Chapter 33: Front Lines
"Ugh… My head…"
My eyes start come back into focus as my mind becomes clearer too. Last thing I remember is blacking out from not having any air in water. I try to move but… I'm stuck…
Now able to see clearly now, I find myself covered in some metal. My arms and legs are completely covered by the metal, with my head and chest free of it. In front of me are Kid Flash and Superboy, trapped alongside me. Both are struggling to escape with no luck it appears. To my right, I also find the Sphere crashed into the platform's side. Whatever did this must be strong enough to knock that into the wall.
"Guys", getting their attention. "One of you wanna tell me how the hell we ended up here?"
"I'm pretty sure the Red that controls fire welded the metal around us", Kid Flash answers. Red?
"You said a Red… that controls fire?"
"Yeah. Turns out Red Tornado has a brother and a sister. One for that controls fire…"
"And one that controls water", I finish KF's sentence. "What do they want?"
"No clue. They're going after Robin, Artemis and White Canary right now."
"They haven't gotten to them? Thank Oa."
"Hopefully they can either fix communications to get to the League. Or get to us and spring us out of here."
"Wait", I look around the hangar, just now noticing we're short two team members. "Where are M'gann and Kaldur?"
"Up there", Conner says. I turn my head left and look up to the platform. At the platform's top, I see what looks like a rectangular cage made of fire.
"They're in that?" Conner nods, showing his anger and desperation. He must be dying to get to M'gann as fast as possible. "Kaldur! Are you two okay?"
"I am fine. But M'gann is unconscious for now", he yells down to us. I look to Conner, who has this look desperate look on his face. Desperate to get to M'gann.
"They won't last forever in that thing. Not with their physiology.
"We're been trying to get ourselves out of this" Superboy says. "This metal is welded too strong for me to break out somehow. Or else I'd be out by now."
"And I can't phase myself out of it either" Kid Flash says. "That Red fire android did a well enough job to keep us in our place."
"Maybe I can get us out." Even with this metal coated over my arms, I can feel my power ring on my finger. "They never took my ring. I can try to make a construct and cut myself out. Give me a minute." Concentrating on my ring, I create a small burst of energy. After a minute of concentration, my hand feels a small space of room. It's working. If I keep this up, I can drill a hole out of the metal and make a construct strong enough to cut us free. I just hope I don't use up all my ring's juice before I get that chance.
"It'll take some time, but I think I can get us out." Wally and Conner smile in response. I bring back my focus onto my ring, drilling through the metal. Not long after, both Red androids enter the hangar. Both with the same color scheme as Red Tornado. The female with a cape made of fire on her back; the male with a cape made of water on his. They both look scarily like Red Tornado. Our time is running out.
We run down the tunnel until we're a good distance away from the library and the Reds.
"Did you know Tornado had siblings?" Artemis asks.
"No", Robin answers.
We run to a crossroads of tunnels, with Robin and I turning left. Artemis grabs both of our arms, holding our position. "So now what? Red Tornado is one of the power houses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of him?"
"Using our skills and wits. We'll have to think outside of the box for this one" I answer.
"They do seem pretty user unfriendly", Robin jokes.
"Don't joke. They—"
"Attention, Robin. Attention, Artemis. Attention, White Canary. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."
"And then there's that" I say. "We need to come up with a plan in nine minutes. Any ideas?" Looking to Robin.
"Follow me." Artemis and I run after Robin down a tunnel. As we run through the tunnels, the male Red continues his countdown throughout the Cave. Reminding us of our deadline.
"Eight minutes."
"We can access the hangar from here." We all turn around to see another tidal wave rushing our way. "Or not."
"Will you please stop saying that?" Artemis says.
The water catches up to us, carrying us in the current. I find my balance in the water and swim my body straight upward. Robin puts on a rebreather as he reels his cape into his suit. He swims over to me and Artemis, who's still struggling a bit with arrows floating around her. Both Robin and I grab an arm of hers, keeping her steady. Robin gives both of us a rebreather.
Before we can do anything, the male Red swims behind us. He grabs a leg of mine and Artemis, which makes her lose her rebreather. I kick him in the head with me free leg, though due to the water my kick isn't as strong. Robin grabs on of Artemis' arrows and jams it in his head. He grabs a hold of Artemis and swims forward, with me swimming along them.
Robin launches a cable line to the wall at the end of the tunnel. I grab a hold of Artemis as the line lands and zips us all forward. I look behind us to find Robin had left half a dozen batarangs for the Red we left behind. I turn forward as the batarangs detonate.
"How much longer?" Superboy asks.
"Just a few more minutes. Even with the water filling up the pathway, it shouldn't keep me from making a construct. Think you can hold off until then?" I ask the protective Kryptonian.
"So long as I can get to M'gann, yeah."
"Yeah, I'm fine too. Thanks for asking."
"Wally, now is not—"
Out of nowhere, White Canary, Robin and Artemis' heads pop out of the water. They're okay! Thank Oa. Short of breath and exhausted they look. We're not the only ones who take notice. I look up to see Kaldur and M'gann's warden, the Red fire chick, looking down at our rescuers to be.
"Go under!" I yell at them. All three look over to us, then to the Red. They dive under the water just in time to avoid being burnt by her fireballs.
As the Red searches to our right, Canary, Robin and Artemis resurface next to us. Canary's attention is more towards me. Her expression is a mix of relief and worry. Mine is probably the same.
"Are you guys okay?" She asks.
"Forget us. Help M'gann", Superboy says. All three look up to the platform where Aqualad and M'gann are still in their fiery cage.
"Oh my god…" Canary responds.
"Aqualad, is she—"
"She is unconscious" he answers Artemis. "I fear she… we cannot survive much longer."
The Red redirects her fire to the six of us now. Canary, Robin and Artemis dive again. The Red continues to fire upon them as they swim below the surface. They soon reach the stairs leading to Aqualad and M'gann. The watery Red follows right behind them. The flaming Red lands at the top of the stairs. Leaving our friends in the middle between a walking flamethrower and a extremely powerful water gun.
"I'm almost out of arrows."
"Distract her, now." Artemis follows Robin's lead, shooting the female red. Though it hardly has any effect on her.
Robin and Canary throw their choice of weapons – batarangs and shurikens – at the male Red. All just deflect off him. Though one of Robin's batarangs lands right next to Kid Flash's head. Don't lose your head just yet.
Both Reds direct a blast of fire and water at our friends. They dive into the water and out of harms way. Both fire and water crash into one another. Two opposites colliding.
Having just dove into the water for the umpteenth time, we swim over to a steel grate. Robin removes the grate. We each swim in one after another. We swim through a maze of tunnels until we reach a tunnel with a pocket of air. We climb into a connecting tunnel to rest and rethink.
"Six minutes."
"What do we do now?" Artemis asks.
"We save them. That's how it works", Robin answers.
"Robin's right. We save our friends."
"Maybe that's how it's supposed to work but those robots already took out our five super-powered friends!"
"What's with you and superpowers?" I ask.
"You seem distraught."
"Distraught? M'gann is dying! We have no powers and I'm down to my last arrow. Of course, I'm distraught!"
"We'll get trot or get dead." Kyle was right when he said Robin does that.
"Get out of your own head and focus on the objective at hand, okay?" I say trying to ease Artemis' racing mind.
"How can you two be so calm?" She asks as we start crawling through the tunnels.
"Practice. I've been doing this since I was nine", Robin answers first.
"I've had training for these type of situations for a number of years myself."
"What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?"
Robin stops in his tracks. "Duh! They're machines. And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down all machines within range."
"Great, except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."
"Yeah, I'm short an emitter myself."
"I'm fresh out. But I'm betting we can make one." Robin reaches for his coms. "What do you say, KF, doable?"
"Totally doable", Kid Flash answers.
"Five minutes."
"You know, if you had more time."
Robin pushes open the entry way for the tunnel. We crawl out into the medical lab of the Cave. You would think my first time being here would be for an injury, not jury rigging an EMP emitter.
"Med lab, X-ray machine. You'll find a small vacuum tube called a vircator that converts high energy pulses. Reprogram the unit's microwave conversion from X-rays to EMPs with a cascading energy vector directed outward."
Robin follows all of Kid Flash's instructions to the detail. "A ripple effect like dropping a stone in a pond."
"A stone with ten to the twelfth power of wattage, yeah."
"So I'll need to hook it up to the Cave's main generator."
"Which is where?" Artemis asks.
Looking up past the platform, with only my head above the rising water, seeing the main generator one corner of the hangar. With both Reds on the platform, one on each side of the fire prison.
"So the plan is to keep both Red androids distracted while Robin hooks up his EMP emitter onto the main generator before either one notice and shoot him down?" Both Superboy and Kid Flash look at me as I double check the plan.
"Basically, yeah" KF says.
"Any idea on how we're supposed to do that while we're…" Looking at our 'surroundings' "…stuck?"
"Make fun of them?"
"Yeah, since we already do that to you." KF gives me a stern look of 'really man'.
Suddenly, I hear a cracking noise. Something below the water. Then I feel a surge of energy coming below the water. Finally! "Yes! I broke though the metal."
"Awesome. There's your distraction", Kid says.
"Hopefully. My ring may be running low on power so if I'm gonna pull a stunt on those two, it's gotta be big and enough to rattle them a bit."
"So, last resort then?"
"Four minutes."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
I look to my left. Without tipping my hand, I see Robin, Artemis and Canary laying in waiting. "Okay. Make with the distraction." Robin says over coms.
"Hey, Red Tomato! Who's your girlfriend, Red Onion?" Kid Flash starts the 'distraction'. More like amateur night at the comedy club.
"Yeah, and by the way, worst death trap ever. We can escape anytime we want", Superboy joins in.
My turn, I guess. "I've been in worse spots in training. Believe me, you do not wanna tick off my drill sergeant."
"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count to two", Kid says.
"I can blast myself out of this trap with my ring and willpower alone, senseless drones." I notice Robin, Artemis and Canary making their way to the generator as we keep up the distraction.
"And you can't drown a Kryptonian, dumb bots. We don't breathe air."
"And Miss Martian? I can't believe you're buying her act", Kid says.
"Rerouting power now", Robin updates.
"You know how hot it gets in the caves of Mars?" Superboy says.
"It's not working."
"That cage is just making her homesick. Duh!"
"The circuit's incomplete. I need something conductible. A piece of metal or—"
"Robin, look out!" Artemis yells. I look in Robin's direction too late. A tidal wave comes crashing down on Robin before he can react.
Artemis pulls back her bowstring. 'Red Onion' shoots a fireball in her direction. It misses, but it makes Artemis release her shot. She misses too.
"Artemis, Canary! Get out of there!" I yell at them.
Both girls follow my instruction and back out of the tunnel. The Red flamethrower readies another shot. Time to cover them. I will myself to shoot a beam of energy out of my hole. It flies out of the water. I aim it for the tunnel opening. I will myself to create a wall construct, covering the opening. A pillar of fire hits the construct as it appears.
The Red female looks to me. I hope that wasn't my only trick up my sleeve.