I decided I needed to re-write chapter one because it was bugging me. Sorry.

Emerald Justice

It was on the eve of the darkest of nights, almost five years in the past, that the beloved green lantern of sector 2813 met his end at the hands, or claws at the case was, of a Kla'or'rin. Nasty things those, stomping about five feet from the ground on skinny legs with skinny bodies that looked too much like a greyhound to be healthy.

The lantern that fell at its long claws was called Ran pronounced 'run'. And when Ran died, the only living human on the planet (amongst Tameranians, Martians, and Aloi to name a very small number) was chosen by his ring to guard that sector. The human, a girl who's name had long been lost on earth, was granted its power at an age younger than would have been expected, and as such her status was changed to the green lantern of her home sector, and put into the care of a resident member of the corps known to Oa as Hal Jordan.

The girl resumed her former identity as a citizen of earth and joined the fight for the light at her caretaker's side. She took up her former name, the final gift of her parents, and stole away the title of Jordan.

Her name was Catherine Grace.

July 4th, 14:00 EST.

The day had dawned just as usual, and gone by coast city with little more than a robbery by the villain Iceberg, quickly thwarted by the younger of the cities resident heroes, me. The day saved she, well, I vanished into the blue skies above the city without fear, not to be seen for some time. I was, and would be, busy. For you see…

"Today is the day," blue shot past me in on three sides, streaked with the white of clouds as the sun shone on my back and the back of my brother. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him shaking his head, mask obscuring what I was sure was an eye roll.

"You're really that excited Siege?" he asked, shortening my alias of C.G. to a more fluent pronunciation as many others did. The Appalachian Mountains past underneath us, brown and white interrupting what had been fields of corn for the past few thousand miles.

"Of course!" I exclaimed, looking over at him in a vaguely annoyed fashion, "It's hard to get together with the others these days, even if I am out of school. Kid Flash and Robin are hard to meet up with, forget Speedy and Aqualad. Soon enough we'll be in the League," I was grinning like a fool I'm sure, pushing our speed up further till we were almost past the sound barrier. The wind ripped at my hair, whipping the braid I kept it in back rapidly with enough force it leave a nasty sting if it hit me.

"Come on kid, you're already a Green Lantern, isn't that enough? The League isn't that big of deal," Hal complained, angling us further south in a correction of out more northern flight path. The land dropped away then, giving up to the powerful blue tides of the ocean waves, glimmering miles ahead.

"Yes, it is. It's an earth based group of people just trying to help, not an intergalactic police agency of whatever you think of us as," I shot back, throwing my weight to the side and spinning rapidly over Hals back until I was on his other side, showing off for the reporters already flashing pictures of us as the Hall of Justice came into view.

My brother shook his head, both of us descending rapidly towards the intricately designed Hall, cameras flashing into our hidden eyes. Our uniforms, both standard for the corps, would be forever preserved in the data stored in that technology, our expressions frozen in time as we two brunettes landed lightly on the ground beside the other heroes and their protégés, falling into line beside the bats. Hals stood just behind me, Robin to my right and my left open to the still missing part of our little club.

"Centrals still late?" I asked, tilting my face towards the young bird beside me. He shot me an almost smug grin in response.

"aren't they always?" he asked, just as the all too familiar 'I knew we'd be the last ones here!' came from behind us and two yellow and red blurs focused into the Missouri speedsters. I snorted and KF fell in to the open space to my left, his uncle standing behind him as all mentors did.

"Speak of the devil," I muttered to Dick before looking back at my younger ginger friend, "You know it's pretty ironic how the fastest men alive are never on time?"

"It's his fault!" Wally cried, gesturing to the second generation flash and giving me a look like a kicked puppy, "don't blame me C.G."

"Rhyming dude? Really?" Robin interrupted, shaking his head at the second youngest of us present.

"Says the boy who spends his free time finding new ways to make his English teachers shudder," I retorted, rolling my eyes from behind the black film of my mask. It was different from Hals, but to be honest it helped block the sun from my unfortunately sensitive eyes. We stopped talking for a minute as the words of the crowd washed over us, awed muttering and open questions filling the air.

"Is that batman?" on asked as we began our approach, making a strangely dramatic entrance. Well, strange for the Bats and Arrows. They had their form of dramatic, normally not the public type. I leaned down closer to Dick, knowing he had heard whatever I had and more.

"Nooo," I drawled, sarcasm dripping from my tongue, "It's clearly Superman, don't they see the big red S on his chest?" the younger hero promptly elbowed me in the ribs, barely suppressing a laugh in an attempt to save face in front of the press.

"Oh!" the talking continued, "I see Flash, and Flash Jr.!"

"His name is Speedy!" someone corrected the first woman, and yet another person cut in.

"No, Speedy is green Arrow's sidekick!"

"Well that makes no sense," I couldn't help agreeing. I looked over at the other green clad heroes briefly, wondering if they had noticed. If they had neither one let one, but I did see Green Arrow lean closer to Roy to talk

"Ready to see the inner sanctum?" he asked, and I was briefly distracted by KF's complaints in regards to the inability for anyone to remember his name correctly. I didn't have such a problem, no one but him did.

"I'm glad we're all here," Aqualad admitted, speaking for the first time since we arrived. He was always the quiet, thoughtful one, more mature than a lot of boys I know his age, and few years older as well.

"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time?" Kid asked, all but bouncing in place next to me. We had, but not officially, and not in such nice circumstances. Normally it was three of four of us at most on missions, and those got messy fast. Now and against all five of us would meet up in our civvies for a regular day, and those were nice, but sidekick wise we were almost never publically together all at once.

"Don't call us sidekicks," Speedy snapped harshly, ignoring the reporters and face forwards purposefully, "Not after today."

"Sorry," the younger ginger began, "first time as the Hall, I'm a little overwhelmed."

"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed, why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" Robin asked almost bitterly, dragging an exaggerated sigh out of me as we passed into the inner sanctum. I knew he was going to do that some time, he never seems able to help himself. Neither does Roy with that temper of his. I was starting to worry that he might do something impulsive and that he would regret it later.

The moment we stepped into the Hall Robin retracted his previous statement, staring up at the gargantuan statues of the Original Seven that towered over our heads. The boys, except for Roy, stared around them in awe at the Justice League faux HQ. I've been there before, way back when I first got back to earth about five years ago. I took a tour of the earth, and the Hall of Justice was one of the stops Barry insisted I make.

We were met at the door that read 'Authorized Access Only', watching it slide open to reveal Red Tornado and the Martian Manhunter. J'onn smiled at us warmly in welcome, cape hanging limply from his shoulders.

"Robin, Speedy, C.G., Aqualad, Kid Flash, welcome," he greeting, leading us through a tour of the Halls more private areas of the building. I briefly wondered if they were going to take us up to the Watch Tower before dismissing the idea. Chances are they would keep us earth bound, well, the boys at least. They couldn't do much to keep me on the ground at this point. We stopped at last in the library and Barry turned towards us.

"Make yourselves at home," he offered, spreading his arms wide in welcome. Three of my boys did as advised, dropping into the chairs of the library while I opted for sitting in the air, legs crossed and watching Roy when he stayed standing, looking more than a little nonplussed.

"Quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of five ice villains attacking on the same day," Batman announced, "We shouldn't be long." I watched the familiar sphere drop out of the ceiling, scanning the Leaguers and announcing them to the room. Then things went downhill.

"That's it?" Roy's voice broke the comfortable atmosphere with words that were spat out from between his teeth, stomping up to the older generation, "You promised us a real look inside, not a glorified back stage pass." I wasn't exactly jovial at being left behind, but we stayed where we were, though I did put my feet on the ground. I looked at Hal curiously and received a bewildered shrug in reply.

"It's a first step," Aquaman reasoned, proving himself the diplomat once more, "you have been granted access few others get."

"Oh really?" he countered, gesturing to the glass display of the room above our heads and the tourists standing there, filming the entire thing, "Who cares what side of the glass we're on!?"

"Roy," his mentor began, stepping towards him like he was an angry dog that needed to be talked down, "You need to be patient."

"What I need," he countered hotly, "is respect. They're treating us like kid!" he spun around to face us, spitting out his words, "Worse, like sidekicks. We deserve better than this."

The boys exchanged startled, uncertain looks and I shifted a bit before stepping forwards to lean on Kaldurs head. I hated to see him so worked up, but I couldn't help but agree with him at some points. They did deserve more than this, they deserved to be trusted more than I was beginning to think their mentors did. But this wasn't the best way to go about getting what he wanted.

"Speedy- Roy, take a breath. You're digging a grave here, letting yourself get so worked up isn't going to help anything, you have to calm down a be reasonable," I tried to calm him down but he only turned his glare to me.

"You're kidding. Reasonable? I'm being reasonable, I, We, deserve their respect. And you're playing their game? Why? Because you think they play fair? Today was supposed to be thee day," he growled, chopping the air in aggravation, "Step one in becoming full-fledged members of the league!"

"Well sure," Wally agreed, sitting up and leaning towards his fellow red head in confusion, "but I thought step one was tour of HQ."

"HQ?" I repeated, brow pinching together as I opened my mouth to ask if they really hadn't been told the truth. Roy beat me to the punch though.

"Except the Hall isn't the real HQ," his news was not received well and I starred at my fellow sidekicks before looking accusingly at the league.

"Of course not," Batman sent me a sharp look, "It's the Watch Tower." Glares were sent to Ollie and Hal, and to a lesser degree me. I was going to get some crap for that later, but if they though Roy wasn't going to say anything they needed to toon back into reality because he was still explaining that 'The real HQ is an orbiting satellite!' GA looked over at Batman, bit expression sheepish at the glare of the Bat.

"I know, I know," he muttered, shrugging helplessly, "but I thought maybe we could make an exception? I mean, Catherine's known since she got to earth."

"Yeah, but what else were supposed to do, tell her not to worry about it when we passed it coming off earth? And besides, she needed somewhere to while we sorted out adoption papers," Hal pointed out, gesturing to me and drawing more attention to me than I would have liked. Roy was still seething, and it was the king that brought us back on track when Roy let out a frustrated growl.

"You are not helping your cause here son, stand down," the Atlantean advised, stepping closer to us and away from the other adults, "or-"

"Or what!" Speedy barked, "You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son! I'm not even his!" he shouted, glaring darkly at Ollie, "I thought I was his partner, but not anymore," resolve rang out in his voice as he tore the yellow cap from his head and threw it to the ground, leaving the rest of us to stare at him in shock. He turned back to us, looking somewhere between angry and disappointed, "I guess they're right about you four, you're not ready."

He stormed straight past the rest of us in his exit, leaving Kid Flash, Aqualad, Robin, and me to stare at his back as he vanished through the door. Before we could properly react to the sudden onslaught of information and accusation an alarm sounded from the computer and Man of Steel appeared on the big screen, drawing the adults to it while the kids stewed and I stayed still, unsure what to do.

"Superman to Justice League, there's been an explosion at Project Cadmus, it's on fire," he announced, and all attention was on him. A mission would be a good way to help everyone clear their minds. Or get their asses kicked if they couldn't pay attention.

"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus," the Bat admitted, staring at the screen thoughtfully or as thoughtfully as he could, "This may present the opportunity to-"

"Zatara to Justice League," a third voice interrupted, calling attention to the magician that had appeared to split the screen, "The sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Atem to block out the sun, requesting full League response."

While I was wondering what possible benefit that could have Batman turned back to Clark, asking for his opinion on the matter.

"It's a small fire," Superman stated, "Local authorities have it under control."

"Then Cadmus can wait. All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates, Batman out," the Dark Knight ordered as my generation approached, he turned to face us and gave a very stern, very stupid, "stay put."

"What?!" I don't know what he expected us to do, but I was surprised it was Dick and not Wally that interrupted him, asking the fated question, "Why?"

"This is a league mission," was the response, and Barry jumped in with what may well have been the second worst possible statement.

"You're not traine-"

"Since when!" KF exclaimed, throwing his arms out while Hal and I had a staring contest. He clearly wanted me to stay, and I clearly wanted to go. A battle of Lantern wills is never easy to bring apart, and we stepped away from the others to argue in relative privacy.

"You need to stay," he thought.

"I can help!" I countered, "We all can!"

"I know, but the others aren't letting their sidekicks come with them this time, you know there's not arguing with Bats. They'll need you to keep them in line," his hand fell onto my shoulder and he made me meet his eyes, "Take care of them for us when they do something stupid."

I hated him, I hated the fact that he was right, and I hated it when Batman gave the final order to 'stay put', as if we were obedient little dogs. I get enough orders from the guardians, I don't need them from Batman for all I respect him about a hundred times more.

"We'll grab some Chinese tonight okay?" he was bribing, and I knew it, so with a kick in his shin I stepped back towards my friends.

"Just go already," I snapped, relenting and watching them all zeta away to save the world wherever it was they were needed. Kid Flash scoffed the moment they were gone and I caught him grimacing.

"When we're ready? How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like, like sidekicks!?" he growled out a word I was really beginning to hate as he paced back and forth in his rant, slashing out with his hands on what bordered on meta-speed.

"My mentor," Aqualad muttered quietly, looking at the floor, "My king. I thought he trusted me."

"Trust? They don't even trust us with the basics! They've got a secret HQ, in space! The only one who knew was Cath!" he cried, and I wondered when it was decided that we use out real names. First Roy, now me? I sighed and they looked at me.

"Sorry guys, I thought they would have at least told you," I commented, frowning at where my partner had vanished as I leaned against the large computer console. Cameras flashed in my eyes and I looked up to see the paparazzi had been filming the entire thing.

"I know you would have told up C.G. But they did not. What else aren't they telling us?" I could see the betrayal in their faces and felt part of it myself. It was more than justified, they should have been told. Maybe Roy had been right.

"I have a better question," Robin countered, pulling our ears to him, "Why didn't we leave with Speedy?"

His inquiry only served to bring us down further. I was mad that no one bothered to fill them in and I would have been pissed as well if I hadn't already known about it. Hal needed time to find a more spacious apartment when I first got to earth and I had spent almost three weeks on the floating hunk of rock five years ago.

"What is Project Cadmus?" Aqualad asked, looking to Robin and myself. The bird looked thoughtful for a moment before he turned to the computer.

"Don't know," he started, a familiar smirk sliding onto his face, "But I can find out." I stepped out of the way as he shooed me from the extensive keyboard, watching as his fingers flew across in combinations I couldn't even begin to process.

'Access Denied' a feminine voice that was the computer was kind enough to report, causing the caped teen to laugh in amusement.

"Wanna bet?" he challenged, and went straight back to work. The regular screen vanished, replaced by green code on black.

"Whoa," Wally stared up in amazement alongside Kaldur and myself, "How are you doing that?" he questioned, and our younger member just smirked with a proud declaration of the system being the same as that of the Batcave. Denial switched to full access and the three of us none hackers looked at each other. That was impressive.

"Alright!" he announced at last, "Project Cadmus, genetics lab here in DC. That's all there is… but if Batman's suspicious, maybe we should investigate?" he suggested.

"Solve their case before they do?" I asked, looking around slowly. It would serve them right.

"It would be poetic justice," Kaldur agreed, a type of anticipation building in the air.

"And hey, they're all about the justice," our hacker joked, grin starting to grow on his young face.

"Ah, but they said to stay put," the Atlantean relented, his face falling slightly at the thought. I would get blamed if they did something stupid I knew, oldest and supposedly in charge as I was, but I didn't care. And neither of the other two did either.

"For the blotting out the sun mission, not this!" Boy Wonder insisted, and I nodded in agreement.

"We're partners, not dogs to be ordered to stay."

"Wait," Wally cut in, "Are you going to Cadmus?" His hand dropped on the younger teens shoulder and he forced him to turn, his face lighting up, "Because if you're going, I'm going."

"We are so grounded when this is over," I said stepping over and dropping an arm over each of their shoulders. As one we faced Kaldur, near identical smiles spreading from face to face as we visually pleaded for him to agree.

"And just like that we're a team on a mission," he looked over at us, a look over coming his face as that of one taking up a challenge. Oh yes, we were on a mission all right.

"We didn't come for a play date."

I had to agree with Robin on that one. Kaldur smirked and I grinned, glancing around at my boys. Grounded indeed.