"Lord Achilles, motion trackers at the south gate report new entry."
Behind his inscribed mask, Achilles' dark eyes narrowed. "I take it you wouldn't tell me this unless it was important."
His lieutenant tipped his head in assent. "There appear to be four of them—American operatives, at least two metas…and him." He handed Achilles a tablet showing the security feed of that entrance.
His gaze darted over the grainy feed, seeing four figures stride through the door a second or two before a gunshot rendered the feed nothing more than static. He rewound the recording to the instant before the shot landed and froze it, the still frame showing the muzzle flash illuminating a familiar Sig .45—and the face of its owner.
"Well I'll be damned," Achilles grated through his mask. "I've finally drawn you out."
"What do we do, sir?"
He blinked, thinking for a moment. "Continue as ordered. Initiate the meltdown as soon as everything is in place and ensure there is no turning back, then report to your exits."
"Yes, sir."
The rest of the mercs—who bore the same circle-within-crescent patch as Bane's men—ran from the room to their apportioned tasks while their captain snapped both arm-blades to full length and absently spun them like rotors. Aside from the dull hum of machinery, whir of his blades, and periodic dripping of blood from the dozen or so corpses scattered about; the only sound in the room was his humming until his mask permitted a few soft, grating words.
"First blood is mine, brothers. May the best freak win."
…
"First point of business once we're inside: control room." Caden grunted softly as Jason dropped him the last ten feet to the ground once they reached the outskirts of the reactor grounds. "If they want to trigger a meltdown, they'll need administrative staff to—"
He stopped short at the cluster of bodies just outside the doors, desert fatigues stained with blood and practically shredded with bullets. Caden gulped and pursed his lips.
"Well, I guess they're here."
Black Bat ran a scan over the bodies, her frown audible behind the mask. "These bodies are old, by well over an hour."
"That's long before the main force was slated to arrive," Rev pointed out.
"Nuclear meltdowns aren't explosive," TK said. "They take time to set off while allowing the cause to reach minimum safe distance." He glanced at Caden while sweeping the mountain with a penetrating sonar scan. "This is starting to look less like a failsafe and more like plan A."
Drake shook his head and picked up one of the guards' fallen rifles, tucking an extra mag into his tactical belt. "Either way, we need to get inside." He conducted a press check to ensure there was a round in the chamber before hefting the rifle and pressing inward.
"I've got the schematics," Luke said, showing a holographic interface on his left arm.
Jason stared at the projection, wondering what other tech was in that nanite suit.
"I can find the control room and clear it out before you even get there."
Caden frowned. "Risky, but if you've been in the game this long, you can handle yourself. Do it."
He nodded and took off in a flash of silver lightning.
Drake glanced at Cass. "Do you trust him?"
"He's given us no reason not to," she answered, "but that's hardly going to change your perspective, is it?"
He didn't reply, just kept pressing forward. Jason's stomach turned with every corpse they passed, seemingly in worse and worse conditions. One hallway was clustered with bodies piled four feet high like a mass grave, and he felt himself wretch until he caught it. Over an hour old, and the ground was coated in a layer of drying blood ten feet wide. A near-imperceptible tightening of Caden's grip around his weapon drew his attention to the fact that his trigger discipline had slipped—his index was teasing over the trigger threateningly, and his features were a stony mask.
Jason had seen death before, witnessed it happen firsthand, but save for investigations, he'd never stuck around for the aftermath—and certainly not to this scale. He could only imagine how much the two standing with him had seen, and wondered briefly how they were still sane. Considering they were two "powerless" humans walking into a war zone with relatively little in the way of backup or protection, a case could be made that they weren't. As his family—extended, adopted, or not—Jason couldn't help wondering what that said about him.
…
Finally.
Rev's mental exclamation followed hours of playing by the rules of his new…friends? Teammates? Allies of convenience? Meh, he'd figure it out later. Right now, he was about to throw down with some terrorists, stop a meltdown, and save a city. Again. Dear sweet Rao, how many times had he done this? The specifics changed; the premise did not. At least this wasn't a backwards world like the one with Uxas Magnus—that had been an awkward conversation. Logging that away with another thousand errant thoughts, Lucas finally let his body move for the first time since that alley in San Fran.
That was always his pet peeve whenever playing with others, having to slow down. Absent that restriction…
The wind whipping against his masked face made him grin despite the increasingly grisly scenes he passed on the way to the control room. Smirking malevolently, he saw a security door in his way and stopped just outside before ramming his shoulder into it just hard enough to make a threatening bang. The telltale clicks of a dozen guns training on the door answered a moment later.
A tense hush fell over the control room as the mercs inside arranged themselves around the door in a fan pattern. None of them saw the silvery-white figure that phased into the room through a wall on the opposite side, a predatory smile on his lips the whole time. That smile turned feral as he showed teeth and vibrated his arm through the rearmost merc's chest, keeping the part of the limb inside him out of phase while his hand and forearm went solid. He coughed and gasped at the strange sensation, dropping his gun into Rev's waiting hand, but would be fine—unless his comrades decided to gun him down.
Rev decided not to wait and see, raising the gun one-handed and opening up on them, two rounds apiece. Center mass, heaviest armor, but he hadn't anticipated that they were using tungsten-tipped rounds—armor-piercing. The bullets tore through them like tissue paper, some no doubt perforating numerous blood vessels and critical organs. Sighing, he pulled his hand from the man's chest and smacked him over the back of the head with his own gun. The other eleven gasped in various states of injury. The nanites in his mask altered the clear lenses over his eyes, showing a scan of their vitals and injuries.
The rounds had gone straight through flesh, bone, and armor; and he quickly triaged the worst injuries. Both hands vibrated until electricity began sparking off them at sporadic intervals. Frowning, he focused a little harder until the energy field around his palms stabilized. It had been a while since he'd done this, and he cursed himself for being so careless. He approached the most critically injured first, the man gasping at him wide-eyed, terrified. Rev sighed and trapped him in place with one hand on either side of the holes in him. His gasps intensified as his body's natural healing process was suddenly accelerated over the local area, until the shredded liver and tissue beneath Rev's hands sealed shut.
He kneed him in the face a second later.
The process was repeated with the remaining critically injured, leaving Luke winded and not a small bit annoyed with his fatigue. He was so out of practice with this aspect of his powers, though perhaps that was for the best since he hadn't had to mend such extensive wounds in a while. When it was finally done and they were unconscious, he tapped his earpiece.
"Control room clear."
"Copy," Caden answered. "We're almost there."
Rev would've tied them down as well, but he didn't carry restraints on him—and apparently neither did they. Whoever these mercs were, they didn't take prisoners. It took the others another thirty seconds to arrive, and when they did, all eyes were immediately drawn to the blood spatters on the walls.
Luke shrugged. "Was like that when I got here," he lied, noting that Black Bat's eyes lingered on him a moment longer than the rest.
Still, she said nothing.
Luke absently noted that with a final glance her way before going to check the other doors for signs of movement. Caden was hovering over an array of controls and dials, scanning them with intense eyes. He flicked several security feeds and pilfered one of the mercs' tablets, using his fingerprint to open it. His wide-eyed gasp a few seconds later was not a good sign.
"What's wrong?" asked Black.
"The meltdown…it's already begun."
All eyes immediately snapped to him as he flicked his finger over the screen.
"These guys, they call themselves the Myrmidons—global-spanning mercenaries with a short but bloody track record. And the kind of technical know-how usually reserved for think-tanks." Caden grimaced. "They started removing safeguards well over an hour ago, sabotaging cooling, removing the fuel rods from shielded sections…"
"The meltdown definitely wasn't plan B," Knight said grimly. "The attack was just a distraction."
Caden nodded. "That's not all. They planted small thermobaric bombs all over the facility to accelerate the process and spread the radiation faster. Basically turned this entire installation into a giant dirty bomb." He checked one of the mercs' watches. "And apparently we have a little over seven minutes before they go off."
"That doesn't make any sense," Rev interrupted. "The Bialyans came here mostly on the ground, and I didn't see any kind of rad-shielding tech on them. If those bombs go off, they'll be caught in the radius too."
"I'm not sure these guys care," Jason said. "Or Queen Bee herself, for that matter. The soldiers are all just cannon fodder, and any equipment or armor they leave behind can be retrieved by a team of specialists later."
"Besides," Black Bat added, "what better way to terrify the populace than by showing you have as little regard for your own troops as you do for your enemy?"
It was a good ten seconds before someone spoke.
"How do we stop it?" TK asked.
Drake frowned at the dials and security monitors showing the various thermobaric bombs. "I don't know. I…" his head shook, "I'm not sure we can."
"There has to be something," Cass insisted.
Caden frowned harder, pulling out his PDA and swiping over the screen, which was littered with schematics—a data upload from Batman. A glance from Rev verified that Batman had managed to get his hands on the technical layout of this place.
Rev's lips pursed. "If we had some xenothium, this wouldn't be an issue."
TK glanced at him inquisitively.
"If I could swap the core of one of those bombs with xenothium, this place would still go up, but the radiation would be neutralized."
Cass's gaze snapped to him. "You know where we can find some?"
He snorted. "Not on this Earth, not in the time we have," his voice lowered to a mutter, "and I'm sure as hell not going back to mine."
Suddenly, something lit up Caden's eyes. "Wait—it can't be—that's it!"
"What?" TK asked, excited. "What'd you find?"
He turned to Jason. "We can't stop the meltdown, but we can redirect it." He tapped something on the PDA, activating some kind of holoprojector built into the base. "The people who built this place put in safety shutters all over the facility in the case of a radiation leak. Obviously, they're not meant to contain something of this magnitude, but if we can close all but one—the one that vents heat upward through the mountain—we can direct the radiation outflux upward instead of outward."
"Okay, so?" Rev asked. "Even if the blast wave sends the radiation skyward, far from Karbala, it still gets vented into the atmosphere."
Caden grinned, all teeth. "Unless we give it a direct pathway to go even further."
Knight's eyes widened. "The Lanterns."
His fingers snapped. "Exactly." He tapped his earpiece. "Batman, this is Ghost."
"Go ahead."
"Any chance you can spare one of the Lanterns? The meltdown's already in effect, but if we can form a tunnel around the main cooling vent, we can direct the radiation into space."
"Wait-wait-wait—you want one of us to make a tunnel all the way to space?" Alex asked incredulously. "I know I've got some juice, but even I can't—"
"You can," Hal interrupted. "You're capable of so much more than you think, and you won't be alone. Batman, I'm going with him."
"Agreed," Wonder Woman chimed in. "The Quraci military rallied after the initial attack and came to back us up. Supergirl, Batman, and I can hold the tide; but if that bomb goes off…"
"All this will be for nothing," Batman finished.
"Got it," Alex said uneasily. "We're on our way."
Caden tapped his earpiece to cut the connection.
"So what do we need to activate the shutters?" Rev asked. "Can't be as simple as flicking one of these switches," he added with a wave at the panels.
Drake frowned. "Unfortunately, no." He pulled up the projector again. This time, red dots highlighted six points around the facility. "There are six terminals across the installation. All six need to be activated for me to engage the emergency shutters from here. Once that happens, we'll have maybe sixty seconds to book it outside before the shutters seal us in."
Rev nodded. "I'll take the four furthest ones," he waved to Cass and Jason, "you two take the rest."
They nodded and immediately split off as Rev booked it to the far ends of the facility.
Caden's voice came over their commlink a moment later. "Remember, you'll have sixty seconds to get out once I engage the shutters, so as soon as you hit your switches, run like hell for the nearest exit. They'll be close to the controls."
They each replied in a curt affirmative.
"Move fast, people. We don't have a single moment to spare."
A loud beep sounded over the line, and a glance down at Rev's gauntlet showed a timer mirroring the one on the bombs. Gritting his teeth, he put extra urgency into his steps and plowed through the first dozen hired guns in his way before they could even blink.
…
The "close" switch would've been much easier to reach if there hadn't been a small army of mercs between the control room and the failsafe. They'd apparently had a similar idea about the failsafe Caden had proposed, because the corridors leading to the shutter controls were divided into makeshift checkpoints. The checkpoints themselves didn't slow Black Bat down; finding a way around them was the tricky bit. Because of the sheer volume of the base and the risk of rock erosion clogging the air flow, the vents were more than large enough to permit her passage all the way to the shutter room, at which point the real work began.
The Myrmidons were smart enough not to rely solely on the checkpoints to secure their objective (though why any of them were even still in the building given the imminent detonation was beyond her comprehension), but also put a squad of five in the room itself. She counted at least one semi-auto shotgun and mostly automatics for the rest, including a light machine gun that would do nasty things—and already had, based on the bloodstains scattered across the room. The mercs at the church and warehouse had been using armor-piercing rounds, so she couldn't even trust her suit to hold up to more than a few shots. Not that it mattered; her gear had never been of much importance to begin with.
It was just a matter of gauging their abilities and likely responses, then planning accordingly.
And on the matter of bloodstains, there was something off about the control room. Everything about Rev's body language screamed tension and unease, and the blood spatters were consistent with where the mercs were lying, not any bodies that may have occupied it before. Based on the look of the shutter room, it looked like the Myrmidons had already cleaned out the old bodies or at least stacked them somewhere else, so it was possible those stains had been there all along. Her instincts said Rev was lying, and they weren't usually wrong. It wasn't as if she'd never worked with people willing and able to use lethal force. Hell, she was working with Alex and Caden…not to mention Jason, whose first act in this time was trying to assassinate someone.
But despite none of the mercs actually being dead, Luke had lied about it. The tension, the unease, the hesitation of his usually fluid movements…they all spoke of a deep-seated shame. It was something she was more than familiar with. After all, Cass had seen the exact same thing in the mirror for years.
With that cheery thought, Black Bat leapt down through the grate, having planned her means of attack already, and landed feet-first on the shoulders of the central gunman. Her legs wrapped around his head, body flipping forward to hurl him into two others. The remaining startled pair whirled around, one toting a Benelli M4. She rolled sideways and redirected the other's weapon as it went off, scattering automatic rounds across the ceiling and sending concrete dust filling the air. The shotgunner kept his cool and kept trying to align a decent sight picture. He must've been using slugs instead of buckshot, if he wasn't moving in to get hands-on.
Or maybe waiting for his clearly outmatched comrade to fall, since Black was rapidly deconstructing him via pressure points on his armed wrist and left knee. Using his new kneeling position, Black leapt into the air toward the tangled trio, using his head as a springboard. Her legs and arms tangled around one head each, flipping them as her body kept twisting, planting both on the ground face and chest-first. Black saw the slight twitch of the shotgunner's trigger finger and jerked to the right, his slug tearing a massive hole in the ground as she closed the distance, throwing her arms up in front of her.
With a semi-auto shotgun, the Myrmidon could just aim and pull the trigger, unleashing a hailstorm of high-powered rounds. But with slugs, he needed a solid sight picture and safe backstop, or he'd risk shooting one of his own. Keeping that in mind, she kept zigzagging on her way across the room, maintaining the rest of the Myrmidons as her backstop. When she closed to about six feet, she saw his finger tighten again and threw her arms up, using his stance and approximate sight alignment to predict where his shot was going and move her gauntlets accordingly.
Something like this would never work with an automatic weapon, or probably even a handgun, but the recoil from something like an M4 would throw him off just enough to let her close the distance. The shock of the slug being crushed against her gauntlet slowed her down a half-step. It wasn't enough.
She grabbed the muzzle of his shotgun, shifting it away from her body as he let off another round into the ceiling and she brandished a batarang. It slashed through the barrel a moment before she turned it back and stabbed him in the upper thigh, keeping him from immediately mounting a counter. Black threw two more batarangs behind her, then turned away to shield herself from the blinding flash that ensued. A knee to the face laid her current problem out, prompting her to storm back toward the rest. A split-kick took down two who unholstered their sidearms and waved them blindly in her direction.
Their trigger discipline kept the weapons from going off when they twitched on the way down, and a backfist to the face of a third sent bloody spittle flying. She finished him with a hook-kick to the head that made his legs just give out. The last one standing hefted his LMG to hip level and let it rip, despite still not being able to see. Black managed to use his blindness to approach from flat on the ground, since he was confining his pattern of fire—very steadily in fact—to about chest height, figuring she'd be the only one still standing. It was smart. She was smarter.
An agonized howl from him was cut off by a sudden lack of air from a rising punch to the groin, his gun nearly falling from limp fingers as one hand drifted to shield his sensitive bits. A punch to the throat and shoulder throw laid him out at last, leaving the room clear, for the moment. Black frowned and checked her gauntlet for the bomb timer as a thought occurred to her.
"Drake, how are we going to get the Myrmidons out of here?" she asked as she began looking for the shutter controls.
"Who says we were ever going to?"
She froze mid-movement. "So our plan is to leave them to die?"
"Live by the sword, die by it."
Cass's teeth gritted, but someone else spoke up before she could say anything more.
"Black," Luke said evenly, "as much as I find it distasteful, our priority is Karbala, not these lowlife scum. If I have time once I hit all the switches, I'll run them out myself, but we're not risking anyone's lives to save them from their own devices. Not even ours."
Frowning, Cass gave the unconscious mercs one last glance before returning to her objective.
…
Rev huffed and puffed with exertion as he hit the third of his four switches.
"That's four," Caden said. "Come on, we need the last two."
"Rev, I finished with mine and I'm close to your fourth." Jason sounded a little uneasy. "I'll get it. You extract the mercs."
Luke blinked, checking his HUD and the shutters that still needed activation. Black Bat's was one; his fourth was the other. Frowning, he considered going after it anyway before smiling and activating his earpiece.
"Roger that. Scoot-noot the instant you're done."
"…scoot what?"
"Ah…Earth-23 idiom."
"…'kay."
Shaking his head, Rev glanced at the Myrmidons around the shutter room, grabbed two, and sped off toward the nearest exit. Jason's devotion to his sister's ideology was sweet. He just hoped it wouldn't get him killed. Despite their rocky start, there was something…endearing about the kid.
And maybe a pinch too familiar.
…
It was a good minute before Cass finally found the failsafe switch, a sharp Malaysian curse leaving her throat at the bare three minutes left. The split-second before her fingers touched the switch, she heard the faintest of whistles behind her and whirled around in a crouch as two metal shards imbedded themselves in the control console. Her eyes widened for several reasons. First, none of the Myrmidons she'd knocked out were still there; and second, the figure who had sent those shards at her was standing by the door in tactical gear with extensive plated armor and a mask that completely concealed his features. The helmet was faceless, not unlike her own, but ornate with gold Greek lettering around the fringes and view-slits that made his eyes look like faintly glinting black pools.
The air-slits at the bottom of the mask emitted faint puffs of visible vapor with every slow breath, and when he spoke, it was with a voice like gravel dragged through broken glass, no doubt electronically altered. That didn't make it any less unsettling.
"I had hoped he would show up himself," he grated, casually strolling toward her, "but I'll settle for you, daughter of Cain."
Black's jaw tightened as she glanced at the timer. Barely two and a half minutes before detonation.
"Black, what's going on?" Caden asked.
The momentary distraction threw off her focus just enough for her not to completely avoid the sudden tungsten flechette that flew her way from the intruder's gauntlet. It nailed her in the side of the head, shattering her earpiece and cutting off communication with the rest of the team.
"None of that, darling," the man teased grimly.
Without another word, he rushed forward, Cass hurling a trio of batarangs at various points on his body. His right gauntlet flashed with a silvery glint, and all three weapons fell to the ground in two a moment later, his spring never stuttering. Black Bat dashed to meet him, falling into a slide under his first swipe, that being the first she actually saw of the arm-blade he'd snapped from his gauntlet. A faint click sounded as he retracted it and whirled around, charging at her with a rapid flurry of jabs.
She slapped more than a few aside with difficulty, even his light strikes feeling like they had his entire weight behind them. In the mix, he threw a shin-kick that she met with one of her own, alternating sides with each matching the other blow-for-blow. He sent a one-two at her face, her head bobbing around his blurred fists. Immediately after dodging a right cross, she curled one arm around his outstretched right and kneed him in the chest, following with a headbutt to the seam between his mask and the rest of his helmet. Aside from a faint grunt, he gave no indication that it affected him whatsoever, hooking her in the ribs with his left.
Black staggered back from the sheer force of the punch, leaping backward and drop-kicking him in the chest when he tried to press the attack. His boots skidded across the tiled floor, but he held his ground. Black nipped-up to her feet, eyes flickering to the control console, then back to her opponent. He chuckled and angled his body specifically to block her path.
"You're a fool," she said, pacing sideways. "Your bombs explode soon; we'll both die if we're still here."
She got the distinct impression he was grinning behind that mask when he replied. "This Achilles has no heel to exploit."
Black dashed toward him, juking to the side at the last second and firing her grapnel at the shutter switch right as his arm hooked around her midsection. Despite his interference, the hook managed to snag the switch and his attempt to hurl her away only ended up pulling it. Smirking, Cass cut the line and pistol-whipped him in the head with her grapnel. Snarling, he smacked the gun away and flicked his arm-blade out again, meeting her own as she brought her left arm up to protect her face. Rapid-fire swipes sent sparks flying from her gauntlets as she kept up her defenses.
Achilles lunged at her neck with the blade, pulled back at the last second, then spun clockwise and slashed at her midsection, the edge barely missing when she snapped her hips away. Black Bat reversed directions as soon as the blade passed, lunging at him knee-first and meeting his left palm. He pushed her back and swiped at her face, twitching his wrist and clicking something in his gauntlet. Eyes widening, Cass ducked as another metal shard speared past her face, pushing off her back leg and charging shoulder-first into his midsection. She grunted when he kneed her in the chest, arms around her midsection from above.
Achilles hurled her ribs-first into a nearby console, her pained form rolling over the other side. Hissing through her teeth, she spied her grapnel and the timer on the bombs.
Dammit…I'm running out of time.
The gun entered her hand, and she shot a line toward the doorway nearest the exit, the reel lending extra speed to her steps until she leapt for it. Achilles caught up to her faster than any human should be able to move in all that gear, grabbing her by the head and flipping her over his shoulder. She rose to a crouch just in time to receive a hard roundhouse to the head that shattered the undamaged side of her mask, leaving the left side of her face completely exposed. Cass leapt into a backward dive-roll, her cowl-frizzed hair falling over her eye and blurring her vision. Gritting her teeth, she fixed her gaze on Achilles, who stalked toward her with menacing steps as he snapped both arms out to his sides. Both his gauntlets suddenly sprouted foot-long blades.
Her eyes widened when they began spinning like propellers and he charged right at her.
…
"That does it!" Caden shouted exultantly. "Shutters engaging! Everyone get the hell out!"
Jason ran like hell, collecting the bodies of the Myrmidons at the final switch on his way out with little care for what else was happening. He had to trust that everyone else would do their job. By the time he reached the outside, there was a mere thirty seconds left on the clock, and Blue and Green Lantern were already in position at the top of the mountain.
"Everyone accounted for?" Caden asked.
TK glanced around the crowd of unconscious or groaning mercs.
Drake, Rev…wait…
"Cass," he whispered, summoning a holoprojection of the facility and everyone's locations. "Cass is still in there!"
Jason lunged toward the rapidly closing shutter only to feel a firm push on his chest an instant later as he stared into a pair of intense gray eyes.
"Not for long," said the Revenant.
Then there was a flash of silver lightning, and he was gone.
…
Black Bat had rarely known panic. The last time had been in this part of the world, as Janus steadily crushed her chest cavity while Jason helplessly looked on. Despite fighting with every scrap of strength and skill, she couldn't make a break for it, and the shutters' sixty-second mark had no doubt passed already. She had no way to alert the others to her predicament, and opening the shutters again this late was not an option. Her only consolation, however petty, was that this "Achilles" would be going up in flames with her.
After the first time, she never wanted to kill again, but being blown up by one's own bombs didn't count.
His propeller blades sparked and skidded against her gauntlets as he struck at her almost blindly. Despite his near-frantic movements, she could tell he'd placed every strike precisely, a tactic she found just a little too familiar. And then there was his knowledge of her history…
Everything about Achilles implied things that, frankly, terrified her in ways she couldn't explain. That, more than anything, was why she could take small comfort that this threat would be null and void after today. Brandishing a batarang in each hand, Black Bat lunged at an incoming strike, finding her blade sheared in half by his, but the impact alone slowed the propeller down just enough to trap it in her arm-blades. A roar came from her throat as she elbowed the base of the blade, breaking it from its mount. Achilles snarled at her as he brought the other blade to bear.
This one she just swung at with both arms, some stroke of luck catching his blade between those of her left. She quickly locked it in place with her right, each set of blades hooked around it from opposite sides as she snapped her arms apart. The blade sheared apart with an ear-splitting screech, and she nailed him in the gut with a snap-kick that sent him reeling before he could respond. Sinking to his knees with a groan, Achilles glared at her from behind his helmet, making to lunge at her again when suddenly, the space behind him erupted in a maelstrom of blood and fire. A single armored hand reached out through the maelstrom, landing on Achilles' shoulder.
His body language screamed of frustration and disappointment, but he quickly acquiesced to the hand's urging and stepped back through the portal.
Cass gaped at his exit, suddenly realizing why none of the other Myrmidons had been there when he arrived and feeling a chill pass through her at the implications…
Then she heard an ear-piercing beep from her gauntlet and saw a flashing red zero.
Her eyes widened as the entire mountain shook, and she turned around, adrenaline flooding her system and slowing the world to a crawl as the thermobaric flames surged through the halls toward her. Then her feet left the ground, and the breath left her lungs as her insides tilted sideways very suddenly. Beneath the acrid scent permeating the air, she detected hints of aftershave and snapped her eyes upward to see gray eyes engulfed in silver electricity.
"Hang on! I got you!"
…
This was not the first explosion the White Revenant had outrun, and Rao help him, it would not be the last. Rev pushed his body to the absolute limit as the entire facility was engulfed in fire and deadly radiation. He could feel the heat on his back as he sprinted, his legs numb with exertion. His jaw clenched as his mind ran even faster, recalling the schematics. He beelined for the main coolant tower, essentially what would be the vent if the mountain was a volcano. With the rest of the power plant flooded with death, it was their only shot—and also certain death if he didn't put the pedal to the metal.
So as soon as he phased them into the coolant tower, he landed feet-first in a crouch on the far wall, Cass cradled in his arms. His feet vibrated intensely against the tower wall, lightning sparking up the limbs as he drew power from Earth's rotation, supercharging his speed. He took off an instant before the flames erupted over that spot, rapidly draining his reserves as he streaked toward the aperture at the peak, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Then he took his last step and leapt from the tower in a silvery blur.
His eyes snapped beneath them as his perception accelerated massively. Despite his best efforts, Rev had still put them in the path of the eruption, which would no doubt consume them even if it weren't directed upward per Caden's plan.
Then he felt himself yanked sideways and glanced toward the source to see a flare of blue energy dissipating at the same time a cylinder of pure green exploded into existence over the aperture. A wall of blue reinforced it a moment later, and mid-fall, Luke's eyes widened as the flames spewed up the turquoise tunnel like a dam breaking. Before he even had time to consider how they were going to survive the fall, their motion was arrested by a pair of arms that grabbed him by the shoulders. His grip on Cass failed, and he had a brief moment of panic before he saw the S of her rescuer.
When his feet finally touched the ground again, Rev took his first full breath since the jump, leaning heavily on his knees. It took a few seconds (in speedster time, at least) before he realized someone was talking to him.
"Hey, you okay?"
Luke hit the collar of his suit, retracting his cowl and allowing him to feel the desert wind on his face. "Y-Yeah. That was close." He straightened up and playfully jabbed his rescuer in the arm. "Thanks, Jason."
The Knight stared at him with pursed lips, looking almost constipated under that helmet. His eyes flickered to where Black Bat was being looked over by Supergirl, swiftly returning to Luke. "Thank you."
Luke nodded with a tiny smile, turning back to the energy tunnel still filled with fire.
"…I'm sorry I punched you into a dumpster."
Lucas arched an eyebrow and turned back to a shamefaced Jason, who had tucked his helmet under one arm. He paused for a second, seemingly thinking it over, then shrugged. "Believe it or not, that's not the worst first impression I've gotten."
Jason huffed and chuckled, shaking his head. "I believe it." He stretched out his empty hand. "Friends?"
Luke glanced at his hand, blinking twice with a frown tugging at his lips. He pushed it back and smiled wider, taking his hand. "Friends."
…
It took a good hour or so to ensure the facility was completely cleansed of radiation and any further hazards, one of the Lanterns effectively engaging a vent system while the other maintained the tunnel to space. Once the Justice League verified the region was radiation and invader-free, they took their leave, assured that Bialya would be unlikely to try something like this again anytime soon. Everyone was then teleported to the Watchtower for… "debriefing."
Everyone.
Which was why Cass was brooding, Lucas was downing coffee by the carafe, Alex was acting totally star-struck, Jason was trying very hard not to squirm in his seat, and Caden was just smirking while polishing his guns. On the other side of the table, Bruce and Diana were alternating their disapproving glares between their children and Caden, and Kara was looking torn about who to support.
Looking very much out of his element, Hal cleared his throat and intervened before mud began slinging. "Um…I think we should get the uh…official stuff out of the way first."
"Agreed," Batman agreed with a faint growl to his voice. "How did you five even get involved with Karbala to begin with?"
Apparently sensing the group's tension, Alex stepped in. "Ahem, Jason and Caden came to see me in Atlanta, asking for help in tracking down a…Janus?"
Everyone on the JL's end of the table, minus Hal, immediately fixed Jason with a harsh look.
"…guessing he wasn't supposed to do that?"
Kara, surprisingly, was the first to speak up. "Why didn't you tell us? Tell me? I would've signed up with you in a heartbeat."
"And then immediately told my parents," Jason countered. He waved at them. "You can now see the result of that."
"Of course I would've told them! They have a right to know!"
"And we're looking at you like this because you went off without saying anything," Diana added sharply. She glanced at Cass. "And you, young lady, you especially should know better."
Cass visibly flinched and crossed her arms.
"That said," Batman said, "your presence is probably the reason the casualty count isn't in the hundreds, if not thousands. Our intelligence was faulty, hence why we arrived late." He nodded to Alex. "Blue Lantern, your intervention was critical, and you have our thanks."
Alex was visibly restraining a massive grin, nodding firmly. "We had no idea there was even an incoming invasion. I just scanned the globe for any trans-dimensional energy, and it led us to that town."
Bruce frowned and leaned his hands on the table. "So Janus orchestrated the attack. That would make sense, given where he teleported you two." He motioned to Cass and Jason.
Her head shook. "It wasn't him."
All eyes snapped to her.
"Come again?" Jason asked. "The signature was identical; how can you say it wasn't—"
Cass's head shook again. "Back in the plant, the whole reason I was still inside when time ran out, I confronted an operative—their leader, I'd guess. Right before the timer hit zero, a portal opened behind him and someone pulled him in."
"Okay, so?"
She looked at her brother. "So I recognized the magic, and it wasn't Janus'. The energy was completely different, and the way the figure's eyes glowed…" her jaw clenched, "I'd know that bastard anywhere." Her brown eyes met Diana's gaze. "Blood and fire, Diana."
The color drained from Wonder Woman's face as her jaw fell slack. "No…that's impossible, I—"
"I know," Cass interrupted with a nod, "but I saw what I saw, and I could never forget the destruction left in his wake that day."
Diana slumped over in her seat as Bruce put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Um," Luke chimed in between cups, "someone want to clue me in?"
Bruce directed a faint glare at him. "And you are?"
"Luke Carlisle, speedster from Earth-Theta."
The stare continued. "You saved Cass."
He nodded.
Bruce sighed and drew himself up in his chair. "Almost two years ago, the Olympian Pantheon stripped Diana of her powers and invaded Earth, laying waste to everything they came across. On the tail end of that conflict, right before she got them back, Ares landed in Gotham City in a frenzy and took that destruction to a new level of desolation." He snorted. "Even Olympus disapproved of how far he'd gone."
"And as soon as my powers were returned," Diana said through gritted teeth, "I ended him as my first act. Destroyed him with his own power."
"Olympians are notoriously hard to kill," Lucas said. "And you were just getting used to your powers again; I've been there."
Her head shook. "I made sure there was nothing left to regenerate. He can't still be alive."
Caden frowned. "Unless…"
Diana turned to him. "Unless?"
Drake hummed softly, slowly turning his gaze to Jason.
Jason's eyes widened. "Janus."
Caden nodded.
"Janus pulled him to this time."
"If that were true, wouldn't we remember things differently?" Hal asked.
Jason's gaze darted around as he shook his head. "He could look into the past, find the exact moment that Ares was supposedly 'destroyed,' then cause just enough of a distraction for no one to notice that he was gone and assume he was dead."
"Jason," Diana interrupted, "I incinerated Ares. Destroyed him on the molecular level."
"Did you actually see it happen, or was there too much light to tell for sure?"
She stared at him, face paling once more as her lips pressed into a thin line.
"Then we have to assume that our Ares is still kicking around thanks to him."
Caden scowled. "And here I thought we were done with that shit."
"I guess rogue Olympians are gonna be a problem for a while longer," Kara sighed.
"And then there was that operative," Cass said. "The head Myrmidon. He called himself…Achilles?"
Lucas stared at her. "Achilles. Like, you think, the actual Achilles?"
"No, of course not," Diana said. "He's long dead." At everyone's persistent stare, she crossed her arms. "At least he should be. And thirst for battle aside, I doubt he would've agreed to such an underhanded means of victory."
Caden was even more notably silent, and Alex noticed.
"What's up, Cade? That name mean something to you?"
He didn't answer, but slowly turned his gaze to Cass. "Did you sense anything…odd about him? The way he moved, I mean."
She frowned. "I'm not sure. There was something, but I couldn't put my finger on it at the time."
"What are you thinking, and what's the deal with 'Achilles'?" Jason asked.
Bruce answered for him. "Achilles is the name of the gene therapy that created Caden."
Jason's eyes widened as he snapped back to Drake. "So…what, you think someone restarted the project?"
His dark eyes flashed with rage for a brief moment. "Absolutely not," he spat. "I spent the better part of half a decade making sure no one ever could. And try as you might, you can't reverse-engineer it from my DNA either."
Cass sat up. "And yet, there was something familiar about him. The way he fought, it was…feral, but directed, every move carefully calculated." She met Caden's eyes. "Now that you mention it, it felt as if I was fighting a dark mirror of you."
Now it was Caden's turn to go white as a sheet, head ducking as he brooded in his seat.
"So…what?" Alex asked in confusion. "We're dealing with, like, a clone or something?"
The number of stares he got made him chuckle nervously.
Kara shuddered. "Rao, I hope not."
"Guys, I was kidding."
"And yet," Caden admitted, "you just might've hit it right on the head."
"…seriously?"
"Blue," Hal said, "you're sitting in a space station with two demigods, an alien, a guy who can warp space-time by running, and a woman whose first language is body language. Evil clones are just another Tuesday."
Alex gulped and leaned back in his seat. "Jeez."
"Whatever the case," Batman said, "despite the fact that you were never supposed to be there in the first place—"
"Dad," Jason protested.
"—you all did an exemplary job." He cracked the tiniest of smiles. "Now, go home and get some rest. All of you."
Jason sighed and nodded, helping Cass to her feet when she seemed reluctant to stand. Given how beat-up her armor was, he could only imagine the aches and pains she'd be feeling in the morning. As they made their way to the teleporters, he heard fast, light steps approaching from the side and turned just in time for Kara to glomp him from the side. He chuckled and hugged her back as best he could, keeping one arm around her shoulders when they separated.
"I'm going home and sleeping immediately," he said. "The lectures can wait 'til morning."
Kara giggled. "I hear that. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of just one of those two." She nodded at Diana and Bruce, who had stayed behind in the conference room. "But both at once?" Her head shook. "I do not envy you, Jace."
He chuckled and tugged her into his side a little more firmly. She looked up at him quizzically, that eye contact tugging at something inside him. "Hmm…you know…we did make plans for when we were done…"
Kara blinked up at him blankly for just an instant before her lips curled in a grin that was pure mischief. "Follow me, Mr. Wayne…"
Jason considered it just about pure luck that no one else currently on the station had super hearing…or X-ray vision, because getting caught making out on the roof of the Daily Planet was one thing. Getting caught making out in Hawkgirl's room because it was the first unoccupied space within reach would be something else entirely. Though if they were being honest, Shayera would probably give them the space, since she was one of Kara's most vocal supporters after the breakup. Still, they knew they didn't have long before they'd be missed, so after a few minutes of cuddling and gratuitous hickeys, they stepped out of the room with only slightly disheveled hair. Which they very much hoped could be blamed on the battle.
Hal's knowing smirk as he passed them in the halls said otherwise.
…
"Talk about a crash course in Earth-1!"
Cass turned to the speaker, the rescuer she had yet to thank. "Stopping a nuclear fallout on your first day is a little extreme."
"Hm?" Luke looked at her with a blank stare. "No, not that." He waved dismissively. "Like Hal said, it's just another Tuesday for me."
She arched an eyebrow.
"I mean the whole history lesson, about Caden and the Olympus War. And this Janus guy. Sounds like a real piece of work."
Cass flinched and absently touched a hand to her chest. "He is."
Lucas silently observed her motion, clearing his throat. "Anyway, I'd best find someplace to hang my head for the night. Based on what was said in there, I doubt Janus is going away anytime soon, so…should probably plan for an extended stay."
"That check of yours should give you the resources you need to put down roots anywhere."
"Oh, I know, I'm just…conflicted about just where that should be."
Cass shrugged. "Where do you usually go?"
"When I visit somewhere new?" He shrugged. "Wherever's closest to the action, I guess. I mean technically I could live anywhere, since, you know, speedster; but…"
"You want to be close to the action."
A nod.
"Then you're probably best off sticking to the East Coast." Cass frowned. "For some reason, Janus is fixated on Jason, and I wouldn't put it past him to attack Jason directly."
"Huh."
When they reached the teleporter room, they saw Alex and Caden there already, the former rather animated and the latter…getting there.
"Wait, so…I never knew this about you." Alex's eyes narrowed at the other man. "You've never gotten laid?"
"Nope," Caden replied with just a touch of smugness on his lips. "Not once."
Alex glanced away and stage-muttered, "Suddenly, everything about you makes so much more sense."
Drake deadpanned and smacked the side of his head.
Alex grinned and chuckled, rubbing his head.
Another door opened, permitting Jason and Kara to join the others. Cass took note of the extra red in their faces and the slight tension in their stance, eyebrows steadily climbing upward until Jason caught her look and glared mildly. She smirked and shook her head.
"So that was a…well, mostly bust," Caden said once Jason was in earshot.
"In hunting for Janus, yes," Jason admitted. "But now we know more about the resources at his command."
Alex nodded. "The Myrmidons and Achilles, Bane and his crew, the Bialyan government, and now the god of war, apparently."
"Yeah," Kara said, frowning.
Jason squeezed her shoulder, falling silent for a good while. "Athena was right. I can't do this alone." His lips pursed as his gaze flickered over the rest of the group. "You guys…really don't owe me anything. I roped you into this and you all almost got blown up. Twice. Well, 'cept you, Kara. But…if you want to go your separate ways, I understand completely." His lips pursed. "I wouldn't want to piss off a time god either."
"Kid," Caden sighed, "you can stop with the woe is me act. I don't think anyone in this room was scared off by the events of today, and even if we were, Janus has proven he's not the kind of Olympian we can trust."
"Especially if he decided that enlisting Ares was a good idea," Cass added.
"That too," Drake agreed.
"So no," Alex added, "we're not going anywhere. Well, I mean, we are. We all still have our lives to live, but—"
"He knows what you mean."
The room was silent for a bit.
"So…" Kara shifted in place, "how do we do this? Create a Facebook group?"
"I'm sure I could put some appropriate WayneTech together," Jason said. "Keep us all in touch."
"What, group text isn't good enough?" Lucas asked, tongue-in-cheek.
Jason snorted a laugh. "I meant for more than communication. The Justice League has its own problems, and I know they'll help where they can, my parents especially."
"But there are smaller-scale problems that are handled better by people with lower profiles," Cass said.
"Which is where we come in," Luke said with no small amount of excitement. "I like where this is going. So what, we're like the third rendition of the Outsiders or something?"
"Nope," Caden said, "third rendition already exists, and I don't think they have room for six more."
"Aww…"
"But that's kinda the point, isn't it?" Kara asked. "We're all…out of place. We don't fit anywhere." She waved to herself. "I mean, I'm a Leaguer, yeah, but…" she frowned, "I was a late arrival, and I've kinda always felt like I'm in Kal's shadow here."
Jason rubbed her arm reassuringly.
Alex hummed and thought for a bit. "So we're like…vagabonds?"
Kara smiled. "Exactly."
"Vagabonds," Luke said slowly, tasting the word. "It has a ring to it."
The room fell silent as each of them considered the implications of their mission, Cass unintentionally reminding herself of the near-death experiences she'd had in the last few weeks alone. When she glanced around, she could see each of the others having similar moments of their own.
"I'm not buying us our own club house though," Jason said suddenly. "I know myself; I'm competitive, and one-upping a space station will not fit in my trust fund."
The room erupted into laughter a moment later, thoroughly breaking the tension, and even Caden cracked a grin at that.
When they all calmed, it was silently agreed that it was time to teleport back to Earth. One by one, they stepped onto the pads and vanished from existence. Right as Kara laid in her own coordinates, she turned and pulled Jason in for one last kiss that left him thoroughly flustered.
A smile quirked Cass's lips until she remembered the speedster at her side, watching their exchange with unveiled glee.
"Hey Luke?"
He turned to her with a small hum. "What's up?"
Cass observed him silently for a second, mentally replaying their interactions over the past day. Finally, she cracked a shy smile and passed a hand through her hair. "Thanks."
Then she stepped onto the pad as Jason laid in the coordinates for the Batcave and turned to see Lucas staring at her appraisingly. His head cocked just slightly before a faint smile quirked his lips. Then the Zeta beams engulfed her body, and she left the station just moments before Luke began muttering to himself.
"Maybe I'll try Gotham this time."
…
Diana felt her stomach churning haphazardly even when they got back to the manor and she laid back in bed. Bruce joined her a few minutes later, frowning at her deteriorated mood.
"Love, usually I'm the one brooding."
Her forlorn state didn't so much as shake. "Ares, Bruce. Ares is alive."
He sighed and tucked in next to her. "I know."
"We should've been done with this. I should've been done with this."
"I know."
"And now…" her eyes pricked as she ran a hand across her stomach, "Bruce, our children…"
His arms looped around her neck. "I know. There's nothing we can do but prepare for the worst." He frowned. "Which is why I'm going to ask you to do something, and you're not gonna like it."
Her blue eyes snapped to his, a sharp look sent his way. "You want me out of the field."
His lips pursed tightly.
"Bruce," she said, agitated as she sat up, "this is Ares."
"And you're not alone."
"The League couldn't take him down the last time—"
"The League also had an entire pantheon's worth of trouble to deal with. We were spread thin, Diana." Bruce's head shook. "Now we're not. And I can't stand by and let you put yourself—and our son—in danger like this because you think you're the only one for the job."
"That wouldn't stop you," Diana countered caustically.
To her surprise, Bruce smiled ruefully as he cupped her face. "No. But you did. Remember?"
Diana stopped short, whatever biting comment she had ready dying on her lips. She remembered, all right. The night Bane, Hush, and Hugo Strange laid waste to Gotham. The night she came to help, and he screamed at her to leave. The night she said no until his rejection became repentance. He would have fought them all himself, without her, without Caden, without Robin even. And he would've killed himself, or worse—been reduced to a mere shell of the great man she had always known him to be.
Releasing a breath that was somewhere between a sigh and a sob, she curled into Bruce's arms and laid her cheek on his shoulder.
"Okay," she whispered. "I'll stay out of the field."
"You promise?"
Diana huffed a watery laugh and reached under the nightstand, wrapping the Lasso of Truth around her wrist. "I trust you, I love you…and I will leave this in your hands so I can look after our child."
Bruce smiled and kissed her forehead, then her lips, and gripped the other end of the golden cable. "And I'll keep you up to date on any new developments as soon as they come. Okay?"
She smiled and kissed his lips. "Okay."
He nodded and snatched the Lasso away, tossing it carelessly on the floor. "Now sleep. I'm exhausted."
Diana chuckled and cuddled up to his chest, letting her eyes drift shut with an incomparable warmth permeating every inch of her.
…
An eruption of fire and blood lit up the dimly lit concrete room.
A figure standing over the table in the lit section smirked, never taking his eyes off the items laying on its surface. Stomping steps came from the eruption, the maelstrom roiling with a dull roar until it vanished at last.
"Say it."
A growl was the initial answer.
"Saaaaay it."
The steps ceased with a particularly loud stomp, the newcomer slowly turning toward the source of the voice and replying at the top of his lungs. "You were right!"
Janus' smirk widened, his golden eyes twinkling with smug mischief. "There, was that so hard?" He finally looked up from the table and met Ares' boiling gaze. "Now that you've gotten that out of your system, our partnership will be running much more smoothly I hope?"
It wasn't really a question, and by the clench of his jaw, Ares knew it. "Yes," he growled.
"Excellent," Janus replied with a nod and a clap. "Now, unfortunately, the next stage will be…" he winced, "delicate. I trust you'll have a tight leash on your dog while the fox takes over?"
Ares rolled his shoulders, seeming to calm a bit. "Achilles will do his part, as will Adonis."
Janus tilted his head and shrugged. "Yes, I suppose the former's failure is hardly his fault. Even the best actors' performance falls flat given an…inferior script."
Ares' jaw tightened.
Janus' taunting air vanished in an instant. "Nevertheless, this is a most critical stage and requires more finesse than your usual tactics. Can I rest knowing that Adonis is up to the task?"
"You can, though I'm unsure why Star City is of such vital importance to…" he waved at the table, "whatever it is you have planned."
Janus smiled, snapping his fingers—and a metallic chess bishop into existence. "As a god of war, surely you understand the importance of seeing the bigger picture." A sigh. "Sadly, this is one case when you knowing all the pieces can only backfire—and that is not a slight on your abilities." His lips pursed tightly. "Time is simply…not your purview." His eyes flickered to Ares'. "Can you trust me then, as you did once?"
Ares stared at him, frowning. "A favor for a debt, Janus. As you said, that's all this is." He turned away, walking toward a new portal. "No trust needed for that."
Janus silently watched him go, the faintest trace of pain in his golden eyes as the portal closed behind him. He leaned back over his project on the table, stopping mid-motion when he felt a chill creep up his spine. His gaze scanned over the room, looking for the eyes he felt on him, and for a moment, he stared at one spot to the west.
The feeling passed an instant later, and with a frown, he returned to his work.
…
Jason's lips twisted into a faint grin as he read from his phone.
[Remember, it's next Sunday.]
His fingers rapidly typed out a reply. [I'll be there, Kara. How much do you have to move?]
[Not much. The apartment has a great view, but it's not huge. Just the essentials.]
[Shouldn't be much of a bother to fly it all then.]
[Nope]
[Then dinner after?]
[Absolutely. :)]
[Can't wait. :D]
[Hey, text me if you need me to come kiss your boo-boos better.]
He chuckled. [Kara, you know I heal faster now.]
[I meant from the inevitable lecture. :P]
[DX I dun wanna think about it]
[Good niiiiight]
[Night, Kara]
Jason set his phone down by his bedside, staring at the ceiling for a good while. His eyes gradually drifted shut, his thoughts fluttering over his experiences—past and future—with Kara. Unconsciously, a smile spread over his face as he hovered somewhere between two dreams. Her face smiled back at him behind his eyelids, her hair fluttering in a wind from nowhere. That flutter suddenly halted—no, slowed, like a fly in amber, and her eyes blinked slowly. His entire body thrummed in a surge of something familiar, something that flooded over him like a torrent. Then her eyes opened, and he froze when her face vanished, and the baby blues that had been staring back at him turned to pure metallic gold.
Jason shot up from his bed with a gasp, so utterly preoccupied with his "dream" that he just barely noticed the wind from nowhere in his own room.
Or the fading silvery runes on his body.
AN: Sorry for the wait guys. I thought finishing with school would free up some time, but between a temp job search and moving, I got so caught up and demoralized that it took forever to get my groove back.
This just about wraps up the first story arc of Vagabonds, establishing all our main characters (well, our main protagonists anyway) and setting up more stuff for the future. I haven't fully ironed out what happens next, so it might take a while before you see another update, but this should be a decent let-off point for now.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to more.
Drake out.
Musical Inspirations:
The Dark Knight Rises – The Shadows Betray You: meltdown in progress/figuring the failsafe/Black out/extracting the mercs
John Wick – Assassins: Black Bat vs Achilles
Overwatch – Victory: start-0:30—"That's it!"/"Not for long", 0:30-1:11—Achilles routed/portal/detonation, 1:11-1:37—"I got you!"/mad dash/out the spout, 1:37-end—Blue and Green/apology/friends
Formatting notes:
– Internal Thoughts/Flashback
– "Super-Hearing/Surveillance"
– Telepathy/Divine Speech
– "{Foreign Language}"
– [Text Message]