Rick was not exactly in a good mood right now as he and his mom waited for a cab to pull up to their house, since that cab would have his cousin Mari in it and he wasn't thrilled about it, since while he wasn't allowed to use his father's hourglass yet, she had given their grandmother's totem, which meant that she already had access to their family's powers, while he was being forced to wait.

"Rick, cheer up. Remember, your cousin is going through a tough time and I expect you to be nice and polite to her." Wendy scolded her son.

"I can't help it mom. Mari gets her family's super artifact, but I don't get ours." Rick complained.

"Mari's spent her whole life being prepared for the totem, while you have made nothing but bad decisions lately. I told you, once you show me you can control your temper and make good decisions, then we'll talk about the hourglass. I don't want you to end up doing something that you'll end up regretting later." Wendy said and before Rick could retort, the cab pulled up and a black girl who looked around Rick's age got out of the car.

"Mari." Wendy said as she went to greet her niece, half dragging Rick with her.

"Hi Aunt Wendy. Thank you for letting me stay with you." Mari said politely and Rick noticed the golden necklace around her neck.

"It was my pleasure. I'm not sure if you remember, but this is my son, your cousin Rick." Wendy said.

"It's good to see you again Rick." Mari said politely.

"Yeah, you too." Rick said half heartedly as Wendy went to get Mari's bags out of the cab's trunk.

"Rick." Wendy said warningly.

"Nice necklace." Rick noted.

"Thanks, it was all my mom left me after she died." Mari said and Rick nodded as he noticed the book Mari was holding.

"What's that you're holding?" Rick asked.

"It's my design book. I'm hoping to get into fashion design someday." Mari said.

"Well, I'm sure your designs are great, but why don't we go get you set up in your new room and then I was thinking that Rick could go introduce you to his friends, since I think that you'll really hit it off with them." Wendy said.

"Yeah, because they all have superpowers like she does." Rick said bluntly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Mari asked, her hand subconsciously going for her necklace.

"What Rick means to say is that his friends have started up a new Justice Society of America, which as you know, your grandparents and uncle were part of." Wendy said and Mari nodded, since she'd grown up hearing stories about that.

"Yeah, I always asked mom why she never joined the JSA like Uncle Rex did, but she never gave me an answer. But it sounds like I won't have to keep my totem a secret from them." Mari said.

"No. In fact, Courtney was overjoyed when my mom told her about you moving in with us." Rick said.

"Rick, go to your room." Wendy said, getting fed up with Rick's attitude and she was beginning to think that maybe letting her son join this team was a bad idea, since it wasn't having the impression on him that she'd hoped it would.

"What was that about?" Mari asked as she watched her cousin storm upstairs

"Rick inherited his father's temper and he's not very good at controlling it. He's already mad that I won't give him his father's hourglass, so finding out that you got your grandmother's totem, it's not sitting well with him." Wendy said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any problems." Mari said.

"Don't worry, you're not. Mari, we are more than happy to have you here, you didn't do anything wrong. Rick just is not handling things well." Wendy was quick to assure her niece.

"I'm also sorry that we lost touch after Uncle Rex died." Mari said.

"Thank you Mari." Wendy said, hoping that Mari's good influence would rub off on Rick, since she was growing tired of his attitude.

"So, can I see my room?" Mari asked and Wendy nodded as she led Mari upstairs.

At the same time this was happening, Courtney decided to talk to Pat about something she'd been thinking about ever since they'd told Rick about their secret.

"Hey Pat, can we talk?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Pat asked.

"I want to tell Beth about the JSA. It's not fair to her that she's the only member of our friend group who doesn't know. Besides, she's one of the smartest people I know, she's going to figure it out eventually. Plus, this JSA already has plenty of brawn between me, Yolanda, Jen, Rick, once he earns the hourglass of course, and Rick's cousin Mari, since it sounds like she'll want to join to, plus your big robot, but I think that we could use some more brainpower. Not to mention Beth is obsessed with superheroes, so she'd understand the necessity of keeping this secret." Courtney said.

"Maybe." Pat said, right as they heard a knock on the door, since they'd been talking near the front door.

"I'll get it." Courtney said before any of their staff could and she was very surprised at what she saw on the other side.

"Beth, what brings you here?" Courtney asked, though she was pretty sure she knew.

"I think we need to talk." Beth said, since there was an owl on her shoulder and she was wearing a pair of weird goggles on her forehead.

"Come on in." Courtney said, knowing that the decision had just been taken out of their hands.

To those of you who might think that I'm being too hard on Rick, I do have a plan and a reason for it, though I won't be revealing it. Things will eventually get better for Rick, but I feel like this is the best way to start out his character development.