Try to remember

by Faff

Sixteen year old Kenny McKormick must adapt to his new life in Gotham City, while the same is also true for his eldritch alter ego, Mysterion. But while the agnostic angel of Denver makes his mark on Gotham, the Justice League and hero community at large must adapt to the emergence of this little mystery person who knows far more than he lets on…

8. Schooled

Try to Remember

Chapter 8: Schooled

Disclaimer: I don't own South Park, Young Justice, or any of the works that collectively make up the Cthulhu Mythos.

—?M?—

Kenny let his feet fall into rhythm with the crowd, bringing his jog down to a quick stride as he weaved through his fellow students. All the while sticking out like a sore thumb with his less than perfect uniform. Shirt poorly buttoned, tie loose around his neck, one shoelace untied, and his orange parka over the top with it's hood down and unzipped, giving the impression of someone who had very little care for how they looked.

Maybe the brisk run here had blown Kenny's mind clean of something, but he found himself feeling less troubled by the events that had occurred last night beneath Gotham. Right now he was just another student. Lounging against one wall of the school's front courtyard, Kenny took a moment to soak up the sun and air out his mind.

His head listed lazily to the side, dirty blonde hair falling over his forehead as he watched students walk by into the main building.

'She's a seven point two… She's a four, but her friend is an eight… An even six… A fine nine!'

"I love you, Gotham Academy." Kenny muttered under his breath, his easy smirk splitting into a much more gleeful, mischievous grin. The girls of Gotham Academy were much more refined in what they wore, being that the uniforms were strictly set. But to Kenny's mind, all that did was encourage them to find more subtle and appealing ways to look, oh so very nice.

The weather was perfect, the girls were as as good looking as ever, and if he was honest, Kenny was quite happy with where he was at… He didn't exactly have any friends here yet, but hey, he hadn't really been trying to make any.

As his eyes were unashamedly exploring the long-sock wearing legs of his class's representative, Bette Kane, his line of sight as suddenly invaded by the startling visage of a much angrier blonde girl. The face of Loretta Inzerillo glared at him, her nose still bearing a beak of bandaging from what he'd done to her for daring to mess with Karen.

"Did you know?" She demanded, her voice hoarse but fierce, sounding as if she'd been straining it for some time.

Stepping away from the wall, Kenny faced her fully, looking down at her from where he stood a full foot and a half taller than her. "Know what?"

"About my father." Her challenging demeanour remained concrete.

Raising an eyebrow, curious, Kenny asked. "What about your father?"

"That he was a-" Her voice cracked, faltering for a moment. "-a criminal."

"Oh, yeah." Was his instant reply.

Slowly her face bunched up, her hands rising to clutch her hair, balling into fists and shaking with rage. Her eyes shut tight, she took all her built up fury, and released it in a stamp of her foot and a shout not unlike the bark of a small dog. Then her hands instantly rose again, this time to cover her eyes and half adjust her bandages.

Taken aback by her reaction, but suspecting he knew from where her anger stemmed, Kenny asked gently. "What's the problem?"

The proverbial dam broke, and the words came streaming out. "Everyone knew, except me! All my friends, they were just pretending to be nice to me! Now they don't have to, so they look at me either like I'm an idiot who should be pitied, or some kind of evil, bitch, who deserves it! It makes me so fucking angry…! He was lying to me all the time, Kenny!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't you read the fucking news , moron! My daddy, was caught by the Batman, selling drugs and-and, weapons, and-and-and people!" With what could only be tears pooling at the corners of her eyes, Loretta glared at him expectantly.

"… Why are you telling me this?" Was all he could offer her in response, clearly unable to provide her with the reply she wanted.

"Weren't you listening, my friends abandoned me!" The girl reminded him.

Kenny rolled his eyes, trying not to sound as tired as she was making him feel. "Yeah, I was listening. And so is everyone else." He cast a little look around the courtyard, where a number of the passing students had stopped to watch their less than ordinary interaction. Putting an arm around her shoulder, Kenny led her away and into the school. "Come on, walk and talk with me."

Loretta stewed in her simmering anger as they made their way into the school, and when they were out of earshot of their previous onlookers, said. "My daddy was lying to me… About so much. Why? Why did he lie."

Dropping his arm from around her shoulder and shoving both hands into his coat pockets, Kenny shrugged and postulated. "I think he lied because, I dunno, because he wanted to keep you safe?"

Loretta's reply was swift and sharp. "My brother knew. The house staff even knew. Everyone here knows. Everyone knew except me. Why didn't he tell me? Why couldn't I figure it out by myself? Am I just dumb? Tell me, am I dumb?"

Where before she had been angry, now she was growing sad, and Kenny was damned if that didn't tug at his heart strings a little. He sighed and began to talk. "I think you're very angry right now. I think you're not the nicest person I've ever met. I think you're smoking hot. I think you're a spoiled rich girl who doesn't know shit about the reality of what her father actually did… But I don't think you're dumb and I'll tell you why… Because you're asking yourself those questions. You're facing the truth rather than hiding from it. Dumb people don't do that."

"… I don't know how to feel about any of those things you just said…" Her reply was mirrored in her body language, as she was just standing, staring up at him with her wide, bloodshot blue eyes.

"Eh, maybe that's progress." He shrugged in response, no really caring what she thought.

Then Loretta drew in a calming breath, and stated with newfound resolve. "I'll tell you one thing for sure though, Kenny. This is never going to happen again. I never want to feel this, weak and stupid again. Ever…"

"Whatever. I've got class, so, see ya." And as he walked away from her, Kenny found himself feeling far more than a slight stab of pity for the girl. He didn't think much of her by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd have to be a completely heartless bastard not to feel something akin to sympathy for Loretta Inzerillo. No matter what she had done to him or his sister.

So he walked away from her, rounded the corner at the end of the hall and headed for class, which just so happened to be history. Which wasn't too bad, history was definitely among his favourite subjects, and not just because he knew a lot more about it than his other classes.

But as he stepped into the classroom, his rekindling mood was once again doused, this time by his teacher. A tweed suited man who sternly told him. "Mr. McKormick, I daresay I should give you detention for your flagrant disregard of our Academy's uniform code… But I think at this point more detentions might just be overkill." The already seated students snickered behind their hands at Kenny's reprimanding, but the old teacher wasn't wrong. Kenny had more detentions than you could shake a stick at, and he was only just nearing the end of them all. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck here any longer, when he could be doing other, more productive things with his time. Either as Mysterion, or as Kenny.

So with a sigh, Kenny replied. "Sorry about that, Mr. Murray. Won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't. Now take you seat and fix your tie, because today we're taking a field trip to Egypt!" Mr. Murray declared joyously while Kenny approached his desk.

"Wait, what!?" Was the startled response from many of the students.

"Ancient Egypt, that is! With the power of learning I'll take you on an imaginary field trip back to the reign of Alhireth-Hotep!" Their now smiling history teacher beamed, throwing his arms wide and trying to pull some magic schoolbus bullshit on them.

As the rest of the students groaned en masse, Kenny sank into his chair and began fixing his tie.

—?M?—

So it was, that after the school day had drawn to a slow, monotonous close, Kenny McKormick was still imprisoned within the walls of Gotham Academy. Scrubbing away at the window of the boys toilets with some heavy duty disinfectant, mop, bucket and trolley of cleaning supplies by his side curtesy of that lazy ass janitor. The janitor who had gone home early and left Kenny with instructions to lock up when he was done. So why had he not left when there was not a soul to supervise him?

"Stupid, piece of, filth… Get, off." He had been scrubbing at the same wad of encrusted filth in the corner of a window for the last ten minutes, and no matter what methods he applied it would not be cleaned. "Fuck!"

Finally he was about to give up, throwing his marigold rubber gloves back into his cleaning trolley, when Kenny heard a rather loud crash.

His head snapping to alertness, snd Kenny ventured slowly out of the toilets, listening for the source of the disturbance. Then it hit again, from far down the hall to his right, originating from behind the gymnasium doors. Only this time it kept going, sounds of splintering wood, crumbling plaster, all occurring at irregular yet frequent intervals.

Cautiously, Kenny approached the double doors and peered in through the small glass window that was set into the upper part of them. Years of busting into rooms only to be impaled or crushed, or just generally killed in a horrific fashion, had instilled him with such a sense of wariness when tackling unknown situations.

What he saw within was far from the worst he could've expected, but was still enough for him to retract his head so that he would not be spotted. Because inside the sports hall was a large, seven foot tall robot, gun metal grey and looking as pissed as an emotionless robot could look. The metal humanoid was in the middle of combating a teenager, who appeared completely ordinary at first glance, but from what Kenny had seen this boy was anything but.

The teenager had been throwing punches and leaping around like some kind of enraged, superpowered animal. And that red S on his shirt gave Kenny a good idea as to how this guy was doing it. "More fucking heroes." He murmured, displeased.

If only he had brought his costume with him… Wait… Kenny smacked himself in the head. He had brought his costume with him! If only by sheer accident.

Dashing back to the toilets Kenny darted in and went to his bag, which was sat on top of the cleaning trolley. But then he froze. A thought was running through his head, one that might prove detrimental if he wanted to change so suddenly. CCTV.

As the door swung shut behind him, Kenny surveyed the room. No cameras in here, for obvious reasons. But he wouldn't put it past the school to have cameras at regular intervals in the halls at least. So how could he change without making it obvious that it was Kenny McKormick who was Mysterion… Then his eyes caught that dirty goddamn window, and his face lit up with a smile.

A quick change in the cubicle, and Mysterion emerged. Kenny counted himself lucky he had his costume, but his luck had its limits. He didn't have his gun with him. Still, with a quick scramble he had poised himself at the small window, and was squirrelling himself out of it.

Outside he found himself dropping into a small alleyway that was closed off from the rest of the outside. For good reason probably, because it stank like faeces and disinfectant. Ignoring the smell, Mysterion set about getting himself up onto the roof, deciding to enter the gym from the windows instead of circling around and risking exposure to the security cameras.

Springing up onto the window ledge once more, Mysterion used that foothold to jump from perch to perch, until he found himself dangling from the roof ledge. Then pulling himself up onto the roof, the young vigilante stood there surveying the skyline with a confident smirk.

Mysterion immediately caught himself and schooled his expression. He needed to stop being cocky, he was Mysterion now, not Kenny McKormick. So putting on a stern face, Mysterion locked his eyes onto where the gymnasium's roof stood taller than the surrounding building and set off. Crouching low he ran across the open space, vaulting small ledges and stepping over the countless lost footballs and baseballs that had accumulated up here over the years. When he reached the wall of the gym, Mysterion stuck close to it, circling round the taller building until he reached the windows. Great big paned glass frames that granted him a perfect view of what was going on inside.

New arrivals had joined S-shirt in fighting this robot, three of whom he knew, because he'd have to have been living under a rock not to have at least recognised them. Robin, Aqualad, and Speedy, or Speedo… Kenny couldn't quite remember, but the boy was a speedster and that was all that mattered at the moment. Then there was an attractive green skinned girl floating in the air across the hall.

They were all preoccupied fighting an uphill battle against this grey android, too preoccupied to notice the spindly, middle aged man who had been sat by the bleachers with an entourage of flying robot monkeys. A man who quietly and with a worried look on his face, headed for the door.

Mysterion found himself wanting to help the burger king kids club of heroes, but against an enemy as seemingly powerful as this, he would most definitely die. Especially since he didn't have half his already mediocre arsenal. He could however head off this suspicious monkey man at the front gates, which, knowing the school like he did, Mysterion assumed to be the exit the man was headed for.

Regretfully, Kenny turned from the window and sprinted across the roof for where the school building opened up into the courtyard.

Easily, Mysterion bounded up onto the fancy stonework of the front entrance, and looked down the four storey drop to where that same scrawny man was right now bolting out of the doors, with one less monkey he noted.

Not willing to put his body to the test and make the full four floor drop, Mysterion instead leapt off of the ledge, aiming for one of the many artful stone pillars that lined the schools front court. He dropped about two floors height in the jump and collided with the pillar, which he then used to slow his fall, pushing off the stone and soaring across to another. Now he was at a safe height to at least survive the fall, so kicking away from this pillar, Mysterion's royal purple cape billowed in the wind as he landed directly in the middle of the court, a scarce ten feet from where Mr. Monkey was ahead of him, still sprinting for the gates.

He only had time to look up, before a shout caught his ear. "Look out!" And something struck him in the side, opening up and wrapping around him, carrying Mysterion across the courtyard where he eventually tumbled to a halt. Now entangled in a net.

"You got in the way! Wait. Who are you?" He could barely see the speaker, but whoever she was she had the worst timing ever. Grumbling under his breath, Mysterion slipped the switchblade out of his belt and severed enough of the ropes to tear himself free, growling as he did so. "He's getting away."

He'd been through the whole, who are you, spiel with Batman, and right now Mysterion wasn't keen on wasting any time. If he couldn't fight the android, he could catch this suspicious, fleeing asshole. He barely took a moment to glance at the girl, before taking off towards the school gates, where the red headed fellow was getting into a waiting black sedan.

As Mysterion made it to the sidewalk the car was pulling out, taunting him as the blank licence plate moved away. But then something interesting caught his eye, several high tech looking motorbikes, parked and discarded nearby. One of them had on it's front a stylised red letter R.

Mysterion was in motion before the idea had even fully formed, righting the bike and finding the keys thankfully still in the ignition. Boy Wonder probably didn't expect to be here long, Kenny thought dryly as he mounted the vehicle, making only a brief mental note to return it later.

"Wait, that's Robin's bike." Mysterion turned his head as he heard the female hero's voice. His apparently accidental attacker was a striking girl wearing a dark green costume, with an exposed midriff and an orange arrowhead emblem emblazoned on its chest. A quiver of arrows was hanging from her shoulder, and a frankly magnificent blonde ponytail was poking out from behind her half-mask, trailing down over her other shoulder. In her hand was an expensive looking bow, leaving Mysterion's mind to jump to the conclusion that she was probably somehow associated with the Star City hero Green Arrow. Given the three other well known young heroes he'd seen, along with the green girl and the S-shirt, Kenny could easily assume she was with them. Which was good enough for him, as he bluntly told her. "i know. Now get on."

"What?" Was her affronted response.

"Get on the bike." He repeated, not seeing the problem.

Hurriedly she began. "I'll take the other-" But cutting her off, seeing as the car was getting further and further away by the second, Mysterion snapped. "I drive, you shoot. Now get on!"

"Oh!" She exclaimed in realisation, hopping on behind him and wrapping one strong, slender arm around his torso, while the other held on to her bow. Then Mysterion revved the engine, and they took off.

It took him about four seconds to gloriously say. "I need to get one of these." Because holy shit were they moving fast. But unfortunately the sedan had a good head start on them, however Kenny had seen it's first turn, and in no time at all he had it back in his sights.

At this time of day the streets in this neighbourhood were pretty barren, so in catching up to the car, Mysterion pulled up behind and to the left of it, telling his passenger. "Archer! Hit the wheels!"

Looping her arm out from around him, the archer took her bow in both hands, pushing herself up on the bike to get a better angle. As a result her chest was pressed right up against Mysterion as she leant on him for balance, with one of her legs now hooked around his chest. And God be damned if Kenny McKormick didn't have a raging… massive desire… for justice… Asserting to himself within his mind that right now he was Mysterion, Kenny kept the bike on a firm course as they sped down the open suburban streets.

The archer fired off arrow after arrow, and when the third did find its mark, hitting the back left tyre directly, the unmarked vehicle swerved violently but did not show any signs of slowing down or coming to a halt. Despite having one of its tyres blown out.

Coming up with a new plan on the fly, Mysterion urged the bike onwards, its engine roaring as they rounded a sharp turn, overtaking the sedan in the process. Once more calling out to his passenger, he shouted over the whipping wind and thunderous engines both car and bike. "Take the wheel!"

"There is no wheel!" She shouted back at him, from where she had rotated to fire arrows back at the car behind them.

"You know what I mean!" He snapped at her acerbic comment, and though he could not see her face, Mysterion could practically hear the rolling of her eyes. Nevertheless she complied with his plan, hitching herself up and over him as he himself ducked down to switch positions with her. Absolutely not getting an erection at all as her legs and thighs slid over his head.

The motorcycle shook for a second, but the archer soon got Robin's borrowed bike back under control, and now Mysterion was in place to commence his plan B.

He threw himself off the back of the motorcycle, and at the tinted windscreen of the abnormally fast and resilient sedan.

He heard a wordless shout of surprise from the archer, as he became momentarily suspended in the air, moving at excessively high speeds. This was the kind of moment where, if he was in a movie, Kenny would expect the slow motion camera to kick in, making it seem like time changed speeds. But no, he was on the bike one second, and smashing into what felt like a reinforced sheet of glass the next.

His hand shot out and grabbed ahold of where the car bonnet made a slight lip up against the window, and he held on. He took a second to reorient himself, then the car started swerving in the road, trying very hard to throw him off.

But Kenny had experienced more discomforting situations than this, and managed to poise himself on the front of the car. Raising his arm high, Mysterion brought his fist down on the glass. It hurt, but the small spider web of cracks that appeared where his hand had hit, was enough to tell him this wasn't a fool's errand. So he punched again, and on the third repetition, his hand met the windscreen at the same time as an arrow did. Both shattering the reinforced glass completely.

Mysterion looked back momentarily, to see the archer girl with one hand on the handlebars, her teeth bared and gritted, half turned to face him having apparently fired an arrow one-handed with her teeth.

Grinning back at her, his hand broken and bloody, Mysterion turned to the car and descended into it. What he found surprised him. The only person in there was the scrawny so-called Ivo sat in the back. In place of a driver the steering wheel seemed to be moving itself, while Ivo was twiddling about with his robot monkey. A phrase Kenny noted was probably a euphemism.

Ivo looked up, shock and fear overtaking his expression, as he saw Mysterion's figure taking up the place where the windscreen should've been. Seemingly throwing caution to the wind, Ivo flung his metal primate at Mysterion just as he entered the vehicle, yelling in a panicked, piping voice as he did so. "Abort; sequence 4!"

As Mysterion shoved the motionless robot to the side, he was alarmed to see Ivo reach for the door of the speeding car, open it, and jump out… For a second, Kenny was left at a loss for what had possessed this normal man to do such a thing. Then whatever Ivo had commanded the machines, took effect and Mysterion realised why Ivo did not want to be in this car right now.

The steering wheel wrenched itself to the side, there was a screeching of rubber on asphalt, and the unremarkable black vehicle lifted up off of the ground.

Rending metal and smashing glass was all Mysterion could hear as the car flipped, barrel rolling through the air and continuing on to tumble down the road. His left leg was snapped between the gear stick the bent metal of the roof. His arms were caught and macerated against the road, from where he'd been scrambling to get out the open door Ivo had left through. Then finally, as the car rolled to a clamorous halt, Mysterion, still alive, found himself face to face with the flashing red eyes of Ivo's last metal ape.

Beep… Beep… Beep…

He only managed to gurgle out a last curse word, before the monkey exploded, incinerating his body and igniting the car and it's fuel tank, causing further combustion in the wrecked sedan.

—?M?—

Artemis had pulled Robin's bike to a stop in a nearby alleyway; she was distressed and disturbed after having seen that stranger in the question mark hood be blown up in the wreck. But as she waited out of sight to see if the paramedics could pull him free from the wreck, she was growing ever more disconcerted.

After having watched from afar for a good ten minutes, she and the distant paramedics were puzzling over the fact that there was no body.

She had seen him in the car as it flipped, she had definitely not seen him get out before it exploded… Unless he had superpowers of some kind, there was no way he could've gotten free. Was there?

As she wondered on this, the teenager heard someone cough behind her, and when she turned around the young hero was presented with one of the last things she wanted to see.

Her mentor was standing there, with none other than the Batman beside him… She was in deep trouble.

—?M?—

A/N: I guess I should stop saying when the next chapter will probably be, huh? Yeah it took a while, but I've been busy as ever. Although this chapter did go through a number of drafts, and originally the whole thing with Artemis and the car chase wasn't even in it. But hey, I think it turned out quite well.

Anyway, since I take so long with these chapters, if you have any burning questions, leave them in a review and maybe every other update I'll answer one or two of them.

Make sure to tell me what you think in a review, follow/favourite if you liked it, and as always, thank you for reading!