Avoiding Past And Future

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FINAL WARNING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER: THIS CONTAINS CHARACTER DEATHSADDITIONAL WARNINGS: DOUBLE SUICIDE

(I'm sorry)

October 16

Robin and Phantom were the first to go through the Zeta. Both for the possible reaction and recon before the entire group arrived. It would have done no one any good if they collectively arrived if there were ships all over. Luckily the streets were abandoned.

Much like they had hoped, the second time around hurt slightly less. Knowing it was coming, combined with the medication, helped a lot to keep it manageable. The pain was still overwhelming but he managed to keep his reacting to a minimum by going underground for a moment. At least there, any screams wouldn't attract any attention from the aliens. It took him a stressful moment, especially knowing Robin was hiding topside until he came back up again. If it wasn't for the clear lack of air in the ground, his brother would have been down there with him.

Eventually, after some hyperventilating and icing his arm over, he managed to make it back up. Robin administered another shot, hiding the syringe in the ground with Phantom's help. It helped, for about as long as it took for the rest to arrive and rescout the area.

The moment they were all good to go, they started off towards Smallville. Though it was a few miles away, it was the closest they could get without being instantly spotted. The cover of the city helped a lot with hiding, especially since most of the street lighting had broken.

Robin had asked for the mind link to be set up immediately, just in case they'd run into enemies while on the move. Unfortunately, Phantom's usual vocal echo was apparently not a thing in telepathy which made distinguishing him from Robin nigh impossible. At least nobody questioned it openly, if they even noticed it wasn't Robin talking to begin with.

It took them a while, but with the flight support and a resident speedster, it wasn't too long before they arrived. Under the cover of darkness, Robin and Phantom gazed down to the valley that used to be Smallville, checking over the readings one more time before they started.

Miss Martian walked up behind them, gaze fixated on the giant alien ship before them. They all knew the risks, but standing face to face with a ship that would be an actual flight obstacle for commercial flights was something entirely different.

"Stay close to J'onn, he's still a little..." Robin made a so-so gesture as the elder Martian hadn't yet made a full recovery. M'gann nodded, pulling up her hood in preparation. "First team, deploy." Robin called out over his shoulder.

Both Martians took to the sky, near immediately going into camouflage before they got in spotting range. Robin tracked them with binoculars as well as he could. The only indication they were even there was the faintest of a ripple in the night sky. That really was the only downside to camouflage as opposed to full invisibility, but they'll have to do with what they got.

"Ready. In position." M'gann called out a few moments later.

Robin kept watch for any signs of trouble as Phantom looked back towards Superboy. With a small nod, Superboy was also sent into position. The clone slid down the slope a little before launching himself into the air. A few massive jumps later, he was running across the outer shell of the ship. Robin was keeping a close eye on everything as Phantom warned the clone. "Careful, don't disconnect the power source." Doing as ordered, Superboy ripped off one of the stationary guns until the casing came off. With the cables still connected, he used the inner mechanism to fire at the main ship and surrounding guns.