Somehow Joey managed to evade his parents and Ned after supper and sneak out with his costume. He changed in a side street and stuffed his other clothes into a plain bag before running to find Lightning.
It took him way too long to get there. By the time he arrived, he glanced down at the commotion and felt his blood run cold. There were several kids in a cage, with a few adults. He couldn't see very well from up there, but the kids seemed to be having a hard time.
In front of the cage, Achilles was on the ground, seemingly incapacitated. Light Master was tangling with Paris, while Lightning held a strange woman and the cage guy at bay. Prime was bleeding on the ground, and seemed to be unable to do much.
Lightning looked like she was having a hard time, so without much thought, Joey hopped over the railing and fell down towards the cage. What was he going to do with his bag? He didn't feel comfortable leaving it on its own somewhere in case it was stolen - he'd been lucky so far, but he couldn't expect that luck to hold.
So he landed on the cage, dropped the bag at his feet and stood, looking sheepishly down at Lightning.
"Sorry. Looks like I'm kinda late," he said. The guy in front of her glared up at him while the woman in Lightning's grip looked like she was about to pass out.
"No worries. Help me out."
Joey obliged and landed on the guy attacking her, wrestling him to the ground and trying to roll on top of him to pin him. He fought back, trying to get Joey off of him, but practice had made Joey an annoying opponent to get rid of. He couldn't tell what was happening around him, so he just concentrated on what was in front of him.
The cacophony of noise around him could wait.
"Where did you even come from?" Cage Guy grumbled. For the life of him, Joey couldn't remember if he should know his name.
"Level 4," he replied between breaths.
"You're nuts. How do you not freak out falling that far?"
He managed to get away from Joey and they stood, slowly circling each other, waiting for someone to make a move.
"Practice."
Cage Guy didn't seem to believe him, but really, falling that far was still something that freaked Joey out. It took a lot of willpower to not scream as the ground approached him at what seemed like ever increasing speeds. Luckily, he'd been able to land on the cage this time, which avoided the problem of him damaging the street upon landing.
The cage had a dent in its roof, sure, but it was made with a Miracle. It would vanish as soon as the guy in front of him dismissed it. Or maybe if he lost consciousness. They didn't know enough about their enemies' powers yet.
"Thanks, Jumper," Lightning said, appearing beside him with the woman she'd been fighting with earlier over a shoulder. She looked unconscious.
"Is she...?" Joey asked.
"Blacked out. Finally. She's seriously dangerous. Thanks for keeping Manifest occupied."
Manifest. That was his name.
"Paris!" Manifest yelled. "We got trouble over here."
"Deal with it!" Paris yelled back. Joey glanced around and saw him choking Light Master with his poison mist. Light Master, to his credit, was still firing off beams at Paris, and hitting his target about a third of the time. But would the kid be able to last much longer?
"Jumper, guard her. I'll help Light Master," Lightning said, putting the woman down beside him.
"Got it." Joey moved to stand between Manifest and the unconscious villain whose name he didn't know. He'd hang on until the military could move in.
A few seconds later, Paris started calling for Manifest to come help him out. He glanced between Joey and Paris for a moment before running to help his boss. Joey couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as he knelt down and grabbed the unconscious woman's wrists. Worst case scenario, she woke up and started causing trouble again. Hopefully him holding her down would prevent that.
He watched as Lightning zipped around Paris and Manifest for a while, taking their attention away from Light Master long enough for him to recover a bit.
After several moments, Joey almost jumped out of his skin when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around and saw one of the other Phalanx members, the girl who let objects pass through her.
"Hey," she said flatly. "Can you let her go? It's time for us to get outta here. Like now."
Joey tensed his muscles, preparing to fight. The girl looked at him strangely, then sighed.
"Please? Pretty please? I'll make Paris and Manifest leave and let the kids go if you do."
"How do I know I can trust you?" Joey asked, eying her warily.
"I promise I'll make them leave."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Right," she said with a self-deprecating giggle. "People always lie, don't they? Even if I say I'm different you can't believe me."
"Then I guess we're at an impasse."
"What if I say this was all about the money and now that we have the money we're gonna go home?" she asked. "Here, let's do this. If I get Paris and Manifest to leave, promise me you'll let Scattershot go. And when Manifest goes, he'll let the kids go too."
"Why should I agree to a deal like that?" Joey asked. "What if we just win this and take the whole Phalanx into custody?"
"You'll be missing at least two," she replied. "You can't catch me and Itera's already long gone with the money. Also, how long will it take you to beat Paris and Manifest? Kids are bleeding out over there."
Joey glanced at the cage. She was right. Several kids sported some pretty bad injuries. How had they gotten those? He looked back at her.
"It's a deal if you can get Lightning to agree," he said.
"Good enough. Thanks, Mr. Boing." The girl floated over to the main fight as Joey wondered what the heck kind of nickname he'd just gotten.
At first nobody seemed to notice the girl, but when she dangled upside down in front of Paris, the entire fight paused.
"Mist!" he said. "About time you showed up to do something useful. Help us out here."
"No can do," she replied. "We're retreating. We shoulda left a while ago."
"We've almost got them!" Paris spat.
"Nope," Mist said. "Orders. Go home now. We've already botched this job bad enough."
"What are you talking about?"
"Itera has the money. This was about the money. And even though we got it and said we'd let the kids go once we got it, you guys kept causing trouble. Our credibility's shot. Nobody's gonna trust us anymore."
"Who needs to trust us? We're villains. They just need to trust that - "
"Idiot," Mist said. "You guys've ruined every future negotiation the Phalanx will get into. I could barely even negotiate to get Scattershot out. Speaking of," she added, turning to Lightning. "If we leave, will you let Scattershot go? Bouncy over there said it was up to you."
Lightning glanced at Joey, then at the cage and seemed to understand the situation.
"Fine. First, erase the cage. Second, leave. Third, if you cause any trouble on the way out, I will chase after you and make you regret it."
"Deal." Mist looked at Paris, as if waiting for him to move.
"Who put you in charge?" he asked darkly.
"Necessity," she replied. "Manifest." At her word, Manifest snapped his fingers and the cage disappeared, allowing paramedics to move in and start treating the injured kids.
With another sharp look from Mist, the Phalanx retreated, and Joey handed the woman - Scattershot apparently - over to Manifest. He and Lightning watched them go as Light Master fumed about letting them escape.
"Why did you agree to that?" he demanded, stomping his foot in front of Lightning.
"Quickest way to get the hostages free. I don't want to hear anything more from you guys, who just jumped in and made everything worse."
"But they were hurting the kids!"
"And your actions put them in even more jeopardy."
"Good always wins! We're the good guys!"
"You need to grow up," Lightning snapped, flicking Light Master hard in the forehead. "If you want to be a hero, then act like it. Learn how to assess reality. This isn't a fairy tale. This isn't a comic book. It's not some story where we're guaranteed to triumph. Look around, kid. Prime is injured. Achilles is unconscious. If I hadn't stepped in, you woulda joined them."
Light Master fumed at her for a while before spinning around and stomping away. Lightning glanced at Joey.
"Sorry. I'll follow him and report to the military later. You head back and do what you need to do."
"Thanks. Sorry I couldn't be more help."
"You were plenty of help," Lightning laughed. "Seriously, before you showed up I felt like I was in a serious pickle."
Joey couldn't tell if she was just trying to make him feel better, but he smiled at the praise.
They separated and he grabbed his bag before jumping back up to the Residential District. He really needed some sleep after today.
