Author's Note: And here's the next chapter! Alright, updated thoughts on how long this story is going to be: I'm thinking 30ish chapters? Probably. I can't see myself extending this to 60+ chapters, haha. But that's what I thought about all the rest, so… Anyways, read, review, and enjoy!
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Bart resisted the urge to bounce his leg up and down at superspeed when Garfield started talking, "I know that we probably made you curious or even wary when we asked to meet you in private like this. We are not here to try to hurt you, physically or emotionally. We want to help you."
"And you think we need help?" Starlight – Natasha Irons, if Bart remembered correctly – asked archly, clearly trying to not be offended.
"Yes," Garfield answered instantly, causing a number of eyebrows to fly up in surprise. Bart resisted the urge to whistle incredulously. Garfield was not pulling punches. Just as Starlight was gearing herself up to say something, Garfield started speaking again, "We don't think you need help because you're not capable of dealing with the threat yourself. We think you need help because you don't even know there's a threat you need to deal with."
"Even if there was some sort of threat, why would you tell us about it? You could let someone take out the competition," Starlight argued back. On either side of her, her teammates shifted nervously. They were clearly taking Garfield's words seriously enough to be afraid of this unknown threat.
Garfield frowned, "This isn't a competition, Starlight. This is the real world and we're heroes. It doesn't matter if our two hero groups seem competitive in the media. What matters is that there are people who need saving. Everyone deserves to be saved."
Starlight didn't seem to know how to take that. She drew back a little bit, finally breaking poise enough to glance slightly over at Trajectory. The girl shrugged a shoulder, expression troubled. Eventually, Starlight faced back towards Garfield, "Okay. What are you saving us from?"
"Well, hopefully it'll be our two groups working together to save you. But we're saving you from Lex Luthor," Garfield said.
Nuklon and Trajectory burst into raucous laughter, a hand over their mouths as they tried to calm down. Even Starlight had snorted slightly in surprise, "Luthor? You think we need saving from our benefactor?"
To Garfield's credit, he didn't even flinch, "Yeah, I do. He's not your benefactor. He's your controller. Have you heard of the Everyman Project?"
That got the Infinity, Inc. kids to quiet down real quick. It was almost impressive. Starlight's voice was cold again when she demanded, "How do you know of that name? Luthor said that it was a secret. He said that no one would know what it was."
"No one except someone who went through it and the scientists on the project," Garfield corrected.
"Someone who went through it?" Trajectory asked, "We're the only ones who went through the Everyman Project. It was theoretical until he -." She cut herself off quickly.
Garfield gave Bart the nod, so he picked up from there, "Until he gave the three of you your powers."
"How do you know that?" Starlight demanded again, something panicked in her eyes. It wasn't fear, though. She really didn't know anything about the Everyman Project.
Bart took a deep breath before bringing some of the files he'd been keeping in his ring. He passed them over to the three members of Infinity, Inc., ignoring their surprise at the files seemingly appearing out of nowhere. He started talking before they even started reading, "Those files are the from the testimony of someone who was a part of the early phases of the Everyman Project. Sure, you three probably are the first three to be given powers. But don't you think that Luthor would need to study metahumans before he could start making people into metas? Luthor bought and kidnapped metahumans and experimented on them for years to perfect that formula. Someone I'm good friends with was sold into the Everyman Project by his own father when he was eleven years old. He was there for two years before he escaped. Luthor managed to get him back when he was fifteen, but we rescued him eventually. He wasn't the only on to go through this, though. He's just one of the rare ones who survived the experiments."
There was silence, heavy and horror-filled, as Starlight, Nuklon, and Trajectory read through the information. It was only Wally's testimony in there. They'd give them more papers with more information when the time came. The Outsiders wanted to take this as slow as possible in the hopes that the Infinity, Inc. kids really believed them.
It was Trajectory who spoke first, "He's a speedster, like me?"
"Yeah," Bart said, voice soft, "Yeah, he is."
"He's alright now, though? He's safe?" Trajectory asked, glancing at Bart. She must have seen his wince because she started looking at the rest of the group, getting desperate when people dropped their heads, "Is he still alive?"
"Yes," Garfield said, "Well, hopefully. Yes. He's alive. Uh, the group Luthor works for got him back again over a year and a half ago. They lost him a little over two months ago. We… we don't know where he is. He and an Atlantean who was with him at the time went missing. We're looking for them, though. We're going to find them."
Nuklon looked sick, "That means that Luthor had him, was doing stuff to him while we – while we were getting our powers and – and praising him for being so kind and helping us like this."
"If what they're saying is true," Starlight interrupted, looking vaguely sick herself. Bart could understand why. They'd tried to cut down on the details as much as possible and be as clinical as possible when decided what parts of Wally's testimony they'd use, but it was still horrible stuff, no matter how much they took out. Bart almost wished that Wally was here to tell them this stuff. The dead tone in his voice, the way he'd had to pause and just breathe, the way he'd sometimes whisper to himself that he was out, was a lot more convincing than a sheet of paper ever could be. But Bart also wouldn't want to ever force Wally to talk about it again. When Bart, Barry, and Dick convinced Wally to talk about it for them to make the testimony, Wally had disappeared for the next week to go out and do a spree of super high-profile heists. It had caused a fight or two, but Bart kind of understood. For Wally, committing 'fun' heists like that were a stress relief. Bart could understand needing a stress relief after talking about stuff like that.
Ed grimaced, "Look, not all of us have read that testimony because most of us know who gave it and that's some seriously private stuff, but I've read it. You really think we're going to make all of that up just to make you suspicious of Luthor?"
"And did you really think that's the only evidence we have against the guy?" Vic asked incredulously.
"What other evidence do you have?" Starlight asked.
"Heaps of it," Jaime answered, "We've got several eyewitness reports of Luthor overseeing this. One from one of the scientists under his control, one from an ex-assassin with the League of Assassins, one from a current superhero who went undercover with the group Luthor's working with, several from all of the Rogues. That's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head."
"We also have digital evidence stolen from a facility with videos of Luthor overseeing this stuff and with signatures from Luthor signing off on these things. Plus, we know a group of heroes who actually fought him on more than one occasion when he was working that a certain group," Virgil added.
"You keep mentioning some group that Luthor's working with," Starlight noted, "What is this group? Who is it?"
The Outsiders went silent at that. Talking about the Light was… dangerous. These other teenagers needed to focus on getting out of the situation they were in. They didn't need to add a super complicated evil organization to their to-do list.
So, imagine his surprise when Garfield looks at Starlight and admits, "They're called the Light."
"Beast Boy!" Jaime and Bart hissed at the same time.
Garfield set his jaw and ignored them, "They are evil. Pure evil. This is only a small part of the horrible things they've done. They were the ones who brought the Reach to Earth. They were the ones who helped Luthor with his Everyman Project. They were the ones who ran Cadmus. They are the ones who are running the big metahuman trafficking ring. They're the ones who tried to kill my girlfriend on one occasion and kidnap her on another. They're the ones who are responsible for the deaths of several heroes. They killed my mother. At this stage, we can use all the help we can get to take them down. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm asking you to help. That's why my teammates were surprised I said anything. You have enough on your plate with Luthor. We would never ask you to take on more. But, you need to know this stuff. Luthor is incredibly intertwined with the Light. I don't want to give you only half the information."
The Outsiders settled, mollified by that admission. It was probably true. There were certainly a lot of times where Bart would have wanted to go into things with a lot more information than he actually had.
Starlight nodded to Garfield before gesturing her two teammates in closer. She started whispering to both of them. As a sign of respect, Bart and Jaime both turned their bodies away, looking at their own team and trying to ignore the whispering behind them. Bart caught the look that Tara was giving Garfield and wanted to wince. Right. He could imagine that this would be rough for Tara. What if they decided to look more into the Light and found Tara's involvement in it? What if they found out that she was the missing princess of Markovia, too? That would be a PR nightmare for King Gregor. And it would be a plain nightmare for Tara.
Starlight looked back at the group, "Do you have proof of the – of the experiments? Do you have the science? I want to take a look at it and see if it actually makes sense."
"Sure," Bart said, pulling out the rest of the information. He hesitated for a moment before handing it over, "Listen, there's something I want to tell you before you read it. It's part of why we think Luthor is a danger to you, specifically. There's… there's a kill switch built into the Everyman project. When the guy from the first papers ended up back with Luthor the second time, that was so Luthor could research putting in a kill switch on a metahuman's powers. There's no doubt in my mind that he did the same thing to you." He handed the papers over. All three of them were staring at him in horror, faces chalky white.
Trajectory whispered, "If he knocked our powers out during a battle…"
"You would die. Likely it would happen so fast that the public wouldn't even be able to tell that your powers had been cut. Your own teammates might not even realize that your powers had been cut, especially if you didn't know it was possible in the first place," Jaime answered, giving the straight truth but trying to gentle it with his voice.
Trajectory's hands clenched into fists, "It would be a publicity stunt. Or maybe he'd do it if one of us started getting suspicious or if we weren't performing as well. Maybe it would be all three reasons. But I could see him doing it. I would – he could kill us so easily and there'd be no way to prove it. To the rest of the world, there's, like, zero definitive information about metahumans. Even if there was an – an investigation, no one would be able to tell if it was purposeful or if my powers just – did something weird."
"Especially for a speedster," Bart added softly, "I don't know if you're the, well, the same kind of speedster as I am, but, for us, our powers are super confusing. It's really hard to tell what's normal or not."
Trajectory gave him a small, terrified smile, "I don't think I'm the same kind as you and Flash. I, uh, I'm not nearly as fast as you two."
"Not yet," Bart teased, trying to take a little of the terror out of her smile. He knew that what they were telling Infinity, Inc. was really, really horrible stuff and it meant they were in deadly danger. Still, they were here to help. They weren't alone anymore. If they worked together, then they wouldn't need to be so scared.
Trajectory snorted, dropping her head a little bit. Starlight spoke up next, "They're telling the truth. At least, the science checks out. Luthor… Luthor definitely did successful research on how to eliminate powers. Do you – do you know if the powers can be turned back on?"
"Yes," Bart answered, "Well, at the point where we last heard anything about it, it could be turned back on. But it also hadn't been perfected at the time. The person could get their powers to kinda sorta work while the powers were still 'shut off,' so…"
Starlight's shoulders dropped and she sighed, "Okay, we believe you. What do we do from here on out?"
"First, we've got some more information for you," Garfield said, waving his hand to get Jaime to hand over the papers. It was basic information detailing more of Luthor's deeds that they've witnessed over the years. Obviously, nothing they could definitively prove or Luthor would have been put away by now, but it was still things that for sure happened. They even talked about his connection with the Reach and their 'super drink' or whatever. There was a lot of information missing, though. They weren't expecting Garfield to tell Infinity, Inc. about the Light. Garfield continued, "Second, that's up to you, honestly. Like I said, we wanted to help you by making you aware of a threat. If you want us to do more, we're totally willing to do more. If you want us to back off, we will. Reluctantly. We want to help. We also really want to take this guy down."
Starlight scrubbed a hand over her face, "What can we even do? If we're looking at him like a villain, he owns us. We're not the slightest bit in control here. If we take him down, then we're taking ourselves down as well."
"Are you kidding?" Ed asked, "He might have you right now, but not if you take him down. You can make your own team. Run yourselves. No matter how you got your powers, you are heroes. That's not going to change. I mean, seriously, you guys were so ready to become heroes that you went through an experimental procedure to do it. That's awesome, guys. Losing your backing isn't going to stop that."
"Losing the money will," Nuklon frowned, "We don't always have a rich actor backing us."
"You could," Garfield said, "I would be fine backing you as well. Or I can find someone else who's willing to do it. Some people are just looking for reasons to spend their money. I can find someone who wants to spend it on aspiring heroes."
"Then we'd just be under someone else's control," Starlight said, clearly frustrated.
"Not if you don't let it. We're not under Beast Boy's control," Vic said, "He's a friend. He's a teammate and a team leader. He's not controlling us. And maybe this means that you just keep a backer long enough to be able to pay for it yourself. And even if not… there are heroes out there who aren't rich or famous. They survive on their own. They can do what they need to do with the money they have. You've got two teammates to help you bear that load. The Justice League is always willing to help out heroes, too. You don't even need to join. I know Nightwing gets help from the Justice League and helps them all the time. He can use their healing chambers and doctors and stuff, too."
Cassandra gave a wry smile, "Here's another point against Luthor if you need one: he's trying to destroy that. Anyone who's not part of a big group that's registered with the United Nations will be screwed over. They'll be considered illegal vigilantes and they'll have to fight against the bad guys and the good guys. They won't have the resources they have now, not unless whatever group they want help from wants to break the law."
"Luthor's using us to do that," Nuklon said, putting his head in his hands. He hissed out, "I feel so stupid. How could we not see that we were being used?"
Garfield frowned, likely remembering the recent fight with Batman and his band of merry liars, "Trust me when I say that we've all been there in some form or another."
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure you haven't been helping a supervillain who tortures people in the name of 'science' just because you've been wrapped around their finger," Trajectory said miserably.
Tara reached over and poked Garfield. Garfield grimaced but nodded. Tara took a deep breath before she said, "I have."
Starlight's head whipped up, "What?"
Tara's lips trembled, but Brion grabbed her hand and she managed to rally herself, "I have. The Light? Deathstroke is working with them. Over three years ago, he kidnapped me, gave me metahuman abilities, and – and did awful things to me. He made me feel like I was reliant on him. He made me scared of him. And he made me into a monster. I did… a lot of bad things. He sent me undercover with these guys, so I could report on them to the Light. I did it because they had that guy you read the testimony of. He's like a brother to me at this point and they said they'd hurt him if I didn't keep being a spy. So, I did. When he escaped, though, I told these guys the truth and I stopped being a part of the Light. So, yes, I understand what it feels like to be used and used and used and not truly understand just how much."
"Terra," Starlight said softly, clearly unsure how to respond to something like that.
Garfield reached behind Brion to put a hand on Tara's shoulder, "I can't name a single one of us who hasn't been horribly hurt by the Light. We've been betrayed and used and abused by them. We're going to take them down. Maybe one at a time. Maybe all at once. But Luthor's been part of the main group of the Light for at least a decade at this point."
Starlight looked to her teammates, getting sharp nods from each of them. She turned back to the Outsiders, "We'll help you take Luthor down. And… and we'll help you take the rest of the Light down. Because you're right. We are heroes. We're here to save people."
"That means a lot to us," Garfield said warmly, "I look forward to working with you."
Hesitantly, Starlight smiled at him, "Yeah, same. Now, we've got just under an hour to make a game plan. Should we get started?"
Both teams smiled at each other and easily dove into conversation. This was working better than Bart could have hoped.
WWWWWW
Wally drifted slightly. He'd managed to get night punishments all the way up to the day they were going to be transported to the heroes. That meant that he was really, really tired. Like, really tired. He wanted to sleep for the next three years. Maybe Ra's al Ghul had realized that Wally was going to plan an escape and he wanted to put Wally out of commission before he could act on it.
That sounded like Ra's, honestly. Douchebag.
Wally groaned, clutching his head. He had a headache. Jason elbowed him sharply, "Maybe if you'd listened to me and stopped making him mad, you wouldn't be feeling like this!"
Wally groaned again, dropping his head further down. His voice was muffled but serious when he said, "Not now, Jason." He could feel Jason's muscles tensing, but he didn't do anything other than put a comforting hand on Wally's back.
Wyynde spoke softly, "Try to get some sleep while we are sitting here. We will wake you up if anyone comes."
"It's fine," Wally said, "I've got too much of a headache to sleep anyways."
"We are almost out," Wyynde responded, running a gentle hand through Wally's hair, "Once we are back with the heroes, things will be better."
Wally sighed, "I wish we could help Damian."
"Talia's kid?" Jason asked curiously. Wally nodded before wincing and just giving them a thumbs up. Jason made a soft 'hm' sound, "Unless we could get your collar off, there's no way we're getting the kid with us. We'll have to come back for him."
Wally snorted, "Yeah, like they're going to still be here once we leave. You said the heroes already know where this place is. They'll be out probably at the same time we are." He wished it was as simple as just getting his inhibitor collar off. Especially if it meant there was a reason to get it off. He knew that Wyynde and Jason were worried about taking it off because they thought he was going to split the second it came off (they were right). There was a good chance that, if he ended up with the heroes, he'd never get the thing off. And he needed it off. The longer the thing was on, the worse it got. There was some sort of impotent anger rising and falling in his system.
Wyynde had said that he found Wally with an inhibitor collar around his neck. How long has it been since Wally had gone without one? When he thought about it and tried to remember, that impotent fury rose within him. There was something about that inhibitor collar, about needles, about a little girl that made his power spark and writhe under his skin. Something that made him angry, especially at the collar. He could feel his powers shoving against the inhibitor collar, warring with it, trying to beat it.
He didn't understand why he felt this way. He didn't remember. Sometimes, when he saw the scars covering his body, when he remembered needles and scared little girls, he thought that he really wasn't sure if he wanted his memories back. Most of the time, that wasn't true, but… there were times he felt that way.
Wally was scared of his memories and, at the same time, wanted them more than anything.
None of that mattered, though, when the door opened, putting all of the residents of the island in the same room. Jason, Wally, and Wyynde stood. They tensed, wary, when Ubu and Sensei came to cuff them all. Wally grimaced when they clicked the cuffs around their wrists before wrapping a chain through the cuffs, around their waists, and then down to their ankles where another set of cuffs kept their legs close to each other. This felt a little like overkill. Well, Wally was at least glad that they didn't feel the need to loop the chain through his inhibitor collar, too.
Still, these demeaning restraints caused that anger to bubble up just a little further.
Once they were properly secured, Ra's al Ghul motioned towards the door with his head. They filed out, shuffling as quickly as they dared, lead by Ubu and followed by the others. It wasn't until they were in the main courtyard that Ra's decided to address them again.
He looked them over, lips pursing in what was probably disappointment, "I have trained you as much as I could in the time I had with you. Now, you must go back to the heroes and help them. They are facing a great threat. It is one that could easily end our world. And it is not the Light. There is something far greater and far more dangerous. Gather as many allies as you can."
"Or," Wally said, testing a theory while letting out his inner snark, "You could just come with them and tell us yourself. Or, like, actually give us information." Jason hissed in annoyance behind Wally, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that when Sensei punched Wally in the face, it ticked his underlying fury up one more notch. Perfect. Escape plan perfected.
Ra's gave Wally a disappointed look, "There was a time, when you were younger, that I really thought I could make a good assassin out of you. Maybe I could have molded you when you were younger. Clearly not anymore."
"Clearly you were too stupid to realize that I'm not going to play pet assassin for you," Wally grinned. Ra's twitched before sighing. Apparently, Sensei took that as permission to throat chop Wally. Honestly, if Sensei was any less skilled, that would have killed Wally. Jason and Wyynde's hands were at his back, holding him up and trying to pull him back where, presumably, they thought he could cause the least amount of damage. Too bad for them. Wally grinned at Ra's, speaking through a hurt throat, "Rude. Also lazy. You going to have Sensei do all the work for you?" Sensei kicked Wally's legs from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. Wally had to catch his breath before he continued, "Oh, I see now. You're too old to come down here and do it yourself."
Sensei landed a barrage of punches on Wally, sending him curling into himself on the dusty floor. Ubu was holding back both Jason and Wyynde. Once Sensei was done, Ra's glared down at Wally, "Gag him." No, no, no. Wally needed to get angrier. Just a little more. He was almost there. Just a little more and he'd be free, and they'd all get out of this mess.
Sensei kicked him in the head, dazing him as his face slammed against the ground. Sensei yanked him back by his hair, grabbing a wad of something and putting it in Wally's mouth. He quickly grabbed a length of cloth and tied it around Wally's head, keeping the wadded-up thing in his mouth. The whole time, Wally was struggling, kicking and hitting and wriggling as much as he could with his arms and legs and waist chained together and a huge assassin sitting on his back.
In the end, though, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because the second that cloth was tied around his head, Wally snapped. No one – no one – was going to take away his ability to talk. Not after everything else he had suffered. Not after so long of being hurt and afraid. How dare they?
Despite having zero recollection of ever having used superspeed, the feeling of it rushing back into his veins is familiar and more comforting than he could have imagined. In less than a picosecond, he had slipped out of his bonds and stood up. He could feel his inhibitor collar short-circuiting around his neck. He was glad it didn't shock him to.
There was something good, something powerful in the way fear danced in the eyes of the assassins around him. Good. They should be afraid. Maybe Wally was a Rogue and maybe they weren't particularly villainous. But Wally didn't remember being a Rogue and he was feeling really, really villainous. He had Damian in Jason's arms and Ra's, Talia, Ubu, and Sensei all tied up before anyone could so much as twitch in response.
Ra's al Ghul laughed bitterly, "I suppose I should have seen something like this coming. You have faced a lot in your life, even if you do not remember it. What will you do with us now?"
Wally glared down at him, lightning racing through his veins and crackling over his skin. He felt powerful. He felt like he could do anything. And yet… "I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to take the others and I'm going to leave."
"You would leave us tied up?" Ra's asked mildly.
"No, of course not. I'll chain you up. Much harder to get out that way," Wally answered, giving him what was probably a mildly unhinged smile.
Ra's raised an eyebrow, "We would die."
"Not my problem," Wally answered.
Behind him, Wyynde hissed, "Wally!"
"What?" Wally asked, "If they can't get out, then that's their own fault."
"Please, please don't kill anyone – or leave anyone to die which is the same thing – in front of a baby," Jason said, sounding tired and maybe a little scared, too.
Wally looked back. He could see Damian staring at him placidly. Talia was looking at him, too. There was fear in her eyes and Wally had, for a moment, believed that it was fear of him, and he'd been proud. It wasn't, though. Despite all the odds, despite her callous behavior, despite her likely being a sociopath, she cared for that baby. She was terrified at the idea of losing him.
Wally forced himself to calm down. He ripped the dead inhibitor collar off and stomped on it once, using those actions to let some of his anger bleed out. He tied Ubu, Sensei, and Ra's al Ghul to nearby trees. He had no doubt they could get out of that. It would just take a while. A long while. Probably not long enough for them to suffer, unfortunately, but long. Then he grabbed the chains that had been used to secure him and he further restrained Talia. He ran through the hallways, finding her room and gathering together anything baby-related that he could carry. He rushed over to the pier and dropped it all in a boat.
He was something approaching calm when he finally got back to the courtyard where the others were waiting. Wyynde and Jason looked almost like they were afraid of him. That made something in his gut lurch, but he ignored it for the moment. He frowned at them, "There's a boat already warming up at the pier. It's got Damian's stuff in there. Take it and go wherever you need to go. I'm out."
"Wait!" Wyynde cried. Wally looked back at him. Wyynde bit his lip and said, "Your nose is broken. Please let me set it before you go out."
Wally felt his shoulders droop in relief. Good. That was good. That meant that Wyynde wasn't really that scared of him. Wally nodded and walked over. Wyynde had just put his hands on Wally's nose when an inhibitor collar cinched around his neck.
Author's Note: Haha, cliff-hanger, yay! Thanks for reading!
