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"Stop with your fretting, I promise it's an easy mission." Their Den Mother assured them as the members of the Team made their way to the Zeta Tubes to leave.
As the Zeta Tubes activated, the noise of it stirred Ryan, and the Lycanthrope gave a long yawn before getting up and shaking himself off a bit. When he looked up and saw Conner and M'gann, his tail began wagging a bit. He quickly looked up when Ruben let out a frustrated sigh. "Still burning the midnight oil, Boss?"
M'gann and Conner seemed to be reluctant to leave the others side, no words spoken between them. No doubt using their link to talk mentally. They looked over when the sphere let out a series of beeps and watched as it rolled over, rather curiously to Ryan. "Oh right." M'gann chuckled sheepishly, "This was the source of energy the Watchtower picked up." She explained.
The Siren glanced over his shoulder when he noticed Ryan's tail wagging faster at the sight of the giant ball.
"Really?" Ruben spun around in his chair to face them properly, suddenly more interested. "Did you obtain any information about it?" He asked curiously.
"Do you walk in the shadow of men who sold their lives to a dream?"
"Uh, I can understand it." Conner admitted with a shrug as the sphere let out a series of beeps. "It helped me protect M'gann too." The young man threw in.
"It seems to be nice." M'gann added in as well.
"Interesting." Ruben tapped at his chin thoughtfully. "Well, best way to learn more about it is to let it be," He pointed out. "I expect you to keep a close eye on it, Superboy." Ruben pointed out with a grin, before turning back to the computer screen.
Once Conner and M'gann got a good look at the screen, they could see on one section of the screen was a profile image of Lily, but she couldn't have been older than eight, her hair undyed and fully brown.
"If I could just see it all, like a fly on the wall..."
Both teens shared a thoughtful look with each other when seeing Lily's picture on the screen, they both shrugged a little before heading off down the hallway. Their fingers brushing up against each other all the while.
The sphere let out a series of beeps before rolling after Conner and M'gann.
Ryan's earns flattened a little as the sphere rolled off after the two, soon letting out another yawn as he curled back up around Ruben's feet.
The next morning, Hadal gave the Team an hour or so to sleep in before calling them into base. Not only that, but he explicitly ordered them to report in civilian wear.
It took everyone some time to come in, safe for Conner and M'gann, the pair already dressed in civilian clothing. The young man now wearing a regular black t-shirt with a brown jacket. And it seemed the sphere enjoyed being around Conner, for it still remained by his side.
Everyone arrived one by one, the Zeta Tube calling out their aliases as they arrived. "Ugh, this feels weird." Artemis confessed, adjusting the jacket she wore over her white shirt and jean outfit. "I know, kind of miss my uniform." Kestrel stated, adjusting the band that held up her half pony-tail. The brunette clad in a light blue t-shirt and jeans along with brown boots. A jean jacket tied around her waist.
Axel arrived not long after, holding a thermos that no doubt had coffee in it as he walked over to join the others. "You know, there's less cruel ways to torture us than make us do two missions back to back.." he grumbed tiredly.
He was dressed in a sleeveless, pastel blue t-shirt, baggy black joggers and sneakers.
Hadal, who waited at the computer, only grinned in response. Ryan, who was no longer in wolf form, was bouncing a ball of the floor and wall back to himself, to keep himself entertained as they waited for everyone to arrive.
"No sign, the roaring thunder stopped in cold to read..."
Robin followed soon after along with Wally, both munching on their own snacks and such. Mostly the redheaded male. Artemis raised an eyebrow in question, Wally just scowled a bit. "What? I'm hungry, plus I wanna build up energy just in case." He took a good sized bite of the donut he had with him. Much to the blonde's annoyance and she turned elsewhere.
Kaldur soon arrived along with Robbie, the latter yawning as he took a sip from his own thermos. "Alright, what's the mission?" Robbie muttered out tiredly as he took another swig from his thermos.
"And good morning to you, too." Hadal teased lightly. "First off, good work on completing your mission yesterday. Consider this next one your reward. Honestly, only one of you really needs to go, but I figured at least a few of you would enjoy seeing your favourite little arsonist again." The Siren said with a bit of humor.
"Lily's magick is much more potent than I originally calculated, and the bangles I made to help contain it aren't cutting it anymore."
When the Team had dropped Lily, Ivory and Caleb off in Norrisville, the young brunette had expressed that she wanted to keep the cuffs Hadal made to block her fire magick, to keep her magick in check. Hadal complied, and made her a pair of gold bangles, rather than real cuffs.
"I need you to take this new and improved pair to her-" He held up a small box briefly. "-and bring me back the old pair."
"Wait, you want us to go to Norrisville? I thought heroes were supposed to keep out?" Axel questioned. "Which is why you're going as civilians." Hadal remarked. "All you're doing is going to visit a friend."
"There was a girl with a sky full of stars in her eyes..."
Everyone was surprised to hear the details of the mission. More so when knowing they were informed about Lily. Robbie immediately woke up, soon downing the rest of his coffee. He tucked the empty thermos under his arm, and carefully took the box from Hadal.
He felt bad, not doing more when Lily asked foe his guidance in controlling flames. What could he say though? He himself had a hard time doing so, plus... she needed a better mentor than himself.
"I always wanted to see Norrisville." M'gann hummed out. "Just keep in mind not to interfere with the Ninja should something arise." Kaldur informed the Team.
The brunet gave a bit of a smile. Even with his strict disposition, Hadal wasn't afraid to find ways to give the Team a break or cut them some slack when he could.
"Yes, please try to bear in mind that the evil residing under Norrisville will latch onto any and all negative energy it can find, and use your emotions against you if you let it." Hadal warned.
"Oh, and one last thing; I believe Caleb had expressed an interest in returning that Moriandus locket that Swan had, back to Ivory. You'll have to inform him that I gave it away temporarily. "
Axel blinked. "You what? To who?!"
"To Constantine." Hadal sighed. "I asked him to show it to Prince Damian, and see if he knows anything more about those lockets, specifically, how many there are."
Everyone grimaced uneasily at the warning Hadal shared, "Sure it's a good idea for me to go?" Conner couldn't help but ask. "Don't worry- we'll, we'll be right there." M'gann quickly replied, a sheepish look on her face before she glanced elsewhere.
Although...
"Maybe we just... try and avoid mentioning the locket." Esther pointed out. "Otherwise he's gonna get pissed and..." She let her sentence trail off, everyone was thinking it though. Caleb could get angry and that evil being's magick could take control...
"Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies, across this new divide,"
"The concern is understandable, Esther, but I think you need to give the young man more credit than that." Hadal said. "And yourselves, for that matter," He added in, looking more towards Conner. "You're a still teenagers, but you're not children who need to be coddled. Besides, I'm sure he'll ask anyway. It's best to be honest with him."
"Hadal's got a point." Axel had to admit. "If we avoid telling Caleb now, he'll be more upset later."
Esther grimaced but didn't argue with their Den Mother. It wasn't as though she doubted Caleb... but still, she did not wish to see dark magick of any kind hurt that young man anymore than he already is.
But still... he risked it all by standing in Norrisville, a town where even Batman was hesitant to enter.
"Agreed, but we must do so gently, or at least assure him we'll return the locket to him." Kaldur added in. "So we taking Zeta Tube or Bioship?" Wally asked as he threw away the little paper bag that had his donuts. "Bioship, no Zeta Tubes lead to Norrisville." Robin replied, "Banned, remember?"
"Hey, I was just checking." The redheaded male huffed out.
"Well hey, at least we don't have to worry about any mind wipes this time around." Axel cracked a joke as they headed off to the Bioship.
He'd looked into Norrisville on his own time, and learned enough to know that the whole city was sketchy at best with that corrupt magick, but this was an opportunity to check in on the three siblings, see how they were faring since their last encounter.
Lily sighed as she stared at her reflection in her vanity mirror. "Alright, Lil. Today's the day. It's the weekend, there's no classes. Nothing's going to stop you from making some friends at Greg's Game Hole. Just.. just impress them with your gaming skills! Yea!" The brunette gave her reflection a pep talk that held little real confidence, but gave herself a smile regardless, grabbed her hoodie to tie around her waist, and went to bid her older siblings good bye as she left for the arcade.
"She was chasing a world that was so fast it left her behind..."
"Ugh, too soon." Robbie grimaced as he and the others headed towards the Bioship. Once everyone was strapped in, the ship took off. "So is it true that there's an actual ninja in this town?" Artemis couldn't help but question.
"The Norrisville Ninja has been around for eight-hundred years." Kaldur explained. "Settlers from Japan founded the city way back when, the name was Americanized and just stuck." Robin shrugged, earning grimaces and frowns from the others. "Now that's just sad." Esther muttered before frowning, "Wait. How does a guy live for eight-hundred years?"
"He doesn't." Wally replied. "Obviously it's a different person each time, I mean, pull up photos of the Ninja throughout the years. Different suits, different builds." He listed off.
He should be getting his game on at the Game Hole with Howard, happily beating his own high scores. But no McFist just had to send in some robo-apes! Randy grunted as he swung his sword, the metal cutting through the robot before him like they made of paper. Honestly? The might as well be considering the sword and whatnot. He grunted in pain though when a robo-ape smacked him into the side of the car, earning a groan as he slid off it and hit the sidewalk.
Man he was lucky this suit healed him at the end of every fight- otherwise his mom would panic.
"D'you ever put this much effort into your homework, Wally?" Axel teased. He didn't care much one way or the other if the Ninja was the same guy throughout the centuries, but he found humor in the fact that his friend was so keen to prove that the Ninja's eight hundred year lifespan was fake.
Most days the walk from her house to the Game Hole was roughly fourty five minutes, but today Lily had a mission, and she was eager to get there as soon as she could. So she ran.
At least she did, up until she took a turn down one street, and was startled by something crashing into the side of a parked car as she passed by it. "Ah!!" She yelped in alarm. Lily cuatiously peered around the side of the car and gasped when she saw the Norrisville Ninja! This was the first time she'd seen him up close like this. Normally she only ever saw him fighting monsters and robots from a distance.
"Probably just the science and math stuff." Artemis regarded with a smirk. Wally glowered at her, "And what's wrong with that? It's how I got my powers." He scoffed.
Randy groaned, soon sitting up as he shook his head, quickly leaping backwards before a robo-ape could smash the ground where he resided seconds ago. He leapt and moved gracefully, his red scarf whipping around as he moved. Speaking of which, he used to snatch up a robo-ape, soon bringing it into another robo-ape. Both exploded upon impact- metal flying everywhere.
With one final slice of his sword, he beheaded the last remaining robot with a sigh of relief, "Thank the cheese-!"
