Saleen's shield cracked under the weight of a blow from one of the soldiers. She managed to push one away, but two more sprang to take his place. Desperately, she released a flash of light, hoping to blind them momentarily. Some seemed slightely muddled, but to her intense disappointment, three leaped at her simultaniously.

She fended them off as best she could, still running through possibilities in her head. She had never seen this race before, and her ring could not identify them. The armor was strange as well, though unfortunately very effective. Their weapons were also unfamiliar, and just as effective. That was proven as a sudden blast caught her in the back and threw her in a stack of boxes.

Without the protection from her ring, Saleen was certain she would have been killed as one of the soldiers grabbed her arm and flung her onto the floor. As it was, she would definitely have a nasty bruise. She tried to push herself up, but an armored foot knocked her back down again. Desperation tried to creep in, but she refused to let it. All would be well. She just had to hold on long enough...

"All right, back off!"

The familar voice cut sharply through the haze starting to build around Saleen's mind, and she looked up to see a dark-clad figure perched atop some shelves near an open window. That voice and shape-Brittany?

"That means you, ugly! Yeah, you! Move away from the Blue Lantern!" Brittany moved forward as she spoke, bow and arrow held and ready to shoot. One of the soldiers suddenly appeared behind her, preparing to strike her down, and Saleen opened her mouth to shout a warning. Before she could say anything, however, Brittany sprang off the shelves and executed a perfect somersault in midair before landing and spinning around, shooting the soldier in the shoulder in one swift move. Before the other soldiers could take more than two steps toward her, she had another arrow on the string and ready.

"I mean it you guys. Move," she snapped.

Some of the soldiers backed off, and Saleen took advantage of that to release a burst of energy from her ring, which pushed more of them back and give her the chance to stand up. She forced her mind to clear as she quickly assessed the situation.

In an instant, Brittany was beside her, releasing another arrow at a charging soldier. Saleen blocked a blow from another, and the two young women placed themselves back to back.

"You should not have come, Brittany," Saleen told her. "It is not safe."

Brittany snorted. "It isn't safe for you, either. Besides, I got Oracle in my ear, telling me what needs to be done. Oh, and it's Black Arrow."

"Black Arrow, then. Are you prepared to fight?"

Brittany looked around at the soldiers, who were clearly preparing to rush the two of them. "That's what I'm here for, isn't it?" Her voice betrayed a hint of nervousness.

Saleen mentally readied herself for combat. "All will be well."

The soldiers attacked.

Amber's eyes darted across her screens as she kept an eye on things happening around the warehouse, looking for some way she could tip the battle in her friends' favor. Some activity just outside caught her attention.

"Brit," she said. "Some guys are moving something out the back, right beside that truck. It looks like some sort of containment pod..." She trailed off, sending an order to the satellite she had a link to, and zoomed in on the area. "Yeah, heat readings indicate that there's someone alive in there, apparently in stasis. It's well-secured; I think you should check it out. Before they get away."

"Sure, I'll do that," Brittany's voice came back over her phone, via the comlink Amber had given her before she had gone out. "Just as soon as we finish trouncing these idiots!"

Amber glanced at the screen where Brittany and Saleen were a blur of dark and light as they fought off the soldiers. Saleen's ring seemed to glow a bit more as her voice came, "If we can reach the door, I can hold them while Bri-Black Arrow investigates."

Amber quickly scanned the area. "There's a big guy with his helmet half-covering his eyes. He's not too far from the door, and if you knock him directly back, he'll probably take some of his friends down with him..."

Saleen's foot swung around and the soldier crashed to the ground, knocking down two other behind him. A third struggled to keep his balance, but went over as both women sprang to the door. Saleen spun around in the doorway to hold off the soldiers while Brittany continued running. Amber tracked her progress and gave her instructions. "Take the door just to your right... Now go across the room, bearing a little to your left. Farther to your left. Okay, that door. There's a stair on the other side..."

Brittany reached the door to the outside and charged out at the three soldiers carrying the pod. A few well-placed arrows quickly had two on the ground and one pinned to the truck; all of them out of the fight. Brittany raced over to the pod and examined it.

"Looks like there is someone inside, but I'm not sure how to open it," she said. "Who would be in here, anyway?"

"I don't know," Amber said, dividing her attention between Saleen-who seemed to be doing all right for the moment-and zooming in to get a closer image of the pod. She quickly located the opening mechanism and gave Brittany instructions. In a moment, Brittany had the lid released; it opened with a hiss that Amber could hear through Brittany's comlink. She found herself staring at the figure inside.

A woman, clad entirely in ancient Greek armor, lay with her eyes closed. It was no one that Amber had seen before, though she did look oddly familiar. After a momentary pause, Brittany asked, "So...who is this?"

The woman's eyes suddenly opened, and she sat up abruptly. Brittany took a quick step back as she looked around, confusion evident on her face. Her mouth moved, but Amber couldn't hear what she was saying. Hurriedly, she tried to locate a sound device in the area; she finally found one and linked it to her computer just as Brittany said, "We're the good guys."

"And these creatures..." the woman looked at the three soldiers, only one of whom was still conscious. "What are they? And what do they want?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Brittany responded. "Will you help us?"

The woman gave a short nod. "My sword is yours."

"Brit, who is she?" Amber asked.

"She said she's an amazon," Brittany responded. "But she doesn't know how she got here or anything."

The woman-the amazon-was looking at her strangely. "To whom do you speak?"

"I'm talking to Oracle. She's kind of our tech expert."

"The oracle is here?" Amber got a flash of amusement before she noticed that Saleen wasn't doing so well anymore.

"Not that oracle!"

"Later, you two," Amber put in. "Saleen's not going to last much longer. She needs help."

"Right." Brittany started for the door. "Oracle says our friend needs us; she's this way."

The amazon followed after her, looking around curiously. "By Hera, this is a strange place indeed."

"Geez, listen to her," Brittany muttered. "Who talks like that anymore?"