Well, I'm back to school now. Don't worry, I stocked up on chapters while I was off, so updates shouldn't slow down. This story arch may not be anyone's favorite, but it had to be done, so I'm sorry about it. At least it'll make Gar a little more prevelent in the story. Hope you like it, please review!
"Are we there yet?" Wally asked from his seat in the bioship.
"Will you please stop asking that?" Artemis snapped from her seat behind him.
"I hate to agree with him, but how much longer do we have? We've been 'almost there' for half an hour," Rocket said.
"We'll be crossing Bialian borders in about ten minutes," Robin told them.
Mallory slumped in her seat, bored from riding on the bioship for so long. The team was on their way to Bialia to investigate Queen Bee's newest claim that she was the rightful ruler of Qurac. This time, she hadn't bothered getting the ruler of Qurac to say that she was, she'd simply threatened the country with war if they didn't admit they were rightfully hers.
"Are we going to the animal sanctuary first or are we gonna go check out the soldier situation before we go?" Mallory asked.
"We're going to the Bialian capital first, we need to see what's going on behind the scenes," Robin replied.
She nodded. They flew to the Capitol and stationed the bioship over the palace. Robin hacked into their frequency and the team listened to phone conversations and radio communications for two hours, and nothing overly suspicious came up. Finally, Artemis said, "we're not gonna get anything out of this. Let's come back tonight and do some real investigating."
Kaldur and Robin exchanged a glance, and the leader nodded in agreement. Megan grinned and turned the bioship around, flying for the Logan Animal Sanctuary in Qurac.
"Where are we going?" Tula asked from her seat in the front.
"A safehouse," Robin replied. Megan rolled her eyes. "Garfield and his mom live just across the Bialian border," she explained. Tula nodded, she'd met Gar twice in the time she'd been on the team.
"Shouldn't we stay on the mission?" Garth asked.
Mallory shook her head. "We can't do anything in broad daylight, anyway," she told him.
Once the Atlanteans had been convinced that they could relax, Rocket steered the conversation to a topic that was more pressing. "Y'all heard that new news anchor talkin about the League? It was like he was trying to get the public to question their trust in them."
Mallory rolled her eyes and stared out the window. She was tired of talking about that guy. She'd already ranted about him with her parents, Jen, Wally and Artemis, Zatanna and Rocket, Clark and Lois, she'd even gotten a call from Ma and Pa Kent so they could complain about the light he'd tried to put the League and super heroes in general in.
"I do not think it is anything to worry about, the public knows that the League is on the right side, they have never had anything happen to make them question it," Kaldur said.
Raquel nodded. "Yeah, but people are disloyal, if this starts getting traction, what's the League gonna do?"
"Don't worry, Rocket. It won't come to that. The public trusts the League, this guy will lose viewers and eventually have to bow out. He's not the first one to try to discredit the League," Wally said.
"First one on the national news," Conner muttered.
Wally let out a frustrated breath. "I wish that just once someone could say something positive around here without someone trying to shoot it down," he said, but he was smiling.
"Conner has a point," Mallory said tiredly, "he has a bigger platform than anyone who's tried it in the past."
Zatanna scoffed. "I don't get how he got there, anyway. How could people actually want him to replace Cat Grant? He's annoying to watch, and his voice gets under my skin."
Robin shrugged. "Well, it's not nepotism, I can tell you that. He's not connected to any of the network people in any way."
"Great, so people actually had to like him for him to get there," Artemis said.
"Oh, come on, he's a middle aged white man, I'm sure it didn't take him a lot of effort to get there," Rocket pointed out, and Zatanna sighed. "Too bad we can't fight civilians. I'd love to try out some new spells on people like him, making life harder for us when we're already literally fighting for them every day."
Robin smiled and put his hand on hers. "I know, but isn't it better to prove them wrong than beat them up?"
Mallory raised an eyebrow and looked at the Boy Wonder. "Since when?" she asked, genuinely curious as to when his opinion on that had changed. He chuckled and didn't answer, and Megan landed the bioship in an open field behind the house.
"Well, we're here," she said, standing up and opening the door in the back of the plane. the team got up and stretched, then filed out of the ship. They were halfway to the house when the back door flew open and Gar came running to meet them. Halfway there he changed into a fox, doubling his speed, and he launched himself into Megan's arms, changing back to his human form and hugging her tight.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Megan laughed. "Since when do I need an excuse to visit my little brother?" she asked.
Gar laughed and got on the ground. Marie was standing in the doorway waiting for the group to get to the house, a wide smile on her face. The group got to the house and the old team greeted the woman and Robin introduced the new members.
"Make yourselves comfortable," Marie told them, but Gar was pulling Megan away from the house.
"Come on, you have to see the animals we have right now! We have a sick wildebeest and a monkey that had a broken arm, and a baby cheetah that it's mom abandoned because it was a runt."
"That's great, Gar, maybe we'll come out there later," Robin said, wanting to keep the team together and focused.
"Speak for yourself, I'm going to see the cheetah," Mallory said, and Zatanna nodded and followed the pyrokinetic closely as they followed Megan and Gar out to the barn. "Is he following?" Malory asked her friend quietly. The magician glanced over her shoulder. "They all are," she replied, and they grinned at each other and doubled their speed. Gar pulled the barn door open and led the team to the back, past the wildebeest to where the monkey and baby cheetah were. Zatanna gasped and knelt beside the cheetah's box. "He's adorable!" she said. Mallory sat beside Zatanna and pulled the baby out of the box, holding it in her lap and gently stroking its back. Zatanna rubbed its cheek, talking softly to it. "Her name is Wildcat," Gar told them.
"Why not Cheetah?" Conner asked. The kid usually named the animals what they were.
"Well, I didn't want her to be named after a bad guy," he said as if it was obvious. Mallory chuckled and handed the baby to Zatanna, who immediately held it to her chest, crooning to it.
"When are you going to release it?" Garth asked.
"When it's big enough to survive on its own," Marie said from the doorway.
"Yeah, she's still drinking milk, so she can't go back in the wild yet," Gar added. Marie smiled proudly at her son. "All right, we should leave her alone. You really shouldn't touch her, anyway. We don't want to imprint on her."
Zatanna sighed and put the kitten back in her box, and the team went to the house. Gar, Megan, and Conner went right back outside to find Gar's pet monkey. Marie sat down across from Robin and Kid and leaned forward.
"So I guess I know why you're here," she said, her face dead serious.
Robin nodded. "We're going to stop Queen Bee before she attacks Qurac," he said.
Marie shook her head. "She's not going to give this up. She wants Qurac, and she means to get control of it one way or another," the former actress said.
"Yeah, well, we're going to stop her. That's what we do," Wally said with a grin.
Marie stared at the redhead, then looked around to the rest of the teens, who were wearing just as determined looks on their faces. She sighed. "Well, an entire country is counting on you, so don't fail us," she said, smiling slightly.
The team smiled, and Artemis said, "yeah, what else is new?"
Marie left the room and let the team come up with a plan, popping in every now and then to give them information about the border or current events that could help them. Megan and Conner got back to the house as the evening shadows started to fall, and they had time to be filled in on the plan before they decided to leave. Marie walked them to the door, Gar tagging along eagerly.
"Be careful, all if you. Queen Bee isn't someone to be taken lightly," she said as they were filing past her.
Megan paused in front of her and gave her a reassuring hug. "Don't worry, we'll be fine," she said, then followed the team to the bioship and they took off, the Martian camouflage blending in with the blackening night sky.
"All right, let's go," Robin said quietly. Megan set up the mind link and the team dropped down to the palace roof using the ropes that dropped down from the ceiling. Robin bypassed security, and they took turns sliding down his line into a hallway. They regrouped at the end of the hall, gathering around Robin as he pulled up the blueprints of the palace.
"This way," he said, and he and Aqualad took the lead. Mallory and Rocket ended up side by side as they crept down the hallway, and the team split up at the end, half going to the records room and the other half going to Queen Bee's office. Mallory and Rocket went to the office with Megan, Robin, and Conner.
"Let us know if you find something we can use," Kaldur said when everyone was in position.
The team went to work. Mallory started at one of the file cabinets, Rocket took the desk, Robin took the computer, and Conner searched for hidden safes or rooms off the office, and Megan kept watch for them.
"Hey, look at this," Rocket said a few minutes in. Mallory abandoned her task, a paper detailing the corruption in the country's military still in hand, and went to her friend's side.
"What is it?" Artemis asked.
"It's a piece of paper," Mallory said, unimpressed.
"But look! See the edges? They're crinkled up, like it got wet or something. And it was in the top drawer with a little notebook, seems like she would have just thrown it away if it wasn't important."
Robin left his algorithms running and looked over Rocket's shoulder. "Hold it up a sec," he said, and she did, exchanging a glance with Mallory as she did. Robin scanned the paper, and he broke into a grin. "Bingo," he said. Mallory raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?" Conner asked.
"Mallory, I need some fire," he said instead of answering. Mallory gave him a strange look, but she lit a small fire in her palm and held it out to her teammate. Robin held the paper over the fire, and words started to appear through the smoke.
"No way, that's an actual thing? I thought that was just in movies," Rocket said.
Robin grinned. "It's used by a lot of secret organizations. It's a paint that goes on top of the writing that burns off when it's exposed to fire. Look, this page has been burned and repainted before."
"What does it say?" Wally asked.
Mallory peered over his shoulder to read the writing for herself. "It's some kind of game. It almost looks like a chess board with symbols on it," she said.
Robin took a picture of it and grabbed the leather notebook out of the desk, flipping through it. "Burn it all," he told Mallory. She nodded and he handed the book to Rocket to hold, then went back to his algorithms. Rocket and Mallory burned through the pages of the notebook, revealing most of them to be full of writing.
"Woah, hey Rob, you should come look at this," Mallory said, exchanging a look with Rocket as they started reading the book.
"What is it?" Kaldur asked. Mallory handed the book to Robin and Megan and Conner read the pages over the Boy Wonder's shoulder.
"Wow," Megan said.
"What does it say?" Zatanna asked.
"It has a list of the Light, their plans for Queen Bee to take Qurac. This is exactly what we need to take her off the throne of Bialia for good," Robin said. There was a long pause on the link as the team waited for the bad news.
"Well, well, well, so the kiddies are back," an all too familiar voice said in the link.
Mallory's eyes widened and she looked at Megan as the Martian's eyes glowed white for a moment, then stopped.
"I shut down the link, the team should be safe from Simon," she said quietly aloud.
Mallory sighed. How had they forgotten about Simon? She looked at her team, questioning if they should make a move. Robin shook his head.
"We need to finish here," he said. Mallory nodded and she, Megan, and Rocket continued to flip through the notebook and Conner took up position by the door.
"The notebook doesn't have anything to convict anyone but Queen Bee," Mallory mentioned, disappointed that there wasn't more on Luthor.
"I'm sure they thought about the book being found, so they made sure that no one could take down their whole organization because of one person," Rocket said.
Mallory nodded. Megan took the book and thumbed through it. "This is all we need to get Queen Bee to stop her attack. We should go before someone finds us."
"I'm almost done. Besides, that doesn't make the war an international incident. We need something that will give the UN a reason to intervene," Robin pointed out. Megan sighed impatiently, obviously upset.
"Relax, Miss M. We'll be fine," Rocket assured the Martian. Megan didn't answer.
Suddenly, they heard loud footsteps outside the door. Robin pulled his flash drive out of the computer and tucked it into his belt, then surveyed the room. There were no windows, just one vent in the corner. He nodded to it and Megan pulled the grate down with telekinesis. Robin and Miss Martian were the only ones who were able to get into the vent before the door burst open and twenty Bialian soldiers ran in, armed to the teeth and aiming their assault rifles at Mallory, Raquel, and Conner. Mallory glanced up at the vent. "Go, we'll regroup at the safehouse," she told Megan, then she flamed up and turned to face the threat.
The soldiers were shooting at them, so Mallory and Rocket were trapped behind their force fields. One of the soldiers produced a grenade launcher. Mallory's eyes widened as he aimed it at her, and he pulled the trigger before she could react. The grenade hit her fire shield and blew up on impact. The force of the explosion pushed her into the wall, and a second grenade blew the wall up, sending her flying out of the building. She caught herself mid air and hovered for a moment.
She couldn't hear anything, she was nauseous, and she could see her vision clouding over. She looked up and saw Robin hanging out of the bioship. He was motioning for her to follow. She shook her head, trying to stay conscious, and flew after the bioship as it went back to the sanctuary.