With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

27th December 2004
19:42 GMT -5

Aelia looks askance at Maeve and Mary as the two of them focus on their mobile telephones to the exclusion of all else. Mary is looking up pictures of me from Earth 50, while Maeve is looking up historical events to try and see how they're different here. My namesake is trying to keep his three youngest siblings contained by talking to them about the book they're reading for their English class. Bethany-

"Are you dating Daddy?"

-is doing a surprisingly good job at making Kara uncomfortable while simultaneously convincing her that this represents the real 'me'.

"Ah? No. No, this is just.. breakfast."

"Are you an alien? Are you a superhero?"

"Yes, I'm an alien and yes, I'm a superhero."

I was curious to see what the response amongst locals was when Supergirl turned up with my family in tow to a local diner. It's actually been more than a little muted. One person came up for an autograph, but she was clearly doing it for her young daughter. Everyone else… We're getting the occasional glance, but that's about it.

"What's your superhero name?"

"I'm Supergirl."

"Oh, like Superboy! Is Lex Luthor your daddy too?"

Kara stares at me. "What?"

"Our version of Bizarro. Lex had a company called Cadmus create a young man using a combination of his and Kal-El's DNA. Fortunately, he takes after his other biological father and his adoptive mother."

"Is he crazy like Bizarro?"

"No no. Perfectly rational. His… The first full-clone of Kal-El Cadmus made was afflicted by an intense, constant rage, but M'gann and I fixed that."

"So is Superman your daddy?"

Oh, Bethany is a treasure.

"N-. No. We're.. friends."

She looks around awkwardly as she says it. Hm. I suppose that it's rather different, having been a superhero associated with America's first formal oligarchy and then a paramilitary soldier. People don't ask for autographs from members of their dictator's family, and I doubt that they ask for soldiers' autographs all that often.

A bell chimes as the restaurant door opens and Richard walks in wearing civilian clothing: blue shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. His eyes sweep the restaurant, but the most reaction my party gets when he realises that Kara is with us all is a blink. Kara meets his eyes for a moment and then sags the slight sag of someone caught doing something mildly embarrassing by a work colleague. She awkwardly waves her right hand and he walks over.

Richard's eyes are on me as he approaches the head of the table. He's trying to place me but is clearly coming up short. I know that Zatanna's on his team, but perhaps bound spells aren't really her thing? This glamour is pretty cheap as they go. Someone like Richard should probably make a point of getting his hands on that most basic part of a countermagic suite: illusion-defying glasses.

"Hey, Kara. And… I don't think we've been introduced?"

"Good evening, Richard." His face freezes as he recognises my voice. "No, I don’t think we have. I've done some work with your father."

"… Seven. And…" He looks around. "Did you kidnap a middle school class?"

"No, they're all mine." The door to the female toilet swings open and Lynne emerges, recognition flickering in his eyes. "Did Scott tell you about Lynne?"

"He.. said that he found a home for her. I didn't realise he was talking about you."

"'fraid so. Oh, update on Apokolips: the civil war is still going on and the whole planet is getting wrecked, which is terrible in humanitarian terms but is probably quite good for Earth. Ah, but Granny Goodness has picked up a kryptonian child from somewhere."

"How dangerous are they?"

"If I took my glamour off you'd see a face covered in bruises, and I only just got back feeling in my left leg."

"Where did they get a kryptonian-?"

Kara's eyes widen. "Lashina."

I nod. "Yeah, she was there. Seemed to have some sort of rapport with the child."

"Kara?"

"When.. Kal was mind controlled into thinking he was Darkseid's son, he.. was.. dating Lashina." Her gaze grows somewhat distant. "God, I don't even… Should we.. tell him?"

Richard frowns. "Wait, aren't they different species?"

I shrug. "Lashina might be able to make it work using domain powers-. Actually…" I hold out my left hand and fabricate a pack of kryptonian oral contraception tablets then pass them to Kara. "Humans… As a result of living in a high magic environment can also bypass some incompatibility issues, so-."

She snatches it and shoves it into her handbag.

"You're welcome."

"The point is, Kal's got a child he doesn't know about growing up on a hell planet."

I smile faintly. "Under Apokoliptian law, Granny Goodness gets custody."

Richard holds up his right hand. "This is-. Yeah, okay, this is a problem we'll have to deal with. But what we're dealing with first is that Mister Miracle missed a scheduled call in." He looks at me. "Looks like you were right."

"To be.. completely fair, there are good reasons why he might have missed it. Including allowing himself to be taken captive. He got away from Granny Goodness' Orphanage plenty of times, but since he had no way off the planet he ended up going back. Until they finally stuck him in the X-Pit." Maybe I should lend him the Sword of the Fallen, let him stab the-? No, he'd never go for it. "What's the protocol?"

Richard shrugs. "We go get him back. But we've only got one ship, and their fleet is on alert for us."

"So you need a way to sneak in quietly?"

"Yeah, and I don't think your boom tubes are gunna cut it. Even if the sound doesn't give them away, the other Grayven's gotta have ways to detect them."

"Yes." I nod. "That's why I've got a team building the silenced version on the Watchtower. I'm not about to leave my brother high and dry." … "And I guess we could pick up Barda too."

"Mister Miracle didn't say anything about a silenced version."

"Father didn't really want Scott to amount to anything. They were just trying to turn him into another near-mindless soldier drone. He didn't get what you'd call a complete education. And living on Earth, he didn't really have any reason or opportunity to study the technology."

"And you did?"

"No, I stole Desaad's Father Box, which had all his records. I mean, I had a pretty good education-. Hey." I turn to Kara. "When you haven't just eaten, remind me to tell you about the time Desaad gave me a sex education lesson. See, he had this anatomical specimen-."

Richard leans towards me. "You can get us to Thanagar?"

"Sure? The work should be finished soon. You just need to get in contact with your father and plan out the mission."