18 July 2010
Mount Justice, Happy Harbour
Almost a week had passed by the time something interesting had happened again. Ever since their inauguration, the little group of sidekicks had been meeting up at Mount Justice whenever possible, to see if Batman had finally conceded to give them an official mission (they'd all heard about the disaster of a 'training mission' that Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash had gone on by themselves and how well that had been received). By this point, they were all getting antsy for a proper sanctioned mission.
"Recognised: Robin B01, Kid Flash B03" The computer sang as the zeta tubes sprung to life, announcing the sidekicks' arrival.
"Hm?" Rachel (Raven) hummed around the straw tucked between her teeth as she turned to quietly greet the two boys as they arrived. Once again she noted how weird it was to see everyone out of uniform when they were off duty, but she brushed it aside as she slurped at her juice. Behind her a series of screens displayed several maps, one pertaining to the current location of their den mother, Red Tornado.
"Did you ask him?!" Robin demanded as the two jogged over.
"What did he say?!" Wally added, just as eager to find out.
"He's arriving now" Kaldur smiled.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Wally grinned before jogging over to the secret front door which granted access into the mountain via a lowering driveway. Like a litter of eager puppies, the others followed after the speedster as they ran to greet the Leaguer at the door. "Red Tornado!"
"Greetings" Red Tornado greeted robotically as he landed, "Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"
"We hoped you had a mission for us" Kaldur replied, hopefully.
"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility—"
"—But it's been over a week!" Robin whined, "And nothing—"
"—You will be tested soon enough" Red Tornado interjected, raising his hand for silence. "For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company"
"This Team is not a social club!" Kaldur reiterated.
"No" Agreed the android, "But I am told that social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarising yourself with the Cave?"
"Keep busy!" Wally scoffed at the not-so-veiled order. Rachel didn't have to be an empath to feel the irritation seeping from the boy; he was practically soaked in it.
"Does he think we're falling for this?" Robin agreed as the android strode off and down into the Cave.
"Ooh! I'll find out!" M'gann gushed as she turned to try and telepathically connect with the Leaguer. Her chipper expression smoothed out and her eyes fell blank as she tried to connect her mind with his. Though it didn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped.
"Recognised: Red Tornado 16"
"Ugh! I—I'm sorry, I forgot, he's a machine" M'gann apologised, blinking repeatedly as she came back to herself. "Inorganic—I cannot read his mind"
"Nice try though" Wally grinned flirtatiously at the martian, "So, uh, y'know what I'm thinking right now?"
"We all know what you're thinking now" Robin scoffed derisively as he elbow-checked his friend.
"Ow!"
"…And now we tour the club house" Kaldur heaved a put-upon sigh, hands shoved into his pockets as he wondered whether it was worth it to break apart the squabbling two younger teens.
"Well" M'gann hummed, "Superboy and I live here, we can play tour guides"
"Don't look at me!" Conner immediately refused, shoulders hunched up around his ears as he suddenly grew self-conscious beneath all the stares.
"We won't" Wally grinned, immediately flirting with the martian again. For all her maturity, Rachel couldn't fathom the speedster's sudden interest. "The private tour sounds much more fun!"
"But she never said 'private'?" Rachel cocked her head in question, straw still firmly tucked between her teeth.
"Exactly!" Robin nodded, arms crossed.
"Team building" Kaldur cut in (much to the chagrin of Wally). "We'll all go"
"So…This would be our front door" M'gann chirped as she led the way around the Cave, despite all of them more or less getting a lay of the land over the past week or so. "And this would be the back. The Cave is actually the entire mountain!"
"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League" Wally supplied as they moved from the sun-spotted back door to the pond in the main cavern which served as the water entrance. Rachel settled into a cross-legged perch with clunky combat boots laced one over the other, and which had the tailcoats of her oversized hoodie hanging down towards the ground, long sleeves pushed back to accomodate her grip on the TANK Juice cup. The tour had pretty much consisted of the main rooms that they had all already found organically, during the days they had spent acclimatising themselves to the new environment. Her favourite room so far, had to be the living room or the library (where a fair section of the books had been donated from Fate's ever-expanding personal collection).
"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Conner asked, puling her wandering attention back to the conversation at hand.
"The Cave's secret location was compromised" Kaldur replied.
"So they traded it in for a tourist trap?" Conner scoffed, even as his thoughts turned to the odd incident a few days earlier where the wayward genomorph had thrust him into an illusion; one he'd later discovered to be of a time when the League still occupied the Cave. "Yeah, that makes sense"
Except, y'know, it's not their REAL headquarters. Rachel silently amended, slurping at the dregs of her drink. Since, y'know, their real one is in SPACE. Wouldn't M'gann know that already? Isn't she from Mars? Wouldn't they have had to pass through that airspace at some point?
"…If villains know of the Cave, we must be on constant alert!" M'gann summarised, a little worried that her new home-away-from-home wasn't as safe as she'd hoped it would be.
"The bad guys know we know they know about the place" Robin gently took the martian's hands in his as he tried to assuage her fears. Rachel also noted a vindictive glance towards Wally who all but fumed at the gesture. "So they'd never think to look here"
"Uh…" M'gann blinked dumbfoundedly, her own reflection staring back at her in the dark lenses upon his face.
"He means" Wally snatched her hands from Robin's, an equally smug expression sent in retort. Why're boys so weird?! "We're hiding in plain sight"
"Oh…" M'gann blinked. "That's…much clearer"
"Er…" Conner sniffed, nose wrinkling slightly at the charred scent that carried down the hall. "I smell smoke"
"My cookies!" M'gann gasped, eyes blown wide in fear before she quickly spun on her heel and shot back down the hall, towards the kitchen with her skirt flapping in the breeze. Unlike the other boys, the clone barely even blinked anymore as the martian flew off because of how used to her casual use of powers he'd become.
Following after the martian, the rest of the sidekicks soon found themselves back in Wally's favourite room—the kitchen—where she stood at the counter, staring glumly at a tray of badly charred disks which had once been cookies. "Hey! Just like Dad makes 'em!" Rachel smiled as she tapped at the closest one, only to have it crumbled beneath her ministrations.
"You're kidding" Robin stated flatly, turning to watch the witch dump her empty cup into the bin.
"Nope" She replied, popping the 'p', before her lips pulled upwards into a teasing smirk at the inside joke that came next."He's uh, very much about the, er…char & brimstone"
"I was trying out Granny Joan's recipe from episode 17 of—uh, nevermind!" M'gann rambled listlessly before suddenly cutting herself off.
"I bet they'd have tasted great" Robin reassured her, "He doesn't seem to mind"
"…I have…a serious metabolism?" Wally tried as he shovelled the blackened cookies into his mouth. Rachel crinkled her nose at that. How could someone stomach so many burnt cookies in one go? Just because her father cooked like that, didn't mean she actually ate it!
"I'll…make more?"
"It was sweet of you to many any" Kaldur replied, kindly.
"Thanks Aqualad" She smiled shyly.
"We're off duty. Call me Kaldur'ahm—actually, my friends call me Kaldur"
"I'm Wally" Wally breathed dreamily as he leant his head in his hands. "See? I already trust you with my secret ID. Unlike Mr Dark Glasses over here, Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name"
"Mine's no secret!" M'gann chirped in kind, "It's M'gann M'orrzz…but you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now…!"
"Hm? Oh uh, I'm Rachel" Rachel added her two cents.
"Rachel? What kind of witchy name is that?" Wally laughed.
"Like you can talk Wallace!" She retorted, throwing one of the burnt cookies at him, not that it did much.
"Missed me!" He sang, chomping down on the offending food and sending crumbs flying everywhere much to Robin's disgust.
"What about you Superboy?" M'gann asked as she turned an inquisitive brow towards the clone.
"Uh…Raven—Rachel's been calling me Conner…?"
"Conner?" Robin's brows furrowed in puzzlement, "Really?"
"How'd you get Conner from Superboy, anyway?" Wally asked, voice muffled by the food in his mouth.
"Y'know, Kr…Kon-el…Conner…doesn't take a rocket scientist to put it together" Rachel shrugged, referring to one of the alias' which had been listed under the Project Kr file back at Cadmus.
'Don't worry, Conner, I think it's a WONDERFUL name!' M'gann chirped telepathically; her own mind slipping into his with ease.
"Nn! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Conner suddenly exploded, head aching at the sudden intrusion and the reminder of the genomorphs that came with it.
'What's wrong? I don't understand?' M'gann then shared her telepathic conversation with the rest of them. 'Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically'
'Huh, so this is what it feels like…' Rachel hummed, wincing only slightly at the sudden protrusion into her mind. In comparison, the four boys ended up clutching their heads in pain, so unused to the psychic communication. 'Feels weird'
'Ooh! You're a telepath too?' M'gann clapped her hands excitedly as she turned to the young witch, which seemed to lessen the strain on the boys some.
'No, I'm an empath' Rachel replied as she used the martian's concern for the boys to ground herself. 'But one of my step-sisters in is martian'
'Ooh, really? Who? Maybe I know them!'
'Uh, S'yraa S'mitt'
'Sorry, it doesn't ring any bells'
'That's fine'
"Step-sister? One of?" Repeated Robin, glad that the pain had lessened on his brain and silently marvelled at how the young witch could communicate like that without it hurting. "How big's your family?"
"Dad gets around" Rachel simply replied aloud, a teasing smirk pulling at her lips as if it were a joke only she was privy to. Though it wasn't as funny as she made it sound. Amongst her numerous siblings, there was no one more special than the other. Sure, there were favourites amongst them and they each had their own tricks. But every child of Trigon only had one purpose; to be used as a portal into their world for his domination when they came of age (this was different for each individual & culture, but typically it was about 18 years old). They didn't have to like it, that's just the way it was.
"Wait—your an empath?" Robin blinked, as he latched onto that little piece of information.
"Yeah" Rachel nodded.
"That's so cool!…What's an empath?"
"Uh, it's like telepathy but with emotions instead of words"
"Okay then…" Wally nodded slowly, "Ground rules?"
"Why would we need ground rules? It's not like we're doing anything wrong" Rachel asked, crossing her arms in defiance.
"Because here, your power are considered an extreme invasion of privacy" Kaldur replied.
"It's not my fault you project your emotions through a loud speaker!"
"Besides, Cadmus' creepy little psychic G-Gnomes left a bad taste in his brain!" Wally continued, as if stage-whispering would help to hide his words from the clone with super hearing.
"I—we didn't mean to—" M'gann tried.
"Just stay out!" Conner growled before stalking off to the living room in a huff, leaving the others to flounder in awkward silence behind him.
Awkward! Rachel sang as she rocked back and forth on her heels, hands shoved into her pockets in the stifling silence that followed. They couldn't have been standing there for more than a minute or two, but it seemed to stretch on for so long that she was tempted to retreat within her hood where she felt safe from prying eyes. Logically she knew that a slim piece of material wasn't going to protect her, but for the young witch, it was more like she was wearing a safety blanket than anything else. Across from her, the boys floundered for something to say. Occasionally Wally would open his mouth as if to say something, flirtatious brows wiggling at the martian, but then his jaw would snap shut with a click as he swallowed his words. Kaldur's attention seemed to drift around the room, whilst Robin was not-so-subtly shifting his gaze over to where the clone had hunkered down on the couch to sulk.
"Oh! Hello Megan!" M'gann suddenly smacked her head as if a thought had just occurred to her. The sudden exclamation was enough to jolt those around her and Rachel bit her lip in a failed attempt to hide the grin that had exploded across her face at their reactions (whilst also ignoring her own that had caused the remaining cookies to rattle on the tray). "I know what we can do!"
"Uh…" Wally blinked after the martian as she flew back down the hall, though much less hurriedly than before. "Do we follow?"
"I 'unno" Robin grunted with a shrug.
"C'me on" Kaldur sighed as he turned to lead the way after the green girl. A moment or two passed as Wally & Robin trotted after Kaldur, leaving Rachel to lurk around in the kitchen. Binning the remaining burnt cookies, Rachel then floated over to the doorway, pausing at the threshold of the living room where the sulking kryptonian still sat.
"Conner?" Rachel murmured.
"Don't talk to me" Conner surlily replied. The young witch didn't know why he was acting like their admission of empathic/telepathic powers was some sort of betrayal or this big secret. Sure, there was the whole thing with the genomorphs, but it wasn't like they had those kind of intentions.
"Please?" She begged.
"Tch" Conner sighed, but rose to his feet and followed after Rachel anyways, much to her glee.
Soon enough the stragglers caught up with the others, meeting them at the elevator that lead to the Cave's hangar where M'gann's surprise activity lay waiting.
"It's my martian Bioship!" M'gann announced, arms spread wide as the elevator doors dinged open to reveal a large crimson pod seated in a corner of the hangar.
"Cute" Commented Wally, slightly at a loss for what to say (for once). "Not aerodynamic, but cute"
"She's at rest, silly! I'll wake her" Giggled M'gann as she lifted her hand to telepathically nudge the ship awake.
"Whoa!" Rachel breathed, eyes alight in awe as she watched the martian ship shift from a pod to a V-wing spaceship. It looked more like those fighter jets in that old pilot movie that Kent loved so much ("I feel the need, the need for speed!"). With a wave of her hand, M'gann swung the entire ship around as if it were nothing more than swatting a fly.
"Well?" M'gann turned to them expectantly, "Are you coming?"
"Uh huh!" Rachel smiled as she trotted up the ramp after M'gann, eyes grazing over every inch of the ship.
Seats emerged from the floor & peppered the windows, a control panel illuminated in blue lights sprung to life at the front of the ship whilst the captain's chair stood bookended by two large orbs which Rachel assumed must've been for steering. The entire interior was painted in a mauve colour that the cambion appreciated—with the monochromatic clothes she wore, she could almost blend into the background without any magical aid!
"Er…s-strap in for launch" M'gann stammered as they all raced for an open seat.
"Oh!" Robin gasped in shock when the chair he plopped into, latched onto him with a pair of crossed seatbelts.
"Cool!" Wally agreed as he took the chair opposite, leaving the Rachel, Conner & Kaldur to take the remaining three at the front whilst M'gann sat in the captain's chair.
"Red Tornado!" M'gann called out, her voice carrying over the intercom for the android to hear. "Please open the bay doors!"
CRE~AK!
The bay doors creaked open in answer, allowing the sea breeze to filter into the mountain and buffer against the windscreen. The Bioship launched smoothly from the hangar bay and zoomed out over the water, casting a trail of water in their wake until the ship climbed higher into the sky and barrel-rolled once around Mount Justice.
"Incredible!" Robin grinned as he spotted the tiny crimson figure of Red Tornado watching them from the ground.
"Yeah… she sure is" Wally sighed dreamily, seemingly unaware that he was speaking aloud. "Uh—I mean, the ship! Which like all ships is a she…"
"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth!"
"Dude!"
"Hehe~" Rachel muffled a giggle into her hands at the familiar interaction. Next to her Kaldur leant over to Conner (who sat in the middle).
"I may not have psychic powers, but I can guess what you're thinking" Kaldur whispered. "You overreacted and you don't know how to apologise"
"Nn" Conner grunted in agreement. The atlantean had hit the nail on the head, making him think that the elder boy did have some sort of psychic power. Two of the six of them already did, afterall.
"Just say 'sorry'" Kaldur smiled as his gaze flittered over to where Rachel was grinning at the flock of seagulls that danced before them with childlike glee.
Behind them, the other three appeared to be having their own conversation about the whole psychic ordeal in the Cave only moments before. "He'll come around" Robin whispered soothingly to the martian in the driver's seat.
"He doesn't seem to like me much" M'gann replied, downtrodden. She had thought they had been getting along, particularly during those first few days alone in the mountain together as they moved in. But maybe not. Rachel's empathy, it appeared, was a different matter. Maybe because she was still just a child or perhaps because she had assisted in the kryptonian's liberation, but either way, she seemed to have a leg up on M'gann when it came to Conner. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"You guys remember he has super hearing, right?" Wally piped up, his stage-whisper no quieter than it had been in the Cave.
Eurgh! Rachel cringed at the secondhand embarrassment she found herself cloaked in, the emotion pouring off of the martian in waves.
"…Hey! How about showing us a little martian shapeshifting?" Robin suggested in the hope that they would not fall into the same kind of awkwardness from before. Swivelling in their chairs to face the martian, they wall watched as she shifted through each of their hero personas…at least as much as she could do.
"Er…okay" M'gann nodded hesitantly as she stood, her clothes seamlessly shifting from the two-piece skirt & jacket to Robin's hero costume, though her womanly figure remained the same. A spin to the right and she was Aqualad clad in skin-tight spandex, a spin to the right and she was Kid Flash adorned in gold & red. With a twirl the speedster turned into the surly kryptonian complete with the Superman t-shirt (though the grin did seem a little out of place on the clone's face) and a small jump into the air had him turning into Raven as she sat cross-legged in the air (as the real one was wont to do), hood down & cloak trailing to the floor.
Is my forehead really that big? Rachel wondered as she noted the martian had even included the red gem glistening in the middle of her forehead.
"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally drooled as M'gann shifted back.
"Impressive!" Robin clapped, "But y'know, you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those"
"Mimicking boys is a lot harder" M'gann admitted as she sat back down.
"And your clothes?" Asked Kaldur.
"They're organic! Like the ship!" She chirped, "They respond to my mental commands"
"As long as they're the only ones" Conner scowled, not at all helping his apology cause.
"…Can you do that ghosting through walls thing that Manhunter does?" Wally tried, gesturing wildly to cover the tense atmosphere before it could take hold.
"Density shifting?" Clarified M'gann, "No, it—it's a very advanced technique"
"Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall" Robin chuckled as he tried to cheer her up, "When he tries it? Bloody nose"
"Dude!" Exclaimed Wally, a blush flitting across his freckles.
"Oh! Here's something I can do!" M'gann grinned, "Camouflage mode!"
