Try to Remember
Chapter 13: Denied
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the established fictional materials used in this crossover.
—?M?—?M?—?M?—
"You're a has-been, Nabu! Not even that old fogey wants you anymore!" Screeched Klarion, throwing bolt after bolt of blood red lightning at the avatar of order. The projectiles were met with a dwindling forcefield of flickering golden energy, but as Fate fought to draw up enough power to throw the irritating Witch Boy off, he and the other Lord were frozen solid by a sound never before heard in the hallowed halls of the Tower of Fate.
It was a gunshot. The lonely, echoing rapport of a handgun, and twinned with it, as if on cue, Klarion the Witch Boy keeled over. Screaming in pain, Klarion's burning eyes lashed out towards where his familiar, Teekl, lay bleeding not ten feet away.
"I didn't set out to kill a cat today, but I'm sure as hell up for putting a whiny little bitch in his place." Their eyes, along with those of Kent Nelson, went immediately to the speaker.
Standing off to the side, thrown clear earlier by a blast of energy and momentarily forgotten about, was Mysterion. A sizzling scar evident on his chest, directly positioned over his heart. Purple cloak flipping idly in the light wind. Shadowed eyes, cold and steady underneath his mask and hood. Arm outstretched, pointing a grubby handgun right at a pussycat.
"My cat! You shot my cat! You, shot, my cat!?" Disbelief and pain bled throughout Klarion's indignant exclamation, scurrying over to his familiar and hissing darkly as he scooped up the animal. "I'll get you for t-eep!" The Chaos Lord's tirade was cut off as another bullet impacted the ground at his feet, eliciting a high pitched yelp from him and causing the Witch Boy to blink out of existence, summoning a roiled black portal to quickly teleport himself and his familiar out of harms way.
The dust settled. Dr. Fate's glimmering golden cape swirled behind him as the Lord of Order got to his feet, staring pointedly at Mysterion. Kent Nelson, did much the same, dismissing the golden shield spell he himself had been hiding behind for the duration of the fight.
There was, what can only be described, as a very awkward silence. The kind of silence that falls only when three, mysterious, magical, powerful entities meet at the same point… It happens more often than you would think, but here the attitudes of each of the individuals were evident, no matter how little of their face was visible. In fact, the clarity of intent seemed all the more obvious the less of someone's face there was to see. Doctor Fate, with Wally's face obscured under that golden bell, was by far the easiest to read. Staring as he was, directly at where Mysterion stood, an almost tangible air of vicious suspicion, and eager interest hanging about him. Mysterion, with face half obscured, was obviously unfazed by the Lord of Order's attention, but still clearly angry at the opposing Lord who had just fled. Kent Nelson, who wore no mask, held an expression that was practically unreadable, other than to say he looked kind. Which one could say of the old sorcerer at almost any moment of the day, being as he was, a kind old man.
"I will see the children safely out, and then we three must talk." The Doctor said, his voice tolling like an ominous bell. And as the golden age hero teleported away in the flash of a golden ankh, Kenny couldn't help but smugly smirk that from the Doctor's tone, it seemed like he wasn't included among the 'children'. That smugness was short-lived however, as he then realised he didn't have much of a clue as to what Fate would want with him. Which was a lie, as he had various things that a being such as Fate might want to 'talk' with him about, but a lie to oneself is as easy to believe as it is to tell.
His thoughts were cut off however, as Kent Nelson approached him, leaning heavily on his cane. "Thank goodness you're alright. I'd feared you… well." In that moment Kenny could see, drawn on the old man's face, such an image of relief and worry that Kenny himself would have troubles with the guilt if he had died to that blast. Even if the old guy would've forgotten the 'loss' before you can say five stages of grief.
"Don't worry, I'm fine." Mysterion said, as he hurriedly tried to hide the obviously 'not fine' burn mark that was melting across his skin. "You good?"
"Hm? Yes, yes I'm fine, thanks to you of course." It showed how little thought Kenny had put into it, that for a short moment he didn't remember what Nelson was referring to. It was scarcely a second that he forgot he'd saved the sorcerer's life, but Nelson's expression changed as such in that moment, that it was clear he'd noticed the lapse in memory.
"Is, what's-his-name… Wally, wearing the…?" The question was rhetorical, and Nelson knew so, supplying the answer that Kenny actually wanted to ask for.
"Don't worry. Fate will let him go, the boy couldn't cast a spell to save his life, let alone bear the Helmet of Fate." If Kenny wasn't mistaken there was a slight look of uncertainty on the old man's face, but he dismissed it for now.
"Why Wally then?" Mysterion asked, curiously. "Why didn't you put the helmet on yourself?"
Just then Nelson let out a breath that Kenny wasn't sure he'd been holding or not. Giving out a burdensome sigh, Nelson answered with a melancholic look in his eye. "Honestly? I was scared. Scared that at my age Fate wouldn't be as durable as he needed to be to fight Klarion, and scared that if I was? I'd be trapped again."
"So you let some know nothing kid put it on instead?" Mysterion didn't mean to sound so accusatory, but he couldn't help the thought that this old man had doomed some kid, just because he was scared.
"No. Fate will let him go, I'll make sure of it." Now the doubt was gone from his voice, and the conviction with which Nelson now spoke did something to assuage Kenny's concern. The two of them shared a look for a moment, one that spoke perhaps of things only old souls know of certainty like that. But perhaps it was just the awkward silence that falls between two newly introduced strangers. "Well we best go find your friends then." Continued the elderly wizard, leaning on his cane as he started walking towards where an elevator had just risen up out of the flagstone floor.
"Wouldn't call them friends." Mysterion replied as he fell instep alongside Kent. "I've never met them before."
"You and Artemis seemed to know each other." Nelson said, providing small talk as they crossed the threshold of the lift, and turned to catch one last view of the blasted rooftop.
"Hm, more like acquaintance." Were Mysterion's dismissive words as the stone doors slid shut, sealing them inside the magically moving box.
—?M?—
The first formal introduction between Mysterion and the assembled team of teenage superheroes, was not particularly memorable. In so much as it didn't really occur. As Kenny and Kent emerged onto the main floor of the Tower, to find the group of burnt and bruised teens slowly recollecting themselves, Mysterion himself faded into the background, becoming a part of Nelson's shadow as they stood side by side throughout the exchange between the sorcerer supreme and the being who called itself Fate. Kenny for his part didn't pretend to know how to negotiate with such a being, not as well as Kent Nelson would at any rate, hence he remained quiet. On the team's part they seemed to err on the same side of the coin as him.
Sure enough Nelson's earlier words proved true, and Fate did relinquish his hold on the redheaded Wally, but not before some quiet words were traded between the two. During this time, Mysterion was left standing with his four peers.
"Who are you." It was the one with the iconic S emblazoned on his shirt who broke the silence, rather abruptly aiming his question at Mysterion.
Regarding this Superboy with a sidelong glance from under his hood, Kenny answered reasonably, despite the standoffishness. "I'm Mysterion…" Before raising his chin and rebuking the demand with equal stony stoicism."Who the hell are you."
In an effort to keep the peace, one of the team took a small step forwards; a tall boy, whose superhero mentor Kenny could not immediately place. "I apologise for the bluntness of my teammate. I am Kaldur'ahm. This is Superboy, M'gann, Artemis."
Not waiting for a response in kind, Artemis butted in to ask a question that seemed to have been eating at her, if her anxiousness to ask it was any indication. "So, what are you doing here?"
Keen to play coy, as opposed to come clean with what they clearly didn't already know, Mysterion reversed her question back at her. "I could ask you the same thing."
"Red Tornado sent us here to-" The blonde archer barely got into her explanation, when she was hastily interrupted by the other girl in the team.
"Artemis! We're not supposed to tell-" But in return Artemis cut her friend off as well, before any further worry could amount.
"It doesn't matter M'gann, he already knows who we are. He was with me when AMAZO crashed at Gotham Academy. I'm pretty sure he can put two and two together." With this Artemis looked from one member of her team to the next, begrudgingly shedding light on what had gone on behind the scenes that evening at Gotham Academy. Kenny at least had the good graces to feel like he'd unintentionally broken a secret pact, and looked away for a moment.
In an attempt at graciousness, Mysterion shrugged and illuminated. "You're not wrong. But I guess I'll answer. I was sent to check on this old timer, making sure he hadn't kicked the bucket." It may have expanded from there, but Kent Nelson returned at that point, the helmet of Fate held firmly in his grip, with a rather shaken speedster standing beside him.
"Now, you kids better get going, wouldn't want to be out too late." The old man said with a smile, before beginning the process of ushering them politely out of his tower. At the door though, Nelson caught Kenny by the shoulder, and being at the back of the group Mysterion stopped and looked at the old man. Nelson gaze the kind of nod that speaks volumes without actually implying anything constructive. But it was enough to get Kenny to stop and stay with the sorcerer supreme at the door to the tower.
The team were a good few feet away when Artemis looked back to see the two mystic figures standing silhouetted in the doorway. Raising an eyebrow she called back impulsively. "You're not coming?"
"No." Was the measured but not unkind response. "Tell Robin I said hi though." And with the hint of a smirk, Mysterion and Kent Nelson stepped back into the tower of Fate, and the door closed behind them. Leaving Artemis, once more, utterly at a loss for what to think of this individual. At least this time she wasn't alone however.
In fact, as the archer turned to rejoin her team, she noticed they too had stopped, and were staring back at the tower as it began to fade from visibility.
Kaldur, still trying to walk the path of an attentive team leader, noticed something about the way M'gann was staring at the space where the tower had been. Something Artemis herself only noticed by virtue of her seeing Kaldur perceive it. "M'gann? What's wrong…?"
"Back in the Tower. I couldn't read Mysterion's mind." The usually jovial martian's tone was worried and contemplative. Rightly so, Artemis considered, as her own curiosity broadened.
Jumping to a conclusion based on past experiences better left in the past, Superboy narrowed his eyes and said. "Mysterion's a robot?"
"Why didn't you say anything! What if he's about to attack Mr. Nelson!" His super speed seemed to help Wally when it came to leaping on points like this, a trait that Artemis could admit she did not find utterly infuriating about him.
"Wait wait wait!" Surprising her, it was M'gann who stopped the two more hotheaded members of their team before their ideas could run away with them. "I don't know he's a robot. I couldn't get anything from him, no emotions, no thoughts, it's like his mind wasn't even there. But I got the same from Wally when he had the helmet on, and sort of the same from Mr. Nelson."
"So you just read everyone's mind, is that it." Superboy's grumble did not go unheard, as M'gann spun around to wave her hands at him in denial.
"No-no-no-no! I only did it to see if they were telling the truth, I swear! But I couldn't read Wally at all, and I think Mr. Nelson just, let me in?" With M'gann pulling at her hair and looking so worried as to what the team might think of her, it was hard for the cloned Kryptonian to maintain his hostility in earnest.
Kaldur meanwhile placed a hand to his chin, and spoke thoughtfully. "Nelson is a powerful magician, it would make sense for him to have a method of blocking attempted mind-reading."
Darting her eyes to look back at the space previously occupied by the tower, Artemis posed the question she had asked herself several times tonight already. First when the mystery boy appeared in the elevator with about as much fanfare as someone dropping in on an old friend. And second when he had stood there next to Knet Nelson not one minute ago, and stepped back into the tower with him like that same old friend returning home. "So what does that make Mysterion then?"
"Hello Megan! It's obvious!" Maybe to a martian it was, but the rest of the team remained silent, until it became clear that the air-headed alien needed further prompting.
"… Is it?"
"Yes! He must be Mr. Nelson's protege! Clearly this Mystery boy is a powerful mystic too!" The explanation fit, but something stopped Artemis from immediately latching onto it, as one often does with ideas that fit the mould so easily.
Kaldur agreed, but if his tone was anything to go by he shared her skepticism. "That would seem to make sense."
Wally surprised her then, not by showing any different or more open-minded opinions, god forbid. But by speaking with an attitude that resembled, if she dared hope, thoughtful consideration. "On the roof Mysterion took a hit for Nelson. Didn't think about it just jumped in it's path…"
It was the fact itself that made Artemis think that M'gann might be onto something after all. "I'd say that's pretty convincing evidence."
"Yet Wally, you do not sound convinced." Trust Kaldur to pick up on the speedster's real feeling however.
"On the roof Mysterion was the one who cut the connection between Klarion and his cat; the cat was what let him stay in his physical form…" In another rare moment of thoughtfulness, Wally paused to juggle with his thoughts.
"But…?" Superboy prompted, suspicion lacing his tone.
"He used a gun…" The confused and concerned look on Wally's face matched the incongruous statement well. "Not very mystical if you ask me."
There was a stretch of silence between the friends then, before their leader began affirmatively. "… We will inform Batman during mission debrief, but for now Wally, we'll put it out of mind."
Then the team began the slow walk back to the bioship, but, not to let the walk be in stoic silence, Kaldur said. "I trust you will be more accepting of the mystic arts now though, Wally?"
As if the challenge had sparked some semblance of life back into him, Wally leapt to his ego's defence. "Woah! Who said I was accepting anything! Klarion just used unstable molecular phase shifting technology to replicate these 'magic' powers, and the cat was probably a highly-"
Not willing to let an opportunity slide, Artemis interrupted to say. "Can it, idiot, we get the picture."
—?M?—?M?—?M?—
A/N: Shorter chapter this time, it was originally longer, but I shifted some of the end into next chapter so I could get something out sooner. Plus next chapter kind of deserves to be its own thing, as opposed to an end to this one. But yeah, thirteen chapters, and I don't even want to think about how much time later, and Mysterion finally shares a few words with the young justice team. Hooray!
Oh, and regarding the fractured but whole, I have no plans to include any of the material from the game in this. Only because I have no means to play the game at all! (Thanks for the mac support Ubisoft) I'd watch a play through, but that's just not the same. Also I have to juggle so much combined lore already when I think about this story. I love south park, the Cthulhu mythos and young justice, but there's only so many times I can read/rematch an episode/book, let alone a season. So for now y'all who've gotten to play the new south park game can just bask in my envy.
Thanks for reading, if you read the authors note as well, thank you especially, i'm glad my rambling has reached someone. Follow, favourite, and review if you like! Till next time - Faff