Tempest: Chapter Eight: Father of Storm Chaser


"How was your day?" A voice chirped on the other end of the phone Richard Grayson, known affectionately as Dick, had just answered.

"Are you really that bored, Amy?" he asked, smirking and quirking an eyebrow that she couldn't see.

What he didn't know was that the metahuman was sprawled on her bed with her head dangling off one side and her legs off the opposite side, grinning widely.

"Aw, how'd you guess, Rob?"

After their initial meeting, the youngest of the sidekicks hit it off quite well, owing undoubtedly to their similar age. Roy and Wally were great, but they were both a few years older than her, and Robin was fun!

"You do realize how late it is in Gotham, don't you?" Dick asked wryly, glancing to the alarm at his bedside table.

"Oops." Amara uttered regretfully and Dick could imagine the sheepish smile present on her lips. "Sorry, little bird, in need of some sleep?"

Dick's left eyebrow twitched. "You're going to keep calling me that, aren't you?"

"One day you will get used to my annoying nicknames, I promise," Amara replied in a voice contrary to her previous tone, one that clearly said she didn't regret a single thing. "Speedy tends to go with it, these days…but I've annoyed him enough for today, so you're my next target."

Dick rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. "I feel so honored," he told her dryly, causing giggles to ensue on the other end that Amara tried hard to stifle, ending with a sharp hiss that Dick knew a little too well. "Are you alright?"

"A busted rib," Amara admitted, switching the phone to her non-dominant hand and opposite ear as she lifted her head slightly and slid up her shirt to see where her skin was bruised and where she'd taped the rib. The bruise wasn't quite so large as it had been before –thank God for metahuman healing, hm?– and the throbbing had gone done. "Don't worry," she added, "everything's crash, and I don't have training with Black Canary tomorrow, so that's great for my wounded body."

"You are totally milking it."

"Am not!" Amara insisted. "I actually don't have training with Black Canary, but it's not because I got injured…I was probably more wounded a week ago when I got run over…"

"You were run over?" Dick demanded, startled, sitting up in bed, suddenly wide awake. His mouth gaped and mouthed wordlessly; how could she be so blasé about that?

"It wasn't that bad," Amara said in a manner that she thought it was a bit bad but didn't really want to admit it. "I looked better than the week before that when Speedy fell off a building."

Dick shook his head, relaxing in his bed. "You're an adrenaline junky," he told her firmly.

"Probably," Amara agreed, remarkably unconcerned by that assessment. "But I'm a junky with class, little bird, and at the end of the night, that's all that matters…that and keeping up on my math class, because I just know Dad's not going to be impressed with my grade in the class…"

A laugh escaped Dick at that comment. He knew from the many extensive conversations he'd had with Wally and Amara that their favorite subject by far was science, he also knew that Amara had trouble like you wouldn't believe trying to work on her math problems. She was very open about her failures, which was amusing slightly, mostly because how Wally reacted which went from "F for fantastic, Amy, don't you forget it!" to "C for complete amazing, Amy, even better than fantastic!"

He played the role of doting older cousin well that Dick easily mistook them for siblings.

"Anything fun happening in Gotham right now?"

Definitely an adrenaline junky looking for their next fix.

"Don't you have a busted rib?" he prompted.

"Oh…yeah."

"You're the craziest person I know," he said with a note of fond exasperation.

Amara winked at her ceiling, but she was sure he could practically feel it. "It's what I'm good for, little bird. A little crazy is good for the soul…what's Catwoman like?"

"Why?" Dick asked, instantly suspicious. That was a jump in topics, even for Amara who was a literal stream of consciousness.

"Speedy doesn't want me to meet her," Amara mused thoughtfully, running a hand through her hair, "maybe I'll pick up some bad habits!"

She sounded entirely cheerful at the prospect.

Dick rubbed at his eyes, feeling the need for him to fall asleep arising once more as his eyes fell shut.

"You still awake, little bird?"

Her voice forced its way through the fog that was infesting his brain, but all Dick wanted was for it to go away so he could sleep.

"Amy," he murmured tiredly, "I have class early in the morning, so I'm going to hang up on you."

"Nighty-night, little bird!" she chirped cheerfully before he shut off the phone.

Amara looked at her phone with a frown. Maybe she shouldn't have bothered Robin, but she needed someone to talk to, and Dinah and Oliver weren't telling her or Roy anything, and they were going to a secret meeting with the League.

She just wanted to talk to someone that wasn't going to bother lying to her, and Barry wasn't at the top of that list (he was, after all, the first to lie to her and also the first to be caught because he was so terrible at it).

What she didn't know was why a League meeting had to be a secret, it wasn't as if the sidekicks didn't know that their mentors attended meetings before, it happened more often than was thought of.

They were up to something, that much Amara knew for sure.


"They're up to something, I just know it!"

The sidekicks were gathered in the Queen Manor, mostly because it was the easiest place for them to be without drawing attention to themselves. The Batcave was out of the question, mostly because Batman was probably the most paranoid of the Leaguers and only a few were actually allowed there, and not everyone had an authorization code for the Cave yet (and by not everyone, she meant Wally), so that left the Arrowcave.

"If they were up to something it would be more obvious," Roy said, effortlessly blocking a strike to the side she'd bruised earlier.

"Says you," Amara grumbled, twisting the batons in her hands, hitting one of his legs with one and knocking the other out from under him by the free one. "Win for me!"

Wally cheered at the sidelines and Amara leapt over the leg swipe Roy aimed at her.

"It's not some conspiracy," Roy grumbled, "sometimes GA doesn't tell me things."

"No, but that's not the point," Amara said with a scowl as she took his arm, pulling him up into a standing position. "It's that they're actively lying to my face…maybe it's about me," she contemplated.

"Not everything's about you, Storm Warning," he drawled.

That earned him an elbow in the side.

"Uncle B is hiding something," Wally agreed with his cousin, his green eyes glinting in the lighting as he swung his legs to and fro under the bench that Robin was perched on top of the bench in a manner distinctly like the bird for which he was named. "He's a terrible liar, that's what Aunt I always says." He threw a bottle of water in Amara's general direction.

"Well, she's not wrong," Amara conceded, grabbing the bottle out of the air. "It's like when Dad takes me to S.T.A.R. Labs for 'routine testing'…I know those tests aren't routine, but does that stop him from taking me, no!"

"What's he expect to find?" Robin asked, tilting his head slightly.

"No idea," Amara groaned, plunking down on the ground, the muscles of her legs strained. "No one tells me anything…I'm the least trustworthy, you know."

"Why's that?" Wally asked, his ginger eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"'Cause of your biological father?" Robin questioned and Amara's eyes fastened on his despite them being hidden behind his domino mask.

"How do you know about him?" she asked suspiciously, eyes narrowing and hands unwillingly tightening into fists.

Robin realized more as an afterthought that Amara hadn't told anyone other than her parents about the identity of her biological father, going off the uncomprehending looks on the other twos face and he felt instantly remorseful. "Um, sorry—I might have hacked your file."

"You hacked my file?" Amara's eyebrows stretched high on her forehead, surprise clear as day on her face before she laughed. "Should I be flattered or concerned?"

"A bit of both?" Robin grinned in reply.

"So, who is daddy dearest?" Wally piped up. He had always wanted to know the identity of Amara's real parents, especially since it had been incredibly likely that one or both of them were metahumans, given Amara's status as one, but Amara never spoke about them, so he hadn't bothered to bring it up.

"Take a guess."

"Good or bad?" Roy asked first.

"Bad," Amara said shortly.

The red-heads shared a look.

"What?" she demanded.

"Well, you're probably the goodest person I know," Wally said with a shrug. "It's just really ironic."

"Goodest isn't a word," Roy pointed out with a snort, but Wally merely swatted him away. "Is it the Weather Wizard?"

Amara choked on her gulp of water and spluttered as she attempted to swallow the drink.

Robin gave a light laugh as Amara struggled to right herself.

"So it is Weather Wizard!" Wally jabbed a finger in her direction. "I knew it!"

"You did not!" Robin elbowed his best friend right off the bench. "I'm more curious about how Amy doesn't require a wand like Weather Wizard does."

"You mean…you really aren't bothered by it?" Green eyes flicked from one boy to the next.

"That's what you were worried about?" Roy demanded, waving his hands as he spoke. "I knew about your father months ago, I was just waiting for you to tell me."

"Besides," Robin added, "you aren't your family. No one in the League doubts you because of who your father is, at least, no one that I can see."

Amara gave him a curious glance.

"Hey, detective," the dark-haired boy gestured to himself.

"If you say so," Wally sniggered from the ground, leaning back quickly to avoid being kicked by his younger friend.

"But the League meeting was only between Green Arrow, Black Canary, Flash, and Batman," Robin mused aloud, "which is hardly a League meeting, there's not enough Leaguers present…"

"What're you saying?" Roy asked, crossing his arms, his forehead wrinkling.

"Well, they're all Leaguers who have been in direct contact with Storm Chaser on a frequent basis, Batman's probably just there because he's heading the League right now," Robin pondered before looking towards the only female of their group. "Have you ever been in to visit your father in prison?"

"Of course not," Amara said, severely startled by the question. "The last time I saw him was when he tried to electrocute Dad and got me instead." She winced at the memory; it had been far more painful than anything she had experienced since.

"Belle Reve is nearly impossible to escape out of, though," Wally offered shrewdly. "But if I was Uncle B and my daughter's biological father broke out of prison, I'd want to keep her as unaware as possible."

Amara's lips gaped open at the prospect and Roy watched as her face went entirely bloodless at the thought of Weather Wizard escaping from prison.

"There's an easy way to find out," Robin said suddenly, moving swiftly to the computer, his fingers darting over the keyboard. "Hang on a second…" The light of the monitor flashed as he sifted through information. "Current list of Belle Reve inmates…there's no Mark Mardon listed."

Fear clenched around her heart.


"How could you not tell me he was out?"

Amara had ambushed her father as soon as he came home (she'd been sitting on the second floor landing waiting for his car to pull in for the better part of half of an hour), swinging down a few stairs to land in front of him, a move that would have made her stumble back when she was ten, but now she was a seasoned pro.

"Amy," Barry released a sigh as he shook out the umbrella before leaning it against the wall, "what have I told you about hacking into the League system? The flash drive Dinah got for you is not to be used like that—"

"I didn't hack into the League system," Amara said with a scowl, "that was Robin."

Barry arched an eyebrow at that. "Well," he said with an air of exhaustion as she trailed after him into the living room where he flopped down onto the couch tiredly, "I'll be having a word with Batman about that sidekick of his."

"Dad!" She drew out the word in complaint, not wanting to get her friend in trouble but also wanting her father to tell her if what Robin had found held any truth. "Is Weather Wizard out of prison?"

Blue eyes fastened on green and Amara was unwilling to break under the stare of her adoptive father.

"Yes," he said finally, "earlier today your father broke out of prison."

Amara's breath caught somewhere deep in her throat and her heart throbbed in her chest.

Barry watched her reaction with careful eyes. Amara may now call him father, but he was well aware that that title belonged to someone else, but Mark Mardon had lost that right the day he'd nearly killed his only child. Barry's daughter was a combination of fear, anxiety, and determination and anything in between. It was hard to tell just what exactly she was thinking of, only that the thoughts had to do with her biological father.

"Is he going to come after me?" she asked him suddenly, her voice failing and shaking in a way that made Barry what to hold to his chest, but he restrained himself briefly for the sake of speaking plainly with her.

"I don't know," Barry said honestly. "But we'll all be on our guard in case he does."

Amara said nothing to that, and then she disappeared up the stairs faster than Barry could blink, which was saying something since Barry was, after all, the Flash.

"Amy?" he called after her, taking a step forward when her door slammed shut after her. "Amy—"

"I don't want to talk to anyone!" was called from beyond the door, muffled slightly by the door between her and the hall.

Amara leaned her back against the door, breathing in and out deeply as she brought her knees up to her chest, hiding her face against them.

She didn't miss her father, not by a long shot, and she certainly found Barry and Iris to be far better parents than Mark Mardon had ever been. But it was strange, because he'd wanted to see her for years, since he'd first been thrown into prison. Belle Reve allowed phone calls to the outside, just like any other prison, and just like those calls, they were monitored and recorded. But Amara (or Barry and Iris if the calls came in when Amara wasn't around) never answered the phone, letting it ring continuously.

It was more worrying where he'd gotten her home phone number.

Her own phone gave a buzz and the name 'Arrowhead' appeared.

The phone was at her ear in an instant. "Yeah, what is it? Another mission?"

She knew she sounded entirely too hopeful for chaos in Star City.

"Sorry, no go," Roy said, and he did sound a bit regretfully, no doubt owing to Weather Wizard's breakout and understanding her need to do something. "Ollie and I are joining up with Aquaman and Aqualad –we'll probably be back sometime around Thursday."

"Oh," Amara said in disappointment, rubbing her hand against her eyes. That meant three days of Star City being without its Green Arrow and Speedy, which meant Black Canary and Storm Chaser would have to pick up the slack.

She had never met either Aquaman or Aqualad, but water and lightning weren't a good mix, unless you were trying to amplify the strength of the lightning. However, Aqualad could generate electricity in a similar manner to Amara, so they weren't so different, barring the whole use of hydrokinesis on Aqualad's part.

But if Roy liked him, that was good enough for her.

"Keep an eye on things for us, will you?"

She could hear things rustling in the background and she surmised that the pair were at one of GA's storage spaces, collecting their gear and weapons.

"We'll try," Amara promised. "You try not to get yourself captured again."

"Ha-ha, very funny," Roy drawled out in annoyance, "you are never going to let that slide, are you?"

"Never," she swore, grinning now. "Don't worry about me and Dinah, we're tougher than we look –obviously– we can handle Star City for three days…I mean what's the worst that could possibly happen?"

But she had a feeling that no matter what, someone was going to take advantage of the fact that Green Arrow was gone.


Two motorcycles raced down the street, heading towards the most recent criminal activity, which happened to be a robbery.

"Green Arrow and Speedy are gone one day and everything goes to hell," Amara swore –something her mother wouldn't approve of–, tightening her grip on the bike's handles.

"That goes to show who they think is the more dangerous of the four of us," Dinah's voice echoed in her ear followed swiftly by a snort. "Why don't we change their minds?" Amara could practically hear her smirk.

"Don't mind if we do," Amara replied just as eagerly as the robbers made their way out of the store in time to be shocked into unconsciousness by a stray lightning bolt or have their balance impaired by the damage done to their ears by Dinah's Canary Cry.

The whirring police siren told both female superheroes that they didn't need to stick around, so they went off on their way once more.

"You'd think it was Halloween," Amara mused.

"Why's that?"

"Well, usually all the crazy stuff happens on Halloween," Amara explained, "its like the one day out of the year when the psychos think they can get away with crime…like remember last year when the Clock King attacked and we had seventeen other crimes in the time span of a few hours?"

"Ah, yes, I do remember," Black Canary hummed in agreement. "We're going to have to split up, there's entirely too much ground to cover with us down by two."

"Right," Amara said and they turned in opposite directions, racing off towards the north and south parts of the city.

The streets were far from being deserted, but at the very least they weren't packed, because it was hard to fight crime when there were road blocks (well, it wouldn't be a problem for Barry or Wally, but they were the only exceptions).

She'd gotten hardly one hundred yards when she noticed the car trailing beside her and she twisted her head to look to the side before quickly breaking to avoid the bullet fired from the gun that had been aiming at her.

Clearly there'd been an increase in gang activity since Amara's last patrol.

Too bad.

Amara snapped her fingers and lightning created from the friction of her fingertips, went from her hands to flow under the car and cause a small explosion that made the car flip over.

"Amateurs," Amara snorted as she drove past.

Luckily, for the most part it seemed that those out committing crimes tonight were those of the smaller variety, which was to say minor felonies.

But it was still exhausting, given just how many crimes were being committed. It almost made Amara wish that Oliver and Roy would hurry up with Aquaman and Aqualad and come back to give them a hand, but she and Dinah could definitely handle this on their own.

"Storm Chaser."

"Here," Amara supplied helpfully as she watched the SCPD arrive to take away the most recent culprit to crimes of the night ("Indecent exposure, huh? That ain't something you should be showing people"; Amara found she'd learned more about the male anatomy than she probably ever wanted to know).

"There's been a disturbance at Queen Industries," Black Canary said, "you're closer than I am—"

"Right," Amara said, reasserting the helmet over her head and settling onto the motorcycle as she gave a swift salute to one of the policemen she was familiar with; he waggled his fingers in return before berating the exposed man with a distasteful look on his face. "I'm on my way."

Queen Industries was a large building, and large was quite the understatement, and even as late as it was, light still illuminated the many levels and Amara could see the outlines of a number of people, and that was curious. It made her wonder just what kind of disturbance it had been if there were still people working.

If the employees hadn't felt the need to leave, to get as far away from the building as possible, then it must not have been anything major…maybe a few loud disagreements between each others.

Amara decided to take to the roof first, firing the grappler from her utility belt, just managing to snag on the level below the roof, and then she was being dragged upwards.

But something was off, not with the people within the building, no, it seemed they had no idea there had been a disturbance at all, it more had to do with the fact that there was a few stray black arrows lodged into side of the building, ones that definitely hadn't been there the last time she had visited.

A sickly sense of foreboding settled deep in Amara's stomach, even before she swung up to land on the ledge only to find herself facing a figure cloaked in black and aiming a notched arrow at her from an equally dark bow.

He moved as fast as Oliver, if not faster, so fast in fact that Amara hardly saw it coming before the arrow lodged into one shoulder below her clavicle.

A gasp was ripped from her lips at the white-hot pain of the arrow splitting her flesh, almost going right through her.

The pain made it difficult to focus, but the bolt of lightning she flung towards the hooded figure was more powerful than usual, and barely dodged, giving him a mild shock, but it didn't stop the next shot from lodging in her chest.

Amara stumbled and fell back, falling down, down, down…the ground was getting closer and closer until she forced the air to thicken under her, keeping her from becoming a stain on the pavement by mere seconds before returning her to the ground gently.

Her fingers were tingling and cold, it was getting harder and harder to breathe and Amara could feel the wetness of her own blood soaking through her uniform as the hooded figure used his own grappling arrow to drop down to rest beside her.

"It's a pity the fall didn't kill you, little Storm Chaser," his voice was hard to hear with her ears ringing. "Sends a better message if you're dead…maybe then Weather Wizard will cease to become a hindrance...dead daughters are such tragedies, don't you think?"

Amara hacked a cough, red painting her lips.

And then he was gone, replaced by a worried pair of icy-blue eyes that Amara knew too well, and that was the last thing she saw before her eyes slid shut.