Tempest: Chapter Seven: Release From Punishment


"I can't believe you!" Amara bemoaned, burying her face into her pillow and grumbling for good measure as her cousin stood in front of her, grinning widely in his Kid Flash outfit.

Wally had just gotten back from his first patrol with Barry as the Flash's sidekick and he'd met his first super-criminal, Captain Cold, a thief armed with a cold gun to combat against Flash and Kid Flash's speed, as cold was the stanch opposite of speed.

There was a patch of ice melting on Wally's left shoulder pad and a more significant piece on his right arm, but Wally's eyes were bright and his freckled cheeks were flushed with color.

"I would give anything for a super-criminal!" Amara complained, lifting her head to scowl at the boy in question. "Being grounded is the worst!"

"At least it's almost done," Wally offered easily and Amara threw him a betrayed look.

"You're not supposed to side with them!" She accused. "You're supposed to side with me, you're my best friend!"

Wally gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders helplessly before an eager expression flitted across his face. "Hey, did I tell you after we got Captain Cold locked up that we ran over to Gotham?"

That got Amara's attention and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Gotham? Isn't that a bit far for you?"

Wally glowered.

"What? It's an honest question," she said with a bit of a defensive note to her voice. "What if you'd completely exhausted yourself on the way over and completely burned yourself out?"

"Have you ever done that?" Wally countered with a question himself and Amara could tell she'd hit the nail on the head with how he quickly averted his eyes, becoming a bit flustered.

Amara smiled slyly. She would bet anything that the pair had to make a brief pit stop along the way in order for Wally to consume something that would give him energy to burn.

"Three times," Amara admitted, fiddling with the strap of her sling. Her arm was almost completely healed and her grounding period was nearly completed and she couldn't wait to be back out on the streets. On the upside, she was ahead on her studies for the first time in forever (only Iris and Barry could call that an upside; Amara just scowled whenever her schooling was brought up). "Lightning storms was difficult to control and even harder to create from scratch."

One she had been attempting to control had proved far too straining for Amara to contain at the same time as keeping herself hovering in the air, and Amara had passed out midair.

Roy had had to catch her with one of his grappling arrows before she could become nothing more than a splat on the ground (well, maybe not a splat, but something remarkably similar).

"But I only almost killed myself once," she added cheerfully and Wally goggled at her for good measure.

"You are completely insane," he decided with a finality of one who had at long last come to a startling realization, which was incredibly ironic given how many years he had known Amara.

"Sometimes you've just got to crash the mode," Amara said with a careless shrug, seeming not to care about her supposed insanity. "Live a little, Wally, or you might become boring."

"Boring?" Her cousin spluttered, his expression aghast and Amara couldn't help but giggle at the sight of it on his face.

"I won't become boring!" he declared with certainty.

"Mmhm," Amara hummed in a dry tone, deftly ducking under the pillow he aimed at her head. "So you went to Gotham?" They had completely drifted away from the point of the earlier conversation and Amara only just remembered what they'd been speaking of.

"Oh, yeah!" Wally said, grinning widely. "Met Batman! It was so cool!"

"Was he as silent and brooding as Dad says?" Amara asked in curiosity. She had never met the Dark Knight, mostly because most of her time was spent either in Central City or in Star City, but he was one of the founding members of the Justice League and a bit well known for being somber and serious.

"Even more so," Wally agreed, bouncing on her bed by vibrating his limbs a bit too much until Amara shocked him with two fingers. "You've never met him?"

Amara shook her head. "I haven't met too many of the Leaguers." She ticked them off on her fingers. "I've met: Black Canary, Green Arrow, Flash (obviously), Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, once…she's totally awesome! But not Batman."

"Well, he had his sidekick with him," Wally continued, slightly happy that he had something under his belt that Amara didn't, especially when one considered she'd started much earlier than him.

"Robin?" Amara asked, arching an eyebrow as she lifted her head from where she'd previously flopped down onto her bed.

"You've met him, then?"

"Not technically," Amara wheedled, screwing up her face slightly. "Our paths crossed when I was in Gotham…looking for Speedy. He snagged me with his grappler and dragged me across the ground before I dived off the building."

"You don't sound too upset about it," Wally noticed.

"Well, it's not like he was a bad guy," Amara had to concede. "And GA stitched me up afterwards—"

"He made you need stitches?" Wally asked, startled as he looked at her, his mouth gaping.

"No, I already needed stitches at that point," Amara said, waving a careless hand. "But the point is…we haven't really spoken, but you have, so, do you like him?"

"I suppose he's alright," Wally uttered evasively.

Amara's eyes glinted slightly. "He's already your new best friend, isn't he?"

Wally didn't bother to deny that.


The day Amara got her cast off was the day she ran around the Cave cart-wheeling and doing a number of handstands that ultimately resulted in her crumpling to the ground with the lack of strength in the arm that was now healed. But that didn't stop her from doing it a few dozen times.

Or course, getting back to full strength was another matter entirely, as she hadn't been keeping up with her training in order to focus all of her energy on healing. This led Dinah to pound her into the ground, even the day she had her cast removed.

Then she was dragged by Black Canary to the Queen manor for lunch with Oliver and Roy.

"He's insisting that you at least eat a spoonful of his chili," Dinah told her as they stepped over the threshold, faintly amused and faintly disturbed.

Amara stared at her, not sure if she should take the woman seriously. "Chili? As in…the Chili?"

The Chili is more than a tiny bit famous; it was practically legendary among the Leaguers. The only people known to actually enjoy eating the Chili was Oliver himself and Batman. It was probably most infamous in how it could make grown men cry.

Amara had seen Barry's face go completely bloodless at its merest mention of it; she gathered he was one of the men that cried from consuming it.

"What kind of flowers do you want at your funeral?" Roy asked when he answered the door, ignoring the reproachful glare that Dinah spared him as the two females entered.

Amara blinked and stared at her partner for good measure. "You're being serious, aren't you?"

The Chili had always been a bit of a joke to her.

Roy snapped his fingers. "What flower, Storm Warning?"

Amara gave him a sharp glower. "How about poison ivy instead? That way I can have the last laugh and cause you discomfort from beyond the grave."

A smile broke across Dinah's face and Amara could hear Oliver's booming laugh from within what must have been the kitchen area. Roy's cheeks flushed with color and gave off the impression of an animal cornered by its predators.

"So…what's exactly in the famous Chili?" Amara asked, elbowing Roy in the spleen that made him grunt with slight pain that had more to do with just how bony her elbows were.

When Roy started ticking off each and every ingredient as if he'd seen it made so many times that he could make it himself but chose not to for the safety of others, Amara could feel her mouth gaping more and more.

"Well, you've got sirloin, cumin, paprika, cayenne, minced onion, green pepper, minced garlic—" His blue eyes were screwed up and Amara could almost imagine that he was seeing his adoptive father making the chili in his mind's eye. "—black pepper, salt, dried basil, California chili powder, Gebhardt chili powder, Hot New Mexico chili powder (Amara's eye twitched at how many different chili powders Oliver would be adding to the chili), tomatoes, tomato sauce, red kidney beans, brown sugar, and Tobasco." He glanced towards Dinah. "Did I miss anything?"

The blonde-haired woman smirked. "Water, Roy."

"And water," Roy added, "but that doesn't really help the taste."

"And you can't officially call yourself a Leaguer until you've tasted Oliver's Chili," Dinah added sweetly, but her tongue was far too sharp for Amara to trust it.

Roy's smile was a bit too vindictive for her liking.

"This is going to set me back," Amara sighed, "I just know it."

And she allowed Dinah to steer her into the kitchen where her senses were assaulted by thick spices. Oliver was standing over the stove, stirring a ladle through a very thick and murky liquid. Amara eyed it apprehensively.

Thankfully, the Chili didn't seem to be the only food of value in the kitchen, so thankfully once she'd died from eating the Chili she'd be able to eat something meant to be digested by humans.

"Ah, Amy, there you are!" Oliver's eyes glittered as he smiled at her, looking up from his stirring, seemingly unaware that he looked frankly quite ridiculous with his floral-patterned apron. "Come in, you can help me!"

Dinah gave her boyfriend a half-smile as Amara placed her jacket over a stool and meandered towards the man. He nudged a stool towards her and Amara hoped up onto it in order to be taller than the counter and the pot (she hadn't had much of a growth spurt, but she was sure that was coming up soon for her).

Oliver had always been very kind to Amara, very indulgent. He explained things patiently and corrected her when she did something wrong; Dinah surmised that it was something he had adopted when he began training Roy who was full of snarky comments and fire. He was far more patient than Dinah could be sometimes.

The kindness had stretched into fondness after what was now dubbed the 'Speedy Incident'.

Amara wrinkled her nose as the spices tingled it as she kept the systematic stirring that Oliver had instructed her to continue as he pulled out a spare bowl from a cupboard and a spoon from another before turning it off and ladling chili into the bowl.

"Here you go!" he said cheerfully. "One bowl of chili!"

Amara looked down at the mixture in her hands dubiously. It didn't seem very life-threatening, at least not to the level that Roy considered it to be.

But best get it over with quickly.

She scooped a spoonful and swallowed it quickly, not noticing Roy's wince or Dinah's grimace.

It burned all the way down, but not unlike when she'd tried buffalo chicken for the first time. It was a manageable hot that might force her to take a few gulps of milk before she finished the bowl, but she didn't think it was going to kill her.

"It's good," she said and Dinah actually gaped as Roy fell over his feet to tumble to the ground and Oliver positively beamed. "Could use some more salt, though, for a bit of kick."

Oliver's laugh belled out to fill the whole room as he pushed the salt shaker towards Amara who shook it carefully over her chili before diving back in.


It was more out of convenience when Kid Flash, Storm Chaser, Speedy, and Robin officially met.

Their mentors had dragged them along to a Leaguer's only meeting and set them in a room off from the main one at the Hall of Justice.

Storm Chaser, Robin noted, didn't look all that different in good lighting, and it was clear she was used to operating in a level of darkness.

She wore mostly black, just as she had the night they'd met, with the only varying of color being the thick stripe of grey from her neck to her waist. Her outfit was formfitting, easy for maneuvering in small spaces, but there were two silvery batons strapped to her thighs that hadn't been there before.

Her hair was spiky as though with static and the black mask over her eyes didn't hide their green color that was similar but not quite the color of KF's.

She crossed her arms and smirked at the speedster in question from where she was perched on Speedy's armchair as the archer inspected a few of his arrows.

"So," she said, "what's it like playing catch-up?"

Wally pouted behind his mask. "You're no fun."

Robin arched an eyebrow at the familiarity that was clear in the way they spoke to one another.

"Arrowhead," Storm Chaser implored her partner and Robin could see her fluttering her eyelids in an exaggerated manner that didn't even garner a response from the older boy, "am I any fun?"

"Absolutely not, Storm Warning," Speedy drawled. "You're too much work to be fun."

Kid Flash –Wally West, Robin reminded himself of his friend's name– roared with laughter at Speedy's words whilst Storm Chaser gave the archer an outraged look.

"Speedy!" she complained. "You can't say that about me! I got grounded for almost three months for saving your sorry behind!"

"That has nothing to do with whether or not you're fun," he reminded her as Wally's laughs died down into hiccupping giggles.

"Oh, that's great," Wally said, wiping the tears that had formed from his laughter with his thumb. "Amy, you didn't say he was a riot!"

Storm Chaser rolled her eyes behind her mask and Speedy turned his domino mask on her, jerking a thumb towards the other red-head.

"You told him about me?" he asked, faintly surprised.

"Oh, don't get ahead of yourself, Arrowhead," Storm Chaser scoffed. "I tell everyone I know about you."

"But you don't know that many people," Speedy pointed out for good measure.

For his trouble, Storm Chaser gave him a good pinch to the arm.

Then green eyes swept to where Robin was positioned and she grinned.

"Hello," she said, "we should probably be properly introduced now that you're not trying to tie me up and I'm not trying to ransack a warehouse in Gotham."

Robin couldn't help the short laugh that parted from his lips. "Sure," he said, not bothering to get up, but that seemed to be fine with her, "I'm Robin."

"The Wonder Boy," Storm Chaser hummed.

"Boy Wonder," he corrected, but he got the feeling that she'd garbled that name of his on purpose, given how she waved a hand carelessly.

"Minor details," she said before pointing her hand towards herself. "Obviously, I'm Storm Chaser, or Amara Allen, but people just call me Amy, and this is Speedy, yes, he always acts like he's got a stick up his butt—"

Speedy knocked her right off the arm of his chair without so much as a thought and she fell to the ground gracelessly.

"You already know my cousin," Amara added, nodding towards Wally who gave his friend a cheeky grin and a jaunty wave, "Wally the science nerd."

"Hey! You say that like I'm the only science nerd in the family!"

"Some of us have more class," Amara countered.

"Coming from the girl whose favorite color is black—"

"Wait," Robin interjected, looking between Wally and Amara. Amara with her grey hair and Wally with his red; if Robin hadn't known the identity of Amara's biological father and known she was adoptive he would have found the pair being cousins as highly unlikely. "She's the cousin you mentioned?"

Amara pressed a hand to her heart, smiling at Wally. "Aw, Wally! You told him about me?"

"Shaddup!"

"You're a menace," Speedy said.

"I also have the ability to electrocute you," Amara reminded him quite cheerfully, and Robin was almost certain that the older boy was rolling his eyes behind his domino mask.

"So," she added, leaning forward slightly, eyes glinting as they flickered between Wally and Robin, "how'd you and the little bird meet?"

There was a short silence –you could have heard a cricket chirp, if there had been crickets in the room– and then Wally was positively howling with laughter whilst Robin's lips drew downwards into a frown.

"Nothing?" she asked, slightly exasperated by his response, astutely ignoring her cousin.

That made his lips twitch slightly. "Were you expecting something?"

"A bit more of a reaction," Amara admitted, appearing faintly downtrodden. "But, oh well."

"Little Bird?" Wally crowed, falling completely off the chair he'd been sitting in to slump onto the floor. "Oh, that's golden!"

Robin cast his friend an annoyed glance when both Speedy and Amara raised a hand to the comm.-link still lodged in their ears.

"We're here," Speedy intoned.

A short silence followed that until Amara spoke.

"On our way," she said, grimacing towards Speedy who responded with a similar expression. "We'll let you know when we've got eyes on him."

"Duty calls," she said to the remaining two boys as she took the keys Speedy tossed in her direction as the boy shouldered his bow. "Got to go catch a criminal, later!"

"I should be more worried that my eleven year old cousin is going to be driving a motorcycle, shouldn't I?" Wally commented wryly.

Robin burst into sniggers. "Probably."


The thing Amara really didn't get was what Barry had against her being involved with anything plant related. It wasn't as though she was learning to throw knives (well, actually, she technically was, but that was beside the point), it was flowers and plants, possibly the least threatening things in the world that could possibly be used as a weapon.

Amara's life was pretty simply. She did her online classes and trained with Black Canary during the day and had dinner with her family (on the good nights) and went off to fight crime once night had fallen.

She didn't communicate much with people outside of the League, mostly because she didn't really feel the need and also because she wasn't all that great at speaking with other people.

But, she was great at turning into a ball of fire.

"Definitely something shady going on," Amara muttered around the straw of her raspberry lemonade and Roy looked over his shades at her, swallowing his bite of pizza.

"It's not that much money that's gone missing," he pointed out.

Amara gave him a look. "What's not a lot of money to you could pay for me to attend private school, Roy…rich boys, you've got no idea who life works."

Roy's eyebrow twitched at her words. "Coming from an eleven year old with high pain tolerance?"

"Where do you think I picked up high pain tolerance?" Amara countered just as swiftly. "Besides, Oliver wouldn't have asked us to look into it if it was nothing."

A substantial bit of money had gone missing from Oliver's company, Queen Industries. It was enough to raise questions but not enough to greatly impact the company. He and Dinah had thought it would be a good way to test Roy and Amara's investigative skills.

"If it is someone within the company, and that's pretty likely, then it has to be a recent development," Roy told her after stealing her lemonade, ignoring her glare for him doing so.

"What makes you say that?" she asked curiously.

"Everyone has a criminal background screening before they can work at Queen Industries," Roy said as she dragged the plate of pizza towards her. "None of the employees have any connection with embezzlement, or Oliver would have found them as soon as the money disappeared."

Amara hummed in agreement, glancing up and grimacing. "Maybe we should have done this in Star City."

"Why?" Roy's brow wrinkled. "Your secret identity causes much less of a fuss than mine."

"Yeah, but at least you don't have your father's coworker's son belittling you every chance he gets because he thinks that since you're homeschooled there's something wrong with you and his dad doesn't like your dad so there's also that," Amara muttered under her breath.

"Sounds like you've got loads of problems," Roy said, his eyes sweeping in the direction that she had been looking. He assumed it was the biggest in the group of three. The boy in question looked to be about two years older than Amara and a good bit taller.

"How about we finish this at your place?" he offered when the boy looked up and smirked as though finding a target most desired.

"Sure," Amara said with a bit of relief before grinning widely. "And Mom just bought some ice cream, so that's something to look forward to."

Roy shook his head as they threw away their plates. "You have a one track mind, Amy."

"Ice cream is the food of the gods," Amara declared as she shoved her laptop back in her bag, hoisting it up onto her shoulder. "And anyone that says different is just kidding themselves."

"I'm sure," he drawled as they left the fast food joint that had been their makeshift headquarters while they were eating.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Amy."

Amara's hand tightened over Roy's briefly as she glared at the boy in question. "Thomas, I'd say pick on someone your own size, but I don't think even you'd understand what that means."

Roy blinked twice. He'd never actually heard Amara insult someone to incite harm.

"All big and strong for your boyfriend, here," Thomas sneered. "I wonder if he knows what you're like when he's not around."

Amara's eyes glinted darkly, and then she knocked his feet out from under him, gripped Roy's hand tightly and made a mad dash away, cackling crazily. "Still strong enough to knock you on your butt, moron!"

She was completely insane, Roy knew fervently, but he couldn't help but laugh with her.