dreamingflowers

Young Justice

_{E P I S O D E T W O : S U I T U P}

AFTERMATH

_SOUNDTRACK

T H E J E T

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^{May 20rd, 2021 | 05:30a.m. | La Hoya, Argentina}

The members of squad A and B now reunited as the Team were spread throughout the jet. Some looked defeated, heads hanging down huddled up in a miserable pile, others were holding in frustration, scowling and pacing back and forth. The team’s effort at a covert mission hadn’t gone as planned. Thanks to the stern leadership of Rain and Talon the team’s involvement in Kobra’s business could not be traced back to the League.

They managed to find the information the league required, but it remained to be seen what could be salvaged from Alisa’s memory. Would it be enough? The hidden supply of Kobra venom the team discovered was another loose end. They decided against trying to destroy the venom. The container Metamorph managed to retrieve would be more important than they would realize at this time.

The jet served as their momentary refuge. It would take some time for Kobra to regroup, figure out what happened and formulate a plan of action. Brightheart´s brave distraction bought the team some precious spare minutes to catch their breath, share their thoughts and talk about what happened, before either Cybergirl, Rain or Talon would fly them back home.

Daphne sat in one of the seats with her knees drawn up to her chest. Viktor carried her all the way to the jet, running to escape Kobra´s agents. He´d wrapped her in a bunch of blankets without saying anything, that same stoic slightly annoyed expression on his face. She was still trapped by her powers and was somehow also unable to create her own warmth. What little heat Viktor had left her with she trapped inside the blankets.

She briefly wondered if this is what every plant went through during winter. Her limbs were stiff, her head foggy and she was so tired, like she hadn't slept for days. The exhaustion settled on her chest, feeling incredibly heavy. Daphne lowered her head to her knees and closed her eyes.

Young Justice

Yes we're definitely still accepting!
Welcome and thanks for showing interest ^.^
The applications and free spots ratio is pretty steep though. We're looking at two open spots and about six applicants so far, not including yours.
Just let to you know, it's not to discourage you.

Young Justice

We have a discord, but it's for the approved players. If you'd like to chat any of the current members you can pm them for their discord.
The discord handles of the co-gm and me are in the first post of the OOC.
Thanks! ^.^

Young Justice

AND

Location: La Hoya, on route to extraction
Interactions: Rain, Metamorph

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Rain grunted as he heard the blaring of the alarm repeat over and again. Squad A had collected the information the team needed, but an alarm going off was demoralizing to him. Whether or not Ja was the one who triggered the alarm did not matter at the moment. He needed to communicate with his team. He switched over to Squad B’s channel.

“Squad B, do not let that alarm distract you. Move to extract, now! That includes you, Brightheart. As I said before, we will not compromise ourselves. Go to the jet. He ordered.

The sudden landing from Ja, caused Rain to wince as snow blew towards he and Daphne. The container in his hand briefly grabbed his attention first.

“Metamorph. Rain had a hint of worry on his face, before his natural expression quickly returned
”I’ll take the container and you can take Nymph…” As Rain tried to move Daphne’s arms, he realized how stiff they had gotten. He grit his teeth. What if he… what if he snapped them? No, he could not. He would not. “Fuck… Metamorph, get the container to the jet to rendezvous with the rest of my squad. I will continue to keep up comms with Squad A and get Nymph out.”

Sharing body heat with Viktor if only for a short amount of time was already making a noticeable difference. Her face felt less stiff, she still couldn’t move her lips to speak, but the sensations were coming back. When Daphne's arms softened back up some, Viktor attempted to free himself again but she only held on tighter. All the while she continued listening to her team over the radio. She wanted to keep up with the things that were happening. Even though she wasn’t much help in her current state.

If Daphne had to guess on what triggered the alarm, it was either the guard who spotted Ja or Squad A being held up inside by Kobra agents. She had been relieved to see Ja didn’t have any scrapes on him from his showdown with the guard. She turned her blank stare to Ja, looking at him with feelings of concern but unable to show him she cared.

“Squad A. Talon, what is your ETA for extraction? Squad B is currently securing the extraction point, over.”

Young Justice

Hey everyone

As you guys know we've had some heroes leave the team. We are down two characters, possibly three. Which leaves us with a team of 8. If you guys are open to it we would allow one or two extra characters. I wanted to check in to see your thoughts, instead of opening applications back up and possibly rob you of the opportunity to make a new character.

Young Justice

Location: La Hoya, vantage point Northwest of Kobra's factory
Interactions: Rain

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Inside Daphne wanted to scream. Trapped in her own body. It was a terrifying feeling. No matter how much she tried she could not move her face. Viktor yelling at her made things even worse. Trying to calm herself down felt like an impossible task. Daphne covered her ears to drown out Viktor´s harsh tone and shook her head fervently. She couldn't do it, she couldn´t regain control. Daphne pulled away from Viktor and held her head in desperation, still shaking no.

How could she control something she didn't understand?
Nothing like this had ever happened, not in her study sessions with her dad or her lessons with the Martian Manhunter. Was this what her powers were going to be like forever? Always scaring her, always just outside of her reach.

It was overwhelming. Daphne wanted someone to tell her it would be okay. She didn’t want to be here anymore, out in the cold, her friends in danger because of her incapability. Her shoulders slumped and she broke down into tearless and soundless sobs. Without thinking too much about it Daphne looked for comfort in the only person that was there, Viktor. Maybe it was for the best she couldn’t see the stony look behind his helmet, or that might have deterred her from approaching him.

Daphne leaned her face against the padded chestpiece of Viktor’s suit and wrapped her wooden arms around his body that stiffened from the sudden contact. He hadn't expected the action. A hug of all things! It had even delayed his reply to Talon. Daphne could initially feel Viktor grab her arms so he could begin pulling away, but leaves he could spot on her body were welting and beginning to fall from her plant formed body. The cold… she's more susceptible to it.

Daphne felt Viktor's grasp on her arms surprisingly transition into a one-armed hug from Viktor.

"Talon, I have Nymph under control. Extract from the roof an-"

The sound of an alarm blared as red lights flashed within the factory

"Fuck…"

Young Justice

Location: La Hoya, vantage point Northwest of Kobra's factory
Interactions: Rain

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Daphne listened to Ja´s message. She wasn´t sure how to reply. With Ja being part of squad A it was up to Talon to decide how to approach this situation. It wasn´t that cut and dry though. Talon was already infiltrating the factory with the remaining members of squad A. Ja was more part of her squad, at least right now he was. She contemplated what to say and felt anxious. If it was up to her she wanted Ja to find a safe place to hide out. Maybe the people who were part of that struggle were still around somewhere. They could be the ones observing the team instead of the other way around. It was a scary thought. Ja had also discovered some kind of strange liquid. It could be the drug produced by the Kobra factory.

The teen girl didn´t have to complete on what to say any longer. Viktor asked her to relay another message, this time in his usual even toned voice. She could handle stoic Viktor much better than the angry one. Daphne nodded in acknowledgement and turned on her ear piece, opening her mouth to start to speak.....only she...couldn´t. Her face wasn´t moving. Immediately panic started to crawl through her, creating a lump in her throat. What was going on?
With trembling hands she touched her face, brushing over the surface of her skin. It had turned into bark, just like the rest of her body. Daphne didn't want to believe what was happening. Her body just acted on its own, without her being in control. It felt like all of the work she put in with the Martian Manhunter was for nothing. If she could cry she probably would have, as it were her face was frozen in a wooden expression.

A string of disturbing thoughts ran through her mind. She had no idea how to reverse this and operating the comms was not possible anymore. Viktor was going to yell at her, but she was scared. There was no one else she could turn to for help. How would she explain to him what was going on? This had never happened before, she didn't even know her powers were capable of this. She couldn't put her team in danger so she put aside her anxiety and approached their leader.

Daphne touched Viktor's shoulder, pulling at him a little so he would turn around. They still had to relay the message to Ja, if he didn't know someone was coming his way he could be in danger, they all could.

Meanwhile the guard was fast approaching Metamorph's hiding spot. It would be a matter of seconds until he was found out. The canister was missing and the guard was starting to investigate. The safest option was to subdue the guard, before he could warn the factory, potentially taking away from the time available to squad A to investigate.

Young Justice

Location: La Hoya, vantage point Northwest of Kobra's factory
Interactions: Rain

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"Nymph, stand up!"
Daphne flinched and involuntarily shut her eyes. She got up from the floor and wrapped her arms around herself Viktor's harsh tone made her stomach turn uncomfortably. She looked away and felt his eyes burn. Someone being angry with her always made her feel horrible. Sadly anger and annoyance were the two things which made up the bulk of their relationship. Viktor tolerated her because he had to and Daphne tried to avoid him as much as she could. Whenever she had finally pushed herself to make another attempt at civil interaction something always happened. Case in point, Viktor would say or do something, or she would not do something he asked, turning into disaster.

With this pit of negative emotion in her stomach Daphne didn't trust herself to say anything. She didn't want to argue. Her voice could crack because of her uncertainty. She didn't want to give Viktor any other reason to cement his idea that she was weak and useless. Daphne grabbed her pair of binoculars from the back pack and started to watch the guards outside of the gates. She wanted to make sure they weren't changing their patrol routes, in case they did she had eyes on them. The activity helped to fight her unexplainable drowsiness. Occasionally the chilling wind tugged of a leaf, the cold was causing her hair to wilt. The leaves were losing their luster and weren't able to hang onto the tendrils, which also started to droop.

After a couple of minutes one of the guards still hadn't come back. Daphne kept looking back and forth, retracing the route he took every 30 minutes. He'd gone into the forest. She checked the time, he should have been back eight minutes ago. Did something happen?
She had to warn Metamorph. Daphne switched on the comms for squad A.
"Metamorph, one of the guards at the gate hasn't returned to position yet, he was spotted going into the forest, over"

Young Justice

Location: La Hoya, vantage point Northwest of Kobra's factory
Interactions: Rain and Talon

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Daphne's brows furrowed together focusing on her communication with Talon. She didn't want to misinterpret what he was saying. Summarizing the content of the message she relayed the information to Viktor, who was huddled up next to her. She looked at her reflection in the visor of his helmet, and imagined his eyes were there.
"Squad A made it to the rooftop of the factory and are about to enter inside, they'll keep comms silent while they're in there. We have to keep an eye out for Metamorph"

"Talon, message received, we will keep an eye out for Metamorph and inform you of any changes outside, over."

Daphne thought of all the potential dangers squad A might face inside. If they were spotted it would likely turn into a confrontation with Kobra's agents. These unknown dangers worried Daphne. She didn't want anything bad to happen to any of them. No matter how skilled they were, they were not invincible.

Comms returned to a momentary silence. Daphne leaned back against the rock they were hiding behind, drawing her legs up to her chest. She noticed her limbs were a little stiff, probably because they had been crouched down for the better part of an hour. She stifled a yawn and blinked a couple of times. Daphne was inexplicably lethargic all of the sudden. How could she be tired already? She slept for seven hours straight on the plain ride and if she was to believe her team she even snored! How attractive....

Young Justice

Hi guys ^.^

I have repositioned everyone so we can get back into action! The post skipped ahead a bit, but feel free to write out the things I described before reaching the destination assigned to your character. If there is something you don't like or it feels out of character let me know and I can always change it up.

Go Team!