Sitting in the Watchtower, on monitor duty, J'onn looked up at the sound of the beeping. According to the screen, there had been a bank robbery right outside of New York City, near Manhattan. According to eyewitnesses, it involved 10 masked super villains with special power, including one who could create darkness, another who could manipulate objects and create field with a purple beam, and at the head of it all was Lex Luthor. Quickly getting Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Superman on the comm, he alerted them to the situation. They were last seen entering a large warehouse near Washington Square Park. They decided that J'onn would join them outside the warehouse, where they quickly met up on the roof. Looking into the building through a window, they saw no evidence of the jewelry. Instead, what they saw made even Batman sick to his stomach.
A girl, who looked around 16 years old, was bound to an air vent in the middle of the large room. In front of her, forming a half circle, were Grundy, the Shade, Star Sapphire, Copperhead, Lex, and a new villain who had just recently showed up on the Jl's radar, Mind Bender, who has known for her ability to read and manipulate minds. The girl was dressed in what looked almost like black spandex from head to toe. Leather boots that went up to just below her knees covered her feet, leather gloves covered her hands, and a black cape covered her beaten and bloody form. A hood on the cape covered her hair, and cast a dark shadow over her eyes, which were concealed by a sheer black scarf tied around her head. The only clue that it was a woman at all was her figure; although her severe malnutrition made it hard to tell, she was almost skin and bones. Her outfit was torn is several places; long bloody slashes ran down her arms and legs, across her torso, and down her face. She appeared to be unconscious; the pole she was tied to seemed to be the only thing that kept her form collapsing.
Besides him, Batman felt Wonder Woman's muscles tense as she started to spring into action. Batman placed a restraining hand on her and shook his head to the rest of the Justice League who were starting to do the same.
"We can't go in yet, we need to find out what Luthor wants," Batman responded quietly. "Anything he wants this badly will be very bad for us."
"I will not idly sit by, and watch one of my sisters be tortured!" Wonder Woman spat out, angered at Batman's passiveness.
Before any of them could do anything, Luthor spoke.
"Just tell me where Serenity is. That's all, just tell me where it is and this will all stop." Luthor spoke quietly and seductively.
"Fine! Fine! I'll tell you!" the girl spoke franticly.
At that Batman started to get up, he needed to stop this before she told him, whatever it was that he was after, it would no doubt be for a horrible purpose. However, his movements were stilled by her next response.
"Where is Serenity?" Luther inquired again, more insistent this time. He could barely keep the glee from his face, finally she was breaking.
"Up yours and around the corner." The girl responded savagely.
Luther's face turned red, and he barely managed to contain his anger. The Justice League sat atop the rooftop, too stunned by her answer to do anything but sit and gawk.
"Lexy, Lexy, Lexy. What did I tell you about eating so many red peppers? You really are starting to resemble one, and I can practically see the steam coming out of your ears, at least stop eating the very spicy ones." The teasing tone of the words did not fit with the murderous look the girl had on her face, or the low hiss of a voice in which she said it. Lex lunged forward and viciously backhanded her across the face.
"Well, if you're going to make your face red, then fine. But don't take me with you," she chided. This time Lex propelled his knee into her gut, using all the strength he could.
The Justice League saw the blood completely drain from her face a she gasped for air. Batman started to get up, and the rest did the same. "Let's go" Superman urged his teammates.
Actually, the girl had not felt the brunt of the impact, even though her clothing looked like spandex, it was in fact a made from a very specialized material, designed to, amongst other thing, deflect blows and disperse the shock. After his knee connected with her gut, she leaned against the ropes that bound her hands, the ones she had been sawing through with a small blade Luthor had not noticed. Pulling them free, she hooked her left arm under his knee and pulled it closer to her chest. Surging upwards onto her feet, she pulled him with her, then promptly dropped him and delivered a roundhouse kick with her right leg that connect solidly with his neck. Hitting a pressure point on his neck with her foot, she knocked him out.
The moment the Justice League had seen her knock out Lex, they had burst through the door. Until then the possibility that this had been a trap had kept Batman from fully feeling the need to rush in and save the damsel in distress. But he knew Luthor, if Luthor was going to set up a trap, he would most certainly not be the one knocked unconscious. So with every intention of saving the girl, the Justice League burst through the window.
The girl heard heavy footsteps behind, and did not even bother looking to see who it was. As Grundy lunged at her from behind, she pivoted and drove her knee into his stomach, using his own momentum to propel him into the wall. Surprised by the lack of villains rushing towards her, she tuned to look behind her. Luthor was up, and had a small greens tone in his hand. He was towering over Superman, and the super hero was crawling backwards, trying to escape. At first she thought that maybe Superman wasn't all he was cracked up to be, but then she recognized the stone in his hand as kryptonite. She heard other battles going on behind her and blocked them out. The girl looked around for her sword and sheath, it usually hung over her shoulder on the leather belt she used to carry her knives. Seeing it, she hurriedly limped over and took one of the knives out of its sheath. She aimed it directly towards Lex Luthor's heart.
Superman could barely stay conscious; the kryptonite was quickly sapping his strength. He fought the black that was trying to overtake him, needing to help in any way he could. That was why he had become Superman; he had needed to help people, to use his powers to help people. He had never given up on anyone, not even Lex, and he would not start by giving up on himself. Pulling himself to a sitting position, he looked around for the closest team member. Green Lantern and Star Sapphire were having a "green vs. purple" battle, Flash was trying evade the black vines that were shooting out of the Shade's cane, J'onn and Mind Bender were attacking each other telepathically, Grundy was trying to compensate for his double digit IQ by hurling everything in the room at Batman, and the Ultrahumanite was getting blows in wherever he could.
Looking up towards Luthor, he saw the girl standing behind Lex, aiming a knife at Lex's heart. For all the times that Lex had tried to hurt people, to kill him, to destroy the league, he knew that he would never forgive himself if that knife killed Lex. That was why Copperhead had referred to him as a "boy scout". Even if he knew, deep down, that Luthor would never be good again, even if he knew that Luthor would kill him without any regrets, he could not sit by and let that knife plunge into Lex's heart. As much as he wanted to stop her, he was having trouble staying conscious, there was no way he could push Lex aside. Catching the girl's eye, he shook his head "no", hoping to convey his message to her.
She looked at him, and for a second he thought that she would ignore him. On her face was a look he had never seen on anyone so young, and it threw him. The pure hatred on her face was a look he had seen on Batman when he talked about the man who murdered him parents, or on Wonder Woman when spoke of Hades. But the hatred on her face was too such a degree that it startled him, and it scared him to think of what could have happened to her, to make her hate Luthor that much. The intensity on her face was not from him standing back as other people tortured her; it was much more personal then that.
The girl has glanced down at Superman, and saw him struggling to rise. Instantly her respect for him swelled, she knew how it felt to be against what seemed like an unbeatable enemy, it took a lot of courage to keep fighting. Looking at him, she saw him distinctly shake him head, as he mouthed the words "no". She instantly understood that this man would not have her kill another, even one who was as sadistic and bad as Luthor, the man who right now was standing over him, trying to kill him.
At first she was going to ignore him, she cared nothing for his noble and foolish feelings. Thinking only of the pain she would have been saved if Superman had had the guts to kill him earlier, she had drawn her arm back to throw the knife. The only thing that made her hand stray from it's path, and instead cause her to let the knife sink deep into his calf, was the fear she would see in his face when she wrapped her hands around his neck and squeezed. She wanted him to know it was her that would cause his death, her that would watch as the very last traces of life left his body, her he would beg for life to, it would be her, and not some good two shoes alien who could have prevented it all by having a spine and killing Luthor in the first place.
Superman had watched as the emotions had played across the girl's face. The hatred was there, and Superman had thought she was going to kill Lex. He was surprised when she flicked her wrist sideways, instead sending the blade deep into Luthor's calf muscle, causing him to drop the kryptonite. Superman managed to drag himself far enough away from the kryptonite, and felt his strength slowly returning. Suddenly, everything was getting darker and darker. At first Superman thought that it was still the kryptonite, but then he noticed that he was feeling stronger. Belatedly, Superman realized that the Shade must have been trying to escape. He looked towards the girl, planning to ask her to get the kryptonite father away, when he saw Copperhead latch onto her shoulder with his jaw. The last thing he saw before the whole room went black was the girl sinking her sword into Copperhead's stomach, just as Copperhead sunk his jaw even harder into her shoulder.
Equus had seen the look of intense relief on Superman's face when the knife had sunk straight into his calf, causing him to howl in pain, but obviously still alive. Her first reflex was to draw her sword to finish the kill.
No, I want to feel his pulse speed up, as he cowers away from me in fear. I want to have my hands around his neck, and feel as his heart gives up its hopeless struggle to beat.
With a primal grin, she started to pull off her gloves, lusting for the sensation of her hands around his neck, literally choking off and chance for survival. Belatedly, she realized that the room was getting darker and darker. She looked around the room for the cause and could barely see through the thick smog. She saw a shadowed figure holding a cane above his head; whatever light was left was glinting of the jewel-topped object. She recognized the Shade's hat, and reached for her sword. She was about to draw it when she felt an intense stabbing pain in her right shoulder. She heard the hiss of Copperhead, and felt a burning spreading through her shoulder as the venom entered her bloodstream. Suddenly, it felt like she had been placed in an oven, the burning had now encompassed her body. Then the pain came, like a million tiny needles stabbing into every part of her body. She fought the immense black surrounding her, both of Shade's doing and that of her dying body. With a last conscious though, she drew her sword and sank it deep into Copperhead's stomach, just as he latched down harder.
As soon as the Green Lantern had noticed the smog, he had used his ring to illuminate the room. Unfortunately, he had been preoccupied by his battle with Star Sapphire and had at first thought the darkness with caused by a hard blow to the head. Finally a much-welcomed green light penetrated through the darkness. GL was immediately reassured to see Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash and J'onn all standing apparently unharmed. He focused his thoughts on locating Superman. He heard a grunt, and was immediately relieved to see the familiar red and blue clad figure slowly getting to his feet. Flash ran over immediately to help.
"What happened to you big guy?" Flash inquired.
"Kryptonite." Superman spat out the words like they left a bad taste in his mouth.
Spotting the infamous green stone, Flash quickly kicked it to the other side of room.
"I'm fine!" was Batman's unmistakable reply to J'onn's inquiring about why his should was sticking out at a very odd angle.
"You dislocated your shoulder," Superman commented dryly, knowing it would fall on deaf ears.
Silently cursing X-ray vision, Batman grasped his arm in his good hand, and quickly maneuvered it back into place. Flash winced and turned away as he heard a pop of the bone sliding back into place.
"Now I don't" Batman commented.
"Oh no." Came Flash's ominous reply to the sight in front of him.
Batman quickly rushed over to where he stood, completely ignoring J'onn's protests about running with a hurt arm. Green Lantern hurried over to Batman, after hearing his terse reply of "call an ambulance." Bending down, he saw Copperhead, unmoving, lying on top of the girl, with his jaw locked onto her shoulder. The girl herself looked like she had tried to twist away, but had actually just down more damage to herself. Seeing all the blood, GL knew immediately that one person could not lose that much and still live.
Unless…carefully dislodging Copperhead's jaw from her shoulder, he started to push Copperhead off of the girl. Seeing the sword in the girl's hand, he followed it from hilt to end, glad to see it embedded deep into Copperhead's stomach. He was not happy that Copperhead had been hurt, as bad a villain as he might be, GL preferred live suspects over dead ones. Live ones tell you things, like where the evil multi-millionaire behind the kidnapping and torture of an innocent girl was, dead ones do not. Unless of course, the villain was stupid enough to get some substance unique to the place where said billionaire was hiding, in which case, he liked the dead ones better: they were a lot quieter. No, he was happy that Copperhead was injured because that meant that some, if not most, of the blood was his, in which case they might both still be alive. Hearing the sirens not too far off, he went over to the girl and tried to stem the blood flowing from her shoulder, as Batman did the same with Copperhead.
Copperhead started moaning loudly, "Oh, oh, I'm dying here! Somebody please help me! I'm innocent!"
Finishing a professional check of Copperhead, Batman quickly punched him in the side of his head to shut him up.
"I could have just brought sleep to him telepathically" J'onn said with a frown, he disapproved of unnecessary violence.
"What, and deprive the Bats of his fun?" Flash responded.
"There's enough fun to go around" Batman replied with a glare, tightening his fist and walking towards Flash.
Flash immediately put his hand in the air as a sign up surrender. Batman walked past him and knelt besides the girl. Picking up her arm, he took he pulse and felt her forehead. Frowning at the too fast pulse and extremely high fever, turned to the rest of the League and said, "Copperhead should be fine, the sword missed anything vital. The girl is a different story. A hospital is going to have to make an anti venom for Copperhead's bite, and I don't think we have that long. She got an unusually high amount, coupled with her small size and the fact that she probably has not had anything to eat or drink in 2 or 3 days, the venom is acting quicker and more potently then I've ever seen it do before. We need to get her back to watch tower now, we still have the anti venom you used on me."
"Agreed," Superman replied, "John, you'll get there faster if you just take her. We'll come behind in the Javelin."
GL bent over her, and concentrated. His ring lit up, and a green shielding started to engulf her and him. As it started to close completely, it suddenly deactivated.
"What's wrong?" Wonder Woman asked.
"I'm not sure, something about her is preventing my ring from working on her. It's working fine around me, just not her."
"Then J'onn and I will take her back in the Javelin." Batman said, in a tone that commanded the attention of everyone present.
"And the rest of?" Flash asked.
"Green Lantern and Flash will go back with Copperhead, make sure he lives and see what you can find out when he wakes up. Wonder Woman and I will start looking for Luthor." Superman replied.
Batman bent over an easily lifted the girl into his arms; he was surprised at how light she was.
"Let me carry her Batman" J'onn insisted.
"No, it's alright. She's very light, too light." He replied
Superman's frown deepened at this, and he and Wonder Woman took off. Next, Flash and GL followed the ambulance that Copperhead had been loaded into towards the hospital.
Walking back to the Javelin with J'onn, Batman was astounded. He knew firsthand what it felt like to be bit by Copperhead, the burning, the pain, and how hard it was to stay aware. He had barely had enough energy to tell John to ignore him, much less make it convincing. He had seen Copperhead's wound, the sword had struck in a very specific area, targeted to cause incapacitating pain but without causing major bleeding or hitting any major organs. Targeting it with a fist, that was easy, it was something that Batman did on a daily basis. But sticking a sword straight through it, while your world was clouded with pain? That was difficult, but also something that Batman himself had experienced.
He was wary of this girl, she obviously knew how to handle a sword, and damn well at that. The sword itself was interesting; he had never seen a design like it. Nor could he tell what it was made of. He glanced at the sword, which was sheathed, the leather belt containing the sword and knives resting in J'onn's hand. He would love to see her use it, the sword itself looked too big for her to carry, and it was weapon you did not see on a regular basis in Gotham.
A sword is a nice change from the usual guns. I'm ok with a sword, but I still would not mind seeing someone really good use one. An expert fighter should be proficient with any weapon he might encounter, and even weapons he does not think he will encounter.
Walking up the ramp and into the Javelin, he laid the girl onto one of the seats, frowning at the heat radiating up from her body. Sliding into the driver's seat, he easily maneuvered the Javelin out of Earth's atmosphere, and quickly arrived at the Watchtower.
"I will take her to the medical bay. I want you to come too, Batman. I need to make sure your shoulder is healing correctly. You should not have attempted to place it back in by yourself." J'onn scolded him.
"When I was little, it used to pop out all the time. That happens to some earth children when they put too much weight on their arms. I learned how to pop it back in when I was 4. It still happens occasionally." Batman replied, running to try and keep up with J'onn, who floated ahead, with the girl in his arms.
They reached the med bay, and J'onn placed her onto one of the bio beds. Glancing at her vitals, her muttered aloud. "Temperature is 103.1, blood pressure is in the hypertensive range, heart rate is way too high, and her pulse ox is lowering too quickly. She also lost quite a bit of blood from the wound itself."
"Batman, hand me one unit of O Negative blood, and 10 ccs of the anti-venom."
Batman quickly did as he was told, and brought over the necessary equipment. J'onn put an oxygen mask on the girl's face, and injected her with the anti-venom. He put an IV in her arm, and hooked it up to the blood and a unit of saline.
Seeing Batman's look, he said quietly, "She's very dehydrated, and malnourished. Her body was not at its peak to begin with, so that will make it harder for her to combat the venom. She also lost a lot of blood, which will only worsen things. If she can hang on long enough for the anti-venom to completely circuit through her blood stream, she should be fine. The problem is that the first thing the venom does is trigger the nervous system, causing spasms of pain. The body reacts to this by having the adrenal gland secrete massive amounts of adrenaline. The adrenaline causes her heart rate to go up very quickly. Once the venom progresses, it stops the spasms and adrenaline is no longer secreted. Without the adrenaline, the heart rate returns to a normal rhythm and the venom starts to kill by shutting down kidney function. The venom is designed to cause massive amounts of pain, and kill slowly, which is why it does not prolong the initial pain, otherwise the body would run out of adrenaline while the heart still requires it and the heart would not be able to pump. The girl has already been having spasms for the past 15 minutes, and since I just administered the anti-venom, it could take around just that long for it to work completely. I am worried that since the anti-venom reverses the process of the venom, it will not cause kidney failure. This is a good thing, but that also means the time that she was experience spasm will be doubled since the venom cannot progress. In effect, her body will be secreting massive amounts of adrenaline, which will be the only thing keeping her heart pumping. Eventually that will run out, and her heart will stop. I am hoping that the anti-venom will stop the spasms before then, but because she is already weak, her heart is not as strong as it should be."
"What can we do?" Batman asked.
"I'm giving her fluids and blood to replace what she lost. If necessary I can give her artificial adrenaline to keep her heart pumping, but that it only a temporary solution. Right now, all we can do is wait, we should know in around 20 minutes whether it will work or not."
"Fine. I'll go see if anyone else has found anything. Call me if there is any change."
Using at the large computer screen in the main room of the Watchtower, Batman contacted GL.
"Is Copperhead awake?" Batman asked.
"Not yet. He's fine, but he has a pretty bad concussion and won't be conscious for a while." GL answered.
"We need him awake."
"I know, they think he should be awake by tomorrow morning. I have some fibers that were on him though."
"Fine. Head on back here, but make sure the police notify you as you as he's awake. Bring all the evidence back here; I can analyze it better without a bunch of rookie cops looking over my shoulder."
"We're on our way. GL out."
Next, Batman tried to communicate with Superman.
"Have you found anything yet?" he asked.
"Yes and no" responded Superman.
"What does that mean?" Batman snarled. He was already impatient with the lack of progress, he should have gone down with them and look for clues. But he was still wary of the girl, and wanted to be here when she woke up.
"It means that we have not found any trace of Lex but we have found the stolen jewelry."
"How?"
"The police received an anonymous call with the location of jewelry. It was sitting right where the caller said, and nothing is missing or tampered with. We checked it all thoroughly. I don't think we're going to find anything that will lead us to Lex. We already had the police put an APB out for him and all the other Meta villains, but so far nothing."
"No, and you won't get anything. Luther is very careful."
"Wonder Woman and I are going to head back to the Watchtower. I want to see what the girl has to say."
"Fine." Batman disconnected his communicator and leaned back against the chair.
Looking at the security monitors, he saw GL and Flash floating into the Watchtower, courtesy of GL's ring. 10 minutes later Superman and Wonder Woman flew in; using the small oxygen masks Batman had developed for that purpose.
They all congregated in the medical bay, listening with rapt attention as J'onn reported on the girl's condition. Everyone in the med bay was staring at the girl form the corner of the room. They each felt that they had failed her. They were supposed to prevent people from suffering, yet here they had failed. This girl's life might never be the same, and if she died, everyone in that room would feel her blood cascading over her hands, feel her life flicker out before them, feel the pain of her parents, her family, her friends, and embrace it as their own. They would mourn this girl, a girl who they had never known, a girl who's name they didn't even know, because they had failed her, they had been her superhero, she had put her life in their hands, and they had failed her. J'onn's soft voice startles the team members out of their thoughts.
"She is stable. It was, however, very close. Her heart stopped, although I had to administer a massive dose of adrenaline, and perform CPR, which cracked several of her ribs. Normally, the venom would not kill this quickly, but combined with her emaciated state, and blood loss, her body was weakened to start with. She has not eaten or drank anything in approximately 3 days. Therefore, she was extremely dehydrated and had a very low blood sugar level. I administered saline to rehydrate her and glucose, and well as blood, adrenaline, and the anti-venom. The anti-venom started to work around 10 minutes ago, and her heart rate has since returned to normal. Besides the malnutrition, 2 cracked ribs, and bruising she should be fine." J'onn's report did much to relieve all the members present. All say one.
"You said should? And why is she unconscious?" Batman asked. He hated the vague terming of doctors, and although technically J'onn was not one, he sure acted like on sometimes.
"I honestly have no idea why she is not conscious. She should be fully alert and functioning."
"Could she be like…what's the medical term? A few brain cells short of a happy meal? Dead as a doornail? Brain dead?" Flash asked, using his superior tactfulness.
"If you mean in a persistent vegetative state, it did occur to me. It was possible that at some point she went into shock while she was bitten with the venom and stopped breathing long enough to cause brain damage, but I find this to be very unlikely. I did try and enter her mind but was confused by what I found. Even in someone completely brain-dead, with no active thoughts, a person's mind would still have traces of who they were. Traces of what they liked, disliked, favorite color, even if there were no active thoughts. However, when I entered her mind, I found no traces that any mind had ever inhabited this body. There were no traces of any person; it was as if the mind previously occupying it had left, leaving no trace of what had been there before. I do not know of anything that could cause this."