Superboy strode into the Young Justice headquarters as if he owned the place. He strolled through the rooms flipping every light switch on upon entry and failing to turn each off upon exit. Two large bags swung from his left hand as he brought his right hand up to take a sip of cola. He nodded his head in time to the music coming from his walkman. A Monday all to himself. There would be no crisis, no people, just him and his plan.

Or so he thought. When the Kid walked into the monitor room, the sight on the screen was more than enough to make his mouth drop. Spaceships of every design danced upon the star field. They darted to and fro as they fought to avoid the green hues of energy that cut across the screen. One silver cruiser zigged when it should have zagged and exploded in an orange ball of fury. It spiraled down crashing into a planet but not before steering three other ships off course.

Kon frowned at the screen, so much for his nice relaxing monitor duty shift. The bags he was holding dropped to the floor allowing a variety of videocassettes and CD-RXs to spill out onto the floor. His eyes flickered to the time index on the upper right hand of the screen. The battle had been raging for over two hours.

Well, Kon decided, enough was enough. He strode over the computer network and turned off the large display screen. Then, in the next motion, yanked the input cables from Bart's game system out of the computer.

The war noises died abruptly, replaced by an indignant cry of "Hey!"

"What are you doing here?" Kon asked. He had been planning this day for two months in advance and during all that time, Impulse being present had not been a part of it.

"What did it look like I was doing here? Sixty-fourth level of Space Trek." Bart started to reconnect the wires, but Kon grabbed them from him.

"It's my turn for monitor duty! I was on the schedule, so clear out."

"You so were not," Bart insisted. Young Justice was one of the few groups that actually had people fighting to pull monitor duty, mostly because none of them gave their full attention to monitoring, preferring to keep a small screen on monitor standby and devote the other electronic resources elsewhere. "You switched off with Cassie, then she switched off with Suze, who switched off with me, so it's my turn."

"Well, now I'm switching off with you again. Move it."

Bart didn't budge.

"You can play computer games at home. I need the computer system."

In fact, the speedster had gotten replacement wires from somewhere and was starting to reconnect those. "No I can't. This computer has a faster processor. Need this one."

Realizing that if Bart started playing again Kon would never be able to get him to leave, in desperation, Superboy pulled out the heavy guns. "If I don't get to use the computer, I'll tell Cissie where her arrows have been disappearing too."

"I'll tell Cass you're the one that dyed her wig green." Bart retorted back.

"I'll tell Robin that you're the one that gave Secret all of Hard Kore's albums."

"You wouldn't."

"Even the bootleg albums."

"Fine," Bart grumbled as he started to pack up his stuff. "What's so important about today anyway?"

Kon shrugged dismissively as he looked at the clock. Even if Bart left in the next two minutes (which was highly unlikely) his time table would be off. Frowning, he could feel all his planning just trickling away.

In efforts, to salvage at least some of the day. He helped Bart pack and was more than happy to escort him to the door (to make sure he actually left). As the door closed, Kon let out a sigh of relief. However, this was undermined by Bart vibrating back through the door.

"Forgot my memory cartridge." He dashed off, reappearing scant seconds later. "Oh, and you were right, about it not being my turn. I switched off again... I forget with who, but I know it wasn't you. So they might show up. Bye!"

Kon resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall.

He mumbled to himself when he walked back to the monitor room. Everything would be fine from here, he tried to convince himself. Everything would be fine from here. Everything... did not include the pop music that was trickling down the hallway.

Kon banged his head against the wall.

Cassie was reclining in the tall chair, watching the broadcast of a concert of a boy band. Kon didn’t know which one, after all they all seemed to look and sound alike. Sachrine lyrics echoed throughout the hallway. Someone up there had to hate him. He strode towards Cass, his palm ever slyly finding the volume button as he leaned against the console.

"We've got to talk about your choice in music," he joked.

She shushed him, almost violently, and went back to watching the screen. When a commercial finally came over the line Cass turned to address him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Well, I was supposed to be covering for Rob, but I couldn't and then Cissie called in and said she couldn't make it."

"When did I say that?" Arrowette entered the room, confused at the two extra people. She had been looking forward to some quality net time, but apparently that idea wasn't on target.

"Last Thursday," Cass insisted. "You said you needed to switch off to go to the camping trip."

Cissie shrugged. "That's next week. Well, as long as we're all here, we might just chill."

Kon gaped. Chilling was not in the plan. They plan was now behind schedule. But it could be salvaged, everything he needed to get done before the deadline, could grudgingly be done, after. Not that he liked it, but it was better than nothing. And nothing seemed to be in the cards at the moment.

Cass pointed to the screen. "Concert."

Cissie nodded her approval. "Cool."

Kon tried not to scream. Great, all he needed now was for Secret to show up and he shouldn't even think it cause it might happen! Time was ticking, he needed to figure out an excuse to get his teammates away. Something clever, something not rude, something slick.

The program returned, the announcer harking the "Live Special Spring Concert from Cancun!" Kon cringed in sympathy. Not good at all. He could always go into the rec room, but that would be settling. Sighing, he strode out of the room. With each step, he started to brood more and more.

Food.

The idea came as a godsend. Food was salvation. He'd eat, then he'd deal with his two blonde teammates. The popcorn seemed to automatically find it's way to the microwave, and bags of chips opened. Things would be looking up if he could just find some Zesti in this damn fridge.

"Something wrong Superboy?" Suzie's concerned voice asked.

Kon jumped in surprise. His head hit the top of the refrigerator and the bottles on the top shelf rattled. With a grimace, he shut the door and greeted her.

"Nah, why do you ask?"

She shrugged. Her shoulders were slightly hunched and her expression downcast.

"Anything wrong Suze?"

"I wanted to watch 'Unsolved Mysteries'."

Kon blinked.

Suzie continued, "But Cassie and Cissie are watching a concert. You'd think Cassie would want to actually fly down there, but she's watching it while 'Unsolved Mysteries' is on."

Kon saw his fleeting ray of shiny gold hope and latched onto it tightly. Accompanied by Secret, he walked back into the monitor room. Upon reentry, Cass and Ciss immediately grabbed the popcorn and started to munch. "So... which group is this?" Kon asked with a grin.

"4-ever," Secret answered for the two girls.

"Catchy name," he deadpanned. What a stupi--. "Shame you guys couldn't get tickets. But I suppose you could always fly down. I mean the concert's on a beach and everything."

Cass looked at Cissie. Ciss looked at Cass. They were gone five minutes later, and Kon cheered inwardly. He looked over to Secret who had already switched channels. Three down, one to go. Kon looked at the clock. Fifteen minutes, he could do this.

Suzie settled into the chair, already one with the narrator's voice.

"You're going to watch this now?"

Suzie nodded mutely, her eyes riveted to the screen.

"But it's almost over."

Suzie shrugged. Some of 'Unsolved Mysteries' was better than none at all.

"Y'know, I think I know someone that has all these episodes on tape..." Kon tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Yep, I think I remember seeing them at the Watchtower one time. You could probably find Reddy or maybe even Robin and get him to ask Batman. But what am I saying, you wouldn't want to do that. Besides, I think he said something about maybe getting rid of the tapes."

"WHAT!"

"I think he said today too." Suzie gaped at him. "Rob's probably in Gotham," Kon supplied helpfully. He pointed to the exit. "Thataway."

Suzie nodded and floated away.

Kon checked the clock. T minus 5 minutes. He was good to go. He popped a videocassette in the machine and a CD-RX in another. Broadcast would commence and he'd be –-

"What are you doing here? Bart switched off with me."

Kon groaned. Not him. Not now. Fearless leader was not supposed to show up, he wasn't in the plan. Doing actual monitor duty was never in the plan. And although Kon couldn't prove it, he was pretty sure that Robin was the only one that actually ever did it.

"I've got it covered. G'way."

Robin looked down at the taped episodes of Wendy the Werewolf Stalker. Season premiere was tonight, if he remembered correctly. And by the looks of the CD roms, Kon wanted to transfer his entire collection over to digital. A long process of course, sure to be worthy of a marathon. Not what monitoring equipment was supposed to be used for in the slightest. Robin didn't listen to Kon, but rather took the seat next to him and pulled the popcorn bowl over to him.

"Wendy again?"

"But of course."

"You know she died in the last episode."

"Uh, duh. Did you forget who you're talking to?"

"Show starts in two minutes," Tim observed.

"You gonna shush so I can watch it?" After all, two minutes was hardly sufficient time for Kon to fly to another VCR and get set up in time to tape it.

"Only if you pass the chips."

"For real, no lectures on responsibility?"

"Nope." Rob shook his head. "After seeing Batman watch reruns of the Grey Ghost for two days, I've learned not to come between a hero and his role model."

"She's not my role model."

"Just your fantasy."

"Damn straight," Kon smiled, waiting to hit record. The commercial ended and the network announcer spoke.

T minus zero minutes.

Begin record.

fin

~story index~