This chapter is a little long, but I hope you like it. I wanted to do a chapter like this for a while, and I finally got around to it. Hope you like it, please review.
"Good work, Megan, but keep your arms tighter," Black Canary called onto the arena. Megan pulled her arms closer to her, and Zatanna dodged the Martian's next punch. Mallory blocked their fight out, focusing her attention on Wally as they circled each other, looking for a way in.
"Hey, Mallory! Wally! Megan! Guess what!" Peter yelled, running into the training room. Gar had turned himself into a monkey and was riding on the younger boy's shoulder.
Mallory's eyes narrowed, trying to block out the distraction. She noticed Wally's eyes shift to them and took the opportunity to spin kick, catching him on the chin. Wally staggered back, and Mallory gave him her best imitation of the Bat Glare. "Get your head in the game," she told him.
Wally grinned and flew into her, throwing punches and kicks faster than she thought was possible of a normal person. She did a sloppy backhand spring, managing to kick him in the process, and kept her distance for a moment.
"Hey, no powers, remember?" she said.
"Oh, what's wrong with using them just a little?" he asked.
Mallory grinned, her eyes turning red. "Well, if you don't mind," she said, lighting her palms and running towards him. Wally's eyebrows shot up and he dodged.
"Inferno, Kid, that's enough of that!" Canary yelled. Mallory sighed and put out the fire.
"Mallory, will you just throw him already? I've got to show you something!" Peter yelled. He and Gar were standing with Canary.
Mallory shook her head. "You heard him," she said, grinning.
Wally rushed her, spin kicking, and she grabbed his leg, using his own momentum to literally throw him across the arena floor into Zatanna and Megan's fighting space. Megan flew up in surprise, and Zatanna narrowly missed tripping on the speedster. Peter cheered from the sidelines, and Mallory grinned and helped her friend up.
"Nice move," Wally said, rubbing his head.
Canary strode over to the group. "Mallory, next time, keep the fight contained. In the field, you can't be throwing bad guys into your teammates without warning." Mallory nodded and Canary eyed the boys and sighed. "Well, I guess training's over for the day," she said, heading for the zeta tube.
When the Leaguer was gone, Mallory turned to the boys. "Ok, what was so important?" she asked.
"We're gonna join the circus!" Gar announced excitedly.
"What?!" Mallory asked, and Wally face palmed and muttered, "Oh, no."
"Yeah, come on! You have to see our act!" Peter said, grabbing his sister's hand and pulling her towards Robin's training room. Mallory, Megan, Wally, and Zatanna followed the boys and congregated by the door while they scampered up the ladder to the trapeze bars.
"Where did this come from?" Mallory asked under her breath. Wally smiled and didn't say anything.
Gar stepped up to the edge of the platform and jumped to the first bar. He swung to the next bar, growing a tail and holding on by it. Peter jumped to the first bar, then jumped and grabbed hold of Gar's hands. They did a few more stunts, flipping around in the air. Then Peter missed the bar, and all four heroes on the ground sprang into action, running to catch him before he hit the floor.
"No, don't," Peter ordered, glaring even as gravity was hurling him to the ground. The heroes stilled, but Mallory noted gratefully that Wally was ready to run. Gar turned into some sort of huge bird and dived off the platform, catching Peter just feet from hitting the floor. They landed, and turned to the older heroes, grinning and panting.
"Well?" Gar asked.
Mallory and Megan exchanged a glance. "It was good," Zatanna told them, nudging her friends.
"Yeah, but why do you want to join the circus?" Megan asked.
"Because it's fun, and we wouldn't have to go to school," Peter replied.
Mallory crossed her arms. "You'd still have to go to school," she informed them.
The boys looked at Wally for a second opinion, and he nodded. "Aww, man," Gar whined.
Megan laughed. "You're homeschooled, what are you so upset about?" she asked.
"That's worse than going to school. Mom knows all my homework, and she doesn't let me help her until I get it all done," Gar explained. The Martian shook her head and smiled.
"Hey, you two want to play a video game?" Wally asked.
"Uh, yeah, duh!" Gar replied. The three of them went out to the living room, leaving Megan, Zatanna, and Mallory in the training room.
"Robin's been busy," Megan mentioned, "they're really good."
Zatanna grinned. "They're fast learners. I was spotting Peter the other day. When he falls, it doesn't even phase him, he just gets up and tries again."
Mallory sighed. She'd noticed her brother's enthusiasm in learning from Robin, and how he craved the adrenaline rush. Still, she pushed the thought to the side. He was almost seven, there was still plenty of time to discourage him from wanting to be a superhero.
"Do you two feel like going out tonight?" Zatanna asked. "I'm in the mood for patrolling."
Megan smiled. "We never did do that girls night we were talking about," she said.
"I'll call Raquel, Mallory, you call Artemis," Zatanna said. Mallory nodded and went to her room to get the burner phone Robin had given her. He'd put all of their hero names in, and decorated each phone according to whose it was. Hers had flames on it, Artemis's had an arrow, Wally's had lightning, Conner's had an S, Zatanna's had a top hat, his had a gold R symbol, Kaldur's had waves, Rocket's had an actual rocket, and Megan's had a red X. She found Artemis's number and texted the archer to meet them at the cave, then called Iris.
"Hello?" the reporter said.
"Hey, it's Mallory. Would you be able to watch Peter and Gar tonight? Some of us are going out, and no one's gonna be at the cave."
"Sure, no problem. You can drop them off anytime."
Mallory smiled. "Thanks, I'll be there soon. She hurried to find the boys in the living room with Wally, right in the middle of a video game. "Hey, guys, you want to go to Aunt Iris's for the night?" she asked.
"We're busy," Gar informed her, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"I can see that," Mallory replied, then she turned to the older boy. "Wally, could you play video games with them at your uncle's house?"
Wally shrugged. "Sure. Come on, guys, let's go."
He gathered the game and the controllers and Mallory herded the boys to the zeta tube. The four of them appeared down the street from Barry and Iris's house, and they walked the rest of the way. When Iris answered the door, the boys rushed in to get themselves settled in front of the tv. Iris laughed and gave first Mallory, then Wally a hug.
"Thanks for watching them on such short notice," Mallory said, watching as Wally set the game up on the tv.
"No problem. You know I love watching them. Besides, it's been too long since I've seen you and Peter."
Mallory smiled. "I know. We've just been pretty busy at the cave."
"Oh, I know. Barry told me about your super punch, and the future people staying in the cave."
Mallory sighed and smiled. Of course the Flash's wife knew everything that was going on. The man couldn't keep a secret to save his life. She didn't know how he'd managed to keep his identity secret all these years.
"Well, I've got to run. If they get to be too much trouble, tell them that they can always go back to the cave and have Batman babysit them."
Iris laughed. "Oh, come now, don't be cruel."
Mallory laughed and gave her another hug before hurrying back down the street to the zeta tube. She went to her room and was pulling out her suit when someone knocked on her door.
"Come on in," she called, setting the suit on the top on her dresser.
"Hey, I was talking to Clark and we thought you and Conner should-" Kara let her voice trail off and tilted her head. "You going somewhere?" she asked, gesturing to her costume.
"Yeah, some of the team are going on a patrol tonight," she replied.
"Oh, well, never mind, I guess," Kara said.
Mallory noticed the super eying the costume longingly. "You want to come?" she asked.
Kara looked at her, obviously considering it. "I don't know, I shouldn't, I mean, I can't be seen in my costume."
"Have you patrolled since your first day here?" Mallory asked. Kara shook her head, and Mallory winced. "Ok, you don't have a choice. You have to come. You don't have to wear your suit."
"Then what am I going to wear?" Kara asked, and Mallory looked at her dresser and smiled.
Fifteen minutes later, Mallory led a completely unrecognizable Kara into the training room. The super's hair was dyed with Mallory's black shampoo and she was wearing a black sweatshirt and leggings. A denim baseball cap was pulled low over her face.
"Well, where are we going?" Mallory asked the group of girls. Rocket had arrived, and they were all suited up and ready to go.
"We thought we'd go to Dakota. Rocket says there's a new gang we can take down."
Kara tilted her head slightly. "Dakota City? I don't remember that being a rough place before I left."
"Oh, I invited Kara to come along, if it's alright with you guys," Mallory told her friends.
They all nodded, and Rocket said, "it's always been a rough place, it just doesn't always get the coverage it deserves. When my dad and I started patrolling it, it was probably as bad as Bludhaven, but we've tamed it a lot since then."
"Hey, this might be a little random, but does Bludhaven have a hero of its own?" Zatanna asked curiously.
"No, not really. Every few months someone pops up there thinking they're a hero, but the League usually has to intervene before they kill more people than the guys they're chasing," Artemis replied.
"Well, in any case, Bludhaven's out. I just want a fun night with y'all, I don't want to take on something that heavy," Rocket said.
"Right, so let's go," Mallory said.
The six of them went to the hanger and got their motorcycles, then zetaed to Dakota City, where Rocket took the lead. They went a roundabout way through some of the worst slum areas Mallory had ever seen. They saw an armed robbery in progress and pulled the bikes to a stop. Mallory and Artemis jumped off their bikes first and dashed into the building. They could hear the rest of their friends behind them as they crept into the building.
"Money, now!" one of the armed men told the cashier, waving a gun in his face. The man froze, and the other robber cocked his gun. "Don't you hear good? Give him the money!"
"I think not," Rocket announced from behind them. The two men turned around, and they backed into the counter when they saw the six heroes standing in a semicircle around them.
"Well, shoot em! They're just a bunch of girls!" one of the men said, and they both aimed their guns to fire.
Mallory jumped in front of her friends and put up a fire shield. The bullets melted on contact, and she smiled over her shoulder. "Kara, you want to take this one?" she asked. Kara grinned and flew over the shield, landing on the other side. Five seconds later, she tossed the crumpled guns over the wall. "Done," she said, and Mallory ended the fire. The two men were knocked out and leaning against the counter.
"Nice," Zatanna said, then she uttered a spell, binding the men together.
"You can call the cops now," Rocket told the cashier, then the girls went back outside and got on their bikes.
"That was boring. I didn't get to do anything," Artemis complained, revving her motor and taking off down the street.
"Calm down, girl. When we get to the gang's hideout, there'll be plenty of goons for everyone," Rocket assured the archer with a grin.
Artemis's grip tightened on the handlebars in anticipation. "Good, I've been in the mood to punch something all day."
"What's the matter, Artemis? Kid get on your bad side again?" Zatanna asked with a grin.
"No, it's not that. It's my dad. He was in Star last night, and we couldn't catch him. Ugh, I am so sick and tired of fighting my family!"
Mallory and Megan exchanged a knowing glance. They'd watched Artemis's attitude towards fighting her father and sister go from anger, to business, to plain exhausted.
"All right, we're here," Rocket announced. They pulled their cycles to a stop in an alley and gathered in the back. "Ok, there are gonna be too many goons to go in the door. Inferno, Supergirl, and I'll go in first, then you three come after we take out the first round."
"Um, excuse me?" Artemis said, crossing her arms, and Zatanna put a hand on her hip.
"We go in together," Megan said decisively, and Rocket shrugged. "All right, but don't die," she told them. Zatanna and Artemis grinned.
The girls got up to the roof and peered in the skylight. There was something going on, there were dozens of crates piled around the room, and goons were opening them. A man stood in the middle of the room, overseeing the unpacking. He had a tattoo of a bear on his bald head.
"What are they saying?" Rocket asked Kara.
"He's telling them where the shipments are going. He's selling out of the city, most of them are going to Bludhaven and Gotham with a few going to Coast and the rest being distributed here," Supergirl informed them.
"Not if we can help it," Zatanna said.
"Wait, what's that?" Mallory asked, pointing to what some of the men were unloading from one of the crates. Unlike the other crates that had been filled with guns, this was big, really big, and the men were treating it with a lot more care.
Kara squinted, and Artemis held a pair of binoculars to her face. "It's a bomb," the archer told them.
"From the size of it and the amount of power inside, it has enough force to level Metropolis," Kara said grimly.
"Now?" Megan asked, looking to Rocket. "Now," she replied, and the six girls crashed through the skylight and landed in the middle of the room, their backs to each other. There was a pause in the room, then every goon in the room pulled guns, and there was the sound of gun cocks overlapping each other for a moment.
"Well, if it ain't Icon's little brat. What's the matter, girl? Daddy take the night off?" the ringleader called.
Rocket's eyes narrowed. "Panda, how are you these days?" she asked.
The man's hands clenched into fists. "It's Bear, brat," he said.
"Oh, sorry, Panda Bear. Now, here's what's gonna happen. By the end of this, you're gonna be begging to surrender, and we'll take the weapons. Got it?"
Bear chuckled. "We'll see who'll be begging by the end of this." He turned to his goons. "Ice 'em."
The henchmen started shooting, and the girls went into action. Artemis and Zatanna dodged to the side, the archer shooting an arrow in the process. Rocket put herself in a force field bubble, and Mallory did the same with her fire. Megan went in camouflage mode, and Kara made an X with her arms to protect her face.
"Zatanna, now!" Rocket yelled, and the Magician closed her eyes and held her hands up in a triangle. "Selesu meht ekam snug eht dne," she said, and the gunfire suddenly stopped. Mallory peeked through the flames and saw the goons inspecting their weapons in confusion. She dropped her shield and landed.
"Aww, what's the matter, lose your edge?" Zatanna asked. She and Artemis ran into the pack, their hand to hand combat skills soon proving superior to the henchmen's. Mallory and Kara fought side by side, and Megan and Rocket fought on the other side of the room.
"This enough action for you?" Mallory called to Artemis.
The archer grinned and threw a punch to a man's throat. "Sure is," she called back.
Mallory threw a woman over her shoulder into a crate, smashing the wood and spilling some guns on top of her.
"Is it always like this?" Kara asked her, taking on four men at a time.
Mallory chuckled, remembering Rocket asking the same thing on her first mission with the team. "Yeah, pretty much. We suck at the whole covert thing," she replied with a grin.
Several goons were piling on top of Kara, and the super flew up and spun, flinging them all over the room. Mallory smiled up at her, simultaneously jump-kicking a guy in the chest, doing a backflip and landing on her feet. Soon, all of the henchmen were lying unconscious on the ground, and the six girls turned to look for the leader, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"SG, do you see him?" Artemis asked. Kara scanned the area, then shook her head. "He must have gotten away while we were distracted," she replied.
"No!" Rocket exclaimed angrily. "If Bear's still out there, this whole night was for nothing!"
"Take it easy, girl, we'll find him," Zatanna assured her friend. "Inferno, SG, Megan, you guys scan the area. Rocket, Artemis, and I will start getting the goons tied up."
Mallory nodded and flamed up, and the three girls flew through the hole in the skylight. "Miss M, do you sense him anywhere? He couldn't have gotten too far in that amount of time," Mallory said.
"No, not far at all," a voice said. The girls turned towards the sound and froze in fear. The ringleader was standing next to the bomb, a detonator in hand. "But I will. This device has a range of one thousand miles. If any of you follow me, all I need to do is press this button and Dakota City becomes a crater."
Mallory exchanged a glance with Megan, and the Martian set up the link.
"Kara, can you get the device away from him?" she asked. "Yeah," the super replied.
"Rocket, it's your city, you want to take this guy down?"
"You know it," Rocket replied.
Megan smiled. "He's all yours," she said.
Kara was gone a second later, and then she was back, the trigger in her hand. Bear realized what had happened and reached for a gun, but before he could pull it out Rocket was on him, throwing kicks and punches until he had staggered back away from the crates, then she trapped him in a force field.
"You're just gonna take me in now, huh? Well, I'll be out inside a week. You here me? And I'll be coming for every one of you brats! You here me?!" Bear yelled, punching the bubble.
Mallory sighed and yawned. "They act like we've never heard that one before," she said loudly to Megan and Kara.
"Ain't that the truth," Rocket replied. "Well, y'all were a big help. Who wants to do the honors?" Rocket asked.
They all looked at Artemis expectantly, and the archer shrugged and grinned. "Someone give me a boost?" she asked. Megan picked her up with telekinesis, and Artemis got ready. "All right, Rocket, lift it," she said. Rocket let the bubble go down, and Megan dropped her. She kicked Bear full force in the jaw, then pushed off his face, backflipping and landing on her feet. The gang leader groaned and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Nice," Mallory commented, admiring the archer's move as she landed back on the ground.
"Thanks," Artemis replied.
"Well, are the cops on their way?" Zatanna asked, one hand on her hip.
Rocket pulled out her burner phone. "They will be in a second," she said and stepped to the side to make the call.
"Well, that was fun," Kara said. "Brek's right, you guys are better than the Legion." The girls exchanged a look and smiled.
"You want to go do something to unwind?" Mallory asked, thinking back to the fun times she, Robin, Wally, and Roy had had after teaming up, going to the movies or amusement parks or other things.
"Sure. Rocket should know of a good place to go in town," Zatanna replied. When Raquel rejoined them, she suggested a sketchy fair set up across town, and the girls agreed and got their bikes.
"You never know what's gonna happen there," Rocket told them. "It could be a normal day, or there could be a new gang operating out of the base of the Ferris wheel. You just never know."
When they got there, everything was normal. The girls bought some food and started going around to the rides. Only two people could be in the seats, so Mallory and Kara got on the rollercoaster together at the back, with Rocket and Zatanna in front of them and Megan and Artemis in front of them.
"Hey, what did you want me to do tonight?" Mallory asked the super as they waited for the seats to all be filled.
"What?"
"Well, when you came in my room you said that you and Clark thought me and Conner should do something. What were you going to say?"
"Oh, I was going to say that you two should come to Smallville with us and meet Ma and Pa Kent. We're gonna go in a few days, and Clark said neither of you have met them."
"Those are Clark's parents?" Mallory asked.
"Yeah, they raised him and took me in when Clark found me back on Argo. Boy, am I gonna have a lot of explaining to do when I get there."
The ride started, and Mallory smiled and said, "Yeah, I'd love to meet them, and I know Conner would too."
Please review! I would be so thankful if you did! :)