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STAR CITY
MARCH 30, 21:57 PDT
PERHAPS YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR AN INTERESTING FACT. ELEPHANTS, IT TURNS OUT, ARE SURPRISINGLY STEALTHY. AS THE SUNLIGHT FADES, OTHER SPECIES DECLARE THEIR PRESENCE. Throngs of zebras and wildebeests thunder by in the distance, trailing dust clouds. Cape buffalo snort and raise their horns and position themselves in front of their young. Giraffes stare over treetops, their huge brown eyes blinking, then lope away in seeming slow motion. But no elephants.
Shadow carefully trailed behind a manta solider, felt her feet were bare and these bare feet whispered across the floor as she approached him with the sort of stealth that only small children and trained killers possessed—maybe because she was one. She gripped his neck and easily subdued him as another one came behind her and she did the same to him. Superboy came in and they dragged the bodies to the side, acquiring their uniforms and walking out of the ship, leaving the two men in a warehouse near the docks.
At a loading dock, Tigress and a squad of Manta Troopers were preparing to put a group of teenagers, held in a wire mesh pen, into containment pods as the two joined them. Bring out the pods. Now!
"Get those pods open. We're on a schedule and Kaldur'ahm does not tolerate delay." Tigress ordered "One per pod. Move."
"Hey! Stop it!" Several people from the mesh pen protested. The troopers pushed them in "Into your pod." Shadow gently pushed Barbara inside one of the pods and began to push them along in the lines, waiting for their next course of action.
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THEY WERE NEAR THE EXIT, THE MANTA TROOPERS STOOD AND TIGRESS WAS ORDERING THEM TO HOLD THEIR POSITIONS. Shadow and Superboy nodded at eachother, and she pulled back one the men and three him to the ground while Superboy kicked Tigress into the ceiling, pushing her back and rendering her unconscious. Alarms began to blare around them as their plan fell to action.
They took off their masks. "Docking bay, secured." Superboy informed through the telepathic link "Nice timing, pretty people" Bumblebee complimented as she showed up from the other side with the abductees.
"Docking now." Nightwing informed as Wonder girl guided the abductees "All right, people, let's move!"
Shadow felt her head lighten for a moment as Superboy tried contact "The link's down. I'm going in." Superboy informed. The sound of a punch landing and the Kryptoninan flying back with a grunt made them turn to the perpetrator in alert. It was almost like BlueBeetle but his armour was black "Apologies, meat." He smirked and placed his hands on the wall, his armour sensing his commands, the armored alien had sealed the bay, locking himself in with them "But no one goes anywhere."
"Listen, uh, Black Beetle." Wondergirl began "You're totally outnumbered. Open those doors now and we'll go easy on you."
"You will go easy on me?" He taunted with a maniacal laugh
"Oh, that is not a good sign." Bumble Bee muttered. Shadow's eyes narrowed on him. Every time she sparred with Blue Beetle, she noticed that his armour was possibly one the strongest things she had come up against. It was aware and in control of every action and she didn't doubt that this version was far more superior and the wielder, far more skilled. It was most certainly a hard chanced win. She stayed back for moment to observe him as the others launched onto attack him.
The heroes unsuccessfully battled Black Beetle. He easily dismissed assaults from Lagoon Boy, Superboy and Wonder Girl. He took out Bumblebee with a sonic blast. Robin, Batgirl attacked with explosive batarangs to no effect. Black Beetle electrocuted Lagoon Boy when he attackd, then shoots staples when Tim and Barbara try to taser him. One of them hits Tim, and he is pinned to the wall.
Shadow moved quickly to free him. An abductee tried to attack with a Manta Trooper's gun, but Shadow saw Shimmer appear in the back and her eyes narrowed, she pulled her back as Batgirl avoided an attack from the armoured alien. She turned to Shadow "Tag?" Shadow kicked the woman directly at the red head and they both engaged in their own fight.
Herself, Wonder Girl and Superboy took on Black Beetle again. Superboy was kicked deep into the ground and Shadow flipped over the alien, kicking him in the face before using the momentum to bring him down.
Wondergirl held him down with the her lasso but he managed to escape and oushed the blonde back, gripping onto Shadow, who easily escaped his hold. It seemed the telepathic link was reestablished as she saw Cassie engaged for a moment
They were almost toe to toe. She held the punch he aimed straight for her face and twisted his wrist. He gave a dark laugh "You cannot beat me. I have no weakness" A projection from the sode of his body hit her and threw her into the bay door. The cold metal hit her harshly and she was almost certain she heard her own back crack. Her vision blurred for a moment as the healing began and she shook her head to see Miss Martian stuck in halfway through the door, Black Beetle gleefully claiming that he altered the door's density, knocking her out while beating Wonder Girl against the door in order to render her unconscious.
She slipped into the shadows completely, perhaps it was time to channel her other worldly strengths for a moment.
The swish of clothing indicated a possible weapon draw and his attention was taken from Wonder girl who weakly slid down the door, she flipped back as he began shooting energy beams at her through his blaster canon. A shadow fell over the floor and she now stood directly behind him and placed a high powered electromagnet onto his back and moved out of the way before he could capture her, the device activated immediately and the Black Beetle knelt in pain, placing a hand in front of eyes.
"Your delusions aren't of adequacy. Everything has a weakness" She stated and used her strength to pull him down to the ground getting a grip on one the wing like projections that extended out of the armour and placed her hand on it, the penumbra in the room now gathered as one force and surrounded the wing and broke it off, causing him to scream out. He tried to throw her off himself but only slammed into a wall as she moved out of the way.
The device was discharged as the black scarab reached full strength and Black Beetle's vision returned, he was quick to grip Shadow by her hood and slammed her head into the same wall he had in his act of vengeance, multiple times, enough to draw blood then pulled back "You seem to be holding out better then this lot of earthly vermin. Don't. It only makes it harder"
"I've fought imbeciles much bigger and stronger than you before" With that, dark tendril wrapped around his limbs and pulled him away from her. Blue, Impulse and Beast boy ran into the Docking bay, Blue beetle immediately opened the gates the other one had closed and went on to battle his darker counter part as Shadow held her head, her vision still blurred. Fortunately, she was just about trained for any situation, even fighting blind, she threw a wooden tonfa at Shimmer who was in moves to attack Batgirl whose eyes widened as the weapon swished past her and landed square on the woman's head, knocking her out once more.
"Execute" She nodded at Barbara, both knowing their plan of action had been the same. She held onto Superboy and Robin and dragged them onto the Bioship. Then went back in for Wonder girl but Impulse was quick to take her and reached the ship much faster, much to her own relief, the healing process almost felt draining these days. It exhausted her beyond capacity. She was never so lethargic after training as much as she had been when her powers tried to heal her. Only heal. Using them had been alright. What with demon in the corner, staring at her, she gripped the wall of the docking bay and took in a breath.
"You alright?" Nightwing questioned, concerned at the bloodied sight of her "For a woman slammed twenty times into a wall? Just peaches."
"You were counting?" She stared at him blankly "I was bored and in pain. I do have some human quality." She held her side and he helped her walk into the Bioship, sitting her down on a seat that morphed out of the surface.
Suddenly the ship shook as everyone entered, it had begun to flood in water—only Blue Beetle was absent. "Everyone's aboard except Blue."
"Going back in for him." Impluse tried to go after him but was knocked out by an influx of water. The Bio-Ship detaches from the Reach vessel. "Nightwing, seal the hatch. Docking bay is flooding our hold." Batgirl ordered
"Acknowledged."
"But Blue!" The speedster protested "We can't help him if we drown...or are crushed by the pressure at this depth." The Reach ship opened fire as Lagoon Boy entered the waters to pick up Blue, and they were collected by the Bio-Ship, which then fled the scene.
"Mission accomplished, everyone. Well done. Care to take the controls, Miss M?" Nightwing smiled but she did not respond and Shadow looked almost confused, the ever so giddy woman, so silent all of a sudden "Think she's still basking in the glow of victory." Her attention now shifted to Beast boy "She totally nailed Aqualad. You should have seen it. Well, actually, it didn't look like much. But I'm sure it was very cool inside their heads."
Shadow raised a brow at the current information. A secret so big for them was somewhat hard to digest and for many on the Team much like M'gaan it may not be an easy feat. But, her silence masked something else, only the assassin couldn't make it out yet.
She just hoped M'gaan didn't act on compulsion only to find the truth in the midst of it all.
She could be wrong.
She was hit several times in the head after all, most of the words there at the moment were pure gibberish so she could always hope...
Though she was scarcely ever wrong.
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GHOSTS. THEY DON'T HAUNT US. THAT ISN'T HOW IT WORKS. THEY'RE PRESENT AMONG US BECAUSE WE WON'T LET GO OF THEM. ONE MAY SAY HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS. SOME DON'T BELIEVE IN THE COLOUR RED. THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T THERE.
HER HEAD WAS SPINNING AS SHE STARED AT THE FILES, SEVERAL FIGURES, DARK & GHOSTLY SURROUNDED HER. When she was younger, she'd hardly ever use her powers to see the dead, they only ever appeared when her emotions were repressed. When she tried to escape the dark, they'd haunt her.
She tried hard to keep this part of herself locked away, to never see them again. Not on all hallow's eve, not in the dark and certainly not on a random Tuesday. Strangely enough, she recalled, graveyards were the one place she never saw ghosts.
She often wondered how the human world and the ghost world were separated by a veil so few could access and the ones who did usually had unfinished business on the land of the living
Did she believe in ghosts? In one aspect, yes, she did. She believe in ghosts, but she also believed we create them. We haunt ourselves. The two kinds of ghosts. The one that haunted us in our heads and the other in our homes.
Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and it still returns. Maybe all the people who say ghosts don't exist are just afraid to admit that they do.
And the bummer thing is, ghosts never leave. They might leave you alone sometimes, but they're always there deep down, whispering lies in your ear. They echo the lies others told you: That you're not smart enough; that you're not pretty; that you'll never amount to anything. Or perhaps they're after your soul, either way both were dangerous to have around.
She sighed to herself and gripped her head as the whispers and exhaustion hit her in waves and she leaned back in her chair, watching them with blank eyes.
"What you see isn't far too real"
"What a perfect day to be gone and forgotten. What a wonderful day to be dead"
"Once the veil lifts, we shall be free"
"The curse of death surrounds your blood once again. Looming danger"
"Maledictions, maledictions oh the maledictions"
She gently closed her eyes and hoped for silence in all this discord, not knowing that something within was withering away, darkness lingering in the air.