Mount Justice
August 3, 13: 06 EDT
I let out a joyful laugh as I beat Kaldur at a game of ice hockey. "Diana: Five. Kaldur: Two!"
Robin and Kid Flash high fived me, we were all on our superhero uniforms, waiting our next training session with Canary. You know, having your mom, adoptive or not, train you in martial arts made you realise how awesome she really was.
'Recognised: Superboy B05.' The computer announced as Superboy came stomping into the cave.
"Hi, Superboy! How was Metropolis?" M'Gann asked, but he just stalked off, walking through our holographic ice hockey table.
"Well, in my opinion, it could have been much worse." I shrugged. Kid, Robin, Aqualad and Miss Martian looked at me with uneasy expressions.
"Ready for training everyone?" I whirled around to see Black Canary waking toward us.
"Uncle J'onn!" Miss Martian grinned. She ran up to hug Martian Manhunter. He smiled back, explain how he was in the neighbourhood and wanted to check up on her. He reminded me of Ollie, always trying to see how well I was adjusting to a different environment.
"Hi, mom." I gave Dinah a very brief hug, which she returned with a smile.
"Stick around, class is in session." Dinah said, looking at Superboy who tried stalking off to his room.
We all followed her into the mission room where she stood in the middle, and the circular grid on the floor started glowing white. "I consider it an honour to be your teacher, I'll throw a lot at you. Everything I've learned from my own mentors, and—" Dinah paused, cringing as she took of the jacket. "—My own bruises."
I looked at her, worry written all over my face. "What happened?"
"The job. Don't worry too much." Canary smiled assuringly. "Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."
We all looked around each one of us, wondering who was going to volunteer first. "Right here, yeah!" Wally exclaimed excitedly.
"After this, I'll show you my moves." Wally winked at Canary, looking at me mischievously. I glared at him; I'm going to punch him in the face the next time we train together.
Dinah smirked, and I knew she was already taking charge of my wish. She moved with incredible speed, trying to sneak a punch past him that he blocked. Then she swished her leg under Wally so he fell down on his back with a pained groan. "That hurts so good!"
"Good block, but did anyone see what he did wrong?" Dinah asked us.
"Ooh, Ooh! He hit on the teacher slash his best friend's mom and got served?" Robin grinned. I nudged him with my shoulder for being so immature, but couldn't contain the chuckle that escaped my lips.
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of—"
"Oh, please." Superboy interrupted my mom from talking. "With my powers, the battle is always on my terms."
"Show us then, pretty boy." I snapped at him. I didn't like it when other people showed less than the average level of respect to Dinah. She was here to teach us things that could save our lives, and he was complaining.
Superboy walked toward Canary, crossing his arms in front of her. He tried to deliver a punch, but Dinah grabbed his arm and tossed him over her shoulder. Robin and I started laughing, but when Miss Martian and Aqualad nudged us, we muffled our cackles.
Superboy stood up, growling.
"You're angry, good, but don't react. Channel that anger—" Dinah was cut off once again by Superboy charging at her, but failing. He really needed to start listening to the teacher.
"That's it! I'm done!" Superboy snarled, getting up from the floor again.
"Training is mandatory." Black Canary reasoned before Batman's face popped into the holographic screen of the mission room.
"Batman to the Cave. Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary, the attacker was capable of studying then duplicating the powers and abilities of his opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combat."
Batman showed us a video of a man with red glowing eyes, maybe an android, attacking the Justice League without mercy.
That's why Dinah had bandaged her arm!
"In the end, it took eight Leaguers, four hours, to defeat and dismantle the android." Told you it was an android.
"An android?" Robin questioned. "Who made it? Tiomaro?"
"Good guess, Robin." Of course it was a good guess, Batman! He's your protégé! "But Red Tornado doesn't think so."
"The technology bears the signature of…" Martian Manhunter looked at Black Canary. "Professor Ivo."
Cool, that evil dude who was supposedly dead ever since four months ago? That's just wonderful.
"Ivo? But Ivo is dead." Kaldur voiced my thoughts.
Canary looked at us with a grim expression, "So we all thought." I was reminded of the fact that her upper arm was injured, I was sure to kick Ivo's old butt the next time I saw that dude. "Or hoped."
"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralised, we're sending two trucks carrying the androids parts to two separate Star Labs facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken—"
"—And we will have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."
"Yes! Road trip!" Kid pumped his hand in the air. I high fived him, I loved taking any kind of field trip.
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy's voice deepened dangerously.
"You have something better to do?" Batman challenged him.
Superboy stood in silence. I rolled my eyes, I was so not putting up with his attitude.
"Coordinates received." Aqualad announced, taking out his GPS. "We are on our way."
Everyone ran out of the room, in a hurry to change and get their supplies for the road trip. I turned to Dinah, "Are you sure you're okay?"
She placed her good arm around my shoulders, "Of course I am, Diana, now go. The future of the world depends on you now."
She sounded so much like my birth mother.
I ran out of the room, going into the bedroom that would be mine if I lived here in the Cave. I stocked some clothes and supplies in here if they were ever needed, like today. I changed into some fitting black pants with yellow stripes running diagonally until they reached the knees. Then, I put on a black tank top since we were all going to get the same jackets for the mission.
I came out of the bedroom, meeting Dick and Kaldur in the basement. They had changed into similar clothing. Kaldur had his uniform's red shirt on, and Dick had decided to put on a white shirt.
"Looking good." Dick winked jokingly at me.
"You don't look so shabby yourself, Wonder Boy." I mused.
He smiled as the rest of the team filed in, and Black Canary gave us our jackets. I put it on, zipping it up to the very brim, and we got onto a large van that held our motorcycles in the back.
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Litchfield County
August 3, 20: 08 EDT
We had finally arrived to the place where the six trucks were parked. That had taken us longer than I expected, I had dozed off on Kaldur, and Wally's shoulders as we drove to our destination. Now, I was happy to see the staff placing the android parts in the two different trucks.
When we arrived I asked Ollie if he, too, was all right after the android attack. He said he was just fine, but quite exhausted. I couldn't blame him.
Our younger team of heroes waited on our motorcycles behind the shade of the trees as our mentors watched over the shipment. When they gave us the signal, we started up our engines and fell behind the trucks.
Dick, Superboy, and I went behind the shipment that would go to New York, and Wally, M'Gann, and Kaldur follower the trucks that drove to Boston. Our three trucks would be passing by Gotham City.
We rode on in silence before Dick turned to us, asking, "If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? You see, instead of things going wrong, they go right!"
"You know what, Rob? I'm not even going to apply logic to your thinking. You're right, aster is the opposite of disaster." I smirked.
Robin and I waited for Superboy to say something to us, too.
Superboy stayed quiet, glaring at both of us for looking at him.
"Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster!" Dick smirked. "What's wrong?"
"Canary." Superboy answered. "In what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super-strength!"
"You know super-strength isn't everything, right?" I glared at him for blatantly accusing Dinah for the cause of his anger, he was already mad when he came into the Cave! "You need to have a form, a technique, or else your powers are no use to you."
"Of course you would say that! You're Canary's dear daughter." Superboy snarled before speeding up his motorcycle's pace, leaving Dick and I behind.
"Well, someone's just a little ray of sunshine." I rolled my eyes.
Dick sighed, "Don't get angry at him, he just needs to cool off."
"Cool off?" I huffed. "He's had six hours to cool off ever since he tried outsmarting Dinah! I think that's plenty of time for someone of cool off! Why are you taking his side, anyway?"
"Common, Diana! I'm not taking any sides!" Dick pouted. "I'm just trying to calm you down."
I sighed. My anger had gotten the best of me, that happened sometimes. "I'm sorry, Dick."
Suddenly, a bunch of monkey robots erupted from the wheat field next to us, and they started attacking the truck in front of us.
'Aqualad to Robin, Superboy, and Timeless: Our truck is under attack!'
'We noticed!' Robin snapped, studying the scene in front of him.
'We've got ourselves quite the pickle here, too.' I said over the comms.
"I hate monkeys." Superboy growled, and I could not agree more with him.
When I was a little girl, about six years old, my parents took me to a really short jungle hike to see the animals living around the southern part of Colombia. I had an encounter with monkeys there that you could say left me a little…skittish when it came to primates.
The monkeys started cracking the windows of the truck and Dick cackled. "Robot monkeys! Totally Ivo's tweaked style!"
He pressed a button on his motorcycle and the back of it detached from the main body to fly up into the sky. I did the same.
"Superboy, switch your motorcycle to battle mode!" I shouted over the chattering of the robotic monkeys.
"There's no point!" Superboy snarled back. He jumped out of his ride, landing on top of the truck. His motorcycle teetered and rolled over to Dick and I, and we jumped out of the vehicles, trying to not get splatted under it.
Dick grabbed me by the waist before I could stop time and grab hold of the truck. He used his grappling hook to launch us both onto the vehicle and we kicked in unison the monkeys that were to our left and right.
I grabbed the top of the truck, flipping myself up and grabbing my whip out of my jacket. I lashed out at any robot monkey visible, breaking off their arms and heads.
Dick came in shortly after me, taking out his Escrima sticks. I'd forgotten he had those; he barely used them after all. He pushed and hit monkeys all over the place, and the robots rained down the truck like it was Christmas.
Superboy hit down hard at every monkey he saw, but the numbers soon overcame him. I tucked my whip on my utility belt and started punching the monkeys out of Superboy's face.
"I told you that a technique was important!" I exclaimed over the screeching.
Superboy only growled in annoyance. The monkey that he tried crushing in his hands shot laser out of its eyes into his own eyeballs, and Superboy went tumbling down the truck.
My eyes widened, "Superboy!"
I hit the remaining of the monkeys with such fierceness, and Dick too, that we got rid of them in double time. I saw Superboy jump toward our truck, and I couldn't help but breathe out in relieve. We didn't lose the big jerk.
Then, more monkeys came and these shot lasers at the tires, making the truck go screeching and zigzagging through the road.
I almost lost my balance twice, but by holding onto the boys for sustainability, I was able to stay standing and fighting off the monkeys. I knew that the truck would collapse sooner or later, so I took Dick's hand, we told the driver to get out, and the three of us jumped off the truck just in time before it crashed.
I held my head; I had hit it pretty hard on the jump from the vehicle to the wheat field.
"D, you're bleeding!" Dick exclaimed, scampering over to me. He took off his jacket, and ripped off a piece of his shirt to put it on my wound.
Great, did you know that a white shirt with blood just makes it look worse than it actually is?
Dick kept checking me for more injuries, but our attention was diverted to the loud explosion from the truck. The monkeys were taking out the android's remains!
"We have to go!" I sucked in a tight breath when my eyesight dimmed because of the pain. Dick nodded, and helped both the driver and I up, walking us over to the road.
Suddenly, Superboy let out a frustrated shout, jumping over to where the monkeys were flying off to with the android's parts.
"Superboy!" Robin screamed, trying to get the clone's attention before he got too far away from us.
I wrapped Dick's piece of shirt tighter around my forehead, it felt cool and I could very well sense the liquid running down from my injury.
'Aqualad to Robin and Timeless. We've lost our cargo, did you—'
'It's gone.' Dick sighed. 'And so is our partner!'
'Superboy, we can help you! Let us track your location—" Kaldur started.
'I don't need any help!' Superboy shouted at the comms before he ditched his radio and tracking device.
We tried solving our current problem through the comms. We discussed how to track the way in which Ivo was. Dick connected his arm computer to one of the monkey robots I beheaded.
I visibly cringed. I needed another temporary bandage. Dick's shirt was soaked with my blood.
"Looks like both paths the monkeys took are converging in…" Dick's smirk was wiped off his face. "Gotham City."
"Just what we needed." I mumbled, ripping off the bottom part of my tank top and pressing it on my forehead. That was kind of better.
'That far south? M'Gann and I won't be able to reach you in time; I'm sending Kid to meet you. Aqualad out.' Kaldur signed off the link we had in the comms unit.
Dick grabbed the captured monkey and tossed it over his shoulder, pressing a button on his portable computer that enabled a smaller version of his motorcycle to track down Ivo. "Definitely a disaster, heavy on the dis."
I sighed, "You're telling me! If there's anything else inside the truck that might stop the bleeding, grab it."
Dick nodded, venturing inside the wreck. I had been so worried about getting the driver out of the truck safely that I didn't pay much attention to my own well-being.
A few minutes later Dick came out with a first aid kit from the shotgun seat. "Well, what do you know? You're one lucky girl."
I smiled, relieved at the fact that I wouldn't have to fight with an open wound. Dick took out the supplies needed for my bleeding to stop, and set his hands to work.
"Of all the years that I've known you, Wonder Boy, I never thought of you as a doctor." I mused as Dick cleaned the injury, wiping off all the blood that had trickled down as far as my cheek.
"Yeah, well, you can now call me Doctor Grayson. It has a nice ring to it." Dick joked.
The thing is that even if I didn't want to overlook the situation, I still did. I could feel Dick's shaky intakes of air, and the slight tremble in his hands whenever he touched me. I could feel the body heat radiating off of him, and I had to admit, I kind of liked it.
Dick moved over, sitting next to me, our knees touching. "That's the best I could do, Alfred would have done so much better."
I just smiled gratefully. "Considering I don't feel blood trickling down anymore, I'd say you did a pretty whelming job as a nurse, Doctor Grayson."
Dick grinned back at me; he was about to reply when Wally came running in onto our conversation. "Whoa, Diana! What happened to you?"
I waved off his question like it was nothing, "You know, the usual, fell off a truck. Hit my head with Mother Nature."
Wally raised his eyebrows, "Good bandaging skills. Who did it?"
Dick raised his hand, tracing something invisible on the pavement. "When did you become an expert, Doc?" Wally teased.
"Right before we started the Team. Someone got a knife on the leg by the Joker, and I was the only one who could help him. Batman was busy." Dick shrugged. Then, he realised something. "Hey, D, can you ride alone with a hit on the head?."
"Ooh, if there was a lot of blood, which there is." Wally gestured to the three rags that were tainted red. "Then you should probably ride with Rob, it's safer that way."
I sighed in exasperation. "I'll just be riding a motorcycle to Gotham City, it's no biggie."
"Uh, yeah it is. You could suddenly black out, you could—" I cut Dick off.
"If you want me to ride with you that badly you only have to ask." I teased him. That shut him up.
"So…" Wally dragged on.
"Fine, I'll go with Dick, but don't expect me to be too joyful on the way to Gotham." I glared at them.
Dick got on the motorcycle first, and I came in second, grabbing onto his shoulders.
The three of us sped off, and we spent the next hour driving around, following Dick's GPS to Gotham City. Halfway through our journey, we lost Wally, and also changed into our superhero clothes. Could I just say, I felt so much better with my suit on.
My bleeding had stopped as the wound started closing, and now we were only a few miles away from Gotham. I was still riding on Robin's motorcycle, but had decided to stop holding onto him, my arms had gotten cramped after a whole hour holding onto his shoulders.
Now, I rested my head on his back as I felt all the bumps from the road. Soon, I saw Kid running up to us, catching up.
"You changed, too!" Dick observed.
"You're kidding?" Wally mock shivered. "I feel naked in civvies!"
"I totally get the feeling." I exclaimed through the motorcycle's deep humming.
"Are you guys still tracking the parts?" Kid asked.
"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered." Robin paused.
I looked over his shoulder. "Dude, they're at our school!"
Dick looked at his GPS, confirming the fact that the monkeys were indeed going inside Gotham Academy. I wondered if they would destroy the two things that I adored about the school, the gymnastic equipment and the horse stables. I honestly hoped not.
"If they destroy my trophies, they are so dead." Robin spoke, breathing in deeply.
Yeah, Dick Grayson won a bunch of trophies these past few years in the school. He was a great mathlete, athlete, and had the looks.
Guess how well he's doing with the ladies!
We soon arrived at the school, and I jumped out of the motorcycle before it had stopped completely. Kid and I got to the gym, where Superboy and the android were battling it out. I could see Ivo and two of his robot monkeys at his side as he watched the brawl.
Yes, Dick's trophies had been destroyed. I passed by the remains before arriving here.
Kid ran ahead, disorienting the android when he passed by, and grabbed Superboy out of the android's range. He was beat up pretty badly. Robin threw one of his birdarangs at the android, but when it deflected it with Martian Manhunter's powers, I tried using my laser to shoot him. It didn't work out well either.
'Access: Red Tornado.' The android said, using Tornado's powers to blow us apart from each other and land on the familiar hard floor of the gym.
Great, another blow to the head that just had to be added.
Kid stood up, carrying me as the android blasted us with Captain Marvel's blast. He put me down behind the bleachers, and away from the android's eyes as he ran again, trying to get close.
The android accessed Black Canary's powers and shot at Wally one of her sonic blasts. Superboy tried hitting him, but got blown back to the stands, and Robin shot three of his birdarangs, but they were deflected with ease.
The android grabbed Kid and squeezed, using Superman's strength. Then, the weirdest thing happened. An arrow came slicing down toward the android, he dispersed his molecules like Martian Manhunter, and Kid was free to run around again.
I saw Robin doing a quick study on the arrow. It wasn't the same colour as Roy's; I knew that much from where I sat down. Time for questions later.
I willed time to stop, head throbbing, and got up from my spot. I studied the android. If only he had a weakness…
Suddenly, my brain sparked up a plan. I got out my laser, and made time slow down instead of stop. I hit the android with my laser; cutting the top of his head off, and pointed the laser up to the water shoots. I made time return to normal, and the water came crashing down on us. It got inside of the android's system, making it short-circuit.
One point for me, zero for Ivo.
"Quick! Help me dissemble him!" Robin commanded, running up to the android.
"Dude, he short-circuited." Kid said, not wanting to do any extra work.
"Don't take any chances!" Aqualad came running into the school with Miss Martian right behind him.
M'Gann floated toward Superboy, grabbing him by the arm. "Superboy, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He looked at both Robin and I. "Feeling the aster."
I could tell that was his version of an apology, and I accepted it with a grin. Then, I realised something. "Where's Ivo?"
The Team looked around, but we saw that the gym had no trace of the old genius.
One point for us, two points for Ivo.
I walked over to Wally. "Is your arm fine?"
"Apart from almost getting it crushed? Yeah, great!" He replied sarcastically. "Don't worry, mommy. I'm fine."
"Let's go." Aqualad announced to us after Robin finished dissembling the android.
We all walked out of the gym, and I looked at Dick. "You know this means that the school will have to make repairs, right?"
Dick silently fist pumped me, "When we get back to the Cave we're making a toast to no school!" He cackled.
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Mount Justice
August 4, 01: 06 EDT
I stifled huge yawn as we gave Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado a summary of our mission.
"The Amazo android is in pieces again." Aqualad informed. "It is safely being analysed at the two separate Star Labs. Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."
"Capturing the professor will be a League priority." Black Canary said.
"But we understand your mission encountered…other complications." Martian Manhunter hesitated with the last two words.
Instantly, all of our smirks and grins were wiped off our faces. We looked at each other, and Superboy turned down in shame. He had finally understood that his behaviour wasn't just rude, but unacceptable, and he felt incredibly ashamed about it.
That was the only thing that mattered.
"Complications come with the job." Batman walked over to stand in front of us. "Your ability to handle them has impressed the League.
"The whole League?" Superboy hinted.
"Given time, yes. Kryptonians, as you know, have very hard heads." I couldn't help but chuckle at Bruce's joke about Clark. It was definitely true.
"Of course there's no shame in asking for help, that's why the League exists." Batman continued on. "Because there are some problems even we can't handle individually."
"Please, if we needed help we'd never get the chance to ask!" Robin pulled out the green arrow we found in the gym. "Look familiar?"
Green Arrow came closer, taking a look at the weapon. "You were following us, babysitting, you still don't trust us!" Robin finalised his argument.
Batman passed the arrow to Ollie. "We didn't follow you."
Ollie took out one of his arrows from his pelt, examining them. The tip was different, that wasn't his arrow.
"That's not your arrow." I knew it. "Whose is it then?"
"It's obvious it's Speedy's!" Robin exclaimed.
"He has our backs!" Aqualad smiled.
"Cool! Souvenir!" Wally took the arrow out of Ollie's hands. I looked at Green Arrow, and he looked back, we knew that wasn't Roy's weapon. His arrows were painted black with a red feather, and a tip similar to Ollie's. Not painted dark green with a lighter green feather.
Superboy walked over to Dinah. "I'm ready."
"Good." She said back. "Because I'm here."
Then Dinah turned to me. "And you, young lady are going straight to the Medical Bay to get your head examined and bandaged again!"
I groaned, "GA, not right now please!"
Ollie shrugged, "Sorry, kiddo, nothing I can do."
"Fine then." I crossed my arms with a huff.
Wally sped over to me, "If it makes you feel any better, I have a bad arm that has just got to be looked over for any injuries!" He winked.
"Superboy and I can keep you company as well!" M'Gann gave my shoulders a light squeeze.
"I'll stay, too. I am not needed in Atlantis tonight." Kaldur smiled.
"Batman has some files to organise, I guess the only option is to stay with you." Dick shrugged. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be sleep deprived for three days in a row, now."
I let out a rare, of pure bliss, laugh. Man, was it nice to have friends like these.