Project Infinte

3

*Conner*

Sometimes I wish I didn't have super hearing. The reason why? I woke up to hear Wally's eating sounds and two girls laughing. I leaned over the side of my bed to see the mattress was empty. Cate must have already woken up. I dressed quickly and headed to the kitchen where Wally was eating loudly.

"Morning, Cate! Wally, M'gann." I said

"Morning Conner!" Both girls chirped.

"As I was saying, what book series do you like?" Wally asked Cate. I already knew the answer to that.

"The American Girl books! One day, Dr. Desmond walks in with a package for me. I open it to see books about girls, dating from 1764 to 1974. They are Kaya, Josefina, Addy, Samantha, Rebecca, Molly, Kit, Maryellen, Melody and Julie. I have all the books about them. Conner sent them to me a year after he left Cadmus." Cate said happily.

"Oh, I love those books! I heard there are new girls and books! And new books to the ones you already have! Like there are books where you can choose the ending. I'll get them for you!" M'gann chirped. Cate smiled then frowned.

"I don't have any money to pay you back." She said sadly.

"Don't worry about it. M'gann and I will buy them for you. Why don't we go to the store today?" Wally asked. Cate smiled again.

"Conner, want to come with us? I bet that new Descendants book is out. You can buy it." M'gann asked.

"Sure, I'll come." I shrugged. I do like that book series. Just then Batman spoke over the speakers.

"TEAM, ASSEMBLE IN THE BRIEFING ROOM FOR TRAINING."

We raced over to see the others and Black Canary standing there.

"Alright team. Today we will work on dodging. We've noticed that you have a little trouble dodging a hit. Isn't that right, Red Robin, Robin?" BC announced.

"Come on! It's always me. But it's not my fault that Boy Wonder here put sleeping powder in my coffee before the last mission. I was falling asleep. So if anything, it's Robin's fault I wasn't able to dodge quickly." Red Robin grumbled.

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that we were going on a mission that afternoon? You were up until 6 am yesterday. So I decided to be a good big brother and make sure you got enough sleep. So it's your fault for staying up." Robin retorted.

"That's so not in me! It's Br- Batman's fault for giving me all that work!"

"Oh, so it's Batman's fault now? Yeesh, you two argue like an elderly married couple. Cut the crap and just admit that we all need work on that." Nightingale cut in.

"Thank you, Nightingale. Let's begin, shall we? Let's have the married couple go first." BC smirked.

Robin and Red Robin faced off and began to spare. Robin won. Then M'gann and Nightingale went. M'gann won that round. Then went Red Wing and Red Hood. I'm still unsure as to why all their names start with the letter 'R'. Anyways Red Wing beat his older brother.

"Up next we have Conner and Zatanna." BC said.

My punches were solid and so were my kicks. Zatanna blocked them by using her magic. To dodge, I rolled out of the way, jumped, and ducked. And I could tell that Zatanna dodged my blows just as well as I did. I spared with Zee for a good ten minutes before I fell. Then I got to see Cate against Kaldur.

"I will go easy on you, my friend." Kaldur said

"You don't have to hold back. Hit me with all you got." Cate smirked.

Kaldur kicked at her but she dodged it. She hit Kaldur on the chest before ducking a punch to the head. Cate threw a kick at his chest only to have Kaldur side step away. Kaldur used his water magic in an attempt to knock Cate out. Cate saw the water coming and dove into the water. She rolled away not a second later. Ten minutes passed and neither one of them had fallen. Until Cate did a low roundhouse kick and Kaldur tripped. We cheered.

"Are you sure you haven't trained for combat, Cate?" BC asked.

"No, I haven't. I guess I'm a natural at it." Cate shrugged. BC called the end of training.

M'gann, Wally, Cate and I changed into our civilian outfits and headed for the bookstore.

*Gale*

As soon as Wally, M'gann, and the super clones came back from the bookstore, the remaining girls readied ourselves for our Girls' Night. Everything was ready and we were walking into the movie room with snacks and blankets. Then I realized one girl was missing.

"Hey, should we invite Cate to our Friday night Girls' Night?" I asked.

"Of course! She's a member and our friend." Zee said. I nodded and stood up to find her. I found her about to walk into the gym with the boys.

"Hey, Cate! You want to join us for a movie night?" I called to her. She shared a glance with Conner. Conner nodded his head and Cate came trotting to me.

"So what are we watching? I really haven't watched any movies." Cate asked once we had settled into our seats in front of the large screen.

"It has to be something that will make us cry but laugh too. And it also has to have suspense in it." Artemis commented.

"How about A Little Princess? That's a good one." M'gann suggested. We agreed.

Halfway through the movie I heard Cate whimper and sniffle.

"Cate, are you okay?" I whispered to her. Cate nodded and wiped tears from her face.

"Guys, I think something is bothering Cate. She's crying. What should we do?" I said through the mind link.

"Did you ask her if she was okay?" Artemis asked through the mind link

"Yeah, she just said yes." I said. Just then Sarah yelled at Miss Minchin.

"Didn't your father ever call you a princess, well, DIDN'T HE??!!!"

"YOU UNGRATEFUL THIEVING CHILD! YOU'LL BE LOCKED IN HERE FOR THE REST OF TOMORROW!!!!"

In the movie, the headmistress wiped a tear away after locking Sarah in her room. At that, Cate jumped up and ran out of the room. M'gann paused the movie and we ran after her.

We found her crying in Conner's arms. Conner looked ticked off.

"What did you do to her?"

"Nothing! We were just watching a movie! It somehow upset her." Zee said

"The movie was good. It's how the headmistress treated Sarah that hurt me." Said a quiet voice.

We noticed that Cate had stopped crying.

"After Conner left, the person in charge of Cadmus told the workers to focus on me. All day I was fed pictures of things of the outside world as well as being programed for evil. It hurt tons. I had lots of practices everyday and when I failed to do something right, I was punished. Electric waves hit me, I was forced to do things 14 year old girls should never have to do, and I was fed the scraps of the workers' meals. Dr. Desmond always said that I was not a person but rather a weapon. Once, a girl from the outside took me out to show me a movie, A Little Princess. We were caught and Dr. Desmond said that I wasn't a princess, that I never was and never will be. That I was nothing more than a weapon, created to destroy. That stuck with me since then. Watching the movie again triggered me. I'm sorry." Cate explained then got up from Conner's lap and ran out of the room.

"Hey, what's up with Cate? I just saw her run out of here." Wally asked walking into the gym.

"I'm going to kill Desmond if it's the last thing I do!!" Conner stomped off to his room. Wally turned to us.

"She just told us about her past. And we were watching A Little Princess. She remembered something that someone told her and it hurt her." I informed the red head.

"I know where she is. I'll take care of her." Wally said and sped off.