W A S H I N G T O N,  D . C .
December 30, 09:05 EST

To say that the Team was antsy would be an understatement. 

Here they were, standing inside the Hall of Justice, on the same day that the League was going to be inducting their newest members, and ten minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start, the Team's two most experienced proteges hadn't even arrived yet.

Artemis, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Zatanna, Superboy, Miss Martian, and their newest recruit Raquel Ervin, a.ka Rocket, were dressed in civvies and milling about the library inside the Justice League's planet-side headquarters, watching the newscast on one of the large TV screens as Cat Grant readied herself to report on the event.

"They're not gonna get here in time," Artemis muttered from where she was standing, and Wally, who had been designated 'gorilla babysitter' while Silverbird and Robin stayed for a few more days in Europe, glanced over at the blonde from where he was standing, feeding Zira slices of banana.

The baby gorilla did not like bananas much, so as the speedster opened his mouth to say that it wasn't very likely that the two birds would end up missing this, Zira threw some of her banana slices at his face, pouting like the six-month-old baby that she was.

"Well, sorry," Wally muttered, snapping his head around to look at Zira as the gorilla glared at him for feeding her bananas when obviously, her favorite snack was strawberries. "How am I supposed to know what you like to eat when it's quite obvious that your human parents are spoiling you? What kind of monkey doesn't like bananas?"

"She's an ape, Wally," Zatanna corrected, and Wally groaned, throwing his hands up in the air.

"I know that!" he exclaimed, setting Zira's now half-empty bowl of banana slices off to the side and picking up the small gorilla before the redhead turned back towards Artemis. "And, they'll make it," he told the blonde simply. "There's no way Reese and Robin would want to miss this,"

"Then where are they?" Artemis asked, crossing her arms. "There's less than ten minutes before the ceremony starts, and those two have been in Bulgaria for what? A week now? No way they'll be able to get from the airport in Gotham to here in less than that time. Even with taking the zeta tubes,"

Even though he and Artemis were friends now, and even though Wally might have the teeniest, tiniest crush on her, she still wasn't privy to Batman and Robin's secret IDs, and until she was, Wally wasn't about to tell her that Dick and Reese weren't even flying home. Not technically, anyway.

Instead, they'd be flying to France from Sofia, then taking the Eurostar from Paris to London, and then zeta-ing to the Hall of Justice from the international WayneTech offices in the U.K.

All in all, the trip would only take about four-and-a-half hours total. But, once again, Wally reiterates, Artemis didn't need to know that yet.

Just then, as if the two youngest members of the Team had been summoned, simply by the rest of the Team talking about them, the doors next to the screens that said AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY slid open, the inside cavity glowing yellow as the zeta tube activated, thus announcing the arrivals of Dick and Reese.

Recognized Robin B-0-1, Silverbird B-0-3

It was one thing to arrive on time, Wally figured. It was quite another to arrive both on time and in one piece, an act that the two young lovebirds almost failed as, just as the two of them were entering the library, Dick's feet somehow got tangled up with his girlfriend's, and they both went sprawling across the floor.

Like the rest of the Team, the two youngest members were dressed in civvies, so thank God Dick's sunglasses didn't come off when he fell. But, regardless, Wally still found the entire event hilarious.

"Smooth, Rob," KF smirked as he extended a hand to help his friend up, and considering Wally was the only one close enough to be able to see Dick's eyes behind his sunglasses, the Boy Wonder sent his other best friend a withering glare before he took the speedster's offered hand, allowing Wally to pull him up before Dick helped Reese stand a moment later.

"We didn't miss the ceremony did we?" Reese asked breathlessly as Zira leaped from her spot on Wally's shoulder to jump into the brunette's arms, almost yanking the thirteen-year-old down to the ground again in the process.

Wally looked down at Zira's new spot, crossing his now-free arms to send the baby gorilla a look that he hoped conveyed how not impressed he was at the animal's minor betrayal.

"Traitor," the redhead muttered, as Kaldur spoke up from his spot across the room.

"The two of you are just in time," Aqualad said simply, and Reese sent the Atlantean a grateful smile just as Zira made a wild grab for whatever Reese was holding in her other hand.

The petite brunette yanked her hand back fast enough that her adoptive gorilla wasn't able to get her small hands on it, but the incident was surprising enough that it caught Wally's attention.

"What are you eating?" he asked, raising an eyebrow because nothing was able to attract the redhead's eye more than food, and Reese sent him a look that made Wally think he might just have grown a second head.

"Jaffa Cakes," the brunette answered simply, as if it was one of the most conspicuous things in the world, as she was still holding her hand out of reach of Zira's grabby fingers, waving around the British snack. "Obviously. And I'm not sharing,"

"Obviously," Wally echoed, and as much as he wanted some sweet, sweet jam-filled cakes, he had known Reese long enough that the only person she would ever share her food with was Dick, and judging by how the package that was sticking out of Reese's bag was already three-quarters of the way empty, she already had.

Well, that or Reese had eaten almost the entire package by herself, and Wally wasn't actually entirely sure which observation was correct.

Another thing that the redhead noticed was the new bracelet clasped around Reese's wrist. The large sapphire glittered under the lights of the Hall of Justice's library, and as much as Wally had known that Dick was making Reese something for her thirteenth birthday, he didn't know that this was what it would end up being.

It was some nice bling, to say the least. And it looked expensive, too.

He opened his mouth to say exactly that, but before the speedster could say anything, Raquel poked her head around Kaldur's should from where she had been standing next to him and gave a small wave.

"Uh..." the newbie began slowly, and Reese snapped her head around to look at the older girl as if she hadn't even noticed she was there. "I hate to interrupt the reunion. Really, I do, but, I think some introductions are in order?"

"Oh, duh!" Reese put her Jaffa Cakes back into the package before she shifted Zira over to her other arm and stuck her left hand out to shake Raquel's. "My dad told me someone new would be joining the Team. You must be her. I'm Reese. Or Silverbird, if you want to be technical,"

"Raquel," Rocket said simply as Wally heard Dick give a barely-disguised snort, with Raquel giving Reese a small and slightly nervous smile that the brunette returned. "But, I like to go by Rocket," Then, Raquel turned to Dick. "And I presume you're the Boy Wonder?"

"Robin," he answered, dipping his head in a short bow-like nod. "Present and at your service,"

Just then, before anybody else could say anything, or before Artemis could pipe up with another rant about how Reese should be dating her superhero partner instead of Dick Grayson (the irony), M'gann pointed towards the large computer screen at the end of the room beside the zeta tube.

"Guys," Miss Martian said quickly. "It's starting,"

They all turned towards the screen, and Reese hopped up to sit on a nearby table as Superman, who was standing at the podium on the steps of the Hall outside, started the induction ceremony.

"The Justice League was formed for two reasons," the Kryptonian began. "First, as an acknowledgment that no single individual, no matter how powerful, can solve all the world's problems alone. And second: to uphold the values of truth, liberty, and justice. That last one's even in the name,"

Wally had to choke back a laugh unless he wanted to bust a lung, but he wasn't the only one who found humor in the Man of Steel's small joke as the news reporters gathered at the base of the Hall's front steps chittered like a flock of birds. 

Reese, on the other hand, rolled her eyes, scoffing. She was still pretty miffed about how Clark continued to neglect even acknowledging Conner as anything more to him than an abomination created by Cadmus, much less the fact that Superboy shared DNA with him.

"These five heroes," Superman continued once the laughs had died down, gesturing with one arm towards where Doctor Fate, Plastic Man, the Atom, Icon, and Red Arrow were standing off to the side. "Have sworn to uphold those values,"

Then, the camera swung back to Cat Grant, one of the reporters covering the event, as she reported, obviously, on what had just occurred.

"You are watching live coverage," Cat began. "Of the Justice League's induction of its five newest members. It looks like the entire League showed up to welcome the new blood," Cat began as her cameraman panned around the roster of older heroes. "Everyone from Batman to Captain Marvel,"

"I'm glad they didn't kick Billy out," Wally piped up as he munched on an apple he had swiped from the fridge earlier, though he did notice how embarrassed Captain Marvel looked to be up on stage with the other Leaguers. "And I love the fact that there's a ten-year-old on the League!"

"There is?" Raquel asked, and Wally winced, momentarily forgetting that Rocket was new to their own team's roster, and thus, not privy to the fact that Captain Marvel wasn't actually a grown adult.

Another reason he winced was because as soon as Wally revealed that particular tidbit, Dick and Reese, who had gotten off of where she had previously been sitting on the table and walked over to everyone else, elbowed him in the ribs.

Though, Reese's elbow-to-Wally's-ribs wasn't so much that as it was a swift kick to the back of his knee, and as he felt the nerves behind his knee constrict, it took almost everything Kid Flash had in him to not go sprawling across the floor.

"Way to keep a secret, genius," Robin hissed out of the side of his mouth, and Wally sent his friend a look.

"Hey! She's on the Team now!" he retorted, trying to inconspicuously rub his leg where Reese had kicked him because damn that's girl's kick was hard. "And also," the redhead sent a swift look to where Reese was now standing on Dick's other side. "Ow!"

"Secret identities are a thing, KF," the brunette shot back, seeming utterly unbothered by the whole ordeal. "You know that,"

"Oh says you," Wally scoffed, and this time both Reese and Dick sent him eerily identical looks, a split second before Reese threw the package of Jaffa cakes at his head.

The redhead snatched it out of the air in one fell swoop inches before it would've slammed into his nose, thanks to his speedster reflexes and as he popped one into his mouth, Wally sent Reese a grin.

"Why, thank you, pretty bird,"

This time, Dick was the one who kicked him, and as Wally tried not to fall over again, grimacing as he felt a bruise start to form on his shin from his friend's shoe at Wally's use of Reese's nickname that was only ever used by her boyfriend, Cat Grant's coverage of the ceremony outside continued, and Wally's mood sobered as Superman gave the first new Justice League identification card to Doctor Fate.

"Superman is now handing out official league membership cards," Cat's voiceover was saying. "Starting with Doctor Fate..." Zatanna was standing a few feet in front of Reese and Dick, and the brunette walked forward, setting a hand on the other girl's shoulder.

The two of them hadn't really talked much over the last couple of weeks, especially with Reese having been in Europe since before her birthday, with the thefts at Haly's circus, and then going to Bulgaria with Dick, but Silverbird resided to mentally reminding herself to spend more time with Zatanna, and even though the magician had been a member of the Team for almost two months now, Reese did enjoy the other girl's company.

As soon as she heard Zatanna's heart rate return to normal, Reese removed her hand and turned back to glance at the TV as Cat continued her report, tuning back in just as Superman handed an ID card to Icon.

Reese had never met him, but he had to be a good hero if he was getting inducted into the Justice League.

Raquel suddenly spoke up from where she was standing slightly behind Kaldur across the room, and Reese peered around Dick and Wally as the new girl started to talk.

"You know," the dark-skinned girl began, waving a hand around. "I was the one who convinced Icon to become a hero in the first place. I should be outside celebrating with him, not hidden away in here!"

"Welcome to our world," Kaldur piped up, and as much as she liked spending time with the Team, Reese agreed with Raquel.

Before the Team had been formed, Speedy, Silverbird, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash had always been a part of the public spotlight with their mentors, and it had definitely been an adjustment, having to go from shining in the limelight as a public protege to hiding in the shadows as a part of a covert ops team headed by the League itself.

But, Reese had always been one who adjusted quickly, regardless of the situation, and she had quickly grown used to her new normal, so to speak.

"Well, I suppose there's an upside too," Reese almost didn't hear Raquel's next statement, but she did, and when she glanced over, the older girl was staring at Kaldur.

Reese didn't think Aqualad heard what Rocket had said, or if he had, he didn't react, but regardless, she turned back to the newscast in time to see Green Arrow handing an ID card to Red Arrow where Roy had been standing at the end of the line of new Justice League recruits.

"And finally," Cat Grant's voiceover was saying. "Green Arrow welcomes his former protege, Speedy, now known as Red Arrow, into this roster of heroes,"

"Way to go, Roy!" Wally exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air as Reese clapped her hands together.

She had been proud of her brother when he had finally resigned to joining the Team after Thanksgiving, but now she was even more proud.

Obviously, Reese hadn't been able to speak to Roy since she and Dick had gotten back from Bulgaria, but as soon as the ceremony was over, she was going to give her brother the biggest hug she could manage, and she didn't care who saw.

"Finally," Kaldur spoke up. "He has his wish,"

"The first of us to make it," Dick added, as Reese was practically glowing with giddiness and pride beside him, bouncing on the balls of her feet as her smile threatened to light up the entire room. "No one will call him a sidekick anymore,"

"Wait," Raquel interrupted, making the four original proteges turn and look at her, only for them to see Rocket staring at them with a confused look on her face. "Since when is being a sidekick a bad thing?" the new girl asked, and M'gann, Artemis, Conner, and Zatanna turned around to listen to the conversation as well. "You sidekicks were my inspiration. Especially you," she added, pointing towards Reese.

The brunette's eyes widened as Dick's grin grew, and she pointed to herself, confused and making sure that Raquel was actually talking about her.

"Me?" Reese echoed, feeling her face heat up, and Raquel nodded.

"Uh, duh!" she exclaimed. "You were one of the first sidekicks ever, and a girl to boot. When you came on the scene with Green Arrow and Speedy--well, I guess he's Red Arrow now--it was amazing!"

Reese quickly averted her eyes to instead stare at the ground as she processed Raquel's compliment, and as the ceremony outside wound down, Raquel started a conversation with Artemis, Zatanna, Conner, Kaldur, and M'gann, diverting their attention away from Reese, Wally, and Dick, which in turn led Robin to lean in close to his girlfriend's ear.

"See?" he whispered, keeping his voice hushed so no one else would be able to hear. "Whoever said you're not an amazing person?" Swiftly, Dick kissed Reese's cheek, before he leaned back again. "Love you, pretty bird,"

Reese noticed Wally smirking and making kissy faces over Dick's shoulder before she was able to tell him 'I love you' back, and she sent the redhead a glare.

But, before Wally or Reese could say anything, Dick's watch beeped, and the Boy Wonder pulled up his holo-screen to see what the alert was about.

When Reese saw what was on the glowing blue screen, her eyes widened, before she turned to look at Dick in time to see his own eyes widen behind his sunglasses, before they both turned to look across the room.

At Artemis.

S M O K E Y  M O U N T A I N S
December 30, 10:48 EST

A little less than forty-five minutes later, the Team was flying in the Bioship above the Smokey Mountains, and from where she sat beside Robin in between the Boy Wonder and Aqualad, Silverbird could practically see the anxiety rolling off of Artemis.

And who could blame her? Reese could, that's who.

"A-Are you sure it's her?" the blonde asked as Miss Martian navigated the Bioship through the mountains. "I mean," Artemis corrected quickly. "Are you absolutely positive?"

"See for yourself," Robin said slowly, exchanging a quick glance with Silverbrid since they both knew how nerve-wracking this experience--or any encounter with a member of her family, for that matter--had to be. 

Robin also typed against his holo-glove for a few moments before a bigger holo-screen appeared that made it so they all were able to see. 

"This is the security footage from the Asheville Regional Airport,"  the Boy Wonder explained as Silverbird watched as a feminine figure--likely Cheshire--climbing the steps into a private plane. "Facial recognition confirms it's Jade Nguyen. But..." Dick trailed off for a moment, and Reese nudged her boyfriend's leg with her boot before Robin continued, glancing towards Artemis again. "You've seen her without her mask. What do you think?"

From where she kept staring at Artemis from the corner of her eye, Silverbird saw the blonde's face fall for a moment before she glanced off to the side, and Reese was able to see Artemis's fists clench against her thighs.

"It's Jade," she said finally, before correcting herself. "Cheshire,"

"Agreed," Kaldur spoke up, arms crossed from where he sat on Reese's left-hand side. "But, focus on what she carries," Robin moved the angle of the security camera that had caught Cheshire downward, towards a large--and familiar--briefcase that the assassin was carrying in her right hand. "Is that the case you and Silverbird saw in New Orleans? The one that got away?"

"That's the one," Reese clarified before Artemis could say anything, crossing her arms as she stared at the security footage of Cheshire.

Suddenly, Rocket, who had been sitting on Aqualad's other side on the far side of the Bioship, piped up with her own two-cents, and again, Silverbird was reminded that Raquel was brand-new to the Team, and as such was not privy to the disaster that had been the Team's shadow job to Louisiana.

"Okay," the older girl began, making everyone glance over at her. "I'm guessing from the mugshot that this Cheshire is the bad guy. But, what's so important about that case?"

Wally, who had been sitting behind Artemis, suddenly sent the blonde a glare that Reese caught from the corner of her eye as Robin changed the holo-screen that was in front of everybody, instead pulling up one that showcased seven particular villains that Reese never wanted to fight all at once again.

"Remember the Injustice League?" he asked, and Silverbird shifted in her seat, glancing once towards Zatanna before staring down at the front console again. 

The day the Team and Justice League had gone up against Joker and his "comrades" was also the day that Reese had put on the Helmet of Fate. The day she almost hadn't been able to take it off. But she had, and now Zee's father was the one trapped within Nabu.

To say that the brunette felt guilty about being free from the Helmet's control while Giovanni Zatara was not would be an understatement. And she didn't know what to do about it.

In response to Robin's question, Rocket waved her hand in the air and gave the Boy Wonder a very deadpan look.

"And their giant evil plants?" she reiterated. "Uh, yeah!"

"The Team and the Justice League put them in prison," Silverbird explained. "But we don't think that the Injustice League was working alone. That case," Reese jerked her chin towards the holo-screen again as Dick pulled the footage of Cheshire. "represents our unfinished business. And whatever is in that attache case has to be important,"

"Silverbird had a chance to grab it in New Orleans," Kid Flash added, glaring at Artemis again. "But someone screwed up,"

"That's not exactly how it happened, Wally," Reese tilted her head towards the speedster as M'gann announced that the Bioship was approaching the point where Jade's jet was last seen.

But, the scene was much more morbid than a simply landed plane. Instead, the jet was in pieces, presumably having crashed during one of the many blizzards that the Smokey Mountains received throughout the autumn and winter seasons.

"Looks like there were no survivors," M'gann said quietly, and despite herself, Reese glanced towards Artemis, to see that the blonde's face had gone completely pale.

She looked crushed.

➳➳➳

Even if no one had survived the plane crash, the Team still needed to figure out what happened, so M'gann brought the Bioship closer to the site of the accident, and the nine of them got out.

One thing that Reese didn't like about snow was how much it muffled sounds. It was one thing to sense the vibrations of movement across the floor of a circus tent or the Louisiana Bayou. It was another to try and sense movement through eight inches of heavy snow.

The snow kept crunching under Silverbird's boots as she and Robin tried to find the plane's black box, to try and figure out what exactly made the plane crash, and though packing down the snow helped a little bit, Reese was only just able to sense Dick's own vibrations from where he was standing right next to her, and even though the rest of the Team wasn't very far away, and still in sight, Reese was hardly able to feel her friends walking around.

She couldn't help but wonder if this was how normal people felt when they were moving around, not being able to tell when someone else was coming up behind them until they were almost there.

"You okay?" Robin spoke up quietly after they had been perusing the wreckage for a couple of minutes, noticing that his girlfriend looked a little bit lost, and Silverbird glanced at him.

"It's so quiet," she whispered, looking down at her boots and moving them through the snow. "I can't...I can barely hear or feel anything,"

"Well," Dick piped up after a moment as he finally found the plane's black box and picked it up, sending Reese a small smile. "Now you know how I feel, pretty bird,"

Reese returned his smile, but before either of them could say anything else, Wally, who was standing on top of one of the crashed jet's wings, spoke up.

"Why isn't Homeland Security and the NTSB all over this?" the speedster asked, and Robin glanced over at his friend before looking back down at the black box.

"Cheshire's ID was a League alert," the Boy Wonder clarified, as he turned the black box over in his hands with Silverbird hovering over his right shoulder. "Authorities didn't pick it up and her jet didn't follow its flight plan. It flew under the radar," Dick continued, glancing toward Kid Flash again. "Literally. But the Watchtower tracked the jet and recorded the crash,"

"Then why isn't the League here?" Rocket asked as she peered through the windows of the crashed jet's fuselage, and this time, Silverbird was the one who answered, putting her hands on her hips and sending Raquel a grin.

"Because," the younger brunette began. "Our Boy Wonder has some pretty sweet hacking skills and also arranged to get the alert first,"

"You mean your Boy Wonder," Wally spoke up, grinning again.

Reese threw a snowball at him.

Suddenly, just as Superboy threw a piece of the jet's wing to the side, wondering why there weren't any bodies left in the plane, Robin's head buzzed.

He spun around since he had been standing in front of Silverbird for the last couple of minutes, and saw a smallish-looking cylinder flying towards Reese's back. 

Dick leaped from his spot just as the others noticed the object, and Reese whirled around to face it just as Robin pulled her back, out of the way of the thing's trajectory, the same second as it exploded, about six feet from where the two birds were standing.

Turns out, the object was a stun grenade, and Robin and Silverbird landed heavily in a nearby snowdrift just as a loud 'bang' and a blinding flash of light erupted in front of the couple.

Dick's eyes were protected because his mask lenses were specially designed for both night vision and UV ray protection, and though this wasn't exactly the same thing, it helped nonetheless.

Reese, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. As the rest of the Team sprang into action, trying to find out where the stun grenade had come from, Robin's heart fell to his feet as he remembered that his mask and Silverbird's mask weren't the same. Reese's mask didn't have lenses night vision or otherwise, and her vision was so, so, so much stronger than Dick's or Oliver's or Dinah's that she had never seen the need to put lenses in.

Silverbird's head felt like someone had just put it in a vise and started to tighten it. It took almost two minutes for her vision to even somewhat clear, but everything was still blurry and her ears were ringing like they had when she and Dick had almost gotten killed by Simon Stagg's bomb at the warehouse in Gotham.

Reese clamped her hands over her ears as the snowbank she and Dick had landed in after Robin had tackled her out of the way of the stun grenade unblurred, and she could feel tears freezing on her face from the pain of it all. 

A moment later, and the brunette felt Robin bring her hands away and brush two of his fingers against the bottom of her ear. When Silverbird looked at them, the tips of Robin's gloves were red.

Turning her head, Silverbird was only just able to see a very alive-looking Cheshire standing on top of a small ridge above the valley where the jet had crashed, holding the attache case from New Orleans in one hand.

While the brunette was sure that Artemis was at least somewhat glad her sister was alive, Silverbird knew there were better ways for Jade to tell her.

Then, another voice, from the opposite side of the valley, spoke up, and this time, it was the voice of a bad guy from Robin's neck of the woods, and one that was also supposed to be in prison, since Reese had seen him at Belle Reve when she had gone there disguised as Tamara Terror with M'gann and Conner.

"I am flora, not fauna. I am foliage, not trees. What am I?" The Riddler, though Reese had never formally gone up against him, had always grated on the thirteen-year-old's nerves, from what Dick had told her. 

When she saw him standing on a higher ridge, surrounded by Shimmer, Mammoth, and an entire squad of Shadows, Silverbird knew that this entire event had been an elaborately concocted trap.

The Riddler snapped his fingers and pylons appeared out of the snow, surrounding the valley where Cheshire's jet had crashed on all sides, and a pale green forcefield trapped them all in.

"Hey, come on," Nygma continued, and Silverbird heard Robin's heartbeat spike from where he was standing next to her. "You can get this. I am shrubbery, not grass. What am I? I..."

"Ambush," Robin's voice was quiet, but Silverbird heard him all the same as she realized that he had obviously come to the same conclusion she had. And that was that they had been set up.

Riddler just laughed, before bringing one foot up to the edge of the cliff face he was standing on and leaning his elbow against his knee.

"Didn't you think we'd be tipped you were on Cheshire's trail?" the maniacal and compulsory genius added, as Reese saw her boyfriend's hand twitch towards his utility belt from the corner of her eye, and she knew that Dick was itching to throw a batarang or something of the like towards the villains, but she also knew that he wanted to know what the Riddler was going to say next. And frankly, so did Reese. "We're tired of your interference, kiddies," Nygma continued. "This is the endgame. Ordered from above, and executed by their master strategist: moi,"

Silverbird didn't know what exactly that meant, but it was definitely something worth looking into later because there was no way Nygma was doing all of this on his own. But, before Reese was able to think on it too much longer, she heard Aqualad's voice in her head.

'Miss Martian, is everyone linked?' Kaldur asked, and though Silverbird thought it was fairly obvious if she was able to hear the Atlantean in her head that the mental link was up. Whatever, she was just angry that the establishment of the psychic link aggravated her headache from the stun grenade.

'Yes,' M'gann answered Kaldur's question simply, and the Team leader's response was even simpler.

'Go,'

Splintering headache or no, Reese still knew how to be a hero. And so, when Aqualad gave the word, the entire Team split in different directions, hoping to confuse their enemies long enough that the younger heroes would gain the upper hand.

As usual, Silverbird went with Robin and at the first Shadow the couple came to, Reese braced her hands on Dick's shoulders before full-on vaulting over her boyfriend's head, kicking out with one foot and catching the assassin in the head, knocking them out in one fell swoop.

Across the valley, Kid Flash and Aqualad each took out a Shadow of their own, and Silverbird saw Kaldur glance over his shoulder at Conner, eyes wide and alert.

'Superboy!' the Atlantean tried to get the genomorph's attention. 'The pylons!' 

As Conner grunted out his agreement from beside one of the downed plane's wings, Silverbird knew that disabling the Riddler's and assassins' force field was their best bet against coming out of this battle unscathed, and it only made sense that the Team's leader would send their strongest member out to take care of them.

But, even though she had been gone for the past week, Reese couldn't help but notice that for more than a week now, Conner had been acting a little bit strange.

When she and the rest of the Team had been in Europe with Haly's Circus, the thirteen-year-old archer had repeatedly caught her friend in instances where he didn't tell the truth, the most glaring of which was when Superboy had lied about how fast his powers had returned after Parasite had drained him on the train, when even M'gann still hadn't fully recuperated, even though she herself had been sucked of her powers several hours before. 

It was something that had itched at the back of Reese's mind for the past week now, even with the phenomenal experience she and Dick had in Bulgaria, and the brunette was determined to get to the bottom of it and figure out what Conner was hiding.

Somehow...Reese wasn't entirely sure how yet because she doubted Superboy was just going to tell her, but as of right now, aside from being almost hilariously stubborn, Silverbird had bigger things to worry about.

Like not dying, for starters. One of the worst habits that Reese had was that she tended to get lost in her own head every once in a while, and it was a habit that wasn't a good one to fall into while on the field.

And judging from the way Robin suddenly yanked her head down almost to the point of Silverbird face-planting into another snowdrift in order to avoid the blast of a Shadow's Apokoliptan ray gun, she had done it again.

But, moments later, Reese was able to return the favor by reflexively shifting her foot against a bare patch of stone on the side of the ridge and sensing an assassin slinking up behind Robin long before Dick would've noticed, so Silverbird nocked an arrow and let it fly, the projectile splitting into a bola halfway between her, Robin, and the Shadow, wrapping the assassin up in wire and knocking them back onto the ground, all in the span of about fifteen seconds.

"The Riddler!" Reese was only just able to hear her boyfriend shout over the sound of the wind from Zatanna's spell that was whipping through the air and threatening to quite literally blow both birds off the side of the ridge. "We get to him, the Shadows will give up!"

Since she was pretty sure even Dick couldn't hear what he was saying over the sound of the wind, Silverbird just gave her partner a nod of agreement before they began to make their way up the side of the mountain again. Before they even made it halfway, though, Reese saw a Shadow shoot one of the Apokoliptan electro-disks at Rocket, encasing the new member of the Team in a net of red lightning, and causing Raquel to let out a scream.

Not even thinking, Silverbird leaped over the crest of the small cliff separating her and Robin from the Shadow that had shot Rocket, and kicked at the back of the assassin's knees, dropping them to the ground as Robin rammed his elbow into the back of their head, and the Shadow dropped like a sack of flour.

Down in the valley itself, since at this point Silverbird and Robin were about three-fourths of the way up the ridge towards where the Riddler was at the summit, Aqualad grabbed onto the electro-disk still trapping Rocket and used his Atlantean eel tattoos to try and cancel out the disk's own energy.

But, before Kaldur was able to accomplish that particular task, Reese saw that another Shadow was trying to sneak up on him, this one wearing the odd sort of breastplate that was connected to the ball-like gloves that were able to almost liquefy the ground, turning it to mud in an instant.

Without even thinking, and as Dick took care of the trio of Shadows that had tried to catch the two birds off-guard, Reese drew another arrow, this one with a concentrated explosive charge added to it, and shot it towards the Shadow nearest Aqualad.

The head of the arrow lodged in the small gap in between the rivets of the gauntlets, only five seconds before it exploded, blowing the entire breastplate into pieces, freeing Kaldur from the snow mixed mud, and blasting the Shadow backward into the wall of the valley, where they crumpled to the ground.

As Aqualad finally managed to free Rocket from the Apokoliptan disk, Silverbird and Robin continued their ascent towards the top of the valley, before Reese saw the forcefield surrounding the "battlefield", so to speak, waver for a moment, and figured Superboy had taken out at least one of the pylons powering it.

Just then, it felt like the entire mountain shook, and the shockwave from it rattled through Reese's entire body, making her steps falter for a moment before the area in front of where she and Dick were standing suddenly exploded into a cloud of dust and shards of stone shrapnel, throwing both birds backward hard enough that when Silverbird hit the ground, the wind got knocked out of her.

Coughing, Reese rolled over onto her stomach, trying to figure out what the hell just happened, and trying to catch her breath when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and whipped her head around, in time to see Conner--flying--with Mammoth in his grip, before the genomorph swung his arm up and threw Mammoth into the top of the forcefield.

Silverbird didn't know who was more surprised by this shocking development, her or Robin. But, while Reese was still struck speechless, Dick was able to find his voice...mentally, anyway.

'SB!' the Boy Wonder cried out over the mental link, his mask lenses growing as wide as teacup saucers. 'You-You're flying!'

Even though Superboy obviously had super-hearing, Conner acted as if he hadn't even heard Robin speak, and instead tossed Mammoth into the side of the mountain on the opposite side of the ridge where Silverbird and Robin were standing, and Reese hadn't needed a seismic sense in order to feel the entire mountain shake.

Now, Reese prided herself on having a good sense of balance, but this--the rumbling of the mountain that came from Conner throwing Mammoth into it--was something different, and it made her stumble enough that she and Dick both needed to brace themselves against the side of the ridge.

A moment later, Silverbird realized why as she saw a massive chunk of the mountain itself come undone from the rest of the landmass and start to slide down the mountain, gaining speed as it did so.

It was an avalanche. A massive earthen wave of rock and snow that, brought on by Superboy's unnatural show of strength and flight, was now rushing down the side of the mountain with the force and speed of a bullet train.

And it was headed straight for Artemis.

Silverbird felt her heart leap into her throat as she stood, frozen, at the top of the ridge, watching helplessly as her teammate and her friend stood trapped in the path of the avalanche.

Just when it looked like the blonde would be crushed by the falling rocks, ice, and snow, Cheshire--of all people--dove on top of Artemis, effectively knocking both young women out of the avalanche's path just as it crashed to the ground, sending a poof-like cloud of powdery snow up in the air.

It was starting to look like maybe Jade Nguyen wasn't completely heartless, Reese figured to herself as she let out a relieved breath, hearing the two steady heartbeats belonging to Artemis and Cheshire just out of the avalanche's reach.

With Artemis now safe for the time being, Robin and Silverbird finally achieved the last stretch of their climb up the mountain and ducked behind a large boulder just out of sight of the large outcropping where Shimmer and the Riddler were standing.

Noticing Robin's hand duck into a pouch on his utility belt for a moment before it reappeared again, with the Boy Wonder now clutching two small smoke bombs in his fist.

Silverbird reached into her quiver again and drew an arrow, and with a nod from Robin, shot it, moments after the cloud from her boyfriend's smoke bombs effectively blinded both Shimmer and the Riddler.

The arrow Reese had shot lodged in the snow at Shimmer's feet, and the woman stared at it for a moment before it exploded with a flash of light, blinding her even further and giving Silverbird a chance to kick her in the face with her boot while she was distracted, dazing Shimmer enough that when Silverbird slammed her fist into her cheek, she dropped like a bag of rocks.

That left Robin to deal with the Riddler. Or rather, for Robin and Zatanna to deal with the Riddler because as the Boy Wonder turned around to deal with the sociopathic genius, the young magician rose up in the air and lifted her hand towards the Riddler.

"Tekcajtiarts!" Zatanna exclaimed, just as fabric wrapped around Nygma as if he were a mummy from the neck down. 

A development that Riddler definitely didn't like, if his reaction to the wardrobe change was any indication.

"No, no!" he cried out, wriggling around enough that he ended up falling over in the snow as Silverbird made sure Shimmer was unconscious before coming to stand beside Robin again. "I am not the straitjacket type. Strictly Belle Reve," Nygma continued. "Not Arkham!"

Reese was getting tired of the Riddler's rants, so she grabbed a roll of duct tape that she knew Dick kept in his utility belt before she walked over to where the Riddler was rolling on the ground, tore a sizeable piece off, and stuck the tape over his mouth.

Rocket, freed from the Apokoliptan weapon by Kaldur, flew over to the ridge where Robin, Silverbird, and now Zatanna were now standing.

"Is it always like this?" the older girl asked, and Reese exchanged a glance with Zatanna as the brunette felt Dick lightly hook his pinkie with hers.

"Yeah," Zatanna shrugged after a few seconds. "Pretty much." Then, the magician sighed, before waving her hand again. "Hguone htiw eht ebolgwons,"

The wind that had been blowing around the valley for the last hour or so suddenly died, and the sudden quiet almost made Silverbird dizzy.

But, for the time being, the bad guys were defeated and judging from the way that Artemis was carrying the attache case originally procured by Cheshire, this impromptu mission had ended up being a good thing.

Though, there was still the question of how Conner had been able to fly.

M O U N T  J U S T I C E
December 30, 15:45 EST

"Tell me if this sounds familiar," Batman began gruffly later that afternoon when the Team and their mentors had gathered in the cave in Mount Justice to report on what exactly had happened. "You hacked League systems, disobeyed protocol, and endangered your lives. And," the Dark Knight continued, just when Reese thought that Bruce was going to ground them all for a year. "Your initiative resulted in the capture of three escaped felons, proving Warden Strange runs Belle Reve as a cover for criminal activity. Well done,"

Silverbird was distracted by the fact that Batman had just paid her and the rest of the Team a compliment, by realizing that her earlier wariness of Hugo Strange had actually been right.

A couple of months ago, when Reese had gone undercover with M'gann and Conner as the Terror Triplets, she had an odd feeling about the prison therapist, but she hadn't actually thought it would amount to anything.

"And then there's this," Silverbird was drawn out of her thoughts again when Batman gestured to the attache case Artemis had acquired from Cheshire, which they had now managed to open and was sitting on the table separating the Team from the Leaguers who were here. "Bio-technology infused with some sort of nano-circuitry,"

The items inside the case were vaguely triangle-shaped, with a soft red glow, and frankly? They had made both Silverbird and Robin uneasy since the case had been opened, so Dick and Reese made sure to stand as far away from the case as they could, while still staying close to the conversation.

Icon then stepped forward, picking up one of the pieces between two fingers and holding it in the air both for the rest of them to see, and so the new Justice Leaguer could study it a bit more closely, if only for a moment. 

"Though I am unfamiliar with the species," Icon began, setting the small...thing down again before he continued. "The bio component is clearly not of Earth,"

"We'll take it to the Watchtower for further study," Batman added, shutting the lid of the attache case and picking it up by the handle, before he, Icon, Red Tornado, and Black Canary turned around and headed over to the zeta tube.

Before her former mentor could step through though, Rocket ran forward and skidded to a stop as Icon turned around to face her.

"Congratulations on the League thing," Raquel began as Batman and Red Tornado disappeared into the zeta tube. "Sorry I...uh...skipped out,"

Recognized Batman 0-2, Red Tornado 1-6

Luckily, it didn't seem as if Icon blamed his protege for not sticking around, because though his face (much like Bruce's when he was being Batman) didn't show much emotion, Reese had a feeling he wasn't angry at Raquel at all.

"Yes, well," Icon began after a moment of thought as Black Canary walked up beside him. "We both seem to have found teams that suit us,"

Then, Dinah set a hand on the taller man's shoulder, and his attention was drawn towards her as the blonde woman began to speak.

"We should go, too," she said. "Don't want to miss the League's induction party,"

With that, Black Canary and Icon also stepped into the zeta tube, which still hadn't turned off after Batman and Red Tornado's departure.

Black Canary 1-3, Icon 2-0

It was only after all four senior heroes were gone that Robin and Silverbird both relaxed, and judging from the confused look that Kid Flash sent their way, their relief was visible.

But, Dick spoke before Wally was able to ask about it, and he didn't say anything pertaining to how he and Reese were feeling at the moment.

"You realize we were set up," the Boy Wonder began, and Reese sighed, realizing what her boyfriend was getting at as Kaldur gave a small nod in agreement.

"Yes," Aqualad said simply. "Cheshire and Riddler were...tipped and ready for us,"

"Not the mole thing again," Artemis added, bracing her fingers against her forehead, and for once in the last month, Silverbird was inclined to agree with her.

It had been months since she and Aqualad had found out from Sportsmaster in Taipei that there was a mole within the Team, and so far, aside from the obvious exclusions of the traitor being her, Kaldur, Dick, Roy, or Wally, they had made no headway in finding out who the mole actually was.

And Reese was getting tired of it.

But, once again, the brunette was brought out of her own head by the intervention of Rocket, who obviously was so new to the Team that she didn't even know the mole existed.

"Mole thing?" the older girl asked, looking mightily confused as Silverbird and the rest of the Team turned to look at her. "Again?"

"Aqualad and I got intel that there was a traitor on the Team a few months ago," Reese began to explain, but before she could continue, Conner shoved his way to the front, knocking the brunette into Robin hard enough that Reese thought she would end up bruised.

"Namely Artemis, M'gann, or me," the genomorph snapped, jerking a thumb towards his chest as Robin steadied his girlfriend from where she had fallen into him, and the Boy Wonder glared at Superboy as Kaldur set a hand on his shoulder.

"It is more complicated than that," their leader began, but Conner shoved off Aqualad's hand and began to stalk away, leading the Atlantean to try a different approach. "But your recent behavior does concern me. Your attack on Mammoth nearly got Artemis killed,"

Silverbird hadn't needed a reminder of how the blonde archer would have died had Cheshire not knocked her out of the way, but it was becoming dreadfully apparent that Superboy needed to get a reality check.

But, before Reese was able to say anything to add to the conversation, there was a high-pitched mechanical screeching sound that attacked her ears, and she flinched, clamping her hands around her head and stumbling away from Dick as whose voice but Lex Luthor's--of all people--appeared, sounding as if he were standing right next to her.

But, the tyrannical businessman wasn't talking to her, Reese realized a moment later as she saw Dick appear in front of her, his own voice a dull buzz compared to Luthor's.

"Superboy," Luthor was saying, and Reese snapped her head up, eyes wide, to look over Robin's shoulder towards Conner, who looked to be in the same predicament she was, with one hand braced against his temple. "I believe you used up the last of your shields. I have more. Meet me on Santa Prisca,"

Almost as soon as Luthor's voice appeared inside of Silverbird's head, it disappeared, and Conner straightened up again as Reese took a deep breath, finally registering the fact that Robin had grabbed onto her shoulders and was staring at her, mask lenses wide.

"--salin, look at me," he was saying, as Reese finally regained the strength to glance up at him and meet her boyfriend's eyes. "You okay?"

Instead, Reese grabbed onto Dick's shoulders herself and glanced past him, to where Conner had turned around and was staring at her, looking a bit guilty, as he should be in this situation.

"Why the hell," Reese began slowly, not breaking eye contact with Conner even when Superboy tried to glance away. "Did I just hear Lex Luthor's voice in my head?"

"There's something I need to do," Conner began, turning around fully to face the rest of the Team, who were staring at both him and Silverbird with eyes wide at Reese's revelation. "Something I need to tell you,"

"Yeah, no shit, Conner," Reese added, earning a surprised look from Robin, because, as far as Dick knew, his girlfriend only ever swore if she was really angry.

Regardless, Superboy had the sense to look ashamed, and he glanced down at his shoes for a moment before he glanced upward again, this time with more gumption and confidence in his gaze.

"Last month," Conner began, looking sheepish. "On Thanksgiving, I went back to Cadmus and found a few things out. When I was cloned," the genomorph continued after a moment, and Reese crossed her arms, eager to see what he came up with as an excuse. "Only half the DNA was Superman's. The other half was human," Silverbird's mouth dropped open a little bit, and her stance changed, but dutifully, she kept quiet as Conner continued his explanation. "That's why I don't have, will never have full Kryptonian powers,"

"You sure?" Robin piped up, a small grin on his face, obviously not believing Conner fully. But, after Reese nudged him and sent Dick a look to signify that Superboy wasn't lying, the Boy Wonder's grin faded, and he crossed his arms. "Because you sure seemed to have them today,"

"I've been using these," Conner explained, and Reese looked at Superboy's arm as the clone rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing what looked to be some sort of black fabric patch on the inside of his forearm. "Shields. They suppress my human DNA. I get the flight, the heat vision, but..." Superboy trailed off for a minute as he rolled down his sleeve again, hiding the shield once more before he continued. "I think I also get angry. Well, angrier. I'm sorry,"

For several seconds, no one said anything, and dots were beginning to connect inside Reese's head (too much time around the Dynamic Duo, obviously), before finally, Kaldur spoke.

"Where did you get those?" Aqualad asked sternly, and this time, Silverbird was the one who gave an explanation.

"Luthor," Reese said simply, glancing towards Conner as everyone else turned to look at her, and Superboy gave an almost imperceptible nod in affirmation. "You got the shields from Lex Luthor. But, why?"

"Because," Conner continued, reaching into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out a metal case that Reese assumed had used to hold his 'shields'. "Lex Luthor is my human father,"

Dead silence.

Even Reese was shocked, and she had been the one who'd heard Luthor contact him just now about the lack of shields Conner possessed. 

But this? Reese hadn't expected this, so for several seconds after Superboy's unexpected revelation, she just blinked, eyes wide and mouth hanging open again before Dick pushed it closed with two of his fingers and turned his gaze towards Conner.

"Lex Luthor..." the Boy Wonder began, slowly, before throwing both of his arms out in some sort of grand gesture. "Is your dad?"

"He summoned me to Santa Prisca," Superboy added, and all Silverbird was able to manage in way of words was exhaling through her teeth, making an odd sort of whistling sound.

From over her shoulder, Reese heard Artemis sigh, and the brunette turned around in time to see the blonde glance at her once before sighing heavily, tilting her head to the side and gaining everybody else's attention.

"Listen..." Artemis began, and Silverbird's breath caught in her throat as Artemis walked over to the main circle in the center of the cave and pulled up three holo-screens. "Superboy's not the only one suffering from bad DNA,"

Silverbird, Robin, and the rest of the Team watched as their blonde teammate and friend pulled up the files of Huntress, Cheshire, and Sportsmaster. Only Dick and Reese knew what was happening.

"My mother is Huntress," Artemis began slowly, and Silverbird was able to hear the way the blonde struggled to keep her heart rate steady as she explained her family tree. "The rest of my family aren't even ex-. My dad's Sportsmaster, and he's sending my sister Cheshire to fly me to Santa Prisca too,"

Obviously, Reese had already known who the other members of Artemis's family were, but she hadn't known that Lawrence Crock was sending his oldest daughter to bring his youngest to an island in the middle of the Caribbean.

What the meeting was about, Reese wasn't sure yet. And she was almost positive that neither Conner nor Artemis knew either.

Meanwhile, Kid Flash had come to his own realization, and he flicked his eyes upwards towards Artemis.

"That's why..." Wally trailed off, but it was obvious that Artemis had caught the gist of what the speedster was trying to say because she gave a small nod in response.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I was so desperate to make sure none of you found out,"

"I knew," Robin admitting that was enough to make both Silverbird and Artemis whip their heads around to stare at the Boy Wonder before Artemis turned her glare on Reese.

"You told him?" she burst out, and Reese quickly held up both her hands in an attempt to placate the blonde before she could explode, but Dick jabbed one of his hands in between them before she could.

"Reese didn't tell me," he said quickly, drawing Artemis up short. "I'm a detective. Batman had me run background checks on each new member of the Team. I found out about you on my own. But it doesn't matter," Robin added after a moment as Artemis seemingly got even closer to losing her temper. "You aren't your family. You're one of us,"

As Wally sped up to set a hand on Artemis's shoulder, Reese risked sending her boyfriend a glance out of the corner of her eye. 

It was true that Batman was paranoid, and he even had a master list of all the super-powered heroes and vigilantes that he knew about (which was actually quite a few), but he had never asked Robin to run background checks that the Dark Knight hadn't already run himself.

That meant that Dick had lied to Artemis about how he found out about her family because it had been Reese who asked him to run a background check on Artemis, not Batman.

But, Silverbird didn't say anything to contradict what Robin had admitted and instead turned back towards the center as Kid Flash finally spoke up.

"So..." the speedster began. "Uh, who's next?"

It was obvious that Wally was joking, but the way M'gann wrapped her arms around herself and looked towards the ground made Reese think the Martian was being serious.

"I am," the other girl said simply, and Wally quickly held up his hands.

"I swear I was kidding," he muttered, but M'gann didn't react, and instead continued to stare at the ground.

"Queen Bee's been...blackmailing me," Miss Martian said finally, and Silverbird's mouth dropped open again. "She wants me on Santa Prisca, too,"

Whatever it was she had been expecting from the Martian, it wasn't this. And Reese hated the unexpected.

"Blackmailing?" Kaldur was the first one to voice Reese's own thoughts, and she stared at her Martian friend as Aqualad continued. "How?"

"She knows my true Martian form," M'gann explained, and Silverbird quirked an eyebrow as Robin tilted his head to the side.

"Bald M'gann?" the Boy Wonder asked. "Who cares if--"

"No," M'gann's voice was brusque, and it cut Robin off in a way that Silverbird knew her boyfriend hadn't been expecting. And frankly, neither had she.

For several seconds, Miss Martian didn't say anything, and for a moment, Reese didn't think she was going to continue, but then M'gann sighed, hunched her shoulders, and began to change.

Reese's eyes widened as she saw her friend telekinetically shift into whatever it was her "true form" seemed to be, but remembering what M'gann had told her, Dick, Wally, Conner, and Kaldur months ago when they were all reminiscing on their beginnings as heroes, Silverbird had a pretty good idea.

As the green of M'gann's skin bled out to change into a pure white, and she grew to be over ten feet tall with a hunched back and long enough arms that they dragged along the floor, Reese felt Dick clamp a hand around her wrist and tug her back. 

Reese knew that the two of them weren't in any danger from M'gann, the arrowhead around her neck didn't tell her so, this was just her boyfriend's natural protectiveness bleeding through, but aside from her, Kaldur, and Conner, everyone else gasped and took a few steps backward.

Because, as it turns out, M'gann wasn't a Green Martian like her Uncle J'onn was or the majority of the rest of the Martian population. Instead, she was a part of the minority.

A white martian.

'I realized you would never accept me if you saw what I really am,' M'gann said through a psychic link once her transformation was fully complete, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, though it looked a bit awkward now that she only had two fingers and they were as long as Reese was tall.

"Oh please," Silverbird found herself scoffing, pushing past Robin and coming to stand in front of M'gann. "Have you ever even met anyone here? All of us are kind of freakish in one way or another. My biological parents experimented on me, Artemis comes from a family of bad guys, Wally decided blowing himself up was a prime way to get superpowers, Kaldur's a walking fish-man, Rocket's belt is what gives her superpowers, Zee's magic only works if she speaks backward, Conner's dad is Lex freaking Luthor...Welcome to the Freak Club, Megan. Hope you enjoy your stay,"

'What about Robin?' M'gann asked as Wally sputtered indignantly at Reese's blatant disregard for his journey to become a hero, and Aqualad raised an eyebrow at the "fish-man" comment. 'Why is he in the "Freak Club"?'

"He's flippy," Reese said simply, and this time, Dick was the one who choked, eyes widening at what his girlfriend said.

"I'm flippy?" he exclaimed, voice rising up a couple of octaves as Silverbird's lip quirked at his reaction. "Come say that to my face, pretty bird, and see what happens!"

Aqualad, bless his Atlantean heart, cut in before things could escalate, with an explanation that was much easier to follow than Reese's sudden induction of M'gann into the "Freak Club".

"Silverbird is correct," Kaldur began but added another comment before Reese was able to preen too much. "To a point. M'gann, did we truly seem so shallow?"

'I couldn't take the chance,' M'gann continued, her mental voice sounding so utterly defeated Reese wanted to give her a hug. 'Being a White Martian among the Green on Mars...I endured constant rejection. I couldn't face that from--'

"From me?" For the first time since he had given his own exposition, Superboy stepped forward and wrapped his own hand around M'gann's now gigantic two-fingered one, looking utterly unbothered by his girlfriend's "real" appearance.

Suddenly, Reese felt the mental link connecting M'gann to the eight other members of the Team shut down, and she had a feeling that M'gann and Conner were having their own psychic conversation.

But, even with most of the Team's deepest secrets now out in the open, it didn't change the fact that Superboy, Artemis, and Miss Martian had still been manipulated by the bad guys, and were still expected to travel to Santa Prisca for...whatever reason.

They still needed to figure out a plan of attack for that.

S A N T A  P R I S C A
December 30, 18:15 ECT

This was where Silverbird found herself presently. 

On Santa Prisca, hiding in the bushes with Robin behind her and Kid Flash, Aqualad, Rocket, and Zatanna on the other side of the clearing where it seemed that Luthor, Queen Bee, Sportsmaster, and Cheshire were meeting Superboy, Artemis, and Miss Martian with Luthor's chauffer/robot assistant Mercy, Bane--of all people--and Blockbuster.

When Reese saw Dr. Desmond, now less doctor and more monster, she could've sworn she almost snapped the branch she had grabbed onto in half. Blockbuster, back when he had been more doctor than monster, had been the one who orchestrated the setting of the apartment building fire that had killed her biological parents and baby sister four years ago, and aside from beating the former scientist's butt when she and the boys had rescued Conner from Cadmus in July, Reese was itching for a rematch.

One that ended with Blockbuster paying for what he had done. And paying for it dearly.

"You really think I'm flippy?" Dick's soft voice in her ear would've made Reese jump if she hadn't known that Robin had already left his own post sixty yards behind her and was now hovering behind her left shoulder.

"You're still hung up on that?" she hissed back, turning her head only slightly so she was able to see the way her boyfriend's eyes were glowing gold behind his mask in the inky blackness of the tropical island night.

As a way for Robin to be able to see in the dark without having to use the night vision built into his domino mask, and because both Dick and Reese liked it when they were able to see what the other did, they were currently utilizing the magical split-vision that came from their necklaces, both watching like hawks as the meeting between the bad guys went on.

Or, that's what they would and were supposed to be doing, if the conversation the two birds were having wasn't currently happening. Reese also knew that her boyfriend was trying to distract her from going after Blockbuster alone, but for now, the brunette welcomed the intervention.

Both of them were crouched behind the trunk of a tree that was concealed by a clump of ferns, Reese's hands braced against the tree's bark so she would be able to see around it, but the brunette stiffened when Robin moved her braid off of her shoulder so it was instead hanging down her back.

"You're an acrobat, Boy Wonder," she said a few seconds later, and Dick let out a quiet hum from behind her. "Of course you're flippy,"

Just then as Silverbird opened her mouth to continue, one of Bane's henchmen walked right in front of the clump of ferns that she and Robin were hiding behind, and both birds froze as their heads buzzed simultaneously.

Then, the henchman went to turn towards them, and Reese felt Dick clamp a hand over her mouth before he dragged both of them backward so his back was braced against the trunk of the tree and Reese was sitting in front of him, her back pressed against his chest.

The henchman came within three feet of the two birds' hiding spot, close enough that, had he looked down, he would've seen them. Reese was almost 100% sure neither she nor Dick were breathing at this point, and Robin's free arm was wrapped around Silverbird's stomach, holding her in place.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, but in reality was probably only a few minutes, the henchman walked back into the clearing, and Dick's hand fell away from his girlfriend's mouth, before the Boy Wonder leaned his head back against the tree trunk, letting out a breath.

"That was close, pretty bird," he whispered, his voice barely more than an expelled breath, but Reese heard him all the same, and she gave a small nod in return, leaning her own head back until it hit his collarbone.

"No kidding," she muttered before a voice in her ear made Silverbird jump, which in turn startled Robin into attack mode, both of them having forgotten about the open commline between them, Kid Flash, Rocket, Aqualad, and Zatanna.

"You guys good?" Wally was the one who had spoken, and it took Reese another thirty seconds before her heart stopped having palpitations enough that she was able to answer the speedster.

"We're fine KF," she whispered quickly, knowing there were still about half a dozen of Bane's henchmen close enough to her and Dick that if she talked at a normal volume they'd be discovered. "The guy probably thought he heard a squirrel or something,"

"Are there squirrels on Santa Prisca?" Robin hissed back from where he was still sitting behind her, and Silverbird found herself shrugging.

"I have no idea," she answered. "But, the bad guy obviously didn't hear us, otherwise we'd be dead right now,"

Robin hummed again, and Silverbird felt his arm tighten around her for a split second before M'gann's voice exclaimed through a suddenly established mental link, making Reese realize that neither she nor Dick had been paying attention to the actual meeting going on on the island.

Whoops.

'Queen Bee is down!' M'gann was saying after she had telekinetically slammed the Bialyan monarch into a tree. 'Superboy, you're safe from her control,'

"May not be much of a liar," Conner said as he stalked towards where Luthor and Mercy were standing above Queen Bee's unconscious body. "But I fooled you,"

"And I'm so proud," Luthor added as he stood up. "I take it Miss Martian cleaned Red Sun from your mind?"

Red Sun was some sort of trigger word that had been implanted inside Conner's head when he had first been created by Cadmus, and when spoken, it essentially shut him down.

"And confirmed Robin, Silverbird, Aqualad, and Kid Flash rescued me from Cadmus before you had time to install any other programming!"

"All true," Luthor admitted after a moment, before tilting his head. "Personally, I blame Dr. Desmond..."

Just then, Blockbuster broke free of the hardened foam that Artemis had trapped him in and sped towards Conner with surprising speed for a creature of his bulk and size and slammed Superboy into the ground and sliding him forward until they were both at the edge of a high cliff.

As M'gann and the Super-Cycle went up against Bane and his goons who were basically shooting up the forest at this point, that left Artemis to deal with her father and sister who, unsurprisingly, were pissed at their daughter and sister who decided to double-cross them.

'Guys!' Artemis shouted over the psychic link, and Silverbird let out a breath. Finally some action. 'Reinforcement time,'

So, as Aqualad went to confront Luthor, Queen Bee, and Mercy, and Zatanna, Rocket, and Kid Flash dealt with most of Bane's henchmen, that left Robin and Silverbird to deal with the man himself. 

By the time the two birds reached Bane though, he had already injected himself with Venom, bringing his muscle mass to at least four times what it had been, and making defeating him much more difficult.

But, not impossible.

Robin and Silverbird met four more of Bane's henchmen before they met him, and though the odds were decidedly not in the bad guys' favor, Dick and Reese dealt with them anyway, with Robin sending his batarangs into the back of the henchmen's heads with enough force that they dropped like rocks, but Robin still kicked them out of the way afterward.

Silverbird, meanwhile, used her bow and a grappling line to swing down from the branch of a tree bordering the edge of the clearing, and slammed the heels of her boots into another goon's back, stunning him enough that he wasn't fully alert when Reese pivoted on her right foot and kicked her left into his face.

Then, her head buzzed, and the brunette spun around in time to see the final henchman pointing his gun at Robin's back, but before he could pull the trigger, Silverbird shot an arrow and it lodged in the muzzle of the bad guy's weapon, making it malfunction and causing him to drop it.

Next, Reese turned her bow horizontal before swinging it like a baseball bat into the henchman's abdomen, winding him before she sent a wicked-looking uppercut into his chin, throwing him backward and out cold.

Silverbird's defeat of the last Bane goon had caught Robin's attention, and he turned towards his girlfriend, neither of them noticing Bane running towards them until it was too late.

Their heads buzzed a split-second before Bane hit them, the drug smuggler literally picking the two birds up with the force of a speeding car and throwing them backward.

Reese hit the ground hard and for a moment she thought she blacked out, because the next second she was aware of her surroundings, Dick was rolling both of them out of the way before Bane's massive fist slammed into the ground where they had been laying moments before.

Flipping up to their feet, Robin and Silverbird circled Bane on opposite sides, hoping that one of them would be a sufficient enough distraction for the other to make a move, and today it seemed Robin was the distraction, a fact that Reese was less than pleased about, but Dick wasn't about to let it be her.

Robin whistled, catching Bane's attention long that when the smuggler ran towards him, Dick used his natural athleticism and acrobatics to miss every one of Bane's strikes, somehow ending up on the man's back and slicing the Venom tube off with another batarang.

Then, Silverbird leaped up into the air, reaching into her quiver and pulling out two electricity-conducting arrows, unceremoniously shoving Dick off of Bane's back so she was able to take his place before Reese jammed the ends of both arrows into the port on the back of Bane's neck where the tube had used to be connected, sending electricity arcing through Bane's entire body.

A few seconds later, Bane dropped like a very heavy rock.

With Bane down, and seeing Superboy throw Blockbuster up as he climbed up from the cliff again, Reese saw her chance and, ignoring Dick's calls after her, she ran across the clearing, reaching Conner and M'gann in a matter of moments.

'Both of you,' she snapped over the mental link, surprising her two teammates with her abruptness. 'Move,'

Superboy and Miss Martian did so, and regardless of whether his brain had been completely muddled by his transformation to this Blockbuster creature back in July, it was obvious that Desmond recognized her, because as he and Silverbird faced off, Blockbuster almost seemed to smile.

Granted, it was not, in any way, a nice smile, it was more of an "I'll enjoy killing you" smile, but he smiled all the same, though Reese wasn't about to give the monster the satisfaction of how she was practically vibrating with how much adrenaline was in her system at the moment.

Blockbuster roared, obviously getting ready to pound her into oblivion, but Silverbird met his roar with a cry of her own, the sonic scream exiting her throat with enough force that Blockbuster was caught up in it, getting thrown back into the forest and snapping several trees in half as he did so.

Black Canary and Green Arrow had both repeatedly said that Reese's Canary Cry was at least twice as powerful as Dinah's, but this was the first time that the Team really began to understand what that meant.

Blockbuster hadn't been defeated by the scream, not entirely, but when the creature stumbled out of trees, blood was dripping out of his ears, and he was obviously disoriented.

But, Reese wasn't finished with him. Instead, the brunette drew another arrow from her quiver and shot it towards Blockbuster, the arrow exploding once it hit his shoulder, tossing Blockbuster back once more.

Arrow after arrow after arrow Silverbird shot towards Blockbuster, weakening the creature further and further until he was on his knees at the edge of the cliff that Desmond had thrown Conner off of earlier, not even able to stand at this point.

And, Dick noticed with a jolt from where he had been standing with Aqualad, Reese had done all of this without a flicker of emotion on her face.

Then, as she stood a few yards in front of Blockbuster's fallen form, Silverbird drew her final arrow, and the razor-sharp point glinted in the moonlight.

Right before she let go of the bowstring, Reese's heart dropped as Robin wrapped both of his hands around hers, holding her bow in place from behind and stopping the brunette from shooting the arrow.

"Put it down," Dick said, his voice soft enough that only Reese was able to hear, and it was then that the Boy Wonder realized his girlfriend was shaking, only this time, it wasn't from the adrenaline. It was from fear. "Pretty bird, drop your bow,"

"I can't," Reese whispered, and this was when Blockbuster glanced upward, meeting the eyes of the two birds in front of him. "Robin, you know what he did,"

"I know," Dick answered, still holding onto Reese's bow the same way she was, though Robin could feel Silverbird's grip loosening. "But, you can't kill him, Rhysalin,"

"Why not?" Reese retorted, her grip tightening again and drawing the bowstring back farther, and Robin scrambled to figure out a way to get through to her. "Green Arrow and I aren't you and Batman, Robin. My dad's killed before, and he's not sorry he did. Desmond killed my mother, my father, my baby sister. Why shouldn't I kill him for what he did? The world would be better off,"

"Because of what it would do to you," Again, Dick felt his girlfriend's grip loosen around her bow, and he sighed heavily as he moved his head so it was right beside hers, noting the tear tracks that were coming from beneath Reese's domino mask. "Pretty bird, I know you, and I know your heart. Killing someone, even Desmond, would break you. I don't want you to go through that. Please,"

"What about you?" Reese's voice was so quiet Dick almost didn't hear her, but he did, and he turned to look at her, finding her face inches from his. "What would you do if it was me who had been killed by Desmond?"

Dick glanced down, feeling his own heart clench up as he thought about what he could say to Reese to make her satisfied with his answer and not make her end up killing Desmond.

"You know what I would do, pretty bird," the Boy Wonder said finally, opting to tell Reese the truth. He knew the rest of the Team wouldn't know what he was talking about, even if they were listening in, but he knew that his girlfriend would.

For several seconds, all Robin and Silverbird did was stare at each other, with Reese searching her boyfriend's eyes to make sure he was telling the truth. Dick had retracted the lenses in his mask for a moment, so Reese was able to actually see his dark blue eyes, and whatever she saw there was what made the brunette finally lower her bow, placing the arrow back into her quiver.

And then, instead of killing Blockbuster, Silverbird drew her fist back and punched him across the jaw, throwing Desmond's massive rock-like head to the side and finally knocking the creature unconscious, after the brutal beating that Reese had put him through earlier.

During that whole altercation, Artemis had managed to defeat Sportsmaster, though it looked like Cheshire got away (or Artemis let her escape), and the rest of the Team had rounded up a defeated Bane and his henchmen. It also looked like Luthor, Mercy, and Queen Bee had gotten away, but after the stunt that Reese had just pulled with Blockbuster, she figured hunting down Luthor was a task for another day.

By the time that Silverbird and Robin walked up to where Artemis and Kid Flash were standing over Sportsmaster's unconscious body, who was also stuck in a pit of mud, Artemis had taken off her father's mask, and now Reese was really able to see the resemblance between the blonde archer and her father.

Artemis had her mother's slanted eyes and complexion, but her eye color and hair were all from Lawrence Crock. It was a bit chilling, and Reese suddenly understood why Artemis had tried so hard to hide her real identity from the Team before.

"Souvenir," Artemis was saying as she handed the mask over to Wally before the four of them walked over to where the rest of the Team had gathered nearer to the Bioship.

It was also where Blockbuster was still lying out cold, and Reese found herself scowling as she, Dick, Wally, and Artemis passed by him, but calmed down again once Dick squeezed her hand.

"It is always like this," Rocket burst out, looking around at the entire group, and Zatanna sent the other girl a smile.

"Told you," the magician shot back with a grin before Robin leaned in towards Silverbird's ear again.

"Disaster averted," the Boy Wonder whispered. "We're feeling the aster, pretty bird,"

"Agreed," Kaldur's voice made both birds jump, but when Robin turned to look, the Atlantean just gave the young acrobat a cunning smile, which also alerted Dick to the fact that somehow, Aqualad knew. "This has been a good day,"

-----

Kaldur being sly and knowing already that Dick and Reese are dating as superheroes...we love him for it.

Batman's master list of meta-humans will come into play right before I do s3, so not for a while, but it comes into play in a pretty big way concerning Disalyn, so I just wanted to establish bits of it now.

I'm highkey thinking about Reese and Dick having less than stellar morals, especially when it comes to each other. And before you all attack me for changing Robin's character like that, he does have a pretty wicked temper in the comics, and he killed the Joker once, so I don't think it's that far out of left-field. Also, you can't tell me that if anything happened to Reese, Dick wouldn't completely lose his sh*t. And vice versa, as evidenced by the conversation the two of them had at the end of this chapter.

Me, realizing that the last time Reese talked to Red Arrow before she finds out he's the mole was when the Team captured Parasite: :')

Next Up: Auld Acquaintance

~Matia Reigh