Going Up in Flames

Okay, she knew the green twerp was around here somewhere. This was the harder task as he was the only one that needed to be still alive when all was said and done. It was part of the job, and even if it sounded so ridiculous, Jinx would still do her part to make it a success.

H.I.V.E. didn't care anything about the goals that their customers had so long as it didn't conflict with theirs. That meant the expectation of success was always there, weighing down on all of them. Those who couldn't bear it would fall and those who could would rise all the stronger for it.

She hadn't come this far—wait.

A flash of green, that was what her eyes had picked up. Had it been a light? No, there were no green lights in here. That meant that it had to be colored green so…

Coming around the corner, she could see a green-colored bird flapping about, going from door to door, room to room, searching and completely unaware that he was being watched.

Looks like she had found him. Now how to go about doing this? From what she knew, this kid could shapeshift into animals, and that was about it. Frankly, why not get creative and become something like a monster or a dragon? Something that could be serious fire power? A shame it was all wasted on this twerp.

Still, there were a lot of dangerous animals out there, so it would be stupid to go in with only her bare hands expecting to come out on top.

There was only one solution, and that had its own problems. For lack of anything else, better or otherwise, it was her only option. Pink-colored energy crackled around a hand, and after taking careful aim, she fired.

The green birdbrain gave out a squawk, wings flapping frantically while an avian head looked every which way it could. He must have spotted her, because somehow the words, "Oh great" came out from a beak.

For effect, she allowed her hand to be swarmed with pink crackling energy. "Alright, bird boy, we have one of two ways we can do this. We can be unconventional, and do this the easy way."

"You're going to pretend you didn't see me and let me go?" the green bird asked, and don't ask her how she knew he had perked up.

"No," she deadpanned. "You're going to give up and not cause any problems. Please tell me you'll say yes to that."

The bird remained in midair, wings flapping at a rate to keep it up. "What's the other way?" he asked cautiously.

"We get violent, you get hurt a lot, and you'll not cause any problems after that," Jinx told the feathered shapeshifter. "Both end the same way, the only difference is how much I kick your ass."

Eagle eyes narrowed in on her. "Tell me something. What do you think that mummy man in the wheelchair means when he says invasive?"

"He's gonna cut you open to see what your insides look like," she answered frankly.

"Oh hell no!" That answer should have been predictable, really, but he had asked...why was she even answering questions like that again? The weirdness of the situation must be getting to her.

Whatever. She fired a pink bolt, the energy racing past the bird and detonating in the air like it was a static charge. It wouldn't do anything unless it touched something, but no one knew about that, and the following squawk was worth it. Sometimes being flashy accomplished so much more than putting in actual effort.

Much to her disappointment, bird boy shifted into a large bear which let out one of those grizzly roars, the kind you always heard from the documentaries. That didn't change the fact that there was over six hundred pounds of bear charging her down. This was going to have to be a calculated risk.

Throwing her arms up and out, Jinx released a flare of pink, the light immediately being absorbed into the walls and running down the hallway. Metal burst from its placement on either sides of the hallway and sandwiched the green bear. Sure, the beast was still moving, but that charge was slowing down with each sandwiching sheets of metal slamming into his sides. The bear disappeared before the next hits, so that meant metal hitting against metal.

Her golden eyes flickered for a second, checking out the damage she had caused. It didn't look like much, not a lot of wiring to be seen, so maybe this was a part of this place that wasn't integral for the big plan? If so…

Now she had a plan. As a snake slithered its way from the mess of metal walling, the leader of the H.I.V.E. Five spotted him. She fired a pink-colored bolt, the snake rearing back from where it struck. The small snake head frantically looked around before taking off down the nearest hallway, trying to get out of sight.

Coincidentally enough, that was where she wanted him to go.

Time to see if she had any talent at herding.


Why was it that deadly neurotoxin had to be clear? It made it hard to see it! Maybe that was why it was so effective in scaring the crap out of people, then. If you couldn't see the danger, then how could you avoid it?

You know who else was scared shitless? Gizmo, that's who. And he really wasn't helping his case with those long mechanical legs slicing down at the cyborg with a speed that you wouldn't think typical with this kind of thing.

"Just. Stay. Still!" Gizmo said through clenched teeth. He raised that laser blaster of his and fired off yet another shot.

Cyborg jerked his torso to a side, dodging the beam. "Calm down already, Baldy!" he shouted back.

"Calm down?! We got poison gas pumping in here and you want me to calm down?!" the little nuisance exclaimed. "I'm not dying!" Another laser blast fired and was dodged. "If I have to kill you, then that's what I'm going to do!"

"How about we figure out how to get out this without blowing one of us to kingdom come!" Cyborg fired back while shooting off a sonic blast. Two spider legs crossed in front of the little guy to weather through it. "We're both smart! We can do this if we put our heads together!"

"And I'm the guy who likes to do things the easy way. Killing you is easy, so that's what I'm going to do!" The metal legs were moving rapidly and the cyborg was nearly jumping out of the way of several downward stabs, the tips of the legs striking the floor harshly. There was also a slight shriek as metal rammed into metal, so yeah, Gizmo found yet another way to be annoying.

"You better hurry up now," that Craydl AI program crooned. "Who knows how long you have before…" Oh wow, that thing was doing an impressive imitation of choking sounds. However, it had the effect of making Gizmo become more desperate.

Genius, his freaking ass. The self-styled tech wizard was acting anything but as some savvy, know-it-all, coolheaded, um...okay, he was tapping out. Basically, losing your shit did not make you anything like how awesome you like to tell everybody you are. Not that Gizmo ever did anything he himself considered awesome.

A leg came slicing in from the left, Cyborg catching it with both arms. His feet barely moved against the floor, meaning not a lot of force had been in that swipe.

"Got'cha now!" Gizmo declared, raising up another leg high to bring it down on him. Yeah, right. Tightening his arms around the leg he held, he pulled on it while pirouetting on a heel. "Hey, what are you—!" Any other words stopped as the cyborg continued to spin, completely at least three rotations, maybe more, before throwing the little menace halfway across the room.

With no grace whatsoever, the twerp landed on his back, legs clattering loudly against the floor. Adjusting his arm cannon, he fired a large blast of energy, Gizmo managing to roll back onto his feet in time, but not far enough away not to get blown away by the detonation.

His human eye glanced towards the large generators. Even with the poison pumping in here, that still needed to be dealt with. So far, the only plus was that this room was large enough that it would still take time for the neurotoxin to concentrate enough to kill. That was only a matter of time, maybe minutes at this point.

Though it was small, it took only a second to spot the small vent. That had to be where it was coming from. And there were more all over the place, pumping in cold air to keep the massive generator cool. Hmm…

He brought up the hacking program, but instead searched for a different access. Instead of target some of the areas of the cyberspace that held sensitive information, or better yet to shut down the generator, he went for something less guarded. Specifically, he went for ventilation.

Cyborg got the alert that all vents in the complex were shutting closed. Sure, no more central air, so things were going to start getting hot, but that also slowed down the neurotoxin.

"Clever, clever. I would have never thought of that," Craydl praised. "But I can undo it. By the way, you're about to have other problems."

No sooner had the AI spoken up that a surge of electricity hit the cyborg, freezing up his motor functions. Life support was insulated, and had backups in case of such an event, but that still didn't make this suck any less.

"You think lasers are all I can do?" Gizmo taunted from behind him. The tips of the spider legs clinked as the bald midget approached. "I'm always inventing something new, snotmuncher. Figured I needed a way to shut you down after the last time. Didn't take too long, and there's plenty of parts strewn around here. Just needed to get a little creative."

Oh God, he was monologing now, wasn't he?

"It had to be strong too. Pulse levels. Nothing weak like a taser. Small and portable, and no, don't you make a quip about my height. Oh right, you can't. I just fried your circuitry."

He was. Too bad for him, Gizmo was making a lot of assumptions here.

"You're not the first one to fry me," Cyborg grunted through his teeth.

"Oh, so this is sloppy seconds?" Gizmo taunted as he moved around the larger teen. Taking his place in front of him, Cyborg noted the small...oh Jesus, that looked like a laser gun from a damn cartoon. Small, barrel was oval-shaped, and even had some electricity sizzling in the end. And were those fins decorating the sides? Oh, they were. "And you didn't think to protect yourself from this? What a loser."

A window popped up in his digital vision. Craydl was reopening the vents. Or was trying to see he already put in another command to interfere. Damn, he had to take care of this and deal with Gizmo at the same time? How'd he get all the luck?

"I wonder what a second hit will do? Obviously you're still talking which means I didn't get everything," Gizmo continued, smirking arrogantly. He held up his little cartoon gun, his finger tensing on the trigger.

Craydl was trying to get around him again. A hastily written firewall was thrown up to buy some time.

Refocusing through his human eye, Cyborg at first glared at the little twerp, but then let a smirk of his own out. Naturally, Gizmo noticed this, especially since Cyborg wasn't hiding it.

"What's with the look? You should be pissing yourself," the so-called tech wizard said, his tone of voice close to being demanding.

"You're too full of yourself, you know that man?" he said instead, before going in for the kill. "Who ever said I didn't take care of that weakness? I got quite a few upgrades recently, the most important being that I got more than the essentials insulated. Yeah, you got my mobility, but you didn't get everything.

From out of his back, a thin laser cutter popped out and slid up until it settled on his shoulder. The thin laser beam fired and sliced right through that toy gun of Gizmo's getting a loud, and surprised, yelp out of him.

Not even a second later, another window appeared in his robot eye, reporting that mobility had been restored. Thank you dad for the automatic shutdown and reboot software. His arm shot out and grabbed Gizmo by the front of that green jumpsuit, and pulled him close to the cyborg. Simultaneously, he threw his head forward and landed a very hard head-butt to the twerp's face.

He felt something give, as well as liquid splatter on his face. Gizmo fell back, clutching at his now broken nose where a nosebleed also happened to be flooding out. Springing into further action, Cyborg reached out and grabbed one of the metal spider legs. With one hand on the large and curved portion of the leg, and the other right being the joint that connected to a small segment, one that led back to the large pack the annoying menace wore, the cybernetic teen exerted enough strength until he tore the leg off.

Flowing into his next movements, he swung the leg like a baseball bat and scored a hit that sent Gizmo flying towards the door. With a slam against the wall beside the doorway, Gizmo cried out before slumping down, his laser rifle clattering to the floor next to him. The door had remained electrified, not even a sign of shorting or shutting down.

"And there we are!" Craydl exclaimed. "Vents are open again!"

"Like hell!" Cyborg growled, returning his attention to the digital realm. After getting confirmation that the vents were shut again, and getting an angry comment from the AI that immediately began to try to undo what he had done, the cyborg teen tried to figure out what to do next.

His eyes, both human and robot, noticed the opening that gave a view to the rotors, the opening probably some kind of ventilation for the generators. Fan-like blades moved at astounding speeds, generating power and electricity. It gave him an idea.

Spreading his legs, Cyborg pulled back an arm, the one that now held the severed, metal spider leg like a spear or something to that effect, and with all he could, he threw it straight into one of the rotors.

His aim was true, the leg turned out to be more shoddily made than it looked like as it was torn into by the rapidly moving blades. However, whatever pieces it was being reduced to were doing a number on the blades themselves, and started gumming up the works. Smoke began to billow out and sparks flood from the impact site, a very alarming whirring noise screeching out from the massive machine.

"What did you do?" Craydl demanded, its voice slow and accusing.

"I'm wrecking your shit," Cyborg quipped, aiming his arm cannon at the other section of the generator and firing right at that rotor was well. An energy blast did a lot more damage as it ripped into the machine, and a nice, little explosion tore out of it.

As fires started to spread, smoke filling the air, the cyborg turned his aim to the control station with its monitor and keyboard interface.

"What are you doing?" Whoever had programed that thing, they did a good job at it because it sounded like Craydl was worried.

Now, this would have been a good time for a quip, but instead, he went for instant gratification first and fired one last blast at the station. Most of the detonation came from his shot, so no big explosion and red and orange fire to go through with it.

There was enough fire coming from the damaged generator and it was growing. Now, he wasn't sure if the neurotoxin was still in here, but he had a feeling that the smoke was going to do its work before the poison could. And damn it, that little trick Craydl played with the doorway was still activated, the bars of electricity not even flickering.

Well, if you couldn't get out that way…

His arm turned to the wall beside it and lit up with power.


The spire atop the Transpacific Pyramid had begun to reach an apex. Its glow rivaled the sun, and a lot of attention was being thrown its way. News copters had taken to the air, law enforcement was barreling in, trying to gain control of the area, and many bystanders refused to move because they were in that perfect spot to record the whole thing.

No one knew what was going on, and answers were being demanded. Why was this landmark glowing? What was it going to do? Should...oh shit, should they be running for their lives?

With so much attention on the spire, many people were able to see when the glowing dulled in its intensity abruptly. Brightness increased again, but it was slow in returning to its brilliance.

The question now was, what was that about?


The alert that there was a sudden decrease in energy output was unexpected.

This shouldn't be happening. This was his design. He had supervised its building, and ensured that everything was in its place. After activation, everything had been operating as it should have. The abrupt error was not possible.

The mindset of damage control took over. He wanted an immediate status report. Whatever the error was, it was going to be fixed.

The response came in almost at the same time he had made the inquiry. The problem stemmed from the generator, more specifically, there was no power being generated. Further inquiries accomplished nothing; there was no response from the terminal down there. Again, another impossibility, and yet here it was.

If he couldn't get an answer from the digital networks, perhaps a more visual approach was needed.

The image of a nearly destroyed generator soon opened up in a window. Fires were spreading all about it, and smoke was beginning to obscure it from sight.

Shock was momentary; the need to act overwhelmed in its urgency. Without power from the generator powering the emitter, there was no way to release the radiation. What was needed was power, and a lot of it. The design had made it so that the Speed Force energy he had been collecting would be what powered that.

And he did still have some. Maybe not enough to cover the entire range he wanted, but anything else was failure at this point. He would have to do what he needed to do.

He imputed the orders to reroute any and all Speed Force energy to the emitter. The storage batteries would be used, all of them. The ones still being charged would be used. Nothing would be left unused. All that was needed was to find another speedster, and future operations could continue from there.

There would be no giving up, not when he was so close.


Beast Boy had given up any effort in trying to find his way around this place. He was much too busy trying to avoid all the pink stuff that seemed to act like electricity but wasn't. His animal instincts were screaming at him to have nothing to do with it. His human instincts agreed with the animal.

He took a left and found what looked like to be a dead end hallway. Great, just what he needed. Except...oh hey, that was a closed door up ahead. Maybe not a dead end after all.

Halfway down the corridor, he shifted into a rhino, using the speed that he gathered with the falcon that he had been flying around as to add to the raw strength that came with this kind of charge.

The door resisted for a second, and he felt that resistance going all through his skull. But the door broke open and he was through. Rhino eyes were not as good as a falcon's, but that didn't mean he was completely blind. His shapeshifting abilities could come in handy, especially since he could keep the eyes as his human ones with all its rods and cones and he had no idea what those were.

All that meant was that he was able to see the room with human eyes instead of a rhino's and this was quite a big room, with large metal boxes and some rafters overhead supported with X-shaped cross beams. There was no sign of any science-y stuff that would definitely come in handy with maybe fighting this pink-haired chick down. Why did it always seem like he was the one with all the bad luck?

"And that's the end of the line." Speaking of, here she was, and she had all that nasty pink juju crackling all around her.

Turning his larger rhino body around, Beast Boy faced her, already knowing that this might suck a lot. For who, that remained to be seen.

"Okay, you want a fight now? I'll give you one," he challenged back, his right foot scrapping repetitively against the floor.

"You sweet summer child. You have no idea, do you?" the pink-haired girl retorted. "We're in a place that has little to do with that creep's science experiment. I can go all out here and cause no damage to anything important." Oh hey, with one hand she was creating a bolt of pink lightning that curved up and over her head and came back down into her other hand. Neat.

Resisting the urge to shake his head, he did his best to come up with a retort of his own. "Oh yeah, well, that also means I can go all out too!" Okay, no idea what his version of all out was, but he was going to have to make that one up on his own.

Instead of being cowed or even a little bit intimidated, the pink-haired girl rolled her eyes. Then she fired that pink lightning bolt at one of the huge metal boxes. Of course, that box was immediately to his right, and the front side popped out, flinging itself right at the shapeshifter.

It was then that he learned that rhinos could squeak. You learned something new every day. Another thing he learned was that rhinos could feel a lot of pain too. The bulk its body had cushioned some of the force that he was hit with, but he was carried to his left and into another metal box, sandwiched between metal.

He went small, a green rat, and scurried out, only to start dashing for his life when that pink juju struck the metal box he had been forced into and that one broke apart and spilled its contents everywhere. Naturally, it all tried to fall on him. Back to falcon again and he was flying away from that mess, heading up.

When it came to birds, that was when he tended to favor the bird's eye over the human. You'd be so surprised by what a bird could see, and that tended to include a lot of stuff that humans would never see. It was like being able to see an electromagnetic field or something like that, and he saw how all of it began to change seconds before he heard the crackling.

Safety, he needed safety. So maybe these rafters might be able to help, that was where he flew, his body easily avoiding the pink bolt that shot past him. Taking cover amongst the cross beams, he peered down and spotted the pink-haired girl strolling right under him.

"Come out, come out!" she called out in a sing-song tone. "I gave you the chance to do it the easy way! But if you want it hard, I'm more than willing to make your day a bad one. Just make it easier on yourself kid, you are not getting out of this one."

Oh yeah? Well he already did it once! He got away from her and he could do it again and why was she suddenly looking straight up at him? Had he said any of that out loud?

His wings flapped furiously as that pink mojo struck the metal beams he was hiding in. Bolts began shooting out, kinda like popcorn in a corn field. That might need some work but that didn't mean he wasn't dodging for his life all the small little things in the air that would hurt if they—oh that was his ribs!

He had to land, and shake his little feathered body to get rid of the bolt that hadn't bounced off. His bird eyes picked up the change in the magnetic fields around him and he was darting off as those pink bolts swarmed his landing spot. This time, the metal cross beams popped out of place, so were only dangerous in short range. That had the shapeshifter flying back the way he came.

A much larger pink bolt nearly hit him, and it horrified the green teen how small bolts tried to peel off the main one and lick at his feathers. Just as he was about to duck under new cover, another pink bolt beat him to it, the cross beams popping out at both ends and throwing themselves right at him.

Beast Boy brought his wings in, and found a little luck as he glided through perhaps the smallest opening in the incoming barrage of metal, narrowly escaping this bizarre bit of bad luck. As he spread his wings out, he watched as the metal beams fell to the floor, landing nowhere near where his pink-haired stalker was...and suddenly he had an idea.

With a mighty flap, he angled downwards, the floor rushing up towards his beak, and then came the twist and steep pull up that had him parallel with the floor and heading straight for the girl. Beast Boy easily dodged the next pink bolt fired at him, keeping enough distance not to let any of that juju get near him. He might lose all his feathers for all he knew.

One flap, then two, and he was passing the girl, but not without flipping her skirt. Now there was another squawk in the air and this time it didn't come from him.

"You are so dead!" the pink-haired girl snarled and as the shapeshifter wanted, she fired more of that pink crap after him. Angling upward, the green falcon flew back up to the rafters, making all the sharp turns he could and flying between all the metal beams and cross beams he could. Behind him blast after blast of pink followed, striking and sometimes being pulled into the maze of beams he left in his wake.

He relied on the bird's vision, his brain able to read everything that this mutation of life could offer. A simple tilt could have him angling to the right, another flap could gain him both altitude and speed, and ignoring some of the panic coming from his more primal parts of his brain let him continue without slowing down a bit.

All around him, the pink bolts flashed and flared, and not a single one got close. Even when one was fired right in front of his path, avian senses already had the shapeshifter changing trajectory. He kept it up for about a minute, then swooped back down to the floor before bringing his small body up short.

A quick shift had him back in his human form, and Beast Boy looked over his shoulder where the pink-haired girl had all that pink juju crackling about her. Her eyes were furious, and her shoulders were visibly rising up and down, a sign that she had begun to tire out.

It was a dangerous sight, but it didn't stop him from throwing out a quick joke at her expense. "Looks like you're out of luck!"

Okay, no idea why it came out like that. Oh man, he should have gone with something different, like, "you look shocked!" or maybe "need glasses for your bad aim?" or how about "you look so lit." Maybe not that last one.

However, the girl covered in pink crackling lightning—that's what that stuff was, right?—snarled, "Is that suppose to be a joke?!"

Standing up and turning to fully face her, the shapeshifter admitted, "I tried to come up with something else. You mind if I have a do over?"

She looked like she was about to say something, but that was when he heard a loud groan from above. They both looked up, green eyes personally eyeing the many rafters that didn't look so straight anymore. Something broke, okay, a lot of things broke, and then it all started coming down. Metal that had warped from all that pink lightning broke off from what was holding it up and began to fall, and what do you know, guess who was right below it?

The pink crackling bolts disappeared as the girl's mouth fell open. Her head snapped down to look at him in shock, before looking back up again, her arms raising up as if to try to shield herself. Metal crashed all around her until it blocked her from sight, the sounds of heavy metal landing on a hard, metal floor ringing out throughout the place.

It took some time for it all to end, especially since it was all starting to pile up and then the clattering started, but when it did stop, all there was to see was a mess. Under it somewhere was the girl and if she used that freaky pink stuff of hers, she should be alright, right? Sure, he had no idea how it worked or what it did, but it had to be helpful to her, right?

Quickly, he shifted to a dog and...yep, he could hear a heartbeat under all that. Okay, still alive. All this crap she was under would keep her pinned down for the time being until he got back to dig her up. There was still the whole turning people into monkeys scheme that still needed to be stopped.

Choosing a cheetah to get some speed, he took off in the direction of the nearest door.


It was easy to lose the easily impulsive Bart. Make enough turns and leave no sign of a trail behind, and even the fastest speedster around would have to waste time tracking you down.

Inertia rubbed at his face, gingerly applying slight pressure to his nose. That was embarrassing, to let that twit land a blow on him. For so long he had had control over everything, and in a second, he had lost it. Much to his own personal disgrace, he had run off instead of pressing his certain advantage.

No, it was a strategic retreat. Always trust grifing morons like Bart to do something so impulsive as to give the impression they were turning the situation around. He had not panicked. He was too level-headed and intelligent for that.

Now that the blond speedster could think, he had made the return to his private quarters, all of it filled to the brim with tech from his century. Some of it had come in handy in building the quadreplegic's de-evolution machine, but much of it still remained unused. Yes, he had been very liberal in bringing some of this technology back with him to the past; you never knew what you might need.

However, there was only one thing in here that he needed.

"Craydl? Is it ready?" he called out, making sure that the entrance was sealed shut. No sense in leaving it open and giving away his location even by accident.

Craydl was not prompt in its answer, which had Inertia frowning. "Craydl?" he called out again.

There was a slight hiss, but then the AI spoke up. "Sorry, Thaddeus. I had a little bit of an…issue. I thought to test that cyborg out—"

"What happened?" he suddenly demanded.

"Oh, he just found where the generator is and he had that obnoxious child chasing him. I thought to pit the two against one another under threat of horrible death by neurotoxin. It was working until the ventilation system got shut down, and then he blew it all up, even the console I had taken over. I'm...a little shaken up."

Hmm, that explained a little why it felt so warm in here. And getting warmer. What were the odds everyone would get cooked sticking around here?

"Where is it?" he asked instead. A part of him was protective of Craydl; the AI had been the only other personality to engage with him, to be there for him at his more formative stages of life, encouraging and boosting him when necessary all in preparation of killing his impulsive counterpart.

That there had been any threat to the AI's existence felt like a personal attack. While he trusted that Craydl wouldn't put itself fully at risk while uploaded in another terminal, just the possibility of losing—no. No, he needed to remain focused here.

"You'll need to be more spec—"

"Plan B. I need it now," he interrupted.

He detected some resignation when Craydl spoke next. "Over here. Easy to use. Press the magic button and it's armed. Time clock or a simple press of a button and boom."

Becoming a green and black blur, Inertia raced over to where the backup plan was. Ah yes, this had to be it. It was going to be quite bulky to carry, but that would be necessary. Right here, right now, it was just another bomb. A powerful one, but one that would be kept underground. He had bigger plans for it.

"Thank you," he said. "Where I'm about to go next, you won't be able to follow. There's no telling what will happen next if all goes according to plan. Until I can return, I would like for you to hibernate for a while. I will find you and we'll pick up where we left off."

"You're really doing this," Craydl stated.

"I will not live in anyone's shadow," was all he could answer.


Her life had been getting weirder by the week. From being called Wonder Girl, fighting cultists, beating up aliens, breaking into prison, giving up trying to stop people from calling her Wonder Girl, nearly dying who knows how many times by now, fighting a talking gorilla didn't seem to be so out of the ordinary any more.

Yet it still took the cake, at least somewhere in the top five. Add into it that this gorilla wasn't just relying on strength alone and was actually proving to be hard to beat up, and she was struggling.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that the words the ape had spoken earlier were still ringing throughout her head.

You will have to kill me.

Had this been about a year ago, she would have said, "Your funeral," and then helped to get a body for that funeral. But that was before Gotham. That was before…

If you kill anyone, I will find you., and I will put you down. There is nowhere in this world you can run that I won't find you

That. It was before that. Those white eyes that had glared into hers. The fist that had slammed into the wall beside her head. The roar of "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" echoing again and again. The first time authority had gotten through to her and had set the line.

It explained why Red was so uptight. When you had to deal with that, and for what could have been years. It was why she had started giving more and more slack. But now, now as not a good time for it to rear its ugly, terrifying head. It was easy for it to happen when all was done, but not when it was still happening.

Her head, currently armored, was being held against the wall, two large hands applying whatever pressure it could to pin that part of her down. At the very least, whoever designed this thing knew what they were doing because none of that pressure made its way to her skull.

It also meant she could act. So she did, jabbing an armored fist into a wide open rib cage. There was a grunt from the gorilla, but unlike most humans, he weathered through it. Before he could remove a hand to try and cover that area of his body, she made good on another jab and got another grunt as a reward.

Snarling, the gorilla pulled her head away from the wall only to slam it back into the vertical surface once, then twice. One large hand grabbed the back of one of her thighs, and then she was thrown down the hallway where she landed with a loud boom of noise, skidding down the floor until coming to a stop.

The gorilla wasn't satisfied with that as he charged after her. Jumping, he brought both of his arms up, hands over his head, then threw them down, letting gravity help with giving him a little more force. She tried rolling out of the way, but that was a big mistake. From her stomach, she had gotten onto her back, which a slight adjustment had those leathery hands crashing down on her torso. Had her armor not been covering that part of her already, that would have really hurt.

It did get a grunt out of her for once.

Clamping down on wrists that were hidden by thick, shaggy fur, Wonder Girl turned her body enough so that she could kick her legs right into a large target of a gut. The gorilla took it, but then she managed to kick a leg up through his outstretched arms and get him right in his chin. The head snapped back, and the gorilla leaned back only to stop because she was still holding his arms.

Pushing with both of her legs now while still holding on to the large, furry arms, the armored blonde was able to flip her body, though it was with armor shin guards that touched the floor first. Releasing one arm, she used her free hand to clasp down on the one she still held then pulled up while getting one of her legs up enough to get a foot planted on the floor.

Over her head, the gorilla was thrown. Onto his back, he landed. Wonder Girl's torso was twisted enough to allow her to see it, then she spun her lower half around while standing up to full height so that she could yank on the captured arm one more time. Much like the gorilla had done earlier, she swung him into the wall, then reversed into the opposite one.

The gorilla then pushed away from the recently impacted wall, his wrist rotating until his large, leathery hand clamped down on one of her lower arms. His arm tugged then pulled her along as he tried to repeat a standing version of her earlier throw. She should have let go, but she didn't and now her face was hitting the floor. Sure, the helmet absorbed much of the force, but the rest had to go somewhere.

The gorilla arm was yanked out of her grasp, and a kick to her abdomen sent her sliding down the hallway, balanced on her face until the rest of her body fell over. Once on her back, she rolled onto her hands and knees while still sliding, then launched herself forward like a missile. An arm pulled back, a hand balled, and muscles tensed before she swung the limb forward.

The first punch missed, the gorilla jerking back enough to dodge. Wonder Girl was not done, and a second punch swung out only to be caught by a large hand. As the hat-wearing gorilla tried to raise up her arm and overextend it, she took the chance to slip in a third punch, and this one landed, getting right into the ribs. A second rap of her fist into those ribs was taken, and when she felt the tension in her other arm lessened, she pulled back with it to overextend the gorilla and throw an uppercut right into the exposed elbow.

The gorilla roared in pain, tearing himself away while now holding a lame arm. A large hand spasmed, fingers clenching and unclenching jerkingly. His guard was down, and the armored blonde narrowed her eyes at the opportunity. In her eagerness, she leapt at the ape, but had slightly misjudged. The gorilla certainly noticed her and had begun to duck, which meant she had gone right over him.

Throwing her arms out, she landed on her hands while pulling her legs in, only to lash out with them and land a heavy blow into a massive back. There was a loud cry of shock and pain, the gorilla stumbling forward, and then stopping to spin on a foot to face her once more.

He was breathing hard, she could tell. How high his shoulders were rising as well as how noisy he was with each breath he took in and breathed out, the ape was getting tired. The eyes, however, were still determined, fiery. He wasn't going to be giving up, even as he favored one arm.

The gorilla was really serious about fighting to the death. Wonder Girl couldn't say the same thing. Stupid Batman being all scary and intense. She was going to have to put him down, and not in an euthanasia way. Behind her, she knew that the entrance to that room, the one this ape was so determined to protect was right there. All she needed to do was turn around and make a run for it, but the talking monkey would only chase her. He didn't need to kill her, just keep her from stopping this whole thing.

Every second spent fighting it out with the gorilla was another second wasted. It would be so easy to...take the easy way out and snap the monkey's neck.

But…

If you kill anyone, I will find you.

Did a gorilla count as anyone? Was that a risk she was willing to take? Oh, he was determined to either take her down or be taken down, permanently, and she could respect the dedication. But damn it, this was a ridiculous science experiment that shouldn't be happening. How far was that range again? Could her mom be caught up in it? That would be perfect. Come home just to become a monkey. Fantastic.

Her foot slid slightly on the floor, her leg getting ready for...something. The gorilla noticed, his eyes flickering to the foot then back up at her. Was she going to charge? Make a run for it? She wasn't sure herself, only standing around was not an option.

Then she picked up on the small clicking sounds, ones that could be made by small claws…

There was no thinking, only acting. Her torso turned, her arms stretched out. A green cheetah leapt at her, her hands going under the lithe feline. Muscles in her arms strained as the weight they held shifted, becoming heavier than before as a green gorilla now replaced the cheetah. Her torso reversed, her arms carried and pushed, and the transformed Beast Boy flew through the air, ramming into the talking gorilla with the massive weight of a, well, gorilla.

The large primates flew back, slamming onto the floor, and rolling on it head over feet. Both massive bodies crashed into the end of the hallway, and to Wonder Girl's relief, she saw a lot more green than black. Two large, green arms pulled back, then punched forward, the right arm pulling back twice more as meaty smacks could be heard all the way where the armored blonde stood.

Then Beast Boy pulled back, stepping away from the knocked out gorilla. Panting, the shapeshifter said, "Respect that, asshole."

Taking that as her cue, Wonder Girl spun around running and made a dash back to the room. Gold-clad feet clomped down against the metal floor, then made a screech as she skidded to a stop, trying not to overshoot. She managed to catch the doorway with her hands, and right there, she could still see the man in the wheelchair with all the computer terminals and that one giant monitor dead ahead.

She had no idea what the monitor was trying to say, what with all the images and the numbers and everything, and she didn't care. It was time to smash this joint.

Just above her head, a large hand clamped down on the doorway, and it distracted her enough to prevent the blonde from doing the one thing she did best. Right behind her was the green changeling, and he only had eyes for what was in the room himself.

And then he shoved past her. The frame of the doorway dug into her side as a large green mass moved around her, leathery feet slapping on the floor.

I was expecting you sooner, mon petite Monsieur, the man in the wheelchair remarked.

Beast Boy clamped down on the right-side armrest. "Sorry, I need to use this," the shapeshifter growled. With a show of strength, he tore the armrest off the wheelchair while simultaneously tearing the bandaged man out of the chair. Small pieces of equipment and other little things attached to the man's body flew all over the place, soon followed by the man himself as he was tossed away.

Heaving the chair itself up into the air, cables and wires tearing apart, Beast Boy snarled as he threw the massive piece of moving medical equipment through the air and into the large monitor. The screen collapsed within itself and a shower of sparks spewed out. A flash of electricity caused a burst of flame to billow out from the wheelchair as it fell out of the monitor and down to the floor.

Various error screens appeared on the various terminals throughout the room, sharp, alarming beeps filling the air. Crunching was added to it as Beast Boy reached for the nearest terminal next, tearing it out of the floor and throwing across the room and into another one. A second terminal hit into a fuse box and now bolts of electricity radiated from the impact sight.

As the shapeshifter continued to trash the place, Wonder Girl still found herself in the doorway, watching and suddenly wondering why she hadn't joined in yet. She shook herself out of her stupor when the smoke that was filling the room could not be ignored anymore. So she darted in and snagged one of the green gorilla's arms to get the other's attention.

"I think you've done enough. Let's get out of here," she told the younger teen, even though right now he could literally look down on her. To think the day had come when she was recommending restraint.

Green eyes did look back at her while shoulders heaved up and down from exertion. For a second, it seemed like Beast Boy didn't recognize her, but then the head nodded. Something seemed to blow nearby, so now making a run for it sounded like a good idea right now.

In the back of her mind, even as she led the way out, she felt as if she was forgetting something.

The lights were flickering, smoke was obscuring vision and the air itself, and he laid where he had landed. Pain was all he felt, crippling pain that seemed to rob him of all thought. Injuries, ones that had never truly healed, were aggravated and the effort to try and fight his way through it was monumental.

Distantly, he could make out wavering light, one that he knew so well. It was an effect only fire could produce, and in his vision, he saw so much more. He saw the past imprinting itself on his present, a room of fire induced by chemicals and malfunctioning equipment replaced the here and now, and the fear that he had felt then was reinforced by the unresolved trauma.

The muscles in his throat contracted rapidly, moving against the small apparatus that was wired into the computer that produced sound, the same one which allowed him to speak. However, that computer was damaged itself from the Logan child's violent act.

All that could come from any of the speakers was Ma...ah.

Flames from the past and in the present continued to grow, and dead eyes lost their impassivity to be replaced with fear. Terror.

Ma...ah.

Lungs began to react harshly with the smoke. Weak hacks tried to clear the respiratory organs, but the necessary strength was lost to them long ago. His connection to his breathing apparatus had been lost.

Ma...ah.

Hearing was no longer picking up sounds, and vision was becoming blurry. The fear only increased. The specter of Caulder was alive and well. The need to escape was incredible.

It was the one thing he needed to do, but couldn't.

Ma...ah.