Here we go! The Epilogue and the end of the first of the MoD stories. If you truly enjoyed the story, please, at the end of this last chapter, make it a favorite! Send me a quickie review letting me know if it was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write!
No Warnings . . .
It was the first time the Young Justice team had gone out together as friends rather than teammates in a few weeks. It wasn't a movie marathon this time that drew them, but roller skating. M'gann, Kaldur, and Connor had never had the pleasure of trying the human pastime as yet. Wally, Artemis, and Robin weaved in and out from among them laughing and shouting encouragement.
"No powers, M'gann," Robin told her as he skated by backwards. "That's cheating!"
Wally circled around Kaldur almost lazily. "C'mon, fearless leader. You can do better than that," he teased.
Kaldur pinwheeled his arms, struggling to keep his balance. "This would be less difficult, Wally, if you would not keep circling me so closely."
"Why are we doing this again," Connor grumbled. He had fallen five times already and the sidewalk behind him was laced with a network of cracks spiderwebbing the cement.
Artemis rolled gracefully by, like a ballerina on wheels. "Because it's fun, Connor."
M'gann squealed as her feet flew out from under her. Wally was there in a flash, catching her before she could give herself away by floating.
"I've got you, beautiful," he grinned, taking his ever-loving sweet time setting her back onto her feet.
"Nice save," Robin called out. "But she'll learn how to skate a lot faster if you put her down, Wally."
"It is a lot harder than it looks," M'gann admitted, blushing.
"Only at first," Artemis reassured her. "Once you find your balance, it becomes easier."
Connor snorted, and immediately lost his. He waved his arms about in a vain effort to save the sidewalk; smacking Kaldur's face with his arm by accident. Both teens slammed into the pavement with a loud crack and a jumble of limbs
Robin, Wally, and Artemis circled back around. M'gann glanced around to see if anyone was watching and followed them; her wheels barely skating the surface as she gave in to the urge to use her telekinesis for a little added control. She had no desire to repeat Connor and Kaldur's experience.
Kaldur shoved Connor's arm and shoulder off of his face, and sat up rubbing his nose gingerly. "Surfing is easier, I think. At least if you fall, the water doesn't crack under you."
Robin laughed. "No, in surfing when you fall the water just tumbles you over the sand as it scrapes off the top three layer of skin. And then there is the drowning aspect."
Kaldur smiled. "Point taken. Although, if I remember correctly, Robin, you surf as well as you skate."
It took both Robin and Wally to get Kaldur on his feet again. Artemis helped to steady him as the boys moved to assist Connor next. M'gann waved them away.
"I got this," she said. Her eyes glowed as she took Connor's hand in her own and gave him a gentle tug. Her telekinesis assisted him the rest of the way.
Connor immediately stuck out his arms again, expecting gravity to once again betray him, but M'gann kept him steady. He blew out a breath in both relief and frustration.
"You'll be sure to let me know when I start having fun, won't you?" The young Kryptonian snarked.
"Why don't we take a break," Wally suggested. "Pizza, anyone?"
"Always thinking with your stomach," Artemis commented.
"I, for one, am quite willing to take a pizza break," Kaldur said. "And enjoy the novelty of remaining stationary in relation to the world around me for a time."
"The Pizza Station's finished remodeling, and is just around the corner," Wally told them.
"The P-Pizza Station?" Robin's voice squeaked. He cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, sure. That sounds great," he agreed with careful indifference.
Wally winced, realizing what he had just said. "Oh, uh, sorry, Rob. I forgot. You want to eat somewhere else?"
The team glanced at Robin curiously, but the boy flashed an obviously faked smile and shrugged. "Last one there picks up the check," he chirped, and took off around the corner as fast as his skates could take him.
"What's wrong with Robin," M'gann asked softly.
"What did you do now, Baywatch?" Artemis frowned at him.
Wally shrugged, embarrassed. "That's the place Rob and I ate at when he was a . . . you know. Where those drunks hit on him."
Artemis punched him in the arm. "Real smooth, Kid Mouth."
"What? I said I was sorry," Wally complained as the team rolled past him.
M'gann took control of Kaldur and Connor's skates for them and the three flew around the corner as if they were pros. Wally sighed. Robin had seemed to handle the transition to a girl and back with impressive composure, so how was he to know that the younger boy might still feel uncomfortable at a place where he was accosted as a female. He wasn't a female anymore, after all. In fact, Robin had taken Wally's gentle ribbing like a champ over the last few weeks. Following behind, Wally worried now if his other plan would be received with the same amount of enthusiasm as this last suggestion. He tagged along behind the others.
The place looked different, and yet the same. The owner kept the fifties diner look but instead of a hodge-podge of assorted furniture styles, it was put together perfectly. The color scheme remained bright red and chrome all the way throughout, with more booths available, and an updated, retro counter with the cool seats that would spin all the way around.
The teens oohed and aahed over the changes as they made their way to a free booth that would seat them all. With M'gann taking over for the three inexperienced skaters, they made it without mishap. They piled into the booth with a lot of talk and laughter.
Wally closed his eyes in despair when their waitress stopped beside their table to take their order. The fates were definitely out to get him today. He sighed and glanced up at Allison. She sneered down at him, but blinked at Robin sitting beside him.
"Um . . . How's your . . . Ah, sister?" Allison asked this to Robin hesitantly.
Robin smiled tightly, remembering the waitress all too well. "She's good," he answered shortly; not bothering to elaborate.
"Guess she dumped you, hm," Allison remarked to Wally, snidely.
"Actually," Robin inserted with a frown. "She went just went home; not that it is any of your business."
Artemis glanced back and forth between the three of them. She remembered how the waitress had tried to keep Wally from helping Robin, and then acted rude and unsympathetically afterwards; tearing up her phone number and leaving the restaurant without attempting to help. She slid out of her place beside Connor, and pushed the waitress out of the way as she thumbed Robin to trade places with her. She slid in beside Wally, wrapped her arm around the surprised speedster's arm, and smiled with sickening sweetness at Allison.
"You're loss is my gain," she told the gaping waitress, and laid her head on the startled speedster's shoulder. "You just can't find boyfriends who are real heroes anymore," Artemis announced.
Allison huffed. "He was trying to pick me up while on a date with that guy's sister. You can have him,"
Robin laughed. "He's our cousin," giving her the story he knew Wally had originally told her. "He only told those drunks that Robin was his girlfriend in an attempt to protect her."
Allison blinked at that. "Oh . . . Well, I didn't know that."
"You would have if you'd have taken him at his word." Artemis chimed in sweetly. "Wally's a hero. What other guy do you know who would be willing to stand up to three men who were more than twice his size?"
Allison glanced around the table and the different levels of hostility aimed at her. "Okay. You've made your point." Her face was red as she pulled out her pen and pad. "Are you ready to order?"
The pizza was preceded by several baskets of hot wings. Despite Artemis' comments about Wally's appetite, everyone was hungry and the food was devoured quickly. Ten baskets of wings and five large pizzas later, the group sagged lazily in their seats; replete. A different waitress came up with a big, brown package and handed it to Wally.
"Thank you, Wendy," Wally said, reading the waitress' nametag. He took the package and handed it to Robin.
"What's this?" Robin took the large box as his teammates piled the empty plates and trays out of the way.
Wally grinned. "Just a little something to make up for shooting you with the machine o' doom at the lab."
Robin smirked. "I forgave you for that a long time ago. You didn't have to get me anything."
Wally shrugged. "You can always return it if you don't like it."
Robin opened the package as everyone watched curiously. He removed the paper packed around the object in the box; handing it down the table where Wendy waited to take it. He reached in and pulled out a dark blue, leather bag. He frowned as he turned it right side up to look at it more closely. It seemed vaguely familiar. He found the tag.
"It's a Jack French London satchel!" He and Connor announced simultaneously.
"In your favorite color," Wally grinned; totally pleased with his surprise.
Robin gaped at him. "H-how did you . . .?" Wally hadn't been there when Robin had unwittingly admired the handbag at the mountain.
"Connor told me you wanted to replace your backpack with it," Wally explained.
Robin flashed the clone a look that should have fried him if he had Superman's heat vision. "Did he, now?"
Connor's smile slid away and he sat up alarmed. "You said you liked it!" he exclaimed. "Y-you wouldn't really put kryptonite in M'gann's cookie dough, would you," he asked in a whisper.
Robin stared at Connor for a long, silent moment, and then turned his attention to the satchel in his hand. He opened it up and peered inside after taking out the paper inside that was used to keep its shape. There was two large compartments and a zippered side pocket that was large enough for pencils and a calculator. He turned it over in his hands a few times.
"I still say it doesn't look like a ladies' handbag," he declared.
Artemis laughed. "Of course it doesn't, silly! It can be used by anyone!"
Robin frowned. "But you said your friend had one."
"She does, and so does her boyfriend, Kyle. I know several people who carry a bag just like this; guys and girls both." Artemis grinned.
Robin gaped at her a little longer, and then started laughing.
"Does this mean you like it," Wally asked.
"Wally, it's perfect! Thanks!" Robin draped the strap over his shoulder so that the bag lay on his opposite hip.
Robin ended up passing the satchel around to everyone at the table to admire. After a few minutes of this, Connor leaned over toward Robin, nervously.
"Um . . . Robin? About that kryptonite . . ." he began, quietly.
"Don't worry, Connor," Robin told him. "It's okay. I wouldn't do that to you."
The teenaged Kryptonian stared at him. "Really? And the laxatives . . .?"
"That . . . you should still worry about," he smirked.
As they were leaving the restaurant, everyone was talking so Robin didn't see the hulking shape of a man until he clamped a huge hand over his shoulder. Robin looked up, up, wa-a-ay up, and gaped.
"Chet," he blurted before he remembered he hadn't met the man as a boy.
Chet grinned at him. "Your sister told you about me," he commented, smugly.
"Uh, yeah, after Dad picked her up from the police station. She might have mentioned the man who had broken her nose and trashed a restaurant because he couldn't take no for an answer," Robin answered snidely.
He stepped back. Even though he had kept the inch in height he had gained as a girl, he was still pitifully tiny in comparison. But even Superboy was small when standing next to the giant. Robin figured that Chet would even top Batman's six foot, two inch height by four inches or more.
Chet rubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair, uncomfortably. He was apparently sober at the moment. "Uh, yeah. I wanted to apologize for that," he said.
Robin crossed his arms and frowned. "A little late for that. She left."
Chet blinked at that. "Did she? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt her," he told him. "I don't suppose you would be willing to tell me where she went, would you?"
Robin gaped. "Are you kidding me?"
Wally moved in to stand beside his friend while the rest of the team stood ready to pitch in at the slightest provocation. "She not interested in you, Chet."
Chet's face darkened as he turned his attention to Wally. "And she is interested in you?"
Robin waved his hands and stepped between the two. "She's not interested in either of you! Look, Chet, she took what you said to heart. Wally didn't deserve her, but then she decided that neither did any other guy. So she turned to the only male she knew of that did deserve her."
Every single head turned to stare at Robin; all interested to learn the identity of the man that girl Robin decided deserved her devotion.
He sighed. "She left to join a convent," Robin told him completely straight-faced.
Wally snorted and choked; coughing. Artemis took advantage in order to slap him on the back – hard.
"I'm . . . cough . . . Ouch! . . . cough . . . Okay, stop already!"
Chet, amazingly enough, looked suitably devastated.
"Oh," he finally said. Crestfallen, he patted Robin on the shoulder; nearly knocking the youth to his knees in the process. "Okay . . . But could you," he hesitated a moment before continuing. "Would you give her a message from me?"
Robin rubbed his shoulder gingerly; wincing a little. "Uh, yeah, sure, Chet. What do you want to tell her?"
"Just that . . ." His voice lowered. "Tell her that I love her and if she changes her mind . . ."
Robin gaped. "Uh . . . Okay, Chet. I-I'll tell her, but um . . . Just don't get your hopes up. She's not planning to come back."
Chet nodded, and sniffled. He wiped an eye with the back of his hand. "I bet you're a good brother," he declared, and suddenly picked Robin up like a child and hugged the boy til he squeaked.
Chet set him down before his friends jumped on him. He laughed. "You sounded just like her there. She squeaked in just that same way."
Chet opened the door to the pizza place and ducked his head to go in. He called over his shoulder before the door closed behind him. "Nice purse, by the way."
The teens stared at the retreating giant through the glass doors of the restaurant. Almost as one, they breathed out a sigh of relief. Artemis spun both boys around and threw her arms around them.
"Oh my God, he was huge! You two are lucky to be alive," she gasped.
"And he had two friends with him that were just as big," Kaldur added, shaking his head in amazement.
"Actually, Wally was the only one in danger of dying," Connor pointed out. "He wanted to marry Robin."
Robin started laughing, followed seconds later by Wally and then Artemis. Soon all of the teens were laughing.
"You are just lucky that you changed back," Wally pointed at Robin. "Otherwise, it might have been wedding bells for you."
"Definitely a near miss . . ." Robin agreed as his communicator chimed.
"Right. On our way," he said when he answered it. He met the curious gaze of his teammates. "Let's go! We've got a mission."
Wally held up three fingers. "I promise not to touch anymore strange machines."
Robin laughed. "Don't make promises that you can't keep, KF," he said as they skated back in the direction of the hidden bioship.
REACTIONS? OPINIONS? COMMENTS?
The second MoD story will be out in another week or so. The prologue is almost identical to the one in this story. I tweaked the end of it to fit the new story, so don't skip it completely. It will have some humor in it, but it will definitely not be the comedy that this one is. If the next story goes dark, I will let it.