"Batman, Raven, how goes the security check?" Turning away from Hawkgirl, Raven huffed, rearranging her wings and hunching over on her perch.
"All six levels of the stasis field are intact," Batman answered, carefully ignoring his daemon. There was no reason to risk getting her ranting now when he'd be hearing all about how she hated that name and would rather be Batcrow for the millionth time later anyway.
"Thank fuck."
"Onthar!" Fur on end, the alien daemon hopped up onto the control panel beside Batman's, tails wrapping around himself as he stared passed Hawkgirl at the chunk of hardware floating in a tube in the middle of the room. There was something ominous about the Brainiac symbol emblazoned on it.
"It creeps me out," he continued, as if his other half hadn't said anything, "having them here." Hawkgirl hummed agreement as she reached out to stroke him.
"Better here, where we can keep them contained, then out in the galaxy." Still she followed his gaze. It creeped her out too, creeped all of them out. Even Batman, if what Onthar said Raven said was true. "How much of them do you think is in there?"
"Too much." The other hero rose out of his chair like there weren't joints to move beneath the cape, his daemon stepping off the back of the chair and onto his shoulder as he did. "Brainiac is a regenerative program, and while we can't be sure his daemon is as well we have to assume the worst. Both intelligent viruses that will never die." He spared them a glance before turning his attention back to the mass of circuits and steel. "There's wisdom in the saying 'keep your enemies close', but there are times I wouldn't mind sending Brainiac down the nearest black hole."
"Well, it would certainly save us the room."
"Onthar!"
Any argument that may have come up was averted by a series of high, squeaking barks followed quickly by the Watchtower's alarm system blaring. Within seconds Flash and Flicker were darting through the room.
"Need everyone in the control room, we've got a problem!"
"What going on?"
"You tell us-"
"The sensors are going haywire, but we haven't been able to spot anything." Man and daemon were both checking everything they could think of, from close and long range scanners to all the cameras, at speeds all but nobody could reach. So fast that it was only moments until
"There!" The video feeds suddenly stop changing as Hawkgirl pointed at one of the displays, Onthar's eyes going wide at the shimmering line in the void headed their way.
"Shields up, Flick, now!" The prairie dog was a blur as she followed orders, darting about the appropriate panel before tucking herself in Riezen's tentacled grip as Hawkgirl's explanation rang out.
"Cosmic super string, they pack more energy than a solar flare! Brace for collision!"
Sound advice. Unlike a solar flare this string packed a serious punch, rattling the Watchtower as it passed over it. The humans and Hawkgirl were knocked to the ground, Flash and Flicker hissing as the force of the impact threw them to the edges of their bond. Onthar was only just able to catch one of Hawkgirl's feathers in his teeth, keeping them close enough for her to drag him into her arms, and Raven launched herself into the air with a squawk of alarm, landing by the side of hers as soon as it was safe to, whistling concern and nuzzling his cheek. The control panels sparked and flashed, thuds and thunks could be heard from inside. The only things seemingly unaffected were Riezen, suctioned to the control panel and with Flicker still tightly grasped, and J'onn, who had put his intangibility to good use.
"Our energy core is drained," he said once everything stopped shaking, he and his daemon both immediately going to work checking the systems. They and everyone else politely ignored Flash and Flicker coming back together in a blur.
"What about the back-up?" Batman asked. Unlike Flash and Hawkgirl, who continued to hold Onthar close to her as she flew up to check the reserves, he didn't reach out for his daemon, but those observant enough would have noticed a tilt to his head in her direction. A silent reassurance in light of her worries.
"We have some reserves left," Hawkgirl said, "but not much."
"Definitely not enough to power the whole of the station," Onthar continued, "we'll have to stick to the important stuff until we recharge."
"That may want to be now." Riezen moved forwards and tapped a tentacle against the forwards display. "Our orbit is decaying."
"The super string knocked us off course." J'onn looked back at the rest of them, "We're heading for the stratosphere, and it would take all our reserve power and more to move back into
position." Concern shot across Flash's face and he shot forward, Flicker still clasped in his arms.
"If we run around the power core at super speed, we could generate enough static electricity-"
"No," Batman said, "you could damage the core. But I do know somebody who could get us out of this, if we can reach him in time." He stepped up to the control panel, pressing buttons until news feed of a young teen, clearly a super, came up on the screen.
Raven whistled her approval.
Meanwhile, back in the Brainiac Containment Room, a program suddenly found itself with a little more room to stretch it's metaphorical legs. And, brushing it's consciousness across it's more infamous companion's, it did so with relish.
On the security monitor, a flashing series of letters- FAILURE- stopped, vanished, and were replaced.
Systems Operational.
"We're fucked."
"Jolt, I swear to God-"
Technically there were villains talking, but they weren't actually listening. It was the normal posturing, it happened every time, the only information you could gain was names and motivations, which they already knew. So instead, while Puff and Hotstreak talked shit, Static, Gear, and their daemons were focusing on the important things. Things such as how they were already sore, were thankful the fourth pair of the team wasn't anybody more threatening than Carmen Dillo and Noel, and how to not give Cam the satisfaction of being right about dying.
"So, bro," Gear said, as Hotstreak asserted their invincibility while he and Puff's daemons circled the lot like vultures, "who do we go for first?"
"The police." Puff seemed to take pleasure in their concern- which was well deserved given the heroes were vastly outnumbered by people who could do some serious damage, and Noel- given the smile on her face as she stepped forward.
"Ladies first." She formed an orb of gas between her hands, pulled back to throw and-
And was blown back by a sudden red twister that slowed to reveal the proud figures of the Flash and Flicker.
"You know something sweetie, you've got an odor problem."
Flicker's quiet, admonishing "Flash" went mostly unnoticed under Puff's furious cry. Slipping easily into her more gaseous state she rose to join Gust in the air, the coati giving a squeaky, grunting warcry as he swung low to lob his own attack at the heroes. Flash wasted no time though, spinning his arm to create a vortex that flung the attack, the daemon, and the young woman over the heads of their team and straight into the side of the brick building beyond, much to the other villains' concern. Surprisingly Carmen was the first to react, turning to the heroes with a snarl on his face for just a moment before suddenly curling in on himself, just in time to be shielded from Hawkgirl coming in from the side. One swing of her mace sent him flying into Onyx and the both of them crashing into the brickwork mere feet from Puff, the sound of falling rubble serving to cover Jet's cry of pain as her bond with Onyx was stretched and she scuttled for him at top speed, wedging herself under his arm as far as she could. Carmen unrolled across the larger Bang Baby's back with a groan and a distinctly displeased look as his daemon bounded for him with a shriek and began to frantically inspect him for major harm.
"If I knew Static was friends with the Justice League," he said, "I wouldn't have joined you boneheads. Not even to do laundry." Hotstreak, through all this, actually managed to seem worried about the situation, though that didn't last long. About as long as it took for Stella to land heavily on his shoulder, wings and crest already spread and flaming even before he lit up himself. An intimidating scene, and one cut very short by the newly arrived Batman with the help of a grenade canister of extinguishing foam.
All in all, a very short fight. Maybe a minute and a half.
"Yo, how come you never told us you were down with these big dogs?" Gear and Socket both had their mouths gaping with shock, the wolf's ears pressed back.
"Cause, it's, a secret," Jolt haltingly replied, she and Static carrying a very similar look themselves.
"So secret even we didn't know… Yo, Batman," Slowly Static and Jolt landed as the renowned hero approached them, "thanks for the help but, don't you guys have a galaxy to save or something?" It just, didn't make sense why the Justice League would send some of their to people to come, what? Help a few newbies put away some comparatively minor crooks?
"We need your help, Static, Jolt." Okay, now things made even less sense. Static could practically feel the fur on the back of Jolt's neck trying to stick up and could taste electricity jumping between her ears and fake antlers.
"Say what?" This had to be a joke of some sort. Batman didn't do jokes, but, surely there was a first time for everything.
"We need you to come to the Watchtower."
"The Watchtower? Up there?" He still was struggling to believe it, pointing as he spoke- "That one?" This wasn't a joke was it? The Justice League needed his help and wanted him to come to the Watchtower. He could feel a grin begin splitting his face and Jolt started making a high-pitched, excited noise at his side.
"Ooo ooo! Can we come too?!" Gear looked just as hyped as he came down to join them on the ground, and Socket was too excited to both with a slow descent, instead thudding down to the asphalt with his tail going a mile a minute.
"Can we please? Please?!"
"This isn't a field trip," Hawkgirl noted, walking over with Onthar and looking at Gear and Socket like, well, like they were overly excited teenagers. Which managed to curb their enthusiasm for about three-quarters of a second before they started back up.
"Please, oh please!"
"You can stuff us in the stowaway bin!"
"And when we get up there, we'll stand in a corner!"
"You can pick which one!" By which point Gear was halfway to puppy-eyes and Socket had reached maximum puppy-eye, lying on his belly with his tail wagging and staring up at Onthar like he was God. The older daemon laughed.
"Alright, alright, you can come." The look Hawkgirl shot him was unimpressed at best, but like any pair they had a lifetime of practice ignoring each other's disapproval and he was downright smug when Batman stepped in.
"Come on, we need to move fast," he said, and with a friendly croak from Raven on top of it, well, that was that.
"Cooool…" It was a quartet of voices, all with the exact same degree of awe. Static and Gear both looked like they couldn't wait to get their hands on, well, everything. Jolt scrambled her way up Socket's side to get a better view of it all. It was just, amazing. They'd all thought about it, had their pipe dreams about getting to come up to the League's Watchtower, but they'd never actually expected to ever see inside. It was as amazing as they'd imagined.
"We've made it to geek heaven," Gear said, reaching out to stroke Socket's ear as they crossed the doorway, all four beelining for the various control panels and monitors. "Look! It's some sort've multiphasic monitoring system! I'll bet it can pick up any broadcast signal on Earth!" As soon as he began to rub his hands together Jolt was up on Socket's head, forepaws on the control panel as they inspected it. This, unfortunately, left her in the perfect position to the surprised by J'onn rising up out of the panel, Riezen chuckling from where they'd gone unnoticed by the monitors as she tumbled back down the wolf daemon's side, landing on her feet in a mess of sparks.
"I've got the power conduits all set for Static, I'll see you in the control room." And just like he'd came the Martian was gone, his daemon rolling down to the floor and making their way with surprising speed across the room. It was a sight to behold- no matter how many times you saw them on TV, you just were never prepared to watch the love child of an octopus, a nautilus, and a slug make their way passed your feet.
"Okay… I still don't understand," Static said, shaking his head to clear out the strange image, "what's going on?"
"We were hit by a cosmic anomaly, it drained the Watchtower's central powercore," Batman explained as he and Hawkgirl lead them after Riezen, "we need you to recharge it for us."
"Recharge the station?"
"Us?"
"Don't you guys have jumper cables?" They were honored of course, but, really? This was Batman speaking, shouldn't he have had back-up generators in place? That weren't teenagers?
J'onn was waiting for them in the main control room, his daemon perched on his shoulder.
"These conduits lead straight to the power core at the center of the Watchtower," he said, "here's where you can feed in your energy." All in all the whole thing was, surprisingly underwhelming, now that they had a 'why'.
"Some grand adventure," Static muttered. Jolt didn't even bother with muttering.
"Do I look like the Energizer Bunny to you people?" Static had too much of her in him to flinch like Gear and Socket did, but it still was nice to hear Raven immediately start chuckling. Supposedly she wasn't the talkative sort, but at least she had a sense of humor. Batman, on the other hand…
"One way to look at is," he said in a tone of voice they recognized from their parents and occasionally Sharon and Asher, "you're preventing the station from crashing down somewhere on Earth. Quite possibly Dakota." Well, when he put it that way. Static pulled down his goggles and Jolt hopped up to wedge herself into the space available.
"We'll just get on charging the station, huh?"
"Good idea."
It wasn't the most entertaining job around, how's that? All Static and Jolt were doing was expending as many calories as possible in the most boring way possible while Gear and Socket hung out in a corner specially chosen by Hawkgirl. There was the brief 'excitement' of finally reaching enough power to re-establish the satellite's orbit, which went by with minimal fanfare, but for the most part nothing happened until Gear chose the worst time to try to get a photo. Before he could even make a real attempt he was in mid-air, surrounded by a green glow while Socket stood at alert below him, hackles raised as he glared at the brindled dog beside Green Lantern.
"Easy, GL." Flash and Flicker quickly came to the rescue, Flash going to Green Lantern's side while Flicker took position between the canine daemons. "Sparky's buddy." Gear was spared a Look before he was placed down gently and his camera returned to him, though Lauretta continued to give Socket a hard stare for several seconds before following after her human with a blunt
"No pictures."
"Alright Static," Batman said, clearly unfazed by what had gone down, to nobody's surprise, "now that Green Lantern's back, he can take it from here."
"Good," Static said, notably tired as he backed away, his gloves smoking, "I feel like a grilled patty." Jolt didn't even manage that much, just to slide out of the section of wall with a groan and shuffle her way after her other half. Gear and Socket automatically rose to meet them, the wolf loping forward to nuzzle Jolt.
"Come on, small fry." She halfheartedly kicked at him, but then quickly let him stick his head under her belly so she draped across his neck.
"We don't have to go yet, do we?" Gear said when he reached Static's side. "So far I've only seen one corner of the room!" They certainly hoped not, the electrical pair was exhausted and hungry. Which didn't even make sense for Jolt, she was a daemon, the didn't even need to eat! But she was starving just as much as Static was, which only made her more aggravated when a blaring alarm began assaulting her poor ears.
"It's Nivelus II," Hawkgirl said, attention fully on the monitor in front of her, "there's an asteroid swarm heading for their planet."
"That would take all of us to deal with," Riezen added as the League members grouped together around Hawkgirl. Flash frowned.
"Well, there goes our afternoon." The younger set of heroes all looked at each other. There were a lot of things they were prepared to deal with, fighting crime in Dakota pretty much required flexibility, but asteroid swarms were not on their resumes. Hawkgirl seemed to realize this.
"What about them?" she asked.
"The Watchtower isn't fully recharged, they'll have to stay here, just in case." For the first time since their meeting she didn't look annoyed, instead she was visibly concerned as she watched Batman walk away with Raven pecking at one of the ears of his cowl.
"Alone?" That was anything but a problem for them, the idea of being alone in the Watchtower was enough to perk even Jolt up, and the fact the rest of the Justice League seemed cool with it only helped.
"As long as they don't touch anything, they should be fine."
"Yeah, you guys are old enough to stay home by yourselves, right?" The teens' faces split into grins.
"Right!"
"Definitely!" Hawkgirl didn't look convinced, and in fact neither did some of the daemons, but they didn't push any further. Instead Onthar crossed some of the distance between the groups and leveled them with a firm look.
"The cafeteria is down the hall, fourth door on the right," he said, just before Lauretta came up behind him.
"Don't touch anything, behave yourselves, and stay safe." The boys nodded vigorously, and Socket did his best equivalent to a salute.
"Yes ma'am!"
"The cheap stuff, I cannot believe-"
"You've been whining about this for thirty minutes."
"It's not even bad."
"That's not the point, the point is that nobody who owns their own satellite should have a freezer full of cheap pizza. They did this to spite us." There were groans all around.
"They did not do this to spite us."
"No, they clearly did." Richie shook his head, tearing into his pizza only a hair more ravenously than his friends as Virgil dropped his face into his hands and Abe continued the ongoing argument.
"Cam, Sharon, where did they even get the attitude, man?" Not even bothering to look up, Virgil raised a finger knowingly.
"Gran."
"Ahh." He took another large bite. "Ya know, I hope the League doesn't mind us raiding the fridge." Virgil chuckled, dropping his feet down off the table- just barely missing Abe, likely on instinct alone- and grabbing up his plate.
"Hey, we're growing superheroes," he said as he headed for the sink, "and Cam and I just spent every calorie we've ever earned charging up this place."
"We have earned this pizza," the jackrabbit added, her own slice jealously guarded from the menfolk- she knew Richie and Abe, "even if it is cheap."
"You really need to-" Virgil went quiet, freezing as the screen in front of him wavered, showing something that almost had looked like some sort've face…. He turned back to the others. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Richie was fully engrossed in his pizza, and Abe was just as bad. Well, at least his daemon had been paying attention, her ears straight up and back tense.
"There was a face looking at us, on the screen. It didn't look human." Richie and Abe scoffed in unison.
"Big deal. We just spent the day with a Martian and a Thanagarian."
At which point more alarms started going.
Immediately Richie's feet were off the table and his hand was in Abe's fur, while Cam catapulted herself into Virgil's arms.
"This cannot be good." And it wasn't. Within heartbeats of the alarm starting the outer door began to open, leading directly into the dark vacuum of space. The only good news was that the chairs and table were bolted to the floor, meaning that when things began to be sucked out into space Virgil and Richie could latch onto the nearest seats and Abe could hook himself around the table's leg. The biggest risk was to Cam, clenched tight against Virgil's chest with one arm while he tried to keep them from flying off with the other. She did the first thing that came to mind, trying to use her powers to force the doors to shut again, only to fail. Richie nearly lost his grip and Abe, in response, began to whine.
"Cam, get the cabinets!" Ears perking at Virgil's request, she quickly found the ones he was talking about and took aim, electricity arcing between her ears and antlers. A burst of power had the screws coming free, leaving the cabinet to be dragged across the room and, being taller than the door, block it enough to lessen the pull of the vacuum. As soon as the force wasn't enough to drag them away the quartet leapt to their feet and bolted for the door, Virgil and Richie clamping their daemons between themselves and the walls for their own safety. But this door wouldn't shut either, no matter how many times Virgil slammed on the appropriate button.
"One sec, we can maybe override the controls!" Immediately BacPac was on the job, plugging into a nearby control panel, and not a second too soon as the cabinet finally gave way. The shutting of the doors, and with them the arrival of safety, finally, came with a mass of relieved groans.
"Ya know," Virgil said, slumping against the wall, "I think I've lost my appetite." Richie nodded.
"Yeah, me too."
"For now," Abe scoffed, and the others couldn't help a tiny, relieved chuckle.
"Yeah, for now."
"I'm not sure this is a good idea, we don't wanna make the J League mad." Gear paused in his typing to look at Static and Jolt. "You saw how Hawknose swung that mace!"
"I think she'll live." Socket's voice had had a distinct growl to it ever since they'd escaped the cafeteria and he now was pacing back and forth between the others and the door like, well, a caged wolf. They'd set up shop in the nearest room with access to the Tower's systems, with no care as to actual purpose, hoping to find information.
"All I want," Static said, Jolt back in his arms again, "is to know why this place almost killed us."
"First, they use us as battery power, then the cheap pizza, now this- I'm lodging a formal complaint."
"You do that, Small Fry." Somehow the quartet managed to become tenser when the door opened, something that didn't go away when all that entered was a robot pushing a vacuum cleaner. If anything, that seemed to make Socket more aggravated, in true canine fashion, and Jolt even growled when it grew a brush and started trying to clean off her and Static.
"Relax Jolt, it's just a cleaning bot," he said, stroking her, even when she scoffed.
"You act like we weren't just almost killed by a pair of malicious doors."
"They weren't malicious, just suspicious."
"Six of one, half dozen of the other, look." Everyone turned to Richie and the screen in front of him, letting the robot putter halfway out the door unnoticed. "The stations firewalls are expanding. Like something's taken over and locking everybody else out." Pointedly ignoring the quiet "yay, the station is evil" from his personal peanut gallery, Static eyed the displays on view.
"Can you isolate whatever it is?" With hardly a nod Gear went to work, typing away as Static and Jolt watched on. Meanwhile, Socket returned to his pacing, taking note of the robot that hadn't quite left. Especially the way it seemed to deactivate as the firewall display became smaller.
"It's slippery, but I think I've got it. The League files have it ID'd, a virus called… Brainiac?" A green face, vaguely familiar, appeared on the screen.
"That's the face from the cafeteria!" Static clutched his daemon tighter. "But what's it doing in the League's system?"
"Correction. Our system. I've been growing exponentially ever since we sent the Justice League away." If the words hadn't been creepy and ominous enough on their own, the monotone in which they were spoken would easily have done the job. A computer putting words together, that was all. Instinctively Gear tried to reach out for Socket.
"What?"
"I summoned them away with a false distress call. When you are disposed of, the last human infestation will be gone from the Watchtower, then I will-"
There was what could only be called a roar behind them.
Static and Gear spun on their heels, eyes blowing wide at the sight of the robot from before flailing, the brush replaced with a buzzsaw of all things. Socket was latched onto that arm, snarling and using the powers granted him by his Settled form- bone-crushing teeth and the stamina to hold onto an elk until it gave up- to keep it away from the rest of the team. They could only watch the events unfold, unable to help for fear of catching Socket in the crossfire, nobody breathing until with one final swing the wolf was lobbed across the room. Socket hit the opposing wall with a yipe in the same instant Gear collapsed to the ground, breath knocked out of him by the twang of distance across their bond. Not a snap, but still further apart than they should ever have been.
"Socket!" Brainiac watched impassively as Gear rose enough to launch himself towards his daemon and Jolt leapt to the floor to face the threat head-on with Static.
"Be quick, Del."
"Of course." Somehow the voice from the robot was worse, like Brainiac's but, vaguely distorted. Nobody noticed Brainiac's face phase out, Static and Jolt focused entirely on the fight. Namely, in blasting the cleaning-bot into three separate pieces. It was surprisingly easy, just one combined hit to the less-than-nimble machine had done it, but then the voice had tutted at them from the room's speakers and a panel had opened, releasing a number of ambulatory cables that would've caught them up had they both not been sparking like ball lightning out of pure worry and protectiveness. Really they'd felt about ready to take on the world alone, they may have had to with their partners temporarily unavailable, but alas they weren't quite that good. Another panel had opened in the floor and up had risen another, larger, more clearly offensive robot. A solid blast knocked it back and into the wall, but it just got right back up like nothing had happened at all. So, they'd gone directly to Plan B.
Drag Gear and Socket to their feet and run like Hell was on their heels. Which it seemed to be, with the voices echoing through the halls.
"There is nothing you can do."
"And no point in trying to hide."
"Control room? Maybe we can get a distress call out?"
"As good a bet as any!"
Sudden static broke the silence of the ship's cockpit (well, the near silence of the ship's cockpit, but everyone was politely ignoring Raven, Flicker, and Onthar's gossiping). It was difficult to make out, a weak and bumpy signal that sounded like Gear right up until a boost from Green Lantern's ring proved it to be the teen. Worried and with his daemon half in his lap.
"Distress call fake! Repeat- distress call faked! Brainiac loose in-" with a bark Socket vaulted Gear's lap and disappeared off screen, followed closely by the boy as his eyes went wide calling "Static! Volt, look out!"
The message cut out there.
For the briefest of moments the ship was silent, reeking of dread, concern, horror, before nine spines stiffened as one. Without a word they banked towards home, every face grimly serious, Riezen flashing warning colors, fur and feathers both on end.
"If they've hurt so much as a single hair on those children I will flush them down a black hole myself!"
"The launch bays aren't responding, we can't get in." Such simple words, yet the tension in the ship bumped up several levels at the speaking of them. It bumped up several more levels when Brainiac showed himself in a flashy light show on the outside of the base. Thirty-two minutes, it had taken them thirty-two minutes to get back (less than it should have, but really, what was frying the engines if it meant they could save the kids and defeat Brainiac?) How has he gotten this much control so quickly? How long had he been in control? How much had he taken over already when they left?
Could they have prevented this?
Hawkgirl and Onthar had been in their spacesuits for fifteen minutes, and as soon as Brainiac showed his face they, Green Lantern, and Lauretta undid their seatbelts and headed for the exit. Not that there was much they could do, immediately the Watchtowers outer defenses were turned on them and the ship, but at least they had to try.
"I can't connect to any of the systems inside," Batman said, not showing the same worry they knew he felt from the way Raven loomed on his shoulder, "Brainiac has completely cut us off. But maybe I can still reach Static and Gear." Precious seconds passed.
"Static, Gear, come in, what is your situation?"
…
"Static, Gear?"
"Let's just say there's room for improvement!"
They were caught. Or, well, Static and Gear were caught. Socket and Jolt were trying to get them free, but it was hard when the robot slowly squeezing your people to death was that many times your size and kept trying to step on you. Mostly what it meant was they were dodging while Jolt occasionally blasted the thing and Socket tried to figure out if he could disable it. Unfortunately, they were starting to get annoying.
"It's time to get rid of you pests," the robot- Del, Brainiac had called it Del- said, clamping down harder on the boys. For a moment it looked like Jolt was going to start launching herself headfirst at it out of desperation- nothing she did was stopping it and if she hit any harder she might hurt her own- before Socket snatched her up in his teeth and out of the way of a foot.
"Found it," he whispered, "distraction, now!"
And well, what else was she to do but listen? In two bounds she'd scrambled her way onto Del's head, sparking and bouncing and refusing to be shaken off. She caught brief glimpses of Socket, the browns, greys, teals of his disguise and costume, but couldn't get a solid look until he leapt away from the thing and howled for her. She kicked off it's head and landed beside him, swearing to herself she'd later take a moment to worry about the golden Dust drifting from his claws and teeth, and turned to see a discarded panel and an expanse of freshly uninsulated wiring. The pair grinned together.
"Fry it."
And in a flash of arcing electricity she did.
The machine collapsed, clamping hands reflexively opening and shutting, dropping their boys to the floor where the two daemons rushed to them. In a flurry of limbs they got to their feet and started running, not caring where they went as long as it was away from whatever the viruses decided to throw at them next.
"Batman, you still there?" Rarely were the League so happy to hear someone else's voice on their lines. Especially since they'd now managed to regain access to the security cameras.
"I've located your position, you're heading straight for the central power core. You need to shut it down."
"How are we gonna do that?!"
"You need to drain the core this time, and absorb it's energy."
"Oh thank fuck, we really could use it back about now!" Batman ignored the young daemon's comment, and the way Flash, Flicker, and Raven were snickering at it.
"I've been jamming our communications so he won't know our plan, and now the Justice League is going to provide a major distraction. So get going. Over and out."
"I'm going to assume this is it," Socket said as they approached a massive door that certainly looked important.
"I hope so," Virgil said. Removing BacPac from his perch, Gear set him on the wall next to a nearby control panel where he began to force access. And apparently it worked, the doors opened, exposing a massive glass tower surging with electricity. Static and Jolt breathed deep as they approached it, rolling their shoulders. "Keep BacPac plugged in, just in case."
"Will do." With a quiet whine, Socket propped himself up on the wall with his forepaws so he could whisper back and forth with his.
"We could-"
"That could work-"
"It would work-"
The conversation went quick, and it had to because before Static and Jolt could get started a pair of cables burst down the hallway, nearly knocking Gear and Socket over, and wrapping the electrical pair tight. A 'Plan B' was definitely required as Brainiac reappeared and began to monologue.
"I am everywhere, I am everything, you cannot defeat us-" Who knows for certain whether the virus planned to continue further than that, as that was the point when music started playing through the Tower's speakers. Villain and heroes alike stopped to level a firm look at the pair in the hall.
"Really, Gear?! Really?!"
"Perfect time!" The supergenius was grinning a toothy one to match his daemon's. "One song downloaded 100 million times!"
"Let's see just how good their memory is!"
Not good enough, apparently, as quickly Brainiac began to flicker, words becoming choppy and hard to understand as he lagged and skipped, he and Del losing enough control to release Static and Jolt, who immediately set to work taking back the power they'd put into the satellite in a hail of green sparks.
"N-n-n-n-no! I c-c-c-c-caaaaaaannot be defeated I am B-b-b-b-b-raaaaaiiiiiniac-ac-ac-ac! One d-d-day I will-ill-ill be b-back-"
Too many crises solved for one day, the set soon found themselves back on Earth, out behind their base surrounded by smiling Justice League members.
"You did well, both of you," which, so far, from Hawkgirl, was some pretty major praise. Still, this was the Justice League. And it was only one little assault by Brainiac.
"All in a day's work for us superheroes, right?" The League's looks were fond as J'onn responded to Static.
"Do not make light of your accomplishments, this was a very serious matter."
"Yeah." Flash ruffled their hair, or as well as he could given Gear's helmet, while Flicker rubbed herself against Jolt and Socket's legs. "You dweebs saved the world today." Dakota's Finest shared a relatively long look. They, had not realized it was quite that serious.
"So, when I'm looking for work this summer, can I put that on my resume?" Both teens looked hopeful, though apparently for very different reasons.
"All I want," Gear said, "is just one picture, just so I can believe this happened in the morning." Socket, again, immediately busted out the puppy-eyes, and again the League didn't seem impressed. Until Onthar strolled forward, that is.
"Just be sure to get my good side, kid."
Virgil and Cam left for home first, to nobody's surprise. Richie and Abe weren't terribly fond of home and both tended to get caught up in their own shit. So there was no shock when they were left alone, nor when they took another half hour or so to get their things together. No, that came when a shocked yipe and thud rang through the gas station, Richie spinning away from his computer to see his daemon too still on the pile of blankets he'd claimed his own, their favorite invention downright looming over him.
"Abe? BacPac? What's wrong?!" Richie took a step forward, brow creased with his concern as BacPac turned to face him.
When the machine pounced, it's eye glowed a familiar green…
