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"Hey, Inferno. What do you have planned for me this time? Swimming with sharks? Jumping into a volcano?" Jr teased when he caught up with her in the streets of Metropolis.

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "Oh, please, it was just a little flight! It was supposed to be relaxing," she protested.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Yeah, you carried me, while you were on fire, over the highest building in the city. Real relaxing for a guy who can't fly and is known for making ice."

She sighed, shaking her head as they fell into step beside each other. It had been three weeks since she'd started her job, and things couldn't have been going better. The job was rewarding and interesting, the Quitters were getting good missions, and she'd been running into Jr more than usual, which usually ended in a date. If only they could agree on what to do a little more often, then things would be perfect. "Ok, fine, you can pick this time, if you're so scared. Though, jumping in a volcano does sound good right now. It's the best way to get rid of soreness after training."

He rolled his eyes, fighting a smile. "Of course, you've actually jumped in a volcano before."

"Oh, come on, like you've never gone swimming in the Arctic before," she said.

He tilted his head. "I haven't," he replied.

She shook her head. "Yes, you have. Remember? You told me that you used to do that all the time when you were a kid."

He gave her a funny look. "No, I didn't. I've never been to the Arctic. Well, not for fun, anyway."

"Oh, look, do you want to get a shoe sole?" Mallory asked, seeing the bakery she liked at the end of the block.

"Sure," he replied, and he walked a little faster to hold the door for her.

She nodded a thanks, glad that he let the comment go. She'd realized as soon as she said it that it wasn't Jr that she was thinking about, it was Brek. She didn't know why it had popped into her head so suddenly, and for some reason she didn't want him to know about the Legionnaire. "Well, what are we going to do today?" Mallory asked when they came out of the bakery, a huge shoe sole in her hand.

"Uh, movie?" he suggested halfheartedly.

She shook her head.

"Arcade?"

"No."

"There's a street show on the Southside."

"The Suicide Slum? No thanks, I spend enough time over there patrolling."

He rolled his eyes. "I know, why don't we go pull a heist? There's tech showing in the Business District, Lexcorp and Wayne Tech I think. I'll freeze the block and you can melt through and grab the good stuff." She glared at him, and he laughed. "Oh, right, I forgot who I was talking to. Ms. Goody Goody hero doesn't like to have fun."

The glare fell off her face. "Hey, I like to have fun, but you're not the one who would have to deal with the entire hero community at once if Inferno was seen robbing Wayne Tech." She shuddered half-playfully, thinking about Batman leading the charge for her head. "No," she repeated firmly.

He thought for a moment, then smiled. "What if it didn't include breaking the law?" he asked.

She smiled a little, curious. "Well, I don't know. I guess that would be ok," she decided hesitantly.

"Great, come on. I know a great place over by the bridge."

Fifteen minutes later, Mallory and Icicle Jr were in a basement below a bowling alley, staring at the fight ring where Livewire and Atomic Skull were fighting in the ring. She sucked in a breath, pushing Jr back as soon as she knew what was happening.

"Are you kidding me? What about this says that it's legal? Oh, I am gonna be in so much trouble when Bats finds out." She thought about the arena she'd broken up with the rest of the team, the one that had made her decide to join the League, and hit her forehead, thinking about the talk she was going to be in for when Jett and Lagoon Boy found out that she went to a supervillain ring for fun after she'd nearly beaten them up for having fun on that mission.

"Woah, calm down, In-," his eyes darted around, and he skipped saying her name. "It's not illegal. Well, I mean, everyone in the room is, but the fighting isn't."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, her red eyes shining through the dark lenses of Dick's sunglasses.

"No one bets on the fights, we just come here to let off some steam and have some fun." She thought about it, and slowly she started to relax. "Oh, so it's like a training center," she suggested.

"Yeah, exactly. We give each other tips and pass on hero weaknesses." He realized a second too late that he was talking to a hero and tried to backtrack. "I mean, um…"

She just smiled. "Don't worry about it. We do the same thing at our HQ. You guys don't stand a chance." They walked over to the bar and grabbed some stools, watching as Livewire barely managed to escape a hit from Skull.

"Can I get you anything?" The bartender asked. Jr turned around, and the man, a large, balding man with the darkest skin Mallory had ever seen, grinned when he recognized him. "Jr! Well, where have you been lately? And who is this young lady?"

"Oh, been busy. Chris, this is…Tana." Mallory smiled, recognizing the name from when she'd used it at the club on their first date.

"Well, Tana, it's nice to meet you. Can I get you something?"

"Oh, no, I don't really day drink," she replied, immediately liking the man behind the bar.

"Well, that's good, because we don't serve alcohol here," Chris said with a smile.

Mallory's eyebrows raised a little. "Really?"

"Yeah. You need a license to serve alcohol, and I'd rather not tell anyone about my little training ring here."

Mallory laughed. "Well, then, Chris, I'll have a soda, on the rocks."

The man grinned again and pushed off the bar. "Coming right up, Tana. I like you. You're gonna fit it real good."

She smiled and turned to Jr as Chris went off to get her drink. "So you really do come here a lot," she said.

"What, you didn't believe me?"

She shrugged. "I mean, come on, I've fought you before, and you have to admit that you aren't exactly the hands on type. And, you're kind of squeamish with blood."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Do you want to fight someone?"

She sat up eagerly. "Really?"

He laughed at her reaction. "Yeah, signups are over there on the wall."

"I don't know, I really shouldn't," she said regretfully. "I shouldn't be drawing attention to myself. Do you ever fight?"

He shrugged, squaring his shoulders to make himself more impressive, which really didn't do anything. "Nope," Chris replied readily, sliding the soda to her. Jr made a face, Chris shrugged, and Mallory laughed, shaking her head. The bartender leaned on the counter facing them. "So, Tana, do you have any special skills? We try to keep the fights fair here, if that's what you're worried about. We wouldn't pit Toyman and Metallo together."

Mallory snorted. "Don't sell that overgrown brat short," she muttered. She'd had the displeasure of being on the receiving end of the toys, and it was not something that she looked forward to. "I don't think so, I'm just here with Jr." Chris shrugged. "How much do I owe you for the drink?" she asked, not wanting to get on his bad side. He seemed pretty harmless, but he was still bigger than her, and who knew what skills or weapons he was hiding in case he needed to reign in his customers.

He shook his head. "On the house. I hope we'll see you again soon, Tana." He turned to Jr and held out a hand. "It'll be ten bucks for yours."

"Wha- that's not fair!" Jr whined, but he slapped the bill in the man's hand. Chris smiled and walked away to tend to some customers at the other end of the bar.

"Wow, this place is great," Mallory said quietly.

"Yeah. You sure you don't want to fight someone?" Jr asked.

She sighed, debating it in her head. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to just look at the sheet…" she mused, sliding off the stool.

Jr chuckled, standing to follow her. "That's what they all say," he muttered.

Half an hour later, Mallory was in the ring, her knuckles wrapped, her jacket draped over Jr's arm as he watched from the sidelines.

"You sure you want to do this, little girl?" Tommy Terror asked.

She smiled, narrowing her eyes and bouncing a few times to find her balance and wake up her muscles. "Bring it," she muttered.

He charged at her, and she dodged, keeping her hands up to protect her face. Her eyes were shining through her glasses as she kept her superstrength ready. He was going to pull his punches, Chris had assured her that if he didn't he would deal with him personally, but even so she knew how hard he could hit, and she wasn't taking any chances. Besides, she thought with a smile, this was going to be fun. She dodged another punch, and drove her elbow into his stomach. The force drove him back a step, and she used the room to spin kick, throwing him back another step. Tommy's eyes flashed with amusement.

"Well, it seems you have some life in you after all. And here I was thinking this would be boring."

She ran around him, slamming her shoulder into his back. He stumbled forward into the wall of the ring that was keeping the contestants' powers from hitting innocent bystanders. She thought she could get another shot in, but when she moved to throw the punch, he kicked her in the side, and she nearly lost her footing. The breath was knocked out of her, and her side was aching already from one hit, but the pain only fueled her and she narrowed her eyes, focusing on her opponent. He came at her again and she grabbed his wrist and threw him up. He hit the ceiling and came back down hard, a shower of dust and rubble coming with him. He grunted, angry that she was keeping up, and ran at her again. This time, his moves were more calculated, and he managed to catch her cheek, making the side of her face feel like jelly for longer than she would ever admit. She backed up, holding the spot while keeping an eye on him. He didn't come at her right away, showing that the fight really was all in good fun.

She laughed, wincing at the yellow spots she saw with the movement of her cheek. "Really, dude? I have to go to work tomorrow."

He laughed. "Well, if you can't keep up, you can always forfeit."

"Oh, bad call, man. I'd take that back if I were you!" Jr called from the sidelines.

Mallory didn't give the villain enough time to take the advice, she ran at him, faking left and ducking down low, grabbing one of his ankles. In one swift move, she had pulled him off his feet, making him hit his head on the floor, and threw him back up at the ceiling. Boards came down with him this time, and he seemed a little angry as he got back to his feet, brushing the rubble off his clothes. She glanced up at the huge hole in the ceiling and cringed.

"Oops," she muttered, honestly feeling bad that she had damaged Chris's place. More pressing, though, was the look on her opponent's face as he studied her, slowly walking a circle around her.

"There aren't many people left in this world who can get the better of me. Who did you say you were?"

"The names Tana," she said.

He narrowed his eyes a bit, then slowly shook his head. "No, that's not it, is it? I don't know who you are, but I have the strangest feeling that we've crossed paths before."

"I wouldn't have forgotten you," she replied, ending the sentence in a grunt as she dove for his legs again. It was a bad strategy, predictable, and she knew she'd made a mistake the second she went into action. Tommy planted his feet at the last second and grabbed her arm before she made contact. He slammed his knee into her chest, knocking the wind out of her for a second time, and threw her into the ceiling with enough force to get her through the last bit of covering. She came through the boarded sidewalk, landing beside the hole on the side. She had her eyes closed against the sudden sun and groaned, rolling onto her back.

"Well, imagine running into you here."

Her heart spiked at the voice, and she groaned again, peeking up to confirm what she already knew. Conner was standing over her, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised as he waited for an explanation.

"Oh, oh course you had to be in Metropolis today," she complained, pushing herself to her feet painfully.

"Maybe it's a good thing I am. You look terrible, what's going on down there? And why are you out of uniform?"

She put the back of her hand to the corner of her mouth and it came back with a line of blood on it. She chuckled, her cheek screaming at the action. "Super strength, check. Flight, check. Invulnerability? Not so much."

"This isn't funny. Do you need a hand in there?" Conner asked.

"No, it's not what it looks like, it's–"

Tommy jumped through the hole, landing on the other side. "Don't tell me you've had enough already," he said. His face changed when he saw Superboy standing there, showing recognition. "Inferno, eh? I knew we had met before. No wonder you couldn't beat me."

"That's not the way I remember our last encounter going," she replied, but her heart sank. She had a lot of explaining to do now.

For a second, she thought Tommy was going to attack them, but then his sister jumped through the hole to see what was happening, and the second she understood the situation, she grabbed his arm, pulling him away.

"It ain't worth it. Better let it sit another day," she said quietly. She made a face. "Besides, I'm ready to go anyway. That ice creep's inside, and he keeps looking at me."

They took off, not wanting to chance getting caught, but Conner wasn't even looking at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but, true to her luck, they had another distraction. Icicle Jr made some stairs up to the hole.

"Hey, T, you ok?" He stopped when he saw Conner. "Oh, uh, hey, man, what are you doing here?"

Conner took in the way Jr stood next to Mallory, her jacket still on his arm, and narrowed his eyes, focusing back on Mallory. "We need to talk," he said firmly.

She sighed and nodded, turning to Jr to get her jacket. "I'll see you later," she assured him, and he nodded. As an afterthought, she added, "and, tell Chris I'm sorry, will you? I'll make sure nothing happens to his place." Although, at the moment, she wasn't sure how much say she would have in that. Jr nodded, though, and went back down the hole, closing it up with ice once he was inside.

Mallory turned back to Conner, who had never taken his eyes off of her. Finally, now that they were alone, he let some of the tension out of his shoulders and lowered his arms to his sides.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, his big brother side coming out for a moment. She shook her head, not mentioning the way it ached with the motion. He nodded. "You want to go get cleaned up?" he asked. She shrugged and nodded, and he took her jacket and led the way down the street. He seemed to know the area better than she did, and he found a zeta tube without any trouble. She didn't question where they were going, and they came out in a shed behind a gas station. She tilted her head, not recognizing the location, until she saw a couple of G-elves walking down the street hand in hand. Her eyes widened when she realized where she was, and a proud smile took over her face.

"Conner, is this Genomorph City?"

He couldn't keep the pride off his face as he nodded. "Yeah. You've never been here, have you?"

"No. When did it get finished?" She couldn't quite remember exactly when Conner had talked about wanting to do this, make a place where people or aliens could all live in harmony no matter what they looked like.

"We finished building the last house a few months ago. It didn't take long, really. So many of them were good at building, and we didn't need to have any heavy machinery. Come on, I know a place we can go get you patched up."

She followed him, but her pace was slower as she took in her surroundings. As they got closer to the center of the small town, there was more activity, and they were getting a lot of stares as they made their way down the street. She smiled a little, thinking about how relative the term 'normal' was. Here, they were the strange-looking ones.

Conner led her to a small apartment house and helped her up the stairs to the top floor, letting them in with a key kept in a pot by the door. He helped her the last few feet to the bathroom, which was well stocked with bandages, towels, pain meds, and a needle and thread. She looked at him after taking in the stock.

"Since when do you need a cache site?" she asked, soaking a towel in hot water to clean the blood off of her face and arms.

He shrugged. "I don't, but when we couldn't fill this apartment, I figured it would be a good black site in case we ever needed it."

"So, how has this not been plastered all over the news by now? I mean, surely someone has stumbled on it by now."

"That's Duplex. He puts up a psychic shield, makes any traveler think that they're just seeing normal people."

"Wow, that's so cool. So, they have any pretzel stands around here?"

"Enough, Mallory. Why were you metabrawling with Metallo? And what's going on between you and Icicle Jr?"

She sighed, turning back to the mirror when his face hardened. "I wasn't metabrawling, I swear. No one was betting on the fight, there were barely any people in the place anyway."

"It's illegal! You know what would happen if the media got hold of this."

"It's not illegal! It's no different than sparring. Besides, I wasn't in my suit. They wouldn't have let me in the place if I were," she pointed out quietly.

"That's worse! Do they know who you are?"

She narrowed her eyes, her glasses folded on the side of the sink. "I'm not stupid, Conner. None of them know my name, not even Jr."

He shook his head. "I knew there was something going on. Even before Bibbo said anything, I thought there was something different about you."

He was quiet for a moment, watching as she put some numbing cream on her cheek and stomach where the bruises were the worst. There was one between her shoulder blades that was killing her, too, but she couldn't reach it and she didn't want to ask Conner for help when he was still mad.

"So, how long has this been going on?" he asked with a heavy sigh.

She looked at him through the mirror, thinking that right now, he reminded her of the more responsible members of their family, like Roy or Leader Dick or Kaldur. Then she realized that that wasn't it. He was acting like Clark did when someone did something that disappointed him.

"Not long. A few weeks, I guess."

He nodded, still taking it in. "Are you sure it's a good idea?" he asked after a moment.

She tilted her head, surprised that she wasn't getting a lecture about everything that could go wrong dating a super villain. She sighed. "No, not at all," she admitted. "But I also don't really care."

"Mal–"

"Conner, I haven't felt like this in a long time. Everything just seems easy when he's around, even though I know it's not. I need this right now. Please, just, don't tell anyone. At least, not right now."

They stared at each other for a long moment, saying so much with the connection they shared from years of psychic conversations and working side by side. Finally, after what felt like forever, he nodded slowly. "All right. I won't say anything, but will you do me a favor and think for two seconds before you do something stupid again. He's rubbing off on you, and your reputation can't afford that right now."

She nodded once. "I know. But, I'd like to think some of me is rubbing off on him, too. He's not a bad guy, Conner. He's just…"

"I know," Conner said, a smile coming to his face. "Look, I'm not judging you. I'm glad you found someone who makes you happy, and Icicle, he's a good guy."

She returned the smile, walking the two steps to the doorway where he was standing and wrapping her arms around his stomach. "I wish everyone was as understanding as you," she said.

He chuckled, returning the hug. "Bet you never thought you'd say that, huh?"

She laughed, shaking her head as she stepped back. "Thank you, Conner." He nodded, and she huffed, going back to the sink and grabbing the numbing cream. "Now, can you give me a hand with this? It feels like I got thrown through a ceiling."

He laughed, shaking his head as he took the cream from her and applied it to the bruise on her back. She smiled, the secret not feeling as heavy now that someone knew about it. She was glad it was Conner that had discovered it first. At least he knew Jr. Still, she knew she would need to tell the others soon. She just didn't want to think about that now, when everything was just starting to go right again. No. She would leave that task for another day.