Chapter 1 | Meeting Emma Marie Van Creed

It was odd, getting a Satellite Call from Batman like this. It just never happened. It didn't seem urgent, but he made it look important.

'Why?' Robin thinks to himself, 'He knows I wanted to be on my own. He shouldn't have called.'

"Robin?" Starfire says over her intercom, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, dude. You seem distant." Beastboy adds.

"I'm fine." Robin replies. "It's just odd he would call me… for anything."

Cyborg thinks, "Maybe he needs help?"

"Batman wouldn't ask for help. He never has."

They let silence fall upon them as they sat in the T-Jet, on their way to Gotham.

Raven glances out her window, "I don't understand what's so important about Batman. He's like one of us."

"A hero." Beastboy mumbles under a yawn.

"Not to Robin." Cyborg says.

"And why'd he have to call at two in the morning like this?" Beastboy asks, "Doesn't he sleep?"

"If we're going to his home he wouldn't want to draw attention." Raven says. "It's like a dead give-away." Cyborg adds.

"Whatever, just wake me when we get there." Beastboy says as he stretches.

"We're there." Robin says stiffly.

They land the plane in the middle of the large courtyard in front of the giant house. Robin had forgotten how big it was-or is to be literal. He sighed to himself, 'There's no need to bring them in with me. I should have come alone but Bruce instructed otherwise. Why would he want them, let alone me?'

"You guys stay here. I'll go in alone." He says to his team.

"What! But why?!" Beastboy exclaims, seeing how big it was, he just had to see its inside. Robin didn't say anything. Or more like he ignores what Beastboy had said. He didn't care to argue at the moment. He just wanted to get in and get out. He missed Bruce from time to time but a distress call was not a way he'd like to make a reunion.

He walks across the courtyard and up to the door, glad that the others didn't follow him aside from what he ordered. They just lingered back and marveled at the size of the mansion. It was something Robin was used to, which made him feel spoiled. He hated that.

He rang the doorbell and within seconds the door opens and reveals a tired and aged looking Alfred.

"Good afternoon, sir." He greets.

Robin can't help but smile, "Hello, Alfred."

"Dick, it's been to long. You've grown."

Usually Robin would correct people on the use of his real name, but this was Alfred. His friend and aid of many years, "Yeah, 'guess I should visit more. Huh?"

"Indeed." Alfred smiles back. "Come in."

Robin walked into the home, not much had changed. There were a few new items around; An ancient looking vase, a set of china, a dog… A dog? Since when did Bruce keep a dog in the house? Or at all? Something was defiantly wrong.

"What's his name?" Robin asks.

"Her name is Sera. S-e-r-a." Alfred answers, knowing immediately what he was talking about.

"That's a funny way to spell a name." Robin says.

Alfred smiles, "Yes, I know."

Sera looks up at Robin and stares him dead in the eye, 'He's here.'

'Thank you, Sera.'

"He's here, Mr. Wayne." She announces. Silence, how rude. She even called him by the name she was instructed to call him.

Sera lowers her head, keeping her eyes on Robin.

Robin looks down and studies Sera. She is pure white and fluffy-a long haired dog for sure. She resembles a wolf, but she's half the size you would expect one to be. Her tail is long and curls around her body while she lay on the ground. But then something catches his eye, "Are her eyes always like that?"

"What's that, Dick?"

Robin looks up at Alfred; he didn't seem to be hiding anything. Then again he was trained to do that. He looks back down at Sera; her eyes had changed to a, much more normal, brown color.

Am I seeing things? Robin thinks to himself, 'I could have sworn her eyes were a deep, dark green. That doesn't match a white dog.'

"Never mind."

"Come along, Dick." Alfred speaks.

"No, it's fine Alfred. I know my way."

Robin walks into the library of the home. He gazed around, nothing had changed here. Everything was the same; including the giant bookcase that held the little black book. The only little black book, in the whole giant bookcase, that had a picture of a bat where the title should be. He walks up a grabs the book from its place and then there was a click-the trigger. The bookcase moves slowly to his left and reveals a long dark stairway. Robin goes to put the book back into its place but stops-he had never opened the book before. He takes the black book back and flips to the middle. Blank. Completely blank. He sighs, 'Figures.'

Emma is silent as she holds herself upside down from the ceiling of Batman's 'liar', as she liked to called it. She watches as Robin walks into the vast room and looks around. Memories of his past flash through her mind and she closes her eyes-blocking them out-as she has practiced so many times before. When Emma opens her eyes again Robin has his hand on the glass case that held Batman's' suit inside. Robin smiles softly to himself. He turns and walks into the middle of the room, directly underneath Emma.

Emma smiles at perfection.

Emma whistles, "Hello there."

Robin looks up with confusion of a girls' voice in the Batcave.

Emma quickly releases the bar she held and jumps at Robin. He dodges her attack. Robin does a fast spin, kicks Emma in the stomach and sends her across the room. She twirls mid-air, slides on her hands and quickly lands on her feet. Unharmed.

"Play nice now." Emma smirks.

"Who the hell are you?" Robin demands to know.

Emma responds by charging towards him. Robin quickly pulls out his metal staff, holding it vertically for protection. Emma grabs it with both hands, flew over his head, twisting him around. They stand face-to-face for a moment, then Emma over-powers Robin and forces him to the ground. Emma sits on Robins' stomach while holding the metal rod against his chest. Still, Robin held it in his hands but can't push her off of him.

"Your heavy." He says.

"And your rude!" she yells.

"Where the hell is Batman?!"

"You sure swear a lot, don't you?" Emma laughs, "Don't worry, little man, he's right over there." She motioned to a dark corner with a nod of her head as Bruce walks out almost in sync. He was wearing a black turtleneck, dark blue jeans and black, shiny boots. Nothing close to what you would think he'd be wearing in here.

"Emma, you can get off of Robin now." Bruce said calmly.

"Okay, I… Whoa!"

Robin tosses her off of her while her guard is lowered and jumps to his feet.

"What is going on?!" Robin yells, not swearing now that he knew Batman was nearby.

"Lower your voice!" Emma snaps as she brushes herself off. "Alfred can hear you upstairs!"

Robin groans, 'This girl knows nothing!' "These walls are sound-proof! And how would you know what he hears anyway? He's practically deaf!"

"Robin!" Bruce finally says, "You should have more respect for Alfred than that."

Robin slumps out of his tension as Bruce spoke.

"Yes sir." He turns to face him, "Now, what did you call me here for?"

Bruce looks at Emma, "Would you please give us a minute, Emma?"

Emma nods, "Of course, Mr. Wayne." Emma turns and walks upstairs. Bruce waits until he hears the bookcase stop back into its rightful place before he begins to explain. Even though Emma knew exactly what they were talking about, Bruce felt it was rude to speak in front of people as if they weren't there.

"Is something wrong, Bruce?" Robin asks now growing concerned. "What's so important you couldn't tell me over satellite communication?"

"It's Emma." Bruce says without hesitation.

"That girl," Robin questions, "Why is she here?" Now he was feeling a bit replaced.

"She's a victim of Jokers' and Harleys'. Classic scenario; her fathers' been dead for years, her mother was caught in the crossfire of the two..." Bruces' voice grows cold. "She reminds me of you."

"That girl is nothing like me!" Robins' voice rose. "I wouldn't just sneak attack someone like that!"

Bruce keeps his voice calm, "It was for her practice Robin."

"You never did that for me!"

"I never had to! You could control your strength, she can't!"

Robin paused, "What do you mean?"

Bruce stands silently for a moment to calm himself, "Emma has odd, but extraordinary abilities. That is why I called you here."

"Why, so we can fight each other?" Robin asks, still not calm.

"No, Robin. I wanted to ask you for a favor."

"What?"

Bruce sits down in a chair, "Emma has me to guide her but I'm not a teacher. I wanted to ask you if you would take her to your home and help her with her abilities. Your team would be a great help to Emma."

Robin thinks for a minute, "What kind of abilities are we talking about here?" 'Batman has never taken in anyone with superhuman abilities before… Then again I think I'm the only one he ever took in...'

Bruce sits silently counting, "Telepathy, Empathy, Premonitions and Telekinesis I think are all of them. Empathy and Premonitions seem to be side-effects of Telepathy and they're both her hardest to control. But she goes through these… episodes."

"Like, what kind of episodes?"

Bruce sighs, "When she touches people or things it usually triggers her powers. She'll have premonitions of the future, past, or that persons present thoughts. Usually they aren't so bad, but sometimes her mind goes into overload. Her telekinetic and telepathic powers fly out of control. Same thing when she gets overly angry."

"So, why would you want me take her?"

"Your teammate, Raven, seems to have abilities that, she too, needs to keep a clear mind in order to keep herself under control. And you have others that I think would be helpful. "

"I'd have to ask the rest of them." Robin states.

Bruce nods, "Then do so."

'So that's why he called all of us here.'

Bruce looks away, "If you can't do it, Robin, I understand. I had another place in mind but I trust you."

Now Robin felt guilt-tripped, "What's her full name?"

Bruce raises an eyebrow, "Why?"

"My team will want to know about her; everything."

"Emma. Emma Marie Van Creed." Bruce held back a smile, "She's German and fluent in the language. That and French; she took a class once."

"Once?"

"She's a Telepath, Robin."

Robin sighs, "Right. I'll go talk to them then."

Bruce smiles at perfection; Emma was always right.

Emma sits on the couch in Bruces' living room next to Sera. She wants to hear what Robin and his team were saying about her, and in order to do that she had to focus on one of their brain frequencies. Plus her powers all seemed to work their best and not go out of control near animals.

She felt something click in her head and then she heard a thought, '-hope she's hot.'

"Emma?" Alfred questions, he knows very well what she was doing.

She gasps and pulls out quickly; a little to quickly…

"I think I gave 'em a headache, Al." Emma loves calling Alfred Al-it was her nick-name for him. Alfred glances over her shoulder and through the window behind her. He can see a small green boy lying on the ground while the others around him look at him curiously.

"A bit more than that my dear."

Emma looks over her own shoulder, "Oh damn! Do you think he'll be okay? Dammit, Sera this is all your fault!"

'How is it my fault?!' Sera says telepathically to Emma.

"It just is!" Emma yells.

Alfred chuckles, something Emma didn't hear often. He acted like a formal butler and nothing else in front of her. Nonetheless his laugh was soothing.

"What's so funny, Al?" she asks.

"Oh nothing, Emma. I'm just going to miss your fights with Sera, some."

"Really?" Emma smiles, "Well, I'm going to miss you, Al." She stands up, but refrains from hugging Alfred for good reason. She bows politely, "Thanks for everything." Alfred opens his arms to her, he had nothing to hide.

"But Al I…"

"Never mind that, I have nothing but good things for you to hear."

Emma smiles and hugs Alfred tightly. She could see his thoughts from her first moments in Bruces' home until now. Alfred didn't like Emma much, constantly breaking things on her first minutes here. But now she had grown on Alfred, and vise versa. He really did only have nice, happy things to share with Emma. Alfred had a pure and gentle heart.

"Thank you so much, Al. I miss hugs."

Alfred smiles, "I do too, Emma,"

Bruce was listening from around the corner.

Alfred finished, "I do too..."

"Beastboy, are you alright?" Robin asks, bending at his side.

Beastboy groans, "What happened to me?"

"We dunno," Cyborg says.

"You just… fell." Starfire adds in a childish tone.

Raven sighs, "He fainted."

"I didn't faint," Beastboy exclaims. "Men don't faint!"

"Considering your physical features and your unnatural abilities, I'd say you're far from a normal man."

Cyborg looks up at a young girl floating behind Robin. She had short black hair with red streaks which reach her shoulders, deep green eyes and looks about 17. She had on a grey undershirt, a ruby red leather jacket; and had the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, black fingerless gloves with a red metal on the knuckles, grey skinny jeans and black boots with silver straps.

'Very self-expressive' "I'm guessing you're Emma?" Cyborg asks.

She nods, "Yes, I am."

Raven raises an eyebrow, "How did you know about Beastboys'…"

"Telepathy. It over reacts sometimes." Emma looks at Beastboy, "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude on you."

"No problem, I… Ahh!" Beastboy lifts into the air and then set on his feet.

"I'm guessing you did that also." Raven states plainly.

Emma, again, nods.

"So, tell us about yerself." Cyborg says.

Emma thinks, "My, uh, dad died when I was young and my mother just died previously because of…"

"We want to hear about what you can do and what you're like. Not your pity story; we all have one!" Robin says harshly, he made the mistake of taking in a girl he didn't know well before and he wasn't going to let that happen again. He wanted to know everything about her head before he heard her story.

The others look at Robin in question and then at Emma for her response. Emma sighs in an annoyed tone, pushing his mean words aside.

"I'm 18, 19 in a month and a half. I've mainly dug myself out of hard situations but I'm good at working with others. I developed Telekinesis when I was ten and over time learned to control it to some extent and it increases my strength, like, ten fold. Telepathy, Empathy and my Premonitions just came a little under a year ago and I'm terrible at being 'close-minded' as you very well saw. Premonitions are the worst for me since if I see something bad or unknown to me I kinda… flip out. Usually it takes me to touch something to have one but sometimes they come out of nowhere."

She glares at Robin with her arms crossed, "Happy?" Beastboy snickers and Robin then glares at him.

Beastboy stops, "What?"

Cyborg looks at the others who all wore the same expression. Then he glances at Robin and gives him a nod. Robin turns back to Emma and then lifts his hand for her to take.

"Welcome to the team. You can stay until your powers are under control but during that time you will fight, live, and learn with us."

Emma takes his hand in hers with a smile, "Thank you." She looks at the rest, "All of you."

"Go to inside now. Inform Batman and get your things; you're leaving today."

Chapter 1 | End