91. Tree
"I prefer my feet on the ground, thank you very much," Roy said as he looked up at the huge redwood trees surrounding him.
Bart kicked the dirt at his feet and murmured just loud enough for the clone to hear, "The other Roy would climb it."
That was the beginning of the story of how Roy got stuck at the top of a 200 foot tall redwood and Bart had to call Jaime to come get him down.
92. Content
Conner sat at the kitchen island, groaning at some papers. English was a language preprogrammed into him, among others, but that didn't make it any less confusing. Homonyms were what tripped him up the most. They're spelled the same but have different meanings depending on how they're placed in a sentence or how they sound.
Robin walked into the kitchen at just the right time to witness the groan that transcended confusing languages. "What's up, Supes? Homework making you whelmed?"
"Homonyms," The clone grunted out.
The acrobat pulled the top paper towards him, pulled a pen out of his pocket, then scribbled out a sentence on the first space of the paper. He pushed the paper back and walked out of the kitchen whistling.
Looking at the paper, Conner's eyes drifted to the boy's daft scribbles. The question was, "What is the difference between content and content? Give an example."
Robin had answered, "The content of your life determines how content you are at the end of it."
93. Lake
The dry lake beds of Nevada remind M'gann of Mars if she's willing to skimp on the fact that the sand's a different color. During winter she sneaks out there in the Bioship and just sits on the cold dirt, feeling it shift between her fingers when she runs her hand over the top.
Her old planet may be far away, and she may miss it sometimes. But her new one still has benefits. A new family, a new life, new activities, new everything. She may get homesick, but her new home is just fine with her.
94. Reality
The thin line of reality was always a toy in Artemis's mind. Honestly, with the life she lived, she always expected to wake up from a dream and just be a normal teenage girl. Don't get her wrong, superheroism suited her just fine, but waking dreams can sometimes feel just as real as life.
95. Courage
On Manta's ship Kaldur has to constantly remind himself why he's there. Sometimes he slips too far into the role he's playing and he forgets that he's a hero. It terrifies him down to the bone. Whenever he's drastically tugged back to the reality of his situation he avoids his father's small affections like a hand on the shoulder or a passing greeting.
When Artemis comes on board it becomes easier to remember who he is. They have late night conversations sometimes, wherever it suits them.
One night they end up in Kaldur's room, just trying to remind themselves who they're supposed to be under their masks of calm allegiance to the Light.
"I have no idea what I am doing here, why I agreed to this mission," Kaldur put his head in his hands, trying to clear his thoughts.
"Kaldur," Artemis put her hands on her companion's shoulders, "Kal, look at me."
The Atlantian complied but whispered out, "I should not have dragged you into this, I am so sorry."
Artemis gave a hard shake to his shoulders. "If you're going to pull a guilt trip, than it's too late. We're both on this ship for a reason, a good reason."
"I have almost lost sight of that reason," Kaldur admitted with his hands shaking.
"There's important stuff at stake here, Kal. If you want to give up, fine, I'll finish this up myself than. But I'm going to tell you right now, sometimes I want to quit too. Just go back to California and hope to survive the apocalypse in a state of neutrality. Wanna know why I don't quit?"
"Why?"
"Because of a little something called a goal. We both have one and we both have the courage to finish it. So I'm going to tell you right now, you're not quitting."
Kaldur looked up into the composed gray eyes of his longtime friend, the gray eyes that only they could see the color of. His hands steadied and he nodded his head. Yes, he could do this, he would follow it through to the end.
96. Hug
Later, the morning after their conversation, Artemis and Kaldur sat at breakfast. They casually threw pieces of cereal into each other's bowls across the table. Artemis made most of her shots. Kaldur left a small ring of corn flakes around Artemis's bowl.
Manta wandered into the small break room and cleared his throat, "Tigress, if I could have a word with you for a moment out in the hall."
Artemis shot a quick look at Kaldur, alarm in both of their eyes. A mutual siren rang out in their heads, they must've been found out.
Nonetheless, Artemis followed her current superior out into the hall without a word. She tried to keep a neutral expression on her face, but felt the composure start to crack at the seams.
Once in the hall Manta suddenly seized Artemis into a hug. A quick gesture, lasting no more than five seconds. The action surprised the archer to her core. Manta barely hugged his own son, so Artemis had no reason to believe she deserved one.
Manta pulled back, but held onto Artemis by the shoulders. "I wish to apologize for eavesdropping, but I passed Kaldur'ahm's room last night and heard your conversation together."
Artemis felt her eyes widen before she could silence the alarm bells ringing in her head. Oh god, they'd been found out.
"I wish to thank you for being there for my son. I also wish you to know that you two have my blessing." With that Manta walked off in the other direction, leaving Artemis stunned.
The second she composed herself she sprinted back to the break room at a speed that would make Wally proud and told Kaldur in the quietest whisper she could manage, "Your father thinks we're dating! He just gave me his 'blessing'."
The corner of Kal's mouth flicked up in a ghost of a smile, "It could be a good cover for us having late night conversations."
"Well I hope Baywatch will forgive me because I guess I'm fake cheating on him now."
97. Boredom
The phrase "I'm bored" said by any person on the team that isn't a speedster is perfectly fine. Pop in a movie and everything's right as rain. But when a speedster says those words… well, you best start praying.
Speedsters get annoying, and needy, and overall impossible to deal with when they get bored. That's why a guide book was made after the fifth time Wally got bored. It went into retirement when Wally did, but when Bart popped up it was dusted off and rechristened.
The most effective remedy for speedster boredom, voted unanimously, is saying that they can pick where to eat for the night. They run though over a million possibilities and by the time they've picked a place it's dinner time and they can send the speedster to go get the order. The Team gets dinner and a slightly less annoying speedster in that time period.
98. Christmas
The two words "secret" and "Santa" should never be spoken together in the Cave. That was one agreement everyone unanimously agreed to after one fateful year.
Conner got Robin, he gave the techie sixteen pairs of sunglasses. The styles ranged from aviators to pink grandma style glasses with rhinestones.
Robin got Kaldur, he gave him a coupon to a tattoo parlor in Gotham. Funny thing is, Kaldur actually went in a small moment of teen rebellion. The needle broke on his Atlantian skin before the first drop of ink got pressed into his skin.
Kaldur got Wally, he gave him a pair of special made Atlantian boots to see if they would wear down slower than his usual boots. The first time he ran in them, Wally made the scales fall off and he wore the soles down to nothing in five minutes.
Wally got M'gann, he gave her a coupon book for free things such as "free massage" or "free kiss". M'gann politely declined every coupon in the book. Conner later tore the thing up.
M'gann got Artemis, she gave her a ton of hair accessories. Artemis used the ponytails exclusively, but let M'gann use the rest of the stuff whenever the Martian decided to play with her hair.
Artemis got Conner, she gave him a shirt of the same style he always wore, except it was made of tear-resistant fabric. Apparently Conner didn't get the joke of him tearing up his shirts all the time and promptly showed just how tear-resistant the fabric was.
99. Fear
Fear gas is something no one in the superhero community takes lightly. Most have been fortunate not to experience it thanks to Batman's no-heroes-in-my-city policy. But one unfortunate night the Team stumbled upon a mission where Scarecrow had supplied the munitions.
Robin recognized the gas early and jumped back just in time to shout out a warning when a henchman threw a canister of it at the Team. Wally acted on command, grabbing the closest teammate and running to where Robin was hiding from the gas. Back behind the crates Wally noticed he grabbed Mis Martian, who looked flustered to have traveled at superspeed for the first time, but otherwise fine. He went to go peek above the crates to make sure everyone else got out of the gas cloud in time but Robin pulled him down and shoved a respirator in his mouth.
The Boy Wonder handed another respirator to M'gann and gave them both instructions through the link, "Pinch your nose, only breathe through the respirator and stay down low to the ground." He then glanced around noticed that the others weren't there. "Guys…?" His thought drifted through the link.
He got a response by the screams that were heard both out loud and through the link. M'gann immediately shrunk the link to just Robin, Kid Flash, and herself. It did nothing to help the screams as they started forming into pleas for their fears to stop, for it all to go away. Robin tried not to cringe as he threw a small ball that acted as a vacuum for the gas over the crates.
In seconds the room was clear of the gas and the henchmen were knocked out. The worst part was yet to come, their own teammates. Going against three of their teammates just in sparing was hard, but that was when they knew it was just a drill. Now their brains were fighting off the emergency of their worst fears, they were fighting for their lives and it showed.
Artemis was firing arrows at a rapid pace at anything that moved, all while screaming that her father needed to stay back. Kid Flash caught the arrows so as they wouldn't hurt anyone else and when her quiver was empty he tried to get close and restrain her. Artemis was having none of that. She socked him in the nose with all her strength.
Wally was forced back by the punch and already felt his nose starting to leak. "Arty, come on, it's me. Kid Flash, the guy you love to hate."
"She won't listen to you, KF! Just restrain her, and try not to hurt her," Robin yelled from across the room as he reached into his belt for a piece of kryptonite for Superboy.
The speedster tried another approach and sped behind her, wrapping his arms around her torso to keep her from throwing another punch.
"No! Please!" Artemis had tears streaming from her eyes as she struggled.
The archer went limp in his arms as he saw M'gann's eyes glow. He picked her up into his arms, almost like he was holding a piece of glass. Miss Martian picked up Aqualad and Superboy with her telekinesis and they booked it back to the Bioship.
Once on the flight path back to the Cave M'gann explained that they were just in a deep sleep, she could pull them out later, but for now they were fighting the battle for their lives inside their own minds instead of with their bodies. They raced to the Cave at top speed and once there they set a record for how fast they made it to the Med Bay. Robin immediately pounced on the cabinets on the back wall, sorting though vials and bottles alike until he held one up in triumph. He grabbed three needles (one regular, one with a kryptonite tip, and the last made to pierce the tough skin of Atlantians), sucked the liquid into them, and then distributed it amongst the infected teammates.
"What now?" M'gann asked breathlessly as she drifted to hold Superboy's hand on his cot.
"Now we wait, and hope for the best," Robin responded, his tone grim as he sent a message to Batman about the incident.
100. Bedroom
Superboy, for once, was at a loss for words instead of just choosing to be quiet. When he slid open the door to his room he honestly wasn't expecting the montage of Kid Flash and Robin paraphernalia to be lining every surface in his room. Literally, from the bedding to the carpeting there was an onslaught of their symbols and names. In the middle of the Kid Flash carpet sat the two most likely suspects themselves, in full costume, playing go fish.
"Hey Supes," Robin barely looked up from his cards when the owner of the room entered.
"Why?" Conner didn't bother with anything else besides wondering if there was a motive.
"Well Rob was feeling a bit down and I was feeling pranky, so this is the brain child of our afternoon." Kid Flash stood up from his position and rushed from the bed to grab something then straight into Conner's personal space. "We were looking through stuff and we found these!"
Six plush toys were dropped into Conner's arms. There was a little Artemis, Miss Martian, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, even a Superboy. A plush family of his real family. Suddenly he was a little less angry.
A/N: Uh, hi. Have the final chapter of this after a few months. Sorry it took so long. I almost made some of these full blown one shots by the way, they were getting really lengthy for supposed drabbles. Well anyways, have a nice day.
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