Just a disclaimer, Nightshade, Copy Cat, Lance and SKye are original characters.
Star City- March 6- 4:46 P.M-
Artemis and Green Arrow had just finished patrolling, they were jumping rooftops in silence until Green Arrow started talking, "I heard about the new girl, are you thinking about letting her join the team?" Asked Green Arrow walking ahead of Artemis, "Batman didn't seemed too convinced. He even started following her around in New York City," he said letting out a small laugh.
"Well, she just popped out of nowhere, no one had heard of her, and she there's no information on her. Can we just trust someone like that? Would you?" she asked and after a long silence, she continued, "either way is not like she was interested in joining the team; she was doing just fine on her own," she said and the two of them kept walking. It didn't take long for Green Arrow to start talking again.
"You were once an outsider too. I think, that if you do see her again, she should be allowed the benefit of the doubt," he said walking ahead of her. Artemis stopped walking and watched Oliver's back as her mind drifted away to her first meeting with the team and everything that had happened after that. She let out a loud sigh and just when she was about to start walking, they heard an explosion coming from the bank a block away from where they were standing. The two of them turned around in time to see people running away from the building, and police cars lining up around it. Green Arrow and Artemis rushed to the edge of the rooftop and looked down, but before they could jump into action, the thief flew out of the bank letting the police and the few reporters that had gathered take a good look at him. He spotted the two of them and so he flew in their direction with the money bag over his broad shoulders.
"No way," whispered Artemis as her eyes landed on no one other than Superman.
"Superman?" asked Green Arrow, "What are you doing?" he asked, but he didn't say anything, he just targeted them with his heat vision, but they moved away and decided to escape instead of facing the Man of Steel in a fight they wouldn't win.
"Did Superman just…" said Artemis, but she couldn't quite finish that sentence since she didn't understand what had happened.
"We're going to the tower," said Green Arrow already trying to contact Batman. Something was not right, Superman wouldn't do something like that, after all it was the big blue boy scout they were talking about.
Manhattan, New York City- March 10- 12:43 P.M-
"The crime wave continues to spread all over the country as members of the Justice League are spotted robbing banks, museums and really anything valuable they can find. Protestors are demanding the government do something about the Justice League as more members and their sidekicks are getting involved in these crimes," The reporter stopped talking to show some footage where Aqualad broke into a museum and then another where Wonder Woman assaulted some people on the street.
"Oh, this is amazing," said Lance looking at the T.V. in the living room. He sat on the couch with his laptop right next to him and some chips on the other side, he had been sitting there all morning trying to fix the system they had built to track down crimes happening in New York City. In that moment, Jade walked into the room dressed in all black.
"What is?" asked Jade picking up her keys from the counter as she was getting ready to get out, when Lance didn't answer, she walked up to the T.V. and saw the news coverage on the Justice League and their sidekicks. "I'm going to get changed," she said, but before she could move, the door to their apartment opened to reveal a very euphoric teenager that simply refused to step inside. She started jumping up and down letting her long, wavy brown hair bounce off her back.
"I think it's trying to communicate," said Lance putting his hand under his chin while he stared at his sister. Finally, Jade moved away from the T.V. and the brunette threw herself at her, pulling Nightshade into an unwanted and extremely uncomfortable hug. Suddenly small sparks started flying out of the brunette's body, but it wasn't until they got dangerously close to the electronics that Lance cleared up his throat. "Skye! You need to calm down or I'm going to have to start all over with the tracking system that you messed up in the first place," he said barely looking up from the laptop.
"I already apologized about that!" she said still hugging Jade. "Anyway, I just love the annoyed face Jade makes when I hug her," she said looking back at the girl who was struggling to get out. To Lance, it looked a lot like a prey struggling to get out of its predator's control, and with that thought in mind, he couldn't help but smile, until a message popped up on his screen.
"Sorry to ruin whatever this, but Toyman stole a microchip from some researchers and Mayor Hall wants it back," said Lance glancing at his laptop. "He made sure to ask that you avoid destroying the city this time," he said. Skye let go of Jade as her expression suddenly turned serious, it was eerie how fast she could change her attitude, thought Jade while reaching down for her belt and guns, she would just have to go out like that.
"I guess he has to specify since you destroyed downtown New York when you fought Poison Ivy," said Skye.
"Jade! Just one more thing, I won't be able to communicate with you while I fix this, so for now you're on your own," he said pointing at the earbud. Jade nodded after she finished adjusting her mask over her eyes and rushed out through the fire escape ladder.
New York City- 1:46 P.M-
Kid Flash ran through New York City looking for Nightshade. He, Batman, and Robin were looking for Nightshade around the city, but since the dynamic duo had taken the east side, he was now stuck looking for her on the west side of New York. It didn't take him that long to find her thought, since the girl flew right past him and crashed against the building across the street.
"Woah!" he said managing to stop right before Nightshade, who had been thrown out of a building, could hit him. Kid Flash ran up to her offering his hand to help her up. She looked pretty much the same, except she wasn't wearing her uniform, just head to toe black civilian clothes along with her mask and her belt. She must carry that with her all the time, he thought, just like Robin.
"This is going to hurt tomorrow," she said taking his hand before walking away from him to take on the life-sized toy soldier that had thrown her out into the street.
"Dude! We've been trying to find you for like an hour. What the hell?" he asked watching the girl slice the toy soldier with her sword, then taking on another one.
"Not now Flash Kid. I'm kind of in the middle of something," she answered slicing the other one and waiting for Toyman to come out of the building. Instead, he sent another fleet of toy soldiers with real guns into the street.
"It's Kid Flash," he said looking at the growing group of toy soldiers. "You don't have it very easy, do you?" he asked getting ready to run towards the fleet. Nightshade looked at him putting her sword away and taking out her guns.
"No shit," she said running into the crowd while dodging the bullets and shooting them right in the head. One of the toys tried to hit her with its gun, but the girl ducked and shot it in the back, breaking it. She pulled out a small metal ball from her belt and threw it forward into the crowd of toy soldiers, she moved back and waited for the explosion. While Nightshade took the slow way out, Kid Flash ran through the group taking their guns and knocking them to the ground. Before Nightshade had even taken out half of the toys, Kid Flash had already gone into the building and taken Toyman out. He put the short man right in front of Nightshade while giving her a smirk.
"Do you have some time now?" he scoffed while the girl put away her guns.
"Show off," she said right before taking Toyman from him and dragging him through the street pushing him against the wall. "Hand it over," she said extending her hand in front of his face.
"What do you mean?" he asked trying to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about, his expression showed he was trying to mock her, but it soon changed when she stuck a knife into the wall right next to his face. "Fine, fine. Don't hurt me, okay?" he pleaded taking out a microchip and placing it on her palm.
"Come on, I would never hurt you…much," she said taking the knife out of the wall and letting the NYPD take Toyman away. Nightshade handed the microchip to a detective, and without saying another word the girl walked back towards Kid Flash. "So? What do you need?" she asked pressing a button on her belt that brought her bike over.
"Actually... I don't know, Batman just told me to look for you," he said picking up one of the toy soldier's arms. "This is going to be a great souvenir," he said examining it. A crowd had gathered around the area as the police was trying to hold them off, some of them were angry while another portion of the crowd cheered and called after them. Kid Flash heard his name and rushed to the crowd, a little girl extended a note book and asked for an autograph, but just as he was about to take the book Nightshade pulled him back.
"Don't. This is why you people are so easy to target," she said glaring at the girl. Nightshade pulled him away from the crowd and as they were leaving, Batman and Robin landed right in front of them and the crowd released a collective gasp. "You're not as intimidating in the daylight. I mean you are, just not enough," she said letting go of Kid Flash's arm.
"The robberies, tell us what you know," he said in his deep, raspy voice.
"What makes you think that I know anything about it?" she asked.
"You said we were an easy target. Who's after us?" he asked. Nightshade looked down at her phone and let out a heavy sigh before agreeing to go with the three of them to Mount Justice.
Mount Justice- 4:26 P.M-
The rest of the team had gathered in the mission room, they were waiting for Batman who had called them all in. They didn't have to wait long though; because a few minutes after they had gathered, Batman and Robin walked into the room followed by Kid Flash who stood out form the serious group. The speedster rushed to his girlfriend's side and that was when they saw Nightshade looking around the cave as she made her way towards them. Batman stood in front of the team and pulled up the screen that showed the multiple robberies committed by the Justice league and some members of the team.
"As you already know, this wasn't done by the Justice League, each member was accounted for at the time of the robberies," he explained pausing the videos and switching to a news show that was calling out the Justice League. The newscaster said the League had to step up and face the consequences, another one was calling them fallen heroes, but none of them seemed to doubt their involvement with the robberies.
"So someone's framing us, but why?" asked Aqualad.
"To keep us busy. They are trying to have us focus on raising our credibility while they are free to commit more robberies," he said playing a video that had Aqualad and Kid Flash breaking into an art museum and another one that had Rocket and Artemis beating up bystanders. "For now, we're going to give them what they want, that's why it will be your job to find the real culprit," he said.
"Okay, I get that, but what is she doing here?" asked Zatanna pointing at Nightshade.
"We suspect a shapeshifter by the name of Copy Cat; Nightshade has dealt with in the past making her the most qualified to give this mission briefing," as he said that, Nightshade walked to the front while looking at her phone. On her screen was a message with a map of Metropolis with a few buildings circled in red, after the map there was a message from Lance.
"Do you have a map of Metropolis?" she asked quietly before looking up at the team. Batman pulled it up on the screen for her and the girl examined it for a while. "Knowing the way she works, I narrowed down the possible places where she could show up next to two buildings in Metropolis. If you split in two teams and head to each one of these places, you could have an advantage," she said putting her phone away.
"What does she do exactly?" asked Robin. By now it was clear that she had no intention of going with them, so asking why she said 'you' instead of 'we' was a pointless question, instead he decided to go with something that would actually help them.
"She's a shapeshifter with a fancy for money and shiny things, what else do you want to know?" she explained, but then Batman gave her a glare that made her explain further. "As scary over there said, her name is Copy Cat. She is able to copy the appearance and powers of the people she touches, not only that, but she can also create a lot of copies of herself which might explain the multiple team ups," she said. The team didn't have any information on a criminal named Copy Cat, and they doubted the League had any or they wouldn't need Nightshade.
"Where are you going?" asked Aqualad as he watched the girl walking out of the room.
"Home. Good luck with Copy Cat, you'll need it," she said before disappearing into the cave. Batman and the team watched her leave before they went back to the briefing.
"For now, the league must be seen doing something else, so we leave this up to you. That applies for the four of you as well, join your respective mentors for the time being," he said looking at Aqualad, Kid Flash, Rocket and Artemis. He understood why Nightshade had pulled Kid Flash away from the crowd, if Copy Cat was there, she could have stolen his powers; though he still felt that something was off, after all he had seen her glare intently at that little girl.
Metropolis Docks- 12:20 A.M
Robin and Zatanna stepped into the place, they found it completely empty aside from the boats and huge containers that were supposed to be carrying all sorts of valuables that came from all over the world. After walking around for a while, they decided to split up to cover more ground. Zatanna flew through the long lines of containers until she spotted one that was halfway open, slowly she stepped inside and saw a huge cargo of wooden boxes and in the back two men trying to pry it open.
"Hey!" she said getting their attention.
"Oh look, it's one of the sidekicks!" said one of them placing his hands on his hips. "I saw you heroes in the news, you came to give us a hand?" he asked while his friend laughed at Zatanna. She ignored the comment and just used a spell to pin them to the other side of the container. It didn't look like these guys were the ones trying to frame the Justice League, but they had still pissed her off. While Zatanna dealt with them, Robin had just finished searching his side.
"Found Anything?" he asked over the communicator, but before he could wait for her reply, he heard gunshots coming from her side. Robin rushed towards the sound and found that Zatanna had created a magic force field to deflect the bullets; after that, she cast a spell that melted the guns forcing them to drop them to the ground which allowed Robin to knock them out with a punch.
"Thanks," she said, "but either way they weren't the ones we're looking for."
"Let's just hope the others found something," said Robin calling Miss Martian to check up on them.
National Bank, Metropolis- 12:20 A.M-
Miss Martian and Superboy entered the National Bank through the roof, they set themselves on the first floor ready to fight anything that might come their way, but after some time they started to relax. Superboy had his eyes set on one of the small windows that gave him a view of all the people walking on the busy streets of the city. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle revving up the street, it was a few miles away, but he could clearly hear it getting closer. He stared out the window for a while until he saw Robin in his bike making his way towards them. "Robin is here," he told Miss Martian who joined him by the window, and sure enough there was Robin making his way towards them. The two of them looked at each other, the nature of the mission made them wonder if the one they were seeing was actually Robin, so the they agreed to be cautious.
"Hey, how's it going in here?" asked Robin walking into the place after leaving his bike outside.
"No one has come by, what about you? Where's Zatanna?" asked Superboy moving away from the window. She could be coming, but it was still odd that he had arrived before her.
"She told me to go ahead," said Robin checking out the vault. Superboy and Miss Martian exchanged looks, but it wasn't until they received a call from Robin, the real Robin, that their suspicion was confirmed.
"Did you find anything?" he asked.
"She's here," said Miss Martian just in time to see Robin turn into a tall, dark skinned woman with long silver hair that reached her waist matching her white outfit that included a crop top, pants that were cut open on the sides showing most of her thighs, knee high boots and long white gloves that covered her arms, but left out her long, claw-like fingernails. She flashed them a smile and then more copies of her started showing up in the room. The woman and her copies started attacking them, but every time Superboy or Miss Martian tried to touch a copy, it would disappear and another one would come out in its place.
"Seems like you knew about me already. Let me guess, it was Nightshade," she said managing to land a punch that sent Superboy to the other side of the room. "Looks like I still had some super strength left from Superman. So you met Nightshade, isn't she a pain in the ass?" The woman approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder, but Superboy grabbed it and threw her against the wall. The woman fell to the ground right after her back hit the wall, but instead of trying to attack she stood up and stared at Superboy as he fell to his knees.
"What is going on?" he asked looking at her.
"Nothing much, I just borrowed your powers. Normally it doesn't do a lot, that's why I could copy the League's powers and appearance, but I need you out of the way for now," she said walking up to him and placing her hand back on his shoulder, after a few seconds, Superboy was knocked out. Copy Cat turned to face Miss Martian as each one of the copies disappeared leaving only the two of them in the room. She slowly started turning into Superboy allowing her to easily lift Miss Martian up in the air and throw her against the wall, she then walked towards the Martian lifting a pipe over her head when they heard a window break and in what looked like seconds, Nightshade appeared in front of Copy Cat blocking the hit with her sword.
"I thought you weren't coming," said Miss Martian looking up at the girl that had protected her, Nightshade looked down at her and even if she couldn't see it, she could feel the glare that was being hidden by the black mask.
"Oh come on, just be thankful that I'm here," she said before staring back at Copy Cat who returned to her normal form the moment she saw the black-haired girl.
"Are you back with the good guys. Could you make up your mind? It's getting hard to keep up," she said getting closer to her. Nightshade looked past her to see Superboy unconscious on the floor, and pushed Copy Cat back with a kick just as Robin and Zatanna appeared in the room. Meanwhile, Robin and Zatanna helped Miss Martian get up from the ground and moved her away from the fight.
"I fucking knew it was you, though I didn't want to believe you could be so stupid to pick a fight with the Justice League," said Nightshade pushing Copy Cat away from her. Robin took out his birdarangs and threw them at her, but the woman just dodged them. Slowly, Copy Cat started to turn into Aqualad, and then created more copies of herself in the form of Superboy, Artemis and Kid Flash. Superboy's copy started attacking Miss Martian, while Artemis faced Robin, and Zatanna tried to strike Kid Flash with a spell.
The Boy Wonder moved out of the way right before an arrow could hit him and threw a couple of birdarangs at her, but the moment it hit her, the copy disappeared and another one took its place. On the other side of the room, Miss Martian was facing the same luck with Superboy, no mattered what she threw at him, he would disappear and another one would come out. Aside from that, the copies could touch them, and use their teammates' powers and weapons against them.
While the team dealt with their frustration, Nightshade was fighting Copy Cat who was constantly changing forms. From Aqualad to Rocket, the girl had managed to hold her back until Copy Cat changed back to her original form. "Now we're talking," said Nightshade looking at the woman.
"They don't like you much, do they?" she asked attacking Nightshade with her nails, but she moved away from her and Copy Cat only managed to scratch her arm. "I will always wonder how someone like you has managed to stay alive all this time," she said. Copy Cat pinned her down on the ground and scratched her across the chest before Nightshade could kick her away.
"You should stop talking," she said charging at Copy Cat who blocked the hit and kicked Nightshade away from her allowing the teenager to take out a knife and throw it at Copy Cat. The knife managed to scratch her left arm tearing up her glove, revealing an ugly scar, as if someone had burned her skin. "That's still there, huh? I don't believe I apologized for it, not like I was planning to," she said. An enraged Copy Cat got ready to attack her, but was intercepted by Superboy who pinned her on the ground before she could move. As soon as he did that, the girl lost her focus and the copies disappeared, but they had left the rest of the team exhausted, the others made their way towards Superboy when Copy Cat turned into Aqualad and kicked him away. She created more copies of herself and that was when Nightshade grabbed Miss Martian collar and pulled her away with the team following them closely; they ran deeper into the building, trying to get away from the copies.
"Okay Nightshade, spit it out. How do we stop her?" he asked running next to her with the copies right behind them. It was then that he spotted an air vent right ahead. The boy wonder used a smoke pellet to distract the copy and motioned them to get inside, he then grabbed Nightshade's hand leading her to the air vent. Once the air cleared up, Aqualad changed back into Copy Cat who searched around for them, and ended up going deeper into the building.
"Start talking," said Robin crawling through the air vent, Nightshade stared at him while she crawled behind him, she knew he was angry, but she couldn't focus on anything other than his butt. He has a better butt than I do, she thought feeling a little jealous to be honest. "Are you listening to me?" he asked trying to look back at her, but the air vent was too tight.
"Right, we need to stop the butt—I mean Copy Cat," she said clearing her throat. "Well it's pretty easy, we just have to knock her out"
"Yeah really easy, we don't even know which one she is," said Zatanna clearly irritated.
"Well it might be. If we get give her something that she's unable to ignore," said Miss Martian just as they reached the end of the air vent.
"Easier said than done, what could we use?" asked Superboy looking ahead at Nightshade. Based on what they had seen, when it came to Nightshade, Copy Cat always seemed to behave differently. The others followed his gaze and Nightshade let out a long sigh.
"So I'm the bait then?" asked Nightshade. Robin nodded and kicked the air vent before jumping down.
"They were heading to the roof," he said and started running in the same direction they had left. Nightshade stopped running when she heard the word roof, she even hesitated thinking she could just bail, they weren't her team and it's not like she owed them something. Before she could make up her mind, Superboy pulled her along with him towards the roof. Nightshade opened the door to the roof and slowly stepped inside, at some point in the night it had started raining so it was all wet and slippery. Oh this is just great! She thought before spotting the copies on the other end of the Victorian style roof, they had their back turned to her since they were scanning the ground for them.
"Hey, bitch! Looking for someone?" she asked while taking out a knife. The copies ran towards her constantly changing their form, Nightshade didn't move, she just waited for them to reach her and then dodged their attacks. Realizing she couldn't keep it up for long, she started running towards the back with the copies following her, the first one to catch up to her was Kid Flash's copy who tripped her and made her fall almost over the edge. She quickly got up dodging their attacks once again, but she did it slowly fearing she would slip and fall off the roof. Her speed allowed the copies to hit her multiple times and take her down, her head dangling over the edge. The copies finally merged into one and Copy Cat revealed herself as the one sitting on top of Nightshade.
"What happened, Nightshade? Where did all the attitude go?" asked Copy Cat trying to mock her as she struggled to get her off. Nightshade's feet felt weak and she could feel her body trembling every time she thought about how high she was. The woman scratched her across the face and watched her wince in pain with a smile on her face. "I missed that look on your face," she said getting closer to her, her chest pressing against Nightshade's so that she could get a closer look.
"Enjoy it while you can," said Nightshade before pushing her off her and over the edge. Copy Cat closed her eyes thinking she was going to fall when she felt that someone grabbed her hand.
Nightshade held onto Copy Cat "have you turned soft?" she asked looking up at the girl expecting to see her mad, but instead she smiled and let go of her hand. Copy Cat thought she was going to die until she felt Superboy's grip around her arm, he pulled her up, but before he could do anything, Copy Cat scratched him. As she tried to get away, Zatanna used a spell that chained her feet making her fall flat on her face. Miss Martian then used her powers to lift a metal pipe and swung it at her face, finally knocking her out.
"What was that?" asked Robin turning around to face Nightshade.
"My hand slipped," she told him walking away from the roof and to the safety of the main floor.
The four team members met her downstairs with an unconscious Copy Cat over Superboy's shoulder. Nightshade was getting ready to leave when Superboy stopped her. "Why did you come?" he asked remembering how uninterested she looked back at the cave. The girl didn't answer, she just leaned down to grab one of her knives.
"Where you worried about us?" asked Zatanna crossing her arms over her chest. Nightshade turned around to look at her, it's not that she was worried about them….was she? She thought, but she couldn't come up with a better explanation as to why she had to intervene in their mission. "You were, weren't you?" Zatanna kept asking as an annoyed look grew on Nightshade's face.
"You're not that important. I just hadn't seen Copy Cat in a while," she said. Lousy excuse, but she just had to say something. "Now that I did, I'm leaving," she said turning her back on them.
"Wait! We wanted to wait and say this with everyone present, but I think now is a pretty good time," said Robin "we want you to join the team. With the League currently busy, we'll have to deal with more missions like this and we could use the extra help," he said. Nightshade stared at them for a few seconds before letting out a laugh.
"You're serious? I don't do things the same way you do. I have no problem with killing, and most of the time I like to play dirty. Do you think I'll be able to fit in with your team, Bird boy?" she asked.
"It's Robin," he corrected her.
"Yeah, yeah. Think it over and then get back to me," she said pulling out something that looked like a pager, and then throwing it at him. Meanwhile, the four of them were left behind wondering if inviting Nightshade into the team had been such a good idea after all.
