Can A Bird Trust A Cat? (A Young Justice FanFic)

Chapter Eighteen

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but Nessie...and Hallucination. c:

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Opening my eyes was as hard as it was for Superman to lift a truck full of Kryptonite. But I eventually did, and I noticed immediately that I was untied from the chair. And that my belt was on. The only thoughts running through my head were escape plans. Trying to stand up, my legs collapsed from under me and I fell to the floor, smashing my face on the hard cement. I sat up, noting my split lip and my eye, which was probably black by now.

"H-hello?" My voice sounded weak and hoarse from the screaming I did on the Fear Gas.

"Well, good morning," a voice said. Hallucination emerged out of the shadows.

"How long have I been out?" I asked him.

"About a day. Fear Gas can take some time to get used to."

"Where's Scarecrow?"

"Researching you and your junior Justice League."

"What are you talking about?" I was so confused. Hallucination bent down next to me.

"Remember those people we showed you on the TV? Your team?"

"They're not my team! I don't get how you can't realize that by now."

"Shut up and quit lying!" His knuckles struck my skull above my ear, and my head hit the floor with enough force to make my ears ring.

"Hallucination! We want her alive, not dead," Scarecrow said in his raspy voice, walking into the room with the TV and a camera on a stand. "Tie her to the chair again." As Hallucination reached for me, my fist flew out and collided with his nose, resulting in a sickening CRACK. Suddenly, I was coughing and sputtering. Looking to my left, I saw Scarecrow with his palm facing me. Oh God, not the Fear Gas again. Scarecrow and Hallucination vanished, and all I could see was water starting to fill up the room. That was a problem, because I couldn't swim. I had never learned. Starting to panic as the water reached my ankles, my eyes drifted to the far end of the room and I saw my parents standing there, looking like they could care less that I was going to drown.

"Help! Please! Help me!" I cried out as the water reached my knees, then my waist, my stomach, my collarbone, my chin. And as the water reached my mouth, I was only breathing through my nose, and it was becoming harder and harder to keep oxygen in my lungs. Then the water stopped, and I remembered a foster home I was in. Mr. Jefferson, my foster parent at the time, had a huge pool in his backyard. I was in charge of cleaning it, and when he got his monthly paycheck for taking care of me, he pushed me in. I didn't know how to swim in 10 feet of water, and I would've drown if the neighbor hadn't seen me thrashing around in the ice cold liquid. I was 11 at the time. Snapping back to reality, the water lapped at the edge of my nose and then rose again. Water flooded through my nose, and I opened my mouth in spite of myself. The water poured into my lungs, and I fell unconscious as the liquid reached the top of my head.

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I woke up and I found that I was tied to the chair again. Thrashing around, I tried to reach the wire that was binding my wrists, but with no success. The TV and a camera on a stand was in front of me, pointing my direction. From the reflection of the TV screen, I could see that there were dots of dried blood on my chin from my split lip and that my eye was swollen. My head also hurt profusely from Hallucination's punch. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them up again, there was Scarecrow and Hallucination.

"Remember how you asked me if I was going to tell you our plan? Well, now is the time," Scarecrow began. "We have learned from many resources that there seems to be a small team of sidekicks running around and doing the Justice League's dirty work. Pathetic, I know. When I broke out of Arkham Asylum and went to get Hallucination, I started to hatch a plan. Knowing that Batman's young apprentice was part of the team, I began to track where he was going. Seeing that he was planning to go to the carnival, and that our base was under the mirror house, I commanded Hallucination to use his telepathy to lure him in."