MONSTROUS.
008. | ❛ newly built hero again. ❜

"The Signal from Ray's ATOM suit is getting stronger." Crystal said looking down at her device that signaled energy of the suit as Mick, Amaya, and Sara navigated with her.

"Doesn't exactly look inviting, does it?" Amaya said looking at the darkness that captivated them, and the never ending trees that seem to only sprout upwards.

"It's like "Ninja III: The Domination." Mick said as the fog started crowd their feet.

"Never took you for a cinephile." Sara said as they continued to walk.

"All I know is ninjas like to hide in trees." Mick looked above keeping an eye out, hoping that his dream of seeing a ninja would come true.

"I don't see anything." Amaya said.

"Exactly. You don't find them, they find you."

"Just because you saw ninjas in a movie, that doesn't make them real." Amaya argued halting everyone in their spot.

"I have to side with Mick on this one. They're real."

"You think there's a secret brotherhood of men trained in the art of assassination?"

"I hate to break it to you, Amaya, but Sara is basically a ninja." Crystal stated with Sara smiling at her and Amaya rolling her eyes,
"I miss the JSA."

The four found their way inside, quietly trying not to alert anyone and not being even more crime into their lives. Simple mission of rescuing Ray and Nate, get in and get out.

"Ray's close. Look sharp." Crystal alerted as they passed a room that stood the Atom suit facing away from them.

"Haircut, let's get out of here. We're saving your ass, again." Mick shouted after him and Crystal didn't need the suit to turn around to know that it wasn't Ray. The face they were met with was that of a shogun, one that Crystal had learned about in school many years ago.

"It is you who need rescuing." The shogun said, the Legends exhaling worried glances before turning their attention to another warrior that presented himself.

"You are already defeated before you have even begun. I have been trained in the art of war by Shimura himself."

"League of Assassins, class of '09. Don't take it easy on me." Sara suited up, revealing her hidden staff before they engaged in combat.

Sara held her own taking on the samurai, who defend himself with a sword. Yet somehow Sara seemed to have been having troubles, as they pressed their sword and staffs against one another's Sara started to lose her grip. The samurai started pressing down on her staffs ready for her to admit defeat when Amaya charged at him letting out a lion roar tackling to the ground.

But that wasn't what made the Legends leave, the shogun looked at his hands before emitting a ball of energy their way knocking them back. Sara scrambled to her feet, "We got to go."

As they all started to flee, they ran into Ray who hurried their way, "Oh, hey, guys!"

"Wrong way, Haircut." Mick turned Ray around leading him forward to the exit when he stood firm as Mick pushed past him.

"What about my suit?" Ray asked before he turned to see the shogun dressed in it. "We can get it later." He nervously said as they all ran away from the shogun before he could deliver another blow. With the shogun in Ray's suit, the only problem they needed to deal with next was finding Nate and how to defeat the shogun.

[•]

Once the sun rose again, they set out in looking for Nate in the villages that were near when they crash landed. And it seemed like Ray knew exactly where Nate would be, opening the door of a house Nate was causally leaning in to a woman before positioning himself when he saw Ray.

"Nate, you're alive."

"Oh, hey, guys! You found me."

"Bad timing?" Crystal asked as she lugged her kimono along

"Nope." Nate groaned as he got up pressing his hand to his side. "Nope. Masako, these are, uh, my friends I was telling you about."

The woman bowed down greeting all of them, "Hajimemashite. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Sake, lots of it." Mick uttered

"What he meant to say is thanks for your hospitality, but we must be going." Amaya apologized with Mick giving her a stare.

"No, I didn't."

"Amaya's right. Nate, let's go." Sara said with Nate looking back and forth between them and the woman.

"I can't." Nate said before going outside to explain his reasons, surely not to alert his new girlfriend of the history that would proceed.

"We can't leave. Masako's supposed to marry the Shogun Tokugawa lemitsu."

"Yeah, met him. Not a fan." Sara rolled her eyes

"Well, the reason he sticks out in the history books is because he likes to murder his wives, and I can't leave Masako to his mercy." Nate argued.

"Especially since he stole my ATOM suit." Ray leaned against a pillar of the house.

"Exactly." Nate agreed before realizing what Ray had said. "Wait, what? You let the Shogun steal a 21st century super-suit?"

"After I crash-landed trying to rescue you." Ray explained

"How does the Shogun even know how to operate your ATOM suit?" Crystal asked, seeing that the shogun had a basic understanding of using technology from present day.

"I designed it so an idiot could use it." Ray blandly stated

"An idiot does." Mick said laying in a stack of hay, his eyes closed still listening to the rest of the conversation.

"Guys, bottom line is, if the Shogun has the ATOM suit, it's not just Masako and the village we have to protect. He can use it to conquer the whole region."

"You said the Shogun's coming for your new girlfriend. Easier to defend a village than to attack a castle." Sara pointed out the tactics, less men to deal with and a greater chance at defeating the shogun.

"But anyone who tries to fight the Shogun will be cut down." Amaya pointed out.

"Except if that person is made of steel." Crystal looked at Nate, who made an unsure look at her recommendation.

"About that, I'm having a little problem accessing my powers."

"Sounds like you're having performance issues, and it looks like you're not done training him yet." Sara looked to Ray before turning to the rest. "Now the rest of us need to figure out how we can defend a village."

Mick still laid down on the hay replied, "Not me. Wake me up when the action starts."

[•]

"The ATOM suit is made of and powered by dwarf star alloy. It's strong enough to withstand bullets, arrows, and explosives." Ray explained the suit to Nate who was taking it lightly and wavering in attention.

"So it's impenetrable?"

"Not quite.Underneath the left thruster is the alpha-stabilizer." Ray pointed to it on the scale dummy that stood before then.

"Alpha-stabilizer, got it."

"If you destroy it, the photons that stream from suit's weapons systems will overheat, theoretically causing somatic overload." Ray explained as if Gideon was the one giving orders, using the same big vocabulary she did.

"Theoretically, that's... that's comforting."

"You have to get close to the Shogun, and in order to do that, you have to be able to harden." Ray said as his final point.

"Well, when you're putting it in those terms it isn't helping."

Ray hit him with the stick that he had, "Ow! Neither is that." Nate rubbed his arm.

"It worked the last time." Ray grunted as he kept hitting at him. "My serum is flawless. Your lack of focus is the problem."

"You think I'm not focusing?" Ray hit him again. "Like... enough! I can't do it." Nate said aggravated at the hitting and all the pressure put on him.

"Yes, you can."

"Ray, maybe you should give him a break." Crystal said with Ray looking down upon her, not reciprocating the same teaching strategy.

"Nate, it's as simple as learning to speed away. It's all in your mind." Crystal said before speeding over to his side. "See, just as simple."

"You don't think I don't want to save the girl, spare the village, and be a hero for once in my damn life? I spent half of my childhood in the hospital where it didn't even occur to me to dream about having superpowers. But guess what? I got 'em, I lost 'em, now I really, really need 'em, and I can't get 'em back." Nate raised his voice as Crystal went to stay over by the dummy.

"This isn't all about you. I worked for years, spent billions of dollars to develop the ATOM suit. I nearly died learning to shrink, and now, I have to teach you to destroy the very thing, the only thing, that makes me a hero."

"Wait? Somatic overload means destroy the suit?"

"Yeah, Nate. We can't beat the Shogun while he's wearing the suit, so we have to blow the suit up. Your powers are within you. After today, I'll have nothing left." Ray threw the stick on the ground as he walked away from the callings of both Crystal and Nate.

"Ray..." Crystal called after him being the only one that went after him. Catching up to him by using her speed being far away from Nate as possible. She kept calling him and when he wouldn't turn around to look at her, she grabbed his arm and turned him around.

"It's okay if you want to walk away from Nate, but not from me. I thought we were closer than that." Crystal looked at him while his body towered over hers, but she had the strength over him.

"Crystal, I don't want to talk-"

"When something was bothering me, you said that I knew where to find you. Well, the same goes for me Ray. I get that the suit has meaning to you and that you won't feel like a hero after it but like I said to Nate, being a hero comes from within." Crystal sweetened her tone to sympathize with him, the same tone that she'd use to prove to Leonard that being Captain Cold was always within him.

"What would happen if someone took your powers away from you? No more super speed, hearing, strength?" Ray asked striking a cord with Crystal.

"I'd feel relieved because then I wouldn't have bloodlust craving over me. I'd be able to have a family, grow old, be the same old me when we first got recruited."

"And what happened when Snart died? You lost a piece of yourself that none of us could recover, but here you are. Stronger than before, holding your head high, leading this team along with Sara, all it happened because of that."

Crystal didn't shed a tear when Ray mentioned Leonard's name because she knew that it was just anger he was lashing out. "You just furthered my point even more Ray. Leonard died and yes, I lost a part of myself that i thought i couldn't gain back. I was an empty soul basically but I gained so much more when I stopped grieving. I got to become the Huntress all over again. To find yourself, you must lose yourself Ray. And whether or not you have a suit, you have to understand that people especially heroes, always find a way to be better newly built hero again."

[•]

After fighting the shogun and the warriors, Ray seemed to have accepted the results of his blown up suit. And Mick and Amaya settling their relationship into a lesser grudge.

"I haven't seen you lash out on the sight of blood yet," Sara said her and Crystal walked through the hallways of the Waverider.

"Surprisingly enough, I've been intaking various blood bags throughout the day. Twice more as usual and the taste of champagne or alcohol has lost all meaning to me which is weird because you know how much I love to drink." Crystal said, pointing out the weird change of taste.

"Alcohol would be the worst thing to live without. How are you suppose to drink away one's problem?" Sara smirked as they walked into the command room.

"Well, drinking blood certainly helps." Crystal smiled at her before taking her place in the Captain's chair.

"I think it's time we said sayonara to Feudal Japan. Now, where to next?" Crystal asked her teammates.

"I could always open the hatch, jump out, and see where I land." Nate said with getting glance from Amaya for a bad joke.

"I say we just sit back and see where the timestream takes us." Sara said which was a good option as well.

"Aren't you forgetting that Rex's killer is still at-large?" Amaya said also a good idea to go after them.

"Not my problem." Mick said before getting a glance from Amaya, "I mean, we should find the bastard and kill him."

"Perhaps we can enjoy a little takeoff music." Crystal said as she touched her panel and Gideon played Irma Thomas's 'Time is On My Side'.

"Ah, nice one, Gideon." Sara said

"Captain Hunter always enjoyed this song." Gideon informed them as Crystal swayed to the sound of the music.

"Speaking of problems." Jax uttered.

Crystal geared the ship forward slightly, "Don't worry. We're gonna find Rip and Hourman's killer. In the meantime, everyone just shut up and let me do the flying."

_
[a.n]
there is a hidden secret that will display itself in the future.