them with the other bits of electrical tech I already had..." Lightning crackled between my fingertips before I launched a very low powered bolt at a Tesla coil in the corner. "That is fully operational."

The armor and the android had also given me some insights into a proper humanoid form. I hadn't had time to really test it out but it was looking promising, and I had already figured out how to use it to give myself a mild increase in strength.

Wally let out a whistle. "Man, your powers are bullshit. But so long as you're with us, I'm perfectly fine with that."

I snorted and shifted my arm back to normal. There was a silent pause between all of us, and at that moment I decided to roll with a sudden whim. I clapped my hands together and said "So! First victory as a team. Means we have to celebrate. And considering some of us are new to this particular planet, that means introducing them to culture via moving pictures. Movie Night!" I didn't just have movies in mind either, as I had just finished downloading all five seasons of Firefly.

That's right, five seasons. This may be the best universe.

Robin shrugged with a grin on his face. "Can't remember the last time we just hung out. I'm game." Kaldur nodded and smiled as well. Superboy was silent for a moment before he shrugged. "Sure, whatever." A week ago he would have probably just grumbled and walked off, so progress!

M'gann perked up. "Oh, I should get baking right away! The cookies didn't work out, but I still have a pie recipe I can try!"

This, of course, caused Kori to get excited and wrap her arm around the much shorter Martian from behind. "Can you also make the one with the lime filling again? That was my favorite!" M'gann blushed green at the sudden contact, but she nodded.

Wally looked on with a dumb grin on his face before saying. "Best. Team. Ever."