M'gann leaned against the tree. Her eyes were closed in pain. Her head ache showed no signs of leaving. It wasn't that bad as how when she first woke up, but now it was uncomfortable. Artemis told her that the concussion had lowered in severity but she still shouldn't go to sleep just in case she was wrong. M'gann understood and didn't try to go to sleep.
So now she looked at the dark forest. Her thoughts swarming to many different things. 'Were Superboy and Aqualad going to wake up? How is Artemis so calm? How will they get out of this?' But she knew all of these were cover up questions hiding herself from the real question in her head.
She grimaced and wrapped her arms around her legs. It was still uncomfortable to think about it. Her friend wasn't her friend, he was a monster made out of clay! And worst of all were the things he said. His words hit her hard. He had led her to believe that he actually liked her. And she fell for it. She was going to kiss him for god's sake. How stupid could she be?
"Apparently very stupid…" she muttered.
Artemis cocked an eyebrow. "What?" M'gann shook her head. "Nothing, never mind."
Artemis did hear what she said, but didn't pry.
Wally's breath become more and more labored as he ran near the speed of sound towards the North woods. His eyes didn't betray the stress his body was undergoing, they were set and firm towards his goal.
Robin, though, didn't have it any easier. His mouth felt very dry and he couldn't see. He was light headed and he felt as if he was about to collapse. He had equipment for this specific reason, but he lost it when they got attacked at the ship, so now he was suffering the consequences.
"Slow down a bit Kid… I feel like I'm going to vomit." He breathed out.
Wally rolled his eyes and kept going at the same speed.
A lone tear slid down her cheek. She had just revisited the memory. It was awful. The once beautiful clearing now looked horrible. It didn't have that lovey feeling anymore. Now it had cruelness. Cruelness she would never forget.
But didn't she like Conner? Wasn't it obvious and expected?' Yeah, I do like Conner. Me about to kiss Wally was just the heat of the moment. That's why. I like Conner, not Wally. I don't like that green eyed boy who has red hair and adorable freckles. No. I hate it when he cracks his jokes that make me laugh, and I hate his useless tries at comforting the team when we're down. So, no, I don't like him.'
Man, did she just feel like she lied.
Wally came to a rough stop just near where Robin's holo-map indicated where the comms were. Robin hopped off and swayed a bit. He was dizzy and he felt like he needed to vomit. Wally, on the other hand, looked fine, but internally was burning up. He didn't know if M'gann or if the rest of the team were ok, but he intended to find out, and hopefully, with the help of his teammate, save them if needed.
So they walked in the general direction of the comms for a few minutes. Their footsteps were amped up by the quietness of the forest and the leaves on the ground. This set the dazed Robin off, because if an enemy chose to, they could get the drop on them.
But eventually they made it into a clearing without being jumped by an enemy. That made Robin's mind go off even more. It could be a trap that they were walking into, the clearing was actually dark, the only light that there was came from a small opening at the top of the canapy of trees. He grabbed some goggles from his belt and put them on. Wally, meanwhile, was farther away from his partner, investigating a metal type noise he had heard.
Robin activated the night vision in his goggles and looked around. With these goggles he could probably locate his teammates faster. He looked around for awhile and even moved further away from his teammate. He knew it was a bad idea, but he saw something moving in the darkness, maybe it was the team!
Wally's head whipped around when he heard his partner yell in struggle. He turned on his own night vision and searched for Robin. His friend was in trouble, what if he got killed?
He ran at the area where Robin had run off to. But before he could make it, he got punched back. He flew into a tree, breaking it in the process. He got up and tried to spot the assaulter but no one was in sight.
He grabbed the taser from his belt and aimed it at the darkness. He was reluctant about shooting, it was dark, and Robin was in the dark, what if he shot him? These tasers were ment to pull apart Clayface, he didn't even want to imagine what it would do to a human.
So he rebuckled the taser to his belt and switched his goggles to night vision. He paced the surroundings, searching for Rob, but he only found walls of trees. At this rate, he wasn't going to find his friends. And at this rate, his friends could be dead. The thought of that sent a chill down his spine. He shook his head and walked towards one of the tree walls.
Before he could come anywhere close to the wall, a well aimed kick to his side sent him sprawling to the ground. Soon followed another kick as he layed on the ground, and another. A loud snap could be heard as one of his ribs cracked.
Before another kick could come in, Wally rolled out of the way, clutching his rib in pain. He got up and spotted his assaulter. His eyes widened.
"Rob?" He called.
Robin made another attempt at him. Wally dodged the kick. Why was he attacking him? Was he being controlled? Or was he Clayface?
'Probably Clayface' thought Wally while maneuvering out of the way of another kick.
He clutched his rib a bit tighter. Stupid thing would heal itself quicly, which ment his energy reserves were going to be used up. Which also ment he was going to be fighting without his powers.
"Get back here Wally!" Yelled Robin.
The real Robin was gagged and tied up to a tree next to Artemis, Aqualad, Superboy, and M'gann. He fought against the chains, trying to reach his utility belt, but the chains were too strong.
'I guess Wally is all on his own.' Thought Dick.
"Stop running you coward! This is why no one on the team likes you!" Yelled the imposter before throwing heavily sharpened batarangs at the spot where Wally was previously at.
"Running is the exact thing I do, Rob. I can't give up my passion." Quipped Wally. He ran in and punched Robin. The force of the punch sent him flying into a tree.
"That looks painful" muttered Artemis.
"Really? Running? You can't do that right. Let me remind you how much you screwed up remaking The Flash's powers. You are a sloppy imposter." Cackled Robin.
"Talk about too close to home," grimaced Wally.
"Getting under your skin, Wall-man?" Robin asked. He got out some eskima sticks and advanced on Kid Flash.
Robin threw a punch at his head, but Wally ducked. Seizing the moment, Robin threw all his weight onto a jab aimed at the ducked speedster.
Wally was sent tumbling a few feet. He regained his composure fast enough to avoid the next punch.
"You suck at everything you do. You fuck up everything, is that why daddy hits you?" Mocked Robin.
Wally's mind stopped. His mind raced even faster, emotions and memories clogging up his rationale. He let out an animalistic roar and ran at Robin full speed. Before Robin could move out of the way, Wally sent a punch straight through his abdomen. The speed of his fist coupled with the unsuspecting imposter made for an exquisite and deadly combination. Now, if only the imposter Robin had been human, he would have gotten the pleasure of seeing his organs being completely launched out of his back and onto the trees. But unfortunately for everyone, Robin wasn't human, and he didn't have any real organs, which left Wally with the unsatisfying view of a lump of clay launch into the tree.
"Wow, you would kill one of your team members that easily? I thought we were friends Wally." Robin said, mock betrayal clearly evident.
Wally snapped out of his rage only to be met with a punch to the face. Crack! Fractured nose. Estimated heal time? Couple of hours. Estimated usage of energy? Couple of minutes. "Which leaves me with a few minutes tops to finish this with my speed." He whispered.
The imposter's features started to shift. The cheekbones rearranged, the eyes fell, and the overall structure of the face became more slender. And all of a sudden, before Wally, with a bow aimed straight at his head with a sharp spear headed arrow, stood Artemis, the fiercest archer he knew. At this point, with dried blood on his uniform and sore muscles aching just about everywhere, he rolled his eyes. "Wonderful."
"You're one to say. We're the ones who carry your lazy ass on every mission. You are nothing but a stupid kid who can't use his powers properly that gets us caught on all of our missions. That's why Robin got injured. That's why I got injured. That's why almost every member of this team has gotten injured because of you!"
Ok, harsh. Wally knew that this was an imposter. This Artemis and his previous adversary, Robin, weren't real. But had what they said been real? Did the real them honestly believe what these imposters were now relaying to him? Did they really believe that he was a screw up that deserved to be beaten by his father? By the man that was supposed to care and protect him? Or was it just made up stuff that Clay"dumbass"face was smart enough to come up with. Because if he recalled correctly, and he knew he did, Clayface was just a goon often utilized by the stellar Gotham city Rogues. His most notable work was with The Riddler three weeks ago when they broke into a hospital to gain medical records to be used against The Riddler's chosen victim. The Riddler had gotten away and was still at large but Clayface wasn't so lucky. The only reason why he had been caught was because he didn't know which escape to use. So Wally knew that he wasn't making this up. For Christ's sake he knew his name! No one knew his name. But this rogue did. So it had to be common knowledge at this point how much of a screw up he was.
While in his mental reverie, Artemis pulled back the arrow, letting the clay materialized string tense under her fingers. She called to Wally, "hey Kid Clutz!"
Wally snapped out of his thoughts only to be met with an unwelcome guest that had lodged itself into his right shoulder. Almost instantly an ear splitting scream ripped forth from his throat. Tears formed in his eyes and let themselves fall, conveying how much it hurt. Nothing that he had ever done to hurt himself compared to this.
He dropped to his knees. Left hand gripping at the shaft of the arrow. His options were very limited at this point. If he removed the arrow he risked severing an artery if it already wasn't severed. That would be bad. He estimated in his pain fogged mind that he would last at least five minutes before he lost enough blood to send him into hypovolemic shock. Now, if he kept it in he risked contracting a severe infection and losing complete blood flow to his arm which would then cause his arm to be amputated. His estimations for how long he could keep the arrow in? Maybe twenty minutes if he kept his heart rate at a considerable level.
"What, Kid Flash can not withstand a little prick of an arrow? How disappointing. No wonder Batman and the rest of the League think you are a joke. You can't handle a bit of pain." Laughed Kaldur. He strode over to Kid Flash. The smugness radiated off of him. He closed in on his face and whispered. "After I am done with you, I will rape that little green bitch. Maybe I should make you watch."
Before Clayface could even register what had happened, he found himself on the ground with Kid Flash on top of him with the taser in hand. "Don't you ever think about touching her ever again! If I even see as much as a blink in her direction from you, I will make sure that you live a life far worse than death. You will beg for death because if you mess with her ever again, that will be the only way to escape me."
And without anymore wasted time, Wally plunged the taser deep into Clayface and pulled the trigger as hard as he could. The monster screamed as its form shifted and contorted, taking many forms before it exploded.
Satisfied and now severely weak from the blood loss that was accelerated due to his elevated heart rate, Wally tumbled back from the puddle of clay. He made it a few feet back before black spots started at the corner of his eyes. He turned around, nearly falling before being caught by M'gann. "Hypo...volemic...shock... setting in... I'm sorry... for being... so useless." Finally the black spots took over his vision as his legs lost force.
"Help!" Yelled M'gann, tears falling freely from her face.
