Yeah sorry this took so long but now I am dealing with some family problems so I was only able to write this through the small slips of time that I actually was able to find. After finishing this chapter though I realized how close I actually am to finishing it. Almost done already when I thought it would take a lot longer. Then I will be able to go back to my other stories that I am having trouble finishing…go me.
Chapter 6: Puzzle Pieces
Wally sat on the floor of the kitchen with his back against the counter. He bounced a ball against the wall and caught it in his hands. Yesterday Batman had his little discussion with Talia. When they got back to the cave Batman radioed the league and the teenage team listened in, it was official, Robin was gone and his body was being possessed by a demon. Since then the team had been moping in the cave and Wally had been in the same position for hours. It was now 2:00 in the morning and he was still at it.
Artemis walked into the kitchen and frowned at the sight of the tired speedster in shorts and a t-shirt.
"Wally," she sighed and took a seat next to the red head. He grabbed the ball again and looked at Artemis with tired eyes. Artemis hesitantly placed her hand on his arm and rubbed it.
"He's really gone isn't he," Wally said defeated.
"You don't know that," Artemis said placing her hands on top of his. Wally shrugged them off.
"You heard Talia last night…he's dead," he said throwing the ball at the wall again so hard that it bounced sideways and hit the couch in the den. Artemis grabbed his hands again and made him turn to her.
"I'm not one to believe until I see it for myself," Artemis said back.
"Yeah well it's not like that's going to happen. Even if Talia comes through it's not like Batman is going to tell us anything. He couldn't even look us in the eye after his little meeting with her," Wally said.
Maybe we have to beat them too it," Artemis said standing up. Wally looked at her in confusion.
"What are you talking about?"
"Like you I couldn't really fall asleep. So I did some digging," she said and held her hand down to the red head. Wally took it cautiously and allowed her to pull him up. She walked him to the computer room and slid her hand across the air allowing the computer screen to shimmer to life. She pulled up a file of a building.
"What is that?" Wally asked loudly.
"Shhh," Artemis said and punched him in the shoulder.
"Ow hurt shoulder, remember," he whispered.
"Then shut up. Some of the people sleeping here have super hearing remember."
Wally blushed sheepishly but nodded none the least.
"Anyway I did some digging to anything that seemed out of the ordinary that the Shadows were involved in and then I remembered something; the incident that started it all." Artemis said.
"Weren't you the one who said that the Lazarus pit in the medication was just a way to lure Robin out," Wally said skeptically.
"Do you want my help or not," Artemis hissed. Wally held his hands up in defense and allowed the archer to continue.
"As I was saying, I looked into other medical facilities that raised any red flags and I found one," she said and Wally came up next to her and read the words.
"LexCorp," Wally hissed "Of course how could we have missed that," he said.
"Because Luther isn't part of the Shadows, there was no reason to look into him."
"So what did you find?" Wally asked. Artemis scrolled down.
"It says that there has been a halt in production since last week. No new medication has been released to the public but there is no reason for it, it hasn't even had a recall," she answered him.
"That is a little bit suspicious. We should head over there," Wally said walking towards the changing rooms to grab his uniform.
"Hold it," Artemis said grabbing Wally. "It's almost three in the morning even if we went their now we would be too tired to do anything helpful. I Think we need to sleep," she said and shut the computer off.
"I can't sleep now. Not when we finally have a lead."
"Wally," Artemis said with a glare and Wally frowned.
"Yes ma'me," Wally said and allowed Artemis to drag him to the caves bed rooms.
The next day Artemis and Wally walked into the kitchen already dressed in jeans and their winter jackets. M'gann yawned as she pulled out some muffins from the oven. She turned to see the two team members take a seat next to Superboy and Aqualad who were already situated at the counter.
"Good morning," Aqualad said to the two and Superboy tiredly waved hello.
"Are we going somewhere," M'gann asked in question.
"I thought Wally could use a small break from everything," Artemis said gingerly taking one of the hot muffins.
"I don't know if separating at this time is the best idea," Kaldur spoke.
"We aren't going to do anything dangerous," Wally said a little too quickly. Conner looked at him skeptically. He could tell that Wally and Artemis were hiding something but he knew it wasn't his place to intervene. Not after all the secrets he kept for so long with the shields and meeting with Luther.
"You saw how Wally was. I just want to take his mind off of it for a little bit. We are just going to Metropolis for a bit to do some site seeing. You can't go to a city friendlier then that," Artemis said. Aqualad looked at the two for a moment and then sighed.
"Fine but please be careful. We don't need anyone else getting hurt," he said and the two nodded.
With a grab of the muffins the two teens made their way to Metropolis through the zeta tubes. Once there they made their way to LexCorp's medical facility.
"How are we supposed to get in?" Wally asked looking at the guards and all the security. They had both taken a seat in front of a small café across from the building and watched it with a coffee and a hot chocolate in their hands.
"We aren't going in Kid Idiot," Artemis said.
"Then what are we doing here?" he asked. Artemis rolled her eyes. She had forgotten that this wasn't Kid Flashes expertise. He was use to running and fighting with Superboy and Aqualad where M'gann, Artemis, and Robin were the ones to do the scouting.
"You need to be patient Wally, I wasn't lying to Kaldur. We aren't to do anything stupid," she said.
"So we just wait and look for what?" Wally asked.
"Anything suspicious, someone from the shadows or the light, anything," she said. After two hours and three hot drinks later Wally finally yawned.
"This isn't working. It's just a bunch of people who work there going in and out," Wally groaned. Artemis had to admit maybe she was wrong. Maybe it was just a regular medical facility that just was doing something to their pills so they took them off the market for the moment. Just as she was thinking of changing tactics a limousine pulled up to the front of the building. She watched at it suspiciously as it stayed there silently; it must have been waiting for someone.
Wally was also waiting to see who would come out and as the doors to the building open his eyes widen in horror; it was Dick and the man he recognized as his Uncle Rick. Wally stood up sharply as the two of them walked down to the limo in expensive looking black coats. After getting in, the limo drove away.
"Wally," Artemis shouted as the speedster took off after the limo causing Artemis' hair to fly in her face. Artemis shoved her hair out the way and she yelled for the red head to stop; but it was too late. Wally tailed the car quickly and watched as it stopped in front of a fancy restaurant. He stopped and hid at the mouth of an alley way and watched as Dick and Rick got out.
Wally cursed as he suddenly realized that he left Artemis behind. He looked down at his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. He texted Artemis an apology and the address of the restaurant but when he looked up he gasped as Robin stood in front of him with a smile.
"Kid Flash I presume," Aamir said with sharp eyes.
"I…I…" Wally stuttered. He had been searching for Dick for so long but he never prepared for what to say to the monster that wore his friend like a shirt.
"Have I rendered you speechless? I tend to do that even in this body. He was a friend yes?" Aamir asked. This made Wally angry.
"Give him back," Wally shouted and took a step forward. Aamir frowned and threw his hand forward pushing Wally against the brick wall with speed that could even rival Flash. Wally shouted in pain as the smaller teen dug his nails into his hurt shoulder.
"I don't take kindly to those who tell me what to do child," Aamir hissed. Wally gritted his teeth to keep himself from shouting. Rick walked around the corner and stopped at the sight of the two.
"Do you need me to make him…disappear," Rick smiled.
"No Clayface. The league is already on our tail for my host I don't need another body to make them pissed off. But I can stall them enough that my plans can be completed," Aamir laughed. Suddenly Wally felt a searing coldness seep into his shoulder. He shuddered and Aamir let him go. Wally gripped his shoulder tightly and realized that it no longer hurt in fact it felt better than it had in a long time.
"You healed me?" Wally asked in confusion.
"Yep," Aamir said with what could be considered a sincere smile "Blood no longer flows through this body but the substance of the Lazarus Pit. Enjoy it now because you know what will happen in a little bit," he laughed and walked out of the ally way. Wally's eyes widen realizing what he meant and watched Rick smile and turned to follow Dick.
Artemis ran to the address that Wally had texted her. She looked around and tried to spot the red head or something that would indicate where he was. She past the ally way and caught a blur of red in the corner of her eye. She looked back and found him crouched against the wall with his hands over his ears.
Artemis ran and dropped in front of him.
"Wally…Wally…Kid Flash…" she shouted and shook him hard. He looked at her but it was like he couldn't see her.
"Flash…speed…Speed of sound…the distance travelled during a unit of time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium," Wally began to babble.
"What?" Artemis arched her eyebrow in confusion.
"In dry air at 20 °C, the speed of sound is 343.2 meters per second. This is 1,236 kilometers per hour or approximately one mile in five seconds," the red head continued to blab out the facts of the speed of sound.
"Wally you aren't making any sense," Artemis said beginning to really freak out now. As she shook him she realized she was pressing his shoulder and she pulled back worried she was going to injure him more. On further inspection she noticed something off. She pulled back Wally's sleeve and noticed that his wrapped bandages had fallen loose and the two deep wounds were now nothing more than two small welts.
Artemis gripped Wally's hands from his ears and rested them on her own cheeks comfortingly.
"Wally what happen. Come on listen to me," she shouted.
"Listening…The function of the ears, inner ear, and the eyes. They talk to and receive information from the other two systems at all times. The elaborate communication system between these three major senses must be coordinated smoothly and efficiently for optimal functioning to occur…"
"Damn it," Artemis whispered. She had to get him back to the cave or at least to the hospital but as she tried to pull him up he just scrunched himself into a tighter ball and his body vibrated. She knew that she wouldn't be able to handle this on her own. In a panic she looked up to the sky and took a deep breath.
"SUPERMAN!"
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
On the other side of the country the sun had just come up in Star City, California. Roy rolled over in his bed and placed his hand next to him. He groaned and opened his eyes slowly. He patted the sheets and then shot up in his bed allowing the blanket over him to fall slightly and reveal his shirtless chest. The door to his bathroom opened and he turned his head quickly. Cheshire came out of the bathroom with nothing but a short towel around her body and steam billowing out behind her.
"You're finally up," Jade smirked as she combed her hand through her think hair.
"What time is it?" Roy asked.
"Around seven. Your shower is free now if you want it," she said as Roy watched her walk out of the bedroom. He grumbled and went to take his own shower.
Jade walked into the familiar den looked around. She turned on the television as she went around the room picking up her clothes. The news woman on the television had a picture of a rocket next to her.
"The Com-Link satellite that has been in planning has finally been authorized. It will take a little over four years but when it is finished it will allow Earth and its sister planet Mars to finally communicate," The woman spoke. Jade rolled her eyes as she began to place her undergarment on under the towel. She could already figure out that as soon as the light hears about this that someone will be hired to shoot it down. She wanted no part in such a silly job. The TV then showed a picture of a nuclear power plant.
"In other news after the mutated plants destroyed the Taipei power plant five months ago it was finally rebuilt. It was supposed to reopen tomorrow but it seems that last night a large supply of Uranium hexafluoride was stolen which is needed for the plants reactor…"
Jade's eyes narrowed.
"They're moving faster than I expected," she said out loud.
"Who's moving faster than expected," Roy asked coming into the den in nothing but a towel around his waist and a smaller towel around his neck.
Jade turned the TV off quickly.
"Nothing," She said dropping the towel and then slipping on her Kimono. She tied the short costume and grabbing her mask. Roy looked at her skeptically but didn't push it. Jade smiled and placed the mask on her face become Cheshire once again.
"Did you want to stay for some breakfast," Roy asked walking to the small kitchen nook and grabbing two bowls from the cupboard.
"Sorry Red but I don't have the time," Cheshire said "Last night I was only supposed to give you Talia's message and then leave."
"It seems that didn't go according to plan," Roy snorted pouring himself some cereal.
"A girl's got to be flexible sometimes. Otherwise life would be so boring wouldn't it?" Cheshire said sauntering over to the red head.
"Ra's al Ghul moved Aamir into America. The location of where he is staying is a secret even to Talia." Cheshire said as she took out a UBS drive from her kimono. She handed it Roy. "Talia does know that he was visiting Metropolis to see LexCorp, and all the information that she knows so can be found in there; all the plans that he has been setting up and all the history of the demon Aamir."
"Let's take a look," Roy said and was about to walk to his laptop.
"Don't try it, it won't work. It's encrypted so that only Batman can read it." Cheshire said. Roy growled slightly as Cheshire walked to the window and opened it.
"You can take the door you know," Roy said.
"You know me. I'm more of a window type of gal," she said before slipping out.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Superboy was fixing his bike when the zeta beam announced their arrival.
'Superman 0-1, Kid Flash B0-3, Artemis B0-7,' it announced. Superboy listened and then dropped the wrench from his hands. Something was wrong. First of all Superman was in the cave which was always within itself bad but there also no sound of Wally and Artemis bickering or even just talking. The heart beats were all wrong as well. Wally's heart was always faster than the rest but it was still a steady heartbeat. Now he found himself listening to two normal speed hearts and one fast erratic one.
Conner ran to the Zeta Tubes and his eyes widen at Artemis and Superman holding Wally piggy back style. Wally's eyes darted back and forth as he looked around in fear.
"What's happened," the teen demanded.
"We found Robin that's what happened," Artemis frowned.
"I'm taking him to the medical room get J'onn, and Flash," Superman said and carried Wally away.
After Artemis contacted the heroes she went to the den where Superboy, Aqualad, and M'gann stood. M'gann had tears in her eyes after Superboy told her the state Wally was in.
"Are you alright?" Aqualad asked walking up to the archer and placed a hand on her shoulder. She slowly shook her head.
"What happened to Wally," M'gann asked.
"I don't know I wasn't there," Artemis said. She banged her fist against the couch in anger.
"I thought all you guys were going to do some sightseeing," Superboy said. Artemis looked away with guilt.
"What are you not telling us," Aqualad asked.
"We were sightseeing but…we were sightseeing LexCorps medical facility."
"What," the other three yelled in unison.
"Why would you even be near there?" Superboy growled. Artemis sighed and told them about her hunch and how the two of them went to stake the place out.
"That was when we saw Robin, sorry…Aamir," she finally said "I tried to stop Wally but he ran after the car. He texted me the coordinates but when I got there he was already like this. He was just…acting crazy."
Kaldur's eyes widen "Crazy like what the people who took the heart medication?" he asked the archer. Artemis realized where he was going with this.
"Yeah exactly like that, not to mention the injury on his shoulder was almost completely gone."
"This Demon that has taken Robin's body must have injected Wally with the liquid from the Lazarus Pit," the Atlantian said.
"The victims that were found," M'gann said "Have any of them gotten better yet?" she asked hopefully. Aqualad slowly shook his head.
"No."
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aamir sat on his thrown like chair once again with a small tablet in his hands and Clayface in his original human body to his side. The doors open and Ra's Al Ghul along with Talia, Cheshire, Sensei, and a few others of the Shadows came in.
"You wished to see us," Ra's asked bowing his head slightly. Talia looked around the room and tried to keep the details in her head. Now that she and Cheshire knew where the demon was staying she could get the information to Batman as soon as possible.
"Yes perfect you are all on time," the demon said.
"Did you need us to do anything for you," Ra's asked. Aamir stood up with the tablet in his hands.
"I have been having some trouble," the demon said slyly "Yesterday I discovered that many of the locations of my Lazarus Pits have been found by the Justice League. Wonder Woman found the one on Egypt and Flash found the one in Paris. Not to mention my favorite one in Tibet was found by Doctor Fate and destroyed. I hate Nabu," Aamir said with a hiss.
"I will dispatch my men to take the heroes down," Ra's said.
"I already did that andthat is not why I called you here," Aamir said "I found myself wondering how the Justice League was able to find my Pit's so quickly. That's when I went looking through my hosts memories. It's a good thing that he was the partner to a member of the League or then I would never have been able to put two and two together," he said and looked over at Talia.
He took a closer step to the brunette and Talia gulped slightly.
"You are in love with Batman," he said. Ra's took a step forward.
"My lord, my daughter has always been infatuated with the detective but that has never caused her to-"
"Silence!" Aamir shouted at the man "The only people who know the whereabouts of all the Pits are in this room. You, Sensei, and your daughter, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt."
"My lord," Talia stated in fear and looked to Cheshire who just took a few of her own step's back. Talia looked back at the demon "I have given you no reason to think I would betray you. I was the one who gave you your body. The body of the son to the man I love. If there is still question after that…"
"I thought that as well. But let me tell you something I like about this century more than the one I previously ruled," Aamir said and began to type on his tablet that brought up a holoscreen "In this century they have cameras which my host is very familiar to working with," he said a pressed the tablet again.
The holoscreen showed an image of a large computer that showed the time of last night stamped at the bottom. Talia stared at the screen with wide eyes and began to take a step back but was stopped as Aamir quickly grabbed her arm.
"Where are you going…you're going to miss the best part," he smiled dangerously. Talia tried to get her arm out but his grip was too tight. She never knew Robin to have this kind of strength.
She watched the screen as the image revealed herself and Cheshire sneaking into the computer room and Talia grabbing a USB stick and plugging it into the computer. She downloaded information and pulled the stick back out. She then handed it to the cat assassin.
"Make sure he gets this. I encrypted it so only he can see it," the Talia on the screen said. Aamir pressed the tablet again and the screen paused.
"I believe that the people on the screen are you two, is it not?" Aamir asked and looked back at the women. Cheshire didn't even give Talia a chance to answer. She grabbed smoke bombs from her kimono and threw it causing smoke to release.
"Kill her!" Aamir shouted as he threw Talia to the ground. The assassins took out their guns and began to shoot at Cheshire as they chased after her. Clayface soon followed changing back into his monstrous form. Ra's al Ghul quickly fell to his daughter's side and shook her.
"What have you done," he demanded. Talia sniffed back her tears.
"I never wanted the demon to be revived. I did it for you; I killed an innocent child for you."
"He isn't innocent he helped stopped our plans time after time. Lord Aamir would have fulfilled our every wish," he said. Talia opened her mouth but she suddenly began chocking. Ra's looked at her in confusion and then turned to see Aamir standing over them with his hand out stretched towards Talia.
"You made a grave mistake girl," Aamir said squeezing his fist and Talia held her throat while gasping for air.
"Please my lord I beg your forgiveness. She was confused," Ra's pleaded. Aamir glared at them but dropped his hand allowing Talia to breath.
"Lock her up," Aamir said and Sensei and another guard lifted the girl up "You should be gracious Al Ghul; I don't usually take pity on my men."
Ra's bowed deeply as Talia was dragged out of the room.
"Yes I am most thankful my lord. I will do anything you need."
"Good. Then call Luther, I want to move up the launch date."
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
J'onn walked out of the medical room and was stopped by the teens and Flash.
"How is he?" Flash asked anxiously.
"Not good I'm afraid," the Martian said "It is the same thing with the rest of the victims. His mind cannot seem to concentrate on any one thing."
"There has to be something that we can do," M'gann said.
"The only thing I can think of is to give it time. With his metabolism so much faster than most we can just hope that the Lazarus will detox from his system quickly," J'onn said.
"Damn it," Flash said and zoomed away. The group looked at each other and followed him. They found him joined with the other heroes of Superman, Red Tornado, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Batman.
"I promise Barry he will get better," Black Canary said to Flash. Flash could do nothing but hang his head. He didn't know if she was right or not but he couldn't stop to think about these things just a way to find a cure for his nephew.
"So where do we hit them next?" He asked punching his fist into the palm of his hand. Superman smiled at the man's vigor and Batman turned to see the rest of the group.
"Artemis explain," he demanded.
"I wasn't there but it seems that Wally came in contact with Aamir. He did something to Wally using the Lazarus but I don't know what," she said. Batman sighed and took out the UBS drive that Cheshire gave Red Arrow to give to him.
"I have an idea," he said and put the encrypted file up "It seems that this demon does not only live in the Lazarus Pit but is essentially made up of the substance. He could have done this to Kid Flash just by touching him."
"Did you find out why Aamir is doing all of this?" Black Canary asked.
"Yes," Batman growled "He's doing the same thing that Ra's al Ghul always tries to do. He feels the world is falling into chaos so he wants to restart it in his image. To do that he is going to destroy most of civilization," the Dark Knight explained and pulled up a picture of medical facilities and pictures of the rainforest and deserts along with some other images.
"What does it all mean?" Aqualad asked.
"It seems that Aamir has three steps, the first to slowly break down humanity."
"That's where the Lazarus in the pills is for isn't it," Green Arrow said and Batman nodded.
"With the human population spiraling downward he is also getting funds and help to balance out the natural part of the world."
"How is he doing that?" Superboy asked.
"Apparently the chemical compound found in the Lazarus pit can help with the environment. Remember Queen Bee's plan to stop Desertification?" Batman asked.
"She's using the Lazarus Pits," M'gann said.
"Yes after the Earth can substance itself and most of humanity in chaos they would never be able to deal with the last part of the plan."
"Which is what?" Superman asked. Batman brought up another file and Black Canary gasped.
"Nuclear disaster," Black canary whispered.
"Are they the ones that stole the uranium hexafluoride from the power plant," Green Arrow asked.
"It seems likely," Flash said sadly. With his forensic background he could easily see it all coming together.
"So we know what they are doing let's get them," Superboy growled.
"We still don't know where they are though," Artemis said. Just then the Zeta Tube lit up.
'Recognized Red Arrow 2-1, accesses granted Cheshire A0-7 authorization Red Arrow 2-1'
At the mention of her name everyone raised their arms or weapons ready for the assassin. What they didn't expect was Red Arrow to come in holding Cheshire in his arms with her mask missing and blood dripping from her stomach. Red Arrow looked at them with pleading eyes under his mask.
Please…help me."
See things are now coming together. I always try doing research for my stories and sometimes they work and sometimes not so much. I have no idea if my nuclear babble is correct but there it is.
So for my Young Justice Rant it will be a little long since I didn't get this out in time before Impulse. I am happy with what they did with Bart. I never really liked the character in the comics since it was kind of like a what you see is what you get character too me. But the way they wrote him in made it show there is more to him and that his personality might just be to hide the way he feels. I am also happy they find the original Roy and can I say that Roy's daughter is the CUTEST thing ever. And of course we get Wally in his costume again…Enough said although I wish they had more of his old sense of humor.
The latest episode I think I watched like twenty times already, it was just so mature and serious. I really thought they were going to kill Artemis off and have it canon with the comics so Wally would end up with Linda. I am still very happy with this that it was all planned out with the pill that slows down her heart enough so she seems dead.
And of course Aqualad is still my Aqualad. I never doubted it for a second *cough don't re-read the end of chapter 3 cough* I still question his loyalty though. Why electrocute Lagoon boy to get him caught in the first place. Makes me suspicious, whatever I still love him.
One last thing I found this article that discussed the episode Beneath that confirms my suspicions. Did anyone notice at the end the other kids with Tye? I know you're supposed to suspect Tye to be the Apache Chief but if you look next to him the kids look a whole lot like Black Vulcan, Samurai and El Dorado. Hmmm makes you think…The Super Friends are back baby xD
Review Kindly please.