AN: No Football? No Problem. I'm back with an entire episode ready for uploading, like I promised. Thanks for being patiant while I train and take care of some other business. With that being said, the chapters for this episode will be posted daily until all five episodes are up, then it's another wait. So first up is the mailbag and then the story. Hope ya'll enjoy.
PS. As far as the Superbowl goes, 1-That was a stupid play Seattle did at the last, 2-Still and forever will hate brady and the patriots AKA the cheaters, 3-Oh MY GOD! Can't wait for Jurrassic World, and 4-Katy Perry has nothing on Tommy Oliver when she rode in on that lion and Rocky Balboa is the only one with the 'eye of the tiger'.
Airborne3 - Yes, Rose will be introduced but at a later time. She was one of the characters I hd listed in the choices for seasons readers want me to write. I'm just putting her in at the right time.
The Darkman - Yep, moral will be severly damaged. See PS for my football 2-cents.
Eddie - Cheap route, huh? Maybe you won't think that when things get a bit more...invested later on? (Insert omnius music here) I see what you're saying, but there is still a ways to go to the end and more twists and turns to go through.
Black Victor Cachat - Yeah, my season 5 is stlll too far out to tell right now. But I do have notes from the poll I conducted so they're on the back burner for now.
8. Exam
1.
Titan Tower
August 07
15:27 UTC
It had been nearly a month since Francisco 'Vibe' Ramon was killed at the hands of Brother Blood. Moral for the black ops team was at an all time low with the lives of two of their own being taken by the enemy. It felt as if time was strictly against them with each second counting down to the end of another's life. Those in the Justice League began to closely monitor every mission they were dispatched on with a League member accompanying them as backup. Even the newly formed Titans were monitored when out in the field, something their leaders felt hindered their development but understood why Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman wanted to take no more chances with this Cult of Blood still at large.
As with every death, it was hard to go through with the memorials, one held by the family, who had no idea he was moonlighting as a young hero, and the other held by his teammates. Tim, Bart, and Jaime were especially hurting since they were the closest to him. When the time came to light the memorial hologram of him in the Watchtower forest room, not a word was said out of respect. Looking around, everyone felt it had too many fallen heroes and hoped more would not be added to their numbers.
All plans currently in development were put on hold by all teams as more research went into the cult. Supergirl and Starfire had reported back with nothing new, other than locations of where the cult performed ritual sacrifices, and even though Tim's little secret mission was a disaster, they did discover more about who they were dealing with as well as the Silver Banshee woman and a transformed Scarecrow. Evidence of who was found in the hotel, though not what he had transformed into.
With Batman out of commission for a time, three days to be exact, the investigative work fell to Barbara who went by 'Oracle', while on the job. Her searches came up with Jonathan Crane being released from Arkham under the care of a mysterious benefactor some months ago. The two disappeared from the states shortly after with Crane's ankle monitor left behind at Gotham International Airport. What precisely the Cult of Blood did to him was a mystery, but with the clues left at the hotel in Crime Alley and what was found in South America, he may have been changed into his current form under his own consent. As for Silver Banshee, there were no clues as to who she was.
With the day turning towards evening, the group at Titan Tower were enjoying time in the water around the small island. Leftover burgers sat next to a cooling grill along with hotdogs and the corresponding buns to keep warm. Two coolers sat in the sand with ice cold water keeping the canned and bottled drinks cool. Towels lay on the sand for sunbathing and a volleyball sat near a net that was heavily used.
Close to shore, M'gann had Carter sitting on a rock that made him waist deep and the water line reaching to midway on his mother's stomach. He was enjoying playing with his toys, a plastic boat and a toy shark, as M'gann laughed at his antics and his squealing. Having enough of the sun, and wondering where her husband was, M'gann took her son back into the tower, letting the five teenagers get their fill of fun after their beefed upped training, ending to their summer freedom, and the recent death the black ops team had suffered. It had been an idea to get their heads cleared for a time and just be teenagers for once, not heroes and heroines.
Landing in the living area of the tower, M'gann left the wide window open behind her as she peeked under Carter's blue bunny towel wrap with hood. He still had hold of a sea shell toy Kaldur had given him and was currently chewing on the soft pearl colored object. With a smile, she dried him off a little more then morphed a yellow wrap around her waist to cover the bottom half of her bikini when Conner came into the room.
"Thought you would be coming outside again." Removing the infant's hat, she lightly bounced him as he continued chewing on his toy.
"I was still talking to Diana and Clark." Standing in front of her, Conner slipped a cell phone into the pocket of his trunks.
"And?"
"They agree."
Looking out the window, they could see the five teens doing different activities. Kyle formed a construct of a catapult to launch anyone brave into the air and land in the water. Terra was taking her turn and let out a high pitched scream as she sailed into the air. Cissie was applying sunblock to her arms and looked to be getting ready to relax on one of the beach towels for a tan. Raven was beside her with a book out, turning the pages with her powers as she ignored the world around her. Garfield was getting ready to swing out into the water from a rope swing they made out of two left over girders from constructing the new base. He performed a cannonball with a double splash as he hit the water.
"Do you agree?" M'gann asked while watching the teens enjoy themselves. "I know we trained them for this, but with what's happened-"
"I know," Conner told her, knowing what she was going to say. "But like you said, we trained them for this and have to see it through. It's not like when we were sent out on a trial by fire mission. You made sure they can watch each other's backs. I made sure they would stay alert at all times."
"And we made sure they would take care of themselves individually. Still, it really doesn't seem we had enough time training them for this."
"Yeah." Nodding, Conner crossed his arms over his bare chest. "But we just have to hope we did the best we could with the time we had with them. They all know what to do, and with Terra as the least trained out of all of them, we have to hope our crash course in what we do is enough for her."
"What about a leader?"
Letting out a sigh, Conner raked a hand through his still damp hair and moved away from the window. "That's on them. Like it was on us."
Taking one last look out the window, M'gann heard Carter make a cooing noise and mentally received a picture of food. Grinning, she adjusted him in her arms. "Alright, let's get you some grapes and cheese." She then wrinkled her nose. "And have daddy change you, sweetie."
Turning from the window, she called for Conner who was suddenly on the phone in a 'deep' conversation when it rang. The machine had betrayed him and alerted his wife he was talking to no one. Had it not have been for Wally calling, his plan would have worked.
Down on the beach, Cissie was fiddling with an arrow shaft as she tanned. The thin, white projectile was as light, straight, strong, and smooth as she could get it without taking away too much from its stability when fired. Artemis had taught her plenty about making her own arrows and how to modify the store bought ones should she need a reload on short notice, something Green Arrow told her she may need to do from time to time.
"Hey, Rae," Cissie said with her concentration still on her work. "You realize what today is, right?"
"The seventh?" Raven flatly responded.
"That and only two more days until school starts. You going to public or be tutored at the tower again?"
"Tower. I despise people."
"Fibber. You don't despise me."
"Think what you want."
Sticking her arrow in the sand, since it had no tip to it, the red bikini clad teen girl tied her hair up then rolled over to her stomach. "Wanna do something fun?"
"I'm reading," Raven, in her black one pice swimsuit muttered as she turned the page, "this is fun."
"But I mean fun for me, too." Lightly slapping the Goth girl's thigh, Cissie pointed out to the water. "See Gar and Terra over there?"
Looking up, without making it look like she were looking up, Raven gave a slight grunt.
"Well," Cissie continued, "what if you use some of that dark magic of yours to..."
Her words actually peaked Raven's interests.
"Alright, next victim for the sling ride!" Kyle yelled as he reconstructed the catapult for the next volunteer. "And this time, I feel we can set a record!"
"Guh, not me, thanks," Terra told him. "I got water up my nose from last time."
"And my stomach's still throbbing." Rubbing his midsection, Garfield could swear his green skin was red from when he did a belly flop on accident when it was his turn.
"Suit yourself." Having the catapult disappear, he teenage Green Lantern formed a boogyboard and had it take him back to land.
"So, Gar, whatc'ha think about what the League's doing with us?" Moving to her back, Terra floated around the green teen as she paddled slowly. "You think we'll ever be able to go on a real mission of our own?"
"We have gone on missions of our own, just not without Conner or sis. Something about not wanting to throw us to the wolves without proper training."
"Oh come on, BB. You make it sound like they fought a supervillain on their first outing. Like that'll happen to us."
"They did, and it could. Remember Blue and Cass' first date? They went for ice cream and had to fight a guy with a dummy. He even had the thing work a gun."
"But in their defense, they were in Gotham at the time."
Stretching while floating past, Terra missed seeing Garfield blush as she lightly brushed against his chest. Her yellow one piece bathing suit covered up everything, but with her being so close like she was, was enough to turn his normally green skin a shade of pink. True Terra had a cute shape to her, but if Garfield had to admit something, it was he did stare at Raven's legs when she unwrapped her coverup from around her waist. If it had not have been for Kyle elbowing him when he did, he was sure the Gothic teen would have caught him, or worse, M'gann. It was one thing for his teammates to know he was crushing on Raven, but if his blood sister saw him staring at her the way he was, it would open up an entirely new can of worms he just did not want to deal with. She had finally eased up on him after a while after the Darkseid invasion and he did not want to go into that territory again just yet.
"Hey, what was that?" Quickly getting up to a vertical position, Terra looked around the water in her immediate vicinity.
"What was what?" Garfield asked the alerted girl.
"Something tried to grab my leg."
"What?"
"Felt like," Switching her gaze from the water to the green boy, Terra had a slight grin. "Did, did you just try to feel my leg?"
"Ummmm, no." Backing up, Garfield had a look of innocence on his face.
"But you have your tail out."
"I, I always have my tail out."
Swimming closer to him, Terra's grin turned sly. "And you wanted to do something?"
"I didn't grab your leg."
"Sure."
"I didn't. I woul- hey, something tied to grab me."
"Changing the subject, Gar?"
"No, I mean, something...aw shoot!"
"What the?"
The water, which had been calm all day, slowly started to move in a circular motion. The two teen heroes were now caught in a whirlpool and were steadily being pushed to its center. Searching for a way out, Garfield morphed into a pelican and attempted to take to the air when he saw Terra. Shifting back to his usual self, he dove into the water in the form of a dolphin to get to her when large, black pointed shapes rose from out of the water.
Struggling to keep above water, Terra tried to summon forth a column of rock from the harbor floor. She could feel the Earth bend to her will but could also feel the column she summoned stop several feet from where she was. It was as if it were being blocked from reaching her no matter how hard she concentrated on bringing it up. Letting out a scream, she saw the black objects appear before her and move in like a set of giant teeth.
"Terra! Terra!" Popping out of the water, Garfield had a smile on his face. "Terra, don't panic! It's a pr-"
Before he could tell her the rest, the black objects covered them and all movement ceased. From inside, it felt as if they were being lifted into the air; however, there was still water around them up to their necks, then to their chests, waists, thighs, then ankles. Besides each other's voices, there was no way they could tell if the other were safe, except for Garfield who had a slight case of the giggles at this point.
"What's so funny?" Terra demanded. "What are you-agh!" Letting out a high pitched shriek, she felt herself become weightless as the black object holding them disappeared and dropped them both to the sandy shore of the beach.
"That was cool," Cissie said as she ran over to the two.
"It looked like a giant angler fish," Kyle commented. "Thing was freaking wicked!"
"Wha-what happened?" Terra demanded. "We're...what happened?!"
Laughing hard, Garfield lay on his back, clutching his stomach as he stomped his feet in the sand. "That-that was awesome, Raven. Freaky and awesome."
"What happened?!"
Helping the other blonde up, Cissie wrapped an arm around the shaken girl. "I had Rae-"
"Raven," Raven corrected.
"Raven, I had her make a whirlpool and a kraken to play with you guys."
"Why would you do that! We could have drowned!" Terra shouted while getting out of the half hug.
"No you wouldn't," Raven told her. "You were in no more than six feet of water at the deepest and I made sure my magic was right below your feet at all time incase you go down. Lighten up."
"Yeah, Terra, lighten up," Garfield told her. "It as a good prank."
"Yeah, who says Goth girls can't be funny?" Kyle commented.
"I'll show you funny." With her eyes glowing a bright yellow, Tera had the ground shake around them until she heard Conner's voice shout from overhead.
"Hey, what's going on?" Landing beside the group with M'gann holding Carter, Conner Looked into the eyes of the five teens. "Well?"
No one said a word. They only took glances at each other with Garfield getting back to his feet, his giggle fest now over.
"Again, what happened?"
Stepping forward, Terra was about to say something when Raven beat her to it. "Garfield and Terra were in the water and I played a prank on them. She thought they were going to drown but I made sure they weren't."
"But, it was my idea," Cissie said in a nervous voice.
"I should have stopped them," Kyle commented.
"Are you two okay?" Looking Terra and her blood brother over, M'gann was satisfied when she saw them nodding.
"Is there going to be a problem here?" Conner asked.
"No," the teens answered almost in unison. Terra gave Raven a stink eye look but did not press the matter any further.
"Good," Conner said while crossing his arms. "Because if there is, we'll rethink this through."
"Um, rethink what through?" Kyle asked.
Giving them one last look over, Conner let out a heavy breath. "Play time is over. Clean up and report to the war room in ten."
"Uniforms?" Cissie asked.
Dropping his arms, Conner floated into the air with his wife and son behind him. "Not yet."
Looking into the sky, the group of young heroes watched as they flew back to the tower, nervous as to what their leaders had in store for them.