Hey! So...I broke my toe (I feel like a failure. I finally break a bone and it's just my pinky toe? How lame-ass can I get?) and I have a super nasty cold so I figured I better get to work on this while I still have a chance to be lazy.
To clear up the confusion I left from the last chapter(sorry about that btw)...IF YOU DO NOT REVIEW MORE THAN TWO CHAPTERS IN A ROW I WILL CONTACT YOU WITH A WARNING! THREE STRIKES, AND I WILL FEEL YOUR NOT DEDICATED ENOUGH TO THE STORY AND START DOING WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT WITH YOUR CHARACTER!
Is that fair? Three strikes you're out? All I really need is a smiley face or something to prove you're keeping up.
Anyway, on with the story!
"Talking"
Mind Link
Thoughts
They were walking down a busy street in the middle of Central City (A/N haha get it? the MIDDLE of CENTRAL City? Ugh...Wally's rubbing off on me...) and to anyone else they would look like just another group of normal kids. But they weren't normal, not in any way: they were on a mission. One of the most important missions in their lifetime, and maybe beyond that- it was something that could affect the entire universe. Not just speaking Earth.
Superboy was going to try ice-cream.
After Wally had offered, it was revealed that the Boy of Steel had never before tried the delicious substance.
"We definitely need to start you off with the basics. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Then you can get into the more complex flavors like cookie dough, coffee, butter pecan-"
"Okay, we already know that food is probably the most complex thing your brain can process, but will you give it a rest already?" Artemis snapped at 'Kid Mouth', "I mean honestly, it's just ice-cream!"
The redhead gave her a wounded look, "Just ice-cream? Just ice-cream! What? Are you even human?" With a glance at Conner and Megan he smiled awkwardly, and amended his statement. Do I ever stop screwing up? He thought in his mind, before re-correcting himself, "Do you have a soul? Every single creature in all the universe loves ice-cream! No ifs, ands or buts! It's just a fact of life. Especially with teenage girls. Don't you all just spend your days eating the stuff, crying while listening to Adele?"
Artemis pushed up her jacket sleeves and began to walk towards Wally, "That's it Baywatch, if you don't shut your trap now, I will personally buy an ice-cream cone just to shove it up your-"
"Is this the place Wally?" Kaldur interrupted, pushing the two apart and pointing to the sign above; ignoring the amused, cackling Robin beside him. It was the only white building in the plaza, while the rest were brick. The building bore an old-school gold sign that read, "Colton's Homemade Ice-Cream." There was also an empty area where chairs used to be, but it was too cold in November for anyone sane to eat ice-cream outside.
"Yep. This is it," He replied, backing up and walking around Artemis to avoid getting the crap beaten out of him, "Hey Stephen!"
"Wally! You haven't been here in ages man!" Behind the counter was a guy in his early twenties, with brown hair, green eyes and a goofy smile; grinning he asked, "Who are your friends?"
"This is Conner, Megan, Kal, Artemis the witch with a capital 'B', and…" He frowned, as it annoyed him to death that he still didn't know his best friend's real name. "Robin," he covered, before turning to address the group, "Guys, this is Stephen Colton. His dad owns this place."
"You come here a lot Wally?" Megan asked.
Stephen snorted, "Try almost every day."
"Hey! Fast metabolism!"
"Considering how much you eat, I don't think even the Flash has a metabolism as fast as yours," Stephen smiled. The group laughed knowingly, "So, what'll it be today guys?"
"Oh! I'll have...cookies n' cream," M'gann decided, her eyes scanning the flavors on display with enthusiasm.
"Got it. Usual for you Wally?"
"Mint chocolate chip," Wally confirmed, "With an extra scoop. And Conner here's gonna have vanilla."
"I guess I'm having vanilla."
"Roger that."
"Coffee please," Came Kaldur's decision.
"Will do."
"Rocky road," Robin said nonchalantly, leaning on the countertop airily.
"Heh. Rockin' Robin. Like the song." Stephen paused, a wide smile coming onto his face, "God, Wally, you're rubbing off on me!" (A/N see? I'm not alone!)
"Am not!"
"How else do you explain all the bad puns coming outta my mouth recently? Totally you're fault. How 'bout you Artie? May I call you Artie?"
"Depends. And peanut butter."
"How come he can call you Artie?" Wally complained, "Not fair!"
"I don't hate him."
"Worst. Day. Ever." Wally frowned and grudgingly bought their ice-cream, with constant glares at a certain smirking Boy Wonder. They sat down at the only available table, nearest to the window, all staring expectantly at Superboy, who was looked at his friends in a sort of creeped out way.
"What?" He finally asked.
"We are waiting for you to start your first ice-cream Conner," Kaldur informed him with a smile.
"Wait! Wait!" Robin suddenly exclaimed, pulling out his phone and pointing the lens at a bewildered Conner, "Now go!"
Slowly, still staring at his friends, he took a bite of the weird cold, solid substance. Robin's camera flash went off immediately afterwards, temporarily blinding everyone at the table. "It's pretty good." He confessed, after a moment.
Cheers went up, and Wally demanded that he finish so he could try other flavors, to which Artemis told him to let Conner actuallyfinish first. Wally then told her to butt out and that she was making a big deal over nothing.
"Me? You're the one who-" They both stopped short when Robin took another photo.
"What was that?" Wally asked.
"I'm taking photos for your wedding scrapbook," He told them with a casual shrug, his eyes still concentrated on his phone screen.
"WE'RE NOT GETTING MARRIED! EVER!" They both screamed in horror.
Only for Robin to take another picture and start laughing his signature laugh at them in amusement, showing them the picture.
"This is a keeper. You guys both have the same look on your faces!" he laughed, licking the remnant ice-cream off his spoon.
"Dude! Not cool!" Wally huffed, before turning his head and instantly getting pulled off topic by a group of five snickering teenage girls. They seemed to be ranging from the ages twelve to about fifteen. "Hey Megalicious? Tell me what they're saying."
"I thought I wasn't supposed to read minds!" she countered, looking a little confused.
"Never mind. How 'bout you Conner? A little super-hearing would be helpful."
"Um, sure," Conner agreed, not really knowing any better, "Well, the tall blond is telling the short brunette to come over here. I think she wants to talk to Robin." Robin just smirked smugly, shooting a cocky look over at Wally. Said boy starting saying something, before changing the sentence: completely flabbergasted that hisyoungerbest friend could score easier than him.
Artemis just turned slightly, sneering down at Wally with slightly, well-practiced disgust.
Indifferently, 'Supey' added, "Yeah, her friends are telling her to come over and flirt with him."
"That's so cute!" M'gann squealed.
Wally finally composed himself, started ushering his friend, "Whatcha waiting for, man? She's into you! All you gotto do is go up to her. It's in the bag!"
"I don't know Wally. Not really my type," Robin brushed off, shrugging one shoulder coolly.
"Whadyamean? She's about as hot as a thirteen year old can get!"
The girl in question was still whispering with her friends, sneaking little glances at Robin from the corner of her eye.
"Well for one thing, I don't know her. And her hairs too straight," The Boy Wonder waved off again.
"Boys," Artemis shook her head exasperatedly, rolling her eyes.
Eventually the group of girls left, without talking to Robin.
So instead the group spent the next half hour just getting Superboy to try different types of ice-cream.
"Hey Stephen! Double chocolate chunk!" Wally called. "Hurry!"
"Why is this so important?" Stephen asked, rolling his eyes at Wally.
"Oh, um.. he has amnesia and this is to help jog his memory?"
"...okay," Stephen blinked and got the ice-cream out. The entire table glared at Wally for his lame excuse.
"What? I didn't see any of you contributing ideas!" he defended himself.
"Why double chocolate?" Conner asked, a little out-of-it.
"Well so far your favorites have involved a little bit of chocolate, so as the expert I am, I think this one'll be a-"
Kaldur's cell phone suddenly beeped, cutting Wally off completely.
"Training," Kaldur informed the team, slightly disappointed, "We have to go now if we're to make it."
"Ugh! Hey Stephen! Forget that last one! We gotta go okay?" Wally called over.
"See ya later Wall-man. Nice meeting you guys!"
"Why did we have to come so far away from the zeta-beam?" Artemis complained as they walked into the deserted alley, kicking an empty Chinese take-out carton in repulsion.
"Was it, or was it not the best ice-cream you've ever had?" Wally demanded.
The blond smirked mischievously, "Not."
"What? You cannot be serious right now! How can you e-"
"Wally! Move!" M'gann tried to warn as a brunette, looking over her shoulder, collided into him.
"Oof!" they both simultaneously uttered, falling to the ground. Rubbing his butt in slight pain, Wally dusted himself up and stood.
"Sorry about that," He apologized, reaching out his hand to give her a lift up; when he stopped dead; eyes widening in pure shock as he got a better look at the girl.
Artemis gasped.
The girl was about fifteen years old, with chocolate brown hair that reached her shoulder blades and grey-green eyes. She was massaging her head from the fall, scanning over the group of teens now surrounding her. But none of that was out of the ordinary.
It was what she was wearing.
A white Cadmus suit.
"No way," Robin's eyes widened behind his dark-glasses.
Her head snapped to him as she jumped to her feet, shaking slightly in evident terror. "Get back!" She cried, revealing a thick southern accent.
"We've been looking for you!" Wally cried, immediately regretting his choice of words. As her eyes widened in horror and she struggled to shove past Conner, who was still staring at her in shock. "Wait. That might've come off wrong!" Wally desperately hollered after her.
"It's okay! We mean no harm!" Kaldur interjected, trying to calm her down as he walked towards her.
"No! Stay away from me!" She screamed, backing up into Megan.
"You're Alyson Roth right? We're not going to hurt you. I promise," The Martian soothed her gently.
"How do you know my name?"
"You've been missing for a while right? It's been on the news. That's what doofus over there meant," Artemis assured her, jabbing her thumb in Wally's direction.
"Just stay back!"
"Look, if you'll-" M'gann began.
"Don't come closer!"
"Please, just-"
"I said stay over there!"
"I really don't want to do this-" Robin cut in, raising a wary brow, gripping something concealed beneath his jacket.
"I'll scream, I swear, I-" But then the brunette suddenly fainted.
Right on cue, from impulse reaction, Kaldur swept in, catching her just before she hit the ground "Robin?" He demanded, "What did you do?"
The hero in question was tucking his utility belt back under his jacket. "I just knocked her out for a little."
"What do we do? Call the police?" Artemis asked, biting the bottom of her lip worriedly.
"We can't just take something this big to the police. Batman was called in. We have to take her back to the cave," Robin said, before looking to Kaldur for approval.
"If Cadmus is involved... Artemis, go in first and set the zeta-tubes to guest."
"Got it," She affirmed, walking inside the zeta-tube. There was a flash of light and she disappeared quickly.
Conner? asked telepathically, already picking up something was off about the Kryptonian. Are you okay?
I'm...I'm fine, He replied, although it sounded rushed and a little breathless.
Are you-
"It's done. Send her in," Artemis informed everyone abruptly, cutting off their link.
"You're all late," Black Canary frowned standing next to Batman. She had been waiting in the training room for ten minutes now. If Batman was going to ruin her date, he could've at least made sure that the team was- "Who on Earth is that?" she blurted, abandoning her complaining thought.
Slowly, she raised an eyebrow as the unconscious girl, floating in front of M'Gann, came into full view. Batman's eyes widened slightly when he saw what she was wearing, but he quickly brushed off the initial shock.
"We found her running in the street outside the zeta transporters," Kaldur explained, "She was terrified of something, and we didn't really help the situation by surrounding her." Leaving out the bit where Robin had knocked her out, he added, "She passed out soon afterwards."
"She was freaking out because of Kid Mouth over here," Artemis glared, "If he hadn't gone all, 'We've been looking for you,' everything would have been-"
"Enough," Batman shushed authoritatively, "Did any of you bother to identify this?" He stared at them pointedly before he uncovered a ring on her finger.
It was the symbol of the Green Lanterns.
"She's waking up!" M'gann hissed to Kaldur.
Batman had decided that since the team had been the last people Alyson had seen, it was best that they were the first she saw when she regained consciousness. To avoid any more scary 'misunderstandings'.
But he also made a point of having them in civvies, although Wally had to wear his goggles and Artemis- her dark shades; for similar reasons as Robin.
"We're not sure what Cadmus did to her," He had told the team, "We don't want to risk anything."
Alyson groaned and began to squirm, as if on cue.
"Hello?" Miss Martain said soothingly, "Alyson? My name is Megan. Are you feeling okay?"
The brunette rubbed her eyes and slowly opened them, "Please," She managed, though her voice was drowsy, "No more tests,"
"Tests? This cannot be good," Kaldur muttered, "Alyson, we're going to go get...a doctor okay? She's going to perform a few basic te- She's going to check up on you. M'gann, go get...BC."
"Alright," M'Gann nodded, before walking until she was out of Alyson's line of vision. Only then did she allow herself to fly out of the room.
"Where am I?" Alyson queried, "Who are y'all?"
"Just relax okay? We'll answer your questions later," Artemis promised.
"But-"
"You can barely talk. Give it a minute, okay?"
The doors flew open and M'gann quickly landed, with Black Canary behind her, wearing a medical mask.
"Hello Alyson," Black Canary said, "How are you feeling?"
"The sedative is only starting to wear off, so she's still a little drowsy," KF informed her.
"She can speak for herself. And I'd be plenty better if someone would get rid of these handcuffs," Alyson quipped, rattling her left arm which was handcuffed to the bed, "And tell me what's going on!"
"Touchy!" Wally mumbled under his breath.
"I have a few questions for you first. As soon as you answer them, I'll tell you as much as I can. Does that sound fair?" Black Canary bargained with the girl. Who only narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Why should I trust you? All I know about y'all is that ya were looking for me, and now you've kidnapped me! Does that notsound quite fishy?" Alyson retorted hotly.
The older blonde hero closed her eyes in thought, trying to come up with a way to get the patient to trust her. "We'll be right back okay? Team, come with me."
"Wait! You can't just leave me here! Where the hell are y'all going?"
They could still hear her screaming at them even when the door to the infirmary had closed. M'gann cast a guilty glance backwards, "Shouldn't we just..."
"I don't think we have another choice Megan," Black Canary said, with a sad smile at the young Martian, "We have to figure out what's going on with her before we, ourselves, give anything away. We don't want to risk secret identities. And we also don't know what Cadmus had done to her; she could very well still be under the control of G-gnomes." Noticing through her side vision Superboy's restless twitching, she turned her attention on him, asking, "Are you okay Conner?"
"What...What about those other kids? Were they kidnapped by Cadmus too? Because I know what kind of tests she's talking about. We have to help them!" Superboy ranted, looking as if he physically wanted to pull his hair out.
"Whoa! Calm down Supey," Robin calmed, "We have to get her to trust us if we're going to do anything, at all."
It's okay Conner. We'll find a way. I promise, M'gann appeased him mentally, shooting him several deep, meaningful looks. She had never been in a Cadmus building, but Conner had told her a few of his hazy recounts and it sounded absolutely horrible. They treated him like a slave, and many of those so-called "tests" had involved Kryptonite. The bad kind.
"Batman!" Black Canary called to the Dark Knight: who was at the computers typing at speeds that could rival the Flash's, "We are getting nowhere. She doesn't trust us, and won't answer a thing. What we did figure out is that Cadmus has been performing tests on her, ones similar to the those performed on Superboy. Even that snippet wasn't given willingly. Any idea-" But she was cut off by the siren wail and the obstrusive flashing red lights that went with it. Batman growled and began to type again in fast fervor.
"What is going on?" Kaldur questioned, glancing around the room warily.
Batman turned and to give the team a long stare, "Did anyone bother to remove the ring from the potential Green Lantern clone?"
They all looked down sheepishly.
"I am so grounded," Robin mumbled so no one could hear. Probably a week without Call of Duty, and he'd have to wash the Batmobile. Again.
Batman had pulled up the security camera's to reveal that Alyson had in fact escaped the room. Not just the room, but practically the other side of the mountain, running to a zeta-beam.
At Batman's pointed glare, Artemis grabbed Wally by the collar, pulled his ear closer to her mouth and hissed into it, "You idiot! You have super-speed! Go after her!"
"Ow! Was that really necessary?"
"Just go!" She shoved him between the shoulder-blades, causing him to stumble slightly before accelerating off before she could blink. The rest of the team began to chase after him, pulling out their battle items, when Batman ordered them to stop.
"What? Why?" M'gann dissented, hovering up and down impatiently.
"I was assigned to this case, not you. If Kid Flash doesn't reach her in time to bring her back here: I will pursue her instead."
"We can do this! We've done more complicated things than find a teenage girl before!" Robin protested while Batman turned and continued to work on the computer. And he's ignoring us. Great.
"We don't know what lengths Cadmus will go to just to get her back. She could be a trap herself. And with five others, possibly like her, I'm not risking that. You are to stay out of this mission." Batman turned to them, "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir," They chorused begrudgingly, knowing better than to argue with a guy who could probably kill them with just a glare.
"Not whelming," Robin huffed, "Not whelming at all."
"You're the fastest kid alive! How could you not catch her?" Artemis exclaimed irately. They were in the kitchen and had been waiting for Wally to come back for about ten minutes. He filled Batman and Black Canary in on what happened (which wasn't much) before coming to his friends, and finding them all in uniform, all of them fidgeting in their seats edgily.
"Excuse me for not being able to fly! She made like a weird green jet pack thing or something with that ring and flew into the woods. How wasI supposed to catch her?"
"It doesn't matter Wally. You tried your best," M'gann pacified, as Kaldur flashed a stern look at Artemis, who just huffed irritably and continued to glare heatedly at Wally.
"What does matter is that we can do something about this. And here we are, sitting around, waiting for other people to save the day," Superboy growled. "We're not just a group of clueless little kids. And plus, I know more about Cadmus than anyone in the freaking Justice League! We found that girl. We should do something about her. Notthem."
He understood exactly why Alyson was so scared-Cadmus could very easily do that to someone. Conner felt like it was his responsibility to help those people, not just because they were the ones that had found her, but because he had some sort of odd connection to those kidnapped teens.
Everyone thought Conner's words over. They knewthat they should be doing something, and they, themselves, wanted to take action. The people taken were teens who had been thrust into the confusing world of superheroes, just like themselves.
"...all in agreement?" Kaldur finally asked.
"I!"
"I!"
"I!"
"I!"
"I!...Sohow are wegoing to find her?" Artemis inquired.
"Well, she flew into the woods. So, that's a start," Robin re-informed them, as he began typing on his holographic glove. "What direction KF?"
"Uh, north. But she could have changed directions, so that's really not that helpful."
"It's all we've got," Robin shrugged, with pursed lips.
"Wait, wait! Aren't we forgetting something pretty important?" Artemis realized, jerking forward in alarm.
"What?" came several replies.
"...who's going to tell the Green Lanterns?"
R.I.P Whitney Houston
And holy effing crap, Adele's taking a 5 year break? I'll be eighteen! Why would you do such a thing Adele? Some peoples careers don't even last that long!
Imma go do what Wally said us girls do: Eat ice-cream, cry, and listen to Adele.
And thannks soooooooo much to may totally amazing Beta, zhangk! She's totally amazing, and we're both New England girls! Even if she doesn't live here anymore...what a shame. I would have someone to share my boredom with.
Finally, the Green Lantern I will be focusing on is John Stewart. Because I'm a major Justice League Unlimited fan, so he's my favorite! =D
