Hey! (I haven't updated in five million years, forgive me. I started High School and it's more than a little crazy.) Anyway, enjoy the chapter!


GOTHAM

July 16, 02:08 EST


I woke up with a start, breathing heavily. My back was aching and I realized Dick and I had fallen asleep on the couch. The screen was still lit up from whatever movie we were watching and the disturbing contents of my dream replayed itself in my head.

Rick held his head in his hands, "he's going to kill me. No, he's gonna do worse than kill me."

I held a hand to my bleeding temple and felt like crying. Suddenly there was a gun in Rick's hand and I stood, holding out one shaking hand in the universal sign for 'hold on'.

"Sorry little lady, trust me, it's better this way." He pulled the trigger and I barely registered it, a scream tearing its way out of my throat.

The pain was white-hot and blinding. I couldn't stay here, if I did He was going to come and it wasn't going to be pretty. I pulled myself up off the floor, trying to regain my balance by grabbing the doorknob. I walked over to the window and crawled out, making my way down the fire escape.

I had to keep going, had to keep going…

Dick rose slowly, making the small clicking noise he always made in the back of his throat when he woke up. I was trying to calm down, squaring my breaths and I sighed softly when I felt his hand reach the small of my back, "you okay?"

I nodded, "bad dream."

His eyebrows drew together, "you're still getting those?"

"This was the first in a long while, don't worry about it."

"If you say so, c'mere," he held his arms open and I allowed myself to hug him, taking in the familiar smell. Everything was fine.


STAR CITY

July 17, 23:16 PDT


The night air held a comfortable chill, and I wrinkled my nose at the scent of gun oil that drifted over on the wind. We got news that Roy would be here tonight, there appeared to be some sort of deal going down, most likely involving weapons. We had found him, and he was doing his best to shake us off, despite the fact we were trying to proposition him.

We waited, and a familiar arrow zipped down towards the men loading the crates into the back of vans. It beeped and exploded, sending the men ducking for cover and the crate to the ground, a gun shaped somewhat like a pistol skittering across the ground towards Brick, the guy conducting this smuggling operation. I'd heard GA and Black Canary complain about him before, but I only had a small idea of what he was capable of and I hated that. I was used to fighting in Gotham, where I knew the criminals inside out, their powers, their motivations, what made them tick. Not having anything to work with here made me uncomfortable.

The Brick guy picked up the gun, aiming it towards the structure the arrow had been shot from. Roy stood up there, chest puffed out making himself an obvious target like he usually did. He had too much confidence in his own skills, and I hated how he thought of himself as invulnerable. It had led to him getting his ass handed to him more than once. "You again!" Brick boomed, "I'm startin' to get insulted Green Arrow's not messing up my operations personally!"

He fired the gun, and I marveled at the red light that came from it. Was that a laser? Who the hell invented the guns from Star Wars? Roy jumped out of the way, slinging himself around the structure to avoid getting hit. He jumped, flipping over in the air and firing an arrow straight into the barrel as the man was firing and the gun exploded, shredding Brick's suit to pieces even though he seemed to be unharmed. He turned around, looking for Roy. "Do you know what I pay for a suit in my size?" To be fair, it probably was expensive if he was looking for anything quality. He turned his head to his lackeys, "scorch the earth boys."

We flew into action, KF ran down past the guys, stealing one of their guns. Two batarangs and a laugh later, Rob was swinging past the unarmed men to some crates. I dropped, crouching low to the ground and smiled at the man in front of me. I wrapped my whip around his gun, catching it in the other hand with ease. I winked, kicked him in the head and swung over to where Rob was. Aqualad landed next to us a second later, water whips ready, and he slammed them into the lackeys, sending them back into the side of the van and then to the ground.

Brick literally pulled a chunk of the ground up and flung it at Roy, who was running along some loading crates, bow at the ready. He ducked, stopping to shoot Brick in the arm with another explosive arrow. It didn't even put a scratch in the guy, who pitched another chunk of ground the size of two boulders at him. Aqualad, always the quick-thinker, jumped in front of Roy and sliced in it half. Roy sent a smoke arrow towards Brick, and as he coughed Aqualad turned to Roy. "The cave is perfect, it has everything the team will need." We had been spending the better part of an hour trying to convince Roy to join the team, telling him all about what had happened at Cadmus.

Rob and I jumped over towards them, landing next to Roy gently. "For covert missions, y'know, spy stuff!"

I laughed, "it's going to be great, Roy. We'll sneak around and work together like we've always wanted to!"

Kid ran towards us, landing on the loading crate with a flip, "and wait until you see Superboy and Miss Martian! But I saw her first!"

I rolled my eyes, over the past week or so, Wally had been hanging off M'gann like white on rice. She took it all in stride, good-natured as ever and I commended her for it. If I had to spend my days constantly being hit on I would actually kill him, I didn't have her patience. I gave Rob a "save me" look and he grinned, rolling his eyes in turn.

Brick seemed to be pissed that we were ignoring him, and grabbed another piece of the ground, flinging it at us. We all dove out of the way, with the exception of Aqualad who smashed the rock with his water-mace. Roy sent three arrows flying into Brick's chest, each exploding one at a time. The guy took them like punches, rolling back with each one when they should have shredded his abdomen. He chuckled, "tell Arrow he shouldn't send boys to do a man's job!" I growled, low in my throat but Roy seemed to take the comment straight to heart, tensing in anger. He drew another arrow and Brick stood up, spreading his arms wide. "Go ahead."

Roy let the arrow fly, but instead of exploding it started to release dark red foam on contact. I recognized it, having seen it used before and grinned. Brick wasn't going anywhere for a long-ass time.

Kid skidded over towards Roy, eyes bright. "High-density polyurethane foam, nice!" He gave Roy a thumbs up, who turned away from him.

Rob spoke up from where he was leaning on a loading crate, "so Speedy, you in?"

Roy paused, turning towards him, "pass." I blinked in surprise, I was expecting him to agree. I mean, what more could he want? I was especially taken aback at the tone of his voice, Roy had always been temperamental, but never this… dismissive. "I'm done letting Arrow and the League tell me what to do, I don't need a babysitter or a clubhouse hangout with the other kids." His voice was utterly scathing, "your junior Justice League is a joke. Something to keep you busy, and in your place." He said the last three words with conviction, ramming it home.

"What the hell, Roy?"

He was about to storm off, but I stopped him. I was sure as hell tired of stopping him from making dramatic exits. He simply raised an eyebrow in reply, "what the actual fuck is your problem? Ever since that day at the Hall you've been a moody asshole. What's wrong with you?"

He scoffed, "what's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You were always clever, Cat. I would have expected you to figure out the League's game by now. What a disappointment." His tone was almost languorous, slow and methodical in him hurting me.

This time he faded into the shadows, and I stood baffled. Roy had never, never spoken to me like that in my life. Never. I felt my throat tighten but I absolutely refused to cry here, not in front of KF and Aqualad and certainly not over Roy. Rob seemed to understand and his hand found it's way to the small of my back. I leaned back slightly into his calming touch, and we all exchanged glances. Surely Roy was wrong?


GOTHAM

July 18, 15:01 EDT


I exited the bright yellow taxi and handed the cabbie a few bills. The large iron gates of Wayne Manor stood rather imposingly in front of me, but they had gained a friendly air in the years between when I was nine and now. They represented the more fun side of my double life, Bruce, and more importantly Dick. I walked up to the scanner in the side of it and presented the little security card I kept in my wallet and there was a beep and then a hum as the gates creaked open.

I walked up to the door and opened it without knocking. Closing it behind me, I made a beeline for Bruce's office. Hopefully he hadn't left yet and I could ask him where Tweedledee and Tweedledum were. I poked my head in the door and he looked up. "I'm here for the idiots, any idea where they are?"

"Living room, playing video games." I sent him a thumbs-up and turned to leave.

"Arabella?"

"Yeah?"

"Have fun. Tell Dick I said to behave," I turned to send him a warm smile. For all of Bruce's brooding, he cared about us. He might be emotionally detatched but he had his own way of showing affection.

I walked into the living room, A.K.A the room where we spent most of our time. It was large and more modernly decorated than the rest of the house. With an overly large flat screen TV and surround sound, it was kind of perfect for movie watching or video gaming. Dick and I usually studied in here too, on the large selection of chairs the room offered. I had a habit of dragging a beanbag chair over towards one of the sofas when we did our math homework so he could peer over my shoulder every once in awhile and correct me. "Alright losers, time to go."

They whipped around at the sound of my voice and Wally sprung up out of his chair, running at super speed towards me. He hit a vase on his way and I stuck my leg out, just catching it on the flat of my foot before it hit the floor. "Beautiful! It's been too long!" I was met with the scent of pine and boy, and kicked up the vase for Dick to catch before it met the fate I was trying to save it from.

"There's never enough time between interactions with you, ginger." I said as I removed myself from his grip.

"That hurts, right here," he gestured to his heart and I rolled my eyes.

"Time to go, we're gonna be late."

We made our way towards the door and Alfred handed the boys their jackets. "How are you today, Miss Williams?"

"Arabella," I corrected automatically, "and decent, though Sel tried to convince me to go to some spa retreat with her next weekend."

He laughed, "maybe some relaxation will do you good, having to deal with these two all day."

I grinned, "one of them's a delight most of the time. The other is going to cost Bruce millions in between food eaten and priceless antiquities smashed."

"Hey!" Wally called from over by the shoe closet and Dick gave Alfred a cheeky smile.

"Hear that Alfred? I'm a delight."

I turned towards him, eyebrow raised, "shush or I'm taking it back."

"No take-backs."

I rolled my eyes and opened the door, "come on or I'm leaving without you two."


MOUNT JUSTICE

July 18, 15: 16 EDT


As we entered, the computerized voice announced us.

Recognized, Robin, B-01. Recognized, Catgirl, B-02. Recognized, Kid Flash, B-03.

We walked in casually, exchanging equal looks of excitement. Hopefully there would be some sort of mission for us to go on. We rushed over to where Kaldur, M'gann and Superboy stood before a holographic computer like the one Rob had. It was displaying several maps, graphs and a keyboard.

"Did you ask him?"

"What did he say?"

I slapped them both upside the head for being so rude, "good afternoon, guys. How are you? Did Red Tornado say anything about a mission for us?"

M'gann was stifling giggles behind her hand and Kaldur had a small smile. Superboy was of course, as stoic as ever. "He's arriving now," Kaldur answered.

Wally turned excitedly to Dick, "then what are we waiting for?" They both took off towards the loading bay and we followed, albeit at a much slower pace. As we approached the entrance to the bay, it popped open and slid down, revealing a handy ramp for us to walk up. As we did so, Red Tornado arrived down from the sky, cape fluttering behind him as he controlled his descent. The wind from his, ahem, tornado sent my hair flying back and made my shirt flap slightly. Wally waved, "Red Tornado!"

He landed with a small thump, "greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside the Cave?"

"We hoped you had a mission for us," Kaldur explained.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."

Dick stepped forward, "but it's been over a week and-"

Red Tornado cut him off, "you will be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."

I crossed my arms, slightly pissed off. We had been waiting around forever to get an assignment, and Roy's words from last night certainly didn't reassure me. "This team is not a social club," Kaldur said.

"No, but I am told social interaction is an important team-building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the Cave." I flinched at his wording, almost a mirror to what Roy had said last night.

He left, and Wally socked Dick in the arm, "keep busy."

"Does he think we're falling for this?" He exclaimed.

M'gann's eyes lit up, "oh! I'll find out!" She turned to Red Tornado, and she seemed to relax completely, eyes losing all their focus. We waited, the tense silence only broken by the computer. Recognized, Red Tornado, 1-6. M'gann dropped her head with a sigh, "I-I'm sorry, I forgot he's a machine. Inorganic, I, cannot read his mind."

"Nice try though!" Wally reassured her, "so uh, y'know what I'm thinking right now?"

Rob scoffed, "we all know what you're thinking now." He elbowed Wally in the back.

I spun Wally around, giving him a feral smile. "If you make M'gann uncomfortable, I will make it so that you lose the ability to procreate. Comprend-tu?" He nodded, slightly fearful and I smiled wider, flinging my arm around M'gann's shoulders. "Ignore him, I'll keep him in line."

She nodded, seeming shy but thankful for the offer. Kaldur raised his eyes from where they had fallen to the grass, "and now we tour the clubhouse." I bit down on my own anger, leaving it to simmer in my gut. Not healthy, or in any way good for whoever I would end up unleashing it on but better that then me storming my way to Wayne enterprises and demanding that Bats give us an explanation.

M'gann had moved from my hold, hands folded primly in front of her. "Well, Superboy and I live here, we can play tour guides."

We turned to him for confirmation, "don't look at me."

"We won't," Wally answered rapidly, turning back to look at M'gann moony-eyed. "A private tour sounds much more fun."

I narrowed my eyes and Rob spoke for me, "she never said private!"

"Team-building," Kaldur said, "we'll all go." I gave him an appreciative smile, and he smiled back. I was happy he had sort of become our mediator, settling arguments before they could even arise.

M'gann led us back into the cave and I raised an eyebrow as Rob shoved Wally's arm so he could be closer to Miss M. Honestly the two of them were going to drive me up the damn wall. M'gann gestured to the loading bay entrance, "so this would be our front door…"

We finally came to another hole in the mountain, where the flat rock extended for a few feet before becoming a steep drop. This side of the mountain faced the ocean and I let out a small sigh of contentment as the salty scent filled my nose. "The Cave is actually the entire mountain!" M'gann chirped. We turned around and headed back towards the loading bay.

"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League." Wally said as we glanced around. There was a large pool of water that I assumed was for boats.

I raised my eyebrows at him, "and to think you wanted a private tour, you seem to know more than M'gann." He flushed, and Rob gave me a high-five, eyes shining with mischief.

"Why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy asked.

"The Cave's secret location was… compromised." Kaldur responded.

"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? Yeah, that makes sense."

M'gann's eyes filled with worry, hand on her cheek, "if villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert!"

I smiled fondly at her naivete, she was older than me and yet still so innocent. Dick moved forward, grabbing her hand in his own, "the bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here." A small bubble of irritation joined the rest of my bottled up anger. At this point the annoying-ness of Dick and Wally's obvious attempts at M'gann's affections should have worn off. But they hadn't and I was this close to sitting them down and giving them a lecture on propriety. It was weird though, them hitting on girls never annoyed me before, but that was probably because there was usually a guy or two for me to chat up alongside them.

Wally moved up, placing his hand on M'gann's as well. "He means we're hiding in plain sight." Dick pulled back, shooting Wally a glare.

M'gann nodded, "ah. That's, much clearer." She scratched her head, other hand on her hip and I felt bad for her. Honestly, having to be subjected to teenage boys not-so-subtly fighting over her when she was new to the freaking planet. Who knows if they even have the term "hiding in plain sight" on Mars?

Superboy sniffed rather loudly, "I smell smoke."

M'gann jolted, gasping in horror, "my cookies!"

She flew off and we followed her, heading towards the kitchen. As we entered she was telekinetically lifting the cookies out of the oven. They were burnt black, and the smell was invasive even without an enhanced nose. I pitied Superboy who was angling himself upwind from it. M'gann looked unbelievably put-out, "I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from episode seventeen of-" she trailed off with a small, awkward laugh. "Never mind!"

"I bet they'd have tasted great," Dick said encouragingly, "he doesn't seem to mind."

Looking towards Wally, who was happily munching on the burnt cookies I laughed quietly. The boy would eat anything so long as it had at least a calorie in it. He looked around awkwardly, "I… have a serious metabolism?"

I swatted the cookie out of his hand, "stop that, you'll get cancer."

He rolled his eyes, "I sincerely doubt there's enough carcinogens in this to give me cancer."

"I sincerely doubt there's enough carcinogens in one cigarette to give me cancer either, does that mean I'm going to smoke one? No."

He sighed, "buzzkill. But these are good, even if they're a little burnt."

"I'll… make more?" M'gann offered confusedly.

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

"Thanks Aqualad."

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

"I'm Wally," the ginger said dreamily, "see I already trust you with my secret identity. Unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over here. Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name." Well to be fair, Dick's secret identity revealed Batman's very quickly to anyone who wasn't as stund as a box of rocks.

I snorted, "see I was gonna say that you haven't really, given that she only has your first name. But then again, how many obnoxious teenage boys have red hair and a name like Wallace."

Dick laughed, stretching out for a high-five while Wally narrowed his eyes and the rest of the team looked confused. "Our friendship mainly consists of making fun of each other, he makes fun of the fact I'm short and temperamental all the time too." I explained, and M'gann and Kaldur nodded slowly. I turned back to Wally, "I would also like to point out that I trusted her with my SID first."

He pouted and I patted him on the cheek, "there there. Someday you'll meet a girl with low standards who'll think you're amazing."

He swatted my hand away, "says you, Miss-I've-Never-Even-Been-On-A-Date."

I smirked, "I've got one tonight, actually."

Dick turned to me, eyebrow raised, "when did that happen?"

I shrugged, "James Turner asked me on Wednesday."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I was planning on it, just slipped my mind, believe it or not, it's not the most important thing on my mind right now." I gestured to the Cave.

I had won, but the grumpy look on his face told me that this wasn't over. M'gann turned to me, "you know Robin's secret identity though? And you knew Wally's?"

I nodded, "yeah that's kind of how I got into the superhero thing. Long story short, we've been best friends since we were nine. And Wally got into the gig a little while after Rob and I met so we've all known each other since we were kids."

M'gann blinked, "oh wow, that's a long time. At least I think it is? I don't really know how humans age."

"We measure how old we are by how many years we've been alive, and a year is the time it takes for Earth to make one full lap around the sun. We measure it off the day we were born, so every October thirtieth I get a year older. Rob and I are thirteen almost fourteen, Wally's fifteen," I turned to Kaldur, "you're sixteen, I believe?" He nodded and I continued, "going off the info at Cadmus, Superboy's biologically sixteen but he's technically like seventeen weeks old."

M'gann nodded slowly, trying to process. "Going by Earth standards then, I'm forty-eight." My head never whipped around so fast. Wally choked on his cookie and Rob thumped him on the back. M'gann seemed confused, "did I say something wrong?"

I shook my head vehemently, "no not at all. Just wasn't expecting that, you look about Kaldur or Superboy's age. And we're ignorant teenagers who think anything above thirty is ancient, oh my god you're forty-eight?"

"Yes, I think Martians have longer lifespans than humans, I'm still considered young there. You're correct, I think humans would consider me sixteen biologically." The cheer that she said that with hopefully indicated I hadn't offended her.

"So your name is M'gann?" Kaldur asked.

"Mmhm! M'gann M'orzz! But you can call me Megan, it's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now." Her tone was bubbly and she seemed unbelievably excited to be here, I wondered if I would feel the same way about dropping everything I've ever known and going to live on Mars. Something told me there was more to the story than she was telling, and her life back on Mars was worth leaving.

Superboy kicked off the wall, turning to leave. M'gann's voice filtered through into my mind and I recoiled. It was like the sound was being beamed into my brain and I was shot back to the night we spent under Cadmus. "Don't worry, Superboy. We'll find you an earth name too."

I didn't like this, and from the expression on Superboy's face he didn't either. I could feel M'gann in my head, an invasive presence on the edge of my mind, if she pushed she could comb through it, know everything I've ever experienced, anything I've ever thought-

I shuddered and heard Superboy yell, "get out of my head!" We turned to M'gann, who wore a shocked expression, thoroughly confused.

She continued to speak in our minds and I hissed under my breath, "what's wrong? I- I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically."

Kaldur raised his head, "M'gann, stop." I felt her recoil, and suddenly she was gone. I relaxed slightly, god that was uncomfortable as all hell. "Things are different on Earth," Kaldur continued, "here your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy."

I tried to smile at her, "I know it's not what you're used to, but for us it's really uncomfortable. And it hurts."

I laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and Wally opened his big fat mouth, "besides, Cadmus' creepy little psychic G-Gnomes left a bad taste in his brain," he pointed to Superboy.

M'gann's eyes widened, "I- I didn't mean to-"

Superboy cut her off. "Just. Stay. Out."

He stormed off and M'gann hung her head. I was absolutely livid, "Wally I swear to god I am going to hang you off the Wayne Tower by your balls."

"What did I do?!"

"Maybe bringing up someone else's trauma so casually isn't the smartest thing to do? She was already digging around in his brain, you had no idea if Superboy wanted her to know about that, it's his story to tell. And if you make one more pathetic wisecrack in an attempt to win the affections of a girl who clearly doesn't give a shit, I'm going to bash your goddamn head in."

M'gann looked like she felt even worse, if that was possible. And Wally looked properly cowed. Suddenly M'gann's face lit up and she hit herself on the forehead, "hello, Megan! I know what we can do!"

She flew off and I turned to Rob, who shrugged. We followed her down the hall and I was still pissed off. Clearly Superboy had a lot on his mind, and Wally wasn't helping anything. I felt Rob's hand on the small of my back as he leaned over to talk to me, "you really laid into Wally there."

I narrowed my eyes, "he deserved it. How dare he? I really don't get why his number one, go-to plan when shit goes wrong is to add insult to injury."

"That's not it and you know it, he tries to lighten the mood with humor, but because his jokes are insensitive so often he ends up pissing someone off."

"Yeah well he should learn to reign himself in."

He grinned, "but then he wouldn't really be the Wally we know and love, would he?"

I noticed M'gann had turned back, probably to talk to Superboy and I kept walking towards the elevator. We waited for them and took it to the hangar, and as the doors opened, I spotted a red and black egg-shaped… thing. M'gann gestured proudly, "it's my Martian Bioship!"

"Cute!" Wally complimented, "not aerodynamic, but cute."

She smiled warmly, "it's at rest, silly. I'll wake it."

I watched with curious eyes, and as she raised her hand the ship went from being egg-shaped to looking badass as all hell and three or four times the size. M'gann flicked her wrist and it spun, revealing a door that transformed into ramp for us to walk up. The way it changed form almost looked like melting chocolate, and I was utterly mystified. I knew Martian's telepathic abilities allowed them to progress far beyond humanity, but this was something else.

M'gann took a few steps towards the ramp and looked back at us, "well? Are you coming?"

Somewhat apprehensively, we walked into the ship. As we entered, it transformed into a control room-esque style cockpit and I grinned at Rob before taking a seat.

"Strap in for launch," M'gann said and I couldn't help but notice that she sounded almost nervous. As I sat, X-shaped seat belts formed over me and I had to stifle a gasp. This Martian technology was blowing my mind, and sure as hell would take some getting used to.

M'gann sat in the large pilot's chair and looked out through the front window, "Red Tornado, please open the bay doors." They slid open and two shining balls appeared beneath M'gann's outstretched hands. Without warning, the Bioship shot off and I had to stop my jaw from dropping.

"Incredible!" Rob said and Wally sighed.

"She sure is." M'gann turned her head to him and he proceeded to stumble over himself, "I mean, the ship. Which, like all ships is a she."

I felt a fond smile tug at my lips and I turned my seat, which swung like a desk chair, to face Wally. "Advice from one of them, when giving a girl a compliment just go with it instead of backtracking five seconds later when you get embarrassed."

He scowled and Rob snickered, "fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth."

"Dude!"

"Speaking of which though," I continued, "you talk about the ship like it's a person."

"Well it's not a person," M'gann said warmly, "but it is somewhat sentient, so I can control it with my powers. I couldn't explain the technology, but the ship is made of organic material, so I can control it with my powers."

I nodded, and due to my lovely hearing extensions I caught Kaldur whispering to Superboy. I rolled my eyes, ignoring Rob blatantly leaning forward in his chair. "I may not have psychic powers," Kaldur murmured, "but I can guess what you're thinking. You overreacted and you don't know how to apologize. Just say sorry."

A small burst of warmth exploded in my chest, honestly this kid was the most mature out of all of us, and I was infinitely grateful that he was our mediator. Superboy averted his eyes and Rob leaned over to whisper to M'gann. "He'll come around."

"He doesn't seem to like me much."

"You guys remember he has super-hearing, right?"

I rolled my eyes, "yeah he's not the only one, and this is a tiny-ass room. Honestly."

There was a few seconds of awkward silence and then Rob perked up, "hey, how about showing us a little Martian shapeshifting?"

M'gann stood, and within seconds she had transformed into a very feminine Robin, and then KF."

"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked.

I narrowed my eyes, "yes. Very. Stop it."

Rob clapped, "impressive! But you know you're not exactly going to fool anyone with those."

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder," M'gann mumbled and I stood, the seat belt melting off me.

"Do me then silly."

She seemed almost hesitant and I nodded encouragingly. I blinked and then there was me in my uniform right in front of me, right down to the claws. My mouth dropped and I stepped closer, inspecting it.

She had gotten my suit right, stretchy cloth material that had a leather-esque finish, starting at my neck and going all the way down in one piece. Gleaming black claws and boots that flowed seamlessly into the leg of the jumper, a domino mask and dark red curly hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a bullwhip, exactly identical to mine curled at her hip. I was amazed.

"You even got the scar on my temple," I said, tucking my hair behind my right ear to reveal the perfect match.

She nodded, "what's that from by the way? It's an interesting crescent shape."

I was suddenly shot back to the dream I had last night, tensing. She seemed to have noticed that she hit a nerve and I immediately smiled to ease any guilt, "got cracked across the head with a bottle. I kind of hate it."

She violently shook her head, form melting back into herself. "No! It looks beautiful. Though I suppose you don't like the reminder of being injured."

I nodded, "thank you though. And that's hardcore amazing, you could fool my mother."

I looked up at Rob, and even with the sunglasses I could tell he had his 'are you okay?' face on. I nodded ever so slightly, pressing my lips together to say thank you. He have me a nearly imperceptible nod back before a large smile bloomed across his face, "nah, Cat'd know it wasn't you as soon as she opened her mouth."

M'gann had a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "are you sure?" Her face immediately switched to an intimidating glare and she cocked an eyebrow, "seriously dimwits?" Her voice sounded shockingly like mine and if M'gann wasn't quite possibly the physical embodiment of sunshine I'd be concerned about identity theft.

Rob whistled, "dang Belle, I'd say she has you in a corner."

"How do your clothes shift like that?" Kaldur asked and M'gann grinned.

"They're organic, like the ship! They respond to my mental commands."

"As long as they're the only ones," Superboy muttered. That guy had to put a lid on his angst because it was getting old real fast.

M'gann lowered her gaze and Wally spoke, "can you do that ghosting through walls thing Manhunter does?"

"Density shifting? No… it's a very advanced technique." She seemed put out.

Rob leaned towards her again, "Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall," he stifled laughter as he gestured to Wally, "when he tries it, bloody nose."

"Dude!"

I grinned, Rob had a knack for making people feel better and I was happy to see him try to cheer M'gann up. "What he's trying to say is that if we were as good as our mentors already, they wouldn't be our mentors." I smiled at her, "I'm sure that you'll get density shifting down eventually."

She smiled back, "here's something I can do!" Suddenly the wings outside the window disappeared and I realized we had turned invisible, "camouflage mode!"

Red Tornado's voice came over on the speakers, "Red Tornado to Miss Martian, an emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbour Power Plant. I suggest you investigate. Covertly. I'm sending coordinates."

M'gann's expression immediately changed to one of absolute seriousness, "received. Adjusting course."

Rob scoffed, "Tornado's keeping us busy again." I bit my lip, Red Tornado was an android, meaning he was pretty emotionless. He wouldn't decide to keep us busy on his own, but maybe one of the other members of the Justice league asked him to.

"Well," M'gann said as the ship prepared for landing, "a simple fire led you to Superboy. We should find out what caused the alert."

I didn't really have the heart to tell her that Cadmus was on a completely different level than a power plant in a tiny New England town. But she did have a point, if there was an alert then something had to be off, and it was our duty to see what was up.

"I think I know the cause," Superboy said, looking out the right window and I saw a large tornado spinning across the parking lot. Right towards us. About to send the Bioship flying.

M'gann looked even more determined as it hit us, and ship started spinning wildly. I held on to the sides of my chair and tried not to puke. She flew us out of the storm, landing the poor Bioship in the parking lot and a hatch opened up, dropping us out of the bottom of the ship.

We stood, analyzing the situation. The tornado was ripping up the sides of the power plant, and the distant sound of people screaming set me on edge. Kaldur stepped forward some, "Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?" There was no answer and we turned to find that he had disappeared. Again.

I pressed the little emerald eye on my snake armband, snarling as I walked forward. "God I hate it when he does that." The armband began to expand, curling out into an entirely flexible whip.

Rob's laugh echoed out across the parking lot and M'gann looked around confused, "he- he was just here."

The windows started to blow out of the sides of the plant and I sighed, "yeah, he takes off quite frequently. Judging by the explosions, he's inside."

I saw a large, red robot use a tornado to slam Rob against a pillar as we entered the plant. Superboy leapt, landing next to him, "who's your new friend?"

"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kind of rough!" He called out after him as Superboy sped towards the robot. I sighed, outstretching my hand to help him up.

"See what happens when you take off on us?"

He dusted himself off, "yeah, yeah."

"My apologies," the robot boomed, "you may address me as Mister Twister."

He sent two mini tornadoes our way and I dodged, running around to his side, "oh man, nobody told you that having a rhyming villain name is so last year? You should pick up How To Be Evil Weekly, it'll help with your dreadful sense of style too. Are you going for a western vibe with the tattered scarf covering your mouth?"

Slamming Superboy into the wall, he turned to face me, "I don't much care for your mouth, girl."

I gave my whip an experimental flick, "yeah not too many people do. Truth hurts. Tell me, what's an asshole like you doing in a tiny power plant like this?"

I was met with a face full of twister, the wind sending flying up into the ceiling and back down. I heard my ribs make a rather unfortunate cracking noise and groaned, "these just started feeling better!"

I got to my feet, Wally slid on his goggles and we exchanged a five-way glance. Kaldur nodded and we took off. Wally got sent flying out the door, M'gann and Kaldur got blown back and I could see Rob hiding a birdarang behind his back.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero," Mr. Twister drawled, "I was not however expecting children."

I growled, my fingers tightening around my whip. This thing was asking for an ass-kicking, and he was going to get one. "We're not children!" Rob yelled as he flung two birdarangs in MT's direction.

The first exploded against the air, and the second sunk into his chest for about five seconds before he flicked it away from himself, the explosion missing him by a few feet. "Objectively you are. Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite… disturbing."

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

M'gann sent the cylinder over Mr. Twister's head falling down, and Superboy took the opportunity to leap at him. He was sent flying backwards, hitting M'gann in mid-air. We charged him, and I found myself caught in a tornado, being flung around in circles. He smacked Rob, Kaldur and I together and I tried to sit up, holding my head. My brain felt bruised, and constructing thoughts seemed like a Herculean effort.

If he had a mouth, Mr. Twister would have smirked, "indeed. That was quite turbing. Thank you."

I snarled, climbing to my feet as quickly as possible. I was met with Wally flying towards us as we exited, and M'gann held out her hand, holding him in one place. "I got you Wally!"

"Thanks!"

"I would've thought you had all learned your limitations by now," MT said.

"Y'know, I'm getting real tired of this guy's tone," I muttered and Kaldur stepped forward, spreading his arms.

"What do you want?!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mr. Twister asked as he flew upwards, "I'm waiting for a real hero."

Kaldur turned to M'gann, "read his mind. Find a weakness."

M'gann looked flustered, "I- I thought I wasn't supposed to do that?"

"It's okay with the bad guys!" Rob yelled.

She closed her eyes, hand flying to her temple, "nothing… I'm getting nothing!" Suddenly she looked up, "hello, Megan! Mr. Twister is Red Tornado in disguise! He's inorganic, an android. How many androids do you know that can generate tornadoes?"

I pressed my lips together, it might make sense. But there was still loose ends, it didn't altogether fit. "Red Tornado sent us here!" Kaldur said.

"After saying we'd be tested soon enough? This is his test! Something to keep us busy" Rob snarled and I shook my head.

"But why would he test us? What does he gain?"

"Who cares?" Wally asked, "Speedy called it, we're a joke."

Kaldur punched his open palm in frustration and they started to move towards the android. "This game? So over." Wally muttered, and I hesitantly followed them. Something wasn't right.

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

Kaldur continued, "so let's end this."

"Consider it ended," MT growled, he stretched his arms skyward, double twisters spinning from them and turning the sky a dark gray as a gale whipped around us.

"Guys! I'm serious, Red Tornado's an android just like this guy, and clearly this guy has an objective-"

Wally cut me off, "yeah, to test us because he's Red Tornado in disguise!"

"Red Tornado had to open the bay doors, remember? That has to be done from inside the Cave! We were up in the air for maybe three minutes. You're telling me he had time to get inside this hunk of metal, attach what he needed to attach, fling a dirty rag around his neck and then get over here in time for him to already be here when we were arriving? No, it's too much. Occam's Razor, the simplest answer with the least assumptions is the best and most correct answer. This is an entirely new guy who happens to have tornado powers that's here to wreak havoc for some reason."

Lightning flashed in the sky, and Wally jabbed his thumb at it, "can, uh, can Red Tornado do that?"

"It appears the smart-mouthed girl is the smartest of you. You think I'm Tornado, ironic." A giant bolt of lightning hit the ground in front of us, and I felt myself start flying backwards. I heard my head hit the ground with a thunk, and through the haze I could see Superboy launch himself at MT again, only to be directly hit with lightning, fall to the ground and skid across the grass to lie a few feet away from me.

Mr. Twister floated downwards, lightning crackling at his fingertips and I felt something glide in front of me, an invisible wall blocking my view of him. The Bioship. "Fine. I won't deny that you children have power, but playing hide-and-seek with you will not help me achieve my objectives. So stay concealed. Confront me again, I will show you no mercy."

"What happened?" Wally asked groggily.

"I placed the Bioship between us-"

She was cut off by Superboy punching the shit out of some rocks he had unearthed due to the ditch he dug as he skidded across the ground. "And that's supposed to make it right? You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado!"

I was about to rip him to fucking pieces in the form of the English language when Kaldur interrupted him, "she didn't do it on purpose."

"It- it was a rookie mistake. We shouldn't have listened. Arabella was right," Rob protested.

"You are pretty inexperienced," Wally said, hands shoved in his pockets. "Hit the showers, we'll take it from here."

"Stay out of our way," Superboy growled.

She looked heartbroken, and I laid a hand on her shoulder, kneeling down to murmur to her. "Hey, you jumped to what could have been a logical conclusion while you were stressed out and your life was being threatened. Remember what I said about not being as good as our mentors? It's all a learning curve. I messed up plenty when I first started too, and I learned from my mistakes. I can't count the number of times I rushed into things without thinking and almost got killed for it. They're being a little harsh, but I think they're upset that they fell for the idea too. And when you're in our line of work, any criticism will always be harsh. It's what keeps you alive."

She nodded, and she looked like she was trying not to cry. Superboy, Rob and KF took off, and she hung her head. "I was just trying to be a part of the team."

"To be honest," Kaldur said, "I'm not really sure we are a team." I looked at him, and we exchanged sorrowful gazes. Then we left, M'gann still looking down at the grass.

Mr. Twister was tearing the place apart, boats smashing into the ground and buildings ripping to pieces. "Surely this will get the required attention."

"You got ours!" Wally shouted, running headlong towards him, "full and undivided!"

"As much as I would love to run at this guy and get blown backwards five million times, is anyone else catching on to the fact a direct approach isn't working?" I hissed, clutching at my poor ribs. They still ached, given that they had been badly bruised and even a little cracked during our stint at Cadmus.

Wally side-kicked him, sending the android skidding backwards a few feet. "Immaterial and insufficient! You are a distraction I can no longer tolerate!"

"Ooh, fancy words, do you know what they mean?" I asked, the dim light coming from the sunset glinting off the silver of my whip.

"Of course I do!"

Superboy jumped down from the air. He would have landed directly on MT if he hadn't floated backwards. He shot a twister at him, but it was sloppy. We ran forwards, and I danced around the twisters he was flinging. He sent Kaldur flying into what looked to be a historical house and I winced. Rob flung mini grenades at him, but they were easily disposed of. Superboy apparently hadn't caught onto the 'charging right at him isn't working' thing, and got tossed into the air, quickly followed by a speedboat.

The entire house collapsed.

"Okay, maybe we should be trying to avoid property damage, yeah?"

"Easier said than done when you're dealing with a walking natural disaster!" Rob hissed as he ran past me and I followed, eyes raking over Mr. Twister in an attempt to formulate a plan.

"It seems like those tubes are necessary somehow, if I can get close enough to unscrew it maybe we can knock him out of commision!"

"Good plan!" We crouched behind a wrecked boat and Wally ran up next to us as Rob pulled his utility belt out of god knows where.

"You brought your utility belt?" Wally asked.

"Never leave home without it. First thing Batman taught me."

"Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it."

"Boys, let's save the snark for the flying twister robot who's currently tearing Happy Harbour apart, hm?" I suggested.

I was trying to formulate an attack pattern when I felt M'gann's presence in my head again. Except this time she was joined by the rest of the team. The sensation was hard to describe, it was like having a imaginary chat room in your head but the voices sounded like they were being directly transmitted to my brain in a way the best earbuds could never achieve. "Listen to me, all of you!"

"What did we tell you?" Superboy snarled.

"I know!" She exclaimed, "and I know I messed up. But now I'm very clear on what we need to do. Please, trust me!"

"Why should we trust you when all you've done is mislead us?" Superboy asked.

"Hey!" I interjected, "she tried her best, and you're going to have to get a fucking handle on your angst before I go nuclear on your ass. Kaldur, you said earlier you didn't know if we were even a team, and you're right. This far, we've been acting like a bunch of separate heroes who happen to be fighting the same guy. That ends here. M'gann clearly knows something we don't, and she is my teammate. From now on I'm giving her the same trust with my life as I've given Rob or even KF on occasion, because we're a team. And being a team means trusting each other, and getting over stupid shit that's happened to us to fight a common enemy. I don't give a flying fuck what you think of M'gann, Superboy. But she is a part of this team, so you need to put your big boy pants on and suck it up. Now M'gann, what's this plan?"


I positioned myself carefully, watching the sky as 'Red Tornado' made his descent. "Hit the showers, kids. I was hoping you could handle this, clearly, you cannot." I held back a smirk, M'gann was probably having so much fun using that line.

Rob spread his arms in a pleading gesture, "but we've got a plan now!"

"The subject is not up for debate."

We walked away, making a show out of looking disappointed. I kept my ears strained for any movement behind me. "I was beginning to believe you'd never show up," Mr. Twister drawled.

"I am here now." 'Red Tornado' outstretched his hand 'making a cyclone'. "We are evenly matched, Twister!"

"No Tornado, we are not!" MT counteracted with his own twister, shooting a beam of lightning at 'Red Tornado'.

He appeared to fall to the ground, short-circuiting. Mr. Twister stood next to him, gazing downwards. "Remain still, android." What looked to be usb plugs curled from his fingers and attached to RT's head. "The reprogramming won't take long."

M'gann grabbed the cords, her face changing back to that of her regular form, "longer than you might think."

"No…"

"Oh you'd better believe it buddy," I said as I curled my whip around his torso, flinging him back into Wally's makeshift tornado. He sped past M'gann straight towards Superboy. "Damn it feels good to send him flying for once," I murmured, stretching an arm to help M'gann up.

Superboy proceeded to punch and kick the shit out of him, making several holes in the metal and sending him backwards into the harbour. Him exploding out of the water told me that Kaldur had done his part and he hit the ground with a thud. From there, M'gann pulled him up into the air and tore his arms off, two birdarangs via Robin later and he was on his knees, armless and short-circuiting.

We stood in front of him, and out fell… a man? That couldn't be right, M'gann should've been able to read his mind then, shouldn't she? He rose his head from the dirt, "foul, I- I call foul."

M'gann turned, raising a large boulder off the ground, Kaldur rushed towards her as she dropped it on the man, "M'gann no!"

I was caught somewhere between horror and confusion, Rob stalked towards her and she met him with a cool expression, "don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we don't execute our captives!"

I waited, holding my breath to see if what I suspected was the case. M'gann raised an eyebrow, "you said you trust me." She raised her hand, the boulder shaking and rising. I looked through my fingers, half-expecting to see blood, guts and bones, and breathed a sigh of relief when all that resided in the crater was mechanical parts.

I walked towards her, "I knew it! I knew he wasn't human, Martian powers can't be restricted by metal like Kryptonian ones are by lead. Even if he was human inside of that suit, you should have been able to read his mind."

She smiled, "thank you, Catgirl. For believing in me."

I grinned, "what are teammates for? Besides, in this sea of testosterone we girls have to stick together."

Wally walked forward, plucking a metal eyeball off the ground, "cool! Souvenir!"

"We should have had more faith in you," Kaldur said, resting his hand on M'gann's shoulder.

She smiled up at him and Wally grinned, "yeah! You rocked this mission. Get it? Rocked?"

I facepalmed, shaking my head. "Ignore him," Robin said, "we're all just turbed you're on the team."

"Thanks, me too." M'gann smiled shyly and a weird sensation, like irritation and worry had an unpleasant baby, twinged in my stomach. I chalked it up to my intuition telling me something was off here.

"Why don't we go back to the Cave and tell Tornado about this? Something tells me that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg."

"Sounds like a plan," Kaldur said.


MOUNT JUSTICE

July 18, 18:09


"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you," Kaldur murmured, staring down at the pieces of the android we brought back.

"Agreed," Red Tornado said, standing stiffly. Though I guess there's no other way he can stand.

"Is that why you wouldn't help us?" M'gann asked.

"No," he said rather matter-of-factly, "this was your battle. I do not believe it's my role to solve your problems for you," he looked down at the pieces, "nor should you solve mine for me.

We all looked up at him and M'gann stuttered, "b-but if you're in danger?"

"Consider this matter closed," Red Tornado turned from her, walking away.

"Batman, Aquaman and Flash, they'd of jumped right in to fix things," Wally noted.

"Guess if we're gonna have a babysitter, a heartless machine is exactly what we need," Rob said.

"Dude! Harsh!"

"And inaccurate," Red Tornado commented, "I have a heart, carbon-steel alloy," he paused, turning around, "I also have excellent hearing."

Rob looked somewhat ashamed, "right, sorry, I'll strive to be… more accurate."

"And," Kaldur said dropping in next to him, "more respectful."

Red Tornado left and we started walking towards the living room, "Speedy was so wrong," I could practically hear the smirk in Wally's voice.

"This team thing?" Rob said.

"Might just work out," Kaldur affirmed.

I stuck around to see what was on the go with Miss M and Superboy for a minute, they faced each other, and a few seconds of awkward silence later he looked up, "sorry."

She smiled, and I walked away. I found the boys in the kitchen scrounging around for food and I shook my head fondly, "do you think about anything else than food?"

"What else is there to think about?" Wally asked.

Kaldur looked at the clock with a frown, "Arabella?"

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you say you had some sort of date tonight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"What time were you supposed to meet this James boy?"

I looked over at the clock and immediately my expression switched to one of horror. There wasn't a time difference between New England and Gotham, and it was six-fifteen, which meant I had forty-five minutes to get home and make myself look like I hadn't been fighting a tornado robot for the whole day.

"Gotta go, bye!"

I sprinted to the Zeta Ports, practically flinging myself into the one that lead to Gotham. I passed M'gann on the way and I waved to her, "sorry, running late for something!"

I made it back to the fake apartment Selina had set up for us in case of situations where I had to bring civilians somewhere I lived, to find her waiting on the couch with wine and a book.

She looked up at me, utterly unphased. "You are so lucky I'm here because you look like you just got tossed around in a tornado for an hour."

"Actually, it was much longer than an hour."

"You know what, I don't want to know. Go shower, quickly. I'll grab something for you to wear."

I dashed off to the bathroom, "remember that this is supposed to be casual! And no heels!"

Ten minutes later I was clean, and I popped into my 'bedroom' to find a rather simple outfit consisting of a white v-neck shirt tucked into light-wash boyfriend jeans, and we managed to compromise on black leather booties instead of heels or flats. She did my makeup, expertly hiding any and all bruises as I braided my wet hair to the side in a fishtail. By the time we were done I looked effortlessly pretty in the way only Sel could pull from me. I hugged her and she passed me a black moto-jacket to throw on, and she gave me a credit card that I tucked into a black clutch-esque purse on a delicate silver chain.

As soon as I did that, the doorbell rang and I went to open it, revealing James Turner. He seemed nice enough, and I was bored to the point that when he had come up to me on the lawn and asked if I wanted to catch dinner with him in a romantic sense I had agreed.

He did everything he was supposed to do, asked if Selina was my older sister (which, actually he could have been genuinely curious. She didn't look a day over twenty-five.) Brought a freaking rose, and fielded Selina's not-so-subtle questions with the perfect amount of charm and good humor, but I had to fight not to shake his hand off the small of my back. It felt strangely unnatural.

Maybe this would be fun.

I was about thirty minutes into this date and already bored to tears. All he seemed to be able to talk about was irrelevant school drama, how much he hated each and every single one of his teachers and the football team.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom and texted Babs, telling her to call me in three minutes because otherwise I was going to die of sheer boredom. I sat back down, taking a large pull of my lemon water and I could have cried with happiness when I heard my ringtone. "Sorry, I've got to take this."

I put the phone to my ear and Babs was cackling. I restrained my frustration and put on a shocked face, "what do you mean he's missing?"

She paused her laughter at my expense to berate me, "I told you not to go with him, I told you he seemed like a self-absorbed douchebag and what was he? A self-absorbed douchebag."

"Oh my god, I'm on my way right now. Stay right where you are." I dashed back to the table, grabbing my purse and jacket. "I am so sorry, but there's an emergency I have to go."

"Is everything okay?"

"Uh, I don't know. But thank you, for the night." I practically ran out of the restaurant and I ended up at the run-down phone booth that served as my favorite Zeta Port in Gotham without really thinking about it. I instructed it to take me to the Cave, kind of hoping that everyone was still there it had only been about an hour and half, after all.

The automated voice I had affectionately nicknamed Glados announced my arrival, and I walked towards voices that sounded like they were coming from the living room.

The heels of my boots clicked against the flooring and the Team turned from what looked like a Mario Kart tournament. "Belle?"

I flung the clutch on the couch and slumped down against the cushions, "oh my god, Wally you're not missing out on anything. I promise."

He hissed, "that bad huh?"

I screwed my face up in the best imitation of James' 'my daddy could buy your life' smirk I could manage, dropping my voice into his fake-low raspiness, "I mean, Ms. Rowe is just such a bitch, right? Homework on the weekend? And she knows we have football practice. I won XYZ fucking medal that no one gives a shit about by the way, please let me fill your brain with more useless information, no I'm incapable of intelligent conversation. Books? What are books?"

I groaned, sinking my face into the pillow, my voice muffled by the cotton, "just suffocate me, honestly kill off the rest of my brain cells, it would be a mercy."

Rob snickered and I raised my face from the polyester to fling the pillow at his face. "Shut up. I'm serious, that had to be the most boring thirty minutes of my life, it was worse than one of Mr. Walsh's health nut tangents."

"That's what you get for agreeing to a date with James Turner of all people."

"Babs already gave me shit when I had to get her to call me to escape the horror that was that date. I swear, I can never eat Italian again."

He shook his head, throwing me a controller. "Come on, I'm going to kick your ass at Mario Kart."

"Oh it's on."

"I call Ara on my team!" Wally yelled.

"Fuck no, I'm on M'gann's."

"M'gann is on my team."

"No, I have to crush Rob's soul via the star power up, so we'll do boys versus girls."

"No fair!"