Location: Mount Justice

Date: July 18, 2010

Time: 11:16

Emerald East was exhausted. Not from all the missions she'd been on with the new sidekick team (Batman hadn't sent them on any yet), but from being a Green Lantern. Evidently, it was tradition that for the first few weeks of being active in a sector with more than one GL, the more senior ones got to pawn off all their calls to the newbie. Hal Jordan, whom she had met once on the day the League moved stuff into the mountain, had taken an instant liking to her. They had a similar sense of humor. He even asked if she wanted to be his sidekick. She replied that GL's didn't do sidekicks and that she could probably kick his ass so if anything, he would be her sidekick. He laughed, clasped her shoulder, and told her to prepare for hazing hell. He'd been Earth's first Lantern and the second Lantern, John Stewart, had been unreceptive to any and all hazing attempts. This left Hal eagerly awaiting the day he got to join the ranks of bastard hazer for years until Emmy came along.

This meant that since the team was formed ten days ago, Emmy had never been in the mountain for more than three hours at a time. She would come back, make dinner for her siblings, shower off whatever extraterrestrial or global gunk she had gotten on her, and then be called back out for another code as soon as her head hit the pillow. Hal was sending her codes all over the solar system, and John, whom she had yet to have a full conversation with, was sending her all over the globe. She was grateful that Batman had a host of doctor's appointments, therapy sessions, and school placement tests lined up for Hunter and Sage because she had barely been in the cave enough to see them. It made her feel better leaving them with League members. Man, how the times have changed.

That was why she was dead on her feet and trudging back into the mountain kitchen for food before she possibly fell asleep on the shower floor. A woman had been giving birth in a ship that got trapped orbiting Venus when the control panels got jammed. Her husband had gotten his arm stuck in some gear shaft, so Emmy had to help bring new life into the universe while also delicately getting the guy's arm out without breaking the ship or the guy's bones or letting them plummet into Venus's atmosphere. It was also worth mentioning that the couple was of a species that looked exactly like Jabba the Hut. Emmy had been shoulder-deep in the wife, tugging on the trapped babies, when the slimy blobs started popping out of her. Half the slugs were children, and the other half were actually placenta sacs. The sacs burst everywhere, and Emmy had almost drowned in the fluid. The smell was worse than all of Sage's and Hunter's diapers and vomit combined. She was never becoming a doctor or nurse. Ever. Three slug things were brought into the universe for her troubles, and Hal had cackled at her through their rings' commlinks the whole flight home. He had clearly always wanted a little sister. Emmy did not appreciate being forced into that role. He was harmless enough, but as soon as she started getting GL codes of her own or Batman missions, she was telling Hal to back off or stick to Earth codes like John was doing. She wondered if the two male Lanterns knew that they were both sending all their codes to her. It would make more sense if they didn't, because one of the first lessons after joining the Corps is that the ring and the wearer both need recharge time.

She plodded through the mountain covered in the bright purple slime of childbirth. Or alien slugbirth. Whatever. She didn't care. Her siblings should be getting a tour of the Hall of Justice right about now so…Food. Shower. Sleep.

She heard voices and realized the other teens were already at her desired location. Awesome. Social interaction…yay, she thought grumpily. She had not seen much of Miss Martian or Superboy since they joined her family in the mountain. Hunter and Sage had mentioned hanging out with them in passing, but it was odd that she had roommates she hadn't seen in ten days. She could hear Tornado arrive and lagged in the hallway to see what happened.

"Red Tornado!" Kid Flash waved at the android.

"Greetings," the red robot replied monotonously. "Is there a reason you intercepted me outside the cave?"

"We hoped you had a mission for us," Aqualad admitted.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility," Red Tornado stated.

"But it's been over a week and nothing-" Robin's complaint was cut off.

"You'll be tested soon enough," the android said. "For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."

"This team is not a social club," Aqualad objected.

"No," Red Tornado agreed. "But I am told social interaction is an important team-building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourselves with the cave." Tornado said, walking past the teens and nodding at Emmy in the hallway.

Kid Flash punched Robin in the shoulder, misplacing his anger. "'Keep busy,'" the speedster growled.

"Does he really think we're falling for this?" Robin crossed his arms.

"Oh, I'll find out." Miss Martian offered happily. The zeta beam announced the android's departure, and she sighed with disappointment. "I'm sorry, I forgot he's a machine. Inorganic. I cannot read his mind."

"Nice try, though." Kid Flash encouraged. "So, uh, you know what I'm thinkin' right now?" He sent a flirtatious smile at the Martian. Emmy rolled her eyes and walked into the room.

"We all know what you're thinkin' now." Robin grumbled, elbowing the speedster.

"Ow," the redhead complained half-heartedly.

"I don't know why you guess are so angsty about getting missions," Emmy opened the fridge with a yawn.

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say," the speedster grumbled. "You get to go off to other planets on Corps missions whenever you feel like it." He looked at the Lantern and blanched. "What is that stuff?"

"And what is that smell?" Robin asked.

Emmy sighed, answering both questions with two words. "Zolantian afterbirth."

The other teens all grimaced accordingly.

"At one point, I was shoulder-deep in Jabba-the-Hut's-less-attractive-sister's womb, yanking on the first slug baby because it wouldn't come out and then boom," Emmy shuddered and gestured to the chunky purple goop all over her uniform and neon green hair. "Everything came out all at once."

Kid Flash wrinkled his nose, and Robin gagged while Aqualad took a step back from the Lantern.

"Still want to complain about having a few days off?" Emmy raised an eyebrow at them and bit into an apple.

"How can you eat right now?" Superboy covered his sensitive nose.

She shrugged. "My olfactory system has been numb to it for an hour. It's too late for me," she took another bite. "Save yourselves."

"Uhm, I can get it off you if you want?" Miss M offered.

"Oh, yeah, that'd be great."

The gunk was removed from her telekinetically and sent down the sink. Emmy sniffed her suit and was pleasantly surprised to find that it smelled like her orange deodorant again. "Hey, thanks Miss M. That's a lot easier than a shower." She depowered to her jeans and a grey t-shirt with Dalek blueprints on it. Hunter and Sage got it for her for her 15th birthday during their third re-watching of the New Who episodes. She hadn't seen many episodes herself, but they always got excited when she wore it.

Aqualad sighed. "I suppose we go on a tour now. Will you join us Emmy?"

"I live here why do I need a tour?"

"That's what I said!" Commented Superboy.

"We'll give them the tour, silly." Miss M placated the clone.

"Don't look at me," Superboy said.

"We won't. A private tour sounds so much better," Kid Flash looked at Miss Martian pointedly.

"She didn't say private!" Robin turned on the redhead.

"Team building," Aqualad interrupted the slight chaos. "We'll all go."

Miss M started walking the group past the computer room, the library, the gym, and a few other rooms Emmy hadn't been into yet. Emmy finished her apple and threw the core into a nearby trashcan. The tour had led them to the hallway that housed her room. She walked up to the door and hit the entrance pad.

"Need to charge my ring. Be right back."

"Can we watch?" Robin perked up.

"Uhh," she was uncomfortable with the idea of anyone watching her, but they all seem interested. "Sure?"

Emmy left the door to her still mostly empty room open and put her lantern on her desk. She rolled her shoulders and punched her ring into the core of the lantern. It wasn't a requirement to say the oath while recharging, but she had an audience, so why not?

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight," her hair and eyes glowed green, "Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power," energy from the lantern was circling her in waves, "Green lantern's light!" The energy flew into her ring and her hair and eyes returned to normal. She relaxed a bit. She was still worn out, but at least ring could give her some of its energy. She would need a nap as soon as this 'team bonding' tour ended.

She heard clapping and turned to see her impressed teammates. She shifted on her feet a little embarrassed and put her ring in her pocket with an over dramatic bow.

"Alright, that was a little cool," Kid Flash admitted.

"How long have you been a Green Lantern?" Miss Martian asked as they started walking down the hallway again.

Emmy counted in her head. "Five months."

"How does the selection process work?" Robin asked.

Emmy frowned. "Aren't there two Lanterns in the League? Haven't they answered your questions?"

The three original sidekicks shook their heads. "We didn't get a lot of facetime with the League." Robin explained.

"Ah," Emmy thought about it. It wouldn't hurt her to recall the information she'd learned over the past few months. "Well, I'll answer whatever questions you've got. What do you know about the GL Corps in general?"

"All I know is what I saw in the video where you got the ring," Robin shrugged.

The group turned to him.

"You mentioned that when we were in Cadmus." Emmy thought for a second. "Bludhaven Beach security tapes, right?"

"Oh, can we see?" the Martian asked.

Robin pressed a few buttons on his wristwatch and a holographic screen with a Feb 14, 2AM timestamp popped up. He pressed a button that made the video go two times speed. Emmy watched a tiny version of herself run onto the screen.

"Well, that's disconcerting," she muttered.

Robin snickered. "I'll try to be more concerting in the future."

"Dude what is it with all the wordplay lately?" Kid Flash asked annoyed.

Superboy shushed them. Emmy watched as the escape pod crashed into the ocean and sent water slamming her into the building. The speedster snickered and she elbowed him. She wasn't sure how she felt about everyone watching the night she got her powers, but she hadn't really been awake the first time she used her ring and was curious to see what happened. She knew both the aliens had died, but that was it.

They watched mini, sped up her swim to the pod, drag it back to shore, and beat on it with the bat. Then She-Tak grabbed her hand and they both had purple light coming out of their eyes. It looked as crazy as it had felt. Robin paused the video. "So, what was happening there?"

"He was sifting through my memories to see if I'd be a good fit for the ring."

Robin seemed satisfied with the answer and hit the play button. Emmy recognized that She-Tak was about to kill himself and clenched her fists. Thankfully, her body blocked the view of his death on the screen, so she didn't have to see it again. The other alien had come, the ring jumped onto her hand from the escape pod, and Emmy watched as her past-self annihilated She-Tak's brother in less than a minute. Then she had fallen to the beach, thrown up, passed out, and disappeared in a beam of green light.

"Huh," she said to herself. "So that's what happened."

"Did you kill that alien guy?" Kid Flash accused.

"I guess?" Emmy paused. She wanted to feel guilty for having another life in her ledger, but she hadn't even been in control of her body there, so she didn't feel anything. "I wasn't conscious for that fight."

"What?" He seemed baffled by the idea.

"The wearer doesn't always have to be awake for the ring to activate," Emmy thought back to one of the darker history lessons. "There was this one Lantern who technically died, but his ring felt that the danger against the universe was still too great, so it kept his corpse in a perpetual state of reanimation until the villain was stopped."

"That's," Robin paused, "not turbing. In fact, it is straight up disturbing."

"How does the ring pick people?" Miss M hopped next to her. "It's something to do with willpower, right?"

"Yeah, so there's this sentient planet called Mogo that tracks beings all over the universe and ranks their willpower levels and their ability to overcome fear and pain. When a ring requires a new wearer, Mogo sends it to the nearest being with a large enough willpower signal." Emmy paused in her explanation. "That's how I understand it at least."

"So, you got the ring for being stubborn?" Kid Flash asked. "Shocker."

"Lucky I was there and not you, huh?" She smiled at him with a fake sweetness.

"I think we would all be interested to know how you went from a different planet to the Cadmus lab," Aqualad offered.

"Right, that," Emmy looked at the original three.

"Long story short, the ring took me to Oa to get training, after four months, I was cleared for active duty, I went back to Bludhaven, found out the guy who was watching my siblings while I was gone lost his mind and sold them. I spent three weeks tracking down where they were, Cadmus, and bumped into you four when I was in there." She tried to make it sound casual, but she was sure that reply just raised more questions.

"We do not wish to pry," Aqualad began, "But Robin, Kid Flash, and I have known each other for years, and we have gotten to know Superboy and Miss Martian slightly and have even conversed with Sage and Hunter a few times in your absence over the last ten days-"

Kid Flash zipped in front of her with suspicious eyes. "What he's saying is that you're the odd man out here. We don't know anything about you except that you're a Green Lantern and Batman wanted you to join us even though I'm pretty sure I overheard him tell Flash that you worked for Bobby Sparks." He turned to Robin. "You know anything more than that?"

Robin turned his face to Emmy. "I'll let Emmy decide how much the group should know."

Emmy didn't like that answer. She furrowed her brows at the young boy. How much did Batman tell him?

"Look," she faced the group. "I'm pretty sure the whole team thing means we'll get to know one another gradually, but if you want the abridged version, fine." She met the challenging green eyes without hesitance. "You've met Sage and Hunter? Well, our parents died when our house burned down five years ago. I didn't want us to get split up in foster care, so we moved to Bludhaven. I fought in Bobby's Sparks fight club to get food so the three of us didn't starve to death, but sure go ahead and judge the person you know absolutely nothing about."

The teen had the decency to get out of her face at the mention of her dead parents and cursory explanation of her criminal past, but he was still looking at her with distrust.

"I'm so sorry about your parents," Miss M hugged her tightly. Emmy patted the girl's back awkwardly.

"It was a long time ago," did the Martian just sniffle? "Really, it's not a big deal. Hunter was a baby, and Sage doesn't remember anything before the fire, so no harm, no foul?"

Miss M pulled away, hands still on Emmy's shoulders. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Emmy's eyebrows scrunched in tired confusion. Thankfully, a new question let Emmy turn from the pain in Miss Martian's eyes.

"Is it true that using the ring is painful?" Aqualad asked. "My king mentioned that once."

Emmy gently untangled from the other girl as the group started walking again. "Yep. Hurts like a fucking bitch the first time I use it after charging, but then I kind of go numb to it after that."

Her casualness surprised the group.

"What's it feel like?" Superboy asked.

Emmy hummed. "Starts off as a shooting, burning pain in my head, goes through the rest of my body, and then calms down. I was told I'd be used to it and not have any problems after a few years."

"Years?" Kid Flash asked.

"Yep. That's why you're not supposed to use a ring if you weren't specifically chosen for it. Pain and willpower are two side of the same coin, and wielding the ring is a kind of pain that can kill you if you're not careful."

They walked in silence and perused the cave while the new information sunk in before the next question.

"Wait, you didn't have any green in your hair at the beginning of the video," Robin looked at her through his sunglasses.

Emmy tugged one of the green pieces framing her face. "Yeah, the ring did this. No idea why since my hair turns completely green when I power up anyway."

"How can Lanterns communicate over lightyears of separation?" Kid Flash asked, thoroughly bored by the hair inquiry. "Earth doesn't have any communication tools that strong."

"The rings are all charged by lanterns that were forged from the central power battery on Oa. Each ring is connected through the power source, so that's how we can contact each other," Miss M and Superboy looked confused. "Imagine you make 100 pancakes from one batch of pancake batter. You can send each pancake to a different part of the world, but they're still connected because they're made from the same ingredients."

"Except these pancakes can talk to each other," Robin chuckled. Emmy nodded at him.

"Man, now I want pancakes," the speed demon muttered.

The group finally reached the other end of the mountain. Miss Martian mentioned that the cave was actually the entire mountain, and the group discussed the fact that the cave was once compromised. Robin and Kid Flash were fighting each other to see who could best comfort Miss M and elucidate the fact that villains wouldn't think to look for them in a place widely known about. Emmy briefly wondered if she could use Superboy as a tree and nap against him standing up for a few minutes.

The clone in question sniffed twice. "I smell smoke."

"My cookies!" Miss M gasped before flying to the kitchen. The rest of the group made it to the kitchen in time to see the charred black disks of cookies on the baking tray.

"I was trying Grammy Jones' recipe from- "the Martian cut herself off awkwardly. "Nevermind."

Robin comforted the girl and pointed out that Kid Flash was shoveling the carcinogenic baked goods into his mouth at an alarming speed. The redhead's mouth was full of cookie and he muttered, "I have a serious metabolism." Emmy chuckled at the speedster and sat on a chair at the bar before turning to the other girl.

"Don't worry, Miss M, I can teach you to make any kind of cookie you want," Emmy reassured.

"You bake?" The green girl's eyes lit up.

"And cook," Emmy nodded.

"You don't seem like the domestic, apron wearing type," Kid Flash glanced at her skeptically.

"Well, my parents weren't going to make our meals for us, now were they?"

The redhead winced. Robin snickered and offered her a high five.

"Dead parent card. Such a classic."

Emmy recognized personal experience in his amusement but clapped his hand instead of commenting on it.

"I'll make more cookies with Emmy soon then," Miss M smiled.

"It was sweet of you to make any," Aqualad said.

"Thanks, Aqualad," Miss Martian said, ducking her head and pushing hair behind her ear. Emmy was dozing off slightly on her left hand.

"We're off duty. Call me Kaldur'ahm," he insisted. "Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."

"I'm Wally." Kid Flash spoke up, leaning on the island. "See? I already trust you with my secret ID, unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over here." Robin frowned at Wally's tone and put his hands on his hips. "Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name." Wally continued.

"Mine's no secret." Miss Martian said brightly. "It's M'gann M'orzz. But you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name, I'm on Earth now." She was obviously excited by her new location.

"You all already know my name," Emmy muttered with her eyes still closed. Superboy loudly yelled for something to get out of his head and she let one eye half open.

"What's wrong? I don't understand," Megan's voice shot through the team's minds telepathically. "Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically."

The boys were all doubled over, groaning in pain, but Megan's presence just felt like a milder version of using her ring. Emmy sighed in disappointment when the pain fully woke her up from her dozing. Kaldur explained that telepathy was an invasion of privacy on Earth, Superboy snapped at Megan to stay out of his head, and Wally tried to lighten the mood by joking about the Cadmus G-gnomes. Megan tried to apologize but Superboy just stormed away. Hate seeing him go, but love watching him leave. Emmy smirked to herself, eyes trained on the clone's firm ass. Wally cleared his throat and glared at her, but she just shrugged at him. He didn't have a monopoly on checking out teammates.

"Hello, Megan!" the Martian smiled and hit her forehead with the heel of her palm. "I know what we can do."

She flew after Superboy and the other four followed, Emmy longingly looking at the couch as she passed it. Megan convinced Superboy to join them in the elevator that led to the hangar. The Martian pointed at a red, oblong blob in the center of the hangar. "It's my Martian Bioship."

"Cute," Wally said. "Not aerodynamic, but cute."

"It's at rest, silly," Megan reached her hand out. "I'll wake it." The blob morphed into a legitimate ship with the motion of her hand and an entrance opened.

"Cool," Emmy breathed, immediately following the Martian inside. The four boys behind them joined hesitantly after Megan called for them. The entrance stairs led to an expansive area with a captain's chair in the center and five chairs lining the windows. Emmy plopped into the one in the front and leaned back for a quick power nap as X-shaped harnesses strapped themselves around her.

A nudge from the bird woke Emmy up 15 minutes later. She yawned, noticing that the ship was flying outside now, and spun around in her chair. "What?"

"Megan is about to show us a little bit of Martian shapeshifting," Robin explained. Megan stood up at her chair, her clothes changing and her stature getting shorter, gathering the attention of all her teammates. Within seconds Emmy was staring at a perfect replica of herself. She repressed a yawn and clapped lightly.

"Nailed me," She sent a thumbs up to the Martian. "I've had a dream like this before actually," she muttered and rubbed her tired eyes.

Wally snorted. "And Rob thinks I'm perverted."

Megan morphed into a girlish version of Robin and then switched to a feminine version of Kid Flash.

"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally questioned starry-eyed.

"Nah, it's clearly an improvement," Emmy smirked at the redhead's glare. Robin clapped for Megan.

"Impressive," he said while she turned back to her normal self, "You won't exactly be able to fool anyone with the last two though."

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder," Megan sat down with a smile. The team asked the Martian a few more questions and Emmy breathed deeply, struggling to stay awake again. Robin said something about a bloody nose that offended Wally. A thought popped into Emmy's mind.

"Hey, Megs," the Martian smiled at the nickname. "I have a question for you if you wanna do the mind link, so the boys don't hear."

"I-" Megan hesitated. "I thought my telepathy hurt you all?"

"Nah, I was fine, go ahead," Emmy encouraged.

She could feel Megan slowly open a door into her consciousness and it was a really odd experience. Like feeling a slight tickle in her brain, she knew she couldn't scratch. It hurt slightly but not enough to counteract the coolness factor of having someone else in your head.

"So," Emmy smirked at the girl and enjoyed the secretiveness of the conversation. "If your clothes are organic and can change whenever you want, are you technically naked all the time?"

The Martian laughed out loud and the boys' suspicious glances between the two increased. They probably thought they were talking about them.

"No, the clothes are a different organic material than I am."

Emmy nodded satisfied with her answer. Megan severed the mental link.

"I can't do density shifting," Megan smirked, "but I can do camouflage mode." The entire ship disappeared, and Emmy bet no one could see them from the outside. Cool. Emmy had just leaned her head back on the chair to sleep again when Red Tornado's voice entered the ship and told them to go investigate the Happy Harbor Power Plant. Emmy groaned and threw her inner elbow over her eyes.

"What, are we boring you? Why are you so tired?" Wally snapped.

"Because unlike you," she replied without looking at him. "I have been on 22 missions in the past 10 days and haven't slept more than three hours at a time."

Robin wasn't happy with the situation either. "Tornado's just keeping us busy again."

"A simple fire led you to Superboy and Emmy. We should find out what caused the alert," Megan said while landing the bioship so that it floated a foot above a parking lot.

"I think I know what caused it," Superboy said while looking at a tornado heading toward the ship. Megan tried to get the ship out of the tornado's range, but they got sent tumbling into the wind spiral. They were spinning rapidly until their pilot managed to get them out of the tornado and on the parking lot cement again. The team fell to the ground out of the bottom of the ship when Megan opened it up.

Emmy landed in a crouch, surveying the screaming people leaving the building. She threw on her ring and powered up. "I'm going to make sure there's no one left in the building!" She flew into the top floor through a shattering window and started scanning each room for people. She could see a red and black exo-suit covered being with a brown scarf covering his mouth heading toward her teammates. They'll be fine. Her quick scan found three people stuck in a room and screaming for help. She made a structure to hold them. She had checked everywhere and was confident they were the only people still inside. The workers agreed and she crashed through a wall with them in tow. Emmy flew them half a mile away from the building and shot back to her team.

"You may address me as Mr. Twister," a robotic voice declared before creating another tornado from each hand and sending Superboy into a wall. Emmy threw structures around each of the tornados and struggled to stop the motion of the air. She yanked the whirls away from her team and tossed the tornados into the sky until they dissipated along with her structures. Superboy wasn't moving yet, but the other four were starting to launch their own attacks against the robot. Twister sent Kid Flash's body skidding across the parking lot and the other three struggled against the newest tornados. Emmy threw the biggest tornado into the sky.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero," the villain taunted, "I was not, however, expecting children." Emmy smirked and flew away from the robot. She was used to people underestimating her because of her age. They all were.

"We are not children!" Robin yelled and launched small bombs at the robot. Emmy flew at Twister at top speed, making a structure around her left shoulder and slamming into the being's side. She felt it crunch underneath the force before it crashed farther into the building.

"How's that for a superhero, Dorothy?" She laughed. The slightly crunched robot returned. Emmy's head spun violently. She dropped to her feet on the floor and rubbed her throbbing temples. Robin threw more bombs at the android, but they were easily dispersed with tornados.

"Objectively, you are," the android flicked away one bomb that almost made it into his chest plate. "Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite disturbing."

"Well, we hate to see you disturbed," Robin snarked. "Let's see if you're more turbed once we kick your can!"

M'gann broke a pipe above Twister's head, making a wall of steam that Superboy crashed through with a roar. Twister caught Superboy and threw the clone into M'gann while Robin and Aqualad dodged. The Atlantean sent electricity down his arms, but Twister just picked them up with tornados and slammed them into each other. Emmy threw twenty ice pick structures at the robot with a groan. It was incredibly difficult wielding a ring when you were about to pass out from sleep deprivation. The robot took advantage of her moment of weakness and tossed her out of the building. She landed on the parking lot roughly, skipping a few times like a pebble on a lake.

"Indeed," came the disembodied voice. "That was quite turbing. Thank you." He flew over her head. Emmy woke up to Aqualad's distant yell of, "What do you want?"

Twister rose into the air. "Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for a real hero."

"Read his mind, find his weakness." Aqualad instructed M'gann.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to do that." M'gann hesitated.

"It's okay with the bad guys." Robin snapped.

Megan couldn't get a read from the android. She voiced her theory that it was Red Tornado and the boys believed it, thinking they were just being played with and tested. Emmy pushed herself onto her knees, still dizzy.

"I don't think so guys," she called out. "Pretty sure that's not just Tornado in drag."

Wally scoffed at her. "How would you know?"

Emmy coughed roughly. "Because I punched Red Tornado on accident last week when he snuck up on me and his exoskeleton crunched easier than this one's did."

"So?" Superboy glared at her. "Maybe you're remembering wrong. You said it yourself that you're tired and haven't been in the cave for more than a few hours at a time."

"Yeah, you're barely a part of this team!" Wally snapped before hanging his head. "Speedy called it," he continued woefully. "We're a joke." Who the hell is Speedy?

Aqualad made frustrated noise before slamming his fist into his hand and turning to the villain.

"This game," Wally declared, as he and Robin stepped to join Aqualad in front of Twister, "is so over."

"We know who you are and what you want," Robin accused.

"So, let's end this," Aqualad narrowed his eyes.

"Consider it ended," Twister threatened. He raised his hands over his head and two wind funnels started creating dark clouds, becoming one massive tornado. Robin's twitched slightly. His lips frowned in concern. Emmy debated attacking the machine while he was distracted but decided to watch the scene play out instead. Maybe they were all right and she was too tired to accurately remember how Red Tornado's suit had crunched under her fist.

"An impressive show," Aqualad called out, before looking at Kid Flash and Robin, "but we will not indulge you." He and Kid Flash turned their backs to 'Red Tornado', but Robin's resolve started to fall. "We will not engage."

"…Guys," Robin called out. "I think GL might have been right!"

Lightning cracked and sizzled into the eye of the storm. Kid Flash turned to the boys next to him, unsettled. "Uh, can Red Tornado... do that?"

"You think I'm Tornado?" The lightning grew more intense. "Ironic." Twister said darkly before sending the lightning to strike right next to the young heroes. The blast knocked out everyone but Superboy and Emmy who was still off to the side.

Emmy got to her feet and rolled her aching shoulders. Alright ring. I need help focusing and staying awake. Help a girl out? She felt a burst of energy and her green hair started floating. She took a deep breath and flew at the android roughly. Superboy charged but was quickly sent into the pavement. Emmy gripped the enemy's right arm with green light circling her hands. The android punched her to the ground, but she tore the arm from his torso and took it to the ground with her.

"I expected more from a Green Lantern," he insulted.

"That's tough talk from a robot with one arm," Emmy slung 100 arrows at the enemy and he flew above the onslaught. The Lantern fell to one knee, breathing heavily. The aftermath of those last structures still burning their way through her nervous system. Twister returned and reached his remaining arm toward the group of teens. M'gann woke up just in time to see Twister's spider web of lightning overhead before they all disappeared from his sight. Unable to see them, the android retreated.

"Fine, then. I won't deny that you children have power," Megan crouched low. Kid Flash woke up, his goggles had been pushed onto his forehead from the force of twister's winds. He started to groan, but the Martian's green hand covered his mouth to keep him silent. "But playing hide and seek with you will not help me achieve my objective. So, stay concealed. If you confront me again, I will show no mercy." He sent a final spark of lightning from his hand and headed toward the nearest town, Happy Harbor.

Robin, Aqualad, and Superboy, now conscious, stared at the sky in shock.

"What happened?" Wally asked.

"I placed the bioship between us," M'gann explained.

Emmy was on her knees clutching at her right side, slowly breathing around the fire burning in her rib cage. The arrows might have been a bit much for her. She heard Superboy punch a rock. "And that's supposed to make it right?" The boys stood up while the girls stayed on the ground. Emmy sat on her left hip. "You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado."

"She didn't do it on purpose," Kaldur assured.

"It-it was a rookie mistake," Robin nodded. "We shouldn't have listened."

"And yet, we all did." They turned to Emmy. "So that makes what happened the result of a team decision, so lay off her."

"Is that..." Robin trailed off looking at the arm by Emmy's leg. "Yeah, I yanked off Dorothy's arm." She looked up at the boy. "Why? Can you do something with it?"

Robin's countenance lifted and he plugged a wire into the arm instantly, muttering about rerouting power and hacking into a control system. The rest of the group was still focused on Miss M.

"You are pretty inexperience," Wally admitted with a dropped head. "Hit the showers. The rest of us will take it from here."

"Stay out of our way," Superboy threatened as he walked past M'gann and jumped after the android. Kid Flash put his goggles back on and raced in the same direction as the clone. Robin, still holding the arm, threw down a dust cloud and vanished.

"I was just trying to be a part of the team," M'gann sighed, her bangs falling into her sad eyes.

Kaldur looked at her over his shoulder, "To be honest, I'm not sure we have a team," and then he was gone too.

"Aren't you mad?" M'gann wasn't looking at the Lantern next to her. "You could tell it wasn't Red Tornado. None of us listened to you."

Emmy huffed and got to her feet with a new rush of determination. "You didn't do anything wrong, Megs," the Martian looked up at her with wide eyes. "We all made the choice to follow your lead. They're just pissed at themselves because it happened to be the wrong choice in the moment." She held her hand out. "You want to go kick some robot ass now? Because I don't think we should leave it all to the testosterone club."

M'gann smiled with new resolve and took Emmy's hand. They flew off toward the town in the bioship while the Martian voiced her new plan to the Lantern. They arrived in Happy Harbor to see two tornados blowing apart the tiny town. A cacophony of car alarms and panicked screams were their background music. A third twister snatched boats from the harbor, dropped them in the middle of town square, and then ripped through a building like it was paper. Twister was in the center of the chaos. "Certainly, this will get the required attention."

"You've got ours!" Kid Flash ran around twister. "Full and undivided," he ran into the android knocking it back a few feet.

"Immaterial and insufficient," the android stated. "You are a distraction I can no longer tolerate."

He reached out his remaining arm only for Superboy to appear and hit the android back much farther than Kid Flash had. The robot sent another twister toward the duo of the boys, but Emmy left the bioship and flew up, making a giant wall that bounced the tornado back toward the robot. M'gann was above them in the bioship calling Red Tornado. Robin and Aqualad vaulted over debris as they sneaked up on Twister from behind. Twister sent a myriad of small twisters at the two. Emmy only had time to block three of them. The remaining one sent Aqualad crashing into the town hall building. Kid Flash zipped toward the android as well, but Twister threw him with a tornado as well. The speedster landed on his feet and ran after Robin who was throwing small bombs at the android. Twister blocked the bombs but almost got dented by Superboy's fist.

Emmy broke apart the large tornados ripping at the town as the boys dealt with the enemy. M'gann's voice cut through the Lantern's exertion as she calmed the winds with large structures, muscles aching.

"Listen to me."

The boys groaned at the presence in their head. "All of you!"

"What did we tell you?" Superboy grasped at his head.

"I know, and I messed up," Miss M confessed, "But now I'm very clear on what we need to do. Please, trust me."

Emmy dove to cover a cop directing evacuators from Twister's appearance at the other end of the street. She looked up as "Red Tornado" appeared. The boys had agreed to M'gann's new plan. Good. Emmy turned to the cop. "Are there any buildings that need additional help evacuating?"

He seemed shocked to see a Green Lantern.

"Which buildings?" She snapped louder. He pointed toward one that was collapsing in on itself quickly. She could hear "Red Tornado" telling the guys to hit the shower. They didn't need her help at the moment. There were 8 people in the basement of the collapsing building. She got them out quickly and put a rectangle around the property, gently lowering it to the ground on the abandoned side of the street where it could not fall on anyone.

The one-armed Twister was gasping at Red Tornado's body with M'gann's head on it. The Martian successfully tricked the villain. Atta girl. The team was attacking Twister simultaneously, throwing him around like a ragdoll. Emmy heard a small cry. A grey minivan was on fire. She yanked the door open and pulled a tiny girl with pigtails and a pink dress from the backseat. She put a lasso around the car and threw it toward Twister. It hit the android's chest right before it exploded. She flew closer her team, girl still in her arms.

A small man with brown hair and a white and green suit crawled out of the exoskeleton stuttering, "Foul. I call foul!" Emmy had not expected anyone to be inside.

M'gann crushed the man with a boulder and angry eyes. The boys gaped at her and Robin snapped about not executing captives on Earth. The Martian just smirked.

"You said you trust me," she lifted the boulder to reveal that the man was just another android. "That's why I wouldn't read his mind."

"Way to go, Miss M!" Emmy called to the Martian while trying to coax the child's face out of her neck so she could talk to her.

Kid Flash snatched up the inner android's eyeball. "Cool. Souvenir," he threw it up into the air and caught it again before smiling at M'gann.

The boys were apologizing to the green girl, so Emmy flew back toward the officer. He recognized the girl as Jada Simon. He got her to sit on the curb with her stuffed bunny he found on the road while he talked to the Lantern. Her parents put her in the car to run away and had raced back inside their apartment to get something. They didn't make it out. The cop said he would take Jada to the police station until social services could come for her. Emmy bit her lip and stared at the tiny brunette.

"You go help who you can. I'll tell Jada what's going on."

The cop looked at her gratefully. "I just need 15 minutes, and then I can drop her at the department." The Lantern nodded.

Emmy took a deep breath and was about to start walking to Jada when the rest of her team came into view.

"Good job minimizing the damage to the town," Aqualad nodded at her grim face.

"Good job crushing the robot." Her eyes stayed trained on the child burying her face in her singed bunny. The exhaustion returned to her bones and Emmy scrubbed at her face with her hand.

"Are you ready to go?" M'gann smiled at her new friend. Emmy had stood by her throughout the chaos her first mission. She felt that the human girl would very quickly become her best friend.

"Yeah, I just need to do something here first."

"What? Hot date?" Wally scoffed.

"I have to go tell that girl her parents are dead and wait with her until a cop can come get her in 15 minutes," her tone was unreadable as she ignored Wally's quip.

The faces of her teammates instantly grew solemn.

"We'll do it with you," Robin declared.

Emmy shook her head. "Have any of you done this before?"

None of them nodded. That was what she had thought. "Go wait for me in the bioship and focus on all the lives you did save. I've done this before." She looked at them softly. "You shouldn't have to."

The other teenagers slowly turned for the bioship, grateful that they did not have to rip parents from a child. The conversation with Jada had been easy overall. She was young. She barely knew what death was. Emmy just told her that her parents would live forever in her heart and her head. The girl was bright. She smiled through confused tears and proclaimed that she would write down all her memories of her parents so she would have them forever. Emmy held the girl in her arms until the cop came back to take her away.

The teen Lantern trekked into the silent ship and fell into the nearest chair. Emmy had a contemplative look on her face as they flew back to the mountain. Had she been wrong not to mention her parents to her siblings at all? The little girl clung to her memories like they were actually her parents, but Sage and Hunter had zero memories of their parents between the two of them. Emmy had mostly bad memories. Her father was a known criminal, and her mother had been a neglective addict, but she supposed there were a few decent things she could say about them if her siblings really wanted to know. How could she bring it up? Should she wait for them to ask? It would be easy to make the stories general enough to not reveal too many details. She had mentioned their parents to her siblings maybe once or twice a year since the fire. Sage had quickly learned to avoid the topic because of Emmy's bitter reactions to the questions, but that might change now that the 11-year-old was so mad at her.

Robin cleared his throat and she turned away from the window. The rest of the team was staring at her. She had missed Robin asking her a question.

"Hmm?" She asked.

"When you said that you've done that before," Robin paused trying to figure out how to continue. "Telling a child that their parents are gone, I mean. Were you talking about..." he trailed off unsure if he was going too far, but Emmy understood what he meant.

"Hunter was 11 months old when it happened, so I didn't really have to tell him anything until he got older and wondered why he had a "mom" and no dad. Debris hit Sage's head before I got her out and it hurt her hippocampus. She's fine except that she doesn't remember anything from before she was 6," Emmy shrugged. "It was more of a gradual "our parents are gone" explanation over the years than a short conversation like with that girl. It's hard to mourn people you don't remember so it wasn't exactly horrible for either of them." No need for the pity looks. I don't mourn my parents specifically because I remember them, was left unsaid. "I was actually talking about She-Tak's son."

They sent her blank looks. "She-Tak was the Lantern who had my ring before I did. His brother was the one chasing after him, he was trying to kill She-Tak to get the ring. They both died. I had to find She-Tak's son and tell him that his father and uncle died on the same day." She-took, She-Tak's son, was the equivalent of a human 8-year-old. He had cried, screamed that it was her fault, and then kicked her. It had not been an enjoyable experience.

"Why was his brother trying to kill him if you have to be chosen to wield a ring?" Superboy asked unimpressed.

"A Lantern has to die for their ring to be transferred to the next wearer," she let her head fall against the back of the chair. "So, if you kill a current Lantern, your chances of getting chosen by their ring go way up. Don't tell anyone that, by the way. We try not to let people know that the best way to get chosen by one of the most powerful weapons in the universe is to murder someone who already has it." Despite the blatant lack of trust in her opinion and presence throughout the mission, it seemed that a slight change had occurred when she talked with Jada, so they didn't have to. She wasn't the 'odd man out' anymore.

Robin mentioned that she missed their stories about how they got started in the hero business and that they all saw her origin video today, so it was only fair if they told her now. Batman recruited him at age nine. Wally blew up his parents garage two years ago after repeating the experiment that gave the Flash his powers. Aqualad was personally chosen from his school by the king. Martian Manhunter thought M'gann had the most promise out of her siblings. And they all knew about Superboy's pod growth. Emmy appreciated their stories. It was their way of inviting her into the group.

Emmy fell onto the couch as soon as they returned to the mountain. She heard the other teens banter with Red Tornado slightly. She powered down into her jeans and t-shirt.

"Speedy was so wrong," Wally's voice smiled. "This team thing…"

"Might just work out," Kaldur picked up where the speedster left off. Emmy was asleep before the end of the sentence.

Looks like our team just had their first quasi-mission. We'll have to see what they do next. This story won't go through all of the missions exactly or in the chronological order of the show, so I'll keep letting you know where upcoming chapters fall in my story's timeline. Another shoutout to gm3161 for commenting and being awesome.

-TheDarkAbyss