Chapter Thirty Three
The Warehouse
April 1st
"You've gotta be kidding me." Morgan said incredulously as she looked around what would become her new living quarters.
The place was a single, fairly large room in an old warehouse at the docks of Blüdhaven. Beds – more like small cots – for the young heroes had been crammed underneath a raised dais, on top of which were a small clutter of chairs and sofas and a TV screen resting on top of a wooden crate.
The kitchen was small, and the bathroom – thankfully not in the same room as everything else, but through a small side door next to the kitchen – smaller, with only one shower.
A small computer set-up was nestled in the corner next to the steel stairs that led you up the dais that contained the TV and sitting arrangement.
The place smelled old, dusty and kind of earthy in a bad way.
It didn't even have a proper door. A hatch, like the kind you'd find in a garage, could be rolled up and down to allow you entrance.
Meaning that if it rained and somebody needed to enter or leave, the floor of the entire room would probably get wet if the wind was just right.
Morgan looked up at her mentor, arms crossed critically in front of the winged symbol on her chest. She'd donned her superhero suit, without the mask, because all of her other clothes were currently packed down in the box she was clutching in her arms. "You know this place is a dump, right?"
Nightwing sighed tiredly as if her reaction had been exactly what he'd expected.
"It's a very temporary solution." He defended, hefting the second box of Morgan's belongings further up in his grip. "It'll have to do for now."
He stepped further into the place and set the box down.
"Easy for you to say, you could live in a mansion if you wanted to." Morgan grumbled as she approached him and placed her box on top of the other one, throwing the duffle bag on her shoulder to the ground too.
Outside, she heard Sphere touch down on the docks. "The others are here." She told her mentor. Unnecessary, since he was already approaching the front, pulling the hatch open further before ducking outside.
Morgan followed after him a second later, spotting Mal, Connor, Wolf and M'gann in the process of jumping off of the flying motorcycle.
At least, Morgan thought it was a motorcycle of some kind. She'd never actually asked Connor what Sphere was, but when it was unfolded, it kind of looked like a large motorcycle, so that's what she was calling it.
"Nice." Mal sounded more enthusiastic about their new home than Morgan felt. Of course, he hadn't seen the inside yet. "Perfect cover for our new gigs."
The huge man got off the bike and approached the warehouse. "I mean, on the outside it looks downright nasty." Everyone ducked under the door and stepped into their temporary home.
Mal, upon entering, paused in his steps and looked at the place in disbelief. "And it's nasty on the inside too." He said flatly, clearly unimpressed.
Morgan, despite their shared sentiment, snickered slightly at his tone.
To be honest, she was pretty sure she could get used to it. As long as the others were there, she could totally live with it.
It probably beat sleeping on Nightwing's couch, anyway.
"April fools, right?" Mal asked Nightwing as the others shuffled around the room, inspecting it silently. "I mean.. this is the Team's new HQ? Where's the secret trapdoor to our real base?"
"No secret trapdoor," Nightwing admitted, stepping closer to the taller, displeased man. "And it's not our new HQ. For the time being, we'll operate out of the basement of the Hall of Justice."
He placed his right hand on his hip and ran the other through his hair, trying to find the right words to placate Mal. "This is just a place to crash."
Morgan threw the strap of her duffle bag over her shoulder and pulled one of the boxes into her arms, ducking behind the blue curtains of what was apparently her and M'gann's 'room'.
"A very temporary stop gap place to crash, for those of you who were actually living at the Cave." Nightwing quickly elaborated when Mal opened his mouth to protest.
"Look on the bright side, big guy." Morgan clapped a sarcastic hand on Mal's shoulder once she'd reached them. "At least you're used to living someplace that smells like a boy's locker room." She stepped around the two men and picked the other box up, placing it on the bed that she'd already called dibs on.
"This place is fine." Connor suddenly spoke up, for once the positive one. He was probably one of those 'simply guy with simple needs' types.
Wolf padded into the room at its owner's approval, leaping up the stairs and settling onto one of the couches on the 'second floor' of the room, yawning widely.
"I'm sorry about the lack of privacy, girls." Nightwing apologized. M'gann had approached the small side room with two beds, the only thing separating it from the rest of the room a flimsy, blue curtain.
"This curtain will have to do for now," He admitted, his hand coming up pull slightly at the blue fabric. "But we'll figure something else out." He assured them.
He sounded genuinely apologetic about the whole thing.
And yeah, it kind of was a dump.
But he'd clearly done what he could, so Morgan decided to stop whining.
She rolled her eyes and placed a small hand on his broad shoulder. "It's fine, Nightwing." She assured him. "We'll live."
Mal had had enough at that point apparently. "Oh no." He protested. "No way. I. am. out." He fixed them all with a serious look before he headed for the exit, apparently being serious. "I'm heading to the Hall where I'm making other arrangements, my friend."
"You guys should go along." Nightwing told the three of them with a sigh. "Pick up the boxes of your stuff we salvaged from Mount Justice. Might make this warehouse feel more like a.. warehome." He shrugged good-naturedly.
"I can't believe the only thing we managed to salvage from my room was a single converse shoe and my hardback copy of Les Miserablés." Morgan grunted, flinging the book back into the box it had been in.
M'gann cracked a small smile at the girl's attempt at humor.
Since the rescue mission two days ago, M'gann had been.. off.
Morgan couldn't help but notice it. And she knew Connor had seen it too.
The other girl was quieter, staring into space constantly. M'gann was usually the cheerful one in their group and Morgan found that element severely missing now that she'd suddenly stopped.
M'gann had kind of been the mother at the Cave. And now both the Cave and the mother were gone, apparently.
Connor approached the table and set two boxes on it, opening them to inspect what was inside and if it was worth bringing to their new living place. Mal and Karen were standing by the big screens at the side of the room, talking.
Morgan looked up when a series of beeping interrupted the quiet in the room.
"Greeting and salutationisms, Earth's champions!" A voice cheerily greeted.
Captain Marvel and Zatanna, the only Leaguers currently at the Hall, ran hastily out of the room to inspect this new potential threat.
"What the-?"
The five youngsters stayed put, giving each other confused looks.
They couldn't see the source of the voice, but they could still hear him speak. "I am L-Ron, Major domo to the Great Master. And you are my prisoners!" The voice continued, still sounding cheery and almost friendly, despite his words. He sounded like a show host.
Morgan raised a slow eyebrow. "'Elrond'?" She repeated doubtfully.
There was silence up there as the two Leaguers undoubtedly told him exactly what they thought of that, and then a loud buzzing noise, followed by the crash of something large and heavy being thrown through glass.
Karen brought up visuals of what was going on upstairs.
A huge, purple creature had thrown Captain Marvel through the front doors, a small golden robot zipping around him, gesturing wildly with its hands as it spoke.
Why was it that all the weird crap always happened to them?
"Allow me to introduce my master." The robot said, Morgan recognizing the voice as the same one that had introduced itself as L-Ron. "The Warlord Despero! Gladitorial champion of ninety two star systems!" He announced, once again reminding Morgan of an annoying show host. "Working on ninety three right now. He has come to this backwater planet seeking a challenge to prove his superiority to all life forms! It's quite the complimentism, you really should feel honored." The golden robot settled its hands on Captain Marvel's shoulders as it spoke.
"Oh, I am." Captain Marvel aggressively answered. "Here, let me show him."
The red-clad hero flew towards the huge, purple alien, crashing into his waist, sending the two of them against a wall.
Not missing a beat, the alien threw him away, watching as the superhero crashed into a pillar, leaving behind a perfect imprint of his body.
"Should we..?" Morgan spoke up, having seen enough.
"He needs backup." Connor agreed, running out of the room and towards the fray. Bumblebee shrunk in size, already donning her suit, following after the boy.
Morgan was annoyingly torn. On one hand, she wanted to go up there and help the others all she could. On the other hand, she was still injured, and she knew Nightwing would be angry with her if she fought this guy while she still had bruised ribs and the order to rest hanging over her head.
M'gann had stayed behind too, waiting for Mal to make some sort of update. As the mission delegator and squad supervisor, they were all used to him telling them what they were up against before running into the fight.
"Uh.." Mal turned back to the screen, studying the visuals. "The force field around the Hall is blocking all communication. Zeta tubes are down too." He turned to the two girls again, looking grave. "We're on our own."
Well that settled it. If they were on their own, Morgan definitely wasn't going to sit this one out.
The three of them rain towards the front hall, finding the huge room in total mayhem, piles of rubble and broken glass lying around, statues destroyed, walls cracking, all because of the 'Despero' guy.
Morgan winched when a huge statue landed on top of Connor, drawing a pained grunt from him.
"Big ugly's wiping the floor with our heavy hitters." Mal worried.
Bumblebee approached the three of them. "I tried stinging him, but he didn't even feel it." She explained. "Miss Martian, you have to do something!"
Miss Martian, with her psychic control, was their best bet, Morgan realized. The guy, if the way he was throwing Captain Marvel and Superboy around like a pair of ragdolls was anything to judge by, was obviously too strong to take out manually. It had to be done psychically.
With a worried expression on her beautiful features, the Martian closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were purely green, and glowing, and she turned around, using her telekinetic powers to levitate the huge, golden statue of her uncle off of Superboy.
She moved the statue, sending it crashing into their enemy.
To Morgan's dismay, he simply punched the statue, reducing it to a pile of rubble, standing completely unscathed.
She walked a few steps forward and trained her mental focus on him, pushing her arm out, palm first, sending the purple mountain of an alien crashing through the glass wall behind him.
Angrily, he got up and stepped through the hole, grabbing hold of the decapitated head of the Wonder Woman statue that had previously been in the Hall, throwing it after the two females and Mal.
M'gann and Morgan both took to the air as Mal threw himself against the ground, sliding away.
"Come on, Miss M!" He shouted, encouraging the girl to defeat the guy psychically already. "Brain blast him or somethin'!"
M'gann shook her head. "No!" She protested, sounding scared that they'd make her do it.
Morgan and Bumblebee shared a confused look, knowing that their Martian friend had never had trouble with mentally fighting anyone before.
Captain Marvel attacked the alien again and was promptly punched through a wall and a long series of glass exhibits containing superhero suits.
The alien held him against a wall and punched him repeatedly, creating a large hole.
Morgan, flying through the hole and approaching the fight, silently wondered if the alien also wanted to see how big of a restoration bill he could create while killing them.
The superhero said something to the alien before he kicked him in the face and jumped onto his back.
"Shazam!" He shouted as lightning suddenly erupted from the otherwise clear sky, striking the two of them.
When the smoke lifted, a gangly kid clung to the alien where the huge and buff superhero had previously been. Despero looked entirely unscathed.
"Aw man." The boy worried, voice cracking to prove his adolescence. "I really thought that was gonna work."
The alien growled and pulled him off of its back.
"Flagrant foulism!" The robot suddenly shouted, approaching the fight. "My master has no interest in fighting a child!"
Morgan landed herself on the ground and tried to get closer without getting noticed. She couldn't fight this guy physically, not with her previous injuries, but she could use her telekinesis.
She tried to send him through another wall, but couldn't get a mental hold on him. She watched at he opened the eye located in the middle of his temple and trained it onto the boy in his grip. Suddenly, the kid went totally limp and was promptly dropped by the alien. Apparently, he could stun people by looking them in the eye. Great.
"Uhm, yes master, you will require a new opponent!" The robot sounded unsure, like it was afraid it would become Despero's next opponent if it didn't find a suitable substitute quickly enough. Morgan stepped closer and attempted to use her telekinesis again, hating how unstable her power was and how bad she was at using it.
She finally managed to get a hold of him and sent him crashing into the wall behind them, making the alien growl in displeasure. He really was ugly with the purple skin, pink Mohawk-like growth on his bald head, and sharp teeth.
Morgan ducked behind a cluster of rubble, hiding from sight.
Miss Martian, Superboy and Mal ran around the corner at that moment, their footsteps alerting the alien and robot of their presence.
"Aha!" The robot yelled enthusiastically. "This one bears the symbolism of Superman! One of Earth's mightiest champions."
Connor furrowed his brow and squared his shoulders as he anticipated the oncoming alien.
Morgan, seeing her opening, appeared from behind the rubble again and sent the alien crashing into another wall, leaving behind a huge dent from the impact.
Despero was apparently very displeased that she'd hindered him from reaching his real target, because the huge alien charged for her like a bull and crashed into her much smaller form. Morgan felt like she'd been hit by a train as she was lifted off the ground and flew through the air, landing with a painful thud in the front hall, Despero having barreled the two of them through the hole in the wall his fight with Captain Marvel had created.
Her ribs were screaming at her, as was the very newly healed wrist she'd landed on, but Morgan forced herself to stand up and face the alien, praying that someone else would engage the purple monster before he had the chance to reduce her to a grease spot for the janitor to wipe up.
Spots were dancing in front of her eyes as the alien emitted a low snarl before aiming his huge fist at her face.
The blow sent her off the ground and through one of the glass doors that led outside. Before Morgan crash-landed on the stone steps outside, before her vision grew dark, a single thought entered her mind.
Nightwing's gonna kill me when he finds out I tried to fight this guy.
Her limp body hit the stone steps and tumbled down them until she landed halfway on the grass, halfway on the pavement by the building, her consciousness lost before she'd even touched ground.
April 1st
Nightwing was having one of those 'can't leave them alone for five minutes' moments as he arrived at the utter destruction that was the Hall of Justice.
The Team had been there for twenty minutes and the place looked like it had been hit by a giant earthquake – and the building was actually designed to withstand earthquakes!
Secretary Tseng and his new best friend, The Reach ambassador, had left shortly after Nightwing's arrival, but not until the alien saw fit to inform the secretary of the Watchtower.
A very secret secret base that the public really wasn't supposed to know about.
So Nightwing was not exactly in high spirits when he slowly approached Mal – who was dressed up as the Guardian for reasons unknown – M'gann, Connor and Karen, watching the destruction around him as he went.
When he reached the four of them, he noticed the distinct lack of Morgan.
"Where's Morgan?" He sharply asked, feeling worry and dread pool into his stomach even as he did his best to squash it down. Or at least make sure it wasn't visible on his face or in his voice.
"Uh," Connor looked like he didn't know how to best answer his glaring team leader's question. "We're not entirely sure."
Nightwing's glare transformed into a stricken look as he redirected his gaze to the destroyed Hall, praying that the girl was currently crushed under several tons of rubble.
"She was knocked out of the building before it collapsed." Mal quickly spoke up to reassure the teenager. "She's somewhere on the grounds, but we haven't had the chance to search for her yet."
Before Nightwing ahd the chance to bark at them to get searching, then, they heard a pained groan several feet to their left and the sound of something shuffling about.
Nightwing recognized the groan immediately and turned on his heel, hurrying just a bit more than he'd like to admit towards the noise.
A pillar was lying on the marble steps, supporting one side of a large piece of what had formerly been the arch that spelled 'Hall of Justice' on the building's facade, creating a small cave of sorts. There was more movement underneath the large, flat stone and a grey wing peaked out, a dirty face with a split lip and a bloody nose, surrounded by a mane of dusty and filthy curls following soon afterwards.
Morgan was filthy and looked sore, but she was very much alive to Nightwing's eternal relief. The pillar she'd been lying against had stopped the huge piece of wall from squashing her, the formation also protecting her from any of the falling debris.
She wormed her way out from underneath her small protective cave, glancing up at the wrecked hall with a grimace on her face.
"That's the second HQ we've leveled in less than a month." Was the first thing she chose to say.
If Nightwing hadn't been both worried and angry, he'd probably have laughed at her tragically true words.
He crouched and pulled her the rest of the way out from underneath the rubble, the firm grip on her upper arms brining her to her feet.
She hissed at the sudden movement and gritted her teeth. "Dammit." She grunted.
Nightwing studied her posture, the way she was favoring her left leg and the way her right hand was clutching her ribs slightly.
"You okay?" He attempted to sound more worried than angry. "What happened?"
"Despero, the 'Warlord' is what happened." She rolled her eyes at the name as the rest of their small group of superheroes reached the two teenagers. "He punched me through a glass wall and I ended up here."
Nightwing scowled at her in disapproval. "You're under strict orders to not engage in any direct fighting until your ribs are healed." He seethed. "And then you chose to go and butt heads with the hostile alien you come across?!"
Morgan frowned at him, apparently not pleased he was seemingly blaming her for this. "And I was very busy trying to avoid any direct contact until the guy barreled into me with the force of a truck." She shot back sharply. "Excuse me if I didn't manage to swerve in time."
"You shouldn't have been attempting to attack him, physically or telekinetically, in the first place when you know that Captain Atom told you to rest for three weeks."
"What, you expected me to plant my ass in a chair and watch as the others got hurt trying to fight off some crazy, purple alien – with the most annoying robot in tow might I add – and not try to help at all?"
"Yes! That's exactly what I expect you to do when those are your orders."
"You realize if I'd done that I'd be dead right now, right?" Morgan angrily pointed out. "I would've been buried underneath all of that rubble. The alien almost did me a favor by knocking me out of the building."
"Uh, guys?" Karen suddenly spoke up, interrupting the very heated discussion between mentor and pupil.
As one, Nightwing and Morgan turned their heads to face her, "What?!" They both irritably barked.
"I'm not saying to no argue or anything because I'm really not going to get involved in.. that," she motioned for the two of them and Nightwing instinctively took a step back and straightened his posture when he realized how close the two of them were actually standing. Their bodies were practically touching and their faces were inches from each other, the proximity having evolved gradually over the course of their small fight. Morgan huffed uncomfortably and turned her body to the side, crossing her arms in front of her.
Bumblebee went on, "I'm just saying that you might want to wait until you're someplace more private. Without the paparazzi and stuff."
Nightwing's eyes widened when he realized that, even though the reporters below couldn't have heard a word of their heated dispute, they had seen the whole thing and probably filmed most of it too.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to expel his anger, counting backwards from five in his head. When he reopened his eyes, he looked at his five friends and team mates. "You guys should get home. You've had a long night."
He bid them good night and sought out Captain Atom, knowing that the destruction of the Hall probably meant that they needed to find someplace else to operate from, at least until the Hall had been rebuilt.
April 2nd
Nightwing noticed Morgan cringed in her seat on the couch, watching as G. Gordon replayed the clip with the Reach ambassador telling secretary Tseng about the Watchtower for the fifth time today. He was wondering why they were even watching that channel.
Next to her sat Beast Boy, and Connor, who was sporting a scowl much like the one on Morgan's face, stood at the couch's left side, La'gaan flanking the couch to their right. Nightwing stood behind the couch, arms crossed over his chest.
"Did you hear that folks? The Justice League has their own eye in the sky, spying on the very people they claim to protect!" The apparently permanently angry news anchor exclaimed. "Thank goodness for honest allies like the Reach, and for wise men like secretary Tseng, who has invited our friends to extend their visit."
Nightwing sighed and turned off the news, having heard enough. "Great." He muttered sarcastically.
"I swear," Morgan bit out, hopping off the backrest of the couch, which she'd been perched on, "If I ever meet him in public I'm going to 'accidentally' fly him to the nearest zoo and feed him to the lions."
Beast Boy jumped off the couch and nodded to himself as if he agreed with her threat.
He turned and faced Mal, who had approached the small group from behind, a box in his hand. "What happened to your other arrangement?" Nightwing asked.
Mal shrugged. "What would you guys do without me?"
Apparently, Karen didn't want her boyfriend to stay over, Nightwing silently figured.
"Where's M'gann?" He asked when he noticed the lack of the only other female currently staying at the Warehouse.
"She said the place was a bit too much like a 'boy's dorm'," Nightwing quoted with wry humor, placing his hands on his hips, "and as much as she likes the smell of unwashed socks.." He trailed off, no further explanation needed.
Mal looked at Morgan, who was slowly approaching the edge of the small outcropping. "What about you? You leavin' too?"
Morgan shrugged, a small smirk on her lips. "Nah, I'm gonna stick around for a bit. I don't have anywhere else to crash."
She jumped off the edge and spread her wings, floating harmlessly to the floor below, landing in a crouch briefly before standing. "I'm going for a walk. I'll see you guys later."
The guys all watched her leave for a few seconds before going back to their own devices, Mal starting to unpack his things.
"I've got a meeting to go to." Nightwing admitted. "I'll talk to you guys later."
The others wished him good luck as he also emerged from their hide out, spotting Morgan turning a corner further down the docks.
"Morgan!" He called, gaining the winged girl's attention. She paused in her steps and waited for her mentor to catch up.
"What's up?" She asked once he was close enough. The moon was bathing the docks in a cool light, casting shadows along her face, the bruise the fight from yesterday had left on her cheek clearly visible against her light skin. A breeze blew from the open sea and played with the curls around her face, momentarily making her look kind of breathtaking, piercing grey eyes watching him with rapt attention.
"The security cameras I hacked into have been attempting to pinpoint your father's movements around the city and for several nights in a row, I've located him. One of the subways in the southern parts of Gotham. It's not much, I know, but it at least proves that he's still in town. If we work out a pattern of his appearances, I think we could manage to meet him there." Nightwing explained, happy that he'd at the very least managed to do that.
Morgan nodded thoughtfully. "I'll come over some time if you want. We could check that security feed, figure out where he's going."
"I'll figure out when I've got the time and come back to you tomorrow." Nightwing promised. "And, uh," He paused in his steps and scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I'm sorry about lashing out at you yesterday after the Hall was destroyed. You did what everybody on this Team – including me – would've done. And I can't really blame you for that."
Morgan smirked slightly, shrugging. "It's fine. I get it. You were worried about me and because you aren't good with handling worry, you reacted with anger."
He took a step back and straightened his posture, completely taken aback by the casual – but highly accurate – remark.
"I.. guess you could say something like that.." He slowly admitted.
She blinked innocently at him, small smirk pulling at her split lip.
Nightwing cleared his throat. "I'm gonna go now." He turned slightly, indicating that he was leaving. "Enjoy your walk."
"Good luck at your meeting." Morgan responded wryly, that small humorous smirk still playing on her mouth.
"The Reach used our own secrets against us, beat us without firing a single shot." A clearly frustrated Captain Atom relayed. He was leaning against a wall as he talked, the attention of everyone in the room on him. "They even offered to take Despero off our hands, and I couldn't come up with a single reason to say no." He finished, crossing his arms angrily in front of him as he slouched in his spot.
He trained his glowing white eyes onto Black Canary, who was reclined in an arm chair much like Nightwing. "Hope you have some good news."
"At the very least, I have some answers." She admitted, taking over. "With the obvious exception of Blue Beetle, the Reach abductees are of two known categories. Those with a known superpower, and those with the potential to develop one." She held up a ball of tightly squashed paperclips. To Nightwing, it looked like they'd all become magnetically charged and drawn to each other, and he could only guess that this strange phenomenon had been caused by someone from the second category she'd mentioned.
"I believe we now know what a meta gene is," She went on, brow drawn seriously. "A genetic anomaly that allows certain humans to develop new survival skills when exposed to trauma. The Reach, I think, seeks to cultivate the gene and weaponize it."
Nightwing's mind was already reeling with this discovery. He'd already guessed some of it, or perhaps more like suspected it, but now that his theory had been confirmed, he realized that he finally had some answers to offer Morgan. The Light had attempted to capture Morgan with the others. Which meant the Reach was interested in her. Which meant she had a meta gene.
Which meant they finally knew where her telekinesis came from.
He spoke up as he put the thought of telling Morgan from his mind momentarily, knowing that he had to concentrate on the discussion at hand. "Which is probably what brought the Reach and the Krolotean's here in the first place." He speculated. "All thanks to the Light sending the League to Rimbor and putting Earth and it's heroes square in the galactic spotlight."
Everyone in the room knew that he was probably right, and nobody looked particularly pleased with his words. They didn't need Earth to suddenly become a known planet, especially when it meant having to deal with alien invasions like the Reach and the Kroloteans too often.
The door suddenly opened to allow Blue Beetle entrance, the younger boy looking nervous.
"Beetle?" Black Canary addressed the boy first.
"I'm sorry," He said, sounding as nervous as he looked. "I've been hiding something. But I can't.. I just can't-"
He was interrupted when Impulse abruptly appeared by his side and put a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Uh, Blue-Blue-Blue," He frantically repeated to gain Blue Beetle's attention. "What happened to telling no one?"
Nightwing was becoming very interested in what Blue's secret was now, especially when Impulse of all people, with his usual disregard of secret identities and the like, wanted to keep him quiet.
Jaime closed his eyes tightly and frowned seriously before speaking again. "No. it's time for the truth." He looked at Black Canary and then Nightwing before stepping further into the room, Impulse's hand dropping from his shoulder. "Impulse says some time in the future I betray Earth and bring on the Reach apocalypse. That's not a future I can live with. So whatever it takes." His armor started pulling back, revealing his determined face and bare torso. He pointed at the blue Scarab attached to his spine. "Get this scarab off me."
I always thought the appearance of Despero was really random. Like, the guy just shows up to trash the place so the Team has to use the Warehouse as their HQ. But it's a funny episode either way, and it starts Mal on his Guardian path, so it does have some significance.
And now Dick finally confirmed his meta gene theory! How do you think Morgan is gonna react when he tells her?
Since I'm sooooo close to having finished writing this story, I've started seriously planning out the sequel. I've written a rough (very, very rough) draft of some of the plot. Probably half of the plot. So I've finally gotten a clear idea of where I want to take the story.
Fun fact: Morgan's celebrity crush is totally Orlando Bloom after she watched Pirates of the Caribbean when she was fourteen. (Thank you YouProbablyDontKnowMe for suggesting the question!)