The Assassin's Mentor

πρόλογος | prologue¹

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The doorbell rang, and Persephone Jackson's head shot up instantly. Sally and Paul had left to get groceries half an hour earlier, and Percy wasn't expecting them to be back so soon. 

Percy cautiously opened the door with one hand wrapped around the pen in her pocket, peeking out from the small crack to see who it was. To her shock, she was met with the sight of a cousin which she hadn't seen in a long time: Diana Prince.

"Hey, cuz. Haven't seen you in a while!" the daughter of Zeus exclaimed while brushing past Percy after ruffling her hair. She took a seat on the couch where Percy was previously sitting. 

"Finding Nemo?" she questioned, looking at the movie which was playing on the TV. "Again? Do you seriously not have anything better to watch?"

Percy huffed as she plopped down beside her cousin, clearly offended by this statement. "Finding Nemo is one of the best Disney movies out there! You'd know how good it is if you just watched it for once!" she defended.

"Anyhow," she began after a pause, "To what do I owe this visit, Dee?"

Diana sighed and leaned back on the couch after swiping a packet of blue candies from the table. "You know how we have a team of young superheroes assigned to undertake covert operations on behalf of the Justice League, right?"

"Yeah..." Percy drawled, unsure of where this conversation was headed.

"Well," Diana continued, "their trainer, Black Canary, handed training duties to me for a couple of days because she has a mission somewhere. And I was kind of hoping that you could come in and train them for me. I mean, their stealth is shit and they need to learn to work as a team. And they also kind of need to get humbled by someone, 'cause some of them are so damn full of themselves."

"And you think that I'm the right person for the job?" Percy questioned.

"I'm pretty sure you could teach them a thing or two. Besides, it took me forever to convince Batman to let me get someone else to train them, so please don't let all that damn begging go to vain," Diana pleaded.

"I mean, I was getting kind of bored anyway. I guess I'm training a bunch of superpowered teens now..." Percy murmured, crossing her legs and stealing candy from her cousin's hands.

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Robin looked up as Wonder Woman stepped into the lounge room, her presence announced by the Zeta-Tube only moments earlier. 

"As you all already know," she announced without sparing a second, "I was supposed to train you for a few days while Canary is on a mission.

"There has been a slight change in plans. I will no longer be the one overseeing your training for the next few days. My cousin will be taking my place as your trainer."

Robin's eyebrows furrowed as he took in the news. For starters, he wasn't aware of any cousins that Diana had.  And if he wasn't aware of such relations, it meant that Batman had no knowledge of this 'cousin' either, or he would have added them to Diana's file.

The other team members seemed to be having similar concerns, for the moment Wonder Woman took her leave, Artemis started speaking. "Why have I never heard of Wonder Woman's cousin? Also, if the her cousin isn't part of the league, how is she qualified to teach us?"