Winter's Ballad: Growth & Love

by Cinderella Girl626

All her life Samantha Freya has quietly followed the instructions of those above her. But when the world gives her the chance to be the leader of her own life, will the poise sidekick of Ice Maiden, Winter, break out of her pod of obedience and listen to her own wants? Perhaps, if she gets some help along the way. -Sort of Back-

6. A Lesson to be Learned

Hello again! Hope everyone is enjoying the new year and getting things done. Here we are in another chapter. Sorry, this took so long to get out, and especially since it doesn't exactly start up the whole "team" thing yet. I wanted to get to that and make this chapter shorter, but the way I was writing it I felt it needed to go a little more. Not to mention that Winter session pretty much took all my time to write and replaced it with school. I was even close to updating an exact month from the last chapter, but no time. TAT

But I got it out now! I promise that the next chapter will have the Team meet up and interact in Happy Harbor. I've been itching to get to the plot. XD

So last we left off the sidekicks had finally gotten out of Cadmus and went up against their own mentors to prove themselves. Thanks to their bravery and determination Batman has decided to give the group three days to think about the idea and now they've got to wait. Superboy, with nowhere to go or stay, has been taken into the home of Winter for the time being. Though there have been some awkward moments and Superboy is still having trouble adjusting to his new life, perhaps a day out in the world like a normal person will help to teach him how society and things work.

Or at least that's the plan.

Please if you can, review the story and leave a comment. It's always good for writers to hear how they are doing and knowing whether or not people are liking or enjoying their work. Not to mention it is a good motivator when they see a happy comment or two. ;3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Young Justice. That right belongs to DC Comics.

---

-Freya Mansion

Star City, July 6th, 2010 8:00 A.M. PDT-

A white ceiling. It was all Superboy had been staring at since he woke up that morning. He wasn't used to waking up and looking at anything other than metal and machinery like his pod at Cadmus, so when it came time for him to open his eyes to the brand new day of officially being free from his glass prison, the dark haired boy didn't quite know what to do.

He could at least say that his sleep was not as uncomfortable as he had thought. Originally sleeping in the closet in the room, Superboy had changed to taking his rest on the bed provided in the room by the suggestion of Winter...or rather Samantha as she wanted to be called. And she hadn't been wrong. While Superboy had missed the comfort and normalcy of sleeping upright on his feet like his pod had given him all his life, the soft bed sheets and mattress beneath his back didn't make his sleep an entirely bad experience. With enough time he thought he could get used to the feeling.

However, he would have liked some instruction on what he was supposed to do after getting up from bed.

'Do I just lay here? Wait for someone to get me?' Superboy thought, his blue eyes blinking at the same patch of ceiling he'd stared at that morning. 'Samantha said she would come and wake me up. So what if I'm already awake? What do I do?'

Unsure of what exactly to do with his early morning, Superboy sat up on his bed and scratched the back of his head complacently. He could always leave the room on his own. He was his own person now, though he still had a bit of trouble figuring out what it was he could and could not do. Samantha had been clear that there were things he needed to learn to fit into society and Cadmus had seemed to lack giving him any lessons about manners or social interactions.

Moving off the bed and landing on the floor feet first, Superboy stretched his body and cracked his neck, doing his best to stretch out his muscles. He was still a little sore from the battle against Blockbuster, but any wounds he had received from the battle had nearly disappeared already from what he could tell. Looking around the room again to get a better sense of where he was, Superboy made his way to the room doors and opened them. Walking outside into the hallway, the blue eyed super teen closed his room door behind him, the shutting of the door echoing throughout the hallway.

Eyebrow raised at the sign of no life in the empty hallway, Superboy headed down the hallway to the direction of Samantha's room, remembering back to when she had pointed it out to him the night before.

After a short walk, and almost getting somewhat lost on the way, Superboy could see the door of Samantha's room in the distance. Making his towards it, the dark haired teen noticed a significant amount of cold chills beginning to run down his spine. Had the temperature dropped in the last few steps he took?

Finally finding his way to Samanthas' room doors Superboy noticed the doors of the room were open, a sliver of her room just peeking out from the crack between the doors. Curiosity taking hold of his thoughts, Superboy reached and grabbed the door handle, his hand twitching at the icy cold feeling, but kept his hand wrapped around the metal. Slowly opening it and keeping quiet, the muscled teen peeked his head inside to find the brunette, and find the cause of the cold.

A small gust of icy cold wind was the first thing Superboy took notice of. Snowflakes floating in the air and dropping onto his face, the dark haired teen slowly took a quiet step inside, being sure not to make any noise as he entered.

At the drop of a dime the decorated bedroom he walked into suddenly dropped to what felt like near freezing temperature. Quietly making his way in unannounced and closing the door behind him, Superboy watched the gasps of air he took freeze and come out as tiny clouds of foggy breath in the room, signifying the room truly was as cold as he thought. It made sense with the hallway feeling colder than before and the sting of the doorknob earlier.

His eyes scanning the items in the room, the blue orbs finally spotted the person he was looking for, though it did not look like she had noticed him open the door.

Sitting crossed legged on the white tile floor and still dressed in her matching white nightgown was the form of Samantha Freya giving no sign of being fazed by the ice or chill of the room. Her hair the familiar snow white color he'd seen back at Cadmus, Superboy scanned the area where she sat and noticed a small group of weapons lined up on the floor next to her. From small weapons like needles and daggers to larger projectiles like arrows and shuriken, each one looked exactly like it was supposed to be at first glance, but at the same time, they didn't. Their color had not looked like anything he remembered from the Genomorphs lessons.

'Are those all made of ice?' Superboy thought, his eyes looking at each weapon with interest. He remembered for a moment back when they had been at Cadmus. Nearly falling to their deaths in the elevator shaft, the ice user had stopped their descent by making a sword made of ice and using it to slow their fall and save them. He'd been too busy thinking about his lack of flight to notice it before, but seeing the weapons on the floor next to Samantha made his memory flood back with interest and curiosity.

Superboy's intuition was only confirmed further when he noticed Samantha begin to use her powers.

Her eyes engrossed in a weathered book on the floor in front of her, she took an icy breath before outstretching her arm to her right-hand side and continued to even her breathing. Her fingers clutching nothing but air, a soft glow began to appear in the space of her palm. It was small, no bigger than a grain of rice just floating in her hand and glowing a light blue light.

Suddenly a slow gust of wind began to form in the room, slowly swirling around the tiny ball of energy floating in the palm of Samanthas' hand. Specks of ice floating in the air followed the pull of the gusting wind, swirling around the small ball of energy in the ice users hand before merging together slowly. The glow built up with each speck of ice, the energy taking shape bit by bit into what the ice user was trying to imagine and caused the dark room to light up with the same blue color as the fist-sized orb of energy.

With one final grunt of concentration from the ice user, the light finally stopped its growth and form, as if time itself dictated it stop. A sudden burst of light exploding, snow burst off the light in a flurry of snowflakes and fell to the tile floor. Her eyes still gazing at her hand, the orb was no longer there, but rather a newly forged weapon sat there. It was a rapier sword but held a familiar appearance like other weapons sitting next to Samantha. The blade itself was four feet long, thin in structure but looked sharp enough that it could easily stab through flesh like any real sword. Like the previous weapons, it was blue in color and made of pure ice, noticeable by the chilling fog coming off the blade.

The hilt of the sword curved neatly around Samanthas' hand, made exactly to guard herself if she were to use it in battle and matching the exact picture in the book she was focused on previously. Running a finger along the cold blade of the hilt, the dawning sunlight from the window peeked in and shone through the sturdy ice, showing off the sharpness of the creation yet giving it a mysterious beauty that made the mind go blank.

"No. This isn't right either." Samantha said to herself, aggravation and a hint of uncertainty in her voice as she traced out the edge of the blade and held the sword up high to inspect it from a different angle. Getting up from her seat on the floor and moving her hand up and down to feel the weight of the weapon in her hand, Samantha swung the weapon in the air a few times to try and get a feel for it. "This can't be the best I can do."

"I think it looks fine," Superboy replied from his spot in the doorway, making his presence known as he watched Samantha work.

"Wha!?" Her heart nearly exploding at the sudden intrusion of Superboy, the ice user dropped the sword and let it clatter to the floor.

Thankfully it had been stronger than it looked given it didn't shatter into ice cubes.

Turning to see who it was that had interrupted to her practice, Samantha froze in place as her lone icy blue eye stared back at the dark blue of Superboy. "S-Superboy? D-Don't sneak up on me like that. You scared me."

"I didn't mean to. I got up before you came to wake me up, so I decided to come by and saw you doing whatever it is your doing." Superboy explained, rubbing the back of his neck and pointed to the crafted ice weapons on the floor.

Following his direction to the weapons she had created, Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "This isn't anything special. I'm just practicing my ice crafting."

"Ice crafting?" Superboy asked, not understanding the term.

"It's something I sort of made up. Just freezing stuff and throwing ice at villains can only get me so far in a battle, so I thought trying out weapons would help me better my skills and widen the amount of damage I could do in a fight. So I develop weapons out of my own ice." Samantha explained, her gaze looking to the rapier that was on the floor and bent down to pick it up. "It's helped me so far as a hero, but not all of them turn out the way I want them."

"Like that one? It looks okay. What's wrong with it?" Superboy asked, his eyes turning down to look at the ice weapon.

"Yeah to the naked eye, but I can tell it's not up to par. This type of weapon is thin and made for precise stabbing moves, but I wanted to enhance it with more ice so I could use it to cut through weak metals, like armor or suits. This won't get through a brick wall, let alone one made of metal. Its makeup just isn't strong enough and the weight is too light. It would shatter with a punch from somebody strong enough." Samantha voiced, a frown growing on her face at each inconsistency she listed.

"Oh," Superboy replied, his gaze on the white haired girl. He didn't know what else to say to the explanation she had given. What else could he say? It seemed like she knew more about her ice crafting than he did after all. Taking notice of the strands of pure white hair resting on her shoulder, Superboy felt the urge to ask. "Your hair is white again."

Once again subject to a blunt statement by the super teen, Samantha chuckled a bit and placed the rapier on the ground with the other weapons. "Uh yeah. It's a side effect of my powers. Changes my hair color and eyes to weird colors, but it is a good way to keep my identity a secret. It'll change back in a little while, though.

"Why? Does it bother you my traits keep switching back and forth?" Samantha asked, combing a hand through her white locks in a calming fashion.

"Not really, but I prefer your white hair more. It looks better."

He'd never had much of an opinion about anything since he'd gotten out of Cadmus, much less about a person's appearance. The changing of traits wasn't a bother like Samantha had joked to Superboy at all, but for some reason, he had a bit more of an interest in her appearance as a hero Maybe it was because he had seen her that way first that he felt more comfortable with her looking that way.

Feeling her face heat up at the comment, Samantha couldn't help but clutch at the white strands in her hand, trying to keep the beating in her chest in check. She'd been complimented before by various people, whether it be from her fathers' parties or by tutors for her practice in academics or training from Ice Maiden. However, it was rare any of them got to her. She always knew when someone was giving a compliment to get on her good side, whether it be to try and get on her fathers' good side or try and hit on her. She knew how to shoo them away with not much effort or ignore them.

This one in no way gave her that vibe she'd been accustomed to. One that told her it had no truth to it. And that was what was making her heart jump. Superboys' comment, as simple and bluntly as he had said it, was truthful. And he wasn't even trying to compliment her. He was just being his blunt honest self.

For a guy who did not know how to talk to people, he sure knew how to mess with a girls heart.

A flush of pink on her cheeks and a small smile on her face, all the white haired teen could speak out was a quiet, "Um...thank you."

---

Breakfast was a Godsend in Samanthas' opinion. After the long day she had yesterday trying to be a real superhero and the extremely early morning she had after, she was just glad to have a moment of peace and calm. Her morning had already been a busy one with activities and check ups done hours before. Her eye had been healed by her father, the miracle thanks to his wide knowledge of the human anatomy and his genetics work to create a fast healing medicine for her. It was a risk to try it, but the result had healed any serious damage that could have been done to her left eye, with only a scar down her eye socket to remind her of the close call. Along with a check up on her body and the usual shot of medicine her father gave her monthly to empower her immune system, it was a normal "doctor's" appointment.

Practice had also been taken care of, her ice craft getting better bit by bit after she went another round, Superboy sitting in to watch and have some company. The struggles to better her creations were still evident, case in point by the newly made rapier she had tried out for the first time that morning. She wasn't trying to be perfect, but it still irritated the ice user that she hadn't gotten it on her first try. However, she knew that there was a chance to improve, and thankfully she had some time until Batman responded to the team. Perhaps by then, she'd have the rapier ice weapon down and ready for whatever the dark knight threw at them. Both her and Superboy.

'Speaking of Superboy.'

Sitting at the table across from the dark haired teen, the ice user took a sip of her tea and let her eyes slowly move in the direction of her company, watching him scarf down the freshly made pancakes Reginald had made. Samantha so far thought things were going well, at least from her perspective of helping him adjust to society. From what she could tell and what they talked a little about during her morning training Cadmus had taught Superboy the most basic of things from language, mathematics, history throughout the world, science, and just about everything he would need to know in terms of common knowledge.

But with all the knowledge he had, not having any experience of using it in the real world was the largest of problems.

'Such as manners and knowing when to knock.' She thought, taking a bite of her pancakes and licking a bit of whipped cream off her lips. The awkward situation the night before was still stuck in her mind that morning, and even more so when she had tried to sleep. Her memories flashed back and forth to everything that had happened like the receding waves of the ocean, from the sculpted muscled form of Superboy after undressing to their good night exchange. At moments she thought her mind had finally been over everything, but just a thought about it had made it rush back to her with full force.

She'd never been with a boy alone her age, at least not without being surrounded by adults at one of her father's parties and having to let everything they say about themselves fly out the other ear. Superboy, on the other hand, wasn't any of those boring guys she was made to listen to or talk to. He didn't do anything she didn't like, or at least not on purpose, was blunt but honest, and was interesting to talk to and be around.

'Is that why I can't stop thinking about last night? Or why my heart feels like its going to implode five times over?' Samantha asked herself, uncertainty sweeping within her thoughts.

"Hey Samantha, you okay?" Superboy asked, breaking the silence in the room.

Her thoughts halting at the sound of Superboys' voice, Samantha stared back to her guest with an eyebrow raised. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Your face is red. And you keep staring at me." Superboy answered, using his fork to iterate his observation by pointing to the girls' face.

Oh, God. Had she been staring at Superboy this entire time without noticing it?! And her face was red too?! Panic encasing her being, the white-haired heroine focused on calming her nerves and not jump out of her seat from mortification. She had to come up with something to try and make it sound like it was all a coincidence.

"I-I'm fine Superboy. My cheeks are probably flushed from the tea. It's hot and I may have drunk too much." Samantha responded, delving into her early morning wit to hide her mistake. "And the staring? I...was just wondering if you were enjoying your food. Obviously, it is still a bit new for you to adjust to all of this since you've never had a real meal before. I'd like your first experience of having a breakfast to be pleasant."

Her explanation given and pleasant poker face on to mask her real reasons behind her actions, Superboy nodded to signal he understood. Taking another bite of his pancakes, Superboy swallowed and answered. "Well don't worry. The food's good."

Resisting the urge to pump a fist beneath the table in triumph, Samantha simply smiled back to Superboy. 'Nailed it.'

Thankful the crisis had been averted and she wasn't caught in her lie, Samantha finished the rest of her breakfast and opted to shift her gaze to the city outside the window, letting her thoughts wander to the free time that filled their schedule. She and Superboy needed to kill time until Batman called them, but she couldn't just keep him cooped up in the mansion all day. It was already hard enough avoiding more awkward situations in the house alone and the heroine didn't know how much more she could take just sitting around and practicing her powers all day. Whether or not she had gotten out of a crazy near death mission just a day ago, that didn't mean she wanted to be resting on her butt all day.

'The whole point of helping Superboy get out of Cadmus was so he could make decisions on his own. Have a life. He can't learn how to do that stuck here of all places, and I'm not having any fun waiting either. There has to be something we could do. An activity? Or a place we could visit? At least so Superboy can learn more about living a normal life outside of being a superhero.' Samantha thought, her mind trying to come up with activities to kill time.

Her eyes looking back to the boy across from the table, she scanned him over in an attempt to find something that would spark an idea. He seemed bored most of the time. Just sitting around the house in his pajamas. . . .

Now that she had thought about it, Superboy would need a wardrobe for his new life he'd be having, and if there were any place kids their age liked to go for both shopping and socializing it would be the mall. It was the perfect place. Superboy could get some clothes, she could teach him how to act around normal civilians, she'd get out of the house, and they'd kill some time. It was a win-win-win situation.

Smiling to herself at the plan Samantha looked back to Superboy to get his attention, taking her tea cup and drinking a bit of the warm liquid before talking in a playful tone. "Say Superboy? Did Cadmus ever teach you what a mall is?"

---

-Star City Mall

Star City, July 6th 11:00 A.M. PDT-

"Ah. It's so good to be out of that house." Samantha spoke, a happy smile on her face as she stretched her arms out and let the rays of sunlight warm her face. Dressed for the weather and keeping with the fashion of the summer heat just coming out to play, Samantha wore a casual white sundress and brown strap sandals. A simple silver chained necklace sporting a snowflake around her neck, small purse on her shoulder, and her brunette hair tied in a simple braid resting on her shoulder and a matching white bow clipped in her hair, the disguised heroine was ready for the "expedition" that was about to take place.

"The clothes aren't too uncomfortable for you are they Superboy?" Samantha whispered next to the taller boy, standing beside him as she watched him fidget with the collar of the shirt she and Reginald helped to pick out for the super clone.

Before the two had time to even plan to go out, her family servant had suggested it be best to find Superboy something more...realistic to wear outside to the mall than just pajamas. Unfortunately with nobody but herself, Reginald, and her father living in the large home they had to make due with what they had. As a result, Superboy now stood beside the petite brunette wearing a slightly large button up white collar dress shirt, a black jacket worn over it along with larger than what he needed slacks, and worn dress shoes.

"These clothes are stuffy. You dad didn't have anything else?" Superboy answered back, the black haired teen fidgeting with a button tightening his collar.

"Sorry, but this is all we had. They may be a little big, but you won't have to wear them long. Once we're inside and find you some clothes you can change right into them." Samantha reassured her companion, smiling as she continued to watch Superboys' attempts at fixing the collar. "I'll get the button for you. Hold still."

Moving in a little closer to Superboy and reaching up to the collar of the used shirt, the smaller digits of the heiress grasped onto the soft fabric of the shirt and began their work to help loosen the article of clothing. Getting absorbed in the task, the ice user couldn't help but let her eyes wander at the form of Superboy.

The clothes didn't exactly fit the person underneath both physically and in terms of style, but Samantha noticed the subtle ways Superboys' form helped to fill out the old suit. From his tall physique, broad shoulders, and the muscles that were underneath, he really did make it look good despite the obvious size difference. To be honest the young Freya never liked her fathers' suits. They were always dreary in color, made only for business, and she'd seen them so many times when in the house or out at functions. However Superboy made it look new and fresh, and this time didn't feel like her eyes were strained by looking at it. What was that saying? It's the man that makes the suit?

'Now if you were wearing a suit in your own size, I'm sure you'd be beating girls off with a stick.' Samantha joked in her head, smiling a bit as she unhooked the necessary buttons on Superboys' collar and stepped back to check out Superboy.

"Is that any better?" Samantha asked looking up to her companion for any sign of a mistake on her part.

Moving his neck around to get a feel for the newfound maneuverability from the buttons being opened, Superboy shook his head and sighed. "Yeah, it is. I can't wait to get out of this thing."

Unable to hold in the laugh at Superboys' comment, the brunette smiled. "Don't worry. You'll be out of that thing in no time. Just stick by me and I'll show you around the mall. I promise it'll be the best experience you've ever had." She spoke with confidence.

Walking alongside Samantha through the front doors of the mall, Superboys' eyes scanned the large structure within and stopped to spot every inch of the building he stepped into. At every hall and corner, there was some sort of entrance to a store or establishment, each one different than the last. Clothing, books, perfume, electronics. People of varying ages walked in and out of any of those stores and more, their hands filled with bags or holding a trinket of some kind that the clone had never seen.

And noises. There was so much noise and different smells he was taking in. His sense seemed like they were on overload with the amount he was being assaulted with. The straying conversations of people just passing by him, from far off in the escalators or second floor, and even the smells of the food court on the other side of the building. He was catching it all in the small space.

Unsure of how to go about being in the new territory, Superboy turned to the younger heiress. "Is it always this loud? And smell like oil?"

"Loud is something that kind of happens in malls. The voices keep reverberating around the walls so it does kind of echo in here sometimes." Samantha replied, a bit confused to Superboys' inquiries. She guessed it was because he'd never actually been inside a mall before, but to ask about noise and smell? She thought the questions would be about the stores or why so many people come to a mall in the first place. "But the smell? To be honest I don't smell anything like that. Maybe your sense-"

Wait! Stronger senses! That's what Samantha was forgetting. That's why he was asking about the smell and noises.

Feeling like such an idiot for forgetting something so obvious, the brunette face palmed and shook her head. "Oh yeah. Sorry, you do smell something. It's probably the oil that the cooks are using at the food court here, but don't worry about it. The smell of oil may not be so great at first, but the food is fantastic, nearly as great as pancakes. I'll take you to try some after we get you some clothes." She joked, nudging the taller boys' shoulder in a playful gesture.

"But before that is clothes. And the first thing we're getting is...shoes? Aww." Samantha muttered with a frown, her eyes shifting to the closest store in their vicinity. "I guess we're starting with the most boring part of clothes shopping."

Eyebrow raised at the comment, Superboy looked over to the store Winter was looking at, the display sign calling it "Shoes Galore". He wasn't sure what the shorter teen was commenting on. From what Superboy could see from the outside t looked like a normal boring storefront advertising just what they sold. Even his x-ray vision had revealed nothing but racks of colorful shoes and different designs inside. What was he not understanding? "What's so bad about shopping for shoes?"

Hearing the innocent question from Superboy, Samantha shook her head and frowned. The poor boy didn't know what it was he was about to get into.

"Trust me. You'll understand once we start."

---

When Superboy had heard Samantha say he would understand once they got inside, he didn't quite believe or get what she had meant. But after sitting in the same chair for about an hour and being asked what sounded like the same questions over and over about shoes, Superboy started to understand what she was talking about.

What was his shoe size? Did he like a specific design? What type of shoes was he looking for? What would they be used for?

'It's not like we can say I need the shoes to fight criminals.' Superboy thought, his eyes gazing to the boots he was wearing on his feet. He had tried on about four different pairs of shoes so far, each one not being what he wanted. They didn't feel right to him and he could feel they wouldn't hold with the strength he'd use in a fight. However the boots he was wearing felt different.

Sitting in the chair next to him and watching her friend inspect the shoes he wore, Samantha rested her chin in her hand and looked at the brown boots. "So how about these? You think you can fight in them?"

"Can we test them?" Superboy asked, looking while asking.

"Uhh...I don't think we can. But from what I can tell they will, and they look the best on you than everything I've seen. If you want we can come back to this later? Go and find clothes first? This seems to be taking way too long and I think we're both getting bored." Samantha suggested with a tired look on her face.

Hearing the suggestion and staring down at the brown boots he wore on his feet, Superboy gave no indication of what he wanted to do at first. Although when he stood up from his seat and grabbed the borrowed par of shoes form Samanthas' father, Superboy motioned for Samantha to get up.

"I'll get these. I like em." Superboy finally answered, moving his feet around to get a better feel of the boots.

Out of her seat and taking the old pair of shoes from Superboy, Samantha nodded and walked with him to the cash register. "That's great. It may have taken a bit longer than we wanted, but I'm glad we found something you like." Walking up to the cash register and speaking with the attendant for a moment, Samantha pulled out a credit card and handed it over to pay for the shoes. "Now all we need is to get you some clothes. It'll be a much more fun experience. At least better than shopping for shoes."

"As long as it doesn't take forever," Superboy replied, watching Samantha go through the transaction process and sign her name on a receipt and head out of the store with her.

"Is it really okay that your dad is paying for all of this?" Superboy asked, his memories focused on the credit card his companion flashed and paid with. While Superboy had no money to his name, he was still unsure of simply letting Samantha and her family just take care of his problems.

Noticing the skepticism in his voice, Samantha nodded to Superboy. "There's no need to worry. I talked with my dad before he left. He said he'd pay for everything just as long as it was only things you needed and I was using the funds properly. I won't waste money on things I don't need, so we can get everything you need without a problem."

Although not much emotion showed on his face, his eyes widened a fraction at the response Samantha gave him. Giving a small smile and nodding, Superboy picked up his pace to follow the brunette. His life was already changed forever after the incident with Cadmus, and with no real contact from Superman, since he'd arrived, he was glad to know there was somebody there to help him, if only for a bit.

The next stop, a clothing store a couple feet away, the two walked side by side inside and headed straight towards the make section of the store. Thankful that jeans were just in their vicinity, Samantha was able to pick up a pair that was Superboys' size and decided to head to their next destination for clothing to get an outfit put together. Racks littered with clothing from shirts, tank tops, and other varieties of male clothing found after a bit of searching, Samantha placed a finger on her chin and stared at the options in front of them.

"Hm? Where do we get started? I'm used to being able to shop for myself, but this is new territory for me. Is there anything that catches your eye Superboy?" Samantha spoke quietly, being sure she did not talk loud enough for any bystander to hear.

She waited, a bit unsure if Superboy was still looking around to find something. It was only after five minutes that she turned to her right to look at the silent boy, her eyes widening in shock when she saw no sign of the taller boy.

"S-Superboy?" Samantha whispered, hoping her whisper would carry tot he ears of the boy. Unfortunately, there was no signal or sign of him, making the brunette frown in worry. When had he run off on his own?

'Where did he go?' Samantha though, turning around and walking at a fast pace to search through the clothing department. She hadn't known where to start first, but it was better than standing around and hoping he'd pop back up next to her. She would call him, but yelling out his codename would be a bad idea.

'We really need to get him a normal name to call him by.' Samantha thought, turning around a corner of a clothing display and walking into another portion of clothes for men.

Moving to a rack of clothes, Samantha felt her shoulder slump with relief when she spotted the familiar figure of Superboy at a display of shirts. Rushing over to his side, Samantha sighed in relief before poking his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey. Where did you go? You just disappeared on me without a word. I couldn't find or call out to you."

The silence was the only answer she was given. His eyes preoccupied with something he had with him, Superboy gave no indication that he had heard or listened to what Samantha had said. Still standing in the same place, Superboy kept his eyes on something in his hands.

"Superboy?" Samantha called, hoping for some reaction, but got nothing. Frowning at being forgotten for some unknown reason, Samantha walked over next to Superboy and opened her mouth ready to complain about being ignored by the taller boy. That was until she looked down to see what had all of his attention.

It...was a shirt.

At least that was what Samantha would describe it as at first glance. However, at closer inspection, she saw what it was that made it so alluring to the dark-haired teen. A simple t-shirt with no major designs or flashy appearances, the shirt was pure black and looked to be a bit too small for the teen, however, she did not think he noticed that too much. At the center of it and largely printed in red was a symbol that both teens were all too familiar with.

Dead center was the familiar symbol of Superman, his signature "S" and diamond shaped motif plastered on the shirt and keeping the gaze of Superboy all to itself.

She'd seen those types of shirts many times. Since the rise of super heroes, clothing stores had decided it'd be fun to sell shirts with the symbols of famous heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the likes of the Justice League.

Realizing the significance of the shirt and understanding just a little at why Superboy hadn't answered, Samantha looked at the shirt until she moved her gaze back up to the face of her friend. There was no telling what was going on in his mind in that moment, but she was definitely sure they all had to do with his father.

Or was that the right thing to call him after the way he treated Superboy earlier? Or rather the lack of treatment? The ice user hated herself for thinking about this still, but her conscious just wouldn't let it go. Superman had ignored Superboy, even after all the trouble it had been to help him escape Cadmus. He wasn't even trying to do anything evil once getting out. He just wanted to see Superman. Talk to him. And he ignored him and flew off. He hadn't even tried to contact him since.

"Superboy," Samantha began, hoping her words were getting through to him. "Are you okay?"

No verbal answer was given to show if Superboy had heard her, but the subtle narrowing of his eyes and frown told Samantha that he had heard her. Still, he said nothing, only continuing to look at the blood red symbol on the clothing he held in his hands.

No answer spoken, Samantha frowned and stared at the symbol that preoccupied the boys' mind. 'What could he be thinking about? Where Superman is? Why he hasn't contacted him? Why he ignored him the night back at Cadmus?'

Samantha remembered the night before when they talked to each other. Superboy had asked her about Superman. If he knew where he was. She couldn't give him a truthful answer, but she answered that he had to know.

It had to be hard. Feeling lost and wondering if your own father wondered about you. Superboy had to be going through some sort of internal crisis.

Letting the silence take over their space for a few moments to let Superboy have his time with his thoughts a few moments longer, Samantha stared at the shirt in her companion's hands and looked over to the display holding the various hero symbol shirts. Going towards the display and looking through them, her gaze finally spotted the space where the Superman shirts were and looked through them until finding a good amount of them in the size Superboy actually needed.

Taking one off the shelf and moving back to stand in front of Superboy, Samantha moved her hand out and grabbed onto the smaller sized shirt in Superboys' hands, pulling it out of his hands.

Suddenly feeling the cloth shirt leave his hands, Superboys' eyes widened as he looked up as if he had woken up from a dream. Remembering where he was and seeing his hands now clutching empty air, Superboy stared back at Samantha, who seemed to have suddenly appeared from nowhere. "W-What'd you say?"

Smiling at his realization that he had ignored her, Samantha shook her head and put the smaller shirt back on the shelf. "Nothing important. Now we're here to shop for you remember? If you're going to pick out a shirt for yourself, you might want to make sure it's your size." Samantha joked softly.

"Here. I think this one will fit you much better." Samantha said, pulling out the larger shirt she had grabbed for Superboy and resting the cloth in his hands.

Grabbing onto the familiar feeling cloth, Superboy stared down at the larger shirt he had been looking at previously, his gaze back on the symbol of his father. He says nothing at first, his mind focused back on the symbol. Soon enough after a few more seconds passed, Superboy moved his gaze from the shirt and looked at Samantha, an unsure look on his face. "Yeah. Thanks a lot."

Trying to lighten the mood and cheer Superboy up, Samantha poked the cheek of the dark-haired teen in a playful fashion. "Thank me by trying the whole outfit on. Jeans, shirt, and shoes. I want to see how it looks. Though I already know it'll look great on you."

Grabbing the pieces of necessary clothing, Superboy looked at the articles in palms of his hands and nodded in agreement and a small smile formed on his face. "Good idea."

---

Waiting outside of the dressing room for her companion to finish dressing and show off the outfit the two had agreed on, the young female folded her hands in her lap and waited out the time she had until Superboy was ready.

She'd never been so worried about seeing someone put on an outfit. Given she'd never actually shopped with anyone else since she didn't really have any friends, but with the implications of what Superboy was wearing and the mini emotional moment the two shared at the t-shirt rack, she just wanted everything to go well.

She'd promised he'd have the best time today and she wouldn't let that promise be ruined by family drama caused by Superman. No matter how respected or intimidating he was.

'I'm thinking too negatively. I need to try and lighten the mood somehow.' Her eyes scanning over the various clothes around her line of vision, Samantha decided to go through her memories of the day and think of something light to talk about. Anything to make this day better.

"Hey, Superboy?" Samantha whispered as best she could from the doorway, turning her head over to the door of Superboys' room to let him hear her somewhat better.

"Yeah?" Superboy answered back, the rustling of clothes being heard from behind the door.

Glad he had heard her this time, she continued. "I just remembered, but since you're going to be living a normal life like everyone else, you're going to need a name."

"I already have a name. It's Superboy." The voice of the muscled boy replied back, making Samantha chuckle.

"Well...yeah it kind of is. But that's more of your hero name. I mean like a normal name for a person you'd meet on the street. Like Mary, Tom, or my name. Samantha. Something to call you when we aren't being heroes. It was hard trying to find you since I couldn't call out your hero name and cause attention on the both of us. If you use a normal name we won't have trouble locating each other or talking without having to whisper all the time."

Listening to the argument the brunette was giving, Superboy grabbed the jeans he was given and began to pull them onto each leg. "It would be better I guess. Can I at least choose the name?"

Smiling to herself as Superboys' question, Samantha nodded, though Superboy couldn't see it. "Of course. I'll list a few of the top of my head. We'll come up with something. How about...Marcus?"

"No," Superboy answered, his voice going right through the door of his dressing room.

"Okay. Hm...Leon?" Samantha suggested.

"No," Superboy answered back.

"Steven?"

"No."

"Johnathan?"

"I...guess. Hold that one for later." Superboy answered, taking the t-shirt off the hanger and putting it on.

"Okay then. I'll think of another one. Oh! What about Bobby? It can be shortened to Bob." Samantha suggested with a laugh.

"No way. Anything but that." Superboy answered, a small chuckle escaping from his lips while beginning to put his shoes back on his feet. The day hadn't been going as well as he had hoped, or rather the trip was, but after the efforts, Samantha was going to try and lighten the mood, Superboy could say for sure he was having a much better time.

Shaking her head at Superboys' answer, the young heiress wracked her mind around for a better name to suggest. Throwing out boring sounding names at the top of her list, the ice user smiled and snapped her fingers in a playful gesture. "Ooh, I got it! How about Con-"

"SOMEBODY CALL THE COPS!"

Jumping up straight out of her seat at the cry for help of in the distance, the ice users' sense flared up at high alert and shifted her gaze out to the mall outside of the shop. She couldn't see much in terms of who was screaming or who the culprit or culprits were, but there were bits of debris on the tiled floor of the mall and people were running away towards the exit of the mall.

'Looks like that fun time I hoped to give Superboy is going to have to wait.' Samantha thought. Taking off to one of the empty dressing rooms, Samantha concentrated on her powers and felt a rush of energy begin to flow within her. Sparkles of ice beginning to appear out of thin air, Samantha clutched her fists tightly before slamming them together, ice forming from her finger tips and crawling out towards her knuckles to her wrists. The formation of the ice encasing her hands and glowing with light, she thrust her fists out to punch the air in front of her, the glow exploding in shards of ice from each fist as the glow revealed two gauntlet-like weapons on each hand.

Flexing her fingers a bit to get a feel for the weapon and untying her now white-haired braid to put it back up in its familiar off-center ponytail, Samantha ran out of the dressing room after going into her hero persona and knocked on Superboys' dressing room.

"Superboy, we've got trouble. You changed yet?" Winter called out hastily, hoping her friend was dressed and ready to go.

The door suddenly flying open, Winter jumped out of the way of the swinging door and moved over to take a look at her newly dressed partner in heroics.

Dressed in the new black t-shirt Samantha had given him, the shirt fit his body perfectly to show off Superboys' broad shoulders and muscles beneath and the biceps of his arms. Fatigue jeans fitting perfectly on him and sporting a belt around his waist to keep them from being pulled or caught on anything, the last touch was some socks he was given and the dark-brown boots she had bought him earlier.

The shield of Superman proudly displayed on his chest and a determined look in his eyes, Superboy shifted his gaze back and forth before spotting Winter. "I'm done. Where's the trouble?"

For just a split second, Winter had been taken aback by Superboys' appearance. She wasn't sure why. It was obvious that it wasn't the time nor the place to be distracted by what Superboy was wearing or how he looked in his new outfit, but she couldn't help but stare, a warmth creeping up into her cheeks.

Everything about it...just seemed to fit perfectly on him. Was it wrong to want to drink it in?

"Winter, what's wrong?" Superboy called, trying to get the girls' attention.

Snapping to attention at hearing her hero title, Winter jumped a bit and shook her head to focus. "Y-Yeah. Outside of the store. Let's go!"

Running off from the dressing rooms and making their way towards the outer area of the mall and the danger that civilians were running away from, Winter remembered something and slowed down a bit, moving over to a display of scarves and bandanas and grabbed a white and black bandana from the hooks.

"Put this over your face. We can't let people know our identities." Winter called out, throwing the white bandana to Superboy as she caught up to him, tying the black bandana over her face as she did so.

Tying the bandana around the bottom part of his face, Superboy scanned over what little part of the mall he could see as he was getting closer and closer. The two teens hearing screams from various civilians running away, the loud crash of glass caught the ear drums of Superboy the loudest, along with a scream that was descending down closer and closer to the bottom level of the mall. "Somebody's falling! I'm not fast enough to get him!"

"I'll get him! See if you can spot the culprits!" Winter called back. Shooting a stream of ice onto the floor towards the outer part of the mall, the white-haired ice user hastily jumped on and skated as fast as she could out of the clothing store. Speeding around civilians running towards the exit, the ice user looked up to see the form of a mall cop falling from the third level.

"I've got you!" Concentrating her ice powers into the palms of her gauntleted hands, Winter shot a large stream of ice beneath the landing spot of the mall cop, watching the ice that formed explode into a flurry of snowflakes and appear as a sizable pile of snow. Falling at a fast rate the mall cop fell right into the pile of snow Winter had created, the soft cushioning of the snow saving the older man from death. "Are you hurt sir?"

Wriggling out of the pile of snow and catching his breath, the mall cop shook his head in realization that he hadn't died and looked up to the bandana wearing ice user. "N-no. Thank you. But we need to call the cops or somebody! Those two are out of control!"

"Those two?" Winter asked, not sure who the cop was talking about.

Racing over to Winters' side, Superboy moved his arm up to point upward to the second floor. Two figures in his line of sight, he pointed out the culprits. "I think I know who those two are. Up there."

Turning her gaze to stare at where Superboy was pointing, Winters' eyes moved upward to the second floor above them. Just passed the few bystanders that were running away and shifting her gaze at the shattered pieces of glass in the area, Winter spotted the culprits of the chaos.

A girl who looked about a year or two older than she and Superboy stood atop the second floor, staring down at them with a confident smirk at the work she had done. Her hair was platinum blonde and cut in a shortened spiky style, excessive amounts of makeup caked her face, and though she wasn't close up Winter could see the girl had more muscle than the average human. She had to be the one who had thrown the guard off the floor.

"You know that girl?" Superboy called to Winter, his eyes still on the punk girl above them.

"Not in the slightest, but why don't we change that and go say hello?" Winter suggested, her eyes glaring up at the unknown girl as she ran off. Placing her hand on the ground and focusing her ice on the ground below her, a small amount of rumbling began before an icicle sprouted quickly from beneath Winters' form. Using the momentum to push her up, Winter jumped off the surface of the icicle and grabbed onto the edge of the glass barrier on the second floor before flipping herself over it to land on the tiled floor of the second floor.

The first thing Winter noticed was the crunch beneath her feet. Looking down to see shards of glass underneath her sandals, Winter was careful not to move around too fast and carefully maneuvered herself around the shards until she was clear of the debris. Running over to a nearby corner, Winter crouched down and slowly poked her head out to check the direction in which the unknown girl had run to.

Off in the distance was the target, however off nearby was another figure she didn't recognize, and just like the unknown girl he was wearing a similar outfit. White shirt, red overalls, boots, blonde spiky hair. Was he her partner?

"Hey, Tommy! We've got company com'n!" The unknown punk girl yelled to her matching partner, her face easily showing a sign of uneasiness.

The boy, now known as Tommy, walked over to a civilian with a large grin on his face. Grabbing onto his collar and lifting him off the ground with a simple tug, Tommy slammed the main into a nearby pillar. "Well if company's com'n, we should set a table."

Knowing things were going to escalate soon, Winter gritted her teeth beneath her makeshift mask and looked at her gauntlet-like weapons. They were made to protect her from any hard surfaces when she used physical punches, but the strength the unknown villains were showing off would most likely shatter them with a punch or two.

'Taking them head on the way I am now will only lead to me getting thrown off the second floor.' The ice user thought, tracing over her gauntlets for an idea to help her out. She couldn't punch them head on the whole time. If she just had some sort of projectiles to distract them...that was it!

Jumping onto the second floor and seeing his team mate sitting behind a corner, Superboy ran over and crouched next to Winter, moving his eyes from the newfound hostage situation to Winter herself. "What are we waiting for?"

"Just give me a few seconds. I need to modify this." Winter hastily replied, a small bead of sweat running down her head as her right hand glowed in a soft blue light and began to run it over her left-handed gauntlet. Ice cracking bit by bit and slowly changing shape, Winter finished her work on one before doing the same to the other. The glow finally subsiding, the results showed as Winter lifted her gauntlets up to look at them, the newfound and strange looking revolve barrels on the inside of the gauntlets.

"What did you do to them?" Superboy asked, his eyes noticing the strange looking change to Winters' ice weapons.

"Just a little something to help me out, though it was a rush job. Don't know how long they'll last, so we need to end this quick." Winter replied, poking her head out to look at the two terrifying twins. "I'll take punk guy, you take punk girl. I'll freeze her feet to the ground so you can run in and take her down. You ready?"

"On three," Superboy answered back, his eyes narrowing in on his target. "One, two..."

"Three!" Winter finished, rushing herself up to her feet and running towards the two villains from behind. Throwing a ray of ice towards the feet of the female villain, Samantha quickly ran behind the form of Tommy, steeling herself as she rammed her body into his back, pushing him off his feet and crashing to the ground.

"Tommy!" The female villain cried out in anger. Gritting her teeth and spotting the white haired girl who had rammed into her brother, Tuppence moved her feet to try and go after the girl and throttle her but felt her feet stay stuck to the ground. "What the-?!" Staring down to check what was going on, the punk girls' eyes widened at the sight of ice covering her feet and planting her right into the ground. "Hey! Who frosted my feet?!"

"Why don't you worry more about me!" Superboy yelled, rushing towards the unsuspecting Tuppence Terror and punching her square in the chest.

Taking the full force of the punch, Tuppence Terror felt her feet leave their icy prison from the force, shards flying into the air as the force of Superboy's punch threw her into a nearby pillar. Shaking her head and recovering from the punch, Tuppence threw debris off her body and wiped a bit of blood off the side of her lip. "Ugh, son you sure do pack a wallop..."

Glaring back at her, Superboy readied another punch and headed right towards the villain. "Lady, I'm not your son." He answered back, heading towards Tuppence and throwing his next attack at her.

Smirking at his reaction, Tuppence reached out with a single hand and caught the punch of Superboy without much effort. His hand shaking with force and anger in her own, Tuppence only continued to look at Superboy, her hand gripping his tightly to keep him in place.

"And I ain't no lady." Tuppence replied back, rage filling her eyes. Grabbing onto Superboys' arm with her other hand, the younger Terror Twin roared out a cry and focused her strength into her body. Moving around to pull Superboy with her, the super strong female smirked back at Superboy and flung him with the help of her movement, watching the boy yell and fly off over the barricade of the second floor down to the bottom floor of the mall.

Moving to get back on her feet and ready herself for whatever came next, Winter gasped in surprise when she heard the yell of her partner. Looking towards the origin of the yelling, her eyes widened when she saw his form fly over the edge of the second floor and fall downwards to the bottom out of her reach. "Superboy!"

"Now it's time to take you down missy." Tommy replied while pushing himself off the ground. Shaking specks of dirt off him and gripping his fists tightly to set up his next move, the taller boy turned to look at Winter and gave her a flirtatious wink. "It's a shame, though. Your lookin quite perty from what I see."

Feeling like she was going to gag at the wink Tommy Terror gave her, Winter was irritated that the boy couldn't see the disgusted look on her face thanks to the bandana. Perhaps if would have given him a good hint.

"As flattered as I am by the compliment, I think this is going to go the other way around." The ice user stated, pulling her right fist back to steady her hand for a strong counterattack if necessary. "And just so you know, I don't date guys who make me gag."

"And I don't let some fancy schmancy girl insult my brother!" Tuppence Terror yelled out, running towards the distracted ice user with a rush attack, ready to push her off the ledge of the second floor.

Senses flaring at the sound of the other twin coming towards her, Winter steeled herself and ran towards Tuppence with as much speed as she could muster. Getting closer and closer towards their intended targets, Winter shot a ray of ice on the next step of tiled floor Tuppence would step on.

Her boot connecting with the new slippery floor, Tuppence yelled out in surprise at her sudden loss of footing, feeling herself begin to slip from her running speed and lose her balance and fall towards the ground. Taking this moment to enact her next move, Winter slowed her speed and ducked low to the ground where Tuppence was heading. Calling on her acrobatics training, Winter motioned her body to bend backward, letting the bottoms of her shoes connect with the chest of the older villain. Using the terror twins' momentum from falling and calling upon what strength she had, Winter kicked upwards and pushed the villain up backward behind her with the help of a cartwheel, flipping back onto her feet and watching Tuppence fall over the ledge of the second floor with a crash sounding below.

Smoothing out the skirt of her dress and breathing in a couple deep breathes, Winter turned back to look at the angered look of Tommy Terror. "Just you and me now muscle head. What's your next move?"

"I'd say punchin' that cute face in for hurtin my lil' sis!" Tommy boasted and ran towards Winter to strike back.

Watching the male twin run towards her in a similar fashion as his sister, Winter smirked and moved her fist back, focusing her eyes on the line of sight Tommy Terror was running in. "Why don't you go cool off with your lil' sis than?" Staying in place and readying her next attack, Winter focused her powers into her gauntlet and raised her arm up before punching the air towards Tommy Terror. Her gauntlet glowing, a sudden ice blast projectile shot out like a bullet and rushed towards Tommy Terror's face.

"What the-" Still running towards the white-haired heroine, Tommy Terror took the unknown blast of ice head on from his speed, the attack whamming right into his face and covering his eyes with snow and frost. His sight gone and trying to scratch away at the frost and ice stuck on his face, the southern muscle continued to run in Winters' direction, though unable to tell where he was going. One final step than he should have taken, Tommy Terror ran into the barricade of the second floor, the momentum causing him to crash straight through and fall down to the first floor, a small crater of rubble beneath him.

Sighing in relief that her makeshift plan had been a success, Winter looked down at the gauntlet on her right hand, now noticing the growing and crawling cracks that spread out through the armored weapon. "That'll do for now. Let's use something I know how to keep from breaking."

Raising her arms in a cross position in front of her, Winter threw her arms out, the motion and focus of her power causing the gauntlets to shatter like glass. Shards of ice now broken and left around her feet, the ice user raised her hand out and summoned a replica of the rapier she had worked on that morning. "Gotta to get to Superboy."

Moving her gaze back and forth for a faster route than simply jumping off the ledge, Winter ran towards the broken down escalator and frosted the railing with ice. Jumping onto the railing and skating down it and a quickened pace, she looked out to the new battlefield on the first floor and spotted her partner once again taking on Tuppence Terror. "Hang in there Superboy! I'm coming!"

Hearing the support of Winter from off in the distance, Tuppence Turner looked back at the recovering Superboy with a smirk, raising her fist and slamming a hard punch right into his cheek.

Pain radiating from the attack, Superboy was knocked off his feet and flew a few feet off the ground, the colliding attack slamming him through the mall's wall and into the parking lot outside.

Shaking her hand a bit at the sting from the punch, Tuppence cackled at her success and turned to look to Winter who'd landed onto the floor. "Too slow there girly. I'd like to see ya try to take me down with that dorky ice pick of yours."

Hand gripping tightly on the handle of the sword, Winter shifted her gaze left and right, trying to check out the situation. Tuppence Terror was right ahead of her, with her brother recovering off to the left-hand side and getting out of his crater.

'Who the heck are these guys?' Winter wondered, her eyes narrowing at the sight of the two twins reuniting together. She was going to need some sort of strategy to get out of this mess. She was in no condition nor had the power to take both of them on herself, no matter how slow witted they seemed to be. She needed Superboy's help.

Trying to calm herself down, Winter motioned herself into a fencing stance to enact her plan. "This ice pick has got a lot more kick to it than you think."

"Yeah sure. Let's see how that turns out for ya." Tommy Turner answered, cracking his knuckles to signify he was ready for another brawl. "I'd like a little payback for that snowball you threw at me."

"Not before get a good punch in first Tommy. This girl and her boy toy got in the way of my shoppin." Tuppence added, glaring at the girl and smiling a sinister grin.

Eyes narrowing and shifting between the two twins, Winter relaxed her body somewhat to try and relieve the tension that was beginning to build inside her. If she was going to make this plan work, she would have to be faster than both the supers combined.

'Have to make this count. Just stay focused...now!' Samantha screamed in her head. Enacting her plan and shoving her left hand out in front of her, Winter sprayed a ray of ice at the bottoms of the Terror Twins feet, creating a small layer of ice to cover their feet and stick them in place.

Shielding their eyes from any projectile they thought was coming their way, the two twins gasped in surprise at the sudden chill in the air and looked down to see their feet had been trapped in a large layer of ice.

"Ugh! Is that the only trick ya got ice princess?!" Tuppence yelled, stopping her tantrum to pull her feet out and glared at the white-haired heroine.

"Not even close. Hope you like the cold!" Coating the mall floor with a coat of ice, Winter began skating off towards the large hole in the mall wall from Superboy's collision. Turning her body back to skate backward and keep her eyes on the two twins, Winter gripped the sword handle tightly in her hand before flinging the weapon towards their feet.

The sword soaring through the air and stabbing itself in front of the intended targets feet, the weapon began to crack bit by bit as seconds passed. The noises getting louder and louder, they began to slowly die down as a soft light grew from within the sword. Energy building up from the impact of the sword, the weapon suddenly exploded in a blast of cold air, the resulting blast spraying out a large thick fog of chilling cold around the two twins in an eight-foot radius and blinding them.

"Hope that keeps them busy," Winter muttered to herself in comfort, her eyes scanning over her latest move against the Terror Twins. Seeing that the two hadn't come out to attack her, Winter turned her back and skated hastily towards the makeshift exit.

Jumping through the large hole in the wall, Winter caught her descent as she walked a few steps to slow herself down and stood still in the streets of the parking lot mall. Eyes scanning back and forth for some sign of the dark haired superhero, Winter gritted her teeth beneath the black bandana and yelled. "Superboy?! Where are you?"

"Over here." The pained voice of Superboy called out in response. His body laying atop a broken car, most likely from his impact, the black-haired teen groaned and brushed the leftover glass of the windshield out of his hair and slowly sat up from the debris.

Rushing over to Superboy and looking over him for any major wounds, the ice user thanked whatever force in the world had helped her friend and began dusting off the debris from Superboys' body. "I slowed them down for a bit, but it's not going to last long."

"Ugh, nothing seems to be working on these guys. What are they made of?" Superboy questioned, groaning at the pain from his impact as he sat up from the broken car.

Frowning at the comment from Superboy, Winter rubbed her forehead in aggravation, her thoughts running a mile a second trying to remember the fight so far. "They aren't invincible. Nobody is."

'This shouldn't be happening. Superboy and I were able to take down countless Genomorph soldiers during the mess with Cadmus without much problems. So why isn't anything we're doing making a good enough dent in them? Those two may be strong, but we're just as smart and skilled. Aren't we?' Winter thought, gripping the handle of her sword tightly in her hand.

"There they are! Can't wait to get a piece o' em!"

"You n' me both brother!"

Turning on her heel to look towards the direction the voices were coming from, Winter gritted her teeth at the sight of Tommy and Tuppence Terror making their way out of the mall and heading in her and Superboy's location. Reaching her hand out, the ice user grabbed the hilt of her crafted rapier and pulled it out from the ground, moving her feet to steady herself into a sword stance. "We need a strategy and fast."

"Hit em' harder than before." Superboy answered back, moving off the dented car and landing next to Winter and glaring at the two twins heading their way.

Frowning a bit at the answer, Winter said nothing but steeled herself for whatever was going to come next. Watching the twin get closer and closer to her and Superboy, Winter gripped her sword tightly in her hand and awaited the next attack from the twins...

That was until the two skidded to a halt. Looks of shock and what seemed like fear on their faces, the twins stared at Winter and Superboy, hesitant on what to do next.

"Dang it, Tup! I ain't sure we're ready for them two's yet..." Tommy Terror exclaimed, taking a step back from where he stood.

Mirroring the same expression her twin had, Tuppence nodded her head and motioned her brother to follow her. "Nah Tom. Definitely a better part o' valor moment." Looking back to the heroes with a glare, Tuppence and Tommy jumped off the ground, vaulting themselves high into the air and disappearing from view.

Eyes following after the terrified duo, Winter loosened her grip on her weapon and let it rest at her side, her expression very much showing confusion. "Uhh...What just happened?"

Not very clear on the development either, Superboy watched the twins get away. "I think we scared them off. Do we go after them?"

"No, you did not. And no, it bad idea little snowflakes."

'Oh no.' Winter thought, her body tensing at the familiar nickname. Only one person called her that.

Slowly turning around to confront the owner of the voice, the younger female's eyes only widened further when she spotted not only the form of her mentor, Ice Maiden, but also the intimidating figure of Superman himself next to her. Of all the people to catch them in the act, why did it have to be her mentor? And Superboys' father at that?

Superman's gaze looking to Winter in examination, his eyes shifted to her partner and his son. Eyes narrowing a bit at the boy, Superman just as quickly moved his gaze to where the criminal twins had gone off to. "I'll go after them." He spoke, lifting off the ground and flying into the distance.

Giving an affirmative nod to her comrade and seeing Superman fly off, Ice Maiden turned her gaze back to her protege, arms crossed over her chest to signify her mood. "I thought when spooky bat said to wait, you both would listen. I never expected own protege to break rules. And so quickly."

Shock written on her face, Samantha shook her head and stood face to face with her mentor. "Hey, that isn't what happened at all! We were minding our own business when those two crazy twins attacked civilians. We were just do-"

"Uh uh uh. Enough." Ice Maiden spoke, raising her hand up to stop her protege from talking. "No excuses. I am sad that two snowflakes could not wait one day to go be heroes, but your performance is what made heroic soul more disappointed." The older woman explained, giving Samantha a shake of her head.

"Y-You saw the fight?" Samantha asked, a bit surprise by the observation.

"Yes, or rather steel man did with invisible eyes. He explained what was going on while he watched from afar. When we saw the poor display, we decided to finally jump in to aid you."

Eyebrow raised at the strange wording her mentor spoke, Samantha gave a quizzical look. "Poor...display? What's that supposed to mean Ice?"

"Your fighting. Superboy was strong, yes, and you were quite fast and able to come up with good ways to use power against the enemy, but neither could beat down. Even if they were strong, there was no reason for a battle to go so long, nor be in their favor." Ice spoke, her voice lowering as it began to critique the battle she had witnessed.

The mistakes of the battle being pointed out in front of her, Samantha couldn't help but shirk her shoulders in shame, frowning as her gaze shifted downward. "W-We were doing our best. We had it handled."

"Not from what I heard. You seemed to be missing something quite important during the fight. Something that you so easily had during the mission at Cadmus that made snowflake and sidekicks victorious. It surprises me that with such good head on shoulders, you didn't notice you were lacking it today." Ice Maiden pointed out, moving close to her protege and looking down at her.

Irritation slowly lacing her features, the shorter ice user gripped her weapon in anger and glared up at her mentor. "This isn't the time for one of your cryptic lessons Ice. If you noticed something was wrong during our battle, just tell me up front."

Smiling at the pouting look on her protege's face, Ice Maiden simply shook her head. "I'd rather not tell. If I recall, you say just a day ago that you were ready to be a hero, no?"

'Wait, what? What did that have to do with anything?' The heiress thought. However registering the uncertainty she had, Samantha dismissed the question. Through all the years Ice Maiden had mentored her and taught her, she was always straight with her in her weird, mysterious way.

Anger slowly dying down at the question, Samantha loosened the grip on her sword and stared back at her mentor, uncertainty in her eyes. "Y-Yes. Of course, I did. I was born ready and I've trained my entire life for it."

"I see. Well, being a hero means you shouldn't always be told own mistakes. Heroes should be able to figure those out on own, especially if they have already exhibited it." Ice Maiden spoke, smiling at her protege and bending down to meet her at eye level. "If you want to show spooky bat and I that you are serious about being real hero, figure out mistake on your own. Improve yourself, master mistake, and be sure to never forget again. What you seem to have forgotten is something essential to all heroes, and you will need if you hope to be in league." Reaching out to her protege, Ice Maiden gave a cheeky grin before lightly flicking the forehead of Samantha in a playful gesture. "I must be off. Be sure you both find out mistake and be rid of it by time spooky bat has answer."

Getting up from the ground and nodding in approval to her protege, Ice Maiden turned her back to the teen heroes and ran off into the direction of Superman and the Terror Twins.

The battle over, their mentors gone, and the conversation now over Winter stood silently in the parking lot and let her mentor's words try to sink in. Watching the ice that she had summoned during the battle slowly melt away and watching the strands of her hair slowly turn back to brown, Samantha looked up at the sky as if trying to find some sort of answer. What had it been that she was talking about?

"Superboy," Samantha called out. "Do you...know what Ice was talking about?"

Seconds passed with no answer to Winters' question. Moving her gaze to look at the back of Superboy, Samantha could only sigh at the sight of Superboy gazing out at the sky where Ice Maiden, and more specifically Superman, had gone off.

'He didn't even say hi to him.' Samantha thought, face relaxing into a saddened expression at the sight of her fellow hero looking out as if waiting for something to come. 'Some fun experience this turned out to be for him.'

Deciding it be best to move on from the events prior, Samantha slowly walked over to Superboy and placed a hand on the taller boys' shoulder. "Hey? You okay?"

Not making any movement to remove her hand from himself, Superboy moved his head and looked to stare at Samantha straight in the eyes. "You think Superman is going to be there? When Batman calls us?"

Wanting to give the most honest answer she possibly could without hurting his feelings, Samantha shrugged and did her to give a reassuring smile to her friend. "I think he will. Just as long as there isn't some crazy disaster going on somewhere else that needs him."

Looking out to the sky for a few more moments, the now brunette-haired teen patted Superboy on the shoulder and turned to make her way back to the mall. "'C'mon. We better go back and finish our business here. We can rest back at my house."

His mind still on the events prior, Superboy breathed out a heavy sigh and turned to follow after Samantha, hands digging into his new pants pockets while he walked.

There would be more time to wonder about everything later.

---

A day had passed since the fight with the Terror Twins. And it had felt like a long one. That was what Samantha Freya had thought for sure.

Nothing much happened after the fight against the Terror Twins, the brother and sister combo the two heroes had fought against prior. With Superboys' mind consumed with thoughts of his estranged father and beatdown and Samanthas' continued efforts to try and understand her mentors' cryptic words, neither of the two had wanted to do anything more than just go back to the mansion and forget the day happened. It worked for a time, but with nothing to do but sit around in the mansion or find something that could preoccupy their time, thoughts of the battle the day before would come back to haunt them. Moreso for Winter.

Samantha had wanted to be on her own most of the time since the battle. She'd wanted to think over Ice Maiden's words to her, but remembering the lecture she had gotten, the ice user pushed them aside and did anything else to distract her. Ice crafting, playing the piano, helping her father with documents. Just about anything to not stress her out.

But at some point, she'd have to face her mentor's words.

Standing on the marble floor of her spacious bathroom, the brunette began to strip her clothes off piece by piece in a slow fashion, her mind still stuck on everything that had happened as the sounds of running water from the shower began to build steam into the room.

"It's been a full day since the fight and I still can't shake it off." Feeling her eyes narrow in a small aggravated glare, Samantha threw her dress angrily at a nearby wall. "It was supposed to be simple. Show Superboy a good time, get him the clothes he needed, and have some fun while we wait out Batman's decision."

Reaching up to grab her tied up hair, Samantha pulled the hairband out of its tie and began to unravel her braided hair. "But, of course, something had to go wrong. Those two ruined the entire day for us. Superboy seems to be less talkative as usual after seeing Superman and Ice gave me a lecture. I haven't needed a lecture from her in months."

Placing the hair tie on the sink counter and rustling the strands of her hair through her fingers, the brunette tiredly looked up to look face to face with her own reflection.

Her hair was a mess.

She looked tired and stressed out.

And her friend was being unresponsive since the fight.

"Why can't anything just go right for one day?" Samantha asked herself, her eyes gazing at her reflection. Sadly, obviously, no answer was going to come out of the mirror to her question.

It would have helped, though.

Unintentionally moving her left hand up to trace over her scarred eye, the brunette groaned and let her head fall down to stare at the sink countertop. "This shouldn't be getting to me. We didn't do well in that fight, but nobody is perfect, not even me. Mistakes were bound to happen."

'But I shouldn't have been on the receiving end of a beat down like that. Even if I was tired from the Cadmus fight, I should be skilled and coordinated enough to have taken those guys down. What was the point of training all that time and trying to male father proud of my hero work if I couldn't even stop two teenagers?' Samantha scolded mentally, her eyes shutting tight at the images of the Terror Twins appearing in her mind.

Pushing herself away from the sink and walking into the now heated shower, the petite girl couldn't help but let a gasp of pleasure escape her lips, the warm water touching her skin and feeling like pure bliss on her aching muscles and letting the bath cleanse the stress away.

Moving to casually lean on the wall of the shower and letting the water cascade over her porcelain skin and long brunette hair, Ice Maiden's conversation prior resurfaced into Winters' thoughts.

"You seemed to be missing something quite important during the fight. Something that you so easily had during the mission at Cadmus that made snowflake and sidekicks victorious."

"What did she mean? Something we were missing?" Samantha asked herself, her mind still trying to comb over whatever detail she could pull from her mentors' message. It couldn't have been something too trivial like their actual gear or uniforms. Even Samantha knew that her mentor would never scold her for an incident and timing she had no control over.

'Something we had at Cadmus. She made sure to point that out when she was talking. But why?' Samantha thought.

Cadmus was not the best example of preparation that Winter could ever seem to think of in her hero career. Really it was a good example of defiance in her short time as a hero, but despite the odds, it had been successful.

But what was a part of it that she and Superboy didn't have yesterday?

Was it the lack of numbers? Their "team" was a lot bigger at Cadmus that was a given, but again Samantha knew Ice wouldn't be so cryptic over something so trivial like numbers. Numbers didn't equal success.

Was it the lack of how fast to learn her enemies weaknesses? She may not have known every move a Genomorph soldier would make during her escapade at Cadmus, although she'd found her way at taking them down a lot faster after just a few traded punches and skating around their attacks. Unfortunately, it had been significantly harder with the Terror Twins. Their strength was just too much to handle in the lack of supplies they had.

"What you seem to have forgotten is something essential to all heroes, and you will need if you hope to be a hero like league."

"To be a hero in the league..." Scrubbing off the layers of dirt off her arms and soaking her shampooed hair through the falling water, Samantha drudged through her mentors' critique. "I want to Ice, I really do. I thought I proved myself already. So why confront me like you did?"

Feeling the suds drip off her body to the tiled floor beneath her feet, the ice user stopped scrubbing her hair and let her arms fall to her sides and stood still, a melancholic feeling slowly building inside her chest.

"I am ready...aren't I?" Her voice echoing hesitation.

No, of course, she was. She's been ready since...forever ago. She'd been ready before Cadmus, she'd been ready before she'd gone to the Hall of Justice, and she'd been ready today when she woke up still waiting for an answer from Batman. She had always been ready and she wasn't going to let one screw up ruin her plan to join the Justice League.

"I shouldn't be second guessing myself. I already know my answer. If only Superboy and I hadn't separated during the fight for so long. We..." Samantha stopped mid-sentence, her voice catching in her throat.

Memories from a day ago popping up in her mind, the ice user slowly began to take specific parts of it and piece them together like a puzzle.

She and Superboy had only spoken about strategy for one moment before they attacked. The two had agreed and from it were successfully able to get the Terror Twins away from the civilians they captured.

But what else came from it? Nothing.

As soon as the fight took place Superboy and Samantha had been separated by the twins and used none of their time to try and group back up early in the fight and take them on together. At least not until they'd had their butts fully kicked.

Realization showing on her face with a wide-eyed expression, Samantha groaned and rubbed a slippery wet hand across her eyes, feeling a wave of loathing wash over her.

"I'm such an idiot. It was so obvious." Grabbing the faucet and turning the shower off, Samantha took a deep breath and stood in place in the shower.

Teamwork.

Of all of the important lessons that Ice Maiden had ever explained or taught her in her three years of tutelage, teamwork had been the solid foundation of it all. Super powers could get you so far in battle, and intellect could outwit people with time and enough planning. However, if you plan to or found yourself on a team, and would most likely be a possibility in the world she lived in, learning how to fight alongside others was a must.

What Ice Maiden had pointed out to the young heiress was true. Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Superboy, and she had all somehow found a way to work together side by side through all the chaos. She wasn't sure on the details of how it worked the way it did, but together and with careful precision, they'd made a victory that night that had changed the course of their lives. It was the very reason she was in the situation she was in now.

But if that was the case, why hadn't it worked out the same way yesterday?

'Now that I think about it, neither Superboy or I were the ones giving orders during the Cadmus fiasco.' Samantha thought, her memories flashing back to moments days prior.

It had been the calculating mind of Robin and the maturity of Aqualad together that had gotten through the thickest of things. They'd found ways to take their enemies down, but only with the help of some of the others skills and communication on their part.

"Maybe that's the problem." Samantha spoke out loud, dropping her head low and stared down at the shower floor. "I relied too much on them to make the plans and communicate, and when it came time that they weren't around, I had no idea what I was doing. Or maybe it was about my speed? Superboy needed my help and I was too slow to help him before he got knocked through that wall. That fight may have been a small-time thing, but in a real fight I can't react that slow."

Closing her eyes at a small growing pain inside her head, Samantha grumbled and moved back to stand up straight. Reaching for a nearby towel on the towel rack, the brunette rubbed the water off her face and groaned once again, this time letting the soft towel muffle her voice. "Or maybe I'm overthinking this all and giving myself a headache."

Removing the towel from her face and rubbing down the water off her skin, Samantha pushed the shower door open and carefully stepped out onto the tile floor. Her body feeling refreshed compared to the long day it had felt like, Samantha felt safe to say that the shower had done wonders for her, at least in terms of relaxation and cleanliness.

"I'll just have to try and improve on it. Batman is going to send word tomorrow and if I don't have this figured out, it'll be a lot harder to prove I have what it takes. Just as long as that's what Ice was talking about I should be fine." Samantha muttered to herself, walking over to the bathroom mirror and began to comb her hair out. "I'm going to end up messing up my skin with all of this stress. Or even hallucinate."

"Samantha?"

Her reflection mimicking her eye roll, Samantha shook her head and continued brushing her hair. "See? Now I'm imagining hearing Superboy's voice."

"Samantha? You in here?"

"Wait, I'm hearing him again?" She asked herself, unsure if the stress she was getting was actually affecting her. Clutching her towel a bit tighter and putting the comb down, the ice user slowly walked over step by step closer to the bathroom door. "S-Superboy?"

"Samantha? You in there?" Superboy called out from behind the door, his voice laced with confusion. Ready to come in, the super clone reached out and gripped the doorknob, ready to turn it and check inside.

Hearing the familiar rattle of the doorknob, Samantha jumped a bit and clung to her only semblance of safety at hiding her body. Embarrassment blowing up deep inside her and a small bit of fear mixed in, Samantha hastily gripped onto the doorknob from the other side to keep it from turning. "D-Don't you dare open this door Superboy!"

"Why not?" The boy asked, his voice giving off pure confusion.

'Why not?!' Samantha thought, her face steaming even more than what she shower had caused. She knew that Superboy had been taught about a wide variety of things such as locations, history, science, and the existence of super heroes, but had the super intellectual powerhouse that was Cadmus not consider at all explaining or teaching him about human customs or mannerisms. Things that didn't need to be spoken out loud but people just knew about?

Probably not, which was why she was now in this situation. What was she even supposed to say?!

"B-Because, that's why!" Samantha yelled from behind the door, not giving a real reason to the boy. "Just...Just don't open it okay? I'm not dressed and I'd rather not have a reverse situation of last night." The brunette replied, her face only feeling hotter after replying.

And now she had the images of last night popping back into her head again. Like she needed those images keeping her up at night for the second time. Even if they were kind of hot.

'Oh God, stop thinking about him like that! Stupid teenage hormones!' Her thoughts screamed, her body tensing at the bubbling feeling in her chest.

Rubbing her red face to try and ignore the flaring feelings inside of her, Samantha looked at the door blocking the two of them apart. Now that she had thought of it, none of this would have been happening if Superboy hadn't called out to her.

From the other side of the bathroom door.

Which was in her room!

"Wait, what are you doing in my room?" Samantha pointed out, not sure if she was going to like the answer.

Standing outside of the door with an eyebrow raised confused, the cloned boy answered back. "I didn't have anything better to do, so I came over to see what you were up to. I knocked this time, but you didn't answer."

'Well that's nice. At least he learned his lesson from last time.' Samantha thought, the momentary feeling of awkwardness disappearing at Superboy's casual answer. "As glad as I am to hear you did that Superboy, you can't just walk into someone's room if they don't answer. It's impolite and you need permission."

"But didn't you walk into my room without my permission last night?" Superboy mentioned.

Jumping up at the statement from her male intruder, Samantha couldn't help but laugh a bit. Leaning on the bathroom door, Samantha answered back. "Yeah. I guess you are right about that. I guess I can let this slide. Just don't tell anyone this happened. Kid Flash especially."

"Don't really know why I'd tell anyone, but I won't. Promise." Superboy replied from behind the door, hand raised to rub his neck nervously.

"Thank you." Samantha answered, relief growing inside her at knowing this little problem wasn't going to be found out. Like she needed more things to worry about and think over.

Like the fight and what Ice Maiden had said.

Did she want to bring those problems back up just after she decided to put them away for another time? She wasn't sure, but maybe another's opinion would help to make her understand better.

"Hey, Superboy?"

"Yeah?"

Tensing up a little at his response, Samantha laid her head on the wooden door and closed her eyes. "The fight yesterday. How do you think it went? And be honest, like usual."

Silence ensued in a matter of seconds. No words or sounds were spoken between the space the two shared, leaving Samantha to worry about what Superboy's answer might be. Did he not have an opinion on it?

"It was bad, I think." Superboy finally answered. "We got ourselves beat up pretty good. Those Trouble Twins or whatever they call themselves were annoying too."

Or he did.

Unable to stop the laughing from Superboys' version of the "Terror Twins" names, the brunette smiled a little. "Yeah, those guys were really annoying. If we meet them again I'm giving them double payback."

Letting go of the doorknob handle and reaching down to play with the fabric of her towel, Samantha sighed, her face losing its smile from before and returning to its less energetic expression from earlier. "It's just...my mentor, Ice Maiden. She said some stuff to me after she and Superman showed up. About how the reason our battle didn't go as well as we wanted it to was because we were missing something during the fight. Something we need if we want to be more than sidekicks."

"I think she meant teamwork." Samantha continued, trying to get her thoughts in order to better communicate to her partner. "We didn't do much planning before we jumped into the fight, and even when we were doing okay on our own, neither of us tried to go and help the other. At least not until things got really bad on our part."

Her hand clinging to her towel tighter from the building stress, a frustrated look appeared on Samantha's face as she glared down at the floor. "I...I don't know what to make of it. I've been stressing out over it trying to figure out what to do, but I keep coming up with nothing. And Batmans' going to send word to us any day now. I'm freaking-"

"Just work on it." Superboy interrupted, his voice traveling through the door.

Halting her mini freakout to let Superboys' answer sink in, the heiress moved her head up and turned to look at the door between the two, confusion morphed on her face. "W-What?"

"I don't know. Just...work on it I guess? There's no reason to think about every word she meant right? If you know what's wrong, just do more to get better at it." The uncertain voice of Superboy spoke.

Listening to her companions' words, Samantha turned her head back to stare at the empty room she stood in and let the advice given to her sink in.

He...was right.

There was no reason for her to be freaking out like this.

She still had time and she was still learning. She'd find a way to improve herself, just like she had with many of her skills over the past couple of years.

Just screwed up one fight, but it was not the end of the world for her. She didn't have to overthink it. She just needed to know what she did wrong and fix it.

'Brutally honest and to the point. Your the complete opposite of me Superboy.' Samantha thought, unable to control the smile growing on her face. It had to be nice, not having to overthink things so much like she did. It must have made life a bit less stressful.

"Superboy, would you mind leaving my room for a bit? I need to get dressed." Samantha muttered quietly, her face flaring up with heat at her comment.

"Uh...yeah. I'll wait outside." Superboy answered, the sound of his feet shuffling on the tile floor of her room before the sound of her bedroom door opened up and closed shut.

Thankful that she no longer felt quarantined to her bathroom, Samantha slowly opened her door and headed over to her closet, putting on a simple blue t-shirt, pants, and other necessary clothing pieces to keep her body clothes. Drying her hair off once more with the help of her towel and combing her long hair out, Samantha headed towards her bedroom door and opened it.

Standing out in the long and lush hallway was Superboy, clothed in another pair of pants and matching familiar shirt with logo. Turning to look at Samantha who had just appeared from her room, the taller boy gave a small nod of acknowledgment. "Hey."

"Hey." Samantha answered back, smiling to the boy and closing the door behind her. "Superboy. Thank you."

"For what?" He asked, not sure where the compliment was coming from.

"For what you said." Samantha spoke, smiling to the boy and walked over to him. "I know you probably don't see it as much. You were just answering my question, but what you said really helped me think over everything. A lot better than how I've been trying to." She explained, the young teen fidgeting with her hands as she spoke.

'Hurry up. You can do this. It's not going to be for too long. Just get it over with and don't freak out.' Her thoughts screamed.

Face feeling a bit warm and her heart ready to explode from the anticipation, Samantha swallowed the nervousness building inside her and reached her arms out and wrapped them around Superboy into a soft hug. "So...thank you or the advice."

Feeling the small arms of Samantha wrapped around him, Superboy felt the thoughts in his mind screech to a halt, his brain no longer able to process what exactly was going on. Standing still and letting the shorter girl continue the hug, Superboy stared down at her, examining what exactly she was doing to him.

He knew what a hug was. Cadmus had at least taught him about some human greetings and signs of affection, a hug being one of them. But he still was not quite sure why Winter was hugging him, nor why his heart rate was beating a bit faster than it had before.

Now that he mentioned it, he was sure Winter's heart rate was beating faster than normal too, from what he could hear. Was something wrong with her?

Deciding it be best to finally end the hug, Samantha let go of Superboy and moved a little away from him, her porcelain skin easily showing the redness of her cheeks. "Sorry about that. I didn't invade any personal space did I?"

Realizing the hug had ended and hearing Samantha speak, Superboy looked back to Samantha in attention, trying to find some sort of answer to respond with. "No. It was...fine."

"Oh. That's...good." Samantha hesitantly replied, scratching the back of her head and giving a sheepish smile. "Well...I guess we should go find something fun to do. I'll see if Reginald can make us some snacks while we watch a movie. Or something."

Chuckling a bit to avoid the awkward air that was in the hall, Samantha smiled and turned away from Superboy and headed down the hallway, leaving Superboy to his own thoughts.

Standing by himself in the hall and watching Samantha walk off and disappear from his view, the dark-haired teen blinked his eyes a few times, trying to register what exactly had happened. Reaching his hand up and placing it on his chest, Superboy waited patiently to feel the rhythmic beating of his heart, faster paced that it was supposed to be.

"Why is my heart beating so fast? Is something wrong with me?" Superboy asked out loud, focusing to lower his heart rate. His mind tryng to surface any information the Genomorphs had taught him in his pod, Superboy frowned. Nothing so far seemed to be making any-

"Superboy?"

Halting his search for an answer, Superboy looked out to the end of the hall, the form of Samantha waving to him.

"Are you coming? You're going to be more bored than before if you just stand in the hallway all day." Samantha joked, smiling and motioning him to follow her.

"Yeah. I'm coming." Superboy called back, moving his hand back to his side and heading down the hallway to meet back with Samantha.

Nothing so far from the Genomorphs gave Superboy any answer. He was not unhealthy or weak enough that it would explain the problem. But Superboy had noticed something in those few moments.

His heart rate jumped more when Samantha talked to him.

Maybe she was a health risk?