Chapter Three: Homefront
Mount Justice
September 22, 13:16 (02:16pm EDT)
Ever since they'd gotten back to the cave, Gabrielle had been in a seemingly endless workout/training session. She'd gone from working the machine's and equipment in the workout room, to practicing the combat forms Canary had begun to teach her. Currently she stood in the mission room twirling the bo-staff she'd been given around, practicing how she would use it in combat.
"Well. It's nice to see you're taking training seriously." Canary's voice sounded from behind Gabrielle now.
Gabrielle sighed, lowing the staff and turning to face her, civilian-clothed, mentor. "Oh hey… Canary." She spoke, panting heavily now. "I just… needed to take my mind off things."
The elder woman gave a dismissive wave. "I'm not in my leotard, Gabrielle. Please, call me Dinah." Dinah spoke before nodding to the younger woman. "You said you needed to take your mind of things?"
"Yeah…" Gabrielle spoke with a sigh.
Dinah raised a brow as she neared her protégé. "Like what?" She questioned. When she received nothing more than silence, she gave a sigh, placing a hand to Gabrielle's shoulder, which was shrugged off almost immediately. "Bottling it up isn't going to help, Gabrielle. It'll make it worse. Talk to me, I'm not only your mentor, I'm also your friend."
Gabrielle shot her a glance before giving a sigh. "It's just… There's so much to process, so much that's happened." She finally voiced, eying her mentor fully now. "It's only been a day and a half, and my life is already so much different."
"I can imagine how confusing this all must be." Dinah spoke.
"It's a lot of things, but I'm not sure confusing is one of them." Gabrielle responded with a half-hearted chuckle, leaning against her staff now. "My parents are gone, and I'm left to pick up the pieces they left behind. Not to mention I'm now Natalia's sole guardian and I can barely take care of myself. How am I supposed to be what she needs me to be?" She laughed and threw an arm wide. "And then there's that wonderful message my mom just-so-happened to have prepared in case of her death. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with all of that."
Gabrielle took a deep breath, giving a sigh before facing her mentor again. "I can't… feel anything. And the one emotion I can seem to feel is anger." She continued. "Anger towards my parents for lying to me. At the sh- people responsible for taking them from me, Sportsmaster for doing it. For being put on this team where I'm not wanted, or even of any use."
"Let me stop you there." Dinah interjected finally. "You're not useless, and you're not unwanted. Superman recommended you for this team, because he feels it's what's best for you right now. The team will warm up to you, just as you'll warm up to them."
"And here I thought I was put here because no one could find the rest of my family." Gabrielle commented dryly.
"Yes, we are having difficulty locating your relatives, but we'll find them" Dinah confirmed, placing a hand to her shoulder again. "And when we do you're free to decide where you want to be." Once she received a weary look from Gabrielle she gave a small smile. "Until then, you're where you need to be, and I'm here to talk, when you're ready."
Gabrielle sighed and gave a nod. "Thank you."
Dinah smiled, patting her protégé's shoulder. "Go hit the showers and relax. I think you've trained enough today." She spoke, holding her free hand out. "And once you've had some time to relax, try bonding with the team. You won't make friends by avoiding them."
Gabrielle gave another nod, handing the bo-staff over to her mentor. "Okay. I can do that." She agreed, turning and beginning to walk to the showers.
"And Gabrielle." Dinah called, prompting the now visibly worn out teen to turn and face her. "You don't have to process everything right away. Take as much time as you need. If you need to forget them for a few hours, to give yourself a couple hours to have your normalcy back, then allow yourself to do that. Everyone grieves differently, but it's healthy to grieve."
Gabrielle gave a weak, appreciative smile. "Thanks. I'll… see you."
Dinah watched as her protégé walked off to hit the showers, she waited until she was out of sight before turning around to find her boyfriend standing behind her. "I was coming." She voiced.
"I know." He responded, nodding to where Gabrielle had been. "How's that one?"
Dinah sighed. "She's broken, Oliver." She responded. "She just got handed the worst deal life had to offer and she's trying to make something of it."
"She'll be alright." Oliver responded, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. "She has you for a mentor."
Dinah allowed a small smile. "Thank you."
"Of course." He answered, guiding her to the Zeta-tubes. "Now! We are going to go get lunch with your parents and then we are going to have a fantastic date tonight. Tornado's agreed to cover my shift at the watchtower."
"Alright." Dinah responded with a small smile, allowing him to lead her to the Zeta-tubes. "You know, I could make-"
"Whatever you're about to say, I'm almost positive the answer is; Absolutely not, I like my heath the way it is." Oliver interjected quickly.
18:43 EDT (06:43pm EDT)
Gabrielle stretched as she walked into the hanger, fighting a yawn. After she'd hit the showers she'd gone back to her room and sat staring at the box her mom had left her. She hadn't any plans to do much more until Natalia had ran in, babbling excitedly about the time she had spent with Tornado before talking her sister into watching a movie which they both fell asleep during.
She glanced around the hanger now, catching a glance of Aqualad in a conversation with Tornado over in the mission room. She shrugged it off and continued to glance around the hanger, finding Miss Martian, Superboy, Kid Flash, and the metal sphere she'd been informed was named 'sphere', stood around Superboy's bike, which Kid appeared to be beginning an effort at fixing.
She eyed the scene curiously a moment longer, almost having decided to just leave it be before remembering her mentor's words from earlier; 'try bonding with the team. You won't make friends by avoiding them.'
Gabrielle sighed and began making her way over to the group, crossing her arms as she approached, eyeing Superboy as she spoke. "So… Should I question why it looks like Kid's attempting to break your bike?"
"I'm not breaking it!" Kid exclaimed, popping up from behind the vehicle to glare at her. "I'm fixing it. Conner and M'gann are always spending so much time working on it, I figured they needed a hand."
Gabrielle shot the two in question a curious look as Kid Flash went back to 'working' on the bike, she shook off a few questions before finally speaking up. "Conner? M'gann?" She questioned.
"Oh, that's our names!" M'gann spoke cheerfully. "Our real names that is." She glanced to Conner a moment before clarifying further. "I suppose secret identity is the more proper term." She eyed Gabrielle curiously now. "We never told you?"
Gabrielle shook her head. "Nope. Hasn't really been much time for… introductions, I guess." She voiced, crossing her arms a mite tighter now.
M'gann frowned a moment as she watched Gabrielle before giving a wide smile. "Well I'm M'gann," she voiced cheerfully before gesturing to her fellow team members, "This is Conner and Wally, and this is Kaldur." She gestured to Aqualad as he approached. He gave a curious look to M'gann a moment, prompting an explanation. "We never properly introduced ourselves to Gabrielle."
Kaldur nodded, giving a smile to Gabrielle now. "Apologies, Gabrielle." He spoke, earning a kind smile and a nod in return.
"Torque wrench." Wally voiced now.
"Right!" M'gann called, using her telekinesis to give him the requested tool.
"Thank you, green cheeks." Wally replied with a smirk.
Gabrielle held a finger over her mouth as she watched Wally working on the bike. She fought the notion to speak up a couple times before finally caving. "You're uh… doing it wrong."
"And how would you know?" Wally questioned, glancing over the bike a moment, pointing to Gabrielle with the wrench. "This isn't exactly a girl's area of expertise."
"I have an older brother, and cousin." Gabrielle responded, nodding to the bike. "They had bikes that were similar. I would help them work on them when I could."
Wally eyed her skeptically before turning to working on the bike. A silence seemed to fall over the group now. Aqualad waiting several moments before speaking up.
"I have been meaning to ask," He voiced, earning all but Wally's direct attention, "any problem juggling schoolwork with your responsibility here?"
"Nope." Superboy responded simply.
"Juggling's just one of my many talents." Wally replied. "Socket wrench."
"I really hope you haven't listed 'repairing bikes' on that list." Gabrielle muttered, earning a small smirk from Conner.
M'gann provided the tool as she responded. "Daily cheerleading practice has presented a challenge." She responded, turning to Kaldur now as she quickly clarified. "Oh, but my first loyalty is always to the team. This team, not the bumblebees."
Kaldur nodded, turning to Gabrielle now. "And you, Gabrielle? Are you attending school?"
"No. I was homeschooled by my parents, and even then, I graduated last semester." She earned a curious look from Wally, prompting a shrug. "My dad was a scientist and I got my smarts from him."
Everyone seemed to accept that answer as Kaldur spoke again. "Artemis starts school today." He stated. "Do you think she will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?"
"Nah, she'll manage alright." Wally replied as he stood, seemingly finished working on the bike. "I mean, how much more hostile and annoying can-"
"Elle?" Natalia called as she wandered into the room, earning everyone's attention as she rubbed sleep from her eyes.
Gabrielle furrowed her brows as she walked to meet Natalia half-way. "I'm over here, Nat." She called, furrowing her brows further when her sister ran over and attached to her leg. "I thought you were asleep."
"I had a bad dream." Natalia responded, hugging her sister's leg tighter.
Gabrielle's expression changed in an instant, quickly kneeling in front of the child as she earned curious looks from the rest of her team. "What kind of bad dream?" She questioned urgently.
"There was a loud boom, like last time." Natalia responded. "And fire… and lots of water…"
"Where?" Gabrielle questioned.
Natalia cast a glance around, a frown suddenly finding her features. "Here…"
Gabrielle's eyes widened. "Natalia, go back to- "
Before she could finish, an explosion went off, knocking everyone on the platform off their feet, while Gabrielle quickly shielded her sister. She cast a glance back to the rest of the team, turning back to instruct Natalia, but was unable to as three streams of water sprung up from in front of the bay door.
Gabrielle quickly grabbed her sister, dodging out of the way of one of the streams as another doused the team. She ran for cover before finally sitting Natalia down finally and locking eyes with the child. "Go to our room. Lock the door. Don't open it for anyone but me, okay?" She instructed, half of her words blending together in her rush. Despite that, Natalia gave a nod, seemingly having caught the important parts. "Good. Now go!"
Gabrielle watched a moment as Natalia ran back out of the room, returning to their shared quarters. She turned to find the team pulling themselves off the floor from the first stream that had hit them, only to be hit by another.
Gabrielle ran to join Kaldur and M'gann as they ran for the stairs to the docking platform where M'gann's bioship usually sat. The trio paused now, eying the female-esque robot now stood at the head of the stairs. They didn't have time for a reaction as the robot chucked a fire blast at them, the force of which knocked Gabrielle back down the stairs enough that when she met the floor, she fell unconscious.
"Attention Robin, attention Artemis. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."
Gabrielle groaned as the warning vaguely registered. Ignoring her head's throbbing she opened her eyes to find herself opposite Kaldur and M'gann whom were trapped in what appeared to be a cage made solely from flames.
She cast a glance over as the female bot from before, used her powers over fire to levitate herself over to the platform. Once close she used her powers to increase the intensity of the fire surrounding Kaldur and M'gann, standing beside the flame-cage now.
Gabrielle struggled desperately against the strips of metal that served as binding for her wrists and ankles, failing to do anything to the metal. She gave a sigh, cursing herself a moment, wondering if she'd be better off had she not spent so much energy in 'training' earlier.
She managed to adjust herself to see as a male-esque robot stepped out from the pool, the water around him crashing, and rising to quickly fill the room, threatening the trapped Kid Flash and Superboy whom struggled to get free, but failed as the water rose to their chests.
"Nine minutes and forty-five seconds."
Gabrielle made another bid at escape, pulling harder at her binds to no avail. She groaned angrily, staring at the ceiling of the hangar.
"Eight minutes."
Gabrielle groaned once more, her attention turning to the water below as a series of explosions sounded. She couldn't fight a smile as she caught Robin and Artemis surfacing, though once she caught the fire-bot's preparation to chuck a fireball at her friends, she called out the same time as Kid.
"Look out!"
The pair quickly dove out of the way of the blasts, the bot shooting of a few more where the pair had been, though they resurfaced next to their trapped friends. Gabrielle wasn't sure of what was being said but definitely caught as Superboy gave his response.
"Forget us! Help M'gann!" He pleaded, glancing up to where their other teammates were trapped.
"Aqualad!" Artemis called, "Is she…?"
"She is unconscious!" Aqualad called back weakly. "I fear she- we – cannot survive much longer."
"Watch out!" Gabrielle called.
The group turned to find the fire-bot approaching, Robin and Artemis quickly taking a dive and swimming away as the bot shot off another fire blast.
Gabrielle watched as the female bot landed at the head of the stairs now, settling a mere moment before readying a pair of fire balls to assault the young heroes with. She could register Artemis and Robin's voices but couldn't make out what was said before seeing an arrow strike the female bot, exploding on impact, which seeming did nothing as the bot stepped out of the resulting smoke cloud, approaching the archer now.
She barely saw what seemed to be an attempt by both bots to hit the pair with their respective elements, but upon hearing a pair splashed in the water, assumed her teammates had gotten away safely.
"Six minutes."
Gabrielle sighed, closing her eyes and almost willing herself to be anywhere but where she was. She vaguely registered Kid Flash whispering in the distance but hadn't the energy to try and hear what exactly it was he was saying as the male robot called out the remaining time of five minutes.
She turned to eye Wally now, confirming he was still whispering, presumably into the birdarang that was imbedded into the metal beside his head. After a while she watched as both bots made their way to the edge of the platform just as the male called out the four-minute mark.
"Hey!" Kid yelled suddenly. "Red Tomato! Who's your girlfriend? Red Onion?"
"Yeah!" Superboy chimed in. "And by the way, worst death trap ever! We can escape anytime we want."
Gabrielle eyed the pair in confusion, as the just continued their confusing bid to seemingly aggravate the robots.
"I can vibrate my molecules out of here before your binary brains can count to two." Kid voiced.
"And you can't drown a Kyptonian, dumb bots." Superboy added. "We don't breathe air."
Kid gave a laugh. "And Miss Martian? I can't believe you're buying her act!"
"Yeah," Superboy laughed, "you know how hot it gets in the caves of mars? That cage is just making her homesick!"
"Duh!" Kid added with another laugh.
Their banter was interrupted as Artemis called out; "Robin, look out!" Though the warning came too late for Robin to react before getting caught up in the wave that had been sent at him. The other bot firing at Artemis, causing the archer to fire her arrow early, the explosive arrow landing just behind the water bot.
The fire bot continued firing shots at the archer until her apparent escape where she ceased, turning to watch now as her companion held a hand to the water, summoning a stream from below, containing the seemingly unconscious Robin inside.
After a few moments Robin was released from his watery containment and deposited onto the platform. The pair of bots approached him, seemingly ensuring he was indeed unconscious.
Gabrielle glanced to see as both Kaldur and M'gann now lay seemingly unconscious themselves in their cage. She furrowed her brows, trying to work up a plan, any plan to at the very least get herself out of her bindings, she eyed the female robot now as a, possibly very stupid and very dangerous, plan formed in the back of her mind.
"Three minutes."
Gabrielle wrestled any doubts she had and proceeded with her plan. "Hey tin heads!" She called out. "The countdown to doom is getting really old, so why don't you just shut up!"
Both bots, and even Kaldur, turned towards her, the female bot readying a fire blast. "What?" Gabrielle questioned with a laugh. "You think a little fire is going to hurt me? Try it!"
"Are you insane?!" Kid questioned. "Don't antagonize it! It'll fry you!"
Gabrielle stared down the robot now. "What? Too chicken to throw the shot?" She questioned.
"She's lost her mind, hasn't she?" She could hear Kid question Superboy.
"I'm not… sure." He responded.
Gabrielle returned her attention to the bots just in time to catch as fire was chucked in her direction. She managed to roll out of the way, ensuring the blast caught the metal binding her ankles enough to weaken the metal. To her surprise the plan had worked, she gave a strong tug and her legs were free.
She shot a smirk to the robot as she jumped to her feet. "Wow, you really can't aim, can you?"
The robot fired off another shot, this time Gabrielle managed to free her hands, although she took more of a hit than she'd intended, red burns slowly forming on her wrists, more visible as she broke off her remaining binding.
She forced herself to ignore the pain, taking up a defensive stand as she faced the bots in front of her.
"One minute."
Truth be told, Gabrielle didn't have any plans at this point, she had honestly assumed she wouldn't have even gotten past the first part of the plan. She quickly ran strategies through her head as another fire blast was being prepped.
Just as Gabrielle had decided on a strategy, the doors behind her opened, earning the attention of everyone on the platform. They turned and found Artemis as she walked in, holding her bow flatly in her hands.
"I surrender. Stop the clock." Artemis voiced, her voice seemingly cracking.
Gabrielle locked eyes with her, turning back to the bot with a fire blast set for her, she sighed and held her hands up. "Alright, I surrender too."
The pair approached the bots now, the male holding a hand out for Artemis' bow. Just as Artemis seemed to be handing her weapon over, she gave a smirk. "Now!"
Artemis jumped, kicking the male in the head as Gabrielle threw herself into the female, cupping her hands as Artemis ran towards her, throwing the archer into a backflip where she shot off an arrow, the shot connecting with the open panel of the cave's generator, sending out an emp pulse which effectively shut down the bots.
Gabrielle and Artemis watched expectantly as the water receded and the fire cage dissipated, sharing a smile amongst themselves.
"Kaldur!" Superboy called out. "How's M'gann?"
Kaldur gave a groan as he glanced to M'gann's still unconscious form. "She breathes!" He strained to call back. "I believe she will recover." He turned to glance at Robin just as Gabrielle approached him and M'gann. "What of Robin?"
Artemis dropped her bow as she ran to the young boy's side, dropping to her knees and reaching out to his head and chest, when he suddenly began to cough up water, earning a smile from the archer. "He-He's breathing too." She called, relieved.
Robin gave a weak smile as he faced his friend. "Way to get trot." He spoke, resulting in a choked laugh from Artemis as she fell back into a sitting position.
"That's great!" Kid called. "Can someone come free us now?!"
The weary group all shared looks, Gabrielle giving a shrug. "I don't know, I'm inclined to leave him there a while longer." She commented.
Artemis, Kaldur and Robin all gave short laughs, Artemis giving a smile to the teen. "I'm really starting to like you."
It took some doing, as well as several minutes, but they all managed to gather their strength enough to relocate down beside the trapped boys, while Robin and Artemis made to locate a drill to try and free them. Meanwhile, Gabrielle had moved the momentarily-defunct bodies of their assailants off the docking platform and down in front of where a now offline Sphere still sat in a wall.
Artemis worked to try and make the drilling machine work as Robin explained his last-minute planning about his drowning situation. After which Kid Flash shot Artemis a none-to-pleased look, eying the machine in her hands.
"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" He snapped.
"It's not working, genius!" Artemis snapped in response. "EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"
Before Kid could make a retort, a voice sounded as it approached. "All machines present at the time."
Everyone turned to watch as Red Tornado as he flew in, landing beside Kid. "What has occurred?" He questioned.
"Had a little visit from your family." Robin stated, casting a glance to the robots that lay behind him.
"Your extremely nasty family." Artemis chimed in.
"I was not aware I had relations." Tornado responded, walking towards the former assailants.
"Where have you been?" Superboy questioned.
"Monitor duty on the watchtower." Tornado replied, continuing his stride. "When it became clear cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate but your zeta-tubes were also nonfunctional." He knelt down beside the female bot. "I transported to Providence and proceeded here."
Tornado's attention was directed elsewhere as Sphere finally managed to free itself from the wall, landing beside Superboy with some chirps. At the same time the drill in Artemis' hands suddenly turned on, giving a momentary blast before being turned off.
Robin and Kid shared a look, Robin quickly turning towards Tornado as both voiced their concern. "The pulses wore off."
Before Tornado could be warned, he made to touch the female bot. The team watched hesitantly a moment as seemingly nothing happened. Gabrielle almost gave a relieved sigh when Tornado stood and turned back towards them.
Though her relief was short lived as Tornado took flight, suddenly sucking all the air from the room. The team struggled for breath, those who could grasped at their throats before everyone slowly dropped to the ground unconscious.
"Gabrielle. Gabrielle can you hear me?"
Gabrielle gave a groan as she slowly opened her eyes, finding her mentor to be stood above her. Canary gave a smile, turning to someone Gabrielle couldn't see and giving a nod. "She's awake."
She helped her protégé to her feet now, and even went as far as to keep her steady when Natalia attached herself to her sister's leg, earning a chuckle from the older female.
"Hey, kiddo." She spoke as she picked her sister up, beginning to reassure the child. "Hey it's okay. I'm okay."
She turned and glanced around, finding almost all the team members with their protégé's, as Captain Atom and Flash worked to free Superboy and Kid Flash respectively. She found Green Arrow stood to the side as Superman attempted to wake Artemis.
Once the young archer regained consciousness, he gave the call that she was alright before pulling her to her feet, where she cast a glance about the room before settling back on Superman as he spoke.
"What happened here?" The Man of Steel questioned.
"What happened?" Artemis echoed incredulously. "The Red's happened. Tornado and his-" She gave another glance about the cave now, finding it to be particularly devoid of red androids. "Wait, where are they?"
"Gone." Robin replied, turning to face her. "All three of them. Gone."
A silence fell among the group, Natalia looking to her sister now as she spoke up. "What happen to Mr. Tornado?"
"I'll… Explain it later." Gabrielle responded, rubbing her sister's back comfortingly.
Nearly everyone's attention turned to Kid as she spoke up, a glare shot in Gabrielle's direction. "Alright, time for answers." He called. "Your sister described what was about to happen, just before it did. How?"
Gabrielle froze suddenly, finding that all the league members now turned to stare at her, Gabrielle's glance setting on Batman as he spoke.
"Natalia knew this would happened?" He questioned.
Gabrielle struggled for a response before finally sighing. "Yes." She spoke reluctantly before quickly clarifying. "But she only knew minutes before it happened."
"She can predict the future," Batman stated with a disapproving glare at Gabrielle, "and you didn't feel the need to tell the league?"
"Wait." Robin spoke up now, eying both his mentor and teammate curiously. "She can predict the future?"
"Yes." Gabrielle responded. "She's only able to predict the event maybe minutes before it happens, sometimes less. They come as dreams or maybe a vision." She gave a shrug. "It's her power, she was born with it." She gave Batman a blank stare now. "And no, I didn't see fit to tell the League because she's my charge. As it stands it's only happened, a handful of times before, if that. The first I even knew of her power was two days ago, minutes before my house went up in flames."
Before another word could be said, Superman walked over and placed a hand to Gabrielle's shoulder. "Gabrielle, calm down. We're just concerned for everyone's safety." He turned to Batman now. "With her parents gone she is Natalia's legal guardian, and it's her decision, what she shares and what she doesn't. We agreed to honor that."
Batman narrowed his gaze at his friend but gave a nod nonetheless. Superman glancing to address his fellow leaguer's now. "Once Kid Flash and… Superboy…" Gabrielle eyed her friend curiously a moment, as he paused a moment before pressing on, "Once they're free, we'll start clean up and repairs."