Invaded

Chapter Twelve: True Colors

Author's Note: This chapter will act as the stepping stone for my original plot. Let it be known now that this story will not end the same way the show did. This chapter delves a little into the reason why Wally and Ashley aren't together.

Enjoy and review.


Watchtower

April 8

08:23 AM EDT

"Recognized: Phoenix, B-03," the computer droned as the zeta-beams whirled around me. Nightwing turned, abruptly halting his conversation with Impulse. Superboy stood, arms crossed, annoyed as usual. Miss Martian was nowhere to be seen.

Without delaying, I flew towards the cluster of gathered heroes.

"Phoenix," Captain Atom firmly said as he crossed his arms over his broad chest, "you call an emergency meeting yet you're late."

"Right," I exhaled as I landed in front of him. Captain Atom towered over me, his glowing white eyes glaring slightly, "This had better be good," he warned. The group of gathered heroes erupted in hushed whispers, nodding.

"It is," I promised as they began ushering themselves into the League's large conference room. The large table was occupied by various Leaguers ranging from Captain Atom himself to Plastic Man.

"As most of us are aware," I began, gesturing towards a holographic screen that depicted a series of photos of the Justice Society of America. "After World War II, the newly formed United Nations wanted to register our predecessors, the Justice Society of America. Due to such high public opinion at the time, the government and the UN were unsuccessful in their attempt."

Captain Atom leaned forward, his hands folded over his mouth.

"That is, until now. Public opinion of the Justice League is at a record low, no thanks to the likes of G. Gordon Godfrey and the Reach." I explained; beside me, a muted video feed of G. Gordon's latest rant played.

"I've been doing some recon," I continued, "if we don't change the public's opinion on the Justice League soon, the government is going to attempt to register us."

Captain Atom lowered his hands, adding, "And more likely than not, they will succeeded this time, won't they?"

I nodded, continuing, "There has been talk about passing a law that requires heroes and vigilantes alike to register with the government for some time now."

"Well, that can't be so bad, can it?" Plastic Man questioned, his neck elongating to glance at other Leaguers. "That's what I thought," I admitted, "until I did some more research. In the bill, it is proposed that we register and work for the government."

Nightwing interjected, "The UN wouldn't allow that. The Justice League is an international group of heroes who have sworn to protect the Earth. The UN wouldn't allow for the Justice League to act as super soldiers for the US."

The room exploded in a series of agreements. "Except," I raised my voice, silencing the room, "to the world, our base of operations is the Hall of Justice, located in US boundaries. Not only is there that but most of us are American citizens. To top it off, we have willingly executed missions for the US government, making us the US's problem. They want to use us as weapons against any alien threats. There are a lot of powerful people agreeing to this."

Green Arrow slammed his fist down, asking, "And how the hell do they expect to do that?"

I pressed a series of keys on the holographic screen before motioning towards a life sized holographic display of an advanced inhibitor collar. "Against our will," I stated somberly.

"An inhibitor collar? Some of us don't have powers, kid," Huntress scoffed. "It's not just an inhibitor collar," I countered.

"It uses the same bio-tech Vandal Savage used to control the League five years ago. Except now, it's more highly advanced. Originally, an inhibitor collar suppresses what we now call the meta-gene― which is what gives most of us superhuman abilities. These new inhibitors collars apparently can suppress our personalities, thus making us less human and more like weapons. These collars are already in mass production." I explained.

"Who is producing these collar devices?" Red Tornado questioned.

"More importantly, who designed them?" Captain Atom asked.

"LexCorp," I stated which caused the room to erupt in a series of curses. "We shouldn't be surprised." Nightwing grumbled. "The Reach reversed engineered one of the many weapons they used to attempt to awaken the hostages meta-gene." I clarified.

"And how exactly do we know this?" Black Canary questioned, raising an eyebrow at me.

"From Impulse and Blue Beetle," Nightwing rose from his seat, gesturing towards Impulse to follow him.

"As many of you now, Impulse is the Flash's grandson from forty years into the future." Nightwing revealed.

"Hello," Impulse inhaled sharply before quickly speaking, "The reason I came back into the past― well, the main reason― was to stop the assassination of the Flash. Forty years from now, the Reach apocalypse is in full effect brought on by Blue Beetle himself. See, Blue Beetle's scarab was created by the Reach and sent to Earth four thousand years ago. Apparently, with the whole time traveling causing ripple effects in time theory, we― but most likely me― have caused drastic changes in the future which are not crash." Impulse exhaled slowly.

There was a brief moment of silence before Superboy finally spoke, "And how exactly do you know this?"

Impulse began speaking again, this time much slower, "My memories. Since I purposefully saved my grandfather from Neutron, my memories have been changing slowly. Up until now, very few things were changed in the future. Now, my memories are rapidly changing to match the current future."

The room of heroes stared at us in confusion. "In better terms, Bart's memories change we continue to change the course of the future." Nightwing clarified.

"Well, what do you see now?" Plastic Man questioned. "It's hard to make out," Bart admitted, clenching his eyes shut in concentration, "but I know a lot of Earth's heroes are still gone." Bart exasperated, opening his eyes.

"Except there's no sign of the Reach, which doesn't make sense considering stopping the Reach apocalypse from happening should've crashed the mode. I can't really explain it but a lot of things are completely moded." I placed a hand on Bart's shoulder, squeezing slightly.

"So, what exactly are you saying?" Captain Atom asked, rising from his seat.

"The Reach invasion doesn't stop the apocalypse from happening." I somberly stated.


Star City

April 8

9:36 PM PDT

Ellie's hand jutted forward, her fingers snapping rapidly in front of me. I lowered my mug of coffee from my mouth slowly, my eyes slowly gazing up to met Ellie's angered glare.

"I'm sorry," I apologized as I locked my phone, placing it in my jacket pocket. Ellie poured sugar into her tea, slowly turning it with a spoon as she spoke, "Anyways," she exaggerated the word for emphasis.

Ellie and I had been close friends since elementary school due to the fact that we had lived in the same apartment complex growing up. As secretive and stoic as I was, Ellie had never once questioned her loyalty towards me, stating that because we had eaten glue and sand together as toddlers we had created an unbreakable bond.

I refocused on the conversation, catching the end of Ellie's sentence, "…Wally with her."

"I'm sorry, what?" I leaned forward, tipping my mug of coffee. Ellie yelped, reaching for napkins as quickly as possible. She wiped down the table before the hot liquid could stain her white jeans.

"You've been zoning out the entire time we've been here," Ellie complained. "I have a lot on my mind― anyways, what about Wally?" I asked as our waitress placed our plates in front of us.

"I saw him cozying up with his lab partner," Ellie summarized. With my fork, I poked at my bowl of fruit that came with my fresh waffles. I hummed yet remained silent. To Ellie― and all of my non-hero, civilian friends― Wally and I had broken up over the distance, which wasn't entirely false.

At first, after Wally's retirement, it was easy to maintain our relationship. After patrol, I would crash at Wally's apartment and spend afternoons with both Artemis and Wally. Sometimes, Kaldur even joined when he could convince Dick to lead a recon mission or two for a couple of days.

Then, Kaldur went undercover. It became harder to crash at the West/Crock residence while I helped Dick co-lead the Team. Although my patrol hours were cut shorter, my missions became longer. Every time we made time for each other, I was either too tired or too late.

Wally had tried, that I had to give him credit for.

There were times he waited, alone, at restaurants for hours. He ignored the pity stares from the waiting staff when I would stumble in, tired and dishelmed from a mission or patrol.

Wally had been pushed to his limits on one night and I couldn't blame him.

He was a man with needs and I was a woman who couldn't satisfy him.

And just like that, we had both agreed that it was best if we resorted into being just friends. I couldn't blame Wally for how he felt, either. He had remained faithful and tried to work around my hectic schedule. My priorities, however, couldn't be focused on him.

"Well," I stated, stabbing a piece of fruit with much more force than needed, "that's good for him."

"That's good for whom?"

I looked up just as Hunter crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow. Ellie glanced at Hunter then at me, noticing the look of shock on my face. I stuttered, attempting to recuperate from my shock.

"Hunter," Ellie addressed, smiling as she slid in the booth, giving him a seat directly in front of me. I had introduced Ellie to Hunter years ago, when Ellie and I were both sophomores at Star Academy.

Hunter and I had fabricated an elaborate lie which included Hunter being the son of Aunt Dinah's long time college pal, Helena. Ellie had accepted the lie and had even developed a slight crush on Hunter.

Ellie was somewhat crushed when I had told her Hunter had moved to Europe for studies, another lie. I felt bad at first until Ellie had seemingly moved on, almost forgetting about the brunette who now settled in beside Ellie.

His green eyes were twinkling with mischief.

"Aren't you supposed to be in Europe?" Ellie asked as she bit into a piece of her waffle.

Hunter's glanced at me, smirking, before nodding, "I've finished my studies, decided it was time to come home." Hunter plainly stated.


Hunter tugged me into the alley beside Ellie's apartment complex by the sleeve of my jacket.

"What's wrong? You haven't said a word to me all night."

"What's wrong?" I repeated in a hushed whispered. I inhaled sharply, opening my mouth to scold at the marksman before exhaling slowly. In truth, I had nothing to say. I was more than happy that Hunter was here but I had questions.

Hunter seemed to understand my internal conflict, "You want answers, don't you?" Hunter rhetorically asked.

I nodded, silent. "Well, I can finally answer all your questions but I'd rather do it in a much," Hunter paused, glancing around the dirty alley, "clean and secure location."


Hunter slowly glanced around my bedroom, halting at my large computer desk that had been pushed in the far corner. He lifted a picture frame of the original Team line up before setting it down.

"Batman had suspected that the Light was once again attempting to set up a cloning facility after Martian Manhunter scanned the memories that you managed to retrieve from Psimon."

I sat on the edge of my bed, "What did they find?"

"I had memories of a cloning facility that I don't remember being in. For months, Batman had been doing intense research on any Cadmus like facilities which led to a facility in Japan."

"So, that was your mission?" I asked, "Go and investigate?"

"Would you let me explain?" Hunter snapped, leaning against my computer desk with his arms folded over his chest. I raised my hands in mock surrender, allowing for him to continue.

"At first, it was just resonance, which, by the way, was pretty boring. But then the facility began to be funded by LexCorp, receiving truckloads of supplies once a month. I've been posing as a security guard for about two years but my identity was compromised." Hunter disclosed.

"Do you know how?" I asked, curious. Hunter nodded, continuing, "Turns out, Lex Luthor had been keeping tabs on all workers that worked at the facility. For three years, I had been extra careful, always a step ahead. I had uncovered a bunch of evidence that confirmed Batman's theory of cloning. The only puzzle that needed solving was figuring out who Lex Luthor wanted cloned next." Hunter sighed, pushing himself off my desk.

Slowly, he walked towards the doors of my balcony, gazing at the botanic garden below.

"But I slipped up, I let my guard down." Hunter's voice lowered as his fists clenched at his sides. "Hunter, what happened?" I asked, firmly. "I brought you back to my apartment. Such a rookie mistake. We should've stayed in a public area." He stated, lamely, turning to face me.

"Lex had reason to believe the facility had been compromised for months. I knew he was keep tab on all workers, I just didn't know he considered me such a threat." Hunter paused to chuckle smugly.

"I guess I should be honored he'd be paranoid enough to send a group of assassins."

At this information, I perked, leaning forward with interest. "A group of assassins?"

Hunter nodded. I rose from the ledge of my bed, excitedly explaining, "I've been investigating claims that the Light was trying to recruit super skilled individuals to create a team to counterattack the Team. Did you catch any codenames? A group name?"

Hunter marveled at my intel, resuming his explanation, "There were five assassins: Renegade, Black Falcon, Scorch, Aqua, and a younger, female version of Orphan, going by the same name too. They call themselves the Red Lotus."