Happy Harbor National Park

August 26, 2017

13:37

Raja couldn't help but to roll his eyes at his team's childish antics. After arriving at the surprisingly deserted park, the young Indian boy had been handed nearly all the team's belongings as they raced towards the playground, leaving him and the oldest member behind.

"Are they usually like this?" Raja asked as he watched the team separate onto different equipment. The usual stoic and angered boy smiled as Oliver pushed both Victoria and Yessenia off the balance beam they were previously wrestling on. As the three transitioned into a game of tag, Raja's gaze followed Logan's directed stare at McKenzie.

The two boys observed her as the small demigod sat in a swing by herself, a book opened in her hand. With a sigh, Logan answered Raja's question, "Not as often as I want them to be." Their stares didn't lessen as they sat down on the table's bench.

Even though she looked peaceful, the two could tell that something was troubling McKenzie. Her reading pace, which was usually much quicker, was slowed drastically as she struggled to focus on the text. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she constantly looked up from her page, her eyes attempting to find each of her team mates. The serpent applied no effort in swinging, nor in her book, which worried the two onlookers.

"Is she okay?" Raja inquired, his gaze shifting from said girl and onto Logan. Even though he was new to the team, the Muslim boy still cared for the group's well-being.

"I don't know," Logan responded in a low whisper, his tone suggesting more concern than confusion. After the simulation, the teens had struggled to come to terms with what they had seen and whether they wanted to discuss it, but McKenzie's reaction was different than the rest of the team's. Unlike the others, she had insisted that she was fine, which couldn't have been further from the truth.

Noah walked out of his assigned room, his packed bag fixated on his back. He had hoped that it was late enough that the rest of the troubled teens had hidden themselves away in their rooms or that they wouldn't hear his departure; however, he was soon face to face with McKenzie. The taller girl looked down at him, her eyebrow quirked in a questioning manner.

Both of them stared at one another, the tension between them turning awkward as Noah thumbed the straps to his bag. "Hey Mack," the boy greeted lamely, his hands retreating towards one another in a clapped position.

"Are you okay?" Her greeting was vacant, her query taking its place in their conversation. As she spoke, the demigod scrutinized the boy for any sign that something was amiss, but her action proved futile. After all, she thought to herself, he is a trained bat.

"I'm just heading back to Gotham," he replied honestly, his eyes meeting hers as if she were going to challenge him. Even though she wasn't as good of a detective as him, she did notice that he didn't answer her question. But again, she thought, that was something that everyone in the Bat family does.

McKenzie stepped to the side so that he was able to pass her by, but he stayed still for a moment. "Are you okay?" He repeated her, his tone far more empathetic than hers.

Her gaze lowered for a moment, thinking back on everything that's happened to her and the team. "I'm fine," she said. That phrase became her mantra as she reiterated it for anyone that asked her that uneasy question and Noah was no exception.

Usually the necromancer would pry, his level of care high, but he couldn't bring himself to bother her at the moment. She was guarded and he understood why...perhaps a little too much for comfort. She needed this self protection more than she needed to be battered about the subject.

With one last look, he walked past her and towards the Zeta-Tubes.

Victoria noticed McKenzie's seldom appearance as well, and it didn't take long before the archer ran up behind her with a wide smile. Using all the force she could muster up, the adult pushed McKenzie's swing forward, propelling the serpent. With a stumble, the girl quickly dropped her book in favor of the swing's sides.

"Come play tag with us," Victoria invited the demigod as she continuously pushed the younger girl forward on the swing. Though she wouldn't admit it, McKenzie enjoyed the interaction immensely, a smile gracing her lips. It took no other convincing to persuade the serpent to join their game, her book forgotten as well as her negative thoughts.

By the time the two met up with Oliver and Yessenia, Noah had joined them as well. "Alright," Oliver started with a smile, adjusting his pastel pink cap to face backwards on his head, "Here are the rules: no powers are allowed, no time outs, and-" the mixed teen scanned the empty playground briskly before continuing, "-and Raja is home base." The technician cackled at the group's worried expressions, each of them intimidated by the indignant man.

"Who's it?" Noah pondered. Almost instantly, all the teens broke apart as they ran away from the necromancer, providing him with an answer. "Sugar honey iced tea," he mumbled his cursed anagram, before stalking off after them.

He followed Yessenia as she bounded up the jungle gym equipment, a smirk plastered over his face. "You won't get away from me by climbing," he taunted the Amazonian, as if reminding her of his abilities. When she jumped to the dirt through the openings, he flipped upside down to tag her, his legs holding his weight up.

"Hey!" Oliver cried from the top of the slide, a hand on his hip. "I said no powers and that includes your creepy vampire thing!"

It took a moment for the diviner to piece together Oliver's accusation, his confusion evident. "I'm-I'm not a vampire!" Noah stammered when he figured it out. He sat up, the blood rushing out of his head and back into his body. 'The vampire thing' Oliver had been referring to was the necromancer's hanging bat position, which was understandable.

However, by the time Noah had recollected himself, Yessenia had already distanced herself away from him. "Your tag doesn't count!" She snickered in an amused tone before hiding behind both Victoria and McKenzie for protection. Even though all three of the girls were in reach of home base, they all appeared hesitant to claim their immunity, and instead chose to hover around Raja.

The three were surprised when Oliver sprinted across the playground and closed the distance between him and the other boy. "I'm safe!" Oliver informed Noah, who had been chasing him since the slide. Noah stopped short at the sight of Raja's menacing stature.

Surprisingly to majority of the group, Raja didn't react angrily towards Oliver's near tackle. Instead, the younger man simply turned towards him, asking him, "Did you remember to put on sunscreen?"

"Yes I did mom," the technician teased as he pried himself off of the larger boy. "You can be such a mother hen sometimes," he added, sitting down properly at the table next to him. His game of tag was forgotten as he removed his bag of chips from the picnic basket.

"A mother hen, huh? I wonder what that's like," Yessenia said sarcastically, sitting down next to Logan with humored look.

Oliver chuckled slightly, offering his food to the girl. "Two parents? I wonder which one is the mom and which one is the dad," his humorous tone caused the girls to snicker wickedly at the thought.

Without skipping a beat, Raja replied to his eccentric friend nonchalantly, "I'm the dad."

Eventually the group of teens grew bored with the playground and moved towards an open field, a soccer ball held tightly in Yessenia's hands. The Amazonian girl smiled widely at the opportunity to play the competitive sport with her team, more so now that Victoria would be playing on a team with her.

Before they left their table in pursuit of the even level playing field, Noah had suggested a classic twist on the game-girls versus boys. The girls, obviously, accepted the challenge, the thought of his first training session seeping back into their minds. No ties will be accepted, Yessenia thought to herself, glad that the girls would finally be able to beat Noah without the medic interrupting them.

"I'll sit this one out," McKenzie suggested, noticing the uneven number of team mates. Her hands clasped together in front of her as she wrung them around nervously.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Victoria exclaimed, a faux offended look spread across her face. "We need you to play for the girl team!" At the archer's remark, the demigod smiled lightly, her uneasiness settling down. Her mood only elevated as Yessenia nodded in agreement with the older girl.

As Raja attempted to sit along the side lines of the empty grassland, Oliver pulled him closer to the group. "You know, dads usually play sports with their kids," at the technician's jocular statement, Raja couldn't help but shake his head in amused disapproval. However, before he could argue with the taller boy, Logan took his place at the sidelines, claiming to take up the referee roll.

"Alright," Noah started speaking, his smirk growing as he noted the girls' sneers, "Let's kick some girl ass."

Yessenia wasted no time as she threw the ball onto the grass, kicking it in McKenzie's direction. "We'll see about that Tiny," Yessenia taunted cockily, her grin wide.

Mount Justice

August 26, 2017

18:05

Noah grumbled incoherently as he entered the base from the garage, bitterness etched into his features. With his team walking behind him, he spoke to the girls, "We would have won if you didn't use your powers." His complaint had lasted from the moment their match ended all the way back to the mountain, which delighted the victorious girls. "Or if Yessenia wasn't a star soccer player," he continued, complimenting the Amazonian on her excellent skill.

"To be fair, you used your vampire powers," Oliver teased with a grin.

The technician's statement only flabbergasted the necromancer more as he argued with the older boy, "I'm not a vampire!" Their endless discussion had been amusing for the remainder of the team, majority of them happy that the two were getting along well despite their playful disagreements.

As the group walked towards the debriefing room, Oliver continued Noah's and his conversation, rattling off an additional statement of, "You're part of the Bat family and have control over the dead; you're totally a vampire!" His logic was flawed and illogical, but he continued reiterating the sentiment because it had been producing hilarious reactions from the diviner.

It had seemed that the newer member created nick names for all of the team mates, relentlessly teasing them with the labels in an attempt to establish friendships with them. Majority of the team learned to accept their titles: Princess, Pretty Boy, Medusa, Hunter, and Dad, except Noah. The boy was stubbornly against being called a vampire from the technician.

"Alright Oliver, stop picking on the kid," Raja reprimanded, seeing the distraught look of the youngest team mate. At the younger man's request, Oliver pouted vindictively as he stared down at the necromancer. The sight of his friend's childishness action caused Raja to shake his head with a faint smile.

"Besides," Yessenia started speaking with a grin, "he already has a nick name and its Tiny." The necromancer groaned loudly, his hands covering his face in spurious despair. He couldn't tell what was worse, being called vampire or tiny, or the fact that despite his outcry against it he enjoyed his given titles.

Mount Justice

August 27, 2017

15:09

McKenzie held a clicker in her hand as she pointed the object up at the computer screen. As she explained their upcoming mission to the group, she clicked through the information on the slides for her team mates to see. "For weeks I've been managing the missing museum artifact case," she accounted, informing the newest team mates of her current leader status.

"And recently I was given a lead that Oswald Cobblepot, otherwise known as the Penguin, had orchestrated this heist," the demigod continued, bringing up a picture of said man onto the screen as well as a a photograph of the stolen heirloom. The absent object had been none other than a jewel penguin statue, which fit the villain's past crime sprees.

Raja crossed his arms before speaking, directing it at the recently made commander, "So what's the plan? Are we going to steal it back?" It was easily deducible that the man preferred a confrontation led fight and had no want in small battle compared to the others.

McKenzie's face turned sheepish for a moment as she played with her hands in front of her before she switched the slides. "There are a lot of parts in this plan, but if it goes right, we have an airtight mission," as the serpent displayed the plan on the screen, her team mates read it. At the top of the screen it was split up into two squads: one for the distracting performers and one for the evidence gathering.

"Well, this will be fun," Noah commented, observing the looks from the team as they noted their roles.

Iceberg Lounge

August 27, 2017

17:44

Yessenia spoke into her communication link, her eyes surveying the back room. "Is everyone in place?" She asked. Almost immediately her team mates responded positively, which relaxed the nervous girl.

Even though she's been on hundreds of missions, plenty more hazardous than the current one she was on, she couldn't help but be anxious as she gripped her instrument tightly. With a deep sigh, the Amazonian princess walked onto the small performer's stage. Her eyes met Oliver's for a hesitant moment, before they fluttered towards Noah and Logan who were walking on stage with her.

"This should be interesting," Oliver smirked as he fixed his tie with one of his hands, the other reaching out for the microphone. Like the technician, Yessenia was also dressed in formal wear, her usual hero uniform being replaced by a long black dress. Out of everything she's had to do as a hero, this was the first time the girl had to be a performing distraction for a room full of known criminals.

The lone girl gave her cue to the medic, who then began playing the opening piano chords to their musical number. In no time, she was soon following his melody on her violin, which was perched on her shoulder as her bow moved slowly.

Despite the fact that the group did not practice together before their performance, their instruments blended together nicely with one another. Their song selection was slow, allowing the basic chords and notes to be played without needing much professionalism and letting Oliver sing pleasantly.

I can't believe this is working out so well, Yessenia congratulated herself and her team mates mentally. Especially since Noah and I are both playing different string instruments. As she thought this, her gaze shifted to the necromancer as he strummed polite chords on his acoustic guitar, her impatient tendencies creeping up on her. She wanted to wait on his signal before flinging into battle.

"I lost visual on my suspect," Victoria informed her non musical team mates as she searched the bar for the waiter. Her finger left her ear, dropping her side of the communication link as her microphone turned off.

Though unsure, she speculated that the young man had deserted his previous cleaning duty and entered the employee's only break room. With her head low and her assumption in mind, the archer walked briskly towards the secluded area, grateful for her bartender disguise. When she opened the swinging doors, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she spotted her target seemingly spy on the other workers.

Slowly and in a crouched position, she joined the boy's side behind a counter. Her confusion only grew when she noticed that her suspect wasn't an adult, but was a young teenager. "Who are you?" She interrogated in a low voice, glaring at the unknown occupant. His head whipped towards her, his glare equal in strength.

"I'm the guy investigating Cobblepot's staff. Who are you?" His counter interrogation stunned the archer for a brief moment, her eyes blinking rapidly in incertitude. Unable to have a proper argument with the younger teen at the moment, the girl simply faced the other suspects as she listened to their conversation.

Using her phone to document their discussion, the girl crawled closer to the two men that were talking. "All I'm saying is that we went through too much trouble in stealing this for Penguin," one man admitted as he finished his argument with his coworker. Upon hearing the self proclaimed thief's words, the Italian peaked her head over the counter to see the artifact he was referring to. In his hands, the bartender held the museum's missing diamond encrusted penguin heirloom.

Just as Victoria was going to signal her team about the confession, the teenager at her side jumped over the counter. "Hand it over," he threatened, his arms raised at his sides. Without delay or hesitation, the two criminals unsheathed guns from their regalia and pointed the weapons at the intruders...which included Victoria.

"Shit," the archer cursed. So much for keeping a low profile. Her hand traveled to her ear piece once more before she directed orders to her scattered team mates, "Our plan has been compromised, go ahead and proceed with caution."

The unknown hero winked at Victoria, "I got this, stay back princess." But as soon as the spray of bullets flashed out of the criminals' weapons, Victoria tackled the boy down to the floor. As far as she was concerned, the boy was a casualty waiting to happen. As soon as the first magazine of ammo was emptied, the teenagers jumped to their feet simultaneously.

Victoria easily out matched her henchman as she applied pressure to the crook of his neck and shoulder, enabling him unconscious. Just as she was moving towards the other thief, the boy drenched him in heavily pressured water rushing out from his hands. Maybe he isn't a casualty...maybe he's a threat... Victoria noted his powers as she stared down the two thieves. She could only hope the others were having as much unplanned success as she was.

Yessenia smirked as she ripped off the bottom half of her dress, her exclamation loud and sudden, "Finally its time for some action!"

The crowd of criminals that the group of teens had been currently distracting jumped back in a startled manner, their hands flying into suit jackets to retrieve their guns. At once, the superhero teens dropped their instruments and took up fighting positions, Yessenia standing in front of the boys. As the bullets hailed towards the group, the Amazonian girl deflected them with her bracelets, her arms held high.

As she protected the boys from the deadly ballistics, they each pulled out their hidden weapons to join her in battle. From underneath his suit jacket, Noah revealed his utility belt and unearthed his batarangs, flinging them at the assailants' firearms.

"Shoot them you morons!" The sound of Penguin's British voice traveled throughout the room from his balcony spot above them. The man leaned over the edge with his umbrella in hand as he pointed the tip towards the teens, as if he needed to point them out to the minor criminals. After his outburst, the villain stumbled trying to escape the balcony into a secluded and safe area.

"Logan, go after him!" Yessenia directed, her arms still up to protect the boys. Following her orders without hesitation, the eldest bolted after the assailant, leaving Yessenia, Oliver, and Noah to deal with the rest of the attackers.

After his figure disappeared from her view safely, Yessenia opened up her mouth to belt out an eerie canary scream, temporarily deafening the criminals. When all of their guns clattered to the floor, the two boys ran out from behind the Amazon.

Oliver vaulted over one of the round tables on the main floor as he took our his twin pistols from his coat jacket. Using his momentum as leverage, the mixed teen slid towards two attackers and kicked them in their chest, successfully knocking them down to the floor. "Time to say goodnight," the technician teased lightly, proud of his cliche superhero quip. He stood over the two men as he shot them with his nonlethal, tranquilizer bullets, before he turned to the rest of the room.

Not surprisingly, Noah had also vanished from the stage's blaring lights, inserting himself into the fight. He made sure he was no one near Yessenia as she shrieked her frightening notes or tossed her shield onto unsuspecting felons and instead chose to stick to the outskirts. As a man fired his gun at the necromancer, the boy used his powers to travel behind the attacker through the shadows, before smashing the man's head against the wall.

McKenzie thumbed through the manila folders inside the filing cabinet as she hoped to find more incriminating evidence against the Penguin and his crew. "Does he not document anything?" She whined in a whisper at herself, her search not going according to plan. Even though Raja was currently keeping watch outside the office for any attackers, she was still too nervous to speak above a murmur for fear of getting caught.

It didn't take long before the serpent moved onto his desktop, her fingers pressing against the keys wildly as she searched up certain key words on his hard drive. She repeated words of encouragement to herself in hopes that it would help her find any source of evidence quicker.

Meanwhile, outside the office door, Raja stood watch as he impatiently waited, and mentally begged, for any confrontation. The Indian boy was slightly upset, to say at the least. Despite training for weeks on end and proving himself more than capable to win fights against the most dangerous malefactors, he was once again waiting for action in a ridiculous costume.

As the boy internally fumed about his missions' roles, the Penguin hobbled past him, quickly followed by Logan. They soon disappeared from his site down a hallway exit, which caused the boy to debate whether he should leave his station of standing guard to go join the medic. Finally he came to the conclusion of staying put, believing that the serpent would be in more harm's way of being cornered in a tiny office by a herd of attackers than Logan would be following a lone man.

I wanted to cut this chapter in half so that you all would be getting a lighthearted addition to the story (hence the park scene; thanks for all the ideas for that, they were helpful!). The next chapter will properly introduce a new team member that you guys were given a glimpse of in this one, and will probably have more of that M rated angst you all wanted.

Let me know if you guys have any wants, needs, suggestions, ideas, or anything else, whether they are your character centric or not. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter, so let me know what you think!