Young Justice Plus

Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 11, 23:59 EDT

You sit yoga style on the floor of the storage locker.

"Excellent," Ethan nods. "Very good."

"What now."

He smiles a bit. "You stay here for as long as you can."

You frown. "What then?"

"Deep in the heart of the universe is what I am going to call will. It goes by other names. Heart, courage, green, dream, consciousness. Will is the first and most basic lesson in magic. You are going to sit there and not move. You will not scratch, you will not speak. What you are going to do is see how long you can stay here, stay awake, doing absolutely nothing."

"That is magic?" He shrugs lightly. "Or perhaps it is like tapping your hand in a little pan of water every day for months that is taught in the League of Shadows. The line between the mindset and the goal, the power and the knowledge, the is and the ought, are all blurred in magic. That is how it should be, how it is, how it always has been. On Maltus men huddled in love and hate, avarice and compassion, hope and fear of things greater than themselves. Will was where they started the fire. The blood of Maltus still flows. Who are we to question how they began."

Ethan walks out and closes the door of the storage locker.

How long can you stay in here?

Green Lanterns use will, though not magic. Perhaps there is no difference, in the end?

"I will fear no evil,
for I illuminate the darkness
with the light of justice --
the justice of the Green Lantern!"

Abin Sur had made that oath when the United Nations was founded. Other times as well. He had said it in front of schoolchildren on Earth and in a temple on Mars. He was the Green Lantern you grew up with, that everyone had grown up with.

His partner, the man with horn rimmed-glasses has never said his oath, if he even has one. He almost never shows up, and never alone. They say he spends most of his time elsewhere, patrolling the other planets of the sector. Antar, Tamaran, Rann, Mars, Saturn, Leera, and perhaps a hundred other worlds that few humans would ever see.

The new Green Lantern has an oath as well.

"With power present in my light,
No force shall stay my hand this night!
Let those who do prepare to fight,
Dare no man challenge the Dawn's might!"

You need will. You need to stay here as long as you can. Will is will is will. That is the currency you must spend to learn magic, to gain power. The power that was denied to you, cheated from you, back home. Magic was out there, power for the taking.

Mine.

You want out of this storage locker. Out of the sweat, to be drinking something and eating real food back home. You want to get away from the tepid water and the brightness and the weak smells and the way you can never find anything that tastes quite right. You want to go home, but you already tried that and just ended up back here.

You need to focus on will. It will take will to get anything from this process. Without power anything you get can be taken from you. Again and again you have proven that you are not strong enough.

Running after home had lost you everything you could have had. You had found a brother, people to fight for, and then...

You can't lose another child.

It was best for him. His father would do what must be done. He had always been weak that way, driven by emotions. Love had been his weakness, the need to protect the people he loved. That had never been you, no matter what you had been promised.

You had given up on revenge. You can't hate him for staying with her and...

This is not will. This is anger, rage, frustration. That has strength, but also weakness. You need to find your core, your heart/will/green/name.

You had lost so many names. Maybe that is what you have to find to find your will.

A name has to mean something. You don't know how long you spend trying to find your name, when you fall asleep, if you even woke up in that dark storage locker.

Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 13, 01: 22 EDT

"Well done." Ethan is smiling down at you as you cough from some kind of smelling salts. "I really expected you to come out.

"I've been in worse." You glance up at him. "How long was I out?"

"It took an hour for me to get worried, and you were in there for 24." Ethan shrugs. "That was the first step. Long enough for me to make peace with the locals, or local. I'm really not sure what is going on in this town. But I am inclined to say we will not be troubled in this place as long as we can provide it with a few small favors."

You glare up at him. "Got any water?"

Ethan laughs." The tap is right there, Love." You get up on wobbly legs and drink from it. The drink is refreshing, your mouth ceasing to be dry after a minute.

"I am hungry, Ethan." Ethan waggles his finger. "I've met masters who would carve out an eye from such an impudent student. The Liverpool bitch was a piece of work, let me tell you. I don't think she ever had a student survive, so maybe there was more going on there. Anyway, how was it?"

"Hot, then suddenly really cold. Dark, itchy, hungry, thirsty. What did you expect?"

Ethan smiles again. "Do you think that was hard? Love, try a Babalon Working sometime. I've spent three days on LSD trips without sleeping in this work. Magic's not gentle."

"Don't patronize me. You have no idea what I've done."

He smiles. "But you're angry over something as little as this? The last thing we need is another child running around doing magic." He sniffs you. "Ah, but you aren't a child, not really. Or..." He looks confused. "How old are you?"

You give him a smile. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

The wizard steps back. "That is never something you want to hear in my trade."

"Of course not. It never means anything good, does it?"

Ethan nods silently.

It is a long while before either of you talk again, eating microwaved pizza pulled out of an ice cooler.

"Did you learn anything in there? People often do." You chew thoughtfully.

"I think I did. I had a long, long time to think in there. I half expected to hallucinate or have some kind of weird dreams."

"You usually don't get those right away unless you take the pharmaceutical route. That can be a good short cut, but only if you know where you're going, and there is a price."

"I don't think I will be experimenting with that anytime soon," You laugh at the last time you got drunk. "I'm enough of a lightweight not to want to try that."

"So what did you learn in there?" Ethan sounds very curious.

"I got myself a name..."

[X] In there, you kept circling around the past, all that you had lost. If you are going to stay here, earn power, you need to take it all back. "...call me Liz." You are getting revenge, you are going to fight, and you are going to go back home."

[X] You can't help but forget the darkness and the sweat, the hunger and the thirst. You don't want to feel that way anymore. You can become magical and get everything. "...call me Ava." You can have everything here.

[X] Your life had too much. You kept losing again and again. That is what winning has to be, in a world with Green Lanterns and men who can kill the sun. If you get strong enough to never be hurt again. "...call me Spencer." That is what you have to fight for.

 

Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 13, 09: 42 EDT

"Here." Ethan has driven you to the local graveyard. "You are to write down everyone who enters and leaves the graveyard."

You frown. "Why?"

Ethan sighs. "Love, I have absolutely no idea why the mysterious sender of text messages wants this. Someone noticed us arrive in town and was polite enough not to communicate our presence to the police. My current theories are the dead girl, the blind girl, and the girl who spent the last year in Iceland, but those are simply my best guess. I would rather not live in the town which has ghost stories told about it all across the world as I investigate it, so I think it would be nice to do this power a favor."

"So, is there anything else I do here?" You ask.

Ethan pulls out a magazine and puts it on your lap. "You read this." You look at it with a bit of confusion. "A jewelry store catalog?"

"We need to channel your personal magic, dear. You need to want things for that. The more you want, the farther your soul will stretch to take it." Ethan gets out of the car and pulls out a large stack of magazines. "Courtesy of local retailers, we today's homework. You are going to look at everything you don't have and think about how much you would like to have it."

You get out of the car. "I don't think I've mastered will yet. Is multitasking really such a good idea?

Ethan nods. "You are stretching your soul. You can't do it one piece at a time if you want to change. You need the stress, the rush, to be hit with everything at once. That is the way you change into a wizard. Sex, drugs and rock and roll helped me become the man I am today as much as any dusty old books or magic words ever did. Those will have their time and place. When you get bored you will get a taste of magic, enough to keep you wanting more. That's how I am going to teach you. There are other ways to teach very different people."

All of this makes sense. "So I just think about what else I could have. Things I really, really want."

"That is what ads are for. You can pay more attention to them than to the articles. When something strikes your fancy think about it. You won't find your heart through peace. Meditating on the oneness of the universe or how to help others is all well and good, but that's not why you're becoming a witch."

You shake your head. "Why did you become a wizard?" Ethan smiles.

"I could have had a simple, boring life. I could have had a wife and kids and a dog and hated every minute of it. I thought I was going to die young, burn myself out and wind up dead. Instead I found a mate who knew things. I couldn't stand being normal after that, so I decided if I was going to burn myself out I might as well do it making something of myself. Here I am, alive and kicking after so many nights. I think I've lasted longer without putting a bullet through my brain this way." Ethan makes a comic bow.

"I see." You really do see. A man who ran away from everything. Why else would a Brit be in Pennsylvania?

Ethan walks away and you assemble your materials. A notebook, three pencils, and your magazines. It is time to get to work.

Mouthwatering food comes first. It seems best to start with literal hunger. Not much raises too much of your interest. Clothes spark a bit more, Always being on the run, not attracting too much attention, it would be nice to be pretty. Strap on new shoes and new looks, become someone you've never got to be before.

You could get used to wanting those things. So far the ache of greed is not uncomfortable. You start forming little scenarios in your mind. Yes, those shoes with that top and maybe those shorts. On a beach in Monaco perhaps. Mexico's been a cesspool, as are most places, but nice beaches on Europe would be great.

Jewels are the same here as they are back home. You spend a lot of time eying them, trying to find things you'd really like. You don't really like the look of diamonds. Rubies are nice, the color red in general is striking, homey.

Maybe a spa weekend, or living with a spa in the house? Did people have those, or just a jacuzzi? The idea seems very relaxing, very comfortable.

It is a random ad for wrist watches that for some reason had a picture of a hang-glider that made you really pause.

Flight. Not even Superman can fly. Moving around, bouncing from place to place. Spending three days to get from Star City to Erie sucked. Hikes through the desert sucked even worse. Just being able to hop from place to place like Green Lanterns do all the time...

Green Lantern. The oldest and best superheroes. Their power would be nice. Not a true member, of course, but something like it. A weapon of amazing, incomparable power. Being safe and able to do anything and ignore all the little things with a wave of a ring.

You want to go home. To go home under your own power.

Rosewood, Pennsylvania- July 13, 19: 42 EDT

Ethan returns bleeding and looking rather surprised.

"Anything you want to share?"

Ethan shrugs. "A shifting maze that didn't like me much. At least I've found somewhere to start, though it being a shifting maze implies it might not be a good place to start. Any luck?" You nod.

"Descriptions of everyone. A lot of people come here."

Ethan nods slowly. "Any progress on your growing avarice?"

[X] "No." You hand Ethan back the magazines. "Something just isn't clicking. I feel the same."

[X] "Yes." You laugh a bit. "This is fun, and isn't, at the same time."

[X] "Maybe." You shake your head. "I think I need a vacation. All the stuff that's been happening to me lately, I need to go somewhere, do something else for a bit to get started."