Hey I'm back! Still working on that project, although I've been set back... by a lot... (There was an incident with my laptop resetting on it's own, deleting everything I had wrote (That was unsaved) for a few stories... So... Yeah...)
Anyway, the title's Humanity because it's going through the episode "Humanity" and because I couldn't think of a better title...
So, I hope you enjoy it! :D
And you know the Disclaimer. (I dont' own anything but Nat and Gab.)
Chapter Nine: Humanity
Happy Harbor
October 10, 12:48 EDT
Roy awoke to smell of smoke, reminding him of when he was back in his apartment in StarCity.
After a minute, Roy moaned and walked out of the guest bedroom and into the living room of the apartment as Gabrielle slammed a pan into the sink. "Damn it! Why can't cooking be easier? And how do I manage to burn eggs?!" She exclaimed, before glaring at Natalia as the three year old opened her mouth. "And I want no comments from the peanut gallery, namely you, Natalia."
Natalia just smiled, as Gabrielle went through the fridge for an alternative breakfast meal. Roy watched as Gabrielle slammed the fridge door shut and crossed her arms. "There is absolutely nothing in this apartment that I can cook for you Nat, without you criticizing me!"
"Just let me cook. Why didn't you wake me up? What time is it?" Roy asked, as he walked over to the little kitchen.
"It's past twelve-thirty. I didn't wake you up because I didn't feel like it. And no, I'm not letting you cook." Gabrielle said, before staring at, the still smiling, Natalia. "Stop smiling, Nat. I'm half-tempted to let you starve since you don't like anything I cook."
"Why won't you let me cook?" Roy asked. "And why wouldn't you just cook lunch? It's past noon, right?"
Gabrielle moaned and walked over to the couch before lying down dramatically. Natalia giggled a little bit, as Roy just stared at her with a blank expression. "Fine, if you want to cook so badly, then cook already." Gabrielle said, as she covered herself with a blanket.
Roy just shrugged before staring at Natalia. "Alright, what do you want to eat?" He asked.
Mount Justice
October 10, 20:05 EDT (8:05 PM EDT)
Gabrielle entered the cave in her hero attire – which was almost identical to her mentor, Black Canary's outfit, with the exception that Gabrielle had personalized it.
Gabrielle wore the same one-piece bustier-leotard only with a black mini-skirt with violet colored roses adorning the hem. Gabrielle also wore grey tights – where her mentor wears grey stockings. Gabrielle's shoes choice was calf length combat boots. She also wore wrist-length fingerless gloves, a jean jacket with a violet rose on the back, and a black choker necklace which had a violet colored rose pendant hanging from it.
Gabrielle looked around the area before walking over to Canary who stood with Zatara. "You called, Canary?" Gabrielle asked.
Canary spun and nodded. "Yeah, the team has disappeared with Zatanna, Zatara's daughter. I received a call from the League, who has been informed that the team has been to Belle Reve. No one can contact the Team via their communicators so I need for you to track the team and bring them back here." Canary said.
"What are they doing anyway?" Gabrielle questioned. "They wouldn't go off on their own without good reason."
"I think they're searching for Red Tornado." Canary admitted. "Please, go find them."
Gabrielle nodded, and turned to leave before hesitating. "How exactly am I going to be able to track them down?" She asked. "They have the bio-ship."
"There's a black motorbike next to the rest of the Team's bikes that has a violet rose on the side. It's yours, now go. Start at Belle Reve." Canary said.
Gabrielle nodded once more, before finding the bike, putting on the matching helmet and riding off through the Zeta-Beam.
?
October 10, 19:15 CDT (7:15 PM CDT)
Once Black Rose had driven away from any known places monitored by the League, she stopped her bike, killed the engine, and removed her helmet before attempting to call the Team.
She had tried Connor, Artemis, M'gann, and Wally and received no answer from any of them. She finally called Robin and was glad when he answered the phone. "Hello?" He hesitantly answered.
"Robin, its Gabrielle. Where are you guys? And why did no one else answer their phones?" Rose questioned.
"I can't answer those questions." Robin stated.
"Put me on speaker, Rob, now." Rose said, in her most threatening tone.
Robin complied, wiring his phone into the bio-ship's communication system so everyone could hear and communicate with Rose through the ship. "Alright, you're on speaker."
"What the hell is wrong with you guys? Running off with out telling anyone?" Rose exclaimed. "Especially me! We're supposed to be a team! I mean come on! I wanna help find the big red guy too!"
Everyone seemed to laugh, and Rose smiled. "Look, you guys should know that the League's looking for you. Canary's sent me out to find you and bring you back." Rose said. "So while we still have some time before the League possibly finds us, where are you guys?"
"We're on our way to Yellowstone national park." Robin stated. "Where are you?"
"I'm on my way to Yellowstone apparently." Rose replied. "I'll try and get there as fast as I can. I can't exactly use the Zeta-Beam to get there. Try not to do anything fun without me."
Everyone laughed again as Gabrielle hung up, hearing a "No promises" out of Wally.
Rose placed her phone back into the inside pocket on the right side of her jacket, zipping the pocket back up, before buttoning the middle button on her jacket.
Once she was satisfied, she placed her helmet back onto her head, re-started her bike, and sped out of the area, making her way to Yellowstone.
Mount Justice
October 10, 20:20 EDT (8:20 PM EDT)
"Hey, sorry I can't get to phone, leave a message and I'll try and get back to you." Gabrielle's voice came over the Cave's communication system.
Canary canceled the call, before smiling at Zatara. "Don't worry Giovanni; I'm sure Gabrielle is on her way back with the Team and Zatanna." Canary said.
Zatara just stared at her with his arms crossed, as Canary looked away from him, a frown replacing her smile.
She knew Gabrielle wasn't going to just bring the team back, especially if they were close to finding Red Tornado.
Yellowstone National Park
October 10, 20:24 MDT (8:24 PM MDT)
Black Rose ran through the forest and out onto the battle scene in Yellowstone. She watched as Tornado surrounded the team in giant red tornado's, and made her way over to them before her entry route was blocked by a giant tornado, knocking her onto her back.
The Team stared at her, as she stood up, dusting off her outfit. "I thought I said not to do anything fun without me." Rose said, before staring at Tornado.
"Glad you finally made it, slow-poke. Cute outfit, by the way." Wally commented with a smirk, which was rewarded with a smack from Artemis.
M'gann stared at Tornado before yelling at him. "Why, Tornado? Why are you doing this?"
Tornado didn't respond, just floated on top of his tornado with his arms crossed as his tornado's finished encircling the team, leaving them no room for escape. M'gann stared at everyone. "Message received?" She asked telepathically.
Everyone nodded, and Connor glared at Tornado. "Who cares why? Nail him!" He yelled before charging at Tornado.
Aqualad ran after Connor. "Superboy! Maneuver 7!" He yelled.
Superboy turned and kicked up dirt as he skid to a stop. He linked his fingers together before giving Aqualad the boost he needed to reach Tornado's height. Aqualad attempted to attack Tornado, but was rewarded with a punch, knocking him back to the ground and into Conner.
Artemis and Robin stepped up. Artemis shot two arrows at Tornado, which he redirected back at the two teens. "Look out!" Robin yelled before the arrows hit the ground, leaving an explosion.
Kid Flash glared at Tornado, yelling something before moving his goggles so that they were placed over his eyes, before spinning at super speed, creating a black tornado. M'gann picked up Rose, and maneuvered her way around the tornados so that they were placed behind Red Tornado.
As Kid Flash's tornado made its way over to Tornado, M'gann projected Rose at Tornado in an attempt for Rose to kick him, before she attempted to punch him herself. Tornado just simply grabbed M'gann's fist, and Rose's foot before throwing the two into Kid Flash's tornado resulting in the three teens crashing into one another.
The Team lay on the ground as Zatanna ran forward and attempted to perform a spell, but failed. Tornado grabbed her by the neck, and the two stared at each other before Zatanna's eyes rolled into the back of her head and Tornado threw her to the ground where she landed in the midst of the Team.
The red tornado's dispersed, and Tornado floated in the air staring down at the team, before being confronted by Red Volcano.
The Team stood up when Volcano pointed out Tornado's ruse. Volcano then crumbled the rock with had been adorned with "Play dead" and chucked the pieces at the team.
Aqualad and Superboy ran forward and attacked the large chunks, as M'gann redirected the smaller chunks away from the team, accidentally sending one toward Robin and Zatanna.
Both teens narrowly dodged the chunk. "Zatanna?" Robin questioned.
"I'm good. But Red Tornado's getting away." Zatanna said, staring up at Tornado as he flew off.
"Is he abandoning us?" Artemis questioned as she ran toward Volcano.
"I don't believe that." M'gann commented, as she flew to attack Volcano.
"I have a question." Rose stated, as she joined her team in charging at Volcano. "Do we actually have a plan, or are we just going to attack and pray it does some damage?"
Kid Flash ran up the side of the rock pillar that Volcano was standing on. "You stand no chance against me, humans." Volcano stated right before Wally attempted to punch him.
Volcano punched Wally knocking him to the ground, as M'gann and Superboy moved in for the next attempt. "We're not human!" They yelled.
"Okay, so we're attacking and praying we can hit the guy, good to know." Rose commented.
"Apologies. I suppose the properly inclusive term is—" Volcano said, as he raised his hands. Causing hands to erupt out of the ground, where they shot up and clapped themselves onto Superboy and M'gann. "Meatbags." Volcano finished.
Volcano directed his gaze down to the ground as he waved his hand, causing the earth to disrupt, and open up underneath Artemis and Aqualad. Both narrowly escaped before the ground closed back up, the pair landing roughly on the ground.
Robin took advantage of the new elevation, and ran up the small incline next to Artemis and Aqualad, throwing one of his batarangs at Volcano, who just caught it in his hand, crushing it, which caused an explosion.
"Tornado's memory files and my superior processing speed allow me–" Volcano started, as Rose attempted to attack him from behind. He moved out of her way, causing her to miss and land on the ground next to Aqualad and Artemis. "Allow me to anticipate your every move."
Zatanna spoke with her hand outstretched toward Volcano, causing the smoke that still lingered from Robin's batarang exploding to form a blind around Volcano's eyes. "Tornado never knew my moves!" Zatanna stated.
Robin landed next to her with a grin, as the rest of the team collected themselves enough to stand.
Volcano's eyes started glowing. He turned his face to the sky, as beams of red light emitted from his eyes. Behind him a volcano erupted, lava starting to pour down the side of the mountain.
The team stared at the volcano in shock, before Rose broke the silence between all of them.
"He can do that?!" Rose exclaimed. "What idiot gave him the power to do that?!"
"The guy that created him would be my guess." Artemis said, staring at Rose.
The ground at the base of the volcano was pooled with Lava. Kid Flash made an attempt to attack Volcano, who simply chucked flaming rocks at him. Kid Flash dodged, and glared at Volcano. "He's activating a stage 2 eruption." He stated. "It gets to stage 3, kiss the hemisphere good-bye."
Aqualad ran up next to Kid Flash as he pulled his Water bearers out. "Hit him from all sides." He ordered, as he jumped to attack Volcano.
Superboy charged at Volcano leaping into the air as Volcano hit Aqualad with a rock. Superboy attempted to punch Volcano, but Volcano simply caught Superboy's fist before grabbing his wrist and throwing him to the ground.
M'gann flew behind Volcano camouflaging herself so that she would be – somewhat – invisible. While behind Volcano, M'gann used here telekinesis to bend Volcano backwards. Volcano turned his head, causing lava to erupt from the ground right next to M'gann causing her to lose her grip on Volcano, and her camouflage.
"M'gann!" Superboy exclaimed before rushing toward her.
Volcano flipped off of his rock pillar, landing between M'gann and Superboy. Volcano knocked Superboy back before grabbing M'gann's cape, and lifting her into the air.
Zatanna – now standing behind Kid Flash – speaks a spell which turns the smoke coming from the cracks in the ground into Kid Flash copies, all of which speed off with the real Kid Flash, soon after creation. Zatanna smiled. "I use a scaled-down version when I want to sneak out of the house." She stated.
"Nice, I wish I was I able to do that when I wanted to sneak out." Rose commented as she ran up next to Zatanna.
Volcano chucked rocks at the Kid Flash replicas, while the real Kid Flash made his way behind Volcano. Once positioned behind the – still distracted – robot, Kid Flash sped forward, rescuing M'gann before sliding to a stop by his team mates.
Aqualad spun to look behind him as a pillar of water sprung out of nowhere, knocking the unsuspecting Red Volcano into a lava pit. Robin beamed as he stared at his team mate. "Nice hit!" He exclaimed.
"The hit was not mine." Aqualad stated, before pointing to his left. "Look!"
Red Torpedo stood, before raising himself into the air shooting streams of water at Volcano as he emerged from the lava pit. Volcano created another rock pillar, rising out of the lava. Tornado rammed into it, causing Volcano to fall into the lava pit again.
Volcano emerged out of the pit, as the team watched with shocked expressions on their faces while Wally tended to an unconscious M'gann. Volcano was suddenly smacked with a fireball, before being bombed with constant fireballs by Red Inferno as she made her way over to Volcano.
Inferno flew at Volcano who grabbed the former's hands as she landed in the lava. "Sister! Brothers! Stop!" Volcano yelled, as Torpedo rammed into him.
The three Reds were submerged in the lava, as Tornado flew down into it to aid Torpedo and Inferno, promptly standing on top of Volcano.
Superboy rescued Tornado, as the volcano rumbled loudly. Kid Flash spun and stared at Tornado. "Tornado, listen! We're on the verge of a stage 3 super volcano eruption. There's no turning back from that. We need to vent pressure, fast." Kid Flash yelled. "But the ash cloud will bring on worldwide nuclear winter unless you divert it!"
"Oh we just saved him, and now we're sending him to save the world in a dramatic fashion. We're not the best rescuers, now are we?" Rose asked.
Kid Flash ignored her as Tornado nodded. Kid Flash turned to Robin. "Triangulate around the pressure locus." He ordered.
Robin made quick work of what he was ordered. "Right." He stated as he worked. "There, there, and there."
As the red dots appeared on his miniature holographic scale of the mountain Artemis shoots an arrow which disbands into three separate arrows, all of which hit the desired locations on the volcano.
Tornado then takes to the air, diverting the ash clouds into outer space. As the clouds disappeared from the mountain, the lava solidifies, and Kid Flash thrusts his arm into the air, before jerking it back down. "Yes!" He exclaimed.
Everyone watched as the legless Tornado slowly makes his way to the ground, before the tornado keeping him in the air dissipated and Tornado hit the ground. Everyone ran over to the robot in an effort to aid him.
Everyone – sans Conner – stood around the table in the lab which held Tornado, watching as Robin and Wally worked on him. Robin finally sighed, as he and Wally backed away from Tornado. "There, that should do it!" Robin exclaimed.
"Yes. I can speak again." Tornado said, as he moved his face plate back over the mechanics Wally and Robin had just operated on.
Aqualad stepped forward. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the planet." He stated.
"The planet would have survived. It was Humanity that was saved." Tornado corrected, staring at Aqualad. "Though not by me. My sister and brother were the true heroes this day."
Aqualad placed a hand on Tornado's shoulder. "My point is this – you were never the mole, never a traitor."
"No, I left to protect you from further attack, and to find my creator, Morrow." Tornado stated, looking away from Aqualad.
Wally spoke up from the sidelines. "Cool! Souvenir." He exclaimed as he held up a robotic hand, a grin on his face, as Robin inspected a spare robotic lower leg.
Robin brought the leg over to Tornado. "Reddy, we can rebuild you, better than you were before." Robin stated with a smile, as Wally continued to admire the robotic hand.
"I do not believe I should be repaired." Tornado stated.
Conner finally spoke up. "Why'd you volunteer to become our den mother in the first place?" He questioned, as he spun to face Tornado.
"I was the pragmatic choice." Tornado replied. "I do not require sleep. I have no secret identity or second life to live."
"But you do have advanced A.I. programming." Wally pointed out, before admiring the robotic hand again. "Designed to learn, adapt, evolve."
M'gann smacked her forehead. "Hello Megan. You wanted to become more human." She stated with a smile.
"And you couldn't do that with the league, they're stiffs." Artemis added.
"You're sure not going to learn emotion from Batman." Robin stated. "Trust me."
"I know that one for a fact." Gabrielle offered.
"Then the cave was not a proving ground only for us, but for you as well." Aqualad said, staring at Tornado.
"I do not know if these statements are accurate, but perhaps they are true." Tornado agreed. "And if I understand the term correctly, I believe I have come to… care about you all."
"See? Practically a meatbag already." Conner said.
Tornado looked away from Conner and to the ceiling. "Which reminds me..." He stated.
The team sat in the bio-ship, as M'gann was flying them home. Gabrielle was spinning in her chair. "This is so much better than having to drive back to the cave. The seat is actually comfortable!" She exclaimed with a grin, as she spun again.
Everyone ignored her, as they were more focused on what they were doing, until Gabrielle remembered that she had turned her phone on silent. She unbuttoned her jacket, before pulling her cell phone out of the inside pocket. She flipped it open and stared at her ten missed calls, all from the same number.
Gabrielle grimaced as she called the number and placed the phone to her ear, sliding down in her seat. "Gabrielle?" Canary answered.
"Yeah, it's me Canary." Gabrielle said which caused everyone to stare at her. "I saw that you called. What's up?"
Gabrielle received silence from the other end. "Hey! I've got the team with me, hold on a second!" Gabrielle exclaimed before tossing the phone to Robin.
Robin caught the phone before hooking it up to the bio-ship like he had done with his own cell phone. "Alright, say hi everyone." Robin said.
"Hi, Canary!" M'gann exclaimed. "How has your day been?"
Everyone stared at M'gann as if she had lost her mind. "Is Zatanna still with you?" Canary questioned.
"Yes." Robin replied, smiling at Zatanna.
"Canary, this isn't the communication system we're talking on… is it?" Gabrielle asked.
"Yes, it is." Canary said. "Marvel and Zatara are both here."
All color left Zatanna's face. Gabrielle quickly unbuckled herself and made her way over to Robin's seat. "Hi guys, we gotta go, we're losing you." She exclaimed as Robin handed the cell phone to her.
"Gabrielle, don't you dare h-" Canary said, before being interrupted by Gabrielle.
"We'll talk to you when we get back! Bye!" She quickly exclaimed before shutting her phone and unhooking it from the ship.
Everyone stared at Gabrielle in silence, before she finally spoke. "If I'm still a member of the team when we get back, I'll consider it a miracle." She said, before walking back to her seat.
A smile played across everyone's lips, as Gabrielle buckled herself back up. Once everyone had returned to what they were doing. Gabrielle opened her phone back up and dialed the number for her apartment, putting the phone to her ear as soon as she hit the call button.
If there were some Typo's I apologize, I was tired and only proof-read random sections.
But thank you for reading :D and I promise, I'll try and work on some more while working on my project.