chapter thirteen - alpha male

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MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 23rd — 06:34 EDT

dick yawned, snuggling closer to wally, who just-so-happened to be sitting in the same chair as him. "you know, when b made me go home to get checked out? i kinda figured we would've stayed there."

they were sitting in one of the many rooms inside of the mount justice caverns, with artemis, m'gann, and connor all scattered around the room. everyone looked exhausted.

wally groaned, pointing at where black canary and green arrow were standing not ten feet away. "it's them. it's their fault that we're here at six in the morning."

"with all that's going on—with the attack and then red tornado's disappearance—we think it's better to have you all here, rather than spread out across the country," green arrow explained, more dramatically than need be. wally had scoffed loudly at disappearance but dick figured it would be better to assume the best. even if he almost gave them all hypoxia.

dick nodded tiredly. half of the justice league was here repairing the cave after the attack. green lantern was commanding a whole ass construction army to rebuild the broken architecture whilst atom synched the cave security protocols with the watchtower's.

"wally and i are dating by the way," dick announced. "in case you didn't know." he opened his mouth as if to say more, as if to also announce his real name, before closing it and readjusting his sunglasses.

not yet, he thought, i don't trust them enough yet.

the team echoed back with choruses of "we knew", "duh", and one very sarcastic "oh em gee?! i didn't know!"

"you knew?!" wally exclaimed, sitting up in their seat. "how?!"

"superhearing." connor glared.

"robin calls you petnames in a different language." m'gann shrugged. "i can understand every language."

"i didn't think you were trying to hide it," kaldur said with a chuckle. "because, if you were, you weren't doing a very good job."

wally's jaw dropped.

"also weren't you two literally making out when we went camping?" artemis rolled her eyes.

"wowwwww!!!" wally shook his head. "perv!!!!"

"am NOT!"

"are too!"

"regardless," kaldur interupted their argument. "we're happy for you two."

"thank you, kal." dick smiled, pulling out his phone to check the time.

"well then," he said, "i guess we're not going to school today."

-

06:47 | dick -> barbara

dick: so i went swimming last nughg right????? and so Maybe i was being an idiot and just Happened to hit my head and pass out in the water
dick: bruce is forcinh me to stay home from school bevause i "couldve died" and was "being reckless" and "near-drowning isnt good for your body, richard"

barbara: it is not even seven in the morninb and you.,.,. you are complaining about your near-death experienve
barbara: never change, richard

dick: so i wont be at school today :(((-(((1(11? :////:: gahjhw

barbara: okay dick i will miss you
barbara: get some sleep

dick: i will miss you too, eileen

barbara: now thats just dirty

-

"i think that, instead of making us all just sit here, we should actually try to piece this together." dick crossed his arms, directing his voice toward where the justice league was working. "why does no one think it's suspicious that red tornado would turn on us after years of service? he's an android, it's not even that he's an undercover espionage."

the justice league just ignored him, continuing to drain the water and repair the fire damage. which was not very helpful to dick and his compulsion to solve puzzles.

"if we have to be here, can someone at least make a pot of coffee?" artemis groaned, rolling off of her chair and onto the floor. kaldur got up, getting everyone excited that he was going to make them coffee, but he duped them, instead walking over to where batman was standing.

green arrow walked over, stoically placing a plate full of danishes onto the coffee table in front of them. "breakfast."

dick pushed the plate away in disgust. partly because the thought of eating was making him nauseous, and partly because the justice league were being assholes. "thanks, but no thanks. we want answers."

green arrow just glared at them (dick could only assume, he was wearing a mask) and picked the danishes back up, much to wally's contention. the ginger narrowed his eyes. "leave the danishes."

and thus green arrow did. wally politely offered everyone in the room a danish and, when everyone said no, he ate the entire plate. which wasn't unlike him, wally needed an insane amount of food everyday due to his metabolism and the sheer quantity of exercise he got in a day.

"you KNEW!" connor's yell echoed through the cave. dick turned his head toward the guy as he jumped over to kaldur, grabbing his shoulders and yanking him a foot in the air. "you knew and you didn't say anything!"

finally something interesting was happening. dick had been torn between just going home or pulling wally into a closet and making out with him. but this? this was just... strange. connor was an angry guy, but even this was intense for him. the rest of the team ran over to them and, like the bastard he could be, batman just stood aside and watched their dispute.

"what are you doing?" m'gann yelled.

"you knew that we had a mole!" connor continued. "it's your fault that m'gann almost died!"

"you knew that we had a mole?" dick asked, hating the fact that his voice sounded heartbroken. he looked from kaldur to batman. they knew and they didn't tell him. this was it. he was out of the loop. he had been replaced. he wasn't good enough.

"put him down, con!" m'gann ordered, and connor reluctantly obeyed. "aqualad could've died too."

"robin basically did die," wally muttered. dick elbowed him in the ribs.

"in santa prisca, the possibility of a mole was revealed to me," kaldur stared down. "i assume that it was red tornado—whether by his own will or coercion."

"and you didn't tell us?" artemis yelled. "what the fuck?? what the fuck, kal."

"i- i sought to protect you all."

"protect us?" wally's mouth hung open in shock. "that information could've saved our lives!"

"m'gann almost died!" connor yelled. he was really cramming that information into everyone's heads. wait, who almost died???

"enough." batman cut in, crossing his arms. "due to red tornado's absence, you will be overseen by rotating supervisors. captain marvel volunteered to take the first shift."

captain marvel, who was unable to read the room, stepped forward with a wave. "i'm totally looking forward to hanging out with you guys!"

connor ignored him, turning back to kaldur. "i will destroy red tornado and after that i will-"

"you will do nothing of the sort," bruce said, cutting connor off. "red tornado is a justice league member and, as such, he is a justice league responsibility."

dick looked around at his teammates. now, he wouldn't call them best friends but even this... this animosity was so thick you could cut it with a knife. or smoke it to get high. two kinds of people.

"now, i have a mission for you all. i'm sending you to northern india to investigate a series of strange gorilla attacks, the latest of which involved the gotham city mayor."

"we're being sent to look at apes because hamilton hill is an idiot?" artemis whispered to dick. "sounds like the JLA wants us off the continent."

"is this the only thing you could find to distract us?!" connor muttered, balling his fists.

"you've gotta be joking." wally stared at batman, whose cowl never seemed to change expressions.

"i would never joke about a mission. mayor hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents. aqualad, it's a 5 hour flight to northern india, i suggest you get your team rested and fed on the way there."

"yeah, aqualad's team! 'cause you know how much aqualad just loves to look out for us!" wally smiled, the sarcasm leaking off his tongue like liquid poison.

"what a leader!" artemis joined in, fake gushing.

kaldur didn't respond, which did make dick pity him slightly. artemis and wally were being malevolent, but maybe it was justified. maybe if dick was team leader this would've gone differently. maybe if dick was dead this would've gone differently.

-

once everyone had grabbed their go-bags, they boarded the bioship. connor said goodbye to sphere and pet him which, for connor, was the equivalent of a full-on cuddle session.

captain marvel decided to come with them too, which just made everything worse (in dick's humble opinion.) he was giddy and energetic and friendly and part of the justice league and, overall, everything that dick did not want to deal with at 7am on a friday while he was running on 24 hours of no sleep.

"we're gonna have a blast!" captain marvel yelled, "oohing" and "ah-ing" at how the ship materialized a seat just for him.

dick set his bag down in the bioship, sitting down in his chair and leaning it back until it was a couple degrees off of horizontal. he put in his earbuds, switching on "human sadness" by the voidz, and closed his eyes.

only for them to fly open again when wally bounded over and almost pushed him out of his own chair. "what the fuck?" dick glared at him.

"marvel is actively speaking to me every second of every minute when i sit in my chair," wally whispered, pouting. "i am so tired."

dick's frown melted, and he turned on his side so that wally could lay next to him comfortably. "my guess? the JLA blames us for the red fiasco and won't trust us on our own mission," dick whispered back.

"it looks to me like there's only one person to blame," wally said, making no effort for kaldur to not hear him.

dick's frown reappeared. "i think it was a..."

"a dick move?" wally smirked.

"yeah. but the tip came from someone in santa prisca, who knew it would've been correct?"

"it would've done us a lot better by at least having the information." wally yawned, which just made dick yawn in return. "half of us were on the brink of death."

dick just nodded, his eyelids drooping. the last thing he said before he passed out was, "did you know that dick means look in romani slang?"

NORTHERN INDIA
SEPTEMBER 23rd — 21:36 IST

m'gann opened a hole in the bottom of the bioship, hovering above a clearing. dick and artemis attached lines to their belts, jumping out of the ship and landing silently inside the jungle.

they detached their lines, watching as they flew back up into what just looked like the sky. artemis opened her bow, nodding to dick and slipping into the dark jungle.

dick did just the same, but in the opposite direction. he was focused on the job, but man, the thought of spiders in the dark jungle freaked him out. thankfully, it took just a few minutes for dick to clear the area.

"south and west are clear, switch into stealth mode," dick reported, adjusting his earpiece. "artemis?"

"north and east are too."

dick nodded, then cussed under his breath at how no one could see him. and now too much time had passed that it would be awkward for him to say something. god, he was an idiot.

dick meandered back over to where the bioship was, watching as the rest of the team exited it, now that the perimeter was certified safe. captain marvel stared at the surrounding jungle like a kid in a candy store, which was... strange. but marvel had always been a strange guy.

"listen up," kaldur called their attentions. "we'll go over the missions parameters before heading out-"

wally sneered, grabbing dick's hand. "we all know what we're doing. it's just recon."

"it's a gorilla. how hard can it be?" artemis smirked, tying her hair into a high ponytail. "we don't need to go over parameters with a guy that doesn't trust us."

"trust is the sole reason teams—and missions—can succeed," m'gann muttered.

"robin and kid, we started this team-"

"because the league was keeping secrets from us." dick interupted.

"did you forget that?" wally patronized. "like you forgot to tell us about the mole?"

"good luck with him," dick said, and he and wally melted into the shadows to the sound of m'gann and connor beginning to argue. wally's black spandex and his own costume (which was designed to be worn in the dark) perfectly meshed with the forestry around them.

after a couple minutes of running, (though, for wally, it was more like incredibly slow walking) the pair slowed down, and dick pulled up a map on his hologlove.

"we're pretty far from where hill disappeared, but there was another attack labeled 'suspicious circumstances' up ahead," dick noted, turning to where wally was standing. "wanna head there?"

wally nodded, taking dick's hand again as they walked in what seemed like a random direction. "don't you find this creepy? just an endless jungle where you can't even see."

"yes." dick pouted. "it's so thick that we would barely even see any animals. especially the spiders."

"have you ever been to india?"

dick nodded, thinking back to around eight years ago. all he could really remember was watching the stars, how bright they were, and how his parents taught him the constellations. "once. i've probably been to every country that you can name."

"you haven't been to vatican city."

"vatican city is barely a country. more a... a papal state," dick argued. "how'd you even guess that?"

"the day i met you i asked you if you were from there." wally shrugged. "you said that you'd never even gone."

dick burst out laughing at the memory. "you thought my accent was italian! oh my god, i forgot about that."

wally smiled, patting dick's head. "and from that moment on we became best fr-"

one must assume he meant to finish the sentence but, unfortunately, wally couldn't, as they were suddenly attacked by giant vultures. wally was knocked over and abrasively scratched, but dick had gracefully ducked and rolled out of the way.

wally screamed, running from the giant vulture. the second that the ginger was out of harm's way, dick threw a bird-a-rang at the vulture, and it exploded into a pink mist. which was far worse and more disgusting than getting pummelled and eaten alive.

"run!" wally yelled, and they certainly did their best. see, running in a jungle is nearly impossible. there's so many things to trip over and even more things one must duck for.

so it was more like they started speed-parkouring, like a giant life-or-death obsticle course. in the dark.

"these are some proactive vultures!" dick yelled, jumping over a giant tree root.

"proactive and super-sized!" wally yelled back, swinging himself underneath a low-hanging tree branch. "are you thinking-"

"kobra venom?" dick paused, looking up to the canopy. "definitely."

it seemed as though pausing and staring at the jungle canopy when you're being chased by giant birds hopped up on drugs was so obviously a bad idea that it needn't be taught, but dick was quite unique.

both of the vultures dived at him, weaving through the jungle obstacles so smoothly it was almost beautiful. and then they smacked dick in the face and pecked at him and clawed at him until he fell to the ground. that was less beautiful.

wally yanked one of the birds off of him, but the other one was persistent. strangely enough, it was wearing a collar, as if it were a pet or... or as if it were a lackey.

dick shoved a bird-a-rang into the collar's crack, breaking it almost in two. grabbing onto the collar, he yanked it with all of his strength. it came off into his hands and the bird flew away, no longer interested in its prey. "walls, the collars!"

wally seemed to understand what he was saying immediately. he zoomed around in a circle and then zapped the collar with all his electrical energy. it worked well, the collar fell off and the vulture survived. kind of. it was definitely a bit fried in the head.

"are you alright?" wally asked, holding dick's face in his hands. "you're all cut up."

dick pulled himself out of wally's hands and stood up. now that his adrenaline was cooling off, his entire body started to fucking ache. that bird seemed to have scratched him wherever it could. "for someone with the nickname "robin", i sure hate birds a lot."

wally picked up the broken collar, staring at it. "so, someone with access to kobra venom's behind this."

dick nodded. "and i bet we're not the only ones who were attacked by tripping animals."

listen, please. kaldur's voice suddenly echoed through dick's head.

oh, nice! wally sent. aqualad's voice in my head! i sure missed that!

hey, aqualad, kf and i were just attacked by some vultures. dick crossed his arms. though, since we're moles you probably think we attacked ourselves!

if he did, he wouldn't tell you! artemis replied, and dick almost laughed at it. god, gothamites were funny.

superboy, are you online? m'gann asked. or are you just pouting?

busy, he replied. call back later.

what gets me, wally started, is how nonchalant kaldur's being about it.

he should be chalant, dick sent. wayyy chalant, like extremely chalant.

how are we meant to be a team if our leader can't even trust us with one secret? artemis asked. dick agreed with her statement to some extent.

or if our teammate can't trust us to take care of ourselves? m'gann's question was definitely aimed and connor and dick was very interested in what went down.

kaldur, did you really think that rob or i could've been the mole? wally asked. we've known you for years. we've worked with you and been your friends for years.

ouch. dick would hate to be kaldur right now!

trust is a two-way street, kal. artemis spat. you'd hate it if we kept secrets, right?

but we'd never do that to you, m'gann added.

ENOUGH. kaldur yelled, he seemed quite angry! captain marvel and i were attacked by elephants with control collars on.

the same ones used at belle reve, m'gann added.

the captain was captured, and now we must act as a team to save him.

under your leadership? artemis sneered.

i'm the elected leader, kaldur spat. if you wish to change that, i will happily step down and we can have a vote after we finish the mission. until then, I'M in command.

-

"you really think captain marvel's in there?" wally asked with trepidation, pointing to the building just twenty metres in front of the team.

"you're telling me that you think that this run-down creepy laboratory in the middle of the indian jungle is not suspicious?" dick asked, bewildered.

"captain marvel was taken this direction, and like robin said, this is the only building for miles," kaldur told wally.

"i'll go invisible and check it out," m'gann said, throwing on her hood and disappearing.

"wait! wait!" robin whisper-yelled, and m'gann reappeared, just a foot from where she last was. "you'll just run into the force field and trigger the alarm. i can disable it."

"i'll fly over."

"it's a giant dome," wally said, pointing to the slight shimmer over the entire compound.

"the pylons creating it are insulated, but one good shock could momentarily cause a gap." dick smirked.

wally whistled his appreciation at the science of it all, which was a bad move seeing as they were right outside where a violent criminal lived, who owned enough supply of kobra venom that they could freely test it on random animals.

dick and co. ran up to one of the pylons that made a large circle surrounding the laboratory. dick cracked one of them open via a panel, clicking a few buttons before turning back to the team.

"okay, aqualad, can you pull open the force field? it won't set off the alarm. you should be fine, given your affinity with electricity."

kaldur nodded, walking up to where dick was pointing and shoving both hand into the shimmer. immediately, the force field lit up a bright green colour as electricity flowed through both it and kaldur's arms. using all his strength, he pulled open a hole in the force field.

"artemis, you see that grey button right by the door? can you hit that with an arrow? not a specialty one, please and thank you," dick asked politely, shutting the pylon panel.

artemis did the shot perfectly, right through the hole kaldur had made, and the force field disappeared. dick looked apprehensively at the lab, but ushered the team in. it was weird that the force field was the only method of defence. almost as if they had used two different systems to divert hackers.

oh shit.

right as dick opened his mouth to tell them to retreat, the alarm went off. an obnoxiously loud siren filled the air, eliminating their element of surprise.

"MONKEYS!!!" connor yelled, his face going red with rage.

and he was right. dozens of macaque monkeys rained down off of the roof, tackling the team to the ground. each monkey had a collar on and was more violent than the last. dick frowned, grabbing three bird-a-rangs out from his utility belt.

"take off the collars!" kaldur yelled. "it'll make them passive!"

"sounds easy when the guy with inhuman strength says it!" dick yelled, flipping away from a monkey and throwing a bird-a-rang right at the collar.

"I HATE MONKEYS!!!!" connor yelled, swinging a macaque around to hit the others. when that didn't do much, he yelled about having an idea and then ran away. what a man.

two monkeys landed on top of dick, tackling to the ground. he squirmed, trying to pull his arm from underneath them in order to grab the collar. luckily, an arrow whizzed by his cheek, hitting the collar perfectly and causing the collar to break. with his arm now free, dick smashed the other monkey's collar and managed to stand up.

but with every collar the team broke, it seemed like two more macaques appeared. after what seemed like forever, the monkeys finally began to wittle down and it seemed like the team was finally winning.

i'm gonna go find captain marvel while they're distracted. m'gann sent through a newly-established mind link. dick supposed it wasn't the most horrible plan in the world.

as the four of them de-collared the last monkey, a new foe stepped out of the laboratory gates. it looked like a... a giant gorilla holding a machine gun and wearing a purple beret. the gorilla paused, before reaching a hand up and grabbing something, throwing it down onto the ground. hard.

it was m'gann.

he had sensed m'gann, even while she was naked to the human eye. the gorilla undid the safety from the machine gun, pointing it at her head.

"fuck off!" wally yelled, running straight at the gorilla and ricocheting back onto the ground. in hindsight, running as fast as the speed of sound toward an animal ten times wally's size was probably not the best course of action.

kaldur ran toward the gorilla, one water-bearer in each hand. this, once again, kept him distracted from killing m'gann, which gave her enough time to get up, extending her hand toward him.

the gorilla floated a few feet off the ground, thrashing violently. so m'gann chucked him into the wall of the building, destroying it completely. she certainly is going to make a great parent one day.

the team stepped over the wall-rubble and inside the dimly lit laboratory. a small, r2d2-like robot with a giant brain for a face stood in front of them, a tiger writhing on the floor to their left.

"it's the brain!" wally yelled, pointing at their adversary. he ogled like he was seeing his favourite celebrity, which made sense. dick had seen wally's "top ten villains" list. it was somewhat sadistic how he wanted to meet all of them.

"i can see that it's a brain, genius." artemis rolled her eyes.

"not a brain. the brain." wally jumped with excitement. he jumped. with excitement.

"in the flesh, so to speak," the brain spoke with a very strong french accent. "bonjour, mes amis."

the brain skidded over to where the gorilla was picking himself off of the floor, nudging him gently. "mallah!" the brain yelled.

honestly, dick was just impressed at how the purple beret managed to stay on mallah's head this entire time.

dick scanned the room, noticing the several pylons encasing them. mallah pulled a remote out of who-knows-where, clicking it and sending the team to the ground. dick hit the concrete floor hard. he probably would've yelped if it wasn't for the fact that his entire body was suddenly paralyzed.

the whole team was suddenly paralyzed.

artemis started cursing like a sailor, evidently trying to get up. it didn't work. she still continued to swear.

luckily, m'gann still had telekinetic abilities, even when paralyzed, and swiftly stole the remote, floating it over to where dick was laying.

i can't read other languages. she sent. i only understand them verbally.

click the top right button. dick told her. s'il vous plaît, m'amie.

the force weighing on his chest disappeared, and dick hesitantly stood up, his back aching. ever so considerate, the gorilla aimed the machine gun directly at him.

"hey, monkey!" connor, who had apparently snuck into the building through the ape-sized hole in the wall, yelled. "i. hate. you."

beside connor was a gorgeous white wolf who stole dick's attention for a long moment. what brought him back to the present was the sound of the brain shooting a laser at him, as one does.

wally moved dick out of the way just in time, before running to the next room, where dick could hear captain marvel yelling for them. dick ran over to the gorilla, throwing a couple bird-a-rangs at him. coupled with some of artemis' arrows, the two definitely did some damage.

not enough though, as the many-ton gorilla levied his gun at them, shooting bullet after bullet. like the saint he was, connor took a bullet for the pair. in fact, he took dozens!

"i've never been more appreciative of your bullet-proof-ness!" artemis yelled, nocking another arrow.

wally ran back into battle, captain marvel, cheery as ever, right behind him. right next to captain marvel stood a giant tiger, who was being treated as captain marvel's new pet. what was with everyone and their insane affinity for strays?

the brain spun around on his little robot wheels, seemingly taking into account how the turns had tabled. it was now robin, kidflash, artemis, aqualad, miss martian, superboy, and captain marvel (plus the tiger and wolf) against just the brain and the gorilla.

"this will not be our waterloo. au revoir, mes amis," the brain called out, backing himself into a corner. beside him, the gorilla pulled another menacing-looking remote out of his belt, an angry look on his face.

"everybody down!" wally yelled, and everyone heeded his instructions. they all ducked and covered, but the only thing that happened was... the lights turned off?

dick had three throwing stars in each hand, and he could feel artemis beside him in an attack position too. yet when the lights flickered back on, the brain and mallah were gone.

"the scary detonator was just... a lightswitch?" wally raised his eyebrow, looking around at his friends. "is that a win? i really hope that counts as a win."

"i don't think we win if the criminals escape, walls." dick shrugged, walking over to where said criminals were last seen. all that was left was a purple beret on the ground.

dick picked it up, thumbing the edge. the team was so unorganized today that it was a wonder they were all still alive. he shook his head, walking over to where his boyfriend was pulling a snack from one of his many snack compartments.

"heyo," dick called, tossing the beret to wally. "souvenir?"

wally grinned, putting it on his head (ew). "souvenir."

-

it took forever, but eventually the team (and the tiger. and the wolf) managed to track down every animal with a collar and rip it off. there were a surprising amount of them. dick was unsurprisingly exhausted, and still covered in a hundred scrapes from those fucking vultures.

as the sun bounced off of the jungle trees, dick watched as captain marvel broke the last collar off of a white bird. what bird, you ask? dick couldn't tell you, because his eyelids were so heavy he thought he might actually fall asleep standing.

"you've been such a good helper!" captain marvel's voice boomed, shocking dick back to the present. "yes, you have! i shall don you... mr tawny: leader of the animals."

dick knew that he wasn't dreaming, but he still had hope. hope that this wasn't reality. mostly because he was watching a grown-ass man playing with a tiger's face as if he was some ten year-old.

"aw! yes you will! yes you will!!" he continued. "of course i'll be back to visit!"

"that's all of them," kaldur nodded to himself. "ready to head back?"

dick stretched his arms, nodding tiredly. they all began to board the bioship. including the giant white wolf from earlier, who had blindly followed connor around since then.

"c'mon, bud," connor bemoaned. "it's time to go. the pack already left."

"i think he likes you," m'gann said, stating the obvious.

"you think?" connor turned toward dick and kaldur. "can i keep him?"

"you sure do have a penchent for strays," wally said, giggling. "first sphere, now scooby doo."

connor didn't seem to understand that reference, but it was quite funny, if you asked dick.

"before we leave," dick began, turning to kaldur. "i just wanna know—why'd you keep the mole a secret? you know me, kal, i can keep a secret. so did you... did you think that i was the mole?"

dick had just kept on rambling, not noticing that the rest of the team had since joined their conversation. awkwardly stopping, dick nodded to kaldur to speak.

"i made the call to keep the mole a secret. the tip came from sportsmaster and-"

"sPORTSMASTER?" artemis gasped, as if the rest of them didn't hear the exact same thing she just did. "you can't trust that fucking cunt!"

slow down there, arty.

"my thought too," kaldur continued, ignoring her profanity. "i assumed that he was trying to tear us apart from the inside, making us turn on one another."

"kinda how this mission went," dick muttered. he was always one to point out the irony.

"yes. when red tornado betrayed us, it seemed as though the tip was true, and i saw no reason to tell you all that i had been investigating you."

dick pulled at his fingers at the last comment. there was no physical way that kaldur could attain any information about dick he didn't already have, but it still made him nervous to think about it.

"don't worry yourselves—my investigating turned up fruitless, of course. i trust you each with my life but, as team leader, i had to be sure."

dick nodded, forcing himself to stop fiddling with his hands. he can't look nervous while having a conversation about a mole on the team.

as he brought his gaze up he caught artemis' eye. she looked a bit distraught. probably due to the fact that her entire family happened to be the criminals they were set out to hunt.

but hey, secrets, amirite?

"i am still prepared to step down," kaldur added, sounding solemn.

"all in favour of keeping aqualad in charge?" wally asked, raising his hand.

slowly, everyone's hand went up, and dick lifted his gloved one with a smile. "it's unanimous."

"WOO! congratulations, dude!" captain marvel yelled, high-fiving kaldur. "i've gotta fly, but i'm so glad you won."

well, he obviously wasn't paying attention to all their drama.

"you're not coming back with us?" wally asked.

"nahhhhh," marvel grinned, waving them off. "see you guys tomorrow!"

before they could even say goodbye, marvel flew off into the sky, in the general direction of north america. "he is so weird," artemis muttered.

nonetheless, they all walked aboard the bioship once again, this time with a giant white wolf in tow. the newest edition to superboy's posse. (the new hottest boyband)

"so, what are you gonna name him?" wally asked once they all sat down. "scooby?"

"what about krypto?" m'gann suggested.

"superdog," artemis proposed with a smirk.

"i think..." connor trailed off, he was probably thinking but one can never be too sure. "i think i'll name him wolf."

dick closed his eyes, resisting the ever-so-strong urge to roll them. he stifled his laugh with a cough. "wow."

"a little generic, but it suits him!" wally grinned, petting wolf.

-

06:18 | dick -> wally

dick: he named his wolf wolf and his spherical android sphere.
dick: wally we are surroinded by idiots

wally: oh yeah? what would you name your pet?

dick: i think naming a pet requires owning one first

wally: i named my cat las vegas when i was eight so maybe youre doing better than me

dick: I FORGOT THAT WAS HER FULL NAME
dick: HAISHJAKAAH
dick: i am so used to just called her vega

wally: i was raised in the corn so las vegas was like. an alien planet to me.
wally: a city in the middle of the desert filled with lights and money? like whaaaattttttt

dick: jokes on you i preformed in las vegas many times
dick: i dont think it lived up to the hype :/

wally: werent you like, five
wally: i surely hope it didnt live up to the hype

dick: five year old richard was really into gambling actually

wally: oh yeah? lets play crazy eights rn. loser has to come cuddle with the winner

dick: in FROMT of everhonec?? thag is so cringgey
dick: youre on though im great at crazy eights