A/N) OK, here yet another! Thanks so much for the reviews and all those Favors! And Follows! Awesome sauce man! I hope you like this Chapter. It's mostly brings forth more messes. Not much action, mostly a tying chapter, like a bridge, you know. But I hope you all have fun reading it anyway!
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Another crisis averted. Wally, Flash, zipped at killer speed through the streets of Star. He'd just gotten through another fire call, five bank robberies, two armed rape's, and several shop lifters. Pretty full day. Not on a grand scale full but still full. He flashed through the river, over the train tracks, two seconds before the train crossed, in and out of traffic, yep. All done for now.
He slowed down to a trot until he successfully ran behind a wall and emerged in his civvies. Wally West yet again. All alone and . . .alone.
Stretching his back he decided to take a speed walk to Gotham again. Haven't been there in half a week. He muttered to himself, smiling for the benefit of some children and their mother who he'd passed. They smiled back. Wally felt lighter. That was why he still smiled. Nice reminder.
Two minutes later he pulled up in front of Megs work place. Hum, funny how the one girl who was always so oblivious to my flirts likes me so much. He laughed lightly remembering his younger self constantly flirting with anything that was female and hot. M'gann had been one of them. Until Super Boy took her.
Took her and broke her. He thought bitterly, entering the stuffy café.
His blue eyes scanned the short space for Meg, none? Huh, wonder where-
"She's not here." A sharp voice snapped his attention, "Went out to restock our coffee supply."
Wally looked over at the small framed girl, Mallory, she was a strange thing for sure. Wasn't the warm, getting along type, Wally had deduced. She seemed very closed off and . .. defensive? He vaguely wondered why, but was nice to her anyway.
"Um, how long does that usually take?" He walked over to where she was lounging in a straight backed chair in front of the register, leafing through a crinkled magazine absently.
"Meh. Depends on if she doesn't get distracted." She shrugged off.
Wally tilted his head and smiled lightly, "Yah? By what? For example."
She shrugged again, "People, cute kids, pretty food? I don't know. She puts waaaay to much interest in . . .sweet things." Mallory wrinkled her nose in a way that looked adorably, but she was clearly expressing disgust.
Wally laughed now, "Well that's Meg for you. Sweet, innocent little-"
"Stop right there West."
So she does know my name... sort of. He mused, she'd never called him anything before. And he'd seen her what? Five times already. He had dropped by last week more then he meant to.
"You should know better'n me just what a lie that is." She straightened and actually looked at him, "It's a cover. And it annoys the crap outta me."
The red headed hero couldn't bit back a laugh, "Why?" He snorted.
She glared at him, "Cuz... it's stupid. Why smile when you clearly have no reason too." She crossed her arms defiantly.
Wally stopped laughing. His blue eyes lost their light. They searched the small, stony girl in front of them. Why smile when you don't have a reason too... that, those words seemed to stab him straight through the heart. He could have sworn he'd heard those words somewhere else... no, not heard, he'd thought them, a long time ago, to himself, when he was about ready to give up on everything. When he felt the weight of loneliness and loss.
When his world had crashed.
When everyone had left him to burn out.
"Because." He said, harder then he realized, the girl was eyeing him like he had lost his brain, "Because." He said again, his brain wracking, trying to remember 'because what?'
His eyes clicked with her light green ones, she didn't move, neither did he, "Because." He said in a soft whisper, "Somebody has to."
The girl seemed to lose her hard front, lose herself in his look. He didn't look away, he watched her face lessen. Then she swallowed and looked down.
"Must take a heck of a lot of guts to do it." She said, quietly, seemingly trying to stare a hole in the counter, "Megs got guts. I won't deny her that. Just makes me uncomfortable is all." Then, obviously she thought she'd said too much, she glared at him, cold front thrown up again, "She's outside now. I got work to do." Then she stomped in the back.
Wally sighed. His tension loosening again. Damn. What had that been?
"Hey Wally!" Megs voice chirped him back down to earth.
"Hey Megs. How was your trip and can I just say.. . you're new co-worker really needs to lighten up."
This got laugh out of the young Martian.
It made him feel better.
Ollie stood next to J'hon as the Martian studied the data.
After a few minutes of irritating silence the archer spoke up, "So? Is Bats freaking worth it or not?" He couldn't fight the unsettling feeling he'd been getting lately from these cases.
The Martin shook his head, "If they are indeed as serious as you said Batman made them out to be . . . I hate to say, they don't seem to be living up to that as of now." J'hon stood up, his blue cape fluttering to the floor, "I wonder what is the connection between their thefts."
Arrow shrugged, "I know! That's what I said. But let's face it, these guys are Batman's goons, he'd have figured it out right now. Not us." The archer sighed loudly, "Whatever then, I'll see if Bats kids know anything."
"Don't take this so lightly Arrow, you never know what kind of works is whirling in these kinds of organizations. Especially the ones Batman deals with." J'hon warned.
"Yah, yah, I know. Bat's gets all the off the charts freaks. So what else is new." Ollie said airily before disappearing down the League elevator.
The Martian shook his head and turned back to the screen, "Something's not right here. . . "
He hadn't meant to brush Martian off. No, he was just trying to think around this unsettling feeling. Truth was, he was scared maskless. What if these freaks really where off some chart scheme? So what, you've dealt with alien invasions, deadly business meeting, guns firing at you without restraint, and dating Cannery, this shouldn't be anywhere near as hard as any of those. Especially that last one.
Yah, I'll figure this out, no sweat I just have too-
"I'm telling you this is Suspicious! Hawkman's reported the same thing." A slightly accented voice boomed from the neighboring hall.
Arrow didn't hesitate to walk right in and see Zatara glaring at Hal.
The green lantern looked slightly uncomfortable, "Yes well . . . I don't really-Arrow!" He brightened upon seeing the archer, "Um, got anything for me old chum?" He practically begged, fear from the angry magician evident.
Ollie bit back a laugh, "What's the problem Zatara?"
The distinguished show man turned to Arrow, "My daughter has been kidnapped. I've searched everywhere, to no avail. Hawkman says the same with his partner, Hawkgirl. They've just vanished!" He turned back to Hal, "I thought maybe the League could help . . . Hal here says your on a more pressing mission." He finished rather bitterly.
Ollie threw Hal a look, "Um, ok look. We will definitely help. The thing we're on right now is . . . stuck So yah. Come on GL, let's go get the others." He smiled lightly at Zatara, while pushing Hal in an elevator "No worries, we will get to the bottom of all of this!" The doors closed.
"What the Heck Hal!" He turned on the confused GL, "Missing super powered kids now? What's going on?"
"I don't know." Hal scrubbed his face angrily, "Man, who would have thought things would get so weird. No Batman, Superman, Wonder woman! I know we can handle this, but . .. there's something unsettling about the timing of these resent events."
Ollie didn't say anything, he stared out the elevators glass back wall, into space, The endless stars made him feel small and insignificant, reminded him that no matter how big and powerful you were, there was always something bigger and in more control then you thought you were.
Oliver didn't like that feeling.
Blurring shapes. Burning, scorching fire shooting through . . .limbs? Air? Was this air? Where was he? Who was he? What . . . was he?
The blurring shapes melded to a strange red, black and .. yellow. Then, an actual form took place. He knew what it was. Why couldn't he remember? Wait. . . it burned! It burned to remember. Remember? What?
"Shshshshsh..." Came a soothing sound. Something the opposite of what burned through him, calmed the pain... that's all he knew. Unbearable, horrible, scorching pain. Then nothingness...
Talia watched as his struggles lessened and he fell back into a mindless sleep. For the past week he'd been like this. The doctors said he was physically perfect. But the spiritual damage and was yet to be healed. If it ever could be.
And that wasn't even taking in consideration the mental and emotional issues that would arise.
This was taking too long. Father wouldn't be please at this boy's lack of development and throw him back into the dirt he'd dug him out of. No, Talia thought, there had to be a faster way to get this boy up.
"Mistress?"
Talia turned around to see one of her servant maids, "Yes?"
"They said project ANY31 is . . . showing positive signs." The woman looked at the floor in respectful fear.
Talia nodded, "Very well." Then she glided past the feeble servant with a cold air. She'd have to think of something later.
She walked into a different chamber that was lit red. Rows of containment tubs filled with bubbling red liquid and bodies lined this narrow room. Talia walked up to one they were moving for extraction.
Her cold green eyes watched silently as a huge metal claw lifted the tube as if it was a mere vial and put it in a contained tub. Then, one of the scientist pressed a few black and blue buttons. The Tube let out a huge hiss as the top clicked off, then the claw swiftly turned it upside down and lifted away. The body inside and the liquid, came pouring out.
"Bring it in." She commanded in a hiss.
The men obeyed and pressed a button that made the tub slide towards them.
Talia looked in and saw the body of a naked young girl. She almost didn't believe it. They had brought back something which they didn't even know excited. Although it was rather shocking to see it in such a young form. Talia hadn't thought it could be so young.
"Take her to stasis. Have her cleaned, clothed, and fed once she wakes up. Let me know immediately when this is done." With that she turned to give her attention to other things as the men gingerly lifted the living girl out of the tub.
Half way down the dimly lit hall one of her ninja stepped forward out of the shadows.
"Mistress," He hissed, "Young master wishes to see you."
Talia didn't blink, "Away with you." She commanded and headed down a hidden corridor.
Perhaps she had more to plan out than she thought.
"Nightwing. This is crazy!" Barbara glared at the taller hero.
He ignored her.
She bit her lip in disgust, "Fine then. So you convinced that Santa Prisca's back up and running, but that still doesn't explain the crazy Al Ghul ninjas." She crossed her arms to make a point, "And don't you think that something like this would catch Batman's attention?"
Dick kept typing on the bat computer.
"DICK!"
"What!?" He turned to glare at her for interrupting.
Tim just sat in the corner, fully costumed except for his mask. He didn't want to be involved.
"Answer me!" She snapped back.
Dick sighed and ran a hand across his face, "No, I don't know what Al Ghul has to do with this, and if Batman knows, which he probably does, he can't do anything about it seeing as he's out of world." He growled, "There, happy."
"No. But at least you answered. So. When do we go?"
Dick glanced at her slightly unsure, "When I say so."
She huffed, "You don't know."
He didn't answer.
Barbara decided, she'd just give him this space. Just relax, she told herself, just let it go. It's not his fault. Playing the no blaming game was supposed to help. Babs sighed, "Fine, see you at breakfast." Then with an exhausted sigh she grabbed Tim and dragged him upstairs refusing to look back at Grayson.
Once they were gone Dick let out a frustrated groan, "Damn it. I know Bats has them somewhere." He began tapping furiously through the computer files, "I know he does. Those prints are in here somewhere."
He growled as a firewall popped up. Dang it. Gotta crack this.
He wanted to know what the other half of this serum was. Why it looked so familiar, and what Al Ghul was doing involved with Bane.
It figures Batman would keep files on Al Ghul locked up tight. Yet another thing that ticked Dick off about his mentor and his Paranoia.
The fire wall clicked off.
Dick's face broke into a smirk. Nice try Bruce, but we all know I'm better at this than you think.