chapter fifteen - humanity

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MOUNT JUSTICE
OCTOBER 10th — 16:58 EDT

"is there anything else i can help with?" captain marvel asked wally, dusting off his hands after opening wally's recliner to a perfect 43°.

"a lemonade would be nice," wally said. "ooh! and some nachos!"

dick rolled his eyes at how wally was taking advantage of captain marvel. in all honesty, good for wally, anyone in this sort of gig deserved a break. it was more the fact that wally was just milking it at this point. it had been nine days of this.

granted, dick hadn't been around the cave that much in those nine days—having your gut sliced open by the joker will do that to you!—but he had still heard all the stories. dick absentmindedly placed his hand over where his stitches were—it still wasn't fully healed. where were his nachos and lemonade?!

"rob, you wanna go?" artemis asked, pulling dick's attention back to the situation at hand: one-on-one training sessions with everyone.

well, everyone except wally.

"do i wanna hand your ass to you?" dick smirked, stepping onto the simulation grounds. "is that even a question?"

artemis propped her hands into fists, using them to shield the bottom of her face. "i guess we'll have to see whose ass is handed to whom."

dick stepped closer to artemis, throwing the first punch. while she was cockily blocking that (which is a HILARIOUS sentence) dick kicked the back of her knees with enough force for her to fall. she struggled to get back up, but dick just kicked her down.

failed: artemis - b06

"sorry, what were you saying about my ass?" dick asked, feigning confusion.

"you're a malicious fighter, you know that?" she huffed, letting him pull her up. "dirty, dirty."

"the low road is always so much faster than the high one, arty."

artemis probably would've lobbed another morality crisis at him if it weren't for black canary walking up and clapping. "very productive week!" she congratulated them. "even the slightest amount of improvement is still improvement!"

"except for kid fraud over there," artemis grumbled.

"kid malingerer," dick added, bumping into artemis' shoulder.

wally must've sensed that they were making fun of him, because he dramatically stood from his chair and hobbled over to stand with them.

"your legs are fine, kid idiot," artemis nearly smacked her own forehead.

"they're tiredddd!" wally did his little lopsided grin that made dick melt and threw and arm around his boyfriend.

artemis stepped toward him, one hand already pointing into his chest angrily, but was interupted by black canary calling for the team's attention.

"i enjoyed being your, uh, den mother this week and look forward to working with you all in the future," black canary continued, "perhaps as teammates."

recognized: zatara - 11

dick turned away from canary, watching as zatara began typing feverishly on the zeta computer. ah, italians.

recognized: zatanna zatara a03, authorization: zatara - 11

what was with people these days and having crazy alliteration names? first sarika sarkar, then kiara carrera, and now zatanna zatara? it was badass as fuck, but still.

a short girl with straight black hair tentatively emerged from the zeta tube, fidgeting with her cellphone. she looked a lot like zatara and a little like dick grayson.

"team!" zatara called, walking over toward the training simulator. the girl followed. "i'd like you to meet my daughter, zatanna!"

"hi," she smiled, waving with her phone still in hand.

"hi!" m'gann piped up immediately. "i'm m'gann! and this is aqualad, superboy, artemis, kidflash and-"

"robin," dick introduced himself, glancing at zatara. "are you, uh, joining the team?"

"no, no!" zatara cut in quickly with an awkward laugh. "she's just here for a visit. though i am sorry we missed the training, it is something from which zatanna would benefit."

"welcome." kaldur gave a curt nod.

if she's not joining the team, is she just a civilian? in the cave? m'gann wondered to the newly-established mind link.

she's hella pretty, whatever her deal is. artemis sent, practically drooling over zatanna.

wait, artemis, you're into girls? dick asked. he'd never talked to her about her sexuality, he never even considered the chance that she might not be heterosexual. i always pegged you as straight.

that's homophobic.

i'm literally gay.

wait, wally cut in, are any of us straight?

the link went silent for a moment, before m'gann answered. con and i aren't even human. i personally don't have a preference.

me neither. connor agreed.

so we're all lgbtq. dick almost laughed out loud. that is utterly hilarious... and asterous too, i guess.

i can't believe gay people are real... wally added insightfully.

do you guys feel like the league still has us on probation? m'gann changed the topic. it's been weeks.

exactly! connor furrowed his eyebrows. like, why is marvel still hanging around?

because he's awesome. sent wally.

you think he's awesome because he waits on you, hand and foot. artemis jeered, crossing her arms.

and your point is...? wally grinned.

it almost makes one nostalgic for our tenure with red tornado as our supervisor. kaldur added, his mind-voice quiet.

at least red tornado trusted us more than our 'den mothers' ever will. artemis rolled her eyes.

we shouldn't have trusted him. red tornado BETRAYED US. connor crossed his arms, furrowing his brows. he almost killed m- ALL of us!

"are you guys... having a telepathic conversation?" zatanna asked, awkwardly pulling at her hoodie strings. "that's cool! and also, like, really rude."

dick stared at his teammates. they had subconsciously moved into a circle whilst talking and it was oh-so evident that they were having a telepathic conversation.

"it wasn't about you!" wally tried to assure her, but it didn't seem to work. unfortunately, from her point of view it definitely looked like they were talking shit behind her back.

"yeahhhh." she nodded.

"we were actually talking about how the league hasn't managed to find red tornado. it's been weeks since his attack." connor reared on black canary. "are you even looking?"

"we are looking for red tornado and the other androids that invaded, as well as their creator, t.o. morrow," black canary confirmed.

dick rolled his eyes at how rehearsed it sounded. "and yet you've found nothing," he muttered.

"even if they did find something," connor, with his ears of gold, replied, "they wouldn't tell us anyway."

black canary's expression never changed from purely stoic. "it's strictly league business and i can't discuss the details with you. do not pursue this."

the room went silent as connor and black canary continued to stare at eachother. "anyway." zatara cleared his throat. "why don't you kids give zatanna an... a tour of the cave?"

"ooh! yes! tour!" captain marvel said giddily. did he... did he not hear that zatara was talking to the kids? as in the group of people in the cave that couldn't legally drink?

"i should take wolf out for some exercise, actually." connor announced, beckoning wolf toward him. "or, actually, do you want to go play fetch with him, marvel? i'll join you in a bit."

"ooh! totally!" captain marvel chuckled, leading wolf out of the cave. "c'mon, boy!"

what a dumbass.

wally sighed, burying his head in dick's shoulder. "there goes my nachos."

-

kaldur lead the group toward the kitchen. somehow, the hallway did not smell like burnt cookies, though when dick arrived at the cave he was met with a very defeated m'gann and two trays of awful-looking snickerdoodles.

"we're not actually going for a tour, right?" zatanna asked as soon as they walked into the cave's main hallway.

"shhh!" wally stopped, turning back to see if the JLA members had been listening. luckily, they were enthralled their own conversation.

"of course we're not." artemis smirked. "it's a cave, what more do you expect?"

"egnahc otni ym naicigam stnemrag!" zatanna muttered and her hoodie and sweats were replaced with a black and white magician's outfit. "my dad told me to 'dress casual'. you all aren't in civvies, i felt underdressed."

"i guess she has magic, guys," wally announced.

"we can see that, baywatch."

"so, if we're not going on a tour, what are we doing?" zatanna asked.

dick grinned, looking her right in the eyes. "going to hunt down red tornado."

kaldur paused in his step, turning to look at them all. he took his time making eye contact with each and every one of them before speaking. "yes, we are."

"wow," zatanna mused, "out loud and everything!"

-

"you're not gonna, like... tell on us or anything, right?" artemis asked zatanna, showing her into the bioship.

"that would be no fun," zatanna smirked, pressing her wrists together. "besides, i can't tattle if you kidnap me."

"oh, she's gonna fit in so well."

dick smirked at the lovers' affair, sitting down in his chair and watching as the ship moulded a usb port for him. he plugged his phone in, shuffling one of cage the elephant's albums.

m'gann lifted the bioship up, camouflaging her and flying them right over top of marvel's head. she didn't need to do that, they weren't even going that direction, but m'gann chose to be the funniest person on the ship that day.

"shit," wally announced, dropping his burrito. (???? where did he get a burrito from?) "black canary's calling."

"make up an excuse!" artemis yelled.

"uhhhhh, hello there." wally put the phone to his ear, awkwardly scooping his burrito up off the ground and continuing to eat it. "no, we're just showing zatanna around happy harbour. there's not much to tour around in the cave."

dick watched as wally's lie became smoother and more fermented as the conversation progressed. god, he was charming. that was part of his charm. his charm was part of his charm.

"an hour? rob wanted to show her that laser tag place. yeah. no, yeah, we'll definitely grab something to eat. yeah, okay, bye." wally hung up the phone, collapsing into her chair. "why'd she have to call me? kaldur's the group leader!"

"broken arm?" artemis suggested. "she knows you can't do anything. you need marvel to do it all for you."

wally swatted at her, missing due to the fact that he didn't have metre-long arms. "she said we were trustworthy kids. how's it feel to be completely smashing that?"

"as if she believes that," dick spun his chair around, rolling his eyes. "she said it for zatara's sake."

"so how are we going to find red tornado?" zatanna asked, fiddling with her phone again. "if the league has been looking for him for weeks and come up empty, how are we supposed to find him?"

dick pressed his fingers together in an 'evil menace' sort of way. "batman has obviously been looking in the most logical places, right?"

"but that hasn't worked," artemis countered.

"exactly. we need an illogical solution. a truly dumb idea."

everyone stared at wally who, as innocent as he was handsome, looked extremely confused. "wait... i don't know if i should be offended or not."

"depends on if you have an idea or not." zatanna shrugged.

"oh." wally smirked. "i have a great one."

BELLE REVE
OCTOBER 10th — 18:34 CDT

"this place gives me the heebie jeebies," wally whispered to dick as they followed warden strange down the prison halls.

"how so?" dick asked, gesturing to a 6'6" swoll man banging angrily on the cell bars just next to them. "so many potential friends."

"fuck yeah!" wally whispered to his boyfriend, before his tone dropped to a serious note. "we walked into a federal prison in superhero uniforms, rob. they're going to assault us."

"i brought shurikens for a reason."

"you bring shurikens wherever we go."

dick shrugged. "they're stuck in here. and either way, we put 'em away once, iubit, we can put them away again."

"this place just freaks me out." wally locked his gaze downward, fiddling with his hands.

all dick wanted was to grab wally's hand and make him feel safe again.

"and here we are!" warden strange cut off their conversation, gesturing to the visitor's cell he'd been leading them to. ivo was already there, sitting quietly, handcuffs attached to the bare table. "ivo, you have visitors."

"i cannot stress how much we appreciate this." kaldur bowed his head, shaking warden strange's hand.

"think of it as a gesture of good will; you stopped a devastating prison breakout last month for me." the warden smiled, unlocking the door and letting the seven of them in. "i'll leave you be."

dick walked over to the little man, placing his hands on the table. "let's make this easy, shall we? where is t.o. morrow hiding out?"

"and where are his REDS?!" connor added, his tone a bit too angry already.

ivo stared through dick's domino mask, seeming rather vacant. that's what prison'll do to someone, it seems. "and why should i know?"

"he's your biggest competitor in the whole 'evil android' game, isn't he?" wally joined in, putting his hands onto the desk, so close to dick's that their pinkies were touching. "i'd bet you keep tabs on him."

"that certainly seems like something i would do."

"so, spill. where is he?" wally asked.

"and why in the world would i do that?" ivo grinned. "i'm not compromising my morals for some... some gang of teens."

kaldur stepped closer to m'gann, lowering his voice. "he knows. probe his mind for the information."

m'gann went silent for a moment, her eyes fading into an electrifying green, right until they didn't. "i can't."

"i've faced your kind once or twice before. besides, i thought you heroes were supposed to be good?" ivo stared at m'gann. "probing my mind is not permitted by the law."

"for fuck's sake," zatanna whined, crossing her arms. "llet su erehw o.t. worrom si gnidih tuo."

the spell worked like a charm (or perhaps the charm worked like a spell) and ivo immediately told them the information down to the exact centimetre.

the second that his mouth stopped moving, ivo growled. "what the FUCK just HAPPENED?!"

dick whistled appreciatively, raising his eyebrows at zatanna. "are you sure you don't want to join the team?"

she smirked, shrugging. "you cannot, zatanna," she put on a very thick italian accent, holding her hands to match. "it's too dangerous, zatanna, stay away from vigilantism, zatanna!"

"what a shame," artemis commented. "that was really asterous."

zatanna's cheeks went rosy and she suddenly found the wall very interesting. "thanks. i'm nowhere near as good as zatara, but it's pretty convenient, y'know, when it works."

-

"listen up!" kaldur stood out of his seat. the bioship whizzed quietly as, slowly, everyone turned their attention to the man. "the league will soon get wind of our... heart-to-heart with ivo, so black out all external communication until we finish our endeavour. we haven't much time."

"finish our endeavour?" connor growled, clenching his fists. "don't you mean DESTROY red tornado?"

"are you truly convinced that he is a traitor?" kaldur asked.

connor yelled, "aren't you?"

"i am not convinced. tornado should be given the chance to prove that he is more than a weapon designed by someone else, don't you think?"

that made connor back down, probably due to the fact that the sentence was constructed to do just that. kaldur had a way with choosing his words to help with his own desired outcome.

nonetheless, dick still agreed with him on the red tornado situation. if he had truly, in all independency, betrayed them, they would have known about it by now. he was an android, he had the entire justice league database in his head.

in one second, he could destroy the justice league. in one minute, he could talk to the world leaders and destroy the world. in one hour, he could completely eliminate humanity.

if he had betrayed them, he had played the long game, but it had been weeks and he had done nothing. so dick believed that tornado had been either kidnapped, corrupted, or blackmailed.

fingers crossed.

"soooo," artemis drawled. "what's the limit on your magic? could you teleport us? or force the reds to surrender?"

"or create world peace?" zatanna mocked. "no. hell, zatara couldn't do any of that."

wally asked, "what is the limit, then?"

zatanna said, "it's complicated."

"sounds nonchalant." dick laughed. "hey, the opposite of nonchalant would be chalant, right?"

he looked at connor for a response, but the clone just glared at him.

"i need to know a spell front-to-back," zatanna continued like dick had never spoken. "obviously it needs to be physically possible, and y'know magic takes up a lot of my energy, so the bigger the spell, the harder it is. i can't just make the impossible possible, y'know?"

artemis nodded like she did know, though her knowledge on the mystic arts was very much nothing at all. dick smirked at how entranced she seemed to be with zatanna. it was cute.

artemis, cute? dick nearly laughed aloud.

"don't be chalant, guys." dick shook his head dramatically. "stay whelmed. feel the aster."

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
OCTOBER 10th — 20:22 MDT

"i recommend you stay behind. it may be-"

zatanna cut off kaldur with an eye roll. "dangerous? is that an order?"

kaldur cocked his head in a way that strangers would read as condescending but dick would read as fondness. "...no. do as you see fit."

zatanna smirked, stepping out of the bioship. "i appreciate the concern, but i'm more of an ally than an albatross."

everyone who had the ability to turned on their stealth mode. so that the seven of them blended in with the dark forest outside. it wasn't seamless, but upon first glance, they were invisible.

"their base should be..." dick scanned the several mountains surrounding them, before settling on one and pointing at it. "there."

unfortunately, coming at highway speeds from 'there' was red tornado, looking angry. or, as angry as an animate man of metal could look. (which is angrier than one would think)

the wind was encapsulating, so powerful it could move a building, or several. it knocked the team, even the heavier players like kaldur and connor, down with ease.

the minute red tornado got close, he sent out five giant, level-5 tornadoes to torment the team. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" m'gann yelled up at red tornado. her voice was blown away by the raging wind.

doesn't look like he's on our side. m'gann sent.

fuck this. artemis held her hands in front of her face in an effort to stop the wind riling up sand into her eyes. my arrows are fucking useless.

wait. dick stilled, watching the tornadoes with close, chalant, eyes. either he's half blind or the tornadoes are carving a message into the sand.

wally disappeared for a second, reappearing just a smidge off from where he was one second prior. it says 'play dead'.

which means we're gonna fake-fight like hell. kaldur nodded his head in earnest, pulling out his water-bearers.

and lose like a bunch of bastards! dick grinned, throwing a bird-a-rang at the ex-league member. it was easily consumed by the giant tornado on his feet.

wally ran around in a circle, making his own tornado and sending it at the android. "how'd you like them lemons?"

red tornado found those lemons very easy to destroy.

artemis fired explosive arrows at the android, bracing herself for when the wind knocked the right back at herself. kaldur ran at tornado, jumping up as if to punch him, but it only resulted it a metallic punch in the face. god, that probably hurt like hell.

m'gann flew up and charged at him, but she soon succumbed to the whirlwinds. dick ran at him, veering just a bit too much to the left and whoops getting 'knocked out' by a tornado.

connor attacked red tornado from one side and wally the other, but the android managed to weave out of the way and simply let them take out eachother. finally, zatanna was all that was left.

"uh, fuck. od sa i dnammoc- no, fuck. uhm, pots htiw eht-"

her spell was cut short by tornado grabbing her by the neck, waiting for her to 'pass out' and launching her unconscious body to the ground.

dick closed his eyes. it didn't really matter if they were opened or not, since he wore an opaque mask, but closing them sold the whole "knocked out" thing. to himself, at least.

his eyelids were nearly as dark as the night sky beyond. cold wind and sand lapped at his face, hitting it with a scornful velocity that made his skin feel raw. the wind groaned like metal.

it sounded like another android.

dick wondered what wally was thinking about. he wondered if the date for rudy's hearing had been set yet. dick nearly sighed, struggling to keep his breathing even.

"truly riveting performance, brother," red volcano's deep voice had dick's eyes snap open in a second. and there he was, rising from the rock like he was preparing for a broadway solo. "play dead? i have all of your memories and a next-generation processor, i know your next move before you've even finished your last one."

red volcano raised his hands and a giant piece of ground rose from behind him. it was larger than a cruise ship and even marked with a name - play dead.

what a douche. zatanna sent.

we'll fight him now, while it's one v eight. kaldur sent, standing up with his water-bearers in hand.

the team followed suit, staring up at the tall red android. the giant wall of rock flew toward them, turning the world grey whilst dust rained down.

connor (literally) leapt into action first, jumping up and breaking the rock into as many small pieces as he could. kaldur and m'gann joined after, using water bearers and telekinesis to get rid of as many boulders as they could manage.

unfortunately, that rock was fucking giant. red volcano dug up the fucking earth to throw that shit at them like the reincarnation of gaia he was. dick stared up at the dozens of boulders, dodging them like it was a lethal game of astroids.

red tornado, instead of joining their side, flew away. leaving them faced to defeat a guy that knew all their moves even before they did, by themselves.

"COWARD!" connor yelled at the ever-shrinking figure of tornado flying away.

"he wouldn't betray us again!" m'gann shook her head, flying up and toward volcano. he swatted her aside like a fly.

artemis and kaldur both ran toward him, but volcano simply opened up a giant ravine below their feet. dick watched them fall from the corner of his eye, hoping that artemis had an extra grappling hook arrow.

the ground shook as dick sloppily ran toward the ravine, grappling hook in hand. luckily, artemis and kaldur managed to swing out of the ravine, out of breath but not squished like meat-bags.

dick and artemis both sent their respective aerial objects flying at red volcano. artemis' arrow encased him in mush and dick's bird-a-rang spread his vision with smoke, but volcano just pulled himself out of both, creating a rock pillar to shoot himself toward the stars. a second later, two more rock pillars emerged from the ground, one for each non-powered hero.

dick was flung back by the pillar, inhaling sand before coughing it up violently. god, it was like these androids loved to see him asphyxiate or something.

red volcano raised his metal hand toward the yellowstone super-volcano, clutching his fist as the ground underneath them rumbled low and aggressively. lava began spilling out of the mountain, slowly, but surely, travelling toward the young heroes.

"shit!" wally exclaimed, running over to kaldur. super-volcano! he's activating a stage two eruption. if it gets to stage three, expect the entire west hemisphere to go into a nuclear-fucking-winter!

dozens of cities will turn into modern-day vesuviuses. dick sent.

stop him! kaldur commanded.

connor and kaldur both ran at red volcano, but they too were smacked by rock the dwayne johnson. even wally, who was the second fastest person on earth, was not fast enough to evade volcano's brain.

so he wasn't lying about knowing our every move. wally joked, shakily picking himself up after being launched into the sand.

dick threw explosives at the android, but not single one even punctured him. there was no EMP this time—there was no way to defeat them.

he doesn't know me. zatanna walked up to red volcano, raising her hands into the sky.

"ecrof a dlofdnilb revo ruoy seye, bitch!" she conjured.

a black mask wrapped around volcano's eyes, blinding him. he immediately began struggling to pull it off. it gave the team enough time to get up and recollect with eachother before volcano managed to rip the blindfold off. even angrier than before, he outstretched his hand and pure molton magma began enveloping the terrain.

"uh oh," wally said.

"he can't fight a seven-front war!" kaldur yelled, sprinting at the android. "from all sides, now!"

wally ran at red volcano. giant, burning, rocks of magma were being chucked at him, but wally avoided them with ease, drawing volcano's attention solely on himself.

connor and kaldur leapt at the android while he was distracted, but red volcano swatted them away without even a glance.

dick watched as m'gann went invisible, telekinetically contorting red volcano's body to prevent him from hurting everyone else. this backfired as chutes of lava exploded all around her. she screamed, but she didn't sizzle. so she was probably okay.

"M'GANN!" connor yelled, running toward her non-sizzling body instead of the android attacking them all.

red volcano jumped in front of connor's path, punching him. he went flying. that was probably the largest amount of flying he would ever be able to do in his life.

m'gann was unconscious from her proximity to heat. red volcano just scooped her up, holding her limp body with one measly hand. lava burned around them, so hot that dick could feel his skin burning.

"etaerc a egarim fo eht nosrep ni tnorf fo em!" zatanna yelled from behind dick, and suddenly there were dozens of wallys (wallies?) zipping past him and toward m'gann.

while red volcano was frantically hitting the wally mirages, turning them into smoke, the real wally managed to run up and grab m'gann, pulling her out of his metallic grip.

wally skidded over to beside dick, holding m'gann's limp body bridal-style. "HOT!!" wally panted. "SHE CAN'T MUCH LONGER!"

dick didn't have any time to even reply, as red volcano began heading over to finish m'gann off. dick pulled out one of his electrifying bird-a-rangs, pulling his arm back in preparation to throw, when a giant tidal wave smacked red volcano hard, forcing him back into one of the slow-growing lava pools.

dick turned to kaldur; that was a lot of water. but kaldur just shook his head, pointing to behind him, where red torpedo was floating on top of another stream.

red volcano created a rock pillar underneath him, pulling himself out of the lava, but red tornado flew at it, smashing it in two. red torpedo hit him with more water and then red inferno launched a half dozen fireballs his way.

shot after shot, punch after punch, red volcano was backed into a corner with no room to breathe. he was stuck in his own lava with nowhere to go.

"sister! brothers, stop!" red volcano yelled, grabbing red inferno by her hands.

she used his strength against him, pulling him down into the lava. red torpedo rushed in to help her, and red tornado flew back, stepping on red volcano and sinking all four of them down into the lava. red volcano stuck his hand into the air as the rest of his body slowly melted to become one with the lava.

"father would be so disappointed," red volcano stated, clenching his hand and beginning stage three of the eruption.

and then red volcano was gone. red torpedo's and inferno's heads slowly fell under the lava, but red tornado still had his torso unscathed. red tornado seemed to accept his fate, closing his eyes and preparing to sink down. until connor jumped over, grabbing him, and pulling him to shore.

red tornado had no legs.

"it's stage three!" wally yelled, turning to tornado. "we need to vent pressure ASAP and you need to divert the ash cloud. we can't have a nuclear winter."

"it is much more fun in fallout than in real life!" artemis agreed.

wally ignored her, turning to dick. "triangulate around the pressure locus."

dick nodded, pulling up a geological map of the volcano on his hologlove. three red dots appeared in a triangle a the base of the mountain. "uhhhh, there, there, and there."

artemis nodded, quickly nocking three explosive arrows and glancing at the map. she shot the arrows, watching as they curved perfectly to hit where the pressure points were. they exploded loudly, creating new paths for the lava to escape and lowering the pressure tenfold.

still, a giant mushroom of ash was rising into the air. it already covered every inch of the sky for the entire national park. red tornado slowly created a tornado underneath him, flying up to the blowhole.

he was too slow. they weren't going to make it. the air was already too full of ash and too much lava had already spilled out. they were going to die here. cover their graves in lava.

"is this actually gonna work?" zatanna asked, watching as red tornado ascended the mountain.

"i've studied geological science for the last decade." wally turned to her. "nobody's ever stopped a super-volcano from erupting before."

"but wally's a genius." dick pressed his thumb into his wrist until it hurt, pushing his anxiety down until he couldn't feel it. "if anyone can do it, he can."

"and if i can't, i can run us out of here."

lie.

wally could get one of them out of the blast radius in time, maybe two if he's lucky. the rest of them were left to die.

red tornado finally made it to the centre of the ash cloud and expanded his tornado. it was so large that it was frightening. even from the base of the mountain, dick could feel the wind lapping at his face, pulling at his hair. but it worked. the ash shroom was sucked into the tornado and transferred up to space.

"i wonder if that's gonna like... fuck up the iss or anything," artemis said.

dick shrugged, watching as the lava rolling down the mountain slowly cooled, turning into rock. wally jumped up and down, grinning like a maniac as red tornado made his way back down to them.

"holy shit! i'm a fucking genius!! i'm putting this on my college application!!!"

"that'll reveal your identity to the education board, kid idiot," artemis argued, but she was smiling too.

"nah, i'll just say that you recruited me as your 'scientific advisor'. with eight witnesses, they'll have to believe it!" wally rested his arm on top of dick's head, still grinning. "that was exhilarating."

-

later, the team stood in morrow's lab, watching as dick and wally fiddled with wires and code. the audience was more-so awkward than it was pressurizing, especially because kaldur kept wanting them to explain what they were doing. they were fixing red tornado's voice-box, idiot.

"what's that yellow wire for?" kaldur asked, pointing to a wire sticking out of red tornado's knee. having your calves melted off tended to reveal your innards.

dick pinched his nose bridge, ignoring him and continuing to tinker with red tornado's throat. wally seemed to enjoy the constant questions, which didn't surprise dick. wally truly was a genius and he enjoyed teaching other people, especially with science-related things.

"well, kal, it was melted by the lava, but it would've gone all the way down his calf, being used for movement of his heel."

"how can you tell?"

"all the wires are colour-coded, see? yellow is movement, and it's along where the posterior tibial nerve would be in humans, so i'm assuming it would affect the heel."

"wow! so what does-"

"okay, we're done," dick interrupted, stepping back from the table. "voice-box should work, and i stopped wally from making you have a french accent."

"awwwhhhhh," wally whined. "i wanted le tornado rouge."

"yes, it seems i can speak again," red tornado said, closing the open part of his neck. "sans my legs."

"you sacrificed yourself for the sake of the planet-" kaldur started.

"it was humanity that was saved, the planet would have survived either way," red tornado cut in. "though, it was not me but rather my brother and sister."

"my point is this: you were never the mole."

"no. i left to protect you all from further attack and to find my creator," red tornado's tone changed slightly and he looked away from the team. "t.o. morrow."

sometime during their heart-to-heart wally had wondered off, probably due to boredom, and so dick patted tornado twice and went to go find his boyfriend. in the corner of the lab was a huge bin of spare parts in which wally was digging through.

the redhead held up a red metallic hand, a unique colour of jewel on each knuckle. wally slipped it on his hand, flipping off dick with a grin. "souvenir!"

"best one yet." dick ran his finger over the gauntlet's gems, before turning to the bin. "there's so many extra parts."

"failed androids, i guess."

"hey, red," dick called. "we can totally rebuild you."

"with three legs this time!" wally nodded.

"or eight!" dick dug out a pile of red and black legs. "you could be... the iron spider."

everyone ignored the couple's ideas. "so why did you become our den mother in the first place?" connor asked, leaning against the wall like 2012 avril lavigne.

"i was the pragmatic choice," red tornado answered. "i don't eat, i don't sleep, i have no second life."

"but you do have advanced ai programming designed to learn, adapt, and evolve!" wally said, playing with his new souvenir's fingers.

"hello, megan! you wanted to become more human."

"you couldn't do that with the league, though, they're austere," artemis said.

"yeah." dick nodded. "you can't learn emotions from batman; i speak from experience."

"you can learn 'em from me, though," wally said, pointing both his thumb and the gauntlet's thumb at himself.

kaldur said, "the cave was not only a proving ground for us, but for you as well."

"perhaps these statements are true," red tornado said. "if i understand the definition of the word correctly, i have come to... care for you all."

"you're practically a meat-bag already," connor said, the slightest hint of a smile on his face. if superman wasn't going to be the father that connor deserved, perhaps red tornado would be.

-

"so, did you enjoy your 'kidnapping'?" dick asked, sitting on the ground in front of wally's chair so that he could have his hair braided.

"it was the best kidnapping a girl could ask for." zatanna smiled.

"first of many, i hope." artemis raised her eyebrow.

"we were gone for seven hours without a trace, so i expect i'm going to be grounded." zatanna sighed. "but maybe... someone will kidnap me from my room."

artemis saluted zatanna with a grin. "see you then."

"we will await the day when you aren't grounded, zee." dick clutched his heart. "until then, we must exchange numbers."

"i'm starving," wally whined. "and bruised. but mostly starving."

"we've already been out for seven hours." m'gann smiled, rerouting the bioship. "i guess one more couldn't hurt."