AN: Once more around the bend.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN DC'S STUFF!

|S.T.A.R. LABORATORIES
|April 1, 17:23 MDT

The sound of rapid tapping filled the hallway. Impulse tapped his hands onto his lap next to me, with a door separating us. Next to him was Blue Beetle and then Lagoon Boy. On my other side was Beast Boy. Across the hallway from us were the other kids from the Reach's ship, accept for the Native American boy who was through the door next to me, along with a bald boy in a white jumpsuit that I didn't know. We all sat on chairs placed outside an office at S.T.A.R. labs. Dinah was "counseling" everyone after our "traumatizing experience." Everyone glared at Impulse as he continued tapping on his lap at high speeds. Blue Beetle tried to stop him politely with a hand on his. It worked for a moment as Impulse apologized and did stop, but after not even a full second, he began tapping his foot.

The door opened and the Native American boy stepped out with Dinah right behind him. "Thank you Tye," she said. Looking over to the African American boy, she called, "Virgil?" The two boys swapped places. Just before the door closed behind Virgil and Dinah, I spotted Dinah giving me a sideways glance.

Blue Beetle randomly shot to his feet and shouted, "Ti-ime to stretch!" Out of nowhere, he started stretching out his back randomly. "Yep, gotta keep limber." Then, just as abruptly, he sat down.

I ignored him and glared at the door, twirling a pencil in my hands. Despite everything that had happened, between getting captured, rescued and developing weird superpowers, my thoughts were elsewhere. I wasn't even really concerned about whatever lecture or whatever was waiting for me beyond the door next to me. All I could think of at the moment was what Rose was dealing with over at the Hall of Justice. I guess that the basement of the Hall was now the go-to place when it came to interrogations. My main concern wasn't really about what Nightwing and Miss Martian had planned for her, it was more about whether or not she would cooperate. If she did then it would likely go smoothly. If she didn't... things would get complicated very quickly. On top of it all, I wasn't sure of her allegiances or plans myself. That was something that I was definitely going to find out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Beast Boy staring at me. I realized that while lost in thought I didn't know how long he had been watching me. I tried to ignore him but it eventually got under my skin. I turned towards him and roared, "What?!"

He jumped in surprise at my reaction, as did everyone else. Until then, I hadn't realized that everyone was staring at me.

"So, um, you, like..." Beast Boy started, seeming to be at a loss for words.

"You can do the cry now?" Lagoon Boy asked.

I frowned at him. "'The cry?'" I asked.

"You know," Beast Boy begged, "the 'Canary Cry!'"

Ty snorted, "Cry? I'd say it was more of a screech."

"Look, I don't know what it is!" I griped. Everyone seemed to flinch a little every time my mouth opened. Letting out a sigh, I stood up and threw the pencil away angrily.

The door opened up and Virgil stepped out. Dinah turned to one of the other run aways. Before she could say anything, I stepped up to face her.

"Let's get this over with," I insisted.

Her lip curled downward in a pout. "Speedy, I-"

I stormed into the office. "I just want this to be over."

Since no one seemed to object, or really care, Dinah entered behind me and closed the door. Inside was a desk with two chairs on either side of it. On the desk was a computer and a lamp. Against the wall behind the desk was a filing cabinet and behind the guest's chair there was a couch set against the wall. It was a very standard office. Behind the desk there was a video camera set up on a tripod.

As soon as Dinah closed the door, she turned and grabbed me by the shoulders. I had to actively restrain myself from breaking her arm on instinct alone. She pulled me in close and clutched my head against her chest. Not knowing how to respond, I just stood there as she held in me in her solid grip for a few moments. I could hear her heart beat rapidly through her chest. The sound of it made something in my own hurt. Without really meaning to, I reached up and wrapped my arms around her tightly. I didn't realize it until then, but I had been mad at her. I was mad that she hadn't come for me. I was mad that she hadn't said anything to me when we first saw each other when she and a few other Leaguers told us we were to be interviewed. I was mad that she seemed to be putting off talking to me. Despite it all, I couldn't stop my breath from catching in my throat a bit as we hugged. I'm not sure how long we just hugged each other, but when she finally pulled away, though still holding me close, she had tears in her reddened eyes.

"I'm sorry," she laughed humorlessly, "I've just been trying really hard not to do that for too long." She tilted my head down and gently kissed my forehead. "I was so afraid that I'd lost you again."

My grip around her waist tightened. "I'm OK."

She placed her chin on top of my head and sighed, causing her whole body to shake. When she spoke she was on the verge of sobbing. "I was trying so hard to not show favoritism or give away that we're related, but it was getting hard. Every time I stepped out into that hallway and saw you sitting there, I wanted to pull you to me so badly." As she spoke, I could feel my eyes burn.

"It's OK," I muttered, "I understand."

She kissed the top of my head again before finally pulling away. She held me at arm's-length, holding my face in her hands. Delicately, she removed my mask and smiled. A single tear rolled down her cheek. I reached up and wiped it away. At my touch, she pulled away and wiped her face, "Oh, god. I'm such a mess!"

I chuckled, "We probably should've saved this for last, huh?"

She chuckled at me, "I was trying to!"

"Sorry," I winced.

She smiled, "It's OK, I was just about to cave anyway."

Then, taking a deep breath, she wiped her eyes and said, "OK, we've got a job to do."

Dinah took her seat behind the desk and motioned for me to sit opposite her. As I did, she turned on the camera.

"Is that necessary?" I asked, replacing my mask. "Being recorded makes me itchy."

She frowned, "I'm sorry, Tommy, but I need the recordings."

"Alright," I relented. "So... ask your questions."

She smiled at me. "The idea is for us to just talk normally. It's not really supposed to be an interrogation."

I puffed out my cheeks, "Normal? Not really my forte."

"Not mine either," she laughed. "Why don't we start with Rose?"

I flinched a bit at her name. "What's going to happen to her?"

Dinah frowned. "We're not sure yet. That's mostly up to her." I looked away from her. "Why don't you tell me what happened between you two?"

"You already know everything," I pointed out.

"Not what took place since the Cave was attacked," she corrected.

I took a deep breath. Rose's face passed through my head. My heart's pace quickened just a bit at the thought of her. I was still unsure of what to tell Dinah about Rose, or more accurately, what not to tell her. Her crystal blue eyes fixated on me, locking me into the chair, which was suddenly much lest comfortable than it had been a moment ago. After a moment of uncertainty, I figured that there was no point in hiding everything. I told her everything that happened, leaving out the part where Rose had kissed me in the Cave; I still had no idea what that had been. Dinah remained stoic for the majority of the story, only reacting when I told her of how I had developed her particular brand of superpowers.

"You can use the Canary Cry?" she asked, astonished.

I shrugged, "From what I can tell, it sounded different from both yours and Bucky's, but... yeah."

I could instantly tell that she was trying desperately to hide her smile. "That's amazing! I got it from my own mother. I had always wondered if you'd ever even develop it, but I never really expected you to at such an old age." I squirmed a little under the interest she showed in it. She looked away, deep in thought, "I wonder if it developed on it's own, or if it was triggered as a sort of defense mechanism from the stress and trauma you received."

The memory of electric shocks from inside of the pod flashed through my head. I twitched as of the electrodes were still stabbing into my chest. "I-I don't know..."

Dinah's eyes fixated on me. When they did, they welled with sorrow. "I'm sorry, Tommy. I don't mean to bring it up."

I shook the memory of the feeling out of my head and stared at her emotionless, like I had been trained to. "It's fine. It's necessary."

My attempt to relax Dinah only seemed to make her feel worse. Though she was great at hiding it, I could still tell that the whole topic of my past troubled her. Not just what happened on the Reach ship, but also what I was raised to be. What I had been apart of.

I could feel my fists clench uneasily. "May I go?" I asked.

She straightened in her seat. "Alright." She reached out and turned off the camera. "I need you to wait in the hall for now."

I frowned. "Yeah, OK."

I stood up to leave. Dinah walked me to the door. I hesitated before opening it.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Spinning around, I wrapped my arms around her again in a quick embrace. "Thanks."

For a moment, she seemed so stunned that she couldn't move. Once she recovered from the shock, she returned my hug. When we pulled away from each other, we connected gazes. As if by Martian telepathy, we both simultaneously wiped all emotion from our faces. She opened the door and let me out into the hallway. Before they all averted their gazes, I noticed everyone staring in my direction. Taking a step out, she turned to the runaways. "Edwardo?" The Latino boy stood up and walked past me into the office.

I looked from each of the runaways to BB, Impulse, Blue and Lagoon Boy. Out of all of them, only Lagoon Boy held my gaze. He glared at me as if uncertain of how to treat me. He looked like he wanted to either beat me to a pulp, or ignore me all together. I returned his hard look with one of my own. Finally, he looked down with a scowl. I ignored them all and started walking down the hall.

"Hey, Speedy! Where are you going?" Impulse called after me.

"Probably to meet with his real teammate," Lagoon Boy replied.

I stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall. Without looking back, I growled, "What are you implying?"

"I'm not implying anything, chum," he said.

"I don't have time to argue with you," I dismissed.

"No, you should hurry, she's probably waiting for you," Lagoon Boy snapped.

Despite my attempts to hide it, I could feel my body become tense. Before I could hit him, I stormed off to the Zeta-tubes. Behind me I could hear Virgil complaining about why I got to leave if he couldn't.

|WASHINGTON D.C.
|April 1, 21:19 EDT

"Recognized: Speedy, B-2-3."

I stepped out of the Zeta-tube and jogged down the hall into the library where Mal, Karen, M'gann, Conner, Zatanna and Shazam were all busying themselves with something or another. I ran up to M'gann who looked to be organizing a box of her things from Mt. Justice. Or, what could be saved.

"M'gann!" I called.

"Tommy," she exclaimed surprised. "I thought you were supposed to be at S.T.A.R. Labs. With the others abductees."

"I was," I told her.

Her eyes widened. "You all finished already? That was quick. Where's Garfield? Is he with-"

"Where's Rose?" I asked her in a hushed tone.

She paused for a moment, either upset at me interrupting her or something else. I couldn't tell. "She's in Bludhaven with Nightwing right now."

"Did you already read her mind?" I asked.

At the mention of it, she recoiled a bit. "Um, no. I wasn't able to. Nightwing is questioning her."

I gaped at her. Something in me burned. "You weren't able to? What do you mean? You could read my mind just fine."

She opened her mouth to speak but before she could explain, a loud beeping noise sounded from just outside the building. As the only two Leaguers there, Shazam and Zatanna rushed outside, while everyone else gathered around the computer. I grabbed M'gann's wrist before she could walk away.

"What happened with Rose? Why couldn't you read her mind?" I asked.

Out of nowhere, a robotic voice began to call out to us in a very dramatic fashion. "Greetings and salutationisms, Earth champions!"

M'gann turned to me and said, "We can talk about this later. Right now we need to find out what that is."

I released my grip on her wrist, though not without voicing my irritation with a loud growl of protest.

Karen pulled up the cameras for the front door where a small flying robot floated down and bowed. "I am L-Ron, major domo to the great master, and you are my prisoners."

"This is Plastic Man's April Fool's joke, isn't it?" Shazam laughed. "OK, Plas, you got us!"

"No, I've got you," The robot said, sounding a bit confused. He pressed a button on his arm and a large red pyramid of lasers sealed the whole of the Hall of Justice off from the rest of the world. "Though not for myself of course. Rather, I hold you at the behest of my master, who seeks to prove himself against Earth's greatest warriors."

As L-Ron spoke, a massive, purple alien, with a large fin on his head, clad in blue armor appeared in front of him. With one kick he sent Shazam soaring through the glass of the front doors and crashing to the floor hard enough to create a trench in the ground.

"How did-?" Conner exclaimed.

"This is going to be a helluva night," I sighed.

"Let the cage match begin!" L-Ron announced. "No fooling."

Zatanna tried to cast a spell on the alien, but before she could, a third eye opened on the alien's forehead and she suddenly went stood up straight, unmoving. The alien smashed through the front door and began approaching Shazam.

"Uh, should we help?" I asked.

"We can't go up there," Superboy said, "we're covert ops, meaning no one can see us. If he needs back up then we'll be forced to help, but until then we have to assume that Shazam can handle this guy."

"Allow me to introduce my master," L-Ron continued in his showman nature, "the warlord Despero! Gladiatorial champion of ninety two star systems. Working on ninety three right now. He has come to this backwater planet seeking a challenge to prove his superiority to all life forms. It's quite the complementism. You really should feel honored."

"Am I the only one who hates both of these guys right now?" I asked.

"Nope," Mal groaned.

"Oh, I am," Shazam replied to L-Ron. "Here, let me show him."

Shazam flew forward and slammed Despero into the wall. Despero just hurled him up into the ceiling with ease.

"He needs back up," Superboy said.

"Guess so," I sighed.

Superboy, Bumblebee and I all rushed out to the lobby where they were fighting. When the main door to the inner wing opened, Shazam fell to the ground right in front of us. Despero looked to us and growled. I reached behind me to grab my bow and swore under my breath. I didn't stop by the Arrow Cave to grab my quiver before coming here from S.T.A.R. Labs. All I had was whatever was in my utility belt, which were mostly trick arrow-heads.

Superboy turned to Bumblebee. "Check on Zatanna. Speedy, you make sure Shazam's alright. Fin head's mine."

Superboy jumped at Despero to keep him busy. Bumblebee flew off towards Zatanna while I knelt down to see if Shazam was still conscious. He wasn't. I checked his pulse and was relieved that he was still alive, just knocked out. He stirred a bit and I tapped him on his cheek.

"Hey, Sparky," I prodded.

He mumbled something that may have been, "That was my cookie, Uncle Dudley!"

"Huh, you're not going to be much help," I grumbled.

I looked up to see Bumblebee flying around Despero zapping him as he clashed with Superboy. He didn't even seem to be interested in her. Rustling through my belt, I found three boxing glove arrowheads, a flash-bang arrowhead, two grenade arrowheads, four smoke bomb arrowheads, a taser arrowhead, a grappling hook, one putty-trap arrowhead and a hunting knife. None of it would really be useful against big bad, but as a distraction... Though, none of them would go off without a hard impact force, and I did not want to get in close enough to hit him with them by hand.

Next to me, a few meters away, I spotted something that might've helped. Running over to the display case with some old Justice Society of America's suit in it. It looked like a generic, brown three piece suit with a cape. fedora and a gas mask. The placard read "Sandman."

"Well, Mr. Sandman, I hope you'll understand what I'm about to do and learn to forgive me for it," I spoke to no one.

Taking the knife, I smashed open the glass case containing his suit and took the item that I was looking for, a small pistol like weapon. I quickly jammed the first boxing glove onto the barrel of the gun and turned to face Despero. He was in the process of beating Superboy into the ground.

"Hey ugly!" I shouted. He looked up and growled at me. "Say cheese!"

I fired the gun, not really knowing if my idea would work. I had no guarantee that the gun would even fire. Fortunately, I got lucky. The gun fired. The projectile that I had viciously jammed onto the front of it launched at Despero and deployed in mid air. Despero got hit square in the face with an inflated boxing glove, and didn't bat an eye. On top of that, when the boxing glove launched, the gun spewed a mist of gas all around me. I quickly pulled out a gas mask of my own and put it on, but it was clear that the gun wasn't going to last for much more than three more shots. I had to make them count.

Despero began to walk towards me and away from Superboy. I quickly loaded one of the grenades onto the front of the gun and pointed it at him. He growled at me and began charging. I fired the grenade at him, satisfied to hear the Click, Beep, Beep, Beep as it armed in mid air. It soared straight at his chest. Despero just swatted the projectile aside. It shot into the leg of Wonder Woman's statue and exploded, completely destroying the statue's supports. The massive stone Wonder Woman came tumbling down onto Despero.

"Uh... cool. That was completely deliberate," I announced.

"Foulism!" L-Ron shouted flying up to me. "Ranged weapons are forbidden in-"

I cut him off by slamming my taser arrowhead into his chest, disabling him for a moment. "You are so annoying!"

Suddenly the statue of Wonder Woman exploded into rubble, with only her head remaining. I flinched as bowling ball sized rocks came flying at me, but before they hit me, they collided with the solid chest of a large man in a red suit.

Shazam turned to face me with a grin, "He is annoying."

Then he whooshed off at Despero. As they fought, I loaded my putty trap onto the front of the gun and aimed for Despero's feet. Right when I was about to fire, L-Ron slammed into my side, throwing the shot wide.

"You have no sense of sportism!" He shouted.

"Oh, shut up!" I growled.

I dashed forward toward the real conflict, ignoring Alpha, and hooked my flash-bang onto the front of the gun. Just as I got around the rubble of the statue, I was greeted by the sight of Despero smashing Shazam into the ground. I quickly finished hooking my attachment to the gun and pointed it at Despero. Although, I grossly misjudged how far away he was. He reached forward and crushed the gun I was holding in one large hand, with his other, he ripped my utility belt off and threw them both far out of reach.

"Uh... foulism?" I tried.

Before Despero could pummel me, Superboy came leaping in from out of nowhere and punched him in the face.

"OK, now what?" I mumbled to myself.

Despero grabbed and threw Superboy into the giant statue of Martian Manhunter which collapsed on top of him. L-Ron flew over and folded his arms over his chest.

"Not an impressive showing from you Earthlings thus far," he muttered.

I snarled at the little bot. "Oh, you're not impressed?" I walked up to stand right in front of Despero, staring him in the face.

"Speedy, no!" Bumblebee shouted.

"You're a gladiator, right?" I asked. Despero smirked at me, showing a mouthful of sharp, pointed teeth. "Well," I held my arms out to either side of me, "are you not entertained?!"

He reared back to punch me in the chest. If he had, I probably would've died. Before he could strike me though, I took a deep breath in, and roared at him.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The entirety of my body reverberated with the intensity of my cry. The blast of sound smashed into Despero and sent him airborne. He zoomed straight through the concrete wall behind him and crashed into the laser grid he was using to imprison us. Unfortunately, the ground around me began to destabilize. The very foundations of the Hall began to shake around me. The walls began to crack and split.

When I stopped, I ended up stumbling forward and just barely catching myself. It felt like someone had put my whole skeleton through a dry cycle in the most powerful dryer in the world. I immediately doubled over and began coughing sporadically. From behind me, Bumblebee grew back to normal size and supported me so that I didn't fall on my face.

"Wow, that was something," she said shocked.

I wiped the drool that I had coughed up from the corners of my mouth. "That was all I really got."

"Think it was enough?" She asked.

From outside came a loud roar of anger. "Nope," I wined.

Behind us, Miss Martian and Malcolm ran out from the inner wing just as Despero lept back through the hole he made going out. The center of his chest looked like he had been hit with a battering ram and he was leaking bright blue blood from several cuts on his chest. I seemed to actually leave a mark on him. He didn't like that.

I stood up and pushed Bumblebee, "Fill Miss M in. I'll distract him."

"He'll chew you up and spit you out!" She insisted.

"Nah, he can't catch me," I chuckled, "I'm Speedy."

I ran forward to confront Despero as he jumped at me. I pulled out one of my smoke bomb attachments. He landed right in front of me and pulled back to punch me. Before he could, I slid between his legs and slammed the smoke bomb on the ground to create cover. Black smoke started spewing from the capsule, engulfing us both. No sooner had the smoke created a decent cover, L-Ron floated above us and produced two massive fans from his body to blow it all away.

"Master, this one cheats! Remove him and move on to a more worthy challenge!" L-Ron insisted.

"Remove?" I asked.

Despero grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up. I tried to fight it, but his grip was like iron on my neck. He looked me in the eyes and snarled. His third eye slowly opened. I made sure to focus on his regular two, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Suddenly my whole body felt absurdly heavy. I couldn't move. I could feel a haze form over my mind. Then everything went blank.

"Zatanna? Billy? Tommy? Karen?"

A voice called out to me in through the haze. I couldn't tell who it was. I couldn't respond. I was just... aware.

"It feels like there are blindfolds over your minds, and you need to help me remove them. Now!"

I jolted upright gasping. It felt like I had just woken up from being awake somehow. Standing, I shook myself to make sure I was fully conscious. I was exactly where I had been when I passed out, which was actually kind of rare. Just across the shattered remains of the Hall of Justice's lobby, I saw a boy about my age stand up. He had shaggy black hair freckles and blue eyes.

I looked at him very confused, and he seemed to realize. "Uh, too much to explain... I'm Captain Marvel."

I quirked my head at him. "Who?"

"You know..." he stammered, "'Shazam?'"

I paused, "You mean that's not your name?"

"What?" He asked confused. "No. That's just something I say."

"I thought you were just shouting your name all the time," I told him. He looked like he was rather annoyed at me.

"Wait, that's your first question? Not 'how could a kid be Captain Marvel?'" He asked.

I shrugged at him, "My family can shatter concrete with our voices and we were just attacked by an alien Gladiator. I'm open to anything."

He nodded, "Fair enough."

A rumbling sounded deeper in the compound. "Scratch that," I corrected, "we're currently being attacked by an alien Gladiator."

We both rushed towards the sounds of conflict echoing through the hall. We entered the library to see a massive hole in the floor.

From the hole, L-Ron's voice shouted, "Cheaters! Sneaks! Frauds! You will all suffer for your crimes!"

He had produced all sorts of weapons from his body and was pointing them at Miss M, Superboy, Bumble Bee and... Malcolm in the old Guardian suit?

The kid grinned at me and said, "Watch this." Before I could question him, he jumped into the hole, landing on L-Ron. "Let's try this again," he said.

"SHAZAM!" His voice seemed to almost double and deepen. A crack of lightning struck him from out of nowhere. When the smoke cleared, Sha- Captain Marvel was standing over the droid's disembodied head in all of his chiseled glory.

"Poor sportism!" L-Ron's head shouted repeatedly. Symbols began to glow on his head like a count down.

"Uh oh," Captain Marvel gasped. He flew over to the others to protect them.

I turned to run, but before I got more than two steps the bomb went off. The shock wave was strong enough to throw me into the far wall of the library. I shook off the hit as quickly as I could; I didn't have time to waste. The explosion rocked the already damaged infrastructure of the Hall. Apparently, it was more than it could handle. The walls and ceiling began to crumble around me. I rushed out into the hallway, only for my escape rout to be cut off by a chunk of the ceiling caving in. Thinking quickly, I turned to get out a different way. I got three feet when a large section of the ceiling fell right on me. Pain erupted from my left side as a slab of concrete the size of a twin bed slammed into my leg and pinned me down. Stabbing pain surged from my leg. Blood began to pour from the cracks in the concrete pinning my leg. I had gotten impaled with a piece of steel rebar. I began to pull with all of my might to try and free myself. The concrete wouldn't budge. I tried again to pull my leg free, again nothing. A large chunk of rubble slammed into my left shoulder with a sickening SNAP!

I shouted in agony as red hot pain washed over the entire left side of my body. I crumpled onto the rubble that had held me down. The thought crossed my mind that I should just stay and wait for everyone to find me. After all, they knew I was here. It wasn't like I was lost in the mountains.

The rubble began to settle around me. I let out a deep breath of gratitude. It looked like the rubble had stabilized around me. Then, it shifted. I felt a small piece of concrete hit me on the cheek. Hesitantly, I gazed above me. There was a massive spire of rubble right above me with great broken steel beams that had numerous razor sharp points aimed at me, and it was coming loose. If I stayed there, I was going to become a kebab.

Instantly I redoubled my attempts to escape. I thought of using my Canary Cry for a second, but then dismissed the idea. It would probably just destabilize the whole mound. I tried to reach the grenades in my belt but I couldn't move my left arm at all. Biting down on my lip to quell the shout raising inside of me, I twisted my body to reach around myself with my right arm. I could feel my bones grinding on each other. My teeth cut deep into my lip making me taste blood. I reached the other side of my belt to find that the grenades had fallen off at some point. Rage boiling up inside of me, I took my hunting knife in my right hand and began to stab at the concrete that had trapped me. The knife just bounced off the hard rock.

"Hey!" I shouted. "Anybody! I'm in here!"

The spire of death above me shifted again, slipping closer and closer to me. I began to stab at the concrete with more and more vigor, and more desperation. Finally I raised the knife to stab at the pile again and stopped. The concrete wouldn't be affected by my knife... but my leg would.

A second passed as I considered the ramifications of my idea.

Then two.

Then three.

The spire shifted above me again, causing more rubble to fall on me. I looked up just in time for it to fully slip and fall towards me.

My body reacted before my mind.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I shouted as loud and hard as I could. Before my eyes, the forty ton mass of my personal destruction slowed its decent to kill me. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, it began to stop and hover in place. But it was only for a moment. It began to gradually move down closer and closer towards me.

In desperation, something in me clicked and I shouted louder.

"RROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Cracks began to spiderweb along the enormous mass of rock bearing down on me. Then, in an instant, all of the rubble around me that was over my head gloriously exploded outwardly into tiny harmless bits.

My head fell forward as I began coughing horribly. With each breath that I took in, I could only haggardly cough the air out of my body. I tried to stifle my outbursts with my hand but it didn't really help. When I finally did stop coughing, I pulled my hand away to see blood on it, though I assumed that it was just from my cut lip. My entire chin was covered in blood from it.

"Wow, you really can shatter concr-" a deep male voice called from above me.

I looked up to see Captain Marvel, Conner and M'gann staring down at me.

"Tommy!" M'gann shouted with concern.

"Hey guys..." I muttered, my vision beginning to fade in and out.

M'gann flew down to me and telekinetically lifted the slab of concrete off of me, taking the rebar out of my leg with it. I winced as she floated me up to the others.

"Tommy..." Conner trailed off.

"Heh," I chuckled, "some of us aren't bullet, or in this case, building proof."

Captain Marvel glared at the ground and swore. M'gann supported my weight as she began to wrap a piece of her cape tightly around my leg over the large wound in it.

"We need to get you to a hospital," she assessed.

I scoffed, "Never really liked 'em."

"Wasn't a question," she insisted.

"Yeah... OK..." I murmured. That was all I could manage before my vision completely faded to black.

AN: I don't really have anything to say, this is more out of habit than anything else. And as always, thank you for reading.