Growing Pains - Chapter 53 (Patreon)

“Ow, ow, ow.” I muttered as I tried to find a sitting position that didn’t sting. A losing battle as it turned out, even with the Amzonian embassy’s super plush seats. 

Wonder Woman…had not taken us lying to her face very well.

Which, considering what we were doing could have accidentally caused a war between the Red and the Green if Swamp Thing was less chill then he was, was totally fair…But I was still going to get revenge on her for this. This warped evil version of the Justice League was going to rue the day that they thought that I would be deterred by something as juvenile as a spa–

“Califa, are you listening to me?”

I snapped up to attention. “No, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am. Can you repeat that?”

Wonder Woman sighed and for a second looked like she wanted to put her head in her hands. Instead, she took a breath and started again. “As I was saying, luckily the Parliament of Trees is willing to drop the matter since neither of you actually intruded into their center of power and you both were punished for the attempt.” I shifted uncomfortably at the reminder. “Of course that doesn't mean this is the end of this. I will be informing Mother of what you two did. It will be up to her if you will receive additional punishment.”

Donna and I both gasped at that.

Tattling on us to Wonder Mom?! That wasn’t just cruel and unusual, that was cheating!

I wanted to argue, but a sharp look from Wonder Woman made my mouth shut with a click.

“...that will have to wait til later, however.” She continued. “First there is the reason I had asked you to meet us for, Califa…that going by the look on your face, you apparently did not receive.”

“Oh, uh, no.” I waved my hands in denial. “I mean, Donna mentioned something like that earlier but I wanted to wait until after dinner to bother with – I mean hear her out.”

“Hey!” Both of us ignored Donna’s outraged cry.

“Well it seems you have time now. Besides, I think you will enjoy this. It concerns your young hero friends.”

I perked up at that. “The Sidekick Squad? What are they up to?”

Wonder Woman quirked a smile. “Besides being fed up with being called ‘sidekicks’? They decided to create a team of their own. Several members of the League have decided to support them and Manhunter even encouraged his niece to join them.”

I straightened up a little more, tail almost quivering in excitement.

Did that mean the Sidekick Squad go and make a version of the Teen Titans?! But wait…Kid Flash and Speedy were never part of that…I think. Was this one of the other teams? There were a bunch of those, but most of the ones I knew were for heroes in Superman’s generation or older.

Whatever…the important thing is I would have a whole group of heroes I could ̶m̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ train with on a regular basis in one convenient spot! I hadn’t been able to do anything like that since I went off to Themyscira the first time because the Sidekick Squad wasn’t in the same area all that often and the Justice League didn’t meet up that much.

“I see. Does that mean you want the two of us to join this team as well?” Donna asked.

I hoped not. There were still a lot of places I wanted to explore and getting tied down to one city would ruin that.

Thankfully Wonder Woman shook her head. “I won’t stop you from joining if either of you want to, but the main reason I want you to meet them is J’onn’s niece M’gann. She has apparently lived a rather sheltered life and I had hoped to introduce her to a few more female companions.”

“I don’t mind. It would be nice to meet someone else unfamiliar with Man’s world.” Donna commented while shooting me a glance.

Hmm. I hadn’t managed to fight a martian yet…

“Sure! Let’s go! But first we need to stop by my ship, I wanna pick up some things.”

Wonder Woman narrowed her eyes at me for some reason. “Donna, please at least try to reign Califa in a little. Okay?”

“Uh, I’ll try. But she’s…” Donna trailed off.

“Hey!” I wasn’t that bad!

I let it go after a second though, already planning on how to make our meetup with the Sidekick Squad more entertaining. They were pretty boring on their own without me afterall.

-o-

Robin flinched as a tornado ripped through a building, sending dust and debris all over the place.

The ‘Team’ – proper name pending – were a mess. They just couldn’t seem to sync up.

First they kept getting in each other's way throughout the fight, then they just accepted M’gann’s word that Mister Twister was actually Red Tornado just because she couldn’t read his mind.

Sure, there was enough coincidental evidence that supported that theory, but only because they biased themselves based on the conclusion of a complete novice.

That mistake had ended up nearly getting them all taken out by the aerokinetic villain and only driving him elsewhere because of luck.

And yeah, they might have been…a little harsh…with her in hindsight, but they didn’t have time for handholding when a villain was actively attacking!

They’d apologise later.

Robin turned the corner in time to see Kid Flash getting tossed around by a wind blast and tried to take advantage of the opening to lob a few explosives at Twister. It didn’t work and Superboy was too slow to follow up, allowing Twister to dodge and get distance from them all.

For all of a microsecond Robin wished Califa was in his place.

It was unfair to the Superman clone, but in Robin’s defense when it came to fighting the otherwise smooth-brained monkey girl was just better at reading openings and following directions without them needing to be called out. Not to mention how useful her energy blasts would be right now since they had been caught off guard by Mister Twister’s appearance and were all in casual clothes and without most of their gear.

Then he remembered Califa hadn’t bothered to check in once with any of them weeks after he and Batman thought she might have been killed by a random magical artifact and went back to being angry at the Saiyan.

When she showed her face again, he was going to enjoy looking down on her and giving her a piece of his mind.

Robin shoved those thoughts aside and took cover behind a beached boat, doing a quick mental check on his available weapons and the ones he used already.

The easily accessible ones were mostly spent. So he reached into the special pocket built into his jacket and pulled out his utility belt and slung it over his shoulder.

“You brought your utility belt?” Kid Flash asked as he ducked behind the same boat for cover. “Dude, we were going for a joyride before this.”

“Never leave home without it.” Robin quipped. “First thing Batman taught me.”

“Rigggght.” KF drawled sarcastically and was probably going to follow that up with one of his own when both of them felt a sharp mental pressure pressing on their minds.

“Listen to me, all of you!” M’gann’s too loud mental voice shouted.

“What did we tell you!” was Superboy’s immediate angry response.

“I know! And I know I messed up. But now I’m very clear on what we need to do.” M’gann replied. “Please…trust me.”

Robin sighed at the conversation. Not because of M’gann.

Well, not directly because of her.

More because literal telepathy might be the only way the others could actually follow his lead well enough to clench a win.

It helped that M’gann’s plan was pretty good too. 

So yeah, he’d trust her on this one.

-o-

In short, the plan worked out.

M’gann successfully tricked Mister Twister into thinking she was Red Tornado while coordinating with Kid Flash to mimic Tornado’s air manipulation long enough to draw him in and get a hold of him.

Without the ability to dodge around their attacks and with the group not tripping over themselves anymore, the Team was finally able to get enough hits in that the villain’s suit was disabled pretty quickly. To the point that after it was immobilized, the suit’s safety mechanism triggered and ejected the villain from the chest compartment.

…where M’gann summarily executed him by dropping a boulder on his head. And then had the gall to turn to them and smile like she had done nothing wrong.

Robin felt his mouth drop open at that.

Even at her worst, even Califa had never been that dismissive of a person’s life.

The meat-headed Saiyan would be happy to beat anyone and everyone into the ground if they could give her anything resembling a fight, but the second her opponent was done, so was she.

“I don’t know how they do things on Mars,” he growled as he stomped up to the martian. “But on Earth, we don’t execute our captives!”

“Well, that’s just not true.” A new voice commented from above them. “There are several examples of Earthlings doing so publicly available in recent historical records.”

Robin looked up at the new arrival and froze.

“Whoa, did anyone else know Cali had a smoking hot sister?” Kid Flash commented, the same smile on his face that he had been shooting M’gann’s way the entire day. Which oddly made Robin both want to smack the speedster upside the head and puke at the same time.

But yeah, hovering midair looking down on them all was a person that looked almost exactly like Califa if she were aged up a few years. Spikey black shoulder-length hair, tail, and black jumpsuit covered in some kind of flexible armor on her torso, hands, and feet included.

“Besides,” the newly arrived Saiyan continued as she landed next the the rock M’gann had used and casually jabbed her fingers into it like it was nothing before tossing it away. “I don’t think something like this counts as execution.”

Robin was almost afraid to look at what was surely a bloody mess of what used to be a person, but when he did he was surprised to see the mangled remains of a robot instead.

The pilot had been an android.

The team turned to look at M’gann who gave them all a sheepish smile. “That was the reason I couldn’t read his mind.”

“We should’ve had more faith in you.” Aqualad said, placing a hand on the martian’s shoulder before turning his attention back to the newcomer. “And what do you want?”

The Saiyan gave them all an unsettlingly familiar sharp grin.

“Well you’re the ones with a mind reader. Why don’t you have her tell you?”

Everyone looked back to M’gann, who took the hint to look into the Saiyan’s mind. And Robin could see the moment she did, because the Martian flinched and looked at the new arrival with unease.

“She…she wants to fight.” M’gann stammered and Robin felt his heart pick up.

Fighting what was essentially an older, probably stronger Califa without her tendency to hold back? Robin was not feeling turbed at the thought of that.

“Fight who? Us?” Aqualad asked.

“Us, the villains, the Justice League, anyone she can.” M’gann listed off.

“The Justice League?” Superboy asked.

“Yes. Specifically Superman for some reason.”

“Wow, I’m impressed you managed to get that much so quick.” The Saiyan called out. “But is that it?”

“I–” M’gann started but was cut off by Superboy leaping directly at the Saiyan.

“Raaah!”

“Is that your best?” She said cockily and just…flew to the side a little. And Superboy, still not developed enough to have full access to his kryptonian powers, just sailed right on by her much to her apparent amusement.

“Anyway,” she said, flying down and landing in the middle of them – apparently indifferent to everyone taking combat stances – and looking right at Robin, “How’s it going, Birdbrain? Haven't seen you in a while.”

Wha-?

Oh.

Oooooh.

Robin took a moment to consider his revelation as he looked up at what was certainly an older looking Califa looking down on him, feet firmly planted on the ground.

Oh this was much worse than her having a potentially murderous older sister…