Tempest: Chapter Seventy-Four: Secrets Revealed

AN: and we've officially reached the identity reveal!


Amara would rather be anywhere else but here, sitting before her friends trying to figure out a way to cohesively explain her life up to that point.

She took a swig from her flask that usually stayed in her safehouse at Sea Isle City, but this was certainly a time to be drinking.

"We'll start at the beginning, shall we?" Amara asked without expecting an answer. "When I say there is nothing natural about me, I mean that literally, because everything unique about me was grown in a lab. I'm the result of genetic experimentation."

"You're-what?" Nadira was positively gaping and the other girls weren't too far behind.

"I'm what you get when you combine the DNA of Weather Wizard and Poison Ivy." Amara waited for that to fully hit.

She wasn't sure how long they'd all lived in Gotham, but if they'd been there long enough they would recognize that name. Amara's mother had been an eco-terrorist before Amara had come into the picture and Amara couldn't very well deny that, especially with the evidence in her face.

Sabine balked. "Poison Ivy is your mom?" She appeared to be having trouble with that.

Amara shrugged. "Harley Quinn is my mom's girlfriend, if that helps."

It didn't, not really, but Amara figured it would be better to continue on than let them stew too much over that information.

"I was raised in a lab, Project Cadmus. I'm officially known as Project Amara," she explained with a scowl, "being an experiment meant I shouldn't've really had a name, but one of the doctors there started calling me by it, so it just kind of stuck…eventually that doctor found a way to sneak me out of the facility, thinking the handing me off to Weather Wizard was a good idea…just an FYI, it was the worst idea on the planet."

Amara ran a hand through her hair, trying not to remember what it was like when she was younger, so terrified of Mardon that she hardly dared to do anything to anger him, not until…

"He gave me this," Amara said, pulling her shirt down so they could get the best look at the fractal scarring there, "when I stepped between him and Flash."

Sofia's eyes were painfully wide. "Your father gave you that?"

Amara shrugged. "He wasn't a good person…I was on my own for awhile after that until Flash adopted me. Being adopted by them was probably the closest thing to normal I'd ever gotten, actually."

Barry and Iris were absolutely the first best thing to happen to her in her life, and she knew that for sure. All of her friends, Pamela and Harley, they didn't happen until later on when she was slightly more well-adjusted. Slightly.

"But I'm not normal and its taken years of therapy to get to this," Amara made a general wave towards her entire being. "I'm a work in progress, and that's fine, because perfection is over-rated and I'm like a twisted mess of trauma."

Adara's eyes were sad, almost pitying, and Amara really hated that. "But, wait, didn't Storm Chaser start heroing at like ten?"

"Uh, yeah?" Amara arched an eyebrow. "My dad wasn't a huge fan, but it's not like I would've ever been fast enough to keep up with him or Wally. Black Canary, on the other hand, she was actually my speed, and we were both metahumans, so working together made sense."

"But you were so young!" Adara was imploring. "What if something bad happened?"

Amara laughed. "Adara, that's my whole freaking life." That was everything from the time she'd been taken out of Cadmus to just a few days ago. Expecting something to go wrong was how Amara made a living, how Storm Chaser had contingencies, how Oracle seemed to be omnipresent.

"I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, that's what Robin says," Amara grimaced, "that's what everyone says…besides, he started heroing a year before me…anyways, things were going well for a while, Speedy and I were getting along pretty well…that was when he got kidnapped and then I -all of ten years old- decided to go after him." She scratched her cheek. "Yeah…I exploded a building, broke my arm, and found him…grounding me for three months was probably, you know, reasonable."

The girls stifled their amusement.

"What about the other time?" Sofia asked. "When it was rumored that Storm Chaser was dead?"

"Oh, that." Amara grimaced at the memory. "That one's a bit…complicated."

She wasn't sure how to best explain it. There'd been a lot of stuff going on at the same time.

"So, what had been going on was that Weather Wizard had hinted to Poison Ivy that I was her kid, and of course she's pretty cautious so she wanted to be sure, so she hired someone to get a blood sample off of me, unfortunately, she'd hired someone that didn't like Weather Wizard too much…and while that was going on, Green Arrow and Speedy were out of town dealing with something else, so it was just me and Black Canary in Star City, and I was on my own, checking on Queen Industries. I flew up just in time to be shot several times with Merlyn's arrows."

Sabine's hands clapped over her mouth in horror.

"I was in a wheelchair for about eight months because I couldn't get my legs to work for me after that. Merlyn was very thorough, but I'm all good now." Amara smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

She was still thinking about back at the hospital when she'd felt that spike of pain. Pain like that wasn't something she could just disregard, but Amara didn't exactly have much to go on. She'd been seriously injured, having a few jarring movements was normal…right?

"I was temporarily retired as Storm Chaser and started operating as a BlackNet hacker—" Amara had to pause in her explanation as her phone buzzed. "This is Oracle's Fountain of Wisdom, press one for explaining how the fuck you got this number."

That made her friends snigger.

"Oh, hey, Zee," Amara said brightly, "no, I'm not doing anything, just, you know, spilling the beans on my deepest, darkest secrets to a bunch of ballerinas, why?"

Sabine arched an eyebrow at Amara's tone of voice. It was almost light and flirty, of course, Amara was the kind of person that called all of her friends 'babe' unironically (or ironically, Sabine wasn't quite sure which one), who called pessimism realism, and probably had at least one weapon on her at all times, but the change was so sudden and obvious. Amara noticed her look and turned faintly pink as she turned away from the girls.

"Yeah, the fires should be out, I don't think anyone's tried to go back into the Cave since the explosion," Amara was frowning now. "No, having too many people there's probably not the best idea…that attracts too much attention…do you think M'gann will mind if we borrow the Bioship to check the wreckage…no, I understand, your dad's stuff is important…I'll be over soon."

She ended the call and sighed. "Duty calls, ladies."

And then she opened the window, being the absolute most dramatic hero Sabine had ever met, channeling the air around her body, shooting up into the sky.

"I had more questions," Nadira muttered.

"If one of them is 'is Aqualad single?' then the answer is yes," Sabine rolled her eyes.

"Oh! Well, yes, that was at the top of my list." Nadira blushed prettily and all her friends groaned loudly. "What?"


Zatanna looked down on the devastation that had once been Mount Justice. This time around, it wasn't as much of a smoldering ruin. The flames had long-since been put out and the smoke had faded with them, but it was still a mess.

The Cave had been her home in recent months, seeing it the way it was now was heartbreaking. Of course, Amy's gift had its perks and everyone was excited about it and all the possibilities of living at 'Cave 2.0' but Kaldur, Conner, M'gann, and Zatanna had called it more than a hangout, it had been their home.

But Amy…she was the first one to ever spend an extensive amount of time in the Cave. There had still been protocols in place from when she was ten to keep her from getting into trouble.

Amy maneuvered the Bioship carefully to land on the sandy beach. "And touchdown," she murmured. She was slightly more stable with driving the Bioship than Zatanna, so it had seemed like the obvious choice.

"How'd it go with your friends?" Zatanna asked as the ramp descended and their boots landed in the sand. Their breaths fogged in the cold. It was strange to go from the warmth of Georgia where the new Cave was, to the chills of Rhode Island.

"Oh, you know," Amy said airily, "gave them the lowdown: cooked up in a petri dish, been heroing since I was ten, ran after Roy, also, when I was ten, almost got killed when I was twelve, almost go killed against a few days ago…you know, normal girl stuff."

Zatanna snorted as Amy shoved aside some debris to get to the secret entrance. She remembered that one, it was the one they had to open in order to fly the Bioship for missions…apparently Amy had done some damage to it back in September after she'd found out about her mom being Poison Ivy, but that had long since been repaired. "Are we sure this is going to work?"

"One way to find out," Amy said with a careless smile, sliding the paneling off to reveal a small, dark screen and a few numbers to punch, and banging her fist on the side of the paneling, pressing on the power button. It lit up green. "Voila," she said. "Override: 0178559-beta, open hatch."

"Voiceprint not recognized," came the familiar computerized voice.

"Then your voiceprint analyzer is damaged, you motherfucking piece of shit," Amy said plainly and Zatanna thought that wasn't the best response, when the voice returned.

"Voiceprint accepted, welcome Storm Chaser."

Zatanna gaped at Amy as the door creaked open at long last. "What the—?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "A standard name and code phrase can be easily mimicked if you have the right equipment, but that phrase you wouldn't expect to say casually to a computer, would you?"

"You are easily the most paranoid person I've ever met," Zatanna decided with something akin to awe.

"I try," Amy preened, using her legs to slide the doors open a bit more after they got stuck, attempting to press on the light panel directly inside. "Looks like the power's out."

She and Zatanna pulled out their flashlights, taking cautious steps within the carnage.

The Cave was eerie, that was the only real way to describe it. It was a ruin around them with smoke damage and debris from fallen chunks of metal and stone.

Zatanna couldn't really help grabbing Amy's hand; the whole place made a shiver run down her spine. It was such an impulsive and flustering action that she almost pulled back, but Amy squeezed her hand comfortingly.

They just stood there in the relative darkness holding hands for a few solid seconds.

"Um, we should probably check the hard-drives in came any information was taken," Amy stumbled over her words and Zatanna hoped that her hand didn't get clammy as her cheeks flushed bright.

"Good idea," she said quickly, allowing herself to be tugged through debris in the direction of the medlab where all of Amy's equipment was tucked into a corner.

Amy released her hand in order to get a good look at the computers.

They were, for the most part, functional.

"Upside is it doesn't look like anyone bothered to breach the Cave apart from, you know, Vandal Savage," Amy muttered almost to herself, tapping aggressively against the keyboard while Zatanna held both flashlights aloft.

"But he didn't really breach," Zatanna reminded her, "he just came in the front door."

She probably shouldn't have brought that up, because it made Amy flinch hard. Roy was still missing, and given how they'd found Amy, it was safe to say that he probably thought she was dead or near-dead. Zatanna didn't really have a fighting partner, though Black Canary and Icon had suggested her and Raquel working together would have merit, and while Amy always joked that she worked best with archers (to which Wally would call out "Don't you work with an assassin occasionally?" "Not that you can prove that."), Zatanna knew that she wasn't nearly as close to Artemis as she was to Roy. Amy and Roy had been partners before she even started working with the Team, and they still hung out outside of heroing.

Zatanna had once left her room to see them passed out on the pullout couch, half wearing their uniforms and half not, looking like they'd literally fallen into the first available sleeping space.

Roy and Amy were so close that it had been painful to watch the recording of him shooting her with Vandal Savage following on his heels.

"No," Amy agreed, gritting her teeth and clenching a hand into a fist, "he didn't."

"Sorry," Zatanna muttered, her voice echoing in the silence, but Amy shrugged off her concern, ripping out the hard-drives and putting them in the bag that she'd brought.

"My point is," Amy continued, "Mount Justice was the first headquarters for the Justice League, the mountain was literally hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Hal Jordan -he's a Green Lantern, my dad's best friend- but the secret location of the Cave was compromised back in 2006, I think, it was infiltrated by the Joker, which is why they moved to the Hall of Justice in the first place."

"Wait…so we've been living in a compromised location?" That gave Zatanna an uncomfortable feeling.

"The Joker doesn't have a problem with destroying places that are affiliated with the League, though." Amy cupped her chin thoughtfully. "He must've told some other villains about this place…and there's a wealth of information on these hard-drives…so why didn't anyone try to steal it in the chaos?"

Zatanna could see her point. "Maybe they got what they wanted?" she offered.

"Blowing up the Cave?" Amy arched an eyebrow.

"No," Zatanna realized, "but Oracle is the League's information hub, basically, right? She gets the information first and filters it to the appropriate channels…the only reason the breakout of Belle Reve wasn't as massive as it was supposed to be was because you got the word out in time. Maybe you were the only objective. Kill Oracle, kill the League's ability to gather information quickly."

Amy frowned, screwing her eyes shut in thought. "It probably helped," she decided finally, "but that wasn't the reason Vandal Savage wanted me dead, especially by Roy's hand…he said 'what better way to break his spirit than have him play a part in your death'…that was personal."

They both went quiet for a few long moments.

"We should check the other rooms," Amy said suddenly, "make sure that any stuff that isn't damaged comes home with us, that's why you wanted to come, right?"

"Right," Zatanna said quickly, and she couldn't help but notice how Amy's hand had lingered on her throat where Roy had choked her until she'd passed out.

Some wounds you just couldn't see.


Amara's tiny room had been blown apart. She wasn't really that surprised. Hers was rather close to one of the bombs Roy had placed. She wasn't sure if that was on purpose either by Roy or Vandal Savage. Roy knew she wouldn't have cared that much about her room, she didn't keep anything of value in it.

Wally had her spare laptop tucked away in his closet like he had back before she'd had to disappear off with Jade. Wally didn't have any use for it and he kept her secrets so she never had to worry about that.

The room was just a place for her to crash in. Roy would've known that, but Vandal Savage? Not so much.

"Amy?"

Amara turned swiftly on her heel, shining her light right in Zatanna's eyes. "Sorry," she apologized quickly, pointing the flashlight away, "got the last of it packed up?"

"Yeah, Conner didn't have a lot of stuff…are you good?" Zatanna asked, glancing around Amara's room, vaguely startled at how demolished it was in comparison to the other rooms.

"Last stop is Wally's wall of souvenirs," Amara told her, "then we can get the hell out of here."

"Amen," Zatanna agreed with a shudder. "This place gives me the creeps…I liked it better before."

Amara snorted, walking past her to maneuver carefully through the debris. Everyone liked it better before, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Wally has weird choice in souvenirs," Zatanna muttered as they shone the light on the shelf.

"Well, there's no denying that," Amara snorted as Zatanna readied the bag. "Brom Stikk's robotic eye from when everyone else went to Happy Harbor and ran into Mister Twister…a Kobra cultist's hood and mask from Santa Prisca…Artemis' arrow and Cheshire's mask…Monsieur Mallah's beret…a piece of Count Vertigo's cape…a robotic hand…a sippy cup…the medical backpack Wally used to carry that heart for Queen Perdita—"

Amara stopped suddenly, staring at the empty stand beside the backpack.

"What's wrong?" Zatanna asked in concern but Amara was already pulling out her phone.

"Hey, I think we've got a problem," she said, her eyes entirely focused on the empty stand, feeling a familiar spike of fear swell deep inside her.


"Define problem."

"Weather Wizard getting his wand back sounds a bit like a problem."

Dinah pressed a hand to her face. "Shit," she said emphatically, "I forgot that we hadn't gotten around to telling you that."

"Telling me what?" Amara's brow furrowed in confusion.

She was back at home now and after doing so much on her day of discharge, Harley and Pamela had practically grounded her just to get her to relax a little and take things slow.

"Mardon had his wand back in the middle of the chaos," Dinah explained delicately, dropping to sit carefully beside Amara. "He used it to take out a bridge with a concentrated blast of lightning."

It felt like Amara was swallowing a piece of lead, one that fell heavy in her stomach.

"Shit," she muttered, pressing a hand to her brow in an almost identical movement, her fingers sliding to hide her eyes from view as she gritted her teeth together. Amara had never been a match for Mardon, not with that wand of his. She was still growing, still a child, but the last time they had crossed paths he'd nearly killed her and Amara had had some serious burns on her arms for a few days -her healing factor had still been much slower back then- and the only reason they'd even gotten him in the first place was because all the Star City Heroes had been working together.

"Hey." Dinah rocked her shoulder against Amara's. "Hey, listen to me. We're going to get him, I promise we will…but you need to focus on yourself for once, okay?"

"I'm fine," Amara nearly snapped.

"You're really not, darling, you're running yourself ragged, like usual…it's okay to take time off from heroing or even retiring," Dinah spoke firmly but gently.

"Tried that before, didn't really take."

Dinah gave her a dry look. "No matter what you say, Amy, you're not in top condition. You were almost killed a few days ago."

"And now I'm fine!" Amara insisted.

"You're not fine, you just want people to stop treating you like you're delicate, those aren't the same thing, Amy," Dinah admonished and Amara really hated that her therapist was also her mentor.

She huffed, crossing her arms, looking particularly petulant.

"A week off. No Storm Chaser, no Oracle, just relax."

"What am I supposed to do for seven days if I'm not being SC or O?" Amara demanded wildly.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Dinah said mildly, "All your parents agree that you need to relax."

Amara glared off in the direction of Pamela and Harley's room.

"Fine," she hissed. That would give her time to look into Roy…that could count as neither, since Amara was doing it for her; she wanted to find Roy, not for the League or anyone else, she wanted to find her brother.

"Good, rest easy." Dinah kissed the top of her head with a wink before making her way out.

Amara pulled up the chat on her phone that included all her parents, one that she had aptly named 'The Fam' and sent: You are all conniving and I hate you.


"Honey, I know you're not happy, but this is the way its going to be," Iris said on the phone, running for the door as the doorbell rang jarringly, echoing sharply in the silence. "I've got to go, there's someone at the door."

Amy's complaints were cut off as she ended the call and opened the door wide enough to get a look at who was beyond the door.

Her eyes widened and she opened it further in surprise. "Captain Frye! What can I do for you? Barry's not here right now…"

"I'm not here to see Barry," the captain of the Central City Police Department said tiredly. The attacks from the previous day had left him looking like he'd aged a decade. There was so much damage to repair, missing people to find, family members to notify of the dead. "Do you mind if I come in?"

"No, of course not," Iris said quickly, stepping back to permit him to enter.

Thankfully all the boxes were upstairs to pack things up to move, because staying in the house that Mardon had once been able to call to and send a kidnapper for his daughter was just about enough to keep Iris awake at night. It was a good thing that they'd been planning to move because they were trying for more kids again.

"What can I do for you, Captain?" she asked simply.

"I was hoping to speak with you and your nephew," Captain Frye said with a grimace.

Iris didn't like the sound of that.

"Wally's out with his girlfriend and a couple of friends," Iris furrowed her brow carefully. "He should be back later…he's staying with us until his parents get back from their vacation."

Captain Frye cleared his throat looking uncomfortable and somber. Iris could feel her heart settle somewhere in her stomach. "Iris," he said, "the plane your brother and sister-in-law were on went down shortly after take-off…we've been sifting through the wreckage, but given that Weather Wizard was attacking in that area, its likely that he was the cause of the crash."

Iris felt faint.

"Are you trying to say—?" Iris couldn't even force the words out of her mouth, too in shock.

"I'm sorry, Iris," Captain Frye said sadly. "But we identified your brother and your sister-in-law's bodies. They're gone."

The floor rose up to meet Iris' knees. No…not Rudy and Mary! Not them on top of everything else!

Iris dropped her face into her hands, but it did nothing to stifle the sobs.

How was she going to tell Wally?


AN: For once, its not Amy getting sucker punched. Wally was overdue for some pain :) This'll be the last Tempest update before school starts.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!