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Ten hours ago, M’gann had made a mistake. Probably by the definition of ‘mistake’ it was easy enough to figure that she hadn’t meant to, but regardless it haunted her, now, and its terrible little voice couldn’t be drowned out by, you have Artemis Crock’s phone number or the equally as nerve-wracking, Zatanna’s little star hair clips today were so cute and she looked so excited to plan entertainment for Homecoming!
Mostly because that simple phrase was enough to have her stomach churning with guilt.
Ten hours ago, M’gann had accidentally found out that Artemis Crock and Zatanna Zatara wore capes.
And neither of them knew the same about her.
She hadn’t meant to! And it had felt unfair, to have put the pieces of their secret together, confirmed by an accidental, gentle prod at their surface-level thoughts. Magic could only misdirect so much, and Artemis’ thoughts were too disciplined to hide her nature.
In a fumbling mess, M’gann had managed to trick Zatanna into thinking the student council wanted a magic show at Homecoming, and Artemis had a concussion - M’gann had fibbed about her uncle’s medical experience to coax the other girl into coming over too, so someone could keep an eye on her.
(If trying to soothe Batman out of a fear-toxin-induced rage counted as medical experience and not just combat experience…regardless, both of them were telepaths! It wouldn’t be hard to keep an eye on Artemis’ brain.)
And now…they were here. Zatanna with her knees curled to her side, resting on one hand as she effortlessly told jokes, and Artemis sitting cross-legged in a white and green tanktop, a curl of her hair dislodged from the braid down her back.
It wasn’t fair that she knew and they didn’t. It wasn’t fair to know something that people in their community kept so well hidden, without returning the favour.
Thus; an evening for evening, to level the playing field and fix the faux paus M’gann had inadvertently committed when she’d brushed over Artemis’ mind to check for a concussion, and seen the magical scarring still slowly healing on Zatanna’s shoulder. Two slips that no-one else would have caught…if only they hadn’t been caught by someone who already knew the signs.
She just needed to-
Just needed-
Her heart beat too fast against her ribcage, an organ she didn’t normally allow such free rein now taking over, and before she could gather her courage and spill her own secret, she shot to her feet. “Ooo, sorry girls! I didn’t realise we were almost out of snacks, let me go grab some more from the kitchen.”
Before anyone could protest, she turned on her heel and down the stairs, one trembling hand placed over her heart. She hadn’t realised it would feel so odd, so nerve-wracking, to speak up.
M’gann sighed to herself, leaning her forehead against the fridge for a moment to ground herself, sinking into the hum of electricity and cool metal.
“Megan?”
She jumped, whirling around and suddenly wildly thankful she’d taken a moment to try and compose herself before using her powers to get the snacks organised - Artemis was standing behind her, hands tucked in her pockets.
“Oh, hi! Did you need something?” she asked, quickly pulling the fridge open and grabbing the second charcuterie board she’d put away (and, perhaps, cheating just a little with her powers to make sure the salami roses stayed stationary). She was smiling when she turned around, ready and confident, and-
Artemis was leaning against the kitchen counter, one hip slung forward and her thumbs curled around the outside of her pockets. M’gann’s heart jumped into her throat at the casual coolness of the pose; there was something arresting about the lazy jut of her hip, the way her shoulder sloped into her elbow where it rested on the countertop. How could Artemis make everything look so effortlessly… cool ?
(And how could M’gann ever escape being so distracted? It wasn’t fair to blame Artemis for it, yet, inevitably, it was Artemis that caused her tongue to trip. It was hard enough to confess her secret identity when she also had to contend with who she was confessing to.)
“Kinda need you to explain why you look like you’re a minute away from hitting full throttle on a pillow fight so you don’t have to talk to the guys you invited over, but I guess that’s dependant on if you’re gonna run for it again,” Artemis drawled. A flush crawled across M’gann’s face, made even worse when Zatanna came into the kitchen, pausing by the doorframe.
“Hey. Uh. Sorry, I just figured I could help with the snacks too? I- yeah, felt weird being in your bedroom alone, sorry Megan.”
The charcuterie board hit the countertop with a bang, and M’gann braced herself against the handles of the tray, fingers curled tight around the edges. “I was rude, earlier,” she blurted. “I- it’s impolite to invade someone else’s privacy, and I need to apologise, but I didn’t know how, and I want you to know it was extenuating circumstances, too, and nobody else would have figured your identities, and-”
Her inbound breath came along a gulp, and she steeled herself, forcing her hands to unwrap from the tray to turn and look at the slightly panicked look both Zatanna and Artemis wore. She wiped her sweaty palm on her skirt and sucked in another deep breath.
“Hi,” she said, sticking out her hand and letting her shapeshifting take care of the rest, “I’m Miss Martian.”
The house rumbled.
A sense of foreboding ran down M’gann’s spine. Like bracing for impact, her instincts jumped with adrenaline, and she could feel the same spike in Artemis and Zatanna, even clearer in their tense body language. She looked fervently around the kitchen, her telepathy stretched out through the house to try and figure out if someone had gotten in, but-
Nobody.
Nobody at all.
Not even her uncle.
A bolt of fear shot through her, and her feet came off the floor before she had time to think about it, shooting past Artemis and Zatanna and through the opposing hallway. “Uncle J’onn!” she called, frantic, but his mind-
Not in the office, where he said he’d be till he went to bed. Not in the living room, blankets and pillows pilled neatly for movies, later. No need for the bathroom, but sometimes he liked the coolness of the tiles-
She could feel it, was the worst part. Almost, but just out of reach, like she was in a race but running too far behind to call out.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs after her, and Zatanna, panting, shoved her way into M’gann’s space, grabbing for her arms. “I can’t-” M’gann said, breathless and scared. “I can’t- find- he’s not-”
“We can’t get out to the street,” Zatanna said, and M’gann’s breath almost hiccupped into a sob. “But I- you’re a telepath, aren’t you? Megan- Miss Martian- we can feel it. Please-”
Oh. Zatanna was trembling.
It felt like noting something from outside her body, the minuet clench of Zatanna’s shaking hands around her biceps. She looked down to Zatanna’s hands, and gently reached out to take one between her own, her powers easily pulling Zatanna’s emotions to the surface.
But even without the pull, Zatanna had always been so honest with her feelings, her bravery and her fear a set of open arms that she used to her advantage. Nobody could control a crowd like Zatanna, and she made you trust in magic.
M’gann breathed in, calming her racing heart, and drew her powers back into her own mind. Normally her panic would draw her uncle to her in a hurry of worried limbs, called by her fear, but now…nothing.
Zatanna’s sigh of relief made M’gann draw her hands back guiltily, and she landed on the floor with a whisper of fabric, her cape brushing her thighs. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I- I was just trying to call for my Uncle J’onn. He’s not-” she swallowed and braced herself, drawing the confidence of her cape over her shoulder. “Something is definitely wrong.”
“I’d say that again,” Artemis said, and waved her phone. “Texts aren’t going out. I can send it but, look - even though it sends, it won’t actually load through.”
Zatanna grabbed Artemis’ wrist and beamed. “Is that the time, though? ‘Cause that’s perfect! Dad was gonna call me at 9:30 to double check everything was going okay. When he can’t get through…”
“Storm the castle performed by a wizard?” Artemis said, her own grin full of teeth. “Please and freaking thank you.”
M’gann glanced between the two of them, and then realisation hit. “Oh! You already knew?”
“Knew?” Zatanna asked, but Artemis scoffed.
“Yeah no,” she said, “But there was only so much ‘whaaaat, huhhhh? Student Council Pres is a superhero? Whoaaaah, why would she reveal it to me, totally normal and average Human Girl?’ that I can put with.” She turned to Zatanna with a rueful shrug. “And I did have some ideas already, sorry Z. Your dad had drinks with GA one time and I did not see them get up for refills.”
“ Dad, ” Zatanna said mournfully, her palm meeting her forehead. M’gann was unable to stifle her giggle.
“Foiled by something even easier than mind-reading,” she said, then sobered, a knot of guilt resting small and heavy in her stomach. “I am still sorry,” M’gann said, “when I found out, I mean. And- well, I guess for this too.”
“What, the most normal part of being a superhero?” Zatanna said, teasingly bumping M’gann’s side with her elbow. “Come on, I had an isolation spell backfire on me just last week, this will be nothing!”
Artemis’ eyebrow rose. “I don’t suppose ‘isolation spell’ can be used on annoying siblings?” she said, and Zatanna rolled her eyes, stepping out of the bathroom.
“Not checking,” she said. “And we’ve got work today before I would, anyway.”
M’gann laughed again, knowing the sound was strained but still immeasurably, innumerably grateful to the two girls in front of her. How could she not be, when they were trying all they could to calm her? When she could see the line of Artemis’ shoulders, drawn tight, and Zatanna’s hand, clenched tight around her phone? They had pushed their stress aside to help her, and it made her stomach lift and squeeze in equal measures.
“I’m going to see if a summoning spell will work. See if we can get my dad here earlier,” Zatanna said, nodding decisively, and Artemis glanced back at M’gann.
“Pretty sure you said something about more snacks? I don’t want little Miss Magic getting hunger pangs in the middle of her spell.”
Zatanna snorted, but when Artemis held out her hand, M’gann tentatively took it, letting herself be pulled free of the bathroom. In a moment, Zatanna had disappeared back into her bedroom, and Artemis and M’gann were headed downstairs.
The snack tray was still where she had left it. It seemed innocuous, still sitting there after so many revelations, after so much panic, but not even the salami roses had drooped from her rough behaviour. M’gann gently scooped some nuts back into their little bowl with her telekinesis, sighing as she looked at the plate.
“Damn,” Artemis murmured. “Like, the shapeshifting cinched it for me, right, but that’s still wild.”
“What?” M’gann asked, and then looked at her hand. “Oh! I’m sorry. Let me change back-”
“No!” echoed from the walls around them, and both Artemis and M’gann winced, hands instinctively covering their ears.
It took a moment to peel her eyes open into squints, but when she did, M’gann gasped aloud, her heart thundering in her chest - and this time, not from nerves.
Where before the kitchen had been empty, now stood a tall, wavering shape. It looked human - vaguely - the same way a shadow looked ‘human’. It had little of the solidity, and M’gann’s brain tripped as she tried to figure out why looking past it gave her the same sense of looking past a painting. It seemed like it was 3D - and yet, from her angle, it seemed basically flat, like a heavily-shaded portrait viewed from up close.
“Not to… leave,” it hissed, and M’gann felt a shudder run down her spine. “We are….here…for you,” the creature said, words crawling from their mouth with the slowness of a heavy tongue. At almost the same speed, their hand lifted, outstretched and reaching for M’gann’s face.
Was it wrong to be horrified by something so similar to her normal form? The elongation of their fingers, the translucency of their skin, it all matched her own; it just felt wrong. Felt like that time she’d been caught in an abandoned abattoir trying to find a missing person, the slight sway of creaking metal providing a haunting backdrop to the empty rooms. His history had been on every desk; his lunch on the window, his keys hanging by the front door, and then just…him, too pale, no longer human and yet still too close to deny.
Fear froze her…but it didn’t freeze Artemis.
“Hell no,” Artemis said, and threw the chip bowl in its face. The creature reared back, crumbs flying everywhere, and Artemis grabbed M’gann’s wrist, yanking her up the stairs. It was only her own biology that kept her from tripping; her ankles slipped through the steps she couldn’t catch, her body light enough for Artemis to haul without slowing. They heard the clattering of nails against the linoleum, an oddly-echoing noise when confronted with the steady beat of their feet against the upstairs carpet.
M’gann only looked back once; enough to see it at the door of the kitchen, and then, terrifyingly, flickering into view at the top of the stairs, an afterimage of it left crawling up the stairs.
Artemis flung them both into M’gann’s room, slamming the door shut and throwing herself against the frame as it shuddered.
“Ward,” she gasped, and Zatanna nodded firmly, hands raised.
“Rood eht hguorht ydobon,” she ordered, and the door flashed before turning into a solid block of stone, sealing them completely inside. Artemis heaved a sigh, sinking further against the now-solid door, shoulders slumped.
“Damn, I’m glad you did that one on TV before,” she said, and then ran a hand through her hair. She pulled herself up, and M’gann was once again reminded of how effortlessly Artemis could take charge of a situation, squaring her shoulders and bringing her personality to the passionate forefront when it was needed.
If they were being hunted, at least her fellow prey had teeth.
Stalking across the floor, Artemis tried the window, cursing softly under her breath when it stayed shut.
“I can blow it out,” Zatanna offered, before giving a quick glance at M’gann. “Um. I’d have to ask my dad to fix it though, sorry. Magic for mending is harder.”
“We shouldn’t leave,” she mumbled, drawing her cape further around her shoulders before seeing that Artemis and Zatanna were both in their pyjamas and wincing, shifting back to her own sleepwear. “I mean- not until we have a better plan. Right now we’re safe.”
“Right now we’re cornered,” Artemis snapped. “I don’t know what else you’re hoping for, but so far we’re up the creek.”
“And if they’re outside?” M’gann shot back, “Or- or-” she wrapped her hands around her elbows. “My uncle should be here,” she mumbled, finally at the core of her fear. “I can’t leave him. I just can’t.”
Zatanna’s eyes softened, and she placed a gentle hand on M’gann’s shoulder, her thumb warm on M’gann’s skin. “I get it,” she said softly. “My dad’s been missing before. Trying to-” Zatanna steadied herself with a deep breath. “But right now the best thing we can do is get help. What was that thing?”
M’gann shrugged uselessly, and even Artemis looked troubled. “I’ve never seen something like it,” she said. “Kinda rules out the theory that this is revenge - on us, at least.”
“It looks like- it looks like a white Martian,” M’gann mumbled. “Not- not exactly. But it looks like- if someone only had a terrible picture of a white Martian, and just- tried to make them. And-” she looked up, guilt clenching a fist around her lungs. “It said it was here for me. ”
“I was in the kitchen too,” Artemis stubbornly returned, then rubbed her arm awkwardly. “Look, we just have to hold on for like, 10 minutes. Solving this may not even help keep us safe - and that’s the main priority.” She pulled her phone out, then swore, her eyes round. “There’s no way,” she said, her teeth bared in a snarl. Worry made M’gann bite her lip, and she quickly came to Artemis’ side, Zatanna on her heels.
“No,” Zatanna said. “How is it still 9:15?”
“It can’t be,” Artemis said, disbelieving. “Give me your watch, Zee.”
Wordless, Zatanna held up her wrist; this time, M’gann’s eyes went wide. The seconds hand was moving - but barely. In the time between Artemis grabbing Zatanna’s wrist, and them trying to read the time, it had barely moved.
But it had moved - her watch wasn’t broken, just slow.
Dangerously, dangerously slow, when they needed to hang on.
M’gann thumped to the floor, legs like jelly underneath her. “What are we going to do?” she whispered. “My uncle’s missing, your dad’s not going to call for hours if the watch is moving that slow-”
“Don’t,” Artemis cut in, stern. “Catastrophise and this is over. Zatanna, you said you could blow out the wall?”
Zatanna cast M’gann a worried glance, a feeling that she could sense resting on her skin like a blanket, suffocating and overly warm, then raised her hands. She paused. “I will get my dad to repair it,” she promised, then called, “Llaw eht yortsed!”
Gold burst between her palms, a swirl of magic explosively in the air, but-
“Oh come on, ” Artemis said. The wall still stood standing, M’gann’s fairy lights barely moving in the window. Zatanna’s hands clenched into fists, frustration making her hands shake, and then Artemis stalked forward and said, again, “Oh come on! ”
With a frustrated gesture, she pointed to the window frame; bulging, barely, outward, but still affected by the same frozen spell as the watch and Artemis’ phone.
“It will still destroy the wall faster than her dad will get here?” M’gann mumbled, and wrapped her hands around her elbows. Faster then Zatanna’s dad was still slow; and both would be faster, still, then whatever had happened to her uncle. She could still feel him, was the horrible thing. Could feel nudges of him pressed into her mind, like seeing something from the corner of her eye.
But there wasn’t time for that. She was Miss Martian, and these were her friends. She had a job to do, and fear had never stopped her before. Taking a deep breath and giving herself back her costume’s t-shirt and skirt, even if not the cape, M’gann looked up.
Just in time to see Zatanna’s mouth open in a silent scream. Her face was ashen, and even Artemis looked terrified; quickly, M’gann flew to her feet and whirled around.
Fingers were coming under the door.
She blanched, horrified, and backed up to her friends on the other side of the room, telekinetically rucking up her carpet and shoving it under the seam.
Horrifically, another hand started to press in near the hinges, elongated fingers squirming for purchase against the wall.
“They don’t have bodies,” Zatanna whispered. “The warding spell- the warding spell is for- bodies, I didn’t- I’m so sorry, I didn’t cast it correctly-”
Furious, M’gann grabbed Zatanna’s hand, clutching it tightly in her own. Even with her eyes fastened on the door, she needed to do something to stop that awful litany from coming out of Zatanna’s mouth. “ Not your fault,” she snapped, and Artemis nodded next to her. In her periphery, she saw Artemis reach out and take Zatanna’s hand in her own, too.
“It still lasted,” Artemis said stubbornly. “You got us time. To figure out- more, at least.”
“I-” Zatanna said, mournful, then M’gann heard the sound of her swallow, felt confusion in Zatanna’s thoughts. “But why did it last? They always could have gotten in. So why-”
But there was no further time for questions; it curved around the edge of the doorframe, and then suddenly it was standing in her room, a dark slash of a frown carved into its face. She couldn’t tell if it had eyes, but her skin crawled as its head tilted - it was so clearly watching them that she felt her knees tremble.
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed for it with her telekinesis, intent on shoving it out of her room. It flew backward limply, impacting her door with a dull thud; but then, stomach still bowed inward from the force she was using to pin it, it pushed itself away from the door.
“Afraid?” it whispered, and then seemed to curl in on itself, body compressed till she almost couldn’t tell where limbs or body began. “Sorry,” it said, and M’gann felt Artemis and Zatanna’s shock like a mirror.
“What,” she said, dumbstruck. Artemis repeated her, with an extra expletive thrown in that made Zatanna choke.
“Sorry,” the creature said again, and then, in a chorus that seemed to echo through her room, the word sung itself into existence around her, more forms appearing near the creature by her door. “We did not mean…to frighten.”
“We are good,” whispered another, the sound coming out-of-sync with the movement of its mouth. “Everybody…likes to see us, other times.”
“ Sorry ,” sung itself into existence again, and M’gann held up a hand, a headache forming at her temples.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, “Who are you?”
“Els,” was the chime that greeted her, echoed enough times that even Artemis winced, and M’gann suddenly realised she could hear the sound in her head, too. Her telepathy felt overtaxed, and she realised that the creatures she could currently see…weren’t even all the ones currently in her house. All of them pressed terrified, eager hands into her mind, and M’gann blinked in realisation.
“You- you like me?” she said, startled, and the chimes that lit up with her words felt-
Flustered. Pleased. Embarrassed.
Then, the crowd fluttered again, like a breeze through a field. Details picked themselves out, and M’gann flushed when she realised each of them had tried to copy her - her uniform, her cape, her form.
“We saw…you,” said the creature, head cocked to the side slowly. Now that M’gann knew what to look for, she could see the hesitation, the delay, that haunted their movements. Even when they could move faster, it felt like watching a screen skip forward in a movie, actors in one pose now suddenly in the middle of another movement. No wonder they thought being slower would have granted them more leeway, when their previous speed had made her scream. “We are…behind…and we liked to…see. You learned…like we…did. Watching…”
Her face flushed in humiliation and M’gann glanced down at her feet, scuffing one end of her toe against her carpet. Zatanna stepped forward, their shoulders pressed together. “An admirable trait, to learn,” she said, and gently squeezed M’gann’s arm. “And we appreciate that you put the effort in.”
“Appreciate,” the creature said, the chirping lilt entirely positive. “Favourite to…watch. Will…be like.”
The chorus of nods that followed after that phrase made M’gann suppress a shudder, uncomfortable with the attention and the out-of-time movement. “I-” she started, and then licked her lips. “You know, I- I know it’s hard. But-” she wrapped a hand around her elbow and looked over to Zatanna and Artemis. “I like being myself. And I think maybe you would too, if you gave yourself the chance.”
It was almost a disagreement, the rumble that stole through the crowd, but even as she braced herself, M’gann saw faces in the crowd shift, gaining details that differed from the homogeny of her deformed copies. A few glanced at their neighbours, then seemed to sigh, a shiver running through their form before details dropped entirely, blending into the woodwork.
“Can come…and teach…?”
“Princess of…Changing,” another agreed, and then the house was filled with a soft trill of noise, like a softer, higher version of a purr.
“Oh!” she said, a flustered giggle slipping free of her lips. “Thank you. I mean, that’s very-”
Very mid-season Galaxy Quest, she thought to Artemis and Zatanna, and smiled politely. Zatanna was forced to cover her laugh under a cough and her hand, and Artemis turned her face, a smirk pulling at her lips.
Artemis cleared her throat and crossed her arms, “Sorry girls,” she said, though there was still mirth to her mouth. “Unfortunately Earth has dibs on Miss Martian - so you’ll have to wait until that contract concludes.”
“Yep!” Zatanna added quickly. “Dibs is a very important human custom. And I’m sure you’ve already learnt that there are certain human customs that have to be followed, or- um-”
“Santa Claus naughty list!” Artemis blurted, then buried her face in her hands. M’gann barely heard her stifled groan.
Worry passed along each face, a ripple that spread outward coupled with whispers. “Will not…upset the…boss,” one of them said. “Can wait…next year?”
There was hopeful lilt to their tone, and M’gann found herself softening. “Well,” she said, and glanced at Zatanna and Artemis, …I did make extra snacks? she sent them, and Zatanna laughed.
“One show, one night a year only,” she ordered, and then raised her hands with a grin, “ Stiftuo revopeels!”
M’gann’s cape flared behind her and then suddenly she found herself in pyjamas. Even more incredulous - and she had to stifle a giggle - each of the Els now had their own vaguely pyjama-adjacent outfit. A few seemed to be holding small toys (there was distinctly a fight in one corner over a small doll that looked like her,) but most had soft blankets or fuzzy slippers.
“Come on, Ceaseless Watcher,” Artemis joked, pulling herself up tall and heading directly into the thick of them. “You ever seen The Thing? ”
“Hey,” Zatanna said, quick on her heels, “maybe that’s not a good idea-”
M’gann plastered her hand across the grin on her face and surveyed the chittering things in her room. Some picked carefully at the food she’d left out an hour ago, inspecting it with curious noises; others, still shy, cast careful glances at her before squeaking and shifting out of time, their outline blurred.
And in the hallway, she could hear Artemis and Zatanna arguing, laughter filling the air between them. This morning she’d been worried they would want her to avoid them entirely, and now…
“C’mon, M’gann!” Artemis called, the edge of a cackle in her tone. “Bet you’ve never seen The Thing either, yeah? Tell Zatanna it’ll be fun to watch something new!”
“M’gann, do not, ” Zatanna said, “do not, I promise you this is a terrible idea.”
Her smile stretched over her hand, and giggles filled her stomach and her throat, leaking out past her lips.
And now she had two budding friendships…and with a little more time spent in their company, she could build up an immunity to Artemis’ wit and Zatanna’s teasing jokes.
Well, hopefully.