Sylvia Wayne "Wildcat"
The Cave
August 3rd, 2010
We were all standing around in our uniforms, waiting for our first day of official training to start. Wally was currently beating Kaldur in a game of holographic air hockey. The sound of him scoring the final point rang through the mission room of the Cave as Kaldur just have him this look as Wally took a bite of a banana. We all heard the computer interface activate, drawing attention to the Zeta-tubes.
Recognized:
Superboy, B05
"Hi, Superboy. How was Metropolis?" M'gann asked as the angry Kryptonian walked right through our game, his pout returned after our mission.
"Ready for training, everyone?" I heard a familiar female voice. I turned to see who it was.
"Black Canary! Uncle J'onn!" M'gann was so excited as the two Leaguers walked in from another part of the Cave. She walked over and hugged her uncle tightly.
"M'gann, I was in the neighborhood, So I thought I'd see how you were adjusting." Martian Manhunter said as he ran a hand through his niece's hair.
"Hey, Canary." I smiled, greeting the woman who's idea it was for me to request the mantle of Wildcat from Ted Grant, the original. I noticed the rip in the shoulder of her jacket and the white bandaged as the blonde smiled, hugging my briefly.
"The new uniform suits you and reminds me a lot more of Ted." She smiled, looking me up and down. I was pleased that she approved, seeming as she knew the man better than everyone minus her mother, the original Black Canary.
"Thanks, it's what Batman and I were sort of going for." I smiled as she looked past me.
"Stick around. Class is in session." Canary said to Superboy, who tried to leave. She stood in the center of the active holopad, the computer recognizing her and setting up the training program. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you." She spoke opposite us in the circle, Superboy just standing behind her. "Everything I've learned from my own mentors-" She winced as she took off her jacket. "And my own bruises."
"What happened?" M'gann asked with worry, her eyes big and sympathetic.
"The job." The blonde said in all seriousness as she tossed her jacket aside. "Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner, how about Wildcat." She looked at me expectantly. I let out a sigh and approached her, getting into a fighting stance at the exact time as her. She lunged at me and I immediately flipped back, out of her reach. I pounced at her, blocking her punch and swinging down as she kicked near my head. I kept my claws in and leapt up, kicking her in the chest, forcing her back as I once again pounced forward in an attempt to tackle her, but she rolled and grabbed my arm, flipping my past her and slamming me into the ground.
"Well that was fun." I smiled as she picked me up off the ground.
"It was excellent. If you focus on your training here and with Batman, you'll definitely live up to your mantle." She complimented me before sending me back to the others. "Who's next?" She asked, looking at everyone else.
"Right here." Wally raised his hand as I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah! After this," he threw his banana away, "Swish! I'll show you my moves." He flirted, Canary slightly taken aback at his adorable but feeble attempt at getting an older woman. She immediately threw a punch, just slow enough to bait him into blocking. The second his arm was up, she whipped around and kicked his legs out from under him, flipping him onto his back. "Hurts so good." He said from the floor.
"Good block. But did anyone see what he did wrong?" Black Canary asked as she helped Wally off the floor.
"Ooh, ooh. He hit on teacher and got served?" Robin asked, embarrassing Wally. I bursted out laughing.
"Dude!" The speedster whined as he walked back to the group. I stayed quiet because she wasn't looking for me to answer, I've already had a few lessons from her before when Batman was busy with Robin and their dynamic duo thing.
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-" She tried to explain, but Superboy wasn't having it.
"Oh, please. With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time." He was harsh, but I'm sure he thought he was right. I was just waiting for him to get his ass kicked.
"Prove it." Canary said as a familiar look crossed her face. This triggered Superboy. He walked up to her on the holopad and crossed his arms. Canary leaned in slightly, using an intimidation tactic. Superboy mimicked her, but he channeled intimidation all on his own. They both immediately took a stance, fists up, feat staggered. Superboy threw the first punch, but Canary quickly grabbed his arm, throwing him right over her own head. He landed on the far side of the circle, flat on his back. Robin started laughing, but Kaldur elbowed him in the side, causing him to stifle it with his hands. Superboy got up, angrier that before.
"You're angry. Good, but don't react. Channel that anger into-" She was cut off by another one of his angry battle cries as he charged her, throwing another punch. But she flipped over him, just a second before impact, landing in a crouch and swinging her leg around, kicking his legs out from under him. Robin chuckled a bit more from behind his gloves.
"That's it. I'm done." Superboy barked as he refused her help, picking himself up off of the ground.
"Training is mandatory." She quickly reminded him, resting her hand on his shoulder. But he shook her off, his anger becoming more and more prevalent.
"Batman to the cave." Transmission came in, suddenly I was looking at my Dad's face on a massive holographic screen. "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary." He said as a picture of an android appeared on the screen. "The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating The powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant." Batman said as the footage paused at the android using Superman's heat vision.
"Whoa. One guy with the powers of the entire League?" Wally looked to me, but I avoided his gaze.
"In the end, it took eight leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android." Batman concluded the quick brief.
"An android? Who made it, T.O. Morrow?" Rob asked as he looked at the freeze frame of the android.
"Good guess, Robin." Batman praised him. "But Red Tornado doesn't think so." Batman looked at Martian Manhunter.
"The technology bears the signature of professor Ivo." Manhunter said in a deeply grave tone.
"Ivo? But Ivo's dead." Kaldur said with shock.
"So we all thought… or hoped." Canary looked back at him, speaking with a low voice, remembering the days when he clashed with the Justice League.
"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, We're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate S.T.A.R. Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation." A map appeared with the routes highlighted in red. "Every precaution is being taken. We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks." Batman finished the mission brief, Wally immediately celebrating.
"Yes! Road trip." He grinned like a child, nudging me. But I ignored him the best I could.
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asked Batman over the transmission, irritated with how the mission assignments and information has been so far.
"You had something better to do?" Batman replied immediately, putting Superboy in his place.
"Coordinates received. On our way." Kaldur reported as he checked the tablet in his hand. The entire team moved out, heading for the motorcycles that had been added to the cave for mission purposes. I pulled back my cowl as I slipped on the civvies set out next to my bike, putting the helmet on with my sunglasses.
Litchfield County
We all sat in wait behind the trees and shrubbery as the Leaguers made sure the parts went into the right trucks. Everyone on the Team was dressing in similar civilian clothing, only distinguished by the color scheme. We all even had our own style of bikes, but mine was the most similar to Robin's, while M'gann's was more of a vespa. Everyone was slipping on their helmets as the trucks all started their engines.
"S.T.A.R. Boston is a go." One of the other driver's said into the radio frequency.
"S.T.A.R. Manhattan is go." The other followed suit. Batman silently motioned for them to move out, the trucks all heading in opposite directions. I rode off with Robin and Superboy, trailing the truck to Boston.
"If dislike is the opposite of like, Is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right." Robin just couldn't not talk, especially when he had wordplay on his mind. "Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster." Robin commented on Superboy's demeanor, looking to me to ask.
"What's wrong?" I inquired, not turning my head to prevent reckless endangerment.
"Canary. And what business does she have teaching combat skills To a guy with super strength?
"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman and, well, me." Robin answered. But Superboy just revved his engine and pushed on, closer to the truck to get some place from us. Out of nowhere, these monkey looking robots began attacking our truck
"Robin, Superboy, our truck is under attack." Aqualad radioed in to us.
"Kind of figured." Robin replied as He and I caught up to Superboy.
"I hate monkeys." Superboy grumbled as we rode behind our monkey infested truck. They began to interfere with the drivers, forcing the truck to swerve between lanes.
"Robot monkeys!" Robin laughed. "Totally Ivo's tweaked style, right Wildcat?" Robin asked as his bike's hind wheel became a hovercraft ready to fire at will.
"Definetly." I said as I gained a smile from my little brother's quirk.
"Hey, hey. Switch your rides to battle mode." Robin told Superboy and I as we rode, figuring out our own plans.
"No point." Superboy said as he sped up a leapt off his bike, onto the top of the truck.
"He's right," I said, following Superboy's lead. My bike swerved and knocked Rob's out from under him. But he acted fast, using a grappling gun to get himself on the back of the truck, already taking out monkeys. I used my claws and slashed at as many as I could, throwing dismantled ones into the others trying to land on the truck. Superboy was just getting hot headed as he threw robots off of himself, but the one in his hand shot lazers, burning his eyes as some of the other monkeys flew him away from the truck, dropping him into the street. Robin pulled out a batarang and started using it like a knife, slashing through the robots, just as I was. But once he got on the top of the truck, he pulled out his escrima sticks, the two of us going back to back. We fought the monkeys as they tried to sabotage the truck and steal our half of Amazo. We kept destroying them, clearing the truck, but they just kept coming. But then, Superboy landed on the truck and rejoined the fight.
Our luck was running out fast as the tired began to go. The truck kept swerving as I went into the driver's cab and pulled him out, driving with him and Robin just before the truck began to roll. The monkeys got away with the crate, but Superboy was so angry that he ignored us and went after them.
"Superboy!" Robin shouted after him, but there was no time.
"Aqualad to Robin. We've lost our cargo. Did you-" Rob saved him the trouble.
"It's gone. And so is Superboy." Rob sounded so angry and defeated.
"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio your position. We'll help you." Aqualad offered through the line.
"I don't need help, don't want any!" The Kryptonian barked.
"Superboy?" Aqualad asked, but there was nothing.
"I think he ditched his comm." Robin answered.
"Super. Now we can't even track him." KF was just done with today.
"He's out of my telepathic range. This professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us. M-maybe w-we should contact Red Tornado?" Miss Martian asked Aqualad, wondering about what to do next. All of us were thinking something like that right now.
"Tornado always tells us to handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts Before they're reassembled." Aqualad reminded us. In the back of my mind, I was thankful we chose him as the leader. Her was still calm through all of this.
"Well, that's a great plan, except for the part about us not knowing where to look!" Kid was burning a short fused at the moment. But I ignored it.
"Maybe we do. We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked. So how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target?" Robin said into the comm as he attached a cord from his holo computer to one of the destroyed monkeys.
"Rob's hacking into a monkey. I'm pretty sure he's thinking the monkeys can track the signal." I said as our genius Boy Wonder got to work.
"I'm right!" He quickly celebrated. "The parts have gps. Which means I can track them with the one I captured. It looks both sets of parts are converging on... Gotham city." Robin looked at me with worry. I pressed the recall button on my holocomputer, my bike activating down the road and returning to me. Robin did the same as he picked up his monkey.
"That far south? M'gann and I won't get there anytime soon. I'm sending kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out." He said as the two of us hopped on our bikes and rode as fast as we could to Gotham.
"Definitely a disaster." I sighed, my speed inclining.
"Heavy on the 'dis." Robin added, slightly helping my mood. Rob and I ditched the civilian garb. I pulled my cowl back up and stringing my ponytail braid through, ensuring it was secure. After a while, After the sun had begun setting, I noticed Kid catching up to us.
"So you changed, too?" Robin asked the speedster as we went.
"You kidding? I feel naked in civvies." KF shuddered as he said it.
"I know the feeling." I laughed, forgetting to ignore him this time. My response nearly made him trip.
"You still tracking the parts?" Wally inquired after finally pulling it together.
"They were heading through Gotham, But they veered." Robin said as he checked the map on his bike. "Wait. Dude, they're at our school." Robin looked right at me, worried. We moved as quickly as we could, making it to the school and into the gym, just in time to see Amazo standing, completely assembled, about to smash Superboy. But Kid sped through the gym, grabbing him out of the way.
"Yoink!" Kid said as he took Superboy to safety. Robin threw an explosive at the android but it reacted quickly.
"Martian Manhunter." It spoke just before it density shifted, the explosive missing him. "Access Red Tornado." It activated, blasting Superboy and Robin into the bleachers and me and Kid Flash over to the side. "Access Captain Atom." It spoke before firing yellow light.
"Look out!" I screamed as I pulled Kid out of the way. He in turn, pulled me onto his back and ran back around to attack this thing. "Access Black Canary." Amazo blasted us with a copy just as potent as Canary's cry, throwing us back once again. "Martian Manhunter." Amazo suddenly started slashing his arms around as they stretched out like whips. I ran, trying to attack him with my claws. "Access Superman." He just backhanded me, sending me flying through the air and crashing through the observation window into one of the english hallways. I could barely feel anything, but I saw a blonde girl in a green costume, firing a bow. I scrambled to me feet an looked where her shot went.
"Martian Manhunter." Amazo said, no longer crushing KF as the arrow passed right through him. I looked to the archer and she looked at me with nervousness. She had been seen.
"You're Wildcat." The girl said, slowly putting her compound bow down.
"You just saved my best friend." I retracted my claws, trying to seem harmless. "Hey, you look a lot like…" I was about to say a cross between Green Arrow and Sportsmaster, but I stopped myself. "I have to get back." I said, climbing out of the window.
"You never saw me." The blonde girl said as I turned to face her.
"You're secret's safe with me." I whispered, saluting her before I dove backward, twisting as I sailed through the air.
"Superman." Amazo said as I landed next to robin, his eyes growing red. I grabbed my little brother and threw him out of the way just before Kid Flash ran to my aid and got me away.
"Access Black Canary." I heard Superboy say to himself, his face calm but nervous.
"Oh, yawn. Normally, Amazo would study and mimic Your abilities during battle, but what's the point? You're all such poor copies of the originals." Ivo just acted like we were nothing. I saw Superboy's face twist, but not like his usual angry face.
"So everyone keeps saying. It makes me angry!" He roared as he jumped high into the air, smashing the bleachers where Ivo had just been sitting. He was now running away. "Want to see me channel that anger?" Superboy roared, making himself more threatening.
"Great. He's gone ballistic again." Kid freaked out, knowing that Superboy cannot be controlled or contained.
"No, just pay attention and wait for the right time to move." I said, Robin catching my drift.
"Amazo, protect your master. Priority alpha." I heard Ivo say just before he bolted again, dodging Superboy.
"Captain Atom." Amazo fired the golden light at Superboy, and he just let it hit him. Ivo had his monkey droids pick him up the carry him away, but Robin had another idea.
"Anyone want to play keep-away?" Robin laughed, kicking Ivo in the back, pushing him to Kid Flash.
"OOH! Me! Me!" KF said as he made a break for Professor Ivo.
"Access Superman." Amazo stomped on the floor, the wooden floor boards erupting, launching Kid into the bleachers again. I pounced at Amazo, my claws out, hoping he would mimic the right hero. "Martian Manhunter." He density shifted and I fell right through him. Superboy made it in time to stick his fist into Amazo's phasing face just as he said Superman. the Android began to short circuit just before his head exploded, sending him to his back.
"Help me disassemble him now!" Robin ordered and I bolted, dicking my claws into the shoulder socket and ripping out one of Amazo's arms.
"Dude, the guy has no head." Kid said as he rubbed his arm.
"Don't take any chances." Aqualad said, him and Miss Martian finally here.
"Superboy, are you alright?" Miss Martian helped him up, checking to make sure he was okay. But I didn't think he was okay because he actually smiled and welcomed the contact.
"I'm fine. Feeling the aster." He grinned, sharing a look with Robin.
"Hey. Where's Ivo?" Kid Flash asked, looking around at the damaged and smoking gym.
The Cave
August 4th
"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate S.T.A.R. labs, but Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android." Aqualad reported to Batman.
"Capturing the professor will be a League priority." Canary told us, hoping that none of us would go off and hunt him on our own.
"But we understand your mission encountered other complications." Martian Manhunter said, referring to Superboy's episode and the way we had to dismantle Amazo.
"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League." Batman informed us, everyone getting excited.
"The whole League?" Superboy asked, almost like he didn't want to know the answer.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads." Batman indulged Superboy, something he rarely does with anyone beside Robin and I when he's wearing the cowl.
"Of course, there's no shame in asking for help. That's why the League exists, because there are some problems even we can't handle individually." Batman was telling the truth, But Robin just had to open up his mouth.
"Please. If we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask. Look familiar?" Robin said as he pulled out the arrow that saved Kid Flash. "You were following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us." but I had to stop him, whacking him in the shoulder.
"Once you see one of G.A.'s arrows, you'll know that isn't one of his." I said as Green Arrow did exactly that.
"But that means…" The smile on Robin's face grew.
"Speedy!" The smile was contagious as it spread to Kid Flash and Aqualad.
"He has our backs." Aqualad seemed pleased. But I looked to Batman, not wanting to say anything now to spoil their fun.
"Souvenir!" Wally said as took the arrow from Green Arrow in a blur of red and yellow.
"We need to talk." I said quietly to both Green Arrow and Batman as the others walked to the kitchen to feast on some of M'gann's cookies.