This is what happens when I get writers block, I write something else.
Summary: The Justice League gets a call they thought they'd never get. Blackmailed into helping a young hero named The Runner, Batman sends The Team in to rescue her and bring her back for questioning. They get more then they bargained for when the find her. OC/Robin. Yes, this is a slash.
I'm relatively new to superhero stuff, the only things I know are what I've read on here and what I've seen on Young Justice, so I'm changing it to fit my storyline. If you hate what I do, I don't really care. I'm writing this for my own enjoyment, and hopefully someone elses enjoyment. I'm also writing this because I don't want to start on my essay for English that's due Monday. Wish me luck on that.
I don't own Young Justice or the Justice League, or anything by DC. I DO own The Runner, Hopeton, and everyone in Hopeton.
The Calm Before The Storm
The day that The Team heard about The Runner, everyone, excluding Aqualad, had just gotten back from school. The first one in was Artemis, already clad in her green outfit. The others came in consecutively, starting with M'gann and Superboy. Kid Flash, surprisingly, came in before Robin, though the little bird wasn't far behind.
Robin had just gotten into the kitchen when he heard the news reporter start talking about a hostage situation in the town Hopeton, which was about a two hour drive from Mount Justice. The reporter was talking about some of the hostages, who seemed to be pretty important people in Hopeton, when a shadow-clad figure started raising hell. The figure, too small to be an adult, flipped through the air, kicking out and hitting the hostage-takers. The men fell like dominos.
The kid was now in full view of the cameras. You couldn't see the kids face, but you could clearly tell that he/she was no older than Robin, who had just turned 15, three months before. The figure was clad in grey baggy pants and a black long sleeved shirt. They had a mask on, too, a black, full-face mask with a white stripe heading from the left side of the kids face to the kids right cheekbone. It looked like someone had just decided to put a kid in a superhero outfit and send them off to be killed. Of course, that's how the Justice League first thought of Batman bringing a nine year old Robin into the hero lifestyle.
The Team watched, amazed, as the reporter started to stammer.
"I… Oh, my God. Jonas, are you getting this? That….. that's The Runner. Jonas, are we live?"
The Team was barely listening, they were too busy watching the tiny form take down five men, three times their size. The hostages seemed a little, well, unnerved to see the darkly clad figure. Seven out of the ten hostage had their eyes down, almost as if they didn't dare to look at a kid who probably weighed a fourth of what they weighed.
"Good. Um… This, this is incredible. No one has seen The Runner in months. Hopetons very own homemade hero. This girl has been fighting for justice in our streets for four years. Many people say she can't be more than 17 years old. There are people who say she's only 15. That would make her 11 when she began protecting those who couldn't protect themselves."
Just then, the girl, The Runner, dealt a very hard kick to the last of the hostage-takers, taking the man down. Many of the civilians who had been watching the action let out a cheer, which was cut short by the arrival of the city cops. Then, to everyones surprise, The Team and the civilians alike, the cops got out of their cars and pointed their guns at the girl.
"Freeze!" One of them yelled, "Put your hands up and come towards the door, slowly."
The Runner visibly tensed, but didn't do either of those things. Instead, she reached into her pocket, pulling out what looked like a sliver of paper. One of the cops flicked his safety off.
A civvie, a young boy, turned and screamed, "She just helped my daddy! Why do you want her?"
The Runner turned and laughed at the cops. "You really think, after four years of evading you, that I would give up now? Man, you guys really have the brains of Chihuahuas, don't you?"
With that, The Runner turned on her heels, quickly slicing the bonds of each hostage with a switchblade that hadn't been there a second ago, and, in a flash of flying feet, ran straight up the wall to her right. Hostages and civilians alike stared, with open mouths, as she pulled herself onto the roof and started running, bullets flying after her.
Kid Flash was staring, surprised at the girls speed. She was outrunning the bullets, but she didn't have super speed. In fact, the reporter, a woman by the name of Charlie Trapes, was saying that the tiny girl didn't have any powers. Artemis was smirking, thinking of how more and more superheros without powers were showing up. Aqualad was astounded that a girl who was obviously malnourished, you could see her ribs through the tight black shirt, could knock five overgrown men out and run from cops on barely any nutrition. M'gann, of course, was worried about the small child. The girl was a baby to the Martian, even though M'gann herself was only 18. Superboy was confused, as always. He couldn't understand how he hadn't heard of the young vigilante. Robin was just as confused, and for the same reason. The little bird, though he wasn't very little anymore, hadn't ever heard of a vigilante in Hopeton. In fact, the bird hadn't known that Hopeton needed a vigilante. The very name seems to say, "Yeah, we're okay. We got everything under control," yet here was someone who didn't think so.
Unbeknownst to the young heros, Black Canary was also watching the news. She wasn't nearly as perplexed as they were. After all, she had known Robin when he was just nine, at the very start of his hero career, and he had been doing things almost as dangerous all this time. What did puzzle the older hero was the fact that the Justice League database had nothing on a vigilante called "The Runner", or any hero from Hopeton. They had nothing on any villains, either. So why would the town need this Runner, and why would the police not want her there? Black Canary sighed. She would have to find that out on her own.
Robin was thinking almost linier to the other bird, going over everything he'd heard about Hopeton. After a list of three things, none of them helpful at all, he gave up. The ebony would just have to wait until he could get back into the Batcave to find out more about this town.
But, of course, he would only find what The Runner wanted them to know. The Runner had made sure of that.
The girl in question ran faster than ever before, surprisingly reaching her hideout in record time. She'd worked hard to get back into shape. After all, when you're the only vigilante in a town of assholes and fuck-ups, you need to be able to run. And running is what she did best.
She had picked out the name herself. The Runner, not original, but not taken, either. Something of a joke between her and her older "brother".
"You see how she fast she runs, Mama?" An nine year old asked, pulling at her mothers skirt and looking at the woman with big sapphire eyes. They were watching their newest member, a young girl about twelve years old, run up and around the training field, her dull brown and bright auburn highlighted hair whipping around her pale face. The girl had a look of pure delight in her silver-blue eyes.
The little girls mother, a tall, tan skinned, dark haired, dark eyed woman, smiled at her daughter, "Yeah, she's really fast, isn't she, Sammy?
Sammy's brother, who six years older than his sister, huffed, " I bet she's just showing off." The boy turned to his father, "Right Dad?"
The boys dad, a blue eyes, blonde haired man as tall as his wife, laughed at the boy.
"No, Tom. She's just really good. And she loves running. Fallac told us that she insists on running during training." The man turned to his wife, " Right, Jen?"
The woman, Jenifer, smiled back at her husband, " Right, Zach."
Sammy, the nine year old, looked at her dad, "Fallac told me that she feels free when she runs, Daddy. Why doesn't Kitty feel free all the time?"
The girls father didn't answer. His eyes were glued to the newest member of their family, the girl his daughter called Kitty. She was running faster than what seemed possible for an twelve year old, sprinting straight towards a wall. Tom, despite his hostility towards the young girl, held his breath. She'd done stunts like this before, but she hasn't gone this fast since she got back from doing whatever the heck the girl did to be given to them. The siblings mother held her breath too, knowing that if she distracted the girl, it could be a very painful landing.
Of course, their worries proved incorrect, as Kitty turned at the exact right time and ran across the wall, reaching the other side of the practice field completely unharmed. Each family member, aside from a certain nine year old who still hadn't gotten her answer, let out their breath in a sigh of relief. No matter how many times the young girl did stunts like that, they'd always be worried for her safety.
The families thoughts of their new young ward were cut short by a scream of fright. Everyone, even the young girl who had just been getting ready for another run, looked up for its source. Tom was the first to see her, a little three year old girl dangling from a wall across the room from Kitty. The little girl screamed again, barely hanging onto the slippery red wall.
"Alice!" Jen screamed at her youngest daughter.
Kitty sprang into action, calculating what she should do. The wall was at least twice the twelve year olds height, but that didn't matter at all in her brain. This was her family, her little sister, about to fall to her death. She knew the three year old couldn't hold on much longer.
Before anyone could call to get a ladder, Kitty was running straight towards the wall. This time, instead of turning on a dime and running on the wall, the young girl ran up it, grabbing onto the side and pulling herself up just in time to grab her little sisters hand. The toddlers scream was cut short as she was pulled up by her favorite new friend, her "sister". The toddler, little Alice, began whimpering and crying, burying her face into Kittys large grey shirt. The twelve year old held onto her, balancing herself perfectly so that neither of them fell.
By that time, the entire training field had fallen silent and was staring at the two young girls. The wall that Kitty had just climbed up was reserved for only the advanced members of the Rebels. Some of their most seasoned veterans couldn't climb it, yet this little girl, with almost no training, simply ran up it. Everyone knew that sometimes, the smaller members got up onto the wall, but by climbing it with a rope, or finding a ladder and using it. This raw, untrained, malnourished girl just ran up it like it was a little stepping stool.
The sound of little Alice crying brought some of the Rebel members out of their awed stupor, and someone ran to get a ladder. Another went to find Fallac, to tell him about this girl. By the time Fallac got to the field, both girls were safely down on the ground and wrapped in their parents arms.
Fallac folded his arms, "Zachary, Jenifer, what happened?"
Anyone who didn't know Fallac would think he was angry. He sounded angry, he looked angry, he even seemed to radiate anger. But it wasn't anger he felt. It was fear. Both little Alice and Kitty, who's real name happened to be Kathryn, were favorites of his. If anything had happened to them, he would be just as devastated as their parents.
The little three year old turned in her fathers arms, looking straight at Fallac with red, puffy eyes, "I wanted to climb on the wall, like Kitty," Alices' voice was soft and trembling, "But I slipped and fell. I held on, but I was scared." She buried her face back into her fathers jacket.
Kathryn, who always told Fallac that only her siblings and her foster parents could call her Kitty, spoke up, "We heard her scream. I knew she wouldn't be able to hold onto the wall forever, so I ran up it to help her."
The twelve year old turned completely to her mentor.
"Am I in trouble, Fallac?" She asked, almost as if she was scared of him.
Fallac started. "Why would you think you're in trouble, Kat?"
The girl bit her lip and looked down, "Well, the others stared at me when I was up on the wall. I thought, maybe, I shouldn't've gone up there."
He stared at the girl. "Wait, you ran up that wall?" He pointed to the wall in question. The young girl nodded, almost in tears.
She was surprised when Fallac wrapped her in his arms. The man seemed relieved, picking up the twelve year old as if she was the little emaciated nine year old he found living on the streets three years before and holding her tight against his chest.
"You little idiot," He whispered into her sweat streaked hair, "You could've died!"
He set her down again, though he kept a tight grip on her shoulders. Kat saw fear in his eyes for the first time since she'd come back after fighting with some of the worst men in Hopeton.
"What's wrong with the wall? Why would I have died?" Kat asked.
The three adults looked at each other, wondering if they should tell the girl. Finally, Zach sighed and knelt down to his wards level.
"You see, Kitty, that wall isn't very easy to climb. A lot of people have tried, but there have only been a few that have actually made it to the top. Some of those who tried had been your age, but none of them made it up. There were seven cases where they'd tried to climb it, but they fell and broke their necks."
The girls eyes widened. "Oh." She looked down, but she didn't look scared. In fact, she looked proud of herself. Zach looked concerned until he realized that she still had adrenaline running through her veins.
One of the other Rebels came up to Kat, a man named Walter.
"Kathryn?" He asked. The girl looked up at him.
"Kat, if we put a mat underneath the wall, do you think you could try to climb it again?"
The girl looked at her foster parents and her mentor. The adults didn't seem thrilled about the idea, but curiosity took over their minds.
"Its your choice, Kitty." Jen told her foster daughter, rubbing the girls hair.
Kats eyes lit up, turning more blue than silver. "Okay! I'll do it!"
True to his word, Walter had four mats placed underneath the wall. Kat ran up the wall six times, showing everyone that it wasn't just luck and adrenaline that got her up the first time. By the time she ran up the wall the third time, there was a crowd gathered around, watching her do something that none of them could do. When she got down the sixth and final time, people cheered and slapped her on the back. Not many twelve year olds could do things that most grown men couldn't do.
The others finally let her go, promising to teach her some other things besides wall running and wall climbing. Kat was so tired that Zach, her foster father, had to carry her back to their house. She was almost asleep when they reached their destination, which was about seven miles from the training field.
"She's our little runner, isn't she, Zach?" Jen said, looking at their young ward. Kat stirred, showing the adults that she was at least half awake.
"Yes she is." Zach said proudly.
Tom, their fifteen year old son, scoffed, "How is running good? When you run, it means your scared. I don't run, not from anything."
Zach, still holding onto their newest family member (Even though she couldn't really be called new, seeing as she'd been with them for a year), cuffed his oldest child on the back of his head. The young boy shot his father a look which could've melted stone, but the older man was used to it.
Jen, glaring at her husband but laughing inwardly, turned to Tom, "You don't always run when you're scared. It can also mean you're brave enough to admit defeat-"
"Why would that be considered brave?" Tom interrupted her.
The famous Mother Glare turned to him, making Tom visibly shudder. The last time she used that Glare, it was because someone brought up the past to Kat, making the seemingly indestructible girl cry. Everyone knew not to mess with Kat. Otherwise, you'd get it from not only her foster parents, but her older "brother", her mentor, and about ten other people who considered the girl to be family.
"I think what your mother is trying to say, Thomas, is that running can also be good. You run into a battle, don't you?" The boy begrudgingly nodded. "And you run in a battle sometimes, right?" He nodded again, becoming less and less sure of his accusation. "You see, Kitty uses her running to help her fight. You've seen her bring down a full grown man by running on the wall and kicking him upside the head, remember?" The boy smiled at the memory, nodding, " Then running can't be all bad. She's the runner of the family. She uses strategy, because without it, she would lose every time." Finally, Tom sighed in defeat, walking ahead so he could get the door open for his father and his "sister".
"Mama?" A sleepy voice asked. Jen turned to her two daughters, Sammy and Alice. Sammy had asked to hold Alice on the way home. Alice, though still awake, was struggling to stay that way.
"Yes, honey?"
"Is Kitty gonna run forever?"
Jen opened her mouth, but someone beat her to it.
"Not anymore, Alice."
Everyone, even Tom, turned to look at Kat. She had her eyes open, but she couldn't seem to lift her head. Even so, she spoke again, "I don't have a reason to keep running. I have you guys, I have Danny and James, and I have Fallac. Why would I keep running when I don't have a reason to go?"
The adults were speechless, but the children were smiling. Tom walked back over and took Kat into his arms, much to his parents surprise.
"Yep! You'll always have us. No matter what, little runner." He chirped. His sisters nodded, and they chased the two older "siblings" into the house, followed shortly by the adults.
They always called her either Kitty or The Runner after that. In the field, she was The Runner, a kick-ass woman with no meat on her bones but enough muscle to bring down an overgrown man, who had enough authority to talk down anyone four times her age, and who had the brains to run her own revolution, if she wanted. At home, with her "siblings", she was Kitty, the soft, lovable girl who couldn't cook and who always sang her little "sisters" to sleep. It was almost a double life. Almost.
The sound of thunder interrupted her happy memories. The vigilante looked up at the sky, noting that the sun had disappeared completely in the coming storm. If she didn't hurry, she'd be caught in the middle of it. 'And,' Kat thought, 'I might miss dinner.'
She quickly got up and started for the door to her hideout, which was really just an old apartment building that had been abandoned. Inside, she'd hid all her equipment; an old computer that she salvaged from a junkyard that she fixed up to take information from the local police dispatch, a phone that was wired to trace any calls The Runner got, a bed for when she couldn't make it back home, a workbench for when she needed to repair/make things, and, of course, five extra suits and ten extra pairs of shoes for when the others fell apart. Sprinting to the closet that held the extra clothing, she dug at the bottom to find her regular clothes.
A pair of black jeans, her red shirt with the Batman logo on the front, and her old grey tennis shoes were laying at the bottom of the closet. She quickly dug them out and changed, taking almost no time in tying her shoes. Tom would kill her- scratch that- Sammy would kill her if she's late to dinner again.
Kat stood up and dashed to the door, but stopped short. Something was missing, something important. Her hand flew to her neck, 'The necklace!'
That was something Kat was never seen without. Jen, her foster mother, had given it to the girl on her thirteenth birthday, two weeks before the fire. Kat ran back, digging again underneath the pile of clothes. 'Sammy would yell at me if she saw this,' The girl thought, without much humor.
Finally, at the bottom of the pile, she found it. It wasn't a simple thing, a silver cross covered in little amber colored roses and grey, pointy thorns. The necklace, in itself, was quite simple, but the idea behind it was something no one had been able to figure out. Even Jen couldn't tell what it meant, but it was still special to Kat.
Slipping the necklace on, Kat ran out the door, locking it. The rain had already started, but that meant nothing to the teen. In fact, it made running through the town much more interesting.
Running as fast as she could, the girl made her way to another seemingly abandoned apartment building, this time sliding down a drainage pipe to get to the back door. The house Kat shared with her siblings, a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment, was on the top floor, but completely inaccessible by anywhere but the actual door. At first, it had ruined any fun the girl might've had, but she came to see it as a safety measure. And they all sure as hell needed to take every safety measure they could.
She burst into the lobby, taking a quick glance at the clock. '7:58,' Kat mused, 'I have two minutes to get up there before I get yelled at. Plenty of time.'
She ran up nine flights of stairs, skidding to a halt in front of the door at the end of the rusty smelling hallway. Trying to get her breathing under control, she did not want her family to know that she'd been running the entire time, she turned the knob and walked in.
The smell of spaghetti, her favorite, wafted through her nostrils. Kat inhaled the smell, smiling. 'Better then anything I could do.' Silverware clinked in her ears, telling her how late she almost was. It was always almost's with Kat.
"Kathryn Rylee Jones!" Kat cringed. Well, at least most of the time, it was almost.
"Kitty? Is that you?" Someone else cried. Kat smiled, 'Of course, Alice would never be mad at me.'
"Yeah, its me, 'Lis." She called, slipping out of her soaked tennis shoes and walking into the apartment completely.
Her three siblings, and her brothers girlfriend, Danny, were already sitting at the table, forks and knifes in hand. Everything was already on their plates, spaghetti with red sauce, breadsticks, parmesan cheese, they'd even poured milk! It was a feast in their household. Mostly, all they could afford to eat were cold sandwiches and glasses of water, which usually tasted like rust.
Kat placed her hands on her hips, "Okay, what's the occasion, and why did you start before eight?"
Danny stopped swirling her spaghetti around with her fork and jumped up. In an instant, Kat was wrapped in the older girls arms.
"Whoa," Kat smiled, hugging the girl back, "Now I'm really concerned. What's going on?"
Alice looked like she was ready to burst, but Tom beat her to it.
"We watched the news today." He blurted.
That surprised Kat, but, not giving them the satisfaction of finally surprising The Runner, she smirked, "Oh, so you saw the debut of The Runner 2.0!"
Danny pulled away from the girl, laughing.
"You're not really calling yourself that now, are you?" The older girl asked.
"Of course not. Doesn't mean it doesn't sound cool."
"Yeah," Sammy rolled her eyes, "Cool. Absolutely amazing. Now sit down so we can eat. Alice wouldn't let any of us eat until you got here."
So the "family" sat down, enjoying the rare feast. For a few moments, there was peace in their chaotic world.
But there was never peace for long in Hopeton. This was just the calm before the storm.