Trust, Faith, and Regrets of a Coward [SI, YJ]

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aight, fuck schedules. ride or die. probably die. very tired, equally manic. but that's how we get results, people. also Part 6 was so bad I updated it four times.
in less stupid terms:
This will not be updating on a schedule, but rather, whenever I get writing, which hopefully is more than once a week. I'll try to put out a chapter a month, but sorry if my brain berks. anyway, here's another chapter as a "dont break up with me" apology ahahah thats kind of pathetic

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Codependent Part 7

2010, July 8th
Morning

I wake up and sigh. Glancing down at my scintillating, black body wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I think I get it. Whatever drove my power probably didn’t like power rings too much. I had more awareness this time, and I ‘let go’ of the Drain!Absorb!Recycle in my head. It fell away along with my stony complexion.

I looked about and-

7:01 AM.

Hm. I don’t usually get up at this time, lazy bum that I am, so… Serendipity for the win? Wait, just plain luck. Though, something told me that it wasn’t that that woke me up.

I hummed and rolled off the couch. Alan had tried to have me take his bed, with OL taking the guest room, and I think I surprised everyone by being so adamant.

Alan may have harnessed his very willpower into a powerful, sharp tool that could destroy moons, but it had nothing on my need to not let other people be even slightly inconvenienced by my barest existence.

Breakfast was cereal- hadn’t had that in forever- and OL brought up the idea of Alan accompanying us to where OL is joining a superhero team. Probably a junior league. And despite them not saying anything about it, something told me I’d end up joining the team at this meet. After having known me for two days.

Seems legit.

I wasn’t expecting my gut feeling to be right. I’m probably just meeting them as a ‘hey this is the other guy who’ll be joining in a few weeks after we’ve kicked his ass into shape’ kind of deal.

It’s a half hour, a bit under, to get to the base of operations- a harbor town that had sprung up next to a mountain. We land in a field overlooking the town and I see Alan stretch as he gets out. Looking around, the field is empty, not an animal in sight. The mountain is on our left and, well. It’s a mountain. Trees all the way up to the top, and… Well, I grew up in the Rocky Mountains. I’ve seen real mountains, with snow and clouds. That is a jumped up hill.

Wonder Woman leads the way to the edge of the field and- “No way.” I mutter.

A fucking phonebooth. I’ve never seen one of these before- a grin spread across my face as I take it in. And a little nostalgia, and… The feeling when someone asks ‘What’s a VHS?’

Best not to worry about that.

But, uh. I can only assume we’re not calling a cab. So… Portals- they wouldn’t fit… Maybe. So… Teleporter?

OL speaks up. “Oh, hell no. I’ve seen Star Trek. Those things are not safe.”

I look over to OL, as do the other two. Wonder Woman sighs.

“The League has been using zeta tubes since its founding. They are quite safe.”

I slip past them, going unnoticed somehow.

“It’s all fun and games until your eye gets teleported to Poughkeepsie.”

“That can’t happen.”

Let’s see… Oh, hey. Understand!Comprehend!Reason is filling in the gaps. Slowly. But the more I look around, the easier it is to get. No technobabble in my head, just, it makes sense. Birds fly, sun shines, and Zeta Tubes just work.

“Or into my face. I like my eyes.”

I hear her take a breath, and she doesn’t respond. “David?”

“Hm?” I pop my head out from the booth. “Oh, I figured it out.” I see OL cringe and the glow from his eyes and body intensifies.

I hum again. This could kill me… Am I willing to die?

Something in me violently rejects that idea. But, glancing over the controls… I can fix whatever damage it does. And I’m now completely confident I can both work this and that it won't kill me.

“And how did you do that?”

“‘S in m’ head.”

She looked less than pleased at my incredibly sound logic.

“Ah,” OL says, as he steps closer. “Perhaps we could try another entrance?”

I nod, look at the controls, shrug, then press the button.

Okay, I pressed a couple buttons but then I pressed one button and-

 

Codependent Part 8
2010, July 8th
7:30-ish

-arrive-

“Recognized, Guest.”

Looks like I did it right. I step out, removing my gaze away from the zeta tube and-

That’s the Justice League. Or, some of them.

The Flash, Batman, Aquaman, Black Canary, Hawkman and Red Tornado. The heroes of my childhood in the living flesh. And there are also some teenagers. Red haired kid- which could be Wally West- someone with a black ‘superman’ shirt- Superboy probably, so, Jon?- a tough looking black guy with pale blonde hair, and a smaller guy with black hair. I think I was only marginally taller than him.

Considering how lithe the smaller one was, I’d call him a Robin. Wasn’t sure about the black dude. Powers drift into my awareness, charging up. I hadn’t noticed the comprehension one drift away.

Burn!Flare!Ember
Delegate!Program!Sleeper
Friction!Reduce!Doppler

The last one was weird. I had to reign it in, as it ‘wanted’ to be on. Funny, considering what it did. The second power, however, was more interesting than the “set fire to anything” Amaterasu ability.

Dividing my mind up into smaller ones. Rather, cloning it and housing those clones in my head.

I’m brought back to the world as Batman’s- BatmanBatmanBatman- speech carries over.

“The seven of you will be a team.”

The redhead spoke up. “Cool! Wait, seven?”

I counted four of them, plus OL, so… two other newcomers?

“Recognized, Wonder Woman, zero three. Recognized, Guest, Recognized, Guest.”

The others arrive-

Just as the Martian Manhunter and a green-skinned girl walk by me! How long had they been there!? She glances at me before walking further up.

“This is the Martian Manhunter’s niece, Miss Martian.”

She waves at them nervously. “Hi?”

I see the black guy turn his head slightly over to look past her- to look at me and the others.

“And that-”

Batman turns towards me and the group. Everyone looks over to me and OL, who I speed walk a bit to catch up to. If Miss Martian is the fifth member of their group, then I have a good idea of who their seventh is.

“-is Orange Lantern, protege of the original Green Lantern.” His eyes narrow, I think, as he stares at me.

“Orange Lantern, in accordance with the terms of your oath to Gaea I nominate Batman as the other individual whose orders you must obey.” Wonder Woman is speaking quietly, and then looks at me. I realized they must be, waiting for my hero name?

And I’ve yet to pick one… But, I had an idea that kept coming to mind. I realize they’re still waiting and I blurt out “Eidolon.”

Wally is about to say something when Batman nods. “And that is Eidolon.”

‘Too quiet, right.’

“Welcome aboard! I’m Kid Flash! And this is the slightly extended gang.”

Another look at us. They must know each other, but- I'm intruding, probably, on their gang. OL does a better job of being a human being than me by going to introduce himself-

“Robin, Kid Flash, Miss M’orzz, Superboy, and… I’m sorry, I’ve got no idea who you are.” He extends his right hand to the black guy, who takes it.

“I am Kaldur’ahm. My code name is Aqualad.”

“Orange Lantern two eight one four. Pleased to meet you all.”

OL releases his hand glances at me. I fold my hands over my front and smile at them. “It’s- ah, good to meet you all.”

Wally squint at OL. “Hey, wait a second. Orange Lantern? How many Lantern colors are there?”

He looks over at him. “That I know about? Nine. Though, logically, I, I suppose you could make one of any color.”

“Nine?!” He exclaims.

Robin puts a hand on his shoulder. “Try to stay whelmed, kid.” No, Kid, not kid.

Whelmed? “Whelmed?” / “Whelmed?” OL and I say at the same time. I huff out a bit of laughter as I glance to him.

Kid Flash winces. “Don’t.”

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not the best but hey we got there short arc.

 

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow
2010, July 10th
12:16 PM GMT -5

We're shopping. I was a little bit of a shut-in, okay, well, a massive shut-in, so I’ve never really had the quintessential ‘shopping’ experience. And as soon as M’gann found out, well.

She ‘politely’ insisted.

It was a Saturday, which meant the mall was flooded. Teenagers of every flavour of the rainbow were walking about. Looking at the store names threw me for a bit of a loop. Some shops I recognized, but most I didn’t. I wasn’t sure if that was because I was out of touch or because I’m in a parallel universe. Probably the former.

M’gann, or, ‘Megan’, and I were in a Walmart. It seems it, along with McDonalds, was a constant among the multiverse. She was hovering nearby, not literally, as I picked out some dark jeans.

Currently, my ‘loadout’ was similar to the one I had when I first entered the mountain.

Burn!Flare!Ember
Delegate!Program!Sleeper
Fragment!Scatter!Discorporate

I tried not to think about them.

“I think those jeans would work better with your skin.”

I glanced at her, confused. “I didn’t know you knew fashion. Also, I’ll probably just be buying whatever clothes are dark, long, and loose.”

“But, don’t you want to have it be, I don’t know, more personal?” Her voice had a note of concern in it. It was much easier to tell with her, she wore her heart on her sleeve.

“This is personal.” I say, loading another two pairs of jeans into the bag. “I like what I like.” I turn towards her, then my eyes widen, my heart shivers and my mouth starts salivating. “Oh.”

She moves towards me. “David? Is something wrong?”

“I… I can buy it, can’t I? My perfect outfit… The outfit I’ve always dreamed of.”

“And, that is?”

“The Floral Tropicana Tourist.”

I could clearly picture it. A floral shirt, preferably red or blue, with eye-popping flowers, a pair of beige cargo-shorts, tall white socks with dark sandals, and a large pair of sunglasses.

Big, wide-brimmed hat optional.

I smiled, nodding to myself. “Oh yeah. It’s all coming together.”

She laughs at me, and my heart flutters. “You’re pretty silly. Come on, let’s go pay.” She turns on her heel, her bag bouncing against her hip.

I follow along, looking squarely at the back of her head. ‘Ahhh.’ I lowercase scream in my head.

We head to the register, pay with the bat-credit card (which doesn’t have a single bat on it), and head out to the food court as planned. I wanted to go ‘home’, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t hungry.

We get our food- burgers and fries from a ‘Mister Burger’, and sit down. It was noisy, smelly, and a bit gross. All in all, a food court. We snag a table and I lay down a ‘plate’ of napkins for my wrapped food.

‘Now the second hardest part of being a real human bean. Small talk.’

“So. Uh.” ‘Oh my god we can’t talk about work, can we?’

**Not outloud.** I try not to jolt.

“Right.” I mutter. **Telepathy. This okay?**

**Loud and clear!**

I was… pretty nervous. Sweating up a storm as I devoured my burger. I was never good at social situations, and even worse, talking to girls. And being in public? It was like a triple threat of awkwardness.

**So, you haven’t said much about yourself.** She thinks at me.

**Um. I’m from the same parallel universe as Oh-El, and… I have powers that don’t like me? Er, they don’t cooperate with me, really.**

She looks confused. **How so?**

And the hard part. How much do I tell them about my powers? Does it matter? My powers made me pretty much invincible to anyone at a time, but large enough groups could probably take me down. I’ve told Wonder Woman, and by extension, the entire Justice League, but am I ready to divulge specifics?

**I… Well. I am given. Some powers depending on my situation and any threats around me.**

She looks up from her fries, eyes a bit wide. **That’s pretty good. What do you have now?**

Before I can stop, the powers I have flit by my mind’s eye-

**Burn!Flare!Ember
Delegate!Program!Sleeper
Fragment!Scatter!Discorporate**

-and… she wilts.

**Oh.**

“Sorry.” I say out loud, shame gripping my soul. She understands, then. Smart. She knows those powers were chosen specifically to counter her. Fire, because martians can’t stand it. The ability to split my mind into sub-minds endlessly, so she can’t influence me. And the last one to… Scatter my presence into cubes, shards or something. Counters super-strength and telekinesis.

“I, know my way back, I’ll leave you can have some fun shopping-”

“No, it’s- okay.” **You don’t control what you get, right?**

I sit back down from my half stand before and nod. **It chooses for me.**

**Then that’s okay.** She smiles and I hope it isn’t fake.

I tried to put it behind me as we finished up in the mall and headed to the mountain via zeta beam, but it dimmed the encounter for me. I’d have to make it up to her, somehow.

It’s about an hour and a half after I’m back in my dorm, browsing the internet to find similarities and deviances, when someone knocks on my door. Opening it reveals the british lantern.

“You need a costume, right?” He says as a greeting. Startled, I nod. “Come on, we have someone to see. Oh, and put this on.” In a flash of orange, a featureless, white mask with eyeholes is handed over to me. It’s plastic and has a rubber strap tied to the back ends.

Powers are flitting by my awareness, none taking root until I sense the power that I got when Alan startled me settle into a slot.

Drain!Absorb!Recycle

This time, I didn't turn into a rock. I was able to control and hold it back. Other powers flit by and I give them no mind. It was better to let the power sort it out rather than me.

Something about that made me feel like laughing. Or crying.

Instead I left with OL and zeta beam’d to Central City, where I met a man named Paul Gambi. OL stood by and used his ring to finalize the design before Paul (“Mister Gambi was my father!”) adjusted it with his expertise. A sketch was created and colored. LED lights here and in there, a strap for the hood, and… And it was going by so fast. I’d been here for less than a week and I was getting a costume to do superhero work. I can barely make a sandwich, how the fuck am I supposed to save lives?! I can barely save my own.

An opaque dome covered us along with a high-pitched, keening noise that grew until it was gone in less than a second.

“Sound baffle.” OL says as I try to keep my hands from shaking. Gently taking the shitty mask off, I took some deep breaths and ignored the wetness around my eyes and mucus threatening to leak from my nose. I’m alright. I’m okay. Everything is going to be fine.

“You okay?” OL obligatorily asks. I nod and continue to lie to myself in my head.

“Just… nervous. Overwhelmed and nervous.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?”

Are you fucking kidding me. I don’t voice that but I think he gets it from my look of disbelief. “As in, what are you nervous about, specifically?”

Ah, right. Anger drains out of me. “Sorry.” He waits for me to gather my thoughts. “I think I’m being fast tracked to being a superhero. And I think you’re in on it, but,” I hold up a hand to forestall anything he’d say. “That’s my schizo-side talking. I don’t think you’re ‘in’ on anything, but I do think I was given to the team because of my abilities. I’m, I’m freaking out because I don’t want people to die because of me. I don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself. I can barely handle inconveniencing other people… but shattering an unknown amount of lives and being responsible for someone's death is… I can’t fathom it. I think it’d destroy me.”

OL waits a second after I’m done. “You want to help people, right?”

I nod.

“And how does being a superhero help with that?”

I shrug this time. “I have superpowers that are only useful for fighting.”

“Are you sure? Why not become a doctor, or a therapist? Police officer, etcetera.”

“I know. I just do, it’s- my powers only work if there’s a conflict to solve. A fight to win.”

He hums. “Alright…”

“And, I guess I’m not against being a hero…”

“Okay, different track. How do you prevent losing someone?”

“Practice. Training. Exercises.”

“We’ll do some when we get back. Are you good now?”

I take another breath then put the mask back on.

Paul doesn’t ask why we needed the dome or what we talked about. We finalize the design and OL offers to pay for it. Since it would put less of a dent in OL's bank than Batman's, I guiltily took him up on it.

After that we zeta'd back to the mountain for some training time.

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