Justice League Femme

Chapter Twenty-Six: Wonder Woman

One hour after...

The Batcave was filled up. The news about Nia's collapse spread throughout the team like wildfire once Barbara told Kara and Mon-El. The whole team gathered in the Batcave's cortex while Caitlin treated Nia in the medbay. Barbara sat at the Batcave's main computer system.

"So, Dreamer came down with the disease, too?" Mary asked. She stood in front of me in her Mary Marvel outfit, clearly having grown into her shazamed body.

"Wouldn't be surprised," Courtney replied, "no healthy person just faints like that."

"You may be right, Courtney," I answered, "but until we get a full diagnosis from Caitlin, we won't know for sure."

Kara sighed and put her hands at her hips. "How would it be possible?"

"What do you mean?"

"The disease has only affected guys," she said, "But Nia...she's a girl."

I looked over at Mon-El. He scratched the back of his neck.

"The disease could have evolved," Jessica said.

"Maybe," I replied, "considering she hasn't been showing any other symptoms besides her collapse."

Barbara looked back at us from the computer. "Hey, so I found something on Dreamer."

I went over to the large monitors. The other followed. "What did you find?"

"She had her legal name changed to Nia Nal on her 18th birthday. Medical records state a history of narcolepsy and undergoing a handful of gender-reassignment surgeries and estrogen therapies before mysteriously disappearing for two years, and not coming back until just a few months ago."

"So, Nia..." Kara muttered.

"Is transgender," Barbara confirmed, "yet unlike male bodies, she's not showing any of the symptoms. Either because she's transgender she expresses the disease differently, or she's asymptomatic for the same reason."

"Well, this is new," Courtney muttered, "never heard of a transgender super before."

Kate slammed her elbow into Courtney's side.

Courtney winced. "Ow!"

"Cut the snark, and you won't have to worry about it again."

"Wait, what if I tried to vibe into Nia's head?" Cisco suggested, "that way I can figure out what happened to her."

Courtney raised an eyebrow. "You can do that?"

"Yeah," Mary chimed in, "I thought you could only make breaches and like, blast people."

Cisco smirked. "That's just the baseline of the things I can do."

I looked over at Barbara. She frowned at him. "Vibe, I don't know if that's the way to go about this."

"Why not?"

"If Dreamer...if Nia's actually sick," Barbara said, "who knows if you could contract the disease or not."

"Barbara has a point," I said, "we don't know what could happen if you did so. The last thing this team needs is to lose another member."

Cisco sighed.

"Maybe I could try to use a bit of magic to get her out," Zatanna suggested, "they don't call me the 'Mistress of Magic' for nothing."

I shook my head. "I can't have anyone tampering with this. Something like this could easily backfire if we involve magic with it."

Zatanna shrugged. "Worth bringing up."

Kate looked over at me. "Considering how Nia was born a male," she added, "we have no idea if or when she will come down with it."

Mari walked over to her."Do you believe that she might, Kate?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I only know as much as everyone else in this room."

"Not until she shows symptoms," I replied.

"And what if she's asymptomatic?" Dinah asked me.

I sighed. "I don't know, Dinah. I don't know."

Suddenly, there were footsteps. I looked over to see Caitlin come out of the Batcave's medbay and towards us. Her auburn waves bounced slightly on her chest.

Kara flew over beside me and in front of Caitlin. "Is Nia okay?"

"She's stable," she assured us.

Kara let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Rao!"

"Did you run any tests?" I asked.

Caitlin nodded. "The results of the blood tests came back negative."

"How many tests did you run?"

"Three."

"How accurate?"

"Roughly ninety-nine percent."

I sighed. "Damn."

"Then what do we do now?" Courtney asked.

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"The Joker's not behind it and we lost a team member," she clarified, "where do we go now?"

Before I got the chance to open my mouth to speak, there was a sharp, sudden gasp.

Kara's eyes widened. "Nia!" She flew into the medbay.

We followed after Kara.

Nia was sitting up on the bed when we came in. Her brown eyes looked over at us.

"Oh, thank Rao you're okay!" Kara said as she hugged her.

Nia gave her a small smile. "Thank you, Kara. That means a lot."

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Nia faced me. "Oh, yeah I'm good."

"You collapsed outside of the cells."

She sighed before hanging her head. "Yeah...that's not a moment I'm proud of." She bit her lip. "I...I think my powers kicked in."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"One of the powers I have is to dream the future," Nia explained, "it's not something that's voluntary, and for a period of time, I thought I suffered from narcolepsy. But I guess out of my sister and I, I was able to get the gift."

"The gift?" Kate asked.

"I'm from the planet Naltor," Nia explained, "and the first female born of each generation is given the ability to dream the future."

"But you're trans!" Courtney replied.

I heard Kate slam her elbow into Courtney's chest.

"Ow!"

"Thought I told you to cut it!"

I sighed. "I apologize for that."

Nia shook her head. "It's alright. If anything, like her, I didn't believe it, either, so I understand her confusion."

There was a slight pause.

"What was your dream, Nia?"

"Well, it's a bit lengthy, but I'll make it quick." She took a deep breath. "There were a few of us. There's a skull-shaped ship. Inside, there was a green alien with pinkish plugs in his head. Metallic tentacles came out from his back. He has cities in bottles: Metropolis, Gotham, Central, National and so many more. He has a formula that, according to him, makes the 'strong gender' weak, and the 'weak gender' forced to submit."

"Wait," Kara said, "what...what was his name."

Nia turned to her. "He said his name was Brainiac."

Kara's eyes widened at that.