Snow kept barraging the east coast for days. According to whatever weather forecasts made it over radio broadcasts, it should be ending soon. Avery was glad; she wouldn't be spending the majorities of her days doing intense training work anymore. Although, she did have a suspicion that Batman was going to pull her out of school until Deathstroke got taken down. But she hadn't had an opportunity to ask as of yet if she was right.

The zeta tubes whirled to life, a good sign that the storm was lessening in its own right. The recognition code for Batman got spit out. Avery deemed it a good time to talk about what was going to happen when school resumed. Even if she didn't go back, any of the people she was seen talking to could be in danger, David especially seeing how there was no doubt Deathstroke saw him.

"How is Gotham?" Avery asked to start a conversation, deciding not to jump straight to the topic of school.

"How much did you train?" Batman countered right away, walking through the hallways of the Cave.

Avery took his question as a positive answer to her own. "Over half my day, every day. Combat, archery, gymnastics, and more simulations with M'gann. Satisfactory?"

"Not until I see what progress you've made."

"That can wait actually," Avery halted in her tracks, making Batman halt too. "I want to know what is going to happen when school starts back up."

"You're going back," Batman said after a few moments of contemplation. Avery was about to respond, but was cut off. "On a few conditions though. Some members of the Team are going to be monitoring the school."

"Costumed heroes monitoring a small high school? How long until someone catches on that something fishy is going on?" Avery leaned against the nearby wall.

"We won't have to wait long. Deathstroke wants that formula badly; he's going to make a play for it very soon." Batman started walking back down the hall, deeming the conversation over.

Avery looked down at the floor for a few seconds before shoving off the wall and yelling after him, "Wait, I am mercenary-bait!?"

.:Back to Life:.

Just as planned, Avery went to school much as she did that first day. M'gann dropped her off, but this time she kept up a mental link as she departed. The heroes weren't to move in to the school unless Avery confirmed that Deathstroke got past their watchful eyes. She actually noted Mal buying a coffee in a nearby café. She also noticed the green bird stationed where a brick fell out of a store's wall across the street from the high school. Gar just wanted to get out of his own schooling. There was no doubt in mind that there were others where she couldn't see, but that was entirely the point.

Once Avery walked into the school her feet took her straight to the front office. David was there, helping out again. She knocked on the glass of the door and motioned for him to come into the hall.

David pushed out the doors to the office with his backpack on his shoulders. "Hey, how was your snow time?"

Avery knew an acceptable answer wasn't that she spent the entire time training for her inevitable run-in with a psycho out for her blood. She decided to go with, "Good, spent a lot of time inside though."

"Wish I woulda known. Me, Monroe, and Aly were sledding down the streets. We would've invited you," David frowned ever so slightly.

"That is alright, I was not alone or anything."

"Yeah, your cousin." David looked off absentmindedly, which made Avery briefly wonder if he was ADD, taking his previous behaviors into consideration. "Oh, I heard we were having a shelter-in-place drill today."

"A what?"

"Shelter-in-place, it's kinda like if a crazy person with a gun were to show up to our school. We're supposed to turn off the lights and hide under our desks. But we usually just put tape on the outsides of our doors to acknowledge that the drill is going on, then class just resumes like nothing happened. We don't get a lot of crazies around here."

Avery resisted commenting about how she just brought one to the town. "A drill right after a snow storm seems a little odd."

David shrugged. "I didn't see it on the computers before the break, but they're old, they malfunction about as much as Jordan's sanity level. Can't really blame anyone if it was scheduled ahead of time."

"True," Avery said aloud. She was mentally relaying the message through the link.

Mal answered back first, "Not like those school computers were hard to hack before."

"The only question is if a student did it or not," Avery thought as she nodded along to what David was saying, only half listening.

"We'll see," M'gann thought, a calming hint in her voice.

Avery's full attention was pulled back as someone hugged her from behind. She forced herself not to lash out in a way to inflict pain. Thankful that she didn't when she saw it was just Jordan.

David laughed, "Forgot to warn you, he's a hugger."

"I just care so much about everyone," Jordon fake sobbed and wiped away a few fake tears after releasing Avery.

Not quite sure how to react, Avery just chuckled at the slight insanity of the people that took her into the folds of their social group. She didn't have to say much as the warning bell for the start of first period rang. Jordan said his good-byes and literally skipped down the hallway in the other direction, giving high-fives to people he passed.

"He's special," David justified.

"That is one way of saying that." Avery immediately knew the day was going to be a little weird, even if the school wasn't attacked.

First period was uneventful. Avery actually did have a copy of Great Expectations in her backpack; she found it in the Cave's library. The teacher didn't mind Avery keeping quiet in the back one bit.

Then second period came. She brought a change of clothes as asked, and wore a tank top to cover up the thick scars lashing across her back. One person asked about a large burn Avery had on the upper part of her right thigh, but was happy with the fake story Avery told about a kitchen accident. Nobody noticed her tattoo, as she put a long sleeve workout shirt on before anyone could. Avery dreaded the day that the weather started warming up and she'd have to wear short sleeves for gym.

That was when it happened. Gar called through the link, "I see him!"

A/N: What? Storyline progression? Wow! Sorry for taking so long guys. I was in the hospital and working on other projects and stuff. I'm actually really excited for something me and my friends are doing now. We're making a zombie movie, and I'm the one writing the script and directing. I'll tell you guys when it's done so you can watch it if you want.

IMPORTANT: I'm doing a re-poll for who Avery ends up with. It seems that all the people jumping on board to the story lately are mostly shipping for one side. Which could easily tip the vote in the other favor. So, yeah, re-poll. Go vote on that. Have a nice day now.

Read. Enjoy. Review.