Sword of The Lanterns

Chapter Thirty-Nine- Goodbye...For Now

Lisa was hardly surprised to find Jaina waiting outside her house.

"Megan told me you'd be leaving."

"Yeah," Jaina walked side-by-side with Lisa through the white-gray slush covering the sidewalk. "I...I found my family. Or they found me, I guess. I got my memories back, and...I'm going to go home with them."

Lisa stopped and hugged Jaina tightly. Slowly, Jaina hugged her back.

"You were the first friend I made, outside the team. I walked into that music class back in September and I thought I'd be totally alone, but you started talking to me and you were such a nerd but you were so nice." Jaina told her.

"Hey, you're a nerd too," Lisa punched Jaina's shoulder gently.

"I wanted you to have this," Jaina handed her the guitar Carol and Hal had given her for Christmas.

"Jaina, I can't, it's too nice-"

"You can," Jaina insisted, "when I go back, I'm going to have to rush to catch up my training to where my brother and friends are if I want to be knighted at the same time, and then I'm gonna be catapulted all over the place to keep the peace. I'm not gonna have time to play, much less practice. I'll feel much better if I know you're putting it to good use.

After a moment of consideration, Lisa closed the case lid. "I'll hold onto it then, until you come back."

"How do you know-"

Lisa held a finger to Jaina's lips. "I know you too well, Jaina Jordan. You won't be able to stay away from us for long."

Jaina shook her head, but smiled. "Maybe I will-"

Her ring started to beep loudly.

"There's trouble-"

"I know. Go do your thing."

"Thanks, Lisa." Jaina changed back into her uniform.

"We're all gonna miss you."

Jaina nodded. "I know."

She shopt off into the air, holding her ring to her face.

"What's up, Hal?"

"It's the team. They're in a bit of a...situation."

Jaina stiffened, stopping mid-flight "They didn't seem to need my help this morning. Just ask Batman."

"I did. Canary told me he took you off the team, and I told him as long as you were here and you wanted to, you could work with the team."

"And he listened?" Jaina asked doubtfully.

"If you can believe it, he did." Hal chuckled. "Plus, I had John, Guy, Carol, and Canary to back me up. He just couldn't say no."

Jaina grinned to herself. "Okay, where are they?"

"Bialya. Again. They were investigating rumors of suspected extraterrestrial weapons smuggling in the area. We lost contact about an hour ago."

Jaina was struck with an idea.

"You know, if I'm going after some alien weapons, it might be a good idea to bring along a few aliens, don't you think?"

-------

They had been sloppy. 

Why were they so sloppy? Even Psimon could sense it. Something was off with them, and none of them wanted to admit what it was.

Black Spider stood next to Psimon and his unusually large brain, adding on layers of webbing every so often to keep even Superboy contained.

"Psimon says reveal your secrets!"