Chapter 48

  When Wally and Artemis arrived back at the tower Supergirl was in the lobby with Wondergirl, Beast Boy, the 4 soldiers and a new squad of soldiers with 2 men and 3 women,

  “What’s going on?” Wally asked, setting Artemis down,

  “We’ve got enemy forces coming straight for the tower, from what Supergirl said there are shit tons of em” Wondergirl answered,

  “What’s the plan?” Artemis asked,

  “We’re gonna have to hold them off, we decided that we’re gonna station squads Alpha and Bravo at windows a few floors up to give us cover while Supergirl, Beast Boy and I fend them off from the ground,

  “I’ll help on the ground’ Wally suggested,

  “I’ll go get some more arrows,” Artemis said.

  Kori helped Barbara down the dark corridor, her ears still ringing from the engine room, the pipes that ran along the ceiling above their heads hissed as the none damaged engines tried to work overtime to compensate for the main engines damage, as her head cleared Kori heard movement at the end of the passage, she slowed defensively, Kommand’r stepped around the corner, Barbara instinctively put herself between the 2 sisters, there was a long moment where nothing happened, all 3 girls were completely silent, until Kommand’r spoke up,

  “Is the general still following you 2?” She asked quietly,

  “He’s dead” Barbara answered, the younger Tamaranean nodded, her shoulders slumped and she stared down at the floor, though Kori couldn’t tell what was going on in her head,

  “Then it’s over” Kommand’r said,

  “Is it?” Kori asked, Kommand’r glanced up at her before returning her eyes to the ground, she nodded, she looked like the child she was and Kori felt the need to go comfort her, but before she could decide to she heard a quiet noise that was getting louder.

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  “Do you hear that?” She asked, Barbara and Kommand’r listened, it took a moment before Kommand’r heard it too and her eyes widened,

  “Shit, the Gateway” She muttered,

  “You brought it here?” Kori asked, incredulously, Barbara interrupted,

  “What’s the Gateway?” She asked,

  “If the Tamaranean army ever got into a fight it couldn’t couldn’t win the royal ship was equipped with the Gateway, it’s a teleportation device that would allow us to get back to Tamaran, from there we could shut it down on our end and leave a growing black hole that would swallow our enemies” Kori explained.

  Artemis knelt in front of a window on the fourth floor of the Titan Tower, she had her bow string drawn back, and was watching as the Citadel army approaching, she was carefully choosing from the around 200 large aliens charging towards them, she found her mark and waited, once they were close enough she released her arrow,

  “Fire” Alpha squad leader shouted, the sound of the 2 squads assault rifles rang out from the floor above, the alien army continued its advance trampling the fallen soldiers before their bodies hit the ground.

  As the army grew closer Artemis began rapidly firing tea gas arrows into the swarm randomly before switching back to regular arrows, Supergirl and Kid Flash waited until she had finished with the tear gas before charging forward to meet their opponents, meanwhile Wondergirl and Beast Boy hung back to provide the next line of defense against the first alien soldiers to make it through.

  Barbara, Kori and Kommand’r reached the Gateway control room to find that the large vortex was pulling at the corners of its chamber, the metal wall panels shaking with the force,

  Kori and Kommand’r began pushing a series of buttons and levers,

  “It’s not working, it’s too late to use the shutoff,” Kori said, turning back to Barbara, “Is there anything you can do?” She asked, Barbara leaned over the control panel,

  “I don’t think so, I don’t know how to read Tamaranean, and none of this looks like anything from earth, I’m not familiar enough with any of it” She said, shaking her head, Kori noticed for the first time the thin line of blood dripping down the left side of Barbara’s face from her ear,

  “Are you okay?” She asked, Barbara’s hand went to cover her ear, she had become really pale,

  “I’m fine, we’ve got to find some way to shut this thing off” She answered

  “You and I can stop” They both turned to Kommand’r,

  “How?” Barbara asked,

  “There’s a failsafe, in the event the control panels malfunction the Gateway is built to allow the royal family to close it using fire, if we both do it it might still work.”