“I—I can still remove it,” Deserey heard Martin through the coms. Though, she hardly registered his words. A great deal of her attention was being obsessed by Vostok as she held a gun to Leonard. The thief was unwavering in the face of the danger, as if he wasn’t the least bit concerned about being shot, which – in all honesty – sort of scared Deserey a bit. He was either a brilliant actor or he had been in so many situations in which a gun was pointed at him that they just didn’t phase him any more. (The latter option was much more frightening, especially considering it was also the more likely of the two.)

Deserey wanted to jump in as soon as she spotted the gun, but Mick told her to hang back. She found it annoying and risky, but she listened anyways. “I just hope I can absorb the excess power,” Martin went on.

“No!” Ray protested with a panicked voice. “Do you have any idea the kind of energy that –” There was a loud thud on his end, as he abruptly stopped mid sentence. Deserey had a sickening feeling she knew what that meant. A guard must have found him and knocked him unconscious. She looked at Mick, thinking they should probably jump to the rescue now, but he was still waiting. Carter exchanged looks with, Deserey, and she got the feeling he was wondering what he was even waiting for the arsonist's orders.

Jax came on the coms from the Waverider, startling Deserey a bit. He wasn’t talking to her though. He was talking to Martin. “What the hell are you doin' Gray?”

“Jefferson?” Martin responded.

“You are not Firestorm!” Jax said, and Deserey imagined him standing on the bridge, hands pressed against the console as he spoke with urgency. Rip would probably have been standing near by, but the captain remained silent as the two halves of Firestorm spoke. “You're just a stubborn old man who’s about to make a really stupid decision.”

“Wait,” Stein said. “I—is this what it’s like when I’m in your head? I apologize, dear boy, it is rather distracting.” Well, Dez thought, at least they made up.

Jax ignored the apology for the time being. Apparently, he had gone all in on becoming the half of Firestorm that does the lecturing. “Your body cannot handle this alone!”

Martin stubbornly ignored the younger man. “I appreciate your concern. But you were right. I risked your life enough times. Now, it’s my turn.”

From where she stood, Deserey couldn’t see what was happening or what the professor was doing, but she knew it wasn’t anything good from Jax's cry of, “No!” Martin must have risked grabbing the thermal core. “He’s too weak. He’ll never get out of there alone,” Jax said after a moment. (Evidently Stein didn’t blow them all up. Woo!)

Deserey heard guns in the distance, and her heart sank. Martin had been caught. Vostok walked herself and Leonard to the edge of the catwalk. “Professor Stein,” she called out to Martin, “your comrade here tells me you know quite a bit about this project of mine. Very good. You and I have much to discuss.” Deserey heard footsteps around the corner; she assumed the guards must have been taking Martin away. Maybe Ray too.
“What are you waiting for?” Leonard asked Vostok, sounding bored. “You forget how to use that thing?”

Vostok backed them up so that they were directly in their line of sight. She turned Leonard around, aiming the gun at the back of his head. “My employer, Mr. Savage, would very much like to meet you and the rest of your friends.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Leonard said, probably smirking. Mick moved. So, that’s what he’d been waiting for. A cue.
“This where the party's at?” Mick's shout startled Vostok, causing her to turn abruptly. Leonard ducked out of the way just as Heatwave fired the Heat Gun; Mick walked forward, kicking the Cold Gun to his partner in crime from where Valentina had dropped it as she ran from the fire.

Leonard grabbed the Cold Gun, but before he got to use it he had to duck back into hiding, as gun fire rang throughout the laboratory. The shots echoed off the walls, making Deserey jump. She hadn’t heard an actual gun fire since she’d lived on the streets, and the shots didn’t exactly strike up any good memories.  Vostok hurried down the stairs in the opposite direction. Dez shoved her dark memories down as she and Carter followed the Mick's lead. Carter flew around, smashing guards' heads against each other. Dez send sand blasts at a group of guards, who thought she’d make an easy target. (Unfortunately for them she was just waiting for a chance to let out all her pent up aggression, and they were the perfect excuse.)

Mick shot flames at anyone who moved; Leonard fired ice at anyone who came near him, the two partners being careful not to cross streams. Deserey blew a fist full of sand in one guard's face; a few feet away she spotted Mick get shot by another guard from the catwalk above theirs. She gasped in surprise, as he was overrun by another large group of guards. (Where had they all come from?) Carter flew across the way, throwing the gun man over the edge of his catwalk. Deserey heard a snap, as the guard hit the floor, but she found it hard to feel sympathetic since he probably deserved a few broken bones. Mick dropped the Heat Gun, as he began grabbling with the guards. He wasn’t going to last long, not with that bullet wound.

Rip spoke up through the coms. “Do not let Vostok leave with that thermal core!”

Carter swooped down to the ground below, grabbing a small metal box (Deserey guessed that must have been the thermal core) that had been laying on the center of the floor, as Vostok arrived on the scene with a volley of guards. One guard shot Carter in the leg, making him drop the core; and the guard dragged the injured Egyptian Prince away. Carter struggled but it was no use in his state.

Deserey and Leonard were still busy focusing on Mick. He was yelling at them to go, but Leonard looked like he wanted to fire the Cold gun on the guards, but there was no way he’d manage to do so without hitting Mick also. Deserey grabbed a fist full of sand. Maybe she could knock a few of them out with her sleep thing.

She was about to send a puff of dust their way, when another guard came up from behind her, grabbing her arm roughly. It threw her aim off, and she ended up hitting Mick and completely missing the guards. The arsonist fell unconscious, allowing the guards to carry him off as well. Deserey whirled around, decking the guy who gripped her arm and sending him spiraling over the edge of the catwalk. She turned to chase after the guards who had Mick, but Leonard grabbed her arm. (Which was kind of risking seeing as how she had just punched out the last guy who tried that.)

“There’s too many of them,” he said stiffly, ducking to avoid being shot. He didn’t sound too happy about letting his partner get kidnapped either, but at this point they had no choice. There were just too many guards. His gun could only do so much, and Deserey was running out of sand. They had to move or else risk getting taken as well. Leonard shoved the Cold Gun in its holster. “Hold on.”

Deserey yelped, as Leonard wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. She felt her cheeks heating up, and she just barely had time to grabbed hold of him around his neck before he jumped over the side of the catwalk. With his free hand, Leonard gripped a pair of metal chains, using them to slide down to the floor below with ease. He let go of Deserey as soon as their feet hit the ground. Leonard landed in a crouch like a true bad ass, but Deserey stumbled and fell on her ass, bullets flying over head, the shots echoing off the walls.

“What the fuck was that?” Deserey scoffed, as Leonard pulled her to her feet.

“I told you to hold on,” Leonard reasoned. He was moving before she had the chance to say anything else, shoving Vostok to the floor as he grabbed the thermal core before making a beeline for cover behind the chamber. Dez followed him, ducking as she ran.

She reached for a handful of sand, as she crouched next to Leonard behind the chamber...Only her bag was empty. She hadn’t realized until then that she’d used the last of it when she’d accidentally knocked Mick out. The bullets from the gun fire slammed into the metal, making clanking sounds that caused Dez to wince. Leonard set the core between them, firing back at the gunmen with the Cold Gun. “Now might be a good time for some reinforcements!” Leonard yelled into the coms at Rip, as he brought his gun back out. “Mick, Stein, and Carter just got pinched by the Russkies!”

“You're going to have to get out of there right now,” Rip said, which wasn’t very helpful.

“You're hanging up out to dry, Rip!” Leonard snapped. The bullets pelted the chamber behind them, and Deserey flinched at the noise. She didn’t like this. She didn’t like it at all. “I need backup!”

“I’m afraid our only option is retreat,” Rip said stubbornly. Deserey was torn. She didn’t want to leave the others behind, but she also really didn’t want to be shot again either.

“What about my partner?” Leonard demanded. Dez cringed, feeling guilty weigh heavily on her as he mentioned Mick. It was her felt he’d been captured.

“Well, until we devise our next move, Mr. Rory will have to fend for himself.” Rip wasn’t going to relent. That was the annoying thing about having so many stubborn asses on one team, no one could make up their mind about anything, which made being stuck in the middle of a shoot out very irritating. “Remember the mission! The soviet's get that thermal core back, your partner will not be the only one who dies.”

Leonard huffed. He moved to leave, but a guard rounded the corner, grabbing him by the shirt and forcing him to drop the Cold Gun. Deserey reacted without thinking. She grabbed the Cold Gun from the ground and fired. Only, the thing had more of a kick than she’d been expecting. Dez stumbled back, nearly losing her grip on the gun, as the white stream emitted from the barrel. The blast was enough to send the guard flying across the room in a block of ice…but she lost control, and the stream hit Leonard’s hand as well, instantly casing Captain Cold's fist in a block of ice.

Deserey fell, dropping the gun, her mouth hanging open in horror at what she’d done. “Dez!” Leonard screamed probably both in pain and annoyance. He tripped when he stumbled back in surprise, slamming his hand against the chamber, sending shards of ice and blood scattering everywhere. Dez wasn’t sure if she or Leonard screamed louder that time. Leonard was still wincing in pain as he used his only hand to holster his gun again and pick up the thermal core. Deserey's hands were shaking as she got to her feet, legs wobbling. “Oh my god,” she mumbled. “I shot you with your own gun. Oh my god!”

Leonard winced, holding the bloody nub close to himself as to not expose it to anything and let it get infected. It must have stung like a bitch, and Deserey was surprised he wasn’t cursing her out. “Just go!” he told her. She couldn’t tell if his voice sounded so cold and distant because he was mad or because he was in pain. It was probably both. Deserey pursed her lips, but when another gunshot hit the chamber, she bolted, Leonard not far behind her.

{~}

Mick had woken up by the time they got outside. (The shaky movements of the guards had woken him.) He did his best to fend them off, but there were far too many of them, and he ended up getting slammed into the side of the transportation truck. Stein had been shoved in a moment before, and Mick spotted the guards lugging Ray in to the back as well via a hospital gurney. (Bird Man was there also, but he was being shoved in the back of some other vehicle.)

“You better kill me now,” Mick growled at the colonel, “otherwise when I get out I’m gonna get all Rocky IV on your ass!” In retaliation, the colonel shoved Mick’s head into the side of the truck so hard that it bounced off and forced the guards to momentarily lose their grip on him. They quickly regained their hold, though, shoving Mick's hands behind his back, as they moved him towards the back of the truck. “I'm gonna remember that, comrade,” Mick promised as they walked around the colonel. The guards stuff him in the back of the truck with a frightened professor and still unconscious Haircut before slamming the doors shut behind him.

Outside, Mick heard that science lady telling the Colonel they had to leave. He responded with, “There's still two more intruders, and they have the thermal core.”

“We don’t need it now,” Vostok insisted. “We have something far better.” Then, they got inside the truck as well and they drove off.

{~}

Rip had the med bay set up for Len upon their arrival. There was an arm rest sitting next to the medical chair nearest to the door; a metal bar rose up from the armrest, a blue needle hanging from the end of it. Leonard let the captain lead him over to the chair, if only because he was in too much pain to protest. “Gideon, start the regeneration process,” Rip ordered, once Leonard was seated. Deserey was hanging back in the door way, holding the thermal core box with a guilty look on her face.

“What do you mean regeneration?” Leonard asked skeptically.

“I think it means Gideon’s gonna grow your hand back,” Deserey guessed. “But how’s that even possible?”

“I took genetic samples from each of you at the start of our voyage for this exact eventuality,” Rip explained, pointing at Len's nub.

Dez frowned. “Wait. You predicted this exact scenario?” Rip nodded. “Wow. That’s a little creepy, Rip. Also, when and how did you take these samples?”

“And why are we only hearing about this now?” Len added.

“Because non of you had lost a limb yet,” Rip told Leonard before turning to Dez and answering her question. “Medical records. Nothing creepy, I assure you.”

Deserey shrugged, and Leonard rolled his eyes. A blue beam of light scanned over where Leonard's hand should be. He let out a short, “ow.” as the machine worked its magic. Like with the jacket in the fabrication room, a brand new hand began forming, popping up like something off a 3D printer – the bones forming and then raw muscles and veins and skin cells. On the screen next to the chair, an image similar to Leonard’s hand appeared; the image became more detailed as his hand formed in real life – red, green, yellow, and blue lines formed on the image, indicating nerves and tissues.

When the process was over, Leonard wiggled his fingers, making an odd face.
“Whoa,” Deserey muttered.

Leonard shrugged and got to his feet. “Well, thanks for the hand, Captain, but I’m still pissed at you. Where was our backup? Half the team is gone…because of you.” He took the Cold Gun from it’s holster, aiming it at Rip, and unlike Dez he actually knew how to use it, so it wasn’t likely he’d miss.

Rip didn’t waver, though, much to his credit. Deserey, on the other hand, dropped the thermal core case in shock. The two men ignored her, as Rip hurried to defend himself. “Only if I’d have sent the other half in to save them, they’d be captured too, and where would we be, hm? Savage would have both halves of Firestorm, a dead Kendra and Carter on top of that, everything he wants. It would be the end to our little crusade, and, most likely, the world. So, before you pull that trigger, ask yourself: what would you have done?”

It was kind of amazing how well Rip could talk bullshit and make it sound good. Deserey wondered if he’d learned that from Time Master Druce as well.

Leonard scoffed. “That’s a pretty cold calculation, Rip.” Deserey was pretty sure he just wanted to make a cold pun. “Almost criminal, except we criminals have a code: you never leave one of your own behind.”

“We will get them back,” Rip promised. “Now, if Savage even hopes to create a Firestorm, first he’s going to need a new one of these.” Rip gestured at the thermal core in Deserey's hands. Leonard rolled his eyes, but he lowered his gun.

{~}

“Let me get this straight,” Sara said, as she and the others gathered on the bridge. The thermal core was laying on the console in the center of the room, the case opened up so everyone could see the massive silver ball inside. The blonde assassin seemed about as pleased as Leonard was after they’d told her the news. The blonde folded her arms over her chest unhappily. “Let me get this straight. You had Kendra and I training for the next mission, when we should have been out there helping them.”

Rip gave her an exasperated look in response, as if he had already grown tired of repeating this sentence. “We will help them, and our next mission is to get our compatriots back from Vostok.”

“Who’s to say they aren’t already dead?” Kendra asked pessimistically.

“Vostok needs the professor alive in order to rebuild the thermal core,” Rip guessed.

“And Ray and Rory?” Jax asked.

“And Carter?” Deserey added.

“Savage will keep them alive too,” Rip said.

“As Leverage,” Sara pointed out. “He’ll torture them if Stein tries to hold out.”

Rip shrugged, like that was the least of their worries, which Deserey found to be a bit unnerving. “We’ll have to pray that he does.” Dez rolled her eyes at the idea of praying for anything, but she held her tongue, as Rip went on. “If Savage's goal is to create his own Firestorm, then Stein himself will be key, the missing piece of the puzzle. And if Vostok figures out how to turn Stein’s powers against us…then, I’m afraid the world is beyond saving.”

Dez cringed, a razor blade sensation rolling over her spine. That last sentence made him sound a little too much like Druce for her liking.
“Stein’s a lot tougher than he looks,” Jax said. “I mean, it'll take a lot to break him.”

Rip pinched the bridge of his nose, looking frustrated beyond belief. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that our compatriots are being held in an impenetrable Soviet gulag.”

Dez blinked. “What, like a prison?”

Rip nodded in confirmation, and Deserey felt her stomach flip. Kendra and Jax looked as worried as she felt, but Sara and Leonard his their concern well. “Ray is going to die in there,” Dez muttered.

So, all together this chapter has over 14K words... Yeah, that's a lot, (bet your glad I broke it into parts now) but I did promise it would be longer! So technically I delivered.

Next chapter we'll visit Mick and Ray in the gulag, follow the other Legends as they try to rescue their friends, find out where Carter went, maybe get a visit from yet another new friend...We'll see when we get there. I might also do another interlude first. But right now...I rest. Good day (it's night for me... Well like 3AM  but whatever.)