Dodging a bullet here! Here's the next chapter! Nutoning...you got the idea!
Wally's P.O.V.
Wally scanned the Bio-Ship. "So-who is Vandal Savage? Black Canary? What does this stuff do?" He looked around, seeing the other three seating in chairs. As the Ship accelerated, he grabbed hold of the wall.
"Have a seat Wally. The seat will come up." M'gann said kindly.
Wally moved next to Artemis and started to squat. A seat molded under him and he jumped a foot.
"Thanks- Megs." He shook himself. 'Why I'm the only guy on a spaceship full of ladies? Hmmm, Artemis…"
Artemis bit her lip. "Wally, we can hear your thoughts. We can ALL hear you."
"?" Zatanna smiled in mock-shock.
"Smooth, KF." Robin chuckled.
"Kaldur, Roy: where are we going?" M'gann asked Kaldur in the Sphere-cycle along side them.
"I have a safe bunker out in the country in Blue Valley." Roy answered. "Three room apartment with a kitchen."
"What about Raquelle?"Conner asked. "She said she'd going back to the Cave just before midnight to see Icon."
"New plan: Bio-ship to Santa Prisca Penitentiary. Zatanna, call her on her cell phone and fill her in. M'gann, put the ship into camouflage mode."
"Sure. Ughhh. I'm so itchy." Zatanna grabbed her cell phone, scratching her scalp. Can you disconnect me so I can focus on the call?"
"Done." M'gann disconnected Zatanna and switched the ship into stealth mode. "Can you send me the co-ordinates?"
"This is weird." Wally rubbed his head, teeth gritting. "My head is throbbing. Have I ever complained about telepathy before?"
Artemis and M'gann looked at each other. "Artemis, can you take the wheel?"
"Yeah." She walked over and started driving the alien-ship. M'gann floated over to Wally's seat. "Wally, I'm going to go inside your mind and try and take some of the pain away."
Wally nodded. "Sure. Why not? It's the weirdest part of today. Will it hurt?"
"No." M'gann smiled at the boy nervously. "Just take a breath."
"Stay whelmed." M'gann said to her mentally to Wally.
"Hey!" Robin yelped back.
"Hey what?" Wally asked.
"That's my word!"
"Oh. It did sound odd to me." Wally lipped.
Everyone snickered at this reluctantly. The connection cut from the half of the team on Sphere.
The room went quiet.
M'gann put her hands to Wally's temple. "Wally, when we were in Santa Prisca, you were attacked by Psimon. He's a psychic, a very powerful one. He gave us all amnesia of 6 months once and messed me up a lot. He's an enemy of this team, but he's messed me up personally. You tried to stop him but this-" she used a hand to wave as her point. "happened. Single handed. Thank you." She smiled. She didn't try to do anything to his brain but use positive feelings and just make him feel good.
"Um…thanks." He said rather stunned. It was like the idea of him being a hero was big news, like the world's best bed time story.
Zatanna's eyes lit up and looked at him. "Wally, how old are you?"
Wally scrunched up his face, counting on his fingers.
"Your last birthday?" Zatanna asked.
Wally closed his eyes. "I don't know. I'm guessing I'm sixteen or seventeen."
"Yeah. You turned sixteen a month ago."
"Can I drive?" He asked.
"Well, no. You prefer to run everywhere."
"Wally, hang on. Why can you remember 16 is car driving age?" Artemis asked.
"I dunno. Ask me a question about myself, I have next to no clue. Ask me something like math and I can answer it. Weird, huh?" He thought for a minute. "So, where are we going?"
M'gann held her hands to her friend's temple again- Just as M'gann began, Artemis yelled a loud curse from the front.
"!Ezeerf citsalP n-" Zatanna yelled, being stopped by a punch in the face.
"Zatanna!" Artemis yelled, going to the side of the younger girl. M'gann's eyes glowed and levitated Plastic Man.
"How did he get on here?" Wally yelled, automatically tensing into a fight position.
"He grew out of my hair!" Zatanna yelled, a trickle of spit running down her face.
"That's new."/ "Huh, that's new."
Wally and Artemis looked at each other, then stiffened to defend themselves. M'gann got ensnared by Plastic Man's arms and was being squeezed. In the meantime, he wrapped up Artemis and Zatanna with one leg and Wally in the other and started squeezing.
"DAMNIT!" Artemis roared struggling, trying to pry the stretchy man's limbs off of her.
"NUUUUGHHH!" Zatanna cried, mouth gagged, twisting back and forth.
M'gann tried to get inside his head, only to be blocked off. "I can't reach him." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force herself to density shift. Now or never! She cried out accidentally over the mental link.
"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Thissoisn'thappening." Wally muttered, feeling skin squeezing his rib cage.
In a panic, Wally started shifting back and forth, faster and faster.
Faster.
Faster.
FASTER.
The man surrounding him started to grimace, then yell in pain. The leg engulfing Wally had now started turning bright red and raw. Wally had started burning the Plastic Man's skin through vibration and he released in pain.
"Wally!" M'gann gasped, wide eyed as he was released. "Zatanna! She can't breathe!"
Wally ran to Zatanna and Artemis.
"Come and get me Meister Stretchy!" He said, ducking over limbs that were starting to grab her. "Come on!" He punched Plastic-Man in the face. "Can't you catch me? Damn, I am fast!"
Plastic-Man growled and started following her with a leg, then stretching the limb that was around Artemis and Zatanna back the way it had come, easing the coils around her neck and mouth.
"You are So Slow!" Wally yelled, making circles around the ship. "Come on!" The limbs followed after him, slamming into different parts of the ship until…
"!EZEERF" Zatanna yelled.
Zatanna's P.O.V.
"EZEERF" Zatanna froze the room around her. M'gann's eyes were bulging and green. Artemis had started biting at her restraints, really only leaving teeth marks and red areas. Not enough to get a big reaction from the enduring skin of the rouge hero.
"Eww." Zatanna couldn't help but moan. "Eerf yllaW, simetrA dna nnag'M." Her command released the three other teenagers in mid-struggle from the time-freeze.
"Get us out of here!" Artemis called.
Wally turned, but since he was going fast, and slammed into one of the seats in the bio-ship, knocking him to the floor with a BANG! "OWWA! Too fast!"
"Hurry!" Zatanna yelped. "I can't do this all day." Already the young magician looked strained. Her magical abilities were focused on freezing time around a man who can control every molecule of his body.
Wally went a little slower, but still quickly, over and started freeing the magician and the archeress. He took Plastic Man's limbs, and starting unraveling it, looping it around his remaining leg that had been chasing him. Next he went to the Martian and started unravelling her limb restraint and trying it.
"Thanks Wally. But this won't stop him for long." M'gann said.
"Anyone got something sticky?" Wally asked. "Maybe if we stuck his limbs together…" Artemis took her crossbow out and knocked an arrow.
"WOAH! NO! We are not going to kill him!" Wally yelled. "ARROWS AWAY! BAD ARCHER!"
The girls just stared at him, trying not to laugh. At least, Artemis and Zatanna, while M'gann still had wide eyes.
"It won't hurt him. It's a trick arrow." She explained, firing it at the temporary antagonist. The goo expanded over the knot in his body. She shot two more arrows for her comfort. At this, Zatanna eased. The super hero tried to move. The only parts of his body he could move were on his face, which he growled.
"Why isn't he attacking us?" Wally asked.
"I don't know. But we need to keep an eye on him." Artemis replied.
"We're sorry." M'gann told him as a growl exited the Plastic Man's mouth.
"I'm not." Artemis said seriously. "What can we do with this guy? He knows where we're going."
"We could drop him off somewhere." Wally said.
"Yeah, but he could be found. He's a hero and people would try to free him. Then we would be outlaws. We are on the run from what's essentially the World's Superhero force team." Zatanna rebutted.
"It seems kind of risky to take him with us." M'gann said. "We're on the way to Santa Prisca. We could drop him off in a prison cell."
"He's a hero." Artemis reiterated. "He'd be rescued."
"The safest thing to do is to take him with us." Wally said. "That way we know exactly where he is the entire time and we can keep restraining him."
Artemis glared at everyone. "Fine. I want to check him for tracers or devices first. We have two moles now."
M'gann frowned. "I saw into his mind earlier. He hasn't wanted to attack us. He's- not himself. It's like someone else is controlling him."
Artemis took a glance at Wally, putting her hand on Wally's shoulder.
"What?" Wally asked.
"How are you feeling about all this?" She asked, trying to sound casual.
"Well, I'm just taking a wild guess at this by saying; most people don't have to deal with all this." Wally said sarcastically.
"Oh, gee, you think?" Artemis threw the line back. Amnesiac, remember that stupid. He's not going to remember what he feels. What he felt…
The ship slowly started to descend over a beautiful island under a large, glowing island. On the ground was standing a young woman with short black hair, a brown jacket, black shirt and pants with an un-earthly glow around her waist was standing just outside a large prison building. If Wally could see her in better detail, he would have seen a belt with glowing white features where the source of her abilities came from.
Zatanna pulled out her cell phone. "Ray? We're here. Right on top of you. Just fly straight up, ten feet."
Raquelle looked straight up, blinking. Then she pushed the button on her waist and flew straight up in the air.
"She can fly?" Wally asked. "What is she?"
"Hey gir-guys-WOAH." Raquelle greeted, then seeing Plastic Man's stretched out limbs, coated in arrow goop.
"It IS always like this." Artemis said dryly, recounting the words Raquelle had used earlier.
"You can fly?" Wally asked.
"Hi Wally. Catch me up?" She smiled at the teenaged speedster. After Zatanna's phone call, she needed a laugh.
"He's probably the last person you want to answer that." Artemis told her. "He's got amnesia."
"Seriously?" She asked incredulously. "What happened after I left."
"Dick's not picking up." Zatanna said, concerned.
"We'll just have to meet him at the safe-"
"Wait." Artemis held up her hands and took her cell phone. "I just thought of this. Can the League track our cell use?"
M'gann blanched. "Probably."
Artemis nodded. "Turn it off, Tan. You too Rae."
The girls nodded and both turned off their cell phones.
"Did you leave yours at the Cave?" M'gann asked. "Mine is sitting in my room."
Artemis nodded. She had left hers on the table, beside empty upturned popcorn bowl. She considered weapons over her cell phone.
"Up for one more spell?" She asked Zatanna.
"Sure. But then I need a nap." She rolled her eyes. Raquelle took her hand and the two of them sat in the organic chairs. "gnirB em eht s'maeT enohp llec morf eht evaC."
Six cell phones dropped into her lap.
"Check them for bugs first." Artemis instructed. "On the battery and back."
M'gann floated to the front of the ship to resume driving to the safe house coordinates Roy had told the group as Artemis and Raquelle, the most street savvy of the two, checked the phones for anything deemed un-normal.
Wally walked up to the front of the ship with M'gann.
"Soooo- going to Blue Valley, right?" He asked. She turned to Wally and nodded, a tense smile on her face.
Wally was quiet for a minute. Maybe this is time for questions…
"Are you a Martian?"
She jumped, eyes wide. Then she relaxed and replied: "Yes."
"I thought so. Is there any reason you look like me?"
M'gann laughed. "What?"
"We both have bright red hair, freckles, tall and skinny. You look like you could be my sister."
M'gann took Wally's hand. "Thank you, Wally. I appreciate you being my Earth-Brother."
Another minute passed in silence.
"Don't you want to take a seat?"
Wally frowned and shook his head. "I like seeing where I'm going."
"Are you claustrophobic?"
"That means being afraid of tight spaces, right? Cause I'm not afraid of anything." He said, with bravado. "But, I do like room to run."
M'gann snorted at him. "You'll be back to normal soon. Once we get some sleep, I can try and piece some of your memories together, Kid Flash."
Flash.
"Artemis!"
"OWWW!" Wally moaned, holding his head.
"Headache?"
He rubbed his head. "Yeah." What was that about?
"ESACNE NI ECI" Zatanna yelled.
"Zatanna? Artemis? Rae?" M'gann asked. Wally peeked into the back to see the bundle of limbs known as Plastic Man, encased in ice. Raquel was holding her up right.
Artemis' eyes were a dark storm cloud gray. "I saw him move."
"Better safe than sorry. Good eye."
"I'm an archer. It's what I do." She sniffed, trying to sound nonchalant, only succeeding in causing Zatanna and Raquelle laugh at her. "Shut up."
M'gann's P.O.V.
M'gann smiled absently, listening to her friends chatter. They were almost at the safe house.
Safe. She never felt especially safe. She felt okay- she had a fine time at the cave with her boyfriend and her friends, but safe… She was still waiting for someone to flinch at her skin colour, to throw her out. She wasn't just an oddity among the humans, but an oddity – a lesser being- among Martians as well.
The Bio-ship cruised through the night sky. She wrapped her arms around herself, beating back a shudder. Sleep. In retaliation, she pinched herself on the arm. It didn't show because the way she could change her skin, but she often pinched: to make sure she wasn't dreaming, to stop herself from saying "Hello Megan", to stop and let her think clearer.
"Two minutes until Blue Valley." She called back.
"Finally. I don't think I like flying." Wally said speedily. "Uh- no offence."
M'gann laughed. That didn't change. Wally thinks with his feet first, brain second, mouth last. "None taken."
"You think Roy really has room for all of us?" Wally asked.
"Roy?" Rae puzzled.
"Yeah. We're staying at his house for the night. I'm sure he has blankets or something. It's not like we've had worse to deal with." Zatanna said, smiling at Artemis and Raquelle.
Life was just weird- and more than just a little sad if it got that far.
Still -
"Are we sure we can trust him? M'gann?" Raquelle asked the Martian, the most empathic of the five.
M'gann hesitated, but said confidently: "Yes. His mind is the clearest it's been in months. He always had something closed off. When he was us, it was like your way of thinking, Artemis."
"If you trust him, I guess." Artemis said edgily, each word carrying a weight.
"And if you two trust him, good enough for me- I guess." Wally said, looking at the three. The five zoomed over the rising sun over Santa Prisca Island to the cold, snowy Blue Valley.
