“Aaarrgghh.”
But before you could even properly detain Cheetah, a familiar sensation entered your body: electrocution.
Electric currents stretched across your entire body, causing you to momentarily abandoned your stoic exterior and cry out in pain. Disrupting your thought process, you could only understand pain for the present moment.
You only had time to grind your teeth together, trying to suppress any more yells before the next wave of electricity hit you, this one just as unforgiving.
You almost instantly crumbled to the ground as the electricity discharged throughout your suit, lighting up every inch of your body with a blinding pain. The electrocution was agonizing, and as the electric bolts surged through his body, you began to succumb to the fiery pain.
Eventually brought down to his knees, you clutched your bruised midsection which had endured the brunt of the electric waves. You were momentarily disabled by the numbing blow to your spine, something that wasn’t going away anytime soon.
Your head was throbbing in pain, and your vision wasn’t doing so well either. Regardless, your resilient nature began to overcome the pain, and you started to raise his head to identify your assailant.
Your visor had also short-circuited, creating static that obscured your vision. Without hesitation, you tried to lunge at her, but your knees buckled before your palms could leave the ground.
“Shocking, isn’t it?” came a smug, almost juvenile voice from behind. Your palm crumpled into a fist as you tried to pinpoint the direction of the noise.
Livewire.
Even before the accident that granted her ‘powers’, Leslie Willis had always antagonized Metropolis, only within the airwaves. A shock jock who regularly criticized Superman, Leslie tried to impose her bigoted perspective on the rest of the city through her loud broadcasts, but with little results. It was only when she was struck by lightning in a freak accident atop her radio power that she became more than just a radio loudmouth. Being struck by lightning gave her the ability to manipulate electricity, while transforming her into a being of pure energy. Leslie, now Livewire, uses her newfound abilities as a means to follow up on her verbal tirades of the Man of Steel, even to the point of joining the Secret Society.
The slits on your cowl had to squint hard to make out the feminine yet curvy figure, Livewire. An aura of electrical currents discharged around her, along with a skintight costume derived purely from ionized (electrically charged) air. Her most alluring feature was her ghostly white skin color, a side effect from her accident. Her pale white skin was complemented by her sleek two-part outfit.She wore twin knee boots that stretched all the way up to her thighs, and a skintight shirt that exposed her midriff and cleavage, incidentally patterned like a lightning bolt. Her blue hair also stood up on end. Her lips pursed together in a smug smile as she leered down at you.
Thankfully, your suit was insulated from electrical attacks (a precaution after your last “team-up” with Captain Marvel against Black Adam), but her sheer power levels had been augmented, a reward of membership by Grodd probably.
“Maybe you shoulda’ brought your friends, Bats. I know I did,” she smirked, as an electrical ball of energy formed in her palm.
Your eyes narrowed. “Your friends are sadistic psychopaths and depraved lunatics, Leslie.”
In turn, she merely shrugged. “Hey, I never said I had good friends.”
With that, she hurled the lightning blast at you, giving you a split-second to dodge. Performing a spur-of-the-moment backwards handstand, you pushed back on your palms just as the electrical blast impacted the metal floor.
Without hesitation, you flung two Batarangs at her in a single backhand motion, watching the projectiles slice through the air towards her. She merely regarded your offense with amusement.
Before your very eyes, she seemingly dissipated into thin air, her entire body vanishing into a single electrical current as the Batarangs passed right through her. Her mastery of her electrokinetic powers surprised even you, creating doubt of how you could take Livewire down, or even incapacitate her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t give you long to dwell on it. Within seconds, she solidified back into her bodily form, as if nothing had happened.
“Pretty cool, huh?” she remarked almost eagerly, before hurling another electrical blast at you. Shifting back, you barely dodged the blast by the fabric of your cowl. Gritting her teeth irritably, she flung another electrical bolt at you, only for you to duck out of pure instinct.
Opening her palm at your direction, a serpentine lightning bolt surged through her forearm, before launching towards you, crackling in the air. Relying on your honed instinct, you threw yourself backwards, as the lightning bolt impacted the spot where your feet had been only a second ago, leaving a burn mark on the metallic surface.
“Stay still so I can zap you!” she seethed irritably, before hurling another electrical bolt at you. Dropping down on all fours, you just barely managed to evade the blast before it whistled past you. Your hand dropped down to your utility belt when suddenly a noise from behind caught your attention.
Your ears pricked up as you heard the distinct sound of glass breaking, a sound that you’re all too familiar with. Turning your head slightly, the corner of your right eye made out a now destroyed glass case, the shards falling to the ground. But that wasn’t your main point of interest. Inside the case, was a fire extinguisher.
For the first time, a brief smile flickered across your face, and Livewire couldn’t be more obvious.
“What’s so funny?” she demanded to know, as you unclipped something from your utility belt.
“You tell me,” you shot back, before tossing a flashbang grenade her way. The grenade rolled down her way, before exploding in a blinding light, catching her off guard.
She reeled back from the blinding light, buying you enough time to turn on your heels and approach the now destroyed casing, smashing the last remaining glass remnants out with your elbow. Reaching into the case, you unclipped the fire extinguisher, before concealing it underneath you cape, oblivious to her.
Stepping over the now harmless projectile, the aura of electrical currents returned to swarm around her, as she gritted her teeth angrily.
The flashbang had only infuriated Livewire, who was now staring daggers at you. Crossing her fingers together in a collective fist, she cupped them together in a single motion, releasing a wave of kinetic energy aimed towards you.
No where else to go, you instead chose to vault over the railing, the extinguisher still in tow as the kinetic wave reached your position. Your cape did the rest of the work, instantly growing rigid to allow for gliding towards ground level.
Landing safely on the ground, your cape folded behind you as you turned back towards the now fuming Livewire, who materialized in the same spot where you had just jumped.
Your eyes narrowed as her hands became alit with electricity once again, prompting you to run towards the machinery.
“You’re more annoying than Super-jerk!” she pouted almost childishly, before cupping her hands together yet again.
However this time, she unleashed a new construct, a lightning tether with both ends surging with light energy. Sending the lightning tether down with authority, Livewire crossed her arms confidently as it hurtled towards you.
Seeing it approach out of your peripheral vision, you only tightened your grip over the fire extinguisher before it wrapped around your ankles, knocking you off your feet. Coiling around your legs like a pair of bolas, it jolted you with at least 50,000 volts, surging your suit full of electrical discharges.Crying out in pain, you spiraled to the ground in an unceremonious heap, electric currents still discharging around you. The lightning tether had disintegrated, but you were still feeling the aftershock.
“That’s all folks,” Livewire smirked, shrugging comically at an imaginary camera, before transforming herself back into an electric current.Traveling down a disembodied cable draped across the catwalk, she materialized back on ground level. Wearing a smug grin, she sauntered towards you as you feinted injury, only concealing your “trump card” from her sight. Her hips cocked with every step, she was absolutely beaming at this new development.
“Well ain’t this a kick in the head,” she mocked, before kicking you right in the ribs when you attempted to get up. Grunting, you collapsed back down to the floor, with her foot still pinned underneath.
Turning your barely stirring body over, she took her down reaching down and grabbing you by the throat. In a superhuman show of strength, Livewire lifted you off the ground like you were a paperweight, your feet now dangling helplessly in the air.
Her fingers closing around your windpipe, you struggled to breathe before she suddenly slammed you against a broken down conveyor belt. The motion nearly knocked the fire extinguisher out of your hand, but you barely managed to find the pin of the protective device just in time.
Electricity now charging through her body like electric eels, a sly grin crossed her face as she channeled much of that energy towards you.
“Aarrgghh!” you cried out, as she focused the discharges at you. Your arms were beginning to grow numb every second that this torture continued, but your resilient spirit refused to give in.
Rearing her free hand back, you could only look on as another ball of electrical discharges formed in her palm, this one bigger than all the other ones. After some concentration, it began to form a lightning bolt, one that could surely plunge through your suit.
“Clear!” she laughed, before preparing for the coup de grace.
The only problem, you had one last trick up your sleeve, or should you say, cape.
Just as she was about to finish you, you turned back towards her, flashing her a pained grin through gritted teeth, before unveiling the extinguisher.
Her eyes widened in shock, but before she could think to dissipate, you pulled the pin up, and discharged the device.
SLUSH! The extinguisher immediately unloaded on her, covering her with the foamy fluids. She instinctively jerked backwards, but it was too late. Within seconds, she had been overwhelmed with a blanket of foamy chemicals.
“Yuck!” she remarked as you continued hosing her down. After a while, you noticed that her electric aura was starting to fade out, the foam obviously preventing the electricity from surging.
Unable to concentrate and maintain herself, Livewire was starting to regress back to her solid form, her skin still ghostly white but her electricity fading out.
Sensing defeat, she futilely tried flinging sparks at you, but you had her dead to rights. Within seconds, Livewire had once again become Leslie WIllis.
Finally letting go of the pin, you glared irritably at the villainess, who was still drenched in foam and dry chemicals. Looking up at you apologetically at you, she attempted to flash you a sheepish grin, but you would have no part of it.
“Look, you wouldn’t hit a gi-” she started to plead, before your fist smashed into her mouth in a downright nasty right jab, knocking her to the ground.
Skidding across the floor, she moaned feebly before her head rolled over. Tossing the canister aside, you wiped a line of blood off your mouth, before a sudden voice interrupted your brief moment of victory.
“You didn’t forget about little ol’ me, did you?”
Who is it?