Violet is one of the cuts I was talking about because I really didn't like anything about her. I didn't find her a very compelling character, her 'problems' through the season kind of annoyed me, and I didn't like her romance story with Brion. I didn't really see any chemistry with them, so to me it just felt like they were together because of proximity. Honestly, I was going to cut Brion, too. He wasn't my favorite through season three, and he just felt like a caricature of Conner in early season one without any of the layers that made Superboy work. The only reason I kept him, besides a major plot point that I can't say right now, is his power set. I am hoping to introduce a Violet replacement character, but we'll get to that later. Anyway, don't be too mad at me, hope you like the chapter, and please review!
The very next day, the four were on their way to Markovia. Dick spent the rest of the night going over the plan. He and Artemis would go in under false names, infiltrating the coronation party for Prince Gregor of Markovia while checking out the suspects for the murder of the previous king and queen that had taken place only days before. While they were at the party, Mallory and Conner would go in with Sphere, find a way into the base that was the center of all the trafficking in the world, and shut it down, permanently. Dick and Artemis would join them after their initial scoping and help them gather all the evidence they would need to prove without a shadow of a doubt exactly who was behind the kidnapping.
Two hours of nonstop flying after they dropped Dick and Artemis at the airport, Mallory and Conner got their first glimpse of the Markovian palace in Markovburg.
"It's impressive," Mallory commented. Her companion just grunted a reply and turned the Supercycle towards the outskirts of the neighboring city. "There's the hospital," she said, gesturing to the building.
Conner nodded and scanned the area for a good place to stash the rest of their gear. "I don't think anyone's going to be going to the cemetery this late," he said, landing Sphere near the edge of the burial ground. They started pulling the crates off one by one.
"We're in," Dick told them over comms.
Mallory looked at Conner, testing her new contact lenses to make sure they were working right. Sure enough, the others' symbols showed up on one side of her view and a menu of options on the other.
"Gear's stowed in the northwest corner of the Markovian National Cemetery," Conner told them. "We'll head over to the hospital and see if we can find anything."
"Roger that, SB. Good luck. And, be careful, both of you. We still don't know what we're walking into."
"Always," Mallory replied. "We'll see you soon."
The two of them reboarded Sphere and flew the short distance to the hospital, leaving her in the woods and walking the rest of the way. They scanned the wall with their contacts, seeing the electrical currents flowing through the wall. Mallory pointed to the windows at the top of the basement level, and Conner held up the device Dick gave them, waiting until it remotely bypassed the security measures before gently forcing it open. They dropped into the hallway soundlessly, and Mallory nodded to the wall next to them.
"That's a lot of juice for a floor that doesn't see patients," she muttered.
"Let's go," Superboy replied. They followed the flow of electricity until it led to a double swinging door. "The morgue," Mallory said, reading the cognate 'morgu' on the sign.
"You ok?" Conner asked softly.
She narrowed her eyes. "Ok walking into the morgue of a children's hospital? Oh, yeah, just peachy. Aren't you?" She sighed and pushed the door open. "Come on."
The room was full of empty tables, though. "No bodies," Conner murmured. "That's good, right?"
"I thought this place was supposed to have a high mortality rate," Mallory said, looking around. "So where's the mortality?"
"And where's the machines?" Conner added, still looking at the walls. "There's still a lot of juice coming down here."
Mallory followed his gaze, tracing the power lines with her eyes. "No, not down here," she said, walking over to the only blank wall in the room. "It's going through here, to whatever's behind this wall." She tilted her head. "Do we go through it?"
"We may not have to," he replied, pulling out Dick's magic tech phone. It scanned the wall with more depth than their contacts could and found where there was a hidden keypad and retina scanner behind the bricks. In seconds, they were through the security measures. As soon as they were clear, the secret door closed behind them, making Mallory feel trapped.
"Maybe we should call Nightwing," she suggested.
Conner nodded and pressed his comm, but his face settled into a grim expression. "Static," he reported.
Mallory looked around her. "The place must be shielded," she reasoned. "Looks like we're on our own."
They continued down the tunnel until they came out in what looked like an old subway station, complete with arches along a platform and tracks going in both directions. They had to step over many power cords, and there was a lot of machinery just sitting around, not being used. They ducked behind one of the machines and scanned the dark place with night vision provided by their contacts.
"Bedlam central?" Conner suggested.
"Good chance," Mallory replied. They pulled out the camera bugs they'd brought and started putting them around the room. "Wish we could know if they're getting a feed or not," she muttered.
They crossed the tracks to the other side of the station, where there was a lot of tech hooked up and running, with a line of pods set up in front of them. Conner narrowed his eyes, glaring at the glass cylinders, and Mallory put a hand on his arm before moving past him to investigate. She looked at the pods, leaning in to try to find out how to open it. When her face was an inch away from the glass, a face appeared. She thought for a second it was her reflection, until her realized that it looked nothing like her. She jumped a little, and her friend hurried to her side.
"Are they…?" she asked, looking at him.
He listened for a moment, then shook his head. "They're alive, for now."
"I think we got what we need. Let's free these kids and get out of here," she said.
"Let's not," an all too familiar voice said from behind them. Before they could even turn around, they were hit with waves of nausea. Mallory pressed a hand to the pod, shutting her eyes against the earth moving around her. It wasn't long, though, before she sank to her knees, her hands pressed firmly on the ground as she tried to convince her mind that it wasn't moving below her. She heard Conner thud to the ground next to her a second later.
"Ugh, Vertigo," she said, forcing her eyes open to see the man standing above her.
"That's Count Vertigo to you, peasant," he said disdainfully. "Plasmus, come."
She felt the heat before she saw the creature made of lava step up to Vertigo. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make them focus, but it was no use. The creature walked right up to them, and Malllory saw it reaching for Conner. "Look out!" she managed to yell, but Plasmus grabbed her friend before he could move out of the way. He yelled in pain as the lava burned through his gear, straight down to his skin. This was when the count decided it was safe to stop his waves of vertigo, giving Mallory the clear head she needed. She shut her eyes, lacing her fingers with the heat, and pulled. It left the creature's arms stone, giving Conner an opening to break free. He jumped backwards and slammed a fist into the floor. Vertigo started his waves again, making the half Kryptonian falter for a moment, then he slammed both fists into the floor with urgency. They fell through the floor, landing hard in the rocks below.
"Ugh," Mallory muttered wrinkling her nose at the foul smell they had landed in.
"We must be in the sewers," Conner muttered, breathing hard and shallow.
She shook her arms, sludge flying off of them. "Great. 'Come back to the Quitters, Mal'. 'It'll be fun, Mal', he said. Well, I don't see him wading through sewers while he's being chased by a lava monster."
Conner snorted, leading the way as they walked down the tunnel, hoping to find an exit instead of having to make one. "There's some light," he pointed out. Mallory couldn't see it yet, but she trusted her friend's eyes more than hers and continued to follow him until they made it to the exit of the tunnel, where the sewage was dumped out into the sea.
"Well, this can't be legal," she muttered while he stretched the bars to make an opening they could fit through.
"There, go ahead. I'll be right behind you."
She shot small flames out of her feet, lowering herself slowly the fifty or so feet down. She heard Conner yell in pain and whirled around to see Plasmus had her friend in a bear hug, burning his clothes off to have direct contact with his skin. She flew back up, charging towards the creature. "Let go of him!" she yelled. It dropped him in an unconscious heap just before she slammed into it.
It grabbed her by the arm, burning through her sleeve, but she just narrowed her eyes and swung her legs up at its face. It staggered back a little, but recovered with a vengeance, running at her. She narrowed her eyes, putting her hands up to fight, but Vertigo struck again, and when Plasmus reached her she was too dizzy to fight back.
It slammed a fist into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending her falling out of the tunnel. She thought that she could catch herself before she hit the water, but just as her head was clearing and she was preparing to do just that, she reached the water and something struck the back of her head, rendering her unconscious.
The next thing Mallory knew, Artemis was kneeling over her, one hand to her ear. As she regained her senses, she felt the breeze blow over her face and her friends' voices in her ear.
"She's regained consciousness," Artemis reported, a relieved look on her face.
Mallory went to get up and felt a sharp pang on the back of her head. When she touched the spot that hurt, it came back with some blood on it. "How long have I been out?" she asked, putting her mask back on.
"Not long, as far as I know," Artemis said, "but we lost contact with you and SB."
Mallory's eyes flew open. "They have him," she said urgently, grabbing her friend's arm and pulling herself to her feet.
"Who has him?" Artemis asked.
"Vertigo," she replied, glaring back at the tube. "Vertigo, and Bedlam."
"Vertigo's here?" Artemis asked. She nodded. "How did he capture SB? And, what happened to you?" the archer asked, looking at her friend's tattered clothes.
Mallory winced, running a hand over her stomach. "Vertigo has a metahuman, he called it Plasmus. Pure lava, like the one the League encountered on Rann. It took SB out, but I was fighting it fine until Vertigo stepped in and got me off balance. I still would have been fine if I hadn't hit my head."
"So, Count Vertigo runs Bedlam," Artemis said.
"And Ecks works for Bedlam," Nightwing continued, connecting suspicions he and Artemis had confirmed at the party to the information Mallory and Conner had collected. "Good, we'll take them both down. Our first priority is SB. I'm going in through the hospital. Tigress, Inferno, you go in via the sewers. We'll meet in the middle."
"Done," Mallory replied.
"Woah, Inferno, you sure you're up for this?"
Mallory glared at her friend. "You know better than to ask that," she snapped.
Artemis held up her hands. "You're right. Lead the way."
Mallory did just that, leading the archer to the opening of the tube and flying the two of them up to the entrance. From there, they made the long trek back through the sewer, retracing the pyrokinetic's steps back to Bedlam.
"I'm in," Nightwing said on comms. "Status?"
Artemis and Mallory checked the maps that came up on their contacts. "We're two minutes out," Artemis replied.
"SB?" Nightwing tried. There was no answer. A minute later, Dick sent them a video of the station, where goons were bringing the pods to the tracks.
"Received," Artemis said. "You have to stop them before they're shipped out."
"Negative," Dick responded. "Those pods aren't going anywhere anytime soon by rail, and SB and the prince are still the priority here."
"What prince?" Mallory asked, looking at Artemis for an explanation.
"Nightwing followed Ecks and Prince Brion from the palace, and they came down here. We have reason to believe that he's either being abducted, or he has a stake in all this."
"Nightwing, you might be able to use the bugs we planted to try to locate them," Mallory suggested.
"Yeah, I might, if they weren't in a thousand pieces," he replied.
"Hey, don't give me attitude because your tech is so breakable," she replied. She'd meant it to be lighthearted, but it just came out snappy with her nerves rising. Luckily, he ignored the comment.
"I have eyes on Ecks, and, huh, Dr. Helga Jace, the royal physician. They just finished a procedure on the prince. Both Brion and SB are in pods, unconscious."
The girls winced. "Oh, he is not gonna like that," Artemis mentioned.
"Nope. I think they tried to make Brion meta active."
Mallory nodded to the hole in the ceiling created by Conner. "We're arriving now," she told Dick.
"Then I'm going in," he replied, then, seconds later, he came back on. "Hold up! Something's going down. Vertigo's here. Sending audio feed."
The girls paused by the rubble, listening to the conversation going on above their heads.
"Explain yourselves!" Vertigo yelled.
"Count vertigo! What–" Ecks said meekly, but vertigo didn't let him finish.
"I've just spoken with his Highness," he snapped. "He did not give any orders to activate the meta gene of any prince of the realm!"
"His Highness?" Dick murmured. "Gregor?"
"I want answers! Now!" Vertigo demanded.
Ecks turned on Dr. Jace. "You lied to me," he accused. "You said this was by the boss's command!"
"I had to!" Jace said firmly. "His so-called Highness is out of control. The things he has made us do. But now we have a person who has the power to stop him, to stop Bedlam!"
"You ignorant peasant," Vertigo said, and they heard Dr. Jace grunt as he turned his waves on her. "The plans set in motion here far exceed your short-sighted morality. To get what I need, I will hand control of Markovia to him, and you will do nothing to interfere."
"If Vertigo's helping Gregor take Markovia…" Mallory started, and Artemis finished, "it's a good bet Gregor will help Vertigo take control of Vlativa in return. Finally giving the count the country he's always wanted."
"And putting both countries under the Light's dominion," Dick added.
Mallory laced her fingers together to give Artemis a boost to the top and she hung there for a second. "Nightwing, we have incoming," she announced. "It's…Baron Delamb?!"
"Ugh, how did I not see that Delamb is an anagram for Bedlam?" Dick muttered, irritated with himself for the oversight. "I totally should have seen this coming."
"Well, at least we know Gregor's not to blame for his parents' murders," Mallory said. "That's something."
Dick said something in response, but Mallory was no longer listening. She felt the change in temperatures, the new heat signature, and she threw Artemis out of the way just as the hand came down where her friend had been. It turned on her, and she narrowed her eyes and held up her fists.
"All right, let's see how long you last without your friend to get me off my game," she said. It threw a punch at her, splashing her with lava as it did so. She ducked the burning liquid and the fist, bringing her own up in a punch that knocked the creature off its feet. It was caught by a wall, though, and started coming closer. "We can't fight it in here," Mallory called over her shoulder. "It's too confined."
"Then we take it topside," Artemis replied, running to the hole in the ceiling. Mallory met her there, and the archer wrapped her arms around her friend's neck. Mallory flew them to the top, coming out in the middle of the work crew still preparing for the shipment. They dropped what they were doing, pulling guns and charging towards them. They dodged the first of the bullets, sliding behind one of the machines.
"Guys?" Dick asked.
"We need an exit. And some backup would be nice, too," Mallory requested, shooting fire over the top of the machine.
"What are you doing?" Artemis asked.
"What? Vertigo knows what SB looks like, we're already made," she shot back.
Artemis tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Well, in that case," she said, pulling out her bow. She shot a few arrows into the pack, scattering them.
"How we coming on that backup?" Mallory asked.
"Working on it," Dick replied.
They were surrounded now, and Artemis looked at Mallory. "Time to call in the getaway car?" she asked. Mallory nodded, and the archer pressed something in the air, having the contacts call Sphere.
Minutes later, the Supercycle came in full defense mode, shooting off their attackers and providing enough cover for the girls to get in her. Plasmus threw lava at their ride, and she went down, throwing the girls out in the process. They fought back to back, taking out goons, but no matter how much they did to level the playing field, Plasmus was still a threat. It started to run towards them, and Mallory dove in the way seconds before Artemis would have been burned, her costume taking the damage instead.
"Uh, Nightwing?" Artemis said.
"I'm working on it," he replied.
The lava creature raised its arms, bringing them down towards the girls. Mallory blocked the brunt of it with her forearms, but the lava ran down her face and head, burning the shampoo off in streaks, and leaving Artemis dodging the splattering plasma.
"Nightwing!" she yelled.
"I'm working on it!" he yelled back.
Suddenly, a force threw the goons, metahuman, and heroes alike to the walls of the room, and a bright light flashed under the pods. Mallory's eyes widened as she recognized the boomtube and shot forward to... she didn't know. Follow them maybe, or try to pull the pods out. It didn't matter, though, because it closed just before she reached.
"No!"
She landed on the spot that the portal had opened and slammed her fist into the ground in frustration, creating a small crater in the tracks. In three seconds, they had failed, sentencing eight kids to a life of slavery at the hands of the Light's partner and whoever they were sold to.