Chapter 12
A/N: hey guys welcome back! Glad to see y'all again and hope y'all're enjoying the story. I just own my OCs, nothing else.
/comms/
Telepathy/flashbacks
Bialya, September 4, 00:16EST
Amber glode over the desert, her glowing wings leaving a thin trail of light behind her. Seeing she was sinking lower to the ground, her wings began to flutter once again so she could stay out of sight. Her stealth suit could only do so much to hide her massive wings; and it didn't help that she didn't really know how to stop glowing. It was just something that happened.
A shrill whistle caught her attention, making her stop to look around before yelping as a black and amber blur dove past. Scowling, the other girl, crossed her arms as Skylar flew back up to meet her, a wide grin on the redhead's face. "Was that necessary Remix?"
"Would you rather I scream your name and potentially give ourselves away?"
"You knocking me out of the sky could do the same."
"I had it under control," she waved her concerns off. It was then her face turned serious, "Have you heard from any of the others?"
"We can't use comms, remember?"
"I know," Remix said. "But we're back in range of the link. And I haven't heard anything."
The black-haired girl's brows rose, "Neither have I…Come on, we're not far from the rendezvous!"
Picking up the pace, they flew towards the spy point, diving down as they saw the area with the scanners set up. The empty rendezvous point. "Where…where is everyone?"
Amber looked around, biting her lips as she failed to find footprints in the sands. It was likely that the night breezes wiped them away. "I don't know, but we need to find them."
-.-
A dull throb pulsing through was the first thing that registered as consciousness returned. Sitting up, M'gann rubbed her forehead. Oh gods, what happened? A breeze brushed by her, causing her to look up as red hair entered her vision and she saw a vast desert night sky. It wasn't an unusual sight, Mars has such sights too, but…something was off. The moon was brighter. Reaching down, she let the sand shift through her fingers her brows furrowing. It didn't feel like the sands on Mars; it was…coarser. Looking back up at the sky, she saw that there was a colored tint to the sky as the dawn slowly approached, unlike Mars, which has a dull gray-white color. This early sunrise had a green color as the first rays of golden light began to seep through.
"Hello Megan!" she exclaimed facepalming. "I'm on Earth!" Rising to her feet, she dusted the sand off her clothes looking around for some sort of explanation as to how she got there. Her plan to get to Earth had been by her uncle, and he wasn't anywhere nearby. She tugged at the edges of the strange cloak wrapped around her shoulders before looking at the dark costume she was it. It looked similar to her uncle's, but why was she wearing it? "Is this a dream?"
Something exploded behind her, blasting the Martian girl off her feet. Rolling back to her feet with an ease she couldn't remember ever having she found herself looking at a boy with black hair, fair skin, and dark blue eyes. He was cute, but what mostly drew her attention was the glaring red symbol on his chest.
"I know that symbol," she recognized looking up at the man again in surprise. He was younger than she imagined, "Are you Superman?"
This question seemed to anger him. The teen before her released what could only be described as a feral howl, ripping the shirt on his chest and lunging at her. With reflexes she didn't know she had, M'gann leapt out of the way and got back to her feet to see him lunging at her once again. She shot up into the air, hoping that would bring her out of reach of the stranger's rampage. She didn't understand. She'd seen plenty of Earth TV to know their language.
Unless what her uncle said was true and humans spoke hundreds on languages on their own world unlike her people. But her telepathy made her able to understand any language, why couldn't see communicate with him? It was like he was a wild animal.
A shockwave rippled under her and her eyes widened as she saw the stranger leaping at her, jumping high enough to get above her. He raised his fists above his head and M'gann instinctively raised her hands, forming a telekinetic barrier. The impact he made sent a shockwave out, sending both of them blasting back in opposite directions.
Crashing into the sand, M'gann quickly sat up looking around to see if her attacker would return. Seeing nothing, she brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, ignoring the tears forming in her eyes. Why was it that her biggest dream seemed to be turning into a living nightmare?
-.-
Robin groaned, holding his head as he stumbled to his feet. Resting his palm on a rock he looked around trying to find a landmark or something that could tell him where he was. Something in the distance caught his attention, he narrowed his eyes trying to filter through the blinding light of the dawn to discern what it was.
What he was able to make out was a approaching cloud of dust. That meant something was moving towards him.
Not knowing if it was friend or foe, the Boy Wonder slunk back behind the rock he was leaning against, quickly climbing up the back to see what was passing him. Whatever it was, it could give him a hint as to wherever he was. He flattened himself to the rock, peering over carefully as he watched an armored truck with soldiers pass by.
The flag on their shoulders made his brows furrow as he slid back and pressed his back against the rock and pulled out his hologlove, "Those are Bialyan Republic Army uniforms," he muttered while typing, "but what are Bialyans doing in…" he blinked as he saw his GPS coordinates, "Bialya. Rephrase: What am I doing in Bialya?" Another detail on the screen caught his attention, causing his jaw to drop, "In September?! What happened to March?"
Something was definitely wrong. He was in a hostile country with no memory. Something happened and whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. Robin reached up to radio his mentor only to stop as something in his gut told him to stop.
A sharp pain stabbed through his skull, and for a moment, he could see the form of Batman standing in front of a monitor explaining something, saying something about radio silence.
A memory. Ok, so he knew he was coming here. But why? And with who? Batman said radio silence, but the way he was explaining it, it was like it was to a group. Who all came with him?
A black cloth caught his attention as it rolled along the ground in the small breeze that blew by. Jumping down, Robin scooped up the cloth, his brows furrowing as he saw a familiar red symbol.
Ok, so what did he know so far? Well, he was in Bialya, he knew he was coming, he had no memory of the last six months, and he came here with others, one of which was associated with Superman. Putting the evidence of the Kryptonian ally he pulled out his hologlove again and he began typing. There had to be more explanations stored in here somewhere.
-.-
It was warm…really warm. Warmer than Gotham should be in March. Furrowing her brows, she could now feel a warm hand on her shoulder, carefully shaking her. "Hey, wake up," an unfamiliar, but concerned voice spoke.
So, whoever she was with, didn't seem to have any malicious intent so far. Which was a good thing considering Gotham's lowlifes.
Artemis forced her eyes open, grimacing as pain came through her head. God, she had a killer headache. Maybe she partied a little too hard with her friends? Her blurred gaze landed on a grey and red blur kneeling beside her. Blinking to clear her vision, she found her eyes widening as she recognized the figure in front of her: Kid Flash.
Kid Flash, the fastest kid alive, was leaning over her, shaking her shoulder.
The implications made her scramble to her feet.
The redhead's green eyes widened and he raised his hands placatingly, "Hey! Hey! It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "I'm one of the good guys, you know, Kid Flash."
Looking at the hero, her brows furrowed. "Seen Kid Flash on the news, he doesn't wear black."
The speedster looked down at himself, looking confused. "I'm not too clear on that myself," he confessed. "What about you? Green Arrow fixation?"
Artemis looked down to see what he was motioning to and her eyes widened in shock. She was in a uniform, a hero-like uniform. It was green and there was an arrow symbol on her chest. "Who put me in this?!" she exclaimed.
The speedster shrugged, rubbing the back of his head showing his discomfort. "Wow, I'm not touching that with—so anyways," he cut himself off, "you know how to use that bow?"
Kneeling down, she picked up said bow scrutinizing it. It was her bow alright; at least there was something familiar here. "Yeah, my dad taught me," she said before almost slamming her head against the wall. Of course, who else would do this? "Dad, he must've done this! Another of his stupid tests!"
This caught Kid Flash's attention as he crossed his arms, looking serious. "What kind of tests?"
"He probably wants me to kill you."
The boy's eyes widened. She didn't blame him, no doubt being told that the person he likely just saved had to kill him had to be unnerving. Though, he was a hero, so perhaps that happened more often than she thought.
A shrill whistle hit her ears causing her to look up in confusion. "What's that sound?"
While she didn't know what sound it was, Kid Flash did, because before she knew it she was scooped off her feet and was blinded by sunlight as they burst from the shack they'd been hiding in. Looking back to the house, her eyes widened as she saw something crash into the roof.
The resulting explosion knocked the hero off his feet, knocking them both to the ground. Sitting up, they looked to see tanks approaching, soldiers standing and running nearby with guns. One shouted something and they opened fire.
Bullets sprayed the sand as they landed on the ground by them. Thankfully, these soldiers seemed to have as good of aim as a stormtrooper so far.
Artemis reached into her quiver, pulling out an arrow. She notched it and fired, the arrow flew and, to her surprise, when it hit one of the trucks, it caused an explosion. She couldn't remember having explosive arrows, but hey, she wasn't one to complain about good fortune.
The truck she hit flew into the air, almost landing on one of the tanks.
Her legs were sweeped out from under her, causing her to yelp. Turning to face the culprit she saw she was back in the arms of Kid Flash, "Sorry," he apologized, "they've got bigger arrows."
Well, he wasn't wrong. "Thanks."
The redhead gave a wide, lopsided smile, "Hey like I said: good guy. Now, not to pry, but what's your name? And what's this thing you said about killing me?"
-.-
Nightmare groaned as he sat up, shielding his eyes from the rising sun, he looked around to see miles and miles of sand stretching out before him. "Where am I?"/span Getting to his feet, he felt cloth rubbing against his torso and lower legs, looking down, he froze in shock; he had boots covering his feet, black pants, a red belt with two ropes hanging from his sides, and a black and red vest with a golden W on the front; not his normal lab suit. "What am I wearing?!"
Spotting some cliffs in the distance he ran for them, getting close he skid to a stop, tripping over himself and rolling through the sand. In the lab he'd never gone that fast, mainly because he was always having to watch for obstacles and adversaries sent to test him. Scrambling back to his feet, he ran over and dug his claws into the rock as he started climbing, sliding down as his boots didn't grip as well as his claws.
Getting to the top he could see smoke in the distance, and where there was smoke, there was people. "Great," he muttered. Jumping down, he rolled to his feet, looking back at the smoky pillar, he sniffed the air, some of the scents coming from the direction seemed familiar…but from where?
Sighing he turned in another direction where the same scents were coming from, but it was faint, like they hadn't been there in a while. Perhaps, wherever that scent was coming from could give him some answers on what the heck was going on.
-.-
Amber bit her lip as she tried to find her teammates. Something was wrong, she could feel it. There was so much rage, pain, and confusion in the air. How was she supposed to find anyone based on their feelings?
Looking over the endless horizon of sand and desert rocks. She could see some smoke, but that was probably Skylar losing her cool. But at least she could possibly attract the attention of their missing teammates.
She bit her lip, gliding down and standing in the sand. She needed to focus. She had to locate her teammates. There had to be a way to filter through all the emotions around to figure out who was who. Amber knelt in the sand and closed her eyes.
Rage bombarded her. It was just that, pure unbridled rage. A need to destroy anything and everything in sight. She gasped, opening her eyes, and wrapping her arms around herself. God, that…who was that? Who could possibly be that mad? Could be so lost? She'd never even sensed Sky that mad. And whoever it was, it wasn't Sky.
Trying again, she closed her eyes and dove back into the fog of emotions radiating around her. The rage pressed against her, but she pushed past it, trying to narrow down on someone else. Someone who she could feel more clearly.
There was a lot of confusion. Focusing on that she furrowed her brows. She could feel multiple sources, some stronger than others. But she couldn't tell from who or how close they were. Aurora was caught off guard as stabbing pain hit her.
Stifling a cry, the heroine almost doubled over as pain poured over her. It felt like the lab, like when the scientists would test them to see how much they could handle. Someone or something was in so much pain.
"Hello? Team?"
Another wave of pain came through. Even though the pain was not hers, it felt like it was spreading through her own body. Her muscles felt like lightning was being blasted through them repeatedly, lighting every nerve on fire.
"M'gann! Thank God!"
Tears began to stream down her fact as the pain began to return after a short reprieve. This time was going to be worse. She knew it. The pain had only been getting stronger. It would continue to get stronger till she broke.
"Aurora?"
Her muscles seized all at once, making her double over with a cry of pain. Fear began to interlace with the pain and confusion around her.
"Amber!"
Another reprieve came and she felt fear. Her body shaking from the pain and the terror. Her body throbbed with pain.
"AMBER!" M'gann called, landing beside the other girl. The girl's eyes were glowing solid cyan, tears running down her face as she gave pained whimpers, her body shaking. Thinking quickly, M'gann rapidly shook her.
The glow faded as Amber's head snapped to the side. Her breathing was slightly shaky as she slowly reached up to touch her reddening cheek. Glowing eyes blinked and looked between the two of them. "M'gann?"
"What happened?"
"I…I was trying to find our teammates, through their emotions," she supplied wrapping her arms around herself. "Someone…someone is in so much pain."
M'gann frowned, thinking of her own fragmented memories. Was what they were sent here to investigate what Aurora sensed? "We'll help then," she said patting her friend's shoulder. "But first we need to find the others. They lost their memories, I just regained mine—well, some of them."
"It's better than nothing," Aurora said standing up. "What do you remember so far?"
"I'll explain on the way, Sky found Wally and Artemis."
-.-
KF slid to a stop panting heavily as he set Artemis down, "Sorry," he gasped between breaths, "running on empty, don't think I've eaten in a while." Standing up, he revealed a small compartment hidden in his suit's sleeve. The speedster frowned as he slammed the shut in irritation, "Must've been out here for over twenty-four hours, or my cupboards wouldn't be bare."
"Well that still doesn't explain what happened," Artemis pointed out.
Kid Flash opened his mouth to answer when he noticed a shadow that seemed to be getting larger. Glancing up, he could make out something descending towards them. He grabbed the blonde, barely pulling her out of the way as whatever it was made impact, sending a plume of sand into the air, the shockwave from the impact knocking both teens off their feet.
As they stumbled to their feet, Kid Flash was caught off guard as a shirtless guy lunged at them through the dust cloud. He threw his fist, hitting the speedster in the gut and sent him flying back into the cliffside.
Artemis's brows shot up as their attacker turned to face her and she grabbed an arrow and fired it at him. The explosive arrow only seemed to tick him off more. He leapt at her and Artemis sprang out of the way to avoid the attack. Only, a rush of heat and a shadow blasted by and the blonde felt the shockwave of a powerful punch.
The feral guy who attacked them for no reason flew over her head and crashed into nearby dunes. With wide eyes, Artemis turned to see a redheaded girl standing nearby. She had massive wings that looked like fire, her hair did too, and she was wearing mostly black with what looked to be feathered shoulder plates. Whoever this was, she didn't recognize her.
Green eyes flickered to her and the girl ran over, kneeling down and helping her up before flying across to the cliff and doing the same with Kid Flash. "Thank God," she groaned, "I've been looking for you guys everywhere."
"Do we know you?" Artemis muttered.
The winged girl laugher, rolling her eyes, "Ha, ha. Very funny." She crossed her arms, looking irritated, "Seriously though, where the hell have you guys been?! We left on recon for twenty minutes! Twenty fucking minutes! And when we came back you all were gone! What the hell happened?!"
"That's what we've been wondering," Kid Flash said standing next to Artemis glancing at her worriedly. "Seriously, I don't know you, red. Who are you?"
The girl opened her mouth only to dive forwards as the rage-filled lunatic came back. She knocked them out of the way, before rolling back to her feet. It was then Artemis noticed the Morningstar on her hip. She knew that weapon, if she was remembering correctly, there were only two heroes who used it.
The girl pulled the weapon off her hip and swung it. The spiked weapon slammed into the stranger's head, snapping it to the side and the archer could see scratches forming on his face. The new girl whirled on her heel, swinging her weapon again and ramming it into his chest, sending him flying away from them.
Artemis may not know this chick, but she wasn't going to complain. Girl saved their butts from a lunatic, and she helped a hero, which meant she couldn't be all bad.
An explosion sounded nearby, causing all heads to turn as they heard gunfire follow swiftly. Feral boy got to his feet in a new crater and he leapt at a tank that was approaching. "Who's side is he on?"
"You wanna stay and find out?" Kid Flash asked.
"Nope," the blonde said.
"He's our teammate!" the new girl protested.
"Help him if you want, he attacked us!" Kid Flash snapped swooping Artemis off her feet and running off.
Skylar hissed through her teeth, small wisps of smoke coming out. What the hell was wrong with everyone? Looking between the two groups, she ground her teeth and flew after Artemis and Wally. As much as she detested leaving a teammate behind, she needed answers, and out of all of them Superboy was the least likely to give her answers and he was the most capable of handling himself.
Two drones zipped over her head, causing her to flap her wings and fly after them as they chased Wally and Artemis. Coming over a ridge she saw that the pair had fallen and the drones were turning around the shoot at them.
"Don't worry we're almost there!"
Skylar yelped as an arrow nearly impaled her. "Artemis! Watch it!" she hollered before using her wing to shield herself as the two drones collided. Crashing to the ground, she sat up, shaking sand off her before glaring up at M'gann and Amber as they landed.
"Hey J'ohn," Wally sighed, standing up, "not sure the new body screams 'Manhunter'."
"You really are dragging out this amnesia BS Wally?!" Skylar snarled causing the speedster to jump and face her.
"Wait…how do you know my name?"
"Your name's Wally?"
"We're teammates, friends," M'gann said stepping forwards, "I made you all cookies."
Artemis raised a skeptical brow, turning to the speedster, "You know them?"
Skylar raised a brow as well in curiosity. Was Artemis jealous?
"I swear beautiful, I've never seen them before in my life!" he defended himself to the archer.
"Holy shit," Sky shook her head, trying to repress her laughter, "You weren't kidding about the whole no memory thing were you?"
"No!" they exclaimed.
"That explains it," she smirked. "Anyways, I think that means reintroductions are in order. I'm Remix Hawkman and Hawkwoman's daughter."
"Why not just Hawkgirl?" Artemis frowned.
"Where's the fun in being generic?"
"Then you couldn't pick a name that made sense?"
"I like throwing people off their rhythm."
"I'm M'gann, or Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter is my uncle," M'gann spoke up. "And this is Aurora, she's Captain Atom's protégé."
"Well, you guys already seem to know us," Artemis mumbled.
"Yep."
"We should get moving," Aurora spoke up, "We still have to find the others."
-.-
Serket crossed his arms as he watched the weapon Cadmus failed to contain struggle against the ropes used to restrain him as the troops were desperately trying to hold him in place. His eyes narrowed, and his tail twitched. Normally the clone displayed some intelligence, but now, he was just an animal.
Seemed almost fitting for an inferior mistake.
The clone roared, pulling on his arm and yanking the men holding him overhead before the crashed on their comrades. "We should put him down," a voice spoke to his right. Glancing in their direction, he met the emerald gaze of a pale brunette with green highlights and massive wings that faded from blue-green scarlet to bright yellow.
"He was ordered to be brought in alive, Firebolt," Serket pointed out.
"You know what I meant."
The Arabic teen sighed, raising his hands in defeat, "Fine, you got me, I've had my fun." Striding forwards, he smiled tauntingly as the rampaging animal turned to face him. It started to charge when he shifted his feet, causing the sand to solidify around the beast's legs and trap him momentarily.
Superoby struggled the ground cracking around his legs as the tried to pull himself out, only to scream in pain as stabbing pain shot through him. looking down at his chest he saw a stinger pulling itself out. "Sweet dreams."
"We were supposed to bring him in alive," Firebolt reminded.
Serket shrugged, "Relax I didn't use the acid, just a different toxin. The docs have been boasting that they can cure any poison White-Out and I can make, let's see if that's true."
"And if he dies?"
"Then we can let Tsuinami practice magic on his corpse, or let the doctors figure out what went wrong and make a more successful model. This one clear isn't going to be much value."
Firebolt's green eyes glanced back at the collapsed clone as the sand spat him up and the soldiers began dragging his limp form to the trucks. Hopefully he'd stay unconscious for a while; the scientists were not going to be kind. Especially under Serket's, Tryant's, and Psimon's direction.
Death would be a mercy compared to whatever they had planned.