The training bay was fuller than usual. The trainees usually trained in batches, so there were not more than five at a time using the area. But today, there were as many as twenty five.
"Hello kid," came a voice from behind him.
"Green Lantern!" he was awed, "I never got to see you after my first day here."
"Ha ha! You'll get to see me a lot around from now on," he smiled, "I am going to be your trainer here going forward."
"What about Batman?" came the voice of Wonder Woman even before he could breathe out a sigh of relief.
"He was the one who suggested it. He just walked up to me and said – Lantern, would you like to take over for me?, and I said ,Sure"
"That's it?" she frowned.
"Well you know him. He is not much for probing. And I love working with the new recruits."
"Of course," she smiled. "So, I trust there is a meet and greet today?"
GL laughed. "Not really. I just thought that we should take the things up a notch with these kids. You can call it, A surprise test" he winked at Long Shadow.
He gulped visibly.
"A surprise test?"
"Don't worry, kid. Batman says you shouldn't have a problem with that." GL said, "You are one of his top students, I believe."
"I don't know about that," he laughed nervously, "he…never told me anything of that sort."
"He never does, that's him!" GL pressed the other's shoulder, "See you on the field."
Batman was on the field too, running through a deck of flash cards with Superman. The sight of the World's finest standing together was awe-inspiring for the new recruits. The founding members of the league were demigods to them.
"All right, everyone, line up. We'll start in a few minutes." announced GL. Superman walked away from the field and took his designated seat. Batman seemed to take no notice of the other's departure, he was busy shuffling the deck he had with him.
Long shadow took his usual position. Diana left for her seat beside Superman.
"I'm glad you could make it," Superman said in a low whisper.
"Are you?" she frowned.
"Yes, that saves me the pain of having to fight my cousin."
"Fight?" her eyes widened. "Are we going to fight them?"
"Yes," Superman said, "I just came to know about it myself."
"This isn't right," she began to rise. But she found a strong grip on her shoulder, firmly pushing her down.
"Take it easy princess," came the deep baritone, "you would not fight them in literal sense. You are just going to train with them."
She wanted to protest but his touch had already made her lost some of her senses. Only he was capable of doing that to her.
"And nice to see you too, Batman." she mocked, after regaining her composure.
He relaxed his grip.
"You are going to go with Supergirl and GL will go with Long shadow."
"What about the others," she said, eyeing the cards in his hands.
"They will go through their usual training." he said.
"Why the change of plans?" Superman asked, "I thought you were going with Long shadow."
"Lantern wanted to take on him," he said, "and I didn't deny."
"Why?" Diana smiled, "Because he is your best pupil?"
He frowned. "It is not so, Princess. What made you think so?"
"He is the best of the lot, certainly," she argued, "I have seen him in action."
"Sure he performs better than many others," he said, "but he still has a long way to go."
Diana looked disappointed.
"It won't hurt you to give out some appreciation once in a while, you know." she muttered.
Batman remained silent for a moment. He then threw a puzzled glance at Superman.
"Do you know what she's talking about?"
"Don't drag me into this?" he said defensively.
Diana sighed
"May be it is just as well that John replaced you."
He let that go unheard and took his seat on the other side of Superman.