And we're back! Shadow's last day was earlier, but Friday is a nice regular updating time, so we're sticking with it. Lots of new characters folks, so sit back and enjoy the ride!
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of the characters except Kate, Tori, and the ones you'll meet in this chapter.
Charles POV
March 10, 2016
Intruder alert! Intruder alert!
I drop my pencil on my math textbook, grateful for the excuse to quit. I jump off the counter and race to the briefing room. It's late at night and some of the team is on a mission, so I'm not expecting many of the others. Once I make it to the briefing room I see that I'm in fact right. Only Nightwing, Impulse, Robin, and I are still in the cave. Nightwing is furiously typing coded commands into the supercomputer.
"Computer," he commands, "lock down cave."
"What? Why is this happening again?" I ask, knowing that this had happened once before with Impulse.
"I don't know," Nightwing responds, pulling up some footage caught by inside security cameras and what I suspect is a satellite feed.
"The computer picked up a large black object shooting down towards us from space," Nightwing continues. His eyes narrow as the video shows that a part of the mysterious object had broken off and landed in some random town. The larger portion of the object continues for the cave and instead of colliding into it phases through. Nightwing then switches to the camera footage. The object has stopped outside the cave, in front of the zeta tube and starts to fizzle out like fog dispersing. Out of the fog comes two figures. As the fog disperses around them, it rises up and disturbs the camera feed. When it clears both figures are gone.
"We need to split up and find those two. Impulse and Metallum you check upstairs. Robin and I will look downstairs. If you catch one bring it back here for questioning. Any questions?" Impulse raises his hand.
"Uh, Nightwing..." He points to a dark corner. A soft 'takking' catches my attention. We all step forward to see a girl, who looks about my age, sitting in the corner typing on a briefly laptop. She had brown and blonde hair that's in a high ponytail. She's in a dull green jacket over her shoulders and a sleeveless black shirt with a yellow emblem of a bird over her heart. She's also wearing jeans with patches at the knees that are peeling off slightly around the edges. She has a black necklace with bright green veins running down the sides. All up and down her arms are gray and black tattoos. There's a weird symbol on her neck. It's a ring with three 'X's' around the edges. She glances up at us briefly before turning back to her screen. Impulse dashes to her and grabs ahold of her shoulder.
"Gotcha'," he smirks.
"I guess you have," the girl replies with a smile. Nightwing approaches her cautiously. The girl carefully closes her laptop and puts it down on the ground.
"Why aren't you running?" our leader asks.
"Should I be?" the girl asks back.
"Well, duh, if you're the villain you run from us. The good guys," Impulse explains.
"But I-"
"Oh my gosh you all are so freaking lame!" A voice followed by laughter cuts off the girl. We all spin around to see a girl wearing a blue t-shirt with a long-sleeved black undershirt, plain blue jeans, and tennis shoes. She waves before teleporting away.
"Catch her," Nightwing orders. Nightwing handcuffs the first girl on the floor to a pipe that runs along the wall. Impulse and I run upstairs and catch the girl in the hallway. Impulse dashes forward and tries to hit her only to be blocked. He tries again and again but the girl seems to be able to match his every move. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head. While Impulse is distracting the girl, I hold out my hand and flex my fingers. I feel the pressure of my entire arm flow down to my fingertips. I slowly ball my hand into a fist. There's a small creak from the metal floor. I jerk back my entire arm and the first layer of metal flies at the girl.
She must have heard the creak because right as the metal sheet rushes at her she teleports away, back onto the railing as the sheet hits Impulse and pins him to the wall.
"Sorry!" I shout, trying to pull the sheet off him.
"Don't worry about me. Get her!" I turn back to the girl who smirks before back flipping twice off the railing. As she falls down she teleports away, farther across the room. I use my power to make a makeshift ramp down to the ground. I slide down and run in the direction I see her run away. She's in the living room, facing Nightwing. Nightwing throws punches, but once again the girl either blocks it or dodges it. This seems to boost the girl's confidence, which makes her a little careless. Nightwing lands a punch in her stomach. She doubles over, but before he can capture her she teleports away. There's a loud yelp which signals that she's now facing Robin. Nightwing and I rush into the shower room where the girl is teleporting around Robin while he tries to strike her. Robin turns to us and the girl lands in a crouch on the end of his staff.
"Wrong move," I think to myself. Robin touches a button that triggers a volt of electricity to flow to the end of the staff. The girl's eyes widen and she shudders with a shout before falling to the floor. Nightwing hurries over and handcuffs her legs and feet. He then picks her up and we all walk back to the briefing room where the other girl is once again typing on her laptop. She looks up and groans. Shutting her laptop she pats the ground next to her.
"I'm sorry if she caused you any trouble. She likes testing people which is cool at times, but..." She rubs the bridge of her nose. Nightwing sets down the other girl.
"We want answers. Now."
"Sure, what do you want to know?" It's strange that this girl is far more cooperative than the other. Speaking of which. The girl in blue starts to open her eyes and tiredly looks around.
"Tsk, you know we can get out of these thing easily right?" she smirks.
"Oh really?" Robin retorts. Impulse looks like he's thinking of something. The girl in blue pinches the ends of her handcuffs and teleports them off of her and onto the floor in front of her. The girl in black closes her eyes. The tattoos on her arm creep onto the handcuffs, covering them with words and numbers. She opens her eyes and the handcuffs shatter and fall to the ground with a soft tinkling sound. We all stand there with our mouths gaping.
Suddenly, the blue girl's eyes widen and she stares off into the distance.
"Oh snap, she's coming."
"Who's coming?" Robin asks. I turn to the area where the girl is looking at. In black letters on the wall is ' You guys are so busted.'
"Looks like mama bear is coming for her babies," Impulse mutters, taking a step back. The lights flicker a bit.
"System override. Authorization-" The automated voice of the computer stops and whirs.
"Error. Invalid identification. Input correct command code." There's a long pause before the voice whirs again, "Command code override. Replacing B09 Rocket to B09-2 Rocket. Authorization B09 Sparrow." Sparrow, Sparrow…where have I heard that name before?
The zeta tube goes off and in walks a woman who's drenched from head to toe. She coughs a little and water pours out of her mouth. She looks a few years older than the girl in green. She drops four large bags on the floor. The figure has long brown hair that fell to the floor. She wears what looked like a fur pelt of a huge dark orange dog. She also has a domino mask like Nightwing's on. Two bonelike wings with dark gray and black glass-like feathers retract into her back. There's a small scar on her neck and below her right eye. She glares down at the two girls, her large fangs visible. In a flash her expression changes.
"I think I'm going to be sick," she mutters, holding her stomach.
"That's what happens when you teleport long distances too many times in one day," the girl in black says with a bored tone.
"Shut up!" The oldest figure teleports away to the nearest bathroom.
"B04. Superboy."
"B05. Miss Martian."
"B10. Silver."
"What happened? We saw something head for the cave?" Miss Martian asks. She scans the room, her eyes falling on the two girls who are sitting on the floor. Kate walks over to me. She's in pajamas, meaning she was probably getting ready to go to bed when she saw the strange object. We live in an apartment in Happy Harbor. I have monitor duty tonight, which is why I'm here.
"Are you okay? What's going on?" she asks worriedly, looking me up and down. I shrug.
"I don't know. Some strange girls came," I reply in my native tongue.
"But how did they get past the systems?" Kate whispers to herself. There's a flush of a toilet and the sound of the sink being turned on and off that catches everyone's attention. When the lady, Sparrow, comes back she doesn't even look at anyone except the two girls who'd broken in. She's still wet, and leaves small puddles on the ground as she walks.
"You guys are in so much trouble. You dropped me in a freaking LAKE! A LAKE! And then you come over here and harass..." she continues to lecture the two until Miss Martian cuts her off.
"Sparrow?" she questions. The girl smiles and brushes her soaking wet hair out of her face.
"The one and only." She turns and actually takes a good long look at all of us. There's a look of confusion on her face.
"Man, I've been gone for a long time," she mutters. She then looks at the adults, her eyes widening. A large grin spreads across her face.
"Guys!" she yelled excitedly, teleporting in front of them. She high-fives Superboy, and hugs Kate and Miss Martian.
"Conner, those are some pretty sweet gloves, dude. Megan, you cut your hair. It looks nice. Kate, ohmygosh you look so old." Sparrow pulls down her eyelid and sticks out her tongue. Now I know who she is! An old team member that had left. And Kate's best friend.
"Hey!" Kate punches her in the arm. Sparrow turns on her heel to Nightwing and tilts her head slightly.
"Hmmm. Say something?" she asks.
"Something," Nightwing replies with a smirk. Sparrow's eyes widen.
"Ohmygosh!" She teleports in front of him and hugs him tightly. "Dude, look how tall you are!"
"I know, right," Nightwing says, "Way taller than you, huh?"
"Oh, shut up! I see you grew out of your Robin costume," she comments, nodding at Robin.
"I go by Nightwing now." Sparrow nods before pursing her lips and rubbing her cheeks.
"My face hurts from smiling so much. I'm just so happy to see you guys. IfeellikeImightstartcrying." There's a flash that goes off. We turn to see the girl in black holding a camera and the second girl munching on what looks like a crystal. The girl in black takes another picture. Sparrow walks over to the two of them.
"Yeah, yeah. Okay I guess I should introduce these two troublemakers. Both of these ladies are my nieces. I took care of them a lot back on our home planet. When I told them about how amazing Earth was they practically begged me to bring them one day. And it seems like today's the day. And by the way I did not give them these names. And I assure you that if I did they would have been far more awesome. This," she says, gesturing to the one in blue, "Is Gray Moth or Gray for short. She can teleport at extreme speeds but mostly at short distances. She can be very hyper due to the fact that she's A SUGAR ADDICT!" Sparrow yells this last part and Gray jumps up.
"Am not!" Grey protests, "I can quit at any time."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the same line that crack addicts use, but look at them, still on the corner buying drugs from their closest dealer."
"Shut up."
"And this," Sparrow gestures to the other girl who's back on her computer, "Is Gosling. I have no clue why she chose that name. She said it's because baby geese are cute or something. She has a tendency to break things and remake them into something else. So unless you like your things missing parts and not working correctly I suggest you don't let her borrow any. So who are these guys?" Nightwing steps forward.
"This is Robin, Impulse, Metallum, and," he pointed to the adults. "Miss Martian, Superboy, Silver, and as you know I am Nightwing. The rest of the team is on a mission now, so you may have to meet them later."
"Hey where's Artie?"
"She and Wally left the hero business because of college," Kate smiles. "They still visit a lot though."
"Where's Kaldur?" Sparrow winks and nudges Kate. Her smile fades when Kate turns away and wraps her arms around her stomach.
"He joined his father's forces nine months ago," Nightwing finally answers. Kate flinches. I walk over to her and give her a hug. She pats my back. Sparrow brushes her bangs back and grips her hair. Gos and Gray look at their Aunt with a worried and cautious expression on their faces.
"No," Sparrow whispers, "Did we capture him?" she asks, her eyebrows knit together.
"No," Nightwing replies, seeing that no one else wants to talk about it.
"Well, we will and when we do we'll have to beat some sense into him. Okay, and Katie here gets first punch." Sparrow smiles again. Kate looks at her irritated. She grabs a hold of Sparrow and gives her a noogie.
"I told you to stop calling me Katie." Sparrow just laughs. Suddenly her face scrunches up and she gives a loud sneeze.
"We should probably get you a spare change of clothes," Kate says, taking Sparrow by the hand and leading her upstairs. She stops at the stairs and turns to me.
"Charles," she says warningly. I blush. I had forgotten to put the railing and floor layer back.
"Sorry."
"Just clean this up please."
"Yes, ma'am." I walk over to the rail and will it to go back to the way it was. As I walk up the stairs to the sheet of metal that are still crumpled to the wall I hear Miss M ask, "So how'd you get those clothes? Sparrow wasn't wearing any human clothes."
"Well, when she came back to Shadowland she brought back some clothes for us to try, but they didn't exactly fit right. They do now that we're older, though. She grew out of her Earth clothes and just decided to wear her Shadowland clothes," Gray answers.
"Where'd Gosling go?" Superboy asks. I stop straightening off the dents in the metal and looked off the side to the floor to see that Gos is in fact gone. A minor amount of movement and a dim glow attracts my attention to a beam on the ceiling. Gos is sitting there typing on her laptop again. I go back to the sheet of metal and will it back to its place on the floor. I walk back down to the team who are asking Gray questions. She stops, licking her fingers for whatever is left of her sugar crystal.
"Do you guys have anything sweet to eat?" she asks. The teammates look from her to each other and back to her.
"Look I don't care what Auntie says, I'm not an addict. I just need the calories to keep from pass out from burning through all of them."
"Hold on," Impulse says before running off. When he comes back he tosses Gray a bag of Lifesaver assorted hard candies and gummies.
"These are Jaime's, so you'll probably have to pay him back."
"Sure," Gray replies, popping a few into her mouth. Sparrow walks back downstairs with Kate. She changed grey shirt with a purple symbol, a black jacket, and black cargo shorts. It seems like Kate went and cut Sparrow's hair while she was at it. Sparrow has her hair in a low ponytail that reaches to the center of her back.
"Hey, could we crash here for a while? It'll only be for a few days so we can get our feet on the ground."
"Sure, stay as long as you'd like," Megan says cheerily. Sparrow and Gray smile.
"Cool beans."
"You have about six seconds," Gosling calls down. We all look up.
"Six seconds until what?" I ask. Sparrow's eyes roll back and she rocks on the balls of her feet before she begins to fall forward. Gray teleports in front of her and catches her right before she hits the ground.
"She's never been able to last longer than this after teleporting long distances. Where should I dump her?" She tosses the bag of snacks up and catches them in her mouth. She pulls Sparrow up a little and does her best to hold up the upper half of her body. Finally, getting frustrated she calls Gosling down.
"Gos, get you're lazy butt down here and help me." Gosling shrugs. She crawls over to the closest wall and one of her tattoos start to glow. The images swirl around her until they form a reptile-like tail and arms on her. Her eyes glow a bright green. She then latches onto the wall and climbs down like a lizard and lands on the floor. The tattoos then swirl back around her and land back into their original position. She walks over and picks up Sparrow's legs.
"I'll show you some empty rooms you guys can have." Kate then leads them back to the bedrooms.
"So what do you think of them?" Robin asks.
"They're cool," I say. Impulse shrugs.
"I think they'd make interesting additions."
"Agreed," Robin replies.
Nightwing nods. "Okay, if their aunt agrees then they, Sparrow, Silver and Metallum will all form Epsilon squad."
"That sounds lame," I whine. Nightwing gives me a look that says that his decision is final. Kate walks back into the room.
"Sparrow looks so cute when she's asleep," she smiles. Suddenly Gray runs in.
"HEY WHY'D YOU GIVE ME A ROOM SOMEONE ELSE IS STAYING IN!"
"But no one should be in that room," Kate says, puzzled. Gray's face turns white and her entire attitude changes. She starts laughing nervously.
"Uh, never mind. It was probably just my... imagination. Yeah, imagination." She turns around and runs back to her room.
"Odd," I remark. Everyone else nods in agreement.
Gah, I'm so excited! We have a lot planned for this story, so be prepared. And like always, please review!