Jaime had set them down in a rather familiar vacant lot. Batman had released his hold on the grapple cable as they descended, landing on his feet as his legs bent down to brace against the landing. The boy dropped the cable, allowing it to fall into a randomly coiled heap. He landed soon after.

He was panting, fatigue evident on his face. The flight had taken a lot out of him it seemed. Even now the boy was leaning over, hands pressed onto his knees as his chest rapidly expanded and contracted.

Walking over to him, the vigilante came to stand next to him. "Are you alright?" he asked him.

It took Jaime a few breaths before he answered. "No, I'm not. I've got some...some...something on me that's taken over my body. It made me attack a government official who now wants me dead. I have no where else to go and...oh, Mom! Milagro! Are they alright? Were they in the house?"

"Calm down," Batman said gently, placing a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "They're all alright. They escaped while you were fighting Cyborg. Right now you need to figure out your next move."

"But I don't know my next move!" he shouted, jerking away from the vigilante. "I'm just a kid in high school! I shouldn't be involved in any of this!"

"Yet you are," he replied sternly. This kid was getting angsty and that was not what they needed right now. "It's unfair, but you have to deal with it because if you don't, you'll die. The Regime isn't known for being sympathetic to people it fights. The way I see it, you've got two choices: you can give yourself up and hope the Regime shows you mercy."

He paused, letting that thought sink in the teenager's mind. "What's the other choice?" the boy asked hesitantly.

"You can come with me and live another day."

"Live another day?" he repeated incredulously. "That's it? Don't you mean you can fix it and I can go back to living my nice, boring life? Because I like my nice, boring life."

"If I could guarantee that, I would. If it were that easy, it would've been done a long time ago." Batman took a step towards him. "I do intend on fighting this Regime and if I prevail, your current problem will be solved. I could use your help to do that."

Despite the colored face, Jaime looked at him helplessly. "But I'm only seventeen. What can I do?"

"You're seventeen with the potential to fight a member of the Regime toe-to-toe. Not everyone can say that."

That got the boy's attention. "That wasn't me though. That was...I don't know, the suit? Whatever this is on me? It did all of that."

"Which means you can do all of that. Train yourself and you can do all of that and more if you put your mind to it. You managed to figure out how to fly, didn't you?"

Slowly, he nodded his head. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?" He straightened out his shoulders. "You sure I can do this?"

No, not at all. But if he was going to help this kid, he needed him willing and able. "You're capable of doing whatever you set your mind out to. I can point you in the right direction, but how far you go is up to you."

There was silence for a moment before Jaime said, "Okay, alright, I'll go with you." He then looked around at the lot around them. "So, where do we go? If we have to fly again, I'm not sure I can get us the whole way there."

"Unnecessary," Batman told him as he turned to look towards a building. It was about two stories tall. "Follow me." Pulling out his grapple, he fired it to the roof of the building, sailing up through the air until he flew over its edge and landed on it. He heard a humming sound and Jaime landed next to him soon after.

There, parked on the roof, was his jet. According to Cassandra, the one he had used before his jaunt through time had been destroyed; good thing he always had a spare lying around. The less said where he kept his extra vehicles and gear, the better. Hitting a button on his gauntlet, the canopy slid open. He hit a couple more buttons as he approached the plane, climbing in and settling into the pilot's seat. "Get in," he ordered.

Jaime managed to get in as well after a few attempts at hovering over the plane, situating himself in the backseat. It seemed insect wings weren't very good at keeping someone floating in one place. "So, um, nice plane," he complimented after awhile.

Batman powered the engine, the canopy sliding closed over then. "Buckle up."

They had gotten the emergency signal some time ago. Cyborg was in the farthest corner of Texas for some reason, which was the big reason why he had backup coming.

John ignored the blurry scenery below him; it was mostly desert anyways. Why anyone wanted to build a city out here was crazy in his opinion, yet El Paso had been there for some time. To his side, Shayera flew with him, easily keeping up with him.

The entire Regime had its hands full with cleaning up after the Red Lantern Invasion. Destroyed buildings, mangled bodies, and trapped civilians were all over the world. Everyone was out clearing the debris and freeing the civilians, even Diana. It was a big reason why no one had responded to Cyborg's initial call.

The two Leaguers reached the city limits without much fanfare. Following the signal they were receiving, they soon made their way to a residential area, a suburb even. Curiously, one of the streets had scorch marks on it.

This must have been it.

Coming to land, John scanned the neighborhood, seeing minimal damage. The street had taken most of it while a house clearly needed some repairs to its face. Other than that, there wasn't anything too special here.

Shayera ended up finding Cyborg. He was towards the end of the street, embedded in the side of a car. By the time the Green Lantern approached him, the mechanical man was attempting to pull himself out of the wreckage, Shayera hovering next to him in case he needed further help.

"Looks like you had a time of it," John remarked as he came to stand before the two. "What happened?"

Cyborg shook his head, still leaning against the car. His face winced, something that was unusual for him John was quick to note. That caused him to frown in response.

"Just give me a sec," the man replied. "For some reason, I feel like my bell's been rung pretty good."

"A concussion? You?" Shayera repeated incredulously. "That's a first."

"Not really. I had my share playing football way back when. Not sure why I'm feeling this way though; this cybernetic body usually helps prevent that."

"You're also human too," John pointed out. "Even if a good chunk of your head is reinforced, a brain is a brain."

"I guess," Cyborg grunted before his hand gripped tightly on part of the car, causing it to twist in his grasp. He was squeezing pretty hard to make that happen. "Man, this is getting old," he grumbled. "I can get losing once, but this is one too many. This has got to stop."

"Mind filling us in on the blanks?"

The young man looked up at the Green Lantern. "Yeah, I was doing a check of the Hall of Justice security system when I picked up an anomaly. Someone had managed to hack into the system and record a minute or so of footage and played it over and over."

That made John scowl. Someone had the gall to trespass on their turf. That was a dead man walking.

"Since everyone was otherwise busy, I went to investigate," Cyborg continued. "Whoever had been there was good because they didn't leave a sign of themselves other than leaving their search history on the computer in the Morgue."

"Why would they want to go to the Morgue?" Shayera questioned, her eyes narrowing. She wasn't pleased by this, just like John.

"Something to do with Ted Kord since they sought out his body. Didn't go to the armory for his weapons, just checked his body. I ran a scan on it and detected a strange signal coming from Kord's body. I followed it here." He paused then. "And you'll never guess who I ran into here."

"It was the Insurgency, wasn't it," John stated, his anger starting to rear its head. Of course they would be active when they were at their lowest, the damn cowards. They must've been waiting for an opportunity like this to come up considering all the planning they had to have put into it. A person didn't just stroll into the Hall of Justice without running into six guards and that was just the outside.

"Not only. I saw that Bat-Imposter you guys want so much." That hit John right in the stomach, causing his eyes to widen with surprise, only to be replaced with more anger. "He was with some guy who suddenly put on this strange armor. They both attacked me and...well, this was the result."

"They clearly wanted something with this neighborhood," Shayera spoke up then. "Which house were they in front of?" she then asked Cyborg.

"That one, 1127," he answered her, pointing to some house behind John; he didn't even bother to look. Shayera stood up and lifted right up into the air, floating over to the indicated house, no doubt to investigate it.

"I swear, I'm gonna have to kick somebody's ass, I don't care whose," Cyborg grumbled as he began to shift from side to side, attempting to peel himself from the car. John watched this for awhile, observing the man struggling to get up. Eventually, he had to step in.

"Hold still," he ordered as he raised his ring. The cyborg did as instructed and the Green Lantern fired a thin green beam, one that hit Cyborg and then enveloped him in a green aura. Pulling back, he successfully removed his comrade from the damaged car, even going so far as to set the man up on his feet.

The moment he released his will, Cyborg grunted, "Thanks."

"No problem."

A silence passed. "What do you think the Insurgency was up to here?" Cyborg asked as he looked to the older man.

"That's what Shayera's going to find out," John answered him.

Shortly after that, they saw the Thanagarian emerge from a house. She took to the air, flying over to the two men before setting down. "There was no one inside," she reported. "Looked like a normal residence to me. The only thing that got my attention was this note."

At this, she held up a piece of notebook paper, the words "Went to Paco's for breakfast. Spending night. Love you." scribbled on it. Staring at it, John ultimately responded, "Looks like a note a kid left behind for his parents."

"A kid that was sneaking out," Cyborg declared as he took a step forward. "The guy in the weird armor, he wasn't wearing it when I got here. It was some kid and then he put on the armor."

"Get a name on the kid," John ordered. "And find out who this Paco is too. We'll need to interrogate him to see if he has any links to the Insurgency too."

And if Paco did, he was going to be in for one hell of a time.

So you know how they had until the next night to break into Stagg Industries for a supply of the super pills? They were even provided a car—not an electric car, unfortunately, but definitely one that didn't meet up with EPA regulations since before Superman declared himself an almighty despot—one that reached New York in the wee hours of the morning.

Perhaps they could finish this mission early.

Stagg Industries was fortunately to the southwest section of the city, so they didn't have to cross the entirety of New York and its heinous traffic. If there was one thing that Superman couldn't tame, despite his God-like powers, it was New York City traffic.

Pulling into the far parking lot, Ollie put the car in park, staring at the large, looming building in front of him. Batwoman was in the seat next to him, dressed in a trench coat with her suit underneath. She had even gone so far as to pull off her mask—and surprisingly her hair—for the ride.

"You know, after all this time, the one thing that surprises me about this whole thing is that you're not a redhead," the green archer remarked before looking over to the woman.

He had known this woman for so long, yet hadn't seen her true face. Even now she had a domino mask on her face, disguising her features somewhat. That she was comfortable enough to reveal this much to him humbled him a bit.

"I was wondering when you were going to bring this up," she remarked as she began sliding on her usual mask and red hair back on. "I have to say, I'm impressed by your restraint."

"Then you know what my next question is," Ollie responded as he looked to her. "Why?"

"The Regime knows my face," she replied simply. "If they knew who 'Batwoman' was, they'd know where to search in Gotham to find me. The red hair makes me rather unique-looking. The Regime will be on the lookout for a redhead, which there are just so many of those. Especially with the marks on my forehead."

That was one thing the domino mask didn't cover. Ollie had been doing this long enough to know just what they meant and what she had been through. The fact that even after that she was still willing to fight against the Regime was incredible.

"So, if it's not too presumptuous of me to ask, is Batman like you? Different hair color and all?"

A soft smile appeared on the woman's face as she shook her head. "No, nothing like that. We're not related in the least, but he still took me in when I had no place to go."

"Is that so? How did you two first meet?"

"I was ordered to fight him in a death match by my father who had trained me to be an assassin."

Ollie wasn't sure what he was expecting, but that wasn't it. An orphan, willing apprentice, something like that. "I'm guessing he won since you're both still alive," he commented after awhile.

"You'd be right. He took me in, retrained me, and gave me a different purpose. I was starting to look at him as a father by the time he disappeared."

"So when you said he was practically your father, you really meant that."

She paused for a moment. Then, "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Well, then good for you. For now though, let's get to business." Ollie looked to the factory. "How do we get in?"

A smirk appeared on the woman's face. "Leave that to me."

Leaving that to Batwoman apparently meant grappling up the side of the building, entering the ventilation system, crawling their way through a passage just big enough to fit them—and incidentally giving Ollie the knowledge of how a sardine felt—and dropping into the main room of some sort of laboratory.

The main floor plan was of two intersecting, steel-plated paths, forming a wide diamond at the intersection. Strange sorts of machines and equipment were stacked and organized, making it difficult to move off the paths. At each slanted corner was a tall, metal structure, a green-tinted glass window showing what was inside. Two of them were clearly empty, which left two currently occupied. Walking over to one, Ollie couldn't help the strange look he gave.

There was some sort of man inside of what was apparently a case. He was bald and that was the most normal part of him. Because of the glass, he couldn't quite say for sure, but he could've sworn different parts of his body were different colors. What in the world was this? Some sort of science experiment?

"Arrow." Turning his head, he found Batwoman in front of a computer station. Somehow she had found it amongst all of this clutter. Walking towards her, he came to stand just behind her and to the right, looking over the woman's shoulder.

Batwoman's fingers typed in a hypnotizing fashion as she accessed the computer, bringing up the logo for Staggs Industries. Shortly after that, a desktop appeared with columns of folders. There was no telling what each one of those files contained considering they had rather unique labels. Half of the names looked like they were made up to the archer.

However, one immediately got Ollie's attention: 5-U-93-R. That was clearly the super pill they were after. Pointing to it, he said, "See if you can't copy that file. Maybe we can glean some info from it back at the base."

The redhead nodded as she reached to her belt, pulling out a flash drive. Shoving it into a USB port, she waited for a window to pop up, one that belonged to the external hard drive. Right clicking on the super pill file, she found the copy option and clicked on it. She then right clicked into the flash drive window and right clicked there, hitting the paste option. Immediately, a loading bar appeared, indicating just how far along the computer was at its current job.

"This might take a while," the vigilante remarked before scanning through the other folder names. "Metamorpho?" she questioned after a couple moments.

"I swear, these people have some weird fascination with making up names," Ollie grunted in return. "Why don't we check it out? It's not like we're going anywhere soon."

Batwoman did as suggested, a new window opening. Immediately, they were greeted with a slide show, one without sound apparently. The cover slide proudly proclaimed PROJECT METAMORPHO before the next slide appeared. Graphics became animated, showing a figure with what appeared to be extraordinary abilities. The two watched as the animated figure seemed to change forms, becoming liquid and slime and everything in between.

Just great, it was an experiment to make people meta-humans. Like they didn't have enough of those already.

Ollie frowned. Turning away from the screen, he looked at the two occupied cases. From here he could identify the man he had seen earlier and in the other...was that a woman? Was it possible these two people were the result of this Metamorpho project? He immediately didn't like that thought.

"Tell me you're almost done with this download," he said after a moment. "We need to go find those super pills and get the hell out of dodge."

"Is this place giving you the heebie-jeebies?" Batwoman quipped.

"Yeah, and not the good kind."

Unfortunately, whatever luck they had been having at that moment ended as a door suddenly opened. Foot soldiers came pouring in, grasping batons with blue-glowing tips. There were perhaps ten of them, Ollie estimated, all of them surrounding the two Insurgents.

To be honest, that was an insulting number, especially for just two of them. Hell, ten was challenging for one of them, so five each wasn't that big of a deal.

Of course, that couldn't have been all. Heavy footsteps rang out as someone huge lumbered towards them through the doorway. Interesting thing was, he was completely grey too. The guy had a full beard, mustache, and stringy hair, yet he was grey. What, was he another research subject of this sick lab?

Combat boots stomped over the metal walkway as the man reached the group of masked soldiers, the men parting so that the grey hulk could move to the front of their group. "Looks like I got me some rats," he declared as he came to a stop, raising both of his hands up, one hand balled into a fist as the other hand wrapped around it. The sound of cracking knuckles filled the air shortly after.

"Oh, good, an actual challenge," Ollie remarked as he pulled out his bow, holding it in front of him. "For a moment, I thought it was just the guards. Got a name, pal?"

"The name's Girder," he grunted back in answer. "And I'm in need of some decent exercise. You and your lady friend better give me a good fight, Queen, or I'm gonna be sorely disappointed."

Batwoman was at Ollie's side then. "Got the drive," she muttered lowly to him.

Good. "So, which do you want: quantity or difficulty?"

The redhead seemed to think about that. "Quantity," she replied before she launched herself forward. She made a beeline right for Girder, who dropped one of his hands to a side while he drew the other back. By the time he threw his punch, the vigilante dropped to the floor, sliding across it feet first and right between his legs.

Which allowed Ollie, following the crazy broad, a wide open sucker to hit. Running at the large man at an angle, he held his bow up and across his body. The moment he was within striking distance, he swung the bow, nailing Girder across the face with it.

And that was it. The guy didn't even flinch from the blow. In fact, the bow seemed to bounce right off of his face, sending a tremor down into Ollie's arms and right up to his shoulders. The blond man blinked his eyes. Well, that was unexpected.

Straightening himself up, Girder just looked at him coolly before he bellowed out what he must have considered to be a war cry. He even leaned back as he kicked a foot at the Emerald Archer. Twisting to a side, he dodged the kick, but kept himself close. The moment the grey man's leg fully extended, Ollie gripped both ends of his bow and moved in, going in low as he forced the bow up beneath his foe's knee. Legs bent, he then straightened them as he shot up, pushing upwards against the leg. This threw off Girder's balance and caused him to lean too far back, his eyes widening as he let out a surprised cry before falling to the floor on his back.

Darting to a side and dashing forward, Ollie swung one of his legs wide before aiming it right at the fallen brute's face. His aim was a little off as the toe of his boot just missed the man's face, but he did land most of the boot's sole.

That turned out to be for the best. The moment his foot collided with Girder's face, a jolt of pain shot up his leg, causing Ollie to yelp as he went hopping on one foot backwards. It was awkward, sure, but at least he was still standing.

It came to the blond man just why Girder was grey. It wasn't for the sake of it, you know; he was grey because his skin was made of steel. It's why his bow had bounced off of the man; it's why his foot was pretty tender right now; and it's why the guy was getting back onto his feet looking no worse for wear.

Hmmm…maybe should've gone with quantity…

"Heerryyaaaaahhh!" Girder shouted as he charged at Ollie. Eyes wide, the archer dove to a side, leaving the man to run right by him harmlessly. Going into a roll, he drew an arrow and had it notched onto his bow by the time he came up onto his feet, staying crouched to the ground. Drawing the arrow back, he fired it right at the man's face as he turned around to look at him.

The arrow hit him just below his left cheek, ricocheting off as it went twirling end over end through the air. Well, normal arrows were useless here. Kinda expected that, but he wanted to make sure that was the case.

"Did you honestly think that would work?" the literal man of steel asked incredulously. "I'm made of solid steel. There's nothing in that little quiver of yours that can hurt me!"

"Now I wouldn't say that," Ollie countered as he raised a hand to hover behind his head, and subsequently over his quiver. "I'm just full of surprises." He then glanced around himself, seeing Batwoman in midair, her arms wrapped around the head of one of the guards while she had her foot slamming right into the face of another guard. "Besides, you at least stand a chance against me. If Batwoman was right here, she'd have your balls in that utility belt of hers."

Girder scowled. It wasn't a friendly look to be sure. For a moment, it looked as if he would charge Ollie again, but instead he raised his foot up before slamming it down on the floor. Much to the archer's surprise, one of the steel plates that made up the floor shot upwards, one side of it being held down by Girder's foot as the other pointed upwards diagonally. Moving his foot, the steel man grabbed the plate and ripped it up out of the floor, twisting his body to a side and subsequently the metal panel.

It didn't take a genius to know what the man was intending on doing. Spinning his upper body, he threw the metal plate at Ollie, the rectangular piece of metal spinning around and around as it closed in on him. Diving to a side, he avoided the plate, ignoring what happened to it as he came up next to the case the woman Metamorpho test subject resided in.

Unfortunately, it seemed Girder did indeed have a brain. Throwing that metal plate had been a distraction so that he could close the distance between the two and he was practically on top of Ollie, throwing a wicked left cross at his head. Jerking his head back, the blond man ended up falling onto his back, a moment before Girder's fast slammed right into the glass of the case, cracking it and causing some form of gas to come hissing out of it.

Well, that just couldn't be good.

Unfortunately, he was not in a position to debate the merit of breaking a glass window to a hibernation unit for some wacky science experiment. Raising a foot up, Girder had every intention of using it to stomp the life out of Ollie. No doubt the force behind that stomp would turn his insides into jelly and maybe cause his arms and legs to go shooting off his body. Morbid thoughts, admittedly, but Ollie had no delusion what would happen considering what he had seen with the floor just eight seconds ago.

Rolling to his left, he avoided the foot stopping him. And just like before, the floor couldn't handle that much force and caused the metal plating to tip up to stand in the air. However, this time Girder had hit the center of four converging panels, causing them all to go up. One scraped up the blond man's back, causing him to hiss even as he turned onto his stomach. Pressing his hands and bow onto the floor, he forced himself up onto his hands and knees.

Only to leave himself wide open for the kick Girder sent that nailed in right in the side. Crying out, Ollie went careening through the air until he landed on the floor, rolling over it a couple times as his ribs screamed at him. Oh yeah, he had a fracture, possibly a broken rib.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury to just lay then and pitifully weep to himself. Dinah wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he did. Gritting his teeth, he got up onto his feet, holding his bow in front of him as he looked at the approaching Girder.

"Don't get too far," Girder called out to him. "The further I have to go is just that much longer for me to consider squashing your head with my foot, or ripping your arm off and beating you with it."

Now that was just a pretty picture.

However, though he may be injured, that didn't mean he was completely helpless. As a vigilante, he had fought through his share of injuries before, even ones that had come at very inopportune times. His current one was no exception. Pulling out one of his trick arrows, he took aim at the approaching Girder and let it loose, watching as it flew through the air.

And sailed right by Girder's head.

The steel man stopped, blinking his eyes at the miss. Slowly, he turned his head to watch the arrow land on the ground a short distance behind him, sticking out of the ground.

This blinded him to Ollie rushing towards him, ignoring the pain in his side. Holding his bow by both ends, he raced towards his foe, who turned back around, flinching with surprise at just where the archer was. Instinctively he threw a punch at him.

By then, Ollie had leaped off the floor, stretching his forward leg out so his foot landed right on top of the fist. As his momentum carried him forward, he bent his leg before extending it again, using the extended arm as a springboard as he went into a flip over Girder's head. Moving his bow, he made sure the shaft of his bow made contact with his opponent's neck.

Now, Ollie was one of the best archers in the world. He would've been mad to pull this stunt, and most of his fellow archers would've thrashed him for using his bow as such. But when desperate times called for desperate measures…

In other words, don't do this at home, kids.

As he went into the downward swing of his flip, Ollie's feet landed on the floor and he pulled as hard as he could with his bow. This caused Girder to lean backwards until his feet left the floor due to the force the Emerald Archer used against him. Swinging his arms over his head and then down in front of him, Ollie swung the metal brute down on top of his trick arrow, which was still sticking out of the ground.

The moment Girder's body hit it, the arrow exploded, the force of the blast sending the metal man flying up into the air. Because of his bow still wrapped around his neck, Ollie was pulled upwards with him, the entire time the archer was pulling down with his arms, which consequently pulled him further up and eventually over Girder's body.

Quickly, the blond man moved his arms away closer to his body and then up, which removed his bow from hanging around Girder's neck. Maneuvering it as he pulled out another trick arrow, he had it notched and pointed right at Girder as he reached the peak of his upward flight.

He released the arrow, the bolt hitting his target right against the chest. Another explosion rang out, pushing the archer further up into the air while sending the large man falling rapidly to the floor, where he made a rather large dent in the metal paneling.

And again, he had another trick arrow notched on his bow. Letting it loose, he watched it raced downward until it hit Girder, the thin canister connected to the shaft breaking and unleashing a white cloud of gas. In record time, ice crystals formed and raced all over Girder, leaving a layer of ice all over his body. Even from this altitude, Ollie could see the man's face twisted in pain, frozen until spring came and thawed him out.

Gravity then set in, causing Ollie to drop to the floor. Calmly, he landed on his feet, and immediately went into a roll to disperse the force he would've been hit with had he remained standing up. He ended up crouched on his feet, staring at his fallen opponent, not the least bit perturbed.

"You sure took your time."

Rolling his eyes, Ollie stood up, turning to face Batwoman. She stood with her hands on her hips, the guards lying in various states of unconsciousness around her. Hmph, she looked rather proud of herself.

"Sorry to take so long," he retorted as he began to walk towards her. "This old body of mine doesn't quite move the way I want it to anymore, especially when against giant metal men. That's a pretty big weakness there."

She waved her hand at him flippantly. "Excuses, excuses."

"Hey, I would've liked to see you take him on!" he protested.

The sound of cracking ice caused him to freeze in his tracks.

Batwoman straightened her postures out as she assumed a fighting stance. "Perhaps I will get that chance."

Turning around, Ollie was just in time to see shards of ice burst from Girder's body and go flying in all directions. The archer held his arm in front of his face to protect it from the little sharp bastards.

And then Girder was on his feet. "I'm gonna crush your skill with my bare hands," he growled as he flexed his fingers over and over. "I'll kill you and then the girl, slowly, oh so slowly. You'll both be begging me to finish you when I'm done with you."

Ollie had a pretty good quip for that threat. It was a natural gift of his and one he made use of daily. However, he never got the chance to say it.

"Now that doesn't sound very nice."

That rather girlish voice was the reason why.

All three of them perked their heads up upon hearing that. Looking this way and that, they tried to find the source of it.

"I know! I think someone needs to take a time out!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a raging maelstrom appeared, the air in the room being forced to spin around and around. The wind itself had a yellowish-green color, the vortex being as wide as the entire room and then shrinking. Soon, it was a tornado right between Ollie, Batwoman, and Girder, all three of them watching as their bodies braced against the powerful wind, arms held up in front of their faces for protection.

Slowly, a figure formed. It was a woman's, that much Ollie was sure about. He knew that because he was what you would call an expert on the feminine form if he didn't say so himself. It sort of helped to see the soft curves of her body, not to mention the long pink hair that—

Wait, pink?

Ollie blinked his eyes over and over, but not once was he mistaken. The woman did have pink hair. And a leg that looked like it was made of wood. And one arm that was made of stone. And the other arm of clay...maybe? He didn't even want to get into whatever the pink substance the other, rather shapely leg was made of.

And then the wind was gone, leaving this bizarre looking woman standing there. "Hi there!" she greeted them all, waving a hand excitedly. "Thanks for freeing me from that cryostasis chamber! I was getting pretty bored in there until you guys arrived!"

"Cryo-what?" Girder uttered before shaking his head. "Lady, I don't know what's messing with your head, but you're going back in there, alright? I've got enough trouble right now and I don't need to bother with you unless you want me to break your legs."

Ollie couldn't see the woman's face, ya know, since he was looking at her back, but he liked to think she wasn't happy with that idea. "But...I don't want to go back…" she spoke so softly and pitifully. Then she squared her shoulders. "No. I'm not going back and you can't make me."

Girder scowled at her. "Oh, you're going to—"

He didn't say much after that. Raising up her clay arm, it changed shape right before Ollie's eyes, becoming a bigger, shinier, metal arm. Without hesitation, she slammed her fist into Girder's face, the force of the blow sending him flying backwards and into the closed door of the lab. The doors dented from the impact, but remained standing, Girder slumping against them. He shook his head, looking dazed as he pushed himself forward.

Then promptly fell forward, landing face first on the ground.

Well, that was one way to take a metal man out.

The woman's metal arm returned to its clay-colored one as she spun around, revealing her chalk white face as she smiled at the two Insurgents. "Hi!" she greeted them once again. "Sorry if I had to get rough with that big guy there, but I don't really want to go back into cryostasis."

"I don't blame you," Ollie stammered out. "And we won't put you back in if you don't want to."

The woman's face lit up, her smile growing wider. "Really? You mean that? Yippee!" She even jumped up into the air, thrust a hand up into the air in celebration.

"So, uhh, could you tell us why you were in that chamber thing?" the blonde man inquired uneasily.

The woman looked to him with pink eyes. "Oh, I was in there because of Stagg Industries' Metamorpho project. I was one of two volunteers selected for human trials, but then they threw us in the cryo-chambers. I'm not entirely sure why, though."

"What was the purpose of this project?" Batwoman asked then, joining the conversation. She held herself defensively, unsure of how to act around this rather strange woman.

"Hmm? You mean the Metamorpho project? It's a project to make people able to adapt to any environment imaginable. Hot, cold, dry, wet, even underground!" Suddenly, she gasped as her eyes went wide, clasping her hands in front of her mouth. "Oh! But that's top secret! Can you do me a favor and not mention that to anyone?"

Ollie and Batwoman looked to each other. "Sure," he replied after a moment. "I think we can do that, Miss…?"

It took her a moment to realize what he was getting at. "Oh, you want my name!" She seemed rather happy about this. "It's Emily! Emily Sung! I'm one of Stagg Industries top chemists!"

She was a top chemist? Wow...

"Nice to meet you, Ms Sung," the blond man responded eventually. "I'm Ollie and the redhead next to me is Batwoman."

Emily looked at Batwoman. "Batwoman? Is that some sort of code name?" Upon seeing the vigilante nod in response, she squealed. "Oooooh, I want a code name too! Can I have one? Can I? Can I?"

"Yeah, sure, anything you want," Ollie replied as he slowly began to relax. Whoever this Emily Sung was, she was definitely a few crayons short of a full box. Still, she was harmless as long as you didn't annoy her. "We're in a bit of a hurry though. You wouldn't happen to know where those super pills are located, would you?"

Emily looked confused at that. "Super pills?" Her face then lit up. "Oh, you mean the 5-U-93-R samples! I sure do! I can even show you where they are under one condition."

"And what's that condition?" he asked guardedly.

"Come up with a code name for me."

Was that all? Ollie was suspecting someone was pulling his leg, but if this worked, well, he could deal with it. However, just any old name wouldn't do. If he just threw a random one out, there was no way to know how she would react. Looking at her from head to foot, taking in the sight of her wood leg and her stone arm, he ended up tossing out, "How about Element Woman?"

Emily stared at him before she whispered, "Element Woman...I love it…"

Oh, joy.

"Well then, Element Woman," Ollie said as he began walking towards her. "Now that you have a name, why don't you join our little team here and show us where those pills are?"

"Join? As in join with you? Be on a team?" It was a moment before she let out another squeal. "No one's ever asked me to be on a team before! Count me in!"

And suddenly Ollie knew why she hadn't been asked before. This might prove to be troublesome.

Green Arrow's aerial attack on Girder is based on his Ultimate attack in Injustice 2. I tweaked it a bit since I really doubt the same combo could be of used against a man made out of metal.

To Guest: Oh, that'll be mentioned soon. Happy New Year!