Undeterred by Robin's recitation, Batman was still spitting furious.
"You are part of the Justice League, meant to do missions that cannot be done by the official members. You were not given this mission and therefore have no responsibility to carry it out! That was rash and dangerous. You are all well trained fighters but there were a lot of them, you saw that and yet you kept fighting. What happened to all the tactics we taught you, what about your common sense?!"
Robin turned a bit red and fought the urge to cover his purpling check with one hand.
"Batman, you did give us this mission, though." Artemis was confident. "Remember when you first introduced us to Flamethrower, we were expecting you to give us a mission and when you were leaving, we asked and you said you had given us one. Flamethrower was our mission." She paused and took a breath. "Flamethrower was in danger of physical harm, and so we took action to stop it."
There was a bit of a pause.
Conner gripped the edges of the desk hard with both hands. "They were going to get the living daylights beat out of them whether we were there or not. We weren't just going to stand there and watch them get beaten to a pulp right in front of us. Isn't that the premise of the Justice League, to protect innocent people? While those kids aren't completely innocent, they were still people that needed protecting."
Batman narrowed his eyes at Connor who glared back defiantly. There was a brave vibe going around, no one would have just said the things they did on a normal day. In fact, if you had told any of the members of the Young Justice League that they would say such bold things to the Dark Knight, they would have gone and punished themselves with two extra laps around the outside track for just imagining the possibility.
Next it was Kaldur's turn.
"I agree with Batman that it was rash and dangerous but yet we were resourceful and we made the best of the situation that we could. There were few injuries, none that will have a lasting effect and there was minimal collateral damage."
Batman grunted. "We used the skill you taught us, Batman and turned the situation from terrible to unsatisfactory. Given the resources we had, I believe this was a good learning experience for us to experience situation that we don't have any control of he environment."
Batman was still not convinced. "Though all your arguments have validity, the overall situation was too dangerous and risky, the cons outweighing the pros. You have no excuses for butting in on Flamethrower's personal business, though it did yield beneficial results. You should expect to be punished for your actions, as you will. This discussion is closed, I don't want to hear any more about it unless I or one of the other official Justice League members inquire about it."
Batman turned back to the computer and continued doing whatever he was doing before. The conversation was definitely over. The members of the Young Justice League got back to solving their near impossible strategically exercises, not a single one of them able to keep their minds on their work.
When the computer announced "Its Eleven Thirty.", the YJL handed in their work one at a time and dispersed, having half an hour to chill before lunch. Batman caught Robin's eye before he left and nodded to him. Robin understood; Batman wanted to hear his full and unbiased report after lunch. At least now Robin would be able to tell him about what really happened and hopefully his mentor would understand.
After lunch, Black Canary made them do an unnecessarily difficult kickboxing workout that left them all wanting to puke by 2:30. Water break, then Batman put them in groups and sent them off into the city for a reconnaissance mission, none of them allowed to use technology (Batman liked to do that sometimes; give them a reasonable task and then put an inconvenient twist in it that made it just all the more harder). No technology literally meant anything that even ran on batteries; watches, buses, GPSs, cellphones, even recording devices. Everyone grabbed a pencil and a notepad before they left. Wally tried reasoning with Batman that the Bioship technically didn't run on anything, that it was a life source of its own and so technically it should count but Batman looked like he wanted to roundhouse kick the Kid Flash in the side of the head, and so the Kid Flash in question smartly shut up, grabbed a notepad and left.
Unfortunately for the Young Justice, it rained. It started drizzling at about three and started pouring about quarter to four. Every single one of them was soaked to the bone and shivering by the time they got back to the HQ, ready to drop dead any second. Before suppertime, Red Tornado had them for one last session; history to social studies to psychology and everything in between. Today was history (it went in cycles) and either Red Tornado was sympathetic towards the young overworked heroes, or it was just a simple coincidence but he made them watch an old, very boring movie about the formation of the Justice League, because apparently they hadn't seen it enough times already. The lights dimmed, the voice over was rhythmic and monotone and everyone was asleep—heads on desks—before Supes and the rest of the original seven beat Darkseid back to wherever he came from.
Red Tornado woke them all up before they were called for supper and the six of them dragged their feet to the dinner table, shoved food down into their whining stomachs and went straight to bed.
The next day though, they were allowed to sleep in because of the killer day before. Sleeping in, though, meant like sleeping until seven thirty instead of six thirty. Robin was fairly surprised to find himself still in bed at quarter past seven. He hadn't slept that late in god knows how long!
Nine thirty (archery practice—Artemis's favourite) saw a groggy figure drag itself to the doorway of the kitchen.
"Hey guys." Flamethrower smiled and waved half-heartedly. She was still tired from two days ago, looking a bit pale and unsteady on her feet.
Everyone welcomed her back, asking how she was feeling and she replied a bit tired. Once she ate something, though, Flamethrower regained most of her old colour and had more of a spring in her step. She even tried shooting a bow but couldn't hit anything closer than the blue ring—still, pretty good for a beginner. It was important for everyone to learn how to properly use every weapon possible, just in case they had limited options. Artemis was (obviously) the best—by a long shot (pun intended)—and then Robin, who had been tutored in basically everything by Batman, then a decent sized gap, then Kaldur, who's shots always drifted to the right, despite being right handed and then Connor, who counted for probably the highest bow mortality rates out of all of then and M'Gann who had a pretty decent shot but dropped more arrows than she fired. And then…there was Wally.
Robin watched Flamethrower from the corner of his eye as he aimed down the shaft of his arrow. She didn't look like she was feeling bad about herself or looking guilty so he assumed that Ryo was indeed right and she didn't remember anything after she had turned. He hated to have to see the look on her face when she found out that she had put her closest friends in the hospital.
By the end of the day, Flamethrower was almost back to normal, still a bit weak (like when you have a fever and you can't do everything you usually can for the next couple days) but just as enthusiastic. Supper was good, more chatter this time than last night, as today wasn't so harshly gruelling.
After supper, the Young Justice members usually got time off until bedtime (unless something came up) and today was no exception. Robin was perched on his bed, typing on his laptop when someone knocked.
"Come in." Robin said, without looking, trying to finish one last thought.
There was a cough at the doorway and Robin glanced up to find Flamethrower still in her workout clothes, grimacing apologetically.
"May I—…?" she jerked her hand towards the inside of the room.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, come in." Robin motioned with his hands for to come take a seat. Flamethrower took the stool offered and put her hands on her knees.
"Uhh…"
Robin was just ending his last sentence, but didn't like what he wrote. It took three tries until he was happy and then he shut his computer and put it aside, turning to face Flamethrower.
"Well…" she scratched her head. "About yesterday…"
Robin nodded, the gears in his head whirring fast. She didn't realize that she had slept for two days.t
"I don't really remember what happened last night. Like, I remember me going to see Ryo and the others and you guys being there," she blushed a bit and kneaded her pants with her hands, "but then we were leaving and then I don' remember anything. Did I…did I do anything…" Flamethrower looked even more awkward.
Robin inclined his head.
"Anything…weird?" Flamethrower tore her gaze from the carpet and looked hopefully at Robin.
He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her about her change and about her power and about the fact that Blood Red Ramona didn't stand a chance once the Other Flamethrower took over.
"The reason you can't remember anything is because that Ramona girl set a booby trap for us, just in case we managed to get out by that way. There was a knockout gas charge set in the wall and you got the full force of it. The rest of us managed to get out in time, but you dropped like a sack of potatoes so we brought you back. Batman wanted to put you in the sick bay for a night just to make sure you didn't get poisoned; you breathed so much in that it could have potentially been harmful."
He couldn't do it.
Flamethrower nodded, relief showing plain across her face. "And Blood Red Ramona and her gang?"
"The police came and picked them up and your friends got away Scott-free." The lies rolled off his tongue like water off a stone. "They're hiding at the moment and said they won't surface for a few months, to keep a low profile."
Flamethrower smiled and breathed out. "Fiew. Thanks. Okay, thank you, good night and see you tomorrow then." She got up and waved at the door.
Robin grinned and waved back, wishing her as well a good night. He would wait until he thought that she could handle it; handle the idea that her uncontrollable rage put one of her friends in hospital.
Just as long as everybody else played along as well. Robin sighed and got up from his bed, going to knock on everybody's doors.
1. Hey guys. Sorry for the late update. Real life is such a pain sometimes.
2. Apologies, but there won't be any updates in the month of November. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is going to be fun, not including this as well. I don't want to have to half ass a chapter for you all the night before. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, go check it out, its lots of fun and a good way to get yourself addicted to caffeine! Link: en.
See y'all beginning of December guys! (Sorry, again.)
