The next day arrived bright and early, every one but Robin having slept soundly. Though, used to long nights out on the hunt for crime, Robin managed to hide his fatigue easily.
The night before, in bed, the alarm bells in his head – beaten into him by Batman (figuratively) – were ringing off the hook. At 3 o'clock, accepting that he wouldn't get any sleep that night, now matter how much he tried, Robin dressed and slipped down to the main room to use the supercomputer in the training area. For the remainder of the night, he searched everything the Justice League system had about the new addition to the team.
Robin was incredibly disappointed, and because of that, slightly suspicious. When a hero appears and either joins the league or strikes out on his or her own, they are logged into the JLA system. Even normal civilians with unusual skills or powers were entered, just in case. When someone was entered into the system, everything about them was put down; their birthdate, their parents, their height, eye colour, hair colour, their alter ego and superhero identity, where they were born, where they lived, what schools/education they've had as well as many other things, including criminal records. Some people's files were gigabytes long.
Flamethrower's file was less than a page. There was a mug shot of her, wearing the same clothes as she had when she had arrived at the Young Justice base, as well as her superhero identity (Flamethrower). That was it. No names, places, dates, nothing. Robin used his hacking devices to find out when this file was created. It was created the day she arrived, which was yesterday. Cross-referencing the time of creation of the file with the z-tube log, the file was created under five minutes before she had actually z-tubed to the base with Batman and Red Tornado.
Undiscouraged, Robin then used every trick he knew and hacked the entire system, looking for any files – encrypted, locked, zipped, compressed – containing newspaper articles, mission logs, journals and everything else the JL had archived (which was quite a bit) for the keywords Flamethrower, Flame, Thrower and a bunch of other relevant words and phrases. Most of it was junk, some too encrypted for Robin to bypass, other stuff having no relevance. Nothing he found had any significance. Robin was officially whelmed. There was nothing. Nothing. That was incredibly suspicious.
Finally reduced to surfing the civilian's web (Google) by 5 o'clock, Robin found one possible lead. While scrolling through articles related to pyromaniacs and house fires, he came across a picture of a class of school children. Clicking on it brought Robin to an article about a small boarding school for ex-juvenile delinquents that had been burned down, five years ago. The little, smiling girl in the front row (between the Hispanic boy with fewer teeth than fingers on one hand and a black girl who looked like a man) caught his attention. Though the haircut was different, and the face rounder because of younger age, Robin couldn't shake his doubts. Running a face recognition process against the mug shot in the official JLA files, Robin confirmed his beliefs.
That girl was Flamethrower.
A couple hours later, Robin lounged against the wall, watching Wally and Conner spar. He patted his pocket for the tenth time, verifying that the papers were still there and yawned. He had made hard copies of all his labours; Flamethrower's file and picture and folded them, stuffing them in his pocket before deleting all traces of his search and shutting down the system. Robin had no doubt that Batman would find out about his midnight's escapade, Robin did it more out of security so that he would be sure Flamethrower wouldn't find it.
Robin would show the pages to the others as soon as Batman had left.
Speaking of the devil, Batman appeared in the z-tube, Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow right behind him. The appearance of Batman's two companions confirmed Robin's deductions completely.
Unhooking himself from the wall, Robin wandered over to the ring where everyone else was gathering. Batman was speaking to the collective.
"Today we will be testing your abilities, Flamethrower."
She nodded, "Kaldur told me."
"Very good. These tests will range from power based to skill based, without using your powers. We may ask you to spar with one of your team members if necessary."
Flamethrower shifted at this statement, but nodded all the same.
"Before we start the testing, I would like to talk to Robin. In private." He didn't look too happy, but Robin had his excuse ready.
The others looked a little surprised, but parted to let Batman and Robin make their way to the kitchen, where they couldn't be heard.
When they were out of sight and earshot, Batman turned to Robin, a stormy look on his face.
"Explain," he crossed his arms.
"I realize it was irresponsible to go digging in the system without permission, but it had to be done."
Batman raised his eyebrows.
"We have never seen her before, never even heard of her. How are we supposed to trust her? Teamwork is about trust and the way she's been acting, it looks as if she can't even trust herself."
"You must respect the Justice League's decisions, Robin. It is not your place to question them. In addition, that is part of the exercise is it not?"
Robin looked sideways.
"You must learn to trust people even if you don't know who they are. This is a valuable skill, to determine who can and cannot be trusted, no matter what they have done in their past." He paused to let it sink in. "Why do you believe that can she not be trusted?"
Robin ducked his head, ashamed at how he had just told off his mentor and a head member of the Justice League.
"Well," he fidgeted, "Last night, Flamethrower decided to demonstrate her powers for us, right here in the kitchen. We asked her to turn off the flames but it was at least 10 seconds before she could extinguish the flame ball in her hand that was the size of an apple. She has no or very little control of her powers and can be a big danger to all of us. As well as put the missions in danger."
Robin stopped there and didn't dare to look at Batman as he processed the information. After a long silence, Batman uncrossed his arms.
"I will review the security tapes and confer with the rest of the Justice League. While she is here, I delegate you to make sure that she is comfortable and that she feels safe. The reason she is here is so that she can learn control, is it not Robin?"
Robin nodded, pissed, now that he was chosen to be the new girl's nanny. Before Batman left, Robin mentioned his findings.
"I presume you know that Flamethrower was involved in the burning of the juvy boarding school, five years ago."
Batman paused at the door.
"Of course." he said.
The testing went on for the better part of the morning, ranging between physical and mental tasks, so that Flamethrower would not tire as fast. She was allowed to take breaks between long sessions of physical tests. People wandered in and out of the test room, the most constants being, of course, the testers and Robin. He was observing her as much as possible, assessing her every move and deducing how much of a threat she could possibly pose to any of them.
Flamethrower wasn't particularly fast, but she was strong. Her muscles didn't show, but the could lift more than Robin could, almost as much as Kaldur. With more training, she could easily lift as much as the Aqualad, if not more. Flamethrower was also incredibly persistent. If she failed at one test, Black Canary would let her try it once more. If she didn't succeed again, she would plead with her to let her do it again. One of the particularly hard tests – where Robin was wondering whether he himself could do that – Flamethrower retried six times, until Batman had to forcibly tell her that she could not do it again. This could be a problem, Robin thought, if her pride became an issue.
Flamethrower seemed to have more control of her powers today, than she did the day before. In the power display part of the test, she was able to make four apple-sized fireballs at a time and extinguish them with ease. She could also throw her fire and make bigger fireballs that she could hold above her head with two hands. Flamethrower, though, was not vulnerable to her own fire and burned herself a couple times in the duration of the test.
At one point, she seemed to have passed her limit of controlling fire and the fire began to grow with uncontrollably frightening speed. Flamethrower panicked as she lost control and the fire eventually had to be put out by a Fire Extinguisher Arrow from the Green Arrow. Flamethrower would probably have a bruise on her forehead tomorrow. It would also prove a problem if she panicked at any sign of danger.
Lunchtime came quick enough, and Flamethrower was sent to eat as the testers conversed among themselves. Most of the other members had eaten earlier and so Flamethrower was left to eat by herself in the kitchen. Robin from the doorway watched her as she ate.
She seemed to be quite normal. She was clever and creative, finding many unexpected solutions to some of the test questions. In all other aspects, she seemed just like some average person (with super powers) pulled off the street. Robin still had his doubts, though. He wouldn't let her cheery and friendly act fool him. Sooner or later, something would come out. He was sure of it.
Green Arrow tapped Robin on the shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts.
"We have decided that we want to see Flamethrower spar with someone as the last test. Do you mind?"
Robin nodded. "Sure." He would get a closer look at her that way.
"Good. You can tell her. I want you both on the ring in 10, in full sparring gear. You too Robin. Full sparring gear. We still don't know how she fights."
Robin snorted. He hadn't used sparring gear since the second day he joined the Young Justice League. But orders were orders.
He wandered into the kitchen, watching Flamethrower through the corner of his eyes. As soon as he walked in, she stopped eating, put down her sandwich and stood.
"Robin." He nodded to her. "Uh, thanks for, uh, staying to watch my testing. I saw you were there for most of the time."
Robin looked at her. She seemed harmless and sincere enough. "Welcome. They want me and you to spar in 10, full equipment."
She gawped. "Against you?! But I'm going to get creamed!"
"They want to see how good you are. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Robin half-smiled at her reassuringly.
"Ah, okay." She shifted and looked away. "Full gear, huh. I don't have any of my own."
"I'm sure we can rustle up some for you. We have lots of extras in the backroom. Done eating?"
She smiled and nodded, "Yeah, sure."
Ok, maybe she wasn't that bad.
