Chapter 6: Washing Up Before Supper

All the talk about cooking reminded Tinya about the pot she'd put on the stove. She flew down and opened it up as she took a sip of what she was making.

The seven children then walked out and sniffed.

"SOUP!" They called out and rushed down. They then sat down and fought over the bread, except Chameleon Boy, who was fighting to try and get a seat.

"Uh-uh-uh." Tinya said, before anyone could have a bite. "Wait a moment. Supper's not quite ready yet, so you'll have just enough time to wash."

"Wash?" Everyone asked. They'd only washed about once a week as that seemed enough.

"I knew there was a catch." Lightning Lad muttered.

"Why do we gotta wash?" Brainiac 5 asked the gang in low voices, so Starfire wouldn't hear.

"We're not going anywhere." Saturn Girl said.

"It's not New Year or Christmas." Cosmic Boy agreed.

"Oh, have you washed already?" Tinya asked.

"Uh… Yes." Cosmic Boy said.

"Okay, when?" Tinya asked with her hands on her hips.

"When?" Cosmic Boy asked. "When? Um… Last week, no month, no I mean… Recently."

"Yes." They all said. "Recently."

"Oh, recently." Tinya said with a coy smile. "Then let me see your hands."

They all gulped and held their hands behind their backs.

"Let me see your hands." Tinya said firmly as if she was their mother.

Cosmic Boy sighed and removed his gloves to show fairly dirty hands.

"Why Cosmic Boy." Tinya said. "I'm surprised at you."

"Ah… Well…" Cosmic Boy said nervously.

"Come on, let's see them." Tinya said, and Brainiac 5 showed fairly dirty hands.

"Oh Brainy, if you don't wash your hands, how do you expect to keep working?" Tinya asked. "And you, Superboy?"

Superboy then showed his hands to be among the dirtiest ones so far.

"Tch, tch, tch." Tinya said.

Before she got to her, Saturn Girl rubbed her hands against her pants and showed them to her, sure that it would work.

"It's worse than I thought." Tinya said as she looked at Saturn Girl's extra dirty hands.

Chameleon Boy eagerly took off his gloves to show her, and they were, maybe the cleanest, but still very dirty.

Shrinking Violet then showed her hands, and for someone who spent most of their day holding a book, it was hard to believe how dirty they'd gotten.

"How shocking!" Tinya exclaimed before Saturn Girl looked down and hid her hands behind her back. "This'll never do. Now you kids go straight outside and wash, or you will not get a bite to eat."

"Let's go." Cosmic Boy said dejectedly.

Everyone except Lightning Lad left, with Chameleon Boy slamming into wall because he was looking more at Tinya.

"Well," Tinya asked. "Aren't you going to wash?"

Lightning Lad just turned his head away. Who did she think she was, his mother? She was only a few years older than him.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Tinya asked with a smile, and Lightning Lad just walked out to get away from her for a few minutes.

He then ended up slamming his face into a door.

"Oh, did you hurt yourself?" Tinya asked, but Lightning Lad just kept walking until he was out of the house. "Aliens!" He muttered.

()()()()()

"Okay guys, courage." Cosmic Boy said. "Don't be nervous."

"Are we really gonna do this?" Brainiac 5 asked.

"Well, it'll please Starfire." Cosmic Boy said.

"I'm sure she has our best interests at heart." Saturn Girl said.

"Me too." Everyone else agreed.

"I'm telling you guys," Lightning Lad said. "Give that girl an inch, and she'll walk all over you."

"Ah, don't listen to that sour puss." Cosmic Boy said dismissively. "Come on, guys."

"How hard should we scrub?" Superboy asked.

"Will our fingers shrink?" Shrinking Violet asked with a yawn.

"Should we get in the tub?" Chameleon Boy asked.

"Should we wash where it doesn't show?" Brainiac 5 asked.

"Now don't get excited, here we go." Cosmic Boy explained.

Step up to the tub.

It's not a disgrace.

Just pull up your sleeves,

And get 'em in place.

Then scoop up the water,

And rub it on your face,

And go, blurb, blurb, blurb!

Cosmic Boy went first to demonstrate, and everyone else did as he did.

Pick up the soap,

Now don't try to bluff.

Work up a lather,

And when you get enough,

Get a handful of water.

You snout and you snout,

And so, blurb, blurb, blurb.

Get doused and soused.

Rub and scrub.

Splutter and splash all over the tub.

You may be cold and wet when you're done,

But you've gotta admit, it's gonna be fun.

A fly came around Raven and she tricked it into going onto the soap where it ended up looking like Santa clause because of the suds.

So splash with all your might.

It's not any trick.

As soon as you're through,

You'll feel mighty slick.

"You bunch of nanny goats make me sick going, blurb, blurb, blurb!" Lightning Lad stated.

They then washed up their hair after washing their hands and faces as they figured they should do it right, but they'd save a proper bath for tomorrow evening.

"Next thing you know, she'll be having us dress up in sailor outfits or pink dresses, as the case may be, and squirt us all with that perfume stuff." Lightning Lad said.

"I don't wanna wear pink." Shrinking Violet said.

"Oh don't listen to Garth." Saturn Girl said. "He's just being a big grump."

Chameleon Boy then turned into a baby elephant to blow out all the water he'd accidentally swallowed.

"A nice group of water-lilies you guys turned out to be." Lightning Lad said with a smirk as Cosmic Boy looked up. "I'd like to see anybody make me wash if I didn't wanna."

Cosmic Boy then smiled mischievously as he whispered to the others. They all smiled and walked up to Batboy as they whistled.

"GET HIM!" Cosmic Boy shouted out, and they all held Lightning Lad up as Superboy, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, and Cosmic Boy held his limbs, so he couldn't get away.

"Hey let me go!" Lightning Lad called out.

"Chameleon Boy, set the soap." Cosmic Boy said.

"Okay!" Chameleon Boy said as he ran off. He grabbed the soap and was about to bring it when it slipped out of his hand, and he tried to catch it before it knocked him in the head. He then turned into a lion and tried to pounce on it, but it just slipped and went into his mouth as he turned back to normal. "Ah man!" Chameleon Boy called out. "And I didn't even say anything bad!"

He then hiccupped as several soap bubbles popped up.

Meanwhile, everyone else was giving Lightning Lad a nice hands and face washing.

Now scrub good and hard.

It can't be denied,

That he'll look might cool,

As soon as he's dried.

With a scrap and a howl,

And a blurb, blurb, blurb!

Lightning Lad was then let out as everyone laughed.

"He smells like a petunia." Superboy said with a laugh that was shared with everyone else.

"You sure look cute, Garth!" Saturn Girl teased as she put his mask back on.

"Oh, you're all gonna pay for this!" Lightning Lad shouted.

"Supper!" Tinya called out from the house.

"Supper!" They all called out and ran off, leaving Lightning Lad woozy by the tub.

"Eh." Lightning Lad said after a while and walked in.

()()()()()

Falyce walked back to the mirror that very night as Hawkman gave her the box with her heart in it.

"Oh mirror, mirror, on the wall, who now is the fairest one of all?" Falyce asked with a smug smile.

"Far off on the planet Earth, beyond the Seventh Fall, in the cottage of the Young Legion dwells Tinya. The fairest one of all." Slade said.

"Tinya's dead in a forest." Falyce said with a smirk. "Hawkman, Katar Hol, had brought me prove." Falyce opened the box and showed it to the mirror. "Behold, her heart."

"Starfire still lives, the fairest in the land." Slade insisted. "It's the heart of a pig you hold in your hands."

"The heart of a pig?!" Falyce shouted as she threw the box down. "That hawk tricked me!"

Falyce then walked down a secret flight of stairs to her lab as her servant from Earth, Tharok waited.

"Whoa, who spit in your caviar?" Tharok asked.

"Shut up!" Falyce said. "That sentimental fool gave me the heart of a pig instead of Tinya's! Looks like if I want someone killed around here, I'll have to do it myself! I'll go to the brats' cottage in such a perfect disguise that no one will ever suspect it's me."

"How perfect?" Tharok asked.

"A potion." Falyce said as she took a book labeled Disguises. "A potion to turn my beauty into a grimace. To change my queenly array into a peddler's cloak."

Falyce found a perfect little recipe. It also had a 72 hour limit, which would give her time to make a perfect way to kill Starfire, and she'd just turn back to her beautiful self afterwards.

"Mummy dust, to make me old." Falyce said as she grabbed said dust from a drawer. "To shroud my clothes, the black of night."

Falyce put in the mummy dust and added a pitch black liquid that easily became the dominant color.

"To age my voice, an old hag's cackle." Falyce said as she turned on a burner underneath a phial that held a red liquid. After it had been turned on, a bit of the red liquid shot up and laughed like an old crone and entered the goblet Falyce had put the potion into. This turned the potion red.

"To whiten my hair, a scream of fright!" Falyce turned the knob on a faucet, and a white substance poured out as a scream echoed throughout the chamber, and the potion was now a venomous green.

"A blast of wind to fan my age!" As Falyce held the goblet to the window and wind suddenly blew through it, and over the goblet. "And a thunderbolt to mix it well!"

As if on cue, a thunderbolt sounded as the potion rippled and bubbled.

"Now…" Falyce said calmly. "Begin thy magic spell."

Falyce then consumed the concoction and gasped. The room appeared to be spinning, she saw her hair flying around her face and glimpsed it turning white as salt.

"My hands!" Falyce called out as she looked at her hands and saw them become incredibly thin and claw-like. Her clothes also turned into a black musty cloak, and her very skin turned incredibly pale.

Falyce sighed, hoping for the seventy-two hours to pass quickly and heard her own sigh.

"My voice." She croaked. Her voice had become high and raspy. "My voice…"

Falyce laughed. The potion had worked. She looked into a mirror and saw an old hag with bulging green eyes and a long hook nose with a large wart on it.

"Yes!" Falyce called out. "A perfect disguise!"

Falyce turned to Tharok who backed into a wall.

"HOLY CAP!" Tharok called out.

"And now…" Falyce said as she pulled out a book on death potions. "A special sort of death for one so fair."

"AH!" She called out very soon. "A poisoned apple. Laced with the draught of the sleeping death."

"Huh?" Tharok asked.

"'One taste of the poisoned apple, and the victim's eyes will close forever in the sleeping death…'" Falyce said as she looked up and smirked wickedly. The Wicked Witch of the West had nothing on her.