I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
Remembering
Cassius watched the group leave. Tim wasn't happy about it being more than just him and Cassandra, but he was trying his best not to be angry. Once they were gone, Cassius turned, walking to the sparring ring. Within seconds, Nightwing stepped into it with him, smirking knowingly.
"Try not to break me," Nightwing requested.
"I'll do my best," Cassius said flatly.
Nightwing charged first, punching at Cassius, who knocked it aside, snapping a roundhouse kick up at him. Nightwing dropped under the kick and Cassius flipped over his leg sweep. Then, as Cassius landed and Nightwing spun to punch at him, it was suddenly Nemesis.
Nemesis shot out from between the buildings in the blink of an eye, his fist exploding into Copycat's jaw, less than a second before he could finish restraining Lady Shiva, temporary as it may be, given Shiva's skillset. Copycat flipped, landing on his feet and narrowed his eyes, a wave of pinpricks rolling across his skin as he shifted himself, becoming the same species as Nemesis, a species from several galaxies away that had, at several points in time, gone to war with the Kryptonians to keep them from conquering their galaxy, and though they lost each time, they stopped the Kryptonian expansion. He couldn't remember the name of the species, but he didn't particularly care at the moment.
Nemesis roared, exploding forward, and Copycat met his charge. Their fist met hard enough to shatter the ground below them before Cassius flipped, slamming a kick down on Nemesis's back, sending him exploding down through the ground, Copycat flipping up onto a light pole. After a moment, however, the ground exploded into a massive swarm of ice spikes just as Nemesis reappeared, swiping his arms downward and across his body. Copycat crossed his arms in front of himself, then swiped them outward and the spikes all obeyed his commands, stabbing into the ground off to the sides instead of him. As soon as he did, however, Nemesis's fist crashed into his face, sending him streaking into the air. Nemesis leapt after him, but when he reached him, Copycat flipped under his first punch, slamming a kick into the side of his head. Nemesis fell, too stunned to react for a moment before flipping and drawing a long knife, driving the blade hilt-deep into a building and skidding to a stop. As he did, Copycat focused a wave of pinpricks running from the outside of his back to his shoulder blades, where a pair of leathery, bat-like wings formed, allowing him to fly down to the ground and land lightly, retracting the wings. Then, Nemesis landed in front of him. Copycat deflected his first punch, drilling one into his gut, then another into the side of his helmet. Nemesis spun left with the punch and his left leg flew up into a windmill kick, slamming into Copycat's jaw, sending him exploding into the side of a building off to the side.
Copycat huffed, pinpricks again travelling across his back, this time to his tailbone, where they grew into a long, flat tail with sharpened edges and that extended four feet into a deadly point. As soon as it was finished, he exploded forward again, streaking across the ground before throwing a punch. Nemesis leaned out of the way, then ducked under the tail as Copycat spun. He stepped forward, slamming a half-dozen blurred punches into Copycat's torso, sending him staggering backward, then jumped spinning, and slammed a kick into Copycat's jaw, only for Copycat's tail to impale him through the chest. Copycat flicked his tail, the tail tearing free of Nemesis's shoulder as he bounced away. Cassius pushed himself up, only for Nemesis to flash back to him before he could react, beginning to drill punch after punch into Copycat's face, ducking and stepping around any counters Copycat threw. The flesh on the sides of his wound began to move, stretching across the wound and connecting to the other side, pulling his torso closed and stitching him back together before the wound sealed altogether. Then, finally, Nemesis drew his knife again, splitting Copycat across the torso, sending him staggering away. Copycat's wound sealed just as quickly as Nemesis's and Copycat wiped blood from his face, panting for breath for a moment, before pinpricks washed over him as he added to his form, forming scales from a species of dragon-like aliens, the scales being among the hardest substances in the universe, natural or otherwise.
"Nice touch," Nemesis smirked, tossing his knife aside. "Let's put them to the test, shall we?"
Both exploded forward, their fists beginning to explode into each other in blurs, neither blocking the others. Blood flew and bones shattered every time Copycat landed a blow, only to almost instantly repair itself, though he wasn't able to affect Nemesis's helmet. On the other hand, as Nemesis shattered his hands against Copycat's scales again and again, slowly but surely, the scales began to crack. Finally, Nemesis ducked and spun under a punch and slammed a windmill kick into the side of Copycat's head, shattering the scales on his head and upper chest. And then, Nemesis had him planted in the ground as he rained punches into him. Finally, Cassius roared in effort, his right arm exploding into Nemesis's throat, blood spraying out of the bottom of Nemesis's mask as he flipped and spun into the air, his throat already repairing itself. Then, just as Nemesis landed, Doctor arrived, blasting Nemesis with his ankh-shaped magic blast. Nemesis skidded backward before flipping backward, out of the way of Copycat's fists, then grinned.
"Oh, you and I are going to have a lot of fun," Nemesis grinned, kneeling and raising his hands to his sides, the ground behind him exploding, the debris becoming a massive cloud of stone spears. "Shall we begin?"
"Cassius!" Nightwing shouted, slapping him, hard.
Cassius gasped harshly, eyes flying wide open and arms and legs scrambling as he looked around wildly, brain slowly beginning to register that he wasn't in the middle of a losing battle against Nemesis. He stilled, trying to slow his panicked breathing, ignoring the worried look Nightwing, Megan, and Connor were all giving him. Finally, he let out a slow breath, laying back down and holding a hand to his head.
"I lost the sparring match, didn't I?" Cassius asked.
"Lost the match!?" Nightwing scoffed. "I turned to throw a punch and you just dropped and started seizing, then practically went into cardiac arrest. Then, before we could try to bring you back, you just started freaking out. You were thrashing and shouting in a language we couldn't understand, you were completely blocking out Megan's attempts to link with you, and you damn-near threw Connor across the room with a backhanded slap without using your goo."
"I did?" Cassius asked, frowning, looking at his hand. "How far'd he go?"
"Out of the sparring ring," Connor said. "So...fifteen feet or so."
Cassius frowned and looked over to Nightwing. "Got a spare birderang that won't explode?"
Nightwing handed him one, and Cassius gripped it with both hands, grunting in effort before bending it almost into a loop, the other three staring at him in shock.
"Well, fancy that," Cassius said. "It's about time I picked up some new tricks."
"How?" Nightwing asked.
"I think maybe I might still have at least part of my old powers," Cassius said. "And I finally remembered something new."
"What?" Megan asked.
"A surprise attack by Nemesis," Cassius said. "As well as why he's so fucking powerful. I need water."
Nightwing nodded and helped Cassius to his feet before they headed to the kitchen, Cassius getting himself a glass and draining it before sighing and leaning back against the counter as he got a second, sipping at it. He still felt like he had just been fighting Nemesis, but his nerves were starting to settle, and he would be fine once he'd rested a bit.
"So, the biggest thing about Nemesis is his species," Cassius said. "I can't remember what it's called. I knew it before, but I don't remember it. He's from several galaxies away, a galaxy the Kryptonians wanted, for whatever reason. Apparently his species fought several wars against the Kryptonians to stop them from taking over that galaxy. They technically won the wars and stopped the Kryptonians from taking the galaxy, but they also were almost completely decimated each time, so they considered it a loss. Not sure how I know."
"Are you a member of that species?" Nightwing asked.
"No," Cassius said. "Copycat was the child of a human and a type of formless alien who wanted to see what their child would be if they shapeshifted into a human and had a kid. Anyway, Nemesis's species has strength comparable to Superman's, speed close to Wally's top speed but able to activate it on a dime like Flash, he healed nearly instantaneously, even when I split his torso almost in half, and can control ay non-living material around them, such as stone or ice. At Ice Fortress five, he turned some of the ice particles the fortress was spewing into spikes, and in the fight I just remembered, he was turning the ground into spikes, then actual spears just before you woke me up. He can form and control them telekinetically."
"Lovely," Nightwing said. "What else?"
"He's stronger and faster than any other member of his race," Cassius said. "During the fight I remembered, I turned myself into the same race and he was winning. I added the scales of a species of alien dragon that are nearly indestructible and he shattered them. He repeatedly broke his hands to do it, and it took him nearly two hundred punches, but his hands also healed between punches, which were going at about the same speed as an M16's bullets. Oh, and he never had a kryptonite that I could find."
"So, basically, he's virtually unkillable, impossible to restrain, and only Superman could fight him on level ground without being obliterated," Nightwing summarized.
"As far as we know," Cassius said. "I do remember something about his helmet. It was...important."
"What, like, Doctor Fate, source of his power, important, or like, it hurt like a bitch to punch, important?" Connor asked.
"Definitely the second one," Cassius said. "But there was more than that. I don't think it was the source of his powers, though."
"Well, we'll have to rip it off of him next time we fight him and find out," Nightwing said.
Cassius nodded, finishing his water. "I'm going to go to bed. I'm exhausted."
"Alright," Nightwing said. "I'll wake you up if anything come up."
Cassius nodded, walking away from them and to his room. He sat down heavily and sighed, holding a hand to his head. He'd remembered more than the fight. The rest just wasn't as important. For example, he finally understood why Lady Shiva had been so set on sleeping with him so long ago. In his past life, she'd hounded him almost as doggedly as Nemesis. The difference was, every time he fought her, she spent as much time trying to seduce him as trying to kill him, probably more considering that there had been times that she had found him specifically to try and seduce him. It had been why she'd spared him after she and Cain finally beat him. She'd had her way with him before taking him to the island. He had also remembered that before he and his wife had started dating, she'd been dating a friend of both of theirs, which was how they met. He remembered how jealous he'd been, and how it felt.
He pushed those thoughts away. That didn't matter. It had nothing to do with anything. he closed his eyes, struggling to will himself to sleep.
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