More Young Justice Trash

Carbon Monoxide

-Canary reflects on the team and her relationship with them-

Dinah was at the mountain that morning, setting up bags in the gym. They had training at ten, so she was busy setting up early.

"Mmhello?" M'gann swayed into the doorway, wrapped in her duvet. "It's only eight." She yawned.

"I woke up early." She replied, "Thought I'd fix up the speakers while I'm here."

"Okay." M'gann said blearlily. "I'm gonna make French toast."

Dinah smiled a little as the Martian trudged off towards the kitchen.

Look, Canary knew what it was like to be 'the sidekick', a couple people on the league had worked with her mom when she was born, and she'd had wildcat as her mentor-babysitter practically as soon as she could walk on her own. She knew how awkward it was to hear Wonderwoman say she missed 'Dinah', and then having to clarify 'I meant your mother', or hear Manhunter telling a story of something that happened when she was a toddler.

Same looks, same power, same hero name, same first name, same colleagues. She'd been destined to replace her mother the second she was born into that family. 

Maybe that's why she was so patient with the kids. They reminded her a lot of herself when she was their age: angry, uncontrolled, expected to fill the shoes of someone renowned with ease.

At least Dick had, unlike her, gotten nine whole years of childhood before sinking into the unrealistic, child-hating standards of the hero world.

Of course, that didn't make it any easier to accept Bruce bringing a nine-year-old into crime fighting. Dinah was generally of the opinion that children should be kept out of hero work if possible, but when it was unavoidable she was willing to at least step up and support the ones who have  to work for them.

Roy came not long after, this was before she and Ollie got engaged but they had been dating and she had shunned him for a week after he'd started using Roy for work. But again, once the kid was in, he was in, and like with Dick, they couldn't risk pissing the kid off and having him spill their identities.

Kid Flash was the one she'd objected to the most, insisting that if they let one kid force his way into the league by sheer willpower, there would be no end of children trying, not understanding how serious the job really is.

But she'd been outvoted, so she took the loss gracefully and did her best to make Wally feel safe with her.

And Kaldur; poor, sweet, barely-speaks-English Kaldur. He'd been in military service since before he hit puberty, and then like a Cinderella story, he was chosen; swept away from a difficult home life and oppressive racial forces to a new life of fighting bad guys and saving the people he cares about.

She hadn't bothered voting against his status.

Conner was the most like her, she thought. They were both identical to their predecessor, and both were forced into the hero world at birth. Watching Conner break the fridge door again reminded her of when she'd yawn and accidentally screech a hole in the wall. She knew it was frustrating and embarrassing, and she knew what it was like to have the people she works with now to have watched her throw tantrums as a child.

She hadn't objected to the team forming, she was just glad they didn't vote to euthanize Superboy. Yes, that had been a proposal Batman covered. 

M'gann was like Kaldur all over again: a stressful homelife which forced them to take care of themselves, racial oppression treading on them, hate crimes, She couldn't blame J'onn for keeping her. J'onn had always been kind when Dinah was a child, she knew he'd take good care of M'gann. 

Besides, if Red Tornado was going to be watching Superboy at the mountain anyways, maybe Conner needed another teenage alien to keep him company and enrich the environment.

But oh, Artemis... She'd nearly thrown the engagement ring off the balcony over that one. Roy had just quit, and instead of listening to his damn kid's opinions and changing his behavior, Oliver got another kid.

They'd argued for hours in the kitchen, Dinah trying to get it through Oliver's thick skull why she might have bad connotations between childhood and heroism.

But eventually, when she'd heard Paula Nguyen's plea to protect her daughter from following her path... well, it was one less villain, one more ally, and most importantly, one less child doing unsanctioned vigilante work with no training.

Her vote was the deciding one on whether or not Artemis got to join the team. At that point, if they wanted to have a team of child soldiers, what was one more?

She worked very hard training the team, identifying and bettering their faults, if those kids had to fight crime, she wanted to give them the best possible chance of survival.

"Canary?"

"Morning, Conner." She said, hanging the last bag. "Are you ready for training?"

"I will be, I have to take Wolf out."  He stood there another moment. "Do you need any help setting up?"

"Nope, I think I'm fine." She replied. "I expect you to perform today, alright? Show me how much your footwork has improved this week-- and don't forget to block, tell everyone I expect them to block while striking."

Conner nodded seriously. "I'll tell them."

This was one of those moments she wasn't so sure about; sometimes she felt like the kids'-- let's face it, usually Conner's-- only adult. She was still in party girl age range and she wasn't so sure about being a primarily role model, she expected them to get it from their own mentors, but it seemed that line of thinking was flawed, it relied on their mentors being present for them.

She tries not to split hairs on the league, but some of the behavior, the talk, their treatment of the kids as free labor disgusted her. She was sick of hearing rumors about what the clone was doing, or how Artemis was heading down Jade's path. It was not their business, it was barely hers, and granted she had not set off to use her double major in psychology in a heroic setting, she hadn't signed up to be their therapist, but she was inarguably the most qualified person they had following the Failsafe incident. 

That was another thing she'd thought tooth-and-nail over, she'd known it would end badly, but like most teachers she was dismissed as not understanding the kids she spent all her time with and was forced to put up with ideas proposed by out of touch rich men.

It had gone exactly how she'd warned them, and who was left to sweep up the poor teens' traumatized psyches?

And yet, in spite of everything, here she was, preparing to teach them once again. She and the team had been through a lot, but she wouldn't abandon them. 

Over all, Dinah considered herself pro-sidekick, not because she wanted more, but because she would to anything to help the ones they had.