Hi guys! This is chapter 2 and thanks for the two that reviewed this story :)
Disclaimer: Don't own Young Justice or DC Universe.
-The Missing X
"Mary-Aster!" A whiny voice called.
Mary cringed and held onto her backpack straps tighter, was getting to class so hard?
"Twerp, listen to your elders."
Ignore her, don't pay attention, it's what she wants.
Suddenly she felt herself be tugged back and fell to the floor. Laughter erupted around her, but she only narrowed her eyes at Jen, her personal devil. Blonde hair, blue eyes, typical cake face and it in no way looked natural.
This was a downside of being put up a year. Everyone constantly beat down on her for being a nerd.
"Guys it looks like Mary-Aster has fallen on her behind, how can you be 'good at gymnastics' if you can't even stand properly?"
Cue another bout of laughter.
Instead of biting her tongue like she was told to she snapped back, "And for someone with supposed 'good fashion sense' you dress like a slut." But as soon as the words came out of her mouth her eyes widened.
"What did you say twerp?" Jen asked threateningly her arms crossed over her chest.
"Nothing." Mary said trying to escape the circle that had formed around the two, but no one would move, must be Jen's 'friends'.
"Mary-Aster, remember we are nearly two years older than you, you're 10 while most of us are twelve. Which makes us higher than you; I don't care if you're some freak that's too smart for her own year. This is my school. Don't mess with me."
"I'm sorry." Mary said with a straight face void of any emotion.
"Sure twerp, no wonder you only have a mum, your dad doesn't like you because you're a freak." Jen hissed out.
"You don't know anything." Mary whimpered back as she finally found a path of escape.
She hated how they could make her feel, she hated how they could get under her skin and she couldn't do anything about it.
Jen was the worst by far, why did they even let her go here? It was catholic right? They had a uniform, but you could make additions to it like jewellery, shoes, socks, and hair stuff. Mum said it was a laid back school with good values.
But the comment hurt every time she said it, 'you don't have a dad because you're a freak.'
She wasn't going to lie, it stung a lot, but she buried it deep down so she would forget. Or she would take it out on someone at martial arts; even at this young age she was a dedicated fighter.
She found a seat at the back of the class and waited for the teacher to start their lesson.
"Ok guys," She said clapping her hands together, "This term we are looking at laws and how they are upheld, if they are upheld. We will start with a two week assignment, then move onto the rights and then look into them with detail to see if you can spot something that's not quite right."
The class groaned, they had just started the topic and she was already giving them an assignment.
"Now, now. I think you guys will like the assignment I have planned for you. But first! Lets talk about the law. Who enforces the law? Yes, Henry?"
"The police."
"Yes, but think more outside the box, the police are there but when things get out of hand who do they hand things over to?"
"The Justice League!" An enthusiastic voice called out.
"Right you are. The Justice League is made up of a vast majority of heroes that help people all around the world. Who can name a few heroes?"
"Superman!"
"Wonder Woman!"
"Green Lantern!"
"Aquaman!
"Batman!"
"Ok, you get the picture. Your task is to pick one hero you know of and research them, work they have done, people they have saved, and plots they have stopped. Everything. You have two weeks and at the end of that two weeks you will present your findings to the class." The teacher chirped, happy they finally like something she gave out. "You can start now, we will have three more class periods for this and then you will have to do it at home."
The class fell into chatter about their assignment as different people debated different things and searched up different heroes online.
Mary decided to search for heroes in the most crime-ridden cities of the USA, as she thought the best heroes were the ones with more work. A small list of people came up: Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Tigeress, Zatanna.
Her first thought was to go with Batman, but since everyone knew him there wouldn't be much to report on. Deciding she would take a look at the second name on the list, Nightwing, she read different news reports, clippings, stories, accounts about him, and soon she found her self writing down notes and linking them up, she realized quickly that Nightwing was in fact the first ever Robin. Even sightings of Nightwing are getting rare, as he seems to move constantly between Bludhaven and Gotham City.
Arriving at her apartment she got out her keys to open the door, when she got inside she sat down and continued on with her homework, having a mum working full time for a small news branch means that she will be late home.
Encasing herself around the numerous articles on Nightwing and company she soon had a few pages filled up with notes, some taken from the smallest detail and some more obvious than others.
"Honey I'm home!" Zee called from the front door,
"Hey mum!" Mary called back.
"Dinner's pizza tonight, sorry I'm late by the way."
"Don't worry I was doing some homework, gym got cancelled because coach is overseas for the next few weeks." Mary said taking the pizza from her mum's hands.
"Oh yeah? And what homework are you doing?" Zee said not believing for one second she was actually doing homework.
"Social Studies, you can take a look if you want, we got given a new assignment today."
Zee moved around to the bench to have a look at the notes scattered around, but she immediately froze when she saw the webpage that was open: New Vigilante in Bludhaven?
She knew Bludhaven was Nightwing's home and she knew that he had started out as Nightwing shortly before she ran away. But she didn't want her daughter doing this, she moved to get away from it all.
"Hey mum?" Mary called from the front door,
"Yeah?" She called absentmindedly still looking at the name.
"Aunt Rocky's here." She said bringing her friend in.
"Zee!" Raquel cried and went to hug her friend. But when she was sure only Zatanna could here her she whispered, "we really need to talk."
Half an hour later Mary was having a shower while Rocky and Zee were sitting in the living room looking at Mary's notes on Nightwing.
"She'd be a great detective." Raquel slipped in looking at all the detail in the notes.
"Don't bring it up." Zee said.
"No, I have to. When are you going to come back or tell him?"
"I don't know: maybe one day, maybe never."
"He misses you, you know?" Raquel tried again,
"Raquel we both know that's not true, he's got Barbara now." Zatanna said smiling, while feeling dead on the inside.
"Zatanna. You won't you tell him?" Raquel said using her actual name. Zatanna's eyes widened in shock.
"SH! She could have heard you." She scolded. But the dark skinned girl only rolled her eyes.
"She's in the shower, can't you hear the water running?" And it was true the water was running but Mary wasn't inside, she was listening to every word of their conversation.
Her mind was racing: Her mum's actual name was Zatanna, she swore she had heard it somewhere before. Her mum knows where her dad is. Her dad has a girlfriend or wife called Barbara.
Rushing back to the bathroom to have a quick shower she reviewed the new facts she had. Finally, she had some clues as to who her dad was, who she was.
"Bye Raquel, see you next time and good luck with the League." Zee called after her friend.
"See ya Zee!"
The door shut with a loud thud. Mary was still researching for her Social Sciences project but she couldn't seem to focus. Minimizing the browser she proceeded to open another one that's history couldn't be tracked.
Searching in the search website she typed in: Zatanna.
Sadly the problem with having a small apartment and hardly any Wi-Fi was it didn't load fast enough. Sighing she reopened her research and continued to write her notes on Nightwing.
On the other side of the country…
"You ok man?" Wally asked his best friend while driving home from work.
"I'm fine Wally, you don't need to check up on me every few minutes." The voice warily said back.
"I know, I know. Hey how about we do something this weekend with Roy, Conner and Kaldur?" He suggested.
A sigh came from the opposite end of the line, "Are you trying to distract me?"
"What? Psf. No, that would be absurd. What made you think that?" Wally replied narrowly missing some pedestrians that were now screaming at him.
"Because you've been planning this for weeks."
"Aw come one man, you never go out anymore, actually you do. How's Barbara on that note?"
"She's good, and yes I do go out. Wally just because the day is coming up fast doesn't mean I'll be depressed; she's been out of my life for nearly eleven years. I think I'm over her, if I wasn't I'd be such a sap."
"Are you sure? Because last year this time you were drunk off your ass." Wally rebutted, no way he was losing this fight to a bat.
"That was last year Wally, and you don't have to remind me. I'm spending this year with Babs."
"That is a bull faced lie. I talked to her and she said you were free, so you have no choice but to come with us. Meet us in the cave on Saturday 7 at night SHARP. Don't be late." Just like that he hung up.
Parking the car rather awkwardly in the driveway of his house with Artemis he unloaded the boot and brought all the groceries in. Which all in all took half and hour.
"Hey Baywatch." Artemis said as she came home from work,
"Hey Arty," Wally said still running around the house sorting things out.
"You expecting a guest?" She said as she watched the streak that was Wally run like a crazy.
"Yeah, erm. Conner and M'gann are coming over for dinner and they're bringing in Christian too." Wally said rubbing the back of his neck.
"And you think to tell me now?" Artemis groaned.
"Sorry but you know, kind of busy now."
"Fine, you set out the house and I'll make dinner, just keep checking for when they're here."
"You got it babe." He said before resuming his speed of cleaning.
A loud knock came from the door and immediately was opened by Wally to reveal the Martian- Kyrptonian family.
"Conner, M'gann, Greenie! Come in." He said enthusiastically.
"Thanks for inviting us over Wally," M'gann gushed as she held Christian's hand.
"No prob green cheeks, this is just a small thing so don't expect anything big."
"We'll try not to." Conner said smirking.
"Hey guys," Artemis called from the kitchen, "dinner will be ready in like five minutes so just hang on."
"Artemis!" M'gann said, gifting Christian to Conner and flying over to the kitchen.
"Hey M'gann how's everyone?"
"We're ok, just the anniversary is coming up and we don't want to put anymore pressure on everyone." She said sadly.
"I know," Artemis whispered back, "but we'll get through this again this year."
"We will but will Dick?" M'gann said looking over to the boys playing with Christian.
"I'm not sure but everyone has set something up for him this year to keep his mind off it, so hopefully this year will be better than the last."
"We can only hope now can't we?"
Artemis sighed, she really didn't want to talk about Zatanna, it only brought her down. She could be dead for all they knew, she could be a villain for all they knew, but for all they knew she was still out there, just lost.
"Have you joined the League yet?" Artemis suddenly asked.
"No. Both Conner and me want to stay with the team you know? It's just more comforting. Although Aqualad just joined and so did Red Arrow, again."
"That's great, me and Wally seem to keep missing out on everything that goes on there."
It was true, after the Reach Invasion, which Wally had narrowly survived, they both decided to take their vacation to Paris and then retire again.
"Don't you miss it though?" M'gann asked curiously
"Of course I miss it, but I'm happy. Really happy where I am, it's just a matter of keeping up with everything." Artemis said.
"Um Artemis?"
"Yes?"
"I think it's burning."
"What!"
Turning around at a speed Wally would be proud of she moved to turn the oven off and pull the door down. True to M'gann's word her dinner had been burnt. What was supposed to be Shepard's pie looked like a black cake.
"Hey Wally?" Artemis called.
"Yes Arty?" He called from the living room.
"Order that pizza, dinner got burnt."
"Rodger that commander."
New York City
Mary carefully read the pixels on the screen to see if she was hallucinating or not.
Zatanna: a known Homo Magi, or magician, who is a member of the Justice League of America.
There was another link below the line of words that led to a picture of this Zatanna.
Clicking it slowly she waited for the image to load. Bit by bit the file loaded, revealing the black raven hair so familiar to her. The ice blue eyes she envied her mother for, and then finally the whole file was loaded. It was her mother, or at least she thought it was. She just looked younger.
Clicking to return to the first page she continued reading a news article that was published nearly eleven years ago.
'Zatanna Zatara has been reported missing by close friends, the magician who's father is part of the Justice League has yet to issue a comment on this report. Zatara who is seventeen years of age was last seen at the Happy Harbor Mall, two days ago. If you have any information on her whereabouts contact this number immediately. 962 4633 7465.'
What even? This couldn't be her mum. Her mum was so quite, shy and definitely not a magician. Right? But everything said otherwise, the last name: Zatara was just flipped backwards to form Arataz.
She knew her mum would freak out if she found out that she knew. So her best bet right now was to wait, plan and then take action.
There it is review what you guys think please, it just helps me make the story better for you to read:)
-The Missing X
