Chapter 2-Crash and Burn
The room resembled the aftermath of a war zone. Debris was scattered everywhere, lights flickered as they fought for life and sparks flew from the mangled medical equipment laying in the corner Robin had once occupied. Smoke left a tangible layer in the air and small fires had begun where electronics had been snapped in half. The man-creatures trembled in their cages, now mostly lock free, and whimpered at every sound made within the room.
Wally hissed in pain as he slowly forced his malfunctioning limbs to move. He wrestled himself into a crawling position, the world spinning around him, and began crawling towards the nearest member of his downed team; Artemis. His eyes blurred as he neared her, warmth trickling down the back of his neck, and his head throbbed at the sound of each short-circuiting electronic.
He kept on struggling towards her anyway.
Artemis was lying face down by the wall, arm twisted at an odd angle as if it had been broken. She whimpered as Wally gently turned her onto her back but remained unconscious, leaving Wally concerned that she had a head injury as well. His eyes scanned over her form looking for any serious or life-threatening injuries and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found none.
"Wally?" a groggy voice suddenly sounded within his mind and he gasped in shock, falling backwards as the sound cut sharply through his pounding head.
"Wally?" the voice said again, a little clearer, "Are you okay? Waves of pain are rolling off of you."
Somewhere in the back of his mind he registered that the person talking-or, more appropriately, thinking-was M'gann and relief washed through him at the knowledge that she was both okay and conscious.
"I'm fine, M'gann," he replied, voice sounding scratched even in his head, "My head just feels like there's a drum beating away in there…are you okay? You sound a little dazed." He could feel as concern washed over her at his words and frowned in worry himself because he knew that if he could feel her emotions then her mental shields must be down.
That never bode well for her condition.
"Fine," she said unconvincingly, "The after effects of that sleep drug are just disorienting me is all-I don't think any of the others are awake though, they're brain waves are too smooth and regular. I think I awoke because I am Martian and my anatomy and immune system are a little differ-" her voice suddenly cut off and Wally felt his anxiety spike briefly before she started talking again, voice a lot clearer and more aware, "Wally, I can't feel Robin…where is Robin?" He could hear the panic beginning to grow in her as she frantically searched for his presence.
"Gone." He replied, voice blank but despair hovering just below the surface.
M'gann froze, all thought coming to a halt, "W…what?" she said, fear colouring her tone.
"Gone," he repeated, voice remaining completely monotone, "Cadmus took him."
M'gann could think of nothing to say in response, her own emotions a turmoil of codes she couldn't decipher. She could feel, despite the careful coldness of his tone, the despair and depression threatening to consume Wally and knew without a shadow of a doubt that the only reason it hadn't was because his team needed him.
Wally was unerringly loyal like that.
M'gann could feel tears swimming behind her eye lids as she closed the, taking a deep breath to compose herself and build back up her mental walls. As she was doing this she took a moment to consider everything that was happening: Cadmus had Robin. The entire team apart from her and Wally-two of the most childlike members-were unconscious, though not seriously harmed. Wally was an emotional wreck-having been 'secretly' in love with Robin and all, and therefore she needed to suck it up and take charge for once. They were in a lab full of experimented on and terrified humans who deserved their help. Said lab was destroyed and they were stuck fifty-three levels below the surface with six unconscious young justice members, and a large number of terrified experiments-there was no way her and an injured Wally could get all of those people out on their own, help was needed. Cadmus had Robin.
Okay, she couldn't think about that right now. Yes, the boy she considered her little brother was missing but right now the rest of her family was in immediate need of attention. She needed to focus on them.
That's what Robin would have wanted anyway, she rationalised.
Shields back up and thoughts in order she made the logical choice and meandered her way through the debris and smoky haze in the room to Kaldur. Reaching down she gently removed his communicator from his belt and stood back up, walking over to where she could sense Wally sat against the wall by Artemis.
Upon reaching him she spoke out loud, mindful of his head, in the same tone an adult would use when speaking to a frightened child-she couldn't afford for him to lose it now, she still needed his help.
"Wally," she said, "I'm going to call the league but there is no signal down here, I need to go outside. You need to stay here and take care of everyone-we are the only ones conscious ad you need to make sure that everyone stays safe. Can you do that?"
"Yes," he replied, voice more slurred than before, as if he too were beginning to lose reality and slip into the heavenly bliss of unconsciousness, "I've got this M'gann. Go get help."
She bit her lip in worry for a moment, concern shining in her eyes before resolve set in and she nodded to him, swiftly shifting into her intangible form and flying straight up through the floor of fifty-three levels until she emerged in fresh air.
Wasting no time she pressed the button on the communicator and began to speak, "Batman do you copy? This is M'gann, do you copy?"
"I copy, M'gann, what's going on?" Batman's deep and ever calm voice replied.
"We need help. It was a trap, the others are all injured and unconscious and Robin…they…" she trailed off, her voice beginning to crack.
"Robin what?" Batman asked and she could almost feel his eyes narrowing behind his mask.
"They took him," she said, voice finally breaking and silent tears beginning to fall, "Cadmus took Robin!"
There was a brief, almost furious moment of silence on Batman's end before, "We're on our way, don't move."
M'gann let her hand with the communicator in fall to her side and bit her lip to prevent the sobs from escaping. However, as she tilted her head to gaze up at the stars, she couldn't prevent the tears from continuing to stream unbidden from her eyes.
He was in a locked cell.
It was odd looking-made entirely of bulletproof glass-and stood alone in some kind of lab, but it was a locked cell. Of that, he was sure.
He'd woken up because of a bright light, like sunlight, filtering through the glass, and for a moment he'd thought he was safe; back in the medical lab of the Cave. Then a voice had cut through the silence.
"Ahh, I see the little bird has awoken," and reality came crashing back to him with the devastating force of a tsunami.
As if the tidal wave had washed over him, he sprang up, instincts and senses on overdrive to catch up with the situation.
The voice laughed.
"Now, now little birdie, there's no need to work yourself up into a fluster and wear yourself out-you're going to need that energy in a minute anyway. Besides, it' not like you're going to be able to get out anytime soon anyway."
Robin stared at the woman before him, for he could see it was a woman now, and swallowed; all of his instincts were telling him to run as far from this crazed woman as he could. Distantly he noted that there were other people milling about the lab-room too, appearing to be preparing for something.
"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm going to do with you?" she spoke again, her voice sickly sweet and reminding him strangely of Dolores Umbridge. He shivered at the idea of her being anything like Dumbridge and then realised that she was probably worse.
He kept these thoughts to himself and his voice unnervingly steady as he replied, "I already know what you want, I read the file."
"My my, we are the clever little bird aren't we….and yet, you still managed to be caught." She responded, voice creepily light, the last bit almost as an afterthought.
"It doesn't matter, you won't get what you want." Robin replied, unbridled determination ringing in his tone.
"Your wings have been clipped, little birdie-you'll never fly again." The woman retaliated, Robin's determination in the face of unbeatable odds rattling her.
He smirked at her, as if he knew something she didn't, and his next words, a retort, were spoken casually, as if there were no question on the matter, "A phoenix may burn, but it will always rise again."
Unexplainably irritated by his smirk and conviction, she span on her heel and walked away, striding purposefully over to a timid looking scientist and asking a pointed question louder than strictly necessary, "Are you ready? Can we begin the procedure?" Her voice was cruel as it carried purposefully over to Robin in his strange glass cell.
"Y…yes Mam. We're just waiting on your order to administer the sedative." The scientist stuttered in answer.
"Good," she said, turning back to face Robin with a sadistic smirk on her cold face, "Do it."
The scientist nodded and turned around to press a button on the console behind him.
Robin refused to remove his uncovered-and when had they taken his mask?-eyes from the vicious woman's as smoke began to filter into the glass cell. He kept his eyes locked with hers as the smoke began to engulf him and he was forced to breathe it in. His eyes continued to stare unblinkingly into hers as the sedative began to take affect and his vision began to swim. It was only when the pain began that his eyes lost contact with hers.
Pain ripped through his body with the force of a storm and he crashed to the floor, writhing in agony. His body burned all at once and his skin felt tight and tingly, like he was being pricked again and again with sharp, tiny needles. His vision blacked as he clutched his head, a persistent and dizzying pounding beginning within it. His body seized and his breath hitched as the pain only continued to increase. An earth-shattering scream tore itself from his raw throat and pained tears began to leak from his tightly shut eyes. His thought processes began to shut down as his body began to weaken, and, as if from far away he heard a maniacal, wicked cackle as the sensation of flames licking at his body consumed him.