1.

Two days had passed since the team's assault on The Lights underwater base. The mission was a success with every captured team member and civilian freed from being experimented on by The Reach, a new threat working with their old enemies. But what was supposed to be a reason for celebrating, was anything but.

They had no home. They had no base. There was only one place for those on the team to go to, the Hall of Justice. What was once a cover for the Justice League in the past as they monitored the Earth's problems from space, now served as a makeshift base and home for those with no other home to go to, specifically Bart, Conner, M'gann, and Garfield.

But even as the team finally could take a breather from one of the most dangerous missions they had ever done, at least one of them wasn't "back" from the mission itself. Which is strange considering she never really was gone in the first place, so to speak.

"Megan? Megan, it's me, Gar. Are you coming out anytime soon?" For the twentieth time that day, the green shape shifter known as Garfield rapped on the locked door where his blood his sister was. It was already four in the afternoon and he had only seen her one time that day and that was for lunch. Since coming back from the mission two days ago, she had locked herself in a room and had only rarely come out. "Megan? Nightwing said he wanted us for training practice in ten minutes."

"Leave her alone," came a voice from down the hall.

"What do you mean?" Garfield asked as he turned to face L'gaan.

"I mean," the aquatic team member said, "she doesn't want to be bothered. So the only thing to do is let her be."

"But I-"

"Kid, listen. She wouldn't talk to me after the mission or after we got back. So if she wants to be left alone, let her be. It's just a waste of time to do otherwise."

"Maybe it's not you she wants to talk to." Garfield said as he crossed his arms.

"Watch it, urchin." L'gaan eyed the youngest member of the team and looked down upon him. "If I were you, I'd watch what I say."

"And if I were you, I'd go back to the zoo." Pushing past L'gaan, Garfield headed down the Hall where Conner and Bart's rooms were when she was stopped by a webbed hand grabbing a shoulder.

"That's a good one from a monkey." He had lowered his voice so anyone past the doors couldn't hear him. "You do know why you're here right?"

"It's cause Kaldur destroyed the mountain."

"No, I mean why you're on the team. It's not because you're, useful, it's cause you're orphan."

"No it's not."

"Yes, it is. You're here because Angelfish took pity on you. The same goes for Nightwing. Conner's only nice to you because he wants to stay on M'gann's good side. They let you stay here because you have no parents and if it weren't for your powers, you would still be wherever it is you're from. You shouldn't even be on the team."

"That's a lie, they like me for me."

"Whatever you've got to tell yourself, but a word of warning, they'll only lie to you if you ask them." With that, the Atlantean walked off from the Hall to the training area.

Garfield just stood there dumbfounded as his so-called teammate sauntered away. He didn't know how long he was there and he didn't notice he was staring at the floor until M'gann emerged from her room and placed a hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his trance.

"Gar? Are you okay?" M'gann, who was in her black and red combat gear with blue cloak, looked at him with a worried expression.

"Um… I'm… going to train with the others."

"Gar?"

As the green skinned boy headed down the Hall, the door to Conner's room opened and the team's powerhouse stepped out while pulling his fingerless gloves on. A coating of stubble covered his jawline, evident that he hadn't shaved since the day of the rescue mission on the underwater Reach base. One look at Garfield told him something was wrong. He called out his name, but the youth continued on without acknowledging him.

"Um, are you… okay?" he asked M'gann once he saw her.

She looked at him and shook her head gently. "No. I… Conner… I-"

"Hey guys," Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl, said as she poked her head from the hallway's corner. "We got training to get to, hurry up. You don't want to be late, right?" She took off to join the others, leaving the two exes alone.

"Is everything all right?" Conner asked again.

"I'm… I'm sorry." The Martian girl moved past him and down the hallway quickly with her head down.

"And Bart takes that round," Nightwing said as an armored Jaime Reyes landed on his back with a thud.

"And the crowd goes wild," Bart said while making crowd noises. "They're cheering for the impulsive champion who has once again defeated the beetle of blue, the cerulean insect, my azul amigo, Mr.-"

"Periods, please," Batgirl said as she flipped a batarang through her fingers. "Or at least take a breath every few words." The one who took Nightwing's place as Robin smirked as he rested his bo staff across his shoulders from Batgirl's words.

"Alright guys, ease down." Making a few notes on an electric tablet computer, Nightwing then turned to Mal who stood beside him. "All right, your turn to pick the next match."

"The next sparring session will be… Cassie and… Conner," Mal answered. "Powerhouse versus powerhouse."

"Whoo Hoo! Go get 'em girl!" Karen, aka Bumblebee, hollered as the other girls clapped for the blonde heroine.

As Cassie took her position in the middle of the sparring area, Conner was busy looking over at M'gann. Normally she would be sitting with her legs crossed and at full attention, but today she was hunched over and had her head down. A faraway look was on her face as she paid no mind to L'gaan's arm possessively around her shoulders. There were days were he flat out couldn't stand him and others were he just hated him. Had it not have been for hurting M'gann, he knew he would've beaten the Atlantean down. Especially with some of the things he's done on missions and has caught him saying.

"Yo, Conner! Conner!" Snapping out of his thoughts, Conner looked over at Bart, who had taken off his goggles. "Come on, man, you're up. Make her feel the mode."

With a deep breath, the male powerhouse uncrossed his arms and stood up from the wall he leaned upon. Stepping out in front of the others around the sparring circle, he made sure his gloves were on tight and flexed arms back and forth a few times. He kept an eye on M'gann just to the side of him and couldn't get her strange apology out of his head. And then there was the way Garfield was acting.

"Okay," Nightwing said as he stepped around the circle. "New rule for you two, don't bring the house down. Go… less than half strength and remember, you can only use what you have on your person. Begin!"

"I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't waiting for this," Cassie said as he struck a fighting stance. "Been waiting to see which of us is stronger."

Breaking his gaze from M'gann, only after L'gaan caught him and gave him a scowl, Conner turned his attention to the fight at hand. "Whatever."

The two started things off by circling each other in an attempt to figure out how and where to attack the other. Cassie could fly and was more agile Conner, who had her and the brute strength and experience departments. Whichever way it was looked at, it was hard to determine who truly had the edge in this skirmish.

Acting fast, Cassie went for a quick jab to Conner's head but had her attack blocked easily. Conner hooked her arm in his and went for a hip toss but be blonde Amazon countered that by landing on her feet and used flexibility to spin out of his grasp. With his attention still divided, they half Kryptonian went on the defensive with Cassie unsuccessfully trying to land various punches and kicks.

"Is it just me, or does Conner look distracted?" Robin asked Batgirl.

"Can't say, I'm only looking at him," she replied.

"Girl, he does look good with that stubble," Bumblebee commented.

M'gann, who was sitting close by, overheard them and silently agreed. She liked him with the five o'clock shadow he was sporting since the last mission.

"Come on, Superboy, throw something back," Cassie grunted between attacks. "This girl's wondering when you'll get your head in the game."

Moving his gaze from his Martian ex, Conner was now semi-focused on his opponent. Another kick was thrown at chest height but was blocked and countered with a throw. Before she could crash into a wall, she corrected herself in midair and grabbed her lasso from its holster on her waist.

"That's it, come on!" She shouted as she and Conner engaged each other again.

Conner missed a clothesline as the blonde girl fell and slid on her knees, leaving behind a length of her rope. Popping back up, she leapt up and snagged Conner with her legs where she used his forward momentum from a shoulder charge to fling him across the floor. She floated in the air with even more rope behind her as she saw Conner land in a rollout and paused momentarily in front of M'gann and L'gaan.

His eyes locked with the Martian girl's for a moment before Cassie locked in a Full Nelson submission hold on him. Pushing her back, he spun out of her hold and managed to get her into a sitting position and locked in a chicken wing variation.

Wincing from the pain, Cassie fought to get to her feet and attempt to flip Conner over but he was too strong. Her freehand was moving around his leg and it became obvious to Nightwing what she was doing. After a few moments in the hold, Cassie shifted her body around and put a great deal of strength behind hitting Conner's leg behind the knee. His leg buckled and as he fell to one knee, Cassie broke free and pulled on her rope hard. With a thud Conner landed on his back as his female opponent took to the air over him. The rope he thought she was losing was actually being laid out in an elaborate trap that he fell into.

As he got to his feet, he could feel the rope being pulled again and draped over him. Cassie landed behind him and gave one final tug to make his upper body stretch out with one arm going backwards over his shoulder and the other one being forced to touch fingertips with the other.

"And that's the match!" Nightwing yelled.

The girls, sans M'gann, cheered as the guys all groaned. A few bills changed hands and the word "rematch" was tossed around.

"Okay you two," Mal said, "how about we have-"

"Wait just a second," Cassie said. "As long as I have him tied up, let's find out what's really on his mind?"

Nightwing looked over at her and shook his head. "I don't think-"

"Conner," Cassie said as she leaned in close to his ear, "what was the combination to your old room?"

Before he knew it, Conner blurted out his answer. "One, two, three, four, star."

"Cass," Nightwing said.

"In a minute," she told her leader.

"What is this?" Conner grunted. "What are you doing to me?"

"Wonder Woman's not the only one with a lasso of truth." A small smile crossed Cassie's lips as she asked the next question. "What's your favorite color?"

"Rrr red." Conner said.

"What movie has ever made you cry?"

"Rocky Balboa. Now let me go."

"It is an inspirational movie," Mal said.

"What movie made you laugh the most?" Cassie asked.

Conner tried to fight it but wasn't having any luck in doing so. "The… The Exorcist."

"That is just so jacked up," Robin said.

"Let me go!" Conner ordered.

"One more question," Cassie said.

"Cass!" Nightwing sternly yelled.

"Do you like someone on the team?"

"Y… Yes." Conner grunted.

"More than a friend?"

"Yes."

"Is she pretty?"

"Yes."

"What's her name?" Cassie asked with a grin.

Conner let out another grunt. His face contorted as if he were in a struggle with an enemy as beads of sweat formed on his brow. It was no use in not answering her as the mystical rope he was bound in forced the name to flood from his mouth.

"M…M…M'ga…M'gann!" he said louder than he wanted.

The room grew silent as everyone eyed both Conner and M'gann, both of whom stared at each other. L'gaan had a surprised yet angered look on his face. Garfield didn't know what to think as he looked from his blood sister to Conner who was just now being freed from Cassie's golden lasso. Faster than anyone anticipated, the male powerhouse got to his feet and pinned wonder woman's protégé to a wall with his forearm across her chest.

"Don't do that to me again! Ever!" he yelled. The baseline anger in his voice slammed into everyone's chest.

"Conner!" Nightwing yelled. "Stand down!"

"I was just trying to get you to loosen up," Cassie told Conner. "You barely talk to anyone so I-"

"Don't do that to me again. Understand?" Letting go, Conner turned on his heel and stomped out of the training circle. Reaching the spot he occupied earlier, he leaned his back on the wall and crossed his arms over his chest while still keeping an angry look on his face.

"For future reference Cassie, Conner doesn't like to be controlled," Nightwing told her.

With a nod, Cassie gathered up her golden lasso and cleared from the training circle. She looked over at her opponent as he rubbed his temples and knew he was feeling the aftereffects from the magical rope.

"Well, now that we have that out of the way, let's move onto Garfield versus L'gaan." Mel instructed.

"Be back, Angelfish," L'gaan said to M'gann as he gave her a peck on the cheek. He got what he wanted from the gesture, a sneer from Conner as well as Garfield.

"Don't hurt him," she told the Atlantean. It didn't look like he had heard her.

Taking their positions in the training circle's center, both got into a fighting stance and waited for the go-ahead. Once given, L'gaan puffed up his upper body into its larger size while Garfield morphed into a green silverback gorilla. Both charged at each other and locked up in the middle of the training area. Slowly, Garfield began to lose ground and fell to a knee as his opponent continued to push down.

"Come on, hombre," Jamie called, "go King Kong on him!"

With the feeling of Cassie's lasso of truth over, Conner began to take an interest in the skirmish. He watched as Garfield refused to back down and not give up. He had to hand it to him, he was not one to shy away from a fight and liked that he refused to yield.

The lock up was turned into an arm bar with the Atlantean, pinning Garfield to the ground. To Conner, it looked as if the fish faced team member was enjoying his dominance over the youngest member. It wasn't until the youth morphed into a squid when he finally broke out.

"And a nice move by Garfield, the green guru of grappling," Bart said.

A small smile crossed M'gann's lips as she saw her blood brother take advantage in the fight. It disappeared; however, when she saw Nightwing taking notes. Images she had pulled from Kaldur's head flashed through her mind and she had to leave as she thought about the lie he had told the team. She left so quickly in her camouflaged mode that no one noticed as they were all involved in the fight. It was a good back-and-forth fight that ended with Garfield morphing into a bull and charging his opponent before being caught in an Armbar and forced to tap out. It killed him to admit defeat, but a bull's leg was not supposed to bend to the side.

"No shame in losing to someone better than you, urchin. Told you, you shouldn't be here or on the team." L'gaan muttered to Garfield before letting him up.

No one noticed the verbal taunt between the two, no one except for Conner whose super hearing had picked it up. "Hey," the Shield wearing young man said as he stomped over to the two. "What was that?"

"What was what?" L'gaan asked.

"You know what I mean." Looking at Garfield, Conner saw him rubbing his shoulder as he stood back up. "Why did you tell them that?"

"Tell him what?"

"Conner, L'gaan, what's going on?" Nightwing asked from his position beside Mal.

"I don't know," the Atlantean replied, sticking to his guns. "He's just mad from losing to a girl."

Conner stepped right up to L'gaan's face with a sneer and looked down at him. "I heard you. You like picking on kids? You want to pick on Garfield because he's younger than you? Then try picking on me."

"Conner," Nightwing said before being interrupted.

"You want a fight, chum?" L'gaan puffed up into his larger torsoed form again. "You've got one. I've been waiting for this for a long time"

"Sure you have," Conner said as he turned is hands into fists with his knuckles popping from the pressure.

"Whoa, calm down, you two." Mal said as he stood up from his seat.

"Conner, it's okay," Garfield said to the enraged Kryptonian. "Just let it go."

Turning to face Garfield, Conner was about to tell him that it wasn't okay when a finned fist connected with his jaw and sent him backwards several yards into a wall. The other team members got to their feet and gawked at what just happened.

Emerging from the large indent in the wall where he landed, with sheet rock and plaster falling on him, Conner looked up at the fish faced transgressor with a death glare as a growl escaped his mouth through gritted teeth.