Chapter ten Impossible to ignore

Life seemed fairly normal at a glance. Things shifted without change for those who didn't know what happened. It had already been two weeks since he had moved into the mountain and no one suspected a thing. Well, except Jaime who asked Bart about it which resulted in temporary kidnap, solitary confinement (which is kind of funny with the scarab choosing now to talk), and then a winded explanation of how he found Zak and how it needed to stay a secret until Zak was ready. Jaime just rubbed his head and promised. He had enough craziness from that day. Oddly enough what surprised him was that his nightmares vanished.

Only subtle dreams of warning that didn't really frighten him but rather peaked his curiosity. He went with Conner to see Wally once leaving Conner in the training room with Match with Francis homeschooling a local boy. Jaime was confused for the most part. But he still wanted to keep what little shreds of normalcy existed.

-.-

"…Now pick up the egg. Just enough to go around it. Any more pressure and you'll break it."

"But Conner, how is this supposed to help me control my powers?"

"Cooking requires precision and control. Not to mention patience. Something I could have used when I was learning. Ironically Wally was the one who helped me with this. M'gann usually cooked but when she didn't it was either Artemis or Wally. And somehow I was drawn into the sound of him cutting carrots which led to kitchen time with him and learning to find ways to calm down before Superman helped me."

"So… Wally is… your big brother?" Ansel asked slightly confused. Conner snorted.

"That's one way to put it," he said with a small smile. He didn't want to admit it, but it was nice having Match not be a psycho, but rather a younger brother for him to watch over and protect. He could now see how Wally felt, and how Roy felt before he went off on his own and further, learning he was a clone. He sighed. Wally had said that there was some delicate news he would have to break to everyone eventually but Conner didn't know. Maybe the work he was doing? Made more since than Francis tutoring some kid that Wally talked about. He knew he should listen more but he was shooed off to train Match so he could do some testing on the scarab.

This resulted later with a crap tone of cookies on Conner and Match's end and a soot covered Wally coughing little clouds of smoke with goggle marks around his eyes pushing Jaime into Conner saying he was his responsibility now before stealing a large amount of the cookies while cackling like Night Wing used to. Conner narrowed his eyes and began planning a little much needed vacation for Wally somewhere far away.

-.-

"Go fish," Zak said.

"DANG IT!" Bart yelled throwing down his hand, "How is that even possible?"

"Maybe you just suck at this game?" he asked. Bart pouted. He really didn't play it in his time so it was new to him. He wondered if people still played in this time though.

"Let's do something else," Bart whined. Zak looked around. Since he had arrived they had actually caused a lot more chaos than either of them would openly admit. Zak's room looked like a rainbow threw up given that neither could agree on colors so it became a splatter paint war zone. It reminded Zak about the unicorn that Fisk had given him when he was small and the force watching of My Little Pony (which he secretly really liked), and his travels around the world. Zak had actually taken little trinkets from around the mountain to amuse himself and had beat up some thugs in Happy Harbor while he was walking around which turned out to be the son of the sheriff. And then there was the exploding peeps in the microwave but Zak denied that one. But Bart had his doubts.

"Like what?" Zak asked gathering the cards and slipping back into the box. Bart sighed.

"I don't know something."

Zak rolled his eyes. He was getting kind of bored in the room. But when he got bored he had his brothers and an array of weapons that he would "borrow" from his parents or even shock capsules for games. Looking around he saw some balloons he was able to get in town… and glitter. An impish smile came to his face.

"I think I have an idea," he said. Bart looked at him and recognized a wicked gleam in his eye. He smiled back.

"I know that look. And I think I like where this is going."

"I think… I think it's time to meet the team. And what better way than with a friendly joke?" he asked.

"Time traveling into the main room in front of them?"

Zak laughed not taking Bart seriously, "I guess that works too."

So the two filled the balloons with water and glitter. Their plan. Hit as many people with these balloons as possible. At least those who could take a joke. Meh, they'd get who they could. They had multiple balloons ready. They both snuck around the mountain hallways finding them surprisingly bare. It wasn't until Bart heard the click from a door that they hid behind the turn in the hall. They smirked and readied their balloons at the unsuspecting victim. When the door opened a person quickly stepped out and they released their watery fury. Bart didn't think about the fact that no one had a room in this hall. That no one was supposed to be down there. Not until they ran out of ammo. And they saw a thin, lanky boy with light green hair that stuck to his face and the evilest glare. A growl came from his throat as he looked at the two boys with nothing but rage.

"RUN!" Bart said running off. Zak felt something in his gut telling him that was a bad idea but ran after his partner in crime. He didn't want to be the only one in trouble after all. The guy then began chasing Zak, wet footprints showing his trail as he chased him. The teen's vision tinted red with being secluded and then "attacked" he only saw the form of the person he was chasing. Each straightaway he grew closer. Each turn he skid a bit and had to resort to going on all fours for a moment.

Zak ran fast though considering he hadn't run like this in who knows how long. His body recognized a chase and was willing to give him it's all to survive. Like when he was fighting Tsul. His eyes widened as he reached for his belt, more specifically the Claw. As he was struggling to get it off his belt he was tackled to the ground by the teen. The teen, blinded with fury placed his hands around Zak's neck with enough pressure to show Zak he wasn't going anywhere as their breathing and heart rate slowed back to a normal pace. The red began to leave the elder's eyes as his vision cleared to get a good look at the young prankster.

-.-

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Bart yelled running into the training room grabbing everyone's attention.

"Bart? What is going on?" Night wing questioned knowing he would regret it if it were an answer similar to one of the many that Kid Flash would use.

"Guy! Attacked us! We ran!"

"We?" he asked. Bart looked around and paled before shrieking (though he would deny it later) and proceeding to freak out.

"AH! I left him behind!" he said about to run out of the room as Night wing grabbed his collar.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Bart, what is going on?" he asked again. Bart sighed.

"Okay, so two weeks ago I may or may not have stumbled into a lab near Palo Alto and may or may not have found a frozen body which I may or may not have thawed which may or may not have been alive. I found a kid named Zak and he has lived in the mountain for the past two weeks- sorry I didn't tell you but he didn't want people to know yet anyway- and we kind of sort of decided to prank someone so he could really make an impression and we ended up hitting," he said building up suspense, "Some guy with green hair I have never seen before," he said as tears poured from his eyes (think large anime style tears people…)

"Hey!" Garfield quipped.

"Not you! And Zak is still in trouble," he said dashing out of the room.

"Oh boy," M'gann said softly, "Night wing, I think that Bart's "friend" has met Komodo," she said. She was thankful that Batgirl had already sent files about the members of the family and that he had approved them to come in. And given that none of them wanted to wait, they had convinced Batgirl to have them all sent in at once no matter how strange.

"I thought they weren't going to be here until next week," he said. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Guess they're early," she said wondering why he Komodo left the room. The members of the team followed the yells of their banshee speedster. Which eventually led them to an unused hallway where the youngest of the speedsters was trying to pull off a larger teen from a younger person. The older, larger teen was oddly wet and covered in glitter which was dripping off onto the floor.

"Get off of him you big lug!" Bart said trying to push him off. He seemed oblivious as he stared down at the boy below who only looked up in shock as water dripped from the older boy's hair onto his head making his face all glittery.

"Zak?" he said so softly that it was barely heard. The boy stiffened.

"How do you know me?" he asked with a slight quiver in his voice. The elder took his hands off his neck and placed one of them on his cheek.

"My god. You're here. You're here," he said confusing everyone. He got off of Zak and pulled him to his feet, wrapping an arm protectively (read possessively) around his shoulder, "Mom has been worried sick about you."

"Mom?!" he squeaked, "Who are you?!"

The elder frowned for a moment. A look of pure irritation came to his face. He used his free hand to pinch his cheek.

"Can't recognize me? Do I really look that human?" he questioned. Everyone except the girls looked confused, "Zak, it's me. Komodo.

And things are falling into place.