Cirque moved quietly, she really didn't want the league to realize she was in the vents, because well… It would really just create more problems for everyone. As she finally neared the exit she had to force herself to refrain from sighing from relief. Her arm was broken and she had been having trouble crawling through the vents with only one working arm. She shouldn't have contacted the Justice League, but she had frankly been in a lot of pain at that time, and she'd been freaking out. She never freaked out, ever, it had been painfully clear that she was over her head when she found the bodies. Seeing as she had been investigating Lex Luthor, the league had seemed to be the best option to contact. Cirque liked taking on cold cases, she felt much less pressured when people's lives didn't depend on her ability to figure out what the heck was going on. However this time Cirque had obviously stumbled upon a case which was in no way a cold case. This was not good seeing as Cirque was not the best at fighting. Cirque had super powers yeah, but she wasn't a good fighter with them. She was really only able to use them to get information. She had the ability to read people's minds and control their actions through skin-contact, it wasn't an all the time thing though, and it required vast amounts of concentration. So during fights Cirque had to rely on her hand-to-hand fighting skills which weren't something to be proud of. She'd mainly learned fighting on the fly, in her line of business this was not a particularly good thing as she had to often fight her way out of situations.
Back to the vent though, Cirque was trying to determine how best to climb up the last stretch of the vent, which was about 10 feet up and at a 90 degree angle. She first stood up then pulling her broken arm closer to her body, used her good arm and reached above herself taking hold of a seam in the vent. Cirque then pulled herself up and mainly using her feet edged her way up carefully, but not slowly. She still needed to get out of this building, the league was still here. Finally reaching the top she kicked out at the cover with her foot, completely done with trying to be stealthy. Then using her good arm again she hoisted herself up and turned around to find herself staring directly at a stylized "S" on a yellow background. Looking up she found that she was staring directly at the face of the one and only Superman. Locking her body so she wouldn't freak out and fall over looking like an idiot, she thought several curse words, but the only thing she said out loud though was a surprised, and mumbled, "h-hi." "Superman saw you crawling through the vents." Said a man dressed in black behind Superman. Peeking around Superman as if he was an inanimate object, she looked at Gotham's dark knight, then waved with her good hand. Blinking as she backed up finally realizing how she was invading Superman's personal space, she almost tripped into the opened vent, she managed to keep her feet though. As she stood there for a moment, she was having an internal war with herself. Stay or Run! Um can't outrun any of them! Don't want to be here! Gotta run, Jump the vent, then run like there's no tomorrow! Raising her eyebrow she opened her mouth as if she was about to say something snarky, then she bolted. Surprising Superman, who'd thought that her heart-rate had calmed down enough that she would talk to them. As Cirque jumped over the vent she ran toward the door of the facility that she had seen when she'd memorized the plans of this place, the only problem was that the door that was supposed to be there was rubble. There was a hole out onto the street above the rubble which wasn't that steep though, so she just continued, making it over the rubble in 30 seconds. She jumped the five foot gap, and felt the jolt way too much. Cirque was way too fatigued right now to be running from the Justice League, she probably couldn't do it on a good day without kryptonite, and today was not a good day. Running away from the crime scene she stumbled a bit but continued, tucking her broken arm closer to her body. It hurt a lot right now, but she refused to show how painful it was and how tired she was feeling. With a burst of speed she didn't know she possessed she managed to run straight into Superman. Her broken arm pushed painfully into her body, and she fell backwards.
She didn't say a word now, she was focusing too much on breathing and not allowing the black dots that were swarming around her to consume her vision. In this state she really wasn't able to pay attention to what was being said to her. She did notice however when Batman tried to take her broken arm away from her body. Cirque tried to pull it back but she couldn't even think right now, let alone fight the really strong guy that was trying to pull her broken arm away from her. Looking at the broken arm Batman saw the boot shaped imprint on her arm where guards had stepped on her arm. This had been purposeful as they had needed to figure out how much the girl knew, they also liked breaking peoples arms. Noticing this Batman also realized that Cirque had a large bruise forming on her face. He doubted that these were the girl's only injuries though he couldn't see any other bruises. He looked down and he saw Cirque slip into unconsciousness, pulling her up carefully he said, "Get this girl to medical." Superman looked at the girl in confusion. "I thought she was a suspect." Batman replied to that by saying, "I'm guessing that she's the person that called us with the S.O.S. her costume matches the person that sent the message and the injuries are consistent with her being the person that got caught." As Batman said this a purple motorcycle with a person in a purple mask that was pointy, and was wearing a purple costume, and a man without a face wearing a fedora and a trench coat, riding it pulled up. The man without a face jumped off and ran over to Batman saying, "Priority code 712803, that's Cirque's S.O.S. code, I came as soon as I could." Batman looked at him angrily and said, "you gave a non-league member an S.O.S. hacking code!" Batman was very obviously annoyed, but the Question had never been good at caring whether or not other people were annoyed and he said, "Of course, I couldn't give her missions and not give her a way to contact me in an emergency. That code was meant to report to my earpiece only, she must have hacked the system to alert the entire league." Batman was about to say something else, but Question stopped him. Showing his worry for Cirque he said, "Is she all right? Her arm looks broken, and she looks like she has a concussion." Seeing the worry written on the Question's lack of face, Batman let up slightly and put the girl on the stretcher that was waiting for her next to him. He then motioned for a League medic to take the stretcher. "You should have cleared it with one of us." "I cleared it with J'onn and Green Lantern, they said that as long as she was trustworthy it was fine." "They should have cleared it with me." Said Batman in a flat voice. Question retorted with an undeniable fact, "You're not even a full member, why should they report this to you?" Batman looked at him in his mind saying, This is why I don't argue with the Question he always knows how to turn the discussion his way. Batman walked away, and Huntress slid over to her boyfriend saying, "Wow you just out argued Batman. So who's this chick we're here for? you aren't cheating on me are you?" Huntress said with a smirk. Question replied, "Never. I'm just worried about Cirque she's never liked the Justice League much so she'd have had to be in a lot of trouble to contact them." Huntress took one looked at Question's "face" and tried to reassure him. "She'll be fine, you said that she's resilient. Plus I heard that she managed to climb out of this place using the air vents while there was a major super fight going on in the building." Question smiled, that was very like Cirque, she didn't like explaining things when she didn't have too. If she hadn't gotten caught she would have come to him with any information she had rather than staying to talk to the league. Cirque had been in the information business for a while now, but it was only four months ago that she'd started to report to the Question.
It had been a really weird way to meet. One day Cirque had shown up at the ice cream factory that Question had been staking out for connections to Cadmus mind control facilities. She'd went in and half an hour later came out with a strange looking device. Interested in what she was doing Question had followed her. Cirque had doubled back several times, looking for the person she knew was following her, she hadn't found Question. Question had waited a while then, on a roof three miles away from the ice cream factory, he'd shown himself. "What is that?" Cirque had jumped, then turned towards him and said, "I don't see any reason to answer that." Question had stepped out of the shadows at that time and said, "I'm sure I can help you find a reason to answer the Question." Looking at his lack of face, trench coat, and Fedora, Cirque smiled wryly, and said, "Were you referring to yourself in third person or were you referring to the actual question? Well since you're in the League I can tell you, this device is an anti-gravity device. Now I wonder what this was doing in an ice cream factory." Cirque said all of this slowly she also said the last bit of it in curiosity and the Question wasn't one to disappoint "Cadmus." Cirque turned her head inquiringly, then she shook it, put the device down and said "Here you can have it, I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway."
That had been the start of their partnership, Cirque would find him and tell him information she thought would help. The Question in turn would investigate and confirm her information. The Question had started suggesting missions for Cirque, and she had followed his instructions. Question didn't know where her respect for him had come from, in fact at first he had been extremely mistrusting of her, until he had confronted her about it. "I don't know… You're a conspiracy theorist but… you managed to find allies, powerful ones, that realize your ideas have value. I've never had that, because I'm not right all that often. I don't go overboard, but nobody will ever believe my ideas even when I'm right. So when I met you I needed someone to tell about the stuff I knew, so I trusted you." Cirque had been staring at the ground during her declaration, she had looked up at Question. She wasn't able to see his empathy that was showing behind his mask, he'd also known what it was like to not be taken seriously. After that day he'd trained her, to recognize what a real conspiracy looked like, how to fight dirty. He'd rationalized to her that as long as he was sending her on missions he might as well equip her to succeed. The day he'd given her the code to hack into the League S.O.S. system was the day when Cirque had said, "I'm your sidekick. Aren't I?" This she'd said with a smile, but unsmiling beneath his mask Question had turned toward her saying, "Not my sidekick, my Partner." They'd looked at each other and Question was privy to Cirque's first real smile. Thinking back on that moment was not something Question wanted to do now, now that Cirque was injured.
"Hey ya'll don' hav ta act like 'm dyin nor somthin." Cirque was trying to sit up on the stretcher, and speaking in a really slurred voice. "I jus have a con-cussss-iionn, from bumpin inta Sup-man ova dere." She said this with a wavering finger pointing towards Superman. Who looked up confused at the mention of his name. Question walked over to the stretcher where Cirque was tying to sit up, and said, "You've got a concussion no matter who is at fault for it you need to lay down." Cirque looked up tiredly and said, "Oh LOOK! It's ma BFF! Wha's sup Q?" Question crouched down next to the stretcher and looked Cirque straight in the eye and said, "You're being loud and irritating. As funny as it is to watch the league act confused that we know each other, you might want to be quiet now." Cirque looked at Question blearily and Question smiled behind his mask. Cirque always acted like this when she hit her head, it usually meant that she would be fine in a couple days. Cirque though was not finished speaking, "But Duuuuude, 'm your Robin." A minute later and Cirque was starting to lose the obliviousness that had seized her before (though Huntress was still laughing her head off at that last statement) and now said, "My head and arm hurts, am I done being silly?" Question looked at her trying not to laugh, it would probably freak her out now that she wasn't totally out of it. "Lay down and let them set your arm, you'll be fine." Cirque was going to nod, but thinking of her concussion she didn't nod. She also did as Question told her and laid down.
Batman walked up to an almost smiling Question and an outright laughing Huntress and he said to the Question, "She's your Robin?" Question looked at him no longer in danger of laughing and said, "Evidently." Huntress's laugh attack was dying down now and she said, "Don't look so angry remember you and her are BFFs." She cracked up and looked at a thoroughly annoyed Cirque who said, "I hit my head, I'm done being illogical so could you please-" This statement from Cirque was interrupted by more laughter from Huntress and the loud statement, "SHE'S JUST LIKE YOU! SHE'S TOTALLY YOUR ROBIN!" Cirque rolled her eyes and looked down silently. Batman walked over to her stretcher and said to her, "Now that you aren't unconscious, what's your name?" Cirque blinked in surprise and said, "Oh, my name is Cirque."
I suppose today is the day. Ice villains attacked in all the other cities I must say that Question and I were rather put out that none of them attacked in the Hub. Then again neither me or Question are the big budget attack of the ice villains type of people. We could bore them to death with conspiracy theories I suppose, but seeing as the league disapproves of death that really wouldn't work. The only reason Question decided to bring me today was so that I would have access to the earthbound facilities in case of an emergency. He didn't want an incident like last time so he decided that we would have to attend meet and greet day with the league. I've officially decided that Question did this just to annoy the hell out of me. I don't approve of this rinky-dink little play date. I don't think that the league really approves of me being here, but seeing as every other sidekick gets to be here they couldn't make an exception and say that I wasn't allowed to come. Kid Flash makes the mistake of calling us sidekicks, sidekicks. Speedy snaps at him, I never get why they don't approve of the designation and why Question doesn't approve of it either. Sidekicks are just partners that are younger and still being trained. I like to think that they're just privileged, I worked hard to be a sidekick, I'm more than happy to be a sidekick. Going it alone was the kind of thing that would eventually get me to quit. Before I was Question's sidekick, I had nobody to tell all the secrets I knew, nowhere to go with the important connections and information I had. I'd tried calling the police, I was called crazy several times and told to contact a mental health facility. I'd tried interfering myself but, I'd ended up in the hospital with a bullet wound. It had luckily been to the shoulder but it decreased my idea that I could intervene myself. I'd stewed for a month after I was healed before going to the ice cream place. There I found Question or he found me, whichever way is fine. After that, I was recognized by someone not as crazy, but as smart. I made connections others didn't, I had an uncanny ability with the whole super power thing. The play date cut into my flashback as I heard the word Cadmus, both me and Question started when we heard that. Then Zatarra chimed in with some sun mission thing. I laughed inside my head because I knew that even though Question would be of no use during this mission he would be made to go, because he was already here and couldn't slither out of a full league assistance mission again. I was going to tell Question that I had the Cadmus on fire thing, but then Speedy chimed in and gave an annoying rant then left. I mentally thought out what I could say to Robin to make him give me explosives when I heard the words, "What is Cadmus?" Almost instantly I chimed in saying, "It's a government run corporation that is completely anti-vigilante, it's been known to create WMDs, genetic experiments , and human enhancers. All of these designed for the sole purpose of putting control of super powered people into the government's hands. This organization is not above using illegal means to reach their goals." After that quick explanation I said to an incredulous Robin, "It's good that your mentor is taking this threat seriously, could I borrow some explosives?" Robin's face was priceless and I would have laughed, except I was deadly serious about wanting explosives. "Why do you want explosives?" Robin said spluttering out the question. "I need them so that I can destroy walls, and contrary to popular belief that stuff is expensive." I said not wanting help from these losers, who I knew would butt in if I let them. Then again I could use the fire power, "Unless of course you want to come with?" Right after I said this Kid Flash said, "Are you going on the Cadmus mission? cus if you're going I'm going." Aqualad chose then to butt in, "But my king told me to stay here." Robin rationalized for him, "Yeah, for the blotting out the sun mission not this." "So just like that we're a team on mission?" said Aqualad, looking distrusting. Robin stepped forward and said, "We didn't come here for a play date." I wanted to speak up at this, but I knew better, I was getting some super-help for free. I put my hand in the space in between all of us with an eyebrow raised, challenging them to do the same. Kid Flash copied my movement immediately and Robin did the same a moment later. Aqualad hesitated a second, then said, "Let's do this." and put his hand on top of ours.
As Cirque and the others climbed out of the wreckage of Cadmus, staring at the mess around them she winced. She was very thankful that she had gotten pictures of the entire operation before the building had been leveled. The clone was looking up at the sky though, looking at the sky as well Cirque got to see Superman flying towards them with the rest of the league in tow. "Little late aren't cha?" Cirque said looking at the assembled heroes as they touched down around the sidekicks. Flash looked at her confused before saying, "How would we have known, you guys didn't call." Cirque looked at him like he was simple and said, "Of course we called, access code 71280, the only way to get in touch when we were in the basement was to try to hack the network from the internet." The clone was getting restless behind Cirque, she knew she had to do something about him so she said, "Oh, that reminds me this is Superman's clone don't be mean to him he's shy." The clone stared at Cirque uncomprehendingly while the league freaked out. While Cirque knew the clone could hear them he was still confused as to what "Shy" meant. Cirque looked at him and taking pity on him said. "It's a joke, don't worry you don't have to get it. It's actually not a very good joke…" Cirque just kinda trailed off as the clone said, "Fine but I can speak for myself." Realizing her mistake Cirque bowed and said, "sorry, forgot. Why don't you introduce yourself to Superman then?" The clone looked sheepish and said gruffly, "I'm sure he heard you the first time, it's fine." Cirque nodded deeply at him and then turned her attention back to the league who were still freaking out, and Superman was looking at the clone like he was a demon or something. Batman walked forward and said to Cirque while scowling, "That code is no longer viable." Looking at Batman with a glare Cirque said, "I might have known that if someone hadn't programmed an alternate network to act like I had managed to communicate the league." Flash looked at him and said, "What did you do?" Batman glared at him and said, "I didn't trust her." Superman was still standing behind Batman doing a wonderful impression of a fish, when Cirque said condemningly, "yeah? Well thanks to your need to make me think that I'd contacted the league, we almost died." Turning away from the league she walked over to the others and listened in as they tried to console the clone. Looking again Cirque saw Question and waved at him with a peace sign. A gesture that was ruined by her seriously bedraggled appearance. Cirque walked over to Question and said, "let's go home." Question looked sheepish for a moment and said "Well… I had get a ride from someone to come here so…" Cirque looked at him annoyed and said, "We're carpooling with the Bats. Aren't we?"
A/N- Hmm I may continue this, but i don't know. If i get even one reveiw saying you guys want to see another chapter i will definatley (probably) post another chapter. So what do you guys think of Cirque? Is she a Mary-sue? Is she too confusing? Oh and in your reveiw it would totally help if people told me some civilian names i could use for Cirque (I'm thinking of naming her Alice Harper but I don't like that name for her that much). Ah well reveiw even if all you have to say is mean things, oh and don't flame me for Cirque calling superboy "Clone" she's just not sure what else to call him.