~Okay, so I wasn't going to update for another few days, but I decided to go ahead and post another one, just for the heck of it. I'd like to thank Jess906 for being the FIRST TO REVIEW MY FIRST STORY! You deserve cookies! Too bad digital cookies don't taste as good as the real thing. . . :)
Enjoy!
~July 4th~
This was it. It was 'The Day.' Faye nervously pulled on her Panthra uniform. Selina had made it especially for her, saying that on 'The Day' she could wear it, but no sooner. It had been given to her as an early fourteenth birthday present, which would be in a few months. She had been using a simple black catsuit before 'The Day'. Now, in excitement, Faye opened the box she had been forbidden to open, eager to see it. She put it on and looked at herself in the mirror.
A cat mask covered her eyes and cheekbones. It was black and simple but it didn't cover the eyes like Robin's and Batman's. Instead, there were some boxes of colored contacts. Peering at the label, Faye saw that if she put them on her eyes would be bright gold. A dark purple cape was loose around her neck with a hood that fell to her hips. The top was a leather corset with dark purple over the breast and rimmed with black leather. The leather was cut to reveal her ribs and her bare back down to her hips, the corset held up by a thick strip of leather in the back. Dark purple stones were on a small portion of the chest area, a bigger upside down triangle in the middle.
A black armlet with dark purple stones was on her upper arms. The top went down to form a sort of front only leather loincloth that went to the middle of her calf. Dark purple leggings covered her legs down to the black boots with the two-inch heel. On her arms were black tech gloves. When she pushed a hatch, a holographic computer came out and a dark purple keyboard softly illuminated. Flexing her fingers, Faye found that dark purple claws came from the fingers of the gloves and after flexing her toes found that claws came out of the toe of the boots as well. Faye grinned. Thanks, mom.
Of course they had their setback. Mr. Freeze attacking a park. Batman said that they could take care of it and be in Washington in time.
So they quickly went to the park where they saw Freeze with a freeze gun. Panthra already saw families frozen solid in blocks of ice. Robin slipped into the bushes while Panthra crouched behind one of the blue ice figures. When Robin was in place, Panthra carefully took out a Batarang and hurled it at Freeze, stopping him mid-sentance and making him turn, saying, "Batman. I was wondering when—"
But he didn't see a bat. Only heard an echoing laugh of a boy as he looked around for the source. Panthra grinned when Robin planted his feet on the glass dome of Freeze's head, sending him to the ground. She ran out from behind the ice figure and towards Freeze's gun that he was reaching for. Panthra dug to claws coming out of the boots into the grass and shoved herself forward, snatching up the gun before he could get his hands on it. She stood beside Robin, gun resting on her shoulder as she grinned at him. "Oh. Boy Wonder and little bird. Batman sent you to take care of me?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Panthra said, bouncing on her toes.
"Can we hurry this up? We have to go," Robin said in a hurried fashion.
"Kids these days," Freeze said slowly as he stood, grabbing a freeze gun at his hip. "Always in a rush. I prefer to freeze these moments. Forever." He aimed the gun with a sick smile on his face.
"Wasn't talking to you," Panthra taunted with a smirk.
Freeze turned around in time to see a black form blot out the sun and suckerpunch him, shattering the glass around his head.
They met Aquaman and Green Arrow with their prodigees, Aqualad, and Speedy at the Hall of Justice. Of course The Flash was late with his own prodigy, Kid Flash. No amount of super speed could stop The Flash from cracking jokes and making fun of a villain.
Looking at it, Panthra couldn't help but feel an immense wave of pride. She had worked for this for so long. She had trained every day, gone out on nightly patrols, and stayed up late into the morning to finish homework for scholl the next day. She knew that Robin felt the same, glad that she would know someone going into it.
Batman placed his hands on Robin and Panthra's shoulders and smiled down at them, something rare in his Batman personna. "Today's the day." His deep, gravelly voicee calmed the excited knot in Panthra's stomach.
"Welcome to the Hall of Justice," Green Arrow said as they gazed in front of them at the building that they had been dreaming about for as long as they were heroes. "Headquarters of the Justice League," Aquaman added.
"Man!" Panthra turned to see a blur of red and another of red and yellow skid to a stop behind them. Flash and Kid Flash. "I knew we'd be the last ones here!" Flash just smiled, as though he had been late on purpose.
Ropes had been placed to keep civilians away from the doors into the Hall of Justice, but people had their cameras out taking pictures of the event. Panthra walked towards the Hall of Justice, wishing she had super speed like Kid Flash so she could get inside faster.
"Is that Batman?"
"I see Flash and Flash Junior!" Panthra noticied Kid Flash grit his teeth slightly before forgetting it when he noticed how close they were to the doors.
"Isn't his name Speedy?"
"No, Speedy is Green Arrow's sidekick."
"Well that doesn't make any sense."
"Ready to see the Inner Sanctum?" Green Arrow asked Speedy, whose face was practically glowing with excitement. "Born that way," answered Speedy, his pride evident in his voice.
"I'm glad we're all here," said Aqualad.
"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time?" Kid Flash asked, grinning.
"Don't call us sidekicks," Speedy growled, his temper suddenly turning sour. "Not after today."
"Sorry," said Kid Flash, confused at his sudden change in attitude. "First time at the Hall. I'm a little overwhelmed."
"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" Robin asked, his voice sounding childishly peeved off. Panthra shook her head at him with a tiny smiling playing at her lips. "Maybe because most men are never truly ever in that in between stage of whelm-ness." Panthra snickered at Robin's exasperated look.
But when they walked through the doors, Robin's eyes went wide through his domino mask. "Oh. Maybe that's why."
In front of them were gigantic bronze statues of the seven founding members of the Justice League – Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Flash. They stood tall and powerful, displaying everything they'd done for mankind. Beneath the platform they were on, a door slid open to reveal Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado.
"Robin, Panthra, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash – Welcome." He turned and led them into the hallway he had come from. "You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stock galley, and, of course, our library."
Panthra
"Make yourselves at home," Flash said, spreading his arms wide to show that we could sit anywhere. Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash took the chairs, so I sat on the floor between Robin and Kid Flash while Speedy put his hands on his hips, refusing to take a seat on the floor. I looked around, grinning. I couldn't help but feel excited. This was my first step into becoming a League member, something i'd been dreaming about since before I could remember. Sure, the uniform Selina had made for me was a little revealing, but I was glad she had bought it for me. I missed her a lot, my only connection to her being my cat Isis. I still visited her sometimes, but not as often as I wanted. I noticied Speedy watching Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Red Tornado, and Martian Manhunter conversing a ways from us, their voices low.
"We need to discuss the coincidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day," Batman said, making the others look at them as well. "We shouldn't be long."
They all turned and allowed themselves to be scanned for identifaction. A door that read 'JUSTICE LEAGUE MEMBERS ONLY' opened.
"That's it?"
Speedy's furious voice broke thorugh the air around us as we turne to look at him, standing livid, his face furious. "You promised us a real look inside, not some glorified back stage pass!" He crossed his arms, and I glaned up at Batman. His face didn't give anything away, but I knew he was getting only slightly annoyed with Speedy's childish temper. They had told us a tour was the first step, right? We knew that. What did he think this was? We toured the HQ!
"It's a first step," Aquaman said calmly. "You've been granted access few others get."
"Oh, really?" said Speedy, pointing up to an observation room where civilians were taking pictures thorugh a glass window, looking down at us. "Who cares which side of the glass we're on?"
"Roy, you just need to be patient," Green Arrow said, stepping towards his sidekick.
"What I need is respect!" Speedy spat, turning to look at us. "They're treating us like kids – Worse, sidekicks." His voice held so much venom I was surprised he wasn't turning green. We all looked at each other. Batman had never treated me or Robin as a kid. He always viewed as his partners, telling us everything. He'd never kept secrets from us before. "We deserve better than this." When none of us spoke, only glancing at each other then back at him, he was surprised. His voice flat now, he said, "You're kidding, right? You're playing their game? Why? Because you think they play fair? Today was suppoed to be The Day!" He brought his fist to his hand. "Step one of becoming full fledged memebrs of the League!"
"Well, sure," Kid Flash said, glancing at robin before continuing, unsure. "But I thought a tour of the HQ was step one."
"Except the Hall isn't the League's real HQ!"
The adults behind Speedy all looked surprised, their eyes wide. I blinked. What did he mean? Where else could the League's HQ be besides the Hall of Justice? "I'll bet they never told you it's just a flase front for tourists and a pit-stop for catching zeta-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing – an orbitting satelite called the Watchtower!"
I frowned. This didn't make any sense. Batman had never said anything about a Watchtower. I looked at him, but he refused to meet my eyes. It wasn't true, was it? No. Impossible. Batman would never lie to us. . . . Right?
Green Arrow looked back at Batman, who had crossed his arms across his broad chest. "What? I thought we could make an exception." Batman's eyes narrowed, giving him his asnwer. "Or not."
"You are not helping your cause, son. Stand down, or—"
"Or what?" Speedy challenged, anger growing by the minute. "You'll send me to my room? And i'm not your son. I'm not even his." He looked at Green Arrow. "I thought I was his partner. But not anymore." Speedy reached up and grabbed the yellow hat the with red feather in it, throwing it to the ground. Shocked silence filled the room as we stared at Speedy. I was frozen, too surprised to take any form of action. As Speedy walked past us, Speedy said, "Guess they're right about you four." We stood up, staring after him. "You're notready." And then he was gone.
I was in shock. Speedy just left. He said we weren't ready. But more importantly than that, Batman – my dad – hadn't even told us that The Hall of Justice wasn't the real HQ. Robin and I had always though he told us everything. But did he? He hadn't told us this. Why? Did he think we weren't ready? I knew it was stupid, but I was angry at Bruceand not Batman. Bruce was my dad. Batman was my partner. But something flashed through my mind that Speedy had said before he left. "I'm not even his son. I thought I was his partner."
My thinking was interupted when Superman came on over the large computer monitor. A dull alarm was sounding as we turned to look at the Man of Steel. "Superman to Justice League," he said, and I guessed that the Watchtowerwas just sending a video feed to all monitors hooked up to their channel. "There's been an explosion at Project CADMUS. It's on fire."
Batman walked up to the monitor. "I've had my suspicions about CADMUS," he mused quietly to himself. "This may present the perfect oppourtunity to—"
"Zatarra to Justice League," said the margician who had just whowed up on the monitor in a small box. I trailed off and stopped listening, vaguely hearing something about an amulet and someone using it to block out the sun. "Requesting full League response."
Batman looked up at the monitor where Superman was, waiting for orders. "It's a small fire," Superman said. "Local authorities have it under control."
"Then CADMUS can wait." Batman pressed a button on the keypad and said, "All League members rendezous at Zatarr'as coordinates. Batman out."
Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and I had walked up behind Batman, wondering what they would tell us to do. Batman turned to us and I looked at him imploringly. But he didn't give me anything that answered my questions. "Stay put."
"What?" Robin said, shocked.
"Why?" I demanded.
"This is a League mission," Aquaman said.
"You're not trained," Flash said.
"Since when?" Kid Flash demanded in outrage.
"I meant not you're not trained to work as part of this team," Flash said, indicating Aquaman, Batman, and himself. I was beginning to understand what Speedy had meant.
"There will be other missions," Aquaman said calmly. "When you're ready."
"Until then," Batman said, walking closer to us, his eyes looking at me, finally. "Stay put." He seemed like he wanted to drill his words into me, like that would make me follow his orders. I only stared back, my face a calm mask of blankness. I crossed my arms. The last three Justice League Membersleft. We stared after them until the door slid shut.
Wally scoffed. "When we're ready? How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like. . . like. . . side kicks!" I think we all could see Speedy's point then, after our partners had left us all, lied to us all.
"My mentor. . . my king. . ." Aqualad sounded so upset. "I thought he trusted me."
"Trust?" Kid Flash sounded outraged now, his anger rising to match Speedy's. "They don't even trust us with the basics! They've got a secret HQ in space!" His words cut through me, taunting me. Batman hadn't thought Robin and I strong enough. Bruce didn't trust us. Was that it? Did he not think we were good enough to tell us everything? Were we sidekicks?
"What else aren't they telling us?" Aqualad asked, his voice sad and curious. Disappointed.
"I have a better question," I said bitterly. "Why didn't we leave with Speedy?" No one asnwered. We all had our reason. We didn't want to believe our mentors didn't trust us. We wanted to believe that Speedy was just misinformed. But that wasn't the case, and Speedy was gone.
"What is . . . Project CADMUS?" Aqualad asked, curious and wanting to change the subject.
"Don't know," I shrgged. Batman knew about it, though. Shocker.
"But I can find out," Robin said with a sneaky grin, walking towards the computer monitor. I followed after him, catching on to his idea. Robin began to type on the yellow keypad, but a computerized, female voice said, "Access denied."
"Wanna bet?" Robin challenged. He began to type in a series of codes and then a box with millions of scrolling letters, numbers, and symbols appeared as Robin hacked the computer.
"Whoa," said Kid Flash, eyes wide as he tried to scan all the numbers/letters/symbols. "How are you doing that?"
"Same system as the Batcave," I said with a wide grin, hands on my hips. "Nice, Robin."
"I try," he shrugged. He pressed a final button and the voice said, "Access granted." A building appeared on screen and Robin read, "Alright, Project CADMUS – It's a genetics lab, here in D.C. That's all there is."
"But if Batman's suspicious, maybe we should investigate." Kid Flash grinned.
"Solve their case before they do," Aqualad said. I nodded. He smiled. "It would be poetic justice."
"They're all about justice," Robin joked.
Aqualad sighed. "But they said stay put."
"About the blocking out the sun mission, not this one," I said, happy that I found a lopphole.
"Wait, are you going to CADMUS?" Kid Flash asked, slinging an arm around my shoudlers. "Cause if you're going I'm going!" He grinned down at me in a charming manner and I felt like laughing at how flirty he was acting. Robin smacked the back of his head and his arm disappeared. "OW! Dude!" Robin just grinned. When Kid Flash got over it, he turned back to look at Aqualad.
"Just like that?" Aqualad said, looking us over. "We're a team on a mission?"
"We didn't come for a playdate." Robin smiled. I crossed my arms and cocked one hip. Aqualad smiled and I knew that we were good to go.
Robin and I called our Batcycles to the Hall of Justice. They pulled up minutes later, his red and black, mine dark purple and black. "I'll just run," KF said with a sarcastic smirk. I swung my leg over the motorcycle and looked at Aqualad. "Well, come on."
He looked at me for a moment before sitting on the back, sure to keep his distance. "Don't be offensive, I don't have any diseases."
"I meant no disrespect," he said, sliding into place properly behind me. "I only thought—"
"It's fine," I said, turning my head to smile at him. "I get it." He nodded, thanful that I understood he merely didn't want to offend me. "But you might want to hold on. We'll be going pretty fast." Hesitantly, he placed his hands on my waist and I rolled my eyes. "Okay, let's go, guys!"
When we started moving, he held on tighter, like I knew he would. He just had to get comfortable with the idea. "Okay, CADMUS is just up there," Robin called to us.
"I'm running ahead," KF called and he blurred ahead of us. "Wait! KF!" I called, but he was gone. "Crap," I muttered and sped up, Aqualad now wrapping his arms around my waist as he held on.
We parked the cycles and got off, running up to the building to see two doctors being slung into a window and a red and yellow blur trying to run up the wall, only to slip and dangle from a window. "So smooth," Robin grinned, fileing the moment for furutre reference as I ran past him in the shadows. I ran through the firefighters and snapped my claws out, digging them into the wall as I used to them to climb up the wall. "Is that Catwoman?" I heard one of them ask. "No, that's Baman's sidekick Panthra. Just a new costume." Irrationally, I felt upset when I heard the word sidekick. I climbed through the window KF was dangling from and laughed at him. "Cut it out," KF said as he began to heft himself inside. I grabbed his arm and pulled him into the building. Robin joined us moments later, heading straight for a computer. "Let's see what CADMUS is up to," he muttered as he began to hack the long system.
Aqualad jumped through the window. "Appreciate the help."
"You handled it," Robin, said turning to look at him before fixing his eyes back on the screen. "Besides, we're here to investigate." Kid Flash began to go through a filing cabinet, looking for something of importance. "Poetic Justice, remember?"
Aqualad and I looked around the corner to see if there was anyone in the hall. But my eyes were drawn to the left, to the end of the hall. Something was in the elevator. It didn't look human. I began to run towards it but the doors slid shut and I stopped myself from running into the doors. "There was something in there," I whispered.
"Elevators should be locked down," Kid Flash said, running up behind me. Robin pressed the up and down buttons, but nothing happened. "This is worng," he said, bringing up his holographic computer. I looked at it as he scanned the elevator. I smiled when I saw I'd been right. "High speed express elevator, right?"
"Yep. And it doesn't belong in a two story building," Robin said, his eyes scanning the hologram.
"Neither does what we saw," Aqualad said, walking up to the doors. He jammed his fingers between the doors and pushed them apart. I leaned over the side to look down. I whistled and it echoed down the shaft. I couldn't see the bottom. "And that's why they need an express elevator," Robin said. He shot his grappling gun at the top of the shaft and it hooked. He gave it a tug to make sure it was stable and then jumped into the darkness. Aqualad and Kid Flash stared after him in surprise. "What are you guys waiting for?" I jumped down after him. And felt like laughing as the air pushed my long hair up. Had I known we would be on a misson, I'd have brought a hair tye. Oh well. I saw Robin stop moving below me and realized that the rope wouldn't go any farther. I stopped just above him before he swung onto the ledge. I swung after him, swaying slightly before he pushed me against the wall. "Sorry," I said as Aqualad swung on beside us. "Mom should've gotten the flat boots."
Robin chuckled as he sat down on the ledge, hacking into the security system keeping the door locked. Little red Robin heads showed up on the screen, quivering until they all turned green, the doors locks shutting off. "Go," he said. Aqualad shoved them open again. I blinked when I saw what was in front of us. "Welcome to Project CADMUS," Robin said.
It was a long hallway, the lights red and casting an eerie look to the room. Kid Flash ran ahead and I hissed, "KF! Hey, wait a minute!"
But he kept going. I heard a thud and then he slid to a stop in a rush, falling to the ground. He ran back over to us but I was too busy looking at the creatures in front of us. They walked like moneky, but their faces looked sort of reptiliam with tusks. They were grey with a few red stripes that looked the gills. Fangs protruded from their mouth and small, beady red eyes stared straight ahead. One of them looked at us, roared, then looked back ahead. A small white creature with red stripes sat on it's head, red horns shining for a moment.
"No," Aqualad said slowly, his voice filled with awe. "Nothing odd going on around here."
They continued on down the hallway and we watched them until they disappeared. "Okay, we should go the way they came from," I said. "That way we can find out where they came from."
"Sounds good to me," Robin said, running ahead with me. "Come on," I said as KF ran with us, Aqualad catching up quickly. We stood guard around Robin while he hacked the security systems around the door. When it opened, I heard him say, "I am officially whelmed."
I turned to see large shelves hold blue creatures that seemed to be emitting blue lightning into a glass chamber around then. They were sharp, pointy creatures that looked kind of hunched over. Kid Flash walked up to one and pressed his face close. "This must be how they're hiding CADMUS from the rest of the world!"
"The real CADMUS isn't on the grid because it generates its own power. That's what these tings are probably for," I observed, looking at the blue things in the container. "These things look kind of bug-like, don't they?"
"Even the name is a clue," Aqualad said, gazing up at the blue bugs. "Like the nth. Cadmus myth created a new race by sewing dragon's teeth into the Earth."
"This CADMUS creates new life too," Robin said, appearing at Aqualad's shoulder before walking away again. I followed, looking over his shoulder as he pulled out the USB cord from his glove, saying, "Let's find out why."
The hologrpahic comupter came up again and he became to sift throught he information. "They call them genomorphs. Whoa!" Aqualad and Kid Flash walked over to look as well. Images of multiple genomorphs showed up on the screen, some large and fierce, others some and sneaky looking. "Look at the stats on these things! Super strength, telepathy, razor claws! These are living weapons!"
"They're engineering an army," KF said, narrowing his eyes as he peered closer at the creatures on the screen. I glanced up at the bug creatures. Could they do other things besides generate power? How much power could they generate? And what was this energy made up of? "But for who?" I asked.
"Wait, there's something else. Project Kr." We waited for Robin to continue, but he sighed. "The files too encripted. I can't—"
"Don't move!"
~So, what did you guys think? Good? Bad? Meh? Send me a review with that wonderful little button ^.^
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