Second Chances: Stargirl - Rough Draft

Chapter 5

"Wait, so Courtney's parents are really letting you move in with them?" Beth Chapel asked as she, Courtney, Yolanda and Rick all met up at Pat's auto shop, the Pit Stop, which had also become the new JSA's headquarters.

"Yeah. I think what really sold my desperation to get out of my house was by reminding her how much my parents hate people like Courtney." Yolanda said.

"Right, thank god the homophobe gene skipped over you." Rick said.

"Tell me about it." Yolanda said.

"Hey, at least now you don't have to sneak out for training." Beth said, since she was also a member of the new JSA, though that was only because at around the same time Yolanda's claws had shown up, Beth had been paid a visit by none other than Hootie the owl, the former sidekick of Charles McNider, the first Dr. Midnite. Hootie had brought Dr. Midnite's goggles with him and for lack of a better term, bestowed them on Beth, who'd reactivated the goggles' AI, which was based off Dr. McNider's consciousness and he'd told her about the JSA and had even named her his successor, a decision that Courtney hadn't had the heart to argue with, though things were a bit different for Beth, since unlike Courtney and Rick, who'd been training to be JSA members since they were 10 and Yolanda, who'd been in boxing gloves since she was five, Beth had no real combat training and she wasn't in the best shape for field work. Luckily, she made up for that by being the smartest of them all and since her mom was a doctor, she even had some medical training, not a ton, but enough to kind of serve as the team's rookie doctor, though she was training in combat so that one day she would be ready to suit up with the rest of them and get in the field. For now though, she mainly used Dr. Midnite's goggles to serve as tech support and mission control for the team.

"Beth, you know why you can't tell your parents about this. It's for their own safety. From what Pat told me, nearly everyone who ever knew about the JSA got killed, including my grandparents and my aunt. The only reason my mom and I are still alive is none of dad's enemies ever knew we existed." Courtney said.

"Still." Beth said.

"Beth, this is the price we pay for becoming heroes. We have to keep this secret to keep our families safe." Rick said.

"Really, then how come your's and Courtney's family can know the truth?" Beth asked.

"Because Rick's dad was a member of the old JSA, Pat might as well have been one and our moms knew about the JSA before we were even born." Courtney said, honestly, this was an old argument.

"Beth, trust me, it's honestly less suspicious if you do have secrets from your parents, just because it's normal for teenagers to keep things from their parents. Granted not things like this, but still." Yolanda said.

"I know, but still, I hate lying to them about this." Beth said.

"Beth, if they knew, they'd likely freak out and forbid you from ever coming near us again." Courtney said.

"Okay, do not want that." Beth said and Courtney nodded.

"So, when does Pat get back?" Rick asked, changing the subject

"A few more days. Honestly, I think he's wasting his time. The ISA has been hidden for nearly 12 years and they've done it successfully. Something tells me we're not finding them until they decide to show up and who knows when that will be." Courtney said.

"Still, he and my dad seemed pretty sure about whatever this lead is, it's important." Rick said.

"Yeah, though he's barely been around all summer." Courtney said, a bit annoyed by that.

"I'm sure he'll have a good reason for it." Yolanda said.

"Still, it would be nice if he'd at least tell us what it was he was chasing down." Courtney said.

"Yeah, my dad's not saying anything about it either, which means it's something big." Rick said.

"How's your dad doing by the way?" Beth asked him.

"Still frustrated that mom forced him to retire." Rick said.

"Considering the fact that it's the only reason he's still alive, I thought he'd have gotten over it by now." Courtney said.

"Dad's an adrenaline junkie. Always has been. The simple life isn't for him." Rick said.

"Well, on a slightly different topic, even if Pat does find the ISA, are we really sure that the four of us plus his big robot will be enough against the entire ISA? I seem to remember Pat telling us that the JSA's original roster was in the double digits." Yolanda said.

"Honestly, I think we're lucky that we found you and Beth. It isn't easy to find recruits in this town. And I know we have a lot of stuff sitting in the old JSA headquarters, but a lot of it is just ceremonial stuff. The only things still there that would be useful are the Thunderbolt and Green Lantern's lantern and the lantern is pretty much useless without the matching ring and we have no idea what happened to it." Courtney said.

"Still, we should consider finding other people to recruit. Even if they don't have the same codenames the original team had." Yolanda said.

"Maybe, but we'd still need to make sure it's someone we can trust." Courtney said and Yolanda conceded.