Picture Perfect
“...Aaahhh…” A particularly attractive man lies down in his bed while resting his eyes. “...There’s nothing better than beauty sleep…”
His phone suddenly rings and he leisurely picks it up and answers it.
“Central City’s most famous movie star Johnny Dean speaking. Who is this?” Says a man dressed in a plain white t-shirt, blue skinny jeans, and a black jacket tied around his neck like a cape. He also had his thick light brown hair styled into a pompadour.
“It’s Bishop. We need you over at Chess Castle immediately.”
“...But it’s my day off…” The actor says while lifting his sleep mask above his eyes.
“...I didn’t say you had a choice in the matter, Ace…” Bishop says as a portal appears right under Johnny.
He is dropped on the ground of a random hallway in the castle right next to The Pawn and The Knight.
“What’s up ladies?” He asks the two as he shoots finger guns at them.
“The castle is under attack.” Pepper says with a scowl as she crosses her arms. “You’ve made it just in time. Me and The Knight
“And we must smite our enemies so I can soak in their blood as a reward.” Krystal follows up.
Pepper lowers her sunglasses and stares at Krystal with a raised eyebrow.
“...Too much…” Krystal says as she twiddles her thumbs. “...I was just trying to sound cool…”
“You were plenty cool, babe!” Johnny says with a smirk.
“Let’s just go.” Pepper says with a sigh as she walks off as the others follow behind her.
The three of them realized they didn’t have to search long to find the intruders as they approached Team IQA.
Pepper snaps her fingers as two white spheres materialize in her hands and Krystal slams her shield against the ground to spawn her black tendrils.
Isabella points her cane at them, Bellows holds his horn at the ready, and Urchin unsheaths his claws.
“Can we talk about this first?” Gloriosa asks as she stands between the two groups. “We don’t have to just start fighting yet.”
“Yeah.” Johnny responds with a smirk and a wink. “Sounds good to me. Let’s talk, cutie.”
“...Uh…Okay…” Gloriosa says with an awkward smile and a blush. “...I know that Elizabella mistreats all of her subordinates…You don’t have to work for her if you don’t want to…You could…help us out instead?”
“Alright. What are you willing to pay me?” Johnny asks.
“...What?” Gloriosa responds in confusion. “...We're not going to pay you…”
“The Queen gives me 50 million dollars a year just so she can keep me around as an occasional bodyguard. If you aren’t even willing to give me an offer I have no further reason to speak to you.” He says as he looks at his nails.
“...But…she’s evil…”
“...So?” Johnny asks with a bored expression.
“...Well I tried…” Gloriosa says with a despondent sigh as Nebulon pats her on the shoulder.
“I guess we have to fight then?” Johnny asks. “Just to let you know, I don’t hit girls. It makes for bad PR.”
“I guess we’ll be taking on those two then.” Pepper says as she and Krystal glare at Gloriosa and Isabella.
“...Um…Nebulon…my alien friend…is actually nonbinary…” Gloriosa meekly states.
“...Fine…” Johnny says with a sigh. “I’ll just take on edgelord and the viking then.”
“...Let’s go…” Urchin says as he dashes over towards Johnny.
Johnny places his arms out in front of himself and uses his hands to make a rectangle to frame Urchin.
“Lookin’ good!” Johnny says as gestures with his hands like he was taking a picture with an invisible camera.
Urchin suddenly stopped mid run.
“...What did you do?” He asks with a growl.
“I just froze you in place.” Johnny says as he walks over and leans his elbow against Urchin’s shoulder.
“...Why are you explaining your power to an enemy?” Urchin says with a grimace.
“Because it doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to do anything anyway.” Johnny says with a nonchalant shrug.
“...Coward…” Urchin practically spits at him.
“You’re not in the position to say things like that.” Johnny says as slams a fist into Urchin’s stomach.
Despite the force of the punch Urchin still stayed completely still.
“...Bastard…”
“Hey!” Johnny says as he crosses his arms. “My mom was a great parent! Just because she raised me by herself doesn’t mean you get to insult me!”
“...Huh…” Bellows says as he scratches his beard. “...What a lucky guess…”
“Keep talkin’ and see what happens.” Johnny says as he places a finger on Urchin’s chin to lean it upwards so he was looking directly at him.
Urchin just spits on him.
“That’s it buddy! This ought to shut ya up!” Johnny says as he began to beat the shit out of Urchin while he still wasn’t able to move. He punched and kicked him several dozen times before turning around and snapping his fingers.
Urchin immediately falls onto the floor and passes out.
“The only thing about my power is that it only works against one opponent at a time.” Johnny says as he frames his hands around Bellows. “Otherwise I would’ve frozen both of ya at the same time, big guy.”
“...I guess it’s my turn…” Bellows says before he points his horn down towards the floor and knocks himself up into the air with a huge blast of wind.
“Hey! Ya ruined my shot!” Johnny shouts as he repositions his hands to frame Bellows in the air as he falls towards him.
Bellows takes a deep breath to prepare for his next attack.
‘Freeze!” Johnny shouts as Bellows pauses is mid air.
“...This isn’t good…” Bellows says to himself before Johnny snaps his fingers again.
He falls to the ground with a massive thud.
“...Oof…I’m gonna be feeling that one in the mornin’...” The viking complains as he struggles to get back up.
Johnny quickly frames him again and freezes him. He then dashes over to him, kicks him in the stomach, and snaps his fingers again.
Bellows doubles over backwards from the pain.
“...Alright lad…You beat me…I’ve had enough…” Bellows says as he tries to catch his breath.
“So well behaved. Why can’t more of my enemies be like you?” Johnny says as he places a hand on his hip and turns to see what the girls were doing.
Pepper was throwing her white spheres at Isabella, but she kept on using her magic to throw them back at her. Nebulon also was shooting small meteors at her as she somehow managed to dodge for a while.
“Not cool.” Pepper says as begins to tire out.
“Do you know what’s not cool?” Isabella asks as she points her cane at The Pawn. “Working under an evil queen that orders you to attack students and civilians.”
Pepper snaps her fingers to despawn all the white spheres on the ground, but Isabella uses her powers to lift up all of the small meteors that Nebulon left on the ground and that was more than enough to take out the afro hairstyled assassin.
“Alright. I know when I’m beat.” Pepper says as she raises her arms in the air in surrender.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Isabella says as she snaps her fingers and surrounds Pepper in a pink energy that restricted her movement.
Gloriosa’s vines and Krystal’s dark tendrils clashed with one another and seemed to be about evenly matched.
“Your pathetic plants will fall to the darkness!” Krystal shouts as she slams her shield against the ground and summons a massive wave black tentacles.
They ended up overpowering Gloriosa’s overgrowth and constricted her so she could barely move.
“Any last words, hero?” Krystal asks as she walks towards the red head.
“...Just one…” Gloriosa asks. “...What is your favorite kind of flower?”
“...Oh…” Krystal says as she gestures dramatically. “...Black roses…because they represent the darkness that consumes my heart and soul…”
“...Interesting choice…Those do suit you quite well...” Gloriosa says as she manages to snap her fingers. “...Even though they aren’t my favorite, I’m personally fond of poppies…”
Several dozen poppy flowers suddenly grow around Krystal’s feet.
“...How are a couple of flowers going to help you beat me?” Krystal says before she yawns. “..Also, why am I getting so sleepy?”
Krystal falls back onto the bed of flowers and falls asleep.
Isabella quickly wraps The Knight in her pink energy and levitates her over towards The Pawn and places her right beside her.
“That takes care of that.” Isabella says as she turns towards Johnny. “I guess we're done here.”
“What do ya mean?” Johnny says as he cocks his head to the side.
“You said you don’t like fighting girls. That means we're done here, right?”
“While it is true that I don’t hit girls, that doesn’t mean I can’t still use my powers against them.” Johnny says as he frames his hands around Isabella. “Smile for the camera please. I’m sure you’ll look better with one.”
Isabella tries to aim her cane at the actor, but is too slow and is frozen in place.
“Stay put for me, sweet cheeks.” Johnny says as he turns his attention towards Gloriosa.
Isabella tries her best to move before realizing how futile it was.
“If you aren’t going to fight me then how do you intend on beating me?” Isabella asks.
“I don’t.” Johnny says with a shrug. “...But she will…”
Both Pepper and Krystal were free from their pink binds and the former rose to her feet while the latter was still fast asleep.
“...I’m gonna enjoy this…” Pepper says as she spawns a white ball and throws it into Isabella’s stomach at full force.
The impact of this attack causes Isabella to cough up blood.
Johnny snaps his fingers and Isabella crumples to the ground.
“Isabella!” Gloriosa shouts as she turns towards the villains and prepares to send a massive wave of vines towards them.
“Not so fast!” Johnny taunts as he freezes Nebulon in place. “You don’t want anything bad to happen to your precious space baby do ya?”
Pepper spawns another white ball and bounces it in her hand.
Gloriosa grits her teeth before relenting with a sigh.
“...Fine…just don’t hurt them…please…” Gloriosa says as she raises her arms in surrender.
“Works for me.” Johnny says with a smirk before taking out his communicator. “Bishop, we got some more hostages for ya.”
All of Team IQA was immediately teleported away.
“Alright, that was fun, but I think I’m gonna head home.” Johnny says as he starts to walk away with a whistle before Pepper puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Not until we finish the job, big shot.” Pepper says as she scowls at him.
“...Whatever you say, gorgeous…” Johnny says with a sigh as he follows her as they search for more intruders.