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

17th October 2010
18:12 GMT -5

He takes off, and I'm…

Yeah, I've got no idea what I am.

Least he picks good take-out restaurants. To start with I thought he was just insulting my entire country as some sort of dominance thing, then I actually tried eating stuff from other countries, and I.. get it.

"Artemis?"

I watch the orange dot vanish, then turn back to the fire door to our newly de-asbestosed apartment, dinner in a paper bag in my left hand. Check for anyone watching first, then take out my key and put it in the one-way lock and open the door. It's a whole lot more convenient than going through the lobby or wriggling through a window, and the push-bar inside doesn't need a key…

Mom's waiting in the kitchen, walker next to her as she forces herself to use her legs to stand up.

"Hey Mom. I…" I hold up the bag. "Brought dinner."

She looks at the design on the bag, blinking. "Is that from Vietnam?"

"No. It's… From a Vietnamese restaurant in England. Paul…"

Paul had one of his little episodes when I suggested eating Vietnamese, then had no idea how much he should tell me about hygiene in Vietnamese restaurants. He was probably freaking out over nothing-.

Heh. Not like that time Wally showed him that video on Indian street food and his whole body started glowing orange. That was actually funny in a scary-thing-that-nearly-happened kinda way.

"The Orange Lantern?"

I put the bag on the worktop, nodding. "He knew a place."

"In England?"

I shrug as she pulls the takeaway containers out, watching so I can catch her if she starts having problems standing up. She did right after he did it, but she's been okay for a little while.

"We all got zeta tube access. There's a tube in London, and London's got a bunch of restaurants."

"You could have invited him in."

Yeeeeeah…

"I got.. homework." And I do. But that's not why. "I-. Mom, how do you tell when a guy's… Like, a psycho?"

Mom looks kinda worried, and puts the foil container down next to the plates. "Artemis, are you alright?"

"Yeah! Yeah yeah, he's not-." I breathe out. How do I explain-? "I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let someone like that on the team."

Except maybe Indigo, I guess. Shouldn't the Justice League have someone who could look at that-. At her?

"Then why are you asking?"

"I… Thought Paul might be? And then he did some stuff, and I… Don't know? Maybe it's his ring, or…" How can I..? "Or maybe he's autistic, or something? They like complicated math-games, right?"

"Why do you think he might be a psycho, Artemis?"

"He shot a cat in the head." Mom looks-. Yeah, okay, I should have explained-. "He used some blood from an immortal guy to make the cat immortal too. Its head just grew back, it was fine… But it was still pretty creepy. And I know medicines and cosmetics get tested on animals and stuff, so I guess.. him…"

"He is testing things on animals?"

"Yeah… A whole.. bunch of mad scientists made things that makes people… Better, and he wants to see if any of them are actually safe."

"You.. haven't taken any-?"

"No! No." I breathe out, trying not to get-. Kids my age do stuff like that, she's just-. Worried. Hey, that's basically what Wally did. "He had this… 'Vitamin' from World War Two which is supposed to be safe, but I said no."

"Is it?"

"He had a big pile of research… He found everyone who ever used it and went through their whole medical history." I.. frown. No, he said-. "Except one guy who took some other stuff as well. According to him, they all got a boost and none of them had any problems, but… Paul isn't exactly a doctor, and he was giving… Vibes."

I should… Probably look up that one guy. See if Robin knows anything, or if I can find anything out myself.

Mom nods and turns back to the food, pulling the edge of foil… Huh. Never seen one like that before. The lid's card with foil on the inside for insulation. Guess that's how they do them in England?

"'Vibes'?"

"He-could-be-a-psycho vibes."

"Because he shot the immortal cat."

"Yeah, and-. He thought I'd be interested. He thought I'd be okay with it once I saw that the cat was okay. It's like he-. That cat was alive at the start and alive at the end, so everything in the middle had to be okay, y'know?"

Does that even..?

"Does that make sense?"

Mom nods. "Yes, Artemis, it makes sense."

"Okay, good. Because its brain was all over the place, and that's not-. It's not normal how cool he was about it."

Mom starts plating the food as I lean back against the table.

"Did you tell him you didn’t like him shooting animals?"

"Yeah, and he.. stopped doing it. But is that okay?

"Artemis… Do you like him?"

… "… He's… Nice? But it's like… He doesn't know how to act, sometimes? Like… Okay, so the first time I saw him on my own was in the gym, and he was checking me out really obviously. So I called him out on it and he took his shirt off to make it even."

"Did you like what you saw?"

"Ah… Yeah, I… Guess, but who does that?"

Mom picks up the plates and carries them to the table-. And I realise I should have got some glasses of water, so I get that while Mom gets the chopsticks.

"Someone who is very confident." Mom carefully pulls out her seat and sits down as I fill the glasses. "Has he said what sort of relationship he wants?"

"Dating, leading to marriage and a couple of kids, getting better superpowers until we conquer the universe as immortal gods. I think."

"Ah. Like your father."

Huh? "Huh?"

"Artemis, your father and I are supervillains."

Well, yeah, but-. Wait. "Were. You were, right?"

"It is hard to be a supervillain with a broken back. And it is irresponsible to do the things we used to when you have a young daughter."

Oh no. "But you're not going back, now, right?"

"The things your father and I used to do, we did them more because it was fun than for money or status. It was fun being smarter, faster, more carefree than everyone around us. It was liberating. And then I went to prison and your father… It stopped being fun for him."

"Yeah. I remember."

"When I got out, he said that he wanted to…" She sighs. "He wanted to achieve tangible results, money, influence, power… Whatever it cost. I told him that even if I could get healed I didn't think it was worth it. I suppose that the question of whether Paul is better for you than Lawrence is for me is whether he is willing to stop doing things that you don't like when you ask him to. Is he?"

"He didn't shoot the cat again."

"Then you are already a better judge of men than I am."

"Heh. Thanks. So…"

"You could try talking to his other friends, or his teachers? Maybe he just does not know how to act around girls?"

Okay. Get Robin to help look into that one guy who obviously had a bad reaction, and talk to him and the rest of the team about how Paul normally acts. I can do that. Because… He's hot, and-. He tries to be nice, and he's a superhero, and if I could stop worrying about this, I think… I think I could really like him.

 

22nd October 2010
20:27 GMT -5

"Ah, yeah." Robin nods. Was.. he looking into this already? "Oh El asked me about him."

"Really?" Because talking about someone he doesn't want to talk to me about doesn't sound like something-.

"Okay, he asked Batman about him. And Batman knows a guy who used to work in British Intelligence."

"I thought he could just scan for intel with his power ring."

Robin wiggles his right hand. "Kinda. Green Lantern finds stuff like that hard. He usually uses an actual computer from a world with really advanced technology when he wants to hack something. Oh El can do it easier, but it still only really works with computer databases. We tested it a while after he got here, and going through paperwork takes him way longer. He thought Batman might be able to help him find stuff."

"Huh. So… Who is he?"

"Dennis Wilson. Used to be a superhero called 'Vitaman'." He presses a button on his arm computer and it brings up a hologram of some buff guy in combat pants, a skin-tight… Leotard? And a green beret. "Fought in World War Two, then he.. kinda vanished."

"Vanished?"

"Nineteen forties record-keeping was a lot more basic than what we have today. I know he stayed in the army after the war, but it's hard to find what he actually did. Except…"

"Okay?"

"Does the name 'Malayan Emergency' mean anything to you?"

"No?"

"It's basically British Vietnam, except they won. Batman couldn't find any paperwork about Vitaman being there, but Superman… Ah, found some old photographs a reporter took when they went there for a story, and he was in a couple of them."

"Vietnam, like..?"

"China-backed communist paramilitary picking a fight with the Europeans running the country, concentration camps, Agent Orange… And mass murders. That kind of thing."

"And Vitaman was there?"

Robin nods. "He wasn't super strong, but-."

"Yeah, Paul already told me about Vitamin X. He.. wanted me to take it."

Robin looks at me curiously. I just.. shrug. Then he presses another button and the hologram changes-.

"Is that a.. real head?"

"Yeah. That was kind of a thing for the Malay soldiers who mostly fought on the British side. Officially, it was for 'identification purposes'."

"And the British soldiers joined in?"

"Officially? No."

"Annnd unofficially?"

"They weren't exactly shy about posing for pictures with the severed heads." He shuts down the hologram. "He got a bunch of commendations, and it's… Basically impossible to tell if he was personally involved in any of the massacres."

"But you think he was."

Robin hesitates. "I think I'm judging him harshly because he was a superhero. For a soldier… War's… Messy and violent, especially guerrilla wars. And if he was involved, he sure wasn't the only one."

"Is there anyone we could talk to about it?" Uh. "Should we?"

"It happened during the fifties, so basically everyone who could have seen anything is dead. And honestly, memory isn't that reliable after that long anyway. Does it matter?"

"Paul said that no one had a bad reaction to Vitamin X except him, and that was only because he took some other stuff. But if he was only doing stuff that other soldiers were doing… What was he talking about?"

"I'm not sure. Paul doesn't really like talking about his research, and after I watched him pull apart a lab rat with his ring I.. kinda stopped asking."

"He's never had a problem talking about it with me."

He grins. "You've… Got an advantage over me, there."

I roll my eyes.

"Why'd you want to know, anyway?"

"Is there a problem with Vitamin X?"

"Not that I know of. Are you actually planning on taking it?"

"Not until I know what went wrong with Dennis Wilson. 'cause…" Ugh. "Does Paul seem, like… Off, to you?"

"Yeah? He… Did tell you he comes from a parallel universe, right?"

What? "No?"

"He-?" Robin sounds puzzled, and I'm feeling puzzled. "Huh. I didn't-. It's not like it's a secret."

Did he say anything about-? I mean, I think he said something wasn't how they did things where he was from, but I thought he just meant England.

"No. So..? What's it.. like? Where he's from?"

"No superpowers or mad scientists. Or… Not superscientists. One time he told me that some crazy British inventor built an engine with only three moving parts, but apart from that it was just a regular car engine." He shrugs. "It's not really supposed to be all that different from here."

"What do you mean, 'supposed to be'?"

"We can't check. He said he didn't know how he got here and the Justice League hasn't found a way to send him back. And… I saw how he reacted to stuff right after he got here, and it all fit."

"Like what?"

"He'd never seen a hologram before, and he thought he needed special gloves to use a holographic keyboard. They don't have holograms, so it was like a science fiction show for him." Gotham High doesn't have holographic keyboards, either. "And a couple of times he called someone by their real name in costume." That's.. bad. "I mean, it was in private so it wasn't a big deal, but I still don't think I've ever heard him call Wonder Woman 'Wonder Woman'. Diana, mostly, and 'sir' or 'your Highness' a few times. They don't have superheroes, so if he knows someone's name, that's what he called them."

"Y.. eah, he… Told me Green Arrow's got a kid?" Robin winces slightly, then nods. "Okay, but, apart from that."

"Ah, maybe? I only see him for team stuff. You should ask… Huh."

"What?"

"Mia's memories are still messed up from Brainiac, Miss Martian and Green Lantern are aliens and Kaldur comes from Atlantis. I don't think he really knows anyone else. I don't know if anyone would have noticed."

"Wonder Woman?"

"Maybe. What exactly are you worried about?"

"I dunno, exactly. I-. He's really serious about.. me, and I wanna be sure that that's just how he is and he didn't… Dose himself with something by accident or something."

"Huh. We've got medical reports from when he showed up. Batman would probably be okay with us checking them." He stops talking for a moment. "This 'thing' you're worried he dosed himself with. Are you talking about the other thing Vitaman got?"

"I dunno. Maybe?"

"I'll talk to Batman. Even if it's nothing, it's still a good training exercise."

He turns to go-.

"Hey, ah. Robin?" He turns back. "Thanks."

He smiles. "No problem. What are team mates for?"