2.

With the door locked, M'gann sat in her new room alone with a framed photo of the original team in her lap. It was a shot of them shortly after Artemis joined the group, making six of them and all. A smile crossed her lips as she ran her finger tips over each image of her friends.

She felt a lump in her throat develop as she stared at the picture. Kaldur had his hands on his hips, standing proudly as a leader should. All this time she thought he had left the team after the death of the woman he loved and became a traitor to them all, which was only cemented when he had "killed" Artemis. Beside him stood Robin who was giving a wide smile as he held one of his birdarangs. In times of danger, one cackle from him would be enough to tell them everything would be okay and he has since become a great leader when he took over that position for the team. She herself stood between him and Conner with her back straight, chest out, and hands clasped behind her back as she tried to strike as heroic of a pose as she could. When she first came to earth she was nervous about making any friends and being accepted, but that proved to be an unnecessary thought as the five strangers from Earth that would make up the team readily and wholeheartedly accept her for who she truly was. Conner had his arms crossed over his chest and a near invisible smirk. She could feel her lips curl slightly as she remembered she was responsible for putting it on him in the first place. He was the first one she gave her heart to. Always strong-willed and stubborn, he may be a hot head, but there was no one else they would rather have depended on to look out for them all.

At the end of the group was Wally who was giving a thumbs up. He was always ready with a joke to alleviate the stress the team was under during missions but was always serious when it came down to it. He, like Conner, had his actions speak louder than his words. At the very end of the original lineup was Artemis, her Earth sister they thought to have been killed in action by their former leader, stood resting her bow across her shoulders. It was a shock to discover she was alive and working undercover with Kaldur this entire time. While at times they she and Wally were at each other's throats or lightly ribbing each other playfully, it was clear that when push came to shove, they would always have each other's backs.

They were closer than friends, they were a family. It was both amazing and sad how much had changed between them in the last five years and she wanted nothing more than to put it back the way it was with all of them together again.

Without warning, a loud boom shook the walls of her room, making her gasp and jump into the air where she hovered and sent out a psychic pulse to find out the cause of the disturbance. What she saw in her mind's eye made her eyes grow wide in fear.

Back in the training area, Conner and L'gaan were going toe to toe. Punches were thrown, kicks were delivered, and vicious comments about one another were yelled. Both delivered hard hits on the other with Conner being the only one who was holding back his full strength. He didn't want to destroy the second place that was his home after all.

"Someone's gotta stop this," Batgirl said.

"Is that something you want to do?" Jamie asked her. "What? No, I will not vaporize them both," he told his scarab.

"Just let them get it out," Nightwing told everyone. "This was a long time coming. And just…try to stay out of their way."

"Are you sure about that?" Mal asked. He looked at Nightwing who was palming a small gray sphere. "What's that?"

"Sleeping gas ball. Just in case."

Lifting Conner over his head, L'gaan slammed him down hard on the concrete floor. Leaving him in a crater, the awkward looking fish humanoid was ready to slam his fists on him when he was hit in the chest by hard left hook from the super powered clone. Falling back, he regained his balance and threw a punch of his own. It was caught single-handedly by Conner, who also caught his left fist as it came from overhead.

Feeling the strength of his adversary, L'gaan grew angry at the fact that he was nowhere near as strong as Conner was and resulted to fighting dirty. Before falling to his knees, the Atlantean wound up one of his toothpick like legs and delivered a kick with all his strength directly to Conner's crotch. It was a move he came to immediately regret as it felt as if his leg was broken.

"Son of… What was that?" Bumblebee asked as L'gaan let out a pain filled yell.

"Um, the words, 'Man of Steel' come to mind," Robin said.

"And so does the word, 'ouch'," Cassie added.

As the Atlantean hobbled on one leg, Conner adjusted his "lower region" with a grunt then rushed his adversary. He leapt up to hook L'gaan's head over his shoulder and fell to the ground, landing on his back and bringing his aquatic foe to the floor head first. Getting back to his feet, Conner grabbed his opponent by the throat and picked him up. He cocked his fist back, preparing to deliver the finishing blow when he saw M'gann appear out of thin air with a worried and surprised expression beside Jamie and Cassie. One look at her made his hate filled glare fade into something of an apologetic look.

Looking back at his teammate, Conner wanted so much to deliver that punch but the thought of what he would do to M'gann made him think otherwise. So instead, he lowered his fist and pushed the Atlantean away. Despite what he had done, he didn't look at him or anyone else. He just swallowed his anger and walked away with a grunt.

"Hey, we're not done yet, you sorry excuse for copy!" L'gaan yelled after him. "You walk away, I win!"

As much as Conner wanted to put him into the ground, he forced himself not to and instead punched a reinforced wall. A thunderous boom erupted from where his fist impacted it and left a large didn't in the metal before he headed to the hanger.

"Well, I guess training's over for today," Nightwing said, not noticing M'gann was glaring at him.

Without another word, the Martian girl made a beeline for her room, leaving behind her teammates and the injured humanoid fish.

"Wolf, stay," Conner told his pet, which it obeyed as he called for Sphere. "Bike, now." The alien object morphed into its super cycle mode and waited for him to climb on.

"Conner! Wait!"

Turning from his spot on Sphere, Conner saw Garfield running towards him. "What do you want, Gar?"

"You didn't have to do that," the green apelike youth said.

"Gar, I don't need a lecture right now."

"No, I mean, you didn't have to stand up for me back there."

"Yeah, well…"

"Can I come with you?"

"For what?"

"Just to get out of here. For a little fresh air maybe?"

Looking the kid over, Conner didn't feel like having company at the moment but the look on his face, somewhere between hopefulness and hurtful, changed his mind. He remembered what their so-called teammate told him and figured there might be more to it than what was said during training. "Fine. I guess we could both use a breather."

Garfield's face lit up at his words and he quickly climbed aboard. He took a seat in front of Conner and held on tight as he took off into the evening sky.

Screams filled the air. Roars, snarls, the sound of running feet were heard where Conner and Garfield sat with a couple of bags of McDonald's food beside them. A woman screamed for help as her ex-husband and friend shouted for her to get in the surrounding trees. It was chaos as they ran from several large creatures who were trying to eat them.

"So, you always come here?" Garfield asked as he took a bite of a cheeseburger.

"Whenever I want to be alone," Conner replied through a mouthful of fries. "Gives me time to think."

"You like being alone, huh?"

"I am alone, Gar. The original team is pretty much gone. The new ones mostly stick to themselves. Superman's who knows where right now."

"And sis is with you know who. Really don't like him."

"You and me both."

A moment passed as they ate a few bites of food. "You ever think of getting back together with-"

"Eat your cheeseburger, Gar. Just…please…eat your cheeseburger." The words came out a little too quickly than Conner intended.

Getting the answer he wanted, Garfield grinned and bit into his burger.

The two sat on a building's ledge, which was across a street from the park. A large screen was erected for a large group of people who were sitting around it on blankets with their families or dates. Large speakers boomed out the audio from the movie on the screen. Because of Conner's super hearing and Garfield's enhanced animal hearing, they could listen to the dialogue and sound effects quite easily from their position.

"So how long have you been coming here? This place is pretty cool," Garfield asked. "Aside from all the pigeon poop that is."

Letting out a sigh after swallowing a bite of his Big Mac, Conner thought back to when he first found the movie playing park event. "About…three, four years, maybe. They were playing Lord of the Rings when I found it." He took sip of his drink. "I used to have a broom stick with a scraper at the end up here but I guess someone moved it last time the roof was cleaned."

"Does anyone else know about this place?"

"Just M'gann from when we, you know."

"Did you two sit up here or go down in the park?"

"Garfield, let's not talk about that."

The youngster nodded, knowing he had stumbled onto a sore subject. "So what else do they show here?"

"Mostly movies for families. I've seen the new Walking Tall, Never Back Down, the original Wolfman, some Abbott and Costello movies, Avatar, and um… Tangled."

"Tangled?" Garfield asked with a chuckle. "You watched Tangled?"

"It was a week after the cave blew up, my movie list with what they were playing was blown up with it, so I didn't know what they were showing. And I wasn't going back after just getting here."

"Okay, whatever you say, super softie. I believe you."

Conner glanced at his young partner but didn't use a scowl. "You know, you're one of the few that doesn't get on my nerves. And none of this leaves the rooftop, understood?"

"Noted. And might I add, I'll be trying harder at my job from now on."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you know anything about little siblings? It's our job to annoy anyone older than us."

Conner cocked an eyebrow at him. "Then by that logic, shouldn't I be annoying you? You're thirteen, I'm barely six."

"Semantics," Garfield said with a grin. "But don't worry, I won't be like Wally or…you know who." He puffed out his cheeks as he placed his hands on the sides of his head and fanned out his fingers.

Conner let out a light laugh at his gesture. "Thank goodness for that."

After some time had passed, the superpowered duo witnessed a boy in the movie reunited with his mother and father. The three hugged each other with large fence between them but a large beast found the group and began to chase them down with a mouth full of sharpened teeth bearing down on them.

"Hey, Gar, you ever tried morphing into one of those?" Conner asked after taking a sip from his drink.

"Something that big? No I haven't tried. I don't even know if I'm capable of doing that."

"Please, if you can morph into an alien bird that's smaller than you, then you should have no problem morphing into something that big." The elder looking of the two looked at the kid and faintly grinned. "Just imagine the look on L'gaan's face if he had to fight you like that."

Garfield couldn't help but let out a laugh. "I can just see him running back into the ocean and hiding under a reef."

After sharing a light laugh, both settled back into watching the movie for a moment until Garfield spoke up again. "Conner? Can ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Am, am I a burden?"

"A burden?" Conner asked with a confused look. "What makes you think you're a burden?"

"It's just…something L'gaan said."

"When did he tell you that?"

"Shortly before M'gann or you came out of your rooms." Garfield sat with this head down and twiddled his thumbs.

"What else did he say?" Conner asked as he turned to face him better.

"You heard. He said I shouldn't be on the team. That the only reason I'm here is because you all felt sorry for me." Garfield's voice sounded as if it were on the verge of breaking. "He said the only reason you're nice to me is so you could stay on M'gann's good side. And that I… I…"

"Garfield, when have we ever made you feel like that?"

The young boy wiped his eyes as tears began to fall. He tried to hold them back but it was no use. The sight of him trying not to cry and the sound of his sniffling made Conner feel slightly uneasy. Knowing what he should do, but not being used to doing it, he rubbed the back of his neck before looking at the sobbing kid.

"Um, Gar? I don't do this much, but…" Reaching over, Conner draped in arm over Garfield's shoulder and brought him into a one armed hug to which the youth latched onto him as he continued to cry.

"Um, Garfield, you're not a burden. When I was created, I didn't have anyone. Superman turned his back on me and I didn't know what I was supposed to do besides be angry. I felt the same way you do. The team made me see differently. M'gann made me feel differently. Just because we took you in when you had no one to turn to, doesn't make you a burden. We, we did feel sorry for you when your mom died but that's not the reason we brought you here with us. We like you. Robin saw you as a little brother, the same for, for Kaldur and Artemis. You were like a best friend to Wally, and M'gann loves you like a brother. She's even told you. Everyone on the team likes you. And, and you're like a little brother to me too."

After wiping his eyes, Garfield looked up at Conner. "You mean it? You're not just saying that?"

"Gar, when have you ever known me to lie?"

Sitting up, Garfield wiped his face clean. "You don't."

"Look," Conner began. "I don't know what his problem is, but L'gaan doesn't speak for us, most definitely not for me. Next time he tells you something like that again, come get me. I'll put him in his place. But you're not a burden."

"Conner?" Garfield said as he continued to hold onto him. "Thanks for being like a dad."

"A dad, huh?"

Realizing what he said, Garfield sat back up and saw his teammate looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "That…that doesn't leave the rooftop."

Conner stared at the youth for a moment before reaching for his drink. He took a sip than leaned in towards him. "Noted."

It was a word that made Garfield's smile return.

After the movie was over, Conner and Garfield boarded Sphere and took to the air. Neither wanted to stay and watch the second film, Creature from the Black Lagoon. It wasn't until they were nearly home when Sphere picked up on something familiar. Both team members instantly went on alert as the other dimensional vehicle headed for the cause of the signal.

At the edge of the city limits, a group of thugs were loading up a semi-trailer with large crates. Several of them were armed with Apocalyptic technology and were standing guard around those driving forklifts and pallet jacks.

"What do you think is in those?" Garfield asked as he had his eyes become as sharp as an eagle's.

"One word, trouble," Conner said as he steered Sphere to an undisclosed area.

AN: Just for reference, the move Conner used to bring fish-lame down…was an RKO. Who knew he was fan of WWE's Randy Orton?