I'm getting so bad at naming the chapters, so sorry about that. Also, I'm running out of ideas for the story, so if y'all could just tell me what type of chapters you like best, I can try to write more of those. Please review, and enjoy the chapter.
Wally looked towards the gunshot, adrenaline pumping as he searched for the source of the sound. On the platform, Mallory was wrapped in a fire shield, and John Gigliani was on the ground, most of his face, arms, and chest severely burned. Wally watched as Mallory cracked one eye open, then landed on the platform and stared down at the man in horror. He ran over to her and put an arm around her, hoping to keep her grounded before she got lost in her fear and shock.
"I, I didn't, I mean, he was too close," she murmured, hardly noticing him. Wally nodded and knelt beside the man, putting two fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse.
"He's still alive, but barely," he told her. She let out a breath in relief. "Miss M, we have a situation over here," Wally called.
The team had handled the soldiers in the room, and they all went up to the platform, leaving Conner on the floor to guard the door.
"What happened?" Zatanna asked, wincing at the sight of the third degree burns.
"He was too close when I put up my shield, he must have gotten hit by the first wave of heat," Mallory murmured.
Kaldur knelt beside the man and pulled out his water bearers. "Perhaps I can pull some of the heat out of the burns," he said. The sprinklers had come on when Mallory had put up the shield, and Kaldur guided the water onto the burns.
"See, Havu? You really have a talent for punishing those who wrong you. You should have allowed Kobra's mate to take control of your body. The two of you are so much alike, it would have been a most agreeable union."
Mallory clenched her fists, her eyes blazing. "Would someone please shut him up?" Wally asked, and Zatanna muttered a spell that turned the hood of his robe into a gag, clearly enjoying the revenge from when he had had her gagged earlier. Rocket put Cass in a force field, and the team turned their attention back to the injured man.
"He needs medical attention. Miss Martian, can you levitate him to the bioship?" Kaldur asked.
Megan nodded and lifted the man into the air.
"What do we do with the rest of them?" Rocket asked.
Robin collected the map and shrugged. "Take Cass with us, the League can handle the rest." Rocket nodded and walked along beside her force bubble. Cass was staring at Mallory intently, and she could almost hear his taunts.
"Inferno, this wasn't your fault. You didn't have a choice," Wally said quietly on their way back to the ship.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, I know. I still feel guilty, though. I could have killed him."
"And he would have killed you if you didn't put up the shield. You didn't have a choice. I didn't get you to come back to the team just to have you die on your first mission back."
Mallory nodded, smiling slightly, and they walked the rest of the way in an easy silence.
Back at the cave, Megan put the injured man in medbay and Robin and Conner started treating his burns based on their combined knowledge and what the computer screen told them to do. Mallory tried to get in touch with Superman, but he wasn't responding to either his comm or his phone.
"He won't answer," she reported when she rejoined the team in the training room. Cass was still in Rocket's force bubble in the middle of the room, and the team was standing in a circle beside it.
"I'll try Flash," Wally offered, and he went to the living room to call his uncle.
Mallory pressed her comm again, paging Clark, but all she got was static. "Ugh, why won't he pick up?" she asked, frustrated.
"Well, they weren't expecting us for another two days, so…" Zatanna said.
Mallory sighed and glanced at Cass. He smiled, and she looked away in disgust. "What are we gonna do with him?" she asked.
"I guess we'll just have to leave him until someone from the League gets here," Megan replied.
Wally came back in, with his phone in hand. "Flash said he's in the middle of something, but he'll find a Leaguer that's free," he reported.
Mallory sighed again, looking between Cass and the direction of medbay. "Hey, uh, do you guys mind if I head out? I should run a patrol in Metropolis, what with the crime wave and all."
Her teammates shook their heads, and Wally walked part of the way to the zeta tube with her. "You ok?" he asked when they were out of earshot of the team.
Mallory nodded, but an image of John's burned body flashed in front of her eyes. "Hey, uh, let me know what happens with‒ everything," she said quietly.
Wally nodded. "Yeah, sure. Don't worry, though, I'm sure John's gonna be fine," he replied. Mallory nodded and turned to the zeta tube, trying to convince herself that he was right.
The open Metropolis sky didn't do much to lighten Mallory's spirits. She flew by the Daily Planet, glancing in the fourth floor from the top looking for Clark. Lois was at her desk, but Clark was nowhere to be seen. She sighed and ignored the red-headed boy standing close to the glass with a camera aimed at her. She flew to the docks and started scanning the streets for trouble. She'd only patrolled the city twice since she'd been back, and crime was still pretty high.
She saw a group of men loitering outside a convenience store and landed on a rooftop to keep an eye on them. Sure enough, when the street was empty, the group went inside. Mallory landed and peered in the window. The leader was standing at the counter, brandishing a gun and yelling at the store owner, an older man with snow white hair and a bad tremor in his hands. She pushed the door open and stepped in. The bell jangled above her, announcing her presence, and the men looked at her.
"What are you supposed to be?" the leader asked.
"Dude, that's Inferno," one of the gang members told him.
The leader scoffed. "I don't care who she is. Get on the ground or take a bullet," he said.
Mallory sighed. She'd heard the same things so many times over the years, and today she just wasn't in the mood. "Drop the gun, put your hands up, and I'll let you be arrested conscious," she said, a bored expression on her face.
Some of the men looked a little shaken by her confidence, but the leader was still stubbornly holding the gun on her. "I said get on the ground," he said, taking a step closer.
Mallory uncrossed her arms. "Last chance, drop the gun," she countered. His grip tightened, and she shrugged. "Ok, I warned you," she muttered, and she flamed up.
The gun went off, but the bullet hit the floor in front of her, not even coming close to her shield. Mallory put out her fire and quickly rushed the leader, hitting a pressure point in his neck before he could react. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and she looked at the rest of the men, who hadn't moved.
"What's it gonna be?" she asked. One at a time, each of the men dropped whatever weapons they had in their pockets and put their hands up. Mallory nodded and glanced at the store owner. "Would you mind calling the police?" she asked, keeping her voice calm and reassuring. The older man nodded and grabbed a phone off the counter with a shaky hand.
Mallory waited at the store until the police showed up, even though that meant having to endure the crow that collected during the wait. "Inferno! Look, she's back!" she heard from several people, and others actually came up to her and asked where she'd been the last few months.
That was something she hadn't prepared for. She couldn't tell the public that she'd just needed a break, but she also couldn't tell them that she'd been recovering from an injury. Heroes got hurt in the field all the time, and yes, sometimes they died, but the public needed to think of the heroes that protected their cities were all invincible and immortal, or they would start to lose faith in the idea of heroes, and the heroes would lose the intimidation factor with the bad guys. Fortunately, the sirens had finally come into earshot, and Mallory had brought the prisoners to the sidewalk for easy access. As soon as the cops put the cuffs on them, Mallory had flamed up and taken off.
She flew a few streets over and started looking for more trouble. She stopped three robberies in an hour, and was about to look for another one when her comm turned on.
"Inferno here," she said out of habit, even though she knew it would be Wally giving her an update.
"Hey, it's me," Wally said. "Just letting you know that Wonder Woman and GL just left. They were taking Cass to Belle Rev, and John's going to Coast City for specialist care."
"How bad is he?" Mallory asked.
There was a long pause on Wally's end. "Well, he's alive, and he's gonna stay that way. Other than that, I don't know. Especially considering he betrayed the government. They aren't going to like that when they find out."
"Yeah, I was thinking about that on the way back to the cave. Do you guys need me to come back for anything?"
"No, most of them already left, it's just me and Robin still here, and we're about to head out, too."
"K, thanks for letting me know. See you tomorrow," she said.
"See you," he replied, and the connection ended.
Mallory continued flying around the city, but she was lost in thought, wondering what was going to happen to John and replaying the moment after he'd been burned. That had always been her fear with her powers, that she would hurt someone without realizing it. The situation didn't bother her as much, she knew it hadn't been her fault, and she knew she couldn't have done anything else in the moment. It bothered her that part of her had felt almost satisfied in the split second that it had happened.
She shook her head, bringing her back to the present, and she immediately recognized the apartment building that Isaiah's dad lived in. She hovered for a second, part of her wondering if she should go into that part of town, but then she kicked herself for even thinking that and flew on, concentrating on the streets below.
She saw a mugging in progress a few streets over and landed to take care of it. When she was sure that the victim was alright, she left the unconscious attacker with him to deal with and flew back up.
She saw a flaming figure not far away and froze. Isaiah started flying over, and he and a girl flying on a metal disk hovered in front of her.
"Hey, Inferno! Where have you been? You've been gone for months," Isaiah said. The group landed on a nearby roof and Mallory shrugged.
"I fell off a mountain, I've been recovering for the last seven months," she explained, feeling like she needed a good excuse to abandon the city for so long.
Isaiah immediately looked her over, like she might still have the injuries from the fall. "Are you ok?" he asked.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've been back for two weeks now."
He nodded, and they stood there in awkward silence for a beat, then Isaiah said, "uh, you remember Toni, right?"
Mallory nodded and internalized her surprise. She remembered Toni well, the girl had had pale skin and black hair, and she'd struck her as less than confident and she hadn't had any powers. Now, her skin was almost silver, and she clearly had powers of some kind. She was wearing a pretty shocking black leotard-like suit with one sleeve and the stomach cut out.
"Actually, I go by Argent now," Toni said. Mallory nodded slowly and hesitated a moment, not sure if she should ask. "My powers came in about a month after we were kidnapped, mine and Cody's," Toni explained. Mallory nodded. "Yeah, we formed a team of our own. We've been patrolling Metropolis while you've been away," Argent continued.
Mallory's eyes darted to Isaiah, but she kept the hurt inside. He'd given Toni the thing that was most important to her, a hero life, and formed a team with her? She'd tried so many times to get him to join her team, but he'd insisted he didn't want to be a real, full time hero, and that he wasn't really a team player.
Isaiah wouldn't meet her eyes as Toni was talking, so she looked back at the girl. "That's great. I'm glad Superman wasn't alone while I was gone."
Argent smiled, and Mallory couldn't help but think she was being just a little too smug. Isaiah cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "so, uh, what are you doing today?"
Toni glanced at him suspiciously, and Mallory shrugged.
"Nothing much. I just got back from a mission, so I'll probably go visit my folks."
"You should come eat lunch at my place," Isaiah said.
Toni's eyes darted between them, and Mallory felt the awkwardness of the situation as if it was a fog rolling in. "Oh, uh, I really shouldn't," she said, taking half a step back as if she would jump off the roof at any second.
"Why not? You said yourself you don't have anything to do, and it's just lunch," Isaiah pressed.
"I don't want to butt in," she said.
"No, it's fine, right, babe?" he said, turning to Argent.
Toni put on a smile, but Mallory could see the discomfort and dislike in her eyes. "Yeah, it's fine," she said.
Isaiah turned back to Mallory. "See? It's fine. Besides, Nikki's been asking me when you're going to come. She said something about a promise you made to her."
Mallory winced, remembering the promise she'd made not to disappear again. She couldn't think of a legitimate reason to skip out on Nikki, and Isaiah jumped on her silence. "All right, let's go," he said, flaming up. Toni made her metal plate fly, and Mallory sighed and jumped off the roof, catching up to the couple.
"My parents'll be happy to see you," Isaiah said on their way.
"Both of them?" Mallory asked.
"Oh, yeah, they got back together. When I got back from the H'san Natall ship, I explained everything to them, that Mom didn't really cheat on him, she was just made to think that she did. They told me that they were already starting to work things out, so yeah. They took it slow at first, made sure it was what they wanted, and they got remarried three months ago." Mallory couldn't help but smile at that. So things had worked out for his family after all.
It occurred to her halfway to the apartment house that she didn't have any clothes to wear over her suit, and Isaiah's family didn't know she was Inferno, and Toni didn't know her real name, which she wanted to keep that way. She grabbed Isaiah's arm and pulled him to a stop. Toni stopped a few feet ahead, looking back at them suspiciously.
"Isaiah, I really don't think I should go. Your family doesn't know who I am, and Toni doesn't know my secret identity," she pointed out.
"Oh, don't worry about it, I have some clothes stashed on the roof. They don't know about me either, remember?"
"Oh, ok, well what about Toni?" she asked.
Isaiah gave her the look that had always put her at ease, and she could feel herself weakening under it. "Mal, don't worry about Toni. You can trust her."
"I can't trust someone I don't know," Mallory said quietly.
Isaiah tilted his head. "You know me. Do you trust me?"
Mallory sighed, her resolve weakening. "Always," she murmured.
Isaiah smiled at her response. "All right, then," he said, and they flew forward to catch up with Argent.
"What's the big discussion?" Toni asked as they flew the last few blocks to Isaiah's apartment house.
"Nothing, she's just gonna need to borrow some clothes," Isaiah replied. Toni nodded and the three of them landed on the roof. Isaiah and Toni went to a vent cover and pulled out a box. They pulled out civies and started putting them on over their suits, then Isaiah tossed Mallory a sweatshirt that she recognized from when they were dating. She'd borrowed it all the time because it was black with a red emblem on the chest, and it was long, it went down to her thighs, so when she put her suit in stealth mode it just looked like a normal outfit. She pulled the sweatshirt on and pressed the button on her belt, changing her suit from orange and black to black and red. Argent was staring at the suit transformation, and Malory smiled a little.
"Cool, right?" she asked. Toni nodded, then went back to getting dressed. They were ready in a few minutes, and they went to the roof door.
Isaiah looked at Mallory and said, "your mask, you're still wearing your mask."
Mallory sighed and hesitated for a moment before pulling off the domino mask. She could feel the red eyes staring at her as she slid the mask securely in her belt. Toni stared at her as they walked downstairs. Finally, Mallory couldn't ignore it anymore.
"What?" she asked quietly.
"Oh, sorry, nothing, I've just never seen a superhero take off their mask before. You really are just regular people, aren't you?"
Mallory let out a breathy laugh. "Yeah, for the most part," she replied.
They got to Isaiah's apartment and walked in. "Mom, I'm back, and I brought a friend," he called.
Nikki was the first one to pop her head in the room. As soon as she saw Mallory, her face lit up and she darted across the room, throwing her arms around her. "Mallory! How come you never came?" she asked when she pulled away.
"Hey, I'm here, aren't I?" Mallory asked with a grin.
Nikki returned it and grabbed Mallory's hand, leading her into the apartment. "Mom! Guess who's here!" she yelled.
"Nikki, lower your voice," Mrs. Crockett said from the kitchen. Nikki led Mallory in and the woman grinned when she saw her come in. "Mallory! Come here, girl," she said, opening her arms. Mallory hugged her.
"Hey, I was so glad to hear that you and Mr Crockett got back together," she said.
The woman smiled warmly at her. "We've missed you, dear. Sit down, all of you. I'll have lunch fixed in a few minutes." She turned back to the stove and Mallory, Isaiah, and Toni went to sit in the living room. Mrs. Crockett asked Nikki to help her in the kitchen, to which the girl gave a dramatic sigh but did as she was told.
"So, how's college life?" Mallory asked after a moment. Isaiah had graduated high school two years early and started attending Ivy University. Mallory had been well on track to graduating early as well, but things had gone a bit off track with the eight months she'd missed, plus the other distractions being on the team had brought up.
"It's good, better than high school, anyway," he replied, and Toni nodded in agreement. An awkward silence followed, then Toni said, "how's your boyfriend? What was his name? Polar Boy?"
Mallory couldn't tell if she brought Brek up to remind Isaiah that she had a boyfriend or merely to have something to talk about. Either way, it didn't do anything to improve her mood. "Oh, uh, he's, um, he's not in the picture anymore," she said awkwardly.
"What? Why not? You two were so good together," Toni said.
Mallory bit the inside of her cheek for a second, forcing back the irritation at the girl for putting her in this position, and said, "he's, uh, he's gone."
Toni looked like she was going to say something else, but Isaiah put a hand on her arm silencing her. He understood. "I'm so sorry, Mal," he said.
She nodded and looked at the kitchen where Nikki was setting the table. "Yeah, thanks," she murmured.
Toni finally seemed to understand what Mallory meant by 'gone', and she slouched in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable as well.
"All right, food's ready," Mrs. Crockett called, and the three teens couldn't get up fast enough.
"So, Mallory, what've you been up to?" Mrs crockett asked when they made their plates.
"Oh, nothing much. I applied to some colleges last week, but I haven't heard back from them yet."
"What are you thinking you want to do?" she asked.
"Some kind of social work. What about you guys? What's new with you?"
Nikki launched into detailing everything that had happened since the last time Mallory had been there, and Mallory smiled and sat back in her chair, content to let Nikki carry the conversation.
When the meal was over, she got up and told Mrs. Crockett and Nikki goodbye, promised Nikki that she would call her soon, and started to go to the door. Isaiah followed her to the door, something Toni clearly didn't like.
"Do I put the sweatshirt back in the box?" Mallory asked him quietly.
"Oh, I'll come up with you, there's a lock on the box," he replied, and he followed her out to the hall. They walked to the roof in silence, and Mallory hesitated to take off the familiar sweatshirt. She gazed out over the roof, and Isaiah appeared at her side.
"Mal, you ok?" he asked softly.
Mallory turned to face him, intending to assure him that she was fine, but she made the mistake of making eye contact, and the soft, concerned gaze pulled the truth from deep within her. "I'm getting there," she said quietly.
His eyebrows went up slightly, the concern in his eyes pulling buried emotions to the surface. "Sorry to hear about Polar Boy," he said.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, thanks. That was one of the reasons I went off the grid, I just needed some time to deal with it."
He nodded, and his face changed slightly. "I'm so sorry I made you come today. This must have been the last thing you wanted to do, what with your boyfriend dying, and making you see me with my girlfriend."
Mallory shook her head. "No, it's fine, don't worry about it. It was good to see your mom and Nikki," she paused, then added, "it was good to see you, too."
He nodded. "Good to see you, too. How's the team doing?"
Mallory shrugged. "Good, we have some new members. The cave is getting a little crowded."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I noticed that last time I was there."
A beat went by, then Mallory said, "so, uh, how's your team?"
Isaiah sighed and took a step closer. She could feel his body heat now, and it left her feeling confused and alone. "Mallory, i-" he started, but she shook her head. "Isaiah, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I'm glad you found a team, I really am."
He smiled slightly and opened his mouth to say something, but Mallory pushed the sweatshirt into his hands, scared of what he was going to say, and clicked the button to return her suit to it's normal orange. "Well, uh, see you when I see you I guess," she said, taking a step backwards.
Isaiah's body straightened a little and he nodded. "Be careful, Mal," he said, his voice sincere.
Mallory put her mask on and smiled. "Always," she replied, and jumped off the roof, flying towards the Daily Planet.
This chapter just kind of wrote itself, so sorry if it doesn't make sense or it doesn't really fit with the rest of the story. I just really liked the dynamic between Isaiah and Mallory, and now that she's single again, I wanted to see if they could get back together, which after writing this, I see that they can't really, at least not at this point. At least it shows that they never really forgot the feelings they had for each other. Anyway, sorry again, and please review with your thoughts. Who did you want Mallory to end up with? Is there another character you think she would get along with better than Isaiah or Brek? Do you want her to have a partner, or would you rather her stay single? I want to hear y'all's thoughts on this stuff, so review!