#The blonde girl speaking is Arrowette

[comicchats]

Green Arrow (2023) #14

Ah yes, DC's superhero litmus test

[chimie-chat]

Making the Best of a Crummy Situation

A quarantine inspired self-isolation Wonderette fic

“Welp...  This is just… Great.” The sarcasm was laced thick in Cassie’s voice as she flopped back onto her bed. She’d landed on one of her pigtails ー something anyone with longer hair can vouch is less than comfortable ー so she lifted a hand, jammed it under her head, and yoinked out the ties unceremoniously. Her hair was getting way too long. She really should just shop it all off again. Of course… That would have to wait.

“Yeah. No duh.” The other teen in the room was none other than Cissie King-Jones, Olympic superstar by day, nerd-brain student by night ever since quitting the whole Arrowette gig. “But hey. At least we’re together.”

Why did things suck? Why was it good to be together? Why were there three suitcases stacked up on top of each other in the corner of the room, one of which was currently being opened to reveal a mess of beauty products, and more moisturizers than a Costco aisle? Well, unless you’ve been in a coma since February, you’ve seen that little business on the news about Covid-19, A.K.A the Coronavirus, A.K.A the Boomer Killer. Long story short, the world was going to the shitter because of this pandemic circulating the globe, with world leaders reacting by forcing massive quarantines, especially in major cities. Museums, school, restaurants, stores… All sorts of places were closing down.

You might have noticed that little mention about schools closing. Yeah, not just a few schools here and there, but every school. Not only did this include Cassie’s standard public school, but it also hit Cissie’s oh-so-fancy all girl’s boarding school, which consequently had shut down all it’s dormitory buildings. Rather than going back home, where the archer just knew she was going to go nuts if she spent more than a day locked up with her mother, Cassie extended the invitation for her girlfriend to come stay with her.

In the immortal words of a misquoted Vine:

Oh my god they were quarantine mates.

Cassie shifted up on her elbows as she watched the blonde across from her unpack. “Did you manage to get everything before you had to leave?”

“Mostly.” The other girl pulled out a violet elastic headband, tugging it down over her head, and letting it dangle around her neck as she adjusted her long hair, before pulling the band up to hold the locks out of her face. “Wasn’t able to grab things like posters or trophies.”

“Ah yes. Because where would you be without your trophies.” 

“Devastated, clearly.” The next thing to emerge from the suitcase was ー and y’all, I can not stress enough how ridiculous this crap is ー a large shag throw pillow, patterned in pink, purple, and aqua diamonds. 

“Ok, you didn’t grab your olympic gold, but you grabbed that.” Cassie couldn’t help but snort. She would have probably laughed longer, except for the same offensive cushion suddenly colliding with her face. Perfect aim.

“You’re the one that got me that, you idiot!” Even though it very well could have been a stern yell, nothing could hide the dumbstruck smile on the other girl’s face.

“No way. I got you this?” The Wondergirl held the pillow up, pretending to examine it. Of course she remembered getting it. It was the worst anniversary gift in the world, but for some reason her weirdo girlfriend was really into this kind of stuff.

“Yes, and you know I sleep with it every night.” There was a pause as Cissie looked around the small bedroom. “Speaking of, you got a sleeping bag somewhere around here? Air mattress maybe?”

Cassie tipped her head to the side, tucking the pillow into her chest so she could lean her chin into the fluff. “Why would we need a sleeping bag?”

The other teen made eye contact, a perfectly threaded brow quirking up. “So I can sleep?”

“But…” She let a pout fall on her lips. Cissie loved it when she pouted. It always got her everything she wanted. “I thought we could just… you know… share my bed.”

Cissie let out a snort, combing her fingers through her hair. “Mmmm. As nice as that sounds, that’s not social distancing. We gotta stay CDC compliant.”

The amazonian huffed, puffing her cheeks out. “Oh come on. You and I both know we’re fine.” She patted the space on the mattress next to her. 

“Mmmmm. Nope.” With a popped ‘p’, Cissie turned back to her things, organizing her box of nail polishes instead of paying attention to whatever her partner was doing. 

“Cissie.” She practically whined as she dropped the shag pillow, pushed up from the bed, and went over to grab the other girl by the arm. It was all playful, more so like a cat bothering her owner for attention than anything. “Come on. We haven’t gotten to cuddle in forever.”

Apparently this girl thought she was hilarious, because she kept that way too pretty, quirky smile on her face, as she let Cassie incessantly try and pull her up. “I hope you washed your hands for the recommended twenty seconds.”

“God you’re the worst.” Cassie rolled her eyes, before leaning down, tucking her arms underneath Cissie’s armpits ー it wasn’t exactly cute but it worked ー and lifting her girlfriend to her feet. Having superstrength definitely paid off sometimes. 

“But babe,” A laugh was bubbling out of Cissie. Even though the archer was taller by an inch or two, she tended to lean on her hip when she stood, bringing her down to her partner’s level anyways. Regardless, they were both at the perfect heights for long, slender arms to drape over broad shoulders, wrapping around Cassie’s neck. “We have to stay six feet apart.”

“Screw that.” Cassie leaned in for a quick kiss, which Cissie thankfully let her take. Neither could help but smile as they pushed into each other. Even when it ended, they stayed close, remaining in a loose and lazy hug, foreheads leaning together, until Cassie tipped in once more and placed a soft kiss to her partner’s cheek. “Missed ya.”

“I missed you too.” Cissie rubbed the tips of their noses together. “I was kidding about the CDC stuff.”

“I know that, you goof.”

“Good.” The girl nodded, stealing a kiss for herself. “Because I miss being your little spoon.”

Cassie smiled wide, brushing a lock of hair behind Cissie’s ear. “Let’s fix that then.”

[thedcdunce]

Secret

“I'm tired of having everybody be afraid of me and leaving me!!!” - Secret

Real Name: Greta Hayes

Aliases:

Suzie

Gender: Female

Height: 4′ 8″

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde

Powers:

Warder Physiology

Weaknesses:

Electromagnetic Interference

Magic Interference

Universe: New Earth

Base of Operations:

Secret Sanctuary, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island

Catskill Mountain Hotel

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: 

Student

Crime-fighter

Education: Elias School for Girls

First Appearance: Young Justice: The Secret#1 (June, 1998)

Last Appearance: Booster Gold Vol 2 #3 (December, 2007)

Powers

Warder Physiology: When Greta was killed by her brother, she was able to stay on the earthly plane as a warder, someone who guides spirits who have just died to the afterlife. She has an ethereal body with a unique power set.

Flight: As an ethereal being, Secret can levitate and fly through the air at will, although she seems to be able to allow herself to be subject to gravity.

Intangibility: Secret typically remains in an intangible state. Solid matter and some forms of energy have been able to pass through her body without causing her harm. Secret is, however, susceptible to electric and magic-based attacks, even though she is mostly intangible. Secret can actually make herself solid for up to a few minutes at a time, allowing her to physically interact with tangible matter.

Sublimation: Secret is visually comprised of a smoky, misty quasi-ethereal substance of unknown composition. She can turn her body partly or wholly into smoke. As smoke, Secret has complete control over herself, able to travel through the air as she desires. She can perceive her environment while in this smoke form, even though she often has no discernible eyes or ears or whatnot. She has forced her gaseous body into the air passageways of enemies to disallow them to breathe, making them pass out.

Smoke Construct Creation: Much like how she can make her normal-looking body solid for brief periods of time, Secret can make the smoke she produces/becomes form into solid constructs. She has made a cage before, and she has used her smoke to throw enemies and catch falling allies.

Metamorphosis: Secret can alter her form to look like whatever she wishes. She still retains the same color scheme, but the shape can be changed to make her look like other things. One of her favorite alternatives to her human form is a dragon-like monster with fangs and claws, but she has altered her appearance in other ways as well. Much like her normal form, Secret seems to be able to make herself solid while in these other shapes as well.

Superhuman Strength: When Secret shape-shifts parts of her body into shapes that give her strength. For example, she has shape-shifted her fists into large, stone-hard fists that were able to greatly crack the concrete she punched.

Superhuman Durability: Secret can shape-shift parts of her body into a denser form. She has once turned her hands into a wall to protect her teammate from danger.

Size Alteration: While altering her appearance, Secret can make herself larger than her standard human size. Her dragon-like monster form tends to be a quite large, and she has transformed herself to look like a several-stories-tall version of a certain politician.

Teleportation: Secret has the ability to "smoke jump," as she calls it. Using this ability, she can teleport herself and/or others in a puff of smoke. She has been able to travel considerable distances with her smoke jumps.

Dimensional Travel: In addition to her ability to teleport, Secret has the ability to bring others into a pocket dimension that only she has been shown to be able to access. Calling this place "the Abyss," Secret has brought in friends into her dimension to protect them from danger, and she has pulled enemies within the Abyss as a form of confinement. Inside the Abyss is pure darkness, unless Secret herself appears to communicate with her prisoners. The Abyss is somehow inside of Secret, part of her being.

Fear Projection: The pocket dimension known as the Abyss has the innate ability to create fear and other negative feelings within the people inside. She has accidentally almost traumatized her friends when she briefly pulled them inside to protect them, but she has also intentionally used this ability to scare enemies.

Magic/Supernatural Sense: Secret was able to detect the magical energy signature of Klarion and track him down. Furthermore, she can also see spectral entities that usually cannot be seen.

Death Sense: Secret can sense when death is about to happen, and she can sense when death has just occurred.

Self-Sustenance: Secret does not appear to require food, water or oxygen, claiming she "Missed the sensation of hunger", although she has been sleeping at times.

Clairvoyance: By turning into smoke and entering the body of the dying Kathy Sutton through her air passageways, Secret was able to "mingle" in a sense with Kathy's soul, which was preparing to leave and enter the afterlife. While the experience seemed like a dream, Secret was able to coax Kathy into staying among the living. Secret could presumably do this for others if she had the time and the person in question likewise had the realistic potential to stabilize.

Possession: By forcing herself into the air passageways of someone, Secret was able to control that person's body. Not only was she able to control the person's movements, she was able to speak through the person and was able to access that person's metahuman powers.

Weaknesses

Electromagnetic Interference

Magic Interference

History

The hero known as Secret was once an ordinary girl named Greta Hayes. She was murdered by her adoptive brother, Billy, who would later become the supervillain known as Harm. Because of the manner of her death, Greta remained stuck on this plane of existence, a gateway between the living and the dead.

In her first appearance, Secret was being held against her will by the DEO. Robin, Impulse, and Superboy helped her to escape, and were able to convince her to join their crimefighting team, "Young Justice," at the same time as Wonder Girl and Arrowette. Being incorporeal, Secret is able to take on a variety of appearances, and is referred to as "the mist girl" or "the bottle girl" by the various agents who pursue her throughout her career.

Her brother Billy assumed the villainous identity of Harm and attacked Young Justice, but died when his own father shot him. Billy returned during the events of "Day of Judgment," when the entirety of Hell had been evacuated. He again battled the team, using the substance of Secret.

Before her real name was known, Secret was often referred to as Suzie. Secret became good friends with the two girls, and was often portrayed as shy. For awhile she nursed a crush on Robin, and often defended his actions and followed his leadership unquestioningly. She also often expressed jealousy of Spoiler, Robin's girlfriend, to the point where the pair of them once had a full out battle across Gotham City, only stopped by the combined efforts of both Red Tornado and Robin.

During the Sins of Youth event, a temporarily adult Secret, with the aid of Deadman, chased down Klarion the Witch Boy's cat familiar Teekl, as Klarion had been overtly threatening them. Surprising her age-altered friends, she caused Klarion to back down by threatening to kill Teekl. When undoing everything he had done, Klarion insisted that it was everyone or nothing. Secret didn't want to change back to a kid, but was persuaded to by Robin, who promised to always be there for her. As predicted by Merry Pemberton, this would later cause many problems. Secret would even go so far as to physically threaten Spoiler.

At one point Hal Jordan, the Spectre, tried to mentor Secret. During this time, she visited her father in jail. Under the mental influence of "Billy," her father rejected her, leaving her more despondent than before.

Secret eventually gave in to the darkness in her nature at the behest of Darkseid, whom she mistakenly referred to as "Doug Side." During her time on Apokolips, Billy possessing her father, launched the body into one of the firepits, killing them both. Although Hal Jordan offered to step in and save Greta, as well as the world, the current Young Justice team advisor, Snapper Carr, rejected the offer, preferring that the kids use Secret turning evil as a "learning experience." Robin was eventually able to talk her down by himself. Towards the end of Young Justice, a disgusted Darkseid stripped Greta of her powers, and left her an ordinary, living girl, which was, ironically, just what she had always wanted to be.

Greta now attends the Saint Elias School for Girls, with schoolmates Cassie Sandsmark and Cissie King-Jones.