AN: This is a thing.
DISCLAIMERATIONER: WATCH THE SHOW
|MOUNT JUSTICE
|March 23, 20:38 EDT
'We need to talk. IDK what's been going on with you l8ly but I want to help. Let's meet for lunch tomorrow?
-O"
I tossed the phone Dinah had given me into my locker with the rest of my civilian clothes and slammed it closed. I pulled up the hood of my suit and walked back up to the main floor of the Cave where I had set up the training dummy I had brought with me from the Arrow Cave.
Taking a breath, I slammed fist into the training dummy. I struck the wooden posts that served as arms, dodged as they spun, jump kicked them and then dodged again. White hot anger boiled inside of me as I struck the doll. With each vicious strike I pushed myself a little more, and with each strike the fire inside of me grew. I punched. I jabbed. I kicked. I kneed. I elbowed. Every hit making me think of someone else. I tried to force the images from my mind, but every time I saw another face. Oliver. Roy. Grant. Rose. Slade. Father. Each one made my rage grow stronger. As my fists struck the wood, I could hear Grant in my head. All of his comments as I trained.
"Sloppy!"
"Too slow!"
"Are you dancing or fighting?"
"You'd be dead if this was a real fight!"
The words were so ingrained in me that i couldnt tell if they were memories or my own thoughts. Finally, I lept into the air, spun around and kicked the head completely off the wooden post. The wooden carving skittered across the floor. I stood there for a moment, glaring at the broken dummy and dripping sweat, though not even out of breath.
Behind me I heard someone clapping slowly. I turned to see Nightwing walk up behind me. "Not bad," he commented.
I turned away. "I'm still too slow."
Nightwing frowned, "I thought you did very well."
"Shows what you know," I snapped.
His eyebrows came together. "Maybe you need a real opponent."
I locked gazes with him for a moment. "Fine."
He dropped into a ready position. I did the same. Suddenly the floor lit up. A hologram appeared next to him. "NIGHTWING VS SPEEDY," it read.
"Ready?" He asked.
My answer was charging him. I lept into the air and kicked his head. He caught my foot before I could make contact. Before I had even hit the ground, I followed up with a forward punch. Again he caught my attack before I could hit him. Still within his grip, I shoved my knee into his chest. He dropped me and stumbled back gasping for air. Before he had recovered, I aimed a roundhouse kick at his exposed side. Unfortunately, he regained his composure quickly and caught my leg again. This time, he held on tight and threw me to the ground before I could counter attack. The hologram board appeared above my face. "SPEEDY: FAIL."
"So what are you so upset about, Speedy?" He asked.
I got up and ran right in, wailing on him. He just held up his guard. He either blocked or deflected all of my punches, though I was pressing him back. That is, until he took a step into my stance and shoved his shoulder into my chest. I was knocked flat on my butt by the force of his whole body.
"Talk to me, Tommy," he pressed, "what's on your mind?"
"You talk too much," I complained. I punched him in the thigh before pinching him in the face.
"Is this about Roy Harper coming back?" He suggested. He hit me with a hard right cross to the shoulder.
I grit my teeth at him. "Shut up." I punched at his shoulder, but he just turned and grabbed my wrist. With a quick movement he pinned my arm behind my back and knocked me to the ground. Again, the holoboard appeared in front of me, "SPEEDY: FAIL."
"Why are you training here, Tommy?" He asked. "Shouldn't you be training with Oliver?"
I glared at him, "Why? I'm not his son. I'm barely his partner."
He got off of me and held out his hand to help me up, "Something happen between you two?"
I ignored his hand, threw myself to my feet and punched at him again. "Why do you care?"
He dodged and punched at my stomach. "For one, you're a member of my Team, and I can't have you distracted," he said. I defected his punch, but he anticipated my move and kneed me in the stomach instead. Twice. I growled to myself and struck at his chest. He caught my fist. "And for two, you're my friend, and I'm concerned about you."
"I don't have any friends," I hissed.
I went to punch him in the chin with all that I had. He saw it coming and used my momentum to throw me over his shoulder. I landed hard on the ground with a solid THUD. "SPEEDY: FAIL."
"You know that's not true," he insisted. "Whether you like it or not."
"Shut up," I barked.
I threw myself to my feet again. "Why should I want any friends? It didn't work out too well for me last time."
Stepping forward I jumped and slammed my knee into his shoulder. He rolled backward, kicking me in the gut as he did. The force of his kick sent me across the floor, but I refused to go down.
"You think we're going to betray you, like your old team? Is that it?" Nightwing asked.
I ran forward and punched him in the chest three times. "No," I muttered, uncertain even as I said it.
"You don't?" He pressed. He blocked a kick I aimed at his leg thenough spun me around.
"I don't know!" I shouted. I spun back around, dropping down and taking his legs out from under him. He landed on his hands and sprang backwards.
"Tommy, we're your friends, we're not going to turn against you," hex said, walking toward me. I punched at him, but again he caught my fist. This time, instead of countering, he just placed his hand on my shoulder. "You're safe here."
I shoved him away, "Listen, I know what your trying to do, but I don't need your pitty."
Nightwing sighed, "It's not pitty, Tommy. It's called trust."
I sneered. "Trust gets people killed. In the end, you can only rely on yourself."
His expression softened. "You know-"
"RECOGNIZED: BLUE BEETLE, B-22; IMPULSE, B-24," the computer cut him off.
Impulse came running out of the Zeta-tube with a young man in black and blue armor. "Ha ha, left them in the dust!" Impulse laughed, holding up what looked to be a large alien cell phone.
"Left who in the dust?" Nightwing asked, walking up to them. "And what is that?"
Impulse grinned. "Souvenir!" He proclaimed.
"Souvenirs are Best Boy's thing, Esse," Blue Beetle told him.
"Oh really? I thought it was Kid Flash-" Impulse said.
"Where'd you get it?" I asked, cutting him off.
Impulse frowned at me but Nightwing nodded, "Yes, please can we get to it?"
"Sorry," Blue apologized. "Aqualad attacked us along with Icicle Jr., the Terror Twins and three ninjas I didn't recognize."
"Ninjas?" I muttered. "What did they look like?"
"There was a woman, a man and a young girl about our age. They were all wearing orange and black suits," Blue explained. "And they had a lot of experience."
I frowned. Grant and Rose? It was possible, but who was this woman? I tried to tell myself that I was just thinking nonsense.
Impulse held up the device, "this is how they tracked Blue. I made sure they couldn't do it again."
"So you brought foreign, possibly alien, tech into the Cave?" Nightwing accused.
"Amateur," I sighed.
Nightwing sighed, "Alright, give it here." Taking the device from Impulse he began to inspect it.
"I don't like the look of that thing," I muttered anxiously.
"Let's see what we're dealing with here," Nightwing said. We all followed him over to the hologrid where he pulled up the holoboardand scanned the device. Images and information flashed on the screen. "Well, it's definitely alien." Nightwing announced.
"Way to go..." I grumbled.
Impulse cringed. "Don't belittle them, they're still new at this," Nightwing told me.
"For the record, I don't think it's a good idea to-" I was cut off as an alarm started to blare.
"Uh, I'm an idiot!" Nightwing said. He grabbed his escrima sticks off of his belt and turned around just in time to be slammed with Superboy's body, knocking him back.
We all turned to see a tall well built man with a white tank top and red suspenders holding up a pair lf black pants smkrking at us. I wasn't sure, but I thought he was Tommy Terror, a super strong criminal. Above us, a young man who appeared to me made of ice stood on the balcony to the third floor. He held out his hands and shot a blast at the ground freezing it solid. Blue Beetle sprouted wings and flew upwards while Impulse simply ran up the wall and tackled him. To my right, a woman, looking like pretty much the exact image of what the big lunk head that through Superboy's at Nightwing would look like as a girl, entered carrying Beast Boy on her shoulder. With the sight of her, I was basically all but sure that they were the Terror Twins. Impulse came running down from the balcony and tried to tackle her as well, but he only managed to bounce right off of her and prove my theory. He bounced straight into the grasp of Tommy Terror. Impulse tried to punch him at super speed, though it looked like it hurt him more than Tommy.
"Ah, my hands!" He complained, "What are you made of?"
"Snips and snails and puppy dog tails," Tommy smirked. He hooked something around Impulse's neck. I recognized it as a control collar, along with having three ability to deliver shocks directly to the nervous system, they had the added benefit of being able to he retrofitted to neutralize any super-powered individual. Basically meaning, Impulse's speed was gone. I move to go help him, but behind me I heard an all too familiar voice.
"Speedy," a distinctly feminine voice called out.
My whole body involuntarily clenched. I turned to see her. She looked exactly like the last time I saw her, only this time her mask was up. Even with it covering the upper half of her head, I could still picture her eyes as if she weren't wearing it. Instantly everything around me melted. I charged her. A small smirk showed on her lips, but it quicklyfaded away when my boot collided with her cheek.
She stumbled back and looked up at me a bit shocked. "Tommy..." she whispered, "It's me, Rose."
"I know," I snarled.
Letting out an unconscious war cry, I charged her. Ducking low below her guard, as I knew she'd block high, I grabbed her around the waist and picked her up. I ran all the way into the hall that lead to the kitchen before slamming her against the wall. She gasped as all of the air left her lungs. I squeezed her chest tightly, like a hug of rage, so that she couldn't breathe.
"Tommy!" She gasped.
I slammed her against the wall again. Her head rolled back and hard against the cement of the hallway. She wove hands together and brought them down on my head repeatedly. I refused to loosen my hold on her. After a moment, she thrust her knee into my gut. I dropped her and stumbled back as we both struggled to breathe.
"Tommy, I need to talk to you..." she said between gasps.
"Whatever it is," I snapped, "tell it to my father."
I roared in rage, leaping at her. She quickly fell back, caught my hands, placed her foot on my chest, and kicked me all of the way into the kitchen. I crashed into the oven with enough force to break the glass window. She came running in after me with her hand over her mouth.
"Oh, crap. Sorry, it was just a reflex," she told me. "Look, Tommy, I just want to explain some things to you-"
"Yeah, that's why you ambushed me," I spat. "Or why you tasered me and sent me off to be experimented on by aliens!"
I lunged forward her. I grabbed her by the front of her Kevlar vest and pulled her to me, striking my forehead hard against hers. While she was disoriented, I grabbed the back of her neck and pounded her head into the granite of the counter, cracking it.
When she pulled her head up her nose was crooked and dripping blood. I tried to shove her head into the counter again, but she twisted her body and pinned me against the counter.
"Listen-"
I cut her off by striking her side with my knee. She grabbed the water faucet, which came off with a hose attached to it, and banged it against my temple. She then proceeded to wrap the hose around my neck and pull it taught.
"Hey, jerk, I'm trying to explain, here!" She shouted.
I ripped the hose from around my neck and kicked her the abdomen, sending her stumbling back. She righted herself and stared me down. She gripped her brokename nose, and with a sickening CRACK straightened it out.
"You're starting to pissed me off, Tommy," she growled.
"Starting?" I asked, "I always did."
Her mouth pressed firmly into a line. She reached up, causing me to flinch instinctively, but she just took off her mask. Her blue eyes were as beautiful as ever, though they held such intense emotion. "Tommy, I never-"
I interrupted her by punching her in her hard in her stomach. She recoiled and I placed my hands behind her head, pulling it down into my knee. As she was driven back, I grabbed a pan from where it hang on a rack. Using it like a warhammer, I swung it at her head. She was just barely able to get her guard up to block. She grunted in pain as it struck her arms. I quickly spun it over my head to attack again. Before I could, she drove her elbow right into my solar plexus, forcing me to drop the pan and fall to my knees. She pulled a knife from her belt and, grabbing me by my hood, placed it against my neck.
"I don't want to fight you," she took the knife and threw it away, "I was trying to save your life!" She insisted.
I punched her behind her knee, causing her to meet me face to face. With another roar, I shouldered her in the chest knocking her to the ground. Retrieving the knife she had discarded, I threw my leg over her and pushed the knife against her neck.
"Why should I listen to anything you say?" I demanded.
Quickly she reached up, and before I could react, she pulled my head down. It took me a moment to realize what was happening. The first thing I noticed was the feeling of something soft agaist my lips. I was so surprised that I couldn't move, couldn't pull away. Next was the taste. It was like nothing I had ever tasted before. There was no distinct taste other than flesh. My head rushed with blood. My mind went completely blank. I could feel my heart beating against my ribcage as if it were trying to play Mozart on a xylophone. I found myself feeling terrified, though I couldn't process why.
When she finally pulled away from me, there were tears in her eyes. She reached up, and with gentle hands, took off my mask to look into my eyes. "I'm so sorry, Tommy," she cried.
"Rose..." I muttered.
"Traitor!" Ravager's deep, demanding voice echoed across the kitchen. He stood in the doorway, his large frame looming over us as I held a knife to her throat. He pulled out a tonfa, giving it a showy twirl.
Instant I got up off of Rose and faced him. "Grant," I muttered confused.
"Your dad dies and you just go and join up with the enemy?" He bellowed in anger.
"Grant, I-" I stammered.
"And now, I find you with a knife to Rose's throat," he continued. He swing the tonfa over his head at me. I quickly blocked with the knife. "You were our family," he hissed. There was no mercy, no forgiveness in the darkness of his masked eyes.
"Grant-" I tried to defend myself.
"Traitors don't get to speak!" He shouted, swinging the tonfa around again to hit me in the side.
I blocked the attack with the knife against, but it had just been a distraction. He punched me square in the face. The hit was so hard that I was sent all the way to the ground. He swung the tonfa at me, but I rolled backward at the last moment.
"Traitors don't get to live," Ravager growled. Rose stepped in between us, and held out her arms defensively of me. "Move, Finch, I'm going to settle this business," Ravager ordered.
"We were ordered to take him alive, Grant," she told him.
I looked from where she stood with her back to me to Grant. So many thoughts went through my head. I was so confused. I didn't know what to do. I had no way of trusting Rose, but at the moment she was rhetorical only one in between Grant and me. I knew I couldnt take Grant in a fair fight even on my best day. And yet, I didn't know if I believed Rose. It was impossible to tell where her loyalties lied. I decided, not to decide.
I lept to my feet again and put the knife to her throat once more. "Drop the weapon," I insisted.
Grant scoffed, "You were always too high and mighty to kill, Crane. You don't have it in you to do it, let alone to your own family."
I tried to think quickly. "You and I both know my father ordered me not to kill. He's gone now."
Rose whispered, out of the corner of her mouth so Grant couldn't see, "Tommy?"
I hid my mouth behind her head and whispered back, "I want to trust you, but I don't know if I can. Either way, I'll need to get away from Grant."
Grant's body shifted a bit uneasily. "Still, you can't kill Rose."
"Can't I?" I asked, "Your father killed my father. Maybe I want a little revenge. Go on, Grant. Test me. Then you can explain to daddy how you failed, again."
Rose's body tensed up in my grip. She whispered to me, "Too much."
The warning came too late. Grant blew past Rose and tackled me to the floor. My head struck the linoleum and the world began to spin. The next thing I was aware of was a black rod smacking me across the face. Then my eyes rolled back and everything faded to black.
When I woke up, I was on the beach outside the Cave, my mask back on for some reason. When I tried to get up, I found that my hands were cuffed. My head was spinning but I was still able to make out Finch's masked face. I couldn't see her full expression through her mask, but when she looked at me, she frowned. I still wasn't sure if she was on my side or not. I still wasn't sure if I wanted her to be or not. She pulled me to my feet and I saw that Impulse, Beast Boy and Blue Beetle had also been captured, though Blue Beetle was the only other one conscious. We were all wearing control collars. Ravager, Icicle Jr, Finch, the Terror Twins ashe well as Blue Beetle's ninja woman, a dark haired woman wearing a suit similar to my old team's, were all there, along with a tall dark-skinned man in black armor with pale blond hair covering his scalp.
Instantly I charged him, shouting in anger. Before I had even made it half way, the ninja lady tackled me and held a sword to you throat. He barely even turned to look at me.
"Not a wise choice," he commented. He held up a small black cylinder that was in his hand. He was pressing down on a red button on the top of it. "You missed this part, but if my finger comes off of this switch, at all, Mount Justice goes boom."
I glared up at him, "You. You're Aqualad."
His eyebrows lowered. "I was."
"You killed Artemis," I spat. The ninja woman's gaze lingered on me a moment when I mentioned Artemis's name.
He turned away, "And?"
"As Green Arrow's new partner, I swear I'll pay you back for her," I threatened. In truth, I wasn't sure where I came from, but I felt like I needed to say it. More than that, I wanted to say it. I wanted to make him pay.
He just kept walking toward the water where a submarine in the shape of a massive black manta ray was waiting. The ninja woman pulled me to my feet and gave me a shove.
"Move it, archer boy," she told me, "and no funny business."
Suddenly, Blue Beetle's hands transformed into massive maces and he knocked Icicle Jr to the ground before taking down the ninja woman.
I looked down at her with a smirk, "Like that?"
Blue Beetle's hand turned into a plasma cannon which he aimed at Aqualad.
"Blue, no!" I shouted.
Too late. Blue shot Aqualad, who tried to form a shield out of water to stop it. The blast was too much and it knocked Aqualad to the ground, the trigger flying out of his hand.
"No!" Blue and I shouted in unison.
We all looked to the mountain in anticipation, but nothing happened. No boom. No rumble. Not even one pebble was knocked out of place.
"A bluff?" I asked.
"Get him!" Blue shouted.
"No! Don't! " I warned.
He charged Aqualad, leaping into the air to attach him. Aqualad just held out his hand. A bright light glowed from Aqualad hand as it touched Blues chest and he shouted out in pain. When he stumbled away, a bit of his skin showed through the armor about the size of Aqualad's hand. Ninja woman pulled out a blow dart tube and shot him in his exposed chest. He instantly collapsed to the ground do.
"I was not certain that would work," Aqualad told the others, "but it seems Beetle is indeed vulnerable to mystic energy. And sedatives." He turned to face me. "Would you care to try your luck?" I glared daggers at him, but I didn't move. He looked away from me dismissively. "I thought not. Bring them all aboard."
We all were dragged onto the ship and tied up together in center of the bridge. Then, to my surprise, what I had taken for a submarine flew up into the sky as a plane. Impulse and Beast Boy started to wake up as we faced the mountain.
"Can't believe we didn't end Superboy when we had the chance," Tommy Terror snapped.
"Boss fish still has a soft spot for his old team," Icicle Jr accused.
"Do it," Aqualad ordered.
Ninja Girl pressed a second detonator. All at lnce, the entire mountain erupted like a super volcano. The fireball was massive, spraying rock and smoke soaring into the air. The shockwave was so powerful that it shook the ship even from two kilometers away.
Beast Boy gasped to my right. Impulse exclaimed in shock. I just watched in silence. I hadn't been on the Team long, but Mount Justice had been home to Garfield, M'gann as well as several others. Not to mention that Nightwing and Conner were still in there. Or, they may have been. I had no idea. I felt my chest tighten up at the sight of the column of smoke billowing into the sky.
"Aqualad," I said. He stared at me blankly. "I will make you bleed." I said each word individually.
If my words effected him, then he didn't show it. "Ravager, if you would."
"With pleasure," he said. He stood over me and glared down at me, his mask now gone so I could see his face, so filled with hate. I returned his look.
"And, Ravager, I will make you bleed too," I threatened.
His scowl deepened. "Shut up, traitor."
And with one punch, I was surrounded by darkness again.
AN: I'm sorry for any extra errors in the past couple chapters, I've been restricted to mobile and it's incredibly difficult to catch them all without a large screen to read from. And as always, thank you for reading.
