Sorry it's been so long since I posted, had some stuff come up unexpectedly. I did write a few chapters ahead, though, so posts will be regular until they run out. I'm just having trouble writing lately, probably because I'm not procrastinating anything at the moment. Anyway, sorry again, hope you like the chapter, and please review!
"Ok, so how does that help you? You still have a lot of unanswered questions and an entire universe to cover," Roy said after Mallory told him what she'd learned on the Lantern mission.
She shifted the phone to her shoulder to pull on her boots. "Sure, but I have part of a description, and when Hal and the others get back I'll talk to them and see if they have a list of planets where the inhabitants are humanoid. That would narrow things down to–"
"About half the universe, instead of all of it," her friend interrupted. "Look, I'm sorry to be such a pessimist about this, but I just don't see how this really helped anything. It sounds to me like you put yourselves in a lot of danger for nothing."
She rolled her eyes. "I miss the days when you weren't such an old man," she teased.
He scoffed. "Well, if you miss young me so much, go have a talk with the kid."
She shook her head. "Yeah, I'm good. I'd rather not get my head shot off, thanks." She looked at her reflection in the mirror and sighed. "Ok, I'm gonna go. Have fun with guarding the goggles."
"Yeah, thanks. I'd rather fight the entire Injustice League single handed than watch a bunch of prototypes get shipped from one rich guy to another."
She reached the street and headed towards the zeta tube in the alley. "Whatever, Red. You chose the job, no one forced you to create a company. I'm at the tube, so I'll talk to you later, ok?"
"Yeah, sure. Talk to you later."
She hung up and slipped into the booth, coming out a second later in the Watchtower. She went down the hall to the private rooms, coming to a stop in front of one of the last ones. She knocked and the doors slid open without hesitation, revealing Razor on the other side in his regular clothes.
"Hello, Inferno," he said.
Mallory smiled. "I told you, you don't have to call me that all the time, just when the bad guys or civilians might hear."
He rolled his eyes. "You Earthlings are so caught up with this secrecy thing. It is ridiculous. What does it matter if people know who you are?"
She shrugged. "It's a protection thing. For our families, mostly. Come on, you're here to relax, not become a hermit. There should be some people in the lounge." She led the way to the room, smiling when she saw Conner and Kaldur eating at the counter. "Hey, guys."
"Hey, Mal," Conner replied.
She peered into her friend's bowl. "Is there any more of that?" she asked.
"I believe so," Kaldur replied.
She went around the counter to see, and Razor sat down two chairs away from the boys. She looked at her friends, tilting her head slightly towards Razor. Conner shook his head, but Kaldur smiled and looked around the Kryptonian.
"Razor, Zatanna told us that you were one of the first Blue Lanterns. How is that?"
Razor didn't even look at the Atlantean as he answered, "Rings manifest when an individual shows an excess of the emotion in question, and they grow the corps that they start. It really is not a difficult concept for most beings to grasp."
Conner narrowed his eyes, pressing his lips together. Mallory sighed and slid the two bowls of cereal onto the counter, sitting down next to the Lantern. "Um, Razor, do you want to go look around Earth? Zatanna's working today, but maybe Conner could go with us, and we could–"
"Uh, Mal, can I-"
"I have been to hundreds of planets, and I have not needed a tour guide on any of them. If I wanted to look at your world, I would do it alone."
"What is your problem?" Conner snapped. "She's just trying to include you, and you're treating her like she's inconveniencing you."
"Perhaps she is," he replied evenly. "I would not still be entertaining this conversation if not for her."
"Well, don't let her stand in the way," Conner growled.
Mallory stood up. "Guys, stop," she said firmly. They stood up as well, and she put a firm hand on Razor's shoulder, Kaldur doing the same to Conner.
"Team, report to the bridge for a mission assignment."
She had never been so glad to have a surprise mission in her life. She took her hand off Razor tentatively and turned to Conner. "Come on, let's go."
He grunted and followed her to the bridge. "Why would you volunteer me to go with you?" he complained on the way.
"I don't know, I just thought you would get along once you got to know each other." He scoffed, and she added, "and I thought you were one of my best friends, and you would do it just because I asked."
He stopped in his tracks, and she kept walking, slipping into the line without looking back at him. He took a spot at the other side of the line. Megan scanned the team to make sure everyone was there, then pulled up the holographic screen.
"Thank you for getting here so quickly," she started. "The League has gotten a tip that a senator has been using a black site to smuggle arms and ammunition to Kaznia. There isn't enough evidence to prove it, and with the suspect being a public figure and the League still on thin ice with a lot of the public, they are sending us in to confirm the rumor and collect some physical evidence before they make their move. Alpha is in charge of that, Tigress, Robin, and Arrowette, that's you. Beta squad will stand watch on Alpha to make sure they don't have any distractions, that's Blue, Static, Vigilante, and Superboy. The rest of you are Gamma, you'll be on standby in the Bioship in case things go sideways. I've sent coordinates to the ship, move out."
The team jogged to the bioship and found their seats, Artemis at the controls, and they zetaed near the coordinates, flying in camouflage mode the rest of the way. When they got to the base, Mallory switched places with the archer and watched as the two squads hooked onto the lines provided by the ship and made their way down to the ground.
Wonder Girl leaned back in her seat and heaved a sigh of frustration. "I hate Gamma," she complained.
Mallory shrugged. "It's not always bad," she pointed out.
"It is when I'm on it," she said.
"Same," Impulse put in.
The pyrokinetic nodded. "Yeah, me too," she admitted. "But at least we don't have to stake out outside some door for half the night waiting for the techs to pull some files off the computer."
Bart shrugged and they settled in for the long wait.
Half an hour in, Cassie pulled out the cards that Static had stashed in the back of the ship and the three heroes started playing rummy. An hour into the game, the ground squads started to come on the comms.
"Guys, we're in the system, but there's something off about the blueprints the League gave us," Robin said.
"What?" Conner asked.
"There's an extra level underground in the plans in the computer that isn't there in the League's prints," he replied.
"Should we go check it out?" Blue asked.
"Negative, Beta, stay with Alpha," Megan broke in. "Inferno, can your squad go check it out?"
Bart and Cassie grinned and ditched the cards immediately. Mallory got to her feet and opened a hole in the floor. "We're on our way. Send a set of those prints to my suit, will you?"
The plans appeared in her mask a second later, and she and Bart each grabbed one of Cassie's hands so she could fly them to the ground. They slipped into the building and Mallory led the way through the halls, making sure that they didn't run into any guards or workers, until they got to a dead end at the back of the house.
"Ummm, Inferno, I think you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Impulse said.
She didn't answer him, her eyes narrowed as her mask analyzed the wall in front of them. She walked over and knocked on it, a faint echo coming from behind it. "It's a false wall," she told the younger heroes thoughtfully, running a hand over it.
The wall slid open without her finding the lever, and she jumped back in surprise. Three workers took a step out of the wall before they recognized the heroes and froze, their eyes widening in terror. Mallory saw one of them glance to the wall where there was a fire alarm, and she moved a split second before he dove for it, blocking his way and knocking him out in one move. Impulse and Wonder Girl took out the other two and they dragged the unconscious forms back through the wall. It slid closed behind them and Bart found a closet to stash their burdens.
"We're in," Mallory said on the comm, keeping the team updated. "There's an elevator in front of us, hopefully we won't lose contact."
"If you do, we'll be looking for the smoke signals," Arrowette replied, only half joking.
Mallory shook her head, swallowing a scoff as she led her squad into the elevator. There was only one button, so she pressed it and the doors slid closed immediately and they started their descent. It only took a moment to get to the lower floor, and they pressed up against the sides as the doors slid open. The room appeared to be empty except for one old man with a clipboard checking some crates on the other side of the room, so the heroes slipped out of the elevator and dove behind a stack of crates close to them. They scanned the room again. There were stacks of crates each about five feet long lining the walls of the room, almost from floor to ceiling, and there were about twenty stacked around the middle of the room, one of those stacks providing the heroes with their cover. The man with the clipboard was going around and opening the crates one by one to check the contents, then sealing them back up.
"What do we do?" Cassie murmured.
"Just be patient. Remember, this is a stealth mission," Mallory replied under her breath. She examined the crate in front of her and found a latch at the top. She had just lifted it when they heard many heavy footsteps coming towards them from opposite the elevator. Bart peeked around the side of their hiding place and winced.
"Soldiers," he reported quietly.
She stood slowly, still holding the side of the crate so it wouldn't open yet, and took a look for herself. The soldiers were all dressed for combat, in bullet proof vests and armed to the teeth. That wasn't the part that had her blood pumping, though. There were about thirty soldiers gathered in their room now, and their uniforms were from both the US and Kaznia. She ducked back behind the crates, biting her lip as she tried to think of a way to get out of their hiding spot without being noticed.
"Are you going to open it?" Bart asked.
She looked back at her hand and nodded. She might as well see what they were dealing with since they weren't going anywhere any time soon. She eased the side of the crate down, careful not to make any noise. One of the guns inside started to fall out, but Bart put a hand up, holding it in place. They all let out a sigh of relief, then sucked in a breath when they looked at the weapons inside. Twenty high-tech war rifles were piled in the crate, and all of them were being sent to the United States' enemy to be used against their military, and they were being gifted by a US politician and handled by American soldiers. It made Mallory sick to think about.
"Guys, time to go," Megan came on the comms.
"We're not done getting the files out," Robin said.
"Yeah, and we just found the guns," Mallory murmured, watching the soldiers to make sure they didn't hear her.
"Guys, it's really time to go. Raquel just went into labor, they're on their way to the hospital."
A bang rang through the underground room, alerting all of the soldiers, and it took Mallory a panicked moment to realize that she'd dropped the side of the crate, letting the wooden lid slam into the crate below it and the guns inside drop out.
"Great," Cassie said, not even bothering to whisper when they were already surrounded by soldiers aiming their assault rifles at them.
"Sorry?" Inferno offered, holding her hands up just like the others. "Well, since the stealth thing's out…" She flamed up, floating into the air a few feet and putting a fire shield around herself and her squad. The soldiers opened fire, but their bullets melted on impact, accomplishing nothing. "Come on, we don't have time for this," Mallory muttered through clenched teeth.
"Let the shield up for a sec," Bart requested. She opened a small area of the fire, Wondergirl covering her while it was open, and counted to three, then closed it just as the speedster skidded back in. The shooting had stopped, and she tilted her head in question. He grinned. "That should even things up a little."
Cassie laughed and flew over the shield before Mallory even had a chance to let it down, starting to fight the people on the other side. Inferno and Impulse joined her without hesitation, the shield gone now. They were making good progress, but the time it was taking to go through the soldiers seemed like forever.
"We need to go," Mallory said, glancing at her squad while dodging a punch from a Kaznian man.
"It's not going to make a difference," Cassie replied. "They locked the whole place down. The elevators shut off and there's just going to be more of them topside."
"Yeah, that's for sure," Static said on the comms. "We've got our hands full up here."
"We're handing it," Conner said stubbornly.
"I mean, yeah," Vigilante put in, "but it wouldn't hurt to get a few more people in here, if you wanted to come on up."
Mallory sighed and looked behind her at the wall with the elevator. "Give me a sec," she told Gamma, knocking out the man she was fighting. She flew over the rest of the soldiers to the wall and touched the side of her mask, activating the computer inside to survey the wall. It was only a foot deep before the elevator shaft. She tapped her comm and swung her arms back. "I think I have a way out, how's Alpha coming?"
"Oh, just great. We're aborting, but just great," Robin said sarcastically.
"We have plenty of dirt on the guy," Tigress said, annoyed. "Just finish downloading what you have and let's go."
Mallory slammed her hands into the wall, tapping into her strength. The drywall crumbled away easily, and she silently thanked the senator for the cheap construction as she continued to punch a hole in the wall large enough for the three of them to go through. The metal tube that enclosed the elevator shaft was not so easy to get through. It was three inches thick, and made of a lead and steel mixture that was flexible enough to merely dent when she punched it. She sucked in a breath when her fist connected with the metal, her hand screaming in protest.
"Well, maybe not," she muttered. She put her other hand on the shaft and heated it, raising the temperature until the metal turned red, and eventually started to melt, thick black smoke billowing off of it in the process. She broke through in less than a minute and pressed her comm.
"Ok, Gamma, let's go," she ordered.
Cassie slammed her fist into her latest opponent's jaw and flew up and over, snatching Bart off the ground on her way, leading to a soldier getting lucky and punching him in the stomach. "Ugh," he groaned, pulling his legs up to protect himself. "Thanks a lot, Wondy. Maybe fly a little lower, let them get some cheap shots to the face."
They flew up the elevator shaft, Mallory in the lead, and she busted through the top doors, through the hail of bullets and bodies that were waiting for them topside, and right through the false wall without a second thought. The smoke filled the new hallway faster than they could get through it, which slowed the going since Mallory had to make sure they stayed together.
"Uh, thanks for the smoke signal, but I think we already got the message," Static said on the comms.
"What are you talking abo–" Mallory's words were drowned out by gunfire close by, and Gamma doubled their speed, rounding the corner to come to where Beta was in a circle formation, fighting off a small army that was firing at them.
"Um, Tigress, Arrowette, one of you want to step out here and give us a hand?" Blue asked, shooting his sonic gun to clear a path for Gamma.
"Tigress bailed out the window to bring the bioship over," Arrowette replied. "Do you want me to come, or…?"
"No, you stay with Robin, just in case," Megan ordered.
"Yeah, it's fine, we got this," Virgil said optimistically.
"Totally," Peter chimed in, peeking out from where he had taken shelter from the bullets behind Conner to shoot his dart guns into the pack of soldiers. "We have Wonder Girl and–" he broke off mid sentence when he saw his sister. "Uh, Inferno, you good?"
"Yeah, fine, why?" she asked, shooting fire at the heavier guns being brought into the hall.
"Uh, you got a little something on your," he tapped his forehead, and she touched two fingers to her own, the tips coming back covered in blood and rubble.
"Invulnerability, not so much," Conner muttered, smiling a little.
"Oh, right, I broke through a wall. Or two. Whatever, it's fine. We really need to get out of here."
"Alpha, how's that download coming?" Megan asked.
"Almost done," Robin replied. "But, you know, I wouldn't have to settle for half if Gamma hadn't screwed up."
"Wow, Rob, like you haven't had a bad mission before," Cassie shot back.
"Ok, guys, whatever you're going to do, you need to start doing it," Artemis cut in. "I have the bioship at the office window, if you can just back in, you can get on the ship and we can get going."
"Ok. Bart, take the guns, I'm not sure why you haven't done that already," Mallory said. The speedster took off, collecting the rifles and depositing them out of reach. "Static, do your thing," Inferno continued.
Virgil just stared at her. "What, you mean stick them to the ceiling? That thing?"
"Yeah, hurry up," she replied, ducking a punch and spin kicking someone in the face.
"I can't do it on this many people!"
"Well, do as many as you can and we'll figure out the rest later!" Conner yelled.
"Ok," he said, and he brought his electricity and sent it around the room. Soldiers started to float upwards at random, going straight up to the ceiling and sticking to it.
"Oh, I thought it would be more," Bart commented after the ten people had been lifted up, leaving about twenty on the ground.
"Well, I warned you!" Virgil yelled.
"Vig, office, now," Conner said, taking charge. "Secure the escape, we'll be right behind you. Blue, you and Impulse want to finish this?"
Bart grinned and took off, and Blue Beetle shot his sonic gun, dropping most of the people in front of them. Mallory saw motion out of the corner of her eye and she had a fire shield up a split second before the gunshot came from above them. The group looked through the flames to where one of the men stuck to the ceiling had pulled a handgun and was now firing at them from above. They backed into the office, Mallory keeping the shield up until they were clear and then shifting it to cover the entire doorway.
"How's the download coming, Robin?" Vigilante asked.
"Almost done," he replied, clearly annoyed to be asked so many times.
"Well, we should be fine now," Mallory said. "They're not getting through that unless they're crazy enough to–"
A soldier jumped through the flames before the rest of the sentence had even formed in her throat. Her eyes went wide and she closed one of her fists, stopping the fire that was still burning on him. Arrowette came out of nowhere, her fist colliding with the soldier's jaw before he even saw it coming. He dropped to the floor hard, and Inferno nodded a thanks and doubled the flames at the doorway.
"All right, done," Tim announced, pulling his flash drive out of the computer.
"Get on the ship," Artemis said. The younger heroes moved immediately, but Mallory glanced at the doorway warily.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll stay here until you get clear, then I'll catch up."
Conner glanced between her and the doorway. "I'll stay, too. You can't fly into the bioship, so you're going to need a lift."
"All right, but don't wait long," Artemis told them, then she closed the door and the ship took off.
True to their words, they didn't wait long. As soon as the bioship got far enough away from the house, Mallory wrapped her arms around Conner's neck and he jumped off the second story to the ground. She grunted when they landed, rolling her shoulders.
"I hate this so much," she said.
"Just hold on," he replied. She tightened her grip and nodded into his shoulder, and he jumped. The force made her arms feel like they were being ripped out of the sockets, and she bit her cheek and winced, pressing her face into his shoulder. "I hate this, I hate this, I really hate this," she repeated over and over.
"We're almost there," Conner assured her.
Sure enough, he landed hard just inside the bioship, and she let go the second the jolt went through her body. She just laid there on the floor for a moment, holding her shoulders, then she popped up, grinning. "Hey, we did it!"
"Did what? We only got half of the files, and we had to fight our way out of a hornet's nest to escape."
"We're still alive, though, and we have enough to at least put him out of politics, if not send him to prison for treason," Mallory explained, sitting cross legged near Artemis' seat.
"Speaking of evidence, please tell me someone took pictures of those guns in the basement," Cassie said, looking at Inferno.
She sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Ohhh, pictures!" The younger heroes' eyes widened for a moment, then Mallory chuckled. "I'm kidding. Come on, I'm not…completely…incompetent. I do things right sometimes. You got the pictures, right, Miss M?"
"Yes, they're right in front of me. Now, get back to the Watchtower. We can save the debrief for tomorrow, but you need to drop the flash drive with the League, and then the senior members need to get cleaned up and meet me on the Bridge. We have places to be."