CW: Detailed description of a character having a panic attack. The section starts at *H* and ends at **H**
MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2010
18:43 EDT
Ski'Lira prided herself on her impeccable spatial awareness. Almost always on alert, she was prepared to act at the first sign of danger. Her enhanced senses made tracking threats in her vicinity easy, and allowing her plenty of time to react accordingly. She had spent long hours learning how to combine both her innate abilities and training additional ones to achieve her level of skill. When they'd done reflex testing, Hawkgirl had ranked second only to Kid Flash.
However, all of that was moot if she had her earbuds crammed into her ears, volume turned up as high as she could manage, and her visual focus entirely on the book in her hands.
She hadn't put conscious thought into what music she was listening to, she'd just hit shuffle and hoped for the best. It was sheer noise she wanted, attempting to drown out the world around her, leaving her in a little bubble of safe isolation.
The reason for her intentional disconnect?
The two besotted teens that were making out in the hangar.
Exactly one giggle had escaped M'Gann's lips, and Ski'Lira decided that was more than enough to overhear, retreating to the kitchen for safety. There was still half an hour until today's training was set to start, and she was determined to spend it elsewhere.
A flicker of yellow and red movement caught in her peripheral vision, a hasty glance confirming that it was a recently arrived Wally West. Based on the condition of his hair and the speed of his breathing, he had likely opted to run to Happy Harbor instead of taking the Zeta directly to the mountain. Still, he was zipping around the kitchen, gathering ingredients for a sandwich. Meal prepared in the span of a few seconds, he casually sauntered over to her with his sandwich held loosely in his grip.
Reaching out, he tilted her book so he could see the title at the top of the page. "Count of Monte Cristo, huh? Saw the movie, haven't read the book. Is it any good?"
Her answer came in the form of snapping the book closed, attempting to shut it on his fingers. His hand jerking back in a blur, he put his free hand up in a sign of surrender. "Okay, I can take a hint. You want to be left alone. Guess I'll just go see what Conner and M'Gann are up to."
When he left the kitchen, it was with a casual human pace, likely to keep his precious sandwich from disintegrating under the velocity of his super speed.
Ski'Lira had enough time to delay him or warn him about the currently... occupied, couple... Or she could do nothing and let things play out.
The latter was the only real option.
There was no way that Wally's arrival would go unnoticed, especially considering the speedster's propensity for loudly announcing his presence whenever he walked into a room.
Settling back down in the comfortable armchair, she once more lost herself in one of the greatest long-term revenge plots of all time.
H
A tremor passed through the mountain, a dull rumble that immediately set her on edge. Tearing out her earbuds and tossing her book onto the seat behind her along with her phone, she snagged her gauntlets from where they'd been lying on the ground. Once she'd snapped them back on, she attempted to locate the source of the commotion from sound alone. Mere moments after she'd focused on her hearing, shocked cries of her teammates were emanating from the hangar.
Flaring out her wings, she took to the air, speeding through the hallways. What she emerged into was a glorified battlefield.
Water had flooded the cavern, likely the source of the initial tremor, Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash all scattered throughout the hangar.
However, the interlopers clearly at fault for the newfound destruction made her freeze for a moment in surprise.
Two sleek androids (identified as such thanks to a lack of heartbeat and the distinctive whirring of mechanical parts), molded in a familiar hue of scarlet metal, faces made to be expressionless. One was blocky and muscular, while the other was curvier and more slender. The bulkier one was clearly controlling the water, while the skinnier one had wreathed itself in flame, creating faux hair out of fire.
This information was registered in the span of a heartbeat.
And that was all the time she had before she was blindsided by a wave of water. The torrent tugged at her wings, crushing her to the ground before dissipating. She was left disoriented and soaking wet on the cold concrete floor. Having lost complete track of the others, she shook her head to physically force herself to focus.
Just in time, too, as a searing heat registered close, too close, and she ducked and rolled out of the path of a massive gout of flame. The concrete where she'd just been lying was scorched dark. Thanagarians may be more resistant to extreme heat, but she was far from fireproof. Dodging a follow up blast, she dived for cover behind a solid platform, coming face to face with Aqualad.
"How the hell did they get in here?!" She hissed at him, making a quick inspection of her feathers, confirming none had been burnt.
Kaldur could only look at her, just as lost and confused as she was. "I do not know. I- MOVE!"
At his warning, she tucked in her wings and dropped, executing another neat roll as a fireball slammed into the wall behind her. Aqualad had been too slow, dropping to the ground like a sack of bricks as his system was overwhelmed by the sudden influx of heat.
"The Atlantean has been eliminated," The fire android intoned from... somewhere.
"Place him with the Martian," the other one ordered from very close by, definitely well within striking distance of Hawkgirl. That at least answered the question of where M'Gann had ended up. Captured, just as Aqualad was about to be.
Scarcely had she unhooked her mace from her belt before a second wave of water hit her, this one far more targeted. The liquid around her began to spin in a vortex, making it impossible to gain purchase on anything and escape the watery trap. Her grip on her weapon slipped, and it was lost in the torrent, which was far from an easy feat.
In a vain attempt to fight back against her captor, a barely visible smudge of red through the blur of water, she forced her arms forward and lashed out with her claws gauntlets. A spike of victory went through her as the razor-sharp tips caught. Doubling down, she sunk the talons in as deep as she could manage before tearing downwards. The screech of metal was slightly muffled, as the chassis of its torso peeled away under her fingertips.
Apparently her opponent was less than pleased, as with a gesture, the vortex ceased its whirling and instead changed to pressure. Her breath hold running out of time, and unable to seal her helmet closed, she attempted to lash out again, but the pressure of the water bound her limbs like shackles.
She was dropped ceremoniously out of the orb of liquid, her vision fading in and out from oxygen deprivation. Her body was propped up in a forced standing position, and then all she felt was heat.
When she came fully back to awareness, blinking the last of the dots out of her vision, she was completely immobilized. Molten metal had been twisted around her body and rapidly cooled, an efficient manner of making tailored restraints. She was far from alone, as both Kid Flash and Superboy were in near identical prisons beside her.
"You okay, Hawkgirl?" Kid Flash's teeth were gritted as he visibly strained against the confines. It was relieving to see that none of the superheated metal had touched Wally's skin, confined to his suit, which she knew was built to resist vast amounts of heat (typically generated by friction, not fire-wielding androids).
"I'd be happier if I'd actually succeeded in tearing that one apart," she growled, shooting a glare at the marred hydrokinetic android. Its previously pristine form was mangled, two sets of claw marks, one carved through its right shoulder and the other ripping down the center of its chest.
"Your wings-" Superboy began, eyes shifting uneasily, stopping his own efforts to escape. "Are they-?"
"Fine, I'm... I'm unhurt." Hawkgirl answered, truthfully this time. It had to be intentional, how they'd been careful to mind her wings and keep them from being completely burned and crushed, merely confined. There were parts of this that just weren't... adding up, properly, the android's behavior. They easily could have killed them, drowned them, suffocated them, torched them into ash... But instead, they were all being kept (relatively) unharmed.
What was happening here?
Reaching for her mace was instinct, overridden as she remembered one, her hands were both sealed in the prison, and two, her mace was currently embedded in the wall next to an unhappily whirring Sphere. She had no idea when or how that had happened, but she wasn't happy about it.
Kaldur and M'Gann were also trapped, though their personal prison was a network of fire tendrils, formed into a cage. Both were visibly distressed by the situation.
And they weren't the only ones.
Ski'Lira was weaponless, defenseless... in a confined space... wings trapped, limbs trapped... not a single viable source of escape... and they were far underground.
Earlier, she believed the worst thing she'd experienced today was the gross noises of her two friends swapping saliva. How naïve she'd been
H
GOTHAM CITY
SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2010
21:35 EDT
Dick had been impatiently waiting for this moment all day. He had gone so far as to plan out the exact words he'd use the next time he saw Artemis, which would be very soon. Just as he predicted, when night fell, a suited up archer with a quiver filled with arrows appeared at the mouth of the alley bearing the Gotham Zeta Access Point. Dropping down silently from the fire escape he'd been crouched on longer than he'd care to admit, he straightened and stepped from the shadow of the facsimile phone booth.
"Artemis?" Robin was physically unable to keep himself from smiling.
The blonde whipped around so fast the end of her hair brushed the wall of the alley, her grey eyes wide. "Robin? I, uh-"
"How random that you're in Gotham City instead of Star City where your uncle Green Arrow lives!"
"I'm, uh... here to see my cousin!" He had to give Artemis some serious props for the speed with which she hastily thought up a fairly believable cover story. "She was in the state spelling bee. Here. In Gotham City."
"C-O-O-L," he spelled aloud. "Did she W-I-N?"
Like the flip of a switch, Artemis' nervousness at being caught was replaced with irritation at the interrogation. "N-O."
"D-R-A-G."
Crossing her arms, Artemis was visibly unwilling to continue with this charade any longer than she had to. "Yeah... Let's just go to the cave."
Only after executing a flourishing bow did he gesture to the doors of the 'phone booth', "Ladies first?"
That earned him a raised eyebrow, as Artemis put her hands on her hips. No doubt if Hawkgirl was here, he'd be getting a little more than a displeased look for that comment. "Your town, you go."
Well played, Robin couldn't help but think to himself. Straightening from his bow, he headed inside, closing the shutter doors behind him as the Zeta Tube activated. The mechanized voice of the computer echoed around him as he closed his eyes to prevent being blinded by the flash of light. "Recognized: Robin, B01."
The moment his boots hit the floor of the Cave, he knew something was wrong. Batman had taught him never to ignore the twisting sense of wrongness in his gut if he ever felt it, and that instinct had saved his skin countless times. If his gut feeling wasn't enough, the choking smoke filling the Hub and the unnatural, suffocating heat certainly provided sufficient confirmation.
"Recognized: Artemis, B08"
When he saw the fireball barreling towards the entrance, he shouted, "Get down!" leaping out of the gathering cloud of smoke and straight into Artemis' side. As he tackled her out of the way, he tossed a couple of birdarangs in the direction the fiery projectile had come from.
Following his lead, Artemis started to blindly fire arrows in the direction of the unseen assailant. Robin paused for a brief moment when he heard the distinct sound of one of his projectiles connecting with something metallic. That... did not bode well.
There was very little time to give this new information considerate thought, as a sizable plume of fire forced them to drop to the ground to avoid being toasted. Scrambling to his feet once the attack had finished, Robin finally spotted their enemy. Or rather, enemies.
Two blurry silhouettes, obscured by the rapidly increasing haze of smoke in the air, loomed nearby with a silent menace.
"Who are we fighting?!" Artemis demanding, though if she was asking him or them, he couldn't tell for sure.
"Don't know," he answered anyway. "But we're sitting ducks by these tubes. Head for the exit."
He ran for the nearest hallway, hoping Artemis would act quickly and follow his lead. The sound of her footsteps behind him gave him a spike of relief. They were forced to dodge yet another attack of fire, but they managed to escape into the hallway. The air here was thankfully much cooler. How they both seemed to escape severe burns was a wonder to him.
Respite was short lived, water surged across the floor, high enough that chance of escape was slim. "Or... not." Robin deadpanned.
An attempt was at least made to maneuver out of the watery onslaught, but they were swept away before they could move more than a few steps forward.
Back slammed up against the wall, Robin's training kicked in as he took a hasty inhales before sealing his mouth shut. But instead of being completely submerged as he had expected, the water instead dissipated, depositing them roughly onto the ground. A couple inches of water coated the floor, and Artemis managed to scoop up her bow from where it had slipped from her hands just as they were forced to make a second retreat further into the hallways thanks to more fire aimed in their direction.
Robin felt slightly safer when they made it into the exercise room, a closed set of doors between them and the unknown intruders. But he knew better than to drop his guard. At most, that barrier would buy them half a minute, far less if the enemy was particularly determined.
But half a minute was more time than they had before. Activating his comm unit, he kept easy pace with Artemis as they continued through the room, desperation leaking into his voice as he called for backup.
"Robin to Team. Come in! Aqualad! Hawkgirl!"
There was no answer.
The lack of static meant that communications were either fully out of commission, or the worse option... That for some reason, they just weren't answering.
And that only filled him with dread.
His growl of frustration at the steadily worsening situation was swallowed up by the explosion of the door behind them, sending both he and Artemis sprawling from the sheer concussive force. Picking themselves up, they set off at a sprint once more, even as flames licked dangerously at their back from a swirling vortex of fire.
Ducking around a corner, they ended up in the locker rooms. Struck with an idea, Robin made a beeline for the largest of the three sets of shower rooms, both the largest and the only one without separate cubicles. He was pretty sure none of the Team had actually used this room, due to the lack of privacy.
Robin started turning every knob on the wall, Artemis copying his actions on the opposite side of the room. It wasn't much, but hopefully it would be just enough to protect them from the fiery vortex closing distance with every passing second.
"Robin to Batcave, override RG4." He snapped out, trying another comm line. "Cave calling Justice League. H-O-J slash Watchtower, B01. Priority Red," he paused. Still no response, which meant they were dealing with a communications blackout. "Comm is down. Locked." Retreating to the center of the room, he visually checked on Artemis, whose eyes were starting to look a little wild. "At least the water's helping."
His paltry attempt to reassure his clearly panicking teammate were ruined as the pipes began to rattle with an ominous groan.
One by one, the metal water fixtures exploded off of their connective piping, and the room began to flood
"Or not..." Robin was seriously starting to wonder if he was jinxing himself with his comments.
With the relatively small volume of the room and the amount of water pouring into it, the water swiftly reaching the ceiling.
Fully submerged, Robin made the executive choice not to reach for his compact rebreather, but instead retrieve a small explosive. Swimming over to one of the tiled walls, he placed it, then retreated to as safe of a distance as he could manage with the space provided. The countdown was quick, a few seconds later the wall was blown outwards.
Gasping for breath on the floor of a hallway, Robin and Artemis only had a single moment to gather their wits about them, regulating their breathing before they were forced to run. He skid to a halt as they made it into the kitchen, "We need to get lost."
In his frantic search for a viable escape route, his attention briefly caught on the only sign of life they'd seen so far. An open book lay face up on the coffee table, with Hawkgirl's phone lying untouched near it, earbuds a tangled mess. So she had definitely been here recently.
"The air vent!" Artemis cried, pointing out the ventilation system above the stove.
"Good, go!" Instead of following the blonde, Robin headed towards the mainframe access port near the door, activating his hologlove and connecting to the system.
"What are you-?!"
"Downloading Cave blueprints," he cut her off. Honestly, he was downright livid with himself for not having this kind of foresight earlier. He guessed he'd just always been under the impression Mount Justice was safe. He wouldn't be making that kind of mistake ever again. "Could come in-" Footsteps, loud and metallic. For a single heartbeat, he allowed himself the hope that maybe it was Hawkgirl, clamping around in her Nth metal boots.
But she only ever let herself be heard when she wanted to make her presence known.
This was definitely one of the intruders.
"Go, go!" He snapped at Artemis as he tore across the room, leaping up into the newly opened shaft after the archer.
From how much of his life he'd spent crawling around in various ventilation shafts, this was almost a return to normalcy. Bringing up his arm, he activated the newly downloaded map on his holoscreen. "Go left," he directed. If he could, he would have squeezed past Artemis and led the way himself, but the space was far too confined for that.
Scarcely had they turned the corner before flame consumed the space they had just occupied, "Too close," Robin breathed. "Take the first right. There should be a vent cover right in front of you."
Locating the grate in question, Artemis slid it off to the side, shimmying her lower half through the opening and dropping downward. Robin kept close, and soon they were both crouched low on a metal catwalk.
Using the brief reprieve to his advantage, he checked the map to confirm their location. "This way," running full tilt down the set of stairs to their immediate left, they both made it to the ground floor.
The entire space was a veritable maze of machinery, as this was where most of the Cave's internal power systems converged. They were both dwarfed by bulky (but efficient) generators and all of the monitoring equipment required for their function and upkeep.
An out of place clang caught his attention, as a lone figure dropped from the vent they'd just vacated, body wreathed in flame. As they stood, the fire only increased in intensity, a mushroom cloud-shaped blaze erupting outwards.
Almost the entirety of the ceiling vanished under flickering orange and yellow lift, engulfed in flame. Robin and Artemis ducked between two of the largest metal machines, one of which bearing a readout that blinked an alarming shade of red and began an ominous high-pitched beeping.
"That's not good," Robin exclaimed, flinching as a cascade of sparks fell from the machine's casing. He had no idea what the actual purpose of this particular apparatus was, but he had an ill feeling that the Cave was going to be in dire need of serious repair after this disaster.
Back on the run they went, though this time they could at least see their pursuer (sort of). This time they had the added threat of scalding steam bursting from pipes as they passed, as well as fiery potshots from the figure above, that always landed a little too close for comfort.
Robin could tell from the way his face ached that the exposed parts of his skin were gradually reaching the level of first degree burn. He didn't even want to think about how Artemis must be feeling, as her choice of uniform had far less skin coverage than his.
Hiding around a corner, Robin dared to stop to consult the map, eyes scanning the data quickly for the exact thing he was looking for. "I know that other access tunnel is here somewhere."
"You mean this one?" Mask-covered eyes snapped towards Artemis, who was standing over an open grate set into the floor, only to drop down out of sight. Pausing just long enough to leave an explosive present for their new 'friend', Robin bolted for the grate.
The tunnel down here was far more cramped, and circular. Only after traveling a fair distance, based entirely on the way the air cooled to a normal temperature, Robin called out to Artemis to stop. "Hold on," with the sharp point of a birdarang, he popped open the access panel he had noticed, linking in his hologlove. "Locking out the Cave's motion and heat sensors to prevent the enemy tracking us."
"And I ask again, who is the enemy?" Artemis was crouched close by, her face illuminated in the eerie blue of his tech, the only source of light in the pitch-black chute.
Robin shot her a smirk, "Let's find out. Downloading Cave security footage..." An hours-old feed from the hangar appeared onscreen. "There."
Conner, M'Gann, Kaldur, Wally, and Sphere were all accounted for, clustered around Superboy's bike.
Hawkgirl was nowhere to be seen.
Crouched on the ground beside the bike was Kid Flash, attention focused on the machinery. He held out a hand, expectant. "Torque wrench." M'Gann used her telekinesis to float one over into his grasp. "Thank you, green cheeks."
"I have been meaning to ask," Aqualad began, looking at the others with genuine curiosity. "Any problems juggling schoolwork with your responsibilities here?"
"No," Conner answered.
"Juggling's just one of my many talents," Wally joked. "Socket wrench." The tool in question was casually sent his way.
"Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge." M'Gann admitted, quickly backtracking as she seemed to realize how her words sounded. "Oh, but my first loyalty is always to the team. This team! Not the Bumblebees."
"Artemis starts school today. Do you think she will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?" Aqualad's speech was more stilted than usual, but it didn't attract any notice from the others. Robin mentally filed that away to the inherent awkwardness about asking about civilian life.
"Nah, she'll manage all right." Wally insisted. "I mean, how much more hostile and annoying can she get? Besides, I totally overheard Hawkgirl asking Batman if he could add a requirement about keeping grades over a certain level to stay on active duty. Really, you should be-"
His complaints were cut short as a sudden explosion obscured the camera, only the surprised cries of their teammates coming through before the feed fizzled completely.
"What happened?" Artemis physically recoiled, as if she'd been struck by the shockwave from the attack herself.
"Explosion took out the camera. I'll find another angle."
Their fear and worry only grew with the new viewpoint, watching helplessly as the past versions of their teammates were buffeted by water and waves. Every single camera he tried was taken out before he could see the conclusion, see what had become of the rest of the Team.
A short, frustrated sigh left Robin, "That's it. All four are dead." Seeing the horrified look on Artemis' face, he realized what he said, quickly backtracking. "The cameras! I meant the cameras. I'm sure the others are okay."
"Right... What... What about Hawkgirl? She was supposed to be here today, right?"
"Yeah..." He mentally latched onto the next task, trying a completely different set of cameras further into the Cave. "I think she was in the kitchen when the attack happened."
When he found the relevant feed, their suspicions were confirmed, as Hawkgirl was sitting at the counter, reading quietly with earbuds in. Double checking the time count ticking on the counter, it was half a minute before the explosion would occur. Her peaceful leisure time was interrupted as her head suddenly snapped up, shifting seamlessly into battle mode. Discarded gauntlets were quickly donned, and she was flying out into the hallway at full speed.
He tracked her up until she hit the blindspot in the hangar.
"Whoever they are, they definitely have her too." Honestly, Robin had really been hoping that Skylar had managed to hole herself up somewhere in the Cave. This would be so much easier if she was just hiding up in the rafters, waiting for them to find her. He didn't dwell on that thought any further, as contemplating the 'what ifs' and 'what could have beens' would just distract him from figuring a proper way out of this mess. "Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar."
Knees drawing up to her chest, Artemis curled into a defensive ball. "Yeah, they're fine. They've all got superpowers. They can handle anything."
H
Robin was wholly unsurprised to find a secret tunnel, running through the mountain. Considering how much influence Batman had over the planning, there were probably countless hidden tunnels and alcoves that only the Dark Knight knew of.
When he got out of this, he was definitely going to be interrogating Bats about the location of every secret in this place.
Back to the matter at hand, actually reaching the secret tunnel meant they had left the tentative safety net that the ventilation system offered to reach the entrance hidden in the library.
"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases," Robin whispered to Artemis as they ran down a staircase, vaulting over the side of the bannister to skip the last few steps.
"Seriously? Cliché much?"
Robin stifled his amusement at Artemis' incredulity, though he couldn't quite keep the smile out of his voice. "You should see the Batcave."
As they traversed the maze of shelves, a sudden hiss heralded the opening of the library's door, prompting them both back onto the alert. Artemis nocked an arrow as Robin slid a birdarang into his hand as they hid behind the nearest shelving unit, both ready to fire their respective projectiles at the first sign of danger.
The same footsteps they had been hearing echoed through the space, and he was suddenly reminded of the countless times he'd fought Mr. Freeze. The cryogenic villain's armored containment suit made a similar clatter, making him easy to avoid.
"Artemis, Robin."
Spine stiffening at the familiarity of the voice, Robin was not nearly as relaxed as Artemis was. She didn't hesitate to step out of cover, an eagerness to her steps that had been missing since the start of this whole debacle. "It's Red Tornado!"
The light struck the newcomer just right, practically shining a spotlight on the wholly foreign golden emblem coating a scarlet chest. Angry claw marks cut through the symbol, and there was no signature blue cape draped around the shoulders.
Enemy.
Once again he threw himself at Artemis to get her out of the way. "Yes on the Red, no on the Tornado!" He shouted as they rolled underneath a wooden table. Said table was pulverized into splinters with little to no effort on the android's part. There was no doubt in Robin's mind they were dealing with another Mister Twister situation.
Exactly how many 'siblings' did Red Tornado have?
In their flight, they came face to face with another android, this one female in form. Flame spewed from her hands, which meant the other guy must be the hydrokinetic. It was only long-honed ability that kept the two teens from being instantly flambéed.
Robin realized that the surprise attack had actually been a point in their favor, as the androids had inadverently compelled them towards the secret passage's entrance. Leaping up onto the tip of a bookshelf, Robin began jumping from one shelf to another as the female android's attacks triggered the fire suppression system.
Water began to douse the room, and the wooden surface of the shelves began to grow slippery under his boots. He dropped back down onto the ground before a very specific point.
"Who? What are they?" Artemis asked, though she likely didn't expect an actual answer right now. He heard her fire an arrow as he examined each book spine. Moments later, there was a distinct thunk as the bookshelves started to topple into each other like dominoes.
Finding the symbol that had been identified in the blueprints, he grabbed and pulled the lever-disguised-as-a-book just as the shelf behind them started to fall.
As soon as the entryway was large enough for them to slide through, they squeezed through the gap and sprinted yet again as the door sealed shut behind them.
"Did you know Tornado had siblings?" Despite the amount of running and hiding they had been doing (for what felt like hours, but was likely only a span of minutes), Artemis didn't sound out of breath. That was good, as they'd probably be at this for a while longer.
"No," Robin answered swiftly, as it was easier than even attempting to explain Mister Twister. Artemis' hand lashed out, locking around his bicep just as he was about to turn left at the junction they'd reached, yanking them both to a stop.
"So now what? Red Tornado is one of the power houses of the League!" She demanded, starting to sound more than a little hysterical. "How are we supposed to take down two of him?!"
"They do seem pretty user unfriendly." He quipped, more as a reflex than anything else.
His attempt at humor didn't land in the slightest. "Don't joke. They-"
"Attention Robin, Attention Artemis." The voice of one of the Not-Tornadoes echoed throughout the Cave. Seemed like they'd finally figured out how to patch into the intercom. "You have exactly ten minutes or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."
Great.
He hated it when supervillains insisted on deadlines.
*H*
This entire situation was akin to living a nightmare for Ski'Lira Hol.
She'd been captured before, trapped, bound, but it was never for this long.
She had been forced to rely on a tried and true calming technique, one she hadn't been forced to use since a training session where she'd been taught how to break out of the trunk of a car. It couldn't hold the panic at bay forever, but for the moment it would stave off the inevitable nervous breakdown (because she couldn't move she couldn't moveshewastrappedtrappedtrapped).
Keeping her breathing even, she steadfastly, mentally recited as many verses of the Tale of Syn'Arth the Conqueror as she could, in its original High Thanagarian. The slight effort it took to both remember the epic, as well as the dialect of her mother language she was less used to using, gave her something to focus on. She knew she kept skipping parts, forgetting some sections in their entirety, but it was mostly working, and that's what was important. Function over accuracy.
She also received some comfort from visual confirmation that both Kid Flash and Superboy seemed fine physically, albeit irritated at the situation. Miss Martian and Aqualad were a different story, as their lack of tolerance for heat and fire meant they were in very real danger. The former had gone fully insensate some minutes ago, the latter trying to rouse her back to some form of coherency, but failing. That was based purely on auditory clues, as she couldn't see their cage from where she'd been locked in place.
And there was the whole matter of Artemis and Robin.
When the computer recited their access codes at their arrival, her heart had both dropped in worry and sang with pride. She had complete faith in them both, but as always, was concerned with their human fragility.
Thinking of her teammates condition had thoroughly thrown her off from her recitations, and she couldn't recall which verse she had left on. It certainly didn't help that a minute or so later, one of their captors announced the soon-to-be executed demise of her and her fellow captives.
Superboy spoke up quietly just as she was about to restart her mental recitation. He was clearly concerned, but he had no way of knowing he'd inadvertently pulled Ski'Lira fully into the present moment. Panic and all. "You think Artemis and Robin are okay?"
"They'll be fine," Kid Flash assured him. "I mean, Robin's the king of disappearing. And I bet... I bet there are secret tunnels all over this... mountain." He barked out a nervous laugh. "Oh my gosh, secret tunnel through the mountains. I've got to tell Rob that later.
"I sweat, if you start singing the song, I will rip your mouth off of your face." Ski'Lira snapped, her threat sounding more strangled than intimidating.
Kid Flash didn't seem to notice the lack of heat in her hostility, his green eyes wide with surprise. "Wait, you got that reference?"
"Of course I got that reference. What do you take me for, some kind of heathen?" Growling under her breath, she relished in the simmer of anger, letting it be the only thing that filled her head. Being angry was far more effective than the careful recitation.
She was reminded of the glass coffins at Cadmus. How she'd kept herself sane by feeding her rage.
She turned her attention, and the full force of her vitriol, to the metallic beings currently patrolling around their prisoners like guard dogs.
At that moment, a very small part of her was glad that no one else in the room could speak Thanagarian, because a great number of the insults that left her mouth probably would have given Batman pause.
Her threats were elaborate, detailed, and graphic.
But her tirade didn't last long, as the bulkier of the androids, the one she had permanently scarred, idly waved his hand.
The water that had previously been lapping at their waist rose until it was well above torso height. As Hawkgirl had the slight fortune of setting up a few inches higher than the other two, the waterline stopped at her collarbone, while the other two were up to their necks in liquid.
Her next insult abruptly died in her throat at the new danger, her heartbeat spiking. She attempted to flap her wings, but they didn't move, confined as they were.
Clamping her mouth shut as tight as she could, she muffled any potential whines or whimpers, fully cognizant of the Kryptonian with super hearing nearby. He seemed far more focused on M'Gann, though, understandable, considering how much more she was suffering.
Hawkgirl was not weak. She would not let a little thing like severe claustrophobia overtake her senses, not when the enemy was so close. She was not weak. She. Was. Not. Weak.
It was only a little water, she'd learned to swim long before she'd learned to fly.
She'd been stuck underwater briefly before, her helmet even had an in-built function to seal itself shut to both preserve what little air it could hold and keep liquid or harmful gas out of her system (not that she could activate it, as her hands were trapped).
The villains clearly didn't mean them immediate harm, they could have been killed literally at any moment, but instead their wellbeing was being carefully preserved. This was just a scare tactic, meant to flush their wayward teammates out of hiding.
Though what all this unnecessary theater was for, she had not a single clue.
But...
She still couldn't move.
Her wings continued to flutter despite her attempt to still the feather appendages, her hindbrain caught in a loop of (have to fly out of here, have to get out, why can't I get out?).
Her throat began to rumble, a low, chuffing whine that there was no way her fellows could identify as the signal of distress it was.
Anger no longer an option, she squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could manage, returning to her epic recounting, but she had completely forgotten which verse she'd left off at.
And yet her wings would not. Stop. Moving.
Trying with all her might, not a single word of the Tale sprang to mind.
She couldn't remember any of it.
Closing her eyes had been a stupid, moronic mistake on her part, as cutting off one of her senses entirely only exacerbated the awareness of being stuck. She reopened her eyes, attempting to bring her panic back down to manageable levels via visual stimuli.
She's learned how to deal with panic attacks, it came hand in hand with first aid in crisis situations, helping victims of various tragedies come back to themselves. Until now, she'd never experienced a fear strong enough that she'd had need of it.
Five things you could see.
That was easy, right? Her eyesight was impeccable.
Wally, that was one.
Conner, there was two.
The water, that made three.
The ceiling? The rock ceiling.
They were underground and she couldn't see the sky.
Her kast was trapped, hurt, maybe dying, the water was so close, ready to drown them the second the android had the whim to do so.
Underground.
Stuck underground.
She was trapped.
She was helpless.
It took the smattering of dots lingering on the edges of her vision to realize she was hyperventilating, which was a real feat considering Thanagarians were built for high-altitude flying. Some coherent part of her brain screamed at her that she should open her mouth, that keeping her breathing purely through her nose was only further limiting her airway.
But it was her unwillingness to give any sign of distress away, to her friends, but especially to their captors.
A Thanagarian never showed weakness before an enemy, especially a weakness that could be used against them.
So she overrode the signals her body was sending her, and kept breathing through her nose, though she did make a solid attempt at steadying the rate of each inhale and exhale.
It didn't help.
Not soon enough, anyway.
In between one laboured breath and the next, Ski'Lira quietly fell unconscious, her teammates none the wiser.
**H**
"Eight minutes," the false Tornado time update was wholly unwelcome.
The fate of their friends lay in their actions over the next handful of minutes. But Robin had dealt with tighter ultimatums before.
"We can access the hangar from here." Robin gestured, but their run was brought to skidding halt as a noise echoed from behind him. A haunting noise that was becoming all too familiar, a wave of approaching water. "Or not."
"Will you stop saying that?!" Artemis shouted.
Fleeing proved fruitless, as they were once more pulled underwater. This time, there was no quick escape to take advantage of, as the entirety of the hallway had been filled top to bottom and end to end. With no way of immediately knowing what lie on the other side of the walls, using an explosive to knock another hole through was out of the question. Doing so could lead to a safe room just as likely as blowing open a mass of electronics that would electrocute them instantly.
Taking advantage of the release function of his cape, he allowed the fabric to drift away, as it would only drag him down. Now he grabbed the compact rebreather from his utility belt, relishing in the influx of air. Once he'd cycled through a few lungfuls of air, he swam over to the flailing Artemis.
Putting himself on a breath hold, he grabbed her hands to stop her thrashing and shoved the rebreather between her lips.
After this he'd be sure to make sure she always had one of these in her own utility belt. Her not having one already was an oversight that could have just resulted in her death.
The water-controlling android appeared behind Artemis, and Robin had no way of warning her, as Not-Tornado cut through the water as effortlessly as an Atlantean, hand latching onto her ankle with a viselike grip.
Robin grabbed for one of the arrows that had drifted out of Artemis' quiver, swimming forward as swiftly as he could manage, jamming the arrowhead into the android's left eye. The sudden attack seemed to surprise the android more than anything, but the result was ideal, as his grip was released on the archer.
Winding an arm around Artemis' abdomen, Robin fired off his grapple gun, the hook embedding into the wall at the far end of the hallway. As he triggered the zip line, they both shot through the water far faster than they could ever manage under their own power. On the way, he undid the pouch holding his explosives, allowing them to fall out of his belt and into the water behind them, like the most unfortunate trail of breadcrumbs of all time.
The explosions setting off behind them made the water shudder and shake, little shockwaves that drove them only further forward, but they were already safely behind the corner. He hoped it had been enough to take out the android entirely, but he was too much of a realist to immediately assume victory.
Pursuer gone (for now), they had free reign to swim for the hangar unaccosted.
When they surfaced, they both gasped desperately for breath.
"LOOK OUT!" Robin didn't think he'd ever been so happy to hear his best friend's voice, even if Wally was giving them warning. They both ducked back down in time to avoid a fireball targeted straight for their unaware heads.
From below, he could see out of place splashes of red and yellow color, the vibrant lower half of Kid Flash's suit and the soles of Hawkgirl's gleaming golden boots. He led the way over, the two resurfacing next to their friends' prisons.
"You guys okay?" Robin asked.
"Forget us. Help M'Gann!" Superboy's eyes were locked upwards, at the nearest platform.
A glimpse of a fiery cage was in his peripheral vision, but he kept his attention on the trapped trio in front of him, as he had yet to receive an answer about potential injury. They seemed fine at first glance, at least the parts of them he could see. With Wally's fast healing, any burns he'd suffered were likely already repaired, and Superboy and Hawkgirl were in the top three of the most durable members of the Team.
His concern did not abate when Hawkgirl didn't speak up, nor did she so much as angle her head towards them. Considering her tendency to go quiet during truly serious situations, he wasn't a hundred percent certain what was going on with her.
"Aqualad, is she-?!" Artemis called up to the caged Atlantean.
"She is unconscious. I fear she, we, cannot survive much longer." Aqualad's voice hadn't sounded so pained since he'd nearly died of dehydration in Bialya. Though at least he was fully conscious this time.
Any further action they could take to check on the condition of their friends was interrupted as the fire android made her presence known, forcing them to dive back down to avoid being hit. A set of half-submerged stairs was nearby, making that their next checkpoint.
Naturally, that's when the other android made a dramatic reappearance.
With one eye gone dark and sparking, and his body thoroughly lacerated, he was certainly looking rough. If his face weren't an expressionless mask of metal, he'd probably look pretty peeved by now.
With the fire android lurking at the top of the stairs, they were thoroughly flanked between the two formidable enemies.
"I'm almost out of arrows." Artemis said in a low voice. It wasn't exactly something he wanted to hear, but it was important information to know.
An idea struck him.
Not an entire plan, but something that would definitely help them with a plan.
"Distract her, now!"
As requested, Artemis fired one of her remaining arrows at the fire android, letting Robin head down the flight of stairs towards the male android, tossing two of his dwindling supply of birdarangs. Both glanced off the metal chassis (which really made him wonder what exactly had managed to pierce that guy's armor before they got here). But one of the projectiles angled exactly where he meant it to go.
Once Artemis appeared back at his side, they jumped off the side of the platform and back down into the water, just as the two androids simultaneously loosed attacks of their respective element.
Water and fire collided, providing a disorienting plume of steam that covered their escape.
Another grate lay down below, which he tore off with ease, Artemis leading the way again. They swam forward, then upwards, emerging into an air-filled pipe that fortunately had yet to be fully flooded. Making use of the nearby ladder, Robin hauled himself up and onto the curved, metal floor of the connecting pipe.
He fought to catch his breath. Spending long nights running across Gotham meant his stamina was pretty good, but this demented game of cat and mouse was really starting to wear on him.
"Six minutes."
Robin resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the androids' continual reminder of their deadline. Now it was just annoying, though he knew it was likely to keep them anxious, make them act irrationally.
"What do we do know?" Artemis' voice was small, as if speaking too loud could alert the intruders to their current hiding spot.
"We save them," there was zero hesitation in Robin's answer. "That's how it works."
Instead of soothing Artemis, his words instead caused an explosive outburst. This was a long time coming, really. "Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but these robots already took out our five super-powered friends!"
He attempted to offer a placating smile, "You seem distraught."
"Distraught?! M'Gann is dying. We have no powers and I'm down to my last arrow! Of course I'm distraught!"
"Well get traught or get dead!" He barked, his own temper flaring at her shouting. Blowing out a harsh breath, he lapsed into silence.
"... How can you be so calm?" Shoulders slumping, her outburst seemed to have cooled quickly, which was a good sign.
"Practice," flipping over onto his hands and knees, Robin began crawling away from the archer. "I've been doing this since I was nine."
And this didn't even break the top five most dire situations he'd ever found himself in.
"What good is that now?" Artemis was almost pleading with him now, as she really seemed to be at the end of her rope. But this was not a place where they could afford to let that rope snap, not with the very lives of their friends completely in their hands. "What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?"
Robin froze in place. How could he have been so stupid! "Oh, duh." He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. "They're machines." He angled his head back so that he could meet Artemis' eyes, well aware he was now grinning like a madman. "And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range!"
"Great," for the first time since they'd left Gotham, a spark of hope shone in the archer's grey eyes. "Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."
"I'm fresh out. But I'm betting we can make one." He pressed his finger to the comm unit still situated in his ear, connecting remotely to the birdarang currently embedded in the molten metal next to Wally's head. "What do you say, KF? Doable."
"Totally doable," the speedster's answering grin was near palpable, voice slightly tinny.
"Five minutes," the android reminded.
"You know... if you had more time." Wally amended.
H
Kicking out the metal plate before him with his sturdy combat boot, Robin clambered out of the vent and into the med bay. He was immediately hit with the lingering scent of disinfectant and antiseptic that never left the air in this room.
"Med bay, x-ray machine," Kid Flash reminded him. "You'll find a small vacuum tube called a vircator that converts high energy pulses."
Following his friend's expert instructions, he located the x-ray machine, connecting his hologlove to it.
"Reprogram the unit's microwave conversion from x-rays to EMP's with a cascading energy vector directed outward."
Robin found himself infinitely grateful for his friend's scientific knowledge. Though he did wonder exactly how much thought Kid Flash had put into 'how to make a makeshift EMP in case of emergency' to know all of this.
Reaching in after the hacking work was finished, he gently grasped the tube in question with his gloved hands, twisting and carefully extracting it from its hub. Kid Flash had specifically said that the device was relatively durable, but that it was better not to risk dropping it.
"A ripple effect, like dropping a stone in a pond." Robin said.
"A stone with ten to the twelfth power of wattage, yeah."
"So I'll need to hook it up to the cave's main generator…"
Artemis spoke up from where she'd been lingering on lookout duty. "Which is where?"
Oh, she definitely wasn't going to like this next part.
H
"Four minutes," to the android's credit, he sure was diligent with his countdown.
This time they entered the hangar via the ventilation system, infiltrating from above rather than below this time. Robin activated his comm again, "Okay, make with the distraction."
On his cue, Kid Flash enacted the next vital part of the plan. "Hey, Red Tomato! Who's your girlfriend, Red Onion?!"
"Yeah!" Superboy added, both layering on the dramatics. "And by the way? Worst death trap ever! We can escape any time we want!"
"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count to two!"
With Wally and Conner playing their parts to perfection, Robin and Artemis had booked it to the opposite side of the hallway, closer to the generator. "Cover me," he ordered the archer as he hooked the end of a rappel line to the stone wall next to him. Inhaling, he jumped, letting gravity spirit him straight towards his target.
"And you can't drown a Kryptonian, dumb bots! We don't breathe air!"
"Ha ha ha!" As Wally gave an exaggerated, slightly demented sounding laugh, Robin landed safely on the giant cylinder, popping up an access panel and position the precious vircator tube inside, starting the process of installing it. "And Miss Martian? I can't believe you're buying her act!"
"Rerouting power now." Robin whispered, updating the others to his progress so they knew to keep up the energy.
"Yeah, you know how hot it gets in the caves of Mars?" Superboy yelled.
Try as he might, he just couldn't get the device to connect, a harsh groan leaving his throat before he could stifle the noise. "It's not working!"
"That cage just making her homesick!" Conner continued, voice ticking up in volume again to try to cover Robin's own voice.
"Duh!" Wally added, letting out another exaggerated laugh for good measure.
Eyes narrowing, he sat back on his heels and examined the device again. Clarity finally reached him, as he found what he'd overlooked. "The circuit's incomplete." Scrabbling for his utility belt, he searched through the pouches that had become significantly sparser over the course of this little adventure. "I need something conductible. A piece of metal or-"
"ROBIN, LOOK OUT!"
Water erupted around him before he could react, surging up and closing around him. After a mere five seconds of struggling in the hovering globe of water trapping him, he forced his body to go limp. His only shot was to trick the androids into thinking he'd gone down, then try to make a break for the generator.
What he didn't account for was how long the android kept him locked in that bubble.
What started as a ruse turned all too real as he lost his fight maintaining consciousness. His last thought was for Artemis, hoping she'd be able to save the day on her own.
H
It was the murmur of voices and the feeling of hands on his body that roused him. Eyes opening a crack, Robin coughed up a small amount of water, turning his head to the side to make sure it safely exited his body. Blinking hard, his vision cleared enough to make out Artemis' relieved face hovering above him.
He smiled, feeling distinctly proud of her. "Way to get traught."
A few minutes later, everyone had successfully regrouped around the trio trapped in metal. M'Gann had thankfully been roused once the cage had dispersed, her exhausted body supported by a quickly recovering Aqualad. As the most able bodied at the moment, Artemis had taken a quick trip to the armory to retrieve a large laser, which would hopefully provide enough firepower to safely melt the metal prison (without harming their teammates further).
"Figured my only shot was to surrender, pretend to drown before I actually did." Robin said, finishing his explanation of his plan. "Blacked out, though."
Superboy's hand twitched, stretching it as far as he could manage in his confinement. "M'Gann?"
"I'll be fine." The Martian assured, voice slightly wavering with strain, but she had a tired grin on her face nonetheless.
"Hey, HG," Robin staggered towards the Thanagarian. "You must be pretty peeved you missed all of the fun stuff."
But she didn't respond.
Mentally cursing, Robin's stomach clenched, his earlier suspicions at Hawkgirl's silence being proven wrong. He felt Aqualad's attention shift towards him as he moved closer to the unresponsive teen.
"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?!" Kid Flash demanded.
Tearing a glove off with his teeth, he pressed two bared fingers to Hawkgirl's exposed neck. Her pulse was steady. Though if her heart had actually stopped, Superboy definitely would have picked up on it sooner. He tapped her cheek as harshly as he dared, but she didn't even twitch at the prodding.
Had she been suffocated like he had? But Aqualad wouldn't be looking so concerned right now if he already knew that. Right?
Before he could ask the others for answers, Artemis was shouting back at Wally. "It's not working, genius!" It seemed her temperament had returned to its usual level of irritation, particularly when around the speedster. "EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"
"All machines present at the time."
Heads whipped in unison towards the voice, relief washing over them at finally seeing the real Red Tornado descending towards them. He looked and sounded about as concerned as the monotone machine could get. "What has occurred?"
Robin spoke up first. "Had a little visit from your family."
"Your extremely nasty family," Artemis amended.
"I was not aware I had relations." Tornado revealed, and they knew he was telling nothing but the truth.
Signature scowl back in place, Conner asked the question that was on all of their minds. "Where have you been?"
"Monitor duty on the Watchtower." Approaching the powered down androids, Tornado's blank eyes examined their motionless forms with a visage of indifference. "When it became clear Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your Zeta Tubes were also nonfunctional." He started to bend down to get a closer look. "I transported to Providence and proceeded here."
His side of the story explained, there was a sudden whirr as Sphere burst back into life, vibrating himself out of the wall and rolling over to Superboy. The force the sentient tech generated also managed to dislodge Hawkgirl's mace, which rang out harshly when it fell.
"Hey, boy," Superboy greeted his pet with a genuine smile.
A burst of laser fire startled Artemis, who stared at the barrel of the device in her hands with surprise.
Robin's stomach dropped. "The pulse has worn off!" He and Kid Flash spoke in unison, both having the same, horrified realization.
Red Tornado stood up from his crouch, turning away from the two intruders to face the teens... And three fully powered vortexes were summoned in front of him, all of the breathable air being drawn out of the room.
All Robin could do was gasp for air that just wasn't there. This time, his last thought was 'Not again.'
H
With every minute that passed and Hawkgirl had yet to wake, Robin grew increasingly anxious. Especially since she was the only one that had yet to come to.
Most of the Justice League had arrived on the scene, administering first aid and rescuing those still trapped. Batman, Superman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Captain Atom were all welcome faces, even if they had gotten here too late to apprehend the currently MIA Red Tornado.
Robin himself had just finished quietly speaking with Batman, who had forced him to go through a second cognition check when he revealed he'd been knocked unconscious twice in the span of ten minutes. It was only the years of being around Bruce that let him see the minute expressions that played across his face, betraying how troubled he truly was.
Nearby, Black Canary's voice started to garner attention. "Hawkgirl, can you hear me?"
Lo and behold, the Thanagarian was finally beginning to stir.
Thanks to a very frantic conversation between the boys, they'd managed to figure out a rough timeline of when she'd lost consciousness, but none of them could even begin to figure out why.
With a final, decisive crack, the last of the makeshift cage holding Hawkgirl fell away, crumbling to the ground. Captain Atom gently withdrew her from the construct, lying her down in the recovery position. That section finished, Atom moved on to Superboy and Kid Flash's prison.
Black Canary immediately knelt down at the twitching brunette's side, "Hawkgirl?"
What happened next was definitely one of those 'blink and you miss it' situations.
The Thanagarian's limp form stiffened, a clawed hand shooting straight for Canary's throat, only for Superman to appear between them, dropped to one knee and her hand caught in his steely grip.
"Hawkgirl, you're safe." Superman's voice was soft, but firm, the same tone he used in rescue operations for terrified civilians. "The intruders are gone and your team is unharmed."
Robin spotted the exact moment she regained full comprehension, her head angling and wings relaxing from their readied position. The grip Superman had on her hand was changed from a restraint to a kind hold. For a moment, she just looked at Superman, casting her searching gaze around the Cave, her attention lit on each member of the Team in turn.
Her mouth twisted into an expression Robin couldn't quite discern. But he didn't have the opportunity to ask how she was feeling, as her wings snapped out to their full length. With a powerful flap of her wings, she pulled away from Superman and shot into the air, tearing out of the nearest exit like a bat out of hell.
Not a single member of the League made a move to follow her. He didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one.
Unclear what to do now, the now fully free members of the Team sort of just ended up drifting back together, as Batman went to speak to Martian Manhunter.
It was M'Gann who broke the uneasy silence first, and not in a way any of them expected. "... I've never seen her so scared."
Artemis did a double take, "Wait, what? Who?"
"Hawkgirl."
Robin was even more confused now. She was scared? Thinking back, he realized that expression on her face, the one he couldn't name at the time... it was fear. But what could scare a Thanagarian so badly?
"My mental shields are... weak, right now." M'Gann explained haltingly. "I've only been picking up on surface thoughts and emotions, but... it's enough. She was terrified the entire time."
"... How did we not notice?" Conner's blue eyes dropped to the ground in shame.
The present members of the League were kind enough to keep their silence, letting them work through the matter themselves.
"I was so focused on M'Gann's distress that I missed hers. I assumed she was fine, because... She always is."
"I should have been able to hear her, but I focused too far out." Superboy explained, as if he were trying to convince himself just as much as the others. "I just... wanted to find Robin and Artemis. Make sure you two weren't... And then M'Gann..."
"We all dropped the ball." Kid Flash kicked at the ground. "Trying to phase out was a stupid plan."
A loud throat clear jerked them out of the guilt trip, Black Canary standing by with her arms crossed. "You can all continue this conversation in the med bay. I want to get you all to get a full workup, just in case."
"What about Hawkgirl?" Artemis asked.
"She'll be back," the older woman assured them. "Now get going." Satisfied with their easy compliance (there was no way Robin would risk arguing with Canary), the woman called out to Green Arrow as the group passed by him. "Arrow, can you wait here and-?"
"Direct her where she needs to go. Got it." The elder archer flashed her a thumbs up.
H
Even though Ski'Lira spent a significant percentage of her life roaming the sky, she couldn't remember the last time going on a flight had given her such unfettered contentment. The moment she'd felt the wind on her face, the breeze rippling through her feathers, it felt akin to the first dive into a swimming pool on a hot summer day. Or putting on pajamas after a long day in formal wear.
Or, you know, finally being released from a metallic coffin for... however long that had been. She hadn't exactly stuck around long enough to ask.
She continued her flight until she felt the last of the restricting tension leave her chest, her mind fully settled back into its standard level of calm. Savoring the last few moments hovering in the cool night air, well above the clouds, she tucked her wings in tight and dropped into a dive back down towards the ocean.
By her best estimation, she'd been gone for probably fifteen or twenty minutes when she walked back into the hangar. Her teammates and the League were all absent, apart from Green Arrow and the Flash. The former was idly leaning against the same wall that Sphere and her mace had been lodged into, while the latter was perched up on one of the generators, crouched as he inspected the inner workings.
"Hey," she could tell from the tone of voice that she was being addressed by Uncle Ollie, rather than Green Arrow right now. "Feel better?"
"... Yes." In an act to avoid eye contact, she bent down to scoop up her discarded mace, hanging it from her belt. The tugging weight was a reassurance she'd missed. "Everyone else...?"
"In the med bay, but no serious injuries. Dinah wanted to make sure everyone got a full check up, including you. But... there's something you should know first."
Brow furrowing, she gave him a nod, urging him to continue.
"Thanks to Artemis and Robin, they managed to disable the two androids that broke into the cave. Red Tornado was the first responder and… it seems that he went rogue."
Ski'Lira's mouth parted ever so slightly in shock. "Tornado did what?!"
"We're not sure of the exact details, since all the cameras in here were knocked out during the initial incursion. But from what the other kids told us, he attacked them without warning. He removed the air from the room, knocking them all out. By the time we got here, he was long gone... along with the other two androids."
She dropped a swear that made him wince a little with its severity. "There's no trace? And it was definitely him? Not a lookalike like the others or Mister Twister?"
"The Zeta log confirmed that it was definitely him." Oliver straightened, pushing back his hood to run a hand through his blonde hair before replacing it. "It's a mess, that's for damn sure. But for now, you should head over to the med bay. Your team's pretty worried about you."
"Worried, why?"
"You passed out for seemingly no reason." He answered. "Of course they're worried."
"There is no need for that. Honestly, I could probably just head home-"
He just gave her a look. "Med bay, Skylar. Or I'll call your parents."
And that was definitely a real threat. As much as she'd love to avoid this confrontation, she didn't want to draw her parents' ire. Or Dinah's. So, it was with great reluctance that she left the hangar, Ollie stopping her just long enough for a short hug before letting her go.
One of the absolute last things she had wanted was for her teammates to find out about her shameful weakness.
But maybe she didn't have to tell the truth, she just had to come up with a believable enough lie within the next thirty seconds.
A dark shape loomed in the dimly lit hallway as she turned a corner, detaching from the shadows and revealing the waiting Batman. He maneuvered himself so that he blocked her path, looking down at her.
"Here to check on me too?" She asked, slightly irritated by the amount of babysitters she was being confronted by today.
The narrowing of his eyes showed how little he appreciated her tone. "I'm here to make sure you communicate with your team."
"Of course I'm going to communicate with them, I was just heading to the med bay."
"But are you going to tell the truth?"
"... Are you sure you're not a mind reader?" She grumbled, crossing her arms.
"No. I just know you." He replied evenly. "As second in command, you should know better than most that having knowledge of a potential weakness in a teammate is vital, especially one that could directly result in that teammate coming to physical or mental harm. You are not an exception."
"I do not have a weakness," she hissed, wings flaring behind her in an aggressive display.
He remained unfazed, as ever. "Your claustrophobia can be a liability on the field, it was so today, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. But it is not something you should feel ashamed of. If none of you knew about a Martian's susceptibility to fire, how would any of you suspected the danger M'Gann was in today? Or if you didn't know about Kid Flash's increased calorie intake and were stranded without supplies? Or in Bialya, when Aqualad almost died from dehydration?"
"... That's different." She resisted the urge to wince, already knowing her choice in defense was terrible.
"It's not." Batman corrected. "Believe me, I've had plenty of experience with a Thanagarian's pride, thanks to your parents... and from watching you grow up. I will not stand by and allow you to keep a secret that could very well get you killed. Tell them."
Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, Ski'Lira's wings drooped, and she gave the slightest of nods. "Okay."
Without another word, he reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder, a final show of reassurance and support. He swept past her, disappearing back into the shadows of the mountain.
H
Logically, she knew that her friends were okay, but that didn't stop the innate spike of worry at seeing them all lying on hospital beds. Both Robin and Artemis had oxygen masks fitted to their faces, while both Kid Flash and Aqualad had been hooked up to IV's. M'Gann and Conner looked fine, though the Martian looked more exhausted than she'd ever seen her.
"There you are," Dinah said from where she was pointedly standing next to an empty bed. "I thought I'd have to send someone else to drag you here."
She shrugged, pointedly ignoring the eyes boring into her form as she sat down on the bed, carefully adjusting her wings.
"Alright, let me just..." Reaching out, Canary snagged the end of a privacy curtain, cutting her off from the rest of the room. "Now, helmet off, please."
Leaning forward, she tipped the beaked helmet off her head, grimacing at the wet and tangled mess of her braid, dripping water all over her back.
Canary was nice enough not to say anything about how swollen and red her eyes were, instead picking up a penlight and checking her pupillary response.
"Hey, HG?" Robin suddenly piped up, voice slightly muffled from the plastic mask on his face. Despite not being able to see him through the curtain, she still looked in his general direction. "Was that you who clawed up the water guy?"
"Yes," she answered, terse as Dinah placed the end of a stethoscope on her chest. Not needing the verbal command, she inhaled and exhaled, repeating every time Dinah moved the little device.
"Awesome. No matter what Artemis and I threw at them, we couldn't even dent them. Except that arrow I put through his eye."
The rest of Ski'Lira's medical check went smoothly. "Any feathers out of place?" That was the final question asked of her, to which Ski'Lira responded in the negative. "You seem to be in the clear, Hawkgirl. No adverse effects. You can put your helmet back on now."
It was with great relief that she slipped her mask back on, not bothering to tuck her hair back inside this time. The older woman folded the curtain back, the rest of the room no longer cordoned off.
Dinah removed the latex gloves from her hands, disposing of them in a nearby bin. "Alright, Kaldur, Wally, I want you to keep those IV's in until they're almost finished. You kids already know the drill. Artemis, Robin, you can take the masks off now, your levels all look good."
"Finally," Artemis groaned as she tore the offending piece of plastic off her face, tossing it to the side as Dinah switched off their respective tanks.
"I'll check back in later," offering them all one last reassuring smile, Black Canary left them all alone.
For a few, awkward moments, the only sounds that filled the space were the steady hums from the various machinery about the room, and the occasional shuffle from its occupants.
Wally's legendary impatience kicked in first. "Okay, elephant in the room." He jerked an accusing finger Ski'Lira's way. "What the hell was that?"
"Wally…" M'Gann chastised. "Don't be rude. If she doesn't want to talk about it, then it's none of our business."
"None of our business?" The speedster demanded. "You said yourself she was scared! We're her friends which makes it our business to help her!"
Hawkgirl's head whipped towards the Martian, a scowl on her lips, braid flying behind her. "You told them?"
"Just that you were scared!" Hands raised palm out, M'Gann's mouth wavered in her upset. "I'd never invade your privacy by… I didn't mean to… We're just…"
"I think that M'Gann is trying to say that we are concerned for your wellbeing." Kaldur swiftly amended. "And that she was trying to do a service by letting us know you were distressed."
"Hawkgirl," Conner's voice was soft, a rarity for him. "We just want to help."
A long breath left her as she bent her head, wrapping her hands around the back of her neck. "... What I'm about to tell you can't leave this room."
"It won't." Robin promised, the others nodding or giving verbal assent.
She kept her silent a few heartbeats longer, trying to order her thoughts. "A long time ago... Thanagarians developed this... genetic quirk. Evolutionary scientists on my planet came to the conclusion it was a direct result of developing our wings." Her own flexed for emphasis, the tips of her feathers dragging over the sheets of the bed. "It's... the quirk, it's... we don't do well in... small spaces. Some only have a mild aversion, but others." She trailed off, curling in on herself a little, as if bracing for a blow.
"You're claustrophobic?" Robin asked, requesting clarification.
She nodded, forcing her vision not to waver from the bed below her. She didn't want to risk seeing what was sure to be pity on their faces. "Most of the time when I get trapped, I can deal with it, I have a couple grounding techniques. It helps with the... panic response. And I sort of figured out lately that if I allow myself to get... really angry, it can help too. Remember when we were in those pods in Cadmus and they tried to clone us?"
"Vividly," Wally deadpanned. "I also remember you tearing out of that thing like a chestburster from Alien."
"LIke I said. Angry. But it... wasn't enough this time. It's never... been this bad before."
Feeling the bed dip under new weight, Ski'Lira's head snapped up to see M'Gann had abandoned her own and settled down next to her. "I understand. I mean, Martians have something similar, as you know... You shouldn't feel bad about it, it's just part of who you are."
Her face reddened, "I am not ashamed." Which was a total lie, because she was definitely ashamed.
It was obvious that no one bought that lie.
"More importantly," M'Gann continued. "We don't think any less of you because of it."
"Why the heck would we hold something like this against you?!" Artemis frowned. "That's insane."
"You can't help it, and let's be real you must've been handling it pretty well so far if we haven't noticed until now." Wally added.
Robin clicked his fingers as he made a connection, "Like Cadmus, when we had to go through the vents... and probably the mines in Santa Prisca too, right? This time you just-"
"Had a severe panic attack and passed out while in the presence of two powerful enemies?" Hawkgirl said in monotone, though her lip tugged every so slightly into a wisp of a smile. "Handling it, right."
M'Gann grabbed one of her hands, entwining their fingers together and giving a soft squeeze. "It's okay, really. None of us blame you. You don't blame me for getting overwhelmed, do you?"
"No!" Ski'Lira insisted. "Of course not!"
"Then why won't you allow yourself the same courtesy?"
All Ski'Lira could offer was a slight shake of her head, "Call it a cultural difference."
"Nevertheless," Kaldur began, voice switched completely to his 'I am the leader of this Team, I will have no argument' tone. "We know better now. Perhaps we can help to avoid such an occurrence in the future? If we know the signs, we can provide aid."
Artemis let out a snort, mumbling something under her breath that distinctly sounded like 'hiding bullet wounds'.
Rolling her head back, Hawkgirl sighed, still allowing M'Gann to keep her grip on her hand. "I suppose I will... endeavor to be more open. For the record, this is entirely because Batman lectured me earlier, not because we're friends and I would occasionally welcome your help."
"Suuuuure," Robin teased. "Whatever you say, HG."
With a loud smack as his palms hit his knees, Wally stood up, carefully extracting the needle from his arm, the pinprick site healing so fast he didn't need any gauze to wrap it. "Well, today has been all kinds of terrible. So, I would like to propose we shower, change into pajamas, order pizza from that place downtown with the killer breadsticks and watch Kiki's Delivery Service."
The motion passed unanimously.
Two hours later, when Black Canary went to the lounge to check on the suspiciously quiet group of teens. The sight she was met with had her reaching for her phone.
A picture, sent by Black Canary, was sent to the entirety of the Justice League.
All seven teens, fast asleep in the lounge, plates of half-eaten pizza and breadsticks strewn about them. The end credits of Kiki's Delivery Service were scrolling past on the flatscreen. M'Gann and Conner were curled up next to each other on the couch, the girl fitting almost perfectly under the boy's arm. Aqualad had an entire armchair to himself, his head dropped at a slightly uncomfortable angle to rest on his shoulder.
On the floor was a veritable puppy pile, with Ski'Lira at the bottom. She was acting as a makeshift pillow, with Artemis' head resting on her stomach, and Dick's on her shoulder. Even in her sleep, Ski'Lira's wings had curled up and around them all, like a particularly feathery blanket. Wally was sprawled face down into a pile of pillows, his legs thrown over Ski'Lira's.
It was, in a word, precious.