Sorry about not updating yesterday, you know how summer gets. I just completely lost track of the days!
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of its characters.
Allie
I walk into the room again to see that the boy is still there. He's a pale white, darkening towards the edges of his form, with grayish eyes and black hair. He's wearing a dark blue button down shirt. I peer closer to see his legs and notice that they're faded and transparent.
"Ghost!" I gasp. He looks up at me, surprised.
"You can see me?" he asks. His voice is soft and holds some sort of echo. I facepalm and nod slowly.
"Not again," I think to myself. The boy smiles shyly.
"Look I need you to leave. This is my room." He stands and nods, moving to the door but phasing through the wall instead.
"Definitely a ghost." I sigh and look around the room before sitting on the bed and eating a pixy stick I found in my pocket. I lean back close my eyes to rest. I wake up to four pairs of eyes. I scream and jolt forward, managing to collide with a green boy's head. We both rub our foreheads.
"Why are you all in my room?" I shout. Impulse stands back and waves his hands dramatically.
"Breakfast time!" I sigh before shifting off the bed and standing. I look around to see Peter floating in the corner. "I thought I told him to leave," I mutter under my breath. My door slides open and the boys and I leave. Salem is propped coolly (more or less) against the wall. She brushes her blonde and brown hair out of her face.
"Oh Gray so many fine young men exiting your living quarters. How scandalous!" She leans forward with a smile. I push her away.
"Shut up!" I stick my tongue out at her. The green boy leaned towards her and elbows her in the side.
"Fine young men, huh?" he grins cockily. Salem laughs. "I'm Beast Boy by the way, but everyone calls me Garfield."
"Gray Moth," I smile. We walk into the kitchen. I sit down at the table and prop my head up on my arm. A bowl casually slides in front of me.
"Hi Gray!" A blonde woman appears in front of me.
"Uh, Kate, good morning!" I reply, trying to add a bit of cheer into my voice even though I am NOT a morning person. Everything is too bright and loud.
"What type of cereal would you like?" she asks sweetly, seeming to notice my mood. But then again Auntie did say she could read moods or something. Just then Auntie walks up behind her and pats her shoulder.
"Don't pamper her," she says, looking at me mischievously. I sigh.
"This is about the lake thing isn't it?"
"Heck yeah it's about the lake thing. Let's go breakfast is this way." She beckons to me with her finger and I follow her to the pantry. I notice that Salem, Impulse, and Garfield are all standing in front of the microwave, which is slowly counting down from 28.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Bacon," is the only response I get. I roll my eyes. Judging by the look on their faces I shouldn't ask if they want to share. I turn back to see that Auntie has disappeared. I walk out of the kitchen and find Kate again sitting with Metallum.
"Have you seen Auntie?"
"She went to watch Nightwing and La'gann spar with Megan . She also said something about telling you she has your cereal." I groan, feeling lazy. I grab my bowl and the milk from the fridge and walk to the room where Salem and I had first teleported. Just as I thought, the two are casually standing next to the wall watching the boys and talking. Dangling from Auntie's hand are the cinnamon toasties I'm looking for. I teleport in front of them, grab the box, and sit down, pouring my cereal and milk. There's a crunch.
"I think Nightwing will win." I nearly choke on my milk as I see Salem sitting next me munching on bacon. She swallows.
"How'd you get here so fast?"
"Teleported." I glare at her.
"You stole one of our powers again?"
"Yup." She takes another bite of bacon. A piece suddenly disappears off the plate. I turn to see it materialize in Auntie's hand. She had turned her attention back to the sparring, more specifically to Nightwing. From her old stories they were dating back before she had to come back to Shadowland. I guess that they technically broke up since they haven't actually contacted each other in years. Megan waves her hand in Auntie's face.
"Hello, Earth to Sparrow." She snaps out of it and turns to the Martian.
"Huh?"
"Huh, nothing. I was asking why you haven't written to us in like TWO YEARS!" Auntie rubs the back of her neck.
"Well there were a lot a factors tied into it but the main was probably the fact that a war broke out."
"WAR!" Megan yells. There's a grunt and a thud. We all turn and spot the fish boy on the ground with Nightwing standing over him. He holds a hand out.
"One day...," the fish man, La'gann I think Kate said, mutters as he's pulled up.
"Are you okay?" Megan frowns.
"Am now that I've seen you, angelfish." He wraps his arms around the woman. I look back to see Salem hyperventilating.
"You three must be the ones I've heard so much about. I'm Lagoon Boy." He sticks his hand out to Salem who backs up into a portal and disappears. "Okay, that was...strange," La'gann says to no one in particular. A moment later a cry fills the cave.
"THEY BROKE MY SHIP!" Auntie purses her lips.
"Uh, she's very...unique."
"Yeah that's one way of saying it," I laugh. "The name's Gray Moth."
"That's a cool name." I glance around, but no one's lips have moved.
"Sparrow," Auntie introduces herself. "And the one who ran away is Gosling." I tilt my head and look behind everyone. Peter is floating around looking straight at me.
"Y-you heard me again?"
"Of course I heard you," I hiss. Now everyone is looking at me.
"Uh, excuse me." I stomp over to a corner and Peter follows.
"What are you doing here?"
"I..." He looks down his words fading.
"What?"
"I can't pass," he murmurs.
"Why not, you don't see any other ghosts flying around here. Plus if you stick around then everyone will start thinking I'm crazy for whispering to the air. So why can't you pass, Peter?" He starts mumbling again, looking at the floor. He purses his lips together and furrows his eyebrows. "Speak up." He mutters something again fiddling with the edge of his shirt as if it's very interesting. "PETER SPEAK UP!" As soon as the words leave my mouth I know I had been too loud. I bury my face in my hands in embarrassment knowing that everyone and their brother probably heard that.
"I-I love you." I stiffen and slowly lift my head from my palms. The ghost's striking blue eyes watched me intensely for a reaction. The corner of my mouth twitches and I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Peter, what the heck!" I whisper shout. "You just met me!"
"I know. But you can see me. No one's ever been able to see me before." He smiles adoringly.
"I need you to leave. Now!" I make shooing motions with my hands.
"Okay," he frowns before disappearing. I turn back to everyone else just in time to see Salem run in holding a large pile of cloth. She unfurls it to reveal that it's some sort of dress.
"Guys! Guys! There's this room with a closet that produces any type of clothing? And I mean any type, look." She holds it higher. The dress a shade of purple with crazy dots and stripes all over…and is that an animal head? "Aren't you happy?" she asks turning to me. "Now I can make our costumes and I don't have to go out and buy the material!" Auntie and I give her uneasy looks.
"After seeing this...piece you've created I'm not sure if we'd want to have our clothes made by you." Auntie says nicely.
"Well this was just a test run, but I'll make the costumes anyways and you can tell me whether you like it or not." With that Salem leaves. I walk back towards the rest of the group.
"Does anyone else wanna spar before I hit the showers?" La'gann asks.
"I will," Auntie volunteers. They step into the ring. Panels appear and the countdown starts. When the machine hits "zero" Auntie is the first to make a move. She lunges forward as if she's going to attack him head-on but at the last moment swivels around him. She kicks his legs out from under him and as he falls she elbows him in the back of his head. La'gann lands on his knees. Auntie grabs his arm and the back of his head pulling his arm back and forcing his head down on the floor. Nightwing and Megan stand there mouths agape at what they just saw.
"Loser. Lagoon Boy," the machine announces. Sparrow helps the young man to his feet.
"How did you-?" La'gann asks.
"So quickly-?" Megan continues.
"What?" Nightwing finishes.
"Military training," Auntie replies calmly.
"Hello, Megan," Miss Martian states, thumping her head. "Of course you'd be great at combat training. Speaking of which what were you saying about the war?" Auntie shifts a bit.
"Well-"
"I made the costumes!" Salem runs in her arms full with cloth. "Okay try these on and tell me what you think." She hands us both our clothes and shoves us in the direction of our rooms eagerly. Once I lock my doors I look around to make sure the ghost boy isn't in here. It doesn't look like it so I quickly change out of my clothes. I slip on the outfit and clip the cape in the front. I look in the mirror and smile, brushing my black hair out of my face. The bangs flop back into place and I blow at them irritably. Oh well. At least the rest of my hair is nice and short. Adjusting the buckle of the cape, my fingers bump the black collar around my neck. I run my fingers over the Shadowlander words written on it. Unlike most Shadowlander necklaces I can't remove mine. Ever.
I look at my costume. Salem actually did a pretty good job this time. It's mainly dark gray with light gray triangles that formed moth wings. The uniform continues on, forming a bodysuit, and ending in a pair of dark blue boots. The cape is a grayish blue, held together at my throat by a clip that's the same shape as the moth pattern on my suit. I turn to the side to admire myself from a different angle and notice a sticky note stuck to my shoe. I pull it off.
"Click the toe of your show on the ground," I read to myself. "Okay." I tap my foot against the ground. With a slight click, wheels shoot out of the bottom of both. Caught off guard, I grab the mirror to steady myself. I click my toe against the ground again and the wheels retract. I sigh in relief and let go of the mirror. I notice another sticky note attached to the belt that hangs around my waist.
"For your weapon of choice. P.S. By that I mean your sickles," I mutter. I smile a bit at Salem's wording before finding my bag and scrounge through it to find my pair of sickles, careful not to slice my finger off. I fiddle with the loops on the belt until I figure out how a way to secure my weapons without stabbing myself in the thigh. Finally I put on a pair of goggles. They looked kind of "steampunk" as Auntie had described the fashion.
"This is so cool!" I exclaim as I twirled in front of the mirror. I turn back to the door and open it only to see Peter standing there. I jump back, startled. "Geez, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I grumble as I walk past him, back into the briefing room. Salem starts clapping.
"Ooh. That costume looks good on you," Megan smiles.
"Thanks," I reply, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly. Salem is wearing a brown sleeveless fleece zip-up with a cream-colored undershirt, her tattoos clearly visible. She also has on black jeans and gray running shoes.
"Exactly how long have you been working on these costumes?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"A very long time." She looks proud of her work.
"If you've been working on these for so long can you please explain to me why I don't have any pants?" We look up at Auntie. Her hair is down, emphasizing the fact that the gray leotard she's wearing ends at the thighs. It has a black bird design on it and three random purple straps in the front. She has the same type of purple cape as on her original costume, just a little longer. Her sleeves are also longer, reaching into her almost elbow length gloves. To top it all off, there's a matching pair of black boots and a domino mask. Salem looks a bit upset.
"Aww you don't like it?" Auntie looks at her flatly.
"It's not that I don't like it it's just... I don't like all this," she gestures to her legs, "exposed." Salem groans in frustration and teleports away. When she returns a few minutes later a tattoo on her arm of a pair of wings disappears. She hands her some black shorts. Auntie takes them but not before Salem touches her neck.
"I lost teleportation I'll have to borrow yours." Auntie winces and the tattoo returns. She slips on the shorts.
"Much better," she remarks, walking around.
"I feel like we should celebrate our new teammates," Megan comments, concentrating hard. She snaps her fingers. "What if I made some cookies?"
"We've got something different planned," Robin smiles as he, Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, and Impulse come in. "Initiation mission."