"What are you folks going to do now?" asked The Doctor.
They were in The Doctor and Amiya's office, once again. For some reason, it felt more natural to say "The Doctor and Amiya's office", rather than "Amiya and The Doctor's office", even if she technically outranked The Doctor by a good margin.
… Did she, though? Who knew, the title of "CEO" could mean drastically different things between Earth and Terra.
There was so much they still didn't know.
"..."
The rest of The Team turned to Aqualad.
"Well? You are our leader, after all." said Robin.
For a moment, the room held its breath.
"... We… are not sure." said the Atlantean.
He was about to say more, before he had the sense in him to shut his mouth.
He had forgotten something very important. Something that would almost certainly form the basis of whatever relationship they forged with Rhodes Island.
Do we tell them that we're from another world, or not?
On one hand, things would be much less awkward without them actively keeping things from their potential allies. They could be more open about who they were, and why they were the way they were.
On the other hand, they didn't know enough about this world's culture to be sure how they'd react to something as big as the existence of other worlds. A schoolgirl is one thing, but what about the rest of the population? They could get locked up, or they could get fawned over and paraded around as celebrities. Neither outcome would be conductive to their mission of protecting people and delivering justice.
On the other hand, Aqualad didn't want to outright lie.
So, he decided to phrase it as vaguely as possible, and see if it would pass without notice. If they pressed them on more details, well… they'll wing it, as the saying of the surface-dwellers goes.
"As you might tell, we are… not exactly from around here. We do not know the people or the lay of the land well enough that we can say we're confident with dealing with them solely by ourselves. Which means that our only option is…"
That last sentiment went unsaid, but everyone in the room knew what he meant.
The Doctor spoke.
"In regards to you joining up with Rhodes Island in a formal capacity, we won't force you. But we won't lie to you, either: Rhodes Island has some tough times ahead of us, and we'll need as many hands on deck as we can find, for our current and future endeavours."
Aqualad leaned forward as well. "What are your terms, if we decide to join your organisation?"
"Well, first off, no matter the role, you'll be our employees, not our slaves or soldiers. We'll pay you fair wages (plus hazard pay as compensation for life-threatening situations), allow you ample free time both on-base and out in public whenever we dock at a mobile city. We will also respect your privacy, so you're allowed to withhold any field of information from your files that you wish to keep secret, or only let it be known to upper management, like me and Amiya.
Finally, if you for whatever reason wish to resign from the company, we only need three days' notice before you leave. Signing up with us won't put a ball and chain at your feet. Rhodes Island Operatives are sent on missions all over Terra. Really, if you think about it, working for us could give you the opportunity to learn all about the "lay of the land", before you decide what to do next. How does that sound?" The Doctor said, clasping his two gloved hands together.
"..."
Kaldur looked at Robin. Robin looked right back. He then looked to the rest of The Team.
"No objections?" he asked.
The rest of The Team shook their heads.
"We accept your offer." said Aqualad, turning to Amiya. She smiled.
"Very well. The last step is to formally put it down on paper." The Doctor said, reaching under his desk and pulling out a bunch of employment forms.
He passed the stack on to Aqualad, who then distributed the forms to every member of The Team.
Looking at his form, Wally just scratched his head.
"Man, the only other job I held down was a part-time cashier at the Big Belly Burger during my last summer vacation. Never really worked in a pharmaceutical company before."
"Well, to be fair, big pharma ain't exactly anyone's first choice for a nice summer job." said Robin, leaning back in his chair as he scanned the document in his hand, his levity masking his ruthless analysis of each and every word on that piece of paper.
As vigilantes only begrudgingly tolerated by the Gotham Police Force and the world, he and Batman were used to being in that legal grey area that could turn pitch black in an instant, with the authorities getting the cajones to actively hunt you down. That was why Batman's training included an education on different legal codes and strictures as much as possible, so that one can easily move around and outside them to fulfill the mission.
It wasn't 100% ethical, he knew, but Batman always tended to treat state law as more of an obstacle rather than a code of ethical restraint. He'll maintain that criminals should be tried in the criminal justice system, but not much else, it seemed.
"... I don't see anything weird or wrong about this." Robin concluded, flipping the paper around.
"Umm, what do you mean?" asked M'gann.
"No fishy language trying to trick us into obligations we don't need or can't handle. No clauses that would put us into uncomfortable situations, and no conditions that are deceptively easy to break. None of that skeevy stuff."
"Ehehehehe, we're not really that kind of company…" said Amiya.
"Oh, I'm not insulting you or anything. Tricks like that are a dime-a-dozen when we're talking about big corpos like yours." he said, flopping his form down onto the table.
"He has a point, Amiya." said The Doctor. "Managing a large enterprise like Rhodes Island won't be all fair play and honour. Even if we don't resort to such tricks of legalese ourselves, the fact remains that we have to collaborate with companies and organisations that do use those sorts of tricks. We always have to be careful, lest we put our signature on a single bad contract that could damage us irreparably, if not end us entirely."
"..."
Amiya slowly nodded. She didn't quite have anything to say to that.
Later that same day, The Team gathered once more in the office to hand in their application forms. The Doctor then flipped through each form in turn, scanning and signing it as he went.
"Let's see here… So, for your codenames, you picked: Aqualad, Robin, Ms. Martian (whatever that is), Sentinel, Artemis, and Kid Flash…"
At that point, Artemis perked up.
"Wait a minute, who the hell is Sentinel!?" she asked. The others looked amongst themselves in confusion..
Everyone except Connor, that is. "I am." he said, standing up and crossing his arms.
"... Huh? Wait, what the hell, man!" Wally exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "That came a little out of nowhere, didn't it? Did it ever occur to you to tell us about your little name change first?"
Conner scoffed. "What? So I have to seek your approval before I go around changing my 'name'?" Conner said, turning to the rest of the Team and crossing his arms. "They're not our "real" names, anyway. They're just made-up codewords that we use so that it's easier to communicate, and so that the bad guys don't get any dirt on us." he said.
Not that we have any dirt in this world, he thought to himself.
"Guys, guys!" M'gann said, exiting her chair and holding out her hands between Connor and the rest. "Let's not have an argument in front of The Doctor and Amiya, okay?"
Now that line was the line to calm them down, because as soon as she said it, the rest of The Team looked at the CEO and her Doctor with no small measure of embarrassment.
Aqualad immediately turned to them and bowed deeply. Before he could speak, though, Amiya waved her hand.
"Me and The Doctor would be the last people to take offense simply due to an outbreak of emotion." she said.
"Hell, we have to, considering some of the people we hire…" The Doctor said, putting a hand to his mask and looking out the window.
"But if you truly feel that you cannot delay this debate, then may I recommend the use of our conference room right next door. We have a door in this office that leads directly there." she said, pointing to one side of the room, where there was indeed a door other than the one The Team entered the room in. "We prioritise mental health as much as physical health, and we understand the cost of leaving resentment simmer on too long. So go ahead. The Doctor and I will still be waiting for you when you finish."
In response, M'gann bowed deeply to her. "Thank you very much, Ma'am." she said, before she herded the rest of The Team into the room indicated. Inside, there was a long, oval-shaped table, with a projector at the centre and a pull-down screen at the far end of the room.
Nobody sat down.
After pushing the rest of her Team in, she shut the door.
"..."
She turned to Robin and Wally, and then turned to Connor.
Folding her arms together, she spoke with a voice more authoritative than any of them had ever heard from her before.
"Alright, Connor. Explain yourself."
Conner petulantly crossed his arms right back.
"Renaming myself Sentinel was my choice, and it's something I've been thinking about for a while now…"
He clenched his fists.
"... You know, I've always been in the shadow of that big, blue boy scout. Whenever someone sees me, they just… it's just… I just want to be my own hero, you know? Not as some Superman wannabe. Like some cheap knockoff…"
"Well what about us?" Robin said, waving his hands over the rest of The Team. "Did you ever think about how suddenly changing your codename on a dime is going to affect the rest of us? Did you even bother to consult with us first, before you signed your brand-new name on an official document?"
"You're not the boss of me!" said Conner.
"Well as long as you accept me as team leader, then I am the boss of you." said Aqualad. "And I agree with Robin on every point. Your sudden change of name, without regard to any of us, was hasty and selfish."
To that, Conner had no answer. He just looked his Team leader in the eye, and scowled.
Both boys opened their mouths at the same time. Sensing that a shouting match was about to occur, M'gann flew in-between them, and held out her hands towards each. Looking at both of them in turn, M'gann spoke.
"First off... Connor has a point. One's heroic identifier is something only they can decide. They have a right to."
"..."
M'gann glared at Conner, as he was about to say something, most likely something smug. His mouth opened, but the Martian's glare shut him up before a word could emerge.
"But you aren't entirely in the right, Connor."
She looked at Conner, then at the rest of The Team, then back to Connor again.
"We're supposed to be, you know, a team! she exclaimed, waving a green arm over the rest of the young heroes.
"We're meant to work together. That means you have to be familiar with the rest of the team, which includes what name they want to be called!"
Her arms went very straight beside her, pointing downwards and with a nasty clenched fist at the end of each. She glared her Kryptonian boyfriend into the ground.
"Imagine if, oh, I dunno, Robin wanted us to suddenly call him Nighthawk, or something. Tell this very honestly: Do you think you can suddenly call Robin Nighthawk without any hesitation at all? Do you think you're so on-the-ball that you won't accidentally call him Robin throughout the period after the name change!? Do you really think you can do that!?" she said, her face now inches from Conner's.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... No." he admitted, looking to one side.
"Good. At least you understand." she said, her face softening up.
"... Well? Isn't there something you're supposed to say to the rest of The Team." she said, looking between Connor and the rest.
"I…"
M'gann took his hands in hers. "You don't have to give up your new name, Conner. The rest of us were just surprised and hurt that you didn't even take the rest of us into consideration. But in the end, we're your friends. We'll support you, no matter what you decide to do. Just… be a bit more mindful of the consequences, okay?" she said, hugging him for good measure.
"... Alright, fine." said Connor. He turned to the rest of The Team.
"I'm sorry that I changed my name on you guys so suddenly. I should've warned you ahead of time, so that you could get the time to get used to it."
Still, he narrowed his eyes. "I'm still not changing it back to Superboy, though. The name leaves a bad taste in the mouth now."
"... Why did you change your codename now, and not beforehand, Connor? I don't feel that it's just a simple coincidence." said Aqualad.
"... I don't feel like giving answers at the moment. That can wait for another time." Connor (now Sentinel) said, immediately walking towards the door. "C'mon, we shouldn't keep the Doc waiting, people."
"Way to dodge the question, asshat." said Artemis, though she and the rest of The Team followed him through.
All of a sudden, Wally's stomach rumbled.
"Geez, I'm hungry again…" he complained.
"Wally? Are you sure you had enough to eat this lunchtime?" asked M'gann.
"No…" he said. As he did, recent memories tore their way into his unwilling mind, of Ceobe the food thief cleaning up her plate in record time, then gobbling up his plates and Ms. Vulcan's, before finally attempting to break into the kitchen.
Apparently, some fire magician was working the stove when she broke in, and got pissed-off enough to begin throwing fireballs everywhere. He didn't quite see the end of it, he was too busy running for his life at the time.
"Oh, right, you must have gotten to lunchtime too late, and the chefs were closing up shop, correct?" asked The Doctor.
"Umm... yeeeaaahh, let's go with that."
"Then you'd best be passing by the third lounge's pantry area, it's built for snacking day and night!" he said.
"Doctor! You better not be offering them some weird food!" warned Amiya.
"Oh relax, great leader, I'm perfectly aware that not everybody can handle my refined tastes. The lounge pantry is intended for all Operators, so it has boring stuff too, like bread and apples.
"Doctor, you're supposed to be setting a good example for the children of the Ark!" she said, pouting.
"C'mon, it's not like any of them recognise me without my mask or anything."
The Doctor then turned back to The Team.
"Alright, now that your employment status is well and truly dealt with…"
"Not yet. It hasn't been added to our official files yet, Doctor."
"Which is why we have the Logistics branch, don't we? Anyway…" he turned back to The Team. "The next step for all prospective Rhodes Island Combat Operators is to test your quality in various combat skills and attributes."
The Doctor reached under the table and slapped down six plastic cards.
"You'll need these to get into our dedicated Training Area. I've informed Operator Dobermann of your coming, she's the designated trainer for all our Combat Operators. She'll be the one who'll be evaluating your fitness for becoming one of us. If you kids pass, she'll be your combat instructor and trainer as well."
"Aww man, I hope she's not as bad as Black Canary…" said Wally.
"I didn't hear that from you when you were flirting with her."
"Alright then…" The Doctor cupped his mouth (or at least, the darkened opening on his mask) and called out to the entrance. "Sorry for this Exu, mind leading these kids around for a bit longer!?"
"No prob, Bossu #2!"
Right on cue, the red-haired Sankta slid into the room and did a thumbs-up.
"Hey, hey, we're getting to know each other pretty well, aren't we?" said the red headed angel, cheerfully gesticulating in front of The Team. In fact, she was gesticulating so much that Robin briefly wondered if she was secretly Italian or something.
"Umm… yeah." said Artemis, for lack of a better thing to say. "So what's your name again? I don't want to have to get your attention by saying hey, you, you know."
"Exusiai!" she cheerfully replied. "Though if even that's a handful for you, you can call me Exia. All my buds do."
"So, Exusiai… so you're one of those angel-people, right?" asked Wally.
"Sankta, born and bred! What's wrong, never seen one before?"
"You can say that. Say, are those halo and wings real or just some part of an elaborate costu-"oww!"
Robin retracted his hand from the back of Wally's head, and bowed to the angel woman as they were walking.
"We deeply apologise for Wally, he's a shut-in country bumpkin, you see, and never had much of a chance to go out and interact with many different types of people."
"Hey! Those are all lies, I'll have you know-"
"Ah, it's okay, it's okay, us people of Laterano are pretty insular, too. We barely interact with the rest of Terra, and the rest of Terra barely knows anything about us. Hell, I never even stepped outside my hometown 'till I first became a courier! Can you believe that? Sure, I'm a swashbuckling member of Penguin Logistics now, but back then I was really freaked out by stuff like Lungmen's slums..." she said, shaking her head. "I was such a wuss back then."
Suddenly, one of the people walking along the hallway stopped and glared at their Sankta guide. She looked quite distinctive, a leather-bound Lupo with a shock of white hair, a scarred face, and carrying around two swords whose hilts were in the shape of half-moons (or, to the less poetic, protractors).
She turned her glare towards Exusiai.
"Hey shitty angel, you know where Texas is!?" she asked.
"Sorry Lappy, can't talk!"
Exusiai barely acknowledged the white-haired woman, preferring instead to jog right past her as if she wasn't even there.
After growling at the redhead in annoyance, the one known as "Lappy" looked back at The Team, and grinned.
It took every ounce of willpower for The Team to not run away as fast as possible. It was a feral smirk, full of bloodlust and killing intent.
Robin took out his robin-rangs, more out of instinct than anything else.
After a few tense moments, Artemis grunted in annoyance, and went out in front of the scary wolf woman.
"Hey miss, stop that." she said, without an ounce of fear. In fact, she sounded more weary than intimidated. "We have somewhere to get to right now, quick. If you're gonna use those stupid-looking protractor swords, do it now so that I can beat your ass and get on my fucking way." she growled.
"..."
After a few moments, Lappy laughed out loud.
"You've got guts, girl! Most of my favourite women to sleep with are women with guts." she said, leering at her as she walked past her, and the entire rest of The Team.
For a few seconds, no one dared to say anything.
"... Whoah, that lady's hot, but really intense…" said Wally, trying to act casual with his hands slung behind his head. "It's almost enough to turn me off."
Artemis just rolled her eyes at him.
"Eh, I grew up in a rough neighborhood. People like that protractor-sword bitch were a dime-a-dozen back home. You have to learn to stand up for yourself, or you'll never go anywhere." she said, nonchalantly.
A few minutes later, they caught up with Exusiai, waiting impatiently just outside a pair of double-doors.
Once they entered, it was like stepping out under the open sky, after hours spent walking through a tunnel.
Looking around, one could see that this was basically a repurposed gymnasium. Walking in, The Team looked around at the wide array of facilities in use. One side of the room was clearly designed for individual fitness workouts, being laid out much like a typical gym, with weight lifts, treadmills, arm-crunchers, stationary bikes, and other assorted exercise machines.
The other half, on the far side of the room, was dominated by a row of specially-marked, circular spaces that were clearly meant to be spaces for sparring. The Team could, in fact, see a few mock sword-fights or hand-to-hand bouts happening within the rings. On the far side of that area, there was a door with a sign labelled "Shooting Range".
As she led The Team into the training area, the Sankta began to move much more slowly. Her smile faded fast, and she looked around more anxiously.
Eventually, she tapped Aqualad on the shoulder, and silently pointed at a Perro (those were the dog-people, Wally reminded himself) woman who was currently in the middle of scolding a bunch of Operators silly.
"Is that supposed to be Ms. Dobermann?" he asked. The woman looked up from her vociferous reprimands, and Exusiai cursed.
"You there." she said, as the red-haired Sankta was tiptoeing away. In just a few seconds, she was right behind her, causing the angel to freeze in terror.
"U-U-Umm, Miss Dobermann, Ma'am! What a coincidence to see you here!" she said, with a hastily put-together cheerfulness.
"You haven't shown up for the scheduled mandatory training practice sessions these last few weeks. Care to explain, Ms. Exusiai?"
"Err, umm, weeell, ya see…"
Dobermann didn't wait for a reply. She just threw a bundle of clothing at the angel. It turned out to be a sleeveless exercise shirt, and shorts.
"Change into this by the time I'm finished with this lot of new meat, because we'll be running ten kilometres on the track. As warm up."
"Tuh… tuh… tuh… ten kilometres …?" she asked, before her eyes completely glazed over, her halo going slightly askew.
"And don't try to run away this time…" she said, looming over the gregarious angel. "Because I will know, and your boss has given us special permission to take desperate measures for any of its employees for whom sticking to planned schedules proves difficult." she says, pulling her whip taut as she did.
Without saying a word, Exusiai just took the running clothes and slowly walked over one of the benches nearby, her feet dragging all the way.
She then plopped down on it. Her eyes were glazed over, dead to the world.
Dobermann viewed this, and nodded to herself.
"... Alright, I retract what I said about Black Canary. I think she might actually be worse."
Instructor Dobermann faced The Team.
"Now then, on to the matter of you new recruits." she said, her sharp eyes looking over the entirety of The Team.
"I will be conducting a wide variety of tests to gauge your aptitude in various combat attributes such as strength, speed, strategic skill, and so on. Then, at the end of the testing, each of you will be assigned a Rank and a Class, depending on your aptitude and skills you show in the assessment. This will then be used to ascertain which assignments and teams you'll be best suited for."
"... Ma'am, if I may be so rude as to interrupt…"Aqualad said, stepping forward. "May we ask that no matter how you rank us, that we stay together as a Team even within Rhodes Island? We have all known each other for quite some time already before Rhodes Island, and have fought together as a team in the past. Thus, I feel that we will work the best as our own team of Combat Operations, rather than paired up with strangers." he said.
For a brief moment, Instructor Dobermann glared at Aqualad, like a drill sergeant when a fresh recruit dared to challenge her on something. Her glare looked like it could wither flowers and make grass turn brown.
The Atlantean stood firm, his face not faltering.
Their little staring contest lasted exactly fifteen seconds. Wally knew, he counted the seconds.
The Perro woman closed her eyes, and sighed.
"The ever-shifting nature of our duties means that, even if we accept you, we cannot guarantee that all of you will be deployed together in every single mission. As often as not you will be paired with Operators who may be strangers to you, but have skills or abilities that have been deemed useful or necessary in the assignment..
Nonetheless, your concerns have been noted, and will be taken up to The Doctor, who is currently the one in charge of Combat Operator assignments."
"I guess this is the best you can promise us, huh?" said Robin.
"Watch yourself. It is The Doctor, Amiya, and the rest of upper management who make the final decisions around here. I merely ensure that a couple of pups wishing to be Operators are, or are willing to be moulded into, efficient tools for Rhodes Island's purposes."
She then took out her whip, and stretched it taut before The Team.
"Now, let me explain the tests you will do…"
"Yep, she really is worse than Black Canary." Wally quipped. In nearly an instant, Instructor Dobermann was right next to him, and cracked her whip on the ground. He screamed.
"What was that? Mouthing off in front of your instructor? If you have something to say, why don't you say it to my face?"
"Aww, geez…"