AN: In the words of the Riddler, 'Riddle me this, who are the five people mentioned by Lilith?' For those who asked, keep thinking. And as for those of you who want to know about Kaldur and Lilith, you'll just have to wait and see. (I know, I'm cruel like that.) And uh, hope you all like who make an appearance in this one.
Eric – Ha, I added that 'Princess Bride' bit cause she would either be a closet fan given her 'tough girl' image or Wally would quote it all the time around her, she would get tired of hearing it. I never got to play the game that came out and only saw a cut scene video on You Tube after I wrote about Aquagirl in my last story, I tend to keep a few chapters ahead of what I post to make sure I don't run out down the line and to keep my mind going with what I'm doing.
Riley 000 – I honesty did not think of 'Auntie Sphere' and now all I can think about is the team members passing by her and giving a 'S'up' and she beeps back 'Hey'.
Ben A – Agree, too many Captains and too many Johns. Atoms are just getting up there to, just have to remember who's a Captain and who's not.
3. Family
1.
Dark side of the moon
April 29
11:59 UTC
Within the abandoned ship of Despero, an alien capable of stunning an opponent with the use of his third eye, loud slams echoed through the corridors as the silver skinned Captain Atom and Captain Marvel struggled with keeping dual large meal doors from opening. Dents appeared all around them as the silver League member used his powers to fuse the two doors together to buy them time. Neither man could understand what was being said from the being on the other side as they worked on the door and tried to contact the League for back up.
"Whatever you plan to do, do it fast," Captain Marvel said as he shut his eyes from the brightness of his partner wielding the doors together.
"Almost there," Captain Atom said as the pounding increased.
"She's really laying in with those hits."
"Doors won't hold for long, let's get out of here and back to the shuttle."
Standing from finishing the quick wield, Captain Atom lead the way with Captain Marvel flying behind him. Both League members fled as fast as they could with the sound of metal straining and at times tearing from where they were.
Since gaining access to the inside of the alien ship, Captain Atom worked with various other League members in making their way further inside the ship. Traps were practically everywhere and there was no way in bypassing the locking mechanisms to the doors, leaving him the only choice to manually slice through the ultra-strong metal, taking up hours of his time. They were wield resistant, not proof.
"This is Captain Atom to Watchtower, need assistance ASAP. Hostile alien female discovered on Despero's derelict ship. I need any and all space capable League members to meet me outside the ship and prepare for battle. Repeat, need assistance ASA-UGH!"
Stopping Captain Atom from finishing his message, a purplish energy ray shot him down, barely missing Captain Marvel who stopped to check on his partner. Another energy ray was fired from down the hall, tagging the red and yellow caped Captain who could not move in time. Instead of trying to return fire, Captain Marvel grabbed hold of the dazed Captain Atom and half drug, half carried him to where a hole was drilled into the outer door of the ship some distance away.
"League members! We need backup now!" Captain Marvel shouted as he made his way back into the shuttle. He had just enough time to shut the outer hatch of the ship when the alien rounded the corner at the end of the hall and their eyes shimmered a bright purple.
Before he could have the shuttle fully separate from the alien ship, a strong explosion sent the smaller craft hurtling into space with the alien glaring after it.
Bioship
April 29
12:17 UTC
Flying as fast as she could, Mrs. Martian had her ship's targeting systems lock onto the alien craft Despero once piloted on as it floated above the moon. Sitting in front of her pilot's chair, Starfire and Supergirl, each in their uniforms, watched as the large round object grew even larger with each passing second. It would not take long for them to reach it and see what the emergency was when the screen before them lit up with two targets, one stationary and the other making its way to the moon's surface.
"Batman," Mrs. Martian spoke into an ear mounted com unit as the Dark Knight was not one to take part in any psychic link by anyone, "I've picked up two crafts. One looks to be Despero's ship and the other has yet to-"
Instantly, her screen displayed a flickering readout of the second ship's identity.
"Scratch that, the second is the one both Captains took to the ship."
"What's the status of the League ship?" Batman asked.
"It's damaged. My Bioship suggests its electrical circuitry is failing. No wonder she couldn't identify it right away."
"Wait, what's that?" Supergirl asked as a bright purple stream of light came flying out of Despero's ship.
Using her enhanced vision, the blonde Kryptonian zoomed in on the head of the light and could barely make out a silhouette. "Can't tell who or what it is but it looks female."
"Add a bogey to that, Batman," Mrs. Martian told the Dark Knight.
"Mrs. Martian, I want you and Supergirl to follow the new target. Starfire, you're with me to save the Captains. I'll inform the rest of those in Watchtower to be on the ready should it make its way plant side."
"Understood, Star's on her way."
"Now you be good my little Bungorff." After rubbing her nose against her pet worm's the orange skinned Tameranian girl quickly made her way to the back of the Bioship as its Martian owner telepathically had it separate the front of the ship from the rear to allow Starfire to fly out into space.
"Starfire's deployed, following new target." Veering away from the moon, Mrs. Martian saw Batman's shuttle fly by to join the Tameran with a set of cross hairs zeroing in on the head of the purple streak of light. "Target locked onto."
"Do not fire until fired upon or if it gets too close to Watchtower," Batman ordered.
Inside the damaged ship Captain Marvel and Captain Atom were in, emergency lights and sirens filled the cabin as the former tried to not only pull the shuttle out of the spin it was in, but also tried to wake his partner up, as well as not lose the contents of his gut. None of the controls would respond, life support was failing, and the interior of the cabin was smoking from some of the wires being damaged. Captain Atom might have been able to survive in the vacuum of space, but Captain Marvel was a different story, especially when one included the impending crash into the surface of the moon.
"Oh man, this is so gonna ruin my weekend. It just had to be my turn to help with the derelict ship this morning, didn't it?" Bracing himself for whatever fate lay in store for him, Captain Marvel gripped onto the console before him with his eyes shut tight when everything stopped, causing him to lurch forward.
With his chest pressed against the control panel, the dark haired captain chanced to open one eye. Beads of sweat dripped down his face from the fear of having his life end with his breath caught in his throat as he looked out of the front window and saw the purple and silver clad Starfire.
"Greetings Captain Marvel. The Batman will be here shortly to pick you up," she yelled from the other side of the thick window.
"Tha, thanks." Captain Marvel fainted shortly after that from being so close to crashing into the surface of the moon. The courage of Achilles failed him when faced with the possibility of dying just now.
Back within the Bioship, Supergirl tried to get a clear visual on the individual inside the streak of purple light. Even with her telescopic and infrared vision, she still could not see anything of value. From her position in the captain's chair, Mrs. Martian made sure the head of the light was always within her ship's range in case it should turn and attack them. With the weapon systems locked on, all she had to do was keep it in sight when the purple light drastically changed course and shot for Watchtower.
"Kara, be ready to move out," Mrs. Martian ordered. "If the unknown breaks one hundred fifty miles from Watchtower, I'll need you to intercept while I slow it down."
"Gotcha." After her seat harness receded to let the blonde up, she flew into the back of the ship where Starfire was earlier and readied herself to make a beeline for the light.
Changing her ship's targeting, Mrs. Martian aimed the crosshairs in front of the light and prepared to fire in an effort to slow it down or make it stop. Keeping an eye on the distance counter, the Martian pilot shook her head as she kept the chase up.
"Last thing we need is another alien invasion. This is getting to be a cliché."
With as fast as they were traveling, the distance counter quickly reached just over two hundred miles from Watchtower, making her signal Supergirl telepathically to engage the light being. Once the blonde woman left the ship, Mrs. Martian had no choice but to fire a blast in front of the light. Oddly enough, it did indeed stop it in its path momentarily, forcing its Martian pilot to slowdown, a moment later, a barrage of purple orbs shot towards the Bioship.
Taking action, Mrs. Martian performed a barrel roll and swerved around the bright orbs. She had to break off her pursuit as the number increased so much so, it was like trying to avoid a solid column of purple light. Once she was out of the vicinity of the orbs, they stopped and the purple light continued on its path when twin streaks of red beams struck it, knocking whatever it was through space and giving the Kryptonian enough time to catch up to it.
"M'gann, I stopped it," Supergirl said through the mind link. "You want me to capture it or-"
"Yo buleeze ma enua 'a le un swu linka!" the light covered individual yelled at Supergirl before flying toward Watchtower again.
"That almost sounded like..." Shaking her head, Supergirl raced after the being with the Bioship keeping pace with her.
Inside Watchtower, Kaldur, Dick, now in his Nightwing uniform, Artemis, and Conner watched the monitors with a feed from Batman's shuttle as both Captains and Starfire entered. All seemed fine until Mrs. Martian was seen firing at the purple light as it drew closer to the space station. Only Conner could see things clearly from the large meeting room with its massive windows facing the space battle and his cousin temporarily stop the unknown being.
"Great, it's coming right for us," Nightwing said as he made sure his mask was in place.
"Activating the shields," Barry said as he worked the holocomputer.
A dull blue light encircled the entirety of Watchtower in less than two seconds, which was two seconds too long for Batman's tastes. The aura soon vanished as it finished covering the base of the League just in time for the purple light to unleash twin purple beams of energy at the station. No one worried as they knew the beams could not penetrate the field, something they managed to salvage from the debris left of War World.
Once it saw the attack have no effect, the purple light changed directions just as Supergirl and Mrs. Martian fired to make it do so. As the light flew past them, those gathered in the meeting area felt the floor shake slightly from the force it left in its wake from being so close.
"Jeez, that thing has to be sentient," Nightwing commented. "No way it could have done something like that if it weren't."
A few seconds later, Supergirl flew past the large window, her body streamlined to pick up more speed, followed by the Bioship. Both managed to shake the floor from being close enough to Watchtower, one could have touched them by sticking out an arm. All on the other side of the window fought to keep their balance and could only stare after the three space racers.
"Conner, tell your cousin and wife no more flybys on Watchtower!" Artemis yelled. The Krypto-human only gave her an annoyed look.
"We need to move fast," Kaldur stated. "The League is already scrambled for the incoming threat. We must be as well."
"We need flyers!" came Mrs. Martian's voice over the com units the team members had. "Trajectory mapped. It looks as if it's heading for Texas or Oklahoma at this time."
"Roger that, Mrs. Martian," Kaldur told her. "Superboy is on his way and I will notify Blue Beetle and Wondergirl. They should be in the area as well."
Recognized, Superboy, T, one
The bright light of the Zeta Beam flashed as the leader of the Titans teleported to Earth to intercept whatever the two alien women were chasing.
"I so need a plane," Nightwing said as he, Kaldur and Flash continued monitoring the situation.
Stepping forward, Artemis summoned a holocomputer of her own and brought up everyone's biosignatures. Since the invasion of Darkseid, the League and teams kept the small, cloth embedded chips on them for missions. She could see where everyone was and relayed that information to Batman as well as have the medical bay ready for any injuries that may occur.
Coming out of Earth's atmosphere, the purple light shot through the clouds of the blue sky with the continent of North America in its line of sight. Behind it were Supergirl who was closing in fast and the Bioship which was right behind the two. Again, the red and blue garbed Kryptonian female fired her heat vision at the light, managing to skin what looked to be a shoulder and slowing it down as it went into a spiral.
"I think I got i-AGH!" stopping her mid-thought, Supergirl was struck with a twin beam of purple energy and was sent backwards, nearly crashing into the Bioship.
"Kara!" Watching Supergirl fly over her, Mrs. Martian never saw another twin beams of energy fire at her until it was too late.
Swerving at the last moment, the Martian woman was able to avoid the beams from striking her ship head on and managed to only suffer a hit to the left side wing. Letting out a grunt from the pain she felt through her ship, she had no choice but to break off her pursuit and give the living vessel time to heal. She was soon joined by Supergirl who helped steady the craft and telepathically told her help was coming.
As the purple light continued to descend, three objects flew into the sky to meet it head on. Flying in a 'V' formation, Conner, Cassie, who were both in their civilian attire of jeans and t-shirts, and an armored Blue Beetle raced to stop whatever this light was from reaching the ground.
"Cass, take the right side, Jaime, to the left." Charging forward, Conner thought of getting back at the light being for what it did to Kara and M'gann.
"Hey, are you in charge of us even though we're not on the same team?" Cassie asked.
"Just do it!" Conner yelled.
"Sounds like leadership's gone to his head."
"Chica, now's not a good time," Blue Beetle commented.
"I know, just trying to keep you two loose is all."
Again, purple orbs filled the air as the light being fired a large volley at the three. Reacting first, Blue Beetle fired his sonic cannon back as the other two heroes dodged as best as they could. Some found their mark but nether let them slow them down for too long.
Winding back, Conner wanted the first hit and delivered a hard right cross to the incoming light, knocking both him and the being in separate directions. Using her rope, Cassie flung it at the senior member who grabbed hold and let her fling him back toward the recovering being. With the three taking positions in front and to the sides of the light, the unknown bogey came to a stop with the purple light still surrounding it.
"Be ready for anything," Conner ordered as his two partners got ready for a fight.
Slowly, the purple light began to fade away, revealing a set of black thigh high boots leading up to tight, silver pants. A short black skirt with a silver belt came into view right before familiar orange skin with toned muscle. Next to be seen was a black top with what looked like armor covering the collarbone area and shoulders. Gloves reaching up to the being's elbows were covered in the same armor.
"Starfire?" Cassie asked quietly as the face of the being came into view.
Acting like hair, the last of the purple light swirled around as it fizzled out with the head of the being whipping up to view the three. Bright green eyes narrowed as they locked on to each hero from under a silver crown set with two green gems on either side with a larger purple one set in its center. Long black hair flowed behind what appeared to be an overall darker version of Starfire.
"Lu'swana ha en lay twaka?" the being said as she looked at Cassie first then Blue Beetle. "Un hana en lay twaka?"
"Deja vu much?" Blue Beetle said.
The orange alien girl then centered on Conner and slowly looked him over from head to toe. "Mmm, luwanna en lay Komand'r?" She then let out a sinister giggle. "Thwanka en ou'n ploonay seswanna." She gave a sinister grin that had nothing but lust behind it.
"Tuh, I hate Deja vu," Conner muttered. If she were the same as Starfire, he knew exactly what she wanted and what she would do.