"Recognized, Flash, 38, Tigress, B-07." Wally and Artemis hastily exited the Zeta Tube in the Carr Household's garage, taking note that they were the last ones there.
The original eight (plus Will) had gathered together the day before their newlywed friends were scheduled to depart for paradise in Fiji. Snapper and Bethany had work to get to and the rest of their residents were either indoors studying or at the Premiere Building with the other Outsiders, meaning it was just their small party together for the day.
Dick rolled his eyes and smirked as the tardy couple approached. "At this point I shouldn't be surprised, but how is it that you can have superspeed and yet still be late to everything?"
Artemis punched his arm playfully when they got close enough, causing Wally to stifle a giggle while he rubbed his arm in pain. "Morning workout. I'm sure you and Zatanna are more than familiar with that." The magician shrugged, the coy smirk playing at her lips contrasting greatly with her visibly flustered boyfriend as he struggled to come up with a retort.
"As much as I'd love to hear more about your sex lives, " Raquel interrupted, "let's get going. We've got a pretty full schedule ahead of us."
"Agreed. Fortunately, Bioship makes a pretty killer minivan." M'gann gestured to the team's trusty red companion, and on cue the ship morphed into a rather roomy RV. "She's old, but she's still got some moves."
When everyone boarded the van, Conner moved over to the driver's seat, but Bioship created a tendril to gently push him away and into another seat. M'gann chuckled. "She wants to drive herself." The half-Kryptonian put his hands up in surrender, and everyone relaxed into their seats as their old friend took off for the main road.
"I mean he's nice, sure, but we've still only known each other for a couple weeks now. It's too early, I think." Conner smiled gently as he looked at his wife.
"M'gann and I didn't exactly have years to build off of when we started." Raquel shook her head.
"Yeah, but you lived together. He and I are literally on different worlds."
"His world is full of boomtubes."
"Not to mention we've got Vic for our own offworld teleportation service."
Kaldur put a hand on his teammate's shoulder. "We aren't pushing you into anything, but there is an obvious connection between you and Orion. Perhaps it would be in your best interest to explore it further."
"Yeah, and Bear speaks pretty highly of him."
"And it's not like you've had the best dating life before him anyways." Dick side-eyed Will, who smirked gently.
"I'll try not to be offended by that." Zatanna rolled her eyes and leaned in to whisper something into his ear, causing him to blush furiously. From the other end of their little table, Conner subtly grimaced and tried to decide whether to laugh or throw up. Sometimes he really hated having super hearing.
"So where are we headed?"
"We first wanted to hit the grocery store to pick up a few things for Snapper and Beth, but after that we thought bowling could be fun."
"Yeah, that sounds ni-"
Their conversation was cut short when Bioship swerved out of the way to avoid a speeding car, and everyone looked out the window and gasped at the sight above them: the whole of Happy Harbor directly under a menacing thunderstorm.
"The forecast said nothing about any storms!"
"Yeah…I don't think that storm's natural." Will's assumption was proven correct when a bolt of purple lightning arced out of the black cloud, striking a building with devastating force. Everyone's eyes went wide at the proceeding explosion, and the redhead turned to his friends. "You guys need to go. I'll take Bioship back to the Carr's place and Zeta home to make sure Lian and Paula are okay." Artemis nodded gratefully and motioned to her friends to get out.
"You heard the man, let's move!"
Back at the Watchtower, the eight heroes were suited up and gathered in the briefing room alongside several other Outsiders, team members, and Leaguers. Black Lightning appeared on the holocomputer alongside Batman in what looked to be the cockpit of the Batwing.
"Alright everyone, listen up. This is a code red situation. Inexplicable hurricanes, thunderstorms, and plenty of other not-so-natural disasters are popping up all over the world, and we don't have a clue as to what's causing it."
"We have all available Leaguers and a few of your own teammates already on the job all over the world working to save as many innocents as possible from these phenomena. Until we can figure out the cause of these cataclysms and a way to shut it down, our top priority is making sure the people are safe. So we need all of you to move out and get going immediately. Red Tornado and Black Canary will be handing out your assignments. Due to the extreme circumstances, UN registrations have been put on hold for now, but I'd advise staying away from Bialya or Markovia. King Brion's Infiniteers seem to have a handle on things in his country, but we don't know if these storms are the Light's doing, and even if they aren't, there's no guarantee that Queen Bee will allow for our intervention. Good luck." The screen cut off, and Black Canary and Red Tornado immediately began coordinating different teams and handing out locations and assignments like there was no tomorrow. Kaldur and Dick shared a look before approaching their old combat instructor.
"BC, we know our group's all over the place in terms of lineups-"
"But we were hoping the eight of us could work together on this assignment."
Canary nodded her head without hesitation. "You eight have the most coordination with one another out of any squad I could think of. And in a time like this we need that synergy. I'm sending you guys to lower Metropolis, by the Bronx. Steel and his niece Starlight are handling things on the upper side but they could use some help with the rest of the city. And with Superman out stopping tornadoes in Venice I need your team to back them up." Nightwing nodded.
"We'll head out right away."
"Recognized, Nightwing, B-01, Tigress, B-07, Zatanna, 25, Superboy, D-09, Miss Martian, B-05, Flash, 38, Aquaman, 27, Rocket, 26."
The eight heroes practically sprinted out of the old phone booth one at a time, taking in the chaos around them. Nightwing and Tigress activated their AR vision lenses to scan the environment. Aquaman looked up to the sky.
"What is that?" Wally put on his goggles to scan the wind speeds and cloud formations.
"Looks like a Category 1 hurricane. The good news is that, based off the wind patterns, it's already slowing down. Bad news is the electromagnetic interference could mess with our comms."
Everyone felt the familiar sensation of M'gann linking them up to their tried and true communications platform.
"This better?"
"Good thinking, Miss M. Flash, evacuate the buildings. Zatanna, do what you can to slow down the winds. Everybody else, fan out and run damage control." Wally blazed through the chaotic streets, picking up whoever he could and rushing them out of the vicinity of the hurricane while Zatanna levitated herself into the sky.
"Yldaed sdniw repmet sevlesruoy!" The rest of the team felt the powerful gusts of air around them begin to weaken as the uncontrollable winds slowed down under Zatanna's spell. Dick smiled as he watched his girlfriend in the sky, but his smile quickly dissipated when he noticed her clenching her teeth and visibly struggling to keep up the magic.
"Kaldur, she needs a boost."
"Y-yeah…" Her mental signature felt weak and fatigued, and Kaldur narrowed his eyes as his tattoos began to glow an electric blue.
"Understood. Prepare yourself for a power transfer, Zatanna." The team's fearless co-leader discharged his magic upwards, funneling his energies directly into Zatanna's body as her eyes glowed to match his, signaling the successful transfer. "I will not be able to move while assisting her."
"Don't worry about it. The rest of us will handle cleanup. Execute!" Nightwing grappled after Artemis towards a decently large gathering of onlookers positioned outside a grocery store while M'gann used her telekinesis to tear apart broken-down structures and grant trapped families an opportunity to escape. Rocket flew down to a couple such families, generating a force bubble around them before flying them to safety.
Conner spotted a small child struggling to stand, and he used his superspeed to blast over to where the boy stood, shielding him from oncoming debris and winking at him with a smile before he picked him up and carried him out of the danger zone.
Wally clenched his teeth, pushing himself to his max as he rocketed family after family out of the several apartment complexes and smaller houses littering the place. Even with his speed, there were a lot of them. "There's a helluva lot of people around here, guys."
"Hold on, I-I think the storm's starting to slow down. I can feel my magic withering."
"Are you absolutely sure? I don't wanna stop the evacuation if things aren't coming to a halt."
"Y-yeah, yeah I'm sure. Kaldur, you can disconnect the energy transfer."
"As you wish. Everyone regroup at the town square near Tigress and Nightwing's positions."
In true speedster fashion, Wally was the last to arrive after having done a perimeter sweep to ensure no further abnormalities. He sped up to where the rest of the team was with a smile as he threw his arm around Tigress's shoulders.
"We done here?" Nightwing scanned the air around them and hesitantly nodded.
"I think so, just doing one last scan to make sure there's no signs of danger."
"See if you can pick up on a clue as to what caused this." He mock-saluted the Martian in acknowledgement.
"Scan could take a little while. Flash, why don't you take another lap, just to scout things out?"
"What am I looking for?"
"Anything out of the ordinary, maybe some sort of device or a person that could've caused this. I've never seen the sky go purple like it did before, not to mention the weird lightning in Happy Harbor. Better safe than sorry."
"I'll go with him." Raquel high-fived the speedster, but before either of them could take off, Conner perked up.
"Wait, hold on. I-I hear something. Over there!" The team snapped their heads to where the half-Kryptonian motioned to see a handful of portals rip open on the streets, and they all prepared themselves in anticipation of what would come out.
"Never seen a portal like that before."
"Not reading any Boomtube or Zeta beam radiation from it. Zee?"
"It's not magical…but I'm sensing some sort of cosmic element in there. Not sure what, though."
"Everyone stay whelmed. We don't know if it's friendly or not."
As if on cue, a small army of demonic, hideous monstrosities seemingly made of rotting flesh stepped out of the portals, unintelligently growling as they saw the heroes. Zatanna made a face of disgust when she saw the creatures, hunched over with razor sharp teeth and drooling like hungry dogs.
"Yeah, I think that answers your question."
Kaldur, ever the diplomat, slowly stepped forward with a steady grip on his waterbearers. "I do not wish to begin a conflict, but I demand that you explain yourselves and why you-"
The invaders flung themselves at the team before the Atlantean could even finish his sentence, but his friends stepped in to keep the beasts from overrunning their co-leader. Wally sped forward to plow through the horde like a bowling ball, breaking them up into clusters while Dick and Artemis ran in behind him to pick off the smaller groups. M'gann and Raquel flew up to engage the horde from the skies, and Zatanna entered her combat stance by clapping her palms together to create circular fields of magic around her wrists. The magician fired out bolts of mystical energy to cover her boyfriend and best friend, and the Atlantean beside her forged swords of hardwater before charging in after his team.
"What are these things?!" Superboy began to get overrun by the monstrous creatures, so he punched the ground between his feet with full force. The concurring shockwave was strong enough to blast the abominations away, and he shrugged off the small marks they left on him before leaping into another horde.
"I don't know, but we need to take them out fast. They're attacking bystanders now." Dick flipped over one to kick it in the back before spinning around and stabbing another in the head with an electrified escrima stick. Several more began charging at him, so he somersaulted away in effortless fashion, throwing back explosive wingdings to keep them at bay. One of them got dangerously close to him, but before it could make any contact it was shot in the back by a pale blue jolt of mystical electricity. He sent Zatanna a small smile before running after another squad of creatures. "Thanks. Miss M, can you scan one of these guys to learn anything?" The Martian groaned in slight exhaustion, levitating a large sign to fling at a group of creatures.
"I've already tried. Whatever they are, it doesn't seem they have much of a mind to be scanned. It's too primitive and chaotic for me to get a lock on anything."
"And I'm not sensing any magical energy coming off these guys. They're definitely not mystical."
"SB, you hear a heartbeat off these things?"
"Yeah, vaguely. They're definitely organic, but like nothing I've ever seen before."
Rocket threw a force bubble at another bunch of monsters. The explosive energy of the projectile sent them all flying like bowling pins. "Not like any alien I've come across either."
Kaldur grunted as he stabbed two in the chest with his waterbearers before morphing the blades into whips and spinning them around to incapacitate a larger group. "We are getting nowhere with this. Flash, evacuate the civilians. Rocket, create a quarantine zone. Nothing escapes this town square. Miss Martian, cover Rocket. Everyone else, focus on these atrocities. Go now."
Wally wasted absolutely no time in following their leader's orders, kicking a couple beasts off of himself before blasting off at top speed to evacuate the innocents caught in the sidelines of their conflict. Once she saw that everyone was out of the vicinity, Rocket flew up high above the battlefield and adjusted the capacitor on her belt.
"I can keep the bubble up for a little while, but it's gonna take all my focus." M'gann floated up after her.
"I'll keep you protected. But are you sure your belt can even cover that much area?"
"A few weeks ago? No. But Orion hooked me up with some New Genesis tech to give this old thing an upgrade when I helped them out with the whole projector mess, so I think I've got enough juice in it for this."
"Yeah, I guess we're all thankful your boyfriend was able to pull some strings to give that tech to a foreigner."
"Not my boyfriend! Not yet, at least."
"Give it a few days. One of you'll cave in eventually."
Raquel took a deep breath before using all of her built up inertial energy to project a massive forcefield that enveloped the whole of the town square in a fluorescent cyan hue. The young woman gritted her teeth from the effort required to maintain the bubble, and M'gann set up a telekinetic barrier around her immediate vicinity to keep anything from hitting her.
Back on the ground, Kaldur repurposed his waterbearers into a shield. "Superboy, Nightwing, Tigress. Maneuver 7. Double time."
Dick ran up to the Atlantean, who used his makeshift shield to vault the acrobat high into the sky while Conner gripped Artemis's boot and flung her after him. In the air, the two powerless members of the team began firing arrows and hurling wingdings in all directions, trying their best to make as much visual noise as possible. Their diversion caught the attention of the deformities, and Wally used the opening to ram into several of them at top speed while Zatanna cast a pyrokinetic spell to set fire to a large horde, causing them to squirm and screech in pain before they passed out.
"Brosba llaf!" Zatanna created a cushion of white smoke to catch Dick and Artemis before they landed, and the archer repaid the favor by shooting a creature in the head before it could sneak up on the magician from behind.
"Anyone fancying a Smokey Mountains play?"
"Good idea." Zatanna smirked as she raised her hands over her head.
"Ekahs siht ebolgwons!" In an instant, the makeshift arena was enveloped in a mini-blizzard, and Zatanna began to float upwards to provide air cover while the others charged in, using her distraction and the cover of the falling snow to ambush the creatures. Tigress looked to his side to see the red-clad speedster hammer through hordes of monsters, and she fired a foam arrow to trap three of them together with an incredibly hard substance before whipping out her sword to make short work of Wally's stragglers.
To her side, Kaldur and Dick fought back to back with perfect sync, spinning around each other to keep dozens of creatures at bay with masterful skill. Dick eventually sheathed his sticks and sent Kaldur a hand signal, and the Atlantean bent down to let Dick leap into the air off of his back and spin around, flinging explosive wingdings in a cone around the duo before Kaldur spun around with his waterbearers to yank the abominations into the resulting explosions.
The fight carried on for a while, but eventually it seemed like things were slowing down. As Conner sent a left hook to one of the few remaining monsters, he wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and looked around, seeing hordes of creatures out cold on the floor. "Alright, I think that's all of them."
"You sure?"
"The only heartbeats I hear inside the bubble are ours, so yeah."
"Good work, everyone. Rocket, it is safe to drop the bubble." Raquel disengaged the protective dome around the team and floated down with M'gann to ground floor, practically collapsing from the effort. M'gann helped her up.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah...yeah, it just took a lot outta me. And my belt's pretty much drained. Needs a recharge."
"Enogeb ebolgwons!" With a wave of Zatanna's hand, the blizzard dissipated and she floated down right next to Dick and Kaldur.
"That wasn't so bad." Artemis punched her fiancé's arm hard, making him immediately regret saying anything. Dick looked around, unconvinced of their victory.
Call him paranoid. It's how he was raised.
"Is that really it?"
Conner furrowed his brows as he picked up on a strange noise emanating from behind them. "I don't think so." Everyone looked at the half-Kryptonian while he turned to the source of the sound, but nothing was there.
"What do you see?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Nothing in UV. No microscopic either. Wait…there's something in infrared. It…it looks like a-"
Before he could respond, the disturbance made itself visible as a rip in the fabric of space and time. Dick, Artemis, and Kaldur redrew their weapons, but the tear manifested itself into what looked like another portal, and before anyone could respond a wave of energy fired out of it and knocked them all down to the floor.
Dick groaned as he sat up and took in what came out of the portal. His eyes widened when he adjusted to the fearsome sight towering above his friends. "Uh, guys?"
In front of the team stood a group of eight strange-looking beings, all staring down at the heroes with clear intentions in their eyes.
"We may have a problem."
