Chapter Eleven
I'm too predictable for my own good.
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Oh god. Eternal thought to herself as she and Red Arrow stood in the doorway of Luthor's sanctum. I killed her. I handed her over to Luthor and I killed her. She held out her hand above the woman's face, and waited to feel for a weak breath of air. Nothing. Eternal squeezed her eyes shut, and pulled her hand away sharply while she practically stumbled back from the woman.
"I don't think she's breathing." Eternal's voice still sounded a bit shaken, and Red Arrow took a step forward, and slowly leaned over to listen for she sound of air escaping the woman's lips. Eternal protested, and reached forward to stop him. Mom please be breathing. Please breathe.
Red leaned forward and listened closely for the sound of breathing, and Eternal waited in the stark silence. After a moment, even Eternal heard the small, shakey, breath of air the woman took into her lungs, and she forced herself to suppress the urge to release a loud sigh of relief. She was alive. That's all that mattered.
"We should get her out of here." Red Arrow said suddenly as he stood up straight to observe the woman's bindings. It looked as though she had been restrained for a while. As soon as the words escaped Red Arrow's lips, Eternal jumped, and snatched Red Arrow's wrist as he reached for the restraints.
"No!" She snapped a little too loudly. The word echoed slightly in the large space, and Red Arrow almost cringed. Eternal's eyes darted to the woman on the table, and she was relieved to find that she was still unconscious. She looked back towards Red Arrow, who was staring at her with furious eyes.
"And why not?" He snarled as he ripped his arm away. Eternal didn't try to take his arm back.
"Because if she goes missing, Luthor will be sure to notice. And that means he'll figure out that someone else other than himself and Mercy knew the codes to deactivate his security measures." Eternal whispered as she eyed the woman on the table. She wondered why she was in restraints when Luthor knew that she couldn't walk, let alone feed herself. "If he changes those codes, the Team, and the League will never have access to Luthor's mansion again. Do we really want that? And how would we get her back to the Cave?" Red Arrow gave a quiet sigh, and turned to look at the woman as Eternal was doing. He didn't want to say it, but she was right. If the League lost access to Luthor's mansion, they would lose valuable evidence of Luthor's crimes, and he would go unpunished.
"We just need to find the vials, gather Intel, and get out. We'll inform Batman of… her, and leave it to the League to rescue her." Eternal finished as she backed away from the table, ripping her eyes away from her mother's pale face. Something felt very wrong, but she wasn't about to stand there and contemplate what it could possibly be.
Red Arrow grit his teeth.
"Fine." He barked quietly as Eternal moved towards a computer, and slyly pulled out a flash drive from her utility belt. With a sleight of hand, she plugged it into the computer, and it came to life. The flash drive hacked the computer, and brought up a command prompt screen.
"Fine." Eternal said softly, more to herself than Red. Red Arrow glanced back at Eternal with a strange look on his face, and then turned his back to her once more as he continued to search for the vials in the massive collection of chemicals and surgical equipment.
Eternal quickly searched through the files, decrypted them, read over them, and then copied them to her flash drive over and over until she collected enough information about Luthor that would put him in jail for the rest of his life if they could find the right pieces of evidence to convict him.
Just before she was about to move to search the fridge filled with chemicals nearby, her eyes landed on two files that made her heart freeze for a split second.
Mendelssohn, Nava. Mendelssohn-Nacht, Mercy.
She glanced at Red Arrow's blurry reflection in the screen, and when she was satisfied that he was not going to see, she selected the files, and attempted to decrypt them quickly. After decrypting two layers of encryption codes, she stopped, and huffed quietly.
Looks like I'm going to have to wait to see what you've said about me, Luthor. She thought to herself as she copied the files, encryptions and all, and then wiped the hard drive of any recording of her presence.
"Find anything?" Red Arrow asked as he approached Eternal, who quickly, but smoothly placed the flash drive back in her utility belt. She was quiet for a moment, and her eyes focused on the fridge nearby. She noticed the thumbprint scanner, and walked towards it.
"The vials should be in here," She started as she activated a holographic computer on her arm similar to the one Robin had on his. Batman had granted Robin permission to build her one after Eternal had expressed the desire to see Robin's, and she had easily hacked the Cave computers just as Robin had many times before. "But I need to trick the scanner before we can get to them. You'll have eight seconds to open, grab the vials, and close the door before any alarms begin to go off." She warned, causing Red Arrow to stand at attention in front of the fridge as Eternal began to deactivate the security device on the fridge manually. "I'm sure Robin could give you more time, but I'm no Boy Wonder…" She muttered under her breath as the continued to type.
"Three, two, one…" She pointed at Red, and he took that as his signal. He quickly wrenched open the fridge, scanned the shelves as Eternal counted down the seconds on the clock. He narrowed his eyes at the rows and rows of similar looking vials, and growled when he reached the second to last shelf and couldn't find them.
"Four seconds." Eternal announced as Red Arrow finally spotted the deep purple vials, and snatched them from the shelf. Red pulled his arm out of the fridge, and slammed the fridge shut- all with a second to spare. Eternal shut off her holographic computer, and turned on her heel to walk towards the stairway.
"Time to go. We've been here too long already." She said softly as she passed her Mother's still form. Her eyes were locked on her as she walked by, and she had to force herself to rip them away. Red Arrow placed the vials in a safe place in his quiver, and then trotted after her. He agreed, twenty minutes was too long to be in such a small place.
Red and Eternal quickly made their way up the stairwell, the heavy titanium door sliding shut behind them quietly as they went. The two walked up the stairs silently, both of them deep in thought as they climbed the stairs. Eternal reached back, and placed one hand on the hilt of one of her kukris, and continued up the stairs, her steps eerily silent as usual. Eternal's gesture set off an alarm in Red Arrow, and he notched back an arrow, and aimed it forward, prepared, just as Eternal was.
The bookcase gave its expected, and unbearably loud, groan and scrap as it opened, and a sliver of silver moonlight peeped through, which caused Eternal to narrow her eyes at it.
Something was blocking part of the light. And that something caused Eternal to whip her kukris out of their holsters, and Red Arrow to raise his bow higher behind her. They couldn't stop the door from opening, and the titanium door behind them was sealed shut.
The painfully slow door jumped open a handful of inches, and Eternal was finally able to confirm her suspicions.
Half of the android's face was visible in the moonlight pouring in from the open skylight above, and her synthetic dirty blonde hair shined unnaturally. She was in a different dress suit than last time, her skirt now black pinstripe and her blouse was an expensive white chiffon. Eternal was somewhat surprised that Luthor would spend so much money on his guardian that didn't even possess the ability to have a pulse.
"The Justice League does not have proper authorization to be on these premises." The android Mercy spoke as the bookcase door finally dragged itself across the floor one last time. Eternal rolled her eyes underneath her mask. Of course Mercy had been set to ARMED every night since Luthor's pet thief had fallen off his end of the spectrum; how could she forget?
"You know," Eternal shrugged as she set waved her kukri around carelessly, and then set it over her shoulder, her hand still firmly wrapped around it. She was making herself appear as though she didn't perceive Mercy as a threat, and took a few casual steps forward. She could see the Android's eyes refocus on her. "We're not Justice League. You would think Luthor would keep you updated on things like that."
And now she's targeting me…Eternal thought to herself as she analyzed Mercy. Red Arrow kept his arrow aimed at the android's forehead, as Eternal mentally reminded herself that that area of the android's structure was one of the most seriously protected. Mercy narrowed her eyes at Eternal.
Target locked. Eternal thought as she smirked to herself.
"Identify yourselves." Mercy demanded. Eternal made a clicking sound with her tongue, and shook her head.
"And he hasn't bothered to make you a little more social, has he?" She sighed as she turned on her heel, and placed her back towards Mercy. Red Arrow looked alarmed, but kept his sights on the android before them. He couldn't understand how or why Eternal would leave herself vulnerable to the enemy- but his question wouldn't go unanswered for long.
The android suddenly raised its arm, and a panel rose up, but that was as far as it was able to go before a long, thick dagger lodged itself in the crook of Mercy's arm, and the panel began to raise and lower itself over and over as if stuck on repeat.
"Or fix your weak spots?" Eternal sighed so quietly Red Arrow barely heard her. The android continued to look at Eternal with a blank look on her face. How she had pulled out the knives so quickly, Red didn't know, but she had moved so fast that when he blinked, he had missed her pulling out the knife, throwing the knife, and pulling out another long dagger from seemingly nowhere at all.
Mercy gave Eternal a cold, blank stare, and Eternal swung her braid with a smirk.
"We'll be on our way." Eternal chirped as she pointed the knife at Mercy. Mercy's eyes narrowed at the knife as the panel on her arm began to make a small whirring sound, and protest as it tried to close over and over again. The android continued to watch Eternal, and then suddenly, her eyes darted towards Red Arrow. Red tensed, and his bow rose higher.
"I see you've gotten too used to working alone, Eternal." Mercy said coldly as she raised her other hand, and pointed it at Red Arrow. A panel in her hand opened, and a set of three horribly sharp throwing stars came forward as Eternal spun on her heel- now hyper aware that she had left Red Arrow in a unfortunate position; and after that, everything to the two heroes began to move in what felt like slow motion- at its worst.
Red Arrow fired off his arrow just as Mercy fired off her first set of throwing stars, and Eternal threw her dagger. All five projectiles flew through the air at once. The arrow ran straight into one of the throwing stars, throwing both weapons off course, and sending them towards the floor. Eternal's knife came into the group next, and it hit the second throwing star in the very center, causing the two weapons to fly across the room, and the knife and the star to become embedded in the wooden walls. But the one star that made it through the attack continued to fly through the air, straight towards Red Arrow, who was pulling out another arrow to aim at Mercy as quickly as he could.
The star finally hit its mark, lodging itself deep into Red Arrow's arm, and causing him to cry out in pain as he dropped the arrow he had wrapped his hand around back into the quiver. Eternal jumped to attack Mercy, and Mercy turned to attack Eternal. Eternal quickly ducked underneath Mercy's swing, which would have broken half of the bones in her face if she would've been hit, and whipped out an extendable baton, and quickly made her way behind Mercy.
"Lights out." Eternal whispered with such venom, that she even stunned herself. She slammed the heavy reinforced electric baton straight at the Android's neck, and sparks flew in all directions. Mercy began to convulse wildly, and her voice began to distort and deepen as she fell to the ground, and the false projections of blue eyes began to fade into nothingness as her face slammed to the ground, smashing her fake ski slope nose.
Sparks continued to fly from the android's neck as Eternal walked over, and eyed Mercy's fallen form.
"Still nothing like the real thing." She sighed quietly as she nudged the crushed android's face with her foot. She then raised her foot up, and then brought it down so hard on Mercy's neck that the last few circuits and wires keeping it together severed, and the head lolled lazily to the side.
"Now that you're done playing with your food…" Red Arrow groaned from his spot against the bookshelf. Eternal finally looked up from Mercy, and her eyes widened in shock. The star was lodged deep in his arm, and blood was spilling from his would as he desperately tried to keep it off of his surroundings. Any DNA evidence left behind would be catastrophic to their mission- even though it had already been terribly compromised.
Eternal jumped over Mercy's still form, and rushed towards Red as she pulled a thick white bandage out of her utility belt and kneeled in front of him.
"You're such a-" Eternal's shot at Red Arrow's injury was cut short when she noticed that the star was lodged deeper in his arm than she originally thought. "Oh shit." She nearly cringed at the sight of it as Red Arrow glared at her.
"Bandage?" He snarled as he struggled to keep the blood off of the floor. Eternal seemed to come back to life, and began wrapping the bandage around his arm as quickly and tightly as she could.
"This is going to hurt." She said bluntly before pinching the star between her fingers. Red Arrow's eyes grew wide at the realization of what Eternal was about to do.
"No, no n-!" Red Arrow bit his lip so hard that he drew blood as Eternal pulled the star out of his arm, and placed it in her utility belt.
She continued to mend his wound as if she hadn't just caused the hero a considerable amount of pain, and sighed as Red Arrow continued to wither in silent agony.
"You're just lucky it was a smooth edge instead of serrated." She sighed as she tightly wrapped the bandage, causing Red Arrow to wince and swear a bit too loudly.
"That's not nice…" Eternal sighed again as she tightened his wrappings a bit too hard, causing him to swear again.
"Goddamn it!" He yelled as Eternal secured his wrappings and reached for his bow. Red Arrow realized what Eternal was reaching for, and jerked the shoulder his bow was resting over back, and grunted in pain at the sudden movement. Eternal did not withdraw her hand, but continued to hold it outwards towards him, a look of disapproval on her face, but of course, it was partially hidden by her mask.
"You need both hands to operate a bow and arrow, don't you?" She asked her voice quiet and her tone stern. Red Arrow's glare faltered for a moment, and he looked away, and then back at her.
"…yes. Yes you do." He mumbled as he shifted his weight. Eternal raised an eyebrow at his behavior.
"And I haven't been given a fancy grappling hook to get us both out of here with. So hand it over." She reached her hand towards him once more, and this time, he didn't jerk himself away, and allowed Eternal to wrap her hand around the bow, and remove it from his shoulder. But before she retracted her hand, he snatched her wrist. Eternal didn't react, but she did cast a bored glance at Red. She had been expecting him to do something like that.
"Be very careful with that." He warned as he glared at Eternal. She just stared back, the same look of boredom on her face.
"Right." Eternal drawled as she pulled her wrist away from Red's grasp, and then grabbed his collar so that she could pull him to his feet, and he grunted in surprise when Eternal pulled him up to his feet with one hand. Red stumbled slightly as he regained his footing, and then gripped his injured arm gingerly as Eternal plucked a grappling arrow out of his quiver. He narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't say a word because he knew it was pointless to argue.
Eternal notched the arrow back with ease that Red Arrow was impressed by, and expertly shot the arrow out of the skylight, and both of them heard the grappling arrow secure itself with a satisfying thunk.
Red made a sound of surprise, and Eternal held her hand out to him as the line pulled taught.
"We don't have much time." Eternal said to him, causing him to look back at her. He stared at her for a moment with a peculiar look on his face, and then took her hand, her hand wrapping around his wrist, and his around hers.
Eternal pressed a button on Red's bow, and the grappling hook began to pull them up towards the skylight twelve feet above them. Eternal tightened her grip on Red's wrist as they rose up, and Red Arrow grunted in pain as he held his injured arm tightly against his torso.
They finally reached the opening of the skylight, and Eternal promptly swung a leg over her head, and hooked it over the edge in order to keep herself steady while she pulled Red Arrow up and out of the skylight with one arm.
Eternal groaned loudly at the weight she was lifting, but successfully got Red Arrow onto the roof without causing him further injury. Once Red was on the roof, he turned around, and held out his hand to Eternal, and pulled her onto the roof as well, saving her the trouble of pulling herself up any more than she already had.
Eternal sat on the roof for a moment, and caught her breath. After a moment, she looked up at Red, who was trying to assess his wound by staring at the bandages, and he looked up at the feeling of someone looking at him.
Eternal did not avert her gaze simply because that was not in her nature, but she did nod, and give a small sigh.
"Thank you." She said quietly as she held out Red's bow, watching him as he quickly took it from her hands, and gingerly placed it over his shoulders. Eternal then did a once over of her surroundings, and her eyes narrowed as she stood. Her night-vision came back online, and she did a once over of the dark rooftop, the moon blocked by a thick cloud above them.
Red Arrow stood behind her, and began to squint in the direction she was looking in as well.
"What?" He asked, causing Eternal to feel that feeling of annoyance in her chest for the second time that night. She gave a small growl, and Red Arrow narrowed his eyes at her.
Just as we started to get along…He thought as he rolled his eyes.
"Listen." She ordered in a whisper as she took a silent step away from him, leaving a three foot gap between them. Red Arrow gave Eternal a slightly odd look, as if she were a bit out of her mind, but none the less, closed his eyes, and listened closely.
There was nothing but silence, the sounds of crickets chirping, and the occasional hoo of an owl in a far off tree, the sound of leaves in the wind- but nothing unusual.
But then, just before he was about to open his eyes, he heard it.
"Hup!" It was quiet, in the distance, but both heroes heard it, and before Red Arrow could open his eyes Eternal yelled out:
"Get down!" Eternal tackled Red Arrow to the ground, and his eyes snapped open- just in time to spot an enormous flail fly through the air above them, just narrowly missing Eternal's braid as they fell to the ground. Red Arrow had to resist the nagging urge to grip his arm as the pain from the fall shot through it, and forced himself to focus as Eternal jumped off of him, and withdrew her kukris, and took a fighting stance.
"There's only one asshole I know who carries a flail." Eternal taunted as she scanned the area for the attacker. Eternal took a few steps away from Red Arrow as he pulled out his crossbow, and climbed to his feet, and then turned his back to Eternal to cover her back.
"It's called a 'hammer'." A voice said from above them, causing the two heroes to immediately point their weapons upwards. Sportsmaster himself was standing on the edge of one of the four towers of Luthor Manor, a javelin in hand, casually held over his shoulder as if they were having a normal conversation.
"Too bad I don't know anyone who throws knives." He spat back at Eternal as she kept a close eye on the javelin in his hand. Eternal rolled her eyes at him, and Sportsmaster brought his arm back, and Eternal's sharp eyes caught him just in time to see him throw the javelin forward, directly at her.
Eternal's instincts went into high gear, and she slammed her kukris back in their holsters, causing Red Arrow to yell out, demanding she use her weapons.
Everything slowed down in Eternal's mind, and she focused only on the weapon heading directly towards her.
Just as Sportsmaster and Red Arrow began to believe the javelin had hit its mark, Eternal leaned to the side with the flexibility of an acrobat, and reached for the center of the javelin with her left hand. Her fingers wrapped around the javelin, and she spun around with it, allowing it to maintain its momentum, and with a soft grunt, sent it flying back up towards Sportsmaster while her back was still towards him- whose eyes were as wide as saucers at the sight of his own weapon flying through the air towards him.
As Eternal finally turned back around, she saw the javelin hit the ledge underneath Sportsmaster, and the look on his face before he went up in a plume of fire and smoke.
Red Arrow knew that if he had blinked, he would have missed it- but something in the back of his mind told him he had seen a trick like that before.
The explosion of the javelin hitting the edge of the tower shook the building below him, causing the ghost of a suspicion to float away, and his instincts to kick into high gear as Eternal ran towards him, and tackled him yet again, just in time to push him out of the way of a large piece of flying debris that had come from the explosion.
"Wake up!" Eternal barked as she jumped off of him and the pulled him up roughly by his good arm, and began moving before Red Arrow had managed to regain his footing, causing him to stumble and rush to catch up to her. They were heading towards the end of the roof full speed, and Red Arrow nearly skidded to a stop until he noticed Eternal pulling out a black bundle of fabric from the small of her back that had been tucked underneath her kukri holster since they left the Cave.
"Eternal!" Red shouted as they came closer to the roof. Eternal suddenly skidded to a stop, threw the fabric over her shoulders, and as she turned around, slipped her arms through the sleeves. Eternal spun around - just in time to spot Sportsmaster running out of a plume of debris and smoke behind Red Arrow, and her white eye slits widened as she whipped a batch of throwing spikes out of from her sheath, and yelled.
"GET DOWN!" She screamed as she threw the spikes, each of them soaked in a sleeping agent that would keep a grown man out for two or three days. The spikes flew through the air one after another, narrowly missing Red Arrow's head as he fell to the ground- and one flew straight through his carefully groomed hair.
Sportsmaster deflected the first one with a swing of his flail, or 'hammer', but his swing was not fast enough to deflect the five other spikes coming towards him, and all of them hit him in the chest, and arm, lodging themselves deep into his flesh. Sportsmaster gave a quiet sound of discomfort, but did not stop moving forward, or give any indication that he was about to fall asleep as he should have, and Eternal reached back to her kukris, and pulled them out once more. Red Arrow scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could towards Eternal, shooting off arrows from his crossbow as he ran every few feet.
Eternal rose up her silver armaments, and then sprinted forwards, straight towards Sportsmaster and Red Arrow. Red tried to stop in time to get out of Eternal's way, but ended up falling to his knees just in time for Eternal to jump over him. Red Arrow leaned back and watched the girl fly over him as he skidded forward, the guards on his knees and shins thankfully protecting his skin and providing a smooth slide. Eternal flew through the air above him as a silhouette in the moonlight, her left leg pointed forward and the right tucked in with perfect execution. Her left leg then twisted in the air, and her right leg came swinging about, giving her the large amount of force she needed to deliver a knockout blow to Sportsmaster. Red Arrow flattened himself against the roof as he continued to slide a few more feet, and rolled onto his stomach, allowing him to take aim at Sportsmaster with his crossbow and aid Eternal.
Sportsmaster was beginning to feel the side effects of Eternal's sleeping agent, and was slow to react to Eternal's kick- which meant her foot collided with his face, causing a sickening crack to fly through the air, and Sportsmaster to stumble back several feet as Eternal gracefully landed on her feet, her back to Sportsmaster, and then swing about once more with her right leg extended, and blow his feet out from underneath him.
But Sportsmaster did not fall to the ground.
He caught himself quickly, a moment of clarity in the midst of unconsciousness threatening his senses allowed him to put his hands out, and he pushed himself off of the ground, and straight at Eternal- who was already expecting him, and immediately began to attack, not allowing Sportsmaster a moment to recover.
When Sportsmaster's fist came flying though the air towards her, she leaned to the side once more, and with her kukris still in hand, she snatched his wrist in an iron grip, and then turned her back towards him, and pressed herself against him, then leaned forwards. Sportsmaster flew over Eternal's back like a ragdoll, and slammed to the roof top, causing dust and dirt to fly up in a small cloud around him.
But Sportsmaster didn't stay down long. He jumped back to his feet- just in time for an arrow to wiz past his face- and with alarming grace, he caught it in his massive hand, and then turned around with amazing speed.
Eternal's eyes saw the arrow, but she couldn't block it fast enough, and Sportsmaster thrust it into her shoulder, causing her to cry out, and reach for it.
Sportsmaster took the opportunity to deliver a hard blow to Eternal's face- causing her to stumble back, and spit out a mouthful of blood she had received when she bit her tongue.
Sportsmaster stopped to bask in the feat, and crossed his arms over his chest as the two heroes watched him, Red Arrow with shock and anger, and Eternal with such a look of rage that even she wasn't aware that she had possessed.
Eternal suddenly reached towards the arrow, and with a straight face, wrapped her fingers around it- and then pulled it straight out without an ounce of pain evident on her face. Sportsmaster's eyebrows shot up, and Red Arrow's eyes nearly jumped out of his skull as Eternal tossed the projectile to the ground, and stood up straight once again.
"I've been too nice, I guess." Eternal sighed as she reached down, and picked up her fallen kukri off of the rooftop, her masked eyes hidden in shadow. Sportsmaster felt something he had not felt in a very long time as he watched the girl pick up her weapons; the rage she was feeling was rolling off of her in tsunamis, and the shiver finally ran up his spine, causing the muscles I his back to tense.
Fear.
Red Arrow couldn't help but feel it too as Eternal finally looked up, her eyes narrow, her face stern, and the small trail of blood coming from the corner of her lip didn't help her fear-provoking demeanor.
"You can forget about mercy now, Crock." Eternal spat as she raised up her weapons, and then suddenly, without any warning, sprinted forward screaming like an animal.
Sportsmaster couldn't react- she knew his name, and she knew how to scare him- plus the agents now beginning to take over.
He was down in a matter of seconds, and unconscious before he even hit the rooftop.
Eternal and Red Arrow stood there for a total of ten seconds before Eternal walked over to him, and held her hand out to him, her expression still stoic as he looked up at it.
"Time to go." She said softly over the sound of crackling wood from the fire the explosion had created. Red gave a soft, barely noticeable nod, and accepted her hand. She pulled him up from the roof, and then quickly assembled her glider, and loosened her holster so that Red could hang on.
The two flew off of the roof, and glided all the way back to the tree line of the woods- and disappeared in the night along with the vials, and two suspicious encrypted files.
-0-
I totally understand if you guys hate my guts. I took FOREVER writing this chapter, and I have no idea why.
Writers block? Computer problems? Pure laziness? I don't know. But I apologize. And I'm not even happy with the finished product.
ALSKJFD;LAKSJFD;L KG UGH.