Mount Justice
January 4, 20:01 EST
Cassie felt as though she was walking on air as she strutted out of the main room of the Cave. Alpha squad. She had been on Alpha once before with Nightwing, but she didn't expect that he would choose her again so soon. Maybe Barbara had told their leader of Cassie's ardent wish of being trusted to do more difficult missions.
Still, she was more than pleased with her assignment. So much so, that she caught herself levitating a few inches off of the floor whilst mid-walking. The second she noticed that she was doing it, her body cut off the sensation, letting her fall back down to the floor without any grace.
Her mind started to whirl, "So, my powers are based on my emotions?" No, that didn't make sense. Normally, whenever she would use her powers she would feel a combination of happiness, anger, and determination. Usually, she would just think, "fly" and it'd work. With her strength, she'd just look at something and it hit it. It had worked for her so far.
A hand touching her shoulder took her out of her mind and back to the real world. She turned to see it was Barbara along with the rest of the team who had been assigned to the Krolotean attacks. Trailing along far behind the pack was Robin, his face riddled with his usual expression of doom and gloom.
"You okay?" Barbara asked.
She pushed away all of her questions away to the back of her mind, "Yeah. Let's go."
Cassie twiddled with her hair as she sat alone in the Super-Cycle. Nightwing had yet to arrive in the hanger, and everyone else was busy preparing to leave for their assignments. Barbara, Karen, and Wolf had already left, as their hotspot was thirty minutes away from the nearest zeta tube.
As much as Cassie loved flying, she liked to ride in the Super-Cycle. She liked it more than riding in the Bioship. She still got to feel the wind in her hair and look down on the world from up above. So far, she hadn't any bugs fly into her teeth yet, so that was a plus. She wondered if anyone would be weirded out by the fact that she wanted to borrow the Super-Cycle to see how high from the ground she'd have to fly to avoid getting hit by bugs. From the calculations that she did on her own time, it was five hundred feet.
Across the hanger, Blue Beetle and La'gaan were arguing as they climbed aboard the Bioship. Cassie wondered where Robin had gone, as she did not see him go into the ship nor into the hanger itself. She looked around the spacious room, but she couldn't see him anywhere. Getting up out of her seat, she started to walk around hoping to find him. What sounded like footsteps came down the hallway, and she was curious to see if it was him, or perhaps her leader ready to set off. She cut underneath the Bioship's heavy wing when she nearly crashed into the preoccupied Robin, "Ah!"
"Sorry," he cried out as he jumped away from her. His whole body tensed up with the exception of his arms which had raised themselves into a defensive position.
The two looked at each other, after assessing that neither party was of any threat they instantly cooled down. Not knowing what to say, which was becoming a common occurrence around the boy wonder, Cassie waited to see if he would talk first.
Normally, Tim would wait out eternity rather than speaking to someone first. Most people would tell him that he was being shy, but he just wasn't comfortable being forward in that way. Yet, the bewildered look on Cassie's face made Tim's conscience get the best of him, "Were you looking for something?"
"Umm, yeah. Nightwing. I-I figured he was with you."
Tim stood by for a moment, "No...he's not." Wanting more than anything to leave, he started pointed back down the hallway, "Do you want me to go get him?"
Before he had the chance to escape she shook her head, "No, thank you. I'll just wait here for him. Is your team heading out?"
He nodded, avoiding eye contact with her, "Yeah. Are you too?"
Cassie's raised eyebrow could have touched her hairline, and it still would not have been high enough, "No, I...can't leave without Nightwing."
Blushing red, Tim stumbled over himself, "Right, right. You're on Alpha together."
Caught in an awkward silence, Cassie rocked back and forth on her heels. She should have just gone around him and avoided this one-sided conversation, "So, who's leading your team? La'gaan?"
"I am."
Cassie's head pulled back a bit, "Oh, that's awesome. Is this your first time as a leader?"
Tim felt like his mouth was producing more saliva than was humanly possible. He had to keep swallowing it down in his nervous state, "Yeah."
Reading the fear on the boy's face like a book really bothered Cassie. She had imagined that her own awkwardness was not helping his current mood. She stopped rocking back, letting her center of gravity become normal before she spoke, "Well, I'm really pulling for you."
The lenses of Tim's mask shot up, "Really?"
"Absolutely." She leaned in towards him, "If you do a good job, Nightwing might consider letting some of us other freshmen lead our own missions. Imagine that, taking orders from me or Garfield."
Tim couldn't help but smirk and raise his eyebrow. Cassie realized the ridiculousness of the idea, and let out a light giggle. It was infectious enough to make Tim chuckle for a moment.
"You're right-"
Tim mumbled, "It's not a-"
"Terrible idea?"
Pulling his bottom lip into his mouth, Tim figured he wouldn't get in trouble with Cassie if he didn't say anything. Then again, if he stayed totally silent she'd probably find something wrong with that too. He'd do anything to stay off of her bad side.
Cassie smiled again, "You're gonna do great."
Tim stared at her. Her confidence shone through anything she said. It was a part of her that he highly respected and wished he could reciprocate. Barbara and Dick had that quality too, and they made it look so easy. Here he was doing everything he could to be as calm and self-possessed as people expected him to be. Cassie's certainty was welcomed, but unfounded.
Translation; he couldn't buy it.
He pushed himself around the girl, "Thanks."
Tim marched up the Bioship's ramp refusing to look down at the blonde who stood by so close, and so dumbfounded.
Philadelphia
January 4, 22:55 EST
As the Super-Cycle zoomed across the Philly skyline, Cassie cocked her head back to look at her teammate, "You know I'm flattered that you want to be on a squad with me again, but I don't want you to feel like you have to babysit me."
"I know that," Nightwing replied. "Thanks to Strange's intel, we can find the Krolotean hotspots and shut them down, but the zeta beam traces don't tell us how many Kroloteans there are at each one."
"Meaning?"
A sudden heavy wind current brushed up against the Super-Cycle, forced him to talk louder, "The one we're heading to has the highest concentration of zeta beam radiation-"
Cassie jumped in, "So, safe to assume it has the highest concentration of aliens?"
Nightwing nodded, "With Superboy off-world, you're the heaviest hitter on the team. Which might come in handy, so be ready."
Turning back in her seat, Cassie muttered, "Born ready."
"One Krolotean escaped," Nightwing stated loud enough that Mal could hear him clearly back at Mount Justice.
Cassie stood close by, rewinding her lasso into tight loops. Sure, she didn't need to do it as she didn't get to use it on the mission. So, there weren't any big bad alien butts to kick, so what? It was fine. She wasn't complaining.
Well, she wasn't complaining out loud.
"And Gamma?!"
Cassie turned towards Nightwing/ He paid no attention to her as she darted over to him hoping to hear whatever bad news Mal had to give. Only as she got close enough, her squad member scurried to the Super-Cycle ready to leave.
"What's going on?" she asked as she flew up and into the seat in front of Nightwing. "What's wrong with Gamma?"
Her leader revved up the controls and let the vehicle tear out into the open sky, "We're gathering with the rest of the team. The League will meet up with us on the way to New Orleans."
Cassie could barely hear him over the wind as they flew at break-neck speed, "What's wrong?"
"You wondered where the Kroloteans were? Now we know."
New Orleans
January 4, 22:18 CST
Tim waited as the last of the hostages jumped into the water before he got in. He and Jaime jumped in at the same time, while La'gaan waited a few seconds before following them. The last time he checked, they still had thirty seconds before the bomb would go off, and they were now in the underwater tunnel and heading back up to the surface. Thankfully, everybody knew how to swim, and they were just about at the end of the tunnel.
A few air bubbles passed through Tim's rebreather as he turned to see where La'gaan had gone. Before he could see him, an enormous quake ripped through the tunnel, making all the abductees panic.
In seconds, a giant air bubble shot from where the hideout was, coming straight for Tim and the rest of the group.
"How much longer?" Cassie whined.
They had picked up Batgirl, Wolf, and Bumblebee and were now high-tailing it down to New Orleans. Cassie couldn't wait though, who knew what was happening to her friends. They should have been there by now. Every second they wasted was another second that their friends were possibly being tortured by the evil space-hobbits.
"We're almost there," Barbara whispered to her. "Just a few more-"
A massive explosion burst against the sky, lighting it up into a hellish-bloody hue. It's color and heat was too much for Cassie to straight on look at it, as she had to turn away shielding her eyes.
Against her common sense, she stood up from her seat, setting one of her feet on the back of the driver's seat to get a better look. Her eyes widened as she stared into the fire, watching as it destroyed every last inch of where the Krolotean hideout was. If the team was still in there...that meant, "No."
The force of the air bubble pushed Tim and all of the others in the tunnel like a freight train, taking hold of them without warning and shooting them up towards the surface a hundred times faster than they could swim.
All of the abductees got up to air first, Jaime followed seconds later with their Krolotean captive in hand. Tim's head scanned all of the areas around him, as he had not seen his Atlantean team member come up, "Where's La'gaan?"
Speaking of the demon, said Atlantean shot up from the cold waters shouting, "That's right! Gamma squad rules!"
Sighing with relief, Tim took a moment to be thankful that everyone had gotten out without a problem. Yes, he'd have to explain why there no longer was a Krolotean hideout when backup would come, but he was happy enough to revel in the modest success of his first led mission.
It was not to last though, as Jaime interrupted him, "Uh...Rob?"
Tim's gaze followed the direction that Jaime was looking up to, where low behold, the Justice League was ascending.
Superman, Wonder Woman, and a slew of the other poster children of the League hovered above the soaked Gamma squad. Their capes and hair waving in the wind as they descended towards the water. Making them the very effigies of splendor that many adored. If there was ever a moment Tim truly felt how much weight the images of the League carried, it was then.
A sudden gust of wind knocked the third Robin back for a second, but he recovered within seconds to turn and look at Red Tornado, along with half a dozen more of the League with him.
Like they were all a line of dominoes, another line of League members showed up to the party. Then another. Tim should have held his attention on this group, as his own mentor was amongst their numbers. Instead, he looked up at the alien motorcycle that carried the rest of his team as it made its ascent towards him.
Aboard it sat Batgirl, Bumblebee, and Wolf. Wonder Girl stood halfway out of the cycle, and in front of her at the bike's helm was Nightwing. The pale neutral look he gave towards the three boys currently bobbing in the water could have made anyone feel uneasy.
All three members of Gamma squad looked at one another, silently accepting that in about five seconds, they were about to experience the scolding of a lifetime. They all looked up to their leader, ready to take whatever he threw at them.
Nightwing continued to stare blankly at them. Yet, the group was too far away from him to see the small smirk that the previous Robin was hiding.
He yelled out to his younger brother, "Dude! Way to get your feet wet!"
Tim couldn't help but smile at the warm reception.
Each Justice League member was able to lift all of the abductees from the cold waters and back up to the mainland. Superman and Wonder Woman took charge of putting out the inferno while Batman and Red Tornado took charge of interviewing all of those who had been taken, asking them how long they had been missing and why they had been taken. Aquaman and a few others went back to the submerged hideout to look for any clues.
Nightwing took the Super-Cycle down to the water, getting close enough that it would be easy for all of Gamma to get into the vehicle.
As he was drifting down, Jaime yelled out to him, "How mad do you think Batman is?"
"He's not. Ends justify the means," their leader yelled back.
Tim cocked his eyebrow, "Are you mad?"
"Oh, no," he admitted. "I blew up way bigger things when I was your age."
Suddenly, a small gauntlet-covered hand reached right out in front of Tim's face. His eyes drifted up to the short blonde girl looking down on him.
Cassie's smile gleamed with utter joy as she took Tim's arm, lifting him up into the seat right next to hers, "Told you that you could do it."
Since the Amazon immediately turned away to pull Jaime and La'gaan up, she didn't get to look at the brilliant smile that was dancing across Tim's face.
Author's Notes: Hope the chapter was alright. Thank you for sticking around. Comment or review, both are welcome. You all know the shtick.
Cheers,
EKG