"This is ridiculous. If you're not gonna help us, get out of our way," orders Superman.

"Not an option Superman. I've got my orders, legal and proper," countermands Captain Atom.

The staring contest is about to become a sparring match, which meant neither of these two power houses are about to back or stand down.

"Dude, Superman just told you to step aside," interjects Huntress.

"I heard him, ma'am. Not gonna happen," retorts Atom.

Atom smashes his red glowing fists into Superman, which sends the Man of Steel flying over Huntress and Question towards the far wall at the end of the comlink shielded corridor. Huntress had made a slight effort to duck knowing otherwise she and an already injured Question would have gone along with Superman into the wall.

"I control radiation Superman. That includes red sun radiation," states Atom.

The good Captain is trying to implore Superman to stand off and walk away. Atom's past as Captain Adams had shaped his predisposition to adhere to the chain of command, to the given orders, but he did not believe perhaps in killing to adhere as well as uphold those orders. Question while not completely conscious had already seen that about him from the night he was taken by Atom to Rockefeller Air Base before Atom was likely told to bring Question here to this underground 'nerve' center.

"Huntress, get Question out of here. Don't wait for me," commands Superman.

"What makes you think I was gonna?" answers Huntress rhetorically.

"Call J'onn for transport when you get outside. This building is comlink shielded."

The irradiated fists of Atom brighten the corridor around them.

"Nobody is going anywhere with Question. Thought I made that clear," retorts Atom.

Superman dodges Atom's swing and lands one of his own smacking the stunned Captain into the wall. Superman then shoves Atom into the other wall yet seconds after that Atom swings around blasting Superman with red sun energy again. He continues whaling away at the Kryptonian with his irradiated fists. It is clearly painful for Superman, but then Superman's level of endurance varies and right about now he is quite possibly determined enough that only one of them is walking out of this corridor conscious. Superman appears to be downed so Atom resumes his attempt to recover Question except Superman body slams into the wall at the opposite end of the corridor yet again hesitates thinking Atom is out cold.

Atom attacks again and so the fight resumes like its start-stop pattern. The only thing compelling them to fight is to counteract what the other is doing here because otherwise there would not be in a reason to fight in theory. It goes back and forth with neither Atom nor Superman gaining the upper hand for long.

Question feels the sensory effects of the electric shock wearing off enough to regain his ability to speak coherently.

"You shouldn't have come after me!" berates Question.

"You shouldn't have snuck off without me!" hisses Huntress.

Both however notice a Cadmus security squad in the open storage area ahead of them. One squad member is about to fire on them except Huntress lunges into action immediately as if on reflex once again like earlier when fighting the security forces on the surface or the guards before springing Question from that emotionless sounding interrogator. The first one she collides with now goes down quick, but his buddy, they go down quicker. A rapid succession of slugging, elbowing, and punching all precede a string of thuds on the metallic floor beneath her heeled boots. Next she turns her attention to the reinforced door behind the knocked out guards.

"Locked, sure why not?" sighs Huntress sarcastically.

The noise is getting louder behind her and Question, which means one of the two is starting to come out ahead though that question is about to answer itself.

"C'mon, c'mon!" yells Huntress.

Superman and Atom smash heads first through the reinforced door together. Huntress pulls Question back to his feet and shoulders him through the breach. The two power houses are still at despite it looking like Superman is overpowering Atom now.

The on foot path way upward is one almost endless series of open stairwells.

"I can't make it," resigns Question.

"Sure you can," pips Huntress.

She fires off the titanium grappler again and together it propels them upward yet their ascent is almost cut off by the ongoing midair punching match between jail breaker and jail warden. The rest of the ascent once clearing the erratic flight fight path places them only a dash from the auxiliary entry/exit.

"This is Huntress, two for emergency transport…" orders Huntress.

"You are no longer a member of the Justice League. Clear this channel immediately," rebukes J'onn.

"Save it, Q is down, and we are under fire. Get us out of here then scan the area Superman won't be far behind," retorts Huntress.

Question feels the familiar tingle of a teleport beam as he looks to Huntress with both admiration and humiliation. Admiration because she did what he knew she would do and humiliation for himself, for attempting what he did that night in Luthor's office. He also felt it for not trusting her enough, for not accepting why Batman kept much of the Justice Lords' incident from him, but Superman had yet to disprove the possibility of Armageddon through Luthor. The pathways to avoid that exist, but then all theories and questions eventually come face to face with realities and answers.

[+++]

Question once aboard the Watchtower is taken to the infirmary level immediately. His injuries while not terribly severe, he still has several broken bones, some fractures and it is difficult to determine what happen to his face if anything. After awhile the medical technicians and orderlies clear out. The recommendations include plenty of bed rest to say the least since his body for the lack of better phrasing screams exhaustion, fatigue, and plenty of other symptoms that are highly suggestive of lack of sleep. He couldn't verbally or inwardly disagree with the recommendations because right now he felt worse than he looks despite the comfort of having Helena at his bedside right now. Question also had the feeling that Superman in all scenarios had beaten Captain Atom to the brink though as for whether Atom would survive the encounter is not something to ponder for other larger things crowd his mind.

Huntress pulls up an oxygen mask to put over his face except he weakly begins to speak again.

"Wait…"

He touches his face for the first time in days, but it felt. He had never worn the mask this long before. The urge to remove it felt stronger the compulsion to keep it on.

"Get this off me…"

She tries to remove it with her hands, but that is not the way, he knows it, he is slow to tell her the right way because he had forgotten almost what it felt like for her to touch him. An affirmation that she is real, that this is not dream that will turn into a nightmare at any second, and that brought him slightly closer to feeling alive again instead of deadening himself to everything that Moon had shown him.

He looks toward his long dark purple trench coat and mumbles something about aerosol in his coat pocket. She pulls it out and deftly aims with precision at his face before spraying it. He knows his hair is the first thing to change back, from dark black to bright red, at times he did despise having reddish hair except he had known about a few red heads in costumes like Flash and Batgirl for starters. His hair color like his name remains a closely guarded secret to all but a few such as Huntress… Helena. There is a tendency for him to mentally correct himself when alternating between Huntress and Helena. Question had more of a tendency to do it, like a reflex, but most often Vic would be the only part of him to consistently think or say Helena instead of Huntress.

She loosens the mask then peels it back quickly to reveal his bruised face, swollen eye and cheeks. He felt uglier on the inside and wondering just a little if this is what other costumes felt when they nearly did kill someone. It felt revolting even a part of him, mostly Question had found irrefutable cause to rationalize the act of killing Luthor and in the days since then he found out how Lorder Batman probably had come to feel about his complicity in the Lords' reign on their Earth. Their Luthor's assassination had found its justification with the alleged trigger button box in the President's desk, but even so, Lorder Superman had walked right into it.

There is no way to know what that Luthor's last thoughts were, but one of them probably had something to do with what he driven Superman to do by killing their Flash. Indeed he had put that Superman on a rampage into that White House, which ended with his death, no last laugh, just gone, dead gone. A situation like that one is still possible on this world, but the pathways to that had to be followed through to their ends unless someone found a way to change what he saw as immutable.

He could feel her fingers in his hair, her eyes looking down on him such affection, he had rarely seen such happiness on her face, it had been fleeting that night they spent together before he given his whole mind over to the Cadmus archives decryption. She felt so warm, so loving, and even more right now. It could make him cry, but his muscles felt so strained that he only felt the phantom tear sensation as he called it.

"You were right – I am the ugliest guy of all time," groans Vic.

I heard you when you said all those weeks ago when you asked for my help to find Mandragora. I chalked it up to being a tease or maybe I really thought I was ugly. One wonders why those who wear masks, wear literal masks too, but beneath plenty of them are visually appealing people though whether or not someone look appealing is in the eye of the beholder as usual.

"Not in my eyes," whispers Helena.

Supergirl had apparently taken interest though Huntress shifts the window from transparent to opaque. She returns to the bed and they kiss in such a way that he knows for certainty that this is no dream, that it is indeed real. He almost makes a mental chuckle associating at all with the word certainty and likely Supergirl would have spoken to Superman by now about Atom… about Hamilton. Huntress is giving Superman some slack, but not a lot even as she knows she would not been able to free Question without his assistance. Superman's presence during Huntress' attempt to break him out had been vital. This fact only alters the situation on a personal level, not a professional one or a global one for that matter.

"What happen, Question? How did Cadmus get ahold of you?" queries Superman.

He hides it well, he is suspicious given my behavior almost a week ago.

"I went to kill Luthor so that you wouldn't be able to," answers Question.

The honest answer to your direction inquiry, but your objection is near.

"That's not how we do things," retorts Superman.

So sure of yourself, but the doubts are there including Luthor, Darkseid and the Thanagarians.

"How do we do things, Superman? Your counterpart killed Luthor, this Luthor is scheming to enrage you-"snaps Question.

Hit a nerve there…

"Doing a pretty good job of it too," concedes Superman.

Recognition a step, but it'll take more than that to advert Armageddon… factors other than yourself made the averting shift of pathways possible… only you stand between yourself and Luthor…

"- ruining your reputation, turning your friends and comrades against you, creating a super powered arms race—but you cannot succumb!"

"I can shut down Cadmus without killing Luthor," insists Superman.

"Carry on, then. If you're wrong, not like it's the end of the world, right?"

Superman exits in silence, there is a battle to be fought within, and the side Question had admired greatly for years appears to be losing, but the battle is not over yet. He had to believe that others could make the hard calls; the right calls because who could save the world when the super heroes are torn between in-fighting and a government sanctioned agency that believes those same heroes are a threat. All the suspicions and theories are hurdling ahead faster than a speeding bullet. Huntress returns after seeing Superman walk out and making a beeline for the turbolift.

[+++]

The voice of J'onn J'onzz can be heard throughout the Watchtower announcing a binary fusion discharge. A cascade of images flash through Vic's mind of everything he saw in the archives including something called Flashpoint-23, which had some unspecific connection to the Dark Heart incident. The connection is the binary fusion gun, which means someone is firing the gun, but it is not being done from up here. There are only at least three individuals who know how to fire it remotely as he had found out both by his own research into the weapon as well as gaining grudging confirmation from Batman several weeks after what happen with the Dark Heart.

One of the three is Luthor.

The memory of the night he tried to kill Luthor clicks into place.

"I'm a well known crackpot, the Justice League's reputation will survive my actions, and Superman's legacy will remain intact."

Appearances are deceiving, my plan did not work because I did not anticipate the extent of this Luthor's plot to enrage Superman and discredit the League at the same time.

"Interesting plan. Unfortunately for you, it won't be an option."

My underestimation left me vulnerable, and something else is still out of place with Luthor.

"President? Foolish faceless man. My campaign is a farce – a small part in a much grander scheme."

I suspected that, I feared it was a cover for something worse, but this, no not this.

"President? Do you have any idea how much power I'd have to give up to be President?" laughs Luthor.

It made sense now, as President he wouldn't be able to accelerate the pathways to war this quickly. As a hidden third faction, he could do things like this, and much more… much worse. Pieces are still missing as for how Luthor had gotten that strong. The Kryptonite cancer led to him getting the chest plate. The suit he wrote in conjunction with the plate made him stronger, but not that strong as AMAZO tore it off with ease years ago.

Luthor relies heavily on misdirection like the fake campaign and financing Cadmus cut down the time it would take to advance all kinds of technology including nanotechnology, which links it to the AMAZO blueprints. He is building another android, but for why exactly remains unclear. Luthor does have an obsession with immortality, but there is more to it that at least in theory yet by pushing his notable enemies and his reluctant allies to war…

he can achieve his plans without interference unless Batman can persuade Waller.

"Close one… no wait… something is wrong… the count is back on… damn," curses Huntress.

"It is too late to stop it… the gun will fire in a matter of seconds… even Superman is not that fast," remarks Question.

The target in all probability is Cadmus, but given the breakout of Question and the 'loss' of Captain Atom, Cadmus will have pulled up stakes yet the act of firing will become the tipping point. The city, the suburbs, and the towns nearest to the target zone would still suffer the back wash and the shockwaves for starters because unlike with Dark Heart, there is no desert surrounding the former Cadmus nerve center. The facility is hidden beneath an isolated warehouse that is only mere miles for a densely populated region in New Mexico. One could almost liken it to Hiroshima or Nagasaki when the atomic bombs fell from the sky and an instant showed the entire world just how destructive humanity had become at the flick of switch or a push of the button. Pandora's Box opens yet again with latest in weapons technology such as the binary fusion gun that protrudes from the underside of the Watchtower II and as already known to the indescribable horror of the station's personnel, heroes and staffers alike, someone is firing it.

[+++]

The abandoned facility would be gone in a matter of seconds and everything… everyone with and near the blast radius would see it from the ground. A moment frozen in time, all eyes on the white glow that rips through the clouds on a sunny afternoon and everything just stops except for the discharge naturally. Next one probably hears a deafening rumbling, electronics go berserk like car alarms all going off at once, the pavement heaves upward, sonic booms, people flee in every direction away from the devastation, but it is coming for them all the same. Vehicles go flying, glass shatters, buildings weaken, structure crumble, and perhaps if there are highways, whatever holds them up gives way suddenly.

The vehicles in motion will attempt to flee or if on the collapsing highway, their drivers will slam the breaks causing massive pileups of metal and maybe even bodies. Windows spider and blow outwards into the air. Stationary objects fly upward then plunge back down and the people continue to search for ways to out run the back wash, but then just as quickly as it had come, it appears to be over, but this… this is only the flashpoint. The worse is still to come after the panic subsides, then there is the confusion like what did this, who did this, and why did they do this. If anyone realizes it is the binary gun then anger, frustration, and rage will follow quickly enough. Resentment is also liable to enter the situation as well, resent the League, and resent the government for allowing the League to have such a weapon, even though the Thanagarian hindsight excuse can be given for its existence, nobody is buying that line anymore.

The plume is visible up close, from within the city, from the outskirts, from the skies above, and even from many miles away. It is unmistakable that it had as much a Pandora effect as the atomic bomb and that was the point especially if Luthor is the one behind the firing. The fact that gun exists and could be taken over in this matter make the League responsible for having it. A responsibility that will cost, but one they'll have to shoulder whether Armageddon comes tonight, tomorrow, or sooner. Undoubtedly the President will be phoning and the Martian will to be diplomatic to say the least.

Someone will likely propose bringing in League assistance to own up and help even when plenty are bound to turn away that help.

[+++]

Cadmus meanwhile is likely on more than just standby, they might even act without authorization, but then they would need the legitimacy to appear legally right and make the League look morally as well as legally wrong. Tensions are building to a boiling point and Waller as Question had come to grasp is not a patient sort nor will she sit idly by thinking that his 'rescue' had precipitated the firing, but that is too large a claim to assert on breaking out one man. Then again it would appear the murder of Flash in the Justice Lords' reality became the tipping point for the surviving six to go after Luthor to remove him by any means necessary from Office. They did just that, but here things are playing out differently yet the results could be far worse than a costumed authority complex, it could lead to a war that the Lords prevented by killing their Luthor.

The Watchtower floats in emergency power mode in orbit while Cadmus likely is preparing to launch a counterattack in response to the firing of the binary gun, but this is not the only reason that triggers such a move. The closer one gets to the source, the more like a black hole it becomes, drawing everything to the center, no matter how far removed one believes they are from this battle because all pathways are converging on this day. Whatever decisions are made, the consequences come right out of the wood work with them even Question knows this.

Everyone is keeping busy just to keep their minds off the fact that power is out and it will take at best an hour to come back online because the discharge took every last bit of energy with it hence the point of calling it a binary weapon. As for Cadmus' leverage against that, they made an Ultimen army to supplement the 'mistakes' made with the first Ultimen. On a genetics standpoint, they were flawed, but as individuals, the only thing that really 'screwed' them up was learning their entire existence was a fabrication yet one had shown individuality to the end. One in mind is the original Long Shadow as by now he and the other original Ultimen have died yet in their place stands an army compromised of dozens, if not hundreds possessing the same abilities and powers.

This is army is the only force available to Cadmus that matches the League for numbers as well as 'firepower' hence a literal manifestation of super powered arms race. The deck is stacking heavily against the League, the odds have never been against them quite like this before, but not all pathways to averting Armageddon are closed off yet.

There are also the references to a device that would enable a user to interface collectively with the Ultimen army, which made the so-called army, nothing more than an extension of the user's intentions towards whoever the user is sent after. Waller would undoubtedly use Galatea to lead the assault because from a genetics standpoint she is most successful one they have ever had, but psychologically is another story.

[+++]

Doubt fills the air, mistrust spreads between the lips, suspicions flow through the minds, and frustration courses the veins. The Watchtower has limited functionality back, but full power is another story. However with both Steel and the Atom on the job, they could shave time, but then time is decidedly not on any one's side right now. Rumor has that Superman is calling a Founders' meeting and the implications are substantial, but at this stage, their decision in part affects the future of the League aside from whatever retaliation that Cadmus is pushing towards right now.

The meeting last only a few minutes before the five still aboard the Watchtower announce their decision and then leave the defenses in the hands of the extended roster as well as the staffers.

[+++]

"Word is going around straight from the Monitor Hub that the Founders are turning themselves as some kind of an olive branch gesture, but somehow I have doubts that Batman would go along with that idea," says Huntress.

You remain as sharp as ever Helena.

"At our last 'meeting', we both realized extreme measures were staring back at us from the near future including things like what I did and what he likely told you he was going to do like 'meet' with Waller. I don't think he'll reach her in time… they'll come after the League soon."

"You think they go that far?"

"I'd count on it…and Galatea is likely to be leading them too."

"The word is also going around that Supergirl has been left in 'charge' up here."

"That could work for and against the Watchtower as well as the Leaguers up here."

"How is that?"

"Put it this way…. Supergirl and Galatea are near equals with their Kryptonian powers except their psychologies are completely opposite plus Galatea didn't get to finish trying to kill Supergirl at their last encounter at Nuvo-Gen as someone set off the self-destruct…"

"The clone's looking for payback… she'll be acting like she's following orders, but she'll take it a lot further than that…"

"Plus if they slave the Ultimen army to Galatea's commands or worse her mind… then we are more trouble than the Watchtower is ready for... but this is not over, not by a long shot."

Outside Question's medical room, everyone is rushing about again faster than before too.

"Sometimes I really hate when you are right Q," grumbles Huntress.

"You think I never hate it too?" snorts Question.

"I think for the last week or so… I think you hated it so much that it made you want to die under Cadmus' heel."

Question can't stomach to answer mainly because his body hurts plenty still and the fact that she got him dead to rights as usual.

"Sometimes I hate being right… I swear there are times where we can read each other's minds."

"I wasn't telepathic the last time I checked…"

"Me neither…"

"I'm almost thinking Superman made the wrong call by going down there when they were coming up here for us."

This time he would have to disagree with her yet again.

"Perhaps… but right now I think we have problems of our own in-bound.

"What are you talking about? You mean Cadmus is going preemptive?"

Steel's voice comes in over the intra-station comlinks and with that the battle for the Watchtower begins, but the missiles are not meant to destroy the station, they are just hull busters to make breaches for the Ultimen. The breaches are also not random ones either because the fighting is already ongoing at the Monitor Hub, the Landing Bays, and the several vital junctures including corridors leading to the reactor room.

The battle in the Watchtower is no longer just about holding the fort, but stopping it from being blown up because frankly Question believes Galatea will not settle for anything less.

[+++]

Closed quarters fighting is the story all across the board even on the infirmary level. Huntress is firing away a squad of Ultimen minus a Long Shadow copy yet her shots are having no effect with the Wind Dragon copy using the wind to deflect her shots. The Juice copy electrically jumps away from the group except the second he rematerializes a bedpan connects with the back of his skull. Question is back in business, well almost, but even with a bedpan his aim is steady. Huntress grins just a bit at him except Wind Dragon is turning up the wind speed. An energy blast comes from behind them. Captain Atom is apparently not about to take this assault lying down either yet injuries are physically more severe than Question's

Both show little surprise whereas the Captain groans as if letting off that shot had taken more out of him than he expected as he flops back down. The lack of power is slowing down his ability to regenerate the damage to his containment suit, which made it vital to get power back otherwise Atom could die from the cracks in the suit. The damage he took during the fight with Superman is far more severe than the damage he took during the mission in China several months ago. He is too weak to fly away from the Watchtower to disperse the energy on his own unlike during the China mission where he only got a really wide rip yet could still fly away to release the energy without harming anyone.

Question goes to Atom's tilted metallic platform bed and at first Huntress seems unable to fathom why he would risk getting that close to a walking reactor except she forces herself to remember that there is a man in that suit too.

"Hold on Captain… power will be back online soon and we'll get you fixed… just hang on Nathan…" implores Question.

"You two should get out of here before my suit breaches… I won't have your deaths on my conscience" insists Atom.

"I'm not going anywhere, either power comes back online and we get you fixed up or power never comes back and whatever Galatea is up to gets us all killed soon enough."

"Then someone has to stop her!"

"I believe Supergirl is the only one up to that task right now."

"For all our sakes this time I hope you are right about Supergirl and power coming back because otherwise… we are all dead."

"I'd like to be right on that count instead of all the other times I have been right in the last few months especially during the last two weeks."

"I should have stopped what they were doing after I brought you in."

Huntress perks up at the word 'I brought you in'. She starts to grab Atom and get ready to finish what Superman had started during the breakout.

"Huntress…Helena… I am asking you to release him!"

"Why should I? He like the rest of those guards kept you there and let those nuts torture you!"

"I could tell he hated it from the start, he went along because they said knew things about Plastique… about Betty."

"This justifies what he did?"

"No, it does not Miss Bertinelli… but my prior associations with a known criminal and former government operative put me in a pickle… plus Eiling was all over my case about my oath to the USAF predating the League 'oath'," groans Atom.

"Eiling was also the head of the project that led him to him becoming Captain Atom."

"It is true ma'am. Betty was also my fiancée at the time, but our political leanings always put us at odds yet we made it work at least until this happen… it cost me her, it cost me my identity because as far as anyone else knows… Captain Nathaniel Adams is dead."

"Then how come Rockefeller still has your file?"

"Rockefeller is where I was stationed before I 'died' and where I lived on a base house with Betty until that time. She left after my presumed death and it was only recently that I started hearing stories about a villain named Plastique who by description alone bore a strong resemblance to her."

"Question told you about Task Force X?"

"Yes, but of course I also did recognize her among those four posing as staffers when that Annihilator weapon was stolen from the Vault… tried to shield her from the blast… didn't work out so well… after that she was spirited off the Watchtower."

"I searched for her to some extent even though my attention as you both know was latched onto Cadmus."

"I'm a patriot, but some things that were done even during my brief time in that clubhouse were dead wrong… my concerns now involve saving the League and finding Betty if she's still alive."

Huntress let go of him and pries off her mask with some sign of tears in her eyes.

"You are so willing to put your neck out for apparent strangers Mister Sage."

"Somebody has to, because not everyone else will Captain."

"Call me Nathaniel or Nathan."

"I'll consider it."

"More than I deserve…"

Atom's gaze drifts towards a somewhat teary eyed Helena Bertinelli.

"I know what you mean…"

Question's gaze is on her too. The Watchtower rumbles from below, something is happening in the reactor room with the generators, as for what, that remains uncertain and the battles continue all across the station as too. This battle is far from over.


A/N 1: Set during Flashpoint and Panic In The Sky. Unlike Question Authority, there are far less Question related scenes to work with so I instead chose to merge the ones from the two episodes. More of the action is on the ground during Flashpoint whereas Panic In The Sky is all aboard the Watchtower (not a pun on the song if you know what I mean).

A/N 2: Half of this one deals with the implications of the breakout and the firing of the binary gun. The other half deals with the assault on the Watchtower though in particular the scene where Huntress and Question get a covering shot from Captain Atom.

A/N 3: As for the back story I added in for Atom, its based on Atom's origin stories from the comics. The show only states he is a USAF officer and before looking into his origins I didn't know he had any ties to Eiling or Plastique, so I made use of that... they always seem to be retconning things in the comics too.

A/N 4: My reinterpreation of Captain Adams makes him a little more like his Watchmen inspired counterpart Dr. Manhattan in the sense that romantic relationships are impacted and decidedly hindered by him becoming Captain Atom.