Chapter one —
"Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story."
Sitting at the rounded kitchen table in the Jordan-Gluck family apartment in nothing more than her fuzzy duck themed pajama shorts and the Flash themed sweatshirt she'd gotten the previous Chanukah, Arley Gluck paid more attention to the book on Icoids— former natives of Jupiter's moons as the alien race had later moved to the rings of Saturn after constant attacks by Thanagarian pirates —she'd gotten from library on Oa the day before, then her bowl of Corn Pops that continued to get soggier and soggier by the second.
So engrossed in the alien history book the raven haired girl didn't notice her mentor entering the kitchen; nor did she notice the calico smile that grew on the pilot's face as he looked at her and her hunched shoulders as quickly she read line after line, soaking up all the information she could on the former Jupiterites.
Sneaking up behind her the man bent at the waist, his fingers curling around the top of the chair; Arley, who was still to captivated by the book— apparently though called native to Jupiter moon Io, the race of blue aliens were only considered so because they had been the first race to settle their; their original home world was some long forgotten and destroyed planet that rested just outside the Milky Way galaxy —didn't even notice the brown haired man as frizzy strands of her dark, jaw length hair tickled the end of his nose.
No, Arley only noticed her mentor when he began cackling as he shook her chair. The sixteen year old loudly yelped as she used her arms to brace against the table. Her book went flying into the air before it dropped loudly on the tiled floor of their apartments kitchen and the table's wooden curve pressed uncomfortably against her bony ribs.
A bright green construct— a hand —shot out of her green ring and lifted the adult man off the floor and into the air by the back of the tee-shirt he wore. Hal Jordan's eyes narrowed almost petulantly as Arley turned in her seat and looked at him; her chin rested on the top of the kitchen chair. She tried not to smirk as Hal hung limply in the air, inches above the kitchen tile looking more like a troublesome kitten than a defender of the universe.
"Why would you do that?" Arley wondered.
"You looked too calm," Hal told her, and just like the fathers in all those feel-good movies Arley watched the man reach out as he still hung in the air, and messed up her already unkempt hair with a smile. Arley's eyes narrowed; she would get him back for that, just as he always got her back when she dyed his shirt pink on Laundry day or told his boss-not-girlfriend Carol Ferris an embarrassing story of something he'd done.
Tit-for-tat and whatnot.
"Right," she clicked her teeth, the construct didn't move as she turned and swept the book off the tile floor and tucked it under her arm, "I'm going to remember this the next time you forget your keys and need me to deliver them to the office."
Hal's smile fell.
The last thing Arley had told Carol Ferris was how Hal talked in his sleep so much so that the man could have a full on conversation with someone; Arley had told Carol of the time she had tried to wake Hal up only for the man to argue he was on the phone, because in his dream he had been on the phone, and couldn't be bothered at the moment because his dream call was oh so very important.
"No, come on! I was joking, trying to get you pumped for the big day!" Hal pleaded; in the almost seven years Arley had been under his care— and the nearly eight they had known each other —there wasn't a shortage of embarrassing things he'd done in front of the teen.
Arley couldn't help but smile at the mention of what was planned for later that day; her construct deteriorated and Hal dropped to his feet.
"Whatever, I'm going to finish my book, we're leaving at noon right?" Hal nodded as he moved to the coffee machine. "Awesome!"
...
Arley had been to the Hall of Justice before; back when the League had been outed to the public by the Joker and his merry band of costumed villains. She hadn't been inside the Hall though, instead she had stuck close to Hals side as they stood behind Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman, all of whom promised the reporters and their cameras that the League was there to do good; to protect the people of the world and not just the cities in which the heroes came from.
It was also where she and Batman's partner and protegee, Robin had been introduced to the public as the world's first child sidekicks. Which she wasn't— not had actually ever been —because at twelve she'd been a fully fledged Green Lantern for over three years, but it wasn't like the League could tell the world of Oa and the Corps and how she had been chosen to be a hero, not a sidekick, at the tender age of eight; so instead they called her Green Lanterns partner. His trainee, someone that would one day take up his mantle.
Now standing on the grassy hill that overlooked the Hall of Justice, side by side with Dick Grayson— Robin —the two of them were ready to do more than have the world recognize them as part of their mentors' shadows; they were ready for the world to finally see them as their own heroes.
"Can you believe it?" Dick breathed; behind them Batman and Hal spoke to one another in hushed tones, neither teen paid their adoptive fathers much attention as she looked on at the gleaming steps of the Hall. "Justice League members."
"It sort of feels surreal, you know?" She said she could see the civilians crowding the Halls steps; and if she strained her ears she could hear both the laughter of children as they ran too close to the water and she could hear their parents shooing them away from the edge they played on.
She could remember when Hal, before her training on Oa had finished and he had formally adopted her, told her about the League having been put together by him and the other public heroes of Earth. She had been around when the League had been formed, and now she was going to be a part of it.
A member.
"Hey-hey, look who it is," Hal cheered loudly; Dick and Arley turned to see that half way up the hill both Green Arrow and Speedy had arrived.
Arley beamed at the sight. She and Speedy— Roy —may not have gotten off on the right foot when they had first met— he was a year or so older than her and despite having been at the hero thing longer then he had, the then fourteen year old boy had called her a little girl so of course she had to flip him over her shoulder and onto Oliver's coffee table like Kilowag had showed her how to do in their training session the weekend before —but the pair of them had grown close since then.
Of course not as close as she and Wally West were— both Arley and the speedster were considered attached at the hip long before they had confessed their schoolyard crushes on each other and started dating back in the seventh grade —nor as close as she and Dick were, but still, Arley considered the young man a good friend.
A brother when he wasn't being annoying.
"Robin, Greenie," Roy jerked his chin up at Arley as he fist bumped Robin.
"You have got to stop calling me that, the civilians are starting to use that to tell me, Hal and John apart when talking about us." Maybe it was confusing for there to be four Lanterns on Earth— three active Green Lanterns ever since Guy Gardner's accident —all of whom went by Green Lantern, but her, Hal— Guy —and John's jobs weren't to help make things easier for the tabloid news that reported on them, it was to keep them and the rest of Earth and sector two-eight-one-four safe.
"How do they tell John and Hal apart?" Roy joked knowingly, Arley shot the archer a dry look, he knew exactly how the news told John and Hal apart and then turned to Robin,
"When do you think Aqualad's getting here?" She didn't bother to ask about the Flashes; Arley loved Wally but both he and his mentor Flash were always late. Wally liked to blame his tardiness on his uncle but Arley knew the boy had struggled to get to places on time long before he had gotten his powers and teamed up with the forensic scientist.
Hal liked to joke that tardiness was a prerequisite for speedsters.
"Batman said Aquaman and Aqualad would be here the same time as us, they must've gotten tied up," the Boy Wonder shrugged. Arley nodded and looked back to the archer,
"Have you done anything fun since school got out?" The red headed teen shrugged
"Arrow and I stopped Icicle before we got here but besides that—"
"—I meant as you, moof-milker," Arley rolled her eyes. Both Dick and Roy looked at one another with raise brows from the corner of their eyes;
"Moof-milker?" Speedy repeated. Arley's own brows knitted together for a second, she wondered exactly what the problem with the term moof-milker was, before clarity washed over her face,
"Dumbass, sorry, I forgot you two aren't used to galactic-slang." Earth truly was a back-water planet when it came to the intergalactic spotlight. Roy threw his hands up, frowning.
"That doesn't-what the hell is a moof?"
"Why does it mean dumbass?" Dick wondered more pressingly.
"It's kind of like a cow," Arley told the other two teens, "Only they're found on Crul." The female Lantern said it like that alone should have cleared everything up, Roys bewildered expression didn't seem to dissipate; "Ah, Crul, it's a mostly aquatic based planet at the edge of the sector."
"But why does it mean dumbass?" Dick asked again, Arley turned to him, none of the teens paid attention to their mentors who turned from the semi-circle they'd made of hunched shoulders and bowed heads to the water in front of them.
"Why does dumbass mean dumbass?" She smirked, "Dumbass."
Roy snickered as Dick's fist swung out at Arley's shoulder, an indignant cry leaving the fourteen year old hero's lips as he did so. Arley snickered as she moved out of the young heroes reach and closer to the archers' side. Roy elbowed the girls side, pushing her away from him and back towards the caped sidekick.
"You're a dumbass," Dick told her and Arley, smiling— her tongue poking out between the slight gap between her two front teeth —rolled her eyes only to look past Dick, over his shoulder.
"Aqualad!" She beamed, Dick turned and saw the two Atlanteans who were joining them that day greeting his own, Arley and Roy's mentors. The female Lantern waved the dark skinned teen over as he turned away from Hal and to them.
Kaldur'ahm looked at his King and mentor who nodded and clapped the blonde boy on the shoulder, pushing him towards his friends. Arley was the first to meet the boy, she shook his hand as she smiled almost giggly at him.
"It's great to see you again," she told him. Kaldur smiled politely; though she could see the joy and excitement she and the other two sidekicks felt shining behind his eyes.
"You as well Green Lantern," Kaldur replied as Arley stepped to the side so both Roy— who shook his hand —and Dick— who fist bumped the Atlantean —could greet him as well. Roy had only taken a step back when Batman cleared his throat. No words were needed for Dick to get the message as he strode over to his mentors' side; Arley and the other two boys quickly got the memo as well. Batman placed a hand on Robin's shoulder and Arley and the other two boys made their way over to their mentors.
Hal placed a hand on the space between Arleys' shoulder blades as the four heroes and their young partners turned to the Hall of Justice. Arley looked around her, down the line of allies, and frowned. She then turned to Batman.
"Shouldn't we wait for Kid and Flash?" Wally had been excited the night before; he had talked a mile a minute through the speaker of the phone for hours, and the thought of starting without him— taking their first steps as Justice League members without him —just because he was running a little late didn't seem right.
"They're late," Batman said.
"They're always late though," Arley said, her eyes gleaming with determination. "Come on, please?" She saw Batman's eyes narrow under the cowl. "Just, like, five minutes?"
"We're on a schedule," Batman told her. Arley would rather dive headfirst into a sarlacc mouth then enter the Hall of Justice without her best friend— without her boyfriend; the boy she was in love with —so she breathed.
Green Lanterns were always quick on their toes; they needed to be if they were going to survive interplanetary wars and galactic battles.
"What kind of schedule?" She wondered, "Color coded? Or is it more like an itinerary, and if so what kind of format?" She could see Dick smirking from where he stood next to the Caped Crusader, "Like did you make it so that every second of every minute is planned or is it more like hourly? Cause if it's hourly that leaves so much—"
"—You're trying to distract me," Batman drawled, his voice gruff. Arley blinked up at the man, her hazel eyes wide and innocent. It was the same look she wore whenever she was caught doing something she wasn't supposed to. Wally liked to say she could get him to do just about anything with that expression; John liked to say it was the kind of expression that could sell bridges.
"Me? Distract you? The world's greatest detective? Why would I try that? I mean, I doubt that would work, do you think I could do that, that it would work, distract you, I mean?" Arley placed her hand against the Lantern symbol on her chest, Batman didn't answer and instead pressed his lips more firmly together, and she looked up at Hal who hid his own smile behind his hand. "Green Lantern, do you think I could distract Batman?"
Hal snorted, he pressed his hand against his mouth instead of simply covering it and Batman turned once more back towards the Hall of Justice. Arley's shoulder's dropped.
"Today's the day," he told them. Arley wondered if she tripped Roy down the hill would the heroes stop for a moment; of course Roy would be furious at her but Arley also knew that if she dipped into the money she'd been saving for the motorcycle she wanted and instead used it to buy him the new video game console he wanted then in hindsight tripping him down a somewhat steep hill wouldn't matter.
"Welcome to the Hall of Justice," Green Arrow said.
"Headquarters of the Justice League," pipe Aquaman, only for the exasperated voice of a teenage boy to pipe up behind them.
"Oh man," Arley beamed as she turned to face Wally— neither he nor his uncle had arrived yet, the sound of their voices echoed around the line of heroes —"I knew we'd be the last one's here." The Flash appeared first, his hands at his side and then Wally, half a second later, his goggles perched on his head and his arms crossed over his chest. They'd been together since before either of them had truly known what love was and yet Arley's heart spluttered in her chest at the sight of the young speedster. She beamed at him.
"So did we," Arley jokes, "Chuba, Handsome!" She said using the Huttese greeting she'd picked up from the Twi'lekian Lantern Aayla.
Wally looked at Arley and smiled, his forlorn look gone and replaced with a thousand-kilowatt smile; "Chuba, Babe!" He greeted her back.
With every alien phrase she picked up from her adventures she taught Wally, not because he was interested— she had long ago learned the only alien words Wally was truly interested in were the swears and pick-up lines —but because he would listen to her.
Wally West may not have been as interested as Arley was in alien cultures but because he knew how much she loved learning about the various alien cultures she encountered he would listen to her talk and soak up all the information. Even if it mean fiddling with his worn out rubix cube for hours while he listened to her talk— instead of running round, burning off the speedster energy he was filled to the brim with —because that was the same exact thing Arley did for him when he went on tangents about something he'd read in a newly published science journal.
Arley moved from Hal— Wally moved from Flash's side —and Wally reached out to Arley who took his hand and pulled him to her. Her arms wrapped tightly around his waist as his arms circled her neck; Wally had always been taller than Arley but in the past few months he seemed to have sprouted; the top of Arleys head met Wally's collarbone. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest and she relished in the heat flooding to the tips of her ears. Arley felt her body warm from the tips of her toes to the top of her hair as they continued to hug.
Wally dropped a kiss to the crown of Arley's head and quickly Arley pressed a peck to the underside of his jaw; she could feel Hal grinning at her. She could see Barry— the Flash —smiling from behind his knuckles.
It was almost funny, both Hal and Barry were nearly as invested in Arley and Wally's relationship as they were.
Wally smelled like dry ice; Arley pulled back. "Why do you smell like dry ice?"
"We had a little mix up with Cold on our way over," Flash replied. Arley, as she pulled back from Wally and looked at the older Speedster. Wally's hand rested on her shoulder as hers was still perched upon Wally's hipbone. Batman made a humming noise from the back of his throat but said nothing else, he motioned with his head towards the Hall of Justice, as if to tell the other nine defenders of justice to get going.
Arley beamed at Batman thankfully, and though the masked bat-themed hero made no indication to acknowledge her wordless thankfulness, Arley was sure he smiled at her.
...
"Is that Batman?"
Civilians chattered around them; cameras shuttered and children bounced on the balls of their feet. Arley caught the eye of a little girl, one who wore both a plastic replica of Wonder Woman's crown, also donned a green lantern shirt. The girls pigtails were in two green scrunchies and she leaned forward against the ropes that sectioned the heroes off from the civilians.
Arley, with the hand that wasn't interlocked with Wally's, waved at the little girl who enthusiastically waved back.
"I see Flash!" A little boy cheered, "And Flash Jr!" Arley giggled and Wally, who's shoulders dropped knocked their tangled hangs against her hip as someone in the crowded failed to correct the little boy;
"His name's Speedy duh."
"No," a third and older voice yet still child-like piped up, "Speedy is Green Arrow's sidekick."
"Well that makes no sense," the boys' fathers said. Green Arrow leaned forward, Arley could hear the archer behind her as she headed the group of heroes from between Wally and Dick.
"Ready to see the inner sanctum?"
"Born that way," Roy said.
"I'm glad we're all here," Kaldur said, and Arley caught the boy's eyes, his sea foam green eyes flickered to Wally who walked in front of him and Arley bit back a smile.
"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time before today?" Wally wondered. Roys face dropped and his lips thinned as he pressed them together, he glared at Wally from behind his cowl.
"Don't call us sidekicks," the red archer snapped. Arley frowned at the archer, she glared back at him.
"Don't get an attitude," she snapped back, her voice low enough so that the civilians around them wouldn't hear, "Kid was just saying—"
"—Well he shouldn't have," Speedy hissed, "We're not sidekicks, not after today."
Arley, as her hackles raised in Wally's defense, felt Wally's hand squeeze hers as she opened her mouth to say something, the pad of his gloved thumb ran over the length of her own. He shook his head, his eyes flashed to Speedy.
"Sorry," Wally said, "First time at the Hall, I'm just a little overwhelmed."
"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" Dick wondered, his voice exasperated as they walked under the arch that led to the Halls courtyard. All five sidekicks— Roy, Arley, Dick, Wally and Kaldur —were greeted by the sight of several large statues; the founding members of the League. Four of which were their mentors.
"Oh," Dick whispered, "Maybe that's why."
The ten of them came to a stop outside of large metal doors marked Authorized Personnel Only; the doors opened with a hiss and the ten were greeted by Martian Manhunter, a hero Arley had gotten to know fairly well since receiving her ring, and Red Tornado.
"Green Lantern, Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, welcome." Manhunter greeted, with that the Martian turned. Wally and Dick fist bumped. "You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked galley and of course," Manhunter said as he led them down a hallway and to the largest of the Halls rooms, "Our library."
Arley took two steps forward, away from Wally as she looked at the books around her. She heard, as her eyes scanned the spines of the books that surrounded them, Wally and Dick snicker.
The Flash turned to the group, "Make yourselves at home," he told the five as he and the other adult heroes huddled together in the corner. While Dick, Wally and Kaldur all took seats, Roy leaned against the arm of Wally's chair and Arley flew to the top shelves of library's bookcases.
Her fingers skimmed across the books as she read each title; History of the World, History of Europe, History of the Stars.
"You are such a nerd," Wally told her fondly from his seat, he grinned as his neck leaned back over the back of the leather chair he was in so he could stare up at Arley.
Arley looked away from the books, her fingers still pressed against them, and down at Wally. She ignored how her heart thumped in her chest as he beamed at her; his pearly white teeth almost seemed to sparkle under the library lights. She was certain Wally would tease her relentlessly if he ever found out just how truly handsome she thought he was.
"Say's the kid genus," Arley shot back with a laugh.
"Quick debrief to discuss the confidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day," Batman told the group of adult heroes, his hands behind his back. He looked at the teens. "We shouldn't be long."
Batman turned to the door marked Justice League Members Only and a machine came down from the wall. Arley watched in fascination as a bright blue light shot out of the machine. Hal had told her the members who couldn't just fly to the Watchtower used zeta-beam teleportation to get to the satellite base, but she had never seen it in action.
"Recognized Batman, zero-two," echoed loudly in the library as the machine scanned the Dark Knight. "Aquaman, zero-six. Flash, zero-four. Green Lantern, zero-five. Green Arrow, zero-eight. Martian Manhunter, zero-seven. Red Tornado, one-six." The doors, like the ones that had been marked authorized personnel only, hissed open.
"That's it!" Roy snapped, the heroes in the room turned to him. "You promised us a real look inside, not a glorified backstage pass." His arms crossed over his chest and Arley frowned.
"It's a first step, you've been granted access few others get," Aquaman told the teen archer.
"Oh really?" Roy scoffed, his arm flew up and motioned to the civilians behind the library's glass ceiling. "Who cares about which side of the glass we're on!"
"Roy," Green Arrow said, "You just need to be patient."
"What I need is respect," Roy huffed, he turned to Arley and the other boys, "They're treating us like kids. Worse," he corrected himself, "Like sidekicks. We deserve better than this."
Arley floated to the ground and she and the other boys looked at each other.
"You're kidding, right? You're playing their game? Why? Today was supposed to be the day! Step one to becoming a full-fledged member of the Justice League."
"Well sure," Wally shrugged, "But I thought step one was a tour of the headquarters."
"Except the Hall isn't the League's real Headquarters," Roy snapped.
The heroes behind him stiffened and the sidekicks around Arley straightened in their seats. She looked at Wally and then at the Flash and the other League members who had turned to glare at Green Arrow.
Arley had assumed the other heroes had all already told their protegees about the Watchtower; that while she knew she was the only sidekick to ever step foot there— simply because that was where the League was keeping the comatose body of Guy Gardener, Earth's third Green Lantern —she wasn't the only sidekick who was supposed to know about it.
Arley crossed her arms over her chest as her teeth skimmed over her bottom lip.
"I bet they never told you this is just a false front for tourists and a pit stop for catching the zeta beam teleporter tubes that take them to the real thing, an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower!" Roy snapped at the other teens.
"And?" Arley blinked, "So what if this is a front? You really expected the League to take new members on a tour of their secret base?"
She hadn't, when Hal had told her she and the others would be taking a tour of the League's headquarters as their first step towards becoming fully fledged members of the League, she had never assumed they'd be taken to the outer space satellite the League hadn't even told the world governments about, she had always assumed he had meant the Hall because to most people that was the Justice League's headquarters.
Touring the Hall was step one for all new members of the League because doing anything otherwise would have been foolish. Letting a group of rookies— because when she and the others went from sidekicks to League members that's what they would be, rookies —know exactly where your top secret base was, was exactly how the Joker and a handful of the worlds other worst villains had found the League's original secrete sanctum.
Roy growled at her, "Like it matters to you, you go there all the time." That was a gross exaggeration and Arley glared at the boy; Wally, Dick and Kaldur all who had been looking at their mentors turned and looked at Arley. Arley didn't miss the flash of hurt that sparked in Wally's. "You don't get what this means."
Aquaman stepped up, "You're not helping your cause here son, stand down—"
"—Or what?" Roy snapped at the Atlantean King, "You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son. I'm not even his." Green Arrow's face fell, it was as if he'd been slapped; "I thought I was his partner." Roy gripped the top of his feathered Robin-Hood style hat and threw it to the ground. "But not anymore."
Arley's jaw dropped; the room watched on stunned.
Roy, ignoring Arley, looked to the others, "Are you with me?"
Dick looked back at Batman and then at Roy, he was the first to stand; Batman didn't even seem to blink under his cowl. Kaldur and Wally quickly followed Dick's lead and got to their own feet. Arley stepped towards Wally, her brows knitted together.
He couldn't be serious.
"Kaldur'ahm," Aquaman said softly; Kaldur looked at his mentor and frowned. Gently Arley reached out to touch Wally's hand, only for the speedster to jerk back at her touch.
"I thought you trusted me, my King." Kaldur's shoulder squared, "Now I see I was wrong." Aquaman's face dropped and crumbled.
"Kid—"
"—You knew," Wally snapped at Arley. "We've been together since we were twelve, what else have you been keeping a secret!"
Arley felt her heart clench.
"I thought you knew! Kid, you know I would have told you if I knew you didn't." Wally's lips pressed together, his gaze softened for a moment, only to harden once more when he looked up, over Arley's shoulder at his uncle and the other mentors. He reached his hand out and Arley's fingers curled into his gloved palm.
"You're coming then?" Her stomach clenched.
"I-what? No."
And for the first time in their lives, Arley drew her hand back. The others could leave their mentors and they could break out on their own but even if Arley was mad at Hal— which she wasn't, there wasn't actually anything to be mad over; sure the League kept the Watchtower a secret from the others but the League was made up of heroes and heroes operated on secretes —it wasn't like she could just leave him behind and forget about him.
Hal was more than just her adoptive father, they were both members of the Green Lantern Corps. They were partners.
" Guys this is insane," Arley said, she looked at Dick and Kaldur. Kaldur was a soldier, just like she was and she looked at him with a heavy gaze that he quickly turned away from. Arley looked once more at Wally, "Look you guys are hurt, I get that, but this? Leaving? It's crazy."
"Why?" Roy snapped, "Because we're sidekicks?" He said the words sidekicks like it was something disgusting. Arley blinked at him.
"No you absolute moron," Arley snapped back, she pointed at the quiet group of adult heroes, "Because those are your partners-your family."
In the Corps one of the first things Arley and her fellow Corpsmen were taught was teamwork; they were taught to trust one another because one wrong step out on the battlefield could mean more than just your own life being lost.
Maybe it was wrong of the League to keep the Watchtower a secret but Arley trusted Hal and she trusted Barry and she trusted that they had a good reason not to tell the boys.
"You can't just walk out on them."
Roy squared his shoulders defiantly. "Watch me."
Kaldur and Dick followed after; slowly the door began to swing shut behind them. Wally looked at Arley— the look in his eyes was angry and sad and disappointed, like she had let him down somehow —and opened his mouth to say something only to close it and instead say nothing.
"Wally," she whispered, "Please." Stay.
Wally stepped back— away from Arley —and turned; he was gone before the door to the Hall's library clicked shut.
With her head spinning, Arley turned to Hal and the others, completely and utterly alone on her half of the library. Before any of the heroes truly had a moment to process Roy and the others exit alarms blared and Superman's picture appeared on the giant computer monitor behind them. The adults moved to the computer panel; for a moment Arley watched on, too rooted to her spot to move.
"Superman to Justice League, there's been an explosion at Project Cadmus, it's on fire," the Man of Steel said.
"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus," Batman said, "This may present the perfect opportunity to—" he was cut off by alarms, ones that sounded like what had echoed through the room right before Superman's picture had come to life.
Slowly Arley moved, she wandered closer to the heroes. Wally left, did that mean they were broken up? Were they just fighting? Would he even want to talk to her later or would he want to forget all about her, like he'd want to forget about Barry?
When they'd been nine years old Wally had promised not to leave her, that no matter what he'd stay by her side, that they'd be best friends forever and Wally West didn't lie, not to her; and yet the heavy look he'd given her before leaving had felt so final that the young Lanterns throat squeezed shut for a moment as she tried to control her emotions.
"Zatara to Justice League," a voice said, before a picture of a mustached man appeared in the corner of the monitor, "The sorcerer, Wotan, is using the Amulet of Attan to blot out the sun. Requesting full League response."
Batman turned to the alien, "Superman?"
"It's a small fire, local authorities have it under control," Superman responded. Batman nodded.
"Then Cadmus can wait." Batman pushed a button, "All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates, Batman out."
Green Arrow didn't wait for anything else to be said as he made his way to the zeta-beam tubes with Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado; Tornado hovered behind the other League members. Batman, and Hal turned to Arley.
"Stay put," Batman told her.
"What?" Arley gasped, "Why?"
"This is a League mission, you're not trained," Batman said.
"Since when?" Arley demanded to know, she'd been fighting in battles since she was nine; fighting in general since before that.
"I meant you're not trained to work as part of this team. There will be other missions when you're ready. But for now, stay put," Batman ordered.
Arley looked at Hal, like a child who went to the other parent after hearing an answer they didn't like from the first. If someone was trying to blot out the sun in her sector then she should have been allowed to join, it was her duty as a Lantern.
The pilot sighed, he placed a comforting hand on Arley's shoulder. "Sorry kid but you heard the man."
Arley frowned as the two of them left. Red Tornado was the last out into the zeta-tube; the robot's expressionless face read nothing before it turned its back on the four teens. The door hissed closed and for a moment it was quiet.
"When I'm ready?" Arley scoffed; Arley looked up at the large computer screen and glared.Stay here; when she was ready, who did Batman think he was talking too? She was a seasoned Green Lantern who'd fought in more wars than he could imagine.
"Fuck that." Hal had always said it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission. "Project Cadmus, huh?" Besides, it wasn't like she'd come for a play-date anyways.
…
With a fully charged ring, Arley crept through DC alleyways as she made her way to Cadmus labs. The closer she got the more smoke Arley could smell, and the louder the fire engines and cries for help got.
"Help!" Two men in lab coats cried from a window just as the Lantern paused in the alley across the street; "Help us!"
"Stay put!" The Fireman speaking into the loudspeaker told them as his men poured gallons and gallons of water into the burning building. "We will get you out." But just as he spoke the room the two men were in exploded; the force from the explosion pushed the scientists out of the window they'd been ready to escape from.
Just as she'd been taught Arley threw her hand out; her feet picked up off the ground and a glowing green construct appeared under the two men, catching them. The men looked up, wide smiles stretched across their faces when they caught sight of Arley.
"It's what's her name?" A fireman with a megaphone called out as Arley slowly set the two lab coats wearing men down on the ground, the fireman looked at the others around him, "Green Lantern?" The fireman squinted up at her and then turned to the man next to him, "I thought the red head was Green Lantern?"
The two men who'd fallen from the window waved thankfully at Arley. With a quick wave back at them, Arley then, with all the elegance she had cultivated from her years of being a Lantern, flew into one of the lab's open windows.
Arley landed on the floor and moved immediately towards the middle cabinet of files as it had been left partially a jar, quickly thumbing through the flies Arley noticed they were employee files; Arley held her ring up so that the ring could record the names of each of the employees.
She didn't have time to read through every file but she was sure Batman would appreciate a list of names. Arley thumbed through the three other drawers of the filing cabinet before she picked up the waste basket and dumped out it's contents on the floor.
Arley uncrumpled the pieces of paper whoever worked in the office they were in had thrown away. Most of what she kept uncrumpling were takeout receipts. One of the papers was an expense report for office supplies; nothing suspicious showed up on the report, just beakers and chairs and goggles.
Arley went to move towards the computer when she saw a shadow in the hallway move; spying the shadows horns Arley's breath caught in her throat. Whoever was on the other side of the shadow was humanoid but not human.
Quietly Arley stepped forward, into the hall; she heard what she could only assume was an elevator. She frowned. She's been in public school long enough to know that during a fire elevators didn't work; or at least, they were supposed to.
As she turned the corner she was sure the shadow's figure had turned down Arley quickly jerked herself back around the corner when she caught sight of a Being standing under the light in the closing elevator. It was large— alien perhaps, in no way human —nearly several feet tall and had large bull-like horns protruding out of the front of its head.
When the elevator door had shut Arley looked at the elevator; there was no way the Being would be able to walk out the front doors of the lab; not without the firemen and scientist seeing it. Arley held her ring up to the closed elevator doors and a bright green light scanned over the doors.
Her ring projected a holographic image of the elevator next to the image of the elevator as a dozen different types of facts about the elevator.
"Thought so," Arley hummed. The elevator was a high speed express elevator, it didn't belong in a supposedly three story building. Though, neither had what she'd sworn she saw.
A large glowing green hand shouted out of Arley's ring and moved forward towards the elevator; it forced the elevator doors open so that Arley was left floating in what seemed to be a never ending elevator shaft.
"Right," Arley mused to herself, "That's what they need an express elevator for." Cautiously Arley flew down the shaft until she came to a stop outside the doors marked level twenty-six; Arley then looked down at the continuous pit below her.
She could keep going— though she had no idea how deep the elevator shaft went —or she could stop here, and start her investigation. If she made up her mind quickly it was only because she heard the whirl of an elevator coming from below.
A glowing construct— a green wire —shot out from her ring and connected itself to the side of the door where the elevator would click into place. Guy had shown her this trick years ago; apparently their rings could hack for them if it's what they willed. As the years went by it seemed— to Arley —that as long as a Green Lantern willed it enough, their rings could do practically anything; outside of curing her mothers madness or waking someone from a coma.
A second later, Arley's ring beeped and Arley, like she had done on the second floor of Cadmus Labs, forced open the elevator doors with a glowing construct.
Villainous laboratories weren't new for Arley, she'd been in her fair share over the years but still Project Cadmus Laboratories caused the Lantern to pause. Project Cadmus, or at least floor twenty-six of Project Cadmus, was a long, dark industrial looking hallway, thick cable wires lined the ceiling and the few lights that hung there flickered.
"And into the belly of the beast I go," Arley said quietly to herself. Arley had made it halfway down the corridor when the heavy foot of an elephant-like monster came barreling into her line of sight; in the vertex of the corridor a herd— a pack —of elephant-like monsters continued to pass. Arley openly gaped at the monsters as they moved by.
"What the Nortz?" The monsters growled and hissed as they passed, though none of them turned their attention to the teenage Lantern. Neither did any of the small, palm sized creatures on the monster's backs, or so it seemed to the Lantern.
Arley pointed her ring at the monsters hoping that perhaps they were aliens she just wasn't accustomed to seeing; an unknown race, but when her ring came up with no answer. No holograph of the monster's race and what planet they were from appeared and so the girl looked at the ring on her finger baffled because the monsters before her, if not in the Green Lantern Corps database, meant only one thing.
Someone had created them; and Arley could only imagine what someone would want with monstrous creatures like those.
...
The young Lantern had gone down the hallway the monsters she'd seen had come from. Arley supposed that since the monsters hadn't been running then that meant there wasn't an even more dangerous creature lurking behind them; and after a dozen more dark and dimly lit corridors the sixteen year old came to a large, heavy-looking, metal door.
With her back tense as she connected her glowing construct to the door, willing her ring to hack it, Arley readied herself for a fight. If the monsters she had come across in the corridor were anything to go off of, then that meant anything could be lurking behind the door.
"Okay," Arley said to no one but herself as the doors opened, revealing a room filled from floor to ceiling of electric bug-like monsters; all trapped behind glass as whatever machine they were hooked up to feed off the energy they were creating. "What the kriffing fuck?"
This is how they must hide this place, Arley reasoned breathlessly after a moment. As she floated farther into the room, her pointed toes just inches above the ground. Arley paused and looked at the twitching creature that was— must have been —powering the entirety of Cadmus Labs.
"Even the name is a clue," Arley said obviously. She was so used to having a partner with her— whether it be another Lantern or Wally —Arley couldn't help but talk to the air around her. "The Cadmus in mythology created a new race by sowing dragons into the Earth."
Arley moved over to the control panel and hooked her ring up to it; willing it to hack into the mainframe. "Come on baby," Arley said to her ring, the same way Oliver talked to his car, "Let's find out why this Cadmus creates new life too."
Arley quickly read the words her ring was encrypting.
The monsters she had seen were called genomorphs ; her ring pulled up a picture of the elephant-like monsters that she had seen before. The monster was labeled genomorph zero-four-two-seven.
More images of different genomorphs flashed; some were lean and fanged, right for fighting, others were large blobs Arley couldn't imagine being used for anything.
"Super strength, telepathy, razor claws," she listed out loud, Cadmus is engineering an army, Arley thought, But for who?
Arley's eye caught something else on the screen; something marked Project Kr. Arley looked at her ring and willed it to encrypt the file faster. Arley's jaw clenched; Faster, she thought— she willed — Faster.
"—Don't move!" A man and a dozen genomorphs ran into the room. The monsters were blue; all of them had red eyes and tails that whipped back and forth. Arley thought they were something she should be seeing on a far off planet, not twenty-six levels below the White House.
"Wait," the man froze, "Green Lantern?"
Arley's eyes flickered between the man and the control panel as she continued to will her ring to decrypt the file.
"Do I know you?" Arley asked.
"I'm Guardian," the man said; the name sounded familiar and Arley's eyes drew away from the control panel and the Lantern looked firmly at the man surrounded by genomorphs.
"You're a hero."
"I do my best," the man smiled. Arley's thick brows raised.
"Then what are you doing here?" She wondered.
"I'm Chief of Security and you're trespassing," the hero said. "But we can call the Justice League and figure this out."
"You think the League is going to be okay with the fact you're breeding weapons?" Arley wondered, her voice sharp, the control panel at her side forgotten, her construct disappeared as her concentration lapsed. The hero in front of her frowned,
"Weapons what are you—" the horns of the monster on his shoulder glowed red and the Guardian's pupils dilated, "—What have I—" The hero grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes shut, "—My head!" When he opened his eyes his gaze was hard; "Take her down," the Guardian ordered the genomorphs around him, "No mercy."
The monsters around him growled and shrieked with appreciation as they each lunged forward.
Arley's ring formed a scythe in her hands, her fingers wrapped tightly around the shaft of the glowing green weapons as she swung it forward; the genomorph she hit shrieked loudly as it fell dead at her feet. Arley had only just lifted the weapon a second time when a second genomorph jumped off the wall it's been scaling and lunged at her. Arley swung her blade once more and the monster fell bleeding before her.
Arley's eyes darted around the room, looking for an opening as she continued to swing her weapon, batting all the genomorphs away from her. There was no grand opening for her to escape through; the genomorphs did what they were bred to do and surrounded her like a pack of rabid wolves.
Arley changed her weapons from a scythe to a mace; swinging the weapon wildly around her, Arley lunged in the direction of the door door, hitting every genomorph in her wingspan until it was only the Guardian standing in her way.
The man lunged at her, his fist bared down at her and Arley threw her arm up and out, shielding her head from the Guardians attack; when her own fist shot out the Guardian batted it away. A genomorph shrieked from behind her and Arley grabbed onto the Guardians chest plate and pivoted them so that the head of Cadmus' Security was tackled by the genomorph he had led into battle.
Arley turned and shot out of the room; Arley turned sharply around the corner she had come from and paused at the open elevator shaft.
She could go back up and contact the League but then that risked Cadmus and the Guardian getting rid of any and all physical evidence linking them to their crimes— whatever those crimes maybe; because while Arley wasn't quite sure what Cadmus Labs apparent crime was they were definitely guilty of something —or she could go down to sub-level fifty-two where whatever their most encrypted file was being held.
Arley looked back at the genomorphs who had followed her from the room and shot a large wall-like construct out of her ring; the wall took up the space of the corridor; stopping the genomorphs from coming any closer.
Arley looked at the elevator shaft; the farther away she got the less tangible her construct was. The genomorphs shrieked and claws at her construct; whatever Project Kr was important. Dangerous even, and would undoubtedly be the first thing Cadmus moved to hide if she left.
"Right," she breathed, "Down it is."
Arley dropped the construct and flew at a breakneck speed down the elevator shaft; the genomorphs shrieking echoed in the shaft behind her, ringing her ears. Arley didn't stop until she could no longer drop anymore, until she was at sublevel fifty two.
Not bothering to hack the door like she had been doing Arley— with narrowed eyes, ready for whatever laid on the other side of the elevator door —pointed her ring at the number fifty-two and blasted it off.
Only she was not met with enemies or another long and dark corridor, but instead a large hollowed out cave. Purple pods and machines stuck out of the cavern walls and the few lights that illuminated the cave made the rocks around them glow a pinkish red. Arley breathed; Arley had been on alien planets before, she had taken cover in multiple alien sewer systems and refuge in alien cave systems since receiving her ring and this cavernous corridor seemed like something that could— should —be found on one of those alien planets, not fifty-two levels below street level.
"What kriff have I stepped into?" Arley breathed as she floated farther into the cave. This was— had to be —more than just one rogue scientist; and it wasn't— couldn't be —just a shady government branch no one had heard about because even shady government branches didn't get the kind of funding that allowed large sub-level cavernous hallways and genetic monster building.
No, this was something else. Something much more nefarious.
Arley floated down the corridor and stopped when she came to a fork, Creepy hallway number one,A voice that sounded like Wally snickered in her mind,Or creepy hallway number two?
"Halt!" A voice yelled, a tall genomorph appeared from what Arley had dubbed bizarre hallway one. It was the genomorph Arley had seen on the second level of the building; the one who had ended up leading her down into the actual Project Cadmus Labs.
The genomorph was dressed in white hospital scrubs and as it levitated two oil drums towards her it's large horns protruding from its forehead glowed a bright red. The oil drums as they made contact with the wall behind the Lantern exploded; Arley flinched at the explosion and ducked her head. Arley pointed her ring in the genomorphs direction and shot a warning blast near the creature only for the bright green blast of energy to be easily deflected by the monster.
Shrieking came from behind Arley and with a cursory glance over her shoulder Arley spotted a horde of genomorphs— the same kinds the Guardian had sickened on her —emerging from the elevator shaft.
"Kriff," Arley swore. Arley took off down bizarre hallway two; the genomorph who wore the white scrubs, the one who threw oil drum after oil drum after her led the pack of monsters chasing her.
Every so often Arley would turn back and use a construct to bat an oil drum away from her. The oil drum would explode the minute her construct came into contact with the drum; shattering the glowing green construct.
As she raced down the cavernous corridors Arley didn't think much about how her supposedly indestructible constructs shattered like glass, and instead focused on running.
Arley shot around a turn only for her eyes to widen as they caught sight of a female scientist who was paying more attention to the clipboard in her hands then the path in front of her, existing a door that in bright glowing yellow letters was labeled Project Kr.
Knocking the woman's feet out from underneath her as she whizzed past Arley flew into the room labeled Project Kr; the dark skinned woman looked back at Arley with wide eyes and a shocked, open mouth expression, and Arley, as the door continued to slowly close turned to the control panel that stood idly next to the door and heavily brought her closed fist down onto it.
The control panel sparked around Arley's fist and with a slam, the doors sprung shut. Trying to quiet her pounding heart, Arley, as she slowly retracted fist from the control panel, breathed in as deep as she could and then, after holding her breath for a second, expelled the air from her lungs.
Green Lanterns faced their fears; they didn't get scared, and yet Arley felt ice cold dread creeping up her spine. She was trapped until the League came back from space and realized she was no longer at the Hall.
Arley turned further into the room and froze, eyes widened as she looked at what was podded in the middle of the room and her breath caught in her throat.
Arley had been to dozens of planets since she had gotten her ring, she had seen aliens who were nothing more than giant floating jellyfish and others who could shoot lasers of their eyes; and yet what laid in front of her was the weirdest thing she had yet to ever see.
Arley, though she tried to ignore them, couldn't help but notice yellow crystals that twinkled prettily in the stalactites above them. Worry continued to settle heavily in Arley's gut; she gritted her teeth and did the best she could to ignore the panic that tried to claw at the back of her brain. Kilowog and John and Hal always told her to be calm in hairy situations and looking at what was in front of her Arley couldn't imagine a hairier situation.
Green Lanterns didn't get scared; they didn't let their fears immobilize, that wasn't their way. And yet for a moment, Arley found it hard to move further into the room as her eyes stayed glued to the sleeping, and podded figure of what looked to be a young Superman.
It was a clone; it had to be.
"What the actual fuck?" Arley asked herself aloud as she continued to get closer to the podded clone. Arley could see her own reflection in the pods glass; she stared at the Kr that was frosted over onto the pod.
Big K, little r. The atomic symbol for Krypton. Arley pointed her ring at the pod and imagined a glowing green construct to appear so that she could hack all the information Cadmus had about the clone only no construct appeared.
"What?" Arley blinked at her ring, she brought it close to her chest, "No, come on, I charged you before I left!" Arley pointed her ring at the pod and imagined the wire, she imagined hacking into the database herself, she willed the construct to shoot out of the ring.
Nothing happened.
Arley's heart jumped into her throat.
"No, no, no," Arley told her ring, "Please, now is not the time to be broken." She pictured a hammer; a glowing green war hammer, the kind Kilowog liked to use in the heat of battle but nothing formed from her ring.
Arley imagined a baseball bat and got nothing.
"Fuck," she swore. "Call Hal. Hal, do you come in?" Arley asked, no reply came through and her brows knitted together. "John? John, do you hear me?"
Arley paled; her ring was supposed to allow her to communicate with not only the Guardians but any other Lantern from anywhere in the universe.
"Guardians of Oa, this is Green Lantern Arley of sector two-eight-one-four, am I read?" No reply came through and Arley looked up at the podded Superman look-alike that stood before her.
Arley looked down at her ring, not quite in horror but something akin to it. Anxiety clawed at her from the inside out. Her ring, no matter how far from Oa or any other Lantern, was supposed to be able to contact the Guardians and her fellow Corpsmen, her ring, as long as it was charged, was never supposed to not work. Something was wrong, very terribly wrong and Arley felt sick to her stomach.
"No way Supes knows about this, right?" The podded clone didn't respond and Arley didn't expect him to. She eyed the glowing Gnomes that stood around him. Back on level twenty-six when she had hacked into Cadmus' files— back when her ring had been working —she'd read the genomorph Gnomes were telepathic.
Cadmus was making a slave out of what was virtually Superman's son.
Arley's ring wasn't working and there were bloodthirsty monsters on the other side of the door, ready to tear her apart. She was going to die, but that was okay; as a street kid, back in Gotham— before the ring —it wasn't like she had ever planned on living past tweenhood, and after the ring— after Kilowog had told her getting old in the Corps was a privilege not a right —it wasn't like she suddenly expected to grow old.
It would have been nice— to grow old with Wally and have a life with him —but Arley remembered the betrayed look in Wally's eyes as he left the Hall of Justice; even if she got out alive it wasn't like that life was an option anymore. Wally probably never wanted anything to do with her again.
Arley looked around the room and saw a metal rod by the door; a coat rack. Rushing over Arley picked the rod up and held it like the staffs' she'd been taught to fight with over the years. Moving back over to the pod Arley paused and looked over her shoulder, she could hear the genomorphs on the other side clawing at the door.
She was— probably —going to die at the young and ripe age of sixteen and with Wally hating her, but she wasn't going to die with Superman's clone podded and buried fifty-two levels below the street.
She was going to set him free even if it was the last thing she'd ever do.
Arley swung the metal rod and the glass splintered; she swung again and with a hiss the glass shattered and the air from the inside of the pod polled out around the pods base in an icy cloud.
The clone's hand, as he stretched it, cracked and the horns of the genomorph Gnomes above him glowed red; just as the one that had been perched on the Guardians shoulder had done before he led the other genomorph monsters into attacking her.
The clone's eyes opened and for a moment everything stilled, including the air in Arley's lungs, and then, faster than a speeding bullet, the clone lunged at her. The metal rod she'd had in her hands flew across the room.
Arley and the clone rolled to the ground and the clone threw a punch clean across her face; Arley's head spun but the girl pushed her legs up and brought her knees to her chest as she was hit again.
She saw stars as she kicked the clone off of her.
Scrambling away, Arley threw her ring arm out in front of her only to quickly remember that her ring didn't work. Her costume and mask were still on so it wasn't like it was dead— and it wasn't like it could be because Arley had not only charged it that morning but before she and the boys had left the Hall —so why were no constructs appearing?
Why hadn't she been able to call John and Hal?
Arley felt her stomach drop as she rolled to avoid another attack, it was like learning to fly all over again; looking down at the ground and only thinking of the sound you'd make when you'd fall.
Only thinking about the aftermath that followed the splat.
Arley made a break for the rod that'd gone flying only for the clone to grab her by the back of her uniform and send her flying; Arley's back hit the cave wall and by the time her eyes opened back up to the spinning room the clone was practically on top of her.
The clone's right hand had caught Arley by her throat. Arley had of course been hit throughout her lifetime; she had been shot at and almost skewered by dozens of alien weapons throughout her time as a Lantern; but she had never had another person's hands wrapped around her neck.
He brought her up into the air and as he held her there Arley— clawing at his hand —thought he'd snap her neck but he didn't, instead he just kept squeezing and squeezing and squeezing.
Black spots dotted her vision and her legs kicked out at the clone, and suddenly as she heard, over the aircraft jet level pounding in her ears the doors burst open with a booming explosion. Arley, through the black dots that danced around her vision, fought to see who had done it.
To see if it was the League; only to be greeted with the sight of the Guardian, an auburn haired scientist, their hoard of genomorph monsters and Vandal Savage.
Savage, an immortal Neanderthal who murdered Lantern after Lantern in the hopes of obtaining their ring, smirked at Arley, like the cat who'd caught the Canary. Arley saw the scientist— the auburn-haired, lab coat wearing man —behind Savage mouth something from the corner of her vision.
The clone dropped her and Arley, whose eyes were on Savage, watched as the Neanderthal approached her.
Arley could hear herself trying to breathe over the pounding in her ears; gasping loudly for breath. She couldn't think— she couldn't come up with a plan to get out of the room and away from Savage —she could barely breathe despite being free of the clones' grip.
Arley flipped onto her back and Savage peered over her, the man sneered down at her and brought his large and heavy looking boot up.
Arley had been hit before, she'd been shot and stabbed and— throughout her tenure as a Lantern —she'd certainly been stomped out as well.
So she knew what to expect when Savage brought his foot down onto her face, forcing her under into the blackness that had been clawing at the corners of her vision.
Notes: And I'm back with more Lightspeed! So I guess we need to get a few things in order before we go:
First off, this is a Young Justice / Teen Titans cross over. Sort of. You'll understand the more the story progresses I promise but seeing as I'm taking more from Young Justice than Teen Titans I've tagged it solely under YJ.
Second, because this is a major AU (the blending of two very different DCU's will do that) certain things will obviously not be the same. Be nice, please; if you hate the story just don't read it, I don't need to be told I'm a terrible person again just because you don't like how I do my hobby. (This point is not for everyone, most all of you are very lovely people, but you know who you are so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
Third, this story is rated T but it dose deal with things like torture; on other sites I have the tag 'Implied/Referenced Torture' but since I can't outright tag that here I want to let you all know just incase it's not something you're comfortable reading. (There will be no Implied/Reference's to sexual assault though so you do not have to worry about that).
Fourth, if you do like the story, please leave a comment!
And lastly, updates will be anything from weekly to bi-weekly.