Adventures of Superguy

August 14, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI

Mt. Justice

11:58:12 EST

“It begins and ends with Captain Natalie Adams.” Ms. Martian began their presentation to Captain Atom, standing in the Hall with holographic mugshots of all the players arranged behind her while the silver skinned heroine waited at parade rest for her to continue. Ms. Martian was just to the side of the row of photo frames hanging in the air, facing the Captain, while the rest of the team stood behind her. They knew all of this already, but they were sure the presentation was also part of their grade in the Captain’s class on covert operations.

She would definitely know about that… Superboy thought as he idly ran a hand across his chest.

“Adams uncovered evidence of a weapons smuggling ring that called itself ‘the Green Elite’.” Ms. Martian continued, walking past the picture of Cap. Natalie Adams, gesturing to the second picture in the row; the late General LeMar. “She brought intel of a supposed weapons drop to her superior officer, General LeMar. Unfortunately, LeMar was part of the Green Elite and saw Adams’ intel as an opportunity. She moved down the line of holographic portraits to the next mugshot, and Superboy frowned at the photo of the young blonde woman in Air Force dress blues.

“LeMar could get rid of Adams and the head of the ring; Lt. Henrietta Yarrow.” She went on, and Superboy winced. “Yarrow was only a lieutenant, and the general resented taking orders from her. So LeMar tipped off their North Vietnamese contact, General Duk Trang.” Ms. Martian advanced to the fourth photo, this one a crop of the group photo they had recovered. They had no other pictures of Trang from the period, the Vietnamese government keeping the records of defecting officers quite sealed.

“Yarrow was told Trang had simply been instructed not to show at the drop, but LeMar secretly ordered Trang to ambush Adams’ squad instead.” Ms. Martian said, thin lipped. “All were meant to die, including Yarrow. But Adams foiled LeMar’s plan by heroically saving herself and Lt. Yarrow.” She stepped to the side and Kid Quick approached to take over the presentation from there.

“Now Yarrow had two problems. Her incorruptible buddy Nat, who knew LeMar was part of the Elite, and LeMar herself, who had tried to have Yarrow killed.” Kid’s tone was much less formal, and she spoke quickly enough that the words came out in a stream. Still intelligible, since everyone here was familiar with her enough to be used to it. She had a sour look on her face as she explained Yarrow’s plot.

“So Yarrow pitted one problem against the other. It wasn’t hard to get Adams riled up against LeMar, and it wasn’t hard to drug Adams’ drink, either. Yarrow wound Adams up and sent her to confront LeMar.” She blurred briefly to the fifth portrait in line, a stout, short haired brunette woman in fatigues with an MP armband. “The drug took care of Nat, and then Yarrow’s woman Polk took care of LeMar when she called for help when Nat passed out. She used Nat’s knife to frame her for LeMar’s murder, claiming she had come upon the scene after a struggle to find LeMar dead and took out Nat.”

She blurred the short distance to the next two photos, a woman and a man. “Lt. Blankly was assigned as prosecutor, and Nat’s only defense was that she had lost consciousness and claimed to have been drugged. Medical Examiner Mason testified there were no drugs in her system.” Kid put her hands on her hips, her disgust evident. “The trial that followed was a joke. Nearly everyone involved; Yarrow, Mason, Blankly and Polk, was a member of the Green Elite.”

“What about Eiling, the judge at the trial?” Captain Atom asked, a red gloved hand stroking her argent chin. 

Yeah, what about Eiling? In the comics, Eiling was definitely the mastermind. I’ve never heard of Yarrow, but I didn’t read too many old Captain Atom books. Sorry, Captain…

Instead of Kid, Robin answered the Captain’s question, bringing up the scanned photo of the Green Elite conspirators. 

“Eiling wasn’t in the photo of the Green Elite conspirators. As far as we know, she truly believed in Adams’ guilt.” She replied, shrugging. The Captain didn’t seem to know how to process that piece of information.

Once more, Superboy’s eyes were drawn to the downcast, stiff little boy in the center of the conspirators, Trang’s hand on his shoulder in a manner that might have looked maternal if he didn’t know how that relationship had ended last night. The last three photos showed the younger CIA Agent Alina Rois and two photos of Rako; one of his young, round, shadowed face in the group photo, and the other his hard, angular adult visage taken from his booking photo this morning. 

Rako was a large man, over seven feet tall, and the baby fat from his childhood had been scoured away, leaving him a harsh looking man of indeterminate Asian ethnicity, with hooded, dark eyes and short cropped black hair. The hardness of his face spoke to the many cruelties of his life. Without his high tech samurai helmet, he looked much smaller and more human, but Superboy could see the dead look in his eyes. He had seen that look before in the eyes of kids like himself who knew there was only one escape from the pain of their lives, and he looked away from it.

“Yarrow’s psychic ‘death-bed confession’ didn’t confirm that?” Captain Atom asked, turning back to Ms. Martian. She dropped her head, and her answer was much less confident than her previous presentation.

“I’m new at reading a non-telephatic mind, and Yarrow died seconds after we linked…” She trailed off, shuffling uncomfortably beneath the Captain’s glowing stare.

“Yeah, for the second time.” Apollo interjected, emphasizing the penultimate word. “Of course, the first dead Yarrow was actually Polk, who had a much less lush head of hair…” He continued, looking meaningfully at Superboy, but it was Aqualass who continued.

“When we searched Polk’s home, we were meant to think she had packed a bag and fled, but Superboy noticed a critical detail on the body at Yarrow’s residence.” She said, also looking at Superboy, who perked up to see the Captain’s gaze boring into him now.

“Uh, I had scanned through the crowd at the Palms to find Yarrow with my super vision. Telescopic, in this case. I could count the individual hairs on the back of her head.” He began, and seeing the Captain’s confusion, tried to hurry to the point. “When they found the body in the ruins, the… head was still intact. I noticed some of the hair had melted, while the rest had just burned. Hair plugs; Yarrow didn’t have hair implants, but that body did.”

Captain Atom raised one metallic eyebrow at that, but said nothing and Robin continued.

“We checked Polk and Yarrow’s medical records; only Polk had hair implants. So that body wasn’t Yarrow. And when we found intel among the debris tipping us to the airfield in St. George, Utah. We knew it was all too easy. We knew we were being set up.”

Superboy snorted, and felt more than saw Robin’s eyes roll behind her domino mask.

“Okay, Superboy knew we were being set up. I had my suspicions.” She admitted, shrugging. It had been a short but contentious argument; all of Superboy’s narrative instincts screamed at him that it wasn’t over and this was a trap. The others had been reluctant to believe him after his ironclad suspicion of Eiling, But when his suspicions that the body wasn’t Yarrow had borne fruit, they had all become more wary of the St. Georges intel.

Superboy puffed out his chest and crossed his arms before inflating further.

“After our encounter with Rako in Maryland, and knowing Rois’ penchant for explosives tagging her for the bomb at Yarrow’s house, we knew we had three players left in the wind. The most dangerous ones. The others had been out of the game for years at that point; Blankly died years ago, Polk and Mason were useless to the Elite once they had retired from their roles in the Air Force. But Yarrow, Rois and Rako were still a danger. They had been ruthless in eliminating all the loose ends as soon as they knew we were investigating, and since she was retired herself now, Yarrow didn’t need to play the modest retired military officer anymore. She could finally enjoy the proceeds of her criminal enterprise and disappear. Polk’s body and the bomb at Yarrow’s house were meant to let us believe that Polk, Rois and Rako were in the wind and it was over, or to lure us into an ambush to finish this if we kept digging. There was only one loose end now; us.” He explained, before turning to the pictures of Rois and Rako. 

“We knew there’d be a bomb; Rois’ rarely abandons her signature. And we knew Rako would be there with his sword… which was a danger even to me. They were inviting us out, but they hadn’t met us all yet. They probably didn’t know what Aqualass could do, and they definitely didn’t know who Apollo was. So we brainstormed some scenarios, and came prepared for them. I knew Rako would most likely come for me first; I’m probably the first person to ever survive his sword.” He resisted the urge to trace the healing line of the wound across his chest while the Captain watched him, silently.

“We determined the X-Ionizer worked through molecular harmonics; it emitted a hum only Superboy could hear.” Aqualass continued, and again, Superboy kicked himself mentally.

I hadn’t realized nobody else heard it until I mentioned it and nobody knew what I was talking about…

“With my hydrokinesis, I can do something similar with the enchanted waters of my water bearers.” She said, drawing the gleaming silver hilts and forming familiar glowing watery machetes. But unlike usual, they began to hum and the edge blurred, the sound setting Superboy’s teeth on edge again. “We experimented with different frequencies until Superboy recalled the correct one, and I soaked his shirt in my enchanted waters. It would take all my concentration to armor my teammate, but once Rako was disarmed and Rois dealt with, our advantage in numbers would quickly resolve the situation.” She said, sheathing her blades once more.

“Ms. Martian held the dead woman’s switch down with her telekinesis, until Apollo could land a binding arrow on her trigger hand for a more permanent solution.” Aqualass concluded.

“The plan went perfectly, until Yarrow proved quicker on the draw than I anticipated.” Robin added, ruefully, and Superboy frowned.

“I heard that you displayed another Kryptonian power, super speed?” Captain Atom inquired, and Superboy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as Kid Quick rolled her eyes.

“Uh, yeah. Probably. I think. Everything slowed down and I was able to get in front of Robin. I’m not sure how I did it though. I haven’t been able to do it again.” He added sheepishly. 

“Don’t worry about it, kid. It can take awhile to get a handle on your powers. I know I was discovering new stuff I could do every month when I first got mine.” Captain Atom reassured him, and Superboy gained a thoughtful look as he nodded at her.

Right… I’m not even sure of everything our Captain Atom here can even do. But she can do a lot. Its super cool, and it shows that Cadmus theories about my powers increasing over time are true. But…

They never designed this body to be capable of super speed. I was exhausted afterwards, I could barely hear what Kid was talking at me about. Hopefully that gets better with practice and time.

“Rako and Rois were detained, and Yarrow perished from one of her own ricochets.” Aqualass added, concluding their after action report. Superboy winced again at the mention, and this time rubbed his chest where the bullet had impacted. She gave him a sympathetic look.

“No one blames you for this outcome.” She said seriously.

Superboy blew a sigh, looking down to avoid the concern he was sure was on the rest of the girl’s faces. 

They’re trying to baby me. They probably think I’m ‘sensitive boy’. He thought with some irritation, catching Apollo looking at him impassively from where he leaned against a console. Their eyes met, and he saw the searching look there. Superboy wondered what he was looking for.

He wants to see what made me freak out back there, Superboy realized.

After ensuring that Robin was fine, he had rushed to Yarrow’s side as Ms. Martian had cradled her head, trying to mindlink to see the truth that was within Yarrow’s memories. Superboy had barely spared Ms. Martian a glance, and grabbed Yarrow’s hand as the woman gasped while the bright red continued to change the hue of her colorful Hawaiian shirt. She had gaped like a fish, and he’d been expecting some final words or accusation, but she just stared at her wound and then up at him, bewildered. Shocked at what had happened.

She did it to herself. She probably would have gotten the death penalty for treason if she made it to trial. But…

He steadied himself, meeting Apollo’s gaze, and the archer nodded slightly.

“I’m fine, really. It wasn’t my bullet, it was hers. I was just shocked at the ricochet. Usually when bullets bounce off of me, they pancake and I don’t think they’re a danger anymore. But that showed me they can absolutely be dangerous. Its something I have to prepare for. Train for.” He said with all the resolve he could summon. He locked eyes with Captain Atom, who kept her ramrod straight posture, and nodded to him.

Captain Atom surveyed the team as they wrapped up their presentation and their after action report. She put her hands behind her back as she addressed them like troops on parade.

“Team.” She began. “I’m impressed. You did good work.” She said as she surveyed them, each straightening themselves under gaze. Even Kid Quick, though it was more of an upright slouch in her case.

“Yeah, work that comes too late to help Natalie Adams…” Apollo commented, looking off to the side and huddling beneath his cloak. Captain Atom approached him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“But not too late for her kids.” The Captain said, glowing eyes drilling into Apollo’s. “Go tell them what kind of woman their mother really was.”

The team shared a smile, happy to end the case on a happier note. Possibly happier to return to Hawaii one last time before wrapping things up. They headed for the Zeta-Tube, while Captain Atom stayed put, turning to face the hanging holographic portraits of the Green Elite once more.

Facing the people who had betrayed her country, killed her soldiers, set her up and put her on the path to becoming the silver skinned atomic metahuman before them. 

Superboy’s eyes lingered on her shining back, and the first portrait that she was staring at. 

Oh captain… you should be telling them. They should hear it from their mom.

He sighed, and turned to join the team in the Zeta-Tube as Captain Atom remained vigil at her post, unmoving.

********

August 14, 2010 - Honolulu, HI

Naval Station Pearl Harbor 

09:58:13 HST

Connor watched as the rest of the team, in civilian clothing, regaled the middle aged woman and man at the seaside cafe table. It was a beautiful place; open air straw awnings built on a wooden pier, overlooking Pearl Harbor. In the distance, he could see the clean white lines of the Pearl Harbor Memorial, sitting over the sunken USCSS Arizona. The cafe was filled with tourists and uniformed sailors, and the team’s large party took up three tables along the edge of the pier. Kaldura, he noted, was continuously glancing at her phone and not paying much attention to the conversation. He couldn’t see what was on the screen, but she wasn’t typing; just staring at the screen.

Wonder what that’s about?

But he dismissed the thought. He was on the boardwalk a half mile distant, having begged off the meeting once they were in Hawaii. Kaldura and Apollo had handled the investigation into Adams’ family and background, and interviewed Adams’ children. The team had invited Peggy and Randy Eiling to follow up on the investigation, before everything was officially filed with the Department of Defense and the Air Force. Once that was done, they expected Adams’ conviction to be overturned. Gen. Eiling had already seen their evidence, and was giving her support to the appeal which would carry a lot of weight. Even without that, the hard evidence they had could easily cast too much doubt on the case for the conviction to stand.

Captain Natalie Adams would finally get justice. 

Louis Lane of The Daily Planet was already writing a piece on the case.

I don’t know why its so funny to me that it’s Louis and Clara here. 

He chuckled to himself as he leaned back from the railing where he observed the others. With his super hearing, he could even focus on their conversation at this distance, though he wasn’t trying to. He already knew everything the team was going to say.

They had asked why he wasn’t going to be there, and he had told them a white lie about his old life; he had come here in his world, as part of a Make-A-Wish trip after he beat cancer the first time. He implied strongly that he’d like some alone time in a somewhat familiar locale, and the others had respected his wishes. 

While the part about the trip was true, and how maudlin being in Honolulu made him feel, that’s not why he was standing here alone on a distant pier. The true reason for his visit was sitting twenty yards to his right on a bench, also staring out over the water towards the opposite pier.

A familiar and strong featured, handsome woman with silver hair pulled back straight and tight to her head, wearing an Air Force uniform. She looked middle aged, which was nothing like her actual age, but much closer than her other form. Her hair made her look older, but her face was mostly unlined. Connor sighed as he watched her watching the team, seeing that the meeting was over and his subject was making no moves.

Maybe she’s just going to wait? She just discovered the truth. Well, more like she finally had all her old suspicions confirmed. Except about Yarrow; she never suspected Yarrow for a second. Her good buddy…

That had to be a bitter pill for Captain Natalie Adams to swallow. The one person who had stood up for her, who she had trusted and whose life she had saved, had been the architect of all her woes. And the woman who she had blamed for railroading her and forcing her into the Captain Atom project, who had stolen her husband and children away, was vindicated as an honest actor who had genuinely believed in her guilt. She was even a good step-mother to Adams’ children.

He scowled at that.

Gen. Eiling not being the mastermind is like a splinter in my brain. We went over everything we got out of Yarrow and all the other evidence we collected, and it does seem like the Green Elite were all in the picture. There’s no loose ends left. Yarrow, Rois and Rako made sure of that.

When he tried to argue that didn’t mean Eiling wasn’t a conspirator, Rikki had to take him aside and explain very clearly that proving a negative was mostly impossible. An absence of evidence wasn’t evidence of absence; it just meant there was no evidence. He had nothing to go on, and she had reiterated he shouldn’t accuse people of major crimes based on their multiversal doppelgangers.

Again.

I was right about Bane, though. She had no idea who Bane was when we got to Santa Prisca. When Batwoman had briefed us on the Venom and Santa Prisca, I thought they already knew. That it went without saying. I guess I can’t just regurgitate comic book storylines and expect that to convince everybody. 

A worrying thought struck him.

Shit. How many big bad plotlines haven’t happened in this universe yet? Could I prevent that stuff from happening? I don’t even know everything that HAS happened here. I gotta start going through the Guild archives…

His anxious introspection was interrupted by Cap. Adams rising from her bench and walked slowly down the pier, past him. He looked up and his eyes followed her back, and in a split second decision, he stood and followed after her. She left the pier and approached a black sedan parked on the street, went around to the driver’s side and got in. She just sat at the wheel for a minute, gathering herself.

Connor decided to go for it.

He approached the passenger door and opened it, slipping inside before she reacted. Her blue eyes snapped to him, but froze as she recognized him. There was an awkward, quiet moment as they simply stared at each other, both unsure of how to proceed.

“Captain.” Connor ventured, breaking the ice.

For a second, her guard remained up but then she let the mask slip and sighed.

“This is breaking protocol, Connor. You know that.  You are to respect other Guild members’ secret identities unless they choose to reveal them to you.” Cap. Adams said, trying to regain some of her posture and authority.

He laughed.

“You had us investigating your own cold case, Captain. I’m actually shocked none of the others seemed to realize it, especially Robin. Besides the hair, you’ve barely aged a day from your mugshot in Vietnam.”

She grunted, running a hand self-consciously across her silver hair. It seemed close enough to a regular silver that it could be that she just went prematurely grey, but there was a metallic sheen if he looked closely that told him the truth. 

Its weird being able to see people’s hair follicles. 

“I suppose it is a bit close. I asked you to investigate the case, and you did. But that doesn’t justify this conversation. You are still expected to ignore the things you know that you’re not supposed to know. That’s part of keeping intelligence secure; not letting anyone else know what you know.” She continued, slipping back into the same yawn inducing lecture that had begun their previous lesson.

“I get that lesson, Captain, I promise. I… wanted to ask if you’re going to tell them.”

She stared at him blankly, her face impassive.

“Tell who, what?”

He took a deep breath; now that he was doing it, this seemed a perilously personal question to ask a woman he barely knew who was processing a lot right now.

“If you’re going to tell Peggy and Randy their mother is still alive. Or that their mother is Captain Atom.”

Adams’ face froze, and her blue eyes became very distant. She took a halting breath.

“No. No, I am not. They have a step-mother, they took her name. She raised them. My Angelo is gone. Its too late to step back into their lives now.” She said, quietly, not quite meeting his gaze.

Connor’s eyebrows rose.

Didn’t expect her to open up that easily. I guess she’s in a more fragile state than I thought.

His heart rate soared as he shifted uncomfortably. This had seemed like the right thing to do when he realized Adams was following them to Hawaii, and saw she wasn’t going to engage. Now that he had to actually say it, his courage wavered. But he soldiered on.

“You don’t know me, Captain.” He admitted, reviewing what he had planned to say before beginning. “But I know a little about you. The Captain Atom of my world didn’t keep a secret identity; all of this stuff came out but it was before I was born. That’s why I was so dead set on Eiling being the bad guy; in my world, he was.” He lied. 

There was a hard look in Adams’ eyes as he said the last part. 

“But that’s not the point I wanted to make. I don’t have the right to tell you what to do about your family, and I’m sorry if I’ve offended you with my presumption. But I lost my family, in my old world.” He confessed, voice growing hoarse before he continued. “More like, they lost me. Same difference. I don’t think… I’m ever going to see them again. But I think about them every day. The thing I wish for constantly, and I keep trying to brainstorm, is some way to reach them. To let them know that I made it, that I’m okay. That they don’t have to grieve for me. Even if I can never go back, knowing they think I’m just dead is the worst feeling in the world. Because I know I’m not, and that I’m actually doing great. I’m doing important things, living the dream. I want them to know I made it through.” He said bittersweetly, tears stinging his eyes as he rambled on.

Adams was silent as he poured out his feelings, and he felt a stab of shame that he was making this about himself. He took a shuddering breath, and calmed himself.

“What I’m trying to say is… you should tell them. Your husband is gone, but they’re still here. Now they know you were innocent, and they’ll be hurting. Peggy… thought badly of you. I’m sure she’s gonna have a lot of complicated feelings about you. Randy believed your husband; he never believed you did it.” He said, relaying the personal parts of the interview Kaldura and Apollo had heard that hadn’t made it into their presentation.

The team had been going to include it as background, but Connor had insisted they excise it. Adams didn’t need to hear that her daughter had been convinced she was a murderer and a traitor, not from the team ignorantly reporting it to Captain Atom’s face. He could spare her that, so he did.

“Its not that easy, Connor. It would be a mess. They have lives of their own, ones I wasn’t around for. They don’t need me upsetting the apple cart to make myself feel better.” Adams said stoically, and he looked into her eyes. They were far away.

“I know, it’ll be messy, Captain. Nat.” He switched codes, trying to reach her. 

I forget that she’s from a different time. And another world. Tough military women don’t talk about their feelings. But that’s not right; this isn’t just an opposite world. She’s a lot more emotionally open than male Captain Atom would be.

“But you’re inflicting more pain on yourself this way. You know the truth, and you could tell them. You could build… something with them. My parents divorced, and I didn’t know my step-mom very well, but we still had a relationship.”

Not for long…

“There can be a place for you in their lives. You’re a good person, Nat. A hero. You didn’t deserve any of what happened to you. You deserve to be in their lives.”  

Then he saw the chink in her armor as she dropped her head a fraction of an inch. 

She took all that guilt onto herself; she thinks because she let herself get caught in the trap and the project, she failed them. That she doesn’t deserve another chance now.

He knew what to say.

“Its not your fault, Nat. You were betrayed by the people you thought you could trust. It cost you so much. But Peggy and Randy are going to wish now that they could have known you. Peggy is gonna regret blaming you. If they think you’re dead, they can never fix that. But you’re not dead, so they can. You can start over again. They can know that you made it through, that you made it back to them. You can relieve them of that burden.”

Captain Natalie Adams was silent for a long time, her head down. 

Then she nodded.

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