Chapter 12: Road Trip

"Hey there Dinah. How's your day been?" I ask her, hoping to make her less angry. I then notice her bandaged arm. "What happened, are you okay?"

She grabs her arm, rubbing it some. "It's nothing, don't worry. But I need to talk to you right now. Do you mind giving us the room Ted?"

"Not at all", he says as he makes his way to the back room. "Just try not to kill each other, okay?" Grandpa is then gone, leaving only me and my very angry, Canary Crying sister.

"So what's up?"

"What's up is this." She hands me a piece of paper. When I take it and see what's on it, I'm completely surprised in every way.

"Is this… Me? How did… Who drew this?" I try asking her, but I'm too shocked and confused to speak in full sentences.

"A young hero. A Green Lantern actually." Now that's an even bigger surprise. I didn't think that Lantern could draw, let alone draw this good.

"What were you thinking? Going out in public, wearing that? And to Santa Prisca too of all places! How did you even get to Santa Prisca? Why did you go?"

"I rented a speedboat. It wasn't too hard for me to navigate and drive my way to the island. And I went because I wanted to see that team of young heroes in action, see what they were like."

"What if something had happened to you? You could've been seriously hurt Sara."

"You mean like you?", I say as I point to her injury. "You don't think I worry about you when you on League missions and fight dangerous and powerful people? Not knowing if you'll come back?"

Dinah stares at me with solace, finally calming down some. "I've been trained. I can handle myself with whatever's thrown at me. And you—"

"Can too! I've had training of my own too and you know it. You just won't let me prove to you I can go out and be a hero. Dinah, there are bad people out in the world, people that will hurt innocent lives, families and their children. And I want to be the one to stop them before they ever get the chance. I don't want to see any kids lose their families…" I don't want anyone to end up like I did…

I look up to my sister, who doesn't look mad anymore. Dinah looks sad now, tearing up some, probably not as much as I am right now. "Oh Sara." She pulls me in for a hug, grabbing me as tight as possible.

"I know you've been through so much, I do. And I know you want to help the world so much." She looks into my eyes, and to me, it's like looking at a mirror. Seeing myself all grown up.

"But if anything were to happen to you… I don't know what I'd do with myself. Blood or not, you've been like a sister and a daughter to me." She puts her hands on my face, wiping my eyes of waterworks.

An alarm goes off from Dinah's phone then. She takes it out and answers, clearing her throat and wiping her face before speaking. "Canary. Okay, I'll be there in 20." She hangs up and puts it back in her pocket. "The League needs help coordinating a transport to Boston and New York."

"What's being transported? Who's doing the transporting?"

"I'll tell you all about it when I get back." Which is code for the team.

Dinah takes my hand and looks me in the eyes. "We'll talk about your 'nightly activities' after I get back too. If I'm seriously going to consider this, we'll have to figure a way for you to prove yourself to me. See if you're really ready."

"Seriously?"

She nods in response. "Stay out of trouble til then, okay?", she says, which makes me smile. "Love you."

"Love you too." She then makes her way out of the door, leaving me alone in the gym.

If she's serious about letting me go out into the field, maybe I can talk her into letting me join Green Lantern and his friends. I just wish I could do something about it now. Instead I have to wait for Dinah to get back from coordinating some transport…"

"To Boston and New York. I wonder, where do you go from to get to two cities?"

Litchfield County

August 3, 20:08 EDT

Well riding a motorcycle is a nice change from flying everywhere all the time.

The team and I are hiding behind some bushes, on our motorcycles, waiting for the League to load up the trucks with the android's parts and dummy parts. Aqualad, Kid Flash and Miss Martian are to follow the truck going to Boston, while Robin, Superboy and I tail the truck for New York.

Soon enough, all six trucks are ready for travel and Batman gives them the go ahead. The trucks then drive onto the road, three of them driving to the left for Boston, and the other three drive off to the right for New York. My group drives off to the right of the road, with Aqualad's group drive to the left. Good luck guys.

We've been driving for a good twenty minutes. So far, none of us have seen or noticed any sign of trouble or anyone following us. If things go well, this mission will go off with a hitch.

I look over to my right to see Robin and Superboy, the latter still looking mad about earlier today. He seriously needs to learn to control his anger, for his sake and ours.

I move closer to Superboy, but before I can say anything to him, Boy Wonder asks out of nowhere, "If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right."

"Seriously? I'm pretty sure that's not what aster means", I tell Bird Boy. But he just waves me off.

"Superboy, what do you think?", he asks him, but he doesn't answer him. "Clearly you're not feeling the aster. What's wrong?"

"Canary." Finally, he speaks. "And what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?"

"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman and well, me."

"Robin's right", I say jumping into the conversation. "I had to learn how to take on guys twice my size too, without my ring even. Everyone has to learn how they can best take down an enemy who's stronger and bigger than them. My advice, take some lessons from Canary. She has a lot to offer us, you could learn a thing or two from her."

Superboy doesn't respond to either one of us. He just speeds on up away from us, ignoring our words of wisdom.

"Definitely not feeling the aster."

"Seriously man, you've got to stop that before it becomes a thing. And Superboy just needs to cool his hot Kryptonian head. Hopefully he can do that on this mission."

Then out of nowhere, my ear catches something, from the crop fields to our right. From what I can hear, it sounds high pitched and very annoying. Laughing.

Before I know it, a whole swarm of flying green and black robot monkeys pops out of the field, laughing every so annoyingly. They fly over to the truck, grabbing onto it and not letting go anytime soon. So much for this mission being easy.

"Robin, Superboy, Green Lantern, out truck is under attack!" Aqualad says to us over our coms.

"Kinda figured", Robin answers back.

"You think?", I say back to Robin.

"I hate monkeys", Superboy says. I'm not a big fan of them at the moment either.

"Robot monkeys! Totally Ivo's tweaked style", Robin says joyfully for some reason. He then activates his cycle's battle mode, with his front wheel moving inside the bike as the rear wheel detaches from it. The wheel splits in half and flies into the air. Mini drone, very cool. "Switch your rides to battle mode."

"No point", Superboy says. He speeds up close enough to the truck to jump on it, which he does and makes said jump. Unfortunately, that leaves his motorcycle without a driver. His cycle flips over, heading for Robin.

"Or not." Just as the unmanned cycle crashes into Robin's, he jumps off his own into the air and launches a grappling line to the back of the truck. He lands on the door and kicks one of the monkeys off just after.

"Don't leave me out of all the fun." I take off my helmet and jacket, then jump off of my motorcycle, with my suit materializing. I fly above the truck and get myself a good view of the fight on the road.

Superboy stands on top of the truck, smashing and thrashing about every robo-monkey that comes his way. Most of them are swarming at him, climbing on top of him even, which is probably making him even madder. Robin, still on the back of the truck, is fighting monkeys of his own too. His drone helps him by blasting more robots to bits.

I start to shoot at the flying robots from Oz, taking out two of them on the roof. Then three more fly over to me, probably wanting to make me crash like one of Carol's planes that she has Hal test fly. Not gonna end up like that.

I send a blast of GL energy their way, hitting one on the spot. The other two make it to me, one grabbing my right arm and the other on my back. "Get off me!"

I look over to my left and notice the drone is gone. I look further down and find it on the ground, in pieces and with smoke coming from it. I'm definitely not gonna end up like that.

With the monkey now grabbing my hand, I blast him off of it and into a million pieces. Then I make a giant hand construct, stretching it behind me to my back, and have it grab the monkey off my back. The monkey in my big, green hand squirms and laughs like a hyena up until I crush in into metal shards.

I'm about to fly back down to the guys until I see Superboy being lifted in the sky by four flying monkeys. That's not how Superman flies really, but whatever works for you man.

And then they just drop him like a rock, and just like a rock, he falls fast. I fly over his way and catch Superboy before he makes contact with the ground the hard way. "You okay?"

"Not really." His eyes are shut tight, with blast marks around them. Blind Kryptonian. Never a good thing.

"Hold on. We need to help Robin protect the package." I fly us back to the truck, and I see Robin on the roof now, fighting off monkeys with his batons. I also see a small opening on the roof. An opening that was cut like a welding torch would.

"Okay, I'm gonna drop you onto the truck. You ready?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really. It's either that or we crash into the truck. And I'd rather not wreck into the truck carrying parts to a highly dangerous android."

"Okay then!"

"Alright. Go!" Right as I say, I let go of Superboy. He falls straight down onto the truck, without crushing it or Robin. But as soon as he lands, more monkeys converge on him and he swats them away like flies.

I fly down closer to the ground and blast more monkey-bots to destruction. I look down and see two of them heading for the tires. "Oh no you don't." I take aim at the two bots and blast them to smithereens before they get the chance to blow the tires.

Then I hear something break. Something made of glass. The windshield.

I go upfront to find the windshield broken and inside the vehicle, with the driver freaking out. I'd be freaking out too if I were him.

Unfortunately, he's not paying too much attention to the road. Guy doesn't have his hands on the wheel. This is not going to end well.

"Robin, Superboy, get off now! Truck's gonna crash!" I yell to warn them. Robin gets the message loud and clear. Superboy, on the other hand, doesn't look like he did.

I create a crowbar construct and pry off the driver's side door off the truck. Then I hover over to driver and grab a hold of him. "Don't let go!" I pull him out of the truck and fly back away from it, landing in the crops. I make sure the driver is okay, no injuries or anything broken. Luckily he landed without a scratch.

I pop my head out of the crops to see Robin jumping ship, or truck in this case, before it flies out of control even more. Superboy, however, is on the roof still fighting off the flying monkey swarm. And then the truck flips over, and over, and over, and over.

"Stay here." I take off the ground and fly ahead to the truck, then land myself with it coming at me. I make myself a giant baseball glove construct, big enough to grab and lift an elephant. The truck meets with my glove construct, pushing it and me back a bit further than I thought it would. After a few seconds, the truck finally comes to a stop with its back on the ground. Well that could've gone better.

Before I can do anything else, a hole bursts open in the backdoor with several robo-monkeys flying out of said hole as they carry the android's parts. I try shooting some of them down with energy blasts, but they fly too far out of range from me.

Robin comes out the fields next, looking upwards to see the package flying away. Then the truck is lifted up for a moment, making us turn to see Superboy coming out from below. And as soon as he gets out of the road wreckage, he starts jumping after them.

"Superboy!" But he doesn't answer us. He just keeps leaping after the robots, either too far to hear us or ignoring us. Probably ignoring us. Again.

"Aqualad to Robin. We lost our cargo. Did you—"

"It's gone. And so is our partner."

"Not if I can help it. I'll follow him and the robots. Hopefully they'll lead us to Ivo. Regroup with the others. Stay in radio contact." Robin nods in agreement of my plan, leaving me to go after my stubborn, Kryptonian teammate.

I fly my way at top speed, trying to catch up to Superboy for the last few minutes. He's still in my sight, not too far from me but he's not slowing down anytime soon. For a guy who can't fly, he can leap pretty far.

I'm about a mile or two behind him when I hear from him, "I don't need help, don't want any!"

I speed up just enough to get right behind him. "Yeah well whether you like it or not, you're getting help!"

"Leave me alone Kyle! I can handle Ivo and his robots on my own."

"That's not the point of the mission. We're a team. We work better together, especially when we communicate with one another." I get a buzzing in my ear just now. "Speaking of which. Green Lantern to Aqualad. I've caught up with Superboy. We're still tailing the robots. Have you figured out where they're taking the parts to?"

"We have.", he answers back. "It looks like they are headed for Gotham City."

"That's in between Boston and New York. At the rat we're moving now, we ought to catch up to them before they make it to there."

"Let's hope you do. Kid Flash and Robin are on their way right now. They will join you as soon as possible. Keep us updated. Aqualad out."

"Looks like we're headed for Gotham."

Litchfield County

August 3, 20:42 EDT

"Man, what a wreck."

Here I stand with my bike, in the middle of the road, with a wrecked truck on its side and a hole in its backdoor. Along with tire and blast marks and robotic debris on the road. Must've been one hell of an accident.

I found out that the team was transporting whatever they're transporting in Litchfield County. It's the closest place that's equal in distance between Boston and New York.

I hid in the crop fields as the team divided into two groups and went left and right following the trucks. I decided to go right, following three boys. But I had to wait for the area to clear before I drove after them on my motorcycle. Thanks for the motorcycle Oliver, and for the lessons Dinah.

I had to stay a couple of miles behind them so they wouldn't see me. Hopefully it worked. Even though I couldn't see any of the action, I heard plenty of it and it sounded epic.

It's only been about a minute since Robin drove off after those robots. If I follow after him, he should lead me to where all the action is. Hopefully I can join in the fun when I catch up.

I should keep my eye out for the other members. They're probably on their way too to join Robin, Superboy and Green Lantern tailing those robot monkey.

"Green Lantern…" Once I catch up, I'll definitely run into him too. Hopefully he doesn't mind me joining him and his friends on their latest escapade.

'I bet they'd love to have you on the team just like me. And to have you as a friend.'

I wonder if he still feels that way about me… Wanting me to be on their team…

I shake my head out of the daze, bringing back my focus to their mission. Something I can worry about afterwards.

I start up my motorcycle and start driving south of the road. "Let's find out where everyone's heading now."

Gotham City

August 3, 21:21 EDT

"I gotta say, those monkeys can fly a lot faster than I though. At least I was able to shoot two of them down."

"Too bad it didn't help us get the parts back." Superboy says back to me as he keeps leaping further.

"Look!" I point over for Superboy to look, a city beyond the fields and mountains. Gotham.

"Down there!" I look over to where he tells me and we see a train that's heading for Gotham City. Flying to said train are the monkeys with the stolen parts. I look over to the right and see another group of monkeys making their way for the train too, carrying with them a package. Both sets of the android's remains coming together. Definitely not good.

Both herds fly down inside a train car, the door closing behind them after all have entered. Superboy and I land on the roof of the train. Superboy rips open a hole into the roof and drops inside the car, with me following him.

Once inside, we find more of those annoying robot monkeys at the other end of the train car. But we also find someone surrounded by the bots. A man in his late 50s, early 60s, with red hair and some gray in it, wearing a green sweater vest and a red bow on his collar. Professor Ivo.

"Oh, hello."

"You?" Superboy says. "You're Ivo? I'm whelmed." Great, he's sounding like Robin now.

"You're one to talk. Now, since when does the big blue boy scout have a brat?" Ivo asks.

"He doesn't."

"Yeah, if you say so. And a Green Lantern as well. Not the real one though."

"Excuse me?" Not the real one?

"You're clearly not the Green Lantern of Coast City. You don't look old enough or tall enough to be him. Your outfit doesn't even match his or others. And let's face it, you're probably still in Lantern Academy." Ivo says while smiling. I don't respond to him, only clenching my fists, with my ring glowing brighter and brighter.

"Have you met my mobile optimal neural quotient infiltrators?" As soon as he says that, Ivo's pets come at us. But Superboy and I just destroy them, him smashing them and me blasting them to metal bits and pieces. "And after all the trouble I went through finding an acronym for M.O.N.Q.I." Seriously, M.O.N.Q.I.?

Superboy smashes the last two near us, leaving only him and I, Ivo and his few remaining M.O.N.Q.I.s. But then I remember why we're really here. I look around the train car but I don't see them. Where're the packages? The android parts?

"Access Captain Atom." Next thing we know, Superboy and I are blasted in the faces with an energy blast that resembles, and feels, the same as Captain Atom's.

As Ivo walks towards us, I hear something creaking behind him. Something metallic and big. Very big. Oh no.

"Since Professor Ivo's Magnificent M.O.N.Q.I.s doesn't float your boats, maybe my Amazing A.M.A.Z.O. will better suit you, or better slay you."