Chapter Text
The door slid open with a near silent swoosh, yet it seemed much louder in the silent room. Well, almost silent. The constant and unmistakable beep beep beep of the heart rate monitor was a welcome noise, one that may have been considered annoying if the circumstances were any different. The dark-haired man stood at the door, staring, taking everything in. There were others there, of course, none wanting to leave their young friend alone. If it hadn’t been obvious that he was the youngest before, there was no denying it now. Lying there in the Watchtower medical bay, hooked up to all sorts of wires and machines that were doing everything in their power to keep him alive, he looked small. Broken. He couldn’t take his eyes off him. He tried to take a quick inventory of his injuries, but wasn’t sure where to start. The others in the room watched him. It seemed nobody wanted to be the one to break the silence in the room. Bruce finally broke out of his trance and slowly approached the bed. He wished he hadn’t. It seemed every step he became aware of another bruise, another scrape, another injury to the beloved speedster. He spotted what he assumed was Wally’s medical chart, left by the doctors, on the counter. He wasn’t sure he wanted to look. Instead he pried his gaze away from the redhead and sharply turned and sent a pleading gaze towards the Man of Steel, who was seated beside the bed along with John and Shayera.
Clark let out a sigh and his large frame seemed to deflate in his seat. He averted his eyes, suddenly finding the floor extremely interesting, while a hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. He didn’t want to be the one to tell him this, nor did he want to go over it again and be reminded of their grave situation. As if the state of his friend wasn’t proof enough. Finally, he looked back up at his friend, his look apologetic.
“Where should I start?”
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“Another day, another alien invasion,” Flash quipped, backing up and taking in his situation. He was surrounded by creatures that looked right out of Independence Day...only scalier. They weren’t armored and went down easily enough, but they numbered in the thousands, maybe millions, and had come without warning late in the night, targeting two major cities: New York City and Shanghai, China. The heroes weren’t sure why they split their attack to opposite ends of the planet, but it did mean that they had to split their ranks. Severely outnumbered, Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Women went to Shanghai while Superman, Hawkgirl, Flash, and Green Lantern dealt with the domestic invaders.
“They don’t happen that often,” John said, all the while encasing an alien in green light and throwing it into another that was taking aim at Shayera. She swooped down with her mace pulled back and sent it into the head of one trying to sneak up behind Wally.
“Two in one year is more than enough for me,” She said, her wings resting as she landed on her feet. Two more immediately came to attack her, but she dodged the first and grabbed onto its arm. Using the momentum, she swung it into the other before letting go. She briefly wondered if they would swim as she sent them both flying off the bridge and into the Hudson River. Before anyone had the time to notice, Wally had zipped around and vibrated his hand through their weapons, pulling some wires loose. Once again surrounded by enemies, he held his hands up in mock surrender.
“C’mon guys, really, let's talk about this,” his attempt as reasoning was ignored, as one by one the aliens pulled the trigger on the weapons, only to have them spark and explode, taking each down with it. Wally smirked to himself and put his hands down.
“Good talk.”
Once he was sure they were all down, he sped over to Shayera, where John was landing as well. The city was complete chaos. Police, firefighters, military, and other local heroes were doing what they could to evacuate people and defend them from aliens the League couldn’t get to. Buildings were on fire, windows were smashed, street lamps were down across intersections. They needed to regroup and come up with a plan of attack. High above them, a massive ship hovered in the sky. It was equipped with a cannon, which had already been used three times to destroy an entire building and a large section of the bridge. The third had missed its target and gone into the Hudson, but the resulting wave had caused a boat to capsize. Superman had flown down and rescued the crew quickly enough, but the casualties from the whole ordeal were already high. They watched as hundreds more aliens headed down towards them.
“I hope the others are having better luck than we are,” Wally said. When Batman said that he and J’onn were going to sneak onto the ship in Shanghai, his stomach had dropped. They’d almost lost him during the Imperium invasion. Back before the League, before whatever this was that had developed between the two of them had even begun.
“You’re in luck,” Superman said, swooping down to join them, “I just got word from Batman. He and J’onn were able to get into the control room and set it’s coordinates to another galaxy and rigged the system to self-destruct if Earth’s coordinates are ever programmed into it again.”
The three all raised their eyebrows, surprised at the decision. At the same time, they knew it had to be this way. Thousands of innocent people had already been killed by these invaders; Earth couldn’t afford for them to return.
“Can we do to same thing to this one?” Shayera asked, pointing up at the ship with her mace.
“We’re going to try. Bruce and J’onn are needed in Shanghai to finish off the aliens that were already off the ship. John, you’re with me,” Shayera looked like she was going to argue, but Superman cut her off before she could get a word out, “You two are needed down here.” He said firmly, gesturing to the scene around them. Taking a look around she nodded and tightened her grip on her mace before taking off. Wally patted John on the arm before speeding after her with a quick “good luck”.
A few minutes of blindly fighting aliens passed before Wally heard a beep in his ear. Someone was trying to reach him and only him, separate from the channel the League was using. He double tapped the button, accepting the call.
“How’s the situation in New York?” A rough voice said. The sound of combat could faintly be heard over the line as well.
“Well hello to you too,” Wally replied with a smirk as he skillfully avoided a lash from razor sharp claws. The only response was a grunt in his ear. He took a step back from the attacking alien only to trip over a broken bus-stop sign. He let out a soft grunt as he fell back, recovering only to find the alien pointing its weapon down at him and seeing it pull the trigger.
These were the times when it paid off to be the fastest man alive. He was easily able to flip his body back over his shoulder and out of harms way before the deadly ray could meet its mark. He ran in quick tight circles around the alien, creating a funnel of wind that lifted it up off its feet and high into the air. Once he deemed it high enough, he skidded to a stop, letting him fall with a shriek.
“What was that?” Wally heard in his ear. Oh yeah, he’d almost forgotten about Bruce.
“Nothing important. Situation here is…” He trailed off, looking around. He watched Shayera drop another alien off the bridge before turning around and flying toward at a ship bring more down to Earth, mace crackling and ready to swing. Frowning, he finished, “…it could be better.”
“Superman and Green Lantern have found the control room, J’onn is telepathically instructing them in reworking the ship’s coordinates. It should only be a few minutes longer at most. After that you and the others will have to finish off the aliens that are already on Earth. Diana and I are working on that here. We’ll rendezvous with you in a few hours.”
“Got it, how much longer until the ship is out of here?” He hadn’t seen any more pods leave the mothership in a few minutes, which seems promising. Leave it to Supes and GL to have the insight to take them out while on a stealth mission.
“I’d estimate less than a minute. I’ll see you soon… Be safe.” Bruce said in place of other words. Surrounded by violence and destruction, the redhead couldn’t help but smile. He knew what the other man meant.
“Always.” He knew Bruce, the world’s greatest detective, would be able to pick up the double meaning in his words. With a click of button, he ended the call. His faint smile hadn’t yet faded when a blast of heat and pain suddenly struck him in the back, sending him flying forward. The concrete dug into the palms of his hands and the side of his face for just a second before he recovered and flipped around to face his attacker, only to find that he’d already been taken care of. Hawkgirl’s mace was discarded near him, and she flew down to retrieve it before offering Wally her hand. Accepting it, he let her pull him to her feet, wincing slightly and the new burns on his back were jostled.
“Stay alert. We can’t afford to lose you.” He scolded softly. Well, as softly as a warrior like Hawkgirl was capable of. He shook it off and went right to teasing.
“Right now, or ever?” He joked, earning him a shove on the arm.
“Both. Now come on, we can’t rest yet.” Her wings began to move as she took flight.
“What? You gettin’ sleepy?” He shouted after her and she couldn’t help a smile. She continued her flight until she was startled into a sudden stop. The noise they’d heard three times already today. The cannon. It was being aimed. What were Superman and GL doing? Had they failed, been captured? They needed to stop it.
“Shay! Go!” Flashed shouted, the urgency evident in his tone. This seemed to shock the look of dread and disbelief off of her face, and she took off full speed towards the ship. Unable to fly, Wally took off across the city, towards the direction where the massive weapon was pointed. He clicked on his comm link with Shayera and didn’t have to wait long for her to open her channel as well. When she’d reached the ship, she used her momentum and her mace to smash right through the wall. GL had directed her to the control room where he and Superman were. The Man of Steel was still working with J’onn to send the ship away. They’d experienced issues after discovering that this ship was different than the other, which was the cause of the delay.
They were so concentrated on that that they’d failed to notice that one of the aliens was not completely down, and it had managed to crawl up to the controls and enter the code to fire their most destructive weapon. John and Clark hadn’t even noticed until they felt the ship shift and heard the sounds of the large machinery moved into place. Shayera’s voice over the comm had informed them what was happening, and a blast of green light took out the straggler. Shayera and John hovered over the monitor, trying to find a way to stop the weapon from firing.
“Have you found the target?!” Flash shouted over the comms. He’d managed to take out a few aliens in the meantime, but his main concern right now was this weapon and minimizing the casualties from it. The unmistakable sound of the weapon powering up was making him anxious. Every second that passed with him in the dark was another person he may not have time to save.
“It looks like its locked on the skyscraper overlooking Central Park,” John informed him. “do a quick run through for civilians.” He turned to Shayera, looking frustrated at his failure.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop it,” he said, shaking his head, “I’ve tried everything.” A defeated moment passed before Shayera’s grip tightened on the handle of her mace once again. She and John’s eyes met, hers more determined than ever.
“Not everything.”
“We don’t know if that will work,” John said calmly, a hand gently holding her arm down.
“We don’t know that it won’t. What other choice do we have?!” It was obvious on his face that John was having an internal debate with himself. After a look back at Superman, who was still telepathically linked with J’onn, the screen showing the target locked on the towering building, the countdown until it fired, which was suddenly in single digits, he finally came to a decision.
“Do it,” he ordered, releasing her arm. She nodded, understanding that John was not comfortable taking a risk like this, but was also aware they didn’t really have another option. With a shout, she lifted her mace over her head and down onto the controls a few times, crushing the metal and glass, shattering the screens, and sending sparks into the air around it. The sound of the cannon charging to fire stopped. They both let out a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived. A light began blinking on the other side of the console, and John ran over to the screen.
“It’s some kind of failsafe, a backup weapon,” he realized as five second countdown ended, and the weapon fired. Five large missiles were being fired, all targeted on the same building. The one Wally was in.
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