I'm back and I'm soooooooo sorry for taking ages to update, it's been what... 3 MONTHS? I didn't think it was that long! This is a long chapter; word count says over 9,000 words, which is my longest yet, so I hope that at-least partially makes up for the long wait. I've decided to rewrite some of the previous chapters, just little things that I think I left out, so nothing big will be changed.
Anyways, thanks to SilverxDawn for beta-reading this chapter even though it was so long. Thanks to all those who added this story to their alerts and favorites. A HUGE thank you to shesXsuperXfreaky, Ansa88, Zephyros-Phoenix, mimi, and another anonymous reviewer (who didnt give their name) for reviewing: it means a lot to me!
Sorry about the chapter title, but my brain's gone all fuzzy and I couldn't think of anything else to call it ;P
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, but I do own Sakura, my OC.
Hidden Angel Chapter 5
Two men opened the back of a truck and started to unload a crate, coming to a sudden halt when an arrow shot between them. Gas erupted from it in plumes, causing the men drop the crate and stumble backwards in alarm. A large thug built like a wall pulled out a gun and scanned his surroundings for any sign of the archer that was the source of his troubles, only to find him perched on top of a steel structure.
"You again! I'm a little insulted that Green Arrow isn't messing up my operations personally."
The muscle man then fired a dozen shots in the direction of the teen but missed as he jumped off the I-beam he was standing on and swung on other beams to land running on a tower of freight canisters, with the man still firing away at him. He flipped as he ran, and fired a shot that hit the huge thug's blaster, rendering it unusable, and his clothes in tatters.
"Do you know what I pay for a suit in my size?" he yelled with venom.
He turned to his underlings; "Scorch the Earth boys."
But before they could follow the command their weapons were whisked from their hands by a red and yellow blur, and those retaining their weapons were knocked away by shuriken, followed by a mischievous laugh. Aqualad landed on a crate, pulled out his water whips and knocked the men to the ground. Sakura then materialised behind the remaining men and, after a series of punches and kicks, they too joined their fellows on the floor.
The biggest thug dug his fingers into the ground, pulled out a clump of metal and hurled it at the running archer. Speedy fired an arrow, which hit the thug in the side, despite this Speedy found yet another girder flying his way, only to have it split in half by Aqualad, giving Speedy a chance to fire another smoke arrow.
Turning to Speedy, Aqualad spoke, "The cave is perfect, it has everything the team will need"
"For covert missions, you know, spy stuff." Added Robin, landing beside the two. Kid Flash ran up the side of the stack of crates and came to a stop behind them.
"And wait till you see Superboy and Miss Martian, but I saw her first!"
"Focus guys!" said Sakura, landing next to Robin and tucking in her wings, gesturing at the roaring thug hurling yet another rock at the young heroes. They dispersed and Aqualad crushed the rock with his weapons, Speedy fired three arrows, all of which hit the villain square in the chest, but he emerged smoking and laughing.
"Tell Arrow 'he shouldn't send boys to do a mans job'." With that, Speedy drew yet another arrow and aimed for the venerable goon, but he spread his arms wide to receive the shot.
"Go ahead." He taunted the archer. Speedy gritted his teeth and fired, the arrow stuck to the man and exploded in a cloud of red-brown foam that swiftly encased him.
KF skidded to a stop in front of him and gestured to the red mound of goo on the ground, "High density polyurethane foam, nice!" but Speedy just turned around to walk away.
"So Speedy, you in?" asked Robin, leaning on a crate. The archer stopped and turned to the Boy Wonder.
"Pass. I thought you were here to personally convince me to come back, but you've even brought a complete stranger with you." He said, gesturing to Sakura who was perched on top of a crate.
"Hey! I don't even want to be here!" she said, but was ignored.
"I'm done having Arrow and the league tell me what to do. I don't need a babysitter or a clubhouse hangout with the other kids. Your 'Junior Justice League' is a joke; something to keep you busy, and in your place." He walked off, saying, "I don't want to be a part of it."
The team exchanged worried glances with each other as the rouge archer walked into the darkness cast by the bright moon.
"Well he was nice, can we go home now?" asked Sakura.
Aqualad nodded and together the team disappeared into the night.
At Mount. Justice
"Recognised, Robin B01, Kid Flash B03." The computers voice interrupted the quiet of the morning and the two said young heroes walked in, dressed in their civies. They ran up to the computer and joined their team.
"Did you ask him?" asked Robin.
"What did he say?" asked Kid Flash.
"He's arriving now," answered Aqualad, turning away from the blue computer screen.
"Then what are we waiting for?" exclaimed KF running off, the team following.
"Who's arriving now?" yawned Sakura, as she walked in groggily, not having slept well. She was wearing grey skinny jeans and a plain blue tank top that had a low cut back, it being the only thing Meg'ann could spare that would be comfortable for her wings. She had a green jacket tied round her waist and she had braided her hair into pigtails, the trio waited and admiration of appearance crossed more than one mind.. Of course she still didn't have her sleeves on, Batman's' orders.
Sakura's belongings had been recovered from Deathstroke's now abandoned lair; they had been carefully hidden in an air vent not far from where the team had met the mysterious girl and sent to the mountain, but she wasn't allowed to access any of them. Yet she was allowed to stay and work with the team?
As the other two carried on walking Robin stopped and waited for Sakura to catch up, and they walked together. As the two followed the team down various corridors, Robin silently remembered the previous day.
After her fight with Superboy, Batman had taken Sakura aside and run a few tests, which the hero had trouble conducting due to her past experiences with lab coats and needles. Once they'd finished, Batman had Robin show her where she was going to be sleeping; the couch in the living room with a pillow and blanket piled up at one end. She had protested but when the dark knight said it was there or the cell she quieted down. Robin knew Sakura had gotten the feeling that she was being watched because she had spotted five security cameras in various corners of the room, so she knew there was no point in trying to escape just to be caught instantly.
Everyone had been sitting in the next room, listening to Meg'ann relaying what was being said, and apparently the team managed to catch most of it (as he found when he walked in to find everyone in a huddle around the Martian). Although Superboy could've listened in by himself with his Super-hearing if he'd wanted to, he pretended to be uninterested, staring intently at the static on the TV. However, it was hard to ignore the conversation being retold on just the other side of the room, so the team knew he'd listened anyway. After about half an hour, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash had left to try to convince Speedy to join their team, and Sakura had been dragged along to be 'kept an eye on'.
Robin finished his self-recap and glanced over to the girl beside him who had been through so much recently. She was staring into space as they walked along, and all that could be heard was their footsteps echoing down the hallway.
"Are you okay?" asked Robin. Sakura had been so absorbed in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed the Boy Wonder's stares.
"Yeah, I'm fine... It's just... never mind."
"What is it?" Robin asked.
Sakura seemed to be surprised by the amount of kindness she heard in his voice, but still she didn't say what was really bugging her.
"Uh, well.. I was wondering, how can you guys trust me so easily? You gave me food, water, a place to sleep and you let me join your team, even after all I've done to you." asked Sakura
'more like forced me to join'.
"Well... I know Batman still doesn't trust you, and I'm not sure what the rest of the league think. But even though you left us, lied to us and fought us-" Sakura opened her mouth to argue but Robin stopped her and continued. "You also helped us, even when you were
injured, you healed us, you told us the partial truth about yourself, and you seem like a generally good person. But most importantly, you trust us."
"Partial truth?" said Sakura after a pause, a curious look on her face.
"I've been partnered with the worlds greatest detective for a long time, and you pick up a few skills on the job, one of those skills is being able to tell when someone's hiding something."
"Oh, well. I'm still not going to tell you anything else, so the fact that you know that isn't a problem for me." she said, sticking her tongue out childishly at him.
"Well then, we'll just have to squeeze it out of you."
"Good luck with that."
They both chuckled a little before Sakura whispered a small 'thank you' as they reached the rest of the team, her team.
Outside
Red Tornado landed in front of the team just as they reached him.
"Red Tornado!" said Kid Flash, coming to a stop and waving.
"Greetings, is there any reason you have intercepted me outside the cave?"
"Because we're bored and-" but Sakura was interrupted by Aqualad,
"We hoped you would have a mission for us."
"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."
"But it's been over a week and nothing's-" started Robin.
"You will be tested soon enough, for the time being, why not simply enjoy each others company?" interrupted Red Tornado.
"This team is not a social club," said Aqualad bitterly.
"No, but I am told that social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave," the android then turned and headed into the cave himself.
"Keep busy." Wally frowned.
"Does he think we're falling for this?" said Robin.
"Oh, I'll find out!" said Miss Martian, putting her hand to her temple and focusing on red tornado as he entered the cave. After a moment she dropped her focus. "Sorry, I forgot. He's a machine; inorganic. I cannot read his mind."
"Nice try though." said Kid Flash. "So, uh, you know what I'm thinking right now?"
"We all know what you're thinking." said Robin.
"As much as we wouldn't like to," sighed Sakura.
"And now we tour the clubhouse." said Aqualad sarcastically.
"Well Superboy, Sakura and I all live here, we could play tour guides," said Miss Martian. The team turned to look at Superboy and Sakura.
"Don't look at me." said Superboy. Everyones' eyes moved to look at Sakura.
"I have no idea where anything is here; I still get lost trying to find the bathroom," she said, backing away, holding her hands up defensively.
"Well, a private tour sounds much more fun." said KF, turning to Meg'ann.
"She never said private." pointed out Robin.
"Team building; we'll all go." Aqualad intervened,
"So, this would be our front door..." started Meg'ann, "and this would be the back"... "The cave is actually the entire mountain."
"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Green Lantern and Superman in the early days of the league." added Kid Flash.
"Then why abandon it for the hall of justice?" asked Superboy.
"The caves secret location was compromised," answered Aqualad.
"So they traded in for a tourist trap? Yeah, that makes sense," said Superboy.
"If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert," said Miss Martian.
"You're superheroes, aren't you always meant to be alert?" asked Sakura.
"The bad guys know we know they know about his place so they'd never think to look here." Robin took Miss Martians hands in his as he spoke.
Miss Martian looked extremely perplexed as she tried to mentally figure out all the 'knows' in the one sentence.
"He means we're hiding in plain sight." clarified KF.
"Oh that's much clearer," she said while still scratching her head.
Superboy sniffed the air and said, "I smell smoke."
Miss Martian gasped and flew off to the kitchen, saying "My cookies!"
The team ran after her and caught up as she lifted the hot tray of now charcoal lumps out of the oven and put them down. "I was trying out Granny Jones' recipe from episode 17 of..." Everyone was giving her weird looks now and her voice trailed off. "Never mind."
"I bet they would've tasted great," consoled Robin. "He doesn't seem to mind." He gestured to Kid Flash, who was scoffing down all the burnt cookies. He looked up to find the team staring at him.
"I have a serious metabolism." his voice was muffled by the cookies in his mouth and he immediately returned to stuffing his face.
Sakura picked up one of the burnt cookies and ate it while everyone stared at her. Then she ate another, and another, and another till she was going at the same rate as Kid Flash. When she noticed the odd stares that everyone was giving her, she lifted her head and spoke through a mouthful of cookies. "Hey, it's free food, and it's edible; I'm not dying, so why should I complain?"
"I'll make some more then?" said Miss Martian but it sounded more like a question than a reply.
"It was sweet of you to make any," said Aqualad.
"Thanks Aqualad."
"We're off duty, call me Kaldur'am, actually, my friends call me Kaldur."
"I'm Wally. See, I already trust you with my secret identity. Unlike Mr. Dark glasses over there, Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name." Robin was glaring at Wally in the background.
"Mine's no secret! I'm Meg'ann M'orzz, but you can call me Megan, because that's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth right now."
Everyone turned to look at Superboy and Sakura, because they were the only two who hadn't given their names yet.
"You already know my name; Sakura, I haven't been called anything else apart from 'thief', 'experiment', 'subject 751', or 'escapee'."
"Subject 751?" asked Robin, raising an eyebrow.
"It's what they called me at Cadmus." explained Sakura.
Superboy just turned to walk out, but Megan spoke to him through his mind.
"Don't worry Superboy, we'll find you an earth name too."
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" he shouted, turning on his heel to face the Martian. Everyone clutched their heads as Megan mentally spoke them.
"What's wrong? I don't understand; everyone on Mars communicates telepathically."
"Meg'ann, stop!" she jumped at Aqualads tone. "Things on Earth are different, here your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy."
"Besides, Cadmus' physic little G-gnomes left a bad taste in his mind," said Wally.
"I-I didn't mean to-."
"Just. Stay. Out." Superboy turned and left. Meg'ann hung her head, and after a few moments of silence she raised it and tapped her palm lightly against her head.
"Hello Megan! I know what we can do!" the team followed her out the door and she poked her head into the room Superboy was sitting in.
"Superboy, please." Megan pleaded. The clone turned away from her and faced the wall.
"Don't talk to me." Despite this, Superboy got up and followed the rest of his team only a few moments later.
"It's my Martian Bio-ship," announced Meg'ann proudly as they all walked into the hangar. Sakura saw that it was the purple and red blob she had hidden behind when she was trying to hide from the people she now called teammates.
"Cute. Not aerodynamic, but cute." said Wally.
"It's at rest silly, I'll wake it." Meg'ann raised her hand and the blob before them moulded itself into a much sleeker, more aerodynamic shape and spun it round so that entrance faced them.
"Well, are you coming? She turned to face the astonished team, mouths hanging open and eyes wide in surprise.
"No way am I getting in there." everyone turned to face Sakura who was slowly backing away from the ship towards the doors they had just come through.
"No offence Meg'ann by I don't trust anything that's supposed to fly apart from the wings on my back."
"Come on Sakura, it'll be fun!" said Robin, coming to stand behind her and gently pushing her towards the Bio-ship.
"No means no" she said sternly, stopping where she was and folding her arms over her chest "I'll fly beside you guys but I am never getting in that ever."
'She sounds so childish it's cute.' thought Robin.
"Suit yourself, but at least take this comm-link so we don't lose you in the sky." Robin produced an earpiece from his pocket and threw it to her.
"Thanks, I just don't do planes and stuff," she said, letting out a long breath as she caught the comm. easily and stuck it in her ear. She untied her jacket, which had two large slits in the back to let out her wings, from around her waist and shrugged it on.
"Strap in for launch" said Meg'ann as she sat down at what looked like the pilots seat. The rest of the team sat in the seats that emerged from the floor and seat belts formed around the ships passengers.
"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors." Asked Meg'ann. The team watched as Sakura came to stand beside the ship, extending her wings and nodding at Meg'ann through the window to show that she was ready. Two glowing orbs appeared at Meg'ann's hands as the doors opened and the ship took off into the sky, Sakura following closely behind.
"Can you hear me?" asked Sakura cautiously through the radio link.
"Loud and clear." Replied Miss Martian.
"Where are you? We can't see you at all." Said Wally, searching for their winged teammate through the window beside him.
"I'm right here, wait a second." After a moment there was a tap on the window and the team turned to see a grinning Sakura waving at them, her wings flapping slowly and her hair blowing about her. She was keeping up with the Bio-ship easily, gliding beside it and following it's movements as it climbed up, twisted and turned, and plummeted down, which made most of the team lose their stomachs. Sakura laughed through the comm. as both Wally and Robin clung to their seats for dear life while Superboy and Kaldurs' eyes merely widened with surprise.
Meg'ann decided they had reached cruising altitude and left the Bio-ship on auto as the team stared out the windows, admiring the view.
"Incredible!" exclaimed Robin.
"She sure is," sighed Wally, staring dreamily at Meg'ann. When she turned to him, slightly confused, he stumbled for words, "The ship, which like all ships is commonly referred to as a she."
"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth." smirked Robin.
"Dude!" yelled Wally, hearing Sakura's laughter through the comm.
Kaldur leaned over to Superboy and said, "I may not have physic powers, but I can guess what you're thinking. You over reacted and you don't know how to apologize." Superboy looked up from his brooding to give Aqualad a curious look.
"Just say sorry," continued the Atlantean. Superboy looked away, processing what he had just been told.
Meg'ann was looking worriedly at the two in the front seats, especially a certain clone. Robin noticed and tried to comfort the concerned Martian.
"He'll come around."
"He doesn't seem to like me much." she replied nervously.
"You guys realize he has super hearing," said Wally quietly. They all then glanced at Superboy sitting in the front seat who was looking away as if he hadn't heard anything, which they all knew wasn't true.
"You guys realize that you left the microphone on so I can hear every word, whether I want to or not." said a frustrated Sakura from outside.
Meg'ann turned a light shade of red at both of these comments.
"Hey, how about a little Martian shape shifting?" suggested Robin, interrupting the awkward silence that had started to form inside the ship.
The two at the front swung around in their chairs and Sakura flew up to a window to see Meg'ann's clothes mould into those of Robin. There was only one big difference. Then as she turned around, the red, green and black melted into the yellow and red colours of Kid Flash's uniform, but the same problem occurred.
"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" asked Wally, staring at Meg'ann as she changed back.
"So very wrong." said Sakura through the comm.
"Impressive, but you're not going to fool anyone with those," said Robin, holding up his hands.
"Mimicking boys is a lot harder." said Meg'ann, sitting down, slightly defeated.
"Oh, oh! Please try me!" pleaded Sakura, waving frantically through the window.
As requested, Meg'ann stood up and began to mould her features to those of Sakura.
"Wow! Do I really look like that?" asked Sakura, almost despairingly. "I need to go to the salon soon, now that I can afford it; my hair's way too long."
"What's wrong? I think it's perfect the way it is." said Robin quietly, but Sakura still heard it through the radio link. She felt the heat rising to her face and flew a little further away from the Bio-ship so that the team wouldn't see her blush. Realizing that he'd said that out loud, Robin also looked in the opposite direction to hide the light red dusting his cheeks.
"What about your clothes?" Kaldur asked Meg'ann as she changed back.
"They're organic, like the ship, they respond to my mental commands." she replied while pinching the pinkish material she wore.
"As long as they're the only ones," mumbled Superboy. Meg'ann looked a little hurt by what the clone had said and Wally tried to cheer her up a little.
"Hey, can you do that ghosting through walls thing that Manhunter does?" he asked.
"Density shifting? No, it's a very advanced technique." she said sadly.
'Well that didn't help.' thought Robin. "Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall, but when he tries it, bloody nose." The Boy Wonder said while gesturing to Wally.
"Dude!" yelled the speedster for the second time, again hearing a small laugh from he other end of the comm. link.
"Here's something I can do!" said Meg'ann happily, seemingly returning to her usual enthusiastic self. "Camouflage mode." The ship turned completely invisible and Sakura slowed down, hovering in one spot to try and find the ship again.
"Where'd you guys go?" asked a confused Sakura.
"Sorry, forgot you were following us!" said Meg'ann apologetically, turning the ship back to normal. Sakura immediately spotted them and caught up quickly, just as the team received a transmission from the Mountain.
"Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbour Power Plant and I suggest you investigate it, co-vertly. I'm sending you the co-ordinates now."
"Received. Adjusting course." said Miss Martian, speeding up the Bio-ship to reach their target quickly.
"I'm following you so please don't turn invisible again." Sakura said,
"Red Tornado's keeping us busy," Robin muttered,
"Well, a simple fire lead you to Sakura and Superboy, we may as well find out what triggered the alarm." said Miss Martian, hearing him,
"I think I know," said Superboy warily, staring out the window.
A huge tornado was approaching the ship quickly and even though Miss Martian tried to avoid it, they were still caught up in the whirlwind.
After being painfully hurled around for a while, Miss Martian finally regained control and set the Bio-ship down in the parking lot.
The team jumped out the bottom of the ship through a large hatch and stared at where the tornado had originated. Another tornado had appeared from behind the power plant, pulling cars and rubble with it.
Sakura's POV
I hated tornadoes, and hurricanes, and anything involving strong winds that would tear me out of the sky. I hated the feeling of losing control, not only because it brought back bad memories, but also because it made me a little... scared. Like I was powerless and helpless; I hated that feeling. It's a feeling I'm much too familiar with for my own good, and I hate the memories that come with it.
I loved feeling free, like when I was flying; that sensation of feeling as light as a feather was irreplaceable, and having it ripped away was like pulling part of me with it.
I hated right now, I was being hurled around in a huge funnel of wind. I had retracted my wings as soon as I was caught in the twister because the strong winds threatened to tear them from my back. So now I was being tossed around in a huge tornado with no control over the direction the air decided to carry me to.
I caught a few flashes of red and assumed the bio-ship and everyone was caught in the whirlwind too. Various pieces of derby would occasionally harmlessly whistle past me while others I had to try and use the tips of my wings, peeking out from my back, to avoid.
After what seemed forever, with me and my twister-phobia huddled up together for dear life, the tornado finally dispersed, and I was tossed aside like a rag doll. It seems that tornado wasn't intended for us, but a stray one that we had been unlucky enough to get caught in.
I realized that the edge of the closest building was getting a lot closer, very quickly, and then there was a loud crash as I hurtled through a wall at the top of the power plant and into some machinery.
"That hurt." I mumbled. Groaning, I sat up and checked I hadn't broken anything. Luckily I seemed to have a hard head, because that didn't seem to hurt that much even though I was sure it had hit the wall first. When I looked out the hole I had created I saw that Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy and Miss Martian were all currently fighting a red android whom I heard address himself as 'Mr. Twister'.
Well, now I know whom to thank for my little mental meltdown of helplessness a few moments ago.
I soared into the fray as Robin shouted something about being 'turbed' to Mr. Twister and I guessed that would be his new word of the day.
As I was in the air, I twisted my body round so that I would plant my feet onto the android's face. I was only a few meters away and the robot still hadn't noticed me when I heard a creaking noise from above me. I snapped my head up and realized that there was some kind of container that seemed to be getting crushed by an invisible force, and I realized what was happening, but it was too late.
Mr. Twister also heard the creaking and as he looked up he saw me plummeting towards him, so he grabbed my ankle and swung me into the ground. I cried out in pain when I hit the ground and Meg'ann finally saw that I was in the wrong place. She released her crushing hold on the container above but it wasn't soon enough, and both Mr. Twister and me were encased in a fog of burning steam.
I curled up into a ball, in an unsuccessful attempt to somehow protect myself from the heat, but obviously that didn't work. I could faintly hear someone calling my name, but I was too concerned with the steam that was scorching my arms and legs was now finding its way to my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath, but I could never do that for long, so after about two seconds I had to inhale sharply, and I regretted this immediately. My lungs burned with my skin and I whimpered in pain.
It was pathetic really, I survived all I have; being tortured, experimented on, and a lot worse, but I still let a measly gas to immobilize me.
'No.' said a voice from within me 'You're going to stand up right now, fight with your team, win, and not say a word of complaint.'
The sudden sound of a voice that was not my own in my head surprised me, and I gasped, causing me to breathe in the steam again, which I found wasn't so hot anymore, but it still burned.
Suddenly the air cleared, and I saw Superboy being flung back by a tornado, which had thankfully blown away the scorching vapour. Superboy crashed into Miss Martian in mid-air and they both fell to the ground. Aqualad and Robin ran in to try and attack Mr. Twister, and Aqualads' hands were buzzing with electricity.
'They're fighting, why aren't you?' There was that voice again, pushing me onwards. 'Get up and fight!'
As odd as it was, the voice was right. I needed to do something now.
I rolled onto my hands and knees shakily, remembering to breathe deeply; my lungs needed help to function and that was never a good sign. I had to get this fight over with quickly because I wasn't sure how long I would last if I was struggling to breathe. That voice didn't seem to be coming back soon, so I guess I was on my own for now; on a mental level at least.
Aqualad and Robin fell to the floor as Mr. Twister let his tornadoes disperse. I took my chance and rolled my self under him, so that I was crouching in front of him. I shifted my weight onto my arms and straightened both my legs quickly, swinging one round in a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, which was quite difficult to pull off due to the skinny jeans I was wearing. I caught him by surprise this time and my attack did make contact, sending Mr. Twister stumbling back a few steps. I quickly followed my first move up by focusing some energy into my fist and delivering a right hook to the same spot on the side of the androids head, hoping to make a dent or create some form of damage. Although both attacks connected, Mr. Twister recovered quickly and threw a twister my way. I saw this coming and did possibly the stupidest thing I could've done: I tried to fly away. Firstly, my burns hadn't healed that quickly, even though I was focusing my powers on them, so a huge gust of wind wasn't the best thing for them right now. Secondly, twisters distort the air currents, and as I had mentioned before, when caught in them, they 'threaten to rip your wings off'.
So obviously I was almost instantly sucked into the tornado and thrown about for a while, before Mr. Twister decided to send me flying through an open wall.
I was expecting to hit the hard ground, so I curled up in a ball for impact, but instead something not hard caught me with a slight "uff!" and lowered my huddled up form down to rest partially on the ground.
I opened one eye so that it was only a narrow slit and saw a flash of red. Opening my eyes fully, I saw that Kid Flash was bending over me with a worried look on his face, and I realized that my head was resting on his lap.
"Comfortable?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. I felt the heat rise to my cheeks and sat up suddenly, trying to hide my blush before he teased me about it.
"Whoa! Take it easy, you look like you've taken quite a few hits there." said the speedster, putting his hands on my shoulder to pull me down as I tried to get up.
"Come on." I said, "He's getting away." I tried to get up again but KF only pushed me down, yet again.
"Stay here, you don't look too good. I'll handle it."
"Yeah, because I'm going to listen to you." I said sarcastically. I got up quickly and ran towards where Mr. Twister was before Wally could do anything. Then again, he is one of the fastest people alive, and I had just tried to outrun him. Once he saw that I wouldn't stay down, Kid Flash dashed in front of the android ahead of me and skidded to a stop.
"What have you done to my team?"
"Embarrassed them, largely." replied Mr. Twister. He generated a tornado and directed it at Kid Flash, who got caught up in it and thrown into the power plant, smoke erupting from the impact.
"Wa- Kid Flash!" I shouted, catching myself before I completely blurted out his secret ID. I turned to Mr. Twister and focused my energy away from healing my minor burns and towards my fist, so that it crackled with energy. I charged at him as he started to leave, but he didn't turn around.
'He didn't even notice me.' I thought to myself 'Either he's deaf or he doesn't consider me a threat.' both were due to him being ignorant, but I still felt underestimated.
I jumped as I got close, hoping to hit him from above, but he whirled around and formed a tornado and of course, I was thrown into a wall. Hard.
Upon impact I felt a rib crack and knew that there would be a huge bruise there tomorrow, no matter how fast I healed it. My ribs were always the first thing to break in my body, for some reason they were really weak, especially my back, maybe it was a side effect of having wings?
Despite this, I sat up, focused on the broken bone and gritted my teeth as it slowly moved back into place. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to create a painkiller with my powers while healing yet, so healing broken bones is always painful, and I had to do this five times over the other day.
"I would've thought you all would've learnt your limitations by now." I heard Mr. Twister say. I looked over to who he was talking to and, with a sigh of relief, saw that everyone was okay.
"What do you want?" yelled Aqualad angrily, which startled me; he had always seemed to be the calm, level-headed one of the group, and seeing him lose his temper like this was a little... different.
"Isn't it obvious?" Mr. Twister and the team started to ramble a little but I tuned it all out, focusing intently on healing my rib so that I could still fight. Once I thought it had realigned and it was safe for me to move, I slowly picked myself off the ground and glanced over to where my team was. Robin was hurrying over to me, a worried look on his face.
"Are you okay?" he asked, glancing at my burned skin, which was still slowly being healed, and the way I was standing awkwardly to make my rib hurt less.
"I'm fine." I said, straightening up, focusing on healing the visible burns and plastering a fake smile on my face to cover the grimace. "I didn't hit the wall that hard."
"I feel sorry for the wall then." he replied, gesturing to the dent in the concrete I had created. "How are you still standing?"
"Duh, healing powers." I said matter-of-factly. I started to turn to join the others, but as I did, Robin poked me in the back lightly, right where my broken rib was. I cried out in pain and fell to my knees, clutching the spot he had poked and healing it quickly.
"Thought so." said Robin. "You're not 'fine'. You've got a broken rib and some bad burns; you're in no condition to fight. Stay here, we'll handle it."
"You know, that's exactly what Kid Flash said earlier." with that, I ran towards Aqualad and Kid Flash, who were standing in front of Mr. Twister and yelling at each other.
The wind began to gather around the android, and thick, grey clouds loomed overhead, lightning cackling and trees swaying in the sudden gusts of wind.
"An impressive show, but we will not indulge you, we will not engage!" shouted Aqualad.
'They're not going to fight? What are they thinking? Are they just going to stand there and get crushed by this huge storm that's brewing?'
I threw a confused look over my shoulder at Robin, but he was looking at the sky oddly, as if it was a jigsaw piece that didn't fit the puzzle.
"Can Red Tornado do that?" asked Kid Flash. 'Red Tornado? What's he got to do with this? Unless... no way, they couldn't have thought-' Mr. Twister confirming my suspicions interrupted my thoughts.
"You think I'm Tornado? Ironic." Bolts of lightening burst from the sky and hit the ground near us, quickly getting closer before we were all sent flying when the earth beneath us exploded.
My head was pounding and my ears ringing from the blast, and I found myself lying on the grass. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Superboy get up, tear off his jacket that was now in tatters, and hurl himself at Mr. Twister only to be deflected and propelled into the ground, digging a long trench before finally coming to a stop near the rest of us.
I started to sit up and heard Kid Flash groan, only to be stopped abruptly.
"Fine then," said Mr. Twister from above us "I won't deny that you children have power, but playing hide and seek with you will not achieve my objectives, so stay concealed but if you confront me again I will show no mercy." being the typical villain he was, he swung round and took off.
I stood up slowly and dusted myself off, but then the voice came back.
'Pursue him, NOW'
'Huh?' I replied, confused.
'Go, before he gets too far away.'
'And this will achieve what?'
'Do not question us, GO!'
'Us?' I thought, but I received no reply. Looking up I saw Superboy bounding into the distance, Kid Flash speeding off in the same direction and Robin start to follow, but then stop and look back at me. I assumed he wanted me to come too so I extended my slightly burnt wings and flew towards him. I grabbed his arms and pulled up into the sky, trying to see where Superboy and Kid Flash had disappeared to.
Robins POV
We landed at the harbour, and Sakura tucked in her wings and glanced at the damaged buildings surrounding us, but I was too breathless to focus.
She had flown us all the way from the power plant to our current location, and even though I had to track a havoc reaping villain, I loved every minute of being in the air... especially with Sakura- wait, what am I thinking?
I must've turned bright red or something because Sakura gave me an odd look and she asked if I was okay.
I still felt a little guilty about leaving Meg'ann, but she needs more experience; she's still new to the whole superhero thing, if she stayed on the field, she would've only gotten hurt.
Speaking of injuries, we probably should've left Sakura too, although she seems okay now, but if she continues to fight she could seriously hurt herself.
Three tornadoes were tearing the harbour apart, no doubt courtesy of Mr. Twister. I told Sakura to stay on the ground and look for the android so that she wouldn't have trouble in the air, the strong winds would mess up her flying and she would definitely not be turbed.
Sure enough, after a few minutes of looking we found Mr. Twister trying to get some attention, only to have his comment followed by KF shouting as he rushed towards him,
"You got ours; full and undivided." He hurtled towards the android and planted his feet on his chest, sending him skidding backwards, but not by much.
"Inferior and insufficient" replied Mr. Twister, sending Wally flying with yet another twister, "you are merely a distraction I can no longer tolerate."
A yell came from above the android and he looked up to see Superboy in the air, mid-jump with his fists raised above his head, almost on top of him. Mr. Twister slid backwards and Superboy missed, but held his fists in front of him, ready for an attack. Mr. Twister generated two twisters and sent them towards Kid Flash and Superboy, but they dived out of the way just in time. Sakura ran towards the red android from behind and attempted to grab one of the blue tubes on his back, but before she got too close she was repelled by a twister and crashed into a nearby building.
Aqualad and I leapt over a car as Mr. Twister picked up a boat and chucked it away. He saw us and sent a small tornado at Aqualad, which he narrowly avoided, but when he had almost reached the android, Mr. Twister generated another small tornado and sent Aqualad crashing into the building next to the one Sakura had landed in.
Kid Flash ran towards Mr. Twister and managed to land on his feet when he was swept into another twister. He kept running and dodging the tornados that were pulling up rocks and bits of earth, leaving a trench-like trail in their wake.
I threw an explosive into the tornado that was tailing Kid Flash, dispersing it, then I threw several more towards Mr. Twister but he deflected them easily with a tornado. Superboy followed me up by aiming for the spot the android was a millisecond ago, before he moved out of the way.
Superboy was then sucked into a newly generated tornado and flew into the air, and it looked like he was going to land in the same house as the one Aqualad had landed in. Mr. Twister took a boat that was floating around in the sea and made it fly after Superboy. They both crashed into the house shortly after Aqualad had ran out of the way, the boat landing on the same spot as Superboy and making the entire building collapse.
Aqualad hauled an iron support beam from the rubble onto his shoulder and charged at Mr. Twister while Sakura picked herself up and charged in too. I saw her hesitate and bend her knees a little, as if she was about to jump into the air, but then she remembered something and stayed on the ground. It must be hard for her to have all this room to fly in but not be able to use it because, as soon as she does, shell be ripped out of the sky.
I pulled out my utility belt and strapped it over my shoulder and Kid Flash asked "You brought your utility belt?"
"Never leave home without it; first thing Batman taught me." I said truthfully.
"Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it."
"Listen to me," said a familiar voice. We all clutched our heads. Sakura and Aqualad got distracted from their fight and were thrown into another building. Superboy pushed a slab of rubble off of him as the pair landed with a thud beside him.
"What did we tell you?" he said fiercely, referring to the whole 'invasion of privacy thing' earlier today.
"I know, and I know I messed up, but now I'm very clear on what we have to do. Please, trust me."
Normal POV
People cheered at the sight of Red Tornado flying into Happy Harbour and landing in front of the team of teenage heroes.
"Hit the showers. I was hoping you could handle this, clearly you cannot."
"But we've got a plan now!" protested Robin.
"The subject is not up for debate," said Red Tornado sternly. The team retreated slowly once they realized that they couldn't argue with an android; once his mind was made up, there was no changing it.
"I was beginning to believe that you'd never show up," said Mr. Twister.
"I'm here now." Red Tornado stuck out his hand and a puff of wind quickly gathered to form a twister beside him. He hurled it at Mr. Twister, who countered with his own tornado, and they bounced off each other and dispersed.
"We are evenly matched, Twister," said Red Tornado, forming another twister behind him that sent rocks and rubble flying.
"No, Tornado, we are not," said Mr. Twister angrily, throwing up a strong gust of wind that deflected the projectiles that had been aimed at him. He then shot out beams of blue lightning from his wrists that followed Red Tornado as he tried to avoid being hit.
The lightning struck a car and the vehicle blew up in Red Tornado's face, sending him to the ground in a crackle of electricity and knocking him unconscious (if androids have a conscious).
"Be still, android, reprogramming won't take long." wires protruded from Mr. Twisters fingertips and found their way to the back of Red Tornado's head.
Suddenly the red, metallic surface of the android morphed into the green, softer flesh of Miss Martian as she pulled the wires off the back of her head and swivelled her head around.
"Longer than you might think." Miss Martian pushed Mr. Twister backwards into a tornado, which he was shortly flung out of and across the car park they were currently in. The tornado dispersed and Kid Flash slowed to a stop as Superboy took over, punching the android repeatedly till he finally sent him flying into the air. Sakura flew towards the android and dropkicked him so that he was forced into the ocean. Aqualad was waiting and came at Mr. Twister with an anchor, and then channelling electricity through it, he blew Mr. Twister out of the water with only one arm remaining.
Miss Martian lifted him with her telekinesis and ripped the last arm off, leaving Robin to throw a few explosives at the android and dropping it to the ground.
The torso, legs and head of Mr. Twister (it couldn't really be called Mr. Twister now) got to it's knees and it's chest opened up to reveal a scrawny man who fell in front of them.
"Foul! I-I-I call foul!" he looked up to see the young heroes gather around him. Miss Martian lifted a large rock and started to swing it round to crush the man.
"MEG'ANN NO!" yelled Aqualad, trying to stop the Martian, but he was too late. Miss Martian released her hold on the boulder and it thudded the ground.
Robin and Kid Flash were both stunned and had a look of a mixture of surprise on their faces. Robin was the first to recover and stormed over to Meg'ann angrily.
"I don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth, we don't execute our captives!"
"We don't?" asked Sakura. The team stared at her in horror, except from Superboy, but she quickly defended herself. "It's not like I've killed anyone, but I've seen a lot of jobs requesting people to do so for money. I thought it was the normal thing to do, but obviously not."
"What did you get yourself into?" asked Kid Flash, the look of horror replaced by that of one of confusion and curiosity.
"You said you trust me." said Meg'ann with a confident smile on her face. She lifted the boulder to reveal the crushed remains of the man, or robot as it seemed.
"That's why I couldn't read his mind," explained Meg'ann, pointing to the scraps of metal scattered on the floor.
"Another robot? Someone was playing it safe," said Sakura.
Wally picked up a seemingly intact mechanical eye with a few wires dangling out the end and held it up for the others to see.
"Cool, souvenir!"
"We should've had more faith in you." said Aqualad, placing a hand on Meg'ann's shoulder.
"Yeah, you rocked this mission. Get it, rocked?" said Kid Flash.
"Ignore him, we're all just turbed you're on the team." said Robin.
"Thanks, me too."
The light faded from the other eye of the man-bot and the last few images were transferred, but unknown to the team, someone was watching them.
Back at the Mountain
The team had transported the remnants of the man-bot to the mountain and Red Tornado was now taking a closer look at them.
"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you," said Aqualad.
"Agreed," said Red Tornado.
"Is that why you wouldn't help us?" asked Meg'ann.
"No, this was your battle, I do not believe that it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me,"
Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Red Tornado in disbelief.
"But if you're in danger…" started Meg'ann.
"Consider the matter closed." Red Tornado.
"There might've been a third party involved in this; not just the person who designed this, but maybe an organisation backing them." Said Sakura, trying to untangle a particularly large knot of wires that had been retrieved from the man-bot.
"How would you know?" asked Kid Flash.
"Sponsors for jobs, it's common." She replied without looking away from her bundle of wires.
"That is a possibility." Agreed Red Tornado. turned to leave the room.
"Batman, Aquaman and Flash, they'd jump right in to fix things." said Wally.
"Guess if we're going to have a babysitter then a heartless machine is exactly what we need." Said Robin sarcastically.
"Dude, harsh!"
"And inaccurate, I have a heart; carbon-steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing," said Red Tornado from across the room.
Robin laughed nervously, "Right, sorry, I'll strive to be more… accurate."
"and more respectful." said Aqualad, slinging an arm around Robins shoulders.
Red Tornado finally left and Meg'ann turned back to the team.
"Speedy was so wrong." Said Wally, walking out with Robin and Aqualad.
"This team thing-" started Robin.
"-might just work out" finished Aqualad.
Superboy was following them out but turned around to face Meg'ann.
"Sorry." Superboy said simply, before turning away and walking away. Meg'ann smiled to herself and didn't notice Sakura come up behind her and poke her in the ribs, smiling with her.
At the watchtower
"Recognised: Batman 02, Red Tornado 16." The monotone voice rang out as bot the said heroes emerged from the teleporter and walked into the meeting room, taking a seat at the large table at which many other heroes were gathered around.
"Okay, everyone, we're here to discuss the new Young Justice team." Announced Superman, who was standing, but then sat down next to Batman.
"So far they have shown some potential in their recent mission, but the team needs to work on a lot of thngs, including their trust in one another." said Red Tornado.
"Especially with the fact that the team has only recently been formed, has two brand new members, one of whom has emerged with a very suspicious background." said Flash.
"How will they react when they meet her?" asked Green Arrow, obviously hinting to someone.
"That may be an issue in the future, but for now, we must focus on the team as it is." said Martian Manhunter.
"Agreed, and the new member, Sakura was it? She seems... knowledgeable of the activeties of the criminal world, does she not?" asked Aquaman.
"Didn't you say that she said something about being hired for 'jobs'? She couldve been a hired assasin for all we know. Are you sure it's a good idea to have her on the team?" asked a Green Lantern.
Multiple concerns and questions rose from the group of heroes, but they were silenced by Batman, who hadn't said a word so far, raising his hand.
"I know she has an mysterious background, and has yet to have her real identity found, but she claims to have lost her memories since before around a year ago. She has demonstrated the skills necessary to be on the team and could possibly provide intel on these 'jobs' she's asked to do, she could be helpful to the league in locating corrupt organizations. For this information, as long as we keep an eye on her, I think that keeping her on the team is a good idea."
Everyone was silent, thinking about what Batman had said.
"Also, seeing as she is a meta-human, perhaps it is our fault for her reliance on these paid jobs she does as an income. She's been wondering around the streets for a year now; we should've noticed her, perhaps if we had intervened earlier, she wouldn't have had to resort to seeking that specific type of employment." added Red Tornado.
"I think it would be a good idea to keep her on the team, for now atleast. Batman is right though, we should try to get some info out of her, knowing who employs hired assasins will help in rooting out corruption." agreed Superman.
Batman nodded, "Well then, it's decided, she gets to stay."
I was a little unsure about wether or not I should include the last scene in this chapter or wait till later, but I think it was important for the league to review the team early on in the story, or there'd be too much against them with the whole 'they blew up a factory' thing.
I don't know if the next chapter should be original content, or if it should just be the Santa-Prisca mission. I'm writing both of the chapters simultaneously, but I think it'd be better for me to just work on the one that will be the next chapter, but I'm not sure which one to use! Please give your thoughts in a review, and any other story ideas would be appreciated. Even though I have a vague story outline right now, I'm running out of ideas for each individual chapter. If you have anything you'd like to see or happen in this story, as long as it doesn't affect the plot as a whole, I'd be very grateful if you'd tell me in a review!
I hope the next chapter doesn't take as long to write! (BTW with the A/N included, this chapter is over 10,000 words :D That makes this story over 30,000 words in total! And my english teacher said that I didn't write enough in my essays XP)
~SakuraTenshi out!~