Chapter 19
A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to the new year! Glad to start it off with a brand-new chapter! However, it might not be my best work, i worked on some of this through a pretty brutal migraine. Anyways, DC owns Young Justice, Universal owns Godzilla and I own my OCs.
/comms/
Telepathy/Flashbacks
Mt. Justice, September 26, 10:00EDT
"Two days ago, you all participated in a mission in India, uncovering the operations and experiments of the Brain," Batman said. "We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Common criteria of the Bwundan Jungle suggests the Brain has another Kobra-Venom operation."
"And you want us to shut it down," Kaldur said.
"Exactly."
"You couldn't have told us this while we were still in India?" Remix muttered.
"Great, that probably means we'll have to fight more monkeys," Kid Flash groaned.
"I hate monkeys."
"Well, then you'll be able to punch plenty," Onyx remarked as they walked to the Bioship.
-.-
Bwunda, 20:11CAT
A screen beeped as the Brain rolled up to the monitor. Puling up the feed, he could see the children landing the jungle. "Oh Mallah, les enfants, zey plague me. First India and now L'afrique. Have they no respect pour la science?"
"No my friend, they don't. Like most've their kind, they fear simple progress," a white gorilla with a visible brain spoke.
"Tragique, but true mon cher Ultra Humanite. Mais, what would you suggest?"
"The obvious," Serket said crossing his arms, "send the monkeys. Let them deal with the pests. That's their job isn't it?"
-.-
"Link established."
"You know, if you want to establish a link, I can help—"
"WALLY!" they all yelled.
"What? Just trying to spread the love."
"Well if you keep it up I'm going to light you on fire."
"Don't light him on fire, that's just give us away," Onyx reminded. "You should just knock him out."
"Good point."
"Guys! Aren't you going to stop them?!"
"Hold on, we're debating," Artemis replied.
"Kaldur!"
"I'm still debating."
"Kaldur! Come on man!"
"Um, does anyone else smell monkey," Conner spoke up. "Cause this jungle reeks of monkeys, and I hate monkeys."
"Well, we are in the middle of the jungle," Amber reminded.
"No, SB might be onto something," Nightmare replied sniffing the air. There were scents, multiple strong scents, all around them getting closer. "We're being surrounded."
"What?!"
"Nightmare, where are they coming from?" Aqualad questioned.
The leaves on the brush around them began to rustle, standing back-to-back, they watched as obviously Venom-enhanced gorillas emerged. "I'm guessing everywhere," Remix replied twirling her morningstar.
"Then we do like we did last time, break off the collars," Kid Flash said rushing forwards and kicking one of the gorilla's in the face as it charged.
"One problem," Robin said, flipping over throwing an explosive hitting one of the apes trying to hit Kaldur while his back was turned. "They aren't wearing any collars!"
"Then what's controlling them?" Suberboy asked hurling an ape into the one Kaldur was fighting.
"I don't know, but they seem very distressed," Amber pointed out.
"Aurora, now's not the time!"
"Miss Martian," Aqualad called ducking under the swing of a gorilla, "go into camouflage mode. You will be our secret weapon."
"Acknowledged."
"We must escape and regroup. Robin lay down cover!"
"Way ahead of you!" the Boy Wonder called leaping off the back of one of the enraged apes and throwing a barrage of smoke bombs to the ground.
A thick haze formed around them as the smoke permeated the air. The air crackled with electricity as Nightmare flipped over a gorilla slamming his palms into its shoulders, causing it to roar in pain as lightning arched over it. Onyx's tail thrashed as a he spotted another target approaching through the haze.
The massive frame of a gorilla charged towards him before it was blocked by a clear barrage of flame. "Nice light show," Remix grinned landing next to him. "Made it easier to find you in this mess."
"I think that sent a few running," Artemis remarked as she came through the dissipating smoke.
"To be fair, I think anyone would run from fire," Amber commented.
"Speak for yourself."
"But at least we were able to find you all," Aurora spoke up. "Miss Martian's link is down."
"Which means she is unconscious and is still camouflaged," Aqualad confirmed.
"Switching to infrared now," Superboy said.
A distant thud caused Nightmare to tilt his head, it sounded like something big. Glancing to Aurora and Remix he saw them looking around too. "CONNER LOOK OUT!" Aurora exclaimed shooting forwards.
A shockwave shook the clearing as a massive plume of dust rose. Through it they could see a massive gorilla rising to its feet, one large fist firmly planted on Aurora's unmoving form. The beast bared its fangs and roared, charging towards Aqualad and Superboy.
Nearby, Artemis reached towards her quiver to grab an arrow to help her teammates when something grabbed it. Remembering the crocodiles from a few days ago, she immediately unclipped the quiver; dropping to the ground, she whirled on her heels and shattered her bow against the silvery hide of another gorilla. The archer leapt away from the animal, pulling out her crossbow. However, she didn't have the chance to fire as something latched around her neck with an all too familiar buzz.
A scream pierced the air and Kid Flash turned on his heel to see Artemis collapse to the ground, an inhibitor collar sparking around her neck. Charing towards her, he was intercepted by a massive wall of fur slamming him to the ground. The breath was knocked from his lungs as a massive paw slammed onto his chest, holding him down. But even through that he noticed something latch around his neck.
"We need to fall back!" Skylar said hitting an angry ape in the face with her weapon several times, the final hit sending it flying into a tree.
"What do you mean?!" Onyx said lifting an ape over his head and hurling it away.
"Look around, this battle isn't going well, we need to fall back and regroup," she replied. Waving her hand out to the battlefield, he could see Robin slammed to the ground as another gorilla slammed Kaldur and Conner's heads together repeatedly.
Onyx grit his teeth. As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. They were losing this battle. Over half the team was already captured—actually, there were only three of them left, and that was only cause one of them was essentially invisible. "We need to find M'gann."
"Neither of us can use infrared last I checked," she reminded. "We'll circle back when it's clear." There was a rush of heat and she took off into the air, well out of reach of the gorillas.
Nodding in agreement, Onyx leapt into the jungle. A flash of white to his right made him glance as he expected pursuit, instead, he was pleasantly surprised to find Wolf running alongside them. The pair jumped on rocks and roots, anything they could find to make sure footprints couldn't be tracked. Water splashed against his boots, masking their scents as he found a creek and he made sure to release a quick flash of light with a loud roar. Running down the stream, he heard a familiar screech as he saw a flash of orange approaching. "Come on, I found a cave!" Sky called as she swooped down.
-.-
Gorilla City, 23:59CAT
"Excellent work mes amis," the Brain praised as the monkeys dumped the bodies of the unconscious teenagers on the floor. "But where is la Martian, A1, B4, and mon loup?"
The large silver gorilla in the front stood on his legs, as he raised his arms to sign. "Ugh, what is he saying?" Ultra Humanite huffed.
"Mon frere, have you still not learned la langue des signs?"
"I've been busy upgrading your apes."
"He's saying that the Martian was invisible, the firebringer—B4 probably—flew into the sky and they lost her, while the hunter—A1—escaped into the jungle with the hound," Barbarian translated crossing his arms as he and Serket observed.
"Zese idiots didn't realize I wanted la creature as well. Ze let zem go."
"Well, you should've spelled it out for them," Serket scoffed. "They're stupid animals. Experiments can only do so much."
"They boy is right," Humanite agreed. "Our experiments have made them physically superior and have provided sentience, but you cannot expect genius."
"C'est vrai. I blame Mallah, he has spoiled me. Alas, zey cannot all be Mallahs."
"Well, then you could send those who are more capable of completing the job," Serket smirked.
"Don't be stupid Serket, they'll come to us," Barbarian sneered crouching by one of the unconscious teens and yanking their head up by their hair. "We do have their precious friends."
"No, Serket is right," Ultra Humanite agreed.
"He is?"
"I am?"
"The Kobra-Venom may be interfering with the mental enhancements, our scans of Mammoth have indicated that intelligence decreases upon injection; however, more testing on that is needed. But, the solution to our missing subjects is a simple one," she went to a table grabbing a set of goggles and handing it to Barbarian. "Have the monkeys use these to find the escapees. And remind them, if they return without them there will be consequences?"
"Venomous consequences?" Serket grinned.
"Perhaps, we have not tested their new immunity to various venoms."
"Is zere also a way to make ze venom more potent?" the Brain mused tapping the end of Serket's tail.
"You should know sir, I mean, you designed me."
"True, and it is some of my best work," the Brain admitted. "But ze properties of titan venom interest me."
"Well, I'm happy to test it now."
-.-
"Ugh," M'gann groaned as she sat up. Rubbing her head, she looked around, finding herself in a dark plane. "What happened?"
"Grodd happened human," a gruff voice snarled from behind her.
Leaping to her feet, the Martian girl stumbled back to see the very beasts that had just been attacking her and her team.
A dark brown gorilla stomped forwards, baring its massive fangs. "And Grodd demands your help."
"Manners my love," a dark-furred one said putting a massive hand on the larger ape's shoulder. Settling back onto her knuckles, she lumbered forwards and took M'gann's hand, gently shaking it. We desire the human's help, but we do not demand it."
"I…I'm not human, I'm Martian," M'gann corrected. "Miss Martian to be exact."
Another gorilla came over, a white streak of fur running down its back, parting the silvery fur. "I am not sure I understand. Our vocabulary expands rapidly, however, there are still gaps."
"It's not important."
The silver ape gave her a nod, "I am Solovar, the alpha of this troop." He turned motioning to a black gorilla, her fur so dark at moments it looked blue, "This is my mate, Baka." Solovar then motioned to the gorillas that had first approached her, "This is Primat and you've met Grodd."
Glancing at the massive gorilla that had attempted to crush her earlier, she frowned as she saw him give an annoyed huff. As much as she didn't like that one, the others seemed to be much more receptive to let her have her own choice and at least would explain what was going on. Which she needed if she had any hope of helping her team. If her memories of the battle were correct, she was going to need their help. "It's nice to meet you all."
"It is our pleasure to meet you as well."
"But, I do have some questions," Miss Martian began. "Where are we? Why is it so dark? How are you capable of telepathy? Why did you attack us? What is going on?"
Primat gave an amused laugh, "All these questions, all at once, like an infant."
"She is young for her species," Baka reminded.
Solovar stepped forwards, looking grim. "We will do our best to enlighten you, but time is short. Almost three years ago now, two strangers arrived: an old woman and a thin man with their borrowed shadows. They constructed a single metal cave, a Kwan-zett hut, to conduct their experiments. They captured Mallah, the youngest of our troop, and operated on his brain. Mallah…was not the same afterwards. He approved of their experiments, even betrayed his own kind to his new masters. Good Tolifhar was the first to fall to his attacks. They took Tolifhar and they murdured the ape we knew; replacing Tolifhar's brain with that of the old woman, creating the abomination, the Ultra Humanite."
"But the horror continued. Ultra Humanite and Mallah extracted the brain from their thin human companion and placed it within the hollow, metal tree stump. This new thing wished to be completely free from the distractions of the physical. To simply be The Brain. They added more to their metal cave and called their new kingdom: Gorilla City. It is their little joke, for it was here they have enslaved every gorilla in our troop. Only the Holy One managed to escape."
"From there, the put inhibitor collars on us and performed their enhancement surgeries on our brains. We gained intelligence, awareness, and sentience, but neither happiness nor freedom. Especially once they brought in their monsters. The one known as Serket would sting us with his tail when we misbehaved, causing our bodies to feel like they were on fire. The one known as Barbarian would burn us. Another known as Tyrant would throw sharp pieces of metal at us. We have seen others, but they mostly have left us alone, for the most part. But those three were the worst."
"More recently, they injected us with their Kobra-Venom. It was very painful, but it made us larger, stronger. And now they are ignorant of our greatest strength, the telepathy their enhancements provided," Grodd huffed, slamming his fist on the ground. "Thus they have scattered the seeds of their own demise!"
"But, you don't have the collars now," M'gann noticed. "Why do you still aid your oppressors?"
They have an ever greater hold on us, one that we cannot risk," Solovar sighed, "they have our children. If we do not obey their commands, their lives are forfeit."
Miss Martian gasped, her cupping her gaping mouth.
Grodd huffed, stepping closer, his massive frame looming over her. "They have your troop as well. All are in collars. We will rescue them, you will secure our progeny. And together, you and I—er, Solovar, will lead the revolution."
"Wait! I don't lead the team!"
The massive ape tilted his head, looking confused. "How can that be true? Your mind is clearly the most powerful."
The complement nearly made her blush. M'gann had heard her uncle say she was powerful before, but to hear it from someone else, it was different. "Really? You think so?"
Grodd did not answer as he growled, his fist slamming down as he turned to the other apes. "We deal with an underling who cannot guarantee that her alpha nor her monsters will cooperate."
"We have no choice but to trust her," Solovar replied.
"Monsters?" M'gann asked. "What monsters?"
"The scaled beast and the fire-bird! The spawn of the bringers of destruction themselves! Just like the Brain's own monsters; all bringers of doom!" Grodd snarled. "The monsters who escaped our attempt to capture. We cannot find them, and we cannot risk finding you till we know they will not take their vengeance on us!"
"Scaled beast? Fire-bird?" M'gann muttered to herself. Who were they—oh, duh. "Hello Megan!" she facepalmed, "you mean Nightmare and Remix." If made sense, Onyx was the only member of their group with scales—though due to hardened lava it looked like Skylar had some for a while; however, she was the only member of their group with fire powers. That meant they managed to escape the battle. "It's fine, they're friends. If we explain everything to them, it'll be alright."
"By the deva of light and life, they better not."
"Ok, I need to wake up. If I can figure out where I am and where my missing friends are, we can group up, come up with a plan.
"Do not worry, we have a plan."
-.-
"I thought you said she was here?" Remix said as they stood in the clearing they had been battling in prior.
"Look, her scent is here, and it's strong, so she has to be close," Nightmare replied.
"Then why haven't we found her?"
"Well how would you propose finding a basically invisible girl without accidently hurting her? Why don't you use your powers to detect her heat signature or something?"
"Hey, I'm not sure my powers work like that."
"How do you not know?! They're your powers!"
"Like you know how to use all've your powers!"
"Guys?" M'gann asked standing up as she removed her hood, returning to the visible spectrum. Wolf trotted up to her, giving her hand a friendly lick as she scratched his ears.
"M'gann!" Remix grinned. "Thank God, we've been looking everyone for you!"
"I'm fine, she reassured, "better than fine actually. I have a plan to rescue the team."
Onyx raised a brow, sharing an uncertain glance with Skylar. "Uh…how'd you know they were captured?"
"There's some people that wish to help us."
The pair shared another concerned glance, "Uh…what?"
"I spoke with them telepathically, trust me on this."
"Alright," Nightmare agreed. "What's the plan?"
"And who the hell are we working with? Cause in case you didn't notice, we're in the middle of nowhere."
-.-
Gorilla City, September 27 00:31CAT
"So, what's the plan for the heroes?" Serket smirked lifting the unconscious head of the speedster before letting it drop back to his chest. "Hopefully something fun."
"Yes, so many options," the Brain agreed. "Ze brain extraction, ze experiments avec Kobra-Venom, ze A3, and ze Project Cadmus. I suggest we choose…all of ze above!"
"We may want to rethink that," Barbarian interjected. "A3 needs to be reconditioned. We can get intel from the other sidekicks. Plus, we still need to capture A1, B4, and the Martian." He tapped his chin in consideration, "Though, we could do some serious damage by keeping the League's trainees hostage."
"Yes, yes, I suppose zis is true. So no brain extractions, but zat does not mean we cannot do other experiments! Serket, give me a sample of your venom."
"The most painful nonlethal one?"
"Naturally."
-.-
"I can't believe we agreed to this," Remix muttered as the pretended to hang limply over the massive gorilla's shoulder. Though it took a lot of effort to prevent herself from shoving Wolf away from her as his fur threatened to smother her.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Nightmare questioned crawling by her as he clung to the ape's back.
"For the last time beast, Grodd will free troop. So retract your claws from my back."
"Once we're not at risk of being caught!"
"Stop arguing!" M'gann snapped.
The trio gave annoyed huffs and settled into silence as the massive gorilla stomped through the doors, guards paying him no mind. Turning a corner, Grodd stopped for a moment to allow Nightmare to jump off and dig his claws into the metal piping. Onyx could feel a liquid trickle down his claws as he climbed up onto the rafters.
"Well, well, there's your beast," Ultra Humanite said as Grodd lumbered into the larger room just past where he hopped off. "And one of our missing assets. But were is A1 and the Martian?"
"Le Grodd signs zat Solovar and Baka still search ze brush for A1 and pour elle," the Brain scoffed. "Zough I wish zem luck. Ze Martian can camouflage and ze A1…well, he's the offspring of one of the most powerful monsters on ze planet. He'll eat zem alive. Barbarian, Serket, you two will go out and hunt A1."
Onyx smirked, good. While they were out hunting flying monkeys he and Sky would free the others. Bounding to a new position, his tail curling under him as he watched the team. They were unconscious, or at least pretending in Robin's case. He could see his wrist twitching every now and then; he was probably trying to undo the cuffs.
His tail twitched as he sat there waiting. All he needed was the all clear for attack from M'gann, especially now that Tweedledee and Tweedledumb were gone. em"Grodd, the human was successful. Baka and Primat have the infants. Be ready."
"Grodd is always ready. I cannot say the same for the monsters."
"Hey! Keep that up and I'll find out what barbequed gorilla is like!"
"Guys!" M'gann pleaded.
Nightmare growled as he paced on the banister. God, he really hated that ape. But right now, the annoying creature wasn't his priority, getting his team was. Though it would take a minute for Robin to figure things out, so at least someone would hit Grodd. Heck, he could see Remix swatting him "on accident."
Hearing a soft click, his head snapped back in the direction of his captured teammates in time to see Robin land silently on the ground. Fortunately, no one noticed as they continued their debate, allowing the Boy Wonder to slink off to the shadows.
Unfortunately his reprieve didn't last long. "THE BOY WONDER! HE'S GONE!"
"Comment c'est possible?! Ze door is sealed! Where could he have gone?!"
The Brain received no answer as smoke exploded throughout the room below him. "Guess that's my cue," Onyx smirked leaping down. Through the smoke he could see flashes of light, no doubt Remix throwing fire at their enemies. Racing towards the light, Nightmare leapt up and kicked Ultra Humanite away as they attempted to ambush Robin from behind as he wrestled Grodd. Pulling his lasso off his hip, he threw it at Robin, grabbing him by his ankle and yanking him back with a yelp.
"Hey dude," Nightmare grinned stopping an elbow before it collided with his nose.
Nightmare?"
"Who else?" he smirked, "Now, I know it might be hard to believe, but the angry furball is on our side."
"What?"
"He also is telepathic."
"What did I miss while I was out?"
"A lot. Remix and I—plus the annoyance—will distract the big guns, you free everyone else," Nightmare said leaping away. Spinning in the air, his tail slammed into Ultra Humanite as their back was turned, sending the silver-white ape crashing to the ground as he landed on its back.
"Hey guys," Robin greeted as he landed in front of his captured teammates. Reaching into his utility belt, Robin pulled out his grapple and fired it, landing up beside Superboy. The Boy Wonder leaned back, attaching the line to his hip as he deactivated the clone's inhibitor collar.
"Miss Martian back in range?"
"Not exactly," Remix replied hurling her mace into Mallah's face. Whirling on her heel, she flew up and ripped the cuffs off her closest teammate before leaping off and grabbing her weapon again, hitting the gorilla several more times.
"What are you talking about? I can hear you!" Artemis frowned rubbing her wrists.
"No," Superboy said ripping himself from the wall, shattering the cuffs that had been restraining him. "It's not M'gann; it doesn't feel right."
"That's cause it's not," Robin replied, pulling the collar off Aurora. "The big monkey fighting with us is Grodd, he's the one linking us up."
"Huh, that's a first," Kid Flash muttered.
"But who are we to complain about aid?" Aurora reminded as she ripped the cuffs off the speedster.
"The ventilators have finally kicked in."
"And I have summoned ze reinforcements."
"Good, cause you'll need them," Superboy challenged.
"You're going to regret those words," Serket sneered as he and Barbarian strode in, with a massive silver gorilla holding the unconscious form of M'gann. "Cause one wrong move and the bitch dies. I wouldn't try it."
Onyx smirked, "And you underestimate us."
The four bad guys were then blasted off their feet by a telekinetic blast. M'gann floated into the air transforming into a gorilla as she slammed down onto Mallah, helping Solovar restrain him as Grodd stomped over to knock the lights out of his former troopmate.
"M'gann! Do you have to take that form?!" Superboy inquired as he kicked Ultra Humanite aside. "You know I hate monkeys!"
"But it seemed so appropriate," she replied using her telekinesis to toss Mallah away.
"Do not call us monkeys, human! You might as well state your hatred for all Primates!"
"Don't give him any ideas!" Kid Flash replied as he snatched the guns out of the hands of the Shadows that had been rushing in to help. The speedster nearly tripped as the ground began to tremble under his feet. "Everybody jump!" Leaping to the side, pillars of earth shot up from the floor where the young heros had previously been standing. From up above there was a loud grunt and they looked to see Grodd pinned to the ceiling.
"I'll get the monkey down, someone get the Boulder!" Aurora said flying up.
"Oh no you don't!" Barbarian snarled racing forwards, only to grunt as something slammed into his gut. Springing back, he bared his teeth as Nightmare raised his fists lightning sparking across them. Glancing around, he took in their odds. There were four of them, two of them had powers and were good in a fight—the assassins didn't count, they were just cannon fodder—but the heroes…they were outnumbered and outgunned in this fight. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a remote and pressed the button. "Hey heroes! You have five minutes."
"Grabbing the Brain, he hefted the Light Leader up as he and Serket made a strategi retreat with Ultra Humanite hopefully following them.
-.-
Mt. Justice, September 27, 04:15EDT
"Well, that was different," Skylar stretched as she got up from her seat.
"Tell me about it, who knew telepathic gorillas were a thing?" Kid Flash agreed. "but hey, I got another sourvenir." He grinned, holding up another red beret.
"Dude, didn't you learn from the last one?" Robin snickered.
"Hey, I didn't put this one on my head!"
"No doubt he has more," Kaldur spoke up. "But what has my concern is the fact we have encountered Serket and several others like him in numerous locations with numerous villains. First in Santa Prisca, then in Bialya, now in Bwunda and India."
"You think there's more to it?" Aurora realized.
"Perhaps, you all were in the same lab, do you know anything?"
Aurora looked to Onyx and Skylar getting shrugs in return. "We were all kept isolated. No contact with one another—until recently apparently."
"But we were taught how to be a villain," Skylar chimed in. "How to burn someone alive, how to interrogate, how to assassinate…you know the usual."
"We were obviously being trained for the operations that the bad guys have going," Nightmare replied. "But I don't know who's in charge. I doubt any of us do."
"If I saw them I could probably identify them again," Amber said. "I do know the Brain was there."
"Oh yeah," Sky remembered. "Liked running all those damn tests." She shrugged, "Well, it was better…than the alternative."
"Yeah," Nightmare agreed.
"Wait, you guys were trained to assassinate people?" Artemis spoke up.
Nightmare raised his hand, "That was my specialty. But yeah, we probably all had the basics."
Artemis put her hands on her hips, "Do you think the other…hybrids could be working for the Shadows? Think about it, Sportsmaster is a Shadow, and there were Shadows with the Brain in Bwunda."
"And Bialya wouldn't be above hiring assassins to do their dirty work," Kid Flash agreed.
"We've gotta tell Batman."