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: I hope you are enjoying the story, not much else to say about the story, but chapters are going to be a little bit shorter from now on… 😊
Chapter 09
Stem Cell gawped at explosive generator that was going to start releasing a more concentrated form of the gas. She turned to Nightwing hunched over beside her.
"Please get out of here... you're not safe here."
He pushed on, struggling to walk now from the toxicity that was gradually building in his lungs. "If I die, I'll die protecting the city."
"Nightwing- don't be stupid, I can do this." Stem Cell begged him to return to he headquarters where he would be with Starfire if she failed, or get quarantined before the toxins spread to his brain or heart. "Metallica will not rest until he has succeeded."
"I know," Nightwing grumbled. "Starfire can handle Metallica by herself."
Stem Cell rolled her eyes in an over exaggerated circle. "I don't have time to argue with you," she snapped furiously. Stem Cell rushed over to the generator in the statues arms. The timer on the small square screen was counting down. "Get out of here, Nightwing!"
"A true- a true leader doesn't leave anyone behind..." Nightwing grumbled. With an added grunt, he fell flat on the floor.
Just as Stem Cell was about to remove the outer panel of the generator, she turned to see Nightwing lying face down in the ground. His skin was now a yellowish tint. Torn between a difficult choice, she reached for the beacon on her suit and then leaned over to Nightwing's body. Her fingers gently rolled over the neck of his black outfit as she searched for the homing beacon. A sharp click was all it took, but as she went to go back to the generator, something stopped her. "You've got to be kidding me." Stem Cell hooked her arms under Nightwing's and around his chest. "Why did you have to be so muscle heavy?" she whimpered, heaving the adult away in the direction of the headquarters.
With no cars or people on the streets, Gotham was eerily quiet - like an apocalypse movie almost. A lone scrap of newspaper somersaulting through the air, disintegrating into dusty scraps.
Stem Cell felt her back and arms begin to ache at the end of the road - there was still a long way to go. Her legs gave way and she fell to the ground panting heavily. Then she noticed the earpiece sticking out Nightwing's ear.
"Hello- can anyone hear me? It's Stem Cell..."
There was a muffled response that sounded like Miss Martian, but she couldn't make out the words. Stem Cell's chest was beginning to tighten and burn inside - clearly a side effect from the toxin. Delayed because of her healing abilities.
"Miss - Miss... Nightwing, he's still out here... need you to come and get him..." Stem Cell panted, her chest fluctuating heavily with her laboured breaths. "Need to- stop the genn- gener..."
It was starting to get harder to breathe properly. Even channelling her powers in short bursts was nowhere near enough to strengthen her. Stem Cell dropped the earpiece and grabbed a nearby trash can lid to rest over Nightwing's head. Whilst she knew it looked stupid, she felt that it might limit and reduce the effects of Metallica's toxic gas.
"Mustn't let generator blow..." Stem Cell repeated slowly, trying to keep her mind focused. "Beast Boy- no longer has final part... Metallica does not know this. If I-" Stem Cell fell into a lamppost, holding onto the colder metal with one hand until it started to corrode and rot away. "No..."
Stem Cell carried on towards the intersection again, reminding herself of the piece of the puzzle she had initially secreted on Beast Boy's person before he accidentally got captured by Metallica. It would made the gas from the generator more dangerously when added. That's why I was going to release a few components and add her blood to the generator.
The thought process was to reverse the effects of the toxic gas in the air and use the amplifier within the piece Stem Cell had stolen.
At the generator, her heart felt constricted. The worst thing was that Stem Cell could not fully heal herself whilst she was affected by the noxious gas. There was no way of going inside to heal as that action would endanger so many lives potentially.
Something scuttled towards her. A small plastic cylinder with a piece of paper inside. Stem Cell stopped and put her foot gently on the plastic to stop it from moving.
"What the-"she mumbled, picking up the cylinder.
Underneath the plastic cylinder was a horrid little cockroach.
Stem Cell raised a foot, ready to stomp on it, but then she noticed something as it ran around in circles.
"Green... Beast Boy?"
The vibrantly coloured cockroach bounced up and down, confirming the new super's assumption.
The paper read. 'Nightwing safe- quarantined, but Metallica taken over HQ. Save Gotham first.'
Stem Cell tried not to squirm as the Beast Boy cockroach climbed up her arm, nestling on her shoulder.
"Why a cockroach, Beast Boy? They're disgusting..."
Cockroach Beast Boy reared up on his back legs, trying to flex insect arm muscles.
"Oh? Because they are indestructible and you think you can survive the effects on Metallica's gas... I get you now..." Stem Cell grunted in pain, prying the exterior of the generator away and tossing it aside.
The exterior hit the road with a loud metal clang. Faces were beginning to appear at the windows of the nearby surrounding buildings. Some had their phones held up, capturing footage of the new superhero who was attempting to disarm the gas distributor.
"Take no notice, Carrie..." she mumbled to herself, glancing at the mess of wires. "Clearly Metallica wanted to make this tricky..."
Cockroach Beast Boy jumped on Stem Cell's shoulder like a miniature cheerleader.
Stem Cell pushed the wires to one side, exposing the gas canister. The amber coloured gas was swilling about inside. She wasn't expecting this. Two thick blue hollow tubes poked out of the canister, hanging loose and she realised the problem.
Metallica has given her an ultimatum to remind her who had the power.
Stem Cell ignore the impending doom and connected the amplifier to the distributor fan. Using the plastic cylinder the Beast Boy had transported the now disintegrated message in, she prepared herself to donate some blood.
Dragging her left hand across the exposed metal edge, she screamed as red blood spurted from the cut. Blood quickly dropped into the cylinder that Stem Cell was now starting to slide one of the tubes over.
"Okay Beast Boy- I'm going to be really honest with you for a second..." Stem Cell said calmly as she pulled the other tube towards her. "You're a great guy, but I'm broken and can't be the person you - everyone... need you to pass on a message. Tell everyone I'm sorry..."
Before Beast Boy in cockroach form could understand what was about to go down, Stem Cell immediate started to inhale the toxic gas of Metallica's by sucking sharply on the tube. The gas was filtered up through the pipe, into Stem Cell's airways.
The cockroach flitted about helplessly, clearly distressed by Stem Cell's actions. As the amber gas disappeared, Stem Cell gasped, lurching for a green reset button. The burning sensation in her lungs caught her, dragging her to the ground.
Beast Boy bounded from her shoulder as she fell down. The green cockroach flew through the air, feeling as though he was crossing a large chasm. He pounced down onto the button, slowly pushing it down.
A hiss filled the air, spewing a white tinted gas cloud into the air. Beast Boy immediately shifted to his human self, collapsing to the ground beside Stem Cell.
"Stem Cell- come on..." Beast Boy shook her body for a response before weakly scooping her up in his arms. "You're going to be okay, you have to be..."
Every footstep was agony due to the fact that the air was not fully purified. It was close to that point though. Beast Boy carried Stem Cell's lifeless body all the way to the headquarters, choosing to sneak in through a side entrance he had escaped through. He hoped that he would not be detected by Metallica or Uppercut. Deep down, Beast Boy felt the chances of him running into the duo would be pretty slim because the base was so large. He held Stem Cell tightly in his arms, ignoring the pain he was feeling inside.
"Stem Cell- everything is going to be just fine..." he whispered, slowly shuffling along the corridor, pressed to the wall.
If Beast Boy could just make it to the infirmary where he had stashed Nightwing's body, he might be able to hook up Stem Cell to some medical machine and revive her.
Nightwing lay crumpled on the floor, just as Beast Boy had left him. The chosen injection that the green hero had stabbed the leader with seemed to be taking effect in improving his complexion.
"Nightwing, man- I could really do with your help now." Beast Boy gently laid Stem Cell on the infirmary bed, slowly retracting his hand from behind her head, grazing her cheek slightly. "Okay- what does Miss Martian always do? Why didn't I listen to Green Canary during training?" He frantically looked for something that might help Stem Cell.
In the end, he managed to connect a heart monitor to her, remembering the tubing around the nose and needle in her arm as bonus precautions.
"Come on Stemmy..." Beast Boy mumbled, not hearing anything on the monitors.
"Stemmy isn't really a good pet name for her, Beast Boy..." Nightwing grunted, lifting himself up from the floor. "What- what happened?"
"Generator, disperser thing. She removed the last of the gas by inhaling it before using her blood and some components I don't understand to disperse a cure into the air? Trust me, if I understood it properly, I'd have done it myself!" He inhaled sharply. "Good to have you back Nightwing, we're in trouble. Metallica has taken over the headquarters. There no way of knowing how much time we have left before he discovers us."
"Then let's make the most of our borrowed time..." Nightwing grumbled, pulling himself up and leaning against the bed. "I'm fine, I'm fine- just... adjusting." Straightening out, he tried to hide the pain in his face. "If Metallica has the other heroes captured, we have to rally everyone round and- where's my earpiece, Beast Boy?"
Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Somewhere in Gotham..."
"Great- well I have a temporary plan in place. Aqualad, Impulse and Kitty are at the media stations after sending out the broadcasts- Superboy is out there with Millie. If we can send out a distress signal, they'll know something is up. I'll stay here with 'Stemmy' as you call her."
"Don't poke fun, Nightwing."
"I get it- you think she's cute."
"Nah, no. It's not that at all. Stop! Look, I'm going to go and get that distress signal sent out." Beast Boy stumbled out the infirmary room and morphed into a bee, disappearing down the corridor.
-o-
Metallica paced up and down in front of the heroes on their knees. Each super had a metal pipe around their wrists and another around their necks.
"Oh isn't this just perfect?" he taunted, straightening out the jacket he was wearing. "And to think your headquarters contained so much metal." Metallica bent down towards the captured supers. "Shame. Miss Martian, I thought you would have been a far more formidable opponent."
A soft buzzing sound caught Metallica off guard and he swiped his hand by his ear, catching a blur or green.
"Oh no you don't, Alien Boy!" Metallica summoned more metal to his hand, swinging violently at the air in the hope of splatting bee Beast Boy.
Raven felt time slowing, enough for her to realise Beast Boy was in trouble and flying about frantically. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
A black demon hand grabbed Metallica, slamming him against the wall.
Raven pulled the weak metal from her neck and stood protectively in front of the captive supers. Her eyes burned with fire and aggression.
"Now that's more like it! You are a formidable opponent, Raven- demon daughter."
Over by the control panel, Beast Boy changed to his human form. "Too bad, Metallica. We've got another plan." His hand pressed the signal button under the desk. "The supers are coming home."
The villain shook his head. "You're too late Beast Boy. Gotham has fallen- the world will soon. My plan has succeeded. People are trapped and must bend to my services. The gas will stop everything from functioning."
Beast Boy's eyes twitched as he held himself up on the control panel. "You're wrong, Metallica. We are winning." He stood up straight and valiantly, his body shaking with weakness.
"Come now Beast Boy. You can't undo the damage this quickly. Not even your precious little Stem Cell could save the city. And I don't mean by her abilities."
"What? What are you talking about?"
Metallica chuckled loudly, throwing his head back. "Because she's selfish! The girl has never done anything for anyone apart from herself!"
"You're... you're wrong..."
"Come on- she's damaged goods now. Some things just can't heal a broken heart my friend." Metallica shrugged dismissively. "But I'll give her credit, she's got you wrapped around her little finger."
Right in front of the heroes, a arrow hit the ground, dispersing a smoke powder. Beast Boy felt someone hold him up with his arm over their shoulder. Someone he hadn't seen in over three years.
"Tigress?"
Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = Dun dun dun! There's a lot of stuff up in the air at the moment with this story – don't forget to review