SWNOVELXO Chapter 60: Distress Signal
Dr. Johnathan Crane:
"Are we done yet," Ms. Iris West asks. She rubs her eyes, yawns, and stretches her arms.
"Not yet," I answer. As a yawn breaks out, I take off my glasses and rub my tired eyes. Shaking my head, I put them back on and continue reading The Man's medical notebook. In The Man's notebooks, I see drawings of the human body, with certain parts circles, and lines of text lined up with them.
"The superior vena cava," I start. "The inferior vena cava. The brachial artery. The basilic vein. The gastric vean. They are all---"
"Major blood vessels," Ms. Iris West says. She yawns again before going back to reading the notebook. "If cut or severed, a person needs to cover the wound as fast as possible."
"And apply pressure," I add. "You need to apply pressure too, otherwise, the blood won't run as it should."
Ms. Iris West laughs as I flip the page.
"What," I ask. "What? I'm just flipping the page."
"It just," Ms. West says before hiding her face. "It just I still can't believe it. You're Scarecrow."
I sigh when I hear this.
"Yes, I am Scarecrow. No, I was Scarecrow. Now, I really prefer to go by Dr. Crane. The doctor of the Insurgency. I mean, yes, I know. Everything that happened is sort of my fault, but I'm doing what I can to---"
"No, no, no," Ms. Iris West says, waving her hands. "That's not what I mean."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes, really. What I mean is that I can't believe you were once Scarecrow, the fear-obsessed evil scientist."
"Fear-obsessed? I don't know if I would go that far."
"But now, you're this. You're Dr. Crane. The doctor of the Insurgency. Studying and doing his best to save people. You once even went into space to help the Green Lanterns."
"Yeahhh," I say, thinking back to when 'I' went into space. "It really wasn't by choice."
"Still," Ms. Iris West says, taking my metal hand. "It was brave of you."
I feel a smile grow when I see Ms. Iris West's warm hand on my cold metal hand. About to read, I stop when the computer in the infirmary turns on and Mr. Anthony Higgin's silhouette appears.
"Scarecrow," Mr. Anthony says. I sigh again.
"Mr. Anthony," I answer, standing up. "Why are you calling me? Why is happening?"
"Is anyone else there with you," Mr. Anthony asks.
"No. It's just me and Iris. And Kent, but he's just wandering around. Why?"
"I can't be sure but I think I'm getting a distress beacon."
"A what?"
"A distress beacon," Mr. Anthony repeats. "From The Man himself."
The second we hear his name, Ms. Iris West and I look at each other. Moving as fast as I can, I pull out my cell phone while running to the teleporter.
"Give me the location," I say, speaking to Mr. Anthony through my phone. "And call the others. I'll prepare the teleporter."
"Got it!"
Supergirl:
Jumping through the portal and landing on the other side, I look around with red eyes. When I see no one around, I tap my wrist.
"It's clear," I say, "Come on through."
Stepping back, I watch as everyone else one by one jumps through the portal.
"Where is he," Eobard yells as soon as he's through. He too looks around, his head snapping right and left.
"According to the signal," Anthony says, speaking through all our suits. "20 meters in front of all of you."
Eobard hearing this, kicks up a sandstorm as he runs toward The Man. Jumping into the air myself, I fly and follow Eobard. It doesn't take long for us to see a large fire in the distance.
"Oh no," I say as I fly closer. "Oh no. Oh no!"
Flying even faster, I shoot through the air and land in front of the fire. Eobard reaches me a second later and together, we work to put out the fire. I use my frost breath to freeze the flames while Eobard buries it underneath by running around and kicking up another dust storm. By the time the rest of the team gets here, the last of the flames die down.
"Is this it," Firestorm asks.
"Ni madres," Jaime says, landing on the ground with his metal wings. "What happened here?"
"A plane crash," Jason answers, kneeling in front of a piece of torn black metal.
"A plane crash," I repeat.
"How can you tell," Slade asks, kicking another piece of torn black metal.
"Educational guess," Jason replies. He pushes himself up and looks around. We all watch as Jason examines the crash site. "There are skid marks in the dirt, suggesting this wasn't a planned landing but rather a force. Also, this piece, and that one over there, seem like wings. And that, that over there, I think that's the cockpit."
Sprinting through the crash, Jason reaches a part where there isn't only metal but also glass and a burning seat.
"The Man was attacked," Jason starts. "There's a massive cut on one of the wings. Whoever attacked him, blasted his wing and forced him to land. The Man survived the crash. He broke out of the cockpit"
We all wait for Jason to keep going but for some reason, he stops.
"Then," I ask. "What happened next?"
"I can't tell," Jason answers, rubbing his hand through the dirt. "There are some footprints here and there. As far as I can tell, four people, at least I think they're people, attacked The Man."
"Think they're people," Harleen repeats. "I'm sorry. What?"
"There are some footprints here and there," Jason goes on, pointing all over. "But one of them is too big to be human. And this one is too thin. It's almost paper-thin."
"A paper-thin foot," I ask.
"That's not the end. All of these footprints here, there's no end to them. There should be a trail leading out of here, but this isn't."
"What does that mean," Firestorm asks.
"It means whoever attacked The Man didn't walk out of here," Leonard says. "They either flew or teleported away."
"Okay," Eobard says, "But that still doesn't answer the main question. Where is The Man?"
"I have no idea," Jason says. "His tracks move from the cockpit to here but then disappear too. However, I do see signs of a struggle."
"And I found this," someone says. All of us turning around, we see Pamela holding a mace and a piece of blue cloth in her hands.
"I know that mace anywhere," Barry says, walking over to Pamela. He takes the mace out of her hand and looks over it.
"This is Hawkgirl's mace. How on earth did it get here?"
"And I recognize this," I say, walking over to Pamela and taking the piece of blue cloth from her hands. "This is Raven."
"Raven," everyone repeats.
I look at the blue cloth again and nod.
"This is Raven," I say, holding it up. "And that is Hawkgirl's mace. It means only one thing."
I crush the cloth before throwing it to the ground.
"Raven has The Man," I say. "We need to find her."
Raven:
Seeing a bunch of blurry colors, I slowly open my eyes.
"Where---Where am I?"
Despite the massive headache, I have to fight through it to remember what happened to me.
"I--I was captured. By the man in the sunglasses. He tied me up and threw me in the back of his plane. We flew for a while but then the plane started shaking."
I remember also hearing beeping. I then remember seeing a large monster with four arms ripping the cover off.
"The monster!"
My headache clears up and I look around. The man is nowhere in sight but the purple monster with four arms is. It's carrying me. We're flying through the air, and we're not alone.
"Who are you," I yell. I try to move my hands but they're still tied together. "Hey! What's going on? What happening!"
The monster ignores me. It, along with the three other monsters surrounding me, slow down. They land on an empty street. Still trying to get my hands free, I look around. As far as I can tell, this is more than just an empty street. This is an abandoned street. All the stores on this street are boarded up. I see a forgotten video rental store, an old pizza shop, and an ancient electronic store.
"Wait. I know this street. I know that store. And that one. And that one too! This is...Jump City. Home of us Titan."
I start to feel a bit nostalgic. I haven't been to Jump City since the nuke.
"Why am I here? Why did you bring me here? Hey. Hey! Do you hear me!"
All the monsters ignore me. Instead, they throw me on the ground and drag me.
"The ritual must be completed," the monster chants. "The gem must be sacrificed."