Superman: Mythos II #3 "A League of Their Own"
A vibrant display of stars and milky swirls of the vast galaxy beyond served as the backdrop to a modest picnic amongst a garden of evergreens. Cassie Sandsmark, aka Wonder Girl, had meticulously prepared a romantic feast of ham and cheese, assorted fruits, and lemonade across her hand-knitted, fan-made Wonder Woman quilt. All of which was topped with a single candle centerpiece that kept on blowing itself out. Cassie, after lighting the candle again for the umpteenth time, sat back on the edge of the quilt, legs crossed with a nervous smile across her face as she awaited her new boyfriend's approval.
Conner Kent's thoughts were elsewhere. Sitting across from Cassie with his arm over his knee, the other leg outstretched onto the grass, Superboy was gazing up at the endless
mosaic of stars. The teenage clone of Big Blue showed off his rebellious nature with a "S" embroidered leather jacket, a pouch-equipt belt, a messy fade, and an earring for good measure. He'd been doing this a lot lately, thinking that is. Especially after his mind was taken over yet again by Lex Luthor not more than a month ago. To make matters worse, he hadn't seen his "cousin" Kara since he nearly tried to laser her to death due to the aforementioned brainwashing. Sure, each of the super-men had been under the control of Lex, but for Conner, it was different. Since Lex was, more or less, his biological father. Or maybe biological donor would be more accurate, at least, that's how he tried to look at it.
Between them both, resting peacefully while curled up in the soft grass, was none other than Krypto the Superdog. The dog was a bit tuckered out after the intense game of space-catch he'd played with Conner and Cassie where he'd flown a few times to the moon and back to catch their super-powered discus throws. Unfortunately, the game came to an abrupt end when Conner stumbled on a toss and sent the disc headlong towards the sun. Still Krypto wanted to go after it, but both Cassie and Conner didn't want to wait a month or so for him to come back from his solar journey, only to find that the discus had long since melted into nothing.
"Um… Hey, Conner…" Cassie finally spoke up, still with an uneasy grin as she tapped her knees and slightly rocked back and forth.
"Yeah, what's up, Cassie?" he said, slowly removing his gaze from the stars and hesitantly bringing it to the girl in front of him.
Cassie laughed nervously, having to divert her own eyes from his bright, blue stare. She threw a stand of her long golden hair behind her shoulder and looked back up at him, then down to the picnic she'd prepared. "W-well… Do you like it?"
"Oh, sure, yeah," he responded, less than enthusiastically as he picked up a ham sandwich and took a hearty bite. "It's—great—Cassie," he said, muffled through a mouthful of bread and meat. "You're great," he then said clearly, having gulped down the rest of the sandwich.
Cassie couldn't help but smile as a blush grew across her cheeks. Though underneath it, she was cursing herself. The date was going less than stellar and she wanted to avoid acting so love-struck. Though it was hard to play it cool, considering she'd had a major crush on Conner for the longest time, practically since they first met. He's what got her to ditch the cruddy costume and black wig she used to rock as Wonder Girl back in the day. Now they were on their first real date and she couldn't help but feel like he wasn't into it…wasn't into her. Of course, he'd been through a lot as of late and she knew that. Though still, she hoped he didn't accept her date out of pity or a lapse of judgment in his current state.
"Conner…" she began, lifting her head back up and looking determinately into his eyes. But his had since diverted away, again he looked above, now with a look of sneaking suspicion across his face. "Are-?"
"Shhh…" Conner interrupted, bringing his finger to his lips as he appeared to be listening to something Cassie could not hear. "Do you hear that?" he asked.
"Um… no?" Cassie said, raising her brow and crossing her arms. At this point, she determined he was acting straight up rude.
"A transmission… It's Kal!" Superboy cried, leaping up into the air and darting off.
"C-conner! Wait!" Cassie called as she watched him zip away at an incredible speed. Cassie stood and looked down at their half-eaten picnic, hesitating to leave it. Nevertheless, she soared after him.
Weaving through the garden of evergreens, it was revealed that they weren't in a forest at all. Soon, they made it to the metal entry way of the Justice League Watchtower, their picnic having taken place within the orbiting satellite's vast courtyard greenery. They now sped through metal corridors, lined with minor heroes and metanance employees alike. Eventually, they came to the bridge, an open room with massive windows overlooking Earth and a floor consisting of communication stations, surveillance systems, and a teleportation platform. In front of the main window was a large projection screen which was currently displaying a battle taking place live down below. A Justice League line-up, consisting of major A-listers, were dealing with a threat in the Caribbean. By the looks of it, Aquaman, Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, and Green Arrow, were all going up against a monstrous, ten-story-tall starfish.
Standing at the primary computer station which hovered over the rest, was J'onn J'onzz aka, the Martian Manhunter, who was watching the battle carefully and radioing in when necessary. Though, to his side, he was also listening to an incoming transmission. Conner furled his brow at the tall Martian hero before zipping up to the control panel himself.
"What are you doing?" J'onn asked in his monotone voice as Conner angrily yanked the headphones from off his bald green head before putting the transmission on speaker. The JLA's battle audio softened in order for the transmission to play through loud and clear to the entire bridge.
"Zizzt—Wonder Woman and I are stranded—Zizzzt—Almerac—Zizzt-zzit—unknown force—Zizzt—Hostile—Zizzt—Invaders—Zizzt—rescue squad only—Zizzt—lest we risk further—Zizzt—conflict…"
"Zizztc—tick—if you ever want to see the Man of Steel alive again!—Zizzzt—army—Zizzzt—strongest warriors—Zizzzt—take back—Zizzzt—stolen from me!—Berrrzzzt…Beep!..."
Superman and Maxima's patchy message from Almerac came through. Conner slammed his fist against the control panel, nearly breaking it as a result. "And were you planning to do anything about this, greenie?" he chided. Cassie was quick to come up behind Conner and rest her hands on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down.
"Of course," J'onn responded, unthreatened by Conner's angered demeanor. "Though all League resources are currently preoccupied with the Starro situation in Corto Maltese. As such I'll be sending a tertiary rescue squad to Almerac." J'onn then pressed a button on the control panel and broadcasted his voice throughout the Watchtower. "Attention Leaguers. Could Citizen Steel, Crimson Fox, Red Tornado, and Booster Gold please report to Javelin Dock 3 for mission briefing. I repeat Citizen Steel, Crimson Fox, Red Tornado, and Booster Gold report to Javelin Dock 3 for mission briefing."
"Tertiary?" Conner snapped. "Superman's gone missing for the second time in less than a month and you plan to send a bunch of C-listers to go and get him?"
"Superman and Wonder Woman are two of our most effective members. They are… the best of us. Once their backups arrive, they should have minimal difficulty upon their escape from Almerac," J'onn explained calmly. "They should not have been there in the first place. I'd wager Kal-El received a momentary lapse in his judgment, due to the emotional turmoil inflicted upon him via his imprisonment by one, Queen Maxima."
"Why not send Wonder Girl and I instead?" Conner remarked, offering his hand to Cassie's, to which she was hesitant, but flattered to take.
"Y-yeah," Cassie spoke up. "Why not us? We know them."
"This is not some training exercise, children. Besides, Kal-El suggested the avoidance of a full-scale assault, in favor of a stealth oriented rescue. Of which I, for one, concur," J'onn said, shutting them down. Conner was about to speak again, but J'onn continued. "While each of your mentors gave you Watchtower permissions, I'm still at liberty to take them away. So I would choose your next actions wisely while aboard my station."
Conner boiled with rage, his face noticeably heating up. It was a shock he didn't just fire off a line of heavy heat vision right then and there. Instead, he turned his back on the Martian and stomped his way out of the bridge. Cassie followed, still with her hand in his.
"Screw Mr. J'onzz," Cassie said aloud once the door to the bridge slid shut behind them.
"Seriously?" Conner responded, surprised by Cassie's fiery attitude. "Thought a good girl like you was into following the rules," he teased.
Cassie laughed, "trust me. If there's one thing I've learned from Diana, it's that rules were meant to be broken. Especially the 'rules' of man… or Martian, rather."
"Sweet…" Conner said, turning to look deep into her sparkling eyes, they were of passion and innocence. She'd yet to know the cruelty of the world, or at least, she knew of it, but chose to accept it and smile. She was a gleaming pillar of golden light in his dark miserable world. Conner may come to fully realize that in time, but for now, he was merely catching a glimpse.
"So…" Cassie said, swaying from side to side with her hands together. "Whatta ya say we steal ourselves a Javelin?"
Conner snapped out of his Cassie-induced trance and placed his hand to his scruffy chin. "Greenie was right about one thing. We can't do this alone."
"Aww, whatta mean?" Cassie wined, clutching Conner's hand tightly. "We're not enough of a powerhouse pair?"
An idea sparked in Conner's head, spawning a devilish grin across his face. "I'd feel better if we had ourselves a bit of extra muscle…" he said, before grabbing Cassie's forearm and leaping into the air with her.
"Whoa hey, watch it! I can fly just fine on my own," Cassie said, yanking her arm away from his grip as she steaded in her flight beside him. Still, she struggled to keep up as they weaved through the Watchtower's winding corridors. "Hey! Mind telling me where in Hades we're going, hotshot?"
"The brig," he replied simply, suddenly halting before a massive, tightly sealed metal entryway deep in the Watchtower.
"Um…" Cassie began as Conner walked up to the door's control panel. "Should I be worried? I think I should be worried," she said, thinking that perhaps she bit off more than she could chew by enabling this rebellious young Kryptonian. She glided back down behind Conner as she watched him let the computer scan his retina. A red laser scanned over his eyeball before flashing green and speaking in a robotic tone: WELCOME, SUPERMAN. Then, the sound of pistons from behind the door rumbled and soon the vault-like door slowly unsealed itself and creaked open.
"Wait, that actually worked?" Cassie said, more befuddled than worried now.
"Alright! Looks like they forgot to clone-proof the place," Conner said, opening up the door fully before sauntering in. Cassie followed closely behind him as they passed cell after cell. All of which were sealed with electro-shielding and power-dampening technology inside, specialized for each specific super-powered detainee. At present, most of the cells were empty, since it was currently illegal for the Justice League to detain prisoners for an extended period of time. In fact, they could only take prisoners in certain situations, often during international super-powered incidents.
One such prisoner, Conner stood before now. He smiled to himself looking up at the hulking figure as it lumbered from the back of its cell and out of the shadows. Cassie, now clutching Conner's shoulders, stood trembling as she watched the beastly man-shaped thing step into the light. He was big, pale-skinned and was wearing an oversized, inside out Superman t-shirt, so that the "S" was mirrored across his beefy chest. He was: Bizarro!
"Kon-?" the hulking Superman clone murmured, hesitantly pressing his hand up to the electro-shield, only to receive a sudden shock. Bizarro stumbled backwards, clearly afraid. "Kon am come to hurt Bizarro?" he asked in a whimper.
"No, no, no, Biz," Conner said in a warm, comforting tone. A tone which Cassie had never seen him take. She let go of him as she stepped towards the cell and deactivated its electro-shielding. Cassie stood frozen in shock as Conner stepped up into Bizarro's cell and lent the supervillain his hand. "I'm here to get you outta here, buddy."
"R-real?" Bizarro asked, taking Conner's hand in his own, which was three-times larger. "Kon-bro is the worst!" he exclaimed with joy.
"Yeah," Conner said, his trademark slick attitude returning as he glanced back at Cassie, giving her a wink. "I'm the worst, aren't I?"
Cassie, still too stunned to fully react, managed to lift her hand up in a meek wave. "H-haai…" she said, through a worried pant.
Bizarro looked past Conner at Wonder Girl and smiled, waving back. "Yellow-her am really ugly girl, am girl with Kon-bro?"
"Yeah, the ugly chick's with me," he snickered. "Her name's Cassie, and we both need your help, Biz."
"What am Kon-bro need Bizarro help for?" Bizarro asked.
"Well, looks like our dad's gotten himself into a sticky situation once again and it's up to us to save him," Conner explained.
"Pup pup?" Bizarro spoked, his stoney face soon boiling up with anger. Suddenly, he slammed his fist into the side of the cell, causing it to crack and shake. Cassie yelped, stumbling backward while Conner remained firm and tried to ease the beastly super-clone. "He am left Bizarro to die under rocks! He trick Bizarro into fighting other Pup pup…"
Superboy laughed upon hearing this and placed his hand on Bizarro's angered fist. "Ha, don't worry Biz, we're not helping Lex, that tool. We're helping our other dad… our real dad. Superman."
Bizarro eased back down and placed his heavy hand on Conner's shoulder. "Superman am tried to show Bizarro the wrong of Lex, but Bizarro no listen… Now Bizarro here, in cage." Sorrow then replaced the clone's fury as he reflected upon his last battle with Superman on the Cyclopean Isles.
"Well, Biz," Conner began. "You can right those wrongs by coming along with us and this time, we'll be doing the saving. Hopefully, we can make up for any of the past beef we've got with Big Blue, you and I both…"
Author's Note:
Back! And happy to bring one of my favorite DC ships into the story. Unfortunately for you Clark/Diana fans, I've decided to keep Clark firmly on the Lois-endgame path (so we can possibly have the marriage and Jon later down the line). Hopefully you can get your Super/Wonder fix with Conner and Cassie! Big villain reveal coming soon, so stay tuned and see if you can guess who it'll be.
P.S. — Check out my ongoing Wonder Woman story as well, 'Wonder Woman: Amazonomachy'. It's in the same universe! But takes place sometime after the events of Mythos.