The police lined up, shields in front and guns at the ready. Enmachina glanced up at the sky… and a blue streak fell from it straight onto one of the trucks, landing with a loud crunch. The police whipped around, some shooting. Echo shrugged off the bullets, leaping onto an undamaged truck, cackling like a kookaburra. From the other side, the protesters parted and allowed Couronne through to the front. Enmachina let out his breath. As horrible as those two were, they could at least be counted on for some things.
“Why are they cheering?” Rainbright asked.
The protesters were indeed applauding their arrival. “Because those two are there to protect them from the police,” Enmachina said.
“What?!”
The line of police turned to look over at the protesters again, and were immediately hit by a sonic scream from behind, forcing them to turn their shields and guns around. “They’re making it impossible for the police to fire on the protesters,” Enmachina said. “If they try to shoot, Echo gets them from behind. If they try to throw tear gas… well, tear gas is flammable and it leaves a trail straight back to the officers.”
One of the officers produced a bullhorn from… somewhere… and aimed it at Echo. “Put your hands in the air,” he called.
“Hands in the air!” the protesters immediately roared. Right, that was the newest Echo dance meme. “Hands in the air! Supervillain, put your hands in the air!”
Echo did the dance to go along with the chant, and then bowed with enough flamboyance to rival their partner.
“What was that?” Rainbright asked.
“Remember how I told you not to use a catchphrase around them? That’s why. Echo repeats things. Sometimes, they repeat them to music and add a dance.”
“Oh!” Rainbright said, sitting straight up. “That’s where I’ve seen them before! The Cogs of Justice video! That was hilarious!” She giggled. “Have you seen that one?”
Enmachina twitched. “Yeah. I’ve seen it.”
Sure, his previous catchphrase had been kind of silly. ‘The cogs of justice have turned on you!’ Still, it wasn’t the worst he’d heard. But then, during a fight with Echo, he’d said it and then a car with loud music went past. Echo had looked between him and the car and then immediately said, ‘the cogs of justice have turned you on!’ Things went downhill from there, complete with song and dance. Raph hadn’t been feeling well that night, so Nathan had gone to visit Eric and Coral, hoping for a bit of a reprieve. Instead, he’d found them howling with laughter over Echo’s butchering of his catchphrase. Not only had someone recorded it and put it on the internet, but it had been remixed a dozen times. After that, he couldn’t say his catchphrase without someone nearby bursting into laughter or into song.
Not that he was bitter. Even if Echo, a supervillain, had more fans on the internet than he did. That just proved how little social media mattered.
“Shouldn’t we stop this?” Rainbright said.
Enmachina jumped. Right, he needed to keep an eye on things. So far, they were still at a stalemate, with the police stuck between Echo and Couronne. “Yeah, I guess. We’ll talk to them first, though. We don’t want to get people hurt.” He pushed himself off the building and made his way down. “Come on, guys,” he called out. “You’re scaring the cops. They’re all shaking in their riot gear.” He ignored indignant looks from some of the officers.
Echo stroked their chin. “Shaking in their riot gear,” they repeated.
“Yeah,” Enmachina said. He couldn’t help it. “I mean, they’re deathly scared of little kids with mental disorders. How do you think they’re holding up against full-grown villains?” He was so going on probation after this.
“Whose side are you on?!” One of the police yelled.
The side of people who I know won’t kill my black, disabled boyfriend just for existing. At least Echo and Couronne hadn’t killed anyone. “Just trying to defuse the situation, officer.”
“You’re scaring the cops,” Echo repeated, jerking their head at the police.
“Right. They fear the hero and not the two villains who can each take them down.”
Echo looked between Enmachina and the police. “Take them down,” they said, a hint of speculation in their repeated monotone.
“Oh dear,” Enmachina said, massaging his forehead. Or, at least, the top of his faceplate. “You know that’s against the rules.”
Echo suddenly straightened up and began clapping. “Cops fear little kids, oh dear! Shaking in their riot gear!” The protesters took up the chant.
Yep. Definitely going on probation. “Knock it off!” Enmachina said.
“Cops knock off little kids!” Echo retorted, and then continued chanting. This time, they began to dance. That was never a good sign.
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