Work Text:
The day started off good, she woke up feeling perfectly refreshed, her coffee was perfect and everything just felt right in the world. Peter picked her up for work and they were heading out to a crime scene.
“You seem to be in a good mood today.” Peter asked as they walked to the scene.
“No mortgage fraud.” She said with a grin.
Cass took a look around the place, looking for anything out of the ordinary. At first glance the crime seemed to be an impossibility. The perpetrator would have to manage to get into the crowded rooms and back out with the art pieces without anyone noticing anything or getting caught on camera. It was as if they person could just turn invisible to escape from sight.
Cass knew she could do it but she also knew that there was no one else that was even half as capable as she was. Her brothers came close, but even Dick wasn’t quite as good as her despite all his training. There were only two ways that this crime could have actually been done. One of the required her very special skill set and the other relied on not being seen.
“Meta.” Neal informed Peter.
“You think this was the work of someone with special powers?” He asked her.
“I guess I better call the hotline and see if the Justice Leagues is going to take the case or leave it to us. I hate it when meta’s commit crimes jurisdiction becomes a nightmare.” Peter grumbled as Jones started quizzing the group on what kind of super powers they would like to have.
Jones started them off “I want super speed like the Flash, get all this stuff done so much faster.”
“I just want to be Wonder Woman or like Wonder Woman.” Diana said. “I bet you would like to be invisible right Neal? It sure would help a thief out”
“Alleged,” Neal said smiling at Diana.
“Precognitive abilities so I’m always one step ahead of the criminals,” Peter said. “ Now get back to work, we still have this case until they pull us from it.”
While they continued investigating the scene Jones found something weird, a round device that looked to be a cross of organic material and metal. Stupidly and against all protocols he picked it up bare handed.
“Ugh, its warm, feels like it is pulsing, this is so gross.” Jones held the thing out at arms-length showing the others. The sphere started to pulse visibly and then it contracted to half its size before it violently twitches out again sending a spray of chemicals on to the four team members.
“Gross, that is so gross does anyone know what this stuff is?” Diana said spitting a few times trying to make sure none of it entered her mouth.
“No idea, somebody call Hazmat, we should probably do a decon shower immediately and bag that up so that no one else gets hit.” Peter insisted.
Jones started to nod so fast that his head seemed to blur before rushing to do as Peter instructed.
They managed to get hazmat on the scene and start decontamination procedures within fifteen minutes. The four of them were placed in a room back at headquarters for observation due to no one knowing what the substance was that covered them, fortunately they were allowed access to laptops and case files to keep them occupied while they waited the mandated twelve hours to see if anything would come from their exposure to the strange substance. The forced quarantine made Cass uncomfortable it brought back too many memories of long nights in the cave waiting to see if one of her siblings was going to recover from a rouge attack. She wasn’t alone in her discomfort because within a few minutes Jones was pacing the floor. He walked back and forth walking the room, thinking out loud about the case file he was looking at, obviously trying not to think about the fact they were locked in there.
Everything appeared normal for the first hour. But if you listened closely to Diana and Peter’s discussion you would notice something a little off. All of Peter’s replies to her questions came before the question. Cass noticed the strange dialogue between the two and realized that Peter was out of sync with those surrounding him.
Cass had decided to go ahead and start checking things out on the internet trying to track leads like Barbra had taught her. Diana and Peter were engrossed in some of the paper copies of their files. Cass looked up to ask Jones about something on the computer that she was struggling with, but all she saw was a blur hovering in front of two of the other Laptops. Cass was familiar enough with speedsters she recognized the signs of one moving at warp speed. She sighed it looks like the mysterious goop really did do something after all.
Cass looked at Diana, nothing appeared different about Agent Berrigan. Cass figured the stuff might be sex linked, she didn’t appear to be affected by the stuff either.
Cass waved at Diana, she doubted Jones would be able to slow down enough to help right now, gesturing at her computer with a frown on her face. Diana continued her disjointed conversation with Peter ignoring her. Cass did not like this at all, usually her friends would stop and help her with the tech stuff she didn’t understand. She turned back to the computer and tried again; it still wouldn’t do what she wanted. This was turning out to be a bad day after all.
Maybe Peter could help her out, he wasn’t the best at computers but he still knew a lot more than she did. She put her right hand over her chest in a “p” sign, using her sign for him to get his attention. He glanced her way and still didn’t stop looking though his files. She was beginning to feel useless, and ignored. She didn’t like the way that made her chest hurt. She didn’t like the way it made her feel like a child again.
She thought that her team were her friends, that they understood her. They knew she couldn’t talk when she got upset and usually didn’t push her if she wasn’t able to. Now it seems that they couldn’t even be bothered to look at her much less try and decipher her signs. Her eyes prickled and her face started to get hot and painful, she was not going to cry right now. She tried to shove down the frustration that was bubbling up inside her chest. She would text Steph and see if she could come over tonight, her girlfriend wouldn’t treat her like she was Invisible.
Invisibility? It couldn’t be true, could it? Diana had said invisibility would be good for her, didn’t she? Oh, how little she knew.
Cass was trying hard not to freak out. Her father had taught her that she was not to be seen, not to be heard. She had no value for anything, except to be use as a weapon.
Her opinion didn’t matter. She was given no voice. Punished if she showed interest in anything.
The first decade of her life no one saw her, and she learned how to lean into that and use that to her advantage, but it left its scars behind.
‘Please say this isn’t permanent.’
Cass didn’t think she could survive if she was invisible again. She couldn’t live that way anymore.
Alone, solitary, hidden and unwanted.
She could practically feel the gazes passing through her body, unheeding of her presences. She might as well be a ghost for all the notice she was given. As silent as the grave, and just as unwelcome.
Cass needed this to be undone, it was all too familiar from her days with Cain. She still needed her brothers to be able to tell when she needed to be cuddled or cheered up, she needed to be seen, to be cared for and loved. She needed her Partner to be able to look in to her eyes and know what she couldn’t say out loud.
Her body was her voice, every motion and gesture spoke volumes and tomes that she could not put into words. She had been muzzled for most of her life so much so that she still had a hard time talking about her needs. She had come a long way from the little girl who couldn’t speak, but she would not be silenced anymore. This may be beyond her abilities but not beyond those of her friends and family. Cass pulled out her Bat-phone, and sent off a few texts.
'NO! I am not unwanted. They will come and fix this.’ Cass was holding herself together by a thread. She could make it until this was over. She could.
‘This isn’t permanent. This isn’t permanent. This isn’t permanent.’ If she said it enough times, she might be able to convince herself it was true.
Focus on something else, anything else.
It was clear that the men had been affected, from the disjointed conversations Peter was exhibiting and the speed blur that was Jones. They had been gifted super powers? But why wasn’t Diana changed at all? She had been covered in the goop as well, should she not also have been cursed with powers?
Cass got up and decided to test something, she was going to have to apologize if she was wrong. Cass braced herself calculating the best trajectory that wouldn’t permanently injure either party weather she was right or wrong and then punched Diana. Diana barley moved, she turned her head and brushed her hand across her arm like she was trying to brush a fly off her shoulder. Cass felt like she had punched a metal door or an Amazonian. Diana had changed, she was given the same powers as Wonder Woman it was just hard to tell someone was invulnerable unless they were attacked.
Half an hour later Peter suddenly frowned and looked at the door in confusion. A few moments later she could hear an argument outside the door, ‘you can’t go in there. That is a quarantine zone.’
“Yeah, I heard you the first time but I still don’t care.” A blond-haired young woman in a purple hoodie burst in with three bags slung over her arms and a stack of pizza boxes in her hands. “Heard one of you guys got speedstered? But is anybody else hungry, too?” Cass loved seeing here girlfriend any time but now she was especially glad to see her.
She was followed by Zatanna in her JLA uniform and Tim in his red hoody and a Super Boy shirt that was too big on him, probably stolen from Kon this morning each carrying more food and bags.
“Oh, thank you lady I am starving.” Jones rushed over to the newcomers snagging a pizza and consuming the whole thing before they even got all the way in the door.
“Alright speedy, you do still need to slow down a little, don’t puke everywhere, it won’t be pretty.” Purple hoodie said.
“…just so hungry… going too fast…. can’t stop.” Jones said desperately. “can’t ssStop.”
“Ok, is it alright if I help you? If you can touch me, put your hand over my chest and we will work on slowing you down,” the nerdy kid in the Super Boy t-shirt said. The blur rushed over to him and in a few moments of him following directions, it solidified into Jones’ familiar face.
“Oh thanks, how in the world do you know how to do that?” Jones asked. “I thought the world just stopped.”
“Lots of experience.”
“Youraspeedsterwhichoneareyou?” Jones blurted out.
“Deep breath and slow down, no I’m not a speedster but I know like three or four of them so I got really used to understanding fast talk and anchoring them to the correct time.” Tim replied, pressing Jones’ hand to his own chest and getting him to count his heartbeat. “We called one to see if they could stop by to help but they said they’d come train you if this turned out to not be reversible or lasting longer than a week, but otherwise it is healthier for you not to adapt.”
By now the group had been shut back into quarantine with the three new people.
“Who are you guys? And how did you know to come?” Diana asked.
“I’m Stephanie, this is Zatanna, and he is Tim. We were called, speaking of which, where are you love?” Purple hoodie asked looking around. Cass melted into her lover’s side, trembling a little from stress, Steph wrapped her up in her arms.
“Umm, why are holding your arms out so funny?” Jones asked.
“We got whammied with the powers that we talked about.” Peter said understanding finally dawning on him.
“But I didn’t change, and you don’t really act any different either?” Diana protested.
“I have had a vague feeling you have already said that, most of the day it’s been one big feeling of Deja Vu. Like I was getting really confused why you kept repeating yourself so many times.” Peter said quickly, almost before Diana finished talking.
“But I haven’t changed at all.” She insisted pouting a little. Steph’s hands wiggled funny, while Cass attempted to sign into her hands about her little experiment. Steph tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure out sign by feel instead of sight.
“You punched her? No pain?” Steph hesitated unsure of her translation having never attempted to understand it like this.
Cass nodded automatically. Nobody responded, because she was invisible.
She did her best to hold back the tears brewing in her eyes and took Steph’s hand bringing it to her face and then nodded. Steph brushed her fingers over her girlfriend’s face tracing the worry lines and the felling the wetness spilling from her eyes.
“Oh hunny, we got you, you’re going to be ok. We are here for you.” Steph pulled Cass close holding her as she broke down. Tim moved to Cass’s other side a wrapped them both in a hug. She thought as the two held her that the must have looked really strange to the others cuddling air like they were.
“What’s wrong what is going on?” Peter demanded. “Is Neal ok?”
Steph asked, “do you want me to explain or no?”
Cass thought about it as she started to calm down safe in her lover’s and brother’s caring arms. Slowly she nodded making sure that Steph could feel the motion, taking her hands again and spelling out ‘c-a-i-n’ and then motioning side to side with her hands in the ‘y’ shape.
“Neal is having a hard time right now. This reminds her a lot of her Biological Father and his abuse toward her.”
Cass must have done something there because Steph stopped and stared at the empty space in front of her with an incredulous look on her face.
“It was abuse hunny, I know you know that, why would you…The man wouldn’t even let you learn to read or write or hell even talk, he knew three languages and he wouldn't let you learn any of them. That is abuse.”
“Wait what do you mean she wasn’t allowed to read write or know a language.” Diana demanded.
“How does that even work?” Jones asked
Peter cringed, eyes filling with tears and voice breaking, he approached the cuddle pile and asked “May I hug you, that just, I can’t even imagine going through that.”
“Cass’s father wanted a weapon not a child, he trained her to fight and fight well. Anytime she spoke or looked at words anything at all that even hinted at communicating with others he used extreme punishments and torture to discourage her learning.” Tim filled the others in prompting a huge group hug once the others learned about her past.
After a long time in the hug Cass took a deep breath and whispered “thank you.”
“You have nothing to thank us for Neal, you are our friend and we care for you.” Jones murmured over Tim’s shoulder petting her hair.
“You guys think I could go beat him up right now? If I’m as strong as Wonder Woman, I could take him, right?” Diana said.
Steph and Tim grinned at each other.
“Well, the family promised not to kill him but you didn’t, let me see he was last sighted…” Steph’s voice cut off as Cass put her hand over her mouth.
“I have his current location on my phone…” Tim began, before Cass poked him as well.
“I guess that is a no then.” Diana said.
“Alright so if you Four would let me I can check you guys over to see if this is magic or if it is reversible by magic.” Zatanna said.
“PleaseohPlease, I’m so tiredandhungry and I Think I learned two new languages today and solvednineteencoldcases and I c a n t foc us right and t i m e is so weird. CanitjuststopPLEASE.” Jones alternated between a blur and a slow-motion picture, tears of frustration coming to his eyes.
Tim pulled the man’s hand to his chest again and started guiding him through some breathing exercise until he was in sync again. Once he was calm, they all lined up while Zatanna took a moment to study their auras and then chanted her spell. “Tel em ees tahw si gnorw htiw meht. Wohs em woh ot xif meht.”
Peter looked thoughtful for a moment then took out his phone and texted something to El.
“Ok this should be an easy fix guys, I want to double check a few things before I do anything else though.” Zatanna clapped her hands. “Do you guys have the orb that sprayed you? I want to make sure it is what I think it is.”
“Last chance to get the winning lotto numbers dude.” Steph said with a grin at Peter.
It took a few minutes of persuasion before someone brought the evidence bag full of goop and orby weirdness into the room.
“Laever ot em rouy erutan.” Zatanna chanted over the strange object. A strange glow began pulsating around the globe.
“Ok the good news is this is just what I thought it was and I should be able to get you back to normal in no time.”
Cass was grateful for her friends for her family. Sure, sometimes she wasn’t able to speak with sound like others but now she had so many ways to express herself and be understood. She wasn’t invisible anymore; she wasn’t silenced anymore. She had a group of people who knew her they truly understood her and saw her for who she really was. She had a voice now, and people who cared enough to hear her.