Tempest: Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fight or Flight
Flying so high above land with just a cloud keeping him from falling to his death was one of the things that made traveling with Storm Chaser by cloud so disconcerting.
As far as Red Arrow knew, the only one that actually enjoyed it was Storm Chaser.
"How far from Infinity Island are we?" Red Arrow couldn't help but ask, as it was harder to tell so high up.
"Just a few more miles," Storm Chaser remarked with strain. Training with Cheshire had greatly lengthened the amount of time she could spend maintaining herself in the air, but it was still rather draining.
The plan was rather simple, but whether it would end up that way was something completely different. There was a vast fortress on the island with modern security and numerous guards and it was likely that they wouldn't be expecting anyone else to attempt to breach them, especially since they'd lost the only thing of value that had been kept there (otherwise known as Dr. Roquette).
Red Arrow had made quite a bit of noise during his escape with the doctor two days ago, but this time they were meant to enter silently and leave silently, with almost no trace that they'd been there in the first place.
He had a blue print of the fortress and the room that was used to monitor everything within the fortress only held two guards, and as such was their entry point, as well as the only place they needed to be within the fortress.
"How many raspberries should I be getting you?" Red Arrow asked her.
"So many," she said shortly, speeding the cloud along for a short stint of silence, which only made Red Arrow sigh, but he supposed that was expected, until she pulled them up short and Red Arrow almost fell off his cloud. "All right, we're here…the drop's going to be sudden, so try not to puke."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Red Arrow drawled, making Storm Chaser's eyes roll behind her mask, but he still had to stifle a yelp when the cloud faded from underneath him, which was disconcerting at best and terrifying at worst.
The roof of the fortress got closer and closer until they were close enough to face plant on the tiles, but Storm Chaser had caught them in the air before dropping them lightly, both crouching to avoid the eye-line of the guards wandering around below them.
Storm Chaser looked to Red Arrow and he made a movement with his hand to indicate her to follow him, and then they were darting out along the roof as quiet as the two could be so as not to attract attention.
Red Arrow led her along the south side before of them used their grapplers to swing over the edge of the roof to rest their feet against the wall, scaling down to a slightly open window that allowed them a glimpse within the room that they needed to enter. Storm Chaser pulled a suspicious-looking round object out of her utility belt that looking vaguely like a miniature cloth cannonball.
He arched an eyebrow at her and Storm Chaser pressed a finger to her lips, jerking her head towards the window, which was had been opened with enough space that she'd be able to fit the orb through with ease.
Storm Chaser brought the orb close, snapping her fingers, causing friction in the form of electricity, burning at the cloth and making a sweet scent fill the air before Storm Chaser dropped it through the opening. She mimed covering her mouth and nose with her arm and Red Arrow followed suit, both of them waiting on their grappler lines for the smell to fill the room, and slowly the two guards monitoring the various TVs and laptops slumped over at their desks.
She pushed the window open, still holding her breath as she gathered up the remnants of the little smoking ball and tossed it out into the forest, gesturing for Red Arrow to follow her.
"That's a new trick," he said, speaking quietly as she pulled herself over to the nearest laptop –surreptitiously pushing the guard sitting there out of the seat–, typing away furiously, her eyes not leaving the screen.
"It's a bit stronger than what I used on you back when I shot you," Storm Chaser admitted, earning her a scowl from the young man. "They'll be out for an hour or so, so we've got time."
"If you say so," Red Arrow muttered, coming to lean over her shoulder.
"All right," Storm Chaser said, reading over the layers of code faster than Red Arrow could even attempt to decipher, but coding had never been his strongest suit; he left that to Storm Chaser, "so breaching the Shadows' firewall will set off all kinds of alarms."
"Which we don't want," Red Arrow pointed out.
Storm Chaser smirked. "We also don't want to wage a full-on assault on their system, they'll notice something like that, we just want to infiltrate one specific part."
"Is that easier?" Red Arrow asked curiously.
"Not really," Storm Chaser wheedled, her fingers moving with her mouth, "it depends mostly on the hacker's skill and the type of system they've got."
"But you can get into it?" Red Arrow pressed.
Storm Chaser chewed on her lip, scanning over the data. "Give me a few minutes; their firewall isn't something I've seen in awhile."
"Is that bad?"
"Not really, just difficult, now be quiet, Arrowhead, I need to focus." She shot him a sideways look and he gave her a grimace but conceded to her demands.
The next few minutes passed painfully slow and Red Arrow's grip on his bow was still remarkably tense when Storm Chaser grinned suddenly.
"Got it," she said, scrutinizing the information in front of her, "so the three universities the Fog infiltrated were…Miami Beach University, Georgia Tech University, and Husson University... it looks like the information they gathered from those three is just the usual, nothing that wouldn't be kept from the public…but…"
"But?" Red Arrow probed.
"There's still something transmitting new data in, so they must have a new target," Storm Chaser hummed mostly to herself, only to pause in her typing when her comm. Buzzed in her ear.
"SC, I've got some bad news," came Robin's voice in her ear.
"Great, babe, because everything's rainbows and sunshine over here," she drawled, struggling to keep her voice low and Red Arrow gave her an odd look before she tapped a finger against her ear to indicate the comm location.
"It's about the next target of the Fog," Robin said and Storm Chaser could practically hear the grimace.
"Lay it on me," Storm Chaser sighed.
"Philadelphia's STAR Labs."
"Oh," Storm Chaser said blankly, "for a moment I thought you said the Fog got to the STAR Labs in Philadelphia."
"You're joking," Red Arrow said, his mouth dropping open.
"That's what I said," Robin admitted. "It's been completely demolished."
"Fuck," Storm Chaser muttered. "All right, so everything that STAR Labs has is potentially dangerous…I could write a Trojan Horse into the code, that'll introduce several viruses into the data that'll delete it if anyone tries to access it, but it'll only work from this location."
"Why?" Red Arrow probed.
"Well, their system isn't exactly high tech," Storm Chaser admitted with a grimace, "they probably have a different one at each of their hideaways, each just a bit different than the other. I can riddle it with viruses but only on this system, so if they access it from here, they're screwed."
Red Arrow sighed, but it did seem like that was the best option.
"Aqualad to Storm Chaser," Aqualad's voice echoed in her ear now, "we are moving the doctor and she is tracking the Fog as we speak, but we need to know where the next attack will be."
Storm Chaser pursed her lips. "Give me a second, this stuff isn't exactly easy to hack."
"Who was that?" Red Arrow asked.
"Aqualad," Storm Chaser said, scowling at something on the screen, "he wants me to find out where the next attack will be…a list like that's got to be deep in the code…" She mumbled to herself as she skimmed through the information before pausing. "It's a Wayne Tech facility."
"Superboy and I are on it," Robin said quickly before he cut the connection and Storm Chaser pushed back from the table.
"All right, we're done," she said, "any incoming information will be erased with the STAR Labs data…if we're lucky and they try to access it here."
Red Arrow helped her drag the fallen guard back into his seat, making it seem like the pair of them had just fallen asleep at work before slipping out of the window to the grappler lines once more and returning the window to its small crack between the frame and the window, darting up onto the roof again and shooting up into the sky on clouds.
"You haven't lost your touch," Red Arrow mentioned.
"Oh, shut up," Storm Chaser said, knocking her shoulder against his, though her cheeks did pink from the compliment. "You know I'm subtle like a slit throat."
She was sure his eyes were wide behind his mask. "You have got to stop hanging around with Jade."
Storm Chaser laughed.
"It must be weird for you sometimes," Artemis said once the mission was over and done with, her fingers still twitching around the cup of tea Amara had slid her way, the tension at seeing her sister remaining even hours later. "Not to be with them. They're your friends, right?"
Amara didn't have any bruises, but her mission hadn't required contact, only her skill in hacking. She brushed her hair back as she took a sip of her own tea. "That's the job, I guess. Sometimes I'm with them, sometimes I'm not. I don't know Kaldur, Superboy, or M'gann as well as Robin, Wally, and Roy, but we've all got different skill-sets."
Artemis didn't say anything to that.
"Don't worry, I'll probably there for the next one," Amara grinned, before winking.
It reminded her of Cheshire, dark eyes glittering. "Give Storm a kiss for me, would you?"
"Cheshire said to give you a kiss," Artemis blurted out and Amara sniggered into her cup.
"Trust me," she said, "I'm not her type."
But that wasn't really an answer if you asked Artemis, but she only shook her head before making her way towards the Zeta-tube, calling out her good night to Amara, who gave a small wave in reply as the disembodied voice called: "Recognize: Artemis –B07."
She reappeared in Gotham within a small phone booth, and it was only when she stepped outside of the booth, that she realized something was wrong. Artemis tensed and flipped, grasping her bow and nocking an arrow in a single movement.
"Step into the light," she barked. "Now!"
And out of the shadows came the auburn-haired Red Arrow, Roy Harper, Amara's old partner.
"Nice move," he said in a manner that Artemis didn't believe for a second, but she still loosened her grip on her arrow as he approached, though hardly relaxing her body, "almost made me believe you are Green Arrow's niece." His voice sharpened. "But we both know you're not."
Artemis narrowed her eyes and frowned at him, though saying nothing.
"Still, I'm sure GA and Bats have a good reason for lying, so you're cover's safe, but I warn you," His voice dropped dangerously, "do not hurt my friends."
And then he turned to make his way down the alley, even as Artemis called after him: "Storm Chaser trusts me." She couldn't resist getting the last word in.
"SC's been known to make mistakes," Roy retorted, "and she'd be the first to admit it."
Artemis' scowl deepened and she watched him disappear before making her way home herself.
"I think you two should be working on combining your abilities," Dinah said the next day after a training session while all the members of the Team were resting. M'gann appeared to be the most winded, but hand-to-hand combat had never been her strongest suit, as her powers were more of the mental kind, but Dinah had been speaking to Amara and Kaldur. "Water and electricity work very well together."
Kaldur and Amara shared a look and Amara raised her hand quickly. "Um, I have a debilitating fear of drowning, so…"
"Really?" Artemis leaned around where Wally was downing his bottle of water.
"What?" Amara demanded defensively. "I use my powers underwater and I'll end up electrocuting myself, and that's really not fun."
Wally grinned widely. "How would you know?"
"I am denying being related to you," Amara decided, her nose high in the air, and laughter rippled through the group.
"You're adopted," Dick and Wally said together before grinning at one another and bumping their fists together.
"I hate both of you," Amara said, flopping back onto the floor with an air of finality that made Dick snigger.
Dinah rolled her eyes at her protégé's antics as she looked at the young heroes situated around her, all with varying cuts and bruises from their previous mission (Amara had a bandage tied tight around her bicep from a nasty cut she'd gotten on patrol with Dinah when everyone else had headed home).
"You're all still learning to adapt to one another's fighting skills, figuring out who works best with who and what kind of maneuvers you should use when you're together and fighting enemies," Dinah pointed out. "Realistically, you should be a bit flexible, able to work with differing kinds of people, because the League often works with one another, even if they have their own cities and own partners." There was a pointed glance towards Dick who shifted his eyes under his sunglasses away a bit pointedly; Batman was known for being a bit rigid, but partnering with others had never been something that he'd had a problem with. He frequently worked with others on League missions.
"Each week," Dinah continued, "I want you to switch off with a training partner. For instance, this week Wally will be with Artemis—" Both young heroes glowered at each other and Amara snorted; clearly they didn't like each other all that much. "But the week after that he will be with Superboy. This way you can learn how each of your teammates move and you can anticipate them as well as assist them during battle.
"But there are seven of us," M'gann pointed out. "We won't be split evenly."
Dinah smiled. "One week you will be free to practice your skill-set without going against one of your teammates, it won't be a time for you to slack off."
"What happens when we've all cycled through?" Superboy asked.
"Then you get to try your hand at taking on me," Dinah smirked. "Now, Amy, you're with Kaldur, Wally is with Artemis, M'gann is with Robin, and Superboy, you get to train by yourself this week."
If Amara didn't know better, then she'd think that Superboy was actually a tiny bit pleased that he didn't have to work with anyone for the first week.
"Remember, being partners is more than fighting together, it's about knowing one another," Dinah added. "This team is still new and some of you know very little about each other, start there and then build up to the sparring."
Kaldur stood faster than Amara and then he held out a hand to her and Amara gave a sigh, before taking it, permitting him to drag her into an upright position.
"Would you mind us going outside?" he asked her.
"Feel like a fish out of water yet, Kelpie?" Amara quipped, making him smile, but she agreed, nonetheless, because she didn't mind sticking to the shallows, even with her fear (hence why she'd ended up with a beach house as a safe house).
It was a little cool outside, but it was still rather warm when they settled in the sand, well, Amara settled in the sand, Kaldur sat himself in the shallows without much a care.
"Does it bother you?" Amara asked him suddenly. "You know, being above water?"
"Not nearly as much as it once did," Kaldur said, faintly amused by her first question. "Its more like there is a heaviness in the air. Being out of the water for so long helps me adapt."
Amara nodded in understanding and they fell into a silence that mostly had to do with Amara waiting for Kaldur to come up with his own questions for her, and Kaldur trying to come up with a question that wouldn't make Amara uncomfortable.
She arched an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I just don't want to make you uncomfortable."
And that made Amara laugh. "Story of my life, Kaldur, trust me, I can handle anything you throw at me."
"I heard your powers are difficult to control," he said finally and for a moment Amara thought of her Chloro-kinesis, how the vines curled up the side of her house where her window was, flowers sprouting along it, how her very thoughts brought plants to life, but Amara hadn't told anyone about that, not even Roy, and Jade only knew about her love for plants.
"You could say that," she said dryly, "Wally likes to tell the story about when I almost flooded Keystone with a torrential downpour when I was nine…maybe? I don't know, I was pretty young. My powers are pretty much subconscious, but I've still to work at them to get what I want."
"Not like Weather Wizard?" Kaldur asked with interest.
"Yeah…" Amara drawled the word out. "That was always a bit of a sore point between him and me; he gets a wand for a conductor and I get my body, really an even trade."
The sarcasm was evident.
"What's it like in Atlantis?" she asked him, eager to move away from the depressing truth of her life.
"I think it's much like it is up here," Kaldur said, "we have different cities, different races and species, we learn, we live, we grow."
"That's such a stereotypical response, Kelpie," Amara complained, digging her fingers into the sand and making him laugh.
"All right," he said, "what specifically would you like to know?"
"Oh, I don't know," Amara sighed, "what was it like for you, growing up down there?"
"I liked it very much," Kaldur answered, his smile making his eyes glow. "My parents were loving, I had friends I trusted with everything."
"Oh," Amara said in surprise, "have you seen them in awhile?"
"Not for some time," he admitted sadly, "but I'm sure when we have some downtime I will go back to visit."
His thoughts strayed to Tula, his old friend who stirred warm feelings in his heart, and some of it must have shown on his face, because Amara gave him an all-knowing look that made him duck his head in embarrassment at being caught.
"How did you come to be Black Canary's protégé?"
"When I was first adopted by my parents I wasn't…very well put together, I guess," Amara frowned distantly, looking for the right words to use. "My control was shot and I had a lot of issues to work out, so my dad set me up with Dinah. After awhile she asked him if it was all right for me to be her protégé. I think he wanted me to stick with him, but Dinah didn't have a student and she had a meta-human ability. We were a match made in heaven," Amara said smugly. If there was one thing she was proud of, it was being the protégé to Black Canary.
Amara considered him silently for a few moments. "You've probably noticed a lot of my attacks are lightning-based," she mentioned and he nodded, "and sometimes it ends up being rather explosive…and I'm worried that combining my techniques with yours won't end well."
She said the words carefully, like she wasn't sure how he'd react.
"It might," Kaldur agreed, "but then we will both have to work hard to balance one another, don't you think?"
He offered her his hand and Amara took it without a thought.
"Well, I'm always here for crashing the mode," she said, only to laugh at the befuddlement on his face.
Amara hated her birthday, it was a rather well-known fact, which was why Wally and Dick hadn't mentioned it to their teammates when they'd been working out the kinks in their fighting styles with their respective teammates –Artemis and Wally had had a rather loud disagreement that Dinah had had to assuage– and the fact that it was the next day had been enough to sour Amara's good mood from her light sparring with Kaldur.
"I know you don't like us celebrating your birthday," her mother had said after dinner and Amara had groaned, dropping her head to the table with an audible clunk.
"Mom!" she complained while Barry hid his snort into his drink.
"But I'm still going to make you chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast," Iris continued, "because I think the day my daughter came into being was rather significant."
"Ditto," Barry added when she shot him a glare when he didn't add it fast enough and Amara's cheeks flushed with heat.
"I'm going to my room before either of you can embarrass me any further," Amara declared to laughter.
She'd spent a few hours looking into a few new jobs on the BlackNet before she gave up for the night and fell into a restless sleep.
Her dream was hazy and mostly in darkness but Amara remembered the feeling of a hand running through her hair and light press of lips to her temple and a whisper of words to were lost in the silence.
It was a particularly odd dream and when Amara awoke, it was to light streaming in through her open window.
She groaned as she sat up, rubbing at her eyes, only to turn to see a small box and an envelope sitting on her bedside table with her name on it in the script that only belonged to the woman who was her birth mother.
Amara grabbed the envelope and ripped it open. This time there was a bit more to it than a simply 'happy birthday'.
Happy birthday, Daughter, it read. I know you want to know who I am, and I want you to know who I am, as well. I promise that by the start of October you'll know the truth, though I can't promise you'll like it. That made Amara frown a bit. I love you.
The note, like her previous one, went unsigned.
Amara set down the short letter in order to pick up the box, sliding the top off in order to lift a black ring box from within. She'd never really been a jewelry kind of person, ironically, most of the only jewelry she wore was from her mysterious mother, in the form of a silver chain around her wrist with an ivy charm.
She opened it and stared. It was a peridot stone –Amara's birthstone– on a simple silver band. There was nothing particularly ornate about it, and it was beautiful, exactly the kind of ring that Amara would willingly wear.
Amara smiled as she slipped it onto her finger and somehow it fit perfectly.
And for a moment Amara didn't mind her birthday one bit.