Disclaimer: Same as Before, DC COMICS owns Young Justice, not me.


Young Justice Under Fire, Part 3


Arrowette and Wonder Girl had left the ice cream shop and headed straight for the Young Justice Headquarters. They didn't even stop to change into proper super-hero attire. Even with Arrowette's added weight, Wonder Girl had never flown faster, and they arrived at ground zero in just under twenty minutes.

"What do we do now?" Wonder Girl asked, looking at the smoldering hole where their main entrance had been.

"We should try the utility hatch above the cargo bay. If Prometheus were expecting the JLA, he wouldn't have booby-trapped that tiny hatch."

"Hey! That's a good idea!" Wonder Girl grinned, and promptly flew them both to the hatch.

The hatch was only about three feet in diameter and fashioned to look like the rest of the rock facing. For all they knew, it had completely escaped Prometheus' notice. The only way they knew it existed was from an incident involving one of Impulse's lame practical jokes.

"Okay," Arrowette began, pulling up on a jutting "rock" to reveal a keypad, "What is the access code, again?"

Wondergirl just looked at her.

"Oh! I'm sorry." Arrowette said, and laughed in spite of herself. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0."

The display on the keypad flashed green and a metallic clink sounded inside the hatch. It was unlocked! With any luck, all of the security alerts caused by the destruction of the main entrance should prevent too much attention being paid to a tiny utility hatch. Both Girls knew that the only thing they had going for them was the element of surprise.

The day had begun with Cissie and Cassie and had abruptly changed to Arrowette and Wonder Girl. The fun and games had been left at the ice cream shop in Pennsylvania. This was no ordinary bad guy; this was a guy who excelled at killing people much stronger and more experienced than they were. Looking at the dimly lit scaffolding visible through the open utility hatch, they were both acutely aware that death could be down there waiting for them.

Without a word, Arrowette, followed by Wonder Girl, entered the complex.



Robin was vaguely aware that he was being shaken. Why would Alfred make such a fuss about putting me to bed and then wake me up as soon as I'm asleep. He thought, and then the pain struck. He opened his eyes and couldn't quite place where he was. The only thing absolutely certain was that he hurt. He hurt really bad.

"Robin! You're awake! Thank God you're awake!" A familiar voice desperately greeted him. It was Arrowette, or Cissie, rather. She wasn't wearing her mask.

"Cissie…I…" Robin stopped. It all came back to him: Prometheus, the warning, being slammed into the lockers. "Prometheus. Is he still here?"


"Yes. He's in the control room messing with the computers. For some reason he has all of the monitors tuned to cartoons."

"Cartoons?" Cartoons were playing when he got there. It seemed odd, but there were more pressing things to tell the guys. He had followed Impulse's flash up the stairs to the locker room, where he saw Superboy and Impulse…And Superboy was naked. "Where are Impulse and Superboy?"

"In here." Came a muffled voice from the shower. "Superboy is…um…naked except for something on his chest. He isn't moving and looks really bad. Impulse is sitting against the wall with something on his head."

Robin tried to move but found that his left arm wasn't working properly. Arrowette helped him sit up. He quickly took stock of the situation. Even though he was in excruciating pain all over, it appeared that only his collarbone, close to the left side, might be broken. He had several lacerations that could need stitches, but otherwise seemed okay. Just to be sure, he felt his head all over. There were no cuts or suspicious knots.

As he stood up, declining Arrowette's help this time, he noticed that something was blocking one of his nostrils. It was a disgusting clot of dried blood. In the same instant, he was worried about possible head trauma and horrified to think Arrowette had seen him pull that out of his nose. He checked his head again. Nothing. It appeared to be nothing more serious than a nasal blood vessel that, after a night of heavy puking, couldn't take anymore stress.

Robin made his way to the shower as quickly as he could. The pain from his injuries and the blunt force trauma from the collision made him dizzy. Once there, he propped himself up against the entrance and reviewed the scene. Superboy did look bad.

"Cassie, what is that on Superboy's chest?"

"I don't know. It looks like some kinda plastic or something. There's a greenish rock looking thing stuck to it too. I think its-"

"RIP IT OFF OF HIM!" Robin yelled the best he could.

"But-" Wonder Girl protested, wondering if it was a good idea to risk hurting him worse.

"DO IT NOW!" Robin cut her off. Never had his voice, strained as it was, carried a more I'm the leader, do as I say tone.

"Okay." Wonder Girl replied, bending down to remove the clinging rubber even if it took Superboy's chest with it. "Whatever you say!"

At first, she had some difficulty getting a grip on the stuff, but eventually she managed and ripped the whole thing off in one piece. To her horror, it did take off some of the invulnerable Superboy's skin. Even more frightening was the fist-sized burn just under where the Kryptonite had been.

"Now quickly, throw it into the hot tub!"

"What?" Wonder Girl asked not expecting the words "hot tub" at a time like this.

"Obviously, that green stone contains Kryptonite. If it were solid Kryptonite Superboy would be dead." Robin said relatively sure that whomever had supplied Prometheus with the 10 karat stone had told him it was pure. "It emits a radiation that is deadly to people with Kryptonian DNA. If you throw it in the hot tub the density of the water might insulate Superboy against the radiation. I can't say for sure that it will work, but several feet of water can prevent a nuclear reactor core from irradiating operators at a power plant."

Not understanding half of it, Wonder Girl did as she was told.

Sensing that Robin no longer needed her, Arrowette removed the neural inhibitor from Impulse and began trying to revive him. The device had kept him asleep, but, if anything, it had only aided in his recovery. In a few seconds Impulse was awake and briefed on current events. As it happened, Prometheus was innocent on cartoon charges. In fact, Impulse wasn't quite sure who Prometheus was. He was running to get Kon to help fix the monitors before Red Tornado got back and went Max Mercury on him.

At the same time Impulse was trying to explain how the cartoons kinda were but kinda weren't his fault, Wonder Girl carried Superboy to a bench and carefully laid him out. He was already starting to get some color back, but no one could say when, or even if, he would wake up. As she found a large towel and draped it around him, it occurred to her that under different circumstances, seeing Superboy out of his ridiculous costume might be fun. Briefly, she even considered the possibility of a more risqué form of Young Justice Truth or Dare, but these perfectly natural, if inappropriate, thoughts immediately vanished at the sight of his wounds and their reminder of the dire situation they all faced.

Robin, who was getting more steady with each passing second, gathered everyone together and began discussing a plan. Though none of them saw it, Superboy began twitching his fingers and toes.




At the Bat Cave, an extraordinarily grim Batman was compiling an arsenal.

"Look, Bruce. Maybe none of this would have happened if you had been up front with Tim to begin with." Oracle chided. She knew in one way it was the worst thing to say, in another, the best.

Batman grunted, hoisting a cumbersome device that could manipulate magnetic fields. He had a use for it.

"I know you don't like to hear it, but you have to trust your friends sometimes. If you had explained the danger, he would have listened to you. Having to drag it out of me was a sure recipe for trouble."

"If you had trusted me, Tim would be a school right now."

"That isn't fair and you know it!" Oracle came very close to losing her legendary composure.

Without another word, Batman strapped himself into an impressive vehicle, the specifications of which included the terms "aquatic" and "air".



"The most important thing for us to remember is that Prometheus isn't unbeatable." Robin began. He had become something of a motivational speaker since Young Justice assembled. "First of all, he relies on careful planning and strategy. Without those things, he is just another nut with some armor and a gun. He expects Superboy to be dead, and me and Impulse to be out for the count. Also, he couldn't possibly have anticipated the two of you showing up. If we can hit him all at once, from multiple sides, he won't stand a chance."

"Let's do it!" Impulse said heroically, and had to be physically restrained by Wonder Girl to prevent him from tackling Prometheus on his own.

"It isn't that simple, Impulse. We have to be careful. If we blow this, he could zip back to the Ghost Zone and use what he's learned from this experience to come back more prepared.

"Now, here is the plan: I'm afraid I'm not in good enough shape to help with the actual assault, so I'll play diversion. When his attention is focused on me; Impulse, you disarm him. Arrowette, you stand ready to fire magnetic pulse arrows. They should shut down the integrated computer systems in his armor. Then you overpower him, Wonder Girl. Try to damage as much of his armor as you can, particularly his helmet."

"Hey! What am I supposed to do?" A groggy voice said from behind.

No one could believe his or her eyes. Only a few minutes before, Superboy appeared to be at death's door. Now he had recovered most of his color, even the wounds on his chest didn't appear quite so menacing.

"Are you able to fight?" Robin asked, only about 80% sure that he wasn't talking to a ghost.

"I've never felt worse, but I think I can still throw a little beat-down. Besides, I owe that guy big." Superboy said beginning to look more angry than injured. As he stood up, clutching the towel Wonder Girl had provided, it dawned on him that everybody present, whether intentionally or not, had probably caught a peek. "By the way, has anybody seen my pants?"

Just before arriving at the Young Justice Headquarters, Batman had formalized his plan and alerted the JLA. Interestingly, it was the exact opposite of the plan Robin was currently initializing. He intended to sneak into the base using the same hatch Arrowette and Wonder Girl had used and quietly locate Prometheus. When the target was in sight, he would alert the JLA via Martian Manhunter's psychic link and they would transport to the Young Justice Headquarters. In the instant that Prometheus was distracted by his unexpected guests, Batman would attack hard and fast with his magnetic disruptor.

At the Watchtower, Flash and Green Lantern were exchanging wry looks. When they advised storming the base, it was "foolhardy." Now that Batman had commanded the action it was a brilliant strategy. One of these days someone was going to have to put the lunatic in a Halloween costume in his place, and two young JLAers (a Mr. Rayner and a Mr. West) were close to volunteering.

In the control room, Prometheus was still trying to bring the database online. He was aware that Batman had somehow intercepted his basic plan to eliminate Young Justice, but he had not anticipated the kids having time to prepare. Somehow they had locked up the computer system so skillfully that he couldn't use any of the Headquarters' technology to his advantage.

He had intended to infiltrate the system and use it to lure Arrowette and Wonder Girl. He knew that the JLA would have ordered the girls to a safe haven, probably under the protection of the Teen Titians or the Justice Society, but if he could have sent a distress call from the Young Justice computer he was sure the inexperienced girls would have fallen for it. As it happened, he was forced to over-extend his own systems to secure the area and communicate with the JLA. It was beginning to look like he would have to be happy with whatever information he could extort from the JLA and cut his losses by exterminating the Young Justice Headquarters and its unfortunate occupants.

He could not have known that he had severely underestimated his disappointment. Batman had just given the order for the JLA to mobilize.

As Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Aqua Man, were preparing to depart, Young Justice began its attack. Batman watched in disbelief as the inexperienced team of teenagers overwhelmed Prometheus.

Robin, making an unprecedented amount of noise for a ninja, entered from the left and threw a bat-a-rang at a thoroughly confused Prometheus. A mortified Batman wondered what his protégé was trying to accomplish with such a futile gesture as the bat-a-rang bounced harmlessly off of the intruder's armor. Before he could swing into action, Robin's motive became apparent.

In an instant, Impulse had secured Prometheus' gun, and in perhaps the most dangerous moment of the battle, began to wave it around wildly in Prometheus' direction. Before he had time to register the loss of his rifle, Arrowette had fired off no fewer than three magnetic pulse arrows, all of which connected with their target so beautifully that Batman wondered if he had invited the wrong bowman to join the JLA.

The result was even better than anticipated! Not only did the magnetic pulses re-polarize the electronics of Prometheus' armor; they caused the internal power supply to violently arch through all of the circuits, frying both his means of defense and escape.

Superboy and Wonder Girl were on him the moment the blue electrical flash faded, ripping his armor off of him in jagged chucks. Less than ten seconds had passed between Robin's entrance and the decisive fall of the dread Prometheus. He lay unconscious in a heap on the control room floor surrounded by pieces of his own armor.

Pulses still raced as Superboy stood over the fallen foe contemplating some really nasty uses for Tactile Telekinesis. Before he could decide on the worst one possible, a familiar voice asked what was going on.

Superman, standing at the head of an awestruck JLA, surveyed the Young Justice control room. No one answered his question. No one needed to. In an instant, Batman appeared in front of Superman.

"You disobeyed orders and put yourselves at risk." Batman said as if addressing a room full on unruly third graders. Though directed at the group, it was obvious that he meant Robin specifically.

It was the wrong thing to say. If Superman hadn't immediately cast Batman a withering look , Young Justice, likely joined by Flash and Green Lantern, may very well have reenacted the fall of Prometheus on the Bat.

The tension lingered in the air for a long moment. No one, including Young Justice could believe that Prometheus had fallen, and been defeated so soundly at that. Slowly, the relief and satisfaction of victory began to overshadow Batman's disapproval.

"Hey! I think you lost this." Superboy said, tossing a silvery sphere to a stoic Batman.

Before he caught it in both hands he suspected what it was, Prometheus' helmet.

The End

hope you all liked this story! It was fun writing. Maybe you won't be too disappointed that Batman didn't get to save the day. Thanks, again for the reviews! Also: This was sort of a trial by fire for me. I, like most YJ fans, read the title for the humor. I kept this story relatively serious for the challenge. I already have a few ideas for a more traditional YJ story. I hope you read it!

Thanks, -Eddie (and the Lemming)