"A lord of chaos, can you guys really believe we took out a whole lord of chaos?!" Kid Flash exclaimed as he held the helm of Dr. Fate high over his head. He smiled brightly though didn't dare to put it on his head. "And check out my sweet new souvenir. Wait until Robin finds out what we did tonight he's going to be sooo jealous!"

"You should be careful with that thing, Wally," Superboy cautioned as he stepped through the Zeta Beam tunnel. His black shirt was singed by Klarion's dark powers, leaving him smelling of ancient magics and dust. Bits of his shirt had been seared away, exposing stretches of fair skin along his shoulders and ribs. He peeled off the ruined shirt in disgust, balled it up, and chucked it across Mission Central.

"I think you're still miffed Klarion managed to blast you so good," Wally returned. "But that was just at the start, before we really knew what he could do. After that, he barely landed a hit. You and Miss M had his head spinning before Dr. Fate stepped in. You kept him off me long enough to make the choice to put on the helm."

Aqualad put a hand on Superboy's shoulder and smiled proudly. "It was well done. Your skills and M'gann's have improved greatly. You two fought as if you had been on a team for years, not merely months. I am glad our first showing as a team was a good one."

"You all performed admirably," Red Tornado agreed from above. The Scarlet Cyclone slowly drifted from above until he stood in their midst. "Debriefing will wait until the morning. For now, rest and recuperate."

"All right!" Wally cheered. "We stopped a lord of chaos and we get the rest of the night off, Sah-weeet!"

Aqualad nodded to Red Tornado. "Agreed. It can wait until the morning. And it has been a very long night."

"Yeah." Superboy rubbed the back of his neck trying to work out the stiffness he already felt settling in. "And I think we'll all be feeling it in the morning. I got bumped around in the Tower of Fate like a pinball."

Kid Flash ran an easy dozen laps around the team. "Haha, not me, I'm going to be right as rain," he assured them, poking a thumb against his chest. He skidded to a stop in front of the team and began tossing the helm of fate from one hand to the other like it was some sort of ball "Well, g'night everybody! C'mon Aqualad, let's find the perfect spot for my souvenir."

Aqualad sighed, resigning himself to his fate of helping Wally pick out a spot on the shelf for the helm. Speedster and Atlantean walked off, Kid Flash's excited voice echoing off the walls until they turned a corner and it faded.

Superboy couldn't help but smile at Wally's familiar excitement and antics then looked to his right. He knew M'gann would still be there. He could feel her, not in his mind just… around. She had been oddly silent since their encounter with Klarion. Magic had not been a thing they used on Mars and braving the lava at the bottom of the tower had been… harrowing for her. He could still see a faint hint of anxiety across her face. She held her left arm but she wasn't hurt, not physically that was.

"You did good," Superboy blurted, not knowing why he said it.

M'gann blinked twice and came back to the present, her eyes finding his. "What? Oh. Uh… thanks. You did too. That move down in the lava pit… if you hadn't scooped me up I would be a lump of Martian charcoal at the bottom of Fate's Tower."

"Hey, you're the one the who figured out how to get us out of there. That's pretty impressive when faced with your biggest fear just a few feet below you." He shrugged.

"Yes, from what little information we received from your communications you two saved the team from certain death, working together to ensure success." Red Tornado stepped forward, his red metal dome swiveling from Superboy to M'gann. "I believe this mission has satisfied the criteria for your house-arrest."

Superboy spun fully to face him. Excitement shone clear upon his face, a near smile on his lips. "You mean we can finally leave Mount Justice without having to be on a mission?"

"Yes."

M'gann clapped happily, jumping in delight. "Whoo-hoo!"

"Yes!" Superboy pumped a fist into the air.

"Just in time for school," Red Tornado finished.

Superboy's arms fell limp. Disbelief chased away his excitement. "What?"

"School," Red Tornado repeated as if Superboy had not heard him.

Superboy slapped his chest with both palms. "What do we need school for?" He swung an arm towards M'gann. "Martian Girl is a, well, Martian, and I was spoon fed all the information I need through those little gremlins beneath Cadmus Labs. We don't need school." Was this some kind of joke? Was the League purposefully trying to make him quit the team with all their nonsense? Who had authorized him going to school?

"There is more to school than just books and learning." If he had not had the robotic voice, Superboy was sure Red Tornado would have sighed. "Both of you are, simplistically speaking, sixteen years old. Both of you have had very little socialization outside of the team and the various television programs you watch. It has been decided by Batman who, in not so many words, expressed the sentiment that you experience the planet you defend. Black Canary used a much more… succinct turn of phrase, she called it 'living a little'."

Superboy huffed. "And you, they, think that means putting up with high school?"

"Yes."

Every part of Superboy wanted nothing more than to pummel his fists into Red Tornado's red dome, but he looked over to M'gann and felt a hint of his raging anger fading. She didn't look angry or disbelieving, merely anxious. She wouldn't push back against the order, she never did, but she was an alien with very little idea of human interaction. He had been spoon-fed enough of it, but it would be miles worse for her.

More of his anger faded as he focused on her. Maybe he might have been able to refuse, but M'gann was too… too eager to please, too good to rebel, especially if it had the blessing of her Uncle J'onn. If he refused she would have to go alone and that sat like ice in the bottom of his stomach.

"Fine," Superboy spat. "When do we start this charade?"

"You will find that by the end of the week both of you have been enrolled in the Fall semester at Happy Harbor High." Red Tornado's bulk turned toward M'gann. "You already have a human alias, Megan Mars." He swiveled to Superboy next. "You have yet to disclose an alias, Superboy. You have until the end of the week to adequately provide one."

Superboy shook his head stubbornly. "Like hell I will!"

"If you do not, one will be provided for you." Red Tornado lifted his palm and a holo screen like the one on Robin's gauntlet appeared, the color red instead of blue. Slowly spinning in the center of the hologram screen was a school ID with Superboy's face on it and a name – Eugene Munch.

Superboy stared at it wide-eyed. "Oh come on that is such a lame name! I'm not going to be Eugune!"

"Then I suggest you think of your own." Red Tornado closed his fist, ending the hologram. "You have a week."

0000

Superboy lifted the two-ton weight angrily. Sweat soaked his new shirt and made the bench he lay upon slick. The bar he lifted groaned under the massive weights he had affixed to the ends. How many reps he had done he didn't know. His arms and back ached and he clenched his teeth but still he continued to bench press the weights. He was dead-tired from the encounter with Klarion but he wouldn't, couldn't, stop until he was exhausted.

Morning would be there in a few hours. He hadn't slept. His mind still cycled through Red Tornado's words. A week. He had one week to think of some name and get shunted out into the real world. Why couldn't he just be left alone? Why couldn't they just leave the weapon in its preferred sheath until they needed to use him?

"Superboy?" M'gann's soft voice drove the thought away.

Superboy turned his head toward the door and there she was. She was in regular cloths now, her preferred mode of dress of ballerina flats, a short skirt, and a blouse with a cardigan over it. Everyone had "civilian" clothes they wore when not training or on missions, everyone except him.

Stubbornly pushing the thought away, he looked back at the ceiling and performed another muscle-aching rep. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Couldn't." She stepped forward and from the corner of his eye he saw her stop a foot away from the bench. "I'm really excited about the whole school thing." She admitted smally. "I'm nervous but excited."

Superboy grunted as he pushed himself, sweat running down his brow and into his black hair. "Why are you nervous? You'll be a natural. You already can look like a normal human. Give it a week and you'll fit right in."

M'gann pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Well I don't think it'll be that easy. There's a lot of stuff about humans I still don't understand."

"Yeah, join the club."

He sensed trepidation rolling off of her, as if she was on the verge of saying something but was almost too scared to say it. "That's not all I'm worried about, though," she finally admitted, her voice softening more. "I'm worried about you."

Superboy forced the weight up with anger alone, his arms shaking. "I'm fine."

"You didn't seem fine when Red Tornado brought it up," she replied. She brightened at a sudden thought, her excitement and chipper-ness on full display. "But that's why I came here to help assure you. It's going to be great. They'll be lots of new friends and dances and parties and hanging out at malls and food courts. It'll be perfect. If you're nervous I think we could talk about it. I know some amazing television shows that kind of show what high school is like. There's a really popular one Beverly Hills 9021–

"I'm not nervous!" Superboy shouted. Enraged, he tossed the two-ton weight. The hefty bar went sailing over the exercise room and landed with a crash, though fortunately didn't damage anything more than the floor, leaving huge, half-moon dents in the metal.

M'gann squeaked, taken aback by the ferocity but she stood her ground. She didn't ask him aloud what was bothering him, but he could feel the question between them.

He looked over at her, eyes flashing angrily. Her hands were drawn up under her chin, eyes filled with confusion and compassion for him. She was never scared of his outbursts, just concerned. He wished she would get mad at him or even afraid, at least then he might feel justified or guilty. As it was, he felt neither. He felt something he couldn't understand, drawn to her as if seeking to explain everything in his head and heart.

He hoped that maybe she would leave but she didn't, she never did. Where the others would leave him alone and give him space to bury whatever was bother him, she stayed. She never ran from him.

Superboy fought the sudden urge to bark a mirthless laugh. Why didn't she see him for what he was – a dangerous, volatile weapon? The first thing parents taught their kids about weapons was to never touch them, to be afraid of them, to leave them alone, but M'gann never seemed to have gotten the memo and he didn't know whether that was good or bad.

"Superboy?" It was soft and understand coming from her lips. It was like a spell, banishing the rioting emotions he felt brewing. He didn't know why but her voice sometimes felt like a light high above the black murk of his feelings, bright and hopeful and he couldn't help, even against his better judgement, to reach for it. Her presence and voice brought something out in him, something different and though he tried his best to keep it locked away, he never could, not with her.

Slowly, Superboy sat up on the weight bench. He swung his legs over the side until his feet were firmly planted on the floor and his arms were perched on his knees. He looked down, his chin on his chest. "It's hard to explain," he admitted at last.

M'gann sank to her knees in front of him and looked up so that her bright green eyes found his sullen blue. Her smile softened the spiky edges of his emotions. "I'm willing to listen."

Her understanding and kindness undid him. Everyone in Mount Justice and the League were nice enough, most of them even kind, but not like her. They didn't make him want to spill his guts, she did. For a moment he thought about freezing her out, then she touched his hand and he realized he couldn't. She wasn't forcing him too, not reading his mind or anything. He just… he needed to tell her, she was the only one he could.

"It's not the high school part that gets me. It's the… alias. I've…" The anger receded slightly from his face, revealing the pain beneath. "I've only ever had the name Superboy, a code-name given to me by Cadmus while they were trying to speed up my aging again. It was going slowly so Superboy just sort of stuck until they could figure out how to accelerate my aging again and make me Superman two-point-oh. I've never had a real name. I'm just… Superboy."

"Haven't you ever thought about another name?" M'gann asked gently.

Superboy shrugged. "Sure, thousands of times, but what's the point? I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be anything with a real life. I'm a weapon, a thing grown in a test tube, a rouge piece of Cadmus Labs property. Things don't give themselves names, the people that make them do and no one bothered to give me a real one so why should I?"

"None of us asked to be here." M'gann squeezed his hand faintly and he thought for a moment his heart would stop. "You're not a thing. You're a person. It doesn't matter how you got here, only that you are here. Your life is yours. You've been given something most people never get – you get to make your own destiny outside of the influences that made you. You're starting fresh, you're not just Superboy, you're more than that and you deserve a real name like anyone else."

Superboy cursed and brushed a hand through his sweaty hair. "I don't… I don't think I can do it. It's… I…." He paused and let his gaze fall shamefully to the floor. "Will you… give me one?"

"Me?" she asked smally, breathlessly.

He smiled weakly. "Yeah, you picked a no brainer for your human alias. M'gann to Megan. They're both really… pretty."

M'gann's hand touched his cheek, lifting his head up again to meet her gaze. He couldn't help but notice her blushing, the red stark against the green. It reminded him of what the imps mentally told him about Christmas.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

He nodded, feeling her thumb caress his cheek. "I'm not doing a good job of it; you might as well pick."

M'gann's brows furrowed thoughtfully. "Well, there was this old television show I used to watch on Mars…"

"You guys have TV?"

"Uncle J'onn sends us television broadcasts," she explained. "Martians love TV. We find it so interesting that Earthling never developed psychic power so decided to play out fantasies on screens and stages. It's so… human." She shook her head before she could get distracted. "Anyway there was one show I watched all the time… there was a character on it with black hair and blue eyes. He was my favorite. His name was Conner."

"Conner?" Superboy repeated the name hopefully. "Sure is miles better than Eugene." He toyed with the name mentally then gave a nod. "I like it. Conner what though?"

"Conner… Conner er…." Epiphany suddenly blossomed upon her beautiful face. "Conner Kent."

"Like Kent Nelson?" Superboy asked, following her line of thought.

"Sure, he was a nice guy and really powerful. If it wasn't for that mission tonight we might still be on house-arrest."

Superboy huffed a low laugh. "Yeah that's true." He looked up towards the sky. "Thanks Mr. Nelson." He lowered his gaze again, his eyes falling back upon M'gann. "And thank you. I know I've been a real jerk calling you Martian Girl… I'm… I'm sorry."

M'gann smiled and squeezed his hand tighter. "Apology accepted on one condition."

"Sure," he agreed hastily. "Whatever you want."

"When we're, well, just like this, in the cave I mean, and not on a mission, just call me M'gann and I'll call you Conner. Everyone deserves to use their real name too."

Conner smiled. His heart thudded brutally against his ribs. "It's a deal…M'gann."

Silence bound the two like a thread. Both afraid of it but both afraid to break it as well.

Conner stared spell-bound into her eyes, then he placed a hand on the back of her neck, lowered his head and kissed her.

He could have almost flown like Superman when he felt her kiss him back.