I do not own the rights to the Justice League. Or Leverage. Also, if I screwed up how conventions work, please forgive me since I've never been to one.

Age of the Geek, Baby

Suzy's POV

I knew of conventions, but had never actually been to one myself, so KlingCon was quite the experience. According to Gardner, KlingCon was originally started by a bunch of Trekkies wanting their own convention. Over time it grew and expanded to include other fandoms. It was nowhere as big as Comic-Con, but still big enough to attract a decent crowd. Apparently the highlight every year was the huge costume contest. And as you might guess, Gardner and Lucy naturally dressed up as well.

I was quite surprised that after his face to face encounter with the Dark Knight, Gardner still had the nerve to go as him, with Lucy going as Batgirl. Lucy tried her best to get me to join them as Wonder Woman with a spare costume her mother once were, but since she didn't have anything to blackmail or negotiate with, it didn't happen. While they were dressed up, I wore my CCU hoodie and a pair of jeans; I wasn't about to look like a dork if I could help it. Except, wearing the jeans and hoodie gave me a lot more attention than if I had worn the Wonder Woman costume. I hate irony.

From the moment we entered the convention place, I kept noticing people looking at me from out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought they were just looking at Gardner and Lucy in their costumes, but then people started coming up to me and telling me how awesome my costume was. One black guy who wasn't wearing a costume (though you could tell he wanted to), had come up to me and said, "Damn, your costume is awesome. You got the hair, the hoodie, everything."

Tired of not knowing what the big deal was I decided to ask him, but did so in a way that didn't make me look like an idiot. "Thanks," I said and grabbed Gardner. "This is my friend who doesn't get who I'm dressed as."

Gardner had a dumbfounded look on his face (as usual) while the other guy was more than happy to explain. "Man, how can you not know who she is? She's Suzy, from the webcomic The Trouble With Sues."

Before I could ask him more about this webcomic, some bulky looking guy with long hair came by and grabbed him. "Stop being such a geek, we have a job to do."

As he was dragged away, I heard the guy reply, "How many times do I have to tell you? It's the age of the geek, baby. Age of the geek. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I hacked the WatchTower?"

After he left I turned to Lucy. "If you're such a comic fan, how come you didn't know about this?"

"I'm eleven. My mom controls what websites I can go to," she said like I was too stupid to figure that out on my own. Any sympathy I had for from last night was disappearing rather quickly.

Remembering some of the stories I've read on fanfiction I responded, "Your mom lets you visit fanfiction websites, but not a comics site? Nice parenting."

"I don't get to read anything with higher than a T rating."

"Ah-hem," interrupted Gardner. Good thing too because his sister was starting to get on my nerves; a trait that she had apparently passed on to Annie.

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Fine. Is there a computer nearby? I want to check this webcomic out."

"Really? That's your first instinct?" asked Gardner.

"What's wrong with it?"

"What about the chicken or egg discussion we had the other day? I'm pretty sure you existed before the webcomic did."

He had me there. Up to that point we assumed that what was created in his world, appeared in mine. Story-lines, characters, (and Sues) started off in Gardner's world and ended up in mine. But I was pretty sure I didn't just pop into existence. I had memories, I was real. According to Annie she had a back story, but no real memories or evidence. More like she had the knowledge of what her past was suppose to be, but nothing to prove. I had plenty. A birth certificate, graduation diploma, driver's license, family photos, a medical record. Some author couldn't have come up with all that on their own.

"It would have to work both ways, wouldn't it? Lucy is definitely Annie's creator, and I'm pretty sure she can't have two. So the only reasonable explanation would be that Annie and I existed in my world, and somebody here was influenced by it enough to create the webcomic," I said after some thought.

"Weird. Plausible, but weird. Hey, where's Lucy?"

Gardner's POV

I know it looks bad losing one's little sister at a crowded place. But Suzy had distracted me with her webcomic thing. The idea that the link between worlds went both ways instead of just one was intriguing, especially after what we had talked about the other day. Plus the chance to see Suzy in possible embarrassing situations sounded really good at the moment. Who knew what fun things that webcomic might hold?

So while we were talking, Lucy slipped away. And she didn't get lost, what happened was much worse.

Suzy and I were debating what to do next when I felt a sharp pang in the back of my head. "What the hell?" I muttered, while Suzy started to laugh. Turning around I saw why. Smiling with a mace in her hand was Angela. Next to her was Lucy. Like I said, worst than getting lost.

"What are you doing here?" asked Suzy.

"I live about an hour away, do you really think I would miss KlingCon?" answered Angela. She then hit me on the head again.

"Can I try?" Lucy asked, looking at Angela.

"Me next!" cried Suzy.

I rubbed my right hand over the back of my head to see if it was bleeding. "What is with you three enjoying my pain? And why are you dressed as Hawkgirl?"

"You're just so cute when you're in pain," answered Angela as she tapped my nose with her mace. "And why can't I be Hawkgirl? Just because I'm blond and hot I have to be a character that fits that description like Supergirl or Black Canary? Supergirl is way overdone like Wonder Woman, and I don't want to look like a hooker in fish nets."

"Not to mention Hawkgirl has a mace that you can hit people with," pointed out Suzy.

"There is that too," agreed Angela.

"What do fish nets have to do with looking like a hooker?" piped up Lucy, who had been mostly quiet till that point.

Suzy and Angela both snickered and I just groaned. The Injustice League seriously had nothing on these three.

Trying to change the subject I said, "Angela, if your such a fan of the Justice League, why didn't you mention Suzy's similarity to a certain webcomic?"

"I knew her story sounded familar! Don't give me that look, Gardner. I read the comic a couple months ago and like reading the updates all at once."

"Whose's story?" asked Lucy again, trying to figure out what we were talking about.

"Oh look the costume contest is about to start, let's go enter," I said before anybody could explain to Lucy what was going on. I didn't know how she would react to the news about Annie. And I didn't want to give Angela anymore chances to hit me with that mace.

Suzy's POV

That night, much to my dismay, Gardner and Lucy were gathered around the T.V. watching the local news. Not because they were interested in what was going on in the world, but more to do with the fact they wanted to rewatch my fail interview.

When Gardner had suggested that we entered the costume contest, I was hesitant. I don't like being the center of attention. One on one with people I'm fine with. It's just when those one or two people turns into a massive crowd of people all looking at me, do I start freaking out. What little voice I have cracks and I get a deer-caught-in-the-headlights-look. Angela assured me that there were so many people entering, I probably wouldn't last that long. She was wrong. Very wrong.

There were a couple different categories. Best Judged, Most Creative, and Most Accurate were all judged by a panel of judges. The last category, Fan Favorite was judged by the crowd of people watching the contest. Guess which I won.

I did get a trophy and some much needed cash (which I used to buy myself a Marvel t-shirt just to piss Gardner off. I don't ever remember signing a DC exclusive contract), but I also got a boatload of unwanted attention. People kept coming up to me asking for autographs and pictures. By nature I'm not that much of a people person. When you combine that with my distaste for being the center of attention, I quickly reached my limit and was getting close to hurting somebody.

Then the news crew had shown up and thought it'd be fun to interview me. Afterwards, Gardner had fun teasing me. The few words that I had managed to get out were mumbled with one clear phrase. The phrase had quickly become a favorite of Gardner's. For the sake of my sanity I'm not going to mention it. Just like I never mentioned my Halloween costume from last year.

While Gardner and Lucy were watching the news, I helped their mother wash the the plates in the kitchen so I could avoid the interview.

"It was a nice thing you did by going with them to the convention," she said as she handed me a plate to dry.

"It was fun," I replied non-nonchalant like. It really was fun, except for the interview and costume contest part.

She dried her hands on a dish rag with a faded watermelon print and looked at me. "Do you realize that you're the first friend Ashley's ever brought home? He has a hard time letting people in since his father died. He much rather not get involved with people or care."

What she said certainly explained why he ran away from me that first night. I thought it had to do with the fact that he was an uncaring jerk. Instead it was due to his tragic past causing him not to want to get close to anybody, or something like that. On the inside I grinned; blackmail's awesome when it's not being used against you.

Still. "At school I noticed he hung out with people. How can he be so anti-social then?"

"I never said he was anti-social, just that he doesn't allow people to really get all that close to him. There's a reason why most of his so-called friends are idiots, crazies and drunks, excluding you of course."

Even with that last bit, I couldn't help but feel that Gardner's mom had just slammed me. I would normally be insulted by such a comment, but my respect for her just increased. Up to that point I had assumed she was Little Miss Homemaker. It was exciting to learn that she had a dark side, similar to that of my own mother. And I liked it.

"It's not just Ashley's who's had the hard time, but so has Lucy. She doesn't have many friends at school, or positive role models for her to look up to. So I appreciate you taking her under your wing."

Her dark side was starting to get annoying. I assume by positive role model she meant Angela was out due to her crazy/drunk nature. Angela's certainly not an idiot, so I had narrowed it down to the other two traits as the reason Gardner supposedly hung out with her (at least, according to his mother). Apparently she knew that Lucy had hung out with Angela today and was subtlety hinting that I should hang out with Lucy instead. Like that would happen. Why would I willingly try to hang out with a pre-teen girl who wrote Sues and clearly had self-esteem issues? (Shut up Gardner. For her to write a Sue in the first place screams she has to have some kind of issues which I've already established. With a little counseling and some time she'll be fine.)

Trying to steer the conversation somewhere other than me and Lucy becoming BFF's, I said, "Lucy said that he died four years ago. How can she and Gardner still have so many issues?"

"Have you ever had a really close relative or friend die?"

"Um... does my grandma count?"

She sighed. "Evidently not. If it did you would know that grief is a process that takes a while and varies from person to person. You probably know that my husband was a huge DC fan. In this house, we had a certain M-word that was banned. He shared that passion with Ashley and Lucy both. Instead of reading them fairy tales when they were small, he read them the latest Batman or Superman issue." She smiled at the memory and continued. "When he died, Ashley wanted nothing to do with his father's passion anymore. Lucy meanwhile clung to it with everything she had."

Note to self, don't wear the Marvel shirt where she could see it. Unsure of what else to say, I asked, "And you?"

With a grim smile she replied, "I prayed for the courage to go on for the sake of my two kids and try to take it one day at a time."

I then decided I wanted the awkward conversation to end. While the subject of her husband's death was sad and depressing, the sympathy I was starting to have for Lucy and Gardner was becoming worse and worse to deal it. My life was so much simpler when he was the rude jerk who ignored me, and she was the crazy Sue writer. Now that they had backgrounds and depth and had ceased to be stereotypes, I was starting to care about them. FML.

I joined Lucy and Gardner in the middle of a report detailing the recent break-ins into several high security government buildings where military equipment had been stolen. During the most recent one, the suspect's face had finally been captured on camera. Desperate to make an I.D., the government had released the photo to the public.

Right after that was the local news, including my fail interview. As expected Gardner and Lucy burst into laughter at the phrase. I guess I had missed an insult or something from Gardner because I felt a sharp pain in my side. He had elbowed me to get my attention.

"Earth to Suzy. I just insulted you and you didn't react. What's the matter? Having horrific flashbacks?"

I shook my head. "That was the guy. The guy in the photo was the one who stole Eugene's device."

I had almost given up hope of ever finding him since I really didn't know all that much about him. But there he was on the news. Though, in the end I didn't have to find him. He found me.

**Author's Note**

Thanks to Loki's Son and Jana Girl123 for reviews.

And we're back to the main plot. Next chapter will be completely different since it will feature everything as a third person perspective, with no commentary from Suzy or Gardner. It'll show stuff that's going on that they have no knowledge of, but you as a reader should since it'll make the next couple chapters make more sense.

I wanted to say a couple things about this chapter. First, the webcomic idea. I thought it'd be awesome if Suzy had to deal with the notion that she was famous for the Annie situation. In the last chapter of The Trouble With Sues, she did address the audience showing that she was aware of the possibility that somebody was following along, now she'll have to deal with the reality. I choose to make it a webcomic for a couple reasons. I thought Suzy might be more recognizable from a picture vs. a fanfic. I also wanted to pay a bit of homage to the awesome webcomic Ensign Sue Must Die, which helped inspire Annie and her Sueness. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend looking it up since it deals with a lot of the classic Sue traits.

Also did you catch the bit from Hacker? I thought it would be a fun bonus to add in this chapter.