Chapter 7: Teamwork

Happy Harbor

July 18, 19:46 EDT

Robin, Wally, Kaldur and Superboy are all standing behind me, waiting for Miss Martian to get here soon with help, while I hold off Twister with my shield construct. With every twister he sends my way, a new crack appears on it. But I just keep pouring on more will to strengthen it more. My will can withstand his storm.

But I notice Twister looking up past me, but I refuse to lose my focus.

"Hit the showers, boys." I recognize that cold, steely voice.

I look back without losing Twister just enough to see Red Tornado coming in for a landing. Looks like he is going to intervene.

I step back away from Twister and join the others, with my shield disappearing as I don't need it at the moment. "I was hoping you could handle this. Clearly you cannot."

"But we've got a plan now." Robin tries to argue with the android to no avail.

"The subject is not up for debate." We all move back to the side to watch as the androids duke it out.

Red Tornado sends a tornado of his own towards Twister, while he creates one of his own to counter it. Twister sends another twister Tornado's way, only for him to dissipate it into nothing. "We are evenly matched, Twister." Tornado says to his foe as he creates another tornado to attack Twister.

"No, Tornado, we are not." He smashes the ground, sending air up into the sky. He then strikes the ground with his lightning, trying to make a hit on Tornado. He does hit the car though, blasting Tornado back to the ground on his back.

Twister then jumps over to the fallen Tornado. "Remain still, android." He then sends tiny tendrils down to Tornado's head. "The reprogramming won't take long." Reprogramming? What does Twister want with Tornado exactly?

Doesn't matter really, because he's not going to get what he wants.

I keep watching as Twister tries his reprogramming, up until Tornado stops him, pulling the plugs from his head. Then I see Tornado's head change into… M'gann! Her plan is working.

Twister backs up from her as a tornado comes his way, blowing him to the side. The twister slows down, showing to be Wally running in a circle so fast he's creating his own tornado. Then I turn to see Superboy taking a hold of the android and beating him a new one. He then throws him over to the docks, with Twister falling into the water.

I fly up to be ready for my part in this plan. Then water comes shooting up in the sky, with an armless Twister along with it, falling to the ground. M'gann levitates him up and sends a telepathic shock wave his way, making him lose his left arm now. Now it's my turn. I shoot at him with as much willpower as I have an energy blast, as well as Robin throwing batarangs at his back. Both hit him with destructive force, sending him crashing to the ground.

We all gather around the defeated android, taking in our victory. I scan the robot for any signs of life with my ring, only to find none. Just like M'gann had earlier when reading his mind. Then his chest opens to find a thin, scraggly man in the robot. But that doesn't make sense. If there was someone in there, why did my ring show no sign of life… Wait!

The man falls out of the suit and to the ground, trying to gather his thoughts and words. "Foul. I call foul."

"You gotta be kidding me. M'gann." I look over to my martian friend, who nods in agreement of what to do next. She levitates a nearby boulder and brings it over the man's body.

Kaldur's face shows fear and shock, knowing what we're both thinking. "M'gann, no!"

But it's too late. The boulder crushes the man before Kaldur or anyone could stop her from crushing him. Everyone looks in horror as what has just happened, myself excluded. "Don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth, we don't execute our captives!" Robin angrily tells the martian.

"You said you trust me." M'gann tells to Robin.

"You should trust her, I do." I say myself. I create a shovel construct, big enough to lift up the boulder from the ground. Once I do, we all find what M'gann had figured out a long time ago - an android, smashed to pieces.

"That's why I couldn't read his mind."

"And that's also why my ring didn't read any signs of life inside the robot."

We all walk over to the robot, seeing the smashed pieces of the man we just saw. Wally kneels down to pick up the android's eyeball. "Cool. Souvenir." Seriously, an android's eye as a souvenir? Never going on a vacation with him.

"We should have had more faith in you." Kaldur tells her, reassuring her place on this team.

"I always had faith in her. If I didn't, who would've?" I wrap my arm around her, making her laugh at me. Wally then speeds over to squeeze between us. Don't worry Wally, that's not even crossing my mind. But it is with someone… I look over to Superboy, smiling at our friend.

"We're all just turbed you're on the team." Robin adds on to the compliments.

"Thanks. Me too."

Mount Justice

July 18, 20:04 EDT

Inside the cave, we're all gathered around the remains of the android M'gann had smashed to pieces. Tornado, who is with us as well, examines over the remains, wondering who sent Twister after him and why.

"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you." Kaldur tells Tornado.

"Agreed."

"Is that why you wouldn't help us?" M'gann asks him.

"No. This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you. Nor should you solve mine for me."

M'gann and I look at each other, both of us confused as ever. "Even if you were on the verge of being destroyed?" I ask our den mother.

"Consider this matter closed." He then walks off to another part of the cave.

"Batman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern, they'd have jumped right in to fix things." Wally says, and I agree with him. Hal would've flown straight over if we needed the extra help.

"Guess if we're gonna have a baby sitter, a heartless machine is exactly what we need." Robin says to us.

"Dude, harsh."

"And inaccurate." We all look back over to the robot. "I have a heart. Carbon-steel alloy." He turns his head towards us. "I also have excellent hearing."

I can't help but laugh a little. Though he probably didn't mean it, but I think Red just made a joke.

"This is definitely rounding up to be something good."

"You were right, Speedy was so wrong." Wally says.

"This team thing…"

"Might just work out." Kaldur finishes Robin's sentence.

The four of us head over to the teleporter tube. I look back to see M'gann and Superboy facing each other, though I can only make out one word: Sorry.

I then see M'gann smiling as Superboy heads for his room. Oh yeah, those two are gonna be just fine.

"Now Brom, aren't you relieved I didn't let you wear the armor?"

"Extremely, Professor, but you're not upset?"

"I'm convinced our tracking program was operational and that the real Tornado was somewhere in the vicinity. Besides, you know science advances in fits and starts. Even failure can be instructive. And I'd say we learned quite a lot today."