ASTRAPHOBIA ⚡︎ W. West

Chapter VIII - Schooled

| Central City
| August 3, 6:29 CST

IT WAS SIX in the morning when Kamila decided to call her partner/mentor and ask for advice on how to go about leading the team. Sure, Barry was a founding member of the Justice League and not one of the team leaders or anything like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman (or The Trinity, as Kamila likes to call them) but the girl honestly just wanted to vent to him.

She and Wally had decided that they'd see how long they could keep their relationship a secret (because we're dating now!!!) especially with their best friend being a kid genius and detective and their mentor being the annoying- persistent person he is, it seems like a fun challenge for them to try and keep this one thing a secret.

And because they know of the bets being placed. Mainly because of the bets.

So, Astra was now running alongside the Flash like they had been for the past six years and venting about her worries.

"I mean, like Kaldur is more serious than me! And he's older!"

As they zipped by one of the empty parks and up the side of a building, Barry interrupted, "That's a lame excuse. B is like, what thirty-three? People like Zatara and the Hawks are older than him, but he still leads us. Plus, your birthday is in two months. Stop making excuses for being awesome Kace, there's a reason you're leading the team."

Kamila smiled at him once they stopped at the top, admiring the view of the city waking up for the day. "Thanks, Barry, I just... it's a big responsibility y'know?"

"Ha, no kidding. You have to deal with mini-versions of the league. That's like, one of the circles of hell I think," Barry joked, then he pressed his hand to his ear and a few seconds later his eyes furrowed into a concerned expression under his blank eyes, "Woah what's happening? Yeah, I can run over... okay got it, but Astra is with me right- yeah I'll bring her... okay copy."

"What's up? Where are we going?" Kamila asked, getting ready to start running again.

"Star City, Green Arrow and Black Canary were attacked by some copycat robot," he responded, "they called in back up, superman, manhunter and a few others are on the way. You ready?"

"Barry, you just asked me if I'm ready to fight a killer copying robot with the Justice League. I literally have been waiting for something like this for like, as long as can remember."

Barry just smiled and ruffled her hair, "alright kid, see if you can keep up?"

Astra grins as she disappeared into the city's power lines and reappeared half a second later on the other side of the city running in pace with the Flash.

⚡︎

| LICHFIELD COUNTY
| Augest 3, 07:43 EDT

WHEN THEY ARRIVED, Superman was simply tossed aside leaving a huge creator in his wake as he landed.

Astra was told to keep her distance and see if she could spot any obvious ways for the robot to be shut down, like sensing a power source or some mainframe that could be short-circuited, but each time the robot copied or used another person's powers, it seemed to shift. Making it hard to pinpoint anything inside.

She saw Captain Atom and Martian Manhunter fly in from the north side of the battle, and she could feel the familiar source of Red Tornado's energy as he landed beside her.

"Astra," he addressed in his monotone voice, "you are aiding us as well?"

She nodded and dodged a blast that resembled Captain Atom's.