Happy Harbor
May 24, 12:29
Kaldur nodded and left my side, approaching Mike who handed him a glove device. While he put it on he asked me, "Do you know what our next mission is?"
I finished digesting the data at this point and took active control of the Zephyr's holographic model.
"On that front, I haven't neglected to tell you anything I'm afraid. Batman hasn't said a word to me. Well, if you ignore his lengthy evaluation of yesterday's Cadmus situation. How did you guys find out about that anyway?"
"Robin. He noticed Batman watching a replay of your fight and sent us a copy. He is still not happy about your role as leader."
"Hm," I chose not to respond to that and simply looked over to where he and Mike stood. The two of them stood before a table and the android was directing the young hero in the use of the specialized tractor glove.
"It doesn't matter if you use an open hand or a fist, your hand only needs to be pointed in the direction of the resource you mean to manipulate."
"Okay," the Atlantean nodded. "What do I do next?"
"As you can see here at the top of the glove, right above the back of your hand, is a small touch screen. You can use that to adjust the field. It's height, width, and even radius. Give it a try."
Doing as he was directed, Kaldur fiddled with the touch screen and the faint, wobbly blue line extending from his hand towards the table covered in parts began to widen at the very end.
Like a malformed bubble of slime or water, the energy field expanded and crept over the items, levitating whatever it caught within its confines until none of them were touching the table.
I smiled from where I stood and brought my attention back to what I was doing. Mike was a good teacher and Kaldur was smart. My input wasn't needed here.
And even in the unlikely case the Atlantean faltered and dropped or damaged the stuff, we could simply feed them into the fabricator and use the mass to produce new ones.
My faith in their competency ironclad, I focused back on my work, putting the duo out of mind. While they worked in tandem to transport the parts Mike churned out with the aid of fabricators to the hangar downstairs, I worked on applying what I'd just learned to the Zephyr.
It wasn't a lot, but it would do wonders for my need to make everything concerning this ship perfect. They were all minor changes, having to do with the size and angling of the drives, especially in the wings, and the precision of the power and control systems.
When I finished, I crossed my arms and stared at the finished model, going over the assembly process from start to end. I must've done this a thousand times, the end result being 25 to 30 days to reach completion—give or take—every single time.
And this was if it was just me and Mike if we worked uninterrupted for most of this period. Factoring in the extra hands we were about to have—if they agreed to help—reduced this number drastically, but my calculations also fell apart because of that.
Not worried about that in the slightest, I thought of what other ways we could speed things up and it hit me instantly, like a brick to the face.
"Mike," I looked over at the robot, and he tore his gaze away from the engaged fabricator. "We don't need to make the long trips. We just need the platforms."
"Already arranged that," the A.I. said. "The only reason I sent Kaldur the long way was for him to practice with the glove."
Craning my neck to take a closer and deeper look at where he stood, I saw one of the larger platforms a short distance away from him. "Oh… nice work then."
"You can say it. You would be lost without me."
I rolled my eyes. "Not that lost. Keep sending the stuff over. I'll go and set things up with Kaldur."
"Okay."
Assured of his diligence, I left the workshop and went straight to the elevator, taking it down to the hangar, the trip being unusually long. Or maybe that was just in my head. God I missed the candle flame. It made everything more bearable.
Having already fought this battle many dozens of times before, I didn't remain idle and hurriedly exited the elevator the instant it opened, hoping those thoughts would remain behind and if they didn't, my brisk movements would distract me from them.
"Kaldur," I called out.
"Hey."
Soon I joined him near a table, one of many arranged on the giant, rectangular slab of concrete. They lined the edges of the slab, and only the one we stood beside was covered in the building blocks of my aircraft. Some of them at least.
"We're gonna do it in stages," I said and started to arrange the parts in neat lines. "First will be the main body, where the seats and cockpit will be. We'll basically be putting together the plane's skeleton, adding the wiring, pipes, electronics, skin panels, cargo hold, that sort of stuff, all the nuts and bolts as well, and then the hull."
Kaldur nodded and followed my hand as I raised it to about waist height. "We'll do it right above here. We've already got the frames and scaffolding prepped. When it's complete, we'll add the wings, the tail, the engines, the various systems and the landing gear.
The last two will actually be installed together actually, since this plane won't have traditional landing gear. A repulsor will keep it aloft."
"You mean antigravity?"
"Yeah," I smiled.
"Won't that be a major power draw?"
"Nope," I shook my head. "The repulsors I'm working with have long been perfected. They use a miniscule amount of power, allowing them to stay active continuously. And this was before I worked my magic on them."
"I can see why you're so excited. Kid and Rob will be quite amazed by this. Kid especially."
"I'm counting on it."
This became a bit monotonous after that. Mike would transmit stuff over, then we'd arrange or add them to the rapidly expanding frame the fuselage was going to sit on. There were a lot of parts (not as much as a normal plane) but enough for us to spend nearly an hour doing just this.
Kaldur had even ditched his jacket at some point.
Just as we were finishing up with the support frame, the elevator dinged and its door slid open to reveal Superboy, who I'd been messaging from time to time. He wasn't alone.
Superman was with him, and the both of them joined us on the massive block.
"Hello Kaldur. Elliot."
"Superman," I nodded, resisting the urge to say "hey supes."
Kaldur mirrored my nod and focused on the youngest but strongest member of our team. "Superboy," he gently placed his tool down and greeted.
"Hi. It's Aaron. Ron for short."
Kaldur grew visibly confused, and Superman just went arms akimbo. Not in a "here we go" sort of way, more like "let's see what happens."
"My name," the Kryptonian clone cleared things up. "Superboy is for… secret, hero stuff. Aaron is my civilian name," he said, looking at me at the last part.
"Understood," Kaldur answered and extended his arm for a handshake. "Hello Ron, you can call me Kaldur. My hero name is Aqua-"
"Aqualad. I know," Superboy grabbed the outstretched hand and shook it.
"You're keeping it?" I interjected when the handshake ceased.
"Yes. It's what I want," he smiled.
Superman's finger went to his ear and whatever news came through stole his attention for a bit. He finished in a few seconds and said, "Okay. I'll be there soon."
He focused back on us and placed a hand on Superboy's shoulder. "Alright boys. Something urgent needs my attention. An all hands on deck situation."
It was a sight to see my fellow teammates go from their calm, leisurely demeanors to physically charged in a split second, shoulders squared, chests out and fists clenched. 'You guys need to chill out,' I said internally.
"Do you need our help?" asked Kaldur.
"No. This is a League issue. Thanks for offering though. Aar— Ron, I'll leave you here for a bit if that's okay. Make sure to have fun. Maybe when I come home later you can tell me all about it."
Superboy nodded, and I was sure I wasn't the only one who could feel the weirdness. The name Aaron was going to take a while before it felt natural. For me at least. I liked Ron better.
Levitating off the ground, Superman nodded at us before zooming toward the Zeta-Tube situated at the far end of the room. All of us watched him disappear into motes of light before remembering that we were in the middle of something before he arrived.
"Ron," I said to the curious clone as he looked about the arrangements on the block and the finished assembly in the middle. "Did you get some sleep like I asked?"
He actually looked away, muttering, "No. It was too…quiet…open."
"You mean your room?" asked Kaldur.
"Yeah."
"Oh… have you told Superman about it?"
"No. He's never home. And the Kents… I don't know."
I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "I get it. Don't worry. We're your teammates. You can bother us for whatever you need. Come, I have an idea."
What followed was a basic rundown of things, just like the one I gave to Kaldur.
"So… you're going to make me work till I'm so tired that I'll sleep?"
"That's the whole plan. Genius isn't it?"
He chuckled, a small thing most would not have picked up but I did, and it seems Kaldur did too, judging from his approving stare.
"Everyone grab a pair of glasses from that table—"
"Woah! Woah! Woah! What is going on here?" a voice I'd recognize anywhere yelled out.
The three of us looked over to find Robin and Kid Flash in civilian attire, the Boy Wonder somehow trusting his shades to keep his identity secret.
"Wally. Rob. What's up?"
"No, no, no. There's no what's up here. You went on a mission and didn't fill us in."
Robin just stood there, his hands hidden within his jacket pockets, but I could tell he was either enjoying this or wanted an explanation and apology as well. It was difficult to tell with him. Batman's training I guess.
"You're right," I said. "It was my mistake. Truthfully, I forgot, but that's not an excuse. Just because you aren't here when things happen doesn't mean you should be left out. We are a team, and I'm sorry I forgot that."
"Apology accepted."
All eyes fell on Rob and he grew a bit offended. "What? He said sorry. Even though I'm not whelmed about the leadership thing, I'm not petty enough to divide the team."
His explanation answered everyone's questions, including my own.
Wally raised his hand. "I accept your apology too. Though I'll accept one of the fancy pieces of tech you've been cooking up in your lab."
"Don't worry. I already got a couple of things planned for you. All of you actually," I said and looked at everyone.
"I am sure you will not disappoint us," said Kaldur.
"That I won't," I nodded. "On the matter of being transparent, earlier today, Speedy came by. We worked on his arm and a bunch of other things."
"Really?" Wally and Rob grew alert. "We've been trying to contact him. Where is he now?"
"Hmm," I checked my watch. "He should be arriving right about… now."
The elevator dinged again and it parted to reveal the person in question. Wally was off in a heartbeat, Robin and the normally calm Kaldur hot on his heels.
While the recently liberated teen dealt with many, many questions and undivided attention from his close friends, a group of people he'd been actively avoiding, I stepped beside Ron and said, "Don't worry. They've known each other a long time. Very soon that'll be all of you guys."
He frowned and looked at me. "You guys? What about you?"
"Me? I'm way too old. I'm an adult, a young, not well adjusted one, but still one nonetheless. Me being in this team is already hovering above the line between weird and normal."
Having said my piece, I made Mike send more shades and communicators over and gathered them on the nearest, unoccupied table. I added a number of tools to them and waited for the kids to finish their reunion.
When they finally joined us, I nodded at Roy and thanked him. "Thanks for coming."
"Hey," he threw his only arm up. "You're the one who wanted a one armed guy to help you build a plane."
"We're building what?" Kid Flash zipped close to me and exclaimed.
I sighed. "I'll explain everything. First, everyone grab a pair of shades and any tool from that table over there. If you don't have a comm, please take one."
Now, to start the whole thing from the top again. ~Sigh.
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