A/N: Such a long break, my gosh. Finally though I'm coming back to it, and am looking forward to writing this chapter, and the following four. Yep, you read that right, there will be four more chapters after this one. One more for each of the ice villains, and all of them will take place while they're in prison, so that should be fun.
Now, since I'm writing a story that's just about Cameron's relationship with the other ice villains, I think it's high time that I have a chapter about him and his father.
I don't know if I've said it in this story yet, but I don't own Young Justice. Trust me, if I did there would be a lot more focus on the villains. I absolutely love the DC villains, especially the ones that these kind of shows don't focus on. So, uh, yeah, go villains!
Many professional criminals, especially the so called 'super villains', had a style that they liked to call their own. They used the same themes, calling cards, weapons, styles, whatever. Basically, whenever a unique crime was committed the local authority were easily able to tell who had done it, just by looking at the clues.
Joar Mahkent wasn't like most 'super criminals'. He didn't have a specific kind of heist, or even a set area that he stuck to. There was no pattern in his victims or the kind of items that he stole. The only somewhat regular thing about Joar's crimes was that he frequently used his cold gun, but that was because it was a useful weapon. He wasn't obsessed with ice, needed cold to survive, or had stinking powers like the other ice villains did. He just used his gun out of convenience, and maybe just a bit out of preference.
There was just one thing that Joar looked for when he committed a heist, and that was a score. He wasn't interested in being flashy, or threatening innocents, or even fighting caped idiots. All he was in for was the money.
Though he liked riches, Joar wasn't a hasty, low threat crook. He didn't swipe something pretty the second he saw it. No, Joar was better than that. He was a planner, and when he had a heist or crime in mind it often took months to plan properly, and sometimes it even took a few months to execute.
Joar wasn't perfect though. Sometimes even he got careless and made stupid mistakes just because of an expensive gem. Sometimes his hastiness cost him his prize, and sometimes it got him shot. Never before though, since he had started this whole super criminal thing, had a careless mistake gotten him caught.
He was beginning to think that today was the day that his luck finally ran out.
It was supposed to be an easy enough job, Joar hadn't even bothered bringing anybody else in on it. It was just him and his boy. The target had been a high quality, medium sized sapphire gemstone that was on display on some dinner cruise. Joar had heard about it, researched the kind of security they would have on a dinner cruise, and began planning.
He hadn't thought to consider that the reason the sapphire was on the ship at all was because there was some big special event going on. There were loads of rich and privileged people there for the event, so they had upped security for the night.
Joar was beating himself up for missing such an important detail. Of course they would bring on extra security. It had been an amateur move to think otherwise. Not only was there more professional security, but they were one a boat that was currently in the middle of the freaking ocean. So even though sneaking onto the ship had been simple enough, and swiping the gem had been child's play, Joar and Cameron had been stuck on the ship with nowhere to go.
Even though Joar had known this, he had still shoved the sapphire into Cameron's hands and told him to run. When it came to agility, Cameron was the faster of the two while Joar was the more physically capable one when it came to fighting. Their best bet in this would be for Joar to hold off security, giving Cameron the time to figure out how to either get out of there or ditch the gem.
That had been poor planning on Joar's part. All it had done was gotten him caught. Joar had been disarmed and locked in some small storage room. His hands were bound behind his back by handcuffs, just as an extra measure to make sure he couldn't get anywhere before the police that the security had called showed up.
Joar wasn't stupid enough to think that he could escape. There wasn't enough time or resources for that. He was screwed, and there was nothing he could do about it. The only thing he could do was hope that for once Cameron wasn't being a sentimental idiot. He had the gem, and he had his powers. If the kid was smart he would abandon ship and freeze the ocean water into a path back to shore.
Joar knew that Cameron was more than physically capable of skating back to land. Mentally though, that was an entirely different story. For reason that Joar never understood Cameron had always been the sentimental type. He was soft, weak, and it was going to get him killed one of these days. Joar knew that Cameron was capable of being a real cold hearted bastard when he set his mind to it, but for the most part the kid just didn't have the motivation.
Hopefully the prospect of being caught and sent to prison was motivation enough for Cameron tonight.
That hope was blown to pieces in an instant when not five minutes after Joar had been locked up he heard a commotion coming from outside. The voices were muffled, but Joar could make out one pathetic, almost shrill voice that he would recognize anywhere.
"Cam, you idiot." Joar glared at the storage room door as it was opened from the outside and his son was thrown inside. Cameron's arms were also bound behind his back with handcuffs, so his landing was a little on the rough side. Joar doubted his kid had even felt it though, considering he currently had his ice armor up.
Well, at least that showed that Cameron had put up at least a bit of a fight. Joar had half thought that his son would have just let himself get caught.
"You were supposed to get out of here." Joar rebuked harshly. Cameron glared at him as he struggled to sit up, which was made difficult and awkward with his hands behind his back.
"How was I supposed to know that?" Cameron asked defensively. "You just gave me the gem, you never told me what I was supposed to do with it."
"I shouldn't have had to." Joar snapped. It was usually great that his son followed his orders without question, but sometimes Joar just wished that Cameron had some initiative. That he would know to do something without having to be told. Well, it was too late to worry about that now. "At least tell me you did something with the sapphire." If they got caught and what they had stolen had gotten back to its original owner within just a few minutes, Joar knew that they would never be able to live it down.
Cameron smirked. "I took care of it, dad." For a second Joar was worried that Cameron had just tossed it into the ocean, but then the teenager turned so his back was towards his father and held out his palms towards him. His hands, like the rest of his body, were covered in ice, but Joar thought he saw a small glimmer under the surface of the ice. Joar narrowed his eyes and leaned closer.
"Is that what I think it is?" Joar didn't think it was possible. There was no way that his son, who was stupid enough to not run when he was given the chance, had actually managed to keep his hands on the priceless gem.
"Yep." Cameron said smugly. He retracted the ice that covered his skin so that his dad could see the sapphire fully for himself. With the ice gone the gem clattered to the ground, but it wasn't the only thing that did.
"My god." Joar stared in shock at the handcuffs that had literally just slipped off his son's now ice free wrists. Cameron brought his hands in front of him and just looked at them.
"Whoa." Cameron sounded even more amazed than Joar felt. "How did that happen?"
Joar couldn't help but laugh. "Cameron, you brilliant idiot."
"Cameron's eyes widened. "What? What'd I do?" He wasn't used to seeing his father look pleased, especially not with him.
"You had your ice up when they put those handcuffs on." Joar said, still chuckling slightly. "You have thick layers of ice on your skin, so when you took the ice away, the handcuffs were too big to fit around your scrawny wrists." It was kind of sad how he had to explain that at all.
"Oh." Cameron looked pleased with himself at having done something worthwhile, even if it had been by accident. "That's cool."
"Alright, kid, we've gotta move quickly." They didn't have a lot of time, but now that Cameron was free to move around as he pleased Joar was beginning to think that his idea might actually work. "There should be two guards just outside the door. Think you can freeze them?" He just assumed that there were guys out there. There was no say that the security guards would be stupid enough to leave them on their own.
"Uh, I guess so." Cameron didn't look too confident, but he never refused his dad's orders, even when he wasn't sure they would work. Cameron got to his feet and went over to the door. He thought for a second before turning slightly and knocking over a pile of stacked boxes. The boxes clattered loudly when they hit the ground.
There was a knock on the door from the outside. "Quiet in there, cons."
"Somebody thinks they're a prison guard" Joar muttered. He nodded at Cameron who took a deep breath and crouched to the ground. Cameron placed his hands flat on the ground right near the small gap between the floor and the door. Almost immediately a shot of ice came from his finger tips. There were two cries of alarm and pain from the outside, but they were quickly muffled.
"Not bad, Cam." Joar acknowledged. Cameron smirked slightly and relaxed the smallest bit. "Now you need to freeze the lock on the door off."
"Got it." Cameron said with more confidence than before. Busting locks was a lot easier to do than freezing people on the other side of the door. Cameron ice blasted the the lock and gave it a few good hits. It didn't quite work all the way, so Cameron froze the lock once again before continuing to hit it, and just like that the lock gave away. They were free...almost.
Cameron turned back towards Joar. "Come on, dad." But Joar had already started shaking his head.
"It'll never work." He said plainly. "I won't be able to get anywhere fast with this cuffs on."
"Then I'll just freeze them off." Cameron said as if it was obvious.
"You can't." Joar snapped. "You'll take too long and by the time you get them off it'll be too late." Joar had mentally been keeping track of the time and he knew they had just a couple of minutes before the cops arrived. Cameron would take care in freezing off the handcuffs, because he would want to be sure to not freeze Joar's skin instead. He would take way too long and they would just miss their window of opportunity. There was no other way. "You know what you have to do."
"I'm not leaving you, dad." Joar ignored the way his son's voice cracked.
"You're going to have to." Joar looked his son in the eyes. "You have no other choice, Cameron. We both know you wouldn't last a day in prison, so get out while you can."
"But what about you?" Cameron's voice was soft and vulnerable.
"I've been to prison before, boy." Joar growled. "I know how to take care of myself." Joar wasn't worried about going to prison. He knew he would be sent off to Belle Reve, that was where all 'super criminals' went. Well, there or Arkham.
Joar may have never been incarcerated at Belle Reve before, but he had a pretty good idea of how things worked there. Like in most prisons there would be a capo, a big boss that basically ran the place. There were also the Omega villains who were seen as jokes by most everybody else, people like Riddler. In most prisons your first go there would get you the automatic status of Omega and then you had to move your way up the ranks.
Belle Reve was different. Before a villain even sets foot on the premises they practically already have their prison status, which is based on their threat level as a villain. Joar knew he was one of the higher ranking villains, so he wouldn't be given much trouble at Belle Reve.
Besides, Joar already had a plan in mind to boost his ranking even more. He had the feeling that he would do just fine in prison, at least until he came up with a break out plan.
Cameron on the other hand was an entirely different matter.
The kid was only fifteen, and even though he was technically a super villain he was a low threat one. Chances were Cameron would be sent to juvie with the other wannabes. Precautions would probably be taken, and Cameron would be forced to wear one of those inhibitor collars that they used at Belle Reve. He wouldn't have use of his powers, and would be torn to pieces within minutes because of it.
There weren't all that many younger meta-humans, especially not ones who were criminals. To Joar's knowledge, Cameron was the only one. Even though he was scrawny and would be unable to use his powers, the other kids at juvie would see him as a threat anyways, and they would give him hell for it.
If Cameron got arrested today, he wasn't going to make it out of juvie alive.
"Cam, I'm serious, you have to get out of here." Joar said harshly.
"But-" Cameron looked panicked.
"Now, Cam!" Joar wasn't about to let his kid get arrested. He knew it was going to happen eventually, but he was going to stall it for as long as he could.
Cameron looked absolutely miserable. He stared at his dad with a pleading expression, but Joar wasn't budging on this. Finally Cameron sighed and looked at the floor. "What will I do?"
"Take the gem and get back to shore." Now that Cameron was cooperating with him, Joar's voice had taken on a somewhat softer tone. He lowered his voice even more at his next words, because he didn't want the guards outside to hear. "Sell the sapphire, get as much as you can for it as quickly as possible, and then find a way to Central City. Snart would probably be willing to keep an eye on you for a bit." That man already had two brats on his team, and a third, a hero no less, that he had a soft spot for. Joar had no doubt that Leonard Snart would keep Cameron out of trouble, at least for a bit.
"Okay." Cameron nodded his head. He still looked unsure and upset, but at least he was listening. Cameron approached his father and after hesitating for a moment embraced him. Joar scowled at the gesture and didn't return the embrace, but he didn't pull away like he normally did. In his head he just cursed the fact that Cameron was just too damn sentimental for his own good.
Joar gave his kid a minute before clearing his threat. "Come on, Cam, you gotta get out of here."
"Yeah, okay." Cameron took in a deep breath to calm himself. He picked up the gemstone that was still on the floor and put it in his pocket. "I'll see you later, dad." And without another word, without even another look back, Cameron ran out of there before you could change his mind. Joar breathed a sigh of relief when he was gone. He knew that Cameron was going to be okay.
While Joar was extremely rough around the edges, he did have a soft spot for three things: Money, power, and his son. Joar didn't show his affection very often, but he did care about his kid. That scrawny teenager was the only thing Joar had left of his wife, and he wasn't about to lose him too.
Despite his constant hesitation, Cameron was a resourceful kid when the situation called for it. Joar knew that he was going to be okay, especially with Snart's help. Cold knew how to look after his own, and had always liked Cameron.
Joar knew that Cameron would get to Central City just fine with little to no trouble from the cops. Whether he had the sapphire or not, nobody would pay any attention to him. No cop would want to go after Icicle Junior when they had Icicle in their grasp.
This was probably the one good thing about Cameron's status as a low threat villain. As long as there was somebody more threatening around, Cameron was safe.
And right now, for as long as Joar wasn't able to be right there to keep an eye on his kid, safe was all he wanted. Joar may want more from Cameron when it came to his confidence and ruthlessness, but Cam couldn't get any better if he was dead. So even though playing it safe wasn't really the kind of thing that Joar normally did, if it kept Cam alive for a few more years, just until he could grow out of this soft, scared phase of his, maybe he could give it a try.
A/N: It's official, I'm way too sympathetic towards the villains. I'm almost worried that I didn't make Joar rough and, well, villainous enough. This guy is seriously hard to write, I should have known this from my previous story about Cameron. It's hard to balance the fatherly and villainous sides that I see in him.
Next chapter will be back to Crystal.