The Crock/West's front door opened early the next morning with a burst of energy. And for once it wasn't a super villain or evil force interrupting them, it was just Dick Grayson, sporting a toothy grin and large box of donuts from his favorite bakery in Gotham.
"Good Morning! I come bearing gifts!" He called, using the spare key Artemis gave him years ago. He was greeted with only Jai who was sitting leisurely, in PJ's, at the kitchen table. Alone, he sat with his feet up, holding a mug of coffee in one hand and his tablet in the other; hacking, most likely. Dick raised an eyebrow at him.
"They're all sleeping." he said putting his tablet down eagerly eyeing the box of donuts.
"It's 10:30." Dick responding glancing down at his watch.
"10:30, in the morning. A Saturday morning." Jai replied. Dick sighed putting the box of donuts down on the table and heading for the stairs. He made his way down the hall to Artemis' door giving two quiet taps before opening the door quickly. Dick expected to his favorite blonde archer in her bed...he, however, did not expect her to be in bed with someone else.
"Uh…." He let out a reactionary noise of confusion, and Artemis suddenly jerked awake, she had never been a heavy sleeper. She rubbed her eyes as they were greeted by the light from the door. Looking up at him, she pushed her hair away from eyes and the blanket away revealing Wally beside her, still under the covers and out cold. Artemis looked from Dick to her bedside clock, and then back to Dick.
"What's going on?" Artemis asked sitting up, and running a hand through her hair and rubbing her eyes.
"Um...why don't you tell me?" Dick said flatly, not quite sure what to think, and motioning to Wally who was still asleep. Artemis turned her head to see the backside of Wally with his messy red hair, and his sleeping form.
"Dick...you don't think-" Artemis began, thinking it blasphemous he even in the slight imply that something happened. She stood up and walked over to the doorway to face him.
"I don't really know what to think." He said definitively, cutting off her pleas and turned and walked back down the hallway. His exit, however, was interrupted by Irey who still looked half asleep, she stood in the middle of the hallway. But she was now awoken and looked confused.
"Dick? Where are you going?" She asked curiously. He looked at her only briefly and couldn't think of something to say, before brushing past her and going down the stairs and out the front door, without another word.
Irey and Jai exchanged a look. The pair stood several steps in front of their mother's bedroom door. It had been several silent hours since Dick's entrance and brisk exit. The twins' parents had not come out of Artemis' room since and they were getting concerned.
"Does this mean mom and Dick are going to...break up?" Irey asked in a whisper.
"I don't know," Jai responded staring at the door expecting it to open any second.
"They didn't fight," Irey said pacing a bit, thinking aloud. Despite her powers being gone and her connection to the Speed Force being severed, Irey still maintained her speedster mannerisms. Short attention span, natural quick wit, and of course, pacing. She never did stop moving.
"What?" Jai asked, confused by her statement.
"They didn't fight. We would have heard yelling. And they're not yelling now. If there wasn't a fight, what happened?" Irey asked. Jai narrowed his eyes in thought. Something obviously did happen, and the question remained.
"You don't think that he-" Irey began but she was cut off by the sound of two comms beeping. The twins once again glanced at each before going to their respective rooms and putting their Team comms in their ears.
"Nightwing to Team. Report to the Mission Room A.S.A.P." Came Dick's voice once they answered the comm.
Irey gave a fleeting glance at her mother's door once again, as Jai put a jacket on and headed down the stairs.
"Iris. Let's go," he said. "I'll send her a text and let her know. We gotta get to the Zeta."
/Flashback 2 years Ago/
"So, you're telling me, that you created this big undercover, secret mission extravaganza and you didn't have a contingency plan for say I don't know, a team member seeking vengeance?" Iris asked flabbergasted by the story she had just heard. The 14-year-old sat parallel to Dick and Artemis in the Cave's lounge with Jai and Damian. The older pair had just told the great story of Artemis' deep cover mission with Aqualad into Black Manta's organization.
"Well, I wouldn't say M'Gann went seeking vengeance… But yeah...We never thought she'd mind-melt Kaldur." Dick said sitting back in his armchair.
"I mean… Even if we knew she was planning on attacking him, what could we have done to stop her?" Artemis mused looking from the kids to Dick.
"Talked sense into her. Reminded Meg that justice prevails or we never go to their bad guy's levels. Anyway…" Dick changed the subject looking back to Irey, Jai, and Damian. "The point of the story is trust. On any team, we must trust each other. And that's hard." Dick nodded to Damian and Jai insinuating one or both boys were having their...issues.
"But what we do is dangerous and can get complicated. And you guys do this because we trust you. You need to trust that and each other and that takes time and is earned. The only way to earn trust is by allowing yourself to put aside your differences" Dick has gotten quite good at inspiring speeches for the Team. He had had nearly twenty years under his belt.
Jai and Damian exchanged a short-lived and awkward glance before looking back to their mentors.
"Trust is earned," Jai said. "I'll trust Robin in the field when Damian makes an effort to be trustworthy." Jai dismissively and walked off, arms crossed. Damian rolled his eyes.
"A bit melodramatic don't you think?" the Robin sighed.
"Well, he's right doesn't you think Dami? You never listen to him when he's helping ops manage." Irey countered.
"I'll listen to him, once something comes out of his mouth worthwhile." And with that, Damian stalked off in the opposite direction.
/Present Day/
"Alright, team. Time for the briefing." Nightwing said pulling up the main computer.
The Team assembled and gathered, Robin, Abuse, Raven, Bunker, Lor-Zod, and Jai and Irey in their civvies. Irey awkwardly crossed arms over her chest feeling so out of place being at a mission briefing in her civvies. She felt weirdly naked as she became more and more aware that everyone was gearing up for their first team mission since she was stripped of her powers. Irey started to notice everyone sneaking in quick and pitiful glances back at her. Her team would soon be leaving without her. The thoughts and anxieties consumed her mind so much that she almost, well basically missed the entirety of the debrief. Something about Santa Prisca and recon was all Irey picked up.
"Everyone clear? Any questions?" Nightwing asked. "Alright. Lor-Zod, you'll take the lead on this mission. Jai will be here managing, as always. I expect a report from both of you when the objective is fulfilled. Good luck out there." Nightwing gave a nod and zeta-ed off as the team giving a final fleeting look to Irey headed off to the hanger.
"Ready?" Jai asked her, snapping Irey back to reality from her thoughts.
"Ready? Ready for what?" Irey asked curiously. Jai pulled up two rolling chairs and sitting down at the holo-computer.
"Ready to see where the real action is, of course," Jai said, obviously joking. Irey hesitantly sat next to her brother who was searching through some folders on the screen.
"I know you're just trying to make me feel better. But no offense, how exciting can sitting her and basically just waiting even be?"
"Oh, come on. I'm like the overseer of everything going on here. Like here check this out." Jai's usual quiet tone seemed to grow more excited as he showed her some seemingly boring files.
"While the team is traveling, I've gotta find all the info on Santa Prisca as I can. Anything that might help. So here look. June 19th, 2010. There was a factory there. Run by Bane. Our dad went there with the team to investigate his factory and fought Kobra cultist." Jai read off an old mission report. At the mention of Wally, Irey perked up.
"What about mom, was she there?" Irey asked.
"Well, let's see…." Jai scrolled through the lengthy report. "She's not listed in personnel...but however...she did not join the team until August of that year." Jai read from a new file he had found on their mother.
"That is actually pretty interesting," Irey admitted looking on with Jai.
"Told you so," Jai smirked. "Anyway, I get to read up and be the expert. Listen in on your comm conversations, which is kinda like an action movie you can't see and stars your close friends and or sometimes family. And hack anything in the area for intel." Jai said proudly. Pulling up another old mission report to read. Not long later, Chris' voice ran through the comms.
"Jai. We're landing in Santa Prisca."
"Copy that. Locking in the ship's location marker so everyone knows where to rondeaux. And I'm on standby." Jai said. Pulling up a second screen displaying a map showing the ship and each team member's location.
"So now we just sit and wait?" Irey asked and Jai simply nodded. "Don't you ever get, anxious? Like you don't know what's going on…" Irey questioned and Jai shrugged.
"Part of the job, I guess. Worrying. Especially when it's been quiet for too long. I know you guys are busy kicking ass or being stealthy but checking in every once in a while, would be nice. Just to know you're not all dead. I'd hate to have to make that phone call." Jai said and Irey thought about it. She had never considered Jai's point of view before. Just sitting here not two hours into the mission was making her nervous.
Suddenly an alert came to Jai's computer. "What's that?" Irey immediately asked.
"Something for me to hack!" Jai said excitedly. His fingers glided across the holo-keys and suddenly he was into surveillance cameras. Only two but he had eyes on the exterior of some building on the island.
"What are we looking at?" Irey asked again, sort of wishing she understood more of this stuff. "Trying...to figure that out…." Jai said half annoyed trying to pinpoint the location of the camera on the map to see where it was and in relation to where the team was. As Jai was busy hacking, Irey noticed something move on one of the cameras. She narrowed her eyes and pointed. "Look!"
Jai looked up to see what his sister had spotted. And he tapped the comm in his ear" "Team. I've got eyes on two armed goons. They are approximately half a mile from your location."
"Acknowledged." Came Chris' response.
"What comes next?" Irey asked eagerly, sitting forward in her chair, carefully eyeing the armed gunmen on the screen.
"We got a long night ahead of us."