When the team is told that Aquaman has offered a guest training session sometime that week the words "underwater", "combat" and "gills" are used frequently in anticipation. Kaldur gets showered in attention and gifts in hopes that he would know of his mentors plans (if only he'd had some idea, but the best he could do was offer to save them from drowning). Super powers and abilities are ranked from most to least useful, Kaldur and M'gann compete for the top with a debate over if Wolf would be included and how useful he could be. Those that doubted Wolf's ability mysteriously found teeth marks in their things. Alliances were formed. Equipment waterproofed. Battle lines drawn.
(The losers of Icon's awesome alien-tech paintball games were obviously still smarting.)
Then came the day. The team lined up in the training room shivering despite the blazing july sun outside. Anything that would be a nuisance underwater had been left off and rebreathers had been tucked into every spare pocket. Black Canary smirked from the side. Aquaman studied them from the front. A couple of them even noted that Black Canary wore jeans instead of her usual tights. And then their training was revealed.
"An obstacle course?" was blurted out. Aquaman frowned. The team snapped back into military perfect posture.
"Heroes must be prepared to face challenges in any condition. Today you will face ten rounds of this obstacle course without rest and then you may complete as many circuits as you can with the remaining time." The course had maybe 20 individual parts of varying difficulty set in an oval. It wasn't especially challenging.
A faint beep echoed throughout the cave. Water came crashing down on the course in a never ending torrent. A stray splash even hit Aquaman. He smiled. "You may begin."
As one, the team picked up their jaws and bravely plunged into the depths. And they quickly learnt that not only was the water making the formerly simple obstacles slippery, it was also more of a winter's storm than a summer shower.
During their first break, water bottles were passed around (with a sarcastic "hydration is important!") and numbers were handed out. Those with immunity to things like "cold" and "drowning" were envied, especially since there was a whisper about prizes. And they were sent in again.
The second break was slightly more cheerful since they'd all gotten into the rhythm. And if they weren't so tired and half frozen seeing Wolf watching them while lying down at a safe distance with a snack might have been funny. As it was they prepared themselves with shaky fingers and barely stuttered spells and went.
The third break only a few heard that they had passed the 3/4 point. Everyone else was too busy shivering to notice. And right in the middle of their preparations to return, disaster struck. Poor, tiny Zatanna with her teeth chattering behind her blue tinged lips stammered her way through a quick and weak warming spell, hoping to stave off the worst of the cold while preserving energy found herself the cause.
At least they didn't have to do the rest of the training was the prevailing thought piercing cold dulled minds.
The water was shut off, thermostat turned up and hot showers ordered. Aquaman, Red Tornado and Black Canary had a quick, hushed conversation which lead to Aquaman leaving and the other two hurrying to prepare blankets and hot drinks. Slowly the team obeyed, trudging into the appropriate locker rooms. Or they had been.
Once their minds caught up to what had happened to their bodies, there was enough screaming and shouting to deafed Superboy. Supergirl? Towel-clad teenagers ran into the other locker rooms to confirm that it had happened to everyone, until they were all gathered by Black Canary, who ordered them to find clothes that fit and join them in the kitchen.
Slightly calmer, they settled into chairs and couches with hot food and drinks. Red Tornado explained in a soothing monotone that they expected something had gone wrong with Zatanna's spell and caused them all to change gender. Aquaman had gone to seek aid from Queen Mera. Do not panic.
Zatanna curled up in a blanket, Wolf pressed to her (his?) side. Aqualad (lass?) patted her (his?) shoulder and frowned when she (he?) was still cold to the touch. He (she?) fetched another mug of hot chocolate for her (him?) and tucked in into blanket covered hands. A muffled "thanks Kaldur," came out.
"You know, this isn't so bad," Wally told them while he (she?) tried to stop his (her?) now long hair from getting in his (her?) cup and holding the low neckline of his top up. "I mean, we could have been turned into babies or something."
M'gann floated by with a trail of soup bowls following her (him). "And nobody lost this time!" she (he) chirped, telekinetically passing them out. Conner caught his (hers?) with a confused frown, careful not to move while Artemis pulled his (her?) hair into a practical ponytail.
"M'gann, aren't you a shapeshifter?"
Tugging at the sleeves of her (his) pink cardigan, she (he) nodded.
"Then why don't you change back?" Everyone turned and stared, apparently the thought had not crossed their minds.
A rosy flush spread over M'gann's green cheeks. "Would everyone be okay if I did?"
"Well at least one of us should know which bathroom to use." Robin shrugged. The rest of the team shrugged too and went back to their soup.
Zatanna sneezed in her blanket.
"Uh guys, I'm not trying to be mean or anything but shouldn't Zatanna be in the medbay or something? She, are we still going like normal?, anyway she might be infectious or make magical sentient snowballs or something." Wally nodded at the team like it all made perfect sense. Kaldur looked around like a smiley ball of ice might be hidden nearby.
"Y'know it is pretty cold in here, how about we turn the thermostat up? Kal, Meg you could stand a few degrees more right?" Raquel barely heard their answer before adjusting the temperature. "Kal I don't know how you can stand not cutting the tags out of this jacket, they're such a pain!"
Kaldur shrugged and adjusted the drape of his (her?) borrowed Superman shirt. "We will soon be back to ourselves and our own clothes, once Queen Mera arrives."
Wally nodded as much as he (she?) could with someone holding his hair. "Yeah! I mean, Babe, I heard something pop and that is my favorite shirt."
Artemis tugged on his (her?) hair lightly while she braided it. "Be glad I didn't make you wear a bra."
As Wally opened his mouth, Robin cut in with a quick "get a room". Artemis did one last twist and got up.
"I'm going to beat Red Arrow's record again," she (he?) stretched her (his?) arms out, the seams on Wally's shirt straining, "I want to see if being a guy makes a difference."
Artemis flicked the end of Wally's braid when he (she?) protested the risk to his (her?) shirt and sauntered out. Watching with an open mouth Wally turned back to see Robin look away.
"Uh, I'm going to give Art an ETA on the thing. Yeah. Knock it off Rob!" And just like that Wally is gone too. Kaldur looks up a second too late and frowns just slightly.
"Aquaman and Queen Mera will soon arrive, perhaps we should call Wally and Artemis back?"
Robin shakes his (her?) head slightly, "it should be fine, they aren't leaving the cave. In fact they're probably going to make out in the training room."
Down the hall came the sound of Red Tornado herding two wayward teens into the common area and the Zeta tubes announcement.
"Aquaman's here," Conner reports dully. Kaldur barely stands up straighter and the team follows suit, quieting down in anticipation. Wally and Artemis shuffle in with Red Tornado close behind about as disapproving as an AI can get.
"Team," Aquaman says, folding his stance into military precise posture. "The Queen of Atlantis, Queen Mera."
AN: And everything was fixed the end! ...Sorry it took so long ObeliskX, and that there's barely any spitfire but my brain is literally out of juice. Hope you like Team fic? Um yeah...