Ok so this chapter isn't as long as I originally thought it was, but it's still pretty long, due to the fact that it's trying to encompass all of episode one (Independence Day). So, I'm trying not to give too much away, which includes Dice's powers though you get glimpses of it here and there. So anyway, thank you Silverambush and Thoughtlessrage for your reviews and everyone who's following this. So, I don't own Young Justice, I do however own the ocs. So on with the story.
Washington D.C.
July 4th, 14:00 EST
I groaned as I woke up. Ow, my head spun and I felt like I was going to throw up. "You're awake good." The man carrying me said as he set me down on my feet.
"Depends on your definition of good." I grumbled trying to breathe through my nausea. I turned to see the man who was carrying me and my nausea flared up almost as if a volcano was erupting inside my stomach. It was Batman.
"Do you feel alright?" A voice off to the side asked. I turned. The question was coming from the boy wonder, Robin.
"As alright as a girl can be when she feels as if she's been hit by a semi." I replied. I looked down at my skirt and brushed off any dust that might have been there. "So, um why did you bring me here?" I inquired looking around. We were outside the Hall of Justice across the fountain. Along with Batman and Robin there was Green Arrow, Speedy, Aquaman, and Aqualad. They were all staring at me which did nothing to ease my frayed nerves.
"Poison Ivy was attempting to kidnap you. We were hoping you could tell us why." Batman informed me. If I was unconscious when it happened how was I supposed to give him the answers he sought? Honestly for the "world's greatest detective" Batman always struck me as a bit of an idiot.
"Sorry, but I haven't a clue either." I said with a shrug.
"Ah man. I told you we were going to be the last ones here." Kid Flash announced to his mentor. It was ironic that the ones who could move the fastest were the final to arrive. "Whoa who's the girl?" He demanded upon catching sight of me.
"Call me Dice. Everyone does." I answered, unless of course they knew me well enough to call me by my true name, Alice, but so few people did.
"Why do people call you Dice?" Speedy asked.
"Why do people call you speedy?" I retorted. I slipped my hands into the pockets of my zip up orange and black hoodie. Inside the pocket my right hand occupied were two simple white dice with black dots to represent the numbers.
"I asked you first." I rolled my eyes and pulled out the dice.
"These are why. I never leave home without them." I answered. I closed my fingers around them and stuck them back into my pocket. It was best not to have them out in the open for too long or there was a chance I could lose them.
Robin suddenly cleared his throat. If it weren't for years of conditioning I would have jumped like a frightened cat. "You guys haven't forgotten why we're here right?" He asked a slight impatience in his voice.
All the adults looked at me as if debating whether or not I should accompany them with whatever they were doing for the sidekicks.
"We need to figure out why Poison Ivy had her." Batman said as if it ended the matter. And with that we proceeded to the Hall of Justice. Cameras flashed and fans gossiped among themselves. I reached up and made sure my hood was pulled down low over my face.
Kid Flash made a comment about being overwhelmed. "You're overwhelmed Freeze was underwhelmed. Why can't anyone just be whelmed?" Really, did Robin have to botch the English language so?
"Because whelmed is not a word." I grumbled low enough he couldn't hear me. We entered the Hall and the boys were given a tour that ended in the library.
The adults went off to the side to debrief about the ice villains that showed up and my situation with Poison Ivy, which they knew nothing about. I sat down in a chair and pulled out my dice. I was compelled to play with them. Each number had a special "meaning" behind it. With a sigh, I slipped them back into my pocket and pulled a nail file with a curved edge and plastic grip out of the top of my boot.
That's when Speedy began to throw a tantrum. The thing that caught my attention was when he mentioned that the Justice League's real headquarters was an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower. I was sure my mentor would be interested in hearing that tidbit. Speedy left.
"Well somebody has an attitude." I muttered slipping the hook end of the file under my left thumb nail. I scraped the dirt out from under it and moved onto the next nail. The three sidekicks turned to me with disapproving looks as if they did not like me making a simple, yet accurate, observation about their friend. I held my hands up in surrender for a moment before going back to cleaning my nails. You wouldn't believe the amount of dirt you got under your fingernails when working in a greenhouse.
There was a call about a fire at Cadmus labs. Batman mentioned something about always being suspicious about them. Wow they were dropping all sorts of juicy information around listening ears today. I'd struck a gold mine. Batman wanted to check it out, but a far more important call came in.
"Stay put." Batman told the four of us before he left with the other Justice League members. The sidekicks didn't like that and before the heroes left they had to get their two cents in. Not that it worked.
"Ok just who are you?" Kid Flash demanded while Robin hacked into the computer the calls had come in on. He was looking up the information about Cadmus.
"Dice, just what I told your friend earlier." I said simply as the information came up. There wasn't a whole lot there.
So, Robin and Kid Flash decided they were going to check it out. They turned on Aqualad who decided to go with them, if only to make sure they didn't do something stupid. I slipped the file into the top of my boot and stood.
"You're not leaving me behind." I announced. After all this could be my chance to complete my mission. Once my mission was over I could return to the safe seclusion of my own home under my mentor's tutelage.
"You should stay. We do not know what troubles we will find there." Aqualad tried to persuade me.
"I can handle it." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"You don't have powers." Kid Flash argued earning a glare from Robin.
"Actually, I do." I replied shortly heading for the door.
Kid Flash sped in front of me. "Whoa you don't just drop a bomb like that and walk away." He told me.
"Yeah. What are your powers and why haven't we heard of you?" Robin jumped in.
"You haven't heard of me before because I don't advertise the fact I'm a weirdo." I said walking around Kid Flash.
The four of us continued to Cadmus labs without any further conversation. Our first bit of trouble came from Robin and Kid Flash rushing off. Kid Flash saved two people from falling from the second story however he got them stranded on the roof.
"So how many of their messes do you think we'll have to clean up?" I asked Aqualad. he didn't answer instead he went to go save the people stranded on the roof. I activated my telekinesis and floated up to the window the others had gone into.
"So, your power is flying?" Kid Flash asked. I rolled my eyes.
"Something like that." That was almost a complete lie, but no way was I telling my true abilities to three boys I'd just met.
Aqualad noticed something in the elevator. "That's an express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building." Robin said as he brought up a weird holographic screen on his glove gauntlet thing.
"Neither does what I saw." Aqualad spoke. He forced the elevator doors open. The elevator shaft went way far down. Most likely miles below ground.
"And that's why they need an express elevator." Robin shot a cord that attached to the ceiling of the elevator shaft and dropped down using the cord to keep him from falling to a painful death. Aqualad and Kid Flash used it too. I took a deep breath and just let myself fall. My telekinesis would allow me to hover like a hummingbird if they decided to stop. Which they did on sublevel twenty-six. Robin had run out of cord.
"I guess this is our stop." I muttered.
"So why are you here anyway?" Kid Flash asked with crossed arms as we walked down a corridor.
"Honestly? I didn't feel like getting yelled at by the "grown-ups" when they got back and found you gone." I pulled out my dice and rattled them around in my hand.
"Huh, I think that's the first straight answer you've given us." Kid Flash muttered. And to think that hadn't been a straight answer, at least not an honest one. I pursed my lips to keep from saying anything. Kid Flash ran ahead only to almost get trampled on.
I stiffened as I felt a mental wave shoot over my head. Due to my power being based on mental abilities I could sense telepaths and certain kinesics. "Guys we've got telepaths." I announced trying to pick out where he could be hiding, but I couldn't get a lock on the signal. It had gone just as quickly as it came.
"Where?" Aqualad asked.
I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I lost the signal." I muttered. The rattling sound from my hand grew louder. I clenched my fist and the rattling stopped.
"Wait, are you saying you can track telepaths?" Robin inquired.
"It's not that simple. It's like feeling the wind. A telepathic signal or for the sake of this analogy a breeze blows. I feel that and can tell you the general direction, but unless it keeps on sending I can't pinpoint it." I answered. My eyes strayed over to the creatures that had almost trampled Kid Flash. I felt akin to them somehow. "Come on. Maybe if we keep going I'll pick up the signal again." I suggested.
We continued on.
ROBIN
There was something off about that Dice girl. She'd yet to put her hood down. It'd even been up when Poison Ivy tried to kidnap her. Her fist was closed tight around her dice. That was another point that made me curious about her.
"Whoa." Dice stopped looking were in a chamber with weird gray skinned creatures generating the energy. There was a computer near-by which I quickly hacked.
"They're called genomorphs." I told the others and I also saw why Dice had felt a telepath.
"What they're doing is wrong. Normally I'm not a fan of Batman however I agree with him on this one thing. Cadmus is evil." Dice growled shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. She started to walk towards the exit, but some guy was blocking it. No not some guy, Guardian, a hero that had just dropped off the map.
Aqualad tried to talk to him, but something happened. "Guys it's the g-morph he's being brainwashed.
"Lot of good that information does us. We're trying to fight these things." Kid snapped.
Dice said something that sounded an awful lot like forgive me and the genomorphs started flying like they were being thrown. I threw down a smoke bomb allowing us to get away. What exactly was Dice's power?
"Did you seriously call a genomorph a g-morph?" Kid asked as we ran for sublevel fifty-two where project Kr was located.
"Yes, I did actually. I wanted to let you lot know at least one of the people here is being brainwashed so hopefully you would infer there are possibly others, and a I didn't have time to trip over the word genomorph." Dice grumbled. She might have been rolling her eyes at this point. It sounded like it.
"But how did you know it was brainwashing?" I inquired.
"Two reasons, one Aqualad had almost gotten through to Guardian, a telepathic message goes out, and suddenly he's got the g-morphs attacking us. Clearly brainwashed." Dice fell silent.
"And the second reason?" Aqualad prodded.
"Command telepathic signals are stronger than that of your garden variety telepathic conversations." We finally reached sublevel fifty-two. The only problem was the end of the hall was a quickly closing door and the genomorphs were hot on our tails.
Kid Flash put something in the way of the door giving all of us enough time to get through. Dice leaned against a wall, sinking to a sitting position. "I haven't run this much since I was eight." She murmured.
"What happened when you were eight?" I received no answer to my question. All Dice did was pull her hood down lower on her face.
"Robin hack." Aqualad told me. I did so leading to the realization that the boy in the pod in front of us was a clone of Superman.
"We have to free him."