Avoiding Past And Future

(36) Humanity 3

Danny watched on as the ring of twisters dissipated while Tornado hovered over the fallen team. The ground started shaking, however, as a new, buffer looking android came out of the ground on a growing mount of dirt. "Quite a performance, brother. But we both know that's all it was."

Oh that couldn't be good. Danny floated back to where Robin was laying as the new android broke Tornado's message out of the ground and levitated it up towards themselves. "I have all your memories, Tornado, plus a next-gen processor. I know your next move before you do." The entire slab of dirt was hovering behind him now. PLAY DEAD taunting both Red Tornado and the team as the plan had failed. The new android scoffed, "Blowing a message into the sand?" With a power Danny had yet to understand, the android crumbled the slab of dirt and started throwing pieces towards the team.

In an instant, they were all up and dodging the incoming earthy projectiles. One particularly big one was headed straight for Robin and Zatanna. Without even thinking about it, Danny flew straight towards it and punched it to pieces. The area below him was covered in dried dirt dust. Figuring it couldn't hurt any more than the rest of this mission had, Danny let himself become visible for just long enough to wave at Zatanna, who stared at him in shock, before he faded from view again.

"Zatanna?" Robin asked telepathically, not really sure how she was taking Danny's sudden appearance. A tense beat passed between them before she finally answered. "I'm good. But Red Tornado's getting away."

"Is he abandoning us?" Artemis asked as she sprinted to a better location.

"I don't believe that." M'gann answered as she too tried to get close for an attack.

Meanwhile, the android looked about as bored as his permanent scowl could allow. With ease, he punched away Kid Flash even though the boy was moving at superspeed. "You stand no chance against me, humans."

Clearly both M'gann and Superboy took offence to that, gearing up for a dual attack. "We're not human!"

Too bad for everybody involved, the android still didn't falter at all. As if he were showing off, he summoned two giant dirt hands to swat them out of the sky like bugs. "Apologies. I suppose the properly inclusive term is meat bags." Without any provocation, it then made a slicing move towards where Aqualad and Artemis were running, forcing the ground beneath them to collapse. Just in the nick of time, one of Artemis' grapple arrows pulled them out of the crevasse before it closed in on itself again.

From a newly formed peak, Robin threw out a few batarangs, mirrored by Danny who threw a frozen one of his own. Matching his throw near identical with Robin's created the illusion it was just him who had thrown multiple. The android caught all the batarangs, but it didn't matter. Upon the pressure of grabbing them, they exploded in a mix of fire and ghostly ice. Unfortunately it wasn't strong enough to cause any damage.

Good thing damage wasn't what they were looking for.

"Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me to anticipate your every move."

"Emoks emoceb a dlofdnilb!" Zatanna's spell used the smoke their explosions had caused and formed it into a thick band around the android's eyes. It seemed to be working great as the bot struggled to rip it off. "Tornado never knew any of my moves."

"And I bet you've got some good ones." Danny couldn't help it, his brother definitely deserved a smack over the head for that one. With a small chuckle and holding his hands up in surrender, Robin apologized. "Sorry. That may have come off a little too Wally."

"I don't mind." Zatanna reassured him, making Danny feel like he was unintentionally third wheeling the weirdest first date ever.

It seemed like Mr. Dirtbot didn't like the trick Zatanna pulled as an intense red light emerged from its eyes. Within seconds, one of the nearby hills erupted like a cola bottle with mentos as lava started flowing down towards them. Now armed with rocks dipped in liquid rocks, dodging the projectiles from the bot became even more risky.