Invaded
Chapter Twelve: True Colors
Author's Note: Enjoy a very deep monologue from Ashley/Phoenix at the end.
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Watchtower
April 8
08:23 AM EDT
"Recognized: Phoenix, B-03," the computer droned loudly as I flew out of the whirling zeta-beam.
Nightwing abruptly halted his conversation with Impulse, glaring at me. Superboy stood from his seat, crossing his arms in annoyance.
Without further delay, I flew towards the cluster of awaiting heroes.
"Phoenix," Captain Atom firmly stated, crossing his arms over his chest, "you call an emergency meeting yet you're twenty-three minutes late."
"Right, I'm sorry, Captain," I apologized.
"This better be worth it," Captain Atom warned as the group of gathered heroes settled into seats at the massive conference table.
"As most of us are aware," I began, gesturing towards a holographic screen with several pictures of the Justice Society of America, "after World War II, the newly formed United Nations wanted to register our predecessors, the Justice Society of America. Due to such high public opinion at the time, the US government and UN were unsuccessful in their attempt to pass any notions, bills, or laws. Since then, with the success of the Justice League, there hasn't been talk of registering and regulating heroes across the world."
Captain Atom leaned forward, folding his hands over his mouth.
"That is, until now. Public opinion of the Justice League is at a record low, no thanks to likes of G. Gordon Godfrey and the Reach," I explained.
Captain Atom glared at the muted video feed of G. Gordon's latest rant.
"After some recon and investigation," I continued, "I learned that the UN is in talks of wanting to register all heroes and vigilantes."
Captain Atom lowered his hands, asking, "And they will succeed this time, won't they?"
I nodded, confirming Captain Atom's worries.
"Well," Plastic Atom paused, questioning, "That can't be so bad, can it?"
"Registration today, gas chambers tomorrow," the Huntress scoffed.
"The government's overall goal for registering heroes is to regulate us. They'll be in charge of when and where we can patrol, what is considered legal vigilante versus criminal activity, and more," I explained, "Things can get ugly, fast. We can be denied our civil rights or be forced to fight in wars we don't want to."
"Basically, we become disposable weapons," the Huntress said, "all at the will of our government."
Nightwing interjected, "The UN wouldn't allow that. The Justice League is an international group of heroes who have sworn to protect the Earth, which we have done since the Justice Society days."
The room exploded in argument as everyone debated their opinions.
"Except," I raised my voice, silencing the room, "to the world, our base of operations is the Hall of Justice, located in the US capital. Not only is there that, but most of us are American citizens. To top it off, we have willingly executed missions for the US government, making us the US government's problem."
Captain Marvel frowned, "The UN wouldn't allow that. It would cause panic throughout the world knowing the US has weaponized the Justice League to work for them."
I nodded, confirming, "Captain Atom is right. The UN wouldn't allow the US to register all it's heroes. The UN wants to do it themselves. They want to be able to have a registry of heroes that they can deploy at a moment's notice to help during natural disasters, wars, alien invasions, and so on."
Plastic Man raised an elongated hand in the air, "Don't we already do that?"
"At our own will and discretion, yes," I answered.
Green Arrow slammed his fist onto the table, asking, "And how the hell do they expect us to agree to this?"
A large, holographic display of an advanced model inhibitor collar.
"Against our will," I answered.
"An inhibitor collar?" The Huntress asked, squinting at the display before scoffing, "Some of us don't have powers, kid."
"It's not just an inhibitor collar," I countered, "More or less, it uses the same alien bio-organism, nanotechnology, and magic equation Vandal Savage used to control the League some five years ago. Except now, the Reach has engineered the alien bio-organism and nanotechnology for a far more advanced inhibitor collar."
Nightwing furrowed his brow, "We know inhibitor collars supress what we now call the meta-gene, which is what gives most of you superhuman abilities, but what about those of us that are human? How does this affect us?"
Captain Atom added, "And the Cure-Tech was supposed to make us immune to any future Starro-tech exposure?"
"The Cure-tech successfully negated Starro-tech's effects and made all affected parties immune to any future Starro-tech exposure. However, this isn't Starro-tech. The Reach was able to reverse engineer the Starro-tech and incorporate their own alien bio-organism with the same nanotechnology, thus creating an inhibitor collar that suppresses both the meta-gene and our free will," I revealed.
"Who is producing these collar devices?" Red Tornado questioned.
"LexCorp," I sighed. The room erupted in a series of similar outbursts.
"We shouldn't be surprised," Nightwing muttered.
"And how do we know all this?" Black Canary asked, "We just learned what the meta-gene was."
"From Impulse and Blue Beetle," Nightwing stated, rising from his seat. He motioned for Blue Beetle and Impulse to step further into the room from their spots by the door.
"As many of you now know, Impulse is the Flash's grandson from forty years into the future," Nightwing paused.
"Hello," Impulse nervously greeted before inhaling deeply, "The reason I came back into the past—well, the main reason—was to stop the assassination of the Flash. Forty years from now, the Reach apocalypse is in full effect brought on by Blue Beetle himself. See, Blue Beetle's scarab was created by the Reach and sent to Earth four thousand years ago as a scout. Apparently, with the whole time traveling causing rippling effects in time theory, we—but most likely me—have caused drastic changes in the future which are not crash."
Impulse exhaled slowly as the room quietly absorbed his words.
"And how exactly do you know this?" Superboy questioned.
"From my memories," Impulse revealed, "Since I purposefully saved my grandfather from Neutron, my memories have been changing slowly. Up until now, very few things were changed in the future. Now, my memories are rapidly changing to match the current future."
There was a pregnant pause as everyone looked at us in confusion.
"In better terms," Nightwing paused, "Bart's memories change as we continue to change the course of the future."
"Well, what do you see now?" Captain Atom asked.
"It's… it's hard to make out," Bart admitted, clenching his eyes shut in concentration, "but I know a lot of Earth's heroes are still gone. Except, there's no sign of the Reach, which doesn't make sense considering stopping the Reach apocalypse from happening should've crashed the mode. I can't really explain it, but a lot of things are completely moded."
I placed a hand on Bart's shoulder, squeezing lightly.
"So, what exactly is he saying?" Captain Atom asked, glancing at Nightwing and I.
"Stopping the Reach invasion doesn't stop the apocalypse from happening. There's something else coming that's far worse than the Reach invasion," I answered, somberly.
Bludhaven
April 8
09:23 PM EDT
Wally had tried—that, I had to give him credit for.
The first few months following his retirement were very peaceful. The transition from hero to civilian was easy for him; he was genuinely happy, which made me happy.
It was easy to maintain our relationship. This was during a time after Jason's death but before Tula's. We were in a suspended animation of mourning, yet bittersweet happiness.
Wally and Artemis were attending Stanford together—and as much as they hated to admit it, they enjoyed each other's company. Everything was falling into place once more—Dick had even begun smiling again.
Wally and I had made an agreement: no work business in the apartment. Once I crossed that threshold, I was no longer Phoenix nor was I saving the world. I was simply Ashley, girlfriend to Wally. We didn't bicker or argue much, and when we did, it wasn't too bad.
Then Tula died.
It was hard for everyone in different ways.
It triggered Dick, reminding him of Jason's death all over again, causing him to spiral in self-blame. He buried himself in his work becoming more like his father than he'd like to admit.
Kaldur disappeared for three days. When he returned, he said nothing to anyone about his whereabouts, not even Artemis. He buried himself in his work, too.
And me?
It devastated me. Tula had sacrificed herself to destroy Tiamat, thus saving us all. It was a selfishly heroic sacrifice. Logically, I understood why she did it, but it didn't mean I agreed. We could've—no, we should've found another way.
About three months after, Kaldur discovered Black Manta was his biological father. That's when we devised our grand plan to infiltrate the Light. So, as Dick and I told it, Kaldur went off the deep end and went rogue.
The betrayal was a surprise to everyone, even Wally. He hadn't learned of
That's when our realtionship's downfall began.
Since I had promised Dick to help co-lead the Team in Kaldur's untimely absence, it was harder to maintain the relationship. If I wasn't away on a mission, I was training the new members or resting.
Wally really did try.
He waited in restaurants for hours. He would stay up, waiting for my arrival. My dinner would be in tupperware in the microwave. A fresh set of clothes would be folded neatly at the edge of his bed.
Without knowing, I was slowly pushing him to his limits until he couldn't do it anymore.
We had split amicably. There was no screaming, no argument, no slamming of doors. There were tears, yes, but even those weren't of ill will.
He was genuinely sorry for giving up.
I was sorry for making him wait for so long. So, just like that, we stopped maintaining a dying relationship. Like a dying plant, it had withered. The love was still there, yet the yearning wasn't.
We promised to still be friends—which we are. I'd like to think we imagined it would be like the beginning. We promised we would call, text, see each other, but we all know how that goes.
Wally had really tried. I'd like to think I tried, too, but in reality, I didn't. I had just always expected him to wait for me. I had always placed my duty above everything—myself, my family, my friends, and Wally.
It was only fitting that I would end up alone, fulfilled only by my hunger to save the world.
"Are you done brooding?" Nightwing asked; I scowled, annoyed to be interrupted in my mental monologue.
"I don't brood," I muttered, "That's Connor's thing."
"Right," Nightwing drawled out sarcastically, adding, "You're more of a wallower anyways."
"What do you want?" I asked, annoyed.
"Well, I thought you'd like to know that there's someone here to see you," Nightwing said, smirking.
It was almost ten o'clock and we were hiding in a warehouse in Bludhaven. Who could possibly want to see me of all people?
I stood from my seat, raising an eyebrow at Nightwing as the zeta-tube began whirling.
"Recognized: Hunter, B-09," the computer droned.
"So, Batman wanted you to infiltrate the League of Shadows," Nightwing concluded.
"But why you?" I asked.
"I… I really don't know. I was able to infiltrate, but I never got close enough to the actual Demon's Head," Hunter revealed.
"What made you decide to come back?" Nightwing persisted.
"Phe can be very convincing," Hunter stated, annoyed.
"I just guilt-tripped him," I admitted.
"I had to tie up some loose ends," Hunter explained, "When you mentioned that you thought the Light had formed their own covert group, I had to back peddle a bit. I had heard rumors about it, but never got a definite yes."
I raised my eyebrow at the marksman, silently urging him to continue.
"I don't know how accurate this information is, but rumors say they go by the Order of the Red Lotus. It is unknown how many members are actually real, but I was able to get five names: Black Falcon, Renegade, Novastar, Poseida, and Orphan."