July 18, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI
Happy Harbor Power Plant
13:34:22
“So then, I figured I had to get the stick away from him, and Kid figured out what I needed to get close enough. She counter-spun his tornado, and while his wind wall was down, I snatched it!” Connor said as he twirled the wooden artifact in one hand, making its pigeon feather mane flutter in the breeze.
The team sat in the same hole in the wall fish and chips shop that he had dinner in that fateful night, and were currently enjoying the finest of New England culinary traditions; lobster rolls, clam chowder and the eponymous fried cod and french fries. Everyone appeared to enjoy the fare, he was pleased to see, but Aqualass kept looking at the fried cod like it was something alien.
“Well, I’m glad you successfully stopped Mister Twister… I just feel like I didn’t contribute much.” M’gann said miserably as she picked at her food and searched for answers at the bottom of her clam chowder.
“What do you mean, you did great! You read that crazy hobo’s mind, so we knew what his deal was.” Connor tried to reassure her.
“But then he knocked me out with that lightning blast. I was out the rest of the fight…” she protested weakly.
“He went after you because you were the biggest threat, and he knew it. You knew his weakness, heck, you could have just TK’ed his staff away!” Robin interjected, gesturing with a french fry as she explained the tactical situation they had found themselves in.
“I wish I had thought of that first..” M’gann continued defending her own misery, much to the other’s consternation.
Kaldura tried next to cheer her up.
“Your first thought was sharing the vital intelligence you had gained with the team. That is always an excellent priority to default to. You also did not know he could launch some powerful attacks, as he first demonstrated it upon you. In battle, the enemy also gets a say in how things play out.” She finished, sagely, before taking an experimental bite of fried cod that was mostly batter. Her face lit up after a moment, and she dug in.
“Besides, hmm!, there’s always room for, hmm!-” Walli said as her hands moved between the half dozen plates of food in front of her in a blur, and she was unable to finish her sentence between trying new bites.
“Improvement, yes.” Kaldura said sternly, her gaze flicking to Connor, who shrank, and Robin, who looked defiant.
“Thanks gals, I appreciate you trying to make me feel better about it.” M”gann said sadly, and drew her knees up to her chest on the chair, hunching herself back into her cloak. They were all still in costume, having a quick post battle lunch, now that Mister Twister had been picked up and was on his way to Belle Reve. Black Canary was still busy coordinating with local law enforcement. Connor recalled seeing Officer Lee again, who had glared at him before walking away.
So much for keeping a low profile. I bet this is exactly what Happy Harbor PD was worried about when we set up shop at the Cave. He thought glumly, the only damper on their victory besides M’gann self-recriminations.
And me and Robin’s lack of teamwork.
“You have nothing to feel badly about. Gizmo was able to relay what you knew but were unable to tell us, which secured our victory. There are always lessons to be learned from battle, and I have considered several ways our coordination can be improved.” Kaldura stated serenely.
Connor and Robin shared a look, while Walli obliviously continued to eat. Gizmo, the tiny hero of the hour, was nowhere to be seen. Connor looked about, and then noticed the conspicuous absence of one of Walli’s plates of fries and looked under the table. There sat the little G-Gnome, his back to Connor, as he stuffed french fries into his craw. Connor reached down and plucked him up by the scruff of the neck, as Gizmo made a little squeak of terror and seized the cardboard boat of fries. He deposited the G-Gnome on the table next to him, where he continued to shovel fries in his mouth.
“Hey, are those mine? You little-” Walli said as she reached for the fries in Gizmo’s hands. Hissing in alarm, Gizmo nimbly dodged out of the way and scrambled up Connor’s arm and perched on his shoulder, clutching his prize, out of Walli’s reach.
“No stealing, Giz! And no you can’t eat a whole thing of fries, you’ll be like 90% potato.” He said, extricating the fries from Gizmo’s grip, even as the G-Gnome seized a few in each tiny fist, and the order was passed back to its owner, who looked down at the mostly empty cardboard in annoyance.
“We’re gonna have words, G’nome, just you wait…” Walli muttered darkly and only half seriously.
“As I was saying.” Kaldura said in a tone that brooked no argument or interruption, and everyone straightened visibly.
“Our coordination was poor. As soon as we deployed from Ship, Superboy and I were issuing contrary orders to Kid Quick. Robin went off on her own without informing the team. Ms. Martian utilized her telepathy in an advantageous way, but one which left her vulnerable to retaliation. Kid Quick was slow to return to the battle.” Kaldura rattled off a list of their failures which made Connor and M’gann look guilty, while Robin looked defiant and Kid was combative.
“Slow! What do you mean, slow? I was evacuating the civilians!” She said, raising her voice. “And what about you? I suppose you did everything right?” Walli demanded, heat coming into her voice.
“The villain was the source of the weather endangering them, which made him the priority once those in immediate danger were safe. And no, I am not without blame either. None of my attacks were effective, and instead of finding a new strategy, I simply reacted to the situation and let Twister set the tempo of the battle. Only reacting to a foe is the surest path to defeat.” Kaldura said sternly, castigating herself most of all, her eyes hard as she crossed her arms and looked down at her empty plate.
That she didn’t spare herself any criticism seemed to mollify Walli, who looked away and rubbed her neck.
“Maybe I could have gotten back faster…” She conceded.
“I know what I should have done now, as soon as we got the call from Black Canary. I should have set up a mindlink, a telepathic interchange. It would let us all speak silently, and then Twister wouldn’t have known I was reading his mind.” M’gann suggested, not nearly as miserable now that she had a course of action to focus on. Her features grew determined as she spoke.
“I’m sorry I tried to take charge. I don’t have, like, any experience at this. So it wasn’t my place to bark orders.” Connor admitted shamefacedly. Kaldura nodded to him, and he felt relieved that she wasn’t angry about it.
Robin was still not chastised by her teammate’s criticism.
“I only did what Batwoman trained me to do. Its standard tactics when we operate. Split up and come at the enemy from as many sides as we can. It's what we ended up doing anyway.” She spat.
“But we are not Batwoman, and we have not trained or fought side by side for years, as you have with your mentor.” Kaldura said sagely, and her lack of anger seemed to deflate Robin, who sighed after a moment.
“You’re right, there. But we’re going to need that kind of familiarity if we’re going to be facing opponents like that.” Robin added, still a little defiance in her voice despite her conciliatory admission.
“Then we should get started immediately. Wonder Woman was assigned as our trainer, but she is distracted with other matters. The enemy will not wait for us to get stronger, we must take the initiative to do so ourselves, at every opportunity. We will implement our own training sessions, to be supplemented by Wonder Woman’s instruction.” Kaldura stated authoritatively.
“That sounds like a great idea!” M’gann said excitedly. “Team-building exercises!”
Walli grunted non committedly, no doubt considering her already full schedule and punctuality. Connor nodded along, and Robin gave a tentative nod.
Not like I’ve got a lot going on, and I’m running almost entirely on what Cadmus filled the mind palace with. Training would be good.
“You talk like you’re in charge. I don’t remember the Guild appointing you team leader.” Robin said truculently.
“They have not, but a shoal of fish or a pod of whales must swim together as one. This team needs a leader, regardless of how they are chosen.” Kaldura replied, not rising to the bait.
Robin opened her mouth to speak, but the set of her mouth made Connor think she was about to say something unhelpful, so he jumped in.
“We created this team, the Guild just sanctioned us. We’ll decide who the team leader is.” He interjected, and the whole team turned to look at him. This time he refused to wilt under their attention. “Aqualass is right, we do need a leader. Somebody has to give orders when orders need to be given. We can’t have what happened today happen again.”
He looked meaningfully at Walli, who nodded, and then to Robin, who held his gaze for a moment and then gave a slight incline of her head. He continued, attempting to sell the idea and keep the peace.
“It doesn’t have to be right this minute, but we can take the week, do some training and figure out how we work together. Then we’ll have a vote. We could, I dunno, write some by-laws. Decide for ourselves how we want to do things. The Justice Guild has a charter and by-laws, right?” He suggested, recalling from his comics knowledge that the Justice League definitely did.
“Fine. We’ll take the week, hammer out the details, and then decide who the team leader is.” Robin said tersely, then opened the holographic pop up display from her gauntlet. “Looks like I’ve got to get back to Gotham, anyway. Are we done here?”
The others shared a look, and nodded. They paid the tab, and once more Connor worried Batwoman's largesse was going to run out at some point. They exited the restaurant and walked over to the parking lot, where Ship waited under camo mode, and boarded the bio-ship, flying back to the Cave in a few minutes. Black Canary was still dealing with official business, so they had the place to themselves for the afternoon. Robin headed for the Zeta-Tubes after bidding them goodbye.
“Now what?” Connor asked as they returned to the Main Hall.
“Now, we train.” Kaldura said with a small but sharp smile.
********
“This is bullshit!” Connor shouted from the floor, where he had been deposited on his back for the umpteenth time that afternoon.
“It is a simple technique, I can show you-” Kaldura began before he interrupted her.
“No! I get that part! How are you DOING it, though!? I’m super strong! I should be able to… not let you do it!” Connor complained bitterly, again, as he rolled over and climbed to his feet. He had shed the Jacket and was in just a shirt and jeans, while Kaldura, Walli and M’gann were still in costume. The latter two were at the other end of the Main Hall’s free space, with M’gann working to levitate as many objects as possible at once and force Walli to change directions as she ran as quickly as she could.
“I am not without considerable strength of my own, Connor. Atlantean bodies are evolved and enhanced to survive at the bottom of the ocean, and swim at speeds humans would find impossible. But most importantly of all; I know what I am doing.” She finished sagely, and Connor thought a little smugly. That roused his temper and he put his fists up to go again.
Anger had been helpful before, actually quieting his confused thoughts in combat and letting the muscle memory implanted in the mind palace flow through him, without getting distracted. But that rote memorization was woefully inadequate against Aqualass, he handled him with infuriating ease. She was, as trite as it sounded, flowing like water around him with some kind of Atlantean martial art, flipping, tugging and throwing him around.
I KNOW I’m stronger than her! Why can’t I use any of it? He thought with frustration.
With another rush, a jab was seized upon and she did something obscenely fast and acrobatic that involved leaping up his arm, wrapping her feet around his neck and throwing him bodily from his feet while he was standing there stunned. Then he was on the ground on his back again as she extended his arm while gripping his wrist, her ankles locked around his shoulder as she flexed her whole body. He felt her using his own joints against him, trying to hyperextend his elbow through leverage. But he furiously refused to give in, and grit his teeth as he struggled to keep his arm bending the right way as she leveraged her entire body to make it go the other way.
Every muscle in his arm, chest and back strained and he heard Kaldura grunt as she too strained with all her might to force him into submission. As he huffed and puffed, trying to overcome her, her feet were practically in his face. He noted, absently, that her mocha toes were indeed webbed, much more delicate than her hands. The soles of her feet were a much lighter color, but contrary to his expectations, they were clean.
Wonder how she keeps them from being dirty all the time, what with the shoeless thing… He pondered as he realized he was losing the battle and slowly his wrist was going down and his elbow was bending the wrong way.
“Aaaaahhh I give!” He shouted as the elbow began to be seared with pain. Instantly she released her hold, and he rolled over, clutching at his arm.
“Are you injured?” Kaldura said, suddenly at his side with a hand on his shoulder, her grey eyes filled with concern. Their faces were suddenly very close, and he almost lost himself in the storm grey orbs she had. He was instantly much less concerned about his elbow.
“No, uh, its fine.” He said as he continued to rub at his elbow and cradle his arm.
“Let me see.” Kaldura said and held out her hands, and he obediently extended his arm to her, wincing. She took it gingerly and he felt the tips of her fingers dance along the skin of his inner arm, and he got goosebumps at her touch. She delicately felt him, and gauged his winces and hisses of pain.
“The joint is inflamed from the spar. I apologize for that, but you should have submitted earlier.” She said gently.
Connor rolled his eyes and sighed explosively.
“Yeah, you’re right. Just hate losing to-” He said, cutting himself off.
Kaldura raised one blonde eyebrow inquisitively.
“To an Atlantean?” She finished for him, speculatively.
Connor winced at the suggestion and tried to explain.
“No! To, uh… to…” His tongue suddenly couldn’t find the words as her eyes bore down on him like an oncoming hurricane.
“To what?” She asked again.
“...A girl?” He asked a question, but not one.
At that, her face screwed up in confusion and befuddlement.
“Why would you be especially vexed by being beaten by a girl?” She asked incredulously.
Connor’s face began to heat up as he realized what he had said, and to whom, and in what universe he found himself saying it in. He tried to think of a response to explain that, and then his brain fell down several rabbit holes, trying to process and contextualize all of that.
His right eye began twitching uncontrollably.
Kaldura cocked her head to the side as she looked at him and informed him of the fact.
“Your eye is twitching again.”
“Yes, it does that sometimes. Sorry. About the girl thing. I am extremely proud to be beaten by you constantly.” He replied, a little too eagerly and she startled a bit at his admission. His face flushed again as he realized what he had said, again. After a beat, she offered her webbed hand to him and he took it. This close, he appreciated how much she smelled like the sea.
“Let us try again, then.” She said, nodding. “It is a matter of leverage…” she continued.