chapter three - welcome to happy harbour

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STAR CITY
JULY 17th — 23:16 PDT

roy harper was a belligerent asshole, but he was still one of dick grayson's friends, and that was why, late sunday night, dick, kaldur, and wally set out to recruit him to join the team. unluckily, this meant tracking him down whilst he fought Big Red Supreme™️.

big red must of been orchestrating some kind of illegal goods trade. dick couldn't get a good look at whatever was in the boxes that his lackeys were moving, but they looked heavy enough to be weaponry. or maybe it was really big fish.

dick watched as the red guy pulled out a gun, shooting a half-dozen bullets at roy, who ran along some nearby scaffolding to avoid them. he nocked an arrow, hitting the guy's gun and smirking as it exploded.

yeah, belligerent asshole.

"i'm starting to get offended that green arrow won't show up himself," reddie yelled, turning to his lackeys. "gut him, boys."

dick took that as his cue to help him; after all, he did pride himself on his loyalty. he jumped out from where he was perched, throwing a couple bird-a-rangs at the lackeys. wally stole the guns, throwing them across the yard.

kaldur took out the last of the lackeys, jumping in front of roy as reddie threw a boulder toward him. kaldur sliced the rock in two with his water bearers, turning toward their friend.

"the cave has everything the team needs," kaldur started.

dick flipped over to where they were talking, landing just behind roy. "we're doing covert missions, you've always loved the espionage lifestyle."

wally ran up beside dick, shooting finger guns at roy. "plus, there's superboy and miss martian! we're all friends and well, i know you could use a few of those-"

"shut up, kid idi-," roy said, stopping mid-sentence as the crimson rogue threw another boulder at them.

dick and wally both dove out of the way while kaldur smashed the boulder into pebbles. roy nocked a few arrows, shooting them at captain boulder, but they didn't even seem to hurt him.

"you shouldn't send a boy to do a man's job." reddie laughed.

roy nocked another arrow, shooting it directly into where reddie's heart would've been if he had one. the arrow exploded into a chemical foam, swallowing the guy in it before hardening and leaving him immobile.

"high-density polyurethane foam?!" wally yelled, his eyes sparkling with admiration. "that is so cool."

"last chance, speeds," dick said, leaning on one of the storage crates. "are you joining us?"

"no," roy answered, slipping his bow on his back. "i'm not having arrow- the league tell me what to do. they're just trying to keep you in your place. have fun with your clubhouse, because 'justice league junior' is a joke."

roy walked into the shadows, jumping down to a nearby road. wally crossed his arms, turning to the others. "well, that was a bust."

dick sighed, glancing at the big mass of polyurethane foam that was big red. "he's always been a sore loser. i guess i'll call the local pd to pick this guy up?"

"sounds good to me," wally said, shrugging. "let's go home; i'm starving."

WAYNE MANOR
JULY 18th — 10:56 EDT

apparently, to wally, "let's go home; i'm starving" actually translated to "let's go to dick's house and steal all of his pop tarts." dick had stacks of pop tarts. and wally managed to eat them all.

"good morning," dick muttered, stretching loudly and yawning. "when did you wake up?"

wally spun around in dick's desk chair to face him. "about an hour ago. i renovated our minecraft house."

that was a terrifying statement to hear.

dick sat up, walking over to where wally was playing minecraft on his laptop. "i'm preparing for the worst."

"i'm great at interior design!"

"just last week you said that the giant hole in the cadmus floor should have a fire pole in it."

wally scoffed, walking his character over to the outside of the house. "i stand by that."

"i'm whelmed, walls, i really am." dick took control of the keyboard, exploring their newly renovated floor. "it actually looks good."

"that is vehemently patronizing but i'm gonna accept the compliment regardless," wally said, saving the game. "have you talked to bruce about a mission yet?"

dick shook his head, yawning again. "he's not very talkative, especially about the team."

"damn," wally said. "i guess we should go to the cave today, we did tell kal that we'd show up last night."

"okay, but we're getting coffee first."

~

recognized: robin-b01, kidflash-b03

dick adjusted his sunglasses, walking out of the zeta beam with wally. kaldur, miss martian, and superboy were all standing in the room chatting when they arrived.

"hi, guys!" miss m greeted. "how are you?"

"i'll be great as soon as we get a mission," wally said, turning to kaldur. "have you talked to red tornado?"

"no, but he is coming now."

"then what are we waiting for?" wally asked, running (at a normal human speed) toward the landing door of the mountain.

"...why?" superboy started, looking at dick. though he agreed that meeting tornado on the landing deck would be no different to letting him walk in, a boyfriend's gotta stand with his boyfriend's actions.

and so dick took off after wally, trying not to laugh at the several pairs of footsteps following him. yeah, they were all idiots. but they were a team of idiots, and that's what matters.

~

"greetings," red tornado said, landing on the grass just beside the team. "is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"

kaldur stepped forward. "we were hoping that you may have a mission for us."

"mission assignments are the batman's responsibility."

dick crossed his arms, scoffing. "it's been over a week and he hasn't said any-"

"you will be tested soon enough," red tornado interrupted. "for the mean time you should enjoy eachother's company."

"this isn't a social club," wally mumbled, still reeling about what roy had said last night.

"no, but i hear that social interaction is important for team-building. perhaps today you can keep busy by familiarizing yourselves with the cave." red tornado left it at that, walking into the mountain and leaving the teens outside.

"keep busy?" wally repeated, crinkling his nose bridge. "does he really think that we're falling for this?"

"i can tell you exactly what he thinks," miss martian said, turning toward the shrinking figure. after a few seconds she turned back to their circle. "oh, i forgot that he's a machine. non-organic, i can't read his mind."

"nice try?" wally said, or more-so asked. "well, what now?"

"i guess we have a... a tour of the clubhouse," kaldur answered.

"superboy and i live here! we can be your tour guides!" miss m enthused. it sounded fucking boring, if you asked dick.

"don't look at me," superboy said. what a guy.

"we won't," wally said, sidling up to dick to whisper in his ear. "i'd be down for a private tour."

superboy definitely heard that.

"team building: we will all go," kaldur affirmed, gesturing for miss martian to start her tour.

~

"the cave actually takes up the entire mountain, isn't that cool?" miss m said, leading them into the pool room.

"it was hollowed out and reinforced by superman and green lantern way back when," wally added.

"why pass up this place for that stingy tourist trap?" superboy asked. "that makes no sense."

"the location was compromised." wally shrugged. "word spread and it just wasn't safe."

"shouldn't we be on constant alert then?" miss martian asked.

"the baddies know that we know that they know about the place so they'd never think to look here for at least the next ten years." dick smiled. "statistically, of course."

she looked confused. how was that confusing?

"he means that we're hiding in plain sight," wally said, clearing whatever confusion had happened.

"i smell smoke," superboy said, spinning around to see if the cave, which was made of rock, was on fire.

"my cookies!" miss m yelled, flying off down the hallway.

"new mission: rescue m's cookies?" wally said, starting to walk toward the kitchen, his friends in tow.

"they're gonna taste so bad," dick said, shaking his head. "i'm not sacrificing my integrity for that."

"she needs lessons from agent a," wally whispered, snickering.

the four of them turned into the kitchen, immediately hit with the awful smell of burned cookies. dick began breathing through his mouth, walking over to stand with miss martian as she placed her horrible cookies onto the island.

"i was trying out grandma jones' recipe," she said, frowning.

"i bet they would've tasted great!" dick smiled, gesturing to where wally had actually taken a bite out of one. talk about death sentence. "he doesn't seem to mind."

"you don't have to eat them, kidflash," she said. "next time i won't burn them."

wally took that to heart, spitting out the cookie and gagging into the compost bin. it was fairly overdramatic.

"it was sweet of you to make them," kaldur said. "perhaps we could all make them together as a team exercise?"

"thank you, aqualad. i think that'd be fun."

"we're off-duty, you can call me kaldur'ahm," he said, smiling. "actually, my friends call me kaldur, or kal."

"that we do." dick smirked. "though 'kal-culator' usually does the job too."

"i'm wally! maybe this'll teach tinted glasses over here how to share one's id."

"ha-ha." dick rolled his eyes. "if you really hate calling me 'robin' that much, the media likes to call me boy wonder."

"i'm m'gann m'orzz!" m'gann smiled, adjusting her headband. "megan works too, as a more earthen name."

superboy started walking out of the kitchen when she said that, before stopping abruptly halfway through the doorway. "get out of my head!" he shouted.

what's wrong? m'gann's voice echoed through dick's head, loud and pitchy. i don't understand.

it felt like every single hair on dick's body had risen at once. his vision swam as he seemed to have a spout of vertigo for barely even a second. she was inside his brain and he could certainly tell.

"m'gann, stop!" kaldur said, rubbing his temples.

"but... but everyone communicates telepathically on mars?"

"here, your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy," kaldur continued. "earth is very different to mars."

"yeah." wally nodded. "also, cadmus put their creepy little psychic g-gnomes in supey's brain for four months, probably doesn't feel good to have someone else in it."

"i-i'm sorry-"

"just stay out," superboy seethed, walking away. well, that was sure tense.

"hello, megan!" m'gann chirped up, putting her hands on her hips. "i know what we can do today!"

she led them to the hangar: a giant room that used to be where all league aircraft was stored. now, though, the only thing in there was... a giant pill-shaped red thing.

"my martian bioship!" m'gann announced, walking over to the pill.

wally caught dick's eye, covering his mouth with his hand. "it's cute!" wally patronized. "not aerodynamic, but cute."

"she's resting," m'gann corrected, waving her hand toward the pill. surprisingly, the pill grew, spreading until it looked somewhat similar to a fighter jet.

"that was relatively fleshy," dick whispered. it was weird. m'gann referred to the ship as if it were alive and, given its fleshy material, dick was starting to believe that.

they walked into the ship, superboy had even decided to join them for this extravaganza. the interior of the ship was empty at first, but after a few seconds chairs and a control table started to grow from the ground.

"strap in!" m'gann said, walking over to the seat in the very middle of the ship. is was twice the size of the other chairs and had weird glowing orbs beside it. seemed like it was the captain's chair.

dick sat in the seat closest to him, cringing as the seatbelt grew around him. they were currently sitting in this thing's belly, and that was concerning.

m'gann opened the bay doors and the ship took off, leaving mount justice in the dust. wally whistled his appreciation. "this thing's pretty fast."

"it's incredible," dick marvelled, staring out the window. they were flying a couple thousand feet over the ocean.

kaldur and superboy were sitting at the very front of the ship, and apparently they thought that now was the perfect time to have a conversation about superboy overreacting to m'gann's fuck-up earlier. there was no music in the ship, everyone was listening to them, including m'gann.

dick leaned toward her dropping his voice, "he'll come around."

"he doesn't seem to like me much," m'gann whispered back, frowning.

wally did his version of a whisper too (which was not a whisper). "you guys do realize that he has super-hearing, yeah?"

superboy looked back at wally, his face expressionless. what was with him and making everything tense?

"so, i heard that you can shape-shift," dick said, grinning. he kind of wanted her to turn into robin too, maybe they could fight? brawling himself was on dick's bucket list.

m'gann stood up, melting into exactly what dick had just been imagining, except she was slightly taller and still had a woman's figure. dick's eyes flicked to wally, what would he think of this?

wally's face was in his hands but dick could still see his blush. m'gann probably saw it too and promptly turned into a female wally.

"is it wrong that i think i'm hot?" wally pulled his hands off of his face to rest his head on them. "you too, rob."

dick ignored him, applauding the shape-shifting. "i'm impressed!"

"i know they're not fool-proof," m'gann said, turning back into herself and sitting down. "mimicking people with different body types requires a lot of practice."

"how do you get your clothes to change?" kaldur asked.

"oh, they're organic, just like the ship!" she changed from her cardigan to a plain t-shirt to prove her point. "they respond to my mental commands."

"can you float through walls like manhunter?" wally asked, imitating it in case martian manhunter's martian niece who was hailing from mars didn't understand what he was talking about.

"no, i can't density-shift, it's very advanced."

"flash can vibrate his molecules right through walls," dick said, laughing into his hand. "when wally tries it all he gets is a bloody nose."

"that's not funny." wally crossed his arms over his chest, pouting.

his opinion was wildly unpopular, as everyone else on the ship found wally's predicament quite humorous. even superboy cracked a smile. their mocking was cut short, however, as red tornado radioed in.

"red tornado to miss martian: an emergency alert was triggered at the happy harbour power plant. you may investigate covertly, i will send the coordinates."

"received, thank you!"

wally scoffed. "is he keeping us busy again?"

"hey, all it took was a small fire for you guys to find superboy!" m'gann said, angling the bioship downward toward a parking lot. "we should at least go see what sounded the alert."

hopefully it wasn't some notorious criminal, as they were all in their civvies. though, fighting the joker while in a hoodie and jeans did sound rather funny.

"you think that's it?" superboy asked, nodding to the sporadic tornado just outside the window.

"you couldn't have mentioned that earlier?!" dick asked, clutching his seatbelt as the bioship was enveloped by the tornado.

they spun violently. dick wasn't sure what direction was up and his body was having a hell of a time knocking him every which way. he clung onto his seatbelt for dear life, feeling his morning coffee sloshing around in his stomach.

m'gann furrowed her eyebrows, pulling the ship out of the wind-whirl and a few hundred metres away. "everyone okay?" m'gann asked as they all stepped out onto the parking lot.

"oh, sweet, sweet ground!" wally smiled, blowing air kisses toward the ground. "how i've missed you!"

dick took that as an opportunity to run into the power plant. it was the most logical plan: obviously whatever created the tornado was in there.

~

a giant red robot with blue pipes along his back was not really what dick expected. he had swung up to the top floor of the plant, immediately being hit with a wind blast so powerful it rivalled actual tornados.

"grouchy, aren't you?" he yelled, picking himself off of the floor. did this guy have ears? dick hoped that he had ears. "you remind me of someone i know!"

that would be aquaman.

red tornado the second (and worst) didn't like that comparison, opening both of his palms in dick's direction and sending him careening into a metal pillar. dick fell to the ground with a slump, hissing with pain.

"futu-i," dick muttered, breathing slowly to correct his heart rate.

"who's your new friend?" superboy landed beside him.

so now they show up.

"didn't catch his name but he plays kinda rough!" dick yelled, patting himself down for injuries. it definitely felt like he hurt his ribs, wouldn't this be fun!

"my apologies! you may call me mister twister!" the robot announced, sending a gush of wind from each hand.

"that's some fourth-grade bullshit!" wally yelled, running over to dick. "you alright?"

"better than ever."

the winds threw superboy into a metal pillar, knocking him out, and dick groaned at how he was now the closest person to mister twister. dick pulled himself up, clutching his ribcage, as his teammates ran at the robot.

this was rather futile once wally was defenestrated, kaldur was knocked into a metal pillar (mister twister really loved that move), and m'gann was thrown to the ground.

"i was expecting a real hero, not a gang of children," mister twister said.

dick frowned, grabbing a couple bird-a-rangs from his utility belt (never leave home without one!). "we're not just chilren." dick threw the projectiles at the robot.

mister twister let a gust of wind take out the shurikens. they still exploded a metre away from him but it was like he didn't even notice. "where's your adult supervision? i find this quite disturbing."

"hopefully you're more turbed once we kick your ass!" dick yelled as m'gann and kaldur pulled themselves off the floor and over to him.

m'gann used telekinesis to pull part of the plant's staircase off of the wall, sending it careening toward twister. it didn't do any damage. superboy finally got up from his beauty sleep, jumping toward twister, but the robot just angled a blast of wind at the two aliens, throwing them to the far wall.

dick and kaldur ran toward twister, but he just created a tornado for each of them. dick was picked up, spinning around violently until he crashed into kaldur and landed on the concrete floor.

"cacat!" dick yelled, feeling his eyes start to prickle with tears. if that rib wasn't broken before, it was surely broken now. "futu-i. fuck. shit."

"that was really quite turbing," mister twister mocked, heading toward the window. "thank you." he flew out the window, probably heading to where wally was.

"shit, kf's out there," dick said, pulling himself up and beckoning his teammates to follow him outside.

dick was right, mister twister was standing in the parking lot, talking to wally. this tété-á-tété ceased once twister threw a tornado at the speedster, scooping him up and sending the whirlwind right into the wall.

when the wind cleared, however, wally was bracing for impact in midair. m'gann set him down gently as they walked up to join him.

"thanks for the save." wally smiled her direction.

"what do you WANT?!" kaldur yelled as mister twister flew up a couple stories into the sky.

"i'm worth more than you," twister sneered. "i'm waiting for a real hero."

"read his mind," kaldur commanded m'gann.

"what? i-i thought i wasn't supposed to do tha-"

"it's okay if it's the bad guys!" dick told her, pinching his nose bridge.

m'gann went silent for a moment, before frowning and opening her eyes again. "he's in-organic, just like red tornado. hello, megan! he is red tornado; how many androids do you know that can generate tornados?"

that seemed like a bit of a reach.

"red tornado sent us here!" kaldur nodded, buying into the theory. "he told us that we would be 'tested soon enough', well this is his test!"

"something to keep us busy," dick muttered.

"speedy called it," wally agreed, crossing his arms. "the league thinks that we're a joke."

they walked closer to mister twister, he hadn't made any antagonistic moves since m'gann brought up the so-called coincidences. it made a lot of sense.

"we know who you are and what you want!" kaldur yelled.

"let's end this!" dick agreed.

"my pleasure," mister twister said, throwing his hand above his head. storm clouds filled the once-clear sky, spinning in a circle with the eye of the storm immediately above twister. wind blew violently around them as the air started to get cold.

"we will not indulge you!" kaldur shouted over the wind.

lightning started to dance in the clouds, vividly blue and concerningly close to them.

"red tornado can't do that?" wally said, turning to the team. "i am not getting struck by lightning again."

"you think i'm tornado?!" mister twister laughed, pointing his hands toward them. wally's wish didn't come true as a bolt of lightning shot out of each one of twister's fingers.

~

the next thing dick knew, it was blue skies and he was laying on grass. he would've considered it heaven if not for the fucking horrible ache in his entire body.

he sat up, noticing how the other four teens were slowly getting up too. dick stood up, ignoring the trembling, debilitating shake in his legs.

"what happened?" wally asked, standing on dick's side.

"the bioship has a camouflage mode," m'gann explained. "i placed her overtop of all of us when we were hit with lightning and i guess he thought that we disappeared."

"i can't believe i jinxed it," wally pouted, even though the lightning definitely hit the ground near them, and not the team. they'd have more fatal injuries if the electricity actually hit them directly.

superboy growled, smashing a nearby boulder with his fist. he walked over to where m'gann was sitting, clutching his fists. "you tricked us into thinking that twister was red tornado!"

"it wasn't personal," kaldur stepped toward him.

"it was a rookie mistake," dick added. "causation doesn't equal correlation."

wally turned to m'gann, frowning. "you're still inexperienced, it's not your fault. we can... we can take it from here."

"stay out of our way," superboy shook his head, jumping away.

dick took that as his and wally's cue to leave too. he gave his boyfriend a nod and was immediately tossed onto wally's back. the speedster speed-piggybacked them away from the scene and toward where mister twister had decided to terrorize next.

tornados ravaged the coastal city square as citizens both fled from their homes and to their homes. it was chaos. and in the very centre of that chaos was twister, commanding his army of whirlwinds.

wally set dick down, running full-force at the android. "missed us?" he asked, kicking twister in the chest and pushing him back a few feet.

"never. you are a distraction i can no longer tolerate."

superboy leapt in at that moment, aiming to land right on twister lest he pulled away. and that he did, using his wind to grab a boat from the harbour and chuck it at them.

kaldur ran toward twister but was quickly sucked into a tornado and thrown into a nearby house. wally, charming as ever, evaded the winds with speed, distracting twister from every direction at once.

dick threw explosives at the guy (twister, not his boyfriend) forcing him to dodge them and use his tornados to suck up the nitroglycerin. while he was distracted, superboy ran in, punching the android straight in the chest. twister recovered quickly, picking up superboy and sending him a thousand feet in the air.

kaldur climbed out of the house, only to be met with a boat flying right for him. kaldur leapt out of the way in time, but the house was severely damaged.

dick crouched behind an empty car, going over strategies in his head when wally appeared beside him. dick pulled out his utility belt from under his hoodie, strapping it over his shoulder so that it would be easier to access his weapons.

"you brought your utility belt to a tour of the cave?" wally asked, shaking his head.

"i would never leave the manor without it. where did you think i was getting my explosives from?"

"i dunno, your pockets?"

"yeah, then when my hands get cold i'll accidentally blow myself up."

"you're so-"

wally didn't get to finish that thought, as m'gann's voice began to echo through all of their heads. listen to me. i know i messed up, but i know what we need to do. please trust me.

m'gann explained her plan and dick was pleasantly surprised at how it seemed both realistic and beneficial. it would work, and it would take all of them to do it.

"you think he'll believe us?" wally asked, pulling his goggles back onto his eyes.

"i think that he's a cunt and we're geniuses, so it's already skewed in our favour."

"i can't argue with that one, babe."

they both ran over to mister twister, soon joined by superboy and kaldur. twister held out his hand, preparing to blast them, when red tornado descended from the sky.

or rather, m'gann disguised as red tornado.

"i was hoping you could handle this but it appears you cannot," m'gann—in a perfect tornado voice—said, landing in front of the teens.

the four of them slumped off as the two androids began to battle. with every hit that "tornado" threw, he took two more. twister could summon half a dozen tornados at once while m'gann could only do one, as it was wally making the tornado.

eventually twister hit "tornado" hard enough to knock him down. the android walked over, letting small wires eject from his fingers and attach onto "tornado's" head, hoping to either download information or reprogram the league member.

m'gann took this opportunity to shift back into her own body, grabbing the wires and yanking them off. twister stumbled back, shocked, right into wally mid-tornado.

twister was sent flying, tumbling over to superboy, who punched him until he was sparking and smoking from all the wrong places. he punched the android once more, sending him straight into the harbour water.

just a couple moments later, twister was thrown back out of the water, looking more damaged than before. m'gann lifted him into the air and dick threw a couple bird-a-rangs at him, hitting him in the heart and then exploding.

twister dropped to the ground, looking like scraps at a junkyard. the team walked over to him smugly, but the smiles were wiped off their faces once twister's chest opened and out fell a lanky man.

"i'm sorry-" the man choked out.

m'gann held up her left arm, beckoning a boulder toward her and letting it fall onto the apologizing man, even as kaldur screamed for her to stop.

"ce pana mea?" dick muttered, turning to m'gann. "did you just execute him?"

"i thought you trusted me," m'gann smirked, lifting the boulder off to show a collection of technology beneath. "he was in-organic, i couldn't read his mind."

wally grinned, crouching down and picking up one of the guy's eyeballs. he tossed it up in the air, catching. "look at this! souvenir!"

"that's different to your parisian postcards." dick laughed, high-fiving wally.

"we should've had more faith in you," kaldur apologized to m'gann. "you're definitely not inexperienced."

"oh yeah," wally grinned, already laughing at his joke-to-come. "you rocked this mission."

"you really hit rock-bottom with that one." dick cackled, shaking his head. "we're just turbed that you're on the team. i would be scared to go against you."

m'gann smiled, tying her hair back. "thanks, guys."

~

later that evening, the five teens and red tornado stood around a table in the cave. on the table was mister twister's human remains, being poked and prodded at by dick and wally.

"it was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you," kaldur noted, picking up one of the wires.

"is that why you didn't step in to help us?" m'gann asked. "because you'd be playing right into their hands?"

"this was your battle," red tornado contended. "i do not believe that it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me."

and with that red tornado turned around, heading down the hallway. wally cocked his head, leaning over to dick. "any other leaguer would've taken over in a heartbeat."

"a heartless machine for a babysitter isn't so bad, i guess." dick shrugged.

"oh my god, rob, abrasive much?"

"and false." red tornado turned around. "i have a heart, carbon-steel alloy."

dick pulled at his fingers, awkwardly laughing. "yeah, i, uhm, i'll try to be more literal."

"maybe try respectful too?" kaldur nudged him.

"you know what?" wally asked, looking at both dick and kaldur. "speedy was wrong."

"he normally is." dick laughed.

"no, i mean it," wally continued. "i'm really starting to enjoy this whole team thing."

"hey, guys?" m'gann asked, walking over to the trio with superboy. "wanna watch a movie with us? superboy's never seen footloose."

"that's just a crime," wally said, shaking his head with disappointment. "i'll go make us some popcorn."

yeah, dick was really starting to enjoy this whole team thing too.