Chapter Forty Two
Enemy Territory
May 26th
"Is everyone here?" Nightwing spoke up to gain the attention of his team. Not that he really needed to, they were all watching him with rapt attention as the last members arrived by Zeta. They were all gathered in the Warehouse, standing around the mission briefing screens at the corner of the room.
He did a quick headcount, satisfied that everyone were there – on time and everything – before launching into an explanation.
"As you all know, the new moon is, in fact, a spaceship called the War World. It's wielder, Mongul, intents to open fire on Earth, as he sees the planet as a threat against his plans to rule the galaxy. Any attempt at negotiation has failed, and all we can do now is take him out before he literally destroys Earth."
He looked seriously at his team as several met his eyes, nodded in resolve, brows tense and eyes steely.
He sort of felt like there should've been some awesome military-style background music while the briefing went on. If this had been a TV-show or a movie, there definitely would've been.
Shaking the very silly thought from his mind, he resumed his briefing.
"The League will attempt to distract Mongul, allowing the Team to enter the War World unnoticed. The Team will be divided into four squads, each with a different mission. It's important that each squad is successful for the operation to work."
Even though he already knew the squads by heart – he'd decided on them after all – he still pulled up a small screen on the holographic computer in his gloves.
"Alpha squad: Superboy, Arsenal, Wonder Girl and Wolf. Your job is to locate and take down Mongul. Without a commander, the War World is harmless." The three youngsters and single wolf took a few steps back from the main group, letting Nightwing address the rest of them.
"Beta: Blue Beetle, Impulse and Beast Boy. Your mission is to find and acquire the key to the War World. Without the key, the entire battle station is useless."
Impulse cracked his knuckles with an excited smirk on his face, Blue Beetle and Beast Boy simply nodding seriously before also breaking away from the main group.
Nightwing briefly locked eyes with Morgan as he addressed the third squad, noting – with slight pride – the firm and straight way she stood, eyes analyzing everything she saw as her mouth was drawn into a serious line.
"Gamma Squad: Guardian, Bumble Bee and Sparrow. Your job is to disable the War World's power core. No power, no threat. Take Sphere with you."
The three of them nodded seriously at him, Morgan offering him a confident smirk, which he was compelled to return if he hadn't been in 'serious leader' mode.
"Delta Squad: Batgirl and Robin. You'll be in the Bioship, assisting the League in taking out as many of the War World's guns as possible."
His two friends nodded once to show they understood, and every squad assembled onto the Bioship, which had been parked outside the Warehouse for the occasion.
Morgan was the last to leave, pausing for a moment to look at him over her shoulder, giving him a brief and nervous smile. She slipped her mask onto her face and ducked out of the Warehouse immediately after.
Nightwing found himself suddenly alone in the Warehouse, taking a moment to simply stand and try to predict the outcome of their mission.
So many things could go wrong.
But then again, they could also go right.
His team had been successful in the past. There was no reason to assume it would be any different this time.
Still, a nagging sense of foreboding was nibbling at the back of his mind as he Zeta'd onto the Watchtower, where he set up a holographic screen to monitor the Team's progress.
As the Bioship docked at the War World, Morgan took a deep, calming breath and waited for the latch to open. The others were standing silently around her, all of them mentally preparing themselves for another mission.
Morgan briefly closed her eyes and thought their mission through. Blue Beetle had bypassed the War World's security, meaning their presence would go undetected – for now, at least. He'd also provided all of them with maps of the place, allowing them to find their destination quicker.
Guardian – or Mal, as Morgan usually called him – was in the middle of scanning such a map, calculating the quickest route to the power core.
Morgan took another deep breath. She was in space.
In the middle of entering a dangerous, alien spaceship.
She was in space.
Like, not on Earth.
In the if-you-go-outside-now-you-will-freeze-to-death-immediately kind of space.
It was kind of freaking her out, but the others seemed to very calm, so she didn't let it show.
"Connecting with War World." Batgirl announced as the Bio ship stopped moving. "Opening latch.. now."
A hiss erupted from the latch as the back of the ship opened up, allowing them a look inside this War World.
It actually looked like any other spaceship, to be honest. Smooth, steel corridors, grey floors, lots of controls she couldn't make sense of.
They all stepped out, Morgan shuffling after Bumble Bee as she kept wringing her hands together.
The three squads stood together for a moment before breaking up.
"Good luck everybody," Superboy said. He was the oldest and most experienced member of the Team currently on the War World, so everybody had automatically waited for him to say the final word.
The three teams nodded to each other and then ran in three different directions, Morgan hopping onto the backseat of Sphere as Mal took the controls.
She had a feeling that she'd want to save her energy while she still could, so she opted to catch a ride instead of flying herself.
Roughly three minutes later, as they sped down the hall, following the instructions on the map, Bumble Bee gave their leader an update.
Alpha Squad and Beta Squad had already confirmed their progress, and now it was their turn.
"Gamma Squad is en route to disable the War World's power core. No power and the threat ends."
Morgan wondered on a scale of one to ten, how much Nightwing resented having to stay behind to monitor their progress, instead of being on the actual mission. She'd seen the guy in action. She knew that he thrived on a mission. He'd been doing it for ten years, so to suddenly have to stay behind again and again had to be hard.
Now is so not the time to be thinking about Nightwing, she told herself.
They had a mission to complete. She needed to focus.
She heard the voice of Batgirl announcing that they were in position as well.
Good. Everything is going according to plan. For now.
Morgan hadn't forgotten the golden rule. Every mission had a hiccup. Something that went wrong, something unexpected.
She rued finding out what went wrong on this mission.
They travelled down through corridor after corridor for ten minutes when Blue Beetle suddenly spoke through their communicators.
"Beetle to Watch tower! We've been spotted. The War World knows we're here!"
"Fine by me!" Mal spoke up with far more attitude than Morgan had thought the gentle giant capable of. "I like the attention!"
Small, red, diamond shaped drones suddenly approached them, firing shots at Sphere. Morgan jumped off the motor cycle, realizing that the time for relaxing was over.
Mal turned the motor cycle around as he blocked the shots with his wrist guards. "At least a big alien dense moon notices when I'm around!"
Once a drone got close enough, Morgan kicked out, sending the small thing crashing into a wall, breaking in half.
She used her telekinesis to get a feel of what kind of material the drones were made of, and was pleased to find that it was easy for her to get a handle of – which she proved by focusing on two different drones at once and sending them smashing into each other.
"Was that a slam on me?" Bumble Bee spoke up, sounding just as annoyed as her boyfriend. "In the middle of a mission?"
"Woman!" Mal immediately responded, his voice reaching a pitch Morgan had though impossible. "When aren't you in the middle of a mission!"
Morgan's eyes widened and she almost had to smile at the utter irony of her getting stuck on team 'relationship-problems'.
She was too exasperated to follow the urge though.
"Oh my god you guys, are you really gonna do this now?" She asked incredulously, reminding her team mates that she was still very much here.
Neither Mal nor Karen seemed to want to dignify that with a response.
"We're here!" Bumble Bee announced instead as they ducked down a horizontal tube, landing in front of a huge, circular machine. The walls of the room were covered in golden hexagons, the machine in the middle of the room emitting a golden light, making the whole thing look like a beehive.
With the small red drones chasing after them, it kind of felt like a beehive too.
The three of them landed on the floor and took off running, Sphere staying behind to fire at the drones.
"Supercycle's got our back!" Mal announced. "Love a girl I can count on."
"Alright, I get it, I'm a bad girlfriend." Bumble Bee rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Now quit pouting!"
"Who's pouting? I'm not pouting!"
"Guys!" Morgan loudly spoke up, so not in the mood for this. She was tense from the mission already, she did not need all their drama too. "Can you please wait with your little domestic 'til I'm not around to feel uncomfortable and incredibly single?"
"Whatever." Mal pouted – yes, he was definitely pouting – "Let's just blow this place and go!"
"Uh, we can't just 'blow this place'?" Bumble Bee, voice laced with attitude, immediately disagreed. "It'll destroy all of War World and take half of Earth with it! We need to follow the plan and shut the core down."
So, yeah, blowing it up was probably a bad idea. Morgan whole heartedly agreed with Bumble Bee on that one.
"Well, thank you for explaining the obvious to your idiot boyfriend!" Mal shot back. "Will you just stick to the science and get it done!"
"Oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-me." Morgan mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes so severely at her team mates that she was afraid they'd roll clean off her face.
"What?" Bumble Bee said incredulously. "I never said you were – Uuugh, never mind!"
"Entering power core now." She said over the communicator as she disappeared inside the power core.
Mal stood still for a moment and looked at the spot she'd disappeared from. "Good luck, Beautiful."
Morgan shot him a seriously unimpressed look. He ignored it for a second before turning to her.
"What?" He innocently answered.
Not breaking eye-contact, Morgan reached a hand up to her communicator. "Hey Nightwing." She said. "Next time you assign squads, please don't put me with the couple. Too much drama."
Mal rolled his eyes. Morgan stuck her tongue out at him.
"Focus, Morgan." Was Nightwing's response. Serious as always.
They stood and waited for an update from Bumble Bee when shots were fired behind them.
Both whirled around to defend themselves. Sphere was still giving it all she had, but there were simply too many drones for her to get them all. Some of them broke through, heading straight for Guardian and Sparrow.
They jumped into action immediately, Morgan taking to the air as she punched at a drone, using her telekinesis to strength the blow. The drone fell harmlessly to the ground below. Kicking at another one, she dodged a shot fired at her, gasping out in pain when it managed to graze her shoulder.
"There are too many fail saves built into the core, the power keeps rerouting!" Bumble Bee announced over the communicator, sounding very frustrated.
"Well, then reroute it somewhere useful!" Mall responded as he deflected a shot, kicking out at a drone.
There was a small pause and then Karen spoke up again. "Mal – I mean Guardian – you're a genius!"
Morgan dearly hoped that meant Bumble Bee had figured out some sort of solution. These drones were getting too close for comfort, if her stinging shoulder was anything to go by.
Behind them, the core started glowing more brightly than it had before, the yellow light spreading through the room, along the floor and up the walls, in vein-like lines.
The light faded just as suddenly as it had appeared, all the drones clattering uselessly to the floor.
Whatever Karen had done, it had worked.
Morgan resisted the urge to let out a whoop of joy.
As the drones fell to the floor, Morgan heard Superboy confirm that they'd taken out Mongul.
"His own machine stunned him. And I'm guessing with a little help." Connor explained.
So that's what Bumble Bee had done.
She flew out of the core and grew to her normal size, immediately embracing Mal.
He held her tight as well.
"Yup," Morgan blew a curl out of her face as she pretended to not watch her team mates having an intimate moment. "Definitely feelin' single."
Speaking of single, Nightwing chose that moment to speak up.
"Great job everyone." Morgan could tell he was smiling, simply by the tone of his voice. "Now rendezvous ASAP so we can bring you home."
Smiling at a mission gone well, Morgan stretched her arms behind her back. "That was actually easier than I thought it would be."
"Don't say stuff like that." Bumble Bee responded. "It's bad luck."
She rolled her eyes good naturedly as the three of them settled onto Sphere again, flying back in the direction they'd come from.
They were in the hangar they'd originally arrived in fifteen minutes later.
Beta Squad and Gamma Squad were the first to arrive. A few high fives were exchanged as they waited for Delta to dock with the bio ship so they could get out of there.
"Wooo! Do we rock?" Batgirl cheered as she and Robin appeared.
"Girl, we rock" Bumble Bee cheered back.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Blue beetle went on, sounding really excited.
Morgan watched him silently, unable to not notice that he sounded weird once again. She shook the thought from her mind. It was all in her head. She was simply paranoid.
"Not over here there wasn't!" Mal confidently replied. "Where's Alpha?"
"Trekking along with the 'Big bad'. The guy must weigh an actual ton." Arsenal spoke over their communicators. "We're a few minutes out."
Impulse fist bumped Robin as the two bat-kids caught up to the rest of the group.
Her shoulder gave a particularly insistent throb that reminded Morgan that she'd actually been hit by one of the drones, and she quietly stepped away to get a better look at it.
Not fancying taking off part of the suit in front of the others, she stepped down a side corridor, finding a dark corner.
Unzipping her suit in the back, she shrugged her left arm out of it, curling her lip in displeasure by the angry red mark on her shoulder. It would probably sting for quite some time.
After she'd pulled her suit on again and re-zipped it, she suddenly registered a big commotion going on in the main room. It sounded like someone was.. fighting?
Her eyes widened when she realized that this was probably the hiccup in the mission. She knew it had been too easy.
Morgan had been about to run back down the dark corridor and see what was going on when a new, scary sound reached her ears. The whooshing sound of the air leaving the room at a rapid pace.
Somebody had opened an exit to outside. As in, space.
You know, that place where you'd die immediately?
That space.
Still in that dark corridor, she held a hand to her head when the air around her disappeared.
As the sound suddenly stopped, she felt herself gasping for breath. She could hear several heavy objects falling to the floor, Morgan thinking it sounded a lot like bodies.
"..why.." She heard Connor choke out.
Morgan was starting to feel lightheaded as she kept sucking in deep breaths to aid her oxygen deprived mind.
"Don't waste the oxygen, Hermano. There's very little left."
Was that.. Blue Beetle?
She couldn't be sure, her mind was too foggy. Spots were starting to dance in front of her eyes.
Her head was spinning as Morgan felt herself lose consciousness. Her mind screamed at her to go help her friends, but how could she when she could barely move?
In the end, she was too desperately focused on getting air too worry about her friends for too long.
She leaned heavily against the wall, holding her head in her hand as she started to sag.
Hadn't she had..? Didn't she have..?
Morgan forgot for a second what she'd been thinking about.
Then it occurred to her again.
She had a re-breather in her belt.
With a shaky hand, she reached down and attempted to open one of her pouches, trying desperately to remember which pouch the re-breather was in.
Her knees gave out and she fell uselessly to the floor, banging her head harshly against the steel.
Stars erupted behind her closed eyelids, but Morgan didn't register them anymore.
Her mind was gone as she lost consciousness, clutching the re-breather uselessly in her hand.
May 27th
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT.
"Alright, what happened?" Nightwing's voice was dark as he stepped onto the War World. "What happened to the rest of my team!"
He rarely ever lost his composure, but the situation most certainly called for it.
Everyone but Blue Beetle, gone in an instant.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..
He was freaking out internally, his brain in full-blown panic mode as he scrambled to keep his mind focused. Panicking wasn't going to help anyone.
"It's all my fault." Blue said in a pained voice.
"That assessment is inaccurate." Green Beetle immediately responded.
"Just.. tell him what you told us." Captain Atom told Jaime, trying to sound calm and assuring.
Oh shiiiit, crap, crap, crap.
The shorter boy stepped forward, looking at his team leader with anguish. Nightwing crossed his arms critically in front of his chest.
If this really was Blue Beetle's fault, he'd better have come up with a damn good excuse, or else Nightwing swore he couldn't be held accountable for his actions.
"We.. won." Blue began. "We were all here in this bay, and Wonder Girl had Mongul all tied up. Suddenly, a boom tube showed up right beneath our feet! I flew up and out, i-it was instinct, you know?" He sounded truly regretful as he went on. "But before I could do anything else, the boom tube closed and the others were.. gone."
Not that he didn't believe Blue Beetle, but Nightwing still felt compelled to scan the room for any proof to his story. "Definitely reading signs of boom tube activity." He admitted, frustrated as the holographic computer hovering in front of him analyzed their surroundings.
"We believe Mongul may have opened up the boom tube as a means of escape. Gaining the Team as captives in the bargain." Captain Atom relayed their theory.
It did sound very plausible, Nightwing agreed. But he couldn't help but wonder how Mongul had managed to do that when he no longer had control over the War World. And when Wonder Girl supposedly had him tied up.
"And worse.." The Captain ominously went on. He shot a look at Blue, who went on to explain.
"Impulse had the crystal key." Blue explained, still with that anxious and regretful tone of voice.
"Right now, our priority is to make sure no one uses the key to reactivate the War World." Captain Atom went on.
No, their priority – Nightwing's priority – was to relocate his team members. He wouldn't be able to relax for a second as long as they were still unaccounted for.
"Captain Marvel and Rocket are already guarding the crystal key chamber. And the League will continue to guard it in shifts until the key is found.. and the threat is ended."
Nightwing wished the League could've helped him in relocating the Team, but he realized that, because of this arrangement, they'd be too busy as it were. There still needed to be heroes taking care of things back on Earth.
He hating that they were stretched so unbelievably thin. It was bad enough that half of the League had gone to Rimbor several months ago, he didn't need most of his team to get kidnapped too. They couldn't afford to lose this many of Earth's defenders. Not with an alien invasion going on.
He bowed his head in defeat when he realized that rescuing his team was going to be all up to him.
"It's all my fault." Blue Beetle repeated himself, practically sounding on the verge of tears.
Despite his own anger and confusion and panic, Nightwing sighed, prepared to comfort the boy.
"Stop." He said with authority in his voice. "You didn't do anything wrong." Taking a step forward to place a calming hand on Blue's shoulder, Nightwing went on. "We'll figure this out. For now.."
He turned to Green Beetle who immediately understood.
"I will make sure he gets home safely." The Martian promised, placing a hand on Jaime's shoulder just as Nightwing let go.
"No, I wanna stay!" Blue immediately protested. "I want to help!"
"You will help." Nightwing reassured him. "But for now.. you need rest. Go."
Doctor Fate opened up a portal behind them, the Two Beetles walking towards it as one.
Before they entered the portal, Blue looked at Nightwing over his shoulder. "I'm sorry.." He said one last time.
"No." Nightwing firmly responded. "Whoever did this.. They'll be sorry."
The Beetles disappeared through the portal.
"So what now?" Captain Atom asked him, obviously wanting to know what Dick's next move would be.
Nightwing sighed, suddenly weary to the bone. Was it possible to be really tired but also really panicky and wide awake at the same time? If not, well, then he was doing the impossible. "I'm going to take a look around. See what I can find."
Captain Atom nodded. "I'll leave you to it."
He and Doctor Fate stepped through their own portal, leaving Nightwing all alone in the dark docking bay.
A low groan emitted from her throat, letting Morgan know that, at the very least, she appeared to still be alive.
She groggily blinked her eyes open and stayed where she lay, slowly assessing the damage. Expect for her brilliant headache, no part of her body appeared to be in pain.
Sitting up slowly, pressing a cool hand to her forehead in an attempt to hold off the pounding in her skull, she looked around, trying to remember what was going on.
Why was she sleeping on the floor?
Where was she even?
Her fingers instinctively clenched around something in her hand, and Morgan looked down to spot her re-breather.
Everything came back to her at the sight of it.
She was in the War World.
Somebody had attacked the team. She'd been in another corridor and had no idea what had happened. And somebody had let all the air out of the room.
She suspected the only reason she'd been left where she lay was that she was hidden from view in the shadows of the dark corridor.
She stood up slowly, making as little noise as possible. Her legs felt unsteady and she did everything to stop her hands from shaking with her fear.
Now was really not the time to panic, but she was so very alone and so very confused and in a completely foreign place.
A strange clicking sound as well as the ruffle of clothing reached her ears and around the corner turned three red-clad and very recognizable aliens.
They were from the Reach.
Did this mean the War World had been taken by the alien organization?
She flattened herself against the wall and prayed they wouldn't see her there.
The three guards walked by her, Morgan thankfully remaining undetected.
As soon as they were out of earshot, she darted in the other direction, her boots making as little noise as possible against the steel floor.
She rounded another corner and, to her own horror, ran right into another patrol of Reach soldiers.
Their clicking and humming sounds turned louder and more frantic when they realized who and what she was.
She didn't give them much time to react as she launched herself at the first guard, wrapping her legs around his neck and twisting her whole body around, sending the alien to the floor.
She jumped up and punched the next one immediately in the throat, satisfied when it took a startled step back, allowing her to aim a strong kick to its chest.
The last soldier aimed a long, red staff at her, but she whirled away from the shot and stepped so close that she was out of reach of the staff, swiping his legs out from underneath him.
Perhaps it was purely because of her survival instinct, but somehow, Morgan managed to aim her telekinesis at all three of them at once, sending them crashing into the nearest wall in a heap of red armor.
Not wasting a moment on looking at her handiwork, Morgan took off again, mind working furiously.
The rest of the Team was nowhere to be found. She could only assume that they'd been taken by the Reach.
She fought off tears when the reality of her situation hit her with the force of a wrecking ball.
Morgan was all alone.
In enemy territory.
Whoops, poor OC.
I figured it'd be boring to jsut let her get captured and stay unconscious for four days, ya know? This way, we get to see Morgan really take care of herself. (And it'll make her and Nightwing's reunion much more powerful)
Some people commented on Dick's kinda immature reaction to his crush, calling it out of character and stuff, and I just want to clarify that there's a reason for his reaction. It'll be reaveal in time. Also, some people mention how it was weird that Arsenal would be the one to notice the budding romance, which I want to assure you all there is ALSO a reason for, which is also later be revealed. Don't worry your cute lil' butts.
I got a whole lotta reviews, so I hurried up and posted! Hope you liked the chapter.
Fun fact: I'm so angry Shaun White didn't win the Superpipe final. He deserved a much better score on his second run. He should've at LEAST have gotten third place. The judges are stupid butts.