The Hard Way (A Female Percy Jackson/ Young Justice Crossover)

10

The Justice League didn't want to leave the team alone after the invasion or the Red Tornado incident, but they eventually managed to escape into Robin's bedroom to chat privately about a few things.

Artemis had taken to standing, near Aqualad who was stifling a yawn and pretending to cough. Megan had dropped onto the bed with her head propped up on her arm and Conner had awkwardly decided to stand in the middle of the room when Wally sat at the corner of the bed. Robin scooted his lamp over and perched on his nightstand. At first, they weren't sure what to say. Silence expanded over the group and overwhelmed them. But as time stretched on, their speedster began to grow impatient. He was, afterall, experiencing things at a prolonged pace.

"This is insane," he said, "How could Red Tornado be a bad guy? I just don't get it."

"Clearly there are things we don't know about him," Robin responded, almost hesitant to continue the conversation. There were bigger things on his mind, unrelated things he was sure he shouldn't mention. Still, he was troubled by the extra information he came into earlier that evening. The secret burned his insides like pocket money, begging him to be brought out.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Artemis announced, "We rehashed this fifteen times with the League already."

"She's right," Connor nodded in agreement. "There's nothing we haven't already gone over."

They all seemed to feel the same way, especially Megan, who had laid down and fallen asleep already.

Still, there was more to be said, and not about the Reds. Someone else was on Robin's mind. He felt like a fool for having not recognized her sooner. Although, it felt like there may have been another factor keeping her disguised, something a little less visible than the real mask. She did have amazingly unique eyes, unlike anyone else's. One of them should have recognized their teammate as their target. "What about Percy Jackson?"

She'd pose a unique complication now, one that none of the team had been expecting. And only one of them really knew now anyway, two counting Riptide herself. How could he, in good conscience, keep working on an investigation that would be pointless in the end. Pointless was the best case scenario, he realized too, as the other issue could damage the friendship they had all worked towards.

"What about her?" Aqualad asked, visibly shocked by the abrupt turn of conversation.

"Maybe we should postpone the investigation for awhile." Robin knew his suggestion wouldn't go over well, but he knew he was obligated to try. She was their teammate, and they were hunting her; if anything could put strain on their team relationship, it would be that. Then there was the issue of her obvious knowledge. Not only did she know everything they were trying to learn about, she also knew they were looking for her. They had already met her, in New York at the scene of her parents, long before she was introduced to them. How had everything become so massively knotted in the last few hours? All he was sure of was that it would be a breach of privacy to tell the team, and a breach of trust to keep it from them.

"What?!" Wally and Artemis exclaimed at the same time, startling M'gann awake.

"We've been busy anyway and now with the attack on the mountain and Red Tornado..." He looked at each of his teammates, and trailed off for a moment. "Maybe we shouldn't split our focus right now."

Wally was the first to assess his words. "But we've already put so much into our investigation and-"

"And we still don't have any proof that this girl is involved in anything," Robin argued. "Frankly, it was a complete shot in the dark anyway. We pulled a name out of nowhere and ran with it. For all we know, we're chasing someone who isn't even connected."