I found Superboy the next morning pacing through the hallway towards the main room. In contrast to yesterday, he seemed to be in a better mood than usual.
"What's up, brother?" I asked, stopping in front of him near the Zeta tube. The others started gathering there as well. I was glad I put on my costume this morning, as everyone else seemed to wear theirs as well.
"I'm headed to Metropolis." He answered simply.
"Oh! Isn't that the home of Superman?" Megan piped up, floating up near to me.
Superboy nodded. "I'm gonna go see if I can't help anything there," he said as he turned and went through the Zeta tube. I thought I heard him mumble something else before, but I couldn't make it out with his low voice.
I shrugged. It wasn't like he pried into my life all the time, so I thought it only fair to let him go.
"Hey Tabitha, you ever play air hockey before?" I turned toward Wally's voice as a floating...table thing appeared in the main room. I shook my head in answer.
"What's...air hockey?" I asked, walking over to meet him near the floating table.
He explained that it was a game where you tried to get a disk, called a puck, into a slot on the opposite side, that was guarded by another person that had the same objective. I started to understand it better once Robin and Wally played a game.
The game turned long and competitive, with Robin winning by only one point. Wally claimed he cheated, but no one really believed him.
Megan and I also played, now that I understood the rules. We were both pretty bad, but I eventually won by two points. By the end, everyone, including us, were laughing at our incompetence of the game.
With Superboy still in Metropolis, Aqualad played against Wally again. I saw the redhead now had a banana in his hand, and I wondered when he run off to get one. It was probably during my game.
We all heard the Zeta tube activate, as Superboy's name was announced and the clone stepped into the main room.
"Hey, Superboy, how was Metropolis?" Megan asked. She seemed to perk up a little at his entrance. He didn't reply. I was confused, as he seemed to be in a good mood earlier. Perhaps something had happened in the city?
"Ready for training, everyone?" A woman's voice spoke up. All of us turned to see who it was.
I saw the woman, who I recognized as Black Canary, along with Martian Manhunter to her left and Hawkman to her right. I smiled at my mentor.
"Black Canary, Uncle J'onn!" Megan exclaimed.
"Hawkman!" I added. I was no longer mad at him or Hawkwoman, and they weren't as hard on me as before, so we were on good terms now. I ran up and pulled him into a hug as he embraced me semi-awkwardly.
"I came to check up on you. And to make sure you're still doing your exercises." He said as we broke apart. I nodded, still smiling.
"I was just about to go and test my wings with my new suit." I replied. Well, it wasn't really that new anymore, but it still felt new when I wore it.
"Good. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress tomorrow morning." I smiled at his words, and he finally returned the gesture, which made me smile bigger.
"Stick around, class is in session." Black Canary said. I turned to see Superboy with his back to us. Wait, was he walking out in us?
She walked out onto the platform I just now noticed in the room, as the floor lit up. I thought that was cool.
"I consider it an honor to be your teacher." She began. I was ready for training; I'd already been through training with the Hawks many times before, so I looked forward to what Black Canary had to teach.
"I'll throw a lot at you, everything I learned from my own mentors," she shrugged off her jacket and revealed bandages on her arm. "Ugh, and my own bruises."
"What happened?" Megan asked. I was wondering that too.
"The job." Black Canary replied with a stern look. She sort of reminded me of Hawkwoman. She threw her jacket away.
"Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting." She began her lesson.
"I'll need a sparring partner." I was about to volunteer and show Hawkman how much I had learned over the past week, but Wally spoke up before I could.
"Oh! Right here," he said with a mouthful of banana. He walked up to meet her, throwing his banana in the trash.
"After this, I'll show you my moves," he commented. I thought his tone sounded a little weird. Black Canary gave a look that said oh really? before sending her fist in his direction as quick as lightning. Wally brought his hand up and blocked it, but Black Canary swung low and knocked him down with her leg.
I winced at the impact. It reminded me of how my first training day went with Hawkwoman.
"Good block, but did anyone see what he did wrong?" He didn't move fast enough?
"Ooh, oh, he hit on teacher and got served?" Robin piped up. Got served? What did that mean?
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"
"Oh please," Superboy spoke for the first time since he got back. I gave him a surprised look.
"With my powers the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time." He said, balling his fists. Well, I'm a living weapon too, with super strength, and I still need training.
"Prove it," Black Canary challenged. Superboy looked surprised, but stepped up to her. They got into a fighting stance, with Superboy throwing the first punch.
Black Canary was quick as she grabbed his arm and flipped him onto the ground. I was surprised. Black Canary certainly had her fair share of fights, being able to beat Superboy in about ten seconds.
Superboy got back up, looking angrier than before, and lunged at Black Canary again. I gazed in amazement as she seamlessly flipped over his shoulder and took him down with a sweeping kick without even breaking a sweat. I thought she and Hawkwoman could be good friends. I could learn a thing or two from Black Canary.
"That's it, I'm done." Superboy growled as he got up from the ground.
"Training is mandatory." Black Canary put a hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off.
Just then, Batman's face appeared on a floating screen, calling the Cave. We all turned our attention to him.
"Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary." He said as a picture popped up showing a robot man's face. Seriously, what is it with bad guys and robots?
"The attacker was capable of studying then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents." A video played showing Superman, Red Tornado, and Flash attacking the robot. "Arrow called for reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant. In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."
"An android?" Robin spoke. "W-who made it? T. O. Morrow?" T. O. Who-now?
"Good guess, Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so." Batman replied.
"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo." Martian Manhunter said. Professor Who? I really had to learn the names of these people if I'm going to go toe-to-toe with them.
"Ivo?" Aqualad remarked in shock. "But Ivo's dead."
"Or so we all thought," Hawkman spoke next.
"Or hoped," Black Canary added.
"To make sure this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks each carrying the androids parts to separate STAR Labs facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation." Batman said as a map showing the places appeared.
"Every precaution is being taken. We'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion, in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."
"Yes! Road trip," Wally said. Road trip? Was that like camping? I need to find a dictionary…
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asked with disdain.
"You had something better to do?" Batman returned with an extra edge of sarcasm that I hadn't heard from the man until now.
"Coordinates received," I saw Aqualad look at a small device in his hand. I wondered what it was for. "On our way."
I took one last look at Hawkman, who nodded in silent goodbye, and then followed the others to the Bio-Ship.
I put a black jacket with red, green, and yellow styling on it over my hero outfit, tucking my wings in and wrapping them around my body so that they fit as flat as they could. I also had a helmet that was painted to resemble my own.
We arrived shortly after, with things that Robin told me were motorcycles, already waiting, as well as the six trucks and some of the League. I waved to Hawkman and Hawkwoman as the team and I went behind some bushes and trees to conceal our presence.
I waited anxiously to hear the sound of the trucks moving so that we could get on the road. Once they did, I drove left with Robin and Superboy. I never really knew I could drive a motorcycle, but maybe that was something I learned back in Cadmus.
We rode in silence for the most part, watching the truck carefully to make sure nothing happened.
"If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster?" Robin asked through our linked comms. I was confused at his words. "See, instead of things going wrong, they go right."
"Are you sure that's how words work?" I asked.
He shrugged. "How it works for me." I could practically see his smirk underneath the dark visor. Superboy didn't reply.
"Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster. What's wrong?" Robin asked.
"Canary." Superboy replied. I edged a little closer to him. "I mean, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?"
"Well, I have super strength too, and you've seen how well I do in a fight." I remarked, remembering my first few battles that were very much one-sided.
"Yeah," Robin agreed. "Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way, same with Batman and, well, me."
Superboy only grumbled in reply and sped on ahead of us. I wished I knew what was wrong, but right now wasn't the best time to ask.
Suddenly, I heard something flying towards us. A lot of somethings. I turned my head to come face-to-face with a bunch of small flying monkey-things that had a very annoying laugh.
I used one hand to take off my helmet and slap one robot with it -seriously? Again with the ridiculous amounts of robots- and tossed it at one who just flew around it as it bounced on the ground.
The monkey-robots swarmed around the truck, lacking onto it and using their laser eyes to cut into the truck. I sped up until I was beside the vehicle and began knocking the robots off. I decided one jacket wasn't worth saving, as my wings ripped through the fabric and began hitting the monkeys.
I suddenly felt a pain in my bad shoulder. I turned to see monkey-robots take advantage of the large targets and grab onto them, pulling them downwards and skid against the hard road. I shouted in pain and threw them off.
That got their attention. Some more monkey-robots grabbed my wings again, this time lifting me up off my motorcycle. Without a driver, I saw it skid and almost crash into Robin, but he leaped out of the way in time. The monkeys pulled my higher as the pain returned, and then they dropped me from the sky.
I opened my wings to use them as parachutes to stop my fall, and pumped them as hard as I could to catch up to the now out-of-control truck. I managed to knock some more monkey-robots off the side before they turned back to me and shot at my wings with their lasers.
I felt like they burned holes into my wins. I shouted in agony as the sudden pain made me lose balance and drop onto the road.
The road hurt. Badly. I skidded across the ground, taking cuts from every angle, until I finally stopped rolling on my stomach. I looked up from where I lay and saw the monkey-robots flying with what I guessed were the android parts.
I saw my motorcycle a few meters down from where I stood up, and rushed to climb back on and met Robin at the sight of the crashed truck.
"The parts?" I asked once I stopped.
He sighed. "Gone. And so's Superboy." He appeared to also be speaking into his comm.
"I think he ditched his comm," he said after a minute.
"Great." I remarked. This mission was going south very fast. "Now what?" I glared at Robin.
"Well…" he knelt down by a destroyed monkey-robot and plugged a wire into it. "We'd've heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked, so how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target?" He typed into his wrist-computer. "Ha! The parts have GPS! The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them with the one I captured."
Great, now we had a plan. Well, a half-baked plan, but it was better than winging it. "Looked like both part are converging on...Gotham City." Wait, wasn't that his and Batman's city?
"Come on," Robin called to me, calling his now one-wheeled motorcycle to him as I hopped back on mine and followed him down the road. I took off what was left of my jacket and threw it into the field beside me. I wouldn't need it where I was going.
I was glad to feel the wind on my wings again, as they had been uncomfortable to hide beneath the jacket. I didn't like how I had to hide them whenever I went out in public unless I was in costume, but thankfully now I had the glamour charm Giovanni Zatara gave me. I looked over to see that Robin had ditched his jacket as well.
Once I could see the outline of a city in the distance, I heard fast footsteps approaching. Really fast footsteps. I looked to my right to see Kid Flash, in his yellow and red costume, running alongside us.
"You changed too?" Robin asked jokingly.
"Oh kidding? Ugh, I feel naked in civvies. You still tracking the parts?" Kid Flash responded.
"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered." The caped boy answered, looking at his motorcycle computer. I was beginning to think he had computers everywhere.
"Wait, dude, they're at my school." He exclaimed.
"School?" I asked, confused. I knew it was a building, but that was about it.
"Y'know, a school. Where kids learn and...stuff. You seriously don't know what a school is?" Kid Flash replied. I shook my head as we came to a stop in front of a building that said "Gotham Academy".
Kid Flash ran on ahead, while me and Robin followed behind. I saw rows of metal containers, but they were smaller and looked different than the containers I was used to. I followed Robin down different hallways, before coming to a set of metal doors.
We went through to find Superboy being dragged away by Kid Flash from some kind of robot-man. This one was different than Mister Twister, though.
Robin threw a couple of exploding-circles at him, but the robot announced Martian Manhunter's name and passed right through them. Wait, what? What just happened...oh yeah, right. Powers of the whole League.
"ACCESS: RED TORNADO" he flew at us in a tornado, causing me to stumble and be tossed backwards and behind some kind of raised-seat thing along with Kid Flash.
"ACCESS: CAPTAIN ATOM" He raised his hand and I barely had time to duck before he shot out a beam of yellow energy-stuff. I ducked and rolled underneath, making him turn in my direction.
"ACCESS: BLACK CANARY" His mouth opened and suddenly a piercing shriek rang out and I clutched my head in agony as the sound nearly made my sensitive ears bleed. The robot then focused his sonic attack on someone else as I crawled away. I couldn't hear anything right now.
Superboy sent a punch in the robot's direction, but it just caught his fist and sent him flying away with a hit to the face.
I rushed at him, aiming not for his face, but for his shoulder as I tried to do that flipping-leg-sweep that Black Canary did on Superboy, but I couldn't tuck my wings in and the robot caught them and threw me into the raised-seats.
I laid there in my suffering as my wings now hurt more than ever and I was deaf for the time being, not wanting to get up and risk getting hurt more from the robot's attacks. I looked at said opponent just as he stretched his arm out and nearly flattened me, but I leaped on all fours away from him and laid on the seat thing on my stomach, hidden from the battle.
I was content to lay there until it was over and let my teammates take on the robot. No, that little voice in my head spoke up. You have to fight. They need you. Depend on you. So GET UP!
I willed myself to prop my body onto my elbows, which sent my back and shoulders into screaming pain. I gritted my teeth.
I thought I heard someone speak, but I still couldn't make out what they were saying against the ringing in my ears.
""It makes me angry!" Superboy's voice reached through the sound. I'm sure it was a yell but it sounded more like a whisper.
I saw Superboy leap up and try to smash Ivo, but the man ran out of the way. Wait a minute, maybe he has a point…
"Wanna see me channel that anger?" Superboy said to no one in particular. I followed suit in attacking Ivo and not the robot. Since I couldn't use my wings, I ran towards him and knocked his little monkey-helpers back as they attempted to get Ivo off the ground.
Robin also got the message and kicked the scientist in the back, sending him flying while I ripped the monkeys to pieces.
Kid Flash came zooming in, wanting in on the action no doubt. I had to jump out of the way as the robot slammed his foot on the ground and sent a tremor through the floor in our direction.
I landed on my stomach, and got up again, ready to fight some more now. Robin threw more exploding circles at the robot, which he passed through, but then Superboy dropped in and punched right through the robot's head.
I barely heard an explosion, but saw the action as the robot's head exploded in a fiery display. The body then fell to the ground, unmoving.
Robin moved in to take the robot apart. I started to help but turned as Aqualad and Miss Martian entered my field of view. Miss Martian immediately went to help Superboy. I knew the team was talking about something, but I couldn't hear their voices at normal volume.
"Hey, where's Ivo?" I asked, looking around. The team all looked at me weirdly as Kid Flash moved his mouth, apparently talking to me.
I shrugged apologetically. "Can't hear well," I said, although I didn't have a clue as to what he said back. The ringing was gone, but it wasn't until we returned to the Cave that I could hear words at normal volume again, albeit barely.
We reported back in with Batman, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, and someone who I assumed to be Green Arrow in the main room. Aqualad relayed the mission, but I only caught every other word or so.
Black Canary also spoke. And then Martian Manhunter. Gah, why couldn't I hear still?
Everyone seemed to glance at Superboy, so I did too, although for what I wasn't sure.
Batman stepped up and also said something. This deaf thing was really starting to bother me. "...that's why the League exists. Because there are some problems even we can't handle individually." I finally started to pick up more of Batman's words.
"Please, if we needed help, we'd never get the chance to ask." Robin spoke as my hearing slowly got better. He pulled out a green arrow that I hadn't noticed before.
"Look familiar?" He asked. "You were following us, babysitting. You still don't trust us." I picked up more words as he started to raise his voice.
Batman took the arrow and handed it to Green Arrow. Oh, so that's why he's named that. "We didn't follow you. The caped man said as Green Arrow took one of his own arrows and compared it to the one Robin had. They looked different.
"And that's not your arrow." Robin remarked. "But that means-"
"Speedy!" Kid Flash spoke up.
"He has our backs." Aqualad chimed in as well. I still wanted to meet this speedy archer guy.
Kid Flash grabbed the arrow from Green Arrow, calling it a "souvenir." I went to the medical wing immediately after that and met with Dr. Richards.
He checked my ears to make sure that they weren't severely damaged. He told me that they should be better by morning. He also checked my wings and back to make sure they were unhurt as well. He seemed to spend longer examining my wings than my ears, but they were probably more damaged, so I didn't say anything.
Once my check-up was done, I retired to my room as I collapsed onto my bed, exhausted.
I was woken up early in the morning by my training day alarm. I groaned in annoyance as my wings and back still hurt. "Ugh, not today…"
A/N: Okay, so I may have crammed in a whole episode into one chapter, but to be honest I couldn't find a good splitting point so I just mushed everything into one giant chapter for you all to enjoy.
I'm not sure yet if I want to their chapter to be more filler, tie-in comic-related, or "Infiltrator," but I'm kinda leaning towards more filler. What do you guys think?
Also I love finding new ways to make battles miserable for Hawkgirl. ^_^' #Sorrynotsorry
Reviews, favorites, and followers are always appreciated to keep this story running.
