Cold- Hearted
"Did you encounter any problems along your travel to deliver the heart?" Batman asked Kid flash once they were done with the missions
"Actually yes, Count Vertigo did a lot to try and prevent the heart from getting delivered in time, I met this weird guy on my way to the hospital but he didn't really try to injure me just slow me down"
"Really who?" Artemis asked
"No idea" Wally shrugged
"Describe him" Batman ordered
"Hmm let's see…" Wally tapped his chin thinking back to the man "Well he was mostly dressed in their weird armor, covered his entire body so I couldn't see his face but he had some weapons across his chest on this belt, some guns on his hips, and the helmet he was wearing was like a owl's head"
Batman's eyes widened, he was thankful dick wasn't in the room since he had sent him home with Selina after they destroyed the ice fortress, but that description matched what would look like a Court of Owls Talon
"What exactly did he do to you?"
/Flashback/
Some police officers were standing on the road side waiting for Kid Flash to run by
"He's due past here any minute"
But right behind them they heard a thump in the snow and all of them turned to see a man dressed in Owl like armor, he ran at them kicking one officer, punching another in the face and when another officer tried to attack him with a Baton but he blocked it with his arm then punched him in the gut before sending him to the ground
An officer jumped on his back so the talon grabbed his arms then flipped him off sending him into two more officers who were coming to attack him, An officer got back up and tried to attack him from behind with a baton but the talon turned just in time and grabbed him by the neck, because the gloves talons wore had claws on them the man began screaming from the pinching he was getting
Kid Flash came running and ran past the scene seeing the Man clad in armor had the police officer by the throat "What was that?...Who was that?" he quickly turned around headed back to the scene
The talon had managed to kill the officer by snapping his neck and turned to see Kid Flash was coming back ramming into him making him drop the officer's body but he flipped back to his feet to face the young hero
"Go get out of here I'll handle this guy!" Kid flash yelled to the live officers
"You'll handle me?" Wally turned just in time for the talon to grab him "Little boy you don't have the skill to take me on" Wally was pretty sure the man was grinning under his helmet so grabbed his hands and kicked him away with both his feet landing back on the snow while the talon was getting his balance
Kid flash sped forward dodging a punch by skidding under it like he always saw Black bat do then tried to kick the man's feet out from under him but the man flipped avoiding it and then kicked wally away. Wally flipped with one hand back to his feet "This guy is so going down"
"When I heard authorities were clocking off this highway for a speedster I assumed I would be encountering flash himself but I guess I will have to settle for his sidekick instead"
Wally glanced behind the man seeing the officers were escaping "Troopers are safely out of range, good frees me up to show this guy just what this sidekick can do" Wally ran at the man again punching him in the chest with both fists but only managed to make him skid back a little "Kind of bashing my head into a brick wall here, need a new approach"
Wally began running around the talon "Well you're truly running circles around me, how will I cope" wally came out of the circle and hit the talon in the back "Not coping so well now are you?" he got an alert on his wrist computer "What am I doing?! Sure I'd love to trash the big jerk but that won't save the girl" he stopped running in a circle and left
/End Flashback/
"It was a good thing you got out of there when you did" Batman thought even if the talon wasn't trying to kill Wally he would have been angered from being hit and probably would have severely injured the young speedster. He could remember even dick was angered whenever his opponent landed a hit while he was a talon too
"Do you have any idea who that might have been batman?" Aqualad asked
"No but I will look into it" He did need to look into it since now he knew for sure the talons were back but he knew their old base was still destroyed and kept an eye on it in case any talons ever came back "You are dismissed"
The team nodded but Zatanna handed a Christmas present to Batman "I got this for Black Bat I was planning to give it to him but he's not here so could you give it to him for me?"
"Sure" He wasn't going to tell dick about the Talon sighting but he would hope this would cheer him up
"Thank you" she nodded and followed after the team
oOo
Alfred had made a fresh batch of Chocolate chip cookies, Dick's favorite type of cookie while they were watching a Movie in their Living room. The Mansion had already been decorated for Christmas because November was almost over anyway
The bushes outside were lined with lights to shine at night, the edges of the house were lines with lights too, each window had an artificial wreath hanging on it, the pillars had artificial garlands wrapped around them. On the inside the grand stair case of the entrance had garlands wrapped around them, and in their main living room they had a large artificial Christmas tree filled with ornaments but they only put the star at the top of Christmas Eve. The chimney had garlands around it and some stockings hanging off it
Bruce stepped into the room while dick was eating one of the cookies and handed him the present from Zatanna, he lifted an eyebrow taking the box "Who is this from?"
"Do you really need to ask?"
"No, not really" he shook his head looking the box over
"Aren't you going to open it then?" Selina asked
"Shouldn't I wait until Christmas for that?"
"If you want to, then in the meantime you could get Zatanna a present in return"
"I don't even know what she likes" he retorted while putting the present under the Christmas tree, the very first one
"Well you are a detective, investigate"
(oOo)
Image
"Rumaan Harjavti is the democratic re-elected president of Qurac, Harjavti has been praised as a fair, wise leader, a humanitarian" Batman explained "But five days ago, harjaviti allied himself with the dictator of the neighboring nation of bialya, Queen Bee"
"Hmph not a fan" Conner huffed
"Few are but harjaviti suddenly backs queen bee's backless claim that qurac and bialya were once one nation in ancient times and has announced the countries will reunify in two days at a ceremony in qurac"
A video played on the screen with harjaviti at a podium "After the ceremony I will step down as president so that our rightful monarch Queen Bee may rule" The video switched to Queen Bee at a podium "I lode president harjaviti for unifying out people and I will gladly come to qurac to be crowned sole leader of our nation"
"And the quracies are ok with this?" Wally asked
"Hardly" batman brought up an image of the people of qurac protesting against the unification "They're well aware of the brutality of queen bee's reign but harjaviti has censored the press, silenced all legitimist protests and has invited the bialiyan military to his country to enforce martial law"
"Queen bee does have the power to enthrall most men, She must be controlling him" Dick suggested
"She does have the power to enthrall some women, but not long distance and we have confirmation she hasn't left bialya something else is at work here. Fine out what. Black bat you're in charge"
Dick's eyes widened "What about aqualad"
"Busy helping aquaman you're the next logical choice"
"Promotion sweet" Kid flash held up a hand to high five him but he just walked away "Dude you left me hanging"
oOo
"We're above the Qurac-Bialya border"
"A board of the bialyans are in the process of ignoring" Wally looked out to see some tanks ram over a bard-wire fence scaring away the Oryx's around the inside
"No opposition, Guess harjaviti really is embed with bialya" Conner looked to their temporary leader
"Wouldn't expect opposition here" he looked to his holographic computer "It's an animal sanctuary"
"The Logan animal sanctuary?" M'gann asked making him lift an eyebrow
Kid flash put on his goggles "Guys the things have caused a stampede with civilians in harms way" Conner went over to look "I see them woman and a small boy"
"We have to help them
"We are off mission here" But after some thought "Deploy but stealth mode, the bialyians know we hit them this becomes an international incident"
The tanks and soldiers below were moving forward until a red laser came from above making one tank crash into another so they stopped and looked up but saw nothing until a batarrang landed below their feet and sent out smoke letting kid flash run by and knock them out while more red lasers scared away the other soldiers
The Oryx stampede were heading right for the woman and child so they ducks for cover, Superboy landed in front of them and stopped an oryx in front of them and diverted the rest from them
The baby oryx that they were caring for got up and ran into the stampede, the boy eyes widened "Oryx!" but then saw it begin to float in the air above the stampede "Whoa"
"Are you both alright?" they heard from behind and turned to see Black Bat and Kid Flash, wally tossed aside some guns that he had taken from the soldiers
"Mom, Mom, Mom! We were just saved by Black bat and Kid Flash!"
"Well Superboy and Miss martian helped too" Superboy stepped up beside them as Miss Martian levitated Oryx back to the ground but stayed in cameo-mode
"Oryx!"
"The bialyians around the sanctuary have been diverted, you should be safe now"
"Uh yeah, coast is clear Miss M you can de-cameo now" Wally looked to her as she took off her hood and became visible
"H-Hi"
"You may have made things worse, bialyian border crossing are way of life here usually they wreck a few fences and move on engaging them might have made us a target" the mother crossed her arms
"Mom, uncool" the boy moaned
She sighed "I'm sorry I should thank you, this is my son Garfield I'm—"
"Marie Logan, I can't believe I'm actually meeting you in person" M'gann interrupted getting weird looks from conner and wally
Marie stepped up to the animal they were treating "The Oryx is sick and I think you've injured this wildebeest" she looked to conner
"Uh sorry"
"I suppose it was unavoidable they both need to go to our clinic"
"The boys can do that" M'gann offered "You and I can fix you're fences"
Dick frowned "That is not exact-" he stopped when m'gann began begging making him lift both his eyebrows, nobody had ever begged him for something
"Black bat please!"
"Mom please" Garfield did the same with his mother
And at the same time "Fine"
"Yes!"
oOo
A monkey came out of a tree landing on Conner's shoulder before moving to Kid Flash and taking his granola bar and going to Garfield "Meet monkey"
"Nice name, but I hate monkeys" Conner gritted when the monkey threw the bar at his head
"Be glad he only threw a protein bar" wally smirked
Garfied led them inside the house, wally felt free to sit on one of the arm chairs while Black bat and Conner stayed standing
"So pretty weird about Miss Martian and my mom huh?"
"What do you mean?" Conner crossed his arms
"I mean she looks exactly like Marie you know except greener"
"She does?" Wally asked
"Well duh, especially back when mom was a TV star on 'Hello Megan'"
"Wait Hello megan is a TV show?" Wally looked to black bat but all he did was shrug
"It was way before any of us were born, only one season you can't even find it online" He turned to the TV behind him "I know mom had a tape somewhere
oOo
Garfield found the tape "Hello Megan the pilot episode!" he blowed some dust off of it and put it in the VCR player
"Whoa you still have VHS where's you 8 track?" Wally asked
Conner turned "Wait…Aircraft headed this way" Black bat ran out with Conner but Wally turned back to the boy "Gar stay put" before following the others
Conner came out and turned to the girls, M'gann looked to him "What is it?" But as her answer they turned to see three aircrafts moving toward them and began shooting. M'gann pushed marie to the ground as conner came to protect them
"Where's my son?!"
"I told him to stay inside" wally told her
"He's 8 he doesn't listen to anyone" and right behind her the barn door opened"MOM! it's ok I got the animals out!" he waved to her. The planes began shooting the barn and hitting the gas tank next to it blowing it up and causing Garfield to be blown away
"Garfield!"
M'gann quickly flew up and caught him seeing he was unconscious then flying back down and handing him to Marie. The aircrafts came back around to Conner and M'gann went to fight them off
"I told you there's be consequences" Marie glared at Black bat
"Get him inside" he told her
Superboy jumped up and destroyed one of the aircrafts by punching it while Miss Martian smashed the other two into each other destroying them too
oOo
Marie looked over Garfied "He's in shock he needs a blood transfusion now is either of you O negative?"
"No" wally told her
Dick looked away 'it used to be' "No" he brought out his holographic computer 'Unless he wants to be in pain every time he's injured'
"Neither am I it's the hardest to match, I kept a supply at the clinic"
"I can run him to the nearest hospital"
"The nearest hospital with a guaranteed blood supply is half an hour away at your top speed, longer by Bio-ship"
"He doesn't have that much time, what's superboy's blood type?"
"He's Kryptonian and Miss martian —"
"Might be able to help, my shape-shifting occurs at the cellular level, I think I can morph my blood to match his" she stepped up to the bed
"Please try"
Miss martian nodded "I'll need to concentrate no distractions"
Marie nodded "Out all of you out" she told them boys
oOo
"Harjaviti steps down tomorrow, subjecting all of qurac to this danger. Kid Flash can you find a news station?" Black bat asked
He had three remotes in his hand "Sure which remote is it" he pressed power on one of them and the tv lit up
Hello Megan! Schools and Boys and parents too whole lot to juggle for miss you know who. Hello Megan, Hello Megan. This cheerleader knows the score center of attention and so much more. Hello Megan, Hello Megan!
The boys were now staring wide eyed at the screen seeing a girl that looked exactly like M'gann in her Caucasian form on it
A little bit distractible but never too attractable, she's really quite attractable ok a lot distractible. Eventually she'll get a cluuuueee.
"Hello Megan" the girl did the same thing m'gann always did when she said that
The girl for me the girl for you
Conner frowned when he saw the girl hug a boy on the screen, and wally turned to black bat but he was just as surprised as they were
Hello Megan, Hello megan! The girl for me the girl for you! Hello Megan, hello Megan!
"Maybe it's a coincidence" Conner offered
Hello Megan!
"Mom I'm going to the library to study" Megan came down the stairs while her mother was dusting the couch
"But didn't you invite a certain someone to study here?" right on cue the door bell rang
Megan frowned "Hello Megan!" she went down to open the door and find a boy "Conner I thought you'd never get here"
Conner put his fists on his hips and looked away, wally smirked and whispered to Black bat "Oh yeah real coincidence" behind them M'gann came back into the room
"it's done" Kid flash jumped rushing to change the channel on the tv "All we can do now is wait" the TV changed to the news of harjaviti giving another speech
"My fellow quracies, queen bee's rule is a gift to qurac"
"Hey that guy in back I know him" Dick knew him too pulling up his profile on his holographic computer
"It's Simon the physic we fought last time we were in bilya. He was working for queen bee then he must be controlling harjaviti now"
"Ugh I still remember the headache from when he brain blasted us" Wally groaned
"We must get harjaviti away from him"
"I think I worked" Marie came back into the room "Garfield's stable"
"Good, We have our mission"
oOo
Black bat used a camera attached to cable to look inside the room harajaviti was in seeing he was alone but knew it might now be for long so kept his guard up as he motioned for the team to move in. He walked up to harjaviti
"Where's my daughter?" he asked then held his head "Where's simon?"
"Forget him let's get you out of here" but before they could even move some solders came into the room surrounding them with weapons, the chief came in last
"Well, Well American heroes here to assassinate the president" Dick flinched at the word assassinate while M'gann steeped past them in her cameo-mode "Such a shame we arrived to late to stop them"
"Those apocalyptic weapons"
"Which they plan to use on harjaviti, fame us, and queen bee rules qurac. Form up around the president"
"I found simon" M'gann floated out of the room
"Wait!"
"I'll get her"
"No, the mission is harjaviti"
oOo
The three boys were able to defeat the bialiyan soldiers
"Thank you for saving my father" the daughter thanked "We will take care of him now" but as they were going to help M'gann they were brain blasted again by M'gann making them fall unconscious so they wouldn't see her true form
/later/
Dick woke up with a massive headache again as the electrum did it's work on healing it while the others got recuperated but while the electrum was healing him he felt a small sharp pain in his chest for one second until it was gone 'What the…'
"And there's the headache" Wally groaned
"Simon brain blasted you, I stopped him" she looked over to simon who was unconscious against a bunch of broken chairs
oOo
Miss Martian morphed back into her human form after posing as Queen Bee outside
"Dude you saved a country pretty big win for your first job as team leader" Wally nudged him on the shoulder
Dick nodded but his mind was still on the small sharp pain he felt during the electrum's healing process, but he decided it was probably a side effect from the brain blast
oOo
"And I assure you the Wayne is here to do whatever It can to help you and your people rebuild qurac" Bruce Wayne was shaking harjaviti's hands while his wife Selina Wayne smile in the back round
"Wow Bruce Wayne got here pretty fast huh?" Wally turned to Black bat but he just shrugged again so he walked over and got the 'Hello Megan' tape then showed it to M'gann "Something you'd like to tell us?"
She looked around to see the others were looking at her too, she sighed getting the tape from wally "Growing up on Mars was not a happy time for me but I started watching the broadcast my uncle sent from earth to teach us about our sister planet when I saw 'Hello Megan' something just clicked maybe it was the similarities in our names, maybe it was the way all of Megan's problems could be solved in 22 minutes. All I know for sure is Megan helped me smile through a lonely childhood so when I came to earth and had to adopt a human form I chose you" looking to Marie "Well um Megan"
"Which begs the question what do you really look like?"
M'gann got up morphing into what looked like a female J'onn
"Bald M'gann, still hot"
Conner got up and took her hands "You know you don't have to a mask for me"
She shrank back morphing back into Megan "I do it for me, this is who I am. Inside, please don't be mad" looking back over to Marie
"Mad? I'm honored M'gann you saved my son he says he's your blood brother now and I agree you're family"
M'gann came over and hugged her "Thank you, you can't know what that means to me"
Agenda's
Once the topic of Captain Marvel's true age came up his member ship of the league began to be questioned
"Maybe it's time we all talked about the elephant in the room, should captain marvel stay a member now that we know he's really only 10 years old?"
"He does possess an adult body and the wisdom of Slovene" Red Tornado defended
"Wisdom does not equal maturity" Aquaman argued
"Hey I'm sitting right here"
"Then Billy maybe you should leave until we've hashed this out" Black canary offered
"No" Batman argued "Captain Marvel is a member and is entitled to participate until or unless he is voted out"
"It's not just his age, it's the fact that he lied about it" Wonder woman brought up
"I didn't lie I just left out the part about being a kid"
"The lie of the mission is still a lie, you kept an important secret form us, no one in the league knew the truth"
"We did" Batwoman inputted
"I shouldn't be surprised after all you two indoctrinated Black Bat into crime fighting at the rightful age of 9"
"Black bat needed to redeem himself from all the crimes he had committed"
"Well since we're on the subject, what about him should he be allowed to continue on as a member of the team?" Wonder woman asked
"I thought you we're finally giving him a break" Selina argued
"Yes but I didn't say all of us" Black canary interrupted
"I used to be a criminal too but I've obviously changed and so has he"
"You were never a major criminal and you're crimes weren't that serious unlike a serial killer"
"And there have been some sightings of Talons haven't there? Black canary told me about his visit with Ivo and some Grandfather comment"
"We did not want to reveal that bit of information because we knew it would cause havoc among you but, Black bat was not aware of this himself until he was taken by the talons at 6, the leader of the Court of Owls is his Great-Great Grandfather"
Before havoc could break lose Selina stepped up "He was the one that left him to die in that fire, Black Bat even told us the man had him tortured occasionally"
"Black bat has not shown any sign of betrayal since he was rescued I say we give him our approval" Flash announced
"What about the Talon sightings, they will most likely come for him once they learn he's alive" Superman asked
"I have been looking into it but I haven't found anything on a base, I do know that they will not likely involve the team in this if they do come for Black bat"
The league members looked to each other and wondered if that was true and if it was they would give Black bat their approaval
To be continued
I think I'm getting close to the end I just need to make dick turn 14 and he's already started dating Zatanna in the back round of the story, M'gann and conner never showed how they started their relationship so I don't think they would have either
As for the Christmas theme I see all around the stores and national parsk in November they already put up Christmas decorations even before thanksgiving so I didn't see the problem with doing it for the Mansion