That Is Definitely Not a Bird...

Sometimes, life has a funny way of working.

Sometimes, things happen, horrible things, and they turn out for the better…

Take the teenage boy before the doctors on the operating table, for example. December 26th, his 16th birthday.

"Doctor, we're losing him."

"He's lost too much blood."

The doctor looked up from his patient.

"Tell his parents…"

"Doctor, maybe we shouldn't, he's such a young boy--"

"Ask his parents!"

Andy rolled over at the sound of the incessant beeping of his alarm clock and slammed it to snooze…actually, he slammed it to dust.

"Fucking hell, again?" He groaned, rubbing his eyes before deciding to get out of bed and take a shower.

"Do you think it worked?"

"He's alive." The doctor sighed, "Only time will tell."

"He could be the greatest thing the world has ever seen, a real super hero." The nurse bit her lip, following him down the hall.

"Or this could be a horrible mistake."

Jinxx fell out of bed, surprised to wake up face-to-face with his one of Sammi's snakes…and even more surprised to wake up to find the snake was bigger than him.

Well, I was dreaming about being a rat in the sewers of New York City...

Oh…fuck.

He squeaked, becoming human again just before the snake made a move to make him into breakfast and so soon that he'd forgotten he was partially under a bed.

"Ow!"

Sammi startled awake and leaned over Jinxx's edge of the bed to see what'd happened. He looked up at her, surprise in his eyes.

"Sleep changing." They said together and she shook her head with a small smile.

"And, I found your snake." He picked the creature under the bed up. "I think she found the heater."

Sammi chuckled and took the snake from his hands.

"What are you doing today?" She asked curiously.

"Andy called a meeting." He sighed, running his hands through his hair. "I'm going to go shower. I feel like I've been crawling through sewers." Sammi made a disgusted face before laughing and watching him leave. She checked her phone, carefully keeping her snake wrapped around her arm.

December 26th…

"Mom, I want to play for that boy." A young, teenage girl with cotton-candy blue-and-pink hair looked in the window at a miserable looking, lanky figure.

"Okay." Her mother nodded, pushing the door open for her nineteen year-old daughter who was doing community service for graduation.

The girl pushed into the room with a small keyboard and sat down in a chair. The boy looked at her, confused.

"I'm Sammi." She smiled, "You are?"

"Andy." He shrugged.

"Nice to meet you."

Ashley pulled up to Andy's home, still tired, but happy as it was his friend's birthday. Finally, twenty-one, he felt relieved for the kid.

"Hey." Andy smiled tiredly, opening the door.

"Hey." Ashley nodded. "Happy birthday." He handed him a coffee.

"Thanks."

"It's his birthday." A boy, much older than the both of them, walked into the hospital room with coffee. With him wafted a sweet smell that would have made the girl in the room turn her head had he spoken or not.

"Oh?" Sammi frowned. "I'm sorry, this is a sucky way to spend your birthday." She turned back to the boy in the bed, who she'd learned was named Andy.

"It's fine." The boy sighed.

"How are you?" The new arrival asked, concerned.

"Fine, Ash. I actually feel kind of…funny." He shifted uncomfortably. "No one would tell me what happened in the operating room, but apparently they almost lost me…"

"Fuck, high school bullies did that to you?" Ashley groaned.

"My parents are letting me drop out." Sammi watched their conversation.

"Great, then we can focus on the band." Ashley smiled.

"You smell good." Sammi commented off-handedly. Andy gave the other boy a knowing look and he grinned.

"Sorry." He chuckled, I didn't mean to.

She frowned, confused, and a little embarrassed about her previous statement.

"Sammi, this is Ashley. He's the bassist for the band I just started." She nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Ashley."

"And you, Doll-face."

Sammi smiled in amusement as it was her last name, as she'd previously told Andy.

"That's funny, her last name is Doll." Andy chuckled.

Ashley smiled.

"I'm not surprised."

Sammi frowned, feeling as if he'd known her last name before Andy had told him.

"Well, Sandra and I auditioned the new guitarists earlier this afternoon." He set down a coffee for his friend on the night table. "We found one we figured you might like. He's--uh--different, but talented." He smiled.

"Like me or like you?" A frown tugged at Andy's lips.

"Like me." Ashley smiled sheepishly. "But, I swear, they're talented."

"I believe you."

Sammi raised an eyebrow.

Ashley laughed.

"Hi, I'm Ashley Purdy, telepath, telepath resistant, pheromone transmitter, twenty-four year-old man with lightening reflexes and thermal vision." He gave her his hand. "I was born this way, so I'm okay."

"Oh, damn it, you've scared her away."

"No, it's fine." Sammi shook her head, eyes wide. She was a little frightened at the bold announcement, but she believed him. Though, the age difference between him and Andy creeped her out a little.

"You know someone." Ashley grinned. "A family member? A friend? A boyfriend?"

"A friend." She paused. "A little older than me…I might know another guitarist you could audition."

"Sweet, what's his name?" Andy asked, eyes bright.

"Jake."

"You guys ready for the show tonight before the party?" CC smiled, sitting on a small, floating purple disc of energy as all of the seats had been full.

Andy nodded with a small smile before a blur came streaking into the room.

"Oh, Jake's here, now it's a party." Ashley teased.

"Sorry." He smiled, taking a seat on the floor. "A robber down at the bank was running when I was walking here. Thought I'd nab him, but I had to take him to the station and file a report and it made me late."

"No problem, man."

"Super stoked for the show tonight, though." He smiled. "I need something to do."

"Yeah, there hasn't been much action around lately." Jinxx agreed.

The others nodded and voiced their agreement.

"You're friends with Sandra, and I figured you'd help us find her replacement, Sammi." Andy smiled, pulling out a seat for her and grabbing the back too hard so it cracked before he let go like it'd burned him.

"Andy, you need to remember your own strength." Sammi chuckled. "And, I'm flattered, but I need to take care of Beetlegeuse…Beetlejuice…" She sighed. "He keeps escaping and I need to renovate all of his tank obviously and--"

"Stop with the snake." Andy laughed, brushing wood splinters from the chair off of his jeans. He'd found his superpowers in the hospital when he broke the door while stubbing his toe accidentally. His parents and doctor proceeded to retell to him the story of his injuries due to being beat up by his classmates and the series of injections and operations that had saved his life while making him into, virtually, a real-life Superman.

"Animal lover?" A voice chuckled and the pair turned around.

"Oh, Sammi, meet Jinxx. Jinxx, meet Sammi." The two smiled and shook hands politely. "Sammi, Jinxx is the guitar player Ashley was talking about last year."

"Oh?" She smiled, "What can you do?"

"Shapeshift." He grinned. "Into animals."

"Ah." She smiled before Sandra and Ashley entered the room followed by the blur of an over-excited Jake and they all prepared to audition a new drummer.

Andy glared at the haters in the back of the venue. The haters always upset him, but today, on his birthday and the anniversary of his accident?

It was way too much for him.

"You fuckers throwing a fucking pansy fit in the God damn back of the crowd?" He shouted. "Yeah, I see you--"

"We'd like you to join us in the Super Project." The man in the black suit leaned forward, pushing a folder towards the band.

"Like the Avengers?" Andy frowned, looking up at him.

"Exactly." The man nodded, "Top secret."

"Then why is Sammi here?" Jinxx frowned.

"We need her to head the group that will be in charge of you if we need your assistance. She knows the most about all of your…abilities. With the exception of some of the FBI and your families." He smiled. "We'll need to put her through military training, but it shouldn't take too long."

"Andy, back off, man." Ashley warned, "Chill."

But he'd already lost it as the boys in the back started jeering and calling names. He squeezed the mic so hard, liquid from its unknown inner-workings dripped out.

"Get him off the stage." Sammi spoke into her mic and it echoed through CC's ear piece. He glanced at her worried face side-stage and got up to grab his singer before he'd burst through the ceiling.

"Fuck." Jake whispered, looking up into the night sky.

"Guys…" Sammi had run onto the stage. The boys all looked at her, as well as the portion of the fan base before them. "We need to find him."

***

"When I said I needed action, I didn't mean this." Ashley grimaced, looking over the damage to the city from the group's tower.

"Guys, he burnt down a Church." CC radioed into the headquarters. "I-I was just there…"

"CC, what's wrong?" Sammi empathized, being the only of the people in the tower actually listening to everything and thinking of a plan.

"H-He just locked them in there…" He whispered, "And I wasn't there to get anyone out before he just…heat vision-ed it…and…I tried to save them…Sammi I couldn't find this little four year-old girl…she…she didn't make it out. If I was there sooner--"

"Andy would have seen you and you might not be here, CC." She radioed back, "CC, come back to headquarters."

"Have you been in contact with the military?" Ashley looked at her and she turned around, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Yes, we were in contact, we are in contact." She nodded.

"Can they use--"

"No, Ashley, it won't do any good." She shook her head, "He's invincible, invulnerable."

"He's a medically-made super-human." Jinxx sighed, "We can't beat him."

"Well, we're natural supers." Jake tried to cheer them up, but he himself wasn't very cheery.

The group paused and CC entered the room, looking tired, covered in what ash had made it through his energy fields, and upset. Jinxx patted him on the back.

"Sammi?" He asked softly. "You know more about Andy than all of us put together, what happened to him?"

"Why are you here?" Sammi asked softly after playing a couple of songs.

"My classmates think I'm gay." He answered quietly.

She gasped and put her hands over her mouth.

"And they put you in the hospital?" She whispered, coming over to his bedside.

"Yeah." He bit his lip. "I have seven more surgeries to go through, my parents told me." He sighed.

"Oh my God!" She shrieked.

"Yeah, they scratched up my eyes pretty bad, so I have to go through surgery for them. And I have two more stomach surgeries and a bunch of other things. My ribs are shattered, so a few more for those. The only thing that hasn't been somehow damaged was my lungs, which is a miracle." He sighed again, "Even my heart was punctured, but not bad enough to kill me before they started surgery."

"I'm so sorry!" She gave him a soft hug to avoid hurting him.

"No, it's fine. It isn't your fault." He promised.

"Well that explains why he snapped." Ashley groaned.

"He's been getting hate all these years…" Jinxx sighed.

"It's not like we didn't know he was picked on." CC pointed out sadly.

"But, we didn't know to what degree." Jake shot back. "Holy shit, they could have killed him."

Sammi nodded.

"The technology wasn't supposed to be used on him. The hospital was doing a research study…but it had worked on their lab mice and it was the only sure-fire way they knew to help heal him."

"A series of surgeries and shots?" Jinxx frowned.

"They rebuilt his body, Jinxx." She shook her head, "From an atomic level they rebuilt everything. His seven surgeries weren't easy, they were hours long and once his body took on the new atomic structure he was indestructible. They had to start from the inner most levels to the outermost else they wouldn't have been able to preform the surgeries, this was an accident, the fact that they used their new technology on him, but they knew what they were doing."

"That doesn't explain his heat vision and shit, Sammi." CC shook his head.

"They performed some operation on his eyes, beats me what they did to them." She shrugged.

"The point is, we need to get some sleep, guys." Ashley broke up the discussion. "We go to war tomorrow."

***

"War" started bright and early, and by only noon it was pretty obvious who was winning. The boys were getting tired out, and they didn't know what to do. The city had long since been evacuated, but they'd manage to keep him within its limits.

"CC, can't you lure him out to space? You could manipulate energy into a mask of oxygen can't you?" Ashley pleaded.

"That kid could play baseball with our fucking planet, Purdy, no way in hell I'm risking it." CC snapped back, "And, no, I'm not risking it. I don't think my energy projection works that way."

"Damn it."

A building rose and fell, crashing only an inch behind Jake as he ran from the scene.

"Shit, guys!"Jake hissed, getting hit with some debris from the crash. "I lost him…"

"I've got it." Ashley groaned, trying to use his thermal vision to find their old friend in as he hid behind buildings. The element of surprise was something they lacked in entirety, but it was something that Andy was far too good at using to his advantage.

"Guys," Sammi's voice radioed in.

"Not now, Sammi." Jinxx groaned, wiggling his way out from under a fallen taxi.

"Jinxx, control your fucking girlfriend, would you?" Ashley snapped over the radio, ducking as something was thrown angrily his way. He recognized it to be some sort of structure from another building as it hurdled over his head, but was too tired to really care.

"No, guys--" She tried again.

"Sammi, didn't we ask the military to nuke him?" Jake sighed, standing up and jumping to get Andy's attention before he killed Ashley. He succeeded when he resorted to throwing a piece of rubble at the other male.

"His abs can stop a bullet, you really think a fucking nuclear missile will do shit against him?" She snapped, finally getting all of their attention, for the most part. They were still fighting a battle in the poor, mostly destroyed city of New York. New York City always got the worst blow. Andy was going for cliche.

"What do you suggest we do?" CC sighed, catching Jake by the hand and pulling him onto his "dumb, floating, hover disk" as Andy pursued.

"Okay so, we know he has Superman's powers, does he have Superman's weakness?" Sammi asked.

"Where do you suggest we find fucking fictional kryptonite in this God forsaken, barren city, Doll-face?" Ashley laughed bitterly.

"I'm not suggesting you find kryptonite." She snapped, "I'm suggesting you get the next best thing--"

"A nuclear missile!" CC groaned, flinging another few force discs before giving up and trying to weave in and out of the Washington bridge, Jake holding tight around his middle in a sort-of panic from flying.

"This is why I can't fly." He whined. "Holy shit, move faster!" His eyes widened as he realized Andy was steadily gaining.

"I can't!" CC snapped.

"Well, be ready to weave." Jake sighed, slowly moving so he was sitting with his legs hanging over the back side of the flying disc and hands firmly gripping Christian's feet. He kicked his legs and they quickly began to pick up speed.

"Find the Brookhaven National Laboratory." Sammi demanded, "Or at least what's left of it."

"Why, babe?" Jinxx was setting up traps to slow Andy down as his friends came speeding back towards the city.

"There was some fair or something they did that involved krypton." She explained quickly. "You all need to be careful, you all have human organs--"

"Most of the time." Jinxx muttered.

"You might be their best bet to carry it then, sweetie." She said bitingly.

"The joy." He quickly sunk down into an anaconda as Andy hit the ground, Ashley close behind him, in order to attempt to hold him still.

"It can make you guys nauseous, dizzy, sick, impair judgement--"

"This sounds really risky." Ashley let out a groan from a hit as Jinxx was easily thrown backwards, returning to human as he rammed into the brick side of a building.

"It is," She shrugged back at the base before continuing her explanation. "It can cause vomiting, loss of consciousness, death--indirectly for the most part--and other things. If it's not his weakness, it should still work, he has a human respiratory system, guys."

"But so do we!" Jake protested.

"Sammi, this better not fucking kill me, or the wedding's off." JInxx grumbled, becoming an eagle and taking off into the sky to search for the building among the rubble and remains.

"It's a gas so it's probably contained, you might only get one shot at this…" She warned. "In gas state it's green, a lot of orange lines."

Orange lines, orange lines. The eagle told himself, diving into a small, mostly destroyed building he recognized as the one he needed to be at.

"There should be quite a lot of it there." She said, "And what isn't gas is a solid, white, cubic crystal." She snapped at someone in the background. "The gas might be colorless, I've just been told. It'll be labeled though. Apparently only Mar's krypton is green."

A large tank caught the bird's eye. He'd found their only chance.

"You need to get it into his lungs."

He grabbed onto the strap with his talons and pulled. It was going to be a difficult flight back to where he'd left the others, but he'd gotten what they needed, their last hope.

Birds of prey are strong, but they're not built to carry canisters of toxic air. It weighed him down quite a bit and he took almost three times as long to return to where his friends were fighting as it had to get to the canister in the first place.

"One chance guys." CC groaned, over exerting what energy he could gather to deflect bits and pieces of rubble. Bits and pieces to Andy being about ten times CC's own size.

"How are we doing this?" Ashley asked.

"I'm right here, guys." Andy laughed bitingly. Jake mentally face-palmed. He would have been able to hear the whole plan, the guy had super-fucking-hearing.

Ashley cursed under his breath and flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes. Sammi smiled at the video feed and typed him a message.

Only Ashley would manage to not only remember to bring, but keep safe, his sunglasses. They doubled as a computer when charged, and obviously he'd done his part to remember to keep them that way.

Of course, it was pointless when Ashley himself could read the others' thoughts to even bother with the glasses, but Sammi wasn't in the immediate vicinity yet and she was going to need to hold a contact with him until she could be there.

Too bad the other guys can't hear you. She typed at him and watched him smile on the live feed.

She herself disliked the glasses. She felt they were far too sci-fi and almost resembled the design of Iron Man's mask in their capabilities. They were far too advanced for their time, she felt, and they were far too new to be relied upon for communication.

Ideally, they read your mind, and you could message with them silently.

Even if they worked, which she didn't know for certain as she'd never actually worked with them before, Ashley was telepath resistant and she didn't know if that meant from technologically advanced glasses or from telepaths themselves.

She changed cameras to see the other side of the street, but she struggled to find one that was actually operating.

Finally succeeding, she watched Jake reach into an obviously well-placed pocked inside his shirt and pull out glasses as well.

"You're not very scary with sunglasses." Andy rolled his eyes. "Where's the fourth?"

"Not here. We lost him after that last building fell."

Sammi blinked, suddenly nervous about whether or not that was the truth. She couldn't understand her fiance over the radio if he was an animal and not speaking a human language, but she hadn't heard him either.

Relief washed over her as a hawk or some sort of predatory bird cawed in her ear, reassuring her that Jinxx was alright.

"Cool."

Sammi, you need to figure out how we're getting him to breath this gas without breathing it ourselves. She received from Jake's messenger and she grinned despite the happenings.

The glasses worked.

Now she just needed CC to put his on.

She crossed her fingers hoping he remembered them.

"Ms. Doll, we need to know if you're maintaining contact with the team." Her supervisor looked over her shoulder. They were in a large aircraft, miles away from the city. They were currently hoping Andy wouldn't look for them, because if he did he would see them.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Good." He nodded approvingly. "If those boys need anything, tell us. We're working on evacuating the tri-state area."

"They do, actually." She realized as he began walking away. She spun her chair around. "Sir, could you send me down there."

"That, Ms. Doll, is a risky situation."

"I need to do something." She said simply, trying to hide her nervousness.

The man smiled.

"If you're sure."

"Positive."

***

Jinxx kept low, not wanting to give away his position. But he knew if Andy wanted to find him, he would.

So, he was careful.

He'd broken his radio, not wanting Andy to hear the noise from it. He knew the others would worry without a reassuring sound to prove he was there, but he couldn't risk it. This was possibly their only chance.

"Hey, Andy." He heard a familiar feminine voice and he winced, shifting back into a bird and taking up a position at the ready to swoop in if something should go wrong.

As he looked down, he was horrified to see the damage to his friends. Jake was bleeding from a huge gash on the side of his forehead. CC was unharmed, but tiring. He could see the faltering in his little shield of energy over Sammi. Ashley was sitting down and seemingly nursing a broken leg. He realized that must have been the sickening crack he'd heard earlier.

"Andy, please come down." She pleaded. "I miss you, you're my best friend. We all miss you."

"No one missed me." He watched his fiance wince at the harsh tone.

"I did, Andy, I miss that little boy I met all of those years ago who grew up to be a great man, a super hero. Where did he go?" She bit her lip, "Andy, what would Batman think?"

He snorted, but he lowered himself to the ground where we could all reach. Jinxx tensed.

"Andy, come here." She held her arms out to him.

He didn't formally decline the hug, but he stood his ground and didn't step forward and embrace her either.

Knowing now was the time to do it didn't help, Jinxx had no clue of what to do.

It happened in a heartbeat. He flew down with the canister and dropped it at Sammi's feet and CC quickly removed his "shield" (which would have been useless had Andy decided to hurt her himself without throwing something) to use his manipulation to open it.

The gas released everywhere and Sammi was the first to feel it's effects.

She threw up.

Oh, fuck, no. Jinxx groaned, mustering his strength and trying something he'd never tried before.

He turned into an extinct animal.

It wasn't as hard as he'd thought, but he'd never done it before. He was a pterodactyl in a moment and he'd swooped the girl out of harm's way as far as the gas went. CC had been quick to react as well and used what he could to steal Ashley and himself a way out. Jake had been first to run from the scene.

This was risky, because Andy could just as easily fly away.

And, he could just as easily be immune to the stuff and they didn't know it.

"Jinxx, Jinxx, I'm fine, you're flying out of city limits." Sammi soothed, voice still ever so slightly raspy. He landed on the beach, as he had been nearing the exit of Manhattan Island. Quickly shifting back, he hugged her, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" He breathed.

"You needed help." She shrugged. "So I did." She pulled back and frowned. "Did he get it, or did he fly away?"

"I'm going to go check. Please, stay out of this." He pleaded. "I really don't need you hurt." And he took off again. He quickly saw the scene he was so desperately hoping for.

Andy was laying down on the ground, breathing from the movement of his shaking shoulders, but down.

The eerie silence was too much and he slowly glided closer to better see. He landed on a building top and changed back.

"Andy?" He questioned softly. The other man didn't look up, but he could still see the rise and fall of his shoulders. "Andy, we don't want you like this. We want our friend back." He didn't know how Krypton would effect his friend as a being. Superman could essentially die, and so could normal humans under prolonged exposure, but what about manmade super-humans?

He watched his friend's breathing grow weaker and he gave up, changing, swopping, and knocking the krypton canister out of the immediate vicinity. He changed to human again, growing tired of the game.

"Andy? Promise me you'll come back, promise me you won't hurt innocent people." He reached out his hand and looked at the younger boy and he finally gained the strength back to raise his head and look at him with startlingly blue eyes.

There was no power there anymore as he closed them again and collapsed.

"Shit, Andy." Jinxx groaned, running his hands through his hair and flipping the boy over.

"What's wrong?" Sammi ran over.

"Didn't I tell you to stay put?" Jinxx snapped, apologizing quickly when she looked mildly hurt. She shook her head and picked up a piece of shattered cement, smacking the younger boy over the head with it.

"What good will that do?" Jinxx groaned.

"While he's weak I figured I'd do some neurological re-programming." She said simply with a huff. "Bring him back to base."

"We don't know if--" The guys had started coming back and she gave him a glare.

"Bring him back. We'll deal with him there." She gave a sickeningly sweet smile. "And I have it stocked with krypton now."

"Oh, Christ woman--" Ashley began, CC supporting him carefully.

"Hurry up! I need to get wedding invitations finished!" She snapped and they were off to it. "You hear that, Andy? You're not invited unless you fucking turn back into one of my best friends."

***

It can be difficult to say what changes a person and just how to change them back.

Truth be told, emotional scars just can't be fixed as one would expect.

Sure you can hit them over the head with cement when they're down to knock sense into them, but will that truly do any good when the thing that hurts them the most is physical and emotional pain brought to a man by his peers.

Endings never really end, because life's loose ends remain loose, but it's safe to say Sammi got her weding invitations out alright and New York City was easily rebuilt like it has been so many times before.

And the basement is still stock full of krypton, but maybe some of the stash has been used and some of the canisters, therefore, empty.

It can be difficult to say just how decisions are made and how they affect the future and the past and present.

This story obviously has it affecting New York City to some standards.

But, really, can anyone say that what happened was entirely unjustified?

I mean, I think it was pretty justified, but that's just little old me.

A super named Andy.