Two weeks after Santa Prisca and my talk with Superman, Superboy decided he was tired of waiting and went to Metropolis on his own. I had tried to talk him down but he's a kryptonian all right.
To pass the time after formation training we played some air hockey. Wally was generally kicking butt with this game, and I was drawing in my notebook while watching them.
"Oh, yet another win. Can any of you actually give me a challenge?" He bragged after winning against M'gann.
Robin smirked as he looked at me and I realized what he was going to do just a little too late. "Why don't you let Lantern give it a go?"
"Oh," Wally turned to me, "you think you can beat the Wall-Man? Bring it little girl."
I looked at him then turned to Robin, "for the record I know what you two did."
"Did it work?" They both asked.
"Yes."
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"How?! How are you doing this?!" Wally complained. I had just finished absolutely destroying him in air hockey for the fifth time in a row.
"Don't hate the player hate the game, 'Wall-Man'," I teased.
I decided to let Aqualad have another turn and went back to my drawings when I heard Wally say, "you didn't tell me she was that good at air hockey," to Rob.
"I-I didn't know. I mean I knew she was good at this stuff but not that good," he responded.
At that moment the Zeta-tube fired up.
Recognized: Superboy B-05
M'gann smiled at him as he walked up to the holo-table. "Hi Superboy, how was Metropolis?"
He crossed his arms, "honestly? Better than I expected. I guess that talk sunk in a little."
I smirked, "I'll try to not let that give me a big head SB."
"Good, because I'm not saying that again. And I will deny saying it in the first place."
Black Canary and Martian Manhunter decided to make their presences known right then. "Ready for training everyone?"
"You know it Aunt Dinah," I answered while M'gann went to her uncle.
"Good, because class is in session." She walked to the center of the room and the floor lit up underneath her signifying the start of the program. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you; everything I learned from my own mentors," she winced as she removed her jacket showing off the bandages wrapping her upper arm, "and my own bruises."
"What happened?" M'gann asked, concerned.
"The job," Canary answered as I walked up to her and placed my hand on her injury to try and heal her. I was able to speed up her natural healing process considerably but it was by no means a complete recovery. "Thank you. That helps a lot." I returned to the group as she continued, "now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."
Wally immediately raised his hand, "right here! Yeah." He walked up to Canary as he finished his banana. "And after this," tossing the peel into a nearby garbage can he said, "swish, I'll show you my moves."
I gagged at the terrible flirting. Does he even realize that she's been dating Green Arrow for three years now? I even heard him talking to Hal about proposing last month.
The sound of a loud *smack* brought my focus back to the spar, just in time to see Canary sweep Wally's legs. While everyone else winced at how hard he landed I giggled into my hand.
"Oh, hurts so good," he groaned from the floor.
"Serves you right for flirting with a taken woman."
"Good block," she told him as she helped him up. "But did anyone see what he did wrong?"
"Oh, he hit on teacher and got served?" Robin chimed in, probably building off what I just said.
"Dude."
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"
"Oh please," Superboy interrupted, "with my powers the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon and this is a waste of my time."
I frowned as Canary asked him to prove it. "Actually, can I fight him?" Everyone looked at me surprised, honestly I'm more surprised that Aunt Dinah let me.
"I have no problem with it. Superboy?"
"Fine, whatever."
I stepped into the sparring space and there was a flash of light as I removed my ring. I tossed it to Robin, "hold on to this real quick Birdie." When I reached Superboy I immediately got into my Wing Chun stance to signal I was ready.
Superboy quirked his eyebrow at my actions as Canary stepped to the side to act as referee. "Begin when you're ready."
Superboy threw the first punch but I slapped it aside and grabbed his shirt, switching to judo I threw him over my shoulder and he landed hard. Robin started laughing at him and Kaldur nudged him to stop so he covered his mouth.
Canary stepped in as Superboy got up. "You're angry, good, but don't react; channel that anger into-"
He charged me again completely ignoring her. Unfortunately I saw that coming so I ducked, sliding between his legs, and swept them from behind, using the spinning force to stand back up.
"That's it," he growled at us while standing up, "I'm done."
"Training is mandatory," Canary calmly told him, but he shrugged her off with a glare.
A moment later the computer beeped; "Batman to the Cave." The others walked up to us and Robin handed me back my ring and glanced away so as to not get blinded by the flash of light as I put it back on. "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."
"Whoa, one guy with the powers of the entire League," Wally stated, impressed. Gotta admit I was impressed too.
"In the end," Batman continued, "it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."
"An android? Who made it, T.O. Morrow?"
"Good guess, Robin. But Red Tornado doesn't think so."
"Was Guy there?" I asked, very worried.
"No, he wasn't."
"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo," Manhunter stated, shocking all of us.
"Ivo? But Ivo's dead," Aqualad stated.
Canary turned to him, "so we all thought, or hoped."
"We never did see a body Kaldur," I told him. "I don't count people out until a body is confirmed."
"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized we're sending two trucks carrying the android's part to two separate S.T.A.R. Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken: we'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo, or anyone, tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."
"Yes, roadtrip," Wally stated excitedly.
"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy asked, annoyed with everything it seemed.
"You had something better to do?" Batman retorted.
There was a beep and Aqualad said, "coordinates received. On our way." And we all rushed to the garage.
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Seven hours later we had all changed into biker gear and were watching the parts be loaded up, taking note of which trucks were the real ones.
I'm just imagining blue stripes down the sides of her shirt and pants with no logo.
Once the parts were loaded and confirmed Batman gave the signal and the trucks got on their way, with us tailing not far behind. While Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash followed the truck headed to Boston Robin, Superboy, and I tailed the one headed to New York.
We had been following the truck in silence for about 15 minutes when I remembered something. I sped up, getting between the boys as I had been trailing behind for a bit. "Hey Rob," I called to him.
"What's up Blue?"
"I was looking in a dictionary yesterday and a thought occurred to me: if dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster?"
I could see him mulling over the thought for a moment, "oh you mean like instead of things going wrong they go right? Like that?"
"Something like that, yeah." I looked on my other side to see Superboy sulking about something. "Clearly you're not feeling the aster."
"What's wrong?" Robin asked as I pulled back a little so we could all see each other.
"Canary. And you," he answered, looking at me.
"What, you're pouting because I proved technique trumps raw strength?" I noticed his hands tightening around the handles of his bike but decided to press on anyway, "you know even Superman learned combat techniques. He uses them when fighting people of equal or greater strength as him, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to use your strength more efficiently and effectively."
"Yeah," Robin chimed in, "besides your strength isn't equal with his yet and taking down bigger guys is part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way, same with Batman, and well, us."
Superboy scoffed, "oh yeah like Lantern has to take down more powerful people. You told us that your only limits are the battery life and your imagination so spare me the lecture."
I could feel Robin's gaze on me, trying to tell me to stop it here, but I can't just leave that hanging. "Do you have any idea what it's like?" Even though I whispered I knew he heard me. "I have to constantly keep my mind clear if I don't want something from a random thought to spontaneously appear. That's hard enough when I'm well rested, but when I'm tired or, God forbid, asleep with a charged ring, my subconscious could cause literally anything to appear. And I don't have the luxury of making a block on my ring like Dad has so he can actually dream worry-free." I started speeding up to get away from them and cool my jets, but before I got too far I turned and left Superboy with one more thought, "next time you want to go around pointing fingers, make sure you have all the facts first." I got within 20 feet of the truck before I heard something strange. "Monkeys?" I turned and quickly spotted the mechanical primates.
"Robin, Superboy, Blue Lantern, our truck is under attack," Aqualad notified us over the coms.
"Kinda figured," Robin replied as the monkeys latched onto our truck.
"I hate monkeys," Superboy said, probably not realizing his channel was open.
"On that we can agree," I told him. "At least for these monkeys."
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Ok so we're seeing another side of Eve this time, and as for that stuff with the ring and her dreaming I did some research and turns out that is an actual hazard of using the rings; Hal once turned a friend of his into a duck when his was sleeping.
I've also been thinking of beginning another story soon. I haven't been working on this new one nearly as long so the updates would be fewer and further between than this one, but I'm not going to stop writing this story until I reach my planned ending, make no mistake, I'd simply be working on two projects. Anyway, let me know if you think I should start now or later. As always comment on errors so I can fix them, and BBFN!