Title: Placeholder, Part II of Masks

Rating: K+

Where else can I find this story? All five parts are on the first page of Part 5 of the original Young Justice Anon Meme on LiveJournal.

Summary: Mayor Oliver Queen gives Green Arrow the keys to Star City, or the second time Superboy was caught wearing another mentor's costume. From the Anon Meme.

Author's Notes: This is the second part of a series of fills I put up on the Anon Meme, for a prompt requesting "5 times Superboy was caught wearing the other mentor's costumes, and one time he wasn't." Now that I've posted all of Part V: Hero on the Anon Meme, I'll be reposting the whole series here, although I will be doing tweaks and revisions. Please note that I started this fill in May of 2011, and as such, characterizations and plot events diverge very quickly from the show's continuity. Although, this scene holds up pretty well to early S1 canon, I think, and you can read it independent of the other parts.

Placeholder
Masks, Part II

Superboy's learned not to expect that people (Superman) will recognize when he does a good job or saves the day, so Superboy doesn't care. Robin only cares about one person's recognition, and Robin got a "Job well done" from him, so Robin's happy. M'gann and Kaldur are just glad that Star City's still on the map. And Artemis, of course, Artemis can't complain. She and Green Arrow are getting the keys to the city.

But Wally? Wally is fuming.

"See, it's things like this that make me think Speedy's right. No one takes us seriously. They're not going to take us seriously until the Justice League takes us seriously. I mean, seriously, if it weren't for us Star City would be a radioactive wasteland right now."

"Come off it KF," Robin says. "We're not in this for the glory. We did a good job. If we'd done a better job, they wouldn't even have found out about the bomb."

"That's not the point! They did know about it. We saved all their lives. And it's Green Arrow who gets all the credit. Artemis just gets to tag along because she's his sidekick! They're giving Green Arrow the keys to the city! What did he do? He shot a couple of arrows! Speedy can do that. Even Artemis can do that. Can Green Arrow go invisible to sneak past the guards? Can Green Arrow hack the terrorist's mainframe to figure out where the bomb is? Can Green Arrow punch through six-inch steel to get to the bomb? Can he freeze it to make it stable enough to move? Can he run it to Star Labs 60 miles away in under five minutes with just enough time for scientists to stabilize the core? No! He's just some dude who shoots arrows! LAME! And he gets the keys to the city! I burned through the soles of my shoes!"

Finally, Wally stops for breath. He catches a glance at Robin's face. "And, he's standing right behind me? Isn't he?"

"Yep, and he does not look whelmed."

Finally Green Arrow speaks. He's only been there for the last few seconds of Wally's rant. "Listen, I'm not thrilled about this either. I really wish the City Council hadn't insisted on it."

"Why?"

"Because the Mayor of Star City needs to give me the keys."

"And?" Wally doesn't get it. Neither does Superboy, but he keeps quiet.

Artemis slaps Wally over the head. "And, Oliver Queen's the Mayor!"

"Oh!" Wally gets it. Oliver Queen is also Green Arrow.

Robin giggles. "That's why Batman stays out of the limelight."

"That's why I'm here," Green Arrow explains. "M'gann, your uncle's the one who normally covers for me, but there's an urgent matter which requires his attention. Do you think you'd be able to pass as me?"

M'gann blushes. "I'm not as advanced as Uncle J'onn, but I'll try."

Three hours later, and M'gann's still trying. She's finally gotten the beard down, but she just can't get rid of her two beautiful breasts. (Superboy doesn't say anything, but he doesn't know why she'd want to, really.)

So it's Robin who comes up with the solution: "Superboy's about the right height and shape, can't we just put him in the costume, add an inch in the heels and do some fancy wig-work?"

"That's not a bad idea," Green Arrow agrees.

Which is how Superboy ends up dressed in green with a scratchy fake beard on his face. Robin, it turns out, is a genius at disguises: looking in the mirror he can't really tell the difference between Green Arrow and his own reflection.

Three hours later, Superboy is accepting the keys to the city he helped save. There are so many people gathered, and they're all so happy and they're cheering and clapping. It feels good, wonderful to be appreciated. It doesn't even matter that it's not really him they're cheering (and really, it is him they're cheering, because if he hadn't punched through half a foot of steel, this city wouldn't exist).

It's hours later and he hasn't taken the Green Arrow suit off. Wearing it, just... it feels like the applause of a thankful city. But finally, he realizes, he has to take it off, and go back to being him. So he gets up off the couch and turns of the TV. But before he goes, he decides to grab an apple. He washes it.

Suddenly there are hands on his waist and a mouth at his ears. He can't believe he didn't hear her coming. The hands move along him, down. "Saw you give yourself the award. Pretty hot. Which one of you was J'onn?"

That's when her hands get to where they're going and his voice decides to break: "N...Neither."

Her hands fly off him. He turns around to see shame and embarrassment on her face. For once he's caught her unaware and he's the first to recover.

"See you tomorrow, Black Canary." He says it calmly, with disinterest, like nothing's happened. Like he says most things when he isn't angry.

On the way to his room, he swears, he can hear Robin's creepy little laugh all the way from Gotham.

Author's Notes: Feel free to review, or if you've already read, to say hi. If you're interested in reading the next part, I suggest you subscribe to my author page.

Part III: Red and Green and Part IV: Present are substantially longer, 18 and 14 pages, respectively, so those will take longer to fix up. I won't start posting Part V: Hero until I'm done revising that whole thing, and it's over 300pp double spaced, so, yeah. That will take time. You can always go read the completed first draft at the Anon Meme, (Page 1 of Part Five), if you'd rather not wait.