Okay, I’m terribly sorry about the long wait (1 month, according to fanpop..)! I just had a deathly case of lazywritersblockhomeworkiactuallykindahavealifecantbebotheredatall-itis, but I’m over that now, so here it is! Part 6 of Broken Wings! If আপনি need a refresher (which আপনি might), I have the লিঙ্ক to all 5 parts and the prologue in my পছন্দ link! Well, time for me to shut up, and let আপনি read my story!
The bioship, invisible even to the most watchful eye, cut through the night. Inside, the members of the Justice League sat; the ship had been reconfigured to accommodate a much larger group, and there were enough seats for every member of the former Team. Nightwing had set up the radar to follow the trackers that had been placed on her, their new enemy, at their last battle, and a fridge and mini pantry had been added in the back. It had been hours, অথবা at least it felt like hours to the impatient, revenge-hungry Leaguers, and still no sign of their target. They sat in silence for awhile, until Nix spoke.
“I’m really worried about them,” she ব্যক্ত quietly, and all heads turned to face her. “The kids, I mean. They’re so young, and I don’t think they quite yet know how to handle it.”
“Oh, come on,” Korran ব্যক্ত reassuringly. “They’ll be fine. They’re strong kids.”
Nix shook her head. “I’m especially worried about Annabelle. It seemed the toughest on her.” A brief pause, and then she continued, much আরো softly this time.
“I was her age, when it happened to me. When my parents died. That’s partly why I’m so worried. When I was nine, and my parents were killed...that was when I went to Slade. Because there was no one there for me, no one to support me, so I panicked. I don’t want the same to happen to them.”
No one spoke. Many of them had never heard this much about the firecaster’s past life; for some this was one of the first times they had seen her so serious.
“These kids are different though,” AngelWings pointed out. “They’re used to death. আপনি have to be, if you’re the kids of two Justice Leaguers. আপনি were much আরো sheltered. See, most kids their age can’t say that their parents’ lives are at stake each time they go to work. But these three can.”
Nix nodded. “I know...I just want to make sure nothing like what happened to me, happens to them.”
Once again, the ship fell silent. Harley stood up and walked to the back of the ship, and returned with cans of soda and a stack of plastic cups. “Anyone want something to drink?”
What felt like hours had passed. The ship had been on autopilot, ever since it picked up a faint signal miles back, and most of its occupants were bored and anxious. A few were conversing silently, two were playing cards, but most were too on edge to do much of anything. Mercy, out of sheer boredom, had drained her cup, and stuck it to her forehead, tilting her head back to keep it balanced. Scarlet gave her a strange stare, and Mercy shrugged, her blue eyes round with feigned innocence. “What?” she asked. “It’s suction cup action!”
“Like Roy’s lips,” Nix muttered under her breath, and it was her turn to receive odd looks from the rest of the League. She blushed, and quickly pointed out the window, at something on the ground below. “Look! There she is!”
She was right. There was the target, her long blonde hair rippling in the wind, a large gun under her arm and various others in her belt, and a characteristic smirk painted on her face. The bottom hatch opened out of the floor, and the Leaguers grabbed their weapons, belts, and packs and dropped to the ground below. The woman didn’t look at all surprised to see a hole opening in seemingly thin air, and the smirk never wavered off her face. The Leaguers marched up to her.
“I’ve been expecting you,” she ব্যক্ত coolly. Nix raised an eyebrow.
“We need to talk,” Harley growled, and the others nodded, narrowed their eyes, gritted their teeth. The woman chuckled.
“Of course we do. Oh, and দ্বারা the way, I’m not sorry.”
She laughed again, as if someone had told a joke that the rest of them hadn’t heard. The Leaguers were not amused. They stared her down for a few minutes, no one saying a word, but the tension woven between them was tangible. The woman smirked.
“Scared?”
Mercy laughed. “Of you? Pshh! It’s like--” she paused, and looked up and down the line of Leaguers, trying to calculate in her head. “‘S like a lot of us against, what, one of you?”
Their adversary was not fazed. “Cute,” she chuckled, and pressed a button on her belt. Out of nowhere, hundreds of figures appeared behind her. All with the same flowing blonde hair, narrowed red eyes, and murderous grin.
Mercy coughed loudly. “Um...forget I ব্যক্ত anything?”
The Leaguers sprung into action, AngelWings drawing her knife, Shadow her eskrima sticks, Phoebe her adamantium claws; Scarlet, Mercy, and Nix had all lit their fists on fire, and Korran summoned her shadow beast Amoria. In unison, the hundreds of clones, and the one real human opponent, had raised their guns, and were about to pull the triggers. The নায়ক sprung into battle. Nathan was the first to attack, running at a clone using superspeed while launching a column of ice. The clone knocked him with the butt of her gun, and he fell to the ground, unconsious. Fueled দ্বারা anger of her husband’s easy defeat, Nix flung fireball after fireball in all directions, with an unmatchable fury. A few were knocked down, but most were unfazed. One even deflected it, and Harley had to throw herself to the ground to get out of the way. Phoebe transformed into adamantium mode, and attacked clone after clone, slashing them with her claws until she was satisfied they were bleeding too hard to fight back. In less than ten minutes, she had taken out at least thirty of them.
The others were not having such good luck. Mercy and Scarlet together were shooting fireball after fireball at a throng of clones, who deflected them easily, fighting back ferociously. Teleporting to and fro, slamming the two firecasters with full strength, and using other, stranger powers. One had telekinesis, apparently, and was using it to lift Scarlet off the ground, and smash her down repeatedly until she dropped, unconsious in a puddle of blood. Mercy gritted her teeth and fought even harder, but when she took a সেকেন্ড to catch her breath, a stream of white-hot আগুন came shooting at her. She managed to jump out of the way, cursing as it singed her hair. Strange. She could’ve sworn it hadn’t had আগুন powers a সেকেন্ড ago.
AngelWings was flinging ছুরি after ছুরি at the clones, managing to embed a few in one woman’s neck but missing the rest. Narrowing her eyes, she leapt অগ্রবর্তী to retrieve them--she was running low on ammo--only to find herself pinned দ্বারা another. Kicking furiously, she managed to slide a spare ছুরি out of her boot with her free hand and sliced wildly at the clone pressing her to the ground. She thought she must have hit her mark, because her attacker’s hold suddenly loosened, and crumbled to the ground. She looked up to find a grinning Nix, encircled দ্বারা a ring of dancing flames. AngelWings opened her mouth to thank her, but the noise turned to a yell as a stream of bullets whizzed দ্বারা her ear. She whirled around to find another clone, brandishing a gun. She growled and kicked it out of the clone’s hands, wrestling the woman to the ground and slashing with her knife.
On another end of the battlefield, Korran and Amoria were lauching coordinated attacks at a pack of clones, who fought back relentlessly. Amoria, who was knocking down clone after clone in her fury, had almost gotten the upper hand, when out of nowhere, another identical shadow beast leapt onto her, slicing Amoria’s side with its razor-sharp claws. Korran screamed, and knocked the beast off of her companion.
“Any luck?” she heard a shout, but couldn’t tell who it was coming from.
“No!” Korran replied, trying to make herself heard over the din of the battle. The night was alive with screams, gunshots, blasts, and various other sounds; the field glowed with flickering flames, illuminating the pools of blood splattered on the ground. “Every time I get close to beating them, they pull something else out of their hat!”
Another cry. “Where are they getting all these powers?” That sounded like Shadow.
“I dunno!” Nix called back. “But it almost seems like---” She stopped. Korran held her breath, waiting for her to finish. Fear coursed through her body; she quickly knocked down a clone that was advancing on her, then stood, ears pealed. Then Nix shouted again. “I got it! They’re---”
“Power absorbers!” Harley finished, and Korran’s eyes lit up. That was how they made a copy of Amoria!
“Then how do we fight them?” she cried, worriedly. Phoebe spoke solemnly. “We don’t.”
Those dark words struck something in Nix’s heart, filled her with both dread and an uncontrollable, bubbling rage. Heat coursed through her body, and her head started pounding. No! she thought. I can’t become the phoenix! Not here! Not now! Swallowing hard, she tried to push the anger back down into her, tried to fight the phoenix, even though she knew it would be no use. Chelsea was her first thought. But she knew that her nemesis couldn’t be here. It was the futility of the battle, the anger, the despair at the thought that Aisling, her best friend in the entire world, would die in vain after all. The thought of Aisling made her fear intensify. C’mon she thought, desperately. Channel that anger, Nix, come on...Do it for Aisling! She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to happen. And it did. But not in the way she’d expected. The ground shook from the explosion, knocking Nix to the earth. As her world exploded in flames, everything went black.
When she came to--she had only been out for a few seconds, it seemed, the explosion and dust had cleared, leaving a thin blanket of flames on the ground and no sign of any of the clones. The other Leaguers were waking up as well, clambering to their feet, coughing in the thick black smoke that filled the air. They looked around, at each other, at the sudden lack of enemies. Scarlet was the first to understand. “I---you--we won?”
A cheer escaped Nix’s lips; their faces lit up, Nathan punched the air with his fist, Scarlet was grinning, Mercy was hugging AngelWings.
“We did it!” Phoebe cried. Nix was grinning from ear to ear, ecstatic. I did it! she thought. I controlled the phoenix! She looked at her বন্ধু for support. Their faces had turned ghostly pale. She looked at them questioningly.
“Um...Nix?” Korran ব্যক্ত softly.
Nix whirled around. Her blood froze cold. There she was, stepping out of the smoke, quite a few yards away--Aisling would know the exact distance, she thought with a pang of sadness--, hair and skin singed, face cut and bleeding, clothes torn, and eyes narrowed, sparking with bloody revenge. Nix managed to smirk.
“Let’s finish this.”
Her adversary laughed, drew her gun, aimed it at the center of Nix’s chest. “Or not.”
She pulled the trigger.
O.O Pleeeeease forgive me for the lonnnng wait!!! I promise I’ll be a lot faster from now on! Tell me what’cha think!! :D
The bioship, invisible even to the most watchful eye, cut through the night. Inside, the members of the Justice League sat; the ship had been reconfigured to accommodate a much larger group, and there were enough seats for every member of the former Team. Nightwing had set up the radar to follow the trackers that had been placed on her, their new enemy, at their last battle, and a fridge and mini pantry had been added in the back. It had been hours, অথবা at least it felt like hours to the impatient, revenge-hungry Leaguers, and still no sign of their target. They sat in silence for awhile, until Nix spoke.
“I’m really worried about them,” she ব্যক্ত quietly, and all heads turned to face her. “The kids, I mean. They’re so young, and I don’t think they quite yet know how to handle it.”
“Oh, come on,” Korran ব্যক্ত reassuringly. “They’ll be fine. They’re strong kids.”
Nix shook her head. “I’m especially worried about Annabelle. It seemed the toughest on her.” A brief pause, and then she continued, much আরো softly this time.
“I was her age, when it happened to me. When my parents died. That’s partly why I’m so worried. When I was nine, and my parents were killed...that was when I went to Slade. Because there was no one there for me, no one to support me, so I panicked. I don’t want the same to happen to them.”
No one spoke. Many of them had never heard this much about the firecaster’s past life; for some this was one of the first times they had seen her so serious.
“These kids are different though,” AngelWings pointed out. “They’re used to death. আপনি have to be, if you’re the kids of two Justice Leaguers. আপনি were much আরো sheltered. See, most kids their age can’t say that their parents’ lives are at stake each time they go to work. But these three can.”
Nix nodded. “I know...I just want to make sure nothing like what happened to me, happens to them.”
Once again, the ship fell silent. Harley stood up and walked to the back of the ship, and returned with cans of soda and a stack of plastic cups. “Anyone want something to drink?”
What felt like hours had passed. The ship had been on autopilot, ever since it picked up a faint signal miles back, and most of its occupants were bored and anxious. A few were conversing silently, two were playing cards, but most were too on edge to do much of anything. Mercy, out of sheer boredom, had drained her cup, and stuck it to her forehead, tilting her head back to keep it balanced. Scarlet gave her a strange stare, and Mercy shrugged, her blue eyes round with feigned innocence. “What?” she asked. “It’s suction cup action!”
“Like Roy’s lips,” Nix muttered under her breath, and it was her turn to receive odd looks from the rest of the League. She blushed, and quickly pointed out the window, at something on the ground below. “Look! There she is!”
She was right. There was the target, her long blonde hair rippling in the wind, a large gun under her arm and various others in her belt, and a characteristic smirk painted on her face. The bottom hatch opened out of the floor, and the Leaguers grabbed their weapons, belts, and packs and dropped to the ground below. The woman didn’t look at all surprised to see a hole opening in seemingly thin air, and the smirk never wavered off her face. The Leaguers marched up to her.
“I’ve been expecting you,” she ব্যক্ত coolly. Nix raised an eyebrow.
“We need to talk,” Harley growled, and the others nodded, narrowed their eyes, gritted their teeth. The woman chuckled.
“Of course we do. Oh, and দ্বারা the way, I’m not sorry.”
She laughed again, as if someone had told a joke that the rest of them hadn’t heard. The Leaguers were not amused. They stared her down for a few minutes, no one saying a word, but the tension woven between them was tangible. The woman smirked.
“Scared?”
Mercy laughed. “Of you? Pshh! It’s like--” she paused, and looked up and down the line of Leaguers, trying to calculate in her head. “‘S like a lot of us against, what, one of you?”
Their adversary was not fazed. “Cute,” she chuckled, and pressed a button on her belt. Out of nowhere, hundreds of figures appeared behind her. All with the same flowing blonde hair, narrowed red eyes, and murderous grin.
Mercy coughed loudly. “Um...forget I ব্যক্ত anything?”
The Leaguers sprung into action, AngelWings drawing her knife, Shadow her eskrima sticks, Phoebe her adamantium claws; Scarlet, Mercy, and Nix had all lit their fists on fire, and Korran summoned her shadow beast Amoria. In unison, the hundreds of clones, and the one real human opponent, had raised their guns, and were about to pull the triggers. The নায়ক sprung into battle. Nathan was the first to attack, running at a clone using superspeed while launching a column of ice. The clone knocked him with the butt of her gun, and he fell to the ground, unconsious. Fueled দ্বারা anger of her husband’s easy defeat, Nix flung fireball after fireball in all directions, with an unmatchable fury. A few were knocked down, but most were unfazed. One even deflected it, and Harley had to throw herself to the ground to get out of the way. Phoebe transformed into adamantium mode, and attacked clone after clone, slashing them with her claws until she was satisfied they were bleeding too hard to fight back. In less than ten minutes, she had taken out at least thirty of them.
The others were not having such good luck. Mercy and Scarlet together were shooting fireball after fireball at a throng of clones, who deflected them easily, fighting back ferociously. Teleporting to and fro, slamming the two firecasters with full strength, and using other, stranger powers. One had telekinesis, apparently, and was using it to lift Scarlet off the ground, and smash her down repeatedly until she dropped, unconsious in a puddle of blood. Mercy gritted her teeth and fought even harder, but when she took a সেকেন্ড to catch her breath, a stream of white-hot আগুন came shooting at her. She managed to jump out of the way, cursing as it singed her hair. Strange. She could’ve sworn it hadn’t had আগুন powers a সেকেন্ড ago.
AngelWings was flinging ছুরি after ছুরি at the clones, managing to embed a few in one woman’s neck but missing the rest. Narrowing her eyes, she leapt অগ্রবর্তী to retrieve them--she was running low on ammo--only to find herself pinned দ্বারা another. Kicking furiously, she managed to slide a spare ছুরি out of her boot with her free hand and sliced wildly at the clone pressing her to the ground. She thought she must have hit her mark, because her attacker’s hold suddenly loosened, and crumbled to the ground. She looked up to find a grinning Nix, encircled দ্বারা a ring of dancing flames. AngelWings opened her mouth to thank her, but the noise turned to a yell as a stream of bullets whizzed দ্বারা her ear. She whirled around to find another clone, brandishing a gun. She growled and kicked it out of the clone’s hands, wrestling the woman to the ground and slashing with her knife.
On another end of the battlefield, Korran and Amoria were lauching coordinated attacks at a pack of clones, who fought back relentlessly. Amoria, who was knocking down clone after clone in her fury, had almost gotten the upper hand, when out of nowhere, another identical shadow beast leapt onto her, slicing Amoria’s side with its razor-sharp claws. Korran screamed, and knocked the beast off of her companion.
“Any luck?” she heard a shout, but couldn’t tell who it was coming from.
“No!” Korran replied, trying to make herself heard over the din of the battle. The night was alive with screams, gunshots, blasts, and various other sounds; the field glowed with flickering flames, illuminating the pools of blood splattered on the ground. “Every time I get close to beating them, they pull something else out of their hat!”
Another cry. “Where are they getting all these powers?” That sounded like Shadow.
“I dunno!” Nix called back. “But it almost seems like---” She stopped. Korran held her breath, waiting for her to finish. Fear coursed through her body; she quickly knocked down a clone that was advancing on her, then stood, ears pealed. Then Nix shouted again. “I got it! They’re---”
“Power absorbers!” Harley finished, and Korran’s eyes lit up. That was how they made a copy of Amoria!
“Then how do we fight them?” she cried, worriedly. Phoebe spoke solemnly. “We don’t.”
Those dark words struck something in Nix’s heart, filled her with both dread and an uncontrollable, bubbling rage. Heat coursed through her body, and her head started pounding. No! she thought. I can’t become the phoenix! Not here! Not now! Swallowing hard, she tried to push the anger back down into her, tried to fight the phoenix, even though she knew it would be no use. Chelsea was her first thought. But she knew that her nemesis couldn’t be here. It was the futility of the battle, the anger, the despair at the thought that Aisling, her best friend in the entire world, would die in vain after all. The thought of Aisling made her fear intensify. C’mon she thought, desperately. Channel that anger, Nix, come on...Do it for Aisling! She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to happen. And it did. But not in the way she’d expected. The ground shook from the explosion, knocking Nix to the earth. As her world exploded in flames, everything went black.
When she came to--she had only been out for a few seconds, it seemed, the explosion and dust had cleared, leaving a thin blanket of flames on the ground and no sign of any of the clones. The other Leaguers were waking up as well, clambering to their feet, coughing in the thick black smoke that filled the air. They looked around, at each other, at the sudden lack of enemies. Scarlet was the first to understand. “I---you--we won?”
A cheer escaped Nix’s lips; their faces lit up, Nathan punched the air with his fist, Scarlet was grinning, Mercy was hugging AngelWings.
“We did it!” Phoebe cried. Nix was grinning from ear to ear, ecstatic. I did it! she thought. I controlled the phoenix! She looked at her বন্ধু for support. Their faces had turned ghostly pale. She looked at them questioningly.
“Um...Nix?” Korran ব্যক্ত softly.
Nix whirled around. Her blood froze cold. There she was, stepping out of the smoke, quite a few yards away--Aisling would know the exact distance, she thought with a pang of sadness--, hair and skin singed, face cut and bleeding, clothes torn, and eyes narrowed, sparking with bloody revenge. Nix managed to smirk.
“Let’s finish this.”
Her adversary laughed, drew her gun, aimed it at the center of Nix’s chest. “Or not.”
She pulled the trigger.
O.O Pleeeeease forgive me for the lonnnng wait!!! I promise I’ll be a lot faster from now on! Tell me what’cha think!! :D
