This story is kind of Roy/OC, but also takes place before the episode "Usual Suspects."
Please review, and remember, I don't own YJ or the JL, which will be true for every chapter of this story. Thanks! Read on!
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Thin beams of moonlight pierced through the trees in a Romanian forest where a hauntingly sweet melody broke through the silence between wolf howls and snapping branches. A team of armed gunmen dropped the butts of their cigarettes and their empty bottles of vodka into the dirt at their feet as they guarded the source of the sound; a cave entrance where two young children from a local village had found their way to.
Another soon joined.
"Spyglass to Batman." A voice chimed over the Dark Knight's headset as he waited patiently camouflaged in a tree for his time to strike. "The children are at your 8 o'clock, four gunmen with some serious firepower to your 12 o'clock. Flash, what is your position?"
"3 seconds out from-"
Gunfire and Romanian curses rang out over Spyglass's headset and she winced for a moment before the raucous ceased.
"Come in Flash-"
"Spyglass, this is Flash and Bats… mission accomplished."
Layla let out the breath she was holding and placed her headset on the consol next to the viewing window. Just another day in the life.
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Normally sidekicks weren't allowed in Watchtower… but when you're a helper to a super computer in space, exceptions were made. Layla sighed and moved away from the glass window overlooking Earth. She knew she had to be constantly vigilant. Even with all the street cameras in the modern world, sometimes even supercomputers miss something.
Just that day, she'd found three missing children in a Romanian forest, the location of an illegal drug ring in Mexico City and a missing Egyptian relic being shipped from Cairo. And it wasn't even 10 o'clock in the morning. But time is complicated in space.
"Superman to Watchtower," a voice sounded out over the intercom. Layla ignored it, of course. She was never under any circumstances to answer a call to Watchtower. It had been drilled into her head that she was the last line of defense for Watchtower, and even the world. In other words… no one could know she existed.
The founding members of the Justice League had found foster child Layla Halleck and had adapted her abilities to aid in their missions. Although ceasing all contact with the outside world to help people she didn't know or who didn't even know she existed was hardly the dream of an 11 year old orphan girl. She just wanted to be normal.
"Superman to Spyglass… how's it looking up there kid?" Layla nearly jumped out of her chair, but regained her composure quickly and allowed a small smile to play on her lips. Superman had helped her hone her powers so that she could be a contributing member of the team. She didn't blame him for her boredom. He made her realize it was her duty to use her abilities for the greater good, even if that meant sacrificing any sense of self she had left.
"All quiet on the western front, chief," she chirped into the microphone. She didn't have the heart to let her true colors fly. The world needed her, but she didn't need the world. That's the only philosophy that kept her sane.
"Heard about your save earlier. Keep up the good work. Superman out."
And with that, her daily check in was complete. Occasionally other Leaguers would stop in on their way from one galaxy to another, but Layla "Spyglass" Halleck went almost unnoticed for the most part.
The only positive thing Layla could derive from being alone all day in a space station was that she could look however she wanted and never worry about what others would think. When she was on Earth, in the foster system 6 years ago, she had always felt the pressure to conform. And even though she still watched the Victoria Secret Fashion Show every year, nowadays, her style was much more relaxed.
Her auburn hair was whipped into a frayed fishtail braid that fell over one shoulder and onto the keyboard she was sitting in front of. Her dark purple, oversized hoodie hid her curvy, small frame and accented the tight fit of her black yoga pants that draped casually over her slippers.
Layla rubbed the bridge of her nose and decided to take a break before heading back over to the window. Her job that had anointed her "Spyglass" was to use her super acute, amazingly attuned vision to fight crime. Simple enough. As long as she knew what she was looking for, she could spot it if it was in her field of vision. Near-sightedness, or in other words, living on Earth did not allow her to reach her true potential. Sure, she could stand on a mountain top, but even then, a 16 mile horizon line was her limit. In Watchtower, from space, she could monitor Atlantis and even other galaxies from her infinite Crow's Nest.
Retreating from her room to grab her headphones and iPod, Layla plugged some Mozart in and separated herself from the world. She didn't need to hear anything to know there was trouble all over the globe. She could see it plainly enough. Fishing something out of her worn jacket pocket, Layla uncrumpled the list Batman had left out for her of things to find that day. The Romanian children were just the start, and she would see it through to the end.
Honestly, what else do I have to do? Spyglass thought mournfully as her piercing, inhumanly green eyes scanned the blue planet she gazed down upon from her tower. Her time would come eventually, and she would be free of the tower… if only for a little while.
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"Whew! It is good to be home!" Kid Flash announced as he and the rest of the Young Justice team arrived back to their mountain fortress in Happy Harbor after a long, successful guard-detail mission for the League. He raced into his room, a yellow and red blur through Mt. Justice to place his new Romanian souvenir- a mug with Dracula's face on it he'd received from a grateful villager- on his bookshelf.
"Why do we always go on these baby-sitting missions though?" Artemis mumbled as the team collapsed on the living room couch and settled down for some well deserved rest. She tossed her bow and quiver on the ground beside her and closed her masked eyes as she slumped onto the furniture.
"The mission assured that no more children went missing from the village." Although a similar sentiment was resonating through all his companions, Aqualad couldn't remain silent. "No matter how small, each mission is important. Besides, we don't know how this will play out in the broader scheme of the League's plans-"
"Yeah, but they always keep us in the dark," Robin interjected, giving his leader a pointed glance. The Atlantean was by far the most loyal and obedient of them all, and the youngest side-kick was getting tired of his constant justifications.
"Let's just hope Batman doesn't have another mission for us," M'gann sighed as she flew to the kitchen to grab a snack, Superboy close behind.
It was 3 PM before Robin noticed something was wrong.
"Has anyone seen Red Tornado? Isn't he supposed to be our den mother this week?" By now, the rest of the team had dispersed into their rooms, donning street clothes and proceeding to do mundane activities; M'gann and Conner working on his motorcycle with Wolf and Sphere, Wally playing videogames with Artemis finishing her English assignment, and Kaldur had gone to the shore to practice water manipulation. All seemed quiet.
"You worry too much, man. He's probably in Watchtower or-" Kid Flash was cut short as an incoherent, high pitched din rang out over all the com systems and headsets in Mt. Justice before being replaced by a bizarre sound.
"What is going on? I heard the noise from outside-" Aqualad rushed through the doors and stood out of breath before the rest of the team that had gathered in front of the zeta-tube screens to try to figure out what the sound was.
"Is that a pan-flute?" Artemis narrowed her eyes and strained to place the creepy, simple melody that filled the halls.
"Maybe. But whatever it is, the source is blocking communications with the whole League!" The Boy Wonder began tapping furiously at his handheld consol, trying to figure out what was going on. The only signal he could find was an incoming call from the Batcave. The team waited with bated breath for the transmission to play.
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Cellos could be surprisingly loud. Loud enough to block out the warning claxon of an imminent threat to the JL if you weren't paying attention. With her gaze fixed upon Earth, Layla didn't hear the coms going off left and right, barking orders for Watchtower to secure any incoming data and to report in on the other heroes out in the field, all of whom had gone radio-silent in the past hour.
Bruce Wayne retreated into the Batcave, aware of the danger rapidly racing towards him and the rest of the League Members. He'd been following the source of the threat for months now, and Romania had been the first step in a much larger master plan. But underground and with no coms in-tact, he knew a message to Spyglass was impossible. The only way to leave a message now was for his son, his side-kick and his most trusted friend. Hopefully it wouldn't be their last communication.
Hastily recording a video message and beaming it to Mt. Justice, Batman shut the computer down as a dangerous and haunting melody captivated him… and then all was black.
"I don't have much time. There's enough energy in the emergency back-up system in the Hall of Justice to send a message and beam one person down from Watchtower. Contact Spyglass. She's the only one who knows what to do now."
With that, the cool, level-headed Dark Avenger disconnected the feed and left the team standing haplessly in the middle of an all-out, League-wide silence. Coms were dead, radios and tracking systems down, zeta-tubes were mysteriously shut off, and all they could do was travel to the Hall of Justice and hope that whoever this "Spyglass" was could help them. They had no other choice.
"How could that weird music have totally knocked out our systems like that? And I didn't know anyone was left in Watchtower! Wouldn't they have contacted us by now?" Wally huffed as the team headed for the Bio-Ship in the hangar.
"Cool your jets, KF, we'll be lucky if the generators can open the bay doors," Robin snapped back. All six sidekicks buckled into the alien craft and left for the HoJ in record time with one question on their minds: where did all the heroes go?
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"Zeta override, alpha-tango-november-5-6-3-bravo-2-8-7-foxtrot," Layla barked frustrated into the empty chamber that, no matter how many times she spoke the override, would not take her down to Earth. Though the prospect of being so blind down at eye level frightened her, the League had gone silent, their tracking signals disappeared, and she was officially trapped in Watchtower.
"Great, just perfect!" she growled, running over to the window that overlooked the globe and zooming in on each Leaguer's last known location. Just as she suspected; they were converging on Europe. "That's the source of the sound. That weird flute music from earlier."
Layla paced back and forth in front of the window, using her amazing eye-sight to watch as one by one the League vanished from her sight. And all she could do was watch and hope for a miracle.
"This is Robin calling Watchtower, come in Watchtower. This is an emergency, over." Layla's gazed snapped over to the consol. How was in working? "Come on! I know you're up there! Get in front of the zeta tube, you're coming down." The sound cut out almost immediately after and Layla didn't waste a second. The tube lit up and soon her molecules were disassembling down on Earth. As she reappeared, the first thing that struck her was that everything was so close, so cramped and so new. She hadn't been down on ground level for years, and it was overwhelming.
Plus she never expected to meet the Young Justice team in her slippers.
"Who're you?" M'gann came forward and narrowed her eyes before the strange human that appeared before her. The rest of the team's thoughts were along the same lines.
"Non-League members are never allowed in Watchtower. Who are you?"
Ah. The YJ team. Layla had never done missions with them before, but she wasn't surprised that they were suspicious. Spyglass was an alias not listed on any document, any record, in any database in any League facilities. She was the Justice League's most well kept secret.
"I am a League member, for your information. I'm Spyglass, the eye in the sky."
"How do we know you are who you say you are?" Superboy came forward out of the group and got equally close to her face as M'gann had been before.
"Uh, I guess you don't? But seriously, I must not be that threatening. I mean, what am I gonna do? Throw my slipper at you?" Layla laughed nervously as the team continued to gaze upon her with scrutiny.
"They let you up in the Tower, but not us? Who are you?" Kid Flash asked in disbelief. Layla blinked and rubbed her arm nervously.
"I just said. You know, Spyglass? The eye in the sky? And don't bother trying to find me in any of your gadgets, Boy Wonder. I'm not on any League records." Seriously. Were they not listening?
"She is precisely where Batman said she would be. I trust her." Aqualad came forward and gazed into Layla's nearly glowing green eyes. She averted her gaze after only a few seconds, fearing her intent staring would lead her to observing the Atlanteans genetic make-up. She rarely locked gazes with people, and these rash, volatile heroes made her slightly nervous, and her un-focused powers were reflecting that. Staring at too long in an agitated state made her see things as small as cells in the human body, or atoms in solid objects. It was nerve-wracking.
"Look, sorry that you guys don't know me, but I have bad people skills, so I'll give you the Spark notes version. I've lived in Watchtower since I was 11. You don't know me, but like it or not, I've actually saved your asses on quite a few occasions, so let's keep this brief and professional. I hate being on Earth." Nervous ramblings poured unrestrained from Layla's mouth, her abruptness shocking the young heroes.
"Well someone's got a motor-mouth," Artemis whispered to M'gann as they observed the bizarre mannerisms of Spyglass. Besides, who hated being on Earth?
The silent tension was building, and all Layla could do to keep the butterflies down in her stomach was to zoom in on things outside the window.
"Fire on Third Street," she announced as the team had gathered aside for a meeting. They looked at her slightly bewildered before turning back together. "No, seriously. There's a fire four and a half miles west of here. Four people on the sixth floor, five on the third, and a kitten on the roof."
"M'gann, can you read her mind quickly, just to make sure she's telling the truth? Wally, you, Superboy and I will take care of the fire. The rest of you stay here and figure out what else she can tell us." Layla gave a mock salute as the three rushed off and left her with Robin, M'gann and Artemis. Once again her eyes wandered in the awkward silence.
"Batman sent us this message," Robin said, approaching the nervous green-eyed girl abruptly making her jump. "Just before we lost all contact. What do you make of it?" She could tell from his eager and anxious demeanor that he was worried about his mentor, but even she didn't quite know what Batman meant.
"I know that Batman was looking into some sort of weird harmonic anomaly coming from Romania, that's why you were there a few days ago. But that's all I got, I swear." To be honest, now that the reality of the situation was hitting her, she was freaking out. Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, both Green Lanterns, Flash, Martian Manhunter and everyone else. All gone. And Batman thought she knew something?
"Miss Martian, pick her brain and make sure she's telling the truth-" Robin began, cut short by Layla's highly offended facial expression at the thought.
"I'm telling the truth, and I'm not gonna let you judge me like this is the Inquisition here! The Justice League is my family! You don't think I want to find them just as badly as you do?" Layla snapped, exasperated.
"She's not lying about that," M'gann interrupted quietly. Layla reeled on her.
"Hey! I said don't pick my brain! Ugh, can I at least get some real clothes. The zeta tubes are down and all I've got is my PJs until I can get back to Watchtower." Layla composed herself and glanced back and forth between a silent Artemis and a cautious M'gann.
"I guess we could check the bio ship…"
"Great! Now we're making progress."
Just as Layla was zippering up the spandex suit Miss Martian kept as a spare, Superboy, Aqualad and Kid Flash returned.
"You were right about the fire, and about the people inside," Aqualad began, giving a nod of approval at her skills.
"Yeah, what can you do anyways?" KF blurted out, eyeing the strange girl up in down as she picked at the blue and white skin-tight suit.
"I have hyper acute vision. If I know what I'm looking for and it's in my line of sight, I can find it," Layla responded automatically, putting her hair in a high ponytail and standing in front of the gang with her hands on her hips in stereotypical superhero fashion. She finally felt like a real superhero, going out to fight crime, and even receive a little recognition. Sure the Team didn't exactly make her feel like she belonged, but… baby steps.
"Wow, it's amazing what a suit can do to boost your confidence," she smirked. The team still looked hapless.
"Yeah, you look great, now can we please get started on finding the League? They've already been missing for an hour, and anything could have happened!" KF sped in front of Layla and pointed at her accusatorily. "Now use your acute vision or whatever and find them!"
"Before that, we need to get back to Happy Harbor. I need a map." Layla made her way to the bio ship, but the rest stood frozen behind her. "What're you waiting for? I have a lead, remember?"
"We have maps here in the Hall of Justice… duh," Artemis stated, crossing her arms and looking slightly haughty at taking the new girl down a notch. Layla merely shrugged the barb off.
"Right. Let me rephrase. I need a globe, with real time satellite imagery. This place is a museum, a dinosaur. It can't help us."
"Then we better get a move on." A voice interrupted the tension permeating the hall and its owner made himself known none too shyly.
"Hey Roy!" Kid Flash zipped over to greet his, Robin and Aqualad's former sidekick companion, Speedy, aka Red Arrow.
Roy Harper studied the group before him, narrowing his eyes on one person in particular. He'd been alerted to the incident when he'd tried to contact Mount Justice to check in for a solo assignment given to him by Black Canary and Green Arrow, but no one had answered. He'd clenched his bow in his right hand until the knuckle turned white with worry. He'd gone to the Hall to see if he could get into Watchtower, the one place he didn't have access to, but it was his last hope for locating the League. Now he was faced with his former comrades and a new face as well.
"Who's she?" he asked poignantly, cutting to the chase and making his way into the thick of the group as they boarded M'gannn's aircraft.
"I'm Spyglass. You've never heard of me-"
"Save it, we've got a job to do."
Layla blinked her green eyes and pursed her lips at the rejection. Wally came up behind her and whispered into her ear: "Don't worry about him. He can be a little… off-putting."
"Yah think?" she muttered back, more to herself than the young Flash who took his seat as they lifted off. At least he hadn't accused her of being a fake or a liar. That was a start.
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*sob* I read a story with 1000 reviews… I almost cried. I'm not asking for anywhere NEAR that number… maybe 10? Too much? 5?
DMar
