Tempest: Chapter Thirty: Formation of a Team
Amara stirred the pancake mix absently with one hand, the other keeping her phone secured to her ear. A glance back to the living room told her that Roy was still fast asleep, his limbs splayed and his mouth gaping unattractively (Amara had photographic evidence if she ever needed blackmail material).
"Don't worry, no one thinks we're dating," Amara said with a light snigger, "the look on my dad's face was hilarious, but it was funnier when Robin tripped my cousin and he face-planted."
"Maybe you should have just said you're dating an assassin," Jade snorted from the end.
Amara rolled her eyes. "Because that would have gone over so well."
If nothing else, Jade was at least good for a laugh.
"Besides, I'm not really the dating type," Amara added, pouring a choice amount of the mixture into the pan on the stove. "You said you had a job for me yesterday, what is it?"
Jade made a sound on the other end that sounded distinctly like an agreeable hum. "I have apparently made myself your middle man, as amusing as that is."
"Apparently?" Amara chuckled, flipping the pancake before depositing it on the growing pile.
"It's not exactly good business for an assassin to be working with a thief."
"Are you kidding? Its great business," Amara smirked. "We should call ourselves Kill n' Snatch."
"You're a menace to society," Jade informed her wryly, but Amara knew that she was smiling, but she was briefly distracted by the sound of feet padding over tile and the scrape of the bar chair against the floor as Roy pulled a seat out to collapse into.
"Funnily enough, you're not the first person who's thought that about me," Amara said before pressing the phone against her chest to muffle the sound from her end as she turned towards Roy.
He was yawning widely and his bright hair was sticking up in several directions.
"Want some pancakes, babe?" she asked and Roy's eyebrow twitched only slightly at the bland endearment.
"Chocolate chip?" he surmised as Amara moved the plate over to the counter for him to see it a bit better, still waiting on the last pancake to cook.
"Is there any other?" she snorted before lifting the phone back to her ear as Roy took the three warmest ones with a grateful glance towards her that made her smile.
"Yeah, I'm still here," she said. "What kind of case is it?"
"Thievery."
Amara rolled her eyes. "That was a bit obvious, Jade, I was talking about the kind of thievery you needed me for."
Roy arched an eyebrow towards her before lifting and biting into his pancake, the barbarian. He snorted at the scandalized expression Amara threw towards him (everyone knew that chocolate chip pancakes were best served with chocolate syrup and powdered sugar).
"An ancient Egyptian artifact that belongs to my employer," Jade said simply, perhaps a bit too simply.
Amara narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Send me the files and I'll look into it."
"You're a menace that I love."
"I'm sure that's how your sister feels," Amara said, rolling her eyes for good measure. "Goodbye, Jade."
And then she turned back to Roy, scowling at him. "Come on, Roy," she griped, "chocolate syrup! Use it!"
"You would overdose on chocolate syrup if you could," Roy snorted and ignored her complaints, forcing the girl to rifle through the fridge for some before dumping its contents onto her pancakes.
"How long have you been up?" he asked her, scrutinizing the window that allowed them to see the rolling waves and the clear blue sky past the shoreline.
"Long enough to make breakfast," Amara said, "you're welcome, by the way."
A flush crept up his neck as he swallowed thickly. "Um, thank you," he said to appease her, and it worked. "I thought you hung up that mask?"
"Not really," Amara muttered around her piece of pancake, chewing viciously before swallowing. "I haven't really stopped being Oracle, at least, not on BlackNet, and Masquerade is technically the one who does all the heavy lifting for Oracle, so no, I haven't really hung up that mask."
The truth was, she didn't even know if she wanted to. Masquerade presented different opportunities than Storm Chaser, most predominantly, freedom. Masquerade wasn't anyone's partner –barring the rare occasions that she found herself working with Cheshire–, she didn't answer to anyone but herself. It had been…nice.
"Is Jade a contact of yours?" Roy asked, quirking an eyebrow. "I didn't realize you and Cheshire were so close…you know, since she kidnapped you."
Amara froze, a grimace forming on her lips at how he recognized the name. "Um, well, things kind of happened…"
It was impressive how unimpressed Roy could look without hardly moving and Amara dearly wished she could replicate it (oh well, another day).
"I lied about the kidnapping thing," she finally admitted, a bit embarrassed.
"We kind of figured that out back when you ran off," Roy mentioned blandly.
"Oh," Amara said intelligently, her brow furrowing. "Well, I knew how it would look, besides, it wasn't an outright lie, I mean, technically she did bully me for information…maybe not quite bully, but you get my drift."
"Sure," Roy snorted, "let's go with that."
Amara ignored him. "I want to tell you something," she said seriously.
Roy stood briefly pour himself a cup of milk from where the jug was sitting on the counter. "Tell me what?" he asked, only really half-listening because there was a twittering bird close to the window that he really wanted to shoot.
"I want to tell you about what I was up to while I was gone."
Roy performed a glorious spit take, splattering the counter with milk that made Amara glare as her phone buzzed.
"You're cleaning that up," she said in a voice that wasn't to be argued with before answering the phone. "Hi, Mom."
"Amy," her mother gave a breathy laugh that said she wasn't entirely that Amara would pick up the phone, "I thought you might still be asleep."
"Nah," Amara said, glancing towards the clock. It was early, sure, but not too early. "I've been up for about an hour. Roy and I're having pancakes."
"That sounds exciting," her mother said, but Amara could tell she didn't really care about that.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was," Amara said, stepping out of the kitchen and away from Roy, who allowed her the privacy of her phone call while busily cleaning up the mess he'd made.
Iris gave a sigh on the other end. "Sweetheart, you know you don't have to lie to us, don't you?"
"Sorry," Amara repeated, this time with a grimace. "Old habits, I guess."
Lying and speaking in code was practically a second language to her now, and she knew better than most that lies were better when you wanted to keep others off your tail. There was a reason Masquerade was thought to be a Russian immigrant, and that was no accident.
"I know you and Dad don't like it when I'm involved with BlackNet," she added for good measure.
"We don't," Iris admitted, "but Amy, honey, we do want to understand, you know that don't you? And we love you no matter what."
The admission was so heartfelt that Amara had to raise a hand to her eyes, rubbing at them.
"I know," she said, her voice wobbly, and for a single moment she considered telling her mother, she considered telling her she hadn't actually been meeting with a BlackNet client, she considered telling her about the first fire at Project Cadmus that she'd started, she considered telling her about the information she'd downloaded from the lab. But Amara did none of those things. "BlackNet is difficult and confusing and I know that Dad thinks it's all bad, but it's not. Limbo is the only online circle I stay in, Mom, and it's about helping people."
"I know," Iris said, but Amara had to wonder if she really did, or if she was just saying that to appease her daughter. "But maybe tonight you can explain to your father and I what it really is to you."
Amara blinked in surprise. "You really want to know?" she asked in blank surprise.
"Yes," her mother's single word came across as a laugh. "Is that really so surprising?"
"Well, the internet's underground isn't exactly easy to wrap your head around," Amara said, scratching her own.
"If you want to tell us, though, we're here to listen," Iris said and Amara swallowed.
"Okay," she said before bidding her mother goodbye and hanging up and looking at Roy. "I hope you don't have anywhere to be, because this is going to take awhile."
"It's a bit small."
Amara shrugged in a careless manner as she dropped the last few rungs on the ladder to rest her feet on the floor of what she called 'the lair'. "I'm having some guys come in in a few weeks to make it bigger, don't ask me how, that's not my expertise."
The set-up she had included several computer screens around a desk with a mannequin holding her outfit as Masquerade in the far corner.
"I think that make who you are a bit obvious," he said after a short pause.
Amara rolled her eyes, clearly amused. "All that'll be in storage by then, don't worry."
Roy glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and tried to remember the girl he'd first met when she was only ten, the girl he had shamelessly considered to be a bright storm cloud. It was so hard to consider her to be that girl when she'd come so far and changed so much.
"You didn't have to tell me all that," he said when she caught him looking at her, her own brow furrowing just slightly.
"I know," she said.
"You could have told Wally, or Dick—"
"You're the one I trust the most," Amara said, her hip bumping against his, jostling him just slightly. "Wally and Richard aren't my partner, you are."
The sincerity in her eyes was almost painful to look at, but it still filled him with warmth, the idea that she trusted him the most out of everyone she knew, more than Black Canary and more than Flash.
"Besides," Amara said, running a hand through her hair, "the Justice League has encrypted files on me that I can't hack and…"
She bit her lip, falling silent, but Roy could guess her line of thinking. She thought it was likely that the League knew the identity of her mother and were just keeping that information to themselves, and, if that was true, it was very troubling, because if that was true then it was likely that her mother was incredibly dangerous.
"I'd like to do my own investigating for a change," Amara said instead, "besides, I've still got all those blood vials to process for that genetics project I'm doing."
"Didn't you already turn that in?" Roy asked, briefly thrown.
"I got an A on that bad boy," Amara scoffed, waving a hand carelessly, "this is that other project, the one I'm doing on the differences between meta-human heroes and normal ones, remember?"
Roy blinked. He'd almost completely forgotten about that one. "I thought you got bored of that," he said, both eyebrows raising, especially when she glared, stabbing her finger against his side angrily.
"Bored? With genetics?" she demanded, her eyes a blazing green fire. "Are you insane? Who could possibly be bored with genetics, Roy?"
Exasperated didn't even begin to cover Roy's feelings on the subject.
"Sit down, my uninformed students, Dr. Amara Allen is going to fill you in on some things that have clearly gone over your heads."
Amara had a pointer in her hand and a whiteboard behind her and Iris found that she couldn't even come close to keeping a straight face for her daughter, Barry was faring better, but his lips were twitching.
He was trying Dinah's way, an open communication, and it was true that he knew very little apart from the basics of the network Amara was involved in.
"Mom," Amara whined, stamping her foot lightly, looking very put upon, "I'm trying to be serious!"
She wasn't trying very hard, that much was obvious.
"Where did you even get that whiteboard?" her father asked and Amara gave him a look that clearly said she thought that was the stupidest question she'd ever heard.
"Richard, obviously," she said, unperturbed, "it's only a borrow, though, I've got to give it back in a few days."
Iris wiped tears from her eyes, apparently recovered, apologizing when Amara glowered at her, smacking her pointer stick into her palm like some old fashioned teacher.
"Now, back to the class!" Amara declared dramatically and Iris tried not to break out into laughter once again at the absurdity of the role reversal, but then Amara turned away to scrawl in black marker across the board: BlackNet.
"The BlackNet!" Amara declared with an aggressive underline. "Also known as the internet's underground cesspool of chaos and criminals wrapping into a complicated ball."
Barry arched an eyebrow. "I thought you were going with the opposite, Amy."
"Shh!" Amara hissed suddenly, the pointer stick shooting out to rap against his knees, which wasn't nearly as painful as it looked, but Barry was good at exaggerating. "I'm teaching here, and it's some very serious business!"
Amara gave a cough to clear her throat that she didn't really need. "All right, BlackNet, so there are different 'circles' of the BlackNet, and since it's based on Dante's Inferno –which I will never again read, thank you English class–"
Iris couldn't help but snort at that.
"Circles two through nine are the ones to generally stay away from, they're the ones more related to committing serious crimes, starting with the worst at level nine and the least worst at level two. Yours truly works in level one, Limbo." Amara made a gesture towards herself that wasn't really necessary as she wrote out Limbo in clear letters under BlackNet.
"Limbo is where people go if they have problems that they need fixing that aren't quite so criminal in nature, like men, women, and children trying to escape an abusive home, items that have been taken illegally from their owners even though the ones taking them claim not to have them and the owners wanting their items back, proof that crimes were committed even after they're swept under the rug, and that's where Oracle works."
Amara circled Oracle no less than three times. "You don't ask Oracle to help you, but I flag certain key phrases and look over potential clients needs and their stories, so I'm used to dealing with a certain type of people."
"And they pay you a lot? Is that where all that money came from?" Barry asked, trying to be open-minded but knowing he was coming off slightly judgmental if the glower she threw towards him was any indication.
"Generally, it depends on the type of job and what the person wants to barter," Amara said, running a hand through her hair, the shoulder of her loose arm rising and falling in a shrug. "Sometimes I just get a few dollars and a favor or two –once I got some really amazing cookies, no lie—"
Iris snorted.
"Some of the money did come from Masquerade's conquests," Amara admitted, "but Oracle's business on BlackNet is quite lucrative, I won't lie, and some of my clients are very wealthy, but they're the ones that pick the price, I stay away from that. I just make sure I can help them." Amara gave a helpless shrug. "It doesn't sound all that bad, does it?"
The idea of Amara dealing with the BlackNet wasn't nearly so terrible as Barry had originally thought, that much was rather clear, but it still made him so uncomfortable.
But he said: "No, it doesn't."
The lie made Amara smile and made his insides coil and churn.
Jade had been very odd about the request to recover an Ancient Egyptian artifact, but Amara still looked over the files when Jade sent them to her.
"What do you think?" Jade asked her without preamble when Amara called her back about it.
"Difficult but manageable," Amara conceded, looking around the med-lab of the Cave where Batman had outfitted several computers for Oracle's use back when Amara was wheel-chair-bound. "I'm leaving in an hour to swipe it."
Her phone gave a sharp beep and she pulled it back to look at the message Roy had sent her with a frown. "Sorry," she mentioned to Jade, "Speedy sent me a text."
"Is he still hanging 'round your safe-house?" Jade asked and it almost impressive how her tone had become so sultry at the mention of Roy (and Amara would be relaying that to the red-head).
"Well, he and GA are fighting again," Amara muttered, "so it's kind of the only place he can really hide out without his mentor finding him, so yeah…where do you want to meet when I've got it?"
"I'll send you the coordinates," Jade said, and that was that, and an hour later Masquerade's heels were clicking on the tiled floor as she swung the bank's master key ring around on her finger, humming a soft tune.
There was no one left in Gotham National Bank and it had been closed up for the night, but the twenty-four hour surveillance had proved difficult to get around. Luckily, Amara had some skill in hacking, so it wasn't too hard to make it look like all was well when she snuck in. It was harder to get the bank's master key and Amara resolved to only break into people's houses if it was necessary.
The darkened building might have proven difficult to walk through on heels without proper night-vision, but Amara's golden mask was specially made, just like her goggles on her Storm Chaser mask were.
Amara twisted one key into the lock that kept a descending door of long rails protecting the long row of safety deposit boxes, before ducking under it to search the numbered boxes for one safety deposit box in particular.
She pursed her lips before taking the master key to the appropriate safety deposit box and twisting it before extending her hand to focus the air inside the second lock that was made to fit the owner of the box's key. Safety deposit box locks were harder, they were designed to keep valuables safe.
It took a full minute for the pins to click correctly for Amara to open the door and pull out the box, ripping over the box's lid to examine the single item within in a bit of surprise.
It was a scarab made of lapis lazuli, more well preserved than anything Amara had seen in the Central City museum when she'd gone with Wally, and it was heavy in her hand when she lifted it.
It was an odd thing to have her steal, though.
It took some time to return the keys to the bank manager's house and then she waited on a rooftop for Jade to show up.
It was almost two in the morning and Amara was getting a little anxious, because it took time for her to get from Gotham to Sea Isle City to replace her Masquerade outfit with normal clothes and then fly back to Gotham to take a zeta-tube to Central City, and Amara knew something was off when several figures appeared out of the darkness but still hidden in the shadows.
Her batons were out in seconds, dropping into a lethal crouch, when a smooth voice cut through the silence. "Please, there is no need for weapons."
Then the speaker stepped forward and Amara almost dropped them, her red-painted lips parting in surprise as she stared at him. His hair was dark and streaked with grey, his moustache much the same, and he was tall, holding himself in a regal manner.
But Amara had seen the image of Ra's al Ghul far too many times to not recognize him on sight.
"Ra's al Ghul, ze Demon's Head," she hardly dared to breathe, slipping back into the accent she had taken when she'd first donned the crimson. The head of the League of Shadows, of which Jade was a part of.
She was going to kill Jade.
"It's an old name," Ra's al Ghul said.
"You are old," Amara pointed out blandly, forcing herself not to move, not to even take a step back. "I presume you vant ze scarab, yes?"
His eyes were cold and calculating when she returned the batons to her side to place the scarab in his waiting palm.
He examined it for a moment and then his eyes returned to her. "You know, Masquerade," he said, her name curling off his tongue in a way that Amara didn't like, "some of my assassins first started as thieves."
Shock jolted through her body and for a moment Amara thought she'd maybe heard wrong or maybe made a wrong assumption.
It took a moment for her get her tongue functioning and then she said: "No zank you, once vas more zan enough."
And it was.
Then Amara turned to make a jump from one roof to the next only to freeze at his next words.
"We will see."
Amara swallowed, wavering faintly before making the jump and disappearing from view, her heart hammering in her chest.
"You look terrible," was the first thing out of Wally's mouth when he saw his cousin before they were to take the zeta-tube in Central City to the Cave to meet with the other sidekicks and a few select Justice League members. Superboy was tagging along, having been staying with Wally while the JL was coming to a decision about them.
"Never steal anything for Ra's al Ghul," Amara said tiredly, rubbing at her eyes. "Never, Wally."
"Ooh! You stole something for Ra's? How'd it go?" Wally's eyes were bright and gleaming.
"Easy," Amara moaned, "and difficult, I think he's trying to recruit me into his ranks."
Wally balked at her and Amara hummed in agreement to the look. "He what?"
"He said something about some of his assassins starting as thieves and killing is not my thing, Wally, killing is so far from my thing."
Wally took her hand, squeezing it and swinging it for good measure. He didn't say anything, but Amara felt she liked it better that way.
"Anyways," she said, "I heard you and Superboy had a small run-in."
She turned to look at Superboy who gave her a small shrug. "It wasn't too difficult," he said.
Amara smirked. "Just you wait." And then she stepped into the zeta-tube.
"Recognize: Storm Chaser –B00, Kid Flash –B03, Superboy –B04."
They stepped out into the Cave and Amara had to gape a little. The Cave had always been slightly in disrepair through the whole time that Amara had been using it, but now it looked to be in pristine condition with a few Green Lanterns flying around working out a few last minute touches.
"Holy shit," Amara said before she could stop herself, "Wally, look!"
She was tugging so strongly on his arm while bouncing on the balls of her feet that Wally was half-sure she was going to yank his arm out of its socket.
"Ow, ow, Amy!" he complained as Aqualad and Dick stepped forward to join them. "Calm down!"
But Amara ignored him, looking around in wonder. "But it's so perfect! I could have used this back when I was ten, you know!"
Dinah gave a soft chuckle and Flash gave a wry smile.
"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League," Batman explained in all business to the ones that had never been inside, or had only been inside briefly (which was basically everyone but Amara). "We're calling it into service again, since you five are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you'll do it on League terms."
Amara arched an eyebrow and she could have sworn the pupil-less lenses of Batman's cowl lingered on her.
"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor, Black Canary's in charge of training—"
"All right!" Amara grinned, raising her fist to bump Dinah's and her mentor gave her a soft chuckle before complying.
"I will deploy you on missions," Batman finished, ignoring the interruption.
"Real missions?" Dick asked doubtfully, his sunglasses slipping down his nose.
"Yes," Batman said, "but covert."
"The League will still handle the obvious stuff," Flash said from where he was standing to Wally and Amara's backs (Amara was sure that was intentional), tapping a finger against the lightning bolt symbol on his chest. "There's a reason we have these big targets on our chests."
Amara was dubious. "I thought it was because you couldn't come up with a good symbol for speed."
Sniggers erupted between Dick and Wally, and even Aqualad and Superboy appeared amused before Flash grabbed his daughter and gave her a noogie so fast she couldn't get away.
"Ow, ow, ow, Dad!" Amara complained as she dislodged herself, trying to straighten her hair to little avail, scowling at the speedster.
Aquaman cleared his throat for good measure and the noise from the Allens subsided. "But Cadmus proves that the bad guys are getting smarter. Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly."
"The six of you will be that team," Batman said.
"Cool!" Dick said, grinning widely before faltering in confusion. "Wait, six?"
Batman was looking over their shoulders and they all whipped around to see Martian Manhunter moving towards them with a much shorter shadow in a similar outfit, green skin, brown eyes, and auburn hair. Amara's eyebrows rose high on her forehead.
"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian," Batman said.
"Hi," Miss Martian said, only slightly awkward.
"Yes!"
"Calm down, Amy," Dick said, reeling back as Amara punched her hands into the air.
"You know what, no!" Amara said, jabbing a finger towards the Boy Wonder. "I've been the only girl sidekick for almost three years! Oh, this is great!"
Miss Martian beamed.
