The Order of Mercy surrounds their block in the night. They haven't been able to determine what building the child is in. As they have no supernatural means of pinpointing her location more precisely, they resort to breaking and entering. The first house they enter contains no children, and they leave after determining this. The second house has five children; they kill the three under five years old, after immobilizing their family members. The third house contains no children, but it does contain a woman with a deer rifle, and she doesn't take kindly to having her home invaded by shadowy masked cultist members. Within a few minutes, one of their order has been shot, the woman with the rifle is dead, the woman's house has been partially caved in, and more or less everyone on the block is awake.

She looks out the upstairs window and winces as the masked guys break down the door of a house that's practically across the street from her.

The ring beeps plaintively from her desk.

"You'd better not make this any worse," she tells it sternly, and then she puts the ring on. 

At first she thinks the only things it gives her are flight and the nifty costume (which comes with a mask, after taking a couple seconds to notice the fact that she's worried about getting in trouble for this). That's not enough to stop them, but it's probably enough to pretend to be some kind of lesser-known league member, and since the masked dudes appear to be armed with swords she isn't super worried about them shooting her. She flies out of her house.

"Gonna get a ton of fines for that if you don't give up soon!" she says, hovering above a knot of the masked dudes. "That's breaking and entering, vandalism, reckless endangerment - "

The Order seems unimpressed with a list of its crimes. They do seem worried about the Green Lantern in the sky, but not worried enough to stop what they're doing. Just worried enough to telekinetically throw a nearby car at her, which is what they do.

OH SNAP THEY CAN THROW CARS.

She fails to dodge and instead just throws her arms up in front of her, wishing she had some kind of shield or something - at which point she suddenly does have a shield, a big green construct that shatters on contact but which manages to protect her from the impact. 

OH SNAP THIS IS GREEN LANTERN'S RING. 

Why doesn't Green Lantern have his ring? Why does she have Green Lantern's ring? Why are the masked dudes breaking into people's houses? Why does -

The Order throws a tree at her, at which point she decides that she's just gonna have to imprison them somehow and get them to the authorities. Somehow. This would be easier if they weren't spread out over the entire block, but as long as she can maintain enough constructs to trap them all in cages - or, wait, telepaths, how is she gonna prevent them from throwing more trees without just beating the tar out of them -

She gets hit with someone's lawn table from the back, without seeing it coming; the suit takes some of the impact but her head still feels like something smashed into it really hard. She decides that beating the tar out of them is maybe an allowable strategy, and hits the tree-thrower with a massive green ball and chain. There's a sickening crunch of breaking bone, and then she decides that no, actually, beating the tar out of people is bad and maybe she should stick to getting the civilians out of here or something.

The Order is not at all OK with her evacuating the civilians! They redouble their efforts to knock her out of the sky.

She is, in fact, knocked out of the sky by the next tree. The next one they try to smash her with, and that doesn't work; she sees it coming and cuts it in half with a giant green scimitar. She has about a second to think that she's getting the hang of this green lantern ring thing, because after that it turns out that someone on the block has a swimming pool, and that the masked dudes have fine enough control to pick up the water and surround her head with it, and whatever her mask's virtues the thing isn't waterproof and doesn't come with an air supply.

She tries flying out of it, but whoever's controlling the water keeps pace with her. She could fly further, but she doesn't know how fast or how far or whether she'd be able to make it back before they killed anyone (are they planning to kill anyone - she can hear screams - she can hear what sound like the screams of terrified little kids), and she can't see right and she can't breathe -

Focus. Metaphorical deep breaths. Green Lantern can make scalpels as easily as sledgehammers; he's versatile like that. She tries making a helmet, but the thing is still waterlogged. It occurs to her to pull her mask up and create a snorkel, and hey, that one works, isn't she good at this and not in danger of drowning anymore.

She lashes out at the cultists in front of her, still not able to see very well. Hopefully someone has called the police already, please God let someone have called the police already - 

There is a blur, and suddenly there are fewer terrified screaming children in the immediate area. The Flash carefully deposits two kids at a safe distance and goes back for more. 

That's - probably good? She can't actually see what's happening but probably that's a good thing, most people who could be intervening right now are probably not on the side of the people who are making random houses fall down. 

She can't see well enough to tie them up, and she's not sure how the telepathy works anyway, but she can at least make a big green fish tank and trap most of the cultists in that. That should at least prevent them from using their swords on anyone, at least until they shatter it.

It seems like the sort of thing that ought to slow them down, anyway. While the cultists are distracted dealing with the glass box they find themselves in, the reddish blur continues to zip around moving all the civilians out of the danger zone, which basically means they're getting put down a block away. 

This is a big problem! The child is probably somewhere in that group! On the other hand, the cultists think that they are probably not going to be able to defeat whoever's about to follow this weird Green Lantern and the Flash to the scene, so they smash another car into the box construct and attempt to flee the scene. In their haste to leave, they drop the water; it doesn't seem to be drowning the lantern very well anyway.

Karen lets her snorkel go and coughs up water for a bit. 

His usual protocol would be to catch the fleeing cultists, tie them up and leave them for the local cops, but somehow he doesn't think the local cops are equipped to deal with telekinetics. 

Ah well. Catching them and tying them up is probably still a good first step, and then the other Green Lanterns can decide what to do with them when they show up. What's taking them so long? Oh, right, Flash was closer and also moves faster than they can, which is why he's the designated responder for superpowered emergencies in five different states. That and everyone else is based on one of the coasts, with Flash in Central City as the lone exception—

All of this is going through his head while Karen is taking her first unaided breath of air. As she's coughing out water, he speeds after the cultists to grab them and stop them leaving. They can try to hit him with things if they like, but it's kind of hard to aim telekinesis at something that moves too fast to see. 

The cultists do have kind of a hard time with this, though a few of them try. A few others attempt to levitate away, though they're not as fast as Karen was and it seems like they don't all have the ability to even attempt this. The ones on the ground attempt to scatter in different directions.

Now that she can see (and breathe, breathing is good), she flies up in an attempt to make sure there are still eyes on the cultists.

Flash is fast—it's kind of in the name—but he's not quite fast enough to be everywhere at once, although it probably feels like that to the cultists. A few of them seem to be getting away. 

Is this her job? She doesn't want this to be her job. Probably this is her job.

She makes more fish tanks and traps the cultists under them, like oversized spiders under cups. This time, she hoists the fishtanks into the air and flies up, hoping that the telekinesis has a range limit and that if they're high enough they won't be able to reach the ground for materials.

Glowing green boxes surround the remaining cultists and lift them into the air too. 

There are now three Green Lanterns floating in the sky above St Louis. Some of the rescued civilians seem to be taking photos. 

Now all the bad guys are contained, Flash stops blurring around trying to catch them and starts being a visible member of the Justice League, talking to the crowd and trying to calm everyone down. 

The part of her that's relieved that the situation is contained is really very nearly outweighed by the part of her that's dreading having to explain herself. At least maybe she can give the ring back now? Except the green lanterns already have their rings, so what the heck does she have?

(Azalea is going to be so worried about her. Aaaa.)

"Hi!" she says, because a greeting seems in order and she cannot for the life of her think of anything else to say. "Should, uh, should I be putting these people somewhere - ?"

"I can take them," one of the Lanterns offers. He makes some boxes around her fish tanks. "The League will figure out how to deal with them later." 

After we figure out how to deal with you, he doesn't add. 

"Thank you, I have no idea what I'm doing or how long the thingies last or - actually anything," she says, letting her fish tanks go. "Um. There were people breaking into houses and there were gunshots and then they made a house collapse and I told them to stop and then they threw a car at me." Should she even be talking right now? Why is she talking. But probably they'll tell her to stop talking if that's a problem or tell her to talk more if they need to know something, they seem like they know what they're doing.

She stays in the air and fidgets.

The rest of the cultists are transferred over to the control of the same Lantern. The other one floats closer to Karen and directs her down towards to a part of the block that's relatively clear of civilians, well away from where Flash is running crowd control. 

"I'm guessing you only just got your ring?" he asks as they descend. "I didn't think Earth needed another Green Lantern." 

"It probably doesn't!" she says quickly. "But yeah, it floated up to me a couple days ago."

She will just. Try not to say anything that's likely to get her in any more trouble.

He nods, seeming unimpressed but not too disapproving. "Is this the first time you've used it? What have you done with it so far?"

"...Nothing? I was gonna try to get it back to you, just, the thing happened before I remembered to do that. I hadn't even put it on."

"Huh? Oh." By this point they're getting close to the ground; he lets his flight cut out and hops down the last couple of feet to the sidewalk.

"That's a very responsible approach, but...that ring isn't mine. I don't know who it belonged to before," and he looks like that's bothering him, "but it's yours now. It chose you." 

".....oh," she says, quietly.

She lands, then takes the ring off and stares at it, glowing softly in her hand. Now that her face is visible again, it's even more apparent that she's not very old. Maybe old enough to drive, but almost definitely not old enough to drink.

"What do I, like, do with it?"

"Well, having a ring makes you a member of the Green Lantern Corps...although you're a little young for it," Green Lantern says, giving her a dubious look.

"The Corps is a sort of intergalactic police force," he explains. "Two of us are assigned to each sector of space, to enforce intergalactic law and protect the inhabitants from threats beyond the capabilities of mundane organizations. Seven years ago a third Green Lantern ring appeared on Earth and chose a new wielder, a man called Guy Gardner. He was injured in the line of duty shortly after his recruitment and was in a coma. Two days ago, his life support was turned off. We assumed his ring had been reassigned to a different Lantern when he was first injured, but if this one came to you on that same day..." 

"OK," she says, weakly, because if the ring has made her a Green Lantern now then probably she just has to be a Green Lantern now, even if she has no idea how she's going to fit that in around the rest of her duties. Maybe she can help Azalea now with whatever trouble Azalea's in, but she'll figure that out later. "Do you guys have like.... a handbook or something?"

"Well, there's a training facility on Oa, the homeworld of the Lantern Corps. That's the best option if you really want to know what you're doing, but it'd mean leaving Earth for months or more. Your ring should also have some basic guidance programming since it'll still be connected to the main database. I can show you how to access that if you like." 

He frowns slightly, thinking through the situation. "Since this sector already has two active Lanterns, I'd guess you're meant to be a backup for now. You should focus on training and get used to your powers, rather than going out looking for trouble. We'll call you if we need you—and you can call us if you want help learning how to use your ring, of course," he adds as an afterthought. "Actually, if you don't want to go to Oa for training, it might be a good idea to register one of us as your mentor for training purposes." 

"Oh! OK. I don't know if I can leave for months?" How is Azalea gonna buy food if she has to leave for months? "I mean - I guess if it's really important? I don't want to be a problem, or anything - "

"You can stay here for training if it's a problem," he reassures her. "It's not mandatory, just encouraged—you'd miss out on the benefits of in-depth study under dedicated teachers, but you can still learn the essentials here on Earth from me or my partner. As the most senior Lantern in this sector, I'd be in charge of monitoring your progress and teaching you what you need to know, but you can work with both of us as mentors, or pick one once you know us better."

Green Lantern gives her a smile. "Think of it like being our sidekick—you know, like Batman has Robin and the Flash has...Flash Boy, or whatever the kid's called." 

"Oh! I can do that. Probably." She has no idea whether she can do that, actually, but it seems like the sort of thing she shouldn't insist she can't do.

"Good." He gives her a nod of approval. "We shouldn't let it interfere with—are you still in school?" 

"Uh." Technically she doesn't legally have to be in school anymore, 'cause she's seventeen, so it's not like she's doing something wrong by not going, but she also doesn't want to admit that she's not going, and she definitely doesn't want to think about the possibility of not going back ever, even though she probably actually won't get to if Azalea doesn't figure something out soon. "Yeah, I'm a junior this year. In high school."

...at least she's older than Robin. Well, Hal doesn't actually know how old Robin is, but the kid is tiny. 

"Alright. Well, we can definitely arrange your training outside of school hours. I should probably talk to your parents—or, uh, guardians, or whoever you live with—but I think that can wait until tomorrow. I'll just show you how to use your ring to call us, then we can finish this conversation when it isn't the middle of the night." 

"OK! Yeah. I should find my sister and her kids, they're probably in the crowd somewhere. We may or may not still have a house."

He looks over at the damage and winces, then focuses back on Karen. "Right. So, here's how it works..."

He quickly demonstrates how to make a call, then gets Karen to call him so she can try it out. In the process, he introduces himself as Hal Jordan. Apparently, the other Green Lantern will also introduce himself at some point. 

She nods when she seems to know what she's doing. "OK! I can contact you tomorrow?"

And then she's off to find her sister, who has to be somewhere around here. Maybe vaguely in the Flash's direction. Wherever he even is right now.

While Karen was talking to Lantern Jordan, emergency services arrived and have been clearing away rubble, taking injured people to the hospital, and generally dealing with the aftermath of cultists attacking a city block. Flash is helping out, partly because it's good PR but mostly because that's what he does. People whose houses are still intact and who don't need medical treatment have started drifting back inside. 

Karen's house seems to be intact. The cultists didn't get to it before she came out and distracted them. 

This is good! Karen likes having an intact house. Her family is also intact, which is neat. She tells Azalea about the Green Lantern thing because it seems absurd to hide it, and Azalea hugs her and assures her that this is really really good, she'll make a great superhero, it'll be fine.

In the morning she adjusts her supermarket work schedule such that she only gets called in to work during school hours. Not like she was gonna pass her classes this year anyway, she tells herself. When that's done, she'll call Hal Jordan to see what exactly she's supposed to do next.

It takes a minute, but he picks up. A miniature green hologram of a costumed Hal is projected from her ring. "Is now a good time for me to meet your—sister?" 

"Sure!" She's not at work right now and not doing any animal sacrifices, so now is probably as good a time as any other. "Uh - I guess we'd have to find someone to watch the kids, though, unless maybe you wanted to come to the house."

"I can get there just as easily as anywhere else in St Louis. Do you mind me knowing which house on your block is yours?" 

As he speaks, Karen can see his image walking, which looks kind of funny given that the floor under his feet isn't part of the projection. 

"That's probably fine, yeah." She gives him her address. And then she goes to tell her sister that they're expecting company, that seems like a rude thing to spring on her with literally no notice.

Hal turns up a short time later, landing neatly on the sidewalk in front of their house. If anyone asks what Green Lantern was doing visiting a random high school student in St Louis, he can cite last night's attack and claim he was following up to see if they needed any help. That story has the benefit of being technically true, if incomplete.

He rings the bell, just in case the residents failed to notice his arrival. 

"Hello!" says Azalea, upon answering the door, very much like a normal person who has never summoned any demons, ever, in her life. "I understand that you were instrumental in saving us yesterday. C'mon in."

The house, too, contains no obvious hints of the frequent demon-summoning, although it does look fairly messy. Some of this is probably because of a small child; there are toys strewn about the floor and various other surfaces. Said child is napping at the moment, which is pretty important for keeping up the general air of normality. Her brother is reading something at the kitchen table. His eyes go wide when he sees Hal, and then he buries his face in his book again.

"I really did very little. By the time I got there, the situation was already under control." He comes in, looking around. The small child (children?) presumably belong to the adult sister rather than the high school student. 

"Hal Jordan," he introduces himself. "Earth's senior Green Lantern." 

"Azalea Teller. Karen's reading her niece down for her nap, she wanted me to be here to meet you. Normally she and Connor would be in school right now, but I think you get to take a mental health day when you get woken up for half the night by angry serial killers in masks." She considers saying something else, then seems to momentarily think better of it. "Connor, could you go get Karen when she's done?"

The kid at the table shuts his book and runs off into the hallway where the bedrooms are.

"Karen says she has a Green Lantern ring."

"She does," Hal confirms. "Last night, she used it to protect everyone on this block from 'serial killers in masks'. I only caught the end of it myself, but the Flash says what he saw, and what other witnesses saw, was very impressive. Your sister kept a cool head under very difficult circumstances." 

"She does that," says Azalea, solemnly. "She's also a high school student."

"I'm very aware of that. Which is why I'm here, meeting you."

He looks at her, expression serious under the mask. "I intend to train Karen in how to safely use her powers, with the eventual goal of having her act as a Green Lantern alongside me and my current partner. I can't promise that she'll be in no danger, but I can promise to do everything in my power to keep her safe, including teaching her how to protect herself when I can't." 

Azalea regards him seriously right back. "Well all right then. I'm under no illusions that I can stop her, if that's what she wants to do. Just know that I hold you responsible for whatever happens to her."

"I would expect nothing less." 

Karen appears from elsewhere in the house. "Hello again! Have you guys, uh, discussed things...?"

"The laws of this land state that you are old enough to pilot metal death cages at speeds mankind was never meant to go, and, with parental consent, join the armed forces and shoot at people. You wanna be a superhero, you go for it. Just be careful and don't do anything egregiously stupid."

"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss, Ms Teller?" Hal asks Azalea. "And I hope I don't sound too egotistic, but I get the feeling your son might like an autograph?" he adds with a smile.

"I'm sure he'd like that, yes." Karen grabs a nearby notebook and pen - this household has a lot of nearby notebooks and pens - and hands it to him. "She'll be doing this training when, exactly? I know you usually go to the library for a few hours after school - "

"Oh, yeah, but I'm sure this's more important than that," says Karen. "Though I have to watch the kids when you go into work in the evenings - I guess maybe we could find someone else for that - "

Hal has been Green Lantern for a decade and has standard autograph messages for nearly every category of fan. He scrawls out the "small boy" version, half-listening to Karen and Azalea work out Karen's schedule while he does so.

"Uh, what name should I put on this?" he asks when there's a break in the conversation. He thinks back. "Connor, right?" 

"Yeah, Connor! His name's Connor." There actually isn't any slack in their combined work schedule, but being a Green Lantern and defending the world from evil is important, so she figures they'll just, uh, fit in whatever they can around it, and if that means no school or free time for the rest of her life then so be it. "I can probably come in whenever's convenient? As long as it's not during school. And as long as I know where to go."

"The League has a training facility in Nevada, which isn't quite as convenient for you as it is for me, but I'll show you how to get there," Hal promises.

"As for timing, my schedule tends to be somewhat unpredictable from week to week...actually, maybe we should set up a regular training slot with the other Green Lantern instead. He works saner hours than I do, and he's an hour ahead of you so he'll be finishing work around 4 pm Central Time. You could meet up with him for an hour or so after school, and I'll be there if I'm not working." 

"Oh! OK, excellent!" One hour should allow her to get home before Azalea leaves for work - at six, most nights - though she hasn't checked her fly speed so it might be a little tight. "When do we start?"

"Let me call him and check. I'd like you to start some basic training today, if possible."

He steps out briefly and comes back with a miniature Green Lantern hologram being projected from his ring. 

"I'm John Stewart, Earth's second Green Lantern. It's a pleasure to meet you, Karen. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to speak last night."

"Yeah! Uh, it's no problem, you were busy. Thanks for taking care of the situation."

"Just doing my duty," he demurs. "Since you helped bring them in, you might want to know that all the attackers are in custody. For now, we're keeping them in secure cells at the Justice League headquarters. We haven't found a way to counteract their telekinesis yet, but we've got the effects contained and the brightest minds of the League are working on a more permanent solution." 

"That's good," she says, which is, uh, obvious, but she can't think of anything else to say to that. "Did you want me to come to, uh, Nevada at any particular time today?"

"I'm free after work—I finish at 5 pm Eastern time, 4 pm in your timezone. I'll swing by and show you where to go, the first time, since it's hardly any distance out of my way. You've never flown very far by ring power, have you?" 

"Just last night, not long distance, no."

He nods. "Then that can be the first thing I teach you. I'll be by your house a little after 4; right now I oughta get back to work. I'll see you later, Karen, Hal." 

"OK! See you!" And she'll also say goodbye to Hal, that seems like everything for now.

She has nothing in particular to do before 4 pm, though she does feel momentarily moved to study something. She has no idea what material they're covering in school anymore, but she goes to her room for a bit and reviews old Latin vocabulary.

She's ready to go at 4 pm sharp.

Five minutes later, a Green Lantern drops out of the sky and lands in front of her house, making this the second time that's happened today. 

He goes straight up to the front door to ring the bell. 

She opens the door promptly enough that it's probably obvious that she was already there.

"Hi!"

"Hey, Karen. Ready to go?" 

He takes a look around, checking how likely they are to be seen taking off. "Does this place have a backyard we can leave from?" 

"Yeah! Backyard's good."

She'll take him to the backyard, and then ring, costume, skyward.

Skyward! 

On the way to Nevada, he teaches her how to safely fly at high altitude and at speeds up to Mach 10, along with how to navigate the US from the air. And also how to do loop-the-loops without throwing up, because what's the point of being able to fly if you can't have fun with it? 

This is such an important thing to know! She focuses pretty well on it despite also being pretty nervous about things.

And in a ridiculously short time, they are landing at the secret Justice League training facility in the Nevada desert. 

Karen is introduced to the security system and given the designation Green Lantern B-05. 

"The B-series is used for sidekicks," her mentor explains. "B-01 is Robin, but I can't remember which order the other three go in." 

"Cool!"

She has a DESIGNATION. She is an OFFICIAL SUPERHERO. Or maybe an official sidekick. That's OK, because you can graduate to a full hero and if you're a full hero then probably people sometimes intentionally try to assassinate you. So you had better not become one before you've figured out how to deal with that.

She's an official something, anyway. She has a profile on the League's computer system and everything. By the end of the day, it includes records of the initial training session and a tentative schedule for future sessions. 

The next morning, there's a letter for Karen. When she opens it, it contains her official League affiliate card and an invoice informing her that the first instalment of her stipend has been paid. It names the amount. 

Oh hey wait do superheroes get paid.

- do superheroes get paid? She kind of wants to google that but she's pretty sure the Justice League wouldn't have publicly available salary information. She supposes that you would have to pay, like, Superman, right, he probably doesn't pay rent on his Fortress of Solitude but he still has to, like, buy sandwiches somewhere, right?

That is - that is maybe not a lot of money to whoever runs the League but it is kind of a lot of money.

She calculates and recalculates their household expenses - she's kind of been the one keeping track of most of them for a while - and decides that yes, this is enough, this is enough even if something happens and Azalea can't keep working. She tells the supermarket that her scheduling change was a mistake and that also she needs to give them her two-week notice. Keeps the library job, the library is good for her.

She goes back to school. She has no idea what's going on in most of her classes. The English and chemistry teachers negotiate deals with her; the trigonometry and world history teachers inform her that she's going to fail their classes no matter what and should probably consider summer school or something. 

She'll take it.

Training sessions continue to happen regularly over the next three months, mostly with Lantern Stewart although Lantern Jordan helps when he's available. Karen learns how to make more and more complex projections, how to pick what will be the most useful in an emergency, and even goes on patrol with one of the Lanterns a time or two, helping deal with minor supervillains barely worthy of the name. 

In early July, Hal invites her to come and meet the other League sidekicks at the Hall of Justice. 

She will totally come meet the other sidekicks. She's slightly nervous about it, because they're going to be a bunch of people who are both younger than her and probably also more experienced and more competent, but everyone has to start somewhere and she is starting here.

They've arranged to meet up at the Hall of Justice on the afternoon of July 4th. When the day arrives, the three Green Lanterns are the first ones there, the other mentor-sidekick pairs having been delayed by supervillain activity. Batman and Robin show up next, followed by Green Arrow and Speedy, then Aquaman and Aqualad, who were all the way out at Pearl Harbor. 

Batman puts a hand on Robin's shoulder as they stand outside the Hall, waiting for Flash and his sidekick to join them. There's an almost parental expression on his face—or at least the part of it that can be seen under the cowl. 

"Welcome to the Hall of Justice," Green Arrow tells the assembled sidekicks, who all look awed by the massive building. It's clearly designed for precisely that impression, looking almost more like a monument than a functional building. 

There are a lot of monuments in DC, so it kind of fits with everything else! (She hasn't actually walked around DC ever. She's flown there for reasons once or twice in the past couple months, but she's been kind of busy and hasn't quite gotten the chance to make full use of her newfound mobility.) 

She smiles up at the building and sort of faintly wonders what sorts of relationships the other sidekicks have with their mentors. 

"Oh, man!" A voice from behind has them all turning in time to see Flash and Kid Flash skid to a halt. "I knew we'd be the last ones here!" 

Kid Flash is dressed in a costume that's almost the reverse of his mentor's: primarily yellow, with red details including the red lightning bolt on his chest. Right now, he's glaring at Flash, who just grins sheepishly. 

"Glad we're all here," Aqualad says to the other kids as Batman herds them towards the main entrance. He isn't wearing a mask and looks about the same age as Karen, maybe a little younger. 

"Yeah!" She hopes her voice sounds cheerful because it's pretty much the only thing she has to emote with, thanks to her ring's initial observation that she didn't want random people looking at her face while in lantern mode.

She waves at Kid Flash and then follows the others into the building.

Kid Flash falls into step with the rest of them, almost vibrating with excitement.

"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time before?" he asks rhetorically. 

"Don't call us sidekicks," Speedy snaps. "Not after today."

He pushes ahead of the group and strides into the building, using his height and long legs to gain distance from the others. The bright red-and-yellow costume looks a little childish, and he's wearing a domino mask like Green Arrow, but judging by his voice and height he seems a year or so older than Karen and Aqualad. 

"Sorry," Kid Flash says to Speedy's retreating back. He looks at the others and adds, "First time at the Hall, I'm a little overwhelmed." 

"I'm definitely a sidekick," she says, shrugging at Kid Flash, even though come to think of it she thinks the ring maybe gives her a pretty good claim to full superhero if she wanted to take it up on the offer. Which she doesn't right now. Besides, she feels like it would be kind of childish to worry about what she was called and not what she does for the world, though this doesn't seem like a good time to say that.

They definitely haven't all been in the same place before; Karen hasn't met any of them, though she doesn't feel like now is a good time to point that out, either.

"Same here," Robin puts in. "Speedy's probably just overwhelmed too. Hey, is anyone here just whelmed?" 

They pass through the doors and into the entrance hall, where massive bronze statues of the seven founders tower over their heads. Superman stands proud in the centre, flanked by Batman and Wonder Woman. On either side are statues of the other four founders: Aquaman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and a Green Lantern that Karen will recognise as Hal. 

"...oh." 

It's.... about as impressive as the rest of DC. Which isn't unimpressive, but she's learned that her government really likes its monuments, so hey, the league is on-theme.

She politely stares at the statues for a bit and then looks around to see whether there's anything else interesting here.

With cameras flashing all around them, the mentors lead their sidekicks directly towards a door marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY". It whooshes open as they approach, revealing Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado waiting for them. 

Martian Manhunter steps forward to welcome the group. "Robin. Speedy. Aqualad. Kid Flash. And our newest Green Lantern. Welcome." He turns to lead them further into the building. "You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully-stocked galley, and of course...our library."

The library is a large room with bookshelves lining the walls, interspersed with computer terminals at regular intervals. In the centre, a variety of soft-looking armchairs are scattered around a couple of tables. 

"Make yourselves at home," Flash says with a grin, spreading his arms to indicate the whole room. 

Kid Flash has his feet up on one of the tables before his mentor has even finished the sentence. Robin and Aqualad aren't far behind, picking out chairs and making themselves comfortable. 

Library library library.

She hovers about a foot off the ground and wanders around various bookshelves trying to get a good idea of the selection. She should probably talk to the other sidekicks or something but that sounds hard.

There's an observation window full of tourists with cameras, who are on a guided tour of the publicly-accessible areas of the Hall. They excitedly snap pictures of the sidekicks through the glass, especially Karen. She might not be doing anything particularly fascinating right now, other than floating, but she's new and therefore inherently interesting. 

"...quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day," Batman is saying quietly to the other mentors.

"We shouldn't be long," he adds to the room at large. 

She is really really glad her ring had the - foresight? does the ring have enough agency or predictive ability that it can be said to have foresight? - to give her a full face mask. It's handy for making it easier to pretend that you aren't internally really nervous every time you remember the cameras. Cameras are honestly the worst part of all of this, by a lot.

She waves at the tourists and waves at the other green lanterns as they leave. 

One by one, the adult superheroes stand in front of the door marked "Justice League Members Only" as blue light sweeps over them from head to toe.

"...GREEN LANTERN, ZERO FIVE. GREEN ARROW, ZERO EIGHT. MARTIAN MANHUNTER..."

"That's it?" Speedy demands.

"You promised us a real look inside, not a—a glorified backstage pass!"

Oh dear. She's not getting involved in this argument, though, she doesn't even know Speedy.

"It's a first step," Aquaman says to Speedy. "You've been granted access few others get." 

"Oh, really!"

Speedy points accusingly at the tourists behind the viewing window, who are resisting their guide's attempts to move them on in favor of snapping pictures of the confrontation. 

"Who cares which side of the glass we're on?"

So on the one hand Speedy is right, it's a bit silly to treat this as a more important step than, say, being granted access to the League training facility in Nevada, but on the other hand if the League doesn't want them involved in more central aspects of its organization then that seems like the League's choice, and the really important bit is the bit where they stop people from hurting other people, which seems pretty unrelated to whether they get to be in the Hall of Justice or not.

But she's not volunteering any of those thoughts right now. Nope.

          Green Arrow steps forward to defuse the situation. "Roy," he tries, "you just need to be patient." 

"What I 'need' is respect," Speedy snaps back. He turns to the others. "They're treating us like kids—worse, like sidekicks! We deserve better than this."

The other boys look at each other awkwardly. 

"So what if they don't respect us," says Karen, now that the rest of the group has been addressed. "Batman, Superman, the other green lanterns, they were all helping people way before the League existed, way before anyone knew to thank them. They don't do what they do for respect or acclaim. The whole Hall of Justice monument thing is - if it's dumb it's dumb because respect isn't the important thing, accomplishment is."

Aqualad nods thoughtfully. Robin and Kid Flash make noises of agreement. 

Speedy doesn't look so convinced. He rounds on Karen in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? Of course it's dumb. This whole thing is one giant distraction from what's really important. You're right," he continues. "The Hall doesn't matter—because it isn't the League's real HQ! It's just a false front for tourists, and a pit-stop for catching zeta-beam teleports to the real thing: an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower!" 

There are gasps from the Leaguers behind him. 

"So?" asks Karen, hoping that she's able to hit 'completely unimpressed'. It's easier with the face mask. "If all you care about is a sufficiently fancy backstage pass, then maybe you don't deserve to be a League member."

- oh frick oh frick oh frick all the sidekicks are going to think she thinks she's better than them now, frick -

"Don't you get it? They lied to us!" Speedy turns to the other kids. "I bet none of them ever told you about the Watchtower, huh? Did they?"

One by one, they shake their heads.

"See? This isn't about prestige, it's about trust. And they don't trust us. This proves it. If they couldn't even tell us something as basic as where the League is really based—" 

"Wait a minute." Robin looks shaken by the revelation but seems to be recovering from the shock faster than Kid Flash or Aqualad.

"How did you find out?" he shoots back at Speedy, adding, "And why should we believe you?"

"Good question," Batman growls.

He aims a glare at Green Arrow. "How did he find out?" 

Green Arrow looks sheepish. "I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception?" 

        Batman's eyes narrow even further.

"...or not." 

Karen is genuinely less shaken than the others; the green lanterns have their base of operations on another planet, so it's not a very big update that the League has theirs in space. She could probably fly up and find the Watchtower, eventually, though she'd have to have some idea where to look, because space is actually really big. 

She doesn't say any of this. She kind of wants to fly out a window somewhere and be alone with her thoughts, because this is - dumb, actually, Speedy's not wrong, it's a consolation prize that reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of why she, at least, is here. He's handling it completely wrong, but he's not talking nonsense.

But it'd be wrong to leave the argument like this, and it would be wrong to keep yelling in front of the tourists. She flies down and lands just in front of Speedy.

"One of them trusted you, before today," says Karen, quietly. "I think right now the others are feeling like they were right not to."

He looks away and doesn't reply. 

(The tourists are no longer watching, having finally been persuaded to move on by their harried tour guide.)

She probably shouldn't have said that, even if it sounded cool. She doesn't know Speedy; there's not much reason for him to listen to her.

She'll fly back up again and stop giving him a hard time.