A Cousin's Favour 🛑

Sparing

"We could spar. See how good you really are," Artemis said with a smirk, thinking that his title was all for show.

"Sounds like fun. Powers or no?" Percy said, mischief and excitement shining in his eyes.

"What do you think works best?" Kaldur asked, knowing the strength of the demigod.

"Lets go all against me with powers," Percy smirk grew into a full grin as the others agreed. "Kaldur can you protect them if I go to far? I haven't ever fought mortals before," Percy asked, realizing that they were only mortals and could get seriously hurt. Kaldur nodded as the others gave their competitor wary looks.

The training ring lit-up as they all entered the ring and got into a fighting stance. The countdown hitting zero, Superboy launched forward as Artemis and Robin launched their projectiles. Percy easily dodged the arrows and birdarangs, as well as ducked under the clone's punch, sweeping his legs out from under him. Wally ran behind him and landed a few solid punches before retreating to avoid the kick directed his way. Miss Martian then attempted to read his mind and instantly cried out and collapsed, Superboy running to her aid. Robin and Artemis both rushed forward and engaged in hand to hand, both mortals finding Percy's movements getting faster before both finding themselves knocked out. Aqualad then took the distraction to try and hit the legend from behind, the water-made weapons distorted around Percy's head as the demigod took control of his element. Kaldur quickly improvised by hitting his opponent with mystic energy, the boy barely flinched.

"Tickles," He smirked, punching the Atlantean out cold. Kid Flash tried again to knock Percy out, but was stopped when he slipped on the water Percy laid in front of the speedster.

Winner Riptide the computer read out.

Percy went around and woke up those unconious with the water before walking over to the two aliens that sat in the corner. "What did you do to her?" Superboy growled.

"I'm not sure. What did she try to do?" Percy said confused, he didn't know of her powers.

"Miss M is telepathic," Robin said, Percy scrunching his face in thought. 

"She reads minds," Artemis supplied.

"So she was looking at my memories? That's bad, people shouldn't have to see that..." He trailed off, a look of worry and horror on his face.

"Are the stories of your travels true then?" Kaldur asked.

"Uh," He looked up from his thoughts, "Yeah, she probably got a look at where I was during the last war. Even I'm still getting over that one." Percy's face was grim as he remembered the horrors of Tartarus, he shuddered.

"What happened during this war?" Robin questioned, noticing the shudder and look of hopelessness.

"I'd rather not say. Kaldur, you've probably heard the stories you can tell them. But can someone show me to something with lots of water, I don't  feel like blowing the plumbing would be a good idea right now," He looked down at his feet but gave a humourous laugh at his joke, but everyone noticed the shake in his voice.

"Just down that hall," Kaldur said quietly, pointing in the direction the hangar was.

"What do we do about M'gann?" Superboy said

"I'll call the League and see if they can help," Robin said, pulling up a video link to the Watchtower. "Mount Justice to Watchtower, requesting Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman to Cave for an emergency."

"Request received," Hawkman said from the other side of the line, he was on Watchtower duty.

The team waited silently for the Leaguers to arrive.

Batman -02 Wonder Woman -03 Aquaman -06 Martian Manhunter -07

"What happened?" Batman's gruff voice came immediately after coming through the Zeta Tube.

"We were sparing with Riptide to measure his abilities when Miss Martian attempted to read his mind," Kaldur reported stepping forward, "She saw the second Giant war from his eyes," he added quietly. Wonder Woman gasped.

"Who is Riptide?" Aquaman asked, curious to who had been in the war.

"Percy. I brought Percy to try being on the team, to help make the team stronger," Wonder Woman paused, "Where is he now?"

"He said he needed to be in water before he blew the plumbing. We sent him to the Hangar. He seemed pretty shaken," Robin said pointing down the hall the boy had disappeared down.

"He's probably having an attack, we'll have to calm him soon," She trailed off, a worried look on her face.

"Can you help M'gann?" Superboy demanded, still holding the Martian.

"Those are terrors no one should see. You may need to erase her memory," Aquaman said turning to the older martian.

"I can try, but we will need some privacy for the procedure," he stated. The others left towards the hangar as the martian started to work on his neice's mind, Superboy insisting to stay behind.