Author's Note: I got a wonderful response to this, so here's part two! The ending is leading into something a friend (Batgirl!) wants to see done…
Legalities: We know it already!
Rating: PG-13
Circle of Friends
Part Two: More the Problem, Less the Solution
By: Carmen Wayne
**12:55 AM** flashed in green in Batman's view, within the lenses of his cowl. He was both annoyed and unnerved by everything Superboy had told them, with amazing clarity and the utmost respect. Something Superboy was not KNOWN for. He had better things to do. Robin didn't want to see HIM. Especially not in this state… as the Boy Wonder duly pointed out when he was informed the Dark Knight was there.
"Is he near the door?!" Robin screamed from the bathroom, panicked.
"He hasn't even been fully inside the ROOM since he GOT here," Empress explained. "Why don't you come out, Robin?"
"Be…Because… I wanna cry…"
Empress looked at Cissie. Cissie moved up to the door.
"Robin?"
"…"
"Robin, are you there?"
"Mmmhmm…"
It came from against the door, down by her knees. She knelt down by the sound.
"Robin, it's Cissie."
"I KNOW."
"Why don't you come out of there?"
"I already TOLD you…"
"You mean to tell me you're scared of BATMAN?"
"I am NOT scared—"
"That's what it seems like to me, you know. Now, I refuse to believe that just because you're taking on more than your fair share of the 'female experience' that you're any the less smart or brave. And ya know… Kon's showing you UP out here…" She looked across the room. "Talkin' with Wonder Woman and Superman and Green Lantern and Flash like he's all you and not all HIM…"
Meanwhile…
"Look at this," Superboy said, tracing his fingers along the lines of the orb. "It was solid platinum, no lines in it before, right? But after the blast, these lines of… gold, I think, appeared."
Wonder Woman gently pulled it from his hands and turned it over to observe everything. She narrowed her eyes, studying the faint inscriptions on the orb.
"These are ancient Ro—"
She stopped dead, watching Wonder Girl, who had slid in between Superboy and Superman on the couch and smiled casually.
"Continue!"
Wonder Woman stared at her young counter part in a silence that would in any other circumstance be considered uneasy. But instead it just consisted of a mono-stare from the Amazon Princess and a cute, innocent smile from Wonder Girl.
"Well… As I was saying, this is ancient Roman."
"You can read ancient Roman too?" Superboy asked. After a nod, he asked, "What's it say, Wonder Woman?"
"Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres," she said in fluent timing. Looking up, she saw the curious faces. "That means 'All of Gaul is divided into three parts'. Latin."
"I thought you said it was ROMAN," snooted Wonder Girl.
Superboy looked at her with that 'You idiot' look that Robin gave him frequently, once upon a time.
"They're the SAME THING."
"No they're not…"
"POINT IS," Wonder Woman said loudly before a fight could ensue, "Is that I have no idea what it means."
"Oh, that helps," Wonder Girl groaned.
Superboy nudged her impatiently. She whimpered and held her side. Cissie then called over:
"Kon?! HELP?!"
Superboy sighed and stood up, looking at the four JLA members.
"Would you excuse me a mom—" He whirled to Wonder Girl the moment her hand touched his rear. "STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE A WHORE!" he yelled. "My God! You're only fourteen! You have PLENTY of time before you need to start all that!"
He stormed away. Wonder Girl blinked, and then giggled madly.
"Oh, he so wants me."
Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged glances, while Flash hid his face behind his hand to snicker in silence. Green Lantern held a solid face, despite that he wanted to bust into laughter as well. Batman, still, remained at the entrance, unmoving. Superboy walked to the door of the bathroom, between Empress and Cissie.
"Robin?"
"What?!"
"It's Superboy…"
"I want a bunny…"
"Listen, you can HAVE a bunny if you just come out of there. We need to try something, and we need you, Gaul number one…"
"Are you calling me a gall bladder?!"
Superboy looked at the girls.
"Jeez, he's sensitive."
"I HEARD that!"
Something else hit the door. Superboy cringed, and then leaned closer to them, whispering so Robin wouldn't hear them.
"Okay, here's the thing you guys… I want to try to recreate the happenings out here, right? But we can't DO that without Robin out here. Now, if we can't get Robin out, I'm going to have to vote for plan B."
"And… what's plan B?" Cissie asked.
"Having the Big Three take our places in a reenactment. Who better to than our elder selves, right? Of course, Cissie, you'll have to remain the common denominator here."
"Is it denominator?"
"Whatever it is, you're that one organic piece that we'll want to keep the same in both plan A and B. Now, can you two try to talk him out?"
"We'll try, SB," Cissie said, nodding.
Empress walked up to Superboy, stared at him a moment, and then slapped him across the face. He covered his cheek, surprised as hell by that.
"Why did you do that?!"
"To see if you were a hallucination!" She slapped him once more. When he "ow"ed, she smirked. "Guess not."
Superboy growled. To add to his agitation, Robin was laughing hysterically within the confines of his bathroom.
"S-Boy got hiiiittttt!"
Without commenting, he walked away for the five Leaguers. Well, in between the seating area and the door, so he could speak to all five.
"Okay, Ciss and Emp are going to try to talk Robin out, but—"
"Augh!" Wonder Girl stood on her feet. "Never send them in to do a job."
She leapt over the couch and headed over to the door, singing something about underwear and a wedgie and psychopathic killer clowns. Superboy covered his face, took a long moment to just breath, then looked up once more.
"Modified planning. You have a choice. Either we wait for Robin to come out, or we just reenact what happened with Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman."
Superman looked at the bathroom, X-Raying in, checking before he would respond. Robin was sitting in the fetal position in the bathtub of the bathroom, chucking objects at the door. Objects, which he had pulled from the numerous cabinets, that filled the whole bathtub. Beyond the naked human eye, he could see the walls faintly glowing blue. To keep everyone out, Robin was using his newly instilled TTK to do the job for him. Momentarily, Superman mused on how quickly each of them adjusted to their new abilities, but then shook his head clear and looked at Superboy.
"He's not coming out any time soon. Lets go with the second option."
**
Batman was unenthusiastic as he took the place that Superboy ever so respectfully and quite frighteningly maturely directed him to. Superman was in place, as was Wonder Woman. Wonder Girl remained at the bathroom door, flirting with Robin through it. He was close to coming out. SO very close… and yet SO far…
Empress led Green Lantern and Flash out of the room to stand just outside the room, while Cissie grabbed Wonder Girl by the back of her belt and yanked her across.
"Hey!" Wonder Girl yelped. "What's the big idea?! Awww, is big butch Cissie lonely? Well, ya didn't have to be so pushy, baby, I can go both ways!"
"Cassie!!!! Gross!" Cissie screamed.
"WONDER GIRL!" Superboy yelled. "BEHAVE!" He looked at the three. "Okay, you need me to repeat what I told you we… no, of course I don't," he said with a sheepish smile. "Sorry."
"It's quite alright," Superman said. "I suggest you back away from this."
Superboy pulled back at least ten feet, near Wonder Girl and Cissie, who waited BEHIND a couch for everything to begin. Cissie leaned over to Superboy.
"Do you think it's really wise to do this?"
"What do you mean?" he asked softly, looking at her.
"What happens if the same thing happens to them?"
Wonder Girl giggled quietly at the thought.
"Then it's gonna be MORE fun 'n' games!" she whispered excitedly.
The two stared at her.
Wonder Woman took the orb from Batman and tossed it from hand to hand as Superboy said Wonder Girl had done. From one hand to the other and back again. As it went for a trip back to the other hand for the second time, Batman caught it in mid-air and brought it closer. (By this time Superboy, Cissie and Wonder Girl were musing how they could do it so seriously—and then had to remind themselves that this was THE three top superheroes in their world—maturity was their "thang".) Wonder Woman placed her hand where Superboy told her Wonder Girl placed hers, and then Superman placed his hand where he was told Superboy placed his…
**
"So, I heard you can, like, freeze things with your hands," Flash said casually to Empress.
Humored, Empress shrugged.
"I don't freeze things, mon, not like THAT. I can just… make them… inanimate."
Flash chuckled a bit. Green Lantern smiled.
"It seems to me like you're fitting in well here."
"What makes you say that?"
"Oh… teenager… superhero… a wise-guy. That pretty much makes up the whole team!"
"Oh, come on, Lantern! Robin's not a wise-guy," she said.
"You're right," Flash said. "He's a wise-ASS."
"And what, precisely, makes you say that?"
"Well…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An explosion in the background was almost deafening. Flash and Robin stayed hidden behind a wall as parademons caused chaos in the streets.
"What're we going to do?!" Robin exclaimed. "We can't possibly fight through all of those demons!"
"I dunno, you're the Boy Wonder, think of something!" Flash exclaimed.
Robin looked at him.
"YES, Flash," he sneered. "YES I am! Are you HAPPY, Flash?! I admit it! And I'd very much like to get my Wonder-Butt home ALIVE and not in a pine casket, because God knows you couldn't drive nails in anything heavier than that! Now HELP me think of something!"
"My GOD! You're worse than Nightwing!"
Robin was about to comment, when there was another deafening blow, and fire shot past the edge of the wall. Flash shook his head and stretched his jaw. Robin did the same, rubbing his ears, then looked at Flash and yelled:
"LOOK! I'm SORRY! I just don't happen to be in a good mood right now since I've nearly died four times in the last thirty minutes!"
Flash was *about* to respond, when a parademon head landed three feet from them. Both males screamed and Flash responded on reflex by stealing and stabbing it with a batarang. Robin took in a few deep breaths and looked at him.
"What the hell was that for?!"
"It… it blinked?" Flash asked sheepishly.
"Yeah, I'll blink something…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"And then he flipped me off…" Flash said, frowning.
Empress giggled at that.
"Oh, stop, that's not a wise-ass. That's just how Robin IS. If it's 'wise-ass' you want, ask him about Mighty Endowed sometime."
"Well—"
White flames shot through the doors to the room they stood outside and blasted the doors clear open.
"HOLY--!" Green Lantern exclaimed, drawing up a shield of green to block them.
"I guess it worked!" Flash yelled, shielding Empress with an arm.
"It ALWAYS this exciting here, kid?!" Lantern asked Empress.
"Yeah! Only… we've got lollipops to make us happy!"
The flames vanished, followed by red smoke. Lantern dropped the shield and slowly rounded around to peek inside. Empress coughed and followed him once Flash moved his arm. Flash simply shot over in the blink of an eye to look in. On the other end, Wonder Girl, Superboy and Cissie had emerged, looking at the three. The JLAers stood there, shaking just a little and trying to regain their senses. The three rushed in to them, Flash immediately and naturally going up next to Wonder Woman.
"Are you okay…?" he asked. "Diana?"
"Yes, yes…" She rubbed an eye and looked at him. "I'm fine."
Superboy damned softly.
"That means it didn't work."
"M'be they're just too ADULT. M'be it only works on teens!" Wonder Girl suggested, kicking at flaming couch.
"Maybe. Wonder Woman?"
"Yes, Kon-El?"
"Do you still have your powers?"
Wonder Woman rotated her shoulder, and then stomped the tile below her feet. When it shattered, she looked up at him.
"Super strength, and I cannot see if I just busted a pipe," she said.
"Wonderful!" Wonder Girl said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I am NOT paying for a repairman either!"
"Shut up!" Cissie hissed.
"Why don't you sit down…" Flash stated rather than asked, helping Wonder Woman to a chair Lantern constructed.
"Thank you…"
"Alright……" Superboy paused, watching his elder. "Superman…?" He noticed Superman was more ridged than usual, and he figured it was the blast that did it to him. "Are you okay?"
Superman didn't respond, he just spaced out, focusing on nothing. Superboy frowned, and looked to see if the others had noticed it. Concerned looks in eyes and faces told him they had. He looked towards Batman, the others still following his gaze.
"Batman, what about you?"
No response, Batman just stared at him.
"Batman, hellooooooooo-OOOOOOO?!" Wonder Girl asked, hopping around behind Superboy.
Superboy turned and stuck his fingers in her mouth and grabbed her by the lower jaw securely.
"STOP moving," he growled. And then he looked to Batman once more. "Batman… are you with us?"
After a long moment, Batman coughed once, red smoke fluttering out in a puff. Slowly, behind the white lenses of his cowl, his eyes traveled. After he passed each face, he looked at Superboy.
"… I feel perky."
To be continued… (Yet again!)