I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

Surprises

Suzy's POV

So, I'm assuming that I still have an audience who want some kind of closure. Here it is.

Once Gardner left, life got back to normal. I went home, was embraced by my family, ate cookies with my mom, celebrated Thanksgiving. There, Nikki and Gary finally announced a date for the wedding. It was to be in June, right after my college graduation. Batman sent all the stuff Stuart had stolen back to Gardner's world along with the two guys from the hotel since they were technically the ones who committed the thefts.

Annie for some reason, was still seeing Eugene. I forgave him once he bought me Pokemon Black and White. Mostly. He still had a long way to go before I'd trust him again, but knowing that Batman stopped by for another 'chat' with him helped. Eugene never told me what it was about, but I found out from Annie later that his senior design project had gotten changed to something safer: an automatic fish feeder. Quiet, and hard to screw up/take over the world with.

Oh, and one of Annie's blind dates was rather successful for once. His name was Todd and he was a former Gary-Stu from Annie's camp. Yeah, I thought the same. Me and a Gary-Stu? Pssh. But then Annie explained that he was the other kind of Gary-Stu.

You see, there are two types of Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus. There are the kind like Annie; the super annoying, have fifty million super powers, perky, sexy, tragic past Sues. Then there are the barely developed, background character, cardboard Sues. These are the lesser known ones, and they're usually in a story just to make the main Sue's life hell. That's it. If the author doesn't develop their character, they fade into oblivion similar to how a regular Sue does upon being ignored long enough to start questioning their existence.

In some cases, these rare Sues become self-aware of their fragile existence, and seek to develop their character on their own. That's what Todd did. He was originally created to be the stereotypical jealous twin brother of a superhero and turn evil. Except he realized who he was, and who his brother was. He actually did try to help his brother, but said brother ignored him and went the way of the Sue's. Todd then joined Annie's boot camp to get some more depth along with an actual identity, and became an avid gardener.

That's Annie's little joke. He's a gardener, I'm friends with a Gardner. I'm not amused by it either. But Todd's a great guy. Used to Sue's and their craziness he has this easy going personality, and can my sarcasm. Though, I have tried to turn it down a bit. At first I thought Gardner's suggestion was stupid, but then discovered my teachers actually give valuable feedback now that they're less afraid of my sarcastic ways.

Todd's also great because he won't let me walk all over him. He was intended to be an evil genius, and he instead used that intelligence to develop a personality. I'm not saying that he's evil, but he is smart. Unlike Stuart, the only aspirations he has are to open his own nursery some day. I can support a goal like that.

So that's it. Eugene and Annie are still together, I have my games, Nikki and Gary are getting married, Batman is still afraid of my mother, and Sara is still a party girl.

Goodbye.

Alright, you caught me.

I lied.

I'm not assuming I have an audience, I know I have an audience.

When I said that I could only vaguely remember what Stuart and I talked about, I lied. I did remember what we talked about, and it had nothing to do with him sending Gardner home.

It had to do with what I did in the hotel when I had the device. I figured that there was a good chance Stuart would catch on, so I decided to prevent him from using the device further by taking the programmer chip. The night the device was taken, Eugene had been explaining how it worked to me. I didn't understand a lot of it, but what I did get was that it all came down to the programming chip. No chip, no device. So when I palmed the device, I stole the chip.

The plan was going well, except for when Stuart thought to have me searched. In hindsight, swallowing the chip while eating a tootsie roll may have not been the best thing to do, especially in my world with The Rules in effect. But it was the only idea I had at the time.

And it did work, since the device was how he planned on getting his equipment across the country. Except I had the programming chip, so he had to do things the old fashioned way causing him to be super slow and allowing me and Gardner to catch up. When I confronted him, he started demanding to know what I did to the device. I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about, but that didn't stop him from throwing it at my head in anger, causing it to smash into a bunch of pieces.

All but the programming chip. Like I said, swallowing in my world with the Rules wasn't the smartest thing to do. There was a side effect. It turns out, that some kind of plasma reaction powers the device. So when I was hit with the plasma from his plasma gun, it caused my body to absorb the programming chip. I literally became Eugene's device.

I didn't make that discovery until a few days after everything had settled down. Only because it hadn't come out the other end, and I was starting to get concerned. I talked to Annie, who talked to Eugene, who informed her of his theory of me becoming the device. His excitement scared me, since he started looking at me like some kind of science experiment to dissect, so I lied and told him that it did come out, eventually, and I had flushed it.

He walked away disappointed, but Annie suspected I was lying. Well, more like she hoped I was lying since she was getting I quote, 'Tired of playing telephone'.

Gardner and I had figured out a way to communicate. I concentrated and my author contacted him, and he told Lucy what to tell Annie to tell me. I thought it was a perfect system. Annie disagreed and threatened to out me to the League that I had powers. When I asked for proof of her claim, she claimed that the last time Lucy talked to her in Annie's Sue-state, she had just 'known' through her Sue-senses. And to think, last year I had thought her Sue-state was useless. Just my luck for that to come back and haunt me.

I agreed to at least try to learn how to use my powers. Ugh. Powers. I had spent my life obeying The Rules to have a normal life and to avoid this exact situation. Then, even knowing what would happen if I went against them, I swallowed the device just to stop Stuart. Sometimes I wonder if it's the universe's way of laughing at me. The one time I try to do something right, it turns into my worst nightmare.

I don't count what happened last year as doing something heroic. I saw Nikki and Annie in pain, and had realized how to help them. Punching Stuart had just happened because I was angry at what he did, saving the world never crossed my mind. But confronting Stuart a couple weeks ago had. I knew I was back in my world, I could have just gone home and not interfered.

But I had interfered with Stuart's plan and played the hero. Now I was paying the price.

It took a couple weeks, but with Annie's help (oh, the irony. For once she was helping me with my powers) I discovered how they worked. I had to picture where I wanted to go in my mind. I just couldn't be, 'take me to Gary's', I actually had to picture his apartment in my mind and where it was roughly located in Central City. The greater the distance, the more energy was drained once I got there. Gary's place had been my first successful attempt, and I passed out once I got there. When I woke up Nikki was trying to convince Gary that I wasn't dead, just exhausted from my first deliberate attempt of using my powers. Nikki was the one who forced food down my throat, drove me home, and made me promise not to try again for a couple of days. I was happy to oblige.

I had sworn Annie to secrecy about my powers; she wasn't even allowed to tell Eugene. Gary and Nikki were different though. Nikki had her own powers and both of them understood why I wanted to be anonymous. Once your powers get out in the open, people want to use you. The government wants you, the League wants you, CEO's want you, villain's want you, and not all care about how willing you actually are to join their cause.

Todd suspected something was up, but told me I'd tell him when I was ready. It was a nice change. Stuart would have gradually worn me down until I told him, and Gardner would have joked around about what I was hiding. Todd just let me be. It was nice having a guy around who knew when I wanted to be left alone, and when I wanted to curl up next to him.

Two days after my first attempt, the second attempt went better, and I gradually was able to go longer distances. It even came in handy finals week since I had spent one late night studying for my final only to wake up five minutes before it was to begin. Sure I walked into the classroom in my pj's, but I made it on time which was the important thing. How anybody expects college students to take a final at 7:50 in the morning is beyond me.

It wasn't until after Christmas break did I finally feel brave enough to try to venture to Gardner's world. Gardner, Angela, Lucy, were having an end of the year/Christmas party at Angela's place while her parents were away. Since Lucy was going to be there, the party was going to be PG-rated. Annie had been invited, but we decided it'd be safer not to combine my first across world's trip with first passenger trip. If going solo was successful, next time I'd try to take something live along with me, like one of Eugene's new fish. Annie had balked at the idea, but I pointed out that it was better to take something easily replaceable than an actual person. She stopped complaining after that.

Before I went though, I had promised to get Angela a little something special for Christmas. Gardner and Lucy had been rather easy to shop for. Lucy had just wanted some stuff from Annie such as pictures, actual physical proof of her existence. For Gardner I got him these books covering Gotham's, Metropolis's, and Central City's history to fill in the blanks regarding what he didn't know about my world. He might not admit it, but ever since he met me he had become obsessed with everything DC-related again.

Angela was different. What she wanted was rarer, and more expensive, but I had connections. Nikki was suppose to arrive anytime with it.

Except when I go to answer the door, there was somebody else there.

The Batman. And he doesn't look too happy. Then again, when does he ever look happy?

"Can I help you with something?" I ask, pretending like it's no big deal that the Caped Crusader has shown up at my door.

He holds up a long, thin, pipe-looking device with a sphere at the end that's covered in spikes. An actual mace. Shock spreads across my face, I didn't think Nikki would be lucky enough to find another mace. I was hoping for some training weapon that the League wouldn't miss.

"Mind explaining what your sister-in-law was doing with a spare mace of Hawkgirl's?"

I feign innocence, he may have his suspicions, but I doubt Nikki would have told him the truth. "No idea, but she's not my sister-in-law yet. Bye."

I try moving past him, but he refuses to budge, and stands in the doorway blocking my exit. Our talk isn't over yet. "The League has detected several anomalies in this area over the past couple weeks."

"And?"

"And is there something you would like to share?"

"Not really. Bye."

Once again I try to get by, and once again he stops me, this time grabbing my arm. "Before I handed the device over to Waller, I went through the pieces and made an interesting discovery. There was nothing left of the programming chip, not even pieces. Care to explain?"

I sigh. I had hoped to avoid this, but he was Batman after all. He would notice that there weren't any smashed up pieces of the programming chip among the other smashed up pieces of the device.

"I'm not admitting to anything, and all this is purely hypothetical. I suppose it is possible that one may have tampered with the device and took the programming chip while Stuart wasn't looking, effecting his mode of transport across the country. I also suppose it's possible that one may have swallowed said chip to avoid its discovery. Then if said person was to be hit by a plasma gun, it's possible that their body absorbed the chip, turning them into a live version of the device."

He studies me for a bit before answering. "If that was possible, then it's also possible that Cadmus may never find out since somebody who discovered the programming chip's disappearance added in pieces of one to the device's remains."

It takes a couple seconds for what he says to sink in. A look of amazement appears on my face once it does. Not caring about keeping up with the hypothetical scenario, I reply with a simple, "Thanks."

"Be careful, and don't screw this up. If Cadmus or anybody else were to know that there was still a way to travel to the other world..."

"They'd misuse it, I know," I reply, putting emphasis on the know part. After everything I've gone through with Stuart and Eugene I know what's possible when technology falls into the wrong hands.

I don't know if that reassures him, but what he does next surprises me. He hands me the mace. "It's a spare left over from the Thangarian invasion and was in storage. Tell Angela not to kill anybody with it."

I raise an eyebrow at that and he explains. "Nikki never told me, but Angela is the only person you know who'd be crazy enough to want one."

"Why?"

It was one why, but covered a lot of questions. Why go to all that trouble just for me? Why not force me to join the League? Why actually give me the mace?

"I thought about what you said about my future... this is my way of saying 'thanks' for making me want to change it. It's a one-time thing, don't expect it to happen again."

Nikki had told me of the rumors going around the Watchtower that Batman and Wonder Woman were seeing each other, but I didn't take them seriously. Just last month there had been one claiming the relationship between Batman and Superman was more than just friends, and I knew that one certainly wasn't true.

"Congrats. When's the wedding?"

No need to worry, I haven't completely cut back on the sarcasm.

"That's none of your concern," he growls, and walks away, leaving me free to finally go to Gardner's party.

It may not have been any of my business, but what he fails to realize is that it certainly is the business of all the Batman and Wonder Woman shippers out there.

Gardner's POV

Suzy arrived a bit late to the party. We were all a bit concerned if she was actually going to show up, but once she explained what happened with Batman, everything made sense. Can't say that any of us were surprised that he managed to figure out Suzy's dirty little secret.

When Amy, her author, had first told me of Suzy gaining powers I had started laughing since I could see such a thing happening to Suzy and having her hate every bit of it.

Suzy had never met Amy face to face, and even once I properly introduced them, all she could was stare. To her credit, Amy held Suzy's gaze, and it was Suzy who eventually broke it. Awkward silence followed until Angela claimed that it was time for presents and Lucy agreed.

I don't know how, or think I want to know how Suzy managed to get a mace for Angela. Actually I wish she hadn't managed to find one since Angela will probably use it to hit me with. She already managed to break it in several times barely minutes of opening it. Lucy loved her stuff from Annie, and I actually liked what Suzy got me. Given our history, I wasn't sure what to expect. In return, Lucy and I got Suzy a Marvel hoodie to go with her t-shirt from earlier. I don't know what Angela gave her, just that it made her laugh really hard once she opened it, and she refused to tell me. When I tried to steal the box it came in, Angela whacked me over the head with mace to get me to stop. It worked. The only person left out was Amy since it was decided at the last minute to invite it. She didn't mind, and just said it was a gift to meet Suzy and know that she was insane for thinking her character was real.

After that we ate, and caught up on things. Suzy's way of communicating worked, but it was tedious, and only short messages could be passed through. I was shocked to learn that Suzy had started dating, and a gardener too. As I was laughing, Angela got back at me by revealing that Amy and I had been hanging out a lot recently.

When Amy realized the truth of everything, she also realized that we had to change my character in her story. There weren't a lot of guys named Ashley Gardner running around that were my same age, description, and had a little sister named Lucy. I was just too recognizable here, and if people started suspecting I was real, then the rest of the story would seem to be real to, and dealing with a bunch of fanboys and fangirls was not something I looked forward to. So we instead changed my character to Kimberley Fisher, older brother to Susie. Hopefully since he'll still look like me and is based on me, he won't show up in Suzy's world. Secretly I hope he does so just so I can always know there's a version of me running around there that can annoy Suzy. I'd never her tell that though, she'd use Angela's mace on me.

Suzy did look at me rather interestingly after that was revealed, and started teasing me about how for once I was seeing somebody my mother considered 'normal'.

At one point the conversation got interesting.

Suzy was explaining in detail how her powers worked when Amy asked, "Can it go elsewhere?"

Suzy and the rest of us were confused by what she meant, so she explained. "Think about it. Her world is considered fiction in ours, but still exists. Based on that, what if other world's considered fiction here exist? Like, Marvel, Harry Potter, Star Wars? Have you ever thought about eventually trying to visit those places?"

Judging by the look on her face, Suzy hadn't, but she was certainly considering it now, and had stopped looking at Amy like she was some animal at a zoo.

"I've never considered it, but you do have a point..."

Angela smiled. "I call dibs on Star Wars! I've always wanted a light saber." That was the last thing she needed.

"What about the Reality Effect?" asked Lucy, who I knew secretly wanted one as well. Along with a wand from Harry Potter and everything else she could get her hands on.

"Details," said Angela dismissively.

"What are you going to do, Suzy, travel the universe looking for Sues?" I joked.

She then smiled a smile to rival Angela's. "Why not? I'm sure there are plenty out there, and the people who have to deal with them would be rather grateful. Who knows what awesome gifts I could receive for taking care of their pests."

Of course. Suzy wouldn't go looking for Sues in order to be a hero. She'd do it for the gifts and gratitude.

Then Angela, Amy, Lucy, and Suzy all started talking about forming a Sue Task Force and patrolling the universes, and what they would do in their favorite fiction worlds. I had thought it was bad when Suzy and Angela started plotting, but I was wrong. Now my sister who's life ambition was to be Angela, and Amy, my might-be girlfriend, who had gotten so sick of dealing with Sues she made a comic parodying them, had joined them.

With those four together, who knew what mischief they could get into?

**Author's Note**

And it's officially done! I'd like to thank Loki's Son, Windona, and AidenSurvival for reviewing last chapter, along with everybody who's reviewed, favorited, subscribed to alerts for this story, or has been reading this whole time. When I first started The Trouble With Sues and then The Trouble With Worlds I was afraid that there wouldn't be an audience since it didn't revolve around the League and dealt with Sues. I'm happy that I was proved wrong. I'd also like to mention the "Legends" episode which first gave me the idea of the JLU verse being real. If a world that was fiction there could exist, who's to say they weren't consider fiction in another, but existed anyway?

Now for some notes. I've had the 'Suzy becomes the device' twist in my head for a while, especially since I didn't know how close she and Gardner would become at the time. About midpoint in the this story I realized they bickered to much as siblings, but I still liked the idea of Suzy becoming the one thing she feared the most: a superhero. I tried to keep her powers somewhat realistic, such having to gradually grow stronger before attempting to travel between worlds, and the fact that she would try to avoid joining the League. Batman would have been smart enough to realize she was hiding something, and would try to keep track of her in order to figure out what it was, and I can't believe that he at least wouldn't figure it out eventually.

I hope that makes sense, along with everything else in this chapter. The other type of Mary-Sue which I've never got time to deal with, leaving it open for Suzy to travel to other worlds, and even Amy. For the record, my name is nothing close to Amy. Giving her my name would have just been too creepy.

I don't see anymore League stories in my immediate future. The Rules, the Reality Effect, traveling between worlds, depowering the League, were all ideas that had been floating in my head for a while, and I finally got a chance to use them.

For those interested, I have started a Harry Potter story called 'Prometheus's Gift'. I love the series, but have always been bothered by the wizards lack of knowledge or concern of Muggle technology. Voldemort might have succeeded if he gave Muggle weapons a try instead of being so insistent on taking Harry Potter down himself, with a wand. Also, no amount of oblivating would be able to take down a video capturing magic off the internet. While it could be explained away as a hoax, after a while, people are going to get suspicious. The story takes place a year after the epilogue in Deathly Hallows and features a witch who's realized this, and uses Muggle technology to break into Gringotts, hi-jack the Hogwarts Express. All of that happens in the first four chapters. Updates are Thursdays.

If interested check it out, otherwise, thanks for reading, and if possible leave one last review!