Life Ore Death
Rebuttal - part 2
* August 19 [Superboy PoV]
Even though we were traveling through a wizard's tower on a quest to retrieve an object belonging to a hero who predated the Justice League, I wasn't thinking about much of any of that as we left the entrance room of the tower.
I wasn't thinking about how unreal it was that we were walking into an endless desert in the middle of a small tower, or about the revelations involving Artemis's family, or any of the suspicious things I would remember about the others.
I didn't even think much that the sunlight was fake, not rejuvenating my Kryptonian body the way that actual sunlight did.
I just thought about my name.
'
Conner, huh.' I eyed M'gann again, and she noticed and gave me a hesitant smile. '
I wonder where she got it from. I mean… being given a name by someone else is the usual thing, right? And using the same last name as your,' I grimaced. Superman had made it clear that he didn't think I was his son, and even pretending was really presumptuous of me, no matter how much I wished-
No.
I was a flawed, half done, underpowered, half-breed copy of the real deal. I would have to work and become worthy if I wanted Superman, the strongest hero in the world, to acknowledge me.
"Conner El," I whispered, inaudible almost to my own super hearing. Hearing I had been ignoring.
"Hey, Superboy! Conner! You still with us?" Kid Flash asked.
"What is it?" I snapped, annoyed at how casually he said something important. '
Though isn't what you do with names?'
"Have you been paying attention? We were trying to figure out what this test was and how we pass it," Kid Flash said.
"How about: find the next door and walk through it?" I suggested. It couldn't be that tough to figure out.
"What door? Where?" Kid Flash threw his arms out at the wasteland around us. "Nothing but sand for miles around in this here pocket dimension! Oh, and while we're talking about which way we should be walking, this heat is doing a number on Aqualad and Miss Martian, so we can't just sit around, either!"
"Miss Martian," Ferris said, looking at her. "Can you shape shift become an animal for the sun?" We all tried to work that out for half a second. Idly, I noticed with infrared that she'd done her body-temperature-changing thing again, except more. It was probably one of her spells, although I didn't know (and didn't really care) why she would randomly change her body heat up and down for no reason during almost every day.
"Become a desert animal? Something that could take the heat better? I could try, but what should I do?" I thought back, remembering what I'd learned about animals and biology when I had been in the tank.
"Most of the desert animals are nocturnal, but that won't work here," I supposed. '
Maybe I could suggest she become a camel? Except those are really ugly and she might get upset, plus it's not fair to ask M'gann to become something that the rest of us might ride. Wait, I also had lessons about light and color!' "Maybe you could change your skin color to reflect more light, so that your body doesn't absorb it?"
"Um, what color would that be? Like a… mirror?" she asked slowly, sweating more under the heat.
"If you could, that would work. Light colors reflect more light, so changing your skin to pale yellow or white would also-," M'gann had jolted like I'd hit her.
"You want me to change my skin to white!" She yelped.
'
I try to help and I just upset her. Isn't that just like the failure? She probably… oh yeah, she got upset when I suggested she try to look Caucasian or African or Asian, and she probably thought I meant the same type of white.'
"I-I didn't mean human Caucasian white," I tried to tell her. "I know you don't like to look too human because you're proud of being a Martian, but if you made your skin chalk white you'd still look really different and the sun shouldn't bother you as much." My idea really didn't pacify her; she just got more upset and drew back.
"Come on, Miss Em, you'd look beautiful no matter what you look like," Kid Flash added, sucking up like always.
'
M'gann is always pretty, but don't try to get close to her by insulting her shape shifting skills, you ass. She could make herself look anyway she wanted, pretty or ugly or plain or gorgeous, and she'd still be wonderful no matter how she looked because of her heart. But you aren't trying to appreciate that, are you Wally? You're more interested in the bits of flesh in front of her heart.'
At least M'gann wasn't falling for his honeyed words, but making her more upset wasn't something I'd wanted either.
"Blue!" Artemis jumped in. "You could shift yourself to be really pale blue! Would that work?" We all stayed silent.
Slowly, M'gann's skin shifted into a pale blue, softer than any robin's eggs.
"See, you look gorgeous," Kid Flash said. Artemis humphed at him.
"Aqualad, are you doing okay?" she asked.
"I can manage at the moment," he said heavily, "but more than thirty or forty minutes in this heat will begin to cause me a problem." Ferris shifted closer to him and put a hand on his forehead.
"Tough, man," Kid Flash sympathized.
"I have been thinking over the situation: because our entry door has disappeared, it does make sense that we need to find the exit. We also know that this room is specifically a test, but not what it is testing."
"Wilderness survival skills?" Artemis threw out. "Adaptability? Find the monster and kill it? Break the illusion spell over the treasure chest? Could be a lot of things."
"Could be any or all or none, new girl," Kid Flash pointed out dryly.
"In the worst case-scenario, the room is testing our endurance and resolve, and we must continue to search for a certain amount of time before the door will appear to us. Failing that, it is testing either our strategic or deductive skills, through the ways that we search. Are you doing that on purpose? I am grateful for the relief," he added. Ferris had placed one hand on his forehead and one hand on the back of his neck.
"What's she doing?" Kid Flash asked. I narrowed my eyes, looking at her briefly through x-ray and infrared.
"She's really cold," I realized, stepping forward to put a hand on her arm. It felt like something just pulled from the refrigerator. Ferris looked at me, but didn't appear to mind that I'd grabbed her like that. "You can store heat the way you do other things?" She nodded. "Are you ever going to tell us what all the things you can do are?" I asked. Her ability to just drag out something perfect for whichever situation we ended up in was really annoying.
'
Frost breath, like Superman has, would be useful right now. This feels hotter than any of those days in July, and there's no shade or breeze to help. Come on, you stupid body.' Nothing happened when I huffed on my own hands.
"Later. I will say later," Ferris answered me with a smile. I wanted to hit her. I knew she could have healed it, or ducked it, but I also knew trying to deck her wouldn't be helpful right then, and I forced the urge down. I could usually beat her in spars, so I'd just save my anger for, as she apparently liked to say, 'Later.'
"So, do you have a plan, oh fearless leader?" Kid Flash asked.
"Well, if all else fails, Wall-man, why don't we just find the technology keeping this dimension open and shut it off?"
"I'm glad you agree with me, Artemis, except…" Kid Flash retaliated, "one, tech of this level might also look like anything; two, it might be stored outside the dimension or in a separate pocket dimension; and three, collapsing a dimension with us in it is a lot more likely to get us killed than cutting a hole in the bottom of our own lifeboat would. So let's just do what our team leader suggests. Unless you were going to suggest the same thing, Kaldur? It would be faster for me to run a search pattern, I think."
"Given that we are being tested in a group," Aqualad answered, "I do not believe that splitting up will be a profitable idea. We must search smart, instead of hard. Superboy, please look around with your vision and try to find anything."
"Got it," I agreed, shifting to x-ray vision. I peered around, turning in a slow circle.
I quickly discovered that this place made no sense.
"Miss Martian, please fly as high as you can and try to identify landmarks in any direction. The shapelessness of this desert is a part of what concerns me about it. It suggests that we are supposed to become lost, without any navigation, if we leave the area where we began."
"Right," M'gann agreed, rising up. Her skin blended very well with the sky, I noticed when I looked at her and shifted back to normal vision. Then I shifted to infrared and started searching again.
"Um, Aqualad, if we leave this place, can't we just use our foot steps to figure out where we came from? There hasn't been any wind to blow them away," Artemis suggested.
"What footprints?" Aqualad replied. We all looked down. I had to shift back to human vision again, but I realized he was right: except for where my feet were exactly, my scuffling hadn't left any marks. I walked forward, and the sand just lifted back up from where I had been.
"It's not sand at all," I realized. I kicked at it, and instead of sending out a spray of grains and grit, it bent under the pressure.
"Yeah, it's like those egg carton foam things people use to make mattresses softer," Kid Flash agreed, also kicking. I knelt down and felt the giving material with my fingers. It was… odd, and scratchy. I'd never run into anything like it before.
'
It would probably just spring back up if I punched it, but I wonder what would happen if I got a good handful and tore some out?' I splayed my fingers to attempt it, but M'gann called down to us.
"Guys?" Her voice was a little strangled, and I might have missed it without my super hearing. I looked up and saw her drop down to us quickly. "Guys, stop messing with the ground, it's alive!"
"It's what?" Kid Flash asked. Ferris said nothing, just poked down again with a frown.
"Alive? In what way? Does it have a mind?" Aqualad asked.
"This… we're in a world turtle situation, aren't we?" Artemis guessed, fingering her bow.
"It's not a desert, this is one giant creature, splayed out and sleeping," M'gann told us, shaking. "Those dunes? Folds in its skin, like those wrinkles on old people. And it's asleep now, but I think making it wake up would make us fail whatever the Tower is testing us on. And we are in its
ear right now, so can I please set up a link?"
I saw Ferris grimace, but everyone else nodded.
She'd never grown comfortable with telepathy, even through the experiments I'd watched her and M'gann do. Her duralumin would make her more susceptible to a telepathic link and strengthen links, and aluminum would make her more resistant to whatever it was about telepathy that hurt her, but at the same time she'd said it reinforced the dislike of it that was part of her identity.
Tapping zinc made her able to quickly communicate and process messages over links, and electrum let her sound louder messages, or better block them out. To my knowledge, Ferris still hadn't done much to experiment with psychic attacks, but she was at least experienced in withstanding whatever stress telepathy put her through.
[
Link is up, is everyone connected?]
[
Ferris.]
[
Aqualad.]
[
Kid Flash.]
[
Superboy,] I sent.
[
Artemis.]
[
I still can't believe you gave us your real-]
[
Will you shut up already?] her voice spat.
[
Kid Flash, please don't pick fights with Artemis,] M'gann sent. It had been odd at first, but now the touch of her mind was oddly soothing. I guessed part of it reminded me of when I had still felt safe in my pod with the Genomorphs, but the rest of it was just that I appreciated the way she cared about all of us so much. [
Ferris, Superboy, are you both handling the link well?]
[
No problems,] I quickly assured her.
[
Tapping aluminum and electrum.] I imagined I could actually here the strained wince in Ferris's voice aloud. [
I am managing and I will continue to do so.]
[
Now we need a plan.] Aqualad called us to order. [
Presumably, our test is to demonstrate some virtue that Doctor Fate would want the taker of his helmet to possess in our search to find the next door. We have established that we are standing on the ear of a tremendously large being, who we do not wish to wake. Miss Martian and I likely may only withstand the heat of this sunlight for a half hour to an hour before it begins to become dangerous.]
[
This isn't sunlight,] I sent, not quite sure why it mattered to me. [
It doesn't have the same rejuvenating effects that real sunlight does for me.] I refused to admit the possibility that in enough time, I would be having troubles with the heat as well, because it wouldn't happen. I wouldn't let it.
[
Wait, so we're standing on a giant creature that is sleeping under a big heat lamp? Why the lamp? What's it plugged into for power?] Kid Flashed wondered
[
Magic?] I sent drily.
[
No, Kid Flash may have a point. This is a constructed scenario built for a purpose. The source of the light may be important.] Aqualad pointed out. [
Miss Martian, can you fly up to get a better view?] I got a different idea.
[
That close to something that hot and bright? I think I'd pass out first,] she admitted.
'
Superman could fly up and be completely safe,' I mused bitterly, before I pointed out my realization.
[
If we're standing on the monster, then what is the monster standing on?] I asked. [
Maybe there's a floor, and a wall, and a door on the wall.] M'gann perked up.
[
Oh, yes, I saw something like a big floor. It was a long, loooong way down, but it looked like something metal.]
[
Then we shall attempt to descend from our current location. Miss Martian, if you would lead the way,] Aqualad suggested. She floated up to get her bearings again, before she began to lead us to the nearest edge of the giant ear.
We left our indistinct starting space an unknown distance behind.
We walked.
We walked.
We trod up and down slopes.
We hiked up the enormous dunes of flesh for long enough that I began to sweat as well.
[
I think we're about a third of the way to the nearest edge,] she updated after we'd been trudging for a while.
[
This isn't good,] Kid Flash sent. [
Aqualad, you're looking like you're nearing your limit, and I could really do with a cold drink myself. Miss Martian, how are you handling being even hotter than usual?]
[
I can manage until we get to the edge, but I'd need to recover or be carried for a bit after that. I wish we could find some… shade! Hello, Megan! Sorry, I just had the idea of resting in the shade under the ear. That should work, right?]
[
I would appreciate a drink from someone's canteen at some point,] Aqualad sent, and even his mental voice sounded drained and exhausted, [
but if Ferris will consent to occasionally-]
Without any further discussion Ferris stepped over to his side. Her muscles swelled and she pulled him onto her back.
[
Save your strength, I will carry and cool until later,] she sent quickly.
[
This was a bit more extreme than I think is necessary,] he complained. [
Should you not preserve your strength?]
[
I am only tapping an additional fifty or sixty percent, so I can keep this up for a long time. And since I am storing away heat, I can do that forever.]
[
Really forever?] Artemis asked. [
Do your, um, metal minds ever get full?]
[
Yes, eventually,] Ferris admitted, [
but heat is my best trait. At the current rate, I could store for over one hundred hours and not fill up my brass-minds. Less messaging, please?]
[
Right, sorry,] Artemis apologized.
We trudged on.
Kid Flash made a few mental comments and was shushed. Artemis threatened to shoot him.
We trudged further.
And further.
I volunteered to carry M'gann when she became too weary to keep floating as our guide, beating out Kid Flash's first offer because I was stronger and had better stamina.
'
And maybe, if I'm lucky, because she… no, it was probably just what she thought was the smartest choice.' All the same, she fit comfortably in my arms, and I hoped that she didn't confuse any flush from the heat that wasn't giving me any trouble for a blush about holding her in my arms.
I didn't want her to think I was some weirdo who couldn't focus on the mission.
Kid Flash was next to drop. He took off his mask and t-shirt, and that let him last even longer, but eventually he stumbled one too many times and Aqualad declared that Kid Flash needed to get off of his feet. Ferris offered to carry him as well, but Aqualad nixed the idea, and Artemis ended up supporting the sweaty, shirtless Kid Flash.
Her stream of telepathic commentary couldn't appear to decide whether she felt more disgusted because he was sweaty, or embarrassed that she had to be touching him like that, or superior because she had kept going with his mostly-dead weight after he went down. No matter what, and whatever she felt, Artemis was clear: [
I most certainly am not enjoying being this up-close and personal with Mister Super B.O., so stop snickering Miss Martian!] And that would have been the end of that.
Then we all realized that Kid Flash had let the entire exchange go by without a single mental comment, and everyone still conscious couldn't quite hide their worry.
But the heat wasn't anything I could fight against, except by walking, so I did.
We kept walking.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
AN: Huh. Wally killing time with his "true believers" schtick might have actually saved the Team time and trouble in the long run. I wasn't even trying to make a point about that with this, it's just the way it looks now that I'm looking at it in hindsight.
My subconscious does some strange things sometimes. If anyone wants to photoshop up a sky-blue picture of M'gann, that would be really cute.
