Snippet #1436709

“Oh, oh. Now you’re serious.”

Marcus rubbed his temple with two fingers as if to ward away a headache. No, he didn’t have one yet, but he was sure that before this experience was over, he’d have so many he wouldn’t be able to keep track.

The woman started out acting like your typical annoying teenager, but suddenly she sounded as old as she claimed to be, all pretenses of a teenage attitude gone in an instant. How was he supposed to keep up with that?

“Hey! How do you know that?” The dark-haired teen actually looked slightly sullen and slightly offended that she’d assume he was a goner before he began. “I might be an awesome team player for all you know.”

He frowned as she totally ignored him and continued on to explain why she was the best choice to lead.

Although he looked like he was off in his own little world, he silently absorbed the answer the woman gave to his question. Many times a teacher had called him out in school, only to be flabbergasted as he proved that he’d been paying attention after all. And then the effect was ruined.

“Wait what?” He turned a startled gaze on the Martian Manhunter. No one had told him the hero had been sick. He wouldn’t pretend like they were BFF’s, but in the short amount of time they’d known each other he’d actually grown to like the other. Once he got over that whole mind reading thing.

He wanted to know more about that, but never found an opportunity to speak. Karma repeated her question; Leon answered with a presidential speech. Marcus just sighed.

There was no possible way to explain himself without either sounding sappy or flimsy in his reasons.

“Okay. Um. I’m good at it? No wait.” There was an awkward several second pause as he reconsidered.

I don’t want to be a hero, I am one, he thought rebelliously, but didn’t say. Sometimes he was smart enough to occasionally keep certain opinions to himself.

“Okay. One day I saved a man from being mugged. It felt like I was supposed to do it. Not like some exalted privilege you give to someone else when you’re feeling generous or because you have the power to do it, but something I was meant to do and would be doing again and again. It just felt right. Nothing else compares.”

Well that went horribly wrong. They would probably laugh in his face for presenting such a ridiculous reason. He should’ve gone with the “because it’s the right thing to do” speech. The reasoning was absolutely true as far as his ability to adequately describe it in words. The feeling was just one of rightness, like if he ever stopped helping others he’d be slamming the door on something important.

There was also that other figurative door, the one that often slipped open a couple inches to leak unimaginable thoughts into his mind. But now was not the time to think about that.

"So what's next?"