I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.


Disaster

Cassius stared at the holoscreen in silence. The Team had raided the Reach's ship to capture Black Beetle. Instead, Black Beetle had destroyed Green Beetle's scarab, then Jaime had destroyed Black Beetle's. However, as soon as he did, he reported that Black Beetle had started a plan to destroy the Earth in order to erase all traces of them having tried to conquer it. Now, barely two hours later, they were outside Lex Corp in Metropolis with the entire Team, aver Leaguer still on Earth, and the newly freed Meta-Teens, Arsenal, and a few extra heroes, all of them being briefed on the plan by Captain Atom. They'd be splitting up to reach the machines the Reach was using to destroy the world, called MFDs, Magnetic Field Disruptors. Each MFD was guarded by a pair of drones equal in power to a Beetle, and they only had a limited amount of time to reach the MFDs and use Anti-Reach software Lex Luthor had provided to shut the MFDs down. If they didn't make it in time, whatever machines they couldn't stop would go chrysalis and become unstoppable. In total, there were forty three heroes and twenty MFDs. The teams were going to be given several cannisters that had Luthor's software inside of it, which they would just have to touch against the MFD to shut it down. That didn't sound hard, except for the beetle drones.

"I'll give you your assignments, and then we go," Captain Atom said.

"Safe," Cassandra said worriedly, taking Cassius's hand.

"I'm not going anywhere without you two," Cassius said.

"Void, Orphan, and Ravager, you three will be going here," Captain Atom said, sending the three of them the coordinates of their target.

All three spun and took off instantly, Cassius flying them with his wings. Their target was near the arctic circle, so it was a long flight. However, Cassius had picked up a few tricks when he regained his memory. Currently, he was using two extra sets of wings to fly faster. After barely an hour, he stopped the MFD, and the beetle drones guarding it.

"Void to Watchtower," Cassius said. "How much time on the clock until it goes Chrysalis?"

"Ten minutes," Snapper Carr, who was a friend of the League and currently coordinating the squads from the Watchtower, responded.

Cassius flew low. "I'm dropping you running!"

Both girls nodded, grabbing their liquid metal swords before he released them. Both rolled before taking off at a sprint as Cassius formed himself a pair of goo wakizashi, a tail coiled up on his back holding his cannister. The drones began to fire plasma blasts at him and he flipped and swerved around them slashing both drones into the ground as he reached them, then flipped, his tail flinging the canister at the MFD. The drones both rose into the air just in time for Rose and Cassandra to slash them, destroying both.

Cassius frowned as the canister stuck to the MFD and the sphere of spinning energy over it faded. Cassius raised a hand to his communicator. "Hey, didn't the briefing say the drones were as powerful as a Beetle Warrior? Like Blue Beetle? Or Black Beetle? Oh, and our MFD's down."

"Black Beetle was an exception," Nightwing responded. "However easy you just took that one down, do you think you could beat Blue Beetle as quickly?"

Cassius considered for a second. "If he didn't know my weakness, yeah, probably."

"We did it!" Rose cheered, throwing her arms around Cassius, who laughed as he caught her.

"Yes we did," Cassius smiled. "You two did good. I'm proud."

"The Earth's magnetic field is still being disrupted," Captain Atom reported suddenly.

"Blue Beetle to Watchtower," Jaime said. "I'm reading a twenty first MFD. It's in the arctic. I didn't notice it because of the Earth's North Pole. Sending coordinates."

Cassius pulled up his wrist computer as he got the coordinates. "This is Void. My group's on the way, but if Flash and Impulse can get there first, they definitely should."

"On the way!" Flash said.

"Same!" Impulse said.

Cassius began to fly, but it only took a few moments for them to send out the warning.

"Flash to Watchtower," Flash said. "The Magnetic Field Disruptor...It's already gone chrysalis."

Cassius swore harshly, pushing himself as fast as he could.

"I'm not sure if the egg-"

"The egg is useless now," Luthor said. "You're too late."

"What now?" Flash asked.

"Now you run," Luthor said.

"Hey, I'm no quitter," Flash said. "There's gotta be-"

"I didn't say run away, I said run," Luthor said. "Together, you and Impulse should be able to negate the Chrysalis by running counter to its energy flow."

"Is it really that simple?" Flash asked.

"I wouldn't call it simple," Atom, a Leaguer with the ability to shrink or grow himself using his costume's tech and who usually stayed about two inches tall, said. "You'll be attempting to syphon its power with your own speed trails, it'll take a massive amount of kinetic energy. And no matter what, don't slow down until the Chrysalis is completely neutralized!"

Just then, Kid Flash shot past under Cassius and the girls. Cassius shook his head. He wasn't fast enough to help. He'd get himself killed. Cassius tried to come up with a plan. Finally, the Chrysalis appeared on the horizon, a tornado of energy with the three speedsters blurring around and around the bottom of it. As Cassius rapidly approached, he watched as bolt after bolt of energy bounced off Flash and Impulse, then slammed into Wally. Cassius swooped low, stopping just long enough to drop off Cassandra and Rose, then flew into the air. He swung his arms, firing eight goo spikes into the ground around their track, each spike sprouting two more short spikes near the top end, both angled outward like a crude trident. A moment later, just before a bolt of energy crashed into Wally, it shot sideways, slamming into one of the lightning rods. Wally cheered, passing another, which drew away a bolt of energy. The next hit him. Then another slammed into a lightning rod. And another. And another. Another slammed into his back. The next hit a lightning rod. Then, suddenly, the vortex faded, a bolt of energy striking each of the lightning rods for several seconds before ending. And just like that, it was over. Flash and Impulse slowed to a stop and Wally began to bounce across the ice. Artemis shrieked in fear instantly, sprinting to him from where she and the other original Team members, plus Blue Beetle, had landed the Bio-Ship beside Cassandra and Rose. Cassius flew down beside Artemis and Wally, and Wally smiled up at him, one of his hands held in Artemis's as his body faded in and out between transparent and not.

"Hey man," Wally said. "I'm not sure yet, but you might have saved my butt."

"Couldn't let the comedy relief die," Cassius said. "Artemis would kill me."

Wally laughed. "She'd kill me too."

Slowly, his body began to settle, returning to normal. He sighed in relief, settling into Artemis's arms more. Artemis began to cry happily, holding him tightly, and Cassius looked around, seeing the relief on everyone else's faces too.

"How did you know that would work?" Flash asked.

"I didn't," Cassius said. "It just looked like lightning, so I figured I'd give it a try."

Flash nodded. "Good thinking."

Cassius nodded and looked over to where the Chrysalis had been, his spikes all having been disintegrated, or erased, or whatever had almost happened to Wally. The others all joined them, congratulating the three speedsters. After a few more minutes, once Artemis had calmed down and Wally felt okay to be helped into the Bio-Ship, they all headed back tot he Watchtower to rest. A few hours later, a glowing green jet-shaped spaceship made from a green Lantern's ring flew down to the ruins of Mount Justice and they all flew down to greet their returning mentors.

"Aqualad, what happened here?" Batman asked Kaldur the moment he saw him, not even questioning his presence.

Cassius assumed that Megan and Connor had filled them all in when they went to deliver the holographic recording of Savage's confession in order to get the Leaguers exonerated.

"Fear not," Kaldur said. "The crisis has been averted."

Batman stared at him for a moment before nodding. "I expect a full report from you, Nightwing, and Void. And that includes why my computer is reading an intruder in the Batcave right now and no one has reacted."

Cassius and Nightwing both looked at each other before checking their wrist computers, seeing that they had the same alert. Both shouted in surprise and Cassius took off with six wings, taking Nightwing with him. He flew to the nearest Zeta tube and they used it to enter the Batcave, only to find Stephanie Brown looking around interestedly. Nightwing's jaw dropped and Cassius began to laugh.

"Oh, there you are," she said. "I was expecting you to show up sooner, but I suppose you were probably busy after saving the world."

"How did you find this place?" Cassius asked, grinning.

"Pure coincidence," Stephanie said. "I tried to find someplace to hide from the lightning caused by the storm the Reach made and wound up finding a cave. And wouldn't you know it, it wasn't just some random cave, either."

"I don't believe it," Nightwing said. "Of all the...I guess that makes the choice easy."

"That depends on the boss," Cassius said, just as the Batcave's computer announced Batman arriving via Zeta-tube. "Batman allow me to introduce Stephanie Brown, daughter of Cluemaster, and instrumental in helping us stop him. She helped Orphan and Ravage rescue me from the Reach and saved my life in doing so, then after she helped us stop her father, she wanted us to train her to be a hero, and then during a storm the Reach caused in an attempt to destroy the world, she hid from lightning in a cave, which, apparently by coincidence alone, happened to be this one."

Batman stared at her for a long few moments before turning back to the Zeta-tube. "Be here a eight o'clock tomorrow. I'll test you then. Void, take her home. Nightwing, come with me."

Both nodded and did as instructed.

"Is that a good sign or bad?" Stephanie asked.

"There are no good signs with Batman," Cassius said. "The test is going to hurt, the training you'll get after he inevitably accepts you is going to hurt, and the life is hard."

"You think he'll accept me?" Stephanie asked.

"Of course," Cassius said. "I told him you saved my life. You're basically in already. The test is to figure out where you're starting from."

"I see," Stephanie smiled, then nodded. "Alright. Thank you. I probably only have you to thank."

"I dunno," Cassius said. "You might owe the Reach one for helping you find the Batcave. He tends to keep anyone who finds it close enough to monitor anyway. Of course, the Reach tried to kill me, so feel free to not thank them."

Stephanie laughed as he landed behind her house. "Thanks for the lift. Tell Cassandra and Rose I said hi."

"I will," Cassius said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an ass chewing to go receive."

Stephanie nodded and Cassius turned, flying into the air, then back toward the Batcave to use the Zeta-tube to head to the Watchtower.


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