Usual disclaimer applies.

Chapter 5 - The fight

Tam was an act first, think later kind of guy. He didn't understand why people spent ages thinking their decisions through before making them (if they ever made them at all), when they could simply do whatever it was they wanted to, defrost any limbs that get frozen in the process, and move on with their lives. That's what he did, and teachers, his family, and various innocent bystanders had spent years lecturing him over it. Now, he thought he finally understood why.

His 'pink-haired angel' had come out of nowhere and caught Querl fiddling with the bomb, and Tam had been so hung up on her that he didn't distract her when Querl had asked him too. She'd surrounded Querl with a force field, stopping his breathing, and Tam had panicked. Now, Angel lay outside the arcade, surrounded by glass shards, having been thrown through the window by the thick vine lying next to her. She was bleeding slightly from cuts on her arms and legs, and a nasty bruise was slowly forming on her forehead, but the thing that scared Tam the most was the look of pure fury painted on her face.

Tam took a few steps back and gulped, now deciding that dying his father's hair blue for calling him irresponsible all those years ago, may have been unfair.

Lyle had just finished searching the large arcade's rather disgusting bathrooms when he heard a massive crash echo through the mall. He froze for a moment, tilting his head and listening, trying to figure out where exactly the sound was coming from. A second crash sounded, followed by a muffled yell, all coming from the direction of the other arcade. Lyle frowned; worried for his friend. Despite the number of people she'd scared into thinking otherwise, she wasn't anywhere near as tough as she acted, and had a very nasty habit of getting in over her head. Lyle was still learning this the hard way, even after years of knowing her.

Weisha had grown up on the streets; forced to steal supplies and fight off anyone that got in her way (or looked at her funny) just to survive. She'd been good at it though, her powers and rather extensive collection of insults and curses definitely coming in handy, and had managed to protect not only herself, but also a small group of homeless kids. Lyle, as the son of the local police chief, had heard constant stories about her and what she'd been up to; mostly by sneaking around the station and listening in on conversations he shouldn't have.

Unfortunately, it all eventually went to Weisha's head, and she took to stealing bigger and more dangerous things, and picking fights with people more powerful than her. When Lyle first met her face-to-face, she'd been arrested and was sitting in a holding cell, barely conscious, badly beaten up, and spouting not very nice things about the Science Police and the gang member she'd messed with.

She'd managed to escape (to this day, Lyle still had no idea how exactly), and went back to quietly surviving for a few months. Until of course, her ego and temper got the better of her once more and she dove head-first into even more trouble than the first time.

She'd continued on like that for a few years, Lyle occasionally bailing her out of trouble when he was bored (or grounded and not very happy about said grounding), until Lyle had received an invitation to the Legion of Superheroes. In a moment of either genius or utter stupidity (he still wasn't entirely sure), he'd agreed, on the condition that they accept Weisha as well. He'd figured that if anyone could put Weisha's powers and volatile personality to good use, it was the Legion.

A minor fuss ("Who does he think he is, adding conditions to an invitation?!"), a temper tantrum that resulted in a major traffic incident ("You want me to join what!?"), another much larger fuss ("Did it ever occur to you to let us know she was a criminal before she moved in!?"), a kidnapping, and many bribes and violent sparring sessions later, and Weisha and Lyle were settling into life in the Legion and a comfortable friendship. Well, as comfortable as they could manage with Weisha still occasionally wreaking havoc as revenge for said kidnapping.

Lyle was snapped out of his thoughts by another crash and a string of words he was not going to repeat, and he took off toward the other arcade, fading to invisible mid-flight, and really hoping Weisha hadn't gotten herself into too much trouble this time. Lyle was extremely intelligent (a genius by human standards in fact) and a brilliant tactician, but he was worried that one day Weisha was going to drag them into something even he couldn't get them out of.

Fortunately his worries were unfounded this time. As he landed a short distance away from the arcade, he found that Weisha had simply gotten in yet another fight. Although, this was quite possibly her most ridiculous one yet.

She was all wrapped up in one of her force fields and hovering just a few feet above the ground, appearing to be trying to shake off a wave of dizziness. She apparently succeeded, as a moment later she threw herself, bubble included, through the remains of the arcade window and at her opponent. A second later, she came hurtling back out at high speed, bouncing off a few walls like some kind of giant bouncy ball, before landing back on the ground looking extremely sea-sick.

Nothing came out of the arcade to attack her while she was down though, so Lyle took the opportunity to sneak inside, all the while trying very hard to not burst out laughing at his friend. It would defeat the point of his invisibility and make him look bad after all.

As he entered the rather smashed-up building, Lyle was surprised to find Weisha's 'opponent' was the green-haired boy she'd saved the day before. Tam, if he remembered correctly. He was standing in an awkward-looking defensive stance, surrounded by huge vines and tree roots that he'd pulled out of who-knows-where, a wildly panicked look plastered across his face. His friend from the day before, the green-skinned boy, lay unconscious a few feet behind him, the elusive third bomb at his side.

Convinced that Tam was just trying to defend himself and his friend and that Weisha wasn't in any real danger (unless you counted the lunch she'd had earlier or her ego), Lyle decided to just let them keep at it for now. Snatching Weisha's toolbox from where she'd carelessly left it lying on the ground, it turning invisible too when he made contact, he moved silently towards the downed boy. Of course he had to stop a moment later and plaster himself against the nearest wall when Weisha decided launching another unsuccessful attack and getting batted back out of the arcade by giant plants again was a good idea.

One invisible unimpressed face and a few not very nice mutterings about Weisha's intelligence later, and Lyle was at the unconscious boy's side.

Someone was shaking him, telling him it was time to get up now. Querl scrunched up his face and tried to smack the hand from his shoulder away, curling up into a ball and mumbling incoherently about Tam and vows and staying out of his sock-drawer. The shaking stopped a moment at that, as though the person behind it was confused, before starting up again.

"I'm not going anywhere near your sock-drawer, I promise," Came an amused voice, one Querl vaguely recognised, "But you need to get up. You picked a pretty lousy place for a nap."

As though helping to prove the voice's point, a loud crash, a few odd...bouncy sounds, and an angry female voice sounded out, echoing through Querl's aching head. He began to sit up, blinking and holding his head, all the while wondering what the sprock Tam had done to his apartment this time. Eventually everything slowly came into focus and Querl realised he was still in the arcade, what was left of it anyway, that Lyle person from the day before smiling down cheerfully at him.

Suddenly it clicked, and he remembered what he'd been trying to do before he lost consciousness. "The bomb!" He exclaimed, shoving the smiling face away from him roughly (what the heck did he have to be so happy about anyway?), and glancing around wildly.

He regretted it almost instantly as his head pounded and swam in protest. Lyle, apparently not all that offended by having had a hand shoved in his face (which annoyed Querl even further; who the sprock was that happy?), carefully straightened him up and dumped something large, metal, and very heavy into his lap.

He blinked at it dumbly, before realising it was a toolbox, and a well-stocked, well taken care of one at that. "You conscious enough to handle the bomb?" Lyle's voice came from behind him, higher up this time as he must have stood up.

Querl nodded weakly, pulling himself together and turning all his focus onto the task. The Legionnaire hung around a moment, watching over his shoulder as though making sure he was doing it right. Querl grit his teeth, refraining himself from grabbing the other boy's ankle and knocking him over out of sheer annoyance. Stupid new Legionnaires.

If Lyle noticed his irritability, he didn't comment on it, instead taking a few steps away and calling cheerfully; "Okay, you handle that and I'll go break up the fight."

At the word fight, Querl looked up, now realising where all the background noise had been coming from. He watched a moment as Tam's plants smacked a bright pink ball flying out of the arcade, causing it to ricochet off a number of walls and a large stone pillar. He smirked lightly when he figured out that the pink ball was likely that bratty little pink-haired Legionnaire, and the smirk widened even more when Lyle got knocked over by one of Tam's more wildly flaying plants.

Looking back down at the wires he was working on disconnecting, Querl sighed. He knew it wasn't right or fair to dislike them simply because they were Legionnaires and he wasn't, but he couldn't help it. He wanted nothing more than to go back, enjoy his old life once more, but he couldn't bring himself to face them, especially not now that they'd replaced him with these two morons and were probably all happily forgetting about him.

Querl pushed away those thoughts for now and disconnected the last wire, shoving the tools back into the toolbox. He glanced up to find Tam had let his plants drop and was sitting tiredly amongst them. Outside the arcade, Lyle appeared to be trying to convince Weisha to come out of her force field, and in return, she was sitting inside pouting like a child. Okay, perhaps only Lyle was his replacement, there's no way anyone considered her a worthwhile Legionnaire.

As Querl struggled awkwardly to his feet, toolbox in hand, Tam's head whipped around, eyes widening in surprise. "Querl! You're okay!" He exclaimed excitedly, all signs of exhaustion gone as he hurried over to hug him.

Querl awkwardly patted the other boy on the back before shoving him away lightly, a slight smile on his face as he let the other boy babble away about what had happened and how worried he'd been. That thought made Querl feel a little bit better, brushed away some of the anger and irrational dislike; he had someone that cared about him and considered him a friend. Even if it was Tam and made no sense what-so-ever.

Of course that warm fuzzy feeling flew right out what remained of the window when he heard Cosmic Boy's voice echo somewhere outside the arcade, and was quickly replaced with panic. He couldn't face them, he didn't want to face them, and if he was caught here, he was going to have to face them.

His drastic change in attitude must have been obvious, because all three people with him stopped and stared. Weisha tossed out a comment about 'Cosmic Dork's voice causing her brain cell loss too' while Tam simply waved a hand in front of his face and asked if he was okay. Lyle simply watched him, a curious look on his face. Then he snapped into action.

"Hey Weish? Go tell Cos about that brain cell thing okay?" He asked his friend, taking her toolbox from Querl and dumping it in her hands, "Oh and whatever you were saying about his new haircut this morning."

Weisha scowled, giving her friend a suspicious look. After a moment she shrugged and took off flying to do what she'd been asked, if her yell of 'hey blockhead' was any indication. Ignoring the dreamy look plastered across Tam's face as he stared off after her, Querl turned his own suspicious look on Lyle.

"What're you doing?" He asked quietly.

"Getting you out of here," Came the Legionnaire's cheerful reply, as though it was the most obvious thing ever.

Querl opened his mouth to push the point more, but was interrupted by Lyle grabbing his and Tam's wrists and yanking them towards the exit, the one with the security guards Querl had spotted earlier. When he again opened his mouth to voice his concerns, Lyle simply winked at him, and all of a sudden, all three faded from sight.

Querl didn't have time to marvel at how odd it was not being able to see himself, or even wonder how exactly Lyle's powers worked, as Tam took it upon himself to completely and utterly miss the point of invisibility and began babbling about how amazing it was. Loudly.

Sighing, Querl just smacked a hand over where Tam's mouth should've been and was relieved to hear the chatter stop abruptly. He nudged Lyle to move along faster, not sure how long Tam could actually stay quiet for. Lyle must've been thinking the same thing as he pulled the both past the security guards, outside, and into the chaotic crowds surrounding the parking lot all in about a minute.

Once in a spot where they wouldn't be noticed, Querl felt the hand around his wrist let go and all three of them turned visible once more.

After a quick odd glance at Tam, as though attempting to estimate just how low his IQ was, Lyle turned his cheery smile back on Querl. "You guys fine to get home from here?"

Querl nodded, making a disgusted face and yanking his hand away from Tam's mouth when he licked it. "Yes. Although whether Tam here makes it home in one piece or not is debatable," He grumbled, scowling at Tam's smug expression.

Lyle chuckled and shook his head before giving them both mock stern looks, "I was happy to help you guys out today, but don't make this a habit okay?" He smiled knowingly at Querl, "Especially you. Getting involved in the same incidents as the Legion isn't a very good way to hide from them."

Querl stared down at his feet, the usual guilt and homesickness he felt whenever he thought of his former teammates flooding though him. It was then quickly replaced by anger, and deciding he'd had more than enough of Lyle for the rest of his life, Querl grabbed Tam's elbow and began to head in the direction of their apartment building. That didn't stop him from missing the softly spoken words Lyle called after him.

"I don't know why you're hiding though, they miss you."

The anger bubbled up even more and Querl whirled around to tell Lyle just where he could shove his opinions and to mind his own business, only to find the Legionnaire was nowhere to be seen. Scowling, Querl turned back to stomp after Tam, who simply gave him a bright smile and began babbling away.

They were standing just outside their apartment building when the chatter suddenly stopped once more. Querl glanced at his friend in confusion as the green-haired boy gripped his hair and stared wide-eyed.

"Querl! We forgot Frenzy!"

Again. The poor plant's gonna get a complex at this rate. Next chapter will be much lighter and sillier (that's right, it can get sillier!) and focus on what Frenzy's been up to lately.

I know I haven't updated this in like forever, I had so much trouble with this chapter and just kept dropping it, until eventually I had no motivation for this story at all. It was actually on hiatus, but I recieved a review this morning that kinda kicked me into gear and encouraged me to have another look at it. Not my best work, but it's something. Next chapter will be up whenever I manage it. Hopefully soon. Ish.

Big thanks to anyone that's crazy enough to still be reading this!

~Saani