JLU: Kaddish (3/4)
***
Kaddish (3/4)
a Justice League Unlimited story
by Merlin Missy
Copyright 2005
PG
***
Chapter Two
***
Chapter Three
***
After his lunch, and he'd been careful not to take as much as he wanted because every time he ran up his tab too high he got a lecture from Batman, Wally hung out in the rec room, not really wanting to play any games or talk to anybody, but not wanting to go home, either.
He'd gone by Ops earlier, just as an alarm had sounded.
"Great " he'd said to Mr. Terrific. "Where am I going?"
"You're not," Mr. T. had responded. "It's a small problem in Midway City. I'm dispatching Ice and Fire."
Wally had instinctively backed off a half-step. He wasn't going on missions with Beatriz anymore.
"Okay," he'd come back. "So send me on the next mission."
Mr. Terrific had said, "You're off-duty until further notice."
And Wally had said, "What?"
Standard procedure, he'd been told. Which was a crock, as nothing was standard about what had happened, but there he was, ordered to stand down like some kid. He didn't ask who'd given the order, and didn't care when he'd been told, after a moment, who else was benched. He'd already figured Vixen was going to be sidelined for a while. He half-expected her to quit.
"But I worked last night," he'd tried. "And I was fine. And anyway, what are you planning on doing of there's an Omega Level alert? Just letting us sit it out while the Earth is destroyed?"
Blood had been high in his cheeks, under the hot mask, and he wanted to shout that he'd saved the world from Luthor and Brainiac before while the other six had almost been killed and he wasn't a child.
And Mr. Terrific had said, "If that's what it takes to keep you, any of you, from killing the next Legion of Doom member who crosses your path, yes."
Because it was about killing. It was about the line they didn't cross because they'd seen where crossing that line led them. And even though Wally knew he wouldn't, couldn't, the others also wouldn't and couldn't chance it from him, from Vixen, from any of them.
So he'd run, run through the Watchtower's corridors, speeding away from the thoughts in his head and the lead in his heart, and he'd run until he was exhausted, and then he'd gone to eat something, and Supes had come in all smiles to tell him they were breaking and remaking the Lego castle all over again because that's what they did when they were wounded.
And now he was here in the rec room, still a little hungry, still a little angry, and knowing the only way he was going to be able to afford dinner was to stay up here and cool his heels while everyone else did their jobs.
He grabbed a window seat and stared outside for a while, shutting down his brain as much as he could.
"Hey, buddy," said a voice, and he turned his head. Ralph had stretched the top half of his body into the room and over to where Wally sat. "How're you doing?"
"Fine," said Wally automatically.
"Sure you are," responded Ralph with a kindly smile and a patronizing tone. The rest of his body walked into the room and he shrank back to normal size. "Want to play something? The X-Box is free."
"No. Thanks. Not really in the mood."
"I get that. Hey, if you want to talk ... ?" Ralph spread his arms and shrugged. "I'm around. And I'm all ears."
Wally stared. "Shouldn't you have turned into a giant ear right then?"
"That's more Plastic Man's shtick." Ralph frowned.
"You and Plas not getting along?"
"No, we're good. It's just ... " Ralph let out a half-sigh, half-snort. "I thought it might be nice if Plas and J'onn and I did something just on our own for Metamorpho. You know, shapechanger thing. Plas said it was dumb."
"I don't think it's dumb," said Wally. "Did you hang out with Metamorpho much?"
"Not really," said Ralph, sitting down beside him in the window. "I don't think many of us did, you know?"
"I know." Metamorpho had really been John's friend. He'd joined when everyone else did, and he'd come and done his job, and he'd had a smile for most of them most of the time, and now there was a woman down on the planet whose lover was never coming home. Two, actually.
Vixen was on the no-fly list with him, and Wally hadn't seen her except at the memorial. Should go talk to her, he thought, and knew he'd find excuses not to.
Ralph asked, "Are you sure you don't want to play something?"
"I'm sure."
The door opened again, and there was a flash of a green uniform and Wally's brain wasn't nearly as fast as his heart, which jumped in his chest before the brain finally caught up and had its say. The new guy.
"Hi," said the new Lantern, with a friendly smile. "This place is huge, isn't it?"
"Yep," said Ralph. He turned back to Wally. "Well, buddy ... "
"I want the green one," Wally said, managing not to flinch as he pushed past Ralph to go to the Battlin' Bots table.
"Oh wow," said the new guy. "I haven't seen one of those in years."
"Well," said Ralph, "you could always ... "
Wally interrupted. "Butt in the chair, Dibny. Unless you're scared."
Ralph glared at him and plopped down. Wally didn't even look at the new guy, just started playing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the green-clad figure move around the room, poking at the different terminals they had set up, looking at the movies they had, not really saying much.
Jerk, Wally thought, knowing it wasn't fair and not caring.
When Ralph finally begged off to go home, claiming his wife would start worrying, Wally left the rec room too without a word to the new guy, and went for an early dinner alone in the cafeteria.
He lingered over his pasta as much as he could, chewing each bite to make it last. When he went back to the rec room, he saw that the Lantern was sitting in the same window seat Wally liked, looking out at the planet moving slowly below them and writing or something on a pad in his lap.
The rec room was boring anyway. Wally dashed to the Transporter and ordered a beam down to the planet. For some exercise, he ordered it sent to Argentina.
There were another two messages on his machine from Linda when he finally got home. Wally deleted them both and went straight to bed.
***
Thank God for email.
Mari had tried picking up the phone to call her agent five times, and each time she'd placed the phone back in its cradle. But she could sit at her slim laptop, and she could read the condolences he'd sent, the others from the people who knew her real email address, the many more covering the bulletin board at her official fan website. Later, she would respond to everyone, thanking them, but for now she only emailed her agent and asked him to cancel all her gigs through the middle of March.
Spring was a long time away, but she wanted, she needed the break. Too many people, too many stares.
She went to the website for the bank that handled most of her investments. Her stocks had taken a dive today, the first real trading day after the accident. Three heroes were dead and people were scared. She wasn't scared, and she didn't tell her broker to sell, and she didn't want to look at her retirement fund because it was linked to the second fund she'd set up on a whim six months ago after she'd gone to the movies with John and she'd mentioned kids and he hadn't quailed.
Love was believing you were going to grow old with someone.
She felt prickly like mermaid's feet: all abraded skin too tender and painful to touch. She would need to leave her loft soon, get back to the Watchtower, back to the world. Her job was to help people, and she needed to do that, but at the moment, all she could make herself do was finish a piece of toast and sleep and sleep and sleep.
Mari stared at the crust beside her coffee cup, and realized she was wrong about the toast.
***
It wasn't the first time Diana had let herself into Shayera's room uninvited, and again, she was there to take something, but now Clark was by her side and she wished more than anything that she didn't have to be there.
She set a few cardboard boxes on the bed. Clark stood back, clearly uncomfortable.
"Maybe you should go through her dresser," he said.
She considered arguing with him, and gave up. "Fine. Clean out her closet." He still looked upset. "For Athena's sake, Clark, they're uniforms. They won't bite you."
He reddened. "I don't like the idea of going through a woman's things."
Diana placed her hand on his. "She won't mind, Clark. Shayera loved you. We need to do this for her."
He nodded, and swallowed, and then took a second box to the closet. Diana went to the small dresser. A few trinkets, her cellphone, these went into the first box. Shayera hadn't been a collector, and most of her private possessions had been taken onto the Thanagarian Command ship during the invasion, which had left with them and without her. Around the room, Diana spied a few items from the Thanagarian scout ship Shayera, Vixen and Vigilante had commandeered: a spiked standard, a fire lamp, the unusual bedding.
As though he read her mind, Clark pulled out a Thanagarian military helmet from the closet, not Shayera's, but one looking much like that worn by the scientist who'd built the bypass. He set it in the same box as her mementos and went back to folding her uniforms.
The top drawer of the dresser was oddly empty, and held merely socks and a single pair of nylon stockings with a creamy garter belt. Diana raised one eyebrow and then packed everything away. The other drawers held neatly-folded shirts and jeans, which she transferred without refolding. They were going to be done in less time than it took to have a nice dinner, and that would be all of Shayera's life, packed away and finished.
"This is odd." Clark pulled out five boxes from the closet. "Candles?"
"Oh," Diana said. She remembered the night after Shayera's run-in with the rogue Thanagarians. Shayera had come to her room, grieving for all the pain she had caused so many. Diana had given her candles and told her to pray, in whatever way she could, burning a candle for each soul lost. Shayera had said there could be billions dead. "That's ... That was between us."
Clark looked at her curiously. "All right. Then how about you take these?" He reached in and brought out another four boxes.
Diana nodded her acceptance, knowing Clark couldn't understand what he'd asked . Diana had already lit her prayer candles for the souls of her three friends, and another for Toyman's lost soul. But she would light these candles for the souls Shayera had wronged, taking on her friend's self-imposed burden for her own, at least through these many boxes. She didn't know names, and could not imagine faces, but she believed the souls of the dead would recognize the lights of their own torches regardless, and if it truly mattered, she could always put in a prayer to her father and ask.
She went back to cleaning, humming a hymn in her throat as she did.
***
"Thanks," Kyle said, hanging up the phone. He crossed another listing off the newspaper. Affordable apartments in Metropolis were hard to find and harder to keep. Superman had told him his credit rating was going to be quietly repaired of its unusual absence of recent data, and Kyle was grateful, but he still wanted to get a jump start on putting his life back together here on Earth.
He needed an address, so he'd gotten a P.O. Box this morning. He needed a job, so he'd spent a good two hours on a terminal typing up his resume, with a nod from Superman that he should put "Wayne Foundation: Executive Intern" for the past few years. He needed to get his stuff out of storage, but settled for just getting more clothes out from the storage locker so he didn't have to buy civilian garb right off the bat. He needed money, and his ATM card had expired but his account was still active, so he'd spent the afternoon waiting at the bank to sign up for a new card and arrange for an unusual direct deposit.
He hadn't called anyone. He didn't have any immediate family left, but his grandfather was still alive, or had been. Kyle had sent a few letters home with John but had heard nothing back in years.
He stared at the phone on the table. It was a cell, small, prepaid, untraceable. He could call his Grandpa right now and tell him he was back. But he'd have to decide if he would tell the old man everything, or make up a story.
It was like coming alive again, like relearning how to walk after a stroke, and John had told him once it would be this way, but Kyle had never really known until now how much he'd taken for granted his own basic existence.
There was a chime in his room, and he looked around, wondering where it'd come from. The chime sounded again. Doorbell, right.
Kyle grabbed his mask and put it on, then said, "Come in."
The door slid open. Two very pretty blonde girls stood on the other side, and Kyle's mouth went completely dry. Note to self: if this is a dream, do not wake up now.
"Hi " he said in a voice one octave too high.
"Hi," said the taller one, and Kyle's brain snapped back into use. She was dressed like Superman, and unless Mr. Kent had developed his very own specialized and kind of crazy fanclub, that meant this was Supergirl. "Can we come in?"
"Sure. Um. There's not really much room to sit in here. Sorry," he said as they walked in together, each taking in the room with a single sweep.
The shorter girl stuck out her hand. "I'm Stargirl. You can call me Courtney." Kyle shook her hand. Now that she was a little closer, and he'd heard her speak, he was pretty sure she wasn't legal, and he kept the handshake friendly but polite.
"Green Lantern. Nice to meet you, Courtney." He held out his hand to Supergirl. "And I think I can guess who you are."
"Call me Kara," she said, shaking his hand gently. Kyle realized she was trying not to crush his fingers.
"Hi, Kara." He turned back to his stuff and hurriedly started piling the papers on his bed into a neat stack to set on the little table. "So, to what do I owe the honor, ladies?"
Courtney giggled. Kara elbowed her. "You're new. We figured you might like some company for dinner. If you haven't already eaten, that is."
"That'd be great. Thanks. Let me just … " The top of his stack started sliding, and physics took over. He momentarily thought about using the ring to gather everything together, then gave up and let it all fall before he bent down to pick everything up again.
Both girls bent down to help him, and Kyle made a point of not staring.
"What's this?" Kara asked, picking up one of his sketchbooks.
"Just some pictures," he said, taking it carefully from her. Courtney took another book from the floor and flipped through the pages. "Hey "
"These are pretty good," she said, finally handing over the book.
"Thanks," he said, a little irritated. No reason to be, he supposed, but he still felt exposed. "Are you ready to go?"
"Whenever you are," Courtney said brightly. Kara stood half a step behind her, and the roll of her eyes was meant only for Kyle to see. Kyle couldn't stop his smile as he gestured for them to go out first.
The canteen on this Tower was small but serviceable. He'd had some trouble at lunch (he'd slept through breakfast) with the cashier; yes, the Green Lantern had a tab, no, he didn't look anything like the guy the cashier knew as Green Lantern. Different cashier this time, and they were merely waved past with a smile.
The girls sat to either side of him at a square table, chatting, trying to coax a few personal details out of him. He ate his food and gave away only what he thought wouldn't be especially revealing. Stargirl laughed at almost everything he said, and she'd just turned seventeen. Supergirl laughed less and watched him more, and she had just turned twenty.
Cousin. Superman's cousin. Be good, Rayner.
They all went back for soft-serve. Stargirl excused herself to go get her Star Staff, after Kyle said it sounded a lot like his ring.
"Nice kid," he said, when he was sure she was out of earshot.
Kara played with her spoon, then took a bite of her ice cream. "Courtney? She tries. I think she has a little crush on you."
"I picked up on that, yes." He smiled at her. Smiling at Kara was easy.
"It's not easy growing up with powers, or in her case, an all-powerful artifact."
"Was it hard for you?"
She shrugged. "Not having the powers was a lot harder." There was something behind her words, matched with a hard line in her eyes, and he wanted to set her down, clad in green silk and surrounded by crimson flowers, and spend days drawing the tickle of her golden hair against the curve of her neck.
"You know," he said, "it's been a while since I've been on Earth. Maybe you could show me around?" Even as it came out, it sounded like a line, and a bad one. The glare she gave him said it had sounded like that to her, too. "I mean … Just forget it," he said, looking down at his melting raspberry and chocolate swirl.
"I'm seeing someone," Kara said quietly.
Oh.
"Sorry. You know, I'd claim I'm out of practice reading signals from human girls, but that would mean I was good at it before, or had any practice at all." That brought a smile back to her face as he realized what he'd just told her. "Can we go back to the conversation before I completely embarrassed myself?"
"Nope," she said, taking another bite of ice cream. "But I'm okay with pretending it never happened."
Stargirl came back with her staff in hand, and Kyle made a great show of being impressed with it. He was far too aware of Kara watching him as he did, a smirk on her face.
He'd want oils for her, bright clothing and background to contrast her icy-pale features. Instead, he was allowing Stargirl to extract a promise from him to draw her in his pencils in her costume with the staff.
Definitely oils for Kara, and he supposed also for her boyfriend, whoever the lucky bastard was.
***
Wally had walked into the canteen and zipped right back out again without pausing. Did that guy have to be everywhere? Wally's check would hit his account in the morning, and then he could buy more groceries and he wouldn't have to do the embarrassing thing of coming to work just to eat anymore.
But no. Mr. "Call me Green Lantern" had to be there tonight, chatting up Kara and Stargirl. And since they were the only ones there, he'd either have to get his food to go and take it back to his place, or sit in the canteen with them. It would be weird either way. He wished his quarters were in this Tower instead of the Watchtower. He wished he could talk himself into wasting the transporter power to go to the Watchtower to eat instead, even though Batman would likely kill him. He wished Green Lantern would get the hint and stop following Wally, or showing up where he wanted to be which was practically the same thing.
He wished John and Shayera and Metamorpho were still alive.
He had a credit card that wasn't quite maxed out. He'd get a few pizzas from Alex's; they were cheap and Wally saved coupons religiously.
As he turned to go, the alarum sounded through the Tower.
For about a millisecond, Wally considered going home anyway. Screw that. He zipped into the Control Room, the others not especially far behind him but far enough. Captain Atom and Gypsy were on duty.
"What's going on?" Wally demanded.
"Legion of Doom activity, downtown Metropolis," said Captain Atom. "Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah, positive identifications. Unconfirmed four, no, six other hostiles. Looks like they're makin' their move."
"All right," said Wally, just as Kara arrived with Stargirl and Green Lantern. "Put in a call to Superman and Steel, since this is their town. They can meet us there. Tell the Watchtower to get a backup team on the transporter but not to send them until we know what they'll be walking into." He looked over his shoulder. "You three, you're with me. Captain Atom, Gypsy, make those calls and meet us there."
"Negative," said Captain Atom, grabbing his shoulder. "I'll lead the team. You're sidelined, remember?"
Wally felt the anger start at his feet and move up through his body. When it reached his gut but before it made its way to his mouth, he knew he had to channel it or else there'd be bloodshed before he left the room.
"Funny," he said, in a very low, very even voice, "you don't look anything like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. So unless you're J'onn in disguise, I'd suggest you let go of my shoulder right now. We have a job to do, and if you stand in my way while I'm doing mine, I'll be happy to show you what I did to Brainiac the last time I saved the world. Got it?"
He stared at Captain Atom. Captain Atom dropped the hand. "Got it. Sorry."
Without a word to him Wally turned. "You three. Come. Now." And rather than waiting to see if they actually listened, he dashed out of the room and towards the fight.
This This heady exhilaration, this iron-clad confidence built of equal parts conviction and sheer pissed-offness? This had to be what Batman felt like all the time.
Wally ran.
Luthor was perched in the middle of a six-way intersection in the middle of downtown Metropolis, and had a very big and nasty-looking weapon on his shoulder. If it wasn't for the fact that Superman swore the power disruptor was destroyed, Wally'd have been more worried. The other Doomies were spread out, frightening the citizens clogging the intersection in their cars and climbing out of those same cars to run away.
Moments later, Kara landed behind him, Stargirl and Green Lantern at her back.
"What doesn't look right about this situation to you?" Wally asked her.
Kara looked around. "They're not doing anything. Luthor is blasting here and there, but they're not stealing anything and he doesn't have a pattern to his fire."
Wally put his finger to his ear. "Flash to all League. Trap. Proceed with caution."
*crackle* "Superman to Flash. Get out of there. You're off duty."
Wally turned off his comm. On the other side of the mess, he saw Steel flying into view. So did Captain Cold, who sent a blast of ice right at him. Steel dodged it easily, but now he'd attracted the attention of the rest. Wally didn't miss Kara's intake of breath as Luthor aimed his Whatever Ray right at Steel.
In half a second, she'd be flying out to save him.
In a tenth of a second, Wally was already there. He stopped right in front of Luthor and blew a big raspberry.
He was long gone before the gun blasted a hole in the street where he'd been standing. "Missed me," he said from the top of an empty Hummer, which disintegrated a few seconds later.
Okay. He could draw their fire and their attention, leaving Steel free to continue to attack, or better yet, join the others and try to figure out what the hell the plan was.
Kara soared in over the battle, and Luthor was again shooting at a moving target, but Stargirl was behind her, firing right back with her staff.
A purple blast hit her. Courtney screamed and fell to the street. Wally dashed under her to catch her, seeing as he did Star Sapphire coming out of nowhere. A wall stretched up around them, entrapping them before he could dash away with the unconscious girl in his arms.
A giant yellow hand grabbed Steel and Kara, crunching them together, and Wally knew their plan. The League was down its Lantern. The Doomies were trying to draw them out and take down as many as they could with their own mock Lanterns, Star Sapphire and Sinestro. Not a sophisticated plan, but Grodd was captured and Lex was getting sloppy.
Closer. Lex was also getting closer, and the smile on his face as he raised his stupid raygun at Wally was the last thing Wally was going to see before Lex got a big scoop of vengeance with a cherry on top.
Something fell from the sky. Wally had time to think it looked like a disco ball, before it glittered emerald green and beams shot out of it from a dozen directions. Each one formed a fist and decked a Doomie, including Lex.
"What the - " Lex said, stumbling but not dropping his raygun.
The purple field dropped and Wally didn't need an invitation. He ran Courtney well out of the line of fire, set her down gently, and dashed back in to see Green Lantern attempting to fight both Sinestro and Star Sapphire at the same time, splitting his ring's beam off car mirrors and broken windows. One beam was an emerald tiger fighting a yellow elephant, the other was blasting back a solid green beam to Star Sapphire's purple blasts.
Wally saw Luthor aim his raygun at Green Lantern, and not a second later, Wally had taken the thing from him and broken it, hoping belatedly that it wouldn't do more harm that way. Luthor ducked behind a car and started blasting normal gunfire at Wally, forcing him to dodge out of the way and watch to make sure the ricochets didn't hit any civilians.
Captain Atom arrived, and he and Wally trapped Lex in a pincers maneuver, spoiled only a little when Gypsy walked out of the wall beside the man and punched him unconscious herself.
Steel and Kara were pummeling their way through the other Doomies. The transporter beam glimmered, and Superman had half a dozen of the big guns with him, loaded for bear. Green Lantern was looking winded with his double battle, and grinned when he saw the backup. A minute or two later, Stargirl joined them all, but by then, it was all clean-up, and she sulked about not getting in a single good shot during the whole battle.
Wally let her kick Lex after they had him in custody, but just once and only in the shin.
And then, before Superman could yell at him for leading the mission when he was supposed to be sitting around at home thinking about how miserable he was, Wally waved an acknowledgment to Kara and Courtney, and he went home and he ordered four of Alex's worst pizzas, and he ignored the phone and the messages blinking on his machine, and he watched himself on the news until he couldn't stand it anymore, and he took a shower and he went to bed.
***
Chapter Four
Kaddish (3/4)
a Justice League Unlimited story
by Merlin Missy
Copyright 2005
PG
***
Chapter Two
***
Chapter Three
***
After his lunch, and he'd been careful not to take as much as he wanted because every time he ran up his tab too high he got a lecture from Batman, Wally hung out in the rec room, not really wanting to play any games or talk to anybody, but not wanting to go home, either.
He'd gone by Ops earlier, just as an alarm had sounded.
"Great " he'd said to Mr. Terrific. "Where am I going?"
"You're not," Mr. T. had responded. "It's a small problem in Midway City. I'm dispatching Ice and Fire."
Wally had instinctively backed off a half-step. He wasn't going on missions with Beatriz anymore.
"Okay," he'd come back. "So send me on the next mission."
Mr. Terrific had said, "You're off-duty until further notice."
And Wally had said, "What?"
Standard procedure, he'd been told. Which was a crock, as nothing was standard about what had happened, but there he was, ordered to stand down like some kid. He didn't ask who'd given the order, and didn't care when he'd been told, after a moment, who else was benched. He'd already figured Vixen was going to be sidelined for a while. He half-expected her to quit.
"But I worked last night," he'd tried. "And I was fine. And anyway, what are you planning on doing of there's an Omega Level alert? Just letting us sit it out while the Earth is destroyed?"
Blood had been high in his cheeks, under the hot mask, and he wanted to shout that he'd saved the world from Luthor and Brainiac before while the other six had almost been killed and he wasn't a child.
And Mr. Terrific had said, "If that's what it takes to keep you, any of you, from killing the next Legion of Doom member who crosses your path, yes."
Because it was about killing. It was about the line they didn't cross because they'd seen where crossing that line led them. And even though Wally knew he wouldn't, couldn't, the others also wouldn't and couldn't chance it from him, from Vixen, from any of them.
So he'd run, run through the Watchtower's corridors, speeding away from the thoughts in his head and the lead in his heart, and he'd run until he was exhausted, and then he'd gone to eat something, and Supes had come in all smiles to tell him they were breaking and remaking the Lego castle all over again because that's what they did when they were wounded.
And now he was here in the rec room, still a little hungry, still a little angry, and knowing the only way he was going to be able to afford dinner was to stay up here and cool his heels while everyone else did their jobs.
He grabbed a window seat and stared outside for a while, shutting down his brain as much as he could.
"Hey, buddy," said a voice, and he turned his head. Ralph had stretched the top half of his body into the room and over to where Wally sat. "How're you doing?"
"Fine," said Wally automatically.
"Sure you are," responded Ralph with a kindly smile and a patronizing tone. The rest of his body walked into the room and he shrank back to normal size. "Want to play something? The X-Box is free."
"No. Thanks. Not really in the mood."
"I get that. Hey, if you want to talk ... ?" Ralph spread his arms and shrugged. "I'm around. And I'm all ears."
Wally stared. "Shouldn't you have turned into a giant ear right then?"
"That's more Plastic Man's shtick." Ralph frowned.
"You and Plas not getting along?"
"No, we're good. It's just ... " Ralph let out a half-sigh, half-snort. "I thought it might be nice if Plas and J'onn and I did something just on our own for Metamorpho. You know, shapechanger thing. Plas said it was dumb."
"I don't think it's dumb," said Wally. "Did you hang out with Metamorpho much?"
"Not really," said Ralph, sitting down beside him in the window. "I don't think many of us did, you know?"
"I know." Metamorpho had really been John's friend. He'd joined when everyone else did, and he'd come and done his job, and he'd had a smile for most of them most of the time, and now there was a woman down on the planet whose lover was never coming home. Two, actually.
Vixen was on the no-fly list with him, and Wally hadn't seen her except at the memorial. Should go talk to her, he thought, and knew he'd find excuses not to.
Ralph asked, "Are you sure you don't want to play something?"
"I'm sure."
The door opened again, and there was a flash of a green uniform and Wally's brain wasn't nearly as fast as his heart, which jumped in his chest before the brain finally caught up and had its say. The new guy.
"Hi," said the new Lantern, with a friendly smile. "This place is huge, isn't it?"
"Yep," said Ralph. He turned back to Wally. "Well, buddy ... "
"I want the green one," Wally said, managing not to flinch as he pushed past Ralph to go to the Battlin' Bots table.
"Oh wow," said the new guy. "I haven't seen one of those in years."
"Well," said Ralph, "you could always ... "
Wally interrupted. "Butt in the chair, Dibny. Unless you're scared."
Ralph glared at him and plopped down. Wally didn't even look at the new guy, just started playing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the green-clad figure move around the room, poking at the different terminals they had set up, looking at the movies they had, not really saying much.
Jerk, Wally thought, knowing it wasn't fair and not caring.
When Ralph finally begged off to go home, claiming his wife would start worrying, Wally left the rec room too without a word to the new guy, and went for an early dinner alone in the cafeteria.
He lingered over his pasta as much as he could, chewing each bite to make it last. When he went back to the rec room, he saw that the Lantern was sitting in the same window seat Wally liked, looking out at the planet moving slowly below them and writing or something on a pad in his lap.
The rec room was boring anyway. Wally dashed to the Transporter and ordered a beam down to the planet. For some exercise, he ordered it sent to Argentina.
There were another two messages on his machine from Linda when he finally got home. Wally deleted them both and went straight to bed.
***
Thank God for email.
Mari had tried picking up the phone to call her agent five times, and each time she'd placed the phone back in its cradle. But she could sit at her slim laptop, and she could read the condolences he'd sent, the others from the people who knew her real email address, the many more covering the bulletin board at her official fan website. Later, she would respond to everyone, thanking them, but for now she only emailed her agent and asked him to cancel all her gigs through the middle of March.
Spring was a long time away, but she wanted, she needed the break. Too many people, too many stares.
She went to the website for the bank that handled most of her investments. Her stocks had taken a dive today, the first real trading day after the accident. Three heroes were dead and people were scared. She wasn't scared, and she didn't tell her broker to sell, and she didn't want to look at her retirement fund because it was linked to the second fund she'd set up on a whim six months ago after she'd gone to the movies with John and she'd mentioned kids and he hadn't quailed.
Love was believing you were going to grow old with someone.
She felt prickly like mermaid's feet: all abraded skin too tender and painful to touch. She would need to leave her loft soon, get back to the Watchtower, back to the world. Her job was to help people, and she needed to do that, but at the moment, all she could make herself do was finish a piece of toast and sleep and sleep and sleep.
Mari stared at the crust beside her coffee cup, and realized she was wrong about the toast.
***
It wasn't the first time Diana had let herself into Shayera's room uninvited, and again, she was there to take something, but now Clark was by her side and she wished more than anything that she didn't have to be there.
She set a few cardboard boxes on the bed. Clark stood back, clearly uncomfortable.
"Maybe you should go through her dresser," he said.
She considered arguing with him, and gave up. "Fine. Clean out her closet." He still looked upset. "For Athena's sake, Clark, they're uniforms. They won't bite you."
He reddened. "I don't like the idea of going through a woman's things."
Diana placed her hand on his. "She won't mind, Clark. Shayera loved you. We need to do this for her."
He nodded, and swallowed, and then took a second box to the closet. Diana went to the small dresser. A few trinkets, her cellphone, these went into the first box. Shayera hadn't been a collector, and most of her private possessions had been taken onto the Thanagarian Command ship during the invasion, which had left with them and without her. Around the room, Diana spied a few items from the Thanagarian scout ship Shayera, Vixen and Vigilante had commandeered: a spiked standard, a fire lamp, the unusual bedding.
As though he read her mind, Clark pulled out a Thanagarian military helmet from the closet, not Shayera's, but one looking much like that worn by the scientist who'd built the bypass. He set it in the same box as her mementos and went back to folding her uniforms.
The top drawer of the dresser was oddly empty, and held merely socks and a single pair of nylon stockings with a creamy garter belt. Diana raised one eyebrow and then packed everything away. The other drawers held neatly-folded shirts and jeans, which she transferred without refolding. They were going to be done in less time than it took to have a nice dinner, and that would be all of Shayera's life, packed away and finished.
"This is odd." Clark pulled out five boxes from the closet. "Candles?"
"Oh," Diana said. She remembered the night after Shayera's run-in with the rogue Thanagarians. Shayera had come to her room, grieving for all the pain she had caused so many. Diana had given her candles and told her to pray, in whatever way she could, burning a candle for each soul lost. Shayera had said there could be billions dead. "That's ... That was between us."
Clark looked at her curiously. "All right. Then how about you take these?" He reached in and brought out another four boxes.
Diana nodded her acceptance, knowing Clark couldn't understand what he'd asked . Diana had already lit her prayer candles for the souls of her three friends, and another for Toyman's lost soul. But she would light these candles for the souls Shayera had wronged, taking on her friend's self-imposed burden for her own, at least through these many boxes. She didn't know names, and could not imagine faces, but she believed the souls of the dead would recognize the lights of their own torches regardless, and if it truly mattered, she could always put in a prayer to her father and ask.
She went back to cleaning, humming a hymn in her throat as she did.
***
"Thanks," Kyle said, hanging up the phone. He crossed another listing off the newspaper. Affordable apartments in Metropolis were hard to find and harder to keep. Superman had told him his credit rating was going to be quietly repaired of its unusual absence of recent data, and Kyle was grateful, but he still wanted to get a jump start on putting his life back together here on Earth.
He needed an address, so he'd gotten a P.O. Box this morning. He needed a job, so he'd spent a good two hours on a terminal typing up his resume, with a nod from Superman that he should put "Wayne Foundation: Executive Intern" for the past few years. He needed to get his stuff out of storage, but settled for just getting more clothes out from the storage locker so he didn't have to buy civilian garb right off the bat. He needed money, and his ATM card had expired but his account was still active, so he'd spent the afternoon waiting at the bank to sign up for a new card and arrange for an unusual direct deposit.
He hadn't called anyone. He didn't have any immediate family left, but his grandfather was still alive, or had been. Kyle had sent a few letters home with John but had heard nothing back in years.
He stared at the phone on the table. It was a cell, small, prepaid, untraceable. He could call his Grandpa right now and tell him he was back. But he'd have to decide if he would tell the old man everything, or make up a story.
It was like coming alive again, like relearning how to walk after a stroke, and John had told him once it would be this way, but Kyle had never really known until now how much he'd taken for granted his own basic existence.
There was a chime in his room, and he looked around, wondering where it'd come from. The chime sounded again. Doorbell, right.
Kyle grabbed his mask and put it on, then said, "Come in."
The door slid open. Two very pretty blonde girls stood on the other side, and Kyle's mouth went completely dry. Note to self: if this is a dream, do not wake up now.
"Hi " he said in a voice one octave too high.
"Hi," said the taller one, and Kyle's brain snapped back into use. She was dressed like Superman, and unless Mr. Kent had developed his very own specialized and kind of crazy fanclub, that meant this was Supergirl. "Can we come in?"
"Sure. Um. There's not really much room to sit in here. Sorry," he said as they walked in together, each taking in the room with a single sweep.
The shorter girl stuck out her hand. "I'm Stargirl. You can call me Courtney." Kyle shook her hand. Now that she was a little closer, and he'd heard her speak, he was pretty sure she wasn't legal, and he kept the handshake friendly but polite.
"Green Lantern. Nice to meet you, Courtney." He held out his hand to Supergirl. "And I think I can guess who you are."
"Call me Kara," she said, shaking his hand gently. Kyle realized she was trying not to crush his fingers.
"Hi, Kara." He turned back to his stuff and hurriedly started piling the papers on his bed into a neat stack to set on the little table. "So, to what do I owe the honor, ladies?"
Courtney giggled. Kara elbowed her. "You're new. We figured you might like some company for dinner. If you haven't already eaten, that is."
"That'd be great. Thanks. Let me just … " The top of his stack started sliding, and physics took over. He momentarily thought about using the ring to gather everything together, then gave up and let it all fall before he bent down to pick everything up again.
Both girls bent down to help him, and Kyle made a point of not staring.
"What's this?" Kara asked, picking up one of his sketchbooks.
"Just some pictures," he said, taking it carefully from her. Courtney took another book from the floor and flipped through the pages. "Hey "
"These are pretty good," she said, finally handing over the book.
"Thanks," he said, a little irritated. No reason to be, he supposed, but he still felt exposed. "Are you ready to go?"
"Whenever you are," Courtney said brightly. Kara stood half a step behind her, and the roll of her eyes was meant only for Kyle to see. Kyle couldn't stop his smile as he gestured for them to go out first.
The canteen on this Tower was small but serviceable. He'd had some trouble at lunch (he'd slept through breakfast) with the cashier; yes, the Green Lantern had a tab, no, he didn't look anything like the guy the cashier knew as Green Lantern. Different cashier this time, and they were merely waved past with a smile.
The girls sat to either side of him at a square table, chatting, trying to coax a few personal details out of him. He ate his food and gave away only what he thought wouldn't be especially revealing. Stargirl laughed at almost everything he said, and she'd just turned seventeen. Supergirl laughed less and watched him more, and she had just turned twenty.
Cousin. Superman's cousin. Be good, Rayner.
They all went back for soft-serve. Stargirl excused herself to go get her Star Staff, after Kyle said it sounded a lot like his ring.
"Nice kid," he said, when he was sure she was out of earshot.
Kara played with her spoon, then took a bite of her ice cream. "Courtney? She tries. I think she has a little crush on you."
"I picked up on that, yes." He smiled at her. Smiling at Kara was easy.
"It's not easy growing up with powers, or in her case, an all-powerful artifact."
"Was it hard for you?"
She shrugged. "Not having the powers was a lot harder." There was something behind her words, matched with a hard line in her eyes, and he wanted to set her down, clad in green silk and surrounded by crimson flowers, and spend days drawing the tickle of her golden hair against the curve of her neck.
"You know," he said, "it's been a while since I've been on Earth. Maybe you could show me around?" Even as it came out, it sounded like a line, and a bad one. The glare she gave him said it had sounded like that to her, too. "I mean … Just forget it," he said, looking down at his melting raspberry and chocolate swirl.
"I'm seeing someone," Kara said quietly.
Oh.
"Sorry. You know, I'd claim I'm out of practice reading signals from human girls, but that would mean I was good at it before, or had any practice at all." That brought a smile back to her face as he realized what he'd just told her. "Can we go back to the conversation before I completely embarrassed myself?"
"Nope," she said, taking another bite of ice cream. "But I'm okay with pretending it never happened."
Stargirl came back with her staff in hand, and Kyle made a great show of being impressed with it. He was far too aware of Kara watching him as he did, a smirk on her face.
He'd want oils for her, bright clothing and background to contrast her icy-pale features. Instead, he was allowing Stargirl to extract a promise from him to draw her in his pencils in her costume with the staff.
Definitely oils for Kara, and he supposed also for her boyfriend, whoever the lucky bastard was.
***
Wally had walked into the canteen and zipped right back out again without pausing. Did that guy have to be everywhere? Wally's check would hit his account in the morning, and then he could buy more groceries and he wouldn't have to do the embarrassing thing of coming to work just to eat anymore.
But no. Mr. "Call me Green Lantern" had to be there tonight, chatting up Kara and Stargirl. And since they were the only ones there, he'd either have to get his food to go and take it back to his place, or sit in the canteen with them. It would be weird either way. He wished his quarters were in this Tower instead of the Watchtower. He wished he could talk himself into wasting the transporter power to go to the Watchtower to eat instead, even though Batman would likely kill him. He wished Green Lantern would get the hint and stop following Wally, or showing up where he wanted to be which was practically the same thing.
He wished John and Shayera and Metamorpho were still alive.
He had a credit card that wasn't quite maxed out. He'd get a few pizzas from Alex's; they were cheap and Wally saved coupons religiously.
As he turned to go, the alarum sounded through the Tower.
For about a millisecond, Wally considered going home anyway. Screw that. He zipped into the Control Room, the others not especially far behind him but far enough. Captain Atom and Gypsy were on duty.
"What's going on?" Wally demanded.
"Legion of Doom activity, downtown Metropolis," said Captain Atom. "Luthor, Captain Cold, Cheetah, positive identifications. Unconfirmed four, no, six other hostiles. Looks like they're makin' their move."
"All right," said Wally, just as Kara arrived with Stargirl and Green Lantern. "Put in a call to Superman and Steel, since this is their town. They can meet us there. Tell the Watchtower to get a backup team on the transporter but not to send them until we know what they'll be walking into." He looked over his shoulder. "You three, you're with me. Captain Atom, Gypsy, make those calls and meet us there."
"Negative," said Captain Atom, grabbing his shoulder. "I'll lead the team. You're sidelined, remember?"
Wally felt the anger start at his feet and move up through his body. When it reached his gut but before it made its way to his mouth, he knew he had to channel it or else there'd be bloodshed before he left the room.
"Funny," he said, in a very low, very even voice, "you don't look anything like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. So unless you're J'onn in disguise, I'd suggest you let go of my shoulder right now. We have a job to do, and if you stand in my way while I'm doing mine, I'll be happy to show you what I did to Brainiac the last time I saved the world. Got it?"
He stared at Captain Atom. Captain Atom dropped the hand. "Got it. Sorry."
Without a word to him Wally turned. "You three. Come. Now." And rather than waiting to see if they actually listened, he dashed out of the room and towards the fight.
This This heady exhilaration, this iron-clad confidence built of equal parts conviction and sheer pissed-offness? This had to be what Batman felt like all the time.
Wally ran.
Luthor was perched in the middle of a six-way intersection in the middle of downtown Metropolis, and had a very big and nasty-looking weapon on his shoulder. If it wasn't for the fact that Superman swore the power disruptor was destroyed, Wally'd have been more worried. The other Doomies were spread out, frightening the citizens clogging the intersection in their cars and climbing out of those same cars to run away.
Moments later, Kara landed behind him, Stargirl and Green Lantern at her back.
"What doesn't look right about this situation to you?" Wally asked her.
Kara looked around. "They're not doing anything. Luthor is blasting here and there, but they're not stealing anything and he doesn't have a pattern to his fire."
Wally put his finger to his ear. "Flash to all League. Trap. Proceed with caution."
*crackle* "Superman to Flash. Get out of there. You're off duty."
Wally turned off his comm. On the other side of the mess, he saw Steel flying into view. So did Captain Cold, who sent a blast of ice right at him. Steel dodged it easily, but now he'd attracted the attention of the rest. Wally didn't miss Kara's intake of breath as Luthor aimed his Whatever Ray right at Steel.
In half a second, she'd be flying out to save him.
In a tenth of a second, Wally was already there. He stopped right in front of Luthor and blew a big raspberry.
He was long gone before the gun blasted a hole in the street where he'd been standing. "Missed me," he said from the top of an empty Hummer, which disintegrated a few seconds later.
Okay. He could draw their fire and their attention, leaving Steel free to continue to attack, or better yet, join the others and try to figure out what the hell the plan was.
Kara soared in over the battle, and Luthor was again shooting at a moving target, but Stargirl was behind her, firing right back with her staff.
A purple blast hit her. Courtney screamed and fell to the street. Wally dashed under her to catch her, seeing as he did Star Sapphire coming out of nowhere. A wall stretched up around them, entrapping them before he could dash away with the unconscious girl in his arms.
A giant yellow hand grabbed Steel and Kara, crunching them together, and Wally knew their plan. The League was down its Lantern. The Doomies were trying to draw them out and take down as many as they could with their own mock Lanterns, Star Sapphire and Sinestro. Not a sophisticated plan, but Grodd was captured and Lex was getting sloppy.
Closer. Lex was also getting closer, and the smile on his face as he raised his stupid raygun at Wally was the last thing Wally was going to see before Lex got a big scoop of vengeance with a cherry on top.
Something fell from the sky. Wally had time to think it looked like a disco ball, before it glittered emerald green and beams shot out of it from a dozen directions. Each one formed a fist and decked a Doomie, including Lex.
"What the - " Lex said, stumbling but not dropping his raygun.
The purple field dropped and Wally didn't need an invitation. He ran Courtney well out of the line of fire, set her down gently, and dashed back in to see Green Lantern attempting to fight both Sinestro and Star Sapphire at the same time, splitting his ring's beam off car mirrors and broken windows. One beam was an emerald tiger fighting a yellow elephant, the other was blasting back a solid green beam to Star Sapphire's purple blasts.
Wally saw Luthor aim his raygun at Green Lantern, and not a second later, Wally had taken the thing from him and broken it, hoping belatedly that it wouldn't do more harm that way. Luthor ducked behind a car and started blasting normal gunfire at Wally, forcing him to dodge out of the way and watch to make sure the ricochets didn't hit any civilians.
Captain Atom arrived, and he and Wally trapped Lex in a pincers maneuver, spoiled only a little when Gypsy walked out of the wall beside the man and punched him unconscious herself.
Steel and Kara were pummeling their way through the other Doomies. The transporter beam glimmered, and Superman had half a dozen of the big guns with him, loaded for bear. Green Lantern was looking winded with his double battle, and grinned when he saw the backup. A minute or two later, Stargirl joined them all, but by then, it was all clean-up, and she sulked about not getting in a single good shot during the whole battle.
Wally let her kick Lex after they had him in custody, but just once and only in the shin.
And then, before Superman could yell at him for leading the mission when he was supposed to be sitting around at home thinking about how miserable he was, Wally waved an acknowledgment to Kara and Courtney, and he went home and he ordered four of Alex's worst pizzas, and he ignored the phone and the messages blinking on his machine, and he watched himself on the news until he couldn't stand it anymore, and he took a shower and he went to bed.
***
Chapter Four