The Dark Side

There was a the muffling sound of voices echoing, fading, swirling…

"Why would I join your little brigade Grodd?" wondered a familiar voice skeptically.

"Because my friend," the large-minded gorilla told him, "I have something you desire: The last existing fragment of Brainiac."

"Name your price." again the voice spoke.

"Simply… your companionship, Luthor." Grodd replied.

"What's the catch?" it became clear that he was speaking to Lex Luthor.

"We want the same thing you and I… to destroy the Justice League and all they stand for." Grodd explained, "I'm gathering another rogue gallery together to thwart their supremacy, but I figured you would be a useful addition to the operation."

"The Justice League is powerful, especially after they expanded," Lex said, mulling over the ape's request, "however they have a dark horse they overlook. One that with enough time I think could be persuaded to our side…"

"You have my attention." Gorilla Grodd told him with peaked interest.

"Starlight… that girl. She wanted to kill me. The only thing that stopped her was Superman. With a gentle nudge… I think we could make excellent use of her… to make matters better… if she betrays them, some of our major threats will be left at wit's end." Lex explained, trying to figure out how to convert the girl.

Grodd had run into this very girl before. Luthor was correct. She had potential to become a magnificent weapon. She was destined to become that after all. He smiled, pleased that he had decided to put his faith in Lex Luthor, "I think I know just the way to give her that… gentle nudge."

Her body was soaked in sweat. Her body trembled. Her eyes sprang open. In an instant she flung the blankets off of her body and scurried to the bathroom with just enough time to flip up the toilet seat and vomit in the bowl. When her body finally stopped rejecting whatever had been scratching around in her stomach, Chelsea reached up and pulled the knob to flush. She pressed her back to the wall and tried to breathe through the strange shock she was experiencing. Her head throbbed, she was drenched in a cold sweat that made her quiver. She quickly forced some tears from her eyes. After a moment she stood up and went to the sink to drink down some water.

What was that dream? Something to do with Gorilla Grodd and Lex Luthor. Was it just a dream? Was her imagination trying to taunt her? What caused her to throw up?

"My word," she heard Alfred's voice behind her in the doorway, "are you alright?"

Chelsea turned to him. She was sickly pale. It took her a moment to focus her sight on him, "Yeah… I just got a little sick. I'm not sure what happened…"

"Perhaps you should lie back down." Alfred suggested, coming up to her now, and touching her forehead with his palm. She was very sweaty. It looked like she had lived a nightmare.

"I don't have time. I have a shift at The Watch Tower in an hour, and then I have to stop by campus and turn in some graduation forms. Plus I have some matte work to do on some of my pieces at the workshop in the art building to finish and-" She paused, leaning herself against the sink. She felt dizzy. It took her a moment to stabilize herself. She rubbed her forehead, "I'm alright. I just need to jump in the shower and get cleaned up."

Alfred looked her over worried, "I'll make you some toast to eat. It will help your stomach, but please Miss, do be careful. If you over-exert yourself, you may do more harm than good."

Chelsea watched Alfred leave the bedroom and then closed the bathroom door to start to take a shower. Her body ached more than usual. It was such a strange feeling. Perhaps a flu? Or maybe she had been pushing herself too far lately. Whatever the reason, she was going to do her best to overcome it. Once she had gotten herself cleaned up, she went downstairs to meet up with Alfred. As she nibbled at her toast, she tried her best to convince Alfred she was feeling better. Turning to walk out of the kitchen she asked, "Can we maybe not mention this to Bruce? I don't want him overreacting."

Alfred felt Bruce had the right to know, but he nodded, "It's safe between you and me." What was the harm? Alfred knew Bruce would pick up on it regardless of whether he mentioned anything.

Once teleported to The Watch Tower, Chelsea gave a casual look about her surroundings. Many of her teammates were sitting at tables seeming rather unamused. It must have been one of those unusually slow days. She caught the eye of Booster Gold and he immediately came to her side to chat, Skeets in tow, "Hello Star," he grinned.

Booster Gold, regardless of his narcissism, was quite attractive. His blonde hair was so well-kept with a natural shine to it Chelsea almost envied, "Hello Michael," she always called him by his first name instead of his title, "looks to be a slow day around the Tower."

"You guessed it." nodded the blonde man, running his fingers through his hair, "They're actually letting some people off for the day. Placing them on call encase something major happens. Volunteers get to stick around for their shift if they like."

"I'll probably wander around for a while. Visit with some folks." Chelsea's stomach was still turning. She made a mental note not to steer too far from a bathroom.

"If you get bored, come back and find me. I'd like to have someone to play cards with." he winked at her from behind his flashy shades and strutted off.

Chelsea subtly shook her head and smirked. Her attention couldn't help, but be drawn to his hips with the way he moved. Chuckling to herself she started out of the room and down a long hallway. Her body was still aching. She was actually happy for the blessing in disguise day. Maybe she could have a talk with J'onn and leave early to get her afternoon errands completed and then collapse on a bed in Wayne Manor.

"Chelsea," a velvet voice said from behind her.

If it were anyone else, they would have been startled by the way Bruce was able to sneak up on anyone, but Chelsea found solace in his presence. She stopped and turned around, "Hey," she felt herself get dizzy and played it off as her leaning against the wall, "Slow day for you too?"

"Slow day for everyone… I find it odd." he confirmed, watching her movements carefully.

"Are all the original members here today?" she asked, surprised.

Bruce took a glance out of the window and then back at her, "Superman is currently parked at his desk job. Green Lantern had a date with Vixen. Diana decided to return home for the day. The others should be around somewhere. Have you spoken to Wally after what happened a few days ago?"

Wally. Chelsea really needed to find him and make sure he was alright, "Not yet. I just got here a little bit ago. Everyone seems so bored." Chelsea rubbed her head, taking note that a bathroom was nearby, "Are you going to head home?"

"Soon." he confirmed, "I'll be on call, but I have some business meeting at 3."

"You're always so busy." she said sympathetically.

He looked her up and down, "You should go home and rest if you're not feeling well."

She watched him walk away. He could tell. Just be being around her for a stolen moment he could see she wasn't feeling right. She had to choose to date a detective. Letting out a sigh she went into the bathroom and splashed some cold water in her face. Leaning over the sink, she stared down blankly and felt her brain suddenly pulse like the onset of a migraine. She saw quick flashes of her college campus. Then she saw Grodd and a few other villains. When she refocused she was staring up the blurred image of Shayera.

"Chelsea? Chelsea can you hear me?" Shayera asked her, propping her head against her chest, "Chelsea what happened?"

Chelsea mustered up the strength to sit up, "I don't know." she said admittedly, "I've been feeling a bit worse for wear today."

"Perhaps I should take you to the infirmary. This might be serious. I don't know how long you've been laying here." Shayera said with worry, holding the girl's face in her hands to see if she could focus.

"I'll be alright." Chelsea reassured, cupping her hands over her friend's. Staggering to her feet, Chelsea rubbed her forehead.

"You should go home. I'll tell J'onn you're sick." Shayera said, touching the girl's shoulder.

Chelsea nodded once and started out the door.

"J'onn," Shayera communicated through her earpiece, "send Chelsea back to Gotham. She's really sick."

"Will do." J'onn said simply, putting the coordinates into the teleporter.

After some time Chelsea appeared on Main Street of Gotham. The teleportation made her motion sick and she felt herself getting ready to throw up. Trying to talk herself out of it, she regained control and started to walk toward the university instead of home. Campus was busily buzzing. She figured the sooner she got these errands over with the sooner she could go home and collapse in bed. First she went to the main office to fill out some forms for graduation which was fastly approaching. Unfortunately for the art students, the art building was in a corner of campus with only the bookstore as its companion. As she made her way to the art building, there was another flash in front of her eyes. She saw a light grow and shrink in the gymnasium nearby.

She turned off track and started for the strange happening, hoping she could figure out what had her head so screwy. When she entered, it was eerily quiet. She could feel it instantly. Something was very wrong. When she pushed open the double doors to the gym, there Gorilla Grodd stood before her with Giganta, Shade, and Solomon Grundy. He didn't bring much back-up, which meant one of two things: he wasn't expecting a crowd, or he was over-confident.

"Been a while Grodd. What is it this time?" Chelsea asked, crossing her arms.

"Starlight. Just the girl I wanted to see." Grodd said, linking his arms behind his back.

Chelsea noticed a few students huddled together in a corner like the daylights had been scared out of them. She paused, "What do you want? Are you the reason I keep having these flashes? If you wanted to meet there's a modern thing called telephones."

"Unfortunately I don't know what you're talking about… I'm here for a different reason." he explained, as he started pacing back and forth. He sounded genuine. He really had no idea, "Starlight I want to offer you a proposition. An… opportunity of sorts…" he stopped and approached her. Chelsea's stomach swirled again. She felt so weak today. She did her best not to show her instability, "I want you to join my legion."

She gave him a confused look, "Joker better watch out, cause it sounds to me like we've got a new comedian in Gotham." Chelsea huffed dryly.

"I assure you I'm completely serious." the ape replied.

Chelsea's eyes narrowed. If her visions had been true about Grodd being on campus, she had to assume the flashes with Luthor's involvement were also true. She imagined it. A legion of super-villains across the globe banning together to do God knows what. It made the gears in her head start turning. If she went along, perhaps she could destroy their brigade before it became too strong from the inside out. In her condition it seemed like a suicide mission. If they smelled her treachery who knows what they would do to her.

"I'd hoped it wouldn't come down to threats but… I've gathered these students here as a bargaining chip. Refuse, and I will kill them. I have quite the marksmen at my leisure." When Chelsea looked to the students again, each of them had a red dot between their eyes. They were whimpering with fear. Chelsea felt immediate guilt wash over her. They were scared out of their wits and she was to blame.

"I'll come." Chelsea said.

Gorilla Grodd displayed a toothy grin. Placing his hand on her back he pushed her toward the students, "I have to test your trust… kill one of them… and I'll believe you."

"No, please!" begged one of the students huddled in the corner.

"Don't hurt us." cried another.

Chelsea swallowed. She turned back to the villains who watched her carefully, "This is crazy! You can't expect me to kill one of them. They're innocent in all of this."

"Do it… or it will become two." Gorilla Grodd told her. The others chuckled at her dismay.

Chelsea sighed. Snatching up one of the students in her grasp, the boy begged and pleaded to be let go. Chelsea looked him in the eyes, "I'm sorry…" she mouthed, before pressing her finger into his neck and violently snapping it. The room grew silent as the boy's body fell lifeless to the ground. Even Grodd was a bit surprised she came around so quickly. Luthor was right. Something sinister resided in this girl.

The ape approached the corpse and checked for a pulse, but there wasn't one to be found, "Very well… come along." Grodd said, breaking the silence. Chelsea came to his side. Shade plucked her league communicator from her ear and smashed it with his foot, and like that they were gone.

When J'onn had received notice that Chelsea's communicator had been destroyed, he rallied a team together in search of her. Batman had arrived only minutes after she had disappeared with the gang of evil-doers. He found the college students gathered around the body of their friend in hysterics, "What happened here?" Batman demanded.

"I dunno," cried a girl, "Some talking gorilla and a bunch of freaks showed up. There was some girl here they were after. She had long blonde hair and looked like she was on our side but- but…" she started sobbing, "she killed him. She killed him so easily!"

Bruce felt his heart leap. What was going on? Mind control perhaps? Something wasn't right. Chelsea would never kill. There had to be a mistake. He bent down next to the body and checked for a pulse. In an instant the boy's body snapped upright. He looked around alarmed, wondering what had happened, "Batman?!" he screamed.

Bruce stood up and looked over the petrified faces of the students, "Get him to the infirmary and make sure he's okay." They all nodded and quickly scurried away.

"Batman, what's your status?" Superman questioned.

"Chelsea's been taken by Gorilla Grodd and some of his underlings. My only hypothesis is that her hand was forced to kill, so she tricked them by using a technique that stops the human heart momentarily from beating. The victim sprang to life moments after I got here. She's in danger. We have to find her." Bruce explained.

"Poor girl can't catch a break." Superman murmured.

"When I saw her this morning," Shayera spoke up in her communicator, "she seemed very sick. I found her passed out on the floor of the bathroom. Something is really wrong here. I can feel it."

"What's our next move?" Wally questioned into his earpiece.

"We find her." Superman told them.

Chelsea walked through a corridor with her new band of brothers. She kept quiet. Her body continued to ache. She wasn't sure what to expect, but when a pair of double doors opened in front of her, there was an extremely large room filled with villains from every class. A chill did several laps up and down her spine. How had he already accumulated so many members?

"You'll find yourself calling it home in no time." Grodd assured her.

All eyes were on her, ready to rip her apart. She tried not to show fear. She stayed stoned-faced.

"Welcome home," someone told her.

She turned to the voice. It was like staring at a horrible repressed memory resurfaced. Dr. XYZ was all smiles.

Author's Notes: Sorry it's a little shorter than usual. I wanted there to be a lot of unanswered questions here. Dr. XYZ is back. Villains are so good at escaping death. Anyway, thanks for reading, drop me a review, and have a good rest of your day. :)