Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

We were beyond fucked.

Locked in a stuffy interrogation room, handcuffed to the table with inhibitor collars locked around our necks. I felt like the chained up dogs in time out. But probably less intimidating with tear stains and bruising on my face and a black eye..

Glancing over at my partner in crime, who wore a somber but not all too shaken up expression. It’s the first time I actually see his face in the flesh, he usually wears a black plastic dollar store mask. His name is Kid Wykkyd, at least that was what we called him. Fitting, as he was the odd one out. Always looming in the darkness of rooms and streets. Silence was his main trait, never uttering a word. Not even when he got arrested more than an hour ago. Nor when the cops manhandled him, resulting in red, irritated eyes from the pepper spray.

“What did they tell you?” He asked me out off the blue. His voice sounded scratchy and soft, which startled me even more. I never imagined the emo of the gang to sound so fragile. Like a broken record player. He didn’t look at my direction.

“He-They-um said I could expect at least a year in Metahuman Juvenile.” I spoke with an equally fragile voice as his. My lips slightly trembling with the memory of the cops just berating me. “And then I’ll be on probation..with ankle detector and the collar.”

“Me as well.” He nodded, sounding a bit somber. Yet not shaken by the fact we’re going to fucking juvie. Not just juvie, Metahuman-Juvenal. That fact makes it all ten times worst. The sentencing and trail of a crime by a meta differs from those of a normal human. So longer sentencing and fellow inmates are more intimidating, even if there are no powers.

“You must regret trying to save me.” Kyd continued his somber speech.

“Pff, only regret getting caught.” I scoffed, examining the handcuffs and the bruises it was leaving on my mocha skin. “And I guess my parents finding out.” My body forcing out a fake giggle at my very poor attempt at a joke. Wykkyd didn’t laugh along, preferring to keep his somber vibe.

“Why didn’t you run away with the others, Hex?” He asked sincerely. His gaze turning more to me, but still taking an effort to avoid eye contact. I caught a glimpse of the irritated skin around his eyes. My gaze returned to the handcuffs, instead of mirroring his action, to look at him.

“Drop the code names, Wykkyd.” I blurred out in slight annoyance, he looked back at the wall in an instant. “My name is Samaira… What’s yours?”

He kept his mouth closed and his gaze away from me. Even going as far by moving his chair with his legs to turn his whole body away from me. The high-pitched sound of the chair moving, gave me chills that run down my back and off my shoulders. My body twitching multiple times by the off sensation. I opted to ignore his lack of response. We returned to our earlier routine, waiting in dreadful silence. But that didn't last long. My hand moved on its own to crack the knuckles of my left fist. The feeling and action soothing my anxiety, clearing my mind. The sound of bones cracking now dominating the small room. With each crack, Wykkyd’s eyebrow twitched and his jaw getting tense. At crack number four, he snapped in the most reserved way.

“Can you stop?” His voice was still soft, but not as scratchy. He stayed in his previous position, turned away from me the best he could while chained to the table.

“You really are a chatterbox today, aren’t you.” I stopped my stim for a moment, letting silence fill the room again. Dragging out a crack that had him clenching his teeth and balling his fists.

“What is your name?” I asked him again.

At that moment the door swung open, an officer entered our room. The Officer’s eyes were wide, and he was visibly sweating buckets by the look of his Niagara Falls like forehead. Poor guy probably had a first-hand encounter with my mom.

“Uhhhmm-uhhh.” Damm my mom really messed him up. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Someone of the-uhh-of the justice league want to speak to the two of you.”

The officer continued hastily, he sounded beyond stressed. “I don’t know why or who. But they will talk to you two first before your parent.” The officer took a shaky breath, his torso expanding to take in all the air possible, before he continued his hasty rant. “I already told all your parents and caretakers. But miss Sharma, your mother was really, really mean.“ His voice got shaky at the end before speeding out of the room, promptly closing the door.

“What did your mother do?” Wykkyyd asked in disbelief as we both stared at the closed door.

“Forget that! What does a league bastard want with us?!” My voice cracked by the big waves of anxiety that were hitting me one by one. Sweat drops already forming in my armpits and my clothes starting to feel sticky, too tight. Not knowing who or when they’re coming will literally put me in hysteria. My breaths started getting shorter by the second as the situation gets worse by the minute.

“What did we do to get their attention?” I frantically questioned to no one in particular. My eyes feel stingy, again. Threatening to cry, again. I let my head drop hard against the top rail of my steel chair. The thick inhibitor collar causing an uncomfortable neck pain, but the uncomfortable position was the least of my worries.

Why is everything going wrong? How am I going to apologize to my parents? Nothing I will ever do can win their forgiveness. The police must have already told them that their daughter is a disappointing, low life criminal with evil powers. How I’m socializing with fellow social rejects-but that I was the dipshit getting caught-and the others are gone-

“Maybe they will only give us a slap on the wrist if we give them information on the others?” I pointed out, the slightest bits of hope lingering in my words. “With luck they want some info on Gizmo or Mammoth. Maybe Billy. Nah who cares about Billy-”

“But we won’t right?” Kyd looked over his shoulder.

“If it means lesser punishment, I will give them whatever the fuck they ask for.” I answered in simple honesty. Not even pondering over morality, criminal code or what ever. “I’ll even give them access to gizmo’s app on my phone.”

Wykkyyd didn’t react straightaway. He shifted his stare to the cuffs, his emo bangs hiding his face. 

“That’s not fair to them.” He sneered in a hushed tone. “What about See-More, hm? He wouldn’t betray y-”

“Us getting all the blame isn’t fair, either!” Jumping of my seat I slam my hands against the steel table. Kyd flinched, attempting to raise his chained arms. “Listen. If we want to walk away with the lowest punishment, we have to snitch.” He shook his head, letting out a ‘tch’ under his breath. Even swinging the choppy bangs away from his face. 

“Use your common sense, for the love of god. Think about how relieved your parents will be when you only get 100 days of community service instead of a year in prison.” Giving a little kick to his leg under the table, feeling confident that I'm winning him over.

“I don’t have parents.” He dryly announces, his expression neutral. 

Shit. My lips pursed in a straight line. Peering my eyes away from the origin of my embarrassment yet the rest of my body frozen in place. This stupid expression stayed for a hot minute while I’m mentally rebooting from that awkward revelation. I don’t think I’m going to live this down. Ever.

“Uhm,” Taking a second to think of a fitting response, facial expression and tone. Wanting to come off as unbothred but not mean. “Let.. Let’s just hope Batman won’t be interrogating us.”

A slow, creaking sound caught our attention. I leaned over the table to where the sound was coming from. The door was slowly opening, as if by its own accord. Once it was halfway open, A tall dark silhouette that was outlined by the crappy hallway lights stood at the doorway. The figure had a long dark cape that covered them from neck to their shoes. As they walked in, the air got heavier, making me hold my breath. The vibes that the figure gave off felt so menacing, the type that you wouldn’t think twice to run away from. As they sat in front of us, I noticed the one thing I dreaded the most. The dark figure is wearing the signature Bat mask and had the logo on his chest.

“You really Jinxed it, Hex.” Wykkyyd whispered plainly to me.

I continued to stare at the Bat logo... I think I’ve stopped breathing. The Batman was just as silent as us, even more actually, he was winning the silence race.

“I have read your files.” Batman’s voice was so deep and menacing, but his expression was stoic. “The police has been on your tail for the past year, collecting a file with all the crimes you have committed.” His hand disappeared for a second in his cape and swiftly returned with two files that he places on the table. He opened them and slides them towards us.

My file was medium-sized in content. Fingerprints, hair found on the crime scene, low quality security footage stills of presumably me and a list of the crimes I’ve committed. All my deeds of the past year, not just today. I recognized some crimes as vandalism, robbery, and assault. But there was also aiding robbery, disrupting the peace, terrorism etc. I closed the file with a little struggle of the cuffs to read the title: Hex/Samaira Sharma.

“I made the connection and informed the police,” Batman’s voice filled the room with pure dread. ”With those charges, you can expect five to ten years in a high security Metahuman prison.”

“I didn’t do half the shit on this list!” I slid my file back to The Dark Knight with unnecessary force. Wykkyyd almost had his face pressed to his file pages. Before he distanced the paper a bit more and blinked multiple times. His eyes were to irritated to even read a sentence.

“There is evidence of members of your group committing these crimes. But no evidence that suggests you’re not involved.” Batman argued. 

“I thought the Justice League had better things to do than busting troubled teens?” I implored passive aggressively. “Don’t you have like a clown to beat or break the legs of a shoplifter who just wants to feed their family.” I ranted on. Not helping my case at all, but I’m doomed either way.

“The league has an offer for the two of you.” 

I turn to Wykkyyd, but he was still trying to read page two of his file. That granted him a hard kick from me, he yelped out from the pain. He had his attention to the matter at hand, not before shooting me a glare. 

“The Justice league wants to start a program for Meta-Youths that are persuaded or groomed into joining criminal organisations. But we need volunteers to make sure the program is affective.” Batman elaborated, his body language unreadable. “In the program, you will live in a facility with members of a youth branch of the justice league, who are not part of the program. You will go on group missions that fit your level, follow training, go to counselling sessions and school on the side. There will be no record of your arrest and the program will last as long as your sentencing.” He elaborated further. “The decision is your own. The program or prison.”

“What if I choose prison?” Wykkyyd inquired.

“You'll serve your sentencing in prison. But you'll be provided you a lawyer by the league.”

“What are my benefits if I choose the program?” My turn to ask a question.

“If you finish the program with all positive feedback, we will arrange a college scholarship.” Batman answered. “But only if you meet those criteria.”

The optios are clear. The choice is easy.

“The Program” “Prison”

We chose at the same time. 

“Why would you ever choose prison over a much better option?” I don't get the logic behind his decision. I just tell him to use common sense. Kyd took a shaky breath before he responded. 

“I’m tired of life as a Meta- as me.” He corrected himself, his voice sounded broken. His voice cracking under the emotions he’s hiding away. He sat still on his chair close to the table, only his gaze was in my direction, “I just want to be normal and not have roles assigned to me by others.”
Batman opened my handcuffs in the meantime, but I was too engrossed in our moment together to mind the ease of my bruised wrists. I even forgot that Batman was in our presence.

“Well..what are you going to do after prison?” I asked, my natural mono-tone voice coming back.

“Work. Like everyone else.” He huffed out, blinking multiple times as his eyes got teary again. By the pepper spray that is, Wykyyd would never get sappy like this.

Two cops came in and swiftly removed the chain of Wykyyd’s cuffs. As soon as he was freed from the table, they roughly take him by the arms. We would probably not see each other for a long time. Just when I got to know him better. So for a final time I bugged him:

“Can I know your name now?”

“Ca-leb Smit.” He struggled to say as to cops shoved him out of the room and out of my sight.

Chapter Text

[July 22, 2010] 10:00

“She will arrive any minute,” Kaldur waited in front of the boomtube. M'gann and Conner at his side.

“Any minute!” In her excitement, M’gann didn’t realize she was floating instead of standing like the “normal human girl’ she is. Wink Wink

Connor stood with his arms crossed and not at all enthusiastic for the arrival of the new girl. He can’t understand why the league let a criminal join a superhero group. How could Superman approve this?

10:03
“She’s late,” Connor states the obvious.

“Give her time, Conner.” M’gann defended in an instant. “She’s probably saying goodbye to her family.”

Kaldur nodded slightly, but couldn’t help getting irritated at the lack of punctuality of this girl. He hoped this was a one time occurrence, that would not repeat itself. His crossed arms tightening their hold over his chest.

10:10
Connor has abandoned formation at 10:04. Stationed himself on the couch to watch his favorite show, static. Just the static TV. No one knows why. Accepting Connors unique taste in television entertainment.

Kaldur and M’gann still in front of the Boomtube. Kladur’s lips were tightly pressed together. His arms tightly crossed over his chest. His eyes were fixated on the boomtube, practically burning holes in the machine. Maybe her boomtube station has a defect? No, a machine of such high technology doesn’t break down that sudden. She lives in New York. She could’ve been robbed?

M’gann on the other hand seemed to not be bothered by the new girl running late. The martian had abandoned the ground, opting to float in the air, where she is more in her element.
Her excitement, not burned down by every passing minute. But still, she was getting worried about her new teammate.

“Should we call her?” M’gann’s concern evident in her tone. “… You know, to make sure she’s alright?”

“We should,” Kaldur ran a hand over his buzz cut, letting out his frustration. “She could be in trouble.”

“Tch- Don’t bother,” Connor moved his gaze from the TV to look at them. “She probably ran away or got arrested.”

“How can you know, Connor?” M’gann quirked an eyebrow.

“She’s a criminal. That’s who she is and all she ever will be. She would be more useful to us as a practice dummy, than a teammate,”

“Duly noted’’

The three young heroes suddenly were aware of another presence in their liar. Next to Red Tornado stood a girl with a stuffed backpack hanging on her shoulders. They recognized the girl immediately from her unflattering mugshot.

“You should check your super hearing, asshole,” She sneered at the Superboy mirroring his cold glare.

Samaira stormed off, a glazed expression on her face. M’gann tried to introduce herself, giving a small wave of her hand. But Samaira ignored the Martians good meant gesture. Walking straight to her new room. Or at least she thinks where her assigned room is.

“She entered the wrong coordinates and arrived at the other side of the city. Resulting in her late arrival to Mount Justice,” Red Tornado scanned the situation for a second. “It seems that there is resentment against Samaira Sharma.”

“We judged her too quickly,” Kaldur admitted. And they haven’t even properly met. The guilt settling in.

Samaira reached her room. The door had her number: B-06. She hastily closed the door behind her. Throwing her backpack on the floor, letting out s shriek. She kicked her carry-on with the full force of her foot, the poor thing slammed against the closet. The urge to pull at her roots spreading like wildfire under her skin. Samaira started flapping her hands, ignoring her harmful urges. But the motions failed to sooth her. Maybe finger tapping? She switched to another method. Her fingers took turns tapping the tip of her thumb.

Index - Middle - Ring - Pinkie, repeat
Index - Middle - Ring - Pinkie, repeat
Index-Middle-Ring-Pinkie, repeat
Index-Index-Ring-Pinkie, repeat
IndexMiddleRingPin- It’s not helping

Her balled fist hit the side of her head, followed by another and then another. The resulting numbness of her brain giving her the peace she was looking for.

That stupid fucking teleporter. Useless junk.
Another hit on the top of her skull. Her chest was beginning to feel tight. Samaira pressured one hand on her chest. She pushed and massaged as if to sooth her clamming heart.
Why did mom have to cry like that? Why did they force that hug on me?
She threw a painful blow that made her stumble to her knees. That’s when her fists attacked her thighs. Dealing blows on after another. Her sobs rocking through her body, shaking her to the core. Leaving her breathless.
I didn’t want to be late. They already hate me. They want me gone.

“Samaira”

Samaira jolted at the unexpected voice. Just then did she notice her supervisor, Black Canary, kneeling beside her. Even though Canary was kneeled beside the distressed girl, she stayed out of Samaira’s atmosphere.

“Can you talk?,” Canary simply asked. She motioned a thumbs up and down. “If not, respond with your thumb.”

Samaira gave a thumbs down, while pinching her thigh with her free hand. Canary observed this. She thought for a moment how she could switch her harmful stimming to a positive one. She looked around the clean room until her eyes landed on the pink luggage.

“Can I look in your bags?” Canary pointed to the bags on the floor.

Samaira pinched her leg through her jeans, nails through the material. She gave a thumbs up.

Canary opened the backpack. She rummaged around, trying not to make a total mess. Every nook and cranny. Inside pockets and outside pockets. She found gum, hair clips, lighters, stickers, and receipts. Until she found something useful. A cube keychain, the cube was covered with press - and sliding buttons. Canary took the heavy blanket from the bed and draped it over Samaira, before handing out the keychain.

Samaira shyly took it. Moving her hand slow and limiting her movement. With one hand she was still pinching herself, but with the other she was fidgeting the buttons.

Canary watched her. Making sure she wasn’t harming herself or feeling ill. Canary sighed out in relief, her tense posture softened. “I’m going to give you some space. Is that okay?”

Thumbs up.
“Stay as long as you need. If you need anything Red Tornado will be here.”

And with that, Black Canary walked out of the room. Feeling positive that her new student will be alright.

16:30
“Aww man, I thought we were going to meet the new girl?” Wally was confused and to be honest a bit annoyed. He had been waiting for two weeks to meet the new member. And today was the day. He came here right after school just to be told he had to wait.

“She’s not feeling her best, Wally,” Kaldur and wally were seated in the kitchen. Where M’gann was making them all dinner. “Black Canary ordered us to give her space.”

“But you just said that she’s been in her room since ten in the morning,” Wally pressed on. He really wanted to meet another girl. He had to start his fail-safe plan: ‘Make M’gann jealous’. He can’t begin with ‘Step 1- Flirt with the new girl’ if he can’t even meet her. “Shouldn’t we check up on her? I can do it!”

“Wally, that’s so sweet of you,“ M’gann’s compliment made Wally’s face more red than the Flash. “But we should really respect her wishes. And I’m making her dinner, so we don’t have to worry of her starving.”

M’gann proudly showed her fry pan filled with all sorts of ingredients. But if the final result would be edible is up for debate.

“Babe, I’m sure whatever you cook will be the bomb,” Wally gave a dreamy smirk and a finger gun to his alien crush.

Then the food caught fire.

M’gann, who stood close to the fry pan, yelped from the sudden heat. Her body weakening by the fire. Quickly flying away from the kitchen. She looked in horror as the fire was growing.

Kaldur reacted immediately to the danger, ignoring his own weakness for the flames. He activated his water swords and shot a water blast. In time to save the kitchen, but not dinner.

Still sitting at the kitchen counter, Wally was dumbfounded by the turn of events. “Damm I jinxed it.”

“Not again,” M’gann looked deflated at the burnt black goo that was left of her cooking. She really really looked forward to cooking for Samaira and the others. To make dinner for the team. “Now what are we going to eat?”

“I can cook,” The three turned to see a tired Samaira standing at the opening. She paused the music on her phone and removed one earbud before asking the others. “Does pasta sound good?”

Chapter Text

[July 22, 2010] 17:50

The young heroes and Samaira were all eating the pesto spaghetti she prepared. M’gann tried to start a conversation with Samaira. Telling her how good the food was, if she could teach her how to cook, etcetera and etcetera. But the ex-delinquent only responded with a nod or shake of her head.

Wally made a few attempts as well, in his own try-hard flirt way.

“If you were a chicken, you’d be impeccable.” This resulted in groans from everyone, except from Samaira. She just continued to eat, staring at her plate. Secretly not understanding the pun.

Kaldur did thank her for the meal and complimented her cooking. But he let her be, seeing as she was reserved to herself this evening.

Superboy didn’t use his words to get his message across, his glare was enough.

Why can’t I just talk to them? Samaira scolds herself. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t utter a word. Not even a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Now I’m just being rude. The four young heroes had their own conversation. Even when she’s sitting at the counter, Samaira was just in the background. The conversation was muted in her head as she felt herself disconnect from them. An invisible glass was put over her. Like a spider who’s being forcibly removed from the house. Disconnected…isolation…the only familiar thing in this new environment.

“Your phone’s ringing…Helloooo? Are you even there?” Wally snapped his fingers near Samaira’s face, bringing her back to earth.

“Huh what?” Samaira didn’t even notice her phone was going off. She hurriedly reached for her phone, seeing who was calling her. Who would even bother-...it was her little sister. Samaira tries to stand up when Superboy grabs her wrist.

“Answer the phone here,” Superboy has his arms crossed as he tells her what to do. “Or do you have something to hide?”

“It’s my little sister,” A sigh of frustration escaped her, hearing this prick boss her around. She turns her phone to show the unsaved number and the icon of a little girl. Almost pushing it in Superboys face to prove her point.

“Superboy, remember what I told you about being nice…?” Wally whispers to the blunt clone. He just wanted the mood to stay enjoyable while he ate his spaghetti.

“You can take your phone call in privacy, Samaira,” Kaldur’s voice was calm, wanting to reassure her. But to her, it came off as giving permission. That he allows her to have privacy. Her face twisted from the up building irritation of this stupid conversation. Her phone was still ringing in her hand begging to be answered.

“I don’t need your permission,” Samaira has reached her limit. Her mind was buzzing as the temperature was rising. Or at least that’s how it feels like. One more comment and she-

“Answer the call here or just ignore it then!” Superboy was just done with the loud ringing in his super hearing ears. And Samaira being difficult was just the cherry on top of his melting ice cream cone of patience.

“Oh my fu- Fine!” Samaira pressed the green button with much force of her thumb. If she wasn’t so overwhelmed, she would have felt pity for the object. The sound of muffled crying came from the phone’s loudspeaker.

“When are you coming home, Akkadi..?” The crying voice of her little sister wasn’t enough to ease her irritation. Or the fact that she was addressed with Akaddi, the love and affection radiating off the respectable way to address an older sister. Samaira groans, partly from annoyance at the question, but also from slight embarrassment from the team witnessing this.

“Priya…” Samaira tries to make her tone come off as maternal and nurturing as possible. Something an older sister should be. Something she struggles with. “..for the last time. I will only be home on the weekends.”

A soft sob and little hiccups came from the speaker. The team watched in silence how Samaira talked to her younger sister while scolding Superboy in their telepathic mind link.

‘You should trust her at least a little, Superboy. Her little sister’s crying…’
‘Dude! What did I tell you about your bluntness? You’re never getting a girlfriend with that attitude.’
‘You may not trust her, Superboy. But she’s part of the team now. We have to have faith in her, so she can trust us.’

“What did mom and dad say about using your flip phone?” She reminds her sister with a scolding tone as she usually does back home.

“But this is an emergency..” Priya let out a shaky sob, taking uneven breaths. “There’s a monster in your closet..Please come home.”

Samaira walked in circles as she listened to her sister. As annoyed as she was at the situation, it was her fault in the end. Ever since they shared a room, she convinced her sister that there was a child eating monster in her closet. She did this to prevent Priya from rummaging through her clothing and finding her ‘secret belonging’. And now it was biting her in the ass, as it should. That’s just how karma works.

“Priya, I know a way to keep the monster locked in the closet. But you need to be brave-”

“-But it’s going to eat me..” Priya interrupted, reminding her older sister about the danger she was in.

“Hey, you can do this! Remember when you pushed that bratty girl from down the street when she tried to steal your bike. You didn’t back down, even though she was bigger and older” Samaira was unsure if she was comforting her ‘correctly’. She tries to visualize how the empathic characters in her favourite shows would comfort someone… “Just listen to me and the monster won’t come out…okey?” Silence was heard from the other line. Samaira just waited until Priya let out a whiny hum. “Step one, grab my golden body mist. It has an ingredient that weakens monsters: honey.”

She could hear the little girl crawling out of the covers. She was probably looking for the golden bottle that was on Samaira’s nightstand.

“I got it…” Priya’s voice was quiet and shaky. Samaira could only imagine her six-year-old sister terrified in the dark, ready to seal away the monster.

“Now you need to spray the mist on the two closet knobs. So that the monster can’t open the door.” Samaira continued walking in circles, forgetting the team was witnessing her walking in circles and figure eights while she was on the phone. She heard the sound of the spray, quickly followed by another one. “Did you do it?”

“Y-yes… what now?” Priya spoke more grounded as she sealed the monster in the closet. “Will it leave me alone?”

“Yes..it will leave you alone. Poor monster is probably terrified of you. Go to sleep before mom catches you awake.” A soft smile formed on Samaira’s lips. Priya will finally leave her alone.

“Can I keep the body mist for if the monster comes back?” Priya always did this, asking to keep Samaira’s stuff. Like a book she can’t even read or pencils she uses incorrectly. And her requests were always met with an eye roll or scolding from Samaira. But this time she chuckles, glad to hear that Priya was back to her old greedy self.

“Tsh- Keep it. I didn’t even like it anyway. I gotta go now. Good night.” She ended the call without waiting for a response. A strong wind passes her, messing up her long black hair. To her surprise, Wally stood beside her, his arm over her shoulders, bringing her a bit closer to him.

“Did she stop the monster, or does she need my assistance?” Wally grins at her while pointing his thumb at himself. Samaira was internally screaming from his sudden and unwanted touch. But his speed didn’t go unnoticed.

“So you’re Flash boy?” The hairs on her neck were standing straight from the touch, in an unpleasant way. While her question was genuine, Wally seemed to dislike the name.

“It’s Kid Flash!- Why does no one get it right?” Wally raised his hands in the air, as if they knew the answer.

“Flash boy, Kid Flash. Both sound like sidekick names for the Flash,” She looks at Wally, who she now knew was Kid Flash. It almost felt illegal to know his super secret identity. Was she even supposed to know this? It seemed pretty stupid of him to be so open about his secret identity.

“What? I’m not just a sidekick. I am the Flash’s apprentice.” Wally pointed at himself, making his message clear for the girl next to him.

“Then why did you choose such a dorky name?” The question blurted out of her before she could even evaluate the question in her mind.

Wally was stunned for less than a second from her blunt question. He couldn’t figure out if she was just joking or rude. Her facial expression was still as cold as during dinner.

“Dorky?”

Her simple but rude question hit a small sore spot. An insecurity that he always hid with his jokes and one-liners.

“It is not-!” Wally’s defense was cut off by the monitor turning on, Batman’s masked face popped up on the screen.

“I will assign you a mission in half an hour. Get ready.” Batman’s authority was just as strong through the monitor.

The team all went their separate way. Samaira guessed that it was for mission preparation. She idly stood there, unsure what to do without any direction or command. Her palms were sweating, again. She looked around the lounge but avoided the monitor. Certain that Batman was observing her. Judging her.

“Samaira.” The Dark Knights voice forced her attention to the screen. His stern gaze could practically hold her by the throat. “You will stay here and follow the mission through the monitor. For today, you will observe and learn. Understood?”

He wasn’t asking her. He was commanding her to comply. And who was she to argue?

The team followed trucks while riding on their motorcycles. With Robin, the team was now complete. The five of them in their element while doing their hero work. It was for the best that Samaira stayed behind. ‘I would’ve messed up their flow.’ She thinks to herself. Her eyes followed the mission on the big monitor, the camera’s on their helmets filming everything. Listening to their chatter and bickering. Observing and listening, just as Batman assigned her to do.

She pushed her shoulders back, her feet planted firmly on the ground, and her gaze fixated on the screen. Black Canary stood beside her. Samaira preferred her presence over Batman for very obvious reasons.

Robin and Superboy follow the Manhattan truck while Aqualad, Kid Flash and Miss Martian track the Boston cargo. Soon robots attack the trucks forcing the team to switch over to battle mode. Samaira watches how they get on the trucks, excited to see them fight to their victory. Just for Superboy to fuck it up by being angsty.

“Do missions usually go like this?” She checks in with Black Canary. Expecting this was just a one time thing. But Black Canary only had to sigh and the girl understood her. She almost felt guilty to feel relieved..

“I honestly thought I would be the fuck up of the team. Glad to see that everyone here makes mistakes.” She turns her gaze back at the monitor to see them still fighting. She chuckles seeing Kid Flash scream from seeing M’gann with three arms.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Samaira. Especially heroes this young. But they always learn from their mistakes and do better.” The hero shares her wisdom with the teen. “You made some mistakes and came here to do better.”

“I actually came here to not go to jail.” Samaira blurs out the fact. “But I guess to also do better.”

“I advise you to tell that to the team. Open up a little and show them that they can trust you.”

“By they you mean Superboy.” Samaira smirks with a side glance to her new mentor.

“Mostly Superboy, yeah.”

Chapter Text

[August 8, 2010] 09:58

“First, let’s take a moment of silence for our absent comrade.”

We fell silent for our comrade who was starting school today. The poor guy is starting his sophomore year while the rest is having a beach episode. But the pity was short lived. Samaira lays on her towel in the comforting protection of the shade. Wearing her leopard print bikini with her long hair in a bun.

“Are you seriously reading your geometry homework?” Robin holds the volleyball against his hip as he looks down at her. She had her thick geometry book open before her.

“I have homework to keep up with.” She shrugs with a sigh. If there’s one subject she hates, it's geometry. “Red Tornado checks if I finished my homework everyday. All part of my rehabilitation.”

Robin sits down beside her. The two of them haven’t had the chance to get to know each other well. All Robin knows about her is how the team described her. Kaldur called her someone in need of guidance, M’gann finds her distant but is certain they will be friends in no time, Superboy had some less kind words to describe her and Wally said she was blunt but makes good pasta. Speaking of his friend Wally he’s probably jealous he won’t be seeing the new girl in a bikini. Kid Wonder couldn’t help but smirk at the thought.

“So how are you liking the team so far?” He breaks the silence as he looks ahead at their teammates in the water. The sound of M’gann’s laughter carried through the wind.

“The team is just fine. Except Superboy, he has a stick up his ass.” Samaira mumbles as she continues to read the stupid book with half attention. Something about volcanos and whatever. Why does she need to know this? She has no idea how this knowledge will ever come in handy.

“He definitely heard that.” He chuckles, imagining Superboy getting hot headed and throwing a tantrum. Again.

“I really don’t care. He hates me already.” She mumbles in response. Closing the big book with a sigh. Sitting up and stretching her legs a little. It was times like this she wished Kid Wy- no Caleb, chose the program. So she had someone on the same boat of loneliness as her. Someone who understood what it’s like to be an outsider in a world of super heroes.

Robin has observed her, just like Batman taught him. The melancholy in her voice at the end. How she avoids his gaze and tenses at the word hate. He was aware that she secretly cared how they thought about her. His expression softens at this observation. “Pff- Superboy hates a lot of things. Hating you is nothing special.” That got a chuckle from the gloomy girl.

“Hey guys come in the water!” M’gann waves at them. Wanting to have fun with all her friends. Robin stands up and makes his way to the water but halts to look back at Samaira. “You coming?”

Samaira looks up at him. Her eyes widened at the question. Not sure why she is surprised, after all M’gann asked them both to come. But the question was specifically for her to join. For her to be a part of the fun. “Yes, uh, Yes.”

[August 8, 2010] 21:00

“Kids, this is Artemis. My new protege.” Green Arrow introduces us to the new new girl. Samaira is somewhat glad she’s not the newest member of the team. But by Artemis' toned abs and uniform she guesses that she has much more experience than her.

“The Wall man is here! Now let’s get this party started-” Before anyone could ask anything Wally barges in. Or better yet fell in. Face planting with the ground with his beach ball bouncing off. Samaira quickly covered her mouth to muffle her laughing.

“Wall man huh?” Artemis smirks. “I love your uniform, what exactly are your superpowers?”

“Uh, who’s this?” Wally motions to the new archer of the group. Already not liking her attitude.

“Artemis, your new team mate.” She holds up her bow.

“Kid Flash, never heard of you.” He wraps his arms over his chest. It feels like the two of them are having a bitch off. Samaira, ever the observer, watched how green arrow once again introduced Artemis as his new apprentice. The situation got even more tense when Speedy walks in. This was the first time Samaira saw Speedy, the previous sidekick of Green Arrow. Wally and Aqualad only had good things to say about him. Mentioning how badly they wanted him on the team.

“And who’s sidekick are you?” Speedy, no sorry, Red Arrow points his finger at her. Snapping her back in the present.

“Hu?”

“She’s the test subject for our rehabilitation program.” Green arrow answers for her. Pushing Red Arrow’s arm down. “An ex-delinquent here to do better.”

“You guys didn’t tell me you recruit criminals.” Red Arrow turns to look at his friends, Wally, Robin and Kaldur. “Can you even trust her?”

“Yes, they can.” Samaira stands up for herself, taking a step forward. Red Arrow only huffs, turning his back on her. This irked her.

Roy gave them the mission to protect the scientist he saved before calmly storming off.

“Samaira,” Batman begins, taking some steps towards her. Samaira stiffens in slight dread. Her stomach turned inside out. “Black Canary told me you’ve been doing well during training. You’ll join this mission. Follow Aqualad’s orders.” Simple enough directions.

“Yes sir,” Samaira nods. Everyone goes to their room to suit up. Samaira’s outfit was simple and practical. Green cargo pants and a black flowy shirt. Hell she looks like Kim Possible. She sends a quick prayer to her gods. ‘Please let this mission go well.’

[August 8, 2010] 21:59

‘Mhmm that boy,’ Artemis thinks out loud in the mind link. Wally and Samairs cringe from hearing it. Even though they are patrolling the hallway and Artemis and Miss Martian are at the perimeter, they are connected through Miss Martian’s mind link. So now they can hear this embarrassing moment. Samaira even felt second hand embarrassment, her cheeks warming up and her stomach turning. She glances over at Kid Flash, who’s wearing his iconic uniform in a dark shade, munching on a field ration. She sighs, preparing herself to talk. Mulling over a script of possible things to say.

‘You know… You should go easier on Artemis.’ She says to him through the mind link. Wally turns his head to her, an annoyed frown on his face.

‘Yeah, no way, she pushed Roy away from the team.’

‘Roy pushed himself away.’ She points out. It was weird to talk to someone without opening her mouth. ‘Besides it was her arrow that saved your ass during the last mission.’

‘What? No that was Speedy- I mean Red Arrow’s arrow.’ He claps back, not wanting to even entertain the idea that he owes Artemis his life.

‘You know I’m right, just admit it.’ She rolls her eyes, scanning the darkness of the empty hallway. Looking for any signs of the assassins that were after the doctor.

‘Still,’ He turns his back to her, checking his side of the hallway. ‘I won’t give her the satisfaction of… huh?-’ A gush of wind was felt. Samaira turns to see Kid Dork missing. Was it the work of the assassins or did the idiot just leave the newbie alone.

‘Kid Flash?’ She asks through the mindlink. Taking a hesitant step towards the spot where he just stood. Fuck this was straight out of a horror movie. What is she supposed to do now? Her eyes fall on a set of open doors that emit light. The smell of chlorine tells her it leads to the swimming pool of the school. She steps inside, stepping on something round that almost made her lose her balance. Quickly holding on to the door handle for support. Who the fuck leaves marbles on the floor? Samaira looks over at the water to see Wally floating face down.

“Kid Flash!” She dives in the water without a second thought. Maybe this is the heroic impulse heroes feel on a daily basis? Kid Flash was unconscious when Samaira turned him around to lie face up. Wrapping her arm over his chest and swimming to the edge. Samaira let out a choked gasp as the water spilled in her mouth. She feared she was doing this all wrong. He was heavier than he looked, his weight pulling her down. Her legs kicked in the water as hard as she could. Never in her life has she put so much of her physical strength into something. If only she had a better superpower. Something she could save lives with. Like super strength or telekinesis. Her hand finally clasped the edge of the pool, she pushed the boy on the marble tiles with a groan. She managed to push his upper body out of the pool, his legs still dangling off the edge. Hurriedly pulling herself up and checking on him. He wasn’t breathing but he had a pulse. She could still save him. With haste she tilts his head back to clear his airway for some rescued breaths. Just like her mom taught her she pinches his nose and leans in. Covering his mouth with hers to give him a rescued breath, taking deep breaths in between. In total five and then lean back to give chest compressions by placing one hand on his chest and the other hand covering her hand.

“Staying alive, Staying alive, ah ah ah ah..” She mumbles to herself as she does the compressions. But nothing happens. No coughing, no breathing. Tears of frustration or fear, she can’t tell, start to well up in her eyes. Leaning down she covers his mouth with hers again. Giving the speedster more rescued breaths while counting in her head.

One, he can’t die here

Two, please, Kid Flash

Three, come on, Wally

Four, stay alive

Five, stay alive!

The last rescued breath was more desperate. Her mouth pressed against his. Her tears had fallen down, landing on his exposed cheek. And by god’s grace he spits out the water and coughs. Samaira quickly leans back, spitting out the water that Wally coughed up in her mouth. But she was relieved beyond words, even getting light headed. He coughs out the water from his lungs. It was like coughing out a storm.

“I think I need another one.” Wally groans, pursing his lips for another kiss of life. Samaira gives him a deadpanned glare. ‘This little fucker. Can’t believe I cried over him.’ Putting her fingers on his lips, conjuring pink energy to jolt him.

“Auw!” He sits up, rubbing his sore lips with his gloved hand. “Alright, I deserved that.” He mumbles softly, standing back on his two feet with a speedy step. Samaira casts her gaze down to the tiles. Wiping away her tears before Kid Flash sees them. She would die from embarrassment if he knew she cried over him.

“Who did this to you?” She stands up with a helping hand of Kid Flash. Aware that he could be a dumbass, but not that much that he ended up unconscious in the water.

“Definitely the assassins, come on.” Without a warning he picks her up bridal style. Hooking his arm under her knees.

“Can’t we just-?” Samaira was about to protest. But Kid Flash already speeds off to the rest of the team. Samaira wraps her arms around his neck. Feeling the wind fly past her. Her long braids flapped about. Kid Flash ran as fast as he could while holding her securely, showing off a bit yes. They reach the computer room, and she catches a glimpse of the masked assassin. Throwing a pink energy spark towards the nearby computer. The computer explodes and the shards sink in the assassin's thigh and arm.

“Aghh!” She hisses. Scanning her opponents. “This is getting too interesting..” She throws a smoke bomb before disappearing.

“This is all your fault!” Wally accuses Artemis, pointing his finger at her. Ah yes, here we go again, Samaira thinks to herself. “You were watching the perimeter! How did that Shadow get in?”

“C’mon, it’s her first mission, besides if I stayed to watch the hall I could’ve alerted to the assassins' whereabouts.” Samaira puts her hand on his shoulder. Putting some of the blame on herself to get the heat off of Artemis. She normally never does this. In her old team she never hesitated to put the blame on her team members. But with this team she wants to come off as a better teammate. All of this for a scholarship.

“No one can possibly blame this on you, Samaira. And I can’t be mad at you.” Wally smirks, looking at the girl over his shoulder. ‘You gave me mouth to mouth.’

‘We heard that!’ Everyone says in union through the mind link.

‘Dang it!’ Kid Flash walks off, avoiding eye contact. Especially with Samaira.

Artemis walks up to Samaira with a raised brow, her hand on her hip. “You kissed him?” She asked accusetory.

“Ughh, to save his life!” She swears it’s true. Running after her teammates as they relocate the doctor.

[August 8, 2010] 23:30

They managed to keep Doctor Roquette safe and somewhat unharmed by the end of the night. The doctor managed to disable her micro robots or whatever they were called. Now Samaira was walking down the streets of Queens, the streetlights her only source of light in the darkness. And Wally is here too.

“You know I’ve never visited New York before.” He comments as he walks beside her. He offered to walk her home and to his surprise she actually said yes. Maybe his charms finally wore down her walls.

“Really?” She looks over at him. “With your speed I figured you’ve seen the whole country.”

“Yeah but that was all over in a second. This is the first time I actually slowed down while visiting New York.” He looks around at the passing houses. Wondering what Samaira’s house looks like.

As Samaira glances at her somewhat new friend, (if she can even call him that) she feels an urge to do something kind. She stares ahead where her house is located. Either her stepdad or mother is probably waiting for her. Would it be appropriate to invite him in at this hour? Just to serve him some food off course. Nothing else. The only other team mate she ever invited to her home was see-more. Only to tend to some wounds and give him some get-well-soon kisses. She sighs, stopping before the front porch of her home.

“Let me give you some food. So you have fuel to run home.” She decided to invite him in. Showing off her good manners of course. She may be a delinquent but her parents didn’t raise a monster. Wally was taken aback by her sudden kindness. It’s not like he thought she was mean just not the kind to invite him in for food.

“Really?” He smiles, following her up the steps. “I would love to! The pasta you made the other day was so good!”

“But we need to stay quiet.” She whispers to him as she pushes her key in the lock and slowly opens the door. “My family is sleeping.”

“Don’t worry, babe.” Wally chuckles as he steps in her home. “I can be as quiet as a ninJA!” He trips over her little brother’s shoes and falls down. Landing with a loud thud on the floor. Soon the lights turn on and her family is on the stairs.

“Samaira!” Her little sister Priya runs down the stairs and steps over Wally to hug her. Followed by their brother Sanjay. Samaira pats their backs and looks up to her mother and stepdad.

“Samaira, we expected you hours ago!” Her mother was about to scold her until she saw Wally standing up again. “Who is this boy? One of your old or new friends?”

“You could say he’s a new friend.” Samaira gently pushes her siblings off her.

“You should know better than to invite friends over at this hour.” Her stepdad wraps his arms over her chest. “What’s your name, boy?” His deep voice slightly scares Wally.

“I’m Wa-alter White. Uh, sir.” Wally keeps his Identity secret just in time. But the name Walter White was already famous. Her parents stared at him with an amused expression that clearly says: Is that the best you can come up with?

Samaira takes his hand and guides him to the kitchen. “I can’t let him go home on an empty stomach. Just go to bed.” She says to her family over her shoulder. Wally sits down on one of the bar stools watching how she warms up some dough balls and tea for him.

“Whatcha making?” He peers at how she prepares his food by putting the balls in a bowl and warming up the water in a kettle.

“It’s called Banana Bonda, it’s a little sweet treat.” She turns to look at how he was impatiently waiting for his food. While the bonda was warming up Samaira gathered the ingredients to make Chai. “Do you like your tea sweet?”

“As sweet as you, sugar.” Wally sweetens her up, earning a scowl from her. She puts the ginger and milk back in their place. He just lost his tea privilege. Handing him a glass of water instead. “Awww, c’mon I was looking forward to Chai tea..”

“It’s just Chai, and you lost that privilege with your cheesiness.” She scolds him. Taking the bowl of Banana Bonda out of the magnetron and blowing softly on it. Not wanting Kid Dork to burn his tongue. She didn’t give him mouth to mouth just for him to burn his flirty mouth. “Now eat up so you can run home.

Wally doesn’t waste a second. Propping the round dough balls in his mouth. They were nice and crispy but most importantly sweet, like banana bread but fried. While he ate he peeks at Samaira, who was preparing her own cup of tea. Boiling some milk, water and sugar in a pan. He originally just offered to chaperone her home to impress M’gann and hopefully make her jealous too. But now that he’s here he’s enjoying her company more than he thought he would. After all she saved his life and made him food, that’s like the epitome of the perfect girl.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Six year old Priya snickers softly as she peeks her head in the kitchen. Watching how the boy was ogling at her older half sister.

Samaira freezes, stammering over what to say to her nosy sister. She could see Wally’s freckled cheeks flush from the corner of her eye. Making her even more embarrassed. “Go back to bed!”

Chapter Text

[August 19, 2010] 16:30
“Do we have the sweets out? And I mean the fancy one’s.” My dad asks me, fluffing up the cushions of the couch. Doing his best to make our cozy apartment as presentable as can be. Showing off all the family pictures. Even framing and hanging more childhood pictures of me.

“What’s the difference?” I shrug, putting the store bought cookies on the coffee table. But my stepmother snatches it up, hurrying to the kitchen to get the ‘fancy’ cookies.

“The fancy cookies are in a tin box.” Devika elaborated by gently waving the tin box of cookies in front of her my face before placing them on the coffee table.

This weekend I was with my father and stepmother. My twin half brothers were watching tv, a news report on how Aquaman saved five people from dying in a submarine implosion. Typical rich people shenanigans to almost die in a submersible just to see the titanic. But my brother’s are in awe of Aquaman's feat. My siblings on both sides only knew that their older sister was following a rehabilitation program for troubled teens. Unaware that this program was done by the justice league. It was for the best that they were kept in the dark. They would tell anyone within a ten mile radius that their sister works with heroes.

The doorbell rings. Devika quickly pulls the young boys on their feet so they look like well rounded children in contrast to me, her stepdaughter, when greeting their guest. My dad wraps an arm around my shoulders, holding me close to his side to radiate a tight knit family. For a moment I stiffened under the sudden touch, yet the fact that he held me firmly was soothing. Devika opens the door to reveal Black Canary in civilian attire, here to give her report on my progress in the program.

“Welcome to our home,” My parents greet my mentor. Ushering her inside the apartment. My little brothers shook Canary’s hand politely. Black Canary smiles softly at my little brothers, probably believing they were sweet. Oh how wrong she is. While my parents made Black Canary feel at home I took my younger brother’s by the hand. Pulling them away from the living room by their little hands.

“You two have to wait in your room while the grown ups are talking.” I walk them to their bedroom and open the door with a soft kick of my foot. Their room was neat thanks to my stepmother. It showed off their interests in soccer, Martian Manhunter and Superman. A poster here and there. A soccer ball lamp hanging from the ceiling with a matching wallpaper from their favourite soccer club.

“But you’re not a grown up.” Avi, the slightly taller twin, argues. His brother Dev was already playing with his hot wheels. Avi was always the one challenging me while Dev was born on the sunny side of life. Dev took everything in stride and just skipped along the yellow brick road. While Avi would argue with anyone just to get his way.

“More grown up than you, dummy.” I stick out my tongue to the brat before closing the door. Yes it was childish but also satisfying. Smooth down my shirt to look as presentable as I can and walk back to the living room. Black canary sat on a lounge chair opposite of the sofa where my parents were sitting. I take a seat next to my dad, hoping he will have my back during this. I give him and my stepmom a tightlipped smile before turning my gaze to my mentor.

“Let me start by saying that Samaira is showing great motivation to better herself.” Black Canary begins, opening her notebook to read off her notes. “She follows training sessions, does her schoolwork and joins in on missions. Aqualad, the leader of the group, personally told me she made a good impression”

It made me feel giddy that I made a good impression on basically the most important member of the team. I feel a sense of accomplishment at my social skills. It’s not everyday I make someone like me without threatening to hex them.

“Samaira always puts 100 percent in everything she does.” Dad pats my thigh as he laughs a little, a typical deep dad laugh. What he said wasn’t true though, I always give up when things don’t go my way. Like every hobby I ever tried, I gave up once I realised I wasn’t good at it. Like sewing, crochet, playing guitar, soccer, theater etc etc. Beside art, my only talent yet the passion is unnurtured. And I guess I learned some basic gymnastics from when I used to do the sport, back when my parents were able to afford it.

“But what I have trouble understanding is how she started becoming a delinquent,” Black Canary takes a moment of silence to look at me and my parents. “She obviously knows right from wrong and has a sense of justice. She saved Kid Flash from drowning and stood up for Artemis. But I feel she isn’t honest about how she started her criminal behaviour.”

They all look at me. I was picking at the skin of the back of my hand but didn't avoid their gaze. Giving them a simple answer with a shrug of my shoulder I mumble. “My friends were a bad influence.”

Could I call Kid Wykkyyd, Billy Numerous, Mammoth, Gizmo and See-more friends? We only hung out to do bad stuff. We never just chilled in someone’s room or hung out at the mall. Hell beside Caleb I know none of their real names. Not even See-more, with who I was closer with. I even sneaked him in my room to make out. But I’d like to say Caleb and I are somewhat friends. We exchange letters in which he updates me on his Juvie life. And I would tell him how my rehabilitation was going.

“Tell us more. How were they a bad influence?” Black Canary rests her elbows on her knees with her hands folded under her chin. Listening intently to what I have to say.

“They just…you know.” I shifted in my seat leaning forward to get a cookie but Devika slapped my hand away. The cookies were only for the guests. “Only wanted to rob stores and vandalise stuff. And they made me feel…cool when I would use my powers to do so.”

“How did you meet these boys?” My stepmother asks, it feels like the interrogation room all over again. Only this time I didn’t have to share the stress inducing attention with Kid Wykkyyd. And there wasn’t a pig police officer to punch me in the face.

“We met online.” I give another short answer. “A forum for teens with powers.”

“We investigated that forum you mentioned earlier, Hive, multiple meta-human teens that have used that forum are now missing.” Black Canary reveals. Gauging for my reaction. “Including your old teammates Mammoth and Billy Numerous.”

“How long have they been missing for?” I don’t exactly give the most appropriate reaction. No taken aback expression or tears stinging my eyes.

“Four and two weeks respectfully.”

“Hmm” I hum, thinking about my old ‘friends’. They were my least favourite members of the group. Clumsy as fuck and getting us almost arrested numerous times. But still-

“Do you know more about this, Samaira?” My dad’s voice turns more serious as he looks at his only daughter. Probably disappointed in me all over again.

“Sometimes kids on the forum never go online again. But I always thought they got busted by their parents or just abandoned the site.” I sigh, revealing half of the truth. Since I don’t have the other half. “That’s all I know. I swear.”

Black Canary only nods, a simple nod. Which worries me for some reason. She takes a cookie from the tin box to munch on.

[August 19, 2010] 18:20
Black Canary left after an hour of talking with my parents about my performance in the program. And after assuring them that I was kept safe while risking my life to fight villains. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my dad’s Peugeot. My duffel bag on my lap, packed with some art supplies that I had been needing for a personal project. Part of my rehabilitation was to nurture my talents more, so I would focus less on my bad habits. I stare out of the window, trying to avoid a conversation with my dad about anything and everything.

“You know you can talk to me about everything.” My dad musters up the courage to be sensitive with me. This man has the same emotional availability as a brick wall. Just like Superboy.

I don’t react right away, keeping my eyes on the passing street. I cannot in fact talk to my dad about everything. I can’t talk to him about periods, he gets awkward when I talk about my powers, being emotional with him also makes him awkward and he gets judgemental when I try to talk to him about my past mistakes.

“Yeah, I know.” I lie.

Dad stops the car in front of the alleyway where the zetatube was located. I pull on the handle but the stupid door doesn’t open. Dad put on the child lock.

“Did you tell the truth earlier? About the forum?” He asks me in a serious tone. “I want to trust you, Samaira. But you need to earn it.”

“I barely knew anything about the forum.” I lie again. I was pretty active on the forum, meeting multiple people from it. Feeling like I made connections for the first time in my life. I don’t know why I feel the need to lie to my dad about this.

“Can I go now?” I ask, my hand already on the handle. Wally and I are going to play Dragon Age 2 together and I don’t want to be late. “Please,...pitā. Kid Flash is waiting for me.”

“The boy you kissed?” He raises his brow. He has read the mission report. I write a mission report to reflect on my performance and how it makes me a better person and all of that nonsense. And Black Canary and my bio parents read them to be up to date with my progress.

“To save his life! Without me there wouldn’t be a Kid Flash.” I press my thumb against my chest. Annoyed as hell that everyone calls it a kiss when it isn't. My cheeks feel heated as I remember how it felt to press my lips against his, to save his life off course.

“You’re a real hero alright.” My dad shook his head, a soft sigh escaping him. How can anybody be annoyed that I saved a life?

He finally unlocks the car and I open the door swiftly. I give my dad a quick wave before walking in the alleyway. Fuck am I glad to leave. I really love dad but we just don’t talk about deep stuff. We usually keep it to the safe subjects. Like him talking about politics and me just nodding along. Or me showing him my art and him pretending to like it. Stepping in the phone booth and giving it my name, I arrived in Mount Justice in a second. Wally was installing his playstation when I walked in.

“Ready to save Ferelden?” I put my bag down and sat down on the couch. Wally turns his head, still messing with the cables of his ps3 and the tv.

“Hell yeah I am.” Wally finally plugs the ps to the tv and stands up straight again. “But the real question is are we playing as boy Hawke or girl Hawke?”

“Can we please play as girl Hawke? I want to romance Fenris.” I pleaded with him. I always loved rpg’s and romancing the characters. Living vicariously through my character.

“Just because you’re pretty.” He gives me his overly flirty smile and I mentally beat the butterflies in my stomach. But the fact that he called me pretty made me smirk a little. “Fine we’re playing as girl Hawke but we’re romancing everybody and see what happens.”

“I can live with that. But we’re going to stick to Fenris in the end.” I point my finger at him, pressing it to his chest. He starts the game and we get to customize our character. Picking the girl Hawke, as he promised. I sit next to Wally on the sofa as he hands me the controller. “So my dad is angry I saved your life by giving cpr.”

We picked to play as a female elf, just like I wanted. We take our time making the character and have some fun with it. Giving her very small eyes with a bigger nose and wrinkled face, just because we can.

“So he preferred for me to drown?” He nervously chuckles, pointing to the cursor for the hairstyles. I adjust the hair of our character to give her a buzz cut. Wally nods in agreement of the hairstyle, not impressed with the other hair choices.

“He would probably prefer that over me kissing a boy.” I shrug, choosing the right eye color that clashes with her complexion.

“So you do see it as a kiss?” The idiot wiggles his eyebrows as he leans closer.

“Sometimes I wonder why I stick around you.” With a roll of my eye I focus on the game again. We took our time to craft the most cursed, fugliest character we could possibly make in this game. Normally I would make the character look like myself but now that I’m sharing the character with Wally I need to compromise just a little. It was already sweet of him to let me romance Fenris, or at least mainly romance him. So the least I can do is allow him to have fun with the character customization.

“Allright, an hour of blood, sweat and tears and we made the closest thing to a troll.” Wally points to our girl Hawke on the screen who was an absolute eyesore and we loved her for that. “Now we can finally start the game.”

I hit the triangle button to finish up our character customization so we could start the game. The title card showed up on the tv screen. We were ready to spend hours of our day on this game. Truly nothing can ruin this moment.

“I have a task for the team.” Red Tornado’s voice interrupts our moment. Wally and I let out a groan of frustration. But Wally quickly speeds over at our den mother.

“I thought only Batman gave us missions.” He stops beside Red Tornado as the Android types something on the hologram computer.

Reluctantly letting go of the controller I follow Wally who is my designated comfort person of the group. Standing next to him as we watch the image of Dr. Fate and an old guy.

“This is not a mission, simply a task.” Red Tornado turns to look at us. The android was ever so emotionless and that’s why I like him. He’s predictable and functions on logic. I feel no need to make my voice or expression come off as more sociable for him. Which is why he makes the perfect den mother in my opinion. “This is Kent Nelson, he is 106 years old.”

“Guy doesn’t look a day over ninety.” Wally whispers to me from the back of his palm. We inspect the image of the elderly man. He does look pretty great for 106.

“He’s been missing for 23 days.” Red Tornado continues. Typing away on the hologram computer thing. “Kent was a charter member of the Justice Society, the precursor to your mentors’ Justice League.” The image on screen shows Kent Nelson as Doctor Fate.

“Of course,” Aqualad had his arms wrapped over his chest as he turned his gaze to us.. “Nelson was Earth’s sorcerer supreme. He was Doctor Fate.”

“More like Doctor Fake.” Wally scoffed, leaning even closer to me until our shoulders were pressed against each other. “Guy knows a little advanced science and “Dumbledores” it up to scare the bad guys and impress the babes.”

“Kent may be simply on one of his… walkabouts. But he is the caretaker to the helmet of Fate. The source of the Doctor’s mystic might, and it is unwise to leave such power unguarded.” Red Tornado finishes his introduction of this Kent Nelson guy.

“He’s like the great sorcerer priests and priestesses of Mars.” M’gann steps closer to the hologram as she gazes up at the image of Doctor Fate. “I would be honored to help find him.”

Wally suddenly puts his arm up in the air. “Me too. So honored I can barely stand it. Magic rocks.” He gives the horned devil sign with both hands. Looking like a poser and a liar.

Artemis and I exchange a look, a look of annoyance.

I half mindedly gaze out of the window while the Bioship flew over New Orleans. My palm tucked under my chin as I tap my fingers on my cheek. Artemis was interrogating Wally over his sudden belief in magic. We (excluding M’gann) could see right past his bullshit and know he was just saying he believes in magic in a sad attempt to score points with M’gann. I glare at Wally from the corner of my eye while he continues his lie. Am I angry? Annoyed? Or another emotion I can’t put my finger on? All I know is that my jaw is tense and that I just want to hex some sense into that stupid redhead. I’m not even in the mood to join Artemis in her interrogation. And normally I wouldn’t hesitate to call people out on their bullshit.

M’gann lands the bioship on the ground, right where the tower of Doctor Fate should be. But it was just a plane field with no tower in sight. Wally takes a leap around the field. The rest of us wait for him to come back with some sort of sighting of the tower.

“Nothing.” Wally halts in front of Kaldur. “This isn’t simple camouflage.”

“So what do you think,” Artemis puts her hand on her hip. “Adaptive micro-opto-electronics combined with phase shifting?” I understood basically zero of what she just said. It was like Gizmo using the most difficult words to make the rest of us feel stupid.

“Absolutely-” Wally begins but when M’gann approaches he magically changes his tone. “-not, clearly mystic powers are at work here.”

I roll my eyes and turn away from him. Taking the key from Kaldur I read out what was engraved. “Insert.” I tap the key on my fingers and walk ahead to the open field. Bumping my shoulder against Wally, some might even say I did that on purpose. Imagining a door ahead of me that needs to be unlocked, I insert the key and turn it. And voila! A tower appears in front of us.

“How did you do that?!” Wally shakes my shoulder. The team surrounds behind me waiting for my grand explanation.

“The power of imagination.” I shrug with a smirk. Opening the door for us all to enter the tower of Doctor Fate. As soon as the door closed behind us it disappeared.

“Uh, where’d the door go?” Connor points out.
‘Maybe it’s up your ass.’ Was what I wanted to say, still petty over what he said on my first day. But the glowing figure of Kent Nelson appears.

“Greetings. You have entered with a key, but the tower doesn’t recognise you. Please state your purpose and intent.” The apparition requests. Wally steps forward and I already get the feeling he’s going to do something stupid just to impress his crush.

“We are true believers,” He states with too much boy scout wonder. “Here to find Doctor Fate”

The Kent Nelson apparition fades away leaving us confused. But the confusion didn’t last long as I felt the ground beneath my feet creak and rumble. The floor breaks and we fall down yelling. The warm air hitting me like a brick wall, my eyes widened when I saw the lava waiting for me at the bottom. What have I done in a past life to deserve such a death? M’gann grabs Wally and hovers in the air. Artemis shoots a hooked rope…thingy into the rock side and saves Kaldur as they hang on to the rope. There’s nothing here to hold on to. No one left to save me. I wonder if I’ll be luckier in the next life.

“Oef-” Strong arms wrap me around my waist, a bit too tightly. My body gets pressed against a rock hard chest. Now face to face with the S of superman or in this case Superboy. My cheeks heat up with the realization that I am sitting on his lap. I can only imagine how jealous Artemis will get. He presses his feet and fingers into the rocks, slowing down our rapid descent. I can hear his grunts of effort in my ear. My weight is definitely making it more difficult for him. I can see the lava getting closer and closer. In a moment of fear for this painful death I bury my face in Superboy’s chest, letting out a scream. We kept steadily slowing down yet it felt like we were doomed. In the last second we stopped moving, but not before Superboy’s feet were submerged in the lava.

“AAGH!” He yelled out, taking his feet out of the lava by pulling his legs up. Pressing me further against his chest. The smell of molten leather fills my nostrils. I guessed his boots were the victim. “Those…were my favorite boots. This Nelson guy better be worth it.”

“Thanks.” I say, trying to sound sincere. He only nods back.

“Having trouble maintaining altitude.” We both look up to see M’gann and Wally flowing in the air. But as M’gann said she had trouble staying there. Sometimes dropping before flying a little back up, the heat was weakening her. She wipes away the sweat forming on her forehead.“I’m so hot.”

“You certainly are.” Wally takes his chance to flirt even when facing the most painful death imaginable. Superboy and I groan in unison, maybe the first time we ever agreed on something together.

“Wally!” Artemis scolds him. But that didn’t stop Wally from being his idiotic self.

“Hey! Inches above sizzling death, I’m entitled to speak my mind.” He points his thumb to himself. It hurts my heart to agree with him, but it’s true that he and M’gann were facing a sizzling death as their altitude kept dropping. Closing the distance between them and the lava. But that doesn’t mean I will let his stupid comment slide.

“The only reason you’re saying that is because I can’t reach out and pimp smack the shit out of you!” With my hand ready to give him a backhanded slap I threaten him. Wally flinches at my angered tone, he was used to seeing me snarky not threatening.

Kaldur was panting feets above us, being held up by Artemis. “My physiology and M’gann’s are susceptible to extreme heat. We must climb out quickly.” He wipes the sweat from his cheek. Feeling my own sweat soak up my clothes and my bangs clinging to my face I wonder how long a normal human like me can withstand being so close to this extreme heat. Regret starts to fill my mind. Regret at how my last interaction went with my dad. I didn’t even get to tell him that I’m sorry. Sorry that I disappointed him as his daughter. That I made so many mistakes and that I will die before making up for them. But what I regret the most is that I didn’t tell him the truth. That it’s his fault I ended up like this. And that I didn't get to play dragon age 2.

Chapter Text

We were inches above sizzling death. Superboy, my savior, holding me on his lap as he holds us up by digging his fingers and toes in the rock wall. We had our eyes locked on Wally and M’gann, who were slowly descending to their doom. 

“Hello, Megan.” M’gann pats herself on the head, her signature move. “We never truly answered the question. Red Tornado sent us to see if Mr. Nelson and the Helmet were safe!” She calls out to the air above.

Not even a moment later a platform slides above the lava and covers it. Superboy pushes me off his lap, and I brace myself to stand on the hot metal floor. But to my surprise, my sneakers didn’t melt; they didn't even feel hot. Wally lands on his ass beside me with a groan. Soon the whole team was reunited on the platform.

“This platform,” Kaldur crouches down and places his hands on the platform. “It should be red-hot, but it’s cool to the touch.”

M’gann was struggling to stand up after being exposed to the heat. I was about to approach her to offer my hand, but Wally beat me to it. Literally stepping in front of me to wrap his arm around M’gann.

“Don’t worry, Megalicious. I got you.” 

“That’s it!” Red flashes before my eyes. That stupid flirt hasn’t learned his lesson, not even after all of this. I grab him by the shoulder and turn him around. Wally closes his eyes, probably bracing himself for the pimp smack I promised him earlier. But instead I pressed my finger into his chest. “We almost died because you were so hell-bent on impressing M’gann! And now you’re just continuing to embarrass yourself.” 

“You nearly got us all barbecued, Wally!” Artemis joins me by my side.

“When did this become my fault?” He defends himself from our anger. Everyone watched our confrontation. Superboy and Kaldur share our annoyance, while M’gann looks more unsure if she should blame Wally.

“When you lied to that ghost, apparition thing, and said you were a true believer.” I rest my case. Taking a step back to glare at him. Aside from nearly dying because of him, I don’t really understand why I’m so…I guess I'm angry at this idiot. Maybe I just share Artemis’s annoyance at the fact that Wally flirts with M’gann in the most annoying way. But that can’t just be it.

“Wally, you don’t believe?” M’gann sounded as if she doesn’t understand how Wally can’t believe in magic.

“Fine! Fine!” Wally gives up the lie. “I lied about believing in magic. But magic is the real lie, a major load.” He wraps his arms over his chest and avoids my gaze.

“Wally, I studied for a year at the conservatory of sorcery in Atlantis. The mystic arts created the skin icons that power my water bearers.” Kalder was continuing to examine the platform with his hands. Joining the argument.

“Dude, have you ever heard of bioelectricity? Hey, in primitive cultures, fire was considered magical, too.” Wally just continues to be stubborn. “Today it’s all just a bunch of tricks.”

“Alright, fair point.” I point my finger at him as I give him a tiny bit of credit. “But come on! You can’t be that close-minded when you can literally break the sound barrier in Converse shoes.” 

“That’s science. I recreated Flash’s laboratory experiment, and here I am. Everything can be explained by science.” He has his arms in the air as he explains himself. “And for your information, these aren’t Converse. The Justice League makes sneakers that can withstand running at high speeds.” He points at his shoes, coming off as a little sass king to me.

“Oh woww,” I sarcastically try to act amazed. “So it’s the Justice League's fault you lack any style?”

“Hey!” His eyes widened at my diss. But his cheeks flush when he notices M’gann and Artemis chuckle. He looks me up and down, inspecting for any flaw to point out. “Well, you—you… ughh, let’s just get out of this pit.”

He could’ve easily pointed out my frizzy hair, thrift store clothes, or the run-down boots I’m wearing. Or even stoop super low and make an Indian joke like most kids from my old school did. But he didn’t. 

“I found it.” Kaldur opens a latch on the floor. Wally was quick to shout out a warning. “Wait! The backdraft from the lava will roast us alive!”

Kaldur still opened the latch. Letting the cool breeze fill the air, some snowflakes even got caught in my hair. 

“It’s snow.” M’gann giggles as she watches the snowflakes fly around in the air.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong?” Artemis smirks at Wally, who shoots her an annoyed look back.

One by one we jump in the hole, but it seems like, or rather it feels like, we turned ninety degrees as we landed on the snow-covered ground. Looking around, I expected to witness another room, yet we were in the cold open air surrounded by snowy mountains with the night sky above us. Wally was the last one to jump in, the hole closing behind him in a bright flashing light. Kaldur, Superboy, Artemis, M’gann, and I wait for Wally to finally admit that magic is real. How else can he explain how we end up here?

“Well?” Artemis puts her hand on her hip as she coaxes a response from the speedster.

“Ever hear of string theory? We’re in a pocket dimension.” He proves to be more stubborn than we thought. I roll my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose; I can’t waste my energy on this boy. We need to find Kent Nelson and get back home so I can finally play Dragon Age 2. I’ve been looking forward to it all day until Red Tornado sent us on this chore.

“What’s that?” M’gann points ahead. Following her finger, my eyes land on a floating cane, some ice covering the bottom of the stick. My impulsive curiosity gets the better of me, walking towards the floating cane to get it. Maybe it has a spell on it that will lead us to Mr. Nelson.

“Ohhh, maybe it’s Nelson’s magic wand.” Wally was being sarcastic, of course. 

Wally and I wrap our hands around the cane’s staff at the same time and hold it up. “I got it.” We say in sync. I attempt to let go of the cane so he can hold on to it. But my fingers wouldn’t even move. “Ahh, I can’t let go.” We say in sync, again.

The cane shoots up into the air, and we get carried away. The only thing I could do was yell before we were poofed away. In a flash we ended up lying on the floor. There was no cold wind or snow to be felt. Slowly sitting up, I notice that we are surrounded by staircases that look like an abstract art painting. All defying the laws of physics as they were either upside down or at odd angles. But my eyes land on three people below us: a goth boy with a cat, a metrosexual magician, and Kent Nelson.

“Abra Kadabra.” Wally calls out who I guess was the guy in the white shirt. We’re still holding on to the cane as it begins to glow again. I fear that it will poof us away once more. The goth boy shoots a bolt of red towards the cane. With a swift hand I manage to shoot a pink energy bolt back to block it.

“JINX!” The goth kid yells out, pointing his finger at me. What the fuck did he just call me?

“Well, would you look at that?” Kent Nelson hums, a golden glow outlining him. He flies towards us, knocking his captors down. He takes the cane from us; the moment he holds it, the rope that tied his wrists together loosens and falls to the floor. The old man stands up to hold his cane up to the wall behind us. The wall opens up, revealing an elevator. He ushers us inside. “In here!”

“No! No! No!” The boy stands back up to whine while he gets ready to attack again. “I want that helmet! I want it! I want it!” 

The elevator doors manage to close just in time before we get blasted to bits. A catchy elevator tune fills my ears as we slowly rise. Nelson is standing close to the door. Just as my mother drilled into me to do, I bow down to touch the shoes of Mr. Nelson in a wordless greeting. Feeling a bit too shy to say something. In return, the elderly man gently touches the back of my head. It was surprising to see him bless me, since I can safely guess he’s not Indian. Maybe he’s well versed in other cultures.

“Samaira, why are you touching his feet?” Wally stares at us with a weird look.

“She’s simply respecting her elders.” Kent Nelson chuckles with a wave of his hand. “Something the youth is lacking nowadays.” 

“My mother drilled good manners into me.” I explain. Rubbing my arm to soothe the slight embarrassment I feel from Wally’s question. 

“But she didn’t teach you to not shoplift and vandalize?” Wally scoffs playfully in response.

“Ignore him, Mr. Nelson.” A quick elbow in the ribs shuts him up, for now. He hissed in pain and rubbed his side in comfort while I introduced us: “I am Samaira, and Mister lacking manners here is Wally.” 

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Samaira. Earlier I saw you blocking Klarion’s blast. Apologies for being intrusive, but what are your powers exactly?” Mr. Nelson asks me with a charming smile.

“Well, I cause bad luck.” I look away and pretend to be interested in the numbers on top of the elevator door. That goth boy calling me a jinx echoed in my head. “Nothing major, just causing things to go wrong.”

“Well, Samaira, I wouldn’t say your gift isn’t major. In my time I’ve met a few bad luck wielders, and I’d say they were pretty lucky.” He compliments me; he actually complimented my power. Looking back at him, I can tell that he was sincere. I get a sense of déjà vu, like a distant memory returning to me. 

“Anyhoo,” Mr. Nelson changes the subject with a wave of his hand. “We’re up against an opponent with tremendous mystic power.”

“Abra Kadabra?” Wally scoffs. “Flash proved he uses futuristic technology to simulate magic. Guys, all show, no biz.”

“Right you are.” Mr. Nelson agrees with Wally. Like actually agreeing with Wally.

“Wait, he is?” I raise my brow. Half expecting Mr. Nelson to have a punchline or something. Wally smugly wraps his arms over his chest. 

“Abra is a charlatan. But Klarion, the witch boy, the kid with the cat,-” 

“The brat who called Samaira a Jinx?” Wally interrupts, and Nelson nods in confirmation.

“—He's an actual lord of chaos, the ultimate enemy of a lord of order like Doctor Fate.” Mr. Nelson finishes.

“Righhttt. You’re a lord of order.” Wally leans back against the wall as he skeptically looks at Mr. Nelson. Still not believing in magic. But that’s the least of my concerns now; I’ll bookmark it for later. Now we just need to get the helmet and get out of this doomed tower.

“Oh no, no, not me. I’m just an old coot fate used to put on until my wife, Inza, convinced me there could be more to life.” He opens an old-timey watch he got out of his pocket and just stares at it. Probably a picture of his wife. “Ah, she was a real pistol, that Inza… Anyhoo, Klarion’s after the Helmet. If he gets his sticky little mitts on it, he’ll turn the planet into his own personal playground of pandemonium.”

“What does pandemonium mean?” I whisper to Wally behind my palm. He leans an inch closer and murmurs back. “I’ll google it later.”

The elevator stops with a ding sound; we have reached our floor. We step out and walk up the stairs to a giant golden bell. It’s so shiny I can see my reflection, but most importantly all the frizz messing up my hair. Ignoring the sound of the others falling into the room behind us, I quickly try to smooth down the frizz.

“You look fine. What is it with girls and their hair?” I see Wally’s reflection behind me. Before I could snap back with an insult, he pushed me out of the way to avoid a blast. Somehow Abra Kadabra and Klarion have found us. Wally holds my arm and pulls me towards Mr. Nelson as we follow behind him into the bell. When I opened my eyes again, we were on the top of the tower. The helmet of Doctor Fate is floating before us. Mr. Nelson reaches to grab it but is shot back by a blast of Klarion’s magic. He shouts in pain and falls back, clutching his chest. 

“Mr. Nelson!” Wally assists the wounded man as he tries to stay up.

Mr. Nelson, with the bit of energy that he has left, recites something in a language I do not recognize. He stomps his cane on the floor to create a golden bubble shield around us and the helmet. Just in time to block the incoming attack of Klarion.

“NOOOO!” The witch boy shouts. Throwing blast after blast at the bubble.

“Not bad for a former “Doctor Fake,” eh, Kid?” Mr. Nelson falls down, Wally catches him just in time, and gently holds the man on the floor. I kneel beside them, watching Klarion’s attacks getting stronger over my shoulder. Clenching my jaw in fear, I look back at Mr. Nelson in Wally’s arms. He looks so much more frail and pale now, his life slipping away as we watch. “The bubble will give you just enough time to do what you need to do.” The dying man weakly points to the helmet.

I make a move to get up and grab the helmet. But a frail hand wraps around my wrist. “No… Not you, him.” Mr. Nelson points to Wally. But why can’t I just do it? Mr. Nelson came off as too kind during our first meeting, complimenting my powers. But now he tells me I can't save the day.

“I have no idea what I need to do.” Wally sounded frightened. This was the first time I’ve ever seen fear in someone on the team. So even heroes can be afraid.

“Have faith in what you can’t explain. Believe in what you can no longer deny.” Mr. Nelson says with his dying breath. Trying to hold on as long as he can, but ultimately he went limp in Wally’s arms. The man was dead. There was no time to be shocked, not when Klarion was weakening our shield.

“Try to do CPR!” I make a run to the helmet. Pulling it out of the air, feeling the power vibrating off it. The power was so strong I could feel it in my bones—no, my soul. And it felt familiar. Like an old comfort.

“HOW?” Wally yells back. Laying Mr. Nelson’s dead body on the concrete floor, preparing him for the CPR he doesn’t know how to give.

“Just put one hand over the other and give compression on the beat of “Staying Alive”!” Yelling back the instructions before I put the helmet on. As soon as the golden helmet grazes my scalp, I feel a big shock coursing through my body. “Aughh!”

I throw the helmet away on instinct; it bounces off the floor and lands next to Mr. Nelson’s body. Wally was busy giving him chest compressions to no avail. 

“What happened?” He asks with a huff, continuing the cpr. 

“The stupid thing shocked me!” Pointing to the helmet. “Did I just get rejected by Doctor Fate?!”

In the background Klarion whines about the helmet as he throws magical attacks on the bubble, but I’m doing my best to tune it out. Something about wanting the helmet and calling me Jinx. The guy is really persistent. 

“Wally,” I begin, looking at the cane that was burning up like a candle to show how long we have left until our only defense is gone. My shoulders slump in defeat. “You need to put on the helmet.”

“I can still save him…” Wally didn’t stop the chest compressions. Anyone could see it was futile; Mr. Nelson was long gone.

“He said it had to be you. I don’t know why you, but that doesn’t matter now!” Kneeling beside Wally, I pry his hands away from the body. Forcing him to stop the CPR. “Now is not the time to be stubborn!”

‘Wally, Samaira, we’re in trouble. Tell Kent we need Doctor Fate—AHH!’ We gasp at the telepathic message M’gann sends us. Everything was going to shit. The rest of the team is in trouble, Klarion is powering up, and I can’t put the helmet on.

“Wally, please,” I plead this time, with my hands on his shoulders to make him look at me. This time I actually managed to hold eye contact. Staring into his green eyes that clashed with my brown eyes. “We need you. Not Doctor Fate, but you.”

Wally fell silent. Just gazing back at me, the eye contact was starting to weird me out. Thankfully he looks over my shoulder to the burning cane and then at the helmet beside Mr. Nelson’s body. He leans over to pick it up in his hands. Slowly standing up while I watch on my knees. Klarion had summoned more of his chaos magic. Forming big red claws that dug into our weakened bubble to tear it apart.

“Hey, dumb kid!” Klarion calls out to Wally. “If you put that helmet on, you may never get it off.” He warned us before managing to rip the bubble, our only defense. 

Wally raises the helmet and slowly puts it on. I brace myself for an oncoming attack from the Witch Boy. The helmet doesn’t seem to reject him; there was no pained noise or shock. Klarion shoots his biggest bolt of magic right at Wally as he slips on the helmet. His eyes glow a golden ray of light that surrounds him. Covering my eyes with my elbow from the bright light of the blast and Klarion’s bolt, I lean back to avoid being hit. When I put my arm down, I gasped at the sight. There stood Wally—or should I say Doctor Fate. His golden cape heroically swaying in the wind as he flies up. With a wave of his hand, he casts a new protection bubble around me and Mr. Nelson’s body.

“Stay here.” The intermingled voices of Doctor Fate and Wally order me before turning his attention to Klarion. Forcing me to stay on the side like a damsel. My brows furrowed, and I shouted. “I can help!”

There I was, in a protective bubble while I watched the fight between Doctor Fate and Klarion. I was on the edge of my seat as I watched; if only I could join in. It would’ve been awesome to throw a few hexes at Klarion. As I observed the fight, there was one thing I realized: Wally…he looks kind of…kind of hot in this Doctor Fate look. My lips can’t help but curl in a little flustered smirk as I continue to watch.

Out of the bblue,Doctor Fate shoots a beam at Klarion’s cat. The poor thing lands with a thud on the floor.

“Teekl!” Klarion cries out for his cat. He turns to sneer at his opponent. “I can’t believe you would assault a defenseless pussycat.”

“We both know that creature is no cat, Witch Boy,” Doctor Fate mingled with Wally’s voice points out, his eyes narrowing as he observed the cat that was getting back on his paws. “And without your familiar, you have no anchor in this reality.”

Just like Doctor Fate said, Klarion was phasing out. Losing his ability to stay on this plane of reality. And Klarion did not like that. 

“Bully! Killjoy! Geezer!” Klarion throws his insults in desperation after he loses his advantage over the Sorcerer Supreme. His gaze shifts to the bubble, directly at me. He points his finger and yells out. “Traitor!”

Doctor Fate shoots another beam that Klarion nearly avoids by jumping in a portal. “Holy carp.”

He appears again to pick up his poor little cat. “We’re outta here!” The Witch Boy escapes by teleporting away. And with the enemy gone, Doctor Fate removes the protective bubble. Back on my feet, I sprint to Doctor Fate/Wally with a victorious smile on my face.

“You did it, Wally!” I cheer, happy to survive another mission. 

“I believe it was me who did all the work.” Doctor Fate responds in a serious tone. Looking straight at me, or rather through me. Like he was reading my soul. His serious gaze mixed with Wally’s soft eyes gave me goosebumps.

“You know what I mean.” I mutter. Wrapping my arms and waiting for him to take off the helmet. And I waited a little longer than I liked. I dart my eyes around to look for any more danger. But no witches, wwizards,or fake magicians to be seen. So why wasn’t he taking off the helmet?

“Uhh, hello?” I knock on the helmet as if it were a door. Unsure of what the procedure was after Doctor Fate wins a fight. “Wally? Are you there?” Reaching out, I hold the helmet by the edges and try to pull it off him, only to get shocked. 

“Ughhh-” Hissing at the pain, I flap my hands and take a step back. It was then that Doctor Fate took the helmet off, and Wally was back. “Oh, thank God.”

“No- Thank Mr. Nelson.” Wally walks over to the deceased body of Kent Nelson. And places the helmet on his chest. Noticing the shimmer of the pocket watch, I lean down to pick it up and put it in Mr. Nelson’s hand. Curling his fingers around it to make sure he held it tight. But then it dawned on me that I was touching a dead body, and I quickly took a step back.

[August 20, 2010] 03:48

The study room was quiet at this early hour. Everyone with a right mind was asleep at this time. But I was determined to finish my mission report before going to bed. Or else there is a big chance I will forget to do it. And if I don’t do it, I get a bad review from Black Canary, which means a lesser chance of earning a scholarship. 

“Geek!” I hear Artemis sneer as she storms out of the room next door, Wally’s souvenir room. I’ll ask her later about it. Artemis had already texted me to ask how Superboy's chest felt when he pressed me against him to save me from falling into lava. Hopefully she's patient and waits until tomorrow for the gossip. Now I just need to fight my sleepiness and finish this stupid report.

“Hey, there you are!” Wally’s cheerful voice fills the once quiet room. I was about to turn the chair, but I stopped myself just in time. I need to finish my report. “I was wondering where you were hiding. So when are we going to continue the game? Maybe tomorrow when I’m back from school?”

“Can’t, I’ll be training with Black Canary.” Continuing to type away on the computer. Reflecting on my performance. During this task that turned into a mission, I had a bigger role than in the previous mission. But in the end I just supported Wally instead of actually doing something. In my report I emphasize that my goal for the next mission is to attack the enemy more.

“Well, maybe we can play after your training?” He suggests hopefully. 

Leaning back in my chair, I scoff, turning my head to look at my favorite redhead. “Wouldn’t you rather smooch with M’gann?” I tease with a hint of bitterness in my tone.

Wally raises a brow, opening his mouth to say something before closing it again. His surprised expression now shifting into a smirk. “Are you…jealous, Samaira?” 

““Pff—in your dreams, Kid Dork.” Shifting my gaze back to the screen. I wasn’t looking at him anymore, yet my heart was beating too fast and my palms were still sweaty. Pursing my lips, I close the tabs. I’ll finish the report tomorrow. “But yeah, we'll play tomorrow after my training. Good night.”

With a quick wave over my shoulder, I leave the study room. Speed walking to my room, I cross paths with M’gann and Superboy in the kitchen. 

“Hey, Samaira!” M’gann waves at me. Holding up a plate of burnt beefsteak with broccoli that looks like it was steamed too long. “In the mood for some dinner? We haven’t been able to-”

“I don’t eat cow meat.” I blur out, continuing to walk to my room. Unable to even properly decline her kind offer. Reaching my room, I open it and swiftly close it behind me. Turning on the light switch to illuminate my safe space. In the month that I’ve been living here, I’ve done my best to make my room as homey as possible. A weighted blanket on my bed with a thick tiger pattern blanket from my mom on top. A desk with my sketchbook and art supplies. And in the right corner, a small altar for the goddess Kali. A little statue of her on the small table with pictures of her on the wall of the corner. The altar still felt too pale for my liking. But that’s a problem for later. Stepping towards my desk, I pull open my drawer and get out a wrinkled piece of paper that Black Canary had given me during our first therapy session. It was the wheel of feelings, a tool to help autistic people identify their feelings. I point to the base feeling that was in the center: happy. Thinking of the moment I just shared with Wally, it did leave me feeling giddy. Looking at all the emotions that streamed from happy. The two that fit the most were playful and peaceful; I couldn’t quite pick one over the other. I look at the remaining four options of emotions that follow from the two I picked. Two catch my eye, and I slam the paper down on the wooden desk. Aroused and loving ... Are you kidding me!?