||Bialya
||September 04, 17:44 EEST
Sand. That's all I could feel underneath of me. I sat up to look around, noticing I was in the desert. Last I knew I was at home, my parents just cooked us dinner and I was headed off to bed. Had I been kidnapped?
"Lucky you, I'm still here."
I screamed as a voice spoke in my head.
"Right. I forgot you lost your memory."
I continued screaming.
"Shush. Be quiet and I'll explain."
I quiet down and quickly surveyed my surroundings.
"You are a superhero named Noire. You are excellent at combat and you have multiple powers."
"Pssh, yeah right. Next thing you'll tell me is Batman exists."
"He does."
"Yeah, as a comic book character."
"You were working alongside Young Justice."
"Ok, now I'm sure it's a dream."
"Pinch yourself, I assure you this is no dream. It's real, and you're about to be crushed by Superboy."
I look up bewildered to find Superboy falling towards me. I screamed once more, jumping out of the way, but what I thought was a jump turned into me flying. He kept jumping, leaving me as he continued on. I repeatedly pinched myself to test if it was a dream. All I got was pain.
"It would've hurt a lot more if you didn't move out of the way."
"Alright, voice. If I really am in the Young Justice universe, tell me what I have to do."
"Find your team. They are scattered around the dessert, but you should be able to find them. Also, change the way you look. You're a hero, you need a secret identity."
"What's wrong with my blonde hair? Surely nobody knows who I am. If this is the episode I think it is, they've all lost their memories."
"But they will know who you are after they regain their memory. Think about changing and you will have your superhero identity. Your hair is black and eyes are red."
"Superhero identity. And my name's Noire?"
"And you previously named me Natasha."
"Natasha. I would totally do something like that."
I think about the superhero version of me, my body changing in an instant. My hair was now black, and there was a bump on my cheek where a scar sat.
I quickly checked all of my weapons, finding the gun had been emptied of any ammo, leaving me with just the knives to use. I started flying around trying to find one of the heroes. Eventually, I found a remote cabin.
"Wait. If I'm in the Young Justice universe then that means Kid Flash and Artemis are inside that cabin."
"Correct."
I flew in and found an unconscious Kid Flash as suspected, his costume currently in its stealth mode, but Artemis was nowhere to be seen. I stood over him, trying to find any sign of life.
"Oh my god, Kid Flash is actually right here. You weren't lying."
"Of course I wasn't."
"I can't believe I'm actually here right now! That means Batman and Superman-" I paused, gasping. "That was Superboy earlier! I was nearly crushed by Superboy!"
"I know, I told you. You sound oddly excited for nearly being crushed."
"But where's Artemis? Shouldn't she be here?"
"This world isn't completely accurate to the show you know. She's probably somewhere else in this desert."
"I can't wait to meet the rest of the team. This is so awesome!"
"You should probably wake him. You do remember that a missile will be shot at this cabin soon, don't you?"
"Right!"
Kid Flash groaned when I nudged him with my foot and his eyes slowly opened. A smile formed on his face when he saw me and I rolled my eyes.
"Hey, beautiful," he said.
"It's Noire."
"Well, Noire, I'm Kid-"
"I know Flash jr. but I think we should go," I glanced out the window at a tank headed our way.
"You sure do love calling him that," Natasha states.
"I find it funny how mad he gets when it's said wrong."
"Actually my name is-" he stops, hearing the whistle of a missile headed straight for us.
He picked me up in his arms and sped us out of the cabin. We were at a relatively far distance from the cabin before it was no more.
"Thanks," I tell him.
"I wasn't just going to leave you there. But, if you really wanted to thank me, you could do it with a kiss."
"Yeah, no thanks."
He checked his food stash but it was empty, claiming we must've been out in the desert for more than 24 hours. As we thought about what to do next, I saw Superboy jumping towards us. I stood in front of Wally and held out my hands, hoping I had a power that would at least distract Superboy.
"What are you doing?" Kid Flash asks.
"I-I don't know, I've gotta have some sort of power, don't I?"
But nothing happened. Superboy grabbed me and threw me at a nearby rock without hesitation. Kid Flash watched and as he was about to get attacked some soldiers showed up, hitting the clone with a missile. He then went on a rampage and attacked the tanks.
"You okay?" Kid Flash asked me quickly.
I groaned. "We gotta get out of here."
With Superboy distracted, Kid Flash picked me up and started running but ended up tripping, leaving us to fall down a hill. Two drones then appeared in the sky and opened fire. Kid Flash pushed me to the ground, keeping an arm around me as the drones missed their targets.
They swung back around to attack a second time, but Miss Martian and Artemis showed up just in time. Miss Martian was holding onto Artemis, allowing Artemis to shoot down the drones with her bow and arrow. Once they were taken care of, Kid Flash and I stood up, Miss Martian and Artemis landing in front of us.
"Well, J'onn, the costume looks familiar. But I'm not sure the new bod screams Manhunter," Kid Flash says.
"You know my uncle J'onn?" Miss Martian asks. "Hello, Megan, of course you do! You're Kid Flash, Wally, and you're Noire."
"Wait, wait, wait. Martian Manhunter's your uncle? Is that how you know my name?"
"Your name's really Wally?" Artemis asks him.
Kid Flash groaned, but Miss Martian spoke up again. "It's okay, we're teammates, friends! I made you all cookies."
"Cookies?" I asked, glancing at Kid Flash.
"I don't know what she's talking about, beautiful, I've never met her before in my life," he defends.
Miss Martian sighed. "You lost your memories too."
In the distance, a big cloud of black smoke was climbing into the sky. Multiple tanks were driving up the sand dune towards it.
"C'mon, I'll fill you in as we go. Robin and Superboy need our help."
"Of course. Robin and super what now?" Kid Flash asked.
"Do they know I know all about them?" I ask Natasha.
"They do not. You chose to keep your previous life a secret."
"Makes sense. They'd probably think I'm crazy."
We followed Miss Martian across the desert, eventually finding Robin fighting against some Bialyan soldiers. Kid Flash ran in and stole all their guns, making it easy for them to take the rest of the soldiers out.
"KF! Man, it's good to see a familiar face," Robin says to Wally as he walked over.
"Hey, Rob, memory loss?"
"Six months! Let's hogtie these creeps and compare notes."
Miss Martian began explaining everything she knew. How all of us were a part of a team, including Superboy, the guy that nearly killed me twice.
"Then this must be his," Robin said, holding up the front of Superboy's t-shirt that held Superman's logo.
"Yes! Did you see him?" Miss Martian asks.
"We did," I tell her.
"Feral boy?" Kid Flash asks. "Some teammate. He attacked us."
"He didn't know who we are. I don't know who we are!" Artemis says.
"I remember Batman ordering radio silence," Robin explains. "Our team must work for him."
"Now how do you know we don't work for my mentor?" Kid Flash asks, tapping his chest as he pointed to himself.
As he did, his black suit turned back to its normal yellow and red. He kept changing it back and forth, intrigued by the stealth mode. The others tried tapping their own costumes to see if theirs had the same thing, but nothing.
"Stop that, we don't need to draw attention to ourselves," I tell him, slapping his hand away from his chest. "That's the whole point of the stealth."
"We look ridiculous," Artemis scoffs. "We need our memories back."
Miss Martian brought her hands up to her head. I blinked and next thing I knew I was standing with the others in a weird mind space, fragmented glass pieces floating around us, different memories playing on each.
"I've brought you into my mind to share what I remember so far," Miss Martian said. "But I need your help. Together, our broken memories can form a whole, if you open your minds to mine."
"You wanna paw through our private thoughts?" Artemis asks.
"I have no wish to intrude but-"
"You need to hack our minds to grasp what happened to us. Got it. Go," Robin told her.
"My brain's all yours," Kid Flash says. "Try not to let its brilliance overwhelm you."
"Or underwhelm you. Hey, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?"
"Last six months only, and only what you need," Artemis says.
"We'll get nowhere if I say no, so go ahead," I tell her.
Miss Martian nodded and began searching through our memories. We were reminded about how we had been sent on a mission by Batman, everything running smoothly until something happened to make us all lose our memories. We all gasped as Miss Martian finished combing through our memories.
"Aqualad!"
"Where is he? What happened next?" Robin questions.
"I don't know. That's the last thing I-we remember," Miss Martian says.
"We landed twenty four hours ago. If Kaldur's been wandering the desert that long, well, that's not good for a guy with gills," Kid Flash says.
"Now that I know to look for him," Robin started, opening a map on his watch. "He's close, but he's not moving."
Following Robin, we all searched for Aqualad, finding him not too far from where we were, hidden behind a small sand dune. He was mumbling in Atlantean in his sleep.
"I can't restore his memories in this condition," Miss Martian says.
"He needs immediate rehydration. Call the Bioship," Robin orders.
"It's out of range, but you can get him there fast," she says, looking to Kid Flash.
"He's too heavy, and I'm too low on fuel," he explained tiredly.
"Why not just levitate him back?" Artemis suggests.
"I can't. I have to find Superboy. Six months ago he didn't exist. He has no memories, just animal impulse. I'm the only one who can help him," Miss Martian explains.
"Superboy's indestructible. Just ask those tanks," Kid Flash says. "It's Aqualad who needs your help. Like, now."
Miss Martian clutched her head as she heard something, most likely Superboy. "No! Superboy's in pain!"
"M'gann, wait!" Artemis called out.
"We still don't know what erased our memories, it could happen again!" Robin shouted after her.
"It could, but we still need to keep moving forward," I tell them. "We gotta get Aqualad back to the Bioship."
We made a makeshift stretcher, placing Aqualad on it so we could maneuver with more ease. Aqualad kept mumbling in his sleep, clearly not doing well. We all hid behind a large rock when more soldiers started walking past.
"We can't risk a firefight with Aqualad KOed like this," Robin whispered.
"It's not just him," Kid Flash adds. "I'm way out of juice."
"And I'm almost out of arrows," Artemis says.
We looked back towards Robin, finding that he was no longer there. "Ugh, I forgot how much I hate it when he does that thing."
"He's probably the only who could do something useful at this point," I say.
"You're right," Robin said, standing with us once more.
"Dude, where were you?" Kid Flash asks.
"Breaking radio silence."
Robin's laugh echoed around us, drawing the soldiers to its location away from us. When they neared it, an explosion went off, kicking up dust.
"That's our cue. Move!"
We rushed off with Aqualad in tow, finding our way back to the Bioship where it sat in camouflage mode.
||Qurac
||September 05, 02:32 EEST
We set Aqualad on a bed, getting him some much needed fluids. I plopped down on a seat, the exhaustion washing over me.
"Hang on a second, don't I have something similar to super speed?"
"You do. Although, in this state, I don't know how much you'd manage. You can only do so much when exhausted," Natasha explains. "But you've all made it back in one piece, that's all that matters."
"I guess you're right."
"Hey, everybody, I got Superboy," Miss Martian spoke up in our minds. "He's back to normal and we're on our way."
"Who are you? And how did you get inside my head?" Aqualad demanded, sitting up in a rush.
Artemis calmly pushed him back down. "Hello, Megan, Aqualad's memories! I knew I forgot something"
"Aw, man, me too. I didn't get a souvenir from the mission," Kid Flash whined.
"Don't worry. Got the souvenir thing covered."
"Now that everything seems to have calmed down, it's time I properly restored your memories," Natasha told me. "Megan only restored your recent memories of this world. There's more for you to remember."
I didn't get a chance to respond. So many scenes flashed before my eyes, ones of a past where everything playing out in front me was only a TV show, and another of a past filled with superpowers and science. It all flooded my head, until it was too much to handle and I passed out.
||Happy Harbour
||September 05, 04:05 EDT
"Noire!"
I groaned as someone shouted in my face, slowly forcing my eyes open to see Wally directly in front of me, his hands on my shoulders as he gently shook me awake. We were still in the Bioship, presumably flying back towards the Cave.
"Hey, you okay? You sorta passed out on us a while back."
"Sorta?" Robin repeats, standing beside Wally. "Dude, she full on passed out."
"Whatever, Rob, not really the time for specifics."
"I'm fine," I tell him, letting my eyes fall shut. "I think the heat and dehydration got to me. That's all."
"You did look really tired before we left," Megan comments.
"The night before I was studying. Since I had been locked up in the Cave for so long, I missed out on the start of school. I didn't want to be behind when I finally got back into it."
"That's not why you passed out," Natasha remarks. "I needed to reset your memories properly."
"Yeah, thanks for that by the way. You could've warned me."
"All's well that ends well."
"At least I have a reasonable excuse."
"We're almost at the Cave now," Megan tells me. "Then you can rest properly."