Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 49: Undeterred

Roy lunged at Wally, who leaped out of the way.

"Artemis, I think he's under some sort of mind control!" the speedster shouted.

"Ya think?" replied Artemis, ducking out of the way of a kick.

Wally backed away slowly down the hall they'd come from while Artemis moved down the one they'd been moving down. Both were putting space between themselves and Red Arrow, who couldn't go after both of them at once.

"Such clever children" said Red Arrow in a very un-Red-Arrow-like tone. "Much too clever for your own good."

Red Arrow winced and put his hand to his forehead. "What happened?" he muttered.

Before Wally could realize what had happened, Artemis charged forwards and lashed out at Roy, who barely dodged.

"Gah... Traitor!" he shouted.

"Roy, no!" cried out Wally. "She's under..."

Suddenly, Wally found himself wanting to punch Roy. He didn't really know why, but he did anyways, catching Red Arrow on the cheek.

"He's controlling Wally!" shouted Artemis.

"Who's... What... What the hell is going on?" demanded Roy, evading another blow from Wally before darting behind him and grabbing the speedster's arms.

"There's something controlling us and trying to get us to kill each other" replied Artemis. "But I think it can only get one of us at a time!"

Roy blinked and began twisting Wally's arms.

"Artemis! Help!" he cried. "It's not me anymore! It's Roy! He's the one under control!"

"No" grunted Red Arrow. "He's the one! If you help him he'll kill us both!"

Artemis's eyes darted back and forth.

"Talk about a rock and a hard place" she muttered.

The League had reacted quickly, all things considered. Batman had cleaved several MONQIs in half with a pair of batarangs before they had made it out of the hole and the rest of the League responded with various projectiles, energy attacks and rocks.

However, after that first barrage the surviving MONQIs had slipped through and grabbed onto anything they could reach.

Superboy ripped a MONQI grabbing his leg in half and then slammed another one between his palms. A third one grabbed onto his hair but was ripped off and torn in half by M'gann's now-resurgent telekinesis. They shared a quick smile, which was soon interrupted by (you guessed it) robot monkeys.

One of the Lanterns was able to set a barrier over the hole, only to drop it after being struck from behind by several laser blasts, courtesy of the attacking robots.

Green Arrow rolled away from a squad of MONQIs and smashed one with his bow. "Uh... Fate?" he asked, hoping a Lord of Order would have another 'snap-my-fingers-and-solve-all-our-problems' trick up his shiny sleeves.

Unfortunately, the only Lord of Order available was under a pile of MONQIs, letting loose a torrent of curses not heard by humans in millennia.

"Arrow!" shouted Superman. "Get down!"

The archer did as he was told as the Man of Steel unleashed a blast of heat vision, cutting a dozen MONQIs in half.

"Uh, thanks?" said Green Arrow, eyeing the new line in the concrete not four feet from his head.

"No problem!" replied Superman, just as a MONQI grabbed his head and began blasting his face with what was probably a kryptonite-radiation-frequency laser from its eyes. It sure stung like one.