"You will be given unrestricted access to the Hall's system and the gym. This concludes the tour," Captain Atom said and the mentors turned to their proteges.
"Does this mean we are Justice League members now?" Angel asked, speaking for the second time since they met.
"You can say that," Flash said, scratching the back of his neck, awkwardly.
"What does that mean? Are we Justice League members or not?" Speedy fired back, not missing a beat.
'Good little clone,' Angel rejoiced in her heart.
"You are not League members, persay," Green Arrow tried to sugarcoat it but Hawkgirl was never one to pussyfoot.
"You are not official members of the League because you are not ready for that kind of responsibility," she said without missing a beat, her eyes locked on Angel's helmet.
"So you will keep treating us like sidekicks? Till when?" Speedy continued.
"Till the moment the League decides you are all ready," Batman said back.
"Where is the rest of the League?" Angel asked and as if Speedy was waiting for this chance, he spoke up almost immediately.
"They are in a space station up in Earth's orbit, I bet your mentors did not tell you that," he said. Batman and the rest turned to Green Arrow who chuckled nervously.
"It kinda slipped out one day," he chuckled.
"I will not stay in a place that does not recognize my worth. As long as I continue staying I will continue been treated as a sidekick," Speedy said before taking off his hat and throwing it down. He turned to the other sidekicks who almost all looked away in shame but Angel looked on. He clicked his tongue and walked out of the Hall Of Justice.
"Glad you didn't bring you know who?" Flash asked Martian Manhunter.
"Indeed," the Martian agreed immediately. Just then, an alarm went off and the large screen came on showing Superman.
"Superman to Justice League, there is a fire at Cadmus that needs to be stopped," the Kryptonian reported. Batman's cowl showed he had just frowned.
"Cadmus? The facility has been in my radar for suspicious activities for some time now. We can take this chance to..."
Another alarm went off and Zatarra Zatanna's face came to the screen, separating it to two.
"Zatarra to Justice League, Wotan is trying to block the sun using an amulet of power!" Zatarra reported.
"Hmm, Superman, how big is the fire?" Batman asked.
"It can be contained for now.The fire brigade are already on the scene," Superman said.
"Or, we 'sidekicks' can take this Cadmus mission," Angel said out loud, making everyone to look at her. "You said you are suspicious of Cadmus. We can pretend to put out the fire while instead we will infiltrate and gather information about the place."
"That is not advisable. Cadmus has managed to make scientific wonders that have been able to almost bring down Superman. We cannot let them go unsupervised," Captain Atom said.
"Even if you refuse, we are just going to sneak out and head to the place. You have left us with an unsatisfactory sense of accomplishment for all the work we do with you. Let this mission show you we have not been just following you all blindly," Angel argued. Batman turned to the mentors, looking at Hawkgirl first for her mentor spoke first.
"Angel has been with me for five years and she has failed to disappoint me. She can handle this kind of mission," Hawkgirl was brief but conclusive. Batman turned to Aquaman.
"Aqualad has been doing undercover missions alone for sometime now, he's ready," the Atlantean king vouched for his sidekick.
"Kid Flash is rough around the ages but he can keep up," Flash stated honestly. Kid Flash huffed at this. Batman turned to Robin who narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"It's agreed then. The four of you will head over to Cadmus and gather information about the place. Once done, you will report to the Justice League and leave the place," Batman said, making all four of them nod. He gave Angel a look but short look and then the adults left.
"Why did you say that?" Robin asked Angel as soon as the adults were not in sight.
"Because, this is what we were all thinking, perhaps. Especially you, Robin. I could see the subtle look you gave the computer whenever Cadmus was mentioned. That and the slight twitch on your mouth whenever you looked at Batman told me you were nervous about asking him something," she answered, impressing the three. 'While all that is true, the real reason I asked for this mission is because Superboy will be at Cadmus and he needs rescuing so that the team will get their own mini-superman. Having a Kryptonian in your back pocket is always helpful in a place like DC.
"Alright then. Since we got the mission, I have to know, what is Cadmus?" Kid Flash asked while slowly coming besides Angel.
"It was a government funded lab that focused on gene study mostly. Unofficially, it was a lab made by the government to study, replicate and weaponize any foreign DNA they had," she answered.
"Sounds like a scary place," Kid Flash said before taking her hand, looking into her eyes hidden behind the serated helmet. "Don't worry, stay beside me and I will protect you."
"Right," she scoffed and took her hand away before going to the large computer where Robin was busy hacking.
"You do know she has the strength to cut a vehicle in half with her sword, right?" Aqualad told the speedster who just shrugged.
"She digs me," he chuckled.
"Alright, I got the location, let's go," Robin announced, leading the way.
...
"So this is Cadmus," Kid Flash said as they arrived at the burning building. "Doesn't look all that suspicious."
"You can never judge a book by its cover. Besides, I trust Batman's suspicions. If he says this place if fishy, I'ld rather be safe than sorry," Angel said before spreading her wings. She got hold of Aqualad's arm and Robin's with the other then flapped her wings, taking to the sky. Kid Flash kept up with them on the ground, scaling the wall to a broken window which she threw both into before heading to the roof and brought down the two scientists there.
"We'll be looking for more people trapped inside," Angela told the firemen who nodded eagerly. A fire inside a laboratory is quite dangerous due to the numerous chemicals which most are very much flammable. She took back to the sky then dove inside the building using the broken window.
"Just told the fire brigade we're looking for survivors. We three should start with elevators, there might be trapped people inside and Kid Flash should look at all the rooms in the floors then come to us if he finds nothing," Angel said.
"Roger that, beautiful," Kid Flash said with a wink before he ran off. The three went to the elevators where Aqualad forced open the shaft doors.
"That's a long way down," Robin said as he measured the distance with his portable computer. Just then, they saw an elevator coming up and stopping at the floor below them. It stayed for only a few seconds before it went down and then Kid Flash came running to them.
"Guys, something humanoid just attacked me! It got into an elevator before shoving across the hallway with a wave of its hand!" Kid Flash said, panting.
"It must be the one that called down the elevator," Aqualad said, making all three look down the shaft.
"Look like we're going down," Robin said, closing his computer and was about to jump into the shaft but Angel got hold of his shoulder, pulled her back. She jumped instead and unfurled her wings. The razor sharp feathers dag into the metal of that shaft, stopping her from going down.
"I'll carry Aqualad and Kid Flash with my arms, Robin will have to piggyride on my back," she said, causing a fait blush to appear on Robin's face that faded as quickly as it came.
"Why?" Kid Flash asked, whined, almost immediately.
"Because he needs both his arms to hack into the Cadmus network and point us in the direction we need to go," she answered. Kid Flash gave his friends a jealous look before he and Aqualad jumped, Angel got hold of their outstretched arms. Robin jumped into her back and they were set. Angel removed her wings from the shaft's walls, making them start falling. She positioned them in such a way that instead of falling they were glding downwards, flapping her wings every once in a while to make sure they were not accelerating downwards.