cosmicalwizardry:
@stargazingmartian
An advantage of having a wide variety of allies across the galaxy was that there was always someone that would be interested in lending a helping hand – the downside in Billy’s case was that he was twenty years too early. He would have to plead his case over and over, hoping that at least a few of them would believe his story and understand the danger they were all facing. Not to mention the fact that he would have to do all that without messing up with the time-space continuum.
Better to start off with the nicest ones, then. A location spell was all he needed to get an idea of where to find one of them and he waited outside the building until he spotted a head of fiery red hair.
“Hi, hello, er…” Wow, such eloquence. Truly the proud dignitary of an empire. “Miss M’orzz, Martian Manhunter… wait, do you already go by that alias? Damn, that’s not off to a good start, let me try again. My name’s Billy, I’m… from the future. Sorry for this horrible introduction, I swear I sound much cooler when I’m back home.”
There was something to be said about quiet lunchtimes. She liked the picnic table outside the library with the playground empty during school hours, save for the sparrows and the squirrels. Sometimes M’gann would talk to them, in as close a thing as non-sentient species came to language. She’d trade a sunflower seed for a song. A peanut for a pretty, weathered button.
Today there was something not quite right. Her animal friends couldn’t pick up on it, but her Martian telepathy could. There was something shading in and out of her mind’s eye, almost prismatic as she allowed her radar to encircle it. Certainly, this was a boy approaching her. Not nearly young enough to be a child, but hardly old enough to be fully grown. He had that crackling, sparkling taste of a certain magic. And he reminded her of someone she couldn’t place, perhaps due to that static his telepathic signature was emitting.
Though she wasn’t surprised by his appearance at her picnic table, his statement gave her pause. M’gann, wrist deep in a bag of cashews with an army of impatient squirrels surrounding her every flank, blinked at Billy. Simply blinked at him for what one might describe as verging on an uncomfortably long period of time.
Then, scattering a handful of the crushed nuts for her little companions, she spoke.
“M’gann is fine, Billy.” From the future. Between his honesty and his telepathic signature, that much was certain. “I’m afraid I don’t go by that title yet. And please do be careful. If the wrong people heard you calling me by that name, or Miss Martian, they’d have us both before the Magistrate.” She didn’t dare mention the name Stargazer in such an open place, but there was concern in her eyes. Maybe even fear. “Please, sit. Make yourself comfortable. Are you hungry?” M’gann pulled out a little box with a salami and swiss sandwich in it and pushed it across the table. “I’m guessing I should call in and make it a short work day?” She started to draw her phone from her pocket. “How long have you been here? Well, back here?”














