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"We can't just leave them there!" Megan yelled as soon as she and Robin left the bioship. Mallory landed clumsily behind them, still feeling nauseous, dizzy, and confused.
"What were we supposed to do? If we'd stayed, we would have been caught too. At least now we can come up with a plan to get them out."
"Robin, Queen Bee will kill them! What makes you think we'll have time to get them out?"
Robin didn't answer, and this was the moment that Mallory's legs decided to give out, and she staggered forward, ending up on her knees.
"Mallory!" Megan exclaimed, and she and Robin hurried over.
"What happened to her?" Marie asked, suddenly beside them.
"She got caught in an explosion," Robin replied.
"Help me get her inside, I should do an x-ray, make sure nothing's broken," she said.
Megan picked Mallory up with telekinesis, and the pyrokinetic blacked out before they got to the clinic.
Mallory woke up an hour later, stiff, sore, and ready to go. She walked out of the guest room and found Robin sitting in a chair in the living room, his elbows on his knees and his fingers raked through his hair. She walked over and put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
"You did the right thing. We're going to get them back," she told him.
He looked up at her and smiled, and she could almost see his blue eyes shining through his domino mask. "Yeah, thanks," he said quietly.
She nodded and walked around him to sit on the sofa. "So, what did I miss while I was out?" she asked, her voice lightening in an attempt to get him to calm down.
He sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "A lot of fighting," he said. she tilted her head, waiting for him to explain everything. "Megan wants to go back. She didn't want to leave, but, like I said, if we'd stayed then we wouldn't have been able to come up with a plan to get them out."
"So you have a plan, then?" she asked. He shook his head forlornly. "Does Megan?" she asked.
"No, she just wants to go back there and do an all out attack, which we would lose."
"Could we call in the League?"
Robin shook his head again. "The tension is too high between the countries. Besides, the team wasn't even supposed to be in Biallia, so technically Queen Bee is within her legal right to take people prisoner if she sees them as a threat to the country."
"So what are we going to do?" she asked, her eyes trained on him. He seemed to sag a little in his chair. "I don't know, Mal. I've been racking my brains, but the palace is too heavily guarded, and we just don't have enough people."
She moved to the chair next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Before she could come up with an uplifting pep talk, the door opened and Megan, Marie, and Gar came in, Monkey riding on Gar's shoulder.
"Mallory, you shouldn't be up so soon," Marie said, but her voice said that she knew it was useless to argue with the young hero.
"Well, you come up with anything yet?" Gar asked, his young voice eager and hopeful.
Robin stood up, his walls coming back up. "Not yet, Gar," he said briskly.
The ten year old's face fell slightly, but then his normal smile came back. "Well, you will. You're Robin, you always come up with a plan."
The boy's confidence in him didn't do much to lift his spirits, especially with Megan glaring at him from the side of the room.
"I know what we need to do," Megan said, her voice strong. Mallory and Robin looked up. "This notebook, Queen Bee should trade the team for it."
"Megan, that's blackmail," Marie said.
Megan looked at the woman, her eyes hard. "So? She blackmailed me, and this is to get the team back."
"Megan, we can't resort to their methods," Robin said tiredly.
"why not? Their methods get results. I'll bet she'd even agree to stop the attack to get this little book back."
"Megan, you need to think about this long and hard. You should know by now, there are always consequences, especially for going against Queen Bee," Marie said.
Megan glanced at Gar, his green skin a glaring reminder of the team's past mistake. She and Robin looked away, then Megan sighed and turned to the door.
"Where are you going?" Robin asked.
"I need some air," the Martian replied.
Mallory looked between her friends, then followed Megan outside. "Megan, you're not the only one who's worried about them," she said quietly.
Megan turned around, tears in her eyes. "We just left them. Would have left you, too, if you hadn't been caught in that explosion. How can we live with that if something happens to them?"
Mallory shook her head, her face hardening slightly. "Megan, you did the right thing. I know that they're glad some of us got out, even if there's nothing we can do for them. I know I would be if I'd been caught."
Suddenly, Megan paused and turned away from the pyrokinetic. Mallory tilted her head, waiting. Megan turned back to her and hesitated for a moment. "Queen Bee just summoned me," she said.
Mallory nodded. "So what are you going to do?" she asked.
Megan looked at the notebook in her hand, then up at Mallory. "I'm going to get the team back," she said.
Mallory nodded. "Well, you won't be alone," she said, and she turned around to go back in the house.
Megan followed her with halting steps, not wanting Robin to say no again. Inside the house, Robin was pacing the floor behind the couch, and Gar was sitting in the chair watching him.
"Rob, we have a plan," Mallory said. Robin stopped and looked at them. "Megan got a communication from Queen Bee. She wants her to come back to the palace. All we need to do is use the book to get inside, then we can get to the team and get out. The book has the war plans, so if we keep the book, we still have a way to stop the war."
Robin shook his head. "I already thought of that, but we'd need at least one more person, even with you."
"What for?" Mallory asked.
"Well, assuming that you distracted Queen Bee and took care of the soldiers, Megan would need to be with you so she doesn't get suspicious, and I can't free the entire team by myself in two minutes," he explained.
"How do you free the team?" Gar asked.
"There's a chip that goes on the inhibitor collars, which I'm only assuming they're using on at least Conner, and the rest of them will need their locks picked," Robin replied.
"I can take the collars off," the boy said, leaning forward eagerly.
"No," Robin, Megan, and Mallory said in unison.
"Oh, come on! My powers are under control, and if I get caught I can just turn into something really small and hide."
"It's too dangerous," Robin told him, much to Mallory's relief.
"But I can do it, and you don't really have a lot of choices here," Gar pointed out.
The remaining team looked at each other, deciding whether to allow him to come or not.
"Ask your mom. I don't want to get on her bad side," Megan said finally. Gar grinned and scampered off to find Marie, and Mallory looked at Robin, not liking that Gar was coming, but knowing they didn't have a choice.
"Ok, so if Gar can come, are we all set?" she asked.
Robin sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so," he said. Mallory nodded and walked to the guest room to make sure her bandages would hold for the fight.
Megan landed the bioship on the roof of the palace in front of Queen Bee and about fifty soldiers. The woman was smiling confidently. The two girls filed out of the ship and stood in front of her.
"I told you to come alone," the woman said, raising an eyebrow.
"What does it matter? The whole teams gonna know that I work for you in a few minutes," Megan replied.
"Rob, are you in position?" Mallory asked over the link.
"Yeah, we're inside. Remember, after this, stay off the link unless it's an emergency. Simon's got to be around here somewhere," Robin replied.
Mallory turned her attention to the interaction in front of her, a mental clock ticking.
"Is our agreement settled, then? You will work for me in return for your friends being released?" Queen Bee asked.
Megan glanced at Mallory, who nodded slightly. Robin was inside, he would find the team soon, so all they needed to do was stall. Too bad Wally wasn't the one that had gotten out, Mallory thought. This was his field of expertise.
"You promised you wouldn't hurt them," Megan said.
Queen Bee glared at her. "You know I keep my promises, dear. You're the one that has proven untrustworthy in the past." Megan winced and glanced to the side, remembering when Queen Bee had forced her to reveal her true form to the team.
"How do we know they're all right?" Mallory asked, taking over as Megan clearly ran out of ideas to stall.
"Well, that is a good point I suppose," Queen Bee said, and she snapped at a soldier and he went to the door of the roof and opened it. Twenty more soldiers were waiting behind it to lead the team out. Mallory's eyes widened at the members, half of them with inhibitor collars on, the other half stripped of their weapons and chained up. She took a half a step forward and every gun on the roof was cocked and aimed at the team.
"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Queen Bee said calmly. "My men have orders to shoot every last member of your team if there is any attempt to free them. And I assure you, they don't miss."
Mallory backed up and exchanged a look with Megan. "Rob, the team's with us on the roof. You're in the wrong place," Mallory said.
"Ok, it'll take us a minute to get back up there. Keep stalling, we're on our way," the Boy Wonder replied, and the link went dead.
"Well, Megan?" Queen Bee said.
Mallory saw the look in her friend's eye and knew what she was thinking without the link. She tried to subtly get her attention, but the Martian wouldn't look at her. "Actually, I think I'm going to change the terms of our agreement," Megan said.
Queen Bee raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh?" she asked. Megan pulled the notebook out of a pocket in her cape and held it up for the monarch to see. The woman's eyes widened ever so slightly before returning to the bored, confident look she always wore. "And what is that supposed to be?" she asked.
Megan smiled slightly. "Your downfall, if you don't agree to my terms," she replied, opening the book to the middle. "These are interesting plans. I'm curious, though. After you bomb Qurac and invade the capitol, what is it you're planning on doing with the country? Your plans aren't too clear on that."
The woman's gaze hardened and she turned to one of her soldiers. "To the prisoners," she said, and several of the soldiers aimed their guns at the team. Mallory took a step towards them unconsciously, and another group aimed their guns at her. She looked at Megan, waiting to see what would happen and praying that Robin was almost there.
"Megan, Megan, Megan, you seem to have forgotten that no matter what leverage you have on me, I have more. One word from me, and your whole team dies. Now, be a good girl and hand over the notebook."
Megan glanced at the team, then Mallory, and tightened her grip on the book. "I think not. Not only are you going to release my team, you're going to cease plans to invade Qurac and publicly announce that you will take full blame in any attack, terrorist or otherwise, that occurs in the country's borders."
Mallory stared at her friend, hoping she knew what she was doing. She looked at the rest of the team and suddenly understood what was happening. A little green bird was flying low, on its way towards Superboy's shoulder. She looked harder in the background and saw a vent cover on the ground and a flash of red as Robin dashed to cover behind Wally. She hid her smile and turned back to Megan and Queen Bee's conversation.
"Megan, just give me the book and I won't order my men to shoot them," Queen Bee said.
Mallory glanced at the team and again fought a smile. Robin and Gar had gotten all of the collars off and Robin had found Artemis's bow and quiver and Rocket's belt during their detour, both of which were lying at the girls' feet, ready to be put on as soon as someone made a move. She watched Gar change back into a bird and fly to the bioship, away from the coming action.
"I'm not going to give you the book until you meet my demands," Megan said.
Queen Bee sighed and turned to her men. "Very well. Let's start with the boyfriend, shall we?"
The soldier put his gun to the side of Conner's head and pulled the trigger. The gun exploded, the bullet intended to go into Conner's head ricocheting back into the gun barrel. The soldier was blown back, and Conner smiled at Queen Bee. The rest of the team moved, and Mallory flamed up and flew over the army, taking most of the fire while the team took the opportunity to regroup. Artemis, Robin, and Zatanna were protected by Rocket's force bubble, and the more vulnerable members of the team went to the safety of the bioship. Wally was gone already, snatching guns left and right, mostly the ones closer to the bioship, and Conner and the Atlanteans fought their way through the army. Mallory sealed the door to the roof, preventing more soldiers from coming, and as soon as the majority of the guns were taken out of play, the rest of the team joined the fray. They had the situation under control soon, and the team once again stood in front of Queen Bee, tired and out of breath, but ready to complete their mission.
"Well, what's it gonna be?" Wally asked, still going with the blackmail idea.
Queen Bee raised an eyebrow. "Well, it seems I've lost my leverage. I will listen to your demands."
"You call a press conference before midnight and announce to the world that you will not be declaring war on Qurac, and that if any harm comes to the country in the future you will take full blame and any consequences that follow. Once you do that, you will find your notebook returned to your office and we will leave Bialia," Megan said.
Queen Bee eyed the group of heroes thoughtfully, then sighed. "Very well, it would seem that I have no choice. But I warn you, Megan. Your actions will have consequences."
The team barely heard her over the relief passing through them. They were grinning, and they hurried to the bioship, taking off just as the soldiers behind the sealed door broke through and ran to Queen Bee's side. She told them to stand down, her eyes trained on the camouflaged ship as it flew towards the border to wait for their demands to be met.