02x04 - Salvage

[bunniefuu]

[ALARM BLARING]

[GRUNTS]

[AIR HISSING]

[COUGHING]

I was watching through the window. That was amazing.

Can I offer you a reward?

I mean, anything I've got in the store is yours, dude. Anything.

Not necessary.

Your thanks are all the reward I need.

I've found him. And it's worse than we thought.

[COMPUTER BEEPS]

We're ready.

Zeta-Shield relay satellites are all in place.

Activating satellites.

[BEEPS]

Congratulations. The Zeta-Shield is now operational.

Absolutely historic. Professor Carr!

You should have your cave-schooled pupil write a term paper about this.

With the Zeta-Shield in place, no alien can teleport to our planet from off world.

Even your Strange friend won't be able to travel to and from Rann without approval.

Shield's great, but it won't stop a spaceship or a boom tube.

- What's a boom tube? SCARAB: Boom tube... an alternate means of instant transport between distant locations.

Not compatible. Not compatible with what?

I swear I don't understand half the things you say.

Feeling's mutual.

Where's Nightwing? Taking the night off. Personal business.

Perfect.

So back to movie night, Angelfish?

Tag, you're it. Hey!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Con'. Yo, what are you...?

Taking the night off. Personal business.

[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]

[GRUNTS]

Hey, Roy. Need a hand?

No.

NIGHTWING: We think you do.

I have nothing to say to any of you.

Nothing to explain, nothing to justify.

Nothing?

ROY: It's not what it looks like.

I mean, that storeowner won't miss it. He offered me a reward anyway.

Besides, I deserve it.

Guy wouldn't have any of his money back if I hadn't stepped in.

Dude, are you even listening to yourself?

Look, I need it.

I need it to find Speedy. The real Roy Harper.

A search like that is expensive.

Especially when the rest of you have all given up.

SCARAB: Ask. Ask. Shh!

All right, already. I'll ask. Ask what?

Oh, any piece of this mission you feel like letting me in on?

Look, I know you only picked me because Gar was studying... and La'gaan and M'gann were whatevering.

But I'm here, ése. And I wanna help.

Yeah. Okay.

The b*mb Aqualad used last month to destroy Malina Island... was clearly of alien origin.

The Kroloteans that perished there didn't know anything about it.

We need to figure out where it came from.

The criminal organization lntergang has a history of trafficking in alien tech... smuggled to Earth through boom tubes.

So I've been keeping tabs on Whisper A'Daire... one of lntergang's top lieutenants.

Tonight, her boss Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim crawled out of hiding to meet up with her.

They're both in that truck.

And it looks like they're headed for the Hall of Justice.

Roy, I know you feel lost.

But that doesn't mean you're alone.

I'm not the one that's lost.

When was the last time you trained?

The last time you slept?

Don't even start. I'm in the best shape of my life.

Oh, really?

[GRUNTING]

[HORN HONKING]

Best shape of your life?

That was me holding back, way back.

Roy, you used to treat your body as a temple, but now...

My body's no temple.

It's a cheap knockoff, a clone.

Can you scan that case?

Yeah, sure.

SCARAB: Cannot scan contents. Not compatible.

"Not compatible" again? What does that even mean?

Blue, what do you mean? Who are you talking to?

It's the Scarab. The thing stuck to my spine that gives me the armor, the powers.

It's an artificial intelligence created by Ted Kurd... you know, the previous Blue Beetle.

Yeah, I knew him. Good man.

So I hear. Guess he was a super genius or something.

Captain Atom figures the Scarab was Kord's ultimate invention... but the Light k*lled him before he had a chance to use it.

The Scarab advises me.

Think Jiminy Cricket with a really bad attitude.

It can't scan the briefcase for some reason.

Can it scan the Hall?

Ugly may launch an att*ck against whoever's inside...

…and it's shielded from my infrared vis... Scan complete. Hall's deserted.

What is that thing?

Don't know. The way Sphere's reacting, I bet it's Apokaliptan.

Meaning? Meaning bad news. Let's go.

[ENGINE REVVING]

Company, boss.

Too little, too late.

- Uhn! SCARAB: Not compatible.

- Not compatible. Blue!

Game's over, Ugly.

Time to hand over the device.

You're half right. Game is over.

[GROWLING]

[ROARING]

att*ck.

[GROANING]

- What is that thing? SCARAB: Appellaxian Golem.

You know, I'm bilingual, and I still have no idea what you just said.

Irrelevant. att*ck.

Okay, that I get.

Blue, no!

[SCREAMS]

Oh, man. Aah!

[GRUNTS]

[GROANS]

They're down. Can we k*ll them? Eh.

Trying to k*ll a Kryptonian could be time-consuming.

The League will be here any second.

Let's just get gone.

[ROARING]

Roy, come back to Star City. It'll be like old times.

You and me, training, fighting crime, just hanging out, sh**ting...

You're confused. Probably thinking of the other guy.

The original, the one you stopped looking for.

Me, I'm just... JIM: We get it. You're a clone.

But you're not the only clone on this rooftop.

I know from personal experience how tough it was... to come to grips with being a copy of someone else.

That's why I gave up my identity as Guardian... so that I could figure out exactly who Jim Harper is supposed to be.

That's not the only thing you gave up.

Roy, you know we both spent years looking for the original Speedy.

And everyone else here did the same.

We never found him, because the Light didn't keep him alive.

It was Cadmus policy to delete the source material.

He's dead, brother... which is all the more reason you have to live.

To honor the Roy that was.

BLUE BEETLE: How are the ears?

Fine! Uh...

Fine. But what were you thinking, using sonics against an Appellaxian?

Dude, never even heard of an Apple-Laxative before tonight.

You freshmen never do the homework. Haven't you read the case file... on the League's first mission? Haven't you taken the guided tour?

Those are rhetorical questions, right?

The Appellaxians were an alien race of energy beings... that att*cked Earth 12 years ago.

They inhabited elemental host bodies, including one made of crystal... that could absorb and redirect a sonic att*ck.

Oh. So, what were they doing inside the Hall?

SUPERBOY: The original seven members of the League drove the energy beings off world.

The empty husks the aliens left behind became the League's first trophies.

Ugly's device must have reactivated the husks... combined them somehow into a creature he could control.

Sphere's tracking the device's Apokaliptan energy readings. We're closing in.

[GOLEM MOANING]

[BEEPING]

It sounds sad.

Don't go sentimental on me, A'Daire.

It's a construct of wood, stone, et cetera.

This gizmo pulled together the residual psychic energy... of its former alien hosts... but that monster doesn't feel anything.

And with this thing as my enforcer...

I can expand lntergang's reach exponentially.

SUPERBOY: Wow, five syllables.

I didn't think you knew any words with more than two.

Hilarious.

But we'll see who's laughing when I...

Newgenisphere, jam all Apokaliptan signals in the area.

Uh-oh.

[ROARING]

[GROWLS]

[GRUNTING]

[WHIMPERS]

[GRUNTS THEN SCREAMS]

SCARAB: I warned you that tactic would be ineffective.

Por favor, I'm trying to...

[ROARING]

[ALARM BLARING]

GUARD: What is that thing?

Something we don't want within a mile of the nuclear reactor. Open fire!

[g*nf*re]

MAN: Mixing an Appellaxian husk with the potential for nuclear meltdown... could be a recipe for disaster. Or hilarity.

I haven't decided.

SPORTSMASTER: Want me to stop the thing?

MAN: No. This incident taken to its ultimate extreme may prove useful.

But you could deal with the interloper meat back in the clearing.

Happy to oblige, Partner.

You freed the beast, Superbrat.

Now no one's controlling the monster.

Blue, lock them down.

[GRUNTS]

SCARAB: That tactic would be more effective if you fired through bone.

Ugh. No. SUPERBOY: Blue, let's go.

Fight your inner demons later. Demon. Singular.

One's enough, believe me.

[ROARING]

Deploy. We can't let it breach the reactor.

[SUPERBOY YELLS]

SUPERBOY: Hold it down.

Lock it down.

Working on it.

Sphere, pill bug mode. See if you can take control of it.

[GRUNTING]

[GROANING]

I don't suppose we could just ask it to play nice.

SCARAB: Such a tactic would betray weakness.

Wait, you mean it's possible?

I'm whelmed by all this attention.

What are you even doing here, West? I thought you ditched the hero game.

Ditching the game doesn't mean ditching friends.

And before you round back to the original Roy again... let's face the facts.

He was never our friend.

We've all done the math.

Speedy was abducted before any of us met.

You're the guy we trained beside, fought beside.

You're the only you we know.

You're our friend.

Just because you're a clone with anger management issues doesn't change that.

Seriously. Have you met Superboy'?

All done?

You wanna salvage someone's soul, go get Kaldur to see the light.

From what I hear, he needs course correcting, but leave me out.

Write me off. Or don't.

Either way, blow.

[ROARING]

Stop, Blue. Sonics don't work.

Not as an att*ck, but maybe as a... SCARAB: Frequency adjusted. Proceed.

[SCREAMS]

Blue, break off. Whatever you're doing, break off before it kills you.

No, it's not attacking.

It's communicating.

Communicating its pain.

Listen.

[IN GOLEM'S VOICE] Where is the stillness of wood, of stone, of crystal, of metal?

All this noise, all this life, is pain.

We sensed the power in this place.

Power enough to destroy us, to end the pain, to be still again.

I can relate.

I mean, we can help you. We will help you.

MAN: Sorry, meat, but we can't have that.

[GRUNTING]

[BLUE BEETLE MOANS]

Don't know who you guys are, but you took that thing down.

Probably saved the whole East Coast.

[IN NORMAL VOICE] It was alive... and now it's gone.

Who att*cked? Who k*lled it?

Someone ugly.

I'm telling you, they're long...

Gone.

[WHIRRING]

They're alive, breathing.

Steady heartbeats, but non-responsive.

As requested, Ugly and Whisper are now a living warning... to anyone straying from the path of the Light.

But why blow up Gruesome?

Seems like a wasted resource.

MAN: A resource falling into enemy hands is a resource best disposed of.

SPORTSMASTER: Partner, I like the way you think.

[SNORING]

ARTEMIS: How'd it go'?

It didn't.

We talked.

He wouldn't hear us.

And on top of that, my Vietnamese Lit paper's still due at 8 a.m.

I don't suppose I could copy off yours? Heh.

Not a chance.

Hey, it's after midnight.

Happy Valentine's Day, Artemis.

You remembered.

Come on, what kind of jerk would I be... if I forgot Valentine's Day?

For the fifth year in a row.

Well, I remembered too.

I got you your favorite food, everything.

Babe, you rock.

You're still worried about Roy.

He's lost, babe.

Alone.

The guy just won't let anyone in.

[SIREN WAILING]

[CAT MEOWS]

[SIGHS]

WOMAN: Someone looks worse for wear.

Cheshire.

Chill, Red.

I'm not here to fight.

I'm here to make you clean up your act.

Not you too.

Forget it, Jade, you lost the right to backseat drive... when you left me to return to a life of crime.

That's not why I left.

It was just a side benefit.

Besides, I'm still your wife, legally.

Grants me certain privileges to knock sense into you.

Roy, I left because your obsession with finding Speedy was all-consuming.

There wasn't room in your life for anything else or anyone.

Not me, and not our daughter.

We have a daughter?

Lian Nguyen-Harper.

She needs her father, Roy.

You have to get your head on straight, for her.

And that means you need to exorcise Speedy's ghost once and for all.

So while I was away, I called in every chip I had.

I got us a lead, Red.

One last chance to find the original Roy Harper.