The Winds Continue: Young Justice, Zephyr Book 2

Chapter 9: Energy Impulses

I hate doing research.

I know, surprise surprise: the girl that didn't want to go to college hates research.

Okay, I guess everyone (except for a few people that I don't think are totally normal) kind of hated research. I mean, it's taxing and annoying!

But as the second-in-command (a position I'm currently regretting accepting) of the team, it was some kind of unspoken rule that I had to do it or something. Especially when it came to alien tech that the team was able to grab from the incident on Malina Island.

Except I couldn't understand most of it!

I groaned and rubbed at my eyes and I saw Dick send me a sympathetic look at me.

"Sorry about this Lina, I know this isn't really your forte." The teenager said and I sighed, waving him off.

"It has to be done...Let's just get it done and over with." I said, trying to grasp some form of conviction before looking back at the holographic screen in fro the of me, silently cursing it. "Just please tell me you're done the translation."

"Translation completed." The computer rang and I sighed in relief.

"Thank the Gods!" I praised, looking to the sky. I heard Dick chuckle lightly before the sound of footsteps caught our attention. I turned to see Tim, Maia and Gar walking together, looking bored and curious.

"Is that the Krolotean intel?" Tim guessed, scanning the holographic screens with his masked eyes.

"What Krolotean intel?" Gar asked, looking at all of us for an explanation. Dick continued to type as he provided one.

"The data files M'gann and J'onn recovered on Malina Island before it was destroyed." The oldest Bat-child explained.

"Ah." Gar said, understanding. "Noted."

"Apparently the Krolotean's were...Kidnapping people." I frowned, looking at the suddenly understandable information in front of me. "They were using as test subjects!"

"For what?" Maia asked panicked.

"They were hoping to find something." Dick explained as he zoomed from file to file. "Something inside us..."

"What?" Gar asked, stepping forward.

"There's no proper translation in...Any language on Earth." I said, looking at the section Dick had pulled up.

"The nearest translation is...Meta-gene."

I furrowed my brow, not having a clue of what that meant.

"What's a Meta-gene?" Tim asked.

"Never Meta-gene I didn't like..." Gar chuckled, smirking and I whirled around.

"No, you are still to young to make those jokes." I said strictly and Gar slumped over, looking slightly disappointed.

Suddenly, an alarm started going off and we all leaped to attention.

"Warning: Unknown Energy Impulse."

The screens vanish and we all prepare for some sort of attack. I'm surprised when the winds in the cave start blowing wildly, even without my summoning and I look to Maia to see a similar look of confusion. Her 'vision' was probably getting blurred.

Before I could try to help her, cracks of electricity flooded the air before centering in the middle of the room; drawing a our attention to the area. Dick and I step forward, shielding our youngers if the ball of energy could was a threat. But instead of attacking, it faded away as an odd, bell-shaped machine fell from it instead. Parts of it were smoking, and it made a low whirring noise.

"Stand ready." Dick ordered as he pulled out his eriska sticks. I summon the winds and in my peripheral I see Maia pull out her swords and Tim his bo-staff. Garfield, not having a weapon, just crouched into a fighting position and prepared to pounce and shift if the event called for it.

Alas, as the machine opened we were not met with an attack...but rather a teenage boy in a white and red superhero suit and brunette bedhead, jumping out of the machine with jazz-hands and yelling "Tada".

As the cave's alarms went crazy, the boy's arms dropped.

"Computer, lockdown cave." Dick ordered and the alarms ceased.

"Well I think we found our 'unknown energy impulse'..." Gar muttered.

"Impulse? That's so crash! Catchy, dramatic, one-word!" The boy exclaims at a super-fast pace as he runs over to us at...super-speed? "Like Nightwing, and Robin, and Zephyr, and Clairvoyance, and Beast Boy-well, Beast Boy's two words. Blue Beetle's two words, is he here? Nevermind Impulse can find out for himself."

What the hell is going on?! Who is this kid? Is he a speedster? Did Barry an Iris have a kid I didn't know about? Did Wally and Artemis?! Wait no, none of them are brunettes...

"You three, go after him." Nightwing ordered to Tim, Gar and Maia. "Take him down, now."

And with that, Gar formed into a cheetah and the three of them ran away, following the intruder.

"Did that kid look familiar to you? What the heck is 'crash'?" I asked, very confused. Dick shook his head and shrugged.

Not even five minutes later, 'Impulse' came running back in so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I collected the air around the kid and formed a tornado before pushing it, and the boy, into the wall of the cave as hard as I could without causing him permanent damage. When I released my winds, the boy tumbled to the ground, groaning. Quickly, Nightwing cuffed the boy and pinned him to the ground.

"Now that was crash." Dick says.

"What?" I asked, sending him a look.

"For you two maybe, for me...I'm totally feeling the mode." The kid groaned.

"Seriously, am I that behind on slang?" I exclaimed.

(Warning: Super-long A/N)

Geez, I haven't updated  in almost ten days! I'm so sorry guys I totally dropped the ball. My school's musical is opening this week, my mental health hasn't been the greatest these past few weeks, and I've been getting really sick...so on top of school, work, and other stuff I just haven't had time to write. Not to mention season 2 so far hasn't been great, and I'm sorry about that to. But I promise, with the upcoming events this is going to be getting a lot better so hang in there. In the mean time, I should let y'all know of a few things. I've had quite a few questions relating to whether Maia will be having a love interest, and who it might be. A lot of people in particular were wondering if I would be pairing her off with Jaime or Bart.

The answer is no. To be honest, I don't really know if I'm going to give Maia a love interest. But I do know that it won't be Jaime or Bart because (surprise, surprise) Bluepulse is going to be a canon couple in this series.

Those of you that follow me on Tumblr were probably expecting this.

 I'm sorry if you don't like Bluepulse, or ship it. I have gotten a little bit of flack from people who don't like the fact that I have LGBTQ+ characters in this story (Lina being queer, Maia being asexual (there may be a trans character in the future, fair warning)) but as a member of the community (proud bisexual)...I think there needs to be more LGBTQ+ superheroes.

THANK YOU GREG WEISSMAN FOR PUTTING IN CANON LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS IN SEASON 3

One last thing: Lina will not be pregnant during this story. I have had SO many people tell me that 'it'd make a good plot point' or 'it'd spice things up'...sorry but no. In my opinion, it's been overdone and I just...do y'all really think Kaldur and Lina are the type to have a child before marriage? I think they'd try to avoid that all costs because they know that they wouldn't be able to have that kind of responsibility! But don't worry, this season will be plenty dramatic without the help pregnancies.

Yikes that was longer then I meant to do...oh well, thanks for reading it if you stuck around. I'll try to get the next chapter up tomorrow but it's going to be opening night so...no promises. Hope y'all had a Happy Spring Equinox!