Clash of the Heroes

Chapter 5: Split

Hawkgirl paced back and forth in front of the door leading out. She didn't know why Superman was letting the unusual duo sit at a table and snack on foods when they knew absolutely nothing about them. Plus she was on her last nerves because John, Diana, Wally, and Bruce still hadn't come up to Watch Tower and they hadn't kept in contact either. Shayera was not going to let this become another alternate reality where she gets her ass handed to her.

She nearly jumped a foot when J'onn put his reassuring hand on her shoulder, "You need to relax they have not shown any aggression so far."

Sighing deeply she nodded in agreement. When J'onn had walked off she glanced inside watching them again. They were laughing and joking together and suddenly they looked very young. Shayera remembered being young like that on Thanagar and it made her feel a little guilty, but she was a warrior and weakness meant death; she kept watching.

J'onn continued walking until he reached the control panel. He saw Superman sitting at the computer screen with a contemplating look on his face.

"What is it Clark?"

Superman glanced at the green Martian and spoke, "These monsters have been appearing all over the world in well populated cities. They've got to be related somehow and we need to figure it out. I think I'm going to head down there and help. Shayera said John had come across a few and there were still more. That's why he hasn't come up here yet."

"Yes you should go help. I'll stay here and keep you updated on these monsters."

"What do you think about them, J'onn? Is it just a coincidence that all these monsters are appearing or do you think they have something to do with it?"

J'onn looked thoughtful, "They seem young but they are smart. They can shield there minds from a telepath which is not a common skill for just anyone to have. They have not however been specifically hostile to us yet so I need more time to observe their behavior."

"All right I leave it to you then," Clark turned to leave then turned to J'onn once more, "Shayera seems really on edge with them here, just keep an eye on her."

"Of course."

Superman nodded then headed to the bomb bay doors to fly down to Earth and confront the monsters.

Across the spaceship in the cafeteria Kitty sighed probably for the fifteenth time. She was absolutely bored out of her mind. The trio hadn't exactly been hostile to them, but they sure as hell weren't really being welcoming either. The woman, Hawkgirl was staring and glaring at her, not taking her eyes away. Like Kitty would really try to do anything while she was trapped in outer space, outer space for goodness sake!

Shadowcat pushed another cookie into Kurt's mouth and started to laugh uncontrollably when he started to cough and sputter with pieces of food popping out. Maybe if they looked innocent, the others would treat them more gently. At least this was one way she could entertain herself while locked in this prison called the cafeteria. She glanced unobtrusively at the door and saw that the woman was still standing there. Wow was she cautious or was she cautious.

"So what are we going to do?" Kitty asked while batting her eyelashes and stealing a chip from Kurt's plate.

"You mean how are ve going to get out of here?"

"Yes that's what I mean."

"Okay so zee only plan I came up vith vas, you phase und I transport."

Kitty blinked, "Meaning?"

"Exactly vhat I said, you phase us zrough space und I just keep teleporting until ve reach Earth's gravity."

"Are you insane Kurt?"

He shrugged, "I've been called vorse."

"You really think we can hold out that long?"

"It's either zat or ve stay here und see vhat happens."

Kitty pushed the cookies around on her plate and contemplated their options… which weren't a whole lot. What were they doing here and more importantly how did they get here? And what happened to the rest of the house? Rogue had been hearing the weird sound too, but Kitty herself hadn't heard it at all; although she had been touching Kurt. So what was the trigger and what had caused this occurrence? There was a fifty percent chance that everyone in the mansion heard it. Then where the hell was Rogue…?

"Kurt."

"Ja?"

"Where's Rogue?"

"Vhat do you mean?"

"Well she heard that weird sound too, but I didn't. So why did you two hear it when I didn't? It's a possibility that other people in the mansion heard it too."

Kurt looked thoughtful, "Zat's a gut point, I hadn't really been zinking about zee others. So ve know definitely zat zis happened to Rogue too, but she vas so close to us und now she's not here."

"So she's all by herself? We've got to find her!"

"How do expect us to do zat vhen vere in space. I'm hoping zat she is still on Earth at zee least."

"Well I remember that I called Beast and we vanished right when he was coming into the kitchen. It didn't seem like anything was happening to him. Why did it only happen to certain mutants Kurt?"

"I don't know Katchzen. But I zink zat because you vere touching me zat's vhy ve came zrough together."

The door burst open and Hawkgirl sauntered in. Kurt and Kitty both stood reflexively.

._._._._.

Rogue was absolutely flabbergasted. Was she trapped in the movie Godzilla and she just didn't know about it? Why was there this huge green lizard-looking monster in the middle of the street destroying buildings? And why was some weird African American guy in a black spandex suit attacking the monster. How the hell was he making all those shiny green things that were smacking the monster? And why the hell was she still standing here, looking up and gawking at him?

That kind of mutant power was something she had never seen before. It was kind of interesting but at the moment there were more pressing matters to deal with. Besides the fact that she was confused out of her mind and didn't know where she was, one thing is clear; she knows she needs to get the hell out of this town. Rogue needed to get out of this town, get back to New York and find the rest of the X-men. The brown haired woman shook her head to clear it.

Before she even had a chance to realize what was going on she felt and heard the impact of something large hitting some other large object. The ground vibrated under her feet and she had just enough time to look up and see huge pieces of granite falling down up above her head. Rogue dove forward, missing one large piece then another. Unfortunately she hadn't been paying enough attention and knew she wasn't going to be able to avoid them all, even with her great reflexes and special training. Just as suddenly as the rocks had started to fall they stopped. She cracked an eye open and found herself bridal style, much to her dismay, flying in the air in the arms of the African American man she had just been watching fight the monster. There was a green glow around them and her fingers tightened inadvertently in the material he was wearing.

"Are you okay, miss?" John asked as he set her down on top of a building that was farther away from Godzilla.

"What the hell is that?"

"Some kind of monster. It's not that unusual is it?"

"Not that unusual? Ah have never seen somethin' like that before."

"Well if you'll excuse me," John started to turn but the girl grabbed his wrist before he could take off. She had chocolate brown hair with a white streak down the sides, green eyes, and was covered in pants, boots, long sleeves, and gloves.

Rogue bit the bottom of her lip, "Ah'm really sorry 'bout this."

"Sorry about what?"

Rogue pulled off her glove and touched the side of John's face. John felt his energy drain almost like his life force was being sucked out of him. He grabbed her wrist and yanked it away from his face then fell to his knees.

"What the hell did you just do to me?" he growled.

"Ah'm sorry, Ah just wanted to borrow yer powers fer a while." Rogue put her glove back on but then nothing happened. She tried to think of an object, nothing happened. She motioned randomly with her hands, nothing happened. Rogue looked at him accusingly, "hey how do ya make yer powers work?"

He sighed, "They won't work for anyone but me. I don't have any powers it's my ring, and it won't work for you."

Rogue sat down next to him, "Ah wish ya might have told meh before Ah did that, Ah just wanted to help ya."

"And what did you do to me?"

"Ah just stole a little of yer energy, ya'll be fine in a few minutes Ah didn't do it fer very long," Rogue explained.

"Where did you get your power from?"

"Ah'm a mutant."

John raised his eyebrow, "What's that?"

Suddenly Rogue jumped up, "That thing is coming our way!"

"Take the stairs down and get away from here."

"What Ah can't leave ya here all by yerself!" Rogue helped John stand, put his arm over her shoulders and took the steps two at a time down the building. When they got to the bottom both of them were out of breath and breathing hard. They slid down the bricks on the side away from the monster that was continuing to knock down the buildings. John flexed his fingers. He was starting to regain his energy back but he could feel it coming in slow.

John pushed his watch and J'onn's face came up, "Lantern."

"J'onn I'm not doing so well down here."

"Superman just left to help with the monsters. They have been showing up in a lot of populated areas."

"Buzz me when you have more information," John told the Martian Manhunter as he shut the communicator off.

Rogue glanced over his shoulder, "What's that?"

"Stay here."

"Wait."

John touched her shoulder and smiled, "There's more people out there that need my help."

"Ya can't do that all by yerself, Ah'll help the people get away."

John and Rogue moved around the building. John made a sledge hammer with his Lantern's ring and smacked the monster into the side of another building. The monster popped back up as if it was just a light tap. All John's power wasn't back yet; this wasn't going to end well.

._._._._.

Scott folded his hands above the table. Bruce crossed and then uncrossed his arms. The pair of men stared at each other, neither saying a word. Batman had never had an attack at his mansion before and rarely at the batcave since his identity was pretty top secret, so it confused him a bit how these two had just appeared from seemingly thin air. Could they have really, possibly, maybe come through the portal? The staring contest continued.

"Jeez what's up with you two?"

"Flash," Bruce said, starting to rise from his chair.

Wally was gone and then back before even a second had passed, "Relax she's still unconscious. I'm keeping an eye on her."

Batman put a hand to his head. Only Flash had the ability to make Bruce want to strangle him and laugh at him at the same time. Not that he'd ever do either action.

"Is she okay?" Scott finally asked.

"Yes she just banged her head but we wrapped it up all nice so she'll be fine. Did I mention I was sorry about before? Like I said I thought it was some kind of gadget that did it so I thought if I took it away you wouldn't be able to do it. My name's Flash by the way and he's Batman," Wally talked a mile a minute pointing to himself then at Bruce and continuing his monologue, "so how did you even get here anyways? No one has ever found this place before. And where are you from? Oh and what's your name?"

"Uh," Scott cleared his throat, "Cyclops and that's Emma."

"So what happened to your eyes? Scientific experiment gone wrong? Alien from another planet?"

Scott's brow furrowed together in confusion. He really didn't understand what this guy was talking about. He seemed friendly enough for being a possible threat a little while before but the way he talked just made no sense, "I was born this way."

"What really? You were born that way? I'm so jealous why couldn't I have been born with some awesome cool power like shooting, what are they; weird laser things from my eyes."

"Super speed doesn't seem like such a bad thing," Scott offered tentatively.

Bruce sighed and then noticed that his watch was beeping. It had actually been beeping for quite a bit of time he realized.

"Yes?" Bruce responded as Flash continued to bombard Cyclops with questions.

"Finally!" Shayera replied, "where have you been?"

"There was a situation down here. These two people just appeared out of no where."

"Just like the people I told you about up here, right? So what are you going to do?"

Batman pondered for a moment, "Well one of them is injured so she's getting medical treatment now and we're talking to the man. He has no idea how he got here or even where here is."

Shayera slit her eyes skeptically, "That's exactly what the guy and girl here are saying. How did she get injured?"

"It was an accident, kind of. They attacked we attacked back, I'll explain later."

"Superman is on his way down there."

"Because of the monster attacks?"

"Yes. If you already know these things why don't you tell us?" Shayera asked exasperated.

"When the portal opened all this interference occurred on my computer systems and satellites."

"You think it's related?"

"I'm going to find out."

With that Batman clicked his intercom off and turned back to the others. Flash dashed over to him right away, while Scott pushed away from the chair, "The girl's awake now, Bats."