Author's Note - Reposted on this chapter
Guys, I'm so hyped! This book is number one in the ranking for Young Justice! I didn't even know I had any ranking but turns out I'm the best!! Thanks to all you amazing readers for all your votes, comments, and tears/laughter over this story!
We are nearing the end of the book. I believe there are around ten chapters left and I plan to update this weekend as well. I just want you all to know that this book did things for me. It helped me grow as an author and learn how to make 3-dimensional characters like Cyra's with quirks and flaws (a lot of flaws) and learned my voice as a writer.
When I first began this book, I did it impulsively just because I thought I could get some quick votes to get my name out there. It was never anything serious but when I started to write I just made it as good as I could in a short time and developed a character and weak plot as I went. Obviously, I had grown since then and my original plot became solid and Cyra into a realistic person who can be both hated and loved. Now, I'm so glad I made this story.
Again, you are all some awesome readers and you can check out all my rankings (there are a lot of good ones!).
Now, how are you guys liking the story? The plot? The mysteries? Cyra's character, family, past? Especially the last couple of chapters since I didn't feel much while writing some of it. What would you like to see more of for the future? I didn't mean for this to sound like an essay question at the end of a test or anything but I'd love some constructive criticism.
Finally, can I get some reviews? I want to do that thing in the description of the book with reviews and such and if you guys can write some good ones I'll put them here and at the beginning of the book!
Again again, thanks for all you wonderful readers! When this book is finished it's going through editing and I'll tell you now, I am already planning and writing some of the next books because I know how this ends (wink, wink) and know where I am going for the next book. You guys will be so broken after this book and the second. :D
Mount Justice
November 19, 14:44 EDT
Cyra has been having a weird day.
Forgetting all about being brainwashed by a pink Lantern from space into being her proxy or even to the more awkward conversation to have surrounded by hungry girls, Cyra's day definitely was at a higher level of crazy than it usually was.
It started with waking up in the morning her alarm literally jumping up and down on her desk and baying like a broken hen. Cyra was jolted away, rolling off her bed and it didn't matter how many times she slapped the alarm to turn off as it never did. She had to rip the cord out of the wall to get it to shut up.
Her family was running around her house like jackrabbits, as if they all downed eighteen galleons of coffee, screaming—which could have been considered a regular Brion family morning, but what really tipped Cyra off was the literal lines of scent that came off the sizzling bacon.
Cyra closed her eyes tightly for a few seconds, breathing heavily, before snapping them open and looking again. The scent lines were still there.
Then, Cyra went to school as if nothing was going on.
She walked past birds who chirped above her head as if she was in Cinderella and bikers who would make little jingling sounds whenever they passed another person. Two men carrying a wall of glass between them almost hit her from around a corner until Cyra ducked underneath it.
And school was a typical mess, but it was always like that, so Cyra didn't really notice anything wrong until lunch when the "burger" the cafeteria lady served her roared in her face.
So, Cyra decided to skip the second half of the day to fly as fast as she could to the Cave to get answers.
"Yoo hoo!" she called as the Zeta announced her arrival. "Anyone home?"
"In here!" a faraway voice called from the kitchens.
Cyra followed it, hoping it would be M'gann baking cookies to cheer up her mood, but it was only Conner and Kaldur, who were lounging on the couches in the living area. The TV wasn't on and Conner's feet were up on the coffee table.
"M'gann's out getting more dough," Conner explained while catching Cyra's flash of disappointment.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Kaldur asked.
"Yes," Cyra said as she turned. "Zatanna!"
"Went with M'gann," Conner said.
Cyra let out a groan and turned back, throwing herself onto the couch next to Conner and almost elbowing him in the face.
"What's wrong?" Kaldur sat up.
"I was going to have Zatanna run some magic test on me or something because things are mega messed up."
"So, no difference from usual?" Conner offered, his blues burning with amusement.
"No," Cyra groaned. "Everything's like . . . a cartoon!"
From the corner of her eyes, which were pressed against the couch, Conner and Kaldur exchanged a pointed look.
"I'm not on anything!" Cyra looked up at them, glaring sharply. They shied away and Conner put his hands up in surrender.
"Alright, what's going on that makes it seem like a cartoon?" Conner was fighting against a smirk that he wasn't hiding very well, deciding to go along with the Green Lantern.
Cyra counted off on her fingers, "Wiggling lines coming off bacon in the morning, birds following everywhere, guys almost hitting me with panels of glass, oh, and my burger roaring at me at lunch."
"Cyra, when was the last time you got any sleep?"
The blonde fell back with a cry of exasperation.
"We're just worried about you," Kaldur added.
"It's not me!" She threw her hands up. "Trust me, I thought it was me, but it wasn't me! Walt Disney is haunting me—or something!"
Kaldur blinked. "Who?"
"Isn't he dead?" Conner questioned.
"He can't haunt me if he's alive!" Cyra exclaimed. "You guys aren't taking this seriously."
Conner chuckled. "Can you blame us?"
Cyra's face bled into blankness as she stood up. "Fine then," she snorted, her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest, as she turned and marched away. She only got a couple of steps before the world tipped on its side.
Swiftly, Conner caught her before her head hit the ground. Cyra bent forward to look at the culprit.
"Ah-ha!" Cyra pushed away Conner's arms. She bent down to pick up the yellow-peeled villain. "A banana!"
The two boys tilted their heads in opposite directions like cute, but dumb, puppies.
"Haven't you guys seen any cartoon ever?" Cyra looked between them, appalled. "They slip on banana peels all the time!" Again, neither Conner nor Kaldur seemed to get what she was saying. Letting hot breath fall from her nose, Cyra asked, "Did either of you eat a banana today?"
They both shook their head.
"Or seen anyone else?"
"No."
"And was this banana here when I walked in?"
Again, "No."
"Exactly!" Cyra yelled, throwing the banana onto the ground with a slap.
"Is this some kind of prank?" Conner asked.
Cyra put a hand to her chest, offended. "My pranks have a lot more taste than this."
"Sure," Kaldur stated and before Cyra could move to defend herself, he went on, "Say there is something magic going on here, what do you think it is?"
Cyra paused. "I . . . was going to ask Zatanna."
Conner nodded, biting his lip. "Yeah, okay, there's only one explanation."
"What is it?" Cyra's eyes lit up.
"You're crazy."
Cyra frowned as Conner laughed, Kaldur joining in with a small chuckle that he failed to hide behind his hand.
"Help me stop this," Cyra pleaded.
"I'm not sure there's anything to stop," Kaldur said. "Maybe you're just having an off day, like deja vu?"
"That's not what deja vu is and no, I know what an 'off day' is but this just doesn't make any sense! I already showed you proof, what more do you need?"
"A banana isn't proof."
"It's plenty proof!" Cyra declared. A pout puffed out her lips as she turned on her large, amber puppy-dog eyes. "I'm begging you."
"I don't see you on your knees yet," Conner stated, his lips pulled tight.
Kaldur nodded once in confirmation.
Cyra's sharp looked jumped between them before they fell back on the raven-haired clone. "Look here, test-tube baby, who was the one who saved you from Cadmus—oh, that's right, me. And Kaldur, who was the one who taught her how to play air hockey? That's what I thought. So, the least you two can do is stop your pointless thinking and help me in this life or death situation."
Underneath the shorter girl's glare, their shoulders both shook, but Cyra doubted it was from containing tears.
Then, the ceiling that was holding up hundreds of tons of mountain above them cracked, and in fell through a piano.
Cyra leaped back as the boys jumped forward, the piano making a dent in the floor that sent cracks racing underneath their feet. Wide-eyed, the boys looked to her.
Cyra smirked at them. "Told you so."
"What's going on?" Conner demanded, walking around the piano cautiously as if it was about to reach out and bite him. Kaldur just climbed over like a brave fish.
"That's what I'd like to know," Cyra stated. "But since I'm crazy and it's just one big prank—"
"We get it," Kaldur snapped. "You were right and we were wrong. Now how do we stop this?"
Cyra opened her mouth to speak, but her ring—the only thing that seemed to be normal nowadays—began to shiver and shake on her finger in warning.
"Alright, first, I have to go save the world—"
"We'll come with you," Conner said quickly. He and Kaldur both took a step forward, their arms crossed over their muscular chests, both towering over Cyra, Kaldur more so.
"I don't need bodyguards," Cyra rolled her eyes.
"No, you need babysitters," Conner nodded. Kaldur blinked at the word usage but went along nonetheless.
"We're here to make sure you don't get crushed by a musical instrument," Kaldur confirmed.
Cyra winced at them, gritting her teeth with obvious hesitance that made them do a double take.
"I don't think you can handle it," she admitted.
"What?" they both barked as if Cyra personally stabbed a hot butter knife directly into their pride.
"No offense but you two have pretty nice powers and stuff, but you're both . . ."
Conner and Kaldur leaned forward.
". . . kind of dumb."
Conner's face went slack and Kaldur gasped.
Cyra was quick so explain. She motioned to Kaldur, "I mean, you lived your whole life in a big fish tank and Conner, you were alive for like, a month. It's just, when villains attack Coast City, it's a whole new level than the work the Team does when you're surrounded by people who can help you."
"Kaldur will be there," Conner said.
"So will Connor. And you."
A nervous laugh escaped Cyra's thought. Her voice was at a higher pitch than usual, "Okay."
Kaldur walked past her and patted her shoulder. "It'll be fine, Cyra."
"I'm bubbling with positivity." Cyra turned and her foot slipped against the same banana that she had thrown, it again having found its way under her foot.
And again, Conner caught her shoulders and pushed her back to her feet.
"See? We can be useful."
Cyra rolled her eyes and she shoved her way to the front to lead them to certain doom.
Coast City
November 19, 15:57 EDT
Cyra had programmed the Zeta to drop them off in a smelly alley behind a crab shack, making Conner and Kaldur's first impression of Coast City one of rancid old fish. Kaldur looked at the crab being fried through the window and swallowed a lump in his throat.
Cyra stomped down the alley, her entourage following in step behind her like baby turtles after the ocean.
"Where's the villain?" Conner asked, squinting at the bright sun—probably because he spent all his time in a cave.
Cyra glanced around. The streets were full of people in shorts and cut off shirts or still wearing their bathing suits, flip-flops in hand and toes caked with sand. There weren't any robots falling from the sky or murderers shooting down people in the streets. It was loud with the laughter of babies with ice cream melting over their lips or screaming friends in the far-off ocean. But it was quiet of crime.
Cyra frowned down at her ring and tapped it a few times.
"Maybe it was a false alarm?" Kaldur offered.
"My ring doesn't make false alarms," Cyra scoffed. She glared around at the happy surroundings. "Something's wrong—somewhere."
Behind the blonde's back, Conner and Kaldur exchanged ill-fought smirks.
"Wow, this is really tough, Kaldur, I don't know how we can handle this real-world stuff," Conner said extra loudly.
"It does seem very dangerous, doesn't it?"
Cyra glowered at them from over her shoulder. "Ha ha ha, so funny. If you guys have a problem you can always leave."
"I don't remember where the Zeta Beam is," Conner shrugged.
"Whatever. Stop being whiners."
After a few minutes of searching for so much as a mugger and finding nothing, Cyra's feet pivoted towards the ocean.
"Why are we going to the beach?" Kaldur wondered.
Cyra's jaw clenched as she struggled to force out, "I'm bored."
Once they were finally on the beach, Conner laid down on the laid, his arms behind his head. "This is insane," he said. "I'm surprised we survived the walk over here without getting attacked by—oh wait—nothing."
Cyra kicked some sand onto the boy, making him yelp and throw a weak handful back that landed on her feet.
"Even better, no crazy scenarios," Kaldur added, having walked into the water without shoes and letting his webs toes soak in the water away from people's prying gazes.
"I'd love a nice piano to fight," Conner mused.
"Shut up, you guys," Cyra pouted as she plopped herself into the sand. "My ring's never wrong though! Maybe there's an underground fight club or something."
"Mm hmm," Conner hummed, his arm cast over his eyes.
Cyra stuck out her tongue.
The shocked cry from Kaldur alerted Cyra before the water erupted like a volcano and a large shark-man came roaring out.
Kaldur fell back on his butt and Conner struggled to get up in the sand. Cyra charged forward and a shield grew above her head as she leaped over Kaldur, protecting him from the strong wave that came crashing down, pushing Cyra to her knees. Conner vanished underneath the Whitecaps.
The water receded back, leaving Conner sneezing up salt on his side and a large great white standing on two legs with a line of hard abs in front of them. He had the head of a shark, complete with big, sharp white teeth and flipped hands with sharp claws. Cyra's shield disappeared and Cyra hauled Kaldur to his feet.
"I found the trouble," Cyra grinned.
"Yay," Conner groaned.
"It's the Shark," Kaldur said, taking out two glowing blue blades of water magic.
"Original," Cyra smirked sideways at him. "Ready to make sushi?"
Kaldur gave her a wild look.
"Sorry, bad choice of words."
Cyra mimicked Kaldur, two green swords appearing in her hands. Together, she and Kaldur attacked.
The Shark dived down into the water, avoiding Cyra's cut. Kaldur wasted no time diving in after him. Cyra stood, waist deep in the water, glaring down into the depths angrily as she had no temptation to jump in. Conner joined her.
"We just wait?" Anger flowed through his voice.
Kaldur's body burst free of the ocean and into them, sending them all crashing backward onto the beach.
"Nope," Cyra shook her head as she rolled Kaldur's body off her.
The Shark slowly raised from the water . . . and rose . . . and rose, higher and higher till he was the size of a small skyscraper. With a loud booming scream, he pounded on his chest like King Kong.
"Is growing one of his superpowers?" Conner's eyes expanded comically.
"No," Kaldur shook his head.
"Alright, enough of this," Cyra muttered, pushing herself up from the sand and almost slipping. She stood in front of Shark, yelling as loud as she could so the tall creature could hear her and waving her arms madly, "What's your game, fish-food? How are you doing all of this?"
The Shark paused and his beady black eyes looked down at her. Suddenly, his body began to shrink, the water falling off him quickly and with a pop, a short man sat criss-cross in the air before her.
He was wearing a small, purple bowler hat and an odd orange and purple suit that made him look like a medieval court joker. His white hair stuck out in tufts from underneath his hat and his smile stretched across his face like an imp.
"What the—" Conner started, but the little man snapped his fingers and a zipper appeared on his lips. Panic flooded Conner's face as he struggled against the gag before zipping it open. "How did you—!" His mouth zipped back up and a golden large lock clicked it close. It's weight send Conner face first into the ground.
"Green Lantern, we should—" Kaldur was too, cut off, and with a little spark in the imp's eyes, Kaldor's body flew into the air and twisted impossibly before falling back down as a golden fish with a splunk into a fish bowl. The new Kaldur swam around the bowl, knocking against the edges angrily.
Cyra's mouth dropped open and her eyebrows rose dramatically high.
"Any more stupid questions?" the man huffed.
"Who are you?" Cyra demanded, if not with less bravado than she usually would, not very keen on the idea of her joining Conner and Kaldur in their odd situations.
The man hopped down from his floating place above the ocean, coming to stand in front of Cyra, causing the girl to tilt her head down to come eye-to-eye with him.
"My name? Who doesn't know my name?" the man giggled as his head flung back and forth like a sock puppet. "I know your name, Cyra Brion—Green Lantern, it doesn't matter. I can make your name whatever I want, Dave."
He snapped his fingers and a sticky name tag appeared on the front of Cyra's uniform, DAVE wrote in kid-like handwriting.
Cyra ripped off the name tag, but another one appeared underneath it, this one reading: JIM. Cyra continued to pull sticky note after sticky note off her body, each one sporting a different name—HAROLD, KILLIAN, SIRRA, XIOU, DIMITRI, until there was a small pool around her feet. Cyra let out a groan of frustration and left RED on her.
"Would you prefer Blue?" he asked with a snap of his fingers with every word. "Yellow? Purple? Want to go crazy with Grey? What's your favorite color? Let me take a swing here, hmm . . . is it orange? You look like an orange girl to me."
"No!" Cyra barked, taking a few hesitant steps back. She raised a blonde eyebrow at the little person in front of her, unimpressed. "You're the one who's been messing with me the whole day?"
His nose turned bright and big like Rudolph's. "Guilty as charged!"
"And you can . . ." Cyra struggled, at lost for words.
The man jumped a couple of feet in the air. "Reality warping, of course!"
"Of course!"
"I can change anything I want," the man continued smugly, pacing in the air. "Your name, anyone's name, the world. The only thing that stops me is my imagination!"
As an example, an elephant was conjured beneath Cyra, causing a "Woah!" to escape her lips as the thing let out a trumpet-like noise from its trunk before vanishing, Cyra falling onto a trampoline that shot her thousands of feet up. She fell back down, hitting it again while screaming before an eagle the size of a plane swooped down and grabbed her, setting her gently onto the ground. Out of breath from yelling, Cyra clutched her heart, looking at the little man in bewilderment.
All he did was wink. "That's only a fraction of what I can do." He began to walk around Cyra with his clammy hands clasped behind his back as if he was examining the Green Lantern like a doctor to a patient or a lion around a wounded gazelle. "We're not very different, you and I. We both can create amazing things—me more so—with no limits! Not to mention, you seem to have quite the sense of humor."
Cyra smiled sheepishly.
"—Though tasteless, it can always be improved."
Cyra's lip curled. "I don't get it, first you try to kill me, now you're trying to be my friend?"
The man pouted, resting his chin on his hand as he was back to his lotus position in the air. "It gets lonely being so powerful sometimes. I just wanted a nice sidekick to boss around."
"I'm not a sidekick!" Cyra's bristled, her amber eyes alight. "And there's no way a Hobbit-like you is going to boss me around!"
Cyra took a threatening step forward, but her leg instantly sank down to the ankle in a puddle of turning silver quicksand. Cyra tried to pull it back out, but it wouldn't budge. Her other foot was quickly pulled into the cement substance as well, leaving her immobile.
"Hey!" she barked, uselessly.
Conner sprinted forward, probably intending to tackle the short elf to the ground, but he didn't get anywhere near the grinning man before a barrel exploded from the ground in front of him. Conner went spinning into the air, landing back in the sand with a grunt. With sand hanging from his eyelashes, he looked up to see the lid to the barrel pop off into the sky and a plethora of money to break free.
They erupted like a volcano and lurched at Conner. Before the clone could so much as twitch in the opposite direction, he was drowned by a sea of screeching and laughing monkeys with a startled, "Cyra!"
"Conner!" Cyra tried to move towards him, but the sand was sucking her up to her knees now.
The little man tapped her on the side of the head. "Eyes over to the main attraction!"
Cyra followed his orders, glaring with the hatred of a titanish star.
"Why I decided to make this trip to small little you is because I'm offering for you to become my sidekick." The man rocked in the air. "It is very honorable, I know, and you won't be able to resist."
Cyra rolled her eyes. How many people wanted me as a sidekick these days? she thought. I understand I'm amazing, but leave some mentors for the others, yeah?
"And!" he said quickly, "You can some amazing powers too! Not nearly to my level, of course, but you'd be able to shift a few worlds here and there, cause some chaos, change anything you want. I'd start you here, this can be a test for you, to get a hang of things and then we can move onto other Universes. Sound good? Good."
"Not good," Cyra glared. "I don't want to be your puny sidekick. I don't care how much heat your packing. I especially don't want to be following your dumb orders all day every day."
"Listen, you would be immortal. You could never die, grow old, get hurt—unless you wanted to, and change anything and everything! You want blue eyes?" He snapped his fingers. "There! Blue eyes! Not digging the blonde hair? Boom! Want to be taller? No biggie at all!"
Cyra moved the black hair between her fingers, grimacing. Looking back at the man, he was a couple inches shorter now.
"No!" Cyra snapped, batting her hands in the air as if she was trying to kill a fly. "I look fine—great, actually! I don't need any of your magic and I have plenty of power already."
He groaned and rolled his eyes obviously. "It's alright to have a few overpowered characters every once in a while! Your author just doesn't want you to have good times!"
"What?" Cyra squinted. The sand was wrapping around her waist.
"Never mind that! You want more powers? Super speed? Super strength? You can have anything you want! You could turn this whole world into a big toy pen for you! Parties every night in your honor!"
Cyra began to nod to herself in consideration.
"Everyone could treat you like a queen! That little ring would be puny compared to what you could do and then you wouldn't have to follow a color scheme!"
"So many good points," Cyra agreed. "But there is the subject on my friends—one is being attacked by monkeys and the other is a goldfish. Oh, and the sand, is too a problem."
The man snorted. "Child's play! Once you agree, you can turn that all back if you wish—or make them your slaves—either or. You would have all the power you could ever dream of and more!"
"Promise?" Cyra asked innocently.
"Hundreds of promises!" His grin grew.
Cyra pretended to think about it. "Nah," she said, shaking her head. "Ultimate power sounds great and all, but I'll pass."
"What?" the man squeaked.
"Yeah, being a Green Lantern is pretty cool as it is. I'd hate to go to your side then not like it and have to come back. It would just be too wishy-washy."
"Wishy-washy?" he repeated, his eyes almost as wide as his fading grin.
"I would go back and forth and it would just be too confusing for everyone," Cyra explained, balancing things out on her hands showing. "Thanks for the offer though, but I think I'm going to stick with free will. You can turn my friends back now and be on your way. It was nice talking to you . . . hey, what's your name again?"
"Free will?" the short man literally roared like a lion. "There is no free will! Not when I control everything! In a snap of my fingers, I could make you change your mind! Make you like it too! I could make you my daughter—"
"Ew."
"—and you wouldn't have a choice at all! Free will—" he scoffed "—the only free will you will ever get is this moment right now, this choice! I could spin your life upside down or on it's side, literally!"
The world began to tilt, causing Cyra to look like she was standing on the wall. The sand was beginning to tie down her arms. Quickly, the world flipped back around, shocking Cyra to her shoulders in the earthly trap, unable to do more than wiggle her neck.
"So if I say no, you'll just make me say yes?"
"Duh!"
"Then that's not a choice."
"Of course it is!" He floated close to her face. "It's a simple yes or no!"
"But even if I say no, you'll make me say yes, which is just yes or yes."
"Well—"
"That doesn't sound like free will," Cyra said, jutting her chin into the air. "Honestly, I have better choices with a gun to my head than that."
"Blasphemy!" he shouted, standing on the ground with his hands square on his hips. He took a few deep breaths before the same Cheshire Cat-style grin stretched his lips apart again. "You got me there, Cyra Brion, very clever, very clever. I don't think you're getting exactly what I have to offer, so I'll put it in mortal terms for you. Let me show you something."
Before Cyra could speak, he snapped his fingers and the sand swallowed Cyra up, the short man disappearing as well with an earth-shattering laugh, leaving Conner to try and pointlessly fight off the tickling monkeys and a bubble to leave Kaldur's gills.