MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 3,19:10 EDT
"The Watchtower detected an immense energy surge in the Bialyian desert." Batman said "Spectral analysis revealed elements non terrestrial in origin. Find out what happened to that site, what landed there. Bialya is a rogue state, ruled by Queen Bee and not a member of the League's UN charter, all communications are subject to interception. Maintain radio silence at all times." He finished, looking at the assembled team.
"I don't think Ghost should go." Robin said suddenly. All eyes turned to the youngest team member.
"What? Why?" Artemis asked, frowning.
"I don't think anything would happen but the last time Ghost went out on a mission with the team he tried to kill someone and the last time he went out on a normal mission, he blew up Cape Canaveral. Ghost, if it was a normal mission I would be perfectly happy with you coming, but radio silence means we wouldn't be able to track you. I don't want to risk you actually killing someone."
"That's ridiculous." Artemis said firmly. Robin looked at the rest of the team: Superboy, passive as ever, Ghost watching carefully not saying anything on the subject, M'gann frowning slightly, Wally and Kaldur looking contemplative.
"I know, but Cadmus, I think they did something," He said turning to Artemis, "You said that when he was going to kill Cheshire he seemed different. I think they amplified the fight part of his fight or flight reflexes, I think when he gets in danger he pushes back with lethal force." He looked at Batman who nodded.
"Now you raise the point it does seem so. I will remind Black Canary to try a different approach and will see if Martian Manhunter could help."
"No." Ghost said with a surprising urgency. "No mind reading, no telepathy. I'll work on it with BC, I don't need my mind jumbling even more. Robin has more experience than me, if he doesn't want me to go, I don't need to go."
"Red Tornado is on Watchtower duty. As you are well aware, the terms of your 'probation' dictate that you are not left alone, I will see if Black Canary can come and… Babysit." Batman said. Ghost tilted his head to the side and sighed.
MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 3, 20:13 EDT
"Seriously?" Black Canary asked, incredulous as she sat on the opposite end of the couch from Ghost. The two had originally suggested a one-on-one training session before Black Canary decided that she was aching too much from a mission with Green Arrow in Star city to cope with more combat. "You've been a member of the team for a month and no-one's made you watch The Lion King?" Ghost shook his head.
"Well, we better fix that as soon as possible." The Heroine said firmly grabbing the remote to the TV to put the movie on. Ghost put his feet up on the coffee table and looked at the TV as the movie started.
The two were silent for about five minutes before Ghost surprised Black Canary by speaking.
"Why?" He asked.
"Why what?" She asked, turning to face the boy.
"I've been living in the cave with M'gann and Superboy for a month now, but you're the first person who seems to be bothered about how I feel, I mean, I've only been feeling things for a month, that's why I broke out of Cadmus' control, my Limbic system, the emotional centre of my brain, managed to become active. For a month I've been feeling emotions but not knowing what they mean, no one's even asked about my emotions. The team pays M'gann and Superboy plenty of attention, even though M'gann just needs to be taught about Earth's culture and Superboy just needs to know not to supress his feelings. It just seems wrong to me that they support those two so much but practically ignore me."
Black Canary's eyes widened as she realised just how neglectful her and the rest of the league had been, she felt the sting of oncoming tears, which surprised her, maybe it was just empathy but she felt sorry. The rest of the team had been helping Superboy to get more accustomed to the environment and she had taken it for granted that they had been doing the same for Ghost, but now it was clear that they hadn't, that annoyed her slightly. She reached over and placed a hand on Ghost's shoulder in a reassuring manner.
"Ghost, if you're confused, talk to me, I want to help you, Cadmus put you through hell and back, I want to help you get back to normal." She said tenderly. Ghost looked up and nodded in return and Canary supposed that was the closest things she would get to a smile of agreement. She sighed, sat back and turned her attention back to the movie.
MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 4, 01:47 EDT
Green Arrow had been expecting to walk into the Cave at almost two in the morning and find Black Canary training with Ghost. He hadn't been expecting to find Ghost sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the TV and Black Canary lying on the couch asleep.
"Hey." He said to Ghost, slightly amused.
"Hi." Ghost said, not looking away from the movie.
"What've you been watching?" Green Arrow asked, leaning on the back of the couch and looking down at the sleeping form of his girlfriend.
"Disney." Ghost said and, true enough, when Green Arrow looked up at the TV and properly paid attention, he instantly recognised that the movie playing was Mulan.
"What have you watched so far?" Green Arrow asked, walking around the couch and taking a seat.
"Lion king one and two, BC said that three wasn't very good."
"Humph, she was right."
"And I'm about halfway through Mulan." Green Arrow nodded and put his bow down, pulling his hood down as well.
Ghost turned to him, head tilting to the side.
"What? You recognised Artemis after literally five seconds, I figure there's only so many blonde, muscled guys with a moustache in Star City so you've got to know who I am."
"Yeah but most people would worry about showing it so blatantly." Ghost said
"Maybe, but I know I can trust you, you haven't told anyone about Artemis yet." Oliver replied.
"I suppose." Ghost said. There was a silence, comfortable with both parties being perfectly happy to simply sit and watch the movie before a loud grumbling interrupted them. Ghost turned and looked at Oliver although the archer could guess that an eyebrow was being raised underneath the mask.
"What?" He asked in a mockingly defensive tone, "I've been on patrol all night, I'm hungry."
"We've got ice-cream." Ghost said, in a sing song tone and a huge smile broke onto Oliver queen's face.
"Ice-cream? You, sir, are a god." Ghost and he both stood up and raced into the kitchen. Ghost opened the freezer (Oliver was glad to see that he had improved in that regard at least) and dug out a tub. Oliver scanned through the drawers and found a stack of bowls and after a moments thought he grabbed three. He then searched for the cutlery drawer and after finding it pulled out three spoons. He turned back to the island to see Ghost holding an ice-cream scoop, his eyebrows furrowed wondering where the scoop had come from before realising that he didn't much care. The Archer spread the three bowls in a line on the counter and Ghost began scooping ice-cream into them. Once he was finished Oliver picked up two of them and walked back into the living room.
"Hey." He said softly nudging Dinah's shoulder. After a few more nudges the woman woke and looked around for a moment, confused as to where she was before looking up at Oliver.
"Oh, hi Ollie." Oliver smiled at her.
"Me and Ghost got ice-cream." Oliver said, handing her a bowl and spoon.
"Huh? Oh yeah, Ghost." She looked around and saw the teen sitting on a spare chair, legs curled up beneath him in a very zen fashion. He nodded at her before looking down at his bowl of ice-cream.
"You know you can at least lift the mask to eat right?" Oliver asked, smiling slightly. Ghost looked up at him blankly for a full ten seconds before pulling the bottom of his mask up to his nose. His lips were thin but he had a very distinctive narrow square jaw. Oliver and Dinah exchanged a look as they realised just who Ghost was a clone of. Ghost scooped up a generous spoonful of ice-cream and shoved it into his mouth.
"Woah their kiddo, you're gonna get yourself a brain freeze!" Oliver yelled as Dinah started to laugh.
"Nope," Ghost said, smirking slightly, "Cadmus got rid of that."
"Dude, seriously? I mean you got messed up pretty bad but you lost the ability to get a brain freeze, that's gotta be pretty good."
"Yeah, I suppose." Ghost said before falling silent.
No one spoke, each of them turning their attention to the movie.
MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 4, 03:50 EDT
The group were silent for a while as they watched the rest of Mulan and Mulan 2 before ghost sighed and rose to his feet, stretching his arms.
"I'm off to bed." He said, walking away from the two heroes, heading towards his bed room. The two were silent for a few moments before Dinah spoke up.
"That was… surprising." She said.
"Yep." Oliver replied.
"He was telling me a little bit about himself, which is more progress than we've made in any of our therapy sessions. I didn't realise how… hard all of this had been on him. I realised there had been so many times where he'd been almost robotic that I forgot he was a human kid, a human kid who's sixteen years old and who's only felt emotions for a month, the team haven't noticed, so he's been sitting around the cave 24/7 doing nothing, confused and alone." Tears where starting to build in the blonde's eyes. "We fucked up, Ollie, we fucked up really bad." Oliver nodded his agreement.
"The lack of emotional sharing isn't exactly surprising considering who he's a clone of."
"No," Dinah sighed, "But I wish it would be surprising, do we tell Bats, that Ghost's his clone?"
"No," He leant across and clasped Dinah's hands in his own, "Bruce can't emotionally support Ghost anywhere near as well as you can, help the kid through this, keep on reminding him that you're there for him, he'll be okay eventually." Dinah nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks before sitting back, glaring at the ceiling.
"Maybe it's just the natural mother in me, but I really wish Ghost hadn't killed Desmond, 'cause right now I really want to kick the absolute shit out of that fucking bastard."
As the two heroes' conversation petered out into silence Ghost detached himself from the security camera in there and sighed. He lay on his back, hands clasped over his chest, staring up at the ceiling.
Orders received: Explain.
Query: Explain what?
Orders received: Access data logs for (08/08/10): Explain necessity for control alteration.
Response: Host was in danger, G-01 lacks ferocity to save himself, S-01 was required.
Statement: False, G-01 lacks ferocity but has self control, S-01 was not required.
Orders received: In future query host about any control alterations, before executing them.
Query: (Source A-01) Why should we? We may have relinquished control but we can take it back at any time.
Response: (Source G-01) You are AI, you are no longer in control, if it is necessary I will eliminate all traces of you from the databanks, you are not in full control and never will be again.
Statement D-01: I agree with the host, was it not you who suggested that the host be returned to control Angelo?
Statement A-01: Yes, but I had in mind that the host would trust us to preserve him when he could not.
Statement G-01: You underestimate me, Angelo, I can always preserve myself I do not need S-01 to be in control to save myself.
ERROR: Host is getting angry, suggest calming music or atmosphere as solution.
Ghost clicked his fingers and some soothing classical music began to play, filling the room with sound.
Statement A-01: I still believe that the host is in error.
Statement D-01: Angelo, you may not be human but you should have at least some concept of sticking with your own decisions.
Statement A-01: This is not how I estimated the situation would unfold, this is wrong.
Statement D-01: No, Angelo, our former situation was wrong, two AI in tandem control over a person, repressing said person's emotions? We cannot, we will not return to that state.
Statement A-01: We will see, but if host is in risk of almost certain death I will put S-01 in control.
A/N: So this chapter took longer than I though it would, originally Ravager was going to attack Ghost in the cave, but I was struggling to make a fight that was long enough because, well, Ghost can turn intangible (a weakness or two will be showing up over the course of this season/story, don't worry) and that means Ravager's on a distinctive back foot.
I really wasn't sure whether I liked the plan for this chapter and I'm not very good at writing this sort of stuff but I think it went okay.
Also, the reason Angelo and Diablo seem to constantly change their opinion is because they are, well, AI so they tend to not stick with their decisions because they assess each situation differently.
part of the reason it took this long was because i forgot to upload it, so sorry.
Next chapter ought to be fun.