"And this is the laboratory. This is where Peter spends most of his time," M'gann explained as she and the group continued the tour of the base.
"Neat," Kid Flash said as the door to the laboratory opened and revealed the inside. "I was expecting a bit more... scientific stuff," he commented looking at the tables which were mostly filled with pieces. "Did you get to make anything yet?"
"Most of the time I spent here was used to catch up on files - the ones the League actually gave me access - and see what I need to prepare for. This is what I managed to make after creating something to defend myself with," Peter stated as he held his right hand upwards and showed the glove he was wearing.
Kid Flash looked a bit closer to the glove, trying to figure out what it is, but came with nothing. "What is it?"
Flicking his wrist, the palm of the glove glowed blue before a holographic screen and keyboard appealed in front of Peter's gloved hand. "Carrying a laptop is a pain, so I made Holographic CPU Glove to fix that," he explained as the team looked at the glove.
"Dude, sweet," Robin whistled looking at the screen, thinking it was similar but more advanced to his computer gauntlet. "What kind of processing power does it have?" He asked, thinking to ask the scientist for one.
Peter sighed. "Not a very good one. The RAM is decent at best, and ROM needs work. I sadly don't have the materials to work with for now," he felt rather annoyed despite understanding why the League didn't trust him with the more advanced kinds of technology.
"It's still cool you made that with what you had," Kid Flash added before they all continued walking to finish the tour.
"The base sure is big," Superboy commented as they reached the main hall.
"The base is actually the whole mountain," M'gann informed him.
"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern during the earlier days of the League," Kid Flash explained as they looked over the wide space.
"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy was curious on why they'd put so much effort and then leave.
"The Cave's secret location was... compromised," Aqualad answered.
"So, they traded it in for a tourist trap?" The mockery in Superboy's tone wasn't missed by anyone. "Yeah. That makes sense," he added sarcastically.
"It actually does," Peter said drawing their attention. "The league is still made of vigilantes, whether they're recognised by the government or not. There are people that simply won't accept their help for no reason. Having a source of publicity to put them in a positive light for the public is a good idea to make their help more acceptable by people," he explained the situation.
"... I guess," Superboy didn't seem to fully agree but at least seemed to understand the logic behind it.
"But still, if villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert," M'gann concluded with a hand on her chin.
Robin took her hand and held it reassuringly. "The bad guys know that we know that they know about the cave, they'd never think to look here," he explained, but that seemed to confuse the Martian if her expression is anything to go by.
"Basically, we're hiding in plain sight," Kid Flash cleared up.
"Oh, that's... much clearer," M'gann commented, scratching her head.
"Still, it wouldn't hurt to have a defence system just in case," Peter added, looking at the spacious cave and thinking of possible defence mechanisms. "After all, there's always that one idiot that will flip the same rock twice to look under it."
"Agreed," Aqualad nodded, believing that it was better to be safe than sorry. "Do you have some ideas?" He asked the scientist.
"I've been planing to look over the Cave's systems and structure. I'll think of possible defences and share them with the rest of you for feedback," Peter explained. He already had some ideas, but working with the Cave's blueprints and access to its main systems would give him better results and more ideas, so he decided to save this subject for now.
"Hey, I'm already digging having our own super genius," Kid Flash chuckled, appreciating Peter's calculated thinking.
Superboy's enhanced senses then caught something. "I smell smoke."
M'gann gasped. "My cookies!" She cried out, flying away.
The rest of the team looked at each other before shrugging and deciding to follow her. They found M'gann using her telekinesis to take a tray of burned cookies out of the oven and place it on the table.
M'gann looked disheartened at the burned cookies. "I was trying out granny Jones' recipe from episode 17 of- uh," she stopped herself and looked around at the team. "Never mind," she chuckled nervously.
"I bet they'd have tasted great," Robin tried to comfort her before motioning to Kid Flash, who was eating through the cookies despite they were burned. "He doesn't seem to mind."
The red headed boy stopped as he noticed the stares of the others. "I have a serious metabolism," he said through a mouth full of food. Peter was interested in that statement and believed it might have something to do with Kid Flash's power and need for movement, but withheld the questions for now.
"I'll make more?" M'gann said, though she made it sound like a question, worried that she might have avoided doing this.
"It was sweet of you to make any," Aqualad assured her.
That seemed to work as the Martian smiled. "Thanks, Aqualad."
"We're off duty, call me Kaldur'ahm," the Atlantian said with a friendly smile. "Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."
"I'm Wally," Kid Flash revealed his own name. "See, I already trust you with my secret ID," he added in a flirty manner while leaning forward before pointing at Robin. "Unlike Mr. Glasses over here. Batman's forbidden boy wonder from telling anyone his real name."
"Mine's no secret. It's M'gann M'orzz," Miss Martian joined the introduction while placing a hand on her chest. "But you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name. And I'm on Earth now," she added in an attempt of humour.
Peter said nothing as he already introduced himself earlier. Though, he noticed Superboy seemed upset. Peter had already guessed that Superboy doesn't have a real name. Being a genetic clone means he was most likely given a designation instead of a real name.
The young Kryptonian decided to leave before a sensation took over his head. "(Don't worry, Superboy,)". He stopped and turned to look at M'gann. "(We'll find you an Earth name, too.)"
"Get out of my head!" Superboy yelled, glaring at the Martian and surprising everyone.
They all turned to Megan as Superboy was looking at her. She, in return, looked back at everyone and spoke to them telepathically. "(What's wrong?)" She asked, not realising everyone had an uncomfortable expression on their face. "(I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically.)"
"M'gann, stop!" Kaldur instructed firmly, surprising the Martian who cut off the telepathic link. "Things are different on Earth. Here, your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy."
"Besides, Kadmus' creepy little psychic G-Gnomes, left a bad taste in his brain," Wally added, leaning forward and pointed at Superboy.
M'gann looked in shock. "I-I didn't mean to-"
"Just. Stay. Out," Superboy growled and walked away in a huff, sitting down on the couch in the living space outside of the kitchen.
Despite what happened, Peter seemed more interested in something else. "You said that everyone communicates telepathically on Mars? As in, no exaggeration, but actually everyone?" He asked and Megan, despite looking disheartened at what just happened with Superboy, still nodded. "Fascinating," the scientist rubbed his chin. "That means your people are both individuals and a hive-mind. Human brains can't achieve something like that. I wonder..." he trailed off, looking at the ground.
The talk about Mars seemed to remind Megan of something. "Hello, Megan!" She cried out, lightly slapping her forehead. "I know what we can do!" She flew off the ground and headed out of the room with everyone but Superboy following her. She came back to look at the lone teammate. "Superboy, please?" She pleaded, looking apologetic.
The clone looked at the ground for a few seconds before grunting and standing up to follow the rest of the team. Soon enough, the whole team was standing in a hanger and looking at a large, red, oval-shaped object that had black lines running through it.
"It's my Martian Bio-Ship!" Megan announced, immediately gaining Peter's interest.
"Cute," Wally commented. "Not aerodynamic, but cute."
"It's a spaceship, one designed for Mars. You'd have to be an idiot to think it needs to be aerodynamic," Peter pointed out and Wally's face reddened in embarrassment, realising his mistake.
"Besides, it's on rest mode. I'll wake it up," Megan stated as she stared at the ship for a few seconds before it started to change shape.
It looked far closer to a plane now with wings and two pointy fronts alongside a black windshield that went across the middle. The whole thing now looked like an extremely high-teched jet.
"Bio organic material with a telepathic link?" Peter guessed, witnessing the transformation of the ship.
"Pretty much," Megan confirmed as the back of the ship opened and lowered to give them an entrance. "Well, are you coming?" she invited everyone on the ship. Everyone got into the ship's cockpit where six seats with one standing out for being at the centre and on a platform. "Strap in for launch," Miss Martian instructed.
As soon as Robin sat down on one of the seats, it bended to be better fitting and two safety belts grew from the chair and went across his chest. "Woah!" The young boy looked in shock.
"Cool!" Wally seemed less shocked and more impressed with his own seat doing the same. The others took their own seats which also fitted them and grew safety belts.
Megan sat on the command chair and called out. "Red Tornado, please open the bay doors," she requested as two orbs of light grew from the ground and touched her arms.
The doors in front of the ship opened completely and it hovered off the ground before shooting forward. The ship turned upwards, doing a few maneuvers before it shot forward in the direction of the town near the mountain of the base.
"Incredible!" Robin looked in awe at the speed the ship was going.
"She sure is," Wally commented, looking dreamily at Megan, who turned to him and immediately made him panic. "I-I mean the ship! Because, like all ships, its a 'she'," he tried to defend himself.
"Fast with his feet, not so fast with his mouth," Robin teased.
"Dude!" Wally cried out while Megan simply looked amused at the interaction.
Meanwhile, Superboy was looking down, which was noticed by Kaldur. "I may not have psychic powers, but I can tell what you're thinking," the Atlantian whispered, leaning towards the Clone. "You overreacted, and you don't know how to apologise," Kaldur gave a friendly smile. "Just say you're sorry."
Superboy looked at Aqualad for a few seconds before looking away again, seemingly thinking on what he just said. Meanwhile, Miss Martian looked at Superboy and frowned, remembering their earlier incident.
Seeing her sudden mood shift, Robin tried to comfort her. "He'll come around."
"I don't think Superboy likes me very much," Megan whispered back.
"You guys do remember he has Super hearing, right?" Wally joined the whispering.
"Plus, you are all bad at keeping your voices down," Peter added, speaking for the first time as he was busy studying the interior of the ship rather than being interested in the view outside.
Robin, Megan, and Wally seemed a little embarrassed at having that part pointed out. Superboy didn't seem to care, despite obviously hearing them. Quickly, the Boy Wonder thought of something to change the subject.
"How about you show us a little Martian Shape-shifting?" He requested.
Megan perked up. Standing from her seat, she stood in front of everyone and her body alongside her clothes changed. She no longer looked green, and instead resembled a female version of Robin in his uniform, which was made up of a red shirt with an R on left chest with a black cape, black pants, yellow utility belt, and a domino mask.
Megan spun around and changed to a female version of Wally in his Kid Flash uniform, which was a yellow bodysuit that was red from the waist down and a red lightning bolt with goggles.
"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked.
Robin began clapping. "Impressive," he praised as Megan turned back to normal. "But, you're know you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those."
Megan sat back down with a shy smile. "Mimicking boys is a lot harder."
"And your clothes?" Kaldur asked, curious on how they changed to suit her form.
"They're organic, like the ship," Megan informed, holding her jacket. "They respond to my mental commands."
"As long as they're the only ones," Superboy commented.
Before Megan can feel down, Peter asked. "Both the ship and your clothes are Bio-Organic. I assume that means that's Mars' main type of technology, then?"
Megan looked at the scientist and nodded, thinking of her home. "Yeah. Most of Mars' technology is Bio-Organic."
Surprisingly, Peter looked less interested and more concerned. "Aren't your people worried about the consequences of advancing Bio-Tech too much?"
While the others seemed confused, Megan looked shocked. "You... know about that?"
"Bio-Tech isn't something I worked with but I have created many theories on it. Almost all of them ended in the same result when the technology was advanced too much," Peter answered.
"Wait, what's he talking about?" Wally asked, looking at Miss Martian with a raised eyebrow.
"Basically, there's a drawback to Bio-Organic technology, and that it can be potentially dangerous if it advances too much," Peter summarised, explaining why he voiced his concern.
"Well, we Martians are aware of that, and we took precautions against it," Megan explained which managed to calm most of Peter's worries.
"Oh, can you do that ghost-ing through walls thing Manhunter does?" Wally suddenly asked.
"Density shifting?" Megan guessed and looked down. "No, it's a very advanced technique."
Thinking of something to cheer up the mood, Robin cut in. "Flash can vibrate his molecules through walls. When he tries it?" He chuckled motioning to Wally. "Bloody nose."
"Dude!" The red head called out. Peter was curious if this means that Kid Flash is slower than the Flash, and if there was a reason for that.
"Here's something I can do!" Miss Martian called out. There was a slight shift around the ship and, looking outside, the others saw that they couldn't spot the wings or the front of the ship anymore. "Camouflage mode!".
"Red Tornado to Miss Martian," the android's voice suddenly echoed through the ship. "An emergency alert has been triggered at the Happy Harbour power plant. I suggest you investigate. Covertly. I'm sending you the coordinates."
"Coordinates received," Megan moved her hands across the spheres of light. "Adjusting course."
Robin scoffed. "Tornado is keeping us busy again."
Peter couldn't help but blink and shock before turning a disappointed gaze at Boy Wonder. "You do realise that the best case scenario of a malfunctioning power plant is the water and air being polluted which can cause plague and disease to spread out, right?"
"He's got a point," Wally agreed, though he still seemed as disappointed as Robin. Placing his hands behind his head, he grumbled. "It can actually get bad if we ignore it. I don't like it either, though."
"Well, a simple fire led you to Superboy," Megan pointed out, trying to cheer them up. "We should find out what caused the alert."
"I think I know the cause," Superboy stated, looking out the window.
Everyone looked at where he was looking and saw an actual tornado headed towards them. Miss Martian immediately held the spheres and tried to maneuver the ship away from the storm, which was easier said than done. The ship was caught in the wind and spun around, shaking the team within. Megan took control of the ship again and managed to pull them out of the storm and land them a safe distant away. The team dropped down from the ship and looked around at the situation, seeing the people run out and away from the building.
"Robin, Peter, are tornadoes common in New England?" Kaldur asked.
"No, they're not, and Robin is gone," Peter answered and caused his teammates to look and see the Boy Wonder wasn't with them.
A mischievous chuckle echoed through the area from the building.
"He was just here!" Megan stated, surprised at the speed the boy vanished in.
Seeing the windows on the building break, the team decided to charge in and see what was going on. Inside, Robin was tossed towards one of the walls by a large android that was red in color with a cloth wrapped around his neck and lower head as a scarf. It had lines running around it's body giant blue wires going connected from its shoulders to blasters at the bottom of its arms.
The team came in and Superboy jumped quickly to reach Robin's side. "Who's your new friend?"
"Didn't catch his name, but he plays kind of rough!" He warned Superboy, who jumped ahead.
"My apologies," the enemy's voice echoed with an English accent. "You may address me as Mr. Twister," he stated before throwing his hands forward and two tornadoes burst from the pipes on his arms.
Superboy kept charging in, trying to tough his way through the winds. Changing the wind trajectory, Twister created a tornado from under Superboy which sent him spinning in the air before being knocked away and roughly crashing at one of the walls.
Megan looked at her teammates to see what they should do. She saw Wally pull out his goggles and Peter stepping back while pulling out his new weapon. Aqualad nodded at Miss Martian, reassuring her that they were gonna fight together. She gained a determined expression and looked at Twister as Robin stood up and joined them.
As if a signal was given, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian charged forward with the speedster taking the lead. Building up on speed, Kid Flash jumped forward, flipping through the air and attempted to kick Twister.
The large android, however, blasted wind that twisted Wally's trajectory and, instead of hitting Twister, he was sent over him and knocked out of power plant. Megan and Kaldur were charging in to attack Twister but were instead knocked back by a powerful gust of wind that sent them crashing through the place.
"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero," Twister's mockery was not missed in his voice despite the echo as Robin glared at him from the other side of the plant. "I was not, however, expecting children."
Robin growled and threw something forward. "We're not children!"
Twister used a wall of wind to block what Robin had thrown at him, which turned out to be a miniature bomb. However, the first bomb turned out to be a distraction for the second one that came through the smoke and lodged itself in Twister's chest.
The android, however, didn't seem to care. "Objectively, you are," he taunted while knocking the bomb away before it exploded.
However, while he did that, he didn't see the large ball of electricity that came in and struck him in the chest. The attack managed to knock Twister back a couple of steps and caused his head and arms to twitch a few times in a few directions before he settled down and glared at Peter, who was behind Robin with his weapon aimed at the android.
"Interesting reaction," Peter commented, seeing the way Twister reacted to the attack.
The android threw his hands forward and shot a tornado at both Robin and Peter. The former, having a faster reaction thanks to their training, grabbed hold of the scientist and jumped away to avoid the blunt of the attack, but they were still sent rolling by the powerful winds.
A large pipe above Twister was suddenly pulled down by Miss Martian's telekinesis, causing him to be covered in steam. Looking around, the android almost missed Superboy jumping towards him with his hands raised ready to smash him in.
Quickly, Twister shot winds at the clone, who tried to tough through the attack again but was knocked back like last time. This time, however, he ended up crashing into Miss Martian, knocking them both down.
Aqualad came in with his hands covered in electricity. Twister threw his hands at the ground and created a cyclone that pulled in the Atlantian, spun him around a couple of times, and then sent him flying and crashing into Robin and Peter as they stood back up.
"Humph, how annoying," Twister groaned, controlling the wind around him to float off the ground and fly out of the power plant.
Wally, who had just gotten up after being sent out of the plant, saw Twister leave and immediately ran in front of him to cut him off. "What did you do to my team?!" He questioned, not seeing his teammates around.
"Embarrassed them, largely," Twister created a powerful tornado that pulled Wally off the ground. Waving his hand, Twister caused the tornado with Wally in it to crash into the wall of the power plant.
When the dust settled, it revealed Wally unharmed and floating mid-air. "I've got you, Wally!" Miss Martian called out, holding protecting him with her telekinesis.
When she sat him down he turned to see the rest of his team. "Thanks."
Seeing the team ready for battle again, Twister addressed them. "I would have thought you all have learned your limitations by now."
"What do you want?" Aqualad demanded, trying to understand the villain's intention.
Twister flew higher in the air. "Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for a real hero!" He called out.
Kaldur turned to Megan. "Read his mind. Find a weakness."
"I-I thought I wasn't supposed to do that," the Martian hesitated, remembering the earlier incident with telepathy.
"It's okay with the bad guys!" Robin informed her.
"Don't bother," Peter shook his head. "There's no one in that thing. It's a full machine."
"How do you figure?" Wally asked.
Peter held up his weapon. "The way it reacted to the sudden electrical shock from my weapon was one only a machine would have. If someone was in there, their reaction would have been tame by the armor around them."
"He's right. I'm not sensing any organic mind in there," Megan backed up Peter, checking to see if she can feel anything. She suddenly slapped her forehead. "Hello, Megan! Twister is Red Tornado," she suddenly exclaimed, motioning to the android. "Think of it, how many androids do you know that can control the air like that."
"That depends," Peter cut her off and turned to the Boy Wonder. "Robin, you are the first to get inside the power plant, did it look like the people were in actual danger or that Twister was just trying to scare them?"
Robin thought back for a second before shaking his head. "No, those people were in real danger. I had to distract him so the last of the workers can get away."
"Even if the League wanted to distract us, they would not endanger innocent lives to do so," Aqualad added. "That means this is not Red Tornado."
"Plus, uh, I'm pretty sure Red Tornado can't do that!" Wally cried out, pointing at Twister, who had Electricity running around his body now.
Immediately realising what the electricity was for as it began travelling around the large wires, Peter called out. "Superboy! Ground!"
The clone was about to jump and attack Twister when the scientist called out. Understanding what he had meant, Superboy quickly stabbed his hands into the ground and ripped out a large part of it to use it to cover the team as Twister shot a bolt of lightning at them.
The attack struck and a large explosion ensured. When the dust settled, there was no sign of the team, causing Twister to groan. "Fine, play hide and seek! But interrupt me again, and I will show no mercy," the android threatened before flying away, heading towards the city.
What Twister didn't know, or see to be specific, was that the team hadn't moved, despite being lightly knocked around by the attack. "What happened?" Wally asked, confused on why Twister acted as if they weren't there.
"I placed the ship between us in camouflage mode," Megan explained why Twister left them.
"Smart," Robin complimented.
"Let's go after him!" Superboy cried out but was stopped by Kaldur placing a hand on his shoulder.
"We need a plan," the Atlantian said, believing that this is a better chance for them.
Robin noticed Peter looking over the power plant. "Something on your mind?"
"Something isn't right," Peter suddenly said, gaining the attention of the rest of the team. He pointed at the large pipes and command rooms of the power plant. "Twister didn't attack any of the important parts of the plant. In fact, he seemed to specifically target where the workers are. If he wanted to do damage, attacking the cooling system would have been catastrophic. Instead, he left for the city."
Aqualad seemed to realise what the Villain is after. "People," he said, gaining the team's attention. "He's after people. To be specific, he's looking for attention."
"Most likely," Peter nodded, agreeing with the Atlantian. "He said he was waiting for a real hero. What if that wasn't an insult?"
"You mean he's waiting for someone specific?" Wally asked.
"That makes sense," Robin nodded before crossing his arms. "But who?"
Peter turned to Megan. "You just said that he was Red Tornado."
The Martian panicked. "I know, I know. I messed-"
"That was actually not a wrong assumption based on his qualities. Just a rushed one," Peter cut her off. "However, you did have a point that he resembles Red Tornado too much, meaning he is the most likely target for Twister."
"So we can't call the cave for back up or we put Tornado in danger? Great," Wally remarked sarcastically.
Superboy scoffed. "We don't need back up."
"What we need is a plan," Aqualad stated.
"Uhmm," Megan tried to say something.
"Maybe if we attack all at once?" Wally suggested.
"Considering the fact he can surround himself with enough wind to fly, the team scientist believed that's a bad idea," Peter shot down the plan.
"Hello?" Megan tried to speak again, only to be ignored.
"What if you guys distract him while I sneak up on him?" Robin suggested.
"That last attack proved he can use electricity in dangerous ways," Kaldur shook his head at the plan. "It's too risky to get close to him like that."
"Guys?" Megan, once again, was ignored.
"Why don't we just attack him until he breaks?" Superboy suggested, growing impatient.
"Because we tried that and it didn't work," Peter reminded the Clone of his earlier attempts.
"(Listen to me!)" Megan's voice suddenly echoed in the rest of the team's heads, causing them to hold their temples.
"What did we tell you?!" Superboy cried it.
"(I know! But you guys weren't listening to me and I have an idea!)" Megan explained her reason telepathically.
"Great! Let's hear it!" Wally said, standing up.
"That thing is probably looking for Red Tornado, right?" Megan asked and Peter nodded. "Well... we just have to give him what he wants."
The rest of the team simply stared at her for a few seconds before Peter said what they were all most likely thinking. "You're definitely gonna have to explain more."
(A/N: Thank you for reading this.
1: What Peter and M'gann talked about with Bio Technology will be explained in the next chapter.
2: as you can see, the team didn't jump to conclusions that they were just being passed around because Peter was there to clear stuff up. I want him to be like the Team's voice of reason that explains the logic behind things. I hope I did that well.
Again, thank you for reading this. Please comment, review, and give me your thoughts on my story.)