April 1, 2016. 21:15
Bludhaven
~~Willow~~
"I have got to stop these late nights." I muttered. To prove my point, I suddenly let out a long yawn and buried my face in Wolf's fur. Sphere let out a loud beep, making me jolt awake, much to Connor and Mal's amusement, as we landed by the docks.
I recognized this place. We were in Blüdhaven. This was the warehouse where Nightwing and I met Wally, Artemis, and Aqualad. But I couldn't let M'gann, Connor, or Mal notice my familiarity with the place. It was too late with Wolf. My old friend had already caught on.
I pulled myself out of Super-Cycle and landed gracefully on the dock as Nightwing tossed up the door.
"Perfect cover for our new digs!" Mal complimented, looking around with pleasure. "Sure, it looks nasty on the outside, but on the inside..."
Nightwing said nothing, only grinned mischeviously. Oh man, it wasn't going to look much better inside was it? I sighed as Connor helped me down from Sphere. Wolf jumped out along with Mal, and Sphere rolled herself up into a ball to follow us inside.
"April Fools, right?" Mal asked desperately. "This is the team's new HQ!?"
I looked around. It was no Mount Justice, that's for sure. A row of cots was against the back wall, with an assortment of secondhand drawers for personal belongings. There were also a set of stairs leading to a loft with a kitchen that looked like it was hardly sanitary even if it did work without setting the place on fire. Like at Mount Justice, the kitchen was also combined with the sitting room, and there were a few couches surrounding a flat-screen TV, about the only luxury we had here, aside from the zillion-dollar zeta-tubes that were a necessity to have if any heroes were nearby. Wolf barked approvingly, settling down onto one of the couches in the loft. I followed suit and collapsed on a cot next to the one Connor was sitting on.
"No April Fools," Nightwing apologized halfheartedly at the look on Mal's face, "This is just a place to crash- A very temporary place to crash! -For those of you who were actually living at the cave." He added as Mal made to object, "For now, the team will be operating out of the hall of Justice."
Unable to stop it, I let out a rather uncouth and loud yawn. Everyone looked at me as I turned my signature shade of red.
Mal shook his head, "I'm heading for the Hall' to make my own arrangements!" He headed for the zeta-tubes
Nightwing sighed, looking at M'gann and Connor, "You should go to, get your things that we salvaged from Mount Justice. Might make this "warehouse" feel like a "ware-home"." He chuckled at his weak attempt at humor.
"You're really going with that?" I asked, stretching out my arms.
M'gann sat in the corner Richard had curtained off for her and Rachel, not even shaking her head at Nightwing, almost like she hadn't heard him. In fact, she'd hardly reacted to anyone or anything since we rescued everyone from the Reach and...Aqualad.
"Tell them!" Scarlett screamed. I held my head. My conflicting multiple personalities always gave me a headache, sometimes were worse than others.
"You okay?" Connor asked, standing up and grabbing my arm to support me.
I shook my head, "Yeah, fine." I had promised Nightwing. I would keep my promise.
"Even if it hurts your friends?" Pyro taunted. I froze.
Connor's eyebrows furrowed deeper. "It's not Pyro, is it?" He asked.
"No!" I said immediately. In the back of my mind, Pyro snickered, and I could picture Scarlett crossing her arms angrily. I did not want anyone going all "over-protective" over me again. It was too suffocating, to painful, and I never wanted it again. I could very well take care of myself.
Connor relaxed, though he still remained suspicious, I could tell. M'gann, still silent, floated by the two of us, and I also caught the look in Connor's eye as he watched her, also suspicious.
"What is it?" I asked the question he'd asked me moments earlier.
He shook his head, "Something's off with M'gann, I don't know what. But something happened down there."
I was glad he was being honest, but I shuddered, knowing full well that "down there" meant down on the Reach ship, underwater.
I kissed him on the cheek, trying to cheer him up, "Go get your stuff, I have some things to do."
M'gann, Mal, and Connor took the tubes to the Hall of Justice, and I was left with Wolf, Sphere, and Nightwing.
"You okay?" Richard walked over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I shook my head. "I can't keep this stupid secret anymore!" I said, almost yelling. I barely held back from telling him about my nightmares. We all had enough to worry about, and he could very well tell Emma, or Connor, or worse, my mother.
Nightwing sighed. "I know." he whispered. He walked away without another word.
-------
I took Sphere to Wayne Mansion, relishing the long ride alone in the cold night air to think. Rachel had asked me to retrieve Leafpaw and Holly for her, while she and her brother went to therapy with my mother and all the other kids who'd been captured. I arrived to find Mara and Tim out on the couch in the TV room, with the credits of a Transformers movie scrolling across the screen. Justice and his little family were spread out across them, Jay tucked by Mara's head and little Holly playing with Tim's hoodie strings. Alfred carefully helped me remove Leafpaw, Jay, and Justice from the tangle, and then I helped him carry the two kids to bed.
"Are you doing well, Miss Willow?" Alfred asked, closing the door to Mara's room.
"Well enough." I said halfheartedly.
The ancient butler grinned knowingly. "Both you and Master Richard have had a problem with opening up lately."
"I've always had a problem with opening up." I muttered.
Alfred chuckled, "I recommend doing it soon, Miss Willow. A flood comes spilling out a closed door eventually, but it doesn't do much good to keep the door closed in the first place."
Okay, good metaphor, but not the most relaxing one. I did my best to nod and smile gratefully, and quickly headed for the Bat-cave, where Sphere was parked.
Justice followed me down the steep stairs as I carried Leafpaw and Jay carefully, and then he bolted ahead when he saw Wolf seated in Sphere's front seat. The two old friends greeted each other in their own language, while Leafpaw and Holly both stayed wary of the big, huge Wolf.
I swear Holly and Leafpaw's claws left marks on the seats, and I gently apologized to Sphere. Justice was thrilled, however, to be up in the air. He truly is Emma's pet.
I suppose I should have taken the cats via zeta-tube, but that was too quick, and I needed time to think. Was I really doing the right thing by keeping this secret? Kaldur being gone, even with Emma having "broken up" with him, was tearing her apart. Any day now Kaldur and Artemis could be discovered, and what would happen then? Something was wrong with M'gann, I realized as I thought back to the encounter with Aqualad and Tigress on the Reach ship, had she figured it out? Had she done anything to Kaldur? And what about Pyro's cryptic warning? Who was going to die? And the fire...would I be the one to kill them?
Out of sight of any cities, and surrounded only by my furry companions, I let out a scream. All four of them were surprised, and I very nearly saved Holly from falling off the edge of Sphere.
I sighed. Alfred was right. Closed doors don't help you much when your house is flooding.
Securing Justice, Leafpaw, and Holly, I looked west and kicked Sphere up to her top speed.
-------
I entered S.T.A.R. Labs, which was looking quite snazzy after the explosion.
"I know, right? We should have your team members blow up things around here more often." I looked at my approaching mentor, and relaxed at Doctor Strange's friendly smile. He had obviously seen my spellbound look at the new building
"You should see the new lab, Will. I made sure they set up an extra lab just for you."
I felt an immediate rush of gratitude, and stumbled over the words as I tried to thank Doctor Strange. He held up a hand to stop me and pointed to Leafpaw, Justice, and Holly, meowing in my arms.
"Shouldn't you be getting them to Beast Girl? She's been asking for them all evening."
"Oh right!" I slapped the side of my head. "Thank you!" I called over my shoulder as Doctor Strange pointed me down the right hall. Justice echoed my call.
I took a few turns and came to the hall where Doctor Dorado had offered his office for Dinah to use for her therapy sessions, since we couldn't very well bring the civillians to one of our bases. Seven chairs were lined against the walls on both sides of the hall. Emma sat on the side facing Dinah's door, along with five of the civillians and one empty chair. Lagoon Boy and all the other team members who were captured faced them. Everyone was amused with watching Sarah and Jaime try to calm down the ADHD speedsters, that Gar was the first to notice me.
"Finally!" He screamed. He ran down the hall and carefully took Leafpaw and Holly from me, bringing them to his sister. Rachel was curled up in a ball on her chair, but she brightened just a tiny bit when two of her best friends rubbed her arm.
I smiled, and handed Justice to Emma.
"Thanks." She grinned. "How are Finch and Robin?" She whispered.
"Asleep." I nodded, and she relaxed.
The door opened, and the sixth civillian stepped out, stony-faced.
"Thank you, Tye." Dinah stuck her head out. She smiled at me, and I smiled back.
Virgil, another one of the kids, was taken in next.
"Tye!" Emma and I looked at Jaime in shock as he stood up to greet this civillian.
Sarah facepalmed, and Bart and Bridget giggled.
Jaime realized his blunder a bit too late. "Uh...Time, to stretch!" He amended, doing so in the middle of the hall.
All the civillians, including Doctor Dorado's son, Ed, watched Blue Beetle with disdain. La'gaan and Garfield grinned at Jaime's foolishness, Sarah was embarrassed for her friend, and Rachel was too absorbed with her cats to notice.
It was awkward silence for a moment.
"You know, you remind me of my friend."
The heart of every superhero in the room skipped a beat. I heard it myself.
Tye straightened up, proud of now being the center of attention from nearly everyone in the group. "His name is Jaime, He's kind of a dork too."
Jaime gave a snort of impatience. It was obvious that he was this friend that Tye spoke of. And from Sarah's grin, she knew Tye too.
"Like, he has this crush on this girl we're both into, but he's got no nerve to tell her!"
Sarah glared at Jaime, as if to ask "Who is this girl?" when Tye added, "Her name's Sarah."
Both Sarah and Jaime jumped nearly six feet in the air. Then they both gave each other embarrassed glances, and you could practically see the blush through their armor. Bart and Bridget's jaws both dropped open wide, but the civilians were too busy teasing Tye to notice.
"Sounds like you don't have the nerve to tell her either," Terra, one of the girls we found with Emma, elbowed Tye in the arm, and he glared at her for doing so.
"Well even if Jaime did tell her, he'd never have a chance against me!" He protested.
"Especially now that you have powers!" Ed gave Tye a "manly" slap on the back.
Emma and I froze, looking at each other. Powers!?!?!? We both had the same thought. When did they get powers!?
No one else seemed to notice this tiny detail.
"Yeah..." Sarah muttered exaggeratedly, casually trying to edge away from Jaime, "It's not like he has anything to compete with that, like alien technology fused to his spinal cord."
That was the powers that the Beetles had, but Tye and his friends didn't know that.
I heard a tiny beep, and Emma put a finger to the comm in her ear.
"Nightingale." She answered.
Everyone turned to us as she stood up immediately, causing Justice to meow and jump to the floor.
"What sort of 'Situation at the Hall'?"
I have the next 16 (almost) chapters planned out so I hope to update a lot in the near future! But I have big trips coming up this weekend and next week, so I might not update then!
Big thank-you to ninjabeetlegirl14 for her help with the dialogue in this last part! I was stuck.
Brass Beetle belongs to her.
Beast Girl and Finch belong to our other sisters.
Wildfire belongs to Allegra.
Nightingale/Dragonfire belongs to me.
Young Justice is copyright of DC comics and CN.