"Thank you for joining us, Doctor Magnus," Batman says, looking up at the screen of the Missions room displaying the doctor's kind smile.

"It's no problem, Batman. Where my children are concerned I will always be there for them. Where is Mahiko now, if you don't mind me asking?"

"She's out in the city with Miss Martian and Wondergirl right now. They shouldn't be back for a couple of hours. We just thought we'd take this opportunity to update you on a couple of things pertaining to her, Lenore and Axel," Nightwing says from beside the Dark Knight.

As if on cue, Black Canary enters, both Gothamites, the Doctor and Red Tornado turning to look at her from the centre of the room.

"I've compiled my notes," she says, stopping before them. "Nice to see you again, Doctor Magnus."

"Same to you."

Dinah nods, before she begins her evaluation, "Gold and Mercury seem to be doing much better than Platinum. It seems Mahiko is struggling with her perception of her place on the team and her stance on the things we do. As I told you before, she had a very gruesome experience on her mission which only worsened the complex she was already having. Something so violent... People struggle to find anything good in that. Subconsciously with this new experience she'll want to find the good in it, but she was struggling."

All the while, Doctor Magnus nods, listening to the explanation.

"This is not new," he says, surprising the room. "It's new with Mahiko, she usually asserts herself, but the other adolescents such as Lead and Titanium. Koben and Julia are finding themselves lacking much emotion and even losing memories."

Black Canary and Batman share a concerned look, "Gold and Mercury have not displayed anything similar. Mercury reminds me of Superboy, in some ways, and Gold of Miss Martian. Their reaction are expected."

"Mahiko went to Japan, to see if she could find some feeling, I think," Nightwing says to Magnus.

He nods, "Japan was very important to her, as was the approval of her father. Going there, especially if she went anywhere near him, would have been quite a negative experiencing and therefore bringing forward negative feelings. If that was the only thing she could feel at the time...this may be a bigger problem than I thought."

"Running to where the pain is, is a concern," Black Canary states, "But I have given Mahiko the advice and means to try and hold onto those feelings. It's up to her how she uses that skill."

Doctor Magnus removes his glasses with a sigh, nodding at the heroes.

"Mahiko is not by any means fragile, but she went through some serious experiences with that lunatic after she was kidnapped. As you know Batman, the original Platinum was my first and most loved robot. It was very much the same, for that sickening thief. I'm glad she has the boy back, however. He must be doing her some good."

Nightwing holds his tongue easily on the pun innuendo that rises to mind.

"Yes, Jaime is another fortunate factor in the situation. His tenderness and calming exterior contribute to Mahiko's recovery. I'm sure if we get to this now, we can stop it."

Red Tornado's robotic head moves to look between both parties.

"When will Platinum be returning to the mission roster? It may still be too soon, should the mission involve any serious violence."

Batman looks at Nightwing, "When a good mission that suits her arises, send her on it, and go with her. Perhaps Miss Martian as well, they seem to have grown close. I still think keeping Jaime and Mahiko on separate missions is also a must."

"Noted."

◊

◊

"Oh! Look at this one! Isn't it cute!?"

Wonder-...Cassie's grip hurts like a mother. Honey obviously doesn't know her own strength as of yet, and if it weren't for my slight invincibility in this state, my bones would be dust.

"It's...yeah," I say, looking at the yellow satin top she holds up.

I don't know why I agreed to come out into the Happy Harbour mall with her and M'gann, but something told me that I needed to get out.

"This stuff isn't really my style," I say, looking round the shop filled with some very pretty, girly, well, Sunday school clothes. "I don't think this is either of our styles. You seem more like a shirt-jeans-sneakers kind of girl."

 Cassie nods enthusiastically, "I do love my jeans! How about you? How do you describe your style?"

"Skater lolita," I answer as we leave the store. 

We definitely contrast. She's blonde, with pale-pink skin and big blue eyes. I have bottle-red hair, olive skin from a mix of coffee Spanish and pale Japanese, grey steely eyes.

Our clothes are very different as well. 

With Cassie wearing the exact look I described to her and myself in the exact opposite, we do make quite a pair. Despite that though, I like Cassie. She's nice, and she sees the light in things and always tries her hardest.

"No offence," I begin, "But wouldn't you want to be out here with someone like Lenore? You two are the same age, after all. Not that I don't want to be here while M'gann is grocery shopping."

"Ah, Lenore and I don't really get on," she explains. Wow, all this time with the team and I was so caught up with my own crap I didn't even realise.

"Really? Why is that?" I ask, as we go into the next most interesting shop. It's a little ornament and gift store. I stop, trying to think about what could make two fourteen year old girls fight. "Is it a boy? Or, or a girl?"

Cassie blushes with a nervous chuckle, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Y-Yeah...a boy..."

My fingers brush over the ceramic fairies on the shelf. My mother used to collect things like these. She had cabinets full of mythical creatures made out of clay and glass.

"Robin?" I press absent-mindedly, travelling further into the store.

"How did you know!?" She whispers fiercely, looking scandalised.

I scoff, "I was fourteen once too. Had the exact same experience. Your ex-teammate Blade verses me, over Jaime."

"Right," she remembers.

At the end of the shelf is a fairy sitting in a garden, playing the flute beside a bird bath. It's painted with quite vibrant colours, for a ceramic.

"I'm getting this," I say, reaching up and grabbing the box below it, "Do you want anything?"

"What?" The question surprises her, "Uh..."

"Best thing about having a father who doesn't care, Cass? He thinks he can throw all the money in the world at you and that it will make things better. So, come on. Let me spoil you huh?" I grin.

Cassie looks around the store, cheeks still glowing red.

"Well..."

I think back to when we were in Sunday school store, "How about that top? I'm sure Tim likes pastels."

Is that technically betraying Lenore?

"A-Are you sure?"

"As the sunset," I say, taking the fairy to the counter. I pay for it, then walk Cass back to the silly store and buy her the top. "Consider it a thanks for welcoming me to the team seconds after we met."

I still remember when she had jumped up and exclaimed that she was a fan of the channel.

"Do you think everyone has welcomed you to the team?" She asks.

"Yeah, of course. Except for Blade obviously, but everyone is really nice. Jaime made things a lot easier. I don't know what it would be like if I didn't have him. It was a pretty smooth ascent," I admit.

"I'm glad!" She grins, as we continue through the mall. M'gann will call us, without a phone if you get me, when she's done shopping. It's not like she has to buy clothes anyway.

Cassie and I stop at a Dunkin' Donuts and order some food, my shout. She still hasn't said much since our last conversation, and looks like she's in deep thought.

When we sit down, the dam breaks.

"I helped Jaime get inducted into the team," she admits.

"He mentioned something about that."

"Nightwing and I went to Rio Grande High. You must have already been a Metal Adolescent. Anyway, he was talking on the phone when I sort of, snuck up the corridor. He was talking to another guy, I think, and he was talking about a girl. To this day I think that girl was you."

I roll the statement in my mind. It must have been more than a few months ago, when he first joined.

"He was probably talking to Tye, his best friend. How do you know it was me?" I ask.

"Well, he was talking about a girl he missed and did wrong. The guy on the other end of the call was, well, roasting him. Like, calling Jaime out on everything. The call ended when I appeared."

Classic Tye. 

I go to tell Cassie the truth about what happened with Jaime and I, when there's a shifty noise on my inner ear and a familiar voice in my head.

"Cassie? Mahiko? Where are you two? I've finished shopping. We can go now. Meet me where we came in." 

In truth, Cassie and I were supposed to help with the shopping, but she got so jumpy and fidgety that M'gann decided to let her kidnap me.

"On our way M'gann!" Cassie responds.

We collect our barely-touched food and start back where we came from.

For a place I now live, I don't find it disappointing. The mall appears to have everything I'd ever need, and I'd never buy my clothes here anyway; I order from Japan or online for all of that.

When we bump into M'gann on the way out I'm not surprised she has two carts full of food. I mean, she is feeding me, Axel, Lenore, Conner, La'gann, Mal, herself and Garfield. Plus any of the Team that stay behind.

We pass a stationery store on the way and something catches my eye. I remember Black Canary's words, in our last session together.

"Um," I catch their attention, "I just need to grab something from here, if that's okay?"

I turn away from them and dash into the store quickly, heading straight for the notebooks. I reach for an A5 one, not wanting anything too big to lug around. It's a hard cover one, with butterflies on it.

There is a stand of pens and I grab two with fluffy balls on the end and purchase all three.

"Starting a journal?" M'gann asks when I come back out.

"Just something Canary advised me on," is all I give. She can probably figure it out.

Cassie and I take the shopping cart to the Bioship, in the shape of a red car at the moment. M'gann crosses the road to the butchers. Automatically and without discretion, the ship opens her own back.

"Nice," I say, before Cassie starts scolding her.

When we get in, myself in the squishy passenger seat, the Bioship starts scanning for the surrounding radio signals, likely in search of music.

Sure enough after the typical scratchy, wavy sounds, she finds a station with tunes.

The song makes Cassie grip my shoulder painfully from the back seat.

"It's the song you recorded that day! So Cold, right?" She says, as the Bioship responds by turning up the soulful melody.

I nod, "It is. It's a really heartfelt piece." Her excitement over the coincidence makes me laugh.

But really, this song had a much deeper meaning to me once upon a time. After losing Jaime I felt, in my sad teen-aged mind, that it was the only words that expressed how I felt.

I'm already opening the notebook to the first page, taking one of the pens in hand.

"It's so quiet here | And I feel so cold | This house no longer | Feels like home"

That's the stuff. The words, that cut you right deep. They're written clear on the page, spanning over the blankness. 

The other song that gave me similar feeling was also one I recorded in front of the team. The Last Time, by Gary Lightbody and Taylor Swift.

"And right before your eyes | I'm breaking" 

It spans over the second page. When I read them, I feel.

Maybe Black Canary's idea will work.