Hello, ModernDayBard here with this week's chapter! As always, I don't own Young Justice or its associated characters. But I do have my oc's and the idea for this plot, and that's enough for me!
Heart hammering in her chest at the thought of an 'emergency mission', Nicole followed Delta in the direction of the Zeta tubes, but before the squad could teleport anywhere, they were met by Aqualad and Nightwing, who'd just arrived from the Watchtower.
"The targets are here in DC," Aqualad offered by way of explanation before anyone could voice their questions. "It makes no sense to waste time by having you come to the Watchtower, only to send you back down."
Ember's eyes widened at that—being in a time crunch was never a good sign. It was also not lost on the young hero that Aqualad had mentioned targets, plural.
"Is it—?"
Nightwing cut off Tigress unfinished question with a single nod. "Yeah, it's them. They're striking and striking hard—multiple targets. Beta's coming in now from the Watchtower and we've contacted Alpha and Gamma, but until they get here, we'll have to prioritize."
"First priority is the hospital," Aqualad continued, taking over from the detective and slipping into 'leader mode', "we've got at least two meta-powered attackers striking there. Delta, Nightwing, and Ember will take them out. Beta and Gamma have their assignments, and I will meet with the rest of Alpha. Ember, you will rendezvous with us once the situation at the hospital is under control. Everyone understand?"
"Yes!" all the assembled heroes chorused in unison, before running off to carry out their objectives.
Once the squad of young heroes arrived at the hospital, there was no question as to who was in charge.
"Impulse, Beetle," Nightwing called, "help with the evacuation. Tigress, you and Static take the North and East quadrants and look for our attackers. Ember and I will take the South and West Quadrants."
The members of delta acknowledged the orders and scattered to their 'duty stations.'
"Alright," Nicole managed, trying to keep her mind on the job and off of the fact that her heart rate had picked up (quite without her permission) at the thought of working one-on-one with the dark-haired detective.
Without another word, she followed Nightwing into the parts of the nearly-deserted hospital that they had elected to search. Whoever they were looking for had struck hard and fast, causing the most damage and necessitating the evacuation, then had sat back. Once the responders arrived, the still-unidentified villains had caused smaller disasters, resulting in even more injuries. It was up to the young heroes to find and capture the culprits before they exacerbated the situation any further.
Almost as soon as the six of them had split up, Nightwing and Ember encountered their first target. The man was likely in his mid-twenties, with an unfamiliar, angular, brutish face and a cruel sneer. Given that he was standing in the center of a swirling windstorm that was causing melee and destruction, Nicole felt pretty confident he was one of their targets—especially given the fact that he was laughing as if endangering innocent lives was the most fun he'd had in months.
The two nineteen-year-old's sprang into action immediately. The redhead took the frontal approach, launching several fireballs at the stranger, effectively distracting him, causing his 'storm-shield' to falter, and focusing his attention on her, all at the same time. He turned on her with an animalistic growl and she crouched down into a defensive position, waiting for his next move.
Before her opponent could retaliate, Nightwing came up from behind him. A few strikes with the escrima sticks, and the unknown villain was down. The two spared a few moments to be sure he was well-secured before turning him over to the on-site authorities, but, as the crisis was far from over, there was no time to celebrate.
Without further incident, the two cleared the South quadrant and moved into the West quadrant. A chill ran down Nicole's spine, and she whirled to see Black Fang a short ways down one of the hospital's empty corridors. The vampiric girl had obviously noticed Ember as well, her silver eyes flashing in mocking triumph.
At the same moment, both girls summoned their blades—blazing fire and murky shadows—and quickly clashed. Nicole knew that she needed to concentrate on the fight to prevent a repeat of her last encounter with Black Fang, but in the back of her mind, she tried to maneuver the black-clad figure so that Nightwing would have a clear shot at her. However, just like the time before, the silver-eyed fiend seemed extremely familiar with Ember's fighting style. Nicole tried not to let that fact faze her, tried not to give Black Fang an edge, but she recognized that the fight wasn't going well.
*Um, Nightwing? Anytime now would be good…*
That wasn't exactly a fair thought, as from the corner of her eye she could see the detective trying to work around to Black Fang's blind spot. Before he got a clear shot, however, the enigmatic villain pulled back without warning. Throwing a smirk at the younger girl, the dark-haired fighter dispelled her dark sword and vanished in a whirl of shadows.
Neither young hero relaxed, as they didn't put an ambush past Black Fang. The entire time she was helping Nightwing and Delta get things under control at the hospital, Nicole kept looking over her shoulder, expecting the vampiric young woman to suddenly appear and renew her attack. The expected ambush never materialized, and no other attempts to interfere with the rescue effort were made, but that didn't help Ember to relax. Something about this mission was strange in a very unsettling way.
There was no time to puzzle over the incongruities however. "We've got this under control," Nightwing said at last, turning to the red-haired girl working beside him, "so you'd probably better rendezvous with Aqualad and your squad."
"Okay," she replied nodding, knowing time was of the essence. "Where?"
Even in the middle of the chaos, the dark-haired detective managed a smile at the oddness of his answer. "The National Zoo. Apparently our favorite group of crazies have let the most dangerous creatures out, endangering most of the city.
For the fraction of a moment, Nicole only stared at him, her face blank, unable to summon a response. *What on earth do they want?*
Once she recovered her wits, Ember headed for the Zoo at top speed. As soon as the others spotted her, she felt M'Gann include her in the psychic link.
*Ember!* Aqualad silently called, *As we recapture the escapees, can you use your powers to repair their exhibits and prevent them from getting out again?*
*You round them up, and I'll keep them in,* Ember answered as she jogged over to them.
The problem at hand was so massive that it required a triage of sorts. Aqualad deemed the big cats as the most dangerous, so that was where they focused their energy first. While the others rounded up the tigers, lions, and cheetahs, Nicole ran to the island-like habitat, trying to see how they escaped and what repairs were necessary.
It seemed that the large gaps between the exhibits and the railing that rimmed the 'viewing level' had been negated by several makeshift bridges that allowed the cats a way over the deep moat and up the sheer concrete wall. Remembering that Aqualad's plan had involved M'Gann using her telekinesis to return the animals to exhibits without a top, Ember knew that she could go ahead and destroy the bridges. By the time she had done so, most of the cats had been returned, and it was on to the next sub-section of the sprawling, confusing complex that was the National Zoo.
Next up was the Africa section, and that required more running from Nicole, as the cages and habitats were more spread out. Some were cages whose locks needed to be heated, then molded back to their original shape in order to fix, others were exhibits more like the big cat's island that had breaches that needed to be destroyed.
After nearly fifteen minutes of break-neck work, Ember was growling under her breath about the path's tendency to cut back on itself, hiding some of the more obscure creatures and making her job that much harder. Still, the nineteen-year-old reminded herself that things could have been much worse. The Team had discovered that elephants showed no desire to stampede free of their exhibit, even with a readily available escape route. Apparently, their exhibit was so large that they didn't feel the need to explorer further. Still, just to be on the safe side, Ember performed the necessary repairs before running on, with one more mini-disaster to help avert.
Whoever had released the animals had apparently ignored the reptile and small mammal houses, as well as most of the larger primates. However, they hadn't overlooked the Asia section, which involved almost as much running as the Africa trail had.
As it was the final epicenter of chaos, Alpha and Aqualad threw everything into their efforts, no longer holding back. As they tried to prevent a major disaster, they were watched the whole time by the docile, uninterested eyes of the giant pandas, who apparently thought that running free and wild wasn't worth abandoning their bamboo snacks.
Like at the hospital before, the Team was able to prevent any serious catastrophes, returning all of the animals to their proper places. Beta and Gamma reported similar success with their respective assignments, but Nicole couldn't shake the feeling that something about the scenario was just…wrong.
Aqualad gave the all-clear signal, but before the others could celebrate, Ember spotted an all-too-familiar over-large wolf running away from the zoo, tail between his legs. Gar and Nicole started to run after him, but were stopped when Aqualad called over the mental link: *There's no time! We've just gotten a mayday call form new York. We'll have to leave him for another time.*
*New York?* Beast Boy asked, echoing Nicole's thoughts. *What's in New York?*
*Morwinn* came the answer, and Nicole felt a chill of worry replace her previous exhaustion as Aqualad continued. *She just called Nightwing—both she and the museum are under attack!*
Now realizing that the day's frantic events had been nothing more than an extremely dangerous and taxing diversion, Alpha, Delta, Nightwing, and Aqualad all converged on the nearest Zeta Tubes.
Once in New York, the ten heroes ran at top speed in the direction of the museum where Alpha had first encountered their unusual ally, praying they'd be in time. As Nicole rounded the final corner before the museum, her heart caught in her throat—where the museum ought to have been was only a pile of rubble and damaged artifacts. Whatever happened had happened only a few moments before—the crowd of gawkers was small, and seemed to still be mostly in shock.
"Was there anyone inside?" Aqualad demanded of a somewhat-dazed bystander.
"N-No," the man managed at last, "it was closed today…"
Nightwing rounded on the speaker, and was that worry Nicole could hear in his voice? "Did you see what happened?"
The man nodded frantically, the detective's intensity obviously having rattled him from his previous stupor. "Yeah, but I don't understand it: One moment, everything was normal; the next thing you know, there were these weird flashes of light, crashes like something was breaking, and the whole thing just collapsed!"
In the middle of the man's story, Ember drifted away from the crowd over to the wreckage, stomach clenching. Maybe she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about Morwinn, but the strange girl had asked for help, and they'd gotten there too late. The redhead tried not to think about the crushing pressure of all that wreckage, forcing herself to think optimistically.
*Morwinn's not stupid, she has powers, and she would've had a few seconds to shield herself, or even teleport to safety. Let's not assume the worst just yet.*
As the rest of the heroes joined her, Nicole looked around, trying to figure out where the best place was to start digging, in case their mysterious ally hadn't made it out of the museum. Movement caught the corner of her eye, and the flame-wielder whirled, noticing one section of the roof start to move, with a purple glow beneath it.
Superboy and Aqualad must've seen it at the same time she did, for the three converged on the spot and managed to lift the concrete slab enough for Morwinn to scramble partway out. Nightwing offered her a hand and helped her stand. The MMM's resident hero was dusty and a little scraped up, but mostly unhurt, for which Nicole breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you alright?" several voices chorused nearly in unison.
The glare in her purple eyes hinted at the answer before she verbalized it. "I'm fine, but those two-bit bozos got away with the Grell Rembar amulet! Not to mention all the other artifacts that are now damaged!"
The ghost of an amused smile passed over Nightwing's face, and the others heard, courtesy of the psychic link, *If she's feeling well enough to complain about the state of the museum, then she's fine. Still, if the amulet's gone…* He didn't need to finish the thought. Whatever purpose the amulet served, it was now in the bad guys' hands.
Morwinn took a deep breath, and there was a hint of a shudder behind it. "Not sure if it helps, but one of them dropped this behind when they left, right before his buddy blew the main support column. And the one who dropped it seemed to be in charge." She held out a piece of paper with writing on it, saying without much hope: "Maybe you can make something of this—I sure can't."
Aqualad took the proffered message and read it aloud.
"We only seek to claim what is ours by rights. We did not start this fight, but we will not hesitate to do what we must—any blood will be on your hands. What happened here today is on you, not us."
The assembled young heroes all glanced at Morwinn, who tried to act unaffected. Behind the façade, though, it was clear she was rattled. "Okay," she said, trying for a flippant tone, "the last part's clear enough, I'll admit. It's the first part I don't get: 'We only seek to claim what is ours by rights…' Which is what—exactly?"
She seemed to be trying to ignore how close she came to dying, but no one had an answer for her. Nicole, especially, was caught up in her own thoughts—the phrasing of the message was frighteningly familiar, reawakening old fears and memories she'd long-since buried.
*Anything but that, please. If there is any mercy or pity in this world, let it be anyone but him.*
So, yeah. Missions, mayhem, and mysteries abounding! I promise, I do actually know what is going on. Anyway, if you saw something you liked, or something you think I should fix/can improve on, don't hesitate to leave a review and let me know!