chapter eleven.
( the timeout corner. )

When Yue was a kid, her mother had created a tradition for the both of them. When her father was out of town, the two girls – with whatever money her mother could scrape together after paying the bills – would travel to the nearest magic show happening within Gotham.

She had vivid memories of sitting in the furthest seats from the stage, far from the action, yet she held those memories close to her heart still. Any memory of Kisumi Everhart that hadn't been replaced by the image of her dying in that small, overcrowded emergency room, were fond memories.

Yue wanted to keep the traditions she and her mother made alive.

So, here she stands, her arms crossed over her red dress as she waits in the foyer of Wayne Enterprises.

When Dick returned from his mission with Bruce and heard that Wally begrudgingly agreed to attend a magic show with her, he was beyond eager to invite himself. He -- Wally -- was to meet up with them there in an hour while they waited around Wayne Tower for Bruce to collect a surprise package waiting for him.

"Wanna make a bet?" Dick's question pulls Yue from her thoughts. He stands beside her in a green hoodie, a black blazer thrown over top in an attempt to look nice, his hands tucked into the pockets and his hair slicked back with gel. "I bet Wally will start complaining in the first half-hour."

Yue raises a brow, a grin tugging at her lips. "Yeah? Well, I bet he's gonna complain in the first five minutes."

"So, what's this about, Lucius?" Yue finds herself turning around as Bruce speaks to the business manager of Wayne Enterprises.

"Not sure, Bruce," Lucius answers with a simple shrug of his shoulders, then motions his hand toward the giant metal cylinder behind him. It was surrounded by two of the building's security guards. "This arrived, addressed to you, with no return address."

Bruce strokes his chin in thought as his eyes flick toward the cylinder cautiously, "Has it been scanned?"

"Post nine-eleven?" Lucius nods, "Of course. But it appears to be... mud. Nothing toxic, explosive or radioactive, just mud." He glances over at the cylinder, then hums in thought, "Or perhaps clay ."

The ever-so-simple word sets an array of events in motion. The cylinder pops open with a thud, a monster made of a clay-like substance emerges from within with a deafening growl, and Bruce hops in front of both Yue and Dick protectively. He shares a look with his two proteges– and in the commotion, the three of them slip away to change into their hero-suits.

The clay-monster acts fast, slamming both security guards into the walls across from them. Lucius backs away from the monster, his eyes widening behind his glasses. "Bruce, we need to get you, Dick and Yue out of here!" He shouts, though when he isn't met with an answer, he spins around, "Bruce?"

The CEO and his two wards are gone. Instead, Gotham's three heroes drop from the ceiling to engage the monster. Robin, as he falls from the air, kicks his foot out toward the monster– only for both the monster and the bird-themed hero, as a muddy arm wraps around him, to tumble through the glass window and out into the street.

"What?" The monster growls, barely intelligible. "What did she do to me?!"

Flamebird sprints outside, skidding to a stop and reaching for her taser gun as the monster's hand extends around the length of a parked car. She, Batman and Robin each aim their weapons at the monster, then fire in unison as a pained growl rips from its throat. When the sparks come to an end, the monster is still standing.

"Really thought he'd be a little less shevelled after that..." Robin stares up at the creature in surprise.

Without a word being said to one another, the three heroes dodge the clay-monster's fist, only to each be knocked back into the wall by its next attack. Yue groans as she pushes herself up, the wet clay already sticking to her skin and clothes as she watches the monster slither toward the sewer grates.

"How?" It cries loudly as it sinks into the sewer. "How did this happen?!"

Batman rises to his feet, a solemn look in his eyes as he strolls toward the sewer and silently collects a sample of clay that had been left behind. Flamebird sits on her knees on the sidewalk, her dark gaze flickering over to Robin, "I guess we gotta put a raincheck on the magic show, huh?"

"Yes." Batman's gruff voice addresses his proteges as he turns back to face them with a serious expression. "Call in the team. There's a monster loose in my city."

The Team, following Batman's orders to track the monster, spent the better half of the entire morning following it through the sewers of Gotham City.

One thing Yue hated the most about being a hero was trekking through the dirty sewers whenever a rogue criminal tried to go underground; and after spending what was meant to be a fun morning at Zatara's magic show wrestling with a clay-monster in the murky water instead, she could safely say she felt sick.

She pushes herself up from her knees, gagging as sewer water mixed with wet clay clings to not only her body but the length of her dark hair, too. "This is disgusting." She complains loudly, then glances toward the rest of the team as they pick themselves up after the fight.

"It was unpleasant," Miss Martian agrees, hovering a few inches above the sewer water as she grimaces. "Like tangling with a rabid Ma'alefa'ak on Mars."

Kid Flash reaches over to knock a clump of slime off the Martian's shoulder. "Yeah," he sighs, "This definitely isn't our finest moment."

Pulling her soaking hair over her shoulder and squeezing it gently within her hands, Yue frowns as the water drips onto her lap. "I still can't believe we had to cancel a magic show for this ." She glances over at Kid Flash as he steps to her side with a grin.

"Yeah. I was kinda looking forward to proving myself right to both you and Rob," he says smugly. "Guess it'll have to wait for another time."

Despite how disgusted she feels by their surroundings, Yue can't stop the snicker she lets out as she rolls her eyes. "Prove yourself right? When it comes to the magic debate, you're never gonna win, Wal," she says playfully.

"Batman to Team. Report status." The gruff voice of her mentor speaks through the comm-link in their ears. "Have you encountered the creature?"

"Yes, Batman." Aqualad answers with a heavy sigh, "Though the encounter was far from successful."

"Tell me everything that occurred." The Dark Knight orders. "I want details."

"Ask him where Artemis is." Kid Flash calls out to their leader, using one hand to help Yue off the ground while the other swipes the clay off his own face. "And how come she gets away with skipping the so-fun sewer party?"

"So fun?" Yue raises a brow. "Did I miss the part of growing up where every girl dreams of swimming through the sewers for a clay monster?"

After debriefing Batman on the events that had transpired in the sewers, Aqualad turns to face the Team, "Batman has sent us coordinates." He announces. "Let's return to the bio-ship."

Spare suits – the ones they wore before they were given the upgraded stealth suits by the League – were kept in the back of the bioship for most of the Team in the case of an emergency like this. Yue had wasted no time, upon arriving back at the bio-ship, changing into the clean Flamebird backup-suit.

With a frown still etched across her face, she returns to the cockpit with her messy hair tied up away from her face. The clean uniforms practically did nothing to rid them of the smell as the sewer water clings to their hair and skin.

"I feel like a pig that's been rolling around in the mud," she complains, using her hand to wipe a speck of wet clay off her cheek. She couldn't wait for the mission to be over so she could return to the Cave and take a long, warm shower.

"I mean, what's the point of putting on a clean costume if I'm not... fresh?" Wally asks with a grimace.

Superboy, sitting at the front of the bio-ship with his arms crossed over his muddy shirt, turns his chair around to glare at the boy. "At least you have a clean costume."

"Your costume is a Superman souvenir, Supes," Yue points out as she takes a seat to the right of him. "We could buy you another one from literally any street-stall on our way back to the Cave."

"And besides, it's an old back-up!" Wally points out with a sigh, "It sucks."

"Actually, I think the stink is you, freshness." Dick snickers under his breath as he glances over at the speedster, then as his laugh dies down, his voice takes a serious tone,"But what about the creature?"

"Bats wanted us to track it." Yue relays her mentor's words, then clips her now-dried yellow utility-belt around her waist. "It left the sewers, so we just need to find it again and send him the coordinates."

"But why settle for that?" Wally wonders. "Okay, sure, it got the drop on us, but now we know its tricks!"

"Yeah!" Dick agrees enthusiastically. "We split up! Then whoever finds old "clayface" radioes the team..."

A smirk finds its way to Superboy's lips as he speaks up to finish the boy's sentence, "And we converge to kick some clay-butt!"

"What do you say, Aqualad?" M'gann turns toward their leader. Aqualad stares out the front window of the bio-ship, out toward the ocean on the border of Gotham's docks, a despondent look in his eyes. Yue is the first to lean over, to her right, and place her hand on the boy's shoulder, shocking him out of his thoughts.

"What?" He blinks in surprise, staring across at Yue as she retracts her hand. "Oh, yes."

His agreement has Wally and Dick share a look of excitement, while M'gann simply frowns as she takes her seat at the controls. "Alright." She says, her gaze flickering between the window and Kaldur as concern glazes over her eyes. "Heading to the coordinates Batman gave us now."

The sound of rain dripping from cracks in the old warehouse's ceiling echoes through the second floor as Flamebird makes her way down the dark corridor. With a flashlight in her hand, her eyes scan over every dark crevice of her assigned area– Miss Martian, Kid Flash and Aqualad had split up downstairs, while she, Superboy and Robin divided the second floor into three sections.

In the last ten minutes, she had seen no sign of the monster dubbed clay-face by her teammates. Not a speck of wet clay nor a monstrous sized disfigured footprint. She reaches her hand out toward one of the doors and swings it open, the smallest of sighs falling from her lips as she looks over the empty room– though the warehouse had once been a lively factory for all sorts of things in Gotham, it had been abandoned just over a year ago after it was deemed unsafe.

All that remains now is the rubble, along with the remains of various homeless encampments.

A cold chill creeps in from the cracks in the windows, and as the low hum of distant sirens in the city fills the silence, Flamebird walks into the room. A discarded sleeping bag takes up the furthest corner of the room, along with an array of empty cans. All she can do is hope that any citizens taking residence in the factory had departed long before Clay-Face appeared.

The creak of the door has her reaching for her birderangs; quickly, she spins around and throws the weapon. It digs into the wall, narrowly missing the cheek of a face she recognised too well.

"KF, I could've hurt you!" She hisses quietly, her hands dropping to her hips as she stares at the boy in the doorway. "What are you doing up here, anyway? Aren't you meant to be downstairs with the others?"

"Uh, yeah." Kid Flash strolls forward, a smirk on his face as he speaks, "But I thought I'd come check on you, beautiful." The word rolls off his tongue easily– so easily that she misses the almost-hostile flicker in his eyes as she averts her gaze and blushes.

"Funny, but you-" Her voice hitches as his fingertips gently brush against her cheek. Her face burns and she freezes up, unable to do anything but watch as the boy of her dreams begins to lean in. Her heart races until an overwhelmingly strong pressure wraps itself around her torso, then slowly, Wally's face shifts back to that of the monster's. "It's here!" She manages to scream before it wraps its large hand around her mouth, while its other increases the pressure around her ribcage.

The creature, no longer stealing the face of her best friend, pulls her into the mud of its chest. Everything around her goes black in a matter of seconds.

Batman, free of the muck the team is covered in, leads them into the Cave hours after their mission had gone wrong. He reaches the main-hall in silence, then turns around on his heel and speaks for the first time since saving them. "I need to talk to Aqualad." He says. "The rest of you, hit the showers and head home."

Dick and Yue both take a step forward, without a second thought, only for Batman to meet with their gazes with a stern look. "Just Aqualad," he presses.

He turns around and walks away the second he finishes speaking. Yue, however, glances at Dick with furrowed brows. The two Gothamites share a mutual look– Bruce was known to keep secrets, after all. The whole Watchtower fiasco still weighed on their minds even months after the incident, yet this secret-meeting with Kaldur brought a whole new sense of confusion and curiosity.

What was so important that he had to tell Aqualad and not the rest of them?

She doesn't have long to dwell on the question before Wally, still covered in the clay and muck, strolls over to her. A grin is painted across his lips, and though Yue wants nothing more than to smile back, she simply turns her back to the boy and follows the others toward the showers.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see Wally's face turning to clay. It was wrong to take it out on him, but her heart ached in her chest. She let her guard down, she missed all the signs and in thinking that Wally was about to kiss her, she failed the mission.

With her back facing the boy, she's oblivious to the way the grin slips off his face as he watches her walk away.

"Rob!" She calls out to the bird-themed hero just ahead of her, a small smile of her own tugging at her lips as he turns to face her again. "Wait for me to finish before you head back to Gotham, okay? I'll pay for dinner."

"You'll pay?" Dick raises a brow, "When do you ever pay?"

It was a fair question. Neither Dick nor Yue had any money of their own, simply relying on Bruce's income ever since coming into his care– it wasn't like people with their special extra-curriculars could get a part-time job when balancing school-work and the mask was hard enough.

Yue had been saving her allowance for the magic show, and if they weren't able to attend it, the least she could do is buy her brother some dinner to keep his mind off Bruce's meeting with Kaldur. "C'mon, when was the last time we got a night off?" She asks. "Just wait for me, I won't be long."

He huffs out a sigh, "Fine."

A chilling breeze brushes over the dark rooftop where Yue and Dick sit side-by-side on the edge, a box with a half-eaten pizza laid out between them. With her legs dangling over the side of the building, Yue glances down at the glimmering lights of the city around them.

"What do you think about Artemis?" Dick's question, even with a mouthful of pepperoni pizza in his mouth and the wind blowing past her ears loudly, catches Yue off-guard. With furrowed brows, her dark eyes flick over to her brother as he continues, "You don't think she's even a little suspicious?"

"I guess not," Yue answers with a shrug of her shoulders. Placing her hands against the concrete slab beneath her, she leans back against them. "If she's suspicious, then imagine how you must look, Mr. "Wearing Sunglasses inside is totally normal"."

Dick scoffs lightheartedly, "It's a fashion statement, you just don't get it."

"A bad fashion statement," she laughs. "When Bats told you to hide your identity, I don't think that's what he had in mind." Her laughter fades into silence as she watches the smile fall from the boy's face at the mention of their mentor.

For a moment, only the distant sounds of the city-life below them echoes through the cold air. "What do you think he wanted to talk to Kaldur about?" He questions. Then, briefly, he doubts, "More secrets?"

"Honestly? I don't think it's anything that exciting." Yue frowns as she thinks back on their leader's behaviour. If she was incapable of putting her feelings above the mission, then she wasn't sure what to call Kaldur's distant mind as he walked through recent missions like half a person. "You and Wal might have been too preoccupied with getting ahead of yourselves, as usual," she teases, then sighs, "But something was clearly going on with Kaldur today. Batman must've noticed it, too."

Dick hums in thought. "You think it was a lecture?" He wonders, as if he still couldn't wrap his mind around the need for a meeting between the two of them.

"Maybe," she shrugs, her gaze flickering down to watch her legs as they swing back and forth over the ledge. "Aqualad's a good leader, but even good leader's make mistakes."

"Do you think... Do you think I'd make a good leader?"

Blinking in surprise, she glances over at the younger boy. "Well..." She trails off, her lips pressing together in thought. She knows, in her heart, that he'd make a great leader someday. He had been striving for the role since their little team was created, after all. But he's still so young and the life of a hero is already so demanding.

It takes and takes, and Kaldur has stepped up to the role to shield him from that until he's ready.

Kaldur is rational. He knows how to keep focused on the task-at-hand most of the time and, more than the rest of them, is calm enough to make the hard decisions. It was something she admired most about him. He worked well under pressure. Then, of course, there was Batman. What made him a great leader was his ability to push down his feelings for the sake of the mission.

To be a good leader is to be like them.

To be like them is to lose everything that makes him Dick Grayson.

He's still looking at her, awaiting an answer to the question that must have been burning in the back of his mind for weeks now. "One day," she answers truthfully. "You're going to lead our team one day, and I believe you're going to do an amazing job at it, Rob." She smiles at him, hoping her words were doing a decent job at reassuring him. "For now, you need to allow yourself to be a kid. It's okay to be a kid."

If he was touched by what she said, he doesn't show it.

Two days later, the Cave was still rather solemn as the team awaited the return of their leader after the failed mission. Yue sits at the dining table in the living quarters, her holiday homework scattered across the surface in front of her.

Artemis and M'gann sit across from her, the latter flipping through a magazine while the former occasionally glances at it from over her shoulder. At the other end of the room, Superboy sits on the couch and stares absent-mindedly at the static playing on the television.

"So," Yue starts, her homework left forgotten as she instead glances up at Artemis. "Where were you the other day? Sewer-crawling is more of a whole group activity, you know. If one of us does it, we all do it."

At the mention of their mission in the sewers, M'gann's nose scrunches up in disgust. Beside her, Artemis avoids Yue's gaze and shrugs her shoulders half-heartedly. "Had some family stuff going on," she admits. "Not that I want to be there in the sewers. Ever."

Yue's brow rises, "Trouble in the Arrow Cave?"

"Arrow... Cave?" M'gann asks curiously, her eyes flickering up from her magazine and over to Artemis. "But arrows don't live in Caves, do they?"

Artemis sits there at a loss for words, her brows pinched together as she stares across at Yue.

"You've never been to the Arrow Cave?" Yue asks curiously. She sits up straighter, suddenly intrigued by this new development in Artemis' history. "Roy hates the name but GA's been insisting on it for as long as I've known them."

"Oh- Oh, I guess you're right," Artemis stutters out, tripping over her words as she nods her head and seemingly averts her gaze. "I sort of just moved... back to Star City, and G- Uncle Ollie and I," she grimaces subtly, "only started working together recently. Guess I haven't gone through the whole tour thing yet."

While Artemis seems to look everywhere but them, Yue and M'gann share a silent look across the table. Unsure what to make of Artemis' nervous behaviour, Yue nods with a small smile. "Well, family can be difficult," she says with a shrug. "Trust me, I get it."

M'gann sighs dreamily as she stands up from her seat at the table and begins to make her way toward the open kitchen, "If only it was as easy as the sit-coms make it seem." With a sad smile tugging at her lips, she uses her powers to open the oven and remove the tray of freshly-baked cookies.

She lowers the tray onto the bench, her face lighting up as Superboy stands from the couch to join her in the kitchen. Her smile only brightens as the boy reaches out to take one of the cookies. "Careful, Superboy, they're hot," she warns softly.

He spares her a quick glance, then plucks one of the fresh cookies off the tray without a second-thought. Before he can take a bite, Wally speeds across the kitchen and snatches the baked-treat from his hand. "Not as hot as you, babe," he eagerly flirts with the Martian as he swallows a bite of the cookie.

Superboy rolls his eyes at the speedster's antics and takes another cookie from the tray.

"Don't eat them all, Wal!" Yue calls out as she stands from her seat and makes her way over to the counters, one hand resting on her hip as the other quickly takes a cookie off the tray before Wally can steal another one.

"Uh, thanks, Wally." M'gann smiles politely, her eyes flickering from Superboy to Wally. "That's, uh... sweet?" Her hands clasp together and she awkwardly shifts from one foot to the other as she watches Wally swallow the rest of the cookie in one-bite.

"Not as sweet as you, sugar," he winks.

Joining them in the kitchen, Artemis scoffs as she smacks Wally upside the head. "Oh, grow up!" She scolds, then takes a cookie for herself as she and M'gann share a look across the counter. Wally parts his lips to argue, but his words fall on deaf ears as Yue glances at their leader.

Kaldur stands beside her, a fond smile taking over his face as he watches their teammates.

"It's good to have you back, Kal," Yue says softly, staring up at him as his eyes flick down to meet hers. "Are you feeling any better? We heard you left to visit Atlantis."

"Yes, I did," he nods. "And I am. It was nice to see Atlantis again, but I am back now... Right where I belong." He glances back at the rest of the team fondly, even as Artemis and Wally continue to argue while Dick eggs them on with vague comments here and there.

Unaware of the meaning behind his words, Yue smiles. "Whatever the reason, I'm just glad we got to have a few days off," she admits, thinking back to how despondent they all were after the Clay-Face debacle in Gotham. Her talk with Dick seemed to lighten his mood, and the others seemed to be feeling better, too. "I think we all needed it."

Kaldur hums in agreement, then falls silent as Batman's voice emits from the Cave's speakers. "Team, report to the mission room," the Dark Knight orders.