Rocket yelled out to him, but he didn’t respond. He just laid there, not moving. With Kaldur down, she was all alone to fight this thing, this monster.
The warehouse was dark and full of large, metal boxes. Kaldur remained at the far end of the warehouse, punched out of consciousness by the monster that Superboy calls Match.
Now Rocket was stuck at the opposite end of the warehouse, cornered in and no chance to get to the exit. Miss Martian wasn’t on this mission so there was no physic link. Rocket was left alone to fight Match.
Her back hit one of the metal boxes. She couldn’t jump over them; they stood at least twenty feet tall. Match stared at her while standing only five feet away. He was growling and bunching his hands into tight fists. The experiment suddenly screamed an inhumane sound and Rocket covered her ears.
“Well, this is going to be fun.” Rocket muttered sarcastically.
Match launched himself at Rocket, but he wasn’t fast enough. She activated her force field and he rammed into it, stumbling back a few steps. He then came back and punched the shield, never holding back.
Rocket’s heart stopped. She had never fought a kryptonian, and she wasn’t sure how much kinetic energy the shield could hold. She could feel it growing stronger with every punch, stronger than she had ever felt it. She thought it was kind of funny, in a way. She looked at Match’s face and she saw a familiar face, a friend. But here he was acting like a maniac trying to kill everyone.
“You know you can’t break through the bubble,” Rocket taunted. A smile grew on her face and Match punched faster, now at super-speed. Her heart continued to beat rapidly. If she learned anything while training and fighting with the Team, it was to never let your guard down.
Minutes passed and Rocket’s confidence flickered. She had no idea how long this Match could keep on punching and she needed to get Kaldur help. If she let the shield down, she would probably end up like Kaldur. But if she didn’t put the shield down, she would never get out of this situation.
“Hey, big guy! Over here!”
Match stopped, heaved in some deep breaths and turned around. Rocket didn’t have to look; she could recognize that voice from anywhere.
“You clearly are not whelmed.” Robin stood near the entrance of the warehouse, being his sassy self. Rocket sighed in relief that help had come, but that feeling didn’t last very long.
Match once again screamed and flew full speed at the vulnerable boy. Robin may be good, but even he isn’t good enough to avoid a full-out raging Kryptonian coming at him with super speed.
Luckily, Rocket was there.
Match had gotten to Robin in the blink of an eye, but Rocket had assumed the attack on Robin when Match had first turned around. The force field around her faded away and suddenly appeared around the Boy Wonder, who had flinched in prepare for the oncoming attack.
“I got you, Robin!” Rocket yelled out.
“You were supposed to put the force bubble around Match!” Robin yelled back from inside the shield.
“He was moving too fast, I couldn’t see him—“ Rocket stopped mid sentence. A strong force hit her stomach and she went flying. Her body hit one of the metal boxes and made a dent in the side. She couldn’t stop her body from then hitting the ground. Rocket groaned, trying to curl up in order to get back up and fight, but a good amount of her ribs had been broken. Every breath burned like a blazing fire.
“Rocket, now—“ Robin yelled, but she already knew what to do.
Match had needed a moment to regain himself. He had spent too much energy and had paused for breath. That was her chance.
Rocket lifted her arms up, while crying out in immense pain, and created the force shield around Match. The kryptonian screamed and attacked the shield, but was only making it stronger. He had been smart enough to attack Rocket while she was vulnerable, but not smart enough to realize he had no negative effect on the force shield.
Robin ran to Rocket’s side, who stayed on her knees with her arms out in front of her. “Are you okay?” He kneeled down and touched her shoulder. She winced and he pulled away.
“Yeah,” Rocket spoke through gritted teeth, “I’m used to getting punched by an angry kryptonian on a daily basis.”
“Good to see you still have your humor.” Robin smiled.
“Just go help Aqualad, would you? I can hold this guy.”
“You saved everyone today, Rocket. You’ve done good work.” Robin then rushed away to help their still unconscious friend. Rocket smiled. It was just another ordinary day on the Team.
