With Disclaimer I Shall Play: This story features Steel (and makes reference to the JLA) which is a trademark of DC Comics. This is an unauthorized work and no profit is being made on this work by me. This work is copyright of me. Download this story if you like, but please don't archive it without permission. Don't be shy.
Red and Green Continuity Note: As always, holidays are especially sketchy with the DC Sliding Timescale. The assumption here is that Steel has been an active superhero for somewhere between two and three years, even if the Flash or somebody else has celebrated eight Christmases in the same period of time (God bless Hypertime). Anyway, this story takes place before Steel got his new job in Metropolis in SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #95. But you've already skipped ahead to the story by now, haven't you?
***
He glanced back and forth from one floating screen to the next, scanning each image for priority. This was the Monitor Womb, an integral piece of equipment housed within the Justice League Lunar Watchtower.
He sat in the chair, suspended inside the vertical tunnel as the graphics and soundbytes flew past. The Monitor Womb was designed to allow a single Leaguer to keep track of every significant news event on Earth, thus determining when and where JLA assistance was needed most. He was especially adept at this, thanks to his onboard computers, which sorted through the information in tandem with his own formidable brain.
This was Steel. In spite of the importance of the task at hand, his primary objective was merely to distract himself. So when a teammate entered the room, he was hardly about to turn him away.
"If you're here to relieve me, thanks, but no thanks," he said.
"That hardly seems fair to me," the other answered, "but don't worry, I wouldn't think of trying to take over for you."
Steel recognized the voice. "I thought you took a leave of absence for the holidays, Superman. What brings you back here in the middle of the night?"
"Morning, actually," he corrected. "In Metropolis, anyway. You've been going over reports from California and Japan, I suppose."
Steel noticed one of his flying pictures was a live feed of a Honolulu weatherman tracking the progress of Santa Claus on Doppler Radar. Another depicted a subway terminal being held hostage in Japan, but the Martian Manhunter was already dispatched to handle the matter. "Guilty as charged," he muttered. "Merry Christmas."
"And to you, too, John," the other one said. He floated around to face Steel in his chair, red cape and wavy black hair rippling from the light air current ventilating through the Womb. Truth be told, it was quite capable of holding two people, but Steel was starting to wish it wasn't.
"So, I would have figured you'd be spending time with your family."
"I had them placed in protective relocation," Steel answered. "Even I don't know where they are. I have to arrange all that through my contact."
"But you didn't. You volunteered for monitor duty on December 24 and 25. Why?"
Steel sighed. "Look, I know we're friends and all, but do you mind? Heaven knows I don't ask about your personal life."
"Look, all I know is that there's at least three aliens on this team who would have had no objection to sitting desk during the human holidays. And as well as I've known you, you've always had a soft spot for Christmas. So what's the problem, John?"
He slouched in his chair. "You're looking at him. Let's just say I'm an old hand at ruining Christmases."
"Let's not. Come on, John, if there's a problem I need to know about it."
He sighed in frustration. "Look, I grew up trying to find ways to support my family, all right? The problem is that I got too good at it. When I took my first engineering job at AmerTek, I brought home the big checks, but I got caught up in some dangerous business from my employers. So what did I do?"
"Faked your death, as I understand it."
"Right. Uncle John figures he can take off as long as he leaves a big savings account to keep the bills paid. Only money can't play with your nephew and tuck your niece in at night. My grandparents knew where I was, but the children spent every Christmas after that believing I was long dead."
"Until you became Steel."
"Until I became Steel. And then I thought everything would be different. Uncle John told a big fib, but it's OK because he's alive and he's a shiny new Superman too. And I promised them I'd never miss another Christmas with them again. Only Steel was a little too good at ruining Christmas in his own right. Super-villains exposed my identity, the press hounded my family, my grandmother died in my arms thanks to my mistakes... when it was all over I had to call Double, a friend of mine in British Intelligence, to take them away--to protect them from me. My niece stayed behind, though, so I wouldn't be totally alone.
"And I still had made arrangements to see them when I could, the problem was that I could never find the time. So I sent my niece instead, and spent Christmas with the woman I loved. Didn't quite work out that way..."
"I guess not."
"Natasha comes back and tells me they've all changed. I tried to put a good spin on that, saying that they still loved her and that would always be the same. But deep inside, I knew what it really was. They resented me--resented me for dropping them like a bad habit all those years ago and then coming back to tear down the lives they had built in the interim. And the woman I _had_ managed to pay attention to turned out to be less than ideal. She betrayed me and aided and abetted one of my enemies. She's in jail as we speak."
Steel took a deep breath and released it grudgingly. "So..."
"So.."
"Here I am now. Just like last year, I've sent Natasha back to spend Christmas with the rest of my family, who hate me, by the way. And the love of my life is in prison. Right now about all I have going for me is the JLA, so here I sit, alone on the moon, hoping that I don't mess up Christmas for anyone else this year. And I was doing a pretty good job of forgetting all of this until you dragged it out of me..."
"Steel?"
"What?"
"Your family doesn't hate you."
Steel cocked an eyebrow inside his armor. "How would you even know?"
"Because I asked them on the way up here. Jamal was a little recalcitrant, but Natasha kept punching him in the shoulder until he caved in. Remarkable girl."
"Remarkable enough to fiddle with my JLA teleporter _again_ after I had already told her not to a thousand times," John groaned. "Double, what are you doing here?"
He grinned through his disguise. "Not fooled, huh?"
"My armor ran a voice pattern check the second you opened your mouth. You're Miles Duncan using a sonic modulator, or Superman's been installing speakers in his larynx. How did you even get past security?"
Double laughed and shut of the holographic disguise covering his handsome features, as well as the harness and thin wire holding him in midair. "Little gadget my father gave me last year. Fitting for Boxing Day, that a mere secret agent should take on the role of the world's premiere hero, don't you think?"
"Double..."
He chuckled again. "It's not as impressive as it looks, I'm afraid. I'm good, but not that good. So I put in a call to the Batman through my sources, and he was surprisingly agreeable to my idea. Man has a richly undeserved reputation, I say. Anyway, I arranged the entire scheme with Natasha, and I delivered the Irons clan from their secret locale to your house with the teleporter, and she did the rest. They're waiting in the main control room, where I had expected to find you at this hour."
"You did."
He crossed his arms. "John, from what little I know about this facility, the poor fellow on monitor duty doesn't sit in this godforsaken chamber unless it's in the middle of an earth-shattering crisis. You've been hiding from the universe down here. Now don't you think it's time you crawled out into the light?"
He shook his head and smiled in spite of himself. "Well, it looks like you went to a lot of trouble."
"I'm the only man who has the knowledge to reunite your family, John," Double said. "I take that responsibility very seriously, especially after you helped my sister Sarah the first time we met. So are you coming up, or do I have to send some people home disappointed from their first trip to the moon?"
Steel rose from his chair and grasped his hand firmly. "I suppose I don't have any choice at all in the matter. I appreciate this, Double. You're a good friend."
"Think nothing of it," Double replied, "and have a Merry Christmas."
THE END