Young Justice: Ephyra

Fireworks, Part 3

It had taken close to an hour of explaining and by the end of it, Ephyra had also explained what she was in front of Aquaman and Wonder Woman. What surprised her was how she didn't receive any rejection or hostility. She had received a warm, approving smile from Wonder Woman and a similar but gentler one from Aquaman. She had felt relieved, but the fuzzy feelings s oon wore off as she and her new friends were excluded from the conversations.

She could tell Superboy was a little jealous of her donors accepting her, though he didn't say it and that bothered her. She didn't want herself and Superboy to grow apart all because of differences between their donors. But when she held his hand in a comforting way he glanced at her and with one look, he understood that she meant to always be by his side no matter what. It also helped that she was able to repeat something similar through their new found mind link. They stopped experimenting with their newfound mental link after discovering it only worked with them after trying to reach out to their friends. Feeling a bit guilty at leaving them to feel insulted alone they decided to join in and started becoming irritated, mostly due to boredom.

Ephyra and the others stood in a little circle of their own, but she noticed Superboy was glaring at the small circle composed of the green man, Wonder Woman, and Superman. She realized Superman must have been speaking from the way Superboy looked even angrier than before. Her assumptions were confirmed when the green man seemed to look at them before at Superman, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked back at them and Superman turned a little to see Superboy glaring at him, who quickly glanced away crossing his arms over his chest.

Superman walked over to Superboy and stood in front of him, letting out a deep sigh. "We'll uh...we'll figure something out for you." He paused seeming to rethink his words, "The league will I mean," he added quickly. "For now..." he glanced down at the ground, "I'd...better make sure they...get that Blockbuster creature squared away." He adds, before taking a coward's escape and launching himself into the sky, taking flight.

Superboy glared up at the sky and Ephyra found herself doing the same. How Superman treated Superboy was very loathsome and she wanted to use her newfound strength and knock some sense into him.

Coward. She says through their mind link and keeps a scowl on her face, but notices out of the corner of her eye that Superboy had smiled. Good. A happy Superboy is a less cranky one. In response to that was a scowl from him to which she gave him an innocent look. She snapped out of it though as she heard footsteps approaching them.

She and the others turned at Batman's voice. "Cadmus will be investigated; all 52 levels." He informs them as he walks up to them, with Flash on his right and Aquaman on his left. "But let's make one thing clear-"

"You should have called!" Flash interrupts, receiving a bat glare, which seems to go unnoticed by the crimson speedster.

When the Dark Knight is sure Flash wasn't going to speak again he continued, "End results aside, we are not happy." He let his eyes rake over the young heroes, "You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again." He says firmly.

Ephyra narrows her eyes and she and her friends glance at one another, before back at Batman.

"I am sorry," Aqualad says unapologetically with a firm tone of his own, "But we will."

"Aqualad, stand down," Aquaman said in a firm but calm tone.

Aqualad but a webbed hand to his chest as if to show a sign of no disrespect, "Apologies my King, but no."

Aquaman's response was a raised eyebrow.

"We did good work here tonight." Aqualad continued. "The work you trained us to do." He said taking a few steps forward with his hands spread to signify their little team. "Together," he says gripping his hands into fists, "On our own. We formed something powerful – important."

Flash decided to cut in, "If this is about your treatment at the hall, the three of you-"

"The five of us," Kid Flash said cutting in, for once his voice wasn't laced with any sarcasm, "And it's not."

"Batman we're ready to use what you taught us," Robin says walking forward, trying to reason with his mentor. "Well why teach us at all?"

Ephyra spoke up in a strong and determined tone taking a step forward beside Robin, "Besides, you don't really think you can keep us from doing something like this again do you?" She says meeting Batman's gaze – or his cowl.

"Why let them tell us what to do?" Superboy asks with his arms crossed looking down at the ground. Oh, one day, Superman would pay, Ephyra would be sure of it. "It's simple," the Boy of Steel says walking forward in front of the others, "Get on board. Or get out of the way."

When Superboy finished speaking they all turned to face the Justice League members, waiting for a response. Ephyra noticed Batman's eyes narrow as if he were deep in thought.