A couple of days later I woke up late. I guessed Batman was still letting me rest after the training day disaster.

I found my way to the kitchen, grabbing another apple before heading back to my room to change.

I had my red shirt on today, and afterwards I found the team gathered around a floating computer in the main room.

"Hey guys. What's going on?" I asked, taking a bit out of the apple.

"We're going to see if Red Tornado has a mission for us," Miss Martian explained.

About that time, the computer voice announced the arrival of Robin and Kid Flash via Zeta tube.

"Did you ask him?"

What did he say?" They both ran up to meet us.

"He's arriving now," Aqualad said. Wait, who's arriving?

"Then what are we waiting for?" Wally exclaimed excitedly and shot out of the room.

"Who are we going to see?" I asked. I guess confusion was my normal mood on this team now.

"Red Tornado; weren't you listening?" Superboy answered, giving me a hard stare. I tried to meet his eyes, but ducked my head down and followed the others out and throwing my half-eaten apple in the trash can.

We slowed to a walk as the ceiling lowered in the garage of the mountain side. Red Tornado was descending in a...well, a red tornado.

"Red Tornado!" Wally greeted as the robot touched down, waving.

"Greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside of the Cave?" The mechanical voice responded.

"We were hoping you had a mission for us." Aqualad said.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."

"But it's been over a week and nothing-" Robin spoke up.

"You will be tested soon enough." Red Tornado stopped him with a hand. Tested? What did that mean?

"For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."

"But we've been doing that for the past few days now!" I voiced my thoughts. Even though I was weak from Cadmus and weaker still from training, I still had fight in me and I was growing restless. I needed some action.

"This team is not a social club." Aqualad said.

"No, but I am told that social interaction is an important team-building exercise." Red Tornado answered. I was getting annoyed with that robot. I didn't like how he was so...mechanical. Everything we said had a deadpan answer, and I didn't like it.

"Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the Cave." And with that, the robot simply walked out of the conversation.

"What does he think I've been doing for the past week?" I asked under my breath.

"Does he think we're falling for this?" Robin asked Wally.

"Oh, I'll find out." Miss Martian said. Wait, how can you do that?

She looked like she was concentrating for a moment, then sighed.

"I'm sorry, I forgot he was a machine. Inorganic. I can't read his mind." Wait, she can read minds?! And no one ever told me this?!

"Nice try though." Wally stepped up beside her, leaning in. "So, you know what I'm thinking right now?"

"We all know what you're thinking right now," Robin hit him lightly on the back. I don't, I thought about his comment. Wait a minute…

"And now we tour the clubhouse." Aqualad said with a hint of disdain in his voice. Wait, clubhouse? Oh, right, the Cave.

"Well, Superboy, Hawkgirl, and I live here, maybe we can play tour guides." Miss Martian suggested.

"Are you kidding? I get lost when I go to my room sometimes." I was actually not making that up. Everyone then turned to Superboy.

"Don't look at me," he said.

"We won't, a private tour sounds much more fun." Wally leaned in towards Miss Martian again. Wait...boy plus girl...alone… I did the math and came to the conclusion that Wally liked Miss Martian. What was the word again? Crush? Yeah, I think that was it.

"Team-building. We'll all go." Aqualad's voice broke through my thoughts. But I felt proud of myself now that I figured Wally out. I felt like a part of an inside joke now.

We all followed Miss Martian through the door back into the Cave. "So, this would be our front door…"

"...and this would be the back." She led us straight to the other side of the mountain. I saw blue water, lots of it. I can't remember the last time I saw something like that. Maybe never.

"The Cave is actually the entire mountain," she explained, leading us back through the mountain.

"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League." Wally explained further. I knew who Superman was, but I didn't recognize the second hero. They sounded cool, though.

"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy asked.

"The Cave's secret location was...compromised." Aqualad answered.

"Wait, so the bad guys know we're here? And we're just staying here like sitting ducks?!" I started to panic a little bit. I had thought this place was one of the safest places on earth, and now they're telling me that the bad guys knew about Mount Justice already?

"The bad guys know we know they know about the place so they'd never think to look here." Robin somehow thought that his explanation would make sense and calm me down.

"Uh, he means that we're hiding in plain sight." Wally spoke up, translating. His explanation did calm me down.

"Oh, that makes more sense," I replied.

"I smell smoke," Superboy spoke again.

Miss Martian gasped. "My cookies!" She flew -not ran, flew- through the hallways and into the kitchen. I want cookies! I thought as I ran with the others, gaining a little more speed with my wings, which had grown a little bit over the past few days.

In the kitchen, Miss Martian levitated a pan of black cookies. Oh, too bad.

"I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from episode seventeen of..heh, nevermind." Miss Martian explained, then backtracked. But I was still curious. An episode is part is a show on the TV box, and I wanted to know what show it was. At least they baked cookies on it.

"I bet they'd've tasted great," Robin consoled. "He doesn't seem to mind," we all turned towards Wally, who was busy stuffing his mouth with a burnt cookie.

"I...have a serious metabolism." I didn't know what that meant.

"I'll...make more?" Miss Martian replied.

"It was sweet of you to make any." Aqualad spoke.

"Thanks, Aqualad."

"We're off duty. Call me Kaldur'ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur." He introduced.

"I'm Wally," Kid Flash introduced to Miss Martian, since I already knew his real name. "See, I already trust you with my secret ID. Unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over here; Batman's forbidden the Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name." Really? Why? Batman wasn't any bigger a hero than the Flash, and he let Wally tell us his identity. I figured it was more of a personal thing.

"Mine's no secret: it's M'gann M'orzz. But you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now." Miss Martian also introduced herself.

I knit my eyebrows together in confusion. "What is with heroes and secret names? Kid Flash and Miss Martian have two, and Aqualad has three! Why do you all have different names?" I spoke of my frustration. It made no sense to me. But everyone looked at me like I just lost my wings.

"Secret identities come with the job." Robin explained. "You don't want your friends or family knowing you risk your life fighting crime every day, so you act like a regular citizen around them and in public."

"Well, you all know my identity, and so does the League. I don't have any other family, so why do I have to pretend?" I wasn't calming down any.

"Think of it this way: if you had a family that didn't know you were Hawkgirl, and you went out and fought crime, would you want dangerous supervillains targeting your family, or anyone else that was close to you?" He offered a question.

I thought for a while, then lowered my head and shook it. "No, I wouldn't." It still made little sense to me, but now I could see why the others kept their real identities secret from the world.

I heard Superboy, who hadn't said a word since we ran to the kitchen, retreating.

He suddenly grabbed his head in pain. I worried that something bad had happened, and rushed over to his side.

"Get out of my head!" He shouted. I didn't know what he wasn't talking about until my head exploded in pain.

"What's wrong? I-I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically." I heard a voice in my head that wasn't my own. I grasped my head like Superboy had, as the voice inside felt familiar. But not friendly familiar, bad familiar. Really bad familiar.

Before I knew it I was on my knees. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, I pleaded, rocking slightly. I didn't like the voice.

"M'gann, stop." Aqua-Kaldur's voice shook the bad feeling out. I was glad. I looked up at Megan, who seemed surprised and hurt.

"Things are different on Earth. Here, your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy." He explained.

"Plus Cadmus's little psychic G-Gnomes left a bad taste in his brain." Wally explained. G-Gnomes? Is that was the small alien things were called? Or maybe it was the psychic alien-thing…

"I didn't mean to-" Megan tried to apologize.

"Just stay out." Superboy growled and stomped into the living room, where he sat on a couch. I would have consoled him, but right now I didn't want to just anger him further. He seemed to like my help the least, actually.

I realized I was still sitting on the floor as Robin lent a hand to help me up. I stood on slightly shaking legs and leaned against the counter.

"Hello Megan!" Megan exclaimed, tapping her forehead with her palm. "I know what we can do!" We all followed as she flew out of the room. I took one last glance at Superboy, who was still sitting on the couch.

Superboy came along anyway. I was glad too. Megan led us down to the hangar, where there was a small-ish red and blue blob waiting.

"It's my Martian Bio-Ship!" She said. It didn't look like much of a ship. At least, not the ones I knew of.

"Cute." Wally said. "Not very aerodynamic, but cute."

"It's at rest, silly, I'll wake it." She raised a hand, and the ship began to transform into, well, a ship. A cool-looking spaceship, that is.

It turned around on its own and a door opened to the inside. I didn't really know what to think about the ship.

"Well, are you coming?" Megan didn't seem fazed in the slightest. That made sense, at least. It was her ship.

We all followed her inside, where six seats appeared. Robin sat at the back left, Wally on the right back, Kaldur sat on the front to the right, Superboy in the middle, and I took the window seat to the left.

"Whoa," I breathes as seatbelts appeared and strapped me in.

"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors." Megan asked. The doors did indeed open, and the ship lifted into the air.

It was amazing. Looking out at the town from above, it made me feel like flying in my dreams.

"This is amazing," I exclaimed, looking with wonder down below. "So this is what it's like to fly…"

"Incredible!" Robin said behind me.

Wally sighed. "She sure is," he looked at Megan. I was confused again. "I mean the ship. Which, like all ships, is a she." He pointed down.

"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth." Robin said. I felt left out again. Wait, was this a part of the Wally-liking-Miss-Martian inside joke again? I seemed oblivious to the situation.

"He'll come around," Robin consoled Megan about Superboy. I felt bad for her, even though I freaked out too with her psychic powers.

"He doesn't seem to like me much," she replied.

"He doesn't seem to like anyone much," I said. He really did. Me and Megan were the two he seemed to hate the most, though, at least right now.

"You guys remember he has super hearing, right?" Wally stage-whispered. I looked back at Superboy, but he didn't move.

"Hey, how about showing us some Martian shapeshifting?" Robin asked.

"Wait, shapeshifting? What's that?" I accidentally said aloud.

"Here, I'll show you." Megan responded. She stood from her chair as her clothes began to change until she looked like Robin. And then she spun around and changed into Kid Flash mid-turn.

"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked, a weird expression on his face.

"Actually, it feels pretty nice in here," I responded. He was talking about the temperature, right?

That earned me a stifled laugh from Robin. I turned in my seat and raised an eyebrow back at him.

"I'll explain back at the Cave," he leaned forward and whispered. He then turned back to Megan.

"Impressive, but you know you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those." He complimented her, I think.

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder." She replied, sitting back down. Wait what? ...oh yeah, anatomical changes.

"And, your clothes?" Aqualad asked, facing her.

"They're organic, like the ship. They respond to my mental commands." My eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait, so the ship's alive?! And we're riding inside of it?" I asked, panicking again. I didn't really want to be anything's lunch, thank you very much.

Megan laughed. "Don't worry, Hawkgirl. The ship's not going to eat you or anything." Was she reading my mind again or was that just a lucky coincidence?

"Can you do that ghosting-through-walls thing that Manhunter does?" Wally asked. I was intrigued. I wish I could go through walls. Ugh, everyone always gets the cool powers!

"Density-shifting? No, it's a very advanced technique." She answered.

"Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall." Robin pointed to Wally as he spoke. "When he tries it? Bloody nose."

"Dude!" Wally exclaimed, embarrassed. I was jealous. Everyone seemed to have cool powers to do cool things except for me. All I had were wings that hardly even worked properly.

"Here's something I can do," Megan said. "Camouflage mode." I looked out to see the wing of the ship had disappeared. No, wait, I saw it. Barely.

"Red Tornado to Miss Martian: an emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbor power plant. I suggest you investigate, covertly. I'm sending coordinates." Red Tornado's voice spoke in the ship.

"Received." Megan replied. "Adjusting course."

I heard a sound from Robin. "Tornado's keeping us busy again." Great, my first outing in over a week and it's not even a real mission.

"Well, a simple fire led you to Superboy and Hawkgirl, we should find out what caused the alert." Megan responded as the ship lowered.

I looked out the window and saw what looked like a bigger version of Red Tornado's Tornado, except this one wasn't colored red.

"I think I know the cause," Superboy explained, oddly calm. I braced against my seat as the tornado drew closer.

The ship was caught in the tornado and tossed around wildly. Megan tried to steady the ship, and it flew out of the tornado's grasp.

A hatch appeared, and we dropped down into the ground.

"We have to help them," I said, pointing to the civilians running from the freak tornado.

"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?" Aqualad asked, but he was already gone.

I heard his laugh, though, and I tried to pinpoint his location. He seemed to be heading to the power plant.

"Come on," I said, running ahead of the others and using my wings to gain ground. I heard something going on inside, and followed the sound of a fight.

I saw a big red robot, even bigger than Red Tornado. He had some tube-things coming from his back and a green-grey scarf. I thought the scarf was unnecessary.

I rushed at him, seeing Robin in my peripheral vision, but the robot threw up a hand and made a mini tornado that sucked me into the air and sent me crashing back down.

Oww," I groaned. That did not feel good on my chest. Robin was also thrown aside by a tornado into a metal column.

I heard the others approaching. That was good. Now we stood a better chance against this robot man. I got up and gathered over with them.

"Who's your new friend?" Superboy asked Robin.

"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kinda rough!" He nearly had to shout to be heard. Superboy jumped on ahead at the enemy.

"My apologies," the robot spoke. "You may address me as Mister Twister." Hey, that rhymed. He threw up a couple more tornadoes and Superboy got caught in one of them, spinning around and being thrown into a wall.

That's it robot man, you've hurt two too many of my friends, I thought, standing alongside the others.

Kid Flash was the first to reach him, running ahead as a blur. I was close behind.

Mister Twister seemed unfazed by our attacks, as he threw Kid Flash out into the parking lot when he tried to do a two-foot kick, and I was sent into a wall for trying to knock him down.

I shook the dust off my feathers and tried at him again, and he just sent me flying back where Aqualad and Miss Martian were lying. This was not the kind of flying I had in mind!

We were being tossed around like rag dolls. A direct approach didn't seem to work, so I thought that maybe I could surprise him from the side.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero. I was not, however, expecting children." I used his pause to speaks as an opportunity to dash off to the side, out of his line of vision.

"We're not children!" Robin shouted. I heard a whizzing sound, as something suddenly exploded in front of Mister Twister. One sharp circle thing landed in the robot's chest, but he just flicked it away as it exploded behind him.

"Objectively you are. Have you no adult supervision?" He asked. "I find your presence here quite...disturbing." He suddenly lifted his hand in my direction, sending a tornado my way that sent me flying outside this time.

I shouted in pain as I skidded across the concrete, feeling my wings scrape against the ground. I stopped on my stomach, laying awkwardly on the ground.

Tricks wouldn't work, a direct approach wouldn't work. What did work on that robot? I needed an answer, and fast.

Speaking of fast, I saw Kid Flash on the ground near me.

"Wally, Wally wake up!" I said, turning around to him. I heard Mister Twister coming out from inside the power plant. Oh no, I thought, as Kid Flash tried running up to the robot again. He just sent him crashing into a wall.

"Hey, robot man!" I tried getting his attention long enough for the rest of the team to get out here.

"That's enough of you hurting my friends!" I tried the direct approach again, knowing full well it wouldn't work.

As Mister Twister almost boredly sent another tornado my way, I spread my wings instinctively to block it, somehow. Instead, I was swept up in the wind current again.

Only this time it seemed...different. I wasn't tossed around like a toy. Instead, my wings seemed to move on their own, keeping me from losing balance. Angled, now down, left wing up, angled, then down, and swoop up!

I flew -flew!- safely out of the tornado and dropped back down to the ground beside the team.

"Hawkgirl, you flew!" Robin congratulated with a smile. I smiled back. It was like my wings just needed the proper motivation to fly. I guess training just wasn't one of them.

"I would've thought you had all learned your limitations by now." Mister Twister tainted us, but I was too excited about having flown that I didn't take offense. This time.

"What do you want?!"Aqualad shouted.

"Isn't it obvious?" No, not really. "I'm waiting for a real hero." He levitated into the sky.

"Read his mind."Aqualad turned to Miss Martian. "Find a weakness."

"I thought I wasn't supposed to do that?"

"It's okay with the bad guys!" Robin called to the Martian. I didn't really think so.

She concentrated for a moment. "Nothing, in getting nothing!" Well, that made sense. He is an inorganic robot.

"Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise!" She exclaimed.

"Wait what?" I asked, confused again. "He doesn't look anything like Red Tornado!"

"Well, he's inorganic, an android! How many android do you know that could generate tornadoes?" Miss Martian explained. I was still unconvinced. He didn't look like Red Tornado, and his tornadoes weren't colored red like the one he used to levitate.

"Red Tornado sent us here!" Aqualad seemed to agree with Miss Martian, though.

"After saying we'd be tested soon enough. This is his test! Something to keep us busy." Robin also went along.

"I still don't believe it!" I shouted. It was true, but I began to think about it. I didn't like being played like this, if it was a test.

"Speedy called it, we're a joke." Wait, who's Speedy? And have you all lost your minds?! I screamed internally as the rest of the team walked nearer to Mister Twister.

"Wait, what are you-"

"We know who you are and what you want." Robin interrupted me. I was getting mad that no one seemed to listen.

"So let's end this." Aqualad commanded. You idiot! He'll kill us all now!

"Consider it ended." Mister Twister said darkly.

I wasn't about to stick around for this, I didn't care what my "teammates" thought. As the sky darkened and the robot gathered clouds above him, I hightailed it out of there.

Running and jumping to gain cover in the trees, I leaned against one, my back to the action. I heard things, shouts, explosions, but I wasn't about to turn around and stick my neck out there.

"Fine then, I won't deny you children have power. But playing hide-and-seek with you will not help me complete my objective, so stay concealed. If you confront me again, I will show no mercy." Mister Twister warned, and then I heard him retreat. I dared to look out from my hiding place.

I saw my teammates lying on the ground and no Mister Twister in sight. I risked running out there to help them.

Dashing to them as they got up, I confronted Miss Martian.

"Why in the name of the Justice League did you put us all in danger like that?!" I was really angry with her. Which surprised me. I had never gotten really mad at anyone like that before.

"You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado!" Superboy backed me up. At least he shared my testament.

"She didn't do it on purpose."

"It was a rookie mistake." Robin and Aqualad tried to quell the rising argument.

"None of you should've listened, then." I countered.

"You are pretty inexperienced," Wally added, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Hit the showers, we'll take it from here." He offered.

"Stay out of our way." Superboy warned. I followed, but turned back to Miss Martian.

"It's for your own safety," I added, then followed the others to find Mister Twister.


A/N: I hoped you enjoyed this! I have the next chapter ready to go already, but let's see if we can't get the review number to, oh, I don't know...fifteen by Tuesday? Is that challenge enough for you all? If it is, I will upload two chapters that day instead of one like I plan to.

As always, followers, favorites, and especially reviews are all appreciated.