Author's Note: Hello out there fellow writers and readers!
I just want to apologize for not updating the story sooner than now. I've had a bit of a writer's block and have been racking my head working on the next few chapters. But I promise you guys who've followed and read this story that I am working as hard as I can to keep moving foward with this.
Though I should already tell you that I'm going to be busy also moving soon and starting school late August, but I will keep writing to the best of my abilities.
So keep reading, review and send in suggestions or ideas or anything of the sort, and hang in there with the Team!
Chapter 5: Welcome to Happy Harbor
Mount Justice
July 18, 11:10 EDT
"Recognized: Kyle Rayner, B04."
I know I can just fly to Mount Justice with my ring, but since forming this new team with the guys - and martian gal - I figured I'm going to be using zeta beams as a means of transportation more often nowadays. Plus, flying all the way from Coast City to Happy Harbor - which is on the other side of the country - would be exhausting not only on my part but my ring's part as well.
As I materialize into Mount Justice, our new headquarters / home when necessary, I feel the anticipation of being on this team and can't wait for our first mission. Even though I've traveled space, trained with tough GL's, and battled against alien criminals, I can't help but be excited about this, going on covert missions. I can't explain it but there's just something about being a part of this team, with good friends your own age. This is going to be fun. And dangerous. No better way right?
I walk over to the center of the cave to see Aqualad, Superboy and Miss Martian viewing over a computer screen. "Morning boys, and gal."
They all turn there heads my way, looking elated to see me. "Good morning Kyle." Kadlur greets me first and so politely as ever.
"Good morning new teammate!" Miss M flies over to me, excitingly welcoming me and giving me a morning hug. "Morning to you too Miss Sunshine."
She puts me down, releasing me from her tight grip. "No it's Miss Martian. You should know that by now."
I place my hand on my face and shake back and forth. "I know that, I'm just joking with you." We're gonna need to work on her humor skills.
She looks at me confused until it finally hits her, while actually bopping her head. "Hello Megan!" Now I'm the one looking at her confused. Don't even want to know.
I look over to see Superboy, arms crossed and barely turning his head to see me. "Hey there." We're gonna need to work on his social skills as well. A lot with him for sure.
"I was hoping to be the first one to be here today, but I guess not. But at least I beat out Boy Wonder and Kid Mouth here."
"You wouldn't be the first here anyway. Remember, me and Superboy live here… Together." Miss Martian's voice gets lower as she finishes her sentence. I'm I seeing things or is our green friend turning red in the face?
Me and Miss Martian make our way over to the computer screen, seeing it more clearly as a map of the base. "What are you guys doing anyways?"
"Intercepting a message to Red Tornado."
"We were hoping he would have a mission for us today." Kaldur tells me.
"It's been ten days since we started this and we haven't been given any kind of mission or covert op at all. And also, Red Tornado is our 'den mother', for reasons I don't know why and don't want to know, and Batman's the one who gives us the missions."
"Still, there is no harm in asking. Besides, he's on his way. We'll find out soon enough."
"Awesome." I put my hand on Kaldur's shoulder and turn him towards me. "How did your talk with Roy go? I would've been there but Hal needed my help with Tattooed Man."
His expression shows despair and sadness. "I'm afraid our friend did not want to partake in our 'Junior Justice League'. It seems that he is bent on doing his adventuring alone for the time being."
I sigh with sadness myself now. I was hoping after Roy's temper tantrum at the Hall he'd want to join our team, but I guess not. We all have our paths to choose, and he's chosen his. Travel well Roy.
I shake my head, shaking off the disparity and bringing back my morning happiness. "He doesn't know what he's missing, we're gonna have great missions and fun times together. And I wouldn't worry about Roy anyways, he should be fine on his own." I place my hand back onto Kaldur's shoulder. "But if he should ever change his mind, we'll be right here waiting for the red archer."
Kaldur nods his head in agreement, as we both hope the best for our friend. "Also, how does your search go for your mysterious White Woman?"
Now I'm the one feeling the disparity. And a little red in the face for some reason.
"Not good. I searched through the database on Mount Justice here earlier this week, but I didn't get anything. I went through what was left of Cadmus' video security and they never caught her on camera. I even asked around the town to see if anyone had known or seen this girl before, and nothing."
I bring my hand to my head, making sure it doesn't blow up from either exhaustion or madness. "Maybe I was seeing things, Kaldur. But of all things, why this girl?" I feel like I'm going to lose it soon enough if I don't find this girl. And I still don't understand why I would.
Then I feel and strong hand on my shoulder. Strong and webbed. "I don't believe you were seeing things Kyle. You've never had anything like this happen to you before, so why start now. And as to why you're feeling like you are losing it over this one girl, maybe it's because you want to do more once you find her."
I turn around and look at Kaldur'ahm chuckling a bit at what he's suggesting. "What!? Are you crazy? This girl has followed us into Cadmus, who knows what she wants or who she's working with or for. And what makes you think I'd want to go out with her anyways?"
"I never said you wanted to go out with her." He says smiling my way.
I look over to see Miss Martian giggling as well and Superboy shaking his head. "Is it just me or is it getting warm in here?"
"That would explain why you're face is turning red", Superboy points out to me.
"And I thought you were a Green Lantern, not a Red Lantern." M'gann jokes at my expense.
I shake my head and slap the red off of my face. "Whatever, I don't care what you guys think. I just want to find this girl, give her a piece of my mind and be done with it. Okay?"
The others don't say anything, just nod in agreement in what I have had to say.
"Recognized: Robin B01, Kid Flash B03."
I turn around to see that Robin and Wally just made it. "Finally, what took you two so long?" I ask them trying to avoid the subject previously just on in here.
"What's with you Kyle? Someone steal your ring?" Robin asks as he and Wally head for the others.
"Did you ask him? What did he say?" They both ask anxiously.
Kaldur looks back to the computer screen. "He's arriving now."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Wally races for the hanger doors, leaving us to follow the young speedster.
We all reach to the hanger doors, opened already since Wally got there first. I walk out to see the outside, filled with green grass, tall trees and the sun above us blazing so hot. Mount Justice is placed near Washington, not too far from the Hall, as well as the bay, Happy Harbor. Along with the greenery, on the other side of the mountain, it also provides us with a beach, which well help out with tanning, volleyball games, barbecues, and swimming in the ocean. Oh yeah, this place is gonna be great.
As we all look up to the sun, we see something coming out of it. Something human sized, red and spinning incredibly fast.
We bring our attention back to the ground as Red Tornado lands, his lower half going from the small tornado to his normal robotic leg.
"Morning Tornado." I greet our robot den mother.
"Greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"
"We hoped you had a mission for us." As Kaldur steps.
"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."
"I told you." Kaldur ignores my comment as Robin steps up. "But it's been over a week and nothing-"
"You'll be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."
"This team is not a social club." Kaldur objects to him.
"No, but I am told social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave."
The robot then heads for the hanger doors, leaving us to the outdoor weather. "He does have a point though."
"Does he think we're falling for this?" Robin asks while annoyed.
"Oh, I'll find out." Miss Martian brings her focus to Tornado, concentrating on his mind. As a martian, one of her abilities is that she read people's minds. Though that does sound like snooping if you ask me. No offense to her, but I don't think I want her peeking inside my mind.
She tries to read his mind as we enters the cave, but to no avail. "I'm sorry. I forgot he's a machine, inorganic. I cannot read his mind."
"Nice try though. So, you know what I'm thinking right now?" You don't need to be a mind reader to know what you're thinking right now.
"And now we tour the clubhouse." Kaldur says with disappointment.
"Well Superboy and I live here, we can play tour guides." As Miss Martian offers to us.
"And familiarizing ourselves with the cave will probably helps us later on. Just taking a note from our robo den mother."
"A private tour sounds much more fun." As Wally tries to be smooth, which is never.
"Team building, we'll all go." Kaldur tells us all.
"Sounds good to me. Lead the way, Miss Martian."
And she does so gladly, showing us the front and back doors to the cave. "The cave is actually the entire mountain." As she tells us about the cave, she almost sounds like a tour guide from the Hall of Justice.
"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League." Gotta admit, it's pretty cool to know that Hal helped make the inside of this mountain into what it is today.
"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy asks.
"The cave's secret location was compromised." Kaldur answers his question.
"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? Yeah, that make sense."
"If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert." Miss Martian says, feeling alarmed probably.
"The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here." Robin reassures her as he takes her hand.
"He means we're hiding in plain sight." Wally puts in lamens terms as he grabs her other hand.
"Ah, that's much clearer." She says, with her headache from the confusion going away too probably.
I start to smell something, something hot and burning. Superboy must be catching the scent too. "I smell smoke."
"My cookies!" Miss Martian says as she flies off to where the smoke is, most likely the kitchen. We all follow the flying martian on foot to the kitchen, finding her cookies have been burnt. She levitates them to the countertop, looking all black and ashy.
"I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from Episode 17 of- Ah, never mind." She stops herself from continuing on. Episode 17? Why take a recipe from a TV show? Weird…
"I bet they've tasted great. He doesn't mind." Robin points towards Wally, who is chewing on the burnt and rock hard cookies.
"Dude, seriously? You're probably gonna need to go see a dentist after eating those." But he keeps eating them, even after what I say.
"I can make more, hopefully the right way next time."
"It was sweet of you to make any at all."
"Thanks, Aqualad."
"We're off duty. Call me Kaldur'ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."
"And call me Kyle. Even though I may be a Green Lantern, under the suit and ring I'm just plain ole' Kyle Rayner."
"Quit being so modest, Rayner." Robin says my way.
"And I'm Wally. See? I already trust you with my secret I.D., unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over here. Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name."
"Mine's no secret. It's M'gann M'orzz. But you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now."
"Well it's nice to officially meet you, M'gann." I bring out my hand to formally welcome her to Earth, with her complying with her hand shaking mine.
Superboy walks over towards the door, to which M'gann and I notice. He then turns her head, grunting with surprise and displeasure.
"Get out of my head!" Superboy just yells that all of a sudden. We all turn our heads towards M'gann. She must be telepathically speaking to Superboy. Maybe one of us should've warned her not to do that.
"What's wrong, I don't understand." It's M'gann's voice, inside my head. She's telepathically speaking to all of me, to all of us by the looks of it. "Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically." I hold my head as her voice gets louder and louder, to which then it stops.
I catch my breath before explaining that to her. "You have to remember, you're on Earth now, not Mars. Your telepathy powers, to humans, are seen as an invasion of privacy."
"And also, Cadmus' creepy little psychic G-gnomes left a bad taste in his brain." Wally pointing to the Kryptonian next to him, who's still looking pretty angry.
"I didn't mean to-"
"Just stay out." Superboy tells her as he leaves the room angrily as ever, leaving just the five of us in the room silent.
Then M'gann bops her head, again. "Hello, Megan! I know what we can do." She then flies off again, leaving us to follow her. What's with that, 'Hello, Megan?' For a martian, she's definitely an odd one.
I head my way with the others until I see Superboy still sitting on the couch in the next room, with his head turned the other way. I don't need to see his face or read his mind to know he's still angry with M'gann.
"Come on Superboy, don't you want to see the rest of the cave?"
He doesn't answer, ignoring my voice of reason.
"I swear, are all Kryptonians hard headed and stubborn?"
As I head to wherever we're going I see M'gann headed the other way, no doubt trying to talk Superboy into coming with. Good luck with him.
I'm caught up with the guys and I see M'gann coming our way with- Superboy? "How the heck did she get him to come at all?"
"I will explain it to you one day." Kaldur tells to me, joking with me I believe.
We go down a flight of floors to find what M'gann tells us is her Bioship. But from what I'm seeing, I don't see how that is a ship at all. All we find in front of us is a red oval shaped piece of mass, though I have no idea what it's made of. Most likely some materials from Mars.
"I don't see how you can call that a ship at all. Ferris Air has better planes than that, no offense.
"It's at rest, silly. I'll wake it." As soon as she touches it, the oval mass shapes into a full on flying ship, complete with a cockpit, wingspans and a tailwind. "I take back what I just said. Hal and Carol would freak if they saw this."
The Bioship turns around and opens - or morphs - an opening with staircase. "Well, are you coming?"
I was still in awe and shock when M'gann asked us that, shaking me from my gaze. We all walk towards the opening and the inside is just as amazing.
The inside of the cockpit is much darker than the outside, with designs from Mars I assume. At the center is the captain's chair, the captain being M'gann, and in front morphs five chairs for the rest of us. At the front is a control board for M'gann to control parts of the ship.
We sit down in our seats and as soon as I do, the chair automatically straps myself in. "Where do I get one of these?"
"You'd have to talk to my uncle about getting a bioship for yourself"
"What do you need one for anyways? You can already fly. Green Lantern, remember?" Wally points out to me.
I shake my head, bringing out my ring that I always keep on me. "Yeah but even still, to fly something like this would be amazing." Though if Hal ever flew this Bioship, he might crash it the first try.
"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors." M'gann asks our den mother, to which he replies by opening the doors. As soon as the doors open, two sets of glowing orbs come out to M'gann, for steering the ship of course, and next thing I know, we're flying high into the sky.
"Amazing."
"She sure is." Wally keeps on dazing out, so I snap my fingers to bring him back down to reality. "I mean the ship, which like all ships, is a she."
"Nice save, Kid Mouth." Me and Robin keep on joking on Wally as I notice Kaldur and Superboy talking, probably about M'gann. Kaldur's always been a good friend, always trying to help people, even if it's not from being crushed by a building.
I turn over to M'gann, who's looking at Superboy, only with a saddened expression. "Give him time M'gann, he's still new to the whole socializing with people thing."
She nods and gives me a weak smile. Robin then decides to change the subject. "Hey, how 'bout showing us some martian shape-shifting?"
M'gann stands up in the center of the ship, bringing all of our attentions towards her. Martians can also shape shift, making them to look like whoever they want. She decides to show us what she looks like as Robin. She then morphs into Kid Flash, with Wally staring at himself. Too weird man.
"Color me impressed. But I don't think you'll fool anyone with those unless it's Halloween."
"Mimicking boys is a lot harder."
"And your clothes?" Kaldur asks.
"They're organic, like the ship. They respond to my mental commands."
"As long as they're the only ones." Superboy huffs out loud, making me want to smack his head right now.
"You can do telepathy, shape shifting, can you density shift as well?"
"No, it's a very advanced technique." She sounds shaky saying that, must be hard for her to learn that.
"It's okay, we all have things we can't learn yet. Took me a while myself to learn to create the more complicated constructs."
She smiles again, with me looking down at my ring, and Robin speaking next. "Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall. When Wally tries it, bloody nose."
I start laughing with Boy Wonder. "I figured you had learned that by now Wally." Wally stares at me and Robin, feeling annoyed and a little humiliated.
Then the ship gets an incoming message from Mount Justice. "Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you investigate covertly. I'm sending coordinates."
"Received. Adjusting course." I feel the ship turning and heading for our new destination.
"Wonder what's going on at the Power Plant."
"More like Tornado's keeping us busy, again." Robin says, feeling annoyed.
"We don't know that Robin. And besides, a fire led us to find Superboy. Who knows what this will lead us to."
"I have a pretty good idea of what this is taking us into." Superboy tells us as we all turn to the left to see what he's talking about - a giant twister coming our way.