Chapter 9: No good deed goes unpunished

"What do you think?" After waiting for the end of the video file, Darkwing turned to his teammates.

All together they had just watched the video of the unknown boy's fight against the monster, which together they could not calm down for almost half an hour. Not that such interest and, shall we say, study of young talent was the norm for them, but still... it wasn't every day that they came across a creature capable of grating the granite bones of the Immortal into fine dust, and even less often that they came across a single loner capable of resisting that very monster. To be exact, it has only happened once in the team's history.

"I've half my bones broken, to say nothing of the rest, and he doesn't give a damn." The Immortal muttered.

In spite of the reported injuries, the sixteenth president was standing tall on his own two feet, but the "other things" were well reflected in his face, blue in color from the monster's unsuccessful tentacle-grip and his thinning beard.

"He almost pulled that thing out of the water," confirmed Holly, better known to the general public as War Woman. She saved her beauty in the fight, but she got a splint on her left leg, and her armor's pretty badly frayed.

"The lad's got talent," the Martian Man agreed, but there was obviously some unspoken "but" in his words.

"He's strange, suspicious," the youngest member of the team, Green Ghost, continued after his faithful friend and mentor.

"He reminds me of someone," Holly said thoughtfully, looking at the kid's face on the still frame.

Everyone was silent, and Darkwing changed the video file to the data from the satellite - showing the location of one of the three team members who were not present with everyone at the base.

"They flew away together," the Martian Man stated the obvious.

"The boy wants the suit," the Immortal grinned through sore and bruised teeth. "So we'll meet again soon... if that's all, I'd better soak my throat."

At that moment, Aquarius sprang with a splash from the underwater grotto, and... splattered as a crumpled lump of flesh on the floor.

"Aquarius!" Holly exclaimed anxiously. "What's the matter with you?"

"I'm..." the ichthyander leaned on the Martian's friendly shoulder, and got to his feet, "but we lost him... I'm sorry."

"What?" Instantly the Immortal fumed. "It was out, how could you?"

"It ate my men..." the King of the Undersea World announced grimly. "I was not strong enough, I... I barely escaped."

"Don't blame yourself, my friend," Darkwing interrupted the Immortal. "It was our mistake, we should have landed that thing and made sure it was dead."

"Damn it... we should have activated the back-up systems, because who knows where that thing will show up next." Holly rushed to the tracking drone control system.

"The sea too..." Aquarius replied with determination. "We will not allow a repeat of today's mistake."

The heroes exchanged determined but grim glances. It was an ill-timed coincidence, first Black Samson, with his mysterious affliction (a member of the Guardians, perhaps no longer of his former strength) and now this creature, who had given the others such a beating.

"Shit," Immortal gritted through gritted teeth. "Half the crew's out of action if anything serious happens..."

"We're not the only ones, my friend," Darkwing comforted his colleague. "Luckily, Earth has the Omniman, we can always rely on him."

"Yeah, we can always count on Omniman. " with a grim grin, the Immortal agreed.

***

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Three thousand dollars is a pretty good price for a suit that can withstand the conditions of outer space, but it's still not easy for me, as a schoolboy, to get that kind of money. It wasn't something I could set aside from my allowance or ask my parents for.

But I didn't worry too much either. I might not have an official income, but I could still make the most of my opportunities, and I didn't even have to rob anybody to do it... though a little lawbreaking and tax evasion - probably the worst crime in America - would still have to be done, just to avoid drawing attention to myself.

But next week, for for the rest of this I am... grounded.

Yes, my mother sentenced me to house arrest until the weekend for fighting. It was pretty stupid, actually. I covered the wounds on my back, forearms, and legs, but I couldn't do the same trick with my hands and knuckles. Wearing gloves in the house would immediately make my mother suspicious, so I just tried to stay out of sight and hide my hands. But in the morning, when I tried to sneak out of the house without eating breakfast, she noticed what was wrong. By then I had the story about the fight with the high school kids ready, and I talked Will into playing along, for the sake of authenticity, especially since, according to legend, I'd been hanging out with him that day. Clockwell, realizing there was a story behind it, willingly confirmed that I had "kicked those jerks' asses" and it seemed to go well.

Mom believed the fight story, except I forgot what it was... as a result, I got a lecture about how proving a point with your fists was unacceptable, no matter what the circumstances, and when I tried to debate Debbie on the subject by reminding her that that was all her husband had ever done...

Anyway, arguing with a parent when you're a kid, much less winning an argument and pressuring the parent with your own hypocrisy, is a pretty tepid idea. You'll be the one to blame anyway. Not for aggression, but for disrespecting elders and, funnily enough, for being ill-mannered - and you shouldn't have pointed out to your mother that to reproach your own child for being ill-mannered is to reproach yourself.

But the dumbest part was that, having put me under house arrest for a few days, my mother had not seen fit to forbid me to communicate with Clockwell. And he, as a reward for his help, demanded that I tell him and show him everything...

"Cool!" Wil whispered, gasping with delight when he saw my, rather ugly to be honest, scars.

"Hey, no hands!" I recoiled from my friend as he pulled his rake toward me. "You'll be groping your girl."

It was a little embarrassing to undress in front of a would-be homo, especially in the past world he himself had admitted that he had always looked at me...

"I wish I had one..." Wil said with a frown.

He was already trying to hit on the girls in class... not very successfully, so it was a very painful subject for him, though not as much as it had been in college. There the unsuccessful attempts to get a girlfriend practically drove Will crazy... maybe that's why he switched camps? Who knows...

"What were they like?" He shrugged off the dejection in his heart. "The Guards, you've seen them in person, like me?"

"Only Red Rush," I shrugged. "He found me after the battle and introduced me to the costume designer."

"And War Woman?" Clockwell clarified with glowing eyes. "Is she as hot as she looks on TV? I'd definitely go with her..."

"She's a dyke," I told him.

"I know," said Clockwell sadly. "Such a loss to the world."

"Tell me about it," I said with a laugh.

After that we argued at length about the design of the costume I had ordered from a craftsman-whose identity I would not reveal to Will, of course. Clockwell called my design tasteless and didn't know why the fuck I'd even thought of it, but I was adamant.

"God, Mark... have you thought of a name yet?"

"I don't care. It's just a temporary thing. I'll make myself another suit later... you know, when I solve the problem with... the government."

"That's very optimistic." You haven't heard my name yet.

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