2.11

1:24 PM, 4th of April 1989.

Location: Strafing over the countryside.

"Wheeeeee!" May shouted as we zoomed over hills and fields on a metal platform. Ryan was setting the pace, wheeling and just enjoying the feel of freedom and flight.

"Hahahaha!!!" She laughed, thrilled. "This is great!"

I spent the time considering how to handle the problem presented by age. On one hand I could chose the hypocritical path of: do as I say, not as I do. Or perhaps a more measured approach. Something in between Xavier's cloistered school and Worm's Wards. An academy for future heroes and those who need to master their powers. With the option of stepping straight into a national protection organisation, a UN sanctioned team or a background/civilian role.

Batman's throw them in the deep end approach obviously works to a degree… poor Jason… but I don't want to leave the kids without appropriate skills and training, especially teamwork and tactics. Being a solo or duo is great and obviously works for people like him and me, but it doesn't prepare you for when you're suddenly in charge or with new faces.

Young Justice for example shows all the worst sides of this. Sloppy management, limited training and lack of dedicated supervision. Teen Titans as well, since the team is initiated by Robin as form of rebelling against the Batman's stifling attitude.

Hmm. I feel like I'm constantly criticising Batman, when I don't actually know him. It seems quite unfair. I guess he's just the best example I have of a hero interacting with and training a kid. He can only teach what he knows and he certainly never trained expecting to have allies.

Something to consider. I need that training just as much as anyone I recruit for this academy. Senses and a quick wit aren't enough without proper planning and experience backing it up.

May screams in delight I move, flying down the slope of a hill just above the surface just for her amusement.

I rub her head affectionately. Huh. I can smell peaches. Her shampoo?

Pulling up beside Ryan I suggest he turn several degrees to the east. Otherwise we'll miss Paris. One of the perks of magnetic senses, a kind of global positioning system. I know where I am relative to the magnetic poles and thus where I'm going, where I've been and the direction to get there. Like a migratory bird, I suppose. With the benefit of being able to read a map and know the relative position of landmarks.

Passing over woodland I have a glimpse of a glint before the barrier around us against the wind shakes and then my whole world is pain. May screams as well and Ryan falls from the sky. I grab hold of May as we fall, slowing us.

Oof. I think I hit a tree branch and it broke. Several moments of falling later and we hit spiky branches and the ground. Stunned I don't quite follow what happens up until I see hairy feet and an ugly face I can't forget.

The gorilla kicks me over onto my back before firing a strange bazooka shaped weapon at me again. I say again, because I'm wracked by that intense, blinding pain again… increased a fair bit by proximity? I howl and lose any idea of what is happening.

When I come to, an unknown time later I find I'm handcuffed and alone.

Glancing around, I see I'm still in the woods.

I reach out to the metal of the handcuffs as the Gorilla Mallah watches impassively. Then a quiet beeping is audible from next to my left ear and I collapse as if I were boneless. It takes me time to recover from whatever the hell that was.

The gorilla grins as my face turns into a glare.

"Wakey, wakey brat." He grins. "Payback time."

I sense metal even here in the middle of nature. I grasp at a discarded fence post… and stop as I hear that beeping again.

"Smart move." The ugly ape admits. "That thing on your head? A neural scrambler. Triggered by any abnormal brain waves, so your powers? Useless."

"This is for petty vengeance, ape? Pathetic." I spit out, before he pulls out a small handheld trigger with just a single button.

He grins with delight. "This is something special, something The Brain cooked up just for you. To make you compliant." He pressed it. Without hesitation and a look of anticipation. In that moment my nerves lit up like I was ablaze. The agony of it all putting even the cannon thing to shame. "Pain amplifier." He explained as I gasped for breath.

"How…" I began, panting.

"How did I find you? You are a veritable singularity of magnetic energy. Every sensor Brain had placed could track you perfectly. When we saw your direction this is where we intercepted you." He sneered. "Now I get to drag you home, so Brain can cut you open and see how you tick. He's fascinated with you."

I tried to struggle at those words and he just smiled and held up the trigger, thumb ready. "This is your final lesson child." Mallah laughed at my sour expression. "Have you ever heard the phrase 'tall poppy syndrome'? Stand out and you get cut down!" He moved to grab me, and haul me away like a sack of potatoes. Over a shoulder.

Where was he taking me?

I struggled again, but Mallah was a gorilla. Considerably stronger than I was.

Slowly we emerged from the forest, to a clearing. As we entered Mallah must have been identified, because a small cargo transport plane, with funny looking jet turbines decloaked in front of us. The turbines raising to display VTOL (vertical take off and landing) capabilities. And an angry red light emitted from a turret on the roof splashed over us.

Then wheeled around as Ryan flew past us, with May arm locked and held below. He dropped her off with a quick darting motion to ground level then took flight again, zig zagging as pulses of blue energy leapt out of the turret at him.

Mallah growled, before charging toward the opening bay door of the machine. Carrying me along.

"You let him go!" May shouted, shrilly.

Vines, grass and branches reached out from the ground and tripped Mallah. I fell just a few feet away, squirming further back. Mallah reached for the button and pressed it to keep me pacified. This was a mistake he would learn moments later as I writhed in agony, straining against the handcuffs.

Whatever restraint May had, faded away and was replaced by hatred.

Trees practically stepped from the soil, growing from seeds to maturity in moments. Each one slamming down roots and branches, trying to crush Mallah. He stumbled back and fled inside his plane.

Panting and shaking, I found I too had had my fill of this.

As the plane rose into the air I saw him raise a hand in the cockpit, with the trigger in it as he began to pull away. Intending one more parting shot.

ENOUGH!!!

I sent a massive pulse of magnetic energy screaming from my body. The device paused in the middle of the beep to spark and then explode next to my head, my only protection the magnetic energy pushing the blast away.

I stood shakily as the jet roared away, before floating upwards and bursting into supersonic flight after it, burning with rage. I didn't register the barriers I had raised in the instant between rising and flight until I was already in motion.

On the tail of the plane I tried to tear at it, but the external components were ceramic or plastic. Decidedly non-magnetic. The turret turned and spewed blue energy at me, disrupting my attempts to rip the superstructure apart, beneath the monkey.

Then a structure appeared in the distance. A radio antenna. The long steel spike kind, several metres tall. Grinning I tore it free from the ground as we passed and hurled it at the jet, throwing a barrier around it to reduce the friction and air resistance it had, just like I trained on that artillery range a few days ago…

It didn't break the sonic barrier, but it came close enough as it pierced the hull of the jet. Laughing I watched as it turned and spun out of control. Mallah himself bailing out, ejecting from the cockpit by blowing out the windscreen.

I drifted closer to Mallah strapped into a parachute, floating down with him eye to eye.

"You win, for now." He grunted.

The plane crashed at that moment, sending a fireball into the sky off to one side.

"No, monkey. I think I win, period." I replied. A twisted spike of wreckage rose to float just past my shoulder. Part of the undercarriage. "Because I'm going to turn you into monkey kebab."

"I think not, child." Mallah responded, before whining. "Ahh… this is going to hurt..." He slammed his hand down on a small device at his side and vanished with a shriek and the smell of burning hair.

Dammit, an emergency teleport beacon as well?! What the hell?! I never realised Brain was that big of a deal. I suppose the fact he was a member of the Light in Young Justice was more than a clue, but still living it is something else entirely… I mean I hadn't expected him to come after me like this. It must have been his plan from the beginning…

So… that drone thingy that rescued the Monkey was Brain? Did they have such a buddy/buddy relationship in the comics? I really wish I had access to wikipedia right now...

On top of all of that… I let him get away by monologing… ugh. Next time I just kill them, then taunt them. It was justifiable homicide up until the end there. I need to learn to aim better. If I'd shoved that radio tower right up his ass in the first hit it would have been a 'hot pursuit' issue. However I doubt Gorillas are legally considered people... yet. So it would have been an animal cruelty issue. Hmm. Have to abuse that loop hole before it fades.

However what I should have been aiming for was more along the lines of a Rubber stamp, slap on the wrist, don't do it again deal. That is the ideal scenario for a villain kill. My temper got the better of me.

Sighing, I drop the metal spike before turning and flying back to the woods.

I meet Ryan and May part way there, chasing after us.

"Got away, huh? Damn ape!" Ryan grumbled.

I pulled a pile of iron dust from the soil and compress it into a solid platform, collecting May from him.

"Well, it wasn't a clean getaway. I shot down his plane and nearly had him. Unfortunately he had some kind of teleport device for emergencies. Seems it burnt most of his fur off in the process of escaping." I replied. "So somewhere there is a very angry, very bald ape plotting revenge."

May grabbed my arm and pulled me down to get a closer look at my face. She raised a hand and it began to ooze green juice. "Your face..." She murmured.

Oh right, that explosion. "How bad is it?"

She moved to touch it, with the oozing hand. "Looks sore."

"Hey, wait! What is that stuff?!" I asked, wary.

"Aloe vera extract, Mum showed me how to make it. Good for burns. Now stop squirming!" The warmth of her hands and the gel was soothing relief.

"Are you two going to keep flirting all day?" Ryan asked pointedly as he hovered waiting for us, arms crossed. "I don't intend to camp out under the stars tonight, thank you very much."