Bialya Base
August 31, 2017
18:35
Oliver grabbed Noah by the edge of his bullet-proof vest and pulled the younger teen backward into his awaiting chest. Before the younger boy could question the reasoning behind the sudden action, voices filled the secondary location they were currently entering.
Noah's breath hitched in his throat as he chewed on the inside of his lip. The group of soldiers who had entered the small underground space held sub-machine guns in their hands and talked in a dialect Noah didn't understand. Their voices grew quieter with each second that passed the heroes by.
The technician slowly released the young bat before pushing him behind his much larger figure. Gunshots soon erupted in the garage, startling all of the occupants greatly. Taking his gun out of his holster, Oliver turned to signal at Angel and Noah. The necromancer struggled to pay attention to the older male's made up sign language, his eyes narrowing in on the weapon in his right hand.
Oliver isn't a villain, Noah reminded himself as he swallowed the bile slowly rising in his throat. But why does he have a gun? The question reiterated itself a thousand times in the necromancer's head. Not only was he biting back the urge to nervously puke, his veins slowly filled with anxiety and despair. Oliver won't actually kill anybody, he had his gun during our last mission and it was a success. I'm just being paranoid. Despite his own soothing words, the anxiety still didn't mellow out.
"Somebody died," the muttered realization was quiet at first. His head started to ache dully and black edged his vision haphazardly. "Somebody died," he repeated, a little louder. He hoped that either one of his team mates had heard him, but they both advanced into the underground garage without him.
Suddenly his unfocused behavior began to make sense to the boy. His death sense had been working overtime to alert him of a death.
That must mean we are getting closer to the body, Noah continued his thought process, quickly trying to catch up with the other two boys. He nearly toppled to the ground in pain, his body shivering harshly despite the excessive heat. -Or bodies...
With each additional step he took, fatigue and near hypothermia flooded his body. He didn't think he ever felt this cold before, this cold or tired.
By now, Oliver and Angel had found refuge behind a large tank nearly forty meters away from Noah, their heads peering out around the vehicle and into the garage. Their view though was gruesome and Angel had turned white in disgust.
"¡O Mierda!" Angel cursed as he used his hand to shield himself from the horrific scene. "Ghost, why didn't you warn us abo-?"Angel's question ended prematurely, his head swinging around quickly to find his absent team member. The technician aided Angel in his visual search and found Noah leaning against the white-brick wall behind them.
"Stay here, I'll go get Ghost King," Oliver instructed the meta before heading in the necromancer's direction. In no time the technician reached Noah and wrapped a steady arm around his smaller frame, "Are you okay?"
Noah's pointer and middle finger pressed against his temple painfully. "How many bodies are over there?" The diviner redirected the topic, not wanting to admit to any weakness. His hidden eyes attempted to match gaze with Oliver's, but the older boy refused. If Noah hadn't been too hypersensitive to his surroundings, he would have missed Oliver's quiet response: "Too many." The anxiety appeared on both of the boys' faces by now.
"Guys, you might want to see this," Angel's voice called out from the middle of the room.
Disregarding Oliver's outstretched arm, Noah pushed past the adult. Almost instantly the necromancer's vision went hazy as he passed the tank blocking the scene. Nearly a hundred bodies lay on the floor ahead of him.
Noah uncharacteristically cursed, his hands balling into fists at his sides. The boy stared down at the human remains with sympathy, barely muttering out, "How could Queen Bee kill so many people?" His voice was shaking as he spoke.
"Well, she is a villain after all," Oliver replied airily. Noah gaped at the technician, his head tilted in minor displeasure at the boy's obvious statement. "Oh, wait, you were being rhetorical," Oliver restated the obvious once more. If it weren't for the dilemma ahead of them, the bat might have chuckled at the adult's antics; however, his heart still felt heavy in his chest and refrained him from feeling anything short of sorrow.
I hate my powers, Noah mentally complained as he pulled the sleeves of his shirt down closer to the edges of his gloves. He regretted leaving his trench coat back on the team jet as the cold bitterness nipped on the back of his neck.
"Oliver," Angel interrupted the diviner's thoughts. "Look," the Hispanic teen gripped a deceased soldier's walkie-talkie tightly as he crouched over its corpse. His face was still white in shock and his hands shook slightly in distress at the endless heap of bodies. After everything he had been through, the expected womanizer never prepared himself to come across an above-ground cemetery on this mission.
Noah knew why Angel collected the piece. If the team was able to retrieve the frequency that Queen Bee used in her radios, then they would be able to use that to their advantage later on when it came to future encounters with the woman. In spite of the amazing find, Noah couldn't shake the feeling of loss.
"Come on," Oliver was quick to remove both of the younger boys from the horrid place as Angel's quivering worsened and Noah's eyes glazed over in near dissociation. "I'll handle the weapons here, there aren't that many anyway," Oliver reasoned with the two as he hid them back behind the tank. Noah had completely forgotten about their assigned task.
As he pocketed his still exposed gun, Oliver turned to dismantle the handful of weapons in the small space.
Noah stood tall once more, "I can help. I've dealt with way worse," Noah's purple orbs challenged Oliver's brown as if daring him to call the younger boy out. Oliver remained unconvinced by the boy's willingness but allowed the young teenager to worm his way back into the garage space with a muffled sigh. Angel followed him almost immediately.
Oliver surveyed the room once more before bringing his hand up to his ear to tap at the communication device. "We could use some assistance," he said, staring off at the bottomless pit of corpses.
Dani spat at the sand covered ground aggressively as she wiped at the side of her mouth.
"You okay?" Yessenia's question was full of concern, her eyes scanning Dani for any serious wounds. For a split second, Dani's gaze met the Amazon's and Yessenia's eyebrows scrunched together in increased worry, her head tilted in the slightest.
"Yeah, I'm golden," Dani replied in a monotone voice. Before the other girl could respond, Dani wrapped her ebony bandana around her mouth once more, ignoring the pain she felt when she did so. The sixteen-year-old girl pushed past Yessenia and stepped over the unconscious figures surrounding them to another sector.
Yessenia, somewhat startled by Dani's cool demeanor, quickly recovered from the fray. Being friends with Victoria for as long as she had had prepared her for such neglectful responses to caring questions; yet, the sharpness laced behind Dani was something she would never see out of the respected archer. Dani was harsh and knew it, obviously not caring how another would react. Yessenia was somewhat grateful that it was her who had asked the question and not a kinder heart, such as McKenzie, who she feared would have taken it personally.
McKenzie has already been through enough as it is, the idea of the serpent caused a frown to cross the Amazon's face. She couldn't figure out why the demigod was having the most difficult time recovering from the simulation, especially in comparison to the others. For Hera's sake, even Victoria, who always bottles things up, recovered for the most part!
Yessenia had to shake the thoughts out of her head. Now was not the time or the place to be zoning out.
The Amazon was forced into a jog to reach Dani, who had made her presence known nearly twenty yards away to another group of soldiers. Without calling back for help, or even to see if Yessenia had followed her, the new hero sprang into action with the others. Now normally the warrior would have rushed to join in on a fight, but the glare behind Dani's gaze stopped her in her jog. From a distance, Yessenia watched the younger girl fight the troopers.
Dani cast her weapon of choice easily, the neon blue energy swords striking down the guns from the five soldiers surrounding her in a semi-circle. With the soldiers disarmed, Dani collided her body with another individual's, her force causing him to hit a nearby armored car before toppling to the ground like a rag doll. Then, as if it was the easiest feat possible, the girl ran up the body of the next militant member, kicked him under his jaw, then used his momentum to back-flip herself over two more men whilst smashing their skulls together.
By now, Yessenia had joined Dani in her miniature fighting arena and had grabbed ahold of the remaining soldier. "That was so badass Azure!" Yessenia complimented Dani joyfully as she applied a pressure point to the base of the man's neck.
"Yeah?" Dani huffed out, a tilt of her head as she looked back at Yessenia. "It would have been more badass if I didn't allow one of them to hit me before," the edge-filled tone was laced with venom and its antidote: full of spite, but at the same time so uncaring and relaxed.
Yessenia bit the inside of her cheek. Dani was referring to the battle that they had fought together, where Dani had been headbutted with the end of a gun. The strike was so meaningless but apparently held so much power in Dani's mind.
To her, Dani had been trained better than that. If he had seen that fight… if he had been witness to me getting hit by this low-life and mediocre opponent, he would be disappointed… Dani's thoughts ran rampant. Usually, when she fought she fought to kill, but Batman's rule hung over her head dangerously.
Not killing my opponents is making me weaker and more vulnerable, and as her thoughts continued pouring out, she began subconsciously rubbing at the painful swelling underneath her facial mask. The action didn't go unnoticed, but just before Yessenia could comment on the injury, the communication links in their ears vibrated violently.
"What?" Dani spoke into the earpiece coldly.
"We could use some assistance," Oliver's voice echoed throughout both girls' heads. His voice, which was typically flirtatious and cheery, was now gritty and somber.
Yessenia glanced down at yet another horde of enemies she had watched Dani tackle down as the girl replied to Oliver's request. "Give us your coordinates and Amazon Girl and I will rendezvous to your location," she matched Oliver's vocal tone.
Victoria flinched when she felt her communication link buzz in her ear unexpectedly.
We don't have time for this, Victoria mentally complained as she restrained herself from answering the call. The archer remained still, too scared to make any sudden moves that would result in Dark Claw electrocuting McKenzie, and as Victoria made eye contact with Alyn, she could tell the older woman was thinking the same thing. The two ignored the earpieces' plea in favor of the serpent's potential murder.
"Let her go," Victoria growled lowly, her hand still pressing into her knife lesion tightly. Her fingers gripped onto her shoulder as blood leaked out of the wound in excessive amounts, but Victoria could not care less. Her gaze was fixated on McKenzie's petrified expression of helplessness.
Dark Claw chuckled. "How much do you think they would pay me if I killed a sidekick?" Her voice dripped with passion and danger as her electrified sword pressed against McKenzie's jugular more. She paced around McKenzie's figure, eyeing the serpent up and down in thought.
"Probably not as much as you would for killing a superhero," Alyn challenged. Dark Claw's gaze snapped up to meet Alyn's, confusion settling behind her amber eyes. "You heard me! You'd get paid more to kill a cat, in my opinion," Alyn was strong and confident in her words. "Or hell, even the Huntress wannabe over here would result in a better payout. Are you that scared to go after a real hero?"
McKenzie let the words settle into her stomach. She knew Alyn was only trying to save her life, that she didn't truly mean what she said, but the words still stung. They still stung, and they reminded her of the simulation. I'm no hero. I never was.
Dark Claw stopped pacing the length of McKenzie's figure and she placed a hand on her hip. "Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to fall for that trick?" Dark Claw sneered out before chortling once more. She pressed the sword into McKenzie's neck once more, blood trickling out of the cut in a slow trail. "Now I'm tempted to kill her just because of what you said!"
McKenzie's hair stood on end in fear. She was going to die.
Alyn snickered as she placed her hands on her hips. "Do it then! It won't matter much anyway, but what would I know? It's not like I trained with Lady Shiva or anything," despite Alyn's lie, Dark Claw stood interested, her arm growing slack by her side.
Alyn caught Victoria's attention swiftly before making an incredibly subtle motion towards McKenzie.
"And what if I kill you then? You and the Huntress wannabe?" Dark Claw threatened. She pointed her sword at Victoria as she spoke, not realizing what she had done.
"You really are stupid," Victoria teased as she pointed her loaded crossbow at the villain, gaining the younger girl's undivided attention.
The benefactor smirked, "Not as stupid as you all, apparently."
She slashed her sword down upon McKenzie's brow line, only for the weapon to ricochet against a force field surrounding the demigod. As the sword wobbled in her grip from the collision, Dark Claw fell victim to Victoria's crossbow as an arrow whizzed in her direction.
The younger teenager caught the arrow with one hand centimeters away from her nose.
Queen Bee's hand snaked it's way to the base of Logan's neck, her fingers tight as she applied light pressure to the area. Her touch was soft and warm, the pheromone-laced aura gaining strength the longer she held her position.
Raja struggled against the mental bonds that restrained him from moving, his teeth grit in anger at his lack of bodily control. His struggles became verbal as he started grunting in strain.
With a feminine and content purr, the villain leaned closer to Logan, ignoring the puffs of anguish coming from across the room. Her alluring blue eyes scanned the Russian's body, finding a source of danger before speaking darkly. "Why don't you take your dagger and slit your own throat?" Her command was threatening, a smirk spread across her face.
"No!" Raja's yell was deafening as he struggled to move once more, his body remaining in place like Queen Bee had previously instructed. "Logan, no!" The medic's hand traveled downward to one of his knives before he plucked the sharp instrument out from its sheath wrapped securely around his thigh.
Queen Bee turned away from him and stepped closer to the belligerent Raja, the younger boy screaming in desperation for his team mate.
"And as for you," Queen Bee started to address Raja once more, inches away from her next target. Her hands rose slightly to cup his face harshly, a satisfied taunt evident in her desired features. Raja closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to see the forced execution of his friend. His usual cool demeanor cracked greatly though as he heard Queen Bee's next command. "Open your eyes."
The Indian boy's dark brown eyes snapped open only to see the older woman topple onto him in an unconscious state. Her weight forced him to the ground in a jumbled heap.
Confusion crossed over Raja's facial features as he stared up at a seemingly unharmed Logan; the teen's knife handle occupying the space where Queen Bee's head had been. After a moment of surprise and overwhelming concern, Raja was finally able to speak. "You're okay?" He interrogated.
"Yeah, I think I'm good," Logan said as he placed his knife back in its sheath after flipping the sharp edge back into position.
The injured teen let out a quiet sigh of relief before his expression turned quizzical. "Wait, how did you manage to ignore her curse then?" Raja continued asking questions, his eyebrow raised.
"Queen Bee can only control people who sexually desire her," Logan explained as he offered Raja a hand to stand up.
Raja stared up at Logan for a hesitant moment, more confusion filling him. "So, you don't... sexually desire her?" Raja questioned in a state of accusing disbelief. With his free hand he accepted the boy's assistance, the other still pressed into his gunshot wound harrowingly. He scrutinized his team mate with a sharp and confused daze.
"You do know I'm gay, right?" Logan asked nonchalantly with a smirk, bending over slightly to pick up the unconscious militant dictator fireman style. The two boys locked eyes before Raja chuckled briefly.
Victoria didn't allow herself to react to Dark Claw's actions; instead, the archer chose to continuously shoot off her arrows in an unstoppable attack. Or what she had presumed was an unstoppable attack.
The younger villain was quick to block the flying weapons with her shortened katana, slashing them apart when they came near her. "Is that all you got?" Dark Claw teased in a nasty timbre, her smirk never faltering. She gripped onto her sword tighter as she prepared herself to attack one of the heroes.
Expecting the deadly fray, Alyn was quick to toss a smoke grenade at the ground. Then, with speed that would make the Flash jealous, the lawyer-to-be sprinted to McKenzie's side and pulled her to her feet. The meta grabbed the demigod's hand tightly before the two turned invisible.
Hopefully, Victoria was able to run away and hide, Alyn thought, her eyes filtering out the smoke to find the assassin or the archer. When the vapor dispersed, Alyn was pleased to see that Victoria wasn't in view and had hidden away from Dark Claw.
"Really?!" Dark Claw screamed in frustration, her eyes wild as she searched for her prey. "Come out and fight me, cowards!"
The desert stilled in silence after Dark Claw's outburst. The assassin held her sword out in front of her as she spun around cluelessly, frustration filling her. The silence continued.
"Fine," Dark Claw sneered in defeat. She retrieved something out of her utility belt before smashing it onto the ground. "But know this heroes, this is not over and I will kill you all!" For the second time that night, smoke filled the area around the girls.
The serpent held onto Alyn's hand tightly, too afraid to let go.
Yessenia ignored the stares from her team mates as she bent down to cradle the hand of one of the deceased. Without a second thought, she planted a small kiss on the limb before standing back up. "Hera will guide them now," the Amazonian informed the others with a slight frown.
Oliver smiled lightly in response to her claim, his eyes scanning the others to see their reactions. When he had called for assistance, he originally had hoped for Raja to come or even Victoria for that matter, but seeing Dani and Yessenia comforted him either way. Realistically he knew that nothing could be done for the giant grave site save awaiting for the rulers' uncontrolled attention, but leaving the bodies behind without telling anybody would have bothered him.
Dani gently tapped her foot on the shoulder of one corpse. "Weren't they trying to destroy the Justice League or something?" She asked, somewhat confused by the solemn manner of her team mates. "They were the bad guys. Shouldn't we be glad that they're dead?"
"They were forced to kill each other hermana. Even if they were bad guys they didn't deserve this," Angel explained to his friend, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Still," Dani argued back in a guttural tone, her stance matching Angel's. The others remained quiet as they looked around the room, blood spatter lining the floor, ceiling, and walls. "So, what should we do about this?" She motioned around her for emphasis when she spoke.
Noah spoke up for the first time since the two girls had arrived. "There is nothing we can do. They're already dead and we are wasting our time," his unusual snap sent shivers down the Amazon's spine; she had never heard that tone from the necromancer before.
The bat was the first one to leave the garage in pursuit of the team jet. He was tired, and he was cold, but above all, he was hurt.
Yessenia and Oliver were quick to follow their friend, worried glances passed between them as they attempted to catch up with him.
Mount Justice
September 1, 2017
00:04
Noah ran into an empty bathroom, his legs almost toppling underneath him as he stumbled. Using all the strength and speed he could muster, he slammed the door behind him and leaned against it with his weight. His chest heaved as he struggled to breathe.
"Oh, that's cute," a voice chuckled from the other side of the door. "You really think you're safe just because you locked yourself in the bathroom? I'm giving you until the count of three to come out before I kick this door down," the tone of the voice was daring and confident and could only belong to one person: Yessenia. The Amazon smirked as she 'loaded' her weapon of choice.
Most people lend a listening ear when they know that their friend is upset; Yessenia, on the other hand, was a firm believer that laughter was the best medicine. She knew that the necromancer was still upset over the mission, but she had hoped that she would be able to cheer him up with a simple water gun assault.
After all, this is how I got Victoria to originally talk out her feelings with me, Yessenia reminded herself with a giant grin.
"Yessenia please," Noah pleaded, his breathing still coming out strangled, "At least wait until I'm out of my uniform." Yessenia snickered evilly once more, the boy's words falling on deaf ears.
The Amazonian princess gripped onto her water gun tightly as she smirked from ear to ear. "Don't be a baby," Yessenia teased Noah.
The warrior could hear the boy's sigh from behind the door and the prankster prematurely congratulated herself for her victory as Noah opened up the bathroom's barrier. He slowly stepped out, a frown plastered on his face as he slowly removed his uniformed trench coat. It wasn't long before the Amazonian warrior emptied out her gun's container onto him, her forever famous smirk spreading wider.
The older teenager dropped her gun to the floor, the toy bouncing up and down before settling. Overly zealous, the girl continued her taunt, "You should have learned by now not to fight against me," she teased in a humor-laced tone. "An Amazonian will always beat a bat."
"Is that so?" Noah challenged her, a small but growing smirk gracing his features as he bent down to pick up Yessenia's toy. He inspected it for a moment. "You have until the count of three before I chase after you..."
"Alright, follow my pen with your eyes for me please," Logan instructed the younger girl, one hand raised in front of Dani's swollen face. He moved the pen to the right side of her face before stilling his motion, watching as her eyes jumped back and forth rapidly.
Suppressing a groan, she followed the wavering instrument in disdain. "I'm fine," Dani informed the medic, her eyebrows furrowing in slight pain at her eyes' movement. Instead of replying to her claim, or rather argument, Logan simply hummed before retrieving a flashlight from the bedside table. He shined the instrument into her eyes and inspected the reaction.
Unlike most typical backlashes, Dani didn't flinch or retract from the sudden glow; instead, the girl simply locked eyes with the medic, an eyebrow raised in question. "Well," Logan started, pausing in his statement to turn off his flashlight, "you definitely have a concussion. Have you had one before?"
Dani rolled her eyes at his question, unable to control the obviousness she conveyed in her expression,"Yeah, I've been doing this for a long time. Concussions are just part of the gig."
Logan hummed once more in response, his eyes downcast as he searched through a medicine cabinet at the base of the cot Dani was seated on. Dani watched on in interest as he plucked a vial from the back of the storage unit.
"You know," Logan started. "I tried, but I wasn't able to find a medical report on you anywhere," he admitted as he stood up straighter, continuously reading the vial of Acephen as he did so.
"Are you going to harass me for one Doc?" Dani asked in an opposing tone, all the while eyeing the vial closely.
Logan smiled lightly at her response, the grin appearing crooked as it leaned more towards the right side of his face, "No, not yet at least. You need your rest."
Dani frowned deeply at his statement as if disgusted by his words. I don't need rest. I need to train harder, Dani mentally argued with him, a glare joining her frown. She wasn't sure though if the cause was from Logan's remark or from her pain, but she glared nonetheless. Her glare intensified as Logan offered her a pill and an already cracked open water bottle.
Her pain slowly increased the longer she attempted to maintain her angered gaze, and she knew sooner or later she would fall victim to unconsciousness. "Fine," Dani mumbled in a defeated tone as she snatched both objects from him. Despite her previous apprehension, Dani nearly inhaled the pain reducer.
Logan patted her shoulder gingerly as he passed by her in pursuit of the living room, her figure already slumping down in the cot slowly as her eyes fluttered closed.
And tomorrow I will train harder, Dani resolved her internal conundrum before allowing herself to be forced into a medicated sleep.
Victoria fingered her new stitches in disappointment. With a deep but quiet sigh, the archer recounted the night's events once more.
McKenzie could have been killed! She scolded herself angrily, the disappointment filling her veins once more. She was supposed to protect her team mates, but in the end, she was powerless to save someone she cared about. I'm powerless. Ever since Dark Claw vanished into the Bialyan air that's all Victoria could think: how powerless and small she had been.
How pathetic I had been, she corrected herself, still playing with her freshly cleaned wound.
Alyn had been the real hero tonight despite how desperately Victoria was trying to push her away from the mission. Alyn had saved McKenzie.
Victoria wiped at her moistened eyes. Pathetic. The reiteration tightened her chest painfully. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.
Her eyes scanned the rest of the darkened medical bay, fixating on the sleeping forms of her team mates.
Raja, after having a bullet removed from his body and his arm bandaged up in a sling, lay on the cot to Victoria's left. Next to him lay Sam, who hadn't even woken up from his original knock-out hours earlier, and next to him was Dani. Victoria searched for Alyn, before remembering that the woman had returned to her own home for the night.
With a deep-rooted sigh, Victoria found herself looking back over at McKenzie for the millionth time.
The serpent barely suffered any external injuries save for the small cut on her neck, which much to her pleasure, didn't even require stitches. Despite the below-mild nature of her wound, Victoria was still worried about the girl. There was so much she needed to say to the demigod: how much Victoria cared about her well-being, how important she was to the team, and above all, was she okay? McKenzie was normally quiet, but she had been too quiet after the simulation.
As if she could hear Victoria's thoughts, McKenzie turned her body to face the archer's cot. Her face sported dark circles fit enough to make the resident medic look rested, and McKenzie looked as if she had aged by a few years. All in all, Victoria hated the changes McKenzie had been going through.
Going through by herself, because Victoria knew that the serpent was being stubborn and refused to talk out her feelings with anybody. The Italian shook her head clean of her thoughts; she knew that if Yessenia were here she would call Victoria a hypocrite. But Yessenia isn't here... She's isn't powerless...
Victoria rubbed at her stitches, thinking I may be the world's biggest hypocrite...
Happy New Year everybody! I hope 2018 is kind to you all and that your year is filled with love and happiness. My new year's resolution is to update more frequently, so hopefully I am able to keep that promise.
As always I am annoying and have questions for you all:
1. What nick names would your character call other characters?
2. What friendships/relationships would you like to see?
3. What would you like for me to elaborate on?
4. What would your character do if (s)he was accused of murder? How would your character react if a team mate was accused of murder?
5. What would you prefer to see: the team on Halloween or the team on Christmas?
Also, if your character has not been getting the screen time you would want, just know that its because I'm planning to focus on them in an upcoming chapter. Happy readings!