Important Note: This is the last official chapter. Also, I'm evil. /Wicked cackle
"So... We're good to go, then?" Rocket asked nervously, eyeing the blend of chemicals within what he could only think of as a soup pot. Flash and Willow had carefully mixed in the various materials, including the chopped up bits of the semi-solid Astral energy, that weird blue-green stuff with streaks of orange.
"Yeah. We blow this up, the resulting disturbance with the dimensional barrier out to trigger a rift that will swap us back with the other Team." Kid Flash answered in a reassuring tone. It sounded so confident she almost convinced herself.
Superman took a deep breath. "I'll go get them, then."
Gathered in the heart of Mount Justice, the mentors and Team members prepared to set things right. Those who needed to had called or briefly visited the homes where they'd stayed, thanking the people who took them in for a few days. Now there was just the tense preparation for returning home.
It was only a couple of hours since they got back from the raid on the observatory. As soon as Mar'gann steered the Bioship into the hangar, Batman had hurried off with the cape-wrapped bundle that was Robyn, and neither of them had emerged from the infirmary yet.
The Man of Steel was the only one present who was remotely willing to intrude.
He moved slowly down the hallway towards the medical bay, dreading what he might find. Super hearing, though, had him speed up a little at the sound of relieved voices.
"... Absolutely certain?"
"Definitely. No idea about the science behind it, but it couldn't have been anyone else." Stepping through the infirmary door, Superman was grateful to see Robyn awake and coherent, even if she did have a football field's worth of gauze and bandages wrapped around her small form.
"What couldn't have been anyone else?" He asked. Both bats turned to look at him, and for a brief moment Superman was stunned to realize neither had their masks on.
"Oh, just a little double vision I had while descending into hypothermia." Dixie stated cheerfully, and Bruce shook his head with a smirk. Superman figured he wasn't likely to get anything more than that.
"Well, the blending pot's ready, if you think you're up to crossing back through the dimensional barrier."
Both of the human grimaced at that. "Bleh, as long as it doesn't involve having a building fall on us this time." Stifling a groan, Dixie moved to sit up. Before she could complete the action, Bruce stepped forward, lifting the edges of the cape still lying beneath the teen. He wrapped her up within it again, concealing the bruises and bandages, then lifted her into his arms.
"Um..." Superman raised a hand to stop them from exiting the room. "Masks?"
Two pairs of blue eyes blinked at him, one in puzzlement, the other with annoyance. "O-okay." The Kryptonian backed off before he was subjected to a Batglare, and trailed after the pair as they headed down the hallway towards the main room. He could hear the murmur of voices ahead of them, all of which cut off in an instant once Bruce and Dixie entered.
At least until Apollo's voice rang out. "Oh. My. God. Dixie Graydottir?!" Dixie cackled, Willow groaned, and then the surprised exclamations mixed with confused questions until nothing was distinguishable.
"Enough!" Bruce finally called out in his tone of you-will-listen-or-else. "Flash, are we ready to proceed?"
"Um, yeah... This is too weird... So, we stick in an explosive arrow, tick tick boom, and when the smoke clears everything should be fixed." The speedster reached up a hand to rub the back of his head anxiously. "I think. Probably. There's definitely a better than fifty percent likelihood." Nobody felt comforted by his scramble at the end.
Bruce walked forward and carefully set down Dixie to sit beside the soup pot. The other teens gradually gathered around her as well, Aqualass and Supergirl dragging forward the bound, gagged and still unconscious body of Joker.
"Well, not that this hasn't been fun," Kid Flash spoke up as her boyfriend got ready to activate the arrow. "But I really hope we never have to see you folks again." A few people snorted in amusement from the far boundaries of the room, and then the timer went off.
The explosion blew everyone's hair and loose clothing around, bright lights the colors of the Astral energy forcing the heroes to shut their eyes. It took nearly a full minute before the energies died down and people were able to return their gazes to the center of the room.
Eight teens and a supervillain were collapsed around an utterly destroyed soup pot.