It wasn't hard to find Mister Twister. Just follow the bouncing tornadoes, I thought as I ran along the street, disregarding everything except for the robot I was hunting down.
I spotted him standing near the docks, controlling three large tornadoes at one time.
"Certainly this will get the required attention." I heard him say.
"You got ours!" Kid Flash shouted back. "Full and undivided."
I followed close behind. When his kick seemed to work after a second try, I rushed into the robot's side with my good shoulder.
"Immaterial and insufficient!" I didn't recognize those words. "You are a distraction I can no longer tolerate!" Okay, now those words I knew, and I didn't like them.
I heard Superboy's distinct yell from above as he tried to slam the robot into the ground. But he just moved backwards.
I held my ground along with the others, staring the robot down. I wasn't afraid.
He shot more tornadoes our way, but my wings kept me balanced. Touching down, I lunged at him, but he surprised me with a blast of wind and sent me spiraling backwards.
My back skid against the ground. I rubbed my head in pain, as I felt that my wings weren't going to be flying again like they had before.
I tried rushing him anyway. It was a suicide move, I knew, but it gave the others time to come up with a plan of action. He simply threw me back into a house.
He also sent Superboy and a boat my way, and the two brought the house down. I felt more than a few splinters in my wings.
"Listen to me, all of you," the voice spoke again in my mind. But instead of being afraid, I recognized it as Megan's. That made me feel a little better.
"What did we tell you?!" I heard Superboy shout.
"I know, and I know I messed up, but right now I'm very clear on what we need to do. Please, trust me."
I sighed. It was nice to have a plan now. "I trust you, Megan," I thought.
Once the plan was put in action, the group gathered in front of Mister Twister.
Before he could do anything, "Red Tornado" flew down from the sky in front of us.
"Hit the showers, I was hoping you could handle this, clearly you cannot." He said.
"But we have a plan now!" Robin protested according to plan.
"Yeah, we want to help!" I added.
"The subject is not up for debate." Tornado answered.
As Mister Twister and Red Tornado's battle started, I got into position along with Superboy while Kid Flash mimicked Tornado's wind power.
Tornado appeared to be losing the fight, until Miss Martian surprised him with her shapeshifting powers.
Using the element of surprise, Kid Flash threw him back towards me and Superboy with his tornado.
Superboy rushed forward, disabling the robot with a few well-placed hits. He threw the robot back towards me and I grabbed it by the shoulders, tossing it back into the harbor where I knew Aqualad was waiting.
After a moment, Twister exploded out, as Miss Martian held him in the air and ripped his arms off. Robin also threw some sharp exploding circles at him as Mister Twister crashed back down to earth.
Looks like Mister Twister is history. Hey, that kinda rhymed. I walked with the others to his broken body.
And then a man crawled out. "Foul, I-I call foul," he said, falling out of the robot's body. My eyes widened. If I knew there was a man in there, I wouldn't have given him such a hard time fighting him. Well, probably not.
But Miss Martian did something I thought someone like her would never do. She crushed the man under a rock.
I stood there, my mouth agape, not knowing how to react.
"Don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth, we don't execute our captives!" Robin, however, was mad.
"You said you trust me," Miss Martian replied with a smile. Wait a minute, what?
She lifted the rock back up. I looked away at first, not wanting to see a crushed body, but instead, the person inside was another robot. How do these people have the time to build this many robots?
"That's why I couldn't read his mind." Megan explained.
Wally bent down to pick up a robot eye that fell out. "Cool, souvenir." He said.
"We should've had more faith in you," Kaldur apologized. I nodded in agreement.
"Megan, I'm sorry for getting mad and blowing up at you back there. You did good." I put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled at me, and I returned it.
"Yeah, you rocked this mission. Get it? Rocked?" Wally said. I let out a chuckle at his joke.
"Ignore him," Robin said. But he didn't sound serious. "We're all just turbed you're on the team." Wait, turbed? What did that mean?
"Thanks, me too." Megan replied. About that time the adrenaline wore off and the pain in my back and wings returned.
I bent over in pain, but denied help from Aqualad. "I think it's about time to get back to the Cave." I said calmly.
Megan called the Bio-Ship to pick us up and flew us back to the Cave. I picked out as many splinters as I could see and reach while we flew back, wincing in pain every time I did.
As we reached the hangar, I made a beeline to the medical room. Dr. Richards wasn't there, though. I really didn't want anyone messing with my wings, so I headed to the main room and set the Zeta tube coordinates to Central City.
I stepped out in the lab room, looking for any sign of where Dr. Richards lab was. I found a sign of doctor names, and found that he was on the current floor.
I found his room after asking someone at the desk -who wouldn't stop staring at my wings- and knocked on the door.
I heard a muffled "I'll get it," before the door opened and I stood face-to-face with Xavier.
"Hawkgirl, uh, what are you doing here?" He asked. I opened my wings and allowed him to see the damage.
His eyes widened in surprise. "Uncle Steve, get some tweezers," He called back into the room as I stepped in. It wasn't as big as the medical room in Mount Justice, but it still had a table-mat and cabinets with medical things that I didn't know the names of.
I sat up on the table-mat while the two worked on my wings. I flinched from their touch at first, but soon I relaxed as the pain diminished. Pretty soon my wings felt good as new.
I hopped down, flexing them in and out to test them. They seemed stronger now.
"Incredible," Dr. Richards exclaimed. I was confused. He had seen my wings before, this was nothing new. But then again, he had never seen me actually use them.
Can you," Xavier spoke, clearing his throat. "Can you fly with them?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. I'm working on it, though." I smiled at him.
"Well, they would get stronger faster if you ate more often." Dr. Richards responded. I lowered my head. I knew that, but I just didn't feel hungry a lot of the time.
"I'll try to," I promised him. "Thank you!" I started to walk out, my wings healed. Dr. Richards stopped me, though.
"Wait, Hawkgirl." He called after me. "Since you're here, so you mind having your check-up now?" I thought about it for a moment, then turned and got back up on the table-mat again.
"So is 'Hawkgirl' your real name, or…?" Xavier asked. I knit my eyebrows together in confusion.
"It was the only name I was given." I answered.
"Given? By who?"
"Cadmus." Even saying the name made my skin crawl. I didn't want to think about my life before the heroes found me, if I even had a life before that. Xavier remained quiet after that.
After my check-up was done, I returned to the Cave to find the team already in the main room, examining the robot man.
"Yo, Hawkey!" Wally ran up to me and it his arm around my shoulders. "Where ya been?"
"In Central City, getting the splinters out of my wings," I answered, flexing said appendages so that the rest could see.
"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you," Kaldur was talking to Red Tornado about the robot.
"Agreed." The red robot said. How I haven't missed that voice.
"Is that why you wouldn't help us?" Megan asked.
"No." Seriously? Again with the one-word answers. "This was your battle. I do not believe it is my duty to solve your problems for you. Nor should you solve mine for me." He elaborated.
"But if you're in danger-"
"Consider this matter closed." Red Tornado stopped Megan and walked out of the room. I sent a glare to the back of his head.
"Batman, Aquaman, the Flash, they'd've jumped right in to fix things." Wally commented.
"I guess if we're gonna need a babysitter, then a heartless machine is exactly what we need." Robin said. I agreed with him.
"Dude, harsh," Wally said.
"And inaccurate," Red Tornado spoke, making my heart stop for a second. "I have a heart: carbon-steel alloy." He stopped and turned. "I also have excellent hearing." Wait, was that a hint of sarcasm? Huh, I guess robots can feel after all.
"Sorry, I'll strive to be more accurate." Robin apologized.
"And more respectful." Kaldur added.
As the team walked out of the main room, Wally noted, "Speedy was so wrong."
"This team thing might just work out." Robin completed.
"Okay, who is Speedy?" I finally asked aloud. The three boys looked at me at the same time.
"Speedy is, was, Green Arrow's sidekick. An archer. He refused to join the team." Wally explained. I felt a little bit better.
We walked a bit further, until I suddenly remembered something Robin had told me back in the Bio-Ship.
"Hey Robin, weren't you going to explain something to me once we got back to the Cave?" I asked.
He looked confused for a second, then remembered too.
"Well…"
A/N: I thought this was a really fun chapter to write. I'm pretty sure I have Welcome to Happy Harbor memorized by now, since I've rewatched it so many times now.
So, about the different POV switches, I think I'm going to keep this story in first person all the way through, and then write another story that has all of the other characters POVs in it like the Hawks and Xavier. What do you think?
Reviews, followers, and favorites are appreciated as always.
