Joining Young Justice

Chapter Eight: The Field

The mission warning bell jolted me awake. I scrambled up and pulled on clothes, strapping my lightsaber to my belt as I ducked out the door. Superboy was in the hall, pulling a shirt over his head as he started toward the mission briefing.

Nightwing was standing at his computers and barely glanced up when we jogged in. That didn't stop him from calling me out, though.

"Chelsey, you're sitting out of this one even though I know you'll want to get your hands dirty."

"Oh, come on," I protested.

Superboy took a step back. That wasn't a good sign.

"Even if you were ready, you've been training all day and your muscles are stiff. Besides, this is a stealth op with a small squadron. Superboy isn't even going."

"Hey!" Superboy called. "Leave me out of this."

"He literally is!" I said back, stepping away. "This is about Ned, isn't it?"

"Colonel Future," Nightwing corrected. But it was essentially the samething.

Superboy and I stood back with our arms crossed as the others assembled. The squadron Nightwing selected consisted of Miss Martian, Robin, Batgirl, and Bee. After receiving instructions about when to engage and ensuring that Ned or the Light weren't involved, Alpha Squadron took off in the bioship. The rest of the Team dispersed and I trailed behind, looking for something to do.

The Cave wasn't the most entertaining place to hang out. Sure, there was a movie room, library, and a kitchen, but that was literally it. And since I didn't want to hit the weight room, I wandered until I ended up in the trophy room. M'gann had explained that Wally started collecting souvenirs back when he was on the Team, a practice Garfield had continued.

A wall of floor to ceiling shelves were stuffed full of knickknacks. A red hood with a black face mask attached, a red hand, a mask resembling a cat's face, a child's sippy cup, a metal eyeball. I reached out and touched a white and red backpack marked with a caduceus. As my fingers brushed the fabric, I was torn away from the present.

The room looked relatively the same, but everything was washed out with a pale blue glow. Only a few souvenirs decorated the shelf and Wally was adding another. A feeling of humbleness washed over me as a very young Dick Grayson--sporting a pair of tacky sunglasses--strutted through the doorway.

"Dude, I just heard. You saved an entire country! Major kudos," Dick said, pointing to Wally.

"What can I say? I'm the man," Wally replied, turning away from the shelves.

The echo ended and I staggered back, blinking away blue. I hadn't felt a full echo of the past like that in a long time.

"Are you alright?" someone asked from the door behind me.

I turned to see Superboy, leaning against the frame.

"Yeah. I just sensed a Force echo that I wasn't quite prepared for. I'd forgotten how powerful they can be."

He walked into the room and stood beside me, eyes glued to the items on the shelves. He was experiencing his own echo of the past, one that I didn't feel comfortable interrupting. When he realized he was drifting, he asked me a question.

"What is this force?"

"The bumper sticker version? It's an energy field that surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the universe together," I replied. "But it's so much more than that. I can manipulate it when I'm fighting, I can turn to it when I'm meditating. It tells me the past, the present, and the future and connects me with all other living things."