Ch 12: Realizations
AN: This is the most stressful chapter to write ever. I kind of feel like if you guys don't like this, I'm going to need to enter the witness protection program or something…
XxXxX
M'gann surveys the battlefield from her hiding spot amongst the beams of the Eiffel tower. She had camouflaged herself and followed Nightwing from above as Dick moved towards the Flash's position, which turned out to be lucky for him when she warned him of Amazo's approach. Now though, she can only discreetly eliminate MONQI's as the heroes below her attempt to hold their own against the super-powered android.
She mentally nudges the other heroes, filtering her vision into theirs so they can see Nightwing and Flash's predicament. "Guys, they can't hold on much longer. We need to make a move now."
"We know, but we're pinned here unless we can take care of Amazo. Otherwise we'll just make him stronger," Conner reminds her from where he and Kaldur are hiding with Artemis.
"Wait, we don't have to take care of Amazo, just Amazo's vision!" Dick's 'voice' is triumphant even as he's forced to block a set of super-fast punches from Amazo. Kaldur can't help but smile; Dick always gets excitable when fighting alongside a Wally. M'gann mentally slams two more MONQI's together, giving Flash a chance to accelerate and body-check Amazo away from their friend.
"Of course!' Artemis gestures to one of her remaining arrows. 'I've got just the thing."
Kaldur nods to her. "Do it. Superboy and I will cover you."
With that, Artemis rolls from behind their cover, and heads closer to the tower. She ignores the robots that flock towards her as she goes, trusting her teammates to have her back. Sure enough, she sees the pests being sliced apart by water or taken down by thrown rocks out of the corners of her eyes. She does note that Conner's aim has gotten much better since she and Dick started him on their training regime; several MONQI's are felled when pebbles hit dead-on the small weak points at their necks.
As she approaches, Dick throws down several smoke bombs and pulls Wally out of the way of her shot, not risking the Flash using his super-speed and blowing away the smoke. M'gann filters Conner's view into her own, allowing her to pinpoint the android with his infrared vision. For one brief heartbeat of a moment, she has a perfect, unblockable shot at his face. She takes it.
The arrow strikes true, and she watches their android foe falter as the smoke clears.
"Asterous shot, 'Missy. Glad to see you haven't lost your moves with the bow, even after all this time."
"Can it, Troll Wonder. He's not down yet." Her warning was meant to be cautionary, but even as she makes the quip, she sees the android's beginning to recover. The arrow she had sent into its face released foam that reacts with nitrogen, hardening quickly upon exposure to air. The now rock-solid foam coated his face, and should have eliminated his copying ability from the equation. Instead, however, she watches as the android's body seems to bubble.
"He's adapting to it! Pull back!" Kaldur orders too late. Amazo morphs, his body momentarily adopting the same shade of green as the foam, and he grimaces, the foam cracking off of his face in the process. He must have scanned its properties, taken its hardness for his own advantage even as he exploits its brittleness.
The android seems to grimace. "New Secondary Objective: Eliminate the allies of the Flash."
Wally watches in slow motion as the android lunges for the love of his life.
"Artemis!" He doesn't know who screamed – maybe him, but he's a bit busy running, so maybe it was someone on the Team. He does know that he's gaining on Amazo, pulling out stops he didn't know he had. Time slows down as he catches the robot, moves through its outstretched arms, and pulls his girlfriend out of the thing's reach. He skids to a stop at Dick's side, and something presses play for the world around him.
"Didn't see… that one coming... punk." He winces as the pain in his leg flares with the return of time. Whatever his super-healing had done for the injury, he just undid it with that move, possibly even tearing a few extra muscles apart while he was at it.
Artemis catches him as he starts to sink to the ground, helping him take the weight off his leg. Nightwing tosses her something; then takes a defensive stance between them and the now-confused robot. "Get another compress on that wound. We're going to need him again."
XxXxX
M'gann watches in horror as the battle unfolds below her. She's managed to create a sort of telekinetic bubble, keeping the MONQI's within Kaldur and Conner's range while the other three take on the bigger threat. When the android turns from his failed attack on Artemis to make a move on all three at once, she knows there's no way they can block it with the Flash down for the count. They will die if he makes it to them, and she won't let that happen.
She lurches towards the android, pulling him away from the other heroes with all of her telekinetic strength. She doesn't realize she dropped her camouflage to do so until a new voice rings in her head.
'That was a mistake.' A squeezing pressure wraps around her body and mind, and she struggles to respond, struggles even to breathe. She can feel the others in her mind, trying to help her strengthen her mental walls even as Amazo hammers at them at rapid-fire speed. Finally, her concentration breaks, and Amazo uses that flicker of lost focus to overwhelm her telekinesis and toss her towards the ground.
A limping red blur catches her at the last moment, saving her from serious injury. In the distance, she sees Dick throwing explosive batarangs at the robot, temporarily overwhelming it with its newly-acquired weakness, while Artemis forgoes her bow to pull out a sword from the sheathe attached to her quiver.
"Dang. That was badass, Megalicious," a voice in her ear murmurs as Flash stands her up. It's so familiar that she mentally reaches out to him out of reflex. It takes her a moment to comprehend that this shouldn't be so familiar, that those shouldn't be her tracks etched into his mind. It's not possible, but it is, she can see the story plain as day in his secondary thought processes. Without thinking, she wraps around his mind, confirming the truth with every twist of memory, every familiar scar. In her shock, she calls out.
"Wally?!"
XxXxX
"Wally?!" Dick's a good soldier; he's been doing this too long to be distracted from the fight by M'gann's mental cry. At least, until the wave of sorrowjoyshockconfusiondisbelief that follows washes over him and he realizes what happened.
No.
It's not possible.
But it is, because M'gann says so, because she's letting them feel how possible it is.
Wally's alive.
He's alive, and he's here.
Even without M'gann's powers, he can feel how the link feels better, more whole than it has in years.
Then M'gann pulls Wally into the link all the way and he can feel his best friend in the back of his mind. Their collective thoughts speed up as they have the advantage of speedster processing back on their side, and everyone can take a minute (millisecond) to understand what's happening.
"You're really alive." He thinks, before he realizes he just stopped his movements mid-block. Amazo takes advantage of his fumble.
Dick knows a brief instant of pain, then darkness.
XxXxX
Conner has always been the best at dealing with surprises like these. Maybe it's Cadmus programming, maybe it's the Luthor genes, but Conner's more than able to roll with life's newest punch. It's certainly not the strangest thing that's happened to them, and for once it's at least a good surprise.
So when he sees Dick crumple beneath Amazo's blow, he's the first to jump into action. Kaldur freezes for the first time that Conner's ever seen, M'gann's still trying to soothe the reverberations upsetting the mental link, Wally's trying to get to his friend, but all the speed in the world can't compensate for a bum leg, and Artemis is just trying to survive the onslaught of Amazo's newly focused attacks. Conner leaps from their hiding place, landing between Amazo and Artemis in only two bounds. He catches the Android's punch, twists the thing's arm, and slams it into the ground.
"Don't touch my friends." He hisses at the android.
"Analysis complete." He has only a second to berate himself for being seen when he feels himself telekinetically lifted from Amazo's back, then punched into the ground with his own strength. Now he's pinned by M'gann's powers, and a metallic foot is set on his windpipe. It presses down.
He's saved from a crushed windpipe by a wall of water that washes over them, pushing the android back. Kaldur had reached them.
"Miss Martian, how iss Nightwing?"
"He's fine, the hit just knocked him unconscious!"
"Superboy, Flash, delay Amazo with me! Artemis, cover us from the remaining MONQI's! Miss Martian, wake Nightwing up, and make sure he's not concussed. It's going to take all of us for this to work!"
The four heroes immediately follow their leader's orders, easily sinking back into the roles of their childhood.
XxXxX
Dick's return to consciousness is the rough, blurry awakening he has learned to associate with M'gann forcing him back to consciousness. The advantage of this method is that he's able to get right back into the battle. The disadvantage of it is that his memories of the last few moments before he was knocked out swirl fuzzily around his mind before settling in a confusing jumble of thought. It takes him a minute to put said thoughts in order enough to remember what is happening.
"Wally?"
"Yeah, Bro?"
It's true, then. Dick has nothing to say but, "You really are alive."
"That's what Shayera tells me every time I play dead on monitor duty."
How dare he be so flippant about this. "Oh, I would be more than happy to rectify that situation, you complete jerk."
"Sheesh. For a bunch of people working so hard to save me, you all sure seem to like threatening my life. I'm feeling the love, really."
The world around Dick has finally stopped spinning, so M'gann helps him to his feet. She puts lets him put his arm over her shoulders to steady him, but her attention has returned to the battle; based on what Dick can feel of her focus, he guesses Amazo's battering against her mental shields. "What can I say? We're a group of people that run around in tights breaking the laws of nature to fight bad guys in theme costumes. Logic doesn't exactly factor in here."
"I guess I can see that. I mean; you are the guy who wanted to run around in scaly panties for his first costume…"
"It was a leotard! And you said you'd never tell anyone if I showed you my first costume designs!"
After a fourth blocked punch sends him staggering, Conner's patience for his friends' teasing wears thin. "As much as I missed your… delightful … banter, maybe we should deal with the robot that's trying to kill you first?"
They're back at it immediately. "Wow, Conner. That was like, incredibly scathing, in an understated sort of way. When did you get so snarky?"
"You would not believe some of the things that have happened while you weren't around."
"Try me." The rest of the team can't help but mentally roll their eyes. Wally has no idea…
"B found out he had a kid with Talia al Ghul."
"… I am willing to concede a point to Nightwing."
"Will you two focus?" Artemis snaps, just like old times, as she takes down another MONQI that came into range of her throwing knives.
"Yes ma'am." Wally mentally snaps to attention.
Dick immediately follows suit. "Sorry, ma'am."
"Although we know you secretly think our epic bromance is adorable." Wally can't help but add.
Artemis mentally groans.
At that moment, Amazo raises a vortex of water, throwing back his attackers.
"I was hoping he wouldn't figure out how to do that." Kaldur admits as he sits up form where he was thrown.
"The good news is, he let up on his mental attack to do that so I've gotten the link secure again," M'gann says to them. "Good job annoying him enough to back off guys."
"Is that what we were doing?"
Dick mentally shrugs at Wally's query. "Just go with it."
"I think I've gotten the last of the MONQI's." Artemis adds as she takes down the last two with a spinning slice from her sword. "At least, nothing's flying at me any more, so…"
"All we have to do is finish off the big guy then. Got anything for that? Artemis? Nightwing?" Conner hopefully questions his teammates.
"I've got an inhibitor collar programmed to knock out all of your powers, among other things." Dick says casually.
"…Why?"
"Bat Paranoia," Wally answers as Dick says, "In case anyone from the Team or League goes rogue again."
"Either way, it's convenient for us. How do we get it on him?"
"With the magic of friendship?" Wally suggests.
"Oh my God, they have that here too?"
"Don't knock it till you've tried it, 'Missy."
"You guys are just jealous because we're twenty percent cooler than you." Wally adds to Dick's comment.
"Regardless of preferences in entertainment, Wally does have a point." As always, Kaldur brings them back in. "Our strength has always been in our teamwork. After the first couple of months, at least."
"Kaldur just made a joke! Today is truly a day of miracles!"
With Wally's last quip, the six plan quickly. They've worked together long enough that it's amazingly easy to fall back into the swing of things, now that they have a clear objective.
"Yeah… that should work."
XxXxX
Nightwing is the current focus of Amazo's wrath.
He scrambles back from the android, dropping explosives as he goes. He's counting on his teammates to be – ah, right on time. Wally swings around, sliding into the robot's legs as Conner tackles it from behind. It pitches forward into Dick's mine trap, suffering concussive backlash as Conner pins him.
Wally can't resist a quip. "Looks like we got here just in time. Makes us, like, big damn heroes."
"A Firefly reference? Seriously? You dork!"
"Look who recognized it."
"Banter later. The enemy is not yet neutralized," Kaldur interrupts them as he raises a water shield around Amazo and Conner. M'gann telekinetically reinforces it, preventing the android from simply countering Kaldur with his own, stolen abilities.
"Right, we're a go." Wally smirks as Dick returns to his professional voice. Bracing himself, he grabs his friend's arm and leg and begins spinning.
Inside the water barrier, Conner continues his assault on Amazo. The android has the advantage of speed, but Conner's spent years training under Black Canary. They're evenly matched. Conner taunts, "Looks like we're at an impasse here. Can't fulfill your objective when you're trapped."
"You forget I have copied other abilities." Amazo replies, taking off and hovering above the water barrier.
Artemis is ready when the android rises above Kaldur and M'gann's wall. She fires her last three arrows at Amazo; all flash-bangs. The android is clearly unimpressed.
"Was that supposed to harm me?"
"Nope. Distract you." She says. The android starts to turn as he processes this statement, but it's too late. Wally had gotten up to speed with his rotation, and has summarily launched Dick at he robot with the centripetal force of his movements. The aerialist has no trouble twisting mid-air and slinging an inhibitor collar around the android's neck. He laughs, cackling in mirth at the android's expression as they both fall.
M'gann catches him in her arms, joining his laughter as Amazo crashes into the earth. Kaldur envelops the android in a water bubble, then shoots electricity into it. The robot thrashes as its circuitry fries. Finally, he lets the spell go.
"Now you may banter."
XxXxX
"In case anyone wasn't sure, I still hate monkeys." Conner says, purposefully stomping on some MONQI remains as he walks over to where Wally is. He accepts Conner's outstretched hand to stand up and suddenly finds himself in a headlock. "Don't do that to us again."
"Jeez! Is everyone going to be on my case? I promise, Artemis already covered this topic."
"Perhaps if you did not worry us so, there would be no need for chastisement." Their leader approaches the two wrestling heroes.
"Kaldur, you are such a hypocrite." Aqualad simply smirks in reply, green-gray eyes twinkling with suppressed mirth. Suddenly, Wally can't resist. He ducks Conner's stranglehold, zips up to his friend, and pulls him into a tight hug. "Missed you guys." He murmurs, eyes shut.
"And we you, my friend."
Suddenly, Kaldur stiffens, and Wally finds himself being shoved down as his friend turns them around, putting his own body between Wally and whatever had been behind him. Wally's eyes pop open and he watches in slow motion as a blast that must have been meant for him tears through his friend instead. Kaldur's eyes go wide, his face a mask of shock and pain. Then Wally's world goes red.
XxXxX
AN: And still I'm a terrible person. Spoilers on the very last line for next chapter. *Runs away with the speed of a flash*
Also, I had this plunny someone should write (and let me know if you do!).
So, as per several theories, Wally actually got sent forward into the future after The-Episode-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named. When he pops out though, it's nothing like what he expected. Without him, the League went rogue a la 'A Better World.' They're thrilled to have him back, of course, even if they have to keep him on lock down and in an inhibitor collar until he 'understands how things have to be now.' I kinda feel like it should be the senior members of the Team who are in charge, rather than the League as we know it, but eh, details.
I just really have this strong image of Wally being sort of a 'kept man' to the earth's emperors and empresses as he tries to remind them of the way things used to be (and hey, if they convince him their way is better, that works too). I can just totally see him trying to hang with the 'common people' and them being like this is Artemis' consort/Nightwing's best friend etc. Anyone ever read those stories about Darth Vader finding Padme alive and or finding Luke younger and them bringing him back to the good side? Sorta like that. And spoilers for net chapter now: no one we like dies. Pinky Promise.