Yue

 2nd January 2012

8:17 GMT -5

"Hey, look who's back."

Richard grins at me as I push open the door to the meeting room, construct ice pack on my head. Artemis spots it, then gives her head a small shake, breath hissing dismissively through her teeth. M'gann smiles, Kon nods and Kaldur…

Kaldur stands, and holds out his right hand. I dismiss my construct and shake it.

"Welcome back."

"Thank you for having me back." We release our mutual grip, and I step back to occupy an empty seat. "What's on the agenda?"

"In essence, what your return means for the team."

"It was only six months. You can't have forgotten what working with me was like that quickly."

Kaldur's eyes dip for a moment as he shakes his head. "The original purpose of this team was to give young heroes the opportunity to work independently from their mentors, and to hone their skills under the tutelage of the entire Justice League. You were to be the program's first graduate-."

"Except for Roy-. Ah, William."

Kon looks unconvinced by Wallace's technically accurate claim. "He went on two missions with us. And one of those was just him trying to work out which one of us was the mole."

"Regardless of the particulars of Roy's status, it is Orange Lantern who presents the problem."

I nod. "Because I'm not joining the Justice League soon, if ever."

Richard raises his right eyebrow. "Do you actually want to, Oh El?"

"… Not really."

"Then we have a problem. I am uncertain how much a League member can teach you. Lantern Gardner has been clear that you train together as equals, and Lantern Stewart has stated that he learns more from you than you do from him."

"There's always more to learn, but… Yeah. And…" I look over to M'gann. "I'm pretty sure that M'gann is a better shapeshifter and telepath than Mister J'onzz."

"Stronger? Yes." She nods a little reluctantly. "Better? No. He's got so much more experience than me that he can apply his power much better than I can."

Kaldur nods. "The team takes part in missions because there are things which cannot effectively be taught in the classroom. As the team gains new members, there will increasingly be things which they need to learn for the first time which we do not."

Richard nods. "You think we should start teaching classes?"

Kaldur nods. "And perhaps act as mentors to those young heroes who do not have mentors of their own."

Wallace nods. "Yeah. It can't be healthy for Cornwall to be getting taught magic by a dead guy."

"The uniform is perfectly clean, and he's a disembodied spirit. No risk of disease transmission at all. And only a small risk of boggarts."

"No, not healthy as in disease. I mean that he doesn't know how modern technology or society work. He doesn't know what superheroes are supposed to do."

I nod. When I last asked about it, Rob said that Mr Marrack Very Senior was fairly hands off about that part of his training. I'm not sure if he can't adapt due to being dead, or if he just thinks that it's something Rob needs to work out for himself.

Artemis gives Kaldur a.. slightly hard look. "So we're getting new recruits."

"Batman strongly implied to me that we would."

Wallace swivels his head to glare weakly at his closest friend. "Roooob?"

He raises his hands. "I can't say anything. If I said: 'even if I knew who they were, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you' then you'd know I knew, even though I hadn't said that I know. And you'd know that I knew if I said that I know but couldn't tell you what I know. And even if I said that I didn't know, you'd still think I knew!"

"Osiris. Amon."

Wallace jerks his head back around. "Wait, Batman told you?"

"No, but it isn't that hard to deduce. Amon's a nice lad, Adom admires the League, and I imagine that Batman would prefer him learning post-industrial age heroing from us rather than bronze age heroing from Adom. Plus, the fact that his social circle is a bit limited would make him keen on signing up."

Richard smirks. "Didn't you say that the League had too many super strong fliers, Oh El?"

"I said it had a disproportionate number of super strong fliers, to the detriment of team flexibility. Of course, once they get over a certain number they can use tactics which rely on it. And Amon also has enhanced speed and intellect."

M'gann turns to Kon while simultaneously enveloping his left hand with both of hers. "Do you think Kara will want to join?"

Kon gives his head a small shake. "She's not really.. into it. I think she finds the whole thing really weird. Krypton didn't really.. have superheroes."

"Huh." Wallace sits back a little. "I kinda thought being a superhero was just part of being Kryptonian."

"Traditionally, Els are scientific researchers. Kal-El grew up on Earth. Kara Zor-El grew up on Krypton, so she's a lot more… Traditional."

"Yeah, but she's still super strong, super fast and has laser eyes."

Richard shrugs. "I don't know, Wally. She's also got tons of knowledge from growing up in a space age civilization. She'd probably find it a whole lot easier to use that than learn about how Earth's laws work."

"Ac.. tually…" Artemis frowns. "I think she should think about coming here even if she doesn't wanna be a superhero. Robin, you remember how hard it was to learn how to use super strength, right?"

He nods ruefully. "Yeah, me and every thug and rooftop in Gotham."

"Superman grew up super strong, but she didn't. Is she.. breaking stuff?"

Kon shakes his head. "No, but she is being really careful. Superman suggested she try learning self defense, but she just said…" He shrugs. "'What's a mugger going to have that could hurt me?' And she's got a point."

"Zatanna has informed me that she would like to rejoin the team." Everyone looks at Kaldur.

Richard frowns slightly. "She didn't say anything about that to me."

I don't look at him.

"Her father no longer requires her care, and…" Kaldur looks at me, and after a moment everyone else's gaze follows his.

"What?"

Artemis rolls her eyes.

"Look, I didn't tell her to leave, and I didn't encourage her to come back. She's-."

Artemis nods sarcastically. "Yeah, I'm sure you coming back had nothing to do with her decision. And I'm sure the fact that Jade's gunna be on the other side of the galaxy for months didn't have anything to do with it either."

Ahhh… Shazbot.