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Where Do We Go From Here, chapter 2

Match was uncomfortable. Not only was he wearing one of Superboy's spare costumes, but he was on monitor duty in the JLA Watchtower. Flash was supposed to be on duty, but a personal emergency called him away. Match was pretty sure that Batman would not be happy to see him on monitor duty.

Match admitted to himself that wearing Superboy's costume was probably more disconcerting. For one thing, he hadn't regained all his lost muscle mass, so it hung loosely on him. For another thing, he felt like he was impersonating Kon again. He didn't want to ever hurt him that way again.

Match was a bit frustrated that his solar reserves hadn't charged up enough for him to use his powers. He was accustomed to having them and didn't like feeling vulnerable.

He sighed. It was very nice of the JLA to let him recover at the Watchtower, but his future was uncertain. Remnants of the Groups would probably be searching for him. He didn't have a legal identity, so he couldn't just try to start a normal life even without considering that he would be classified as a minor.

He pushed his concerns away and concentrated on monitor duty. He thought it wasn't particularly challenging, but it kept him occupied. Oracle also checked in on him. He got the feeling she was making sure that he didn't mess up any of her systems. Comments she made seemed to allude to others doing that in the past.

A red light flashed on his console. He frowned and contacted Oracle.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"There's a security breach at the Watchtower."

Match checked the surveillance cameras. There were six intruders. They all wore commando-style uniforms, and he could tell by their movements that they were well-trained. They were also quickly making their way to his location. Oracle had told him that reinforcements would arrive in ten minutes.

He locked down the console and made his way towards a systems room. Perhaps he could evade them for that time.

Unfortunately, one of them saw him and shouted, "Get him!"

Match was able to take cover before he heard shots ring out. He frowned. He didn't like the odds of him being unarmed against the six armed and trained commandoes.

"Who was it?" he heard one of them ask.

"I think it was one of Superman's kids," was the reply.

'One of Superman's kids!' Match thought to himself. 'Better to be known as Superboy's clone than that!'

There was a system that could even the odds considerably, he realized. He made a dash for it and managed to dodge any shots.

He turned off the Watchtower's artificial gravity. He felt his body lighten. He smiled. He was willing to be that he was the only one there who had zero-G training. Even if this wasn't perfect weightlessness, it was good enough.

He left the system room and took cover after being spotted. Shots rang out, followed by curses as the effect of the recoil shoved those shooting off their feet. That was what Match was waiting for.

He propelled himself like a shot and disabled one of the intruders with a strike to the throat. He was careful to only strike with enough force to disable, not kill. He then flung himself away, right before more shots were fired.

"Turn the gravity back on," he heard one of the remaining intruders say.

Match was propelling himself down a corridor when the artificial gravity came back. He crashed to the floor and clenched his teeth to prevent from crying out. He wrestled off a cover on an air duct and started crawling in it.

Everything felt like it was pressing in on him. He gasped for breath. He got out of the air duct and stood trembling for a moment. He couldn't go back in, not with everything pressing in on him. It took him another moment to recover before heading down the corridor again.

"There could be better times to discover I've become claustrophobic," he muttered to himself.

The time he spent on his abortive attempt to crawl through the air ducts and the time he needed to recover cost him as the five active intruders caught up with him. They aimed their weapons at him, and Match realized he had nowhere left to run. He closed his eyes and heard shots being fired.

He opened his eyes to see that Superboy had arrived and shielded him.

"Match, stay back while I take care of this," he ordered.

Kon took care of the intruders in fairly short order.

"You need to take better care of yourself," he admonished. "What would you have done if I hadn't been here?"

"I would have been shot," Match admitted. "Thank you."

"Hey, it was my turn to save you."

Match paused. "You got here in eight minutes, thirty-two seconds. Oracle said it would be ten minutes before anyone got here. I'm not complaining, mind you."

"I may have broken a few speed records. You needed help."

Match smiled. "I'm glad you came."

Extra scientific fact: the moon's gravity is roughly one-sixty that of the Earth's. So, since the Watchtower is on the moon, that's why it isn't perfect weightlessness. Who said that you couldn't learn things from fanfiction!

Also, to clarify a little bit, I tend to wait until I have a story fully written before I start posting it. That's why there was a long gap between stories.

Any and all comments welcome!