Chapter Eighteen

Sneaking Out

February 6th

The first time Morgan asked Nightwing if she could go on a patrol in Happy Harbor by herself, he'd leveled her with one of those looks.

"No." He said simply, apparently not thinking she needed more to go on than that.

"Aw, come on!" She'd whined, crossing her arms stubbornly in front of her. "I promise not to take on the entire mob singlehandedly. I'll just deal with small-time criminals."

Nightwing paused the work he was doing on the holographic computers in the Cave's main room and turned to her. "Morgan, I said no." He repeated and turned his attention back to whatever he'd been doing before.

Morgan had seen him send Bumble Bee and Blue Beetle on a small mission ten minutes earlier and she'd instantly wished it was her. She'd promised Nightwing exactly a month ago that she'd stop bothering him about going on missions but, come on, she'd expected him to let her go already!

She'd promised to not bother him about it and she hadn't done so once for the past month, but now she felt the old and familiar ache settle in her limbs again. Morgan wanted to get out there and do something! She wanted to start doing work she felt like mattered, not beat up harmless newbie criminals that tried to rob the local grocery store.

So, she'd asked him if she could join someone on a mission soon. She'd even attempted to approach the subject tactfully and everything.

And he'd shut her down immediately, leaving Morgan to sulk in her room for an hour before she resurfaced, asking if she, instead, could go out on patrol.

"I'm busy Morgan, we can't go." He'd denied.

"Well.." She fiddled with her fingers in front of her and tugged on a curl, trying to lay out her proposition gently. "I could just go by myself?"

And then, of course, he'd told her no and Morgan had whined some more and then made that promise to only deal with small-time criminals.

"If you had any idea how many upstart heroes has said something like that and then accidentally taken on the entire mob singlehandedly, you'd understand why I'm not letting you go."

Morgan groaned. "You're impossible! You're letting people much younger than me go all the time!"

"They all have more experience than you."

"That's not the point!" She argued. "The point is that I'm legally an adult and you keep treating me like a reckless child! I can understand that you're not sending me on any missions, I can even almost accept it, but please, for the love of god, stop talking down to me!"

Getting much more worked up over this than she'd expected herself to, Morgan let out a small cry of frustration and marched out of the room. She headed for a small exit that led her to the side of the mountain. She'd gone there a few times in the past months since Nightwing had shown it to her. It was a small outcropping on one of the steeper sides of the mountain, well hidden by the plant growth there.

She lay on the cold ground and stared up at the brilliant night sky, tracing the constellations she recognized with her eyes.

Morgan knew that Nightwing was stressed out a lot at the moment. Everyone was. With a huge portion of the League's members gone, a lot of responsibility had suddenly landed on the Team's shoulders. She'd seen everyone going on missions near-constantly and she could tell that while some of them thrived in the new business, others were straining under the new weight of responsibility.

As the leader of the team, Nightwing was the one with the most weight on his shoulders, and it was putting a strain on him. Morgan could tell.

He'd had to skip out on their usual sparring sessions three times the past nine days alone, something he rarely ever did. The only times he wasn't at the Cave working was when he was in school or he was sleeping. Morgan suspected that one of these days he'd simply start crashing in one of the Cave's spare bedrooms to save time.

So of course he'd be short with his words when they spoke. He was too busy to have the time for carrying on long conversations with anyone and Morgan suspected that if he did find the time to sit down and converse, she wouldn't be his first choice for a conversational partner.

Not that she wanted to sit down and talk with him. She just wished he'd stop disregarding everything she said because he 'didn't have the time' or because he was focused on something else or because she wasn't 'experienced enough to have a valid opinion'.

She wished he'd treat her like a grown up instead of a bratty kid.

But then again, hadn't she been acting like a bratty kid just now?

The longer she thought about it, the worse she felt. Nightwing was only a kid himself still. Just a teenager who suddenly had a shit-load of responsibility dropped onto him. It was just easy to forget that he was only nineteen years old when he always acted so grown up.

She reminded herself that her mentor was a totally emotionless, marble man, like, ninety nine percent of the time. He was 'Mister Perfect'. Nightwing could easily handle all the new responsibility. All he had to do was send other people into the field, after all.

Her sympathy for him dropped when she thought about this. He'd been trained to deal with these kinds of things since he was still a small kid, he could easily deal with everything the League threw at him. She didn't have to feel bad. He could easily speak to her as an adult but he chose not to.

Morgan shifted in her spot when she heard the small latch behind her open, trying to spot whoever was coming out.

"What can I do for you, M'gann?" She sat up when she spotted the Martian approaching her.

"I think the question is what I can do for you." M'gann retaliated. "What's bugging you Morgan? You and Nightwing haven't had an argument in weeks."

"You saw that, did you?" Morgan looked sullenly at her hands and started pulling at tufts of grass. M'gann sat down next to her, crossing her legs underneath her. The wind whipped at her blue cape as it did Morgan's hair.

M'gann was silent as she waited for Morgan to elaborate.

"Look, I know people are stressed because everyone's had a lot more on their plate than usual these past days." Morgan started out, wanting to make sure M'gann knew that she understood what was going on. She continued, "But he treats me so unfairly. Like I'm a little kid that'll go and get myself killed the second I step outside."

"Maybe he just wants to make sure you don't get hurt." M'gann suggested, obviously trying to smooth out any wrinkles. "Nightwing's never tried to be anyone's mentor, he probably just wants to be cautious. He doesn't want to fail the responsibility he's been given. If you got hurt or died, he'd hold himself personally responsible."

Morgan scoffed. "He's being paranoid, that's what he is. I've already been out several times with him, why should going alone be any different? I am capable of taking care of myself."

"Maybe he's just stressed out over all the work he's suddenly gotten." M'gann spoke in a soft voice that annoyed Morgan. It sounded too much like M'gann was trying to placate Morgan so she didn't get angry again.

Which was exactly what Morgan was talking about. That soft voice was exactly as condescending as Nightwing had been.

"I can understand that the Team is stretched pretty thin, which is exactly why it makes absolutely no sense for him to make me stay behind. Why not take advantage of the fact that I'm here and highly willing to help out?"

M'gann paused for a long time as she seemed to consider Morgan's words. In the end, she shrugged. "I'm not sure, Morgan. All I can say is that I'm confident that all he's doing, he's doing with good reason. I've known Nightwing for a long time. He thinks things through."

What frustrated Morgan was that she could see both sides of the case. She could understand M'gann's reasoning, but it didn't make her feel any better about being left behind in the Cave again and again as she watched her team mates go out and protect the world.

"Well," M'gann patted Morgan's knee once before standing up. "We should get inside. It's cold out here."

Morgan realized quite suddenly that she was actually chilled to the bone, and she wondered how long she'd been out here. Standing up, she followed M'gann inside, joining her in the living room. The TV was on, displaying the news.

M'gann shut it down when she realized that it was a news report about someone from their team dealing with a bank robbery.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "I can handle watching it, M'gann. I won't throw something at the TV in my anger or something like that."

The other girl smiled briefly at her and turned the TV back on. "It's happened before." She said, reminding Morgan of that one time she'd thrown an apple at the TV in pure annoyance at G. Gordon Godfrey.

M'gann sat down in the couch and Morgan jumped onto it from behind, planting her feet on the seat and sitting down on the backrest. If M'gann disapproved of her poor furniture manners, she didn't comment on it.

February 8th

Two days after Morgan had talked to M'gann, she snuck out of the Cave and into the city for the first time.

She wasn't stupid, Morgan knew the Cave had security cameras everywhere, cameras that Nightwing all had access to, so she'd strolled casually into the kitchen, wearing a large hoodie and jeans to hide her suit underneath, and announced that she was going for a walk.

"I'm not sure how long I'll be gone.. I found this really cozy café I wanted to go to. Get some homework done.." She rattled off, her excuse bullet proof. The other people in the kitchen had nodded and told her to have a good time, and Morgan had left Mount Justice with a small, triumphal smirk on her lips.

She'd strolled down the main street a moment later, looking for a private place where she could slip on her mask and boots, take off her outer layer and stash her school bag – which she'd brought with for the lie to seem more convincing.

She spotted a small side road and turned onto it, locating an abandoned and rundown office building at the far end. A victorious smile grew on her face as she jogged towards the building. All the windows and doors of the building had been closed off with large wooden planks and Morgan walked around the building in an attempt to find a weak spot she could use to break into the place.

At the west side of the building she spotted a window that had been broken a long time ago. The lowest of the three boards closing it off looked loose and Morgan found that, with a bit of pulling and prodding, the nails on one side fell out completely, the board swinging uselessly next to the window by the remaining nail.

She threw her bag in before her and jumped up, scrambling inside rather ungracefully.

Silently thanking Nightwing for forcing her to do all of those push-ups – hoisting herself up and through the window would've been a lot harder without them – she tumbled through the window and landed in a heap of clothing, wings and hair. Old and dusty glass shards were scattered right underneath the broken window, and Morgan landed on top of them with the sound of several of them cracking under the unexpected weight.

Just because they were old and dusty didn't mean they were any less sharp though, and Morgan hissed when one shard cut a long, thin line in her left palm.

After wiping her hand on her hoodie, she shrugged it off and stuffed it into her school bag, jeans soon following suit. She undid the shoelaces of her blue Converse and replaced them with sturdy, black leather boots. Taking her pendant off and putting it into one of the side pockets in her bag, she pulled her mask out from the same pocket and placed it over her eyes.

The room instantly became lighter and details became clearer. Morgan had questioned Nightwing about the masks and he'd told her that they came with self-regulating night vision.

She kicked her bag up against the wall in the darkest corner of the room – the corner the streetlights outside didn't reach – making it disappear entirely to the naked eye, and, after checking that the coast was clear, jumped out of the window.

Part of her still screamed at her about how much of a bad idea this was. She was not only going out alone without any sort of back-up since nobody knew what she was doing, she was also blatantly defying the order of her superior. She almost turned back around to don her clothing and head back home.

The other part was cheering her on in exhilaration as she spread her wings and took to the air.

It was that part that won out in the end.

She did it again two nights later. This time, her excuse was going to a restaurant with her friend Esmeralda.

If anyone in the Cave noticed that she didn't come back before one AM, they didn't comment on it.

And if anyone in the Cave noticed the news speaking of a new, winged superhero roaming around Happy Harbor at night by the name Sparrow, none of them mentioned it.

February 11th

Wally had approached Dick two days earlier. The two best friends hadn't spoke for several weeks now, Dick too busy with running the Team and Wally focusing on his schoolwork.

Dick had been at home in his apartment, reading through the pages his chemistry teacher had assigned as he did a round of pushups. He'd had one of those metal rods installed in his bathroom door months ago and was currently alternating between pulling himself up with his right and left arm, switching the book between them.

His phone had vibrated to life then and Dick had let go of the rod, landing nimbly on the ground as he dropped his text book face-down on his bed, secretly praying that it wasn't Tim or Batgirl calling him about some Team related business. The phone had confirmed the caller as Wally and Dick had answered a second later.

"Hey man." He'd greeted.

"We need to do something about Roy." Wally had answered immediately, getting right to the point, not bothering to wait for any 'how are you doing's or 'what can I do for you's.

"Uh, sure." Dick responded, sitting down on his bed and wiping at the sweaty back of his neck with a towel. "Why?"

"I saw him in town yesterday. He's.. not looking good. Green Arrow is attempting to track him down as we speak."

"Alright.. What do you plan on doing when we find him?"

"Talk to him, dude! Get some sense knocked into that stubborn head of his!"

Dick wholeheartedly agreed that something needed to be done about Roy Harper. Since finding out five years ago that he was actually a clone and that the real – the original – Roy Harper was missing, abducted by the very same organization that had attempted to take down the entire Justice League that very same year, Roy had gone on a mad hunt around America – and eventually the world – in an attempt to find him.

After five years of fruitless searching, Dick had partly expected him to give up already. The rest of them, as much as it pained them, had admitted defeat. The real Roy had most likely died a long time ago.

But Roy hadn't given up. In fact, as time grew, he only seemed to grow more obsessed, driving by a fanatic need to find the original Roy, to save the boy who had granted Roy life through cloning. It had gotten bad to the point where his wife – an otherwise very strong and adaptable woman, Dick grudgingly admitted about his former enemy – had left Roy.

"If you guys find him, contact me. If we all confront him together, it might just work." Dick agreed. "Either way, we gotta try, right?"

Dick ended the call after Wally's confirmation and tiredly ran a hand through his hair before supporting his chin on his hand, propped up on his knees.

Getting through to Roy as a personal matter that he would place very high on his priority list, but in its essence, it was just another problem to land in his steadily growing pile of responsibilities.

February 13th

Morgan stood in the Cave, arms crossed critically over her chest as she watched the large holographic screen in front of her with the others. Right behind her and slightly to her left stood Mal and Connor, Jaime a little ways off.

In front of them were M'gann and La'gaan, cuddling obnoxiously.

Morgan wasn't an expert on relationships, but theirs just didn't seem natural.

Morgan turned her attention from their sickeningly sweet pecks and giggles to the screen again, watching as some blonde professor, whom she was pretty sure she was supposed to know the name of by now, announce that the satellites containing the new shield that was to surround Earth were ready.

After the fiasco with the minor Krolotean invasion, the professor dude had come up with a solution to their pest problem. Sixteen specially made satellites were launched into space, surrounding Earth evenly, and between them a force field that would prevent anyone from Zeta'ing to earth from outer space was created. The shield also prevented anyone from leaving via Zeta technology too, meaning that if there were any Kroloteans still hanging around on planet Earth, they weren't leaving any time soon.

The group of six waited with various degrees of excitement as the satellites were activated, the small-scaled model on the floating screen showing them what was currently happening out in space.

Even Garfield, who had been intensely focused on his schoolwork before, tore his eyes away from it to watch how the launch went. Garfield, because of his unusual looks – Morgan suspected it was the green fur and tail that people tended to focus on – didn't attend any schools, but was home-schooled – or Cave-schooled Morgan supposed – by a small team of highly trusted professors and teachers.

The blonde doctor, visible on a small screen next to the large main screen confirmed their success. The satellites were now operational and there would be no off-world Zeta beaming.

"Absolutely historical." La'gaan declared, in a rare cheery mood as he hugged his girlfriend closer to his side. His proclamation had gained Morgan's attention and she watched as he turned his attention to the other green boy in the room and jokingly shouted, "Professor Carr! You should have your cave-school pupil write a term paper about this!"

Garfield sent him a look that told him to knock it off before you give my teacher any bright ideas, but La'gaan had already moved his attention elsewhere, more specifically, back to his girlfriend. "No aliens will be able to Zeta to or from Earth now that this shield's in place! Even your friend 'Strange' won't be able to travel to-and-from Rann without prior approval." La'gaan declared. Morgan wondered why he was so pumped about this thing. Sure, it was cool, but she hadn't seen La'gaan this excited since.. ever.

Behind Morgan, Connor spoke up, ever the voice of disapproval. "Shield's great. But it won't stop a space ship. Or a boom tube." His brow was drawn in a worried line.

Morgan was about to ask what a 'boom tube' was when Jaime beat her to it.

"What's a boom tube?" He asked. Before anyone could answer, his attention seemed to shift to elsewhere until he suddenly exclaimed. "'Not compatible'? What does that even mean?" He crossed his arms angrily in front of his chest. "I swear, sometimes I don't understand half of the things you say!"

Connor, Mal and Morgan looked weirdly at Jaime, who didn't seem to notice. "Uh," Mal, ever the polite one spoke up. "The feeling is mutual."

Before awkward silence had the chance to settle, Connor spoke up again. "Where's Nightwing?"

"Out." Morgan rolled her eyes. "Too busy to spar with me, apparently. Again." She sullenly stated.

Morgan felt like she wasn't developing as fast as she used to because he kept having to cancel, and it bugged her. She still had so much to learn before he would allow for her to be properly introduced to the hero business, and the more he kept cancelling their sparring, the longer it would take.

"He's taking the night off." Mal clarified when Morgan's sulky explanation didn't offer much. "Personal business."

Connor was obviously displeased with this as he bit out a curse.

Behind her, Morgan could hear M'gann and La'gaan doing their sugary 'couple in love' routine again. Noticing the extremely severe look on Connor's face, and knowing he had some sort of history with M'gann, she caught his eyes and rolled her own before making a grimace at the couple.

For a second, his eyes twinkled with dark humor and a small smile almost seemed to pull at his lips.

Then it was gone as the couple left the room, and he grabbed hold of the back of Jaime's hoodie, dragging the shorter boy behind him. "Let's go."

"Woah, Connor," Mal interrupted him. "What are you doing?"

"Taking the night off." Connor answered severely, throwing Mal's earlier words back in his face. "Personal business."

Jaime and Morgan gained eye contact and the boy shrugged helplessly as he remained in Superboy's grip.

Morgan marched after the two boys, smelling a mission. Maybe Connor would let her go now that Nightwing wasn't here to protest.

"Personal business, as in a mission?" She queried.

"Maybe." Superboy's answer was a very obvious confirmation that Morgan had been right in her suspicions.

"Can I come?"

"No." He debunked firmly.

The difference between Superboy and Nightwing was that Morgan knew not to push her luck with the former. When he was angry – which he so very obviously was now – Superboy was downright scary, and Morgan wasn't tempted to pester him and accidentally push a few buttons too many.

Instead she halted in her steps and glared at his back as he marched further down the hall, disappearing in a moment with a poor, defenseless Blue Beetle being dragged with him.

If she couldn't be allowed to go on a mission, she'd use the opportunity of a nearly empty Cave, and no Nightwing, to sneak out and go on a quick patrol around the city instead.

Morgan walked back into the main room where now only Mal, Garfield and Garfield's professor remained. "I'm going out." Morgan announced, never taking a break in her walk across the floor, heading for her bedroom.

"Where?" Mal asked suspiciously. He knew that, with Nightwing away for the evening, the task of keeping an eye on Morgan had fallen to him. She was annoyed that he even thought she needed someone to keep an eye on her.

"I don't know. Just out." She said shortly as she disappeared around a corner before Mal had the chance to protest.

Morgan, having done it twice already, knew the routine well by now. She'd don her suit and slip clothes on top of it and then she'd head into the city and hide her stuff in the same old office building as she'd done the first two nights.

It was easy enough. As long as she wasn't caught.

If you think Morgan's a little shit who's too stubborn for her own good, raise your hand *Author raises hand so fast it detaches and flies into outer space*

Wow you guys, I asked for twenty reviews by the end of today, and you give me thirty before the day even starts! You're incredible, keep up the good work ;)

Fun Fact: Soooo... remember how in Guidelines to Loving and Incognito Superhero, you had to waiter 95.000 words for Clark and Georgia to get a-smoochin'? Well... *Looks at current lenght of Feathers in the Night* *Sweats guiltily*