Disclaimer: I do not own the existing characters that we know and love of Young Justice, although I do take ownership over the new characters i.e. some of the teammates
A/N: Thank you for your reviews so far, so what do we think Metallica is planning for Stem Cell and the Justice Team?
Chapter 07
"What are you doing, Metallica?" Stem Cell stammered, still feeling groggy from the blood loss. She sat up slowly, trying to ignore the bloody transmitter beside her.
"Oh come now Stem Cell- I appreciate the hat tip to your hero name. Didn't know you felt that way and liked the name so much." Metallica grinned, opening a panel on the large metal cylinder. "We're about to make Gotham scream."
"You're going to blow it up? You can't- you can't do that." Stem Cell tried to move but fell against the cold concrete floor. "I won't let you get away with it."
"You're in no condition to make threats now. I trained you well enough to hide your thoughts from Miss Martian, but you couldn't hide your true feelings from me."
"What are you talking about?" Stem Cell grunted.
Looking around, she saw a metal pipe nearby of which against Metallica, was completely useless. The young healer had learnt that the hard way. There was a thick plank of wood, but it was out of reach.
"Don't even think about it. Pretty soon Uppercut will be back with something to encourage you to give me what I need."
"No! You promise me that you would leave the Boxham family out of this!" Stem Cell stood up clumsily, falling to the floor and closer to the wood plank. "Please Metallica, I don't know where it is anymore!"
"I'm sorry, but I find that incredibly hard to believe right now." Metallica paused, flicking his hair over his shoulder. "Ahh here comes Uppercut."
Uppercut came into view carrying a small, sleeping child. They were wearing pink pyjamas with little yellow teddies on them and a toy green dinosaur in her hands. The tiny child had light brown hair that was thick and unruly apart from a bright yellow hair clip pulling her fringe to one side.
Stem Cell's blue eyes widened. This was her adopted family's daughter called Millie. Millie Boxham doted on Carrie, but because of Carrie, Millie was in grave danger.
"Please Metallica. She's just a child!" Stem Cell whimpered, her bottom lip quivering.
"Oh no- not crocodile tears Stem Cell. Little Millie Boxham is just a little- how do you say- bargaining chip to encourage you to cooperate. I'm sure she's not like you so where's the harm?" Metallica smiled, chuckling to himself before removing an empty vial from inside true metal cylinder and adding a full one. "Now this stuff is pretty toxic so we all better be really careful now."
"What does it do?"
"Once you give me what I want, it will emit a hell of a poisonous storm cloud. Enough to penetrate human skin- not yet strong enough to get through buildings... Cars will be useless too because the fumes clog up the systems, but I'm not a mechanic- I'm a metallic hero."
"Doesn't sound very heroic..." Stem grunted, healing herself gradually, trying not to wince at the painful twinges. "Hiding in your ivory tower- and for what?"
Metallica shrugged his shoulders. "Natural selection? It still doesn't change the fact that you have something of mine."
"Actually I don't have it, you threw it away when you dropped it in the water." Stem Cell pulled herself to her feet slowly. "So I think what you're trying to say is that you mucked up. The water will have ruined it now."
Metallica's face twisted as he tried to hide his annoyance. "Well- we can make changes to the plan. Good job I took out that little transmitter." He picked up the bloodied transmitter and wiped it with an old rag to reveal the polished metal underneath. "The concentration is weaker but just as effective.
Her stomach twisted at the fact that the device had been in her body not hours before.
"Mummy?" Millie has woken up and - on seeing Uppercut, she screamed the house down.
"Millie, Millie- hey now. Stop crying, it's me Carrie..." Stem Cell tried to get closer to the young child, but Uppercut blocked her way. "Everything is going to be fine, trust me!"
Metallica grabbed the back of Stem Cell's neck and hauled her away, throwing her across the hard ground. "Enough! I'm feeling generous, so I'll give you a head start. You can have two hours before my gas is released. But what are you going to do? Warn the poor defenceless people of Gotham that the gas is coming? Or head to the Justice Hall in the hopes of getting them to stop me?" He pressed a series of buttons and smirked. "Don't worry, we'll look after Millie in the meantime." Metallica lifted the crying girl. "Say bye bye Stem Cell..."
Then the countdown began.
A hundred and twenty minutes and counting.
Stem Cell forced herself to run from Metallica and Uppercut, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her hero suit. She slammed into a large metal door, flinging it open wide and flailing her arms when she realised the drop on the other side.
"Christ!" she cursed, tumbling over the edge and plummeting down into the sea below.
Panicked, she kicked and squirmed back to the surface. The waves crashed over Stem Cell, dragging her away with the current. Her cries for help were drowned out by the water gushing into her open mouth.
Then she remembered Beast Boy. There was a beacon embedded into the collar of his suit at the back - maybe hers had the same?
Stem Cell's wet fingers fumbled at the back of her suit, hoping to click the beacon. When she couldn't hear or feel anything, she continued to swim, following the coastline until she hit an empty beach. There wasn't even time to pause. The minutes were depleting with every passing second.
"I'm so sorry..." Stem Cell gasped, tripping up the sand. "This is all my fault..."
The run was hard and she started to follow the signs to Gotham City, hoping that she would be able to find the Justice Hall.
Just when she thought it was about to work out in the end, police cars shot out from their hiding spots and halted in front of her.
"Hands up where we can see them!" a gruff voice echoed from the megaphone on top of the police car. The flashing blue and red lights petrifying me, making me unable to move.
"You can't do this! The city is in danger- you have to believe me please!" She pleaded with the police officers as they hid behind open car doors with their guns poised. "Please!" Her voice quaked and trembled. "I need to talk to Nightwing! And Aqualad, or Miss Martian! Beast Boy even- any of the supers!"
A charge of electricity shot out of a stun gun and slammed into Stem Cell's chest. Her body shudders and convulsed on the floor before a knock out shot was administered.
-o-
Stem Cell came round with her hands cuffed to a metal table. She tugged on the chain, knowing that they had been put on excruciatingly tight for a reason. At least that's what she told herself.
"Hey! Let me out of here! The city isn't safe!" Stem Cell screamed, hoping to get someone's attention. "There's a poisonous gas about to be released in less than two hours!"
"Quit your caterwauling - the commissioner is on his way down with one of the supers."
Stem Cell didn't stop wriggling until the commissioner and Nightwing entered the room.
"You got yourself some people in high up places- but I'm not convinced. The proof is in the pudding and footage. You and greenie were in on the robberies."
"I didn't do it!" Stem Cell snapped, tugging the chain sharply. "Nightwing, the city is in danger- Metallica is about to release a poisonous gas cloud over the city and there's less than two hours or even one until it is released."
Nightwing didn't move from the doorway. "Why should I believe you?" he asked solemnly, wanting to believe the things she was saying were truth, but the doubt was bubbling up inside him. "You betrayed us..."
The young girl shook her head quickly. "Please- I didn't betray you. He left me no choice. If you don't trust me, then you have to help save my little sister Millie. Metallica has kidnapped her. He is holding her hostage so that I don't try to disarm the device. The gas has the power to kill people, render cars useless, but fortunately it's not strong enough to penetrate glass and walls."
"How do I know that you're telling us the truth?"
Stem Cell squirmed in her chair. "Villains like to create an impossible situation and that is what Metallica has done. By making cars useless, an evacuation is ineffective- unless we move now."
Nightwing couldn't hide the hurt. "One too many lies Carrie. One too many..." He walked out of the room slowly.
"Is Garfield Okay?" Stem Cell called out, noticing him freeze and knowing something was wrong. "I can help you- you know I can help, but you have to trust me."
The commissioner couldn't hurt but poke his nose in our business. "Trust has to be earnt, kid. Nightwing knows that only too well."
"Commissioner- the date of Gotham May rest on the Justice Leagues shoulders and we might need to borrow this felon from you..." Nightwing said, insisting that Stem Cell be disposed into his care temporarily.
-o-
Miss Martian sat beside Beast Boy in the infirmary. Whilst Beast Boy was now grown up, she still thought of him as her little brother. The monitors beside her kept the rhythmic heartbeat going. Weaker than normal.
The door opened and Nightwing shoves Stem Cell into the room, still in handcuffs- the chains rattling. When the new superhero saw Beast Boy unconscious on the bed, she cupped her hands over her mouth.
"I'm so sorry- if I knew this would happen, I never would have..."
A glare across Miss Martian's face silenced Stem Cell. "She is not to touch him. I don't care what you say, Nightwing. She's working with Metallica, not against him like she led us to believe. There's no way she could hide her true thoughts unless he taught her how to do that."
Nightwing moves Stem Cell closer to the bed. "What's more important? Her help or losing Beast Boy? Because I know what I'd say..."
Miss Martian closed her amber eyes, clenching her fists. "Fine."
Stem Cell looked apologetic as she edged closer to the green man. "Here goes nothing..." She took one of Beast Boy's hands in hers. Her hands clamped down harder as she channelled the healing process.
The heart monitor increased in frequency and pitch, making Stem Cell release his hand in a fit of exhaustion, collapsing on the floor whilst gasping for breath.
Nightwing showed no mercy, grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her away.
At first, she struggled. "Nightwing- What are you doing?"
"This is how you made us feel. We trusted you and you broke that trust by working with Metallica. You might think that we would have just believed that there's about to be a gas cloud over Gotham, but we know a rouse when we see one. So you're going to wait in here whilst we decide what to do with you. I'm not about to hand you back over to Gordon because he thinks you were involved in a childish robbery."
Stem Cell was left in a small cell unit. On one side was a thick glass window that looked out onto the corridor, allowing her to watch Nightwing walk away towards Aqualad. As she turned around to see where she was in the justice headquarters, she saw a small thin window up at the top of the wall. Without missing a beat, Stem Cell kicked her way up the wall, struggling to get up to look out the window.
"That won't work..." a man's voice called out from behind her.
In the cell opposite her, was a dishevelled green haired, white painted faced man. He strode towards the glass, putting his hands flat against the surface.
"You aren't going to get out of here now- that's what the cuffs mean. Standard Gotham Police Department cuffs." He started to laugh maniacally. "Sorry... You don't strike me as an evil mastermind- who's your boss?"
"Metallica. And not anymore. He's planning an attack..." She stopped when she saw a tabby cat pounce on the panel beside the door to the man's cell.
The glass shaded over, going opaque.
The cat morphed into a cat wearing a black outfit and dark green helmet with black cat ears. It was one of the heroes that had helped to extract Stem Cell from Metallica's clutches.
"Kitty, come here..." Stem Cell whimpered, beckoning the girl over. "I know you're probably not allowed to talk to me, but I need to know- is Beast Boy okay?"
"You're right. I shouldn't be talking to you." Kitty paused, checking up and down the corridor. "But you saved Beast Boy, he's okay now. Confused though..."
"How long has it been since my tracker beacon activated?"
"Maybe an hour?"
"Oh god... I'm running out of time. Kitty. You have to get them to start evacuating the city- or at least get them inside."
"Kitty!" another super called out to her, ordering her away from the cells and scolding her afterwards.
Stem Cell went back to peering out the window. She waited and watched for any sign of movement over Gotham - even a gas cloud or something would have helped put her mind at ease. As she hadn't tracked the countdown, there was no way of knowing how long was left of Metallica's countdown.
Right now, she was looking like a liar...
And the two hours had already passed...
Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = I had so much fun putting this chapter together and I hope you enjoyed the little side characters and little tid bits! Don't forget to review!