I floated in the middle of a void, countless lines of light made of data wrapping around me and streaking off into the 'distance'. The Mountain's various systems branched out around me in the form of interconnecting nodes, but my main focus was the longer line leading out into the wider internet. The blue circuit pattern that made up my dataform pulsed and the data formed into a number of screens around me, each one showing a different new feed. Really hope my body isn't flailing around in real-space, I thought to myself.
My physical body was standing in the middle of the Mountain's main room, but all of my attention was focused on the digital as I carefully started to sort through the various bits of information on world events. While I may have been put on the bench by Batman, that didn't mean I was going to be idle with my time, and I had been meaning to set up a proper news aggregator for the team for some time. It was just that until now time had always been the problem.
It was hard finding time to do all of the things I wanted to, even with my lack of sleep. There was just so damn much I could be doing, I actually had to chart everything out and try to prioritize. I did have more free time on my hands now, but I didn't know how long that would be for. Still, usually I needed to balance what I could finish in a short amount of time with things that could potentially be more useful. Now though I had a chance to perhaps do something a little more long term.
Well, I've just about finished High Frequency blade tech, I just need to do some more test builds to make sure it doesn't destroy itself. Or my arm, I thought. Finishing that first was reasonable. So, what to focus on after that? Superboy's genetic shenanigans would still take a lot more study on my part, same with Zeta technology. I still needed to poke at the Psion ship more before I could figure out how its integrated systems works, and I had shipped off the shield prototype to Ted for him to poke at. So, out of what I have left, what's the most versatile force multiplier? Hmm… I guess I should finish the Knife Missile prototype.
The Knife Missile was a small aerial drone I had been developing on and off for the past couple of weeks. About a foot long and triangular in shape, the first model was primarily built for speed and reconnaissance. It actually used a miniaturized aerokinetic core which I had reverse engineered from myself, which gave it a lot of maneuverability and speed. If I managed to improve the output and power consumption in later models, I could start mounting tools, weapons, and armor.
It also felt oddly nostalgic to be actually programming something again. I mean, aside from the compiler for my nanomachines I had been developing with Serling for the past several weeks, but that wasn't quite ready yet. I had spent so much of my time in the past few months playing at engineer that I was pining to do some code monkey work again.
And in a way, that's what I'm doing now, I thought as I gestured with my 'arm', and data coalesced around it before it parsed out into the information I wanted. While there was always more to build, today I was focusing on my arcane abilities. I had a much less solid plan for developing those, but so far my strategy of just 'try to do the thing and see what happens' was working moderately well. If nothing else, my technomantic skills worked as a useful bridge between my own systems and those around me until I got that compiler operational. For the moment, I was practicing my data parsing and analysis abilities, seeing just what the Algorithm was capable of when it came to pure information. And yet, I found it hard to focus.
For the third time that hour I glanced at the virtual object that floated next to my avatar, a gem with an ever shifting number of facets depending on the angle. It was a bit of weakly encrypted data I had whipped up to test my decryption abilities, and one I had already cracked open via brute force (simple enough once got my technomancy to utilize the power of my nanite mass, which was capable of many, many flops). And yet, I kept finding myself wondering if there was a way to do it better.
Cryptography was, in a way, the art of making puzzles for which the solution was very easy to check, but next to impossible to figure out. Kinda like Sudoku; you can check if a completed Sudoku is correct in a couple of seconds, but doing the puzzle for real will always take much longer. With encryption, 'much longer' can translate to 'more than the lifetime of the universe' in practical terms. And it's only one way, you can't just take an encryption and try to reverse the process to get the answer.
And yet, as I stared at the digital gem, I wondered if you somehow could. The rest of the systems fell away from my perception as the gem itself expanded and twisted, folding in on itself as I picked it apart. It was like a puzzle box where each move you made changed the moves before it, and the box changes shape so you never knew how close you are to beating it. Shapes and numbers danced as I focused, and I saw the design of it fold out in ways I couldn't describe, metadata forming a structure around and through it. There was something there, something that could be done that was on the tip of my tongue.
Something impossi-
A sudden ringing caused me to start and snap out of it. A moment later I saw a thread of light pulsing near me, and recognized it as a phone call. From Artemis to me, of all people. I glanced back at the gem, but the memory was already slipping away. I held in a sigh and reached out to touch the thread. "Artemis. What do you need?"
She must have noticed my serious tone, and she responded. "No danger. This is a personal call. You, uh, aren't busy are you?"
I had a half formed 'P=NP' joke on my lips before I realized it would be lost on my current audience, and said. "Nah. So, what's up?"
She didn't respond immediately, humming awkwardly for a few moments. "Well, the thing is…" she trailed off before she sighed. "I start at a new school in a few day. A private school I didn't even apply for, but got an acceptance letter for anyway."
"Really?" I asked. "You think it was a mistake? Or some kind of trap?"
"What? No, no, my mom and I confirmed it with the school. And besides, this place is pretty highbrow, and there are way less expensive traps if that's what it's about." She grunted. "It's… you know what, never mind, it's not important."
"No, no, tell me." I insisted.
She sighed again. "It's just… unexpected. All of my friends – well, who aren't you guys – are at my old high school. I gotta get use to an entirely new scene with entirely new people. Ugh, they're probably all going to be preppy brats too."
"So… you want me to help you find a way out of this?" I asked as I pulled up laws regarding private schools in America. I didn't see how much help I could be though, aside from getting all of her friends into the same private school. Which… might actually possible consider all the money I had these days.
"No! Stop trying to fix this!" She yelled before she calmed down. "I… it's a good opportunity, it really is. My mom loves the idea that I might be more than-" she cut herself off before she started again. "I just needed someone to talk to about this. I'm getting frustrated, and it would be nice if there was someone I could vent to. Preferably someone who can relate."
My circuit lines glowed a little brighter as I said "Not that I'm not touched and all, but why did you call me of all people?"
"Come on, who else am I going to talk to?" She said incredulously. "My mom's the one who insisted I go in the first place, and Green Arrow… well, I don't think this sort of thing was ever a problem for him."
I grunted. "Fair enough, but what about our other teammates? You know, the ones actually going high school?"
"Yeah, let's run through that list, shall we?" She said. "Megan and Superboy are in the same boat I am with starting at high school, so no help there. Robin's just a kid, and Kaldur went to underwater military Hogwarts. Not exactly relatable. And Kori… wait, did Kori even go to school?"
"She had private tutors." I replied. The princess did have an education outside of the Warlords, though she didn't get to use it much these days. "What about Wally?"
"What about Wally?" she said flatly. "I'm looking for someone to give me advice of how to adapt and fit in, not make everyone around me roll their eyes so hard they pop out of their skull."
I let out a small laugh before I said. "Well, I was a public school boy so I can't say much about private school. Unfortunately, as trite and cliché as it sounds, the best advice I can give to you is to be yourself."
I heard something between a sigh and a grumble on the other end of the line. "Yeah, cause then everything will be sunshine and rainbows, and I'll make all the friends, right?" She said in a tone that expressed just what she thought of that.
"Oh hell no, you are definitely going to piss some people off." I remarked. "Your sass game is too strong for coddled preppy kids to handle."
"…has anyone told you that you suck at this advice thing?" Artemis said, though she sounded a bit more interested now. "So, I shouldn't try to curb my tongue because… any friends I make by holding it back wouldn't be real friends?"
"Well, that's part of it, yeah. But there's more to it than that." I said as I started to pace (as pointless as it was in dataspace), old memories from my youth floating to the front of my mind. "It can be easy to just change one or two things about your behavior and appearance to fit in, and at first it will be fine. But keeping that mask up starts to wear on you, grinds away at the person you actual are and replaces it with some cheap imitation. Keep it up long enough and it almost feels natural. But you won't be happy. And you'll never let anyone get close of out fear of them learning the truth."
Artemis was silent for a long moment before she said in a strange tone "And what if no one there likes the 'real' me?"
I shrugged. "Then fuck 'em. You've got us."
"…thanks, Jacob." She replied softly.
"Anytime."
The two of us talked for a little while longer, mostly me imparting what little wisdom I could from hindsight of my own youth. ("Also, being yourself does not mean it's ok to be an asshole.") Once she ended the call, for a moment I found myself wondering how much I actually helped her. I really hadn't experienced anything like Artemis was currently going through, and my teenage years were a decade behind me. Well, best I could do was check in with her later and make sure she was adapting. For now though, I had some theoretical algorithm work to get back to, so I put the troubles of teenage girls out of my mind and-
I then both got a notification of an incoming Zeta Beam and heard the Zeta Tubes hum to life behind me. "Recognized: Troia. B-0-9."
I blinked as I snapped out of dataspace and physically turned, watching as a figure stepped out of the golden light and into the main room. The young woman could have easily passed as Diana's younger sister, with an Olympian figure and long raven black hair. Though she was a little shorter and looked to be in her late teens. Her outfit was the black star-field leotard she was known for, the effect somehow extending to her hair as well.
Donna Troy strode up to me, planting her silver bracer clad hands on her hips. "I'm Troia. I'm here to join the team."
I looked her up and down for a moment before I said "Cool. Come on in, I'll show you around."
I didn't see her reaction with my eyes as I turned to lead her deeper into the Mountain, but with my blindsight I managed to catch the young woman stiffen in surprise. She definitely wasn't expecting things to go like that. The way she had approached me seemed like she had been expecting a confrontation. Well, if she wanted that, she was out of luck considering I was the first person she met when she beamed in.
That said, I also mentally sent out a signal that put the Mountain's defenses on yellow alert. While there was a good chance that this was in fact Donna Troy here to join the team, this was still someone I had never met who just wandered into our home base unannounced. Best to make some checks.
Accessing the Zeta logs showed that Troia had been added earlier that day, and as far as I could tell the log wasn't forged. The various sensors within the main room showed no signs of unusual energy signatures or heat distribution on her person. Didn't necessarily mean there wasn't anything nefarious afoot, but it ruled some things out. At the very least, I probably had enough time to make a phone call.
As I started the call, I heard Troia speak up from behind me. "So… that's it? Just like that I'm in?"
I led her down one of the Mountain's many nondescript corridors. "Sure. I mean, you're Troia. Why wouldn't you be allowed on the team?"
"Wait, you know who I am?"
The call then connected. "Jacob," I heard Diana's voice on the other end of the line. "What can I do for you?"
"Sorry to bother you," I subvocalized. "But Troia just walked into the Mountain and asked to join the team. Do you know about this?" Looking back I said out loud "Yeah, Diana told me about you." She didn't, but this girl didn't need to know that.
Troia looked nonplussed for a few moments before she said "Oh. Well, I guess you have me at a disadvantage then."
"She did?" Diana said in surprise before she sighed. "I was going to introduce here in a few days. It seems she had other ideas."
"Oh, where are my manners." I said as I turned fully and extended my hand. "Jacob Morgan. Pleasure to me you." Internally I said "To be honest, I'm surprised she's picked just now to join. Did she only learn about the team recently?"
"She has known about it for some time, but she only recently expressed interest in joining. It's… complicated. I'll be there as soon as I can to retrieve her."
"No, don't worry about it." I replied as Troia and I shook hands. "If she wants to join, we can handle this ourselves."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but it seems I've been neglecting her if she felt the need to meet you on her own. I shall remedy this." With that the call ended.
I frowned a little at that last bit, and I had to shake my head as Troia gave me a questioning look. "Sorry, I was thinking of something. What did you just say?"
"I said, while I appreciate your confidence in me," She said as she folded her arms over her chest. "Do you really think that it's a good idea to let just anyone who wanders in and asks to join the team?"
"Of course not." I admitted. "But making you think that put you off guard long enough for me to activate the Mountain's defenses and call Diana and confirm that it's really you."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Really?" She made a show of looking around. "Your defenses don't seem like much."
I snapped my fingers (for style, of course) and a Psion force field formed over both ends of the corridor. Panels opened up near the corners and lightning generators folded out before sparking to life. I hadn't managed to rig the entire Mountain up with defenses like this, but I had lead Troia down one of the ones I had.
As soon as this happened, the young woman immediately tensed and shifted weight into a balanced stance. Just as quickly I shut it all off and raised my hands placating. "Sorry, sorry. But you did ask… and I've been wanting to show that off for a while now."
It took a few seconds, but she did relax. "I see… you going to call Wonder Woman now?"
"Already did." I said, tapping the side of my head. "Being synthetic has its advantages."
"Huh." Troia was rather nonplussed by all this. "I have to admit, this is… a lot more on the ball than I was expecting."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
For the first time since I met her, Troia looked a little sheepish. "I… heard that your team's been having a rough go of things. I figured that you could use my help."
I arced an eyebrow. "Well, help is always appreciated, though I advise you take care how you phrase that to the rest of the team. I like to think we've handled the crazy stuff that's been thrown at us pretty damn well, all things considered."
She gave me an appraising look before she nodded. "Alright. Think I can meet the rest of your team now? See if I make an impression that doesn't end in force fields and tesla coils?"
I smirked. "Well, you can meet the members of the team that live here. They're…" I checked the time and blinked in surprise. "It's lunchtime already? Lost track of time… anyway, they're probably all in the kitchen right now. I'll introduce you."
The two of us walked through the Mountain's corridors, and soon enough we arrived at the kitchen. And sure enough, Kori, M'gann, and Superboy were there. The latter two were setting plates on the table, while Kori had her back to us hunched over the counter. M'gann looked at me, her eyes shifting between myself and Troia. "Jacob, who's this? And what was that alert earlier?"
I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. Guys, this is Troia, Wonder Woman's apprentice. She wants to join the team."
On hearing this Kori shot up straight and turned, quickly flying towards us. She looked like she wanted to say something, but her mouth was currently full of, if my guess was correct, chicken wings covered in mustard. Nevertheless she tried a few more times before she held up a finger and rapidly started chewing.
"…that can't be good for you unless you have a super strong stomach." Troia remarked as she watched the other woman crunch clean through the bone.
"She'll be fine." I remarked. "One of her lesser known abilities is being able to eat pretty much anything organic. Well, that and the ability to monopolize one hundred percent of my attention any time she wills it."
The young woman gave me a strange look, but before she could say anything my girlfriend finished swallowing her impromptu snack (bones and all) and beamed at her. "Troia! It's a pleasure to finally meet you! Diana has told me about how she adopted you into her culture and how you have fought alongside her. And now you want to join us?"
Huh, so Diana did talk about her, I thought. It must have happened on one of the patrols where it was just the two of them.
Troia once again found herself on the back foot as she said. "Yes, well, I gave it some thought, and I decided that I could spare some of my time to help you guys out. Figured that I could show you the ropes of super hero work."
"That's great! Though Diana has been helping me with that already!" Kori said. "Same with Jacob, though Superman has also shown an interest in him."
"…Right." Troia said a little flatly before she drew herself up. "Still, Diana is a very busy woman. I can offer some guidance when she's not around."
Superboy seemed less enthused about all this. "No offense, but we're doing just fine on our own." He said with a slight frown.
"Are you sure?" She replied. "Because I've been hearing that-"
I cut her off before she could rile the teen up. "We've had a few rough spots, but we handled them. We're definitely not saying no to another helping hand, but to be honest you would have to have some very specific knowledge to give us advice on the stuff we've been through."
She folded her arms across her chest and smirked. "Diana's shown me a lot over the years. Try me."
M'gann stepped forwards with a little trepidation. "Well… in the last mission our psychic link was invaded by an unknown psychic and all but one of us lost six months of memory. Oh, and we had to keep radio silence because the Bialyan military was hunting us. What should we have done?"
Troia blinked owlishly for a moment. "Uh… ok, that's pretty extr- wait, Bialyan military?! What the hell you guys doing out there?!"
"Reconnaissance." Kori replied. "Batman wanted us to investigate some strange energy signatures in the desert."
"But, that's out of UN jurisdiction!" The other woman insisted. "Why would he send you out there? I thought you guys just did patrols together or something!"
I arched an eyebrow. "Not… really. We're more of a specialist team for investigating and solving problems. We get sent out when the League wants something done low-key. Hell, that wasn't even the first time we were sent out somewhere we weren't supposed to be."
Troia looked at us wide eyed before she pursed her lips. "I… have severely misunderstood what am getting myself into."
It was at that moment I received a notification about a new arrival to the Mountain, but I decided to keep it to myself. Instead I said "So, still interested in joining up?"
Troia was silent for a few seconds, glancing over at each of us in turn. She looked at Kori a little longer than the rest of us before she turned back at me. "Yes. I'm… sorry if I came off as rude, but I'd still like to be a part of this. I still need to do school and stuff, but if that is the average sort of mission for you guys, you could definitely use my help."
Kori smiled. "Excellent! Having studied under Diana, you must be a great warrior, and will be great addition to the team. "
Troia's brow furrowed and she glanced back at me for a moment before she said "So, how do we do this? Do we spar, is there an obstacle course? I'd like not to get surprised anymore today."
A voice from the doorway said "As do I." Everyone turned and saw Diana walking into the kitchen to join us.
Troia stiffened before she turned. "Diana! What are you doing here?"
"Collecting you, it would seem." She said as she walked forward. Though her tone was stern, she had a small smirk on her face as she spoke. "Donna, I said that I would introduce you in a few days. Was that really not soon enough?"
"No, but…" the young woman gestured vaguely for a moment. "I can do this on my own. You don't have to chaperone me everywhere."
Diana arced an eyebrow. "I see. Well, in any case, you still have to wait a few days. There are certain matters the League has to discuss in regards to the team first."
Troia looked confused. "Why would that matter? Isn't it up to my prospective teammates?"
"The team is managed by the League. The final say for new members lies with us." Diana replied. Me and my teammate shared looks with one another, but the woman continued. "Don't worry though, after everything is settled, I'll make sure that you will have a spot waiting for you."
"No!" Troia exclaimed. "It mean, isn't there anything I can do to speed that up?"
"No, but what is the hurry?" The older woman asked. "Didn't you want to focus on academics first? Have you really changed your mind that quickly?"
"That's not-" Troia started to say before she sighed. "Forget it."
I got the impression there was a lot going on under the surface of that exchange, but for the moment I was more curious as to why Troia was being so…bothered when we talked about letting her on the team, even when she asked for it in the first place. Of course, I realized what it was after putting a second of thought into it. Or at least I suspected the reason why. And if I was right, we weren't giving the young woman the thing she wanted. Time to fix that.
Before Diana could say anything more, I spoke up. "We'll need a couple of days to set up the tests anyway, and gather the rest of the team. Gotta make sure everything's calibrated to your strength and skill. That said, make sure you bring you're 'A' game."
I got a couple of confused looks for that, but no one in the room said anything to challenge it. Troia straightened a bit in surprise, but after a second she gave a small smirk and said "Oh, you don't even know what an 'A' game is until you've seen mine."
"Really?" Diana's tone was something between amused and dangerous as she looked at her sister. "Well then, it couldn't hurt to show me first so I can make sure that it is as good as you say. At the very least I think some improvements can be made in regards to impulsiveness." Troia gulped nervously and nodded.
Shortly thereafter the two left, and then Kori turned to look at me. "Tests? I was not aware of any tests. As Diana's apprentice, I don't see any reason for us not let her join."
"But that's not what she wants." I countered as I looked back. "Troia came here on her own because she wanted us to see her as Troia, not Wonder Woman's apprentice. Other reasons aside, she wants to prove herself, not just be handed a spot on the team."
"Oh. Oh!" Kori exclaimed as understanding dawned on her. "Well, of course we will oblige her then. Though I wonder why she didn't say as much."
I shrugged. "Humans can be… indirect about things sometimes."
M'gann hummed as she cupped her chin in her hand. "What should the tests be though? They should be specific to what our team does, but even now I'm not sure how to describe that."
"Leave it to me." I said. "I've been meaning to nail down exactly what this team's role is for a while now anyway, and I've got a decent idea of what Troia's capable off. Plus my schedule's open. Well, assuming Black Canary doesn't drop in for another surprise therapy session."
Kori perked up. "Oh, you had your first session with her. How did it go?"
"Err…" I hesitated. To Black Canary's credit, the moment she had been informed of what had happened and Batman's decision to bench me for the time being, she set up our first session the very next day. As for how it went though…
"You… want me to lead this thing?" I asked the woman sitting across from me with an arched eyebrow.
"You can talk about whatever you want." Black Canary said with a relaxed smile. "This is your time Jacob. Feel free to say what's on your mind."
I was silent for several seconds before I finally said "So… why fishnets?"
She frowned and sat up straighter. "I beg your pardon?"
"Why fishnets?" I asked as I pointed to her legs. "I mean, those can't be a practical accessory for combat."
"I… it was part of my mother's costume, the original Black Canary." She said. "Much of my outfit is based on hers, as a way to honor her and her work."
"Ah." I said. "You know, I remember now that, back where I came from, the original Black Canary's character design was made the way it was because it appealed to the creator's fetishes. Weird, huh?"
She looked at me for a long moment before she looked off to the side worried.
"…I think I gave her an existential crisis."
"You keep using that term," Kori said with a furrowed brow. "I do not think it means what you think it means."
"Oh don't you start quoting Princess Bride at me." I said as I waggled my finger at her. After a moment I just sighed. "In all seriousness, that session she seemed more interested in… I guess getting a feel for me. We didn't really talk about anything important, she just let me ramble for an hour."
"You think you're any closer to getting put back on active duty?" Superboy said with a slight frown.
"Hard to say. I doubt that it will be anytime soon. Regardless of what conclusion Black Canary comes to, I'm pretty sure the League wants me to spend some time cooling off." I really hoped that Black Canary wasn't trying to lead me to some kind of realization. That would be both irritatingly patronizing and a waste of time.
Superboy grumbled, expressing his own displeasure with my situation. When I had come clean to my team about just what had happened at the military base, their reactions were… mixed. Kori and Kaldur, having military upbringings, considered my actions to be perfectly acceptable. Robin and Wally on the other hand were much more unsettled, and hadn't really been around the Mountain since then. Artemis was neutral about the whole thing, and M'gann was more worried about myself then what I had done.
Superboy on the other hand seemed angry about the whole thing. Not at me, I think, but about the whole thing in general. I hadn't quite pinned down the exact reason, and I wasn't sure how to broach the subject, or even if I should. There was also the matter of his imbedded trigger word I had stumbled upon at the end of the mission that made things more muddled. Apparently he had been conditioned so that the phrase 'Red Sun' caused him to black out and freeze for several hours. And I had found it by complete accident (though really it was just a matter of time considering the Kyptonian). M'gann had since gone into his head and cleared out any triggers she could find, but he was still frustrated by the whole thing.
Before I could ruminate on that more, a notification from the Mountain's systems caused me to turn my head back towards the main room. "Looks like Kaldur's stopping by for lunch."
"Oh good," M'gann said as she floated plates to the table. "I've been practicing fish dishes, I'd like to get his opinion on them."
A minute later Kaldur found his way to the kitchen and saw the lot of us gathered around table. "Kaldur! We were just about to start eating." M'gann said as she pulled out a chair for him. "Come join us."
The Atlantian looked surprised for a moment before a small smile crept onto his face. "Of course." He said before taking a place at the table. "I should tell you though that I am expected back in Atlantis relatively soon."
"We can make it a quick lunch." I said. "We shouldn't hold you up for long."
"Actually, I was wondering if you all would like join me as well." Kaldur said, and we all perked up in surprise. "I have been meaning to find the right time and place to ask all of you, apart from the others. No offense to them, but I doubt they would be able to tolerate the pressure and temperature of my home. I thought you might be interested in seeing my home."
The rest of us looked at each other with various levels of excitement. I smiled and looked back at Kaldur. "Hell yeah we want to go have an adventure under the sea."
=====A=====
A/N: You know, for how much 'Who is Donna Troy' is a thing, it's surprisingly difficult to find any answers relating to her personality.