10.
AN: This takes place before the most recent episode, "War"
Blüdhaven
"Good. Go for it again." Standing in the middle of the warehouse the team currently used as a base, Conner watched the smaller green team member as he took a few steps back and retook a fighting position.
"You sure? I slipped on that last kick," Garfield responded.
"But you compensated for it. It was a miniscule fault but you did a good job in continuing the attack. Now try it again."
Advancing once more, Garfield led with a left jab followed by a right hook. Conner blocked both hits as a kick came his way. The shape shifter, upon having his kick blocked, immediately countered with a spinning back kick to Conner's other side. When he was sure the youngest member of the team wasn't paying attention, the Kryptonian advanced with a few powerless punches of his own. They too were blocked as Garfield brought his arms up to protect his head from the attack. In what could only be described as a blur of movement, the green hero morphed into a monkey and flipped over his partner's much larger arm and morphed back to deliver a dropkick to his chest, forcing Conner to take a few steps back.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Garfield had both hands over his mouth as he panicked, realizing he hit his training partner harder than he meant to.
"Don't sweat it." Conner stepped right back up in the middle of the improvised training area while wiping some dirt from the red 'S' shield on his long sleeved shirt. "We're training, accidents happen."
"That's not what you used to say," Nightwing commented as he watched the two from the other side of the building. "Remember the first time Kaldur struck you a little too hard?"
Conner scoffed at the thought.
"Was it really that bad?" Garfield asked.
"If he had heat vision, Kaldur would have been a grilled salmon."
"Mind if we take a break?" the green youth asked with a nervous smile.
"Gar, I'm not going to fry you." Conner told him as he eyed the team's leader. "Can't say the same for someone else."
Clearing his throat, Nightwing took his leave. He needed to meet up with Mal outside the warehouse anyway.
"Hey, Conner?" Garfield asked. "When we get M'gann out, can I be on the team that goes in after her? I wanna make sure she's safe when we get there."
"Don't see why not. You've gotten better at defending yourself and quicker in your morphs. I'll talk to Nightwing about having you on Alpha team the moment we get her location."
Cheeky could not come close to describe the grin on the morpher's face with what he said next. "And maybe when you free her, you two can-"
"Gar," Conner said as his face slightly twitched. "Go take a break." The youth nodded with the grin still on his face and headed for the back of the warehouse where a cooler was set up on a table.
It had been several days since the incident at Taos where Blue Beetle was called to assist the four runaways. Since then, the remaining team members had been readying themselves for any mission that may come up. They each sparred with one another with some of the exercises being two on two. The purpose for the latter was to get each team member used to working with the others and having more of a variety to choose for missions. As the two separated, Nightwing opened the large metal door to the front of the warehouse. It was happenstance that he came face to face with Karen as she and Cassie, in their mission gear, went to gain entrance to the building.
"Hey, Wing," Karen greeted. "Have you seen Mal?"
"I'm just now going to meet up with him. He's out back with the Guardian suit he's been working on."
"What Guardian suit? He's seriously not-"
"Maybe this is something you should speak to him about. Cass, if you want to join us, you can see what he's done to the armor."
"No thanks," Cassie told her leader. "I wanted to see if anyone wanted to train. It gets boring patrolling when all the bad guys run away from you. I could use a good scrap."
"They run from you because you're capable of throwing them through a brick wall, Cass." Karen pointed out.
"Still, they could at least try to put up a fight."
Nightwing scoffed and shook his head in amusement. "Conner and Garfield just took a break. Maybe one of them could help you out."
"Thanks." As Cassie eagerly made her way inside, Nightwing turned back to Karen.
"Nightwing, I don't want Mal in the field." Karen told him. "He's a brain, not a fighter."
"Actually, he's been showing a great deal of improvement in his fighting skills. Because of which, I let him upgrade the armor and was on my way to check it out."
"Fine, if you're not gonna talk some sense into him, I will."
Back behind the warehouse, Mal was on his knees in front of a mannequin with the Guardian armor on. His hands were covered in polish as he worked on buffering out the smudges he left behind on the metallic parts. An open toolbox lay open at his feet along with various gears and his laptop. Its screen displayed a synchronization menu and was ninety seven percent complete.
"Mal? Malcolm Arnold Duncan, you back here?" Karen called out.
The tone his girlfriend used sent shivers up his spine. He may be a giant compared to her but as every man knows, a woman of any size with that tone and usage of his full name was enough to make him feel extremely small. He immediately stood and grew a large smile to cover up his nervousness. "Uh, Karen, hey, baby."
"Mal, what do you think you're doing?"
"Um…"
"Well?"
"Uh…"
"Answer me." She crossed her arms and stuck a hip out.
"Maybe if you would let him explain?" Nightwing commented.
"What was that, Mr. Commitment issue?"
Nightwing folded his lips inward and turned away from the couple, careful not to say anything least he receive an electrical sting from the black and yellow clad woman.
"What are you thinking?" Karen asked her boyfriend as she resumed her interrogation.
"Um, Karen? I was just putting some…upgrades on the Guardian armor."
"To go into battle?"
"Well…"
"And potentially get killed?"
"Karen-"
"Mal, you can't do that," Karen said sternly. "You're a mission coordinator, not a field operative."
"Woman, if you would just hear me out!" Mal said somewhere between a yell and a normal tone of voice. "I went over this with Nightwing. He told me if I have a good enough reason to go into the field and show I can hold my own, I can be on team missions and not waiting at the base. I don't want to sit on my butt and worry every time the radios go down. We are strained enough as it is and the more we have in the field, the better our odds are for getting the job done and coming home."
"Did he mention what happens if we fail?"
"He told me everything. This is my choice. I can do more than monitor mission progress. I can fight and help where needed, not just sit back and listen to everyone shout how things are not working out. I know I may not make it back. I'm just tired of being over looked and not being able to properly have your backs when on a mission."
Karen kept her hardened gaze on him.
"I know I may get killed. But I would rather that happened trying to protect any member of this team and not sitting behind a computer."
Letting out a huff, Karen looked over at Nightwing then back at Mal. "I don't know what you told him, but I don't want you in the field."
"Karen, I'm going out on the next mission. I'm trained to his expectations. I've augmented the armor to fit my needs. I'm-"
She held up a finger to stop Mal mid-sentence. "Wing, one request," The sternness in her voice refused to falter, "next mission, he's in my squad. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes, or else I'll take this up with Barbra, Zatanna, and Raquel, and they will see it my way. Got that?"
"Um, (cough), yeah. Yeah I got it." Nightwing dared not add anything more should she go through with her threat.
As she left, Mal felt his manhood creep back to him. He finally relaxed his muscles and could see Nightwing behaving the same way. Once Karen rounded the corner of the warehouse, she leaned on the building and released a long breath as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Hope the lug knows what he's doing."
"I'm not training with you, Cassie," Conner said as he stomped to his cot.
"But why not?" The blonde heroine chased him practically everywhere in the warehouse, fully intent on wearing down the hybrid. "I need someone to push me physically and you're the only one who's in the same super strong category as me."
"You don't remember what happened last time? You got in my mind, made me say things that weren't meant for others."
"I told you, I'm sorry about that. How many times do I have to apologize?"
"Once, but it doesn't mean I have to trust you." Plopping down on his cot, Conner pulled his fingerless gloves off then folded his hands behind his head to try to relax.
"Fine, I won't use my rope this time. Girl scouts honor."
"Not good enough. You use your rope in battle and shouldn't train without it, but I'm not training with you with that lasso of yours."
"Oh come on, cross my bracelets and hope to earn a tiara like Wonder Woman's."
Conner opened one of his eyes and saw the eager blonde cross her wrists at her bracelets while giving him a large, hopeful smile.
"I believe I can help with this." Coming up to the two powerhouses, Garfield strutted to Conner's cot and presented him with a long nylon rope. "I present to you a lasso alternative. It can hold up to five hundred pounds and does not make you reveal your deepest of darkest secrets."
Opening his second eye, Conner looked at the rope in the youth's hands. He turned to look at the wide smiling blonde. She had moved her hands under her chin and made hers eyes wide with anticipation of his answer. She nodded her head quickly, causing Conner to let out a groan as he got to his feet.
"Yay!" Cassie piped as she took to the air and grabbed the rope from Garfield. "Conner, if it weren't for your disposition, I would totally hug you but I know you're not the hugging type so I won't." She handed her lasso to the green kid and flew to the middle of the warehouse gleefully.
"Gar," Conner said as he leaned down to meet the shorter of the two. "You're this close to getting on my nerves."
As the veteran team member went to join the over eager girl, Garfield only smiled. "As if."
The previous time Conner and Cassie sparred ended with her tying him up and making him confess several secrets of his to everyone in the then standing Hall of Justice. This time, Conner came out on top as he managed to subdue Cassie by forcing her to tap out to a Twister submission hold. Those outside caught the last twenty minutes of the session with the guys cheering when Conner got the win, as if it really mattered to him.
"Conner," Nightwing yelled as he entered through the warehouse door. "League's requesting us to report to Watchtower."
"Is it an emergency?" Garfield asked.
"They didn't say. The rest of you can go back to your homes in the meantime but stand by in case you're needed."
After the others left, Conner and Nightwing got ready to head to the nearest Zeta Tube with Garfield, Bart, Wolf, and Sphere staying behind in the warehouse. Cassie also chose to stay and work on her moves behind the building while Mal was trying his best to ease Karen's worry over his safety as they made plans to head back to Ivy Town.
"So, what's the reason they want us in Watchtower this time?" Conner asked.
"I didn't want to alert the others," Nightwing replied, keeping his voice low. "but they're picking up on something heading our way. It's entering Pluto's orbit as we speak."
Conner snarled slightly. "Don't you think keeping secrets from the team is a bad idea? Or haven't you been paying attention lately?"
Looking down, the team leader let out a huff of air. "I deserve that. But if this…thing the League is picking up poses a threat, if it's part of The Reach, The Light, or something else entirely, my betrayal of trust may be insignificant compared to what they may have planned for us. We're fighting a war we can't afford to lose. Bart's been there and has seen what happens if we fall. We're changing the future, Conner."
Conner looked Nightwing square in his mask covered eyes. "Then make sure you're capable of leading us into one worth having."
As the Kryptonian headed for the Zeta Tube, Nightwing looked up into the sky and hoped the off world Leaguers were in a better position than they were.