Hot July sun beat down on the Rhode Island coast with an intensity that demanded a day at the beach. Gulls glided and circled on the warm air and a few landed on the roof of the blue Victorian house as Cameron Mahkent and Leana Luthor pulled into the drive.
It was a bright, idyllic placed beside the seashore, welcoming and unobtrusive. There were silver birches and maples in the yard all fully and leafy and green and a mailbox with the last name Kent painted on the side.
The front door to the house stood wide open and the pair walked inside, greeted by the fresh, salty scent of the sea spilling throughout.
There were pictures from a dozen different places and with dozens of different people along the walls in the halls and streamers from a birthday party that had been thrown a few days prior. In the living room there was a tv and toys and an altar dedicated to the pantheon of the ten major gods of Mars with an emphasis and place of honor for H'ronmeer, the god said to have bestowed his blessings on the White Martians.
There were more common human things and alien Martian items within the house but nothing in the house looked eclectic or out of place. It was a home and a well loved one at that.
"Conner! M'gann we're here!" Leana called out, placing a small cooler of ice-pops and other frozen treats on the hall floor.
"In the kitchen, make yourselves at home!" M'gann called out.
There was a bang from a side-door the pair couldn't see being opened and the slap of bare feet on floor. "Mom I heard them from the beach!" a young voice yelled excitedly. "They're here!"
M'gann laughed warmly. "Yes, I know. They just walked in. Go say hello," she encouraged, but she needn't have bothered for the youngsters footsteps were already stampeding towards them.
A mostly human-looking boy of about eight or nine wearing blue swim trunks skidded from around a corner leading to the kitchen and spotted them. He had green eyes and fiery red hair, but his skin had an orangish-ness about it. He could change it if he wished but in his natural Martian form he was no color any Martian ever was – orange, and if he wasn't concentrating in his human form his skin naturally took on that orange tint as well. No one knew exactly why he had it, there was no one else like him, part Human, Martian, and Kryptonian. Cor'ee was his name, though in his fully human guise he went by Corey Kent.
"Uncle Cameron, Aunt Leana!" the boy yelled as he ran to them. He jumped, taking flight and slammed into Icicle Jr. with a hug.
Icicle staggered from the strong impact but he didn't fall. "Hey, good to see you too, bud!" Icicle laughed ruffling the boy's fiery red hair.
"Cor'ee! What did I say about flying in the house!"
"How did you know!?" Corey asked in confused shock.
"Dude, trust me, moms can see everything from anywhere," another little boy said with a laugh. He stepped out from behind Leana and looked up at Corey with a face as green as the leaves outside. While Corey had an orange tint, Garfield was fully green. Cameron and Leana had adopted him after a mission in the Amazon where his parents had been studying a strange type of virus and had passed away from an explosion in their lab.
Their son had gotten bitten by a sickened monkey who carried the virus and it was only an experimental treatment from Leana's Lex Corp science labs that had saved him. Ever since then he had turned green and been able to shapeshift into beasts but if it was due to treatments they had used to save his life or the bite they didn't know.
Corey's face went from confusion to elation again. "Gar!"
Corey leapt from Icicle to pounce on Gar but his mother's voice echoed through the house again. "Cor'ee Kent…."
The boy fell to the floor landing on his feet in front of Gar. "Sorry mom, won't do it again, promise!" He leaned over and whispered to Gar. "Thank H'ronmeer she didn't use my middle name too. If she uses that, then I'm for sure in trouble."
"Dude mine too!" Gar guffawed and grabbed his hand. "So let's try to stay out of trouble... for a little while that is. Come outside I wanna show you some new animals I can turn into!"
"Are you sure it's okay? Remember last time?" Cor'ee said skeptically.
"Positive. As long as I don't turn into a T-rex again we should be good!" Gar looked up to his parents with puppy-dog eyes. "Can I show Corey my new forms, please, please, please!"
Leana nodded, smiling fondly at her Gar. "Just be careful Gar."
"Always mom!" Gar laughed.
Cameron and Leana turned to the open door and watched as the two kids raced outside, laughing and shrieking in play. Gar turned into a panda bear and started to tumble then changed his shape into a penguin, waddling and honking after Corey.
M'gann finally appeared, wiping her hands on a towel. She was in her White Martian form but quickly shifted into her Megan form, wearing a sleeveless pink top, green shorts, and pink sandals. "Sorry about the wait, just setting the last of the burgers out to be grilled."
"And I just got the last umbrellas and picnic tables set up on the beach," Conner said, shouting from the side-door in the kitchen. White sand scudding over the floor as he thudded through the kitchen and made his way towards the front door. He smiled as he spotted them and almost flew the rest of the way to the door to meet them, but M'gann flashed him a slightly arched a brow that seemed to say "don't set a bad example for Cor'ee" so he walked instead.
Nine years hadn't made much of a difference in the clone's appearance but there were some subtle hints that indicated time had finally started to notice Conner Kent. Though scientist first thought Conner would forever look around sixteen or eighteen, when his powers had fully kicked in down in Atlantis, so had his aging, however, it was still at an extremely slow rate. While he still looked as he did when he had come out of the cloning pod, some changes were evident. He could grow a beard now and sometimes kept the rougher look, allowing it to shade his jaw.
He only wore a pair of blue swim trunks, the rest of him bare and sand-dusted. Four bright red streaks ran from the front of his shoulder joint to the back of his shoulder blade, the Martian markings that proclaimed his marriage to M'gann on full display. Zatanna had magicked the tattoos on him nine years ago and they were as bright and red as ever, matching the ones M'gann had in her Martian form.
When he finally reached the front door he gave Leana a hug and Cameron a hand shake. "Glad you two could make it."
"We wouldn't miss the annual Fourth of July bash for anything," laughed Cameron. "It's tradition at this point."
"How're things at work and work," M'gann emphasized the last word.
"Lex Corps is running smooth as silk," Leana assured them. "We've just announced our new meta-human charity in San Diego." After Lex Luthor had disappeared the company had gone to Leana who was now the head of Lex Corp and had turned it around for the better.
"And the Squad is doing a lot of good work out in New Mexico," Cameron added. While no one had expected it of him, after the events in Atlantis, he had willingly turned himself in had served time in Bell Reve for his crimes. After two years he had quietly been paroled and had been working with a covert government ops team known as the Suicide Squad. It had once been led by Amanda Waller but after she'd been convicted of conspiracy against the United States in a plot to replace the military's top brass with puppets loyal to her, the team as it was had been dissolved and a new team had been put in its place, lead and directed by the redeemed Cameron Mahkent and his wife Leana Luthor. With the quiet blessing from the government and the Justice League, the Squad had become a place for villains seeking redemption or reform.
"What about you two?" Leana asked. She grinned at M'gann. "You still making sure my little brother is behaving, Mrs. Kent?"
M'gann laughed. "Between him, Cor'ee, and the Justice League I have my hands full." She grinned at Conner as he leaned down and she rose up on her tiptoes, giving her husband a peck on the lips. "But it's the best kind of busy to be." Batman's absence had left a gap in the League but a year after his departure they had begun to search for new members and she had been nominated for the role, to which she had accepted.
Conner had been against it at first, his grievances with Batman having caused a rift between him and the League but M'gann being on the team allowed her to keep an eye out and often speak up if it seemed the League was over-reaching.
"What about you, Conner?" Icicle asked. "Still kicking ass with the Outlaws?"
Leana nudged him an elbow. "Language, babe, there are kids with super hearing around."
"Oh right, right," he laughed.
Conner grinned, giving a nod. "Yeah. I don't know if Nightwing or Z told you but Arsenal finally decided to join." Nightwing had founded the Outlaws after the events in Atlantis, parting ways even further with Batman. The team consisted of many heroes that most considered a little too extreme. They toed a line for sure and, though it was never mentioned out loud, they sometimes took on covert ops missions for the League, but only when it was a dire necessity.
"Oh man, that's great and it's about dam-." Icicle looked at his wife bashfully. "I mean about darn time."
"Speaking of the Nightwing and Z…." M'gann nudged her head to the open door as a black sedan pulled in. "That looks like them now."
As they parked the left rear door of the car opened and out hopped two little black-haired girls. The girls were a few years younger than Corey or Gar yet seemed more put together than both of boys combined. One of the girls, short even for her young age, was quiet and reserved where as her sister, taller and bearing a keen eye, was more forward. She was already taking in the entirety of the place in as if planning on how best to infiltrate it.
Cor'ee and Gar ran over to them, waving and shouting. "Rachel! Robin!" the boys yelled in unison, hugging their friends. Gar grabbed Rachel's hand, tugging her towards the beach while Cor'ee did the same with Robin. "Roy and Jesse are already on the beach, let's goooo."
Leana arched a brow. "Wally and Artemis are already here with the twins?"
M'gann stifled a giggle. "Already here and passed out asleep on the beach."
"Kaldur, Wyynde, and Wolf are keeping an eye on the twins, and they're making fast friends with Vic," Conner revealed. He arched a brow suddenly and looked to M'gann. "Buuuut, we might want to give Kaldur and Wyynde some back-up. They can handle Vic, Jesse, and Roy but any more kids might have them calling a retreat."
All four nodded in agreement and with a warm hello to Dick and Z headed out the side-door for the beach.
A round black grill, a half dozen wooden beach chairs, a volleyball net, beach balls, large beach towels, colorful umbrellas, two wooden picnic tables, and coolers filled with juice and soda sat upon the sand of the private cove. Artemis and Wally, in their beach wear, were snoring uproariously under an umbrella while their daughter Jesse zipped around and their son Roy shot little plastic arrows with suction cups on the end trying to hit anything and everything he could. Though they had retired from the hero life, their twins ran them more ragged than any super villain ever had.
Kaldur and Wyynde watched from two beach chairs as their adopted son Vic chased after Roy. The young Atlantean had been in a terrible accident during the attack on Atlantis, having lost both his parents at the age of two. He had been outfitted with a metal arm and two metal legs to replace the one he had lost and also a cybernetic eye.
The Atlanteans had taken him in after the terrible ordeal and had officially adopted him nine years ago. He had gone through a lot but at the moment he was laughing, tackling Roy. "Gotcha!"
"Hey get off my brother!" Jesse laughed and sped across the sand at super-speed and jumped on Vic.
"And you get off my best bud Vic!" Gar laughed as he transformed into a green seagull, flapped off, then turned back into Gar in mid-air landing on top of Jesse.
"Dog pile!" Cor'ee yelled as the trio of youngsters raced to the beach.
Robin outpaced them all and was the next to land while Cor'ee came right after. Rachel stopped short, crossing her arms and digging her heels in the sand. "Yeah, no."
Zatanna and Dick laughed as they came around the house to see the dog-pile of kids. Kaldur spotted them, giving them a wave. "Want me to magic Artemis and Wally into the ocean? That ought to wake them up!" Zatanna giggled playfully.
"Better let them sleep now. Once Wally smells the grill going all bets are off," Dick ribbed as he and Zatanna picked their way down to the beach.
"Hey, Wally's not the only one who can eat his way through a tray of burgers." Icicle rubbed his hands together eagerly as if relishing the challenge of out-eating the speedster. "If everyone's here, let's get the chow on the grill. I'll fire it up!"
Leana rolled her eyes and took her husband's hand, walking down to the shore. "You know for a guy with ice powers you sure do like the heat."
As the two former criminals walked down to the beach, Conner and M'gann stood at the door of their home, looking at their friends and family gather in the hot July sunshine.
Conner sighed happily and slipped his arm around M'gann's waist. There weren't many moments like these in their lives, but when they came around he treasured them.
M'gann smiled softly and leaned her head against his tattooed shoulder. She grasped the hand he had slipped around her waist, their bright blue wedding rings pressed against one another. They didn't need to say anything, not even through the mind-link.
Though from day to day they never knew what life had in store for them, they cherished the happy moments as strongly as they faced the challenging ones. Life wasn't perfect for them and never would be, but with the love they shared they would go through the good and the bad times together because their love was stronger than anything life could knowingly or unknowingly throw at them and that was simply the fact of the matter.
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A/N – If you got to the end, thanks so much for reading. My fav show is the original Teen Titans and I only just recently got into Young Justice which has taken my top two slot for my favorite shows and got me back into writing fanfiction. I wanted to end in a place where Young Justice would naturally melt into an AU version of Teen Titans '03. I want to write a sequel called Young Justice: Legacy which would be the startup of an AU Teen Titans team with Starfire being Conner and M'gann's son, Robin and Raven being Dick's and Zatanna's daughters, Beast Boy being Icicle Jr. and Leana's adopted son, Cyborg as the adopted son of Kaldur and Wyynde, and the new Kid Flash and Speedy being the twins of Artemis and Wally.
I probably won't write it cause I still want to write more Conner/M'gann but ya never know!
Last but not least, big shout out to the Conner/M'gann shippers still out there - all five of us that are left that is! We are the real ride or dies out there lol!