Ah! So much stuff to do and so little time! Ick!
Wally was bouncing up and down, a huge smile on his face when Conner saw him that afternoon. Conner's big hands were weaving in and out and through Wolf's ruff gently as Kaldur helped M'Gann with the upcoming Thanksgiving feast. There had a been a few spectacular explosions of food that Sphere and Wolf had happily helped clean up – Sphere probably came up with the best damned dog food ever.
"Guess what happened to me today," Wally laughed as he practically danced over to them.
Conner didn't even bother to reply. M'Gann and Kaldur had their hands full with a huge turkey and other assorted foods when Wally spoke and both looked pleadingly at Conner to take care of it. He didn't really want to bother asking – it was too aggravating to have to ask over and over when the speedster would spill sooner or later.
"I'm sure it was cool," Conner jeered as Wolf panted almost laughingly at the boy. The mutated canine started to wag his tail with a sort of wild abandon as Sphere beeped gleefully as M'Gann almost dropped something. She caught it and handed it back to the young Martian. M'Gann smiled back at her and returned to what she was doing.
"Oh my god it was amazing! Without my powers either! I. Am. Awesome!" Wally cheered.
"Wonderful," Kaldur muttered as he stumbled out of M'Gann's way. "Be awesome and help us out a little will you?" He tripped over a loose tile and the gravy went flying until Sphere flew over to catch it as a gray boat and Wolf caught her without even spilling a drop.
"Good Girl Sphere! Good boy Wolf!" Conner cheered happily – Kaldur sighing gleefully as he scrubbed a hand over his head. Wolf gently poured the gravy into a clean gravy boat provided by the Atlantean, licked Sphere clean, and then wandered back to Conner's hands. Conner made much of the canine and then made much of the bio-organic-shape-shifting-computer.
"Holy good god," Wally whistled appreciatively. "That's almost as cool as what I did today."
"Oh?" Conner asked. "Well I guess I have to take your word for it then," he added casually as he patted Wolf and Sphere again; all while ignoring the groan from Kaldur who wanted to tell him to just work on patience and freakin' ask.
"I made a new school record in the long jumps today!" Wally laughed.
"Oh good job," Conner said a little confused. He didn't see the point of it naturally but then again, he didn't know what the long jump was. He had a feeling he could beat Wally's record – without powers too.
"You have no idea! I am so cool at school now that you wouldn't believe it!"
"Good for you," Conner mumbled. "Are you two sure you don't want help from me?"
"It's fine Conner," M'Gann said. "We've got it."
"In other words, I'm helping by staying out of the way," Conner chuckled. M'Gann smiled sweetly at him. It was true that Conner had no kitchen sense what-so-ever but that didn't mean she didn't appreciate the occasional 'Can I help you's he gave her.
"Well Conner, let's face it," Wally sighed wistfully as he threw an arm around Conner's shoulders. "Men don't belong in certain places around the house."
"Do you have any idea how lucky you are that Artemis isn't here?" Kaldur asked a little horrified by what Wally had just said.
"RECOGNIZED, ARTEMIS, B07," the computer called as if on cue.
"We may just find out," Conner chuckled to Wolf and Sphere. Wolf seemed to chuckle, golden eyes beaming with a strange hint of mischief that really could only be characterized by a fox-like trickster. Conner wasn't sure he liked the gleam in his companion's eyes but then again, he'd seen something like it in Robin and it seemed to fit the small boy perfectly.
"Hey Artemis!" M'Gann called gleefully as she stuffed the large turkey into the oven and hit a few buttons with a bit of a flourish. Conner had to admire the girl's strange (albeit clumsy) grace. She danced over to the door, a broad smile on her face, arms ready to wrap about Artemis' slight form – that even makes Conner nervous around her.
Then her smile falters and disappears and Artemis takes the initiative to start the hug rather than M'Gann. The blonde archer buried her face into M'Gann's shoulder and let out a heaving – stuttering – sigh that made Conner's eyes narrow.
"What is wrong?" Kaldur asked quickly, his tone falling back to his 'big brother/leader' timbres as he strode over to the girls. M'Gann had lifted her arms to hold Artemis' shoulders gently, her green eyes a bit wider than usual. Conner can't blame her; he can see those small shoulders quaking uncontrollably from where he's sitting.
"It was a shitty day at school today," Artemis mumbled into M'Gann's shoulder, becoming almost impossible to understand if not for the new talent of being able to understand a teammate even if they make it difficult to do.
Conner had found it becoming easier to understand the jargon the other teenagers used around him. He could understand certain coin phrases that had meant nothing to him for his first few weeks out of the pod in Cadmus but he still had slight issues with certain things.
Like how absolutely everyone felt it was necessary to wear their favorite hero's symbol while he couldn't wear his own. He didn't care if M'Gann continued to explain the fact that if he did wear it every day, someone would recognize him and attack him at school and cause a panic that would have to be fixed by the League – because they all knew Batman would never allow the team to take care of something like that. He wasn't going to resort to wearing glasses though so he tried hard to put up with wearing plain shirts every day rather than the one he wanted to.
Halloween had been horrible seeing all the wannabes wearing the badly made – pathetically made really – costumes of favored heroes. He didn't care if certain people felt that they 'knew' how to dress like the heroes they venerated when he knew they were wrong. He knew he couldn't say how he knew they were wrong but he could always tell them 'good luck with that'.
"How exactly?" Wally asked, his own tone worried. Sure, he understood something was wrong with the city of Gotham – god it had taken forever to talk her into telling them where she was going to school – but is she was that shaken by something, it had to be bad. Artemis was hard to scare.
"It was just…shitty," she muttered as she pulled away from her friend.
She scrubbed a hand over her face tiredly before wandering over to the couch to flop onto it face first with a sigh. She rolled a bit onto her side to try to remain comfortable but her unease was tangible to Conner and he knew it because he was shrinking the way Wolf and Sphere were at it. It was like being in Metropolis again, watching as Robin writhed and screamed his lungs raw as Batman watched and – as Conner had later learned from Canary – prayed for Robin's to get better from the toxins.
"That doesn't really answer the question," Wally pressed a bit as he screeched to a halt and flopped onto the arm rest of the couch near her feet. "You're spooked – trust me, we can tell – and you don't really spook – again, we can tell – so what happened?"
"Please, let me rest a bit," Artemis growled irritably.
Kaldur placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and squeezed it gently. Wally took the unspoken hint and sped over to Conner's side. Kaldur and M'Gann shared a quick glance to each other which ended with M'Gann breezing away to her cooking and Kaldur murmuring that Artemis just had to talk to them and that they would listen if she wanted to.
"Whatever," Artemis muttered a bit bitterly. "Just know that Robin may not come today since it happened in his town and it was really shitty thing to have happen in Gotham – note I say Gotham people!"
Conner gave a slightly terrified choking noise as he tried to not to breathe saliva down the wrong tube. What he wouldn't give for a glass of water for the excuse to make the noise. He's wanted to see Robin for weeks now since the boy seemed to have more than the usual amount of homework which kept him stuck in Gotham all the time now. Despite the fact that Robin had said he wanted to see Wolf and Sphere, he hadn't come despite sending a note to Robin to say they'd arrived early.
"That can't be good," Wally mumbled to Conner softly as Kaldur rejoined M'Gann in her feverish cooking spree. "Bad for Gotham in Gotham is never good."
"You're beginning to babble Wally," Conner muttered as he stood slowly and wandered over to the TV, patting his hip to invite Wolf to follow him. He slipped into a seat near her and pointed at Wolf then to the blonde archer with a sneaky gleam in his eyes. Wolf gave an appreciative burble and went to nudge Artemis' elbow gently, and urging her to pet him.
"Smooth Conner," Artemis mumbled softly so that only Conner and Wolf would hear her. "That was very well done; making Wolf come for attention meaning I'd have to either give it to him or be bugged by him." As she spoke, her oddly smooth hands through Wolf's soft fur, scratching his ear lovingly. Wolf panted appreciatively as he turned his head into the touch gratefully.
"Thanks," he whispered back after leaning forward to scratch Wolf's ears as well. "I guess… What happened though?"
"I really don't want to talk about it," she whispered back.
"Why not? You have everyone worried about you."
"Because…" she muttered a bit half heartedly, like she wanted to talk. "You remember our field trip to Gotham?" Conner nodded a bit nervously. "Remember the kid you saved?"
"Dick Grayson," Conner smiled a little bit. That had been a pretty great week despite the worry of what the League would think of them all. "Yeah, I remember him, and his guardian who vouched for us."
Artemis smiled at the memory but something else glowed in the depths of her brown eyes.
"What is it?" Conner asked.
"Kidnappings are normal in Gotham; you have to remember that. Even in daylight, it's normal for perps to grab kids off the streets but they usually try to do it where no one will be able to say what happened. They don't want witnesses you know."
"Yeah…" Conner murmured, his large hand gripping Wolf's fur a little too tightly. The mutated animal grunted at him and nipped at his wrist gently, warning him to let go. "What's that got to do with Grayson?"
"When people try to kidnap him in front of the school in broad daylight, in front of the Commissioner of the Gotham Police no less, you'd come to the conclusion that something is rotten in Gotham – more than usual," she hissed softly.
Conner tried not to show his reaction on his face as he glanced over to the others to find them nattering on about how the pies should be made. He knew Kaldur wanted at least some sort of fruit from the sea's depths that he'd talked his king into getting for him but Wally wanted Pumpkin pie and M'Gann seemed to want to try any pie imaginable.
"Grayson…Kidnapped," Conner murmured a bit worriedly. "I guess…nothing could have been done about it right?"
"I said people tried to kidnap him," Artemis pointed out, her index finger poking holes in the air for emphasis. "I never said they succeeded. Commissioner Gordon had his gun out in two seconds after the breaks screeched and he wasn't the only one who swung into action either; Wayne's butler, by the way, is a scary old man. You should have seen the look on his face as that van raced off, hand gripping an umbrella for dear life as he checked over his charge."
Conner stared at her a bit surprised. He'd read up a bit on Bruce Wayne between the files Robin had given him and his homework – one thing he would not miss when he went full-time hero would be schooling and homework. He'd been impressed that the family butler had taken such care of raising his employer's son when the man's will only requested it. Though, it was strange too considering Wayne had disappeared for twelve years or so at one point only to return a notorious playboy and slightly terrifyingly sly business man who had a tendency to get strange injuries that Conner wasn't sure could really come from his amazing bag of activities.
"I've read about Alfred Pennyworth," Conner murmured. "He seemed a bit laidback."
"He's not; not if his loved ones are in danger at least," Artemis whispered back as she scratched both of Wolf's ears earning her a wonderful groan of glee from the big canine.
Conner tried to not smirk at the fact that Wolf's eyes seemed to roll backward into his skull lovingly at the treatment that even Conner couldn't really hate him for liking. Artemis chuckled softly at Wolf's reaction and rubbed his ears again in slow circles. Wolf gurgled happily at it. Conner smiled again as he patted Wolf's back gently.
"I guess that's a good thing," Conner mumbled. "I know I'll never get treatment like that from my own flesh and blood."
"Grayson's not related to the Wayne family or the Pennyworth family Conner," Artemis murmured with a soft chuckle. "He was adopted in; like Superman to the Kent family that loves you despite everything."
Conner smiled. He'd forgotten that little fact. Despite everything, he'd made himself a couple of families; Martha and Lana were wonderfully accepting of him and the team had proved they didn't care what Superman seemed to think of him either. He had a family. Superman could stop them from caring about him about as easily as he could make Conner stop caring for them.
"Alright," Conner sighed as he weaved his hands into Wolf's fur again. "I guess I can understand why Robin won't show up today."
Artemis smiled a bit ruefully at the disappointed tone in Conner's deep voice. It wasn't very often they heard that tone from him – or his biologic father for that matter; not that he was ever around for them to hear it – and it struck a soft chord with her. It wasn't like she could help feeling a bit sorry for Conner wanting to be around the only family he knows since his biological one wants nothing to do with him. It's the reverse of how she wants nothing to do with her biological family and hardly anything to do with the pseudo family here – though, that inclination is dwindling into negatives now.
"I'm sure he won't stay away much longer Conner," she whispered cheerfully – at least she hoped it was cheery. "We're family for him too remember?"
"Yeah…you're probably right."
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