Downtime
- - - August 29 - - -
Washing machines were such a wonderful invention.
Mary watched the team's soiled costumes start spinning in the belly of the automaton.
Back in her days, she had used an electric wringer-washer to clean clothes at her first employer's town house in London – a huge improvement to manual laundry, but still requiring a time-consuming multi-step process. Now, in the 21st century, even the team's battle with the smelly mud-creature Clayface hardly meant any trouble. The young heroes' colourful robes would be clean in an hour.
Mary had never been very religious, but if there was a god in charge of inventing household appliances, she was truly grateful to them.
One hour. Enough time for another session in the driving simulation. After a month of practice, she felt that she was finally making some progress. Maybe she'd even try the program with the roundabout today.
Red Tornado had set up the simulator in a corner of the Zeta Tube station. Approaching it, Mary saw a familiar figure slouch into the same direction.
"Good day Captain Marvel!", she called out.
The white-cloaked superhero turned to face her.
He looked like a lost little boy, his shoulders slumped, his eyes pleading for comfort.
"Sir, what's the matter?"
He wrung his hands. "It's nothing…"
"Captain, you look like you could do with some company. May I offer you something to drink?"
Without waiting for his response, she directed him towards the kitchens. He trotted after her like a lamb behind its mother.
Once Captain Marvel was safely seated on one of the counter stools with a glass of home-made lemonade in front of him, he seemed to regain some of his composure.
"I was trying to talk to Superboy…", he mumbled.
Oh dear.
"Did the League ask you to do that?"
He frowned. "There had been some discussion earlier, between Superman and Batman, but that didn't really seem to go anywhere. So the Flash came up with this idea, you know, since I have super-strength too, maybe I could show Superboy the ropes?"
He took another large gulp from his lemonade. "The thing is, I might have the strength of Hercules, but have to actively call upon it to use it, so control is never really an issue. How am I supposed to teach him anything about that? And when he asked me how my flight power works, being blessed by the speed of Mercury is not really a useful answer, right? My wisdom is telling me to leave it at that, I'm clearly not helpful here. But that means I failed my assignment…"
And he clearly didn't want to disappoint the League.
How could a man with his set of powers still look so vulnerable? Mary had to restrain herself from patting his head.
"It was kind of you to try", she said instead. "However, I agree that there is not much you can do. When it comes to Kryptonian powers, there is only one man who could answer Superboy's questions. If he chooses to keep his distance instead, well, that's his loss."
She opened the fridge, pulling out a tray of palm-sized custard tarts.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Pudding pies?", he guessed.
"Close enough. They are filled with home-made custard. Superboy helped me make them this morning. We're celebrating the start of his and Megan's last week of summer break."
Megan had been deeply disappointed to find out that high school would not start until next Tuesday – apparently the first Monday after the break was reserved for teachers' orientation. The dessert was mainly meant to cheer her up.
"A couple of weeks ago, when I asked Superboy to help me chop some onions, he cut the cutting board in half by accident. It only happened once. Today, he is able to separate egg whites from egg yolks. There are five perfectly isolated egg yolks in this custard cream."
The captain's eyes were glued to the tartlets. She chuckled, handing him one of the sweet treats.
"What I'm saying is that he doesn't desperately need anybody's help. Superboy is figuring out how not to break things on his own, and I think he is doing just fine. In a couple of months, there might not be any questions left for Superman to answer. I still think Superman is missing out here, but Superboy isn't going to just sit around waiting for him, you know?"
Captain Marvel nodded slowly.
"Should I tell him that?", he asked hesitantly.
Mary shook her head with a smile. "I'm pretty sure he heard", she replied.
Artemis wasn't entirely sure why she was heading to the cave on a Sunday afternoon. This weekend was supposed to be downtime. Aqualad was back in Atlantis, Kid Sugar-rush had some kind of family reunion in Central City, and even Robin was home, doing whatever it was he did in his free time here in Gotham.
Uh, Gotham.
Nobody had been really surprised to find a foul-smelling clay monster roaming the city's sewers. That really said all you needed to know about Gotham.
Artemis sighed, kicking an empty beer can from the heat-baked side walk. That mission on Friday had been a disaster. It had taken her hours to get the stench out of her hair. Good thing that at least she had a spare costume to wear.
She still felt like she had let her team down, though. This had been her home turf. She should have known better than to engage that Clayface creature without proper coordination.
Artemis crossed a street at a broken traffic light, the hot asphalt sticky under her shoes. Two more blocks to the Tardis-style phone booth, her nearest entrance to the Zeta system. Her express way out of here.
Her mother was right, though. If she really wanted to leave Gotham behind in the long run, she'd need a way to make rent elsewhere. Crime-fighting was her passion, but not a career. To get out of the city for good, she'd need a good education.
That scholarship Batman had offered her was her golden ticket to an actual future.
Yet it still didn't feel right.
She despised the kids from Gotham Academy. Entitled little brats.
'Look, Daddy got me another car for Easter!'
All gifts Artemis had ever gotten from her own father were weapons. 'Better learn fast how to use this', he'd say. 'You'll need it.'
Artemis glanced across her shoulder, blinking against the gleaming sun light, making sure nobody was following her. She would really have to take care not to run into Robin too often when she used the Zeta tubes. The team was supposed to think that she lived in Star City with Green Arrow.
What did teens in Star City do in their free time? Play football, get ice cream, hang out in the park?
They probably didn't hunt each other for sport.
No wonder her father had chosen to raise her here. You could get away with the most twisted training sessions in the dark allies of Gotham.
As long as you didn't cross paths with Batman, of course.
She wondered which strings the Dark Knight had pulled to get her a full scholarship at the most exclusive school in town. She didn't feel like she deserved it. She had always gotten good grades, sure, but she hadn't earned such a high-class institution.
And she would never belong there, either. Back-ally scum like her didn't mingle with the rich kids.
She hesitated, wiping the sweat off her skin.
No, it wasn't really the air of decadence that appalled her so much. The entire entire school was just too… wholesome.
It had white walls, to start with. The entire compound was surrounded by a wall as white as an untouched canvas. No graffiti, no slanderous slogans, not even any crappy band poster plastered onto it. There were neatly-trimmed bushes, and a well-kept lawn, even the bathrooms were clean!
She had long learned to accept that she could never have nice things. Her father had ensured that.
Artemis checked once more that nobody saw her, then ducked into the dark-blue phone booth.
Back to work, on a Sunday.
Who was she kidding? She knew exactly why she was heading to the cave on her day off.
Life was so much better since she had started wearing that mask.
"Recognized. B-07. Artemis."
When Artemis exited the tube at the headquarter, Miss Martian practically flew into her arms.
"Oh, Artemis, it's so good to see you! I really need your help."
The archer reached for her quiver instinctively, her eyes already scanning her surroundings. No immediate threats in sight.
"It's only one more week now and I'm just so nervous!", Megan rattled on. "Artemis, please, you've got to help me get ready for high school!"
Artemis blinked, lowering her bow. "Wait, what?"
"Superboy and I are starting as juniors at Happy Harbour High School next Tuesday! I've got all my books packed and my schedule printed and an outfit picked out, but I haven't decided on sports clothes yet and the Bumblebees are doing their try-outs on the first day already!"
Artemis stared blankly at her agitated team mate. "The Bumblebees?"
"They are the cheerleading team supporting the Happy Harbour Hornets. They are amazing, I've seen their photos on the school's homepage. Their costumes are so cute! But they probably won't even like me. Oh, I really, really want to be on that team…"
The green girl was practically quivering, floating half a foot above ground.
"Wow, Megan, take a breath. I've never seen you this nervous before. You've faced down a clay monster two days ago, remember? Calm down, Megan, there is nothing to worry about!"
She pulled her anxious friend into a hug. After a few seconds, the shivering stopped, and Megan's feet reconnected with the floor.
"There, that's better. Now, let's start over. Why exactly are you so excited about high school?"
The Martian dropped her eyes, playing with a strand of her red hair nervously. "I just dreamed about this all my life, you know? Being a school girl on Earth, being a cheerleader, having human friends, just doing everyday things like study groups and cheerleader practice, meeting up after games, maybe going to a party now and then, or a high school dance…"
While she talked, the Martian's skin colour slowly changed to Caucasian white. She really did look like a human school girl.
Artemis felt a wry grin tug at the corners of her mouth. They made quite a pair. On the one side, a Martian with all kinds of cool powers, founding member of a covert superhero team, dreaming of being a normal high school student. On the other side, a half-broken human, gifted with a full scholarship at the best school in town, struggling to fit in with the heroes.
"Okay, Megan, look at me. You will make a great cheerleader, I promise."
"You think so?" The Martian's face lit up.
"Absolutely, you're the most cheerful person I know. Now, what was that about sports clothes? You should definitely wear one of these cute skirts that really shows off your legs, you know?"
"Like this?" Megan morphed the organic material of her clothes into the requested garment.
"That's perfect! Now, what do you need to colour-coordinate with? What kind of shoes are you wearing?"
Shape-shifting powers and bio-clothes certainly made teenage life a whole lot easier, Artemis mused while she watched Megan try out a variety of combinations.
At Gotham Academy, everyone was required to wear school uniforms. Maybe that would help her blend in with the other students.
She wondered what kind of parties the rich kids would be throwing?
Author's note:
Many years from now, when Mary is re-employed at the Justice League Watchtower, she'll run into the Greek god Hephaestus visiting Diana. He will look at her with a smile and inform her that, indeed, he is in charge of inventing household appliances, and her frequent praise has been well received.
Just so you know.
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