Chapter 3: 12 Hours of Radio Blackout
Hey, sorry for the super late update! I've been caught up in school stuff, yeah…
Good news: Heart's Desire are starting to feature. Bad news: I've been really tired these days, so I'm not sure if I've been writing these right. Well, you'll see.
Mailbox:
Awsomaniatic: Your predictions are fairly accurate, but the 'hows' of these 'attacks' is what's gonna be not so predictable…
Veritas1995: Oh really? Great! Fits the story!
Since I haven't updated this in ages, I shall put a summary of the two other chapters:
Artemis and M'gann are both in comatose after an attack on Artemis' House, due to being poisoned by an unknown toxin. Batgirl is investigating into who the attacker/s are, while Bumblebee and Aqualad are finding out more about the toxin. Still, things are getting more confusing after Beast Boy and Superboy got attacked… in their civvies!
What is going on?
Okay, here it goes!
"Artemis, you up yet?"
When her eyes shot open, Artemis found herself staring at the familiar grey of the ceiling. Tiredly, yet eagerly, she forced herself upright, gasping in relief. Her hands were still clinging on the covers, trembling.
She didn't sleep well. The nightmares she had – they had been really vivid. Shaking still, she pushed to covers back further, going on her knees as she twisted herself to face the window behind bed head. Drawing up the blinds, she peered through the glass. Even in daylight, Gotham had decrepit, dusty feel to it, with rubbish stashed in corners, cracks along the walls, and people staggering through the streets in grim silence.
Just her kind of town.
A smile came to her lips. Stanford was great, of course, but she had always felt it was too busy being ... well, classy; full of intellectual debates, and lofty idealism, and abstract notions. But Gotham? Gotham was real.
"Well, someone's finally awake."
Turning back, Artemis' eye fell all the tall her, muscular brunette standing at the doorway of the bedroom, arms folded.
Artemis' eyes widened with recognition. "Jade?"
"The one and only," the girl smirked.
Scurrying off her bed, Artemis found her scooting over enthusiastically – perhaps a little too much, - before enfolding Jade in crushing embrace.
"It's so good to see you!"
"Yeah, you too, heh," said Jade, with a mixture amusement and discomfort. Still, she did give Artemis a little pat on the back.
Suddenly, a sense of uneasiness crept up Artemis, and rapidly she unlatched herself from Jade. "Err..., sorry," she mumbled awkwardly. The odd feeling didn't go away still, and the deeper Artemis stared into her sister's eyes, the more she felt that horrid queasiness in her gut.
Jade's eye hardened. "Is there's something wrong?"
"It's...nothing."
"Artemis," Jade's expression was all seriousness, "I'm your sister. If there's something wrong, you can't hide it from me."
Wringing her arm in uncertainty, the blonde girl turned away for a moment. "What are you doing here anyways?"
"Same as you. Mum asked me to visit, though she didn't ask for a sleepover, like you did. She does miss having her girls around," Jade replied, carelessly jumping back onto her old bed. Still, the look she cast at her sister was anything but. "Artemis, you know you can tell me anything."
Heaving a sigh, Artemis dropped down back on her own bed, crossing her legs. Lifiting her head, grey eyes met black. For some reason, at the back of her head, Artemis felt that she had a need to wary around her, yet logical part of her knew that she could trust this person entirely.
They were sisters, after all.
"I had this awful dream. It's all a blur now of course, but I remember some bits. There were fights, and betrayal, and failure, and most of the time I felt so afraid, angry and overwhelmed by everything."
Jade's face scrunched up into a frown. "Uh-huh."
"I can't exactly remember what really happened, and I think we sort of won-"
"We?" Jade interrupted.
"The Team," Artemis explained.
"Oh, of course, it couldn't have me in it," Jade huffed ungraciously, but the way she leaned forward made it clear she was all ears.
"-but winning came at a price. I-I think I lost someone." She had to stop here because she couldn't remember exactly what it else was in the dream, ….or
maybe it was that lump at the back of her throat.
There was silence as both sisters just sat, staring at each other. Then a wicked expression crossed Jade's face. Drawing herself upright and crossing her legs, stretching her arms to knees then closing her eyes, she intoned in a deep, wise-sounding voice, "Maybe if you look deep into your soul-"
"You're going to mock me aren't you?" interrupted Artemis, suspicion creeping on her face.
"-you'll find that your dreams are telling you a greater truth about yourself and the world, one that you have not come to terms with,- "
"Great, I knew it." Resignedly, the blonde girl buried her face in her arms, but she couldn't help smiling. Just like Jade to poke-fun at everything she did.
"Not my fault you seriously over-think all this."
"Fine, fine!" Artemis answered crossly, unfolding herself to wave her sister away. Honestly though, she could the discomfort in her subsided a little, replaced instead by an emerging chuckle somewhere inside her.
"Look, you've just had a really bad dream. It happens. Take a few breaths of musty Gotham air and you'll get your head straight. If it doesn't work out, well,"- Jade shrugged her shoulders, " you can always kill yourself."
"Thank you, great master, for your unearthly wisdom." Artemis gave a sardonic grin. "I feel so much better." Though her words were laced sarcasm, she was surprised at how true that was. She did feel much better. It was good to sitting around with Jade again.
"That's what I do," the brunette girl shot back, grinning herself. "Now get yourself cleaned up. Mum wants you out ASAP."
"Bossing me around, just like old times," muttered the blonde disparagingly, as she slid herself off the bed. "Lovely."
"Totally," said her sister in a flippant manner, as she spun around, heading to the door. Just as she was about to close the door, Artemis called out, " Hey, Jade."
Popping her head, Jade asked, "Yeah?"
"Thanks for listening."
"No prob. After all, what kind of sister would I be if I wasn't always there for you?"
Watchtower
13 July, 07:30 EST
In a remote control room, somewhere within the Watchtower…
A small computer screen lit up, blinking. Words, typed in red capital letters, flashed on the screen, over and over.
Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:30 min…Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:29 min…Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:28 min…
At the Central Computer Interface
"…delegates from all nations are all arriving for this phenomenal event. Oh! Noor Harjavti, daughter of the late Rumaan Harjavti of Qurac, is now emerging from a car. Ms Harjavti is quite well known for her involvement…"
"Looks like there's a party waiting already," Captain Marvel noted, pointing at the holographic window for GBS news channel. Cat Grant was on screen, as usual, reporting about the details of the conference, as throngs of reporters were seen entering the U.N. building behind her. "Seems like every new station in the world's go'nna be in there - hey, look! WHIZ Radio's there too! Awesome!"
Leaning over to get a closer glimpse for himself, Captain Atom made a huff of annoyance. "Perfect."
Black Canary didn't say anything, only folding her arms. She, and a few other prominent members of the Justice League, was getting ready for the big conference at U.N. this afternoon, chaired by Lex Luthor of all people. Superman had requested to be excused, which Black Canary forbade, and Batman just excused himself on the premise that 'Gotham needed him', which Black Canary wished she could forbid.
Her brow furrowed. The Justice League didn't have time for this conference; there were other matters that had to tackled; the Warworld that the other members had seen in Rimbor, for one; then there was the Light, at those who remained on Earth.
Then there were the racial wars on Mars. J'onn sounded genuinely concerned about the whole event. From what he had learnt from B'arzz O'oomm – that is the ex-Green Beetle, it started small, but it not tackled immediately, it was going to blow out of proportion. She wondered how M'gann had been reacting to it – not that that matter right now.
Speaking of which –
"How are they?" She directed that question to the African-American boy heading the Mission Control. He was just Mal Duncan today; true, Guardian's persona allowed him to get in the action, which she didn't doubt he preferred, but when the Team needed technical support, Mal would be there to provide it.
"Physically? They're swell. Dr. Cross just managed to work out that M'gann's didn't revert back to her natural form was simply because her mental hold of over is still strong – that's good 'cause it means that it isn't a side effect of the 'toxin', and her mental sides' likely to be functioning fine too. Huh, well actually there isn't any proof of that…"
"But we will hope for the best," Canary told him, her voice firm and kind. "The girls are strong. They'll pull through."
"Wonder Woman to Black Canary." Diana's voice came through her communicator, " I believe it is time."
"Got it." She turned to the two others. "It's time."
No one said, but all of them knew how important the conference was. Considering the building mistrust of the people for the Justice League, this was the moment that everything they did and said was going to straighten the crinkles – or tear all of it apart.
"Good luck, for all our sake," Mal wished them with all sincerity.
With a parting nod, Black Canary led the others to the Zeta Tube. Punching in the coordinates, anticipation didn't even begin to describe what she felt.
Palo Alto
13 July, 05:12 PDT
Puzzles are said to have psychological benefits by giving those who solve it a tremendous sense of achievement, and hence satisfaction, which is what makes them so magnificently popular in games.
However, there was always a catch; if you couldn't solve the puzzle, then you hit the dead-end; it becomes the continuous plague of your life until you throw your hands up in disgust before finally giving up and walking away.
That's exactly how Batgirl felt like doing right now; the dried wine, the debris, the explosion – none of it was fitting together. She considered herself a pretty good riddle solver, but even she had she couldn't make any sense of it.
In addition, Garfield suddenly hanging up on her gave her a great sense of uneasiness. Still, since the cops would come inside the building soon, reconnaissance on the attack site was at the priority, as Aqualad had told when she informed him of this.
So here she was; standing in ash and rubble, with a Bat-scanner in hand, agonizingly piecing together the events that occurred. So far all she had learnt just confirmed what she already knew; the infection came from the wine. Dr. Cross' checks had confirmed that Artemis had just recently taken alcohol before getting knockout –presumably by the toxin. And that glass shard in M'gann's hand? It had stains of alcohol on it.
But then, there were scraps of metal that were sitting at her feet. The explosion, the fire…and that's where it stopped adding up.
Then, if the toxin was meant to drug her and the explosion meant to kill her, then why Artemis hasn't woken up yet? Obviously, this meant that toxin was no ordinary sleeping pill, as proven by Karen's study on it and considering how it didn't turn up on League database.
Okay, so toxin was chosen with a specific purpose, which is possibly to put it victims in perpetual slumber – who could say. Then, why the explosion at all? Or as Kaldur put it,'Why not kill her directly instead?'
It wasn't that she enjoyed brooding over morbid thoughts, but Batman taught to always consider the other perspective.
The problem was, try as she might, she still couldn't see the bigger picture.
"Batgirl to Team," she spoke through the communicator on her ear. "Recon complete, but nothing conclusive. I'm going to check on Garfield."
There was a pause, then she heard Mal's voice, "Alright, but call if you need the assist."
"Got it." Within seconds, she was swinging agile out of the shattered glass window, making a double somersault in the air before dropping gracefully onto the floor.
Scurrying her way to the bush where she hid Bat-bike, Batgirl contemplated over Mal's words. After all, all her pondering hasn't gotten her anywhere. She needed someone to bring in 'the other perspective'.
The first name she thought of was Robin. But then, Kaldur had been adamant that the younger members were spared today, at least. Lord knows they needed it after the whole the Reach Invasion ate up their lives.
She bit her lip. Today was meant to break for the whole Team. She did have plans to go shopping with her roommate today, and then visit her dad for dinner. Looks like that wasn't going to happen after all, but still… that didn't mean she had to ruin Tim's plans; he had been rather nervo - ahem, excited about it.
Sighing, she considered her other options. Batman was occupied, that she knew for sure. After leaving Earth for sometime for Trials on Rimbor, gang-wars had been escalating exponentially, and with Tim and herself caught up with the Reach, there hasn't been anyone to clean it up yet.
That left one member of Bat-clan left. She narrowed her eyes. He was't going to like it, but then, she wasn't going to give him that choice. The team needed him, so he'd be extremely sorry if he didn't pick up…
The Watchtower,
7:35 EST
Training Room
He swung a punch at the droid. Again. And again.
Finally, the metal joints gave way and even against the current, it went zooming till it crashed into the wall.
"Lagoon Boy, -7". He saw the red holographic scoreboard popping up in front of him, listing the dozens of errors he had made during the combat session, mostly to do with him using lethal force. He tried waving them away, not that it worked. So instead he kicked the remaining droid parts as hard he could, sending it flying to the wall too.
He was still gasping heavily, so tried to take a deep breath through his gills instead. That was troubling – he didn't usually gasp that much when he was underwater, in matter of fact that was something he did on surface. Maybe it was the water. Even at 3.5% salinity, he could still feel the difference. And the pressure was too low. The training room, even with its state of the art technology, couldn't replicate the feeling of the ocean.
Aqualad had agreed that he would with train him in underwater combat at the watchtower today. L'gann was proud, but he wasn't pompous enough to believe him fighting abilities were fantastic. Besides, he was keen to speak to Kaldur again – the real Aqualad, not the traitor that he had believed to him to be for so long.
Then, that matter of Artemis and M'gann came up.
M'gann…
He knew they broke up already, but that didn't mean that he didn't still care for her. He hated seeing her like that – lying comatose on the infirmary bed with that smile. She didn't deserved this. Maybe she felt guilty that she only dated him because he made her feel good, but then, didn't she consider that he dated her because she made him feel good too?
With M'gann, he didn't feel like some gross, green monster from underwater hell. Neptune's Beard, even in Atlantis, people scorned his appearance, calling him the 'impure'. M'gann understood that; she faced those problems before.
He sank himself to floor of the training room. Not that it mattered anymore; soon M'gann would be back with her perfect-looking, muscular, eye-candy of a Superboy. L'gann's webbed hands balled into fists, and then he sighed, relaxing his arms.
He couldn't blame her. What was he in comparison? An ugly, green amphibious fish-boy with subpar magical abilities. An ordinary Atlantean boy, with no meta abilities to offer.
No, even Aqualad was ordinary by Atlantean standards, but somehow he rose above that. He wasn't a great sorcerer, but somehow there was something about him that made him such a strong leader, such a hero, just by virtue of being himself.
And what would Lagoon Boy be? A leader? A hero?
No.
He was just a fish of out of water.
Being so absorbed in his thoughts, he didn't notice when it started, but eventually it became apparent enough that his gasping was not subsiding. He allowed himself to taste the water. It seemed fine, but if it was, why was his body reacting this way?
L'gann grimaced. He was no genius, but he knew when he should take his leave.
Swimming towards the door of the training room, he hit the button for opening the catch. It didn't open though, so hit again.
And again.
And again.
Dizziness was setting in, and an odd queasiness was setting in. Breathing, even in water, felt difficult. Slamming against the open button one last time, he swam over to a glass panel with label with 'emergency' over it. He cursed himself for forgetting to bring his communicator in, though he knew it was directly against Aqualad's orders. Still, perhaps it changed nothing.
Punching as hard as he could, it took three blows with the glass cracked. He could feel his entire body going numb now, and it took all his concentration and willpower just to push that red button.
Less than second later, he was drifting, unconscious, in 3.5% salinity and 0.5% of something else.
Mission Control
Mal continued watching the broadcast, his back hunched and his expression grim.
Abruptly, a voice buzzed in his ear. "Mal? Are you there"
"What's up, Kaldur?"
Kaldur started to explain, "I had contacted Superboy some time ago, but he has yet to arrive-"
"I'm on it," Mal cut in, hurriedly running a check on surveillance. He didn't really mean to cut Aqualad off like that – not that he didn't know exactly what to do - but perhaps, in all honesty, he had yet to accustom himself with 'Kaldur, Artemis' murderer' as really being 'Aqualad, the friend'. Nightwing's deception had been good; yes, too good.
Tapping his foot impatiently as the little screens appeared around, loading some of the surveillances footage they had Ivy Town. One of them stood out, since its colour scheme consist of lots of orange, red, and grey.
Mal's jaw dropped in horror. "Aqualad! Superboy's been attacked. The gym where the Zeta-tube is hidden in-"
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched squeal in his earpiece, followed by a massive wave of radio feedback, then silence.
"Aqualad, you readin' me? Aqualad? Kal?"
The line was dead. Damn.
Yanking the communicator off his ear, Mal gestured at the screen, hoping that he could use the computer interface communicator instead, but for some reason it wasn't loading.
"Aw, c'mon!" He yelled, shaking his fist at the holographic screens, half wishing it was a good old desktop just so he could punch it. Not that would help Superboy right now.
Cursing vehemently under his breath, he ran as quickly as he could, straight to the Zeta-tube. Punching in the coordinates, he wished that he had worn the Guardian armor to work instead.
Just at the moment the tubes started scrambling his molecules, a new emergency alert appeared on the Mission Control from one of the training rooms.
No one heard it though, since there was only one person in the Watchtower now.
In a remote room, somewhere within the Watchtower…
The small computer was still blinking. New red words had replaced the old ones.
Radio Blackout for all B-communicators initiation successful. Countdown: 12:00
"Wait. Let me get this straight. You took all this time to prepare this, told me some crap about 'missing my girls', just to throw a surprise party?"
"Artemis, I think this was actually the part you were supposed to thank your mother."
"Well, I do miss my girls, and it is my daughter's 20th birthday! So, sue me if I want to celebrate it!"
"Roy, could you please change Lian's diaper?"
"Why?"
"Because I've been doing it for the last four hours. It's your turn"
"Grrr…"
"What was that?"
"…Nothing."
"I suggest that you do as she says, son. The women of this house are dangerous."
"Dad!"
"What?"
"Lawrence, pass the matches please."
"C'mon, sing the stupid song already! If not, I'm going to start eating the cake."
"Hey! My cake, my rules!"
"And I thought little Miss Snotty Stanford didn't want a birthday party."
"Can you children try not to distract me?" called out Mrs. Crock, with a mixture irritability and jollity. She was standing over the cake, trying to block out the wind as she lit the candles.
"Mum, let me do it," Artemis said, reaching out to take the matchbox, but Mrs. Crock shook her away.
"I lit your cake went you were 10, so I'm go'nna do light it when you're 20, now if you don't mind…" – leaning over, she carefully brought the matchstick to over the 20 green candles, green since it was Artemis' favourite colour, until 20 small balls of flame were dancing over the green cake.
"Roy's back." Jade mentioned as the red-head man re-entered the dining room.
"Great. Now we can start singing."
The song was hideously out of tune, especially when her dad and Jade started competing about who could sing it at a higher pitch (Jade won of course, by virtue of being female), and Roy's attempt were half-hearted, since he was trying to feed Lian and she was trying not to be fed. Artemis gave a little chortle. Oh, it was wonderful to watch the bad-ass 'Red Arrow' reduced to the frustrated father.
Her mother was the only who doing it properly, clapping her hands to the beat as she sang. She wasn't certain why, but Artemis found it rather strange to be looking up to her mother. She supposed she never noticed how tall her mother was before.
The ear torture was finally over, dissolving into claps and cheers.
"Okay, now can we eat the cake?" Jade groaned dramatically, reaching out for the knife.
Her mother slapped her hand away. "Jade! Wishes first, then blowing of candles, then the cutting of cake."
"Mum, it's just cake, don't need to be so dogmatic about it."
"I am not dogmatic!"
"Ignore the old hens," her father told her. Giving her wink, he said, "Make wish, baby girl."
She knew this was a silly little ceremony, but Artemis closed her eyes anyway. Almost immediately, she made her wish. She knew exactly what she wanted after all.
Opening her eyes, she sucked in a breath. However, before she could release it, a sudden gush of wind swept over the table, blowing out all the candles in one go.
"…And there goes all my effort," her mum remarked disapprovingly.
"Oh, no." That's all her father muttered, as his fingers went to his temple.
Jade just rolled her eyes, and Roy sighed, re-adjusting Lian on his arm.
Artemis just grinned.
She heard a familiar voice behind her. "Oooh, what's the cake flavour? Can I have slice? Please! Running on fumes here."
Giving a mirthful chortle, she swung herself around, facing the party-crasher.
"Hello, Wally."
Hoped you like the first Heart Desire! Yeah, I supposed the whole 'attack on the Team' thing is dragging quite some bit, but that's coz I have such wonderful plans for it! Or I tell myself I do.
What is 'Tim's plan'? And who is Batgirl gonna calling? Well, it'll soon be seen.
I'll try to update soon, but don't count on it. There's a lot of work coming my way. But don't worry. This isn't a story that I'll quit.
After all, what's more fun that plotting how to take down all your favorite characters?
Review if you like it, Critique if you don't.