Chapter 44: Autonomy
Red Tornado begins to generate multiple tornadoes. Surrounding us immediately. Trapping us in a blockade of tornadoes.
"Why Tornado? Why are you doing this?" Miss Martian asks our former friend.
The wind still blowing against my face forces me to look downward. Facing the ground, I notice something that wasn't there before.
Everyone, look! Right under Tornado!
The Team following my instruction, we all see a message written in the dirt right in front of us: PLAY DEAD. Aqualad was right.
Message received, Miss Martian says.
"Who cares why? Nail him!" Superboy says, charging after Tornado. Though I can't tell if he's playing along or not.
Aqualad follows in pursuit. "Superboy, Maneuver 7." Superboy spins around and places his hands together as he bends down. Aqualad jumps onto said hands. Superboy boosts Aqualad up into the air, launching him towards Red. Unfortunately, Tornado just smacks him in the face, Aqualad crashing into Superboy.
Artemis pulls out a pair of arrows. Pulling back on her bowstring, she launches them straight for Tornado. The android, however, sucks the arrows into his tornado. Redirecting the arrows right back at Artemis and Robin.
"Look out!" Robin says as the arrows make contact at their feet. The explosion sends them to the ground as well.
"That does it, Red. You're not the only spin doctor around here", Kid Flash says.
KF spins in a continuous circle, making his own small black tornado. Kid Tornado moves to Red Tornado as Miss Martian comes from behind for a sneak attack. Red, however, grabs a hold of her arm from behind. He tosses her away, sending her crashing into Kid's mini tornado. Dispersing it and leaving Miss M and KF on the ground.
"Kyle! My hoverboard!" With just a nod, Kyle creates the hoverboard construct he gave me from our mission in Bialya. Good thing I remember how to work this.
I fly straight for Tornado, while Kyle flies over the ground. Kyle stops and flies straight up into the tornado Red is sitting at. Blasting him with GL energy blasts. I take out a pair of shurikens and throw them straight ahead. Tornado deflects them. With Kyle approaching him, Red disperses his tornado, moving back a foot or two in the air. Tornado kicks Kyle right in the chest, sending him crashing into me. Next thing I know, we wind up laying on the ground with the others.
Keeping my eyes open just enough to see what's happening, I see Zatanna as the only person left standing. She tries to speak another spell, but Tornado takes ahold of her by the throat. He tosses her back with us.
Tornado being victorious, the rest of us lay on the ground in defeat. I hope Tornado's plan works.
So much for playing dead.
Getting back up to our feet from our possum act, we look up to see Tornado facing another Red. But it's not Torpedo or Inferno from the home invasion. This one looks different. Bulkier. With red highlighted linings throughout its body. And a yellow triangle with an eye in the middle. Tornado, Torpedo, and Inferno… What does that leave for this one, Red Tremor?
The new Red breaks apart and lifts Tornado's message into the air. Right to his back for us all to see. "Blowing a message into the sand?" The ground breaks apart into boulders, being showered into our direction. I create a forcefield barrier, protecting us all from the meteor shower.
Zatanna? Robin checks in on his crush.
I'm good. But Red Tornado's getting away.
Is he abandoning us? Artemis questions.
I don't believe that, Miss Martian answers.
Neither do I, I say agreeingly.
"You stand no chance against me, humans", Red says as he punches Kid Flash out of his way.
"We're not human!" Miss Martian and Superboy say in a unison attack.
"Apologies. I suppose the properly inclusive term is…" A pair of rock hands rise from the ground below. The hands clap together, smashing Miss Martian and Superboy in the process. "…meatbags."
The Red makes a crevice open up from below. Artemis, Aqualad and Canary fall into said crevice. I fly down into it, following my friends. Artemis fires a grappling arrow at the surface, grabbing Aqualad soon after. Canary releases a ribbon at me. I catch it, pulling her up as I zoom back up. The four of us reach the surface as the crevice seals back up.
Letting go of the ribbon, I look down to Canary. She looks back at me. Canary nods to me with a grin and look of action. Go get him, Rayner.
Yes, ma'am.
I create a rocket construct. I launch it towards the Red. However, a stone pillar rises in front of him, blocking my rocket from reaching him. He's good.
Robin throws a batarang at the Red as well. He catches it though. It explodes, nonetheless. Though it doesn't leave a scratch on him at all.
"Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me to anticipate your every move", says the Red.
"Emoks emoceb a dlofdnilb!" A smoking blindfold wraps around the Red's eyes. He grabs a hold of his head, trying to remove it. Looks like we have an ace up our sleeve. More like our hat.
"Tornado never knew my moves", Zatanna says.
"And I bet you've got some good ones", Robin says in a Wally-esque way. Did he really just say that?
Zatanna looks to the Boy Wonder. "Whoa. Sorry. That may have come off a little too Wally."
But she chuckles instead, not getting mad any. "I don't mind." He better get this magician before she disappears.
Suddenly, the Red's eyes glow bright red. A pair of red lights shoot out of them and into the sky. Then, a fiery explosion bursts out from one of the mountains in the background. With lava pouring out of it. Volcano, not mountain. I think we know now what this one was made for.
Streams of lava begin to form throughout the area. Surrounding us. And giving Red Volcano here an advantage.
Volcano, still standing on his stone pillar, launches a barrage of molten rocks at Kid and I. Kid speeds his way to avoid them while I duck and weave through them.
He's activating a stage two eruption. It gets to stage three, kiss the hemisphere goodbye, Kid says.
Hit him from all sides, Aqualad orders us.
Aqualad and Superboy jump towards Volcano. A speeding rock is launched at Aqualad, sending him flying. Volcano grabs a hold of Superboy's fist, tossing him aside.
Coming from behind, I levitate up to his level with a spiked-mace construct. Swinging it at Volcano, he pushes back against it. Pouring on my will into my ring, the mace grows bigger and bigger. Suddenly, a rock pillar erupts from underneath me. I'm sent high into the sky, my construct fading away.
Leveling myself, I see Volcano being pulled back by something. Best guess is Miss Martian, psychically forcing him backwards.
Then, an intense wave of steam bursts from the ground. Miss Martian drops her camouflage, losing her concentration.
"M'gann!" Superboy runs to the aid of his girlfriend/teammate. Volcano leaps into the air and lands in between them. Volcano smacks Superboy away. He then grabs Miss Martian by her cape. That does it!
I zoom back to ground level. With that, I notice a handful of smoke circling around Kid.
"Ekoms dna srorrim. Etaerc Dik Hsalf snoisulli!" Zatanna's spell conjures up seven to eight smokey illusions of Kid Flash. "I use a scaled down version when I wanna sneak out of the house." Normally, I'd say one Wally West is all we can handle.
Volcano launches another barrage of rocks at the Kid Flashes. Most of the rocks disperse the illusions. But just long enough for the real Kid Flash to speed behind Volcano and rescue Miss Martian.
Tailing Kid's trail, I speed my way to Volcano. My fists out first, I knock the tin can onto the ground. Finally, a hit! Decelerating my speed, I join the others in our next attack wave.
Suddenly, a geyser bursts up in the air. But the water is moving on its own. The stream of water launches itself at Volcano. Planting him and knocking him into the lava.
Robin and I look back to Aqualad, with a grin on his face. "Nice hit!" Robin says.
"The hit was not mine. Look!" Aqualad says, pointing to said direction.
To our left, we find that the hit came from… Red Torpedo? Wait, he's helping us now?
A cape of water forms on Torpedo's back. He sends two more streams of water in Volcano's direction, who is standing back up from the lava and not melting. The water hits, making clouds from contact with the lava as well.
Volcano rises from the lava, still covered over him. Kneeling on a growing stone pillar.
Red Tornado, who's joined the fight again, flies downward to his brother. He smashes through the rock. Volcano falls back into the lava once again. That does not stop him from getting back up again.
However, a fireball crashes into him this time. We find Red Inferno, sporting a cape of fire herself, throwing multiple fireballs at Volcano. They're both helping us? This is one hell of a sibling rivalry.
Volcano and Inferno clash, each one pushing back against the other.
"Sister, brothers, stop!" Volcano pleads with his siblings. Proving ineffective as Torpedo drops on top of him, fully immersing him into the lava. Only this time, Volcano doesn't get back up. They must be holding him down.
Red Tornado drops down into the lava as well. His feet planted on top of Volcano I'm assuming. Tornado begins to sink into the lava slowly, his legs becoming immersed.
Then, we see Superboy running over to the lava fields. He jumps onto a rock formation near where Tornado is. He jumps again, grabbing Tornado by the cape. Pulling him out of the lava. Just as an explosion mildly soars from said lava.
Superboy lays Tornado on the ground around the rest of us. His feet having melted from the lava, only about half of his legs remain. I look to the spot where Tornado was just scooped by Superboy. Too bad we couldn't save Torpedo or Inferno…
The ground begins to shake again. More violently than before. Looking up to the volcano, more smoke pillows from its top. More lava is pouring downward as well. Stage three. Goodbye hemisphere.
"Tornado, listen", Kid Flash says. "We're on the verge of a stage three super volcano eruption. There's no turning back from that. We need to vent pressure, fast. But the ash cloud will bring on a worldwide nuclear winter unless you divert it." Tornado nods in response.
"Triangulate around the pressure locus", Kid says to Robin.
"Right." Robin pulls up a geographic hologram of the volcano. "There, there, and there." Three red dots appear on the hologram.
Artemis pulls back an arrow on her bowstring. She releases it. Three speeding missiles break from the arrow. The missiles impact onto their designated targets. More ash clouds fill the air, almost reaching the hemisphere. It's now or never.
I kneel next to Tornado. I place my right arm under his left, lifting him up into the air. An air filtration mask materializes on my face. "Together."
A small tornado forms around Tornado's body. "Together."
Both Tornado and I fly up into the hemisphere. Making our way past the miles and miles of ash cloud that continues to grow nonstop. The ash and smoke cloud my eyesight, making my eyes shut tight. I concentrate and have a construct of protective goggles appear, strapped around my head. Much better.
We finally make it to the top of the ash cloud. Tornado begins by creating a giant wind tunnel. Pouring all my will into this, I create a secondary tunnel, intersecting with Tornado's. A mixture of red and green, the giant tornado starts funneling the poisonous ash cloud from the Earth's surface and outside the atmosphere. It takes no more than five minutes until all the ash cloud is in outer space. It feels more like an hour if you ask me.
Worn out from our eco-tactic, Tornado and I start descending back to Earth. As we do so, I see the lave streaming down the volcano starting to harden. The brightness from it dying. I also see the rest of the Team looking up to us. All of them wearing worried looks.
Tornado and I touch ground finally. My feet planted on solid footing. All while holding up Tornado, who looks worse for wear than I am. And he's an android.
The others rush to join us. "Easy there, Red. We don't want you losing anymore limbs just yet." He only looks to me with the only stare he has. "It's good to have you back, Tornado."
With Volcano destroyed and the super volcano disaster averted, we found Morrow's laboratory hidden underground. We placed Red Tornado on a table near Morrow's workstation. Robin just ran a diagnostic and sees that his voice box has been shut off. He's about to fix that.
All nine of us stand around Tornado. Conner, though, has his back faced at him instead. Even after Red saved us and destroyed Volcano, how can Conner still be mad at him? And I think Dinah and I are stubborn.
To my right stands my boyfriend/teammate. When he went up into the atmosphere with Tornado, I was worried for a second. But I knew he'd be okay. Plus, Kyle probably figured he could help Tornado vent the ash clouds a lot faster. Kyle and I are alike in the sense that once we make up our minds about something, not a lot can change our minds. And even if we tried, that would diminish our roles on this team and as heroes. We know our limits. And we have each other's backs.
"Still good to stand?" I annoyingly check in with the GL.
"I am", he answers. "Trust me, the giant clouds of ash spreading throughout the atmosphere looked a lot worse than it really was."
"I'll take your word for it", I say to him.
"There. That should do it", Robin says.
"Yes", Tornado says. "I can speak again."
"You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet", Kaldur says.
"The planet would have survived. It is humanity that was saved. Though not by me. My sister and brother were the true heroes this day."
"I'm sorry we couldn't save them", Kyle says to Red. "We'll be sure to honor their sacrifice."
"My point is this…" Kaldur continues. "…you were never the mole, never a traitor."
"No, I left to protect you from further attack and to find my creator, Morrow."
"Speaking on that last part", I interject. "We might be able to pull a location on where Morrow is from the computers here. Right, Robin?"
"Right", he says while rummaging through spare robotic parts.
"Cool. Souvenir", Wally says. Holding an android hand. Too bad Morrow didn't have a spare brain for Wally.
"Reddy, we can rebuild you better than you were before", Robin says. He carries with him a spare android foot.
"I do not believe I should be repaired", he says to us.
"Why not?" Kyle asks.
Before Tornado can answer that question, Conner brings up one of his one. "Why'd you volunteer to become our den mother in the first place?"
"I was the pragmatic choice. I do not require sleep. I have no secret identity or second life to live", Red answers.
"But you do have advanced AI programming designed to learn, adapt, evolve", Wally realizes.
"Hello, Megan! You wanted to become more human."
"And you couldn't do that with the League. They're stiffs", Artemis adds.
"You're sure not gonna learn emotion from Batman. Trust me", Robin says.
"Maybe with Green Arrow and Black Canary", I add on. "But what better way to learn how to be human than to learn and observe teenagers."
"Then the Cave was not a proving ground only for us, but for you as well", Aqualad states.
"I do not know if these statements are accurate. But perhaps, they are true. And if I understand the term correctly, I believe I have come to care about you all."
Wow. I never would've imagined an android being capable to care about others. He's like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz. Whether his heart his made of flesh or carbon-steel alloy, Red Tornado is able to show emotion and care about us. Almost makes you wanna cry.
"See? Practically a meatbag already", Conner says.
I look to Zatanna. She looks a bit weary from her first 'kidnapping'. But she made it out alive. She did a great job assisting us and fighting Red Volcano. And if anything, she probably enjoyed being around others her own age. Especially one bird out of us all.
The Team would be lucky to have Zatanna join. I just hope Dinah can convince her dad to let her.
She came around to you joining us, my boyfriend says to me. I look to him. He grabs a hold of my hand, interlocking our fingers. I'm sure he will too.
It helped to have you convince her to let me.
And I'm sure you can do the same for Zatanna if she needs it. You are capable of more than you think. I see it when I look into your eyes.
Let me guess? Hope and optimism.
Nope. I just know my girlfriend that well.
Right back at you, GL.