The house was coming together.
What had once been a mess of forgotten, dusty rooms, faded wallpaper, run down blinds, and faulty wiring now breathed with new life. Wooden floors were polished, walls repainted, doors un-stuck, floorboards, replaced, pest terminated, and a laundry list of other things had all been done to bring the house back to better days.
At first Conner had been the only one making any changes, but now M'gann had fully gotten into the swing of restoration as well. It made the days and weeks go by faster, especially since they hadn't gotten anywhere with the Perfection case.
M'gann couldn't help but liken the clean-up to one of those home improvement shows her mother liked to watch on Mars. J'aan M'orzz didn't understand how or why humans liked to live in such strange homes, but she watched those programs religiously and, apparently, moms on Earth did the same as well. M'gann had never gotten the appeal, but now actually working to make the house better, seeing and feeling the difference every day she thought she understood a little bit more.
It was exciting to see a home brought back to life, however, those shows never mentioned how much dust there always was!
M'gann coughed and flapped a hand in the air as she tried to shoo the dust out of her face. Though she and Conner had worked hard to clean and restore the rest of the house, the basement was in the worse shape of all.
It was spacious place but incredibly crowded. Everything that hadn't been deemed fit to stay upstairs had been thrown below without even the care of a sheet to cover it. The floor was gritty and grimy beneath her heels and the tell-tale signs of mice were everywhere. She could barely see how much of a challenge tackling the basement was going to be for a single naked bulb with a long string of metal beads dangling down was the only light for the whole affair.
Still, it needed doing and the Martian was undaunted. Conner was still painting the outside of the house but when he was done he intended to join her. If there was anything she couldn't do alone they would tackle it together.
It had always been like that, hadn't it, she mused privately. For nearly as long as she had been on Earth and he had been free of Cadmus Labs they had been together. She had taken his hand two years ago and together they brought out Conner Kent, teaching him he wasn't a weapon, but a person with many facets to himself, and he had done the same for her after Perfection's attack, taking her hand and making her see the M'gann that she was, White Martian and all. Their two-month split had been their greatest wound and rift, but even that was healing now. Conner was hers again and she was his and together they could take on the world.
For a moment M'gann pondered if that was the meaning of the word "soul-mate" but the sudden thought made her stomach flutter and her hearts to race. Unsure what to do with the sudden surge of emotions she pushed them back and forced herself to focus on the task at hand.
Cluttered basement. First step. Remove clutter.
M'gann pulled away an old, broken ironing board leaning against a precarious tower of dust-choked junk. She didn't even know where to start, but something was better than nothing.
Her long arms reached out grabbing boxes and lamps and old tools for car repair, moving them towards the bottom of the stairs, then using her telekinesis to lift the items to the top of the stairs. Once she had a sizable pile at the top of the stairs she intended to levitate it out of the house and into Bio-ship and repeat the process until she was done. She was in the middle of dragging out what looked like parts to an old dryer when, to her left, a mouse-eaten couch cushion tumbled off the top of large stack of packed cardboard boxes. The stiff, ruined cushion created a chain reaction and an avalanche of junk fell in its wake.
M'gann coughed and swatted at the air again. She took a step back, wondering what Conner would think to see her beaten by dust-bunnies but the dust began to settle just as quickly as it had been stirred, and when the flurry was over she saw a floor-length mirror that had been hidden behind the cardboard heap staring at her.
From the single naked bulb hanging in the basement M'gann caught the full reflection of herself. Dismay found her but she didn't look away. With an easy pull of her power, she used her returning telekinesis to bring the mirror to her. The floor-length mirror floated free from the dusty tumble of boxes and slowly sailed in her direction. When it was at arm's length it came to a stop and levitated in front of her.
M'gann stared into the mirror intently. The chalk-white flesh and strange shaped eyes seemed to stare back at her admonishingly, as if asking why she was doing this to herself. Had she really believed all those things she had just been thinking about Conner and herself? Did she really think he would want her as a soul-mate? Did she really think she was anything other than what she was?
She pushed the desultory thoughts away and though it was often hard, it came a little easier this time. She hadn't brought the mirror over to bemoan her White Martian form, she had brought it over to try and fix it. Her black and orange eyes bored into the reflection of themselves as she concentrated on her shape and skin and color and hair.
Snippets of the titular character from Hello Megan! ran through her mind as she focused, her body responding to the images like a memory. To a Martian shape-shifting came as easy as breathing but she couldn't describe it like that to Conner. It took some practice of course and she likened it more to painting. Her body was like ink and canvas. She could see something and then simply translate it in another way, "painting" what she had seen of someone onto herself.
A twinge of pain radiated in her mind, nearly like the stiffness of an arm finally getting out of a cast but she ignored it. Instead she focused on the character of Megan as she had so often done as a child. She focused on how the actress had looked and moved and spoken. The still-images racing in her brain made her close her eyes as she rolodexed through them and finally pin-pointed, her favorite image of the actress. It was the titular Megan at the start of each episode right as the final notes to the theme song were ending. There Megan stood on the stoop of her Sunny Dale home, smiling as she waved to the camera. She was bright, cheerful, and funny, the perfect Earth Girl, everything M'gann wanted to be.
Another spike of pain lanced the Martian, causing her to jolt forward. Her eyes snapped open but looking back at her were not the black-orange eyes of a White Martian, but the soft green eyes of Megan. She looked exactly as she had before the Perfection defeat, the Megan who had attended Happy Harbor High and who had often smacked her own forehead with a resounding "Hello Megan!" when something finally struck her.
A cry of delight escaped M'gann's throat but the sound didn't belong to a human, it sounded still very much Martian. The unexpected sound rattled her and her body rippled as she lost the shape, the white, tall looming Martian staring back into the glass.
Distress gnawed at the edges of M'gann's emotions as she stared at herself once more, but she was too elated to let it overwhelm her. Her abilities, all of her abilities, were coming back. The shape-shifting was becoming the slowest to heal but healing it was. J'onn had been right, she would make a full recovery.
Leaning forward she stared at herself more intently and tried to shape-shift again. She winced physically as the pain grew greater. She knew she was pushing it but she had to see it again, had to be sure it wasn't just her imagination. Her Martian body rippled and the form of Megan appeared in the mirror again. M'gann strained to keep it, trying to ensure there were no errors. She had taken the form for years, she knew it well, but the longer she stared at herself the more she felt that something seemed… off.
No, not precisely off, the form was still correct but looking at herself it barely seemed like she knew the girl.
Once more the form rippled as she lost her control over the shift. The White Martian stared dismally back at her and though M'gann wanted to try again she decided not to push for a few hours. She would get stronger but today was not that day.
A series of light knocks on the open door at the top of the stairs, rattled M'gann from her reverie.
"M'gann you okay down there?" Conner asked concerned.
"Oh yeah I'm fine, why?" She prowled to the bottom of the steps and looked up to see a paint-splattered Conner with an old beaded lampshade on his head.
The Boy of Steel looked both concerned and slightly amused as he tilted the lampshade to one side. "I wish you had warned me you were going to levitate all the old junk to bio-ship, I sort of got caught in the crossfire."
M'gann's brows furrowed. "I thought I was only levitating stuff to the top of the stairs."
"Yeah I did too until an ironing board knocked me off the ladder and I got hit in the head with a lamp," he laughed. "Looks like the telekinesis is back in full force."
M'gann shook her head. "I'm sorry, Conner. I didn't have a clue it was going all the way out there. I've never had that kind of range before…."
"You worried?" he asked with renewed concern.
Taking a deep breath she shook her head once more. "No, but I do think it's time to finally test my abilities and see just how much I've healed."
0000
"So far I am utterly whelmed," Dick said to himself as he watched workings of the warehouse below him.
To the unsuspecting eye the warehouse looked like any other, a dingy, rundown building on the city's riverside, probably used to smuggle in whatever street drugs were being manufactured in Gotham, but a little investigation on his part had revealed nothing of the sort passed through the warehouse doors nor did junkies or criminals looking for a quick payday.
Shipments of strange and exotic minerals, plants, and other materials went through the warehouse, all off the books of course and all of it ruled by Lex Luthor.
His name wasn't on anything, no he was too clever for that, but they were smuggled and shipped out all over the US to half a dozen different shell companies, all who seemed to be involved with Lex Corp in some vague, undefinable way.
Lex had hid his interests in the shell companies and the smuggling expertly. Anything Dick had tied to the Lex Corp name was purely circumstantial and would never hold up in a court of law, but looking to get Luthor thrown in prison wasn't on his list of things to-do tonight. Tonight, Luthor got a pass. He was on the hunt for the Red X.
Even as the hated name crossed his mind there came a disturbance from the western quadrant of the large warehouse.
A burly thug yelled in alarm but the sound was quickly silenced. The thugs beneath Dick dropped their cargo, drew weapons from their jackets, and raced over to the noise. Dick reached for his grappling hook then recalled it was no longer there. He cursed mentally and leapt to a strut, swinging himself back and forth until he swung out again, moving acrobatically towards the western side of the warehouse. He landed gargoyle-like atop the last support as silently as a shadow, watching in the gloom as the thugs charged their assailant and all fell one by one.
Red X fought amongst them like a black and red blur. They were dressed in dark clothing with a small, light cloak of silver and gray. A helmet completely covered their face and a stark red X was carved into the center. The fighter ducked and spun, kicked and twisted, flipped and chopped, breaking legs and noses and wrists with fluid ease.
One of the crooks drew a pistol from his hoodie and aimed it, but the Red X held out an arm towards the thug. A red X shot out from their gloved hand and crashed into the gun as the thug fired, spinning the gun out the man's hands and making the shot ping against a catwalk above their heads.
The thug looked down at his hand in surprise but when he looked back up Red X was on them, their feet crashing into the crook's face. The snap of his nose and his front teeth breaking filled the air sickeningly. The thug gave a gargled cry and fell back holding his bleeding, broken face.
He was the last of the thugs to face the Red X's wrath. Though there were ten of them, each armed with various weapons, their strength in numbers wasn't enough and once they realized they were outmatched they had no desire to tussle with the costumed hero. Red X did not pursue as they ran. Instead they turned to the boxes and held out their arm again. Several red X projectiles fired from their gloves attaching to the boxes like c-4. They glowed and pulsed slowly, some sort of tech within ready to be charged up and detonated at a moment's notice.
"You're not even going to peek at what's inside?" Dick asked from the shadows. "What's the fun in that?"
Red X turned instantly to where the voice had come from and fired four Xs from their palms. They went sailing up through the air but disappeared into the darkness of the ceiling. Normally Dick would have given a taunting laugh but there was no ease in him tonight. This wasn't some hired-gun, this was a rival that had gotten away from him one too many times.
"Too slow."
Red X followed the sound, shooting out another barrage of Xs.
"And now you don't even know where my voice is coming from," the former Boy Wonder's voice echoed in the warehouse.
Red X didn't reply, only turning slowly, trying to find him.
Well, if they were looking, he thought, he might as well oblige.
Like a bird of prey Dick swooped down silently, his foot extending in a kick.
Red X sensed his approach and backflipped away, leaving Dick striking the ground. He came up with escrima sticks bared and knocked away two Red Xs the vigilante shot sent his way. He propelled himself forward, jumping into a roundhouse kick that the Red X countered with a kick of their own. Dick spun through the air sideways and landed on one knee. He swung his momentum around, leading with an extended leg, sweeping the approaching Red X off their feet.
The vigilante sprawled backward but turned their fall into a cartwheel staying nimbly on their feet. Both knew that to lose their footing, too lose momentum, was to lose half the war.
"Boy Wonder," the synthesized voice from within the helm said. "Hardly recognized you without your tacky outfit."
Dick shrugged as he sprang up and launched himself at the retreating vigilante. He would never admit it but he felt himself at a slight disadvantage, encumbered in the biker jacket and jeans. "Out with the old in with the new. Don't get used to the new look, though. It's a work in progress."
"Hardly." Red X raced forward, spinning with a heel kick that Dick dodged gracefully. He swung with an escrima stick that the Red X barely parried with a gauntlet that felt like hitting steel. "You're a bird with a broken wing now I hear."
Dick frowned, bringing up his left escrima stick to block a horizontal chop. "Who told you that?"
"Take a guess." Smugness filled Red X's synthesized voice.
Dick knew it was said to throw him off his game and, unfortunately, as the fist landed against his solar-plexus, he realized it had worked. "How long have you been working with Batman?" he asked as he recovered, escrima sticks coming down in a steady, rhythm making Red X go on defense.
"Aw, jealous, birdy?" Red X taunted, firing off a slew of Xs from their palms.
Dick was forced to dance back, his footwork barely dodging the Xs as they hit the concrete floor. They didn't ricocheted away like some of the other Xs did, telling the former Boy Wonder these were the sticky type that the Red X had in their arsenal. Probably powerful enough to trap him if he mis-stepped.
"Nah, you can have him. Good luck with the distrust and terrible working hours, though," he parried, flipping backwards and springing off a box. He launched himself up to the catwalk above and Red X followed. "In the meantime though you can tell me what you're doing here. Decided to do a little mayhem before trading in the X for an R?"
"I wouldn't be caught dead being the Bat's sidekick," laughed Red X. The charged at Dick, their palms firing their arsenal of Xs. Dick gracefully, swung himself over the left side of the catwalk as Red X passed then fully came around to the right, hitting Red X with both boots in their side.
The vigilante grunted with pain as they toppled. The hard landing caused one of the vigilante's gauntlets to malfunction and three explosive Xs hit the catwalk, powerful enough to blast through the corrugated metal and to the supports beneath.
The metal catwalk groaned and swayed, the struts buckling from the damage and weight. Dick ran to the edge and launched himself off the catwalk, grabbing onto a ceiling beam as the whole thing went down. He looked below him as the metal twisted and warped and the boxes beneath spewed up dust and splinters.
For a moment it seemed like an impenetrable storm cloud of dust and metal then an X shot out of the darkness with a long black line at the center. The X-grapple wrapped around his ankle and began to drag him down as Red X swiftly rappelled up.
"No free rides, X." Dick kicked off his boot just as the vigilante was nearly upon him. "Unless you've got some information for me."
Red X went falling again but this time they grabbed a jutting remnant of catwalk. They used it like an agility bar and swung themselves up towards the beams on the ceiling. Dick was already atop the beam, one shoe gone and Red X stood before him, missing a glove.
"I don't spill information to just anyone, hero," snarled the Red X. "You have no idea what I'm up to."
"I know you're a criminal, a thief, and all your hatred of Lex Luthor doesn't balance that out!" he raced forward again, escrima sticks singing their violent song.
Red X was more than his match, blocking, kicking, chopping, using their body as a complete weapon, elbows, knees, head, feet, fists. They fought in a blur of motion, defending, attacking, defending, parrying. "You're as blind as Batman. You don't know what I know about Luthor. You don't know how deep it goes, how it's all connected!" The synthesized voice began to crack with emotion. "Everything I've ever done was to try and expose him. To get him to stop. Every crime had his fingers on it first! Every deed done in the dark because he walked into the Light!"
The name of the secret organization shocked Dick. He did feel betrayed by Bruce but he knew for a fact the Dark Knight would have never told the vigilante that. His surprise caused his guard to fall and he yelled as Red X masterfully kicked an escrima stick from his left hand. "How do you know about the Light?" he demanded, feeling the shock of that more than the pain in his wrist.
"How do you know about the Light?!" Red X roared in rage. The vigilante leapt and led with a knee aimed to strike Dick in the face but he swooped beneath the criminal's form, letting them fly by.
The former Boy Wonder spun around to face the vigilante as Red X skidded to a stop at the far end of the narrow metal beam on which they fought. He could have pushed the attack with Red X's back turned to him but instead he backed up several paces hoping to hide his aching hand and shroud himself somewhat in the darkness to make for a more difficult target. The sparse light in the warehouse revealed a small smirk on his lips. "Asked you first."
"It might just be the very last question you ever ask," yelled Red X as they spun to face Dick once more. They clenched their remaining gloved fist and the whine of something being charged filled the air. "I'm not going to be stopped by some has-been sidekick. I'm going to stop Luthor! You're down one weapon and you don't have any of your usual toys. I suggest you retreat now, little bird."
"No thanks," Dick laughed as he twirled his remaining escrima stick. "This bird is going to own the night. Even if I've got to wing it."
With a scream the Red X charged at Dick. Their last gauntlet pointed at him. Dick ran on his side of the beam to meet them, his remaining escrima stick raised. Red X fired their last two remaining Xs as Dick pirouetted and let his escrima stick fly.
His spin narrowed the target that was his center mass and caused the two Xs to just barely miss him. But where he could afford to move so smoothly, Red X could not.
Dick's escrima stick soared like a missile at Red X and before they could duck it struck their shiny metal helm. A jarring crack snapped through the air as Red X's head flew back. The vigilante fell back on the beam and would have fallen to their death had Dick not rushed in and grabbed their hand.
The vigilante hung suspended and dazed stories off the ground with only Dick keeping them from a grisly end. Electronics in Red X's obliterated mask fizzed and sputtered. The criminal groaned weakly and tried to hold their head with their free hand but when they touched the damaged helmet it split perfectly in two.
As the destroyed mask fell to the ground, Dick Grayson stared in shock as Leana Luthor's bleeding face stared up at him.
0000
"You ready?" Conner asked as he stood on the beach.
Across the cove, M'gann gave a Martian's thumb up.
Conner grinned as he lifted the huge boulder over his head. He jolted into a run and with a roar tossed it at M'gann.
M'gann took to the skies and reached out with both hands. The rock spun directly at her but before it could get even half-way to her it stopped. The boulder floated harmlessly in the air as if it weighed less than smoke.
"That's bigger than all of yesterday's rocks put together," Conner commented. "Way bigger and the same result too."
Sweety, airy laughter filled the mind-link. "I know," M'gann replied with exhilaration. "Throw another."
Hesitation crossed the Boy of Steel's face. "You sure? You don't feel fatigued or anything?"
"I'm sure, and I feel fine. Great in fact. Concentrating on the rock isn't… anything now. I used to have to focus so much but it's as easy as picking up a pencil."
Conner nodded from below. "Alright, another round then. Mind throwing back the boulder?"
"I sort of meant throw another boulder while I'm holding this one," she clarified bashfully.
Conner's eyes widened but he didn't protest. He sensed M'gann's confidence in her telekinetic abilities over their mind-link. She was serious and knew what she was doing… he hoped.
Super-jumping to another pile of boulders by the shore he picked up one similar in shape and size to the boulder she was levitating. He spun like a discus thrower and released, pelting it in her direction.
That one didn't even make it as far as the first.
Both boulders, each heavier than a semi-truck hung in mid-air. M'gann's eyes flashed green as she made them orbit one another, spinning them faster and faster until they were blurs then, easily, she turned towards the water and released them. The two huge boulders went flying through the air, far out into the ocean until Conner lost sight of them on the horizon line.
"Wow," was all Conner managed, floored by the telekinetic strength that M'gann possessed.
"It's never been this strong before," M'gann commented as she flew out towards the sea. She levitated just a little bit past the shoreline, facing the ocean. "Just one more. I need to test something else. Don't tell me when you're going to throw it, just toss it."
Boots scraped stone as the Boy of Steel located another rock which was just a little smaller than before but he couldn't be blamed for that. They had almost run out of boulders. Quietly he ripped the rock from the pile and after three seconds tossed it.
The rock shot through the air like a meteor, closing in on M'gann almost swifter than the eye could follow. It crossed the half-way point without stopping, whistling deadly and fast on its trajectory to her back.
"M'gann!" Conner shouted aloud, his heart freezing in his chest as the boulder flew the rest of the way with no amount of telekinetic force to stop it.
The boulder was a hairsbreadth from M'gann's skull when it stopped. She crossed her arms and Conner felt a strange vibration somewhere near their mind-link. It rippled across his mind then he heard a grating crunch of stone scraping stone.
Striations began to form and run down the huge boulder and soon he could see sky on the opposite side of stone. With a mental command from M'gann the stone shattered into thousands of hand-sized pieces and with another command she finally let them fall. The surf splashed and pattered as if a sudden rainstorm had struck it as the stones disappeared beneath the waves, the boulder no more.
"Okay, definitely wasn't able to do that before either," M'gann said nervously over the mind link. She slowly drifted back down to the beach, joining Conner on the few remaining boulders he had gathered off the ocean floor. The green glow in her eyes faded and she looked at her bi-fingered hands in shock. "I've never felt this strong before. What happened to me?"
Conner eyed her curiously. "Could be the broken-bone effect," he suggested. "When people break a bone like an arm or a leg the place where it healed is usually stronger than what is was before."
"And now that I'm healing…," her voice trailed off. "I wonder."
M'gann shut her eyes and concentrated. Conner watched as her body began to fade and grow translucent. It didn't stop until he could see the ocean directly behind her, but he could also still see her as well, just wraith-like.
"Looks like the invisibility is still healing up, I can still see you."
She opened her eyes, a hint of humor on her alien face. "I'm not trying to go invisible."
With that she fell through the rock.
Conner grunted in alarm and looked at the barnacle-ridden granite where M'gann had just been standing. "M'gann?!"
"Over here," M'gann giggled.
Conner sensed her from behind and spun just as she levitated out of the rock. "Looks like my phasing has kicked in too. It's so strange. A Martian generally doesn't get this until, well, I guess the human equivalent would be their thirties or so. I'm a decade early. Any ideas about why that might be?"
"Not a one." Conner stared at her proudly, what he could see of her that was. "But it's great that you have it and J'onn might know. Next time we see him you can ask him all about it."
Agreement filled their mind-link. "Good idea and honestly by the time we do see him again, I think I'll be fully healed."
"It's all coming back that fast, huh?"
She laughed again, this time more playful. "Oh yes." She slipped through the coarse granite rock again and came up behind him. He felt her body solidify behind him as she covered his eyes with a single bi-fingered hand. "I want to show you something. Close your eyes."
He obeyed. "Alright. Closed."
"Turn around."
Again he obeyed, his eyes still closed.
"Now open."
Slowly he opened his eyes and it was like waking up in a dream. The girl Conner had known had Megan was gone. She had grown, changed. Her hair was no longer ruddy brown, more of a carroty red. It hung longer than it had before, past her shoulders. Her eyes were no longer green either, but red like in her Martian form. There was still a cute dusting of freckles across her nose and while the rest of her seemed more like the Megan from before she was a little taller, her trim body more developed in a way it hadn't been before. She was still Megan but quite her own. The carbon copy of the character from Hello Megan was gone, this was fully and truly Megan Mars with no one else like her.
Pressure suddenly strained on Conner's lungs and only then did he realize he'd forgotten to take in a breath. Forget about breath, he couldn't even put a single thought together besides for how beautiful he thought she was.
"Do you like it?" she asked nervously, her Megan voice almost exactly the same. Before he could respond she spoke again, the words rushing out in a torrent of explanation-fueled anxiety. "I know I don't look like how I used to look but that Megan just didn't seem like me anymore." She tucked a lock of red hair behind an ear. "I'm not a character from Hello Megan, I never was. So I gave it a bit of a twist, made it my own and the orange eyes, well, I guess is a reminder that it's no use trying to really hide what I am inside and if you don't like it I can totally go back to green eyes and it's–
Before she could say another word, Conner closed the distance and kissed her.
She melted against him, feeling the warmth of his body close as his arms encircled her. "I love it," he finally said as he pulled away from the kiss. "I love you."
"And you're not upset about how I changed it? I mean you did fall in love with someone who looked a little different," she admitted.
"M'gann I love you in whatever form you take. You may be a shape-shifter but your soul is one-of-a-kind."
Conner leaned his head down for another kiss and M'gann reached up to meet him when she suddenly opened her eyes wide with realization. "That's it!" M'gann shouted over their mind-link.
Conner gasped in pain as he staggered away and clutched his head with both hands.
"Sorry, sorry, too loud!" M'gann lowered the mental voice. The shape of the new Megan rippled away and M'gann loomed over him again.
Nearly dazed, Conner shook his head and blinked wide-eyed as if he'd just been punched by Superman. "A little," he admitted as he quickly began to recover. "What'd you mean by that being 'it' though?"
"I think I know what the Light's up too," M'gann began eagerly. "What you said about being one-of-a-kind made it all fall into place. Amazo can't fully be replicated, but what about his human half? What about Tiffany? If Tiffany and Amazo are fully bonded, what if they finally found a back-door into Amazo's android mind? What if they can create more of Perfection?"
0000
Gotham City was quiet.
Well, as quiet as Gotham City ever got.
The criminals were laying low, cowering in their safe-houses and crack-dens and gentleman's clubs as if expecting a nuclear bomb to go off over their heads.
J'onn had picked up on the general fear-filled sentiments of the criminals in the city as he had flown in. No one had seen Robin in months and, for some reason that none of them could explain, Batman had gotten angrier.
Standing on a street corner in his John Jones guise, J'onn looked towards an alley where a thief who had stolen from a new mother was begging for mercy. As the begging ended with a meaty punch to the face, J'onn supposed Batman was not in a merciful mood.
He saw no one leave the dark alley, but the sound of a cape fluttered loudly above him alerting him to the Dark Knight's presence. In a warped way it was Batman's idea of courtesy, allowing someone to know he was there.
J'onn looked up and standing on the jutting edge of a condemned brick building stood the Dark Knight himself. Even though J'onn was a powerful Martian with strength that could rival Superman's own, he felt uneasy standing beneath Batman. He could only begin to imagine what a petty thug felt.
"It's not like you to come to Gotham unannounced," Batman said flatly, breaking the silence between them.
J'onn turned to face him and craned his head back painfully to peer at the shadowy figure he could barely see. "I wanted to see you face-to-face. You have been missing from the Watchtower for weeks now. Robin–
"Speak carefully here," Batman cautioned.
"I wouldn't be speaking to you at all if I sensed someone was about. That thug was the last. The rest are nearly two blocks away."
"Then say what you have to say. I'm still on patrol," growled Batman.
J'onn sighed inwardly. That was Batman for you, curt and to the point as always. "In two days I intend to call a League-wide meeting," J'onn revealed. "As your friend and teammate I thought it only right to tell you that this meeting fully concerns you."
Batman jumped down from the ledge of the building, landing silently in front of J'onn. "What am I being accused of this time?"
"A secret you have been keeping from the League."
"Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?"
J'onn shook his head. "I can't even begin to imagine," he replied honestly. "But today you hold one less conspiracy to your chest. You don't have to come. You can hide in Gotham City if you'd like but I'm telling you now because I wish to give you the opportunity to defend yourself. Though I am not sure there is anything you can say in defense of what you've done."
"I don't need to defend myself," Batman said brusquely. His long black cape snapped in the air as he turned around and pulled a grappling gun from his belt. He raised it towards the building and prepared to fire. "Everything I do I do to protect our world."
"Superboy and Miss Martian," J'onn said.
The grappling hook never fired. Batman stopped cold.
A frigid smile inched upon J'onn's face. Everything J'onn had suspected had just been confirmed. "Prepare well, Batman. I'll see you in two days."
0000
Darkness had fallen by the time Conner and M'gann were ready to explain their theory. With what little they had to go on it seemed like the most plausible explanation to the Light's plan. They had sketched it all out hours before the sun had fallen but a trepidation neither of them had been able to express had bound them until they had forced themselves into the living room with the communicator in hand.
Conner exhaled deeply to steady himself, then flicked the comm on. Static crackled over the connection but he had no doubt it was still working.
"SB, Miss M that you?" Dick asked over the connection before Conner could say a word.
"Yeah it's us," Conner confirmed. "Is this a good time?"
Static frizzed over the connection. "Just about a good a time as any given the circumstances." The normally upbeat Boy Wonder sounded uncharacteristically grim and concerned. "This isn't a social call I hope?"
"Just business," Conner replied.
"Perfect timing, then," Dick said. "What'd you got for me, SB?"
"It's a long-shot but we think we know what the Light is up to. We think they're going to try and clone Perfection." Conner quickly gave him the run-down of M'gann's theory. Cloning a human wasn't hard at all for the right people and Tiffany had once been purely human. If they had her DNA and knew she could bond perfectly fine to Amazo what was stopping them from creating an army of Perfection and transferring how she had bonded with other androids?
"That all makes sense." Dick's voice crackled over the comm. "It would means you were right about these shipments of circuitry."
Confusion clouded the Boy of Steel's face. He hadn't mentioned anything about shipments or circuits. "Huh?"
"Sorry, SB. I was talking to Red X."
Conner's eyes widened in surprise. Just what had been going on since they had been away? "You're working with Red X now?"
"A matter of convenience, that's it," Dick said sternly. "It all lines up though, the alloys, the shipments everything. I think I know what the Light's next move is. I hate to ask this but would you be up for a little covert ops work? Well, you and M'gann if she's healed up enough."
Conner looked over to M'gann and she gave a small but steady nod. "Yeah. Both of us are ready."
Dick blew a sigh of relief. "Good, cause we're going to need her big time. I should be by in a few days. I need to do a little more investigating with X but if I'm right we might have been running parallel to the same idea."
"We'll see you then."
Conner clicked the comm off and placed it on the coffee table. He perched his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, his fingers laced together beneath his nose. Hard blue eyes stared intently at the comm as he sought to filter through his emotions.
"Looks like we'll be suiting up again," M'gann commented softly.
Conner kept his focus fixed on the comm. "This might be it, round two."
"And we aren't coming in at our best," M'gann acknowledged. "The teams been separated for what, five months?"
"We've got to do the best we can," Conner commented.
"Perfection has got to be stopped," M'gann agreed.
"Conner–"
"M'gann–"
They said each other's name at the same time, each feeling what the other was. The trepidation and anxiety finally collapsing on top of them as they tangled silently with their private thoughts. They had re-built their relationship here, better and stronger than it had ever been before. They had restored it just as they had restored the former safe-house.
And now they were staring down the barrel of a potentially deadly mission with an enemy they didn't know how to defeat. They had faced such foes before but after Perfection's attack, after they had regained what they lost, it felt different, more daunting.
M'gann broke the silence first. She stretched out her bi-fingered hand and laid it on top of his. "If we don't make it out of this, I'm glad I got to spend this time on earth together. I can't imagine my life without you, Conner."
"You won't have to imagine," he replied solidly. "We're going to come through this. You've never been stronger. And I've never felt so driven to protect anyone in my life."
For a moment it seemed like he would draw into himself and bury the rest of what he felt away, but instead he heaved a hard sigh and turned to her. "Still, we can't hide from the fact that this just might be where it all comes to an end, and I don't want to leave anything unsaid. For what little bit of life I've actually lived I'm glad it's been with you. If I never get to say it again, let me tell you one more time – I love you."
Emotion crackled along their mind-link, blending what they felt for one another into one. M'gann moved on instinct, pressing her brow against his. She filled the touch with everything she felt, with every bit of what Conner meant to her. It came out like a tidal-wave rushing over them, filling their senses with the sensation of kissing and the outpouring of love but was somehow different this time. As she poured her heart out into the sensation she a felt heat within her rising.
She had felt the feeling before but only ever once so strongly.
That night in his bedroom.
She had held back all that she had felt then, knowing it wouldn't have been right to let him think she was something that she wasn't but all of that was over. He knew what she was and loved her anyway.
Conner's emotions were the same on the matter, except more heightened, bright like pulses of neuron stars. She even thought she heard his heart-beat through the link, its thudding rhythm quickening.
She gripped his shoulder and felt him pushing her down on the onto the couch, his love and need for her tangling with her own. They knew what was about to happen and they both eagerly welcomed it.
As M'gann's back hit the couch she shifted her form to the new Megan Mars. Her rich red hair spilled over the edge of the couch and her red eyes twinkled against the light over their heads as she pulled him close. She closed her eyes blissfully as Conner's mouth seared against hers. Excitement caused blood to thunder through her ears. She looped her arm around her neck, going off sheer instinct. They both wanted this and badly. It had been a long time in coming and now with a mission that had the potential to go horribly wrong looming on the horizon they knew it was time. They were in sync as two souls could be. Conner wanted her and oh how she wanted him.
M'gann felt his mouth release from hers as he kissed his way down her neck. She finally opened her eyes again, wanting to look into his eyes but her long, Martian arm caught her stare first.
A surge of distress suddenly clogged M'gann's throat. She hadn't even known she'd shifted back.
"Conner…"
He sensed her distress through the mental-link and lifted his head, staring into her black and orange eyes with concern. "Sorry I'm just as new to this as you. Am I doing something wrong?"
Though dismay threatened to overwhelm her, M'gann couldn't help but laugh warmly at his trepidation. "No it's not you. It's my fault. I still can't keep the Megan form for long. Maybe I'll have better control of it in a few more days?"
"Is that what you think I've been waiting for?" he asked softly, his blue eyes fixed on her red, looking at her in the same way he always had. It hadn't changed. Even when she'd first turned into Megan again he looked at her the exact same way.
Her scalloped shoulders twitched in the faintest of shy shrugs. "I thought you would be happy to finally get your human-looking girlfriend back."
A strange look fell over Conner's eyes. His jaw twitched as he blew a long, amused sigh from his nose.
M'gann tilted her head faintly to the right. "What's wrong?" she asked anxiously. "I thought you liked my new form."
"I love it," he replied warmly. "And if that's the shape you decide to take I can't wait to wake up to that smiling face every day. If you want to wait until you fully remaster your shape-shifting we will." He lowered his head up and pressed his brow on her own in the Martian form of kissing. "But for the record I don't care if you shape-shift or not. I love you, no matter what you look like. Megan Mars, M'gann M'orzz. I want you just the same."
Her lozenge shaped eyes searched him in disbelief, seeking if he meant it in jest.
He didn't.
"You're serious?" she asked quietly, her hearts thudding so loudly she could feel the pressure of them in her ears.
She felt him reaching out through their private telepathic connection, and when she let him into her mind images and emotions spilled out in a torrent that made her quake. His arms wrapped around her Martian torso, then he said in a husky rumble she had never heard before, "Let me show you just how serious I am."
