St. Louis
July 4th 10:00 CST
Today was the day and the young superhero known as Aura was beyond excited as she tried to focus on homework due tomorrow. She stood up from her place on the floor and then moved to her bedroom door. She slowly and silently opened it and peaked through the small crack. When she saw no one, she closed it just as silently and then locked it before going to her closet. She rummaged around the disaster area that was her closet and pulled aside a false wall, revealing her costume. A burgundy faux leather jacket, a jet-black jumpsuit, and a pair of black gauntlets hung on the wall. Displayed on a shelf was her most prized possession, a black visor. She was proud of the thought and resources that she had put into it. She was particularly proud of police radio and communication device she installed. She pulled on suit and armor and grinned. She loved it.
"Phantom to Aura," a voice called from an earpiece in her visor.
Aura pulled on her visor over her eyes. "Aura here," she said.
"Mister Blizzard is wreaking havoc downtown," Phantom began as live video feed appeared before Aura's eyes. "I could use another set of hands."
"I'll be there."
July 4th, 11:00 CST
"Today is the day," Aura reminded her mentor as she threw up a force field to protect the civilians of St. Louis against Mister Blizzard's ice beam. The pale violet force field flickered slowly.
"How could I forget?" Phantom chuckled as she launched herself high in the air.
"Then can we hurry this up?" Aura demanded impatiently as she used her powers to propel herself towards Mister Blizzard.
Mister Blizzard shot an ice beam at Aura.
"You're on thin ice, pal!" Aura said as she pulled back her fist and then threw a punch at the ice shooting towards her. The ice shattered into tiny pieces as Phantom plummeted towards Mister Blizzard and then slammed her heel into the side of his face. Mister Blizzard crashed to the ground unconscious as Phantom landed gracefully on her feet.
"Nice pun," Phantom said.
Aura rushed to her side. "You promised nothing would—"
"And nothing will," Phantom promised as she placed a hand on Aura's shoulder.
"Then can we go?" Aura pressed.
Washington D.C.
July 4th, 14:00 EDT
As they waited for the Flash and Kid Flash to arrive, Aura looked excitedly at the Hall of Justice. The Hall of Justice was a beautifully impressively design building. Today was the day that she and four other sidekicks would be given the grand tour, which was something Aura had been dying to see ever since she could remember.
While everyone else looked to the Hall of Justice, Robin couldn't seem to keep his eyes off Aura. He had been annoyingly infatuated with her ever since they and their mentors had teamed up to stop the Penguin from distributing fake black-market medications.
Batman placed a hand on Robin's shoulder, pulling him away from his thoughts and Robin looked up to his mentor. Batman offered Robin one of his rare proud smiles and Robin grinned back.
"Today is the day," Batman said.
"Welcome to the Hall of Justice," Green Arrow said.
"The Headquarters to the Justice League," Aquaman said.
"Oh, man!" a voice from behind called.
They turned to see Kid Flash and the Flash speeding towards them.
"I knew we'd be the last ones here," Kid Flash grumbled as he folded his arms across his chest.
The superheroes made their way to the entrance of the Hall of Justice. Tourists surrounded them and bombarded them with flashing lights. Aura caught bits and pieces of their excited and mostly harmless chattered.
"Ready to see the inner sanctum?" Green Arrow said as he leaned towards Speedy.
"Born that way," Speedy replied.
"Glad we're all here," Aqualad said.
"Me too," Aura grinned as she gently nudged Aqualad, who returned a smile. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other."
Robin felt a flicker of jealous at their familiarity.
"Have all five sidekicks ever been at the same place at the same time?" Kid Flash asked.
"Don't call us sidekicks," Speedy growled. "Not after today."
"Sorry," Kid Flash said. "First time at the Hall. I'm a little overwhelmed."
"You're overwhelmed," Robin said. "Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?"
The automatic glass doors slid open and they walked over the threshold. The larger than life bronze statues of the seven original founders greeted them.
"Maybe that's why," Aura quipped as they headed towards a door for Authorized Personnel Only.
When they neared the door, it slid open to reveal two superheroes, Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado. Martian Manhunter looked at each of the proteges.
"Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Aura," he gave them a small smile. "Welcome."
Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado turned and started leading them down a small dimly lit hallway as Kid Flash and Robin perform one of their handshakes.
"You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked galley, and of course," Manhunter said as they entered a large brightly lit room with a large computer monitor that took up the entire wall across from where they enter. "Our library."
Robin glanced at Aura from the corner of his eye. He smiled despite himself as he watched her look around. Her eyes glanced hungerly across the ceiling to floor bookshelves that lined the walls. She could learn so much from all these books.
"Make yourselves at home," the Flash said gesturing towards the comfy looking lounge chairs scattered throughout the library.
Aura, Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad happily obliged. As Batman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, Green Arrow, Phantom, Red Tornado, and Aquaman started towards a door marked "Justice League Members Only."
"Just a quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of five ice villains attacking on the same day," Batman grumbled as he looked to those non-members of the Justice League and then turned towards the door. "We shouldn't be long."
A small sphere lowered from inside the ceiling that Aura recognized as a Zeta-Beam scanned Batman.
"Recognized. Batman, 02." The other members were individually scanned as their names and ID numbers were announced in the same synthesized voice. After they were all scanned, the doors hissed open.
"That's it?" Speedy demanded. "You promised us a real look inside not a glorified backstage pass."
"It's a first step," Aquaman said. "You've been granted access few others get."
"Oh, really?" Speedy hissed as he gestured up towards the tourists that pressed their faces against the glass above them. "Who cares what side of the glass we're on!"
"Roy," Green Arrow said as he stepped towards Speedy. "You just need to be patient."
"What I need is respect," Speedy hissed as he turned away from his mentor and looked to the other sidekicks. "They're treating us like kids. Worse! Like sidekicks! We deserve better than this."
Aura, Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad exchanged looks with each other and then looked back at Speedy.
Speedy's jaw nearly dropped. "You're kidding, right?" he demanded as he looked at each of their faces. "You're playing their game? Why? Today was supposed to be the day! Step one in becoming full-fledged members of the League."
"Well, sure," Kid Flash began as he looked to the other sidekicks. "But I thought that step one was a tour of HQ."
"Except that the Hall isn't the League's real HQ!" Speedy blurted. "I bet they never told you! It's just a false front for tourists."
Aura looked to Phantom's surprised face and knew that what Speedy had some degree of truth.
"And," Speedy continued. "A pitstop for catching Zeta-Beam teleporter tubes to the real thing, an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower."
The other League members looked to Green Arrow.
"I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception." Green Arrow said, looking to Batman, who disapprovingly crossed his arms. "Or not."
"You are not helping your cause here, son," Aquaman said stepping forwards Speedy. "Stand down or—"
"Or what?" Speedy challenged. "You'll send me to my room? I'm not your son." Speedy looked to Green Arrow. "I'm not even his. I thought I was his partner. But not anymore." Speedy grabbed his hat and then threw it on the ground before turning away from his mentor. Speedy walked past the four other sidekicks, looking at each of them. "Guess they're right about you four."
The four of them rose from their seats as Speedy walked past and watched him walk across the room.
"You're not ready," Speedy said as he left.
Before anyone had anytime to process anything that had just happened, an alarm blared from the giant monitor as Superman appeared on it.
"Superman to Justice League," he announced. "There's been an explosion at Project Cadmus. It's on fire."
The League walked towards the monitor to get a better view.
"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus," Batman said. "This may present the perfect opportunity to—"
Another alarm blared as another member of the League another on the monitor.
"Zatara to Justice League," Zatara announced. "The sorcerer, Wotan, is using the amulet of Attan to blot out the sun. Requesting full League response."
The members looked to Superman.
"Superman?" Batman said.
"It's a small fire," Superman replied. "Local authorities have it under control."
"Then Cadmus can wait." Batman decided and typed something into the computer.
The four sidekicks approached.
"All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates. Batman out." Batman said into the monitor before turning to the four teens standing in front of him. "Stay put."
"What? Why?" Robin demanded.
"This is a League mission," Aquaman said, stepping towards them.
"You're not trained," the Flash added.
"Since when?" Aura and Kid Flash demanded in unison.
"You're not trained to work as part of this team," Phantom said gesturing to Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash.
"There will be other missions, when you're ready." Aquaman said.
"But for now, stay put," Batman ordered.
"We'll talk more when we get back," Phantom promised as she and the other members walked towards the boom tube leaving the four teens alone.
"Uh," Kid Flash groaned. "When we're ready? How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like, like—"
"Like sidekicks?" Aura offered.
"My mentor, my king, I thought he trusted me," Aqualad looked to the ground.
"Trust? They don't even trust us with the basics." Kid Flash threw his arms out wildly. "They have a secret HQ in space!"
"What else aren't they telling us?" Aura asked as she looked to each of them.
Robin sighed. "I have a better question. Why didn't we leave with Speedy?"
Aura crossed her arms and glanced at the exit Speedy took.
"What is… Project Cadmus?" Aqualad asked.
"I don't know," Robin replied and then smirked as he walked over to the computer. "But I can find out."
Aura, Kid Flash, and Aqualad exchanged looks and then followed Robin over to the computer as he typed on the keyboard.
"Access denied," announced a clear synthesized voice.
"Wanna bet?" Robin chuckled as countless files leaped onto the screen.
"Whoa!" Kid Flash's eyes danced across the screen. "How are you doing that?"
"Same system as the Batcave," Robin said.
"Access granted," announced the synthesized voice.
"Good job, Robin," Aura said as she gazed up at the monitor. "I'm impressed."
"It was nothing major," Robin said coolly as he felt heat rush to his cheeks.
Kid Flash and Robin exchanged looks as KF gave him a thumbs up. Robin grinned as he turned back to the monitor.
"All right," he began as he scanned the files. "Project Cadmus, genetics lab here in D.C. That's all there is, but if Batman's suspicious maybe we should investigate."
"Solve their case before they do," Aqualad stated. "It would be poetic justice."
"Hey, they're all about justice," Robin chimed in.
"Then what's stopping us?" Aura pressed.
Aqualad bit his lip. "They said 'stay put,'" he reminded them.
"For the blotting-out-the-sun mission, not this," Robin argued.
"I think that's a big enough loophole," Aura grinned.
"Wait. A-are you going to Cadmus?" Kid Flash beamed at Robin. "Because if you're going, I'm going."
"Just like that, we're team on a mission?" Aqualad asked.
"We didn't come for a play date," Robin said.