Welcome back for an update, I am sorry this has taken quite a bit of time to come out but I am in the process of getting some new training on a new machine at work so I have been a bit more mentally tired than I normally would be and my days are a bit more busy. Hopefully it should balance out again in a couple of weeks or a month or so.
Thankfully I still have some time to work on this content after work for a little bit in the evenings, so I will hopefully still make some progress.
Anyway to get early access to this content as well as exclusive stories including original IP content seek out Helghy's Stories on . Which leads me to thanking Dragonkw213. Who is a member of the investor tier.
When it Rains it Pours
August 8th
It had been a few days since the events with Amazo and the following discussion between Percy and his team. Since then all of the members had thrown themselves into bettering themselves. Some of them had been limited in the extent that they could actually push since the fight and subsequent crash of the train.
Not all of them though. Percy and Karen in particular were more than capable to dive right back into their training. At the moment that meant sparring in a fashion that the other members couldn't have participated in even if they were fully cleared for more rigorous training by the League's medical staff.
Megan and the others still felt it at least necessary to support their comrades, even if it made her skin crawl a bit every time one of Percy or Karen's blows landed. It sounded more like gunshots everytime one of their fists hit its target. It didn't slow the pair of superheroes down in the slightest of course.
Karen was actually sweating faintly from the fight so far. An incredibly rare occurrence. Still she looked to have the upperhand in the fight. Her form had been only improving since joining the team and she already surpassed Percy in strength and durability if only slightly.
However the gap in skill and experience still remained noticeable as Percy slipped free from an attempt to force him into a hold. They had both learned early on in their spars that if Powergirl could properly lock him down then the fight was as good as over thanks to her impossible power.
Percy was too slippery for that to be easy to manage though. His shirt peeled off in Powergirl's grasp and with a twist he used it to yank her forward into a perfectly chambered punch. His knuckles cracked across her nose, actually drawing blood from the kryptonian clone and sending her tumbling backward.
"Ooh." A couple of the observers flinched in phantom pain at the blow.
Megan gasped slightly and nearly flew into the ring when she saw that Karen's nose was bleeding now. Aqualad caught her arm before she could though. Powergirl wasn't about to let that be the end of her fight.
"You aren't holding back much." Karen laughed before spitting a bit of blood onto the floor and using Percy's shirt to wipe what had flowed from her nose away.
"Well that's going to need peroxide." Percy huffed before taking a stance again for the impending retaliation from his opponent.
"Shouldn't have given it to me for a towel then." Karen joked before tossing it at him, blocking his field of view just enough for her to kick off of the ground and rocket forward toward him.
Unfortunately, as much progress as Karen had made she still had the same bad habit that other Kryptonians and super strong heroes had. She was entirely too direct and therefore predictable.
Percy lunged forward and smashed an elbow into the blonde's stomach forcing the air from her lungs before turning and planting another punch into her face. This time at least he hit her in the jaw rather than squarely in the nose.
As before, Karen managed to keep control of herself and reset in a fighting stance before Percy could properly take advantage of the blows he had just landed. As he closed in to attempt pressing his advantage Powergirl slipped forward to wrap her arms around him and the both of them fell to the ground as she began tightening her grip.
He tried to break her hold but the pressure quickly built up. He managed to get his legs underneath him and slowly began to pick both himself and Powergirl up before slamming her down onto the ground hard enough to shake the room. It didn't shake Karen as he had hoped and as he adjusted himself to attempt a second harder slam, Powergirl readjusted her own position to better grip her team leader.
With a slip, she maneuvered herself to lock one of Percy's arms behind his back using her thighs before clamping down. With all of the force of an industrial grade press tightening down on him Percy felt all the air in his lungs slowly forced up and out of his mouth. The kryptonian didn't stop there as her arms snaked around to trap Percy's other arm upward and tighten down so that she was essentially binding his elbow against the side of his head.
A normal human would have been torn in half by the force of Karen's grip alone, but combined with the lack of air and positioning of her body, even Percy was struggling to combat the grip. Yet, seemingly through willpower alone, the Amazonian still got back onto his feet and he didn't hold anything back this time as he slammed both himself and Karen back down into the super-durable floor of the training room.
The masonry cracked and shook from the force of the blow, and the rest of the team had to grip onto something to avoid tumbling over as a small localized seismic event took place. Batman would likely be displeased about the floor, but at the moment Percy and Karen were too caught up in their spar to even notice.
Powergirl's grip was broken and she and Percy had both weathered the smash into the floor well enough to continue. Thankfully, for the others and the structural integrity of the cave, the pair of superheroes were pulled out of their fight by an alert announcing others using the zeta tubes to visit.
Several people filed into the room. Batman and Red Tornado were almost expected, but Green Arrow and a new younger heroine beside him most definitely weren't. The computer announced her as Artemis and Percy had a pretty fair idea of what topic the coming conversation would be.
"Uh, your shirt Percy." Megan tried to hand him the ripped up and now bloody rag that had been his T-shirt a moment ago.
"I think you can pitch it into the trash Megan." He said with a sigh, it wasn't even worth cleaning and it was his own fault for using it to pull Karen into a punch. Heat of the moment he supposed.
Megan did just that, tossing it over her shoulder into the trash along the wall as she, Percy, and the rest of the currently present team turned to greet their visitors. Wally was the only one of them not currently in attendance and that could be seen as much of a good thing as a bad one being as he would probably be all over the new girl in Percy's opinion. Being as she was definitely Kid Flash's type, being that she was in fact alive, female, and physically attractive.
"Team, I have news that all of you are medically cleared once again. The medics do advise to try and avoid extensive injury in the near future, but that you are ready to begin taking missions and return to full contact training." Batman explained with a clipped tone.
"That's good news. It's about time we started getting back to work with some of the scenarios we have prepared." Percy said while avoiding too much eye contact with the Dark Knight. It was no secret to his team, or really to the Leaguers either that Percy was far from the man's biggest fan. Not that Batman cared. They could be colleagues and handle it fine Batman wasn't interested in being friends with Xiphos.
"Uh, perhaps we should introduce ourselves or something?" Robin awkwardly suggested as he glanced toward the female archer in the room.
"Heh, right." Green Arrow said as he stepped forward to introduce Artemis to the team and vice versa, before he could the Zeta tubes called out the the entrance of the sole missing member of the team and Wally raced into the room shouting loud enough to make a fool of himself and cause most of his team to sigh in mild embarrassment.
"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Wally cheered, causing Percy to slap his hand against his face at the use of an MLK quote for something as stupid as getting out of class for the afternoon.
"Wally, no." Robin groaned faintly.
"Oh, hey Batman and other members of the League are here with someone…great. That's great." Wally said as he finally registered who else was in the cave and slowed down to come to a halt beside aqualad.
"We were just about to do introductions." Green Arrow said with a bit of a grin on his face. He could see why Dinah liked working with the kids, there definitely wasn't going to be a dull day with these ones running around.
"Team this is Artemis, my uh niece. She will be joining up with you guys. Artemis, this is the team, that's Xiphos, Powergirl, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin, in order." Oliver listed off.
"Good to meet you." Artemis said, shooting a look up and down Percy's half naked form. The Amazonian didn't seem to notice and neither did Aqualad who simply greeted Artemis warmly.
"It's good to meet you too." Karen said in a stilted tone while Megan glided forward happily enough to have another girl joining them.
"Maybe we can start balancing out the boy to girl ratio a bit with you joining. It would be nice to have more than just myself and Karen, you can call me Megan by the way." Megan offered a hand and a broad smile.
"Wait, wait, wait. What about Speedy?" Kid Flash asked, kind of ruining the meeting.
"Wally, we don't have a quota on archers for the team." Aqualad tried to be diplomatic.
"Aqualad's right, but either way Speedy made his choice when the team was formed. He didn't want to be here." Percy added in causing a couple of his teammates to give him dirty looks. The boy only sighed before turning back toward Artemis, Green Arrow, and Batman.
"Will you be staying at the cave or using the Zeta tubes. Either way is fine but picking out a room might be a good start if you are staying." Percy said, jumping into his role as team leader.
Before Artemis could reply the Zeta tubes announced another guest.
"Great." Percy said under his breath so only Karen could hear it as he heard the computer loudly announce the entrance of Speedy.
"Man we are getting a lot of people in today, but hey this works out. Sorry blondie but it looks like the team archer spot is filled after all." Wally said with a laugh.
"Kid…" Aqualad tried to say but Speedy seemed to beat him to the punch.
"I'm not here to join your team. Besides it looks like Green Arrow has you all set up with my replacement already. Sure moves on fast." Speedy said with an acidic tone.
"Why are you here then?" Percy cut to the chase as he turned and stepped between Speedy and his team. It drew plenty of looks from the others, but none protested it, not even Wally. By now, Percy had proven himself as their leader well enough to get at least their silent backing.
"Why are you not wearing a shirt?" Speedy asked, raising an eyebrow at his fellow young hero.
Green Arrow jumped in before the conversation could continue though.
"Roy, you haven't been replaced. It's not like that."
"It doesn't matter, I'm not here to talk to you. I have something for them." He said motioning toward the team.
"So, not here to join the team but here to drop something at our feet." Karen rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"What do you have?" Percy asked, steering the conversation away from an unnecessary pissing match. Superheroes all had too much ego, though he supposed he was included in that at times.
"I found Doctor Serling Roquette. She was being held by the League of Shadows and forced to build something for them. I rescued her, but not before she had finished her work for them." Roy explained before bringing up a screen that showed both the Doctor and details on a weapon she had engineered for the League.
"Doc calls it the Fog. Essentially it's a cloud of millions of microscopic robots. Nanotech infiltrators capable of disintegrating anything in their path, concrete, steel, flesh bone. It doesn't just destroy though. It's used for theft, the infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and then deliver it right back to the shadows."
"They could use that to get their hands on practically anything, cutting edge science and tech, or even defensive armaments and computers." Robin said as he scanned over the readouts that Roy was showing them.
"Everything from nukes to the identities of government agents in the field." Speedy agreed.
"Fits the shadows M.O. They could use all of that for extortion, manipulation, power brokering, you name it." Artemis commented.
"Tch, like you know anything about the League of Shadows." Wally scoffed.
Artemis only smirked his way causing him to grind his teeth. He did shut up though as both Percy and Aqualad gave him equally annoyed looks.
"I already have Roquette working on a virus to render the fog inert. The shadows shouldn't be able to regain control over it without her once it's down." Roy continued.
"But if the shadows know she can do that," Robin muttered.
"Then that means they will be hunting her. Where do you have her stashed?" Percy finished for Robin before turning back to Roy.
"Off the grid. A random little highschool computer lab that the shadows shouldn't look at any time soon."
"With them it's only a matter of time before they find her anyway though." Artemis chimed in again causing Percy to hold a hand up and keep Wally silent a bit longer.
"You and I could handle this." Green Arrow offered an olive branch toward his former partner.
"You and I? Don't you wanna take her instead?" Roy sniped.
Batman stopped Oliver with a hand on his shoulder causing the Green Arrow to sigh before waving a hand toward the Team including Artemis.
"You brought this to the team, which means it's their mission. That means it's her's now too."
"Heh, then my job's done." Speedy said gruffly before heading for the Zeta tubes correcting the computer to change his name from Speedy to Red Arrow.
Percy sighed as he saw Wally shoot Artemis a halfhearted glare and the girl simply returned it with a scowl.
"It would be better if we could train together a bit first before we took on a mission." He stated.
"We took down CADMUS together without it." Robin pointed out.
"Point, I guess. Either way, get suited up everyone. We will figure out a plan of action on the bioship. Megan, if you could help Artemis get situated while the rest of us get kitted out, I would appreciate it." Percy said.
"Of course." The martian girl happily replied while shifting her girl next door outfit to her typical uniform.
Later that night the team had deployed at the local High School. As it turned out the 'random' school that Red Arrow had selected had in fact been the one closest to the Team's Headquarters. Close enough that the mountain that housed the team's base was looming just up the shoreline near the edge of the small ocean inlet that the town of Happy Harbor stretched around.
At least it had been a short trip and gave them a sort of home field advantage. Sort of, in reality none of them had actually bothered to even look in the direction of the local school, barring perhaps Megan. She was the only one currently counting down her days until the start of school so that she could participate in what she considered normal human life.
The rest of the team, barring the unfortunate Wally who was already back to fall term, was trying to either enjoy their remaining days of summer vacation or in the case of Percy and Karen focus on their training for upcoming challenges in their lives as caped heroes.
Prior to deploying to the school campus, Percy and the others had quickly reviewed a hastily acquired map of the layout of the school and surrounding area. They'd more or less placed their defenses for the school into three layers dubbed aptly 'outer', 'halls' and 'lab'.
Miss Martian and Artemis were both placed on the outer defense, primarily acting as early warning for the team should anyone make an approach on them when they started trying to track the Fog. The 'wise' Doctor had been very clear on the fact that the moment she began doing so that they would be more or less inviting the League of Shadows to come knocking.
Kid Flash was kept on the move between the Halls and the outer defense to try and act as a reactionary element to whatever managed to get thrown their way while Xiphos did the same between the lab and the halls. This left Powergirl to stick by the Doctor's side as the heaviest hitter of the group.
Aqualad and Robin were placed on the task of going after the Fog and actually disabling it when the program was finished by Roquette. Percy wasn't thrilled about having to split his team up when they were essentially ringing the dinner bell for their enemies. Unfortunately in this situation he didn't have a lot of options. For the first time he almost wished the League had stepped in to take this mission over themselves and allowed him time to get the Team better prepared to working with their newest member.
"Status check." He said over the communication system.
"Nothing to see. This little town is practically dead." Artemis commented. Percy chalked up her unease to being from one of the larger cities. Those places never really fell completely silent like things did out here in the smaller towns.
"The Doctor is annoying still, but she is getting the job done." Powergirl commented knowing very well that Roquette could hear every single word.
Percy had them using radios at the moment, though his team at the school was also linked up mentally through Megan. She didn't have the reach to connect them to Robin and Aqualad, but they didn't need to worry about a breach in communication just yet.
"We've arrived at the last place the Fog hit. It stole everything it could and moved on to the next site." Aqualad reported.
"We expected that much. Keep moving and catch up to it and the Shadows with it. Everyone else stay ready. It's only a matter of time." Percy replied.
So far everything was running smoothly. While he knew it was only a matter of time before they were faced by the enemy he was pretty proud of his team. Even the more outspoken personalities that would clash were keeping things to themselves and acting professional. Actually so far the biggest annoyance he'd had was the Doctor's attitude. For a woman who prized her maturity and intelligence so far above others, she was shockingly egotistical and childish.
The mental snorts of humor and agreement told him he hadn't suppressed the thoughts quite well enough to stop them from bleeding over into the connection Megan had created. He just grinned slightly as it seemed his teammates all agreed with him that the Doctor was the most annoying factor of this mission so far. He hoped it stayed that way and Artemis and Wally kept themselves in line.
Actually he was a bit surprised by their enmity for one another. Well not so much Artemis' apparent dislike for the speedster but more for Wally's dislike of her. Percy could easily acknowledge the girl was beautiful, her outfit wasn't exactly concealing. Usually Wally would have been all over her, like he often was with Karen and Megan.
Percy's line of thought was interrupted as Artemis came over his ear piece with a tone mixing anxious energy and excitement in equal measure. She wanted to prove herself but could recognize just how dangerous the Shadows were. Good.
"Contact, at least three, no four headed for the school from different vectors." Artemis said while clearly trying to keep her cool.
"Pick a target and thin them out. Miss M, backup Artemis, I want to turn every fight to our advantage so double up one one before moving to the next and so on." Percy ordered.
"Kid Flash focus on one, all three of you hit the same target after you finish your opponents then move on together."
Agreement flashed through his mind rather than over his radio and Percy readied himself near the hallway leading to the school computer lab. Karen would be the final wall they had to pass but he would prefer they never even made it through the door. Whoever didn't get picked up by his teammates outside would be his problem and he intended to handle them cleanly and as quickly as possible.
Cheshire wasn't sure she liked her accomplices for this job. Sure, Hook and Black Spider were relatively known quantities and they would be focused on tying up the heroes they had monitored on the outside of the school. It was the one that she was joining up with in the hallways as they moved through the highschool that was the issue.
She had to admit, the woman was impressive. Amazonian was a proper label at least. Though she seemed to regard Cheshire as a lost child rather than the successful assassin that she was. It annoyed her but such things were beneath her. Especially being as the woman was there for one thing only, to try and kill the leader of this little group of superheroes in their way.
They had enough information about who they were up against from Sensei to at least acknowledge who would be the hardest challenges. While she would prefer facing the amazonian boy herself despite not really getting how there was a male amazonian in the first place, she was stuck with the unenviable job of slipping past a full blown kryptonian and killing Doctor Roquette. Easier said than done.
"Consider what I had offered, sister. See you on the other side." The Amazon said in a lilting french accent before sprinting past Cheshire and rounding the corner to assault the Amazonian boy waiting for them beyond.
Cheshire nearly scoffed at the thought. She'd seen the little team of Amazons once so far and had already chalked them up to being essentially a cult. One that seemed pretty intent on pissing off the entire Justice League enough for them to come crashing down hard on them.
Funnily enough Katia seemed among the least annoying of their number too. Dressed in modern tactical gear she seemed ageless and beautiful but as far as she could tell she was very young by the standards of the Amazons and had been some sort of French military before finding herself added to their number.
Cheshire wasn't exactly sure how that worked either but with no ambition to join the misandrist crew she really didn't care enough to find out. Besides her opening had just arrived so she sped past the pair of super powered opponents actively beating one another bloody in the hallway and crashed through the door of the computer lab.
She also very nearly was sent right back through the ruined doorway by a chair hurled at speeds no human being could manage.
"You are really going to wish you had stayed out there to help your friend." A young woman's voice said just before Cheshire was forced to roll to the side to avoid a stomp that nearly caved in the floor.
She had thought that Katia had a frightening beauty to her but this blonde had her beat. Beyond curvy and wearing perhaps the tightest white suit that showed off her ridiculously developed bust, Powergirl loomed over Cheshire with a nearly bored looking expression on her face.
"Xiphos would have probably taken it easier on you being a girl and all that. Unfortunately for you, I won't." The kryptonian said before her blue eyes began to shift into an iridescent red and every hardwired sensation that told Cheshire to flee began screaming within her mind.
This was a horrible plan, Sensei was an idiot for thinking she could just slip past this monster.
Percy knew that eventually he would encounter amazonian traitors. However not only had he not expected them on this mission, he hadn't expected them to be women he had known. Women he had grown up around.
Katia Auch had come to Themyscira some time following World War Two and had been an ever polite if quiet member of the Themysciran army. She'd never been close to Percy but had never been cruel or especially antagonistic toward him either.
Evidently she had some beliefs that hadn't been publicly shared in the past.
"You turned traitor then." He said as he tried to harden his resolve. He wasn't looking forward to this fight. He had every advantage over a normal Amazonian, but still to face one of the women he had known…it would be difficult in other ways.
He was immediately on the backfoot as the woman refused to respond to him with anything more than her blade and her fists.
An Amazonian blade. One perhaps even forged by the Sons was as ironic as it was sad. The fact that she was using it in service of those who intended to murder its creators leaned more toward sad than anything else.
"Why?" He asked as he slapped the flat side of the blade and forced it wide so he could close in and deliver a blow to Katia's abdomen. The woman managed to bend in a well trained move that made his knuckles practically glide past her rather than properly connect.
Again Katia said nothing and instead shifted her grip on her sword and altered her stance to bring the point of the blade down toward Percy's chest. Once more he showed her the gap in their capabilities as he moved closer to her with a large step bringing him into her guard and giving him plenty of room to reach up and tear the sword from her hand.
Katia retreated to draw a pistol from a holster at her hip causing Percy's eyes to widen marginally before lunged forward again and swept his newly claimed blade across the space between them. The woman screamed as her fingers were cut away from the grip of her gun and fired wide, blowing out the glass in a small trophy case at the end of the hallway before it clattered across the floor.
Percy grimaced as he saw the pistol and Katia's fingers land on the floor in a pool of the woman's blood. He wasn't fond of injuring people he was facing so badly, especially an Amazon. He could get past easily enough though. Katia Auch had chosen her side and decided to kill him for no other reason than him being male as far as he could tell.
Percy hurled the sword away, embedding the blade into the wall deep enough that only someone with super strength could remove it without tools, before he began pursuing Katia down the hallway intent to knock her unconscious to be taken to the league and hopefully his sister for questioning.
"A little suffering for a better world." Katia hissed before her hand reached up to grip at a cord on her combat gear.
Percy had simply thought the woman was using modern tactical style gear for its obvious advantages of being relatively protective and flexible at the same time. He hadn't considered that it was especially bulky and she seemed to be moving slower than was normal for an Amazonian trained warrior. As if she was carrying something heavy across her body.
He half expected an explosion. A bomb at this close was unlikely to kill him though Katia, Doctor Roquette, and anyone else who wasn't a literal demigod or kryptonian wouldn't be so durable. Instead a nearly colorless mist was ejected from a series of tubes all along her body. The gas rapidly filled the room and despite being nearly invisible Percy could just barely make out a bluish tint floating in the darkness.
He held his breath but pressed forward toward Katia who seemed unaffected by whatever it was she had released. In fact she rushed forward to meet him with her own blow.
Percy's swing was narrowly avoided by Katia as she ducked low around the strike while purposefully flicking her ruined hand toward his face and blinding him with her own blood. Crude but effective enough to give her a short moment as he flinched from the red fluid hitting his eyes.
That was all she needed. She gripped onto his arm and suddenly Percy felt a pinch as something managed to pierce his skin. A needle. He ripped free of Katia's grip before it could inject him but in doing so he had lifted himself up and opened up his midsection as Katia threw herself backward and planted a boot into his stomach.
Just enough to force the air from his lungs and his body to reflexively suck in a breath. As she landed though he brought a fist down to crack her across the temple knocking her out immediately.
"Dammit." He cursed realizing he had been forced to ingest some of whatever Katia had released in the air.
"Everyone, one of them was an amazon and she released some sort of gas in the hallway near the lab. Stay out of the area and give me status reports." He mentally commanded the others.
"Assassin broke in but ran away pretty much the moment I started using heat vision. She dove through a window and I decided to stick by the Doctor in case another one came." Powergirl reported.
"We got one of the guys out here tied up. He tried to run but he couldn't outrun me." Kid Flash said with a chuckle.
"The other one is out cold thanks to Artemis. She shot him in the head with an arrow." Miss Martian added in.
"It was dulled." Artemis chimed in to make sure the others didn't think she had just killed a guy.
"Good." Percy replied as he quickly tied a tourniquet on Katia's arm to staunch the bleeding hand before binding her up and carrying her off toward another room outside the affected area.
"Percy…are you alright?" Megan asked softly. He could tell it was a separate connection, one only she and he could hear one another on.
"For now, I may have breathed in whatever it was that Katia was trying to hit me with. She tried to inject me with something else too but I don't think she got the chance. I hope." He said.
He could literally feel the sudden spike in worry from Megan and through it the sudden shift among the rest of the team.
"What's wrong?" Powergirl demanded.
"Nothing we can worry about right now. Hold on." Percy said, shutting down the line of panic in its tracks.
They needed to focus on the mission. Doctor Roquette's Fog had already destroyed Star Labs and needed to be eliminated before it caused more problems. That was the focus for now.
"Xiphos to Aqualad, status." Percy said over the radio.
"We're tracking the Fog signal, Robin has been able to determine their next target by simulating possible projected paths from their current direction and speed of travel. We believe that they are headed for Wayne Tech next." Aqualad responded.
"Definitely not good." Wally chimed in over the radio.
"Keep the channel clear." Percy lightly reprimanded before turning his focus back to the mission.
"Doctor, how long until the virus to eliminate the weapon is finished?"
The woman groaned openly over the radio at the referral to her creation as a weapon but chose to let it slide this time. She'd already bemoaned that point earlier and by now knew that the Team was unconcerned with her choice in semantics.
"Just a little longer. The problem is they will need to somehow connect to the Fog to upload the virus into the system. Either through something the Fog is in the process of devouring or through whatever containment and control unit the Shadows are using." Roquette supplied.
"Robin, Aqualad. Intercept and capture the containment unit. I don't want to sit around and wait for them to try and use it on Wayne Techs…" Percy began pausing as he felt a wetness run from his nose and mouth. Wiping at it a thin trickle of blood came with it.
"Kid Flash go join them, Powergirl the moment the Doctor is done preparing the countermeasure you too. Miss Martian, you and Artemis will focus on the new prisoners we have. I want them kept nice and unconscious until the League can take them in for questioning." Percy rattled off orders quickly as he turned away from Katia's unconscious form to focus on contacting the League.
A slew of affirmatives returned to him over the radio while he focused on getting in touch with Red Tornado or Dinah, whichever was first to respond. While he did so he muted himself over the comms and focused on dividing his thoughts. There wasn't a need to worry his team just yet. They would have plenty to be concerned over once everything was done.
Black Canary's face appeared on the video message as she answered. She seemed to have been working on some report or other which was good, a quicker response to the rapidly deteriorating situation he was currently trying to handle.
"Xiphos what do you… you're bleeding." She began before growing completely serious and staring worriedly at the screen.
Percy couldn't see himself at the moment but he guessed it probably wasn't looking good by the way Canary was reacting.
"The mission is actually proceeding well, we nearly have an answer to the Fog problem and have several prisoners two from the League of Shadows and one injured Amazonian traitor." Percy explained.
"And you?" She pressed.
"The Amazon, Katia released some kind of gas during my fight with her." He cleared his throat and forced down the urge to cough. Black Canary needed as much information as he could pass along as quickly as he could.
"The others weren't exposed but I was. Katia herself seems unaffected despite also being exposed, however she also managed to stick me with a needle of some sort. She failed to inject anything but that's as far as I…" Percy trailed off as his vision became darkened and blurry. He reached up to gently rub at his eyes and they too came away bloody.
"I'm putting an alert out, you're close to the cave so we'll be there soon." Canary said in a serious and reassuring voice that all the best of the League had perfected over their careers. It made him chuckle a bit. He hadn't expected to ever have that tone directed toward him.
"I'll be waiting." Percy said before he began to cough and gasp as he felt his throat struggling with some sort of irritant. It took a second for him to realize that the irritant was blood slipping down it.
His thoughts were becoming as blurry as his eyes were. In fact he could feel fatigue begin to set in and take a hold of him. As he sat down on a student's desk to try and regain some measure of calm and beat back the rising panic in his chest Powergirl floated through the door with a dark expression on her face as she shot a glare toward the unconscious Amazon on the floor.
"The virus?" He managed to ask while spitting a glob of red onto the floor.
"Transmitting to the others. Robin and Aqualad handled the guy in the van no problem so I wasn't needed." Karen said as she floated toward him.
"Stop, could be contagious." He managed to get out as he lost the ability to see more than a whitish blur before him.
"Too bad." Karen replied as he felt her gently lay him onto the larger teacher's desk.
"Should listen to me once in a while." He tried to joke but never heard her response as he passed out.
"An unfortunate loss." Jeneve commented as they watched the members of the Justice League arrive and join the young heroes in securing Happy harbor High School and retrieve the prisoners as well as Persues.
"Katia was already slowly fading. Like you she joined our sisters later in life after growing up for a time in Man's World. The terrors done to her by men left scars not even blessings before the gods could fully cure. So she chose to at least make her final mission worth something grand." Donna replied.
"Still, I doubt that the boy killed her. Should we be worried?" Jeneve asked as she brushed her braid over her shoulder and turned away from where the heroes were working in the town below.
"Katia wouldn't reveal anything about our operation even if she could. We will have already moved on by the time she is questioned by them anyway, and sadly she will have passed on before Diana returns from home to try and pry answers out herself." Donna siad.
"They don't need to question her though do they? I thought the green one could read minds. That is what your new…allies suggested."
Donna scowled at that. Most of her followers had been quite upset by some of the alliances she was forging, but war forced strange bedfellows onto you and she was unwilling to pass up advantages to ensure she was victorious.
"Yes, but it's not perfect. As I said Katia is not long for the world and she has the strength of faith in our cause on her side. As for our allies, they have proven adequate for our needs so far. We were the only ones to achieve a victory tonight after all." Donna said as she turned her eyes toward the readout in front of her.
The screen showed a biometric reading in real time. From her she could monitor the effects of their weapon on Perseus and see just how effective their newest tool was. After all if it could do all that she hoped it would to a Demigod, the effects it would have once spread to the rest of mankind would be perfect. Then she could get to work on the next phase of her dream.
A better world. Just as had been promised to her all those nights as she languished in prison on Themyscira.
"Come, it's time that we met with the Witch once again." Donna said as she and the small squad of Amazonians collected their things.
That is that. Hope you enjoyed it. Next time we will see the obvious aftermath of this put into action. I hope you enjoy it
Till Next Time