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I rubbed my face in frustration as I scrolled through the latest scientific paper I downloaded, straining to understand what I was looking at. Another week had ticked by, and with Doctor Roquette still missing I had opted to move forward with studying myself without her. I still sincerely hoped that the Justice League would find her soon, but recent events had shown that the world wasn't exactly going to wait for me to be ready before throwing me into the thick of it. And so, I was now working on becoming an amateur claytronics programmer. Which was slow going since I was also trying to become an amateur xeno-geneticist, what with my promise to Superboy to find out if he really does have hidden powers. And that wasn't even counting how I also was working on becoming an amateur mechanic and all around technologist and-
Good lord how the hell did Renaissance Men do this?
I grumbled as I leaned back in my chair. "I may have to narrow my scope a bit…" I muttered to myself. The past week had been almost nothing but study and training, and considering I didn't sleep I like to think that I had made some decent progress. This has caused things to start to blur together a bit, though. I'm not sure what differences, if any, there were between a normal human mind and my own, but it seemed that having no mental breaks still wasn't terribly good for me.
As I thought about what to focus on, my eyes fell on the hand written notes that were sprawled out to my side, listing the various ideas I had about how to use my latest upgrades. It was awhile after the incident before I had even thought about what I had gotten from Amazo, but the results I had gotten when I finally got around to it were… interesting. If complicated. I had hoped that by assimilating the android I would have been able to just get its power copying ability, but that wasn't quite what I got. Insofar as I could tell, Amazo functioned because it was made out of an exceedingly complicated and mutable combination of subsystems. The ones I had identified so far (in broad terms of functionality) were energy distribution, matter reconfiguration, kinetic energy manipulation, an information processing system, and something involving altering electronuclear forces.
Each of these on their own had various levels of uses to me so far. The energy distribution system was more or less useless as my nanties could handle that flawlessly already. The electronuclear thing was less than useless because it did not play nice with my nanite cohesion, instantly annihilating whatever part of my body I had formed it in. (obviously it was the reason I had trouble assimilating Amazo in the first place, and was a damn shame considering how that particular feature was probably how it could manage more exotic effects.) The matter and kinetic systems proved more useful, but at the moment were difficult to control.
The information processor I had the most hopes for though, as it seemed to mesh particularly well with my body. A few experiments had shown that my 'destructive interface' ability had improved dramatically, requiring far less damage to the target system before I had control than before. Plus, so long as I kept the system formed each attempt actually got better. I was still working with Kord to get a proper test set up, but if I could use that subsystem to connect to my nanite's 'software' directly, it may be the solution to my problems.
Speaking of software, I unfortunately didn't get any of the software that Amazo had, which probably had a fair number of programs dedicated to managing and operating all of these systems in tandem. Such as it was, I was going to have to figure out how to make them all work on my own.
Still, there was one more interesting thing I gained from that android, something more fundamental. I don't know if it was only because he was 'accessing' me while I assimilated him or I would have gotten it anyway, but my nanites now seemed to understand the concept of subsystems. It was a subtle distinction, but before whenever I formed a piece of technology it would form in as much as a single contiguous mass as possible. Which had its advantages, but made it next to impossible to put mutually exclusive types of tech right next to each other. Of course, even though that was no longer an issue, I still had to understand what I was doing, and that… well…
Why the hell do my powers have to be so arbitrary and complicated? I thought. I was starting to get a headache. And that didn't even make sense.
I shook my head and glance at the clock on the wall. It's almost time anyway, I might as well call it. The womenfolk will give me disappointed glares if they find me working on Beach Day, I thought to myself as I got up and walked out of the tech lab. I'm not sure when the decision was made, but the team decided that with the recent spell of good weather we should take advantage of it by hitting the private beach near the Mountain. I had a few concerns about privacy, but the beach in question was on the opposite side of the mountain from Happy Harbor, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I adjusted my white swim trunks as I walked towards the common area, and I picked up pieces of a conversation. "…can't make it?"
"Nah, Wally slacked off a bit last year, so he has to make it up in remedial. Which starts today. Poor bastard…"
I guess Kaldur and Robin are already here. As I came out of the corridor into the common area, I spotted the two of them along with Superboy hanging out near the couch. The three had already gotten into their swimsuits (blues and blacks) and now seemed to be waiting on the rest of us. Robin in particular was ready to go. "Do we have to go get them? They know what time it is, right?"
"The girls are getting changed now. Jacob was in the lab last I knew." Superboy said.
Kaldur shifted his weight. "Jacob spends a great deal of time there. While his quest for self-improvement is a reasonable one, I do hope he remembers there are other things to life."
"What higher pursuit could there possibly be than SCIENCE." I said as I walked up to the bunch.
Kaldur turned to face me, but whatever he had been planning to say died on his lips as he saw me, his eyes widening in surprise. "Jacob! You look… good."
"Holy crap, you have skin!" Robin exclaimed as he too looked at me past his sunglasses. "And hair!"
I smiled as I set my hands on my hips, letting them look at my mostly human form. Once my body had recognized the concept of subsystems, growing skin had become a lot easier. Before when I had tried to form a dermal layer I always had to fight to keep it from fusing into the layer beneath it, and I could never get it to stretch in the right way. But my recent upgrade had given me a lot to work with, and after a little bit of experimentation and the human frame I got from Mister Twister's pilot… I looked human again.
Well, mostly. I was still grey skinned with solid grey eyes, and I had a few parts which were alien looking. My 'spine' was more pronounced and furrowed, the same with my knuckles and a few joints. But hey, since I made the rest of this body from scratch, I got to create my subdermal 'muscles' as I saw fit. My abs were firm enough to grate cheese with them.
There was also another quirk about my current form. I ran a hand through the short white threads that covered my scalp. "Actually, they're thin diamond threads. The structure of real hair is bloody complicated."
When it came to making things with the molecular forge I had copied from the Psion ship, I had to be able to properly visualize whatever materials or compounds I was making. Funnily enough, this meant that while the complex organic compounds that make up human hair were beyond me, things like carbon nanotubes (or diamonds) were easy.
Superboy just gave a small grunt at that. He and the rest of my roommates had seen me working on my form all day yesterday, so he had seem me like this already (seriously, it still took me several hours to get to where I was, I sure hope practice helps for the next time I have to do it). Kaldur collected himself quickly and gave me a small nod. "It seems you've managed to regain your human form. Congratulations."
I shrugged. "Thanks, but I still have ways to go. This is just my appearance, I still have some work to do on getting my physical senses back to full." That said, I had gotten a very pleasant surprise when I found that my much more pliable skin greatly increased my sense of pressure and texture. I wasn't there yet, but I was feeling more human than I ever had since I got this body.
"Well, at your current rate, you'll get there sooner than later." Superboy commented. "You think your training with Martian Manhunter is helping?"
"A bit too soon to say. We've only been through the basics and gotten a handle on just how my shapeshifting differs from a Martian's." Most of my training thus far had been focusing on speed and balance, trying to get as much control over my physical form as possible. "Still, I've at least gotten better at this since I started, so I must be doing something right."
He smirked at me. "Well, if you ever need help training you know where to find me. If you don't mind getting knocked around a little." He said. I didn't just train with J'onn, as learning to fight humanoid opponents was also a useful skill to learn. Superboy and Kori were the ones I sparred with the most as I had the least chance of hurting them if I went all out.
I shrugged and smirked back. "Hey if that's what you need to tell yourself to feel better when you're looking up at me from the ground…"
It looked like he was about to say something else but he paused and tilted his head to the side. I focused on my hearing, and sure enough I heard voices approaching.
"There's nothing wrong with them, I just don't understand why I have to wear one. We are going to the beach, after all."
"Kori, you can't just be naked in public! There are laws against that sort of thing here on Earth."
"But you said this is a private beach, so it will just be us. Besides, Jacob is naked all the time, and no one seems to mind."
"T-that's different! He's not showing- well, revealing certain parts is shameful."
"Shameful? M'gann, it's our bodies. What could we possibly be ashamed of?"
I saw Superboy put on a confused look, but Robin hadn't heard what we just did and said "So… should we just go on ahead and let the girls catch up or what?"
I turned to look at him. "They're on their way now. Besides, I would think you'd want to see women in swimsuits."
However, the boy just waved me off. "Dude, do you have any idea how many women in skimpy outfits or barely anything at all I've run across while with Batman? It gets old after the fifth time they try to kill you. Besides, I haven't really… gotten girls yet, you know?"
I arched an eyebrow at that, but before I could say anything M'gann came into from the adjacent hallway. "Alright, let's hit the beach!" she said excitedly. The Martian wore a yellow bikini/hot pants combination, which made a rather interesting contrast with her green skin. It was also a bit more revealing than I would have expected for the somewhat demure girl, but then she might see today as a chance to do something different.
A second later Kori followed after her and oh dear lord grant me strength.
Earlier I had wondered if Kori would adopt her v-style swimsuit uniform as her official costume (and was somewhat relieved when she didn't). Well, it seems that this universe had a sense of humor because Kori somehow found the actual swimsuit version of her 80's costume. There was a collar of cloth around the base of her neck, bottoms that revealed a generous amount of hip, and a pair of strips running down the front to connect the two. And not much else.
"So, what do you think?" As she turned in place to give us a good view. "There were a lot of options, but this one caught my fancy."
In spite of myself, I smiled as I said "It suits you perfectly." Kori smiled back as she continued her pirouette. She definitely had the full attention of the various males in our group, though I myself was older and more resistant to such things. As such, I did not stare as she stretched her arms above her head, arching her back in such a way to draw attention to how the lines of the suit complimented the lines and curves of her form, as well as the patterns of light beneath her skin that flowed along with her movements.
Yep. Much more resistant.
As she finished Kori cast her gaze at the rest of us, and a playful smirk crossed her face. "Speaking of perfect sights…" She moved towards us and before I knew it she had stepped between Superboy and I, her arms wrapping around our shoulders. "The longer I stay here, the more I come to like this planet."
Almost out of reflex, my arm wrapped around her waist in response. The contact felt nice, even if I wasn't getting heat. Superboy though seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with the situation. He was getting better when it came to physical contact, but he still had some trouble with how… affectionate Kori could be.
A fact that M'gann did not fail to notice, and was less than amused. "Kori, we talked about this…"
Kori saw the Martian's mood and she stood up straighter. "Oh, I'm sorry! I was being thoughtless again." She said as she lifted her arms off of our shoulders. This seemed to settle M'gann down a little… until Kori closed the distance between the two of them and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl instead. M'gann let out a squeak as she found Kori pressed close and smiling affectionately. "You're looking quite lovely too."
My mouth pressed into a thin line as M'gann began to stutter and turn a very deep shade of green. The scene in front of me was certainly cute and amusing, but I was starting to worry that the antics of our leader might be a little too much for my teammates. I hope I didn't have to explain the concept of sexual harassment to Kori.
At my side, Robin tilted his head. "Ok… I think I get it now." He said quietly as he stared at the scene in front of us. Or more accurately stared at Kori's rear.
And to top it off it looks like she just caused Dick to hit puberty. Great. "Let's just get to the beach already."
Only a few clouds were scattered across the sky when we finally got out of the Mountain, and the pristine beach had waves gently lapping against the shore. Kori bolted for the water almost instantly, and most of the group followed her. M'gann however paused for a moment on the beach itself. "Hello Megan! We should hit the beach every day." The Martian said as she pointed excitedly at the water stretching out in front of us.
This gave me pause though, and I turned to look at the girl with an arched eyebrow. "Wait, do you know how to swim?" I asked, thinking of how Mars lacked a certain something to explain such a skill.
M'gann gave an embarrassed laugh. "Ah, not exactly. My telekinesis can move me through water as well as air, if not as easily. But, I've always wanted to learn to do it like humans do! Because swimming is a thing humans do for fun!"
I couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "Well, I'd be happy to-" I started to say before I stopped and started again. "Err, I mean, I'm sure that Robin or Superboy could show you." She gave me a questioning look, and I let out a sigh before I said "I can't really swim at the moment."
She gave a start. "You don't know how to swim?"
"No, I know how, I just physically can't." I explained. "I'm not really buoyant anymore. Not since I became like this." Under normal circumstances, my body was almost completely solid all the way through. In my earlier experimentation I had tried filling my body with air pockets to offset this, and it kind of worked. I could float, but actually swimming was… awkward. I didn't have the same density or distribution of air through my structure as human, so all the motions I knew felt frustratingly off.
M'gann looked at me pensively for a moment, and then she moved forward and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I blinked in confusion for a moment before I hugged her back. "Ok… not complaining, but what brought this on?"
"Well, I was talking to Koriand'r-"
"Of course you were."
"-and she said that anytime it looked like you were being sad and lost in your own thoughts, I should just hug you. Because she said that always seemed to work for her."
"…I am easily placated by hugs from females." I admitted. "But, you really don't have to."
"I just don't want you to feel left out." She insisted, still not letting go of me as she looked up at face. "You don't… since Amazo you haven't really come out of the tech lab except for dinner, and then you still can't eat, so you just sit there, and I feel like you're apart from the rest of us most of the time because of your problems with your body, and I don't want you to feel alone…"
I stared at her for a moment as she babbled before I let out a sigh and pulled her closer, resting my chin atop the shorter girl's head. "You're a good girl, M'gann. Thank you." I… this wasn't the first time that I had withdrawn into my own devices so much that my social life had been neglected. But being reminded that people missed you was… nice.
Finally we split apart and I cast a glance at the others in the water, noticing that Superboy in particular was looking at us with a slight frown on his face. "Hey Superboy!" I called out, and the teen stood up straighter. "You know how to swim, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because you now have a pupil." I said as I nudged M'gann towards him. "Teach her well. Her planet has no water, so you're starting from scratch. If you do a poor job, it will make all us wet planet dwellers look bad."
"Uh, yeah, sure." He said, and M'gann's face split into a grin as she walked over to the half-Kryptonian. I gave a small chuckle before I followed after.
I couldn't really swim, but most of the team hung out in the shallow end while they were in the water anyway. All in all I still had a good time slashing around with my friends. Besides which, that wasn't all we had planned for the day. After a quick lunch we split into two teams and played a couple of rounds of volleyball. It was a tough battle, but me, Superboy and Robin managed to come out on top.
We eventually moved on to building sand castles, but at some point shenanigans occurred and this morphed into burying Superboy under a pile of sand while he took a nap. The pile got to about my waist before Kaldur and I had to go back to water to get another pile of wet sand. As we were gathering the material up I glanced over at the teen and asked. "So… how have things been with you?" Kaldur and I have had a number of polite conversations over the past few weeks, but to be honest I still didn't really know that much about him.
Kaldur shrugged. "Quiet, aside from training. The mission Batman sent us on a few days ago to locate Professor Ivo turned out to be nothing but dead ends. The scientist has covered his tracks well."
I blinked and stood up straighter. "Mission? What mission? I wasn't told anything."
The teen looked uncomfortable. "It wasn't a formal mission as such, only myself, Robin and Kid Flash were tasked to do some information gathering. I wasn't aware that you were not informed of it. I… am not sure I can speculate on why Batman would not let you know."
I felt a small spike of irritation before I let it go. "I have a few guesses."
Kaldur on the other hand seemed to think I was thinking of something else, and put his hand on my shoulder. "You will get your chance. I know things with the team have been… a bit chaotic, but we are still coming into our own as a group. You will be able to prove yourself soon enough."
I paused for a moment before I said "Thanks," though to be honest I found myself wondering about the calm and serious teen in front of me. Robin's back story I knew, Wally wanted to be like Barry, M'gann was a well-meaning girl, and Superboy… well, he was looking for a sense of purpose if I had to put words to it. Kaldur on the other hand I couldn't quite pin down. "Hey, if you don't mind my asking… why are you a superhero? I mean, why did you choose to do it?"
He was taken off guard by the question for a moment, but after he gave it some consideration he replied "I fight in service to my king. Since I was young I had decided that I would join the Atlantian military, and while I was in training I had the opportunity to assist my king against an enemy of the state known as Ocean Master. He then took me as an apprentice. Which lead to me fighting by his side when he engaged in superhero work on the surface."
He shifted a bit. "I suppose since then I have developed attachment on the surface. To this nation, to the Justice League, to my friends. I have many reasons to keep doing what I am doing. So, in short, I fight out of a sense of duty, to keep what I have come to care about safe."
It's strange seeing this kind of conviction in someone his age. I thought to myself. Not bad, but…
"Yo, hurry it up with that sand." Robin called out, and I snapped out of my thoughts as we headed back to the giant pile with our arms full. "What took you so long, needed to pick out the best clumps of sand?"
I shrugged as I patted down another layer. "Nah, just… doing some things I've been neglecting for a while. I'm coming to realize I probably shouldn't spend so much time cooped up in the lab."
"No kidding. You've almost been as bad as Batman lately." The boy remarked as he worked on his side of the growing mound. "What do you even do in there all day?"
"Oh, a bunch of stuff. Studying various sciences, mapping out where in the Mountain we might need more defenses, secretly collecting blackmail, practicing building new hardware-"
"Wait, what was that one in the middle?" Robin asked.
"Mapping out the Mountain?"
"No, the one after that."
"Building new hardware?"
"No, the one before that."
"I have video evidence of you hacking your school's computers from the Mountain so you could go play hooky when the year starts?"
"No, the other- Wait what?!"
The shouting then caused Superboy to wake up. "Uh… wait what the hell?"
"SMOKE BOMB!" I yelled. I didn't actually have a smoke bomb, I just yelled it before running away cackling like a madman.
Things started to wind down after that. We hadn't really set a time to head back in, but we had run the gamut of beach related activities by that point. The group had got to talking about teenage stuff, so I walked a short distance away to watch the waves lapping against the shore. After a while some motion caught my attention, and I looked to the side as Kori moved up next to me. "Feeling more yourself?" She asked.
I made a small sound at that. "In a manner of speaking." I replied. The woman had occasionally poked her head in to my domain over the week to check in on me ever since the fight. "Feeling better at least. I'll-"
"Be fine?" she completed for me, using the response I had usually given her.
I rolled my eyes at that, but I got her point. "Alright, I'll stop trying to shrug things off so much. But seriously I…" I trailed off for a moment, trying to form a slightly more in depth answer. "I feel different. Like everything I've been through has changed me a little. And that's not a bad thing. I just know now that I have to be the best person, the best hero I can for the world. And for them." I said as I nodded at the team. "And for…" I trailed off as I looked back at her.
A warm smile played across her face as she looked back at me. There was a long moment of silence between us before she spoke. "It makes me happy to hear that… but you're still so serious. Clearly you have not gotten quite enough fun for the day."
"Oh? And how do you propose we fix that?" I asked with some amusement.
Kori leaned in close… and poked me in the chest. "You are it." She then dashed away into the surf as she laughed, her hair streaming out behind her as she ran.
I blinked as I looked after her before I broke out in laughter as well and sprinted after her.
It was late afternoon by the time we all had our fill, and we headed back towards the Mountain entrance. As we walked back though, my internal comlink received an incoming wave, and when I picked up I heard a familiar growl. "Batman to Machina, are you in a location where you can speak discretely?"
I arched an eyebrow, but I kept walking forward as I replied without opening my mouth. "I can subvocalize, is that enough? What's going on?"
A grunt before Batman said "Do you know anything about a superhero/vigilante named Artemis?"
I was silent for several long seconds as I searched through my memories. "…I think there is an Amazon on Themyscria that goes by the name, but I'm drawing a blank otherwise." The name vaguely reminded me with something about a guy with a scythe running a sort of hunger games style death battle underneath Antarctica, but it was such a random memory that I couldn't even tell if it was actually related to what we were talking about. "Why?"
"Green Arrow and I are introducing a new member to your team." He said. "I wanted to be certain that there weren't any… storylines that would suggest that was a bad idea."
"…if she was a geokinetic named Terra I would start getting worried, but I honestly can't tell you anything about Artemis." Definitely not one of the main Justice League at least. Possibly a minor character… or minor villain. "Do you think she might be a threat?"
Batman paused before he said. "Artemis has been vetted by myself and Green Arrow. While she may be the sole member of your team whose secret identity you do not know, do not go prying into her personal life without cause."
"Sir, I wouldn't do that."
"Good. Inform the team that I will have a mission for them tonight. Green Arrow and I will be bringing Artemis to the Mountain shortly for introductions."
With that the call ended, and my attention was brought back to the present. Which was why I then noticed that Robin was giving me an odd look. "You were on a call, weren't you? Who was it?"
It's still weird how perceptive that kid is, I thought to myself. "Yep, and it was Batman. Looks like we've got a surprise waiting for us…"