"Guess what?" I asked Rick over the phone. I had called a bunch of people telling them about the job. After a few minutes of contemplation I finally scrounged up the courage to call Rick.
"What?" He asked sounding tired. He hadn't left Mount Justice since Habitum had infiltrated it.
"I got the job as Maxwell Lord's assistant!" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Really? That's great Chris." He stated not sounding excited at all.
"You sound tired. Get some rest."
"I can't. Mount Justice is still a mess and Larcener, Blue Beetle, and Robin need a lecture on their disappearances." I shook my head, but didn't say anything.
"Well, goodbye Rick." I said after a moment of silence. I had told him my news and that's all I had to say.
"Yeah, see y-"
"No! No, how could I miss that!" I heard Bruce yell in the background cutting off Rick. A string of curse words followed and I could tell Rick was covering the receiver. I could barely hear their muffled conversation.
Rick removed his hand from the receiver and said to me, "You might want to get down here."
***
"Supergirl B12." The zeta tube said as I stepped out.
"What's going on?" I asked walking towards the group huddled around Bruce.
"I-I made a terrible mistake." Bruce replied sighing. "I dropped the talonium when Habitum escaped. And with all the debris I couldn't find it. I hoped that once we got everything under control I could find it. But I can't. He must've taken it. I don't know how or when, but he took it."
It took me awhile to process the information, but once I could speak I screeched, "What? How could you do that?"
"Chris, look he didn't mean to. Like he said, it was a mistake." Rick said defending Bruce.
"Of course you're on his side." I said glaring at him. "Now Habitum is one step closer to completing the bomb and we have no other leads. Tell me I'm wrong. Please."
Bruce sighed and I knew that was his way of saying "Nope, you're right." He might as well have said, "Nice knowin' ya!" Either way it felt the same. Like a punch in the gut.
"I'm sorry Chris. We'll figure something out." Bruce said walking away. I turned and walked the opposite direction. As I walked towards down a hallway I ran into Mark.
"Whoa, where are you goin' in such a hurry?" Mark asked chuckling.
"Where have you been?" I asked accusingly.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Habitum was here, in Mount Justice, and you were just taking some time off. Superheroes don't take time off! And now we lost the talonium and Habitum."
"You think I just took some days to myself?" He asked looking hurt. When I didn't answer he continued. "Bruce and Clark took me off the street when I got recruited. I didn't have enough money to pay for a house and my sister's medical bills. So I had to do whatever I could. Bruce said that if I joined your team he would help me pay. Last week she got worse. The doctors thought she was gonna die. They were thinking of euthanasia. She kept begging them to, but I thought I had convinced her not to. If I hadn't visited her last week she wouldn't be alive." I was rendered speechless. I was shocked. Like Mary Jane found out Peter was Spiderman shocked.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." Mark nodded pursing his lips.
"Yeah, you shouldn't have." I could tell I had just made it worse accusing him. Mark walked away and I sighed shaking my head.
"Does she know what you're doing?"
"What?" He asked stopping. He was still facing away from me.
"Does she know you're part of this team and that you're sacrificing your life to save hers?
"No, I didn't want her giving anything away. I haven't told anyone." He replied looking back at me.
"You should tell her. Let her know that you're really doing everything you can to help her. It might change her mind."
"She's in so much pain Chris." He muttered looking at the ground. "I don't want her to have to worry about me. She doesn't need that when she's already dealing with so much."
"You never know. It could make her feel better. I could come with you." I offered walking towards Mark. He let a small smile slip on to his face.
"Katherine doesn't like guests. Especially people she doesn't know." I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Why?"
"She's always complaining about how terrible she looks and I personally think it's stupid. 'Mark my skin is so pale. My hair looks terrible. I probably look like an ogre.'" He said mimicking her. He had mimicked her with a high voice, which I assumed was his version of her voice.
"I'm sure she doesn't look that bad." I argued smiling.
"Fine, but you get to face her wrath." We both chuckled and went our separate ways. I went on with my day trying to avoid Bruce and Rick, but it was harder than it sounded.
I made my way into the living room at Mount Justice. I felt bad for the other members of the team who weren't considered senior members. They weren't allowed in the main room right now. So currently Batgirl, Robin, Wonder Girl, and Beast Boy were playing go fish.
"Got any fours?"
"Yeah, they're up my-"
"Go fish."
"Any sixes?"
"Nope."
I grimaced at there sad attempt to entertain themselves. I walked past them into the kitchen where Impulse was searching for food.
"There is no food in this rock!" He exclaimed frustrated. "Anyone want anything from Belly Burger?"
"Sure, just get five cheeseburgers." Beast Boy replied. I pulled out my phone out of boredom and decided to check my emails. I hadn't checked them since yesterday after Maxwell Lord's call. I scrolled through my emails and found the one I was looking for.
Dear Crystal Kent,
I would like you to start your work tomorrow, June 17, 2019. Your hours will be 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I will explain your duties and job tomorrow. Please email me back that you received this email.
Maxwell Lord
I couldn't believe he wanted me to start tomorrow! I tried to hold in my excitement, but a little squeal slipped out.
"What are you so excited about?" Impulse asked stuffing a hamburger into his mouth.
"How did you...?"
"Super speed got all the ladies speechless." He said with a smirk on his face. I glared at him snatching a hamburger from the pile. "Hey, I only got six!"
"I thought you said you were fast." I said taking a victory bite of my burger. Now it was Impulse's turn to glare.
"That was mine."
"Mine now." I gloated taking a dramatic whiff of the burger.
"Oh, it's on." He said zooming towards me. I quickly placed my phone down and flew away.
"I guess your definition of fast is slower than mine." I said flying backwards, but what I didn't expect was Impulse to be directly beside me. "Oh crap."
"Thank you." He said overly sweet while snatching the burger out of my hands. He popped the rest of it in his mouth and ran past me.
"You're gonna get it!" I yelled flying after him. I kept getting closer and closer. I had almost caught up to him. My arm stretched forward reaching his back. I was so close. I was right about to grab him, when he suddenly stopped. I banged into Impulse and we tumbled to the ground. I had landed on top of him with my back slamming into his head. Impulse let out a loud, "Ooph!" as I fell on him.
"Why'd you do that?" I groaned sitting up. Impulse was still lying on the ground blinking. I looked around to see we were in the main room, but what I didn't expect was to see a group of people staring at us.
M'gann was trying to hold in her laughter, while Conner just looked plain confused. Rick and Bruce were glaring at us and my dad seemed to be holding back giggles of us own.
"I am so sorry." I said slowly blushing. I was so embarrassed I didn't even care to see if Impulse was okay as I got up. Impulse let out a soft groan.
"You are heavier than you look." He mumbled dazedly. I quickly helped him up and started to leave.
"Chris?" My dad asked. I stopped and slowly turned around.
"Yes?"
"Would you mind joining us? And Impulse-"
"Don't worry! I know when it's my cue to leave." He said zooming away. As he passed me I could briefly see him stick out his tongue.
"We may have figured out Habitum's weakness." My eyes widened in surprise at Rick's words.
"W-what?" I exclaimed excited.
"Well not exactly a weakness." Bruce explained. "We found a moment when he is vulnerable. When Habitum shape shifts he is defenseless. All of our cameras were knocked during the fight, except one. The particular camera Habitum didn't destroy gave us a very limited view. The fight was on the other side of the room, but at the very end we see something." Bruce showed me a video from the security camera.
Conner flies into view. It took me a moment to remember it was actually Habitum. I remembered throwing him across the room. He slowly got up and we could see the smile cross his face.
"That's all I needed." I heard him say. It sent a shiver down my spine when I heard his voice. I hadn't noticed at the time how sinister he sounded. It was so weird to hear Conner sound like that. Then Habitum clenched his fists and his eyes went black.
"What's happening? I don't remember this." I said confused.
"Just watch." Rick said still staring at the screen. I quickly looked back at the screen. Habitum shape shifted into me. He looked slightly disoriented, but then flew away without another word.
"How did I not notice that?" I asked folding my arms.
"It seems Habitum goes temporarily blind after shape shifting into someone. There could be multiple reasons you guys didn't notice. You were just focused on the fight, you didn't care to notice, or you were to busy planning on what to do next. Whatever the reason you guys know now." My dad explained. I nodded accepting his explanation.
"So Habitum is vulnerable while shape shifting." Rick concluded. We all pondered the information. After awhile Bruce said,
"Clark and I will think of something. We still don't have much to go on, but we'll try." We all nodded and waited for Bruce to continue. "For now you guys can just wait with the others." I groaned and made my way towards the bored card players.
"Did you know that euchre is not spelt U-C-O-R?" Beast Boy asked me.
"Yeeees." I said slowly and Beast Boy went back to his card game.
"It's called Ennui Syndrome." Rick whispered got beside me. "The victim faces feelings of uselessness and dissatisfaction. To satisfy their desperate need for attention, the victim feels the need to say the first intelligent thought that goes through their head." I let out a small laugh. "Eligible victims must have an IQ lower than-"
"I'm not deaf you know." Beast Boy hissed and Rick and I laughed.
I walked towards the empty kitchen and Rick followed. I was about to say something to Rick, when Blue Beetle interrupted me.
"Either of you want to join a Just Dance tournament?"
"No thanks." Rick answered and I replied the same.
"Boredom at its finest." Rick muttered and I chuckled in agreement.
"How have you been? Y'know with all this Habitum craziness."
"Been tryin' to stay traught." He said, which brought back so many memories. It took one word: traught. My favorite memory would probably be the first time we said, "I love you." It was at our school's Winter Formal. That moment was so perfect. I felt at peace; I had the guy of my dreams, no villain to defeat, and everyone was safe. I wished that everything could still be like that. But of course it couldn't and I didn't even know why.
"Why? I wish you would just tell me why." I muttered looking at Rick.
"Why wha-"
"Get a room!" Of course we had to be interrupted by Impulse yelling across the room. Conner and M'gann were kissing. I'm guessing they had made up.
At least someone got what they wanted.
***
I straightened my skirt as I walked into the foyer of Lord Technology. I could see the secretary who was busy on the phone and other workers were briskly walking by me. On my right there were some of Lord Technology's products. His technology was extremely advanced.
I walked towards the secretary, making sure not to slip on the overly smooth floor.
"Hi, I'm Mr. Lord's new assistant." I said to the secretary. She held up one finger and quickly finished the call.
"Name please."
"Crystal Kent."
"Alright. Mr. Lord's office is on the top floor. Your desk will be just outside his office. He is in a meeting right now, but should be finishing any minute."
"Thank you." I said walking to the elevator. I pushed the up arrow and waited for the elevator to arrive. The two doors opened and a group of people walked out, all wearing serious expressions on their faces. I stepped on to the elevator with five other people. Each of them pushed their floor number out of the 38 floors. I reached out and pushed the number 38. I saw a few of them raise their eyebrows in surprise.
"You're the new assistant?" A man asked snorting.
"Yes." I said raising an eyebrow. When I heard another chuckle from my other side I immediately blushed. It was a slow torturous elevator ride, but once I finally reached the top floor I raced to the washroom. Once I made it into the washroom I looked at myself in the mirror.
"You can do this." I whispered taking in my appearance. My hair was straightened and my glasses were slightly crooked. I was wearing a blue blouse that had a few wrinkles in it. My business skirt was the only one I had, which means it will be seen many days. I finally looked down to my heels and sighed. Hopefully I won't fall. Killer Frost always wore heels. She practically lived in them!
"If Killer Frost can do it, you can do it." I muttered smoothing out my shirt. I turned to my left to see another lady staring at me. She had a shocked look on her face. I smiled and quickly ran out of the washroom.
"Just a normal day at work. Yeah, a normal day." I said to myself as I walked towards Maxwell Lord's office. "You got this."
"Ah, Miss. Kent." Mr. Lord said smiling. The butterflies immediately came back and I contemplated going to back to the washroom.
"H-hello."
Just a normal day at work.