The whole group left with us and were soon sitting themselves down in what seemed to be a conference room. Taking their lead I sat in one of the rotating chairs, pulling Sadira down beside me. A moment later we were joined by two more younger, female heroes. I guessed they were Nightwing and Kid flashes other team mates. The girl had sort of a jester themed costume with geometric diamond patterns, her hair was a blazing auburn I was immediately jealous of, yet by the scowl on her face I guessed she was probably was an A class bitch. Harsh observation but I doubted it was false. The second girl I immediately recognised. Not that I'd actually seen her before but going by her attire she was one of Wonder Woman's protégées. The silver armlets and silver, gold and red outfit were more than enough to give me this idea. As she sat down I eyed a single blonde hair escaping what must be a black wig.
"So," Batman hushed the entire table with that one word. "Emily, Sadira, this is the rest of League Beta. Card Queen – " he inclined his head towards the jester who simply raised an eyebrow at me – "And Wonder girl." On making eye contact with her she smiled and waved, in attempt to not cause her any embarrassment I smiled back and tugged one of my own hairs in the same place as hers. Thinking she'd simply tuck it in before Batman saw.
Her reaction wasn't exactly what I expected.
"Oh balls!" She exclaimed so loudly everyone jumped. I snorted quietly. I already liked her. She pulled off the wig furiously and slammed it so hard on the table that it shook. "I don't think I'll ever be able to get this secret identity thing right!"
"Maybe if you learn to put a wig one right Cass," Card Queen hinted dryly. "Or, I dunno not rip it off in front of everyone?"
The girls cheeks flamed, making me pity her a little. I can't stand bullies.
"The blonde hair is definitely an indication," I spoke up before being able to stop myself. "But you giving us, I dunno, her name was probably more useful."
Card Queen glared at me, her eyes flashed… purple? As some of the others snorted.
Vixen cleared her throat. "Enough. We're here to discuss the interest the villains have taken in Emily and how we can stop them from harassing her so she can have a comfortable, normal life, right?"
I nodded, comfortable and normal sounded nothing more than blissful right now.
"It has to be her absorption abilities," Wondergirl spoke first. "Why else would they want her, I mean, it's a seriously powerful ability to be able to have any power you want right?"
"That would be the obvious one," Steel answered. "But it really doesn't make any sense. There are already villains out there easily bought with very similar abilities such as Parasite and Leech. They wouldn't go to this much trouble if it was just her powers."
"Do you ever think," Card Queen spoke up once more. "That she's been holding out on you?"
I really didn't like her.
All eyes focused on me making me shuffle uncomfortable in my seat.
"What do you mean?" I asked trying to dodge questions with ignorance.
"She means," damn, it had to be Batman. "We don't know enough about you to actually have a chance at figuring out what they want from you. I can't just pull out your file because you haven't got one. To the world neither of you exist."
I glared at the metal table in front of me, refusing blatantly to meet any of their gazes.
"Come on Emily," Vixen said properly. "What is it going to take for you to open up?"
A hand touched my leg. I looked at Sadira who nodded encouragingly.
"Their right Em," she said smiling. "How can they help us if they have no idea what to look for? And if we can't trust this lot who can we trust?"
No one would have been my answer to that but I knew it would have hurt her. The only thing she's ever wanted is friends and allies who she could trust and seeing this lot has given her so much hope it would probably crush her if they turned against us. I glanced around once more, honestly, she was right. These are probably the only people in the world, the known galaxy in fact that I should be able to spill my guts. They risk their lives for ordinary people every day without complaining.
I sighed, feeling as if I was about to jump off a very high, very dangerous cliff.
"Fine…" I muttered and Sadira gave me such a big smile that it tugged my chest. If these heroes crushed her I vowed to make them pay. "Sadira and I were born in a Laboratory. We have no idea who our parents are because that never mattered to the scientists there. We were test tube babies, our heritage chosen by genetics and are still nameless and unknown to both of us.
I obviously don't know where I was born, or where they'd keep us as new borns, my first memory was when I was three years old, the first day they took me to testing."
Everyone sat in total silence, a silence that felt like it was smothering me. I could feel Sadira's very still frame next to me. Even she had never heard these words leave my mouth. I felt myself hold her hand tighter as I continued.
"They were breeding mutants. Every day they would take us for physical testing for an hour where they'd coax us to use our abilities for water and food. Afterwards we'd be drugged and handed over to the neuroscientists. I could see them doing it on the way into training rooms. There, they would feed us information on the outside world. I'd always woken up with new knowledge, a language, geography, anything and everything artificially taught to us while sleeping.
"For ten years I was held in a Laboratory, in a cage by myself. That was until they carried in Sadira." I squeezed her hand when I said her name. "She was only three years old, the age they start testing. I remember the guard mutants who carried her in said that they were running out of rooms to place us and putting two older mutants together could lead to escape plans forming.
What they didn't realise was that Sadira was much smarter than any kids her age, she mastered her powers within six months without letting the brains know."
"Only because you told me to," Sadira interjected, her face warming.
"I guess, but it was because of you I formed an escape plan. You see, at twelve years of age we were taken out of that facility and moved to an adult one. I knew that once I left Sadira would live like an animal in captivity her whole life, over our ten months together I'd gotten … attached. So when I'd just turned eleven, I knew I didn't have very long to do something."
"So you escaped?" Nightwing asked. "Just like that?"
I glared at him. "No, not 'just like that'. We didn't have any powers outside the testing rooms. They gave us collars specifically created for our individual powers."
"So how'd you get out?"
"You see, during the time I was by myself I wasn't showing any progress at forming super human abilities. I was too young to know anything but hear them get frustrated when I couldn't do anything useful like transport or telekinesis. Not fully understanding my power, I would be in line for the testing with another mutant. A fire maker named Fourteen."
"Fourteen?" Kid Flash asked confused.
"We weren't given names. Numbers instead. Sadira was thirty four and I was Thirteen."
"Unlucky eh?" He grinned.
"You don't know the half of it. Anyway, being barely five years old I didn't understand anything but the fact that the brains wanted me to have a power. So I would borrow Fourteen's every day after his physical. They were satisfied then. When I got older I chose not to tell them my true power, they rarely gave us physical tests after we turn seven, that's when mainly blood and endurance tests start."
I felt some of them shudder. "When it came to breaking out my collar only stopped a fire making ability, which I lost over time anyway. So basically I created enough of a disturbance to get our nightly guard close enough, absorbed his power and with the help of little Sadira got away."
"What power did he have?" Vixen asked, they all seemed a little stunned by my story.
"Mind pushing."
"You told us you still had that power, how come you lose some abilities yet have held on to that one for so long?"
"It all depends on how much I absorb, how long I connect with the mutant. If I hold on for long enough I can keep the ability indefinitely. Usually though I only borrow them for a few hours at a time. When Slade ordered me to do his jobs for him I'd take Sadira's gifts for a while before they wore off."
They all gaped at me, even Queen of Card's look was gratifying.
"And how does your power work exactly?" Steel woke up the quickest. "You obviously need physical contact with the mutant and then what happens."
"I literally just absorb," I wanted to just stop there but I got a stern look from Sadira and sighed once more. "Alright, well I absorb more than their abilities. I absorb their memories as well."
They looked taken back again. Superboy looked almost panicked. "What do you mean?" He demanded.
"I mean that our powers are connected to our emotions and our emotions are so wrapped up in our memories that my power can't separate them. So I absorb them both and the more power I take the more memories I get landed with."
"What memories of mine did you see?"
I shuffled uncomfortably. "Yours weren't very lucid… they didn't really make any sense?"
"Tell us," he demanded firmly.
"Alright, I didn't get much because I didn't mean to take your abilities for very long but what I did get didn't seem… I mean I don't think they were yours."
"They weren't my memories?"
"Well, that's how it felt to me. Your emotions were bonded to them sure but not attatched. I saw flashes of blue and red, your super-symbol and a woman."
"A woman? Who?"
"I don't know, she had dark brown hair, looked like she was in her early thirties…" I closed my eyes and summoned the image of her, trying to get every detail for him. "She seemed to be working around a load of computers and paper… an office maybe? Ring any bells?"
He shook his head looking disappointed, Wonder Girl patted his back muttering something to him which he nodded to. At the corner of my eye I saw Batman and Vixen exchange a look.
"That memory wasn't Super boys," he growled. "It's Superman's."
"So Superman knows the woman?" It was my turn to be confused. "Why does Conner have it then?"
"I'm his clone," he stated angrily. "I've only been let out of my bio-pod five years so I've no childhood memories of my own. You must have taken the memory from Superman's DNA."
It all seemed awfully complicated to me but I decided to take their words for it. From the feeling of a dry mouth from talking for so long I knew first-hand how complicated it is to explain a mutants history.
"So it seems all arrows are pointing to that Laboratory," Nightwing spoke up. "Where did you say it was again?"
"I didn't. Because I haven't a clue where it is."
"But you escaped from it didn't you?"
"Yes, but after we got out I carried Sadira through a forest and hitchhiked to a city with an airport before conveniently 'convincing' someone to hand us a ticket to America."
"And where was this airport?"
I frowned, trying to remember. "Um… Dub something? Somewhere in Europe."
Nightwing started tapping something into his arm before a holographic map of the world appeared before us.
"Do you remember how long the flight was even?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Uh… eight hours maybe? Seven?" It felt so long ago that my brain hurt trying to remember.
"Does Dublin sound right to you?"
"Yeah!" The memory snapped back into place. "Dublin airport." The guy was good I'll give him that.
"Right it's the capital city of a small country called Ireland, just beside the U.K." Nightwing informed the group, reading the information off his arm. Making the holographic map bigger he highlighted the island. Across the Atlantic sea Ireland lay at as a far westerly point of Europe. Nightwing wasn't exaggerating when he meant small though.
"Great," I said chirpily. "So we search the island and – "
"You make that sound easy," Nightwing said. His cocky attitude was really beginning to grate on me. Gritting my teeth I met his gaze.
"Well, it is a small place… We could have been landed with Russia."
"Even if it was the size of Happy Harbour we'd still have trouble. We've come across Labs like these before, Superboy was found in one. They're mostly underground and the building above it could be anything. We need more information if we're ever going to find it."
"Well I don't have anymore!" My temper snapping. "I was eleven years old, terrified that if they caught us she'd be shot on the spot and since the moment I knew I'd gotten her out of there I've been trying very hard to forget every detail of that night! And for the most part I'm glad I've succeeded."
We glared at each other then, in such a heated silence that Kid Flash felt the need to clear his throat to speak.
"That's easy then, we get someone else to remember for you."
"What?" Nightwing and I snapped in unison.
"Martian Manhunter!"
"Of course," Batman nodded making Kid Flash look pleased with himself. "Manhunter can access the memories trapped deep inside your subconscious tell us giving us a trail to follow directly to that Lab."
"Seems simple enough," Card Queen shrugged lightly.
"That's why I'm getting League Beta to take over from here."
League Beta nodded, seeming to be well up for the mission.
"Hey wait a second," I said frowning, my voice seemed to break up their planning. "I'm going too!"
"Don't be stupid," Nightwing said. Not hitting him was starting to become a task in itself. "You'll only slow us down."
"Excuse you Mr. 'I think I'm so great because I've gone through puberty and switched my tights for latex', this is not my first mission and part of your master plans involves someone rooting in my head. Plus, I deserve to know the reason behind people coming after me and beating me up!"
"That's my point! People keep beating you up because you're not trained!"
"That's settled then," it was only when Batman cut into our argument that I realised we had stood up to yell across the table at each other. I sat down slowly crossing my arms over my chest.
"What's settled?"
"You'll train here with us for the time being."
"What?" Nightwing and I spoke in unison, again.
"I just made contact with the league. Martian Manhunter is on a mission off Earth and won't be able to make back here for the time being. You can live and train with the team until he arrives so that you will be prepared for the mission."
"But Batman – " Nightwing tried to argue but well, he's Batman.
"That's my final decision, do the rest of the Justice League agree?" Steel and Vixen nodded. Vixen once again looked nearly too happy with how things worked out. "Good. Wonder Girl, show Emily and Sadira to their rooms."
I stood up a little dazed. Quite unsure with what had just happened. As I followed Wonder Girl down the halls I could barely get my head around the recent turn things had taken.
Had I just… joined League Beta?
"Here are your rooms!" Wonder Girl's voice broke through my thoughts. She was smiling at me. "I thought you'd guys like connecting rooms. Card Queen and I are just across the hall if you need anything, the boys are in the west wing."
Sadira, obviously not being able to stand it any longer gave a chirpy good bye and raced to check out her new bedroom. I turned back to the young blonde.
"Thanks," I said sincerely. "I appreciate it Wonder Girl."
"Oh! Call me Cassie. Cassie Sandsmark, as you've probably noticed I'm really not into the whole secret identity thing."
"Right. Well, thanks Cassie."
With a smile and a wave she turned to go but obviously remembering something she stopped.
"Oh! And Nightwing told me to tell you to meet him in the gym seven am sharp."
I snorted. "Why the hell would I ever do that?"
She laughed then. "To start your training silly! Nightwing trains all of us! I mean, he was trained by Batman."
She left then leaving me gaping into space. I couldn't believe it, the one person that I intended to ignore for the duration of my stay gets to beat me up twice daily and call it 'training'.
"Fuck." I groaned and slammed the door to my new room behind me. As bad as today was tomorrow's going to be a hell of a lot worse.