Chapter Text
Drista keep her head down as she biked along, trying to look tired. It wasn’t hard, she’d been out for a while already and it was tricky keeping a good sleeping schedule.
A strong breeze had her tugging the hood of her hoodie, making sure that her hockey mask was hidden.
She saw movement in the corner of her eye, and something hit her front tire, forcing her to take a spill. That was alright, she wasn’t planning on running.
“Hey, you alright?” Someone called. Drista heard footsteps. She slowly extracted herself from her bike, keeping her head down and body low.
“That looked like a nasty fall. Here. Let me help.” She turned her head to get a good look at the person without them getting one at her. An unmarked van was nearby, and a cloth was half hidden behind their back.
Oh boy were they in for a surprise.
She accepted the hand offered, but yanked down as hard as she could, while whipping out her pepper spray and getting them in the face with it. While they were busy with that, she rolled out of the way and to her feet, taking her baseball bat out of her backpack and pressing it threateningly against their neck. She clicked on the hand held tape recorder she pulled from her pocket as well. It didn’t take much convincing to get the attempted kidnapper to spill everything, and she had them zip tied to a lamppost in no time.
Drista opened the van doors to check for people. It was unlocked. Probably to make it easier to wrangle kids in. It was empty. She shut the doors with a satisfying slam. Time to leave the tape, find a pay phone, and get out before the cops showed up.
“What are doing?”
Drista reacted immediately, swinging her bat with expert ease- only for it to be caught by a gleaming metal hand. An eyebrow slowly raised from behind a red and yellow mask, and Drista froze.
She knew who this was. She doubted there was a single person in the world who didn’t.
“P-ponk!” Oh great her voice cracked. In her defense, she was not expecting to be snuck up on by a superhero of all things.
“That's me!” He dropped the bat and she let it swing down by her side. “What are you doing?” He repeated.
“...Stopping baddies.” Oh sh*t, did she just use the word baddies in front of a superhero?
“I can see that. But do you have anything other then a bat and some pepper spray?”
Uh oh.
“No I do not.” She declared with all the false confidence she could muster. She was good at bluffing.
Ponk groaned and facepalmed. It made him a lot less scary, more like an authority figure who didn’t really have power over her. Then she realized that was exactly what he was.
“Look, I want to help! And you can’t say I’m too young, because there are a bunch of teenage heroes out there!” Granted they all seemed to have powers, but who was counting?
“Do you have any training? A mentor? What about back-up? Does anyone even know where you are and what you’re doing?” Ponk demanded. “All of those teenage heroes have at least two of those, it’s basically a condition for heroing at this point!”
“Don’t need them. I’m doing just fine.”
“Look kid, I get what you’re trying to do, and- hey! Don’t walk away!”
Drista righted her bike. “I’m not going to walk.”
“Very funny.” Ponk grumbled. “Listen-”
“Nope.”
“… I’ll get Awesamdude to track you and tell your parents.”
Drista froze and slowly looked over at Ponk. “…isn’t that illegal?”
“I think it’s more illegal to stand by until you get hurt.”
“Well you tell them then. Doesn’t matter, I’ll keep sneaking out.” She pedaled away. “Thanks for the advice!” She shouted sarcastically back.
She was worried that Ponk would chase her. She’d seen footage of him keeping pace with a car, he could absolutely catch her on a bike. He didn’t follow her. She still felt like she was being watched. It was enough to keep her out for a couple hours longer then usual. She was so going to regret that come morning.
●●●
No one showed up at home to tell her parents, but Ponk must have told the other Titans, because she was running into them left and right. It mostly Captain Puffy, which. Wow. As much as she’d like to have a chance to hang out with the heroes, she knew that wasn’t what they wanted, so she blew them off every time. They didn’t usually patrol at night like this, so she knew it had to be for her. Ridiculous. She was fine, she could handle herself!
Then she ran into a gang.
It was supposed to be an easy intervention, some jerkwad was hacking an ATM, a quick smack with the bat and they’d go down. When she got close though, she had three guns pulled on her from people walking out of the shadows, with a fourth gun hefted by the ATM hacker.
“So you’re the one who’s been messing our operations, huh?” One of them said. “Boss ain’t happy with you.”
“Not much of an operation you got going on.” Drista retaliated, letting her mouth run as she tried to figure a way out. “Consider it a mercy killing.” She had no idea what they were talking about. Had she been actually busting a drug ring or something without realizing it?
The four scowled.
“Big talk for a little girl.” The leader of the little group growled.
“Lot of firepower for a little girl.” She shot back. "You scared or something?" This was bad. Maybe she should have thought that when the guns first came out, but for some reason, it had taken a while to sink in. She was scared. She’d never had a gun pulled on her. Sure, there were a couple who tried, but they usually weren't fast enough to beat her own weapons.
Before they could retaliate, probably with a bullet, there was a gust of wind and the crooks' hands were empty. A clattering noise had all of them turning their heads to see a brightly dressed teenager standing over the small pile of weapons.
“Dangerous toys, innit? Be a shame if-” he stomped on the guns hard, several times, until he was basically jumping on them and they were scrap.
“Who’s next?”
The crooks fled, like smart people.
Tommyinnit himself gestured after them, a smirk on his face. “You want first crack at them?”
Drista grinned under her mask. “Don’t mind if I do!”
Within seconds the two had the crooks zip tied together in some very... unorthodox ways.
“Are you here to tell me to stop too?” She asked him dryly once they were done and walking away.
“What? No, no no no, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about! The Titans are worried about you, you see, there’s been a lot of undercover gang activity and no offense but you probably don’t know how to fight them but you’ve also been dismantling some of their smaller stuff and now they’re mad they’re being beaten by a women, but you always run off before the Titans can tell you this, and hey, can you show me how to stay off the radar like that? Tubbo’s great, but I don't always want him on me. Or Techno, or Philza, or-”
“Whoa whoa whoa, wait.” Tommyinnit talked fast, expected in hindsight but she was still trying to keep up.
“Undercover gang activity?” She parroted back. He nodded.
“They don’t want to worry about watching your back while they’re trying to take them down.”
Huh. Maybe the Titans weren’t just going out for her after all.
“So what do I do?”
Tommyinnit grinned. “Want to help me bust one of their places?”
Drista grinned back, already deciding that Tommyinnit was her favorite hero. “Sounds like fun!”
Tommyinnit whooped and then stood there awkwardly. Drista coughed. “Sooo… where is it?”
“…Other side of town.” Tommyinnit was watching her carefully. “Look, it’s a decent distance away, and I don’t want to make this weird or anything, but Drista-you go by Drista right? If we want to get there and be done before two, because that’s when Motherinnit says I have to be back by or I’m grounded, then I’m going to have to carry you and that’s-is that alright?”
It took her a moment to figure out what he was asking. “Um… yes.”
What followed a very awkward few minutes where they tried to figure out how that would work. Turned out the only time he carried people he didn’t know was during the fraction of a moment it would take to get them out of danger, and he usually moved too quick to worry about how he carried them. The only person he carried regularly was another teenage boy, nothing about a woman in there. His words, not hers. It was kind of flattering.
He originally started to carry her bridal style, but she said no. He agreed after thinking about it a moment. She ended up getting a super sonic piggy back ride. It was fun, too bad it only lasted a few seconds.
The bust went well, until it didn’t. Tommyinnit beat up most of the bad guys, leaving Drista to get the stragglers and destroy everything she could get her hands on. She was tearing apart a nasty looking gun when she abruptly found herself several blocks away from the warehouse. Over the next few seconds, there were multiple bursts of wind, each one dropping off an unconscious gang member. At one point she found herself holding a bundle of zip ties.
The instant he stopped running, she put a fist on her hip and pointed the zip ties at him.
“What the h*ll.”
“There was a bomb!” As if to prove his point, the warehouse went up like a volcano. Tommyinnit yelped out a swear and moved her a few more blocks away. “That was bigger then I thought it’d be.” He mumbled as debris started raining down. “Same time next week?”
Drista snapped out of her daze (they blew up a building with their supplies and people in it for a chance to kill them!) “Oh absolutely!”
●●●
Apparently having Tommyinnit around was good enough for the Titans. They still didn’t like it that she was spending most nights by herself, but they left her alone for the most part, especially once Tommyinnit gave her a comm. It only connected to his and a friend's, someone called "Tubbo", unless there was an emergency, but that was alright.
Whoever this gang was, they were bound and determined to make Essempii their playground. Every week, the two busted another place, or crashed a meeting, on top of all the work the Titans were doing! And there were only three more explosions total!
Sometimes they’d end up briefly teaming with a Titan, but other then asking if the two were okay and drawing all of the bad guys attention so Tommyinnit and Drista could blindside them, they didn’t interact much. She got the feeling they didn’t know what to do with her. That was fine, she didn’t know what to do with them either.
Tommyinnit was cool though. He was just as chaotic as her. She’d only talked to Tubbo a few times but he seemed pretty cool too. Apparently he had to go an family vacation not long after Tommy met her, which meant he couldn’t spend a lot of time on the super hero end of things for a while.
She could swear that she saw a member of HIVE fighting the gang too at times, but no one else seemed to see anything.
A couple months in, Drista showed up at their secret meeting place, only to find a stranger there. He looked up from his phone as she approached.
“Hello there! Are you Drista?”
Drista was immediately on her guard. “Who’s asking?”
“My name’s Philza,” he introduced himself, holding out his phone. “Tommy has something to say to you, he says your comm isn’t working?” Drista quickly looked at her comm. There were some cracks on the underside she hadn’t noticed before. She must have taken a harder hit the night before then she thought.
She took the phone. “Hello?”
“Drista!” Tommyinnit’s voice sounded stuffy. “I’m really sorry, but I caught a cold and my healing factor won’t be able to knock it out for another day!”
“Okay. That's fine. Who’s Philza?”
Tommyinnit gasped loud enough that Philza could probably hear him. Scratch that, he did hear him, if the look of barely contained laughter was any indication.
“You don’t know who Philza is? I swear I mentioned him! Oh Phil, I’m so f*cking sorry-!”
“It's okay mate!” Philza laughed. “Just tell her whatever you need to tell her.”
“Right, well Drista. Philza is only the greatest hero ever! He trained my mentor, and he helped train me!”
“Wait, really?” Drista blinked at the man. He didn’t look like much. Then again, Tommyinnit didn’t look like much either if you ignored his costume.
“Yeah! He said he’d be willing to pop out of retirement to do some foiling!” There was a pause and she heard some muffled talking on the other end. “I have to go now, Motherinnit wants me to get my rest, bye!”
“See ya Tommyinnit.” She handed the phone back to Philza. “Out of retirement just for this kid, old man?”
Philza groaned. “I knew that was coming.”
Drista snickered. “Which hero are you?” She didn’t remember much about the older ones, and heroes usually wore masks anyway.
“Green Lantern.”
Drista stared at him. Green Lantern wasn’t just one of the older heroes, he was the older hero, the first recorded superhero! At least in modern times. That was still up for debate.
She spluttered. “Wha- how did-why-? How’d you end up getting bossed around by Tommyinnit?” Go figure, every time she thought she had adjusted to her new world of actually talking to heroes, something else would come up. Then she realized what she just said.
Philza chuckled. “Well at this point he’s basically my kid. Ready to go?”
“Yes. Let’s go beat up people!” Drista hurried back to her bike, glad to be away from that topic. Green Lantern as Tommyinnit’s mentor, how did that happen?
She ended up getting a ride on a platform make of green light, which so cool. Way more comfortable then the Tommyinnit Express, even if it wasn’t as fast.
She quickly realized that Philza was a responsible adult, but in a fun way. He was more or less willing to let her do her own thing, with only occasional suggestions from his experience. She could see why Tommyinnit liked him so much. She decided she did too.
After they cleared the base hidden in an abandoned apartment complex, he took her out for ice cream. There was a little 24/7 shop that must have seen some weird sh*t, because the lady behind the counter didn’t even blink when she served up cones for Green Lantern and the rag tag girl in a hockey mask at two in the morning. Or maybe she thought it was a fever dream. That was what her own life right now felt like sometimes.
They ended up eating their ice cream on a rooftop across the street from the shop. It was good ice cream, and Drista made a note to come back during the day, when she didn’t have to tilt her mask at an awkward angle to eat.
“So.” Philza said at one point. “You’re a pretty headstrong kid.”
I swear if he tries to stop me now…
“What of it?” She challenged.
“Nothing bad. Did you know that my ring runs on willpower?”
She blinked at him through her now crooked eye holes. “No. Just willpower?”
“Well, its actually a little more complicated then that, but that’s the gist of it.” He held up his hand, showing her the ring. She leaned in to take a good look at it. It didn’t look like much, just two thin bands of green with a circle connecting them. It was hard to believe that so much power could come from something so small and unimpressive looking.
“However, there are very few people who have enough to use it. As much as I want to, I can’t fully retire until I can find someone who fits. They need to be willful, strong, brave, have a good heart, and have at least a little respect for authority. The Corps won’t be happy with me they aren’t, I’m already on thin ice with the Tommy incident.”
“What's the Corps, and what’s the Tommy incident?” Drista asked.
Philza smiled. “The Green Lantern Corps. Its basically an intergalactic peacekeeping force.”
Drista’s jaw just about fell off. “No way! You mean there’s a bunch more Green Lanterns out there?”
“Yep! Thousands! We tend to stick to our own sectors though, and Earth is mine.”
“That is so cool!” Drista breathed. Then she frowned. “Wait, why are you telling me all this?”
Philza slowly turned the ring around his finger, watching her with a look in his eyes that made her sit up straighter for some reason.
“Well. From what I’ve seen and heard so far, you make an excellent candidate.”
It took a moment for that to sink in. “You… want me… to be the next Green Lantern?
"Absolutely.”
Drista laughed in shock. She had to be dreaming. There was no way.
“I’m serious.” He insisted. “I think you would make a great Green Lantern, with a little training.”
“I… yes. Yes! I would love to be Green Lantern!” She cheered. She felt like her face was about to split. Green Lantern! Her!
“Alright!” Philza grinned. “One condition though.”
Drista froze in the middle of her celebration. “…what?”
“You have to tell your parents about it.”
Horror overtook her. “No. Oh no. Nuh uh, no way! I’ll be grounded for life! Provided they don’t kill me on the spot for sneaking out and beating up people with strangers!”
Philza raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall hearing Ponk say you insisted that you would continue to just sneak out.”
“That- I don’t want to get in trouble though. I don’t want to tell them.” This is my thing, she thought.
“I can come with you if you want the support. But listen, they deserve to know. This business, it’s dangerous. It can get you permanently injured or even killed. That target will be even bigger as Green Lantern. You will have a lot of responsibilities, and you will need to balance them with the ones in your civilian life. It will be a lot easier if your parents know and support you.”
Drista stared at her melting ice cream. It sounded like he had a point. But she really didn’t want to tell them.
Philza squeezed her shoulder. “Think about it. You can reach me at any time through Tommy. Now. How about we start heading home?”
Drista slowly nodded. She had a lot to think about.
●●●
Tommyinnit was ecstatic when she told him about what Philza had offered her. When she complained about the catch to tell her parents, he didn’t take her side.
“At first I went out without letting them know.” He told her. “Motherinnit found out though, and oh boy was she pissed! I really thought she was going to murder me! But we talked, and compromised, and then she let me out again! And it was so much better! I didn’t have to hide so much and she could cover for me! Fatherinnit had a similar reaction when he found out, same story, but I had Philza and Motherinnit to back me up that time! Anyway, life is way easier now!”
It was that story at convinced her to tell. Her parents weren’t his parents, but she was getting sick of hiding it. And she had Philza backing her up. The old guy had to count for something, right?
“Can you call Philza for me?” She asked. “I want to tell them.”