#Superboy would be happy with the weird kid that eats Kryptonite

[strivingscribe]

Salt of the Earth ~ 004

Salt of the Earth by MsMoon

Chapter 4 ~ The Sword of Damocles

Chapters: 4/?

Chapter Navigation: 1, 2, 3, 4,

Fandom: Young Justice

Rating: ExplicitWarnings: Angst, Feeling? Violence?

Relationships: Maybe I was a little hasty in my last post…but no. She’s still 14, and this is Gen.

Summary: After responding to an incident, members of the team are saved by an unknown metahuman. But no protocols are in place to deal with the series of unfortunate events that assail Anitia Moore. What exactly should the team do when a someone with powers needs training but doesn’t want to be a member of the team?

Batman slipped back into the bioship with Miss Martian, Bumblebee, and Robin. It wasn't the first or last time he envied Martian tech, with their semi-sentient vehicles with superior camouflage. 

"We managed to plant two listening devices." Robin reported. "Both are operational and online. One is in the kitchen, and the other is in the girl's room."

"I got a few pictures of the girl's room." Karen offered.

"Anything of note?" Batman asked.

"She's into collecting…." She reported, typing in rapid-fire on her holo-computer. The images she'd captured began to upload.

"Everything's in bags." M'gann notices.

And it's true to a certain extent. There are a few bits of art and fabric on the walls, a single bed, a desk, dresser and sundry. The 'collections' that Bumblebee mentioned, assorted music, books, tiny stone statues and such, are all localized around collapsed bags...ready and waiting to go. The books and CDs were all stacked vertically, smallest on top of largest inside of soft bags... The bags sizes varied, but the obvious purpose remained. 

"Picking up anything interesting over the listening devices?" Batman asks.

"The only thing I've picked up thus far is the mother promising to talk later, and the beginnings of a very tense meal." Tim reported.

"That gives us time to reconvene back at HQ." Batman decides. Robin sets about connecting the software to transcribe whatever the listening devices might overhear on their way back.

Anita knows she's stalling when she realizes she's drying a perfectly clean pot. Also, Mom's leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, and she has no idea how long that's been going on.

"I don't think we can put it off any longer." Mom says.

Anita nods at the bone dry pot in her hand.

"I take it you were not crying because you remembered our dearly departed Sirrah Bowie earlier today."

Anita shook her head.

"Come and sit down, dear." Mom said, sitting at her usual spot at the kitchen table.

Anita's shoulders wilted at the term 'dear'. She hated 'dear'. 'Dear' in mom-speak (at least in her Mom's mom-speak) meant 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed and-a-little-mad-ok'. Still, there wasn't much she could do about it...Anita sat down, half melting in the wooden chair.

"Tell me about your morning." Mom insisted.

Anita took a deep breath, scrubbing her face with both hands before leaning her elbows onto the table for support. "I decided to wake up early… Beat the morning commute and all."

"On a Sunday?" Mom didn't have to say 'you odd duck', because it was implied with her tone.

"I wanted to get some shots over the Metro-Narrows before it got really congested and while the light was decent. Mostly the water against the bridge's trusses. I was thinking of working them into a report that I'm going to be writing at the end of the semester about long term effects of salt water against different metals… Professor Llom really enjoys that level of showmanship." she let out a huffy little laugh, finding it funny how much things had changed in one simple day. "Metro-Narrows has that beautiful structure, it's trussed deck extends below the deck as well as in the arches above…." she shook her head. "Anyway. I was taking pictures. Distracted by that, mostly."

"Did you get into your 'zone'?" Mom asked, smiling the way people do at videos of kittens trying to jump and usually failing.

Anita hesitated, thinking about it. "No…" she murmured with a tiny shake of her head. "I mean, I got some shots, and I tried to focus on what I was doing, but there was this feeling I kept getting like.." she took a deep breath, not sure how to describe the sensation. "..like I wasn't entirely safe or something… or maybe like...like someone was watching me or something. That weird, low-grade tension that builds up before a jump-scare in horror movies, I guess."

"And that's when hell broke loose?"

"Uhhh, yeah." Anita squirmed in her chair, her spine undulating slightly as if she needed to work a kink out of it. "I thought….maybe one of those big tankers got in a wreck or something. It felt like there should've been some sort of explosion, but there wasn't any fire or anything. There was just this guy. This guy wearing masks." she rolled her bottom lip into her mouth, biting it before continuing. "People started rushing everywhere at once. I darted behind one of the beams… I stayed there. I knew if I tried to run, I'd just trip or get shoved and...everything was just chaos."

"You pressed yourself against a beam?"

"Yeah. I ducked behind one and just let everyone run past me...used to beam for cover, I guess." she snorted. "I didn't realize how many commuters walk on that bridge till then."

"Then what happened?"

"Capes showed up. I didn't see where from, but they were there… and things got bad fast."

"And that's when you pitched in?"

Anita took a deep breath in and met Mom's eyes. "He was gonna die."

Mom closed her eyes, leaning her elbows on the table. "Baby." she said, trying to soften the next blow. "We have had this talk." She paused, waiting for a steady moment to round out the final statement in the argument between them. "People die by the billions every day. That doesn't mean you have to risk yourself."

Anita rolled her eyes. "Mom, it was Superboy. Superboy was going to die! Super. Boy. Superman's Boy. Might as well be Metropolis boy, Our boy, and there was no one else there!"

"Anita, really? Superboy is our boy?" Mom held up a hand. "If you're willing to make decisions worth dying over, that's...that's not fine, I'm not happy about it, but it's your decision. Die for the people you love, die to make the world a better place, but don't die for some pseudo-fascist iconography! I'm sure that works really well for Superboy, but everyone else doesn't think of you as their girl, and they're not willing to save you. Clearly!" Mom rolled her eyes heavenward, squeezed them shut to pray for strength and serenity because she didn't want or need to yell right now. "So, what? You just jumped into the fray? Caution to the wind, and all that."

"I changed my shape!" Anita argued before her expression went a touch watery. "But.. I guess I just...forgot my—" The rest was muffled as she groaned into both hands.

"Your fingerprints." Mom grumbled. She shook her head. "If I ever find the asshole that suggested a fingerprint day..."

"That was the year a bunch of kids went missing, Mom." Anita reminded, forking the fingers of both hands into her hair and pushing it back away from her face. She rested her chin on the table and left her hands on top of her head in a deflated-flan-in-a-cupboard sort of look.

Mom put both hands on the table, her shoulders arching just a touch as she took a deep breath and then relaxing as she let it go.

"So...you...stepped in. What happened, exactly?"

Anita sat up a bit, keeping her hands in her hair. It felt comforting for some reason, and she wasn't willing to let it go yet.

"Hit the guy with the masks. Hard. I rarely take my jasper off, so." she made 'you know' expression on her face, and Mom nodded. "The guy had put a glowing green rock on a lead chain around Superboy's neck…" Anita tapped her own collar bone as if to illustrate this scenario. "It's what was killing him."

"A glowing rock? What was it?"

"It was Kryptonite."

Mom's face wrinkled in a harsh squint. "Krypton… where Superman is from?"

"Yeah. Evidently, Kryptonite is really bad for Kryptonians. Something to do with the sun's radiation affecting the rock.… I'm not clear on that." she shook her head. "Lois Lane wrote an article about Superman when she interviewed him way back in the day, and another one about Krypton later on... it's not as enlightening as I'd hoped it would be." she sighed.

Mom was still squinting. "Why would you tell a reporter these things….?" she mused.

"There aren't a lot of scholarly articles about kryptonite out there, sadly." Anita shrugged. "Anyway, I was going to try and get rid of it, but I couldn't. I think that guy in the masks had some sort of holding ability, because he had Robin and that Lagoon Boy pinned too."

"Lagoon boy...that's the one that actually looks like the creature from the black lagoon, right?"

Anita paused. "I mean...yeah, but young and hot." Mom paused, tilting her head sideways and suppressing a smirk. "Don't give me that look."

"Young and hot, huh?"

"Sooo not the point right now." Anita reminded.

"Right, right." Mom sighed, but she occasionally slid suspicious eyes towards her daughter...the smirk totally ruined the effect. "The lead death necklace."

"I took it."

"...the ...lead?" Mom sat up straighter, leaning over the table, closer to Anita. "You know what lead does to you."

"Not the lead, Mom. I mean, I did tap the lead too. But...the kryptonite. I took it." Mom froze in place staring at her. "I took it all."

There was a heavy beat of silence as they surveyed each other.

"How...is that?"

"Uhhh." Anita half laughed, her eyes drifting towards the ceiling as she nodded rapidly. "Horrific." she continued laughing breathlessly. "It's like… like I feel really weightless, or I could be if I want to, but there's this weird...shortness of breath. And I want to cry. Like, all the time. And I keep going between really just wanting to curl into a tight ball and sob and wanting to stare listlessly at the dirt, but I feel like I need to run or something's going to eat me." she shook her head. "It's like… like being clinically depressed, being aware of the depression, and trying to rationalize it and knowing you don't have time for this shit."

Mom reached both hands across the table, taking Anita's in hers and keeping them in a gentle grip.

"That explains why your eyes turned so green." Mom observed, wondering how her daughter had managed to hide that from her for this long. Anita ducked her eyes, staring at their joined hands instead. "It's ok. They're still your eyes." Mom picked up their hands and kissed Anita's knuckles. "What happened then?"

"Uh…" she swallowed harshly. "I'd uh… So, I'd punted the ass in the masks across the bridge, right? He was on the other side of the bridge. And Superman shows up…" she chuckled softly. "He just t-balled the guy with an enormous metal beam, and the guy flew all the way back across the bridge, back near us again." her expression sobered significantly. "But then, he flew towards us, and he… I was affected by it."

"By what?"

"The kryptonite. I mean, I'd taken it all but… but kryptonite's such a trip. Like, I couldn't—" she shook her head. "I was the thing that was killing them."

"Ok, first, you are not a thing."

"Not really the point, Mom." Anita reminded. She sighed. "Anyway, something hit me and knocked me off the bridge." Mom's grip became tighter. "And I was full-on hovering out there… like.. Kryptonite's really really intense and horrible, but evidently, it gives you wings." Mom let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, deflating like a cheap wal-mart balloon. Anita started chuckling softly again. "I remember thinking, 'I lost my camera, my scarf, and I lost my peace of mind all in one outing'." she laughed, shaking her head. "It shouldn't be funny."

"I think we've gotten into hysterical territory, hon." Mom said. "Come here." she rose and drew Anita into a hug. "You don't have to go to school tomorrow if you don't want to."

"I think I need to. I think I need something to focus on."

"We'll see in the morning." Mom decided. Maybe Anita did need things to think about, but it wasn't as if she couldn't occupy herself on her own. She would also need to sleep, and Sharon had no idea if she'd be able to manage that after such a trying day. "I'm sorry about your camera."

Anita drew away, shrugging. Thinking about it made her feel sick to her stomach...but it wasn't like there was anything she could do. "I mean… it's been four months since the last birthday, and I backed-up daily..." the words sounded hollow, even in her own ears.

"But you love taking pictures." Mom reminded, as if she needed to.

"Yeah.." Anita croaked before clearing her throat. "..but it is what it is." she said sullenly. "I can...just use my phone if I really want to take photos. I use it for everything else." She finally met Mom's eye. "What… what are we gonna do?"

"What do you mean?"

"About.." she waved her hands in ambiguous circles. "All this."

"We can tell the boys whenever you're ready."

"I'm not talking about the smols, Mom. We had Batman on our doorstep tonight. Like…. Batman. It doesn't get much more serious than that."

Mom shifted her weight slightly, shrugging as she leaned her elbows on the table, stacking one forearm over another. "According to what you've said, I don't see where you've committed any crime. I can't imagine that we'd have to worry about superheroes." she took a deep breath. "You are a law abiding citizen, after all."

"Yeah, but… I mean, there's gotta be more to it than that." Anita reasoned. She sauntered back to the drying board and and started putting the dishes back where they went.

"Hm… He did say they wanted 'access' to you…" Mom leaned back against the doorway. "That's a vague term at best." she shrugged. "I guess we just do what we always do." she said with a smile. She let her hips slide forward in the seat, resting her shoulders back against the chair back in a collapsed slouch. "We play it cool, close to the vest. We've done nothing wrong, and no bills are due."

"I guess… just.. feels like... You know that term 'I have the sword of Damocles hanging over my head'?" she stalled, shaking her head. "I think that this feeling I have... that's what it is. Like there's some ambiguous penance ready to smite from on high."

"It'll be ok, sweetheart." Mom said, standing up and drawing Anita into another hug. "I don't know how, but it will."

"You don't know how?" Anita asked, drawing back to look at her mom's face.

Mom shrugged. "Most of life is just figuring out how to keep on keepin' on." she smiled. "That's just what we'll have to do now." 

[strivingscribe]

Salt of the Earth ~ 005

Salt of the Earth by MsMoon

Chapter 5 ~ This is Her

Chapters: 5/?

Chapter Navigation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

Fandom: Young Justice

Rating: ExplicitWarnings: Angst, Feeling? Violence?

Relationships: Maybe I was a little hasty in my last post…but no. She’s still 14, and this is Gen.

Summary: After responding to an incident, members of the team are saved by an unknown metahuman. But no protocols are in place to deal with the series of unfortunate events that assail Anitia Moore. What exactly should the team do when a someone with powers needs training but doesn’t want to be a member of the team?

Author’s Notes: If anyone was wondering, root canals might be unpleasant, but they’re nowhere near as bad as needing one and not getting one :| Remember to floss, kids -..-

It wasn't often that members of the team were called to present findings to the League directly. Today was such a day. Batman had insisted that Aqualad and Robin prepare the necessary files needed (photos, videos, transcripts) and convey their findings personally before the League made its decision.

Even so, Tim still couldn't quite get a grip. They were in the Watchtower...they were in space. Nightwing had said it would be nothing, but Tim still felt like it was the opposite of that. In fact, he suspected Dick had said that just to make him feel better. Sure he had gathered most of the data...ok, all of it, but he still felt so inept in front of all these heavy hitters.

"Aqualad." Batman had been speaking, and that singular word broke through Tim's growing panic.

"Thank you." Kaldur turned and nodded at Tim, who sprung into action. They had prepared for this, and now was no time to choke. Not now...not in front of friends and allies. "The more information we glean, the more we have come to understand how delicate this situation truly is."

Tim sent the files to each Leaguer's holo computer, then set about pulling them up in order on the big screen. Right now, everyone was looking at the video replays of what Batman had begun calling… 'the incident'. It played on the center big screen in all its glory.

"This is the incident on the Metro-Narrows." Aqualad supplied.

"Do we have any leads on this man in the masks?" Icon asked.

"Not yet. That is not the lead we have been tracking." It was about then that the girl popped up, kicking Masked-Virgil across the bridge.

"Who is this?" Wonder Woman asked.

"She is who we are here to talk about." Aqualad announced. Tim froze the video and then brought up the photos of the woman that they had managed to capture, dragging it to the left side of the screen. "This woman intervened during the incident and attempted to aid Superboy."

It was then that Tim let the video play out. She grabbed the kryptonite, she couldn't throw the kryptonite, the kryptonite wasn't kryptonite anymore. Superman showed up, Arrow showed up, and then she flew the hell out of there.

"How strange." Aquaman noted.

"What isn't immediately evident, is that her presence mimics the effects of the kryptonite. While she is near, Superboy is still paralyzed, and Superman reported feeling weakened upon approaching them."

"That's true." Superman allowed. Robin had captured a still from when her face had been exposed and she was floating near the bridge. He left that image in the corner before closing out the video.

Green Arrow took this time to speak up. "The arrow that I hit her with was an expanding foam arrow. Quick drying and buoyant, it should have swelled around her and held her in the water below. But Superboy said that she was floating in midair just beneath the bridge." He shrugged. "I don't mean to brag, but my arrows are efficient. For her to get it off of her and knock it into the water means that she has incredible reaction speed and strength."

"The crystal was all that was left behind, and that is what Robin used to find her." Aqualad said, half turning to Robin.

Robin tried to clear his throat as quietly as possible. "The crystal that was left behind was no longer kryptonite, merely clear crystal." He brought up a rotating image of the crystal. "However, I managed to find three viable fingerprints." the image on screen highlighted those prints, then brought up the image of Anita.

"They belong to Anita Lilian Moore, adopted daughter of Liam and Sharon Moore. Age: 14, Weight: 135 pounds, height: 5 ft., 5, Birthday: May 9—"

"You're saying that this girl is that woman." Black Canary asked, pointing between the two images.

Tim had done his homework, and he was not without showmanship. Both of the images had been on either side of the monitor, and they now began to float towards each other. Side by side, the contrast was pretty astounding.

"Thanks to a reconnaissance mission spearheaded by Batman, we now have confirmation on that." Robin reported.

"The listening devices?" Batman asked.

Robin nodded, but Aqualad stepped in. "That evening, the team managed to find the Moore household. Batman spoke with Mrs. Moore, offering help for her daughter, while members of the team planted listening devices at key places in the home."

Robin nodded again. "We have their conversation about the incident recorded. You have the entire transcripts in front of you, but I've highlighted key parts of the conversation."

With that, Robin hit play on the edited audio file.

"And that's when you pitched in?" the mother's voice sounded distinctly unimpressed.

"He was gonna die." young, and a touch desperate, that had to be the girl's voice.

"Baby. We have had this talk." the firmness of the mother's tone was somehow mitigated by the worry creeping in. Worry for her child, no doubt. "People die by the billions every day. That doesn't mean you have to risk yourself." that statement seemed so callous.

"Mom, it was Superboy." a pleading whisper, before her tone rose. "Superboy was going to die! Super. Boy. Superman's Boy. Might as well be Metropolis boy, Our boy, and there was no one else there!" she sounded so stricken, as though the thought of losing Superboy was personal to her.

"Anita, really!" The mother's explosive huff probably knocked the wind right out of her daughter. "Superboy is our boy?" the derision in her tone was palpable. "If you're willing to make decisions worth dying over, that's...that's not fine, I'm not happy about it, but it's your decision. Die for the people you love, die to make the world a better place, but don't die for some pseudo-fascist iconography! I'm sure that works really well for Superboy, but everyone else doesn't think of you as their girl, and they're not willing to save you. Clearly!" Long seconds passed as both women regrouped. Seconds in which all they could do was breathe. "So, what? You just jumped into the fray? Caution to the wind, and all that."

"I changed my shape!" The girl rebutted. "But.." you could her despair crawling into her tone. "I guess I just...forgot my—"

"Your fingerprints."

The sound of audio whizzing as Tim had sped to the parts of the conversation that were necessary.

"Hit the guy with the masks. Hard. I rarely take my jasper off, so." the girl says, but she pauses, lingering on some unseen communication. "The guy had put a glowing green rock on a lead chain around Superboy's neck…" There's a faint distant noise of shuffling. "It's what was killing him."

More audio whirring as the conversation that's unnecessary speeds by. "And here, she's talking about the kryptonite."

"I took it." her voice sounds loud in the quiet.

"...the ...lead?" The mother's voice is followed by shifting. "You know what lead does to you."

"Not the lead, Mom. I mean, I did tap the lead too. But...the kryptonite. I took it." Both women seem to hold their breath. "I took it all."

The silence hangs heavy before the mother speaks. "How...is that?" she sounds like she's gargled scotch recently. Many league members also shift forward, as if by pressing in they can get a closer look into the girl's experience.

"Uhhh." the girl gave one of those slightly off-kilter laughs that signals tears. "Horrific." she continues laughing breathlessly. "It's like… like I feel really weightless, or I could be if I want to, but there's this weird...shortness of breath. And I want to cry. Like, all the time. And I keep going between really just wanting to curl into a tight ball and sob and wanting to stare listlessly at the dirt, but I feel like I need to run or something's going to eat me." she takes in a shuddering breath. "It's like… like being clinically depressed, being aware of the depression, and trying to rationalize it and knowing you don't have time for this shit."

The sounds of more shifting. Some on the recording and some in the room.

"That explains why your eyes turned so green." the mother observed. "It's ok. They're still your eyes." There are squeaky kisses of the mother kissing her daughter's hands, and some of the Leaguers can't help but smile at that open affection. "What happened then?"

"Uh…" the girl swallowed audibly. "I'd uh… So, I'd punted the ass in the masks across the bridge, right? He was on the other side of the bridge. And Superman shows up…" she chuckled softly. "He just t-balled the guy with an enormous metal beam, and the guy flew all the way back across the bridge, back near us again." a beat of sobering silence. "But then, Superman flew towards us, and he… I was affected by it."

"By what?"

"The kryptonite. I mean, I'd taken it all but… but kryptonite's such a trip. Like, I couldn't-" she held back a little sob. "I was the thing that was killing them."

"Ok, first, you are not a thing."

"Not really the point, Mom." The girl reminded. She sighed. "Anyway, something hit me and knocked me off the bridge. And I was full-on hovering out there… like.. Kryptonite's really really intense and horrible, but evidently it gives you wings." the mother lets out a wheezy breath. The girl started chuckling softly again. "I remember thinking, 'I lost my camera, my scarf, and I lost my peace of mind all in one outing'." she laughed, shaking her head. "It shouldn't be funny."

The audio stopped. The rest was in the transcript...everything was in the transcript, but Tim felt as if the majority or what was necessary for the League was in this section of the recording.

"From this, we gather that Anita Moore can absorb different abilities through different minerals." Robin reports.

"She refers to jasper as a means of gaging how well equipped she is to hit Superboy's assailant." Aqualad recalls. "Her mother mentions what contact with lead does to her. And Anita mentions 'tapping' the lead and 'taking' the kryptonite."

"How did the home seem when you were there?" Black Canary asked.

"The home is adequate. Sharon Moore's ultimate concern is with her children's well being." Batman's voice is methodical. "During my discussion with her, she refused to allow any purchase or allowance on my part. Even calling the children her 'foster' children was corrected, territorially describing them as 'my children'." he flips through his own version of the transcript. "Even her discussion with them in passing makes it clear that her priority is their safety and nothing else."

"Because she is not their foster mother. She is their mother." Wonder Woman says with enough quiet conviction move a mountain.

"What else do we know about their living situation?" this came from Superman.

"Liam and Sharon Moore have owned a bakery in Metropolis for years. The couple adopted four children; Anita, Travis, Bryce, and Jeremiah. The husband, Liam Moore, passed away in an accident four years ago." Robin recited. "As for the girl, she's an exemplary student, rarely scoring below a 91. That being said, she is also a very...quiet student."

"How so?" Batman asked.

"In searching her academic records, I found several reports—all of which seem to be submitted for extracurricular science projects. Not surprising, most of those projects are based in or around geology. What is surprising is that most promising students receive some measure of support from teachers. There's a level of fanfare that goes with the academia. Something that assures the hard work is rewarded beyond the realm of general education. With the exception of one paper, Anita Moore is a ghost in the science community. She's...a ghost in her entire school. The only reason she was published at all is because her teacher sent one of her papers to the local college for a Young Minds event. It caused a stir, because she refused to attend any of the events that come with it."

"So her profile is unusually low."

"It goes beyond that." Robin continued. "Finding her online is nearly impossible. It took forever, but I managed to find a single e-mail address and an Instagram. They aren't linked to her name at all, and she works hard to upload photos and access that email through the onion."

"..the onion?"

"It's a web browser that makes it very difficult for anyone to track your activity online." Robin said. "This is a pretty extreme level of forethought when it comes to a cyber footprint."

"For a teenage girl?" Captain Atom began, before confirming exactly what Tim was eluding to. "That's downright paranoid."

"This is all well and good," Green Arrow said, rocking back in his seat. "but what can we do with all of this?"

Robin and Aqualad exchanged looks.

"Without quoting the mother directly," Batman began, "it was made apparent that any outside intervention would be…. unwelcome."

"Perhaps the girl would be more receptive to aid from those her own age." Black Canary suggests. Tim can already feel his head shaking.

"The team is more than capable of taking measures to ensure Anita Moore is well taken care of." Aqualad said, and Robin found himself nodding.

None of them took note of Superman's keen focus on the transcript.