"I'm just a girl in the world, that's all that you'll let me be"
-No Doubt
~~~
The mountain was mostly quiet as I stood with my brother, watching as Kaldur and Wally played a competitive game of holographic air hockey.
We all watched as the redhead somehow got a goal past a now stunned Kaldur. Looking up at the speedster all we saw was him opening a banana.
"Recognized. Superboy: B-0-4"
I glanced at the entrance to see a very angry looking Superboy storming in.
"Hi Superboy" Meg greeted, but he walked right through the game table. "How was metropolis?" She tried again but he still ignored her.
Someone cleared their throat and a certain Canary's voice filled the room. "Ready for training everyone?"
M'gann and I both smiled and rushed over as Dinah and Martian Manhunter entered the room.
I looked up at the woman who had acted as my mother all these years, stepping in whenever Bruce couldn't. She was also legally Dick and I's godmother. If anything ever happens to Bruce or Alfred while we're minors, we'd go to her.
"Dinah!" I cheered running over.
"Hey Kid" the blonde greeted, "how is everything?"
I shrugged "it's ok. I got a cool scar come in on patrol a few days ago" She smiled at my reply and gave a nod "attagirl" We both looked at Superboy who was exciting the room.
"Stick around, class is in session" Dinah called before walking into the centre of the training room. The tiles lit up.
"I consider it an honour to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you, just ask Dove, everything I learnt from my own mentors." she slipped off her jacket revealing a few bandages on her arm as she grunted slightly with pain. "And from my own bruises"
"What happened?" M'gann questioned with curiosity and worry.
"The job" Black Canary told her. "Now." She threw her jacket off to the side. "Combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner"
She looked directly at me and I nodded, taking my skirt off. Our costumes were fairly similar, I had gotten a lot of inspiration from hers and her fighting style. I stepped forward and took a deep breath getting prepared.
I nodded and got into a ready stance. She smirked and did the same. I knew she was going to throw the first punch so I quickly flipped over her, kicking her back as I landed. She stumbled forward a bit but didn't fall.
I would have utilized my surroundings but there wasn't anything which made this difficult.
Dinah went for a punch but I quickly blocked it, grabbing her arm and flipping her onto the ground. She took her leg and tripped me with it but I did a summersault to save myself. I turned around to see her looking at me from her spot on the ground. The red circle surrounding her.
"Black Canary. Status: Fail." The screen read. My jaw dropped and I looked at the others.
"HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE-"
My feet were swept under me and I slammed onto the ground.
"Dove. Status: Fail" The red circle around me now said. I let out a groan "..that" I finished.
Canary held out her hand and helped me up. "You've improved. Good work. Why don't we have someone who hasn't trained with me before volunteer now?"
"Oh right here, yeah" Wally raised his hand as he finished his banana. Him and I switched spots but he stopped in-front of me. I looked up at him with confusion.
"After this.." he threw the peel in the trash "swish."
He looked back down at me, shooting finger guns "I'll show you my moves" he finished with a wink. I narrowed my eyes at him and he walked over to Dinah.
He said it loud enough that everyone else definitely heard, I saw Dicks slightly angered expression. "He's joking, it's Wally" I placed a hand on Dicks shoulder as I joined beside him, ready to watch this play out.
Again Dinah threw the first punch but he blocked it, just before I got my hopes up for him, she swept his legs making him fall to the ground with a thud.
He continued to joke "Hurts so good..."
"Good block" our teacher complimented as she helped him up "did anyone see what he did wrong?"
My brother practically bounced with excitement as he raised his hand.
"Oh oh oh! He hit on Dove and got served?"
Kid Flash looked back at my brother, holding onto his shoulder "Dude!"
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"
"Oh please. With my powers, the battles always on my terms. I'm a living weapon," Superboy interrupted Dinah "and this is a waste of my time."
She cocked an eyebrow facing the clone. "Prove it."
Kid Flash quickly made his way back to us, standing beside me and put an arm around my waist. "This should be good" he whispered into my ear.
The two contestants got into a stance at the same time but this time, Superboy threw the first punch. Dinah stepped out of the way and flipped him over by the forearm.
"Superboy. Status: Fail"
Dick pointed and laughed, Kaldur nudged him but her only covered his mouth, still laughing.
"Hush" I whispered to him.
"You're angry. That's good, but don't react. Channel that anger and-"
Canary didn't get to finish as Superboy ran at her but she yet again, took him down.
I watched with worry, flinching a bit at the loud thud. Wallys grip tightened slightly at my jump.
"That's it" Superboy growled ignoring her helping hand. "I'm done" he stormed off but she stopped him.
"Training is mandatory"
Before the fight could get any worse a hologram of Batman appeared
"batman to the cave, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary." I watched the footage appear on smaller screens "The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents"
All of us were too busy listening to Bruce speak to notice Dinah glancing at Wallys arm ,which was still around me, with a raised eyebrow.
The dark night continued to further explain. "Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."
I watched and thought to myself with worry. One guy with all that power? I zoned out thinking of all the possibilities that could lead to. I blocked out everyones talking.
"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo" Martian Manhunters words brought me back to focus. I felt my eyebrows furrow.
"Ivos dead" I spoke up. "That's not possible, I watched him die."
Dinah just shook her head "so we all thought...or hoped"
I went back to my thinking..well, over thinking.
Where had Ivo been this whole time?
What if we ran into him?
...who did I watch die?
Aqualad spoke up "coordinates received. Dove?" I glanced over at him before checking my bracelet "Got them"
Kaldur nodded "on our way."
All of us (minus Superboy who was busy pouting) ran to the garage.
~ ~ ~
I waited on my black motorcycle, I was quite fond of it. I had added on some blue highlights to make it my own. I adjusted the zipper of my jacket and heard the truck engines start.
Revving my engine with the others I waited in the clearing pulling up in front of Dick and Superboy as Kaldur did the same in front of Wally and M'gann.
Batman finally gave the signal to go and I sped off, listening as our groups when separate ways.
~ ~ ~
I followed ahead of the other two, slowing down to join beside them as my brother finally spoke.
"If dislike is the opposite of like, is aster the opposite of disaster? Like instead of things going wrong they go right."
Superboy didn't reply, I shrugged my shoulders.
"Clearly you're not feeling the aster, what's wrong?" Dick questioned.
"Canary" the super stated. "And what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with Super-Strength?"
I spoke up, "Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig. Canary learnt that the hard way. Same with Batman and, well.." I stopped and looked at my brother before continuing "us"
The clone just revved his cycle louder and sped ahead of us.
~ ~ ~
"Dove, Robin, Superboy. Our truck is under attack" I chuckled lightly as the other leaders voice spoke into our comms.
"Same here" I informed before speeding up my bike Beside the truck drivers door. Putting it on cruise so it kept the same speed, I stood up on the seat.
"Like the circus, like the circus...I am so stupid oh my lord" I whispered to myself, one slip and I was definitely getting injured. I jumped onto the side of the truck and opened the door.
"Sir you need to trust me on this..." controlled my bike to slow down just a bit from my bracelet. Handing him my helmet which (thanks to nanotech) adjusted to his size. "I need you to jump." The man listened and took a dive into the cornfield, I looked back making sure he was ok before quickly hoping into the drivers seat.
"It's like the batmobile" I thought to myself, grabbing the wheel and the controls panicking "except the batmobile really isn't manual..."
I quickly turned on my comm so I could speak to the only person here who knew anything about cars through a private link.
"Wally!" I shouted, keeping my foot on the gas.
"Jesus that's loud. What's up?" I could hear fighting on his side.
"How do I drive manually?!" I asked rushed.
"You're asking this now?!" he shouted, then having a moment of realization "...You better not be driving that thing"
"Well I couldn't just not let the driver get to safety, the others are still fighting so I definitely can't pull over" I rushed.
"Do you even know how to pull over in that thing?" He asked.
"...kinda?"
"KINDA?!"
"Okok I know the basic controls but not how to shift gears. Does that help?"
"Yes it does...but not really. Look I can't really tell what kind of settings it has from here babe." He told me, I could tell he was getting more and more worried.
"Just put on your seatbelt please and tell me what you see. We'll go from there."
Working together over the comms Wally helped me gain more control of the truck.
"You got it?" The speedster questioned and I nodded, feeling stupid because he couldn't see.
"Yeah. I think so" I replied out-loud this time.
"Alright, going the speed you're at won't help anything. Try to slow down" He suggested
I followed the instructions he gave me but when it came time to shift the gears it sped up. My eyes widened and I checked everything quickly.
"..uh oh" I whispered, a robotic monkey crashed though the passenger side window attacking me. I fought it off, doing my best to stay on the road.
"What's uh oh?" My boyfriend questioned.
"A lot actually-" I was about to explain when one of the wheels gave out. The truck swerved and I started to loose control.
"Are you ok?!" Wally shouted. "Mhm, yeah I got thi-"
Another wheel gave out and the truck skidded.
Before rolling over...and over...and over. Before stopping upside down.
I groaned loudly in pain, just glad I had listened about the seatbelt.
Shattered glass covered the ground around me. Carefully I undid the seatbelt and climbed down, having no choice put to crawl out over the broken glass.
I got out just in time to see Superboy push the whole truck away and ran off.
"Superboy!" I called but failed as he abandoned my brother and I. Struggling to get off of the ground I felt Dick support me, wrapping my arm around his shoulders. Holding my hand against my head, we made our way further from the truck.
"It's gone" Dick sighed "and so's our partner" I looked at him confused only to notice I had lost my earpiece.
~ ~ ~
I put in a new earpiece as Robin spoke to the others. We both leant against my bike which thankfully didn't get ruined.
Quickly the voices filled my ears and a sharp jolt of pain races through my head.
"Maybe we should contact Red Tornado?" I heard Miss M ask and I shook my head.
"No" I hissed pulling some glass from my arm "he always tells us to handle things ourselves."
"The mission can still succeed if we can recover the parts before they're reassembled" Kaldur continued.
"Well that's a great plan. Except for the part about us not knowing where to look!" Wally shouted and I shut my eyes at the volume.
"Maybe we do" My brother looked at the destroyed monkeys near us.
~ ~ ~
I had decided to change back into my suit which was just under my jacket. Happy to be in something more familiar I also started to remove some annoying pieces of glass.
Knowing it was ok around my brother I zipped down my suit, not a lot but enough to show my collarbone.
I sat with my brother as he connected his glove to one of the monkeys.
"Let's see..." he looked over at he but stopped and furrowed his eyebrows. "..is that a hickey?" He asked. I remembered I didn't have a need to cover it before so I hadn't thought of that.
"No" I lied "I just got hit".
"I'm almost fourteen. I know what a hickey is, and that definitely is one." He told me before loading the information onto his computer, probably deciding the mission was more important for now.
"Dove got a hickey?" Wally teased over the comms.
"Mhmm" My brother replied, "don't know who it's from"
"Tell me when you know, I want to tease her"
Well, at least he covered it well.
I removed the small glass shards as they spoke, putting my suit on all the way now.
"Looks like both sets of parts are converging on..." my brother stopped and I read over his shoulder.
"Gotham city."
"That far south?" Aqualad wondered outloud "M'gann and I won't get there anytime soon, I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out."
I got onto my bike, waiting as my brother called his over.
"Definitely a disaster" he told me.
I nodded "heavy on the dis."
~ ~ ~
I sped down the highway with Robin, hearing KidFlash run up behind us.
I looked over to see him back in his yellow suit.
"You changed too?" Dick asked.
"Are you kidding? I feel naked in civvies." He then looked over at me giving a small nod "nice driving" he teased
"Fuck you" I replied, not actually meaning the insult but he knew that.
"If it means anything, you didn't do too bad. I mean you lived. Are you guys still tracking the parts?"
"They were heading through Gotham but veered."
He took a few moments to stare and the map, I looked at my own and finally realized what caught him off guard.
"They're at our school!"
~ ~ ~
I waiting in the open vent, watching for the perfect moment to jump down and catch "amazo" off guard.
"Martian Manhunter" The robot switched, redirecting two explosives my brother had thrown back at him.
I hoped down but he saw it coming.
"Superman" he called before grabbing my a the neck with one hand. I struggled to break free, loosing air fast.
Wally sped at him, attempting to catch him off guard but the robot held onto him tightly.
I struggled to breath as KF did the opposite, screaming in pain. A bowstring snapped and I could tell the android caught it.
"Martian Manhunter" He announced and density shifted, letting the green arrow shoot through him, letting go of Wally and I in the process.
We both ran, Wally towards the other two but I ran up the bleachers and out the window.
"I'll be back" I told team through the comms. I stood outside and saw a long bunch of hair flow over the roof. I chased after it to see a teenage girl, about my age, fighting a ton of Ivos monkeys.
My eyes widened and by instinct I ran over and began to help her out.
She used a bow and arrow, and she was good with it too. I could tell she was trained from the way she fought though she wasn't out in the field often because a swarm of monkeys were winning against her.
I grabbed a couple explosives and ran closer.
"Duck down!" I shouted, quickly she did and covered her head with her arms and I threw the explosives and shut down the swarm.
Standing in-front of her, I offered my hand. She looked up and hesitated before taking it.
"Ok, we've got a trillion monkeys and two of us. You seem good with your bow so I'm hoping you can help me out a bit here" I spoke quickly and she stared back in shock.
"You're talking to me" she whispered before snapping out of it, "what's the plan?"
"Shoot the far ones, I'll deal with them closer. Have my back and I'll have yours. Besides you kinda saved my life..." I paused waiting for a codename or something from her.
"Artemis"
"Artemis" I smiled and we continued to fight off Ivo's monkeys.
While I was ripping out ones wires, I got a strange hunch.
I recognized the girl. Her voice and general appearance was extremely similar to Sportsmasters youngest daughter, and if my guess was correct (which it often is) she's nothing like him.
We finished the fight and I smiled at her, extending my hand.
"Good work" I complimented, she stopped and thought before shaking my hand. "...why'd you do that?"
"I want to help" she stated simply and I nodded, looking around at all the broken down monkeys below us.
"Dove?" A voice called out for me. I sighed and looked at the teen.
"Go" she nodded and ran off in the opposite direction. I ran back to where I came from to see Kaldur looking for me.
"What happened?" He asked and I shook my head.
"I can't tell you right now..but I will later, with Green Arrow and Batman. For now lets go" the male leader nodded and we headed back inside.
We climbed in through the window and I looked around curiously. The team looked back at me, clearly disappointed in themselves.
KidFlash was the first to speak up, "Ivo's gone".
~ ~ ~
"The Amazo android is in pieces again. Safely being annualized at the two separate Star Labs. But, Ivo escaped and since he originated the tech. He's arguably more dangerous then the android" Kaldur informed all of Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter, back at the cave.
"Capturing the professor will be a League priority. Which means no going on solo missions at night" Dinah looked right at me, referring to my night with Bane.
"But we understand that your mission encountered...other complications" Manhunter added.
I didn't have to look behind me to know the whole team was looking at Superboy.
"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the league" Bruce walked forward.
I felt a slight rush of jealousy flow through me.
I didn't enjoy feeling jealous, it's an ugly emotion. But I hated how easy it was for Bruce to say he was proud of the others then to me or even Dick.
Still, I was happy for Superboy.
"The whole league?" The alien asked.
"Given time yes" Bruce looked down at him, "as you know, Kryptonians have very hard heads." He took a pause before continuing to all of us, "of course there's no shame in asking for help, that's why the League exists. Because there's some problems even we can't handle individually."
"Please!" Robin scoffed and I looked at him in confusion, "if we needed help we'd never get the chance to ask. Look familiar"
He pulled out an arrow, the one Sportsmasters daughter had shot in an attempt to save us.
Then I remembered they didn't know.
"You we're following us! Babysitting! You still don't trust us!" The youngest member shouted.
I stepped to the side and watched closely as Oliver took the arrow and compared it to his own, they had a noticeable difference.
"We didn't follow you" Bruce stated clearly.
"...that's not your arrow" Dick caught on but a smile soon replaced his frown, "but that means-"
"Speedy!" Wally cheered.
"He has our backs" Kaldur reassured
I wanted to speak up but they were so happy, I didn't want to ruin it.
Wally quickly took the arrow, "souvenir!"
I glanced up at Bruce to see he was already watching me, like he knew I knew.
I waited for the rest of the team to wait and stayed with the adults who all looked at me curiously.
"That's not one of Roys arrows" I started.
"We know...what do you know?" Oliver questioned
I sighed, "during the fight at the school someone shot that at Amazo and probably saved KidFlash and I's lives. I went to follow the person, and I actually think they'd be a good member of our team"
"Quick to judge, normally you give time...who is he?" Batman questioned further.
"She" I started, "is Artemis Crock. I did a quick search on our way back here."
"Crock like Sportsmaster?" The archer questioned, I paused and nodded.
"I don't think she's like him...I think she wants to help. And I think we should let her on the team"
Bruce narrowed his eyes slightly, "and if you're wrong"
"I doubt it."
"What if we say no?"
"I'll recruit her anyways. The rulebook says that any leader of any given team and recruit anyone they desire. Page 230, line 78" I told him and Oliver smirked.
"She's so much like you, it's creepy"
I smirked up at Bruce who nodded slowly, "fine. We'll pay her a visit"
~ ~ ~