July 10th, 2010 - 06:48 (07:01)

The headquarters were huge. Okay, that had to have been a bit of an understatement in Wally's mind, he thought, as he held Robin in the crook of his arm and bolted off down the hall, the direction and destination unknown. He wasn't exactly worried about getting lost, seeing as the other was pretty savvy when it came to tech, but he still had enough foresight to look down for a moment and pause, regarding the boy in his grip.

"Oh, right, you've got a map of this place, right?" Kid Flash asked, grinning slightly as he came to a stop, and he looked around to see a split in the corridors, though the main hub was still in view several meters away. They'd covered a lot of ground in that split moment, and slightly disoriented, Robin raised his arm and heaved a bit, struggling to get himself together as he tapped at his wrist-watch screen.

Wally was sure he looked a little green in the face, but that wasn't that unheard of; a lot of people couldn't handle his speed.

"I...yeah...yeah, got it right here. Schematics of the whole place, but...could you slow down a bit? I think...I think I'm gonna be...s-sick..." The teen asked, placing his hand over his mouth and retching quietly into his palm, and quickly, Kid Flash obliged, grinning a bit shyly as he carefully set Robin down and patted his back.

"Ah, uh...sorry about that. Wanted to cover some ground, but we could walk if that's better. Don't want you blowing chunks everywhere." He explained, and with a nod, and moment to get himself back together, Robin seemed okay enough, though Wally felt a touch of guilt at his presumptions. He was always so used to the word going at a hare's pace, to see things wind and turn with blinding speed that normal people just...couldn't handle. That wasn't an insult to the other's capabilities, certainly not, he reminded him, as he'd just recalled that most couldn't have faired at that speed for even as long as Robin just had. The boy was hardy, that much was true, and it showed in how quickly he'd recovered; it was cool to see in action, him on the mend, just like that.

"No...worries. I'm good, just...felt a little queasy." He, Robin, admitted, and Wally nodded, trying to understand, but it was hard to when he was so adjusted to that sort of stress. It was becoming harder to remember a time when he'd been...normal, human...but he had been once, and the feeling was familiar, and so he could, in some regard relate to the sense of being overwhelmed.

He hadn't always been a speedster, after all.

"Well, hope you've got enough in ya to leg it. Looks like this place has got a lotta bells and whistles; if we start down this way, it looks like - oh! There's an armory! Wanna go check it out?" Kid Flash asked, giving Robin a slight grin as the mischief in his voice took hold. Sure, they got to see the league use the weapons, but being able to look around in the place where once stocked their best stuff - that was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Robin tilted his head in thought.

"I mean, it is close. Couldn't hurt, and with thirteen minutes left, we at least had the chance to see something. Besides, I wanna see about getting some better rings; the explosive caliber of the ones I have are a little out of date." He agreed, and Wally smiled.

"Then let's go! At a reasonable pace, of course." He teased, and the other punched him lightly on the arm, but jogged ahead, the speedster rushing along to match his pace.

-(Elsewhere)-

July 10th, 2010 - 06:51

Patience, patience, patience,Her mind echoed with agitation as she left Kon-el's room and gripped the knob, its metal threatening to give under the weight of her strength before she let it go, taking in a long, drawn breath as if trying to calm herself. She wasn't familiar with this feeling...this frustration as the object of her interest dodged her attempts left and right, even with her (by her judgement) subtle suggestions of action that she'd hoped the clone would take...only for him to deny her. She'd never struggled this much to make others do what she wants, but...this wasn't the same; she didn't want him to just do what she said. She wanted...wanted him to want to listen, to take her words and use them, to consider her...to want her, but then...why had he looked so upset, so confused, so...

Distrustful? Does he not trust me? What am I doing wrong?,She pondered, looking back at his door she almost considered going back in there, to just...wipe it clean again. That was an option, wasn't it? To keep starting over until the perfect moment happened? It wouldn't hurt to try it, would it? But...would it solve anything? Would he like her more if she kept making things confusing?

That wouldn't help, starting over and over again unless she really messed something up, she thought; something was clearly going on, and in a sense, she knew, functionally, that "wiping memories" wasn't so much erasing as it was...hiding them. The mind was like a spider web, capturing thoughts and feelings and intertwining with gentle threads that couldn't be so easily unraveled, no matter how much one tries to wrap them up in spindles of silk. M'gann could unravel and pull the tethers...but the person's will was still there.

They could still resist.

They could still be...defiant.

Of course, it was easier to take scissors and snip the threads.

That's...what she was used to doing, anyway. Snipping and clipping and cutting and breaking until the entire web collapsed, just as she'd done countless times to get the information that she was told to collect, to make people...bend.

Until they snapped.

Just like a thread of silk pulled too far for too long; it just couldn't take it anymore. And despite her best efforts, she realized, that was exactly what she was doing now. Pushing too hard, too soon, too much at once, she thought. At this rate, she thought, she'd never have what she wanted; he'd always look at her like that. With eyes that suspected, with words that stung, with a voice that didn't give love but hurt.

And that was the last thing that she wanted.

But she didn't know what she was supposed to do. She'd never had to think too hard about how she...broke in. She just...did.

Tearing up everything in her path. Ripping the mind asunder until there was nothing left.

But this timehadto be different.

She...just had to figure out how to be more -

Patient. I have to be patient. Take things...slow...,She thought, as she stepped back from the door and put a hand to her chin, deep in thought. That was right, the young martian considered as she turned on her heels and made her way back down the hall to her own room, which was just a few paces from Superboy's (a fortuitous happenstance, she like to think); she had to be patient, and being patient meant having understanding. In any other case, she would have just taken what she needed and left (though some of her 'friends' were definitely more feisty than others and very much needed some "readjustment" to correct their bad behaviors to make them more...agreeable), but this time, she thought...that didn't seem to be working. Or...not in the way that she'd hoped that it would.

Of course, she could still do that, make...corrections where she deemed necessary, and thinking back to just now, she wondered if perhaps that behavior, that little tempter that he had...could be a place to start. She'd only known him for two days, but she'd seen it flare up every now and again. Like a little firecracker, her love with go so upset about the smallest things, and though it was cute to see when he would get frustrated or peeved at times, in cases like this, where it was directed towards her...that wasn't acceptable. Then the idea struck her, the girl smiling slightly as she placed her fist into her palm with realization.

"That's it! I'll just work on one thing at a time!"She exclaimed quietly to herself, the cogs of a plan of action brewing.

That was the problem! She was going at everything too quickly. A patient lover directed carefully, she thought, so much so that the other person didn't even realize that something was changing until it was already altered, and that's what she had to exercise. Kon-el got angry too quickly, she thought, he was too...passionate about things.

Too quick to speak against her.

Too quick to refuse her.

If she made an effort to temper those little quirks, then things would get easier, wouldn't they? He wouldn't just accept her help, but ask for it, and he would say nice things to her...making loving remarks that would make her blush. He would reach out and...and -

No, focus! That comes later! But first...I need to give him some space; can't do too much too soon. I'll forgive him this one time, but from now on...I have to correct that,She thought, and with a giggle, she'd made it to her door, and gripping the handle, she turned, slipping inside in silence as her plan was thrown in motion.

-(Same time, Elsewhere)-

The bathroom's stone walls appeared to have been carved quickly, yet carefully, by the hands of constructors of great skill and renown, and from what he understood, he should have expected no less from the Lanterns who, like many of the architectural projects the League had, they were chiefly, or at the very least, mostly, responsible for. Stepping into the silence and tossing his articles upon the counter, his feet padding upon cold, dark tiles, he passed the mirror that framed the long sink that stretched from the entrance of the bathroom to the end of the black marble surface, and within it, he could see himself.

If Kon could admit something, it was...peculiar, seeing himself. Cadmus wasn't exactly concerned with him knowing what he looked like, much less that he would be able to recognize himself if he looked at his reflection, but in some strange way...he didn't hold it against them. Not when he caught himself for the first time just a few days ago, and he, for the first time in his brief life...felt shaken by the prospective boots he was meant to fill. The resemblance was...uncanny, he thought; in the simplest terms, he was the Man of Steel's carbon copy (no pun intended), and it...scared him.

Though he couldn't even begin to understand why. Every pore, the shade of his hair, the color of his eyes...everything, was identical, and in some way, he figured (no, he knew) it was intentional on the part of the people that...made him. 'Overtake the Man of Steel' they told him the very moment he was old enough and smart enough to understand language, and he'd lived by that purpose without question, but seeing himself in his older self...it shook this tenant.

But something else came to mind.

Looking down at his hands, this resemblance brought up in him this...sting, bright and fresh and blistering as he clenched his fists. He looked...just like him, down to the way they smiled, the way they squinted their eyes, hell, the manner in which they twitched their nose when they felt a sneeze coming on, it was all the same, save for the weird trail of blood that had since dried, coming from his nostrils. As such, he didn't think it out of the question that their capabilities would have been one-to-one, too. But he was reminded each and every day, when his eyes didn't blaze like fire, or he couldn't take the air effortlessly...that they weren't.

They weren't...at all equal, not in the ways that mattered.

Staring hard and long at himself, he felt his anger grow, but at what...he wasn't even sure. Maybe at his creators for making him...wrong. For messing something up along the way that made it so that he was only superficially an El, in appearance alone, but not enough to really count for much apart a stupid temper, an inferiority complex, and busted powers that paled in comparison to the real thing. In most, if not every, way...he could be considered a failure.

A total, utter, complete, unequivocal failure.

And looking at himself,staringat himself, he could only see a cheap imitation...hardly worthy of the name 'El'...and Superman made that abundantly, painfully clear.

A reminder that...he wasn't enough. He wouldneverbe enough.

He flinched when he felt his luminous blue eyes water, and that only compounded his self-loathing.

"Come on, get a grip! None of that!" He shouted at himself, slapping his cheek a few times to tame the swelling of emotion in his chest, though he did look away, a subconscious part of himself unable to bear looking at his reflection for a moment more before swallowing, choosing, instead, to redirect him attention to what it was that he came in here to do: get cleaned up and dressed. He sighed at his self-reminder, and turning to his, strangely, soiled clothes, he framed his focus.

Mindlessly brooding about things he couldn't change...wouldn't do anything but make him feel worse than he already did, so he chose to push all of that away, and instead, he began his work of getting undressed.

A shower would clear his mind.

And a nice change of clothes would ease him thoughts.

That's all he needed right now. A good shower and a fresh start to the day.

Starting with his shirt, he noticed that whatever had been on ingrained into the fabric was beginning to dry, the mix of smells that hit his nose an unpleasant mix that did his best to ignore as it was peeled from his kin with a sticky crunch, eliciting a quiet cringe from the youth. When he'd put it on last night, he was sure that was clean, and sweat...didn't sound like that, he thought, inspecting it closer. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary as far as he could tell, though one of the stains, the much stickier of the two, felt...crusted on, and much like the taste on his tongue and lips...it smelled...sweet.

A sickening, saccharine stench.

It made him feel...sick.

"God, what was I sweating? Syrup? I hope I can get the stains out; I like this shirt." He said to himself, turning back to toss the soiled garment into metallic basket behind him, and it was sent immediately away down the chute, presumably to where the clothes were to be cleaned, the teen guessed as he worked on his pants next. Wiggling out them, Kon-el did much the same, tossing them behind him haphazardly and sending them down the passage into the lower bowels of the hideout, all until he came to his briefs. As always, he didn't spend a great deal of time inspecting himself; he didn't really see the need to as he quickly shed his last remaining clothing, stepping out of them as he pulled them down to the floor only to pick them up once he'd stepped out of them. On any other day, they were clean and clear, bare fabric that didn't regard stains and smears of any kind as...he, shyly, had to admit that he didn't...know much about that sort of thing. Of course, the g-gnomes had alluded to the more adult subjects of reproduction and things, but to be frank, apart from knowing how all of it worked, he'd never...experienced it himself.

Perhaps part of that was due to the fact that he hadn't been alive that long, or that he just wasn't around people enough, but...he'd never had...certain dreams. He never felt those sorts of feelings, as far as he could tell.

And most of all, he thought, as he looked into his briefs, his eyes widening...he'd never left something behind. It was clear as day, a long-crusted smear of white resting right where his soft flesh had been. He didn't dare touch it, his confusion mounting as he swallowed.

Where...what...did I do that?,He thought innocently, unable to fathom the idea.

There was no way that he could have...did he have one ofthosedreams? The g-gnomes had told him that sometimes, the body can react to stimulation from one's dreams and manifest it as...this, but...he couldn't recall anything like that from the night before. No, in fact, he considered, searching his mind quickly for anything that might have spurned this on, there was nothing to suggest that sort of thing. Looking back at his briefs, the clone felt...odd, and he looked down at himself, biting his lip.

It was limp and soft, just as it always was, but somehow...he could tell something was...off.

Reaching down, he hesitated, face blooming red at the thought of touching it. Kon never really...explored, so to speak, in regards to his...body; he'd always viewed it as a vessel, yes, but being in Cadmus didn't prove to be the sort of environment that he really wanted to do that sort of thing in. Apart from that, it had just never occurred to him that he...should have; those feelings, for lack of a better word, were all but muted, in a sense. So his embarrassment felt fresh and new as he took his soft member in his hand, flinching slightly at his own touch as he inspected it. It didn't resist his turns and angles, but noting that nothing seemed wrong with it, he palmed it a bit, holding it in his grip gently as he stared at it. For the most part, he didn't feel...much, but there was definitely something, he thought, letting it go to run tentative fingers over the top of his shaft when he shivered.

Then his mind flashed.

His body felt so...warm, tingling like live-wires beneath his skin as it stroked him, grabbing and dressing his flesh with hungry hands that didn't stop, even when he felt himself want to squirm away from their touch. He hated the throbbing pulse of arousal that made him want to meet the hand that was eating him; even just that moment alone was enough to bring him to the edge was precum dripped and soiled his briefs.

It was unlike anything that he'd felt before, but his mind hung with languid shame, a draping mess of disgust that filled his addled thoughts and shrouded him as his body reacted accordingly.

stop...

Stop...

p P-

He yanked his hand away from himself and gasped, dropping his briefs to the ground.

The clone didn't even have time to process the strange thought, a fractured picture in his mind, before it sank beneath the surface of his subconscious again, granting him solemn echoes of memory before it all faded to black. Closing his eyes, he panted slightly between gnashing teeth, the boy gripping his chest through a pounding heart.

It...I-It's not real...I'm just...t-tired, yeah...j-just...tired,The teen said in his mind, though even he struggled to believe the lie that he'd told himself.

Being tired didn't make you just...conjure up shit in your head. Didn't make you...feel things, touches so real that they felt as though they'd actually been there.

Being tired didn't make you feel disgust with yourself. Make your body squirm as if one-hundred worms had been planted in your skin.

That didn't happen.

So...why...why did that happen.

What was happening to him?

"I just...need to shower. It's just pressure and stress. If I just...focus on the this one thing, then I won't have to worry about this...any of this..." Kon-el told himself, doing his best to even his breathing.

He was just stressed, and tired, that's all. All of this was just in his head.

All of it was just in his head.

Picking up his briefs, he deliberately look back at the auspicious stain that had spurned this mess in the first place.

He would just ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen, and all of it would just...go away.

So he did.

He didn't look at himself again. Instead, he turned to the stone-laden shower walls and turned the faucet and adjusted the temperature before twisting the knob to turn on the head, a delicate spray of water trickling down from each pores of the pristine metal that beckoned him stand underneath of it and wash away any and all worries that burdened him. And he answered eagerly, practically throwing himself into the shower and with a towel that was already hanging within the cavity that had been carved to hold linens, soaps, and the like. He was quick to douse the fabric in as much body wash as it could hold, and at once, he took to scrubbing himself, cleaning himself with an intensity he couldn't explain.

But he didn't care...so long as he could feel clean.

He just...neededto feel clean.

He wasn't sure why, he just...needed to.

Kon-el dragged the cloth against his skin with undue strength, rubbing his stomach and private areas so roughly that each area radiated red anger from friction, but he didn't care. He could at least boast a somewhat substantial healing factor, and it was in mere moments that the scrubbing pains resolved themselves...only for him to scrub harder.

And harder.

AND HARDER.

"W-what?" He stuttered, stopping when he saw red, and he snapped out of his trance.

What...what was he doing?

Pulling the rag from his skin, it was peeled away to present broken skin and blood, dripping slowly from the growing friction burn that he'd given himself, the motions of his hand so intense, and the contact of the fabric to his body so hard, that the towel had become frayed and worn, and positively ruined, as small pools of red had seeped into its white thread. Inspecting it, Kon-el hissed as steaming, hot water pelt the opened wounds (was it always this warm?) on his member and stomach, before they, too, began to mend themselves.

Mended until they were fixed.

Mended until nothing remained.

The rag, though, was still slightly of a pink hue, even when water ran over the spots that he'd dirtied, though he knew he still had to clean his legs. Clearing his throat, he completely disregarded what he'd done as he took into his rag a few more spurts of body wash, and started on his lower body, though he tried to remain minded for the force and strength that he was using.

He ignored the nervous twitch of his hand as he tried to moderate his power.

He did what he could to not think about how he'd been scrubbing himself raw..and wasn't even been aware of it until he was...hurting himself badly enough to draw blood. He...he never did that.

He'd neverdonea lot of things, it seemed.

This morning was full of revelations, huh?

Stress...it's just stress...,He reminded himself uncompromisingly, holding up each foot to wash between his toes and finally, ringing out the towel and immediately opening the shower door to toss it into the chute (it wouldn't do having that found; he'd never hear the end of it), he rinsed off the soap, head-to-toe.

Rinsed in that blistering how water.

Rinsed until the dirt was gone.

Rinsed until he didn't feel disgusting anymore.

Turning off the shower head and water, he reached back into the little nook to grab a towel and another wash cloth. He stepped out of the shower to meet the warm mat underneath, and wrapping the fabric around his waist, he walked back over to the sink and inspected his face again. The warm mist had down away with most of the now browning stain that had seemed to have have been a nose bleed at some point in the morning (he noted curiously that M'gann had failed to mention that part), but he found that even just thinking about her made him sour, so he focused, instead, on cleaning his face, too. There was crustiness and grunginess that almost seemed cake upon his cheeks and lips, and running the water of the sink as warm as it would go, matching the temperature of the shower, he took the rag and scrubbed his visage as well, rubbing over and over again until his face stung a bit.

But he tolerated it.

Because he just needed to be clean.

That wasn't too hard to believe, was it? That was a perfectly normal thing to want.

He continued, dotting the inside of his nostrils to clean up the blood that remained, and after looking over his quietly healing face, and nodding to himself with some degree of satisfaction, he sighed, grinning for the first time, he felt, all morning since he woke up the first time.

"Great. Now, can't leave the bathroom without a fresh mouth, right? Right." He answered himself. Setting down the damp cloth, he didn't have to search at all for his tooth brush as it was on counter in the same fashion as it had been left the night before, and taking it in hand, he squeezed a segment of toothpaste, and wetting it a bit with some water, he brushed his teeth. In the back of his mind, he did whatever he could to ignore though remnants of pungent sweetness that had remained on his tongue.

The dryness that it brought.

The way he choked around something that slithered around his mouth.

Swishing around, andaround, andaroundanddown his throat-

Superboy gagged, loosing a touch of bile, the bitter, stinging yellow substance dripping down his lips as it mixed with his toothpaste. He was quick to spit out the white froth, grunting as he scrubbed his tongue, too.

It was all in his head.

He got the roof of his mouth.

It was all in his head.

He scrapped his gums clean.

It was all in his head. It was all in his head. It was all in his head. In his head, in his head, in his head -

"There! Done!" He exclaimed and he inspected his mouth, running his tongue along his gleaming, pearly whites with a scrutinizing, making a note of anything that even barely resembled what it tasted like before, but when his mouth rang true with notes of peppermint and a feeling of cleanliness that almost made him forget what had been there a minute or so ago. He stared into his reflection, his perfectly clean, reflection and recited what he had before.

It was all in my head,The clone told himself as he rinsed his mouth.

In my head,He reminded himself as he dried the rest of his body off, and began to get dressed again.

In my head,He thought.

In...my...head.

-(Elsewhere)-

The armory had been cool enough, though the absence of the League could definitely be felt as much of what remained were fairly out of date, which seemed to bother Robin more than it bothered Wally himself...seeing as he wasn't big on weapons and the like. However, he stuck around as the boy wonder raved about the older sets of incendiaries that were left over, the former thoroughly enjoying the younger teen express his excitability with the logistics of each remaining edition that the armory sports. The two of them speculated that they would likely be stocked at some point during the Team's future...that is...if they had one.

But neither them wanted to think too morbidly, not when they weren't sure if the worst was sure to come...but they weren't going to be overly optimistic either. Exploring the still sparse walls of the armory, Wally checked the time on his own watch, a standard analog one and not the fancy sort that Robin would wear.

He read the time; it was 06:59 now.

"Hey, Rich. How much left on the timer? Haven't hear it go of yet." Wally asked, looking away from a particular sharp set of used Bat-a-rangs, when Robin lifted his wrist and checked the timer.

"Oh, about three minutes left. Might want to start heading back. Wouldn't want the cameras to pick up that we were gone." He exclaimed, and the speedster nodded with acknowledgement.

Sounded good to him.

"Cool. Plus, we'll need time to make sure you don't go too fast. Can't have you gettin' sick or anything, right?" He chided, grinning softly as Robin rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Let's just go." The teen said, and the two were off again, leaving the dimly lit armory and back into the halls. They walked in silence for a bit, but Kid Flash was watching Robin closely, though most of this was unconscious. He'd been pining behind Miss Martian for the last few days now, but most of that felt, at least in some part, sort of hollow, most of his attempts to woo M'gann more akin to bluffs then actual interest.

Not that he really intended to say that aloud.

He tried to calm his heart rate as Robin seemed to notice that Wally was no longer occasionally glancing at him, but instead, was full-on staring at him, despite the former's attempts to remain discrete about his clear interest in the other.

Robin raised a brow.

"You okay? You've been staring at me for, like, five minutes now. What? Something on my face?" He asked, rubbing gently at his cheeks, but Wally blanched, blushing a bit as he turned away to hide it.

He laughed nervously; could he have been weirder about it?

"N-no! Sorry, I was just, uh...thinkin' about something, that's all! Nothin' serious!" Wally was quick to cover his bases, rubbing the back of his head in an attempt to relax his features and the rising tension and heat in his shoulders as his heart thrummed wildly in his chest, and in response, Robin suddenly looked curious.

Wally loved that look on his face.

Inwardly, he slapped himself afterwards.

"Oh yeah? About what? Care to share?" The boy wonder asked, and Kid Flash swallowed.

He wasn't sure either of them would want that, but he chose to avoid the question, poking light fun at the other.

"Never took you as the nosey sort." He retorted, raising a brow, but turning away in the same breath.

That wasn't true. He knew Robin; more than anything, was the sort to search and fight tooth and claw for the answers to questions he deemed worthy of his attention and time. That was one of the things that he absolutely couldn't get enough of when it came to the little bird that walked beside him; that fire in his eyes when a problem or mystery arose, the youth was always first to dive headfirst in search of an answer. That hunger for knowledge that couldn't be bested, a thirst for understanding he didn't encounter that often was so enticing that Wally could frankly hear the other talk and talk and still never reach the end of the limitless depths that dwelled within Robin.

But that was also a problem.

He was so investigative, so eager to understand things, that he was almost certain that any amount of intrigue, even the slightest whiff of something to be looked into, would be all that little bloodhound needed to never let this go.

As a matter of fact, Wally may have already said enough as, even with his dismissive non-answer, Robin perked up.

"I can be. Under the right circumstances. Spill it." He all but demanded, though the request wasn't mean...but rather genuinely interested.

Not that he was surprised.

Chuckling slightly, cleared his throat to answer, but he paused. He couldn't help it, the fluttering in his stomach as a subconscious thought crept through, poking crudely into his throat as he felt the urge to speak.

Thinking about how cute you look right now...,It whispered.

Thinking about how much I'd like to hold your hand...,It muttered.

Thinking about how much I'd really like to kiss you -

Wally paled, rushing to answer as he felt his face grow warm and without a doubt red from his quiet musings.

Or rather...notso quiet musings as his heart threatened to hop out of his chest and dance on the floor, he was so flustered.

God, could he get a grip?!

"Oh! Just...kinda nervous about meeting up with the League. You know...about Selena? Can't get that off my mind, you know?" He lied, unable to even look at Robin anymore, that is, if he wanted to salvage the last bits of his composure that threatened slip through his fingers. At the mention of the impending issue, he shot a glance at Robin that, like everything else that he did, struck like lightning. In that split moment, though, the younger speedster was taken aback to see the other frown, and even stranger, a flicker of disappointment flashed across his features before he turned forward, that flame of interest all but extinguished.

In some strange way, him lying almost stirred a sort of guilt he couldn't describe, quieter, though, it was, than that of the desperate efforts to conceal his truer feelings, but he wouldn't have lied and claimed that he wanted to see that sparkle in his eyes again...but that would mean divulging every bit of his private thoughts, and right now...that was unthinkable.

So he remained silent as the air quieted, and Robin looked forward, the forthright cadence in his voice returning as they turned their conversation back the impending conversation.

"Oh, well, guess we'll have to see what happens, right?" He responded curtly, and Wally nodded, opening his mouth to speak again, but he had no idea what to say now. Whatever spark there might have been, he'd done well-enough squashing fully and completely, so he decided to leave the air still.

That wasn't what he'd meant to do.

Great job, Wally. Really hit that one out the park, huh?,He chastised himself crossly, but he wouldn't have much time to wallow in his abject failure as they'd both just made it back to the main hub when they heard the jaws of the entrance hum to life, and the voice of the AI that announced every patron did, too.

the AI chimed in.

"02 'Batman ', has been identified." It started, though the entrance was still open, so there were certainly more on the way.

"Nice, right on time! Not bad, Rich." Wally said, grinning at the teen, and despite their tense moment just a minute or so before, the former returned the smile, shrugging slightly, though the other could tell that he'd taken kindly to the compliment.

"I have my moments." He responded, and just as he had, the turned to find Superboy walking in, and Wally quickly waved to the clone, his smile infectious. He assumed that he'd just gotten out of the shower, if his damp hair and bare feet were anything to go off of as, just he'd gestured for him to come over to him, the other waved back, that same stoic, still expression clear on his face. He didn't miss, however, the slight furrow his brow, nor the stiffness in his joints once the teen had come closer to them.

But he didn't see the point in mentioning it.

Superboy wasn't exactly the warmest member of their team, after all.

"Hey, Supe! How's it going?" Robin greeted, and just like with Wally, his greeting hand was brief and stiff, but this time, though, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Hey. Didn't know you guys would be here this early. Something going on?" Kon-el asked curtly, and at his uninviting tone, both of them deflated a bit. Ever since they'd 'liberated' him, most everyone that had come in close contact with clone could at least agree that he was...less than friendly more than half-the-time. Sure, Wally thought, it's only been a few days, less than a week, since he's been free from Cadmus, but he'd be lying if he didn't wish that he just tried to be a little more...approachable.

If anything, Kid Flash thought as he looked at Robin for a sense of approval to answer, and receiving a nod in kind, it was hard to tell if the guy liked them at all.

None of them could be sure, honestly.

"Well, kinda sorta...maybe? See, we went on a mission and, well...it didn't go too well." He half-answered, if mostly out of embarrassment, but Robin, noticing his hesitation, chimed in.

"We failed. Plain and simple. So this is, how do I say...a briefing about the details and after-plan, you know? That sort of thing." He explained, and considering their words in silence, Superboy didn't respond, grunting under his breath as the AI spoke again.

"07 'Martian Manhunter', has been identified." Then there was another right after him, two more in-fact.

"013 'Black Canary', has been identified. 016 'Red Tornado', has been identified."

Their conversation halted as Batman finally appeared.

"There's a lot of 'em, huh?" Wally asked just as Batman walked up to them, followed by Canary and Red, and the younger heroes greeted their mentors with a wave of the hand, though Superboy remained unmoved, but his lack of acknowledgement didn't appear to bother them too much as the two later heroes looked him up and down, and smiled.

Or...Canary smiled. Red didn't possess the ability to, but his voice sounded pleased enough.

Or...as pleased as a machine such as he could sound.

"Good to see you feeling better, Superboy." Red Tornado said, and Canary nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, taking it easy, I hope." She affirmed, and for the first time since the clone had been in the main hub, he wore a different emotion about his face, however, it wasn't the expression that him, or even the heroes themselves, would have come to expect as something unreadable twisted his features...only to be fixed with confusion.

His voice was smaller now.

"You guys...you know about that? But...how?" He asked in a strange tone, one that even Wally, with him being as personable and observant as he was, couldn't decipher. The clone crossed his arms, frosted, blue eyes staring deeply at both Canary and Red as the two looked at each with matching bafflement.

"Um...because we were here this morning, remember?" Dinah answered, raising a brow and fixing him with a confounded expression. This information, for some reason, only seemed to bother Kon more as he muttered something under his breath, but it was undercut but a lilted voice from behind them, and for a moment, Superboy froze, his body going stock-still before he settled back into his sour attitude.

Though he was certainly a bit more irritable than he was before they'd asked him about whatever happened (Wally, of course, had no idea what they were talking about).

"Hey, guys! What's happening? Oh, and hey, Konny!" She chirped, floating up quickly to meet them when she landed right beside Superboy, the girl brushing up against his arm warmly, though from as far as they could tell, Kon scowl only became more severe, and with a shift of his arm, he jerked from her, scrunching his face with hardly contained anger that the rest of the group couldn't understand the source of. Even more now that they watched the girl's face soften with hurt.

"That'snotmy name.Don'tcall me that." The teen all but spat in a low voice conveying so much aggression and vitriol that each of them shifted uncomfortably in the change in the atmosphere.

The AI spoke again, though, interrupting the discomfort the echoed through each of their faces.

"03 'Wonder Woman', has been identified"

It irritated Wally in a way, watching him talk down to someone that was so clearly just concerned about him. Whilst he was amongst some of the most patient and understanding of The Team, even he had his limits, and as fueled by some strange sense of personal grievance, he spoke up, feeling, suddenly, that something had come over him.

He didn't even notice the twitch of M'gann's lips as if she were trying to resist the urge to smile.

As a matter of face, none of them did.

Not a single one.

"She'sjusttrying to be nice, man. Maybe you should try it some time." Wally criticized, and at his words, he surprised himself. He was never usually that...confrontational, and never to a new member of the team, he thought, as even Canary looked surprised, and she was always ready to speak her mind when the mood suited her. But he was even more shocked to find Batman cut in, burrowing further the knife that he stabbed into Kon.

"Your attitude seems to be a persistent issue, Superboy. Let's make an effort to temper it; being part of a team doesn't work if you actively make an enemy of everyone around you." The older man lectured sternly, and they all, somehow in unison, turned to face the young clone, as if motioned by some invisible force that made them all frown at him disapprovingly.

Superboy sputtered in protest, opening his mouth to spit back anger when suddenly he stopped himself but each of them could still tell that he was fuming, but their collective dissent must have quashed his desire to fight them about the issue; it looked worse when compared to the clearly remorseful expression of the girl beside him as she fiddled with her fresh shirt.

In comparison, he was more easily likened to a pouting, petulant child.

In other words...it wasn't a good look.

"S-sorry...I didn't mean to cause so much trouble. I just thought a nickname would sound...nice." She apologized in so soft a voice that the adults around them eased their faces, as if softened by her efforts to appease the situation.

Wally and Robin themselves felt a kinship to her as Red Tornado responded to her words with measured tone.

"It is notyouthat should be apologizing. Superboy, we will be discussing this later, understood?" The robot said, awaiting agreement from Superboy that he didn't receive.

Instead, Wally could see him deflate just a bit, almost imperceptibly, the movement so impossibly subtle that even he nearly missed it.

There was look there he couldn't make out that laced his hardened face, but he turned away before he could name it.

"Whatever..."He muttered, crossing his arms before refusing to make eye contact with the rest of them...not that any of them minded.

To be frank, they all seemed tired of his attitude, so they didn't miss a beat in continuing their conversation as Wonder Woman walked into view. In greeting the amazonian, they all perked up at the sound of a closing entrance, and they all thought that that might have been the end of it...when finally, the voice of the AI blared overhead for the last time, and each of them perked at the person that it called.

But none more than Superboy as, even in his funk, he turned his head to behold the man before them.

"01 'Superman', has been identified." And there, just it promised, was the Man of Steel.