Shadows

1.3 They Tried to Drown Me

Lily had decided to stay at the Cave for a couple of days. She had today off from school since the principal was kidnapped yesterday, so she was pretty pumped. He was found, so she didn't feel too bad about it.

She had followed Wally over to M'gann and Superboy who were 'fixing' a bike. She knew better, but Wally didn't, so she watched him try to help fix it.

Soon enough, Aqualad walked over and started up a conversation with the group.

"I've been meaning to ask; any problems juggling school work with your responsibilities here?"

"Nope," Superboy said.

"Juggling is just one of my many talents. Socket wrench." Wally emphasized the word "one", making Lily laugh. He sent her a glare before turning back to the bike.

"Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge, but my first loyalty is to the team. This team, not the bumblebees."

"Eh, I'm doing okay, but I wasn't any worse before the team," Lily said.

"Artemis started school today, do you think she will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?"

Lily's eyes narrowed at his comment. What did he mean by that? "Maintaining her loyalties?" Of course she can.

"Eh, she'll manage alright, I mean how much more hostile and annoying can she-"

Before Wally could finish his sentence an explosion cut him off, and Lily lost consciousness.

She woke up, trapped in a rock.

"What the hell?"

She glanced to her left to see Wally and Superboy were in the same situation she was in. Kaldur and M'gann were trapped in a cage made of fire. Standing near were two androids, who looked suspiciously like Red Tornado.

"Attention Robin. Attention Artemis. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender, or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."

"Well, that sounds terrific," Lily muttered.

They waited there helplessly as Robin and Artemis desperately tried to stop the androids. She watched as Robin was lifted out of the water and thrown onto the ground, unconscious. Lily prayed that Artemis would be able to stop the androids before they drowned. The water was slowly creeping up and she feared it would cover her head soon.

Luckily, Artemis managed to do it before Lily drowned. The water had gone over her head but she could make out Artemis shooting an arrow at something and then the androids went down with the water. She gasped for air.

"You took your time," she said and Artemis laughed. She walked over to Robin to wake him up and he coughed up water before sitting up. 

The two walked over when Artemis found a machine to destroy the rocks that were holding them captive.

"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" Wally complained.

"It's not working, genius. EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"

"All machines present at the time." They all looked up to see Red Tornado flying into the room. "What has occurred?"

"Had a little visit from your family."

"Your extremely nasty family."

"Yeah, they tried to drown me!" Lily complained.

"I was not aware I had relations."

"Where were you?"

"Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your zeta tubes were also non-functional. I transported to Providence and proceeded here."

The machine in Artemis' hand suddenly started to work and Sphere began moving.

"The pulse has worn off!" Wally and Robin both said at the same time.

Red Tornado flew up in the air and started spinning his arms around. The motion began sucking all the air in the room out. Lily started gasping for air that wasn't there and felt her eyes close, becoming unconscious once again.

She woke up to the sound of her uncle calling her name. She groaned, seeing she was still stuck in the rock.

"What happened here?" Superman asked.

"What happened? The Reds happened. Tornado and his – wait. Where are they?" 

Lily looked around to see Artemis was right. The three androids were gone. The only evidence they were ever here were the puddles of water and the rock that they were stuck in.

"Gone. All three of them, gone."

Published: 01/15/22