I was really happy with the way this chapter came out. I got the idea from admiral809, and the episode Disordered in Young Justice. I hope you like it, please review and let me know.
"Recognized, Inferno, B08," the computer lady announced, and Mallory materialized in the training room of the cave. She stepped out of the tube and looked around, expecting to see the team getting ready for training. Instead, she was met by Sphere rolling up to her and beeping.
"Hey, girl," she murmured, patting the living machine. She went to the living room, the kitchen, even knocked on Megan's door, but the cave was empty. She couldn't even find Wolf, and he didn't usually go on missions with the team.
She shrugged to herself and went to the gym to train by herself. She set up a punching bag and practiced her kicking, then started just punching it.
About an hour later, Conner walked in. He paused when he saw that she was there, and looked around.
"Are you the only one here?" he asked, his voice slightly hostile.
"Yeah, I don't know where the rest of them are," she replied, trying to keep her own dislike out of her voice.
Wolf came in and stood by Superboy, eying her distrustfully. Superboy rubbed the back of his neck and looked around like he was hoping someone else would show up. Mallory turned back to her punching bag and Conner left the room, only to come back a moment later.
"Ok, look," he said, "I need some backup for something, and you're the only one here, so I need you to come with me."
Mallory turned to face him, steeling herself for his reaction to what she was about to say.
"Oh, so when you need me it's ok to try and not kill me? Why should I help you with anything? You've hated my guts since the first time you saw me, and you don't try to keep it a secret."
Conner clenched his fists and took a breath. "Just come on," he ground out. Mallory crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground.
Conner let out something in between a sigh and a growl. "Please," he ground out, like the word was physically painful to say.
Mallory thought about it for a second. "Fine," she muttered. She pushed past him and went to the training room where she kept her suit. In five minutes she was ready to go and she met Conner in the hanger. The Bioship was gone, and Superboy stood in front of the hanger door with Wolf and Sphere in front of him.
"Where are we going?" Mallory asked, walking over to the little group.
"I don't know yet," he said.
Mallory tilted her head to the side, confused. "Okay, well, how are we going to get there? You can't fly and it's a little hard to follow you when you have to keep landing and jumping."
Superboy glared at her and turned to Sphere. "All right, girl," he said, and the machine beeped and split apart down the middle, somehow turning into a three wheeled motorcycle.
"That's how we're going to get there," he said, his scowl lightening a little.
Mallory followed Conner and Wolf into the bike, shocked that Sphere was more than a ball that rolled around the cave looking for attention.
"How long have you known she could do this?" she asked. She'd never heard about it, and they hadn't used it on the Lexcorp mission.
"A few weeks, I guess," he muttered. He took the handles and said, "All right, girl. You know where to go."
Mallory held on to her seat as they flew across the pavement. A moment later the wheels left the road and they soared into the air. Sphere slowed down a little once they were in the air and Mallory looked over the side. It was strange, flying without having to flame up.
"So, you want to tell me what I'm doing here now?" she asked, turning to face Conner. The clone stared straight ahead, not acknowledging her.
"Look, if you don't tell me why I'm here I'm just gonna jump over the side and go back to the cave," she threatened.
Conner grunted in frustration, but he said, "All right, I'm meeting some friends. I met them a few weeks ago, and I thought that they were done here, but they contacted me a few hours ago and told me to meet them, so I guess they weren't as done as we had hoped."
"What does that even mean?" Mallory asked, getting irritated at him for not telling her everything up front. Before he could answer, thunder clapped right over their heads, and lightning struck not two feet from the bike.
Mallory jumped and looked at the sky. It was clear, not a cloud in the sky, but there was lightning in one spot, right above them. A hole opened in the middle of the lightning, and a flying car full of weirdly dressed people came through the hole. Mallory stared in shocked silence as the car leveled off next to the supercycle.
"Ah, Superboy, it is an honor to join forces with you again," a huge guy with red hair and a furry vest said.
"Good to see you too, Bear. So, more stolen technology, or is it something else this time?" Superboy asked, his tone actually friendly. Mallory listened to the conversation quietly from her seat.
"We do not know. Motherbox has picked up signs of Apokoliptic signatures here, so we decided to check them out," the girl said.
"Well, we'll help you with whatever you need," Superboy told them.
"Who is the girl?" Bear asked.
"Her name's Inferno. I brought her for backup, but we might not need her," Conner said, completely ignoring Mallory even while he was talking about her.
"Well, we must go. Motherbox will guide us," a guy holding a little beeping box said. The car flew ahead of the cycle and Conner followed.
"You want to tell me what is going on here?" Mallory asked, keeping her fire at bay only by sheer willpower.
"I worked with them a few weeks ago to get some alien tech back for them. Apokolips and New Genesis are warring worlds, and Intergang is somehow linked with Apokolips."
"Right. So, what am I doing here?"
"Listen, you weren't my first choice. The rest of the team was gone, so I got stuck with you. Like I told the Forever People, you're just back up."
"The Forever People? Are you serious? What is with these guys? And I'm not backup. If I'm here, I expect to be in on the fun."
Conner clenched his fists tight on the handlebars. "You need to listen to me. I've worked with these people before, I know how to position everyone so they'll be the most helpful. And you'll be the most helpful as backup."
Mallory scoffed. "I told you, I'm not anyone's backup."
"Except for Superman," Conner muttered.
"What did you say?"
"Nothin," he said.
"No, say it. You're jealous of my partnership with Superman, aren't you? That's why you haven't given me a chance, it's why you tried to beat me up when we spared. Well, get over it. I didn't do anything to you. I didn't even know you existed until I joined the team, so you can't blame me for Superman not giving you quality time."
"Are you done?" Conner growled.
Sphere beeped before she could answer, and they both turned to see that the Forever People had stopped in front of them.
"We should be right above it," The guy holding the Motherbox said. Mallory gave Superboy one last glare and looked down. They were above a warehouse.
"Ok, I'll go in with the Forever People. Inferno, you wait here with Sphere in case we need help," Superboy said. He got a hold of Wolf and was about to jump down when Mallory said, "Like heck I will. I'm coming."
She didn't give Conner a chance to say anything, just jumped over the side. She caught herself with her fire, flying the last ten feet to the ground. She could hear the Motherbox beeping frantically above her.
"Motherbox has just sensed more Apokoliptic signatures. They must have done something in the building," the girl said.
Mallory landed and looked up, waiting for her companions to reach the ground. Superboy landed surprisingly lightly, for him, and the Forever People simply drove their car down to the ground and got out.
"No heat signatures, but you know how that turned out last time," Superboy said after scanning the building. Mallory followed the group into the building. Crates were piled to the ceiling, and there was a lot of machinery parked against the far wall. Superboy stopped. "I don't hear anything, I think we're alone."
Before he had even finished the sentence dozens of goons with all kinds of weird, glowing red weapons had jumped from behind crates and machines and surrounded the group. Mallory glared at Conner.
"Good job, Superboy. You found out that we're not alone."
Conner scowled at her.
"Oh, what a touching scene. The Big Blue's little brat brings us some New Genesis tech to give to the Boss," A big guy said from behind his cannon-looking weapon. Mallory made note of the strange writing on the side before turning her attention to the guy who had spoken.
"Ugly, what do you want?" Conner asked.
Mallory looked at her teammate in surprise. "You know this guy?" she asked.
"He's Bruno Manheim's son. He runs Intergang ever since his old man went missing. We ran into him the last time we were rounding up the New Genesis tech."
"Of course. You couldn't tell me all this before I got trapped in a warehouse full of alien tech," Mallory muttered.
"Stop the chatter. All right, boys, ice 'em."
The red plates flew at them fast, and the Forever member toting guns shot two plates right before they hit Mallory. She nodded her thanks and returned the favor by burning a plate meant for the mini cowboy.
"We must retreat," the leader of the Forever People yelled, and no one argued with him. Mallory and the gun guy gave the group cover as they backed out of the warehouse and made a beeline for their rides. The goons chased them outside, and Mallory continued to burn the plates as they were sent for the Forever People, allowing them to get in their car and fly out of range. Sphere landed next to Superboy and he loaded Wolf in, then turned back to Mallory. "Come one!" he yelled.
"You go on, I'll catch up," she replied. Superboy did as she told him, and when he was out of range, Mallory started flying up to meet Sphere. Superboy tilted the bike so she could get in easier.
Just then, a lightning strike hit Mallory dead on. She yelped and blacked out. Superboy jumped out of the bike and caught her before she hit the ground. He watched the boomtube open and a dark figure stand at the edge, watching the scene.
Conner jumped, trying to get back to the supercycle without putting his pets in danger, but he ended up getting sucked into the boomtube, Mallory still in his arms.
Mallory came around a moment later to see a world on fire. Literally, there were fire pits every so many feet, and the whole place had a reddish glow to it. People were walking along chained together, people whipping each other. Conner was kneeling next to her, surveying the terrain.
"Did we die?" she asked. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in her side kept her down.
"No, I don't think so. I think we're on Apokolips," Conner told her.
Mallory pressed a hand to her side and forced herself into a sitting position. Upon closer inspection, the place looked worse than she'd originally thought.
"Ok, so how do we get back to Earth?" she asked. She unzipped her costume part of the way to get a look at her side. There was a huge bruise going from her ribs to her hip. "And what happened to me?" she asked, zipping her costume back up.
"You got struck by lightning. I guess you can't get burned, but the force must have given you the bruise. Can you walk?" he asked. Mallory got to her feet and turned to him.
"All right, we need to find a Motherbox, or a Fatherbox would be more likely."
"Great, so where are we supposed to find that? I don't exactly see a Walmart anywhere. Man I wish Rob were here. He'd probably have one in his belt."
Conner started walking and Mallory followed closely. She felt her powers grow with every step, like she was connecting to the very core of the planet. A fire pit suddenly shot up beside them, and Mallory decided that that must be why. She could feel the fire all around her, like she had in the volcano on the island.
"We're going to need to get in there," Conner said, pointing to the biggest building in sight. There were no doors on it, only balconies every now and then. It was made of sturdy brick, the only building that wasn't in ruins.
"I can fly up to one of those balconies. I might be able to carry you up, too, I'm not sure."
"We don't need any attention drawn to us," Conner said.
Mallory laughed. "You know, I can't think of anything that would blend in better around here than fire." She flamed up and tilted her head. "You want a lift?"
Superboy grunted and Mallory made a fiery whirlpool under his feet. She got him to the balcony and then flew up herself. They found themselves in a long hallway with torches along the walls.
"Any idea where to look for the box?" Mallory asked quietly. All quarrels between the two were forgotten the moment they'd been sucked into the boomtube. They had one common goal, to get back to their planet, and they didn't care if they had to work together to get that accomplished.
Superboy squinted, using his vision to look ahead down the hall. "I think this way," he said, "There's a room at the end of the hall with a lot of stuff on a table." He led the way to the end of the hall. The door was locked.
"I'll break it down, back up," he said.
"Wait, let me try melting the lock," Mallory said. She made a thin rod of fire and ran it down the crack between the door and the wall. A moment later, the door swung open.
The teens ran to the table and started looking through the stuff. There were all kinds of weapons and gadgets, but nothing that looked like the Motherbox the Forever People had.
"Wait, can't your friends just come get us?" Mallory asked.
"No, if they set foot on Apokolips it'll break the peace treaty between the worlds and start a war. We're going to have to find a way back ourselves. Keep looking."
"Oh, are you looking for this?" a deep voice said behind them. Mallory's heart leapt into her throat and she whirled around, coming face to face with an ape-looking man with a sort of hunchback and long, thick arms and hair all over his body.
"Well, Father will be proud of me for catching you," he said.
Mallory and Conner attacked at the same time, but they were dropped immediately by some sort of energy wave that the man sent towards them with a gadget in his enormous palm.
The last thing Mallory saw before she blacked out was the man's hand as it came towards her head.
"Inferno! Wake up!" Conner's voice jerked Mallory out of unconsciousness.
They were chained to a wall with some sort of inhibitor collar around their necks. Mallory looked around the room. It was clearly made for torture, and there was a huge machine at the end of the room that had a chai and something that would go around a person's head.
"We need to get out of here," Mallory said.
"No kidding? I thought we'd just stay here for the heck of it. If you haven't noticed, we don't have our powers, and I can't bust through these chains without them."
Mallory glared at him, remembering why they hated each other.
"Well, if you'd been using your powers to start with, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place," Mallory pointed out angrily.
"What are you talking about?" Conner growled.
"I mean, you have super hearing, right? So why didn't you hear the footsteps and give me some warning? And it's your fault that we're on this planet, and it's your fault that I'm here because you wouldn't tell me the whole story."
Superboy jerked his arm, and Mallory couldn't tell if he was trying to punch her or just trying to get free.
"Like you said, you can't break through the chains without your powers, so you might as well just stop. And since we're stuck here, you might as well tell me what your problem with me is."
Conner glared at her, and she returned it. They stayed like that until the door opened and they turned to see who was coming in.
A horribly ugly old man came in. His face looked like the skin was melting right off, and his hands were swollen almost to the size of his head. He wore a dark cloak with a hood on it, and a coarse tuft of black hair poked out of the hood onto his face.
"Dessade," Conner whispered.
Mallory narrowed her eyes. She didn't need to know who Dessade was to know that he was there to torture them.
"Hello my pretties," the old man said in a voice that sounded like pure evil. "What shall we do today?" He laid out a bunch of tools on a table. Some of them were completely foreign to Mallory, but she did recognize a large needle, a crowbar, and a sledgehammer.
The man picked up two little devices no bigger than quarters and held them up. "Yes, I think we'll start with this little fellow. It's been ages since I've used him."
He walked over to Superboy and held the things up to his ears. Conner struggled to get away from it, but the man pressed a button and backed away. Conner started yelling in pain, and after a moment, Mallory could hear the high-pitch scream that was coming from the device directly into her teammate's ear.
After a while, the man got tired of that and turned it off. When he pulled them out of Superboy's ears, they were covered in blood.
"Oh, how nice. It's been so long since I've seen someone with the S shield bleed."
He grinned sickeningly and went back to the table. He caressed each toture tool affectionately, and Mallory felt fear creep into her, weighing her down so she could hardly breath, much less move. Dessade held up the crowbar and went back to Superboy.
"Let's see how much more blood we can get, shall we?" he asked, then hit Superboy in the side. Mallory winced at the crack, knowing something had broken.
Dessade changed tools over and over again, but he always used them on Superboy. Soon, her teammate's yells of agony became too much for her to bear.
When Dessade went back to the table, returning with something about the size of a pen, Mallory said, "Hey, I'm starting to feel left out. Don't play favorites, now."
Dessade laughed, and the sound sent icey shivers up Mallory's spine.
"No, my little lady, don't feel left out. The Great Darkseid has other plans for you." The man looked over at the machine at the end of the room.
He moved to Superboy and started lasering him. Conner was a bloody pulp at this point, and he looked more dead than alive. Mallory shut her eyes against his groans. She needed to do something. She needed to get them out of there.
She reached into herself, trying to find her power. It was locked too deep down, she wouldn't be able to create any fire. But maybe she could use fire that she hadn't created. She held out a hand. She could faintly feel the energy. She reached deeper. The whole planet was on fire, and she only needed a little bit.
She could feel the fire responding to her. She called it to her, and soon the whole room was in flames. She melted her collar first, then used her own fire to melt through her chains.
Dessade just stood there, watching her with an unnerving smile on his face. Mallory held her hands out at him.
"Step away from Superboy," she yelled.
"As you wish, my little lady," he replied.
Mallory melted Conner's chains and his collar and all but carried him out of the room. He was about to collapse into unconsciousness, but she slapped his face hard.
"Conner, you need to stay with me. We need to keep moving, ok?"
He lolled his head, and Mallory took it as a nod and continued to drag him down the hallway, looking desperately for a way to escape.
She heard footsteps behind her and dragged Conner into a room near them, shutting the door and dropping him into a sitting position against the wall. She listened to the footsteps pass, then started pacing, raking her hands through her hair, trying to think of a way out of their mess.
She looked around the room. There was a bridge, and a throne across it with pillars on either side. A box was on the arm of the chair.
Mallory's hope rose as she took a step towards it, then turned and dragged Superboy with her. When they crossed the bridge, she left Conner and dashed to the chair, snatching the box up. It looked like the Motherbox, except it was red and black. She brought her prize back to Conner.
"Hey, look at this," she said, holding it out for him to see.
"That's a Fatherbox. It can open a boomtube for us," Conner said, struggling to get to his feet.
"Well, here, open it," she said, trying to hand it to him.
"You can do it as well as I can," he said, leaning on her to keep from falling down. Mallory struggled to support his weight, but she finally steadied him and held out the hand holding the Fatherbox. She pressed a button and a boom tube opened in front of them.
"Come on. I hope this will bring us back to Earth," she said, and they walked through.
If they had been a little more observant of their surroundings, they might have noticed the large, dark figure watching them from the shadows, flames leaping out of his eyes as he smiled in satisfaction.
Mallory and Conner stumbled out of the boomtube and landed on grass. Mallory rolled onto her back, exhausted, before remembering her companion and sitting up to check on him. His wounds were already healing thanks to the unfiltered yellow sunlight, and he seemed to be in much less pain.
"You did it," he said quietly, resting an arm on his knee as he sat in the grass absorbing the sunlight. Mallory smiled and relaxed, sitting cross legged next to him.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I should have told you what we were going to be going up against. It wasn't fair to make you go into a fight blind."
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have said what I did about you. We're teammates, and I shouldn't have accused you of being jealous of me."
Conner sighed. "You were right, though. I haven't been fair to you. It's just that, well, my whole life I've wanted to fight beside Superman, to be his partner, but he never wanted me. He could never get past the fact that I'm his clone, could never see me as a real person I guess, I don't know. So I guess I was jealous of you because Superman likes you. I'm sorry for that."
They looked at each other and smiled. Mallory realized that it was the first time she'd seen Conner smile.
She became aware of other people around and realized that they had landed in the middle of a park. She looked her companion over. Almost all of his wounds had healed by now, but his shirt was gone and his pants were in tatters.
"We'd better get you some clothes," she said with a small laugh. He looked down and nodded.
"How long do you think we've been gone?" Mallory asked.
"I don't know, but we need to get back to the cave and see if Sphere and Wolf went back. The Forever People probably went back to New Genesis. I'll contact them later and let them know that we're ok."
When the team got back, they stopped short, shocked. Mallory and Conner were sitting by the coffee table playing cards with a movie on in the background. They were talking quietly and laughing together.
Wally turned to the team. "Is everyone seeing this, or am I hallucinating?"
Kalder smiled at the sight. "No, my friend, it is quite real. Our team is complete now."