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seriousficI was reading about the DC reboot the other day and how the new line-up was supposed to be more diverse, so I thought 'what if they weren't laughing when they said that?' And now we have a story about a genderqueer Green Lantern.
As for Scott Free and Big Barda, what story isn't better for having them randomly show up?
Title: Who you are without the ring
Fandom: Green Lantern
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,894
Author’s notes: Betaed by Gran Sigma
Summary: Kirk Kelly is the man's man of the Green Lantern Corps, always first into battle, never resting until the fight is done. His secret identity is Kelly Kirkpatrick. She's a sixteen-year-old girl.
Kelly woke up panicking. The last thing she remembered was a big Apokoliptian fist coming at her, and her nightmares had been of the hit, the fall, her power ring failing. It wasn't supposed to do that, she's programmed it to maintain her personal construct the same way it would keep an unconscious Lantern breathing in space, but… Kalibak had hit her so hard, could the ring have shorted out somehow?
In retrospect, maybe she should've been more worried about being captured, but Green Lanterns were supposed to be without fear, after all.
She opened her eyes and it wasn't a nightmare. She was screwed. She didn't need to look in a mirror to know what she looked like now. Short, barely off the ground. Long hair. Fat hips and budding breasts and just a void between her legs.
She cried. Wasn't a man anymore, so she might as well, right? Tears were still scorching her face when someone knocked at the door. She was on the Watchtower, with its automated doors, so knocking on the door was deliberate. Another reminder that she was a little girl. She scrubbed her face furiously before saying "Come in."
She recognized the guy who entered, a little. He'd been at the last JLA potluck (so not one of the Bats, then), joking around with the cosmics. So, an alien. And he'd taken point against Darkseid's jerks. A New God?
He offered his hand. "Scott Free. Mr. Miracle. I'm never going to get used to introducing myself with an alter ego." He closed the door behind him. "I hear you have similar problems."
"Could you just tell me how they're talking out there?"
"Well, evacuation kept away most witnesses and the telescope lens missed you getting knocked out. Oracle's wiping down the web, so—"
"Not them-them. The League."
Scott heaved a sigh. "There's an elephant in the room, surprise, surprise. Mostly they're talking about having a woman of your age fighting crime, like Bats has room to talk."
Kelly leaned in. At least he wasn't ripping her a new asshole yet. "And you?"
"I thought there was a hurt teenage gi—teenager who might need someone to talk to. And if it helps, I don't see you as much weirder than the rest of this planet. Putting meat in between breads, now that's crazy. But I get feeling oppressed. Wanting to escape."
She should've expected someone to patronize her. Maybe if she had, she wouldn't have gotten so angry. "So you were born a woman then?"
"No, I was born on New Genesis. Then I spent twenty years as a slave on Apokolips. It's all in my autobiography. You should read it, I put a lot of work in."
Kelly was moving quickly onto resignation. The damage was done. She might as well face the inevitable with low blood pressure. "My name's Kelly. Kelly Fitzpatrick."
"Yeah, I thought 'Green Lantern Kirk Kelly' was a bit of a fortuitous superhero name."
"'Scott Free said with a straight face,'" she shot back.
"I'm from Apokolips. That's the place's name." Scott pulled up a chair to face the bench Kelly was sitting on. "I don't know who names everything. We probably have a god in charge of it. A god who really loves puns…"
Kelly reached down to the cushioning of the bench she was sitting on and squeezed. Her fingers felt so slender and useless, like they couldn't exert any force. Kirk Kelly's fingers had been callused. "You really don't think I'm weird?"
"Nope."
"I do. Always have. Since I was a baby, I think… I don't mean I liked playing with G.I. Joe instead of Barbies, but girl stuff never felt real. It got worse when I hit puberty—like my body was doing things against my will. Then I got the ring. I think it must have malfunctioned… it's not like I overcome fear. That's what you're supposed to do. You think 'oh god, oh god, I'm gonna die' then go 'fuck hell, I'm Hal Jordan' and hit someone with a giant green fist. I never think I'm gonna die. Just have bigger things to worry about."
"The Guardians let you go through with the training?" Scott asked.
"I'm taller than them. Guess that made them think I was old enough. I got the crash course and they sent me on my way. I was back on Earth and there was this whole new universe for me and I thought… why can't I look like who I am inside? Who I want to be."
"Square-jawed, with six-pack abs?"
"Look who's talking."
"Yeah. Having a penis isn't bad either. Have you tried writing your name in the snow yet? Good stuff."
"My ring doesn't work on yellow."
"Don't need to know the end of that story, didn't need to know the beginning." Scott spread out his hands. "Look, don't let them tell you how to do your thing. There are millions of people like you—"
"Mostly in Bangkok…"
"Millions like you and a lot less who wear their underwear on the outside. Why don't you go home and get some sleep? You can get your Come To Jesus talk after they write it."
Kelly got up. That hadn't been so bad. Maybe they wouldn't even follow up on her, just chalk it up to being her own business and file it away like a useless superpower. Or maybe they'd look at her like a freak, even by their standards.
Still, it was nice of them to send the team sweetheart to butter her up. "Thanks. I think I will."
***
Scott talked it over as he and Barda ate dinner. She gave him her cleaning-a-weapon attention, only really focusing when he mentioned commiserating over penises with Kelly. "You told her how much you enjoyed having a penis and you ranked snow above me?"
"I didn't compare!"
"You wouldn't enjoy your penis half as much without me!"
"What about when you've drunk a lot of water and then it takes you a while to find a bathroom and—"
"Women have that too!"
"Alright, you win. Thanks for making my penis worthwhile."
Barda raised her glass to him. Scott's pants shook. He took out his cell phone and opened a text. "It's Watchtower. Kelly's missing from her parents' house." He wiped his mouth off. "I'd better go mentor her up, I think I'm obliged."
"How will you find her?" Barda asked.
Scott snapped his fingers. "I'll give Batman a call."
As he reached for the phone, it rang. Scott answered automatically and Batman's gruff voice came over the line. "She's at the corner of Richmond and Pike, still in her hometown."
"Thanks," Scott said to the dial tone. He tossed the phone to Barda. "Tell me that creeps you out at least a little."
***
When Scott pictured small towns, he always saw them as busy, with people walking dogs and kids at play, but Kelly's town was a long stretch of picturesque houses with nothing passing in between. Kelly sat at the bus stop, holding a suitcase like it was a life preserver. The bus didn't let anyone off when it stopped there, and she watched it go.
Scott sat down beside her. "If you're running away, you're not doing a very good job."
"It was headed for Tennessee," Kelly explained.
"Withdrawn." Scott looked different to her without the costume. It overwhelmed what was underneath, what seemed to be a pretty average guy. "Is there a fast food place nearby? You caught me right in the middle of dinner."
"I didn't ask you to show up."
"Hero," Scott pointed out. "Besides, I'm assuming you don't have a lot of cash on you, so you should take all the free meals you can get."
***
There was a coffee shop a few blocks away, hopelessly pretentious for Kelly's neighborhood. She'd applied there for a job every summer since 2008. Scott bought her some of the pie that always looked so great behind the glass counter. They sat down in the back, Scott eating a fist-sized muffin one morsel at a time.
"I owe you one, actually. My wife cooked dinner today. The water was burnt. I don't know how, but it was."
Kelly sipped her coffee. It was a lot better when she didn't have to pay ten bucks for it.
When she didn't say anything, Scott wiped his mouth with a napkin and said "Okay, I'm married to Big Barda, I can be blunt. You're running away from home."
"Yeah."
"And?"
"And I don't want to crash on your couch, so what do you care? Right. Hero."
Scott shrugged. "I'm not going to drag you back by your hair or anything. I just wanna talk."
"Why? I read your book. No one talked you out of escaping."
"Are your parents slobbering hell-beasts?"
"Well, I walked in on them in bed once…"
"Say no more." He took another bite of his muffin.
Kelly had no idea how he could eat at a time like this. Fine. She tucked into her slice of cake. Alright, it was good. Still, he could show a little gravitas.
"They don't know," she said.
"About the superheroing or… writing your name in the snow?"
"Both. Either. I'm sixteen. Someone's going to tell them who I am, one of your boy scout buddies. And then… they'll know the rest."
"You think you're in danger?"
"No, no… I don't think." She laughed suddenly. "My dad told a joke once, about how if I was a lesbian he'd bring back arranged marriages. Funny, huh?"
"Are you a… I mean, are you into girls?"
"No. I like boys, just… gay ones, I guess."
"Some people would say you lucked out there."
"I'm not all that down on straight guys. Considering I want to be one, I mean."
"Mmm." Scott rested his hand on the table, one finger extended to tap. "I know there are procedures, did you ever think…?"
"Not anytime soon. I mean, yeah, I thought about it, but what if it was just a phase or if I was crazy or… that's why the ring was so great. It was like I could just…"
"See your world. Even if you couldn't make it there just yet."
"Yeah."
Scott moved his hand on top of Kelly's. His grip was the kind she would want if she were a man, when she was a man. Firm. Warm. Solid. "Do me a favor. Talk to your parents. Take it from someone who doesn't have any: you never know when you might want some."
***
"You'll be waiting?" Kelly asked Scott outside her house. It looked like a normal house. Manicured lawn. Elm tree. Fresh coat of paint. Lace curtains in the windows. Barda would've loved it.
"You run, I'll have a Boomtube waiting. Trust me, I use them all the time. You know, I haven't used a public toilet in five years?"
"Yeah, you put it in your book."
"Did you like the book, by the way? It wasn't ghost written."
"It was fine. But I thought the Flash's was better."
"He banged that out in one afternoon!"
Kelly smiled before she went into her house. Scott leaned against the fence, to wait for raised voices or Kelly slamming the door behind her.
He waited a long time.
As for Scott Free and Big Barda, what story isn't better for having them randomly show up?
Title: Who you are without the ring
Fandom: Green Lantern
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,894
Author’s notes: Betaed by Gran Sigma
Summary: Kirk Kelly is the man's man of the Green Lantern Corps, always first into battle, never resting until the fight is done. His secret identity is Kelly Kirkpatrick. She's a sixteen-year-old girl.
Kelly woke up panicking. The last thing she remembered was a big Apokoliptian fist coming at her, and her nightmares had been of the hit, the fall, her power ring failing. It wasn't supposed to do that, she's programmed it to maintain her personal construct the same way it would keep an unconscious Lantern breathing in space, but… Kalibak had hit her so hard, could the ring have shorted out somehow?
In retrospect, maybe she should've been more worried about being captured, but Green Lanterns were supposed to be without fear, after all.
She opened her eyes and it wasn't a nightmare. She was screwed. She didn't need to look in a mirror to know what she looked like now. Short, barely off the ground. Long hair. Fat hips and budding breasts and just a void between her legs.
She cried. Wasn't a man anymore, so she might as well, right? Tears were still scorching her face when someone knocked at the door. She was on the Watchtower, with its automated doors, so knocking on the door was deliberate. Another reminder that she was a little girl. She scrubbed her face furiously before saying "Come in."
She recognized the guy who entered, a little. He'd been at the last JLA potluck (so not one of the Bats, then), joking around with the cosmics. So, an alien. And he'd taken point against Darkseid's jerks. A New God?
He offered his hand. "Scott Free. Mr. Miracle. I'm never going to get used to introducing myself with an alter ego." He closed the door behind him. "I hear you have similar problems."
"Could you just tell me how they're talking out there?"
"Well, evacuation kept away most witnesses and the telescope lens missed you getting knocked out. Oracle's wiping down the web, so—"
"Not them-them. The League."
Scott heaved a sigh. "There's an elephant in the room, surprise, surprise. Mostly they're talking about having a woman of your age fighting crime, like Bats has room to talk."
Kelly leaned in. At least he wasn't ripping her a new asshole yet. "And you?"
"I thought there was a hurt teenage gi—teenager who might need someone to talk to. And if it helps, I don't see you as much weirder than the rest of this planet. Putting meat in between breads, now that's crazy. But I get feeling oppressed. Wanting to escape."
She should've expected someone to patronize her. Maybe if she had, she wouldn't have gotten so angry. "So you were born a woman then?"
"No, I was born on New Genesis. Then I spent twenty years as a slave on Apokolips. It's all in my autobiography. You should read it, I put a lot of work in."
Kelly was moving quickly onto resignation. The damage was done. She might as well face the inevitable with low blood pressure. "My name's Kelly. Kelly Fitzpatrick."
"Yeah, I thought 'Green Lantern Kirk Kelly' was a bit of a fortuitous superhero name."
"'Scott Free said with a straight face,'" she shot back.
"I'm from Apokolips. That's the place's name." Scott pulled up a chair to face the bench Kelly was sitting on. "I don't know who names everything. We probably have a god in charge of it. A god who really loves puns…"
Kelly reached down to the cushioning of the bench she was sitting on and squeezed. Her fingers felt so slender and useless, like they couldn't exert any force. Kirk Kelly's fingers had been callused. "You really don't think I'm weird?"
"Nope."
"I do. Always have. Since I was a baby, I think… I don't mean I liked playing with G.I. Joe instead of Barbies, but girl stuff never felt real. It got worse when I hit puberty—like my body was doing things against my will. Then I got the ring. I think it must have malfunctioned… it's not like I overcome fear. That's what you're supposed to do. You think 'oh god, oh god, I'm gonna die' then go 'fuck hell, I'm Hal Jordan' and hit someone with a giant green fist. I never think I'm gonna die. Just have bigger things to worry about."
"The Guardians let you go through with the training?" Scott asked.
"I'm taller than them. Guess that made them think I was old enough. I got the crash course and they sent me on my way. I was back on Earth and there was this whole new universe for me and I thought… why can't I look like who I am inside? Who I want to be."
"Square-jawed, with six-pack abs?"
"Look who's talking."
"Yeah. Having a penis isn't bad either. Have you tried writing your name in the snow yet? Good stuff."
"My ring doesn't work on yellow."
"Don't need to know the end of that story, didn't need to know the beginning." Scott spread out his hands. "Look, don't let them tell you how to do your thing. There are millions of people like you—"
"Mostly in Bangkok…"
"Millions like you and a lot less who wear their underwear on the outside. Why don't you go home and get some sleep? You can get your Come To Jesus talk after they write it."
Kelly got up. That hadn't been so bad. Maybe they wouldn't even follow up on her, just chalk it up to being her own business and file it away like a useless superpower. Or maybe they'd look at her like a freak, even by their standards.
Still, it was nice of them to send the team sweetheart to butter her up. "Thanks. I think I will."
***
Scott talked it over as he and Barda ate dinner. She gave him her cleaning-a-weapon attention, only really focusing when he mentioned commiserating over penises with Kelly. "You told her how much you enjoyed having a penis and you ranked snow above me?"
"I didn't compare!"
"You wouldn't enjoy your penis half as much without me!"
"What about when you've drunk a lot of water and then it takes you a while to find a bathroom and—"
"Women have that too!"
"Alright, you win. Thanks for making my penis worthwhile."
Barda raised her glass to him. Scott's pants shook. He took out his cell phone and opened a text. "It's Watchtower. Kelly's missing from her parents' house." He wiped his mouth off. "I'd better go mentor her up, I think I'm obliged."
"How will you find her?" Barda asked.
Scott snapped his fingers. "I'll give Batman a call."
As he reached for the phone, it rang. Scott answered automatically and Batman's gruff voice came over the line. "She's at the corner of Richmond and Pike, still in her hometown."
"Thanks," Scott said to the dial tone. He tossed the phone to Barda. "Tell me that creeps you out at least a little."
***
When Scott pictured small towns, he always saw them as busy, with people walking dogs and kids at play, but Kelly's town was a long stretch of picturesque houses with nothing passing in between. Kelly sat at the bus stop, holding a suitcase like it was a life preserver. The bus didn't let anyone off when it stopped there, and she watched it go.
Scott sat down beside her. "If you're running away, you're not doing a very good job."
"It was headed for Tennessee," Kelly explained.
"Withdrawn." Scott looked different to her without the costume. It overwhelmed what was underneath, what seemed to be a pretty average guy. "Is there a fast food place nearby? You caught me right in the middle of dinner."
"I didn't ask you to show up."
"Hero," Scott pointed out. "Besides, I'm assuming you don't have a lot of cash on you, so you should take all the free meals you can get."
***
There was a coffee shop a few blocks away, hopelessly pretentious for Kelly's neighborhood. She'd applied there for a job every summer since 2008. Scott bought her some of the pie that always looked so great behind the glass counter. They sat down in the back, Scott eating a fist-sized muffin one morsel at a time.
"I owe you one, actually. My wife cooked dinner today. The water was burnt. I don't know how, but it was."
Kelly sipped her coffee. It was a lot better when she didn't have to pay ten bucks for it.
When she didn't say anything, Scott wiped his mouth with a napkin and said "Okay, I'm married to Big Barda, I can be blunt. You're running away from home."
"Yeah."
"And?"
"And I don't want to crash on your couch, so what do you care? Right. Hero."
Scott shrugged. "I'm not going to drag you back by your hair or anything. I just wanna talk."
"Why? I read your book. No one talked you out of escaping."
"Are your parents slobbering hell-beasts?"
"Well, I walked in on them in bed once…"
"Say no more." He took another bite of his muffin.
Kelly had no idea how he could eat at a time like this. Fine. She tucked into her slice of cake. Alright, it was good. Still, he could show a little gravitas.
"They don't know," she said.
"About the superheroing or… writing your name in the snow?"
"Both. Either. I'm sixteen. Someone's going to tell them who I am, one of your boy scout buddies. And then… they'll know the rest."
"You think you're in danger?"
"No, no… I don't think." She laughed suddenly. "My dad told a joke once, about how if I was a lesbian he'd bring back arranged marriages. Funny, huh?"
"Are you a… I mean, are you into girls?"
"No. I like boys, just… gay ones, I guess."
"Some people would say you lucked out there."
"I'm not all that down on straight guys. Considering I want to be one, I mean."
"Mmm." Scott rested his hand on the table, one finger extended to tap. "I know there are procedures, did you ever think…?"
"Not anytime soon. I mean, yeah, I thought about it, but what if it was just a phase or if I was crazy or… that's why the ring was so great. It was like I could just…"
"See your world. Even if you couldn't make it there just yet."
"Yeah."
Scott moved his hand on top of Kelly's. His grip was the kind she would want if she were a man, when she was a man. Firm. Warm. Solid. "Do me a favor. Talk to your parents. Take it from someone who doesn't have any: you never know when you might want some."
***
"You'll be waiting?" Kelly asked Scott outside her house. It looked like a normal house. Manicured lawn. Elm tree. Fresh coat of paint. Lace curtains in the windows. Barda would've loved it.
"You run, I'll have a Boomtube waiting. Trust me, I use them all the time. You know, I haven't used a public toilet in five years?"
"Yeah, you put it in your book."
"Did you like the book, by the way? It wasn't ghost written."
"It was fine. But I thought the Flash's was better."
"He banged that out in one afternoon!"
Kelly smiled before she went into her house. Scott leaned against the fence, to wait for raised voices or Kelly slamming the door behind her.
He waited a long time.
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Date: 2011-06-16 08:07 pm (UTC)