The Next Generation

Rose goes suddenly quiet, as Jordan asks her question. Bowing her head, her eyes narrow as she takes the question into consideration and contemplates a response. She honestly hadn't really thought about a situation like that, a showdown coming down to just the two of them, her and alternate Neal, the most evil bastard on the this planet. Back home, he was a sweet, caring, loving husband. Here... not so much. Well, maybe to Shiva, but that's about as far as his care went. Still, what would she do if she had to face him?

"I can't answer that question," she said finally, sighing. "Because I really don't know. It's easy to sit here and say that he's not the Neal I know, he's just another evil overlord, and that I could kill him if I had to. But... it isn't that simple. There are still parts of him in there that are the same as my Neal. I really don't know if I could... I know I'd at least be doing everything I could to resolve it a different way if possible, though."

Jordan just watched as Rose seemed to ponder the question. Jordan couldn't even wonder what it was like to be in the woman's shoes. Here she was, alone and away from her real husband while being forced to realize that the man she loved in this dimension was going against everything that he used to believe in. Parts of him were the same, but something in this world caused him to go down a much darker path, one where he embraced the League of Assassins rather than the Justice League.

As Rose finally gave her answer Jordan gave a small nod. "I know that you can't make me any promises, nor would I expect it of you," Jordan said in a soft voice. "But this Neal is still my brother, even if he isn't your Neal," she pointed out. "We'll kill him if we have to but please......just do what you can to save him if you can. I'll understand if you can't, but if there's any hope for my brother I want to see if we can fix him," she said as her blue eyes started right in to Rose's single eye.

"I would give my own life if I could save him. I still love him, even if he has lost his way"

"Yeah, well, I'll do what I can," Rose said, with a small shrug. She just wished that it didn't have to come down to her making the decision, because it wasn't one that she wanted to make. Sitting up straighter, she takes in a deep breath and then stands up, bringing her dishes to the sink. "Either way, we're not going to get anything done by sitting around here, now are we? I don't suppose you have any idea of when we're going to move out?" Either way, it wouldn't be today, so she'd still be waiting around anyway. She just hoped that it was soon.

Jordan just gained her smile back as Rose told her that she would do what she could. She had no real reason to trust Rose, but there was just something about her that Rose wanted to trust about her. "Thank you so much, if you can save him I will be indebted to you forever," she said with a small nod in Rose's direction. As Rose asked her next question Jordan merely shrugged. "Question said that he wanted to go through the information that your sister had gathered. He wants to try to see if he can figure out where Neal might be or at least where more weapons and supplies are," she explained. "Plus I believe he wanted your sister to get some rest since she's worked so hard. He'll let us know when he wants us to move out though"

Rose let out small laugh at Jordan's comment. "You'll only be indebted to me forever if I end up stuck here, which, no offense, I'm hoping doesn't happen. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Not a problem." Leaning back in her chair, she sighed and folded her arms, rocking back and forth a little. "I guess we just hang around until tomorrow then? What exactly do you guys do around here when you have down time anyway?"

"I guess you have a point there. As nice as you seem I hope that you don't have to stay here either. You deserve to go back home," Jordan said before sitting in a chair opposite of Rose. As she heard Rose's question, Jordan thought about it for several moments. "Well, I guess that it depends on the day. I only just got here so I don't know what these guys do," Jordan pointed out with a tiny shrug. "I normally train, I'm trying to learn how to use my sword better and just get stronger overall"

"Trying to learn how to use your sword, huh...?" Rose said, raising an eyebrow. She thinks for a moment, leaning further back in her feet. "You know, I might know a thing or two about swords. I'm sure I could teach you a thing or two if you're not too busy." Teaching swordplay to her almost sister-in-law, there's something she never thought she'd be doing. This whole alternate universe thing was just getting stranger and stranger.

Jordan's eyes glanced past Rose's face to see the two sword handles sticking out. Yeah, it probably should have been pretty obvious that Rose was skilled with such weapons. She didn't think to ask about it though. "That would be lovely, let's get started," she said with a smile.

---

The next morning, Rose would feel herself being stirred up by a gentle shaking. "Rose, Rose," Jordan said as she worked to wake the woman up. It was around Seven, and almost everyone else was awake by now. Question had been up all day and night going over Blade's notes, and he came up with several targets for them to strike at. "Question wants us to head out in our gear as soon as possible, he asked me to come and wake you"

Rose grumbles a little bit, as Jordan shakes her awake. She didn't want to get up yet, she'd been having such a good dream... Groaning, she rolls over and rubs her eyes, slowly wakening. Yawning, she looks up at Jordan and frowns for a moment, then sits up. "Alright, I'm coming..." she mutters, letting out another long yawn. She waits a moment or two for the lingering feelings of sleep to disappear, and then steps out of bed. "Now where are my clothes...?"

Jordan just stands by as Rose continues to get ready. She just leans against a nearby wall, figuring that she and Rose would go to the meeting together. That way Rose wouldn't be the last person to show up by herself. At least they would get there at the same time. "Sorry to wake you up so suddenly, believe me when I say that none of us really wanted to get up this early. But he really thinks that he's pinned down some locations that could be of use to us" she said as she waited for Rose to be fully ready.

"Well, the quicker we get started, the quicker we can get it over with, right?" Rose said, with another long yawn. She stretched her arms out this time, cracking some tight knots in her back, then walked over to where she left her clothes the night before. She didn't really know why Jordan was staying in her room when she was walking around in the buff, but whatever, she was too tired to care. It took her only a few more moments to get dressed, strapping all of her armor pieces into place and then making sure that her swords were securely in place on her back. "Alright, think I'm ready. Let's get going."

"I suppose that you have a point, with luck these locations will still be viable options to attack. Hopefully my brother didn't think of moving their equipment or their hostages. Perhaps we will find that woman that you are searching for," Jordan said in the hopes of putting some excitement in Rose. Once she was ready Jordan lead her to where everyone else was located.

---

"Alright team, due to everyone's contributions the other day we were able to nearly kidnap a high-value asset, Lady Shiva. Thankfully despite our forced release of her we were still able to grab several key pieces of information from her mind," Question said as he stood next to the large computer screen. "After clearing out the more........non-usable data, I've been able to pinpoint several key locations in San Francisco that are being used to store much of the League's 'goods'," he said before hitting a button. A large map of San Francisco popped up and several different spots were highlighted.

"These are all the spots where the League keeps equipment that they confiscate, weapons included," Question said before moving the map to one particular highlighted area. "There's also this location, a large shipping vessel in the harbor, that's where they keep several of their key hostages according to Shiva's mind," he said before turning to everyone else. "Now the question is, how do we proceed to act with what we have?"

Eddie was leaning back in a chair as he listened. "I'd say save the hostages first, at the very least we'll pull away some of Fade's leverage that he uses against us. He might not want to hurt those people, but if we start robbing all of his safe houses we might push him too far," Eddie pointed out. Fade had shown that he was willing to do quite a bit in order to save the world after all.

"Does anyone object?" Question asked as he looked towards the group.

"Hostages sound fine to me," Rose said, as she listened to Question explain the situation. There was no sense in trying to do any other objective while there were still hostages that could be killed, especially if one of those hostages was Doctor Connors. Without her to fix the interdimensional transport device, she was stuck here in this alternate universe. "I say we move out as quickly as possible. I'd rather get things done sooner than later, and there's no telling how much time we'll need to complete both missions."

Blade stood up from her seat and nodded, folding her arms over her chest. "I agree. The hostages should be the priority. There are too many cons in going for the other targets first."

"It sounds like saving the hostages is the only logical choice," Jordan said after Eddie, Rose, and Blade all seemed to come to the same agreement. "Things can be taken from the League at any time, but the people have always been our priority and need to continue to be the priority," she insisted as she looked right at Question.

"No need to convince me, I was hoping that you would all lean towards that choice anyway," Question said as he glanced back at the map. "We'll have to make sure that it's a quick attack. They'll certainly have several guards there to make sure that we don't get what we want," Question stated before shutting off the screen.

Huntress elbowed Rose in the side as everyone got up to leave. "Bet ya fifty bucks that I can defeat more of these assassins than you can"

"Make it a hundred," Rose said, folding her arms with a smirk. A challenge on who could beat up more bad guys? Oh, it was so on. "I didn't bring any money with me to this universe, though, so I got nothing to lose. Not that it'll matter in the end; I just hope your cash is still good back on my world." Bringing her hands up, she cracks her knuckles briefly and takes in a deep breath. It was going to be a good day, she could feel it.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Blade said, already heading for the door. "Let's get this show on the road."

"A hundred, that makes it more exciting...........I like it," Huntress said with a smile as Rose accepted her challenge. Of course at the realization that Rose had no money a slight damper was put on the game. "Well, if you manage to beat me I'll still give you the money, call it just a friendly wager," she said with a smile before grabbing several bolts along with her crossbows. "Let's show these assassins who they're dealing with"

---

"Alright, as suspected they have quite the bit of guards here," Question pointed out as he looked through his binoculars. There were several Assassins lining the edge of the port where the ship was docked, all of them armed with either a blade or a gun of some kind. They were armed and holding their position strongly. It almost seemed like they were on high alert.

"I think that we could take them, but not rushing in like maniacs. We might be heroes, but we're not all as bulletproof as Superman was," Question remarked as he tapped the side of his head. "We need to come up with a new plan, rushing right at them will just get us killed. There's too much open room, I don't think we could sneak up on them even if we tried"

Rose merely smirked. "Please, you don't know who you're talking to here. I specialize in taking down assassin canon fodder." Or something like that. She was sure she could get in there and rip them all a new one if she wanted to, but then again there was no point in taking needless risks. That's why she had a daughter with psychic abilities, though, to turn those needless risks into certain victories. "Say Blade, about how many people can you attack with your mind at once?"

"About... a dozen or so," Blade said, giving a small estimation. "Anymore and the effects start to weaken. But I'm pretty good and mind crushing a small handful of enemies simultaneously when I need to." She glanced over at Question. "How's that for a plan?"

"Hot Damn, can you really do that?" Eddie asked as he crossed his arms and looked over at Blade. He knew that the girl was good but he didn't realize that she had that level of talent all wrapped up in her head. God, those heroes with psychic powers were terrifying. He shook his head at the thought alone.

Jordan glanced down at Blade but did not say anything. The Daughters of Deathstroke really were quite powerful, both of them were terrifying in their own right. The two of them working together seemed to be even worse. Jordan could only imagine the power that they truly had. "Just don't kill them please" Jordan said.

"By all means go right ahead. I enjoy a fist fight, but not against ten armed assassins," Question stated as he stood up and fixed his hat. "Blade, take them down quickly and as quietly as possible," he instructed. "Everyone else, the moment that she's done we storm the boat and make sure we free those hostages"

"Not a problem," Blade said, raising her fingers to her temples. She then closed her eyes and began to concentrate. A short few moments later, the guards began to stumble around, holding their heads and groaning, as if suffering from a massive headache. Within seconds, they all collapsed to the ground in a motionless heap, out cold. Gritting her teeth, Blade opened her eyes again and sniffled in, trying to hide the trickle of blood running out from her nostrils. "Alright... they'll be out for hours. Let's move."

Rose put a hand on her daughter's shoulder and gave a comforting smile. The trickle of blood hadn't escaped her sight, and she knew what a strain using her mental powers like that put on her. She really was proud of her daughter, more than anything. "Okay people, let's get in there and save those hostages. And maybe beat up a few thugs in the process."

Everyone watched as Blade used her mind powers in order to take out the assassins that were guarding the ship. It was a display of great power on her heart, and they were all impressed. "Hot Damn, no offense but just stay out of my head," Eddie says as he looks over at Blade. "The whole power of the mind thing REALLY freaks me out the more I think about it," he said seriously.

"Hold still," Jordan said before kneeling next to Blade after seeing her condition. She had heard that Neal had similar symptoms when using his powers, so it made sense that Blade would have the same consequence. Jordan pressed her hand against Blade's cheek and held it for a moment and closed her eyes. A green glow came from Jordan's hand before the nose bleed would stop. "There, that'll definnitely stop the bleeding and hopefully remove any lingering effects from using your power.........for now at least," Jordan added as they stood up.

"Alright everyone, let's move in. We don't want anyone inside the ship coming out to see what happened to everyone" Question said before moving out and heading towards the ship. "Spread out quickly and search for anyone, you never know where these damn assassins may be hiding," he added as they began to walk past the fallen assassins. "We make sure the top deck is secure than move down together. Everyone move out," he ordered.

The ship was extremely large, almost a cruise liner large. It would take some time to search the top of the deck, but once they did they would find that no one else was around. It would seem like they were ready to head in to the actual ship.

Blade quivered slightly, as Jordan began to heal her. A calming warmth spread quickly through her head, and suddenly the throbbing headache agonizing her brain subsided, as did the blood leaking from her nostrils. For a moment, she blinked in disbelief, unable to wrap her head around what had just happened. It was the first time that she'd ever really experienced anything like that before. Sure, Raven and Wylde had healed some of her minor injuries before, but their type of healing was so... different. This seemed so much more soothing, relaxing.

"Thank you..." she said, still amazed. "I feel good as new."

"Alright, let's get going," Rose said, giving a firm nod. She quietly mouthed her own thank you to Jordan, too, for taking away her daughter's pain. It really was awesome having someone like that around. Without further ado, she and Blade headed off in one direction, splitting up in search of the hostages.

"Sorry about this, Eddie, but it's necessary," Blade said, her voice suddenly echoing in everyone's mind. "I've connected us all via a telepathic link. If you find anything, or you find yourself in trouble, or whatever, just think it, and we'll be there."

Jordan just gave a small smile as Blade thanked her for the healing. "Think nothing of it, it's the least that I can do. I'm sure you are a far better fighter than I am, especially if you fight anywhere near as well as your sister," Jordan said honestly as she stood up fully. She felt a little woozy for a moment but she didn't let anyone know. Using energy like that did have a toll, but it was nothing extremely severe. If she told people then they might insist that Jordan not heal them, and she wouldn't allow for that to happen.

God damn! Is this really that necessary!? What did I just ask............but fine, but don't go tinkering around here in your free time," Eddie said as he began to check one area of the ship that he had been assigned.

"Alright everyone, meet back at the front of the ship. I want us all entering the same way, otherwise it might be too hard to navigate through the ship to help each other," Question stated. Just stay focused and together, hopefully we'll get through here without a problem" he said before he, Huntress and Eddie met back at the front of the ship. Jordan arrived a short while later from the air. Evidently she had flown by to make sure that there weren't any assassins that were hidden from view.