The Circus

by DoctorMerlinReid

In a world where metahumans are packed away into camps where they are used for experiments and menial labor, Wally West frees himself and a few others from the camp they were in and creates a metahuman resistance group called the Circus. Faced with an impossible battle against the Light, the Circus seeks an alliance with the superhero group called the Team.

2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! Read, review, and enjoy!

WWWWWW

Wally scowled down at his reports and rubbed at the back of his neck, cracking it slowly and leaning back in his chair. He scrubbed at his eyes and leaned forward again to keep reading the reports. Where on earth was the Light getting all those metahumans? After starting the Circus roughly a year ago, Wally had managed to dismantle a good portion of the big metahuman groups, having them either killed or brought somewhere safe to be rehabilitated.

The Circus had grown larger than Wally could have ever guessed. He had known that there were a lot of people who were hiding their abilities, but he hadn't truly understood how large that number was until the Circus had started offering their support to any and all good metahumans. People had flooded in from every direction. There were people who had been hiding for years, there were those who had been blending in with humans for years, and there was the occasional person who had broken out of one of the camps.

All the other metahumans were careful and respectful around the ones who had broken out of a camp. There weren't a lot. Wally's main group – the group that actually made up the original, attack group – had all escaped from the same camp and then there were maybe three others. The camps were notoriously difficult to escape from. There were a lot of attempts, but not a lot of successes.

Once membership got too large and the powers too untrained, the Circus had decided to add an extra interest to their agenda: finding a new home for the metahumans. That had taken a lot of research and dead ends. Eventually, the main group had found Gorilla City. After proving that they really were ostracized from human society and truly just wanted to escape, the talking gorillas (and, really, that shouldn't be as weird as it was) showed them how the cloaking for their city worked. The metahumans took the knowledge and tweaked it and made it fit their needs. There was now an ever growing, self-sustained town of metahumans in the mountains of Canada.

The Circus protected the town and smuggled people to it whenever they needed to. So far, they haven't tried freeing a camp, but they definitely had plans in the works for that.

They were, luckily, funded by a few very rich metahumans who supported the mission. Wally respected the rich ones the most. Those people were perfectly fine in society, living life completely free and living well, but they were willing to risk all of that to help those who weren't as privileged as them.

But reminiscing about the successes of the Circus didn't change the failure that Wally was looking at spelled out in the reports. He rubbed at his eyes again, sighing.

"You need to relax sometime. You're way too uptight." A voice said, coming out of the darkness and startling Wally, nearly sending him tumbling out of his chair. Cameron laughed at him, clutching his stomach and wheezing, "You should have seen your face!"

"Don't do that!" Wally gave a tiny smile, clutching his chest and willing his already ridiculously fast heart to slow down a little bit, "You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days. You're going to need a pretty fantastic defibrillator to get it going again, too."

"He's right, though." Dinah said, plopping gracefully (how was that even possible?) into one of the other seats of the round table they used for meetings. Wally rolled his eyes as Dinah continued, "Just saying, kid. Take a break. Have a vacation. Give the reigns a little slack."

"Why are we talking about horses?" Kelvin asked, forehead shifting in a way that indicated that if he had eyebrows, they would have been raised. He followed Dinah into the room and followed her example of sitting in one of the chairs.

Dinah sighed and rolled her eyes rather aggressively, "We weren't talking about horses, idiot." Wally and Cameron shared a secretive look behind the two's backs. For all that they acted like they hated each other, they were the perfect team and often acted as the mom and dad of the group. Then again, they were the only two adults in a group of people whose parents were often sore spots, so it wasn't all that surprising that they fell into the roles so easily.

Garfield, Jinx, and Lorraine all walked in a moment later, casually moving into their regular chairs. Jinx drawled in a bored tone, "So, what's up?"

"What's up is that I'm being unincluded from another team meeting. That's what's up." Harold said, hand held to his chest in mock pain. He had walked in just moments after the other three teens had sat down.

"Not our fault you're so slow." Lorraine teased. Harold stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

When it looked like Lorraine was about to physically stand up and start a fight, Dinah called out, "Children! Calm down. We weren't having a team meeting. Cameron and I were just trying to convince our glorious leader to take a break."

"Ooh, team vacation? I want to go to Japan!" Garfield called out, hopping excitedly in his seat.

Wally gave another smile, a mere shifting of his lips, before his eyebrows drew together, "Maybe another time, Gar. We've got a problem."

"We always have problems." Jinx sighed, leaning back in her seat and idly flipping a pencil in the air in front of her.

Kelvin leaned forward, serious because Wally was serious, "What are we looking at?"

Wally threw the reports on the table, leaving them for anyone who wanted to grab them and read them for themselves. He locked his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his seat, "We're looking at a freaking massive bad guy group. The Light have been slowly infiltrating and dominating the criminal underworld for a long time. They only recently started coming in contact with the heroes, but they didn't come on our radar until really recently. Apparently, they've been scouring the metahuman underworld and recruiting like crazy. We're talking almost thirty metas added to their ranks in a little over two months." Jinx whistled, finally looking interested.

Dinah leaned forward, mouth pursing, "And this is the group we sent our guy undercover into?" Wally nodded, and Dinah frowned further, "I don't like that. He's too young to be in a group that big."

Wally's scowl more than matched hers. Kelvin and Dinah very rarely played the age card. They knew that the teens in the Circus had left childhood behind the moment the Collection Agency caught them. They knew that all of them were powerful, dedicated, determined, and dangerous. Sometimes, though, they obviously couldn't help but be worried at the fact that the oldest of the teenagers was Lorraine at seventeen. Dinah scrubbed her face and muttered, "Sorry. I know he can handle himself. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine." Wally said shortly, expression still slightly twisted.

Dinah sent him a crooked smile, "Besides, who better do we have to put in an organization? He fits in with metas and with groups that don't want metas. He can always say that the gods blessed him or something and pull whatever trash that Amazon pulled to get out of the camps or to get him through meta haters."

Harold's nose wrinkled, "Why did we send him into a group that wasn't making any splashes in the meta world?"

Cameron was the one who answered, "They have a pretty legit meta on the main council. That Queen Bee chick from that one country? I don't remember the name…"

"Bialya?" Garfield tried. Cameron snapped and tapped the bridge of his nose, indicating that was the right answer. Wally tried to force a smile on his face at the action, but his lips didn't quite respond. He hadn't been good at smiling for a long time. Harold nodded his understanding.

"So, what's the problem?" Cameron asked, "This sounds pretty simple to me. Get our guy to pull some strings and get a couple of us recruited. Apply some pressure from the outside, start tearing it apart from the inside. Gather some sympathetics, take down the humans. We've done that scheme a thousand times already."

Wally twisted his lips, "Want to hear the names of all the members on the council? Queen Bee, Vandal Savage, The Brain, Lex Luthor, Klarion, and Ra's al Ghul." Jinx whistled again, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. The rest weren't much better, staring at him in varying degrees of shock. He nodded at them and continued, "Yeah, exactly. That's only including the main group. They've got a ton of allies. Black Manta was seen to be working with them. Psimon. Kobra. That Injustice League thing was their doing. They've got allies everywhere and not all of them are human or metahuman. We're facing things we don't know how to face."

"What do we do then?" Kelvin asked, massive forehead crinkling over pure white eyes.

Wally bit his lip slightly, glancing around him. Lorraine sighed, "I know that face. That's your 'I-have-an-idea-but-none-of-you-will-like-it' face. I hate that face."

Cameron whipped his head around and narrowed his eyes at Wally before announcing, "Yep, I see it."

Wally rolled his eyes and lightly shoved his best friend's shoulder, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I do have an idea, though. And probably none of you will like it."

"Just spit it out." Jinx groused, inspecting her nails.

"We should contact the Justice League and get them to help." Wally pushed out quickly. For a second, he received nothing but blank stares and he was worried that he'd accidently spoken too fast.

Then everyone promptly blew up at him and he knew that they'd understood him.

Wally called for order, "Hey! One at a time!" Everyone instantly quieted. Thankfully their team worked well together and were willing to talk things out. Wally said, "Give me a second to defend myself. We cannot handle the Light on our own and, as they are now, they're a threat to everything we've built this past year. They're not good news for anyone and I'm not going to sit around and do nothing as they tear the world apart. We might be willing to die for our people, but we don't have to in this case. If we can work with the Team for this one single mission, then it'll be fine. And maybe we might change their minds about metahumans. It would be nice to have some support from heroes on that front."

Cameron snorted, "You're dreaming if you ever think that the mini-heroes – or any heroes – are going to start accepting us and backing up our case to the rest of the humans." Wally gave him a look and Cameron raised his hands, eyebrows drawing together, "Look, Walls, you hate heroes. I guess I'm just a little confused where this is coming from. Never once in the time I've known you have you had a good thing to say about the heroes, their sidekicks, their teams, or their abilities."

"The Team has been able to push the Light back quite a bit recently. They've done more than we have in this case." Wally pointed out.

Cameron nodded, but he was still frowning, "Still, Wally." He sighed and tried again, "Look, you know me. I'll tell you straight out if an idea is stupid, but I'll still support it. I trust anything you say. And, shockingly enough, I'm not actually opposed to this idea. I'm just really confused where it's coming from. And I feel like the rest of the group will understand your point of view a little better if you explain it to them, too."

Wally unlocked his fingers and leaned forward, running his hands repeatedly through his hair. One of Kelvin's huge red hands fell on his shoulder, a comforting weight. Nonetheless, Wally subtly shifted out from under it, still not used to positive contact. Kelvin frowned a little bit, but understood. Wally paused and finally answered, voice stilted, "The reason… I used to love heroes. I thought they were awesome. They were… they were what I aspired to be. I really thought they were awesome. When we were taken to the camp. I… it was… for months I sat there and dreamt that a hero would come and save me. I hoped and prayed and did everything I could think of to get at least one of them to come save us. But they didn't. For six years they didn't. So, I just… I started hating them. And I realized that I hated them for a purely selfish reason. When… that last batch of metas we saved from the metahuman trafficking ring? There was a girl who spat in my face and said, 'Why save me? Why not save my little sister, who's stuck in one of the camps? Are you too scared to go back? Too scared to save the rest?' And I realized that it wasn't the heroes' faults. It's hard saving people. And yeah, maybe they don't know what's going on, maybe they do know, and they don't care. That doesn't matter. It wasn't their fault." Wally's lips twisted again, and he stared down at his lap.

Dinah's voice was pained when she asked, "Wally, that was weeks ago? Why have you been holding that in for so long?"

Lorraine groaned dramatically, "Why do you even bother asking him that? It's the same answer every time he pulls something like that."

Harold and Garfield recited in unison, "I didn't want to worry you guys. You have your own problems to deal with. You don't need mine on top of it."

Wally rolled his eyes, "I know, I know. I need to get better at talking about my feelings and letting you guys help. I'm working on it, I swear. I told you guys when I broke my finger the other day, remember? I'm getting better!"

Kelvin laughed before ruffling his hair, gently and only for a second, "That's all we ask for, fearless leader."

"So, are we really doing this?" Jinx asked before clarifying, "Are we really going to ask the heroes for help?"

Wally glanced at the group. Cameron with his bright white hair and glowing blue eyes. Kelvin with his flowing black mane, and his red, armor like skin. Dinah with her long blond hair and fierce expression. Garfield with his green hair and green eyes and green skin. Harold with his boyish face and open brown eyes. Jinx with her pale ashen skin and the way her expression lit up when she was interested. Lorraine with her burnt orange hair and intelligent blue eyes. Each and every one gave him the nod he needed.

He settled tired, sad green eyes on his team, on the people he escaped horror with. This was his family. These were the people he would die for. Wally nodded to Harold, "Let's send the message then."

DDDDDD

Dick watched as Artemis drummed her fingers against her armrest again. Roy finally snapped, turning towards her, "Will you stop that?"

Her cheeks pinked slightly, but she glared heatedly at him, "Maybe if we weren't waltzing right into a trap, I'd stop doing that! This whole plan is stupid!"

"Oh my God!" Roy cried, throwing his hands in the air, "We know! We get that you don't like this plan. Tough!"

Kaldur worded it a little gentler, "The Light is becoming too much for us to handle. Even with the skills we all possess, we are going up against… metahumans. The Circus is skilled in fighting metahumans and have information regarding the Light. They reached out to us with information and a chance at an alliance. They allowed us to choose the location. We need this alliance, Artemis."

Artemis set her jaw, but didn't say anything else for a few seconds. Dick thought she was done, until she suddenly growled, "This is definitely a trap."

"I am sure that they are not that mean, Artemis. They are just trying to help!" M'gann asserted cheerfully.

Raquel added seriously, "Even if it is a trap, we're good. They've gotta do a lot to take us down."

"They're a terrorist organization. We're colluding with terrorists." Artemis argued, trying to get the rest of them to see her point.

Conner frowned slightly, "They're doing the same thing we are. They're fighting people that normal people can't fight."

Artemis pursed her lips and glared out the window of the bioship, "They're not doing the same thing we are. We don't kill. We don't dole out our own punishments. We leave that up to the justice system, like we're supposed to. These people broke out of the camps that are helping them get cured and started tearing up cities and killing people for their own wacked form of justice. They are not like us."

Dick sighed, "Just leave it, Artemis. We're practically there anyways. It's not like we can back out now. It'll work out fine." She huffed, but didn't say anything back. Dick considered that good enough. He understood her reasoning, he really did, but they'd agreed as a group that they were going to meet the Circus, so that's what they were going to do.

The Circus was somewhat of a mystery in the crime-fighting world. The group had started roughly a year ago. They didn't know who all was in it. They didn't know who led it. They didn't know the numbers. They weren't even sure what powers each person had. The group infuriated Batman, who tried as hard as he could to catch them, but has, as of yet, ended up empty handed.

That was why it had come as such a shock when Batman had received a message from the Circus, asking for a meeting. They said that they couldn't handle the Light on their own, that the organization was too big for them to take down, but that they had information that they were willing to give the Team along with a temporary alliance in order for the Light to be dismantled. Everyone had suspected a trap, but Dick wasn't sure what to think. The message seemed a little too desperate, a little too forcibly polite to be a trap. Dick thought that the Circus was as split on this meeting as the Team was.

That was understandable, too, with the amount of times that the superheroes had tried capturing various members of the Circus. This situation must be as difficult for them as it was for the Team. Besides, the Circus was made entirely of metahumans and no metahuman was ever truly comfortable around people who weren't metahumans. They seemed to think that they were better than normal humans and went around isolating themselves. No one particularly liked metahumans, mainly because they were unnatural and almost always dangerous. Superheroes, used to people with powers (aliens or different species) and dangerous friends, disliked metahumans for their elitist attitude and their refusal to help humans protect the earth.

That was yet another strange part of this meeting. The Circus didn't help humans. They never once knocked a human out of the line of fire, or stopped a human from getting hurt. They didn't seem to care at all if a human was injured, leaving them there instead of carting them to a hospital. The Circus would always save their own skin first before saving a human's. But now they were risking their entire organization to take down the Light. Was there something going on that the Justice League didn't know? What made the Circus so interested in taking the Light down? It didn't make sense.

Dick was brought out of his thoughts by the feel of the bioship tilting towards the ground. Miss Martian settled them gently on the ground and took a brief moment to set up the mind link. Finally ready, the group looked at each other before trooping out of the bioship, coming out in the clearing that they'd specified for the meeting.

Within seconds of exiting the ship, a teenager, about average height for a girl, came out of the other side of the clearing. Her hair was a light burnt orange and her skin tan. A good portion of her face was covered with a large domino mask. Based on it's pristine coloring, it was obvious that she didn't wear this into the field. Otherwise, she was wearing perfectly normal, innocuous clothing. Overall, she looked average. She looked like a human.

Aqualad stepped forward, "Hello, my name is Aqualad and I am the leader of the Team. I presume you know the rest of the members?" He swept out a hand to indicate the group gathered behind him, all decked out in their superhero suits with weapons loaded but sheathed.

The girl smiled politely and answered, "Yes, I know your other members. You may call me Firehawk. I am the, per se, face of the Circus. I will represent them initially in the meeting."

Aqualad tilted his head curiously, "There will be no other members of the Circus at this meeting?"

The polite smile creased a little in worry before Firehawk responded, "There are other members not far away, to act as a protection detail of sorts. When we have ascertained whether an alliance with you would be beneficial, they will reveal themselves."

Robin frowned, "So you're saying that we have to go through this meeting potentially surrounded by metahumans without knowing how many of them there are or who they are or what they can do? We just have to go through the meeting like that? With that unfair disadvantage against us?" He neglected to mention that Superboy could probably smell/hear all of the people who were surrounding them.

Robin sent out mentally, Superboy, can you get a lock on who's around us?

Superboy responded instantly, There are six people surrounding us. Two are adults and the rest are other teenagers. There's one that… doesn't seem right. He's shaped strangely.

They are metahumans, Artemis responded back. Superboy sent her a mental nod.

"Do you wish for the information and chance of a team up or not?" Firehawk was asking, voice taking on a slightly sharper edge.

"And if we won't trust this information without getting it straight from the leader?" Red Arrow asked carefully.

The polite smile didn't shift, but there still seemed to be a darker edge to Firehawk's expression when she answered just as carefully, "Then you will not receive the information." Red Arrow inclined his head towards her. Fair enough. Robin watched as she tilted her head curiously for a moment before inclining her head back to him.

Aqualad took over the conversation again, "Can you tell us at least how you received this information?"

"The Circus has a spy on the inside of the Light. They are feeding us information as they obtain higher positions in the organization." Firehawk responded.

"And there's no chance that the Light knows that this person is a spy and giving you information? There's no chance that this information is tainted?" Red Arrow clarified.

Firehawk's voice was droll when she answered, "There is always a chance that information is tainted. I would have thought that you'd know that."

Artemis raised her eyebrows and scowled, "If you're the best person for negotiations and the like in your little group, then I can't imagine how rude the rest of your lot are."

"Certainly less rude than you. We're trying to help you and you've done nothing but doubt us and insinuate that we don't know what we're doing. News flash: we've been a team and fighting crime longer than you have. We know what we're doing." Firehawk scowled back.

Aqualad tried to diffuse the tension, "Please, excuse Artemis. She is simply concerned over this interaction. The Circus has not been known to be particularly welcoming nor helpful to hero groups. We are confused as to why you chose now to help us."

"We chose now because the Light wasn't a problem before then. We've dealt with purely metahuman groups which is something we can handle. We're smart enough to know when we can't handle something, and we know we can't handle metahumans and whatever else they've got on that team. We're not even sure what some of those people are." Firehawk said, grabbing one arm with the other and shifting her weight slightly.

Zatanna responded with a friendly smile, "Honestly, we're not even sure who some of the members of the Light are."

Firehawk opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by the shrill call of a bird. The white slots of her mask widened, and she stepped backwards. The call came again, three short bursts and then a long one. Almost at the same time, Superboy called out, "There's someone coming."

Firehawk stumbled back a step or two before scowling fiercely at the group of gathered teenage heroes. She snarled, "You led someone here!"

Artemis snarled back, "It wasn't us! You must have been careless getting here!"

Firehawk's hands clenched and she moved back towards the Team, looking like she was ready to fight, "There was no way someone could track the way we got here, trust me. It wasn't us." Robin eyed her warily. She didn't exactly look like the type who was able to fight someone. Didn't she say that she was the face of the Circus, guarded by other members? Where were the other members?

Miss Martian shook her head in distress, "The bioship that we used to get here is invisible the entire way. They couldn't have tracked that either!"

"Then you might want to consider the idea that you have a spy." Firehawk said, face warily turning from person to person carefully as if that could tell her who the spy was. Robin shifted uncomfortably. The issue of a spy was something the Team had been struggling with for a while now. They were no closer to figuring out who it was or if there was even one.

Apparently, the subject was a sore topic for Red Arrow too because he snapped, "And it couldn't have been one of yours?"

Despite the fact that they could only see the bottom half of Firehawk's face, they could all see the way that it closed off with that comment. Her voice was like ice cold fire when she hissed, "Don't you ever insinuate that we have betrayed each other." Red Arrow set his jaw and obviously bit back a retort.

Aqualad again worked to diffuse the tension, "Superboy, what is it?"

"It's the Light." Firehawk answered clearly.

"How do you know?" Artemis asked, instantly suspicious.

Firehawk spared her a disdainful glance, "That bird call? It was a warning system. One call to warn of an intruder. Three short calls and a long one to indicate that it was the Light."

Superboy expanded on her answer, "There are about twenty enemies. We're surrounded. It sounds like Ra's al Ghul's people."

Aqualad glanced at the member of the Circus and apparently came to the same conclusions Robin had. He said, "Firehawk, you should go back to the other Circus members. We will handle this threat and you can come back when it is safe."

Firehawk turned to him and gave him an affronted look, "Are you serious? If anything, you guys should stay back. I wouldn't want you guys to get hurt in a real fight." Red Arrow was about to snap something at her, but then she started… changing.

The mask fell away as her skin darkened to a slightly golden tan, cheekbones sharpening. Robin didn't get a chance to see what color her eyes were before the entire eyeball was covered in a glowing white sheen, obscuring her pupils, irises, and sclera. Burnt orange hair burst into bright white flames that matched the new color of her eyes. Long red and orange blades of feathers sprouted from her arms, white fire rippling to life around her wrists and ankles. Her normal, everyday clothes were replaced with a skin tight black suit dominated by an orange hawk. She was a completely different person.

With a smirk that said exactly what she was thinking, Firehawk shot into the air, hovering above them and looking around the clearing. Robin looked around too, trying to spot one of the interlopers. No matter what she said, he wasn't going to sit back and watch her fight them by herself.

Before he got a chance to even spot one of the enemies, though, Firehawk was blasting that bright white fire at a clump of Ra's al Ghul's assassins. As the assassins dodged, Firehawk mentally pushed the fire towards their retreating forms. The group of assassins hit the ground hard, clothes smoking and bodies unmoving. The Team watched, wide-eyed, as Firehawk single-handedly took out the gathered forces, not even giving them a chance to fight back as she struck them all down.

She settled herself to the ground, landing delicately. The fire around her wrists and ankles didn't seem to actually be burning the ground.

Artemis and Red Arrow both had tight grips on their bows, but they hadn't fitted arrows yet. Robin himself had a batarang ready and Aqualad's water bearers were seconds away from activating.

Firehawk bared her teeth at them, "Seriously? This is how you treat your first sight of a Circus meta? That says a lot for what an alliance between our two groups would be like. I'm real impressed. Maybe we should rethink our stance on this subject."

Aqualad mentally sent out, Put away your weapons. We cannot lose this alliance. The metahumans are skilled.

Out loud, he said, "We are putting our weapons away. We were merely startled. You had not given off the impression of being so… powerful."

Firehawk pursed her lips, but relaxed a little bit.

Suddenly, there was a trilling call of a bird. There was a pause while the Team tensed, not sure what this meant. It wasn't the same call that had been given when there were intruders. What was going on?

Firehawk, though, relaxed even further, a fond smile softening her features, "I guess there's going to be a team up after all. The leader's given permission. The others are coming out."

The first one was a small green bird. It made the same happy trilling noise that it had made earlier. Firehawk smiled at the creature that landed briefly on her shoulder, "This is Changeling."

The reason for his name became apparent quite quickly when the bird flew to the ground and started shifting, feathers disappearing and bones rearranging themselves. Within the blink of an eye, there was a teenaged boy with green skin, pointed ears, and a cheap domino mask obscuring his eyes. There was a little fang sticking out of his lips. He was wearing a skintight purple and black suit. Changeling grinned at them and waved cheerfully. It was obvious that he had none of the hesitance Firehawk had come into the situation with.

Firehawk waved a hand towards the trees, "This is Ballistic." A huge, towering figure – probably the one Superboy had identified as being strangely shaped – came out of the trees. His mass of black hair was held back by a green cowl, eyes completely white and skin a red plated armor. There were two little horns sticking out of his chin. He was armed to the teeth with weapons. Ballistic came to a stop next to Firehawk, towering over her completely. She didn't seem overly concerned with the monster towering over her. Robin had to force himself not to outwardly react to the figure. Some of the others weren't as controlled and Firehawk's lips twisted in disappointment. Ballistic seemed unconcerned with their reactions, probably used to it.

"This is Black Canary and Jinx." Firehawk nodded her head towards the two girls who came out from behind the bioship. Black Canary was tall and beautiful, domino mask covering her face, but clothing not doing much to cover the rest. Her body piece left all of her legs covered only by fishnet leggings and was rather low hanging on the top. She was wearing a choker and a dark blue, quarter sleeve jacket. Her fingerless gloves were a black leather that matched her mid-calf boots. Jinx, though, had an uninterested set to her face, the rest covered by a black domino mask. Her hair was bubblegum pink and defied gravity in two upwards pigtails. She was stick thin with black and purple clothing that leaned towards a gothic design. Her feet were swallowed by huge purple and black shoes. Her skin was legitimately grey.

Two more guys came out next, Firehawk introducing them as, "Maser and Icicle." Maser was fitted out in an electric blue suit with bright yellow elbow gloves and midthigh yellow boots. His collar was a huge lightning bolt that ended at his waist. He had an electric blue cowl with yellow sticks pointing upwards over his ears. Icicle was literally made of ice, joints extenuated with sharp points of ice. His eyes were bright blue and his hair shockingly white. He had on a dark blue tank top with only a belt of ice to separate it from the black pants. His feet were bare, toes made of claws of ice.

Firehawk smiled then, fond and proud, "And here's the fearless leader: Supersonic."

The suit was a light grey, the boots, gloves, and a lightning bolt belt in a darker grey. His cowl was open at the top, letting loose a mane of wild red waves. His chest was left empty, no recognizable symbol. Most importantly, though, he was obviously a teenager.

Red Arrow focused in on that point, asking incredulously, "Seriously? You're lead by a kid?"

"Thank you. That makes me feel great about myself." Supersonic deadpanned, expression completely straight.

"Hey, no hating on the fearless leader." Icicle said, grinning broadly at Supersonic, who simply ignored him. Icicle pouted at him.

Firehawk gave the impression of rolling her eyes, "Do you see why they send me out first to make a good impression? The rest of these losers would lose people's interest in two seconds flat. Completely useless."

Changeling stuck out his lower lip and whined, "They'd send me if I wasn't such a good warning system. I'm friendly! And not useless!"

"I greatly doubt the second one." Jinx stated blandly, observing her nails.

"Guys." Supersonic said, pinching his nose. The rest of the group straightened to attention immediately, perking Robin's interest. That was some impressive control that the leader had over the rest of the Circus. They hung on his every word. Supersonic continued, "Sorry about them. We're not used to people. If you're still interested in an alliance, we're willing to offer ourselves to it, along with all the information we have or will get in the future. But, if we're going to hash out the details of that, then this isn't the best place. It's already been compromised." There wasn't a hint of accusation in his voice when he pointed that out, which Robin appreciated.

Robin sent out telepathically, Where else is safe?

The only safe places I can think of are the Watchtower and the Cave and I don't really think we want to bring them back there, Artemis answered immediately.

It would be a show of trust? Zatanna pointed out, sending out a metal shrug to go with it.

Rocket mentally pursed her lips, Then why don't they bring us to their place?

Aqualad's voice in their head was stern when he responded, This is probably very difficult for them. The Circus has never worked with another organization before and the Justice League has tried to capture them on multiple occasions. It would not be fair to ask them to give up their base.

And it's fair for us to? Artemis asked angrily.

The Team was broken out of their silent conversation by Black Canary clearing her throat slightly, "We have a safe house not that far from here. If you'd like, we can lead you there and we'll finish our meeting in the house."

Robin raised an eyebrow, more than a little surprised at their willingness to burn a safe house like that. Aqualad inclined his head to them, "We would be grateful if you would take us in like that."

Supersonic nodded decisively, "Then that's what we'll do."

Author's Note: Yay! There's the next chapter! Alright, as per usual, I'm going to have a vote on who you want Wally's love interest to be. No Spitfire, no Birdflash, and no WallyxDinah because I've already written those, and I want to try something new. Only one vote per person per chapter! I'm going to ask for two reviews for another chapter! Thanks for reading this!