Growing Pains

“So you’re going to be training with the Amazons?” Robin asked from his perch.

Stupid birdbrain always seemed to be trying to get above me whenever he could.

“For a bit. Seems like it will be fun.” I replied as I swiped one of Kid Flash’s nuggets.

“Hey!”

Heh “Too slow.”

Apparently there were still some things Wonder Woman needed to take care of before we could leave, but I didn’t really want to sit and do nothing until that happened. So I snuck off at the first opportunity to pester Flash into another race after a quick detour. Too bad for me he was busy somewhere else.

I did find the Sidekick Squad instead so it wasn’t all that bad.

I dealt with Birdbrain enough to tolerate him and Kid Flash was just a less cool Flash. Aqualad was a new addition since the king of Atlantis joined the Justice League, but he was quiet enough that sometimes I barely noticed him.

I could’ve done without Speedy being there, though.

He was a hot headed idiot.

“I guess that means we won’t need to put up with you for a while.” Robin had an edge in his voice I couldn’t quite place. “It’ll be nice to get back to one on one training without you slowing me down going over the basics.”

What was that!?

“Better train fast then. Cause when I come to visit I plan to kick your ass across the city!” I bristled.

“Come to visit?”

“What, gonna say I can’t?” I scoffed. “You don’t own Gotham. Even if you did, I don’t have to listen to your stupid human rules.”

“I think Robin was just confused that you mentioned returning.” Aqualad cut in. “If Themyscira is anything like Atlantis, travel to the outside world is difficult. You made it sound like you would be gone for years.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “If you can’t fly, maybe. For me it’s just getting on and off the island and then flying for a couple hours.”

“Hear that, Robin?.” Speedy laughed annoyingly. “Your girlfriend is saying she’ll still come to visit.”

He looked between us and pouted when neither of us had much of a reaction.

“Nothing? Seriously?”

Robin shrugged. “I’m eleven.” He said like that explained everything. Which it kinda did.

I, on the other hand, saw a perfect opportunity to mess with the archer.

“Was that supposed to be funny somehow? What’s a girlfriend?”

“Ah…” Speedy trailed off, but I wasn’t the only one that smelled blood in the water.

“Yeah, Speedy. Explain to the class what a girlfriend is.” Kid Flash jumped in.

“Something you’ll never have, KF.”

I grinned and sat back to enjoy watching the sparks fly as the two redheads started trading insults, which eventually spread to include Birdbrain because he couldn’t control his mouth and Aqualad futilely trying to calm things down.

Unity among the heroes was broken, chaos reigned, and I was victorious. All was right with the world.

At least for a little, until the boys decided to call a temporary ceasefire to keep pestering me about what I would be doing. Not that I had a whole lot to give them.

“I don’t know what I’ll be doing!” I threw my hands in the air after they started rapid firing questions. “They didn’t give me a list or anything!”

“Heh, the struggle of sidekicks continues.” Speedy laughed. “Guess you aren’t immune to the mushroom treatment either.”

“Mushroom treatment?” Kaldur asked. He was pretty good with surface expressions, but every once in a while he got stumped. I guess that one didn’t translate well.

“Being kept in the dark and fed bullcrap.” Kid Flash explained and then frowned at the archer. “And you really think our mentors do that?”

“Nah, but it feels that way sometimes.” Speedy waved him off. “I’m sure the monkey will learn.”

Okay, I needed to stop a misunderstanding.

“You guys know I’m not gonna be a sidekick, right?” I stated bluntly, and based on the surprised expressions on all of them, no, no they didn’t know that.

“Huh? I thought you said Wonder Woman was going to be training you?” Kid Flash looked at me in shock.

“Yeah, so? That doesn’t mean I have to be a hero.”

“I do not believe Wonder Woman or the League would allow you to continue any criminal activities either.” Aqualad pointed out.

I slumped at that. “Yeah probably not. It was bad enough when I just had Batman’s rules, but since I can’t just have fun after tomorrow –”

Robin rolled his eyes. “You only listened to half of those anyway.”

I rolled mine right back. He was just jealous. “– I decided to end tonight with a bang! A classic crime any self respecting villain has pulled off at least once, a jewel heist!”

The kiddie heroes all stiffened and looked at me.

“...You know…we can’t just…let you rob a store, right?” Kid Flash said slowly.

“You’d be pretty bad heroes if you did.” I agreed.

“And now that you admitted to planning a crime, we aren’t going to just let you take off.” Speedy adjusted the grip on his bow.

“I mean, you can’t stop me from just flying away.” A smirk split my face.

Kadur stood and pulled out the hilts to his magic water weapon things. “You wouldn’t have told us your plans if you were just going to run away. You want us to try and stop you.”

I tried to reign in the feelings of excitement and started shaking out my arms and legs. “If you want a handicap I can stay on the ground. No way you could stop me though.”

“Four v one, Cali’.” Kid Flash pointed out. “Pretty good odds, I’d say.”

My grin widened and Robin groaned.

“You already stole something, didn’t you? Stupid monkey.” Batman really was an amazing teacher. He even managed to get Birdbrain to stop being completely stupid.

I pulled a clear gem the size of my fist from behind my back and waved it tauntingly. “Yep. And not one of you noticed. Better luck next time!”

Then – just because I could – I backflipped off the roof and cackled the whole way down as I listened to them scramble to chase after me.

-o-

“Well the kids are getting along. I was worried news of Califa going to Themyscira would make some of them pull away.” Superman commented as they watched the quartet of sidekicks chase after the Saiyan girl.

“She has a way of pulling you into her pace. Once she got them to sit down and talk it was unlikely any of them could ignore her.” Batman pointed out. “And I’ve never seen her hold much of a grudge for long. Makes me wonder what you did that she dislikes you so much.”

“Ahem…er, yeah…who knows?” Superman coughed and deliberately turned away.

“It’s good for her to have ties to others her age.” Wonder Woman commented. “The main point of taking her under our wing was to give her a safe place to learn to integrate with Man’s World. Not isolate her on Themyscira.”

That was something that had worried all three heroes.

Califa wasn’t the kind of person to stay in one place for very long. Her jaunts across North America made that obvious. And while she had met and somewhat befriended several heroes in that time, she had also made contact with criminal organizations that wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of her thrill-seeking personality for their own gain, as seen by her involvement with an underground fight ring.

Batman had already confirmed Lex Luthor was interested in the young Saiyan. And if Luthor was involved that no doubt meant several others were looking to exploit the girl as well.

Some of which might be attached to various governments.

Even though the US Army had tried to keep the incident quiet, many other organizations had heard about the destroyed prototype. A few people were using that incident to secure more funding for their own projects while others were using it to call for harsher responses to alien threats.

Not to mention that several news outlets were starting to float anti-alien rhetoric as fronts for groups like Humanity First, CADMUS, Blue Cosmos, and others like them. It was lucky that Califa had almost immediately taken down a H.I.V.E. cell which took a lot of wind out of the sails of many of the more aggressive of them, but it still highlighted the need to teach the Saiyan at least how to identify the common sense others expected from her.

“Your mother didn’t have an issue with allowing Califa to leave the island?” Batman already knew the answer, but Themyscira had been heavily isolationist for hundreds of years. It didn’t hurt to clarify.

Wonder Woman shook her head. “Mother has decided we cannot shut ourselves away from the rest of the world anymore. I doubt many of my sisters will be interested in leaving for quite some time but Califa will be free to come and go…provided she listens to her teachers, of course.”

Considering the martial nature of the Amazons, Califa would either be the best student they ever had or would be too busy challenging her teachers to fights to learn anything.

“Well, give me a heads up when she does leave. It’ll be nice to have some warning before she demands a rematch for once.” Superman joked before looking back in the direction of the kids. “Though, don’t you think we should step in? A jewelry heist right before she leaves won’t be a good look.”

“It’s fake.” Batman said bluntly, pulling out a small screen. On it was footage from a security camera at a themed mini-golf course, large glass decorations made to look like gemstones dotted the walls. Suddenly a familiar monkey tailed girl entered the frame and plucked one of the decorations out of the wall before flying off. “I’ll take care of the damages.”

“Oh, alright then.”

Wonder Woman frowned. “Are you sure? Even if the gem is fake, Califa doesn’t have much regard for property damage. It could get out of hand.”

“Califa tends to limit herself to match whoever she is fighting.” Batman disagreed. “As long as the sidekicks control themselves there won’t be an issue.”

Superman nodded. “You’re right. They’re young, but all of them have a good head on their shoulders. Maybe we–”

At that precise moment, several explosions rang out in the background.

The three heroes exchanged looks. Batman silently turned on a heel and power walked towards the edge of the building, pulling a grapple gun on the way.

“On second thought, they are all children. We should check on them and make sure they don’t level the city.”

Superman and Wonder Woman chuckled, but rushed after the Caped Crusader just the same.