Brave New World: Stargirl

Chapter 24

First off, I'd like to amend my previous Stargirl AN. I misunderstood the statement I read from John Wesley Shipp. The Jay Garick in Stargirl is the doppelganger of the Jay Garrick in Flash, I think what he meant was that the two of them were exactly alike, which honestly makes more sense than it being the same Jay in both shows.

Yolanda had to admit, ever since Courtney had put Cindy in her place at lunch earlier today, things had started to change for her again. People were no longer looking at her like she was a freak of nature, even though technically she was, not because of her sexuality, but because of the claws she had hidden inside her hands, still trying to figure out where those came from, but instead they were almost treating her the way they had before she'd been outed. She never realized just how much of her treatment was due to Cindy's influence in the school and now that Courtney had weakened the Dragon Queen, they were no longer scared of her. She made a note to herself to take Courtney out for a very special actual first date to thank her for in a sense, giving her her life back. Things with her parents would always suck, but at least at school she wasn't treated like the plague anymore.

However, she was pulled from her thoughts when she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Yolanda said before she saw who it was.

"Yolanda." Henry King Jr. said.

"I take it back. I hope that hurt." Yolanda said to him angrily, since she did feel some sympathy for the guy considering her girlfriend was the reason his father was in the hospital, but that was only because Courtney was protecting her family from Brainwave, that didn't mean that she'd forgiven him for how he'd betrayed her.

"Yolanda, please wait." Henry said as he tried to follow her.

"No Henry, I thought I made it very clear I don't want anything to do with you ever again. Not after what you did to me. You ruined my life." Yolanda said.

"Yolanda I never meant to out you. It was an accident." Henry said.

"Really, you just so happened to mention that I was gay around Cindy Burman, the school's resident bitch. You knew she would use that to bury me and she did. My own parents are ashamed of me to the point where I felt I couldn't even live in the same house as them anymore. You were the first person I trusted with my secret. The only person I thought I could trust with it. We'd been friends for years and in another life, maybe we could've been together, but not this one and you betrayed me. I'll never forgive you for that." Yolanda said angrily as she walked away from him.

Henry was about to follow her when he was stopped by Courtney.

"Give her some space." Courtney said.

"I'm surprised you don't hate me for the pain I caused her." Henry said to Yolanda's girlfriend.

"Oh trust me, I'm no fan of yours, considering how much hurt you've caused her, but I want to try to keep you from getting hurt. Besides, Yolanda told me your history with her. You two were friends right?" Courtney asked.

"Best friends. And I admit I did have a crush on her, but I'd never purposefully hurt her like that." Henry said.

"But you did." Courtney said.

"Actually I didn't. Yolanda just assumed that I did." Henry said, surprising Courtney.

"What?" Courtney asked.

"I didn't tell Cindy she was gay, I still have no idea how she found out, since I was always careful not to mention it school. Or at least not intentionally." Henry said.

"So you didn't do it on purpose." Courtney said.

"No. Not that she'd believe me." Henry said.

"Let her cool off and then I'll talk to her." Courtney said.

"Really?" Henry asked.

"As long as you don't give me a reason to regret it. Maybe try sticking up for her to your dumbass buddies." Courtney said.

"I'll keep that in mind." Henry said as Courtney walked away from him, but not before he heard her say "don't make me regret this." But it had a bit of an echo in it and he swore he was hearing her voice in his head, even though he didn't see her mouth move.

"What was that?" Henry asked himself before walking away.

"You know Courtney will be upset when she finds out you went to Civic City without her right?" Barbara asked her husband over the phone as drove in Civic City.

"I know, but this couldn't wait until the weekend and she's not skipping school." Pat said.

"Why are you going to Civic City anyways? I know you said it's where the old JSA headquarters is, but why are you going there?" Barbara asked him.

"Because after the JSA was wiped out, I gathered up every artifact of theirs that I could get my hands on and stored them at the base. Including artifacts that belonged to Hawkgirl. I'm hoping that if I can expose Kendra to some of them, it might help remind her of who she really is." Pat said.

"Okay, I can see why that would be a priority, but you know Courtney will be angry that you went there without her." Barbara said.

"Which is why I'm also going to be collecting the gear for Wildcat, Hourman and Dr. Midnite. Hopefully that will distract them." Pat said as he pulled up to the secret entrance to Garage of the JSA base.

"I understand getting the Hourman stuff for Rick, it belonged to his father, but the suit and everything else?" Barbara asked him.

"Because the ISA is in Blue Valley and the kids are going to go after them eventually, so they might as well have the tools. Now I have to go." Pat said as he hung up and lowered the platform for his car to get into the Garage.

As his car was lifted into the garage, Pat couldn't help but look around. It had been 10 years since he'd set foot in this place. Not the building of course, he'd been there a few weeks ago when he'd brought Courtney, Yolanda and Beth here to find something to help Yolanda control her powers and also learn that Courtney was Sylvester's daughter. No, he meant being in the garage. The last time he was here was the night the JSA died. He remembered feeling so powerless, especially knowing why they lost. He swore to himself that he wouldn't let that happen this time around and when he was sure that Courtney and the kids were old enough, he'd tell them this. But not now. They were just getting the JSA back on its feet, now wasn't the time to rock the boat.

Anyways, as he got out of his car, he couldn't help but lookaround, since everything looked exactly the same as it did the last time he was here. This had been the one place in the entire headquarters that had always felt welcoming to him. That he actually felt like he belonged in. He looked over at the display cases and sure enough, he saw that both his old Stripesy suit was there and so was Sylvester's old Star Spangled Kid suit, which Pat walked over too.

"I wish you were here Sylvester. I wish you'd gotten the chance to meet your daughter. Courtney is so much like you, it's scary. But I think you'd be proud of her. And thinking about it now, that night, when you told me to find someone to carry the torch, you meant her didn't you. A kid who didn't even know you existed, who'd just been born and you wanted her to take on your mantle. It's just too bad that you never got to see her yourself." Pat said as he looked at the Star Spangled Kid suit before turning around to head upstairs to the meeting room when he noticed something different about the room. The couch in there looked like it had been used. And recently.

"Hello. Is someone else here?" Pat asked, wondering who could get in here or how they could even know what this place was.

However instead of getting a response, he found himself being blasted back against a wall.

"What the hell?" Pat asked as he turned in the direction the blast had come from to see a girl, around Courtney's age, maybe a little older, standing there and most surprisingly, she was holding the Green Lantern's lantern and wearing his ring, both of which were glowing.

"Well, things just got a lot more complicated." Pat said as he looked at the girl, who was glaring at him.