"There isn't much justice in this world. Perhaps that's why it's so satisfying to occasionally make some."

~J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter)

Andromeda was just toying with me, I knew that now. I had no idea what goal she actually had in mind. She wasn't robbing a bank or trying to kidnap an important figure of government – she wasn't even trying too hard to kill me yet. So, as to what her real motives were, I was clueless.

After her fight with Delinquent, she didn't run away, which meant she had been waiting for me to show up. Whatever she wanted, I was a part of it.

I thrusted my hand out at her and another beam of electricity missed her by inches. Whoever Andromeda was, and wherever she must've come from, she was one hell of a fighter.

"Why are you here, Andromeda? What do you want?" I asked, blasting another beam at the tree she was hiding behind.

Andromeda walked back out into the open, smirking. "I want you. Preferably dead."

At her words, all the discarded objects around her flew into the air and straight at me, including a couple park benches and a heavy branch. Trying to blast those objects away would do no good, so I ran to the nearest tree for cover. But the heavy tree branch fell on me before I could make it.

Now, I know a couple of you might be scoffing it off. "Oh, it was just a branch, he should be alright." But, no. You've never been hit by a fifteen foot branch that was two feet thick and covered in shards of bark and smaller stick branches that stuck into your sides. It had my upper body pinned to the ground, and I could feel what might've been a couple broken ribs under the spandex of my costume. My breaths were coming in short spurts, seeing as the branch currently had my lungs and diaphragm squished to the limit.

I was trying to push the branch off, honest, but the blow had taken a considerable amount of my strength with it, and I was just too tired to push it off. Also, one arm was pinned under the branch. I was not in the best situation to get out of my current predicament.

Andromeda's face soon shadowed my own, blocking the sun. She smiled viciously and brought her hand out. "It really is such a shame you have to go, but my employers will be glad to see you dead, White Lightning." I was reminded of something the clown-faced villain said right after forcing the poison into Daniel's mouth, "Nothing you can fix, White Lightning, and you're next." And as Andromeda's hand clenched and my throat was constricted, I knew this was my time.

I saw dark smoke behind Andromeda and accustomed that to my vision going dark as my body struggled to find air, until a familiar voice rang out.

"Let go of him, you bitch!"

Suddenly the sun was shining again and the pressure around my throat was lifted. I greedily sucked in as much air as I could while the branch was still crushing my lungs. I heard yells in the distance and assumed Delinquent was fighting Andromeda.

I was confounded as to why Delinquent was helping me after our last encounter when I basically blamed Daniel's murder on her and scolded her for attacking Richard Head, even if it was indirectly. So why she was helping a hero and fighting a villain? I had no idea.

Delinquent's figure suddenly filled my vision, blocking out the sun like Andromeda had. "Help me push this stupid thing off of you, Lightbulb."

I smiled at her attempt at humor and pushed with my free arm. With Delinquent's help, I was soon free from the branch and sucking in as much air as I could. I silently vowed not to ever take breathing for granted again and slowly got to my feet. I leaned on Delinquent's arm so I could stay upright. The possibly broken ribs and my many bruises were starting to catch up to me now.

"Why'd you come back and save me?" I questioned.

She shrugged. "I wasn't going to leave you to Andromeda. I only left to fix . . . something. But I'm back now. Let's see that bitch try and fight us both at the same time, huh?"

I nodded, leaning on her now only a little bit. We walked a couple of feet, where Andromeda was zip tied to a branch that was above her head. She was staring at us with a cool expression, like she knew she wasn't done yet.

"So, I thought you couldn't stand the sight of your pretty little sidekick?" Andromeda asks thoughtfully.

I shrugged, copying Delinquent's movement from earlier. "We've come to a sort of truce I guess you could say. She did save my life after all."

I could see Delinquent grin out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah, and it also helps when you have a common enemy."

Andromeda giggled and lunged forward as much as she could with the zip ties, "Oh, I'm not the enemy you'll have to worry about. I'd worry about who sent me. The Obstructer won't appreciate you still being alive, Lightning. You either, Delinquent. Trust me, this won't be the last time you hear from me."

And with that she suddenly brought her hands down from the branch and ran off into the woods. Of course, telekinesis meant that she could just pull the end of the zip tie out with her mind.

(We were idiots on that part.)

(But, in Delinquent's defense, it's not like she would carry around Merlonium handcuffs if they damped her abilities as well)

I made to follow her, but a sharp pain to my abdomen stopped me. Delinquent put her hand on my shoulder and pulled me back to her, voice full of concern, "You are in no condition to chase after her. I'll teleport you back to the officers and then go jumping around the park. If I'm lucky I can catch her before she gets too far, okay?"

I nodded, unable to argue at her logic. She clung on tight to me and purple smoke surrounded us. I felt a tight tug in my stomach and the smoke disappeared. I was now in the front of the park, right next to Detective Pearson. Delinquent smiled at me as the pruple smoke surrounded her again, and soon she was gone.

I took a step forward and almost collapsed, that was when the detective noticed me.

"White Lightning!" he exclaimed, holding me up by the shoulders. "What happened? How did you get here?"

"I'll answer those when we get back to the station so you won't have to do as much paperwork, all right?"

Detective Pearson shook his head at me, "No. You're going to get a checkup first. You look like hell, dude."

My eyes flashed in panic. If I ever got beat badly in a battle, Eric would normally do what he could and hope for the best. Supers couldn't go to the hospital unless they wanted their identities to be released to the whole world. We couldn't trust the faculty to keep our secret, and any scars or tests they ran on us could help further find out our identities.

Even if I was just me, Oliver Storm, going to a hospital would be risky. They had all sorts of equipment now to tell if people were supers. I was surprised I was even able to pass inspection when I first got struck by lightning. I wasn't planning on trying my luck anytime soon.

Superhero rule #1 was to keep your identity a secret. Most supers could unanimously agree on that, unless you were idiotic. Daniel once made a whole list of rules that I had to memorize when I first became his sidekick. The list was around thirty long, with most of the rules technically common sense. I thought it was pointless at first, but those rules have saved me more than I would like to admit.

"No. No checkups." I fought.

He sighed, as if fighting with his own teenage daughter. If only he knew just how close in age I was with her, only being two years older and such.

"Fine. I'll get you looked at when we're at the station, all right? I'll make sure the medic doesn't take off your mask or do anything that you don't want them to, okay?"

I couldn't argue. Besides, it might do some good to get checked by someone with an actual degree for once.

*

*

*

The station was the same as I remembered it. Busy and bustling with crowds of people. As soon as some of the officers spotted me, they went rigid. Some of the criminals glared daggers at me, knowing I was a part of the opposition. Others just stared at me in awe. In all, my presence silenced the room and did not go unnoticed.

Pearson and his partner took me to his office, where a medic was already waiting for me. She was young enough, probably early twenties.

"White Lightning," Detective Pearson noted, "this is Cody West, a recent transfer from Empire City. She has a degree in medicine, and is a trained agent from some organization or another. She'll attend to any wounds you might have while we ask you questions about what happened."

I nodded and took a seat across the desk from Pearson. I explained the entire scenario to him, except for the reason why I was so salty to Delinquent in the first place and that we had fought before. As far as the public knew, we hadn't even met before now. The entire time Cody was prodding and poking. But by the end of the interview, I found that I barely even hurt anymore.

When I left, Cody caught up to me before I could reach the car. I expected she wanted an autograph or something, like most other people I met, but instead she handed me a bottle full of light blue liquid and a note. She smiled and turned back to the station before I could ask what the stuff was, or the note.

I looked at the note first, acting on instinct.

I work for an organization known as MASKED (Monitoring of Abnormal, Strange, or Kaleidoscopic Events Department), you've been acquainted with us before. The bottle is full of a special mixture that has been known to heal supers in ten times the speed as normal medicines. Keep it in your hideout, you might need it again.

We'll keep in touch, Oliver. And keep an eye out for us. MASKED is here to help.

Wow, that made a lot more sense.

I'd wrangled with MASKED once before, on a case with Daniel back when I was younger. They were an off branch of the government dedicated to investigating supers and protecting the world from threats both super and 'foreign'. I knew that they were the ones who set up the League of Legends in Empire City a couple of years ago, a super group dedicated to fighting crime in Empire and Iris Cities. A member of that group was confirmed as one of their agents during the Revealing, Calico, or Cassandra Reyes. It wasn't revealed that she was a part of MASKED though, the world was still painfully ignorant to their existence.

I knew that they probably moved that Cody agent to DC to watch after me. I was a sidekick who was thrust unexpectedly into being a hero by the death of my boss, of course I needed to be watched.

But the fact that she was moved from Empire City intrigued me. Maybe she knew The Marvel, Empire City's resident super. MASKED agents had a history of making sure they knew every superhero and their real identity.

I tucked the note and the bottle safely away in my pocket. Eric would appreciate the bottle as a way to heal me instead of bandages applied hastily in the Man Cave. Besides, I barely trusted Eric with a pair of scissors, let alone my injuries. The man was about as scatterbrained as they come.

As to why Delinquent helped me? I was still clueless, and I had told the cops exactly that. Maybe she was trying to redeem herself in the public's eye, or trying to get me to forgive her for her stupid stunts at the bank and with Richard Head. Either way, she was actually trying.

I was also very curious to know why she and Andromeda had an argument in the first place. Maybe Andromeda was trying to recruit her to her cause? Or maybe Delinquent thought she was another hero and was reeled in for an unexpected surprise? All I knew was that Andromeda had guessed Delinquent wasn't a real villain, and most of the commotion of their fight had probably been to get my attention, forcing me to come so she could take me out, which lead to my next predicament.

The clown-guy from the bank with Daniel had meant to kill me as well if I had knocked him out with the huge bolt of lightning produced from my anger and grief at the moment. I'm guessing whoever hired him to kill us was the same person who hired Andromeda. Someone called The Obstructer wanted DC's heroes dead.

Great.

For all of my luck, this Obstructer would meet up with the Remedists and they would become best friends. All us supers needed was more bad publicity and more super villains after us.

But at least Andromeda had failed this time, right?