Fangirls are Heroes

Bugging the Batman (again)

Barry tapped the comm-link in his ear and smoothly said, "Table for two." He grabbed my hand and whispered, "Ya might want to close your eyes." Before long he tugged me off a small trans-mat pedestal and we were on the Watchtower. "Hey Bats," Flash started, "Jessie wanted to talk to you about something, privately." Batman nodded solemnly gave up his seat at monitor duty easily. We walk into the conference room and I dig my fingernails into my hands to keep myself from squee-ing like the fangirl I am.

"What is it?" He says softly, dropping his dark exterior entirely. "Well, before I ended up here I had a job as a cyber forensics expert and I still have my license, but it's from a school that doesn't exist here." I place the ID on the counter. He gives a slightly questioning look so I continue. "Also I don't exactly "exist" here and I would like to avoid being deported." He mouths, "oh..." Regaining his composure he starts, "The Question does that sort of work for the league. You should talk to him."

"Does that mean I'm a leaguer?" I ask quickly. "No." He states just as quickly, "It takes a lot to join the league, first you have to be backed by at least one founding member, then you have to pass a few combat tests. After that it is a week and a half of monitor duty." He handed me a small ID card and communicator adding, "Until then you are part of our reserves; that allows access to help when you need it and extra missions when you're bored." "Thanks Bats," I say waving as I walk out. "Wait a sec," I say quickly, "Where can I find Question?" He chuckles, "4th floor dorms, it'll be the one with caution tape on the door." "Great." I mutter.

Just I walk out the door I bump into Black Canary, she playfully shoves back and says, "You owe me a sparring match. Come on!" She leads me to the "gym" which is half boxing gym, half supervillian's security system. The entire place gave the vibe of the training room from X-Men. We walked up to a small teched-up boxing ring like from Young Justice and she dumped her jacket full of gadgets on the table and I dropped off my tazer and handcuffs. She walked to her corner of the ring and explained, "Okay, standard sparring rules in the league are, 1) no serious injuries, 2) the match stops when someone hits the mat, 3) no powers unless otherwise specified."

"Alright, sounds fair." I agree. The robotic computer system started counting down, "Three, Two, One." I calmly waited for Canary to make the first move, not trusting my speed, but she stood still; almost egging me on to make the first punch. I knew she'd be ready for my punch, she dodged backwards as I slid my foot forward to knock her feet out from under her, but must have seen because she back-flipped out of the way. She grinned widely, something I'd never seen from her before, and then she came at me. It was like an explosion, she came at me from the side and hit hard against my rib. I stumbled to the side and looked down at her footing purposely before swinging my leg at hers. Her eyes followed mine and jumped my blow easily, but she didn't see my fist until she could only block it with her wrist. I kept moving, ramming my elbow into her shoulder shoving her to the side and then using a move I learned in middle school to sweep her legs out from under her without letting her recover.

The second she hit the ground I panicked, "Did I go to fast? Is she hurt? Ohmygod. Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I think I fucked up." That is what raced through my thoughts until she got up smiling. She giggled, "That was pretty good for a newbie! Congrats!" Then it hit me. She wasn't really sparring against me. She was testing me, but at least she wasn't being as obvious about it as everyone else was. "Thanks Canary," I started, "I still have a lot to learn though." "Hell yeah you do." She muttered. I must have looked like "Huh?!?!?" Because she snickered again before reaching behind my shoulder and picking off a small gadget. A tracker. "For a speedster you're pretty slow." She taunted "Hey! I was trying to control my speed! I'm not quite sure of it." I retort. She turns it into a teachable moment, "That's the problem with capes. They are never completely sure of their powers and they don't want to be the monsters they fight. Arrow and I know it's injure or be injured."

I grin, "I've heard that before. My old dimension, the book club I was in analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of heroes and how they'd rack up against each other. It was nice; never thought it'd be practical knowledge though." Canary dusts her hands off on a small towel on the ropes, "Let's grab some snacks and water from the cafeteria; my treat." She offers. "Sure," I say, "I could always go for a snack!"

Hiya Readers! I just couldn't help myself from writing this chapter before the weekend. (I'm trying to serialize this story.) Hope you like it!

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Writer