Schooled

Part 1

Disclaimer- Have no rights to anything, only own OC's and plot changes.

Italics- telepathic communication

Dawn's POV

The term bored to tears doesn't even come close to describing how I'm feeling at this particular moment in time. Lying on the couch playing temple run on my phone in Bruce's Metropolis office is not as fun as it sounds.

Aunt Sue had to go on a business trip for the week so I'm staying with Bruce while she's gone. She doesn't want me staying at the house by myself, hence the reason I'm at the office playing games on my phone. The restaurant she works for is participating in a nationwide restaurant competition and in order to participate she had to go to New York with the rest of the staff.

As for the reason on why I'm in Bruce's office that decision is entirely on me. Bruce couldn't get out of going to this Metropolis business meeting so I decided to tag along and give him some company.

Biggest mistake of my life.

Robin was the smart one and decided to stay at the manor until tonight's training session. He hates anything and everything office or business related which is why he didn't come. He thinks it's too boring; and man was he right.

My eyes shifted away from the bright phone screen for the first time in the past hour when the huge office doors swung open. Apparently the meeting finally ended because instead of the occasional check up from Julie, Bruce's secretary, it was Bruce himself who walked through the doors.

"How'd the meeting go?" I asked as I returned my phone to my pocket and swung my legs off the couch.

"Extremely long, boring, and pointless as per usual," Bruce answered as he walked over to the giant window behind his desk and looked out at the spectacular view of Metropolis.

"Yeah well trust me when I say being locked up in this office for the past few hours wasn't much better. I was going to walk around and get something to eat, but that Chris guy just wouldn't leave me alone for one measly second! I couldn't suddenly disappear on him or use physical force to get rid of him 'cause that would draw too much unwanted attention," I huffed irritably while crossing my arms.

Chris is the 14-year-old son of one of Bruce's major business partners who apparently has a major crush on me, so whenever I come to the office he shadows me everywhere. I wouldn't have come today if I knew he was going to be here, but his dad is out of town so I thought I was in the clear, but boy was I wrong. Who would've guessed that his uncle works in the lower levels of the company and would bring his nephew to work today of all days.

"I finally decided to hide out in here until your meeting ended since I knew he wouldn't follow me. He knows no one dares to enter your office without permission unless they want to risk losing their job, or in his case getting into serious trouble since he doesn't work here. Plus I think he's scared of you" I continued truthfully.

Bruce's shoulders tensed, but it was so fast that an untrained eye wouldn't have seen it, but luckily for me I am trained.

He raised an eyebrow as he said, "he wasn't giving you any trouble was he?"

"Not really. You know besides the fact that he's extremely annoying and a complete and total stalker who won't leave me alone," I muttered softly though Bruce heard every word.

I uncrossed my arms and released an exasperated sighed.

"He's a good kid Bruce; he just can't take a hint. I swear the next time I see him I'm just going to flat out say I don't like him so he'll leave me alone. And if that doesn't work, well, lets just say I know a couple of ways to make him."

A smirk slowly found its way onto my face as I thought about that.

"So I don't need to have a word with him? Because I can make him see the hint in under 2 minutes flat" Bruce said completely serious.

"No Bruce I got this. He's not a dangerous super villain who wants to take over the world, he's just a teenage boy with a crush" I calmly answred.

I don't want Bruce to hurt Chris just because he's being a guy; well maybe I do, but only a little bit.

"In my book if they have a crush on you they're worse than a super villain" Bruce muttered to himself.

I chuckled and leaned against his desk. I think it's funny when Bruce goes into overprotective Daddybats mode. Bruce is like a father to me and likewise I'm like the daughter he never had so he occasionally has his overprotective moments.

"Why don't you ever act like this with Dick" I asked while raising an eyebrow.

"He's not a 13-year-old girl who goes to high school with all older boys. Plus he's going to be on the receiving end of an overprotective dad one day when he starts dating so he doesn't need it from me. You, however, will not be on the receiving end of an overprotective dad; you get to be the one the dad is overprotective of" Bruce quickly quipped.

I shook my head and chuckled with my hands in the air.

"Whatever you say Bruce, no need to go all daddy bat's on me."

My laughter was interrupted by a loud crash originating from outside. Bruce and I looked out the window to see some of the heavy wires holding up the bridge across the street snap and fall on the road.

Cars swerved to avoid hitting the large wires causing a few cars to crash into the wall of the bridge and almost tip over the edge. A bus full of kids crashed into the side wall completely breaking through it. Even from this far away I could still hear the kids terrified screams as the front of the bus started to teeter over the edge.

Bruce turned and pushed the button hidden inside the marble head statue on his desk causing a small drawer to open up revealing our hero suits. Bruce was reaching for his uniform when I saw Superman flying towards the bridge.

"Bruce I don't think that'll be necessary" I said as I stared at the flying hero.

He turned back to the window and paused when he saw Superman flying towards the bridge. He closed the suit drawer before opening up the drawer next to it. He pulled out two binoculars and handed and tossed me one before closing the drawer.

I used the binoculars to get a better view of the bridge. Superman flew under the bridge and lifted part of it up while using his heat vision to fix the cracks in the bridge's foundation. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something quickly making its way towards the bridge and turned to see Superboy land on the bridge.

"Superboy just showed up" I informed Bruce and he nodded.

"I see him," he responded, neither of us looking away from the bridge as we spoke.

Superboy ran over to a car that was about to fall over and pulled it back onto the bridge. He then ran over to the school bus and tried to pull it up, but unfortunately it was too heavy for him to lift due to the force of gravity pulling it down. Superman flew under the bus and easily lifted it out of Superboy's hands before gently placing it back on the bridge.

Superboy walked up to Superman and the two had a brief conversation, but from the looks on their faces it didn't look like the confrontation went well. I continued to watch the interaction when Bruce got a call from Arrow via his com.

"Batman here" he answered after putting a finger up to his ear.

He stood there in silence as he listened to Arrow speak.

"I'll be there soon; Batman out."

He terminated the call and let his hand return to his side.

"Dawn time to go. Duty calls, and you have training soon anyways" he ordered as he returned his binoculars to the drawer.

I nodded but continued to watch as Superman put a hand up to his ear probably getting the same message Bruce just received.

After receiving the message he flew off leaving Superboy on the bridge looking angry and dejected. Watching Superboy look so sad made my anger towards the older Kryptonian grow even more. I know he's still a little shocked and confused about how to act around Superboy, but that's still no excuse to blatantly ignore and avoid him.

Superboy's done nothing wrong, but Clark continues to act as if he tried to take over Metropolis or something similar and it's absolutely ridiculous. Superboy just helped him save civilians and did he say thank you or good job? No! Instead Superboy got the cold shoulder.

Oh when I get my hands on that stupid man of steel!

Bruce noticed my growing anger and looked out at the bridge to see what was getting me so riled up.

He put a hand up to his ear and listened to someone speak on the other line.

"I know Clark, but after the mission we need to talk" he said as I walked over to the drawer and pulled out my uniform.

I jogged into the office's connected bathroom and changed in less than 45 seconds. I walked out in my Shade gear and Bruce raised an eyebrow at me. He didn't even need to say anything for me to understand what he was trying to convey because the look on his face said it all. He was basically asking me without words why did I change into my uniform?

"You saw SB out there Bruce, he's still on the bridge just standing there like a kicked puppy. I'm going to talk to him then go to the cave for training," I answered curtly before placing a hand on my hip daring him to try and stop me.

He thought about it for a minute before finally giving in.

"Fine you can go, just don't be late for training. You know where the nearest zeta tube is right?"

I raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"Is that a serious question? Of course I know where it is. You made me memorize every zeta tube location in the U.S. then had me repeat them to you at random times whenever you felt like quizzing me to make sure I know them."

I flew over to the secret escape hatch in the corner of the office and punched in the code for the door to open.

"Bye Bruce, good luck on your mission, and don't die," I told him sternly before flying out of the building.

People pointed and took pictures as I flew over to the bridge and landed beside Superboy.

"Hey SB" I greeted gently.

"Hey Shade," he muttered barely above a whisper.

I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I saw what happened. He just needs some time SB, he'll come around."

"It's like he doesn't even want to acknowledge my existence" Superboy snarled bitterly.

"I know SB he's being a class A jerk and it sucks, but we can't do anything about it. Come on, we need to get to HQ for training" I said before lifting myself up so I'm hovering above the ground.

Superboy nodded and we left the bridge behind as we took off for the nearest zeta tube transport.

When we arrived at the cave I flew out of the tube while Superboy stormed out and walked straight through the holographic air hockey game the rest of the team was playing on.

"Hi Shade, Hi Superboy how was Metropolis" Megan asked as we walked in.

Superboy ignored her and continued to walk towards his room. I flew up next to Robin and softly landed on the ground without a sound.

"Hey Dawn, what's up with SB" Robin whispered when I landed.

I stared at Superboy and shook my head.

"It's not my place to say" I told my partner.

I don't think Superboy would want me to broadcast what happened on the bridge, so I kept it to myself.

"Ready for training everyone?" Black Canary asked as she walked into the room closely followed by J'onn.

"Black Canary! Uncle J'onn!" M'gann bellowed while smothering her uncle in a bear hug.

"M'gann, I was in the neighborhood so I thought I'd see how you were adjusting" J'onn said.

"A few bumps, but I'm learning" she clarified.

"That's all I can ask," Manhunter smiled.

Superboy clenched his jaw as he watched Megan and J'onn act so loving towards one another. He moved to walk out of the room, but was stopped by Canary's voice.

"Stick around, class is in session."

She walked into the middle of the room causing the floor to light up and create a training circle.

"I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you. Everything I've learned from my own mentors-" she flinched as she took off her jacket revealing a bandage covering her upper right bicep "...and my own bruises."

"What happened?" Megan asked when she saw the bandage.

Canary glanced at her and in a serious voice answered "the job."

She threw her jacket to the corner of the room and placed her hands on her hips.

"Now combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."

Wally raised his hand and took a bite out of his banana.

"Right here, yeah" he yelled as he walked into the training circle.

"After this…" he threw the banana peel into the trashcan making a swish sound as it went in.

"I'll show you my moves," he said while doing his usual flirt with every girl I see act.

I smirked knowing that KF is about to get his butt handed to him by Canary. I stood in-between Robin and Kaldur and leaned in closer so they'd hear me whispering.

"10 bucks says KF won't last 5 seconds."

"Your on, I bet he can last ten" Robin bet.

We turned to watch the match as it started. Canary ran towards Wally and he blocked her punch, but she quickly used her foot to kick his feet out from under him making him crash to the ground in 4 seconds flat. Next to Wally's head the computer created a small 'Kid Flash fail' sign.

"I'm now ten dollars richer" I gloated with a grin.

"I thought you would've learned by now my friend. No one bets against Shade and wins. She never losses a bet, you of all people should know that," Kaldur said to Robin trying, and failing, to hold back his laughter.

"One day Shade I will win" Robin stated.

"No you won't," I answered smugly.

"Good block, but did anyone see what he did wrong?" Canary asked.

"Ooh, ooh he hit on teacher and got served" Robin teased.

I chuckled as Wally yelled at Robin.

"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"

"Oh, please, with my powers the battle is always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time." Superboy spat cutting off Canary's explanation and she raised an eyebrow.

"Prove it," she challenged.

Superboy stared at her before walking into the circle and getting into a fighting stance. He attacked first and charged at Canary throwing a punch. She grabbed his arm and used his momentum against him to flip him in the air and throw him onto his back creating a Superboy fail sign on the floor.

Robin laughed loudly and pointed at Superboy until I nudge him in the ribs causing him to slap his hands over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

Superboy picked himself up and growled at Canary. She remained calm and continued to teach, but was prepared to act if needed.

"You're angry. Good, but don't react. Channel that anger into-"

Before she could finish Superboy charged at her again. She flipped over him and Superboy tried to punch her again, but she ducked and crouched down sweeping her foot under his legs causing him to fall to the floor.

"That's it. I'm done," he hollered as he stood to his feet.

"Training is mandatory" Canary reminded him and he was about to respond when a holographic screen of Batman appeared in the middle of the room.

"Batman to the cave. Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant. In the end it took 8 leaguers 4 hours to dismantle the android."

"An android? Who made it, T.O. Morrow?" Robin guessed.

"Good guess Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so" Batman said.

"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo," Manhunter gravely added.

"Ivo? But Ivo's dead" I said confused.

"So we all thought…or hoped," Canary muttered.

"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate S.T.A.R. lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken. We'll have 4 additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks," Batman informed us.

"Road trip!" Wally cheered.

"So now we take out your trash" Superboy seethed.

Batman narrowed his eyes "you had something better to do?"

Superboy didn't have a response to that and wisely remained silent.

"Coordinates received, on our way" Aqualad said and the team ran to the garage to get our motorcycles.

Later that day

We were in Litchfield Country hiding behind some bushes as the trucks were being loaded up. Some leaguers were here watching the trucks and making sure they set out without any complications.

For this mission instead of wearing my Shade uniform I'm wearing a black and blue skin-tight motorcycle suit with a pitch-black helmet covering my face. My motorcycle is black and blue as well, but also has a hint of purple on the sides.

Since we have to guard twp trucks the team's splitting into two teams. The first group consists of Kaldur, Wally, and Megan, while the second group is Superboy, Robin, and I. Batman gave the trucks the signal to leave and each truck took off in a different direction while the team tailed the two real trucks.

We were on the road for about an hour and a half and the trip was relatively quiet.

"If dislike is the opposite of like is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right," Robin said.

"Are you going to do this with every word you know in the English dictionary," I asked while rolling my eyes even though he couldn't see it because of my helmet.

He shrugged and Superboy remained silent.

"Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster, what's wrong?" Robin asked him.

"Canary, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?" Superboy growled.

"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with Batman and well…me" Robin answered him softly.

"SB I was always told that even though you have powers, you can't solely rely on them. I have multiple different types of superpowers, but I don't just train with them. I train in hand-to-hand combat and heightening my senses so I can be more aware of my surroundings.

There's going to come a time where your powers won't be able to help you and you'll need to be able to hold your own without them. That's what Canary is trying to teach you. She has powers, but her powers aren't what make her the best. She could never use her powers again and still be one of the greatest heroes around. It's not what powers you have that make you powerful, it's how you take them and incorporate them with other aspects of fighting" I thoroughly explained.

Superboy's eyes narrowed and he revved his engine so his bike sped ahead of us. Robin was about to speed up and catch him, but I stopped him before he could.

"Don't, he needs some time to think and cool off."

For the next 20 minutes or so we drove in silence until a group of robotic monkeys jumped out of the crops beside the road and landed on the truck.

"Robin, Superboy, Shade our truck is under attack," Aqualad said through the COM link.

"Kind of figured," Robin said into his COM.

"I hate monkeys," Superboy growled when he saw the screeching robots.

Robin and I pushed a button on our motorcycle's quickly changing them into battle mode.

"Robot monkeys" Robin laughed his signature laugh "totally Ivo's tweaked style."

"SB switch your ride to battle mode" I urged since he hadn't done it yet.

"No point" SB yelled above the wind before jumping off his motorcycle and onto the truck.

His motorcycle lost control the minute it no longer had a driver and came barreling towards Robin's vehicle. I jumped off of my motorcycle and floated Robin off of his before he crashed into Superboy's.

"Thanks Shade" Robin thanked me as I placed us both on the truck's roof.

"You're welcome" I said before flying towards the front of the truck.

I lifted the monkeys that were crowding the windshield off of the truck so the driver could see the road. Once they were tossed away I condensed the air around me and created a long water whip. I whipped the water back and forth slicing monkeys left and right or knocking them off the truck.

While I took care of the monkeys on the side and front of the truck Robin twirled his eskrima sticks and fought off the monkeys on the roof with Superboy's help.

However, since I'm doing the most damage a huge group of robotic monkeys surrounded me. I created a huge gust of wind and blew most of them back, but a few still managed to get through and jump on me.

I struggled to toss them off, but there were too many. I fell to the roof under their weight and almost tipped over the edge when the monkeys shot the tires and the driver lost control of the truck causing it to swerve.

As the truck continued to sway back and forth more monkeys piled on top of me and I quickly started to get angry. I summoned a huge bubble of wind and expanded it successfully blowing all of the monkeys away and freeing myself. I stood up and saw Robin standing behind me.

"We need to get off this thing, you get the driver" Robin ordered before running to the front of the truck.

I flew ahead of him and went down to the driver's side before forcing the door open and pulling the driver of out his seat. I then levitated him and Robin off of the truck and safely placed them on the ground in the crops. Once they were safe I turned around and flew back to the truck to get Superboy.

"Superboy" I yelled as I sped up to make sure I got there before the truck flipped.

Superboy is still standing on the roof forcibly ripping monkeys from his body that refused to let him go.

I flew up beside him and lifted the monkeys into the air before throwing them into each other and crushing them. Once he was monkey free I quickly lifted him off of the truck just seconds before it flipped. We floated in the air high above the ground and watched the truck as it flipped, crashed, and skidded to a stop.

"Thanks" Superboy said to me as we watched the truck.

I grinned at him before saying "No problem SB."

I was just about to float us both back down to the ground when I felt something hard hit the back of my head. The impact caused me to lose focus and fall to the ground as my mind went blurry. I lost my grip on Superboy and he quickly reached out to grab me from the air before wrapping me up in his arms. He turned so his back was facing the ground just before we crashed into the concrete. He took the brunt of the impact so I wouldn't get hurt from the fall and in the process created a small hole in the middle of the road.

He groaned for a quick second before sitting up and gently laying me down on the ground.

"Shade are you alright!" he yelled while shaking my shoulders.

I blinked a few times to bring my eyes back into focus and rubbed the back of my head, which was throbbing like crazy.

"What hit me?" I asked as I winced in pain.

"Not sure, but I bet it was one of the monkeys throwing a rock or something" Superboy answered as he let me use his arm to help me stand.

"Shade!" Robin yelled as he ran over.

"I saw you get hit and fall to the ground, are you ok?" he asked even though his eyes were already checking me for any injuries.

"Just a massive headache, but other than that I'm fine" I reassured him.

He was just about to say something else but paused when we heard the annoying laugh of some of the monkeys that managed to survive the crash. The three of us looked up to see a small group of robotic monkeys flying off with the crate of android parts.

Superboy growled and before either Robin or I could stop him he jumped after them and left us on the road.

"Superboy!" Robin yelled, but Superboy ignored him and continued to follow the monkeys.

"Aqualad to Robin, we've lost our cargo. Did you?" Aqualad asked through the COM's.

"It's gone," I answered.

"And so is our partner" Robin complained.

"Aqualad to Superboy. Radio your position we'll help you."

"I don't need your help, don't want any!" Superboy's angry voice blasted in my ear and there was a shuffling sound and a loud thud before everything went silent.

"Superboy?" Aqualad asked.

"I think he ditched his COM," I muttered softly.

"Super" Wally said sarcastically "now we can't even track him."

"He's out of my telepathic range. This professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us. Maybe we should contact Red tornado," Megan suggested.

"Tornado always tells us to handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they're reassembled," Aqualad declared.

"Well that's a great plan, except for the part about us not knowing were to look!" Wally yelled.

"Maybe we do" Robin said as he crouched down next to a deactivated monkey. He pulled out a cord from his glove and plugged it into the monkeys back.

"We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked. So how did the monkeys know exactly which trucks to target? Ha! The parts have GPS. The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them with the one I captured. It looks like both sets are converging on…Gotham City!" Robin gasped.

"That far south, Megan and I won't get there any time soon. I'm sending kid on ahead to meet you, Aqualad out" then the COM connection went dead.

Robin grabbed the monkey and slung it over his shoulder as he stood from his crouch.

"You want to change into your uniform," he asked me.

"Of course I do, I like my uniform way better than civvies and I refuse to fight in this motorcycle suit. It doesn't give me much room to move," I answered while pushing a button on my glove to call my motorcycle to me.

I grabbed my uniform from the back of my bike as Robin grabbed his. We walked away from each other so we could change and then walked back to our bikes. We hopped onto our vehicles and took off down the road heading for Gotham.

"Definitely a disaster, heavy on the dis" Robin grumbled as we sped down the road.