October 7,2016- Mt. Justice
The living room was already bustling with people, even though it was only 5 a.m. Yawning and moaning, the team members made their way to the gym, starting the day with hand-to-hand combat.
After a good warm-up, the drowsyness usually subsided and everyone did their best, but today it was different. It was cold and rainy outside, and it seemed to be affecting everyone's mood.
Slowly, they began leaving for school or work, leaving Kaldur, Conner, Artemis and M'gaan alone in the Cave. Kaldur had entered the Mission room and typed a few orders on the computer. Nightwing's portrait appeared on the screen along with the world map.
A red dot shined over Hawaii, where Nightwing had said he was vacationing, but Kaldur knew better. Dick had been devastated after Wally's death and it was obvious he was planning something.
"Kal?" Artemis had come into the room without being heard.
Kaldur jumped up, completely caught by surprise.
"Why are you still looking for him? You know you can't find him unless he wants you to." She said running her fingers through her hair. She wasn't annoyed, simply moody as was everyone today.
Kaldur leaned back into the chair and sighed heavily.
"I know. But it'd be a comfort to have him here." He admitted.
Artemis half-smiled. "It's hard to lead a squad of trained men and suddenly switch to a bunch of misfits, huh?" She said. Kaldur nodded.
"Intruder alert." The disembodied voice announced, sending chills up both heroes' spines. Acting out of instinct, they ran out of the mission room and into the living, where Conner had already tackled the intruder and was keeping him down.
Conner looked up at Kaldur and was about to say something when a long leg kicked him in the jaw, sending him flying. Artemis jumped in, trying to punch the man. Or woman.
He was wearing a black mask that covered his entire face, and a black suit that probably had padding in it to cover any curves.
He grabbed Artemis by the collar and threw her at Kaldur, who had just started to attack.
The man took out a seven-inch needle, probably covered in poison and went over to Conner, who was unconscious. But, as he was about to penetrate the skin of his neck, he was send flying back by an invisible force.
Miss Martian had entered the room and was keeping the man down with her telekinesis. Kaldur helped Artemis up and Conner rubbed his neck with a grimace.
" Who are you?" Miss Martian asked. The intruder didn't answer only stared forward. Miss Martian tightened her grip on him, causing him to gasp for air.
"Take it easy." Artemis put a hand on her friend's shoulder and walked towards the man. She reached for the mask reluctantly, knowing full well he was staring through her soul. Or clothes.
She pulled away the mask to reveal a waterfall of chestnut colored hair and a pair of green eyes. Yeah, definitely through her soul.
"So the man was actually a woman?" Mal asked. Artemis had given an thorough description of the fight and Conner had explained that he was in the room when she appeared.
She hadn't run in, she hadn't dug a hole through the ceiling, she just appeared.
They had locked her up in a cell that had come along with the new Cave and so far she hadn't spoken.
Kaldur was standing outside of the cell, watching her. All her weapons had been removed, and they'd forced her to change into some of Artemis' clothes, so that they'd be sure she wasn't hiding any other weapons in there.
She was just sitting in a corner staring at the floor. She just looked so innocent, it was making him feel uncomfortable with keeping her locked up. As if catching that thought, she raised her head and looked him straight in eye, making him feel like his spine was made of ice.
"D'ya have any idea how many weapons she has?" Bumble Bee said irritated as she walked in, breaking the eye contact.
"And I can't even tell what is what!" She exclaimed, shooting the girl a venomous look.
"See? It looks like a dagger." She said showing Kaldur a long black blade." But it can't cut through anything!"
"It's a medic device."
Both Kaldur and Karen both jumped. Her voice was low, but rough as hell.
"You just press the button on the hilt, press on the wound and it projects an image of how it should look while healing it." She explained looking up again, but with a much more neutral look.
"Sounds like a war weapon." Karen muttered, looking for the button.
"It is." The girl looked back down. Karen and Kaldur shared a confused look.
"Where do you come from?" Karen asked sweetly.
"Nowhere." She answered.
"That's what it literally means in English. But I keep forgetting where the city is…" She muttered to herself.
"You didn't come in here though any…normal way." Karen stated, hoping she'd keep on talking.
"Course not. Did you see that metall disk in my 'weapons'?"
"Yeah. But it's fried."
The girl jumped up in shock.
"What?! How the fuck am I supposed to go back now? And the ambush goes in effect in ninety days! Shit!" She was pacing back and forth in the small cell, pulling her hair.
"Hey, relax!" Karen waved her arms in a soothing pattern. "What the disk for?"
"It's a traveling machine. Something about connecting the milky way or some shit like that."
"You don't know for sure how it works?" Kaldur was the one to speak this time.
"No! I stole from the lab! And blew up all the copies…and the blue prints…" She scratched her head sheepishly.
"What lab?" Karen gripped on the cell bar.
"There's only one lab in Nanze! You see there was this war 200 years ago that turned to a world war. So after many nuclear attacks around the globe, the war was moved to Nanze. It's the only place on Earth occupied by humans. Also, Nanze is ruled by the Council, which consists of a hundred and five members. Since people focus more on surviving than on politics, the Council is planning to end this war." She said as she finally stopped pacing.
"That's a good thing. Right?" Karen asked.
"No. To end the war, they'll have to kill half of the remaining humans, and right now there're around 20.000 humans on the entire planet! The remaining population will be held captive and send to the lab for 'modification'"
"How do you know all this? They couldn't have just announced it." Karen pondered.
"No. My sister is head of the Council and I'm her bodyguard. I was present at their last meeting, where they decided to make a final decision in one and a half months. If I let this happen…" She stopped mid-sentence and plopped back down on the floor.
"Wait, your sister is head of the bad guys?" Karen glanced at Kaldur.
"Yeah. The only way to stop this is to kill the entire Council, but I need help. I've been searching for people to help me carry this out the entire past year, and if I'm not there when the next meeting takes place, then everything will be lost."
"Are you sure the only humans are in, 'Nanze'?" Kaldur asked, getting more and more interested in the story.
"Yeah. After the nuclear war, most of the world was either left with no life whatsoever, or mutated beings. Some of those mutants agreed to help me, but it's still not enough. I was using the disk to travel around the world, but when I tried to go to the old Americas, I ended up here instead." She explained.
Karen and Kaldur walked into the mission room deep in thought.
When they told the others what had happened back there, they all answered that she was most likely insane or bluffing. Except for Conner.
"Superman says that there are many versions of the Earth. This for example is Earth 16, so how do we know that she's not from another version of the planet?" He suggested.
"Well, she did mention nuclear war, so…" Karen's face lit up as it dawned on her.
"Hey! The Cold War! The war that she was referring to was the Cold War! If Conner's right, then she's from a universe where the conflict between the USA and Soviet Russia turned into World War III. So after going through all those nuclear explosions, more reasons to fight came along, explaining how long this war has gone on for." Karen explained.
"That's so sad…" M'gaan muttered, while everyone else kept silent.
Well, my padawans, Reaper's back and more fabulous than ever! Though this did take a lot of time, I'm not overly happy with this chapter, but Hell it covers so much info about the OC and her world, so I am NOT writing about her again until chapter six, I don't know.
Next up: Bart has a crush on Jannet. Jannet hates math class. Jaime just wants to sleep.