Mount Justice

January 1, 14:16 EST

This was not the way Cassie expected to spend New Year's Day.

Sure, she could have taken up her friend's offer to hit up the National Mall at midnight, and then end up spending the night at one of their houses. It had been a few weeks since she had hung out with any of her friends from school. Every chance they got to remind her of that fact, they would. If she did hang out with them, she knew the evening would mainly consist of her having to listen to her friends' prattle on about the supposed "secret" gang of juvenile delinquents she had abandoned them for. Now all she had time for was helping them terrorize her hometown.

They were kinda right, as she was spending most of her evenings with a bunch of highly trained vigilante teenagers. Many of them, herself included, having fantastic superpowers. At the moment though, she was getting her butt handed to her in a sparring match by one of these said teenagers. This teen though did not have any powers.

Robin stood across the training floor away from Cassie, a stone column compared to the overly fidgety blonde. His face did not budge an inch as Cassie twirled the practice staff in between her fingers. He instead chose to keep his own staff close to his side, ready to defend himself at any hint of an attack.

Cassie had been trying for the past thirty minutes to try and land at least one blow onto her friend, but the more he parried her thrusts and swept around her almost effortlessly, the more infuriated she became. The two had agreed on no superpowers, and she had to hand over her lasso so that she wouldn't get any ideas if the fight wasn't going her way...and it wasn't. She would occasionally just poke the air around Robin just to see if the boy would flinch. Of course, he wouldn't, but that just added on to Cassie's...confused ideas on what kind of a person he was. Should she be surprised that he wouldn't flinch? Or should she be angry that she wasn't surprised at all?

Without a seconds hesitation, Robin swung his staff up to jab Cassie right in the stomach. She was able to take a step back, but that only played into Robin's plan as he pulled the staff back and forth, pushing his opponent further and further back off of the training pad.

Not wanting to retreat, Cassie turned her staff so that she could use the staff's length to block Robin's advances. She was able to push him back to the point that they were back in the dead center of the ring. Robin had the good graces to back off from Cassie, letting her have a few moments to gain back the confidence to attack him.

The two circled around one another till Cassie let out a battle cry and began striking around him. To which he would once again dip and dive away from her fruitless stabbings. Robin weaved underneath her weapon to try and land a hit on her side and bring this fight to a close, but she caught sight of his staff and brought her gauntlet-covered wrist up towards her face, sparing her from what should have been his winning blow.

The clang of the wooden weapon hitting Cassie's bracelet was swallowed up by the fortified interior of the mountain. The close proximity of the two made the girl's breath become hitched. Her friend was leaning a few feet away from her, but he had most of his weight pressed against his staff and against her. Her blue eyes met with the white lenses of his mask, letting her see her own reflection within them.

Without warning, Robin hooked one of his feet to Cassie's leg, literally sweeping her off of her feet. Letting her staff fall from her hands and her backside smack against the ground with a loud thud. All this before pointing the blunt end of the staff square in her face.

"Yield. You're not going to win." his voice having an air of calmness as if he wasn't just fighting her.

Cassie raised herself onto her elbows, only because Robin's staff allowed her to rise to that level. She wasn't ready to give up though, "Yes, I will."

Slowly, as if her vigilant cohort wouldn't notice, Cassie's hand fumbled blindly against the floor, grasping for her weapon. Only as she had it and raised it upwards towards her opponent, he easily struck the middle of the stick, breaking it in half and knocking Cassie flat on her back again. Only this time, she had Robin's staff end just centimeters away from her eyes.

"You've lost," his voice losing none of the calmness he had moments ago. This time though, his attention was quickly taken away from the defeated girl beneath his staff. He casually turned away from her, strutting to one of the remains of Cassie's staff.

With his back turned to her, Cassie eyed the other major piece left of the staff lying adjacent to her body. Any attack would be a miserable and pathetic attempt on him, but Cassie's wounded pride wouldn't allow her to think of the action as beneath her.

She levitated herself off of the ground, latching onto the wooden remanent in the process. Her feet only touched the floor for a moment, just so that she could build up some momentum and fly straight at him.

Cassie screamed as she swung the broken piece at his head, only for him to sweep underneath the airborne girl. His staff colliding with the majority of Cassie's torso and upper shoulder, knocking most of the wind out of the blonde's lungs. If he had gone with one of the practice staffs like Cassie did, he knew that it would have shattered right upon impact.

As she was distracted, Robin's other hand was free to grab onto the wrist that held the remainder of her staff and twist it behind her back. Using the speed she had picked up mid flight, he spun them both around and pushed her down onto the floor, pinning her. Cassie opened her eyes the second his staff's end slammed against the ground next to her face, it echoing throughout the cave.

"It's over," there was no mistaking the unusual forcefulness in his voice now.

Cassie squirmed. Even with his whole body weight resting on her, she could easily fly up and fling him to the ground. However, who knows how much damage she could do to him if she tried. Diana would be so disappointed in her defeat. Cassie couldn't help but give up all the tension she had built up.

Sensing the change in her, Tim took a moment to let the adrenaline pumping in his veins subside. Being Robin, Batman's protege, all of his instincts told him not to let his guard down, even now, but he sensed Cassie was upset and unwilling to put up another fight. Of course, the half Amazon was deeply displeased with her loss. She was not as bad as La'gaan when it came to her pride, Tim knew that stroking her ego would help her cope with the latest of her string of defeats pretty quickly. He sighed regretfully, lifting himself off of her back, "We'll call it a draw."

Cassie rolled herself into a sitting position, rubbing her irritated wrists with care.

"You're getting better," Tim offered. He walked over towards her, extending her his hand. Though her pride was crying out in protest, Cassie allowed herself to grab onto his hand, helping her off of the ground. "But I thought we agreed, no powers."

"Shut up."

Robin smiled to himself, she'd get over the fight. She always did. "A few weeks ago, you wouldn't have used your wrist to block that blow."

Cassie huffed, "I've been trained by a tribe of immortal warriors, but I can't beat a fourteen-year-old with a stick?"

Her companion took in her words as he stalked away from her, picking up the shattered remains of her weapon that laid on the floor, "You were taught to face your adversaries head on. To use your all your strength to beat whoever you want into submission."

Cassie sneered at the statement, "And?"

The boy shrugged, "I was taught to avoid you."

Cassie couldn't help but laugh at the sentiment, hiding none of her annoyance. She wasn't going to just take that from him, "I keep losing to you because my ideology is wrong and yours is right?"

That caught him off a bit, his head moved a little downwards as if he was staring at his feet. His attention did come back to her within seconds, "I didn't say that."

"No, you implied it."

A deep blush bloomed onto the boy wonder's face. This was not going well for him, "I-"

"That's enough training for today," a velvety voice cut in. Both teens did a one-eighty to see Nightwing alongside M'gann, Superboy, and Mal all filing into the room. "New mission brief."

Cassie and Tim gathered into the group as the rest of the team followed suit. The two had always stood by the rest of the freshmen of the team, Garfield, La'gaan, and Blue Beetle. Though Cassie considered Robin and Batgirl to be her closest friends, even though most of her run ins with Robin were either quick awkward conversations or long silent training sessions. Still, she still put in the effort to hang out with the members of the team who were close to her age.

After everyone had arrived, Nightwing pressed on with what he was saying, "Alright team, listen up."

Behind him, Mal brought up holographic images of a giant slug-looking beast, a map of Gotham, and an image of an eerie building, and placed them front and center behind Nightwing, letting all of the team see the images. The last photo, the one with the unsettling palace, Cassie noticed that attached to building was a large black iron gate that reeked of gothic influence. Cassie squinted at the gate in the image which had the words, "Arkham Asylum" in bold letters.

"Less than an hour ago, Matthew Hagen, aka Clayface, was reported missing from his cell at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City. Members of the League were able to find him, but he escaped capture. We have been asked to step in and apprehend him."

La'gaan leaned in towards Tim, "Five bucks say that we all get Delta squad."

Robin barely nodded and hummed to agree with La'gaan. As much as Tim would have liked to have been, he and La'gaan were not the closest of friends. Sure he was close to his age, and he was use to big personalities, but something about La'gaan didn't rub him the right way.

La'gaan leaned forward to M'gann, who was standing a few feet in front of him, "We haven't been on a mission together in a while, huh, Angelfish?"

M'gann smiled slightly, still trying to pay attention to the mission. Nightwing though, his face growing displeased with the unneeded comments from La'gaan.

"Superboy, Miss Martian, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Bumblebee, and Robin, you're all Delta squad. Half of you will take the bioship while the others will zeta to Gotham."

The boy wonder couldn't help but smile a bit as all the happiness on La'gaan's face melted away, leaving only shock and sadness. Cassie too thought it was a little funny, as a quick giggle escaped from her lips before she ducked away from the Atlantean's judgemental red eyes.

As the pictures behind Nightwing disappeared, he wrapped up the briefing, "Plan to leave in ten minutes. Batgirl and Wonder Girl, stay behind. The rest of you are excused."

While the rest of the team wandered out of the room with the exception of Cassie and Barbara, Nightwing turned to speak with Mal.

Bumblebee grumbled quietly to M'gann, "Not only do we gotta go hunt down the blob; I'm gonna miss another lab session! If anyone should have been left behind…"

La'gaan, who got the nerve to walk up to Nightwing was suddenly yanked away by M'gann. Though pleading with her to let him go, she pulled him out of the room before he did something he would regret.

Cassie side-eyed Barbara, who was doing the same thing to her, wondering why they were asked to stay behind. Cassie heard Nightwing quietly thank Mal, letting the giant of a man leave the room too.

Pulling up another hologram, this time a keyboard, Nightwing began typing up something while images of a Wayne Tech building. Cassie couldn't distinguish which city it was located in, but she figured she'd find out later.

Nightwing turned to the two girls, "We've just got tipped off on a possible robbery at the Wayne Tech branch in New York. We don't know who is behind it or when it might happen, so we just need you two to recon the building and report in if you find anything suspicious. Are we clear?"

Both Cassie and Barbara nodded, "Yes."


New York City

January 1, 18:16 EST

The general atmosphere was typical for New York at the dawning of a new year; the same as every other day. The fact that the day should be spent like every holiday, at home on a couch, meant nothing to the thousands littering the streets and the cabs and other cars bloating the vast metropolis. The horns of the cars and general sounds of the city were so deafening that Cassie, perched a dozen stories above the mobs had much trouble ignoring them. Her attention was supposed to be as attuned to the situation as Barbara's, but she couldn't help but lean over the wall of the two's vantage point and look down upon the remains of the previous night's celebrations. Watching dozens of city street cleaners whiz by, picking up all of the discarded noisemakers and other festive items was infinitely more interesting than watching an empty security feed.

Barbara couldn't be too mad at her friend. Not everyone could be as patient or focused as a bat kid, and with them sitting on an empty roof doing nothing but looking at surveillance cameras from the Wayne Tech building just across the street. Fifteen minutes into watching cleaning crews and security guards march up and down the empty halls left much to be desired for Cassie.

Reluctantly, Cassie peeled away from her spot against the wall, kicking up some of the leftover confetti that had accumulated on the edge of the building, "If you look past the mission, we're still in New York on New Year's."

"New Year's Day. Major difference."

Barbara turned her head just so that she could see Cassie through her peripheral vision, who was coming back over to her. The blonde leaned heavily on Barbara's back as she started watching the surveillance again. Resting her hands on the other girl's shoulders forced Barbara to scrunch down till her chest was almost touching her knees. Cassie's very obvious invasion of Barbara's personal space didn't bother Barb too much, as Cassie was typically very professional while on missions, but her youth and eagerness for action still shone through as she would indulge in a tiny bit of childish behavior. Barbara had no doubt in her mind that if things suddenly got hairy, Cassie would snap out of it and become the member of the team she had to be.

"Looks like a ghost town in there," Cassie whispered. "You really think anyone's going to rob it?"

One of Barbara's eyebrows raised at the comment, while the rest of her was glued to the video screen, "You know they can't hear you?"

The extra hundred pounds of weight slid off of Barbara's back, allowing her to not look like a dead-ringer for Quasimodo. That disappearing weight casually strode around the roof, seemingly without a care in the world.

Barbara's attention was quickly taken away from her screen as she heard a loud yawn come up from behind her. She caught sight of Cassie, standing on the tips of her toes and arms raised high above her head, stretching out to relieve her of some of the "tension" she had gained on this highly-tense situation. Yet Barbara's eyes did linger on the small pink bruises that littered all along her friend's arms. It seemed that she took more interest in them that the person who was afflicted with them was. If Cassie's body had not been as regenerative as it was, if she was non-meta, those bruises would be purple instead of the near pinkish hue they were. They would be painful as well, Tim was highly regarded for his skill with a bo staff.

Without looking up, "He's going easy on you. You know that, right?"

Cassie blinked in confusion, "And why would he do that?"

"It's because he knows you're going easy on him."

The blonde fell silent, as anything she would say might just be thrown back in her face. Instead, she hung her head down and tried to ignore the palpable silence between herself and the bat.

"I believed your fighting was real the first time I saw it," Barbara admitted. "The raw anger and frustration really sold it. It didn't look fake."

Barbara dug into one of the satchels she had packed for the long night and handed her younger friend a small thermos she had filled up with coffee. Cassie chuckled to herself as a small bat emblem was emblazoned on the side, "A lot of it wasn't."

"I don't see why you have to do this. If you don't want to lose every fight to him; why do you keep letting them happen?"

Cassie closed her eyes, letting her shoulders drop as she released a heavy sigh, "I just want to prove that I'm strong just like everybody else. If I'm weak, I have to get stronger."

Barbara leaned in close, "If you want people to see you as strong, then don't let him win."

The blonde slowly looked back to her friend, with some foreign look that confused Barbara. A certain sadness peeked through her eyes, only to be covered up by a moment of confusion, and then fully replaced with a strong poker face.

As the two stared one another down, a sudden flurry of snowflakes fluttered down upon the city. A gust of wind not only swirled the wisps of winter around the air, but it was powerful enough to whip up the remnants of the slips of confetti from their hiding spots. For a brief moment, it was a small yet beautiful collaboration of natural and artificial beauty, bringing a bit of color to an otherwise monochromatic feat of nature.

This though did not lift Cassie's sudden change in demeanor. As voices started to burst out their rendition of Auld Lang Syne, Cassie's mouth hung a bit open. Seemingly ready to speak, but unable to form a syllable.

Barbara's concern grew, only to be halted when the girl did finally answer her, but only in a tone that matched her somber looks, "I would if I could...but I can't."

That caught Barbara's attention, "What's that-"

"Beta squad," Nightwing's stern voice cut in, "Delta has located and captured Clayface."

Barbara couldn't help but notice Cassie's neutral expression before immediately turning away from her line of sight.

"One more thing," Nightwing blathered out through the radio, "A break in at the UN requires your immediate assistance."

"The perpetrator?"

"Don't know," Nightwing responded. "Unknown alien. Considered hostile and dangerous. Sending coordinates now."

Cassie's spirits suddenly returned at the instructions Nightwing gave. Some of the color that had left her came back with moments, overjoyed at the prospect of a fight.


Mount Justice

January 1, 2:16 EST

For the past few months that Cassie had been on the team, she had always gone through a strange re-occurrence at the end of many of her mission. If she was not utterly exhausted by the nature of the missions, the second she would have to zeta back into the Cave, she would be wiped out.

No matter how much she complained or fought, no one on the team agreed that the zeta transport made them tired. It was just her.

So, the minute the computer reads out her name, "Wonder Girl. B21." She slugs back towards the showers, just so that she doesn't have to go home smelling like sweat and old cement. That and hot showers always made her feel like she was going through a religious experience.

She started down the hallway, taking quick notice of La'gaan and a freshly showered Garfield chilling out in the sofa playing one of Gar's first-person-shooters. The young boys were both highly investing in the game, as Garfield's tail swung around behind him like a whip ready to crack. The Atlantean not only had to dodge Gar's attacks in their virtual reality but in the physical realm as well. Cassie knew it would have been rude of her not to say hello.

Coming into the room, she glanced up at the tv, "Who's winning?"

Right as the words left her lips, a giant explosion happened inside the video game, causing part of the screen to go red, and La'gaan to huff angrily, "Neptune's Beard! Him…"

Gar snickered as the two mindlessly set up the game again, ready to take the other out with extreme prejudice.

"Where is everybody?" Cassie inquired. The kitchen was empty, and Batgirl had left to report her findings to Nightwing. The older girl made it pretty clear that Cassie didn't need to be in the room with her and the team's leader as she told him about General Tseng and the It knockoff. Of course, Cassie was tired and gross, she wasn't going to interject.

"Jaime went home, and everybody else is asleep," Gar replied. His tail slapping the back of La'gaan's head as he nearly slammed his fingers up against his controller.

"What about Rob-"

Cassie was interrupted by another explosion on the screen, but this time it was Gar who must have lost, as La'gaan was grinning like a hyena.

Rolling her eyes, she decided her presence was not needed, "I'm hitting the showers. Night!"

"You're not going to want to go in there," Garfield stated loudly. His attention still seemingly only on the game. "Clayface led us into the sewers."

La'gaan concurred with his rival, "You really don't want to go in there."

Her eyes flickering back and forth from the hallway that led to the showers, and to the soaked thirteen-year old green monkey boy sitting on the rec room's couch. Cassie decided there that she'd take their word for it and just go home.

"I'll see you guys later, I guess-"

Once more, her speech was drowned out by the screaming boys. Her departure was not noticed, as Garfield's cries of victory versus La'gaan's furious whining swallowed up any noise that was in the Cave.


Author's Notes: I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter. I know, nothing happens, but I do promise that if you stick with this and me you won't be too disappointed. Please leave a review or comment, they're always welcome.

Thank you so much,

EKG