Ok, so just so things are more clear, I'm going to put what is said over the mind link in italics. Also, thank you to admiral809 for the reviews, and your latest one gave me an idea for how to get Mallory and Conner to work things out, I just have to figure out how to work it into the story. As for the fact that the seasons may be a little off, I'm not going to worry about that too much because I don't want to go into detail with the whole Failsafe plot, and I need it to be before the Misplaced episode because I will be having Zatana come in, and then eventually joining the team. Anyway, on the chapter, and please review!
Clark took a step, intending to follow Inferno, but Black Canary stopped him with a hand to his arm.
"Give her some time," she said. Her eyes darted to the team. They needed to explain.
"What was that?'' Artemis yelled angrily. Superman turned with a heavy sigh, ready to answer anything they wanted to know, but he was surprised to see that she was glaring at Superboy.
"What are you talking about?" Conner yelled back. "I'm not the one who tried to roast everyone."
"No, you're just the one who turned on the oven," Wally said, furious.
"Wait, we must calm down," Kalder said.
"You were supposed to take it easy with her, not try to take her out," Artemis shouted, ignoring the Atlantian.
Connor clenched his fists. "She's the one who lost control," he growled, his words coming out slow, like he was trying hard not to lose control himself.
"Yeah, cuz you don't know anything about losing control," Wally muttered sarcastically. Connor glared at him. If he had heat vision, Wally would have had two holes going through his head.
"What?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.
"What, you don't remember how we found you?" Wally asked. Connor's knuckles were white now, and Wally's stance turned deadly, his eyes narrowing, his lean, muscular body ready for a fight he knew he would lose.
"Enough," a voice behind them said, and everyone turned. "What happened here?" Batman asked, his voice commanding.
"Oh, nothing much," Artemis replied sarcastically. "Superboy tried to kill Inferno and she reacted by nearly killing all of us, that's all."
Batman's eyes narrowed, and the blonde seemed to remember who she was talking to, shutting her mouth and avoiding eye contact with him.
"Team, training's over, hit the showers," Batman commanded. The team obeyed, Superboy decidedly slower, and as soon as they left the room Batman turned to Clark.
"We need to talk," he said, his tone leaving no room for contradiction. The man of steel and Black Canary followed Batman to the zeta tube and they zetaed to the watchtower.
"All right, Bruce. I know it looks bad," Clark said. Batman and Black Canary glared at him.
"She could have killed someone. Just think what would have happened if anyone other than Conner had been fighting her. Or if Kalder hadn't been able to make the shield in time," Canary said, her voice the only sign that she was shaken.
"If the fight had been with anyone but Conner she wouldn't have lost control," Batman pointed out, looking at Clark pointedly.
"What do you want me to do?" Superman asked tiredly.
"Clark, she needs help," Canary told him. "She has a lot of raw power that she doesn't fully understand. She needs someone who knows exactly how she feels and can help her learn to control it."
Clark nodded. He knew that, but the only pyrokinetic that he knew was a criminal.
Bruce saw Clark's confliction. "Go talk to her, see if she'd be willing to help Inferno," he said. Clark sighed, then nodded. He turned Black Canary.
"You saw how inexperienced she is with fighting. Could you help her get caught up"
Dinah sighed. "I suppose I could. I'd rather she learned from her teammates, but since Connor is the only one who would be safe with her and he's clearly not interested in helping her, I'll try."
Both Batman and Black Canary seem to have something else to say, and Clark had an idea what it was.
"I need to go," he said, not wanting to have the conversation, but Dinah put a hand on his arm.
"Kal, wait," she said, using his Kriptonian name. Not a good sign.
"Dinah, I know what you're going to say, and the answer is no."
Canary's face hardened. "You can't keep pushing him away. He needs you. He wants you to want him. Can't you imagine how he must have felt to find out that you had a partner? That anger nearly got the whole team killed today."
Batman moved to the watchtower computer and punched some keys in, pulling up the security footage from the cave. He wanted to see what had happened for himself. Black Canary and Superman joined him in front of the holographic screen.
They watched Superboy's calculated moves, Inferno's desperate dodges and sloppy punches. They could see the girl's internal struggle as she continued to dodge Superboy's attacks. Her eyes turned red a full minute before she lost control. They saw recognition in Kalder's face as he quietly pulled out his water bearers just as Superboy threw the last punch. Kalder built the shield.
The heroes watched in stunned silence as Inferno flamed up and bent backwards a little in the air, a huge pulse of energy flying from her body, throwing Conner across the room. The fire hit the water shield and flew up, dispersing on the ceiling.
Inferno landed on the ground calmly, not even realizing what she had done. They watched her face, the hurt and fear showing in her eyes, even over the cameras, and watched her run to the zeta tube.
Batman cut off the feed. Clark was the first to speak. "I'll talk to her," he said, and Batman knew he wasn't talking about Inferno.
"Robin, are you sure about this?" Megan asked through the mind link. The team was in the bioship and Robin had a GPS pulled up on his wrist computer.
"Yeah, she's a member of the team, so she's our responsibility," he replied, his tone businesslike.
"But she could have killed us," Megan thought. She felt bad for the girl, but fire was her greatest weakness, and the thought of seeking it out seemed stupid to her.
"I do not believe that she was in full control of her actions when she was fighting Conner," Kalder said. Megan nodded. She didn't think so either, but it didn't change the fact that Inferno had so much raw power, and her not being able to control it only made her more dangerous.
Flashbacks of the training exercise Megan had accidentally taken over passed through the mind link.
"We have to do this," Wally said aloud quietly, breaking the silence of the painful memories. He felt sort of protective of the girl, strange considering he barely knew her, but she'd looked so scared, he couldn't help it.
"How close are we?" Kalder asked.
"Well, we should be right above her," Robin answered, confused. They were currently over a large lake.
Megan landed the bioship on the shore and they got out and looked around. All around the lake was woods.
"Look, up there," Wally said suddenly, pointing over the lake. The team collectively looked up over the lake and there she was. She was sitting on what looked like a fiery horse, just staring out over the trees.
"Inferno!" Artemis called, realizing that she didn't know the girls real name. Inferno looked down in surprise. She straddled the horse and rode it down to the surface of the lake. The team watched in awe as the fire horse galloped across the surface of the lake, the legs never actually touching the water.
Inferno got to shore and the horse disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I'm so, so sorry," Inferno started, but Artemis shook her head.
"We know you didn't mean to." She shot a pointed look at Superboy, who looked away, traces of guilt written on his stony face.
"Why did you come?" Inferno asked.
"Because you are one of us now. We look out for our own," Kalder told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. The new addition smiled slightly, looking around and the team.
"Ugh, hello Megan!" the Martian said, face palming, and Inferno looked at her, startled.
"We haven't done proper introductions!" Megan explained.
"Right, we haven't. I'm Artemis, that's Megan, Superboy is Conner."
"I'm Wally," Kid Flash said.
"My name is Kaldur'ahm, but my friends call me Kalder," Aqualad said.
Robin didn't say anything, and Inferno didn't question it. Somehow she'd known that he wouldn't tell his secret identity, and she was completely fine with that.
"I'm Mallory," she said.
"We can help you with your fighting," Wally offered with a friendly smile. Mallory smiled a little.
"Thanks, but I can't promise I won't barbecue you," she said, her serious tone laced with teasing.
"Don't worry about it, I'm fast, I can outrun a little fire," he assured her.
Robin suddenly put a hand to his ear. "Batman wants us back in the cave," he announced. The team started back to the bioship, but Mallory hesitated.
"You coming?" Wally asked. She took a breath. Just because the team understood didn't mean the League would. They were going to kick her off just when she was starting to make connections. "Yeah, I'm coming," she said, but her gut twisted at the thought of facing Batman.
She followed Wally up the ramp and took her seat. Megan put her hands on the orbs that controlled the ship and her eyes glowed white as she steered the plane, telling it to bring them to what Mallory was thinking of as her court marshal.
Mallory filed out the bioship behind Robin. Batman, Black Canary, and Superman were waiting for them in the hangar.
"Inferno, we need to talk," Superman said. The team stayed behind her for moral support. Superman cleared his throat. He had hoped to talk to her alone, but it didn't really matter if the team was here.
"I know someone who might be able to help you figure out your powers."
She fully expected them to say that they made a mistake asking her to join the team, and send her back to the school. Instead they were helping her.
"When can I meet them?" she asked eagerly. She'd never met another pyrokinetic.
"Tomorrow. I'll bring you to her," Clark said.
Mallory stood in front of her parents, trying to explain the situation to them.
"I lost control in training, almost killed the team and Black Canary," she said, "so Superman is going to bring me to another pyrokinetic to see if she can help me learn to fully control my powers."
"Who is this lady?" Darrin asked.
"I don't know. He didn't give me a name. He should be here early tomorrow to pick me up."
Elaine sighed. Mallory realized that this was the end of the third day of her 2 week vacation, and she'd barely seen her parents, and she was making plans to fill up the rest of the two weeks.
"I'm sorry I haven't been home much," she said quietly. Elaine mustered a smile.
"We understand, dear. We know it's important for you to control your powers."
Mallory smiled. "Thanks," she said.
"Well, dinner should be ready," Elaine announced. The family went to the kitchen and made their plates.
"Mallory, I don't know how I feel about you spending so much time with these superheroes." Darrin told her when they sat down.
"What do you mean?" She asked, fearful for a moment that her father would say that he wanted her to give it up.
"Well, they just don't seem like a good influence."
Mallory sifted through her memories, trying to remember what she could have told her dad that would have given him that impression. She couldn't think of anything.
"They're good people, Dad. They look out for each other. We look out for each other."
He didn't seem to like her putting herself in with the team.
"Mal, they've been doing this for so long. I mean, take Robin for instance. Gotham is a bad city. He's certainly seen things, even experienced things, that you can't even imagine. And take the heroes that work with these kids. What kind of responsible adult takes a child and sets them to fighting crime?"
Mallory sighed. He had a point, but if he could meet the people he was talking about he wouldn't doubt them.
"Dad, it's hard to explain, but it's not that big a deal," she said. Darrin didn't look convinced.
"Eat your food before it gets too cold," Elaine put in. The meal was eaten in tense silence after that, and Mallory went straight to bed afterwards.
"Darren, we need to find a place in her life right now, not try to control everything," Elaine told her husband as they cleaned the kitchen.
Darrin sighed heavily. "It's hard to watch her walk out that door now, knowing that she's willingly going to put herself in danger," he said. He leaned against the sink like it was the only thing keeping him up.
Elaine stepped over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "I know, dear. But she made this decision, and I'd dare say that even if we were totally against it there would be nothing we could do about it. We need to be glad that she's telling us what is happening. If we keep criticizing and overreacting when she tells us what happens, she'll just stop telling us. We've been apart so long, it's going to take some time to grow as a family. I don't want to ruin our relationship with her over something we don't have any control over."
Darrin sighed again. He knew his wife was right, but that didn't mean he liked it any better than before.