III'mmm baaaccck! Did you miss me? 'Cause I've miss you all. I'm trying something new with the Spanish in my story, so tell me if you like it or not.
"I'll lead you guys," Tim said, looking at all of the teens, "and as for training, we'll start right now."
"Right now, right now?" Elle asked, confused. "Mari's a little too upset to start training."
Mari turned and looked at Elle smiling. "Is it me you're worried about, or is it you?" She looked at Scott and smirked. "I mean, those of us who were trained by the Batman can be very hard to deal with." Everyone laughed. Mari wiped away the last tear and stood up and looked at her laptop.
"Now first, do you all still want Mari to be in charge of this mission?" Tim looked at each individual face.
Joey stood up and said, "All in favor?" Everyone in the room said "Aye" in reply. Mari turned around smiled.
"Well, that was easy." Mari said. "Okay, here's the plan. Everyone needs to train together starting right now. We need to get used to fighting with each other, not against each other." She looked right at Cam and Elle and smiled. "Cam, I still want you to get on tracing that area for other signals. Joey, Elle, Ivy, I need you guys to work on your powers. We need everything we can utilize to help us. Scott, Tim, I need you guys to help them. Kevin, you and I are going right now. I want to see what you have made."
"I can bring one right now." Kevin ran out of the door and ran down the hall.
Mari turned towards Elle. "What time do you need to pick Lily from the daycare?" she asked. Elle smiled and flipped open her phone.
"Give me a sec to make a call and I won't need to for a while." She walked out of the room dialing the phone.
"Okay. So that's taken care of." Mari was about to turn towards the others when Kevin ran back through the doors holding a skateboard.
"I submit, for your approval, this." He set the skateboard on the ground. Mari looked at him and picked it up. She flipped it over to check out the wheels and trucks.
"Um, thanks Kev, but I have a board already. It's also broken in." She said, while trying to wiggle the trucks.
"Not one like this. Why don't you try a few moves on it?" Kevin said, smiling. Mari looked at him suspiciously, but stood on it and started to jump up with it. As she got used to the board, she jumped up and did a kick flip. When she went to land down on it, she didn't feel the impact of the floor. Instinctively, she looked down and saw that her board was up in the air and that it had changed form from the normal board to a board made of metal that didn't have wheels nor trucks. Mari wobbled a little at first, but quickly regained her balance.
"You're right, I don't have a board like this. How do I control this thing? It wouldn't be very helpful if I just sat here in the air." Kevin laughed and tossed a remote controller that looked like it came from a RC car or toy. Mari caught it, wobbled, and looked at it. "So, how does this work, and will I need to carry this thing around with me while I use this?"
"To the second question, no. I'm still working on it, but when I'm done, you'll just need to think what you want and it will do it for you, but right now, you will need to get used to the settings with the controller. Oh, by the way," he turned to Joey, "I really hope you didn't want that old RC helicopter of yours anymore." Joey's jaw dropped.
"You took my old RC helicopter?!" Kevin was already out of the room chasing his thief of a best friend. Mari smiled, and hopped off the board.
"Cam, I want you to call your mom. Check in, tell her about our mall, talk about how you're mad that I never burn while you're the only Mexican who does. Show her that you're all right and everything's cool." Cam smiled and pulled out her phone.
"I can do that and run through the signals. It will be a piece of cake and won't need to pay much attention so she won't notice my lack of attention." Cam started to walk out of the room before she turned around and looked at Mari. "Hey, can I borrow your laptop? It will help to be working from a format that I already know by heart." Mari went over to the desk and unplugged the laptop before handing it to her.
"Be careful," Mari warned. "I don't need my dad, my grandfather, or the press somehow finding out that someone just hacked into something illegal from my laptop." Cam just smiled and left the room. Mari turned to Scott and Ivy. "I need you two to find Joey and Kevin and start training. When Elle is done, she is to join you. I need you guys to start as soon as possible." Scott clicked his heels together and stood at attention.
"Yes, Master General, Sir." Scott saluted off and started to march out of the room. Ivy rolled her eyes.
"Do I have to work with him? Can't I help Cam?" Mari put a supporting hand on her shoulder.
"No. Now, the faster you find everyone, the faster you won't be alone." Ivy started muttering in Hebrew as she walked out. Mari turned and looked at Tim with a tired smile.
"Well Chief, what are my orders?" Tim joked. Mari looked at him and just hugged him tight. At first, he was shocked at this, until he felt her start to shake and cry onto his shirt. "Okay, so I won't call you chief again then. What's wrong, Squirt?"
"What if I can't do this? What if, instead of leading them to get our parents back, they all get captured or worse? What if something else goes wrong and someone gets hurt? What if…" Tim looked down put a hand over her mouth.
"Okay, that's enough." He had her sit down on her bed and sat down next to her. "Stop beating yourself down. The Mari we know never thought down on herself. You are going to do great."
"How do you know that? I'm just telling people what to do, but how will I know what good it will do?" Tim pushed back some of Mari's hair that had some how fallen onto her face.
"You just have to trust your instincts, and use the smarts and common sense that you are fortunate your mom, dad, Bruce and I gave you. Now, let's go and train with the others." Tim got up from the bed and lent a hand to Mari.
"Nah. I'm going to keep Cam company and see if I can help with anything. When you see Kevin, see if he can get some stuff together for me. Unlike the others, I'm useless. Well, maybe not as useless as you." Mari said, laughing. Tim gave her a look and ruffled her hair.
"Check in in about three hours?" Tim asked, opening the door for her.
"Unless we find something. If you need me, I have my cell." And with that, Mari started walking one way and Tim went another.
"That chick is too much like her father for her own good."
"No Mamá, todo va fino aquí. Mari's la casa no es tan grande como su lugar viejo, pero pienso que ella lo quiere aquí." (No, Mom, everything's going fine here. Mari's house is not as big as her old place, but I think she likes it here.) Cam was sitting on a chair in front of one of the multiple computer screens. She had moved a small table and had Mari's laptop plugged in and had her feet propped up on the table next to it. Mari walked in the door and sat down on a chair next to here. "Oye Mamá, dice hola a Mari." (Hey Mom, say hi to Mari.) Cam held the phone up to Mari.
"Hola Sra. Rodriguez. …Sí, tomo el cuidado bueno de nuestras chicas. …Seguro, hará . …Bien, yo le entregaré atrás a su hija. Vea ya la Sra. Rodriguez." (Hi Ms. Rodriguez. …Yes I'm taking good care of our girls. … Sure, will do. …Well, I think I'm going to hand you back to your daughter) With that, Mari handed the phone back to Cam.
"Vea, soy bien." (See, I'm all right.) She looked at the computer screen in front of her and the one on Mari's laptop. Mari looked over at her and saw that her eyes had grown and she looked upset. "Sí, yo le llamaré más tarde. Adiós Mamá." (Yeah, I'll call you later. Bye Mom.) With that, Cam hung up the phone and started typing into the computer. "This isn't good." Mari moved to look at the screen better.
"What is it?" Cam just shook her head kept typing.
"How do you feel about hacking into the Justice League?" Cam asked after a few seconds of typing. With that Mari, picked up her cell phone and called Tim.
It took a few minutes for Tim to get into the room, but when he did, he was a little short of breath. "What is it? What's wrong?" He walked up to where the two girls were sitting. Cam continued to type and look at the screen.
"So, I checked with NASA and tried to see if anything flew in or near our atmosphere sometime in the last month or so. Turns out that there wasn't just one, but two objects that flew into the atmosphere. The reason they didn't look into it was because they both stopped near the Justice League's Space Center before coming into the atmosphere." Cam looked up at Tim and Mari. "We need to know who these things are. NASA doesn't get any records of anything at stops with the JL because of a request they made many years ago. If it is the Gordanians, and they got close to the space center, maybe they got a picture of them or could identify them for us."
"Great, but why do you need me?" Tim asked, looking confused.
"No one has access to the JL mainframe but members of the JL or former members," Mari said, looking at Tim. Tim got what that meant.
"You want me to call your grandfather and ask him if he can get Cam clearance to the mainframe?" Tim looked at Mari.
"You owe me a life time of favors, remember," Mari said with a smile. Tim rolled his eyes and reached for his phone.
"You are a mean, manipulative little child. Where did you get this spirit from?" He said, stalling for time.
"My uncle. Now call him!" So with that, Tim left the room to call Bruce.
"Can you believe that this is happening to us?" Cam said as she typed, looking at the computer and not Mari, who had her head in her hands. Mari looked up and smiled at Cam.
"I know. Did you think last month that we would be trying to get access to the JL's mainframe to save my parents from a bunch of evil space lizards?" Mari asked, smiling.
"Last month? Try last week. Last month my biggest worry was that you would forget about me and Ivy." Cam stopped typing suddenly. "You know this is going to change everything for us, right?" Mari smiled at her friend.
"Haven't things always been hard for us? I mean, while you were playing dress up, I was at parties in dresses that cost more than your house. While you trying to learn how to speak English, I was talking to dignitaries with a major lisp. And that was just in Pre-K. When we got into high school, we became so different, it wasn't even funny for some people. But if we can handle that, then I think we can handle being superheroes." Soon after the little inspirational speech, Tim came in, still on the phone.
"I have good news and bad news. Tim said to them. "Bruce can give you entire access to their computer." Mari jumped up.
"That's great! What's the bad news? They don't have to kill her, do they?" Through the phone, they could hear Bruce laugh.
"No. The bad news is that Scott and I have to head back out to Gotham tonight at seven." Mari looked at the clock on her laptop that read five forty-eight.
"Give me the phone," Mari said, holding out her hand. Tim handed her the phone and stood next to Cam to give her the instructions to get on. Mari walked out of the room and talked to her grandfather.
"Grandpa, you can't take Tim and Scott away right now."
"And why not?" He said back sternly.
"I need them to help me get my team ready. Please Grandpa. I can send him out later tomorrow if you want. Please." Mari's voice squeaked a little with the sound of tears. She knew that he couldn't say no to her when she cried.
"No." Mari nearly dropped the phone. "Mari, Terry needs help from Scott and Tim. I'm really sorry, but that's my final word on this matter." He hung up the phone, leaving Mari looking shocked. She was just about to shout when Elle, Joey, Kevin, Ivy, and Scott all walked up. They were all huffing and sweating hard.
"Hey Mari. What's up?" Elle asked, trying to catch her breath. Mari just turned back around and walked through the door, followed by the others up to Cam and Tim. She pointed to Tim.
"You're under my leadership now, not Grandpa's. So that means you guys aren't leaving 'til tomorrow." Everyone looked at Mari and saw that she was angry. "Kevin, did you get anything?"
Kevin shook his head. "I got some ideas, but I couldn't get you anything new. You'll have to settle with some of your dad's old things. I also found us some old communicators and brought them back from the dead so we can use them."
"Okay. How was your guys' training session?" She looked right at Scott.
"These guys are a bunch of babies."
"He was trying to kill us!" Ivy said. She shot Scott an evil look.
"Well," Cam said from in front of her computer, "I have something that may make everyone happy." Everyone walked up to Cam and Tim. "I have just hacked into a computer on the Gordanians' ship. It was only a maintenance computer, but it gave me a layout of the ship and access to their cameras." Everyone cheered, even Scott.
"How did you do that?" Joey asked, looking at the computer genius.
"Well, after I could use the JL's database, I was able to find the ship. When I knew what I was looking for, I was able to get onto NASA and use their satellites to try and get an image on where this thing is. It was at the exact place where I traced our parents' communicators to. And, well, the rest of the things I did would probably make your heads explode." She said, smiling before pulling up an image of the ship sitting in the middle of a forest.
"Okay, now we need to come up with a plan. Cam, can you bring up the layout up on the big screen?" Mari asked, walking up.
"Hey, before this gets any farther, I have to pick up Lily," Elle said, stepping forward.
"Okay, go get her and bring her back here. I'll fill you in later." Elle replied with a quick "thanks" and left the room. When she turned around, Cam had the layout of a spaceship up on the big screen next to the satellite image.
"Well, first thing we need to do is find our parents and free them," Mari said, looking at the schematics.
"Where do you think they're at?" Kevin said, looking at the computer that had the same image on it.
"Well, we have a problem with that; we will need to get over first." Cam said. She brought up a camera image that showed multiple Gordanians walking around the outside the ship. Then it was flipped to show more Gordanians walking through all of the hallways. "They have guards everywhere." Mari looked at the screen. She soon smiled and looked at Cam.
"If only we had someone who could change the her appearance into anyone, or anything, to help us pass through the guards." Everyone caught on and looked at Cam.
"What? Oh no. I'm not going in there by myself. No way, chica." Mari walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You won't, because Elle and Kevin will be in their teeny tiniest selves, flying right next to you where no one can see them." Mari looked over her shoulder at Kevin who was backing away slowly. "What, you guys are going to have to fly in and dismantle the cameras so Joey, Ivy, and I can come in and save our parents and get out." Now it was everyone else's turn be scared.
"Not going to work." Cam said, turning around from the computer. "One of the main reasons that I couldn't get into their main computers was because they have a different alphabet than we do, and to dismantle the cameras, we need to get in there and set a new video so they don't get suspicious." Cam turned back to the computers. "And to do this, you would need to get a code of the written language and well, Chica, if you don't know the language, it's complicated." Mari looked at the computer screen with the map.
"Can you bring up the prison area?" Tim asked, moving up to stand next to Mari. Cam clicked and typed on the laptop, making a floor blow up to many times its size as a dot appeared over one room.
"Is that the only one they have on their ship?" she asked.
Cam nodded. "Yeah. By the looks of the schematics, it's a small one too." Tim looked over at Mari. She had a small smirk forming on her face.
"Do you have a plan?" Mari's smirk just grew. Right then, Elle walked in through the door. She had Lily in one arm, a small book bag on her back and a box of pizza. Everyone just looked at her. She put the pizza box on the counter and Lily and her book bag at the table.
"Whatever the plan is, we have to figure something out first: what are we going to do with Lily? I'm not leaving her here alone." Mari looked at Elle, then Lily. Without saying a thing, she walked out of the room and down the hall to Elle's room where Claire was packing up her things.
"Look," Mari said as she walked through the door. "You hate me and I don't like you. But you and Elle used to be friends. I'm not asking for a favor, Elle is. We need someone that Lily likes and knows to watch her while we're gone tomorrow." Claire threw down her clothes into her suitcase.
"Well, why wasn't I asked to help?" She walked over and stood in front of her.
"Because I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to go on their own and be a hero. And I mean no offense, but I don't trust you, though Elle trusts you with her sister. That is one of the things you should be happy about; that you have that trust. If you want to help with the mission, then this is one of the most important things you can do." Mari looked up to Claire in her eyes.
"Yeah. Whatever." Claire said, turning back to her and back to her packing.
"Thank you." She heard behind her. When she turned around, no one was there.
"Everything's taken care of," Mari said as she walked into the main room. "I also have more good news." Everyone looked at Mari. "I have a plan. And here's what we're going to do." With that, the plan was laid out for the next day. (Good place for a page break.)
Mari was sitting in her room at her desk. She had her laptop back and had a file open on her desk. The only light in the room was coming from a desk lamp. She had her hair down and had regular glasses on her face instead of sunglasses. She was holding her head in her hands when someone knocked on her door.
"Who is it?" She asked through her hands.
"Your favorite person in the world," Tim said from the other side of the door.
"Ryan, what are you doing here in Jump?" Mari said jokingly.
"Ha ha. Really funny," Tim replied back.
"The door's open." The door opened to show Tim with his suitcase at his side. He turned on the lights in the room with a flip of the switch. Inside, Titan was laying on Mari's bed, watching everything going on.
"Leaving so soon? I thought that you were going to stay 'til tomorrow." She looked up from the desk.
"Well, when Scott and I weren't back in Gotham, Bruce called me and had a field day. I forgot how many big words Bruce knew. He wants us to be home first thing in the morning." Mari got up and hugged her uncle. "You're going to do just fine, Squirt," he said, hugging back. "When you get back, I expect a call with the play-by-play." He said, walking over to Mari's computer chair and sitting down. "Do you have everything ready for tomorrow?"
"Yeah. I have my clothes together and Kev got me one of Dad's old belts with a bunch of his stuff."
"Got protection?" Tim asked. He raised an eyebrow.
"What?!" Mari was thinking one thing and hoping that he meant something else.
"Do you have a mask or something to protect your identity? I promise that there is not a pair of sunglasses in the world that will stay on your face when you fight." He stood up and walked to Mari's closet. "Get you mind out of the gutter, girl," he added with a laugh. He opened the closet and started to look at the top shelf. He started to feel around the shelf to find something. "He said that he had this thing still in the back here." He pulled his hand out with something in it. He opened it to reveal a small pair of robin earrings. "I really hope that these aren't your dad's." He threw the earrings in the trash can next to Mari's desk before he put his arm back in the shelf to find something. He pulled something out again. This time, he had something bigger in his hand. He turned around and looked at Mari.
"You know, you've always had a problem with personal space," Mari said with her arms crossed in front of her.
"This is very important." Tim opened his hand and inside was an old mask. The mask was ripped, torn, and faded.
"You know, I can find a mask like this all over the room."
"This is a special mask, now pay attention," Tim said.
"This the first mask that every Robin has ever used. He came down to Gotham to let me use this on my first night out. Then he took it back and I used a bunch of new ones. Then, we gave it to Scott on his first night. Now, I'm presenting you with this. May it remind you that you're not alone in anything that happens to you. Chances are that your parents, the other adults here in the tower, Bruce, and I have gone through it or something like it." Mari touched the mask. She didn't know that she was crying until Tim touched her shoulder and smiled. "Believe in yourself and everything's going to be okay. Now, go to sleep. You've gotta get some sleep." He walked over and turned off her desk light, shut her laptop, and closed the case file. "You have a very tiring day tomorrow ." She walked over to the bed and got in under the covers, right where Titan was sleeping.
"G'night Tim. Take care of my little bro when you get back out there."
"I will." He walked over to the door and grabbed his suitcase. He looked back at Mari. She had pretty much fallen asleep the second she hit the pillow. She had both pairs of glasses, sunglasses and reading glasses on a nightstand next to a framed picture of a boy with a girl on his shoulders. In her arms was a small stuffed bunny rabbit, faded and tearing from years of sleep and snuggling. He turned off the light. "Yeah, she's going to do fine. Too much like her dad, but fine."
So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed it. After this, I think there will be only, like, 4 or 5 chapters left. I have a poll on my account, so please go and see it and vote. Also, I promise that I will update faster than this time. So, now, I bid you adu. Please Review. All constructive criticism will be used in making all of my stories better for you, my readers. Thank you. (This was a message paid for by readers for TAUT. Remember, always review responsibly.)
