Thálassa

Chapter 6

It's been a few weeks since the whole, "losing your powers and attacking that laboratory with the people who have the goop that takes away the powers" fiasco. All the capes had gotten their powers back and I was still teaching the team useless little stuff, like picking pockets and forgeries. Stuff Rosemary and the Stolls taught me. But, Wally lost his patience soon enough.
"Can't we do something more productive?" he whined. "Something more... kick butt?"
I let out a pained sigh.
"Fine," I said. "I'll teach you how to... umm... Oh! I'll teach how to sword fight! Hmm..." I thought as I rummaged through my bag, pulling out wooden practice swords, dummies, and other stuff. The others had by now gotten used to the fact that my bag just pulled out useful and sometimes random things. Though Wally was still confused about how it all fit.
"Pick a sword," I said, waving distractedly at the practice that laid on the floor. "Make sure it's balanced though, Rob, try the ones with the blue markings on the handle, they weigh a bit less." I slipped my ring and quickly turned it into my sword and pulled it out.
"Woah," Roy said, backing away a bit as I leveled my sword lazily towards him.
"This is my sword Hurricane," I said.
"You named your sword?"
"Of course I did! All important things have names. What are you again?"
"Ha ha," he grumbled. "So how, exactly, are we doing this?"
"Well, I'm a nice person," I was cut off.
"Right," Roy said sarcastically.
"Since I'm a nice person, we won't do it how I learned, getting beat up by an expert until you catch on and learn how to fight back."
"Seriously?" Artemis said as she twirled the sword. "That's how you learned?"
"My brother is a very skilled swordsman," I shrugged. "And he wanted me to suffer the same way he did. He's annoying that way."
I showed them how to hold the sword correctly and taught them a few basic moves, mostly how to block and avoid getting skewered.
After about twenty minutes, they were all sweating like pigs while I had hardly broken a sweat. I passed out a few water bottles to them which they drank greedily.
"You're better suited for a dagger," I said to Wally from where he laid on the floor. "Daggers are for quick fighters who can dart in and out of places real quick. Some people think it's not a very good weapon due to its size but, my future in-law knows how to use one. And she's the best with a weapon I know."
"I think that could also apply to you," I said to Artemis. "However, I think that you already have experience with a knife or dagger, right?" She nodded. "You could tell by the way you hold the sword. But stick with the bow for the most part, it suits you. But keep a few knives on you."
"You have experience with swords," I stated, rather than asked. He nodded. "Thought so. But not this type of sword. The sword or rather, swords, you use are rather light, but big. From what I've read, I'd say you get them from your hydrokinesis. That's good, because it means that you almost always have a good weapon on you. But it's always helpful to know how to wield different swords and weapons."
"You're very knowledgeable on the aspect of weapons," Red said, eyebrow raised. "How?"
"Well, I'm not that knowledgeable," I admitted. "I'm absolutely awful with anything that has to do with aiming. Archery, knife throwing, javelins, spears, that sort of thing I'm absolute crap at. Short-range weapons are more my style. Though I'm rather partial to swords."
Roy opened his big mouth to say something but then a rainbow shimmered into existence. Connor and Travis Stoll, sons of Hermes and prankster pair of CHB faced me. Only Dick and I saw the rainbow for what it really was, an IM. Even Kaldur, who was Atlantean and therefore part of the mythological world didn't seem to be able to see the Iris Message. I looked at them and made the slightest shake of my head. They furrowed their eyebrows before taking in what was happening. They nodded and cut the connection. I let out a small sigh I didn't even know I was holding.
"What's wrong?" Roy asked, frowning. Like he actually cared.
"What do ya mean?" I asked casually, furrowing my eyebrows innocently.
"You just seized up and looked at something past my head."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, maybe a little too firmly. He opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by the sound of a timer ringing.
"My cookies!" M'gann squealed, floating to the kitchen. We followed her, following the smell of cookies.
"Wally, please don't," I sighed as he began stuffing himself with cookies. "My godmother would whack me with a spoon if I ever did that. Like this," I said, pulling out a wooden spoon from my amazing bag and walking Wally's hand as he reached out to get another cookie.
"Hey!" Wally exclaimed, withdrawing the offending hand. "You're like Aunt Iris," he grumbled. "But with better cookies."
"You bake?" Roy asked.
"Cookies," I said blushing, "are the only thing I can bake. And they're blue."
"Blue?"
"Hey, blue makes everything taste better!"
"Don't bother arguing with her about that," Robin told Red. "It's the only thing you can't actually argue with her about."
"But it does!" I protested, pouting.
"Course it does," Robin said, patting the top of my head.
"Don't patronize me, Robin. I know people and I know where you live. I will extract revenge."
"Hey Team!" a suspiciously young sounding voice calls over the intercom. "You guys need to come to the mission room! Quick!"
"Umm... Who was that?" I asked as we walked towards the mission room.
"It sounded like Billy," M'gann said confused. "But why..."
"Who's Billy?" I asked.
"Billy Batson is the ten year old that turns into Captain Marvel," Wally explained to me.
"Of course!" I said, voice laced with sarcasm. "How could I forget? Of course Billy is Billy Batson, Captain Marvel. It's not like there's a million Billy's in the world and it's not like Batman didn't tell me his comrade's secret ID. How could I be so..." My voice trailed off as I beheld the sight before me. "Whoa."
Standing next to a boy whom I assumed was Billy Batson were younger versions of some of the Justice League's heavy hitters. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, the Atom, Aquaman, Zatara, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Flash, both Green Lanterns and Black Canary were all 10 year old children.
"Is it wrong that I think it's funny that Wonder Woman and Canary are all basically half a foot taller than all of you?" The words exited my mouth before I could stop them and I clamped my hand over my mouth before I could say anymore. The male Leaguers scowled at me and the Team started snickering silently.
"Yes, it is wrong," Flash pouted.
"What happened?" Kaldur asked.
"The cat boy, Klarion," Flash said. All of their voices seemed a bit higher than normal. "He cast some spell on us, nothing like Dr. Fate has seen before. He can't fix it. He was using some sort of weird spell, he was using this stick. Like a wand, but made of bronze."
"Bronze?" I yelped.
"The spell he used... I believe it to be of Greek origin. It was a slightly different tongue, but similar to the one that is used in Themyscira," Wonder Woman said.
My eyebrows went up higher than should be humanly possible.
"Seeing as most of us have been turned to children... What?" We all stared at Bruce, his voice weirdly high.
"Your voice is so high," Robin said. "It's creepy."
The Batglare was as effective as ever and we all shut up.
"Seeing as we've all been turned into children and the other Leaguers are either off world or unavailable, it's up to the team to defeat Klarion and make him turn us back," Bruce continued in his surprisingly high voice. "Zatara?"
The young magician raised his arms and cast a spell as a holographic globe appeared.
"Wohs su erehw noiralk si!" Zatara cast the spell. Magic came out from his hands and collected in New York.
"He's in my city!" I exclaimed.
"Isn't Gotham your city?" Roy asked.
"Ehh, I'm a New Yorker, born and raised."
"Thálassa," Batman said a warning tone, which sounded ridiculous coming from a ten-year-old.
"Your paranoid," I retorted.
"Whatever!" Flash exclaimed. "Go and save us from the horrors of going through puberty again!"
"Yes Batman." Kaldur chose to ignore the Flash.
We ran to the bioship, and I said a quick prayer to Zeus to not kill me as we flew to NY. As we flew, Rob and I hacked the security cameras, searching for where Klarion could be.
"Found him. He's nearing the Empire State," Robin reported.
"The Empire State? Why there?" Wally asked.
"It's high up," Zatanna guessed. "If he's casting a really big spell, it'd be easier to affect more people if he's got a good vantage," she explained.
Though that was a good reason, I thought I had a better one. At the top of the Empire State lies Olympus. If Klarion, a minion of Chaos, reached Olympus, who knew what kind of chaos that could bring. Robin seemed to be following my thought process as we exchanged looks.
"Thálassa," Aqualad ordered startling us out of our thoughts, "go behind Klarion and attack his cat. Robin and Kid will do crowd control. The rest of the Team will distract Klarion. The cat is his link to this world. Take it down."
"Miss Martian, activate the mind link."
«Mind link activated,» M'gann said. «Everyone here?»
«Yes,» Superboy thought.
«Right here,» Wally thought.
«I hear you,» Roy thought.
«Present» Robin thought.
«Here» Artemis thought.
«I will never get used to this," I thought to them. I was ignored.
«Now!» Aqualad ordered in our minds. As he said this, a hatch appeared in the bioship. We jumped out, landing on the viewing platform of the Empire State. I slipped away into the shadows as KF and Robin ushered the civilians out while the others confronted Klarion.
I blocked out all the chatter from the mind-link as I spotted the cat.
"Rob," I whispered through my com-link that was connected to his only. "Tell the guard at the front that Nere says that the situation is being taken care of but to lock the doors to Olympus and inform Zeus what's happening."
"Roger that," I heard him say as I snuck up on the cat.
«I see the cat,» I told them.
«Thálassa,» Aqualad said urgently. «Hurry. It appears that we are ensnared. We cannot provide back-up.»
I was about to grab the familiar when it jumped away into its owner's arms, leaving me exposed.
"Well, well, who do we have here?" Klarion purred. "Recruited a new cape into your junior Justice League."
What I did next should have made me the most impulsive ADHD kid ever. But it didn't. Percy still wins at that. Anyway, I got out a knife and charged.
Klarion was thrown off by my abruptness but soon was throwing his own energy attacks at me. I dodged almost all of them; one of them hit me in the arm. I hissed and ducked behind a piece of broken concrete. I tore off what remained of my jacket.
"Come out come out wherever you are," Klarion said mockingly.
I rolled as another energy blast destroyed the piece I was hiding behind.
I need a plan, I thought as I dodged another round of blasts. Unfortunately, I wasn't good at making plans. I usually left that to someone else.
Get in close, I remembered what Percy always said. When you have the shorter sword, get in close. We were talking about sword fighting at the time but why in Hades couldn't it work now?
I advanced, this time with my Celestial Bronze blade, which I used to throw off his attacks. He fired one more round of spells and I rolled and ended up behind him. In one quick movement I had a knife to his throat.
"Put the wand down," I growled. Then, I whispered. "Klarion, this is Celestial Bronze. It returns monsters to Tartarus. I'd hate to see what it might do to you."
He stared at the blade.
"Now," I continued in a low voice, "if you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of my way. Next time, I will not hesitate to kill you. I haven't before and I won't again."
He nodded slowly.
"Swear that you won't hurt me or any person I or my family claim family and you won't divulge my godly heritage. Swear it on the River Styx."
He hesitated. My knife came closer to his throat.
"I swear it!" he yelped. "I swear it on the River Styx."
The sky rumbled.
"Go," I commanded and threw him off me. He scrambled to his feet before grabbing his cat and disappearing through a portal. As soon as he left, the magic that imprisoned the rest of my team dissolved.
"You let him get away!" Red Arrow said to me angrily. I merely raised an eyebrow and pulled out a hand held devise.
"I put a magic proof tracker on him," I said smugly. "And I made him swear on his magic not to harm me or my brother. So now, the League will know where he and the Light will be meeting to discuss his failure to complete the spell. And," I added, pulling out the wand. "I pick pocketed him and stole the rod thingie which Zatara can use to reverse the spell." His jaw dropped.
"Close your mouth you'll catch flies."
"You really are something, Thál," Robin cackled.
"What can I say," I smirked, "I'm just that amazing."
"Well then," Artemis said. "You can explain to Batman why we don't have Klarion."
"Oh bother," I said. "I forgot about him. He's going to be more pissed than Cabin 6 kids when 11 puts fake spiders in their beds."

*****************

The Batman was pissed when he was changed back.
"You let him go?!?" he growled. The Team averted their eyes.
"I don't see what the big deal is," Thálassa said stubbornly. "We foiled his plans. I gave you a way to find him again. And you're not ten. Its a win-win situation," she said and then did a handstand.
Batman sighed pinched his nose behind the cowl, aggravated.
"That's not the point."
"Actually, getting the wand thingie and stopping him from casting a huge spell was the mission objective. You just assumed we would need to capture him to fulfill both," Red Arrow said. Wait, he's defending me? Against Batman?
Batman glared and Red shut up.
"'Twas a most valiant effort," I sighed.
Bats glared at me. Shut up, the glare said. Make me, I glared back. Cave, now, his look gave no room for argument. I jutted my chin. Fine, my body language said. I need to tell you something anyways. I could practically see his raised eyebrow as I stalked towards the Zeta tube.
"Bye," I heard Robin shout to the rest of the Team as we disappeared in a flash of white light