Adjustment Period [open]

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

The first thing he'd insisted on them fixing was the clone brand, but the surgery to fix his arm had come first, to allow all the tissue to heal right. His tendency towards fast healing was taking care of the rest. Then they got rid of the stupid clone brand after.

His hand was gone.

It was still a thought he had to get used to. One second it'd been there and now it was gone. It hadn't even been all the dramatic, like things like that were in the movies. It wasn't some moment over a gaping pit, with a villain chopping off his hand and revealing he was his father. He didn't have to saw it off to escape from some deadly trap, horror movie style.

There'd been a fight, he'd fallen on the teleporter pad, there'd been a bright light in front of his face and that was it. Apparently, it could happen just that easily.

Then again, it wasn't the first time he'd lost a hand--that same hand, in fact--but after healing for a thousand years under the North Pole, all the damage from the fight that had killed him had disappeared, and the thing had apparently regrown. So losing limbs wasn't exactly something he never expected would happen, when it already happened once. This time, he was fairly sure it wasn't going to grow back, though.

Ultimately, he decided that was okay. He was a little freaked out about it, but he'd cope. You rolled with the punches, right?

Sometimes you have to roll with the accidental amputations, too.

It was war. This stuff happened, it was going to keep happening, and at least it hadn't been his head.

It was war, and people got hurt in wars, just like you made decisions you weren't sure were the right ones. Just like his decision to let Moses free all the clones was one that was weighing on his mind. (He was just WAITING to hear from Leon on that one).

Superboy sat upright on his bed in Medbay, arm bandaged and in a sling, and played Tetris on his omnicom one-handed. Hopefully, they'd let him out of Medbay soon, and then...then he'd figure out the rest.

Comments

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"He probably would, which is why I try to follow orders. But I trust him to give me the kinds of ones I can live with at the end of the day. He put 'Wing in charge, didn't he? And 'Wing called the best shots he could've."

He shrugged.

"As for the rest, we'll see. I dunno. Maybe if we all get thrown together into enough of these things, we'll find some happy medium, some kinda balance."

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I noticed that." She had to hold back, of course, fangasming, considering it was Robin, Batman's first sidekick, turned into awesome Nightwing. But there was always the thing about saying too much. "He knew what he was doing, even if the mission sort of fell into chaos with everyone involved. I didn't even get to see what happened in the major battle, only it had something to do with a bunch of clones of our own attacking each other."

She snorted. "I'm not holding my breath, but I'm sure you figured that out already. It always get complicated once yoiu involve people with questionable moral fiber."

Herself included actually.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"We can all start by just trying to be the best people we can while doing this."

His mouth pressed into a line.

"That said, I'm sorry for how I talked to you. I was pissed off at everything going down, and you were flipping your lip like I did when I dumb and younger and there's nothing worse than being confronted with something that reminds you of your own stupidity...but that's no excuse for taking it out on you and talking to you like you were an idiot. Even if I thought what you were saying was dumb, I had no right to talk down to you. So I'm sorry for that."

Never let it be said that he wasn't able to man up and own up to his own mistakes.

"What I was thinking then and didn't know how to say: it's just...not cool to laugh off or mock stuff where people are getting treated like crap. And I'm still going to stand by what I said: there is absolutely no comparison between being treated like a kid and being told you're government property and that you'll be 'decommissioned' if you're 'defective.' You don't have the same context, the growing up in a test tube, the clone angst, wondering if you're even a person at all."

He went on, "I know you have to be tough. You're in the same line of work as me, and for people with no powers--I know it's practically a war zone. But being tough isn't the same as not giving a crap about injustice. Even if we had to keep it cool, a real hero would at least understand why we were flipping about the rights thing, about being treated like things. Even if you thought we had to do things a certain way and get over it for the mission, you could have respected us as people."

That was what he'd wanted to say, and he managed it much more nicely this time.

"Being the pragmatic girl in the room? Hell, we might need that sometimes, even I can admit that. But in the end, if you don't care about all that stuff like rights, about people who get screwed over, at least enough to give people some understanding as to why they'd be pissed off about something--if you'd go so far as to mock them having problems with it--what are you even fighting for?"

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

He talked a LOT, that was for sure But by now she could see there was a reason for it: even during the argument, she could see that eh was just as willing to go all out on someone if it was something he believed in. Being that it was Kon, she expected nothing less.

"Believe me, I could see, even though I was being vaguely mocking, where you coming from. If you didn't give a shit, you wouldn't have reacted how you did. I treated things as I saw it how I treat most things: healthy dose of cynicism. Specifically, I was doing that because I didn't see what could be gained by sticking our necks out for people we didn't know. Where I'm from, being the kind of hero that cares about every injustice, and believe me, some tried, gets you closer to the grave, and not in a nice way. To me, those heroics, its the kind of stuff you HAVE to save for supers like you, because you can do it. Call it being disenfranchised from reading too much Watchmen. You try to help people, you get killed for it and nobody cares. You become another statistic, maybe talked well about by pussies who still wouldn't do anything about their situation, and that's as far as it goes. I believed like you did once, or tried to anyway. I wanted to have someone help us take down our enemy. I was almost killed for that, and though I missed death, someone I knew didn't. You could say it kinda soured me to the whole 'good for goodness sake' kinda thing."

She licked her lips. She was getting dangerously close to things she didn't like thinking about.

"So yeah, I thought it was stupid to get involved in a planet with unforeseen consequences, specifically something that could have some pretty chaotic results. Didn't mean I didn't think they got a raw end of the deal, it just meant the more we suck our neck out, the less we could stop an unnecessary death on OUR side. But as you know, the government showed exactly how fucked up they were, and treated you guys like shit. Made me think I almost lost someone I care about. So I learned something there: not to turn my back on a faction that could easily turn the tables on you. You were right: treating the clones like shit, YOU guys like shit, meant turning our backs on a threat just as bad as the Ohm. The guy who trained me would have been ashamed at that, even if I did it because of what wound up happening to him."

She rubbed her head a moment. "In the end, you were right, and you had the balls to stand up enough for it that you don't have a hand anymore. Pity? Shit man, you don't get pity for something like that: that earns respect, from someone who wanted to do the right thing and had that lesson distorted somewhere down the line."

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"Thanks."

Kon smiled at her.

"And you know what? You may be jaded, but the way you talk, a part of you still believes in things. Don't let that die, okay? No matter what you see. No matter who you lose. That part's important. Sometimes, we can't always listen to that part of ourselves that believes in something bigger, just because life's rotten on occasion and it'll kick our teeth in if we do. But it's still important that it's there. I may be invulnerable, but it doesn't mean I haven't been kicked in the face now and again, like really kicked in the face--and that part saved me. Probably saved me from myself, to be honest."

Clearing his throat slightly, he moved on. That was getting dangerously close to something he didn't like thinking about.

"Anyway, you got some brass balls yourself. Even if I think you're a little too young for all this, you seem like you're a fighter, like you roll with the punches, and it...well, it kinda reminds me of me. If you ever need someone to watch your back, I might have my frowny face on because of your methods, but I'll be there--and maybe I can make it easier for you to not have to shank anybody, you know? The teamwork thing's good for making it easier to get out alive."

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl snorted. "Yeah well, I started life out getting the short end of the stick, so yeah, I guess its fair to say I'm a little jaded. But that doesn't bother me. We all have to deal with our own experiences that make up stronger, right? And I'm not going to let that die, don't worry about that. It's like I told you before: if I feel like I'm responsible for anything or anyone, its these people on the ship, since we're the ones that have to take down the big bad at the end. But I'll see things through, no matter what happens to people I care about."

Which was a tough thing for her to say, considering the people she cared about dying would definitely have an impact on her. But she'd seen things through even when her dad had died, and had gotten far enough into D'Amico's stronghold to take him on herself, hadn't she? She had to see winning this Ohm war through or die trying.

"Man, if I were going to say all the stuff I did to you, I'd have to have brass balls. To wear this suit, I have to. You aren't the first to not like me killing bastards, and chances are, you won't be the last. But as you probably figured out, killing guys is why I'm still here, and probably why Stacy chose me. I'm getting stronger, so its easier not to leave a buncha limbs lying around, but its more effective than giving my enemy a chance to get me when my back is turned. If you think you can spot me when that happens? Who am I to say no?"

And it went without saying that she would have his back too: he WAS Superboy, and its not like she wanted him losing another hand.