The Redemption of Booster Gold. Chapter 2
Title: The Redemption of Booster Gold -- Chapter Two: Consecration
Fandom: Justice League
Characters: Booster, Beetle, Guy, Beatriz
Prompt: "How."
Word Count: 1865
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: The how of Booster going from shooting Batman to bringing Ted back from the dead. A prequel of sorts, going over the things the first Mullet-verse Prologue skipped over. Exploring the details and day-to-day of the progression of obsession and mourning, as well as the origins of Junior and Zombie Max.
(My apologies on the lateness of this, I got caught up in research. Booster's solo comic series is a thing of beauty.)
CHAPTERS: { Prologue: Absolution }{ Chapter One: Benediction }{ Chapter Two: Consecration }{ Chapter Three: Delegation }{ Chapter Four: Education }{ Chapter Five: Flagellation }{ Epilogue: Glorification }
<-{ previous story: Mullet-verse handbook/guide } { next story: Hairy Situations and Situational Hair }->
Guest beta by edward_hyde, one sentence beta by alba_aulbath.
~2nd Chapter: Consecration
Consecration is an act by which a thing is separated from a common and profane to a sacred use through prayers, rites, and ceremonies.
-----
The "collection," as it turned out, was a collection in the sense that the contents of a magpie's nest was a collection. There was no real theme, nothing connecting the various pieces, except that they were all very old and no one was quite sure what to make of them. In fact the name of the exhibit was "Mysteries of the Ancient World," which sounded to Booster like most of the exhibit names he had heard throughout his life.
Silently flying through the dark museum, Booster found the piece mentioned on the radio easily. His goggles allowed him to see in the dark, so he didn't even need to bring a light, which could have given him away, in order to read the little paper plaque with the word "resurrection" featured prominently. They also let him see the near-invisible motion-sensors, which he carefully avoided.
The piece was a large book, old and heavy-looking, that was identified as The Book of the Dead. Booster was pretty sure he'd heard that name in a movie somewhere, and wondered if maybe whoever had discovered the book had also seen that movie. It was supposedly the translated name from the cover, but Booster had his doubts.
Doubts or not, Booster had what he'd come for. Carefully stuffing the book in the bag slung across his back, he hurried from the museum.
It was as he was flying away, the night relatively quiet, that the surge of adrenaline flowing through his body ebbed away, to be replaced by a burst of exhilaration. No alarms heralded his exit, no guards shone flashlights in the air in search of him, no police sirens wailed their way to the burgled museum. He had gotten away with it!
"Recidivism. n. A tendency to lapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially a tendency to return to criminal behavior."
"Shut up, Ralph," Booster muttered at the memory.
"Booster?"
Stopping abruptly, Booster's heart pounded as icy fear trickled down his spine. Or maybe that was sweat.
"Is that you, Booster?"
He knew that voice. Slowly turning, Booster's eyes widened at the two glowing green figures hovering in the air. He hadn't seen Guy since....
"I-I can't...I'm sorry...."
...Sue's funeral. Damn.
And Bea...when had he last seen Bea?
"What's up?" Booster asked.
"You heard, right?" Guy asked, pointing at him. "About Blue Beetle."
Booster winced, ducking his head. "Yeah," he said hoarsely. "He...I heard."
Staring at him intently, Bea finally asked, "Booster, are you--What happened to your hair?"
There was a pause, then Booster slowly shoved the hood of his sweatshirt back and ran a hand through his dyed hair. "No good?"
Bea and Guy were looking at him funny then. Guy started to say something, but Booster missed it when a dark flutter of movement below caught his eye.
A bat.
Narrowing his eyes, Booster had his arm out and aiming seemingly without conscious thought. He was just about to shoot the damn thing in midair when he suddenly realized it was actually a bird. Stupid bird, pretending to be a bat.
"Booster?"
At the sound of his name, Booster returned his attention to his old teammates and found that they were looking a little concerned now. He quickly ran through a pre-game mental exercise and focused on the here and now. Then he managed to muster up the smile he used when he was promoting food and beverages.
"Come on, Booster! That was our ninth take! Try to act like you enjoy the stuff!"
"What is it?"
"Did you hear a word we said?" Bea asked impatiently.
"I...there was a...a bat," Booster explained, pointing at the spot he had last seen the dark shape. "But it was a bird."
They just stared at him.
Maybe he shouldn't have bothered mentioning it.
"Aw jeez, he's flipped," Guy muttered to Bea.
"I can hear you, Guy," Booster said flatly.
Guy grimaced. "Look, Fire's got a lead on who offed Beetle. We were--"
"You know?" Booster demanded.
"I've been going over Kord Industries financial records--" Bea started.
"So was Ted," Booster interrupted coldly. "Batman knew, but he didn't bother saying anything when Ted went to him for help. Are you saying you knew, too?"
Bea's eyes widened in surprise. "I've been--I didn't--"
"And you didn't say anything? You didn't even think to maybe contact Ted?"
"Oh and where were you?" Bea snapped back, pointing at him accusingly.
Booster recoiled.
"Take care of yourself, Booster...it's what you do best."
"Okay, okay--so we can't put up much of a fight. And we're generally useless."
"For cryin' out loud, Beetle--you used to trust me with your life!"
"You gonna help me, or you gonna wallow in nostalgia?"
"I wanted to go with him...was too hurt to even get out of bed."
Narrowing his eyes, Booster spat, "I was in the hospital, you...you Brazilian whore!"
Bea jerked in surprise and she opened her mouth to speak, but Booster wasn't finished.
"You think if I'd had any choice--If I'd been able to I wouldn't have--He wouldn't--He just ran off! I would've gone with him if he'd waited! Tried...." He choked a little and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I've lost too many people I love, too many friends! My sister...Ice...Sue...now Skeets...Like hell I'm gonna stay here and watch it happen to you too."
"Booster, I--"
"Go to hell," Booster snapped, narrowing his eyes at them for a second before abruptly yanking the hood over his head again and shooting off into the night.
That...had gone badly.
A tug at the strap of the bag containing the so-called "Book of the Dead" reassured him that it was still there, though.
"See? I may be vain, shallow, and egotistical...but I can get the job done!"
And with it, maybe a second chance.
---------------
The next several days were spent doing slow, painstaking translation.
While some of the contents of the book were in English and a few other languages, they were few and far between and the majority of the book was in Latin. After charming a librarian at the local library into letting him use his "sick friend, Ted's" library card to get some books for him to read in his "convalescence," Booster checked out several books, including a Latin/English dictionary.
During this period, Booster learned many things. One was that translating was hard work. Very hard work. Especially if you were an amateur, and you kept getting tripped up by words that resembled Esperanto words but had entirely different meanings.
Another was that the real name of the book was The Big Book of Resurrection Rituals. Booster figured whoever translated the title as "Book of the Dead" probably just hadn't wanted to admit it. Still, it was better than "The Idiot's Guide to Resurrection" or "How to Raise the Dead for Dummies."
He also learned that many of the spells and rituals in the book were partially or fully dependent on props. Or "items of power," as the book referred to them. Booster wondered if they were like magic batteries or something, but decided to wait on using any of those. Stealing a book from a mix-and-match museum exhibit was one thing, stealing artifacts and jewels like...Cybele's Stone, for instance, was another thing entirely.
It occurred to Booster, at one point, that to be truly dramatic and heartbroken, he probably should've found an old shirt of Ted's to bury his nose in and breathe deeply while thinking melancholy thoughts about missed opportunities and times gone by. It was a good idea, in theory, though on the depressing side, but also very impractical.
Most everything in the house, including the clothes in Ted's mostly unscathed bedroom, smelled burned. Most everything in the basement smelled like...well, basement. And while Ted had occasionally smelled burned, it was generally an indicator of a bad day, and he had never smelled like basement.
Besides, he thought he probably had the dramatic and heartbroken part down pretty good just by living in Ted's basement that smelled of basement and embarking on a quest to bring his friend back from the dead.
"Get a grip, Booster. You're acting like some jilted lover."
...It had to count for something, anyway.
---------------
The first spell Booster tried was short, simple, and didn't require anything but "words of power" and some amount of belief. Booster figured he had that covered, he would believe anything the book told him to if there was a chance it would get Ted back.
He concentrated, he moved his hands like the book's illustrations instructed, and he spoke the words of power.
Then he waited.
At first, nothing happened. Then slowly a pinpoint of light grew from the floor, increasing in size and stretching upward like a vine made of neon blue smoke. Branches stretched from the rising light, then curled in on themselves and gently broke away from each other, spinning and whirling until they formed shapes.
Beetles.
Beetles of various shades of smokey, glowing neon blue danced in the air, not enough to be a swarm but still quite a few. They flew around the room, wings silently buzzing, and Booster watched their progress with fascinated confusion.
Then they drifted back together, movements looking almost choreographed as they flowed around each other through the air. With one final twirl, each glowing blue beetle seemed to implode into a puff of neon smoke and slowly fade from sight.
Upon further reading of the spell's description, Booster learned it was just an illusion. An ancient equivalent of a fireworks show.
That night he dreamed of chasing blue fireflies that were actually beetles with a laughing Ted, whose grin outshone the glow.
---------------
Smoke billowed, not graceful and blue like the first spell Booster tried, but huge and gray. As it slowly dissipated, Booster's eyes widened as he caught sight of a dark shape inside the gray, the silhouette looking...human and curled in on itself.
Booster almost laughed. Second try and already he had--
Oh no.
When the smoke cleared enough that more was visible than just a dark silhouette, it was obvious the figure huddled on the floor was too small to be a full grown adult male. As it cleared further, the figure appeared to be a boy.
And he was alive.
Booster's mouth went dry, then he jerked in surprise when the boy suddenly, slowly moved. Eyes squeezed shut, the boy tentatively lifted his head and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose at the smell of smoke surrounding him.
He was pale, and skinny, and had a messy tangle of brown hair on his head. Booster might almost have thought the boy was a young Ted, but...while some features were familiar, some weren't. The hair, for instance, though Booster thought it might have been a shade off from Ted's auburn brown. And that was definitely Ted's slightly pointed nose above what looked a little like Ted's mouth.
But the shape of the eyes wasn't quite Ted-ish, and the jaw was...not Ted's. Booster knew Ted's jaw, even had fond memories and a few fond fantasies of it. Whoever's jaw the boy had, it wasn't Ted's.
Whoever....
"Oh crap," said Booster.
-----
Various quotes taken from: I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League, Justice League America Quarterly #10, Identity Crisis #1, Booster Gold #2, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Formerly Known As The Justice League, and OMAC Project #2.
Also: Hey kidz! Remember when?
[ETA of chapter the third: ...unknown.]
Mullet-verse handbook/guide. (AKA "Are you as lost as I am?")
PIMP: The second chapter to the crazy!Junior story, Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide, has been posted in my journal. New updates to it will be pimped with new updates to this fic. Enjoy.
Fandom: Justice League
Characters: Booster, Beetle, Guy, Beatriz
Prompt: "How."
Word Count: 1865
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: The how of Booster going from shooting Batman to bringing Ted back from the dead. A prequel of sorts, going over the things the first Mullet-verse Prologue skipped over. Exploring the details and day-to-day of the progression of obsession and mourning, as well as the origins of Junior and Zombie Max.
(My apologies on the lateness of this, I got caught up in research. Booster's solo comic series is a thing of beauty.)
CHAPTERS: { Prologue: Absolution }{ Chapter One: Benediction }{ Chapter Two: Consecration }{ Chapter Three: Delegation }{ Chapter Four: Education }{ Chapter Five: Flagellation }{ Epilogue: Glorification }
<-{ previous story: Mullet-verse handbook/guide } { next story: Hairy Situations and Situational Hair }->
Guest beta by edward_hyde, one sentence beta by alba_aulbath.
~2nd Chapter: Consecration
Consecration is an act by which a thing is separated from a common and profane to a sacred use through prayers, rites, and ceremonies.
-----
The "collection," as it turned out, was a collection in the sense that the contents of a magpie's nest was a collection. There was no real theme, nothing connecting the various pieces, except that they were all very old and no one was quite sure what to make of them. In fact the name of the exhibit was "Mysteries of the Ancient World," which sounded to Booster like most of the exhibit names he had heard throughout his life.
Silently flying through the dark museum, Booster found the piece mentioned on the radio easily. His goggles allowed him to see in the dark, so he didn't even need to bring a light, which could have given him away, in order to read the little paper plaque with the word "resurrection" featured prominently. They also let him see the near-invisible motion-sensors, which he carefully avoided.
The piece was a large book, old and heavy-looking, that was identified as The Book of the Dead. Booster was pretty sure he'd heard that name in a movie somewhere, and wondered if maybe whoever had discovered the book had also seen that movie. It was supposedly the translated name from the cover, but Booster had his doubts.
Doubts or not, Booster had what he'd come for. Carefully stuffing the book in the bag slung across his back, he hurried from the museum.
It was as he was flying away, the night relatively quiet, that the surge of adrenaline flowing through his body ebbed away, to be replaced by a burst of exhilaration. No alarms heralded his exit, no guards shone flashlights in the air in search of him, no police sirens wailed their way to the burgled museum. He had gotten away with it!
"Recidivism. n. A tendency to lapse into a previous pattern of behavior, especially a tendency to return to criminal behavior."
"Shut up, Ralph," Booster muttered at the memory.
"Booster?"
Stopping abruptly, Booster's heart pounded as icy fear trickled down his spine. Or maybe that was sweat.
"Is that you, Booster?"
He knew that voice. Slowly turning, Booster's eyes widened at the two glowing green figures hovering in the air. He hadn't seen Guy since....
"I-I can't...I'm sorry...."
...Sue's funeral. Damn.
And Bea...when had he last seen Bea?
"What's up?" Booster asked.
"You heard, right?" Guy asked, pointing at him. "About Blue Beetle."
Booster winced, ducking his head. "Yeah," he said hoarsely. "He...I heard."
Staring at him intently, Bea finally asked, "Booster, are you--What happened to your hair?"
There was a pause, then Booster slowly shoved the hood of his sweatshirt back and ran a hand through his dyed hair. "No good?"
Bea and Guy were looking at him funny then. Guy started to say something, but Booster missed it when a dark flutter of movement below caught his eye.
A bat.
Narrowing his eyes, Booster had his arm out and aiming seemingly without conscious thought. He was just about to shoot the damn thing in midair when he suddenly realized it was actually a bird. Stupid bird, pretending to be a bat.
"Booster?"
At the sound of his name, Booster returned his attention to his old teammates and found that they were looking a little concerned now. He quickly ran through a pre-game mental exercise and focused on the here and now. Then he managed to muster up the smile he used when he was promoting food and beverages.
"Come on, Booster! That was our ninth take! Try to act like you enjoy the stuff!"
"What is it?"
"Did you hear a word we said?" Bea asked impatiently.
"I...there was a...a bat," Booster explained, pointing at the spot he had last seen the dark shape. "But it was a bird."
They just stared at him.
Maybe he shouldn't have bothered mentioning it.
"Aw jeez, he's flipped," Guy muttered to Bea.
"I can hear you, Guy," Booster said flatly.
Guy grimaced. "Look, Fire's got a lead on who offed Beetle. We were--"
"You know?" Booster demanded.
"I've been going over Kord Industries financial records--" Bea started.
"So was Ted," Booster interrupted coldly. "Batman knew, but he didn't bother saying anything when Ted went to him for help. Are you saying you knew, too?"
Bea's eyes widened in surprise. "I've been--I didn't--"
"And you didn't say anything? You didn't even think to maybe contact Ted?"
"Oh and where were you?" Bea snapped back, pointing at him accusingly.
Booster recoiled.
"Take care of yourself, Booster...it's what you do best."
"Okay, okay--so we can't put up much of a fight. And we're generally useless."
"For cryin' out loud, Beetle--you used to trust me with your life!"
"You gonna help me, or you gonna wallow in nostalgia?"
"I wanted to go with him...was too hurt to even get out of bed."
Narrowing his eyes, Booster spat, "I was in the hospital, you...you Brazilian whore!"
Bea jerked in surprise and she opened her mouth to speak, but Booster wasn't finished.
"You think if I'd had any choice--If I'd been able to I wouldn't have--He wouldn't--He just ran off! I would've gone with him if he'd waited! Tried...." He choked a little and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I've lost too many people I love, too many friends! My sister...Ice...Sue...now Skeets...Like hell I'm gonna stay here and watch it happen to you too."
"Booster, I--"
"Go to hell," Booster snapped, narrowing his eyes at them for a second before abruptly yanking the hood over his head again and shooting off into the night.
That...had gone badly.
A tug at the strap of the bag containing the so-called "Book of the Dead" reassured him that it was still there, though.
"See? I may be vain, shallow, and egotistical...but I can get the job done!"
And with it, maybe a second chance.
---------------
The next several days were spent doing slow, painstaking translation.
While some of the contents of the book were in English and a few other languages, they were few and far between and the majority of the book was in Latin. After charming a librarian at the local library into letting him use his "sick friend, Ted's" library card to get some books for him to read in his "convalescence," Booster checked out several books, including a Latin/English dictionary.
During this period, Booster learned many things. One was that translating was hard work. Very hard work. Especially if you were an amateur, and you kept getting tripped up by words that resembled Esperanto words but had entirely different meanings.
Another was that the real name of the book was The Big Book of Resurrection Rituals. Booster figured whoever translated the title as "Book of the Dead" probably just hadn't wanted to admit it. Still, it was better than "The Idiot's Guide to Resurrection" or "How to Raise the Dead for Dummies."
He also learned that many of the spells and rituals in the book were partially or fully dependent on props. Or "items of power," as the book referred to them. Booster wondered if they were like magic batteries or something, but decided to wait on using any of those. Stealing a book from a mix-and-match museum exhibit was one thing, stealing artifacts and jewels like...Cybele's Stone, for instance, was another thing entirely.
It occurred to Booster, at one point, that to be truly dramatic and heartbroken, he probably should've found an old shirt of Ted's to bury his nose in and breathe deeply while thinking melancholy thoughts about missed opportunities and times gone by. It was a good idea, in theory, though on the depressing side, but also very impractical.
Most everything in the house, including the clothes in Ted's mostly unscathed bedroom, smelled burned. Most everything in the basement smelled like...well, basement. And while Ted had occasionally smelled burned, it was generally an indicator of a bad day, and he had never smelled like basement.
Besides, he thought he probably had the dramatic and heartbroken part down pretty good just by living in Ted's basement that smelled of basement and embarking on a quest to bring his friend back from the dead.
"Get a grip, Booster. You're acting like some jilted lover."
...It had to count for something, anyway.
---------------
The first spell Booster tried was short, simple, and didn't require anything but "words of power" and some amount of belief. Booster figured he had that covered, he would believe anything the book told him to if there was a chance it would get Ted back.
He concentrated, he moved his hands like the book's illustrations instructed, and he spoke the words of power.
Then he waited.
At first, nothing happened. Then slowly a pinpoint of light grew from the floor, increasing in size and stretching upward like a vine made of neon blue smoke. Branches stretched from the rising light, then curled in on themselves and gently broke away from each other, spinning and whirling until they formed shapes.
Beetles.
Beetles of various shades of smokey, glowing neon blue danced in the air, not enough to be a swarm but still quite a few. They flew around the room, wings silently buzzing, and Booster watched their progress with fascinated confusion.
Then they drifted back together, movements looking almost choreographed as they flowed around each other through the air. With one final twirl, each glowing blue beetle seemed to implode into a puff of neon smoke and slowly fade from sight.
Upon further reading of the spell's description, Booster learned it was just an illusion. An ancient equivalent of a fireworks show.
That night he dreamed of chasing blue fireflies that were actually beetles with a laughing Ted, whose grin outshone the glow.
---------------
Smoke billowed, not graceful and blue like the first spell Booster tried, but huge and gray. As it slowly dissipated, Booster's eyes widened as he caught sight of a dark shape inside the gray, the silhouette looking...human and curled in on itself.
Booster almost laughed. Second try and already he had--
Oh no.
When the smoke cleared enough that more was visible than just a dark silhouette, it was obvious the figure huddled on the floor was too small to be a full grown adult male. As it cleared further, the figure appeared to be a boy.
And he was alive.
Booster's mouth went dry, then he jerked in surprise when the boy suddenly, slowly moved. Eyes squeezed shut, the boy tentatively lifted his head and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose at the smell of smoke surrounding him.
He was pale, and skinny, and had a messy tangle of brown hair on his head. Booster might almost have thought the boy was a young Ted, but...while some features were familiar, some weren't. The hair, for instance, though Booster thought it might have been a shade off from Ted's auburn brown. And that was definitely Ted's slightly pointed nose above what looked a little like Ted's mouth.
But the shape of the eyes wasn't quite Ted-ish, and the jaw was...not Ted's. Booster knew Ted's jaw, even had fond memories and a few fond fantasies of it. Whoever's jaw the boy had, it wasn't Ted's.
Whoever....
"Oh crap," said Booster.
-----
Various quotes taken from: I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League, Justice League America Quarterly #10, Identity Crisis #1, Booster Gold #2, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Formerly Known As The Justice League, and OMAC Project #2.
Also: Hey kidz! Remember when?
[ETA of chapter the third: ...unknown.]
Mullet-verse handbook/guide. (AKA "Are you as lost as I am?")
PIMP: The second chapter to the crazy!Junior story, Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide, has been posted in my journal. New updates to it will be pimped with new updates to this fic. Enjoy.