A/N
Well hello again my dainty friends. Oh,and the 11 favourites and 1, 600 views!
Once again, I would like to thank all of my viewers, favour..itors? and reviewers, for joining the Kyle army.
TheMcCoy: Thanks for the encouragement and support, it means the world to me.
patattack: Cheers for the invaluable advice, I will try my best to work on Guy Gardener, and thank you for the support of the Kilowog scenes.
Ready for a new chapter?
Chapter 9) Ra's the ghoul...
Kyle's POV; 2nd October, 12:00PM- Bialya
Well... this is awkward.
That is precisely how I would describe this tense predicament, but then again, he wasn't on the receiving end of the death glares- the ones that poor Robin is being subjected to. If you think I am angry at the kid, guess gain. Yeah, he filed a complaint about me- the twerp- but he also gave me the wake up call I severely needed in these past months. My time spent with Hal opened my previously (figuratively) closed eyes, allowing me to see the truth; allowing me to open a new chapter of my story.
Let's call it "Kyle grows up chapter", or even "Kyle is mentally talking to himself, like an old man" either way, I sound like an idiot, as always.
Thinking the guy needs a break, I decide to interfere with a timely conversation. "So... how are you guys?" I ask, apprehensively; who knows when this will all blow back at when I take counter-measures, I always get a backlash, only Wally seems to enjoy talking to me.
"Fine." Superboy gruffly huffs, clearly bored and anxious to smash the bad guys up. Still, it's better than him taking it out on a certain Green Lantern, right? Or... maybe not. At these points in our tenuous, strained relationship, I tend to accept his anti-social attitude.
"All is good here, man." Kid Flash speaks up after letting the silence choke us once more. As for Wally, he usually stays quiet in these types of situations, out of fear of us turning on him. Which I might say is not hard to do, considering he never shuts up. At least I can for a few minutes, at best. Here's to the undying spirit of our local speedster, Casanova, and idiot- all in one ginger haired package.
"Me too. I think we are all glad to have you back." Megan joins in with a beaming smile on her face, the type that either makes you cringe, or lifts your spirits up. Despite the awkwardness of our conversation, Miss M never seems to pick up on it... must be her naïve nature.
"Highly debatable." Artemis snarks with her usual unfaltering sassiness. Even after the numerous attempts by me to become buddies with her, she remains ever so snippy.
"Ouch, such pain you have just caused me, I don't think that... I will survive the journey; Wally, please put something good on my tombstone, like, loving hero, handsome hunk... or... died tragically." I theatrically mock her, earning chuckles from Wally. However, the rest of the team aren't impressed by my oscar-nominated performance.
Okay... so maybe I haven't changed, that much.
"Kyle!" Aqualad snaps, but retaining his expressionless stature, and appearance. "Might I remind you all that we have a vital mission on our hands, one that rests upon our shoulders, and our shoulders only. LexCorp must be stopped; so must the criminal, Ra's al Ghul." Kalder adds on, setting us into line with his authority voice- the one that we have all been reared into respecting, and obeying.
When he finishes, we are all put down into another spiralling stair of silence. Never have I been more inclined to shut up, although, who cares? Kyle does what he wants. "Rob?" I call the Boy Blunder, fixing him with a glare, but it's a fake. Of course, he doesn't know that.
"Yeahhh." the second half of the dynamic duo answers my call, caution laced onto his soft tone.
"All is cool, man." I quickly turn the glare into a grin, taking him aback slightly. Then, Robin exhales deeply, as though he was holding it with anticipation, and nervousness. "Seriously, I'm okay with you. You actually did me a slight favour, believe it, or not; helped me see Oa again, and to learn some pretty awesome new tricks.
"Oh my, how perfect." Artemis interferes sarcastically before Robin has any chance to speak.
"Very funny. Now shush, or I will tell Wally that you like him." I retort, raising an eyebrow at the blonde archer.
"You wouldn't." she snarls. Even to an emotionally deficient boy like me, the severe blushing unfolding before my eyes is enough to tell me that something is going- namely to do with a certain speedster.
"That's where you are wrong, my dearest Artemis. As you well know... hell yeah, I would!" I end up yelling the last part, embarrassingly enough. Despite her best attempts to stand strong against me, she turns around stroppily in her chair- now facing the window- at this.
"Kyle, please refrain from shouting. It is an all our interests to not be detected, due to your loudness; all of our interests." Kaldur blankly suggests, sticking to his never ending version of Mace Windu from Star Wars.
No problemo,
No problemo,
No probl-
Ohhh Oa, I can't do this.
"Are we there yet?" I sigh heavily, enough to get the attentions of the team, but not too much, making it sound forced.
"Kyle." Superboy says my name through clenched teeth, signalling that he is about to burst in a fit of rage that Atrocitous would be put to shame by.
"Connor." I reply, very, very, patronisingly.
"Shut the hell up!"
After the quite censor-worthy moments that followed that outburst, we get dropped into a forest of trees next to the royal palace in Bialya. If only we were here for a holiday, as it's actually serene here, with a calmness that betrays the obvious dark nature of this rogue nation.
This country has it all- Crime, riots and unrest, and dictatorship- in surplus; can't get much better than this, believe me.
In utter silence, we sneak in through the open top balconies that lie on the perimeter of the palace. Landing down with Wally and Artemis, I join them on the ground. "Sweet crib." Wally comments, probably amazed by the architecture of the palace.
Sighing at his comment, Robin shakes his head disapprovingly. "This is not a crib, this is designing at it's finest- flawless, and remarkable- just the way it was made to be." he continues on, shaking me and Wally out of our daziness.
"Nerd." I mutter under my breath. Not too surprisingly, the (other) boy in yellow looks flabbergasted.
As we all enter the massive palace of wonders, I only just catch Robin asking Miss M "Am I a nerd?" before I exit my hearing range.
Sometimes, I wish I had the hearing of a Kryptonian, or the psychic powers of a Martian. All I am is an average teenager that wears a ring.
Take away the ring, and I'm nothing. Or, nothing worth thinking about anyway; whether I like it, or not, this is my life now, best to start getting on with it. "Kyle, can I talk to you?" a voice emerges into my mind. Since we only know one telepath, I'm assuming that's it is her.
Proceeding to stroll along, the others soon overtake me without noticing. When they- mostly Superboy- reached out of hearing range, we began the conversation she apparently needed. "Hey, Megan. What do ya need?" I commence the talk with sincerity.
"I...I...I-I want to talk about Connor." she stumbles, but eventually spits it out. However, it doesn't stop me from being deeply shocked. Still, I motion for her to carry on with a sharp nod; the discomfort is apparent on her features. "I think that I... like him." she states tentatively.
"You mean like, or like, like?"I delve deeper, not being as clear as I had hoped it would come out.
"I do not know how to explain it, I want to, but I just can't." she grumbles, I could hear some self-loathing in there.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, we all have these types of problems." I assure the Martian, just spitballing in an attempt to at least provide some sort of tangible emotional support. On the other hand, I can't say how I came up with that first.
"Really?"she perks up, a sprinkle of hope in her eyes. It was then I realised that I also have a longing for someone, but unfortunately, this particular person is far out of reach. Who knows how the person would react if I told them.
"Yeah, so don't worry. Whoever you are- Human, or Martian- you always have that one person you desire above all else. Sometimes, it's just about how far you are willing to go, to get that special person." I trail off with some nonsense I remembered. That piece, I got from the best place for relationship advice.
Thank you... Kardashians.
"I knew I could count on you, Kyle." Miss M affirms her belief, and zooms off ahead; leading me to jump into gear, and fly after her. A minute of catching up later, we arrive at the rear of the group again, who seems to barely notice our absence.
All of a sudden, Robin slams his feet down, and pushes Wally back, just as he was about to step into a long hallway ending with an ominous wooden door. "What the hell, Rob!" Kid Flash exclaims as he rubs his chest, exactly where the lightening bolt is.
"Shusshhh !" Robin silences with a noise that was quiet, and demanding at the same time. The group goes eerily silent, as Robin brings his finger to his lips and tries to listen for something. "You hear that?" he then interrogates the group. Collectively, we all exchange a look of confusion.
"I've got superhearing, and I didn't hear a thing." Superboy answers mockingly, ignoring the dirty stare Robin gave him.
"That's the point, Superboy. This place is completely silent: no guards, or even mice scuttling around." he elaborates, making most of us go *ohhhh*.
"Guess it's our lucky day, for a change." KF snorts, proceeding to bend his knees.
"No, Ki-"
Before Aqualad could halt the speedster, Wally had already sprinted straight for the door, setting off a blaring alarm that pierces my eardrums like knives.
Well done, Wally- a terrific job.
This is all my mind would allow under the constant alarm, shattering any train of thought that I could muster; effectively making my ring useless, as it's dependant on my mind. However, the suffering doesn't live much longer, when Artemis shoot an arrow into the power box, sending out a small shock. As the noise ends with a whine, I carefully check my ears for any blood. Finding not a single speck, relief tidal waves over me, threatening to make me pass out from the vertigo.
"Kid Flash, perhaps exercise caution next time." Aqualad advises, rubbing her ears in the same way that I did. Worst of all hit was Megan, who is closing her eyes and gasping every few seconds. Running over, I fret over my friend.
"You okay, Miss M?" I ask, soothingly rubbing her temples.
"Headache, that's all." she quietly responds, no doubt due to the obvious throbbing pain she is feeling. Even with her assurance, this migraine could prevent her from using her powers for a short while. Instead, I nudge her over to Robin by the shoulders. The acrobat immediately sets about working on his patient, flashing a light in her eyes, and etc.
Giving us absolutely no reprieve, ninjas emerge from the other end of the hall, guns raised. Shielding my comrades with a constructed shield, the bullets harmlessly drop to the ground upon impact. "Kyle! Connor! Artemis! Protect us while we help Megan, so she can establish a link between us.' the de-facto leader, Aqualad, sternly our recognition, we charge the ninjas- me shielding Artemis from any stray fire with armour I wrapped around her.
Connor smashes into a large group of them with a massive leap, nearly smacking his head off the palace ceiling. Artemis fires an assortment of arrows into the cluster with pinpoint accuracy, shocking some, and darting others. Upon reaching attack distance, I construct a hand, and bring it horizontally across them, knocking them down like skittles.
Within mere seconds, the humans were unconscious or mildly wounded- a few sporting broken bones. Connor expresses his gratification with a short huff, and Artemis simply walks away to go see the others. Furthermore, even I felt satisfied with the bodies of the League slumped against cracks in the walls.
Just as I was about to rejoin the others, something tackled Superboy sending both of them through the wall and outside. "Uh-oh." I barely got out before I was also sent to the ground, causing a splitting pain to run down my spine. Looking up, the figure of Sportsmaster stands menacingly above me. For a second, I swear I heard a chuckle coming from behind his mask, but it was short-lived when he throws a live grenade at me; it lands perfectly on my flat chest.
Don't even bother Kyle, that thing won't kill you.
Grinning cockily, I patiently wait for it to go off. Then, it clicks, but instead of a loud boom, it releases some kind of gas into the air.
Strolling into a room of yellow- tick, tock, tick, tock- goes the clock.
The room is swallowed by nothing, it's wall folded into the abyss like a carpet.
Down goes me, finally free.
Reaching the bottom, nothing is there.
Where am I?
Head spiralling into blurs, no faces, no voices, and no identity.
Wait... WTF.
At last I gasp out, my head reeling with dizziness. Apparently that gas is a very... potent hallucinogen. Gotta hand it to the villain, he knew his stuff; weirdly enough, somehow he must have known that I am cocky enough to let it blow up.
Shaking the remnants of drowsiness from my head, I slowly pick myself up from the cold, hard ground- cracking my spine from the awkward position that I was lying in. The deathly silence that surrounds me is unnerving, and arouses concern.
Where are my friends? No sounds of battle can be heard, only the breaths I constantly take. Glancing around, a large hole in the wall becomes apparent, sitting there innocently. Without further delay, I leap out of the hole and onto the courtyard below.
Menacingly cackling, a shadowy figure appears from the shadows of the moon- clad in emerald robes, he looks like he would be found in a fairytale. Anxiety erupts within my heart, as the tall and slender man wields a blade; a blade coated with... crimson blood.
"You shouldn't have come here, foolish children. Alas, respect is given to where it is due- well done for making it this far." the elderly man states, all the while inspecting his blade with a morbid curiosity. "You shall make for an excellent opponent." he adds on, this time examining me from head to toe.
"Eyes up here, old timer!" I redirect. The gangly, although eloquently dressed man, turns red at this insult.
"Show some respect, boy, before I teach you some." he verbally spits at me, edging towards me, one carefully placed step at a time.
"I doubt that. After all, I've never been the greatest of students, perhaps Jet Li will take you up on the offer." I snicker, floating dominantly in the air.
"Doubt, leads to failure." he responds, strafing to the side, and revealing a limp body on the ground... Artemis' body. A wide stain of red pooling around her stomach area, several areas dried and encrusted. "Such a formidable opponent, it was a shame she was beaten." he continues on, a disgustingly genuine honesty radiating from his posture.
"You are sooooo, going to regret that... big time!" I growl, barely containing my righteous wrath.
"Prove it." the obviously confident fighter challenges, assuming a battle stance- feet shoulder width apart, and knees bent slightly.
"This is going to be fun." I darkly remark, flinging my body to collide head-on with the old man.
This is for Artemis.
A/N
Hope you guys liked this chapter, although, I'm not sure if I got Ra's al ghul right, or not.