About a week after the fight with my children, the League was in the Watchtower with Flash at the computer. "Hey, Superman, you should come see this." Flash said, waving over the Man of Steel, who was conveniently walking past at the time. "It looks like we're being sent some kind of distress signal." Flash said.
"Where's it coming from?" Superman asked as he walked up to see the computer.
"You're not gonna like this. It's coming from a large cargo ship that deliver supplies to and from a space colony. And right now, the ship's outside of the reach of the yellow sun." Flash explained, bringing up an image of a giant ship.
"Space colony? I don't recall Earth setting one up. It must be an alien space colony. Either way, people are in trouble. Alert the Lanterns, John, and anyone else suitable for a deep space mission." Superman instructed. "I'll put on my solar radiation suit to store up solar energy from the sun."
It didn't take long for Superman to put on his suit. When he was ready, he met up with the League members who would join him on the mission. Superman's group consisted of Martian Manhunter, 6 Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, and Jessica Cruz), Captain Atom, Superman's cousin Supergirl, and Power Girl.
"Alright. Looks like you guys are all set. We'll see you when you get back. Make sure to call if it gets too rough." Flash said.
"Will do," Superman promised as the 11 members of the Justice League flew out of the Watchtower into deep space, heading towards the location that the distress signal came from. After some time passes, they reach the space station and board it. "Alright. Look out for any survivors." Superman says.
The inside of the ship was completely dark. The lanterns flashed a ray of light from their rings, allowing everyone else to see. As it turned out, the ship was heavily damaged. Walls were torn apart, machines were smashed, doors were ripped from their hinges, and blood stained the walls and floors.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Hal commented, staring at the mess.
"Let's stick together and look for any survivors," Martian Manhunter stated. "We don't know what's out here."
As the group explored the damaged ship, it became known to them that something was watching. Finding survivors proved to be difficult as there wasn't even any bodies that could be found.
"I'm looking for survivors through the walls with my x-ray vision, but all I can find are eggs." Supergirl reported.
"Eggs? That doesn't seem right." Captain Atom said.
"All the more reason to keep your guard up." John Stewart responded. Continuing their exploration, Power Girl noticed something small up ahead.
"Look, another egg!" She exclaimed. The Lanterns shined their light at the direction Power Girl was pointing at, revealing the alien egg that she spotted. None of the League members saw anything like it before. Suddenly, the top portion of the egg opened up and a small creature sprang out from it, heading towards Supergirl's face. The young Kryptonian instantly reacted by frying the alien with her heat vision. It fell to the ground with a small thud, no longer alive. The creature was revealed to be some sort of arachnid with a long tail.
"What is that thing?" Jessica Cruz asked with a look of disgust on her face.
"I don't know, but maybe the ring does." Kyle Rayner suggested, wrapping the corpse in a small bubble.
"Alien species unidentified." Kyle's ring spoke.
"Unidentified? That's impossible. The ring has knowledge on everything in the universe." Simon Baz stated.
"Then this creature must have come from another universe." Martian Manhunter replied, staring at the dead alien.
A hiss interrupted the heroes, causing the other lanterns to shine their lights at the direction that it came from. Standing before them was a horde of black alien creatures. They had an elongated, cylindrical heads, bipedal forms in a hunched stance, a skeletal, bio-mechanical appearance, claws, and long, segmented, blade-tipped tails. Not only were these creatures standing on the floor, but some were on the walls and ceilings. More began to hiss at the group of Justice League members.
"What are these things?" Power Girl asked.
"I doubt the ring will be able to tell us." Guy Gardner answered.
"I'm unable to read their minds. They're incapable of having any thoughts. They're nothing more than savage monsters." Martian Manhunter reported.
"Our primary objective is still to locate any survivors, but we'll have to fight our way through." Superman stated.
Background Music: "Down With The Sickness" by Disturbed
The fight started as the alien creatures rushed towards the heroes, but Superman plowed through the large horde until he bursted through the door to a larger room filled with more aliens. The aliens he tackled through collapsed onto the floor while more decided to attack the Man of Steel. Superman anticipated this as he knocked the ambushing aliens away with a mighty punch. He grabbed one by its tail and used it like a baseball bat against the others.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Justice League members fought the remaining aliens in the hallway. The Green Lanterns encased some of the aliens in a giant bubble and flung them out of the ship into deep space for them to freeze. Martian Manhunter punched through a group, dodging strikes from their tails by turning intangible. He then shape-shifted into a dragon and slammed a couple of them with his tail. Supergirl and Power Girl tag teamed a couple of aliens, knocking them down with punches and heat vision. Captain Atom blasted a few away with energy beams.
The fight continued with Superman as he battled the majority of the aliens. Some tried to jump and lunge at him, but the Man of Steel was too fast for them. He would swat them away like flies while using his X-Ray vision to look for survivors. All he could find were dead bodies and empty eggs. He flew off towards the next hallway, tackling through whichever of these aliens are in the way. While he would defeat a good chunk of the hive, a swarm would always arrive to replace them.
The rest of the Justice League members managed to dispatch the rest of the aliens in the hallway, heading to the area Superman was in. Supergirl and Power Girl blasted some the aliens away with their heat vision while Captain Atom assisted as well with energy blasts of their own. Martian Manhunter used his telekinesis to knock away any surrounding aliens. The Green Lanterns created various giant constructs, using them to smash more of the aliens.
Hal Jordan flew forward, smashing more of the creatures with the construct of an anvil, before a slightly larger xenomorph dropped on him, jabbing him in the side with its tail and opening its mouth to stab him in the back of the head with its smaller mouth. "No!" Jessica Cruz shouted, creating a fist construct to knock the creature off her comrade, before he smashed it with his anvil construct.
"Thanks for the save." He said.
However, through the many corpses of both the crew and the creatures the League themselves had killed, none of them noticed another of the small scorpion creatures crawling around until it leapt up from the floor and latched onto Power Girl's face. Fortunately, she easily burnt through it with her heat vision, causing it to fall off her face and to the ground, dead. "Ugh! These things should be on some freak show!" She snapped, burning several more with her heat vision.
End Music
The heroes were powerful and still capable of going for quite a while, but they had to admit, they were starting to feel the effects of the fight, some of them even panting lightly. "Dammit! Do these things ever run out!?" Power Girl demanded, frying more of them with her heat vision.
"I'm still sensing at least 12 thousand more life forms aboard the ship besides our own." Martian Manhunter said, blasting more Xenomorphs back with a telekinetic wave.
"12 Thousand!?" Supergirl asked in disbelief, holding back a Praetorian, pulling her head back to avoid its harpoon-like tongue and punching it away, crushing its skull. "Clark, I don't know if we can handle that many. We need back up!" She said, panting a bit.
"You're right." He said, putting a hand up to his earpiece. "Flash! This is Superman! We've encountered a massive hostile enemy force! We need reinforcements As soon as possible!" He sent the message, before a Xenomorph crawled onto a wall and leapt onto him, forcing him to land on the floor, but thankfully, he threw it off and sliced it in half with his heat vision.
However, the message also reached the ears of someone else. A powerful political figure known for working behind the scenes and behind the backs of superheroes and supervillains alike, founder and head of "The Agency", a small, quasi-independent branch of Task Force X, later changed to "Checkmate", but then resigned and was appointed as overseer and director of Belle Reve, a prison for Metahumans, but best known for being the leader of the Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller. She of course keeps tabs on all superhero and supervillain activity she can find, so has crossed paths with the Justice League on multiple occasions. And on this occasion, she intercepted the message sent to the Watchtower.
"Well, well. Superman has gotten himself into hot water this time. Good thing I know someone who can take the heat and get them out of it." She said, heading off.
I watched my grounded children as they trained, each with different weapons: Saeka with a pair of deer antler blades, Vanili with a pair of whips, Nash dual-wielding broadswords, and Nasai swinging a set of melon-shaped iron mallets with sharpened edges. "Well done, my children. Soon, you'll be able to take down anyone in your way." I told them.
"Including Superman?" A voice asked behind me. I turned around, drawing Last Regrets and aiming at the person behind me. "Get those out of my face." Waller said.
"Amanda Waller. To what do we owe this pleasure?" I asked, although with much venom in the word "pleasure".
The Blades have always tried to work with secrecy, keeping our identities hidden, much like the League. And for a long time, we succeeded, but eventually, we were discovered by Waller. Fortunately, she saw the potential in our abilities and had no problem with what we did to criminals. Unfortunately, she also saw the chance to use us, so she gathered up evidence on us and used it as blackmail to keep us in line and force us to do several missions to dangerous for humans. We were the original Suicide Squad, as well as a source of information on all hostile threats from the various aliens or demons we've faced over the years, plus advanced weaponry for the army via BladeCorp. So basically, if we didn't do what Waller wanted, we'd be exposed to the world as demons and murderers, surely to be hunted to the ends of the Earth.
"Superman is in trouble." She explained.
"Hallelujah. Who's got him, Luthor, Zod? Will it be painful when they kill him?" I asked eagerly.
"He's still alive. Him, Supergirl, Power Girl, Martian Manhunter and several Green Lanterns are on an alien ship outside the reach of the yellow sun." She elaborated.
"No sun, no powers. Good. So, when can I expect an invitation to the funeral?" I asked.
"There won't be one. Because you're going to save them." She said.
I scoffed at this. "You must not be keeping your eye on us that much anymore. If you did, you'll know my powers are gone and I'm not in the condition to be saving anyone. And even if I was, I wouldn't waste my efforts on the bastards responsible for taking my powers in the first place." I told her.
"I'm aware you lost your powers. I'm also aware your kids attacked several of their bases and even some of the heroes themselves. There's plenty of footage to confirm that, too. Could be bad if that was exposed to the public." She said.
In an instant, my guns were back at her head. "If you even think of exposing my children, I'll turn your head into paste." I told her.
"Then all of the Blades' secrets would be leaked and everyone would know the truth. You'd have nowhere to hide." She said. Suddenly, I felt something against my stomach, looking down to see she had a gun of her own pressed against my gut. "Or, I could just put you out of your misery now." She said.
"Daddy!" Vanili said, about to rush over with her siblings.
"Yameru!" I ordered in Japanese (stop), bringing them to a stop.
"Sai... They're being attacked by a hive of Xenomorphs." She explained.
"What?" I asked, now concerned.
"Exactly. Imagine if they implant embryos inside the Kryptonians or Martian Manhunter." She told me.
I did indeed think about it and sighed. "The spawn would be nearly unstoppable. We can't let that happen." I said.
"Exactly. You're going. You need to make up for destroying that hospital and for what your children did to the League." She said.
"Fine. But I can't do it alone. Not as I am now." I said.
"Fine. Take whoever you want with you. Just get it done." She said, turning and leaving.
"Dammit... I might as well be on the Suicide Squad." I snapped, heading off to prepare for the mission.
About 20 minutes later, Katana, Kinshiro, Nightshade and I were standing in front of the Predator ship we'd use for the mission, waiting for one more person. "Do we really need anyone else. The 3 of us could handle it alone and even without your powers, your weapons still make you a terror to any Xenomorphs." Nightshade said.
"Yes. He's always had my back and now I need him more than ever." I told him.
"Sai!" A voice called out. We turned to see a guy around 18 with dark brown unkempt hair, wearing an emerald green T-shirt, belt, and adventure pouch (the small things on the back of Link's belt in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword) that match his aura, a jacket with long sleeves ending at the wrists and is black with a small blue wolf symbol on the shoulders, pants that are more like jogging pants and also black, properly ending at the ankles, his footwear consisted of black combat boots and the gloves remained fingerless, though with a thin aura-matching stripe around the wrists. Finally, he also wore a blue necklace with a chain that is sky blue on one half and midnight blue on the other, ending with a dual-sided medallion, one side showing the sun and the other showing a half-moon. "I made it." He said. He is voiced by David Vincent. (Thank you, Damon Wolf Cub, for offering your OC in this.)
"Shane. Good to see you." I said.
"Good to see you, too. I'm sorry to hear about your powers being sealed, though." He said.
"So am I. But, hopefully, I can get them back after this. What's more heroic than a rescue mission?" I asked.
"Well, just in case, I have a gift for you. Go on, Neris." He said, a fairy flying out from behind him and circling around me a few times.
"Hi there!" She said, landing on my shoulder.
"H-hello..." I said, a bit surprised.
"That's Neris. She's a light fairy. She'll be able to protect you until you get your powers back with spells, like Invincible Weakling, where you become invincible but can barely damage things, or Hard Worker, which can revive you if you're about to die." He explained.
I smiled at this. "Thank you, Shane. You always have the right thing when someone needs it." I said.
He smiled, then looked at the ship. "Whoa... A Predator ship." He said.
"Yep. There's a lot of perks to having a brother who rules over one of the most advanced species in the universe." I said as we boarded. We took our seats and began preparations.
"All systems are functioning at full capacity." Nightshade said.
"Oxygen and gravity at 100%." Shane reported.
"Chestburster extraction pods at the ready." I said.
"Coordinates have been input and we are now locked on." Kinshiro informed.
"Preparing for take-off." Katana said. We rose from the ground and out of the hangar, before flying into the sky and beyond. "Activating light-speed now." She said.
"Engage!" I said as we finally blasted off. (A Xenomorph hive is the last thing I'd ever want to face without my powers. And the Justice League is the last group of people I'd EVER want to stick my neck out for. But if it gets me my powers back, then so be it.) I thought.
We soon arrived at the ship, docking beside it. "Nightshade, why don't you do a quick recon of the ship so we don't run into more trouble looking for the heroes and just find our way right to them?" I suggested.
"Excellent idea. You're certainly more cautious and tactical without your powers." He said, turning into a black mist, seeping through the door of the ship. After about 3 minutes, he returned. "Alright. I found the League, but there's a problem. There's still about 2,000 more of these bastards. Plus, a queen on board. And she's getting pretty pissed her kids keep getting killed." He said.
"Then we need to find the League and get the hell out of here." I said, zipping up my trench coat all the way, putting on a Bladenium Predator-like mask and putting my hood up, tightening it as much as I could to cover up as much of my body as I possibly could to protect myself from the acid blood. I then equipped my Kraken gauntlets and Gharial greeves. "Let's show these Xenomorphs they're out of their League." I said as we moved through the doors.
Back with the League, while they didn't notice, since they were too busy fighting the horde of aliens, some of the Xenomorphs sensed a new disturbance and retreated from this battle to take part in another one.
Background Music: "Alien vs. Predator" by TeamHeadKick
Soon enough, the Xenomorphs began pouring through a hall in front of us, ready to attack. Katana created several spears of ice and shot them forward, impaling several of the beasts. She moved forward while drastically lowering the temperature of the hallway in front of her, rapidly freezing the hallway and all Xenomorphs within 10 feet of her as she casually walked forward, chopping, elbowing and kneeing the frozen creatures and shattering them left and right as she lead the force and we all moved ahead. Eventually, she drew her ultimate weapon, Azurewrath and simply tapped any Xenomorph within reach of the blade, the creatures instantly stopping, their bodies not frozen, but the very soul inside their bodies instead was frozen, leaving them as mere lifeless husks. A facehugger managed to latch onto her, but again, she instantly froze the creature and shattered it with a simple flick. "Annoying." She said.
Nightshade waved his hand, sending waves of darkness forward the cleaved more of the creatures in half. He turned into a cloud of darkness and rushed ahead of Katana, then turned his arms into massive, muscular limbs, as well as growing three more sets of them, two sets below his original arms and one on his shoulders above the originals, the hands of each set of arms being massive claws, allowing him to tear slash through the xenomorphs, as well as simply tear them apart, emitting a burst of darkness each time to prevent the blood of the monsters from spewing on him.
Kinshiro fired a laser from his robotic eye and easily either putting holes through the monsters or taking off limbs. He tossed his double-sided sword, Stalker, forward while it spun like a helicopter blade, easily slicing through the Xenomorphs as they ruthlessly charged forward. He swung his hand back and forth in a wave-like motion, the sword following his commands and danced through the air, still spinning and carving through any Xenomorph in sight as he dialed his eye laser to its maximum frequency. "Night, behind me!" He said, Nightshade looking back and turning into a cloud of darkness again, collecting Katana inside him and flowing past Kinshiro, allowing him to fire a massive beam that engulfed the entire hallway in front of him, vaporizing any xenomorphs and leaving the entire hallway burned black. "Well, let's keep going." He said.
"They're down this way." Nightshade said, leading the way down the hall, unleashing a wave of darkness to kill the occasional Xenomorph that would pop out from around the corner or from the vents until we rounded one more corner leading into a hall with a large room in the middle the Xenomorphs were ravenously piling into, before many of them noticed and charged at us. "Round 2." He said, drawing his swords, Lifetaker and Spiteblade, now dicing the Xenomorphs with waves of light while roasting them with flames of darkness from his mouth if they got too close.
Shane drew his Biggoron sword (Ocarina of Time version) and rushed, slicing through several of the monsters, his blade protected from the acid blood by magical spells from Fairies and boons from Palutena while Shane kept himself safe with Nayru's love, before unleashing a small volley of fireballs with Din's fire. He then surrounded his palm with darkness, before slamming it into the floor, causing an explosion of darkness further down the hallway that killed several of the beasts, before holding his finger out like a pistol and began to fire a beam of light down the hallway like death beams, taking out at least a dozen of the monsters easily.
Finally, I mowed the monsters down with my Doomspore miniguns on my arms, which cruelly and ironically looked like the very Xenomorphs we faced, so it was as if they were being cut down by their own kin. Several more Xenomorphs began to drop from the vents behind us, but I managed to mow them down as well, before tossing a pair of incendiary grenades into the vent, lighting it on fire and managing to deter the beasts from coming through it. Eventually, we managed to clear out the rest of the xenomorphs in the hall and moved into the room, where the League members were forced to take refuge from roughly 2 dozen Praetorians in a force-field collectively powered by the green lanterns. However, the xenomorphs then noticed us and realized they could in fact reach us, rushing towards us. "Katana, slow them down. I got the rest." I said, drawing Diesectomy, a giant magic scalpel that can cut through anything I use as a naginata. I waited as Katana shot small beams of frozen air the hit the xenomorphs, frost instantly coating and slowing down the creatures to a manageable speed, allowing me to easily vivisect the beasts.
End Music
Katana froze the entryway of the door, preventing more inevitable aliens from reaching us. "We're clear. For now." I said as we headed to the league, the lanterns cautiously lowering their shield, Superman standing up, ready to fight. I took my helmet off to reveal my identity. "Calm down. If we wanted you dead, we would've let the freaks deal with you." I told him.
"Glad to see you two, Sai," Superman responded with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"I'm not happy to be here, either, but Amanda Waller intercepted your message for back-up and FORCED me to come get you." I said.
"I can easily see why," Hal muttered, annoyed by my presence.
"Hey, I never punched your girlfriend, asshole." I snapped, before noticing his injured side. "You're hurt. We'll deal with everyone's injuries, then we'll haul ass back to our ship. The people in this room are the only ones still alive, so don't bother looking for survivors." I explained, before heading over to Hal and handing him a bean. "Eat it."
"Kryptonians, up front, please. I've got a UV ray that should get you back up to full strength." Kinshiro instructed, dialing his robotic eye until it was purple.
"I told you that was an accident," Hal stated, inspecting the bean before eating it. After consuming the bean, Hal suddenly felt completely re-energized and looked to see his injury had healed.
"Right." I said skeptically, not buying it.
Superman, Supergirl, and Powergirl stand in front of Kinshiro. My brother's eye emitted a powerful UV light, the Kryptonians feeling the energy refueling them almost to the effectiveness of a yellow sun.
"Alright. if everyone's okay, then get ready. I'm about to get rid of the ice wall. As soon as it's down, run." Katana said.
"Sounds like a plan." Martian Manhunter said.
With a nod, Katana waved her hand, the ice wall turning into mist and vanishing. "Let's go! Follow us!" She said. And with that, everyone rushed out of the room with Katana in the lead, the League members in the middle of the group with Nightshade and Kinshiro to their left and right with Shane and I holding up the back, shooting the Xenomorphs as they pursued us.
We made it a good way back to the ship, before one of the sneaky monsters dropped from the vents onto Jessica Cruz, who fell to the ground, creating an energy bubble to protect herself from the Xenomorphs that began to swarm her. "Dammit, no!" I snapped, drawing and swinging my bladed wind fans, Kamaitachi, blasting the monsters back, hurrying to her side and helping Jessica to her feet as she dropped the barrier. "Go, go!" I told her, pushing her towards the others, about to join her, before another Xenomorph popped out of the grate beside me and grabbed my leg, shooting its harpoon tongue through my leg, completely exploding my kneecap, then grabbing and dislocating my right arm. "Ah! Fuck!" I shouted, stabbing the creature and desperately hopping back to the others as the aliens I'd blown back recovered and re-engaged us.
Suddenly, there was a loud booming noise and shaking throughout the ship, the Xenomorphs retreating back the way they came.
Superman retrieved me and carried me back to the group.
"Thanks." I said, somewhat ashamed.
"No problem. I couldn't just leave you there." Superman told me.
"What does that noise mean?" Supergirl asked.
"That we need to run faster." Nightshade said.
"It's their queen. No big deal, just the size of a T-Rex with skin as hard as steel." Kinshiro explained as we picked up the pace.
We reached the docking bay where our ship was, everyone quickly hurrying in, before the door we came through burst open, the queen erupting through it with a menacing shriek. "Dammit! The ship needs time to power up. We have to hold her off." Shane said.
"And we need to make sure none of her little bastards are hiding in it." Katana said.
"We'll hold them off!" John Stewart said as he and the other 5 Green Lanterns used their power rings to create a barrier large enough to hold off the Xenomorphs.
"Alright. I'll make sure we don't have any stowaways." Nightshade said, turning to black fog and flowing throughout the ship, clearing it of any unwanted passengers.
However, the queen was now furious and determined to kill us, ripping through enough of the wall beside her to just squeeze through the barrier, charging at us once again. "Damn. If you have to give these things ANY credit, they're ridiculously persistent." I said, popping my shoulder back into place. "Oh, my gods, that hurts! How do humans deal with this?" I grumbled, readying my fans again.
Superman began to blow his Super Breath, freezing the Xenomorph queen in place.
I then threw my fans, spinning like saw blades, into the queen's neck, decapitating her and catching the fans as they came back to me. "Nice work." I said to him.
"The ship's clear and ready to fly. Let's go!" Nightshade shouted. With that, everyone except John Stewart piled into the ship, which then lifted off the ground. Once it was safely in the air and out of reach of the xenomorphs, John dropped the shield and flew into the still opened door, which closed after he got in.
We flew the ship out from the larger vessel, clearing a safe distance and firing a powerful laser, destroying the ship and all the remaining Xenomorphs with it. "There. We shouldn't have to worry about those things for a while." I said, cleaning and dressing my leg injury.
"So, what were those things? Our rings weren't able to identify them." Simon Baz asked us.
"They're called Xenomorphs. Arguably, the single most dangerous race of Alien in existence." Nightshade explained. "As you saw, they're pretty fast and tough, with way more dangerous appendages than any creature should ever need, including their own blood. Combined that with the fact they can reproduce and spread faster than mosquitoes, whatever planet they land on is essentially doomed. Their only consistent threat is us and the Predators, another race of aliens that hunts xenomorphs for sport. Thankfully, they're on our side. This ship is one of theirs." He finished.
"Yeah, we give them awesome things to hunt, they give us technology and help us from time to time, everyone's happy." I added.
They simply looked at me confused.
"Oh, one more thing. Those little scorpion ones? They jump on your face and implant an embryo that gestates in your chest, violently bursting out of your chest and taking on your most unique characteristics. Like one from a dog will be smaller, but much faster than one from a human, or one from a boar would have some nasty horns. So if one got in a Kryptonian or a Martian, I honestly don't want to think of what would come out." I said somberly.
"None of them managed to latch onto you, did they?" Katana asked.
Power Girl put a hand over her chest nervously. She fried the facehugger that latched onto her, but the thought of one of those monsters bursting from her chest was still terrifying.
"No, they didn't." Supergirl answered.
"Good. We should be arriving back on Earth in about a half hour, so make yourselves comfortable until then." I said. People started breaking off and doing their own thing, but Superman simply stayed nearby. I sighed at this, turning back to look at him. "So, I heard you met some of my kids earlier. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about the trouble they caused. I was still unconscious, so I had no idea they were doing what they did. If it's any consolation, they've been grounded for it." I told him.
"Well, I'm glad that situation has been resolved," Superman said.
"Good." I said.
Soon enough, we arrived at Earth, where other members of the league eagerly awaited their teammates. As the League listened to the debrief from their away team and made sure none of them were injured, Waller arrived and walked up to me and my siblings. "Nice to see you actually listened for once. They all look like their one piece. Decent work. For once." She said, specifically to me.
"Sticks and stones. What matters is, the team's safe, no Kryptonian or Martian Xenomorphs were made and I did a heroic deed, so my powers are back." I said, trying to bring a fire to my hand, but still nothing happened. My eyes widened at this as it felt like my heart was sinking. "What? No, that's not right." I said, trying again, only to fail. "Nani THE FUCK!? What is this?! Why hasn't my power returned!?" I asked desperately, although to no one in particular.
"Because you only performed this heroic act because you were told and had to be reasoned to do so. You didn't do it out of your own will." Martian Manhunter lectured.
I let this sink in and had to admit the logic couldn't be argued with. I tried to be angry, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. I sighed in defeat and turned back to the ship. "Let's just go." I told my siblings and Shane, limping back to the ship as they followed.
"There will be other times, Sai. You'll have your powers back before you know it." Katana said.
"Yeah... sure..." I said, still completely downcast.
"What's important is that you're trying to redeem yourself," Superman told me. "Remember, you just need to know what it truly means to be a hero." He said.
looked back for a minute. "Yeah. Thanks." I said monotonously, getting into the ship, which took off after a few minutes.
After the ship was out of sight, Waller turned to Superman. "You know, he was more grateful for that than he let on. He's trying to play it tough, but he's scared. He's limping around, weak and vulnerable for the first time in his life, so he's desperate. He won't let others know it, but he's looking for anything that could help him get his power back. What you just told him was probably like a glass of water after being in the dessert for a week." She said.
"Sometimes it's good to be afraid. It reminds us to be careful and not be so reckless. And sometimes, it even gives us the push we need to survive. He's no hero yet, but he's on the right track." Superman said.
A/N: Thanks again to Israel Pena for assisting with the writing of this chapter and to Damon Wolf Cub for allowing the use of his character Shane.