6 July 2010
Central City Mall, Central City
Blue orbs traced his visage in passing store windows, taking in the strangeness of his raggedy appearance; a complete contrast to the clean simplicity of his solar suit. Adorned in an oversized flannel that felt more like a tent than a shirt, and a pair of grey slacks that were rolled at the ankles and stuffed into a pair of sneakers, Superboy (or Conner, as Raven had tentatively named him) followed after the excitable Kid Flash (or Wallace 'Wally' West, as he had come too know him outside of his costume) as they perused through the local mall.
Following his liberation from Cadmus, Conner had spent the night (or day, depending on how you looked at it) at Wally's household, "…stewing in their own juices" as Mrs West put it. He'd slept in the speedster's closet and spent hours sequestered between the couch cushions where the two teens devoured show after show on the television (those daytime commercials & soap operas taught him far more interesting things than the G-Gnomes ever did), whilst the speedsters ate his parents out of house & home. At least until Mrs West had stormed into the living room, flicked the light switch on much to the chagrin of the ginger and sent them on their way. Conner had felt a little offended by the crinkling of her nose, though even the kryptonian had to admit he was starting to stink.
The embossed envelope that had been shoved into Wally's hands had not been from Superman, Conner was sad to find out, but that didn't seem to matter to either red head as the teens were shoved into clothes and pushed out the door, both only just presentable enough. So here he was, trudging along behind the ginger sidekick as his head turned every which way, trying to suck in all the sights at once even as he fiddled with the clothes that he wore. "…I don't like wearing your father's clothes" Conner grumbled as he readjusted the long sleeves around his wrists, for the umpteenth time that day.
"Doesn't thrill me either, but the solar suit had to go" Wally shrugged as he pivoted to stop before some sort of clothing store. His thumbed was pointed up towards the store, the other hand still tucked firmly in his jean's pocket where the aforementioned envelope & its contents resided. "Besides dude, that's what we're here to fix"
Conner wasn't quite sure how long they had spent browsing the racks of FOREVER SIXTEEN: SUBURBAN OUTFITTERS, but soon enough he had a large bag full of clothes all his own. And wasn't that a novelty? Although, Wally seemed to be under the impression that he needed to "…spice things up, dude!" The kryptonian had replied by adding a couple of Superman-themed t-shirts, all still in the same black as the others, and several pairs of jeans to complete the look. He may not have to spend the rest of his days in a solar suit, but the familiar symbol was comforting to the clone, even if he hadn't said so. It was only from some elderly customer's snide comment about the fact that had curbed Wally's comments about it, if only a little. That still didn't mean he'd let it go entirely, though.
"…But don't you want a little variety?" Wally whined as Conner retrieved the bag from the cashier. "I mean, you picked out an entire rack of the exact same black t-shirt with—"
"—FREEZE PUNK!" The shout came from the jewellery store across the way.
"Huh?" Conner hummed in interest, his hands hovering over his new purchases with barely-contained awe.
"Sounds like security—Oh crap! That'll teach me to leave my costume at home…" Wally hummed under his breath as he poked his head out the front door, only to be greeted with the sight of an elderly mall cop being flung through a display window. Liquid gold glittered beneath the flickering fluorescent lights and nestled between the patches of alabaster hair, making the dazed man look like the world's most expensive doorstop. The ginger hurried back over to the cash register where he smiled sheepishly as he plucked a couple of bandanas from a nearby stand. "We'll take these to go, and come back for the rest"
"I'm still hungry, Tuppence!" Whinged one of the punkish culprits as he dragged a pleading hostage out through the front door. From their matching appearances—both clothing & genetics—it was easy to tell that the pair were related in some way. "So I'm takin' our new pal back to the food court"
"Right behind you, Tommy!" Sang Tuppence as she leered over the mall cop at her feet. The malicious grin that stretched across her cheeks, almost split her face from ear to ear as she hoisted the older man high above her head. "Just cleanin' up a bit first. Y'know how I feel about folks leavin' litter lyin' 'round!"
And then she threw him off of the third-storey balcony. Conner didn't even think when he threw himself after him. Hands gripped the railing hard enough to dent it, legs coiled, frightened screams abounded and loose fabric fluttered about like a poor imitation of a cloak as he dove over the edge. The kryptonian couldn't help the twitch of his lips as he finally fulfilled the objective which had been programmed into him since the day of his birth—to replace Superman, to save people.
"Nice catch!" The old man rasped as he tried to regain the breath he had lost and Conner's hands looped themselves around the man; one going under his legs whilst the other hooked itself under his pits. The floor gave easily beneath his feet, cracking apart to form a small crater in the linoleum floor not that the kryptonian paid it any heed even as he set the security guard on his feet, making sure to keep a steadying hand on the man's shoulder. He seemed well enough, if a little dazed & confused and Conner held no qualms about turning to face the threat even as a masked Wally appeared beside him.
"Here, put this on" Wally expectantly held out the red bandana to the kryptonian, voice slightly muffled by the cloth over his own face.
"Why?" Conner quirked a confused brow at the offending cloth. Superman never had to cover up his face.
"Because until Bats makes his decision about our team, I'd rather not create another Cadmus-styled media circus—at least, not one we can be blamed for!"
"Hm" Conner huffed as he begrudgingly tied the cloth over his nose, leaving everything from his eyes upwards, bare. "Who are those two?" He asked instead.
"No idea" Wally shrugged as his gaze turned from the security guard (who had stumbled out the front doors & over to a payphone, hopefully to call the authorities or a Leaguer—or both) to the two punks several floors above them.
"Hey, Tommy!" Tuppence called over to her brother as he threatened another mall rat when she caught sight of the civilian-dressed sidekicks down below, ruining her fun. "We got us some real company comin'!"
"Well, if company's comin', we should set the table!" Tommy grinned, lecherously at the panicked man in his grasp.
"Hostages?" Tuppence proposed, head tilted just so.
"Hostages" Tommy nodded before he turned to the food court as a whole. Arms spread wide, the strongman perched himself atop a nearby table as he announced their official arrival. "If I could have yer attention! Y'all are now officially hostages of Tommy Terror and Tuppence Terror! The honourable Terror Twins—!"
"—I'm sure they're so feeling the honour!" Wally snarked as he rocketed back up to the food court and using his speed, knocked Tommy off of the table & closer to the balcony. Tentative cheers arose from the hostages-turned-spectators as they watched the masked & unmasked meta teens duke it out.
At the same time, Conner had appeared looming over Tuppence with a white-knuckled fist reared back to deck her in the face. The kryptonian held no qualms about hitting the girl, and took great satisfaction in the fact that he could hear the sound of her bones grinding against the concrete pillar he had thrown her against. "Ugh" Tuppence groaned as she extracted herself from the cracked pillar and spat out a glob of spit which barely missed the upturned rubbish bin. "Son, you sure do pack a wallop!"
"Lady" Conner huffed as he pursued. "I'm not your son!"
"And I ain't no lady" Tuppence grinned as she easily took a hold of the incoming fist, and using its momentum, flung the clone over the balcony just as she had done with the security guard.
CRASH!
"Supey!" Wally panicked as he zipped over to make sure that the other teen was okay. It wouldn't do him well to break the young boy so soon after his liberation and with Batman's decision looming on the horizon like an impending storm. Thankfully the short drop didn't seem to have hurt the clone, only daze him a little as he climbed out of the ground.
"Reckon yer focused on the wrong hero, hero" Tommy grinned as he snuck up behind the speedster with his fist pulled back, ready to smash the ginger's skull in.
"Oop!" Wally sang as he ducked out of the way of the incoming first, dancing his way around the follow-ups and tossed the strongman over the edge, much the same as his sister had done to the kryptonian. It all happened in the blink of an eye and within the next, Tuppence was on the masked ginger.
"Big mistake, pissant!" Tuppence snarled, hands outstretched as she pounced.
"That's Kid pissant to you, sister!" Wally sassed in reply as he too hopped over the edge of the balcony. Only instead of dropping down several stories where he would likely break his bones, he simply hung from the railing as Tuppence toppled over him. "No seriously, what part of 'I'm way faster than you' aren't you getting here?"
CRASH!
Down below, Tommy had risen to his feet and turned his attention on Conner who met the strongman's fist with his face. The hit was strong enough to send the already dazed kryptonian through the nearest window and out into the parking lot. This wasn't how Conner thought his first real fight would go; the genomorphs had filled his head with images of him standing tall over his adversaries, not of the other way around. He was kryptonian—the strongest men of steel—so how was he losing?
"…Come and get us, Timid Twins!" Taunted Wally as he zipped out of the kryptonian-shaped hole in the wall. The speedster only hoped that it was enough to draw the twins out of the mall and away from any more potential hostage situations.
"Man, I want a piece of them or two!" Tommy snarled as he and his sister leapt through the hole, after the fleeing sidekicks.
"You 'n me both, brother!" Tuppence agreed, mindless of the debris clinging to her shredded tights.
"Good job luring them away form the hostages" Wally greeted Conner as he tried to extract himself from the windscreen of the Toyota that had broken his fall.
"Is that what I was doing?" Conner sassed irritably, shaking glass from his head as the Terror Twins landed before them with an almighty crunch of the pavement. "Wha—?"
"—Dang it, Tup!" Tommy's eyes suddenly blew wide as he noted something over the boys' shoulders. "I ain't sure we're ready for them boys yet…!
"Nah Tom, definitely a better part o' valour moment!" Tuppence agreed, her face mirrored the expression of her brother as they swiftly spun on their heels and beat a quick retreat much to the confusion of the two sidekicks.
"Uh…wow" Wally blinked dumbly as he helped pull Conner free. "Guess we scared them off?"
"Should we go after them?" Conner asked hopefully as they watched the pair bound away.
"No, you shouldn't" Interjected Flash from behind them. Both boys swung around to face the uncharacteristically furious hero where he stood, hands on hips and an equally stoic Superman at his side. "And no, you didn't"
"Bus~ted!" Wally sang, eyes blowing wide at the sight of both Leaguers. There was no way they were talking their way out of this one, even if they had done good work.
"Are you all right here?" Superman asked of the scarlet speedster, hand on his shoulder and gaze never quite meeting that of his clone.
"Go" Flash nodded tersely before he turned back to the sidekicks.
"Superman…?" Conner mourned the loss of the elder kryptonian as he took off after the fleeing Terrors. Even though he'd made his disdain for his existence quite blatant, the clone still couldn't help but seek approval from the older man. Some of it was Cadmus programming, most of it wasn't; he was still a child afterall.
"…Three days! You couldn't stay out of trouble for three days?!" Flash scolded his sidekick.
"H-hey!" Wally defended weakly. "That's not—"
"—Go home. Get a good night's sleep. I'll pick the both of you up first thing in the morning, Batman's made his decision"
"Really?" Wally's eyes gleamed in excited anticipation despite the situation. He got a tight-lipped smile in response before Flash was gone again, trailing after Superman and the Terrors.
"Think Superman will be there tomorrow?" Conner murmured, his eyes still trailing after the red cape that fluttered against the blue sky
"Uh, sure, y'know if there's no emergency somewhere…" Wally replied gently, as if he were trying to soften the blow.
"Right" Conner's hopeful expression turned downtrodden as his gaze fell to the cracked concrete nearby.
"C'me on, we better retrieve your new duds" Wally nudged Conner back towards the mall.
"…Wally?" Conner interjected into the silence, broken only by the sound of their footsteps and erratic beating of the speedster's heartbeat.
"Hm?" Wally hummed, brow quirked as he held the door open.
"Why'd you invite me to stay with you?" It was a question that had been rattling around in his head for a while now.
"Well, uh" Wally blinked "Aqualad lives underwater, the Batcave's kinda this big secret and no one knows where the Tower really is…so I figured it'd be cool for us to hang—ow"
"Heh" Conner didn't bother to hide his smirk when Wally tried to playfully punch his arm. Kryptonian skin was much tougher than it appeared.
