Supermartian One-Shots

The Greatest Christmas Present of All

"More streamers over there! Less glitter over there! Put the snacks right on that table!" M'gann strode all around the room, instructing her teammates as they decorated the TV room. She was in overdrive. In only two days, the Team would host it's annual Christmas Eve party, complete with games, refreshments, and, of course, plenty of guests.

The party was the one day out of the whole year when all the members of the Team, both past and present, gathered in the Cave all at once to celebrate and be together. M'gann was excited. Now that Wally and Artemis were living normal lives, and Zatanna and Rocket worked for the Justice League, she hardly ever got to hang out with them. She couldn't wait to see them at the party, catch up with them, have fun with them, just like old times.

She looked around, and noticed that a certain teammate and ex-boyfriend of hers wasn't helping set up for the party. Moaning, she got Mal's attention. "Mal, can you go get Conner here? We need his strength to reposition some furniture." "Sure, Miss M.", he said as he walked down the hall towards Superboy's bedroom.

He came in.  "Hey, Kon, Megan says we need you for—"  Then, he saw that Conner was taking all his clothes and folding them neatly in his suitcase.  "What are you packing for?"  "Mama and Papa invited me and the whole family to spend Zamohania with them on Krypton!", Conner told him.  "Mama" and "Papa" were their names for Jor and Lara, who had recently been discovered to be alive after all these years.  "What's Zamohania?", Mal asked.

"Its a special Kryptonian holiday that occurs around this time of year.", Conner explained.  "It lasts ten whole nights, and is the most important holiday on Krypton.  It has a special candelabra, one for each night of the holiday.  Every night, you light an extra candle than the last night, like on the first day, you light one candle, and on the second you light two, and so on and so on.  Then you gather around the sacred olive tree and exchange gifts, play games, and do a special prayer.  Its like Christmas and Hanukkah all rolled into one!"  Mal grinned.  "Sounds like fun!  When does it start?"  "Oh, I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning."

Mal's heart sank.  "Tomorrow?  But...But that's the beginning of the holiday break!"  "Yeah, I know.  So?"  "So, that thing lasts ten days.", Mal said.  "If you go tomorrow, you'll be gone the entire break!  You'll miss Christmas, you'll miss New Year's, you'll miss everything!"  Conner shrugged his shoulders as he folded his shirts.  "Oh, its okay.  I didn't have many plans for the break anyway."

"What about the Team's Christmas Eve party?!", Mal cried.  "Its the day after tomorrow!"  Conner looked up.  "Oh, man...I forgot about the party."  Mal sighed with relief, only to hear Conner say, "Oh, well.  Guess I'll just have to miss it this year."

"Miss it?!"  Mal was in shock.  "You can't miss it!"  Just then, M'gann walked in with Garfield, Karen, Nightwing.  "What's taking so long in here?"  Conner caught M'gann's attention.  "Bad news, guys.", he said, closing his suitcase.  "I'm not gonna make it to the party this year.  I've got other plans."  M'gann dropped the clipboard she was holding.  "Other plans?!", she sputtered.  "Like what?"

"The Supers are spending the holidays on Krypton this year.", Conner told them.  "We're going to celebrate Zamohania.  Papa says its a really important Kryptonian holiday."  "How long will you be gone?", Karen asked.  "Oh, about two weeks."  "Two weeks?!  You'll be gone the whole winter break!  Won't you miss it here on Earth?"  "Oh, yeah...spending the next few days after Christmas alone in the Cave with a bottle of Scotch while the rest of you are visiting family and friends.", Conner said sarcastically.  "Boy, sure gonna miss that."

"But the party!", Dick reminded him.  "Having everyone there, its so important to the Team!"  "Well, having everyone there for the first night of Zamohania is important to my grandparents!", Conner exclaimed.  "Its their first holiday with their long-lost family, and they want us all to be there on day one!"  "Can't you just tell Jor and Lara that they'll have to wait a couple days?", Garfield pleaded.