"Tell me if this sounds familiar." Batman said gruffly back at the cave. "You hacked League systems, disobeyed protocol, and endangered your lives. And your initiative resulted in the captors of three escaped felons, proving Warden Strange runs Belle Reve as a cover of criminal activity. Well done."
And for the first time ever: I saw Batman smile. Like, actually smile. Well...I mean it looked more like smirk, but still: he showed emotion! Maybe there was hope for him after all.
"And then there's this." Batman stepped forward, motioning to the attaché case we had successfully acquired that we discovered was full of...weird, glowing chip-thingies. "Energy integrated with some sort of nano-circuitry."
"Though I am familiar with the species, the bio-component is obviously not from Earth." Icon explained.
So he's a scientist of sorts? Seriously, who is this guy?!
"We'll take it to the Watchtower for further studied." Batman announced as he, Red, Dinah,and Icon made their way to the zeta-tubes. In the last minute, Rocket flew over to her mentor.
"Congratulations on the League-thing...sorry I skipped out." Rocket said.
"Yes, well we both seem to have found teams that suit us." Icon said simply before he and Dinah zeta-ed away.
"You realize we were set up." Robin said the moment all leaguers were out of the room.
"Yes, Cheshire and Riddler were tipped and ready for us." Kaldur agreed.
"Not the mole-thing again!" Artemis groaned.
"Mole-thing? Again?" Rocket asked, obviously confused.
"We had intel there was a mole on the team." Wally explained.
"Namely Artemis, M'gann or me!" Conner growled.
That's right...Roy was being...temperamental during Robin's secret mission on Christmas eve...suspecting Artemis, Megan and Conner of being the mole that almost separated us during the India mission...
"It is more complicated then that." Kaldur said, placing a hand on Conner's shoulder, which Conner just shrugged off before the Kryptonian began to storm away. "But your recent behaviour does concern me. Your attack on Mammoth got Lina concussed and nearly got Artemis killed."
My concussion was my own fault...
As Conner walked away, he suddenly halted: covering his ear and slouching like he was in pain. But a moment later, he seemed alright again.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"There's something I need to do." Conner announced. "Something I need to tell you. Last month, on Thanksgiving, I went back to Cadmus: found a few things out. When I was cloned, only half the DNA was Superman's. The other half was human, that's why I don't have-will never have-full Kryptonian powers."
"You sure? Cause you sure seemed to have them today." Robin stated.
"I've been using these." Conner rolled up his sleeve to reveal a black sticker on his arm, the same shape as Superman's S shield. "They're called Shields, they suppress my human DNA. I get the flight, the heat vision...but I think I also get angry, well, angrier. I'm sorry."
"Where did you get those?" Kaldur asked.
"From my human father, Lex Luther." Conner said, lowering his head as he pulled out a metal container this the shield design. This seemed to shock the team.
"Lex Luther...is you dad?" Robin asked.
"He's summoned me to Santa Prisca." Conner explained. A moment later, I stepped in.
"Who cares where you got them or who his dad is!" I exclaimed, walking over to Conner and snatching the tin from Conner's hand. "What if these things hurt you? What if the thing that makes you angrier had a permanent effect? You don't just accept things like this to people I don't care how strong they make you! And you sure as hell don'tkeep this from us!"
Conner looked at me, confused. "You're not mad at me? Even though I slammed you against a cliff wall?"
"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the choices you made!" I explained, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Like I told you the night we rescued you from Cadmus, we're your family. That means when something this big comes up, you talk to us."
For a moment, Conner continued to stare as me before smiling and nodding.
"Look..." Artemis hummed, catching all our attention. "Superboy's not the only one suffering from bad DNA."
Artemis walked over to the center of the room and pulled up three holographic images. One of Cheshire, another of Sportsmaster, and the last one of huntress; an assassin gone straight.
"My mother is Huntress, an ex-con. The rest of my family aren't even ex..." Artemis said, catching us all off guard. "My dad's Sportsmaster, and he's sending my sister-Cheshire-tofly me to Santa Prisca too."
"That's why..." Wally muttered.
"Ya, I was so desperate to make sure none of you found out-""I knew." Robin cut Artemis off, making us all whirl around and look at him.
"What? I'm a detective, but it never mattered. You aren't your family: you're one of us."
This seemed to release a huge weight from Artemis' shoulder as Wally stepped forward, placing his arm on Artemis' shoulder.
Yay, they're being all cute!
"So...who's next?" Wally joked.
"I am." Megan said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I swear I was kidding." Wally said, looking horrified as he put his hands up innocently.
"Queen Bee's been...blackmailing me." Megan said. "She wants me in Santa Prisca too."
"Blackmailing? How?" Kaldur asked, speaking all of our thoughts.
"She knows my...true Martian form." She said.
"Bald M'gann?" Robin asked, referring to a mission he, Megan, Wally and Conner went on a while ago when Megan had revealed that she actually looked like a younger, more feminine version of Martian Manhunter. "So what?"
"No." Megan said simply before she began to shape shift into something different. She grew a good two feet, turned super white with a red X over her chest, her front limbs extended and thinned out along with her back limbs, her torso grew three times bigger, and her head grew. Over all, she formed into something you'd see in a 1950s alien movie.
But honestly, I didn't really care. I've seen enough this past year that this doesn't even hit my top 10s, and nevertheless, I knew it was still M'gann. So really, what's there to be afraid of?
The rest of the team seemed to think differently as everyone, save for Conner and Kaldur stepped back.
"I realized you would never accept me if you saw what I really am." Megan said telepathically.
"M'gann..." I said, feeling the need to give her a hug.
"Did we truly seem so shallow?" Kaldur asked.
"I couldn't take that chance." Megan said, curling into herself. "Being a white Martian among the green on Mars...I faced constant rejection. I couldn't take that from-""From me?" Conner interjected as he stepped forward, took M'gann's hand and began to have a private telepathic conversation. I knew that those two meant the world to each other, and the fact that Conner was able to accept M'gann in her true form, and she didn't reject him for his true biological lineage...I knew that these two were going to get their happily ever after someday.
"Okay...I think that's enough curveball reveals for today..." I muttered.
"Agreed." Kaldur nodded at me. "We need to go to Santa Prisca."
"Guys, reinforcement time." Artemis alerted and everyone save for her, Megan and Conner leaped out from their cover and began to help with the group of villains.
Rocket and I swooped in and carried a good amount of gunmen up and away before looping back and helping the bigger threats. I saw Kaldur block Lex Luther carrying Queen Bee. I saw his robotic bodyguard aim to shoot at Kaldur when I swooped in a pushed her, causing her to miss and shoota tree before I pushed the robotic bodyguard into the ground.
"Mercy, stop playing with little girls and hurry up." Lex said, causing the robot to hit me full on in the face, sending me flying back and giving the robot a chance to follow her creator. I stood back up, holding my chin.
"I just love making dumb moves today, don't I?" I muttered.
"Thank youfor the help." Kaldur said, nodding to me and I smiled and nodded.
Suddenly, the sound of a helicopter taking off was heard.
"I got it!" Rocket exclaimed and she flew up to try to stop, only to be stopped my missiles. Iflew at top speed and diverted the weapons as Rocket formed a forcefeild.
"Are you alright?" I asked once all of the missiles had launched and been diverted.
"Ya, thanks." She said, and Inodded.
See? I'm not jealous! I savedher!
"I could still-""You both are needed here!" Kaldur cut Rocket off and the two of us flew back towards the ground.
Kaldur handed Rocket and I weird gear I'd never seen before.
"Aim at Blockbuster, this should be enough to shock him so Superboy can render him unconscious." Kaldur explained and Rocket and I nodded and put on the armour before turning to where Conner and Megan were fighting Blockbuster.
"Miss Martian, Superboy: move." I yelled, and the two proceeded to move out of the way for Rocket and I who did as instructed. A few glowing red disks shot out of the gear and flew over to Blockbuster, who was then shocked by the disks and fell to the ground: roaring angrily.
"You should learn to channel that anger." Conner said smugly before landing a strong punch to his face.
Once the mission had successfully come to an end, we regrouped at the bioship.
"It is always like this!" Rocket said cheerfully.
"Told ya." Zatanna smirked.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, furrowing my brows.
"Hey, disaster averted: feeling the aster." Robin stated.
"Agreed." Kaldur said. "This has been a good day."