//------------------------------// // Ya Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do // Story: Cause, Effect, and Consequences // by Coltsguy //------------------------------// Honestly, being flanked by several superheroes might seem pretty cool. Let me tell this to you straight. It is. It really is. J'onn and Batman stayed pretty stoic but I kind of expected that. Batman doesn't trust anyone out of principle and it generally takes years for anyone to gain a decent amount of it in his eyes. J'onn is like that because he doesn't interact with people much and he just defaults to that expression. Flash is just fun to be around. Flash, Dash, and myself have similar senses of humor which helped pass the time while we moved around the Watchtower. We weren't getting a tour if that was what you were thinking. We took the same route we were ushered from in the beginning since we were headed right back there. Despite the fact that I had a way to track the rift down they wanted to search for it with their equipment first. I felt like they were just being obstinate about it, but they explained what they wanted to do well enough that I could no longer care about it for the time being. We were just just headed there at a pretty sedate pace for some reason. I never got an explanation for it either. Thinking back on it they were probably keeping an eye on me after my little episode. If that was the case I don't blame them. We eventually did get to the bridge, or the control room I guess would be more accurate. There were still several superheroes and technicians there; more than when I first arrived, in fact, at least as far as the superheroes went. Didn't see the rest of the original seven Justice League members of this timeline anywhere. Guess I wouldn't get that handshake or kiss on this trip either. We still received some guarded looks so I knew at least I was being kept tabs on. Too bad Mousse wasn't there. I know he would've had my back. "Is there anything you can tell us about this rift that could help us locate it?" Batman asked. "Not anymore than what the Doctor told me," I replied. I then changed my voice to mimic the Doctor's. "You see when all of the unfortunate events came together the six of you and Discord were thrown across time, space, and dimensions. Each of you landed in a foreign environment and were trapped there until Seth came and rescued you. When he came to get you he entered through the corridor that was forced open between worlds and landed in the general vicinity of your dimensional coordinates. He soon located you all and brought you back here while sealing up the rifts that only he left behind. Those being the one he arrived in-" "Are any of the things you're going to say helpful to us finding it?" Batman interrupted. "Only that I arrived at a location that was either relatively close to them or a means that would make finding them easier which I believe is similarly intrinsic to this venture," I replied in my own voice. "Unless she appeared on the Watchtower I don't think it's the first one," Flash stated. "Agreed. That means that there is something that can help you find the rift here. I don't know how we can look for it without additional information." How did they convince me not to look on my own again? "Other than it looks like an arc of lightning I don't know of anything either." "That can help narrow it down. Still, we would need something else." "This is why I have Eris help me. Finding the rifts would be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Earth without her." "But she only gives a general direction," Rainbow Dash added. "I remember Twilight saying that." "Most of the time yeah. I once used-" I cut myself off for a second as I realized what I could try. "I once used the scanners in a Specter Speeder to get a more detailed map to find it. I bet I could do that with the scanners that are used on the Watchtower." I pulled Eris out of my pocket and looked to Batman for confirmation. "I don't think the two are compatible." "The two of us contain magic that makes the laws of physics break themselves and like it. This should work just fine. Besides, what part of Eris looks like technology in the first place?" "He's got ya there Bats," Flash humorously stated. "Alright," Batman said with a sigh. "Do it." A quick nod and I flipped Eris into the air. "Do your thing Eris." A quick shine of light came from her as she reached the apex of the flip and stayed there while keeping up her rotation. After about twenty seconds of this a globe of the Earth was projected around her in a blue hue. It was definitely attention grabbing as all eyes went to it. Not too long after that a yellow dot appeared on the west coast of the U.S.A. "That's right in Jump City," J'onn said helpfully. "Kind of a funny name for a city," Rainbow Dash commented. "This coming from the mare who lives in a town called Ponyville who hails from Cloudsdale; both of which are in the land of Equestria," I countered. I saw Flash snicker at that and heard a few others do the same. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." A jovial remark died in my throat as the blue hue of the globe turned red for a second before the image disappeared completely. Eris then dropped out of the air and I caught her before she hit the ground. It should go without saying, but yes I was concerned. "What happened?" Batman asked. "We just had a security alarm trip at STAR Labs at the location we just saw," some random non-hero worker replied. I'll just call him a techie. "It seems to be some sort of emergency signal." I tuned everyone out for a moment as I connected some very familiar dots. I found the rift in Jump City. An alarm was going off at the STAR Labs in Jump City. The Teen Titans were based in Jump City. A dimensional event happened at the STAR Labs in Jump City that led to the 'Reflections Lost' storyline. That crossover was started by a twenty-six dimensional hypergriffin, the only name that I think they could give it, accidentally melding with Raven's powers, a broken dimensional containment device, and possibly worst of all it might have worked off of Ryouga's luck sending them into an alternate reality. That griffin had escaped containment somehow, but it hadn't been explained in the story. Those dots lined up in a row of guilt. Why you ask? It's because I was fairly certain that I had become the catalyst to letting that thing free. That means I was responsible for so many fucked up things that were about to occur in this timeline. "It looks like the Titans are en route," I heard that techie say which brought me back to my senses. "Jump City is delegated so that any type of emergency or investigation is handled by the Teen Titans and we are to inform them if we are to intrude on their area of operation." "S.O.P. for diplomatic relations," I stated. "Right now is time for damage control. What did Rainbow Dash say about me if anything?" "You're reclusive and prone to making almost bi-polar decisions. Paraphrasing of course," Flash clarified. "You still try to do the right thing." "In this instance, doing the right thing means staying here until the emergency is over." Oh you Bat bastard you. He knows I want to go down and take a look at what's happening. He's preempting the whole thing by saying I can't and even stating why I couldn't before I would even ask. I work with chaos. I shouldn't be this predictable! "I need to get there now. I need to make sure that this isn't because of something I did." "You should have thought more about that when you used your coin to find the rift." "You didn't have any better ideas." "I was going to interrogate the people who were holding her captive beforehand to see if they knew where she was discovered. I wasn't expecting your attempt to be successful." "Well... egh, I hate inaction. Especially when I feel responsible like this, though I get the vague sensation that I'm contradicting myself," I said while muttering that last part quietly. "Yeah well why can't we go down there?" Dash asked. "We aren't a part of your group so we don't have to worry about being diplomatic." "I'd rather not have the two of you getting involved in this and making matters worse." I facepalmed at his damn good logic. I also facepalmed for the first time without my glasses getting in the way. Kind of an odd feeling having something so intimately familiar be so different. It only lasted for a few moments as I got back on track. "Look if something is going down now I need to make sure it doesn't affect the rift. I shouldn't have to remind you that even on its own it has the potential to erase the universe. I'd rather not have something speeding up that process." That seemed to finally be enough of an argument to get him to think about it. "You can send along a hero or two to keep an eye on me if you want as well. Believe it or not I know how to be discreet as well." "Your past actions do not lend credence to that fact," J'onn stated passively despite how it was intended. "I managed to sneak around just fine the first time I was here. I also went unseen in the last world I went to. I'm very unnoticeable when I want to be." "J'onn, do you believe you can keep a close eye on them?" "Of course." "Very well then. The three of you are not to interfere unless necessary. You are to observe only until the emergency is over with. Do you two understand?" "Yes sir." "Yeah." "Move to the transporters and we'll send you down." "Or... we could remain sort of inconspicuous and I can teleport us down without the bright flash." "An acceptable alternative I suppose. Do it." Rude commanding tone from Batman aside, I held out my hand, the one without the coin in it, and a faint blue glow encompassed it. A snap of my fingers later and J'onn, Rainbow Dash, and I were standing a bit of a distance away from the local police presence. The massive police presence, I should say. The police had the place completely surrounded with squad cars to the point that I wasn't certain that there was one actually patrolling the city. Of course a giant glowing dome-covered building would probably prompt that kind of response. Our arrival was still pretty well unnoticed for about... fifteen seconds I suppose. At least that's how long it took for an officer to come up to our group. She looked like a woman in charge too. Mostly grey hair with a few bits of black stood out as she walked up to us with some purpose in her step. "More of ya here huh?" she said in a grizzled cop voice that was kind of hilarious considering her gender. "The Titans there told us that they were gonna handle things. If you Leaguers are here does that mean we were wrong tah do so?" "We are here on a separate matter. There is something we are investigating in STAR Labs that may be connected." I tuned out the rest of what was said to scan around for the Titans. It didn't take long to spot them. I also saw Jinx walking up to them as they conversed. I was really digging the fact that I could see them so very clearly despite the distance. It was almost like I had a zoom function. I kind of didn't since it was one of the things that I needed to have an electronic brain for apparently, however I was convinced that I could make it work over time. It was then that I did something a little less than decent. I used the x-ray function on my eyes to take a look at them naked. Yeah I know it wasn't a nice thing to do, but I was way too damn curious. They had grey and orange skin. I had to know how that looked. Did I feel bad about it? Honestly not as much as I thought I would. I mean, yeah I felt bad, but for some reason it just felt like it wasn't that bad. Also, I shouldn't mention it but Raven is smoking hot. I just felt that it needed to be said. Also Cyborg is built like a truck. "We've been given the same courtesy as the Titans have," J'onn stated; breaking me from the vision I was using. "That's good. I've spotted the Titans. It looks like they're having a discussion over there. I say we let them handle the mission." "I believe that is what Batman told you to do." I rolled my eyes as Rainbow Dash snickered. "Yeah, well anyway let's keep out of their sight for now. Just seeing us here might interfere with what they're doing." There were a few minutes that went by before Cyborg reconfigured his hand into its sonic cannon configuration. He then pointed it at the shield and fired. The shield wavered for a moment before opening up in a small circular area just big enough for them to get through. Which is exactly what they did as their group darted through the opening. I immediately grabbed J'onn and Rainbow Dash as Cyborg's stream ended. "No time!" I yelled as I teleported us inside. I still cut things pretty close. I had a strange tingling sensation all over as soon as we appeared on the other side of the shield. I wasn't the only one either. I could see the both of them give off a shiver as well out of the corner of my eyes. "Sorry. We needed to get inside while there was an opening." "I understand." A painless knock upside my head told me that Dash wasn't as understanding as J'onn. "Anyway we're inside and the Titans don't know that yet either." "I'm feeling some sort of... presence below the surface. I'm not certain what it is but it feels both frightened... and angry." "Well that sounds terrific!" I yelled sarcastically. "No kidding," Rainbow Dash echoed in tone. "Why don't we stop sneaking around and go help them out?" "Because they didn't ask for it. How would you feel if someone took over weather duties for you because they said you weren't doing a good job?" "That sounds stupid. I'm much too good for somepony else to take over." "Exactly. It's the same thing here. Stepping in would be like telling them that they can't handle their responsibilities. Don't discount them alright?" "Alright, but I don't like it." "That's good too because you shouldn't like it. It's only natural for a good person, or pony in your case, to want to help out when trouble is happening." I almost started thinking about the Teen Titans theme song but I managed to keep from doing so. "We still have to find the rift and close it. We'll make sure there's nothing going on to make that go wrong and then we'll finish things up and head back to Equestria." "But I was going to challenge Flash to a race!" I couldn't suppress the chuckle from hearing that. "Hey! I bet I could beat him!" "I find that very doubtful," J'onn commented. "Says you! I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! I can beat him for sure!" "We are not here to discuss the outcome of such a competition. We are here to verify the status of the rift while evading detection from the Titans." "Yeah right! I bet you're just saying that cause you know I'm going to embarrass your buddy." "Dash calm down. He's right that we need to get moving. The Titans have already gone inside. Let's hurry up." She let out a scoff, but didn't keep up the argument as we entered the building. Well I teleported us in since the door wouldn't open. It was a pretty nice setup in what I would say is the reception/check in area. There were a few plants at the entrance while the walls were grey halfway up and white the rest of the way to the ceiling. There was a large desk on the far wall that reminded me of the one at Vlad Masters' building only this one was a bright, solid white with several monitors sitting on it. It was past a short transparent wall that cut the room in half going up a few feet from the floor. In the middle of the wall was a metal detector for some reason. No idea as to why they would put one there. It didn't even go off as we went through it. Hell I didn't even remember that there was such a thing from when I read the story. The corridors themselves were pretty bland. It was some monotonous white walls with slightly darker colored doors every once in a while. It wasn't bad enough that I got myself stuck going in circles just like Ryouga did with the xenothium heist- Oh wait, that was a different building. Well, it's the principle anyway since the guy could get himself lost anywhere at anytime. I took a look at Eris at that point. I needed a moment then to slap myself as I held the coin sideways to determine if rift was higher or lower than where I was. You would think that I would have thought of doing that sooner and if you did then pat yourself on the back because you're more savvy than me. It still was a good realization as we found out that the rift was somewhere underground. A quick ride down the elevator, thankfully Titan free, and some trial and error with the right floor and we were in the general vicinity. Unfortunately for us it was the same floor that the Titans had gotten off at as J'onn had so helpfully informed me. It was making me seriously think about how I was connected to these events. I had, without exception, made contact with the main players of every one of these stories while one of the story events was taking place. In fact other than Lucien in Ungrounded I had ended up interacting directly with the main characters of each of these stories in one way or another. It could just be a hot zone for this kind of thing. I suppose I had no way to figure this out so I let it occupy the trash bin in my brain. "The presence has grown much louder now," J'onn stated. "It is... odd... scrambled even, but mostly angry now instead of both angry and afraid evenly." "It could be fighting with the Titans. That would probably explain it." "I believe that is the most logical assumption. Still, I find this to be a very uncomfortable feeling." "I hear ya big guy," Dash said while putting a hoof on his shoulder as she hovered between us. I rolled my eyes as we continued on. Or we would have if I hadn't realized something wrong. I almost missed it. Perhaps it was because I was focused on the rift or maybe it was the company I was keeping. Neither really mattered as much as I realized an important fact. We were standing outside of the elevator in a branching T pattern of halls. That isn't where the Titans were let off in the story. In the story the elevator was in the conjoining room to the one where the hypergriffin was trying to escape from. The Titans were meeting in a room that was connected to the elevator and was easily in view. Two and two were not equaling four right now. "Something is wrong here." "What do ya mean 'wrong'?" "I don't know if I can explain it." Not with J'onn standing right there anyway. "It's like... things aren't where they're supposed to be. Like we still got off on the wrong floor." "I do not know if there is anything... 'off' like you are describing. All I sense is the presence." "Well what about the others?" Dash asked. "Hey yeah. What about the Titans or the scientists that should be here? Do you feel them?" I saw his eyes glow for a bit as I believe he was checking things out. It was kind of interesting because I only noticed right then that his eyes were solid red. It wasn't a red on red like I thought, but instead it was smoothed out like the whole thing was just one big sclera and no iris or pupil. I knew his eyes weren't superficial so I genuinely wondered how that worked. It wasn't really pertinent to our situation as his eyes stopped glowing. "I cannot detect the presence of any minds other than the two of you. Though that may simply be due to your proximity and the rest are simply being overwhelmed." "That sounds too convenient to be honest. I had that odd feeling and suddenly it's just us? I don't like the sound of that." "Are you certain you are not just being paranoid?" "He's actually pretty good at noticing when things go wrong. At least that's what Twilight says. I'm not so sure but Twilight is pretty smart. Maybe we should worry about it?" she finished with only a marginal amount of confidence. "I do not believe there is enough of a basis for this theory. However, we shall remain cautious for anything else out of the ordinary." I glowered a little before nodding and leading the way once more. We kept following the hallways a little bit before Rainbow Dash flew up close to my side to talk quietly. When I say close, I mean close enough that I felt her wing grazing the back of my head. "Did you really feel that or were you just saying it?" "You know how I said I know these as stories right?" "Duh. Of course I do." "Yes," I said; rolling my eyes, "of course. When that elevator door opened we should have been in a room overlooking where the Titans were. They're fighting something that looks sort of like a griffin. Instead we came out into a hallway. I can't exactly explain how I know this to him. I got lucky with you in that no one freaked out but I can't say the same thing will happen with everyone else I try to tell it to. I've seen scenarios where people go nuts because they don't think anything they do matters. It's a worst case scenario." "I don't think we have to worry about this guy going nuts." "It's always the quiet ones." "What?" she asked with that admittedly adorable ear flop thing. "It's a saying. Do you remember the time when Twilight made everyone go after that doll of hers when she couldn't come up with a friendship lesson?" "Kind of?" "Right. Anyways, the point is that if anyone, you wouldn't have thought that she was going to do that. Same principle applies here. Still, that isn't the real problem." "It's the thing that's different right?" "Exactly. We can look for the rift right now, but keep a lookout for anything unusual." "How would I know what is unusual? Pretty much everything around here is unusual." "Ugh, good point. Let's just keep an eye on things or whatever. That's all I can really say." "I'll... see what I can do." Again we moved along in an uncomfortable silence. I let Eris lead us through the twists and turns of STAR Labs for several more minutes. Eventually both Rainbow Dash and myself got fed up at the same time. "Are we really headed in the right direction? This is taking forever!" "That's kind of what I was thinking. Unless this underground area is extremely large then we should have been there by now." "I can still only detect the presence. Nothing else." "That nagging felling has only gotten worse." "I'm starting to think something isn't right too," Dash chimed in. "We have only been searching this level for ten minutes." "Assuming that we've been going pretty much in one general direction that should've been the length of the building. I don't like this at all." "I feel as though there is something that you are not telling me about this. Is there?" Damn this was frustrating. If I tell him what's happening then I could break the setting. If I don't, however, we could be walking along for who knows how long looking for something that exists in a place that shouldn't. It was becoming infuriating. "Hey buddy," Dash said while flying into J'onn's face, "if he says that something's wrong then there's something wrong! Maybe you're the one who's got a problem!" "I do not believe that to be the case here." "Yeah? Well out of the three of us you're the only one who thinks that nothing's wrong right now and I find that pretty peculiar if you ask me. Maybe you're hiding something?" I had to force down the urge to snicker at that. "I fail to understand the hostile intent that you are presenting me." "That's 'cause you're not trying to understand us. You're way too quick to just not care about what we're going through and that is not cool." "Yeah, we may not be a part of the Justice League but our opinions still matter," I said adding my two cents. "I... believe I understand your concerns," he replied almost tentatively. "I will see if the entity is somehow behind the situation." "That's all I can really ask for I suppose," said hoping that maybe he could find a reason for what was happening. In turn J'onn's eyes lit up again. It didn't take long for something to happen. Said happening was that J'onn let out a pained yell and clinched his head. I jumped pretty badly in surprise as did Rainbow Dash. Still we were greatly concerned about him as bent over and started thrashing his head from side to side while grunting in pain. "J'onn what's wrong!?" He looked at me for a moment before thrashing about again. It was long enough for me to see his eyes again. This time there was something different about them. Interposed on them was a black slit like a cat and to make matters more interesting he now had four eyes instead of two. Honestly only knowing about the setting let me figure out what was happening. He had reached out just as the shit hit the fan. In better words J'onn had made contact with what I believe was the hypergriffin just as it hit Raven's telekinetic shield. He was feeling the pain empathically just as the other two had. Just as he roared in pain once again even louder than before, something happened around us I can only describe as chaotic. Everything around the three of us spiraled into a multitude of colors taken from the area we were looking around. I'm not sure if I grabbed Dash or if she grabbed me but I do know that we started hugging each other as we were freaking out. The colors soon faded away like sand and we found ourselves in a new room. We had no time to take a look around as we started flying towards a giant spiraling vortex. I was briefly terrified that it was a black hole, but I still had enough thought to grab something as Dash grabbed a hold of J'onn. After that moment, I couldn't see much of anything. I was keeping my eyes locked onto the grated metal floor that I had a hold of. I could feel Dash clinging to me for dear life as I presumed she still had a hold of J'onn to keep him from flying into the death spiral as I had quickly dubbed it. I had no idea how long that lasted as I kept holding on knowing that if I lost my grip then all three of us could be sucked in. All I even heard was some muffled voices that were lost in the roar of noise. Eventually the pull started to subside. As it did I loosened my grip and felt greatly relieved that we were still okay. I could also feel some weight on my legs that let me know that J'onn hadn't been pulled in and Dash had successfully held on to him. As soon as I no longer felt the pull coming from the vortex I let go of the grate and breathed heavily. Rainbow Dash was in a similar situation as she still had her hind legs wrapped around me as an anchor along with her wings. After a short time getting some air back into my lungs, Dash was the first to speak. "I know this may not be the time or place, but should I make a sex joke about this?" she asked weakly. I was about answer when someone else made themselves known. "STARFIIIIRE!" Oh shit. That was right. Robin was still there. I immediately cloaked the three of us into invisibility as I heard him anguish over the loss of his soon to be girlfriend and teammate. I'd love to tell him that they were alright, but I wasn't sure that I could let him know- hello! Back behind some damaged pipes on the wall was the rift. That raised all sorts of questions about what was going on in this place but I didn't care for any of it right then. I pulled Eris out of my pocket and handed it to Rainbow Dash. She gave me a confused look up until I pointed out the rift to her. She sped out from under me to the rift and pressed Eris onto it almost instantaneously. It was so quick that the rift sealed up and she sped back over to my position before she was rendered visible again. Since we were still undiscovered, I teleported the three of us back to the lobby area and dropped my invisibility. I quickly realized that J'onn hadn't gotten off of me so he was most likely unconscious. I wiggled my way free of him and stood up quickly. "Is he going to be okay?" "Yeah. Raven was fine and this is pretty much the same thing that happened with her." "Should we get him to his friends then? He was kind of a dull guy, but I don't think he deserved this one bit." "I don't think we can teleport through the energy shield outside." "It's not on anymore." I looked outside and sure enough the energy shield that was erected out there had disappeared. "Alrighty then. Can you hand me Eris? I need to check something." "Sure." After handing back Eris I took a look at her face. It showed that it was counting down again from two hundred and forty four seconds. A good chunk of time until we left. Knowing that, I placed Eris back into my pocket and snapped my fingers. The three of were then back onto the command deck of the Watchtower. "Hey! Can I get some help here!?" As I saw several people rush to where I was, I noticed Batman was there giving me the Glare. I gestured to Dash to come with me and get out of the way of the people who were checking on J'onn. We made our way to him and before he could start grilling us I put up a hand to stop him. "I don't have much time before the two of us head back to where we came from. About three minutes I think. I'll try to make it short for you. We got down there and there was an energy shield that prevented us from getting in. The Titans were already there so we stayed hidden out of their way since I remember some jurisdiction issues. They opened a small hole and as they went through I teleported us inside out of their sight, but not inside the building. We waited a few minutes and then went inside ourselves to look for the rift without getting in their way. As we searched we found out that something else was in there and it may have been affecting us somehow in a non-aggressive manner. We continued on for some time and after a while J'onn reached out telepathically and things went south pretty quickly. The place we were in shifted and J'onn lost consciousness while Dash and I tried not to get sucked up by this black hole thing. After a bit it went away and only the three of us plus Robin were in there. I spotted the rift and had Rainbow Dash close it before coming back and teleporting all of us back to the Watchtower. And now we've reached the present." I pulled Eris out of my pocket again just as I was finishing and looked at her. We still had a hundred and seven seconds left. I showed this to Batman. "Did you interfere with the Titans in any way?" "No sir. I made sure to keep out of their notice the whole time. I sealed the rift and everything is... well on a global scale everything is fine. I think something happened down there with the Titans. I don't know what but from how Robin was shouting it couldn't be anything good." "If it becomes a danger then we'll do something about it. Otherwise we will let them handle it amongst themselves per our arrangement." "But he sounded so sad. Shouldn't you help him?" "They have said that they would not accept our help if they want to be taken seriously. As such we can't interfere." "I know it's hard Dash, but everything will be okay. You've gotta have some faith that things will work out." She looked at me for a moment. Then she gave me a look that said she knew something. She then gave me a small smile and nodded. I in turn ruffled her mane up a bit. "I'm fairly certain that you know more than you're letting on. It's getting more obvious as I observe your behaviors." "Sorry Batman, spoilers." He narrowed his eyes at me, then shut them completely before opening them again. "I see. If you show up ever again I will be getting all the answers I'm after. Understood?" "I have faith that as smart as you are you'll probably figure it out anyway. Say hi to Weapon Master for me!" I exclaimed happily as the light from Eris slowly enveloped my vision.