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Interactions: Rain @FunnyGuy Zatara @Crimson Flame Comms

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---

Talos had found a comfortable perch on top of a desk and sat there, elbow on his knee and his head in his hand, bored out of his mind. He had been eager to get out there and show what he was made of, but most of the mission, he had either been flying around or sitting around, having only gotten to get his hands dirty twice. He let out a sigh and was about to ask Zatara if he wanted to play poker, figuring that the magician had to have a deck of cards on him, when he heard Metamorph speak over the comms, at least until he was cut off by something. However, he had said enough for Talos, who hopped off of the desk gleefully. "Well, if the boss-man said to start moving up, then far be it from me to ignore him," he said as he cracked his neck before moving toward the stairs. "Race you up there, Rain! And good luck with the civvies, Zatara!"

Before either could stop him, Talos had started bounding up the stairs, three at a time. He listened to Pei’s report and wondered for a brief moment where Metamorph could be before he figured the guy could take care of himself. As much as he wanted to burst through the door to the second floor, Talos found himself slowing as he reached the landing. Thoughts of the hostages flooded his mind as he stopped in front of the steel fire door and rested his hand on it. The only thing that seemed capable of reigning him in was the thought of not wanting to be the one responsible for any of them getting hurt. ”Dammit…” he muttered as he opened a small peephole in the door and peeked through. ”Hope the next mission will let me cut loose more.”

When he didn’t see anyone through the small opening, Talos gently pushed the door open and slipped through. After making sure the door closed quietly, Talos turned, only to nearly bump noses with a bola gun-toting thug as he turned a corner. ”Evening,” he greeted before he sprung into action.

Before he could react, Talos closed the remaining distance between the two of them and clamped his hand around his mouth. He placed a foot behind the thug's heel and pushed, forcing him onto his back, hard. Steel leapt from the young hero’s back and curled around the criminal’s wrists and ankles, binding them together as another strip wrapped around his mouth. He let the thug go and wrenched his weapon out of his hands before he radioed his team, ”Talos, here. Just took down one of the guys on the second floor, not sure if there’s anyone else up here.” After a moment, he added in a tone that showed even he was surprised with himself, ”And…I don’t think they know I’m here…?”

Location: The Bank
Interactions: The Team

---

A sigh escaped Viktor as he watched Talos hurry up one of the stairwells after Metamorph's order which was cut off oddly at the end. I can embarrass you later… He turned his attention to Zatara and the hostages. “Something's wrong, I can feel it. But what do I do?” He muttered, his scowl hidden behind his visor. He knew something was wrong with Kila, and until there was anything else communicated he had to place Kila's last order as the priority. It was what he had been trained to do. Still, he wouldn't ignore what he heard following that order.

“Zatara, I don't wish to be redundant but please remain vigilant. We're not in the clear just yet.” Turning from him, ran to the opposite stairwell with the rifle still in hand. Coincidentally, he climbed up the stairs three at a time as well.

“A-squad, B-squad, this is Iceburn, of C-squad. I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, the hostages on this floor are safe.”

Viktor stopped in his tracks halfway up the second flight of stairs as he listened in.

“The bad news is that Metamorph has gone, uh, AWOL? As in, have no idea where he is. And he apparently… is approaching with violent intent. And I got a goon down here with two broken arms which seems like a little much. So. Yeah. For now, I’m gonna guide these hostages out of here and…meet up with whoever’s closest?”

What is he doing?! He momentarily tightened his grip on the rifle before he decided to patch in on comms.

“Iceburn. The path to the first floor through the stairwells is clear. Meet up with Zatara.”

“Cybergirl. Attempt to locate Metamorph using the building's surveillance.”

“Mirage. you will be the first to act on anything Cybergirl reports.”

“Nymph, Stormcaller. Clear the fifth floor. Remain wary of the ones using the elevator.”

“Team. We can do this. Over and out.”

With that all relayed, Viktor climbed up the remaining steps to the second floor, hugging the wall beside the door. He could hear footsteps pacing about on the other side. One up but several people are breathing. Easy. Viktor pushed through the door with the rifle at the low-ready. One of the bank robbers was just turning to face the abrupt sound of Viktor's entrance. Without hesitation, Viktor fired the hardening agent at the right side of the man's torso before seamlessly firing another burst at his mouth. Viktor proceeded forward but not without continuing to fire at the robber's legs and the rest of his front torso including his weapon.

“Pathetic.” Viktor was only a foot away now. The robber tried to swing with his free arm but Viktor simply took a swift step back, allowing the momentum of the desperate motion to send the man toppling over. His muffled yells and squirming on the ground were mostly ignored except for the gray boot that was firmly planted on his back.

“Talos. I took one down on the other side of the second floor. We should be clear here. Inform any hostages on your end to head down to Zatara and make your way to the fourth floor.” Viktor dropped his weapon. Turned to the hostages who were still huddled on the floor.

“All of you. Head downstairs to the lobby. There's a celebrity magician there that will ensure you're safe. Go!” His order was taken seriously by the hostages who were quick to get up and run to the doors of the stairwell without question. Firing the rifle at the robber's free hand to pin him on the ground, Viktor followed the hostages to the stairwell. This won't be like last time. I'll ensure it

---

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Interactions: Rain @FunnyGuy Comms

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---

"Sir, yes sir!" Talos responded with an exaggerated salute, despite being out of sight and on the other side of the floor. He stepped into the room housing the hostages on his side of the floor and said, "Attention, ladies and gentlemen, if you could please make your way down to the first floor, there's a moderately famous magic man waiting there to keep you safe! Yes, I know how that sounds, but you can trust me!"

The hostages looked at each other for a moment before they filed out of the room. Once the last person was gone, Talos followed them out and to the stairwell. He watched them descend the stairs, then turned to the door. Placing his hand on it, he fused the mechanism on the inside of the panic bar on the other side of the door, effectively locking it. "I'll try to remember to fix that after we're done here," he told himself, though he knew full well that was unlikely.

He began to ascend once more, passing by the third floor as he made his way straight to the fourth. As before, he opened a small hole on the fire door and peeked through, only to be surprised by what he saw in the room. He slowly opened the door and looked around. Cubicles were destroyed, office supplies and equipment had been broken and scattered everywhere. He heard someone groaning and stepped farther in to find the burglars that had been guarding the floor, bloodied and broken, but alive. Vincent spread his wings, then condensed them into three pairs of swords that floated around him, his instincts telling him that whatever did this to these men was nothing he wanted to go easy on. "Hey, Talos, here," he said over the comms, surprisingly serious. "Found a couple more bad guys, beaten to within an inch of their lives. Still breathing, though. The fourth floor's a mess, but other than that, there's no sign of who or whatever did this."

Just then, he heard noise coming from a nearby room and aimed his swords at the closed door. He walked up and opened the door to find the hostages, terrified but okay. Relaxing, he continued, "Found the hostages. They're scared, but they don't look any worse for wear." To the hostages, he said, "I need you guys to make your way to the first floor. Your coworkers are all there with one of my friends keeping them safe."

As the hostages made their way to the stairwell, Vincent asked, "What, now? Should I start looking for whatever's doing our job for us?"

Location: Star City Bank, 5th floor - 6th floor
Interactions: Quiver, Stormcaller, Mirage, Metamorph, Cybergirl

---

Daphne waited for Kila’s reply to Cora. She wasn’t supportive of the idea of using the stolen weapons against the robbers. It felt too dangerous. Despite her apprehension she didn’t speak up. Her attention was on the hostages.

A woman walked up to Daphne with an exasperated look on her face.
“I guess you guys aren’t with them?”

There was a little boy clutched onto her leg. He was hysterically crying, big tears running down his brown cheeks. It drew Daphne’s eyes to him.

She shook her head and answered the woman.
“We’re the good guys.”

Daphne lowered herself to the little boy’s level, their brown eyes meeting.
“It’s okay you’re safe now.” Her voice was gentle.

He looked at Daphne, trying to judge if she was safe or not. She smiled encouragingly.

Daphne opened her palm and produced a small flower, the petals folding into each other. The little boy watched in awe, forgetting about his tears for a minute. Daphne nodded for him to take it. He plucked it from her palm, holding it gently between his small hands. He brought it up to his face to take a closer look. It opened and dispersed into the air around him.

The boy tried to catch the petals floating around him and while he was doing that he steadily grew more calm.

They needed to take these people to a safe place. Alisa had eyes on the building, she would know where to go.

“Nymph to Cybergirl and Mirage. We subdued the robbers on the sixth floor. The hostages are safe. The rest of the team is still sweeping the floors to free the remaining hostages. Are you two able to take them somewhere safe until this is all over?”

Mirage had been keeping an eye on the situation with Cybergirl. She'd been deliberately holding back during the mission. Not only was it the new teammates first major crisis, it was Metamorph's opportunity to lead the team as a whole. Things were going well. She tried to ignore the pessimistic instinct saying it was going too well. "Mirage here. We've got a few secure areas. How many people are we talking about?"

Alisa deftly skipped through the footage feeds, as she had been doing for the better part of the last hour. “Where do you want us to put them?” she asked.

The areas that Mirage and Cybergirl had cleared out were all free of windows and fairly centralized. The sizes were all different, though. They couldn't do much about the furniture either.

Daphne thought about the safest place to bring the hostages. The lobby. It was secured by squad A. It was also closer to the exit of the bank, which would make it easier for the hostages to escape unseen, hopefully. She wasn’t fully confident they could rely on stealth anymore. By now the robbers must know something was going on.

“I think the best place for them to go is the lobby.” Zach would still be there and he was more than capable of defending them.

Mirage frowned, very delicately. There were a lot of hostages, and though Zatara's magic had improved quite a bit, his attitude, well…

Then again, he was charismatic and lit up for crowds. "I agree. As long as we keep everyone clear of the windows, Zatara is the best choice." She started in that direction, but didn't make it out of the room before Iceburn pinged all three teams with news that made her immediately nauseous.

"What do you mean, Metamorph's missing?"

---

Daphne’s squad made their way to the fifth floor as per Viktor’s orders. They moved quietly. It wasn’t just the robbers they had to watch out for anymore. She repeated the information they received on comms to Quiver in hushed tones.

The sixth floor was eerily quiet. It set Daphne on edge. There was a man on the floor close to the entrance of the main office area. His face was turned away from them and he wasn’t moving, it was hard to tell he was even breathing. Daphne checked for a pulse. It was weak, but she could feel it. A chill ran down her spine.

Daphne glanced over her shoulder at Quiver and Cora. The animalistic lack of restraint frightened the young heroine. They stepped over the downed robber into the main office. Her eyes widened at the destruction inside. The cubicles were trashed, cracked computer screens and paper everywhere. In some places there were heavy indents, as if something large and heavy landed there.

“H…Help..”

A weak voice cut through the silence. It came from one of the robbers who crawled from underneath the destroyed cubicles.

“Girl y…you” He coughed and clutched at his chest. There were claw marks across his neck and shoulder.

“You have to…to call this thing off-“ With that, his breath was overtaken, as a body crashed into the weakened thief.

Impossibly quiet, yet undeniably present, a Beast had leapt from behind one of the only cubicle walls left standing. It wore the garb of the teammate they had seen moments earlier. Yet, the Metamorph uniform was colored with red opposed to the black that Kila had started their mission with. Iwisa’s gauntlets were painted with the scarlet life-liquid of the other thieves from below. His hair had become more of a mangled mesh of a mane that obscured his facial features almost completely. All that could be noted was the faint glow of crimson at his eyes.

Only now could they hear the breathing, with what could only be described as the guttural growls of a crocodile at each exhale. The Red Beast had its prey pinned under foot. It hunched to stare down at the man, who reeked a primal fear that only a predator could pull from deep within a human.

The only thing that seemed to make him hesitate, became more prevalent as he sniffed the air. With a snapping motion, the Beast’s head jerked upward to the trio of young heroes. His shoulders rose and fell as it regarded each of them.

Daphne subconsciously took a few steps back until she was standing closer to Quiver. She grabbed his arm when Kila snapped his head into their direction. The Nymph’s eyes met with the Beast. He’d become unrecognizable, embodying the savage part of the natural world.

Inherently aware of the danger they were in, Daphne still attempted to reach out to her friend. “Kila…..”

She had to stop him, before he would do something he’d regret. Pushing through her fear she approached. From the sidelines it would be hard to watch, as it was comparable to seeing a faun walk up to a tiger.

“You don’t want to do this Kila….you have to let him go.”

There was a moment of silence, not a word to be said by anyone as the Beast continued to stare them down. Like a starting blank had been fired, he raced towards the Nymph like a raging gorilla. And yet as soon as he was in arm’s reach, he stopped. His breaths still came out heavy as he stood up bipedally. He studied her face between the fur cage that hid his expression.

The strength in her eyes seemed to be something he recognized, despite the fear in her initial posture. She was there for him during a time of loss and pain while far into the deep blue. She was different now, yet all the same. She pacified the beast before, thus as the Red’s fire left his eyes and his headbush slowly loosened, it seemed she had again.

As if determined to disturb the fragile peace between them, the elevator dinged. The roaming guards exited with weapons drawn.

“You four! step away from him now!”

Location: Star City Bank, 5th and 6th floor
Interactions: Nymph, Stormcaller, Metamorph

---

Quiver hadn't even sensed the beast approaching them. He was completely taken aback at the appearance of the creature in front of him and the others. His eyes were wild, but in their depths was a ruthless natural intelligence. It was a look that Quiver had seen in people before, and brought it own implications with it. If the beasts eyes weren't frightened, the man on the floor sure was. He looked up at them, pleading with his eyes for rescue. Quiver didn't have confidence that he could do anything before this clawed figure would tear him open at the seams. He felt Nymph rather than saw Nymph leave his side, approaching the new arrival with an eerie calm. If she was afraid, she was doing well to hide it.

His first response was to go with her, but his time with her had shown that she was more than capable of handling herself. He ran through a mental list of arrows he still had on hand. He didn't think he had any kind of animal tranquilizer. Ollie would though, that guy always had an arrow for every situation. Pretty sure he used a bubble arrow once. Or like a detergent arrow. For those hard to get stains.

Quiver spent too much time with Ollie.

He looked over at Stormcaller reassuringly. "This is probably fine" he was hoping his look said.

And then Nymph addressed this guy by name, and the floor almost gave out beneath him. He nearly broke out in a flash sweat. But Nymph seemed to be reaching Kila. Quiver saw them seeming to connect with their look, as Kila stopped short of outright rushing right into Nymph directly. It seemed like she was breaking through to him. And thank god for that, with the amount of violence this guy looks to be capable of, it wouldn't take much to disturb this delicate mo-

*DING*

The elevator opened up, guards with guns drawn.

Shit.

Location Bank, 5th floor
Interactions Nymph, Quiver, and Metamorph

---

Was it normal for mission leaders to go rogue like this? It must've been if Rain was so quick to step up- Or maybe it was just Rain being Rain. Cora followed behind Nymph and Quiver, who she wasn't entirely sure she could trust just yet. They quickly descended to the fifth floor where it seemed that all hell had broken loose. "Stormcaller to team- We're here. This place is a mess. Someone was here and they tore the place up. It's like-" Stormcaller said, looking around quickly. Someone was still here, and they were barely alive. "What happened here?" She asked, thinking the guy was intact enough to speak. But he wasn't. Mostly because Metamorph appeared out of thin air, right on top of him. Cora had never seen him that way, and it made the hairs on her neck stand up. He was covered in blood, and he had the presence of a wild animal rather than their friend. Metamorph was one of the more physically dangerous members on the team- If anyone could resort to this level of brute force, it had to have been him.

"What- Metamorph, what happened to you?" She floated backwards, intimidated by whatever had come over him. Nymph didn't seem so scared him. Nymph and Stormcaller weren't that familiar just yet, but she definitely seemed a bit more badass in Cora's eyes now. She shot Quiver a similar look from behind her helmet. "Just... Let her do whatever she's doing. They know each other. They're closer." It seemed to be working. Whatever had overtaken Kila seemed to be visibly slipping away as she calmed him down. Maybe this situation could be salvaged after all. Maybe they could even-

Ding

Guards came in, drawing their guns, and Stormcaller immediately floated about six inches off of the ground, with her hands outwards to blast them. Static filled the air as blinding bolts of lightning arced forward to hit all of them before they could fan out and surround the four of them. It was effectively the same thing she did to the other robber upstairs, only a bit more powerful, hoping she could take them all out in one go. Then again, they weren’t made of metal, so it wasn’t likely she’d stun all of them perfectly.

Location: Bank Fourth Floor
Interactions: The Team

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“Well, shit…” Viktor said as he rounded a row of cubicles and caught sight of the excessively beaten bank robbers Vincent discovered. “I shouldn’t say ‘I’m not sure’ but this situation is escalating unpredictably.” Viktor sighed. His theory on what was transpiring on the tip of his tongue. However, he refrained from telling Vincent that Kila or Ja was acting violently out of sorts. He was going to request a status report so he would at least know what the next best move should be when he heard Cora over comms. She was giving a status report before she cut out.

The idea of there being a threat to his team that continued to elude him was visibly frustrating him now. Viktor swung a fist back into the nearest wall, punching through the plaster as if it was paper.

“I’m getting tired of this. Talos, there’s no point in pinning these two down, and I’m not waiting for another incomplete report over comms. Fifth floor, let’s go.” Viktor would be taking the same stairwell as Vincent this time.

By the time the two of them reached the fifth floor, they would arrive just in time to witness Cora blasting the two robbers in the elevator with electricity. The buttons inside lit and unlit sporadically before the elevator alarm rang with a shrill bell ring. Besides those riding Cora’s lightning, Viktor didn’t see any other robbers being a problem but there were two people on the floor he was focused on. He looked toward the hero who had accompanied Daphne through the majority of the mission. Giving a quick nod, Viktor turned his attention to Kila. The elevator alarm was still going off but he attempted to address his troubled teammate nevertheless.

“Metamorph! What is your status?!” The rifle in his possession was instinctively at the low ready. He could see he was close to Daphne but that observation was not enough for him. He needed to hear it from his peer’s mouth.

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Interactions: The Team

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Vincent watched Viktor from the corner of his eye as his comrade as the latter worked to reign in his frustration. When Viktor told him to go with him up to the fifth floor, Vincent only nodded and followed his comrade to the stairwell and up the stairs, taking them three at a time. He could understand Viktor’s frustration, barely having any clue as to what was going on up above, but he couldn’t bring himself to be as frustrated. Sure, he had never been in such a high risk situation such as this, his life having always been the one at risk, but because he had been on his own for so long, he had always figured things out as he went. Even the incomplete reports were enough for him.

He and Viktor made it to the fifth floor, where Vincent had just enough time to take in the scene: two bad guys were in the elevator, Cora had just started to blast them to kingdom come, and Daphne was talking to someone that didn’t immediately look familiar. Vincent focused on them for just a brief moment and realized he knew the almost bestial man. His hair was wilder than usual and his uniform was a completely different color, but Vincent realized he was looking at Kila. What really drew his attention, however, was the blood that coated his hands. Guess that explains what happened downstairs, he thought when he noticed one of the men, the other having been thoroughly knocked out, stagger to his feet. He shakily raised his rifle and Vincent was already moving before he could stop to think.

He threw himself in between his comrades and the remaining gunman, throwing his arms out to the side as he unfurled his wings, covering as much space as he could just as the bad guy pulled the trigger. Just as the first round left the barrel of the weapon, Vincent’s skin hardened, turning as black as the night sky as he rearranged the carbon molecules within his own body. He staggered backward as the first couple of rounds slammed into him, but quickly regained his footing. Whatever bullets didn’t hit his body, instead collided with his wings, either falling to the ground or harmlessly ricocheting away, keeping his friends safe.

The gunman lowered his weapon with a stunned expression on his face when he saw his shots weren’t having any effect on the young hero, who raised his head and grinned. A squashed bullet fell from his forehead and landed on the carpeted floor as Vincent’s skin returned to normal. He brought his wings down and launched himself across the room, quickly closing the distance between himself and the gunman. The man tried to fire his weapon again, but Vincent was too close. He closed his hand around the barrel of the gun and crushed the steel receiver with his power as his free hand closed around the man’s face. The last thing the gunman saw was the almost gleeful grin on the hero’s face before he was slammed against the far wall of the elevator. Vincent used some steel from his wings to bind the unconscious man to the wall before nodding at his good work.

”That’s that, then,” Vincent said as he stepped out of the elevator, ready to deal with whatever came next.

---

Open, click.

Shut, click.

Open, ’Kila’ click.

‘You don't want to-’ Shut, click.

Open, click. ‘let him go.’

Shut, DING!

The young lion blinked several times. With it the odd fading sound of clicking. He heard Daphne’s voice. He felt lost. He felt pain in his head. Where was he? The mission!

When his eyes opened, he found that he stood in front of Nymph and another costumed youth that he vaguely recognized. Strangely, he smelled familiar? The voice of the robbers over his shoulder cut his attention and reflexively, he turned to face them. Other bodies quickly moved around him.

The first was Stormcaller, who immediately flew into action, knocking out one and briefly stunning the other. Next was Rain and Talos, the latter finishing the fight. When it came to Rain’s question though, Kila paused. His eyes wandered the room, and his breathing was calming.

”I…I have blacked out. I am stable now, though…” His eye followed the destruction of the room, from the damaged property to the bloodied body of the man on the ground.

”Have the threats been neutralized?”

“Negative. Every robber has been incapacitated, yes, but there's the matter of you... “

The phrase pried Kila’s view from the scene up to his teammate’s ever stoic gaze.

”I don't know what happened to you and there's no assurance that it won't occur again. I think you're better off zeta tubing back to base.”

‘What happened’ to him?

Kila’s eyes slid back to the man who looked as though he had been mauled by…The young lion looked down at his hands, seeing blood intermittently spotted and streaked up his arms. Then, as he was to look back up, he heard a shuffle of debris, making eye contact with one of the hostages who had come to peek out when the situation calmed. The look of fear on the man’s face was enough for Kila to cast his vision away.

The young lion sighed on his walk out of the room to the stairwell.

Stay Composed...

---

Over the comms, she nodded at Rain's commands. He sounded like a good second-in-command! This was Iceburn's first mission with the team, so there was no way she was going to step up, at least, not with someone so eager to do so already being present.

"You got it, Boss #2." She said.

"Alright everyone!" She said to the civilians. "The way is clear. We're movin' on down. Follow me!" With that she lead her people down the stairs. She vaulted over the railings and hopped down several stairs at a time, a little too amped up to just walk down them normally.

That was when Mirage asked her a weird question...probably one that indicated that she would be pretty upset at the idea of Metamorph being missing. "I just mean, y'know-- he went, uh, away. From me. And didn't tell me where he would end up." She explained with a wince. So much for being gentle, that just came out awkward. Iceburn grimaced back at the people following her like she was on an awkward phone call. The man she had spoken too earlier shrugged.

Despite that, they eventually they made it to the lobby without incident.

"Zatara! How's it goin', magic man?" She said, seeing more and more civilians freed as they escaped from the lobby to the waiting police outside.

"I think that's everything." She said, dusting her hands off.

She activated comms and began speaking to her team again. "Civilians secure. Now, have we found Metamorph yet, or do I need to get a broom?"

---

Mirage was running. She couldn't move half as fast as she could in the water. At times like this, it caused her no end of frustration. All she wanted was to get to Metamorph. She *had* to get to him before the others did.

Memories of Atlantis flooded her mind. For once, not the irreparable damage she'd caused. But before that. Deluge, dolphin, and something in Metamorph's spirit. Not the wild cheer of Ja, nor the calm courage of Kila.

Something else. Someone else?

She'd never asked. After that mission, somewhere between spending a second night in Poseidonis Magical Isolation, and coming back to what was left of the team with her power collared, she'd simply shut down. Too afraid to face what she'd caused - and she had never asked him just what had occurred under the depths.

The guilt could wait, though. Right now, he was the mission, the most important thing. He'd offered his friendship without any caveat. He had been there for her, long after she ceased to deserve it.

He was…

He-

She sensed him just before rounding the corner. "Metamorph?" Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "...J- no, I'm wrong. Kila?"

The young lion was seated on the steps just below, still staring at his hands. This…wasn’t the first time he felt this. There were many times that he’d blacked out before; due to his animal side no doubt. But there was one other time that he felt it. It was hard to describe it as anything other than a pure form of fury.

He was roused from once again going into a memory trance at the soft melody of Mirage’s voice. He turned his head to look up at her. His fingers closed and he turned his head back to them.

“…The first time this had happened I was met with screams of pain from my enemies. This time I am met with silent horror from my own allies and the people I am meant to aid.”

The scent of blood smacked her in the face. Like a fresh kill outside of town, one that the sharks and scavengers hadn't gotten to. That coupled with the sense of her dearest friend in her mind was… odd. But she didn't break her stride until she was near him. Then she settled beside him on the step. "I am not horrified at you, my friend." Her voice was gentle as she encouraged him. He'd been watching over her while she got through the aftermath of Atlantis.

Whatever this was, she wouldn't let him deal with it alone.

"I am worried about you. Keep talking."

“I…I was able to see it; my animal side, as it…” he corrected, “As…I wreaked havoc on our enemies. It was as though I were dreaming lucidly. I was there…but I was not. All I felt I could do was to attempt to force my rampage away from the innocents…I suppose it worked. But I was losing that battle.”

Kassandra nodded quietly, indicating that she was listening. Beside her, the staff's runes lit a soft blue as water started to coalesce in midair. "Do you remember what happened before?" The ball of water grew slowly. "Anything at all?" There had to be a reason for it, right?

“I do not. Not in detail…My squad was given the mission to eliminate traitors of the country. Traitors that, I later learned, may have been in the right after all…I did not have as much control back then…I was much younger.” Kila reasoned. The sound of water moving caught his ear and he looked up.

Kassy's left hand was moving in a careful, graceful twist. The ball of water rotated slowly, and then faster as she increased the speed. "Oh. It makes sense that you wouldn't recall. You've been through a lot." She met his gaze when his head picked up. "Do you want to clean your hands? I know that feels… gross."

His eyes went down to his hands again. There was more blood on these hands than what was shown on these gloves. Somewhere between metaphorical and literal; symbolic. However, until he could find a solution, he could only press forward. With that, Kila raised his hands to be within Kassy’s reach, a tired yet pained expression in his eyes.

She pushed the ball forward until it engulfed Kila's hands to the wrist. Then, with the same twist of her hand, the water began to spin. It gained speed, the clear liquid taking on a deep, tainted red. But Kila's hands were soon clean again.

With some wonderment did he look upon both his now cleaned hands and the ball of tainted water that she now had. “Thank you.”

"Of course. Always." She offered up a small smile. She meant to turn aside and figure out what to do with the water. But there was a look in Kila's eyes that make her pause. She'd never seen that expression on his face; warm and soft. Filled with such light to bring his brown eyes to an amber shade, like the peeking sunrise. "Ki- Kila?"

Kilamanjaro was breathtakingly beautiful sometimes. Thank the Gods she was the only one who could come close to mind-reading.

A moment of silence sat between the two of them, before the young lion’s self-awareness kicked in. He broke eye contact.

“I am sorry…We need to clean up what’s left of this mission.” Was what he chose to say for now, as he stood. “…I should go find my mask.”

"Right. I will tend to the hostages."

There was clearly something else that he wanted to say but his body language elected that now wasn’t the time. When Kila left, reality came crashing through in his wake. Kassy sighed, her mind full of impossibilities as her steps led to her chosen task.

S E C R E T S A N C T U A R Y

---

With the combined efforts of the Team and the mysterious hooded apprentice of Green Arrow, the hostages were freed. There were no casualties as far as the hostages went but the robbers found themselves on the wrong side of Metamorph. Someone or something caused the Red Beast to break free from the otherwise calm and collected Kila. The aftermath was shocking to behold, both for his enemies and allies alike.

The Team's one-time partner departed from the scene in a similar fashion to his arrival, quietly and inconspicuously. They were left with only his alias, Quiver.

---

Whoever the hell Quiver actually was, he didn't seem to stick around. Cora didn't feel like asking Green Arrow about the dude either, so she just tuned him out. In the time between Metamorph coming to his senses and the League showing up to bring the team back to the cave, Cora scoured the entire bank for any remaining weapons used by the robbers. She came up with several energy-based and magnetic guns, as well as another repulsor glove like the one used on her. She ignored the curious looks that the League gave her as she carried roughly ten different weapons on her back, and the first thing Stormcaller did was take all of her newfound war trophies to the Mount Justice laboratory. Cora scrambled for every possible electrical tool she could get her hands on and laid all of the guns and fancy fuck-off gloves out on one table. On another, she slowly and curiously disassembled one of the rifles, setting apart each component she removed and placing any bolts or screws in a plastic bag. She scribbled things down on a notebook she balanced on her knee. About thirty minutes in, one of the lasers had been completely taken apart. The power supplies, refractors, and even the parts someone like Batman probably couldn't name were all laid out nicely and neatly.

And Cora was taking notes, clearly neck-deep in whatever work she was doing.

“Now this is interesting.” Viktor's voice cut through the quiet laboratory, interrupting Cora's crafting-montage from the room's entryway. Since returning from the mission, the resident grump was actually in a better mood than usual. Who knew a completely successful mission would have such an effect on him? I only ever find Alisa in here but it appears Cora and I are sharing the same ideas today. There were two different rifles held firmly in each hand. One was the rifle from the bank heist mission that fired a hardening foam. The other was one Cora didn't recognize. It was the dart rifle Viktor had taken for himself after facing off against the serpentine Kobra agent. “And here I thought you would just hang those up like ornaments from your ceiling.” He strode over to the next table over to set the two rifles down while eyeing Cora's workm Viktor was genuinely impressed by how far she'd gotten with taking the weapons apart as well as her organization of each of the many components. “Forensics? Or are you building something?”

“Both,” She responded without looking up, as she was currently unscrewing a fragile, high-voltage refractor pin from an array in the weapon’s barrel. “This isn’t just run-of-the-mill advanced tech. This stuff is top dollar, and someone with access to it decided to rob a bank. But if you can get your hands on stuff like this, you shouldn’t need money. Something there doesn’t add up. And I’m sure Batman and the other leaguers are gonna wanna know about it. Also, I had an idea to make something as soon as one of those robbers blasted me with one of what I’m calling the Fuck-Off Gloves. So I’m studying these weapons as much as possible. I can apply my powers to this tech if I reverse-engineer it.” During her rambling, Cora set the rest of the barrel’s internals aside, organized for easy reassembly. Viktor on the other hand could barely hide his intrigue.

This can't be the same person… She's smart? It doesn't… It doesn't matter. I'll take it over my initial assessment of her.

He started disassembling the rifle from the bank heist first before he gave his take on what Cora shared.

“I admit that I agree with you. I also believe there was more to the bank heist. These weapons, while impressive, aren't what I would use to threaten lives with. Electrified bolas, hardening foam, soundwave emitters, and the shock- the 'fuck-off gloves'… They're weapons that would have the primary purpose of incapacitation. I hypothesize the use of these weapons wasn't always part of their plan. That a third party wanted to see them field tested. I'm sure Green Arrow knows more but him being a leaguer, I doubt we'll ever get further details from him.” It was easy to tell Viktor was annoyed when voicing the last part of what he said. “I admire your dedication toward our superiors… and, more importantly, yourself. Every mission is just another step.”

High praise, coming from Mr. Perfect. “Thanks. I’m trying to pull my weight, and this just feels like it’s a perfect step forward. Between you and me, though… I have a feeling the League is gonna take all of this from me the moment they realize there’s something shifty going on here. Probably so they can study it themselves or whatever. I’ve noticed they don’t really tell us stuff- They like keeping things quiet if they can. If Batman walked in and snatched up these guns, I bet I’d never see them again. I got enough to spare, honestly but- Y’know. Figured I’d beat him to it before he tries to make a Batlaser or a Batblaster. I’m gonna build- Uh… A Stormblaster. Yeah, that sounds badass.”

Viktor raised a brow at Cora's naming conventions but also realized he'd never named any of his equipment before. Rainblade. Rainikens. Rainvisor. Rainsuit- Damn.

She held up an unscrewed port on the power supply and noted down the prongs on the inside, then glanced over at Viktor’s table. ”Is that a… Rainblaster? Okay- I’ll stop now.”

“Please.” He almost begged as he'd already mentally bruised himself with previous names he came up with in his head. “Unfortunately, I'm not entirely savvy with creating weapons. However, I am familiar with the components and can determine their function. If I can figure out these two rifles… and perhaps even two more of the weapons you have there, I'm certain I could make rough schematics to pass off…” By this time, both of his rifles were disassembled but not completely. He quickly took a photo of them respectively before typing into his phone while he continued. “...I was going to take my idea outside of our team but perhaps you could be useful instead. I'd pay, of course.”

Cora gave him a curious look. “You’re asking me to… Build you a weapon? I’m sure I can. I’m thinking I’ll either build a gun that just shoots concentrated lightning and uses me as the power source, or an actual gauss rifle. What are you thinking about? Some sorta weapon like what I took from the robbers or something more like what you’ve got there?” She asks, pointing to the dart rifle he took apart.

“All of the above.” He clasped his hands behind his back as he started pacing the length of the table in front of him. “But to be more specific. I require a mid to long-range collapsible semi-automatic rifle that fires nonlethal projectiles. The ammunition stored in separate types of magazines won’t be too much of a hindrance on my mobility as I intend to retire my bow and arrows.” He spoke as if he had been waiting years for this very specific type of weapon. It was easy for Cora to grasp that Viktor didn’t share these ideas with the others. Stopping in his tracks, he faced Cora again. “Initially, I favored only this dart rifle, due to its range but it lacked versatility. Despite this, I had planned to spraypaint this very colorful weapon into something that fits my… style.” Viktor barely took a breath as he continued.

“Fortunately, our recent mission bore unanticipated fruit. The hardening foam rifle is one of my favorites as it is the least lethal of the weapons we discovered. The electrified bolas would need a change in design. Perhaps a lightweight round with prongs that can electrify a target. Lastly, the sound emitter could prove useful. It doesn’t use rounds, so it could be an attachment to the weapon in a similar fashion to the M203 grenade launcher or infrared lasersight. I’m not too interested in the shockwave-generating gloves. Not with the type of missions we’re typically tasked with. You know… keeping people alive.” Viktor was sure shockwaves could be useful, but he was concerned with accidentally administering them in combination with his enhanced strength while striking an enemy. Even if he created a method of implementing with the rifle, it would be inferior to the other weapon functions Viktor planned to utilize.

”I’m pretty sure I can do all of that. The cool thing about getting struck by lightning is that I got turned into a walking generator. If a shockwave glove needs a power source, all I have to do is rig it so there’s a receiver on the inside and send a signal through it. I could insulate it and build some conductors that redirect lighting around it for when I need to zap someone and not shockwave them.” She could tell Viktor was feeling like a kid in a candy store right now.

“Semi-auto, collapsible and nonlethal… I can make that, but the ammo’s gonna be the tricky part. How does that gunfire the darts? Do they have some kind of compressed gas in them?”

“I'm not actually interested in the darts or what's in them. Though, your mention of gas reminds me that we should use the same type of gas chamber if not this one from the dart rifle. It'll keep the shots quiet and we can sacrifice stopping power as we're not intending on shooting through anything.” Viktor set the gas chamber from the dart rifle aside before running his hand across the barrel. “We can shorten this barrel but the width… It will have to be determined based on the rounds containing the hardening foam. Once we have that, we can also make the… taser rounds. I guess that's the best way to describe them. We can make those the same caliber as the… 'HF' rounds. And that's not even including testing the volume of the foaming agent and voltage needed.” Viktor sighed. This would take plenty of work but he was fortunate to have someone just as or even more excited in making some new equipment.

“Okay… taser rounds could be pretty easy to make, just stick a cylinder of ionic sodium in a rubber casing, and put a set of prongs on one end and flight stabilizers on the other end. That’s not a problem. For hardening foam, the barrel’s length might be beneficial. I’m thinking the best way to expel that stuff would be something like a shotgun shell. It could fire, an inner casing would be launched, and the barrel’s rifling would keep it stable and flying fast. It would be like a really small grenade launcher shell and would explode to release the foam on contact. Sort of like Green Arrow’s foam arrows. But we sure as shit aren’t getting his help on this, considering.” She joked, referring to how the League was usually frustrating when it came to information.

“Perfect.” It was a word Viktor used sparingly.

Cora tore a clean sheet out of the notebook and started writing down ideas for a gun. She made two columns, labeled “Cora” and “Viktor.” In Viktor’s column, she wrote “grenade launcher” and “taser rounds.”

In hers, she wrote “railgun” and “lightning gun.”

Viktor gave a swift nod at the sheet before shifting toward the disassembled rifle from the bank heist. He grabbed a clear canister of sealed light blue liquid from the laid-out parts, eyeing it for just a moment.

“I’ll start with analyzing the foam so I can figure out how much is appropriate for each round. You can… I guess I’m following your lead after that.” Viktor felt slightly uncomfortable with this kind of humbling but a part of him was glad to have someone who was quite crafty to help him.

And like that, the two got to work. They were getting a hell of a lot done too. Both were fixated and meticulous. There were no cut corners, no whining, and there was no such thing as “just good enough.” Cora and Viktor tinkered for hours, only exchanging a few words of either praise or correction in between. With neither having the capacity to leave their work undone, they continued until they had something to work with.

Sometime later…

“I’ll keep it steady.” Viktor was holding up one of the newly designed weapons for Cora to put some finishing touches on.

“Okay, let me juuuuust….” Cora inserted a pre-machined rod of solid graphene into a socket on the side of a weapon, she then fit a hollow cylinder around it and screwed a plate over the whole thing. The weapon lit up like a Christmas tree in Viktor’s hands. Neon-teal rings lining the barrel started to crackle and hum with electricity, while a digital display of a wave began to spit out numbers that made no sense to anyone other than them. Mounted onto a rail on the gun, a holographic sight began to faintly light up with the same color.

Their first successful prototype worked. Cora smiled wickedly while Viktor grinned slightly as the first of their creations. “It’s charged up. All we need to do now is fire it at something- And put on glasses. It’ll be bright.” Viktor glanced around.

“The best we have here are safety glasses… Take it outside, by the obstacle course. The tires. I’ll acquire something for our eyes. Hmm… or just for mine?” He narrowed his eyes at her glowing blue ones, wondering if they were resistant to bright light since they were bright lights themselves.

“Just yours, yeah. I’m kinda flashbang-proof. If we take it outside we might attract attention. But it would be safer than here… Hmm… Yeah, let’s go outside and do it. I’ll blast some tires and you can jab me for not knowing how to shoot a gun.” She joked, before packing the gun for the obstacle course with Viktor, along with whatever he wanted to test. They made a quick stop to his room where he grabbed his visored helmet.

Once they were outside they realized it just before dawn. The sky was dark with a faint hint of light rising from the horizon. Cora stacked a bunch of tires on top of each other, took a position roughly 60 feet away, and aimed her weapon. Viktor positioned himself 45 degrees and about 30 feet away from her.

“Okay… You ready to take notes over there?”

“Affirmative!” Viktor declared as he held up his phone to record the event while leaving formal notetaking for later. “Fire when you're ready!”

“Okay…” She held the gun up and squared her shoulders. Remembering that Viktor told her beforehand not to put the sight directly against her face, she lined the glowing dot up with the tires, as close to center as possible. And…

A sound like the last few seconds before a transformer exploded filled the air. It was the hum of extreme voltage, heavy enough to feel against one’s skin. As she pulled the trigger, a flash of blue and white streaked across the field. The tires they used as target practice were still standing, but there was a smoldering hole where the shot landed. The rubber had been vaporized at the point of contact and melted around it.

Cora didn’t even flinch at the flash of light. She saw the entire thing as clear as day, from the moment the charge left the barrel to when it turned the rubber into smoke. She had a proud smile on her face as she turned and looked at Viktor who had just removed his helmet and was sharing the same smile.

“It WORKS!”

“You hit your mark as well.” Viktor was making his way to Cora with his helmet tucked under his arm. “Want to try it again? One shot isn’t legitimate enough for-” The sound of a blaring alarm sounded from Mount Justice. “Oh shit.” Viktor lowered his head with a sigh.

“Uh… That’s not good- Is it?” Cora asked, switching the breaker on the weapon. It was now incapable of firing, even if it was charged. The information displayed on it reflected the charge of the battery, showing it was empty.

“Not again.” Viktor groaned.

“Please don’t tell me we just accidentally ripped open a hole in spacetime or something.”

Viktor shook his head. He was quickly reminded of the night when Alisa totaled the team’s jeep.

“Haven’t done that before… It’s less of an effect on the universe and more of an effect on… us.” Viktor sighed again. “Ever been grounded?” Viktor asked as if it was only a punishment administered at Mount Justice.

“Once or twice. If anyone asks, we’ll just tell them it was here or in a lab with a bunch of lab equipment that could’ve been obliterated.” She said, making a mental note to write down that the weapon felt warmer than it should in her hands.

“No. Just hand it over to me and get out of here.” Viktor donned his helmet and reached his hands out to Cora. Though Viktor was the least bit afraid of whatever would come out of this from the League, he wasn't sure what would happen to Cora. New members of the team were very easily let go after committing actions that deemed them unfit. “It's now or never. Give me the weapon.”

Cora was visibly confused. Social cues were not her specialty. ”Why? What’s happening?” Cora asked, looking around only to find that they weren’t alone anymore. There was the sound of gusts before none other than Red Tornado landed in front of them.

“Nevermind, Cora. Just… let me do the talking.” Viktor had given up on her, mentally dialing back a bit of the praise he had given Cora previously. There was no use trying to avoid it, the two of them just had to face whatever Red Tornado had in store.

Viktor explained everything, from the procurement of the weapons from the mission to the testfire of one of the newly assembled weapons. There were a few questions from Red Tornado concerning the purpose and design of the new weapons, which led to more of an intellectual discussion rather than stern reprimanding. There was a moment where Red Tornado considered what their corrective punishment might be but Viktor and Cora hadn't actually done anything wrong except damage training equipment and unknowingly set off an alarm that likely gave everyone alerted a brief yet sudden scare. Still, the red robot would need to at least report this event to the rest of the League. There would be much to talk through with the other members of the League but it would go smoother than Viktor and Cora explaining to their teammates why they were woken to a blaring alarm at the crack of dawn.

---

Pei was going through her things post mission when she realized she had forgotten something in the satchel she brings along just incase she needs free hands while also carrying something. It was Metamorph’s mask! The one he had dropped when he disappeared. Pei pursed her lips, and resolved to go give it to him.

That was why she was still in her superhero uniform when she knocked on Kila’s room door, not knowing where else to find him. Worst case scenario, she could just leave it outside his door. It was a shave and a haircut knock, a jaunty little tune for anyone that wanted to spice up their knocking arsenal.

“Come in.” Came the calmed voice of the young man inside. Pei hesitated, then tilted her head with a shrug.

Upon opening the door, she could see him sitting in a metal chair near the window. He was at least half of the way dressed down, the torso piece of his metamorph suit traded for a sleeveless black compression shirt but the uniform pants remained. A white, albeit now partially stained red, towel laid on the floor near his feet with one of the suit’s gauntlets resting on it. The other was in his hand being wiped down with a wet rag.

Kila only briefly looked up to see the identity of the person coming in before continuing with his task. “Hello, Pei.”

”Hey howdy hey.” She said with a smile. ”I was uh, lookin’ through my stuff when I remembered I picked something up of yours.” She approached and presents his mask to him with both of her hands.

”Ta-daaa. Your cool mask. I never was much of a secret identity person but, I might get one of those superhero eye mask thingies one day, if only for the aesthetic.”

That seemed to rouse his attention more directly and he paused again to look at it. “I see. Thank you…I was hoping that it wasn’t stolen.” He looked at the cleaned golden piece of armor in his hand and rested it on his lap. Accepting the mask, he stared into the eyes of it for a moment.

“I don’t fully know why I took it off in the first place…Where did you find it?”

”On the ground.” She says with a bit of a grimace in her smile. ”Next to a bad guy with two broken arms and a lot of scared civvies.” She rubs the back of her head.

Her smile fades completely as she works up the courage to say what she felt she needed to say. She hadn’t come here with the intention of doing anything except dropping off the mask. And yet:

”Um…look, I know I’m new here but…that was um…well, that- that wasn’t okay.” She managed.

”You’re right…It wasn’t. I thought when I joined this team, I wouldn’t have another incident like that…but, here I am, cleaning blood off of my things…I’ve at least been told that none of the innocents were harmed.”

Pei turned and walked a few steps away and then walked back. ”Right, but, you totally brutalized those guys. Put them in the hospital for months, probably. Injuries that will only heal years from now, if at all. The people we were supposed to be saving were scared of you.” She said. ”Scared of me, afterwards.”

”Are you saying you’re not in control of your actions or somethin’?” She asked. ”What do you mean ‘another incident’?”

”What I am referring to is my mysterious power of the Red; my ‘animal’ side, if you will. I have exhibited some uses of it in the past, which are more numerous, as I am now learning. The incident in the past was when I was younger…and had less control. It has a primal fury that I can only guide, instead of contain.”

Pei looked a little exasperated. ”Oh, great. You have a superpowered evil side? Dude, I’m sorry, I know you’re more sick of dealing with it than anyone. But it’s still happening and it’s like, totally not conductive to superheroing. We need to work on this. We need to stick some Blue or Green into you to balance it out, or whatever!” She said and at that point, Kila’s eyes cut away from his mask up to the icy girl. His stare held contempt.

”What do you think I do all day?! Do you think if it were simply as easy as changing one little thing that it hasn’t been tried?!” He threw the mask away and stood. Pei took a couple steps back.

”You say ‘I know’— You know nothing about what I was put through in Buredunia! Or about the Red, Blue, and Green, you don’t know anything about it!” In his sharp burst of emotion, his breaths quickened in pace, shoulders rising and falling. Yet, he looked down at the gauntlet in his hand. Iwisa… He closed his eyes for a moment to compose himself, but still raised her garment up as a representation.

”I come from a military where kids like me;” He paused, opening eyes to look at Pei directly. ”Kids like us; are trained to be weapons for their country to deploy at their enemies. I was the son of the President-King, with dormant, barely controllable abilities. I was meant to be the example, so how do you think it was handled…?” His eyes again fell to the gauntlet and he lowered it to hold in both hands.

”My amai took me away from that system, and taught me that I didn’t have to be a weapon…but that this power of the red that flows through me, will surface again. That it is forever part of me. Not just some ‘evil’ side, as some see it, but something I must learn to make peace with…”

Pei tilted her head, a little incredulous. ”My guy. I’m sorry about your past. But I’m talking about the present.” She said.

”You brutalized those crooks like they killed your dog. You terrified those civvies. You left me completely by myself in the middle of a dangerous situation. Things could have gone real bad. Like, make peace with it? We gotta fix it!” She said.

”I have only been free from their influence for a year, after years of conditioning to be a certain way. This short period of time and you coming in here to tell me about myself isn’t going to fix it. While talking about those thieves like they weren’t holding guns at the hostages. As if that they hadn’t shot at us. But our teammates’ injuries say otherwise, don’t they…?” The young lion sat back in his chair.

”If you are done being yet another voice telling me that you are afraid of or for me, you know where the door is. Thank you for returning my mask.”

”...Geez, man.” Pei put a hand on her hip and shook her head. ”You’re welcome.”

She was about to leave, but…she stopped and turned around. ”Come on, you really don’t see where I’m comin’ from at all? You just- I just- I got left out to dry. Like laundry. Flap flap, on a little- clothesline. What was I supposed to do, not say anything?”

”Not come in acting like the results were my intent. Or like I don’t understand the severity of the consequences my actions may have. I have the worst of them physically embedded in my skin. If what you need is an apology, then I apologize. It will not change what I’ve done, or really provide a solution, but I said and meant it.”

She really wants to argue, like, she didn’t come in here acting like it was his intent. She came in here to give him his cool mask back. She also didn’t like being made to feel like she was out of line. But she couldn’t see the point of saying these things so she just thought them really hard while staring at him.

”Yeah…okay. It’s just, I think we worked well together. Like, right up until that last part. Which was also like, the first part. It was like the first thing that we did. Just: zwoop.” She slaps her hands together and sends the top hand soaring away like an airplane taking out.

”I did the acting of my life, by the way. I distracted the hell out of that robber, just like you said. Nobody else even saw.” She said, pouting while the premature veteran sighed.

”I know you did your best…Just…give me some time, Pei. I’m still recovering from what happened.”

”Yeah, man, no problem. I just- I just want us to all work together, y’know? Sorry if I came on a little strong.” She said, rubbing her elbow. ”Let me know if you ever wanna hang out or whatever.” With that she turned to leave, overall feeling pretty bad about how that all went down. When she faced away from Kila and walked out she bit on her finger and winced.

Closing the door behind her she kept her knuckle in her mouth as she walked away. Then she stood up a little straight and took her finger out to talk to herself. ”Guess I have no choice. I’ll just have to trust him all the way anyway.” That solution cleared up all her problems. Pei believed in second, third, fourth, and fifth chances. Sixth with a bit of bargaining. And Metamorph was only about a quarter of the way through his first chance. She just needed to be on her toes in the future now that she knows about his problem. Would it have been nice to know about it beforehand? Sure. But the past was in the past. Pei was more concerned with the present.

---

Kilamanjaro, simply Ja today, excitedly bounced around through his room to the beat of uptempo afrobeats. Quickly sifting through the color-coded clothes in his closet, the Son of the Red pulled free an outfit suitable for athletics but also stylish. His favorite show as a child was, ironically, a show based around teens gaining super abilities to fight monsters— The Spectacular Shifting Noble Ninjas. He had collected all of the colored shirts for each ninja, each representing a different aspect of the natural forces.

The past mission was a troubling experience to learn about later from the debriefing. For once in a very long time, he didn’t know fully what the Red Beast had done. Those were the times Ja was the most afraid. Having the Beast lurking through his instincts was both comforting and troublesome.

King Lion told him growing up that while his abilities were a blessing, they were a responsibility that he had to uphold solely. That he was going to grow into a man, and as such, maintaining control over his primal urges was of utmost importance. When the Beast wrested that responsibility from him, it made him feel like a failure. Ja was thankful that the beast hadn’t harmed civilians or his teammates…but he felt its aggression ramping up in his being even during times of relative peace like this. It had only gotten worse after that mission in Taos with the Kobra devil girl. Whatever things she had done to provoke him left some inner turmoil.

However, to combat those feelings since then, he did what Iwisa had taught him to do; put the energy into something upbuilding or productive. More often than not, it resulted in exercising or simply going outside and lightly following the Red’s impulses. Today, he had something different in mind. Something that he couldn’t do on his own. Thus, now garbed in the red dragon SSNN shirt, white sweatpants, and his Speed Force 1s, Ja went to find Kassy.

Kassandra was in the lounge, settled on the couch. With her favorite headphones over her ears, she looked quite relaxed, her eyes closed as if asleep. Ja's highly tuned senses might be able to pick up the sounds of an orchestra, as well as Kassy's soft humming. Lost in the music, she didn't even react to his approach.

The bushbaby waddled over to the couch, just out of view. A crooked smile formed at his lips on the prospect of prank scaring her. However, he caught himself before following his innate instinct to pounce on prey with its guard down. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened on the beach…So, instead, Ja carefully guided his steps around to the front of the couch and sat on the floor within clear view. Along with the pace of her humming, he tapped her thigh to get her attention.

Instead of being startled, a warm smile spread across Kassy's face. ”Hi Ja.“ She opened her eyes to give him a warm gaze. Pulling the headphones off and stopping the song, she looked to her friend. ”You look well this morning.“ Since the bank mission, she had been tending to him in her own way. Spending more time around him, asking to train, and swim, and just hang out. Clearly, she didn't want him to feel isolated. But she didn't want to force the topic of what had occured unless he wanted to speak about it again.

”What are you up to today?“

”Actually, I need your help.“ His expression feigned a pout. ”There is a competition at the mall today for the sports store. If one were to win it, they would be given whatever single sports item every month for ten years. That one…and their teammate. I don’t have a teammate for it…unless…maybe…“

Kassy giggled softly. ”Ok, ok. Please put away the bottom lip, it's a dangerous weapon. Viktor is still grounded, I suppose? Then, I will gladly help.“ She rose up from the couch and stretched. ”What is the competition? And when do we need to arrive?“

Ja perked up and, comically, his headbush seemed to flail in excitement as well. ”The competition is almost an hour from now. It has a combination of physical and brain challenges. I am strong and fast…but you are strong, fast, and smart. So if we work together, it will be as easy as swimming!“

”But Ja, you are also very intelligent…“ She shook her head mildly. Now was not the time for serious discussion. ”Let me change my clothes then. I will meet you at the Zeta tubes in 10 minutes. And then, we will conquer all opponents and come home victorious!“ A grin warmed her face, as she gave Ja a firm shoulder squeeze and headed for her room.

---

_{Time | Evening
Location | Mawl Alqamar Alkhafiu, Khandaq}

---

Kassy stepped out of the tube, shutting her eyes against the bright light of the Zeta tube as it finished the transport. She was expecting the usual weekend crowd of the Happy Harbor mall. But instead of the noise and bustle, she was greeted with an entirely different scene.

”...where.. are we?“ Had the coordinates gotten entered wrong, somehow? Ja had put them in himself - he'd never been wrong before.

The son of the savannah stood not too far from her, eyes to the horizon just briefly before realizing she spoke. His lips pursed. ”Uhm…Well…we are at the mall…just not the one near home.“ He put it gingerly. ”Is that okay?“

Kassy gave Ja a confused look before nodding. ”Yes, it's fine, but tell me next time. I thought something had gone wrong.“

”Now…“ She looked around eagerly. ”Where is the contest?“

”There…“ Was once a time when lying was easier. A game was how it was taught to him as a child. It was an integral part of missions at one point. But outside of missions, away from Buredunia, it only got harder…He didn’t want a repeat of what happened in Las Vegas.

”There is no contest.“ His eyes pleaded his case, ”I just wanted you to come with me…I saw that sometimes in Happy Harbor, you had a sour look on your face…So, I thought maybe you’d like to try a different one…“

At Ja's soft admission, Kassy turned to give him her full attention. Something strange was going on. Ja was not prone to deception. Granted, he didn't wield truth like a club and smack people with it, but…

”Ja, what is going on? You are acting very strange right now. I- I don't mind the Happy Harbor mall, it's fine…“ She was not telling the full truth. Rather hypocritical to demand of him what she wouldn't freely give. ”They just don't have clothes in my size that suit my taste.“ She shrugged indifferently. ”It's not a big deal.“

He wasn't wrong about her moods though. Going shopping with the others, watching the other girls find all sorts of cute fashions and so many times finding nothing that came close to fittng her thick frame - some days it was just irritating. She'd thought herself a deceiver with enough practice to keep it from showing. Evidently not.

”Where are we, anyway? The air seems different. Not as wet.“

His demeanor seemed to ease some with her lack of an angry response. He wasn’t sure of what to expect, but her confusion becoming the equivalent of a verbal shrug was better than the worst. With her question, his smile slowly started to come back around though still somewhat cautious.

”Well, we are no longer in America, but in my home continent of Africa. The country though…You may have heard of it, given how…well known the leader is. We are at a special mall in Khandaq.“ He let the name sink in for a moment before continuing.

”My amai comes here sometimes as a guest when she needs nice new things. The styles come from all over the world…so…I…uhm...thought that maybe you’d like to look around and see if you like something?“

”We're in Africa? I'm not quite sure where Khandaq is, but-“ She stopped mid-sentence. His mother shopped here. His mother, the effortlessly beautiful supermodel. Kassy felt her mood sink immediately, as she realized she'd felt slightly on edge since the moment they had arrived.

”Ja, I… I appreciate your taking the time to think of me. It's just stunning here. But if someone like your mother shops here, then I definitely do not belong.“ Now that she was tuned in, she could feel eyes on her. She kept her attention fixed on Ja, trying to drown the anxiety.

Ja’s expression went from cautious to confused, headbush even tilting to the side just so. Someone like his mother? Surely Kassy wasn’t insulting his amai…Did that mean she was insulting herself instead?

”…Do not belong…?“ The bushbaby didn’t quite understand what she meant at first. The glances from passersby were lost on him but his senses picked up the tension building in her. Why? The only thing he could connect as far as clothing went…was her build? Kassy was certainly…curvier than he noticed in the other girls on the team. His own amai was even on the skinnier side…but…was that what made her think she didn’t belong?

He pulled out two elaborately braided black and gold bracelets, each with a currently blank panel on them. He clicked one of them onto his wrist and extended his reach out to her hand.

”Actually, I think I know somewhere here that might change your mind…“ Ja’s golden globes connected to her sunset-painted eyes.

”Will you trust me? I promise, no tricks from now on.“

Kassy rubbed the back of her neck. The other customers, finely dressed and dignified adults, didn't look pleased with her presence. Before she could ask him to leave, their eyes met.

”I…“ Her hand met his, answering him before her words were sorted. ”Of course I trust you. We're already here across half the world - show me around!“ Just like that, Ja’s warm gaze banished her fears.

With her permission, they were off; the lad of the land led the oceanic offspring along the elegant hall of the mall. There were fancy stores that exhibited varying sorts of exotic clothing, art pieces, and even furniture in some. It was a widely multicultural assortment despite being under the banner of only being able to be found here. Some of the things, his Amai had explained, weren’t even officially put out for the masses yet. An air of exclusivity only very few in the world had.

There were many potential places to stop, but Kilamanjaro was on a mission. One that led them to a store simply named ‘Faith’s’. Upon looking at the things in the display window, it was actually a little different from the other stores. While many of the clothing shops seemed to be aimed for a more mature and ‘dignified’ consumer base, Faith’s seemed aimed towards young adults.

While standing just outside of it, Ja paused, looking across to Kassy like a pup that had found what it sniffed out. A fanged, good natured smile filled out his expression. ”Here we are! Oh. And put this thing on.“ He placed the other bracelet in her hand.

”All the guests shopping here have to wear one.“

Just before they had begun their browse, Kassy summoned a quick illusion over her clothing. Her "Mer-muscle" workout tank and shorts were replaced. She chose a cheery sundress printed with tiny stars. As Ja led, she window shopped, gleefully gazing at the numerous displays of finery and fashion from across the globe.

Her attention was turned from a beautiful display of pearl studded jewelry when Ja announced they had arrived.

”This? What does it do?“ She took the bracelet from him, but did not yet wear it. Kilamanjaro had her trust, but whoever had crafted this bracelet did not.

”Ah, when you find something you want to keep, it is scanned to tell the store who has bought it. Mostly though, it is to show that you were invited to this mall. It’s not like the one at home where everyone can walk in.“

”I see.“ With a moment of hesitation, she slid the bracelet around her wrist. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of a problem. ”Let’s go in.“

Unlike the other stores in the exclusive mall, this one seemed to have a much more casual style for it's younger clientele. Kassy spent time browsing the various fashions on display. There were so many beautiful things that she would have loved to try on - but she quickly realized that she was far out of her depth. Not a single item on the rack or shelf had a price tag. Clearly, this was meant for those who had never worried about money. She did have her stipend from the palace - but that was money for the future. There was, of course, the JL credit card, but knowing someone, somewhere, would see that she'd been spending hero funds on clothing…

Oh well. It had been a sweet gesture, regardless. With a mental shrug, she started looking for Ja. The gluttonous young goat was gandering at the goodies close by the check out when he heard or really felt her approach. Ja turned with a smile but it became close-lipped rather quickly.

”You didn’t find anything, Froggy?“

Kassy blinked. ”Froggy…?“ She chuckled and shook it off. ”There were several beautiful things, actually. But-“ Lowering her voice, she looked to the sweet Prince at her side. ”Ja, I cannot afford any of this. I've been putting away my stipend for when I become an adult. I assume even the cheapest item here would empty it completely.“ Shame crept up her neck, but she was met with a smile and a giggle.

”Silly Kassy, I didn’t bring you here to find things you like, only to leave them. My amai gave us the shopping bracelets for a reason.“ Ja understood that maybe the shimmering sea-star felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of spending his amai’s money, even with permission.

”Here, we’ll use mine! Now come on, try some of the stuff on.“ He ushered, leading into a random aisle as he bobbled his head along to the Indian pop music playing in the background.

Kassy’s mouth opened, then closed. Did Ja mean to buy things for her? That wouldn't do at all. ”I, um, I appreciate it, but… Ja, I cannot let you waste your money on me.“ She followed in his wake.

A dress caught her eye as they passed by. Without losing the pep in his step, or even a stride, Ja turned to walk backwards and look at her.

”Hm…well, you found stuff you like, right?“

Kassy nodded hesitantly.

”And you would wear that stuff if you had it with the rest of your clothes, right?“

Again, the daughter of the depths found herself slowly nodding her head. In which case, the young lion released a smile like the rising sun.

”See! Then it isn’t a waste, Froggy. Money is just paper or numbers that you trade with people anyway.“

”...But I- I do not need excess…“ Kassandra's protests slowed to silence. That radiant grin addled her mind, as usual. ”...Just this once, I guess.“ A smile flickered on her lips before broadening. Subconsciously, her eyes wandered to the dress that was nearby. ”It wouldn't hurt to try on one.“

Having taken a seat on the floor near the fitting room, Ja waited while Kassy pulled a dress from the rack. Usually, this was the part that bored him when he was out shopping with his amai. She’d always pick a bunch of them and then be in there forever. Though this time was different, he was here with Kassy now and he wanted to be encouraging. Still, even in the period that Kassy took he ended up pulling out his phone.

Before long, he heard her footsteps and perked up from watching funny cat videos that he asked Alisa to bookmark for him. When he stood and looked up, his lips moved to smile but froze in its tracks. He wasn’t prepared for what he saw at that moment.

What he thought was a simple white and teal dress at first glance seemed to have morphed. A soft, sun-warm white outside, long enough to reach her knees. Inside was a vibrant teal and coral pink, having a Yoruban design with soft floral patterns throughout. It hugged her many curves just so but didn’t show too much.

Kilamanjaro had never seen Kassy in such a way before, and utterly stood no chance. She was arrayed like a princess in a fantasy, and as such the maned young lion was entranced by the view. All the while, she did not even seem to notice his silent plight to her beauty, making minor adjustments to herself in the mirror as if she wasn’t—

”How do I look?“

The question reminded the boy that she wasn’t simply a Mirage but that this was reality. The fluster that the realization drew from him brought his headbush down to defensively hide his face.

”U…Uzuri wa kichawi…“ Was his murmured response as he brought his eyes down in an attempt to keep from staring further.

Kassy’s hesitant smile disappeared in a blink. ”Uzui wa ki- kich-“ She had picked out more than a few Swahili words and phrases from him, but this one was unknown. Although… ”You've said that before… I think? It sounds familiar but I don't remember the meaning.“ She sighed softly, tugging the inner dress in places.

”I usually don't wear things that are tight like this. It's not uncomfortable, but…“ She rubbed the back of her neck, her confidence dropping like a stone in the sea.

”Maybe it doesn't flatter me?“ She figured that was why Ja wasn't looking. He was too gentle to hurt her feelings.

”You can just tell me. It's fine.“

”…“ He…had said it before? Ja could only remember one other occasion that he would have used that phrase…Which he could only hear the harmony of Kassy’s singing voice in his mental background now. He didn’t realize that he’d said it out loud…Much less that it was loud enough for her to remember. As her self-esteem seemed to falter, Ja felt the falling stone smash into his heart to become many butterflies.

”I…the english word that fits is…uhm…’enchanting’.“ He translated, timidly drawing his eyes back up to take more mental picture

”Oh, I see.“ Kassy gathered up her thick curls, trying to arrange them into style.

And then the meaning of Ja's words jostled her mind and heart, all at once.

”What?!“ She whirled to face him. The dress flared around her with her movement, adding an ethereal quality to it. ”Is that really… are you sure you mean that?“ A pause before a verbal retreat. ”Wait, that's not - I mean, I know you know your own - But that doesn't make -“ A steady heat was flooding her face.

”I… I…“

Oh no, had he said the wrong thing? He thought that “enchanting” in english had a positive meaning. Yet her response suggested otherwise. Ugh, what should he do? What did he say?

Kilamanjaro felt a small ache in his now spinning head. His eyes were intense as he internally panicked. Yet, the quiet tension in his body seemed to relax. He took a breath and blinked several times, refocusing on Kassandra. A small, pleased smile melded his expression.

”My amai has walked many fashion shows. She has told me that there are some models that elevate the outfits they wear. I think you and the dress together make quite a view.“

”...“ Kassy made a few unintelligible sounds as her mind tried to make sense of what was happening. ”Are you serious? Ja-“ Trailing off, she looked closely at her friend. ”Kila?“ Her voice was a gentle whisper as she approached him.

”Did you actually mean what you said? A - about me?“

”Of course, Ms. Keigwan.“ He teased, but continued on in a supportive manner. ”And this is just one. Surely there are others you’d like to try?“

Kassy stepped a fingertip shy of too close, and looked into Kila's eyes. Her untranslatable gaze stretched on longer than was socially polite. Finally, her eyes softened and a sweet grin graced her face. ”...You're a good person, did you know that?“ If he wanted to do all this to show her kindness, then so be it. This was Kilamanjaro at his core.

”Well, Mister McCabe… perhaps there are a few other items that caught my eye.“

For once, an unrestrained warmth radiated from within Kila, and with a chuckle he gestured for her to continue. While the moment was nice, the young veteran found himself wondering how exactly he got to the mall.

Sure he had thought about offering to bring Kassandra here before, even talked to his Amai about it…It didn’t feel like he was dreaming, and yet, Kila still wondered. He thought his Red half to be more primal in nature, so surely it hadn’t brought her here.

Regardless, having woke up in worse situations than this, Kila decided to take the moment for what it was. After all, self-doubt was cripplingly cold, a feeling that he has come to learn that Kassy also suffered from. So to see that smile of hers come from a truly warm place in her heart, the heat was enough to make his own doubts melt away.

---

Current day

Daphne's form lingered at the entrance to the nest. She had climbed the ladder all the way to the top and was now standing still. There was a wistful look on her face. As she pulled back the curtains and stared at the abandoned space, she got lost in a memory.

May 7th 2021

The library was mostly quiet around this time of day, not that it got much buzz at any other hour. Daphne’s footsteps produced one of the only sounds. The flats she was wearing made her footfalls soft and her pace was indecisive. She stopped and started multiple times, seeming to be searching for something.

The brunette teen was listening to an ambient playlist through her pink air pods, off into her own world. A forlorn expression was on her features. She wasn’t in the library to read or return books. All throughout the cabinets of books Daphne had been compiling a herbarium. Unlike the regular collection of dried plants which was often used in scientific studies, Daphne’s copy was different. It detailed the name of the plant, along with its personality and manner of speech.

She had a somewhat circuitous way of storing the plants. They were tucked into stories which aligned with the meaning of the plant or flower in the Victorian language of flowers. It resulted in a system only she could unravel and understand……or so she thought.

Daphne was searching for a particular fairytale. It wasn’t in the place she left it. That was strange because she couldn’t think of anyone being interested in reading it, aside from herself. She passed by several shelves, holding her head sideways to study the titles of the books.

Only a few sections over, with a handful of books himself, was Talon. Since joining the team, any time he wasn’t spending in some sort of training simulation, he was spending it here in the stacks. He normally had the space to himself, but when the others had made their way into search for something to read, he tended to make himself scarce. That had less to do with him being anti-social and more to do with him just…not being good at being social.

Recently however he had stumbled upon something interesting. He had gone looking for a book that Green Arrow had recommended to him. An old collection of fairy tales Oliver had described to Talon as “the first REAL superhero.” Talon was dubious. But nevertheless he added it to his list to read. He’d had the title written down on a scrap paper:

“The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.”

Sure enough he had found it. A beautiful leather bound copy, with green print. Talon noticed that there was a bookmark left in it previously. Curious, he opened the page and instead found a flower. A beautiful white petal.

He kept both.

In the present, he knew who was in the library with him. Daphne had a presence about her, and not solely because she had strangled him so effortlessly when they had first met, but something else. Kila had thought it was something to do with pheromones. Talon felt a familiar anxiety. He was still adjusting to her friendship. Of everyone on the team he had connected with her and Casper easiest, although Casper has since left the team for his own reasons. But Daphne was easier to be around. Or he just preferred to be around her. Nightwing would have told him he had a crush, but Talon was too naive to see it.

“Are you…looking for book?” He asked Daphne, as she had nearly passed by the aisle he was in.

“A book. Or books. That is…do you need help?”

Nailing it.

Daphne smiled and removed her airpods, having only caught the last bit of Talon’s sentence.

“Yes I do actually…” She looked at him first and then to the stack of books sitting on the table.

Maybe he has it?

The fact that he wore shades at all times made her nervous at first, because she could never tell if he was looking straight at her, or someplace else. Eventually she got used to it and even felt like they had some sort of eye contact. She always liked to pretend his eyes were blue, clear and cool.

“I’m looking for a fairytale book about the adventures of Robin Hood.”

Talon should have guessed that the flowers had something to do with Daphne. Talon wasn’t 100% on the intricacies of Nymph’s abilities. In fact, save for maybe Vic, everyone on the team was reserved when it came to explaining the full breadth of what they could do. It actually caused friction between himself and Casper, Talon having gone so far as to call him a liability for not being more open about what he could do. Casper, who was the first member of the team to reach out to him in a moment of He regrets that now. But Casper is gone…

Talon nodded at the end of the aisle, and beckoned to Daphne to follow. Passing the shelves of old books, Talon stopped at a rolling library ladder, sliding it down the shelving to the very end, where two corners of the library met. At the top of the shelf was another curtained window. He climbed up the ladder and passed the top shelf. Reaching for the curtain, Talon pulled it aside and stepped through.

Behind the curtain was not another window at all - it was a makeshift nook. Talon had made a sort of nest. A stack of books that Talon was reading sat upon a small shelf, and the ground had a comfortable bed of blankets along the ground, and a beanbag in the corner (with “Property of Garf” stamped on it in big block letters.)

“This was for storage, before.” He told her.

A smile spread across Daphne’s face and eyes seeing Talon’s little hideout. Despite having never entered the space, something about it felt familiar. Like she was threading into the charging space of another introvert.
“Wow, this is really nice.”

Daphne took off her flats, placing them in a corner and proceeded to move onto the blanketed floor. It was much softer than she expected. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling, her hair fanning out behind her.

“You must be in here all the time.”

She glanced to her side, at a stack of books. The third book was titled “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.”

Hah! So he did have it!

“Ah, so you stole it.” She said jokingly.
“A true robin hood I see.”

Talon grimaced and rubbed the back of his head, either nervous about the fact that he had tried to keep something that didn’t belong to him, or that there was now a beautiful girl laying in his makeshift getaway. Talon’s time with the team was opening him up to new experiences, and his diving into various books helped familiarize him with more social situations. It was a stark difference between the interactions he grew up with, his will and sense of self crushed beneath the goals of the Court of Owls. The books in the library taught him a great deal about friendship, and his continued engagement with missions as part of a “team” was helping with communication. But he had found that his biggest hurdle socially was an obvious one for a boy his age. Romance.

His team was a hotbed of hormones and tension - and it was clear Talon was out of his element. Mirage and Metamorph had made it seem so easy to be both teammates and partners, or whatever they may be. And people like Zach could turn on the flirtation with the flick of a switch. Talon wanted to be able to be more like them, but he struggled. He didn’t even know how to properly talk with Cybergirl outside of mission parameters - his only time he had attempted to compliment her on her abilities he had fumbled, as mid-sentence he realized his compliments for her cybernetic parts were basically just compliments for her body. His ability to express himself was stunted, short, and he had grown up angry. So he had turned to the written word to help him understand feelings he couldn’t express on his own. And it hadn’t been lost on him that as he flipped through stories of heroes and romances, he started to picture himself as that swashbuckling champion of justice, and sometimes he’d even see his teammates in the place of the great loves of the adventurers he read in his nest. Oftentimes he saw the very girl was now there with him.

“Yeah I uh…I needed a bookmark. A nice one.” He sat down with crossed legs, watching the girl seemingly melt into the space.

“I’d found a few others, but that’s the one I wanted. It took me a while to find out it was called a Galanthus - the Robin Hood Tulip.”

Daphne’s head perked up when Talon mentioned finding several of the pressed flowers scattered around the library. Out of the hundred sof books he seemed to have been able to find them easily.

She picked up the pressed tulip from between the pages of the green leatherbound book. The white petals were slightly faded to a more sepia hue and the shape was easily recognizable.

“What do you like about it?”

That it’s yours

“It’s the first one I found. It’s pretty. And it's Delicate. Growing up I wouldn’t have been able to keep something like this. And anything we did get to keep had to be shared amongst ourselves, or else we had to fight for it.”

Talon watched her hands as held the flower between her fingers. If he had known how to say it, he’d have told her that he admires that her hands were able to create something beautiful, that her powers created life. Her hands were the antithesis of his own.

“I’ve never had friends before. Even now sometimes I feel like I’m just a teammate. I couldn’t tell the difference at first, but now one has become more important than the other. Nightwing acts like this is something he knew would happen, like he expected it. But even still…”

Talon caught himself. He had been able to speak more, communicate with the people he wanted to call friends, but talking openly about where he’d come from and what it was he was scared of felt wrong to him so far. He didn’t know it, but this was the conditioning of the Court Of Owls. No vulnerability. Physical or…otherwise.

Daphne allowed Talon’s words to sink in. She was starting to realize more and more that he was scarred by everything that had happened prior to joining the initiative. Him saying he never had friends before was really a sad thing. Everyone deserved at least one friend.

There was a silence between them with Daphne unsure of what to say next. He stopped speaking mid sentence as he often did. Sometimes she would push and prod gently for the remaining part of it.

“It’s nice to have friends” She started to say, while moving to sit upright.
“They’re people you can choose to include in your life, because you value something about them.”

“My older brother for example. Aside from being family we’re also friends. He accepts me for who I am, flaws and all. Sometimes I’m told I can be too nice, like a push over. But my brother admires it, because it’s something he finds difficult.”

Talon understood why Daphne’s brother would think that way. It was becoming more and more apparent that spending time with others gave you a form of envy, but a seemingly healthy one. Talon wondered if there was anyone in his orbit that wanted to be more like him. What trait would that even be? Was it his fighting ability? His utility as a member of the team? Talon surprised himself by consciously deciding that those weren’t the kinds of things he wanted people to admire about him. Anyone could throw a punch.

“When I first came here, my goal was to become a hero. But lately, the things that I’ve been looking forward to aren’t the missions themselves, it’s the time between them. Like watching Zach recording for his youtube channel, or trying to understand Cybergirl while she explained how her operating systems worked. Coming here to read these, it helps sort out all of these things I don’t know how to parse.”

Talon smiled at Daphne

“The flowers are a nice surprise when I stumble on them. And for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a pushover at all. I think you just-” Talon looked upwards as he tried to search for the words.

“When you’re about to do something, you think of the other person first. You do that more than anyone else on the team. Even in a fight.”

“Thanks”

Daphne smiled back at Talon. It was nice to know not everyone on the Team thought badly of her. A warm feeling slowly spread through her chest. Her smile lingered long after they broke eye contact.

---

It was quite early in the morning when Viktor found himself between a bench and a fully loaded barbell within the Mount Justice gym, listening to the classical music of Johann Sebastian Bach through his black earbuds. His form was as precise as a machine. No wobbling, no deviation, feet planted, and his breathing kept to a steady rhythm as the bar continuously made contact with his black sleeveless compression shirt. His face was stoic as ever until the music cut out to the sound of a message notification. His expression read displeasure as he racked the barbell and sat up to remove his phone from his canary-yellow gym shorts.

Despite not wanting to interrupt his set, Viktor felt the need to be prompt whenever he was messaged. With as early as it was, he figured it could be a noise complaint, even if he didn't think he was being loud but it wouldn't be the first time. Instead, he found a message from Black Canary.

“Morning, Viktor. I have a task for you to complete, seeing as I might not be able to make it to HH this morning. Vincent is nearly complete with his pilot training on the team jet and I want you to fill in for his final test flight at 1000. He only needs to fly the bird to one of our refueling points and make it back without issue which includes his performance in navigation, takeoff, landing, and the standard safety procedures. I expect a brief on his performance and your opinion of him taking on the responsibility. With Alisa still getting used to her reassembled body, we can't have you being the only pilot.”

Viktor sighed before quickly replying with Affirmative 😠.

Meanwhile somewhere and sometimes else within the headquarters…

”Alright, come on…Just gotta do that…then…Are you kidding me, I pressed the button, I should’ve dodged that! Dammit, I was so close, too!”

Vincent let out a groan and set his controller down as he slumped on the couch. As always, he had woken up early to get in his workout and make breakfast for the rest of the time, so now he was “relaxing” with a game known for its difficulty. As his character respawned, he sighed and picked his controller back up to try again, only for the alarm on his phone to suddenly start going off. He picked it up and saw the note he wrote on the alarm: “Pilot Test!”

”Shit, where’d the time go?” he muttered as he saved and quit his game. He stretched his arms over his head as the console powered down. On the one hand, he was excited to finally finish his training, to officially be one of the team’s pilots. Ever since he got his wings, he had always loved flying and flying in the jet was just a bit better because of how fast it was. On the other hand, he knew he wouldn’t be flying with Black Canary, this time. As he made his way to the hangar, he remembered a message he had received from her earlier that morning, saying that she most likely wouldn’t be able to make it and she’d try to find a replacement to fly with him.

”Well, the test hasn’t been canceled, so I guess she found someone. Wonder who it is?” he wondered aloud as he stepped through the door into the hangar.

“You can quit wondering, Vincent. I'll be administering your test flight this morning…” Viktor was standing beside the jet, suited up excluding his hemet with his arms folded. “And don't think I'll take things easy on you because we're teammates.” Unbeknownst to Vincent, Viktor had already conducted a pre-inspection of the jet, a procedure he always practiced.

When he saw Viktor, Vincent grinned and waved. “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Ray-of-Sunshine, himself,” he teased as he approached the jet and began his own pre-flight check. Viktor simply shook his head at the nickname. Between Vincent and Pei, he wasn't sure who had the most energy. “You know, one of these days, I’ll get you to crack a smile.”

“You can try…” Viktor uttered under his breath. He didn't mean to be rough around the edges with Vincent but being compared to him since his arrival irritated him. Vincent potentially being the other pilot of the team jet would only make things more problematic. On the other hand, it could provide the two of them an opportunity to understand one another, whether it be through their simalrities or their differences.

The thought that Viktor might have done his own checks by then didn’t cross Vincent's mind. Thanks to the lessons he had had up until then, he had fallen into a habit of doing it himself.

He took his time doing his inspection and, when he was satisfied, he took a step back and said, “Alright, she looks good. Let’s load up, do the interior checks, and get this bird in the air.”

“Agreed.” followed Vincent into the jet and positioned himself a few feet away from the control panel. He looked over the buttons and switches that were all too familiar to him and spoke without breaking his eye contact from them. “You were found by a member of the Bat Family, correct?” Viktor already knew the answer but his small talk needed some practice. “Do find our team to your liking, or would you have rather be kept under the tutelage of the Batman?”

Vincent paused his checks and sat back in his seat with a sigh as he thought about Viktor’s question. “Well…it wasn’t exactly that simple of a choice,” he finally said as he scratched the side of his head. ”If I’d have said no, I’d probably be in jail right now. I guess he wanted to show me that I could use my skills for more than myself and get you guys another set of hands to help out.”

He looked over the fuel levels and flipped a few switches before he added, “I do like it here, though. You guys are an alright group, though…” He sat back and looked over at Viktor as he asked, “That thing with KJ at the bank…that happen often?”

The question snatched Viktor away from staring at the control panel. He figured the matter would come up eventually, especially amongst the new additions to the team but he had yet to figure out what really happened himself. All Viktor had was a theory. One that he formulated through his own observations of his peculiar teammate and friend.

“Yes and no,” he started toward one of the passenger seats closest to Vincent. “But I will clarify what that means. What it means to me,” Viktor secured himself with the three-point seatbelt as he continued.

“Metamorph normally has two identities. Personas might better describe it. I'm sure you've noticed it. How his demeanor changes from time to time. Like a switch, he can be the cheerful animal in tuned Ja or the cool-headed nigh-militant Kila. Unfortunately, there may be a third. Perhaps more than that, I can't be certain but there is definitely a third. A persona that makes use of Ja's power over the Red, except unlike him, he's far more brutal and appears to be even more animalistic. More than anything, he's a threat.” Viktor lowered his eyes and tightly balled one of his fists. “I only had to witness it once to discern that much.”

“Yeah, I’d say. You don’t break a guy’s arms because you’re friendly,” Vincent muttered as he finished up his pre-flight checks. Part of him wanted to ask what the “Red” was, but he decided that was probably a conversation for another time. Likely, Kila. “Alright, buckle up. I’m gonna taxi out onto the runway.”

As the jet crawled out of the hangar and began to move toward the runway, Vincent then asked, “By the way, I heard something about Kassy being from Atlantis? Is that, like, the Atlantis?” A bit more warily, he added, ”The…one underwater…?”

“Intelligent of you to ask about her as we leave the vicinity.” Viktor smirked at the thought of Vincent incurring Kassy's wrath with a wrong question or assumption. “But to answer your question, yes… and no.” Viktor answered once more.

“I only sat it this way because most think of Poseidonis and think 'Atlantis' without stopping to consider the other parts that make up the kingdom. I believe Kass is from a minor region or district of Atlantis that most aren't familiar with but it is beneath the ocean all the same,” Viktor leaned his body in Vincent's direction so he could closely observe his actions with the jet's controls. “I assume you haven't spoken to her much… Do you find her to be unapproachable ?”

”Who, Kassy?” Vincent responded, followed by a dismissive noise. ”No, nothing like that! It’s just…the ocean…” He visibly shuddered as he added, ”Nothing against her, I just…don’t like the deep sea, is all. The weight of all that water above and all around you…the darkness…never really knowing just what’s lurking out there…” Viktor cocked his head to the side while raising an eyebrow, but simply listened.

He shuddered again and continued as he readied the jet for takeoff, ”Same reason I don’t like caves or other tight spaces. Being able to fly’s given me a lot more appreciation for being…free, I guess. Being confined like that just sets me on edge, is all.”

He primed the engines and turned to Viktor as he asked, suddenly aware that he had just shared one of his deepest fears with someone who, for all intents and purposes, he hardly knew, ”Just…don’t tell anyone, alright? Don’t need anyone thinking that a badass like me is afraid of little rooms.”

“Your secret and fears are safe.” Viktor replied plainly. “However, it could do you some good to be open about such things. We're a team. Individual parts of a greater whole. It serves all of us to have humility as painful as it is. To know each other's strengths and weaknesses. If it makes you feel better, I'll tell you one of my fears once you get us in the sky.” Viktor managed to say just before the engines became too loud.

”You got it, boss. And I’ll think on it,” Vincent said as the jet began to move. It picked up speed quickly and Vincent couldn’t resist grinning as he felt the g-forces push him back against his seat. What I wouldn’t give to feel the wind at this speed! he thought as he pulled back on the control stick and the jet began to rise.

Vincent retracted the landing gear and climbed up to cruising altitude before he leveled the jet, speeding along to the refueling station. He made a few small adjustments, double-checked their heading and the various gauges, before he relaxed in his seat with a sigh. ”Never thought I’d be behind the stick of one of these babies,” he said with a chuckle.

“Impressive isn't it? Only you, myself, Alisa, and… another have gotten the opportunity to fly the jet. Though Alisa doesn't fly often, she was considered the best of us. She might not admit that, especially not after her reassembly…” Viktor's tone noticeably lowered as he was reminded of how Alisa has felt since her return. It was partly why Talos was commandeering the jet now.

Vincent noticed the change in Viktor’s tone and raised an eyebrow. All he had been told when he was asked if he wanted to learn to fly the jet was that they were short on pilots. He was never given a reason why, though he never thought to ask. He turned his gaze forward again, made another minor adjustment on the console, and asked, his mouth working before he gave himself time to think, as usual, ”What do you mean by that, ‘reassembly?’ Did something happen to her?”

“...” Viktor looked away from the console. He could have simply avoided the question, but he was rarely one to spare feelings, even his own. He let out a breath before starting. “In a way, she died. I mean if she was anyone else, that would surely be the case. Approximately two months before you and the other recruits arrived, her body was burned and torn apart. Cyborg along with others in the league rebuilt but… she hasn't grown fully accustomed to her new body yet,” Viktor explained. He unbuckled himself from his seat and stood up. “That was the second time I felt fear while operating with our team.” Viktor admitted as he walked toward Talon, taking a place where he could casually look over his shoulder.

Vincent, for once, wasn’t sure how to respond. He wasn’t sure what answer he had expected, but it definitely wasn’t what Viktor told him. He felt an instinctive urge to crack a bad joke but stamped it down. Alisa may not be “alive” in the traditional sense, but in the few moments he had interacted with her, she seemed more human than some people he had known in the past. He could only imagine what dying could do to a person’s head. He adjusted their heading and said, “Well, it’s good that I’m here, now. Haven’t met anyone who could crack my armor, yet. So, let me take the hits and I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, again. To anyone.”

“That job's taken, Vincent. I will ensure nothing like that occurs again. You can… assist.” Viktor had a bit of a smug look on his face for a moment before going back to serious. “The team is strong and capable. We just a leader and I'm the most suitable.” Viktor's eyes were staring out into the open sky through the jet's windshield.

Vincent let out a bark of laughter and replied, ”Hey, if you wanna be leader, you can have it. Even I know I’m not cut out for that kinda responsibility.” He checked over everything one more time, then flipped on the autopilot before he stood. He stretched his arms over his head and smirked at Viktor before he added, ”I’m just saying I’m better at taking a hit. Unless you’re bulletproof, too?”

“Can't say I can argue with you much there. The way you shielded the team from gunfire was… and I don't say this often… It was perfect.” Viktor's spirit lifted some as they both found more and more common ground. “You know, I thought I wouldn't like you. I even thought I'd have a legitimate reason not to while talking to you today. The jokes about us being the same are starting to get tiresome. No offense, but we couldn't be any different,” he admitted.

“I’ll say. You’re dark and brooding enough to give the big bat, himself, a run for his money and I’ve got a killer sense of humor,” Vincent joked. He finished stretching and took his place back in the pilot’s seat. “Joking aside, you’re a good guy, Vik. At first, I wasn’t sure about joining a team, but as long as I’ve got people like you and the rest of the crew at my back, then I don’t have any complaints.”

“Likewise. I think we've reached an adequate level of synergy as a team. We've gotten past the growing pains as Black Canary calls it.” Viktor moved back to his seat, knowing they'd be reaching the refueling station soon. Though, he still had something to ask. It was off-topic but the privacy the two currently had was the best it could ever be. “I have a question. I may pose it to KJ as well but you seem suitable enough to have a valuable opinion on the matter…” He took a moment to ask as he affixed his seatbelt. “If there was someone you liked on the team, how would you engage?” Viktor averted his eyes after asking the question, looking to the rear of the jet.

Vincent’s brow furrowed as he buckled into his seat. ”What do you mean?” he asked, only to find his answer in the way Viktor suddenly seemed interested in the rear of the jet. ”Ohh, that’s what you mean,” he realized as he faced forward again with a chuckle. ”Honestly, I’m probably not the best person to ask about that kinda thing. I’ve never felt that way toward anyone, before, but if I did…I’d probably just straight up ask her out.”

He pushed the controls forward and the jet began to descend. ”Way I figure, it’s best to cut the bullshit and be upfront about how I feel, you know? Besides, if you take too long, worrying about how they might feel about you or what might happen if they reject you, someone else might come along, shoot their shot, and you might be out of luck.”

“Shoot their shot? Kill them?” Viktor pondered this. She could die…

”Wait, what? No!” Vincent responded quickly. ”I meant, take the chance!” Viktor looked skeptically toward Vincent.

“So go in without complete preparation? No strategy? Just… Shoot the shot?” And then it finally hit Viktor. “Shoot the shot… Hmm, I think I understand what you mean. Don't hesitate or the opportunity might slip. It gives the chance for someone else to take it. Like an assassination mission where two or more parties want the target eliminated but each party has their own ends in confirming the kill… But… Hmm.. who would be my competition anyway. KIla or Ja is preoccupied. Zach is inclined toward men. I don't think Cora... Wait. You.” Again Viktor was struck. “You're the other assassin. At least, you could be.”

Vincent pulled back on the controls, bringing the nose of the jet up slightly as they came in to land. ”Uh…Honestly, I’m not a hundred percent sure what we’re talking about, anymore,” he admitted, the talk of assassination having thrown him for a loop. “If we’re still talking about dating, then I don’t think you have anything to worry about from me. I haven’t been here long enough to start thinking about anyone like that and I’m not really interested in that right now, anyway. Besides, I doubt she’d be interested in someone like me,” his words initially relaxed Viktor's tenseness, allowing him to relax back into his seat. It was only a second or so later when he received a mental double tap to the skull

“Wait- I mean keep landing. Apologies.” Viktor followed up with a curse under his breath before watching Vincent engage the landing gear. Wanting to speak before the wheels touched the ground, Viktor came right out with it. “Though, I am grateful for your disposition, there is a problem. If everyone on the team believes us to be so much alike, then won't-”

Viktor's next words were muffled by the sound of the wheels hitting the asphalt surface of the runway just before he uttered her name.

The wheels screeched as the jet landed on them, bouncing once before it began coasting on the landing gear. It quickly decelerated as Vincent eased up on the throttle and began to taxi the jet toward the refueling station. ”Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” he said. “What’d you say?”

“Uh…” Viktor couldn't believe he had blurted out what he had. To lose his composure in such a low-stress setting like this one. Get a hold of yourself! You're being weird! He stared intensely at the floor in front of him before properly answering Vincent. “Nevermind. Let's just refuel the bird.” Viktor unbuckled himself from his seat and stood up. “We can do it together. No need to prolong the mystery of whether or not you're capable of operating the jet,” He shrugged with his stoic expression returned.

Vincent watched Viktor rise from his seat and head toward the exit. He wasn’t sure what he had said to make him return to what seemed to be his trademark stoicism, but he decided with a shrug not to worry about it as he stood to follow his teammate out of the jet.

---

The summer sun was already up and at it and so were Vincent and Daphne. Red Tornado tasked them with the chore of breaking down the obstacle course. The work was cut out for the two teens, there was a lot to do. Fixing up the punching bags, detangling the climbing ropes, emptying the water bridge and the list went on. They decided to start out at the target practice area. Daphne went around each crosshair and picked up the stray arrows, sometimes needing to pull them from the dirt. Some of them had green feathers making them more difficult to spot.

“Over here…”

“Here’s one more…”

“Look behind you”

The grass continued to whisper directions and she moved around from one place to the next. It made her much more efficient at something that might have taken a lot longer otherwise.

Down the line of crosshairs there were two with arrowheads exiting from the back. Most likely victims of either Alisa’s or Viktor’s superhuman strength.

Daphne trudged back to the designated spot for gathering stacks of arrows and dropped a reasonably sized stack next to the others. She glanced over at Vincent.

“How’s it going over there?”

“Pretty well,” Vincent replied as he slowly made his way down the line of targets.

While Daphne had to physically pull them out of wherever they landed, Vincent used his control over carbon to coax the carbon fiber arrows free, occasionally dismantling one if it proved to be stubborn before reassembling it. He had no trouble finding them, despite how well hidden they were. The carbon within the polymer the arrows were made of acted as a beacon, letting him sense exactly where each one was.

Arrows hung around him, seemingly suspended in zero gravity, as he joined his teammate over by the pile of arrows. The arrows swirled around him for a few moments before they gathered into a neat pile and settled down next to what they had already gathered. “I think that’s the last of them,” he said. “What’s next? Do we need to replace the targets?”

Daphne ran her hand over the roughed up wood of one of the targets. Aside from the ones pierced by arrows they didn’t look too worse for wear. She wasn’t sure if replacing them was part of the clean up. Not to mention she wouldn’t know how, they didn’t bring any replacements. The crosshairs were too heavy for her to carry in stacks anyway.

There was something else she was good at though. Break time!
She brought a bag full of snacks and drinks. When Red Tornado listed what he wanted them to be doing Daphne figured it would take at least until lunch time. The teen looked down at her watch. 11:30 am.

They could have an early lunch/late breakfast.

“What’s next is break time!” Daphne exclaimed with a smile. Without missing a beat she set up an impromptu picnic, complete with a flowery plaid and about half of the Mount Justice pantry. She motioned for Vincent to join her and proceeded to lay down on her back.

Vincent took his place on the blanket, sitting next to Daphne. He let out a low whistle at the snacks and, picking up a sandwich, he said, “Impressive spread. There might be just enough here for the both of us.”

Daphne looked up at the mostly cloudless sky, her hair fanning out behind her. The breeze felt nice on her skin.

“You know…” She said, sounding like she was recalling a distant memory.
“The last time I was in a park like this, I was in Gotham.”

“I like it here better though, it’s….safer.”

He nodded and replied, “I don’t doubt it. I’ve never been to Gotham, but when I was at Bludhaven, there wasn’t a day when I didn’t hear about something or other happening over there. Street gangs, crazy clowns. Think some scientist even turned himself into a bat?”

He was quiet for a moment as his mind drifted back to his time before joining the team. “I never really gave myself time to relax like this,” he said after a moment. “I was usually either fighting or getting ready for a fight. It’s nice taking things slow like this.”

When Vincent mentioned his connection to Bludhaven Daphne was intrigued. It sounded like he wasn’t there to take in the scenery. The former whaling town had a largely disadvantaged populace and a high crime rate.

“What were you doing in Bludhaven?”
Daphne was aware a question like this could come off as accusing, given the reputation of the city. But being from Gotham herself she had an understanding of what life was and could be like in a city like Bludhaven.

“Fighting,” Vincent repeated honestly. “Not like we do now, though. I wasn’t like Nightwing or Batman, brooding on rooftops and swooping in to stop a mugging or anything like that.” He picked up another sandwich and continued, “There was this underground fighting scene, backed by some crime family or syndicate or something or other. I was happy enough with my winnings, so I never really looked into it.”

He took a bite and waited to swallow before he continued, “I ran away from ‘home’ when I was…13, if I remember right. Did some wandering for a year or so, took on the occasional odd job or, when things were really tough, I’d stoop to robbing some poor sap. Not proud of it, but I did what I had to do. I eventually found my way to Bludhaven, where I heard about a less-than-legal tournament with a pretty nice prize pool, and decided that would be better on my conscience than using my powers to pick on people who couldn’t fight back. Found the place, met the Old Man, and the rest is history.”

As Vincent went to take another bite of his sandwich, he stopped, chuckled, and looked down at Daphne. “That…was probably a bit more than you wanted to know, huh?”

While Vincent shared some of his backstory with her, Daphne’s eyes grew steadily wider. Filled with worry, compassion and also pity. All of it was aimed towards the clouds as they didn’t make eye contact right up until Vincent looked down and she looked up, right into his gray eyes.

She swallowed and managed a slight smile.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“Ah, that’s all a long time ago. I don’t even think about it much, anymore,” Vincent said as he laid next to Daphne, his hands laced behind his head. When he looked down at her, he noticed a flicker of pity in her eyes. In truth, it kind of irked him. It never sat well with him when people pitied him, but he decided to let it slide. He had a feeling it came from a good place, as far as Daphne was concerned.

“Besides,” he added with a grin, “if it weren’t for what I’ve gone through, I wouldn’t be the badass I am today.”

“At least you…” She considered what she was going to say carefully.
“You made it in one piece.” Daphne wanted to say he was still a good guy, that he was cheerful and funny, but felt they didn’t know each other well enough to go there yet. Instead she compared his situation to someone she knew back in Gotham.

“There was this girl in Gotham I went to school with. She came from a rough family situation, always dealing with something you shouldn’t be during your teens. It almost seemed inevitable when she eventually got caught up in the wrong crowd.”

“I tried to stay in touch with her, keep tabs on how she was doing, but eventually she just disappeared and I never heard from her again. Sometimes I still think about her at the most random times.”

As he listened to Daphne’s story, his eyes closed, he felt his heart go out not only to the girl she talked about, but Daphne, herself. He didn’t know her all that well, yet, but he could tell she was one of those people who genuinely cared about other people. He let her finish before he replied, “I can’t say I know what was going through her head or why she up and disappeared like that. What I can say, from personal experience, is that when things get really shitty, sometimes someone might think it’s best to cut their losses and get a fresh start somewhere else.”

He opened an eye and looked at Daphne, adding, “I’m sure she appreciates what you did for her. It might take a while, but I’m sure when she’s ready, she’ll get back in touch with you.”
Daphne nodded, finding Vincent’s explanation very plausible. It was something she had thought about too. If that was the case maybe it was for the best. She sat up again and pulled out a carton of strawberries and two plastic bowls.

“I managed to salvage these before Ja got to them, he eats them with the crown still attached, says he likes the crunch.”

One by one she carefully pulled out the crowns, dividing them fairly between the bowls. Sometimes the leaves snapped and she had to dig into the fruit to get the stem out. It was a tedious activity and using a knife would have made it a lot easier.

When she was finally done she handed one of the bowls to Vincent. There were red fingerprints on the side.

“One for you”

Vincent looked at the bowl and grinned as he took it from Daphne. “You know, I’m basically a walking Swiss Army knife. I could’ve taken the tops off for you,” he said with a chuckle as he set the bowl to his side and picked up a strawberry from it. He bit into it and sucked the juice out of it before popping the rest into his mouth. He nodded appreciatively and said, “Not a bad batch. Makes me wanna make a shortcake. Suppose I could treat the team with that for dessert tonight.”

Daphne forced a smile. It tugged at the corners of her lips but stopped there. The rest of her face was set somewhere in between discomfort and fear.
“Actually knives make me squeamish.”

“Oh, sorry,” Vincent replied with a bit of a sheepish chuckle. “I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. I don’t get why they still freak me out so much, considering everything else I’ve been through the past few months.”

Vincent scratched his head and a look of puzzlement crossed his face. Daphne paused and thought for a moment. The conversation went quiet.

“Back when I lived in Gotham, before joining the Team, I was walking back home at night through the city park and I got robbed and held at knife point. They pushed it up to my neck. It set off my powers. It’s basically the reason I’m here.”

It was the quickest run down of her hero origin story she’d ever shared. There were chunks and details missing from the story. It still wasn’t something she liked to talk about. It made her visibly uncomfortable. Daphne’s hands were balled up in her lap.

"Sorry, that got a bit dark.."

Vincent shook his head.“Nothing to apologize for,” he said. Even he could tell there were some things Daphne wasn’t telling him, but he knew better than to push it. As much of an open book as he thought himself as, even Vincent had things he’d rather not talk about. Things he had done.

He plucked another strawberry out of his bowl and took a moment to enjoy the breeze as it blew over him, tousling his hair. After a few moments, he said, “To be honest, after spending so much time on my own, I wasn’t sure about joining a team. At the time, when Nightwing gave me that choice, I just looked at it as a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. Community service.”

He bit into his strawberry, then added, “After that first mission with you guys, though, I’ve kinda been rethinking things. It’s not something I’ve got a lot of experience with, but it felt good knowing that people had my back out there. And I suppose using my skills to help people other than myself was pretty nice, too.”

Daphne looked at Vincent and smiled.
“With our kind of job it’s nice to know someone’s always got your back. We keep each other safe.”

C I T Y H A R B O R

---

Their mission was supposed to be recon only, observing an illegal trade between two rival gangs. It started out that way, with the Team split up at different vantage points around the sea port. They had the added cover of night to help stay undetected, spread out among the many shipping containers that lined the harbor. The transaction took place on the docks a little ways from the cargo ships, cranes hanging overhead.

The sampling of the shipment was incredibly tense, with both leaders staring the other down. On both ends they were backed up by groups of armed gang members. Somewhere, something went wrong and sent things snowballing into disaster. The gangs opened fire. They scattered across the harbor. It forced the Team to move positions or they would get caught in the crossfire.They’d been given strict orders not to engage.

They were paired up around the perimeter. Batman having been personally responsible for the division this time around. There was Viktor and Pei, Cora and Daphne, Ja and Will or rather Quiver who hadn’t revealed his identity to his former Team just yet. Vincent was paired up with Zach which left Alisa to go along with Kassy.

Moving from one hiding spot to the next was starting to resemble a russian roulette.There were bullets coming in hot from multiple directions. Not everyone could eat bullets as well as Vincent.

The ones with enhanced hearing would be able to discern the pained groans of a civilian caught in the crossfire. The injured man steadied himself on the side of a large crate, his left leg was grazed by flying bullets in multiple areas. He was lucky none of them pierced his leg.

There was another round of shots, which barely missed him. There was a stinging pain in his left arm and he was forced to lower his body to the ground.

Interactions: Talos @Daxam

The team had gotten a new member since their last mission. He seemed really familiar, but Zach couldn’t place exactly why…

Their mission was to observe an illegal trade between two rival gangs. What they were trading? Who knows… It was supposed to be recon only. But Zach had been on this team long enough to know that it never ended up being recon only.

They arrived and hid around the perimeter to spy on the gangsters trading. But something went wrong, and soon guns were ablazing.

“Dleif ecrof!” Zach shouted as a bubble of purple energy appeared around himself. It would do, but Zach wasn’t sure how long he could keep it up.

He had been paired with Talos, and honestly, Zach wasn’t complaining. He may have had a boyfriend, but he was far away in Taos. And Zach wasn’t going to complain about being partnered up with a different handsome guy. Even if he was almost like the worst parts of Viktor.

“I know they said not to engage. But we’re not going to get anything done if these people keep shooting like this! You can take a bullet. Can you go down there and stop this madness?!” He said to his teammate while concentrating on keeping the forcefield up.