have you ever been in one of those hurricane simulators? or even just a strong windstorm?
because going through a zeta tube sucks just as much.
a robotic voice announces our arrival alongside batman. the very same odd group of kids from a couple nights ago stands in the center of the giant cave. bruce--who we are to call batman, as he so insistently explained to us--walks us to the group. "these are your new teammates. i will leave you to introductions."
as i am slowly learning, bruce is a lot nicer than batman.
each member of the team introduces themselves; kaldur is aqualad, conner is superboy, m'gann is miss martian, wally is kid flash, and artemis and robin uphold secret identities. i bite my tongue on robin's introduction, mentally laughing at how futile secret identities are when you've met their civilian persona.
"well, we'd like to also keep our identities a secret, but this is cyclone, and i'm athena."
i offer them a small wave at annabeth's--no, athena's-- introduction. "hi guys, i'm so excited to train with you all!"
we gravitate towards the kitchen and sit around the island, where we start making small talk. i reach for a grape from the tub in the middle of the island, but robin clears his throat. "you might not wanna take those, they're conner's. he gets a little...possessive."
i glance at conner, who glares at me viciously. "fine, jeez." he pulls the tub closer to himself. i wave my hand and pull the water from all the grapes, leaving him a tub of raisins. he snarls at me, but before he can lunge at me, annabeth punches my shoulder and i drop the water back into the grapes.
"we're trying to make a good impression here, seaweed brain," she mumbles.
i rub my shoulder. "whatever, it was funny."
—
everyone shoulders past aqualad, muttering a snarky comment as they go. i give him a sympathetic look as i move to board m'gann's spaceship. from what robin told me, he had indicated knowledge of a mole on the team, and everyone basically cold-shouldered him despite the mission we were given to solve the gorilla problem in india.
as i approach the hangar, i freeze; what was i thinking? i can't go aerial! zeus fucking hates me, there's no shot he'll let me fly.
man, first mission and i'm already done.
robin gives me a slight shove forward, chirping that i get on. i freeze, staring at annabeth with pleading eyes.
"i'm, uh, afraid of heights."
"don't worry. the bioship's a lot safer. plus, if anything does go wrong, miss m can levitate you or something. we're prepared, so there's nothing to worry about." great. if zeus strikes me down, at least m'gann can float my dead body to safety.
kaldur places a gentle hand on my shoulder. "it is okay. i am a native to atlantis, but the king of the sky makes an exception for those in allegiance with diana of themyscira." his words should alarm me, as i had never said anything about being a demigod, but they just comfort me. game recognizes game, i suppose.
i clear my throat and walk on unsteadily. i sit closest to the exit, white-knuckling the seat's arms.
when we land, i'm the first one off. however, everyone's still pissy towards aqualad. they run off, leaving me, annabeth, some adult superhero called shazam, conner, m'gann, artemis, and aqualad. conner tries to get m'gann to go with him, but she and arty stop him from running rogue.
ten minutes in, and we're already falling apart. "stay or go?" i ask.
"stay," annabeth replies. "if we split apart, things will only get worse."
we turn to the remaining team members and shazam, our designated babysitter. we walk through the jungle until we come upon some tracks. shazam (or captain marvel, as they call him too i guess) figures that this is where the mayor ran into trouble. aqualad starts to explain that he has doubts still, but we're interrupted by rustling in the plants.
before we can investigate, a herd of wild elephants charges us. their beady red eyes match the blinking light on their collars.
collars? on wild animals? fortunately, aqualad notices it, too. he targets a collar, wraps his water-bearers around it and yanks it off. he tells cap to remove the collar as the rest of us deal with our own designated elephant. as soon as the collars are off, the elephants' eyes fade to a bored brown, and they saunter off without another glance.
aqualad finally gets a report from megan. she and arty were attacked, too, but they got an oversized gator.
without warning, captain takes off to follow a wild tiger bearing the same collar. "hey, speed of mercury," aqualad mutters sarcastically.
we follow cap's footsteps, which lead to a dead end, indicating his kidnapping. m'gann establishes a psychic link, and the team starts going at aqualad. they tear him apart, not even giving him a chance to speak.
you guys, just shut up! someone from our own group has been taken, and all you complain about is some petty bullshit! stop acting like babies and just listen to him, i yell in my head.
radio silence, at least in terms of complaining. thank gods.
we meet up with the others and stumble upon some sort of fortress. aqualad opens a section of the force field, and artemis disables it. as soon as we do, a monkey sounds the alarm. we fight them off, disabling their collars. right when a monkey lunges at rob, i douse it and rip the collar off. he looks at me and mutters something incomprehensible, but a superpowered gorilla cuts off my question.
we fight the ape, but are unsuccessful at first. then, m'gann throws him into the wall, creating an opening for us to enter. we see shazam on a surgery table, along with the brain, who annabeth explains to me is basically an animate villainous brain robot.
with superboy and his newfound companion wolf, who joined us during our battle, we fight the villains. the electricity goes out, and when it comes back on, they're gone. we head back to the bioship and return to base.
everyone disperses once at hq, leaving me, annabeth, and robin. "we know it's you, dick," i whisper.
his head whips my way. "what do you--what?" he hisses.
"yeah. well, athena figured it out, but still. we know."
"how?"
"we have our ways," annabeth quips.
we leave him, confused and alone.
