This was written for the Collab Challenge over at the YJCF. The prompt: Boxes shouldn't be used for that. My partner was LynxbyLynx.
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Artemis
The teenager narrowed her eyes. Waiting…almost…finally!
Artemis resisted the urge to cackle. She'd done it, and she'd be rid of him for sure this time.
She stood from her cramped position in Wally's closet. The cake slice, laced with a sedative, was the perfect bait to get the speedster down to her own speed. The box was waiting in her own room, just down the hall, for Wally.
She heaved him off the bed and onto the floor, trying desperately to not make too much noise. It'd be terrible to get this far in her plan and be given away from noise.
It took several minutes, but he was in her room and on his side. Artemis arranged the legs and body in the box, and tipped it up. He was in.
She taped the top of the box shut, made sure there were a few holes for air (she wanted him gone, not dead), and pushed the box out to the living room.
"Red Tornado?" she asked sweetly. "Could you help me out, please?"
"What is it you need, Artemis?" the android asked, turning his head toward her.
"I need to send this out, but it's really, really heavy cargo. Would you help me take it to the post office?"
"Of course," Tornado said, picking the box up easily. "Lead on."
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They were at the post office, and Red Tornado was about to put the box on the counter (it was barely tall enough to hold the box) when something began to make noise. Human noises.
"Let me out!" was the first audible yell, though horribly muffled, and Red Tornado tore open the side of the box.
Wally came tumbling out, the tranquilizer obviously still in his system.
"Why. Was. I. In. The. Box?" Wally hissed, his face beginning to look like his hair in anger.
"I do not know," Tornado admitted, "though I suspect that your teammate may know. Artemis, this is not what a box should be used for, I hope you now realize."
"What? I didn't do anything!" Artemis panicked, eyes wide. "It was everyone else! I was just the person going to the post office, I swear!"
"We'll see about that!" Wally yelled, reaching out for the girl.
Artemis danced out of his way, running out the door in a panic with Wally not too far behind. "YOU ARE DEAD, ARTEMIS! DO YOU HEAR ME? D-E-A-D DEAD!"
Tornado was left with a very confused post master, watching the two teenage superheroes run through the streets of Happy Harbor.
Superboy
Black Canary stopped in the middle of her tag-team fight with Wally and Kaldur to stare as Superboy came into the training room. Wally, having stopped looking where he was going, ran straight into Robin, who stood on the sidelines, and both boys went flying. But Canary just kept looking at the clone.
"Superboy, what is on your head?" she asked carefully.
Without answering, Superboy ran at her with a yell.
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The box was hot and cumbersome, but Superboy had seen the video and was determined to copy it. It should work. It would work.
The eyeholes suddenly seemed too small, but he was barreling too fast towards Canary to back out now. She stepped out of the way, and Superboy turned.
"The box will prevail!" he yelled, racing back at her.
She turned again and kicked the back of his knee.
"Superboy, what are you doing?" she yelled, bringing the teen down and taking off the box. "This box wouldn't help you fight your way out of a wet paper bag!"
"It worked on the video!" he said, getting up. "I'd like my box back."
"NO! You don't use a box to fight!" she yelled. "This is NOT what a box should be used for!"
Superboy grunted, glaring at Robin and Wally. "Tell that to them," he snapped, standing moodily on the sidelines.
He smiled to himself as Megan turned to the two and began to scold them profusely. Now all he needed was a few cookies and he'd be set. Oh, and defeat Black Canary. That'd feel really good right about now.
Megan
It was the documentary that did it.
As Megan hummed away in the kitchen that afternoon, she kept glancing at the documentary of hibernating bears that was up on the screen, observing how they ate as much as they could before finding a nice cave to spend the winter in. Well, they were already in a cave. But she didn't think that any of the boys, or Artemis for that matter, would be able to eat that much, then sleep for almost half the year. At least, from what she'd observed from other humans, they couldn't. They'd have to actually store the food away.
Good thing there were a lot of cardboard boxes laying around, and both Red Tornado and Black Canary had said that she could have them!
The food was carefully packed away, and Megan had found a nice place to store it. She used her telekinesis and floated the boxes in front of her, opening the door and stacking them carefully.
"Done!" she said happily, and shut the door.
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-Two Weeks Later-
The smell that permeated the air around the secluded closet had spread, attracting the attention of Superboy first.
"Do you smell that?" he asked, the frown working itself deeper onto his face. He looked at the rest of the team expectantly.
"Supey, I thought that it was your hearing that was super, not your sense of smell," Wally joked from his position on the floor playing video games.
Robin frowned as well, putting the game on pause and causing Wally to let out an indignant squawk of, "Hey, I was winning!"
"Now that you mention it, I can smell something too, but it's faint," he murmured, hitching the sunglasses back up his nose.
"I do not smell anything, but that does not mean that it is not there," Kaldur chipped in, a thoughtful look on his face. "Let's go see if we can see where the smell is coming from."
The four boys stood, and they all took a hallway that branched off. Amazingly, it was Wally who caught the scent first.
"Ugh, I think I found it!" he yelled, catching a full whiff of the odor. "Smells like the locker room at the end of the day."
Robin appeared from nowhere a minute later, and Kaldur and Superboy weren't too far behind him. "This is the smell," Robin confirmed, nose flaring. "And it's strong."
They followed the smell, nearly walking past the closet they determined it was emanating from. Kaldur pulled the door open gently.
Boxes were stacked, showing no obvious place from the smell to come from. But when Robin used a batarang to slice open one of the sides, they found it. Half-rotted food spilled onto the floor.
"This look's like Megan's cooking," Wally said slowly, picking up a small lump. "I'm surprised that this is even rotting."
"Hello, Megan! I should've known that you'd find the food I stored away for us eventually!" Megan said, suddenly appearing around the corner.
They just looked at her.
"Well, when you weren't in the living room anymore when Artemis and I returned, I looked for you mentally," she explained, almost sheepishly. "I came as quickly as I could to see what had gotten your attention."
"Uh, Megan, as much as we appreciate that you stored food away, why?" Robin asked, nudging something green that seemed to almost slither to his foot away.
"Well, I was watching a documentary-"
"Ooh, let me guess, it was that bear one, wasn't it?" Wally asked, face lighting up. "What?" he said, looking at the blank faces around him. "We were watching it in biology last week."
"Yes, it was a bear documentary," Megan said, picking all the food back up with her telekinesis. "They were talking about how they needed to store away food for winter hibernation, and I thought, 'Well, if bears do it, humans must as well.'"
"Megan," Kaldur began diplomatically. "As much as we all appreciate the effort, humans do NOT hibernate, and boxes should not be used to store food away!"
"Unless it's dry, non-perishable stuff, like cereal or oatmeal," Robin clarified. "Now, how do we clean this up?"
Wally
Wally, for once, seemed to slow as he raced past the beach. Aqualad sat on the rock, staring at the ocean, and Wally frowned. He knew the Atlantean could go in the water if he wanted, so why was he just sitting there?
"I bet he's homesick!" the speedster said, starting another lap back up to Massachusetts. Kaldur was probably missing his fishy friends, and…
Wait.
That was it!
Wally smirked to himself as he began to turn toward Mount Justice. He had a few supplies that might help, and he stopped to get a drink of water before proceeding to his room. This would take some planning.
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The first thing Kaldur noticed the next morning were that there were some water droplets on the floor. No big deal, but why…
His mind was picking up some aquatic life's thoughts. What were fish doing wandering around the mountain?
Kaldur followed the water, stopping as he reached the living room.
Wally sat in the middle of the floor, frantically trying to mop up water that was leaking from the soaked box sitting in front of him. And inside…
So that was where the fish thoughts were coming from!
"Wally, what are you doing?"
The teen looked up, a guilty smile on his face, as he hastily stood.
"Tada!"
Kaldur peeked inside the box. There were a couple crabs, two Blue Tang Surgeonfish, and a very small Clownfish swimming around in a fairly small box.
"Wally, you shouldn't use a box to make an aquarium!" Kaldur said, trying to heft the box up. "Grab the other side!"
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Together, they dumped the box back into the ocean, and Kaldur watched the fish swim away and the crabs bury themselves in the sand. He turned to a very sheepish Wally.
"Why would you do that?" he asked, frowning at the other boy.
Wally shuffled uneasily. "Well, yesterday, I saw you sitting on the rock looking kinda homesick, so I wanted to try and give you something from your home."
"Wally, I was thinking about friends I would visit when I went home to Atlantis this weekend," Kaldur said, exasperated.
"Oh…"
"I may be going sooner rather than later," Kaldur muttered, walking away.
Robin
The vroom noise that Alfred heard as he cleaned around the huge box set up in the middle of the sitting room weren't that uncommon, and he smiled as the boy inside squealed, mimicking brakes and then bursting out of the top of the box.
"You won't get away, Joker!" he yelled, racing from the room.
Alfred simply lifted the box and continued vacuuming.
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Bruce stopped, taking another look at the thing that sat in the middle of the room. It sat, innocuous, until suddenly the eight-year-old of the house jumped up out of the box, pretending to shoot something into the air.
"Batman, wait up!" he cried, pretending to swing from what must be an invisible version of his grappling hook.
Bruce swung the small child up, and Dick's blue eyes met his own inquisitively.
"What's wrong?" he asked, child-like wonder seeping through.
"Dick, we don't use boxes like that," Bruce began, feeling a small seed of guilt forming as the eyes began to become a little hurt. His ward needed to learn now, though, and this was the only way he could think to do it.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because boxes are used for storing things," Bruce answered, "and not for being played with."
The lower lip began to tremble. It was taking all of Bruce's willpower to now give in.
"But-but-but Mom always let me have the box," Dick said, and his eyes began to well with tears. Whether it was from Bruce's scolding or from the memory of his parents, Bruce wasn't quite sure, but he could barely stand to look Dick in the eye.
"Well, I-"
"Oh, Master Bruce, Master Richard, how delightful to see you both in here!" Alfred's voice said, and Bruce thanked him mentally as he turned around.
He nearly let out a groan as he saw Alfred's twinkling eyes. "I was just coming to get your box, Master Richard, as it's going to be in the way for the dinner social later tonight. Would you like it in your room?"
"I guess," Dick said, looking at the floor. "But Bruce doesn't want me playin' with it anymore."
"Now surely that won't do!" Alfred said, hefting the rather large box in his arms. "Perhaps Master Bruce needs to be reminded of his own box experiences?"
"No, Alfred," Bruce growled, but was cut off by an excited boy.
"OH! Bruce, will you play with me?"
"It might help you two get closer," Alfred added.
A pair of pleading blue eyes and the twinkling eyes of his ward and butler, respectively, had Bruce caving in minutes. "Fine. But after that, the box goes in the attic!"
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-One Week Later-
Alfred was humming as he cleaned in the living room, and he heard a few scuffles in the box in the middle of the living room.
Suddenly, Dick came shooting out of the box, laughing maniacally, or as close as he could get, as he raced from the room. Bruce followed, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and t-shirt, and yelled after the fleeing boy, "You won't get away, Joker!"
Bruce easily caught up with the boy, swinging him upside down and carrying him from the room. Dick's peals of laughter echoed down the hallway, and Alfred smiled.
The box still sat in the middle of the room, temporarily abandoned by the man and boy.
"'Boxes aren't used for that.' Oh dear, Master Bruce, I do believe you are, how do they say it? Eating your own words."
Kaldur
It was official: his teammates were insane.
To be honest, it wasn't a totally 'I just suddenly realized this' thought. He'd been quietly observing it, from when Artemis and Wally had come back from Happy Harbor with Red Tornado having to explain why Wally's limbs were almost dragging and Artemis' hair was poofed up like a kitten's tail to recently with Megan's…hoarding, storing, whatever it was, of a week ago. And Wally building him an aquarium with a box was just wrong. Kaldur was ready to lose his cool and just scream at them.
It was time to get away for a little while. Or perhaps, get them away.
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"Aqualad?" Black Canary asked carefully of the dark-skinned teen. He'd been rather touchy of late. "Where is everyone else?"
The blond shrugged. "I do not know," he said, turning to look at her over the back of the green couch. "Perhaps they are in their rooms?"
"No, I just looked." Aqualad was avoiding the subject; he should've known that'd be where she checked first. "When did you see them last?"
Aqualad thought back. "Last night, I believe," he said noncommittally, standing. "Do you wish for some help?"
"Sure," Canary said. "I'll go outside and look, you check near the bio-ship."
Kaldur walked toward the hangar, and Canary's brow furrowed as she took in Aqualad's not-quite-strange behavior, but shrugged it off.
A few minutes later, she was wishing she hadn't as she peered through the binoculars. Having had to run back inside for them when she saw a distant speck off-shore, she saw five teens on what had to be a platform of some kind.
"Aqualad, I found them," she said, resigned to her fate of having to deal with teenagers. "But I'm thinking this is your area of expertise."
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Aqualad was swimming out quickly, and Canary had a few minutes to reflect on the situation. Somehow, the five of them had ended up on a raft way out in the ocean, and somehow without all killing each other. Though why Megan hadn't floated them all to shore yet was still a mystery.
"How did you end up out there?" she asked as they got off the box, she now realized, and stumbled onto the sand in their pajamas.
"I don't know, we all woke up out there," Wally said, his mood even worse than it normally was without breakfast. "I tried to use some of my speed like Dash in The Incredibles and super-speed us back to shore, but I ran out of gas because no one decided to leave breakfast with anyone."
"And I got us so we could see the mountain, but then lost control," Megan admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I tried, and Wally tried, and no one had a communicator, and-"
"I get it," Canary interrupted. "Though this begs the question: why was it you five and not Aqualad?"
"Care to explain that, buddy?" Robin asked, slightly sarcastic. "If not, I'm pretty sure that the alert system I set up in each of our rooms will tell the story."
"I believe this is where I run," Aqualad said dryly, eyes glancing over each of the angry faces of his teammates.
"Yeah, that'd be wise," Canary advised. "Though just for future references-this is not what boxes should be used for!"
Well, that's it! Like I said, the prompt was: Boxes shouldn't be used for that. It was for the Collab Challenge. My partner was LynxbyLynx. This was a lot of fun. You should sign up!
I really hope you guys liked it!