Chapter 34

Galatea did not think everything would escalate so fast. If they would want to cripple the Reach, it would be here tonight.

"Faora's searching for them now," Lyta said. "But, we still don't have any idea where they are."

"As long as they're cultivating people with the genetic markers, which show they might have the meta-gene, there's going to be a problem," Galatea said. "A huge problem."

"And one we're going to have to solve."

Harry appeared in the shadows. No matter how many times he popped in suddenly, Galatea never would get used to it. Lyta's eyes traveled over and found Harry.

"We've got a couple of leads, and a couple of locations which may be promising," Harry said. "You've taken down the Reach before."

"Yes," Lyta said. "But, it was not without great cost. Their attack caused ramifications which would ended up destroying all of Krypton."

It was not the only reason why the once noble planet had been destroyed. A contributing factor, none the last. The winds outside demonstrated there was a storm coming. Poetic in some ways.

"I might have something."

Black Lightning showed up, alongside Anissa. Obviously, Harry knew the moment that Jefferson learned his daughter was abducted by the Reach, he would be here.

"From what you've said, if the Reach are activating these abilities within the children, then they have to use massive spikes of energy to do so," Jefferson said. "And I can feel there's a few power surges deep into Metropolis."

Anissa put up the gauntlet, and showed them up.

"The Reach will never let us anywhere near there," Anissa said.

"The key word is let," Harry said. "I've got a plan."

"Of course he does," Galatea said fondly.

Harry put his ear piece in and contacted the rest of the team.

"Alright, everyone, listen up. I've got a location. But, we're going to have to play this one smart. Here's what we need to do to be in position to strike."

Impulse, Blue Beetle, Artemis, Miss Martian, and Wondergirl all showed up on the outside. Artemis fired an arrow through the gate and struck a box pinpoint. The power around the gate sizzled before it shut completely off.

"Right, let's go," Artemis said.

They moved past the outside of the base, right before the power turned back on and the alarms went back on.

"Intruders!"

"And they have backup power," Impulse said. "Don't worry, I've got this one."

Impulse rushed the Reach security, only for her to accidentally tap an explosive mine which caused her to be thrown off into the air.

"Alright, so much for the sneaky approach," Artemis said.

Artemis fired arrows in a rapid fire motion. So much so, her wrist almost cramped up with how much she had been firing at them, but the Reach used a gauntlet along with a shield to block all of the attacks. The Reach guard moved in and fired a blast.

"It's...the damaged one!"

'Who are you calling damaged?' the scarab asked.

"Grab it and get it back on mode."

Now Ruby almost froze when the Reach guards began firing at her. Impulse and Artemis fell to the ground next to her. And while Miss Martian and Wondergirl kept up the fight, they were being outnumbered severely. The loud thump echoed as a large hulking figure jumped down.

"Play time's over, little girls."

The one and only Black Beetle slammed his large fist into Wondergirl's chest. Miss Martian tried to slip into his mind, however the mental wave from the Reach's tech impacted him. M'gann accidentally phased through the ground and struggled to get out as she had been drowning in quicksand.

"Here, let me help you."

Black Beetle grabbed M'gann by the throat and hurled her down.

"Focus on the damaged one."

Blue Beetle unleashed her cannons. The blasts bounced off of Black Beetle's thick chest, as he walked over to her. Then a huge rattling blast went through her and caused the scarab to shut down. The impact knocked Ruby out and caused her to fall to the ground, breathing heavily.

'Got to get out of this. Get back online. Reboot? Don't you have a control, alt, delete, or something? System restore? No, you really should have told me more than weapons capabilities.'

Ruby breathed heavily as Black Beetle stood over the teammates as they had been collared and buffed.

"The Partner wants them alive," one of the guards told Black Beetle said. "And they are much more valuable, as they are all uniquely gifted in their own ways."

"What about it?" Black Beetle asked.

His large toe struck the side of Blue Beetle with a thump and almost rolled the heroine over. She groaned ever so slightly.

"Get her inside, and we'll get her on mode."

The rest of their guests were in cages. Ruby had been awake and her scarab was slowly coming too, although that was because it was hooked from the machine.

"The meat inside is not important," Black Beetle said. "I would suggest we rip it off and give it to another who is more worthy."

"I would agree with our brutish friend," The Reach Ambassador said.

"No!" The scientist said. "I want to know why it went off mode, so it doesn't happen again. Once it's repairs are done, I will reboot and we will have it back in the system."

Oh, no, Ruby was not going down like this. The scarab blinked back to life.

"Hang on," Ruby said.

'You need to let me take complete control,' the scarab told her. 'Before, it was too late.'

"No, I've got this," Ruby said. "They hooked us to the machine. Which means we're in the system."

She took a deep breath.

'Which is exactly what Harry said was going to happen.'

The little present Harry gave her to pass to the Reach began to be uploaded into the system.

"What's wrong?" the Ambassador asked.

"Someone's uploaded a virus," The Scientist said. "It's…."

"The meat's done something!" Black Beetle said. "We should rip her apart."

The security system went dead and the lights of the facility went completely out. The Reach Scientist prepared to reboot the system. However, something told her they had far more pressing issues to deal with. A chill erupted through her spine as there was evidence they were not alone.

"Black Beetle, we're going to have company."

"You sure are."

Superman came down from the sky. He blasted all of the cages open and freed Artemis, Wondergirl, Impulse, and Miss Martian from their structures.

"Alright, let's try this one again!" Impulse yelled.

This time, Impulse measured her movements a bit more carefully. She bounced off of one thug to the other in a ping-pong motion and slapped them down. A loud crack echoed as Impulse jumped back and allowed The Reach thugs to blast.

Blue Beetle popped up and got her back, before blasting them with attacks. Superman moved to back her up and send three of them flying.

"NO!"

Lyta appeared in the shadows, alongside Galatea. The Reach began to backpedal in absolute terror. They feared her, the stories of this Kryptonian general and what they did to her people.

"Why is she on Earth?" one of them asked.

"Go and get them, you cowards," Black Beetle growled.

Black Beetle pushed three of the guards into the line of fire to avoid engaging in the terror herself. The Reach guards fell to Lyta. Who did not need any Kryptonian abilities to take them down. Rather, her rapid fire attacks just sent them down. One huge jab to the side of the throat took them out.

Wondergirl punched her way through the attackers, with a furious motion. One of them crumpled up like a piece of people as she continued to fight back.

"This is not what was supposed to happen."

The Reach Scientist moved away towards the assets, only to discover a hand grabbing her and yanking her away.

"You've done enough to them."

Thunder hurled the Reach Scientist back with all of her might. Not much of a fighter, The Reach Scientist scrambled more like a cockroach than a beetle.

Anissa came face to face with her sister, who was in a stasis tube. This really pissed her off.

"Don't worry, Jen I'll get you out of there, and the rest….."

"Stay away from the asset."

Oh this pissed Anissa off. She turned her attention towards some of the guards who pointed at her. She took a deep breath and brought the thunder. The high impact attack just sent them completely down to the ground.

'I've got the codes,' M'gann thought. 'We need to get them out of here.'

'Genesis, stand by,' Harry projected.

'Of course,' she replied.

"So, you're the bastard who took these children?"

Black Lightning stepped forward and went face to face with Black Beetle. The two faced off of each other with Black Beetle just curling up into a smile.

"They were fine specimens, most of them," Black Beetle said. "Some of them are spoiled meat and once we eliminate you all, no one will be left to fight for them."

"You talk a big game, let's see if you can back it up."

Black Lightning erupted into battle with a bolt of lightning. Black Beetle blocked the worst of the lightning attack and pushed back against Black Lightning.

"You're going to see what happens when a bug gets zapped by lightning."

A huge blast fired back and Black Beetle's suit insulated him from the worst of the attack. Although he was beginning to feel the burn. Black Lightning fired back completely with one more shot and dodged his laser blasts.

Suddenly, the power flared up. The one thing he hoped to avoid. Jefferson's own powers turned into them.

Black Beetle smashed as hard as possible into Black Lightning. The sounds of battle around them had been blocked out. Black Lightning could not blast this man and Black Beetle knew it. Another series of punches rocked Black Lightning as Black Beetle brought him down to his knees.

"Is that all you got?" Black Lightning asked.

"Stay down, meat."

Black Beetle stomped Black Lightning face first into the ground. Blood spurted out of the man's mouth. Black Beetle grabbed the back of his head and slammed it down across the ground.

Thunder charged over. However, Black Beetle knocked her back and caused her to crash through the table. The wind had been most literally knocked out of her.

Blue Beetle blasted Black Beetle one more time from the side.

"Sorry, but you can't stop me," Black Beetle said. "I'm going to do them all a favor when I rip you off piece by piece. I'm sure that the scientist can salvage something from the scraps."

'Now would be the time, Ruby Arias,' the scarab thought. 'Give me full control.'

Now would be the time, one more time.

'Do it.'

Ruby just hoped she would not live to regret this. The armor thicked up and her eyes glowed. Ruby turned her attention towards the Black Beetle and smiled.

"You think that scares….."

Blue Beetle hit Black Beetle with pretty much everything she had. The blasts sent Black Beetle crashing down to the ground.

The two beetles fight, with Blue Beetle getting the better. Anissa rushed over to Jefferson, who tried to stand, but collapsed. Thunder wrapped her arm around Black Lightning and pulled him up.

"It's going to be okay," Thunder said. "You're getting out of her and Jen and the other kids, they'll be out of there."

Artemis and Wondergirl covered her.

"Yeah, it's not as easy as it once was," Black Lightning grumbled.

The portal opened and it was time to get the meta-children out of there, back into the lab at Starrwave, to see what they could do.

Black Beetle flipped over the edge of the railing from the impact shot delivered by Blue Beetle. Oh, a small part of her felt very pleased about herself and more importantly what she accomplished today.

"And we've got them out," Impulse said. "Through the portal with all of you."

The Scientist watched in horror, some of the hard work going down the drain. The Ambassador, cowered and fearful at what the General might do to them, slumped back into the shadows. And Black Beetle rose up, and grabbed them.

"We need to leave, and regroup," Black Beetle said.

"They'll destroy the lab," The Scientist said. "And I never knew you to be one to run."

"I'm not running, but merely setting them up for a bigger fall later," Black Beetle said. "Let's go."

"And the bad guys are getting away," Impulse said.

Galatea clenched her fists with fury. Well only those three at the very least. The other Reach guards laid in various states of disarray. She had the implosion device ready, and now that the teenagers were safe, they could get out of here.

"The base is rigged to explode," Harry said.

"Yes, and once this lights the spark, this Reach facility is finished," Galatea said.

"It's all clear!" Impulse yelled.

The entire Team, plus Galatea stepped through the portal. Lyta stayed behind to light the fuse. Her heat vision blasted it and the second she struck the implosion device, it was time to go.

The Ambassador, the Scientist, and the Black Beetle just barely escaped with their lives. But, with the information downloaded from the facility, and the entire facility being lost, they would be able to deal a heavy blow to the Reach.

Only one battle, in a never ending war against one of the most dangerous groups in the entire universe. Lyta realized it wasn't over just yet. Far from it.