Pascal's Wager
Thud
"Oof!"
Note to self, Wally thought as he curled up in a ball, being flung into walls hurts. A lot.
Explosions rang through the rest of Mount Justice, and he could hear the sound of his team battling from the next room.
He didn't think they were winning.
He started to stand up, but a bolt of searing pain stopped that quickly enough.
Owww... Okay. New plan.
Wally tried not to look at his leg, or listen too closely to the sounds from outside.
A nasty little voice that sounded way too much like Klarion whispered. You're a speedster. What are you gonna do? You can't even stand. Useless.
Wally looked around and realized he had been blasted into his souvenir room. Another explosion rocked the building, knocking things off shelves and causing something round and shiny to roll over to him. It was Dr. Fate's helmet.
I can help, it seemed to say.
"No!" Wally spluttered, "Not a chance, I probably have a concussion to even consider it! No!"
He heard crashing noises and screaming from close by. Wally flinched. He looked at the helmet and thought about all the terrible things that could happen if he put it on. He thought about all the worse things that could happen if he didn't.
"Fine."
He brought the helmet over his eyes, and everything went white.
Part 2:
"You again."
Wally looked around. He was in the same empty blue pocket-dimension as before, and Kent Nelson was nowhere in sight. Nabu was floating in front of him, looking remarkably annoyed for an empty helmet.
"Uh, hi?"
The helmet glared at him for a second, then Nabu's voice boomed and echoed through the mindspace.
"You swore an oath." Wally fell and covered his ears. It didn't help."You lied. You have not found an appropriate host, and in this you have allowed Chaos a free rein in the physical plane."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but-"
I'm not helping you 'borrow' someone's body. Remember what happened to Nelson? It's not worth it.
"I'm here now."
"Because you need help." The scorn in that voice was palpable. For the first time, Wally wondered how much Nabu could see from the helmet while it wasn't being worn. He stood up and sighed.
"Yeah."
Nabu was silent for a moment.
"Very well. But you will not be departing, this time. The world needs Dr. Fate."
Wally didn't hesitate.
"I know."
Part 3:
Somewhere between noticing that Robin wasn't laughing and her getting thrown across the room, Artemis decided that this was Bad.
The capital was important. Tripping over her own feet while training was bad. Accidentally letting hints about her identity slip was bad. Letting a villain get away was really bad.
Half a dozen villains seeing through the whole "hiding in plain sight" gambit and deciding to show up at Mount Justice and pulverize them was Bad.
Oh, and the communication lines were down. Fuck.
After her umpteenth collision with parts of the building, Artemis stood up to aim at the villain she had privately been calling "Lunkhead," only to get bowled over by a flung Aqualad, courtesy of aforementioned Lunkhead.
Artemis' second direct meeting with the floor in as many seconds set her bruises throbbing. Judging by Kaldur's swaying, he wasn't doing much better.
His eyes narrowed. "You're almost out of arrows."
She checked. She had one left, and Lunkhead was getting closer.
Where were the others?
Robin was hopping between Clayface and some freak with a boomerang. It was subtle, but Artemis could see the boy wonder was limping a bit. M'gann was dodging blasts from a heat gun and trying to help extract Superboy from a pile of rubble. Wally had been tossed through a doorway a minute ago and hadn't come out yet.
Any second now. A blur, a stupid comment, something.
A burst of yellow light blasted through the doorway, knocking Lunkhead and a short guy in armor backwards.
Huh. That's new.
Part 4:
Robin hadn't been along on the Kent Nelson mission, but he had known a bit about Dr. Fate. The helmet was the source of power, someone put it on and got awesome light-based powers. He wouldn't have minded knowing more, though, seeing as how KF had insisted on leaving an object of unknown magical power in the mountain.
The others couldn't --or in Wally's case, wouldn't-- elaborate though, so Robin was left with what he had already known. That was enough to identify the blast of light from the storage room; Dr. Fate's attacks weren't exactly what he would call subtle.
Wally-Fate flew out of the room. Literally, he was hovering. A short glance told Robin why.
I don't think legs are supposed to bend that way.
Dr. Fate/Wally didn't seem to notice. Several blasts of light later, and it was over as quickly as it began. The villains were knocked out or fled; they had been expecting a bunch of kids, albeit well-trained/meta ones, not a fully-powered Lord of Order.
Wally-Fate was still standing there.
"Uh, KF," Robin said, "You can take the helmet off now."
There was no response from the speedster. Kaldur walked over and put his hand on Robin's shoulder.
"I do not believe it works that way," he said quietly. "Wally was reticent when I asked, but I got the impression that the helmet was its own being."
Kaldur took a step toward Wally and spoke again, more loudly this time.
"This battle is over. You can release him now."
Dr. Fate scanned the room, looking at each member of the team. Robin hid a shiver; his friend's eyes should never look that cold.
"No."
What.
"Excuse me?" Artemis' voice seemed anything but polite as she stepped forward.
"I will not relinquish this body. Dr. Fate has been out of the world for far too long."
This can't be happening.
Robin glanced at the pile of villains Dr. Fate had floored with little effort, then caught Artemis doing the same thing. She looked up and met his eyes.
You thinking what I'm thinking?
Robin smirked.
Part 5:
In the first few exchanges, they had been reluctant to attack. This was their friend's body after all, even if he wasn't controlling it.
That ended pretty quickly.
Later, Artemis would claim that it wasn't important, but when it happened, she relished that moment when Dr. Fate had found himself against a wall with her last arrow nocked and pricking at his throat.
Another second and he would have realized that killing Wally would defeat the purpose of removing the helmet. But that moment of hesitation was enough for Robin to spring in and pull the helmet off.
---------
Part 6:
As soon as the helmet was tugged off, Wally collapsed to the ground.
“KF?” Robin was still clutching the helmet. He dropped it to check his friend for a pulse.
“I don’t get it. He’s still alive, why is he unconscious?”
Kaldur frowned and picked up the dropped helmet. It was still warm to the touch. “His soul may still be inside this,” he said. “I don’t know how we would retrieve it, though.”
Artemis had moved over to help examine Wally, while M’gann and Superboy had approached Kaldur. M’gann frowned at the helmet, then smiled brightly.
“Hello, Megan! I can use telepathy to get him out!”
The others almost-smiled for the first time since the fight had started. Kaldur spoke.
“What can we do to help?”
------
Part 7:
Nabu was a Lord of Order, a highly powerful entity from another plane with thousands of years of experience with combat, both physical and mental. Learning this the hard way took either a second or an eternity; time in mind-spaces was funny that way. M’gann found herself fighting a will stronger than the riptides Kaldur had warned her about at the beach.
Release my friend!
No.
She wondered if her frustration was making itself evident on the physical plane. Focus. She was being pushed out of the mental realm and back to the physical one. M’gann could see the real world flickering into her vision, faster and faster.
No!
Somewhere in the earthly realm, someone was clutching her hand. She could feel it, like an extra presence at her back.
We’re here for you. She recognized the mental whisper as Superboy’s.
Several more presences appeared. She could feel Robin’s grin.
All of us.
The physical realm started flickering blue again, and M’gann remembered the meaning of hope.
-------
Part 8:
His head hurt. So did his everything else, for that matter. He was also being crushed by an overenthusiastic Martian.
“Wally! You’re okay!”
“I am?”
There was a flurry of responses all at once.
“Your leg is-“
“-will be okay. You-“
“It could have been a lot-“
“You idiot! Fate wasn’t going to give you back!”
Wally winced at that last one.
“I know,” he said.
“What?” several voices chorused, with varying degrees of disbelief and annoyance. Robin's eyes narrowed behind the mask.
“You knew,” he said.
Wally really didn’t want to have this conversation, but it seemed like he didn’t have a choice.
“It was hard enough getting him to let me go before. Maybe I’m just good company?” They all stared at him; now seemed like a good time to escape. Wally extricated himself from Megan’s death-hug and promptly fell down.
“Owww.” Right. Leg. Forgot about that.
Superboy picked him up in the manner generally associated with brides or unconscious children. Wally attempted a protest.
“Dude, I can.. well, not walk, per say, but I can hobble with support. Let me have some dignity here, please?”
Superboy raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything. After a moment, Wally tried again.
“So, are you going to put me down?”
“Are you going to do something stupid again?”
“No,” Wally said at the same time Robin said:
“Probably. We’d better not risk it.”
Note to self: Find crutches. Robin and Artemis were exchanging grins. Soon
---------
Part 9 (Epilogue):
Robin was walking through the hall when a voice emerged from a nearby room.
"This isn't going to happen again."
KF? Robin frowned and peeked into the room.
Wally was standing still, with stance Robin generally associated with imminent combat. He was staring at the helmet, which had been placed back on its shelf. Robin glanced at it. It wasn't doing anything. Maybe it had gotten shinier? Nah.
Suddenly, Wally relaxed and gave a small laugh. He turned toward the door. Years of observing Batman had taught Robin never to let the target initiate conversation. Given his friend was about to discover his presence, initiative seemed like a good idea.
"Hey."
Wally blinked at him. "Oh. Hi."
What to say what to say does he know
""Want to go spar with Artemis?"
Where did that come from? Stupid subconscious ideas.
Wally was smiling, though. He glanced at the helmet again, then back at Robin.
"Sure."
"Oof!"
Note to self, Wally thought as he curled up in a ball, being flung into walls hurts. A lot.
Explosions rang through the rest of Mount Justice, and he could hear the sound of his team battling from the next room.
He didn't think they were winning.
He started to stand up, but a bolt of searing pain stopped that quickly enough.
Owww... Okay. New plan.
Wally tried not to look at his leg, or listen too closely to the sounds from outside.
A nasty little voice that sounded way too much like Klarion whispered. You're a speedster. What are you gonna do? You can't even stand. Useless.
Wally looked around and realized he had been blasted into his souvenir room. Another explosion rocked the building, knocking things off shelves and causing something round and shiny to roll over to him. It was Dr. Fate's helmet.
I can help, it seemed to say.
"No!" Wally spluttered, "Not a chance, I probably have a concussion to even consider it! No!"
He heard crashing noises and screaming from close by. Wally flinched. He looked at the helmet and thought about all the terrible things that could happen if he put it on. He thought about all the worse things that could happen if he didn't.
"Fine."
He brought the helmet over his eyes, and everything went white.
Part 2:
"You again."
Wally looked around. He was in the same empty blue pocket-dimension as before, and Kent Nelson was nowhere in sight. Nabu was floating in front of him, looking remarkably annoyed for an empty helmet.
"Uh, hi?"
The helmet glared at him for a second, then Nabu's voice boomed and echoed through the mindspace.
"You swore an oath." Wally fell and covered his ears. It didn't help."You lied. You have not found an appropriate host, and in this you have allowed Chaos a free rein in the physical plane."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but-"
I'm not helping you 'borrow' someone's body. Remember what happened to Nelson? It's not worth it.
"I'm here now."
"Because you need help." The scorn in that voice was palpable. For the first time, Wally wondered how much Nabu could see from the helmet while it wasn't being worn. He stood up and sighed.
"Yeah."
Nabu was silent for a moment.
"Very well. But you will not be departing, this time. The world needs Dr. Fate."
Wally didn't hesitate.
"I know."
Part 3:
Somewhere between noticing that Robin wasn't laughing and her getting thrown across the room, Artemis decided that this was Bad.
The capital was important. Tripping over her own feet while training was bad. Accidentally letting hints about her identity slip was bad. Letting a villain get away was really bad.
Half a dozen villains seeing through the whole "hiding in plain sight" gambit and deciding to show up at Mount Justice and pulverize them was Bad.
Oh, and the communication lines were down. Fuck.
After her umpteenth collision with parts of the building, Artemis stood up to aim at the villain she had privately been calling "Lunkhead," only to get bowled over by a flung Aqualad, courtesy of aforementioned Lunkhead.
Artemis' second direct meeting with the floor in as many seconds set her bruises throbbing. Judging by Kaldur's swaying, he wasn't doing much better.
His eyes narrowed. "You're almost out of arrows."
She checked. She had one left, and Lunkhead was getting closer.
Where were the others?
Robin was hopping between Clayface and some freak with a boomerang. It was subtle, but Artemis could see the boy wonder was limping a bit. M'gann was dodging blasts from a heat gun and trying to help extract Superboy from a pile of rubble. Wally had been tossed through a doorway a minute ago and hadn't come out yet.
Any second now. A blur, a stupid comment, something.
A burst of yellow light blasted through the doorway, knocking Lunkhead and a short guy in armor backwards.
Huh. That's new.
Part 4:
Robin hadn't been along on the Kent Nelson mission, but he had known a bit about Dr. Fate. The helmet was the source of power, someone put it on and got awesome light-based powers. He wouldn't have minded knowing more, though, seeing as how KF had insisted on leaving an object of unknown magical power in the mountain.
The others couldn't --or in Wally's case, wouldn't-- elaborate though, so Robin was left with what he had already known. That was enough to identify the blast of light from the storage room; Dr. Fate's attacks weren't exactly what he would call subtle.
Wally-Fate flew out of the room. Literally, he was hovering. A short glance told Robin why.
I don't think legs are supposed to bend that way.
Dr. Fate/Wally didn't seem to notice. Several blasts of light later, and it was over as quickly as it began. The villains were knocked out or fled; they had been expecting a bunch of kids, albeit well-trained/meta ones, not a fully-powered Lord of Order.
Wally-Fate was still standing there.
"Uh, KF," Robin said, "You can take the helmet off now."
There was no response from the speedster. Kaldur walked over and put his hand on Robin's shoulder.
"I do not believe it works that way," he said quietly. "Wally was reticent when I asked, but I got the impression that the helmet was its own being."
Kaldur took a step toward Wally and spoke again, more loudly this time.
"This battle is over. You can release him now."
Dr. Fate scanned the room, looking at each member of the team. Robin hid a shiver; his friend's eyes should never look that cold.
"No."
What.
"Excuse me?" Artemis' voice seemed anything but polite as she stepped forward.
"I will not relinquish this body. Dr. Fate has been out of the world for far too long."
This can't be happening.
Robin glanced at the pile of villains Dr. Fate had floored with little effort, then caught Artemis doing the same thing. She looked up and met his eyes.
You thinking what I'm thinking?
Robin smirked.
Part 5:
In the first few exchanges, they had been reluctant to attack. This was their friend's body after all, even if he wasn't controlling it.
That ended pretty quickly.
Later, Artemis would claim that it wasn't important, but when it happened, she relished that moment when Dr. Fate had found himself against a wall with her last arrow nocked and pricking at his throat.
Another second and he would have realized that killing Wally would defeat the purpose of removing the helmet. But that moment of hesitation was enough for Robin to spring in and pull the helmet off.
---------
Part 6:
As soon as the helmet was tugged off, Wally collapsed to the ground.
“KF?” Robin was still clutching the helmet. He dropped it to check his friend for a pulse.
“I don’t get it. He’s still alive, why is he unconscious?”
Kaldur frowned and picked up the dropped helmet. It was still warm to the touch. “His soul may still be inside this,” he said. “I don’t know how we would retrieve it, though.”
Artemis had moved over to help examine Wally, while M’gann and Superboy had approached Kaldur. M’gann frowned at the helmet, then smiled brightly.
“Hello, Megan! I can use telepathy to get him out!”
The others almost-smiled for the first time since the fight had started. Kaldur spoke.
“What can we do to help?”
------
Part 7:
Nabu was a Lord of Order, a highly powerful entity from another plane with thousands of years of experience with combat, both physical and mental. Learning this the hard way took either a second or an eternity; time in mind-spaces was funny that way. M’gann found herself fighting a will stronger than the riptides Kaldur had warned her about at the beach.
Release my friend!
No.
She wondered if her frustration was making itself evident on the physical plane. Focus. She was being pushed out of the mental realm and back to the physical one. M’gann could see the real world flickering into her vision, faster and faster.
No!
Somewhere in the earthly realm, someone was clutching her hand. She could feel it, like an extra presence at her back.
We’re here for you. She recognized the mental whisper as Superboy’s.
Several more presences appeared. She could feel Robin’s grin.
All of us.
The physical realm started flickering blue again, and M’gann remembered the meaning of hope.
-------
Part 8:
His head hurt. So did his everything else, for that matter. He was also being crushed by an overenthusiastic Martian.
“Wally! You’re okay!”
“I am?”
There was a flurry of responses all at once.
“Your leg is-“
“-will be okay. You-“
“It could have been a lot-“
“You idiot! Fate wasn’t going to give you back!”
Wally winced at that last one.
“I know,” he said.
“What?” several voices chorused, with varying degrees of disbelief and annoyance. Robin's eyes narrowed behind the mask.
“You knew,” he said.
Wally really didn’t want to have this conversation, but it seemed like he didn’t have a choice.
“It was hard enough getting him to let me go before. Maybe I’m just good company?” They all stared at him; now seemed like a good time to escape. Wally extricated himself from Megan’s death-hug and promptly fell down.
“Owww.” Right. Leg. Forgot about that.
Superboy picked him up in the manner generally associated with brides or unconscious children. Wally attempted a protest.
“Dude, I can.. well, not walk, per say, but I can hobble with support. Let me have some dignity here, please?”
Superboy raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything. After a moment, Wally tried again.
“So, are you going to put me down?”
“Are you going to do something stupid again?”
“No,” Wally said at the same time Robin said:
“Probably. We’d better not risk it.”
Note to self: Find crutches. Robin and Artemis were exchanging grins. Soon
---------
Part 9 (Epilogue):
Robin was walking through the hall when a voice emerged from a nearby room.
"This isn't going to happen again."
KF? Robin frowned and peeked into the room.
Wally was standing still, with stance Robin generally associated with imminent combat. He was staring at the helmet, which had been placed back on its shelf. Robin glanced at it. It wasn't doing anything. Maybe it had gotten shinier? Nah.
Suddenly, Wally relaxed and gave a small laugh. He turned toward the door. Years of observing Batman had taught Robin never to let the target initiate conversation. Given his friend was about to discover his presence, initiative seemed like a good idea.
"Hey."
Wally blinked at him. "Oh. Hi."
What to say what to say does he know
""Want to go spar with Artemis?"
Where did that come from? Stupid subconscious ideas.
Wally was smiling, though. He glanced at the helmet again, then back at Robin.
"Sure."