Young Justice Season 4 - The Red X Factor

Episode/Chapter 9 - Starlight, Fog, and Iron

"How are they?"

"Their heartbeats are steady on the normal rate. They'll both be fine."

Natasha heard faded voices as she tried to open her eyes. She was sat up in a white hospital bed and rubbed her head. She looked around her and took in her surroundings.

"Wh-where am I?" she asked.

"Hey, Nat... how're you feeling?" M'gann asked as she and Kara walked up to her.

"I'm feeling fine..." Natasha looked around in confusion, "where am I?"

"You're at Mount Justice." Kara answered, "You were kidnapped, and....treated. Do you feel any different?"

"No, I feel fine." Natasha said, "look, can I just get home? My parents are probably worried sick."

Kara turned to M'gann, who nodded.

"Okay. You can leave." Kara answered, "but if anything happens, please come back."

"THANK YOU again, Miss Martian." Natasha thanked them, "it was really nice seeing you again, and you too....Superwoman?"

"Supergirl. Close enough..." Kara shrugged.

"Okay." Natasha gave a quick thumbs up before running out into the hallway, bumping into Nightwing on the way out.

"Oh, excu-- whoa..." Natasha stopped mid-sentence as she looked Nightwing up and down, "you must be Nightwing."

"I am." Nightwing nodded, "and you must be Natasha, who's supposed to still be in the infirmary..."

"She warned to go see her parents." M'gann explained as she joined them out in the hall, "she's doing fine, and she said she'll come in if anything happened."

"It was nice meeting you though!" Natasha chuckled a little, then walked out.

"You guys are just going to let her walk out like that?" Nightwing turned to M'gann

"Well, sorry, but she wanted to go, and it was true. She had to go see her parents." M'gann shrugged.

"Okay." Nightwing sighed, "Where's the other girl? Tristan?"

"She's still in the infirmary. She's showing normal signs and heart rate, too. Almost as if nothing had happened." M'gann explained.

"Huh, okay. We might just need to keep a close eye on them, just in case."

"Of course." M'gann said. As they were heading back to the infirmary, Kara ran out.

"Guys, you might want to come see this!" Kara said, and she led the two to the infirmary where Tristan Akins was on the hospital bed.

"What the heck is going on?!" Tristan asked.

"Tris..." M'gann whispered as she stared at Tristan's hands...which were glowing and crackling with electricity.

"It was like her doppelgänger...her clone...she had electric powers too..."

"You have them too..." Kara finished Nightwing's sentence.

"You have to learn how to control them." M'gann said, "before you destroy anything."

"I-I don't know how!" Tris stuttered, suddenly, she uncontrollably shot lightning bolts at the wall, singeing them.

"Get Black Lightning!" Nightwing turned to M'gann. She nodded and ran to the mission briefing room to contact the Watchtower

"Tris, just breath, okay? Try to contain yourself. Don't panic. It'll only make things worse!" Nightwing told Tristan.

"O-okay..." Tristan nodded and started steadying her still-wavering breath. When she exhaled, she accidentally shot another lightning bolt in Kara's direction. She flew out of the way in time. Within a minute, M'gann ran in followed by Black Lightning.

"What's going on?" Black Lightning asked when he saw the scene of black walls, overturned furniture, and Tristan standing with her arms extended in front of her. Nightwing and Kara turned to him as he walked over to Tristan.

"Here, Tris, wear these until you can learn to control your power." Black Lightning slipped some fit black rubber gloves onto Tristan's hands. She sat down on the hospital bed and let out a huge exhale.

"That's over..." Tristan sighed, "thanks."

"She'll need further training." Nightwing said, "can you..."

"Definitely." Black Lightning answered, "I can take her. She's going to need further training and all."

"Okay. Thank you." Nightwing thanked, then turned to Tristan, "Okay, Tris. This is Black Lightning. He's willing to be your mentor and help you figure out how to use and control your powers."

"Can you do that?" Tristan asked Black Lightning.

"I will certainly try." Black Lightning smiled.

"Can we get started?! Now?!" Tristan asked.

"Uh..." Black Lightning glanced at Nightwing, who just shrugged, "if you really want to..."

"Trust me, I DO!" Tristan said walking over to the door, "let's go. Please."

"Um, right." Black Lightning replied and the two of them left.

"At least we got that taken care of..." Miss Martian sighed, "well, now all we have to worry about is..."

"Oh no..." Nightwing muttered, "if that's what happened to Tris, then..."

"What'll happen to Nat?!"

"We need to go find her then." Kara said, "do we go out?"

"Yes. Go. Now. Before she does any damage to anything, anyone, or herself." Nightwing said. Kara and M'gann went out in search of the young girl.
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"You were WHAT?!"

"I was kidnapped. At school." Natasha told her parents, "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true."

"Sweetie, we were worried sick." Mrs. Irons said.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But there's nothing you can do when you're kidnapped..."

"Do you remember the people? Can we turn them in to the police?" Mrs. Irons asked.

"No, you see, Mom, that's the thing! The police weren't the ones who saved me! It was the team!"

"The ones that helped with that whole ruby robbery incident?" Mr. Irons asked.

"Yeah! They're the ones who saved me!" Natasha said, "Nightwing, Miss Martian, they were all there! Well, a handful of them at least..."

"Did you get a glimpse of the bad guy that kidnapped you?"

"Well, it was some guy with a gray cape, skull mask, and a red x on his chest." Natasha answered, then yawned.

"Sweetie, you must be exhausted. Go upstairs and get some rest. We can sort all this out later. This must be a lot of stress for a 13 year-old." Mrs. Irons said.

"Fine. If you insist..." Natasha waved to them as she slowly made her way up the stairs to her room. She opened the door and everything was the way she left it. Her room had a light green wall with posters of the team and the Justice League hanging across it. She dropped onto her bed with green sheets, then started to drift off to sleep, until she felt a strange sensation. She opened her eyes and looked at her bed. She jumped up when she saw it was dark with...water? But what confused her even more was when she jumped up, it wasn't as fast as she was hoping, because for some reason, she felt as light as air. She looked down at her hands, but they weren't there. All that was there were two clouds of fog in the shape of her hands.

>> What the heck is happening?! << She thought to herself.

She had turned into fog.

- To be continued! -