I don't love the way this chapter came out, but I didn't have time to polish it up, so sorry about that. Hope it's not too bad, it's more of a set up for the next chapter anyway.
The zeta tube let them out on the Bridge, and Sphere compacted while their eyes adjusted from the light. There were a few people standing around, but Plastic Man ushered them down the hall to the meeting room, where the other heroes were gathered. Mallory spotted their friends standing together by the windows, her heart inflating slightly when she saw Roy in the group, suited up and fully stocked with arrows.
"Hey," he greeted when they were close enough.
She nodded, guarding her reaction to seeing them as she wondered how much he'd known about Batman Inc. With Dick, Kaldur, and Ollie all involved, she found it hard to believe he hadn't known anything. Then again, Artemis had been just as surprised when she found out.
"Where's the New Genesis people?" Cassie asked, scanning the room for the new gods.
Kaldur shook his head, though. "They have not come back yet, but Batman thought we should begin preparing."
"Batman? When did he start getting a say again?" Roy asked, and Mallory smiled a little. At least she still had him.
"When did he stop having a say?" Artemis asked, barely keeping the bitterness from her tone.
Raquel rolled her eyes, not liking the direction they were going. "Nate and Dinah agreed with him, and so does everyone else. We have no idea what's coming, and we're sure not going to wait around for the Forever People and the Prince of Tantrums to tell us how to protect our own planet."
"So, does this mean the walkouts are back, or…" Gar asked, looking between Robin, Arrowette, Spoiler, and Orphan.
Tim shrugged, looking at Dick and Megan. "Let's get through this, and then we can talk about where we fall."
Alex came over to the group, giving Brek a quick glance before settling beside Mallory. "I have medbay ready, and I stocked an emergency pack to bring into the field." Mallory was about to tell him that he didn't need to come with them, that he should stay at the Watchtower where it was relatively safe, but Clark stepped up to the head of the table before she got the words out, the movement drawing everyone's attention to him expectantly.
"Thank you all for coming," he started as if this was nothing more serious than a PTA meeting. "I know there are a lot of questions that need answering, and you all know different levels of what has happened, but for now, all you need to focus on is the threat that is on its way. Apokolips is planning an attack on Earth. This is a threat unlike any we have faced in the past, and I won't lie to you, it will not be easy. They have unlimited forces, savage intentions, and are of a single mind. Darkseid's mind. We underestimated them before, and we were captured as a result. That will not happen again."
He stepped to the side, and Captain Atom took his place. "We'll need to come up with the best plan of action for when the attack begins, both defense and offense. The United Nations has been alerted, and they are standing by for updates, but as of right now, we are all there is."
The heroes looked around, taking stock of who was there. Sure, it was crowded by their normal standards, but against an army? Against an entire world? They didn't have long to linger on that question. Dick was the first to pull up a holographic screen, no doubt alerted by Barbara, but soon after, other Leaguers began to pull up their own screens, all showing different feeds of the same horrific series of events. A boom tube stood open just to the side of the Daily Planet, Parademons pouring out of the opening and into the streets, throwing cars into buildings, shooting people, and spreading through the city like a poison. Mallory clenched her fists as she watched the aliens wreak havoc on her city. They were calling them out, and she was glad to answer their call.
"All right, some of us should stay here to monitor the situation, we don't know that this is the only location they're planning on coming in from," Nate pointed out, but the supers were already out the door, running to the Bridge. There wasn't a single thing on Earth that was going to keep them up there while their city was in trouble.
Their arrival in the city was marked by a car landing and exploding right in front of them. Mallory ducked behind Clark to avoid the shrapnel and stretched her arm out, lacing her fingers with the heat and directing it up, dispersing the flames on the wind. They looked at each other and moved, Clark flying up to the boom tube, Conner to the streets to protect the people trying to get away from the invasion, and Mallory took to the air, working on the space between the portal and the ground. She built her fire around herself and flew right into a group, spinning to avoid the shots they were firing at her. When she was close enough to a bunch of them, she forced the fire away from her skin, the sudden heat surge clinging to the alien soldiers. They let out high pitched, demon-like screeches as their armor and skin caught fire, and she cut her fire, letting gravity pull her away from the writhing creatures.
She'd only fallen a few feet when a second heat signature flashed past her, one that carried a familiar feel, and when she looked over her shoulder, catching herself midair, a woman with gray skin and a black leotard leveled off next to her. "You need a hand?" Toni asked, and Mallory actually smiled, never more happy to see her ex's wife. "Well, as long as you're here…" She'd located the other two in the Hsan Natal group, all focusing their attention on the group of Parademons that she had flushed out, so she flew away, scanning the streets as she went.
More heroes had shown up, apparently they'd finished deciding who would fight and who would stay on the Watchtower. The Hawks were coming in with particular force, and the pyrokinetic found herself dodging the falling parademons as they rained down from above. She found another group of aliens shooting into an office building and flew towards them. Before she reached them, though, something struck her back, and in the second of pain that had her frozen, three parademons descended on her, pushing her hard and fast to the ground.
A blast of cold traveled past her and reflexively she raised her temperature to counter it, freeing her channels to build the fire on her skin and regain control of her descent. She stumbled forward when her feet hit the pavement, but she caught herself on the side of a building, spinning around to fight back. Above, Icicle Jr was fighting the parademons, an ice scaffold holding him up on their level. She took a breath and leaned against the bricks, pressing a hand to her diaphragm as she breathed through the pain of whatever she'd been shot with. Cameron froze their wings, and they all fell to the ground. She leaned her head against the wall, shutting her eyes for a moment, and he hopped off his ice, staying with her while she recovered.
"Took you long enough," she joked, swallowing a groan and opening her eyes.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Next time, I'll let the other ice ex step in." He made an exaggerated show of looking around. "Oh, that's right, he's back at the Watchtower." He shook his head, smiling teasingly. "I don't know what you saw in the guy."
She rolled her eyes, forcing her face to relax, hoping the rest of her body would follow. "I never said you were alike," she pointed out.
He gasped in mock offense. "Well, I never knew you were powerist," he accused.
She shook her head, pushing off the wall and testing her ability to walk. "We can discuss my preferences back at the Watchtower. Come on."
They ran out of the alley side by side, ice and fire rising into the air. The movement attracted attention, drawing two aliens away from a group of civilians. Mallory pushed ahead, shifting at the last minute so her legs collided with the first one's face before he could aim his gun at her. It didn't take him out, but it did stun him enough for her to get a hand on the metal rod of its weapon and heat it to a glowing red, melting the tip closed. Cameron's ice went past them, some of it catching the arm of the alien she was fighting on its way to the parademon behind him.
"So, are you still into him?"
"What?" she grunted, spinning to avoid getting grabbed.
"Brek. You still into him?"
"Really? Now?" She blew fire at the creature's wings and it went down, screeching the whole way.
"What? I thought you liked talking while you fight."
"Not anymore," she lied.
He shrugged, not letting up. "It wouldn't bother me, you know, if you were. I've moved on."
She glared at his stupid, grinning face. "Right. I'm so worried about that."
"Why won't you answer the question?"
"Why won't you drop it?"
He sighed, the humor draining from his face. "You know I love you, T, and I want you to be happy. But I also like Alex, and I owe him something. I just hate to think of him getting blindsided."
Her heart pulled in her chest at the sincerity in his tone. She tapped into her strength and punched the last parademon in front of them, looking at her ex instead of watching it fall. "I'm not going to hurt him," she promised, saying it as much to herself as him. He started to slide back down to the street, so she followed him, rubbing her chest as she remembered the dull throbbing on her back. "Loving people sucks," she said quietly, leaning her head back against the wall.
He smiled knowingly. "Yep."
"We should have gone off together when we had the chance." He chuckled, shaking his head, and she looked at him, cocking a smile. "What, you never think about it? We get along great, we would have been fine." She shrugged one shoulder when he didn't respond. "Well, I could have been happy to be nothing with you." She looked up at the boom tube, still spilling parademons into their sky. "Sure would have beaten this."
He was looking at her, she could feel it, and when she met his eyes, there was a laugh waiting to escape. "Liar," he accused.
She laughed, not even caring that it made her back sting. She couldn't deny it. They both knew she wouldn't have been happy to lead a normal life, no matter who she was doing it with. "Fine. But I could have been…content, I guess. You're a good friend, we would have gotten along all right."
He nodded, quiet for a moment as he seemed to consider it. "Yeah," he replied finally, looking past her, "but it wouldn't have been the life we were meant to lead." She followed his gaze, spotting Red Arrow and Tigress guiding a group of civilians to safety, and smiled. "You should tell her." He didn't deny it, just smiled knowingly and shook his head. She shrugged. "Ok, that's fine, I know what to say."
He lunged for her, grabbing her arm, only half joking. "No, thank you, Miss Subtle."
She rolled her eyes. "I am subtle," she argued, but she let the joke go in favor of sincerity. "You really should talk to her, you know," she said again. "I want you to be happy, too. Both of you."
Before he could respond, their attention was drawn to the cacophony of screeching around them, as every parademon simultaneously looked to the sky, and then started to fly back up to the boom tube. They watched as the last of them went through, and the hole between worlds closed as abruptly as it had opened, one loud boom of thunder the only thing marking its exit.
"What was that?" Cameron asked, and Mallory's face hardened beside him. "A warning," she replied grimly. "They'll be back."