It didn't help that this Atlas Flame had never founded the Sun Village, an urban environment, here at all.
Hellbent [Fairy Tail/Young Justice OC]
- Thread starter Drakaina
- Start date
- Crossover
AnantaAtman
I wandered, I watched, I judged
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"Well, shit," indeed, my friend, well shit, indeed. Things are gonna get more confusing.
Chapter 23: Parched
- Pronouns
- She/Her
… Well, shit.
I honestly wasn't sure how to react to Aqualad's question at first. For a moment, I just… stared at him. I knew there'd been something fucky going on with my memories, given… everything, and I wasn't that surprised to find out I wasn't alone in that regard. But…
"Aqualad," I murmured, "what's the last thing you remember?"
He closed his eyes. I could see sweat dripping down his forehead from the heat of the desert sun, contrasting with the dry texture much of his skin had taken on. Jeez, it really wasn't healthy for him to be out here, was it?
"... I have some idea," he eventually said, opening his eyes back up and looking at me. "However, I am afraid–"
"That you don't trust me, right," I interrupted, rubbing my fingers against my temple. It made sense, unfortunately. If he didn't actually remember me, his trust in me was going to be more… limited, even if I did save his life. After all, it would be easy for some enemy of Atlantis or the League to take advantage of his current vulnerability.
Aqualad nodded. "I am… willing to at least hear you out, though. You did just save my life, after all."
I chuckled under my breath. "Well, at least I'm good for something."
That at least got a chuckle out of him, too, as he pulled himself into a more upright sitting position, pulling his backpack into his lap as he did so. I backed off as he did it, giving him a bit of space, and stood as I pondered exactly what to say to him to make him trust me.
It wasn't long before a thought occurred to me, and I glanced back down at Aqualad with what I am not ashamed to admit was a slightly desperate air. "Please tell me you at least remember the Team?"
A look of surprise briefly flitted across his face, though he schooled his expression after a moment. "... Yes, I do. Though…" He glanced around us, at the sand, sand, and more sand.
"Heh, yeah, I think we're out here on a mission. Which… might be my first one?" I shrugged. "You aren't the only one who's missing some shit up here." I gestured at my head.
Then, realizing what I'd skipped over, I crouched back down and stuck my hand out to Aqualad. "Oh, and I'm Ash. Not my hero name, I don't remember what I chose, I'm… kind of new at this whole thing. And you're Aqualad, Kaldur'ahm, or boss-man."
"... That last one is new," he replied after a moment, taking my hand. I shook it for a second, then pulled him up to his feet. "But it is accurate. Either you really are a new member of the Team, or we are quite heavily compromised. For now, I will choose to believe the former."
I let out a small sigh. Good, that was one problem taken care of, and only… a fuck-ton more to go. "So, uh, last thing you remember?"
"... We were checking in on… the friend of a friend," he said. I frowned at that. Okay, maybe that "trust" hurdle wasn't quite cleared, but as long as we could work together it'd… probably work out.
That's about when I noticed that he was swaying on his feet a bit, and hurried over to offer him some support. "Whoa, easy…" I winced at the touch of his skin. It was way too dry, even more that it looked. "I guess we can figure out how long we're missing later. We need to get you some more water first."
I considered for a moment, then jabbed a thumb at the road we were nearby. "I think we're by a military outpost or something, I had to fight off some soldiers near where I think we'd set up camp." Or something like that. I still wasn't sure what that metal thingy had been, but it was definitely different from anything the soldiers had been carrying on them, and I'd found everyone's scents there regardless. "Some of them might drive by, and they should have water–"
"I don't believe… that will be necessary," Aqualad said, putting a hand on my shoulder to interrupt me. "You said we had made a camp. Do you remember where it is?"
* * * * *
The sun blazed overhead.
Oh, well, I was assuming that was the right… adjective? I think? "Blazed" seemed like it should be used here, but it wasn't like I was a good judge of that kind of thing. The heat felt more comfortable to me than anything. Perks of being fireproof.
Aqualad, though, was definitely feeling the heat. I'd already asked him a few times if he wanted me to carry him, save his energy and all that, but he'd just waved me off each time. He was determined to soldier on, and I could honestly respect that. Even if I thought it was kind of dumb at the same time.
He had, however, occasionally stumbled, prompting me to give him a shoulder to lean on while he caught his breath. We never stopped for very long, but even so, it ended up taking a lot longer to get back than it had to get out to find Aqualad in the first place.
At least I was able to follow my own scent back to camp, making the trail a lot clearer for me. Even if sniffing out my own scent always left me feeling weird.
At any rate, eventually we emerged over a sand dune to see the depression with that weird metal thing. All the soldiers I'd fought beforehand were long gone, and a quick hop down confirmed that none of them were hiding under the sand this time.
"Alright, we're good," I said as Aqualad picked his way down the dune, wincing at the hot sand stinging his bare feet. I raised an eyebrow at him. "So, we're looking for… a ship?"
"Indeed. It should be around here somewhere."
I nodded, and the two of us split up, circling out from the main camp as we searched. According to Aqualad, apparently Miss Martian owned some sort of "bio-ship" that, if he was right, was probably how we'd gotten out here. Wherever here was. After all, it's not like we could have just taken the Zeta Tubes anywhere, there apparently needed to be "gates" at both ends for that to work.
I did feel a little stupid, the way he'd had to spell that out for me, but it made sense in hindsight.
Anyways, the ship could apparently be camouflaged, so it was unlikely the soldiers had taken it. The flip side being that it also made finding the damn thing a lot harder. Our best guess at this point was to just sweep the area and hope we ran into i–
BONK
"GAH, FUCK!" I fell back, stumbling and rubbing at my face that had apparently just ran into thin air. It didn't really hurt, but I hadn't expected our plan to work out quite so literally.
"Ash?" Aqualad called out, breathing heavily as he stumbled his way over to me.
"Ugh… I think I found it," I called back. Putting my hand out, I felt around at the air before me until I touched something cool and strangely… fleshy.
The air rippled out, waves of red and black spreading from my point of contact, and I stepped back as the Bio-Ship revealed itself to us. It had a very sleek look to it, the kind of stuff I'd probably have imagined from reading sci-fi, red with bacl highlights and a blue window situated behind the front… what would those be called? Pincers?
After a moment, a ramp sort of… grew out of the bottom of the ship, leading up to a hole that hadn't been there before. Aqualad showed no hesitation before walking up it, and I followed behind him shortly afterwards.
The inside of the Bio-Ship looked even stranger. Blue-ish purple-ish and strangely organic-looking, the interior was completely bare, save for a sort of desk that ran around the outer edge of the cockpit. Round blue lights glowed across it, and as I watched, Aqualad went up to one of them and put his hand on it. It glowed for a moment, then a hole opened next to it, allowing Aqualad to reach in and pull out a canteen. I heard him mutter "thank you, Robin" under his breath before opening it and taking a long drink.
I let him take care of that while I walked up to the desk myself, trailing a hand along the surface. It was strange to the touch, feeling somehow like both metal and skin. Not quite like anything I'd ever felt before. Guess the "Bio" had to come from somewhere, though.
My hand ghosted over one of the blue lights, and I felt… something, almost like a feather brushing across my brain. I winced as my headache surged back into focus, and with a hiss, I pulled back from the light. The pounding receded almost at once, and I rubbed at my forehead.
… Was… was Bio-Ship telepathic like M'gann? It certainly felt like she had just brushed up against my mind, a lot like when M'gann had showed me…
"Ash?" I turned at Aqualad's question, He had made his way to the other side of the cockpit, and had been pulling out what looked like snack bars from another opening. Between the water and the cool interior, he already looked much better.
"Just a headache," I said, walking over to him. I nodded at the bars. "Lemme guess, for Wa– uh, I mean Kid Flash?"
Aqualad looked at me for a long moment before nodding. "Indeed."
I nodded – Wally had told me a while back that he had an insane metabolism, so it was probably a good idea to get extra snacks for him, even on missions – and glanced around. "So, now that you're not about to get barbequed out here, we should probably find the others, huh?" I pondered, before stiffening as an idea occurred. "Uh, are we gonna be flying around in Bio-Ship?" I asked, unable to keep a note of nervousness out of my voice.
Thankfully, Aqualad shook his head. "Unfortunately, I have not learned how to pilot this ship," he explained. "Though perhaps I should learn, lest a situation similar to this occurs in the future. For now, though, we must go on foot."
We didn't leave immediately, of course. Aqualad still had to recover from the heat, after all, and going back out into it wouldn't end well for him. Instead, we took a little while to rest, even as we discussed who to try and track down next.
Unfortunately, both Miss Martian and Superboy were right out as options. I hadn't even managed to get their trails last night, and Aqualad apparently didn't have much in the way of overland tracking himself. Robin was also a non-starter for similar reasons, though Aqualad acted like the so-called Boy Wonder would be able to take care of himself for a while. Of the other two, it was a bit of a toss-up. Kid Flash had powers while Artemis didn't, but Kid would also be running low on energy at this point, while from what little Aqualad could tell me of Artemis suggested that she had at least some survivial training. Green Arrow may not be Batman, but I guess he still managed to keep his place on the League somehow, so it'd make sense that he'd pass some skills down to her.
Throughout the conversation, Aqualad kept a close eye on me, as if he was expecting to trap me in a lie or something. Which, yeah, reasonable. I wasn't able to contribute much to the discussion in terms of each person's capabilities, but I was able to add in a few pieces of the impressions I'd gotten from each of them… At least what little I apparently remembered.
He seemed oddly amused when I called Robin a prick, even as he assured me that the kid was apparently a professional.
I also took a brief moment to run down my abilities for him again, including how I'd tracked him down in the first place. I was a little worried about pulling that trick off again, though, given how long it had been since we'd all apparently set out. It was damn lucky none of the trails had gone cold before I found them, but at this point, I wasn't willing to bet they were still there.
Still… I had to at least try.
* * * * *
"Dammit!"
I paced at the top of the dune, scowling. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I cursed, all but pulling at my hair in my frustration.
"Ash, calm down," Aqualad said, putting a placating hand on my shoulder. And nearly getting his arm wrenched out his his socket before I stopped, but he didn't need to know that. "We will figure this out, but we need to be calm."
"How can I be calm? I lost the stupid trail!" I hissed, throwing my hands up in frustration.
In the end, we'd elected to go after Kid Flash next, on the basis of him likely needing the extra energy from the snack bars. Aqualad had managed to at least partially refill his pack, and had taken an extra couple of canteens to help sustain him in the desert. We'd ended up having to wait for a few hours, and while I didn't think it was much cooler right now than it had been when I found Aqualad, neither of us had been willing to wait any longer than that.
With that in mind, we'd returned to the camp (Bio-Ship returning to her camouflage mode after we'd left, apparently on a standing order), and I'd done my best to find what little of Kid's scent I still could. It had taken longer than I'd have liked, but I did manage to find just enough to go on, and the two of us had spent the last couple of hours trekking through the desert following it. At least, until about five minutes ago.
"It's this fucking wind!" I bit out, even as the stated lifted my hair and flitted through it. "There's not a lot of it, but it's blown off all the scent by this point. I don't think I could find anyone else now… Dammit!" I punctuated the sentence by dropping into a crouch and burying my face in my hands.
I heard Aqualad sigh, before the rustle of sand told me he'd dropped into a crouch as well. "Ash. We did our best. And there is a chance one or more of our Team may find their way back to camp. Would you be able to take us back?"
"... I think so," I replied, quiet. The wind couldn't have blown off our newer scents entirely just yet, we should be able to backtrack.
Aqualad clapped me on the back. "Then it is time to regroup and come up with a new plan. It happens on the job. One must learn to… adjust."
I let out a long sigh before nodding. He was right. I hated it, but he was right. I pushed myself to my feet, giving Aqualad a weak smile, before turning back the way we'd come.
Then I stopped and turned back around, sweeping my gaze across the sky.
"... Ash?"
"Did you see that?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of the sky.
"I cannot say I did. What was it?"
"It looked like…" There! It was crossing the sky, little more than a vague shape at this distance, but… That was no bird, and it was definitely no plane. Not a Superman (or Superboy) either, though it was definitely the right shape for one of them.
But neither of them could have made that faint, distant flash of green that had first caught my attention.
Without even thinking, I leapt off the dune, leaving Aqualad behind as I landed atop another nearby. I took in a deep breath, letting my diaphragm expand fully and air fill every single inch of my lungs, before cupping my hands to my mouth and shouting in the loudest possible voice I could manage.
And let me tell you, when you've worked up your lung capacity like a Dragon Slayer has? You can shout very loudly indeed.
"M'GAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!"
I honestly wasn't sure how to react to Aqualad's question at first. For a moment, I just… stared at him. I knew there'd been something fucky going on with my memories, given… everything, and I wasn't that surprised to find out I wasn't alone in that regard. But…
"Aqualad," I murmured, "what's the last thing you remember?"
He closed his eyes. I could see sweat dripping down his forehead from the heat of the desert sun, contrasting with the dry texture much of his skin had taken on. Jeez, it really wasn't healthy for him to be out here, was it?
"... I have some idea," he eventually said, opening his eyes back up and looking at me. "However, I am afraid–"
"That you don't trust me, right," I interrupted, rubbing my fingers against my temple. It made sense, unfortunately. If he didn't actually remember me, his trust in me was going to be more… limited, even if I did save his life. After all, it would be easy for some enemy of Atlantis or the League to take advantage of his current vulnerability.
Aqualad nodded. "I am… willing to at least hear you out, though. You did just save my life, after all."
I chuckled under my breath. "Well, at least I'm good for something."
That at least got a chuckle out of him, too, as he pulled himself into a more upright sitting position, pulling his backpack into his lap as he did so. I backed off as he did it, giving him a bit of space, and stood as I pondered exactly what to say to him to make him trust me.
It wasn't long before a thought occurred to me, and I glanced back down at Aqualad with what I am not ashamed to admit was a slightly desperate air. "Please tell me you at least remember the Team?"
A look of surprise briefly flitted across his face, though he schooled his expression after a moment. "... Yes, I do. Though…" He glanced around us, at the sand, sand, and more sand.
"Heh, yeah, I think we're out here on a mission. Which… might be my first one?" I shrugged. "You aren't the only one who's missing some shit up here." I gestured at my head.
Then, realizing what I'd skipped over, I crouched back down and stuck my hand out to Aqualad. "Oh, and I'm Ash. Not my hero name, I don't remember what I chose, I'm… kind of new at this whole thing. And you're Aqualad, Kaldur'ahm, or boss-man."
"... That last one is new," he replied after a moment, taking my hand. I shook it for a second, then pulled him up to his feet. "But it is accurate. Either you really are a new member of the Team, or we are quite heavily compromised. For now, I will choose to believe the former."
I let out a small sigh. Good, that was one problem taken care of, and only… a fuck-ton more to go. "So, uh, last thing you remember?"
"... We were checking in on… the friend of a friend," he said. I frowned at that. Okay, maybe that "trust" hurdle wasn't quite cleared, but as long as we could work together it'd… probably work out.
That's about when I noticed that he was swaying on his feet a bit, and hurried over to offer him some support. "Whoa, easy…" I winced at the touch of his skin. It was way too dry, even more that it looked. "I guess we can figure out how long we're missing later. We need to get you some more water first."
I considered for a moment, then jabbed a thumb at the road we were nearby. "I think we're by a military outpost or something, I had to fight off some soldiers near where I think we'd set up camp." Or something like that. I still wasn't sure what that metal thingy had been, but it was definitely different from anything the soldiers had been carrying on them, and I'd found everyone's scents there regardless. "Some of them might drive by, and they should have water–"
"I don't believe… that will be necessary," Aqualad said, putting a hand on my shoulder to interrupt me. "You said we had made a camp. Do you remember where it is?"
* * * * *
The sun blazed overhead.
Oh, well, I was assuming that was the right… adjective? I think? "Blazed" seemed like it should be used here, but it wasn't like I was a good judge of that kind of thing. The heat felt more comfortable to me than anything. Perks of being fireproof.
Aqualad, though, was definitely feeling the heat. I'd already asked him a few times if he wanted me to carry him, save his energy and all that, but he'd just waved me off each time. He was determined to soldier on, and I could honestly respect that. Even if I thought it was kind of dumb at the same time.
He had, however, occasionally stumbled, prompting me to give him a shoulder to lean on while he caught his breath. We never stopped for very long, but even so, it ended up taking a lot longer to get back than it had to get out to find Aqualad in the first place.
At least I was able to follow my own scent back to camp, making the trail a lot clearer for me. Even if sniffing out my own scent always left me feeling weird.
At any rate, eventually we emerged over a sand dune to see the depression with that weird metal thing. All the soldiers I'd fought beforehand were long gone, and a quick hop down confirmed that none of them were hiding under the sand this time.
"Alright, we're good," I said as Aqualad picked his way down the dune, wincing at the hot sand stinging his bare feet. I raised an eyebrow at him. "So, we're looking for… a ship?"
"Indeed. It should be around here somewhere."
I nodded, and the two of us split up, circling out from the main camp as we searched. According to Aqualad, apparently Miss Martian owned some sort of "bio-ship" that, if he was right, was probably how we'd gotten out here. Wherever here was. After all, it's not like we could have just taken the Zeta Tubes anywhere, there apparently needed to be "gates" at both ends for that to work.
I did feel a little stupid, the way he'd had to spell that out for me, but it made sense in hindsight.
Anyways, the ship could apparently be camouflaged, so it was unlikely the soldiers had taken it. The flip side being that it also made finding the damn thing a lot harder. Our best guess at this point was to just sweep the area and hope we ran into i–
BONK
"GAH, FUCK!" I fell back, stumbling and rubbing at my face that had apparently just ran into thin air. It didn't really hurt, but I hadn't expected our plan to work out quite so literally.
"Ash?" Aqualad called out, breathing heavily as he stumbled his way over to me.
"Ugh… I think I found it," I called back. Putting my hand out, I felt around at the air before me until I touched something cool and strangely… fleshy.
The air rippled out, waves of red and black spreading from my point of contact, and I stepped back as the Bio-Ship revealed itself to us. It had a very sleek look to it, the kind of stuff I'd probably have imagined from reading sci-fi, red with bacl highlights and a blue window situated behind the front… what would those be called? Pincers?
After a moment, a ramp sort of… grew out of the bottom of the ship, leading up to a hole that hadn't been there before. Aqualad showed no hesitation before walking up it, and I followed behind him shortly afterwards.
The inside of the Bio-Ship looked even stranger. Blue-ish purple-ish and strangely organic-looking, the interior was completely bare, save for a sort of desk that ran around the outer edge of the cockpit. Round blue lights glowed across it, and as I watched, Aqualad went up to one of them and put his hand on it. It glowed for a moment, then a hole opened next to it, allowing Aqualad to reach in and pull out a canteen. I heard him mutter "thank you, Robin" under his breath before opening it and taking a long drink.
I let him take care of that while I walked up to the desk myself, trailing a hand along the surface. It was strange to the touch, feeling somehow like both metal and skin. Not quite like anything I'd ever felt before. Guess the "Bio" had to come from somewhere, though.
My hand ghosted over one of the blue lights, and I felt… something, almost like a feather brushing across my brain. I winced as my headache surged back into focus, and with a hiss, I pulled back from the light. The pounding receded almost at once, and I rubbed at my forehead.
… Was… was Bio-Ship telepathic like M'gann? It certainly felt like she had just brushed up against my mind, a lot like when M'gann had showed me…
"Ash?" I turned at Aqualad's question, He had made his way to the other side of the cockpit, and had been pulling out what looked like snack bars from another opening. Between the water and the cool interior, he already looked much better.
"Just a headache," I said, walking over to him. I nodded at the bars. "Lemme guess, for Wa– uh, I mean Kid Flash?"
Aqualad looked at me for a long moment before nodding. "Indeed."
I nodded – Wally had told me a while back that he had an insane metabolism, so it was probably a good idea to get extra snacks for him, even on missions – and glanced around. "So, now that you're not about to get barbequed out here, we should probably find the others, huh?" I pondered, before stiffening as an idea occurred. "Uh, are we gonna be flying around in Bio-Ship?" I asked, unable to keep a note of nervousness out of my voice.
Thankfully, Aqualad shook his head. "Unfortunately, I have not learned how to pilot this ship," he explained. "Though perhaps I should learn, lest a situation similar to this occurs in the future. For now, though, we must go on foot."
We didn't leave immediately, of course. Aqualad still had to recover from the heat, after all, and going back out into it wouldn't end well for him. Instead, we took a little while to rest, even as we discussed who to try and track down next.
Unfortunately, both Miss Martian and Superboy were right out as options. I hadn't even managed to get their trails last night, and Aqualad apparently didn't have much in the way of overland tracking himself. Robin was also a non-starter for similar reasons, though Aqualad acted like the so-called Boy Wonder would be able to take care of himself for a while. Of the other two, it was a bit of a toss-up. Kid Flash had powers while Artemis didn't, but Kid would also be running low on energy at this point, while from what little Aqualad could tell me of Artemis suggested that she had at least some survivial training. Green Arrow may not be Batman, but I guess he still managed to keep his place on the League somehow, so it'd make sense that he'd pass some skills down to her.
Throughout the conversation, Aqualad kept a close eye on me, as if he was expecting to trap me in a lie or something. Which, yeah, reasonable. I wasn't able to contribute much to the discussion in terms of each person's capabilities, but I was able to add in a few pieces of the impressions I'd gotten from each of them… At least what little I apparently remembered.
He seemed oddly amused when I called Robin a prick, even as he assured me that the kid was apparently a professional.
I also took a brief moment to run down my abilities for him again, including how I'd tracked him down in the first place. I was a little worried about pulling that trick off again, though, given how long it had been since we'd all apparently set out. It was damn lucky none of the trails had gone cold before I found them, but at this point, I wasn't willing to bet they were still there.
Still… I had to at least try.
* * * * *
"Dammit!"
I paced at the top of the dune, scowling. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I cursed, all but pulling at my hair in my frustration.
"Ash, calm down," Aqualad said, putting a placating hand on my shoulder. And nearly getting his arm wrenched out his his socket before I stopped, but he didn't need to know that. "We will figure this out, but we need to be calm."
"How can I be calm? I lost the stupid trail!" I hissed, throwing my hands up in frustration.
In the end, we'd elected to go after Kid Flash next, on the basis of him likely needing the extra energy from the snack bars. Aqualad had managed to at least partially refill his pack, and had taken an extra couple of canteens to help sustain him in the desert. We'd ended up having to wait for a few hours, and while I didn't think it was much cooler right now than it had been when I found Aqualad, neither of us had been willing to wait any longer than that.
With that in mind, we'd returned to the camp (Bio-Ship returning to her camouflage mode after we'd left, apparently on a standing order), and I'd done my best to find what little of Kid's scent I still could. It had taken longer than I'd have liked, but I did manage to find just enough to go on, and the two of us had spent the last couple of hours trekking through the desert following it. At least, until about five minutes ago.
"It's this fucking wind!" I bit out, even as the stated lifted my hair and flitted through it. "There's not a lot of it, but it's blown off all the scent by this point. I don't think I could find anyone else now… Dammit!" I punctuated the sentence by dropping into a crouch and burying my face in my hands.
I heard Aqualad sigh, before the rustle of sand told me he'd dropped into a crouch as well. "Ash. We did our best. And there is a chance one or more of our Team may find their way back to camp. Would you be able to take us back?"
"... I think so," I replied, quiet. The wind couldn't have blown off our newer scents entirely just yet, we should be able to backtrack.
Aqualad clapped me on the back. "Then it is time to regroup and come up with a new plan. It happens on the job. One must learn to… adjust."
I let out a long sigh before nodding. He was right. I hated it, but he was right. I pushed myself to my feet, giving Aqualad a weak smile, before turning back the way we'd come.
Then I stopped and turned back around, sweeping my gaze across the sky.
"... Ash?"
"Did you see that?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of the sky.
"I cannot say I did. What was it?"
"It looked like…" There! It was crossing the sky, little more than a vague shape at this distance, but… That was no bird, and it was definitely no plane. Not a Superman (or Superboy) either, though it was definitely the right shape for one of them.
But neither of them could have made that faint, distant flash of green that had first caught my attention.
Without even thinking, I leapt off the dune, leaving Aqualad behind as I landed atop another nearby. I took in a deep breath, letting my diaphragm expand fully and air fill every single inch of my lungs, before cupping my hands to my mouth and shouting in the loudest possible voice I could manage.
And let me tell you, when you've worked up your lung capacity like a Dragon Slayer has? You can shout very loudly indeed.
"M'GAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!"
I'm back, baby!
... In my defense, sometimes you know you want to cover point A, and then point B, but you're not quite sure how to get there. Sometimes you can just roll with it. Other times, it takes you a couple months before you know what to do.
Hopefully the rest of this arc won't take nearly as long to come out.
... In my defense, sometimes you know you want to cover point A, and then point B, but you're not quite sure how to get there. Sometimes you can just roll with it. Other times, it takes you a couple months before you know what to do.
Hopefully the rest of this arc won't take nearly as long to come out.
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Ash would definitely be a fan of Skyrim especially with the Dragonborn's iconic battle cry of "FUS ROH DAH!"
Awesome chapter as always and this is getting great.
They both are being really reasonable about it, Kaldur is wary but is willing to play ball even if he doesn't trust her and Ash totally understands that.
So it seems like Kaldur remembers the Team, I'm guessing Ash helped them resist the mindwipe. Also she's showing in depth understanding of the team which Kaldur is aware of.
Smart of him to keep track of what she's saying.
Honestly that's the smart option.
It's okay writer's block and life happens.
JmonsterNEO
Spouter of nonsense
- Location
- The quest forums
"DESTROY MY ENEMIES, AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!"
Chapter 24: Swelter
- Pronouns
- She/Her
My shout rang out through the clear air. I had no doubt that M'gann had heard it, I doubt anyone in sight could have missed it. Hell, the League probably could have heard that from… wherever they were.
The green, blue, and black dot in the sky sure heard it. It stopped in place, and I could only imagine it was looking around. I waved my arms over my head in frantic motions as Aqualad huffed his way up the side of the dune behind me.
"YEAH, OVER HERE!" I shouted out, as loud and clear as I could manage. "IT'S US! REMEMBER US? God I hope she remembers us…"
"Ash!" Aqualad clamped his hand on my shoulder. "Did you not say we were in enemy territory? Are you trying to attract attention?"
I cringed a little, but nodded. "Yeah, but… It's M'gann! How else was I supposed to get her attention? A giant fireball would've been just as noticeable, maybe even from farther away."
He continued staring at me for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "You do have a point." His gaze drifted past my face and over to the open air. "And it seems to have worked."
That got me to look back around, and I couldn't quite keep a grin off my face as I saw the dot rapidly getting larger. Or, well, closer, I guess. Sure enough, it was already close enough that I could now make out her proper shape, green skin under the black bodysuit and a blue cape. She was moving pretty fast, so I guessed she was gonna get here any moment.
My smile did falter a little at that. As glad as I was to see another teammate, I couldn't help but remember just how… strained our relationship had been over the short time we've known each other. Maybe she wouldn't remember, but mind powers were, like, her whole thing. If anyone remembered more than I did about how we got out here, it'd be her.
M'gann, or Miss Martian since we were in the field, alighted in front of us, a brilliantly cheerful smile on her face. "Oh, finally! I've been looking for people out here, I would've thought Earth to be a bit more, uh… populated." She tilted her head in a quizzical manner as she looked at me. "Um… though I'm not entirely sure how you knew my name?"
… Well fuck me, nevermind then.
Thankfully, Aqualad was able to step up and cover for my brief confusion. "You have met her, M'gann. However, we all seem to be missing parts of our memories. None of us are entirely sure what has happened."
Miss Martian slowly nodded. "Missing memories would… explain a lot, actually." She looked a little sheepish. "The last thing I remember, I was back on Mars. I'm not entirely sure how I got to Earth."
Aqualad's eyes went wide, and he shot me a quick glance. A pit opened up in my stomach. "Kaldur… how long ago did you say you met her?" I asked, unable to keep a note of desperation out of my voice."
"Accounting for the weeks we are both missing?" Aqualad wiped some sweat off his brow. "At least two months ago."
Miss Martian and I both turned to look at him in shock.
"Oh no…"
"Shit…"
Two months? Maybe more? I'd been hoping our resident telepath would be able to fill in the blanks for us, not be missing even more of the story! What were we supposed to do now?
A hand on my shoulder once again snapped me out of it before I could spiral too far, and I looked up to see Aqualad looking me in the eye. "Calm down," he commanded, his tone firm in spite of his obvious discomfort. "This happens on missions sometimes. Things go wrong. We just have to adapt."
"Adapt… okay." I let out a shaky breath and stilled my arms. When had they started trembling? "I can adapt. Yeah."
"Um…" Another hand on my other shoulder, and I blinked in surprise at Miss Martian giving me an affirming squeeze. "Sorry. I just… you seemed like you needed it." Her smile, as small as it was, was as warm as it was unexpected.
"... Yeah, I did." I chuckled a little. "Sorry, first mission jitters, I guess."
Miss Martian floated back a bit, then snapped a hand up and palmed her forehead. "Hello, Megan! We may be missing our memories now, but it's hard to completely wipe anything without leaving fragments! I bet I can piece together what happened from what little we can remember!"
Aqualad and I looked at each other, then back at her as we both nodded. "What do we need to do?"
Miss Martian had us all sit cross-legged in a circle (easy for her, she was floating above the sand that gets everywhere, bleh). I steadied my breathing as we all closed our eyes, and after a moment, I felt a familiar touch on my mind. Going by the way he stiffened next to me, Aqualad felt it too. Remembering what happened last time we'd done this, I tried not to do anything… weird with my brain as I felt M'gann reach further in and…
And…
Wait
no
that's
stop
STOP
S̸̘̓T̶̫͂O̸̙͗P̴̙̎!̷̨͠!̷̼͑!̶̗̓!̷͔͒
* * * * *
I gasped as I woke up, flat on my back, the sky overhead no longer blue but slowly fading to orange and red. My skull throbbed like a jackhammer was beating against it, and the sudden light only intensified the pain. I groaned as I shut them again, bringing a hand up to my head as if it would help.
"Ash!"
I cracked an eye open at the two voices. "Ugh, what happened?" I slurred out, noting a coppery taste on my tongue as I did so.
Hands pulled me up into a sitting position, and two blurry forms hovered at the corners of my vision. "I am not sure," Kaldur's voice said, a note of concern peaking through both the stoicism and the dryness. "You had some sort of fit when M'gann started to try and recover our memories."
"It was like your mind was damaged," M'gann's far more worried voice piped up. "Kaldur said you remember more than us, but I think you got a different kind of backlash from the rest of us instead. I stopped almost immediately, but… you still started bleeding," she finished, shame creeping into her tone.
Thankfully, the ache in my head was diminishing fast, so I had enough presence of mind to bring my sleeve up and wipe the blood out from under my nose. "Well, that sucks…" I muttered, opening my other eye so I could take in the other two more clearly. M'gann's face was more expressive, but they were both looking at me with a lot of anxiety.
"Tell me it at least worked to get your guys' memories back?" I asked, staggering to my feet.
Both of them just blinked at me. "Um… Ash, aren't you worried?" M'gann asked softly. "Or mad?"
I frowned. "Why would I be mad? It was an accident, and I'm fine now. As for worried… Well, yeah, kind of, but I can't do shit about it right now and it's not the first time I've been hurt. I can deal with this until we get home." I shrugged. "Besides, I feel pretty fine, actually."
Both of them looked at me like they thought I was lying, but Aqualad was quick to shake his head. "If you are certain…" He straightened up. "M'gann and I were not able to fully recover our memories, unfortunately, but I feel that we are both at least slightly more informed than we were."
"Oh, right!" M'gann said, her anxiety seeming to melt away as cheer re-entered her voice. She even floated back up a bit. "I remember about the Team now, and how we're all on it! Plus Robin, Wally, Artemis, and Superboy!"
"Yeah, we were actually out here looking for Wally when we found you," I said, thankful that at least now I didn't have to go through that whole song and dance again. Plus, M'gann still didn't seem to be nervous around me. Maybe she still didn't remember whatever caused it in the first place?
I perked up as a thought occurred to me. "Wait, M'g– I mean, Miss Martian. Can you sense where the others are?"
"Not right now," she said. "I think they're out of range. But if I can get closer-!"
"You can lead us right to them." Aqualad nodded. "Then we have a game plan. We just need to decide where to begin our search."
For a long moment, none of us spoke. I was mostly thinking about where to go, and while I was mostly sure the others were too, I did catch Aqualad sneaking a glance at me out of the corner of his eye. A little annoying, I told him I was fine, but whatever. He was the boss, he had a right to be worried.
Miss Martian opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off as a distant sound reached our ears. Specifically, the sound of something exploding. We all turned to see a plume of smoke rising in the distance, towards the north. Northwest? Northwest-ish.
I looked at it, then back to the group. "I have a suggestion."
* * * * *
Miss Martian probably could have easily outpaced us just by flying, but Aqualad insisted we stick together, and frankly, I agreed with him. Unfortunately, that meant that as the slowest member, our glorious leader would have been the one to set the pace. At least, if I hadn't overruled him in how we were going to get there.
"Ugh!" Aqualad grunted in what hopefully was just discomfort rather than pain as we landed hard on a dune, sending sand spraying out every direction. He barely had any time to readjust his grip from where he was riding me piggyback before I'd launched myself into the air into another arc.
<Pfft, who needs flying?> I cackled good-naturedly across the telepathing link Miss Martian had set up. Thankfully, a bit of testing showed that I could use it without hurting myself, at least.
<I certainly would not mind the ability myself,> Aqualad bit out dryly in return. <Although I suppose I am in no condition to complain.>
<It's the same way Superboy gets around,> Miss Martian pointed out as I reached the top of my arc, putting us on eye level with her for a second before we started falling again. <Oh, that reminds me, I ran into him earlier! I didn't remember him at the time, though.>
<Did he say anything?> I asked. Maybe he remembered a decent amount.
<No. Actually, he was acting… strange. Like he didn't remember anything at all, just… screaming incoherently.>
<That is not good. Superboy doesn't have any memories before about two months ago himself. If he lost anywhere near the amount Miss Martian did-> "Ugh!" <-there is a distinct possibility he is lashing out of pure instinct.>
<He doesn't have..? Not important.> I scowled. <What I want to know is, why do we all seem to remember different amounts of time after whatever the fuck happened?>
<I don't know. And I can't guess until we figure out exactly what happened– wait.> Miss Martian
Came to a halt above us and we landed again. <Aqualad, contact! I see two drones heading for us!> I followed her line of sight and spotted them two, a pair of sleek back shaped swooping in from out of the sky.
<Engage, but keep your distance. We do not know if they have any incendiary weapons, and I do not wish to find out the hard way,> Aqualad ordered.
I let him off of my back. "Incendiary weapons?" I asked, turning my head towards him. "I mean, I get why that's bad, but I thought martians were supposed to be super-tough?"
Aqualad frowned at me as he unsheathed water-bearer, though he unfortunately only had enough water for a single blade. "To most things, they are, but they possess a physiological weakness to fire and extreme heat. I do not wish for her to risk herself against the possibility."
I barely heard his second sentence. Too many things were clicking into place all at once with this new information. For a moment, all I could do was stare at him in slowly mounting horror, before I slapped my face into my hands.
<MOTHERFUCKING SHITBALLS!>
Overhead, Miss Martian yelped, almost losing her telekinetic grip on the drones. <Ash! Are you okay?>
<NO I'M NOT– Gah, shit, sorry, I didn't mean to broadcast that.> God. I was a brain-dead moron, wasn't I? How could I not have seen it before? Did I just not want to see it?
"Ash!" I looked up at Aqualad's shout to see a pair of army jeeps riding down a road at the base of my dune. Several soldiers were leaning out of the windows to point their guns at us.
All at once, my feelings stopped surging, melding into a single emotion, one that I freely expressed by allowing a smile that was all teeth stretch across my face. "Ooh, look, new stress toys!" I snarled, and before Aqualad could say anything, I had leapt down the dune and onto the road, landing right next to the front jeep.
I took a brief moment to sever the psychic link before I went on the attack. A flaming boot slammed into the side of the jeep, and the vehicle flipped onto its side, the top half all but getting buried in the sand. I spun, collecting flames around my fist, and punched the second jeep right before it could run me over. The entire front section crumpled and bent, the fulcrum of my arm sending the back half jerking into the air and likely giving everyone inside a nasty case of whiplash.
I pulled my fist out and turned back to the first jeep. Aqualad had joined me down here at some point, and was weaving through the soldiers that had managed to dig themselves out of the wreck of their jeep. His waterbearer kept morphing and changing, snatching guns and grenades out of hands and pockets, while he used his free hand to shock anyone he grabbed into unconsciousness. The soldiers were putting up a good fight, but with most of them still half-buried and the rest going down faster than their comrades could get up, the situation was well under control.
Satisfied, I turned back around just in time to grab a rifle by the barrel and jerk it out of the grasp of a soldier that I promptly laid flat out on his back. Several more soldiers had pulled themselves out, but even as I moved into a fighting stance, one of them spasmed and fell over, revealing a blunt, electrified arrow sticking out of his back.
I looked up to see Artemis standing further up the dune opposite me, and I caught a glimpse of a black-clad Kid Flash as well before he blurred down the sand. Acting fast, I lunged forward, caught one of the soldiers, and threw him into Kid's path. I wasn't the only one quick on the draw, and the soldier went down hard as the blur smashed into it before turning and resolving into Kid kicking a second soldier in the chest. That soldier fell back hard, right into my outstretched arm as I clotheslined him from behind.
Between Kid and I wreaking havoc on any soldier that dragged themselves out, Aqualad joining in shortly afterward, and Artemis raining down support from the high ground, we managed to make short work of our assailants. And we weren't the only ones winning our battles, as above us, Miss Martian managed to steer the two drones directly into each other, ending her battle decisively.
I huffed out a breath as she descended to meet us, and both of us and Aqualad turned to look at the newcomers. "About damn time," I muttered. "We've been looking for you guys everywhere!"
"Oh!" Another blur and Kid Flash was right in front of me, grabbing my hand. "Please tell me you're a new part of the Team too! I've been trying to tell her that's probably what's up," he jabbed a thumb back at Artemis, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable around all the superheroes as she slid down the dune to join us, "but she didn't believe me!"
Aqualad stepped up, looking even more worn out after his exertion. "Kid Flash. You assume correctly, although like us, I assume you're missing some pieces of this puzzle as well?" For some reason, he glanced between Kid and Artemis as he said that.
"Yeah!" Kid blurred again and reappeared by Aqualad. "I remember the whole CADMUS thing, but not a lot after that. I thought this was the League testing us or something at first, but Artemis here says it's August by now!"
"Because it is August," the woman in question insisted, glancing over at Miss Martian and I before turning back to the two boys. "At least, last I remember."
"Actually, it might be September by now," I muttered, to blank stares all around. I just shrugged in response. "It was like, the 27th of August last I remember, and I'm pretty sure I lost at least a few days."
"Aw, man, that means I'm back in school by now!" Kid moaned, throwing his arms out in an overdramatic fashion. "Hope I'm not missing any classes for this…"
Miss Martian floated forward. "We can help fill you in, but have any of you seen Superboy or Robin? We're pretty sure they're both out here with us."
"Nothing about Robin, but I'm guessing Superboy was that feral kid we saw a few minutes ago?" Artemis asked, looking at Kid. "You were trying to talk to him like you knew him."
He nodded. "Yeah, I was wondering why he was acting like he had when we first met him, just like, a million times worse, but… If we're all missing different periods of time, do you think..?"
Aqualad frowned. "Between that and what Miss Martian was saying…" He turned to look at me. "Ash, can you go see if you can find him? Or at least get a scent?"
I put my questions on where they'd all found Superboy exactly aside and nodded. "Maybe Miss M can help you all start piecing things together before I get back. I shouldn't be long."
With a final round of assent, I jumped up to the top of the dune and glanced around. Let's see, metal wreckage, smoke, rocks… Huh, that looked like where I'd found Aqualad earlier, had we gone in a circle?
It didn't take me long to bound over there and find out yep, we had ended up back where I'd found Aqualad after all. Maybe we should have just stayed here, it would have been easier… Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
Then, as I looked around, I saw something. An intact jeep and… was that a tank? Plus several soldiers standing in a circle, holding on to…
Oh shit.
I didn't even think about getting the others for help. I'd realize that was a mistake later, but at the moment, all I could think about was getting Superboy out of there. I launched myself down at the soldiers, flames springing to life all about me.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I yelled as I unleashed a Burning Wings attack, flames fanning across several of the soldiers holding Superboy down, along with a few that had been pointing weapons at him. They fell back with screams, and with the sudden slack, Superboy (who was shirtless for some reason) was able to yank his arm out of the ropes they'd been holding onto one of his arms with, then grab the ropes on the other.
With a yell, he pulled all the soldiers on that side off their feet, freeing both his arms, then locked his eyes on me and I landed in front of him. My eyes widened as he threw himself towards me with a scream, and just barely managed to get my arms up in time to block his punch, the clash sending out a shockwave that knocked even more soldiers off their feet.
"Ah, how interesting."
I glanced away from where Superboy was trying to push me back to see a hooded figure walk up to us. I could see his pale, almost pure white skin underneath his overcoat, and could just barely make out his eyes underneath the hood. One of them seemed bloodshot, like a blood vessel had burst in it.
He raised a hand up towards Superboy. "Be still," he said, commanded really, and to my shock, Superboy went limp. I managed to catch him before he fell on his face.
I scowled at the hooded man. "What did you do?"
"The same thing I'm going to do to you," he said in a soft voice, his hand moving towards me while the other went up to touch his eye. "Though after what happened last time, I'll need to be more careful with you."
"Like hell." I lowered Superboy to the ground and whirled on the man, ready to charge… before I felt a sudden jab of P̶̳͛̈́À̷̗I̷͎͘̕N̴̢̜̑͒ lance through my mind, sending me stumbling.
The man hissed, touching at his nose as it began to bleed. "Mmm, you are a troublesome one. No matter, this should have far less backlash on me, as long as I'm cautious."
"You…" I staggered to my feet. "You're the one…"
"Psimon says… s̵l̴e̵e̷p̶."
The green, blue, and black dot in the sky sure heard it. It stopped in place, and I could only imagine it was looking around. I waved my arms over my head in frantic motions as Aqualad huffed his way up the side of the dune behind me.
"YEAH, OVER HERE!" I shouted out, as loud and clear as I could manage. "IT'S US! REMEMBER US? God I hope she remembers us…"
"Ash!" Aqualad clamped his hand on my shoulder. "Did you not say we were in enemy territory? Are you trying to attract attention?"
I cringed a little, but nodded. "Yeah, but… It's M'gann! How else was I supposed to get her attention? A giant fireball would've been just as noticeable, maybe even from farther away."
He continued staring at me for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "You do have a point." His gaze drifted past my face and over to the open air. "And it seems to have worked."
That got me to look back around, and I couldn't quite keep a grin off my face as I saw the dot rapidly getting larger. Or, well, closer, I guess. Sure enough, it was already close enough that I could now make out her proper shape, green skin under the black bodysuit and a blue cape. She was moving pretty fast, so I guessed she was gonna get here any moment.
My smile did falter a little at that. As glad as I was to see another teammate, I couldn't help but remember just how… strained our relationship had been over the short time we've known each other. Maybe she wouldn't remember, but mind powers were, like, her whole thing. If anyone remembered more than I did about how we got out here, it'd be her.
M'gann, or Miss Martian since we were in the field, alighted in front of us, a brilliantly cheerful smile on her face. "Oh, finally! I've been looking for people out here, I would've thought Earth to be a bit more, uh… populated." She tilted her head in a quizzical manner as she looked at me. "Um… though I'm not entirely sure how you knew my name?"
… Well fuck me, nevermind then.
Thankfully, Aqualad was able to step up and cover for my brief confusion. "You have met her, M'gann. However, we all seem to be missing parts of our memories. None of us are entirely sure what has happened."
Miss Martian slowly nodded. "Missing memories would… explain a lot, actually." She looked a little sheepish. "The last thing I remember, I was back on Mars. I'm not entirely sure how I got to Earth."
Aqualad's eyes went wide, and he shot me a quick glance. A pit opened up in my stomach. "Kaldur… how long ago did you say you met her?" I asked, unable to keep a note of desperation out of my voice."
"Accounting for the weeks we are both missing?" Aqualad wiped some sweat off his brow. "At least two months ago."
Miss Martian and I both turned to look at him in shock.
"Oh no…"
"Shit…"
Two months? Maybe more? I'd been hoping our resident telepath would be able to fill in the blanks for us, not be missing even more of the story! What were we supposed to do now?
A hand on my shoulder once again snapped me out of it before I could spiral too far, and I looked up to see Aqualad looking me in the eye. "Calm down," he commanded, his tone firm in spite of his obvious discomfort. "This happens on missions sometimes. Things go wrong. We just have to adapt."
"Adapt… okay." I let out a shaky breath and stilled my arms. When had they started trembling? "I can adapt. Yeah."
"Um…" Another hand on my other shoulder, and I blinked in surprise at Miss Martian giving me an affirming squeeze. "Sorry. I just… you seemed like you needed it." Her smile, as small as it was, was as warm as it was unexpected.
"... Yeah, I did." I chuckled a little. "Sorry, first mission jitters, I guess."
Miss Martian floated back a bit, then snapped a hand up and palmed her forehead. "Hello, Megan! We may be missing our memories now, but it's hard to completely wipe anything without leaving fragments! I bet I can piece together what happened from what little we can remember!"
Aqualad and I looked at each other, then back at her as we both nodded. "What do we need to do?"
Miss Martian had us all sit cross-legged in a circle (easy for her, she was floating above the sand that gets everywhere, bleh). I steadied my breathing as we all closed our eyes, and after a moment, I felt a familiar touch on my mind. Going by the way he stiffened next to me, Aqualad felt it too. Remembering what happened last time we'd done this, I tried not to do anything… weird with my brain as I felt M'gann reach further in and…
And…
Wait
no
that's
stop
STOP
S̸̘̓T̶̫͂O̸̙͗P̴̙̎!̷̨͠!̷̼͑!̶̗̓!̷͔͒
* * * * *
I gasped as I woke up, flat on my back, the sky overhead no longer blue but slowly fading to orange and red. My skull throbbed like a jackhammer was beating against it, and the sudden light only intensified the pain. I groaned as I shut them again, bringing a hand up to my head as if it would help.
"Ash!"
I cracked an eye open at the two voices. "Ugh, what happened?" I slurred out, noting a coppery taste on my tongue as I did so.
Hands pulled me up into a sitting position, and two blurry forms hovered at the corners of my vision. "I am not sure," Kaldur's voice said, a note of concern peaking through both the stoicism and the dryness. "You had some sort of fit when M'gann started to try and recover our memories."
"It was like your mind was damaged," M'gann's far more worried voice piped up. "Kaldur said you remember more than us, but I think you got a different kind of backlash from the rest of us instead. I stopped almost immediately, but… you still started bleeding," she finished, shame creeping into her tone.
Thankfully, the ache in my head was diminishing fast, so I had enough presence of mind to bring my sleeve up and wipe the blood out from under my nose. "Well, that sucks…" I muttered, opening my other eye so I could take in the other two more clearly. M'gann's face was more expressive, but they were both looking at me with a lot of anxiety.
"Tell me it at least worked to get your guys' memories back?" I asked, staggering to my feet.
Both of them just blinked at me. "Um… Ash, aren't you worried?" M'gann asked softly. "Or mad?"
I frowned. "Why would I be mad? It was an accident, and I'm fine now. As for worried… Well, yeah, kind of, but I can't do shit about it right now and it's not the first time I've been hurt. I can deal with this until we get home." I shrugged. "Besides, I feel pretty fine, actually."
Both of them looked at me like they thought I was lying, but Aqualad was quick to shake his head. "If you are certain…" He straightened up. "M'gann and I were not able to fully recover our memories, unfortunately, but I feel that we are both at least slightly more informed than we were."
"Oh, right!" M'gann said, her anxiety seeming to melt away as cheer re-entered her voice. She even floated back up a bit. "I remember about the Team now, and how we're all on it! Plus Robin, Wally, Artemis, and Superboy!"
"Yeah, we were actually out here looking for Wally when we found you," I said, thankful that at least now I didn't have to go through that whole song and dance again. Plus, M'gann still didn't seem to be nervous around me. Maybe she still didn't remember whatever caused it in the first place?
I perked up as a thought occurred to me. "Wait, M'g– I mean, Miss Martian. Can you sense where the others are?"
"Not right now," she said. "I think they're out of range. But if I can get closer-!"
"You can lead us right to them." Aqualad nodded. "Then we have a game plan. We just need to decide where to begin our search."
For a long moment, none of us spoke. I was mostly thinking about where to go, and while I was mostly sure the others were too, I did catch Aqualad sneaking a glance at me out of the corner of his eye. A little annoying, I told him I was fine, but whatever. He was the boss, he had a right to be worried.
Miss Martian opened her mouth to say something, but she was cut off as a distant sound reached our ears. Specifically, the sound of something exploding. We all turned to see a plume of smoke rising in the distance, towards the north. Northwest? Northwest-ish.
I looked at it, then back to the group. "I have a suggestion."
* * * * *
Miss Martian probably could have easily outpaced us just by flying, but Aqualad insisted we stick together, and frankly, I agreed with him. Unfortunately, that meant that as the slowest member, our glorious leader would have been the one to set the pace. At least, if I hadn't overruled him in how we were going to get there.
"Ugh!" Aqualad grunted in what hopefully was just discomfort rather than pain as we landed hard on a dune, sending sand spraying out every direction. He barely had any time to readjust his grip from where he was riding me piggyback before I'd launched myself into the air into another arc.
<Pfft, who needs flying?> I cackled good-naturedly across the telepathing link Miss Martian had set up. Thankfully, a bit of testing showed that I could use it without hurting myself, at least.
<I certainly would not mind the ability myself,> Aqualad bit out dryly in return. <Although I suppose I am in no condition to complain.>
<It's the same way Superboy gets around,> Miss Martian pointed out as I reached the top of my arc, putting us on eye level with her for a second before we started falling again. <Oh, that reminds me, I ran into him earlier! I didn't remember him at the time, though.>
<Did he say anything?> I asked. Maybe he remembered a decent amount.
<No. Actually, he was acting… strange. Like he didn't remember anything at all, just… screaming incoherently.>
<That is not good. Superboy doesn't have any memories before about two months ago himself. If he lost anywhere near the amount Miss Martian did-> "Ugh!" <-there is a distinct possibility he is lashing out of pure instinct.>
<He doesn't have..? Not important.> I scowled. <What I want to know is, why do we all seem to remember different amounts of time after whatever the fuck happened?>
<I don't know. And I can't guess until we figure out exactly what happened– wait.> Miss Martian
Came to a halt above us and we landed again. <Aqualad, contact! I see two drones heading for us!> I followed her line of sight and spotted them two, a pair of sleek back shaped swooping in from out of the sky.
<Engage, but keep your distance. We do not know if they have any incendiary weapons, and I do not wish to find out the hard way,> Aqualad ordered.
I let him off of my back. "Incendiary weapons?" I asked, turning my head towards him. "I mean, I get why that's bad, but I thought martians were supposed to be super-tough?"
Aqualad frowned at me as he unsheathed water-bearer, though he unfortunately only had enough water for a single blade. "To most things, they are, but they possess a physiological weakness to fire and extreme heat. I do not wish for her to risk herself against the possibility."
I barely heard his second sentence. Too many things were clicking into place all at once with this new information. For a moment, all I could do was stare at him in slowly mounting horror, before I slapped my face into my hands.
<MOTHERFUCKING SHITBALLS!>
Overhead, Miss Martian yelped, almost losing her telekinetic grip on the drones. <Ash! Are you okay?>
<NO I'M NOT– Gah, shit, sorry, I didn't mean to broadcast that.> God. I was a brain-dead moron, wasn't I? How could I not have seen it before? Did I just not want to see it?
"Ash!" I looked up at Aqualad's shout to see a pair of army jeeps riding down a road at the base of my dune. Several soldiers were leaning out of the windows to point their guns at us.
All at once, my feelings stopped surging, melding into a single emotion, one that I freely expressed by allowing a smile that was all teeth stretch across my face. "Ooh, look, new stress toys!" I snarled, and before Aqualad could say anything, I had leapt down the dune and onto the road, landing right next to the front jeep.
I took a brief moment to sever the psychic link before I went on the attack. A flaming boot slammed into the side of the jeep, and the vehicle flipped onto its side, the top half all but getting buried in the sand. I spun, collecting flames around my fist, and punched the second jeep right before it could run me over. The entire front section crumpled and bent, the fulcrum of my arm sending the back half jerking into the air and likely giving everyone inside a nasty case of whiplash.
I pulled my fist out and turned back to the first jeep. Aqualad had joined me down here at some point, and was weaving through the soldiers that had managed to dig themselves out of the wreck of their jeep. His waterbearer kept morphing and changing, snatching guns and grenades out of hands and pockets, while he used his free hand to shock anyone he grabbed into unconsciousness. The soldiers were putting up a good fight, but with most of them still half-buried and the rest going down faster than their comrades could get up, the situation was well under control.
Satisfied, I turned back around just in time to grab a rifle by the barrel and jerk it out of the grasp of a soldier that I promptly laid flat out on his back. Several more soldiers had pulled themselves out, but even as I moved into a fighting stance, one of them spasmed and fell over, revealing a blunt, electrified arrow sticking out of his back.
I looked up to see Artemis standing further up the dune opposite me, and I caught a glimpse of a black-clad Kid Flash as well before he blurred down the sand. Acting fast, I lunged forward, caught one of the soldiers, and threw him into Kid's path. I wasn't the only one quick on the draw, and the soldier went down hard as the blur smashed into it before turning and resolving into Kid kicking a second soldier in the chest. That soldier fell back hard, right into my outstretched arm as I clotheslined him from behind.
Between Kid and I wreaking havoc on any soldier that dragged themselves out, Aqualad joining in shortly afterward, and Artemis raining down support from the high ground, we managed to make short work of our assailants. And we weren't the only ones winning our battles, as above us, Miss Martian managed to steer the two drones directly into each other, ending her battle decisively.
I huffed out a breath as she descended to meet us, and both of us and Aqualad turned to look at the newcomers. "About damn time," I muttered. "We've been looking for you guys everywhere!"
"Oh!" Another blur and Kid Flash was right in front of me, grabbing my hand. "Please tell me you're a new part of the Team too! I've been trying to tell her that's probably what's up," he jabbed a thumb back at Artemis, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable around all the superheroes as she slid down the dune to join us, "but she didn't believe me!"
Aqualad stepped up, looking even more worn out after his exertion. "Kid Flash. You assume correctly, although like us, I assume you're missing some pieces of this puzzle as well?" For some reason, he glanced between Kid and Artemis as he said that.
"Yeah!" Kid blurred again and reappeared by Aqualad. "I remember the whole CADMUS thing, but not a lot after that. I thought this was the League testing us or something at first, but Artemis here says it's August by now!"
"Because it is August," the woman in question insisted, glancing over at Miss Martian and I before turning back to the two boys. "At least, last I remember."
"Actually, it might be September by now," I muttered, to blank stares all around. I just shrugged in response. "It was like, the 27th of August last I remember, and I'm pretty sure I lost at least a few days."
"Aw, man, that means I'm back in school by now!" Kid moaned, throwing his arms out in an overdramatic fashion. "Hope I'm not missing any classes for this…"
Miss Martian floated forward. "We can help fill you in, but have any of you seen Superboy or Robin? We're pretty sure they're both out here with us."
"Nothing about Robin, but I'm guessing Superboy was that feral kid we saw a few minutes ago?" Artemis asked, looking at Kid. "You were trying to talk to him like you knew him."
He nodded. "Yeah, I was wondering why he was acting like he had when we first met him, just like, a million times worse, but… If we're all missing different periods of time, do you think..?"
Aqualad frowned. "Between that and what Miss Martian was saying…" He turned to look at me. "Ash, can you go see if you can find him? Or at least get a scent?"
I put my questions on where they'd all found Superboy exactly aside and nodded. "Maybe Miss M can help you all start piecing things together before I get back. I shouldn't be long."
With a final round of assent, I jumped up to the top of the dune and glanced around. Let's see, metal wreckage, smoke, rocks… Huh, that looked like where I'd found Aqualad earlier, had we gone in a circle?
It didn't take me long to bound over there and find out yep, we had ended up back where I'd found Aqualad after all. Maybe we should have just stayed here, it would have been easier… Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
Then, as I looked around, I saw something. An intact jeep and… was that a tank? Plus several soldiers standing in a circle, holding on to…
Oh shit.
I didn't even think about getting the others for help. I'd realize that was a mistake later, but at the moment, all I could think about was getting Superboy out of there. I launched myself down at the soldiers, flames springing to life all about me.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I yelled as I unleashed a Burning Wings attack, flames fanning across several of the soldiers holding Superboy down, along with a few that had been pointing weapons at him. They fell back with screams, and with the sudden slack, Superboy (who was shirtless for some reason) was able to yank his arm out of the ropes they'd been holding onto one of his arms with, then grab the ropes on the other.
With a yell, he pulled all the soldiers on that side off their feet, freeing both his arms, then locked his eyes on me and I landed in front of him. My eyes widened as he threw himself towards me with a scream, and just barely managed to get my arms up in time to block his punch, the clash sending out a shockwave that knocked even more soldiers off their feet.
"Ah, how interesting."
I glanced away from where Superboy was trying to push me back to see a hooded figure walk up to us. I could see his pale, almost pure white skin underneath his overcoat, and could just barely make out his eyes underneath the hood. One of them seemed bloodshot, like a blood vessel had burst in it.
He raised a hand up towards Superboy. "Be still," he said, commanded really, and to my shock, Superboy went limp. I managed to catch him before he fell on his face.
I scowled at the hooded man. "What did you do?"
"The same thing I'm going to do to you," he said in a soft voice, his hand moving towards me while the other went up to touch his eye. "Though after what happened last time, I'll need to be more careful with you."
"Like hell." I lowered Superboy to the ground and whirled on the man, ready to charge… before I felt a sudden jab of P̶̳͛̈́À̷̗I̷͎͘̕N̴̢̜̑͒ lance through my mind, sending me stumbling.
The man hissed, touching at his nose as it began to bleed. "Mmm, you are a troublesome one. No matter, this should have far less backlash on me, as long as I'm cautious."
"You…" I staggered to my feet. "You're the one…"
"Psimon says… s̵l̴e̵e̷p̶."
I swear, I'm not meaning to take massive breaks between chapter uploads. I think maybe my schedule might be a little full...
Anyways, another chapter of Bialya down. I admittedly kind of rushed through a few events in this chapter I would have liked to spend more time on, but. Whatever. I'd rather just get the chapter out at all at this point. And hey, this means we're one step closer to making the big butterfly changes to canon, even if they seems small at first!
Anyways, another chapter of Bialya down. I admittedly kind of rushed through a few events in this chapter I would have liked to spend more time on, but. Whatever. I'd rather just get the chapter out at all at this point. And hey, this means we're one step closer to making the big butterfly changes to canon, even if they seems small at first!
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Atlas Flame within Ash: "And Atlas Flame says BURN IN THE FLAMES OF MY HELLFIRE!!!"
And suddenly Psimon literally exploded in flames, shocking everyone who saw that.
Her guess about M'gann having resistance was understandable but it didn't work out.
Her plan didn't work so adapting is the only option, also Kaldur showing he's a good leader.
Ash rolls with the punches like a champ, also they have information which matters.
Most likely due to her being used to people being afraid of her and her magic effecting most beings.
Violence for stress relief is an option. Also she was smart enough to cut off the connection furst.
Looks like she put up a fight last time and this time as well.
Life happens sometimes.
Her mental defenses likely attacked back.
The best Uno Reverse Card moment on arrogant telepaths who try to invade a Dragon Slayer's mind with a Dragon parent inside ensuring their surrogate kid's wellbeing.
Chapter 25: Grit
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I was getting real tired of waking up with a headache.
My awakening this time didn't leave me groggy for long. Mostly because when I groaned and went to rub my head, my arm wouldn't budge. That woke me up real quick.
As I forced my eyes open, I found myself in some kind of tent. All sorts of tech was set up across the interior, computers and monitors and doodads of all kinds that I couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of, along with a small amount of crates and tables. The biggest thing I noticed was some kind of metal… sphere, or something, that was locked down on one end of the tent, like a giant hamster wheel.
The biggest, but not the most important. That would be an unconscious Superboy, who was strapped down on a giant metal slab to my right, a nearly-crucified position of his arms stretched out to either side of him, and all his limbs locked down tight with thick metal cuffs. A position I quickly realized mirrored my own. At least neither of our heads were bound, so I could still look around.
"Ah, good, you're awake."
I looked down at the speaker, that same pale man that had knocked out Superboy and I, the hood of his brown coat still drawn over his head. He was surrounded on either side with a bunch of scientists – at least, I assumed they were scientists, given the white lab coats they all had on over their dress shirts and ties. And they weren't the only ones in the tent either, I realized. There were over half a dozen of these geeks scattered around the inside of… their base camp? I guessed?
Something about the way all the scientists looked seemed off to me, but I couldn't quite put a finger on it…
"Tut tut, I was talking to you, girl. It's rather rude to ignore one's elders."
My gaze returned to the pale man, and I spat out some blood that had gotten into my mouth from my latest nosebleed. The guy stepped back before it could land on him, but at least a bit of the splatter hit the scientists near him.
"Fuck you," I growled.
"And such language! You are a lot more crass than I was expecting." The man chuckled as he stepped back up. "No matter. We can still cooperate here."
"Cooperate? With a shifty asshole that kidnaped me and my friend there?" I spat, jerking my head towards Superboy.
He just shrugged. "In my defense, you are within the borders of Bialya, young lady. It's perfectly within our military's legal rights to, ah, detain you."
"Bialya?" I frowned, trying to think of where I'd heard that name before.
"You don't even know..? Ah, but of course not." He chuckled again, this time with a grim tone. "I suppose my first little run-in with your invisible friend left a bit of a mark on both of us."
That got my full attention, and jogged my memory of what had just happened. "It was you," I snarled out at him. "You got in our heads, you took our memories."
"I did indeed," he said, before reaching up and lowering his hood. It let me get a better look at his face, especially his one bloodshot eyeball, but it also gave me a look at his cranium. His almost completely transparent cranium, the clarity only marred by irritated veins of blood, with his brain perfectly visible all but floating in the center of it. It was… actually pretty disturbing to look at. Brains were not supposed to be visible when a person was still alive.
"You must understand, of course, that what we're doing here is rather confidential," the guy– What had he called himself? Simon? – continued. "Can't just have any random brats wandering in, you see. And yet, when I went to perform such a routine cleansing…" He scowled, one hand reaching up to touch at his bloodshot eye. "Well, I think nobody was quite expecting the outcome there. And now I seem to have isolated the cause of my, ah, botched job."
I digested that for a moment before gracing him with a flat look. "If this is the part where you try and torture the information out of me, I'll save you some trouble," I deadpanned. "No, I don't know why that happened. My brain's just weird like that. Don't try it again, and you won't give yourself an aneurysm."
"Hmm. Pity." Simon shrugged. "But even if you're telling the truth, there's more than one way to gain that information."
I was about to reply with even more snark, but before I could, the sound of electricity arcing stole my attention to the other side of the room. One of the labcoats was typing something into a computer near the sphere, as its weird hookup sparked and caused it to spin. After just a moment, the sphere began emitting a strange sound.
It… I could swear it sounded like…
"HEY!" I shouted, startling the scientists that were examining it. "Cut that out! The racket's giving me a headache!"
Simon graced me with a flat look. "I hardly think you are in any position to give out orders, girl." He turned back to the scientists. "Increase the shock."
The scientist by the terminal gave me a brief nervous look, then turned back and typed something in. The electricity crackled even louder, and the sphere's sounds increased alongside it.
"I said stop!" I snarled, pushing myself forward as far as I could with my restraints. "Hey, jackass, you hear me?!" He ignored me, and with a wave of Simon's hand, the voltage increased once again. "Stop ignoring me! I swear I'm gonna-! Hey! HEY!" My cries were getting increasingly harder to hear over the metallic screech. "LISTEN TO ME, SHITSTAIN! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THAT COMPUTER RIGHT NOW! STOP IT! STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP HURTING HER!"
Almost as soon as the pleading scream had left my lips, all other noise in the tent cut out. For several seconds, the scientists stared at me, and then Simon turned around as well, his eyebrow arched. "'Her'?"
I managed to keep a wince off my face, but only just. I hadn't meant for that to slip out, but… the way she was screaming in pain… Dammit, I'd just wanted them to stop.
Simon kept his gaze on me for nearly half a minute before seeming to decide I wasn't gonna talk. He waved his hand, and one of the scientists approached my slab. Or, at least the computer at the base of it. "I suppose it doesn't matter that much, in the end," Simon drawled. "We can simply perform the analysis on you as well. Perhaps we'll even learn something."
I stared at him for a moment longer before finally responding. "Yeah, no. Fuck that."
Fire sprang to life over my right wrist, far hotter than my normal flames as I poured as much magic into them as I possibly could. The glow was nearly blinding, sending everyone else in that room stumbling back and shielding their eyes from the almost white radiance.
Within moments, the cuff was stretching like putty as the sheer heat began to melt it. Before ten seconds had passed, I was able to pull my right hand out, and the flames grew into claws over my fingers as I used it to wrench the cuff off my left wrist. Fifteen seconds after I'd started, and my legs were freed as well, and I hopped down with ease onto the ground. Or, it would have been with ease, but I couldn't stop myself from stumbling just a little as I suddenly felt light-headed.
"Stop her!" Simon yelled out as several soldiers rushed into the tent, aiming their guns as the scientists scrambled for cover.
"STOP THIS!" I roared back, cupping white-hot fire in both hands as I swung my arms out, then brought them back together, stopping with my hands cupped together less than an inch apart. The combined flames strained to escape, to spread, but with an effort of will I condensed them instead, allowing the glow to build and drown out all other color in the room. Only then did I finally unleash the flames.
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!
The sound that resulted from my impromptu flashbang was… honestly beyond any words I could use to describe it. If it hadn't been the fact it was my own magic causing it, and that I'd immediately slammed my eyes shut and covered my ears as soon as I let it loose, it probably would have been just as damaging to me as it was to anyone else in that room. Thankfully, both those factors meant that it only took less than a minute to blink the seared lines of light out of my eyes and pop my eardrums enough to hear again.
The room was actually still standing more or less intact. I'd managed to get just the right balance of sound and fury in place of actual heat and concussive force, it seemed. Everyone else in the room, though? They were all collapsed in heaps, moaning in pain. I'd have felt bad for them… but I didn't.
With a huff, I sauntered over to where Superboy was strapped down, still blissfully unconscious. It didn't take me long to work his cuffs off, and I was able to sling him over my shoulder and turn around towards the sphere.
CLANG!
"Huh," I muttered as the sphere rolled herself right out of her restraints. "Guess that works too." I stepped forward, meeting her as she rolled right up to me. "So, you doing okay?"
The sphere turned, showing me a little panel with a few lights, and she began beeping at me.
"I have no idea what you're saying," I informed her cheerfully, "but I'm gonna take that as a yes. Wanna blow this popsicle stand?"
Another set of beeps, and the sphere rolled her way out of the tent. I made to follow her before my foot bumped into something. Looking down, I saw it was one of the scientists, a blonde guy with a goatee and mullet.
I blinked at him, then looked over at one of the soldiers. "Huh…"
* * * * *
The moon was shining overhead, and I heard voices as I made my way up what I hoped would be the last dune. Familiar, welcome voices.
"We have to go rescue them!" Miss Martian was saying. "Who knows where they took Superboy and Ash? If we don't get to them soon-!"
"'Who knows' is exactly the problem!" came Artemis' voice. "Where are we supposed to look? We already lost the tracks, and I don't know how to work any of this stuff!"
Kid Flash spoke up next. "Miss Martian, Artemis, calm down! I wanna go get those two too, but Artemis is right. We don't know where to look, and it's already late as it is! We should contact the League, they should be able to help us."
"I do not know if that is a wise course of action," Aqualad put in, his voice dry and worn out. "We are deep in hostile territory, and I would not be surprised if the enemy could tap into any radio communications we attempted."
"Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Kid yelled, tone exasperated. I could imagine him throwing up his arms as he said it. "Just sit around and wait for those two to come back on their own?"
I crested the dune as he was saying that, and looking down at the four heroes arranged around our base camp, I couldn't resist the temptation. "Sounds like an excellent plan to me!"
Four pairs of eyes snapped up to me, and with a cry of "Ash!", two of them raced up to meet me. Aqualad was clearly resting now that the heat of day was finally gone, but I could still see the relieved smile he threw my way, and Artemis stayed near him, giving me a strange look.
I grinned down at all of them anyway. "Good to see you too!" I said. "I'd hug ya or something, but I've kind of got my hands full at the moment."
Miss Martian landed next to me anyways, smiling, and telekinetically lifted Superboy off my shoulder. Kid Flash made to do the same with the other body I was holding, but stopped and blinked once he registered the clearly conscious adult man I'd been dragging behind me. "Uh…"
"Not one of us," I chuckled, "but I figured he might be able to give us some answers. If his hearing ever comes back." His ears weren't bleeding anymore at least. That was… probably a good sign?
"Uh, okay then…" KId looked back up at me, then over my shoulder as the sphere rolled to the top of the dune right behind me. "And that thing?"
"She followed me," I said with a shrug as we made our way back down to the others. "Figured she probably doesn't have anywhere better to go."
"'She'?" Artemis echoed, watching our approach with cautious interest. "How'd you get that?"
I blinked at her in confusion, looked back at the sphere, then back at Artemis. "Isn't it obvious?"
No one else seemed to think so, from the looks on their faces, but Aqualad stood up from where he'd been leaning on the metal thing before anyone could press the issue. "You said you believe this man could have answers for us?"
I nodded, and gave them a quick rundown of what that Simon guy had claimed about his part in our memory loss, as well as where we were right now. The team took a few minutes to digest the information, during which time Miss Martian looked up from where she'd been tending to Superboy.
"I knew there was something strange about your mind," she said slowly, "but I didn't realize it could have caused that kind of feedback against a psychic attack."
I grimaced. "Yeah, the nosebleeds are kind of unpleasant."
"No, I mean the different stretches of time we're all missing," she explained. "Normally that kind of, um, wide-ranged mental attack should erase the exact same amount of time from everyone affected, but your mental defenses could have caused it to sort of splinter and hit everyone with different levels of strength."
Aqualad nodded. "We have been using Miss Martian's abilities to link everyone up before each mission and maintain constant telepathic contact. It is likely that this Simon used the link as a vector for his attack. We shall have to be more cautious in the future."
"... Okay, interesting, but not really what I was interested in," I said with a shrug. "I was more concerned about us being in Bialya. That's in the Middle East, right?"
"Yeah, it's north of Iran," Kid confirmed with a nod. "It's also not on the League's UN charter, though, so I'm not sure why the League thought sending us here was a good idea. Heck, they don't even allow for much immigration or tourism!"
I nodded back. "Right, I'd noticed the skin tone of the soldiers that attacked us earlier, and I thought I heard some of them speaking Arabic. So that all tracks, but there's still something that doesn't."
Artemis quirked an eyebrow. "And that would be?"
I pointed at the scientist I'd brought along with us, who I'd deposited a short distance away, with some of Kid Flash's zip ties keeping his hands bound. "Why is he white?"
A beat of silence. Then… "Oh my god, Ash, you can't just ask people why they're white."
"I… what?" I sputtered, looking at Kid Flash.
He chuckled. "Guess we need to add that to movie night. And also have a movie night, if we're not already."
"... It was a fucking reference?" I asked, unable to keep my annoyance completely out of my voice.
Aqualad coughed. "Anyway. Ash does bring up a good point. It's unlikely this scientist is native to Bialya. Though individual scientists have been known to defect from their native countries in the past."
"Yeah, but it wasn't just him," I countered. "None of the scientists in the tent looked like they're from around these parts. Neither did that Simon guy, but then, he didn't exactly look like anyone I'd seen before."
"So you think this little group is, what, people Queen Bee kidnapped or something?"
"Maybe, but they didn't exactly look… kidnapped…" I trailed off as I registered the voice that had come from behind me, and turned to find none other than Robin the Boy Wonder behind me, tapping his chin in thought. "What the fuck?! When did you get here?"
"About halfway through your exposition. Oh, and the guy's name is Psimon. P-s-i, like psionic," he said, moving past me with deliberation as he walked over to the scientist, leaving me spluttering behind him. "He's got a warrant in the States, but fled overseas about a year ago. Guess he shacked up with Queen Bee."
"What, I…"
"Yo, Rob!" Kid Flash sped past me to the last of our teammates, and the two of them high-fived. "Glad to see you made it out okay."
"Yeah, good to see the whole Team's here," Robin replied. "Even both the new girls. Guess I don't have to spend extra time tracking any of you down," he finished with a chuckle.
"You remember me?" I asked.
"You remember her?" Everyone else echoed. Except Superboy, he was still unconscious.
Robin shrugged. "Only Batman introducing her to us, but yeah. Anyways." He glanced back at the scientist. "He might be able to give us a bit of information, but we should wait until his hearing comes back before we ask him anything."
Aqualad nodded. "I agree. And while we are waiting, I believe Miss Martian had something she wished to attempt."
"Oh, yeah!" She lifted herself into the air. "I think that now that we have everyone together again, I might be able to repair our missing memories! But I'm going to need everyone's help to do it. Or…" She gave me a guilty stare. "Almost everyone. I'm worried it might hurt you if I bring you in again, Ash."
I sighed. "Yeah, figures. I can keep watch while you're working or something though, don't worry."
"Wait a minute. What is this gonna involve?" Artemis asked, her voice cracking a little. "I don't know if I'm comfortable with you digging around in my head."
"I don't think I'll need to go too deep," Miss Martian assured her. "Just enough to get a clear picture."
"Hey, if it helps us figure out why Batman sent us here, I'm down," Robin said. One by one, the others gave their assent as well, though Kid Flash had to go over to Artemis and talk to her for a moment before she agreed.
As he was doing that, I sidled up to Miss Martian. "Hey, M'gann?"
"Hmm? What is it, Ash?" she asked, turning that sweet smile of hers towards me.
I breathed in a sigh, then back out again. "I… I just wanted to say I'm sorry." When she looked confused, I elaborated. "I think I might have scared you when we first met. My magic, it's…" I winced. "Something I didn't realize made you uncomfortable. And I didn't realize it until earlier today. So… I'm sorry. And I hope that even after you get your memories back, we can maybe be friends anyways."
Miss Martian looked at me for a moment, then floated over and hugged me. I stiffened in surprise, but she pulled away before I could react any further. "I'm not sure what you mean," Miss Martian said, "but I believe you. And I hope that we can be friends too!" Her smile returned. "You seem like you'd be a good friend."
"... I can only try," I said, returning her smile with one of my own.
* * * * *
I sighed and leaned against the sphere. "Oh, man, I am so ready to leave this desert."
The sphere beeped at me in response. As I wasn't able to understand, I just sighed again and looked back down at base camp, where the rest of the team was sitting (or laying) in a circle as Miss Martian worked her magic. Or psychic… stuff.
The scientist guy was a short ways off from them, looking around himself glumly. He hadn't really tried to escape since we brought him back, maybe scared we'd be able to run him down easily, or maybe just resigned to his situation. Still, it didn't hurt to keep an eye on him. He'd started talking again a couple minutes ago, though the rest of the team was too deep in Miss Martian's trance to answer, and had shut up when I yelled at him, so we'd at least be able to interrogate him once everyone was conscious again.
"I wonder when that's gonna be," I muttered under my breath. It was taking longer than I'd thought. Maybe they were being extra-thorough?
Just then, the sphere began beeping again, in what I could only describe as a panicked tone. I glanced back at her, then followed her line of sight – that is, the direction her little lights were pointed – and what I saw there sent me scrambling to my feet.
"Shit!" I swore, putting a hand on the sphere to balance as I got a better look out at the nighttime darkness of the desert.
Approaching from the direction of the Bialyan camp were several dark shapes in the sky, boxy jeeps zipping across the sand, and several tanks rumbling up behind them, their turrets already lowering to point at us.
My awakening this time didn't leave me groggy for long. Mostly because when I groaned and went to rub my head, my arm wouldn't budge. That woke me up real quick.
As I forced my eyes open, I found myself in some kind of tent. All sorts of tech was set up across the interior, computers and monitors and doodads of all kinds that I couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of, along with a small amount of crates and tables. The biggest thing I noticed was some kind of metal… sphere, or something, that was locked down on one end of the tent, like a giant hamster wheel.
The biggest, but not the most important. That would be an unconscious Superboy, who was strapped down on a giant metal slab to my right, a nearly-crucified position of his arms stretched out to either side of him, and all his limbs locked down tight with thick metal cuffs. A position I quickly realized mirrored my own. At least neither of our heads were bound, so I could still look around.
"Ah, good, you're awake."
I looked down at the speaker, that same pale man that had knocked out Superboy and I, the hood of his brown coat still drawn over his head. He was surrounded on either side with a bunch of scientists – at least, I assumed they were scientists, given the white lab coats they all had on over their dress shirts and ties. And they weren't the only ones in the tent either, I realized. There were over half a dozen of these geeks scattered around the inside of… their base camp? I guessed?
Something about the way all the scientists looked seemed off to me, but I couldn't quite put a finger on it…
"Tut tut, I was talking to you, girl. It's rather rude to ignore one's elders."
My gaze returned to the pale man, and I spat out some blood that had gotten into my mouth from my latest nosebleed. The guy stepped back before it could land on him, but at least a bit of the splatter hit the scientists near him.
"Fuck you," I growled.
"And such language! You are a lot more crass than I was expecting." The man chuckled as he stepped back up. "No matter. We can still cooperate here."
"Cooperate? With a shifty asshole that kidnaped me and my friend there?" I spat, jerking my head towards Superboy.
He just shrugged. "In my defense, you are within the borders of Bialya, young lady. It's perfectly within our military's legal rights to, ah, detain you."
"Bialya?" I frowned, trying to think of where I'd heard that name before.
"You don't even know..? Ah, but of course not." He chuckled again, this time with a grim tone. "I suppose my first little run-in with your invisible friend left a bit of a mark on both of us."
That got my full attention, and jogged my memory of what had just happened. "It was you," I snarled out at him. "You got in our heads, you took our memories."
"I did indeed," he said, before reaching up and lowering his hood. It let me get a better look at his face, especially his one bloodshot eyeball, but it also gave me a look at his cranium. His almost completely transparent cranium, the clarity only marred by irritated veins of blood, with his brain perfectly visible all but floating in the center of it. It was… actually pretty disturbing to look at. Brains were not supposed to be visible when a person was still alive.
"You must understand, of course, that what we're doing here is rather confidential," the guy– What had he called himself? Simon? – continued. "Can't just have any random brats wandering in, you see. And yet, when I went to perform such a routine cleansing…" He scowled, one hand reaching up to touch at his bloodshot eye. "Well, I think nobody was quite expecting the outcome there. And now I seem to have isolated the cause of my, ah, botched job."
I digested that for a moment before gracing him with a flat look. "If this is the part where you try and torture the information out of me, I'll save you some trouble," I deadpanned. "No, I don't know why that happened. My brain's just weird like that. Don't try it again, and you won't give yourself an aneurysm."
"Hmm. Pity." Simon shrugged. "But even if you're telling the truth, there's more than one way to gain that information."
I was about to reply with even more snark, but before I could, the sound of electricity arcing stole my attention to the other side of the room. One of the labcoats was typing something into a computer near the sphere, as its weird hookup sparked and caused it to spin. After just a moment, the sphere began emitting a strange sound.
It… I could swear it sounded like…
"HEY!" I shouted, startling the scientists that were examining it. "Cut that out! The racket's giving me a headache!"
Simon graced me with a flat look. "I hardly think you are in any position to give out orders, girl." He turned back to the scientists. "Increase the shock."
The scientist by the terminal gave me a brief nervous look, then turned back and typed something in. The electricity crackled even louder, and the sphere's sounds increased alongside it.
"I said stop!" I snarled, pushing myself forward as far as I could with my restraints. "Hey, jackass, you hear me?!" He ignored me, and with a wave of Simon's hand, the voltage increased once again. "Stop ignoring me! I swear I'm gonna-! Hey! HEY!" My cries were getting increasingly harder to hear over the metallic screech. "LISTEN TO ME, SHITSTAIN! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THAT COMPUTER RIGHT NOW! STOP IT! STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP HURTING HER!"
Almost as soon as the pleading scream had left my lips, all other noise in the tent cut out. For several seconds, the scientists stared at me, and then Simon turned around as well, his eyebrow arched. "'Her'?"
I managed to keep a wince off my face, but only just. I hadn't meant for that to slip out, but… the way she was screaming in pain… Dammit, I'd just wanted them to stop.
Simon kept his gaze on me for nearly half a minute before seeming to decide I wasn't gonna talk. He waved his hand, and one of the scientists approached my slab. Or, at least the computer at the base of it. "I suppose it doesn't matter that much, in the end," Simon drawled. "We can simply perform the analysis on you as well. Perhaps we'll even learn something."
I stared at him for a moment longer before finally responding. "Yeah, no. Fuck that."
Fire sprang to life over my right wrist, far hotter than my normal flames as I poured as much magic into them as I possibly could. The glow was nearly blinding, sending everyone else in that room stumbling back and shielding their eyes from the almost white radiance.
Within moments, the cuff was stretching like putty as the sheer heat began to melt it. Before ten seconds had passed, I was able to pull my right hand out, and the flames grew into claws over my fingers as I used it to wrench the cuff off my left wrist. Fifteen seconds after I'd started, and my legs were freed as well, and I hopped down with ease onto the ground. Or, it would have been with ease, but I couldn't stop myself from stumbling just a little as I suddenly felt light-headed.
"Stop her!" Simon yelled out as several soldiers rushed into the tent, aiming their guns as the scientists scrambled for cover.
"STOP THIS!" I roared back, cupping white-hot fire in both hands as I swung my arms out, then brought them back together, stopping with my hands cupped together less than an inch apart. The combined flames strained to escape, to spread, but with an effort of will I condensed them instead, allowing the glow to build and drown out all other color in the room. Only then did I finally unleash the flames.
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!
The sound that resulted from my impromptu flashbang was… honestly beyond any words I could use to describe it. If it hadn't been the fact it was my own magic causing it, and that I'd immediately slammed my eyes shut and covered my ears as soon as I let it loose, it probably would have been just as damaging to me as it was to anyone else in that room. Thankfully, both those factors meant that it only took less than a minute to blink the seared lines of light out of my eyes and pop my eardrums enough to hear again.
The room was actually still standing more or less intact. I'd managed to get just the right balance of sound and fury in place of actual heat and concussive force, it seemed. Everyone else in the room, though? They were all collapsed in heaps, moaning in pain. I'd have felt bad for them… but I didn't.
With a huff, I sauntered over to where Superboy was strapped down, still blissfully unconscious. It didn't take me long to work his cuffs off, and I was able to sling him over my shoulder and turn around towards the sphere.
CLANG!
"Huh," I muttered as the sphere rolled herself right out of her restraints. "Guess that works too." I stepped forward, meeting her as she rolled right up to me. "So, you doing okay?"
The sphere turned, showing me a little panel with a few lights, and she began beeping at me.
"I have no idea what you're saying," I informed her cheerfully, "but I'm gonna take that as a yes. Wanna blow this popsicle stand?"
Another set of beeps, and the sphere rolled her way out of the tent. I made to follow her before my foot bumped into something. Looking down, I saw it was one of the scientists, a blonde guy with a goatee and mullet.
I blinked at him, then looked over at one of the soldiers. "Huh…"
* * * * *
The moon was shining overhead, and I heard voices as I made my way up what I hoped would be the last dune. Familiar, welcome voices.
"We have to go rescue them!" Miss Martian was saying. "Who knows where they took Superboy and Ash? If we don't get to them soon-!"
"'Who knows' is exactly the problem!" came Artemis' voice. "Where are we supposed to look? We already lost the tracks, and I don't know how to work any of this stuff!"
Kid Flash spoke up next. "Miss Martian, Artemis, calm down! I wanna go get those two too, but Artemis is right. We don't know where to look, and it's already late as it is! We should contact the League, they should be able to help us."
"I do not know if that is a wise course of action," Aqualad put in, his voice dry and worn out. "We are deep in hostile territory, and I would not be surprised if the enemy could tap into any radio communications we attempted."
"Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Kid yelled, tone exasperated. I could imagine him throwing up his arms as he said it. "Just sit around and wait for those two to come back on their own?"
I crested the dune as he was saying that, and looking down at the four heroes arranged around our base camp, I couldn't resist the temptation. "Sounds like an excellent plan to me!"
Four pairs of eyes snapped up to me, and with a cry of "Ash!", two of them raced up to meet me. Aqualad was clearly resting now that the heat of day was finally gone, but I could still see the relieved smile he threw my way, and Artemis stayed near him, giving me a strange look.
I grinned down at all of them anyway. "Good to see you too!" I said. "I'd hug ya or something, but I've kind of got my hands full at the moment."
Miss Martian landed next to me anyways, smiling, and telekinetically lifted Superboy off my shoulder. Kid Flash made to do the same with the other body I was holding, but stopped and blinked once he registered the clearly conscious adult man I'd been dragging behind me. "Uh…"
"Not one of us," I chuckled, "but I figured he might be able to give us some answers. If his hearing ever comes back." His ears weren't bleeding anymore at least. That was… probably a good sign?
"Uh, okay then…" KId looked back up at me, then over my shoulder as the sphere rolled to the top of the dune right behind me. "And that thing?"
"She followed me," I said with a shrug as we made our way back down to the others. "Figured she probably doesn't have anywhere better to go."
"'She'?" Artemis echoed, watching our approach with cautious interest. "How'd you get that?"
I blinked at her in confusion, looked back at the sphere, then back at Artemis. "Isn't it obvious?"
No one else seemed to think so, from the looks on their faces, but Aqualad stood up from where he'd been leaning on the metal thing before anyone could press the issue. "You said you believe this man could have answers for us?"
I nodded, and gave them a quick rundown of what that Simon guy had claimed about his part in our memory loss, as well as where we were right now. The team took a few minutes to digest the information, during which time Miss Martian looked up from where she'd been tending to Superboy.
"I knew there was something strange about your mind," she said slowly, "but I didn't realize it could have caused that kind of feedback against a psychic attack."
I grimaced. "Yeah, the nosebleeds are kind of unpleasant."
"No, I mean the different stretches of time we're all missing," she explained. "Normally that kind of, um, wide-ranged mental attack should erase the exact same amount of time from everyone affected, but your mental defenses could have caused it to sort of splinter and hit everyone with different levels of strength."
Aqualad nodded. "We have been using Miss Martian's abilities to link everyone up before each mission and maintain constant telepathic contact. It is likely that this Simon used the link as a vector for his attack. We shall have to be more cautious in the future."
"... Okay, interesting, but not really what I was interested in," I said with a shrug. "I was more concerned about us being in Bialya. That's in the Middle East, right?"
"Yeah, it's north of Iran," Kid confirmed with a nod. "It's also not on the League's UN charter, though, so I'm not sure why the League thought sending us here was a good idea. Heck, they don't even allow for much immigration or tourism!"
I nodded back. "Right, I'd noticed the skin tone of the soldiers that attacked us earlier, and I thought I heard some of them speaking Arabic. So that all tracks, but there's still something that doesn't."
Artemis quirked an eyebrow. "And that would be?"
I pointed at the scientist I'd brought along with us, who I'd deposited a short distance away, with some of Kid Flash's zip ties keeping his hands bound. "Why is he white?"
A beat of silence. Then… "Oh my god, Ash, you can't just ask people why they're white."
"I… what?" I sputtered, looking at Kid Flash.
He chuckled. "Guess we need to add that to movie night. And also have a movie night, if we're not already."
"... It was a fucking reference?" I asked, unable to keep my annoyance completely out of my voice.
Aqualad coughed. "Anyway. Ash does bring up a good point. It's unlikely this scientist is native to Bialya. Though individual scientists have been known to defect from their native countries in the past."
"Yeah, but it wasn't just him," I countered. "None of the scientists in the tent looked like they're from around these parts. Neither did that Simon guy, but then, he didn't exactly look like anyone I'd seen before."
"So you think this little group is, what, people Queen Bee kidnapped or something?"
"Maybe, but they didn't exactly look… kidnapped…" I trailed off as I registered the voice that had come from behind me, and turned to find none other than Robin the Boy Wonder behind me, tapping his chin in thought. "What the fuck?! When did you get here?"
"About halfway through your exposition. Oh, and the guy's name is Psimon. P-s-i, like psionic," he said, moving past me with deliberation as he walked over to the scientist, leaving me spluttering behind him. "He's got a warrant in the States, but fled overseas about a year ago. Guess he shacked up with Queen Bee."
"What, I…"
"Yo, Rob!" Kid Flash sped past me to the last of our teammates, and the two of them high-fived. "Glad to see you made it out okay."
"Yeah, good to see the whole Team's here," Robin replied. "Even both the new girls. Guess I don't have to spend extra time tracking any of you down," he finished with a chuckle.
"You remember me?" I asked.
"You remember her?" Everyone else echoed. Except Superboy, he was still unconscious.
Robin shrugged. "Only Batman introducing her to us, but yeah. Anyways." He glanced back at the scientist. "He might be able to give us a bit of information, but we should wait until his hearing comes back before we ask him anything."
Aqualad nodded. "I agree. And while we are waiting, I believe Miss Martian had something she wished to attempt."
"Oh, yeah!" She lifted herself into the air. "I think that now that we have everyone together again, I might be able to repair our missing memories! But I'm going to need everyone's help to do it. Or…" She gave me a guilty stare. "Almost everyone. I'm worried it might hurt you if I bring you in again, Ash."
I sighed. "Yeah, figures. I can keep watch while you're working or something though, don't worry."
"Wait a minute. What is this gonna involve?" Artemis asked, her voice cracking a little. "I don't know if I'm comfortable with you digging around in my head."
"I don't think I'll need to go too deep," Miss Martian assured her. "Just enough to get a clear picture."
"Hey, if it helps us figure out why Batman sent us here, I'm down," Robin said. One by one, the others gave their assent as well, though Kid Flash had to go over to Artemis and talk to her for a moment before she agreed.
As he was doing that, I sidled up to Miss Martian. "Hey, M'gann?"
"Hmm? What is it, Ash?" she asked, turning that sweet smile of hers towards me.
I breathed in a sigh, then back out again. "I… I just wanted to say I'm sorry." When she looked confused, I elaborated. "I think I might have scared you when we first met. My magic, it's…" I winced. "Something I didn't realize made you uncomfortable. And I didn't realize it until earlier today. So… I'm sorry. And I hope that even after you get your memories back, we can maybe be friends anyways."
Miss Martian looked at me for a moment, then floated over and hugged me. I stiffened in surprise, but she pulled away before I could react any further. "I'm not sure what you mean," Miss Martian said, "but I believe you. And I hope that we can be friends too!" Her smile returned. "You seem like you'd be a good friend."
"... I can only try," I said, returning her smile with one of my own.
* * * * *
I sighed and leaned against the sphere. "Oh, man, I am so ready to leave this desert."
The sphere beeped at me in response. As I wasn't able to understand, I just sighed again and looked back down at base camp, where the rest of the team was sitting (or laying) in a circle as Miss Martian worked her magic. Or psychic… stuff.
The scientist guy was a short ways off from them, looking around himself glumly. He hadn't really tried to escape since we brought him back, maybe scared we'd be able to run him down easily, or maybe just resigned to his situation. Still, it didn't hurt to keep an eye on him. He'd started talking again a couple minutes ago, though the rest of the team was too deep in Miss Martian's trance to answer, and had shut up when I yelled at him, so we'd at least be able to interrogate him once everyone was conscious again.
"I wonder when that's gonna be," I muttered under my breath. It was taking longer than I'd thought. Maybe they were being extra-thorough?
Just then, the sphere began beeping again, in what I could only describe as a panicked tone. I glanced back at her, then followed her line of sight – that is, the direction her little lights were pointed – and what I saw there sent me scrambling to my feet.
"Shit!" I swore, putting a hand on the sphere to balance as I got a better look out at the nighttime darkness of the desert.
Approaching from the direction of the Bialyan camp were several dark shapes in the sky, boxy jeeps zipping across the sand, and several tanks rumbling up behind them, their turrets already lowering to point at us.
I really should have been sleeping tonight instead of writing this.
Oh well.
We're close to the end of the Bialya arc! Only two more chapters, one an interlude, to go, and we'll be ready to move onto the Atlantic arc! (AKA part two of "Ash's Busy weekend")
Oh well.
We're close to the end of the Bialya arc! Only two more chapters, one an interlude, to go, and we'll be ready to move onto the Atlantic arc! (AKA part two of "Ash's Busy weekend")
I was hoping that Psimon and the schmucks end up being charred and grilled by Ash's Hell Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. I guess she takes after her father Atlas Flame who had burned Fairy Tail trying to fight him and yet the whole guild are okay from his fire attacks afterwards.
View: https://youtu.be/8U0m6aXwCPg?si=MbyoUn8IKnKyvQrs
2:22
Ash has a target.
I'm guessing Ash's senses, dragon nature and magic lets her pick up the gender easier.
Yeah that pretty much wrecked the senes of most people there.
That's a wonderful line to enter with.
Ash is right about that observation.
Good to see that getting sorted out.