Mount Justice

July 21st , 08:15 EDT

I trained teleporting and cloaking the entire night after the rest of the team decided to turn in and leave me with the hard light projector. The computer had been very helpful in helping me refine the light-redirection technique, making sure that I appeared as cloaked as possible from every angle. The annoying part of this was that keeping the technique up made it very difficult for me to do anything else with my cursed energy. But at least I could be invisible whenever I wanted.

As for teleportation…

I could appear anywhere I could sense with my Six Eyes. That meant everywhere in Happy Harbor without problem. I was pretty sure there were ways to even bring people along with me as well. Not that I had figured any of it out yet, but I would soon!

I'd make a joke out of this whole hero thing when the time came.

I took a quick trip to Tokyo at eight AM my time, which was ten in the evening in the homeland. I had a powerful rice bowl with meat in a nice place in Shibuya, and then grabbed a few confectioneries—mocha, pastries and coffee jelly—for later use, or distribution.

When I beamed back through the Zeta Tube with the food, I realized… who was I supposed to give this to?

The team?

The thought sickened me a little actually. A little more than I felt was dignified. Why? They meant nothing to me. Throwing them a little food now and then felt like a perfectly neutral thing to do. It's what you did with unruly kids who always seemed to wear sour faces. And to be honest, that sourness annoyed me quite a bit. They had nothing to despair about.

They just had it too damn easy.

They hadn't… gotten to me, had they? Hah, no. I just had my patience, like all humans did. And I could only spend so much time around whiny babies like Kid Flash before needing a break, or ten cigarettes smoked at once. Whatever people who took care of misbehaved brats needed to cope, really.

I tried not to think about it much as I went to the kitchen—and saw Megan-chan slaving over a bowl of batter, stirring it with a wooden spoon. "Ah, Sa-chan!" She said, turning to me with a smile. She was wearing a cute apron stained with flour.

"Megan-chan, I didn't see you yesterday," I grinned, playing along with the honorifics. "Making more cookies?" I asked, looking at her bowl.

"Yeah, the last ones were a little too overcooked I think. They were meant to have a softer and chewier interior, and a crisp exterior, but instead, it was all crisp and crumbly."

"Oh yeah, definitely," I said with a grin, putting my bags on the counter, "If I hadn't been there, you would have burned them into charcoal briquettes!" I laughed.

"Oh," she grinned bashfully. "I'm not very good with Earth cooking."

I chuckled, "Me neither. That's why I use the Zeta Tube to eat outside. I even brought some stuff back. Have you ever tried mochi before?"

"Mochi?" she asked, curiously, "No, what's that?"

I brought out the fancy plastic box of mochi balls, twelve in number, in a grid of three and four. "It's a dessert made out of rice!" I ripped the seal on the box and lifted the lid in front of her, "Looks good, doesn't it?"

She smiled and her eyes glimmered, "They're so pretty! They have so many colors! Can I have one?"

"Of course!" I said, "We can share if you want," I said.

She took the green one, "Are they all different flavors?"

"Yep," I said, "That one is green tea flavored. Try it."

She did, taking a bite. Her brows furrowed as she experienced the foreign flavor. She nodded, "Interesting," she said, taking another bite.

"What do they eat in Mars?"

She finished her bite, thoughtfully chewing as if processing the taste, and then replied, "Well, not… this," she laughed, glancing down at the rest of the colorful mochi with renewed interest. "Most of what we eat on Mars isn't as colorful or sweet. Food on my planet is more about practicality — nutrients we can absorb quickly, energy-efficient foods."

"So, no Martian desserts?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, surprised.

"Well… we have something similar, but it's not like this. It's called 'kam'ros', a kind of paste that comes in different flavors depending on the season. But it's usually… more bitter," she admitted, giving the mochi another curious look. "I think our bodies evolved to prefer it. But I kind of like this sweet, chewy texture. It's like nothing I've tried before."

"You should try the strawberry one next, the pink one," I suggested, nudging the box toward her. "We've got plenty."

She picked up the pink mochi and took a tentative bite, her expression lighting up with delight this time. "Oh! This one's much sweeter. I think I like this one best so far."

I chuckled, enjoying her reactions. "Well, I can't guarantee Earth food is always this fun, but there are a lot of interesting things to try. Next time, we'll have to get you a donut or maybe a slice of pizza."

"Pizza?" she repeated, tilting her head in eagerness. "I think I'd like that. Do all Earth foods have flavors as strong as these?"

I laughed, "Not all, but the good ones do. Oh, actually!" I put the lid back on the mochi box, "You can take more later of course, but I want you to save the room in your stomach for something that won't stay good for very long," I put the mochi box back in the bag and retrieved the plastic and paper box that had a pair of large croissants in them. "I bought all of this in Tokyo, but this is actually a recipe originally from France. It's called a—"

"Croissant!" She said, wide-eyed, "I've heard of these! They're supposed to be really good, right?"

I grinned at that. It was fun seeing her light up at Earth foods so much. Made me feel more grateful for humanity, in a way. They were a loathsome bunch in general, but they did come up with good ideas. "Why don't we go to France sometime and try out some original croissants? We have the Zeta Tubes, right?"

"Sounds like an awesome idea!" she said, taking the croissant and slowly bringing it closer to her mouth. She bit it and chewed it with purpose. "Hmmm, flaky, and fatty. Interesting!" I wish I could maintain such a level of respect for foreign foods, but I had a feeling that if I tried Martian food, I would probably need to take a trip to the hospital. "It is really good! Way better than bread, that's for sure. And even bread is so good, so that's really saying something."

"Hahah! I've never heard anyone appreciate bread so much," I laughed. "It's a very normal food here."

"You said you don't know how to cook, right?" Megan asked me. "Why don't we learn how to do it together? Seems like it would be fun, right?"

Sounded like a drag, to be honest.

And usually, I would have told her this. I couldn't quite say why, but I still felt like taking her up on that offer, pointless as it was to learn how to do something that you could just pay someone to do for you.

Then I remembered my plan to mess with Kid Flash, who clearly had the hots for Megan. Yeah. Why not?

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I was doing this to mess with Kid Flash. That made sense.

"Sure," I said with a grin, "I'll look out for some cooking books. Why don't we try Italian, first?"

"Like, spaghetti and meatballs?" she asked.

I nodded, "And pizza and lasagna," actually, the more I considered this, the more fun it sounded, irrespective of how much it would piss Kid Flash off.

"Sounds awesome!" she said, "But first thing's first, I need to get these cookies done according to this recipe," she said, looking over at the counter next to the bowl, where a paper stained with batter sat.

After we finished our croissants, I put away the coffee jelly and the mochi into the fridge, throwing away the paper bags and helping Megan out as needed.

It took an annoyingly long time to get everything done, and once we did, we still had to wait ten to fifteen minutes to bake the cookies at a specific temperature. How was anyone supposed to remember all this drivel? Cooking was annoyingly complex.

While we waited, Megan asked me a question, "Why did you make the team decide to hate you?"

I chuckled. "So that they could be a team united by a single purpose, of course."

"Was it really worth it?" she asked me.

I shrugged, "I don't care what they think of me."

"Why not?" she asked me, eyebrow raised.

"Because they're weak," I said with a disgusted expression.

"Oh," she said, sounding a little disappointed. "Did you mean for me to hate you, too?"

I clenched my jaws and gave a strained smile, "Why are you asking so many questions?"

She shrugged, "I'm just curious is all."

"Well, it's different with you," I said, "You're not weak. You broke my bones the other day," I grinned.

"That was an accident. I'm sorry."

"Even better. No one accidentally breaks my bones. That just means you're really that strong. And that's cool!"

She grinned unsurely, "I don't know about that, but thank you." Then her grin dropped, "You should probably not treat the team badly. They're not weak like you think. We're all trying our hardest to be good heroes, you know."

I rolled my eyes at the lecture, "Yeah, yeah. So I keep hearing."

"It's the truth."

I sighed, "I know. Whatever."

She paused for a moment before asking something, "Can I ask you a sensitive question?"

"Sure," I said, "Go ahead."

"How did you get hurt so badly? When you first arrived here?"

I sighed and told her a shortened version of the story, giving some context about my home world as I did.

"He didn't manage to beat me, though," I said, "I still survived. And if I didn't appear here, I would have killed him already. He would not have stood a chance against me a second time."

And I would have tortured him if he had killed Suguru.

I winced at the thought of him. No. No Suguru thoughts, or I would just go crazy with worry. I hated the feeling more than anything else in the world.

"How awful," she muttered, "I'm sorry, Sa-chan."

"It can't be helped," I said with a shrug. "I just need to get stronger and then I can return to my world on my own."

"I wish you good luck on that," she said, smiling brilliantly. I grinned back at her.

"You're the kindest Martian I know," I said with a chuckle, giving her a head pat.

"Uh," she said, looking up at my hand unsurely as I ruffled her red hair. "Is this a kind gesture from your world?"

I debated on honesty for half a second before tossing that idea out. This was so much funnier. I pulled back my hand and looked at her unsurely. "Ah, sorry. Yes, it's something you do to someone who was kind to you. Was it inappropriate?"

"Oh! No, not at all!" she said. "Please, go ahead, if it makes you feel better."

Yes! I patted her head a few more times and gave her hair one last vigorous and enthusiastic ruffle before pulling my hand back and beholding my work of completely messing up her hair. She looked hilarious. She straightened her hair without complaining at all, still smiling.

I had to fight tooth and nail to not burst out laughing.

"Am I supposed to do it back to you?" she asked, "Because you were kind to me today as well."

Kind? When?

Ah well. The cave had cameras, didn't they? Might be fun to save the footage and accidentally show it to Kid Flash at some point. I bowed my head to her level, "Go ahead," I said, releasing Infinity, "Don't crush my skull, please."

"I won't, I promise," she said as she ruffled my hair.

That felt weird. I hadn't been touched like this in… forever, really.

Made me feel like a little kid. I always hated head pats, come to think of it. The only people that ever did it was those old weirdos in the clan who thought they had a say in my life. And the Jujutsu Councilmen trying to gain influence over me by appealing to me directly. Weirdos, the lot of them.

No one ever patted my head without a greater plan to take advantage of me besides.

This simplicity was… refreshing.

My phone's alarm—a high tech thing that was all screen and touchpad—rang, and Megan quickly pulled her hand back from my head as I stood straight myself, jolted by the sudden sound.

"The cookies," she said as she turned and used her telekinesis to open the oven and pull the hot tray out, putting it on top of the glass stovetop. "You can have some, Sa-chan, but careful, they're hot!"

An alien babe making me cookies… my life was complete.

Because of all the food I had eaten already, I could only have one cookie without getting a stomach-ache. Megan ate a few more, but stored the rest in a jar for later distribution.

"How were they?" Megan asked.

"Chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside," I said, giving her two thumbs up, "I give it an S grade!"

"S grade?"

"Top grade," I said. "Highest marks!"

"Oh, wow! Thank you!"

"Maybe a bit of salt next time," I said.

"Salt?" she asked, "But this is supposed to be sweet."

I shrugged, "I don't know, maybe not." They did taste a little flat. Salt was supposed to fix that, but then again, what did I know? "Let's wait until I find that cooking book, okay?"

"Sure," she said with a grin, "Thanks for helping out, Sa-chan. It was really nice. And don't worry about the others, okay? I'll make sure they don't give you a hard time."

"No," I said quickly, then shook my head, "Don't worry about me, seriously." If she did, they'd just lump her in with me, and she didn't need to be on the receiving end of Superboy's childish anger. "I can handle myself."

"Why—?"

Before she could complete that sentence, I warped out of the conversation, into my room. I felt slightly dizzy when I came out the other side, but I was beginning to get the hang of this.

Unfortunately, my Cursed Energy was beginning to run low after five consecutive days of usage. Not enough that I needed to sleep, sure, but definitely to the point that I felt like I could use a bit of a break. Maybe some meditation would help?