Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]

[Obloquy]

I wonder if there's any relationship between Tora Drake and any of the other drakes.

Oh, also,

This was pretty darn bad ass.

Click to shrink...

As in Tim Drake? No.

...Noooo...

...Well, I don't see why there may not be some cousin somewhere involved (though really, the superhuman world is incestuous enough as is) but no, there's no particularly important connection.

Unless you can think of an appropriately hilarious or awesome way to play that connection, in which case I'm happy to toss it in.

So would that be red sun radiation to actually hurt Superman like that then, or merely a very powerful laser?

Click to shrink...

Red Sun radiation.

Given Young Justice, normally I'd want to blame Ivo for this (and maybe actually him instead of one of his bots tinkering on their own.) This is a very different and honestly more interesting robot threat than usual, though.

Click to shrink...

Thank you for the compliment! As may have been revealed, Ivo is less than responsible for this particular fuster-cluck, but he should turn up again at some point.

I'm glad you like the robots. The series is far from dead, I assure you.

Regrowing that finger is going to suck.

Click to shrink...

It wasn't bitten off. Biting off a finger is incredibly difficult, requiring a lot of force. You ever chewed on really tough gristle or a bit of bone? Worse than that.

 

[stsword]

So would that be red sun radiation to actually hurt Superman like that then, or merely a very powerful laser?

Click to shrink...

Traditionally, red sunlight depowers or fails to recharge a kryptonian, although not always.

So since the results were what they were, the red sunlight depowered him, leaving Supes vulnerable to the blaster aspect of the red sunlight blaster, I believe.

Otherwise he would have just been depowered, which would have left him in the condition of a human in great if not perfect physical condition, as opposed to the weakened condition we saw him in.

I say possibly perfect condition because some iterations of Krypton used genetic engineering to make all kryptonians paragons of physical and mental prowess.

Edit- Ninjaed by the author, nevermind then. ☺

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

* September 22 [Ferris PoV]

I woke up in an unfamiliar, quite comfortable bed, and my everythings all hurt.

I bit down on my groan immediately, tried to stabilize my breathing in case anyone was nearby, and did a body- and metal-check for what my situ-

'Oh.' The memories of how I came to be here came back.

For most people, being almost tricked into killing a recently met ally would likely rank among the most shameful moments of their lives; however, after everything else I had on my conscience, only almost killing someone was barely an exasperation.

'Provided she was only almost killed, and didn't die of her wounds or other enemies after,' I considered.

I still had almost all of my metal-minds, even if many of them had been lowered significantly or emptied. There were more in my duffle bag, but my stored gold-mind charges all put together wouldn't be enough to heal me entirely, so, 'It's probably best to leave those for any later emergencies and try to heal naturally.'

I mostly had not been disarmed, I was not bound, and the door to the room was open.

Slowly, carefully, I did my best to stand. My skin tight black cloth shirt and pants/leggings were still on me, as were the few brown armor plates that were not removable in this model of the armor, but the torso portion and the others had been removed. 'There they are.' I nodded and decided to leave them in their neat pile at the foot of the bed.

"Hello?" I called carefully as I stepped into the hall.

A large, dark-skinned man who must have been Icon without his mask- 'I must remember not to pry for his name or personal belongings; I doubt we would be in his home if we were not injured, so I should not abuse his emergency investiture of trust.' –stepped out of another side room. He wore an apron, and he nodded at me.

"I am glad you are awake. How are your injuries?" he rumbled gently.

"I hurt. I am… I will be fine," I answered carefully. A yawn tore its way out of my mouth, and I rolled my shoulders and blinked blearily. My stomach growled, and my bendalloy-mind was one I was wearing with a good charge, so that slight gnawing subsided when I tapped it. Then I realized that I my appetite had been prompted because I smelled something cooking.

"Superman has informed me that you may or may not be a vegetarian. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit salad, and green salad are available in any mix of your choosing."

I did not blush, but it would have been awkward to explain how I was not hungry after he had heard my stomach complain, so I hedged instead. "Thank you. Although, if it is okay, may I-," 'How do you say cleanse and bathe? I can't remember, and no, I'm not in the mood to tap a duralumin-mind just for this, I'll just wing it.' "-wash before?"

"The facilities are through that door," he pointed

"Thank you very much," I recited, crossing into and through the sitting room beside the kitchen and stripping off my sticky top mid-stride. "I am very grateful." I heard the sound of someone failing to say something behind me, but I closed the door and did not care.

My top was dropped under the sink, my bottoms joined it, and I folded my undergarments cleanly into the pile before I laid out the standing bath mat in the two-purpose tub and figured out how to turn on the shower water.

Steam began to paint the mirror, so I carefully removed almost all of my metal-minds that remained and placed them neatly on top of my discarded outfit. The removable, breakable-to-swallow portion of my atium earring was included in that, but I kept the spike, one brass-mind ring, one tiny gold-mind from paranoia, and two tiny tin-minds for hearing and touch.

'I do not have permission to steal soaps, shampoos, or cloths, so just water will do for now,' I decided. I stepped into the spray and luxuriated. My stresses all nearly melted away under the spray. I stored my sense of touch a little and then tapped it; if I had tapped a zinc-mind as well I could possibly have counted the exact number of drops that struck each separate square inch of my skin.

I stored heat a little when I began to get a little broiled, and fiddled around to make the water just iron-cold while I tapped heat and that was refreshing in its own way. 'That trick works much better here than it did with Scadrial's attempts at plumbing. Still not as good as a good bronze-mind, but good enough for right now.'

Someone knocked on the door. I turned off the water, tapped a little hearing, and called, "Yes?"

"I have left you a towel, and Superman has told me where your duffle bag may be found, so I will fetch you a change of clothes shortly."

"Thank you very much!" I chirped to the Icon. His weight shifted, and before he finished stepping away I called out, "I apologize. May I use soap and shampoo?"

"Yes. Please do not use either of our razors."

"Thank you-" 'What's a way to not be so repetitive?' "-kindly!" I opted for.

My hair finally stopped feeling oiled and stuck after I washed it a second time, and the last of the soapsuds popped and drizzled down the drain as I turned the water off. 'Where…? Hand towels are not bath towels. He said… there is a towel I should use in the hall.' I nodded to myself, opened the door, and leaned out to look.

"Gkch," Rocket choked from where she lay on the couch.

'I am not embarrassed and I do not care,' I decided blithely. 'She's a comrade, but she's healthy, and this is funny and I need some funny today.'

"Towel?"

"Eb, uh," she muttered, quickly grabbing a napkin and swallowing her mouthful of pancake. I didn't see any towels hung on any wall hooks, and there were no small tables in view… I stepped out further onto some rug as I leaned around to see if there was a hook on the outer side of the door. Nothing. "Floor! Yuh, you're standing on it."

I looked down and felt mildly foolish. "Thank you very much," I repeated brightly, and closed the door again. I dried my skin, judged my soaked mane of curls would be better served by air-drying after I finger-combed it, and wrapped the towel around my body in the way that was culturally appropriate to preserve modesty. I added on the metal-minds that would fit, kept the rest piled in my bundle of discarded clothing, and walked back out to dump said pile beside the rest of my armor.

"-e always like that, or something?" I heard Rocket asking as I walked back into the main sitting room.

"No, Ferris knows her disregard unnerves other people, so she usually chooses to behave on the other end of the spectrum," I heard the Superman's voice answer.

"Superman!" I chirped as I stepped back into the room. 'I heard him just now, but I don't see him…' "Yes, I choose, and now I do not bother to choose. Also," I admitted piously, "you were very funny when you saw." Rocket laughed and patted the couch cushion with a smile, so I sat beside her.

'That's where Superman went to.' Sitting on the couch, I was facing away from the kitchen, out the open back door, and into the white-picket-fenced backyard. The Superman was laid out – 'Laid, laying, lain, lie, lied, layed… English has too many Rusting homophones and conjugations.' – on the grass dressed only in a pair of red swimming trunks. His eyes were closed and his head pillowed on his hands as he drank in the morning sunlight. 'Afternoon sunlight,' I reassessed from the angle of it. 'Noon-ish.'

"What time is it? Are you well?" I added politely as I turned to Rocket after I could not find a clock.

"I'm beaten up and banged around, but I've had worse," she boasted, though I noted that she moved gingerly. "It's like, eleven thirty or so." She checked her cell phone and did not correct herself.

"I beat and banged to you. I apologize," I told her soberly. She poked a thumb into the collar of her black t-shirt.

"Ah've had worse. And Ah wasn't exactly goin' easy on you, either. Did Ah look like a robot to you too?"

"Yes. Red with yellow…" I traced around my body the way the line had gone.

"Yeah, same. They screwed us both in the brain but good." Rocket shook her head "Sounded like the robot already killed the others, amirite?" I blinked slowly.

"Yes… also threatened how it would butcher my meat."

"I heard it call me a meatbag too. But I was calling it scrap and tin can, so," she shrugged. "Hey… at the end, you stopped attackin' me before Superman broke the Blue Bots. What tipped you off?"

"Eyes and ears did, but hands did not feel robot metal," I did my best to explain. "Also, bite?" Rocket looked a little embarrassed when I wiggled the fingers that still had her teeth marks. "Robots have no teeth."

"That makes sense. Ah wondered whah mah mouth hurt less than biting metal should'a." She was nodding slowly, and I patted her on the shoulder.

"You fought very good, well. I should have thought, but robot said it took belt from dead body," I told her regretfully. 'I don't know how the belt works, but it looked complicated enough that it shouldn't have been used so skillfully immediately. …No, wait, if robot and belt are both machines they may have been compatible. But I didn't think that at the time.' "You fought well," I repeated. "All fights in you fought well."

"Uh, thanks? Hey, if ya don't mahnd, whah do you talk like that?"

"I am learning to speak English."

"Not your first language?"

"Sixth," I boasted smugly.

"Whoa. I'm good at English, but n'top'a being cruddy at school Spanish and French I don't know any more."

"Thank you," I preened, treating her reaction as a compliment.

"Yeah. Hey, you hungry? There's still a pile of pancakes and rabbit food." I was not certain, but from Rocket's smile I guessed she had snuck a gentle tease or joke into her words. I just didn't know where, but I smiled to be safe.

"I will eat," I announced.

"I am surprised you have not already," the Icon commented as he re-entered. He saw me, and then he looked away at the floor. "I believe these are yours, young lady?"

"Thank you very much. I am very grateful," I told him. "Mm, bathroom or bedroom?"

"For-? To change?" the Icon clarified. "Either."

"Thank you. Please excuse me," I recited as I exited to the room where I had slept. 'Oh, he will need to wash those sheets.' I sighed, but unless mentioned I would assume it was part of his expected host-costs and say nothing more.

I exited in an ankle-length black skirt, a 'forest green' 'polo shirt' with a collar, and the rest of my belongings fitted into the duffle for the trip back.

"I'm glad to see you up and about. Are you quite all right? That looks a little nasty?" Superman asked me, having entered in the last few minutes and sat in a chair.

"Which?" I asked, because 'nasty' could have describe the place Rocket's kick split my lower lip, the scabbed abrasion along my right cheek bone from where I scraped the concrete ground, my blackened left eye that looked worse than it was, or the swelled knot behind my right ear. 'Probably not the last one, as it isn't visible enough to look ugly. Hm, knot and not, I'll need to make up a few puns with those if I can.'

"That is…" he hedged.

"All of them," I concluded drily. I nodded amusedly at his chagrinned look. "I look, as the saying goes, like shit, yes?" Superman choked. "Like ten miles of bad road?" I tried.

Icon raised a finger at me from his seat. "Please mind your language in my home." I bobbed a quick bow to him.

"Yes, sir. I sincerely apologize."

"Don't worry, he makes me watch my mouth too," Rocket said. "And wash it out, once."

"It was your idea to become heroes. As such, we are also public figures, and role models for the youth."

"All the better to let'em know that people deserved to be called lahke they are," she riposted, but it did not progress.

"Well, I should probably get changed, too. Thank you for opening your home to us, Arnus," Superman said. I appeared to be allowed to know the name since the Icon and Rocket did not object.

"I am glad to have met you, Kal-El. I am sorry not to be what you seek, and I wish you further luck in your search." They shook hands before the Icon passed over 'Carl Keanes's' backpack and Superman moved into the bathroom. I bowed again.

"I am glad to fight beside you. It is nice to meet you. Thank you for-," 'How did Superman phrase it in English?' "-for opening your home to us, Mister Icon. I promise I will protect your name's secret."

"Thank you," he rumbled with a soft nod. I stepped forward and shook his extended hand.

"We should do this again sometime," Rocket suggested. She held out her fist and hesitated, but I recognized the cue for a fist bump. We knocked knuckles and shared smiles.

"I have a 'e-mail address'. Is there paper?" I suggested.

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

* September 22 [Wally PoV]

<bwooeep. >

"Hey there, boy. Girl. Hey, Superboy, is Sphere a boy or a girl? And, sprocket wrench?" I requested.

"Here." M'gann passed it telekinetically into my hand.

"Thanks, sweet-cheeks." I didn't look up from the bike but I knew she was blushing. There'd been no repeats of our one kiss, but now she knew I was serious as well as interested. It was only a matter of time.

I focused back on the bike.

<bweedle-leeep. >

"Girl. Pretty sure Sphere's a girl," Superboy suggested.

"I'll remember that. Actually, hey, you're going to school now and using Conner a lot more. Should I start using that too, or do you prefer Superboy?" I twisted the bolt an extra quarter-turn more than it needed to be, just to be safe. 'Might make it a bit hard to take off, but super strength. Besides, all these bikes have been wrecked more than once anyway.'

"Hmmm," Superboy rumbles, and I'm totally not sure if he's thinking, or if he copied that tic off of Renka, or if it's all him.

'Speaking of Renka…' "Hey, do you guys know when she's going to get back from her thing? Or what it was? The note just said she was going to Dakota City overnight and borrowing my baseball cap." 'I wonder if she's going to a game or something. With who? Isn't she still on that bull Bat-paranoia probation?'

"I dunno," Superboy answered. "Huh. Just, call me Superboy. A lot of my classmates are using Conner, but they don't really know me. Kid Flash should call me Superboy."

[O-oh. Should I go back to using Superboy too?] M'gann asked.

"Screwdriver," I requested as I let them sort that out. It landed in my hand and I set the sprocket wrench by my knees.

[Of course not. You're the one who gave me that name, and I want you to use it,] Superboy reassured her.

[Well, you both are free to call me Wally whenever we're not on mission,] I sent, and they both yelped in surprise. "You especially, Megalicious. I like the sound of my name on your lips."

She made a sound that was probably a giggle, and covered those luscious lips with her delicate fingers.

'Probably remembering our smooch, and wondering if she dares ask for another,' I hoped.

<bweedle-leeep. >

"I… think I'll stick with Kid Flash," Superboy said.

"Suit yourself. Or not, since, you know, you don't really have a Superboy suit yet. Do you want me to ask some people about that? Or I can do it myself," I offered. "The Flash gave me my first uniform, showed me how to make it when I needed a new one, and I've been synthesizing my own duds ever since! Getting some for you would be a cinch."

"…Oh. Yeah, uh… I always just figured I didn't need to bother, since I was tougher than anything I could end up wearing. But, thanks for the offer, Wally." I grinned at him.

"My pleasure, Supes. It's what us more experienced guys are here to help with. Especially for fellow 'side-kicks'." Superboy huffed in shared indignation with me at the derogatory term. "Like our cover story while you guys were in the lock-up said, it sometimes seems like we're doing all the knitty jobs they don't want to bother with. All guts, no glory. I mean, last week, Flash tried to back me up, trashing the latest of those Blue Bots! Like I needed help! Those things are a total joke! I mean, really?"

"…The what?" Superboy asked.

"Oh! Those! I only ran into one with Uncle J'onn, but he said everyone in the League has been complaining about them. They're a set of robots that keep showing up with different powers and picking fights with the League members, right?"

"…Blue robots? I didn't know there was more of them."

"You ran into one? When?" I asked him. Superboy coughed a bit awkwardly.

"Black Canary had asked me to Star City for some more martial arts lessons on my own time. About an hour in, she got a call, and I followed her because some electric robot was throwing a fit in a park."

"Blue Bolt," I recognized. "Never fought him, but that time Artemis came in fuming with her hair all crazy? She got shocked by him."

"Oh, I remember that!" Megalicious recalled. "It was really sweet, the way you apologized and brought her a towel and those products when she yelled at- um, told you what happened."

'Who says chivalry is dead? Glad I made a good impression, at least. Even if it was to the girl whose dad wants her to kill people.' I huffed and put that worrying thought to the side, for later.

"Yeah, well, I slipped on a patch of Blue Bite's ice once and broke my nose. And that was after I'd already trashed it to scrap! Those things are menaces, except they're too pathetic to actually be threats! How did your fight with them end, Supes?"

"I knocked its head flying with my first punch, it tried to shock me and burned my shirt, so I tore it in half." Superboy shrugged carelessly. "Are they all like that?"

"The longest fight with one on record was five minutes, because it kept teleporting away from Wonder Woman," I answered. "And, think about what I said. You'd stop losing shirts if you got an actual uniform. How did your fight end?" I asked M'gann. "Also, could you send me, ah?" I sent her the image because I forgot the name, and she floated it to my hand. "Thanks."

"The one I saw could teleport, too, and it had lasers and could turn invisible, but it couldn't do them all at once. Uncle J'onn let me fight it on my own, and when it went invisible I did too. It uncloaked to fire lasers and I hit it with a car." I twitched at that thought.

"You miiiight want to be careful about that in the future. The League has good compensation and insurance policies, but getting a reputation for wrecking things would not a good hero make," I warned her.

"Hey. Has Ferris had to fight any of them?" Superboy asked.

"Oh yeah, Superman has had to deal with them, like, five times," 'I wish I censored my mouth before I said that,' "and Ferris said she was there for at least two. One was the sound robot, Blue Boom. Not sure about the other."

"Are any of them connected to Red Tornado, you think?" M'gann asked quickly. I laughed, glad to keep the subject away from Superboy's deadbeat.

"Uh, no. Doctor T. O. Morrow was probably the most genius robotics expert of the past century. He'd never lower himself to send out disposable wrecks like the Blue Bot series. I'm not sure he could've made anything that badly if he tried," I pointed out.

"She and Superman beat them too?"

"And so did I, and so did Rob, and you guys both ran across them and Arty got zapped trashing one… I think Zatanna is the only whose never met any of the Blue Bots. Shame; they'd totally be safe fodder for her to start out fighting. We should suggest that to Mister Zatara. I mean, she's got to get started somewhere."

"Well, they are combat robots. I think they might be a little much for her," M'gann pointed out.

"Compared to a mugger with a gun? They shocked Superboy because he's a melee fighter who got up close, and since he and Ferris know they can soak up hits better than the rest of us, they do." No matter much much it made the rest of our hairs turn white. "For Zatanna? She could just tell it to 'nrut ffo'."

I was inordinately proud of myself for pronouncing that.

"Maybe," M'gann hedged.

"Does that sound like it would work?" Superboy asked… thin air?

'What? …Ohhh.'

"Lecnac." Zatanna dropped her invisibility. "How long did you know I was there?"

"I heard you walk in, and I saw you in infrared."

"And I thought I was doing so well, too." She snapped her fingers. "And you!" She pointed right at my nose.

I crossed my eyes to stare nervously at her purple polka-dotted fingernails.

"I, um, what-?"

"How did you get to the Mountain before I did?" she asked with a pout. "My school lets out earlier than yours does."

"Oh, that?" I relaxed again. "I go to school in a different time zone. An hour earlier, remember? Plus, super speed."

"Mrg. I really need Dad to teach me how to teleport," she grumbled.

"Well, your invisibility was good, and I couldn't hear you thinking at all," M'gann complimented. "And Kid Flash said you had been working on growing spells? Did you get inspired by the game?"

"…yeah. What happened sucked, but the things we did were pretty cool," she admitted with a sigh. "I'm just glad the telepathy baffle was working right. Hey, later, can we try me working out a way to eavesdrop on telepathy without being included in it? That would be useful if we ever run into another telepath. What?"

We'd all winced almost simultaneously.

"The last time we ran into a telepath," I started off.

"I had our link open, and it turns out an open mind can be open to attacks, too. Psimon wiped the rest of the Team's memories while we were in the middle of… are we allowed to talk about that?" M'gann checked.

"We were in Bialya," Superboy said, even though I would have advised a bit more discretion than that.

"That's where Sphere came from. They had her bolted in a cage and were torturing her. Miss Martian dodged the mind-wipe and tied down Psimon for a few hours so he couldn't lead the hunt in person, but she needed a bit more help to beat him when he was trying to pull out her secrets. The rest of us forgot the last six months," I finished, since I may as well be hung for a ram as a lamb.

"Ferris actually forgot almost two years," M'gann put in. "She's weak to telepathy, which is why she only rarely joins in our link-ups. She still hasn't talked much about whatever scarred her mind that way, but whenever I think about it…" Megalicious getting genuinely angry was quite a sight to behold. "If I ever meet who did it… but, I mean, Hello Megan! Total other universe."

"If she could come here, it could happen," Zatanna suggested. "But I heard you talking about where Ferris went? Renka? Ferris? Is there one I should use?"

"Artemis is Artemis and Robin is Robin," I listed off, "but in the mountain I'm fine being called Wally and Renka doesn't care which you call her if she knows you mean her. Those two can speak for themselves."

"I'm still getting used to Conner, but you can call me that."

"M'gann, Megan, I like them both better than Miss Martian if we're not on a mission."

"Got it." Zatanna snapped her fingers. "And I can be Zatanna or Zee, but not Anna, please. But about… Ferris, have you guys watched the news recently?"

"Just the news channel-," 'my Aunt Iris is a reporter on,' "for Central's weather and stuff." Superboy and M'gann shook their heads, but I had a guess. "Don't tell me: Ferris showed up on the news in Dakota?"

"Yeppers. She was with Superman yesterday, stopping a bank robbery and hanging around the rooftops. All the forums are wondering if the two of them are going to pick a fight with Icon and Rocket, or offer to let them join the League. And since they both are tough, strong, and can fly," she said, eyeing Superboy, "there's a rumor that Icon is a Kryptonian too. Do you know?"

"Nope, Rob might if the Batman does," I suggested, relieved that Superboy, despite his scowl, wasn't looking like he was going to explode at this bit of news. "Renka only said she'd be gone one night, so she should be back today and we can ask."

"How about Robin?" Zatanna asked.

'Can't tell her it's his first day of school… what to say, what to say?' "He's working through a special training program for the Batman. Got to say, I expected he would have been here by now, but maybe it's running overtime."

"Artemis was complaining that it's her first day of school. Or maybe just the first at her new school; she did say she was transferring to a new school, right?" M'gann double-checked.

My eyes narrowed.

'Gotham High is only starting this late because it was being repaired after the Amazo fight trashed it. The odds of this just happening to be Artemis's first day at a different place are pretty low. But if she's in Gotham, at that school, that means Batman and Robin have to know who she is. I know she isn't Green Arrow's niece. Black Canary doesn't act like Artemis is a by-blow from GA's early-life flings, but doesn't dote enough to suggest that Artemis is her niece instead. Methinks this plot grows trickier and trickier.'

"Maybe," I began, "since they both don't have powers, Rob is late because Batman let Artemis run through the same course to keep her edge. They probably won't say, courtesy of Bat's orders, but someone could watch the Zeta Tubes and see if they show up at the same time. Anyone want to volunteer?"

"I don't have much else to do. If M'gann comes along," Zatanna suggested, "I could practice some more telepathy spells and stuff. I think I've got the one you talked about at dinner last night just about down."

"Really? Show me, show me! Renka will be thrilled to hear that!" M'gann shimmered into her semi-invisible camouflaged mode. I put down the tools and stood up.

"Oh, what's this?" I asked.

"Just this: laever ytilbisivni!" The spell pulsed out in a wave. Megalicious's outline wavered as she fought it, and then she lost.

Zatanna spun around in shock, ignoring when M'gann flickered into visibility again. I followed her gaze.

Off to the side, a red robot with a feminine chassis and an odd tool belt had been torn from its camouflage cloak as well.


Fireballs sparked to life in its two palm.

"Oh crap," I whispered, preparing to fight.

Behind us, the ocean waves splashed.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________​

* September 22 [Robin PoV]

Artemis and I watched the camera recordings intently.

Miss Martian was nearly the first to go down as a wave of fire rendered her insensate. Kid Flash grabbed her mid-fall and tried to run for an exit, only for the ocean to surge up and slam down in his path. He dodged back, but it cut him off while Zee tried to reach for the right words to use.

Superboy went down first. He leaped straight at the fire robot, through the flames unsinged, and got shot in the chest with a laser gun- 'Red, did it shoot him with a red sun radiation laser?' -the robot pulled from its belt. He shouted, staggered, stumbled as he tried to dodge...

Miss Martian bolted back into the waking world and tore him away with her telekinesis just after the third laser blast hit his chest.

Miss Em and KF must have worked out a plan in their heads, because they split in separate directions on an unseen signal. He went up the steps with Zee over his shoulder, and she flew with Superboy out over the ocean.

'But salt water is an excellent conductor,' I knew, and so had the robot. Another of the tools on its belt had bounced an electric charge along the puddle-soaked cement, and KF couldn't have outrun lightning.

Zee didn't get shocked as badly, but when she tried to run, her mouth moving, there was some distortion in the air and she dropped to her knees and vomited. The fire robot casually blasted them both into the ocean, and if I hadn't seen them alive – if not exactly well – in the docks a few minutes back, I would have been panicking a lot harder like Artemis was.

"Try to get lax again, we saw them all just a bit ago," I reminded her.

"Lax? Like sloppy?"

"Not the best word, but you're really dis-laxed, so you'd better relax," I told her. "Fear is the enemy here."

"I thought the enemies were the robots that clobbered our super-powered friends," she snapped.

"Them too," I allowed as I moved the tapes around.

Superboy stayed down while Miss Em floated them to the ocean. She blasted back the waves that lashed at them pretty effectively, and when I paused and zoomed I saw that she'd already grown fins, scales, and gills for diving underwater to escape.

A discolored stain spread across the surface of the water, and fireballs blasted that.

'Oil. This ambush was insane,' I considered soberly as the water caught alight and she flinched back in fright. I watched the robots make sure the Team stayed unconscious before they set up the prisons we'd seen them held in.

Aqualad had come in – I had no clue how he'd missed the noise, but the robots probably had a sound baffle of some kind in their kits – and immediately jumped to fighting the flaming robot. Unfortunately, he'd never realized that the hydrokinetic was there. Zee woke up just fast enough to shout some spell that actually shut down the female, and my heart leaped even though I already knew it would end with all of them caught.

The water robot shoved a water bubble around her head and one of his tools froze Aqualad in ice to his waist. The same type of electric generator bounced volts around him, but he wasn't quite unconscious when the flame robot reactivated. She re-lit the cage around Miss Em and tossed Aqualad in there as well. Zee got gagged with some of her own clothes.

The last person to enter the situation was Ferris, who started out already badly off. Turned out her face had somehow been bruised before she fought the robots, and it was barely a fight for the rust buckets. She just flew up mid-step in a hallway and was stuck to a random wall, and it took me a bit of cross-referencing cameras to figure out that fire-robot had been in the hall next door and activated an electromagnet.

'Her metal-minds are all metal; of course they're magnetic. Can't believe I never thought of that. Wait, so are the robots shielded against electromagnetism, or were they just careful not to blast themselves with the tech?'

It looked like the robot was being careful with the set-up, 'so I bet that course of action might work… But I should check.'

"We need to get help," Artemis repeated, fraying.

'Has she not been in situations this bad before? She's on the verge of panicking. Better cut this off.'

"Help will be coming on its own," I rattled off, :but we don't know how long it'll take to get here. They slagged part of the Zeta Tubes and controls after we came through, so as soon as anyone in the League sees the alert that should have been sent out, they should Zeta over to the nearest transport and come in on foot. But depending on whether the Reds set up other traps and who might be on duty right now, that could take a while, and our friends might not have that much time."

'Brute force breaking the robots probably isn't feasible,' I ticked off mentally. 'If they really were made by Morrow, they're at least as powerful as Red Tornado, or more if they're more recently updated. What are the things…? Red Tornado has problems gauging human psychology and choices because he still doesn't get us, so despite all their processing power outthinking the Reds is possible. Fight smarter, not harder…' I huffed in frustration. 'It would take a lot to generate an explosion or cave-in capable of breaking them, so unless I find something it looks like various forms of electro-magnetic energy are the best bet. We have no Internet or communications, so I need to contact KF for science stuff about setting up an electro-magnetic pulse. Which means we need to go back and pick a fight so I can distract from where I want my discs to ricochet to.'

"Artemis, keep chill, we can do this. The Reds caught the Team off-guard with unknown powers. But now we know what to watch for, we know we have to fight, and they don't know what we can do."

"Do? Just what can we do?" she freaked on me. "They took down our super-powered friends! How are we supposed to stand up to that?" I grit my teeth, because she wasn't helping my confidence.

"The same way Batman would beat any other member of the League, or a bunch of them at once. He can beat Red Tornado, and I've read the files he keeps on how to do it. We're gong to need to engage and test them out a bit, but we can make this work. Just. Stop. Panicking." Her breathing did even out, so she wasn't all but hyperventilating.

"Right. …Right. Taking down guys who can do things you can't is all just, just a part of the job." She let out a shaky breath. "You know, I think I want to call it something other than a job. N-not like we get paid, I mean!" She let out a nervous laugh and changed the subject away from anything that she thought might have tipped me off about her dad's 'family business'. "You've got the mountain specs and stuff. What do we do?"

 

[Grigori]

Yours is still my favourite depiction of Wally, you actually make him endearing. Also, loving the hints of details littered throughout rather than just broken into big chunks.

 

[King Arthur]

"Thanks, sweet-cheeks." I didn't look up from the bike but I knew she was blushing. There'd been no repeats of our one kiss, but now she knew I was serious as well as interested. It was only a matter of time.

Click to shrink...

When did they kiss again? I don't remember this.

 

[Polarion]

When did they kiss again? I don't remember this.

Click to shrink...

They were on the bioship and Megan morphed into a zombie version of herself and asked for a kiss trying to show how spooky she could be. It didn't work.

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

* September 22 [Aqualad PoV]

'If the situation does not change soon, I must risk action,' I resolved, pressing Miss Martian's face into my chest so that she was less exposed to the fiery cage, and stroking her hair in attempt to calm her. I feared that she had already passed from frightened, through insensate, into unconsciousness and would not respond, but I felt the need to try all the same.

"How's M'gann?" Superboy shouted up to me.

"She breathes," I could feel it against my skin, "but she does not awake. I fear we will not last much longer."

<Silence. >

The cage bars flared, and I shrunk back. My dry skin felt too tight, as though it were about to tear at the seems, and I suffered a flashback to Ferris's description of the koloss, which were born with all the skin they would ever have, and tore it as they grew. No matter how I breathed, the hot air made my lungs feel empty, and my throat had hardened like jagged stone.

The cage bars ceased flaring, burning instead with the prior intensity, and I was slightly relieved.

'That will make my plan easier. At this level, I may enter within twenty centimeters of the bars before the additional heat causes me further pain,' I calculated. 'From the bars, it is slightly less than four meters to the platform's edge, from which it is a direct drop into the water. I may be too weak to jump this distance in a single bound, but I can certainly run it within seconds. If all else fails, I may throw Miss Martian over the edge and hope that cold water will wake her, but I shall reserve that option until I believe myself to be critically, if not mortally injured.'

I had observed some range limits with the robots' abilities: when Red Inferno had left us unguarded to pursue Robin and Artemis alongside Red Torpedo, the cage had burned down dimly enough that I was willing to attempt escape.

I had been caught before I could free any of my friends – my scorched skin and limp arm throbbed at the memory – but I had, for a few precious seconds, been out of the gods' cursed cage. The next time we were left unguarded, Red Inferno had thrown a second, far larger ring of fire around the cage to prevent that option from being repeated. However, Red Inferno had not done so when Red Torpedo had been left behind to guard us.

The next time the hydrokinetic was left as our only guard, I would drag Miss Martian through the cage and hurl both our bodies into the ocean. I would be far safer and more agile there, and if M'gann woke she could make gills for herself. Either way, it would drastically better our odds to be able to aid Robin and Artemis against the robots.

'I fear I will not be able to free the other four until after the robots are defeated,' I concluded grimly as I once more reviewed their confinements for any opportunities I had missed. Our four teammates were all trapped in casings of metal that had been welded around them. 'Perhaps with my water-bearers… no, even then, I do not believe I could cut through forged metal. Had I time to work slowly, it might be done, but if it could be done, it certainly could not be done both quickly and safely.'

My skin was wet with sweat, my tongue was dry, and I had a mad impulse to try to fix one with the other. I looked around for another thought to distract myself, when Robin and Artemis surfaced in the water.

I did not move, did not breathe, did not dare to do anything that might alert Red Inferno to their presence. Seconds later, I realized it had been the wrong choice, as my silence left them easily audible to the robot's sensors. The Reds' heads turned.

"Robin! Artemis! Flee!" 'Abandon us and save yourselves. Do not allow my insufficiencies to drag you down as well, my friends, I beg of you.'

Currents of water rose up and struck down like the hydra's heads. My friends successfully avoided and evaded both the water and the fire. My tactical, dispassionate mind noted another limitation to Red Torpedo's capabilities: 'The robot has moved and directed blasts and masses of water, but it does not appear able to direct the internal motion of water. Otherwise it would be able to pull out the water they swam in and so trap them. I am not certain, but I also believe I have not seen it direct its hydrokinetic assaults while its body is submerged in water.'

'Perhaps if I can reach the water, I might have an edge over Red Torpedo. Although, I should not discount the tools it used to freeze and electrify small bodies of water. Without my water-bearers, it may retain a significant advantage.'

After using an array of arrows and discs, Robin and Artemis successfully fled back beneath the surface, followed by Red Torpedo. None of the three surfaced in my view again, which I had to take as a sign of their escape, lest I risk madness.

Red Inferno did not pursue them.

'Zatanna!' I realized sharply. 'She is bound in metal like the others, but her mouth is only covered by cloth. I am not certain that her magic could undo metal bindings or affect the Reds, but the possibility is better than anything else available to me right now.' I inspected the immobile Red Inferno once more, trying to guess if I dared call out.

I realized Kid Flash's mouth was moving, and one of Robin's disks was embedded near his head. Among the array of devices built into his throwing weapons, sound communicators were something I had known him to use. As he was no doubt planning and communicating with Robin, I did not dare risking that Red Inferno would take notice. I chose to wait.

Eighty-three seconds later, at the count of <Six Minutes Remaining, > my patience was rewarded. Red Torpedo did not return, and I had to flinch away from the far vaster ring of fire that appeared around us, but Red Inferno left to participate in the pursuit. As such, we were free to safely speak, as long as I could be heard over the roaring fires.

My first attempt resulted in nothing but a series of hacking coughs. My second was more successful.

"Superboy! Can you hear me?" I had waited too long, and did not possess the strength to stand it seemed, but at least I could co-ordinate our plans, if it were possible.

"Aqualad! I hear you! Is M'gann alright? Are you?"

"We are not well, but we live! Are Zatanna and Ferris awake? Can they hear me?"

There was no response for seven, heart-pounding seconds.

"Ferris is out cold! Zatanna is awake! She can't hear you, and she's gagged!"

"If she-," I broke off, and nnearly coughed up my insides. "Ask her, for m-me… if her mouth we-w-w-were f-fre-e-e-ee… could she escape? F-fi-fight?" Coughing, I almost asked again, because my voice could not have been loud enough to reach them.

"Got it!" Superboy called.

'Super hearing. I never thought I would be so grateful. His strength and resilience are what stand out as making him dangerous, but I should remember his eyes and ears. Yet another oversight under my leadership.'

But it would not do to dwell as long as actions could still be taken.

"She says! She couldn't escape, but she could fight! And she has a spell-," Superboy's voice trailed off and was lost under the flames. I coughed more when I tried to ask him to repeat. "She thinks she can wake up Ferris!"

"Goo-good," I coughed. "Tell Kid Flash, to tell Robin." My voice was weak to my own ears, but not Superboy's.

"Got it!" he yelled.

<Four Minutes. >

The Red Robots had returned with that announcement, and the added ring of fire flickered out. I gave thanks to Poseidon, and to Hephaestus for allowing me to endure these flames.

I spied Robin and Artemis sneaking from the corners of my eye. Unfortunately, if I called out to the Reds to draw away their attention, turning to face me would put my friends into their field of view.

Nonetheless, I laid Miss Martian facedown on the ground, and pulled her cloak over her head to offer what meager protection I could from the flame. I struggled into what was the best ready-stance I could manage, and I braced my body.

Summoning the last vestiges of my strength, I silently prayed.

'Poseidon, patron of our people, I pray to you that you look favorably upon my actions, and that you aid me in bringing valor to your name, and to Atlantis. Zeus, king of the gods, I pray that you allow me to succeed and remit what weaknesses the faults of my leadership have brought. I pray to Lord Hades, brother of Poseidon and of Zeus, that if you will soon receive my soul to your halls, please allow me to ensure that by my death, none of my companions follow me into the dark. Ares, god of war, please give me strength in my battle against these overwhelming enemies. Athena, goddess of war, and of wisdom, which I have realized how deeply I lack; Lady Athena, you are patron to My King's comrade, Diana the Wonder Woman, and I pray that you smile up on efforts here.'

I waited for my chance.

"Robin, look out!" Artemis yelled. A coil of the ocean struck at the youngest of our number. "Robin!"

"No!" I hacked, and I charged the flames. I had to force shut my eyes to prevent cowardly hesitation, and pain slashed and seared stunning, agonizing stripes across my skin, but I ran through and into freedom, despite my cracked and blackened flesh.

I could only force open my right eye, not the left, but it was enough to guide my charge straight to Red Torpedo.

I realized I was too late, and Robin had already been knocked from his position, but I tackled the robot's waist and heard the rush of water as its control collapsed. Red Torpedo struck my face, once, twice, and through the agony I knew only that I must keep my hold.

"Kaldur!" Artemis shrieked, and I heard the twang of her bow.

"Artemis, metal! Close the circuit at the bottom!" Robin yelled. I was struck again.

"Ro-bo-bots! Stobor pots!" Zatanna yelled. I felt the flinch in the robot I held, and I did not know if the same was true for Red Inferno, but it lasted only for a heartbeat and a moment more.

"Metal!" Artemis yelled. I could only have imagined the metallic clang I heard, but I could never have imagined the whining thundercrash of the electromagnetic pulse. I was struck once more, and then it hit and my target collapsed in my arms. I allowed myself to fall with it, lacking all my strength, and I remained conscious only because I was too injured to enjoy rest.

I felt the heat of the cage die out.

"M'gann! Is she-!" Superboy yelled.

"W-w-, one sec!" Artemis called back down, panting. Shortly after, "She's breathing! Out of it, but she's breathing!"

"F-f-ferris. No, no. Serrif, ekaw pu! Akner, ekaw pu!"

"Bweh! Jorman cu grunna-! …What? What is-?"

My agony had faded enough to a dull throbbing, and I drifted in and out of being awake. Someone dragged me down the ramp, and dumped me into the ocean. It was so wonderful a relief that I nearly passed out in ecstasy, but I was pulled out all too soon. My head was cleared a tad, even though my wounds all still stung, and I looked around blearily.

"Wh-what? Is our… situation?" I asked.

"Some water worked wonders on M'gann, too, and she should wake up soon. Robin is concussed, and Zatanna has a nasty cut cheek where he cut her gag away," Artemis listed for me while I stared blearily at the ceiling. "Conner and Wally are still stuck in metal like Zee, but Renka got out almost as soon as she woke up. I never knew she could change her size like that."

'Nor did I,' I thought as I heard a metallic, dragging, screeching sound.

"Good?" Ferris's voice asked.

"Why did you bring them down here?"

"Water hurts robots? Watch them?"

"Red Torpedo fought with water! And he could swim!" Artemis scolded. Then, "Oh. Right, you were unconscious."

"Thank you," Ferris said neutrally.

"It… might work for the other one. The girl robot used fire."

"Yes," Ferris said. She probably walked away after that, but I was too busy staring at the ceiling to notice.

Things continued to happen while I was dazed. I was dipped back into the water, pulled free again, and someone mentioned something about applying first aid.

I heard Zatanna's voice several times, and something about Robin, who was carefully told to sit beside me.

Ferris disconnected the limbs of both robots from the torsos, as well as fiddling around in other ways

"-s all machines!" Artemis shouted.

"All machines present at the time of the effect."

'Robot!' My heart nearly stopped beating as I sat upright, and my head swam.

"We-," I coughed, my eyes blurring. "Every-!"

"Red Tornado!" Artemis yelled with no small amount of relief.

"What has occurred?" the same, synthesized voice as Red Torpedo asked.

'Thanks to all the gods. The Justice League has arrived.' I finally permitted my aching body to relax.

"We got a visit from your family. Your extremely nasty family!" Artemis snapped.

"I was not aware that I had relatives."

"Dude, where were you?" Kid Flash enquired.

"Monitor duty on the Watchtower. When it became clear that the Mountain's Zeta Tubes and communications were down, I took the Zeta Tubes to Providence and proceeded here."

"Robots dead? Yes? No?" Ferris inquired.

"Electromagnetic energy will scramble the functions of machines for a certain time period, more similar to knocking them unconscious than to killing them. I have made several modifications to my own systems over the years, increasing my resistance and recovery time to such effects, though I have not become immune."

"Now do what action? Robots go where?" Ferris asked.

"Disassembling them as you have done was an optimal course. I move we transport them to my rooms, where I may investigate their systems for information on who has sent them."

I was relieved not to need to contribute to this discussion. I remained quiet and was allowed to inspect the lump on Robin's head, to keep me busy while Artemis inspected my burns.

Time passed, in its dreamy, indeterminate manner.

I heard a whining sound and a distant electrical clunk.

"Hey, the lights are back on!" Zatanna realized. "Think you can cut us free?"

"No, wait, the pulse has worn off!" Kid Flash called. "Someone go check whether the Reds have reactivated!"

"How thorough… were Ferris's activities?" I asked through mental fog.

"Not sure, I was doing more med stuff," Artemis admitted.

"Zatanna, didn't she… you…?" It was the first sentence I had heard M'gann speak in some time, and another knot in my chest eased. Zatanna fidgeted nervously for a few moments.

"She had me use some magic to help her disconnect the limbs, yeah. I couldn't really think of much more to do."

"Robin, ice."

"Ferris! How were the robots?" Kid Flash shouted as she approached with a plastic bag of ice cubes.

"…why?" she asked, as she pressed the ice to Robin's head. "Kaldur, clean hurts."

"I got that," Artemis offered, beginning to apply the antiseptic cream to my burns.

"The pulse has worn off, meaning the robots are back on. They don't have arms and legs, but did Red Tornado secure them properly?" Kid Flash asked. "We don't know if they can still throw fire and water."

Ferris shifted uncomfortably.

"Is something the matter?"

"I… am not sure. Today, Red robots two. Last night, I fought blue robots with Rocket. Memories," she muttered vaguely.

"He's coming back!" Artemis realized. "Hey Red Tornado!" The whirring of his flight reached my ears as well. We turned.

My vision grew foggy, clouded and discolored, as though…

'No, this is knockout gas,' I recognized from the shade as well as the smell.

My lungs were filled as with cotton.

Then I knew nothing more.

 

[stsword]

While nothing stops Aqualad from being a worshipper of the Greek gods, it seems highly unlikely that Atlantis isn't far more cosmopolitan than that. At least three of the city states have Latin names one of them named after Neptune the Roman god.

The names of the atlanteans suggest even more diversity of culture.

Aquaman has an Irish name, his brother has a Norse name, and his wife has an Arabic name.

Not to mention the sharkman with the Hawaiian name...

Or at least a guy with a Norse name using the trident of Neptune to fight a guy with a Hawaiian name certainly doesn't scream Greek to me.

So I would expect "Poseidon being the patron of Atlantis" might not be a universally accepted opinion.

 

[aabbcc]

Aquaman has an Irish name, his brother has a Norse name, and his wife has an Arabic name.

Click to shrink...

Not to mention the sharkman with the Hawaiian name...

Click to shrink...

Three out of four don't count. Orin is canonically an Atlantean name predating the sinking, which happened ~7,600 BC. This predates Greek, let alone Irish civilization by millennia.

Mera is from Xebel, which is not part of the kingdom and has diverged from it for at least several generations prior to her appearance, if not all the way back to the sinking.

The Shark's name is also pre-sinking, IIRC.

As for Poseidon? Yes he pretty much is canonically the patron deity of Atlanteans. No, Neptune doesn't count since in DC he is either an ancient wizard or a projection of Poseidon.

Oddly, the Irish deities do exist as deities in pre-52 DC, but they are patrons of a part of Atlantis that is not part of the current Atlantean kingdom and was thought lost since the sinking.

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

* September 22 [Conner PoV]

"Yes?" someone prompted sharply.

"Rennoc Tnek, esaelp… nigeb ot ekaw pu."

I woke up groggily, in bits and pieces.

I certainly didn't feel any less sick and feeble and useless than I had after the first lasers hit me, much less any better.

"Zatanna," Ferris ordered. "Next, yes?"

"Protect… no, guard. Okay. Draug eht niks fo siht nam morf eht resal fo siht enihcam."

Harsh red light buzzed at me. I flinched, but other than a bit of warmth, this time I didn't feel any awful pain. I rubbed at my eyes to clear them, and that was when I realized one of my arms was free.

"Did we…? What?" I asked.

"Move," Ferris ordered, poking at my hips. I couldn't really shift around, though. "…Clothes," she sighed as I did my best to twist, and was assaulted by the smell of burning cloth.

"Uwah!" My legs were freed and I wasn't braced, and I toppled over and she caught me. The laser cutter turned off.

"Good. Rest. Heal," Ferris instructed, as she and Zatanna laid me out on the ground.

"Where's… M'gann?" I asked. Obligingly, they pulled me over so I was next to her. Her hand wrapped around mine and she smiled weakly.

[I'm okay. I don't feel… great, but I'm okay,] she sent to me.

[I was so worried. Those damn robots almost killed you.] I tried to squeeze her hand consolingly, feeling warm inside all over again.

[You got hurt worse than I did. Those lasers… Someone said they were red sunlight.]

"Aw man oh man, kids! Kid! Are you all right! Guys I found them!" It was some unfamiliar man's voice. I caught a blur of moving, dull red. More voices and footsteps quickly showed up.

[Uncle J'onn!] M'gann sent. Martian Manhunter swooped down and settled next to her, and we were still connected enough that I could feel their rapid-fire exchange of ideas that I couldn't quite keep up with.

"Artemis. Artemis, can you hear me?"

'Of course Superman would ask her that, even though she's already got her uncle here. Why isn't he talking to Ferris? No, she was up on her own already, and she's talking to the Batman with Robin right now.'

People kept moving and talking, and my head kept swimming, and then someone reached down and grabbed my arms.

"Excuse me, J'onn, M'gann, but do you mind if I borrow Superboy?"

"By all means."

[Good luck, Conner.]

I squirmed a little as I was lifted up.

'Am I dreaming? No, no, I'd be strong enough to stand up if I were – you aren't supposed to get hurt in dreams.'

That didn't change the fact that Superman had picked me up and we were flying through the halls of the mountain.

"I… S-Superman?" I asked, because I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Artemis said you were hit by lasers?" he prompted, not quite looking at me.

"Ah… yeah." 'That. You never would have been taken down by those, would you. You'd have turned the robots into scrap.' I could see it in my head, all the pictures and simulations and memories of Superman fighting and overcoming every possible enemy… and me meeting him blow for blow as an equal.

"Red lasers?"

"Yeah. They hurt pretty bad. I didn't think I needed to dodge until the first hit… Dodged the second, got hit by the third, and when the fourth blast hit me I just went out like a light," I admitted, ashamed. But… it was sort of cleansing, too, to tell him, and let the guy I wanted to be know how far I was, but that I wasn't going to give up. Superman never gave up, so neither would I.

"…They shot you three times?" he asked. I thought his flight speed sped up, and then he put me down on the ground.

'Did I… I guess I…' My thoughts about him leaving me as not worth the effort got proven wrong with the scream of twisting metal. Superman had set his shoulders, and was brute-force tearing open one of the giant metal doors that led to the outside of the mountain. A beam of sunlight leaked through the hole I could never have made with my bare hands, and it felt almost as good as a hug from Black Canary.

Not anywhere near as good as a hug from M'gann, but the sun still felt pretty good. Superman picked me up again, and that felt better too, and he flew with me to the outside. He set down in the grass on the top of the mountain.

"You need to get sunlight on your skin; kick start the healing process. Can you remove your shirt?" I was feeling better enough to do that. I needed his help to pull it over my head, but then I just sprawled out and was fine. "I don't see any burn mark, so there shouldn't be any lingering red sun radiation in the wounds." He stood up, lifted off in flight again… and then dropped back after moving less than a foot.

"Are you… you can go," I told him hesitantly, because it was pretty clear that he wanted to and-

"No. No, I should stay here and make sure you recover. It isn't as if the sunlight is bad for me, either. But, you said you were shot by three lasers?"

"Yeah. Sorry. If I'd been stronger, I could have-," 'He always… Superman doesn't just value raw violence, he values standing by the rest of the League, even if he doesn't need them,' I remembered. "I could have protected the others if I didn't. Will I… when I get older, will I get tougher against those?" My heart plummeted when Superman shook his head.

"Superboy… last night, Ferris and I went to meet Rocket and Icon in Dakota City."

"…I know. Her note said, and Zatanna saw her on the news. Her and you, I mean!"

"Ah, yes. Last night there was a fight with the Blue robots, and I was hit by a red sun laser. One hit was nearly enough to take me out." I boggled. "I'm very impressed that you endured everything so well. Your determination to help your friends is admirable." He cleared his throat again. "Ah, are you beginning to feel better? It shouldn't take too long to get the healing process started."

"Yeah," I breathed. 'Wait, no, he probably meant-' "Uh, I mean, yes! I think my strength is back now, and stuff." He held out his hand and it took me a second to realize he wanted me to grab it. It was strong and firm, and a little calloused.

He pulled me up effortlessly. 'One day…'

"You and Miss Martian are going to school now, aren't you? Are you fitting in well?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess. I already know most of the stuff from the genomorphs, but knowing it and using it are different, right? So that's useful. M'gann really likes the cheerleading club, the Bumblebees. Black Canary said that it isn't… I shouldn't try out for any of the sports teams because of my strength, so I usually just watch them practice and do the work."

"Hmm… Well, I won't tell you how to live your life. You might want to try something, and you can always quit if it isn't working out that well." He hesitated. "I've heard that some schools have newspaper clubs; Lois Lane, the reporter who handles the League's press releases in general, might be willing to review an article or two if you wanted to give it a shot."

That, I snorted at. "What would I write about? 'The Secret Lives at Mount Justice, by Connor L. Kent'? Or maybe, 'How to Protect Your Home from Traitor Killer Robots'?" I remembered whom I'd been mouthing off to, how generous his offer had been, and how little I deserved it when Superman gave me a strong look.

'I really hope he doesn't hit me with heat vision. My copy's hurt in the Tower, and I think his would be stronger.'

"Are you… using that name in school? Conner L Kent?" he asked instead of yelling at me or flying off.

"I- uh, yeah… I needed a name at the Tower of Fate, and Superboy didn't count it said, so M'gann just suggested Conner and I went with it," I explained, knowing it was really the next part he was concerned about. "Then… your Kryptonian name is Kal-El?" I asked, looking at his feet. He was standing on the ground, not flying, and I didn't know if that was a bad sign.

"Yes, yes it is. I don't use it very often, but it was the first name I was given, before I could even remember…"

"Um, yeah. And, so, I didn't know that, but Kid Flash said I should use it, so I did."

"Well… you are wearing the crest already," Superman finally said.

"The what?"

He shook out my shirt and handed it back. "Many families on Krypton had family crests, symbols. The Ess-shape inside the pentagon was the crest of house El. I wore it to remember them, and I was named Superman after the Ess, believe it or not. I didn't think of the name myself; I've been told before that I'm not good with names."

"Oh." I took the shirt back. "I- I didn't… do you want me to stop?" I wasn't sure whether I meant, 'stop wearing the shield,' or 'stop using El,' or 'stop bothering me,' or something else, but he shook his head.

"No, no… Just… remember to be Conner sometimes. Conner is as important as Superboy, with or without the El," he told me. There were a lot of ways I could take that, but it probably wasn't bad. I sagged in relief. "So that's Conner El. Where did you get the Kent from? Did you overhear Lois complaining about a guy?" he asked jovially.

"Lois Lane? No, Martian Manhunter suggested it on my first day of class. I'm Conner Kent in honor of Mister Nelson; uh, Kent Nelson, Doctor Fate. I thought it was supposed to be Conner Nelson, but Conner El Nelson sounded… eh?" I shrugged, not sure what he wanted me to say, or else I'd have said it.

"J'onn did? I see. The only other Kent I know is a reporter who Lois considers her greatest rival, but Kent Nelson… It's a good name," he complimented, and I couldn't have stopped grinning unless he told me to. "You have a name that remembers the integrity of an inspirational hero, and an exemplary human being. I think Mister Nelson would feel honored."

'Wait. We're both Kryptonians, not humans. Was he…?' I couldn't ask.

"Th-thank you," I told him instead. Superman nodded.

"If you're feeling better, we should probably head back inside. But don't forget to come back out for more sunlight."

"I-," 'I guess he doesn't have any more time to waste on me. But this was good. This was good.' "Right. Let's go." He led the way back inside.

But we were both walking on the ground, side-by-side, together, and that was something special.

 

[stsword]

Three out of four don't count. Orin is canonically an Atlantean name predating the sinking, which happened ~7,600 BC. This predates Greek, let alone Irish civilization by millennia.

Mera is from Xebel, which is not part of the kingdom and has diverged from it for at least several generations prior to her appearance, if not all the way back to the sinking.

The Shark's name is also pre-sinking, IIRC.

As for Poseidon? Yes he pretty much is canonically the patron deity of Atlanteans. No, Neptune doesn't count since in DC he is either an ancient wizard or a projection of Poseidon.

Oddly, the Irish deities do exist as deities in pre-52 DC, but they are patrons of a part of Atlantis that is not part of the current Atlantean kingdom and was thought lost since the sinking.

Click to shrink...

Atlanteans have their own deities in the comics, so that doesn't work, even if you assume stuff from the comics applies to YJ continuity.

Post crisis, they have Suula, Aps, and Pallais. Sky, land, and water respectively.

Pre crisis, they worshipped the children of Darkworld among others.

The mermaids of Triton were altered by the magic of the "Dark Gods."

Post flashpoint, I doubt the YJ writers felt too beholden to a continuity that didn't exist yet, since Wally isn't black, Megan's powers don't come from a blood magic ritual, and Superboy isn't telepathic in YJ. That is if atlanteans worship the Olympians in prime continuity.

 

[BirdLawyer]

What a nice feel good chapter after they all got viciously betrayed. Yay Superman.

 

[Grigori]

That was really sad but really sweet. So eager for approval (understandable since he's like a year old) but I can see how that could be intimidating for Superman. Connor and Megan's relationship is growing adorably though.

 

[Hye]

eht resal fo shit enihcam."

Click to shrink...

Did you mean to write tihs instead of this. I assume it isn't just for shits and giggles

But we were both walking on the ground, side-by-side, together, and that was something special.

Click to shrink...

Finally. This was really good. Oh man, I've been looking forward to this

 

[CrescentSickle]

This is an exceptionally well-written fic. There are a lot of little flourishes that are so necessary to conveying actual depth of character, like when characters attempt to use idioms in their internal monologue, and then decide to change it up because it doesn't fully apply. Many, many authors would just let the idioms fly, but from you we get to see characters acting like thinking beings, rather than robots acting out their scripted roles.

You've also managed to succeed at the difficult balancing act of making a compelling original character that has interesting powers but doesn't steal the show, and doesn't undermine the laws of the introduced setting.

It's unfortunate that this fic doesn't receive far more attention, because it certainly deserves it.

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

** Episode 14 – Matriarchy

* September 23 [Zatanna PoV]

Ferris and Dad were arguing, and I had no idea who I was supposed to root for. My finger throbbed in its makeshift cast, but I ignored my urge to fiddle with it.

'Pros for Dad: he loves me, he's Dad, he's scared 'cause we almost died but he should cool down in a little bit anyway, and Ferris slapped me and ended up breaking one of my fingers yesterday. …Okay, not entirely fair. She slapped me awake and slapped sense into me because I sorta really needed it.'

'So, pros for Ferris: she pretty much dominated yesterday as soon as she woke – as soon as I woke her up – she's defending me wanting to be a hero like Dad, and she proved that I really don't know my own strength.'

It had taken her a bit, and wrenching me free at the end had broken one of my fingers that wasn't fully loosened, but after splashing me awake and slapping me sensible, she'd talked me through the incantation for a set of spells I'd used to break out of the metal, which I'd thought was totally impossible at my level.

Of course, I'd have said it was impossible for Ferris to break out unaided, too.

'It looked like she changed size, but I didn't get a great view when that happened. I still want to ask her how she did that.'

I snapped back to attention when Ferris got up in Dad's face with an impatient glare, and he actually backed away a bit.

"Miss Zatanna wants to fight!" Ferris rattled off, her voice low but sharp. "She will, I think, try to fight whether you want her to or not, even if she can only walk around dark allies and fight muggers. You can control her, but when she is grown she will try to fight with, or without you. You have two options, Mister Zatara.

"If you fight- no, sorry, if you stop her fight, then she will be angry, and you will have to make her stop or she will fight on her own, without training, and be hurt because 15% of heroes are crippled or killed in their first year of fighting and not having training does not help her odds.

"Or you can train her, and if you do not want her to fight, and want her to not want to fight, then training her is your best choice. Do not train her easily; make training hurt. Make it tiring, make it exhausting, make it disgusting, and make her struggle and work and prove that she wants to be a hero.

"And then two things will could happen. Either she will give up, so you will get her to agree not to fight and win… or she will grow, and thrive, and all become the stronger and safer for what she has learned."

I waied, barely daring to breathe, while they faced off.

"I- she's all I have left," Dad whispered, and just his voice made me want to cry because he was all I had left, too. "My daughter, my baby girl. Sindella is dead, and I have scars, and no one in this life – we cannot save ourselves, and I don't want that for her. I can't lose her too." I wanted to run hug him, but Ferris was in the way, and it felt like my feet were nailed down and my knees were made of jelly and My throat felt like sandpaper and oh lord was I drowning in the air again?

Ferris stepped back out of Dad's face, and I was so glad he was hiding under his hat, because I couldn't-

"Mister Zatara," she said, her voice gentler now, but firm. "While we have been talking, five people have died in car crashes. Will you say she is never allowed to drive? I do not know about your city home, but in Gotham more than two people are murdered in every day. Yesterday, Miss Zatanna came to have time being with her friends after school, and walked into an attack.

"But would it be any different if she walked into a robbery on the street she lives," Ferris didn't quite implore, "or in the store where she was shopping? You can lose her to heroing, but Mister Zatara, you are uniquely good to help keep her alive when she is heroing. You cannot make her less likely to die in a car crash. You cannot make her less likely to die from disease. You cannot make her less likely to walk past a mugging in an alley.

"But if she walks by that alley, you can make her less likely to be killed when she goes to help. Miss Zatanna, your child, is a wonderful, strong young woman, and if she sees someone to help she will do the right thing and help. You cannot change that, not without breaking the parts of your daughter that make her happy. I know…" Ferris's voice hitched. "I have birthed no children. But I have buried too many siblings, one only three months. I have buried three nephews and a niece. We kept them as safe as we could, but the world did not care, and if we- when we made a mistake, when we were not enough, because we can never be everything, then they could not keep themselves safe. Mister Za-,"

"You knew!" Conner roared, and gave me a heart attack. I spun around to see him pin Kaldur to the wall in front of the Batman. "That android and his maniac family nearly killed M'gann!"

"Conner! What are you doing?" M'gann shouted.

"Excuse me," Ferris muttered, jogging over. "Conner, Kaldur is hurt!" I latched onto Dad's hand, and we both headed in that same direction.

"Kaldur knew we had a traitor on the team, and he said nothing!" Superboy accused, and my feet nearly tangled together when I processed that. I drew back, head swimming like someone had whacked me in the brain.

"Wh-what?" I asked. I couldn't say anything else. It was like I'd had the air just gut-punched out of my chest.

"He what?" Robin yelped.

"You knew!" Kid Flash sounded like he couldn't quite believe it.

"Conner, drop him." Ferris's voice snapped like a whipcrack, and Conner did.

"I sought," Kaldur began to explain, "to protect the team-,"

"Protect us! From what? Knowledge that could have saved our lives?" Artemis mocked, and that knocked something out of my throat.

"Ho-how could you?" I finally squawked at him, offended and upset and betrayed and all that much more.

M'gann probably said something telepathically, too, because Conner retaliated at her with, "You almost died!"

"Enough."

I clenched into Dad's grip like a vise. The Batman was one of Dad's best friends, and even with Dad between us and the Batman facing another direction, that word still felt like doom looming over my shoulder.

"Later," Ferris hissed in frustration at someone, dragging Conner and Kaldur by their shoulders to line up in front of Batman. I almost dragged Dad over as well, lining up just out of instinct, but he pulled me to a stop and I almost forgot how to walk again.

"Dad?" I asked softly, both hoping and worrying that he was-

Dad sighed. "Zatanna. Oh, my dearest. You are growing up too fast." He bent to kiss me, and I threw my arms around his shoulders. Then we parted, and he stood beside the Batman while I stood beside Robin, each of us in our chosen places.

"With Red Tornado… out of action," the Batman began when we were all lined up.

"Gone." I could hear Ferris roll her eyes at the Batman. "Abandoned us. Absent without permission. We know."

"Quite," the Batman told her. 'Or was he telling her to be quiet? Probably both,' I guessed numbly. "For the time being, the Team will be overseen by a rotating watch of League members, changing each week. Captain Marvel has volunteered to act as the first one, followed by Hawkwoman and Hawkman next week, then Captain Atom."

The World's Mightiest Mortal, who looked a little too muscle-bound even if I appreciated his single-shoulder cape, stepped up beside the Batman.

"I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys," he announced with a cocky turn of his head.

'Ugh, don't try to play the young and hip card. You're old, deal with it.' I felt a slight press on my mind and let M'gann in.

[Translation, they don't trust us and they don't want us running around,] Kid Flash put out to the Team.

[Not cool, not cool. C'mon Bats, we handled this just now, didn't we? I've seen you get hurt worse than we did,] Robin sent.

[If-] Kaldur began.

"After I dismantle Red Tor-,"

Ferris reached around and just cut off Conner's out-loud comment to Kaldur.

"Lay. Ter."

[-dismantle that damn robot, you and I are going to settle this,] Conner finished mentally.

"As a member of the Justice League, Red Tornado is our responsibility. We will find him, and you will leave it to us."

"As a friend of all of ours," Ferris began to tell the Batman sweetly, ignoring when Conner scoffed through her hand, "and as the people who defeated the Red robots after the Justice League failed to prevent them from entering and attacking to begin with, as you were, I think, responsible to doing… You will tell us about the search. Yes?" She didn't wait for him to respond. "Also, later, I can talk with you about the Blue robots, please. But later, alone." Ferris backed down after that, but kept her sweet, cheerful, give-me-a-reason-because-I-am-up-to-here-with-this smile on her face.

The Batman loomed, dark and ominous.

"The Team will be kept updated as the search proceeds, provided you do not attempt to pursue this matter on your own," the Batman told us. "For now, I have another assignment for this team." An image flickered into being off to the side.

[That rag? A gossip newspaper? What next, will he send us searching for Elvis?] I asked, offended even more for the rest of them than for me.

At least I was inexperienced enough to be stuck with something like this; none of them were.

[Busy work. He just wants to keep us busy,] Robin mentally spat.

[After we almost lost and were weak,] Ferris telepathically hammered into us, with the flinch-inducing impression of raking nails across the insides of my eyelids, [he wants, I think, to give us something to win at again so we remember how strong we are. Now will you whine and cry, or stand and fight? Do you want to prove him wrong or right?]

I could feel us all square our shoulders at once.

The image switched to a different newspaper headline.

"Gotham mayor attacked by guerilla gorilla?" Kid Flash read aloud, challenging the Batman.

[Is this the best he could come up with?] Conner wondered.

[…I despise English possessing homophones.] Ferris groaned. "What does 'guerilla gorilla' mean?"

"It means monkey business. Batman, please," Robin groaned, "tell me you aren't sending us on this joke of a mission?"

"I never. Joke. About the mission." More chills went down my spine, and Robin and Ferris shot up about half-a-dozen notches in my eyes for still standing up to him.

[Does he?] M'gann asked.

[Batman never jokes, period,] Artemis asserted.

[He does. Sometimes. But no,] Robin confirmed, [never about the mission. Crud.] I put my hand on Robin's shoulder when he sighed, and my stomach fluttered when he grinned tiredly at me.

 

[Obloquy]

When did they kiss again? I don't remember this.

Click to shrink...

They were on the bioship and Megan morphed into a zombie version of herself and asked for a kiss trying to show how spooky she could be. It didn't work.

Click to shrink...

Technically, they were still in the Cave giving Conner a makeover to disguise him as Tommy Terror for the jail infiltration. So the first (or maybe the second) part of Chilling Interrogations.

M'gann, being a bit more forward with creepy stuff and less patient with bull since co-habiting with Ferris, got irked by Wally's continuing flirtations and decided to make him put his money where his mouth is.

So she told him he could have that kiss he'd been bugging her for, and then shape-shifted into a rotting mutant zombie shape when he leaned in to collect.

Wally, after leaning back for a second to get his bearings, figured that hey, she wasn't actually a rotting corpse, and kissed her anyway.

While nothing stops Aqualad from being a worshipper of the Greek gods, it seems highly unlikely that Atlantis isn't far more cosmopolitan than that. At least three of the city states have Latin names one of them named after Neptune the Roman god.

The names of the atlanteans suggest even more diversity of culture.

Aquaman has an Irish name, his brother has a Norse name, and his wife has an Arabic name.

Not to mention the sharkman with the Hawaiian name...

Or at least a guy with a Norse name using the trident of Neptune to fight a guy with a Hawaiian name certainly doesn't scream Greek to me.

So I would expect "Poseidon being the patron of Atlantis" might not be a universally accepted opinion.

Click to shrink...

Three out of four don't count. Orin is canonically an Atlantean name predating the sinking, which happened ~7,600 BC. This predates Greek, let alone Irish civilization by millennia.

Mera is from Xebel, which is not part of the kingdom and has diverged from it for at least several generations prior to her appearance, if not all the way back to the sinking.

The Shark's name is also pre-sinking, IIRC.

As for Poseidon? Yes he pretty much is canonically the patron deity of Atlanteans. No, Neptune doesn't count since in DC he is either an ancient wizard or a projection of Poseidon.

Oddly, the Irish deities do exist as deities in pre-52 DC, but they are patrons of a part of Atlantis that is not part of the current Atlantean kingdom and was thought lost since the sinking.

Click to shrink...

In LOD, Poseidon is the vastly most commonly worshipped deity in Atlantis, but not exclusively so. There are other Olympians seen as the patrons of some places, and some non-Hellenist deities as well.

Neptune is just a different name Poseidon has answered to, same mostly with the other Roman-Greek deities (remember, in Earth 16 the myths are based on events that actually happened between the gods, but may have been mutated over the years into inaccuracy). I don't really know enough DC canon to comment on Xebel or other city-states, but there is a selkie-graft, pureblood and a minority of other grafts are cross-compatible with humans, and even before Atlantis became more cosmopolitan in the last few centuries there were always a few oddball loners willing to go to the surface and make a life there. So, cultural crossover.

Oh, and the Sinking happened around 1,000 BC give or take a few centuries here; I haven't decided on an exact date.

This is an exceptionally well-written fic. There are a lot of little flourishes that are so necessary to conveying actual depth of character, like when characters attempt to use idioms in their internal monologue, and then decide to change it up because it doesn't fully apply. Many, many authors would just let the idioms fly, but from you we get to see characters acting like thinking beings, rather than robots acting out their scripted roles.

You've also managed to succeed at the difficult balancing act of making a compelling original character that has interesting powers but doesn't steal the show, and doesn't undermine the laws of the introduced setting.

It's unfortunate that this fic doesn't receive far more attention, because it certainly deserves it.

Click to shrink...

*Blushes*
Oh, you say the nicest things!

I'm glad to be succeeding in my attempts at portraying everyone. Thank you for such a heartwarming review. You totally made my week.

Reminder to everyone: I'm still continuing to accept

a) suggestions for plots people want to see happen in the empty spaces of October and November.

b) suggestions for the traits and potential names of atium alloy metal-minds. Iron, Steel, Gold, Electrum, Cadmium, and Aluminum have all been finalized, everything else? Run wild. Either PM me or just post it in the thread and I'll get back to you.

 

[CrescentSickle]

*Blushes*
Oh, you say the nicest things!

I'm glad to be succeeding in my attempts at portraying everyone. Thank you for such a heartwarming review. You totally made my week.

Click to shrink...

Nothing but the truth.

Reminder to everyone: I'm still continuing to accept

...

b) suggestions for the traits and potential names of atium alloy metal-minds. Iron, Steel, Gold, Electrum, Cadmium, and Aluminum have all been finalized, everything else? Run wild. Either PM me or just post it in the thread and I'll get back to you.

Click to shrink...

A friend and I have been toying with ideas for other metals, given the research in the books. Things like: "Do isotopes matter?" "Can Uranium/Plutonium/etc. be used for Allomancy/Feruchemy?"

Not exactly related to Atium-alloys, but I can't help but think that when Renka and the Queen start brainstorming experiments, I imagine that will play a part.

You probably have all that covered already, though.

 

[Obloquy]

Life Ore Death​

* September 23 [Captain Marvel PoV]

'This is totally great! I've been wanting to get to know these guys and hang forever, and I really hope we all get along. Sure, it's a downer what happened with Mr. Tornado and his family,' and I had the Wisdom of Solomon to assure me that everyone was going to be unhappy for a while and it was healthy for them to be like that, 'but once we work together and find out who's making those animals hurt people and make them stop, they should get happier to have it all done and we can all stay friends when their hearts all start healing.'

The Wisdom of Solomon was very rarely wrong – although the Wizard had warned me not to use it to understand women, but that was a personal, selfish use anyway so Captain Marvel didn't do that and Billy Batson knew better, too – but looking at all the glares on the faces in the bio-ship, I wasn't feeling too confident about it.

<Disapproval. Deception. Loneliness. >

Ferris sighed and pulled her hand away from that awesome talking Sphere because it didn't want to let her pet it goodbye, and then she got on the ship.

"That seems to be a theme with a lot of people, today," Kid Flash said as he, Robin, and Aqualad filed onto the ship. And I was worried about whether Aqualad was okay to be walking around while he was still burned, and he had a bandage over his left eye, but if Batman and Aquaman thought it was okay for him to be out then I shouldn't try to argue, so I didn't.

Aqualad stopped in the entryway to the ship and straightened his back. "No."

No one said anything.

"Uh… no what?" I asked. Half the team twitched like they'd forgotten I was here, and 'I'm not that lame that I would be forgotten, am I? C'mon guys, can't we please be friends?'

"I am the leader of this team… I have said before that I did not want this position, but I have taken it and you all have followed me through and out of danger in the past," Aqulad announced firmly to the team.

"Yeah, but if you keep leading us into-,"

"Then do not be a hero!" Ferris snapped at Kid Flash, who flinched.

'That seems a bit extreme. From both of them,' I noted unhappily, but I didn't know what all was going on with them.

"Thank you," Aqualad said to Ferris. "However, my point is that, no matter what the Batman says, I am not the leader of this team because the Batman says so. I am the leader of this team because you, all of you, have trusted me to lead you on our missions, and have given your words that you will follow my orders. I lead, I do not rule."

"Yeah," scoffed Kid Flash, "and look where that got us." I wilted on Aqualad's behalf, because bad things happened, and he was sorry even though he wasn't the bad guy here, and no one else seemed to appreciate that and I couldn't help him except by staying silent and letting it all play out, according to the Wisdom of Solomon. "Seems like trust is a one-way street here."

"I assure you, it is not. I would trust everyone here with my life, and I am not pleased that the reverse is no longer true. Out of respect for that, as the leader of this team, I am going to hold a vote."

"Oh?" Artemis asked archly.

"Well, democracy is a step up from a one-man secret-police state," Robin grumbled. "What about?"

"Whether to have Ferris replace me as leader of this team until I have regained your trust."

"Hggk," the older girl choked, wide-eyed.

'Whoa, I didn't see that coming either. …But she is the oldest one here, right? And she's Superman's sidekick, and he leads the Justice League right now, so it makes sense,' I figured, nodding my head along.

"Ferris?" Robin asked. "She's been doing this less than… well…"

"She's been doing it longer than me," Zatanna pointed out. "And… I'm not happy that she slapped me yesterday," to which I wondered why that had happened and who owed whom an apology, "but she got me free when I never thought I could, and she was getting the rest of us moving and she's the one who let the League know what happened. My Dad probably wouldn't let me be here right now if she hadn't stood up for me making my own choices."

"Yes. And while Ferris has less experience fighting crime than many of us, Robin, she survived a civil war in her home, did her best to ensure that as many people as possible survived as well, potentially saving thousands of lives, and then she led the efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event. By now she know our methods, and our rules of engagement, and she has been the leader of our team in all but formal title since the events of last night, while I have been…" He touched the bandage over his eye. "I have been less than optimal, both as a combatant, and as a leader. Ferris, for this mission, will you lead the Team?"

She still hadn't quite recovered from having her name tossed out, and just stared mutely at the rest of us.

"I-," she tried, and couldn't quite say anything else. If I'd been next to her I'd have put a hand on her shoulder, but if I stood up to walk over to her side I'd steal her thunder, and I knew it was important to let them all handle this.

'It's never fun when the grown-ups lean over your shoulder to make sure you're doing your work they way they thought it should be done instead of the way you thought you should do it, even if they just want to help.' I didn't want to do that to them.

"…As long as… we avoid what happened with Cheshire, yeah, I'll follow her orders," Artemis said. "Your orders," she corrected, looking Ferris in the eye that time.

"Me too," Zatanna agreed.

"I've got your back, and I know you'll have mine," Kid Flash said, nodding.

"I'm…" Robin trailed off.

"I'm with you," Miss Martian decided.

"…Yeah, fine. It's not like you could mess us up any worse," Superboy grumbled.

"I'm not sure…" Robin said slowly.

"Finally! Someone with sense," Ferris said, and I had no clue why she was so exasperated when everyone was saying nice things about her.

'Maybe, if she had some bad experience leading in that war Aqualad talked about, and it really sucks that she had to go through that, but she might not trust herself as much as we all will,' I guessed.

"I'm not sure, but I was sure about Aqualad, and he was sure too, and he sure ended up being wrong. So I guess the only way to be sure is to try. I'm on board, if it's for this one mission."

"…what?" she checked bluntly.

"What has happened is that you have the floor, team leader," Aqualad told her as he took a seat. "Is there anything you wish to… No, I will stop offering advice that I should not give." He shook his head, and gestured for her to speak. We all leaned forward.

Slowly, Ferris looked around the faces while we all looked at her.

'Is she blushing? That's really sweet. I hope she's feeling all the warm fuzzies we're sending to her. You can do it, Ferris!'

"I feel… guilty. I wish you all did not trust me with this," she complained. "But… fine. I will lead. For today, for one mission. So. Miss Martian, can we fly?"

"Right! Bio-ship to Re- oh." I realized whom she had been about to contact and my heart went out to her crestfallen expression. I almost got out of my seat, but she shook the feelings away first. "Bio-ship to hangar? Are we cleared to take off?"

<This is Black Canary. Bio-ship, you are cleared. Opening hangar doors. >

Not long after, we were in the sky.

"How long do we fly?" Ferris asked when we were all settled in.

"Local time is seven oh three in the morning," Robin answered. "We're looking at a five hour flight-time, and a nine-and-a-half hour time difference, so we'll arrive on scene at nine in the evening, India standard time."

"Five hours? I see… My metal-minds are low, so: debrief, then one more talk in two hours, then strategy discussion before we end flying." Ferris nodded firmly. "Robin, explain to me what this mission is and why it is important? Will we have to fight? Also, why is guerilla gorilla a joke?"

I didn't know what a guerilla was, either, so I paid super-extra-careful attention when Robin – the Boy Wonder!! And I was hanging with him!! That was so cool!! – started to explain. He pulled up the same articles on what had happened, but they were smaller on his wrist-top, so I couldn't see the pictures as well or read the words at all.

"Hamilton Hill, the Mayor of Gotham, was in India on a hunting trip on his vacation, and they went to a place where there had been a lot of reports of 'devil animals' from the locals. The reports were basically about monster animals, like two-headed crocodiles, vultures with tiger fangs, monkeys with wings-,"

"""Like the Wizard of Oz?"""

"Jinx!" I called to Artemis and Kid Flash. "Jinx! We said the same thing so now you can't talk until I say your names!" I smiled at them, happy I was the first to say it. Apparently, they didn't want to play along, though.

"Yeah, I get it, we should be quiet already, geez," Kid Flash grumbled, folding his arms.

"That's not what I-,"

"It's fine, Captain Marvel. Mission now, debriefing, serious subject, yeah. Keep going," Artemis told Robin.

"Aww," I muttered.

"Yeah," Robin commented. "So, devil animals. Mayor Hill and his cronies then got shot up by, supposedly, a gorilla with a machine gun. The animal is called a gorilla, and it was dressed for something called guerilla warfare, which is the joke," he added to Ferris. "Batman did some more research, and included among the 'devil animal' stories are some about people with animal parts too, or vice-versa, as well as some local people who've gone missing in the area."

"We can expect a fight?" Ferris clarified.

"At the very least, we'll be looking at tracking down the gorilla with the gun," Robin confirmed, "and then we need to find out where the gorilla got the gun and how he learned to use it. And check whether the other 'devil animal' stories have any more truth to them, too."

"Yes," Ferris mused slowly. We all waited for her to say anything else. "Does anyone have anything else to say?" It looked like the question caught the others off-guard, but I put my hand up. "Captain Marvel," she said, calling on me just like Mrs. Bennet or Mr. Palm did in class.

If, you know, I had gone to class as Captain Marvel instead of as Billy Batson.

"I just wanted to say again that I think it's really awesome that you guys let me come along, and I really hope we can all be good friends." 'I hope I didn't sound… no, no, sounding eager is exactly what I want.'

Most of them didn't say anything, but Ferris gave a nice, polite nod to me.

"Thank you, Captain Marvel," she said. "Anyone else?"

"After we finish-," Superboy cut off and looked at Miss Martian.

No one said anything for a brief bit.

"No," Ferris declared after another few seconds. "You are being rude. Say speaking, or invite Captain Marvel in," she ordered. 'Oh, they must be talking in their minds like Martian Manhunter does. I wish they'd include me, but I guess they don't want me to hear. I should make them feel more comfortable.'

"I don't have super-hearing," I offered. "If you guys want to talk without me, I can go fly outside for a little." Ferris glanced at me, pursed her mouth, and intently dragged her gaze slowly across every other member on the Team.

"Thank you, Captain Marvel. Kid Flash, you raise a good point, which I will say now to his face instead of behind his back," she pronounced slowly at Flash's sidekick.

"Um," he spluttered.

'Oh, she's angry. That sounds like the same voice Becky Taylor used when Brian said he didn't like her hair and he didn't realize he'd hurt her feelings.' I wilted sympathetically, and then I paid careful attention to the big girl in charge.

"Captain Marvel, you are a member of the Justice League. We are not. As Robin says – but not out loud because he is being rude – this team came together because Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad did missions differently than the Justice League. We have different… what were the words?"

"Protocols. The team uses different methods, we have different reactions, priorities…" Robin trailed off.

"And sometimes," she continued, "the team does the things that the Justice League does not like, or plans the things."

"Ferris! Why are you telling him that?" Kid Flash squawked.

"Because. Captain Marvel, are you willing to promise that you will be a member of the team, and obey our… obey my orders, while I am team leader? Even if what the team does is not what the Justice League wants?" My heart soared.

"You guys want me to be on the Team! Like, a real member of the Team? That's totally awesome!" 'This is now one of the best days of my life! Oh, wow, this is going to be so great!' The Wisdom of Solomon nudged me again. "Oh, but… I won't promise to do anything bad if you tell me to. But that's the same thing I told Batman when he asked if I would do what he said, and I don't think you're going to want me to do anything bad, and he hasn't, so is that okay?"

"That is good," Ferris nodded, which meant 'Oh yes yes yes I'm a member of the Team now!'

"Don't worry, we don't go around killing people," Artemis grumbled.

"Not unless we get brainwashed again," Kid Flash muttered. "Ow! What, that was-,"

"Enough," Ferris snapped at Kid Flash and Artemis. "Kid Flash, I know." He looked a lot more sorry at that than if she had said she was angry at him or disappointed because he said something bad, 'but maybe what he said wasn't that bad? I don't know. Man, I hope I start getting the in-jokes pretty soon. I still don't get a lot of what the League guys say. But…'

"So I'm a member of the team now? Like, for real?" I checked eagerly. "Do I get a card like the Justice League, or is there a secret handshake or anything?"

"What do you think we are, ten?" Robin asked. There was a lot of mean stuff in his voice.

'Wow. That really hurt,' I realized, rubbing at the ache in my heart. 'I can't take it like that. They don't know how old I am.'

"Says the thirteen-year-old," Kid Flash countered, but he said it a lot nicer, and then he and Robin were smiling, so I hoped it was an in-joke and tried to laugh it off.

"If I ask you not to tell the Batman about what we say, do you promise to not to tell?" Ferris cut in.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," I promised proudly, drawing the X as I finished, "stick a needle in my eye."

It was harder to tell, but when I looked at Ferris because she drew in a biiig breath like she was about to scream, her face looked really pale.

'She is really pale,' I realized, crossing my eyes to get a better look because her face was abruptly just in front of mine.

"What the Rusting Mists did you just say?" she snarled, low and dangerous like I was in a looooottt of trouble.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you I'm sorry," I babbled quickly, hoping she wouldn't kick me off the team when I only just got on. If I didn't have the Stamina of Atlas, her fingers would probably have hurt when she dug them in while grabbing my shoulders harder.

'I didn't want to hurt your feelings, please don't kick me off the team!'

"Whoa, Ferris! Stay traught, okay? What's up?" Robin hopped out of his chair to pry her off of me.

"Yeah, easy, easy. It's just a schoolyard kiddie rhyme," Kid Flash added, getting over to us first and trying to soothe her temper. I felt her let go, and she leaned back.

"A kiddie rhyme?" Her voice was not nice, and her eyes were half-lidded and still glaring at me. "Kiddie, kid? A child's rhyme about dying and poking met- ah, poking needles through your eyes?" she semi-snarled a little more calmly.

"I didn't mean to upset you," I protested again softly. "I'm really sorry."

"A lot of kid's stuff has some pretty gruesome origins," Robin told her. "I mean, Ring Around The Rosie?"

"What about it?" I asked him. "Ring around the rosies,\ Pockets full of posies,\ Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" I sang. 'Well, I had heard a few kids sing it we all fall dead, but… okay, yeah, it isn't a very nice song if you sing the words like that.'

"Really?" Robin asked. "It's originally about the Black Plague. You know, the thing that killed one-third of Europe?"

"…Oh." 'That's not very happy at all.' "How does that work?" I asked, still not seeing how they were connected. 'If it's really old, is it like trying to read Shakespeare and how they wrote really funny back then because there were no dictionaries?'

"Depending on the version, 'Ring around the roses,' either refers to the religious rosaries put in rooms where they put plague victims, or it refers to walking a ring around the plague victims, avoiding them to keep from catching it, because a 'rosie rash' was one of the first symptoms of getting sick," Robin listed off. "People carried posies as charms to ward off the plague."

"'Ashes, Ashes,' was referring to burning the bodies, right?" Kid Flash added.

"Nope," Robin told him. "Back then they didn't burn a lot of the bodies, they just used mass graves mostly. Ashes was either the ashy skin color of people with the plague, or it was the sound 'achoo!' Sneezing and coughing were some of the last symptoms before victims died."

"And we all fall dead," I muttered, embarrassed. 'That really isn't a nice song after all.'

"To return to the needles," Ferris hissed, not any happier.

"Right, right! I guess that could be upsetting. I never thought about what the promise actually was," I apologized. "I'm sorry I upset you. Is a pinkie promise safe?" I asked, extending my finger.

Ferris glowered, but it looked like she was thinking it over.

"…It is a common rhyme? Not about…" she trailed off, looking at Robin instead of me.

"Yeah. You hear it all the time in elementary schools," he admitted with a shrug.

"…Okay." She sighed heavily. "I am… sorry. At home… no, never mind. How do we pinkie promise?"

Robin quickly walked her through it, I promised not to tattle-tale to Batman unless it was really bad and I needed to save people's lives, and we linked pinkies.

"If that's over with," Superboy grumped, "can we finally talk about that damn robot? I want to start looking for him as soon as we finish this mission."

Ferris took a deep, frustrated breath.

"Is there anything more to say about this mission?" she inquired. "…No? Yes? Okay. Superboy, what do you suggest?"

He scowled. "I say we find that traitorous tin can with or without the League's permission and turn his freaky family into scrap! We can't just let them walk away, and the League will never let us help!"

"But," I had to ask, "isn't Red Tornado your friend? I mean-," Superboy looked like he was about to yell at me.

*clap*

We all looked at Ferris, who put her hands back on her hips.

"The Batman," she announced tersely, "has promised that we will be told as the Justice League searches for Red Tornado. When I talk to him, later, I will see if he keeps his promise. If not, I… well, the team leader after this mission will decide what we do. But. We will not search for him right now. It will be the next leader's decision, but for now, we will wait one week-,"

"That's-!'

"We will wait one week or I will bench you for two," Ferris threatened Superboy. He backed down in a huff. "In Dakota City with the Superman, I fought the Blue robots, all four, with the Superman, the Icon, and the Icon's sidekick Rocket to help. We still were badly hurt and almost died. The Blue Beam made an illusion and changed our voices so that Rocket and I fought.

"The illusion was of the female Red robot, and the voice was her voice, and Blue Bolt used the same thing to hold me to a wall that they used in the mountain. In the cameras, I saw the Red robots used Blue Beam's invisible bubble and lasers, Blue Bolt's electricity, and Blue Bite's ice as well, and maybe they had and did not use Blue Boom's sound.

"As thus, we are going to wait," she insisted. "We are going to heal. We are going to train, practice new tricks to fight the new tricks they have, and when we can fight well we will fight. If the League finds Red Tornado first, we can stand on the side like you say they want and watch. And if the League wins, good. If the League loses, then we can fight the tricks better and save them. And if the Batman lies, then we will find the Red Tornado without the League, and the Captain Marvel can tell them that we decided to do this because they lied. Yes?"

"If you want?" I offered. She nodded briefly to me.

"But. At now, my metal-minds are low. Miss Martian and Aqualad were stuck in fire. I broke Zatanna's finger, and I do not know how much magic you have. Artemis is low on arrows, yes?" Artemis fiddled with her quiver. "Robin was hit in the head. Kid Flash was shocked. Superboy was hit by a laser that has hurt the Superman." He folded his arms.

"I'm fine," he grunted, but she kept talking.

"The Batman has given us, I think, an easy mission. Yes? But the Superman thought going to Dakota would be safe. The Batman thought Clayface would be safe to track, but he fought us and we yet won. The game was supposed to not even be a mission, and talking to ice people was supposed to be talking and practice. If this is an easy mission, it is still a mission.

"We will do this and learn if we are strong. We will then take the time to become stronger. Only then, I think, will we fight the Red Robots. The next team leader may say differently, but today everyone here has promised that I will lead and they will do what I say, and so you will do what I say or I will bench you and tell the Batman to bench you. Yes?"

Everyone chorused some version of 'Okay,' me included.

"Like a bunch of animals will be a threat," Superboy grunted, after.

"Then we will not need you to fight them, and you can stay above and watch the bio-ship, yes?" Ferris challenged cheerfully.

"…Sorry."

"Yes. Now. Mission. Robin, is- does your computer work?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Who also has a computer? For the internet?" Hands went up. "Share and talk with people who do not, or think. But for two hours I will meditate. While we fly, learn. What are the rumors? How many people are missing? How could a gorilla have a gun? Most important is what could make this happen? What is the best possible thing, where we have an easy mission and win? What is the worst possible thing, where we all could die again if there is a fight? Think. In two hours, we meeting again."

"Right." Robin nodded.

"Got it," Kid Flash agreed.

"Yes ma'am," Miss Martian chirped.

"I will need to borrow a computer," Aqualad admitted.

"Me too. The league has communicators, but I didn't bring mine, and I'm not allowed to have a cell phone yet," I added.

"…Oh, fine," Robin grumbled to us both.

"You can borrow mine," Zatanna offered to me. Artemis just nodded.

"Good," Ferris finished. "I am going to meditate. Tell me if I need to know, or two hours are passed."

 

[The Froggy Ninja]

Wow. He is really bad at hiding the fact that he's a gen year old. "I'm not allowed to have a cell phone yet,"? Honestly you'd think they'd have figured it out by now based on the various hints and his tendency to make schoolyard promises.

 

[Xzarg]

Wow. He is really bad at hiding the fact that he's a gen year old. "I'm not allowed to have a cell phone yet,"? Honestly you'd think they'd have figured it out by now based on the various hints and his tendency to make schoolyard promises.

Click to shrink...

He is pretty bad at it, but it's unlikely for people to guess this 200+ pound dude is secretly a child. It just too crazy of an idea. A far more likely assumption would be that he failing miserably in trying to fit in with teenagers he knows nothing about.

 

[The Froggy Ninja]

He is pretty bad at it, but it's unlikely for people to guess this 200+ pound dude is secretly a child. It just too crazy of an idea. A far more likely assumption would be that he failing miserably in trying to fit in with teenagers he knows nothing about.

Click to shrink...

I don't know. He just seems way too earnest for that. Like, I probably wouldn't know at this point, but what with magic and everything I'd at least be suspicious.

 

[stsword]

Wow. He is really bad at hiding the fact that he's a gen year old. "I'm not allowed to have a cell phone yet,"? Honestly you'd think they'd have figured it out by now based on the various hints and his tendency to make schoolyard promises.

Click to shrink...

At one point Captain Marvel had a spell protecting his secret identity, like those magical girls who maintain a secret identity despite only changing their outfits.

So Billy might have a field of "Don't be silly, I'm an adult, pay no attention to how childish I seem."

 

[The Froggy Ninja]

At one point Captain Marvel had a spell protecting his secret identity, like those magical girls who maintain a secret identity despite only changing their outfits.

So Billy might have a field of "Don't be silly, I'm an adult, pay no attention to how childish I seem."

Click to shrink...

That does make sense.