Z-Team Celine - First Mission
You know how some people headcanon Celine as an Avengers level threat due to the fact she had to work as a hunter solo while raising Rumi and then training Huntr/x afterwards? The villains of California aren't ready for that, especially not one green caustic dirtbag that happened to show up on her first mission as part of the Z-Team:
“AUUHGGHAAAH!” He screamed out in agony as Celine sliced passed him, the green toxin fading away from most of his skin while his outstretched arm carried its arc across the store, falling on the counter with a wet thud “YOU CRAZY BITCH! MY arm...” Toxic cried out as he stumbled back into the shelves, collapsing in a shuddering heap, his right arm cut cleanly off just above the elbow. “Cel, what the fuck?” Invisigal let out. “I'm sorry?” The hunter asked, blinking through the cheap mask. “You cut off his arm!” “Yes, and?” Celine asked, still blanking on what the heroine's problem was. Invisigal was having trouble keeping her jaw off the floor right now “Did Blazer not give you the 'no kill' talk?” She asked in a completely exasperated tone. The Z-team 'Rookie' looked over to the whimpering villain, unimpressed “He's still alive.” She shrugged. “Not for much longer you fucking psycho!” Toxic yelled from the floor, trying to wrap up whatever he could over the stump “I'm gonna bleed out because of this bitch!” “You know you're not bleeding that much dickhead!” Visi yelled. There really wasn't as much blood as there should have been for a limb getting sliced off, yeah there were a few stains but Toxic wasn't sitting in a puddle or anything, like Celine's sword mostly cauterised as it cut through. Like a knife that made toast as it cut bread “Screw it, I'm calling the docs. Mission accomplished I guess...” she groaned out, pulling out her phone as the pre-arranged backup burst through the window like a cannonball. Shards of glass falling around him, Punch-Up landed on his feet with a smirk under the moustache, quip locked and loaded "Looks like some fella can't get enough testicular tors... shite!” Punch yelped as he saw the rapidly dissolving arm, and the disarmed Toxic “The fuck happened?" He asked. “I cut off his arm.” Celine explained matter-of-factly. “What the rookie said...” Courtney groaned. “What did you do that for?” the team brawler asked back. “He was a serious threat to civilians and myself so I did the fair thing and pacified him non-lethally in cadence to your code.” “By cutting off his fecking arm.” “It was effective enough,” Celine shrugged as she wiped the blood off the Honmoon blade, a sharp smell of burning flesh still in the air “If it was up to me I would have aimed for the head.” She added leaving the other three to just stare blankly at her. “The hell... are you?” Toxic wheezed out, eyes wide in fear. Back at HQ, through the crackly security cameras, Robert had watched the whole thing with a tense look on his face right up until the team had started to argue about whether cutting off someone's arm was an appropriate use of force. Now it was back to the affectionate 'I hate all of you sometimes' grimace that was his default expression “We sure she wasn't a villain before she jumped in this shitpile?” the eavesdropping Chase asked, poking his head over the cubicle wall “She's scary as all hell. Coop's got competition.” “You know what's really scary here?” Robert asked him “This is probably the best debut shift anyone's had on the Z-Team.”
And now here's the lead up to that arm removal, months later because... I dunno. Brains be wack yo. Spoilers for Dispatch under the Read-more
“Can you assholes just fuck off back to the office!?” Toxic yelled as a blast of corrosive goop flew straight at the newest hero, wincing as he watched an invisible woman tackle the “Fucking...” he mumbled with a pained grunt. “Hey Tox, the payment on those augments bounce?” Invisigal called out. “You know you're not invisible when you're talking shit, right?” He retorted, twisting back and forth to find where he was being taunted from. “Just saying those Red Ring augments are just clinging on to your body like dead weight. Been there before, and I just wanted lungs that work.” She chuckled from the shadows, weaving out of the path of a glowing green glob that clung to the shelving. “Shut the fuck up!” Toxic cursed, puffing and panting “Did you get a free latte with your 9th backstab?” He asked, the smugness that radiated off him normally nowhere to be found with the latest taunt. Invisigal was smirking as she came back into view, an isle down from where the acid attack had landed. She'd called it “Don't even know what Shroud offered you except to get unbanned from social media, you kinda strike me as a Livejournal guy, but its probably got something to do with the fact you're not flying around and you can't even burn through a shelf in one shot any more.” she continued before the smile fell from her face. Celine had stepped out into the isle to face the Supervillain down “The hell are you doing Cel?” She whispered as she heard the ringing of two bells attached to the hilt of... glowing swords? The panting Toxic snapped towards the new sound and relaxed, a smirk as he saw the patterns on the blades “Oh great, the newbie's got the toy lightsabres to go with the ten dollar Sith look,” he sighed out, rolling his shoulders as Celine slowly approached him “Hey Invisibitch, fancy taking another bullet? Maybe you'll actually stop this one!” He cackled out, ready to launch another orb of caustic goop at a woman... who was suddenly right in his face “The fu-”
