Hellbent [Fairy Tail/Young Justice OC]
- Thread starter Drakaina
- Start date
- Crossover
I think Miss Martian saw Atlas Flame within Ash (or at least the memory of Ash spending time with him during her childhood) and freaked out. Which Ash's Dragon dad did look like a massive flaming skeletal Dragon from hell and is very scary in first impression.
I can imagine their reaction when they find out Dragon DNA in Ash. Since Dragon Slayer Magic alters the human body and Dragonification transform the user into a Dragon.
- Location
- Before the Ninth Gate
First, great chapter, I really like the story!
Two things: first, in the US, even doctors use farenheit. I remember, because when I was stuck in a hospital for late stage lyme disease, one of the rules was they wouldn't release me until my fever went under 100.0 F. Also, 40 degrees Celsius is 104 Farenheit, which is quite survivable for normal humans, though not fun. My brother has actually gone up to 107 (as measured by docs in a hospital), but he just does that (it wasn't the first time), and other than weirdly high fevers he's fine.
You want "Hi" not "Hit".
- Pronouns
- She/Her
One of the next couple of chapters is gonna be an interlude from the other members of the Team, I'll go into ore detail about why M'gann reacted poorly there.
You know, I am American? I just decided to use Celsius on a whim here. But my justification is gonna be that STAR Labs is an international organization and this particular doctor just got back from working overseas. Yeah. That makes sense.
For your second point... I forgot to mention it in the chapter here, I'll have to add it to a later one, but Ash can adjust her temperature. It's normally just in the slightly higher average for a human, but naturally flares hotter when she's stressed or excited. With a bit of concentration, she can lower it down to "normal" and keep it there, however. So the doc was able to get a "baseline" reading as well as a note that she can run very hot with very little medical consequence.
Good to see they've gotten the medical stuff sorted out and meal plans made.
You can't really rush stuff like that.
The wide variety of various people and creatures would smell very weird and distinctive.
The wide variety of various people and creatures would smell very weird and distinctive.
Okay so Ash has some abilities with the mental arts, they seem to be pretty self contained but it's likely due to her nature of a Fairy Tail Mage and as a Dragon Slayer. Ashe's nature as a dragonslayer aka a baby dragon likely means that her mental defenses are very potent and since they're fire associated M'gann likely got a little traumatized.
Ash wanting to have peers and friends that are in her age range and like her is totally understandable.
Oh they're going to freak out when they learn she's slowly becoming a Dragon.
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hold on, if her body is running at 40 Celsius, then wouldn't she not get sick at all? At the very least, anything that Earth has a vaccine for will die quickly in her body just from protein denaturing? The whole reason for fevers is that the body hopes the heat will kill the infection faster than it kills itself, and this is a whole 2C higher than the norm for fevers?
- Pronouns
- He
Probably not normal sickness, but her magic can still get fucked. Like Natsu and his Ethernano stunt.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And if her magic does get fucked, then her body can't just heat up into a super-fever to kill of normal diseases
Speaking of heat, Ash would stand out to heat radars of the enemy during nighttime operations of The Team and be chased by heat seeking missiles.
Sounds like you want her to try create Magma Dragon Mode. To control and manipulate magma.
Which would come in handy against Red Volcano, the bigger and meaner sibling of Red Inferno and Red Torpedo in Young Justice.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
that, but also having permanantly hot rocks could be useful for other things.
if i remember right, nuclear power involves using the radioactive things to Boil water...
being able to just use a non-radioactive rock might be useful.
also boiling water for cooking.
could be a gift for M'gann?
a Genuine Soup Stone?
Chapter 20: Interlude IV
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Superboy wasn't quite sure what to make of Ash.
His first impression of her, at the Tower of Fate, was a simple one. A fierce fighter, loyal to her friends, an absolute nightmare to her enemies when they angered her. Again, simple. Superboy liked simple. Made things easy.
And then, a few days later, she joined the Team.
It was a little odd, just how quickly the Team seemed to be growing recently. Artemis got brought on earlier in the month, not long after the whole Amazo fiasco, and now this new girl. At least she could handle herself in a fight, his spar with her had cemented that much.
But ever since then, he'd noticed that she started getting… complicated. Or maybe she had been complicated the whole time. But between her encounters with M'gann and Robin, she was just… not as simple as she'd first appeared to be.
"Hey man."
Speaking of which…
Superboy grunted, glancing over at where Ash threw herself down on the couch. Almost on reflex, he cycled his vision, a habit he had gotten into doing around her ever since the first time he'd first noticed her at the Mountain.
Thankfully, a quick look with his thermal vision showed that her heat patterns were more normal, not too dissimilar to that of a normal human's, if maybe one that ran a bit warm. None of those internal spikes of temperature far past the realm of normal that she tended to get when she was… Stressed? Upset? Something like that.
Switching his vision back to the standard visual spectrum, Superboy turned back to watching the static on the widescreen.
"... Can I ask you something?"
He sighed and looked back at her. "What?"
Ash was glancing back and forth between him and the screen. "... I'm sorry if this seems rude," she started, "but I was just curious… Why do you like watching that?" She punctuated the question with a gesture towards the screen.
Superboy narrowed his eyes at her. "Does it matter?"
"Not really," Ash said with a shrug. "You're just doing it almost every time I come out here. But, yeah, you don't gotta tell me if you don't wanna."
"Hmmph." Superboy turned back to the screen. For a few moments, the two of them sat, the only sound being the static crackling before them.
Eventually, he spoke again. "It's… soothing."
"... You mean, like, the noise?" There wasn't any judgment in her tone. Just curiosity.
"That, but I like the way it looks too." He was talking without even really thinking now. "I'm always… seeing so much. It's nice not to have to."
"... Yeah, I think I get it." And with that, they lapsed back into silence.
Hmm. Well, she may still be complicated. But moments like this, where she was allowed to be simple? She was alright.
* * * * *
Kaldur'ahm was developing a surprising amount of respect for Ash.
"So, you carry a bunch of extra water around in this thing?"
"Not much extra," he clarified, pulling one of the waterbearers out from where his backpack laid on the counter to demonstrate. "Just enough to create a pair of water-blades. Any more than that, and the weight would slow me down too much on land." As he pulled, the water within the pack followed, shaping itself into the familiar sword shape that he preferred.
"Cool," Ash breathed out, her eyes wide as saucers. If this were one of the surface's animated television shows, Kaldur suspected he would have been able to see stars dancing within them.
Kaldur had not necessarily been planning on discussing magic with Ash today. He had made a point to visit the Mountain at least every few days as his work allowed, both to regularly check in with the Team's mentors, and to maintain a connection with the others that lived there – Superboy and M'gann, to start with, and now Ash as well.
As such, it was not all that surprising to run into the latter, frustrated and mumbling as she was over the central computer holograms and attempting to learn how to use them. Kaldur had stepped in to show her how, albeit with limited success, though it did lead to the two of them striking up conversation. No, what surprised Kaldur was just how… interested Ash seemed about his particular skill set.
"And do your tattoos help you there too?" she asked, eyeing the inky black eels spiraling down the lengths of his arms. "With the water magic, I mean."
Kaldur shook his head. "Not as such. These allow me to absorb and produce electrical currents. I have found it quite useful in conjunction with my hydromancy."
"Huh. Yeah, I can see how that'd be useful. Is that kind of stuff common in Atlantis?"
"In the specifics, no, the use of waterbearers is seen as…" Kaldur's mouth thinned as he recalled the mocking he had received in the past while training, even if that mocking had ended after his king had officially given him his apprenticeship. "... Archaic."
Ash looked up at Kaldur, and for a moment, he swore her eyes pierced right through him to stare at his soul. It wasn't his first time being the subject of her rather intense gaze, thankfully, and he was growing used to it.
"... I see." She sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that, man, that sucks. I think your waterbearers are cool though."
He smiled a little at that. "Thank you. Although, that has reminded me of the request you made the other day."
Ash perked up as Kaldur closed his eyes. His mind flashed back to his home, as it had been wont to do as of late, and of the people he left behind there. Well. One person, in particular.
"... In truth, I have been feeling a little… homesick as of late," Kaldur said, opening his eyes. "I have come to the decision that, after our next mission, I will request some time off to return home, at least for a while." Or maybe longer, but he hadn't decided that yet and didn't want to make any firm statements. "Atlantis tends to be rather isolationist, but I can put in your request to visit while I am there, with either my king or queen. Hopefully, I will have an answer for you soon."
As he expected, Ash's eyes lit up at the news, and her mouth morphed into a wide grin. "Awesome! Thanks, boss-man!"
"'Boss-man?'" he repeated, his eyebrow raising.
"Yeah, like… You're the leader, right? Makes you the boss as far as I know."
Kaldur chuckled. Oh yes, he was looking forward to working with Ash.
* * * * *
Artemis didn't trust Ash.
She had several reasons why, obviously, and Green Arrow had heard them all by this point. But for some reason, he and the rest of the League had already decided the new girl would be joining up with the Team, and, well… As much as she was suspicious, Artemis was still on thin ice with the rest of the Team, especially with how recently she'd joined up. So for now, she'd keep those complaints between her and her mentor.
Thankfully, that didn't mean she had to like her. She already had to deal with Wally enough for that, and maybe adding in another teammate to the conflict wasn't the best idea, but she'd dealt with worse. And she could be professional.
… Her slip-up at Batman's initial announcement of Ash joining notwithstanding.
At any rate, she had initially planned on just avoiding Ash for a little while, at least until she got her head screwed on right. She didn't know if it was just nerves at the upcoming assignment that Arrow and Batman wanted her to do or what, but she needed a bit of time to calm herself down and think. But… things didn't work out quite as planned, and after half an afternoon of her mom fretting over her and a quick call to confirm that Green Arrow was still busy (probably a date night with Black Canary or something, she'd seen how the two acted around each other), Artemis found herself back in the Mountain for a workout.
It actually went well, all things considered. Helped her refocus herself, letting her lose herself in the repetitive motions and the pleasant burn of exercise. After an hour or so, she hit the showers, letting the water wash off the sweat alongside the grime of the day, then dressed and went to grab a drink from the kitchen.
And it was there, as she rounded the corner, that she ran into a familiar gaze.
It was a gaze she had gotten quite familiar with over the course of her life. Sharp, predatory, like some territorial beast eyeing her up and down to see if she was enough of a threat to bother killing or not. Her dad's eyes were like that, constantly watching as he drilled lesson after lesson into her skull, shaping her into a perfect little killing machine. Her sister's were like that the last time they met, on that dark street right after Jade had tried her best to kill the woman the Team was trying to protect. Her mother's had been like that, once, and while the years apart had softened them into something far more familial, the hard edge had never quite faded.
And this particular gaze was like that, just like it had been when Artemis had first met those eyes in the Tower of Fate.
For a moment, Artemis and Ash looked at each other, one still damp from the shower, the other paused midway to raising a cup to her lips. Artemis swore that while it may have been only for a second, it felt like an eternity, almost as though neither was quite willing to break the connection first.
"Oh, hey Artemis."
And with that, it broke, Ash looking away to finish her drink. Artemis suppressed a flinch with practiced ease, then made her way over to the cupboards to grab a drink herself. "Hey."
That was all the words the two said to each other. By the time Artemis had filled her cup, Ash had already tossed hers in the sink and slunk off somewhere. And "slunk" was definitely an accurate term in this case – Ash made almost no sound as she left, her movements as lithe and graceful as anything Artemis had ever seen from Jade.
Did no one else see it? No, no, Batman and the other heroes had to have seen it. They'd recognized it in herself, weeks ago when they first met her. But the others on the Team, save maybe Robin, hadn't even seemed to notice. Did they just not have enough experience to tell, or..?
Artemis had asked Green Arrow, of course, but the older hero had refused to say anything about what he knew about Ash's past. "It's her choice if she wants to tell you guys," he'd told her, "just like it's your choice whether or not to tell the Team about your past." Artemis hadn't had a response to that, of course, but she worried nonetheless.
Batman hadn't let another trained killer onto the Team… had he?
* * * * *
Dick Grayson was curious about Ash.
He knew that Batman had to have more info on her squirreled away on the Batcomputer by this point, but he'd tightened the security on it after the last time Dick had successfully hacked it. Sure, Dick could get through it eventually, but Bats would totally catch him in the act if he tried to do it just yet. So for now, good old-fashioned research would have to suffice.
… Okay, yes, he was still using the Batcomputer for it, but at least he wasn't trying to hack its internal files, so he wouldn't get in trouble for it. You know, probably.
As he looked, Dick mentally reviewed his last meeting with the girl. Would she be any good on the Team? She'd gotten pretty spooked when he'd snuck up on her, so maybe not super-observant, though he could have also just caught her at a bad time. Nah, what was more interesting was how quickly she'd gotten annoyed by him. Probably a bit of a temper then, like Superboy. He'd want to be a bit careful about pushing her boundaries, accidentally or otherwise.
Now, let's see what we can dig up on the computer…
…
Nearly an hour later, he pushed himself back from the desk with a frown.
Nothing. No birth certificate, no medical records (aside from what STAR Labs probably had on her by now, but nothing preexisting), no school records, nada. The most he could find was a few scattered sightings matching her description, but they were just that, scattered. They basically told him nothing outside of her power, and he'd already known that just from asking Kaldur!
Dick narrowed his eyes. "Just who are you, Ash..?"
* * * * *
Wally was excited to have Ash on the Team.
The moment he was done with school (and man, did it suck to have a school that started so early in the year! But at least it meant he got to start his summer vacation early too!) and finished with his chores around his house, he raced back to the Mountain to meet with her. He had a ton of questions for the new girl!
… He'll admit that it took him longer than he thought to find her, though. For a moment, he'd even thought she'd left, gone down to Happy Harbor or something. But he eventually stumbled across her in the last place he'd expected to find her – in the Mountain's built-in library, curled up on a couch with a book in hand.
She glanced up as he zoomed over to her. "Oh, hey there, Wally!"
"Hey Ash!" He flopped down next to her, lowering his gaze to the book. "What'cha reading?" He hadn't really pegged her as the reading type.
"Uh, it's…" She flushed a little as she glanced down at the boom as well. "It's this… poem, I think? A translation anyways, it's called Beowulf."
Wally blinked. "Huh. I think we're gonna be reading that in school later this year. Didn't really think you'd be into something stuffy like that."
"Yeah, it's taking me a bit to work through, but…" Ash fidgeting a bit. "... I heard it had a dragon in it, so I kind of… wanted to see what people have been writing about them."
"About… dragons?"
"Well, yeah. I was raised by one, after all, so it kind of… interested…" His surprise must have shown on his face, going by the way her gaze fell flat. "You don't believe me, do you?"
Wally shook his head. "No, it's not that!"
"Really? 'Cause I know you didn't really believe in magic before the Tower of Fate, going off the way Artemis was ribbing you when you were looking for it."
"Oh yeah, you did say you were right there, huh?" He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a little self-conscious. "I mean… I'm trying to have a bit more of an open mind about it, I promise, but… A dragon? Really?"
Ash shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't exactly have what you call a 'normal' childhood by any stretch of the imagination. It's fine if you don't believe me, Wally."
"Hey, no, I believe!" He did, honestly. As much as that long-ingrained trust in cold hard fact rebelled… Ash didn't seem like she was lying. And… He had been wrong about a lot of things up until now, apparently. "I'm just… trying to wrap my head around it." He hesitated for a moment, then leaned towards her. "... What was it like?"
"Being raised by a dragon?" He nodded, and Ash hummed in response. "Tell you what, I'll tell you all about that if you do me a favor."
Wally leaned back. "What's the favor?" He'd learned his lesson on asking that before agreeing after the last time Robin had asked a favor from him.
"Tell me about school?"
… He hadn't been expecting that, and it seemed like Ash could tell. "I've… never really been," she explained, closing the book. "And I'm not sure if I'd ever want to, anyways, but… I guess I'm curious is all."
Wally looked at her for a long moment, then he smiled and nodded. "It's a deal! But you gotta start first!"
Ash chuckled as she turned to face him, her blue eyes seeming to light up. "Fine by me. So, lemme start by telling you about Atlas Flame…"
A minute later, Superboy was started out of his static-watching trance as Wally's incredulous "HE WAS MADE OF WHAT?!?!" echoed throughout the Mountain.
At least the two were getting along.
* * * * *
M'gann was, if she was being honest, scared of Ash.
It wasn't really fair, the logical part of her mind told her. Ash's powers, her magic, weren't exactly something she learned to do specifically because she had a thing against Martians or anything. And honestly, she seemed nice enough! M'gann could feel the emotions rolling off her every time the two were close – it reminded her of the human saying, "wearing your heart on your sleeve." Ash just seemed to feel all her emotions strongly, or at least projected them, strongly, and M'gann could tell how sincere the other girl was.
But then, those emotions were a part of the problem, weren't they?
Back at the Tower of Fate, when Mr. Nelson had… had died, and Ash moved to confront the Witch Boy… M'gann had been terrified, but the flames were only a part of it. A big part, yes, but only part of it. The other part… None of the others had noticed. How could they? Even Superboy, who had sort of tried to ask about it in his blunt way, had assumed it was just the fire that scared her.
None of them had felt the emotions roiling off of Ash in that moment. Rage and grief… the words made it seem easy to describe, but they failed to truly capture the experience of drowning in them, the air itself so thickly clogged that, for a moment, M'gann had sworn she could feel a part of herself die alongside Mr. Nelson. And if she couldn't breathe for a moment afterwards, was it because of the heat searing away the air, or was it the wrathful sorrow choking her through unshed tears?
… Ash wasn't like that anymore. M'gann could still feel sorrow in her, but it was muted now, and her other emotions bubbled to the surface instead. Anger was still there too, but there was also happiness, and longing, and determination. Admittedly, M'gann wasn't entirely sure if that was one was an emotion per say, but it seemed to fit. And for a little while, M'gann had started to think that maybe the two of them could get along.
And then, Ash had demonstrated that she could just… cut off her connection to telepathy.
That had spooked M'gann enough that she'd run away again. It wasn't even that unusual, all told, any Martian older than a literal toddler learned to close themselves off, at least for their most private thoughts. Normally, someone simply "closing the door" on her telepathy wouldn't even be all that noteworthy – her uncle told her many of the League members had training to mentally shield themselves.
But the way Ash had done it… It felt less like closing a door, or even pushing her away the way Martians sometimes did to each other when upset, and more like… like her mind had suddenly curled into a ball and bristled with spikes. Or maybe with fire.
It hadn't hurt, thankfully, but it had been a nasty shock all the same. In retrospect, though, it was clear that Ash wasn't trying to hurt her. She hadn't even understood quite what was wrong. And if M'gann was being honest, neither did she. Maybe it was just some odd type of mental shielding, or something to do with her magic, but… She couldn't quite put a finger on just how Ash had done it.
Since then, Ash had avoided her, even when M'gann went looking. The reason was clear why – the few times M'gann got close enough to feel her, she could sense the confused guilt simmering off of Ash. She felt bad for whatever she'd done to M'gann, apparently, and was trying to stay out of her way to make her feel comfortable.
M'gann probably could have tried harder to talk to Ash again, but… Well… A part of her was still scared. Maybe she could talk to her uncle again, tell him about the weird telepathic experience, and he would have some advice for her.
But that would have to wait. Apparently, Batman had another mission for the Team. Ash apparently wouldn't be joining yet, and Artemis was off doing a job with green Arrow, so maybe a mission with just her original teammates would help take her mind off it for a little while.
Even if it was in Gotham.
His first impression of her, at the Tower of Fate, was a simple one. A fierce fighter, loyal to her friends, an absolute nightmare to her enemies when they angered her. Again, simple. Superboy liked simple. Made things easy.
And then, a few days later, she joined the Team.
It was a little odd, just how quickly the Team seemed to be growing recently. Artemis got brought on earlier in the month, not long after the whole Amazo fiasco, and now this new girl. At least she could handle herself in a fight, his spar with her had cemented that much.
But ever since then, he'd noticed that she started getting… complicated. Or maybe she had been complicated the whole time. But between her encounters with M'gann and Robin, she was just… not as simple as she'd first appeared to be.
"Hey man."
Speaking of which…
Superboy grunted, glancing over at where Ash threw herself down on the couch. Almost on reflex, he cycled his vision, a habit he had gotten into doing around her ever since the first time he'd first noticed her at the Mountain.
Thankfully, a quick look with his thermal vision showed that her heat patterns were more normal, not too dissimilar to that of a normal human's, if maybe one that ran a bit warm. None of those internal spikes of temperature far past the realm of normal that she tended to get when she was… Stressed? Upset? Something like that.
Switching his vision back to the standard visual spectrum, Superboy turned back to watching the static on the widescreen.
"... Can I ask you something?"
He sighed and looked back at her. "What?"
Ash was glancing back and forth between him and the screen. "... I'm sorry if this seems rude," she started, "but I was just curious… Why do you like watching that?" She punctuated the question with a gesture towards the screen.
Superboy narrowed his eyes at her. "Does it matter?"
"Not really," Ash said with a shrug. "You're just doing it almost every time I come out here. But, yeah, you don't gotta tell me if you don't wanna."
"Hmmph." Superboy turned back to the screen. For a few moments, the two of them sat, the only sound being the static crackling before them.
Eventually, he spoke again. "It's… soothing."
"... You mean, like, the noise?" There wasn't any judgment in her tone. Just curiosity.
"That, but I like the way it looks too." He was talking without even really thinking now. "I'm always… seeing so much. It's nice not to have to."
"... Yeah, I think I get it." And with that, they lapsed back into silence.
Hmm. Well, she may still be complicated. But moments like this, where she was allowed to be simple? She was alright.
* * * * *
Kaldur'ahm was developing a surprising amount of respect for Ash.
"So, you carry a bunch of extra water around in this thing?"
"Not much extra," he clarified, pulling one of the waterbearers out from where his backpack laid on the counter to demonstrate. "Just enough to create a pair of water-blades. Any more than that, and the weight would slow me down too much on land." As he pulled, the water within the pack followed, shaping itself into the familiar sword shape that he preferred.
"Cool," Ash breathed out, her eyes wide as saucers. If this were one of the surface's animated television shows, Kaldur suspected he would have been able to see stars dancing within them.
Kaldur had not necessarily been planning on discussing magic with Ash today. He had made a point to visit the Mountain at least every few days as his work allowed, both to regularly check in with the Team's mentors, and to maintain a connection with the others that lived there – Superboy and M'gann, to start with, and now Ash as well.
As such, it was not all that surprising to run into the latter, frustrated and mumbling as she was over the central computer holograms and attempting to learn how to use them. Kaldur had stepped in to show her how, albeit with limited success, though it did lead to the two of them striking up conversation. No, what surprised Kaldur was just how… interested Ash seemed about his particular skill set.
"And do your tattoos help you there too?" she asked, eyeing the inky black eels spiraling down the lengths of his arms. "With the water magic, I mean."
Kaldur shook his head. "Not as such. These allow me to absorb and produce electrical currents. I have found it quite useful in conjunction with my hydromancy."
"Huh. Yeah, I can see how that'd be useful. Is that kind of stuff common in Atlantis?"
"In the specifics, no, the use of waterbearers is seen as…" Kaldur's mouth thinned as he recalled the mocking he had received in the past while training, even if that mocking had ended after his king had officially given him his apprenticeship. "... Archaic."
Ash looked up at Kaldur, and for a moment, he swore her eyes pierced right through him to stare at his soul. It wasn't his first time being the subject of her rather intense gaze, thankfully, and he was growing used to it.
"... I see." She sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that, man, that sucks. I think your waterbearers are cool though."
He smiled a little at that. "Thank you. Although, that has reminded me of the request you made the other day."
Ash perked up as Kaldur closed his eyes. His mind flashed back to his home, as it had been wont to do as of late, and of the people he left behind there. Well. One person, in particular.
"... In truth, I have been feeling a little… homesick as of late," Kaldur said, opening his eyes. "I have come to the decision that, after our next mission, I will request some time off to return home, at least for a while." Or maybe longer, but he hadn't decided that yet and didn't want to make any firm statements. "Atlantis tends to be rather isolationist, but I can put in your request to visit while I am there, with either my king or queen. Hopefully, I will have an answer for you soon."
As he expected, Ash's eyes lit up at the news, and her mouth morphed into a wide grin. "Awesome! Thanks, boss-man!"
"'Boss-man?'" he repeated, his eyebrow raising.
"Yeah, like… You're the leader, right? Makes you the boss as far as I know."
Kaldur chuckled. Oh yes, he was looking forward to working with Ash.
* * * * *
Artemis didn't trust Ash.
She had several reasons why, obviously, and Green Arrow had heard them all by this point. But for some reason, he and the rest of the League had already decided the new girl would be joining up with the Team, and, well… As much as she was suspicious, Artemis was still on thin ice with the rest of the Team, especially with how recently she'd joined up. So for now, she'd keep those complaints between her and her mentor.
Thankfully, that didn't mean she had to like her. She already had to deal with Wally enough for that, and maybe adding in another teammate to the conflict wasn't the best idea, but she'd dealt with worse. And she could be professional.
… Her slip-up at Batman's initial announcement of Ash joining notwithstanding.
At any rate, she had initially planned on just avoiding Ash for a little while, at least until she got her head screwed on right. She didn't know if it was just nerves at the upcoming assignment that Arrow and Batman wanted her to do or what, but she needed a bit of time to calm herself down and think. But… things didn't work out quite as planned, and after half an afternoon of her mom fretting over her and a quick call to confirm that Green Arrow was still busy (probably a date night with Black Canary or something, she'd seen how the two acted around each other), Artemis found herself back in the Mountain for a workout.
It actually went well, all things considered. Helped her refocus herself, letting her lose herself in the repetitive motions and the pleasant burn of exercise. After an hour or so, she hit the showers, letting the water wash off the sweat alongside the grime of the day, then dressed and went to grab a drink from the kitchen.
And it was there, as she rounded the corner, that she ran into a familiar gaze.
It was a gaze she had gotten quite familiar with over the course of her life. Sharp, predatory, like some territorial beast eyeing her up and down to see if she was enough of a threat to bother killing or not. Her dad's eyes were like that, constantly watching as he drilled lesson after lesson into her skull, shaping her into a perfect little killing machine. Her sister's were like that the last time they met, on that dark street right after Jade had tried her best to kill the woman the Team was trying to protect. Her mother's had been like that, once, and while the years apart had softened them into something far more familial, the hard edge had never quite faded.
And this particular gaze was like that, just like it had been when Artemis had first met those eyes in the Tower of Fate.
For a moment, Artemis and Ash looked at each other, one still damp from the shower, the other paused midway to raising a cup to her lips. Artemis swore that while it may have been only for a second, it felt like an eternity, almost as though neither was quite willing to break the connection first.
"Oh, hey Artemis."
And with that, it broke, Ash looking away to finish her drink. Artemis suppressed a flinch with practiced ease, then made her way over to the cupboards to grab a drink herself. "Hey."
That was all the words the two said to each other. By the time Artemis had filled her cup, Ash had already tossed hers in the sink and slunk off somewhere. And "slunk" was definitely an accurate term in this case – Ash made almost no sound as she left, her movements as lithe and graceful as anything Artemis had ever seen from Jade.
Did no one else see it? No, no, Batman and the other heroes had to have seen it. They'd recognized it in herself, weeks ago when they first met her. But the others on the Team, save maybe Robin, hadn't even seemed to notice. Did they just not have enough experience to tell, or..?
Artemis had asked Green Arrow, of course, but the older hero had refused to say anything about what he knew about Ash's past. "It's her choice if she wants to tell you guys," he'd told her, "just like it's your choice whether or not to tell the Team about your past." Artemis hadn't had a response to that, of course, but she worried nonetheless.
Batman hadn't let another trained killer onto the Team… had he?
* * * * *
Dick Grayson was curious about Ash.
He knew that Batman had to have more info on her squirreled away on the Batcomputer by this point, but he'd tightened the security on it after the last time Dick had successfully hacked it. Sure, Dick could get through it eventually, but Bats would totally catch him in the act if he tried to do it just yet. So for now, good old-fashioned research would have to suffice.
… Okay, yes, he was still using the Batcomputer for it, but at least he wasn't trying to hack its internal files, so he wouldn't get in trouble for it. You know, probably.
As he looked, Dick mentally reviewed his last meeting with the girl. Would she be any good on the Team? She'd gotten pretty spooked when he'd snuck up on her, so maybe not super-observant, though he could have also just caught her at a bad time. Nah, what was more interesting was how quickly she'd gotten annoyed by him. Probably a bit of a temper then, like Superboy. He'd want to be a bit careful about pushing her boundaries, accidentally or otherwise.
Now, let's see what we can dig up on the computer…
…
Nearly an hour later, he pushed himself back from the desk with a frown.
Nothing. No birth certificate, no medical records (aside from what STAR Labs probably had on her by now, but nothing preexisting), no school records, nada. The most he could find was a few scattered sightings matching her description, but they were just that, scattered. They basically told him nothing outside of her power, and he'd already known that just from asking Kaldur!
Dick narrowed his eyes. "Just who are you, Ash..?"
* * * * *
Wally was excited to have Ash on the Team.
The moment he was done with school (and man, did it suck to have a school that started so early in the year! But at least it meant he got to start his summer vacation early too!) and finished with his chores around his house, he raced back to the Mountain to meet with her. He had a ton of questions for the new girl!
… He'll admit that it took him longer than he thought to find her, though. For a moment, he'd even thought she'd left, gone down to Happy Harbor or something. But he eventually stumbled across her in the last place he'd expected to find her – in the Mountain's built-in library, curled up on a couch with a book in hand.
She glanced up as he zoomed over to her. "Oh, hey there, Wally!"
"Hey Ash!" He flopped down next to her, lowering his gaze to the book. "What'cha reading?" He hadn't really pegged her as the reading type.
"Uh, it's…" She flushed a little as she glanced down at the boom as well. "It's this… poem, I think? A translation anyways, it's called Beowulf."
Wally blinked. "Huh. I think we're gonna be reading that in school later this year. Didn't really think you'd be into something stuffy like that."
"Yeah, it's taking me a bit to work through, but…" Ash fidgeting a bit. "... I heard it had a dragon in it, so I kind of… wanted to see what people have been writing about them."
"About… dragons?"
"Well, yeah. I was raised by one, after all, so it kind of… interested…" His surprise must have shown on his face, going by the way her gaze fell flat. "You don't believe me, do you?"
Wally shook his head. "No, it's not that!"
"Really? 'Cause I know you didn't really believe in magic before the Tower of Fate, going off the way Artemis was ribbing you when you were looking for it."
"Oh yeah, you did say you were right there, huh?" He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a little self-conscious. "I mean… I'm trying to have a bit more of an open mind about it, I promise, but… A dragon? Really?"
Ash shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't exactly have what you call a 'normal' childhood by any stretch of the imagination. It's fine if you don't believe me, Wally."
"Hey, no, I believe!" He did, honestly. As much as that long-ingrained trust in cold hard fact rebelled… Ash didn't seem like she was lying. And… He had been wrong about a lot of things up until now, apparently. "I'm just… trying to wrap my head around it." He hesitated for a moment, then leaned towards her. "... What was it like?"
"Being raised by a dragon?" He nodded, and Ash hummed in response. "Tell you what, I'll tell you all about that if you do me a favor."
Wally leaned back. "What's the favor?" He'd learned his lesson on asking that before agreeing after the last time Robin had asked a favor from him.
"Tell me about school?"
… He hadn't been expecting that, and it seemed like Ash could tell. "I've… never really been," she explained, closing the book. "And I'm not sure if I'd ever want to, anyways, but… I guess I'm curious is all."
Wally looked at her for a long moment, then he smiled and nodded. "It's a deal! But you gotta start first!"
Ash chuckled as she turned to face him, her blue eyes seeming to light up. "Fine by me. So, lemme start by telling you about Atlas Flame…"
A minute later, Superboy was started out of his static-watching trance as Wally's incredulous "HE WAS MADE OF WHAT?!?!" echoed throughout the Mountain.
At least the two were getting along.
* * * * *
M'gann was, if she was being honest, scared of Ash.
It wasn't really fair, the logical part of her mind told her. Ash's powers, her magic, weren't exactly something she learned to do specifically because she had a thing against Martians or anything. And honestly, she seemed nice enough! M'gann could feel the emotions rolling off her every time the two were close – it reminded her of the human saying, "wearing your heart on your sleeve." Ash just seemed to feel all her emotions strongly, or at least projected them, strongly, and M'gann could tell how sincere the other girl was.
But then, those emotions were a part of the problem, weren't they?
Back at the Tower of Fate, when Mr. Nelson had… had died, and Ash moved to confront the Witch Boy… M'gann had been terrified, but the flames were only a part of it. A big part, yes, but only part of it. The other part… None of the others had noticed. How could they? Even Superboy, who had sort of tried to ask about it in his blunt way, had assumed it was just the fire that scared her.
None of them had felt the emotions roiling off of Ash in that moment. Rage and grief… the words made it seem easy to describe, but they failed to truly capture the experience of drowning in them, the air itself so thickly clogged that, for a moment, M'gann had sworn she could feel a part of herself die alongside Mr. Nelson. And if she couldn't breathe for a moment afterwards, was it because of the heat searing away the air, or was it the wrathful sorrow choking her through unshed tears?
… Ash wasn't like that anymore. M'gann could still feel sorrow in her, but it was muted now, and her other emotions bubbled to the surface instead. Anger was still there too, but there was also happiness, and longing, and determination. Admittedly, M'gann wasn't entirely sure if that was one was an emotion per say, but it seemed to fit. And for a little while, M'gann had started to think that maybe the two of them could get along.
And then, Ash had demonstrated that she could just… cut off her connection to telepathy.
That had spooked M'gann enough that she'd run away again. It wasn't even that unusual, all told, any Martian older than a literal toddler learned to close themselves off, at least for their most private thoughts. Normally, someone simply "closing the door" on her telepathy wouldn't even be all that noteworthy – her uncle told her many of the League members had training to mentally shield themselves.
But the way Ash had done it… It felt less like closing a door, or even pushing her away the way Martians sometimes did to each other when upset, and more like… like her mind had suddenly curled into a ball and bristled with spikes. Or maybe with fire.
It hadn't hurt, thankfully, but it had been a nasty shock all the same. In retrospect, though, it was clear that Ash wasn't trying to hurt her. She hadn't even understood quite what was wrong. And if M'gann was being honest, neither did she. Maybe it was just some odd type of mental shielding, or something to do with her magic, but… She couldn't quite put a finger on just how Ash had done it.
Since then, Ash had avoided her, even when M'gann went looking. The reason was clear why – the few times M'gann got close enough to feel her, she could sense the confused guilt simmering off of Ash. She felt bad for whatever she'd done to M'gann, apparently, and was trying to stay out of her way to make her feel comfortable.
M'gann probably could have tried harder to talk to Ash again, but… Well… A part of her was still scared. Maybe she could talk to her uncle again, tell him about the weird telepathic experience, and he would have some advice for her.
But that would have to wait. Apparently, Batman had another mission for the Team. Ash apparently wouldn't be joining yet, and Artemis was off doing a job with green Arrow, so maybe a mission with just her original teammates would help take her mind off it for a little while.
Even if it was in Gotham.
I swear I meant to have this chapter be shorter, but apparently the Team has a lot to say about Ash.
But, yeah, no Ash for the Clayface mission, for a couple different reasons I'll get into next chapter. In the meantime, have a little glimpse of how Ash comes off to the others!
But, yeah, no Ash for the Clayface mission, for a couple different reasons I'll get into next chapter. In the meantime, have a little glimpse of how Ash comes off to the others!
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
thanks for the update.
i wonder if Ash can shape her flames into a little chibi Atlas Flame?
Ars Longinus
Starlit Saint of the Spear
I mean, it kinda makes sense. Wally, for the most part, is written to be pretty chill if a hormonal teenager in season 1. We never really see him being an ass to any of the team, barring Artemis, in low stress environments. And we mostly see that a lot of the initial contention with Artemis was her seeming like the replacement of Red Arrow, a long term friend and one they had been trying to convince to join the team. Even that softened with time.
With Ash, had this all been pre tower, there might have been assholery due to the magic stuff although even then not sure due to 'cute girl' overide like what was kinda happening in the tower episode with M'gann. But post tower? He's started to be less contentious and we know by the time Zatanna joins the team he's at the very least not outspoken anti-magic anymore. This all to say, it feels pretty in character for him to be one of the better interactions in the team.
I'm more surprised there wasn't more flirting, considering how he is to every other girl in the series close to his age.
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Wrong assumption, Artemis. Ashley hadn't actually killed anyone other than giving her foes a high degree burns and broken bones, lol.
"Trained to kill" and "Has killed" aren't necessarily the same thing.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...
Damn, now I'm wondering that too.
I might have the chance to go into that more at a later time, but TL;DR, Wally is at least capable of recognizing that Ash is still in a pretty fragile emotional state at the moment, and that pretty much turns him off on flirting with her for now. As for later on, well, that depends on where their friendship is by that point.
Not sure if it was talked about or not but I am curious. If Ash ever starts the transformation into a dragon, not even necessarily the full thing even just that dragon force thing, would the dragon she starts turning into be a physical dragon or the pure hellfire dragon Atlas became? Technically I think she should become an actual dragon seeing as if I remember right the reason Atlas was made out of hellflame was because he died and just went 'nuh uh' so he was probably a normal dragon at some point. At the same time I can see some reasoning for her to transform into Atlas' hellfire, soul body, thing.
I think Flaming Skeleton Dragon.
Since she is explicitly a Hellfire Dragonslayer instead of Fire.
On the other hand she can eat generic fire...