Chapter Text
M'gann pulled open the tent flap. "I'm in,” she checked into the team link.
"Good," Aqualad's voice replied. "but tread carefully. Camouflage is not invisible."
M’Gann spied on the scientists gathered around a strange sphere as electricity sparked around it. She sensed the brief hints of a psychic wave. A wave of pain.
"They're testing something, but it's alive. In pain." she mutters, horrified.
”What is it?” Wonder Girl asked, but M’Gann was overwhelmed by the strange sensation from the sphere. Despite her instructions, she opened her mind.
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"I can." An unfamiliar voice chuckled darkly, M'gann's eyes rapidly turned to try and find the source. "And an open mind is a dangerous thing."
"Someone's hacked into our link!" M'gann shouted to the Team just as her eyes settle on the stranger.
"Psimon can't see you." the madman is smug. "Psimon can't touch you." he pulled down his hood. "But Psimon can make you all FORGET!"
There was a psychic scream of multiple people as Psimon’s suggestion traveled through the link and into the team, and then, all M’Gann saw was white.
Everything made sense now. This stranger, Psimon, was the reason her team had forgotten six months.
M'Gann's surroundings were a jumbled mess of landscapes. Mount Justice split apart into various rooms, floating in mid air, while the ground was the red sand of Mars.
She was vulnerable once and would not make the same mistake again.
”I won’t let you make me forget!” M’Gann shouted, pushing back the force of Psimon’s power with her own. Psimon’s smug expression remained.
”Not really your call, little girl.”
A bolt of crimson energy blasted M’Gann back but she soon recovered. This was going to be a tough battle, but it was one she needed to fight.
One she needed to win.
The seven other heroes trekked through the nighttime desert, following Robin’s GPS to the Bio-Ship. Wonder Girl supported Kaldur while Artemis watched their back with her admittedly dwindling quiver.
“Vehicle approaching,” Aya stated, prompting the group to hide behind a hill.
The vehicle passed them by, but soldiers were patrolling the area they’d need to pass to reach the ship.
"We can't risk a firefight with Aqualad like this,” Robin remarked with a whispered urgency.
Wally groaned, agreeing. "It's not just him. I'm way out of juice." he rubbed the back of his neck looking to Artemis, hopefully.
"And I'm almost out of arrows." she pulls on her mostly empty quiver to prove her point.
Aqualad gasped.
“Robin, Batgirl, do your utility belts have…” he trailed off upon noticing their sudden absence. One could almost hear a lightly impatient sigh.
”Man. I hate when they do the ninja thing.” Kid Flash complained.
”I think it’s pretty cool,” Wonder Girl commented.
Wally then turned to Artemis.
”Hey, you never told me why your dad wanted to,” Wally made a throat slitting gesture over his neck, “me.”
Artemis faced away nervously.
”I, uh, got confused, watched a bad ninja movie where the girl had to kill her boyfriend because he was part of a rival clan.”
"So, am I your ninja boyfriend?" Wally teased, Artemis whirling around with sharp eyes.
"Hey, amnesia, remember? Made me forget how damn annoying you are."
"Oh, and you're little miss congeniality."
"Get a room already," Batgirl complained, reappearing with Robin, who had a proud smile on his face.
"Where'd you two go?"
"Breaking radio silence."
Batgirl held up three fingers and counted down, before a large smoke cloud exploded nearby.
”That’s our cue, go!” Robin shouted as the team made their sprint closer to the Bio-Ship.
M’Gann flew around her mindscape, trying to avoid Psimon’s blasts of psychic energy. His mind felt dark, and even now she could feel fingers trying to poke through her mind.
Focus, Megan!
She flew around her mind space, dodging Psimon’s attacks and attempting to counter with her own.
M’Gann tossed twin discs of psychic force, only for them to crash against Psimon with little damage.
”You have potential, but you’re too raw, untrained,” he snapped his fingers, blasting M’Gann away.
”And not at all in my league.”
He blasted his energy at M’Gann, and even her own barrier was cracking. She could feel his suggestion pulsing into her mind. She should forget. Let go, forget everything again, do it, do it.
She grit her teeth. She wasn’t going to forget.
While Miss Martian was engaged in psychic battle with Psimon, the two Kryptonian’s broke free from their restraints.
Surprisingly, it was Superboy that was more receptive and uncharacteristically calm about it all. He ran over to Miss Martian, grabbing her hand. Kara, breaking free, followed after a fellow Kryptonian and grabbed M'Gann's other hand.
The action brought them both into the psychic plane.
M’Gann felt familiar hands grasping her own, looking at the faces of her two Kryptonian teammates . Despite her tumultuous situation, she couldn’t stop the lightness and relief from her voice.
"Superboy, Supergirl, you're here!" She acknowledged with a grin.
Psimon chuckled.
"Are those aliens supposed to save your mind?"
M'Gann tightened her grip on her friends' hands.
"No, I'll save theirs!"
She reached into their minds, and began to piece and implant things together.
Kara and Superboy heard different people talking, found themselves in different memories as they began to remember.
Alura Zor El kissed her daughter’s forehead as Krypton’s last minutes counted away.
”We will always be with you.”
"We are trying to help you!", Kaldur'ahm. In Cadmus, they freed him from the pod.
"I'm your cousin," Superman. Kal-El. Her cousin, so grown up, older than she was.
Superboy looked up at the sky, seeing Superman descend from on high.
Supergirl lightly nudged Superboy with her elbow.
"I was trying to be part of the team..." M'Gann muttered as Conner ran off.
"You did alright."
Everything began to line up. Their team. Their responsibilities. Their friends, their families.
They were here.
And M'Gann needed their help.
The two heroes returned to the mindscape with newly revitalised minds, and they only had a single message for M'Gann before they returned to the physical plane.
"Kick his butt."
M’Gann steeled her expression and formed a barrier of energy around herself to block Psimon’s attack.
She formed a protective barrier around herself, reaching out four limbs to wrap around Psimon’s arms and legs, only for him to grow to a gargantuan height, dwarfing her tenfold.
Duplicating herself to surround Psimon, M’Gann and her copies blasted at the psychic attacker. He groaned in pain, before he curled into a ball and span enough to caused a deadly gale force wind that destroyed all the copies and leaving the original back ok the defensive.
M’Gann flew forward to punch her opponent in the face. Not particularly well planned, or terribly efficient, but in the individual moment, it felt good to just punch her assailant in his smug face.
It was this physical blow that seemed to end Psimon’s patience. He blasted crimson tendrils from his fingers, forcing M’Gann to fly back to escape their grasps.
”You have officially stopped being amusing and are now irritating.”
A crimson bolt of energy fired at M’Gann, who summoned up a shield to block, but it wouldn’t hold. The second she dropped the shield, that would be it.
She wasn’t strong enough. She was going to forget again.
Supergirl rammed her shoulder into one of the guards, enjoying the return to her freedom. She noticed Superboy looking vaguely sheepish after slamming his elbow into the soldiers.
”Hey, uh, sorry about attacking you earlier.”
Supergirl paused for a second before punching Superboy’s arm, causing him to grunt in pain.
”Apology accepted,” she teased with a grin.
They both heard the clicks of guns, only for the metal sphere from their capture to smack against the soldier, whirring in a manner that felt friendly.
”Uh, thanks,” Superboy thanked.
A hurricane of psychic energy formed around Psimon and Miss Martian. Superboy charged into the maelstrom, leaving Supergirl to handle the rest of the guards.
Just the way she wanted. Eight guns raised and pointed at her. She stuck a hand on her hip.
”Alright, who’s on first?”
M’Gann felt Superboy return, but his presence only brought the slightest flicker of a smile as she tried to block Psimon’s attack.
”He’s too strong, I can’t hold him back.”
”You’re strong too, and I’m stubborn. We do this together!”
M’Gann nodded with new resolve, glaring directly at Psimon.
”Get. Out. Of. My. Head!” M’Gann shouted, extending her and Superboy’s arm as a ring of turquoise psychic energy flowed up their arms.
With Superboy’s resolve bolstering her strength, M’Gann blasted through Psimon’s energy, piercing into his head. That smug face warped in pain, yelling in shock. The area began to crack like glass, and there was a flood of white.
Quarac; September 5th; 2:27 EEST
A psychic maelstrom destroyed the tent, but all of the heroes had the durability to survive the storm.
Superboy cradled M’Gann in his arms, they looked at once both relieved and exhausted.
”Good to have you back,” M’Gann admitted breathlessly.
”Yeah. Same here,” Superboy replied with a tender smile.
Their lips moved forward towards each other. Kara watched with small hope. M'Gann was not subtle for her attraction.
Only to be interrupted by the strange Sphere technology. Kara’s palm met her face in disappointment.
Superboy stared in confusion before an expectant smile graced his features.
”Can I keep it?” he asked, almost like a child about a puppy.
M’Gann and Kara agreed as the four heroes began to fly over to where the bio ship was located.
Aqualad sat up, finally having sufficient moisture to keep himself conscious after the dry of the desert.
“Are we successful?” He rasped out.
“Yes, Aqualad. We’re coming back to you now.”
When Supergirl returned to the ship, she was practically tackled with a hug by Wonder Girl. Artemis noticed Superboy’s shirtless state and raised a vaguely amused eyebrow.
As the bio-ship glided through the night sky, M’Gann reached out a private link with Aqualad. Now that they were safe, she could ask a question.
”Sorry to intrude, Kaldur, but can I ask you something.
Tula. M’Gann felt a current of grief enter the link and immediately took a step back.
”It is… a recent topic.”
”I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything…”
”No, it is nothing, it’s just personal, nothing to discuss during our flight.”
After being recovered by the Bialyan soldiers, Psimon met with his superiors, his voice low and drained from his defeat on the psychic plane.
”The Kryptonians escaped and stole the sphere,” he apologised.
One of his master’s, a woman’s voice that was low and confident in itself, answered patiently.
"That hardly matters. What matters is the successful test of our new partner's delivery system."
A screen displayed a boom tube opening, where the sphere was transported through.
”Worry not, Psimon, we have more, technology that will put even the Superboy to shame…”
Psimon smiled weakly. It was not the Superboy he wanted to shame. No, now he had more reason to see the Martian Girl grovelling before him. He saw something in her mind during their encounter.
Something that she would certainly want to keep close to the chest.