Chapter Fourteen: Parallel Dilemma
I LIVE!
After a long time coming the fourteenth chapter is finished as is my university course, anyway hope you enjoy this one:}
16:59 CDT Bayou Bartholomew September 23rd 2010
In the deep south, within the remote regions of bayou Bartholomew; you would find a large greenhouse complex. It was a relic from the long gone prohibition operation and had sat in filth and ruin for more than forty years, until now that is.
"Gotham Bridge is blowing up, blowing up , Gotham bridge blowing up Mistah Jay!" Came a sing song voice as a cheerful woman dressed in red and black with bleached white skin skipped and somersaulted through the halls of the massive greenhouse her hammer a swinging as she moved. "Arkham house is burning down, burning down, Arkham house burning down Mistrah Jay!"
"Harley what have we said about saying his name?" sounded the stern voice of Doctor Pamela Islay A.K.A Poison Ivy, as she spoke to her companion, one Doctor Harleen quinzel AKA Harley Quinn the former girlfriend/punching bag to the clown prince of crime. Harley proceeded to pout as she twirled her giant hammer expertly while leaning over to plant a big wet kiss on the plant woman's cheek.
"Sorry Red, but its so catchy!" she responded cheerful as the green woman sighed and gave her best friend/on and off again girlfriend, a wide grin hugging the brookyln girl. she had agreed to help her with this situation, her forced participation in this whole sordid affair, yet she wouldn't risk the destruction of numerous endangered and isolated plant species, she swore to herself that she would have vengeance upon the fool who thought to cross mother nature and live. she sighed before letting go as the pair proceeded to wait for the others to show up, it wasn't a long wait.
"Damn why are all the hot chicks dykes." Came a mock disappointed voice from behind the pair, the two super villainess whirled around to look at the figure of Speed demon, the flash villain and recently escaped convict, now currently sitting cross-legged upon a large create smiling at the pair with a lustful look in his eye, his orange and black friction suit hugged his frame like a second skin and a low, steady humming noise emanated from the glowing device on his chest. "How about I show you what you're missing Harley?"
"Actually for ya information we're bi, but I wouldn't get cha hopes up on a accounta how I don't ride guys with hard on's that lasts around 5 seconds on'a good day, so I'll stick to my healthy vegetation diet thanks." Harley said with condescending wave of her hand before smiling smugly at him; Ivy couldn't help but grin at the put down, though a part of her was worried about her safety, this guy might not have the body count of the joker, but he was far more dangerous than that clown could ever be.
"Ouch touché my dear touché." He responded pretending to fall off the create clucking his heart before jumping to his feet and fixing a more friendly smile. "My apologies I have a tendency to say the first thing that pops into my head… downside of being a speedster… though an upside is that I can vibrate any part of my body... very very fast."
"Oooh keeping talking like that and my diet will be ruined." She said with a sarcastic flare in her voice as she did. Poison Ivy smirked at the ridiculousness of this interaction and gave a snort of disbelieve at the two's behavior, she had to remember that harley was a head doctor and coulda seen any potential danger this guy posed to her from a mile off... shame the jokers mind was invisible to her in that regard.
"No! I don't condone this, I ship Ivy and Quinn not Speedy boy and Quinn!" came an shrill outraged voice from the rafters the trio looked up to see a woman dressed in pink, who pouted as she loosed an arrow into the ceiling and slide down the rope attached to the shaft.
"Come on Cupiy We're just horsing around I'm ain't dating bads guys right now… only bad girls." Harley said with a grin and a wink at Ivy at the last part, Cupid didn't seem all that convinced and gave Speed Demon a deathglare.
"Nut job." He muttered under his breath unconcerned with the threats she was making, as he turned to face the new arrives to they're merry gathering, the familiar features of Count Vertigo their 'supposed' leader, Atomic Skull still as ugly as ever, Ultrahumanite, Black Adam, Wotan, and finally the feline fatale Cheetah.
"So what is it we need to do Vertigo, i didn't get out of the slammer just to hide out in this shit hovel?" Cheetah wasted no time in getting to the point as she sharpened her claws upon the wall to emphasis her distaste in the local. Vertigo scowled at her lack of deference to his title but knew better than to antagonize the supernatural cat lady.
"We are here to hold the world to ransom my dear Cheetah; though why that she-clown is here I know not?" He asked glaring at Harley who gave him a cheesey grin and pointed a thumb at Ivy.
"I'm er' plus one." Was all she said as she maintained his stare for a full minute grinning all the while before he relented with snort.
"Ivy have you prepared the seeds to sow?" he went on turning to face the eco terrorist with look that promised retribution, she responded by smiling and nodding before gesturing to the massive plant organism visible in the back ground.
"The connection to the global green will be ready soon, you can have speedy boy over there plant the seeds in a few days time, but for what you want the plants will need a lot of energy, you think the nuclear husk can keep the juice flowing?" she asked sharply, worrying about the strain that even her enhanced mutated strain of plants would suffer from, she would need a lot of help to control all of those off shots she had planted under the major cities of the world.
"Don't worry my dear I got it as long as you leafy friends can take it." Atomic Skull said in a husky voice with a wide grin on his face; she made no response having no desire to subject her green babies to even a rad of radiation from this freak, but for that she would have required a choice in the matter to begin with.
"Why are we all here then if you, Ivy, monkey boy, Wotan and skully are all that's needed to maintain those plant thingys?" Cupid Asked looking rather annoyed at it all.
"You're all the muscle of the group my dear, you all will protect Ivy while she is controlling the plants from the-" Count vertigo stopped before smiling evilly at them. "Young Justice League."
00:51 IST Northern India September 24th 2010
"well that was the last server KF." Robin declared as he removed his cable from the computer bank; he turned to face the red head who was currently reading through the data they had copied.
"Yeah the league will send a team to go through this place like a fine toothed nail." Kid Flash responded after finishing her super sonic search of the place, her ring was now dead so she was unable to utilise it's advanced analytical capabilities. "Have Super-boy and the… huh… 'Super pack' finished removing the collars from the animals yet?"
"Yeah they have the mainframe lost all of their GPS signals." Batwoman responded as she finished her work with the mainframe and turning to face the group as they carried out any machinery or instruments of value to identify what was going on with the more advance equipment back at the cave.
"Good maybe when we get back the league will have an update on Red Tornado, i worried about what those other two reds might do to him." She said with a rather worried expression on her face; she knew that he wasn't hurt in wally's world, but this was a new universe one while extremely similar to that one at times, yet it had also shown itself repeatedly prone to throwing curved balls her way in the most unexpected of forms, add that to the fact that her memories of the team this early on in its history were vague enough to begin with. and now things were seeming becoming more different from that with each new mission and each new day. As a result of this, she was growing terrified of losing this advantage she had and the effect that will have on the league and her friends. 'Will the first year even end the same way or will the light have a different objective this time? its all too much i should tell someone what i know... but will it even be relevant enough to make any difference or would it just result in everyone turning against me?'
"Em Kid you alright?" the sensation of a hand upon her shoulder and sound of speedy's voice brought her out of her spiral of depressing thoughts as she looked up to see everyone staring at her worried looks on their faces.
"I'm fine speedy i'm just deep in thought about red tornado that's all." she said quickly without looking at any of them in the eye; she felt ashamed that she couldn't trust her teammates, her fellow heroes, her friends, with the truth of what was causing her so much stress.
"Are you sure? I've been trying to talk to you for a few minutes, you look like your about to keel over at any moment" Speedy said looking genuinely worried now glancing over to the others before turning back to face her clearly seeing past the weak excuse she gave. "plus your sweating badly and this place has aircon on full blast, did you catch something from the water, maybe a tropical bug or something?"
'I wish i could tell you all what it is but i can't, i can't be sure that if i tell you then things won't change and then i'll be in completely in the dark about what is going to happen and what if something worse occurs, what if i drive the light to do something desperate... what if someone dies?' she thought to herself feeling the heat and sweat move across her body as her left hand began to shake with fear and nerves, she took a deep breath and with sheer force of will made it stop before turning to face the others eye to eye.
"maybe its something like that, if it doesn't go away in a day or two then i'll get a check up when we get home, it might just be stress and lack of proper rest from the siege; anyway what was it you were wanting me for Speedy?" she managed to say with a calm and collected voice, a cool and professional expression on her face, a facade the lot of it; and yet it seemed to do the trick with captain marvel and speedy looking relieved and robin and Batwoman turning back to their work, Batwoman's gaze lasting a few moments longer than the others.
" Anyway the reason i wanted to talk to you was... well... you know those gorillas that were fighting us earlier?" Speedy asked looking a bit unsure of how to word it as she walked towards the open door she had come from, the one which led outside the facility; she disappeared and then reappeared a few moments later, this time everyone stopped and looked at archer who pointed to the gorilla who was behind her. "This is Solovar and it turns out a few of them are telepathic, they know where the Brain fled too… and they want the justice leagues help."
"You got to be shitting me!" Kid flash said all panicked thoughts vanishing as she face palmed before moving over to face the gorilla and signing to him to see if he knew sign language; thankfully he did.
'Greetings young she-hero, my name as you have been informed by the she-archer is solovar, my people come from an isolated community of gorillas who have lived in the peacefully and guarded realm of the primal god congorillia... at least that was until the coming of brain and his monster woman, he captured three of our people, the malcontent Grodd, tolifhar, and mallah, they were able to awaken the telepathic abilities of grodd, as well as increase both his and mallah's intelligence as that of their physical abilities with their experiments... poor tolifhar was not mental enhanced, they... replaced his mind with that the of old evil woman stealing his body and life. from there Grodd used a device to further enhance his powers and took over the mind of our god-king Congorillia... they occupied the city and experimented on us, i hid my telepathy from them, since grodd was controlling congorillia with all his might he could not deal with these of us who opposed his rule, instead he sent us here under the control of these collars to do the brains bidding.' he's face fell in sadness before he looked up and his mind touched hers once more. 'i beg you and your league of justice to save our people from these monsters, i will do anything to free my people.'
"Well i can rely this to the league when we get back, i doubt batman would let you telepathically communicate with him." she said after a long pause in which she had digested the revelation given to them, in that time the others had left to pack everything in the javelin. "i'll need all the information you can give me on the situation though."
After Solovar had explained his story to her in enough detail that she could then tell the league and argue his case for him the pair left to the building to joint the rest of the team and the gorilla's troop, a problem arose with the recovered evidence which was in the process of being stored in the javelin's cargo bay; there wasn't any spare room for the troop which worried kid a lot, to make matters worse she heard the sound of the super pack returning with Superboy mounted upon Wolfe's back, he was grinning with joy as the wolves howl and tried to get his attention before he turned to face her, his grin somehow getting even bigger.
'I've got a bad feeling about this.' She thought as the pack came closer to the ship.
21:10 EDT Mount Justice September 24th 2010
"Thank god we're back early." Kid Flash praised the sight of Mount Justice filling the pilots view screen as she tried to ignore the massive shaggy grey-wolf wrapped around her feet; she had tried to pull rank on Super boy when he asked if he could take the entire 'super pack' back with them. Unfortunately he managed to convince Captain Marvel whom, outranked her, combine that with the gorillas that were holding up the back of passenger compartment since the cargo bay was filled with the machinery they had recovered from the Brains lab meant that the atmosphere in the space was barely breathable. "I'm gonna pass out from the smell pretty soon."
In her opinion the new hanger doors couldn't open fast enough; as they pulled in the team marveled at the progress already made on their new base facility, worked on by both lanterns and the Flash. They set down with the gorillas look at Kid for understanding.
"We have arrived at a league base, you will wait here while we go inform the rest of the league, Solovar you will come and state your case to the league while I translate please refrain from using you telepathy." Kid signed to them watching the gorillas discuss between themselves before Solovar signed his agreement to the plan.
"Ok then lets brief the league on this development, Connor keep the wolves from fighting the monkeys, Robin keep Connor from fighting the Monkeys." Kid Flash informed the two who nodded, robin with a smirk and Connor with a scowl. With that they headed down the ramp to be greeted by the sight of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Black Canary , Martian Manhunter and oddly enough Donna.
"We received your tansmission about the being a mission success… though you did say something about a humanitarian issue?" Batman spoke once she had stop in front of them with Captain Marvel, Speedy, and Batwoman. They leaguers in front frowned at the smell no doubt coming off her and others, and Evelyn did open her mouth to explain their bizarre situation when the roar of beasts reached their ears.
"What in the hell?" Dinah yelled as the super pac caming thundering down the ramp past them with Conner in hot persuit. Kid Face plamed before giving the group an apologetic look.
"Superboy liberated a pack of Kobra-venom enhanced wolves… they took a liking to him, but that's not the issue… the Brain set up this base as a secondary test site using coerced labour in the form of Kobra-venom enhanced Gorillas." Kid explained to them, before turning around calling for Robin to send out Solovar. The leaguers all gaped in surprise as the massive silver back desended from the ship, all but batman that is.
"I thank you deeply for all the help you are providing my people great heroes of justice." He signed gaining astonished looks from assembled leaguers; Batman rested his gaze on Captain Marvel who shrugged rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort.
"Solovar is a Kobra-Venom enhanced gorilla from Gorilla City in Bwunda, he also happens to be a telepath but I convinced him to communicate via sign language to you. We liberated him and a group of his troop when we captured the Brains Indian laboratory complex they were being used as a slave labour force to capture animals for him and his experiments. I was unsure what action to take but they did ask for our help since the Brain is some how managed to mind control their… god Congorllia." Kid Flash Explained with a unsure look, the leaguers looked between each other in a manner clearly indicating they had a mental link established.
"We will handle this from here; You made the right call Kid Flash, heroes don't pick and choose who they help." Superman said in his usually warm boy scout way, while the rest escorted the Solovar and his troop away with Martian Manhunter clearly communicating with them via a mind-link, leaving Batman, Wonder woman and Donna behind.
"Batman can I speak with you in private?" Kid Flash asked him with a glance towards super boy, he nodded knowingly and lead her to private room elsewhere in the cave she proceeded to explain what she was told by Sportsmaster and that though she didn't believe she couldn't ignore the possibility he was being truthful.
" You were right to bring this to me; and only red arrow and Red Tornado know of this?" Batman asked her, his face revealing nothing of his inner thoughts; Kid Flash nodded before he went on. "I agree that it was most likely meant to cause mistrust within the team, but i will look into it myself for the time being keep this to yourself."
with that he strode off to do what ever batman did with this kind of information and she off to get a nice long shower and something to eat while she awaited the return of Aqualad's team.
Over the Eastern Seaboard 21:34 EDT September 24th 2010
"His vitals are stable, somehow he's still alive." Miss Martian informed the battered and exhausted team from her cot to side of the pilots dais. Wildcat was still piloting considering the mental fatigue Miss Martian had received from her mental battle with Circe, Aqualad had recovered enough to sit upright, while Tempest slept on in the rear chamber now turned into a in-prompt medical bay, both Power-girl and Aqua-girl were in the chamber watching over the heavily wounded stranger that had called himself 'Darius Troy', while Super-girl was siting opposite Aqualad chamber.
"He did a heroic deed, though how he managed to call upon the powers of the Titan lord of the sea is beyond my comprehension." Aqualad spoke softly to Super girl, who nodded staring at the long create containing the mytical Trident.
"I'm Amazed we got through that without any fatalities." Super-girl responded thinking of the pained look she had seen in Amelia's eyes as she had carefully borne the stranger to the bioship once it had returned to collect them, apparently Wildcat had been busy hunting down those monsters that had escaped before being relieved by the arrival of submarines from both the Russian and the Royal Navy. "Are you going to question her on how she knew about this guy?"
"Now is not the time for questioning; let us hope we can get back in time to sav-" Aqualad had began with a deep sigh before a blinding light and bloodcurdling scream had exploded from behind the door, The trio rushed from their seats, Aqualad and Miss Martian groaning in pain as they reached the door leading to the second chamber and hit the access button revealing to them the sight of both Aqua-girl and Power-girl laying up right at their feet. The pair were staring intently at a upright and panting Wonder warrior, who was not only restored to perfect health, but was also completely naked before their very eyes.
"Where are my clothes?" he asked in a tired voice turning to face them all as he shift his body in process.
"Wow" Super-girl said her eyes taking in the full glory of the sight before her; while Power-girl spluttered blushing.
"WHAT THE HELL! HOW DID YOU GO FROM A BURN VICTIM TO…TO…" Power-girl shouted as she stared at him in complete shock.
"The stuff of my fantasies" Super-girl offered smiling wickedly; Power-girl whirled around and slammed her fist against the door button on this side sealing the blonde from the conversation.
"Whats just happened?" Miss Martian asked looking at the others in complete confusion.
"Again I ask where are my clothes?" Darius asked again looking around for them; before he found himself pinned to wall with Power-girl hugging him tightly tears running down her face.
"You idiot! I thought you were going to die on that cot and… and" She stuttered out as he buried her face into his chest, before freezing up and staring him dead in the face when she felt something touching her thigh.
"OKAY WHERE IN THE DEPTHS OF TARTARUS ARE MY CLOTHES!" Darius roared this time in anger, turning a slight shade of red in the cheeks himself as the door chose to whoosh open once more as all four occupants stared the sight.
A few rather embarrassing moments later and the group found themselves in the front of the bioship with only a resting Tempest remaining in the rear chamber. Darius, now once more donning his hoplite armour sat in a set opposite from Power-girl who sat with her hands on lap, stilling red in the cheek.
"Care to explain your miraculous recovery?" Super-girl asked him grinning evilly at the pair.
"It was one of my powers the 'curse of Prometheus'" Darius responded his gaze moving between them all. "It grants me the power to heal and restore virtually any wound or aliment, but at the cost of subjecting me to the collective agony of the titan Prometheus… it is a move of last resort for me, the pain i must endure can potential drive me insane and render my comatose."
The others shared shocked looks before turning to face Darius once more; he was breathing hard and clearly looked spent as he lay slumped in his seat. Super-girl opened the supply container and handed him over a bottle of water and some energy bars, he accepted them with a nod of thanks before digging into them.
"Okay so who are you exactly?" Miss Martian asked looking at him with scrutiny
"My name is Darius Troy of Elysium, brother of Dane Prince also known as 'Wonder Man', I am one of the Amazons of Elysium, the paradise island, and I hail from a different universe from this one." He explained to them, they're faces becoming more shocked with each word till it was almost comically.
"You're telling me parallel universes are real?" Wildcat asked incredulously as he shared looks with the others of the team; it was at that moment that Tempest emerged from the backroom.
"What did I miss?" he asked looking at they're disbelieving faces before glancing towards Darius with a frown. "who are you?"
After explaining his arrival to their universe Darius then began to explain his own universe to them.
"So everyone was gender reversed of us then?" Super-girl asked with interest as she held an ice pack to a bruised rib, without direct access to sunlight to recharge her solar stores she wasn't healing at the normal rate, it was worse for Power-girl as her solar stores seemed to be of a lower capacity compared to super-girl, one of the many minor and major differences between the two girls.
"Not quite, take Evelyn for instance, on my world she was also a girl, one Wendy West, though she wasn't as smart as this worlds kid flash… actually she had a thing for me too now that I think about it." He added with a frown and a grin; clearly remember so passed memory that amused him.
"So why didn't you reveal you're self to the league and ask for their help?" Aqualad asked confused, if he was from a parallel league then why wouldn't he trust their league.
"In a way i did reveal myself to Amelia when i aided her with the terror twins, but remember to me this was a world the complete opposite of my own… I needed time to… adjust to the differences." He explained with a look of carefully selecting his words. "besides, I had been trapped in a hellish plane of existence, locked in endless battle against daemonic beasts for an unknown amount of time, I needed time to switch off that constraint alertness to danger and my rein in my killer instincts, and get use to being in civilization once more."
"Diana is gonna freak the fuck out when she hears about you." Wildcat said with a look of certainty on his face. The others nodded understanding his sentiment, after hearing about the hardship of superman accepting super-boy, this could also go wrong too especially with an island of sword happy, men hating amazons to boot.
"I will tell my story to her and the rest of the league; I trust they will make the right choice in their minds." Darius said with an air of wisdom about him., he had already returned his shield and weapons to their standby state and was currently drumming away with his finger tips against his helmet. "its best you get that trident to the rightful ruler at once we arrive, it power will augment his own considerable."
"I wonder how the others got on in India with captain Marvel, I've heard from Black Canary that he's a bit of an odd ball apparently." Wildcat said breaking the silence that had taken hold as they approached the happy harbor at last; Darius just smile, deciding on not telling the truth about the captain Marvel in case he hadn't told the rest of the league.
22:04 EDT Mount Justice September 24th 2010
So you've decided to join the team then Donna?" Evelyn asked as she watched the teen Amazon finish placing her clothing in her new room, Diana had informed her of that after the leaguers had departed with the troop in tow; it was a surprise having her join the team a year early, though now that she thought about it in more detail she realised that it could be beneficial given her uncertainties about future events.
"Yes indeed you see I wish to make my own journey in life beyond the shores of paradise island… this was logically first step for such a path of self-discovery." She responded as she stored the dress she had worn to kathy's birthday party; the distant sounds of wolves being fed reached they're ears. "I have heard from Diana that you are a capable military commander and as such I have no issue placing my sword and shield at your command."
"Yeah Donna you do know that the lasso and bracers are enough, you don't need to bring that bow, buckler and the gladius with you?" Evelyn responded as she eyed the affordmentioned weapons hung on the wall beside her outfit. The Amazonian girl just stared at her blankly as though the mere suggestion was a sign of utter lunacy in her mind.
"My skill at arms is equal to my hand to hand abilities; and no warrior would willing enter the fray without the means to utilise such skills to an effect level." She said with a proud warrior's tone, straightening her back to look slightly down at her with heels giving her an inch over Evelyn.
'She's really tall for a thirteen year old girl at 5 foot 7… I mean I'm 5 foot 8 and still growing… must be an Amazonian thing.' Eveyln thought to herself as she imagined another six, one amazon in the justice league battling evil. The pair left the room to find that both Robin and Kathrine had left to do some 'bat clan stuff'. Mia had also went home citing mounting homework as the cause leaving just herself and Conner to greet the returning team alongside the new cave supervisor Diana, which made sense since it was her sister that had just joined the team under the name 'Wonder girl'.
They heard the sound of the Bioship returning as the Zeta beam platform activated revealing Aquaman, Batman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Superman, who meet up with Wonder Woman who looked alert before heading over to the hanger room. Frowning Evelyn followed them with Donna in tow. They reached the room as the bioship landed, Conner came rushing in, no doubt eager to see Megan as they watched ramp form and descend.
The team came down the ramp and Evelyn stared in shock and concern at the condition of team: Kaldur and Garth looked pretty beat up with bruises and cuts covering there faces, the same was true for Tula, Kara, and Amelia who carried a container marked with the nuclear hazard symbol, Kara carried another container with a rather cautious hold.
"You said that a serious matter had been uncovered during your mission?" Batman wasted no time in getting to the heart of matter, Evelyn realized something was up judging by the presence of the senior leaguers.
"We found the remains of the Rasputin, she was wreaked upon a seabed cliff with all hands lost, and we were able to recover the reactor rods." Kaldur began his debrief gesturing to the container in Amelia's hands, before looking at the Aquaman with a grim expression. "the cause was the actions of Ocean Master. He had acquired the lost trident of Poseidon, and with the aid of three demi-gods attempted to open the Abyss."
"Hera help us!" Wonder woman and Donna both gasped out, as Aquaman looked both shocked and furious at the news, the other leaguers glanced at the trio, batman's eyes narrowing at the obliviously grim news.
"Did you stop him Kaldur'Ahm." Aquaman asked in a quiet voice filled with unease and dread.
"Yes my king, with help we were able to overcome the demi-gods, retrieve the trident and reseal the abyss once more." Kaldur responded gesturing for Kara to open the case. She did so revealing a large golden trident.
"By Zeus it's beautiful." Diana whispered staring at the golden weapon, Evelyn was also awed by the sheer power it seemed to radiate and she couldn't sense magic at all.
" What do mean you had help?" Batman asked as his eyes narrowed to slits watching the teens look at each other nervously; the sounds of the footsteps alerted the gathered heroes to the arrival of a new figure from the bioship.
'What the hell!' Evelyn thought as she watched Darius Troy dressed as a greek hoplite in the national colours walked calmly down the ramp, a plumed helmet held under one arm, a sword sheathed at his side, a large shield on his back and a long dory held in his other hand, the tip of the blade glittering in the lighting, a golden rope was also visible behind on his left side.
"My name is Darius Troy, I am one of amazons of Elysium the paradise island and I come from a different universe." He spoke aloud to the gathered heroes a small smile playing about his face.
23:11 PDT the conduit jump city 24th 2010
"So why are we not telling Evelyn about our "behind the leagues back" search for RT?" Batwoman asked Robin as they accessed the computer bank Kid had set up in her secret base. "Especially if we're using her stuff to do it?"
"Plusable deniability, you know if we brought her in and we get caught that she'd take all the blame unto herself in an instant." Robin responded as he worked the system so as to not track their work on it. "Besides you saw her back in the India lab, shes clearly got a lot on her mind right now and its getting to her, might even be something else she's not telling us. I mean come on she's got enough to worry about with running the team, superheroing and genius school. lets not add to that: lying to the league, her uncle, and worrying about trying to find RT on top of all the other stuff… I know she hides it well but deep down she's more fragile than she lets us believe and from that display in India it seems like shes got a hard time keeping s lid on it of later.I for one have absolutely no intention of finding out what happens if she breaks down this time and how much worse it could than before."
He was remembering how she was after being kidnapped and tortured before watching her best friend Victor Stone being set a light in front of her; to be powerless in that situation would be unbearable to someone like him with training and a track record of being held hostage, but to Evelyn, a girl with genius level intelligence and super human speed, one who was never captured by the bad guys of the flash's rogue gallery, that was far worse… he remember batman telling him that with most heroes, those with great power felt that they had a great responsibility to carry out with them. He told him about how wonder woman, flash and superman would get after witnessing a tragedy or a particularly traumatic incident, that they believed that they could have and should have stopped it somehow. This was something that he didn't want her feeling the same way about what happened to RT and what his captors might be doing to him right now.
"How bad was she then?" Batwoman asked after a short silence turning to look at Robin, concern in her eyes even through the lenses of her mask. He remembered that she must have only had seen Evelyn on the news and not when she was recovering from her ordeal as that was before her first meeting of the team. He had seen her the night of the first day back, he had visited her in her home as Richard grayson. The sight of someone as brilliant, as powerful as his best friend, to appear so broken and guilt ridden. He had spent the entire night on patrol looking for someone, anyone, to take it out on and secretly worrying about the safety of Barbs the girl he had feelings for.
"Bad." He said in rather quiet voice turning to face her in turn. "She couldn't sleep for days, she spent the whole time trying to find something useful to do, she hated herself for not doing something more to help him… and it didn't only have an effect on her, I remember overhearing batman talk about how he was worried about how it was affecting Barry. He became increasingly more depressed and angry with himself to a severe level… the flash is considered the true moral centre of the justice league even more so than superman. Bruce even told me that Barry was the kind of man he would have hoped to become if his parents hadn't been killed… and what happened to Eve had a profound change on his personality."
"But he went back to his normal self right?" Batwoman paused looking at him with concern in her face. "they both did?"
"Yeah I think the team catching Duela was a major factor in it, but it was the idea that both of them were helpless in trying to save the people they care about… I don't want this on her mind. Not with the break out of deula dent, with that super soldier in biayla, and certainly not with worrying about our safety. We'll handle this and leave the running of the team to her." Robin told her again as they began they're investigation into the whereabouts of Red Tornado. "Maybe you could distract her if she starts to catch on to what we're doing with something… she once inquired about learning some advanced acrobatics from me, maybe you could give her some training with the help of babs and Bette?"
"Getting to see my girl in skin tight clothing; sure why not." Batwoman said with what appeared to be a grin at the thought of it, though it did not reach her eyes. It would be a good distraction for her if she caught on, plus they could spend some quality time together, she could make sure that Eve could protect herself even better.
'What am I thinking… she can move across states in minutes and react in nanoseconds and I'm worried about her being able to protect herself.'She thought shaking her head. 'she would find it useful and if she could flex her body better in those moments it might make her a better hero for it.'
Batwoman didn't even want to think on what she would feel if something bad happened to her little red roadrunner, she couldn't bare the thought of losing her, not another person she cared so deeply for.
"What about bringing in any of the other members of the team?" Batwoman asked looking back at Robin as they complied the list of known associates of T.O Marrow.
"This kind of work isn't their strong suit… plus they couldn't hid it from Batman for more than a day tops." He replied not looking up; thinking on it she had to agree with that last statement about Bruce, the man was like a blood hound, it was never a question of if he found out, only one of when.
23:44 EDT Mount Justice Happy Habour 24th 2010
"And that is the story of life leading up to this moment in time." Darius finished as the leaguers exchanged looks and no doubt engaged in a fierce mind link argument over the revelations of parallel universes existing. Donna just stared at the being in front of her as though he was something impossible, Evelyn felt sorry for the rather sheltered girl, who had just met her parallel counterpart from a genderbent universe. "Can I take off the lasso of truth now?"
"Let him go." Batman said after a moment before glancing in the direction of those members of the team still present, Donna included and lingered on Power girl who bulked under the stare looking away and scratching the back of her neck awkwardly before speaking. "With the expectation of Donna the rest of you turn in, you're normal lives have been side tracked long enough, so go home and gets some rest the league will handle things from here."
"I shall have to give you two a tour another time." Aqualad spoke as he led Tula and Garth to the zeta beam platform to head home, while Super-girl decided to fly back and soak up some rays that reflect off the moon.
"You too Kid you've got your cousin's arrival to prepare for remember?" Flash spoke suddenly jolting Evelyn to earth as she nearly hit herself for forgetting about Chloe's upcoming stay. "Oh and you might want to get Mary to sort out your hair tomorrow as well."
With one final look at Darius she turned and ran off to the zeta beam platform and home.
"If it is alright with you all i must now take my leave," Darius said as he retrieved and stored his weaponry and turned to face batman. "There is a meeting of the criminal organisations in Jump City, i cannot afford to waste this chance to eliminate the major criminal forces and thus deal a devastating blow to the criminals of Jump City."
"You are still recovering from you're ordeal with the trident of Poseidon Darius," Wonder Woman said with great authority as she marched towards him hands on hips. "Donna and I shall accompany you in case you require assistance... it is the least we can do given you're recent heroics."
"Very well then let us make haste." he said to her as Donna turned to look at her mentor and princess mouth opened, before a sharp look back caused her to stiffen up and follow the other two Amazons towards the main entrance to the cave.
00:14 CDT West residence Central City September 25th 2010
'Well so I'm not the only one to come here from another universe… things just keep getting weirder and weirder. Just why were those demigods working with Ocean master? huh Jesus things are really deviating more and more from what I went through last time, I'm beginning to wonder if the outcome of the first team year will even be the same. What the fuck i'm doing this is a parallel universe there's no reason this universe will follow that of the old one, I've just been lucky so far... and that i know will not last' Evelyn thought as she dumped her dirty clothes in the laundry basket, yawning she clambered into bed, too tired to give things anymore thought. Her dreams were filled with unknown horrors befouling her team while she stood there paralyzed with fear and uncertainty.
03:00 PDT Old Dock warehouse B12 Jump City September 25th 2010
It wasn't often that the few major crime gangs of Jump City held gatherings that didn't involve killing one another. But then they had never faced a threat like this 'vigilante' before. It didn't matter what precautions and manpower they placed on their drugs, their guns, and their pimps; this guy just smashed clean through it all. What was even more surprising was how the few conscious guards all told the same story. A giant man armed with a shield and spear. And so it led to this, a meeting of the five main gangs of the city: the Painted Devils from east, the West Side Crew from the west, the crimson dragons from the south, the Alleva crime family that controlled the central turf, and finally the Death Heads from north.
"Right so lets get to the point… how do we deal with this new guy?" Victor Vain, the current boss of the Devils, he was a rather thin man of Hispanic origins with a wiry body and a passion of extreme violence, his Mohawk a blood red colour like the red ink on his skins in the form of a howling demon. The other crimelords glanced round nervously, they were all feared individuals… and yet they really didn't being near Vain and his murderous mood swings.
"I say we bite the bullet and rig a stash-house to blow, none of this light shit neither we go all out, cluster bombs, napalm what ever it takes to end him before he joins up with the leaguers." The Deep voice of the African American crimelord Isaac Thrain head of the death heads, a massive muscular man, who held power through constant intimidation and brutality. At that point the smaller, middle aged beauty that was Don Lucillia Alleva gave a short laugh. She wasn't alone as Shendo, the leader of the crimson dragons joined her, no one knew his real name and no one wanted to asked him about it either.
"Do that and the league, FBI, hell maybe even NCIS will be breathing down our necks if we use high end military gear in a hit." Shendo said lighting his taper held between his teeth.
"Besides we won't need to go over board if we set the stage correctly, a meth lab with some… explosives raw sources, coupled with a a major gas leak and a full on fire fight… to really make sure he's there it will require a small price to pay." She said lighting up her cigar handed to her by a henchman.
"What price apart from supplies and a fully stocked meth lab, plus a Brewhouse do you mean?" Eddie Barr the acting leader of the WSC since the old one's passing; at this Victor leaned forward smiling a filed tooth grin at him.
"Well a blood offering of men to make sure he's still there when the payload's lit." he said with a feral excitement in his grey eyes. The mob bosses began a long discussion on the plans inner workings and who should 'supply' what to make it work; through it all they never noticed the figure perched in the high rafters above their very heads, he lay motionless while his companions observed in the far corners, without any outward sign of warning he lightly pushed of the perched and plummeted down to smash feet first in the large table the crimelords had gathered around, the crowd reacted with expected shock and aggression, as they tumbled backwards out of their seats pulling out guns as the guards rushed over to train their weapons on him.
Wonder Warrior slowly and deliberately began to stand up to his full and considerable height, his eyes scanned the gather crowd, picking up on everything form nervous ticks and shacking hands, to any observable signs of weaknesses, the stillness lasted moments but felt like hours to gathered criminals before Wonder Warrior did something no expected.
His seemed to explode in a bright flash of light blinding everything and everyone staring at him, they began to fail around crying out in pain and surprise as they're retina were blinded temporary. In that moment of confusion and weakness he struck, in a second he had expended his shield gripping one side he pulled it in before tossing it like a discus at the metal support beam. At the same time he launched himself at the nearest thug, driving his fist into his chest before sidestepping past him driving his other elbow into the back of his neck dropping him like a sack of rocks. As this was happening he brought his left leg up and into the adjacent gangsters kneecap, before smashing his helmeted head down into a third man's face removing his cries of pain from the choir filling the warehouse. The second man soon followed as the spinning shield smashed into his back driving him into the ground, it bounced back into the air clipping two more thugs standing side by side tossing them apart like rag dolls. All the while he kept on moving, kept on taking criminal after criminal down with few, but effectively blows.
By the time the first people were recovering from the flash of light he had already taken down more than half of the assembled crooks, all the while the shield rebounded off of walls knocking down man after man, This was broken occasionally by Wonder Warrior grabbing it out the air to smash aside one man or another before tossing it out again to do its work. In the span of three minutes the nearly the entire warehouse had been cleared of combat capable opposition as Wonder Warrior finally rested grabbing the shield out of the air and collapsing it away, he surveyed his work assessing the conditions and capabilities of the criminals around him.
"A few stragglers got away." Wonder girl spoke as she and Wonder Woman descended from their perch landing in front of him as he removed his helmet fixing his younger female counterpart, he marveled at the strange and uncomfortable feeling being near her caused him and he couldn't imagine how much worse it might be for the pair of them, Donna in particularly.
"He let them go, to spread the word of what he's capable of, it will drive crime down sharply for a short time while he follows leads on the rest of the organised crime elements in the city, letting them cow away in the fear like the cowards they truly are." Wonder Woman informed her protegee; acknowledging the male amazon's strategic thinking and warrior logic as he executed his assault, something she had only seen in one other person bar herself, Batman.
"With that I'm heading home you know where to find me." Wonder Warrior announced as he left towards the door returning his equipment to its standby state.
"Wonder warrior, if you every need someone to talk to, I'm always available… your among friends now regardless if you are man… in my eyes you are amazon, the same as any one of us, and that makes you my family... my brother." Wonder woman called out after him causing him to pause and turn to face her.
"Your so much like him." He said before turning and heading out of the door.
"Best not tell Hippolyta about him… not until I have thought of a way of breaking it to her and the others." Wonder woman said looking down at her sister/protegee who was stilled unnerved and confused by this all. "I know this is hard and not something I wanted on your first day of life away from paradise island, but don't let it deter you from your new path sister."
Wonder girl looked up at her sister and princess and straightened her back out lifting her head high.
"I won't princess I promise you that." She said with grim determination; Wonder woman Smiled at this and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I am either you mentor or sister now, no longer your princess Donna." She said and headed over to contact the authorities to take care of this low life thugs, it would seem that Jump City had a new guardian and her, new family member.
06:33 CDT Kent residence Metropolis September 25th 2010
the morning ritual of the Kent family played out as usually, Kara would be the first to rise and would proceed to use up all the hot water, meanwhile her cousin and legal guardian Clark Kent would prepare the breakfast in the form of scrambled eggs, bacon and tomatoes. Kara would talk his head off, about school, the team, boys, her friends, or earth and its strange customs... today she was silent and oddly sad looking.
"What's the matter Kara your never this quiet in the morning?" he asked switching between his soft caring nature and his hard reporter instincts.
"its just... with Darius showing us that parallel universes are real... i dreamed that we found one where krypton still existed. one where i adult Kara made breakfast for her teenage cousin Kal El." Kara responded softly looking up at him tears in her eyes; he crossed the small space between them and hugged his cousin tightly as she cried softly. "Do you think there's a universe out there where they're alive?"
"I suppose the theory of parallel universe would conform that to be true... but what matters is that you and me are here on earth together just like are parents wanted, and as long as we take care of each other they'll be happily." he responded softly, he had similar thoughts and dreams last night, though it had never occurred to him how bad it would affect Kara given the fact she spent most of her life on krypton. "Come on time to eat, you don't want to go to school hungry."
the pair went on to finish their breakfast in silence for once, both thoughts dwelling on the same thing.
08:21 CDT West residence Central City September 25th 2010
"For a genius girl you really should have thought about having long hair being a safety risk before now." Mary West said with a worried tone in her voice as she styled her daughter's hair in her bathroom, Evelyn for her part was sitting quietly in the chair, waiting for her to finish while her cheeks were burning red as her falling locks. " Heck even I could have told you that."
"I did think about it, but I thought it might upset you if I got it cut short, you always said you were jealous of how my long hair never curled." She responded as she fidgeted with her hands; her mother gave her a scolding look, before it softened somewhat.
"I wouldn't get upset if you wanted to do something with your own hair sweetie, besides I always thought you grew to like since you never complained about wanting to get it cut before." She said with a small grin on her face; she finished up and held a mirror allowing Evelyn to check out the back of her head.
She was surprised with much she liked the new look, considering it was meant to clean up the mess that was left. Her hair was now rather short with a longer length section running down the left side of her face, all in all it was a rather punk look but she liked it, she might even highlight it, thought if she did that then she would have to hid her hair beneath a full head mask like Barry does.
"Thanks mom I was worried I wouldn't be able to get it sorted before classes." She said hugging Mary tightly and kissing her on the check, the rest of the morning was pretty much routine she got ready and left for the bullet train to Jump City for classes. The high speed trains built by lex corp were, though it pained her to admit, a boon to mankind. With them she could attend a private academy in a other state whilst returning home at the end of the day. It only took two hours to reach the other city on the direct line. And yet the entire journey she was concerned with the talk she was going to have with Natasha over her secret… well one of them. Soon enough she found herself walking down the large corridors glancing around for the sight of her best friend.
'Darius did say she didn't begrudge me over the incident.' Evelyn thought to herself trying to reassure herself about how best friend, the girl who gave her so many fashion tips while they worked away in the labs. She finally spotted Natasha hanging around a corner on the phone.
"Hey Evie whats up girl loving the new look girl!" She said grinning as she put her phone into her pocket; Evelyn smiled back before sighing.
"I know about Darius, and about how you know about me tasha." She replied seeing the girl look surprised for a moment before she was herself again.
"How about we talk about this at my place later, but don't worry Evelyn." Natasha said as she checked her watch glancing at her with a soft and warm smile. "I understand, I don't blame you and your secrets safe with me."
14:24 PDT Irons Workshop Jump City September 25th 2010
"So can I see the suit?" Natasha asked once the pair had arrived in the living section of her workshop, the two girls were seated opposite one another with a coffee in hand. Evelyn smiled before placing down the mug and stretching her ring arm out in front of her, the suit catapulted out before she disappeared in a blur of yellow before appearing again donned in the bright yellow and red friction suit, she grinned at the look of awe in Natasha eyes.
"I know I'm awesome." Evelyn said smugly as she clasped her hands behind her head and learned against the wall; Natasha got up and walked over staring at the suit with awe, touching it to see what it felt like while asking about its make and composition before suddenly looking at her with concern.
"How do you cope with the danger and the…" she paused before going on in a quiet voice looking troubled. "and the death."
"I think on the good I'm doing and how I'm impacting the world in a good way." Evelyn responded after a moments pause, she saw the worry in her friend's eyes and it touched her deeply to know she truly cared, thou a small part of her felt foolish for doubting her best friend's feelings for her, she changed the subject discussing the arrival of Darius into their world, she had already heard it from the source but she wanted to gauge how it had affected Natasha and to help her understand whether her arrival in this universe was unrelated to Darius's or if they were, and if that was the case then who's to say they were the only two arrivals here.
"So Who else knows about you being Kid Flash?" Natasha asked as they both sat down and started drinking the tea she had made.
"Well apart from the heroes of the league and the team... my parents, aunts, uncle Paul, Chloe, and a few of the families of other leaguers and team members." Evelyn answered as she finished her tea before changing back to her civilian clothing.
"So who's batman and robin?" Natasha asked hopefully before seeing the raised eyebrow and smirk appear on Evelyn's face.
"Nice try Tasha but i'm rather attached to my hide so i'm afraid i can't say." She responded causing a disappointed sigh to escape Natasha's lips before she tried giving her the puppy dog look; at this Evelyn burst into laughter.
"You do realise that only really works when Kathy does it." she said wiping the tears from her eyes as Natasha smiled before taking a long sip of her tea.
"Can you really fault me for trying." Natasha responded sheepishly causing both girls to burst out laughing as Evelyn was finally able to talk freely about her superhero work with her best friend.
18:24 PDT Symthe Residence Metropolis September 25th 2010
"So We've gotten the basics down of all our roles how about we try a cover song now." Siohban announced to the gathered girls each holding an instrument having spent the last few weeks practicing when ever possible. " I was thinking about Zombie by the cranberries maybe?"
"Who calls they're band the cranberries?" Alice asked snorting in laughter. Jessica shrugged from behind the drums.
"Meat loaf, Sabaton, Rhapsody of fire, the reclaimers, musicans have a vast range of names for their bands." She said before taking a long sip from her glass of water while Kara tuned her guitar looking up at them smiling.
"Lets give it a go girls before we complain about the bands name." she said to the rest with Claire echoing her words with an accompanying strum from the bass guitar she was playing.
"I was thinking we might even do it at the Halloween party at the school." Siobhan said with nervous grin; the rest of the girls nodded with excitement before grinning and accepted the music sheets from the Irish girl.
"If that's the case then I'll work on some costumes we could all be different ghosts and spectres… maybe have our names based on colours too!" Kara said excitedly as they set up to play.
"Lets practice the song first before we go on tour all right." Said Claire beaming as she strummed her bass guitar.
18:21 CDT West residence Central City September 25th 2010
"So have you set up the guest room for Chloe's arrive?" Mary asked her daughter as she relaxed in the armchair while Evelyn brought her a tray bearing an array of craving foods she had asked for.
'Jesus I dread to think what I might crave if I ever get knocked up somehow?' She thought as she watched her mother dig into the odd assortment of foods.
"Yes mom though I don't get the rush since she won't arrive until October first, and I can get everything done in less than five minutes." She responded as she settled herself into a free spot on the coach and switched on the T.V.
"Just because you can move faster than the speed of the sound doesn't mean you should young lady." She said rather crossly as she watched her daughter give her a puppy dog look and let out a short chuckle of amusement at her antics. In truth it warmed her heart to she her daughter acting more normal than usually, but then she supposed over the years she must have grown accustomed to nature of Evelyn, she wondered what this baby would be like.
"Maybe another genius to talk shop with." Evelyn said with a grin noticing her mothers prolonged gaze on the swollen belly. She laughed at the face her mother made when she considered it. "I didn't cry that much something you might want to remember."
"So how are things going with you and Kathy... things gotten anymore serious between you?" Mary asked Evelyn as she sipped her ginger tea causing her to nearly choke; blushing a vivid crimson she glare at her mother; for some reason Evelyn didn't feel comfortable whenever a discussion moved into the area sex mainly because it was her mother asking, but she had the feeling that she probably wouldn't feel comfortable to talk about with the girls in the same way that wally had once or twice with his male friends.
"Things are going fine okay, we're had a half dozen dates so far... she wants to me to join her in doing gymnastics she thinks it would help me out in being a hero." Evelyn responded as she took a bite out of a digestive biscuit after dunking it in her tea; Mary smiled slyly.
"I bet seeing my daughter in skin tight clothes, bending her body into all kinds of positions, has absolutely nothing to do with it what so ever." Mary said with a big shit eating grin, her voice dripping with sarcasm, Evelyn gave her a playful shove with her free hand as her ears burned up.
"I would like you to stop talking about this right now." She responded highly embarrassed right now about the direction of the conversation, she got up and collected the dirty dishes. " Besides i'm not even sixteen yet."
"Oh come on sweet i was sixteen when me and your dad first had se-" Mary began before Evelyn turned beetroot red and interrupted her.
"MOM too much information!" she cried looking at her before leaving the room quickly as Mary giggled at her behavior.
"You really are a sixteen year old girl after all." She responded and remembered back when she was a teenage goth girl and how she first laid eyes on the french speaking hardcore punk who would later be her husband.
11:23 EDT Mount Justice September 26th 2010
"So why are the league handling the gorillas and not us?" Asked Super-girl during the group training session, the first with Donna as a member of the team, with her taking a break after a two hour training session on improving her Klukor techniques from the memory crystal she had retrieved from the fortress of solitude, Hawk woman raised an eyebrow as she folded her arms before responding.
"Because Congorilla is primal god that is as strong as superman and immune to the deception and physic abilities of man… besides you guys need to get use to having Donna as a member of team, Diana's hoping you can open her up to the outside world so she's not like the other amazons." She explained pointing to a holo image of a depiction of the primal god; in the back ground Aqualad, Robin, and Superboy were sparring against Hawk-man who was relishing the battle lust as he fought the three heroes at the same time his nith metal axe doing some damage to super-boy even with care the thanagarian was taking not to cause serious injury.
"Not the easiest thing with the revelation of the parallel universes filled with male amazons." Replied Wildcat as he entered into the conversation from the kitchen, a cola in each hand. "She definitely still preoccupied with it."
"I'll take you word for it." Kid Flash said acknowledging the martial artists skill, right now Donna was practicing archery with Mia, something they pair were very good at, they pair had clearly become close friends. She smirked at the mental image of an armored wonder girl firing a boxing glove arrow at some poor bastards nads while bellowing about fighting the injustices of man.
"So how come he's not joining the team too… I mean the more amazons to fight those demigods the better right?" Power-girl asked as she hovered crossed legged beside kid, she was still getting over the grilling Batman gave her for not alerting the league to Darius existence earlier.
"The guy's been stuck in a literal hellscape and only been back in a friendly earth for a few months now, I think he just wants to move on with his life… you know with the whole never seeing his friends and family again." Wildcat said as he sat down, the gathered heroes could understand the move. " besides he's basically became the guardian of the jump city so its not like he's retired or anything."
"I think you should go to the source for your answers Amelia." Super-girl said with a coy smirk on her face, Power-girl turned scarlet as she looked down. "Beside I think he might enjoy your company, I know you'll enjoy his."
"He's gorgeous even I can see that and I'm gay." Kid Flash chimed in with a mischievous smile on her face as she meet Super-girl's gaze.
"A literal Greek hero." Wildcat added.
"I barely know him alright, he's been nice to me and he's nice to look at but there's more to a relationship than that, right?" She asked looking nervously at them fighting with her capes end.
"It can be a start of one, look spend some time with him, get to know the man behind the hero he seems to like you or at least likes being around you." Super-girl responded with her wise woman face before smiling like the Cheshire cat, cat not assassin, and adding. "You'd make beautiful kids anyway."
Power-girl blushed crimson and punched her hard on the shoulder.
"Look you need to have a life beside the heroics and the search for your family and this guy needs help adjusting to life in our universe so maybe you can repay him for all the help he's given us by helping him adjust back to normal life, you went through that with whole lab subjected in a pod thing." Wildcat said finishing off his drink and tossing it towards the far off trash can, landing it with no issue, he high fived Kid before turning to face Power-girl. "Well?"
"I guess your right I mean he makes Conner look like Robin; its decided I'm going to see him now." She said with look of determination ignoring the look on Super-girls face and heading over towards the zeta beam platforms; at that exact moment Batwoman arrived glancing off towards Robin before turning to meet Kid Flashes gaze as she smiled walking forward to embrace her girlfriend.
"So you on for you're first session of gymnastics tomorrow?" she asked brushing a stray hair back behind Kid Flash's ear; Kid smiled folding her arms in what she thought was a confidant posture.
"I have done gymnastics before, remember back in Biayla when i dodge these bullets." She responded with a slight hint of arrogance in her voice; she was proud of being an over all better hero than before, a full on speedster, with partial elements of robin and batman's style and now full lantern too.
"Right those maneuvers are pretty basic and besides you move so fast that you could easily make micro adjustments to you balance; now then if your so confident then go do a series of handstand back-flips from one end of the mat to the other when moving at normal speed and without switching your powers on. You've told how you're powers work, how they're on a standby like state till you switch them on, So do it as a normal person." She said looking at Kid Flash right in the eyes; she blushed before rubbing the back of her head looking at her feet. "I thought so, don't worry i'll go easy on you my little red roadrunner."
"Kathy!" She said loudly blushing even more now that the others had heard her nickname, the look on super-girls face was especially embarrassing as it told her that she wasn't going to forget that anytime soon; she winked evilly before heading over to see wonder girl, Kid flash and the others joined her.
"So Wonder girl how you taking to life in the 'man's world'?" Super girl asked having floated over to talk with the newbie, she was making air quotations when she spoke the words 'man's world'; the Amazon raised her eye brows as she lifted her bow to fire another arrow into the heart of the bulls-eye.
"You mean apart from finding out the existence of parallel universes and in particular a male version of myself, everything else is going fine, i'm glad to see that there are a great many female heroines." She responded as she removed the bowstring from one end and wrapped it round the other end. "Where has Amelia gone?"
"You don't want to know where." Wildcat said firmly looking at the others with the corner of his eye.
"She has gone to visit him hasn't she?" she asked looking serious now as she turned to face them. "Well it is none of my business if she wants to spend her time with him, i will admit it disturbs me to my very core that he exists but there is nothing to do about it other than get use to it and get on with my life."
"That's progressive of you given your background." Speedy said encouragingly, Kid Flash was also surprised given how wally had been with Donna, by this she was rather harsh and critical of him and all the males in the team. What made this so bad was that this occurred when he had been dating Artemis for four months and wasn't the chauvinist he was before. Little wonder she left after only six months citing the need to find her own path in the world. And yet she also got the feeling that this Donna was still getting to grips with the reality of her situation, she really couldn't blame her for it though.
12:23 PDT California Jump City Troy residence September 26th 2010
'I feel stupid.' Amelia thought to herself as she looked at her reflection, she had applied make up she had bought on the fly on the way over at a local mall, she hopped she hadn't over did, she had even less experience in the make up department than Evelyn and she was just shy of being considered butch, though they would never say it to her face.
"Amelia what brings you here?" a deep familiar voice sounded from behind her, she whirled around to See Darius standing there in casual attire, a large brown paper bag filled with fresh food from the local market, he was smiling his blue eyes seeming to sparkle in the sunlight as Amelia lost herself in them.
"Well i was passing through and i'd thought i'd see you're new digs, you know since tall, dark, and brooding gave you you're own accommodations." she said rather quickly looking down at her hands as she spoke, she had good reason to shy when it came to talking to really hot guys and the idea of dating them, given how she had seen some of the worse of human nature, that and being stuck in a pod for years hadn't done her any favors either.
"Well then how about joining me for lunch then?" he asked smiling at her, Amelia felt her heart skip a beat and yet she somehow managed to smile and give a causal "sure", thus the pair headed off towards his new apartment in the city.
10:20 EDT Gotham Academy Gotham City September 27th 2010
"You know when you suggested this i thought you'd have booked a private gym, just the two of us, no offense guys." Evelyn said turning to face both Barbara and Bette who smiled looking like they were enjoying themselves.
"We insisted, after all we're all friends' right?" Bette said with coy look on her face; Kathy gave her girlfriend a look that said 'Just go with it please', to which Evelyn gave a deep sigh and smiled back at the two.
"I just didn't want to make a fool out of myself in front of others is all." She replied to the pair.
"Oh come on Evie you won't be that bad." Barbara said encouragingly with a smile and pair of thumbs up; unsurprisingly Evelyn wasn't convinced. the truth was that Kathrine was right, when she was using her powers she had not problems carrying out acrobatic maneuvers, not so much when they were on stand by and she wasn't the kind of personal to deceive her own girlfriend when she promised not to use them, at the same time she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of her and her friends either.
"I'm telling you the chemistry teacher's is a glowing green monster!" the sound of a young girls voice, loud and excited, reached them as a gang of people came into the small dance studio, two were clearly siblings a younger girl and her older brother, both of Asian descent, another was a taller older black girl with a hood, a boy with shades and red hair, and last a girl with silvery white hair. all of them were surprised to see them there, more importantly they were looking at Evelyn with confusion.
"Who's she? Your not supposed to bring people on campus outside of dorm visits Bette Kane." the taller dark skinned girl said crossly folding her arms; Evelyn looked at Bette in confusion, she didn't want to get Kathy or the others in trouble, Bette glared at the girl before saying smugly.
"That's okay i got prior permission from the headmaster to use the dance studio for the day; though you concern for school rules is greatly appreciated Pomeline Fitch." Bette responded glaring at the girl arms crossed.
"Oh so the perfect prefect/ school tennis star, and her wealthy cousin the pride of the schools gymnastic team get to have outsiders brought into use school faculties, but the Gotham mystic society can't do the same thing?" Pomeline responded angrily glaring daggers at the both Kathy and Bette, both the small Asian girl and Barbara were looked from one girl to the next; meanwhile both the white haired girl and Evelyn were looking at one another in confusion.
"The fact that we're on the school sports teams, or what our parents do for a living paid no part in this Pomeline; Evelyn is an exemplary student from a prestigious institute of learning, your 'mystic' friends have a shady history, there was no way that the headmaster would have let them into the school grounds at the times you wanted unsupervised." Bette fired back angrily.
"Have we meet before?" Evelyn interrupted, asking the silver haired girl realising that she looked awfully familiar to her.
"Not that i recall, come on guys we'll have to look elsewhere." the silver haired girl said before leaving with the others.
"Hey Barbara wanna be my partner for history trip?" the young girl asked as her brother tried to pull her with them.
"Sure why not maps; we can work on the history paper together too." Barbara responded waving as the group left.
"Sorry bout that Evelyn, Pomeline Fitch is into the whole witchcraft and cursing people crowd, that group was the so called 'Detectives Club' a society driven to uncover the mysterious of the academy no matter the risks." Bette responding looking at the closed door with frustration. "in reality they break curfew, cause disturbances, go into out of bounds areas and general make me and the rest of the prefects lives a living hell."
"Anyway enough distraction lets get back to it." Kathy said placing a hand on her cousin's shoulder, it wasn't as bad as it could have been but Evelyn did manage to fall on her rump a fair few times, mostly due to her distraction trying to place that white haired girl.
7:34 CDT Kansas City international airport October 1st 2010
Evelyn sighed as she waited at the arrival terminal, she was joined by her aunt Iris who currant was taking a call about her work.
"Come on Chloe you normally quite punctual." She muttered under her breath as she checked her watch, she had only been waiting around for a good twenty minutes.
"God your like Barry you know that, with the whole can't stay still for 5 minutes." Aunt Iris said with a playful smile on her face; Evelyn gave her a playful pout of her bottom lip.
"In my defense I use that energy to do important work… plus I don't see why your complaining I heard from dad that you always wormed your way out of doing any house work when you were kids and now you've married a guy who handles it all." Evelyn responded enjoying the blush that appeared on Iris's face and the pout she threw back at her before the pair burst out laughing. Evelyn did enjoy hanging out with Iris from time to time more as Evelyn than Wally did.
"What's so funny?" Came the voice of Evelyn's only cousin and the daughter of her aunt Charlotte, eldest of the three West childern, Chloe Joan Sullivan. The blonde haired, blue eyed five foot four girl was pointing a handheld camera at them with a massive grin on her face.
"Chloe!" Evelyn cheered as she rushed forward to hug the shorter girl tightly picking her up off her feet.
"Okay its nice to see you too Evie can I come down now?" Chloe asked with a wide grin as Evelyn returned her to ground and kissed her on each cheek as she did the same; Iris came forward and the did the same.
"So how is Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Paul doing?" Evelyn asked as they gathered Chloe's belongings and headed out into the car park to head back to Evelyn's for a family dinner.
"Doing fine, I'm hoping they can get themselves free from work for your sweet sixteenth Eve, anyway boys & girls i got some private stuff to talk about so i'll get back to you all in a few hours this is Chloe signing off bye bye!" Chloe responded smiling and waving her hand at the camera lens as she ended her vlog recording for now, as she got inside the car; now that they were away from passers by she turned to more important matters. "So whats this I heard about you teaming up with the other sidekicks, spill the beans!"
"Ever the reporter aren't you, well for one we're protégés and yeah we're a team the young justice league." Evelyn said with first a rather annoyed tone at the mention of sidekicks, and then pride at the mention of the team name.
"Whoa that sounds stupid, I mean it literally reinforces the idea that your less experienced than the justice league." Chloe said with an analysis based on her education in writing and language; Evelyn looked hurt and her face fell.
"I came up with that name, cause we're young but are also every bit the hero as they are." She said with a stung tone in her voice, Chloe looked regretful at her words.
"Sorry Red I didn't mean it like that… listen can I finally meet the others… is robin single?" She apologized before grinning coyly at the end; Evelyn smirked and laughed at her words.
"You are aware that he's thirteen years old right and your sixteen and as to meeting the team sure there's one in particularly I want you to meet." Evelyn said looking nervous now with her face going red, Chloe picked it up and smiled knowingly.
"Oh has the fastest girl alive been stopped dead in her tracks by the actions of a mere mortal man." She said her voice taking on her french accent as she grinned; Evelyn smiled in turn. "Pray tell dear cousin what is this man's name?"
"Who ever said that I was dating a guy." Evelyn said with a straight face as she showed Chloe a photo of her with Kathy on her phone, the face Chloe made was almost comical as her eyes went wide and her mouth fell opened as she snatched the phone and stared the image on it for a few minutes.
"She… well, she kinda looks like you? Well I mean the hair and eyes, but I got say apart from that she's quite the looker I'm wondering when did she make the first move." Chloe said looking up and smiling at the frown on Evelyn's face as she handed back the phone. "Oh please like you'd ever make a romantic advance on someone, you're one of the most love dense people I know eve and i knew a lot people in France, Canada and the states… still I happy for you,is she a super hero too."
"Yeah she's batwoman, I think I might have inspired her a wee bit when i saved her from terrorists at Richards twelfth birthday party." Evelyn replied looking down at image of her girlfriend and remembering the events of that night long ago. Iris smiled as she heard her nieces exchange in the backseat, she wondered when she and Barry would have children; though she was worried about how Barry's condition would affect them if at all.
"So Eve how is my baby cousin doing?" Chloe asked as she reclined in her seat and giving a big yawn; Chloe was as excited as she was about the upcoming baby.
"Still growing would you like to know about the fetus's currant stage of development?" Evelyn responded smiling at Chloe's look of disgust at her words.
"No thanks i'd rather not be put off my baby cousin by a overly vivid biology lesson... so you up for being my camera-girl for my media project, plus i got started a series of vlog episodes with my cousins, you know with Annabelle in Canada and Jean in France you're the only one left and the whole finding out your gay would make for a great piece on coming out to family and the gay community in the states!" She asked in an excited voice and wearing a massive grin; Evelyn wasn't fooled as she raised an eyebrow and folded her arms they maintained each others gaze for a few seconds before Evelyn finally sighed.
"Fine i'll do it, the camera work, the vlog thing we'll talk about after dinner maybe okay" She said with a smile causing Chloe to cheer and hug her tightly. "But I give no guarantee that i'll be available all the time though; you never know when a supervillian's going to attack the city."
It was at that exact moment that the road in front of the car exploded as a massive plant vine erupted from the ground; a few moments later the car smashed into plant completely crumpling the front section of the motor vehicle as the stem flexed and came smashing down crushing it into scrap pile which burned as the fuel ignited bursting into flames.
And on that cliff hanger the long awaited the chapter's has come to sudden end, this has been dragging on for month in almost an almost done state with the last few hundred words to be written, my dissertation is over and done with and degree is done now for writers points.
I of course had to change the line of the injustice league to match the team, it made sense that many of them would be counters given the light knowing about the YJL's deployment by the league, yeah the whole joker working for someone else as a patsy... not gonna fly, I liked the idea of Harley being in it, but i got to say writing her lines is hard, I've probably screwed up so if some one can give me some pointers that would be grand.
this was altered a fair few times, it was supposes to function as a chapter which advanced and developed characters and added more to the plot points to flesh out my new universe, i feel that by now there's been enough time with Donna on the sidelines for her to be comfortable enough to join the team, unlike Diana she is a more insular person and so that affects how others treat her in the group, moving on to Batwoman and Robin's secret investigation, well the two are trained to be investigators and know how to stay undetected, something that the others, even Evelyn couldn't do from someone like batman, plus at this point Evelyn has a lot of stuff on her mind, managing a team, school, worrying about new dangers like super soldier and Lux Luthor, at this point robin is worried about the stress getting to her and that's just the stuff they know about.
Darius's reveal is a major element of this chapter, it brings to light the existence of parallel universe which would hit everyone hard, especially the likes of Donna with the existence of male amazons or Kara with the possible of a universe where her family and home world is exists. Naturally the leagues worried about the impact this will have in terms of who else might have came to their universe from else where.
Evelyn's mental health is showing the strain, she's crushing under the guilt of hiding information from the league for how can she hold out before telling someone the truth.
Anyway its been along while but remember to leave a review on what you like, dislike, thought i might have missed out; you get the idea.
Till next time dear reader sincerely Greywolf41 Esquire!