Tempest: Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Tower of Fate


Amara thought training was going rather well, considering. Her week of training with Kaldur had concluded a few days ago and this week Amara was working with M'gann who was remarkably cheerful about it, giving Amara the feeling that she liked the idea of working with the girls more than the boys, though they were still outnumbered by one.

"So, Kaldur's, uh, nice," Artemis mentioned to M'gann and Amara stifled her snort into her hand. She knew M'gann had a soft spot for Superboy, but Artemis wasn't blind; Superboy was attractive, "don't you think? Handsome. Commanding."

Amara just thought romance was weird and anytime someone asked her when she was with her mother or father if there were any boys she liked, she just looked at them oddly, because she was thirteen years old. She didn't care about boys when there were flowers and genetics and training to occupy her time.

"You should totally ask him out."

Amara winced when Superboy landed a hit against Kaldur, forcing him back, but he retaliated just as fast.

"He's like a big brother to me," M'gann disagreed before gaining a glint in her eye. "But you know who would the cutest couple? You and Wally."

Glances were thrown to where Amara's cousin was standing not too far away, though far enough not to hear their words, eating his way through a bag of chips.

"You're so full of passion, and he's so full of, uh—" M'gann added before drawing a blank on any of Wally's positive qualities. Amara gritted her teeth in aggravation.

"Of it?" Artemis offered and they both laughed until Amara gave a polite cough. "Sorry, that was a bit rude," Artemis apologized.

"My cousin's more than just a glutton and a flirt, you know," Amara said shortly, her hand digging into her side where it rested at her hip. "He needs to eat because of his hyper-metabolism, he'll die if he doesn't."

It was worse with Barry, of course, but she remembered when she was younger and once Wally didn't eat enough food and he'd ended up in the hospital. It wasn't something to joke about.

"Sorry," M'gann added remorsefully before brightening. "What about you, Amy?"

Amara arched an eyebrow. "What about me? My metabolism's fine."

Superboy leapt over a kick that Kaldur sent his way in order to unbalance him, firing a rapid punch at Kaldur's head that just managed to clip him.

"What do you think of Kaldur?" M'gann probed. "He's nice to you, isn't he?"

Amara snorted, running a hand through her hair. "Kaldur's nice to everyone, he's a nice guy."

"All right, who do you think is cute?" Artemis inquired, leaning forward with interest. She would have guessed Roy, with how the two had gotten into a screaming match when he'd shown up in the Cave, but they were more familial, even if they held hands, which was a little odd to Artemis.

"Goddess, I don't know how to tell you this," Amara drawled out, "but Wonder Woman is easily the most beautiful person I've met."

Both girls were faintly surprised by the response, but then they nodded in understanding.

"I can see that," Artemis said, "but you also flirt with everyone."

"It keeps things interesting." Amara gave her a saucy wink for good measure, making M'gann laugh as Superboy caught Kaldur's ankle, flipping him onto training floor.

"Fail –Aqualad," came the disembodied voice overhead.

"Black Canary taught me that," Superboy said, grinning as he swiped his hands together. He'd been putting a lot of hours with Amara's mentor, mostly because he'd mostly fought like a brawler, all instinct and brute strength, and Dinah was teaching him how to be strategic in his fighting, when to duck for cover and when to attack. That meant that Amara sometimes patrolled without Dinah, not always with Artemis, sometimes on her own, which was something that still gave her a bit of anxiety after what happened the last time she'd been on patrol on her own.

They were distracted when the circular door in the ceiling that led to Red Tornado's private quarters opened and Red Tornado came down on his own twister.

When he landed, Wally zipped over to his side eagerly. "Do you have a mission for us?"

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility," Red Tornado said in that unemotional and metallic voice of his, turning his head towards Wally.

Wally wasn't concerned with that, jerking his thumb back behind him. "Yeah, well, the Batman's with the Robin doing the dynamic duo thing in Gotham. But you're headed somewhere, right?" His eyes were positively gleaming as he jerked his two pointer fingers at the robot. "Hot date or a –a miss-ion?"

Amara rolled her eyes, finding it very unlikely that Red Tornado would be going on a date, given that he was a robot.

"If we can be of help," Kaldur offered, leaving the comment open-ended and Red Tornado appeared to consider them for a moment before pulling up the holographic computer to display the image of an old man dressed in a black suit with a cane in one hand.

It was a face that Amara recognized.

"Hey, that's Kent Nelson," she realized.

"This is Kent Nelson," Red Tornado agreed, "a friend. He is one hundred and six years old."

Amara wasn't the only one staring at that. She hadn't really focused much on his personal information, much less his age, it hadn't been important at the time.

"Guy doesn't look a day over ninety," Wally muttered at her side.

"He has been missing for twenty three days," Red Tornado said and Artemis looked to Amara.

"How do you know about him?" she asked.

"Batman came to me when he first disappeared," Amara explained to the room when she realized all the attention of the whole room. "He wanted me to track his movements to find out what happened to him through the cameras but I lost him somewhere in New Orleans…never really knew who he was, though."

Obviously he'd been someone of importance to the Justice League, or Batman wouldn't have bothered with asking her to look into Kent Nelson if he hadn't been important to the League.

"Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society," Red Tornado said, taking that as an invitation to speak as the image on the screen changed to a man in golden armor and cape with blue garb. "The precursor to your mentors' Justice League."

"Of course!" Kaldur breathed in awe. "Nelson was Earth's sorcerer supreme. He was Doctor Fate."

Both Wally and Amara wore fairly dubious expressions at that. Magic had never been something at either one really believed in; science was far more trustworthy.

"Kent may simply be on one of his…walkabouts," Red Tornado said and Amara couldn't help but wonder if he'd done that kind of thing before, "but he is the caretaker to the Helmet of Fate, the source of the Doctor's mystic might, and it is unwise to leave such power unguarded."

"He's like the great sorcerer priests and priestesses of Mars," M'gann said, looking on the picture with wide eyes. "I would be honored to help find him."

Amara didn't even get to count to one second before Wally's arm shot up into the air, ready to volunteer. "Me too! So honored I can barely stand it. Magic rocks!"

Artemis narrowed her eyes before giving Amara a look behind her cousin's back and Amara shrugged. No one was saying that her cousin wasn't girl crazy, but really he was head over heels for M'gann and she didn't even notice.

And this was why Amara didn't go anywhere near romance.


Red Tornado gave them a key that opened the Tower of Fate, which was a rather ominous title for a tower, if you asked Amara, but they still took the Bio-ship to the coordinates of the tower, landing in Salem. And once they'd done so, Wally ran around in search of where in the wide field a tower could be located.

Amara thought that was just asking to run into something and break your nose, but Wally darted away before she could mention it, turning into a blur as he systematically ran over the whole field before returning to their side once more.

"There's nothing," he said breathless, visibly startled. "This isn't a simple camouflage."

"So, what do you think?" Artemis asked, resting her hands on her hips and tilting her head slightly. "Adaptive micro-opto-electronics combined with phase shifting?"

Wally's eyes gleamed. "Absolutely!" Then he looked to M'gann and quickly corrected himself "…not, clearly mystic powers are at work here."

Amara wasn't impressed.

"Perhaps what it is, is a test of faith?" Kaldur considered, pulling out the golden key that Red Tornado had entrusted him, moving past them to move it directly ahead of them and they heard the distinct sound of something slotting into a key hole. "Stand behind me."

He turned the key and the next moment Amara and the rest of the Team were gaping up at the tower that had suddenly appeared out of nothing. It was the kind of tower that wouldn't look amiss with a medieval castle. Then Kaldur stepped inside and they followed quickly after him only to jolt when the door shut behind them and disappeared, leaving them in a bricked room with flickering torches on the walls.

"Eerie," Amara muttered.

"Uh, where'd the door go?" Superboy asked instead, making everyone look around for one, but there hardly appeared to be one.

There was a flickering light before them that abruptly formed into Kent Nelson's image, some kind of interface based off the man himself, no doubt.

"Greetings," the interface said, "you have entered with a key, but the Tower does not recognize you. Please state your purpose and intent."

And that was when Wally opened his mouth and said, undoubtedly in an effort to impress M'gann, "We are true believers, here to find Doctor Fate!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the interface faded entirely as she ground beneath their feet shook before falling away completely with them all falling with it.

The heat was the first thing Amara noticed, as she pulled her legs close to her body, digging out the knife stuffed in her boot that she kept on her at all times, ironically, it was something she'd stolen from Jade, and gathering the air around her to push her in the direction of the side of the wall of stones that was still stable, catching the knife between rocks, letting her dangle one-handedly in the free air.

She was starting to understand why Roy found it so disconcerting. Especially when directly beneath them was a bubbling pool of lava.

Amara swallowed thickly.

Artemis had pulled out her spare crossbow and shot off a line close to where Amara was dangling before swinging to catch Kaldur, M'gann had grabbed Wally, using her own levitation skill, but Superboy had been forced to claw on the rocks in order to come to a stop just above the lava.

"M'gann!" Amara yelled down. "You're too close to the lava!"

Martians had their own specific weaknesses and fire and heat was not good for them and Amara was doubly sure that being that close to lava was detrimental to her.

"Having trouble…maintaining altitude," M'gann admitted, breathless in the heat. "I'm so hot."

"You certainly are," Wally agreed.

"Wally!" Amara and Artemis snapped as one.

"Hey, inches above sizzling death, I'm entitled to speak my mind!"

Amara ignored him, her eyes fluttering shut. She'd never tried to control the air around more than one person at a time, but M'gann wasn't the only one susceptible to weakness from heat, Kaldur was as well.

She breathed out slowly and focused.

Superboy, who had burned his boots off in the lava found himself being lifted up and into the air. "M'gann?" he drew her name out in confusion, looking up to the green-skinned girl, but she wasn't the only one floating in the air rather higher than had been previously, Kaldur and Artemis were close to where Artemis' bolt had lodged.

Amara's arm shook with strain. "No offense, guys," she said through gritted teeth, "but maybe we should be figuring out how to get out of here before I drop us all into lava?"

"Hello, Megan!" M'gann smacked her forehead with a grin. "We never truly answered the question! Red Tornado sent us to see if Mr. Nelson and the Helmet were safe!"

Her voice echoed in the silence, and a moment later agate shut over the lava, and Amara dropped them. Superboy landed on all fours, but Artemis and Kaldur swung down easily and Wally and M'gann levitated down.

Amara could already hear Artemis and Wally arguing, undoubtedly because he was the reason they'd fallen into the trap in the first place. She ripped out her knife and flew down to them.

"Fine! Fine! I lied about believing in magic." Amara rarely saw Wally get so heated. "But magic is the real lie, a major load!"

Wally had never been one to believe in magic, and Amara couldn't really blame him there.

"Wally, I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis," Kaldur said, examining the gate with interest. "The mystic arts created the skin icons that power my water bearers."

"Dude, you ever hear of bioelectricity?" Wally retorted. "Hey, in primitive cultures, fire was once considered magical, too."

"A gift from the gods," Amara added, thinking of the Greek myth Prometheus and Wally jabbed a finger towards his cousin.

"Exactly!" he said. "Today it's all a bunch of tricks."

Artemis scowled, resting her hands on her hips. "You're pretty close-minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers."

"That's science!" Wally gesticulated wildly. "I recreated Flash's laboratory experiment, and here I am. Everything can be explained by science."

There was a latch on the gate to open a trap door and Amara knew enough from Science class that opening that wouldn't end well.

"Let us test that theory," Kladur said, grabbing the latch and Amara may have shouted while Wally called out rapidly: "Wait! The back-draft from the lava will roast us alive!"

Both cousins had drawn their arms over their heads only to see snow blowing up from the trapdoor.

"Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" Artemis asked and Wally scowled before they all jumped down the trapdoor, somehow coming out the side, which was a rather odd feeling, and the door vanished behind them, leaving them in some kind of snowy mountainous area.

"Well?" Artemis demanded.

"There's always string theory," Amara said, remembering when Wally had explained the concept to her, on Wally's side and he eagerly bumped his fist with hers.

"We're in a pocket dimension," he agreed.

"Ugh!" Artemis complained. "You're both unreal."

"We're meta-humans," Amara pointed.

"That's not what I mean!"

They both sniggered.

"What's that?" M'gann asked suddenly, directing their attention to the side where a cane appeared to be hovering in the air.

"Because that's not strange at all," Amara muttered.

"Ooh, maybe its Nelson's magic wand," Wally mocked before darting forward with Artemis to grasp it.

"I got it," they both said before the cane glowed brightly. "I can't let go!"

And then it was dragging them upwards into the air, causing them both to yell before vanished into the same blinding light.

Amara stared at the spot for a moment. "I really don't want to explain to my aunt that a magic cane disappeared her son," she said as dryly as she could manage.

"We should look for some kind of way out," Kaldur decided instead and the group headed east.

"Has Wally always been like that?" M'gann inquired of Amara.

"Been like what?" Amara frowned.

"Well, it's almost like he needs to believe the impossible can't happen."

Amara shrugged. "We've always been a couple of science nerds, it happens."

"Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend," Kaldur said for Amara who turned to look at him with interest. "Acknowledging the existence of magic would be to relinquish the last vestige of that control."

"Something like that," Amara muttered. "Science is our language. Magic is…untrustworthy."

"You have an earring that changes the color of your hair," M'gann pointed out. "That's magic."

"Or is it science?" Amara countered with a smirk. "Something that targets the cones in the eyes, affecting the color you see. We've all got our issues. Believing entirely in science in Wally's."

"Not yours?" Superboy presumed as they climbed over a small hill.

"I believe that its possible magic exists," she conceded, "but I've lost count how many people I've seen duped by psychics claiming to speak to the dead."

She'd had at least seven clients that had wanted help getting back the money that had been 'stolen' from them. Personally, Amara thought it was a bit of a grey area, given they'd paid the psychic so much in the first place.

But there wasn't time to speak any more on that because there was a sudden creak and they looked to see a door on another snowy hill.

Amara whipped the wind around her, rushing forward before she could be reeled back by Kaldur's call, passing through the door only for it to shift sides again so she came out the ceiling in an area of endless staircases.

But there was Wally standing with Artemis and Kent Nelson.

Amara grinned as she landed only to be knocked to the ground when Superboy fell on top of her. They both groaned in pain.

"Sorry," he muttered as Kaldur fell through and M'gann floated down.

"Friends of yours?" Kent Nelson presumed before they had to duck at a zapping jolt of electricity that hit the area above their heads. The others dodged but Amara held out a hand, catching the electricity in her hand.

It barely stung.

Abra Kadabra, the one behind the attack glared at her while Wally and Kent Nelson disappeared inside a golden bell with a dark haired boy following after them. "Ow," Amara said blandly to make him feel better.

Unfortunately, Amara was the only one among their group with any skill in electricity manipulation. Superboy raged towards him angrily, forgetting his training, only to be caught under some kind of electric net that appeared to generate constant electricity.

Amara dispersed every attack she could, but Abra Kadabra was fast, very fast, and he was picking them off like flies. And only Artemis and Amara had thought to bring some kind of weapon.

Kaldur fell and Amara blocked the strike of lightning towards M'gann while she tried to telepathically connect to Wally to get help from Doctor Fate.

Then she yelled as she got caught in another net and Amara unwound the flexible whip that Dinah had gotten her so long ago from STAR Labs in order to channel her lightning.

She flicked her wrist and the tendrils rippled in the air, throwing off electricity with each movement.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

Amara's smirk widened. "I'm Flash's daughter, Storm Chaser," she said, watching his face turn furious as she rushed forward, darting over his next zap of electricity from that wand of his –if it could be considered a wand, but Amara wasn't really sure– swinging her whip down, wrapping around his arm and generating electricity from the grip down to him and he yelled as he writhed, dropping his wand and canceling the electric nets around her teammates.

He went limp within a few seconds and Amara pulled the whip loose to find the others staring at her.

"What?" she asked, winding the whip around her waist like it was some kind of belt.

"You just electrocuted him into unconsciousness," Kaldur pointed out.

"That happens sometimes," Amara said, unconcerned as she waggled her fingers towards them, her fingers sparking with electricity.

"Remind me to never piss you off," Artemis said before they all rushed off in search of Wally.


The funeral was a rather solemn affair and it was attended in full uniform. Every member of the Justice League that Amara was familiar with was there, and so was Jay, who hadn't worn his Flash uniform in ages.

Wally was particularly upset –as he had been the one with Kent Nelson when he died, going so far as to put on the Helmet of Fate to protect himself and keep it out of the enemy's hands– even if it barely showed, and Amara doubted he'd seen the looks of concern that Artemis had tossed him, so she just slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze.

When it was all said and done, all Amara wanted to do was go home and sleep for three days.

They'd kept the Helmet of Fate out of the hands of the one known as Klarion –who had, apparently, kidnapped Kent Nelson in an effort to find its location– but Kent Nelson had still paid for it with his life.

It didn't really feel like a win.

It was raining in Central City, too, when Amara and Barry made their way home, but they took their time, walking leisurely through the rain with their umbrellas up, Amara's hand catch in her father's.

"Dad, do you think there's always going to be people like Klarion and Abra Kadabra?" she asked him curiously.

"What d'you mean?" Barry asked, his pensive expression shifting to one of confusion.

"People that are against the Justice League," Amara clarified. "Do you think they'll always be around?"

"With the good comes the bad, unfortunately," Barry grimaced, "I guess it's just the truth of the world."

Amara frowned and Barry cleared his throat in an effort to change the subject. "I heard Ella got you something for your birthday?"

"Oh, did I forget to show it to you?" Amara asked him, tilting her head back in surprise. She hadn't touched much of her gifts. Dick's laptop was still in its box and so was the laptop skin that Ella had gotten her. "It's this laptop skin with DNA strands on it, it's pretty cool. Ella said Harley helped her pick it out."

"Harley?" Barry asked, his brow furrowing as his thoughts flashed to Harley Quinn, her blonde hair in pig-tails with the red and black slowly fading from her hair, swinging around her mallet with glee.

"Ella's girlfriend," Amara clarified and Barry suddenly felt cold.

Ella was short for Pamela…Pamela who said her last name was Quinley…as in Isley and Quinn together. And swiftly it all made sense. Why someone so overqualified was working at a flower shop, why her skin sometimes seemed to almost appear green under some lighting, why her eyes were the same shape and color of his daughter's, why the flowers seemed constantly in bloom…it all made sense.

Amara had been working with her biological mother this whole time and he had never even realized it.

"Dad?" Amara probed, tugging on his hand in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Barry managed to choke out, "it's just been a long day."

Amara nodded, twisting her umbrella where it was resting on her shoulder. "I'm thinking of quitting my job," she confided after a moment and Barry was certain that he'd never been quite so relieved in all his life. "You and Mom want me to focus more on school, and I figured between the shop and BlackNet, I'd rather keep BlackNet."

Barry couldn't hide his exasperation at that. Of course she'd choose the online criminal underworld over the flower shop.

"I think that's a good idea," he said, covering his feelings quickly. "You're doing pretty well, but you could be better."

Amara wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Richard's coming over on Thursday to help me with my Math."

"I'm glad," Barry said dryly, squeezing her hand as she laughed, unaware of the thoughts plaguing his mind.