Well, I finished finals, and the semester's done, finally. That was a rough one for me, so I'm glad it's over. Anyway, hope you like the chapter, please review! remember the goal, 100 reviews before the end!
"So, he knows, and he doesn't care?" Zatanna asked. It had been a little over a week since everything with Jr and Alex, and Mallory had stayed clear of the Watchtower after Catherine found out about her going out and threatened to lock her up if Inferno went out again. Now, though, she and Zatanna had gone to the headquarters to spar while they caught up. They had made it back out to the Bridge, pausing to finish their talk.
"He was…surprisingly calm about it," Mallory replied, thinking back to her talk with him.
"Huh," Zatanna said, smiling suggestively.
The redhead rolled her eyes. "No, not 'huh'."
"You should go see him again," the magician suggested, ignoring her. Mallory gave her friend a look, but Zatanna raised her hands up in defense. "I'm not kidding," she said. "He's a good guy, you've always liked him, you wouldn't have gone out with him if you didn't, he knows about your double life and he's fine with it, and it's simple. He's not on the team, he's not part of the League or the Light–"
"Cameron wasn't part of the Light," the pyrokinetic interrupted.
Zatanna rolled her eyes. "Right, that makes it completely fine."
Mallory shook her head with playful annoyance, sobering as she thought about what her friend was saying. She shook her head again, firmer this time. "I don't want to involve him," she said.
"Well, he's already involved," the magician pointed out. "You've been single for two years, Mal. Before last week, when was the last time you even went out on a date?" The redhead looked away guiltily and Zatanna nodded, considering the argument won. "Besides," she added, cracking a smile, "we could use a doctor in the family."
They laughed, continuing on to the zeta tubes. The computer announced the arrival of Kaldur and Megan just as they were climbing the steps, and they paused and waited for their friends to materialize. When they did, Megan looked at Mallory, wincing. "Oh, Mal, I didn't know you were going to be here," she said, and the girls knew immediately that something was up.
"What?" Mallory asked.
The Martian and Atlantean exchanged a glance. "We just sent the team on a mission," Megan explained.
"Ok?" Mallory said, waiting for the bad news.
"We picked up on a supernatural signal in a hostage situation in Brazil, several children were kidnapped and brought to a warehouse. Military is on their way, but they will not be equipped to handle the threat at hand," Kaldur told them.
Zatanna just stared at them. "No," she said, "you did not just send the team in to face Klarion alone. What were you thinking?"
"They can't handle this," Mallory said, raking a hand through her hair nervously.
"Mallory, the team is well trained, and the boys will be fine, they can take care of themselves."
"I'm not worried about the boys." Megan and Kaldur gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine, of course I'm worried about them! This is Klarion we're talking about, they're way out of their league here!"
"Where's Fate?" Zatanna asked.
Their friends exchanged a glance. "We…do not know," Kaldur admitted. "We could not locate him."
The magician shook her head. "Great," she muttered, turning to the zeta tube.
"Zatanna, the League is barred from Brazil, you cannot go," Kaldur reminded her.
She narrowed her eyes, a determined look coming to her face. "If you can't find Fate, I have to go," she said, already punching in her coordinates. "Don't worry, I'll go under a cloaking spell, no one will see me."
"Oh, can you cloak me, too?" Mallory asked. Megan gave her a stern look and she shook her head. "This isn't just about getting out," she promised. "They're going to need all the backup they can get. Besides, if he's holding kids, chances are he's looking for more metas for the Light. We can't let that happen."
The girls didn't wait for their friends to give them permission, they set the coordinates and let the tube bring them back down to Earth.
Two hours later, the team spilled back into the Watchtower, their adrenaline still running after the fight with Klarion and saving the kids.
"I can't believe you got sucked into that thing," Static said, looking at Cassie. "And I missed the whole thing!"
"It wasn't a 'thing'!" Cassie objected, rolling her eyes. "It was me, and a dozen other meta teens. And I can't believe you got knocked out so easy."
"Well, I'm sorry I'm not a demi-god like you, but I'm still a little vulnerable to crates flying at my head!"
"Whatever, you both had some big fails," Peter commented from a few feet away.
"Oh, whatever, ese. You and Gar were on cat duty the whole time, you weren't even in on the real fight," Jaime said, shaking his head as his armor compacted back into the scarab.
"Yeah, and remind me why we beat Klarion again?" Gar asked, raising his eyebrows pointedly.
The others rolled their eyes, and Mallory chuckled, shaking her head. She leaned closer to V'lana, Brion, and Tara, who were walking together a little ahead of the others, still not quite comfortable enough with the rambunctious teens to include themselves in the good-natured bickering.
"You did good," she told them.
V'lana smiled, and Brion nodded, but Tara just ignored her, lengthening her stride so she wasn't walking with them anymore. Mallory tilted her head, about to ask Brion about it, but Gar and Peter caught up to her, distracting her with a question.
"What's going to happen to that girl with the gills?" Gar asked.
Mallory shrugged. "I'll talk to Kaldur. For now, she'll have to stay in the tank at Taos. They'll take care of her until–" They turned into the break room and she froze mid sentence when she saw Catherine Cobert standing across the room with Dina, Kaldur, Donna, and John Stewart. She considered ducking back out of the room before she was noticed, but the rest of the team turned into the room right behind them, making enough noise between them to announce their presence, and the option was gone.
Catherine narrowed her eyes, looking Inferno's costume up and down. "Why are you doing everything you can to land yourself in jail and make my life miserable?" the woman asked.
Mallory shook her head as the team walked over to join the small group. "I was under a cloaking spell, no one saw me, so you don't have to give me the lecture."
"Well, at least you thought ahead this time," she said, rolling her eyes, "but I am not here for your case, for once."
"How is her case going?" Brion asked, pulling off his mask. He had an authoritative air about him, like only a royal could, but Mallory could see the concern behind the confidence, and it made her smile a little.
"It is still in progress," the PR agent said tiredly. "I talked to the mayor of Metropolis, presented him with some facts. I have him doubting the allegations, but that isn't going to be enough. Now I need to work on getting the United Nations to do the same. If we can get a majority vote from them, the charges will have to be dropped and Inferno can go out in the light of day again."
Mallory squinted, tilting her head. "The UN?" she asked. "That's a little extreme, isn't it?"
Catherine pressed her lips together, about to explode, and Donna rushed to put a hand on the woman's shoulder, stopping her outburst and taking over the explanation. "It isn't," she said. "There are countries asking for permission to come into the United States solely to assist in capturing you and serving up your head on a platter. And not every country means that figuratively."
The team looked at each other, clearly realizing for the first time how bad this situation really was. Mallory barely noticed, though. She felt like she and Donna were the only people in the room as the weight of the accusations sunk in for the first time. Donna stepped closer, tilting her head to make the pyrokinetic look at her.
"Do not worry, we are going to get the vote to go through, and Garth and I are already working our connections to get ambassadors' approval for dropping the allegations. We have almost half already, and there is still time to get more."
"Less than half?" Mallory asked. It felt like a slap to the face, hearing that not even half of the countries' ambassadors trusted her to be loose.
"There is still time," Donna said, trying to reassure her. "And you still have friends standing up for you." Mallory nodded, appreciating the effort.
V'lana looked between the League and Catherine. "If you were not here to discuss Inferno's case, then what are you here for?" the Atlantean asked.
Catherine sighed. "Just my other problem case," she muttered.
Mallory looked between the woman and the Leaguers. "Batman?" she guessed.
Kaldur nodded. "The public has started to doubt that he and the others are truly acting without the support of the League," he explained. "Catherine has asked that the League hold another press conference to denounce their actions."
"Well, I guess you don't want me to be involved with that, and I still need to catch up with Zatanna to see what happened with Klarion, so I'm just gonna–"
"You'd better change before you go anywhere," Catherine said sternly.
"Oh, come on, I'm not going on patrol, I'm just going to the Tower of Fate, it's a two minute flight from the nearest tube, no one's gonna see me," Mallory protested.
Catherine shook her head. "You cannot keep aggravating the situation by going out as Inferno."
"It's just a quick flight through a mostly abandoned town, it's fine," she argued.
"We just told you how serious this is, I do not know what else I can do to make you start to take this seriously. It is not just your reputation that you are jeopardizing, it is–"
Mallory's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, zoning out of the conversation as soon as she saw the caller ID. "I…I have to go," she said abruptly, turning to go back to the Bridge without another word.
"Inferno!" Catherine called, and Donna and Peter took a few steps to follow her, but when she didn't slow her pace all the way to the zeta tube, they let her go.
Fifteen minutes later, Mallory had her motorcycle parked outside of Belle Rev prison, her civies feeling like they clashed with her red hair despite her dark glasses still acting as a mask. She didn't have to wait long for Icicle Jr to be escorted to the front gate. She stood up, getting a good look at him while he went through the final processing. He had an arm in a sling, there were some fresh bruises on his face, and he was still using a crutch to help him walk with the wound in his stomach, but as soon as he saw her through the gate's bars, his face lit up, and she couldn't help but grin as the barrier slid open and he was shoved out of the prison.
"You came," he said, sounding a little surprised. "How did you know when I was getting out?"
She shrugged. "I have a guy. How you feeling?"
"Better, now that I'm out of that place."
"For good this time, right?" she asked.
His face clouded over and he rubbed at the bandage around his middle. "For good," he said firmly.
She nodded, looking at her shoes for a second, hating that she couldn't do anything to take away the fact that the only family he thought he had was ready to kill him as soon as he crossed him. "So…you need a ride?" she asked, nodding to her bike. "Oh, can you even ride it? I'm sorry, I should have borrowed the SUV from Red, I just didn't think about it."
"Um, I'm good to ride, I think, but I don't have anywhere to go. I kind of burned any bridges I had in my line of work."
He brushed a fingertip over the new bruise on his cheek, and Mallory felt a flash of anger towards Waller. She told her he wouldn't be safe in there. "Yeah, I know," she said. "I have that covered." She pulled a scanning device she'd swiped from the Watchtower out of her pocket and held it up to her ex, moving it around from his neck to his ankles.
"Hey! What are you doing?" he asked, batting her hand away.
"Stop!" she chuckled, continuing to scan him. "I'm making sure there aren't any bombs or trackers still in you before we get too far away from access to Waller." The scanner announced that he was clean, and she repocketed it and nodded, satisfied that she wouldn't have to tear the prison apart brick by brick. At least, not that day. She walked back over to her bike and got on, looking back at him. "You coming?" He straddled the seat behind her, propping the crutch up so it wouldn't drag the ground. "You're sure you won't fall off, right?" she asked as she pulled on her helmet.
"Pretty sure," he replied, "but where are we going?"
She smiled, revving the motor to life. "To the dull side of the rainbow," she replied, and sped back down the long road, heading for the city. They had a zeta tube to catch.
She pulled the bike to a stop in front of the familiar farmhouse and Jr looked around curiously, trying to piece together why they were there. "Is this some kind of League safehouse?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Kind of. You'll see." She led the way up the steps and opened the door, letting them into the house. "Ma? Pa?" she called, earning a strange look from her companion.
"Mallory?" Jonathan called from upstairs. The couple showed up at the top of the stairs and broke into grins on their way down. "Mallory! We saw the news, we've been so worried about everything. What's going to happen to you?"
She smiled, returning their hugs. "Oh, don't worry about any of that, I just talked to Catherine and Donna today, and they have a plan. It's long and boring, honestly I tuned out most of it, but it's going to be fine. In the meantime…" she stepped to the side, bringing Cameron to their attention. "This is a friend of mine, his name is Cameron, and I was hoping he could stay here with you while he recovers."
Martha nodded immediately. "Well, of course he can. This house is open to whoever needs it, especially friends of the family. Cameron, my name is Martha, and this is my husband Jonathan. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." She switched her look to include both of the younger people. "Are you hungry? I can fix something for you."
"Don't worry about it, Ma, I can open a fridge. Thank you so much." She brought her ex to the kitchen and helped him get comfortable in a chair, then went to the fridge, pulling out a plate of fried chicken before sitting down at the table with him.
"I don't know what I'm doing here, T," Jr admitted quietly, rubbing a hand over his face as he seemed to sag in his skin.
She looked at him, recognizing the vulnerability he was finally allowing to show now that they were alone and quiet. He was angry, and tired, and restless, and scared, and she sighed, hurting for him. "You're here to recover," she told him, her voice gentle and soft. "And maybe you can take the time to figure out what you want to do once you leave."
"What I want," he repeated, the words no more than a whisper in the quiet room. "I have no idea. I've only ever thought about leaving once." He looked at her, his expression changing, becoming almost sentimental. "Do you ever…?" he let his voice trail off, but she knew what he was asking.
"Sometimes," she admitted, thinking back to the day they broke up. "I'm glad we didn't, though."
He nodded. "Yeah, it wouldn't have worked. Not with everything we had going on."
She found herself nodding in agreement, the memories of the place she'd been in hitting her in waves of regret. "Running away is never a good option," she said, more to herself. His face clouded over and he looked around the country house, and she shook her head. "That's not what I meant. You aren't running away, Cam, you're leaving. There's a difference."
"It doesn't feel like it," he muttered.
"So what do you want to do? Go back there? Face him again? Or rejoin him? I don't know what to tell you," she said softly. She wasn't accusing him of anything, or even suggesting that she thought he might go back, but the look that came over him made her wish she could take the words back. She'd never seen his eyes ice over so quickly, or the anger that contorted his face.
"I'm not going back," he said firmly, keeping his voice low so the Kents wouldn't hear him from upstairs. "My dad tried to kill me, T. Even on the worst days, I never thought he would go that far, that he was capable of turning on me that fast." He scoffed and added, "not that he would let me back in after what I did. By now the word's already out, I'll be blacklisted from any work in the country, just about. I wouldn't even be able to make a go of it on my own, I'd be dead in a week. All I can do is stay under the radar."
Mallory glanced out the window, where the evening shadows were starting to stretch across the yard, creating dark pillars reminiscent of prison bars over the house. "Ok, so you can't go back to being your dad's henchman. That doesn't mean you have to spend the rest of your life in a box. You're free, Cam, you have a blank slate. You can use it to do anything you want."
He shook his head. "All I want to do is hurt him, and we both know what happened the last time I went up against him. I don't think I could survive another run."
"Maybe not alone," she said, a smile coming to her face.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She tilted her head. "You know, you can always switch sides. I think Icicle Jr could be a pretty good hero, if he wanted to."
He started to laugh, but he grew more thoughtfully when he realized she wasn't joking. "Well…"
I wanted this episode to be included, but when I started writing what happened in it it just didn't feel right, so I switched it to tying up some loose ends and (maybe) setting up a change for Jr. Y'all let me know what you think of how things are going, though, because I've only got a year left to write, and then I'm going to wrap it up and start focusing on touching up the beginning chapters. Which reminds me, if you can think of any plot holes, any characters or story setups that never paid off or contradict each other, let me know so I can fix them. I've caught a few, but I don't remember everything, so I'd appreciate the help. Anyway, happy end of the semester for those of you who've already taken finals and good luck to those of you who haven't started them yet!