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- - - November 22nd - - -
Tanks were crossing the border below them. Bialya was openly invading its neighbouring country Qurac, after the Bialyan monarch Queen Bee had somehow managed to enthralled the democratic Quraci president from afar, despite the fact that her own beguiling powers only worked in close proximity.
From the camouflaged bioship, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy and Miss Martian monitored the nightly troop movements. The soldiers were crossing the open savanna, marching across the destroyed fences of what Megan had identified as the Logan Animal Sanctuary.
Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask. Of all missions where he could have been in command, why did it have to be a political one?
"There are civilians in harm's way!" Wally cried out.
Great. Just great. The soldiers had caused a stampede, and a panicked herd of wildebeest was about to trample a boy and a woman. At the disputed border territory.
"We have to help them!" Megan was already steering the bioship closer.
Robin bit back a groan. Bialya had not signed the Justice League charter. He vividly remembered Alfred's stern lesson months ago. If they were seen here, they'd cause an international incident. Any interference would risk not only his mission, but also the safety of his team.
Aqualad was much better at this kind of tough choices. Why did he have to be busy helping Aquaman today? Artemis and Zatanna were painfully missing from the mission as well.
"Don't engage the troops", Robin decided. "Miss M, use your telekinesis. Get the two civilians into the bioship. Don't break cover."
"Sorry for kidnapping you", Wally greeted the wide-eyed woman and her little boy. "Looked like you needed a rescue. We're on our way to the Quraci capital Dhabar, mind if we give you a lift? The name's Kid Flash, by the way, and these are Robin, Superboy and Miss Martian."
The red-haired woman shook his outstretched hand warily. "Uhm, thank you, I suppose? I'm Marie Logan, this is my son Garfield..."
"Mom, mom, mom, we were just rescued by superheroes! We flew!" The blue-eyed boy was practically shaking with excitement. "Can we do it again?"
"You've got Miss Martian over here to thank for the telekinetic levitation." Wally gestured at his uncommonly timid companion.
The boy stared at her in wonder. "Wow, you look a lot like my mom in 'Hello, Megan'", he exclaimed.
Everyone's eyes turned to the blushing Martian in their midst.
It was still a half-hour flight to the Quraci capital, and of course Robin had been able to dig up a digital copy of the 'Hello, Megan' pilot episode from the depths of the internet.
As the familiar theme song began to play, Megan hid her face in her hands. This was not how she had wanted that particular revelation to go.
She'd hoped to avoid it all together, honestly. Yet she had certainly not expected that if she ever introduced her team to the show that had shaped her life, it would happen in front of its lead actress…
On the ship's holographic screen, a teenage Marie Logan descended the stairs in her rose-coloured school uniform, chatting with her mom, then slapping her hand against her forehead with the show's eponymous exclamation: 'Hello, Megan!', while canned laughter informed the audience they had witnessed a funny scene.
Everyone else watched the screen, yet Superboy's eyes were on her.
"Her boyfriend's name is Conner, in the show", Megan uttered pre-emptively. "That's why I liked the name."
He simply continued to look at her.
"The show only aired until 1980", the real Marie Logan cut in. "How do you even know about it?"
"Martians age slower than humans. I watched it back on Mars as a child, I would have been six in human years at the time. My uncle, Martian Manhunter, sent us a lot of TV shows, to help us learn more about our sister planet. I saved the recordings."
"My show was watched on Mars?", Marie repeated in awe. "They cancelled it after just one season! It got mediocre ratings at best!"
"You were my idol", Megan stated truthfully, smiling bashfully at the retired actress she had adored all her life. "Well, I suppose your Megan Wheeler was. I don't know if it was the similarity of our names, or the fact that all her problems could be solved in twenty-two minutes… Something just clicked, and I have identified with her ever since."
"Is that why you look so much like mom?", Garfield chimed up.
"Yes. All Martians are shapeshifters, we can change our appearance at will. I chose this form as my own when I came to Earth."
For a moment, everyone stayed silent, while the show prattled on.
Kid Flash was the first to speak the dreaded words. "That begs the question – what do you really look like, Megan?"
She couldn't. She simply could not answer that question truthfully.
Abhorrent. Loathsome. Terrifying.
She could not possibly reveal her true form to the only friends she had.
Yet the prospect of lying to Conner broke her heart...
"It doesn't", Robin suddenly cut in. "It doesn't beg the question."
"Come on, aren't you curious?", Wally shot back.
"Of course. But I have already pushed one of my team mates into revealing her civilian identity to the rest of the team, and Batman has quite rightfully chewed me out for it afterwards. So, Megan, you don't have to answer that question." He pointed at his own domino mask. "Everyone here is entitled to their secrets."
"I would", she stuttered, grasping for the unexpected life line he had thrown her, "I would really prefer not to answer it, then."
"That's okay", Robin confirmed, his masked eyes boring into Wally's. "This kind of trust is a privilege, not something to be demanded."
"Sorry", the speedster mumbled, dropping his eyes.
They returned to watching the show.
"You've always been a girl though, right?", Wally spoke up again.
Marie Logan started coughing violently, choking from surprise.
"Yes, Wally, of course I'm a girl!"
"Hey, just asking! I mean, not that there would have been anything wrong with it…"
"Some genomorphs change the gender they identify with when they get older", Conner offered.
"Really?" Wally regarded Superboy with a rather curious expression, both appalled and intrigued.
"What's a genomorph?", Garfield wanted to know.
"Enough!", Robin glowered. "Can we please focus on the mission at hand?"
He shut off the pilot episode, bringing up their flight plan on the holographic screen instead.
"What is that mission of yours?" Marie inquired hoarsely, coughing one last time. "I mean, am I even allowed to ask?"
"We think the Quraci president has been telepathically enthralled somehow on behalf of the Bialyan queen, who tries to annex your country. We're here to stop her", Wally summarized.
Marie stood up, face suddenly pale. "No. Nope, no way. I changed my mind. There is no way I'm letting my son get mixed up in a plot that involves that woman. We're not coming to the capital with you. Sorry, but no way."
"But, mom!", Garfield started to protest.
"I understand", Robin stated, silencing the boy with one look. "That's perfectly reasonable. We'll let you out at the next village we pass over. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this causes you."
Starting to breathe normally again, Marie sank back into her seat. "Thank you. And don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the rescue..."
"Mom, not cool! We can't just back out now? This has been the most amazing evening ever! They are superheroes!"
Megan mussed the little boy's hair. "Maybe we could come back to visit you some other day?"
She met his concerned mother's eyes. "I mean, if you don't want us to come back, I'd understand..."
"Please, mom?"
"You mean a day without stampedes and tanks and hostile takeovers from our neighbouring dictator?", Marie sighed.
Megan nodded, hardly daring to hope for a positive reply.
"Well, if you make sure nobody sees this invisible plane of yours… I couldn't turn my last remaining fan down, now, could I?"
There was a hint of humour in her smile.
Hours later, hidden away somewhere in the vicinity of the Quraci presidential palace while Robin did recon, Conner tucked at the passive mind link between them.
'Megan, you know that I don't care what you look like, right?'
'Conner, please...'
'No, let me say this. You've met my family, right? Dubbilex and the rest of them? I really don't care about human appearances. I don't even get the appeal. Maybe it takes more than five months to form a concept of aesthetics… I do care about your mind, Megan, but choose whatever form you feel comfortable with, okay?'
'Thanks, Conner. That's sweet of you to say. But this is who I am, who I feel like.'
'I know. Just, you don't have to be afraid, you know?'
'Okay.'
'I really care about you.'
'I care about you, too, Conner.'
Wally's eyes darted back and forth between them, an eyebrow raised mockingly. "Are you two being sappy again through the mind link?"
"Shut up, Wally", they spoke in unison.
He only laughed at them.
- - - November 24th - - -
Mission accomplished.
Robin leaned back in his swivelling chair in the quarters the president's daughter had provided for them at her father's palace. They had identified Psimon, Queen Bee's loyal minion, as the cause of the Quraci president's apathy.
This time, Miss M had been strong enough to face the hostile telepath alone. She had looked a bit shaken after their encounter yesterday, but she'd somehow managed to overcome the powerful Psimon in a battle of wills, reducing him to little more than a drooling puppet.
Rounding up their perfect victory, Miss M had impersonated Queen Bee in a staged appearance this morning, shouting threats and defamations at the recovered president Harjavti in front of the press, ensuring that her public image in Qurac was properly ruined.
It might have been a bit blunt, but it had been the best plan they'd been able to think of.
Now, all that remained was saying good bye to the president's daughter, and making sure to get home as quickly as possible before they got entangled even further in this whole diplomatic nightmare.
Right on cue, he heard Megan scream through the mind link.
'Queen Bee is here! She's threatening him! Help!'
Kid Flash and Conner were out of the door before Robin had time to form a single coherent thought.
Wait. Couldn't Queen Bee enthral most men?
- - - Three minutes earlier - - -
Megan was curious why the president had wanted a word with her alone. Maybe he had disapproved of her public performance earlier this morning? Yet he had been all in favour of the idea the previous night…
She stepped into his dining room gingerly. It was a spacious bright hall dominated by a large round table, clad in a purple table cloth. A pot of tea and several small glasses had been set out. President Harjavti sat at the far side of his table, sipping from his drink. Two armed men guarded their head of state, one of them closed the door behind her.
Queen Bee emerged from its shadow.
"Shush, now, girl", she stifled Megan's outcry. "Psimon was not the only one who knew your secrets."
The monarch's smug smile did not reach her eyes. She was clad in a slinky sheath dress, her dark face plastered with make-up, her lustrous dark hair adorned by a golden diadem.
"You'll do exactly what I say, my little White Martian", she stated.
Megan swallowed hard.
Psimon had threatened her with exposing her true form to her team mates, conjuring up her worst fears and memories. She had silenced him temporarily – yet clearly, he had passed on his knowledge to his employer beforehand.
"What do you want?"
"Just a bit of… recompensation, for all the damage you caused. You let this man yell at my image in public." She gestured dismissively at the president, who was still silently sipping his tea. "Only a madman would do that, don't you think? My influence on him will weaken once I leave, yet I'm sure you could cause some more... permanent predicaments."
Megan felt her blood turn cold, as realization dawned. "You want me to…"
"Shamble his mind", she hissed. "Not completely, of course, that would be known too soon. Just a few lapses, some unhealthy obsessions." The scornful smile returned. "I am sure he will be well cared for, at whatever psychiatric facility they ship him off to, once they realize their precious president has sadly lost his mind..."
"Never!" Megan shook her head fervently. "I would never do that!"
"Oh, but you wouldn't want him to get hurt, now, would you? Harjavti, dear, do what you were told. For me?"
The president set down his glass deliberately. Then he raised his other hand.
He was holding a knife.
Slowly, he brought the blade to his throat.
"No!", Megan cried out, freezing his hand mind-air.
It was hard to use telekinesis on unwilling subjects, yet she hung on to him with all her might.
'Queen Bee is here! She is threatening him! Help!', she yelled through the mind-link.
"Oh, how honourable", the Queen taunted. "Let's see what his two guards have to say about that?"
Both men raised their guns.
With a yellow blur, Kid Flash appeared in the office. Both guards stared at their suddenly empty hands with a puzzled expression, a shattering crash indicating that Wally had thrown out their weapons, right through one of the hall's many windows. Disarming the team's enemies was one of the speedster's designated duties.
'Get the knife, too!', Megan urged him through their mental link.
Yet Wally had suddenly stopped in his tracks, turning around slowly, as if his mind had just caught up with the scene he had encountered.
"Hello, there", he intoned, his voice laden, his eyes glued to the queen.
Just at this moment, Conner appeared at the doorstep.
Megan cursed internally at her own blunder. 'Conner, close your eyes!', she demanded.
'No use', Robin informed her. Apparently, only their current team leader had been sensible enough to ignore her thoughtless cry for help. 'Queen Bee's powers are based on pheromones as well as appearance. Once she has beguiled you, averting your eyes won't help.'
'Well, she hasn't', Conner proclaimed. He stepped closer to the president, effortlessly wrangling the knife from his fist, throwing it through the already broken window.
"You dare to oppose me?", the Queen snarled, her cold eyes ablaze with fury. "Speedster, darling, your companion hurt my feelings. Make him pay?"
Kid Flash attacked instantly.
'Wally, no!', Megan cried out, as a hailstorm of kicks and punches rained down on Superboy. Within seconds, his clothes were torn to tatters.
'He'll break his fists before he hurts me', Conner assured her, although his mental voice sounded strained. Ignoring his attacker, he stepped towards the oval dining table, grabbing a hold of the purple tablecloth.
Then he turned to face the queen.
"I really don't see the appeal", he stated, out loud this time. Then he pulled the cloth over her head, sending tea pot and glasses shattering.
"Help!", Queen Bee yelped, before her voice was completely muffled by the heavy fabric. As one, the two guards and the president approached her.
'Let them come', Conner sighed, locking his arms around the squirming, wrapped-up monarch, using one of the many grapple holds Black Canary had taught them. 'Robin, any ideas on how to break her thrall?'
Megan could only marvel at the ease with which he stood there, guarding his captive, while Wally and three grown men assaulted him. One of the guards broke a chair over his head, yet Conner barely blinked.
'Maybe try opening the windows?', Robin proposed. 'Pheromones are a type of smell.'
With a mental command, Megan swung the room's remaining windows open, letting in a gust of fresh November air. She also took care to telekinetically collect the many shards from the floor and dispose them in a neat pile outside, lest one of the queen's minions decide to use them as weapons against her boyfriend.
They'd only cut their fingers.
'Anything else?' she asked, the entire scene feeling strangely surreal.
'I already alerted the president's daughter. She's assembling an all-female police force to arrest the queen', Robin informed them.
'So we just wait?', Conner huffed, as a guard bashed one of the shattered chair's legs against his ear.
Megan winced in his stead.
They waited.
After a minute or two, Wally was the first to come to his senses.
"Um, Conner? Why am I fighting you again?"
"Because Queen Bee enthralled you. Go and let Robin help you bandage your hands."
Still rather dazed, the speedster stared at his bruised and bleeding knuckles, before dashing out of the room.
By the time the police arrived, the president and his two bodyguards had fully recovered.
The president's daughter thanked Conner and Megan profoundly for their help, eager to arrange a public celebration in the team's honour.
Megan didn't need to wait for Robin's response before politely declining her offer. "I'm very sorry, your grace, but we would much rather return home."
"So, um, I am very sorry for hitting you like that."
"Don't worry, Wally. I'm just glad you threw the guns out, first."
"There were guns?"
"So, she really told the president to slit his throat with a knife?"
It was evening back at the cave, and the full team was finally re-assembled. Aqualad, Artemis and Zatanna had listened to Robin's report attentively, while Mary fed them with something sweet and delicious called English trifle.
Now they turned to Megan for details.
The Martian nodded in response to Artemis' question. She was standing next to Robin, too agitated still by the morning's events to join the others on one of the common room's couches.
"I think we must be very glad the last command the queen uttered was 'Help!'. I don't even want to imagine which other orders she could have given her thralls."
Wally shuddered.
"Yet surely she must have realized that she'd be the prime suspect, if the president had truly been killed", Kaldur pondered.
"It was just a threat", Megan admitted. "Her real plan was to drive him insane slowly, to lock him away in some kind of mental hospital. She tried to force me to break into his mind."
Robin pondered her words her with a frown. "How exactly did she try to force you to do that?"
Megan squared her shoulders, trying to calm her fluttering nerves.
It was time.
"I did mention that I would strongly prefer not to show you my true Martian form, right?"
Robin's and Wally's eyes widened. The others looked confused, with the exception of Conner, who nodded at her encouragingly.
"Your true Martian form?", Zatanna repeated.
"Megan modelled her current appearance after the main character in an old TV show called 'Hello, Megan!'. We met the lead actress briefly in Qurac, she's running an animal sanctuary now", Wally summarized.
Artemis, Zatanna and Mary traded a stunned look.
"This is not at all the appearance I was born with", Megan explained. "Revealing my true form to you has been my greatest fear since I arrived on Earth. Psimon and Queen Bee used this knowledge against me."
"You don't have to…", Robin started, but Megan cut him off.
"I do. This has gone far enough already."
She turned to face Conner, who sat on the couch in front of her. When he saw the desperation in her eyes, he rose, taking her hands in his. He still looked battered, although there was not even a bruise on his face.
"I do not care about appearances", he promised.
After today, how could she not believe him?
"First of all, I am not a Green Martian", she began, only looking at him.
"Wait, is this another tale of 'He isn't really my uncle'? Cause I swear, the Flash is my…"
"Let her talk, Wally", Robin cut off his friend, sitting down beside him.
"No, Wally, it's true that Martian Manhunter is my mother's brother. Yet she married a White Martian, my father, N'ton M'orzz."
Megan took a deep breath, as she allowed her painful past to spill out of her mind's darkest archives.
"White Martians face a lot of discrimination on Mars from the Green majority. My parents married for love, yet their union was treated like a scandal, the couple shunned publicly. Most of my mother's family severed all ties with her after their wedding. In fact, she told me many times that uncle J'onn was the only one of her siblings that did not reject her back then. Yet he left Mars for Earth soon after.
I was born a few years later, as my parents' first child. You can only imagine their shock when they saw that I was White, that the usually dominant Green Martian genes had not surfaced.
It was disgraceful. From that moment on, the public scorn and disdain knew no limits.
My parents split up soon after, neither of them able to bear the constant hostilities any longer. Martians are very empathic by nature, and contempt cuts us deep.
My father… He broke under the pressure.
Hence my mother had to take care of me alone. She tried her best to reconnect with her family, to regain her footing within the Green Martian society. She told them she regretted her mistake.
All Martians are mind-readers. They believed her, because she was sincere.
I was still a child, about five in human years, when she met my step-father, a well-respected Green Martian widower. He treated her like a charity case, the repenting sinner, the errant girl who had returned to the light. He married her out of pity, yet she was grateful to him.
Martians age more slowly than humans, and our families are typically much larger. I have a lot of older Green Martian step-siblings. Most of them hated me.
Of course, I tried to fit in. Changing skin colour is easy, even for the youngest Martian kids. Yet when everyone can read minds, how could I have ever fooled them?
Mind you, White Martian kids were just as hostile around me, shunning me for my half-Green heritage.
I did not exactly have a happy childhood on Mars.
When I turned about six in human years, I first watched 'Hello, Megan!' on TV, and I longed for Megan's joyful, careless life. From that day on, I dreamt of being her, and of coming to Earth.
I will spare you the details of the many years that followed. Let's just say that my step-brothers tried their best to break me, day after day, but they did not succeed.
I think what hurt most was the knowledge that my own mother never even chided them.
One of the very few people I knew to trust was my absent uncle J'onn. He returns to Mars rarely, yet I tried everything I could to meet him when he did.
My relatives prevented it. Martian Manhunter is a hero on Mars, whereas I meant nothing but disgrace for the family.
I spent years hatching the plan that finally allowed me to sneak into his bioship this June.
I lied to you when I claimed that he chose me to come to Earth with him. In truth, I was a stow-away in his cargo hold.
For all my elaborate planning, I could only conceal my presence until about five minutes after take-off. Yet that had given me the one chance I needed – a moment alone with my uncle J'onn. I spilled my heart to him, and he showed mercy, and allowed me to come to Earth with him.
Like him, I chose a human form to fit in with Earth society. For the first time in my life, I was able to match my outer appearance to the image with which I had identified for years.
When I came here, I finally turned from M'gan into Megan.
This is who I am."
Still holding Superboy's hands, she closed her eyes, unable to meet even his gaze now.
"I despise the body I was born with. It has been scorned by others all my life, so how could I have perceived it differently? To the people of Earth, it must seem even more abhorrent.
The true Martian form is monstrous. Our bulging brains shape our broad head and necks, whereas the the rest of our bodies are scrawny. Our hands are claw-like, with just two elongated digits. My true face has no nose, no outer ears, it's a bony mess with a pair of horrendous red eyes and a jaw full of fangs. I am taller, too, a hulking white beast, a repulsive creature.
If you insist, I will share the mental image with you. Yet I beg you, please, please, don't ask me to ever take that form again. Not now, that I have finally been able to leave all that behind, not now that…" Her voice broke off.
Conner pulled her into a deep embrace. "I would never ask that of you. But I promise that I could never find you repulsive, either."
A chortled sob escaped her lips. He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
One by one, the rest of the team joined them. Artemis wrapped her arms around her, Tanna petted her head, Mary laid her hands onto her shoulder. Wally, Kaldur and Robin formed the other ranks of their embrace, even Wolf leaned in.
"You are our cherished friend, Megan", Kaldur proclaimed sincerely. "Which ever appearance you chose, we would never reject you."
They accepted her.
She had laid her darkest secrets open to them, yet they still chose to accept her. She could feel the warmth of their affection engulf her, softly caressing her battered soul.
Martians are empathic by nature.
She would treasure this moment for the rest of her life.
Later that evening, Megan bumped into Mary when she entered the girls bathroom.
The young woman smiled at her kindly, brushing out her hair.
"You know, that true Martian form you told us about today? It's really not as monstrous as you think. Unfamiliar, of course, but not abhorrent."
Megan almost dropped her toothbrush.
"How would you… What?"
Author's note:
Breaking canon again... I really hope that Alfred's lecture and Robin's decision to stay camouflaged will save Marie Logan from ever becoming a target of Queen Bee's wrath. I'm not sure yet whether that means Garfield will never turn into beast boy - there are other accidents that could happen during a visit from Megan, after all - yet in any case, I really hope he'll be able to grow up with his awesome mom.
Please review: What do you think of Megan's revelations?
I like to think that the Queen's enthrallment might not work on Conner, since he's too new to this world. Do you agree?