New month, new chapter. I'll be busy tomorrow so I decided to post this one a day early.
Note!
Due the pool results, "extra story" can be found after the (long) final author notes
Thank you for all four people who answered to the pool (the one vote is from my own test answer). I'll leave pool open for another month to see if people change their minds after seeing this opinion in use.
Mount Justice
August 3, 13.00 EDT
"Hi, guys!" Dani called as soon as she materialised in the Zeta-Tube, looking much more cheerful than she normally was. She even managed to ignore the unpleasant feeling that the teleportation gave her for once. It had been almost two weeks since their first mission and Canary had finally managed to find time to train them. Almost a whole month after she had promised to do so…
"Hi, Dani" Megan waved to the other girl from the next to the floating hologram around which everyone else but Superboy had gathered. Wally and Kaldur seemed to be focused in some sort of game while the other two were either waiting their turn or already defeated.
"Since when we have had an air hockey in here?" Dani asked as she floated closer.
"Robin programmed it a while ago." Wally answered, deflecting the red puck back towards Kaldur who had to focus much harder to keep up with the speedster unnatural reflexes.
"It wasn't that hard." the Boy Wonder shrugged, not really sounding that modest while explaining "The system was already able to create 3D maps, so all I needed to do was to add couple extra codes to allow the movement and control of the puck and then I just loaded some sound effects."
"Cool" Dani stated simply "Can I play against the winner?"
"If you think you can beat me" Wally answered with cheeky smile, before vanishing from their sight for a second and appearing again with banana on his hand. And all this happened while Kaldur was sending the puck back towards his end of the table.
"Show of," Robin rolled his eyes.
To Kaldur's praise, he managed to keep up with Wally at least two more minutes before the speedster hit the puck behind his hand into the goal.
"Was that the third one?" Dani asked and Kaldur nodded, stepping aside to give the halfa room to take his place at the end of the table, while Wally munched his banana.
"Recognize: Superboy, B04" the robotic voice announced, and they all turned to look towards the Zeta-Tube where the last member of their team had arrived.
Dani tilted her head a little when she noticed the bad mood that was almost radiating from the boy as he walked towards them, curious to know what happened to make him so angry.
"Hi, Superboy." M'gann greeted him with happy smile "How was Metropolis?"
But the Kryptonian just ignored her, marching straight through their hockey table, causing it to disappear.
"Not well, apparently" Dani sighed and made a mental note to check the news after the training session. Whatever had happened to the boy while he had been on the city, it had surely created plenty of rumours about Superman having a son running around. Unless someone had given Superboy his DNA donor's civilian address and Supey had managed to have a talk with the man behind the suit, which Dani doubted greatly. She might know the man's first name, but even her was panned to know the secret that was Superman's civilian identity.
Dani's thoughts were interrupted when a newly arrived person cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Ready for training, everyone?" Canary asked as she walked in Martian Manhunter on her side.
"Black Canary! Uncle J'onn!" M'gann cried out happily, running to embrace her uncle.
"Megan," the older Martian smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder "I was in the neighbourhood, so I thought I'd see how you were adjusting."
"A few bumps, but I'm adjusting" Megan assured, while rest of us were standing nearby, not really wanting to disturb their family moment, but still impatient for Canary's session to start.
"That's all I can ask"
"Stick around." Canary's sharp voice cut in and every eye turned to stare towards Superboy who had tried to get away from the situation. "The class is in session"
Superboy stopped and turned around, looking like he was about to argue, but in the end settled for only crossing his arms and sulking there were he stood.
Walking to the center of the room, Black Canary activated the training program that would record their movements, making it easier for them to see their own mistakes afterwards.
Or at least that was how Robin had explained it to Dani the week before when he had challenged her to train with him. For old times sakes, he had said. In reality, the boy had just wanted to test his new boo-staff.
She turned to toward where majority of her students were standing. "I consider it an honour to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you." she warned and Dani grinned, exited by the challenge the older hero had just promised "Everything I learned from my own mentor-" Canary winced in pain while removing her jacket, revealing the bandage tied around her arm. The woman gave them a small and maybe a bit sheepish smile "And my own bruises."
"What happened," Megan asked, worry clear in her voice.
"The job," Canary answered simply, immediately moving back to her teaching mode. "Now, combat is about controlling the conflict. Putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting"
Canary gave the five of them challenging smile. "I'll need a sparring partner"
"Right here! Yeah" Kid lifted his hand before anyone else had even chance to open their mouth. Moving closer to Canary, he wolfed the remains of what had to be his second banana and threw the peel in to the trash at the side of the room. "After this. I'll show you my moves"
The look on Canary's face was enough to tell she was both used to weak flirting like Wally's -who Dani clearly needed to remind that flirting with an adult, dating, woman might not be a smart move- and how she was going to love beating the red-head's ego down from the stratosphere where he had lost it.
Canary didn't waste any time. She attacked, throwing her fist towards Wally's head. The boy managed to block the attack with his forearm but was taken off guard when Canary suddenly ducked down and swept him off from his feet.
When he hit the ground hard and with a loud thumb, the others could not but winced out of pure sympathy, no matter how much the boy had deserved it.
"Hurt so good" Wally groaned, sounding like he had gotten wind knocked out from him, before attempted to collect himself up from the floor.
"Good block" Black Canary complimented and offered him a helping hand. "But did anyone see what he did wrong?"
"Ooh, ooh. He hit on teacher and got served?" Robin suggested with a laugh.
"Dude!" Wally hissed back at him, embarrassed. Dani tried to hide her chuckle under a fake cough, Megan trying to do the same, but failing.
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-" Canary corrected with dead serious tone, her voice making it clear she wasn't going to allow them to fool around during her lesson. And yet, Superboy decided to interrupt the teacher.
"Oh, please" he scoffed, and Dinah, narrowing her eyes dangerously, turned her head just enough to see the teen behind her. "With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm living weapon, and this is waste of my time."
The other teens shared worried glances, arguing silently if one of them should cut in before the Boy of Steel would make a complete fool out of himself.
In Dani's opinion, Supey needed this. Their two first missions had proved that the boy relied too much on his powers, making him both predictable opponent for the bad guys to fight with, but also too reckless for the stealth missions in general.
And it looked like Black Canary had same ideas.
"Prove it" she challenged him with a smirk of a woman who was going to make you regret your words.
"Uh-oh" Dani sang under her breath, already knowing how this fight was going to end. Miss Martian glanced towards her then the older Martian on her side, worried to see what was going to happen, but then relaxed, most likely being calmed by J'onn's telepathic words.
Superboy lifted his brow, surprised to hear Canary, who everyone in the room knew to be physically weaker than him, actually wanted to fight him. Yet, he still walked to the center of the room, stopping to glare at the older hero, who didn't show any sights of backing down, before both of them lowered into the fighting positions.
As expected, Superboy was the first to act. He charged his fist towards Canary with speed that was unnatural to any normal human. And yet, Canary sidestepped, dodging the attack with ease and grabbed hold on his arm, throwing the boy on the ground just as hard as she had done to Wally only moments before.
Robin, being the child who he was, couldn't but laugh to his friend's misfortune, only trying to hide his giggles after Kaldur elbowed him and gave the boy warning look.
Superboy get back up on his feet and growled fury in his eyes, angered by both the humiliation their teacher had caused and the younger teen's mockery.
"You're angry," Canary stated calmly. "Good, but don't react. Chanel that anger into-"
The woman's teaching moment was interrupted when Superboy let out enraged roar and shot towards the hero like a feral animal. Once again, Black Canary was ready. She jumped over him, using Superboy's shoulders to control her flight and causing the boy to lose his balance for a moment. Blindly, Superboy swung his arm back, trying to hit his opponent, but the woman's lower position made him to miss. Unfortunately to him, Canary did not miss the easy opening he had given to her. With low kick, she swooped his legs of the ground, slamming Superboy back to the floor.
Dani grimaced. That last fall had looked pretty painful and judging from M'gann's reaction, she agreed with her.
And then there was Robin who just had to laugh again to Superboy's pain.
"That's it!" Superboy snapped, slapping away the helping hand Canary had offered to him. "I'm done."
"Training is mandatory," Dinah said to him, still managing to keep her gentle tone as she placed her hand on his shoulder. Superboy shrugged her off and turned to glare at the woman who refused to give in.
Dani had to wonder how long they would have stood there if Batman hadn't called.
"Batman to the cave" The Caped Crusader's voice broke the tense silence in the room and everyone moved to get better view on the large screen that had just appeared in the middle of the room. It sounded like the man had a mission for them and the teen were more than eager to get another opportunity to test their skills on the field.
"Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary."
Dani tried not to glance towards their teacher discreetly when her name was mentioned, realising immediately that the attack was probably the reason behind her injury, quickly returning her eyes on the screen when a picture from orange haired metal man appeared on the screen.
"The attacker was callable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents." The video feed Batman was showing to them made the halfa swallow nervously. The new villain was spinning Superman around like a ragdoll, knocking anyone who tried to come near him aside, including Flash. "Arrow called in enforcements, which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."
"Whoa," Kid breathed, his eyes wide from fear mixed awe. "One guy with the powers of the entire League?"
"In the end, it took nine Leaguers and four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."
Dani wasn't sure if she should feel relieved when Batman revealed that the villain hadn't been able to copy powers of the all members of the League like Wally had assumed. Nine was still over half of the current members of the Justice League, and it seemed that the metal man had been able to copy powers from majority of the heavy hitters. Including her dad's.
Well, at least she now knew where he had been this morning.
"An android?" asked Robin who had paid attention on different detail than her, as he stepped forwards. "W-who made it? T.O. Morrow?"
"Good guess, Robin. But Red Tornado doesn't think so."
"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo" Manhunter explained, surprising the more experienced protégés.
"Ivo? But Ivo's dead." Aqualad argued, clearly alarmed from this new reveal.
"So we all thought." Canary turned to look at him "Or hoped"
Dani frowned out of worry. This was the first time any of them had heard about villain to come back from the death, if you ignored the literal undead like Grundy. It was rare, but not exactly unheard for a battle between hero and villain to end to the bad guy's dead -always thorough the villain's own hand or indirectly through the hero's inability to move fast enough- but no-one had ever managed to trick a member of the League to believe they hadn't survived.
It seemed that Professor Ivo wasn't called a genius for nothing.
"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separated STAR Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken."
Translation: the trucks will have ghost shields to protect the parts from ghosts like Technus and Skulker who without doubt would love to get their hands on the new technology like this.
"We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the remains. You'll split into undercover teams to safe guard the two real trucks."
"Yes!" Kid cheered and pumped his fists. "Road trip"
"So now we take out your thrash?" Superboy asked coldly, not even close being as happy as the redhead from their new mission.
"You had something better to do?" Batman questioned strictly and Superboy turned his head away, smart enough to see he was not in the position to start arguing with their boss if he wanted to stay in the team.
But that didn't mean he was happy about it.
Kaldur's communicator pipe. "Coordinates received. On our way."
The teens rushed out of the room towards the hangar. In the corner of her eye, Dani noticed Canary to reach out to stop Superboy before he managed to leave, making the halfa frown slightly. Hopefully whatever the heroine planned to tell the boy would give him something that would help him to progress that anger of his. Because if Superboy was going to be like bear waken up from its hibernation for the whole mission, this road trip would end up being just terrible for all of them. Even without any attacks.
"Do you think the android had something to do with Mr Twister?" Megan asked from her friends and Dani turned to fly on her side, so she could talk to her better.
"They might have a connection." she admitted, trying to remember the structural similarities between Twister and the new android or other indicators that would hint towards a common origin. "This is a second android attack within a month."
"I don't think so. Their objectives are too different." Robin said, not bothering to turn his head to talk the girls behind him as he ran through the hallways.
Kaldur nodded his head, agreeing with the younger boy's words "Robin is right. Twister was designed to capture and sabotage Red Tornado's programming. This android was built to destroy the whole League, gaining an unstoppable weapon in process."
"Yeah and building a new killer robot in less than a month. I don't think that even Ivo can do something like that" Kid commented, making Dani to click her tongue out of annoyance.
"So two bad guys just happened to get an idea to build humanoid android this close to each other? Yeah, right. Ivo could have a partner, you know."
"Who?" Robin asked, sceptically. "T.O. Morrow? Those two hate each other's guts."
Megan frowned slightly "Surely there are more villains who can build androids?"
"Not as far as we know" Kaldur explained, his expression darkening "Though a new player could be a possibility"
"Oh, great" KF rolled his eye. "More crazy geniuses. Just what the world needs"
"These two incidents being connected isn't our concern right now," Kaldur reminded his teammates as they reached a crossing that would take them into the locker rooms. He turned to talk at the other members, making them wait a moment in silence as Superboy caught up with them. "It'll be better if we change in motorbike suits here in the cave, so we won't stand out from the other guards that will be following the decoy trucks. There is always a risk that whoever is behind this attack has placed a mole somewhere close and our presence will be a dead giveaway which trucks are the real ones."
"Oh, yeah. We have those now" Kid said, then turned to give M'gann one of his flirty smirks. "But don't worry, babe. I look just as perfect in that suit than in this one."
Robin snorted and patted his friend on the back "Just keep telling that to yourself"
Litchfield County
August 3, 20.08 EDT
Hours later the Team and roughly a dozen guards STAR Labs had hired in civilian biker outfits like theirs, were hiding behind the trees, waiting as the android's parts were backed in the lead boxes and carried in trucks under the League's watchful eye. Their group was close enough to hear the sounds coming from the edge of the crater that the fight between the android and the Leaguers had caused, but far enough that no one with normal eyesight wouldn't be able to know in which truck the parts would go. This left the guards in complete darkness when it came to the content of the truck they were ordered to protect and cut out the risk of them leaking the information to unwanted third party.
Naturally, the six young heroes were exception in this.
The teens were already wearing their helmets and keeping their silence, trying their best to hide their true ages from the adults around them. It wasn't perfect, mostly because of Robin and, in smaller extend, Kid Flash were gaining some unwanted attention from the adults around them thanks to their still mostly child-like builds.
Phantom had once again activated her belt to hide the ghostly aura around her. The motorbike suit she had been given was big enough to fit over her normal costume with only small amount of trouble. Sure, this way it was a bit too tight and warm for her liking, but she would live.
Finally, the sounds of starting engines reached in their ears and the 18 bikers started their vehicles, moving closer towards the edge of the forest. Some of the guards shared the final encouragements and jokes with their friends before driving after the already distancing trucks.
Phantom was part of the group of nine-person squad following the three Manhattan trucks. Aqualad had teamed her up with Robin and Superboy, giving them the same high ground and stealth advance that Miss M offered to the Boston team. She hadn't agreed with the plan at first, arguing that the teams would be more balanced if she and M'gann switched the places. She and Superboy were the Team's biggest heavy hitters, when it came to the raw strength and number of powers and making them work together was a bit overkill in her opinion. Aqualad had reasoned his explanation how he didn't wish to place Miss Martian and Superboy in the same team because their lack of experience.
Dani was pretty sure Kaldur also wanted to place Superboy under her and Robin's care because of their experience and skills gave them best chances to control the clone if he lost his temper. Again.
They drove around 20 minutes before reaching a junction where the first two trucks would turn on different route. The one of them would later take yet another route to confuse the possible attackers even further.
One of the guards, whose side Phantom was, turned to shout his good luck wishes. Dani answered with lift of her hand, not wanting her ghostly echo to break her cover, before the six civilians drove after the decoy trucks, leaving their small group of three behind.
"Team Beta separated without problem. No suspicious activity on sight" Robin reported to Aqualad through the communicators the League had gifted the Team to use.
They didn't get answer immediately, which was expected since their other team's separation point was supposed to be couple kilometres further away than theirs.
"Team Alfa secure as well," Aqualad's voice answered and Phantom felt herself to relax. "Contact us if there is anything suspicious on your end. Otherwis, report every 15 minutes."
"Got it," Phantom said. "Safe ride and remember to follow the speed limits. I don't want to be the one explaining the police why over half of us are too young to have a licence."
Phantom was pretty sure she heard Robin say something, obviously sarcastic, in response but his words disappeared on the speeding wind around them. She could ask him to repeat, but she knew the boy well enough to know he wouldn't give an honest answer.
The teens continued to drive in almost comfortable silence for a while, Robin and Phantom occasionally throwing in comments about the scenery and other things they saw on the road. It was still hard to ignore Superboy's obviously bad mood he hadn't shown any sights of getting over with.
Robin was the first one to get tired of the situation and speed his bike up enough to drive next to the Kryptonian. There it didn't take long from their youngest to open his mouth, most likely planning to coach his friend to open up a little.
"If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right."
Phantom let out suffering sigh, not wanting to believe that was the boy's opening line. Robin really needed to work with those if he ever wanted to find himself a date.
Superboy didn't seem that impressed either, leaving their teammate hanging without answer.
"Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster. What's wrong?"
"Canary" Superboy answered with his usual grumpy tone while Phantom reached his other side to join in the conservation. "And what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?"
"Look, you should still listen her. Learning combat can be a huge advance if you ever have to fight someone as strong as you. Like overshadowed Superman, or something." Phantom reminded him, missing how his grip around the bike's handles tightened.
"Besides, taking down stronger guys is part of the gig." Robin continued "Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman and well, me."
These clearly weren't the answers Superboy had hoped to hear. He vroomed the engine loudly and speed ahead his two teammates, leaving Dani to shake her head in disappointment.
"He'll come around," she assured to Robin whose face had fallen ever so little. "If not on his own, then after I lock him in room full of those red sun lamps. Then I bet he can't even beat Wally in arm-wrestling."
Small bark of laughter escaped from the boy "Couldn't imagine any less humiliating way to teach him a lesson?" he asked, his true impish nature clear in his tone.
Phantom grinned, veering her bike a bit closer to the boy's. "I'm not sharing my best plans with people who have a history in stealing them" she joked back while Robin tried his best to look innocent, the obvious laugher shaking his shoulders.
Their little moment was cut short when something started to fall from the sky, attaching on the truck with loud clangs and soon Phantom could swear she heard a chorus of giggles that sounded like a patch of annoying monkeys.
"What the-?"
"Team Beta, our truck is under attack!" Aqualad's voice came out from the comms that very same moment, causing Robin and Phantom to share a worried look before their hands flew on their ears.
"Kind of figured" the Boy Wonder replied back to the team leader while Phantom started to listen the chatter coming from the guard groups following the other trucks, only to be greeted by silence and carefree discussion.
"And it seems that we are the only ones" she told the others, gritting her teeth out of frustration. "How in Pariah's Keep those things found out which ones are the real trucks?"
"Monkeys, Dee! Those are robot monkeys!" the halfa gave a sharp look towards the boy whose laugher sounded almost exited. "Totally Ivo's tweaked style."
"I hate monkeys" Superboy growl trawled in their ears, completely lacking the younger boy's glee towards the sudden appearance of the little thieves that were currently trying to break inside the truck's trunk. The car started to swerve, indicating that the monkeys they were seeing weren't the only ones and the driver was in the trouble. Channelling ecto-energy on her hand, Phantom blasted several robots off, but there were already too many of them and new ones took the place of their fallen friends almost immediately.
"Hey, hey. Switch your rides to battle mode!" Robin shouted over the monkey giggles and the wind to the two older teens, his own already turned into little one-wheel bike, the other wheel now working as part of drone that would offer him some personal air support.
"No point" Superboy stated before jumping off his bike to the roof of the truck, sending the motorbike to spin without control towards his teammates.
"Oi!" Phantom let out an annoyed shout as she pushed herself up from her own ride and started to flight to keep herself going. "Try not to kill your teammates, Superboy!"
"I don't think his listening!" Robin called back at her from the back of the truck where he had managed to jump after rogue motorbike had taken the bike under him as well, kicking the robot monkeys off with best of his skills. "And go to check the front before we crash this thing too!"
"On it!"
Phantom turned intangible and speed up, passing her hand through as many monkeys on her way as she could, causing them to short circuit and drop off under the wheels. When she reached the cab, the situation turned out to be pretty much as bad as she had expected. The windsscreen was cracked and the terrified driver, whose face she could see through the side window, could barely see where he was driving through the robots covering the glass.
"Need help?" Phantom asked, pushing her head through the door inside the truck. The man screamed and yanked the wheel violently. It would have sent them all on the field if Phantom hadn't realised to grab and steady the wheel before they would fly off the road.
"What the f-" the driver managed to gag out, his eyes wide behind the helmet's visor.
"The League send us." Phantom said sharply and snapped her own visor up, so he could see her eyes, the one of the most recognizable traits she and her father possessed. There was no time for the longer explanations and the driver seemed to realise that from her tone. "It's getting a bit hot out there and ending up in a ditch will only make things worse. So do you need help or can you keep driving?"
The driver gritted his teeth out of frustration, turning his eyes back on the road and monkeys behind the glass. "Clear view would be nice," he stated as tightening his grip around the wheel.
Phantom nodded her head. "Got it. And try to keep the car steady. My friend is on the roof"
She pushed her upper body out of the cab before the man had a chance to speak again. She used the movement to swing herself towards the windscreen and managed to land a kick on the nearest metal pest. The monkey led out a high picked scream that alarmed its friends, but they too were soon attacked by a glowing blast on their face.
More monkeys appeared and tried to jump on Phantom, forcing the halfa to return on her intangible state to avoid getting grounded by them. Realising they wouldn't be able to touch her directly, the little robots returned their main attention to terrorize the driver, shooting their lasers towards Phantom only when she had to solidify herself to touch one of them.
Phantom let out an annoyed growl when one of the lasers managed to scrape her cheek. These things learned fast. Almost like they had some kind of program that allowed them to calculate the opponent's weaknesses in some degree. And she swore that giggle was designed to drive everyone around them crazy. The only thing that could make those cursed monkeys even more annoying would be if Technus would get a chance to possess them.
Something exploded, and the driver lost the little control he had on the car. Phantom's head snapped towards the roof of the truck, but somehow Robin had managed to keep his balance. The boy must have some sort magnets on the bottom of his boots.
"Get the driver out!" Robin shouted at her and Phantom obeyed without word, diving through the windshield and closing her fists around the startled driver's jacked.
"Sorry buddy, this is our stop!" she announced before blasting the door off from its hinges and pulled the man out of the cab with her. Something landed on her back the moment she was out, too heavy and soft to be any of the robots. The bad thing was that it was more than enough to cause the halfa to lose control of her flight for the moment, sending her and the driver to fall on the nearby corn field. Still, the landing was much more controlled than free fall the jump from the moving car would have been for a normal.
"Your landing sucks" Robin announced from top of her as Phantom attempted to push herself up. The Boy Wonder had clearly chosen to use her as an escape from the crashing truck and therefore the one to fault from her losing control and knocking the poor driver, who was laying on the dirt, unconscious.
"Maybe because I wasn't prepared for 100 extra pounds landing on my back" she snapped back as she stood up, causing the younger teen to slide down to the ground. The fact how he managed to nail the landing perfectly and not fall on his butt irritated the halfa more than she liked to admit.
"Go check if we can still safe the cargo" Phantom parked an order to Robin, even though he was technically the one in charge of their group and kneeled down to check how the driver was doing. Unlike she had first assumed, the man was still partly conscious. Disoriented, but conscious never-the-less. She managed to urge him back on his feet and placed herself under the man's arm to support his shaking legs.
By the time she managed to emerge from the corn field back to the road the robot monkeys were already gone. And so was their third teammate.
"Aqualad to Beta. We lost our cargo. Did you-"
"It's gone," Robin let out a disappointed sigh while Phantom lowered the driver back to the ground. He was standing next to the crashed truck which back was broken apart -exploded from inside- but it seemed the boy hadn't been close enough to earn any damage from it. "And so is Superboy"
"Great… Just great" Phantom took her helmet off and threw it on the ground. This mission was turning out to be a complete catastrophe.
"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio your position. We'll help you"
"I don't need help!" the Kryptonian's angry voice came through the comm loudly, his next words disappearing under incoherent noise that must be the wind before the line went silent with click.
"Superboy?" Aqualad's tried to call him again, without any results.
Phantom growled and jumped up in the air, turning to look at the direction of the trail of craters Superboy had left behind. He was already managed to disappear behind the hills on the distance and the frown on her face deepened.
"I think he ditched his comm" she heard Robin to guessed as he started to wander around the wreckage.
"Super. Now we can't even track him." Kid joined in discussion by stating the obvious.
"He's out of my telepathic range" Miss Martian informed them with apologetic tone. No one blamed her though. Team Alfa had managed to get fairly far away from their truck's location.
"I can still catch him and steal our cargo back" Phantom suggested "They couldn't have got that far."
"Negative. We aren't slipping up more than we already have." Aqualad ordered was serious and left little room to argue, making Phantom to clench her fists.
"So we're just going to let an angry five months old to run free on his own?" her words came out sharper than she had intended, but she was too pissed to care at the moment. The longer they kept talking, the harder it would be for her to track Superboy down. They needed to move.
"We aren't abandoning Superboy. We regroup and think a new plan of action"
"This Professor Ivo, if he's alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us." Miss Martian sighed, agreeing with Aqualad's words, continuing with much more unsure voice. "M-maybe w-we should contact Red Tornado?"
"Tornado always tells us to handle things ourselves. And the mission can still success if we if we recover the parts before they're reassembled."
"Well, that's a great plan." KF cried out sarcastically and Phantom let out agreeing grunt. "Expect for the part about us not knowing where to look!"
"Maybe we do" Robin cut in their developing argument. When Phantom glanced down, she noticed how Robin had kneeled down next to the one of the monkeys, studying its broken metal corpse. She flew closer, stopping to hover behind the boy's shoulder as he attached a wire from his glove on the robot's back.
"As Phantom pointed out earlier, the decoy trucks weren't attacked at all." he explained while starting to play with his wrist computer. "So how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target?"
"I have a feeling that was a rhetorical question" Phantom stated as Robin's computer's hologram activated, and the boy let out victorious laugh.
"The parts have GBS!" he announced with wide grin. "The monkeys can track the signal, which means that I can track them with the one I captured. It looks like both sets of parts are converging on…" the Boy Wonder's eyes studied the data travelling next to the little map showing the location of the stolen android parts as they travelled onwards until he noticed something that made his smile fall. "…Gotham City"
"That far south?" Aqualad asked, clearly surprised of the information Robin had managed to get. "Megan and I won't get there anytime soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out"
"Right" Phantom nodded her head as she floated back higher on the air trying to find where they had left Robin's bike. "Do you think your ride survived from that crash?"
"We'll see" Robin stood up and threw the monkey over his shoulder, before pressing a button on his glove. Soon enough, they were able to see single light to appear on the distance and the sound of the motorbike reached their ears. The Robin let out a tired sigh "This mission is definitely a disaster, heavy on the dis."
"Hey. At least we now know for sure there is nothing ghost related in this fiasco. They avoid Gotham even more than humans do." Dani tried to cheer him up a bit. She understood why the parts' destination was upsetting him, after all if the android was sent free in Gotham City there would be huge casualties for sure. Besides, what kind of hero wanted to bring damage to the city they had sworn to protect.
Robin lifted his brows behind the sunglasses he had been wearing under his helmet. "And why is that?"
"Too many cults" was her simply answer and the Ghost Girl couldn't but shutter "Trust me with this. Ghosts and cults do not mix. At all."
That got a small smile out of the boy. "I take that as you have some personal experience?"
"Oh thank goodness, no" Dani let out a relieved groan, hoping she hadn't just jinxed herself "But I know people who had managed to get themselves summoned in the past. Including my Dad."
"Now you are just making things up" Robin said, laughter returning in his voice and eyes. By then his bike had already reached them and the boy had started to open his jacked, revealing the familiar uniform under it.
"You wish," Dani shook her head to the memory. Danny disappearing in the middle of the ghost hunt had been interesting scare on its own but getting him back from some 16th century cult had been a completely different mess.
"Want to hear about it on the way to Gotham?"
"Sure." Robin said as he there his cape back on his shoulder. "I'll probably keep me from overthinking every possible way how this plan can go horribly wrong."
His words made her wonder if it had been smarter plan to just call to Red Tornado for help…
By the time Kid Flash caught two of them, sun had already disappeared behind the horizon and Robin's bike had managed to pass the Gotham's city limit. Phantom herself was flying on the edge of the road, her civilian clothes stored inside the locker under Robin's seat and her aura in its full glow. She made sure to stay next to the motorbike all the time as her teammate continued to track the parts down.
"So you changed too" Robin commented as Kid slowed his running at the speed of the motorbike.
"You kidding?" the redhead let out a sound of mock disgust "I feel naked in civvies. You still tracking the parts?"
Robin nodded his head slightly, his attention returning on the screen in front of him. "They were heading through Gotham, but they veered"
"Which probably means that Superboy caught them and is in trouble" Phantom pointed out, her worry expressing itself as frustration.
"Wait." Robin said, too surprised by his own revelation to pay attention on Phantom's comment "Guys, they're at my school."
"Really?!" Kid and Phantom asked with wide eyes, the latter of two moving closer to see the screen herself.
"Seriously? You go Gotham Academy? Isn't that rich brats only?"
"Hey!" Robin gave the girl half offended glare "You can get in with scholarship too."
"You're so one of the rich brats" the halfa cackled. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it sooner. Of course Batman and Robin were rich people. It made so much more sense than assuming that Batman just happened to have some really good connections and allies who kept giving him all that high-tech stuff for free.
"She isn't exactly wrong, you know" Kid pointed out with grin of his own, earning hissed Shut up and annoyed glare from the Boy Wonder, but the damage was already done.
"Wait…" Dani flipped on her side, her fingers pointing at the speedster "Kid knows who you are?" she asked with disbelief, her finger moving from the redhead to the younger boy. "I call BS"
"Well, duh" Wally's grin turned in something much smugger as he looked at the halfa over their common, now suffering, friend. "Best friends, remember?"
"Why would Robin trust you with his secret identity? You can barely hide your own."
"Okay, first of all, ouch. Secondly-"
"KF knows, end of story!" Robin shouted out, "Now, can we please focus on the mission."
Dani huffed and turned back on her normal flying position. "Fine." She would let it go, for now. But the boys were better to be extra careful now on. Because she now knew that Wally knew Robin's secret, and oh boy. She was so going to keep her ears open for slip up that the speedster would surely have.
They reached the school soon after end of their little argument, finding one of its large windows broken and very telling crashing sounds coming from inside.
"Great," Kid Flash stated as he halted to stop next to Robin's bike. "Wanna bet that the android is back in one piece?"
"Definitely" Robin agreed, checking something from his wrist computer. "Hey, Dee. Think you can get us in?"
"Depends. Is the Anti-ghost system on?" she asked in return, remembering how the academy was one of the few schools outside Amity Park having one installed, and she really didn't want to be at the wrong end of the target practice tonight.
Rich Gotham people were surely super paranoid.
"Not unless someone activated it in the principal's office." Robin assured at the same moment as loud crash was heard from inside.
"Then lets hurry." Phantom grabbed hold on the two boys' shoulder and pulled them with her as she flew through the wall.
"They are in the gym" Robin announced immediately after the three of them had once again solid, pointing towards the hallway on their right. "And try not to wreck the place"
"First time I heard someone say that about the school" KF joked before speeding off to the given direction. Phantom flew after him, Robin once again on her arms, paying little attention to the things like walls and doors on her way.
The sight greeting them in the gym crushed the final hopes of them reaching the parts before the android was put back together.
Kid speed to their side from the other side of the room, carrying beaten up Superboy with him. Their run-away teammate seemed to be mostly okay, his ego probably being the thing that had wounded the most, allowing the halfa relax ever so little.
It didn't mean she wouldn't give the boy lecture of lifetime the moment all of them were safely back in the cave.
Robin jumped down from Phantom's carry, throwing one of his explosive discs towards the android, aiming at its head.
"Martian Manhunter" the android said with its emotionless voice and turned intangible causing the explosive to hit the wall behind it without causing any damage. "Access: Red Tornado" the android continued, and the familiar whirlwind started to form around its body. As it flew towards the young heroes, Phantom dived down under the floor, avoiding being carried away by the tornado.
The others weren't as lucky and by time Phantom popped her head back on the surface, she could see her teammates lying all around the gym, trying to recover from the impact on the floor.
"Access: Captain Atom" the android's voice came from her right and Phantom turned to witness how the robot lifted his arm to fire an energy blast towards Kid Flash.
Phantom shot towards the android, hitting its arm with all her strength, causing its aim to sift just enough for it to hit the wall behind instead of her friend on the floor. Unfortunately to the Ghost Girl, the little trick had left her open for attack and the android managed to grab hold on her wrists.
"Access: Phantom"
"Oh, Cheese Logs" Phantom cursed before a strong ecto-blast hit her straight on the stomach, sending her hurling to the other side of the room. The hit left her too disoriented to realise where she was heading, and she landed on the benches with high enough force to break the wooden parts under her.
The halfa pushed herself on the sitting position, letting out a small pained hiss. After hit like that the blast area would feel more than shore for a while but at least her suit had protected her skin from the burns.
Something landed on the benches below her, and Phantom had barely time to recognize that something as Superboy before she noticed a stretched arm falling towards there where they were sitting. Letting out a startled yelp, Phantom dived away under it, letting herself roll in the area behind the benches.
Phantom gritted her teeth, they needed a better plan than this one and fast. Fighting the android was like going against all their mentors at once and it didn't even have any of their weaknesses. But the android was still what it was, and non-living object. If she managed to land a strong enough blast on it, then maybe-
Her line of thought was cut short when Kid's pained scream cut the air. Cold feeling twisting in her stomach, Phantom abandoned her cower to rush to her teammate's help. She was too slow though and Kid had managed to get himself away from the android and now running through the gym as bright coloured blur, searching an opening to strike.
"Access: Black Canary" this time, the android used one of the heroines moves to flip the charging Superboy over its shoulder on the benches at the opposite side of the room.
With angry battle cry, Phantom send a large ecto-blast towards the android's head, but the machine was once again prepared.
"Access: Flash" and suddenly it was moving, way too fast for Phantom to land a single hit from this far away. She had no other choice but get closer.
Taking advance of the distraction Phantom was offering, Robin threw more batarangs towards the android. It managed to duck them, not bothering to use Martian Manhunter's density sifting to avoid the attack.
"Superman" its eyes started to glow red, the warning that made the halfa drop down between the android and Robin, barely managing to create a shield to protect herself from the heat vision blast.
"I've heard people having a fiery gaze, but this is getting ridiculous" she shot angry glares towards the android through her green shield, waiting it to do its next move.
"Oh, yawn." a voice come from somewhere her upper right and Phantom's eyes darted towards a small man sitting on upper benches whose presence she had somehow managed to miss this whole time. "Normally Amazo would study and mimic your abilities during the battle, but what's the point? You're all such poor copies of the originals."
Yep, that's Ivo, alight. Alive and kicking. Still as annoyingly narcissistic as always.
It didn't mean that his poor copy comment hadn't poked the nerve any less.
And she wasn't the only one.
"So everyone keeps saying" she heard Superboy growl under his breath, his next words growing in full roar "It makes me angry!"
Phantom let out pained sigh. There they go again.
But to her surprise, Superboy didn't attack on Amazo. Instead he leaped over the android towards its creator and monkey robots sitting next to him. The mad scientist let out startled yelp, managing to jump away under the incoming attack and started to run down the benches as fast as he could.
"Want to see me channel that anger?!"
Well wasn't this getting interesting.
"Great. He's gone ballistic again" she heard Kid to speak behind her back.
"Maybe not," Robin suggested with knowing voice as Superboy leaped once again towards the little man.
"Amazo, protect your master. Priority alpha" Ivo squealed with nervous voice, once again managing to avoid being crushed by Superboy, but only barely.
"Captain Atom" the android turned away from Phantom, hitting the Kryptonian teen with another energy blast.
"That was rude" Phantom jumped up to kick Amazo's head, her foot glowing green. It wasn't her strongest attack, but enough to cause the android to lose its balance for the second.
"Anyone wants to play keep away?" Robin laughed as he rushed towards Ivo whose little robots were trying to help him to escape and kicked the man back on the floor.
"Oh! Me, me!" Kid Flash called back like over eager 5-year-old while Phantom rolled away from the way of the android's hits.
"Access: Superman" Amazo hit the floor with its super strength boosted feet, creating a shock wave that send the speedster flying before he had a chance to reach Ivo.
"Martian Manhunter" the android turned once again almost transparent to avoid getting hit by the Robin's throwing knife. And it seemed to be the moment Superboy had been waiting.
The boy jumped down in front of the android and charged, sending his fist towards Amazo's head that was yet to turn back to tangible. This was enough to trick a complete opposite defensive mechanism in the android.
"Superman" Amazo returned in his solid form the moment Superboy's hand went through its head, causing his arm to get stuck inside. The sparks started to fly almost immediately, and it didn't take long till the whole head exploded, sending Superboy fly to the floor.
The teens followed in silence how Amazo's now headless body fell on the floor with loud thud.
"Clever" Dani sang, breaking the shocked silence, causing Robin to snap out of his surprised trans and bolt towards the android.
"Help me dissemble him. Now!" the Boy Wonder barked the hurried order.
"Dude, the guy has no head" Kid pointed out as he moved next to Superboy, who was holding his own arm.
"Don't take any chances" Aqualad and Miss Martian rushed in the room through the door, finally reaching their other teammates.
"Superboy! Are you alright?" M'gann asked rushing to the boy's side and helping him to stand up.
"I'm fine" he assured with small smile then glanced towards Robin "Feeling the aster." The younger boy beamed back at him.
"Sorry, guys. You missed all the fun" Phantom joked half-heartedly as she landed to stand next to Superboy. "Give me your arm"
The Kryptonian gave her questioning look and made no attempts to do as she had said.
"Look" Dani pointed the darker spots on the boy's skin making M'gann to gasp a little when she saw them as well. "You literally have half of that android's head inside your arm. The only way to get them out is either through surgery done by kryptonite blade" she stopped to let her words to sink in "Or you can let me phase them through. It's your choice"
Superboy stared at his arm, probably only now seeing the pieces of metal and wires poking out of his skin. Dani herself had gotten metal bits stuck inside her body multiple times while practising how to short circuit robots and machines with intangibility, so it didn't come as surprise to her that something like this had happened in the situation where Superboy had no control of the permeability of the object. If he hadn't been Kryptonian the boy's arm would probably be dead or badly damaged from the little stunt he had decided to perform.
Finally, Superboy gave up and offered his arm to the halfa. Dani didn't say anything, just gave him a victorious grin and took his hand in her own, closing her eyes to concentrate. Turning only certain things intangible was always more challenging than doing it to the whole object, but her dad had made sure she practised it. It came handy in situations like these.
Soon Dani could hear how pieces of metal dropped on the floor between them with loud clatter, and she opened her eyes to study if she had missed anything.
"I think that was all of them, but we still should x-ray your arm when we get back to the cave" she said, releasing hold from his hand. "Does it feel normal"
"I think so." Superboy said frowning a little as he moved his hand to test it "A bit shore"
Dani let out a relieved sigh "Good" she said with blank face then smacked the back of his head with hand that was glowing green from the charging ecto-blast.
"Hey!" Superboy shouted angrily and swung his arm but Dani was already floated out of his immediate reach.
"That was for not following direct orders and running away after dangerous villain like some spoiled bratty baby! And don't get me even started-"
Unnoticed by Dani, the three other boys shared a knowing look between each other as the halfa continued her ranting to the puzzled looking Kryptonian. The two younger ones even started snickering and muttering word "mama bear" under their breath.
Who knows how long her lecture would have continued if Wally hadn't pointed out that Ivo had managed to get away.
Mount Justice
August 4, 01:06 EDT
Just like with Twister fiasco, cleaning the mess they had created and contacting the League had taken more than enough hours and by the time they got back to the cave to give Batman their full report, everyone was tired and ready to hit the showers.
Wally especially was crankier than usual; the STAR Labs' people hadn't let him to keep any of the pieces Dani had phased out from Superboy's arm as souvenir and the arrow Robin had found from the scene wasn't lifting his mood at all.
"The Amazo Android is in pieces again," Aqualad finished their report while the rest of them stood around him, waiting patiently and ready to answer any questions the Leaguers might have for them. "Safely being analysed at the two separated STAR Labs. But Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."
Canary nodded her head, "Capturing the professor will be a League priority." she assured them.
"But we understand your mission encountered" Martian Manhunter continued, crossing his arms "other complications"
The pointed look the man gave was clearly directed towards Superboy, leading the others as well look at their teammate, who soon turned his head away with slightly pouting face.
"It won't happen again," Dani promised, nudging the boy next to her "Right, Superboy?"
"…Yeah" he said with quiet but clear voice and Dani nodded her head in approve.
"Complications come with the job" Batman reminded as he stepped closer. "Your ability to handle them has impressed the League."
The teens looked each other with surprised yet wide smiles. Impressing the League wasn't a simple task and Dani especially could not but glance towards her dad who was standing in the back ground, looking at her with amused yet proud expression.
"The whole League?" Superboy asked hopefully, and Danny's smile fell, and he looked away in what Dani could swear to be shame and frustration.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonian, as you know, have very hard heads." Batman assured, causing the Phantom to snort.
"That's probably the biggest understatement I've ever heard" he said sarcastically, earning glare from the Bat and small, maybe even amused smile from Superboy.
"Of course, there is no shame in asking for help. That's why the League exists, because there are some problems even we can't handle individually."
"Please," Robin suddenly snapped "If we'd never get the chance to ask." he accused, reaching to pull an arrow from his belt, giving it to Batman while the older other heroes moved closer to study it. "Look familiar? You were following us! Babysitting!"
Batman gave the arrow to Green Arrow who gave the arrowhead only short look before pulling one of his own arrows from the quiver to compare them.
"We didn't follow you." Batman stated simply, the difference between GA's and the arrow that had saved Kid being crushed in the android's deadly embrace now clear to everyone in the present.
"And that's not your arrow," Robin noted, sounding almost confused before the wide grin speared on his face, "But that means-"
"Speedy!" Kid finished his sentence with equally wide smirk.
Dani let out a gleeful laugh "Ha! I knew he was too big softie just to leave us"
"He has our backs" Kaldur agreed with pleased smile.
Wally rushed to snatch the arrow from Ollie's hand claiming it as his newest souvenir as the other three original sidekicks circled around him, too excited about their friend changing his mind to notice the look shared between the adults.
When Dani sifted her attention from their small celebration, she noticed how Superboy was currently talking with Canary and her father, the older halfa currently explaining something to the boy that was leaving Superboy to look surprised yet pleased. Leaving her own conservation, Dani floated closer hoping to hear what they were talking about, but the moment Danny caught sight of her, he had already finished.
"Read to go home?" Danny asked, and Dani nodded her head, deciding to ask questions only after they were back in Amity Park. He turned to look back at Superboy and smiled at him. "Think about what I said, okay?"
The younger man nodded his head looking at Dani as if asking her opinion, but the girl only shrugged and gave him amused smile. Danny patted the boy's shoulder one more time "You did great work today."
Dani was pretty sure she had never seen wider smile on Superboy's face than the one he now had.
Amity Park
August 4, 04:28
Dani sat on the edge of her home's roof, gazing at the stars above her with blank expression. Her dark hair was open, moving lazily among the wind occasionally blowing wild strands over her eyes, but the girl didn't seem to mind. One of her hands was swapped around her knee while the other one was holding her phone, the fingers locked around the device just enough to keep it from falling down to the pavement below her.
"I thought you would already be on bed." her dad spoke when the man appeared through the door leading to roof without bothering to open it. "It was a long day"
"Yeah," Dani agreed with quiet voice, her gaze never leaving the stars. "Couldn't sleep"
She could hear Danny to move towards her, his bare feet hitting the roof with soft patting sounds and soon the man lowered himself to sit next to her.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. "Not that I blame you for coming to enjoy this beautiful sight, but you are lacking that special star gazing smile of yours"
The teen snorted without any real humour in it. "I don't have star gazing smile"
"Of course you have!" Danny teased, reaching to tickle her cheekbone. "It's the one when you have those little sparks in your eyes"
"Daa'ad" Dani whined with a smile and slapped his hand away, glaring him playfully "Stop it"
The older halfa just chuckled, letting his arm fall, but soon the more serious and worried look returned.
"Dani, seriously. What's wrong?"
The teen hero sighed, returning to stare at the sky above them.
"Roy still won't answer to my calls or messages" she finally explained weakly. "I thought now that he decided to follow us during that mission, he would talk to me again, but…"
"Oh, Dani" Danny pulled his daughter in one armed hug, letting the girl lean her head against his shoulder.
"It wasn't his arrow, was it?" she asked with small voice, already knowing the answer she would get
Her father exhaled sadly "…No" he admitted. "It belongs to a girl from Gotham. Around your age, we think" Danny hugged her little tighter and tried to give her an encouraging smirk. "And don't worry about Roy. He's trying his own wings out and probably thinking that asking for help will make him look like failure or something stupid like that. I'm sure you will go through the same phase eventually."
"Actually, please don't do that" Danny added after thinking his words for a second. "I don't want to turn into Ollie. He has been terrible company the past month."
"Oh, really?" Dani asked, lifting her brows with sceptical interest.
"Yeah, really, really!" Danny threw his arms up in the air out of frustration. "Seriously, yesterday was the first time anyone managed to get him to leave his apartment to do other things than patrols. It's almost like he's some sort teen girl getting over from his first break up. I swear, he must be spending all his days eating ice cream and watching some cheap teen dramas, or something."
Dani could not but laugh to Danny's little rant. "As teen girl, I'm very offended by that comparison." she joked.
"Naah," the man winked at her "Your teen hormones aren't even kicked in yet. You're still just my baby"
Deciding to mess with her dad a little, Dani hit her hand over her chest in mock offence and exclaimed. "Excuse me?! Are you implying that I don't look like a woman?!"
Danny stared her for a moment "What? How did you even-" he managed to choke out before the two of them broke to laugh waters in their eyes. Honestly, they were lucky that none of their neighbours didn't wake up or started to shout them about how normal people wanted to sleep. Or perhaps they had already got used to the loud weirdness of the Fenton family.
On their time, the two hybrids calmed down and Dani started to wipe tears out of her eyes.
"Thanks, Dad" she told him with genuine smile. "I needed that."
"Any time" Danny promised, playfully tapping the girl's nose, which only lead to couple hits long mock fist fight that ended when Danny managed capture hold on both of her wrists. They chuckled, and Danny released his hold then seemed to remember something.
"Actually, there is one more thing I need to talk you about." he admitted, then hurried to add "But it can wait till the morning."
"You really think I can sleep after you said something like that?" the teen deadpanned and crossed her arms, waiting her father to continue.
Danny rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. "Look it's nothing important. Bruce and I just had a talk with Clark this evening and I might have said something so…" The older hero took a deep breath and lifted his chin, looking as if he had done something forbidden.
"How badly are you against the idea of letting Superboy join on our patrols?"
Oh, Fudge Buckets.
Funny fact:in YJ wiki, Superboy is count as a souvenir.
Okay, so I have a slightly bad news. Due the intensive couple months, I have run out of my "buffer chapter". When starting this story I had three-four chapters finished before posting anything so I would I would be able to upload the next chapter once a month and avoid the long hiatuses my earlier project suffered couple times.
Saddly, life is life and my plan didn't work as hoped.
The point is... There is a change that I might not be able to keep up my once a month schedule as well as before. I'll try my best but we'll see what happens.
Now, to answer some questions I couldn't aswer via PM:
Guest: We'll see if Dani's texts to Roy are going to effect the plot ;D And about the M'gann being a better "Team Mom". It's true that M'gann is more motherly, but Dani is still (physically) oldest member of the Team. Also, since many Tv-shows often picture babysitting as something only trusted, responsible young adults are allowed to do, I would imagine M'gann now sees Dani much more mature than she truly is.
Robin and KF though... They aren't going to leave Dani alone for a very long time after they learn she is actually 8.
Dday: Oh, ghost-baby Klarion would be a total nightmare xD Saddly he isn't our MK, but thank you for giving me a perfect idea for Dani's method for a timeouts. She would totally do something like that.
Which reminds me...
Hint (*checks the number*) 7: I promised to give a better hints from now on so... Hmm... (*30 search break later*) Huh... I didn't know that one.
Okay now for real.
Hint 7: MK has been part of the Injustice League (in comics and before the New 52) though this isn't MK's main group.
Also, if you are lazy and want to cheat. One person in AO3 has managed to shorten the list of characters in 2 characters.
But now the extra mini story (well 1031 words but it's mini compared to normal chapters) I promised to you!
Love
Kilppari
Metropolis
August 3, 21:18
When Bruce had called up their little meeting, Danny hadn't expected him to let Clark to decide the place. In hind sight, it was pretty obvious why the billionaire had chosen to do so; Clark would be easier to handle in an environment he felt safe and had complete control over. The only downside had been that the Kryptonian had led them to his favourite Dinner. As civilians. Where every noisy eavesdropper could hear what they were talking about, forcing them all to dance around the subject and use incomplete sentences to express their thoughts.
Danny had funny feeling that this was exactly what Superman had wanted.
"Apple pie" Clark gave his order to the waiter, who was the most likely the owner of the place judged by the nametag taped on his chest.
"Blueberry cheesecake"
"The devil's food" Bruce finished, giving Bibbo both his and Danny's menus with polite smile. The tired looking man nodded his head and walked away without saying a word. He wasn't acting exactly rude, but something was telling Danny that he wasn't happy to have a popular journalist and two well-known business men at his dinner this close to the closing time.
"Something tells me this isn't about desserts" Clark started before their waiter was out of the hearing range, using the slight Kansas accent that he was grown up to use.
"This is an intervention" Danny stated dryly, crossing his arms and causing the reporter to lift his brow. Danny felt something to kick his leg, a silent warning from the man next to him for halfa to keep his mouth shut. They had agreed to let Bruce to do the most of the talking, the topic being a bit too close to the home for the youngest of the group.
"The boy needs you" Bruce explained the younger man's words and Clark flinched visibly.
"No. He needs you. He needs Red" Clark sounded more like someone who was trying to convince himself than the others, before turning his gaze away. "I'm just a constant reminder of what he's not."
"Sorry, Clark, but you're dead wrong." Bruce told the man, his serious Batman persona leaking through his more casual civilian act that caused the Man of Steel to give the man his whole attention. Danny nodded his head in agreement, his lips pressed in thin line, so he wouldn't start lecturing his former idol then and there.
"Look, I know he troubles you, but he's here." Bruce continued, the Bat's authority once again gone. "You have to get over the how and why. Trust me and Daniel on this. This boy needs his father."
"I'm not his father," Clark stoop up, taking his ridiculously old-fashioned hat with him and was already turned his head towards the kitchen when Danny spoke up.
"If that was true, Ellie wouldn't be my daughter either" his words were cold, but the tone wasn't why Superman had frozen. "Look," Danny used the fingers from his left hand to rub his eyes, adopting much softer voice as he continued, but the anger was still there. "No one is expecting you to figure things out overnight or let him move in with you immediately." the halfa gave his friend something close to sympathetic look. "I know from experience that things like these take time. But nothing can happen unless you talk to him."
Clark just stoop there for couple seconds, progressing Danny's words, before speaking to the waiter in the kitchen.
"I'll take that pie to go"
It took all Danny's willpower not to hit his own head against the table as the Kryptonian walked away. It didn't mean though that he wouldn't rub some salt in the wound.
"Just remember that 15-year-old handled a surprise kid better than you did" he called after him, purposely using loud enough voice for those without super hearing to hear him if they were paying any attention to their surroundings. Meaning everyone in the dinner had probably heard it.
Good. Let them talk.
The moment Clark had walked out from the dinner with his pie, Danny let out a tired sigh and started to rub his temples, paying vague attention how Bruce moved to sit on the seat on the other side of the table that had housed the larger reporter only moments earlier.
"I'm so going to kick his ass during the next training simulation"
"Starting a rumour was completely unnecessary" was only thing Bruce gave him as an answer, and Danny just knew he was giving him the look. "And he's not the only one who has been avoiding the boy"
"I know, I know" Danny groaned, giving the older man sheepish smile "I'm a hypocrite, aren't I?"
"You have already done more than Clark has. Even though you're keeping your distance" he admitted "But it would be good for him to know he has a friend who has gone through the same problems he's currently facing."
"It's Dani's decision to make, not mine" Danny reminded him, knowing very well how shore topic her origins were to his daughter. He had already stepped over his boundaries by revealing the truth to Superman, but the man had needed to know he wasn't the first one who had been cloned against his will. Bruce gave him a deadpan look, leading Danny to sigh again. "I'll talk her about it…"
"Good" Bruce said, then switched to his Wayne smile and Danny didn't need to turn his head to know their desserts were coming.
"Do you think they are doing fine?" Danny asked after they had been left alone, Bruce knowing very well who they were.
"It's a simple escort mission. It's very unlikely they'll face any complications"
Smirking Danny pointed the older man with his spoon. "In the other words. You're just trying to please John, Barry and I after you send our kids on the island full of crazy cultists."
Bruce didn't answer to his accusation, ignoring the younger man in favour of taking the first bite from his chocolate treat and the halfa couldn't but chuckle.
Who would imagine that there would be a day when the feared Batman would give in and actually attempt to bribe himself back to his teammates' good sides.
