An Arsenal of Magic

Life, Identity

While taking in their last day in Europe, Zarya and Rhys Li are attacked in Amsterdam by some man calling himself Doctor Light. He claims that he has been searching for Zarya's crystal and intends to take it off her, dead or alive. He shoots a huge beam at her, surely intending to kill her, however she instinctively forms a force field around her to protect herself. While Doctor Light is in shock Rhys, seemingly out of nowhere, hits him with an attack from his new metal hand. Together, Rhys and Zarya defeat Doctor Light and walk away as the new Arsenal and Zatanna.

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It's the final day that Rhys and Zarya Li are going to be in Europe, and the older adults decide to visit the Amsterdam Museum in Amsterdam. In order to enter the building, they have to go through this narrow street, almost like an alley-way, with both sides closed off. They spend about half of the day in there.   As they're leaving, Rhys and Zarya notice a strange man standing in the middle of the narrow road, the crowd passing by him. He seems to be looking down at something in his hand, then he looks up and makes eye contact with the two. His attention falls onto Zarya, a smile spreads across his face, and suddenly his clothes change into some type of weird costume. The crowd dissipates around him and he slowly approaches Rhys and Zarya's group. As he reaches them, the adults hold onto the kids. The man seems friendly at first, "Hallo, I'm Doctor Light! I believe that girl with you has something that I lost!" He then notices the bracelet on Zarya's wrist, but that's not what interests him, it's the crystal within the bracelet that has his attention. "Oh yes! That bracelet right there! I've been looking everywhere for it, where did you find it?" He reaches out to grab it but the adults pull her back. This irritated Light, and the small amount of patience he had disappeared. Out of nowhere he creates a giant hand that grabs Zarya and pulls her towards him. As this happens, Zarya begins to scream and the adults try to chase after her. However, Light forms a force field around him so they can't get to him.   As Zarya dangles in front of Light, she keeps swinging and struggling telling him to let her go and asking for help. He ignores these cries and reaches for the bracelet, pulling it off her wrist. However, to his surprise the bracelet keeps disappearing from his hand and back onto Zarya's wrist. No matter how many times he pulls it off, it never fails to reappear on the wrist of this little girl. As he tries to think of a way to get the crystal off her without having to kill a kid, he notices that Zarya has stopped making noise. She seems to be knocked out. Huh, maybe the kid tired herself out, Light thinks to himself.  

ZARYA

Zarya finds herself in some kind of bar. It appears empty except for some lady who is tending the drinks. She looks towards Zarya and motions her to take a seat in front of her. Zarya shouts to her, "Where am I?" The lady shouts back, "I'll tell you once you take a seat! Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you!"   As Zarya sits down the lady introduces herself. "Hi there! I'm Zatanna Zatara, and you're in my essence world."   "Essence world?" Zarya responds.   "Yes, it's basically a place that was important to me on my world before it, well, disappeared." Zatanna gets kind of sad at this statement.   "How did I get here?" Zarya asks. So many questions rumble around her head.   "Well long story short, the crystal that Sabine gave you has me in it. And usually I'm not supposed to do this so soon but you were in danger so I have to."   Zarya is just confused at this point. "I just want to go home."   Zatanna sees how scared Zarya is and takes a seat next to her. "I know, I know, and you will soon. But before that I have to ask you something. Have you started noticing anything strange lately, like do you see anything you normally wouldn't?"   "Uh, yeah, I've been seeing these weird lines everywhere, and when I look at someone they kind of have a weird glow around them." Zatanna smiles at this response. "Ah yes, those are ley lines and auras you're talking about. I don't have time to explain it to you right now, but can you do something for me?"   Zatanna pulls out a piece of paper and begins to write something on it. "When you wake up, can you say this at Doctor Light? It's a spell that will catch him off guard and probably make him run away." She then hands it to Zarya who reads it aloud. "Em esealer? Teg yawa morf em?"   "Yes. Exactly. Just like that. You say that and I promise you that he'll run far away."   "I can do that?"   "Uh, well, kind of. For it to completely work me and you will have to bond."   "Bond?"   "Yes, it will make it so all my abilities will get transferred to you, as well as the instincts for how to use them. However, you will still have to learn how they work if you want full control of them. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, the spells I just gave you will probably still work. However, he might come after you, and if you want protection then my other abilities might help too."   Zarya thinks it over for a bit and starts to stress. "But why me? I don't want to be a superhero, some old lady just gave this bracelet to me and now someone is attacking me. Why can't I just give it to him?"   Zatanna, realizing this is going to take a bit longer than she thought, gets herself ready for a real talk. "Alright, I guess I should explain some things."  

RHYS

Rhys watches as Doctor Light drops Zarya's body onto the ground. Light seems to start freaking out over something and the adults are pounding at the force field, screaming and crying. He doesn't really care about all that right now though. Right now, all he sees is his little sister laying on the ground, possibly dead, and multiple thoughts begin to cross his mind. He wants to do something but he can't because there's a stupid force field in his way. Then he remembers the conversation that he had with Roy Harper.   If you want to bond, you have to make sure you really want it. And not for superficial reasons either. Having powers isn't a cool new 'toy' for you to play with, it bears weight and responsibility. Once you figure out that reason, let me know, then I'll know I can trust to bond with you.   "Roy! ROY! I know my reason. I KNOW MY REASON! I...I wanna protect my sister. I'm not going to let anyone hurt her!"   A few moments pass where nothing really happens. Then suddenly Rhys feels a huge surge of energy flowing through him. Everything begins to glow around him and he finds himself facing Roy. He looks around and sees that they're in some sort of repair shop.   "As far as reasons go, that's a pretty damn good one, kid. Alright, I'll do it."   "What is this place?"   "Oh, this is my car repair shop, it's a place I used to run back on my world. Now, it's just the manifestation of my essence world. Anyways, forget about that for a second. I said I'll bond with you, alright?"   "Okay, okay, then let's do it. How do we do it?" Rhys' mind trails back to what's happening in the real world.   "Listen, before we do this, one rule alright? Don't try to use your powers for your own gain. Now, there's nothing I can really do to stop you but just give me the peace of mind. Do you agree with this..." Rhys answers before Roy gets a chance to finish the sentence. "Yes! Now how do we bond! My sister's in danger!"   Roy admires the passion in Rhys. "Alright alright, it's not too complicated. Just...shake my hand." Roy reaches his hand out for Rhys to shake.   "That's it?"   "That's it. I mean, it's all a formality really. It's more of a visual acceptance for people we bond with, so they can kind of see and know that the process is happening."   "Oh. Okay, so I just..." As Rhys grabs Roy's hand and begins to shake, he becomes overwhelmed with power and knowledge. "Yeah, this part is going to be a bit jarring. Good luck..." As Roy says this he dematerializes and his essence is absorbed into Rhys' body.   In the real world, Rhys had seemingly fainted on the ground. Some adults were around him, trying to wake him up. His body then begins to glow again and a huge burst of energy explodes from his body, knocking everyone back. At this point Doctor Light decided that he would just have to take Zarya with him and hand her to his boss. He didn't want to, but at this point he was desperate.   As Light is about to pick up Zarya and leave, he notices Rhys' body is glowing. Then suddenly a huge burst of energy comes out of him, hitting the force field and breaking it. Light is surprised by this, but more surprising is that now Rhys was standing, however he was sporting a new look, and a metal arm. Then his metal arm turned into a cannon of sorts. Then Rhys aims the cannon at Doctor Light. Oh no, this isn't good, Light thinks to himself. As Rhys begins to run towards Light, he fires his cannon. An energy blast heads straight towards Light, forcing him to protect himself. The impact of the blast knocks him away from Zarya.   Rhys is running on pure instinct at this point.   No thinking.   No hesitation.   Just one goal in mind - To make sure this guy stays the hell away from his sister.  

Zarya

"Are you sure your answer is still no?"   "Yes." For the past few minutes Zatanna has been trying to explain the dangers of giving the crystal to a crystal hunter to Zarya. Zarya doesn't really care though. She doesn't feel like any of this is her problem, and feels that the solution is pretty easy - just give the man what he wants. Zatanna is surprised because by all accounts Zarya would make for a pretty good host. She has the responsibility, she has the caring nature, and she has the will to do what must be done. If Zarya has a goal, you can bet she'll work towards it. All quality traits for a hero.   Unfortunately for Zatanna, Zarya's life goals did not include getting powers and becoming some kind of superhero. "I'm sorry but this is not my problem. I'm just here on vacation, so if he wants the crystal he can have it." Despite Zatanna's best efforts, it seems that Zarya will not budge on her stance.   "Alright, it seems you're pretty adamant about this. If you want to leave, there is the door." Zatanna gestures towards the front of the bar. As Zarya starts to walk out she says, "I'm sorry, it's just not me." Zatanna just smiles, "Yeah, no, I understand. It was nice to meet you Zarya."   "Nice to meet you too." As Zarya is about to leave, Zatanna tells her one last thing. "If by any chance you need me, just remember this place and I'll be waiting." Zarya then exits the essence world.  

RHYS

As Rhys launches a barrage of blast attacks at Doctor Light, Light realizes that he's mostly on the offensive, forcing Light on the defensive. Rhys' attacks aren't necessarily powerful, but they do have a lot of force behind them. He wonders how Rhys would do if he was forced to be on the defense. As Light continues to make shields to block the blasts, he secretly uses his energy to charge up a blast of his own.   Rhys is beginning to feel very confident in himself. Although he hasn't actually hit him yet, he has been able to preoccupy Doctor Light from going near his sister. Light doesn't seem to able to get a leg up on him, which is good because Rhys doesn't really have much of a plan. His only plan right now is that once he sees an opening, he's going to go for it. Luckily for him, Light has left his back open to attacks, so Rhys maneuvers himself behind Light and shoots a blast towards him. It hits him, knocking him to the ground. Rhys then begins to run at him, turning his cannon arm into a giant fist, and leaps at the now downed Light. Unfortunately, with no real training behind him, he leaves a part of himself open, which Light was counting on. As Rhys is about to land the hit on Light, Light rolls out of the way and uses his own energy to blast Rhys to the side. Rhys hits a wall and slumps forward.   Doctor Light begins to approach Rhys, repeatedly sending light blasts towards him. Rhys is a bit disoriented, however he still manages to turn his arm into a shield to protect himself from the blasts. Light starts talking.   "You got too cocky kid, but you're new, so I'll give you a pass and a piece of advice." Rhys hears him talking, but he's more focused on keeping his shield up, and with each blast that hits it he can feel himself getting more and more tired. Like at any point his arm will turn back to normal and one of the blasts will hit him and possibly kill him.  

ZARYA

As Zarya wakes up she hears a bunch of commotion and sees everyone looking at something. As she gets up she looks to see what everyone is watching. To her surprise, Doctor Light seemed to be fighting someone. Well, fighting wasn't actually the word as it seemed mostly one-sided. From Zarya's point of view she couldn't really tell who Doctor Light was fighting. The only thing she could tell was that they were wearing some kind of red outfit and their hands seemed to be metallic. She looks around and sees her parents and the other adults but notices that Rhys is missing. "Where's Rhys?" The adults are surprised that Zarya has awoken and her mom kneels down and embraces her, sobbing. "Oh my god, Zarya, are you okay?"   "Yeah, I'm fine, but where's Rhys?"   "Oh god, your brother, he's, he's, he transformed and then started fighting that guy and, and, oh god." Zarya was confused by what her mom was saying. Her brother was fighting Doctor Light? Why would he even do that? And how? She then starts putting the pieces together. Wait, if he was fighting him then that means...Oh my god, that's him?! She then yells out, "RHYS!"  

RHYS

The blasts keep coming and as Rhys gets more tired, his shield slowly begins to morph back into a hand. Doctor Light just keeps taunting him. "You shouldn't go into a fight when you have no idea what you're up against. That's what gets you killed." Rhys' metal hand turns back to normal and Doctor Light throws one last blast. As it's about to hit him he hears someone call his name.   "RHYS!"   He turns to see that Zarya has woken up. Oh thank god, Rhys thinks as Light lands a direct hit on him and everything turns black.  

ZARYA

After Zarya shouts for Rhys she sees him look at her before getting hit by one of Doctor Light's energy blasts. He seems to go limp, and Doctor Light stops attacking him. He goes up to Rhys and puts his fingers on his neck, seemingly checking his pulse. As the adults around are screaming and crying, Light screams out, "Don't worry everyone, he's alive! I'm not going to kill a kid." He gets up and starts to approach Zarya. "I'm sorry but I have to do this. There's a lot on the line for me. I'm sure you can understand."   Zarya starts to feel something familiar being put on her. The feeling of forced responsibility. It was a feeling she knew well. Having to do things because other people either didn't want to or didn't know how to. She's never had a real problem with it, though it can get annoying at times, but this time it meant having to put herself in real danger. But her brother was in danger too and she didn't have time to think whether she really wanted to do this or not. She kind of has to.   Zarya closes her eyes and thinks of the bar that she was in just a few moments before. The crystal begins to glow and Zarya once again finds herself in Zatanna's essence world. Zatanna is surprised to see her back so soon.   "I'll do it, I'll bond." Zarya says as she approaches the bar. Zatanna is amused, "What changed your mind?"   "My brother."   "Your brother?"   "I don't know, I woke up then apparently he was fighting Doctor Light except he couldn't really do anything and then Doctor Light hit him with something and now he's not moving and..." The words just spill out of Zarya's mouth to the point where Zatanna has to remind her to take a breath.   "Okay, so let me get this straight. Your brother was fighting Doctor Light, and now he's getting beat up and you want to bond in order to help him?"   "I have to!"   "I understand. Alright then," Zatanna brings out a couple of shot glasses and pours a drink into each one, giving one to Zarya, "Drink this."   Zarya is confused as to why Zatanna is suddenly handing her a drink. "What is this?"   "You drink it then we'll bond. You probably won't feel the effects right away but once the process starts you'll know." Zatanna holds her glass out, "Well, Cheers." Zarya clanks her glass against Zatanna's then they both drink the liquid. Zarya is surprised that there is no taste at all. A few moments pass as they both sit in an awkward silence.   "So do you feel anything yet?"   "No not ye-" Out of nowhere, Zarya feels a surge of energy enter her body. It feels almost paralyzing. Then Zatanna dematerializes and her essence is absorbed into Zarya's body.  

RHYS

Rhys' eyes open to see Doctor Light is no longer in front of him. As he slowly regains his senses, he looks back to his sister, only to see that she is once again laying unconscious and Light is walking towards her. He tries to yell but his words come out very coarse, "No...don't." Rhys attempts to get up but he stumbles onto the ground. He tries to morph his hand into another weapon but he doesn't have the energy to do so. Getting desperate, he sees a good sized rock laying beside him and decides to pick it up. With all the strength he has left he throws the rock at Doctor Light, not really hurting him but gaining his attention at the least. Light turns around and Rhys manages to slowly get up. "I said...get away...from her."   Light is amused by this and smiles. "I have to admire you kid. You know how it feels to get hit by me and yet you still want to fight me? I guess I'll just have to hit you harder, then." As Light begins to charge another blast towards Rhys, Rhys notices Zarya's body start to glow, and before Light can let off his attack an explosion of energy hits him in the back knocking him forward. Rhys also gets knocked back by this, and when he gets up he's surprised by what he sees.  

ZARYA & RHYS

Doctor Light turns around to see Zarya up and walking, donning a purple outfit. A slight glow surrounds her body and her eyes emit the same. Light and Rhys both stare in awe. Zarya looks down at Light, reaches her hand out in his direction, and says in a loud reverberating voice, "Teg yawa morf em!" Suddenly he is lifted and his body is thrown down the street about a good few yards.   As he flies, Rhys watches as this full grown man who had almost just killed him gets thrown like he weighs nothing. Oh shit, Rhys thinks as Light passes him. He then looks back at Zarya who begins to walk towards him. The glow in her eyes fade as she approaches him. "Are you okay?"   "I'm fine, just have a bit of a headache." Rhys responds while holding a spot on his head. "Are you okay? You were kind of knocked out for a bit, I thought you were dead?"   "No, dummy, I wasn't dead. I was in this weird world and there was a lady there then I woke up and saw you getting beat up so I-"   "Bonded with her?" Rhys finishes his sister's sentence.   "Yeah, how did you know that?"   "Cause I thought you were dead," Rhys shows off his metal arm, "and I did the same thing."   "Oh. So...what can you do?"   "I can do thi-" As Rhys attempts to morph his arm, he feels a sharp pain in his head, causing him to stumble forward. Zarya holds him up. "Oh god, I must have a concussion or something."   "Let me heal it."   "You can do that?"   "I don't know, I just feel like I can. It's kind of weird." She puts her hand on Rhys' head and as she begins to focus her eyes start to glow again. "Laeh lla fo sih sdnouw." As the words come out, energy flows from her hand into Rhys' head and the rest of his body. He feels the pain in his head alleviate, but even better yet, he starts to feel his strength coming back. Once fully healed, Rhys is able to stand up on his own. He looks at his own body, then back at Zarya. "Whoa, I feel way better now. Thank you." Then he morphs his hand into a cannon and a great big smile forms across his face. "And that's what I can do."   "Cool. Not as cool as what I can do but still, cool." Zarya gives a slight smirk.   "Pfft, yeah, whatever." As Rhys says this he turns his head and sees Doctor Light slowly coming back down the street. "Uh oh, looks like he's coming back. What do you think we should do?"   "We should probably get everyone out of here, cause if we fight then other people might get hurt."   "Right, tell everybody to run, got it." Rhys turns his hand into a megaphone and speaks into it. "EVERYONE, GET OUT OF HERE, RUN!" As everyone starts to run out from the narrow street and onto the wider road, Doctor Light starts to yell.   "I'M GOING TO GET THAT CRYSTAL AND IF YOU WON'T COME PEACEFULLY," Light starts to levitate off the ground and fly towards Zarya and Rhys at a very fast and aggressive speed, "THEN I'LL HAVE TO TAKE IT OFF YOUR DEAD BODY!" The sunlight that was shining overhead seems to get absorbed into Doctor Light and the surrounding area looks as if it's night, although it was only three o'clock. He charges this light into energy throughout his whole body, essentially making himself an energy blast. Zarya and Rhys barely have time to react as he is about to hit them. Luckily Zarya is able to yell "TCETORP SU!" causing a force field to form around them. The force field absorbs the hit, causing Light to fly back as it breaks. As he lay on the ground, Rhys approaches him, turning his hand into a huge blade. He stands above Light, pointing his handblade in his face and says, "If you move, I will stab you." He then yells back to Zarya, "Hey! Can you tie this guy up?!"   Zarya approaches and says, "Pretty sure I can. Here let me try this." She reaches both her hands out towards Doctor Light and says, "Eit mih pu!" Rope magically appears around Light and ties him up enough so that he can't really move at all. "You think a rope can hold me? Ha, you're going to have to do better than that if you want to make it with those crystals." Light seemingly begins to multiply around them, however Rhys just laughs and looks at the one with the blade currently in his face. "Are you stupid? We know which one is the real you already."   "That is not what I'm trying to do here."   Rhys is puzzled as he sees the illusions breaking out of their bonds and slowly approach them. "You can't do anything."   Light just looks up at him and smiles. "Can't I?" As soon as he says this all of his fakes begin running towards them. Zarya begins to look worried and warns Rhys. "Ummm, Rhys? I think maybe we should get out of the way." Rhys responds, "No, we don't, because he's actually right here. The fake ones can't hurt us." He soon regrets those words though as soon as one of the fakes runs into him and-   BOOOOOM   Rhys is thrown, once again, to the side by the explosion. Zarya is able to throw up a shield around herself, however as the fakes hit it Zarya is forced to exhaust more of her energy to keep it up. As this happens she is forced to watch as Rhys is repeatedly hit with impact after impact. "RHYS, NO!" She tries to expand the shield to cover her brother but she just received her powers, and her stamina is really not the best.   Meanwhile, Light is able to break free from his bonds and gets up, dusting himself off. After about four or five hits, Rhys lay on the ground on his back, all bloody, unable to move. As the last of the fakes hit Zarya's shield, she drops it and runs towards her brother. She kneels down beside him and begins to shake him. "Rhys! Are you okay?!" He starts to whisper something, but Zarya can't quite understand. As she put her head down to listen, Light begins to approach them, "Remember, you made me do this. If you had just given up that crystal this would've never happened. Instead, you wanted to play hero and where did that get you? One half dead and one crying over the other's body." As he stands above them, he charges another blast to finish off Rhys. "I'll give you one last chance, hand over the crystal and I'll leave you alone." Zarya gets up off the ground, sniffles, and just looks angrily at Light. "You want to protect him right? I have someone I need to protect too, and in order to do that I need that crystal that you have. And I'm not leaving till I get it, you understand?"   Zarya grabs his arm, confusing Light. "Wha-What are you doing? Why are you doing that? I'm warning you, I'll kill him." She closes her eyes and thinks about what Rhys had said.   "Freeze him"   "Ezeerf!" Light feels his body begin to freeze up. He can't do anything.   "Kill him." "I'm not going to do that." "Okay, then make it so he can't come after us."   "Esare sih yromem!" Light's mind goes blank and he falls to the ground.   "Then just send him somewhere." "But where?" "I don't know, back home or something."   "Dnes mih emoh!" Light disappears from Zarya's grasp, meaning her spell must've worked. Considering this was her first time using those kind of spells in quick succession, she feels very tired and faints. Rhys lays there and lets out a laugh. "Ha, what an idiot." He then faints as people begin to surround them and the police and ambulance begin to arrive.