Prologue: Storm Front
((Author's notes: Written for the Young Justice Big Bang series, this thing was a real challenge to complete. Still, I'm quite proud of the final result, and hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.))
M'gann M'orzz clutched the papers close to her chest, the storm front making them rustle like a handful of dead leaves. The wind tugged at her hair as her feet stretched out, touching down on the ground and dropping out of the worst of the crosswinds. Her clothing had already morphed, trading out her costume for a plain civilian skirt and shirt. The red X she kept, crisscrossing her chest and sewn into the fabric of her white shirt. For a brief moment, she considered making the main fabric black instead, but the thought instantly made her eyes sting. M'gann blinked to clear them, glancing around her surroundings.
With everyone indoors to get out of the dark and the storm blowing in, it made for a lonely sports field. Overhead, the sky rumbled as clouds choked out the scant rays from the moon. The trees outside of the game field and lining the campus roads and walkways were sighing from the wind stirring through them, barely visible over the bleachers in that gloom. No trace of anyone braving the night, or the storm.
All that emptiness was welcome, though. She needed the isolation for what was coming next. M'gann glanced over the papers in her hand again, noting some of the information and tugging it into a cleared corner of her mind.
But beyond that, in the very back of her mind, there was a low key, almost worried buzzing. Her ship couldn't form words, but it could manage something close to emotions. And just then it was intent on digging a sharp edged bolt of worry into her head, trying to coax her back into the air where it was.
Instead, M'gann dug her feet into the ground, and pushed any hint of levitation out of her mind. The ship hummed as her skin lightened from green to Caucasian, almost dipping lower out of its place in the sky…It seemed to know what she had planned, and also that there wasn't a chance of talking her out of it.
"Go," M'gann whispered to her ship, knowing that her mental voice was choked and steeped in raw sadness. "Go where ever you want, but don't come back here. Go on!" She forced her words to crack with anger, which hurt just as much as that rawness…But it at least had the desired effect. A swish as the air was pushed aside and cut through, and she could hear the ship turning away from her in confusion. M'gann didn't turn to look at the ship as it left, knowing that if she did, she would likely call it back. Instead she imagined it shrugging off her harsh voice, and slowly picking its way back to Mount Justice.
…Back to the others. M'gann shut her eyes again as the first drops of rain started to patter out of the sky and soaked into her hair, remembering.
It had been a fast, hurried packing job, where M'gann was only half aware of what she threw into the backpack. Just things she thought she might need; the few spare changes of clothing she had, a toothbrush…Papers that she'd sneaked out of the database, before deleting any digital trail from the computers. Before she left, M'gann made sure to give Gar a kiss on the cheek, gentle enough not to wake him. She also left instructions to her uncle regarding her little brother, and Conner…She had stood outside his door for what felt like hours, staring at the sheet of metal between him and her, before finally turning and leaving without ever saying a word. Maybe she should have said sorry to him again; another apology was going through her mind just then, as the thunder growled louder across the sky and lightning lit up her surroundings…Not that the word would change much.
Her eyes flickered open again, glancing around as more drops of rain splashed across her arms and started to sigh as it pattered the grass in the field down flat. She'd spent time at this place, before. Long before things went bad, and the minutes she'd dwindled away had always been at the edge of campus, soaking in what she could of the ambience. Hearing people complaining about homework, switching over to excitement when they talked about plans for after class, and how all of it reminded her of the best parts of her shows.
Now, M'gann lifted her gaze to that space between the prongs of the goal post, and the rooflines of the school building beyond it. Tilted her head up, locked her eyes on the scenery, and let the surroundings saturate her thoughts. More lightning crackled across the sky, burning a bright white light into her eyes and her head.
'Push it out,' she told herself as some of those thoughts screamed and struggled against the tide, while that stored information on the papers started to leech in. 'Push it ALL out.' Her heart picked up, and her vision started to spin as everything drowned in that white, erasing light that was flooding through her mind. It seeped into her vision as well, blinding and tearing away at the buildings and scoreboards as she watched.
'I'm sorry-' M'gann had time to think and whisper, before everything was enveloped. 'But I'm ready to forget.'
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself blinking rainwater out of them. Her long hair was plastered against her neck, while her shoulders twitched and shivered.
"What was I-?" She started to ask out loud, before realizing there was no one around to answer her question. Just herself, alone in a football field with some crumpled papers in hand, and a backpack near the ground. And some clothing on her back that was rapidly becoming waterlogged.
When she looked down at her shirt, there was a flicker of confusion as she saw the red X tracing across her chest. Something about that might have been important…But she couldn't grasp what. And the content in those papers seemed more important; declaring that she was enrolling here, and had likely gotten caught up in the storm.
Megan Morse blinked at her name written on the papers, before clutching them and her bag close as she turned and ran for the nearest building, ready to get out of the storm.
