Here's the much awaited final chapter of the story. Keep watch for the prequel, explaining Adam's origins, entitled: Of magicians and madmen.
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"What is that awful noise!" Two-face bellowed. The alarm Klaxon had been blazing for only thirty seconds but everyone was already awake. Savage slipped into the seat of his command room. The camera's, the functional ones, Flashed to life. They showed the heroes slowly advancing, Lantern, and Supergirl taking turns destroying the camera's. They were closing on the surgery hallway.
"No, we can't let them get her." Savage snarled, and slammed a button. The wall slid away, and they ran through, into the surgery room. Dent hit the door.
"Metallo, stall them." He yelled. Metallo looked at him.
"How did yous get in dere?" He asked.
"Doesn't matter, just stall them." He yelled back. The door banged shut.
"I take it you have a back way out?" Ivy asked. Savage grinned.
"But, of course, Mon cher." Harley hit him.
"Romance later loverboy, escape NOW!" She screamed in his ear. He rubbed his ear as he pressed a button and the wall slid open. Bane grabbed the table, and picked it up.
"Impressive." Humanite commented as Bane walked out, and he followed.
"Doubly so, that table was bolted to the floor." Dent muttered.
---
"Look out!" Lantern yelled as we rounded the corner. A blast of green energy Flashed back, as he threw up a shield. Supergirl lashed around the corner. I sniffed the air, trying to identify that smell.
"Kryptonite, which means Metallo." Zatanna finished my thought. How she knew him, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. There was the sound of metal screeching, and then a hollow sound. The screech again, then a hum. The hum descended in volume. We rounded the corner, as Lantern walked back up. Kara held a chunk of Kryptonite in her hands. I pulled a pouch she'd given me for just such a purpose, into which she dropped the chunk. The pouch was lead lined. Testing the doors, Zatanna found them locked. Lantern unlocked them. We flooded the room, only to find it empty.
"Damn, we lost them." Lantern snarled.
"Not quite." Zatanna muttered. "The tracks go that way." She pointed at the wall. Lantern lifted his ring, and there were a number of foot prints. One confirmed her comment, it was only half outside the wall. Supergirl hit the wall, and then again, then peeled it open like a sardine can. We raced up the stairs, just as a plane began to take off. There was nothing to do but follow. Or was there.
"Supergirl, throw me!" I yelled. She looked at me as if I was insane, but grabbed hold, and threw. The range was just right. I got within a hundred feet, just as they were turning. Just enough for my plan. I ripped the engines off the wings. Admittedly, slamming face first into the tail of the plane wasn't part of my plan. The villains, plans more or less foiled, boiled out of the plane like angry bees.
Bane charged Supergirl, and took a swing. She caught his arm, then caught him across the chin. As if on a spring, his face snapped back to it's original position. He smiled behind the mask, one could see it in the corners of his eyes, and slammed the symbol on his chest. He began to bend Supergirl's fist back. She did the first thing that came to mind. She kneed him. He was the one that bent this time. She freed her other fist, balled them together, and slammed them into his face. She crouched, and then bolted upwards, combining the strength of the leap, with the strength of her arm, she delivered an upper cut that would have felled a charging bull elephant.
Lantern found himself chasing Dent and Humanite. Neither got very far, but he stopped to question them.
"What did you do with her?" He yelled.
"She's on the plane." Dent replied trembling.
"What did she tell you?" He snarled.
"Everything, including how to defeat you!" Humanite returned smugly. Lanterns eyes flared, and their heads banged together. They collapsed when he let them go, straight to the ground.
Zatanna squared off with Ivy, and Quinn. "Ezilibommi." She froze Harley with her first move, leveling the playing field. More or less. Vines snaked up the side of the mountain to grab her, but she reached out with her magic, and sent a piece of metal from the wrecked engines spinning through the air to sever the vines. Ivy hissed, and threw a seed, which burst into brambles, to close fore her to risk the metal blade that was still spinning. "Enummi ot erif. Erif." Fire engulfed Zatanna, incinerating the brambles. The two spells wore off, in opposite order as she began to advance. Ivy smiled.
"I guess I'll just have to try something, a little more worldly." There was seduction in her voice, and Zatanna seemed to be lost. She approached as I pulled back to fire on her, but something made me wait. As she leaned forwards, to plant what I knew to be a fatal kiss on Zatanna, she toppled backwards. I saw that Zatanna still held Hawkgirl's mace. That was what she'd hit Ivy with. I made a note to ask how she resisted.
Chi meanwhile, was grappling with Savage. Neither had a strength advantage, but Chi was a little smaller, giving Savage what he thought was the upper hand. He forced Chi to the ground, bent over backwards, and pulled the tribesman's belt knife. As his arm lunged forwards to pin Chi through the heart with the knife, the man burst into wind, so that was all Savage caught. The knife plunged into the deck. Chi reformed behind him, and smashed him in the back with both hands, driving him down. He pulled the dagger out of the deck, spun it in his hand, and smashed the pommel into the back Savage's head, putting him out. I floated down, carefully, as Lantern drug his opponents closer. Quinn was the only one still awake. Zatanna created cuffs and bound them all. She left them, there, as we entered the plane. Lantern was first. He walked across to Hawkgirl's side. She was out cold, but there was something wrong with him. He lifted a hand towards her. But it was wrong. I could see Zatanna knew it as well. He raised his right hand. It clenched into a fist. Three things occurred at once. He fired a blast at Hawkgirl's head, I threw a shield up to deflect it, and Zatanna, threw him. He slammed into the back of the plane as the shot blasted through the ceiling.
"What are you doing?" Supergirl screamed. Zatanna grabbed my hand, and I felt what she wanted. Acting in unison, we blew the top and sides off the plane, along with the back end, cockpit, and seats. Then she set the plane down, as I flattened the belly. The plane would have rolled otherwise.
"She's betrayed us, again!" He snarled. She hit him. It was not a soft blow, either.
"Idiot. Didn't it occur that she might have been coerced?" Supergirl snapped. "What made you think she did so, anyway?"
"Them." He pointed to the villains. Supergirl hit him again.
"And it didn't penetrate that bloody dense head of yours, that they are villains?" He stared at her. "That means, that by definition, they lie. One cannot believe anything they say. I'm 18, and have been at this for only a few years, and I know that. Why don't you?" She poked him. There was about the same force behind it as if I had punched him.
"I..." He stopped. A moan from the table, diverted everyone's attention. Zatanna swept her hand across the restraints, and they popped open. Lantern stood, hanging his head, as Chi and I helped her sit up.
"Chi? What happened? Where am I?" She looked around. "Lantern?" She recoiled slightly. I let go, and stepped back. Zatanna handed her mace over. She took it. Zatanna raised her arm. Quinn squealed as she floated over.
"Explain." Zatanna commanded.
"I'm afraid." She said, quivering.
"The question is, who are you more scared of, them, or me." Hawkgirl said, sliding off the table. She flashed a grateful glance at me, for steadying her. I wasn't touching her, but she could feel the magic. She lifted her mace towards Harley.
"Alright." Quinn yelped. "They were going to pump you for information, and use it to destroy the core of the Justice League. That would make the rest of them fall apart, so that we could pick them apart." She shrugged.
"Thank you." Hawkgirl said. Quinn sighed. Zatanna tossed her back onto the pile with a wave. "As for you." She turned to Lantern. I let go with the magic, as she advanced on him. She was fully recovered. She stopped just short, and glared at Supergirl.
"Play nice." She said. Hawkgirl nodded, and clipped her mace back to her belt. Supergirl crossed the floor of the plane, and put an arm around my shoulders.
Hawkgirl grabbed Lantern by the front of his shirt. "We are going to talk." She lifted into the air, and drug him off. I turned to Zatanna.
"I think, that mayhap, we," I squeezed Kara. "have something to speak of as well, can you handle the losers?"
"Of course, if Chi would be willing to help?" She asked. He nodded. "Go ahead, we'll be fine." Supergirl rose into the air, carrying me with her. She turned north. As we flew away she laughed.
"That was mean you know." She commented.
"What was?" I asked.
"Leaving her to deal with them. We have nothing to talk about." She replied.
"Ah, but you see, if we had stayed there, I couldn't have done this." I pulled closer and kissed her. As I relaxed, and leaned back, she was smiling. "Tree." I noted.
"What?" She asked distractedly.
"TREE!" I yelled. She swung sideways.
---
"Why?" Hawkgirl asked as they landed.
"Why what?" Lantern asked.
"Why did you come after me?" She poked him with a finger. "After everything that happened, and all that I did, why now?"
"For the same reason I always came to your rescue before you left the team. For the same reason, that I would come to your rescue, if you were trying to kill me. Because you are my friend. Because you are more than that to me." He stopped, and swore for a few moments. "Damn it. Damn it all to hell and back." He finished.
"What's the problem?" Hawkgirl asked.
"I've always had this trouble. I've never been able to do this kind of thing." He sighed.
"Just do what Flash would do." Hawkgirl suggested. Lantern looked at her. He grinned, and then burst out laughing. She stared at him. "Well if that's what Flash would do, I'm not sure I want to know what you have trouble with." He laughed harder.
"No, just that was a funny suggestion. Well, you suggested it, and I can't think of any thing better..." He left it hanging as he crossed the distance between them in two strides.
"Lantern, what?" That was all she got out. He gripped her shoulders, and pulled her close, kissing her. Electricity sparked between them, almost palable, as she let herself be lost in that kiss, in the emotion of it.
Watching from a tree nearby, a young man in a light blue bomber jacket, and dark jeans pulled a pad out of his pocket. With a bright pink pen, he drew two lines, completing a pair of stylized arrows. One pointing towards the name Shayera Hol, and the other pointing towards John Stewart. He slipped both pen, and note pad inside his jacket, zipped it, and vanished.
Fin.