WHICH NEVER HAPPENED, because suddenly two white slits popped open, cutting sharply through the dark, and a black mass launched itself straight at me.

With a shout, I fell back onto the hard concrete of the roof. The wind was knocked out of me as I desperately reached for my gun, my fingers barely grazing the black metal before the figure fell on top of me.

I finally released my gun from the holster and held it up to what I hoped was the head of the dark mass, and was about to pull the trigger when something sharp was pressed against my neck.

Since when did Clayface use weapons?

Suddenly a bright light was flashed in my face, illuminating the space in between me and the mysterious figure. Pale skin, thin lips, red hair?

"Roy!" I shouted, using my legs to toss him off of me.

As he landed roughly next to me, the sharp thing nicked the skin on my neck. I hissed in pain, my hand slapping onto the cut. I pulled it away to find a small amount of blood on my fingertips.

"Blackout?" He questioned, switching the flashlight he held in his hand off.

My eyes attempted to adjust to the sudden darkness and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I thought you were Clayface!"

He groaned, pushing himself up and tucking the arrow back into his quiver.

"I thought you were Clayface."

The archer offered me a hand which I begrudgingly took.

"I almost killed you!" I complained, putting my gun back into the holster on my leg.

He didn't have a chance to respond before a cheery voice rang out behind us.

"Speedy! My boy!" Kid said excitedly as he ran over to us, slinging an arm around the older boys' shoulder.

"It's Red Arrow now," Roy glared, shrugging his arm off.

"Riighht," I hummed, "anyways, why the hell are you here? Last time I checked you weren't invited to the party."

"Word on the street is that Clayface has finally come out of hiding again— I was in the area, figured I'd check it out," the archer explained.

Artemis finally decided to speak up, gesturing her arms widely. "Okay, well, thanks for the help, but as you can see, we have it covered."

"Because what I just heard was so 'having it covered.'"

Hey, Squidkid, false alarm.

Hello?

"Hey, do any of you hear me?" I asked, looking up to Blondie and Kid, the former of which paused their pre-argument glare competition with Roy.

"Just because I don't pay attention doesn't mean I'm deaf!" Kid suddenly yelled.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Wha—? No, like, in your mind. Remember? Secret relationships?"

"Oh," his eyes darted down sheepishly, "uh, forget I said anything. Um, no. Can't hear a thing you said."

"M'gann must be out of range," Blondie explained.

"Go find them then," I said, "I'll watch Red Riding Hood."

"You'll watch him?"

I narrowed my eyes at the archer. "Did I speak French?"

"Listen, I may hate him, but at least he doesn't have a recorded body count. You're hardly the most trustworthy, Blackjack." She put a hand on her hip, and from the way Kid stood behind her, he apparently agreed.

"Okay," I snapped, stepping towards the other girl, "One, I am too so trustworthy. And two, don't play the nickname game with me, that's my thing. Just go get them! I pinkie swear I won't let my eyes off of him."

"Why don't we all just go?" She questioned.

"Kid Moron is the fastest way there, and he can only carry one passenger at a time. I don't trust him by himself not to get killed in the streets. Do you really want to stay with either me or Oliver Junior?"

I kept a pointed look on my face but inwardly patted myself on the back for making that up on the spot.

Seeming done with the conversation, Kid suddenly had Blondie in his arms. Her cheeks were quickly painted pink.

"I'm not trusting you on this," the speedster narrowed his eyes, "I'm trusting Aqualad's trust in you."

"Hey, wait! I didn't agree to—!"

The archers complaints were suddenly gone with the wind— literally. In a streak of bright yellow, one that looked foreign against the Gotham streets, they were gone.

'You're hardly the most trustworthy!' Please. I'll give her something to trust.

I turned around, pointing a finger into the redheads chest. "Alright. Here's the deal: you want to look like a hero, and I want to make Bats angry. I know where Clayface is hiding out; I'll tell you, you go and save the day, impress the League, and everyone hates me for letting you get there first. Cool? Cool."

He opened his mouth, face contorting like he was about to argue, and then his mouth snapped shut. A suspicious look washed over his face— I was giving him an offer he couldn't refuse. "How do I know you're not playing me?"

"Oh, come on, Red," I slapped a hand on his shoulder, slipping the small metal device out from between my fingers and onto the black spandex, "when have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?"

"Many, many times," he said as he shrugged my arm off.

"The abandoned metal factory, 37th and West," I said as I pulled out my grappling gun, "test your luck."

Then I clicked the trigger and swung off into the dark streets, a smirk on my face and mischief in my eyes.

"You're hardly the most trustworthy!" I mocked.

"Oh, just you wait."

* * *

When I saw a group of colorfully-dressed, out-of-place looking kids, I knew it was the team. With another swing on my grapple I landed in front of them in a crouch, pulling the trigger again and reeling the line back in before standing up.

"Guys! I—"

"Where is Red Arrow?" Archery Chick demanded, stalking up to me with a near murderous look in her eyes.

I glared at her. "That's what I—"

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!" Superboy pushed the rest of the group aside, following Blondie in suit.

"Even with all of that superhearing of yours, you still don't bother to listen, do you, Baby Boy Scout?" I sneered. "Now, as I was saying, Red apparently just found out where Clayface was hiding. And before you ask, no, he didn't tell me— said he 'works better alone' or whatever. I did manage to get a tracker on him, though, so we don't absolutely fail this already train wreck of a mission."

They all stared at me in silence. I smirked, picking up the small black tracking device I had used to find the Bat Cave and tossing it towards our resident Atlantean, to which he easily caught.

"You can thank me later. I accept cash, check, or credit. Or jewelry. But nothing less than fifteen karat."

Squidkid's eyes followed the small red dot on the screen, face illuminated by the screen. "Well done, Blackout. Team, lets move out."

"Uh," Dick began, and my heart fell, he better not be about to ruin this for me. "Is no one going to focus on the fact that Red Arrow basically just said, 'screw you guys, you can't handle this,' and left?"

"Yeah! What happened to being allies?" Kid agreed, to which I rolled my eyes.

"That can be dealt with later— right now we must focus on the fact that we have a legitimate lead on Clayface, and we must use that opportunity to its fullest," Squidkid interjected.

I grinned. "Well, you heard the man. Fish? Whatever. Point is, we're gonna go kick some mud monster ass. Does he even have an ass? God, there are too many species nowadays. Anywho, Cookie Girl, establish your mind thing-y again and let's get this show on the road."

Blackout, this is strictly reconnaissance only.
Do not forget that, the voice of Squidkid rang in my head.

I winked at him. Of courrrse...

I am serious.

I grinned as I walked past him, snatching the tracking device out of his hands.

I am too! Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a Batarang in my eye.

Dick snickered as Artemis groaned.

Please let this mission be over soon.

* * *

We stared at the tall, gray building. The bricks were falling off, clattering to the ground; the whole structure in near shambles. The electric graffiti on the sides were a sharp contrast to the murky Gotham skyline.

"You're sure this is the place?" Kid whispered.

"That's what it says here," Greenie replied.

I had given her the device a couple blocks back since she was able to get a better view from above than the rest of us. Suddenly the sound of electronic taps filled the air. I turned over to Dick, who was fiddling around on his holo-watch, red blobs lighting up the screen.

"There's movement on the upper east side of the building," he confirmed before shutting the screen off.

Squidkid nodded. "Miss Martian, proceed in as we discussed, but be careful. We solely need a visual before we return to the base."

I rolled my eyes. Other than Dick, I liked to think I knew Bats pretty well. And that man did not like the bare minimum— he wanted results. Simply saying we saw the bad guy was not results. At least, not by my standards anyways.

The girl suddenly became invisible, and although I couldn't see her I could sense her entering the building. We sat in silence, the ambient noise of the city behind us. A soft rumbling— like the sound of rocks— caught my ears off to the left. I turned, spotting a couple of abandoned working trucks, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Dick seemed to pick up on it too— he caught my gaze, slightly shaking his head as if to say "it's nothing."

Um, guys, I found the movement, but it's, uh, not what we expected, Greenie said, ending our wordless conversation.

Then an arrow stuck itself into the ground next to my foot, a thick black rope attached to the end, and out from the second story window came Roy.

As soon as his feet touched the ground everyone exploded.

"What are you doing here?" Superboy asked accusingly.

"I'm here to take down Clayface, same as you," Roy answered, a bite in his voice at the black-haired boys tone, but he flashed me a look of confusion.

Squidkid stood next to me and I nudged his side. "See? That's what we should be doing. Not this bullshit 'recon' garbage."

"Blackout," his voice rose slightly louder, "we can not disobey Batman's orders."

"You know, it's funny— hilarious even— that you left the team because you were treated 'like a kid' but then go and do the exact same thing to us! Hypocrite much?" Kid said pointedly to Roy, who narrowed his eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"So now you're playing dumb? Figures!"

Artemis sneered. "I don't think think he's playing. He's not that good of an actor."

"Can we stop arguing? Clayface could still be here!" M'gann said in a failed attempt to calm everyone down.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't the blonde here."

"Shut up! At least I'm not a redhead!"

Kid turned towards her. "Whats that supposed to mean?"

"Yeah..." M'gann agreed, hurt and insecurity laced in her voice more than anything.

"Disobey Batman's orders?" I repeated, turning back to Aqualad. "Who died and made him king? Don't you see why the League respects Red more than you guys? It's because they regard him as an actual hero! You're never gonna get anywhere if you don't show results."

"Right," Dick rolled his eyes, crossing his arms, "and completely ruining the whole mission by carelessly throwing ourselves into a fight we aren't prepared for is 'showing results?' Hah! Aqualad, I don't even know why you trust her! She's gonna get us killed!"

"Don't you remember? Batman's orders," I spat.

The fighting continued to grow louder, blowing any amount of stealth we formerly had right out the door, but we were all too angry to care.

Suddenly there was the sound of mini sonic boom as something left the ground, then a loud crash which silenced all of the arguing. We all turned to see Superboy in a pile of what used to be construction equipment, wet cement all over his hands.

His chest heaved up and down as he turned towards us.

"It kept making noise," he explained. "It was annoying."

There was silence for a moment before Dick spoke.

"Noise? That stuff's been dead for years; it's ancient by now."

Kid stepped up beside him, squinting his eyes to get a better look. "Yeah, how is that cement even wet?"

My eyes widened as I put two and two together, and I immediately turned over to see Roy with the same expression on his face.

"Superboy!" the archer called, but the Boy of Steel had already gone flying.

Weapons and powers began activating as everyone switched into fight or flight mode. The massive monster known as Clayface grew to life right before our eyes with a loud roar and didn't waste any time beginning to fight us.

Superboy— already enraged by being tossed— slammed his body back into the monster, only to go straight through him.

I rolled my eyes.

Hey Super-moron, he's called Clayface for a reason! I shouted over the mindlink before I heard a low growl,

"Blackout."

I paused, hoping that who I thought said it wasn't going to have actually said it. But of course, I'm only right when things are going wrong.

The monster had his eyes (I think?) trained on me, and I smiled nervously.

"Matty!" I laughed nervously, "long time no see!"

"Blackout... good guy now," he grumbled.

I sighed in frustration. "God, you don't have to announce it."

With another roar a rocket of mud was thrown towards me, and it easily would've hit its target if Roy didn't pull me out of the way. We rolled behind an old, beaten up car as Blondie fired an exploding arrow at Clayface, turning his attention away from us.

As I poked my head over the top of the car, the redhead quickly pulled me back down.

"What do they mean 'treating them like kids?' What the hell did you tell them?"

"Okay, um, so I might have told them that you somehow found out where Clayface was on your own and refused to tell me? And the only reason I found you was because of the tracker I put on you?" I grinned sheepishly before looking above the car again through the blown-out windows.

"And they didn't ask to see any proof of that?"

"They didn't have to, because I did put a tracker on you," I said, reaching forward and plucking it off of his back and tucking it away.

"Brielle!" He nearly shouted.

"Listen!" I rushed, "I know it wasn't right, but you can not tell them. C'mon Roy. What do you want? Money? Hell, I'll rob Bruce dry if you want!"

There was a moment of silence. Then, I nearly fell backwards when a very un-Roy-like smirk fell on his features. He winked suggestively. "You can give me something else..."

My mouth fell open, eyes wide. "Hah, uh, listen, Harp— um, Roy, uh, it's not that I don't like you! 'Cause trust me, you're very easy on the eyes, and I'm not even into redheads! But I'm not—"

"I'm kidding," he deadpanned, "I want your identity."

"Wha—?"

"You're real identity. Full name, where you came from, how you know all of the Leaguers— tell me and we're even. I won't tell anyone, I have no reason to."

"Deal. If they ask you anything, just ignore it. Now, lets go handle this mess. These children don't know what their doing."

"You are one of these children," he said pointedly as we jumped out from behind the car.

"From what I've heard," I paused, taking my gun in my right hand and a couple of grenades in my left, "You were once, too."

"Just shut up and fight."

* * *

I slammed into the wall with a groan, the buckles on the suits feeling like punches when I landed on them. I slid down the concrete, most likely leaving a very ugly stain behind. Mud— just like the rest of the team— coated me from head to toe. I didn't understand! Was fighting Clayface always this hard?

I mean, last time, all Sel and I had to do was use—

"Squidkid!" I yelled, jumping up but immediately regretting it.

"Electricity! Electricity is his weakness!"

And suddenly the crackle of electricity was heard, followed by a loud roar.

Then Squidkid slammed into the wall next to me.

I groaned, sinking down to my knees, vision going blurry from exhaustion. I blinked multiple times, forcing myself to stay awake. I watched our leaders' eyes roll back into his head as I let mine loll onto the ground.

My breathing became labored as the dim moonlight filtered in through the sky roof above. Then a shadow appeared on it— it was big, black, and shaped like a— oh no.

The sound of shattering glass rang in my ears. I somehow found enough energy to throw my arms over my eyes to protect myself from the falling shards as what I feared fell into the room.

Another crackle of electricity boomed throughout the room, a loud roar, and then silence.

"Bats," I slurred, but that's probably not what it came out to sound like. I only managed to push myself over onto my knees before collapsing again.

My vision became blurry once more as the heavy boots I had become so accustomed to walked over and stopped in front of me, cape swishing around the muscular legs.

God, we are in so much trouble.

And then it was dark.

* * *

With the help of Flash and— much to my utter disappointment— Green Lantern, the fight scene was more or less cleaned up and we were soon on our way back to the base in the Bioship. I had heard a rumor or two about the extremely arrogant and lively Green Lantern and had hoped to make a good first impression; I had a feeling we would get along well.

But of course, the first thing he saw was me sprawled on the floor amidst all of my teammates, covered head to toe in sewer mud.

Fantastic.

He attempted to make a few witty remarks, and if I had been more attentive I would've easily countered back, but I knew it was just to lessen the blow of the deadly glares Bats had trained on me as he moved about the damaged site, making sure Clayface was completely contained.

And so here I sat, completely regretting deciding to sit in "shotgun." I didn't dare turn around to look at the expressions of the rest of the team— not like I cared— but I could feel their scrutinizing gazes burning into the back of my head.

Although it was dead silence apart from the low hum of the ship, I could read the words that hung in the room clear as day: "You fucked up. Big time."

With all of that said, I'm still not sure why I found my mouth opening.

"I don't know why you guys are glaring at me, it's not like I did anything wrong."

"Not like you did anything wrong? God, if Batman doesn't kick you off the team, I'd be shocked," the antagonizing voice of Kid spoke from my left.

I spun around in the chair, eyes narrowed. "For what? Actually finding Clayface? I don't see you doing that, Kid Brainless."

"Oh please, you were so the one who put the tracker on Red Arrow instead of just following him!"

Anger flared inside of me at the hypocrisy of his statement. Apparently, my urge to lunge at the redhead must have shown, because suddenly the seatbelts were tugging at my shoulders just a little bit tighter. I glanced briefly over at M'gann, who although wasn't looking at me, I knew was the culprit.

"So you wanted me to just take off with the guy who you told me to watch, because you were so sure that I was going to, and when I don't, now you're mad? That's fucking hypocrisy if I've ever heard it."

"It was supposed to be recon only, but you kept insisting on just busting Clayface to 'prove ourselves to the League.' How do we know you didn't plan this?" Dick accused.

My mouth dropped. "What happened to the whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing that you and Bats are so determined to let everyone know you live by? Do you have proof of me doing anything like that?"

"Red Arrow seemed off when we first saw him," Artemis noted, "like he was confused. You probably bribed him!"

Even though she hit the nail on the head, I wasn't going to let her know that.

"Says you! All you kept telling me was how I 'wasn't trustworthy.' But when I actually do something right, you accuse me of ruining the mission. How pathetic," I sneered, before realizing something else, "And! We haven't even talked about how our resident Super-mess-up was the one to go and smash that truck in the first place. We could have avoided this whole embarrassment otherwise!"

"Superboy is not in full control of his powers yet," Aqualad began.

I snorted. "That's not an excuse!"

"I am not saying it is."

I opened my mouth to protest when two small beeps rang throughout the cabin.

"Um, incoming message from Batman," M'gann announced, voice dropping lower at the last part.

In the massive window at the front of the plane, a screen popped up with the angry glare of the Dark Knight. Everyone seemed reluctant to talk, even Kaldur. Bats was obviously in a plane, and if you looked hard enough you could see the large container full of squirming brown mud behind him. My voice was suddenly trapped in my throat.

"Batman—" Dick began, which was smart, seeing he was the one who was least likely to be yelled at.

"It was supposed to be recon only. You were not supposed to engage. This could have all been avoided if you had simply followed directions. If I wasn't there, things would have been catastrophically worse." His voice seemed deeper when it echoed around the cabin.

"Yeah, fortunately. Because that was totally unplanned," I found myself rolling my eyes, thinking back to our former conversation about the mission being executed in Gotham.

For the second time that night I found myself regretting sitting right in the front, as the whites of his cowl felt like lasers cutting through my soul.

"This will not go without consequences. For now, report back to the base. Batman out."

The screen went dark and the night sky reappeared in its place. I could feel the tension release from the room as we all visibly eased.

The rest of the ride was silent, everyone deep in thought. But I felt on edge, ready to have to undoubtedly defend myself to Bats when I get back.

Great, Just great.

* * *

As we walked into the cave, the only sound heard over our deafening shame was the sloshing of mud under our boots. As we approached the main area of the cave, the tall, 6'2 stature of the Dark Knight was waiting for us. I felt everyone's eyes darting back and forth between him as we approached him. I sighed, opening my mouth and figuring that the faster this was over, the faster I could forget this ever even happened.

"It was my fault."

The words on my tongue fell flat as I turned over towards Squidkid in surprise, the rest of the team mirroring my expression in my peripheral.

"I need to talk to Aqualad," Bats said, "the rest of you, hit the showers and head home."

Fighting the urge to say something snarky, I forced my feet to walk forward along with the rest of the team.

"Home?" Superboy repeated, "I am home."

I trailed behind the rest of the team who didn't bother to look at me, and for once I was kind of glad. I paused when I got to the other side of the room, turning back around to see our leaders head hung in shame as Bats spoke in a hushed tone which I couldn't make out. Kaldur then raised his head to look up at the older man, but his light eyes darted behind the black cape and locked with mine.

The look on his face was indecipherable, but being caught caused a quick burst of panic inside of me.

Then I sharply spun on my heel and headed down the hall in the direction of sloshing footsteps and miserable whispers.

* * *

My brown hair was sopping from the shower, hastily thrown up in a bun which still caused water droplets to land on my black tank top. The socks on my feet were violently pink, and although they kept my otherwise loud footsteps quiet, I questioned why I kept them after all these years. Combined with my bright yellow shorts and, well, thank God it was late, because I must have looked like a disaster.

I had a half-drunken glass of water in hand as I navigated my way back from the kitchen to the dorms, with help from the night mode on my mask. The lights in the halls at this time of night were so dim, it was a miracle that anyone other than Bats could find their way around. Then again, knowing the Caped Crusader, that was probably the plan.

Just as I was about to enter the code to my room, I stopped. I looked over my shoulder to see an identical door across the hall, one I knew belonged to our Commander in Chief himself. It suddenly seemed a lot more intimidating in the near pitch black. A question played over and over in my mind; a burning question which I assumed the glass of water would've quenched.

It didn't.

Knowing that my curiosity would get the better of me eventually, I made my way across the hall and knocked gently on the door, trying not to raise suspicion from the others.

I stared at the water in my glass. Maybe this was dumb. Were Atlanteans even up at this hour?

I reached up to switch off the night mode on my mask, figuring that if he did end up opening the door, it would be light inside. After a few moments of self-doubt, the surface of the water rippled slightly right before the door in front of me hissed open.

Just like earlier, the words on my tongue were lost as our leader stood in front of me simply clad in nothing but a light blue towel around his waist. He stared at me with a blank look on his face, but his eyes were intense, like the lightning in a storm. I was suddenly acutely aware of what I must've looked like, and couldn't help the heat that burst onto my cheeks.

Wait, what?

No, no, I'm Blackout! He should be honored to see me.

I opened my mouth to speak again, to demand an answer and stand my ground and—! My mind was blank once again as my eyes drifted down to his exposed stomach— abs solid and statuesque, muscles sharp and well-built. The water from the shower (or knowing him, swim) he had apparently just come from glistened on his skin in the dim light.

He looked like some figure out of a movie, whereas I felt the water dripping from my hair and onto the floor made me look like something akin to a wet dog.

Had Squidkid always been this... attractive?

"Can I help you, Blackout?"

My eyes darted back up to meet his, my mouth snapping shut when I realized it had been open this whole time.

"Uh, yeah," my voice came out soft, and I quickly cleared it, "why did you take the fall for the team earlier today?"

He stared at me thoughtfully for a moment, and I fought the urge to squirm uncomfortably under his gaze. God, please don't do that.

"As the leader, it is my job to take responsibility for the team, no matter the performance or outcome of the mission."

"But, like, why didn't you... I don't know, blame me? Everyone else seemed so adamant about it. And don't say some leader bullshit about how it was your moral duty," I added quickly.

The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement at my comment before the thoughtful gaze returned to his features once more.

"I am aware of the teams... wariness of you. But if Superman saw something in you, then I will go against my better judgment and trust the experience of his."

He turned back to walk into his room.

"Besides, I believe in second chances."

Then with a quiet hiss, the door slid shut and I was left standing in the hall like an idiot in my pink socks and half-glass of water in my hand. I let out a shaky breath before slowly turning around and padding back across the hall. Raising a tense hand, I typed the passcode to my room onto the small metal device.

Somehow, I think I'll fall asleep pretty easily tonight.

* * *

If you actually made it through this chapter, good for you for coming out alive. (5k words people, I was feeling creative.) Also, sorry for all of the line breaks, it was already long enough and I'm lazy soooo. Anyways, QOTD since I want to get to know some of you better: who's your favorite underrated DC character? Mines probably Klarion or Shazam. Also, thanks for 60k!

xo Alexa