During the next few days, I usually spent my time either in the living room eating and watching the TV box, in the medical room, in my own room, or visiting Xavier in Central City.

We got to know each other better then. I learned his favorite color, green, his favorite animal, the otter, and his favorite TV box show, something called Doctor Who. It seemed interesting.

I also learned I had a favorite color, blue, and a favorite animal, a bluebird, as well.

The next day, I awoke to find a strange package outside my door. There was a note attached as well.

To Hawkgirl from Batman, Hawkman, and Hawkwoman

I was tempted to throw the whole thing away right off the bat when I read Hawkman's name, but if Batman also brought it to me, then it couldn't be totally bad.

It ended up being a suit. There was a yellow shirt that I changed into, holes already made for my wings, and a thicker red shirt that I also put on. There was dark green pants, a skirt that had a lighter shade of green over it, and a bronze-colored belt with the Hawkman symbol on it.

I also put on a shoulder guard wrapped around my body that protected my bad shoulder -even though I'm pretty sure it was healed already- and metal bracers over a pair of brown gloves.

There was a pair of gold boots, and a helmet that looked similar to Hawkwoman's, except the wings were smaller and faced backwards instead of sticking out to the side.

I looked at myself in the mirror. Now I look like a real hero, I thought, admiring the way the suit fit. It was also surprisingly light and I didn't feel hot from the layers.

After admiring the new suit, I put it back in the box for safekeeping. I decided to thank Batman next time I saw him.

That turned out to not be very long. That afternoon, Batman's deep voice echoed through the Cave, calling the team to the main room.

We were there in ten seconds flat. No one wanted to be the last one there, so we all arrived at about the same time. Batman was already waiting for us, along with Red Tornado, who was operating the floating screen behind Batman. An island map came into view as Batman began the mission briefing.

"Isla Santa Prisca," he started, naming the island. "This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neosteroid. A strength-enhancing drug sold under the street name "venom." Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of venom have been inexplicably cut off. That's where this team comes in." I kept getting distracted and sending glares at Wally, who decided that now was the best time to snack on a bag of chips.

"This is a covert, recon mission only. Observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will." I nodded in understanding.

"The plan requires two drop zones." Batman ended.

"So, who's in charge?" Robin asked. I wondered that too now that he said the question, actually.

Batman and Red Tornado both turned to look at us, glanced at each other, then turned back to us.

"Work that out between you." He answered. I hoped no one would pick me to lead.

Flying in the Bio-Ship, we all changed into our costumes. It would've been awkward had Miss Martian not separated the boys and girls with a barrier.

Now, sitting in my seat and looking down on the ocean below, my mind wandered back to who was going to lead. Aqualad seemed to take charge more, and he was clear and precise in his actions. I liked him as a leader, but Robin was convinced he was team leader.

"We're approaching Santa Prisca." Miss Martian said from the controls, breaking the heavy silence of the ship.

I saw the island out the dark window. It looked small, hardly enough to fit Mount Justice on top of it.

"Drop zone A in thirty." Miss Martian announced. Aqualad stood as his chair melted into the floor, pressed the button on his belt as his shirt changed from red to black, and got into position. I was glad I wasn't going along with him. I didn't know how well my wings worked in water, but I didn't think it was very well.

"Ready," he said.

"Putting Bio-Ship in camouflage mode." Miss Martian said as the ship disappeared into the night sky.

I cleared my head as best I could as the ship approached the island. I needed to keep alert this time on the mission. Right now, nothing else mattered.

"Heat and motion sensors are patched. Data is now on a continuous loop." Aqualad spoke through his comm. Wait, wasn't it pronounced da-ta, not day-ta?

"Drop zone B," Miss Martian said. The rest of us stood as our seats also melted into the floor.

I pressed the button on my belt like Aqualad had done, and was surprised to find that my yellow shirt turned a dark brown, my red shirt turned a darker red, my pants turned black, and my skirt turned a darker green. I wondered how that worked.

"How cool is this?" Kid Flash pushed the symbol on his chest as his suit turned black.

"Very impressive," Miss Martian commented. She closed her eyes as her suit also turned dark, and she added a hood to her long cape.

"Uh, that works too," Kid Flash replied with a similar weird expression as before. "Hey Supey, not too late to put on the new stealth tech."

The boy in question crossed his arms. "No capes, no tights. No offense." I'm glad I'm not wearing a cape or tights, then.

"It totally works for you," Miss Martian said. And now she had a weird expression on her face. What is with these people and dumb expressions? Wait a minute...she's not liking my clone brother, is she?

She then put her hood over her head and turned invisible. The floor below us opened up, and I glided down on my wings and landed without a sound.

Okay, observe and report. Observe and report… I got into a mission mindset.

Superboy came down after us, landing with such a loud sound I was surprised the find that we weren't immediately surrounded by goons. And a little disappointed.

"Knew I didn't need a line," he remarked.

"And yet creating a seismic event might not have helped us much with the covert." Robin sounded mad. I couldn't blame him.

"Aqualad, drop B is go," Miss Martian spoke into her comm. If he replied, I didn't hear it.

Robin pulled out his circle computer on his wrist. "Roger that," he answered to whatever Aqualad had said.

Running through the jungle was a different experience than running through a city or hallway. For one thing, there was no set path to follow. I nearly lost the others from falling behind. Another thing was that it was much hotter here.

Even though my clothes were light, I was still sweating by the time we slowed our pace to a walk.

Suddenly, I stopped. Did I just hear what I think I heard?

Superboy apparently heard it too, because he stopped as well.

"Did you hear that?" He asked. I listened harder. There were men, a whole group of them. And they were in our path.

"Uh, no." Kid Flash replied. "Wait, is this a super-hearing thing?"

"You do have great ears," Miss Martian said with a look that I thought could only be described as "dreamy." Seriously, I thought, now that I know about this whole "crush" thing. Step off my brother!

"Okay Rob, now what?" Kid Flash asked. Upon uttering that question, I noticed the boy was no longer in our group.

"Man, I hate it when he does that." You and me both.

"Observe and report?" I offered. I then remembered that was in fact the focus of the mission, and I gathered all the facts I knew right now.

First, it was hot. And humid. And it smelled. Second, Robin had disappeared. But why? Third, I knew we could possibly cover more ground and observe more information if we split up. I decided to test that theory.

"What if we split up?" I asked aloud. "You know, cover more ground?"

"And risk getting ambushed out here?" Kid Flash retorted. I stared at him. Well, think what you want. I'm following my plan.

"Wait, Hawkgirl!" I heard him say. It wasn't really normal volume, but not exactly a shout either.

I followed the sounds of the men approaching. There was one to my left, and one group in front of me. I stayed in the trees, leaping from branch to branch right above their heads. They didn't even seem to know I was there.

Then the two groups met with a bang. Well, it was really more of a gunshot, but then they shot more bullets at each other. I knew one thing for sure that night: I didn't like guns.

A third sound entered the picture. I looked in horror as the noise turned out to be Kid Flash slipping in the mud.

Oh no, I thought, which has now become what I think every time Kid Flash did anything stupid, which was often.

Keeping to the shadows, I dropped down on one armed person and drove my foot into his chest, grabbing his gun while I did so to disarm him. I threw the gun at another guy who ducked. I rushed him and punched him in the gut, making him double over. I then sent my knee into his face.

With two guys down, I looked over to see Superboy join the fight and knock down a bigger guy, who then drove him into the ground. I dashed forward, knocking him back into a tree with my armored shoulder.

"Thanks, sister," he said as he stood again. I smiled at that.

"What is wrong with you guys?!" Robin appeared from the trees like I did, taking out a couple of guys. "Why didn't you follow my lead, vanish into the jungle?"

"Well, I followed that plan. Didn't know it was the plan, though." I said, crossing my arms. What, you didn't think you needed to fill us in on what to do before all this happened?

"That's what you two were doing?" Kid Flash sounded agitated. "Way to fill us in. We're not mind-readers, you know."

I looked to find Miss Martian at the notion of "mind-reader," who was busy taking out three more guys. "Or, I'm not, anyway." Kid Flash added.

"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds," she replied. I still didn't think that was a good idea, but no one seemed to listen to me anyway, so why tell her that?

I turned to the sound of someone retreating. Oh no you don't, I thought, using my wings to give me a boost before halting as Aqualad appeared and shocked the guy with his electric powers. I didn't even know he could do that. I want electric powers!

We tied the rest of the men up to trees so hey couldn't escape.

"I recognize those uniforms." Robin spoke. "They belong to the Cult of the Kobra." The what of the what-now?

"I'm sure Batman would've warned us if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's venom operation." Aqualad noted. It did seem strange that Batman hadn't even know these guys were here.

"Maybe they're the one who cut off the shipments?" I asked, remembering what Batman said during the briefing.

"Well, since there's clearly no love-loss between the Cultists and those goon, I'm betting Kobra came in and kicked them out." Robin half-explained, half-though out loud. "That's why normal supply lines have been cut off." Wall, that did make sense.

"But what would they want with the venom, anyway?" I asked.

"Don't know. But Kobra's definitely hoarding the stuff. They're not selling it, and I didn't pick up any traces of venom in their system." Robin thought. "We don't leave, not until I find out why they're keeping it."

"Until you know why?" Kid Flash spoke up.

"This team needs a leader," Robin replied.

"And it's going to be the kid who disappeared into the jungle five minutes after we arrived?" I asked, crossing my arms. I was getting irritated at his pompous attitude.

"Oh, so now you want to lead?" He replied, sarcasm dropping from his words.

"Maybe I will, and maybe I'll be an even better leader than you!" I lied. I didn't really want to lead, but I didn't want Robin to lead the way he expects us to just "follow his lead."

"You don't even have any experience leading a team!" Robin shouted.

"Well, you don't have any experience being a team player!" I retorted. "Plus, no one knows what Cadmus taught me before I was frozen. Maybe I did lead a team back there." Well, there's a first, I thought as I hit my own sore spot arguing with him.

Robin looked visibly surprised at my words and bringing Cadmus back up.

"Dude, you're a thirteen-year-old kid," Kid Flash joined in the conversation, backing my side. Or maybe he just wanted to lead as well.

"And you're mature at fifteen? You blew our cover first chance ya got!" Robin looked like he was actually enjoying this argument.

"Well, it's two superpowered teens versus one non-powered kid." I said, pointing to me and Kid Flash and then Robin.

"Batman doesn't have superpowers either!" Robin's expression turned angry at the mention of his lack of superpowers. I figured I hit a weak spot.

"Duh, you're not Batman." Kid Flash replied.

"Scheh, closest thing we got!" Robin said, returning to his usual cocky grin.

We stopped arguing as one goon, the big man, started laughing. I glared at him.

"Such clever niños y niña, but you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance." He explained. I didn't trust him one bit.

"There is a secret entrance, but he's also hiding something." Miss Martian knelt down and concentrated on reading his mind.

"Ah ah ah, chica, Bane is not that easy." He stared back at her, unflinching.

"Ugh, he's mentally reciting fúbol scores en español. This could take a while." She said. I surprisingly knew what those words meant.

"It's not that complicated, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Now there's something I've never heard before. I still didn't trust him, but right now we needed answers and Bane was our best shot. The most I could do right now was keep a close watch on him.


A/N: Special note to all the reviewers wanting me to pair Hawkgirl with someone: Honestly I hadn't even thought to ship her with anyone before y'all asked about it. But I got my own plan for that subplot, don't you worry. ;)

But reviews, followers, and favorites are still very much appreciated. :)