Young Justice: Inside a Cave?
July 28th, 2010
I fingered my wand, staring silently at the doorway from which I could hear the voices. There were two of them, a man and a woman, and neither of them sounded like an eighty-year-old metal aerokinetic. I couldn't quite make out what they were saying, their voices were heavily distorted by echoes, but it was clear that they were getting closer.
Zatanna took a step closer to me. “If Wonder Woman brought us here, it's probably not anywhere dangerous, right?” she asked quietly.
My eyes didn’t leave the doorway. “That seems unlikely.” And if they were, well, I couldn’t feel anything like an anti-apparition charm so it would be easy enough to get away.
A moment later, two people walked into the room, arguing quietly and not really paying much attention to where they were going. Well, only one of them was walking. The other was floating a few inches above the ground, one of her knees bent and the other foot pointed towards the smooth stone floor.
They cut an interesting pair. The first was a tall, dark-skinned young man with short, pale hair and odd looking flaps on either side of his neck. He was wearing a bright-red skin-tight shirt with no sleeves and matching blue pants, a pair of metal handles protruding over his shoulders from something on his back. He also had black tattoos extending down his arms and vanishing beneath his clothing.
The other was, if anything, even more eye-catching. Not only was she flying, leaving her at eye-level with the taller young man beside her, but she also had bright green skin and red hair, a rather striking and unusual combination. She was wearing a variant of an outfit Zatanna had tried on while we’d been out shopping together; a short sleeved red jacket over a white shirt with a matching skirt.
“I will make sure––oh!” The green-skinned girl stopped in mid air and turned to look at Zatanna and I. “Are you here to join the team?” she asked curiously.
The dark-skinned boy stopped a step later and turned towards us as well. His muscles tensed and one of his hands rose slightly, reaching for the weapon strapped to his back. “I hadn’t heard anything to suggest we would be gaining additional members.”
I felt a light brush against my mind and my eyes snapped towards the source of the attack. She wasn’t looking directly at me, and our eyes weren’t locked together, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was the source of the attack.
My grip on my wand tightened. “Don’t do that,” I said sharply.
“Do what?” the young man asked. Then he shook himself. “No, identify yourself. How did you find this place and what are you doing here?”
I wasn’t paying him much attention. The light brush became insistent, and then tapped against the outermost layer of my occlumency shields. A moment later, the shield shattered and I flinched in a mix of pain and surprise.
Before the mental probe could push any deeper, I took hold of the candle flame merrily flickering at the center of my mind and blew on it. In an instant, the candle flame transformed into a blazing pillar that I lashed towards the attack pushing deeper into the outer reaches of my mind. It wasn’t a particularly effective mental attack, but it was a very obvious and aggressive way of telling someone to back off. After all, very few people used fire as a purely defensive barrier within their mind. It was mostly intended to tell an attacker that you knew they were there and wanted them out.
The flying girl cried out and clutched at her head, her mental probe retreating in an instant. The boy went from guarded to aggressive in an instant, drawing the metal handles on his back and conjuring two watery swords using them as hilts and making his black tattoos light up a shining blue color.
“Hydrys?” Zatanna hissed at me.
“Stay out of my mind!” I called out loudly. “And don’t start things you can’t finish. She’ll be fine, I barely touched her.”
The boy glanced over at his companion, who was still clutching at her head.“She better be! Who are you?”
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Zatanna took a step forward, her hands raised in front of her. “Calm down, calm down, this is all a misunderstanding. You’re Aqualad, right? I’m Zatanna Zatara, your mentor and my dad work together in the Justice League.”
Zatanna half-turned towards me, keeping her palms facing the duo. “Hydrys, what happened?”
“She tried to invade my mind. Back home, that sort of thing carries a five-year prison sentence. I don’t know why she reacted like that, I barely touched her mental probe. She should be completely fine.”
The dark-skinned boy, Aqualad apparently, lowered his two swords a few inches, leaving them still at the ready but not pointed directly at us. “I am certain Miss Martian did not mean it as an attack. Her species uses telepathy as its primary form of communication. Now, what are you doing here?”
Zatanna shrugged. “Waiting for Red Tornado, I guess? Wonder Woman dropped us off here and said he’d be here soon, but you guys beat him to the punch. So wait, does that mean she’s like, the Martian Manhunter’s student or something?”
“Indeed.” Aqualad turned to Miss Martian, who had returned to her previous floating and was now rubbing her head instead of just holding it. “Miss Martian, are you alright.”
“Ye-yeah! Hello Megan, I had not realized that there would be other telepaths here on Earth with different cultures. I’m sorry, I’m just so used to being able to reach out to everyone around me. I didn't mean to offend.”
I stared at her suspiciously. That had been a very powerful probe for something that she did to everyone. If not for my shields, it would have easily penetrated into my surface thoughts. I paused, realizing another implication of what she’d just said. “Zatanna,” I hissed, “do you know a spell to shield your mind? She’s probably reading your surface thoughts right now.” Zatanna knew a number of things that I would prefer didn’t get out that could easily be picked up by a powerful, subtle legilimens like this innocent-looking girl.
Zatanna’s eyes widened in realization. “Dnim dleihs!” she mumbled, and Miss Martian––or was her name Megan––flinched again.
Aqualad clearly didn’t miss the exchange. “If you are indeed who you say you are, your actions do not seem like those of a friend.”
“Oh, because friends invade each other’s minds on a whim? That’s not the sort of magic you just throw around for the fun of it. Legilimency can cripple and kill as easily as any curse.”
Before Aqualad could respond, a hatch in the ceiling opened and all four of us looked up to see what was presumably Red Tornado floating down from a room high above us. He drifted slowly to the ground and landed with a soft click of metal on stone.
“Greetings. I understand you are Hydrys and Zatanna, yes?”
“That’s us!” Zatanna told him.
Before he could respond, Aqualad took a step forward. “You are expecting these people, sir?”
Red Tornado turned to look at the boy, his neck making a sort of soft hissing noise. “Yes. They are associates of an old friend.”
“They hurt Me––Miss Martian.”
“I witnessed the encounter. Miss Martian, if you do not require medical care, I believe the issue has been resolved.”
“I’m fine,” she nodded a little bit too quickly to look natural, “he just startled me, that’s all. Really Aqualad, I’m alright.”
“Good,” Red Tornado said shortly, then turned back to Zatanna and I. “I understand you are looking for Kent Nelson. I indeed have the key. I would accompany you to the Tower. I would like to ascertain Kent Nelson’s well-being for myself.”
Zatanna shrugged. “We’d be happy to have you with us, Red Tornado. Uh, Hydrys, do you think you can bring an extra person along?”
I looked at Red Tornado. He was about the same size as I was, but was probably somewhat heavier. It would be a bit tricky, and I’d never apparated with two passengers before. Maybe…
“No need. There is a Zeta Tube not far from the Tower. It should not take long to arrive at our destination. Come.”
Red Tornado took two steps towards the apparatus that had brought Zatanna and I here, then stopped when Aqualad called out to him. “Wait, Red Tornado. Kent Nelson, wasn’t he Earth’s sorcerer supreme?”
“Indeed. He has carried that title for many years.”
“Did something happen to him?”
This time it was Zatanna’s turn to answer Aqualad’s question. “We’re not sure. Hydrys was supposed to have a lesson with him a few hours ago, but he wasn’t there and the Tower of Fate was gone.”
“Could we come along? It would be an honor to meet such an esteemed hero.”
“I am not responsible for assigning such missions. Furthermore, your team is still recovering from your previous engagement.”
“We’re plenty recovered,” Megan jumped in, “and it’s not like this is a mission for the team. We’re just coming with you to see an old friend.”
Red Tornado considered the question for several seconds. “Very well. Let us depart.”
Well, apparently there were five of us now.