A/N: I know I told you guys about the month that I'll be gone but I wanted to squeeze in one more chapter. This chapter will the go off of the usual episode, without further ado let's get back to the story.
Raven's Justice
Chapter 14: Targets
Raven's P.O.V.
As I arrived back to the cave Aqualad greeted me with a kind "Raven, how was your—"
"Not now."
I feel kind of bad for being so harsh to Aqualad but today was a bad day.
First off, today was my first day with Martian Manhunter.
After my scuffle in Bialya I felt that I needed to improve my psychic powers, and training is the best way to do that. The day after we got back I was able to get into contact with him, and since I had worked with him during my probationary time it was like meeting an old friend. He agreed, but only when he was free. Which was fine by me.
Now back to today. I went to him hopeful, ready to train, and over all positive.
Then we got started.
We were floating in front of one another for about 2 hours, and feel horrible now. I shouldn't feel like this, during my time with the titans I was the strongest Psychic around. Now I just feel pathetic and weak. How can I protect my new team if I'm not at my strongest?
J'onn agreed to keep training me when our free times over laps. Which is something I desperately need.
Right now I am hiding behind one of the pillars, hyperventilating. Thankfully I had many years of training learning to be very quiet, while doing basically anything.
I stop when I hear Aqualad begin to talk.
"Red Arrow. Checking…Cheshire is 1.67 meters. Um, she is 5-foot-6, and exceptionally dangerous. Do you require backup? Just our computer. Good luck, my friend. Aqualad out."
I wonder what Red Arrow is getting himself into, but since he's kind of an ass I don't really think about it too hard.
I start to wander around the cave looking for Connor.
I find him in the water entrance area. It has a large platform which Connor uses to fix up his machines. He's taking a real liking to fixing up his motorcycle. Which is what he's doing now. But now that we have the new addition (the R2D2 robotic ball thing) Connor has had his time monopolized from his usual things. I hear him talking to the ball "Jealous much? All right, all right."
I then hear a voice I thought I was done hearing for the rest of the day.
J'onn is here in the cave, what?
I started to float down from my hiding place, I gave a quick glance at Connor who was trying to not smile, ah got to love a boyfriend with super-hearing. I notice the Red Tornado is also accompanying him.
"The first day of the scholastic season carries great cultural resonance. We want to wish you both well."
Before I could stop myself "Wait, what?"
Connor started rubbing his hand across his neck and said ''Guess it's not a Kryptonian thing."
"I'm going to school. I'm done. I finished my schooling years with titans. Why am I going to school?"
Aqualad took lead in breaking the bad news "We thought that since Connor should attend at least some time in a public school system that you should be there in case anything arises. "
Now I kind of got defensive, you know bad day and all "What exactly would arise?"
Aqualad looked at me in a 'trying to calm you down' way and then said "Someone may think he might be superman, even though there is a significant age difference they are clones. It might happen. And now that we have that covered, you should probably change."
Superboy just looks down and shakes his head as he says "I'm good."
Then they all look at me. I'm in yoga pants and a gray tank-top. After my little snippy-fit from earlier I just say "Just give me like 10 minutes for a shower. Sorry."
I then quickly float to my shower. Then I put on my dark purple loose sweater, blue skinny-jeans, and my white low rise converse. I grabbed a black back-pack I had lying around and put a random notebook and some pens into it along with my wallet and phone. And before I left my room I changed my skin tone from an ashy gray into a pale white, since the change was very slight I should be able to keep it the entire day. Yes I do have a phone. And within 8 minutes and 42 seconds I was back with the rest of the gang.
Surprisingly they were talking about how well Connor's motorcycle was coming along, and Red Tornado was even giving him tips on how to keep the paint gleaming.
I didn't realize before but J'onn was holding two lunches. That was nice of him.
I cleared my throat to get their attention "Ready to go?"
Connor then replied with "Yep just let me grab a helmet for you first. And then we can be off?"
"Sounds good. And for names I thought Raven Roth would be okay and Connor can just use his name since no one knows it."
Aqualad thought it over and said "That sounds good, let me know if anything happens."
"Okay, see you guys later." I say as I grabbed the helmet from Connor and put it on.
Now I know what you must be thinking. Riding a motorcycle to start your first day of school, well you know what. Whatever, we are going to school with the only transportation that can be accepted in the normal world.
Thank Azerath that we are seniors this time around.
The ride itself was relatively short and uneventful, but once we got to the parking lot that's where things got a little testy. As Connor and I were walking to the building we heard the yell and Connor who is starting to feel a little grumpier, just grabbed the poor kid from his jacket, stopping him in his tracks. The kid in question just said "Ugh, whoa!"
Connor then saw his shirt, but before he could examine it further I grab his arm. He looks like he want to pound something into rubble, so I say "Put him down."
Connor does and then whispers "But his shirt—"
"Means nothing, it's just a random shirt. Now let's go. "Before we leave the kid, I tell him "Hey sorry about that, he has a weird thing about ... uh moving people."
Then the kid then looks confused as he grabs his skateboard and says "Doesn't he have a motorcycle?"
"Sorry... again but we have to go."
Then a guy about 5 feet away asked "Why did you pick up Marvin?"
Marvin who followed us towards the school, with skateboard in hand responded with "I don't think he likes my t-shirt."
I look at him with a 'you caused this' face. And he just wipes his hand over his face and says "Your shirt is fine. Everyone's shirt is fine. You happy now?"
I smirk at his minimal attempt, and give him a kiss on his cheek which makes him smirk as I say "A little on the grumpy side, but okay."
The guy who asked about Marvin was about to walk up to us but was interrupted by what I think is a teacher who said "Okay. Time to get to homeroom, gang."
Someone then touched me on the arm and it was one of the cheerleaders, she seemed to be friends with Marvin and she said "I was new last year, so I know how hard it is to fit in. But you look like instant Bumblebee material to me. Cheerleaders. The Bumblebees. Tryouts are after school."
"Uh… Thanks, but no thanks. I… uh I'm really clumsy and I'd just hurt myself or someone else so I'm going to pass. But thanks for offering."
By the look on her face I could tell she was a little disappointed but understood how much I didn't want to be a cheerleader, and was just trying to diffuse the situation as nicely as possible.
She kindly responded with "Yeah, we are short a couple girls this year and we wanted to ask all the new people to see if any were interested."
Marvin then decided to walk us to the office, and as we were walking he told us "Dude. Facing down Mal Duncan? Fierce. Not too bright, but fierce." Apparently the guy who questioned about why Connor picked up Marvin was the infamous 'Mal Duncan'.
Today's going to be a lovely first day isn't it?
Gotta love High School cliques.
[_[-]_]
Guess what we did in class today?
Watch the news.
Connor and I should be out doing missions, not sitting in a dark classroom watching the news. This all just waste of time.
While I am upset about the lack of doing much of anything I'm surprisingly curious about the news we were watching.
Miss Grant the newscaster was talking about the Rhelasias
"If Lex Luthror's unknown strategy for peace fails the two Rhelasias are looking at all-out war before morning."
Then our teacher turns off the broadcast, and asks "Who can tell me more about Rhelasia? Marvin."
Don't you love those teachers who call the kid who's almost asleep? The reactions are priceless. Marvin's was "Huh! Well, um, Mr. Carr, it's better that Fakeasia."
There were a couple giggles but it was an overall silence.
So Mr. Carr asks another time "Anyone else?"
I was surprised when I heard Connor speak. My head whipped around to see him spouting information like he was an online dictionary. This was from his time in the pod and Cadmus, but information was accurate. He told in a dead voice "Modern Rhelasia was created in 1855 and ruled by the Bokun dynasty until it was divided by the great powers into North and South Rhelasia after World War II."
I grabbed his hand underneath our table and he relaxed a bit. It looked as though he was nervous about this whole situation, but only someone who knows him would realize how tense he was.
Mr. Carr then said "Very good."
Connor then asked "But why are they fighting. They're all humans…I mean, Rhelasians, right?"
"Right on both counts, actually."
[_[-]_]
Aqualad P.O.V.
Red Arrow called me to help me on his personal mission. He told me that he may have been in a little over his head. Usually I would have had a mission or training to do with my team, but sine everyone is at school I thought it would be okay. I even ran the idea of helping Roy out past Red Tornado, and he was fine with it.
So after a little bit of travel I was able to get into the conference with the Rhelasians and Lex Luthor.
After waiting for something to happen for quite some time, I finally found her. She was disguised as one of the ceremonial tea pourers, in traditional garb and makeup. The only way I could tell it was her was her height, and her facial structure.
I called her out "That is far enough, Cheshire."
And that is when everything went out of the control.
Cheshire pushed a cart at me after she triggered some kind of timer. I grabbed my two water controlling batons and I was able to grab the water from the glasses behind me and made a water wall. This was protected the officials when the cart hit the force field. The force of the explosion was jarring to say the least and it literally tore the jacket I wore to cover my tattoo's. But my water bubble still held. But I was thoroughly exhausted afterwards. It felt like I ran a marathon.
I saw that Cheshire was still moving so I pulled off the rest of my jacket. All that was really left of it was a vest like contraption; it only would have gotten in the way.
I could hear Roy prepare his arrow directly at her, waiting for her to do something. He then said "It's over, Cheshire."
As she stood up she said "You would think so."
Then suddenly a helicopter appeared behind her and over half a dozen men in black armor came out. Sportsmaster was leading this force. They are still working together, that's odd. But that is just a brief thought in this whole mess.
Agents started rushing agents. I heard Roy from my right say "Take Sportsmaster, Cheshire's mine." It kind of sounds like he's taking this personally, but it's the price of the job. Sometimes things become personal, and one of the best ways to get over it is to finish the deed (as long as it's legal).
Cheshire was also seeing what I've seen "So territorial, and only our third date."
And the fighting began.
I jumped over Cheshire and went straight for Sportsmaster. He was currently battling a couple of the Rhelasians agents. I caught his attention with a hit of my water whip with a barbed ball on the end. As our fight continued with flips, kicks, and jabs I could hear Roy's fight go on.
I was much more talkative than mine. I could hear Cheshire say "You called one of your little sidekick friends. But didn't you tell me they weren't in your league?"
That comment caught me off guard, and I paused. That's when I was hit by the arm of Sportsmaster. And I flew backwards. He had enough time to get a stone spiked ball with a chain attacked to it. I was fortunate enough to roll over quickly enough to dodge being hit in the face by it. After I cut the chain of the ball, he pulled out a rapier. So I morphed the water into two cutlasses.
Then something odd happened, Sportsmaster talked. He said "Not bad, lad. Better than our team did at Santa Prisca or Bialya."
"How did you-?"
"Let's just say I have an inside source. Very inside." That isn't good. But I need to focus at the task at hand, if I keep losing focus something worse could happen than being hit with the arm of an assassin.
As I'm moving in on my next move I hear Roy say "Aqualad let's end this." And then the sprinklers went off, and I got a heck of a lot more comfortable. I was able to rip off the caps from the sprinklers and form a vortex of water in the shape of a snake around me that I shot directly at Sportsmaster's men and then finally at him. But by that time Cheshire jumped in front of him and threw a grenade at the mouth of the snake, which destroyed my water snake and made a smoke screen. This made Roy and I cough uncontrollably but in the midst of this I heard Luthor say "Mercy." And the man who leapt from the fog directly toward the officials was shot down by the robot that was hidden in plain sight. Luthor's assistant was one of his products, now his mediation makes total sense.
While Roy and I were distracted the smoke cleared, the helicopter was gone, and so were Cheshire and Sportsmaster.
Luthor then starts his new pitch "Gives new meaning to the arms race doesn't she?" He of course says this while 'Mercy' retracts the gun back into the appearance of a normal arm.
The North Rhelasian leader approached Luthor first by saying "That technology is most impressive, Luthor."
Then the South Rhelasian leader then added "We owe you our lives, sir."
Now Roy is getting angry that Luthor stole the limelight by firing the last shot which finished the battle. He first starts off with "They owe him their lives?"
[_[-]_]
Now we are walking towards the entrance of the building that held the conference. And Roy is still crabby about the whole situation. I can hear him wine from behind me, he's saying "I can't believe we just did a solid for Lex Luthor."
I reminded him "Not for Luthor, for peace. Beyond that, if Ra's and League of Shadows wanted to sabotage the Summit the signing of the treaty renders their contract moot. It is over."
Roy then pauses for a second and says "Is it? I heard what Sportsmaster said. Do you really think there's a mole on your team feeding him intel?"
I have to face reality now, "I cannot rule out the possibility. I will investigate quietly." I need to alert the League, at the very least Batman and Red Tornado.
"Not tell them?"
"I do not want the unit unraveling over baseless suspicions. And if there is a mole, I have no wish to tip him or her off." This is most likely the safest route for the team. As in the best way to keep them together, keep them on point, and to keep them safe.
Roy chuckles and mockingly solutes me and says "Good luck with that."
There was one thing that still bothered me, "One moment, my friend. Tonight, you could have called Green Arrow for help or the Justice League. Instead, your first instinct was to call the Cave."
Roy pauses, but doesn't turn around when he says "You're right. The team deserves—has my respect. I'm still getting used to this solo act stuff. But if you need me, I'll be there."
[_[-]_]
Raven's P.O.V.
As we walked back into cave's living room I plopped onto the couch and groaned.
"I never believed Robin when he said how horrible school was. I don't want to go back Connor, please don't send me back." I complained in a joking matter. Connor just smiled and walked over from the kitchen. Once he reached the back of the couch, I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. In which he sighed into.
When the kiss ended, I asked while holding his hand "Hey, how are you doing after your first day of school?"
While holding onto my hand he sat down next to me. "It was okay, learning history from humans (Which sounds very odd out-loud) is very different from what I thought it would be. But I think after a little time I can learn to adjust into normalcy."
I squeezed his hand and leaned into his shoulder as I said "I know you'll be fine, in whatever you do. I'm just worried you'll bottle it up, and explode and that I won't be there to put an impenetrable bubble around you." I say semi-jokingly. But I do spend a lot of time worrying about him, but thank goodness for his 'man of steel' quality. Since my Robin died the way he did I can't help but worry.
My thoughts were interrupted by Connor asking "So , speaking about 'bottling things up' what happened this morning after your training with J'onn?"
I nuzzle into his side, and he wraps his arm around me "It was okay. I have a lot of work to do. I didn't realize how far behind I was. How did I manage all those missions with you guys being so weak? I may be panicking a bit about how far I've fallen since my time with the titans."
Connor sat and thought about the situation for a bit. He finally said "You had no use for those particular powers these last couple months. Did you train everyday with the titans? Yes, you did. You have maintained your powers so that they weren't non-existent but you have lost some of your ability's. You are extremely determined, and very stubborn you WILL be able to regain your former power status. I have complete faith in you. So stop worrying, we'll be fine."
"Thank you." I say as I kiss his cheek and then go back to cuddling with him.
"Anytime, Raven." He kisses the top of my head as he grabs the remote and puts on the first Star Trek movie and we relish in the relaxation of the situation.
Roughly half-way through the movie a very tired Aqualad came in. "Hello, Raven and Connor. May I join you?"
"Yes, of course." Connor says. I watch in ah as he plops down on the love seat and took off his shoes and grabbed a pillow to curl up in the chair. I would glance at Kaldur every 15-20 minutes and he was still very much awake, but surprisingly still looked a little tense.
When the movie ended and Connor moved to go do his homework. I pulled Kaldur aside to ask what was wrong. Kaldur did the smart thing and decided to be honest with me and said "I can't tell you but would it be all right if I came to you sometimes with moral questions. "
I loved how honest he was being so I respond with "You can tell however much you want. I can promise you I know how to keep a secret. And if things are getting too hard for you please come talk to me before you explode. Okay?"
"Okay." With that I give him a quick hug and he leaves for bed.
Overall today wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
A/N: This is very weird guys, turns out when you have a lot of free time and are filled with guilt you can writer pretty quickly. So here you guys go, another chapter. Sorry if it's a little short but nothing really happened in the original episode. I'll keep trying to crank out more chapters before I go. So chapters should be coming a lot quicker than usual. I would like to thank Rae, lissim, Evil Beware We Have Waffles 04, nicolexxx, AryaZEvans, Akirasatansoul, ArellaR, Brakelite, WolfassassinKing, Martenzo, FlopsyTheStingyDingo ,selen123,angelrey, VeeR,Boomer1125, Rose, Vee, MoonlightWolf16, BetaZackFan, wolf40k ,Yusuke Kurosaki , Insane bananas , ,Mizzimus,Nerdy Jiyu,Chromatic Love,chibi-no-baka,Harpy81,kreigspahn, M.I. '85, Rythomas12, , donnabella2k7, shadowhunt54,M19n98b0e, tigergirl1723, jumhalala, silly60, GennytheTigerWolf, MariashaAziza, B00kfan, Snow413, New Moon9889, D-MINI-Q, Mako27, dah1507, Insane Blood Prince, Wolfy-Queen, zeona last, FlopsyTheStingyDingo, Katr5432, Regin, TuTsXxX, and Alaska.
