Peter was standing in the main hall of the Cave, waiting for the equipment and the base's schematics to be delivered. The team had just left for their Santa Prisca mission, meaning that he and Red Tornado were the only ones in the base, with the latter returning to their quarters.

The sound of the Zeta Tube system coming to life drew Peter's attention. He looked and saw Batman walk out of the Zeta Tube with several pieces of equipment covered in a green glow being carried by Green Lantern behind him.

"These are all the equipment you requested," Batman said as he pulled a tablet from under his cape and handed it to Peter. "They also include the proper working tools, and anything else you need Green Lantern can help you with. This tablet contains the schematics of the base alongside the schematics of the Hard Light Lense that is installed."

"Thank you," Peter said as he took the tablet. Pushing the lone button on the tablet, Peter watched the screen show him a map of the entire base. Tabbing the area where the main hall is, the screen zoomed in and showed more detailed schematics. Peter would have kept looking through them but realised Batman was still in front of him. "Is there something you need?"

"Robin told me about what happened to you," Batman answered.

Peter didn't really feel surprised. Batman seemed like a cautious man, in a good way, and he was placed on the Team to keep an eye on him same as Superboy, so it was only natural that Robin was also supposed to report anything he learned of them.

"And you're telling me because...?" Peter trailed off, not knowing why Batman would reveal that.

Batman placed a supportive hand on Peter's shoulder, catching the scientist by surprise. "I'm... sorry," the Dark Knight's usual rough and deep voice was nowhere to be found. Instead, he sounded like a supportive parent. "Losing family is never easy."

Peter sighed and shook his head, deciding that there was no reason to deny the support. "I'm managing. Even if I can't see them again, it makes things easier that they're safe, simply in a place I can't reach anymore, literally."

"There's a few therapists that are close friends with the League. If you need a session, the League can cover for you," Batman offered, showing he most likely has experience in this situation.

"Thank you, but I'm fine," Peter rejected the offer. He wasn't in a state bad enough to turn to therapy, plus he felt most comfortable in the lab.

"If you need anything, simply ask," Batman said before turning to leave towards the Zeta Tube. Something told Peter that he is experienced with dealing with people that lost their families.

Putting those thoughts in the back of his head for now, Peter turned to Green Lantern who stayed. "Good to see you again, Green Lantern."

"My name is John Stewart, Kid, no need for formalities," Green Lantern smiled, offering a handshake that Peter accepted.

"I have to say, you're rather lax about your secret identity," Peter commented, remembering that John didn't wear a mask even when he picked him up from the hospital.

John placed his hands on his waist and stood tall with his back straight. "I'm a war veteran, Kid. I didn't need a mask on the front lines, and I don't need one now."

Peter shrugged, accepting the explanation. He knew Soldiers, especially veterans, had their own sense of pride. "Alright, let's start," Peter opened the tablet again. "I suppose we should start with removing the Hard Light Lense first to make room for the Light-Air Particle Infusion System, can you create a lift or a raft for me to get up on?" John smiled and held his ring upwards, creating a platform that held the tools and Peter and lifted them up to the ceiling. "Thank you."

Peter then got to work. The removal of the system wasn't very complicated. It was a simple matter of unplugging the projectors and carefully removing the lenses, which were large and quite heavy but that part was dealt with by John. After removing the projector itself, Peter began putting the pieces in for the first part of the Light-Air Particle Infusion System, which were fare lighter lenses and a device that resembled a fog machine meant to harden the air mixed in with the light.

"This should be good," Peter commented as he closed the led on the ceiling panels. "The next part is on the ground, so you can set us down."

"Alright," John lowered the platform, letting Peter and the pieces he took out land gently.

"You should probably take these back to Batman when you leave," Peter instructed, motioning towards the large and heavy lenses. "Hard Light lenses are expensive and difficult to create, which is why it's preferable to use Light-Air Particle Infusion System - or L.A.P.I.S., for short. It's also safer, because of the extreme laser and lights that the lenses create being dangerous if not precise. I have to ask, can I keep one of the lenses?" He requested as he opened one of the floor panels after checking the schematics.

"Sure, I'll talk to Batman about it."

The quick agreement actually caused Peter to halt working and nearly drop the panel he opened on himself. "Just like that? You're not going to say something about not trusting me enough for it?"

"I like to believe I'm a pretty good judge of character, Kid. You've been cooperative without any complaints and you're helping us anyway you can," John explained.

"Heh, does that mean you'll let me study your ring?" Peter joked, obviously knowing the answer.

John smiled and crossed his arms. "I trust you, Kid, but I don't BLINDLY trust you."

"Good, I would have been disappointed in you if you did," Peter stated as he began setting up another device and connection it to the base's system. "Tell me about this Green Lantern Corp you mentioned when we first met."

John saw no reason not to answer. After all, the Corp was well known across the universe. "The Green Lantern Corp was created by the Guardians of the Universe who use the Planet Oa as their HQ. They created the Rings, which are powered by Will power, to bring order to the universe through the Corp."

"I thought it was weird that Earth's technology seemed prehistoric compared to your ring. That's because your Ring didn't come from Earth," Peter commented, still connecting the device to the base's system. "And these 'Guardians' use emotions such as Will-power as a form of conceptional fuel? I actually did a theory on that once, though that was as a joke because Amy asked if we can actually use love as fuel."

"Who's Amy?" John asked.

Peter completely frozs, his expression morphing to shock. It appeared that he didn't even realise he said that name unconditionally. He placed his tools down and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"Sorry, but can you just forget about that?" Peter requested, sending a pleading look to John. "I'm sure you can understand what it's like to want to bury some names of your past."

"You don't have to tell me about that. Sure thing," John agreed. Peter picked up his tools and was about to start working again when the Green Lantern spoke again. "But just so you know, speaking from experience, the more you try to bury names from your past... the bigger hill you'll make on it."

Peter said nothing for a few seconds before he simply went to work. After connecting all the wires and screws, he used the tablet to turn on the device and began programming it to fit into the rest of the Base's systems while preparing it for use.

Once he was done, he closed the floor panel and stood up. "It's done. Well, it should be after a minute of programming. Can you stay to help me test the results? I'm sure you're more familiar with the Justice League's Hard Light system than I am."

"Helping you is what I'm here for," John replied with a smile.

Peter smiled back as he finished the programming. "Alright, this should be decent enough for now. I'll make the more complicated programming later. For now, let's test the L.A.P.I.S. on something simple," looking upwards, he called out. "Computer, create a simple punching bag."

The system came to life with a whirling sound. A spot in the air in front of John and Peter became blurry with glowing mist before the mist began gathering itself and creating a construct that ended with a simple, red, glowing punching bag.

The Green Lantern took a boxer pose and threw a punch at the construct. Seeing it take the hit, he threw a few more, testing how the punching bag feels. After a few minutes of throwing punches, John stopped and looked at his hand.

"It feels a bit... softer. Not frail or anything. It just not as tough," John commented at the test.

"That is to be expected," Peter replied as he checked the programing again. "As I've said, Hard Light Lenses produce better quality than L.A.P.I.S., but they're better in quantity. Think of it like army supplies, would you give an army five star cuisines? Or would you give them easier to afford and acceptable food," the scientist believed using an army metaphor would make it easier to understand.

"Well, what's next?" John asked.

Peter pressed a button on the tablet, turning off the machine and causing the construct to blur out of existence. "Now I do the deeper parts of the programing. You don't have to stay for that and don't worry about keeping an eye on me. Red Tornado is around and I'm pretty sure Batman has some surveillance placed around the base."

John frowned, crossing his arms with a sigh. "Already have Batman figured out, huh? Sorry about that. I know he comes off as paranoid, but he means well."

"Paranoid?" Peter blinked in confusion at John. "What he's doing is the pinnacle of logic. Having precautions against an unknown and potentially dangerous element like me and the team is common sense. Using your words, he may trust us, but he doesn't BLINDLY trust us."

John chuckled. "That's one way to look at it. I guess it's a good thing you don't take offence like most people would," he then pointed his ring at the components and lenses that Peter removed. A beam was shot from his ring and the pieces were lifted off the ground by a green glow. "I'll take this stuff to Batman and try talking him into giving you one of the lenses. You keep up the good work."

With that, Green Lantern left towards the Zeta Tube and teleported out, leaving Peter alone in the main hall. The scientist was just using the tablet to finish the programing of the new L.A.P.I.S. that was installed.

However, despite how much he tried to focus on work, his thoughts kept trailing back to a specific part of the earlier conversation.

Flashback:

"You know, these all nighters aren't as hard as I thought. Maybe love is powering me through them? Hehe."

"Hmm... that might be possible. Using love as a power source, I mean."

"Uh, I was just being cheesy."

"Even so, emotions, while physically speaking are just hormonal reactions and chemicals in the brain, are mentally a source of power for people. If we can use emotions as a form of conceptional fuel, we can do pretty much anything if you literally feel like doing it and-"

"Pfft."

"Ah, I'm rambling again."

"Yeah, but that creative genius of yours is one of the reasons I love you."

Flashback End:

Scowling, Peter sighed. "The more we tried to bury the past, the bigger hill we make, huh?" He mumbled, reusing John's words.

It took Peter some time to finish the programing the L.A.P.I.S. with the more complex codes. After he was done, Peter had nothing to do but wait for either the team to come back or contact the base. So, he decided to head to the lab.

Peter took the tablet with him to use for parts to upgrade his CPU Glove. It should have a more powerful processor than the laptop he used to create the glove in the first place. After spending a few hours in the lab, he decided to call it a day and went to bed.

Time Skip:

The next day started off as rather interesting, as Peter would say.

After waking up and having breakfast, the team announced their return, which also brought in Batman for the mission report. The team then explained on how they did complete the mission, but at the cost of entering a full on battle with the inhabitants of the island and the cult that took over the factory.

And then blowing up the factory itself.

"A simple recon mission! Observe and report!" Batman berated the team - who changed from their battle gear to their civilian clothes - as they stood in a line with the Dark Knight walking back and forth in front of them. Peter, who did not take part of the mission, was not included in the scolding and was standing at the side. "You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your MANY mistakes! Until then," Batman trailed off to turn and face the team. "Good job," he praised, causing the team to look at him in surprise. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforseen determines success," he stated as he began walking away. "And how you choose who leads... determines character."

The team seemed to relax with Batman now gone and no longer scolding them. They knee they weren't out of the woods yet, since Batman promised an evaluation, but they can at least relax now that they weren't being yelled at.

"I am positive that I told you not to blow up the island," Peter commented as he walked up to the team.

"In our defence!" Wally raised his finger, stopping the scientist. "We just blew up the factory, not the entire island."

"That is the same as saying you didn't burn the entire house, just the kitchen," Peter remarked, shaking his head.

"Guys, we just had our first official mission," Robin mumbled, looking rather proud of himself. "And we did it!" To say he sounded elated would be an understatement.

"I'm just glad we're all back home," M'gann seemed mode focused on how they're all safe and sound. "What about you Peter? What did you do while we were gone?"

"Working around the base," Peter replied with a shrug. "I have nothing better to do and most of the base is empty, giving me room to do pretty much anything."

"What did you do?" Superboy asked, curious on what was different with the base.

"Green Lantern helped me with working on the Hard Light system of the base. After that, I was working in my lab," Peter answered.

"Oh, is that the new system you were talking about?" M'gann asked.

"Mostly, yeah," Peter replied. He then looked at the team curiously. "I have to ask, however, why didn't you request help or backup when you realised the situation was dangerous?"

"Our comms were jammed by then," Kaldur replied, looking rather ashamed. "We didn't have a more secure channel to use, leaving us to wait until we left and got out of the range of their jamming."

"Does that mean I should create our own, secured communication method?" Peter asked, drawing surprised reactions from the team.

"Dude, you can do that!?" Wally looked excited.

Peter gave a deadpan look at the Speedster. "Of course I can. I have the free time, why not?"

"Before that," Robin cut in as he took out his costumes gauntlet and put it on. "Can you give us your thoughts on this?" He asked as he pressed a few buttons, causing a holographic screen to pop up, showing a chemical formula.

Robin had copied the files of the factory on his gauntlet. He had already shared that information with Batman while the team gave their report, but he still hoped to see what their team's scientist has to say about it.

To his confusion, Peter's face twisted in disgust. "Where did you get this?"

"It's the stuff the Cult of Cobra was making. They call it Cobra-Venom," Robin answered, curious on the scientist's reaction.

"Urgh, its disgusting," Peter groaned as he read through the holographic screen, causing the other members to look at him in confusion. "It looks like they just threw drugs at each other in the hopes two of them would click and create some form of permanent steroid. Not only that, but anyone who uses this will have only ten to fifteen years of use before all their muscles just... fail. All of their muscles, including the heart, would stop working. Even if you're already in the emergency room with a dozen doctors ready to save your life when that happens, you'd need a miracle to survive using this stuff. Your body would have to be ready to adapt to instat change to not suffer the consequences."

"What about people with a Meta-Gene," Wally asked, realising that there is a possibility of people having bodies like that.

"Meta-Gene?" Peter asked, confused.

"It's a specific type of genetics rarely found in people. It gives them the potential to evolve and develop abilities. Most Superheroes and Supervillains get their powers from it," Wally explained, having quite the amount of experience with Meta Humans from working with the Flash.

Peter placed a hand on his chin in thought. Truth to be told, he was suspicious that the genetics of people on this Earth were different to allow them to have super powers, and Wally just confirmed his suspicions. He made a mental note to to look into this 'Meta Gene'.

"That's... might work," Peter mumbled, running the idea through his head. "If you actually have a genetic failsafe for evolution like this Meta-Gene, then using a drug like this shouldn't have that much negative draw backs. What is the ratio of people with the Meta-Gene?"

"Rare, like super rare," Wally replied, crossing his arms, thinking back to his time with the Flash. "Every time someone's Meta-Gene act up, they always make themselves known, and those who don't mostly don't activate their Meta-Gene in the first place. I'd say about one in three hundred people have the Meta-Gene."

"I do not believe those cruel enough to create a drug like this care about drawbacks that won't show for two decades," Kaldur added, his experience with villain cruelty reminding him.

"That's true, but there is a good side," Peter said, drawing their attention. "Remember when I said that this thing is like throwing two drugs until they click? I wasn't kidding. This thing's structure is rather frail. It would need a month just to create one functioning patch, so we can take solace in knowing that, even if they have anywhere else to create this drug, it'll most likely be discovered by the league before they can create much."

"So that's why they had only one shipment," Robin exclaimed, realising that, despite the fact the cult had the factory for some time, only one shipment was about to be exchanged.

"I'll go start on that communication system, and maybe look up on this Meta-Gene to get a better understanding of it," Peter turned and began heading towards the lab. "In the meantime, do reflect on Batman's evaluation to better yourselves. Blowing up a factory does not fit within the covert side of our team's purpose."

The team winced, wishing they had continued forgetting about the evaluation.

(A/N: Thank you for reading this.

Not much action in this chapter. Honestly, it's mostly a filler.

Peter should be more involved from the next incident and onwards. Not full on presence in the battlefield, of course. He's still a scientist, but he'll be more active in missions.)