Young Justice: Salem
July 28th, 2010
We made for a rather odd group as we walked from the nearby Zeta tube to the field where the Tower of Fate was hidden. Red Tornado was walking at the front of the group, his limbs making soft whining sounds as he walked. Behind him followed Megan and Aqualad. The green-skinned mind reader had done something that resulted in her clothing shifting into a costume reminiscent of a number of superheroes I’d seen pictures of online. Her skirt had turned blue, her jacket had extended out into a cape, and instead of sneakers she now wore ankle-high boots and long gloves.
At the back of the group walked Zatanna and I, both dressed in muggle clothing. Well, we mostly walked at the back at least. Aqualad didn’t seem to like having us behind him and so the four of us were kind in an awkward, shifting clump trailing after Red Tornado.
We spent the first part of the trip in silence. I spent the time studying Aqualad and Miss Martian, trying to get a feeling for the duo. Despite our rather heated introductions to one another, the two were both potentially useful people to know. They were closely connected to active members of the Justice League and had some level of personal power as well.
Of the two, Aqualad was by far the one with whom I wished to leave a good impression. I was very interested in visiting Atlantis, and, despite Kent’s assistance in that direction, I had no doubts that someone with the ear of the King could greatly delay or fully prevent me getting permission to visit. Kent clearly had some amount of influence and renown, but even a steller repudiation had its limits.
I had far more mixed feelings about Miss Martian. The green skinned girl had tried to invade my mind and had likely managed to get at least something from Zatanna before I reminded her to get her defenses up. That was some very powerful and very dangerous magic and I got the feeling that she considered doing so to be perfectly natural. There was no telling what or how much she’d seen, nor how much control she had over the people around her.
I was not one to forget such an attack, no matter how she tried to excuse her actions. She could use her abilities on witless muggles and her own kind as much as she’d like, but touching the minds of Zatanna and I was not something I could tolerate. If she tried to do it again, I’d make sure she regretted it with far more than just the light tap I’d given her in the cave. I was not much of a legilimens, but I’d already found that using mana to power spells could go a long way towards compensating for a lack of skill. And if that didn’t work, well, there was a reason that most books on occlumency also advised the reader to study proper offensive magic as well.
Still, to her credit, I had not felt another attack against my shields since I’d warned her away. I was pretty sure that had more to do with my counterattack than any actual reticence to peer into my mind, but fear and pain were both valuable teachers at times.
Still, despite all that, I was still rather interested in speaking with the girl. For one, I had a feeling that making amends with her would go a long way towards integrating myself with Aqualad. He’d only responded when she’d flinched away from my aggressive defenses, and I hadn’t failed to notice the way he made sure to keep himself between Zatanna and I and Megan. It would be pointless to try and speak with him without first speaking with Megan.
Furthermore, she was apparently an alien. A real life creature from another planet. The mere idea of such a thing was both shocking and wondrous. Was there life on the other planets in my home plane? Wizards had never seen any signs of such a thing, but if it had happened here, then perhaps there were Martians back home as well.
While I was certain many magizoologist would be thrilled to learn about how such creatures lived, I was far more interested in their magic. Her version of legilimency did not require eye contact and had felt very different from the attacks of my teachers. It was still recognizable as a mental attack, but it clearly functioned on a slightly different axis than I was accustomed to. That was how she’d simply brushed my outer shields aside with seemingly no effort––they simply were not designed to defend from an attacker at that ‘angle’.
Furthermore, she was both flying and had demonstrated nonverbal telekinesis. Both were very useful skills that I would love to learn to replicate. I could scarcely imagine the sorts of magical skills I could learn from a people that dwelt beyond the bounds of Earth.
After her attack on my person, I had absolutely no compunctions against plundering her secrets. With any luck, she would prove vulnerable to the Black charm. Otherwise, perhaps I might have to find an opportunity to make use of the other sort of Black charms. The sort you had to practice on muggles the first few times just in case to avoid causing any permanent damage to the mind of another wizard.
“So Miss Martian,” I began, combing my hair back with my fingers, “I’m afraid we started off on the wrong foot. I apologize for any harm I may have inadvertently caused you––I fear I was trained to react harshly to mental intrusions and did not respond in time to withdraw certain automatic protections.”
I made sure to keep my outer thoughts smooth and even, and filled my voice with as much genuine-sounding emotion as I could. There was a certain art to lying to a legilimens or under the effect of certain mind-altering charms. Even if she wasn’t actively attacking my mind, it was possible that she was watching it from outside my defenses and I wanted to avoid giving any sign that I was being anything but utterly truthful in my remorse.
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She turned in mid air, continuing to fly after Red Tornado, but now at an angle. She looked slightly flustered as she responded. “Oh, it’s alright! I was not injured, just a little startled. I did not expect to encounter another telepath on Earth other than my uncle, and I have never felt fire like that in my mind.”
“You mean the Martian Manhunter, yes? I hadn’t realized he had any relatives here. Does that mean you’re also from Mars?”
She nodded excitedly. “Yes, and it is because I have not been here long. I only arrived on earth a few weeks ago. It is very different from back home, but I like it here. Everyone has been very friendly!” Her smile faded slightly and she looked down at the ground. “I am sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you. I was so excited to feel a mind that could see me back that I did not consider what I was doing. It is sad that you must do such things to your own mind.”
She was pretty clearly just as not-sorry for what had happened as I was. She wasn’t upset that what she’d done had made me react, but just that she’d been caught doing it. Still, I could work with what she was saying.
“Oh?” I asked curiously. “So people on Mars don’t shield their minds like I’m doing?”
“No, no, definitely not. We are all connected. Families especially. And definitely not with fire.” She shuddered slightly and I made a mental note to look into that. Did Martians perhaps have some form of aversion to fire?
“Fascinating,” I said honestly. “That is very impressive. Back home, the mind arts are not a common field of study and it took me many years to reach my current level of mind-magic, but it sounds like everyone on Mars is able to use such spells to an impressive extent.”
“Oh, no! Hello Megan, no, that is not it at all. I did not realize you were a sorcerer! Only the sorcerer-priests study magic. What I do is just something Martians do, like how humans can run and swim and talk. We can use telekinesis to fly, shapeshift, and communicate telepathically!”
My hopes fell like a rock down a well. “Oh. So your…telepathy. Every Martian can do that?”
“Yes!”
The majority of my interest in the green skinned girl vanished in an instant. She wasn’t a witch, just a particularly versatile magical creature. Well, probably a being, since it sounded like some martians could be proper wizards. The natural abilities of a metamorphmagus, a wampus cat, and some form of wandless magic that could allow them to fly. It was a potent combination of abilities.
Unfortunately, just like the magic of veela, goblins, and other beings, it was probably completely useless to me. As a Planeswalker I could theoretically learn any sort of magic, but this was something she’d been born with, not something I could learn. Perhaps I may be able to imitate some of what she was doing, but that was an entirely different story. How very irritating.
I did my best not to let my disappointment show in my face, voice, or thoughts. “Fascinating. I can scarcely imagine a culture where such gifts are so common. And you said you were a shapeshifter as well?”
Miss Martian silently grew a second set of arms under her first and I raised an eyebrow. “Very impressive. My family once possessed a similar ability, but unfortunately it has not appeared for several generations. Metamorphmagi, we call them. Wizards and witches who can freely change their form without a need for spells or potions.”
“Oh? That is very sad. I could not imagine being unable to shapeshift. It would have been wonderful to meet a human who could do so.”
Well, there was still the tangential benefit of raising Aqualad’s perception of me. He was paying keen attention to our conversation and had relaxed slightly over the past minutes as we were talking. “I mean, I’m not a metamorphmagus, but I’m a dab hand at transfiguration. I don’t think I can pull off that arm trick on a whim, but maybe…”
I drew my wand and focused. I didn’t want to go particularly far, but you really had to know what you were doing when it came to human transfiguration. I spun my wand in a tight circle, then tapped myself on the arm. Between one moment and the next, my skin turned green, my hair turned red, and a smattering of freckles appeared on my face.
I spread my arms out on either side of me and turned to Miss Martian. “How do I look? I do believe we could pass as siblings now, though I’m afraid the flying trick would take a few more spells to manage.”
Miss Martian grinned and clapped her hands together excitedly. “Hello Megan, of course a real sorcerer can shapeshift, even a non-martian one!”
Zatanna snatched my wrist and turned my hand over, staring with interest at my green skin. “This isn’t an illusion or anything,” she said in surprise.
“Of course not, that would be too easy. Human transfiguration is hard, but very doable with practice. Where do you think the stories of witches turning people into newts come from?” Actually, that was one of those things I was becoming less sure about. Transfiguration didn’t seem nearly as common here as it was back home, and yet there were just as many stories of wizards and witches turning people into animals.
I let Zatanna and Miss Martian stare at me for several seconds, then tapped my wrist again and transformed back into my usual coloration.
“Awe,” Miss Martian said sadly.
I smiled tightly. “Perhaps we can speak more on the topic another time.” Or hopefully we wouldn’t. I didn’t much like the idea of spending a lot of time around a mind reader whose abilities I didn’t fully understand. “For now, well, we’re here.”
“Indeed,” Red Tornado said flatly. He reached into a hidden compartment and withdrew a large, ornate golden key. Then he took a step forward, inserted it into thin air, and turned the key. There was an echoing hum of potent magic that washed over my skin and prickled at my ears, and suddenly the tower reappeared in all its majesty.