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M'gann screamed in unexpected pain and stumbled, but Superboy caught her. "M'gann, what's wrong? What happened?" He said concern etched in is face and words.
"She...she..." M'gann was short of breath. Her teammates waited anxiously around. Aqualad getting more concerned asked "M'gann,?" Before she continued, and taking a deep breath through the nose stood straight and said. "She somehow shoved me out. I-I don't know how though, it didn't seem like she was telepathic, but her mind was hard to enter from the start. I was barely in when she noticed me. She shouted, and I quote, 'Nobody is allowed inside my mind.' while I was getting pushed out."
M'gann took a shaky breath, but seemed to be okay. "Did you get anything though?" Aqualad asked, hoping for some clue as to who the unknown assailant was. "Anything leading to who she was and where she came from?"
M'gann pressed her lips together before answering "Not...not really. It's all fuzzy and...and distant," They all leaned in eager to hear all what she had to say. "But, I think she was on some sort of mission. I'm not sure if she knows exactly where she is, but I might have a name." Here she paused to think for a moment.
"Well?" Kid Flash impatiently asked and as a result got knocked in the arm by Artemis who said in annoyance "Give her a minute!"
"Shadow." M'gann said with confidence, completely ignoring Kid's and Artemis' little fight. "her name is Shadow."
When they got back to Mount Justice (or The Cave as the team calls it) Kid Flash ran to change than get something to eat, before the others managed to walk five feet.
Aqualad and Robin went to report to Batman right away. M'gann put her ship to sleep and morphed her clothes to her civilian ones, while Artemis went to her room to change and put away her bow and arrow.
"There are no known Shadows fitting the girl's description." Aqualad reported to Batman.
Robin was entering the description for the third time into the computer trying to find anything related to the girl. Frustrated he said "Nothing is coming up! No police records,birth certificate, social security, school identity, visa. Not even using the Justice League systems, it's like she doesn't exist."
"Batman," Aqualad started. "Do you think it is possible that the Light has succeeded? That they managed to create a portal to space, into other worlds?"
Batman waited a moment before answering than said. "I don't know...it's highly likely, especially given the current situation, but we can't get any solid information until we capture this 'Shadow' and have her interrogated. Until then your next mission is to find her and bring her in. Batman out."
The screen blinked and disappeared Robin looked at Aqualad and asked "When should we leave?"
"We will rest tonight than leave tomorrow." He said than headed towards his room.
"Hey Rob!" Kid Flash yelled from the kitchen. "I made you a sandwich!"
"Coming KF!" Robin shouted back. He pondered for a moment who this Shadow could be, then jogged towards the kitchen.
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Shadow was sore from sleeping on the ground but was feeling slightly better than she had last night. Except she was hungry. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she slowly got up, and put a hand on her stomach as it gave a loud growl.
She stumbled out of the darkness of the ally still not quite sure where she was, from the position of the sun she knew that it was just passed noon, the the street was busy with cars racing down it and she could hear the ocean not to far off. As she took off down the sidewalk she felt in her pockets for any money. Thank goodness I'm wearing my regular clothes, if I was in that stupid X-men costume or whatever they want to call it I'd be in trouble.
She only managed to dig up a little change. Counting the coins in her head she only had 78ยข. Great maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to buy a protein bar. She thought bitterly, she knew that it would probably take ten of those tiny bars to even start filling her up. She couldn't remember the last time she was this hungry, probably when she was still back in Russia.
She walked by a convenience store and stopped. The old gypsy in her briefly rose up saying how easy it would to just go in there wielding her blades and take how much food she wanted, and maybe a little cash... No. Shadow pushed the thoughts down. I promised Sunshine, Chamele, Storm, and Rogue that I would not steal anymore. That's the past, the old Shadow. I can manage to get something...before I collapse. She walked on.
But Shadow could feel herself getting weaker, man she seriously had never been starving like this before, and she knew what it was like to starve. Suddenly an unmistakable scent wafted across her nose. The smell of fresh dough being covered in cheese and pepperoni was so strong it was all she could do to keep her saliva from escaping her mouth.
As she rounded the corner she saw the streets lined with restaurants. All the sights and smells (Oh, the smells!) were overwhelming. But not too overwhelming as she quickly devised her plan. There was a restaurant a few buildings down and as she walked she saw another ally entrance leading to the back of it. Living on the streets she knew the best times to hide in the ally for when the restaurant people would dump the unused and unwanted leftovers.
It always amazed Shadow at how careless Americans were with food. They took so many things for granted, it had enraged Shadow when she had first come here. All the lazy spoiled people, throwing food away after barely eating it. That is, it had made her mad until she found out that Americans were such suckers, some just down-right oblivious, to all of her cons and scams.
Shadow hid behind a dumpster in some restaurant's ally waiting for them to throw something out. This was a trick she had learned when Sunshine had begged her to stop stealing, after days of arguing about it, Shadow had finally agreed to try and find different ways of getting food, and this was one of them. Shadow was dragged from the memories, when the steel door opened with a bang and a boy and a girl were throwing boxes and trash bags outside.
Jackpot! Shadow thought with a smile as the two disappeared and the door closed with another loud crash. She quickly got up from her hiding place and went to the nearest trash bag. Snnniiit was the sound her wrist blades made whenever she willed them out. She always had her wrist blades on her, sometimes it seemed like they were one. Creepy she knew, but she loved the crescent silver blades and the dark blue diamond in the middle down at the base.
With a clean swipe bread rolls came tumbling out of the bag, filling the alley way with the smell. Snniit! Shadow brought the blades back in and started devouring the rolls. This was what she meant for taking food for granted. Perfectly good and tasty rolls thrown out for no good reason. The others back at the mansion tried to explain to her about the health codes and restaurants wanting to have fresh food, but it never really got through to Shadow. Food was food, and this bread was the most delicious food she ever had at the moment.
She paused every once in a while to make sure no one was coming, but no one opened the door again or walked into the alley so she had a peaceful meal. From experience she knew not to eat to much, but gathered up what she could carry and stuff into her pockets and went on with a full stomach and wondering what to do for a drink.
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The team was gathered in the Cave, standing in a semi-circle on top of the glowing blue circle where the holo-grams were floating above.
"This is our mission." Aqualad said pulling up a picture of the Shadow girl they had encountered last night. "To find and capture this female who is called 'Shadow'." He brought up some video feed from last night, it wasn't much , but at the moment it was the best they've got. It showed the Shadow flying in the sky, by using what they assumed was some sort of black energy, and using the same energy to send Superboy flying back down to the lab. "Have you analyzed what that stuff was?" Artemis asked. They were all dressed in their uniforms and ready to start the days hunt.
"We tried getting any chemical or science reading we could, but nothing came up except that it's pure energy." Kid Flash answered than took another bite of his XX large supreme burrito. After a disgusted snort Artemis turned back towards the screen. Kid Flash just stuck his tongue out at her.
"Maybe it's just her telekinetic powers." M'gann offered. "Possibly," Robin answered as he started pulling up the analyzed charts of the energy. "If there isn't any chemical or radio-active readings it might be psychic ability, but I didn't know you could actually see it like this."
"Well...you don't, as far as I had heard and seen back on Mars, no one's telekinetic power is shown like that." M'gann said mouth turned in confusion.
"Maybe it's magic, like Zatanna." Superboy offered. At the mention of her name there was a brief pause. The memory of their teammates Zatanna and Rocket in the hospital after the last mission fresh on their minds.
"Hello M'gann," M'gann said lightly bumping herself on the forehead. "That makes sense."
"But she didn't recite any enchantments. She just raised her hands and there it was." Robin said skeptically.
"Well no matter what this power is," Aqualad said trying to get the team focused back on the mission again. "We need to find her, she could be a potential threat. Miss Martian," He directed towards M'gann. "prepare the Bioship, once we are in the air, do you think you could try and do a mind sweep to see if you can find this Shadow?"
"I will do my best." M'gann said as she went to get the Bioship. The rest followed.