{ fic: "heaven give me say" - part i }
Title: Heaven Give Me Say
Chapter: Part I
Series: Young Justice / Silent Hill
Rating: R (violence, disturbing imagery)
Word Count: 3,113
Summary: In which the Young Justice team traverses the portals of reality and visits a small town called Silent Hill.
Note: Written for the yj_anon_meme. Loosely inspired by this prompt.
Heaven Give Me Say
I
(checking in)
They can immediately tell that the lumber mill is abandoned. The facility, as dark and imposing as it seems in the gloom of early twilight, holds the air of one that hasn’t been disturbed in many years. The dirt road leading up to it is overgrown, and the muddy surface shows no tire tracks, aside from those left behind by their cycles.
Wally takes one glance at the damaged and faded sign, where the words TOLUCA MILL are barely discernible, before he turns to Kaldur. “You sure we’ve got the right place?” he asks, not bothering to hide the skepticism from his voice.
The Atlantian takes off his helmet and glances at Wally with a raised brow. “These are the coordinates Batman gave us. And according to the sign, it would seem to be the correct location.”
“Yeah, as if the creepy factory wasn’t obvious enough,” Artemis chimes in from behind them. Wally doesn’t need to look at her to know she’s rolling her eyes, and the thought of it makes him grit his teeth.
“Geez, I was just making sure,” he says defensively as he dismounts from his cycle, kicking out the stand as he does so. It sinks into the mud for a moment before holding. Around him, the rest of the team is doing the same.
That is, everyone except for M’gann. The Martian is still sitting on her bike, staring up at the mill with an expression of dread. Even when the others are ready to go, she makes no attempt to move. She doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to them.
“M’gann?” Robin asks slowly. “What’s wrong?”
It takes her a moment to draw her gaze away from the machinery, which is now nothing more than skeletal silhouettes against the quickly darkening sky. “I... do not think we should go in there,” she says in a small voice.
Both Robin and Artemis let out sounds of exasperation. Wally, however, knows an opportunity when he sees it, and he doesn’t waste any time in moving over to M’gann and slipping what he hopes is a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, if you’re scared, don’t worry about it. I’ll be here to protect you!” he says. There’s a grunt from Superboy, and he quickly amends that. “And, uh, so will the others, of course.” The winning grin he throws at her doesn’t seem to do much. M’gann continues to stare up at him imploringly; it’s obvious that something has made her nervous.
“It’s not just that I’m scared,” she explains, “but I have a very strong feeling that we shouldn’t go inside. The energy of this place is- is evil. I’ve never sensed darkness like this before.”
This time, Wally has to struggle to hide his own exasperation. M’gann’s great, and her psychic abilities are a godsend when they’re split up and need to communicate, there’s no doubting that - but her “energy sensing” is something that Wally chalks up with magic. It just doesn’t exist. As such, he simply tightens his arm around her, and Robin saves him from having to answer.
“Probably doesn’t help that we got here at night. It’s creepy, I’ll give you that, but I don’t think it’s evil. It hasn’t been used since 1918, so it’s in pretty bad shape,” he says, a tapping noise indicating that he’s accessing the data from his wrist console.
“So it’s not evil,” Superboy mutters, “just ignored.”
“Right,” says Robin. “Anyway, the League sent us here on this mission, and they wouldn’t have if they didn’t think we could handle it.”
Artemis shifts slightly, and it’s plain that she’s getting impatient. Kaldur notes this and addresses M’gann as well. “Batman didn’t indicate that there would be anything dangerous. It’s an investigation to see if this facility is being used to manufacture the drug that’s been turning up in this area as of late-,”
“-so the most we’ll run into is a couple of gangsters,” Wally interrupts, giving the Martian’s shoulders another squeeze, “and we can handle those, no sweat!”
M’gann hesitates for another moment before she lets out a sigh. “As long as we’re careful,” she says softly, and she finally stands up from her cycle. Wally smiles at her reassuringly; she returns it with weak one of her own before slipping away from under his arm to rejoin the rest of the team.
“It’s about time,” Artemis grumbles under her breath as they begin to walk towards the main building, and again Wally finds himself clenching his teeth.
--
(strange decor)
The interior of the mill is even more unsettling than the outside. Despite the holes in the roof and walls, no moonlight is present to help them, and they resort to flashlights in order to navigate the pitch-black factory. The beams cast erratic shadows, falling upon rotted stacks of logs and stationary equipment that’s long since rusted over. Scattered wood chips crunch beneath their feet. The air is dank and musty, as if it hasn’t been disturbed in decades. Which, Wally thinks, isn’t far from the truth.
They’ve spread out slightly to explore, but for the most part, they’re staying relatively close together - whether it’s instinctively or per M’gann’s advice, Wally isn’t sure.
Robin approaches him as he’s examining a bulletin board hanging crookedly near the door they’d entered through. Most of the papers have turned yellow and unreadable with age, but there’s one that looks vaguely like a map of the complex. Wally reaches for it, its weakened fibers making it easy to tear off the board. Robin leans closer to get a better look, and it’s only then that Wally realizes the other is breathing a little faster than usual.
“You okay?” he asks, and while he keeps his voice down, Robin still jumps. To his credit, he recovers smoothly, though his breathing is still uneven.
“Yeah,” the younger boy says, “I’m just on edge. Like I said, this place is creepy.”
Wally shrugs. “I dunno, I thought the haunted house we went to last Halloween was a lot scarier. You know, the one where the skeleton dropped out of the ceiling and you nearly pissed yourself?”
“I did not!” Robin exclaims indignantly, giving him a light shove even as he grins. Then his expression becomes serious again. “Still, you gotta admit, this feels way out of our usual zone. It’s more up the GhostBusters’ alley if you ask me.”
It’s Wally’s turn to roll his eyes. “Ghosts aren’t real, man. You’re letting M’gann’s heebie-jeebies get to you. The gangsters are probably just keeping this building the way it looks to scare people off, you know?”
“Yeah, it’s just...” Robin starts, still looking doubtful, “This so isn’t turbing.”
“Not feeling the aster, dude?” Wally teases, throwing one of his friend’s favorite phrases back at him. Robin shoves him again just as Kaldur walks up.
“Have you found anything?” he asks; he’s also keeping his voice low. Wally offers him the faded map, and Kaldur holds up his flashlight to examine it for a few moments before nodding. “This should make our search much easier. The building we’re in right now is the largest and most likely to hold the equipment they’re using to create the Aglaophotis, so we can finish looking here first. If we don’t find it, then we can proceed to split up and search the smaller buildings.”
“Whatever you say, leader,” Wally says, not missing the look of irritation that flits across Robin’s visage.
Kaldur folds the map, placing it in one of his hidden pockets. “Keep searching this area. Don’t go too far on your own, and if you find anything, call out.”
Robin frowns at that. “Call out? We’re not using M’gann’s telepathy?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t believe she’s in the right mindset for that,” Kaldur answers, nodding his head to where the Martian and Superboy are investigating an ancient chain rig across the way - or rather, watching as Artemis investigates. M’gann is gripping Superboy’s arm with both of hers, face buried against his shoulder, and even from this distance, Wally can see that she’s shaking. He can also see that Conner isn’t exactly uncomfortable with this arrangement.
Annoyed, Wally looks away from them, instead grabbing Robin by the elbow and leading him towards one of the corridors branching off from the main room. “Got it, we’ll let you know as soon as we find anything!” he says over his shoulder, ignoring Robin’s protests until they duck into the hall.
Once out of sight, Wally lets Robin wrench himself free. “If you wanted to get me alone, you could’ve just said so,” the boy quips. “You didn’t have to drag me, man.”
Wally merely shrugs again, not taking the obvious bait. The corridor is distracting enough; it’s somehow even darker than the main room. It’s narrow, and though some of the wooden panels have since fallen to create a slightly more open space, Wally can feel his claustrophobia rising in the back of his mind. He doesn’t like being confined and enclosed - there’s no room to run.
Robin brushes past him, taking the lead for the time being. His flashlight dances over splintered panels, torn cobwebs suspended from the low-hanging support beams above their heads, more wood chips strewn over the dirty floor.
“You know what’s weird?” Robin whispers, letting the beam wander along the dilapidated and blank walls. At Wally’s prompting, he continues. “No graffiti.”
Wally frowns, not immediately seeing the importance of this observation, but it occurs to him after a moment. An old abandoned factory like this would be an ideal target for teenage delinquents - the fact that there isn’t a single sign of any vandalism other than nearly a century’s worth of natural decay is strange.
“Definitely weird,” he agrees. “There’s something fishy going on here, that’s for sure.”
There doesn’t seem to be much down this way, other than a few rooms that branch off from the hall. Robin ducks into one of these silently, and Wally follows.
The room is just as cramped as the corridor, if not more so. A row of lockers takes up one of the walls, the majority of them corroded and falling apart. Many are also dented, as if battered by the same blunt object. Robin reaches out to trace one of the dents, but as soon as he touches the rusted surface, the locker door falls from its hinges, hitting the ground with a loud clang that makes him jump back with a small shriek.
Wally tries to stifle his laughter, but he fails miserably. “Oh man, forget what I said earlier! This is way better than that haunted house!”
“Shut up, KF!” Robin hisses and aims a kick at the fallen door. It flies across the small room, hitting the opposite wall and snapping several of the wooden panels in half. “I told you, I’m just on edge!”
“Yeah, sure,” Wally drawls, giving up on hiding his amusement. “Need me to hold your hand?”
Before Robin can come up with a retort, there’s an ear-splitting crash from the corridor. Both boys freeze, holding their breath and listening intently. Wally hopes it’s Artemis playing some sort of prank - in fact, he’s betting it is - but when a minute passes and she hasn’t waltzed into the room to gloat, he begins to have his doubts. Robin slinks towards the door, moving like a shadow. After a few tense moments, he motions that the coast is clear before proceeding into the hall. Wally’s at his side in a second.
The corridor is even more of a disaster than it had been earlier. A handful of the paneling from the opposite wall has been blasted away from the supports, and now the splintered remains lie chaotically scattered about the narrow space. Wally can faintly hear the rest of the team calling for them, but they sound far away. And he’s distracted by the faint red glow emanating from between the gaps in the wall across from them.
Wordlessly, he and Robin advance. The smaller boy slips through one of the larger gaps, disappearing into the room beyond. Wally follows with a little more difficulty due to his height, but when he straightens up, he bumps into Robin’s back. The other hasn’t gone far, instead seeming frozen in place. Wally glances at him before turning his gaze to the rest of the room.
It isn’t hard to miss. The far wall is surprisingly still intact, save for the center of it, where there is a large, gaping hole. Surrounding the hole is a glowing ring of red symbols and lettering. Even from here, Wally can feel a faint draft coming from inside of it; the air is cold and smells faintly of rain. There are noises, too - voices, he thinks.
Robin moves towards him unconsciously, and Wally has to stop himself from reaching out to him. Instead, he glances behind them, where he can now hear the others making their way through the rubble in the hall.
“...Uh, guys?” he starts, taken aback by how shaken he sounds. He clears his throat and tries again. “I think we found something!”
--
(through the door)
“I’ve never seen this sort of sorcery before,” Kaldur says. It’s the first time any of them have spoken in several minutes, and his voice sounds unnaturally loud in the near silence.
M’gann shakes her head helplessly. “Neither have I. None of the books on my planet ever spoke of such a spell.”
Wally can’t stop himself from groaning at that, and the others turn to look at him questioningly. Feeling somewhat self-conscious, he crosses his arms, fixing them with a defiant stare. “What? I’d been wondering how long it’d take for the magic-talk to start,” he says.
“You can’t be serious,” Artemis says, exasperated. “You really think this is some sort of science? Or something natural?”
“It is not natural,” M’gann insists, and Superboy grunts an affirmation. He’s staring at the hole fixedly, and Wally has to wonder if his hearing is good enough to understand what those faint whispers are saying. Or maybe he thinks there are actually people inside - Wally wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
Looking back at Artemis, he waves a hand dismissively. “Obviously it’s just some kind of illusion that the bad guys set up for us. Either that or it leads to their secret lair. You know, where they’re keeping all the Agla-whatever-you-call-it.”
“Aglaophotis,” Kaldur corrects, and it’s clear from his voice that he’s restraining himself from pointing out all of the flaws in Wally’s logic. Instead, he adopts his neutral tone that they’ve all become familiar with by now. “What would you have us do, then?”
“Go through it, what else?”
He’d expected some negative reactions to the suggestion, but he’s taken aback when M’gann lets out a loud, terrified moan and hides her face in her hands.
“No, no, no,” she says, “that’s a very bad idea!” She’s shaking from head to toe, and Wally immediately feels bad, even if he doesn’t understand why she’s so afraid. Pride dictates that he has to stand up for himself, though.
“Got a better one?” he replies, not missing the frown Superboy sends in his direction. It only serves to annoy him further.
M’gann, however, nods enthusiastically. “Yes! We should leave! We should go back home where it’s safe and-,”
“Not a chance,” Robin says from where he’s examining the glowing letters. He doesn’t bother turning to face them. “Batman gave us this mission. We’re not backing out of it.” Despite his words, he doesn’t sound particularly thrilled with the prospect.
Catching sight of M’gann’s dismayed expression, Wally speaks up again. “Look, I don’t like it, either. They could have an ambush waiting for us on the other side, or something like that. But it’s the only choice we have if we want to find what we came here for. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the thought of the bad guys getting away just because they went scurrying down their rabbit hole.”
The rest of the team is silent for a moment, and then Kaldur lets out a sigh. “Alright. All in favor of continuing the mission, raise your hands.”
Wally’s hand is in the air immediately, along with Artemis’ and Robin’s. M’gann’s arms remain firmly at her sides, as do Kaldur’s, surprisingly enough. Superboy, it seems, is following what M’gann wants to do, and Wally rolls his eyes because really, this is becoming more annoying by the second.
“Superman wouldn’t quit,” he mutters, knowing it’s a dirty trick, what with the clone’s inferiority complex, but he wants to win this. M’gann and Artemis glare at him, and there’s that look of disapproval in Kaldur’s eyes, but then Conner is raising his hand and that makes it worth pissing the girls off.
“It’s decided, then,” Kaldur says, and they lower their hands. M’gann, for the life of her, looks like she’s about to cry; Wally can’t tell if it’s from fear or frustration. Kaldur looks at her sympathetically before addressing all of them again. “We’ll proceed through, but at the first sign of anything we can’t handle, we’re retreating. I highly doubt the League was fully aware of the extent to which this gang has-,”
Before there can be any further arguments or discussion, Wally steps up to the hole. “Great, I’ll go first!” He braces one foot on the edge of the opening, pausing only to look over his shoulder and give the team a thumbs-up. “See you on the other side!”
He’s about to lift himself into the hole when Robin’s hand on his arm stops him. The red light from the symbols is falling eerily upon the younger boy’s features, making his expression indecipherable. “Take it slow, KF,” he says, and his serious tone is all it takes for Wally to start second-guessing his decision to rush into this. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us. Miss M was right, we need to be careful. And that means sticking together.”
Wally has to admit that it won’t be long before Robin assumes his role as their leader. He fixes the other with a reassuring grin. “No worries, man, I’ll wait up for you guys,” he says. “Heck, I might even leave some of the baddies for you to fight.”
With a wink, he turns away, climbing through the opening. Robin’s grip tightens before his hand falls away almost reluctantly, but Wally doesn’t have a chance to think about it, because a moment later he’s crawling down the rabbit hole.
Chapter: Part I
Series: Young Justice / Silent Hill
Rating: R (violence, disturbing imagery)
Word Count: 3,113
Summary: In which the Young Justice team traverses the portals of reality and visits a small town called Silent Hill.
Note: Written for the yj_anon_meme. Loosely inspired by this prompt.
Heaven Give Me Say
I
(checking in)
They can immediately tell that the lumber mill is abandoned. The facility, as dark and imposing as it seems in the gloom of early twilight, holds the air of one that hasn’t been disturbed in many years. The dirt road leading up to it is overgrown, and the muddy surface shows no tire tracks, aside from those left behind by their cycles.
Wally takes one glance at the damaged and faded sign, where the words TOLUCA MILL are barely discernible, before he turns to Kaldur. “You sure we’ve got the right place?” he asks, not bothering to hide the skepticism from his voice.
The Atlantian takes off his helmet and glances at Wally with a raised brow. “These are the coordinates Batman gave us. And according to the sign, it would seem to be the correct location.”
“Yeah, as if the creepy factory wasn’t obvious enough,” Artemis chimes in from behind them. Wally doesn’t need to look at her to know she’s rolling her eyes, and the thought of it makes him grit his teeth.
“Geez, I was just making sure,” he says defensively as he dismounts from his cycle, kicking out the stand as he does so. It sinks into the mud for a moment before holding. Around him, the rest of the team is doing the same.
That is, everyone except for M’gann. The Martian is still sitting on her bike, staring up at the mill with an expression of dread. Even when the others are ready to go, she makes no attempt to move. She doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to them.
“M’gann?” Robin asks slowly. “What’s wrong?”
It takes her a moment to draw her gaze away from the machinery, which is now nothing more than skeletal silhouettes against the quickly darkening sky. “I... do not think we should go in there,” she says in a small voice.
Both Robin and Artemis let out sounds of exasperation. Wally, however, knows an opportunity when he sees it, and he doesn’t waste any time in moving over to M’gann and slipping what he hopes is a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, if you’re scared, don’t worry about it. I’ll be here to protect you!” he says. There’s a grunt from Superboy, and he quickly amends that. “And, uh, so will the others, of course.” The winning grin he throws at her doesn’t seem to do much. M’gann continues to stare up at him imploringly; it’s obvious that something has made her nervous.
“It’s not just that I’m scared,” she explains, “but I have a very strong feeling that we shouldn’t go inside. The energy of this place is- is evil. I’ve never sensed darkness like this before.”
This time, Wally has to struggle to hide his own exasperation. M’gann’s great, and her psychic abilities are a godsend when they’re split up and need to communicate, there’s no doubting that - but her “energy sensing” is something that Wally chalks up with magic. It just doesn’t exist. As such, he simply tightens his arm around her, and Robin saves him from having to answer.
“Probably doesn’t help that we got here at night. It’s creepy, I’ll give you that, but I don’t think it’s evil. It hasn’t been used since 1918, so it’s in pretty bad shape,” he says, a tapping noise indicating that he’s accessing the data from his wrist console.
“So it’s not evil,” Superboy mutters, “just ignored.”
“Right,” says Robin. “Anyway, the League sent us here on this mission, and they wouldn’t have if they didn’t think we could handle it.”
Artemis shifts slightly, and it’s plain that she’s getting impatient. Kaldur notes this and addresses M’gann as well. “Batman didn’t indicate that there would be anything dangerous. It’s an investigation to see if this facility is being used to manufacture the drug that’s been turning up in this area as of late-,”
“-so the most we’ll run into is a couple of gangsters,” Wally interrupts, giving the Martian’s shoulders another squeeze, “and we can handle those, no sweat!”
M’gann hesitates for another moment before she lets out a sigh. “As long as we’re careful,” she says softly, and she finally stands up from her cycle. Wally smiles at her reassuringly; she returns it with weak one of her own before slipping away from under his arm to rejoin the rest of the team.
“It’s about time,” Artemis grumbles under her breath as they begin to walk towards the main building, and again Wally finds himself clenching his teeth.
--
(strange decor)
The interior of the mill is even more unsettling than the outside. Despite the holes in the roof and walls, no moonlight is present to help them, and they resort to flashlights in order to navigate the pitch-black factory. The beams cast erratic shadows, falling upon rotted stacks of logs and stationary equipment that’s long since rusted over. Scattered wood chips crunch beneath their feet. The air is dank and musty, as if it hasn’t been disturbed in decades. Which, Wally thinks, isn’t far from the truth.
They’ve spread out slightly to explore, but for the most part, they’re staying relatively close together - whether it’s instinctively or per M’gann’s advice, Wally isn’t sure.
Robin approaches him as he’s examining a bulletin board hanging crookedly near the door they’d entered through. Most of the papers have turned yellow and unreadable with age, but there’s one that looks vaguely like a map of the complex. Wally reaches for it, its weakened fibers making it easy to tear off the board. Robin leans closer to get a better look, and it’s only then that Wally realizes the other is breathing a little faster than usual.
“You okay?” he asks, and while he keeps his voice down, Robin still jumps. To his credit, he recovers smoothly, though his breathing is still uneven.
“Yeah,” the younger boy says, “I’m just on edge. Like I said, this place is creepy.”
Wally shrugs. “I dunno, I thought the haunted house we went to last Halloween was a lot scarier. You know, the one where the skeleton dropped out of the ceiling and you nearly pissed yourself?”
“I did not!” Robin exclaims indignantly, giving him a light shove even as he grins. Then his expression becomes serious again. “Still, you gotta admit, this feels way out of our usual zone. It’s more up the GhostBusters’ alley if you ask me.”
It’s Wally’s turn to roll his eyes. “Ghosts aren’t real, man. You’re letting M’gann’s heebie-jeebies get to you. The gangsters are probably just keeping this building the way it looks to scare people off, you know?”
“Yeah, it’s just...” Robin starts, still looking doubtful, “This so isn’t turbing.”
“Not feeling the aster, dude?” Wally teases, throwing one of his friend’s favorite phrases back at him. Robin shoves him again just as Kaldur walks up.
“Have you found anything?” he asks; he’s also keeping his voice low. Wally offers him the faded map, and Kaldur holds up his flashlight to examine it for a few moments before nodding. “This should make our search much easier. The building we’re in right now is the largest and most likely to hold the equipment they’re using to create the Aglaophotis, so we can finish looking here first. If we don’t find it, then we can proceed to split up and search the smaller buildings.”
“Whatever you say, leader,” Wally says, not missing the look of irritation that flits across Robin’s visage.
Kaldur folds the map, placing it in one of his hidden pockets. “Keep searching this area. Don’t go too far on your own, and if you find anything, call out.”
Robin frowns at that. “Call out? We’re not using M’gann’s telepathy?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t believe she’s in the right mindset for that,” Kaldur answers, nodding his head to where the Martian and Superboy are investigating an ancient chain rig across the way - or rather, watching as Artemis investigates. M’gann is gripping Superboy’s arm with both of hers, face buried against his shoulder, and even from this distance, Wally can see that she’s shaking. He can also see that Conner isn’t exactly uncomfortable with this arrangement.
Annoyed, Wally looks away from them, instead grabbing Robin by the elbow and leading him towards one of the corridors branching off from the main room. “Got it, we’ll let you know as soon as we find anything!” he says over his shoulder, ignoring Robin’s protests until they duck into the hall.
Once out of sight, Wally lets Robin wrench himself free. “If you wanted to get me alone, you could’ve just said so,” the boy quips. “You didn’t have to drag me, man.”
Wally merely shrugs again, not taking the obvious bait. The corridor is distracting enough; it’s somehow even darker than the main room. It’s narrow, and though some of the wooden panels have since fallen to create a slightly more open space, Wally can feel his claustrophobia rising in the back of his mind. He doesn’t like being confined and enclosed - there’s no room to run.
Robin brushes past him, taking the lead for the time being. His flashlight dances over splintered panels, torn cobwebs suspended from the low-hanging support beams above their heads, more wood chips strewn over the dirty floor.
“You know what’s weird?” Robin whispers, letting the beam wander along the dilapidated and blank walls. At Wally’s prompting, he continues. “No graffiti.”
Wally frowns, not immediately seeing the importance of this observation, but it occurs to him after a moment. An old abandoned factory like this would be an ideal target for teenage delinquents - the fact that there isn’t a single sign of any vandalism other than nearly a century’s worth of natural decay is strange.
“Definitely weird,” he agrees. “There’s something fishy going on here, that’s for sure.”
There doesn’t seem to be much down this way, other than a few rooms that branch off from the hall. Robin ducks into one of these silently, and Wally follows.
The room is just as cramped as the corridor, if not more so. A row of lockers takes up one of the walls, the majority of them corroded and falling apart. Many are also dented, as if battered by the same blunt object. Robin reaches out to trace one of the dents, but as soon as he touches the rusted surface, the locker door falls from its hinges, hitting the ground with a loud clang that makes him jump back with a small shriek.
Wally tries to stifle his laughter, but he fails miserably. “Oh man, forget what I said earlier! This is way better than that haunted house!”
“Shut up, KF!” Robin hisses and aims a kick at the fallen door. It flies across the small room, hitting the opposite wall and snapping several of the wooden panels in half. “I told you, I’m just on edge!”
“Yeah, sure,” Wally drawls, giving up on hiding his amusement. “Need me to hold your hand?”
Before Robin can come up with a retort, there’s an ear-splitting crash from the corridor. Both boys freeze, holding their breath and listening intently. Wally hopes it’s Artemis playing some sort of prank - in fact, he’s betting it is - but when a minute passes and she hasn’t waltzed into the room to gloat, he begins to have his doubts. Robin slinks towards the door, moving like a shadow. After a few tense moments, he motions that the coast is clear before proceeding into the hall. Wally’s at his side in a second.
The corridor is even more of a disaster than it had been earlier. A handful of the paneling from the opposite wall has been blasted away from the supports, and now the splintered remains lie chaotically scattered about the narrow space. Wally can faintly hear the rest of the team calling for them, but they sound far away. And he’s distracted by the faint red glow emanating from between the gaps in the wall across from them.
Wordlessly, he and Robin advance. The smaller boy slips through one of the larger gaps, disappearing into the room beyond. Wally follows with a little more difficulty due to his height, but when he straightens up, he bumps into Robin’s back. The other hasn’t gone far, instead seeming frozen in place. Wally glances at him before turning his gaze to the rest of the room.
It isn’t hard to miss. The far wall is surprisingly still intact, save for the center of it, where there is a large, gaping hole. Surrounding the hole is a glowing ring of red symbols and lettering. Even from here, Wally can feel a faint draft coming from inside of it; the air is cold and smells faintly of rain. There are noises, too - voices, he thinks.
Robin moves towards him unconsciously, and Wally has to stop himself from reaching out to him. Instead, he glances behind them, where he can now hear the others making their way through the rubble in the hall.
“...Uh, guys?” he starts, taken aback by how shaken he sounds. He clears his throat and tries again. “I think we found something!”
--
(through the door)
“I’ve never seen this sort of sorcery before,” Kaldur says. It’s the first time any of them have spoken in several minutes, and his voice sounds unnaturally loud in the near silence.
M’gann shakes her head helplessly. “Neither have I. None of the books on my planet ever spoke of such a spell.”
Wally can’t stop himself from groaning at that, and the others turn to look at him questioningly. Feeling somewhat self-conscious, he crosses his arms, fixing them with a defiant stare. “What? I’d been wondering how long it’d take for the magic-talk to start,” he says.
“You can’t be serious,” Artemis says, exasperated. “You really think this is some sort of science? Or something natural?”
“It is not natural,” M’gann insists, and Superboy grunts an affirmation. He’s staring at the hole fixedly, and Wally has to wonder if his hearing is good enough to understand what those faint whispers are saying. Or maybe he thinks there are actually people inside - Wally wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
Looking back at Artemis, he waves a hand dismissively. “Obviously it’s just some kind of illusion that the bad guys set up for us. Either that or it leads to their secret lair. You know, where they’re keeping all the Agla-whatever-you-call-it.”
“Aglaophotis,” Kaldur corrects, and it’s clear from his voice that he’s restraining himself from pointing out all of the flaws in Wally’s logic. Instead, he adopts his neutral tone that they’ve all become familiar with by now. “What would you have us do, then?”
“Go through it, what else?”
He’d expected some negative reactions to the suggestion, but he’s taken aback when M’gann lets out a loud, terrified moan and hides her face in her hands.
“No, no, no,” she says, “that’s a very bad idea!” She’s shaking from head to toe, and Wally immediately feels bad, even if he doesn’t understand why she’s so afraid. Pride dictates that he has to stand up for himself, though.
“Got a better one?” he replies, not missing the frown Superboy sends in his direction. It only serves to annoy him further.
M’gann, however, nods enthusiastically. “Yes! We should leave! We should go back home where it’s safe and-,”
“Not a chance,” Robin says from where he’s examining the glowing letters. He doesn’t bother turning to face them. “Batman gave us this mission. We’re not backing out of it.” Despite his words, he doesn’t sound particularly thrilled with the prospect.
Catching sight of M’gann’s dismayed expression, Wally speaks up again. “Look, I don’t like it, either. They could have an ambush waiting for us on the other side, or something like that. But it’s the only choice we have if we want to find what we came here for. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the thought of the bad guys getting away just because they went scurrying down their rabbit hole.”
The rest of the team is silent for a moment, and then Kaldur lets out a sigh. “Alright. All in favor of continuing the mission, raise your hands.”
Wally’s hand is in the air immediately, along with Artemis’ and Robin’s. M’gann’s arms remain firmly at her sides, as do Kaldur’s, surprisingly enough. Superboy, it seems, is following what M’gann wants to do, and Wally rolls his eyes because really, this is becoming more annoying by the second.
“Superman wouldn’t quit,” he mutters, knowing it’s a dirty trick, what with the clone’s inferiority complex, but he wants to win this. M’gann and Artemis glare at him, and there’s that look of disapproval in Kaldur’s eyes, but then Conner is raising his hand and that makes it worth pissing the girls off.
“It’s decided, then,” Kaldur says, and they lower their hands. M’gann, for the life of her, looks like she’s about to cry; Wally can’t tell if it’s from fear or frustration. Kaldur looks at her sympathetically before addressing all of them again. “We’ll proceed through, but at the first sign of anything we can’t handle, we’re retreating. I highly doubt the League was fully aware of the extent to which this gang has-,”
Before there can be any further arguments or discussion, Wally steps up to the hole. “Great, I’ll go first!” He braces one foot on the edge of the opening, pausing only to look over his shoulder and give the team a thumbs-up. “See you on the other side!”
He’s about to lift himself into the hole when Robin’s hand on his arm stops him. The red light from the symbols is falling eerily upon the younger boy’s features, making his expression indecipherable. “Take it slow, KF,” he says, and his serious tone is all it takes for Wally to start second-guessing his decision to rush into this. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us. Miss M was right, we need to be careful. And that means sticking together.”
Wally has to admit that it won’t be long before Robin assumes his role as their leader. He fixes the other with a reassuring grin. “No worries, man, I’ll wait up for you guys,” he says. “Heck, I might even leave some of the baddies for you to fight.”
With a wink, he turns away, climbing through the opening. Robin’s grip tightens before his hand falls away almost reluctantly, but Wally doesn’t have a chance to think about it, because a moment later he’s crawling down the rabbit hole.