Disclaimer: I'm just gonna stop putting it up.
Homefront
Mount Justice
September 22, 18:23 EDT
Our undercover mission in Belle Reve was a success. Connor and M'gann were able to take down an attempted break-out while I was held captive with Waller and Strange. I got out unharmed, albeit a bit chilled, and relatively unchanged, much to Kaldur's relief. And not to my surprise, Connor and M'gann ended up becoming rather... close. As we left the prison, I saw them walking hand in hand, telling me that Connor finally began to reciprocate feelings for the Martian.
Now, back in the Cave, I was making my way to the hangar to say goodbye to Connor, M'gann, Kaldur and Wally before taking a zeta tube to Brooklyn. Wally was fixing Connor's bike with a bit of help from M'gann, while Kaldur and the clone watched. Connor must've heard me coming because he looked up at me as soon as I entered the hangar.
"You heading out?" He asked. The others turned to look at me, Sphere included. I nodded and checked my watch.
"To Brooklyn. I just wanted to make sure you guys didn't need me for anything."
"We're all set, beautiful," Wally said, brushing the dust off his suit as he stood up, "Go. Have fun."
I glanced over at Kaldur, who nodded in agreement. As I turned to leave, I could feel the ground beneath me start to rumble. I stopped. That was when time seemed to move in slow motion.
An explosion erupted from the bay doors, sending us all flying backwards. I was a bit dazed and my ears were ringing, but aside from that I was okay. The five of us charged toward the source of the blast, but Connor, Wally and I were stopped by hands down the biggest tidal wave I've ever seen. Water filled my lungs and stung my nose and eyes as I struggled toward the surface. Above me, I could see a flash of orange and gold. Fire. From another explosion, I couldn't be sure. The lack of oxygen became unbearable as my lungs began to burn, making it even harder for me to push myself to the surface. Only a few more inches and I would be in the clear. My muscles screamed and my eyes began to grow heavy. I tried to scream for help. Help from Kaldur, from Connor, from anyone. But water flooded my throat, making my lungs burn even more. Darkness started to obscure my vision until it finally consumed me, leaving me suspended only an inch away from the air above.
I snapped out of unconsciousness soaking wet, with a loud and sharp gasp. My chest was still burning and taking such a sudden breath made it hurt even more. I coughed wetly and spit up the water that remained in my lungs as my vision began to focus itself. I was stuck to a wall next to the Sphere. My arms and legs held in place by twisted metal braces. In front of me, I could see Wally and Connor trapped in the same type of metal, completely inhibiting their ability to move.
"Kara! Thank God, you're okay!" Wally exclaimed when he saw that I had woken up, "For a while, we thought you had stopped breathing."
"Wally," I croaked, my voice sounding raw and strained, "Connor, where are the others?"
"Up on the main floor." Connor answered, concern lightly apparent in his voice, "They're trapped in some kind of cage made of fire."
Well, this day was going just great. I was strung up like a crucifix and my boyfriend was being roasted alive. Not to mention the fact that I essentially stood my father up. A metallic clanking sound, reminiscent of Red Tornado's footsteps, began to interrupt us. Had Red Tornado returned from the Watchtower to help us? Surely, a security breach would have been detected by the Watchtower... right?
But it wasn't Red Tornado. But it was a Red robot. Two of them to be exact, one with a male build and one female. The male robot lifted his hand and a small rush of water began to flood the floor, while the other, I assumed due to my lack of visibility, increased the strength of the flames containing Kaldur and M'gann.
"Attention, Robin. Attention, Artemis." The male robot said over the intercom, in a voice that matched Red Tornado's. I had completely forgotten. Robin and Artemis were coming to the Cave after school today. I breathed a soft sigh of relief. If they could send for help, we would probably make it out of this alive. "You have ten minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."
The Red then raised his hand again and the water rose with it, creeping up to waist level. The robot then disappeared beneath the water.
A few moments later, Rob and Artemis emerged from the rising water, which was now level with my chest. They both looked relieved to see the three of us alive, but were unable to say anything before Wally cried, "Look out!"
Several blasts of fire were being thrown their way by the other Red. They dove beneath the water and resurfaced next to Wally and Connor.
"You guys okay?" Rob asked.
"Forget us! Help M'gann!" Connor yelled, looking at the flaming cage above us.
"Aqualad!" Artemis called, "Is she-"
"She is unconscious. I fear that she-, we cannot survive much longer."
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach as another ball of flames sent Robin and Artemis beneath the surface once more. A chilling thought entered my mind. What if they didn't survive? If M'gann was already unconscious, Kaldur wouldn't be too far behind. Losing them... losing him... I don't know what I would do with myself.
I was brought out of my daze by Robin's voice in my ear. He must have opened a comm channel, between himself, Wally and me, because I could see Wally was looking over at me and giving me a slight nod.
"Of course! They're machines! And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range."
"Great!" I could hear Artemis reply, "Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."
"I'm fresh out. But I'm betting we can make one. What do you say, guys? Doable?"
"Totally doable." Wally answered.
"Five minutes." The robot announced.
"Doable if you had more time that is." I added glumly.
"Ignore that sad sap." Wally said. I scowled at him as he continued, "I'll walk you through it. Get to the med lab."
Being in the vents must have allowed the two of them to take a few shortcuts, because they were in the med lab within seconds. Wally continued to instruct Rob on creating an EMP emitter.
"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."
"A ripple effect. Like dropping a stone in a pond." Robin replied.
"Brilliant, Wally. Really, I'm impressed!" I exclaimed with a grin.
"My brain is almost as beautiful as my face, Kara. Can't believe it took you this long to realize it." The speedster sighed with a large smile.
"Guys! We need to get to the main generator in the hangar, can you distract the Reds?" Robin asked over the comm. Wally, Connor and I all shared a smirk.
"No problem, Bird Boy." I answered as the water level rose to my neck.
"Four minutes."
"Ok, make with the distraction."
"Hey, Red Tomato! Who's your girlfriend? Red Onion?" Wally shouted as loud as he could, drawing the robots away from M'gann and Kaldur.
"Yeah! And by the way, worst death trap ever!" Connor joined in. "We could escape anytime we wanted!"
"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count to two!" Wally continued as I laughed loudly, ignoring the slight burn in my chest.
"Don't forget, I can contort my body to slip out of these bonds in seconds! You tin men made it way too easy!" I snarked.
"And you can't drown a Kryptonian, dumb bots," Connor added, "We don't breath air!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" Wally and I cackled as metallic footsteps above me indicated that our captors were watching us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Robin perched on the Cave's main generator. Something was stumping him. He needed more time. I did my best to gesture to the guys, silently telling them to keep talking.
"And Miss Martian? I can't believe you're buying her act!" Wally jeered at the machines.
"Yeah! You know how hot it gets in the caves of Mars? That cage is just making her homesick!"
"Robin, LOOK OUT!" Artemis screamed. A wave of water swept him up before he could react. Our plan didn't work. I could see that Robin was now suspended in a large wave, clearly unconscious. And from the silence that followed, I guessed that Artemis had gotten away. She was our last chance. My only fear was, given the way she was raised, would she even come back for us?
"One minute."
This was it. Wally, Connor and I were going to drown. As the water level slid toward my lips, I took one final breath and closed my eyes. But then something amazing happened. The water began to recede. The three of us all took relieved breaths as the water disappeared down into a nearby pool.
"Kaldur!" Connor called breathily, "How's M'gann?"
"She breathes." I let out a heavy sigh at the sound of his voice, happy to hear that both he and M'gann were okay.
"What about Robin?" I asked, my voice still strained.
"H-he's breathing too." Artemis replied.
"Thank God." I muttered to myself before calling out to the others, "Get down here and help us out then. My arms are getting sore."
After a slow descent, the four of them joined us, the two powered down Reds in tow. As Robin explained the details of what had happened with the EMP emitter, Artemis found a laser drill that could cut those of us still stuck out.
"Figured my only shot was to 'surrender'. Pretend to drown before I actually did. Blacked out though." Robin finished his story as Connor gently took M'gann's hand in his. She murmured something to him that I couldn't distinguish, but I'm sure it was something to reassure him that she was okay.
"Kara." Kaldur's soft voice snagged my attention. He had released M'gann, who had regained enough strength to stand on her own, and was now standing in front of me.
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine." I answered his unspoken question with a small smile that faded as quickly as it had appeared, "I'm more concerned about you. Are you okay?"
"A bit tired and weak, but unharmed." He replied, reaching up to brush a loose strand of hair out of my face.
"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" Wally asked Artemis, clearly irritated.
"It's not working, genius." She retorted sarcastically, "EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"
"All machines present at the time." A new voice added. Red Tornado had finally made it back from the Watchtower. He landed in the center of our little circle and looked around at all of us.
"What has occurred?"
"Had a little visit from your family." Robin replied.
"Your extremely nasty family!" Artemis added maliciously.
"I was not aware I had relations." RT admitted, striding over to the metal corpses nearby.
"Where have you been?" Connor asked.
"Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your zeta tubes were also nonfunctional. I transported to Providence and proceeded here." Red explained. A loud crash next to me, followed by the familiar sound of Sphere's 'talking' and an unexpected blast from the laser drill indicated that the pulse had worn off finally.
I looked over to see RT leaning over one of the other robots. As he reached out to touch it, his eyes began to glow a sinister red.
"Oh shit." I said as RT turned toward us and raised his hand. A vortex began to form around us, sucking away our oxygen supply. Kaldur grasped at his throat and sank to his knees as I gasped for air. Once again, my vision began to blur before fading into a never-ending black.
"Kara? Kara, wake up. Come on, kid. Wake up." A familiar voice faded in and out as I struggled to open my eyes. Several blurred figures were scattered in front of me, the one that I was talking to me was a pale, silvery shape. I blinked a few times, took a few ragged breaths and let my vision settle, watching as the silver blob turned into Captain Atom. I was no longer hanging on the wall; instead, I was sitting on the floor, my back pressed against the cold metal where I was being displayed not long ago.
"She's okay, Canary. Just a little dizzy is all." Cap called out to my mentor, who was speaking to Connor. Both he and Wally were still stuck in metal. Dinah looked over at me and visibly relaxed when she saw I was awake. The Nuclear Man extended a hand to me which I accepted, standing slowly and using the wall for additional support.
"Thanks for cutting me out, Cap. And for waking me up." I thanked him. He smiled and set a hand on my shoulder.
"No problem, kid. Just glad you're okay." I gave him a reassuring nod before he turned and went to get Wally and Conner out of their trap. When I got a better look at who was in the hangar, the lack of a certain someone made my heart stop. Actually, it was the lack of three someones.
Red Tornado and his siblings were gone.