Since a few people have asked, I'm just gonna clarify that this story will be updated about once a week, since the chapters are pretty long.

Thank you to the reviewers of the first chapter - enjoy the next!

Warning: Mild gore and mild swearing.

.: Part 1 - If Everyone Cared :.

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day... when nobody died

-: If Everyone Cared, Nickelback

TWO

"Alright, listen up."

They all lifted their heads to him, and he breathed in deeply before continuing.

"As you're aware, Takron-Galtos was attacked this morning by an unknown party or parties, and the security in the entire single-cell detention area was shut down. All but seven of the prisoners managed to leave the planet."

He closed his eyes and took in another shuddering breath.

Please tell me you weren't stupid.

"The guards were ordered to open fire, and three prisoners were killed; eight recaptured. Five of those eight are now in critical condition in the prison medical bay."

Please be alright.

"The Fatal Five are among the thirty-three that escaped, though we have reason to believe that the Empress was seriously injured on their way out. The others have been spotted in the adjoining sectors, but the Fatal Five seem to have gone much further out of range."

Cham took a step forward with an angrily confused expression on his face. "I don't get it – injured, the Empress couldn't have teleported them anywhere... could she?"

"A ship was waiting for them outside the planet."

That caused a ripple of surprise and alarm through the bridge.

"Do they have any security footage of someone leaving it there?" Vi asked, arms folded across her chest.

He shook his head. "They sent us this recording of the space outside the prison."

He turned to the control panel and pressed a short sequence of buttons. Up on the screen behind him appeared the view of space from the far northern side of the prison planet. Nothing could be seen but the winking stars – until there was a shattering explosion in the lower right corner of the screen. Moments later Tharok soared into view, followed by the other four; the Empress clearly lagging but surrounded in the protective green field of the Eye floating beside her.

A ship suddenly materialized in front of them, and they flew to it without missing a beat. It took only seconds for the small craft to charge its launchers and take off at lightspeed into the distance.

The Legionnaires stared at the screen in shock for a few seconds before he turned off the image and looked back at them.

"As I said, there have been multiple sightings of prisoners from the breakout, and the guards who had been in that division have been sent to deal with them. Our help has been requested all over the place, so we're gonna have to split up."

He quickly assigned the amassed Legionnaires to their small teams; feeling unpleasantly thankful that they had all been in the same place when this had occurred. The others took off quickly in the fighter pods, spinning away to all corners of the surrounding nine sectors.

He looked over the remaining people in the room. Saturn Girl was giving him a wary look, Timber Wolf marching back and forth across the floor, obviously fuming. Phantom Girl was watching him ruefully, visibly holding in her own anger, while Bouncing Boy and the Trips dutifully manned the great ship, working to prepare it to pull out of lightspeed, as he had ordered. Cham was sitting with his knees tucked in to his chest at one of the control desks, while Cosmic Boy leaned against the one beside him with a scowl on his face.

"Lightning Lad," Saturn Girl began to walk towards him. "What are we doing?"

"We're waiting for the Fatal Five to show themselves. They're the only ones who haven't been sighted yet."

Cosmic Boy walked over as well. "Don't you think that with the Empress injured, they'll go someone isolated to recover?"

"Probably. But due to the location of Takron-Galtos, and with a ship that small, they'll have to refuel soon – and as soon as they do we'll be there."

Cos nodded. "Alright. What are we doing until then?"

"We're going to Takron-Galtos. We're going to find out who the hell let all these guys out in the first place."

"Lightning Lad, we'll be arriving in two minutes. I've called ahead and the warden will be there to meet us at the bay."

"Thanks, Bouncy." He turned to the others in the bridge. "I want you all to be prepared for anything. Nobody at the prison has any idea what happened, so the intruders could still be there. They think that someone may have linked in to their mainframe and shut it down from the inside, but so far they've not found any terminals that have been broken into."

"Couldn't they have hacked in from outside?"

Lightning Lad turned to Purple Triplicate with a sour expression on his face. "If they did, we're dealing with one of the most powerful hackers in the galaxy."

White Triplicate sighed. "Great."

--

They stood in what he hoped to be an impressive formation as the ship beamed them down into the landing bay. As promised, the prison warden was there and walked forward to meet them.

He was a middle-aged man with oversized sideburns, clothed in black with red streaks down his chest and arms. A giant stun-bar was strapped to his back, various blasters and cuffs on a belt around his waist. There was a scowl on his face; made to look even crueler by a roping scar that took off most of his left ear and cheek.

He greeted them with an outstretched hand, which Lightning Lad took.

"Lightning Lad."

"Warden Kored. Have you found anything else since your last message?"

The man shook his head as he turned around and beckoned for the Legionnaires to follow him.

"Nothing on the intruder. But since we last spoke my men have managed to retrieve nine of the less dangerous escapees. I have been getting reports that your Legion teams have been arriving, so I'm expecting more to be brought back shortly."

"Good," Lightning Lad nodded. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

"If you're better at handling computers than my men, by all means make your way to the mainframe. Otherwise, you can do little."

Cosmic Boy moved to stand on the other side of the man to Lightning Lad. "Would you mind if we inspected the cells?"

"Feel free."

"I'll be going to the medical center: perhaps one of the prisoners there will know something about who freed them."

Lightning Lad turned to give Saturn Girl an approving nod. "Timber Wolf, you go with her. Triplicate Girl and Phantom Girl, you and I are going to help the guards check the rest of the computer terminals for tampering. Bouncing Boy, Cosmic Boy and Cham, you go check the prison levels for anything suspicious… or useful."

The others nodded and split into their given teams. Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl walked down the corridor appearing immediately on their left as they moved further into the prison planet, Bouncing Boy inflating himself and taking off down the main hallway with Cosmic Boy and Cham flying speedily after.

Lightning Lad glanced back down at the man beside him.

"If you find anything, let us know, and we'll return the favor."

"Understood." The warden nodded and shook Lightning Lad's hand once more.

He then reached down to pull a small metallic sphere from a compartment on his belt. He traced his fingers over the grooves on its surface in a specific pattern, and it immediately projected a technical readout of the planet into the air. He bobbed his head towards it and wordlessly handed the map to Lightning Lad, swiftly procuring four more spheres from the guards coming up behind them and distributing them to the girls.

He turned back to Lightning Lad. "There is one more thing. Your brother."

Garth's stomach tightened.

"He is still here."

The Legionnaire frowned faintly. "He was one of the ones you recaptured?"

"No. He was one of the ones who didn't get out." The warden was staring the younger man right in the eyes with an inscrutable expression on his face. "In fact, he stopped several of the others from escaping. By the time my guards got there, he had knocked five of the other prisoners out and had the sixth cornered."

Lightning Lad's electric blue eyes shot wide open, and he barely registered Phantom Girl's hand falling on his shoulder and the jubilant smile on her face.

"That's… that's great."

You weren't an idiot. I'm… so proud of you.

The warden nodded brusquely, and then he and the guards continued down the hall, leaving the three Legionnaires alone. Lightning Lad looked at Phantom Girl with a rueful smile.

"Well, this should be fun." He reopened the map and pointed at various red and yellow blips scattered around the structure. "Each dot is a terminal. I'm guessing the red ones are the ones that haven't been checked yet."

Phantom Girl activated her own sphere and glanced over it. "Doesn't look that bad. There are only, like, twelve of them."

"The map only shows what's in a hundred foot radius of you."

Her face fell into a scowl. "Oh, perfect."

"Better get going." His grin was still on his face even as he sighed.

The trio began walking forwards to where they could see the first point on their maps. There Lightning Lad came to a halt in front of the terminal etched into the wall and motioned for the girls to continue. Phantom Girl nodded in acknowledgement and linked her arm through Triplicate Girl's, both of them carrying on down the corridor. After a couple of silent minutes, they rounded a corner.

And there it seemed that whatever control had been holding Triplicate Girl together for the hour and a half that had gone by since they had had no choice but to abandon her wedding at the altar decayed into nothing. Without it, her legs gave out and she fell heavily to the floor, pulling a mildly unsurprised Phantom Girl down with her.

"Phantom Girl," she murmured. "It isn't fair. It just isn't fair."

"I know," Phantom Girl mumbled soothingly, falling to her knees and wrapping the other woman in her arms. "It's okay to cry, you know, if you want to."

"I don't need to cry." Triplicate Girl hiccupped in a breath, obviously steeling herself. "I'm not going to cry. I'm not upset!"

Phantom Girl pulled away with one eyebrow raised both disbelievingly and disapprovingly. "Triplicate Girl, if you weren't upset about missing your wedding I'd be seriously worried."

That seemed to do it and, like water rushing through a crumbling dam; the tears began to fall wretchedly down her face, washing away her bridal makeup as the slender young woman buried her forehead in her friend's shoulder.

Phantom Girl held her close, and rocked her like a fragile child as she sobbed.

--

You know the one you don't check will be the one that they used. You have to check every single one. No matter how boring and pointless it is…

He rubbed the back of one gloved hand across his forehead. He was steadily growing more and more frustrated as each terminal he checked turned out to be completely untouched; and there were still dozens to go.

Not including the ones within the areas he had assigned to Phantom Girl and the Triplicates.

He had to stop himself from pestering Cosmic Boy or Saturn Girl again. Saturn Girl had sounded exasperated and Cos just downright snappish the last time he had checked up on them.

No, they had nothing to report. No, they hadn't heard anything from the warden. No, the other Legionnaires hadn't made contact. No, they weren't hungry. Or tired.

He was running out of things to ask them about.

With one final grunt of effort, he slid the protective paneling back over his fourteenth terminal and slumped to the floor with his back against the wall, forearms on his knees.

He wondered how Triplicate Girl was doing. He had already spoken to Bouncy, and the guy was taking the situation pretty calmly. In fact, he had informed his leader, he had been preparing for an incident like this all along.

Though that didn't stop him from being mad, and upset about it.

But Lightning Lad knew weddings were generally bigger deals for women – he didn't need Cos's newfound insight on the subject to figure that out. She had to be distraught. He wished he wasn't such a coward when it came to miserable women, and that he could just call her and talk.

But maybe it would be better to keep quiet on the subject. He could just imagine Saturn Girl's disapproving look – or maybe even stern smack on the arm – as he brought up the subject like an idiot and the young woman burst into tears.

He shuddered. Definitely best to hold his tongue.

Just then the communicator in his ring flickered into life, and he brought his fist to the level of his chest.

"Lightning Lad!"

He frowned down at the image of Invisible Kid – a mixture of shock and panic twisting the younger man's face. "What's wrong?"

"The Fatal Five have been sighted," His deep brown eyes widened further as he leaned in closer to his ring. "They're on Earth."

Lightning Lad felt a strange wrench in his chest, unsure whether it was his heart or his stomach that was twisting so painfully.

He hissed in a breath. "Where are you?"

"Neerin Gamma. That's just the thing, Lightning Lad – we're all ages away! They must have planned this, knowing we'd all go to get the other prisoners and leave Earth unprotected."

Lightning Lad felt like cursing. He had never expected that the Fatal Five would be foolish enough to return to Earth. But the call from Takron-Galtos, coming when they were all on hand, had sent the entire Legion all over the galaxy: all at least an hour away from their home base.

Invisible Kid was right – Earth was completely unprotected.

He was on his feet in seconds and flying back towards the hangar. "Invisible Kid, call all Legionnaires: tell them that as soon as they've recaptured their prisoners and returned them to Takron-Galtos, go help another team. As soon as that's done they're to return immediately to Earth."

"Yessir."

Both men cut off their links and Lightning Lad immediately called all the others on the prison planet, ordering them back to the ship.

It took only minutes for the eight-person team to get their titanic cruiser launched and rocketing through space, headed desperately to protect their home – hoping upon hope that they would not be too late.

My, it's been a long time. But this is still so enjoyable.

She watched as the foundations of the building burned, and slowly, so slowly, the rest of it came crashing down – tumbling in on itself, rubble slamming into the street as a great cloud of dust lifted into the air, choking people as they ran and screamed and cried out for help.

"Don't worry," she told them. "Help is on the way. But they shall be of no use to you."

Her lips spread into a grin and she whipped around; the glowing green Eye following her command and sending a devastating blast into the base of another building. That one, too, crumbled into a pile of metal girders and sheets and debris from the homes that it used to consist of.

She wondered passingly if people had been inside. Well, the more fool them if they had been. As if the terrified shouts and screams from outside had not been warning enough.

Now, there was a skyrail around here somewhere… she glanced around her, smiling still wider as she caught sight of the train sliding across its suspended track.

"Hello," she called. "Didn't they tell you this was a bad time?"

With a single thought, green beams of energy swept out and knocked down three of the braces in succession. The train and the track fell almost in slow motion, thundering to the street hundreds of feet below and causing a great crack to shoot down the street; throwing up chunks of the road and shattering the glass of all the windows in a fifty sequor radius. The ensuing shockwave and explosion almost reached all the way up to her at her high vantage point in the air.

She shrieked angrily and surrounded herself in the protection of the Eye. "Watch where you're exploding!" she hissed.

Seconds later she was smiling again as she noticed one of the curved pillars outside some museum or another melt away under the hand of Mano, the two on either side of it following suit and finally allowing the building to actually fall off balance and crash heavily to the ground in a cloud and explosion of rubble, metal and splintering glass.

Persuader was making his presence known as he stormed down the street, swiping his axe into the road and tearing up pipelines and structure foundations, buildings collapsing in his wake and people screaming and running from him in horror.

It still amazed her how long people could take to get themselves out of the way. I mean, really – can they not take a hint? Or did they just think we would get tired or bored and leave them alone? She laughed.

"Well, long time no see, Empress. I guess you're not as badly hurt as you were pretending to be." There was a high-pitched mechanical whine from behind her. "Let me fix that."

She whirled around in surprise just in time to see the enormous shock of white lightning headed straight in her direction. The blast connected with her stomach and sent her spinning and screaming off in the opposite direction. Her back slammed violently into the metallic face of one of the buildings they had not yet destroyed, and she groaned in pain, glaring up at the young man hovering over her as his cannon reformed back into a hand.

"Ah, Lightning Lad. It is good to see you. You haven't changed much."

"Thanks." He eyed her up and down. "You look like shit."

Her eyes narrowed as she channeled her building anger into useful energy. She watched with satisfaction as the Emerald Eye of Ekron came up behind the Legion's leader, glowing brilliant green as she laughed.

"It's a shame you have to leave me so soon."

Right on cue, the eye fired a devastating blast in his direction, fueled by her long pent-up anger and breathless need for revenge.

But just inches from blowing that pretty little face from the surface of the planet, the green blast was diverted and fanned out around the Legionnaire in swirling waves of power.

"What?!" she shouted in anger, intensifying the beam. She then noticed the faint purple glow around Lightning Lad, and with a furious huff, she allowed the Eye a rest. The purple shield disappeared seconds later, with Cosmic Boy flying up to join his teammate as it did.

Lightning Lad was giving the Eye still floating beside him a somewhat frightened but mostly wary stare. She called it back; enjoying the way his brilliant blue eyes followed it round to her.

"I didn't realize the Fatal Five had become so chummy again," Lightning Lad shouted.

But she saw through that instantly. If he wanted to know why the disbanded team had gotten together again, why didn't he just ask? She would have thought it was obvious anyway.

"Simple – we stand a better chance together. Much like the Legion, I believe."

"You're nothing like us. Don't even go there."

She gazed at Cosmic Boy. "The darker side of the coin, perhaps. No matter: we are what we are – and I am taking you down."

The Eye blasted them without warning, and she watched with satisfaction as both men writhed and shouted in pain as the magical currents of the Eye of Ekron seared through their bodies. She finally relented, and let them fall, smoking, to their end hundreds of feet below.

Of course, she was aware that Legionnaires were far tougher than that to do away with. Despite the fact that they were now falling to their certain deaths, she knew that somehow they were going to survive. And so, with a flick of her wrist, the Eye released another blast. Its force ricocheted through her whole body, and she bathed in the power. The green glow was almost blinding, but she felt no desire to look away.

Even so, when the great blast suddenly changed direction and headed straight back towards her, it took her far longer to react than she had time for. It connected powerfully with her, and she felt everything in her body scream in agony in those few fractions of a second that it took for her to command an end to the attack.

Her vision rippling in and out of focus, she swung an irate glare around her – eyes finally settling on the woman floating mere feet from her with her hands to her temples, lit from behind with the reddish glow of the setting sun and the much more powerful glow of the city lights.

"Saturn Girl!" she hissed.

"Empress," the other replied in a much calmer tone.

Not to be outdone by a child, the Emerald Empress swept cool into her voice and indifference into her posture, despite the pain still rippling through her muscles.

"You certainly have become powerful. Inside my mind. See anything you like?"

She received no answer.

"Very well then. Be rude – I don't care. But I would just like to take the opportunity to tell you that you are far too late to stop us."

Saturn Girl raised one eyebrow and glanced behind and below her. With a slight angry tremor through her stomach, and the rapid clenching of her teeth, even from her great height the Empress could see Persuader and Mano being attacked by the two men she knew she had not gotten rid of, as well as three small white, purple and orange blobs.

Summoning her calm, she grinned and turned to the Titan staring at her.

"So how is she taking the interruption of her wedding? She must be a little ticked off at us, right?"

At perhaps the most inopportune time possible, there was a resounding crash from below, and both hovering women looked down just in time to see Triplicate Girl merging back into one body after having hurled Mano though a solid stecrete wall.

The man in the yellow containment suit lay in a settling pile of dust and debris: and didn't move.

A muscle in the Empress's jaw began to twitch as she turned back to Saturn Girl. The blonde's face was so gently mocking that her control snapped, and the older woman sent an enormous green blast in her direction. But the attack went right through her, and the second that she registered what had happened, the Empress felt the Legionnaire's boot connect viciously with the back of her head.

She was vaguely aware of falling. Wind was whistling in her ears and pulling at her eyes. There was a terrible pounding in her head and she tried desperately to block it out, but lost her struggle against the pain. It was not enough to send her into unconsciousness, but enough to make her wonder if the agony searing through her senses would ever go away.

Soon there were arms around her, but when she saw flashes of pink and white through her failing vision she had to force herself to ignore the instinct to relax into the contact. There was a strange shift in momentum and she figured Saturn Girl must have touched down to the floor. But she couldn't quite summon the motor function to pull herself out of the Legionnaire's arms. The world was still swimming around her as she heard talking.

There was one distinct pounding sound, maybe to her right, and she flickered her eyes open long enough to see the hulking form of Persuader fallen to the ground, most likely dumped by the two men hovering over him. Mano joined him shortly, and she had to stop herself from counting how many of the same woman she was seeing floating above him.

"…okay? H… -rd d- ou …her?"

Shut up! She shouted. It's bad enough watching you fuzz like this without having to listen to you in pieces!

"-tty hard." Saturn Girl spoke for a few more seconds, but the Empress couldn't make out any of her words until; "-ncussed."

Her eyes flashed open. She suddenly remembered everything. She twisted her body to the side and fell roughly out of Saturn Girl's arms. The other woman made no further attempts to help her, backing away from the Empress towards the other three Legionnaires.

It was Cosmic Boy who spoke next as her hearing seemed to return to her.

"You're beaten, Empress. Don't make any more trouble and we won't have to hurt you further."

She felt bile rising in her throat but choked it down. There was a tiny beeping noise and she wondered if her hearing was failing again. But as Lightning Lad raised his fist to the level of his chest and an image projected out of his ring, she dismissed that idea and almost smiled as she realized what the call was for. She recognized the back of the black-haired woman's head in the projection.

"Lightning Lad! Get out here, now. Cham's hurt! Really bad!"

Saturn Girl was staring at her, eyes glowing faintly pink. Took you long enough to decide to do that, she thought snidely. The Titan's eyes flashed wide open and she didn't look at the other Legionnaires as she spoke.

"They were just the distraction!"

"And it seems," the Empress grinned dizzily. "We have done our job."

With one final burst of energy, she called on the Eye and saw it appear in the corner of her vision as the world glowed green, and she and her two teammates vanished from New Metropolis with an impressive flash of light and power.

"Okay, anyone else think this is completely random?"

Timber Wolf nodded silently at Cham as they landed just behind Bouncing Boy and Phantom Girl in the middle of a forest.

"Seriously! There's nothing here!"

Bouncing Boy turned and shushed him. "There's almost nothing here. And if they're planning on ambushing us from these trees, you're giving them a pretty good target."

Cham pouted, but nodded and lowered his voice. "Point taken. Shutting up."

Phantom Girl was looking around them both nervously and impatiently. "Well, if this was the last place they were spotted, where are they now?"

"They must be headed somewhere," Timber Wolf said quietly, sniffing the air. "Because they were here, but they're definitely not anywhere close now."

Bouncing Boy turned to Phantom Girl. "Why don't you go have a look around?"

She nodded, and faded from view. The three men looked about themselves; unsure of which direction they should head in, if any. In the fading light, the forest was positively eerie – the trees sending obscene shadows stretching across the sparse grass beneath the dead leaves and pine needles and creaking ominously all around them, boughs trembling in the slight wind and sending animals chattering and skittering above the Legionnaires' heads to destinations unknown.

"A creepy place for creepy people," Cham asserted, backing closer to Timber Wolf. "Bouncy, what did you say was out here?"

"Not much, but there are a few refineries and factories. Can't think of anything obvious they make that the Fatal Five would want, though."

It was then that they heard a ghostly wailing noise. Cham jumped straight up and back onto Timber Wolf's shoulder in fright as the older man fell into a wary crouch – and Bouncing Boy downright shrieked.

"It's "Night of the Vengeful Spirits, Part 5!" he screamed. "It ends just like this – creepy woods, creepy noises, four friends trapped to face their eternal doom at the hands of the Phantoms of the Night!"

That made Timber Wolf stand up straight, and with an angry growl, he turned around. "Phantom Girl,"

She came back into view just as she could no longer contain her laugher. Her giggles echoed through the forest, over the heads of one very pissed off and two very shocked Legionnaires.

"Sorry! Couldn't resist!"

Bouncing Boy flushed in embarrassment as Cham leapt off of Timber Wolf's shoulders, landing on the floor and brushing himself off imperiously.

Timber Wolf rolled his shoulder blades casually and glared at the smiling woman in front of him, gesturing to their teammates. "Well next time you get the urge to give these two heart attacks – don't."

She inched closer to him with a teasing expression on her face. "Aw, is the widdle puppy getting cwanky?"

"Uh, guys, not to interrupt this... disturbing little exchange," Bouncing Boy said with an inscrutable expression on his face. "But have you forgotten why we're here?"

Phantom Girl sighed and backed away from Timber Wolf. "Sorry Bouncy. I didn't see them, but you might be interested to know that I heard clanking noises coming from three of the factories up there."

"Three?" Bouncing Boy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Those places are supposed to stop production at five in the afternoon." His hand fell back to his side and he frowned. "They must be trying to throw us off."

"Well, it's a nice thought, but they can't lose me," Timber Wolf asserted. He turned to Phantom Girl, folding his arms. "Which direction are the factories in?"

She pointed immediately to her right. "About four hundred sequors thataway."

"They don't have the Empress with them, do they?"

Bouncing Boy glanced over at Cham. "Nope. Why?"

"So they had to have walked. So there should be a nice scent trail for our hound dog here to follow."

Phantom Girl couldn't stop the giggle that escaped from her lips into her palm at the priceless 'I am not amused' expression Timber Wolf was shooting Cham. Bouncing Boy was smiling too, and gave Timber Wolf a sympathetic look.

"Sorry, man, but he's right."

The tallest of them sighed but fell to all fours, sniffing the ground, eyes closing as he sifted through all the scents trailing through the vast forest.

Phantom Girl shivered slightly as she watched him; memories of a disturbingly similar situation creeping into her mind. She appreciated the hand Cham rested on her shoulder, and reached up to give it a thankful squeeze.

Then Timber Wolf was moving – though for stealth's sake he seemed to have been able to restrain a howl this time. He sprinted through the trees at full speed as the other three Legionnaires took off after him. Bouncing Boy inflated a few seconds later, sick of smacking clumsily into the trees, and bounced expertly between them at high enough velocities to keep up with the small orange serea bat using sonar to navigate beside him. Phantom Girl brought up the rear, phasing delicately through all the foliage in her path.

It took the high-speed team less than a minute to arrive outside the walled base containing upwards of fifty factories and other titanic buildings. Phantom Girl phased them all noiselessly through the electrified outer wall and Timber Wolf immediately led them to a factory with '16' emblazoned in English on its side. Great clunking and churning sounds boomed from within, and Timber Wolf pointed and nodded at it. The other Legionnaires returned the motion in acknowledgement, and began to look for a slightly more subtle way in than the twenty foot double doors immediately facing them.

Cham, shifted back to his normal form, suddenly clicked his tongue to get the others' attention and gestured towards a line of grates at the top of the towering wall of the building's side. Timber Wolf made quick work of one of the vent openings, and the four of them were inside the building moments later.

The factory was almost entirely automated, so even without workers, with the machinery turned on there was a vast amount of work being done very smoothly. Its only failing came at the end of the production line doing… whatever it was supposed to be doing, where the finished product – consisting of smallish yellow-green glowing cubes – was just dropping off the end of the conveyers. Presumably there should have been some kind of collection skip there to catch them and transport them to their next destination.

In lieu of the skip, the Legionnaires immediately caught sight of Validus grabbing the cubes in both hands and carrying them over to the small spaceship they had seen the Fatal Five fleeing Takron-Galtos in. The vessel was not very full, but Validus appeared to only be able to carry three or four cubes at a time, despite their small size.

While the other three studied Validus, Cham was looking around the rest of the factory. Soon he turned to the others with a worried look on his face.

"Uh, guys? Where's Tharok?"

"Right here."

Cham didn't have time to react before the cyborg had blasted him off of their vantage point atop one of the machines and onto the floor several sequors below. Cham managed to roll as he landed, softening the impact, but couldn't make himself get up afterwards.

He watched through fuzzy eyes as the other Legionnaires swarmed around Tharok, beating him back almost immediately and getting in several damaging shots. Timber Wolf left five vicious marks across the organic side of the cyborg's face, Bouncing Boy damaging his cannon arm and Phantom Girl kicking him several times hard enough to cause sparks to erupt in the core of his robotic half.

He fought back with furious counterattacks of his own. Bouncing Boy slammed to the ground a few feet from Cham with a dazed expression on his face; his black hair singed and smoking. Up in the air Phantom Girl and Timber Wolf were still sparring angrily with Tharok, and they seemed pretty evenly matched.

Bouncing Boy shuffled over to Cham.

"Hey, hey Cham? Are you alright?"

"Nyuh."

Bouncing Boy smiled faintly. "So, was that a yes or a no?"

"Not sure." Cham pushed himself up on his elbows – or at least he tried. As soon as he lifted his torso from the ground, shooting pains ripped through his ribcage and he slammed back down clumsily. "That would be a 'no'."

"Have you broken something?"

"I think so. Ugh," he moaned, as with the acknowledgment came the realization – and the pain. "Argh! Yep! I'm broken. Go help the others!"

Bouncing Boy looked as though he was just about to answer, when he suddenly turned upon noticing the vast shadow that had fallen across the duo. Validus loomed over them, wearing the same vacant expression he always did. His fists swung down.

Bouncing Boy inflated rapidly, and Validus's hands pounded him completely flat. But the recoil as the Legionnaire snapped back into ball form sent the monster flying back into the opposite wall as Bouncing Boy deflated, groaning.

"Bouncing Boy! Are you okay?!"

Cham got a thumbs up for his efforts.

"I'm fine. Just a little bit, ah… sore. Let's get you into some cover."

With a wrenching crack, Tharok was slammed into the ground a few feet from the two Legionnaires, sliding along the stecrete on his back, followed immediately by Timber Wolf in his larger wolf form. The younger man landed on the cyborg's chest and began swiping ferociously at him. He was sent flying by a direct metal kick to the face.

As the two brawled, Phantom Girl rose out of the floor by Bouncing Boy and touched him lightly on the cheek. "Bouncy?"

"I'm fine, really." He sat up and shook his still-smoking hair. "Just feel a little bit squashed."

She nodded and grinned humorlessly. "Understandable." She looked down at Chameleon Boy, lying on his back with a grimace on his face and trying to ignore the pain. "Cham? We have to get you out of here."

She knew she would hurt him, but even so she put her arm across his back and lifted him to his feet, pretending she didn't notice his wincing and his bravely swallowed cries of pain. Bouncing Boy rose beside them.

Just at that moment Phantom Girl saw a flash of yellow out of the side of her vision. A glowing cube flew at them with the extreme power of Validus's pitch and hit Bouncing Boy in the stomach. He grunted and flew backwards several feet – Phantom Girl didn't have any time to react before several more cubes hit her and Cham.

One smacked into her shoulder and one her hand, and a third, fourth and fifth connected with Cham. The force of the incredibly dense blocks and the momentum they gained from Validus's throws hurled her and the young man in her arms up into the air and into a piece of churning machinery. The pair slipped down the side of the appliance like clothing flung against a wall. She stared in shock at her flight ring as it failed to activate, and saw with horror that it had been damaged by the impact of that last block.

She reached out her free hand for something – anything – to grab on to. After a few terrifying seconds of their vertical slide, her hand caught an upturned lever and she managed to get a good enough grip to halt their fall. The jerk on her arm almost pulled it out of the socket, and she felt tears spring into her eyes at the pain.

It was hard to believe that just two hours ago she had been walking down the aisle, hoping to heaven she wouldn't trip and embarrass herself in front of everybody.

She looked desperately down at Cham for help, but he was completely unconscious and a dead weight in her grasp. She tightened her grip around his crushed ribs and swung them in so that her front was pressed against the warm metal of the machine.

The lever she was holding began to slip down.

"No! No, don't you dare!" she shouted, just before it flipped and she and Cham dropped down a foot.

With the lever facing in the other direction, she felt her hold on it failing. The concrete ground was still many sequors below. She activated her flight ring, feeling it shift uncertainly before they began their plummet to the floor. At the last minute she slammed the device against her thigh, feeling the crunch of mechanics, and the ring sparked. She and Cham stopped their fall inches from the ground, and then the ring gave out. She landed lithely on her feet, but Cham's weight immediately dragged her down to her knees.

She gathered him gently in her arms and glanced him over. The first time she didn't catch it, but the second time she looked the teen over she saw a strange gold color standing out against the orange of the skin on his upper left arm. Immediately on alert, she pulled down his glove to widen the gap between it and the beginning of his sleeve.

Spreading across his arm like a scar was a gold mark: and all around it his flesh was burning, smoking, charring.

She choked back a wave of nausea at the sight of the revolting wound. "Cham!"

She stared down at him for a few more seconds in shock before bringing her flight ring to eye level. It was sparking and obviously unhappy but holding together. She tried to activate it and almost cried in relief when it came on and gave her a projection of Lightning Lad.

"Lightning Lad!" She saw with bitter joy that he had obviously fared better than they had. "Get out here, now. Cham's hurt!" She looked down at the spreading golden scar on his arm and the singing skin. "Really bad!"

She deactivated the ring without waiting for an answer and looked over to where Timber Wolf had Tharok pinned to the ground.

"You're too late," Tharok smirked, despite his fairly extensive injuries and damages. "We already have what we came for."

Phantom Girl's eyes widened and she turned in horror to the open doors – Validus and the ship full of glowing cubes nowhere in sight.

Timber Wolf had followed her gaze, but now looked back at Tharok with red eyes and bared teeth. "You're gonna pay for hurting Cham," he snarled.

"Not today, beastie."

And with a green flash of light, the cyborg disappeared.

Timber Wolf fell forward onto his knees into the suddenly vacated space, shrinking back into his normal form and hurrying over to join Bouncing Boy with Phantom Girl and Cham: the younger man cradled in her arms and her tear-streaked face buried fretfully into his, her shoulders shaking in fear and panicked worry, her lips whispering his name like a prayer.