I don't own Ben 10 or Young Justice
Chapter 25
Salvage
Washington D.C; February 13th 2019 – 09:06 pm EST
It wasn't a particularly cold night in D.C where a fairly large man wearing a dark blue balaclava ran out of a health food store carrying a black hand gun and a white sack holding wads of cash within it. He attempted to flee the scene but wasn't able to get very far due to a crimson arrow embedding itself in to the stone-building near his feet causing him to trip and land on his face. He quickly grabbed his pistol and turned to see what he had fallen on as green gas came from the arrow's head, knocking the thief out cold. Ziplining from the building juxtaposed to the scene came a man dressed in maroon body-armor, he'd grown a few inches but, hadn't really built any muscle-tone.
"I was watching from the window, that was amazing!" shouted the astounded the store clerk, turning around was Roy Harper but, he had seen better days; His ginger hair was now long and unkept and it was clear he had not shaven in several days. He carried his bow in his right hand and his quiver on his back, he turned and bent over to pick up the cash the thief had stolen and gather it back in the bag; the grateful store clerk asked, "Can I offer you a reward? Anything I've got in the store is yours dude, anything."
What he hadn't noticed was Roy sneaking a wad of cash behind his back and placing it in his belt, "Not necessary, your thanks are all the reward I need," Roy answered back with a fake-smile.
Ona rooftop out of sight stood a taller man with blonde hair and emerald body-armor, looking through a miniature pair of binoculars; he lowered them from his eyes and placed his finger towards his ear-piece, "I found him… And it's worse than we thought," he spoke.
…
Taos; February 13th 2019 – 7:49 pm MST
Adam Strange was typing away on one of his computers when he walked over to one of his assistants, "We're ready," he said facing a screen; He spoke into the communications system that was patched into the line at the Watchtower.
…
The Watchtower; February 13th 2019 – 9:50 pm EST
"Zeta shield relay satellites are all in place," Adam Strange said speaking to the currently present League members; Captain Atom gave Strange the go-ahead to activate the shield. Around the planet small spherical satellites activated sending a pale-yellow energy field around the Earth above the orbit of the Watchtower.
…
Mount Justice; February 13th 2019 – 9:51 pm EST
"Well done, the Zeta-Shield is now fully operational," Strange said again appearing on one of the holograms in the cave, along with the holo-screen of the Watchtower and the shield layering over the Earth.
M'gaan, Mal, Veronica and Jaime watched as the shield went up whilst Garfield was being home-schooled by a long-time friend of the League and M'gaan's old school teacher, Lucas Carr behind them.
"Hey Professor," Jaime shouted, "You should assign your student this historic event as a project," Garfield turned and stuck his tongue out clearly not liking the idea.
"With the Zeta shield in place no aliens can teleport in from off world; Not even Strange can go back to Raan without approval," Mal announced looking over the data from the shield-launch.
"The shield is great but, it doesn't stop any incoming ships or Boom Tubes," Superboy mentioned the obvious.
"What's a Boom Tube?" asked Jaime receiving a telepathic answer from the device on his back, "Boom Tube: an alternative method of instant transportation across large distances in the Galaxy, not compatible!"
Jamie raised a brow beneath his suit, "Not compatible with what?" Jaime asked with more aggression in his tone, "I swear to god, I don't understand half the things you say," Mal, Superboy, and Veronica looked over in bewilderment.
"The feeling is mutual," Veronica giggled.
Superboy looked around a sighed, "Where's Nightwing and Ben?"
"Nightwing said he had some personal business to take care of, he took Ben with him," Mal watched as Conner huffed as a sudden loud beeping sounded from the holo-console.
"What's with the noise and lights?" M'gaan pointed out as Mal ran over to the console in the cave and started to type away some commands.
"It's the silent alarm from the Hall of Justice and the motion detectors are counting two people on the premises," Mal said as his fingers flew over the holo-keyboard.
"Blue and I will go and have a look; it should hopefully be nothing serious," said Superboy grabbing Jaime by the arm walking over to the entrance, bored out of his mind this would hopefully give him the action he wanted.
"Oh, can I come along please?" asked Veronica after noticing Jamie's invitation.
"Yeah, why not," answered Kon-El, "Come on Wolf, Sphere," they headed for the docking-bay as Veronica looked at the back of Jamie's head, she smiled quickly having gotten the opportunity to spend time with him once again.
…
Washington D.C; February 13th 2019 – 10:45pm EST
Elsewhere, Roy shot his zip-line arrow from one rooftop to the other but, instead of landing properly, he tripped and tumbled onto his side on the rooftop. He groaned and looked up to find Green Arrow with his hand extended to help Roy standing above him, "Hey Roy, need a hand?" he said.
"Not from you," Roy said bluntly, swating his former mentor's hand away and standing on his hand.
"Then how about us?" said another voice as Ben walked out from the shadows alongside Nightwing and the retired speedster, Wally West; on the other side of the rooftop, Black Canary and Jim Harper stepped into the light with solemn expressions.
"I have nothing to say to any of you," snapped Roy, walking away and approaching the free ledge to his left, "Nothing to explain or justify," Green Arrow snatched the wad of cash from Roy's belt and held it up in front of him.
"Nothing?" asked Oliver with a disappointed glare, Roy stopped and turned with a more relaxed tone, knowing he'd been caught.
"It's not what it looks like, I mean, the owner won't miss it; he was offering me a reward anyway. Besides, I deserve it, he wouldn't have any of his cash back if I hadn't had stepped in," he furrowed his brow and turned back again to face the streets below.
"Dude, are you even listening to yourself?" asked Wally with a sarcastic tone.
"Look, I need it. I need it to find Speedy, the real Roy Harper; a search like that is expensive and clearly you guys have done nothing except give up," he snapped.
…
Washington D.C; February 13th 2019 – 10:46pm EST
On their way to the Hall of Justice, Superboy, Spiritus, Wolf and Blue Beetle were riding Sphere transformed into the Super-Cycle, "So, do you have any idea on who would attack the League's former base of operations?" asked Blue Beetle towards Superboy who piloted the New-Gene-Sphere.
"No clue," answered the half Kryptonian, "Do you think you can hack the cameras to see who we will be going against?"
"Sure," responded Blue Beetle as he transformed his right arm into a holo-gauntlet with a wireless short-antenna at the end which hacked the security systems.
"Accessing league security systems," said the Scarab within Jami's psyche.
"I can't really get anything; they must have disabled the cameras but, not the motion sensors; that's what triggered the silent alarm."
"Technology of unknown origin detected; not compatible!"
"What do you mean not compatible?"
"Who are you talking to?" asked Veronica as both her and Superboy looked on at him in confusion.
Beetle sighed exhaustedly and pointed to the pack strapped to his upper back, "The Scarab, it's some sort of artificial intelligence invented by the previous Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, sometimes it helps but, the rest of the time it can be very… vague."
Superboy softened his expression and looked back toward the sky, "some of the older members of the team met and knew him, good man. He would be happy that the Scarab went to someone worthy of it," he said.
"Thanks," Jaime responded looking down to his armored hands, "Guess he must have been some sort of super-genius; Captain Atom reckons that the Scarab was Kord's ultimate invention but, the light killed him before he got a chance to use it".
…
Washington D.C; February 13th 2019 – 10:55pm EST
"Roy, I know you feel lost," Dinah announced stepping forward, trying to comfort the former hero, "but, that doesn't mean you're alone."
"I'm not the one who's lost," he replied, turning back to the city streets.
"When was the last time you trained? The last time you had a good night's rest?" she asked folding her arms.
"Don't even start, i'm in the best shape of my life," he scoffed and turned back to her as she stepped up to a few feet away.
"Oh really," snarked Dinah as she spun and sent a roundhouse towards him which he barely dodged, she got her balance and threw two jabs which hit his chest until he broke her grip with his bow as she spun and pushed him backwards. The entire time he'd been backed into the ledge of the rooftop where he was currently hanging by a thread, Canary had caught him by the quiver-strap just before sending him tumbling a hundred feet to his death, "Best shape of your life?" She tugged him forwards sending him tumbling onto his hands and knees, "That was me holding back, way back," she made sure to put emphasis on her suppressing her strength for him, "Roy, you used to treat your body like a temple, but now…"
"My body is no temple," Roy said interrupting her as he looked down at the concrete ground, "I'm a cheap knock off, a clone," The rest of heroes gave each other solemn glances of uncertainty.
…
Back at the Hall of Justice, two figures lurked near the unguarded side wall which was littered with grass and trees; a big buff man with lots of facial hair and a unibrow dropped a suit-case and opened it revealing some sort of controller. His partner, a skinnier, curvier, red-head with exotic beauty looked around the corner keeping watch. Bruno Mennheim and Whisper A'Daire, members of the criminal group known as Intergang, were setting some sort of device of unknown origin up.
"So, what is this supposed to do?" asked Whisper as she looked back to the ugly man.
In the sky approaching the scene, the Super Cycle began to jitter and shake almost squealing with an odd sensation, "What's wrong with her?" asked Spiritus as she felt the hull of the bike trying to diagnose its problem.
"I've seen this before," Superboy answered pulling up a holo-screen, "there must be Apokoliptan tech nearby; most likely around the hall," he said as he began the decent of the vehicle towards the motion-sensor alarm.
"Which means what exactly?" asked Spiritus.
"It means bad news, there is only one group of people I know of that use this tech on Earth; Intergang. I went up against them a few years ago just after we found Sphere," Superboy explained as they landed and spotted the two figures nearest to the wall and holding some device of alien-desent.
"Company boss," Whisper announced as Bruno gave a sickening smile before activating his hand-held device.
"Too little, too late!" he responded as the device began emitting waves of crimson energy which were only visible on certain spectrums.
"Not compatible! Not compatible!" Shouted the Scarab in Jamie's head causing him to fall to his knees clutching his head in pain, he shouted out in agony as Veronica noticed and ran over grabbing him by the shoulder in an attempt to comfort.
"Jaime!" shouted Veronica as Superboy watched him react and kept one eye on the two villains, still assessing the situation.
Inside the Hall, four glass cases held four lifeless husks in the form of creatures that were once possessed by some alien force but, now spent their time as simple statues; until, of course, the chaotic-energy filtered into the room and symbols appeared on the husks in red. They broke their glass casing and answered the summons to battle as they approached the wall they got closer together where they began to form into one-another; the tree and stone became the base where-as the wood wrapped around the crystal forming a mighty right arm and the metal filtered through the wood strengthening it and becoming the left arm. It grew in size and in strength as all four combined into one and approached the wall where the signal came from; it easily walked through the concrete and dry-wall completely destroying it and appearing before the heroes and gang-members.
"What have you done?" shouted the half Kryptonian as before him stood an Appellaxian-Golem, which had never been seen before on Earth, standing at thirty-feet tall giving a ferocious roar which was unintelligible. It looked down and attempted to send an arm down on Bruno who manipulated the keys on his controller causing it to freeze mid-swing and lower its arm to its side.
Bruno uttered only one word and pressed down on different keys, "attack," The giant golem thrusted its stone fist towards Superboy, but he managed to backflip away thirty feet before leaping onto it's arm and scaled its massive body to uppercut it in the stone head-like base. It toppled back as Wolf snarled and sprinted forwards, using his razor-sharp fangs to tear a chunk out of its wooden leg. It stumbled backwards as Bruno struggled with the controls, suddenly though, a pink leash of mana wrapped around his arms and caused him to drop the device.
"What do you think you're doing?" Spiritus cried focusing one hand on Bruno and the other on comforting the recovering Blue Beetle; the beast looked down and noticed its controller being captured before stomping on the mana connection shattering it. Bruno quickly grabbed the device and stepped back behind the golem, Blue shook his head and stood facing Veronica.
"What is that thing?" He asked as Veronica shrugged and lept her eyes on the battle watching Superboy get tossed off of it with Wolf not far behind.
"Appellaxian Golem," answered the Scarab in his psyche.
"Blue, I'll use my mana to hold it while you attack; got it?"
He nodded and formed insectoid-wings flying up into the air as Spiritus focused her energy on the beast, "Necte Artes Magicas!" with those words, violet energy shackles bound together it's arms and legs as she struggled to hold the spell in tact with such a powerful target.
Beetle formed both hands into one single cannon which aimed down at the creature, "Take this!"
"Blue, NO!" shouted Superboy as he recognized the canon he was using and pieced together what would happen when the attack hit. He fired off a massive wave of intense sonic-energy which met the golem with a bright light, only, it didn't affect it physically and simply absorbed the energy into its crystal limb. It quickly shattered the energy-shackles and swung its fist back at the three heroes two-fold knocking Wolf and Superboy into a tree, Veronica into a nearby rock-structure, and Bettle into the ground struggling to stand. He was on his hands and knees when he looked up and watched the beast use its thick wooden foot to squash the bug into the ground, leaving him unconscious as it walked away towards its current controller.
"They're down, can we kill 'em?" Asked Whisper with a sinister grin.
Bruno scoffed, "Nah, trying to kill a Kryptonian can be… time consuming, and I don't even know who or what the other two are," he answered, "Besides, the League will be here any second; let's just get gone," He typed away a few commands on his device that was controlling the golem as it roared again, even louder this time and for longer than before. It arched its back and from it sprouted a massive pair of yellow translucent wings lowering its right claw as the two intergang members stepped on. The golem took flight surprising them with impressive speed for something of its size and weight.
…
Oliver pulled his hood back and put a hand on the kneeling Roy's shoulder, "Come back to Star City with me; It'll be like old times, you and me training, fighting crime, shooting the…" he was interrupted when the lost-man looked into his eyes, even through their masks, and glared at him.
"I think you're confused, probably thinking of the other guy, the original, the one you stopped looking for!" He stood up and pushed Arrow out of the way, moving to sit atop an air conditioning unit, "Me? I'm just…"
"We get it, you're a clone," said Jim, tired of his whining about not being the real version of himself, "but you're not the only clone on this rooftop, and I know from personal experience how difficult it was coming to grips with being a copy of someone else. That's why I gave up my identity as Guardian; so, I could figure out who Jim Harper was supposed to be."
"That's not the only thing you gave up," Roy responded looking down at his feet.
"Roy, you and I both know that we spent years looking for the original Speedy," replied the former hero, "and everyone else here did the same; we never found him because the Light didn't keep him alive, It was Cadmus policy to delete the source material. He's dead. Which is all the more reason for you to honour the Roy that was."
Roy looked up at the sky and pondered this statement but, simply couldn't accept it, he couldn't accept that the original was dead.
…
Atop the Super Cycle was Blue Beetle, Spiritus, Wolf, and Superboy attempting to track the energy signature of the escaped golem and the wanted criminals controlling it, "How are the ears?" asked Blue whom was protected by the backlash from the sound-attack by his helmet.
"Fine!" Superboy shouted back obviously having trouble with his hearing, "I mean, fine," he adjusted his voice and focused back on steering, "but what were you thinking using a sonic attack against an Appellaxian?" he continued with an annoyed tone.
"Dude, I've never even heard of an Appel-laxative or whatever you call it," Blue responded.
Superboy exhaled and rolled his eyes, "You freshmen never do your homework, haven't you read the case-file on the League's first mission?"
He received blank stares from Beetle who scratched the side of his head in response.
He groaned and responded, "The Appellaxians were a race of powerful energy beings that attacked Earth 20 years ago, they inhabited elemental host bodies, including one made of crystal that can absorb and redirect a sonic attack," he put emphasis on the final part of the sentence as Beetle realized his mistake and lowered his head.
"Oh," He responded, making himself look stupid, "so, if they were so dangerous, what were they doing inside the Hall?"
"The original seven Justice League members drove the aliens off world and their empty husks became the League's first trophies," answered Superboy, "Ugly's device must have reanimated the husks somehow and combined them into something for him to control; Sphere is tracking the device's Apokoliptan energy signature."
Arlington; February 13th 2019 – 11:10 pm EST
In the middle of the snowed over forest, the golem landed and let its passengers off, Whisper could hear the low moan coming from the golem, "It sounds sad and in pain," she said placing a hand on its wooden leg.
"Don't get sentimental on me now, A'Daire," her boss said "This is a construct of wood, stone, etc. This gizmo pulled together the residual psychic energy of its former alien hosts, but the monster doesn't feel anything; and with this thing as my enforcer, I can expand the reach of Intergang exponentially," he turned at the sound of a whistle from the sky, almost a sarcastically impressed whistle.
Superboy approached from the sky, bringing the Super Cycle to halt in the air about twenty-feet above them, "Wow Mennheim, five syllables, I didn't know you knew any words with more than two!" he scoffed sarcastically.
"Funny, but we'll see who has the last laugh after…" said Bruno he moved to control the monster with his device.
Superboy interrupted quickly and with a smile, "New Gene-Sphere, jam all Apokoliptan energy signals within a thousand-foot radius!" As soon as he said this the wheels of the Super-Cycle illuminated neon blue and caused the controller Bruno was holding to spark and short-circuit causing him to drop it at his feet. The golem promptly crushed the controller under its massive foot as he let out a loud roar into the sky with a ground shaking stomp.
"Uh oh," was all Bruno could say as the golem swatted both him and his accomplice off to the side, knocking them both out face-down in the snow. The creature roared again and moved to backhand the Super-Cycle out of the sky but, missed only the wind from its swing still sent them hurtling into the ground. Spiritus, Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Wolf all jumped at the right time to land on the ground safely as the golem then landed back down with great force, sending a wave of snow and mist in all directions and nearly sent the heroes flying. Wolf, using his powerful legs, jumped and bit the wooden arm of the golem with Superboy jumping to attack the other arm attempting to pin it down. However, the creature spotted this and tossed them both off into opposite directions as Blue formed both of his arms into a battering-ram and flew at high speed into the left shoulder causing it to stumble but, he was easily knocked off due to the golem's monumental strength. Spiritus quickly summoned four mana-tendrils to catch Jamie before he hit the ground, lowering him safely.
"Thanks," he said to her as her blush appeared almost non-existent within her violet skin until, she noticed the golem approaching from behind where her expression turned serious.
"Eradiko!" she shouted, shooting stream of lightning-like mana from her hands hitting it in the base of its chest sending back and causing it to it fall over. She huffed and grabbed Blue Beetle by the wrist as they sprinted toward Superboy but, she did not expect the creature to recover so quickly as it stood and turned towards the opposite direction. The golem saw what it wanted; a nearby nuclear power plant just beyond the forest and miles from civilization as the best realized what this meant for it and started its approach, retracting its wings in the process. Veronica and Blue helped Superboy and Wolf up as the beast left the area.
The guards at the power plant sounded the alarm upon saw the massive creature setting its sights on them, "What the hell is that thing?" the male guard yelled as he pulled his glock from its holster.
"I don't know," his partner replied, "but whatever it is, it shouldn't be within a mile of the reactor!" They both opened fire on the golem but the bullets left no visible damage on its body, simply bouncing off as if made of rubber.
Behind the tree line observing the situation were two hidden clearly muscular figures; one of them said to the other, with some sort of filtered sound in his voice, "Mixing an Appellaxian-Golem with the potential for a nuclear meltdown, sounds like a recipe for disaster."
"Want me to stop the thing?" the other figure said folding his arms.
"No, this incident, taken to its ultimate extreme, may prove useful but, you could deal with the interloper 'meat' back in the forest," he jabbed his thumb back towards where the creature had first landed.
"Happy to oblige, partner," the second figure walked back away from the nuclear-plant when the moon-light shun just right through the trees to reveal his short-blonde hair and hockey mask covering his face; Sportsmaster chuckled as he left the area.
…
Back in the middle of the forest, Superboy and Wolf recovered with little injury and looked around noticing the beast approaching the power plant in the distance; he quickly grabbed the two intergang members and pinned them up against two juxtaposed trees.
"Well done, Superbrat," said Mennheim sarcastically, "You freed the beast and now no-one's controlling it!" Superboy scoffed as he looked back at Beetle and nodded.
"Blue, lock 'em down," Superboy ordered and Blue formed two over-sized staple guns before shooting two braces from his transformed arms to keep the gang members in place on the tree, pinning their arms to their sides.
"That tactic would have been much more effective if you shot through their bones," said the Scarab in his thoughts as Beetle gagged and reformed his hands.
"Ew, just no," he replied out-loud.
"Blue, lets go, you can fight your inner demons later!" ordered Superboy as they all sprinted towards the power plant.
"Demon. Singular, one is enough, trust me!"
…
The golem was wreaking havoc trying to get the into the reactor-core, gripping the cylinder-towers that released the fumes from the core itself; it shielded itself with its crystal arm when he was shot with multiple blue and pink energy blasts from above and saw its previous adversaries. Spiritus and Blue Beetle floated of their own will above the creature raining down bolts of energy at it to draw its attention.
"Facio Gravis!" Veronica shouted as suddenly the creature fell to one knee, overwhelmed by an unknown increase in its weight outside of its control.
"Good!" Superboy shouted as he and Wolf sprinted on the ground toward it, "We can't let it reach the reactor!" The half-Kryptonian leaped into the air and shoulder-rammed it in the chest toppling it onto its back. Spiritus fired mana restraints into its arms, two on each bicep; Blue Beetle shot two metallic braces holding down its legs, while Superboy and Wolf jumped on each arm pinning it with all of their strength. Sphere, now transformed into its rolling-mode, flew down at high-speeds ramming it down further into the ground putting a circular dent into its torso.
"Sphere, Pill-bug mode! See if you can control it!" ordered Superboy as the Sphere unravelled and transformed this time into an insect-like robotic device that crawled atop the head of the creature. Sphere attempted to access its brain but, found nothing to connect to until it was clear it could not be controlled. The creature broke free of all of his restraints knocking Veronica back into Jamie's arms from the backlash of having her spell broken. Wolf, Sphere, and Superboy were subsequently tossed off with ease as the metal-braces were discarded with no effort.
Spiritus looked up into Jamie's armored eyes with a smile as she recovered, "Thanks," she muttered as she floated of her own will. They stared for a moment until a painful roar shook the area as the creature continued its search for the core.
"Uh, guys," Spiritus noted in a shocked tone placing her hands to her temples, "I'm sensing a weak signal of mana-energy coming from it, I think it's still alive!"
"Do you think you can communicate with it?" asked Superboy as he held his head and stood.
"No way!" She turned back and looked over at Jamie who raised a brow under his mask.
"What?"
…
"I'm whelmed by all of this attention," Roy said motioning to all of the heroes and former heroes on the rooftop with him, "but, what are you doing here, Tennyson? Last I heard you were somewhere in Tokyo taking out drug-dealers, permanently."
They gave a quick look to Ben who folded his arms and closed his eyes, "I made mistakes, I was in a bad place after the incident in New York; I've asked for forgiveness and a fresh start on the team and they gave it to me," he stepped forwards with his hand out, "I did some real good before all that and they gave me a second chance because of it, same goes to you, you saved me from Vandal Savage. Because of that you indirectly saved the world from the mind-controlled League," Roy looked and scowled slapping his hand away.
"What about you, West? I thought you ditched the hero-game," he turned to Wally who had been all but silent this entire time.
"And ditching the game isn't the same as ditching my friends," answered the former speedster stepping up alongside Nightwing.
"And before you round back to the original Roy again," continued Dick with his hands up, "let's face the facts, he was never our friend; we've all done the math, Speedy was abducted before any of us met," Roy just looked at him with calculating eyes, glaring into the past at their memories.
"You're the guy we trained with, fought beside," said Wally, "You're the only you we know."
Roy looked up from the floor as Dick chuckled, "Just because you're a clone with some anger management issues doesn't change the fact that you're our friend," said Dick.
"Seriously, have you not met Superboy?" Ben smiled and rolled his eyes.
"All done?" Roy said bluntly, catching the younger heroes off guard, "You want to salvage someone's soul, go get Kaldur to see the light; from what I hear, he needs course-correcting but, leave me out of it," He just walked back towards the ledge and pulled an arrow from his quiver aiming down at a lower rooftop, "Write me off, or don't, either way, leave me alone," he then proceeded to shoot the arrow and zipline away leaving the others astounded at his depressing arrogance.
.
Spiritus grabbed Blue by the shoulder and flew down towards the ground, "Use your sonics to communicate, you can catch the signal he's putting out and reverse it to understand what he's saying!"
"I can?"
"You can!" She smiled and stepped behind him, putting her torso against his back where he could feel her chest rubbing against his armor, she slid her hands down his arms and aimed them up at the beast, "I believe in you…"
He smiled and formed his largest sonic-cannon which he'd used earlier but, instead of attacking, he tuned it specifically for receiving other signals and sending them back. He fired it up at the creature, grunting as the signals bounced back and forth causing pain to rush through his head.
"Stop, Blue! Sonic-attacks don't work on the golems remember?" Superboy shouted springing towards them with Wolf and Sphere just behind.
"It isn't an attack," said Veronica, "He's trying to communicate," she stepped back as Blue Beetles eyes turned crimson and echoed the voice of a deeper, more matured creature.
"Where is the stillness of wood, of stone, of metal, of crystal?" He said in a saddened tone, looking around with solemn eyes, "All of this noise, all of this life, it's pain; we sense the power in this place," He pointed up at the power-plant, "power enough to destroy us, to end the pain, to be still again," Beetle cringed and fell to his knees in pain, "This life is pain!"
"I can relate," muttered Superboy, "I mean, we can help you, we will."
A figure stood in the tree line far behind them, smiling as it aimed a one-handed sonic-canon up at the creature, much larger than even Blue Beetle's, "Sorry, meat," the Partner spoke, "but, we can't have that," He fired a massive black-wave of sonic energy a hundred times stronger than the previous attacks used on it which overwhelmed the Golem, wood cracked and crystal shattered as Blue let out a whale of agony in response to the explosion that shortly followed.
Ashes of wood and specks of glowing crystal rained down around them as Superboy turned quickly to find who was responsible but, they had vanished.
"Don't know who you guys are, but you took that thing down!" said a security guard who came up running to see them, "You probably saved the whole Ease Coast!"
Blue was laying his head in Veronica's lap as he looked up and opened his palm allowing a few specks of ash to fall apart In his hand, "It was alive… and now, it's gone."
"Who fired that weapon? Who killed it?" asked Spiritus seriously after seeing her friend hurt and in pain.
"Someone ugly…" Superboy narrowed his eyes and turned back to the forest.
…
Superboy, Wolf, Sphere, and Veronica supporting Blue by the arm stepped into the clearing where they'd first arrived with the creature expecting to find broken bearings and missing captives.
"I'm telling you, they're long gone…" He said as he turned the corner and found the trees where they had been pinned only, Bruno and Whisper were still pinned, unresponsive and drooling on themselves.
"Their alive, but unresponsive," Veronica confirmed after scanning their vitals.
"Like brain dead?"
…
Sportsmaster approached his partner several miles from the clearing where they could see the smoke from the explosion, "Like you said, Ugly and Whisper are now a living warning to anyone else who considers straying from the path of the Light," He chuckled and folded his arms, "but, destroy the big bad? He could have been a valuable asset."
"An asset in enemy hands is an asset best disposed of," the Partner spoke and turned around leaving the scene silently.
"Partner, I like the way you think."
Palo Alto; February 14th 2019 - 12:03 am PST
Wally walked into his newly purchased house and closed the door behind him, hanging his coat on the rack, walking passed a sleeping bull-dog and stepping into the kitchen where he sat at the dinner-table. He let out a long exasperated sight as someone came from behind and placed her dainty hands on his shoulders, rubbing them softly.
"How'd it go?" asked a blonde who had her hair hanging down to her waist.
"It didn't; we talked, but he wouldn't hear us," Wally groaned and rubbed his hands down his face, "and on top of that, my Vietnamese-literature paper is still due at eight-in-the-morning. I don't suppose I could copy off yours?" The blonde leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, kissing him on the cheek in the process.
"Not a chance," Artemis said back as she stood and leaned against the wall next to the fridge.
"Hey," he checked his wrist-watch and smiled, "it's after midnight, happy Valentine's Day, Artemis."
"You remembered?" She gave a wide smile and almost giggled.
"Come on, what kind of jerk would I be if I forgot Valentine's Day… for the fifth year in a row?"
"Well, I guess it was a good thing I remembered too," she hummed as she swung open the fridge door revealing stock piles of meats, cheeses, deserts, and other delicious foods, "I got your favourite food; everything."
"Babe, you rock," he said walking over to the fridge and hugging his girlfriend tightly.
"Your still worried about Roy?" she muttered.
"He's lost, babe," he replied sombrely but, thought of something to cheer her up, "Dick decided to bring someone I wasn't expecting to be there."
"Who?" she wondered.
"Ben," he said simply sitting back down as she followed his example, putting her hand in her palm.
"What? really, when did he get back? It has been ages since anyone has seen him," she said reminiscing on the past.
"About a month ago, he's really different than he was; taller and more muscles," he chuckled and placed his hand on Artemis', "I could tell he still carries what happened in New York on his shoulders."
She sighed, "That damn Albedo…" she remembered what had happened and could almost feel the fear of being in the presence of an Evolved To'kustar and a Fusion To'kustar at the same time.
"I'm glad he's alight," she muttered, "Maybe we should invite him over for dinner sometime? Show him the house?"
"Sure, you know he's going to tease us about being together though, right?"
"I wouldn't expect anything less from Ben Tennyson," she giggled.
…
Elsewhere in the city, it was much more run down and was obviously not kept to that high of a standard. Roy broke into his own apartment, took off his domino masked and crashed down on the sofa.
"Well your looking worse for wear" a feminine voice said. His survival instincts kicked in, so grabbed his bow notched an arrow in. The figure stepped out of shadows and revealed herself to the assassin Cheshire.
"Chill Red, I'm not here to fight" she said putting down her mask "I'm here to clean your life".
"Oh god, not you too" he said, just completely tired of people trying to help him "well you can forget it Jade, you forgot the right to backseat drive my life when you returned to a life of crime".
"I didn't leave because of that, though it was a nice side benefit besides, I'm still your wife, legally. That grants me certain privileges to knock some sense into you". Sighing she continued "Roy, I left you because your obsession with finding Speedy was all consuming and left no room for nothing or no one else. Not me and not our daughter". Hearing this, brought Roy out of his stupor.
"We have a daughter?" asking in shock.
"Lian Nguyen-Harper. She needs her father Roy. You need to get your head on straight, for her" she said handing her baby to her husband "and that means exorcising Speedy's ghost once and for all. While I was away, I called in every chip I had. I got us a lead Red, one last chance to find the original Roy Harper". After hearing that, all Roy could do was look up at his wife from daughter.
Chicago; February 14th 2019 – 3:01 am EST
Ben used a key to unlock a rather large apartment in the inner-city where M'gaan had taken up recent residence in her Uncle's now abandoned apartment; she watered his plants, slept in his guest room, and used his kitchen and living area as she pleased, she knew he wouldn't mind so long as she cleaned up after herself. As he stepped in to the room and switched on the light, M'gaan was sitting on the couch watching tv, switching it off as soon as he entered the room, "How did it go? Did you make any progress?"
"No," he muttered as he passed her and entered the kitchen grabbing a small bottle of water, "He barely wanted to talk to us," he took a long sip before whipping his mouth.
She lowered her eyes at his tone, knowing he didn't want to talk about it, "What about your injuries? Any better?"
He groaned and sat down on the couch next to her, "My back still hurts a bit but, I think everything is pretty much healed…" he looked away and placed the water down, grabbing the blanket and pulling it over himself. There was an obvious tension in the room, building every time they were alone, not on missions but, she had elected to treat his wounds in her Uncles apartment and every time they were alone they both felt the irresistible need to ask questions, which they barely fought the urge to do.
"Good…" she pat her thigh and stood up, moving to the hall until he spoke up.
Ben cracked and had to ask, "Why did you leave, when you did…" He looked towards the ground with solemn eyes.
"You know why…" she looked away as well, not wanting to gaze at him.
"You never really told me why though," he huffed and looked bac to her, "You didn't call me, you couldn't talk to me? You couldn't give me even one chance to change your mind?"
She was silent as a tear formed in his eye, "Don't you think you owed me that?" He continued and stood up to face her, "You couldn't. You thought that little of me that you couldn't just call me."
She formed a tear in her eye and turned away, "Don't do this… not now, not after all this time."
He took another step forward, "Why?" he exclaimed, "Why not? Give me an answer, M'gaan?!"
She snapped and turned around, "Because I couldn't!" she sobbed as she swung her arm, "Because just hearing your voice, I would have changed my mind," she stepped toward him as a tear rolled down her cheek, "Is that what you wanna hear? Is that why you came back here?"
He opened his mouth to respond but, couldn't as he just wasn't able to find the right words, "You think it was tough out there, for you? What, you think it was easy here, without you?!"
He looked down and tried not to cry, "I'm so sorry," she leaned forwards and fell into his arms, "I promise I'll never be that person again," she buried her head into his chest and held him.
"It's not that simple, it's been so long, do you even feel the same way about me…?"
She waited for an answer until looking up into his eyes where she saw him smile down at her, "I have to tell you something."
She backed up and wiped her tears, "What? What is it?"
He turned away and pulled out a picture from beneath his Biomnitrix, he looked at it for a long moment before giving out a sigh, "When we were together, the Light took samples of my DNA and another donors to form a clone capable of using an Omnitrix."
She felt less emotional now and frowned as her tears dried, "Because only your DNA can activate an Omnitrix, right you've told me."
He turned around and handed him a picture of a boy, around fourteen years old, wearing a black tee with a white stripe down the middle, asleep upright in a pod; it looked as though the picture had been taken to add to some file but, he'd stolen it, "The DNA they used for the second half was Martian, but, when I cross-referenced the samples from an abandoned lab, they weren't Manhunters," he looked back to her with tears still welling in his eyes as she covered her mouth with her hand, "We have a son, and his name is Kenny."
She held the picture close and fell into his arms once again, completely unsure of what to say; they sat on the couch holding each other or hours until they both fell asleep in silence, lying together as they once did years ago.
…
Chapter 25
Credit for 70% of this chapter goes to dylan-bhurji
All I did was touch up some things and add in the last crucial part with M'gaan and Ben, so, hats off to him!
Review your thoughts!