Summary: Robin and Superboy work their way through the crawlways of the Watchtower. Klarion and Vandal Savage have a slight difference of opinion.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Alpha-Omega Protocol
By Syl Francis
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
The Watchtower
Day 2/0630 EDT
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
"Who's Scotty?" Superboy was asking, as they rematerialized onboard the Watchtower. From the dim lighting and endless corridors, Superboy guessed they had been transported to the lower storage levels. Back in the Lair, Robin had shown him the overall makeup of the satellite on the holographic map. Superboy had paid enough attention that he knew he would be able to find his way around.
Robin shook his head in mock horror. "Three words, Superboy: Star Trek Marathon. After this is over, it'll be you'n me back in Mount Justice in the common room, just chillin'. We'll have a huge bowl of buttered popcorn between us, sugary drinks that I'm not allowed to have at home, and the DVD collection of the original series! It's a date!"
"A date?" Now the Boy of Steel was definitely confused. He didn't want to hurt Robin's feelings, but he didn't think that the younger hero was his type. He was about to say something, when Robin held up a closed fist, alerting him that company was coming.
Without speaking, Robin signaled Superboy to stay in the shadows on the ground level, while he went high. Moments later, the Flash walked in, his usually relaxed, loping gait looking unnaturally stiff. The Atom rode carefully, balanced on his shoulder. Neither hero said anything, nor looked to the left or right. Instead, both could have passed for zombies with their cold, wooden expressions.
As Robin and Superboy watched, the Atom leapt from his perch and landed on a worktable. He walked up to a sealed container and opened it. From what the two teens could observe, the container appeared to be a mini-freezer. Whatever the Atom was after, it required cold storage.
As the Atom moved away from the open door, they saw what was inside. The Flash stepped forward and retrieved a medium-sized, transparent bio-container from the freezer unit. The bio-container was somewhat fogged over from the cold. The junior heroes could only make out the vague, shadowy outline of something sitting inside the container.
The Flash laid the bio-container on the table and waited for the Atom to scan it. The boys were not sure what the Mighty Mite was looking for, but they were willing to place bets on a possible biohazard contamination. Within a few minutes, they had their answer. It was the stolen sample of the alien creature that was the source of the mind-controlling nanotechnology. As they watched, the Flash nodded to the Atom and disappeared in a blur. The Atom took out a laser scalpel and began to cut the alien sample into razor-thin slices. Robin felt an involuntary shudder go through him.
The Atom was going at his task with such a matter-of-fact mien that he seemed to be no more than a mindless automaton. At that thought, Robin went cold. It was difficult to imagine that the Atom, a brilliant theoretical physicist in the fields of black holes and anti-matter, had been turned into a mindless zombie. And what of Batman? Robin shook off the dark clouds looming over his thoughts. The team had to succeed.
Taking out two marble-sized gas pellets, Robin dropped them on the table a few inches away from the Atom. The pellets made a plinking sound as they hit. The Atom spun around at the slight noise and spied the familiar black spheres. He immediately activated his size-control belt and, as he increased in size, he swiped the gas pellets from the table before the gas could overcome him. Superboy jumped out of his hiding spot, just as the Atom reached again for his control belt. The Boy of Steel charged the Mighty Mite, but as he was about to grab him, the Atom shrank suddenly out of reach. Closing his arms around empty air, Superboy could not stop his forward momentum and ended up stumbling off balance.
Before Superboy could regain his feet, the Atom popped up directly above him and kicked him behind the neck—with three times the mass of a six-foot, 190-pound man. It was an unfortunate time for Superboy to discover that the little Leaguer could use his control belt not only to shrink in size, but also to increase his weight and mass.
At the same moment, a white light suddenly winked directly above the Mighty Mite, announcing a zeta-beam transport. Robin materialized in the middle of a somersault, striking out at the Atom with his escrima sticks as he passed overhead. Twisting in midair, the Boy Wonder followed through with two powerful kicks—abdomen and left temple. As the Tiny Titan went down, Superboy quickly sprayed him with the antidote. Simultaneously, Robin locked a meta-negation collar around the Atom's neck. The teens removed the size-control belt and, to be on the safe side, zip-tied his wrists and ankles.
The boys nodded at each other: one down, several more to go. A noise, inaudible to human ears, caught Superboy's attention. Turning back to where they had left the alien sample, he watched as it began to react to the gas that had wafted toward it from the pellets that the Atom had knocked to the floor. As the gas slowly shrouded it, the creature-like nanotech began to shake violently, and tiny flecks began to dislodge from the main body.
"Oh, you are not doing that!" Robin muttered. "Superboy! Quick, open the freezer unit!" Superboy did not hesitate. He hurried to do as told, while Robin ran toward the sample. As soon as Superboy had the freezer open, Robin shoved the quivering, unrecognizable mass into it, and followed it with yet another gas pellet. "Did you see that thing?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. His voice had gone up at least an octave in his excitement and disgust.
Superboy shrugged. After what he'd witnessed in Cadmus, the reaction of the alien sample did not faze him. "I've seen worse. Come on, before we fall behind schedule."
Not waiting for an answer, Superboy stalked off. Robin stood back, momentarily caught off guard. Realizing that Superboy was heading toward the elevators, he called after the Kryptonian clone in a low voice. "Hey, Supes, wait up!" He scowled as Superboy kept going and, shaking his head, said in a slightly louder voice, "Superboy, you may as well stop, since you're headed the wrong way!
To Robin's relief, Superboy stopped and, without further comment, headed back toward him. "This way," Robin urged. He led them down another corridor to a door near the far end. The door had a warning sign: Danger! Air Lock! Emergency Exit Only!
Superboy looked disbelievingly, first at the sign, and then at Robin. He's gotta be kidding, Superboy protested silently. No way are we going out that way.
Thankfully, his worry proved unfounded. Robin turned right, and Superboy suddenly spotted the recessed bulkhead with the oblong hatch that he had missed earlier. The hatch had the legend MT-V1, and opened to reveal a ladder that went straight up, disappearing into the shadows above. Superboy raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"It's a maintenance access tube—Maintenance Tube-Vertical 1, to be exact. There are eight of them running through the Watchtower: four vertical and four horizontal. This is the main vertical tube. It runs from this—the lowest level—to the highest. From here, we have access to all the levels. Plus, it intersects with each of the horizontal tubes."
"How many levels are there?" Superboy asked.
"Ninety-six. That's almost as many as Wayne Tower in Gotham."
Superboy nodded, unfazed by the number of levels they were about to climb.
"Anyway," Robin continued, "the maintenance tubes are a way to get from one end of the satellite to the other."
"And why aren't we using the nth-belts again?" Superboy grumbled.
"Because we can't push our luck with unauthorized use of beaming technology in the Watchtower. We run the risk of being detected too soon. Hopefully, we'll be able to get around without being discovered."
"Hopefully," Superboy grunted.
"I didn't say it was a perfect plan," Robin said with a shrug.
Superboy rolled his eyes. "Let's go."
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
The Watchtower
Day 2/0930 EDT
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Vandal Savage gazed down at the blue and white planet spinning obliviously on its axis. He grinned in self-satisfaction. My domain… my realm. Soon, with the Justice League under my control, all the world's heroes will follow suit. I shall, at last, be able to bring my final plan to fruition, accelerating Man's natural evolution—
"Oh, no!" a familiar voice cried out, interrupting Savage's musings.
"What is it?" Savage demanded in annoyance.
"I've lost several of my toys," Klarion the Witch Boy whined.
"Explain."
Klarion pouted at the immortal's impatient, no-nonsense tone. "Just what I said." The witch boy waved carelessly with his free hand, and a hologram appeared before him. With his other hand, he gently held his cat familiar, Teekl, who was lazily cleaning his paws. The hologram looked computer-generated, but Savage knew that it had been magically produced. "I was just about to run a routine check of the heroes' locations, when I noticed that several have fallen off the grid."
As Savage watched, Klarion backed the hologram up a few hours to earlier that morning. At that time, three separate teams had been deployed to investigate reported sightings of the Junior League. The teams had yet to report back.
"What do you mean you were just running a routine check?" Savage demanded. "We dispatched eight heroes to three different trouble spots over four hours ago. Haven't you been monitoring their actions?"
Klarion glared at the immortal, and then grinned impishly. "I think you have me mixed up with one of your own minions, Savage. A Lord of Chaos answers to no one but himself." His grin turned malevolent. "I would advise you to remember that."
"Don't be foolish, boy!" Savage snapped. "For the Light to succeed, we must all play our parts—" The next instant, Savage found himself trussed up and hanging upside-down in the middle of the control room. "You little fool! Let me down this instant or I swear I'll—" Enraged, Savage realized that he was unexpectedly mumbling into a gag that was preventing his speaking.
"You'll what? Threaten a Lord of Chaos with empty words? Don't make me laugh. The only reasons I've joined your incompetent little band of pirates are because your current goals coincide with mine… and to watch the fun, as you bring down the mighty Justice League." Klarion floated up until he was at eye-level with Savage. "Don't think for even a second that I would ever allow you to be the boss of me." As he spoke, the witch boy's face took on a demonic appearance, his eyes burning a hellish red, and a pair of innocuous curls taking on a decidedly horned appearance. "And don't ever call me foolish again, or you will face this for all eternity—"
Klarion again waved his hand in an offhand gesture, and Savage was suddenly amid the burning fires of hell. He choked on the sulfuric fumes that permeated the superheated cavern in which he found himself. Everything he touched burned. He screamed as the very clothing on his back blackened in the eternal hellfires. The high-pitched giggles of his tormentor barely broke through the roaring in his ears.
The next instant, Savage was spread-eagled in the hot desert sun, tied to four stakes. He briefly felt a strange, ticklish sensation along his torso before it turned into the torture of one hundred thousand fiery brands being seared into his skin. Savage turned his head and spotted his tormentors marching relentlessly up his arms. He lifted his head enough to look at his own chest to try to make sense of what was happening. After a moment, he realized that his entire body was covered in an undulating blanket of red ants. He screamed in agony and fought uselessly against his restraints, as the red-hot insect bites burned into his unprotected flesh with the intense heat of a branding iron.
When it felt as if he had reached his breaking point, that the relentless pain would last for eternity, and that his larynx would fail before his agony stopped, the pain ceased. Savage quickly sucked in short, gasping breaths of relief. Surely, the witch boy did not mean to kill him. He was an immortal, after all.
As these thoughts and others slowly seeped through Savage's brain, the witch boy knelt down next to him. He bent over until he could whisper directly into his hapless victim's right ear.
"Do you know why immortality is highly overrated?" Klarion's hot breath along his ear sent shivers of fear shooting through Savage. "Because its greatest gift is also its greatest curse: One can never be granted the eternal peace that comes with death."
To prove his point, Klarion again set the red ants upon his helplessly-bound associate. As Savage again cried out at the nonstop pain, Klarion lifted and then dropped his forefinger, ending the ordeal. The desert scene disappeared. They were back on the Watchtower, steadily orbiting the earth below. Savage remained kneeling on the floor of the Watchtower control room, head bowed as he gathered his resolve to stand.
"By the way," Klarion said offhandedly, "you should also know that another hero, the Atom, has gone off the grid. But before he disappeared, he had been here on the satellite the entire time. That means that—"
"That means that the accursed Junior League is on the Watchtower. Find them. Find them all!" Savage bit out, rising to his full height. "And bring the Six back immediately!"
Klarion again assumed his position above and to the left of the monitor womb in the JL Watchtower. From here, he would have the best vantage point to watch the fun as it unfolded. Hopefully, the Young Justice team would show up and offer some kind of worthy challenge.
To add to the increased tension in the control room, the young Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers and then pointed at a vague spot above and to his left. Grinning, he watched as a boom tube materialized out of nowhere. Before long, six figures appeared and dispersed quickly, per his instructions, the boom tube dematerializing behind them. The puppet master then sat back, ready to enjoy the chaos that was about to ensue.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
The Watchtower
Day 2/0930 EDT
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Robin and Superboy steadily climbed up the vertical maintenance tube. They had already climbed almost halfway up the satellite and were approaching Level 50. Robin stopped when they reached yet another oblong hatch with the legend MT-HL50: Maintenance Tube-Horizontal Level 50. On the bulkhead next to the hatch was a 10x20-inch rectangular outline. On each corner, Robin spotted a small Phillips screw. He quickly produced a battery-powered, multi-use tool from his utility belt and removed the screws in seconds. Next, he pulled a micro-USB cable from his glove computer and plugged it into a slot in the center of the rectangle.
His fingers flew across the holographic keyboard projected from his glove. Within seconds, the computer went through several hundred permutations of code, finally stopping at one. Robin read the flashing coded message and smiled. He hit enter on his keyboard. In the next instant, he heard a distinctive ~click~ announcing that the secured junction box had just been unlocked.
The rectangular outline proved to be a small, hinged door that opened easily, once the screws were removed and the digital lock was decrypted.
"Bingo," Robin whispered. He jacked the micro-USB cable in earlier into the waiting slot inside the junction box. "The League makes this too easy. I'm gonna have a serious talk with B about this complete lapse in security."
"What's taking so long?" Superboy demanded. "What are you doing?"
"Hacking into the JL satellite security system." Robin spoke distractedly, concentrating on the holographic display suddenly before him. An unbroken string of data scrolled by at incredible speeds. He allowed most to pass undisturbed, until he spotted a familiar set of alphanumeric equations. "Yes! I'm in!"
The next few minutes went by too quickly for Robin, but too slowly for Superboy. At last, a sigh of relief escaped Robin's lips. "Done!" he proclaimed. "I hacked the security system. They won't be able find us through conventional means. We're going to be little more than ghosts in the machine." He grinned down at Superboy, who was still waiting somewhat impatiently a few ladder rungs below him. If he had been expecting an awed response from the Boy of Steel, then Robin was sorely disappointed. Shaking his head in a combination of mild amusement and annoyance, Robin opened the hatch leading into the horizontal tube. "Let's go," he muttered.
They entered the horizontal maintenance shaft and made their way hurriedly to where it intersected with the starboard-side vertical shaft. Arriving at the next junction box, Robin again jacked in. Hacking into the communications network, he was able to then track each of the remaining JL members through their earpieces. In addition, he found the zeta transporter records of the "guests" that Batman had signed onboard the previous day: Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, Klarion, and the Brain. He also found evidence that Ra's al Ghul and Ocean Master had both signed on, only to leave shortly thereafter. Luthor, Queen Bee, and Brain had remained for another few hours, before they too left.
He rechecked his readings. It looked like Batman had left with Ra's al Ghul yesterday at noon and returned alone four hours later. At 6:00 p.m., he left again with five other Leaguers and had yet to return. As Robin was checking the security feeds, there was a sudden spike of strange energy readings that lasted 15 seconds before disappearing again. In its place, several additional Leaguers suddenly appeared on the electronic tracker: Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawk Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern John Stewart, and Batman.
"Oh, crap," he whispered. He checked the time. It was 10:00 a.m.
"What is it?" Superboy hissed.
"Things just got a lot harder," Robin answered. "But it's nothing we can't handle. I hope."
"Are you done yet?" Superboy demanded. Of course, Robin ignored him. After all, it was obvious that he was still working, so the question was pointless. At last Robin shut down his glove computer and sat back on his heels.
"Let's go. We need to get in position for the others."
"So, what exactly did you do?" Superboy asked curiously.
"I hacked the zeta transporter tubes... and life support." Robin gave the Boy of Steel a smug look.
As the teens spoke, they ran toward the rendezvous point. Superboy opened the hatch leading to the main corridor of Level 50. The corridor opened to a reception room that was currently unoccupied. Working quickly, Superboy and Robin removed their belts, and made some delicate adjustments to them. The next instant, Robin's communicator activated.
"Robin, is everything in a state of readiness?" Aqualad's voice sounded tinny.
"The zeta-booth in Gotham City is now connected to our nth-belts, bypassing the Watchtower transporter tubes," Robin replied. "We're ready to receive on this end."
The next instant, the belts, which were lying in the middle of the floor, activated in a brilliant white light. When the light dissipated, Aqualad and Rocket stood there. Their expressions grim, they took a step back and proceeded to transport the rest of the Team onto the Watchtower.
End of Part 8
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Author's Note: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been sticking with the story so far and reviewing. I really do appreciate the encouragement. Also, a special thanks to Ellen—beta-reader extraordinaire!
Disclaimer: All characters belong to DC, Time Warner, and CN; this is an original story that doesn't intend to infringe on their copyright. Feedback is welcome.
Copyright: December 2012