Illumination
A Young Justice fanfiction by Quincey Forder/Denis De Plaen
Disclaimers : This is a free work of fiction, for non-profit purpose. No money is made or gained from it by the author. Young Justice and all related characters and canon events are property of DC Comics/Time Warner and Cartoon Network. All other product placement and media mentioned in the story are properties of their respective owner, and only present as illustrations, not for commercial or advertisement purpose. All original characters created by me are under Creative Commons attribution.
***Illumination***
Gotham City,
April 2th, 11:55 am
To say Stephanie Brown was incensed as she climbed the steps leading to the Police Station would be the understatement of the year. Heavy on the 'under'.
A middle aged and overweight woman in uniform was manning the front desk, absentmindedly.
Steph stopped in front of the desk, but the woman, identified as Sergeant Genniviève Murphy by the metallic plate on front of the desk and the lapel on her chest pocket, did raise her head from the screen.
That didn't help Stephanie's mood one bit. She took a deep calming, breath and addressed Murphy.
"I'm here to press charge for kidnapping." the teenager said in a calm but clipped tone.
"Who's the victim?" Murphy's monotone reply came from behind the screen in a bored and monotone manner.
"Me." Stephanie replied, struggling to keep her cool.
"You're here, kid, so how could you be kidnapped?" Murphy sneered.
Steph gripped the edge of the desk. She wouldn't let that woman ruin her composure.
"I was rescued by some of the Justice League, obviously. But I know who did it, and I want to press charge against him. Against my father."
"Why don't you come back with your mother?" Murphy replied in a dulcet tone, clearly not giving credence to the blond teen in front of her. "Violation of visitation rights are more in the turf of the lawyers."
"That's not that! My father is a known criminal, one of Batman's rogues, even!" Steph snapped angrily.
Murphy rose from her seat. Steph was reminded of Aunt Marge Dursley from the books she loved to read. Same girth, same temper and same purple skin tone on the face.
"Don't raise your voice on me, young lady, or I'll..."
She cut in the middle of her threat as a tall and dark skinned man walked by and stood behind Stephanie. He looked to be in his middle to late thirties, dark hair cut short and with a salt and paper goatee. His trench coat was open and revealed an badge hanging by a chain from his neck.
"Is there a problem here, Sergeant Murphy?" he asked in a deep baritone tone.
"Just a kid whining about her daddy issues, Detective Allen." She replied, eying Steph disdaintfully."And one skipping school, obviously."
Steph bit her tongue from snapping at her.
"I was kidnapped, a few days ago, and I want to press charge against the one who did it. My father, Arthur Brown."
A light of recognition lit up in the Detective's eyes.
"You're Stephanie Brown, aren't you?" he asked. Steph blushed and nodded while Murphy did a double take.
"You know the brat, Allen?" She asked, her voice a mixture of shock and disbelief.
Allen glared at the rotund and rude officer.
"As a matter of fact I do. Not personally, but I've interviewed her mother and questioned her father, a few times. And I wouldn't put it past him to kidnap his own daughter, or worse."
Murphy and Steph both blanched, for different reasons.
"I'll take it from here, Sergeant." Allen stated, with an air of authority that shut the older woman up.
He turned toward Steph and smiled at her "I'm Detective Crispus Allen, but my friends call me Cris."
Another detective walked by and smirked at Allen and Steph.
"And his ex-wife doesn't call him at all!"
"Shut it, Korrigan!" Allen snapped, and Steph giggled behind her hand.
"Just ignore him, Stephanie." Crispus groaned, leading them toward the elevators. "Let's talk at my desk, upstairs."
"Steph." she corrected as the elevator's doors openned. "My friends call me Steph."
Allen grinned back at her.
As they stepped out of the elevator and and headed toward a double door on their left, Stephanie couldn't help but notice the busy apparent pandemonium that reigned behind the glass door.
The name pained on it stated "MAJOR CRIME UNIT – Capt. Maggie Sawyer"
Slaloming between desks and people, the duo finally reached an unoccupied desk on which laid a number of piles of files around a flat screen.
"Damn, Cris, you really pick them young!" teased a woman's voice from the desk across Allen's.
Steph blushed a deep red and turned her head toward the desk, and saw a familiar face.
"Officer Montoya?" she asked, surprised. The woman, a beautiful latina in her early thirties winked at her.
"It's Detective Montoya, now, Steph. And I told you it's Renee for you."
Steph nodded and released a relieved sigh. She had met Montoya on several occasion, when the woman was just a beat cop. She, along with Detective Bullock and Batman, saved her and her mother from some of her father's criminal 'friends', or from her father himself, on occasion.
"You two know each other." Cris stated, looking back and forth his partner and the teenager.
"We go way back, don't we, Steph?" Montoya replied, and Steph nodded. Montoya's face grew serious. "what did he do, this time?"
"He sold me." the blond simply stated.
"What?!" exclaimed both detectives, attracting the attention of their colleagues.
***Illumination***
North Gotham, near Crime Alley
March 29 th, 1:15 am
The door of the small apartment burst open as a tall and long, blond haired man barged in.
At the ruckus, the brunette who was napping on the couch was startled awake, and reflexly reached for her glasses.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" the man shouted.
The brunette blinked and starred at the man groggily.
"Arthur? Wha...?" She began, only to be backhand slapped in the face by the man.
"I asked you a question, Crystal!" he shouted. "Where is Stephanie?"
The brunette just blinked at him from where she fell, then snoozed back into drug induced slumber.
"Useless junkie bitch," He snarled, looking around, and the open med cans laying disorderedly on the coffee table. He picked on of them and read the label. "Fucking great, she'll be out of it for hours!"
He headed toward the bedrooms and opened the doors. Sure enough, there she was, that useless ungrateful brat! Playing video games, waving at the screen, headset on her head. Instead of sleeping. And he wondered why she never got up in the morning to practice with him. I'm sure Crock never had that problem with his daughters! Arthur's own was dragging him down, slowing him, causing him to be passed over to join them.
"Incoming!" she shouted, unaware of her father's presence "Two Titans at eleven! Cover me while I'm getting in one!"
With a snarl, Arthur Brown reached down and pulled the plugs from the wall. Immediately the TV set and the green X on the front right of the console went dark.
"What the fuck?!" the teen exclaimed, only two have her arm caught in a vise grip.
He eyes grew wide with pain and anger, and also fear.
That was her father, the criminal known as Clue Master.
"Get up!" he snapped at her, pulling Steph to her feet. "We're going for a trip, you and I! For spring break."
She didn't bother telling him that Spring Break was already over by almost two weeks, now. She could, like him, take a clue.
"Whereto?" she did dare to ask.
"Star City," He simply said, pulling her toward the exit of the apartment.
Steph looked at the living room, seeing her mother sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, snoring. No help to expect for her mother.
The coat her father tossed at her hit her right in the face
"Take this on, we're going." He ordered.
The drive was long and boring, lasting for hours, avoiding the high ways. Normally it would take only a couple hours from Gotham to Star City. They slept the night in a seedy motel, and arrived the day after. Her father obviously didn't want their tracks to be found. Or her to escape.
Steph was too tired to, anyway, and she fell asleep after only a couple bite from her tacos?
The wake up was rude and painful.
Landing on concrete, rasping her elbows. Something landed on her. Her coat.
A iodized smell finished to wake her up. She looked around, pushing her hair from her face.
Her eyes grew wide again, for the second time in two days. She was in a cage! On docks!
"DAD!" she shouted, looking wildly around, panicked.
She saw him, finally, discussing with a young woman she had never seen before, clad in an armored suit and a feline patterned helmet.
Another man was standing by the woman's and her her father's side. His huge helmet and red visors were a dead giveaway of whom that man was: BLACK MANTA!
Oh shit! Shit shit shit! And a side of 'shtako!' with it!
Looks like the sleeping beauty is finally rising." The young woman mocked in a raspy voice. But Steph couldn't shake the sense of familiarly to that voice, one she couldn't put her finger on.
"What the heck is that?!" Steph shouted, grabbing the bars of the cage.
All three adults ignored her.
"So This is it? You get Stephanie for your partner, and I get inducted in The Light?"
"That's the deal, wasn't it? You know the boss is a man of his word." the woman rasped, her arms crossed.
A look of horror grow on her face. Her father, her own father, was selling to God knows whom, for his petty ambition and sense of self worth?!
Oh God, am I going to die, now?
"So when are you taking her in?" Brown asked eagerly
"Patience." Black Manta said. His voice surprised Stephanie. It sounded so young! Much younger than she had expected. "We are still expecting more deliveries from the state before we head back. Go back to Gotham, Brown. The Light will be in touch."
***Illumination***
Gotham Central
April 2 nd, 12:30
Steph was sitting at Cris' desk, sipping at a mug of steamy hot instant soup.
"So, after you were debrief and checked up at Starlabs, you were driven home?"
the teenager looked at the woman who spoke, and had joined in the conversation, early in the tale.
"That's right, Detective Chandler." Steph replied after she swallowed a mouthful of peas flavored hot lava falsely labeled as soup.
Montoya gave a smile to the young girl and turned toward her partner. "The console is said to record the last five minutes of gaming. Did you have the Kinect connected?"
Steph nodded.
"But the dick pulled the plugs and caused a hard quit. I don't know if my 'One didn't suffer from it. That kind of stuff is a big no-no." Steph amended.
"It's worth a shot." the elder blond haired detective said with a shrug.
"That's why I picked the Play, myself. No Big Brother watching!"Chandler's Asian partner commented from his desk. "Anyway, We might be able to make the kidnapping charge sticks if we get the footage from the console. But for the aliens, that'll be harder."
He pointed toward the TV hanging from one corner of the room.
Steph looked up...and would have fallen if she hadn't been sitting.
G. Gordon Godfrey, Mr Anti-Justice League-Propaganda was singing the gospel of the new alien ally whose ambassador was shaking hand with the UN Secretary General. The Reach was welcomed with red carpet and applauds.
A wave of nausea hit her and her soup made it second apparition, straight to Montoya's trashcan.
"Eww! Gross!" Korrigan commented, pinching his nose.
"Shut it, Korrigan!" A new voice snapped. A handkerchief appeared in Steph's field of view, held by feminine, pale fingers.
"Thanks" Steph moaned, as she accepted the offering. She looked up and saw a blond haired woman in her early forties smiling at her. "Sorry about that, ma'am."
The woman shook her head
"Think nothing of it, sweetie." she said, then turned toward Renee. "Montoya would you please take Stephanie here to the bathroom so she could refresh herself?"
Montoya was on her feet in a second.
"Sure, Captain. C'mon, hun." She said, wrapping an arm around Stephanie's shoulder.
Montoya was leading her out of the MCU across the hall when a trio was climbing down the stairs.
"Hello, Commish! Lieutenant, Barbara." Steph heard Montoya greet her mentor and the other two, and turned to do the same, when she froze on her feet.
Montoya looked at the young blond girl concernedly. "Steph?"
"It's nothing, just a bit of vertigo. Thanks, it's the attention that Count." Steph tried to joke, earning a groan and chuckle from the four adults.
One was the famous Commissioner Gordon, the other, whom Renee called Lieutenant was a blond haired middle-aged woman with a kind smile and sparkling blue eyes and the third, the one she called Barbara... was one of her rescuers from the grasp of the Reach. Batgirl.
Her eyes rolled in her head and she fainted, not hearing the gasps and her named being called by Renee.