Chapter Two

Mt. Justice

8:03 P.M

Zatanna woke up in the muscular arms of a certain clone before she was laid gently on the couch in front of the TV. "Hey." Conner said softly when he saw she was awake.

"What happened?" she asked with a groan.

"We were hoping you would tell us." M'gann said as she sat on the arm of the couch.

"I'm not sure." She said as she rubbed her head. Conner tapped the communicator in his ear and spoke into it," She's awake."

"Thank God," Night wing's voice was full of relief," If she can move, we need all of you in the briefing room now."

Conner looked at her and she nodded at him before accepting his help. "How long was I out?" she asked as they walked towards the briefing room.

"A couple of minutes." M'gann answered her." Dick nearly went nuts."

At her words Zatanna felt her cheeks heat up and it didn't help when Conner laughed softly at her reaction. They entered the briefing room to find the rest of the team and the league members in front of a large holoscreen that showed Dr Fate and the Manhunter who were on watchtower. "Zatanna how are you feeling?" Canary asked when she noticed the trio's presence.

"I'm alright, just a slight headache. But I'll be fine." She reassured the group before her. Her eyes fell on Nightwing and she gave him a small smile.

"It seems that whatever happened to you happened to Fate as well. As you were saying Dr." Batman said as he turned towards the holoscreen once more.

"I don't think that this is an assault on the magical beings of the league." Fate said as his eyes wandered to the raven haired magician," It seems that powerful magic was performed nearby and we are feeling the aftershocks. I have pinpointed the sight of this disturbance to an area roughly 50 miles from the cave. It would be wise if you and the team reach there as soon as possible.

"Sending the coordinates now." Manhunter said as he typed on the keyboard at their end.

"Those coordinates match up with reports of an explosion in the area, a big explosion." Nightwing reported as he typed away at his wrist computer.

"Ok team, you'll go to those coordinates and report on your findings, the rest of us will be on standby in case you need assistance. If you do not report back to the cave in ten minutes after your arrival, we will assume that you are in trouble and we will come for you, understood." Batman looked at the youths assembled before him before turning to Zatanna," will you be able to join them?" He asked the magician.

Zatanna still felt a little sore but she thought she could handle one simple recon mission," yeah, I'm good."

"Ok, move out. Mal as usual will be ops manager coordinating comms from the cave. Good luck."

"Wally, you can reach faster if you are on foot, find a vantage point and report on what you see. No matter what do not engage if there are hostiles. You will be designated Gamma" Nightwing told his friend as they headed for the bioship.

"Aye, captain." Wally gave Nightwing a salute before he took off.

"Superboy, wondergirl, wolf, batgirl and beast boy, you are Alpha squad take sphere and head straight for the center of the explosion, if there are hostiles take them out if not then concentrate on the injured." The afore mentioned took off towards sphere and in seconds they were off. "The rest of us will go by bioship, the area of the explosion extends up to the sea, La'gaan and Kaldur you will be Beta concentrate in the water and the surrounding area. The rest of us will be Delta, our objective provide support where needed." They entered the bioship and took their seats as M'gann brought the bioship to life. There was a beep in his ear and Nightwing pressed the small comm. Unit in his ear, "Go Wally."

"There doesn't seem to be hostiles, but there are wounded. The explosion destabilized some buildings with people trapped in them and caused some fires."

"Ok, help the wounded and see what you can do about those fires before Alpha gets there."

"Already on it, Gamma out."

"Alpha, objectives updated, provide support for Gamma and help with those buildings."

"Got it." Conner's voice floated through the earpiece before it went silent.

"5 minutes to Beta drop point." M'gann announced.

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Conner steered sphere to what appeared to be the center of the explosion and jumped to the ground landing with a dull thud. He heard a second dull thud beside him as the kobra-venom enhanced wolf landed at his right. The rest of the team landed beside him and they surveyed the destruction for a second. The area of the explosion was about a 200 meter radius. It had once been a residential apartment block that was partly reduced to rubble and most of the block was crumbling giving the impression that it could topple over at any time. At the side of the block was a store with the front half missing. The explosion extended into the beach where palm trees were on fire and debris littered the white sand. There were bodies everywhere as people, battered, bleeding and bruised ran everywhere.

"Wow." Garfield whispered as he surveyed the destruction before them.

There was a whoosh as kid flash skidded to a halt before them. "It's unbelievable isn't it?" His teammates just nodded before Conner turned to the speedster.

"Did you contact the cave?"

"Yeah, other league members should be here shortly to help with the evacuation. In the meantime, there are a lot of people still stuck in that apartment block and the rescue teams can't get anywhere near it."

"Ok, Cassie, Wolf and I will take care of the apartment block. You, Barbra and Gar will take care of the wounded on the ground." Conner looked at all of them for any objections and on finding none, he, Wolf and Cassie went to the apartment and started with the evacuation of those inside. The rest went to help the injured lying in the street and using sphere to transport them to the E.M.T's.

A few minutes later, the rest of the team arrived o help with M'gann, bumblebee and Robin heading to the apartment to assist Conner and Cassie. After the arrival of Superman, batman, canary, green arrow, Hal Jordan, wonder woman, flash, the hawks, Martian Manhunter and Nabu, the evacuation of the injured went faster than expected. And thanks to a small miracle, there were no fatalities.

As they helped to clear the debris, Conner's super hearing caught something, a small cough and shallow breathing that had been masked by the sound of the sirens and the screams of the injured. Wolf seemed to have heard it as well and the both of them set off towards the sound of the breathing. The sound seemed to be coming from the store and as they got nearer, Conner heard heartbeats, two heartbeats, both coming from underneath a fallen wall. Hooking his fingers under the rock he lifted the wall slowly and carefully and on seeing that the wall was a safe distance from the two bodies lying on the ground, he flicked his wrists and sent the debris flying behind him. The first thing he noticed was that both of them were girls. The second thing he noticed was that they were both in costumes. "Over here!" he bellowed over his shoulder as Wolf let loose a loud howl.

"What's up Conner?" Wally asked as he skidded to a halt next to Wolf and the clone. "Wow," he whispered as his eyes fell on the two girls before him.

"Conner, what is the matter?" Dinah asked as she and the rest of the league came before them, and she joined them staring dumbfounded at the two girls.

Both of them were costumed, but they appeared to be roughly between 15 to 18 years of age. The older of the two had short shoulder-length black hair with purple and blue highlights that fell across the left side of her face. She had a lovely heart-shaped face and full lips that were painted a dark purple. She had a black domino mask across her face. Her costume consisted of a black overcoat over a white shirt/blouse with a bowtie tied around her neck. She had on a short black skirt that ended a few inches above her knees and black fishnets and on her feet she wore black combat boots.

The other girl had long strawberry blonde hair that was spread out around her. Her eyes were hidden behind what looked like hi-tech wraparound sunglasses. Her costume was identical to Artemis', the difference being in the blue and black color scheme of the former and the arrow head on her chest was flanked by diagonal lightning bolts.

Both of them also had various injuries and multiple cuts all over their bodies and their costumes were ripped and coated with dust. "So what do we do with them?" Nightwing asked his former mentor.

Batman studied the girls for another second before he spoke, "take them to the cave for now, just in case they are connected to this explosion we will need answers. Aside from that the similarities between their costumes and Zatanna and Artemis' costumes warrants further investigation into their identities."

Conner and Wondergirl took the two girls carefully in their arms and carried them into the bioship. As Conner climbed into sphere for the trip back, he felt something at the back of his mind. Something familiar, like somebody was trying to reach out to him. "Con, are we going or what?" Gar asked as he fidgeted in the back seat.

"Yeah." Superboy said before he revved the supercycle and angled it towards the sky.

"Conner are you alright?" Barbara asked the clone noticing his thoughtful expression.

"I'm fine." Conner said as he thought back to that feeling," I'm just fine." The boy of steel said as they all headed to the cave.

At the edge of the water, the waves of the ocean broke over an invisible force lying on the beach. The girl sputtered as she tried to spit out the sea water before she levitated and followed the departing heroes to their base.