The next day Mallory woke up early to put in a few hours in her training room before Black Canary showed up for training. When she made her way to the kitchen, Donna was at the kitchen table in leggings and an oversized sweater, and Mallory smiled when she saw her. "Hey, Donna," she greeted her friend.
"Good Morning, Inferno," Donna replied.
Mallory shook her head. "Donna, you can call me Mallory," she reminded her, grabbing a water from the fridge.
Donna shrugged. "I would think you would want to go by your warrior name. It is a mark of honor and respect," she mentioned.
Mallory stared at the bottle in her hand, wincing as she remembered her conversation with Clark earlier that week. She hadn't seen him since. It reminded her that she still needed to pay Peter a visit. She'd let him come to the cave a few times since Tula, but she needed to tell him that she would let him make his own decision.
"Yeah, it is," she said quietly. "Well, I'm gonna go train a little, come get me when Canary gets here," she said.
Donna nodded and waved a hand. "Of course," she said.
Mallory smiled at how well the Amazon was adjusting to life in the mainland, then she went to her training room and started her algorithm.
An hour and a half later, Donna came to get her for combat training with Black Canary. When she got to the training room, though, Canary didn't have the arena lit up like she usually did. Dinah noticed the team looking confused and smiled a little.
"We're going to try something a little different today," she said, and she held out six inhibitor collars and a mouth guard. "Those of you who have powers, find your collar. Nightwing and Rocket, lose the belts. I want this to be fair."
The team exchanged a glance, but they did as she said. Conner grabbed his and Mallory's and they put them on. Mallory noticed that hers was programmed to restrict both her fire and her strength.
"Ok, I've only got the collars for today, so let's make the most of them," Canary said. She led the team to the simulation room and started setting the program. The metal room turned into a boxing ring, and opponents were lined up on the other side. "Ok, I know that you don't pull your punches when you're training with each other, but I want to see how you do when there isn't anywhere to go, and you don't have anything else to rely on and you don't know your opponent's moves. So, who wants to go first?" Canary asked.
The team looked at Nightwing, the best fighter among them, and he smiled and shrugged. "I'll go," he offered.
She nodded and set the program. One of the characters stepped forward, and Dick looked at Canary, one eyebrow raised. "Really? Matches Malone?" he asked, his tone bemused.
Canary smiled and narrowed her eyes. "He's been upgraded a little," she warned.
Before the words were even all the way out of her mouth, Matches started attacking Nightwing. Dick managed to dodge his punch and awkwardly blocked a few blows as he got his bearing, but he soon caught his stride and started holding his own. His arms and legs were little more than blurs as he attacked the hologram, but eventually his opponent got the upper hand and he was throw to the ground. He looked at Canary in surprise. "Those weren't Matches' moves," he mentioned.
She shrugged. "I added a few of my own," she said. "Ok, who's next?"
Everyone got a turn, and everyone was thrown to the ground. At the end of training, Canary laughed and shut the program down. "You did well. I just think it's good for you to learn not to rely on your special abilities or tools and use them as just that, tools to help you, not a crutch to carry you. Well, I'll need the collars back, they belong to Belle Rev."
The team helped each other unlock the collars, and Canary collected them and said goodbye. When she left, Dick led the team to the kitchen to hydrate.
"Well, what are we doing today?" he asked.
"I thought you were gonna bring your birds for us to meet," Mallory said.
He shook his head. "No, I'm bringing them Tuesday," he replied.
"I have to wait three whole days to finally meet them?" Zatanna asked.
He shrugged. "Sorry, they had something better to do today," he said with a smile. "Do you want to do simulations or try to find somewhere to patrol?"
"I guess simulations, we can't risk being seen together in public this soon," Megan replied.
Dick shrugged and they went back to the simulation room. "What level?" The leader asked.
"Not 15," Rocket said quickly.
Dick smiled mischievously, and Zatanna added, "not 14 either."
He sighed. "Fine. How about 10?"
The others nodded, and he set the program. The League of shadows appeared, an army of their ninjas lining up to fight them. Zatanna looked at Mallory with a grin. "Hey, I'll bet I can take out more than you," she said.
"You're on," Mallory replied.
Dick looked at them and laughed. "I can take out more than the whole team combined," he said.
"Big talk, Chum," Lagaan called, "but you'd have to prove it."
Dick grinned. "That sounds like a challenge," he said.
"Take it however you want, Chum," Lagaan replied.
"Hey, how about we do teams and see who can take out more? Winner gets to pick the next simulation," Raquel suggested. They nodded.
"Ok, who's on each team?" Gar asked.
"Donna, Conner, Mallory, and Zatanna are with me," Nightwing said.
"Hey, no fair! You can't call all the strong ones," Gar objected.
Nightwing shrugged. "Z's not strong," he said.
"Hey!" Zatanna objected.
"Ok, fine, I'll be fair. I'll take Donna, Mallory, Z, and Gar," Nightwing said.
The opposite team moved closer together and Conner smirked. "Bad planning, Wing. We'll beat you easy.
"We'll see," Dick said, grinning. The program started, and the team ran forward, taking out as many ninjas as they could.
"I don't understand how you won," Megan said when, after the simulation ended, Nightwing's team had scored nearly double that of the other one.
"It was rigged, Angelfish," Lagaan said. Conner shoved the boy away from Megan gently, and Mallory leaned over and whispered loudly, "I wouldn't call her Angelfish if I was you." Lagaan scoffed and kept walking.
"It was not rigged, Lagoon Boy. We just had better teamwork," Donna said.
Mallory and Zatanna saw Dick hide his smirk, and they realized that he'd known exactly what he was doing, putting Conner, Megan, and Lagaan on the same team. "That little..." Zatanna murmured, chuckling.
"Ok, so we get to pick the next simulation. What do you want?" Dick asked.
His team shrugged. "I don't care," Mallory said, and the others agreed.
He grinned. "Level 14 it is," he said.
"No!" everyone yelled, but it was too late. The simulation started and they had no choice but to get ready for a fight.
They spent the entire day doing competitions in the simulations, and by the time it was dark out, they finally realized how long they'd been going and left to eat and relax. Megan ordered pizza, but they realized that they no longer had Wally to run and pick it up.
"Conner?" Zatanna asked.
The clone sighed heavily. "Fine," he said. He was back in ten minutes, at which time the team had a movie on. They ate the pizza and talked, but they were exhausted from spending the whole day fighting.
"If this is gonna be our go-to weekend, I'm not coming home anymore," Mallory murmured, curling up at the edge of the sofa.
Zatanna yawned. "Me too," she said. She shivered slightly, and Dick looked at her. "You cold?" he asked.
"Yeah. Hey, can you go get me a blanket out of my room?" she asked.
Dick laughed. "Yeah right," he said.
Zatanna sighed. "Fine," she said, and she grabbed his arm and put it around her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"You're always warm, and you won't go get me a blanket," she explained. He shrugged and let her adjust his arm how she wanted it. Megan was leaning on Conner, and Gar was already asleep against her. Donna, Lagaan, and Raquel were on the other sofa, getting comfortable.
By the end of the movie, the whole team was asleep, even Dick. Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman zetaed in a few hours later after trying to get in touch with several members of the team for several hours. They stopped short when they saw the team asleep, the TV screen black. Wonder Woman and Superman smiled.
"They really have come to love each other these last few years," Wonder Woman said quietly, noting how they were all leaning on each other.
Batman noted with some surprise that Zatanna's head was resting on Dick's shoulder, and his ward's arm was around her. It must have been muscle memory, he reasoned, considering that they had broken up so long ago.
Superman smiled at Conner, his head leaning back, one hand on Megan's shoulder, while her head was resting on his leg. Mallory was curled up on the end of a sofa, her head on the arm.
The Leaguers also noted that, even with all of the members they had lost recently, the couches looked a lot fuller than it had when the team was younger.
"They have grown up so fast," Diana mentioned, sadness edging her voice. Bruce didn't say anything, but the Leaguers knew he was just as wistful about Dick, especially with him gaining this new independence. They also knew he had plenty of regrets there, though, so they didn't say anything about it.
Superman nodded, his eyes on Mallory as he thought about what she'd said the last time he'd seen her. It had hurt, hearing the girl that he'd come to love as a niece, a daughter, even, telling him to back off and begging for him to let her find her footing on her own. And what was worse, she was right. It was hard to remember sometimes, but she was no longer the cute little ten year old he'd first come across. She was a young woman now, nearly twenty years old, and she had become a hero in her own right.
"They really are grown up," Clark said, looking at his friends, something bigger on his mind, "we can't keep treating them like children."
Diana nodded. "They have earned the right to fight among us," she said.
They looked at Bruce, trying to gauge his reaction. He sighed heavily, his eyes on his ward, then he nodded once.
"You're right. It's past time that we offered them a spot on the League."