Chapter 13: Lessons Learned
And right in front of us stands the android, A.M.A.Z.O. At least six feet tall, with green going down his waist making it look like it has pants on, along with green on his wrists too, a shirtless android with orange metallic hair. He also has pointy ears like an elf and red eyes that could bore into your skull if you looked into them long enough.
Superboy stands up to him, not looking afraid of the android at all. "Give me your best shot." Not really sure you actually want that man.
But Ivo just laughs at him. "Please. My android has the strength of Superman. What chance do you have?" You really shouldn't have mentioned him.
And just like that, Superboy charges towards A.M.A.Z.O. He launches multiple punches at it left and right, but A.M.A.Z.O. just blocks every one of them. Superboy does get a hit on his head, which turns like an owl's would and just turns back. The android then grabs his fist, not letting go of him.
"Oh sorry. Did I strike a nerve? A.M.A.Z.O., strike a few more." And with that, A.M.A.Z.O. punches Superboy so hard, he sends him to the back of the car and back with me.
"He may have the strength of Superman, but he doesn't have the willpower of a Green Lantern." I take aim at the android, who's probably taking aim at us too, and fire energy shots at him. But he just blocks them with his hands, diminishing the energy to nothing as if it's a small burn.
"Access Black Canary." After saying that, A.M.A.Z.O.'s mouth opens wider and a supersonic scream comes out. Superboy and I cover our ears, hoping they don't bleed out. The android's Canary Cry pushes us up against the back wall. I pull Superboy up back on his feet, but before we can do anything else, A.M.A.Z.O. stands before us and just clobbers us so fast, I can't even think of what to do. Flash's speed too? No wonder it took them four hours.
I manage to stay standing up, while Superboy falls to the ground. "Oh, no wonder daddy keeps you hidden away. You're not really doing justice to the old S shield, are you?"
Superboy gets back up and charges at A.M.A.Z.O. again. "Superboy, stop for a minute!" But he doesn't listen to me again. He swings at A.M.A.Z.O. again, but his attack goes through him like he's a ghost. Captain Atom, Superman, Black Canary, Flash, Martian Manhunter… Who else does this thing have in him?
A.M.A.Z.O. hits Superboy again, this time with him breaking through the car. That just leaves me alone with Ivo's new toy. "Let's see how you do against me, you hunk of junk!"
I create an energy whip in my right hand. I bring my arm back and bring it forward towards A.M.A.Z.O.'s waist. But it just phases through him again, like he's air. Then I turn the whip into a sword and charge myself at him. I take a swing at the machine, but he just sidesteps and punches me against the wall. I throw my sword at him, but he blasts the construct with Atom's ability.
I decide to go on the defensive now, creating an energy shield with a blaster on it. I blast him repeatedly with energy blasts, but they don't do much to dent him at all. Seriously, what's this thing made of?
"Access Superman." Oh crap. A.M.A.Z.O. punches straight through my shield, shattering it completely while pushing me back to the hole where Superboy exited.
Speaking of which, I look behind me to see him getting back on his feet. Took him long enough.
I back up outside the car and float in the air, hoping air support will give me an advantage over him. I make myself a giant hammer construct this time, wanting to flatten this machine like a soda can. As soon as A.M.A.Z.O. comes out, I swing from above and let it drop on him. But he just grabs the hammer like it's a toy. And to make it worse, he throws the hammer, with me still holding it, twenty feet into the air.
After a few seconds of free fall, I stop myself and take back flight control. Before I rush over to that prick of an android, Superboy comes over to me in the air. Well more like he's crashing into me, sending us both spiraling into the air until we crash through the window of a building.
I gather myself and help Superboy up too. We look around to find we're in a classroom with some of the desks smashed to bits. We're in a school. Can't be that many in Gotham now.
"Green Lantern to Robin. The android's been reassembled and is… Coming our way." I say as I see said android jumping his way into the classroom.
"Come on! We need to keep moving!" But Superboy charges after android, who punches him out of the classroom.
I follow the pummeled Kryptonian and find him at the floor of a smashed trophy case. Before I can grab him, I'm grabbed by A.M.A.Z.O. Both of us are actually and A.M.A.Z.O. spins us around like tops and throws us into the lockers.
"We need a plan. We can't win against this thing, not without the others." I say as I'm reeling from the pain I'm enduring.
"Well until they get here, I'll just try to smash him until he's a hunk of junk." He charges after him again, but not alone this time. If he's gonna get himself killed, he won't do it alone.
We both jump at him to attack, but he blocks our fists. Then he immediately punches us so hard, he sends us through another wall. We hit of another classroom and land on the ground. A.M.A.Z.O. follows us shortly after, standing above us like he's a god.
"That… all you got?" Superboy says to him.
"Access Captain Atom", he answers with his hand lowered to us, readying for fire. Not this time.
I raise a shield fast enough before he's Atom blast hits us, instead hitting the shield. Luckily, it doesn't break through the shield. It does, however, bounce off it and hit him in the chest. Okay, now we're getting somewhere.
"Access Superman." Not again.
Before I know it, A.M.A.Z.O. shatters the shield with his fist and sends us through another wall. We end up crash landing in the gymnasium. I try to get up on my feet, only cracking some bones doing so.
Then we hear clapping from inside here. We look from the floor to the stands to find Ivo sitting there, watching us fight A.M.A.Z.O. like it's a game. And right now, we're losing.
"I don't usually attend these things in person but this was too good to miss."
A.M.A.Z.O. then appears before us again, ready to finish us no doubt. Superboy and I go after him, trying to land a punch or attack on him. But he just beats us up continuously, forcing us back to the ground.
He raises his hands as he's ready to smash us into the floorboard. Just before his attack hits us, we're zoomed away to Robin. Thank you Kid Flash.
Robin throws his batarang at A.M.A.Z.O., but he just phases himself out, the batarang passing through him. Then he comes toward us, with a twist below his waist.
"Access Red Tornado." With him inches from us, we're all blown away in different directions. Robin and Superboy get flung to their right, while KF and I are sent to our left.
Kid and I get back up as A.M.A.Z.O. readies another Atom blast aimed at us. I fly up to the sky while Kid makes a run for it behind the bleachers. He comes back around and heads straight for A.M.A.Z.O., but he opens his metallic mouth and out comes a Canary Cry, which blows him back.
I try to blast him again with a rocket construct this time, but he smashes it into nothing with his Superman-like strength. He throws Superboy aside again and then whips his arms at us, Robin and I dodging them.
I fly at him with top speed and will powered energy, but he throws me to the ground and puts his foot on me, like I'm a bug. Kid Flash rushes his way over here next, but A.M.A.Z.O. grabs a hold of him and bear hugs him tightly, squeezing the life out of him. If we ever needed any kind of help, now would be the time.
"Martian Manhunter." Then A.M.A.Z.O. phases himself, letting me and Wally pass right through him like air. I roll to my right as Kid drops to the ground and speeds away from him. Why would A.M.A.Z.O. let us go? He had us.
Then I look ahead and see why he did. An arrow. But who shot it?
As much as I want to figure this out, now is not the time for that. Superboy goes after the android again, and again, he swats him away to the stands. He then fires heat vision at Robin, but thankfully Kid rushes in to save him before he melts.
I fly over to Superboy to see if he's alright. He looks alright, but deep down he's not good. "Any ideas? I'm up for anything."
Superboy shuts his eyes for a moment, and then opens them back up. He breathes slowly too, looking calmer almost. "Access Black Canary."
"Oh, yawn", Ivo says in the opposite stands. "Normally, A.M.A.Z.O. would study and mimic your abilities during battle, but what's the point? You're all such poor copies of the originals." I am not a copy of Jordan, and I'm especially not a poor GL.
"So everyone keeps saying." Superboy says back to the mad scientist.
"It makes me angry!" Superboy then jumps again, but he doesn't go after A.M.A.Z.O. this time. He jumps over to Ivo, who quickly moves out of the way before he gets crushed. "Want to see me channel that anger?" Not bad, Superboy. Now you're learning.
I go over to help KF and Robin up, the former saying, "Great, he's gone ballistic again."
"Maybe not."
"I'm with you on this Rob."
"A.M.A.Z.O., protect your master. Priority Alpha." Ivo says, whimpering like the coward he is. He moves away from Superboy again, avoiding being pummeled. A.M.A.Z.O. responds by attacking him Captain Atom style.
"Anyone wanna play keep away?" Robin says as he quicks Ivo's back, pushing him forward.
"I'm game!" I say as I pick up Ivo and fly high up to the ceiling. "So, I'm a poor copy of a Green Lantern, huh?"
"Let go of me! A.M.A.Z.O.!" He yells, kicking and screaming his way out of his situation. Then I hear a high pitched screaming in my ears, making me cover my ears.
But that also means I accidently let go of Ivo, who's falling to the floor now. Kid Flash speeds over to catch him just before A.M.A.Z.O. hits the floor with his foot, sending a tremor over to Kid. Kid trips over and falls back to the bleachers while dropping Ivo to the ground.
Robin throws another batarang at him while I take another energy shot at him. But A.M.A.Z.O. density shifts himself, letting our attacks fly right through him. Perfect.
Superboy drops right in front of A.M.A.Z.O. and just before he shifts back to normal, Superboy places his fist right in his head.
Seconds after, his head explodes, sending Superboy back a few feet. Next thing we know, A.M.A.Z.O.'s headless body falls back to the ground.
"Help me disassemble him now!" Robin says to us as he rushes over to the android's body.
"Dude, the guy has no head." Kid says in response.
"Don't take any chances.", says our leader, who's rushing over to join us along with Miss Martian, who looks over to Superboy.
"I'm with Aqualad on this. I'll help." I say as I create a power drill construct to help dismantle this android.
"Superboy, are you alright?", Miss Martian asks her secret crush.
"I'm fine. Feeling the aster." Great. Now it is a thing.
"Hey. Where's Ivo?" Kid asks us. We look around the gym and find that we're the only ones here. He's gone.
"I can't believe those brats actually destroyed my amazing A.M.A.Z.O.", Ivo says as he exits Gotham Academy, with two of his M.O.N.Q.I.s following him. "No matter, I can always rebuild him, make him better. The next time those kids cross my path, I'll have A.M.A.Z.O. destroy—"
His sentence is interrupted due to him being knocked down by my bo staff. Next I send his toys to the wall with my staff, smashing them into debris.
"Professor Ivo?" I say to him as I walk up to him slowly, my staff still in hand. "I believe my friends have been looking for you tonight."
"Those young delinquents? You're one of them aren't you?"
"Not yet, but hopefully soon. And we're not delinquents. We're heroes."
Mount Justice
August 4, 01:06 EDT
"The A.M.A.Z.O. android is in pieces again safely being analyzed at the two separate S.T.A.R. Labs", Aqualad says as we debrief Batman and other League members. "But Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."
"Capturing the professor will be a League priority", Black Canary says.
"That won't be necessary." Someone else says this from another part of the Cave. Someone who sounds very familiar.
Then that someone starts walking over to us from my left. Someone wearing white leather, who has blonde hair, and is carrying a bo staff. I'm not surprised she's here. Though I didn't see the bo staff coming at all.
I look to the others, who all look from her back to me. Wally looks like his jaw is about to drop to the floor, and his eyes coming out of his socket.
"Is that… her?" Robin asks me.
"Yeah, that's her. Meet the White Canary."
"Dude, I was right", Wally says. "She's way prettier than you described and drew her." Shut up Wally.
I look over to the Leaguers, and see that Batman and Red Tornado aren't too surprised really to see Sara here. Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter look normally surprised to see her. And Black Canary, who mind you is her sister, looks very, very shocked and surprised to see her here. Let's hope she doesn't get mad at her and starts Canary Crying at her.
"What're you doing here?" Canary asks her, with anger rising in her voice.
"Kyle invited me.", she answers. "He told me if I thought about his offer, I should find him and his team at Mount Justice."
Black Canary then looks over to me now, looking like she's going to kill me. "What offer?"
"I'll explain after. What do you mean finding Ivo won't be necessary?"
"That's because I caught him."
"You what?" Canary says.
"I followed Robin after your all's road battle and he led me to Gotham Academy. By the time I got there, you guys had just destroyed his android. But I did see Ivo taking his leave, so I stepped in before he could go any further."
"Where is he now?" Batman asks her.
"At the front doors of the Hall of Justice. I tied him up with my white ribbons." She brings out from her pocket a white, silk ribbon. "I figured someone from the League would pick him up soon enough."
Batman looks over to Tornado, who nods in acknowledgement. Tornado then walks to the zeta beam tube and leaves for the Hall.
"We'll talk about this after I'm done here." Canary tells her sister. To which she responds by nodding to her and leaning up against the cave wall.
"Now back to you six", Martian Manhunter says. "We understand your mission encountered other complications." J'onzz's last comment makes us all look towards Superboy.
Batman steps forward to us. "Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League."
"The whole League?" Superboy asks him.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads." Which makes Superboy smile a bit. Maybe Superboy isn't as hard headed as Superman is now.
"Of course, there's 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 says to his dark mentor. "If we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask. Look familiar?" He then pulls out the arrow that saved Wally and mine's lives tonight. "You were following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us."
"We didn't follow you." Batman says as he gives the arrow to Green Arrow. He pulls out one of his own arrows, putting it up against our arrow. The arrowheads are different from one another, Green Arrow's sharper and pointing upward while ours is more rounded. They didn't follow us. Then if the arrow didn't come from Green Arrow, then who?
"And that's not your arrow", Robin says dumbfounded. "But that means—"
"Speedy!" KF says.
"He has our backs", Aqualad says then.
Kid runs over and takes back the arrow. "Souvenir!"
But Batman and Green Arrow look at one another with disconcert. They don't think Speedy was at Gotham Academy tonight. And I'm not sure he was either.
I look over to my left and see Sara still leaning against the wall. I walk over to her while Superboy's talking to Canary right now, who looks like he's ready to learn now. Took him long enough.
"So, Sara, you wanna tell me how you got into the Cave?"
"I zeta beamed myself in", she answers.
"Really? I didn't know the League's computer system had you in it."
"They didn't, not until I got in it a few weeks ago. Don't ask how."
"Don't worry, I won't", I say smiling at her comment, with her smiling back. "I take it you've considered my offer."
"And what offer would that be now?" Said the Canary Crying voice behind us. Then I see that everyone else, my team and the Leaguers, are all looking our way now. Full attention, awesome.
"When we met in Santa Prisca, I told her if she wanted to join the team, she could. Though I was hoping she'd give me a heads up about it first so I could talk it over with my team."
"Are you kidding me? After tonight, there's no way my sister's going to—"
"Dinah, stop!" Next thing I know, Sara's standing between me and Canary, staring her down like she's not afraid of her. Fearless. Brave. No wonder this girl caught my eye.
"Look, I know you want to protect from the world and the bad people that are in it, but you can't. Not forever anyways. And I can handle myself in a fight. I have the training, from you and Grandpa Grant. Plus, I thought bringing in Ivo would help my case."
"You followed the team into danger, again. You could've gotten yourself hurt, again. You never listen to me."
"Yes I do! You're the one who doesn't listen to me! I'm not you, and you're not your mom!"
Sara's last statement must've meant something to Canary, because she's shocked and left speechless. "What did you say?"
"Before I left, Grandpa Grant told me about your mom, the first Black Canary. About how she died from radiation poisoning due to her job as a hero. He also told me how she made him promise her to keep you out of her life, a life of danger and mayhem and death. But that never stopped you from going out yourself and eventually becoming the Black Canary. And no matter what you say or do, you can't stop me from doing this. From being the White Canary."
As she stands firmly tall and proud to her big sister, Canary is still speechless, not even making a sound whatsoever. Part of me wishes it was just the two of them here. This is too personal for us to hear.
No. I want you all to hear this.
What the…? Sara? But how…?
Yeah, it's me. It's something I learned through meditation a long time ago.
…It was you. You're the one who woke me up when Kobra had captured me.
Aren't you a fast learner?
"Oh Sara", Canary says, bringing my attention back to her. And seeing her now, her face is filled with sadness. Literal and figurative, with tears coming down her face.
"I didn't think… I'm sorry." Canary pulls her in for a hug, with tears coming down both their faces now.
"As much as I love you and idolize you, I'm not you. It's my life, I have to make my decisions. And no matter what consequences comes from those decisions, I have to live with them."
"I understand." We three look back over to the group, who for the most part are looking saddened right about now. Even Superboy feels bad for these sisters.
"I'm sorry you all had to see this… family discussion."
"No need to apologize", Batman says. "Communicating with family can be, at times, difficult." He looks to Robin, who looks back in acknowledgement.
"In any case, her being on a team with heroes her age would help in her development and skills. Just as long as she doesn't cross any lines whatsoever."
"Of course not, Batman. I wouldn't dare do anything to risk the lives of the innocent." She answers the Dark Knight as proficiently as possible.
"Good. But I think I'll leave the matter of your approval to them", he says as he refers to the team and me.
Sara and I walk over to the others, me joining them in a huddle while she stands alone in front of us all. "M'gann." She responds to exactly what I'm thinking: linking our minds to discuss Sara so she doesn't hear what we're saying.
So what do you guys think?
I don't know Kyle. She's been following us for quite a while now, Robin says.
Yeah and she's even followed you so well, you never even noticed her Bird Boy. If the protégé to Batman couldn't have seen her coming, she has to have some skill.
You have a point there.
She's definitely got talent. A girl that pretty has got to be just as dangerous, Wally says then. I smack Wally upside the head for his idiotic thinking.
What do we even know about her other than she's Black Canary's sister? Can we even trust her? Superboy brings up.
I trust her. She could've left me to die on Santa Prisca, but she didn't. And I know enough about her and from what I know, she's a good person who has the training and abilities to do the job. To help save innocent lives and preserve justice.
If she really did not want to help us, she would have just left Ivo go free, Aqualad says then.
I agree with Kyle and Kaldur. We should at least give her a chance, M'gann says.
So we're in agreement?
Yes. Yes. Yep. Yes! I guess.
We all exit our group mind huddle and turn around towards Sara. I walk up to her, and from the look on her face, she's anxious to know what we think. "Okay."
As soon as I speak, the biggest smile appears on her face. "Really?"
"Yeah." I bring out my hand to her, to which she meets it with her own. "Welcome to the team, White Canary."
Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait again, I've been going through a lot, more than I thought I was. But I push on, as we all should, in life and in storytelling. I'm currently editing the next chapter and it should be up on here by the weekend, and this time I mean it.
I hope you guys will like White Canary as much as you like Kyle. Let me know what you think, if you have any issues, or any ideas for her, any comments good or bad really. I'm open to suggestion and new ideas for characters and arcs.
Again, thank you all who've favorited and followed Young Justice: Beginnings, there's definitely more to come, and original chapters as well. Keep reading, reviewing, and being awesome!