"Courtney, what is so important that we had to come here so late?" Yolanda asked her when they, along with Pat, Rick and Beth, gathered at the Pit stop later on.
"Well for starters, a member of the ISA showed up at my house." Courtney said.
"Wait, is that why your staff showed up?" Pat asked and Courtney nodded.
"Wait, how would an ISA member even know who you were, let alone where you live? You haven't even put on your suit outside of training?" Rick asked.
"Because that member said his name was Brainwave. Pat, does that mean anything to you?" Courtney asked and Pat nodded.
"Oh yeah. And Court's right, that was definitely a member of the ISA." Pat said.
"Why is he called Brainwave?" Beth asked.
"Because his powers come from his brain. He's a metahuman who can read minds, control minds to a degree and move things with his own mind. He's incredibly dangerous, he killed a lot of members of JSA that night." Pat said.
"Maybe we should get a complete rundown of the ISA so we know who's who if we end up facing any more of them. And by if, I mean when." Courtney said and Pat nodded.
"And we will. But first, Courtney, why don't you tell me what happened when Brainwave attacked?" Pat asked and Courtney nodded as she told him what happened, though she did leave out a few things, like he said, mainly because it was personal and while she may trust Rick and Beth, she wasn't ready for them to know about it yet. Especially since the fight had made her realize that she needed to have a talk with Yolanda.
"Wait, if Brainwave was knocked out like that after you two fought, why wasn't he at the house when we pulled up?" Yolanda asked.
"I can only guess that one of his partners got him out of there. I'm more surprised that there weren't any marks from the fight in the house." Pat said, looking at Courtney.
"I didn't really get the chance for that to happen. Somehow the only thing the staff hit was Brainwave." Courtney said.
"You mean you hit Brainwave?" Beth asked.
"No, trust me, if I were the one who aimed at the staff, there would've been a lot more damage, since I'm still training with it." Courtney said.
"She's not wrong. No offense Court." Pat said.
"None taken, you're right. Though I'm sure dad had the same issues when he first got the staff." Courtney said.
"That is true." Pat said.
"But blast marks weren't the only thing missing from the fight scene. There was also no Brainwave. Think he got away?" Yolanda asked Courtney.
"Not on his own. I've been meaning to tell you about that. Pat, during the fight, my staff hit Brainwave's head and it caused some kind of chain reaction that ended with him passed out on the ground. He wasn't moving, but it looked like he was still alive." Courtney said.
"Did it look like Brainwave was losing control of his powers? Things were floating around?" Pat asked.
"Yeah, you know what happened?" Courtney asked.
"I can guess. It sounds like the collision overloaded Brainwave's brain and knocked him out. There's a good chance he'll be out of commission for a while until he recovers." Pat said.
"Well, at least that will buy us some time, since he knows who I am and he knows who you are Pat." Courtney said.
"We'll figure something out." Pat agreed.
"But who moved him?" Yolanda asked.
"Probably one of his partners." Pat said.
"Anyways, can we get back to the ISA? If we're gonna pound them, we should know who they are." Rick said.
"Yeah, pounding them isn't going to be as easy as you think, Rick. They're some of the most dangerous people on the planet." Pat said.
"More dangerous than the people Superman has fought?" Yolanda asked.
"Okay, not that dangerous, but to be fair, a lot of those guys are aliens. I mean in terms of threats that are from Earth." Pat said.
"Still." Beth said.
"Why don't we focus on the task at hand. Learning about the ISA so we can know our enemies." Courtney said and Pat nodded.
"Give me some time to put something together, since honestly, I think we're all tired and it's best to learn about this sort of stuff when we're all fully alert and it gives me some time to figure out everything you need to know." Pat said and they all nodded.
"There is one other thing we need to talk about." Courtney said.
"What?" Rick asked.
"The fact that apparently one of our teachers is a member of the old JSA." Courtney said.
"Wait, what?" Yolanda asked as Pat remembered now.
"Right, thank you for reminding me about that Courtney and she's right. Your English Teacher, Kendra Saunders, she is also known as Hawkgirl." Pat said.
"Wait, I thought you said that she was dead?" Yolanda asked.
"And I thought she was. Or at least I thought that she'd be your age now since one of her powers is that whenever she dies, she reincarnates. Long story. But it looks like I was wrong and she survived, though it looks like her memories have been wiped, because she didn't recognize me. I don't know what they did to her, but we need to find out and we need to undo it, since having her on our side, that's an advantage we can't lose." Pat said.
"And I think we will get her back. Her and Hawkman, wherever he is." Courtney said.
"What makes you so sure?" Pat asked.
"The dreams I told you about, those visions of the JSA, the one we're building." Courtney asked.
"Yeah, what about them?" Pat asked.
"Remember, I told you that Hawkman and Hawkgirl were in them?" Courtney reminded him.
"Okay, I can see where you're going with this Court and I hope you're right, since honestly, I do miss the old JSA." Pat said.
"And having her in our ranks could really help with training." Courtney said.
"On a different topic, maybe now's the time the rest of us get our suits, since it's clear the ISA is becoming active, so the JSA should be too." Rick said.
"Fine. Courtney, tomorrow, you'll go back to the old JSA headquarters and get suits for Rick, Yolanda and Beth." Pat said and they all nodded before heading out.
After Courtney, Yolanda and Pat got home, Courtney decided that it was time to have a talk with Yolanda in private, since after her fight with Brainwave, she knew she couldn't put it off anymore, since ironically, it had been a fight with a supervillian to help her get her head on straight.
"Hey Yolanda, can I talk to you in my room, alone?" Courtney asked.
"Yeah sure." Yolanda said as she followed Courtney upstairs.
"What was that about?" Barbara asked Pat from where she was sitting on the couch.
"If I had to guess, I think we're going to need to start implementing an open door policy for whenever Courtney and Yolanda are in the same room together." Pat said.
"You think they're finally going to take that step?" Barbara asked.
"Considering what Courtney just told us, I'd be surprised if she wasn't rethinking some of her past decisions." Pat said.
"So, what's up?" Yolanda asked Courtney after she closed the door.
"I've been rethinking a few of the things I said before. Especially since my fight with Brainwave." Courtney said.
"Court, what's going on?" Yolanda asked, though a part of her did wonder if this was going to go the way she hoped it would.
"It turns out fighting for my life really puts some things in perspective for me. Especially when I wasn't the only person Brainwave threatened. He read my mind, he knew everything about me. Including how I feel about you." Courtney said.
"Court, you said you weren't ready for that yet." Yolanda said, remembering when Courtney first came out to her.
"I know I said that. But then Brainwave threatened you when I wouldn't give him my staff and I don't know, something inside me just clicked." Courtney said as she walked up to Yolanda.
"And now?" Yolanda asked.
"I don't know a lot about all of this, but there is one thing I do know. It's how I feel about you Yolanda and I know you feel the same way about me." Courtney said.
"What are you saying Courtney?" Yolanda asked, since even though she was pretty sure she knew, she wanted to hear Courtney say it. In fact, she needed to hear her say it.
"What I'm saying is that life is too short, especially for people who do what we're doing and I don't want to have any regrets and I'm done overthinking things and letting them keep me from what I want. And what I want more than anything is you. Yolanda, I want to be your girlfriend." Courtney said.
"Wait, are you serious?" Yolanda asked.
"Completely. But only if you're ready to take that step." Courtney said and Yolanda smiled.
"You know I am. I've been waiting for you to decide that you're ready and I'm glad that you finally are. But Court, are you sure about this? Being out in Blue Valley, especially Blue Valley High, it won't be easy." Yolanda said.
"And we have friends to help us through it. We're not going to abandon you now. Not like your parents did." Courtney assured her.
"Okay. But still." Yolanda said, only to have Courtney silence her by kissing her.
"I didn't realize we were there already." Yolanda said.
"Honestly, that was just to get you to stop looking for reasons I might regret this and also assure you that I meant it. We don't have to do it again until you actually feel like you're ready." Courtney said, only for Yolanda to then kiss her.
"I didn't say I didn't like it. Honestly, I've been wanting to kiss you since I met you and it's only gotten stronger since we became friends. That first kiss just took me by surprise." Yolanda said and Courtney smiled.
"Well then, I guess that means that you're done trying to talk me out of this?" Courtney asked.
"Completely. But are we gonna tell people?" Yolanda asked.
"We'll start small. My parents, Mike, the rest of the team and then work our way up from there." Courtney said and Yolanda smiled.
"As much as I'd love to keep doing this, I think your mom is going to do bed checks soon, so I should probably get to my room before she and Pat decide we can't be in the same room together alone anymore." Yolanda said and Courtney nodded as she left the room, both girls feeling ecstatic about this change in their relationship, since they certainly hadn't seen it happening when they'd woken up this morning.