Justice League: Vertigo

Chapter 16 - The Ropes

Adam saw darkness. He wasn't sure where he was or what was happening. He had a headache and felt quite disoriented. Then two figures stepped out of the darkness. The human forms of the Phoenix and Phantom dragons were staring at him.
The curly haired man spoke up in his gruff voice
"What did I tell you about the girl?" He asked in a calm voice.
"There's nothing going on between us." Protested Adam.
"Didn't seem that way to me. She's really nice." Said the woman.
"One more slip, and I take control. Then you can say goodbye to your little team. For now, I will wipe out the time you felt her love from your memory"
He said.
"You can't do that!" Adam protested.
"Are you going to stop me?" He asked. Adam let up and the man grinned wickedly.
"Oh, and I see Astrid is here. I've really missed her." The woman said. She smiled warmly.
"Astrid huh... I always liked the taste of her energy. I guess we have a backup plan in case you die." He said
"You can go now." The woman said. She kissed him on his cheek and gave him a slight push at the chest, and again, Adam was in darkness.
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"We're here, Adam or should I say Burnout." Said Astrid. Adam woke up with a jump. They were at downtown Metropolis which was now a quarantine zone. The team put on gas masks and walked into the danger. They ran down the street following the sounds of screams of terror.
They finally found Scarecrow, cackling maniacally as he savoured the fear he was giving a civilian.
"Put..the gun..down." Said Artemis as she notched an arrow and aimed it at him.
"Children!" Scarecrow yelled. "I knew that being away from Batman would be easy, but not this easy." He whistled and some of his goons stepped out.
"Go get em, tiger!" Adam said to Astrid. Astrid smiled and then charged at the men, the others following after her. It turned out that Astrid was a good fighter. She hit a goon with a roundhouse kick and sweeped the legs of another, making
them to topple over one another.
"Burnout! Let's end this." Said Aqualad. Adam nodded. Aqualad sent a blast of water at the goons, knocking some of them down. Adam then electrocuted the water, conducting it all over the goons. The henchmen fell to the ground.
"Now, your all alone."
Scarecrow didn't waver. He obviously had something up his sleeve.
"Snipers! Get down everybody!" Astrid shouted. She pushed Adam out of the way as a gunshot whizzed past his face. Everybody was laying low, besides Superboy, who wasn't bothered by the tiny little pellets flying off his chest. Zatanna had teleported up a dealt with one of the snipers while Astrid ran up the building and body slammed the other. Everybody started high giving each other as they had one. When Adam tried to high five Superboy, he received a punch to the face that threw him onto a building. His gas mask had several holes in it, from the snipers. He growled and tore off the gas mask completely.
"Guys. Superboy's been compromised, his mask was breached." Adam shouted.
"Yes, my pet. Kill these people for me." Said Scarecrow.
They surrounded him and tried to think of a plan.
Robin hopped onto his back and stabbed him with a syringe containing an antidote for the gas.
Superboy threw Robin off him, still being affected by the gas.
"I'm sure you'll find that my Vertigo-induced fear gas is much harder to cure than the old formula." Said Scarecrow.
"You guys clear the way, then I'll hit him with a sparkball." Said Astrid.
"What the hell is a sparkball?" Asked Adam."
Astrid smiled and then pointed out her index finger. A ball of energy formed at the tip and then started growing.
Superboy then attacked M'gann. He tackled her and then tried to punch her, but Zatanna levitated him and threw him into the air.
"I won't use full power. I'll just stun him." Said Astrid. A giant blast of reddish-orange energy with electricity surging through it flew at Superboy. He tried to block it, but he was still hit by the blast, and he started falling down, unconscious. Adam jumped and caught him in the air, then landed softly.
"He will still be in a state of terror when he wakes up. All you are doing is helping me destroy you from the inside." Scarecrow said.
"Can it, doucheface." Said Astrid. She electrocuted him. She materialised a chain and tied his hands at his back.
Zatanna used a wind spell to filter out the fear gas from the area.
"Remember we have to be covert. Let's get out of here before someone comes." Said Robin. Adam carried Superboy and Scarecrow into the bioship and they began the trip to Belle Reve and then back to base.
Astrid sat beside him and smiled at him.
"So, how are things?" She asked.
"Quite good, actually. It's much cooler than you'd expect." Said Adam.
"Don't we need to find out how he got that uhh... vertigo, and who he's working with?"
"Don't worry. M'gann will sort that out in a jiffy. Speaking of the mission, what the heck was that move you used on Superboy. It was all like Waaaaa ...Boooosh! And Superboy was like Aahhhh! And then he crashed to the ground."
"Don't get so excited. It's the sparkball. I developed it myself."
"Whatever it was, it was awesome. Can you teach me?"
"What?No! That was the toned down version. I shouldn't even have used it. Your too reckless for it."
"Reckless! Is that what you think me to be?"
"Yes!" Chimed in the whole team.
Ms Martian went to Scarecrow and searched his mind. After a few seconds she said that he was just a pawn. They wanted to see how vertigo reacted with other compounds.
"Like fear gas." Said Artemis.
"And it looks like they got results. This new fear gas is harder to cure and makes the victims more aggressive. Like so..." Said Robin as he pointed to Superboy.
"Is that all he knows?" Asked Adam.
"I think so. Wait...he knows about one of the members of Lex Luthor's crew. Queen Bee. She was the one who approached him."
"At least, now we know what to do next." Said Zatanna.

They dropped Scarecrow off at Belle Reve and flew back to base. They strapped Superboy to a table where they called the League.