Survival of the Fittest
A/N: The kids' kids demanded another chapter. Petra is Kon and Cassie's daughter. She's roughly the same age as Rana and the twins.
Though retired, Bruce Wayne still held a lot of sway in the Justice League and other superhero teams. He and Clark Kent had discussed the current band of Titans and Bruce had suggested a fortnight's survival challenge as a team bonding experience. Over half of the current team had only recently joined, including the newest member, Wonder Girl.
"You have a place in mind?" Clark asked.
"I do. It's an extinct volcanic island on the mid Atlantic ridge that indirectly benefitted from the Royal Navy's intervention on Ascension two centuries ago," Bruce stated. He pulled up a schematic on the island to show Clark.
"Okay, they should be able to survive there for two weeks?" Clark asked, looking at the schematic.
"If they play their cards right, they'll consider the experience a vacation," Bruce smirked.
"So you'll consider the exercise a success if we hear 'do we have to go?'" Clark chuckled.
"We'll evaluate what all they did of course, but yes. I hear a single 'do we have to go?' and I'll consider it successful."
Doctor Fate was called upon to teleport the Titans to the island and erect a magical barrier that would detect if any of them went beyond two miles from the island. The ten of them looked around at their surroundings. They had the place to themselves.
"Are they serious?" Teejay Drake-Wayne asked.
"Hey, if your grandpa and my grandpa suggest a remote island getaway, who are we to argue?" Corey Kent grinned, leaning against a palm tree.
"They want us to survive here for a fortnight," Teejay reminded his teammate.
"Judging by the looks of this place, it'll be like booking a couple of weeks at Club Med," Corey's cousin, Petra Kent mused. "This place looks just like Themyscira, minus the architecture."
"Survive? I've got a feeling that we'll be living it up," Alia Allen commented as she looked back to the tropical forest inland.
"Every survival book you've ever read is coming to the forefront isn't it?" Teejay asked. Alia nodded. "In that case, you're in charge."
Alia wasted no time with her new responsibilities. "Step one," she said, pointing to Zander Reyes. "Do you sense fresh water around here?"
"I do, but…" the Atlantean held his hand out towards the ocean and a ball of water began forming above the surface. "I can also separate fresh water out of sea water. There's your water source."
"Water's not an issue. Step two, Reno I want an aerial view of the place. What are we looking at?" Alia asked. Reno Reyes took off into the sky only to return a few minutes later.
"The place is about three miles square, Chica," he said, projecting a topographical map of their location onto the sand. "The peak's a dead volcano that's just over a thousand feet tall and the whole island is forested."
Alia clicked her tongue and studied the map. "Okay, Zander, you'll swim the periphery of the island. Assess fish stocks and alternatives if fish stocks aren't that abundant." The Atlantean nodded. "See if there are any naturally occurring lagoons too."
"You got it."
"The rest of us will break up into teams," Alia stated. "Reno, your scarab will be able to analyse any vegetation to see if it's edible?"
"Si."
"And if food is scarce, I can literally survive on water and sunshine, like a plant," Corey added.
""I'll keep that in mind if we need to resort to it, but it'll be a last ditch measure," Alia told him. "Corey, you, Tai, and Petra have the volcano. Rana and Teej have the next section of island to about here," Alia said indicating a point on the map. "Nina and Reno have this section and Moon and I'll take the end. You'll be looking for any naturally occurring shelter, like caves and stuff. Stuff to build a shelter from if it isn't naturally occurring. Fresh water sources inland, and food. If you aren't sure, bring a sample back and we'll have Reno test it," Alia instructed.
"Time frame?" Teejay asked.
"Two hours should do it," Alia replied. "Make notes of what you find and roughly where and we'll meet back here in two hours." They split up and began their searches.
"Uh, where do bamboo and bananas occur naturally together in nature?" Rana Wayne asked her cousin not too far into their search.
"Nowhere, but I have a sneaking suspicion I know roughly where on Earth we are," Teejay replied. Rana gave him a look. "I'm betting we're near Ascension Island, in the mid Atlantic."
"And you're basing that on…?"
"None of this stuff growing around here occurs together naturally," Teejay explained. "Back in the eighteen fifties, Joseph Hooker, a naval buddy of Charles Darwin, was tasked with turning Ascension into an inhabitable island. It was the first experiment in terra forming and it was a huge success."
"So you think that this stuff is from seeds that blew here?" Rana asked, picking a couple of bananas and handing one to Teejay.
"Or birds, drifted here, whatever," Teejay replied. "There's loads of food stuff around here."
Further down the island, Alia and Moon West were coming to the same conclusion. "Wasn't there an experiment or something in the eighteen hundreds in terra forming?" Moon asked as she ate a banana.
"Yepper," Alia replied. She told her cousin about Joseph Hooker and Ascension Island. "I'm willing to bet we're not that far from there."
"Well there's loads of carbs around here to fuel Rana, you, Tai, and me," Moon stated.
"I'm telling you, we get situated here, and we'll be coasting the rest of our stay here," Alia stated.
"Vacation?"
"Uh huh," Alia grinned.
"So food's not an issue and neither is stuff to build a shelter," Nina Reyes was telling her brother. "We just need to see if we can find fresh water or a cave."
"Si. I mean seriously where did they send us? The Swiss Family Robinson Island or something," Reno agreed. His scarab was pointing out various edible and useful plants as they walked. They'd found sugar cane and were sharing a stalk of it.
"Can Kahji point out exactly where we are?" Nina asked.
"About halfway between Africa and Brazil. Just north of the tropic of Capricorn," he replied. "Oh…that's good to know, gracias."
"Que?"
"Kahji says that extract from this thing is a good pain reliever," Reno replied, pointing to a gnarled tree.
Tai West had a bag she was putting samples in for Reno to test as she, Petra, and Corey investigated the extinct volcano. "Those look like blackberries or something," she said, noting a wild patch of berries growing near the top of the mountain.
"I think they are, but add some to your collection so Reno can tell us for sure," Corey replied.
"There're bees here," Petra stated. "Maybe there's a hive nearby?"
Corey lowered his head and closed his eyes as he concentrated on finding signs of a hive with his hearing. "There's two, near the base of the mountain," he said. "I think I can hear another one down in Alia and Moon's area too."
"Carbs for the speedsters," Tai noted.
"I heard water too, over that way," Corey said. He and the girls followed his hearing until they came upon a trickle of water running down the mountain side. Corey picked Tai up and lifted off into the air while Petra flew after them. "We'll follow it to see if it collects in any reasonable amount."
"If we get Zander to top this up, we'll have a place to bathe," Tai suggested, once they'd found a small pond where the water was collecting.
"Or for rinsing out our cloths," Petra added. She spotted something embedded in the rock wall and grinned. Smashing her fist into the rock, Petra collected several large pieces of obsidian and handed them over to Tai to put in her bag. "A little something I learned on Themyscira while I was doing my Amazon training," she said. "We'll have tools for cutting before the night's out."
"I think Rana knows how to do that too," Corey murmured as Petra selected a few pieces of basalt to knap the obsidian with. "Damn," he cursed. "I just found one of the bee hives in what would otherwise be the perfect cave to shelter in," he explained when Tai asked him what he was swearing about.
Tai glanced at her watch. "Let's see if we can find another cave then."
Zander had stopped assessing fish populations early in his search. Seafood was abundant all around the island. Instead he focused on finding ideal spots along the coast to set up camp and best access the resource.
Two hours had passed and the team met up at their original landing point. Almost all of what Tai had found was edible, Reno confirmed. "Remember where you found that though, because that's medicinal," he told her, pointing to a small green fruit that had been deemed not suitable to eat.
"We found two caves that would have been perfect, were it not for the massive bee colonies living in them," Corey reported.
"We found a colony too," Moon offered.
"Sugar, B vitamins galore, and nature's best antiseptic," Nina grinned.
"Okay, so we're building our own shelter then," Alia stated.
"I think I found the place to do that," Zander offered, pointing to a rough map he drew in the sand. "There's a small cove over here that is perfect for fishing and the forest is real thick just above it."
"Teleport us over there then," Teejay commanded. Zander did and they immediately began inspecting their surroundings. "We could totally build up a shelter between those trees," he said.
"That's what I was thinking," Alia agreed. She assigned the team with various tasks before taking off with Teejay to gather food.
Petra held up a piece of basalt and a piece of obsidian for Rana to see. "If I gave you these, would you know what to do with them?" she asked.
"Am I making projectile points or knives?" Rana asked, accepting the two stones.
"Knives. I'm picky about my spear points," Petra grinned. Rana glanced around and spied a flat rock on the ground. Petra raised her eyebrows in surprise as Rana quickly chipped a six inch blade from the obsidian. In two minutes, she had a perfectly balanced blade that she was using to slice part of the husk of a coconut off. "You're definitely in charge of the knife collection," Petra laughed, as Rana held up the slice of husk.
Some ways off, Reno paused as he surveyed the area. "Okay, close enough to the soon to be Casa Titans, far enough away from the water…ay Dios mio," Reno muttered, as he armoured up. "I know she only picked us to dig out the baño, because we can do it real quick," he murmured to his scarab. "What do you mean? Oh damn," Reno muttered a few minutes later. He'd dug out the latrine to an impressive eight feet deep in very little time. He floated up to the lip of the hole and startled at the blue and violet streaks that paused next to him.
"Wow," Tai mused.
"We're here for two weeks," Moon pointed out.
"Not two years," Tai added.
"Where's Corey?" Reno asked the twins.
"Follow us," Tai suggested as she and Moon zipped away. Reno took off into the air and soon found the twins with their brother.
"Shitty job?" Corey asked, yanking a few palm fronds from a tall coconut tree. Moon and Tai gathered the fronds and took off again.
"Ah ha, ha, ha," Reno scoffed, flipping off his friend. "So we're cutting them and they're running them back?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Yep," Corey replied, moving on to another tree. Reno held up his right forearm and his armour shifted into a menacing scythe. Corey paused to watch in awe as Reno made short work of hacking off palm fronds from the trees nearby. "Um, I'll join them in taking them back to camp then," he said, landing next to the pile of fronds Reno had harvested.
"Alia showed the twins how to weave them together, si?" Reno asked.
"Yeah," Corey replied, hoisting the fronds onto his shoulders.
"How about we collect all this stuff and they start weaving?"
"Good plan," Corey agreed. Reno went back to hacking off fronds.
At the shoreline, Nina wandered among the rocky outlets as Zander swam nearby. Zander popped out of the water to get her attention a moment later. "Right there," he said, causing Nina to pause.
"There's a fairly deep pool right here," Nina pointed out. Zander clambered onto the rocks and inspected the pool.
"We are definitely building our fish trap here," he agreed a moment later. Nina looked over at the pile of bamboo they'd brought with them as Zander figured out the exact placement of the trap.
"Okay…wow. Hold up a second," Alia told the twins when she and Teejay returned from foraging. The twins had woven together an impressive amount of fronds in just over an hour. "We haven't fig…" Alia paused and looked to where Moon was pointing. "Never mind," she added, seeing the frame that had already been put up between several trees. The frame was sitting on a solid floor several feet off the ground.
"Part of the Amazon training I got included roughing it in the woods," Petra explained.
"As well as making your own stone tools, I see," Alia commented, studying the obsidian tip that Petra was fixing to a sturdy bamboo spear. The Amazon had already made several spears. "Rana, stop playing with the knives," Alia teased. Rana let the blade she was balancing on her fingertip, fall into her hand. "Tai, go round up Reno and Corey. We'll start putting this all together." Tai took off to find the two boys. While the others were putting the shelter together, Tai and Moon built a privacy screen around the latrine Reno had dug out.
Nina and Zander returned a while later to find that most of the shelter had been put together. "I guess I don't have to go sleep out there then," Zander remarked, pointing towards the ocean.
"Damn, big enough?" Nina teased.
"We just need to sort out how we're storing water, and we're all set," Teejay stated.
"I have an idea for that," Petra volunteered. "Corey, come with me," she added, before taking off towards the mountain. Corey shrugged before following his cousin. They returned half an hour later with a large stone basin the two had made from volcanic rock. "Your highness, if you would be so kind?" Petra grinned at Zander.
"Since you asked so nicely," Zander teased. He stretched a hand out towards the water and separated a large ball of fresh water from the ocean and filled the stone basin with it.
"Well that solves that one," Alia murmured. The team gathered around Alia to admire their shelter. Alia did a mental checklist and saw that they had accomplished everything she'd tasked them to on the first day. "We just need to dig out a fire pit and we'll be all set."
"Someone else is doing that, I already dug out the shit hole," Reno stated, folding his arms across his chest. Petra laughed as she quickly dug out the fire pit. Teejay was shaking his head when Petra said that she was done.
"Fire pit and imu, impressive," Alia smirked. "Like your dad hasn't drilled into us how to host a proper luau," she added at Petra's applause.
"There are pork chops roaming around here by the way," Corey offered. "I heard them on the mountain."
"So did I," Petra added. "That's why I went with tree house when I was putting the framework together."
"There's feral pigs here?" Teejay asked. Corey and Petra nodded.
"Somehow I don't think you need to go into plant mode for our stay," Alia told Corey, ruffling his hair.
"Before anyone gets a case of 'eyes bigger than stomach'," Nina piped up. "Let's figure this out. The tide is going out and there's loads of foraging in the lagoon."
"Good point," Alia agreed. "It is getting late in the afternoon. Hunting and butchering will take you a while at least, right?" she asked Petra.
"Yup," Petra replied. "I'd rather start a hunt first thing in the morning."
"So? Seafood tonight, kalua pig tomorrow," Rana shrugged.
"What are we waiting for?" Moon asked.
"Let's go fishing," Tai added.
"Corey, you're on rock detail. Get enough to line the imu and the fire pit with," Teejay ordered. Corey gave a salute and flew off towards the mountain. "Reno, you're on firewood duty." Reno armoured up and flew off to the opposite end of the island from Corey. "Zander, Nina, lead the way."
"Um correct me if I'm wrong here," Moon piped up when they saw the fish trap. "But shouldn't that be submerged…at least a little?"
"At high tide it will be," Zander replied.
"Oh! Gotcha!" Moon exclaimed, smacking her head. "Fish swim in at high tide. The tide goes out and they're trapped…yeah I'll shut up now."
"Good idea," he teased. "Okay, Petra and anyone else who can spear fish. There're channels through the reef that you should be able to hunt from," Zander said, pointing to the exposed reef a small ways out. "Anyone who wants to dive for them, can find slipper lobsters hiding under most of these rock ledges. And there're oysters, urchins, clams, and all sorts in the tide pools."
"And when you're cleaning any of the fish, do it here so it can be bait later when the tide comes in," Nina added, indicating the pool that was part of the trap.
Alia and Teejay dived in after Nina and Zander to go looking for lobsters. Tai and Moon began searching the tide pools for the morsels Zander had indicated could be found in them, while Petra and Rana went out onto the reef. Corey and Reno finished their assigned chores and joined the twins in scouring the tide pools. It didn't take them long to catch enough for dinner. Zander had gone out a little further for food he was more familiar with and was the last to return to the fish trap.
"If I were smart, I'd be terrified," Teejay teased Rana. Her obsidian knives had proven to be very well made. The others laughed while Rana flipped her cousin off. They finished preparing their catches and returned to camp. "Who all can set fires without powers?" Teejay asked. He laughed when everyone's hands went up. "Bunch of pyros." He had Corey use his heat vision to get their fire going while the others prepared dinner.
"You're cooking them in coconuts?" Rana asked Tai, when she saw her cousin scraping clams and oysters into opened coconuts.
"Just because we're roughing it, doesn't mean we have to give up gourmet dining," Tai pointed out. "How does coconut milk based clam chowder grab ya?" Rana's eyes lit up at the idea.
"Too bad we couldn't find the fixings for salsa around here," Nina chuckled.
"Si," Reno moaned in pleasure at the thought. Zander cringed a little as he wrapped raw oysters in seaweed.
"No, but we've got Southeast Asian ingredients everywhere," Moon grinned.
Zander looked to his cousins and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I know it's half of my heritage, but I cannot combine the two cuisines. It just doesn't work for me."
"Ese, you just revoked your Mexican card," Reno declared, holding out his hand. "Hand that shit over." Nina laughed herself to a choking fit as Zander hung his head in shame and mimed handing over a card to Reno.
"You love Mexican food," Teejay pointed out to the Atlantean.
"By itself, yes I do. Mixed with seafood though," Zander trailed off. Teejay threw his hands up in surrender and looked over to the twins.
"What the hell are you two making?"
"Dinner," they replied. Rana smirked at Teejay as he rolled his eyes. Alia fell back into sand, she was laughing so hard. Moon stirred the contents of one of the coconuts and tested it.
"Try that," she told her twin, holding a clam out for Tai. Tai did and purred.
"Soup's on!" Tai declared. Everyone took a coconut and gingerly tested the contents before most of them leaned back and drained theirs in delight.
Zander didn't care for it and held his out for anyone who wanted it. "Sorry, but I just can't eat seafood that's been cooked," he apologised. He yanked his hand back as four hands reached out at speed and snatched his portion from him. Alia cackled as she came up with the prize and chugged it down.
"Bigger, older, and faster," she said to the other three speedsters. Rana and the twins shared a look.
"Younger, crazier, and outnumber you three to one," Moon retorted.
"The only hiccup with that fight is that'll happen so fast, most of us will miss it," Reno casually pointed out. Nina shoved her brother as she laughed along with the others.
The rest of dinner finished cooking and was served as the sun set. Zander had saved enough to prepare in his preferred way and they chatted into the night. Teejay decided that he wanted at least one person on watch during the night and volunteered for the first shift. Reno's scarab let him know that it was nearly ten in the evening when several of the team headed for the shelter for the night. Alia awoke several hours later and took over for Teejay on watch duty. He bid her goodnight and went into the shelter and lay down next to Rana before nodding off almost immediately. Alia tended the fire and could hear the occasional rustle in the woods, which she assumed were the pigs Corey and Petra mentioned the day before. The sky began to get light behind her and Alia deduced the compass points on a rough map of the island she'd drawn in the sand. Petra crept out of the shelter as dawn broke and went to tend to personal business before letting Alia know that she was going on her hunt.
"They stopped foraging in the woods back there about an hour ago," Alia said as Petra selected a couple of spears and a knife.
"Could you tell where they went?" Petra asked.
"Back towards the mountain."
"Okay. On the off chance I need a hand, Corey will hear me," Petra said before taking to the sky.
Alia shook her head and looked out to the water. Zander had already figured out the tidal pattern the day before, but Alia still made mental notes as she watched the water creep into the lagoon.
"Hola Chica," Nina greeted around a yawn.
"Morning," Alia returned the greeting. She watched over her shoulder as Nina wandered over to the latrine, before turning her attention back to the water.
"I noticed Petra was up already," Nina stated as she returned to the fire and flopped into the sand next to Alia.
"She left about fifteen minutes before you got up, to go hunting," Alia replied. Nina made a small noise of acknowledgment in her throat and watched the tide for a while.
"So I figure maybe chores assigned each day," Nina piped up after a while. "Get firewood, food, that kind of thing."
"Way ahead of you," Alia chuckled. She leaned back and showed Nina the notes she'd drawn in the sand overnight.
"So breakfast and lunch are 'you want it, you get it'," Nina murmured. "Dinner is the one you want us to collect for, for the day?"
"Considering the wide range of appetites around here," Alia shrugged. "Finding stuff to do during the day has been on my mind since they suggested this exercise," she added.
"Oh?"
"Rana, the twins, and I are the biggest threat to the food supply," Alia reminded her friend. "We'll have to cut back on the speed considerably."
"Knowing Granddad, he'll want to know if we made an effort to escape," Rana piped up behind the two elder Titans. Nina and Alia both startled as Rana wandered into their field of view. "Sorry," she apologised.
"I was thinking that too," Alia replied, once she recovered from her shock.
"What? Like building a raft or something?" Nina asked.
"I don't think so. Not since he had Fate erect that barrier that'll detect if we go out a certain distance," Rana shrugged. "A beacon definitely." Alia pointed to her notes in the sand. "How bored did you get last night?"
"Bored enough," Alia chuckled. Rana turned to look back at the shelter, so Nina and Alia weren't startled when Moon and Tai made an appearance a moment later.
"Breakfast is whatever," Tai muttered as she glanced at Alia's notes.
"Fruit salad," Moon suggested.
"Okay, screw them, they can figure it out themselves…let's go," Nina stated, standing up and brushing sand off.
Moon pulled one of the half burned sticks from the fire and suggested they go to the area she and Alia had checked out the day before. Nina gathered some sugar cane as they walked and started chewing on it. "I'm brushing my teeth," she chuckled.
"Actually, that's how people do it in lots of remote places," Alia pointed out. Rana hacked a large stalk off at the base and cut it into smaller portions, handing some of them out to the others.
"There's that hive," Moon grinned and headed for it with her smouldering stick.
"You get that, we'll get the rest," Alia said, plucking some large banana leaves. She gave Nina, Tai, and Rana a leaf each and suggested they use it as a basket.
"That should be enough, right?" Moon asked Alia a while later, holding up a large chunk of honey comb. Alia chuckled and said that it was more than enough.
They returned to camp and saw that none of the boys had yet to wake up. Using one of the banana leaves as a plate, they mixed the fruit together and drizzled it with honey. They realised that they'd harvested enough for everyone and chuckled.
"At least the boys can have some when they get up," Nina said.
"Hey, you saved the wax from that comb, right?" Corey asked a while later when the boys had woken up.
"Yeah," Moon replied.
"I have an idea," he grinned. "Surfboards!" he replied when asked what his idea was. Alia took a stick and crossed out 'finding things to do' from her list. Corey cocked his head to the side and listened for a moment. "Petra said to get the imu fire going. She'll be back in a while with dinner, once she's cleaned it."
"She caught one?" Teejay marvelled. Corey nodded.
"I heard the piggy squeal of 'oh shit' earlier. That's what woke me up," the Daxamite replied.
"Since they got breakfast," Reno suggested. "Why don't we take care of the dinner fire?"
"Where are you heading?" Zander asked.
"There's a beach at the end of the island where driftwood collects," Reno replied.
"I'll meet you over there," Zander replied and took off for the water. He paused at the fish trap and saw that it had several fish in it. He blocked the entrance with a large stone to keep them from escaping in the rising tide and dived into the water to swim to where Reno had mentioned. While the boys went to gather firewood, the girls went swimming. Petra returned with her catch shortly after the boys returned from their foraging trip.
"How are we going to keep the left overs?" Reno asked, when he saw the size of the pig Petra had caught.
"Wrap it in banana leaves and rebury it," she replied. "This is about two days' worth of meat here."
"They didn't fool around on that island, did they?" Teejay remarked. Petra smirked and shook her head no. "You go and have fun with the others. We've got this," he added, waving her off. Petra thanked him and took off to the water to join the others.
Once the pig was buried in the underground oven to cook, Teejay and Zander went to join the girls at the beach. Corey had Reno tag along with him towards the mountain to find a suitable tree to use for his idea. They returned to the beach near their campsite with a sizeable pine and went to work. Alia had an idea to use the upper portion of the tree to use for the beacon. While Corey and Reno went about making a couple of surfboards and a small boat from the bulk of the tree, the others built the beacon. It was early in the afternoon when the boys were done and everyone went to the water to try out the three boards and boat that they'd fashioned. Zander used his innate abilities to conjure up some waves and they took turns surfing or trying to for a few hours. Alia noticed the sun's position in the sky and said that dinner was probably ready. They returned to shore and set the boards and boat under the shelter. Everyone ate their fill as the sun set. As Petra had predicted, they had enough for dinner the following day. Wrapping the remainder in a thick layer of banana leaves, they reburied their meal in the imu. By the third day they had settled into a routine.
Doctor Fate materialised on the southern shore of the island with Bruce and Clark in tow. "They're surfing," Clark remarked, having found them with his Kryptonian vision.
"They're what?" Bruce asked, as the trio began walking along the beach towards the Titans.
"They're surfing," Clark chuckled.
Further along the shore Corey looked up and scanned down the beach until he spied the three heading towards them. "It's been two weeks already?" he moaned.
"What?"
"Already?"
"Aw man."
Clark laughed and informed Bruce and Fate that the team wasn't too happy to see them. "You're joking," Bruce replied.
"Nope. They're not happy to see us," Clark assured him. Bruce muttered under his breath as Fate and Clark laughed.
"How were you able to shave?" Bruce asked Teejay once the trio met up with the team.
"We'll show you, come on," Teejay sighed reluctantly. The Titans led them to their shelter and took turns explaining everything they'd done and how they'd done it. Bruce ran one of the obsidian knives along his arm and figured out how the boys had managed to shave.
"What is this indicating?" Fate asked, noticing the imu. They had marked it with a couple of stones and some sticks.
"Dinner…which we're not leaving until we've eaten it," Teejay replied. Clark's eyes grew wide when he saw what was cooking in the underground oven with his x-ray vision.
"There're pigs here?"
"Tasty ones too," Nina supplied.
Fate made a comment to Bruce suggesting that the team's despondency at the thought of having to leave was the equivalent of 'do we have to leave?' "Do we have to go?" several of the teenagers asked immediately. Clark and Fate laughed at the eyebrow Bruce raised.
"Fine. But we'll wait until after dinner," Bruce replied.
"Yo, we're taking those with us, man," Reno declared, pointing to the boards and boat.
"Uh yeah we are," Corey added.
"While I'm not quite the expert, I'd say they did very well," Fate told Bruce, as they waited with Clark for the team to finish filling in the latrine and dismantling the fish trap.
"Better than I expected," Bruce commented. Clark slammed a hand to his chest miming a heart attack.
"You're getting soft in your old age."
Fate teleported everyone to Titan's Tower in San Francisco. The team groaned at the sight of cold damp fog beyond the windows.
"Hola…holy shit," Milagro exclaimed when she saw what the team had insisted on bringing back with them from their adventure.
"We found means of entertaining ourselves," Zander said, as he went to his parents.
"Those are some sweet looking boards," Jai commented.
"They ride sweet too, Dad," Corey grinned.
"So how was it?" Chris asked. He wrapped his arms around Tai as she leaned into him for a hug.
"We did not want to leave," Teejay replied.
"They passed," Bruce added.
"You guys cruised, didn't you?" Lian asked. Moon nodded the head she had resting on her mother's shoulder.
"Like you have to ask," Alia teased.
"You guys went paddle boarding?" Sin asked, looking at the boards and boat.
"Paddle boarding, surfing, or just hanging out in the water…we had a ball," Petra told her.
"Your work?" Damian asked his daughter as he studied the obsidian blades and spear points.
"The knives are. The points are Petra's. She's picky about them," Rana teased.
"Who was hunting the pork chops?" Petra playfully retorted.
"Pork chops?" Iris asked. "You guys weren't hungry?"
"We didn't even need to cut back on the speed," Alia told her. "We did anyway, but it wasn't out of necessity."
"We were having too much fun," Nina chuckled.
"Did you even bother fishing?" Cerdian asked.
"Si Tio, Nina and Zander built a fish trap and Amazon girl over there had fun spear fishing," Reno replied.
"And there were lots of tide pools," Tai added.
"And all sorts of other stuff," Moon chimed in.
"The only thing we were missing, was coffee," Teejay pointed.
"Okay, now that's just criminal," Jai scoffed.
"I consider the bonding exercise a success," Fate offered.
"Bonding exercise?" Teejay snorted.
"We're all practically related," Alia pointed out.
"We already have that team thing down pat," Nina added.
"I should have sent you all to Antarctica," Bruce muttered. The team balked.
"No, we learned valuable skills and all that," Teejay playfully gulped.
Bruce smirked.