Chapter 5: Meeting Tinya

As night fell, the animals returned to their home except for a few birds and the family of deer.

"Let's see what's upstairs." Tinya said, and she went up to find a bedroom with seven beds. "Oh what adorable beds, and they have their names carved on them." Tinya then proceeded to read the names. "'Cosmic Boy' 'Saturn Girl' 'Superboy' 'Chameleon Boy'" Tinya giggled good-naturedly. "What funny names for children. 'Lightning Lad', 'Brainiac 5', and 'Shrinking Violet'." Tinya then yawned. "I better hit the hay."

Tinya then laid down across Saturn Girl, Superboy, and Chameleon Boy's beds as the deer went to sleep on the floor. The birds then put the candle out with their tails and covered Tinya up before flying down stairs.

Suddenly, the deer were awakened by the sounds of people coming, and they returned to the forest for fear of being attacked by the cottage's inhabitants.

()()()()()

The group returned home as Cosmic Boy led the way by having Lightning Lad use his powers as a flashlight.

"Look!" Cosmic Boy suddenly said as he stopped abruptly and everyone slammed into him. "Our house. The light's lit!"

Everyone then snuck to the side and looked at the house.

"Jiminy Cricket." Chameleon Boy said in a low whisper as he looked.

"The door's open." Cosmic Boy pointed out as light was coming through the doorway.

"Looks like smokes coming from the chimney." Brainiac 5 said.

"Something's in there." Superboy remarked.

"You don't think it's Zyx, do you?" Saturn Girl asked.

"Could be anything." Brainiac 5 said.

"It's definitely human sized, but I can't tell exactly what it is." Superboy said as he used his x-ray vision to look into the house.

"Oh man, we're in trouble." Brainiac 5 said.

"Either way, something's up." Lightning Lad said. "We better approach it carefully."

"How?" Chameleon Boy asked.

"Let's sneak up on it." Saturn Girl said.

"Right." Cosmic Boy said. "Follow me."

They nervously snuck to the house and went inside. Cosmic Boy slowly opened the door which appeared to creek louder than it normally did, but they just put that off to nerves. They then tip-toed in as Chameleon Boy slammed the door shut.

"SHH!" They all hissed at Chameleon Boy.

"SHH!" Chameleon Boy hissed at the door.

"We better search every nook and cranny." Cosmic Boy said.

"Yeah, and we should search everywhere too." Chameleon Boy said, which earned him a slap from Shrinking Violet.

"Ouch!" Chameleon Boy exclaimed.

"Guys, be quiet." Lightning Lad hissed.

As Cosmic Boy, Superboy, and Shrinking Violet checked one area of the house, Cosmic Boy looked down and gasped.

"Look at the floor!" Cosmic Boy called out in surprise. "It's been swept!"

"Who on Earth would break into a house to sweep a floor?" Shrinking Violet asked incredulously.

Lightning Lad rubbed a finger against one of the chairs at the table and looked.

"The chair's been dusted." He observed.

"The windows are all washed." Saturn Girl stated.

"No cobwebs anywhere." Brainiac 5 stated.

"The whole place is cleaner than an operating room." Cosmic Boy said in surprise.

"Someone's definitely been in here." Lightning Lad said. "We're lucky if we manage to clean the place once a week, and we never get it this clean. There's dirty work a foot."

"The sink's empty." Superboy said as he looked inside with Shrinking Violet. "Guys, someone stole our dishes."

"No they didn't!" Saturn Girl said exasperatedly. "They just cleaned them and put them in the cupboard."

"Yeash, if we end up finding that Courtney Cox lady from Friends, I'm gonna laugh." Shrinking Violet said.

"Hey, they washed my cup!" Brainiac 5 groaned as he ran his finger around it. "No more sugar!"

"Good." Shrinking Violet said. "The last thing we need is you all hopped up on sugar again."

Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy approached a bubbling pot.

"Something's cooking in there." Saturn Girl said as she sniffed. "And it smells pretty good."

Saturn Girl made to grab a ladle when Lightning Lad grabbed her hand and pulled her away.

"Are you stupid?!" Lightning Lad asked. "That could be poison!"

As if on cue, the pot hissed.

"AHH!" Chameleon Boy exclaimed as he turned into a chicken.

"Why do I bother?" Lightning Lad said.

Cosmic Boy then drew everyone's attention to the table.

"Look what happened to the table!" Cosmic Boy said as Brainiac 5 picked up some golden rods that were there.

"Hey cool, flowers." Brainiac 5 said. "Look at this Sup, golden rods."

"Oh no!" Superboy said as his nose began to get stuffed up. "My nose, I've had hay fever for the last few weeks! You know I can't stand it, Brainy! I ca- I coo- I c-"

"HIT THE DECK!" Lightning Lad called out. As Chameleon Boy, Brainiac 5, and Shrinking Violet ducked, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy held their fingers to his nose.

"Phew." Superboy said. "Thanks guys… AH CHOO!"

The other six were then blown into the wall.

"Sweet Titan!" Saturn Girl exclaimed before she put her hand over her mouth. "Please pardon my language."

"A very fine time you picked to sneeze!" Lightning Lad whispered angrily at Superboy, his best friend.

"I couldn't help it!" Superboy whispered back. "When you've gotta, you've gotta… Uh-oh. I've gotta again.

"GRAB HIM!" Lightning Lad called out. They pounced on Superboy and tied his cape around his nose, which served to muffle his sneeze and stop any more accidental super-breaths.

"Thanks." Superboy said. Everyone's first thought was that he looked like that member of the Justice League called Vigilante.

"We've gotta keep quiet." Lightning Lad said. "We could all end up messing with Zyx if we're not careful."

They then heard an odd sound from upstairs.

"Whatever's in here is up there." Cosmic Boy said.

"In the bedrooms." Saturn Girl said.

"Uh-oh." Chameleon Boy exclaimed.

"Someone's gotta go up and chase whatever's up there down." Cosmic Boy said.

They all nodded their heads, and six of them looked at Chameleon Boy as he looked behind him before remembering that there were only seven of them.

"Me?" Chameleon Boy asked in a squeaky whisper.

Chameleon Boy tried to creep off before he was grabbed by Lightning Lad and Superboy. They then pulled him in front of Cosmic Boy as he held up a flash light that he'd turned on and was shaking as bad as Chameleon Boy.

"Here." Cosmic Boy said nervously. "Take it. Don't be nervous."

Cosmic Boy then mustered his own courage and put the flash light in Chameleon Boy's hand and shoved him up the stairs. At the landed outside of the bedrooms, Chameleon Boy turned around to look at the others several steps below him.

"Don't be afraid." Cosmic Boy said. "We're right behind you."

"Yeah." They all said. "Right behind you."

"Mm." Chameleon Boy said nervously as he walked up and entered the bed room. In the light of the flash light, Chameleon Boy saw something groan sleepily as it stretched underneath several sheets.

"AHHHHH!" Chameleon Boy called out and ran down the stairs.

"Here it comes!" Lightning Lad said as he got an attack ready before they were all bowled over by something, and they ran straight out of the door. Chameleon Boy then tried to follow, but the door wouldn't open.

"It's trying to get out!" Cosmic Boy screamed!

"Don't let it out!" Lightning Lad said calmly.

"Hold it shut!" Superboy added.

This added greatly to Chameleon Boy's fears that the creature and woken up. He didn't dare look behind him and tried harder to open the door until the door knob broke off, and Chameleon Boy fell into several pots and pans that landed all over him. Now sure that the creature had woken up, he ran for his life right out the door. This was the scariest night of his life!

()()()()()

Outside the cottage, everyone waited in the trees for the creature, whatever it was, to attack. They pounced down on what appeared to be some kind of metal creature and kept attacking until John realized something.

"Hold on guys!" Cosmic Boy shouted. "It's only Chameleon Boy."

"Yeah, it's only-D'oh!" Chameleon Boy exclaimed as Shrinking Violet hit him again with her stick. "What was that for?!"

"Scaring me for no good reason!" Shrinking Violet retorted.

"Did you see it?" Superboy asked?

"Yeah!" Chameleon Boy said panting.

"How big is it?" Saturn Girl asked.

"Huge!"

"What was it?" Lightning Lad asked.

"A dragon!" Chameleon Boy said as the creature was large enough to be.

"Has it got horns?" Superboy asked.

"Yeah!"

"Was it breathing fire?" Cosmic Boy asked.

"Yeah!" Chameleon Boy said.

"Was it drooling?" Brainiac 5 asked.

"Yeah!" Chameleon Boy said.

"Stop saying yeah and tell us what it was doing!" Shrinking Violet shouted.

"It was sleeping." Chameleon Boy said.

"A monster's asleep in our beds?!" Cosmic Boy exclaimed.

"Let's get it while it's sleeping." Lightning Lad proposed.

"Good idea." Saturn Girl said.

"Let's go!" Superboy proclaimed and they went off.

They made it back to the bedroom and opened the door to see the thing yawning again, and it was covering Superboy, Saturn Girl, and Chameleon Boy's beds.

"Great Krypton!" Superboy exclaimed.

"Heaven above!" Saturn Girl added.

"What a monster." Superboy said.

"No kidding." Brainiac 5 replied. "It's covering three beds."

"Let's get it before it wakes up!" Cosmic Boy whispered.

"Which end do we get?" Saturn Girl asked, but everyone shushed her.

They then surrounded the creature and prepared to fight when Cosmic Boy lifted the sheet, and they all stopped.

It wasn't a monster. It was a very lovely girl. With black hair, and she was in a white outfit.

"By Braal!" Cosmic Boy exclaimed.

"What is it?" Saturn Girl asked.

"It's a Bgtzlian girl." John said.

"She's really pretty." Superboy said.

"She looks like an angel." Brainiac 5 said.

"Angel?" Lightning Lad said. "She's a Bgtzlian, and she's on Earth. What would someone like her be doing here?"

"Shh!" Cosmic Boy said. "You'll wake her up."

"Let her wake up then." Lightning Lad said. "She's trespassing."

"Hey, she's moving!" Superboy said nervously.

"She's waking up!" Saturn Girl said.

"What do we do?!" Superboy asked.

"Hide!" Cosmic Boy said, and they ducked down as the girl yawned and got up.

()()()()()

"Oh my…" Tinya said with a yawn as she got up. "Just what I needed. I wonder if the children are-"

Tinya then looked down and gasped in pleasant surprise as she saw the children.

"Oh you're so cute." Tinya said like a babysitter. The children then stood up, and she saw that they were in several outfits. Maybe they were play acting. "How are you?" Tinya asked, but none of them answered. "I said 'How are you?'"

"How are we what?" Said a boy dressed in navy blue with a lightning bolt scar over his right eye.

"Oh you can talk!" Tinya said excitedly. "I'm so glad!"

"Now do not tell me who you are, let me guess." Tinya said. "Now you…" She said as she looked at a boy who was dressed in purple. "You're… Cosmic Boy."

"Oh, yes." Cosmic Boy said with a nervous smile.

Tinya then looked at a boy who appeared to be half-machine, and it clicked instantly.

"You are Brainiac 5." Tinya said.

"Y-yeah." Brainiac 5 said as he blushed.

"And you…" Tinya said as she looked at a girl with black hair, purple eyes, and a green dress with black gloves. "You're… Shrinking Violet?"

"How'd you guess?" Shrinking Violet asked.

"I just kinda took a stab at it." Tinya said. She then turned to a boy in a blue jump suit with a red cape and the letter S on his chest. "And you're Superboy."

"Yeah." Superboy said as he smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

"And you're…" Tinya said as she turned to a girl with long blond hair.

"Saturn Girl, ma'am." Saturn Girl said. "And this is Chameleon Boy."

"Hi." Chameleon Boy said nervously.

"Don't worry, he's shy around strangers." Saturn Girl explained.

"Oh, that is too bad." Tinya said as she smiled, and Chameleon Boy smiled nervously as well. She then turned to the last boy. He folded his arms moodily, but not before Tinya saw the images of lightning bolts on his shirt.

"Oh…" Tinya said deepening her voice to try and get the boy to smile. "You must be Lightning Lad."

"She's good at this." Cosmic Boy said.

"We know who we are." Lightning Lad said shortly. "What we don't know is who you are and what you're doing here."

"Oh how silly of me." Tinya said as she blushed. "I am Tinya Wazzo of Bgztl."

"Tinya?!" Everyone asked. "The princess?!"

"Yeah." Tinya said with a smile.

"Well your highness." Cosmic Boy said respectively. "We're honored hosts. We're… Uh…"

"Mad as hornets!" Lightning Lad interrupted.

"Mad as hornets!" John said before shaking his head.

"Wait, no we're not." John said. "Ah, what was I saying?!"

"Nothing, just sputtering like an idiot as usual!" Lightning Lad said.

"Hey who's sputtering like an idiot!" Cosmic Boy asked angrily.

"That's enough you two." Superboy said as he flew in-between the two.

"I say we tell her to get out." Lightning Lad said.

"Please don't send me away." Tinya pleaded. "If you do, she'll kill me."

"Kill you?" Superboy asked.

"Who?" Cosmic Boy asked.

"My step-mother Queen Falyce." Tinya stated.

"Falyce?!" Everyone asked.

"She's wicked!" Brainiac 5 said.

"She's bad!" Saturn Girl agreed.

"She's mean!" Superboy added.

"She's a vain and power-hungry witch." Lightning Lad said calmly. "I'm warning all of you. If Falyce finds out she's here, on this planet, she'll tear the whole place apart just because of Tinya being here."

"But she doesn't even know where I am." Tinya said.

"Oh yeah?" Lightning Lad asked. "Well from all the stories I've heard, she has enough black magic to easily figure out where someone is, and it doesn't take magic to make someone invisible. For all we know she's in this room right now."

"Oh my god!" Chameleon Boy said before he looked down Saturn Girl's shirt to look for Blackfire, and Saturn Girl punched him in the face.

"Oh she'd never find me here." Tinya said cheerfully. "And if you let me stay, I'll do the cleaning for you. I can wash, sow, sweep, cook-"

"COOK?!" Everyone said at the same time as they were tired of Lightning Lad and Superboy buying them cereal from some town.

"Can you make apple dumplings?" Cosmic Boy asked.

"Yes." Tinya said. "And plum pudding, and goose berry pie-"

"GOOSE BERRY PIE?!" Everyone called out. "Hooray! She stays!"

Lightning Lad rubbed his temples. He didn't think any good would come out of this.

Well Lightning Lad's trusting, isn't he?