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Two new kids lingered in the main hall of the Neotower. Jake knew they were new, because he knew everybody, even the newest new heroes. These probably weren’t heroes, since they looked to be his age, which was partly why he continued to squint at them from his hiding place around the corner.
The blonde one had green skin, but he didn’t think she was a Martian ‘cause of the weird circles on her forehead, arranged in a triangle. The other one with curly hair and brown skin was definitely a speedster, though, because she kept vibrating in place and going fuzzy at the edges unless her friend reached out to tap her back into slowing down.
Jake hadn’t heard of any new Martians or other aliens coming to Earth recently, but a strange speedster almost always meant time travel, so maybe they’d both arrived that way.
A briefing room door slid open, letting two grown-ups out and causing both the new kids to straighten expectantly. The green one immediately went up to the woman with identical blonde hair, except her skin looked normal, and she was wearing an S-shield on her tunic. So, probably Kryptonian instead of Martian. Cool.
The second adult was at least someone he recognized, Mister Bart, one of Uncle Tim’s best friends. He grinned, patting both kids on the head before leading them off towards the elevators.
Jake hesitated. On the one hand, he didn’t exactly want to get in trouble for spying, nevermind that most of his family members did it all the time. On the other, he really wanted to know who the new kids were, and where they’d come from, and if they’d be staying long-
A hand landing on his shoulder made the ten year old jump. “What are you doing, hiding back here?” His dad asked, amused.
Jake scowled and shoved the man’s hand off. “Nothing!”
“Uh-huh. You’ve been spending too much time with your Uncle Jason- hey, Bart! Kara! Wait up!”
Oop. Apparently Jake would get a chance to ask his questions after all.
Jenni paused when someone called her cousin’s name, and twisted around to see a superhero she definitely recognized from the archives approaching them. “Oh, wow! That’s Nightwing, right? The very first one?!”
“First and only, right now,” Bart said, ruffling her hair. “Hiya ‘Wing! How’s the shoulder?”
“Getting better,” Nightwing answered, and as he got closer Jenni could see a smaller figure floating along in his shadow. Literally floating. Wary green eyes peeked out, and she waved, causing them to disappear again.
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?” Aunt Kara asked, sounding worried.
“Ah, landed on it wrong during our last Omega-Level emergency, and funnily enough it’s not healing as fast as when I was twenty. Gonna be a few more weeks at least before I’m back on active duty - but! I’m actually here for this.” And with that, he reached behind him to grab the tagalong figure, pulling out a kid who looked a lot like Nightwing, except smaller. He was even wearing a black t-shirt with the same blue symbol and sleeve stripes. “This is my son Jake.”
Aunt Kara knelt down, smiling like she did when she first met Jenni. “Oh aren’t you cute; hi, Jake, I’m Superwoman, but you can call me Kara.”
“Hi.” The kid didn’t say anything beyond that, leaning back against his dad’s legs.
Jenni could feel herself vibrating again, and forced herself to slow down before bouncing forward and sticking out one arm for a handshake. “I’m Jenni Ognats! Do you want to be friends?”
Eyebrows shooting up, Jake stared at her for a long second. He did, though, accept the handshake with a small grin. “Uh, sure?”
“Crash! That was a lot easier than with Queri - she’s my best friend but that took a lot of work and she still doesn’t say it as much as I do.”
She smiled wider at the annoyed sigh behind her, and then the Super-Coluan stepped up to join them. “If something is true, it’s true, you don’t need to state constant repetitions to make it moreso.”
“But it’s fun to keep saying!”
Violet eyes rolled, just like Jenni’s dad used to do. “Please ignore her, or else the logical fallacies won’t ever stop. My name is Queri Dox-El.”
“Cool. Are you half Kryptonian?” Queri nodded, and Jake shook her hand too, his grin getting a little bigger.
“Well, you guys seem to be getting off to a good start,” Nightwing said with his own pleased smile. “Jake, you want to show the girls Classroom B downstairs?”
“Sure! Come on, it’s not like a regular classroom at all.”
Queri needed to ping the local data ‘net for clarification on what a ‘class-room’ was supposed to be, regular or otherwise. Numerous individual points led her to the startling conclusion she and Jenni would likely be expected to henceforth learn alongside other children of undetermined aptitudes. Further information only proved to be upsetting, when she came across an instruction packet detailing exactly what sorts of lessons were considered appropriate for their age bracket.
Distressing, but- her mother had said things were done far differently in the twenty-first century. This- it could be considered an anthropological experiment, perhaps.
One hand came up to grasp and tug on her hair with a strength level just past her minimum pain tolerance threshold, an unfortunate biological habit Queri couldn’t seem to avoid when feeling exceptionally emotional. She was supposed to be reviewing modules related to thermodynamics and interstellar travel and re-coding information to be stored within a biological organism’s DNA, not- not local history or how to paint or what different land and water features were called.
Ahead of her, their new local companion suddenly triggered a sliding door to open, and cast his arms out with a cheerful, “Ta-da!”
Peering through the doorway completely stalled all the upsetting logic threads running through Queri’s mind.
It looked nothing like the ‘class-room’ images she’d perused. A small charging station located just inside the door held seven individual computer tablets, and there were an equal number of place settings around a low circular table near the front of the room. But beyond them, Classroom B was filled with an assortment of equipment for physical activities, numerous containers filled with balls, paddles, targets attached to straps for arms and legs. Another table off to one side bore the controls for surface hologram manipulation; multiple projectors around the walls and ceiling looked to be in the style that cast out small forcefield barriers. At the back of the room were several individual work stations, decorated and labeled and each bearing some project or other in differing stages of completion, far more similar to Queri’s own aptitude levels than what she’d seen of twenty-first century children in the data search.
“There’s a bunch of us who have a hard time fitting in at normal schools,” Jake explained, as Queri took a hesitant step inside and Jenni proceeded to speed about, inspecting every corner more closely. “So Dad and some of the other parents set this up, and we come to learn here instead. They teach us all kinds of stuff, and Dad’s got these trivia games where somebody puts on target pads, and he asks a question, and when one of the other kids manages to hit you on the target you’ve gotta answer - it’s way fun, and my grandpa says it’s good superhero training, too!”
Jenni zipped back over to them. “Does it hurt? Getting hit?”
“Nah, we only use the bouncy balls, you can’t even feel ‘em through the padding. You want to see my desk?”
They followed him to one of the work stations, where a small model of a pre-Hamani style spacecraft was in the process of being constructed. “It’s gonna really fly when I’m finished,” Jake said proudly, holding up the ship with both hands. “That way I can play airborne tag at home even when my dumb sister’s busy.”
Queri blinked at him. “Airborne tag?”
“Yeah! It’s just like regular tag, but flying. None of the other guys in my class can fly; my sister and her best friend don’t usually want to play with me, and I don’t really want to play with younger kids either, so.”
Jenni grinned. “Queri can fly! And I can scorekeep!”
Jake’s expression brightened considerably, and Queri, for some illogical reason, floated in place to demonstrate. “Awesome! I wasn’t gonna ask, ‘cause I know sometimes Kryptonians don’t get all the powers until they’re older, but that’s great! When do you want to come over? We’ve got a really big yard, like, as big as a park, and Grandpa put in these cool overhead holograms so no one can take satellite footage of us-” He kept going, describing all different sorts of details, which Queri silently absorbed as Jenni piped up with the occasional question.
Perhaps living in the twenty-first century wouldn’t be so bad after all.