"So… you and Superb-, I mean Conner?" I asked M'gann, repeating what she had asked me, but changing it around a little bit so that it suited her situation.

"Yeah," she giggled, giving me a smile. I was about to say just how cute them together was before I saw the one person I didn't want to see at all. Cade. He couldn't leave me alone after her nearly killed me… three times!

With an eye roll, I just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," he 'apologised', sounding as insincere as one possibly could. With a kick to the back of the knee, Artemis knocked him to the ground, still with a hold of him so that he couldn't move without her permission.

"If you want any part of this team, you'll have to start acting like it, and being like that isn't a great start," she told Cade, throwing him to the floor. Only a few seconds later, Robin and Kid Flash appeared, eyeing Cade strangely after hearing what he had to say. Aqualad and Superboy came soon after, looking very similar to that of bodyguards.

"I'm whelmed," Robin stated, folding his arms. I couldn't help but laugh at his little comment, and again, I received a smile from him.

"Batman to Aqualad. You are required immediately," I heard Batman's voice through Aqualad's intercom.

"Acknowledged. We shall be there shortly," Aqualad replied, gathering his team and walking out. We had all been in my room, which seemed to happen quite a lot now. I was sitting on my bed, but now that everyone had left, I stretched out and decided to lie on my stomach instead, forgetting that Cade was still on the ground, making his way over to the edge of the bed.

"Tempest… I'm truly sorry… About everything… I know, you didn't mean to make me feel angry. You just wanted to help. And then afterwards…" Cade began apologising. I found myself staring into his eyes, those eyes. They were perfect. Well, perfect for the moment. He had come to the side of the bed, the same side that my head was facing, and began to lift himself up slightly, his knees still on the ground. I watched as he moved closer, a look of frustration on his face. I didn't have any idea what he was doing, but it started becoming clear to me.

"Let me apologise," he whispered right into my ear, sending a shiver through me. His lips drew nearer to mine, but I still didn't catch on. It wasn't until I heard Kid Flash say, "Dude!" from the doorway that I started realising what happened. I looked up at Kaldur, who was just staring at us, no emotion really inhabiting his face, with a confused look. Everyone apart from Kaldur and Conner were staring at us, utterly shocked. What was happening between two supposedly mortal enemies? And then what Cade was trying to do hit me.

With a wail of confusion, I managed to fall off of the bed backwards, landing on my head with a horrible thwack. A groan of pain and dizziness escaped me as I attempted to stand up again.

"This is happening too often… What are you trying to tell me?" I asked Cade, mumbling the first bit to myself. Confused, I most certainly was. One minute, he was trying to kill me and the next, he's trying to kiss me! That usually doesn't get too far with a girl.

"Uh… Well…" Cade started. It was too obvious that he hadn't thought everything through, and was struggling to make up any lies.

"The League wanted you two, also," Kaldur explained, motioning to myself and Cade. With a nod, I tried standing up, my hand on my head, but something stopped me. My hand became covered in a strange liquid that made me feel even dizzier than previously, and as soon as I removed it from my forehead, I realised that my head was bleeding. At first, everything seemed fine, but soon, things were going dark and I felt everything I could see being sucked away.

"Do you have any idea how annoying this is?" I joked, falling into Wally's arms and blacking out completely. I had lost count of how many times something bad had happened to me in just over a day.

~~~.~~~

Waking up, the first thing that I saw was Kaldur patting my head with a damp cloth. I had forgotten what happened only a little while before, but as I winced in pain, it all came back to me.

"Are you feeling any better?" asked Kaldur, continuing to pat my head with the cloth. I tried nodding, but my neck and head hurt too much to.

"The Justice League wants to see you. They say that there is a mission, but we will not receive it unless you are present. You are a great asset to our team," he told me, wiping the last of the blood off of my head and placing the cloth down next to me.

"Wow… That's amazing…" I responded, still trying to stand up, but I could feel the cookies coming back up. With a groan, I managed to stand up, using Kaldur as assistance.

"I'm sorry," I apologised to him, feeling like a person who has had a bit too much to drink; dizzy and unable to keep their balance.

"It is alright."

Walking out, I started feeling really bad about everything that had happened to me. I seemed to be one of the only people that had a knack for getting hurt one way or another. The Justice League and the Young Justice team were all waiting on myself and Kaldur, who had stopped helping me to walk and moved next to everyone else.

"Uh, is there any chance that I can, you know, skip this?" I asked M'gann quietly. With a look that said, "Aw, please?" M'gann only slightly got me back to the side that convinced me I wouldn't just be a problem to everyone.

"Tempest, are you alright?" Robin asked me, grabbing my wrist softly and pulling me away from everyone by only a little bit.

"Why don't you just take Cade? At least you know he can control himself. I don't want any of you to be hurt because of stupid, old me," I admitted, feeling a little ashamed that I was constantly thinking badly of myself. Again, Robin continued to pull me away from the crowd, but instead, this time he pulled me around the corner.

"Tempest, really, you have to stop doubting yourself and your self-control! If I was you, I'd be whelmed!" I gave him a strange glance, "…Don't ask. Anyway, what I'm saying is that you need to see yourself in the bigger picture. You have powers. I don't. The team could easily use you more than it could use me, but with both of us, everything is made easier! Do you believe me?" I just stared at him, slightly confused by what he was saying, but a little bit appreciative. When I didn't answer him, I guessed he took it as a sign that I didn't believe him.

"Perhaps, you'll believe in this," he stated, pulling me tight against him and pressing his mouth against mine. It was just like what had happened when I was chained up, except this time, I wasn't being strapped against a bed. I wrapped my own arms around him in embrace, savouring every moment. Three minutes and forty six seconds went by before we finally released each other, not that I was counting or anything, both of our hearts racing.

"I believe you."

~~~.~~~

When we walked back to the rest of the group, no one except for M'gann and Wally noticed that we were missing.

"Now, she's traught, Robin stated happily.

"Where did you go?" Wally asked, arms folded and a slight smirk on his face. Returning the smirk, Robin merely said 'Nowhere' before grinning at me adorably. I returned the smile and melted. Well, that was amazing.

"Well, how did you get her interested in the mission? Before, she looked like she would rather have died than come with us," Wally asked another question, breaking his arms apart and lowering them at a questioning angle. All Robin did was smirk at him, and eventually, Wally and M'gann realised what happened, Wally becoming jealous and scowling at his best friend and M'gann smiling and giggling at me.

"Are you focused?" I heard Batman ask us, his monotonous tone easy to identify.

"Yes, sir!" I answer enthusiastically.

"Calm down. You'll die if you're that excited during the mission," he told me, rather straight-forward. Perhaps I was being a little too enthusiastic. "You are to infiltrate the 'Pattersons' warehouse. Word is that they're supplying dangerous chemicals to an unknown buyer. Your mission is to find out what this chemical is and who wants it."

On the way out, I decided to thank Artemis again for what she had done for me and wanted to apologise for everything I had done wrong.

"Hey, Artemis… I'm sorry for -," I started before being interrupted by her.

"You know what? You shouldn't be sorry. I was being stupid. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I didn't come earlier when you had that whole 'Cade' fiasco," she apologised, smiling at me.

"Why did you come at all? I thought that you wouldn't."

"Yeah… I realised that being angry at you just for being the new skin to the team was pointless and when I heard you in trouble… Well, that's what families are for."

~~~.~~~

"So, uh, how is this going to work? I don't know if there's enough seats in your ship for another two people," Wally stated, staring confusedly at M'gann. I realised afterwards that I was staring at him, admiring him from where I was standing: the amazing colour of his hair, the gorgeous colour of his eyes, his lips, his outfit. Time passed and I realised that Robin was standing next to me, also staring at Kid Flash, but in confusion. One eyebrow was lowered, like he was thinking hard about something. When I noticed Robin next to me, my heart had an attack.

"Oh my God… What are you doing?" I asked, looking between the gorgeous guy that was on my right and the gorgeous guy that was in front of me.

"I'm trying to suss out what you're looking at. I see nothing except for Kid standing there being confused," Robin joked, smirking at me. "I'm concerted."

"You're funny," I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes at him. "Can we just drop the topic?" With a shrug, Robin walked off to join everyone else.

"Wally, don't worry! I can fix my bioship to have two extra chairs!" M'gann called out enthusiastically. Why could she be enthusiastic and not be told they would die?

I watched as Wally made his way next to me, a stupid smirk on his face.

"You can sit next to me," he insisted, moving closer to me, despite his skin almost touching my arm.

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied, boarding the ship. For a few seconds, I saw what I looked like in my outfit on the side of the ship. My once plain, brunette, somewhat wavy hair was now black with red and green tip. The slight curls were now more defined curls, with one piece of my hair on either side of my head being pulled to the back and tied together there. My eye shadow was silver, with black flicks drawn at the edges of my eyes in eyeliner. My lips were bright red and full. Someone had definitely gone through some trouble with all this.

"Whoa…" I commented. I felt the urge to touch my make-up, to see if I was going crazy, but I figured it would smudge if it was real.

"What do you think? I did it myself when you were asleep," M'gann asked, hands behind her back and her eyes wide with hope.

"Wow, M'gann… It's… amazing… I still can't believe it's real," I complimented M'gann's awesome design techniques and continued to poke my face.

"Well, it's time to go. You can admire yourself later."

As I was about to board the bioship, I noticed something really strange. My eyes. The colour seemed to keep changing, like it was having trouble deciding on what it was going to wear.

Even if the mission didn't go to plan, I'd definitely have something to think about.

~~~.~~~

A few minutes later, we arrived at a big, cement building with the word 'Pattersons' written on the front of it. Three guesses where we were.

"Someone could have cleaned up before we got here!" Kid joked in a whisper to me, indicating all the boxes and rubbish that was lying around the front of the building.

"Tempest, Cade. You go around the back. Take these. Tell us if anything happens," Aqualad ordered, throwing a single ear piece to us each. They were our comms.

"But Aqualad! You want Tempest back here alive, don't you? Why don't you have her go with someone else? I'd be more than happy to oblige," Kid Flash offered, flashing me a grin and making me go weak at the knees. Shaking it off, I just stared at him. Fine! He's hot! Just don't go all crazy over him!

That was a promise to myself I wasn't sure if I could keep.

"Hey, what about me, thanks? In need of a super-powered ally?" Robin asked, hoping that he would get his own way.

"Take Artemis! She has the superpower of being annoying! It still counts, right?"

"Oh, shut up! Why don't we just have four people go around the front and four cover the back? There are eight of us," Artemis suggested, motioning to us all, watching as Kid Flash scowled.

"Great plan. Now, who will cover which end?" Kaldur asked. I looked at the boys, hoping that they would answer for me.

And I was right.

"Tempest, Kid, Artemis and I can cover the back and you, Superboy, Miss Martian and Cade can cover the front!" Robin thought, laughing at his intellect. The sky was dark, seeing as it was night, and the building didn't give off much light itself. If anything, it made everything seem even darker than it was.

After an agreement, both groups split up to cover each half of the building. It was an enormous building, large enough to contain what seemed like the entire cave that we lived in.

That some of us lived in.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked Artemis. When we both turned around, we both also saw that Robin and Kid Flash had already run off, like little kids playing a game of Hide-and-Seek.

"Let's just enter the building. We'll see if there are any clues inside," Artemis suggested, opening a window right next to her. I followed her through the window before going my own way. The place was chock-a-block with containers all about the same size. Each one of them read the words 'danger' and 'explosive'.

"Why don't we go and be blown to smithereens?" I joked, patting one of the boxes. Each of them was identical, apart from one that I saw. It had something more written on it, but I ran out of time to read it.

"Tempest, you're in trouble!" Robin warned me through the comm., his voice only slightly worrying. The next thing I knew, Robin and Kid Flash were right behind me.

"Hi, guys. So, what's this trouble I'm in?" I asked, hands on my hips, slightly unimpressed. They had interrupted my reading and had moved in the way of the label, so I definitely wasn't able to read it now. Before either of them could talk, the crate next to them exploded, rendering both of my amazingly hot friends amazingly unconscious.

"Great. Now I'm screwed…" I muttered to myself. The explosion from the crate had caused blackening on the floor, but it took me a little while to realise what had happened to Robin and Kid. Not only were they knocked out, but they also suffered from gashes over their bodies. As uncomfortable as it made me, using the only cloth available seemed to be the only way to go, and the only cloth that was available was the very fabric that I was wearing. I slowly ripped off a one sleeve and wrapped in around Kid Flash's stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. Then, off came the other sleeve, which covered the gash on his leg. Next was Robin, who had a burn on the right of his stomach, a major cut on his arm and another gash on the outside of his thigh. Now, all that was left was the legs of my pants.

"I'm going to be practically naked after this!" I complained to myself, but I never lost sight of what I was doing for. Robin and Kid Flash could not fall in harm's way anymore. I wouldn't let it.

"Robin and Kid Flash down. I repeat, Robin and Kid Flash down," I said through the intercom, kneeling between them.

"Tempest, where are you?" Kaldur's voice responded. That was a difficult question, seeing as I had absolutely no idea where I was or where I was supposed to be!

"Uh… In the building somewhere?"

"I'll be there soon!" Artemis called through the comm. At least I would have help.

When she arrived, the first thing she did was give me a strange look.

"Uh… what happened with your… outfit?" she asked, before realising what happened with Robin and Kid and simply saying, "Ah."

"Artemis, we need you. Now," Kaldur's voice rang out through the intercom once again.

"But I just got here!"

"Now."

In that split second, Artemis had left me alone with two guys that could barely stand up; apparently she didn't realise how self conscious I was already.

Suddenly, a roar broke through the near-silence, along with scared me out of my wits. My heart beat twice as much as usually and I struggled to calm my breathing, but eventually, it all became normal again.

Well, somewhat normal.

What greeted me next was one of the most horrific sites that I had ever seen; it's body was enormous, just smaller than the room that I was contained in. Long, stained tusks grew from the sides of it head, right next to its eyes. Its face was wrinkled and the creature had no nose, just a black space where it should have been. I had definitely seen more attractive folk around town.

"Are you here to try and kill me?" I asked sarcastically. For some strange reason, I didn't feel even slightly fazed by the creature, even though it did look like it could eat me in a single bite.

Without a word, the monster lunged forward, trying to smack me down to the ground with its hand, but just missed me, nearly catching on the boys' legs.

"Oi! Don't you dare touch them!" I shouted, feeling a little over-possessive. Robin and Kid weren't really mine, but I felt like they were, and it felt good.

"Jealous, are we?" the hideous monster teased. It's voice was raspy and dry, as well as completely uncaring.

"I'll handle the wise-cracks around here, mate!" I retorted, racing around the room at high-speed.

Just like Kid Flash.

"How am I doing this?" Being confused wasn't new to me, but now, I was more than confused. I was worried. How was I able to duplicate Kid Flash's power? I had left my own reality when I started thinking about what possible explanations there were, but was brought back to it by a giant hand grabbing a hold of me. It kept squishing me tighter and tighter, stopping me from breathing. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't exactly run my way out, or turn into a bat to escape!

But then another thought crossed my mind. I closed my eyes and felt myself transform from a human being, inside a poisonous frog at the hands of my enemy. More like in the hand of my enemy. I had learned about these specific kinds of frogs and the poison they secrete when feeling threatened, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what they were called!

All of a sudden, the giant started to drop me, grabbing a hold of his hand, which looked as though it was burning away – a horrific sight. I had only just managed to jump from its hand and into its mouth, open from the screaming that the monster was doing. The inside of its mouth was even more disgusting than the outside! Its tongue was green and slimy, its teeth sharp and its uvula strangely shaped; it looked like a thermometer at the back of the thing's throat. With a groan of disgust, I managed to secrete the same poisonous toxins that had burnt its hand.

As I was about to escape, the monster shut its jaw, trapping me inside the dark depths of its mouth.

It was horrible.

A screaming sound escaped its throat, which still managed to hurt my ears. My froggy ears, nonetheless.

"Get me out of here!" I shouted, still in frog form, but no one seemed to hear me. I checked the intercom, but realised that, somehow it must have been in the giant's hand when I transformed into a frog. The thought of it all confused me. If I was still in my clothing as a bat, then what made me being a frog any different?

Then smack. I felt a shock rush through me as the giant started falling through the air, leaving my stomach behind me. The monster was still screaming, but this time, it didn't sound like it was in pain; it sounded like it was screaming in fear. I knew exactly what was going on. Cade was going on.

"Let me out!" I screamed again, banging on the roof of the thing's mouth. I had no idea what it was, I just knew that I wanted to get out of its mouth as soon as I could! After a few minutes, I realised that the monster was unconscious, so I was forced to find another exit. I just knew that nothing I chose would be fun.

As I sat on the monster's tongue, I thought about different places to escape, and only one sounded not completely horrible: through its nose. With another groan of disgust, I hopped my way over to the monsters throat, watching as the path I left burnt away the flesh of the monster. Still disgusting. Turning into a worm, I made my way through various canals, eventually coming to the large opening that was its nose. Or supposed to be its nose, anyway.

With a final wriggle, I made my way out of the monster, gasping for breaths of air and transforming into my human form. Two coughs in the background caught my attention. I could see Robin and Kid Flash regaining consciousness, but jumping back in shock when they realised they were lying right next to each other.

"Please tell me nothing happened between us!" Kid Flash hoped, looking a little scared at the thought of it, as did Robin. I remained silent, holding onto myself and realising the worst. Sitting on the monster's hand, I looked to my left, the spot where the monster had picked me up and there I saw my ear piece. And to make matters even better, there was what was left of my clothes lying next to it. I realised it then - I wasn't wearing anything!

An awkward 'Eep' escaping from my lungs, I hid behind the giant's hand, hoping that Kid Flash and Robin wouldn't realise where I was.

"Do you remember what happened?" Kid asked, looking down at himself and noticing the wounds that plagued his body. Robin followed suit, examining the material that bandage up his cuts and gashes.

"I have no idea. But I'm pretty sure this is Tempest's… What was she doing?" At that point, I saw them both see the monster and jump back in fright.

"You see that too, don't you? I'm not crazy?" Kid asked, moving closer to the monster. As quietly as I could, I managed to sneak my way around to the hand of the monster to retrieve my clothes. I didn't exactly want to greet the guys in my birthday suit. It was difficult trying to pull on the outfit, seeing as I could hardly tell which was the top and which were the bottoms. Tugging my boots on, I placed the comm. into my ear and greeted the guys. Now I was somewhat presentable.

"Wow. What happened to you?" Kid asked, examining my outfit.

"You two did. Now, we need to round up the others and leave," I instructed, tapping my ear piece. "Aqualad, do you copy? We need to leave now. We've witnessed a single explosion already. I'm worried the entire place will blow at any moment."

In agreement, Aqualad told me that we would all gather at the same place we arrived and M'gann would have the bioship ready.

"Alright, we need to leave. Now," I ordered, jumping up to the window in which Artemis and I entered.

"Cool, souvenir!" Kid shouted from behind me, picking up a tooth of the giant that had obviously been knocked out.

"Come on! We need to go, now! Where's Artemis?"

"Artemis is already at the ship. We need to leave," Robin told me, limping past me while I was sitting on the window, waiting for Kid, who had already made his way outside.

"Well, are you coming?" he asked me, smirking. I felt like I had forgotten something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Kid and Robin were both in pain, limping and groaning on the way up. At least they didn't get stuck in something's mouth! I jumped out of the window, only a second before the major explosion occurred, blowing myself, Robin and Kid Flash a few metres away from where we already stood. I had to help them up, seeing as they could barely stand for themselves.

Deciding to be helpful, I came up behind the two guys and put my arms around them, trying to hold them up. Seeing as they both had major wounds on their stomachs, I was forced to put my hand on their chests, giving me an excuse to do a mental happy dance.

"Thank you," they both said simultaneously. I could only smile in reply, but as we kept walking, I felt Kid Flash's hand intertwine with my own. My face was going red and a smile would not hide from it. Not long after, Robin did the same thing, not realising what Kid had already done. By now, I looked like being sunburned made someone pale! Eventually, we arrived back at the bioship, and I had to release my grip on the boys. Aqualad and Superboy gave me an interesting look, but as soon as they saw the troublesome twosome, they started to realise what had happened.

"I realised you encounters some… complications," Aqualad stated, looking to the burning building. With only a nod, I began to board the ship. I always found myself becoming more confused than the other person when I was explaining something, so I decided perhaps it wasn't such a fantastic idea to elaborate on the previous situation.

~~~.~~~

When we eventually arrived back at the headquarters, the Batman, Superman and Red Tornado were awaiting us.

"How did the mission go?" Superman asked, looking at Kaldur.

"I apologise, we did not discover the content that was hidden," Kaldur started, before Kid Flash interrupted.

"But we did find a monster's tooth! No idea what the thing was though…" he held up the tooth that he had brought back as a souvenir in triumph. That's when it hit me. What I had seen. The word I had read.

"Droughtstorm…" I whispered to no one in particular. Everyone seemed to notice, but only Superman and Conner actually heard me properly.

"Droughtstorm? Do you really think they…" Superman started asking the two other men by his side. They all started walking off, but Batman came back, telling us that our mission was complete and that we didn't have any more missions for the moment. I was excited.

"What is Droughtstorm?" I heard Kaldur ask. For some reason, the name sounded familiar but I couldn't put my finger on what I knew it from.

"I don't know… And there's nothing about it on here," Robin stated, looking at the holographic screen that appeared about his glove.

"I guess we'll just have to use our spare time in other ways," Wally said, smiling at me. I didn't know whether to feel appreciative or a little worried. As I took a few steps toward him, I put my arm around Wally's stomach, facing the opposite way to him and whispering in his ear as inconspicuously as I could.

"Are you feeling any better?" I asked, rubbing my hand over his stomach.

"Much. And thanks," he replied, flashing me a grin. I watched as he unraveled the cloth that bandaged him to find nothing underneath. What had happened? When I wrapped it up, it was bleeding like a fountain, and now, nothing at all! Even the skin was completely healed!

Staring at his stomach, I felt a little awkward, but I really wanted to find out what had happened to his wounds.

"Don't worry, we'll find out eventually," he told me, seeming like he read my mind.

"Hey, let's go to the beach!" M'gann suggested, beaming at Conner. An excuse to see the guys shirtless? I'd definitely be taking up that offer.

Right before we all split up to get our things for the beach, I passed Cade and shot him a dirty look.

"If you want to kill me, you need to try harder next time."