A/N: Second installment! I am so excited for this second story! It will definitely be longer than the last story and I have so many ideas that I can't wait to start writing them down!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Enjoy!
Chapter: 2
Sunlight filtered through the drawn curtains of Tori's room. Scrunching her closed eyes she groaned as the light hit her face. Rolling over she opened her eyes, it was another day in this strange silent house. Wayne Manor was large. It was huge in fact. You couldn't hear anyone on the stairs in the morning or smell the pancakes cooking on the stove up on the floor where Tori's room was. She could barely hear Titus barking in the mornings either. Not only that but unlike the penthouse Tori had apparently grown up in, Wayne Manor was not in the city. It was a few miles away and there was no traffic to be heard of. It was uncanny that she lived here now.
Tori sighed, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, the chandelier that hung overhead twinkling in the sun's beams. She didn't even know what time it was and she didn't care. It was summer, it had been six months since she had decided to live in Wayne Manor with her half-brother Tim, it had been six months since she discovered she was a bionic human with the powers of a small army, and it had been six months since her mother, step-father and nannie had been murdered because of her. Tori groaned and turned onto her side, she hated thinking of that night. It was her fault, they had even left a note telling her it was her fault…yet Mac said no one in his lab had laid a hand on her family. So who killed them? Who had he hired?
Grumbling at herself for thinking of such depressing thoughts she turned onto her back again. She instead thought about school. It was starting again in a couple of weeks and she was nervous she wouldn't be able to control her new found powers while there…especially since all of Gotham knew she was the daughter of Maud Crowne and Jack Drake. The city had been in an uproar at the announcement that her Crowne siblings would live in London with their uncle but Tori would remain in Gotham. Many news shows wanted an interview but Bruce, thankfully, turned them all down for her. She did not want to talk about her family's secrets or truths, not yet, not when the pain of their loss was so new.
Yet it didn't seem new. It didn't seem true either. Tori either didn't feel pain the way the others did or because of her memory-loss, she didn't remember loving the people who raised her…if that even made sense. She had been upset only because it was her fault the lives of three people had ended. All her memories were like movies to her. She remembered them, she remembered what was said, why it was said, when it happened but she doesn't remember how she felt in that moment. Sure, she remembered being scared when Mac had her but those were recent memories, not ones when she'd been twelve or younger. Many memories were still missing and some that she had thought were in the right order were actually in the wrong place, her head was more jumbled than a Rubix Cube.
Tori often wondered if this made her a horrible daughter. She didn't grieve, she'd barely cried and she just wanted to understand and learn to control her powers…not mourn her lost family like Bruce and everyone else suggested she'd do. Some days it hit her that her true mother was gone, same as the nannie she loved; but Max was a different story, she didn't remember him as well as she should have and because of that she didn't mourn him at all. Some days the grief was so crippling that she didn't move for hours before she realized she was only upset because it was Mac who took them from her…it was only her running away that put them in danger. She truly missed them, but her anger for Mac was the only emotion she could really feel at the moment and she associated it with her pain.
Sighing, Tori leapt out of bed and super-sped to her bathroom. A nice hot shower, ten times quicker with super-speed and she sprinted out of her bed room and to the kitchen below. Zipping into her seat she smiled at Alfred as he placed her plate in front of her. Glancing down she looked at it in confusion,
"What's that face for?" Dick asked, walking into the room, his workout shirt sweaty with a towel on his shoulder. He snagged his plate and took a seat next to her. Everyone was still trying to bring the baddies that escaped from Arkham back to their cells from six months ago. They were in hiding, lying low until the heat died down and they could wreck havoc again, it was a vicious cycle. Dick's dark blue eyes looked at her plate, a question clear on them before he finally realized why she was making a face, "You didn't know?" he asked mutely, putting his fork down. Tori, still looking at the plate, numbly shook her head,
"I didn't realize…I mean I knew I was ten months younger than Tim," she mumbled. Her breakfast was pancakes, nothing strange there, but in strawberry syrup Alfred had artfully written 'Happy Birthday Tori' in neat cursive, "I didn't even remember my own birthday," she was seventeen today and didn't even know it. Grimacing she pushed her plate away,
"Tori," Dick said, giving her a weathered look, "you, out of all of us, need to eat,"
"I'm not hungry," she muttered. Dick sighed,
"I know what you're going through,"
"No you don't," Tori snapped her face hard, though she softened it at the hurt look Dick gave her, "You didn't lose your memories of your parents before losing them for real," she reminded him,
"I thought you got them back," Dick said, munching on his bacon,
"I did…but once you break a vase, it's never the same no matter how accurately you put the pieces back together," Tori said, ignoring Dick's frown, "Where're Tim and Damian?"
"Downstairs trying to kill each other," Dick said, rolling his eyes, "I'll never understand why they hate each other so much,"
"Probably the same reason you hated Jason so much when he first came here,"
"As someone who did not know of that until recently you have no right to give your input on that event,"
"Whatever, I'm going down. Bruce wanted to test some things…again," Tori said, rolling her eyes. Bruce had been trying the equipment they'd stolen from Mac's lab to better understand the chip, how it was used, how it was made and if it could be removed. Tori, being the only surviving…experiment—it was hard to come to terms with the fact that she was indeed an experiment—she had to fill in as the test subject. Tori didn't mind really. Bruce was trying to help her get back to her family in London, even if she did desire the nightlife in Gotham more than the dreary London boring nights, not trying to use her to create an army of super soldiers. He wouldn't let her become a vigilante, no matter if she trained or had powers. He didn't trust them or her control, which was understandable. Plus, Mac had hinted that the chip could give her powers even he didn't know of.
They had all been working tirelessly on the machinery from the Lab. Bruce, Damian and Dick had been taking apart and piecing together many of the devices to understand how they work and what they are used for. Tim had set on hacking into the damaged computers to see what Mac had been trying to hide. It was bitter work, physically and mentally draining for everyone. Even with all hands on deck and Tim and Tori's combined mental capabilities—something that Dick claimed had to be genetic—they still hadn't made a dent in solving the computer mystery, "Tell the Boss man I'll be down again in a few minutes!" Dick called said to Tori as she heaved herself out of the chair she made her way to Bruce's study.
Tori was halfway over to where Tim, Bruce and Damian were hunched over the re-assembled devices from The Lab when,
"You're late," Bruce said,
"I didn't realize there was a scheduled time," Tori muttered, "What have you got?"
"This appears to be a device that can alter the Chip," Tim said, pointing to a crude looking neck brace,
"Alter but not remove?" Tori asked, picking it up and looking at it. It didn't looked like anything special, just a regular brace they use when transporting a patient from an ambulance to a hospital or vice versa, but on closer inspection Tori could see the delicate, elegant and advanced tech inlaid on the sides of the collar,
"Yes, I don't think Mac would make it that easy," Damian stated. Tori tried not to wince at the mention of Mac,
"What about the others?" Tori asked, gesturing to the computer and the whole desk they took from The Lab,
"The desk itself is a computer," Bruce stated, "A CyberDesk of sorts. We have yet to hack into its contents, but it's sophisticated. We don't have anything like it, though it does operate with holographic components like the computer in this cave. All in all we can use it when we use the brace,"
"And the computer-computer?" Tori asked, ignoring Damian's face at the double use of the word 'computer',
"We are closer to hacking into the computer, not completely there, but closer. Afterall you did destroy the thing," Tim stated. Tori nodded not at all ashamed at what she did, it saved her from getting her memory wiped again. Looking at each of the many devices they took, some were sitting dismantled on the work benches and others were tossed aside as un-repairable,
"Then let's do it," Tori said,
"Let's do what?" Tim asked confused,
"Let's see what these things can do," Tori replied, snapping the collar on around her place. The metal felt cold and weird against her skin and the back of her neck, where the chip was, tingled strangely. Suppressing a shudder she ignored it and instead focused on the shocked face of her half-brother,
"What do you mean 'let's see what these things can do?'" Tim demanded, "We can't just strap you into this thing, press a few buttons and see what happens? You're not a lab rat!"
"No, I'm not," Tori agreed, "but I am a teenaged girl with unwanted abilities with a mad man set on turning me into a super soldier to wreck havoc on the world. This may be one of our only shots at shutting these abilities off and if I have to spend a few hours of my day as a lab rat to do it then so be it," Tim looked at her blankly for a second,
"Okay," was all he said, having no response to that and motioning for her to step to the center of the cave. Dick had come down at some point and was asking Damian what was going on,
"So…um…what are you going to do?" Tori asked, standing somewhat awkwardly in the center of the cave. She looked over at Bruce, who stood over the computer table with Tim at his side, Damian and Dick were on either side of them (Damian as far away from Tim as possible),
"We'll start out simple and slow," Bruce said, "I'm pressing the super-speed icon,"
"Correction, what he hopes is the super-speed icon," Dick stated, earning a glare from Bruce. Tori gulped, trying not to look nervous as Bruce pressed the icon on the table. She suddenly felt a small zap of electricity spark in the brace, right over where her chip was. Without meaning to she yelped out loud,
"Tori? Are you okay?" Tim asked worriedly,
"Yeah, just a small shock. I wasn't expecting it," she said. Silence filled the cave, "Was that supposed to do anything?"
"Turn off the ability maybe?" Tim suggested, no one knew what everything was meant to do, "Try running," Tori nodded and took a step. She flew across the room faster than she ever ran before and too fast to stop from slamming into the cave wall. Tori rebounded off the rocky surface with a yelp and collapsed onto the cave floor, her head throbbing,
"Turn my super-speed off huh?" she groaned, eagle spread…her chest hurt too,
"Okay…that button sped it up beyond her control," Bruce said, writing it on a sticky note and placing it over the button. Tori could hear Dick and Damian snickering,
"Are you okay?" Dick finally asked,
"I think…I think I'll just lie here for a little bit," she said, her ribs ached from the body slam and she was still struggling to catch her breath. Dick got up from his spot and grabbed some of the landing mats from the gymnastics training area and put them over the cave wall she ran into,
"This way it'll be softer next time," he said, smiling kindly down at her,
"Is it too late to reconsider the lab rat thing?"
"Just a bit," he replied, grabbing her hands and helping her to her feet. Tori, shaking out her limbs to make sure nothing was broken, walked back to her spot in the center,
"Okay, we're still dealing with your super-speed ability, this time with a different button," Tim said, pushing one. This time Tori was ready for the small spark of electricity,
"Any guesses as to what will happen?" Tori asked, no one answered, "Should I run?"
"Yes," Bruce said, "we need to know what these icons mean and what they do. The only way to test that is through you,"
"Yay, I'm the test dummy," Tori muttered before taking a step forwards. Instead of lurching forward like usual, she super-sped backwards into the wall opposite of where Dick was, this time at her normal super-speeding speed. It still hurt though. Dick was hysterically laughing, clutching his stomach. He seemed to feel bad about it but couldn't keep himself from doing so,
"How the fuck is that even possible!" Tori yelled from her crumpled position on the floor,
"Two dollars to the swear jar!" Damian crowed, moving some more mats to the wall she just crashed into. Tori was about to snap that this wasn't her family so she didn't need to do the stupid swear jar before she thought better of it. Tim was her family and these people were his family who were allowing her to stay with them. She knew them from before too, she just didn't remember them as well as she'd like. Getting up and grumbling to herself she stood in the middle of the room again. Tim stared apprehensively at her,
"We could stop if you want to," Tim said,
"No," Tori said, rubbing the back of her head, "No pain, no gain," she said, trying to sound upbeat about it, but probably failing miserably,
"Okay," Tim sighed, as Bruce wrote out another stick note and placed it over the computer table, "This one looks promising," he said, firmly pressing the button. The zap came and Tori took a breath, ready to take a step when Tim called out,
"Wait, hold on!" Tori froze, "Super-speed isn't showing up under the list of your abilities we are receiving from your chip!"
"So you're saying it's gone?" Tori asked, half whispering in shock. Tim nodded,
"Try running," he said. Tori complied and to her shock, ran like a normal person,
"Oh my God! I'm running like a normal person!" Tori cried, smiling widely, feeling completely overjoyed. She ran in a small circle, waving her arms around as she went. She was on her way to becoming a normal teen again, smiling with her eyes closed she reveled in the amazing feeling of normalcy. Until an icy feeling spread through her and her ears popped weirdly. The last thing she heard was Tim saying, "What the—," and suddenly Tori was splayed out on her hands and knees nearly blinded by the sunlight coming through the kitchen window,
"Oh my!" Alfred's voice exclaimed as he nearly dropped the plate of cookies he had in hand. Tori blinked up at him,
"How the hell did I get up here?" she asked,
"I don't know, one second I was up here alone about to bring these treats down, the next you were here, as if a shadow congregated and dropped you off here,"
"Oh shoot, I need to go back before they think something horrible happened to me!" Tori shouted,grabbing the cookies and scrambling down to the cave. She sprinted to the office and ran down the steps nearly three at a time, barely celebrating the fact that it was at a normal speed,
"I'm okay!" she cried, "the weirdest thing just happened. I was standing here one moment the next I was upstairs in the kitchen!" she exclaimed. Tim, Dick and Bruce looked relieved while Damian was looking at the table thing,
"It says 'geo-leaping' where super-speed used to be,"
"What's geo-leaping?" Tori asked,
"I guess it's kind of like teleporting," Dick said,
"So we switched one ability out for another?" Tori asked,
"Apparently,"
"Should we keep pressing the button in hopes we get a blank and you receive no ability?" Tim asked,
"No, we will not continually give her new abilities on the false hope she will eventually receive none, nor will we grant her one ability after another which she cannot control. Since she has some control over her strength and heat-vision, we should leave the other ability as it is. We don't want her over-powering if possible," Bruce said, "We'll wait until we hack into the computers and reassemble the other devices. In doing so we may figure out a way to remove the chip entirely,"
"So, we're done?" Tori asked, relieved. Bruce nodded and she took the brace off, giving it back to him, "What did it look like when I geo-leaped?" she asked Dick,
"It looked like you turned into this black particle substance, almost like a shadow," he replied,
"How appropriate," Tori said, snickering slightly, "Now all I need is a cape to add a Dracula disappearing effect,"
"Yeah! The thugs would be like 'she disappeared!' Only you…just teleported…which I guess is the same as disappearing." Tori laughed as she marched up the stairs with her brother, Dick and Damian. Maybe the circumstances and situation weren't ideal, but it was nice to get to know Tim and his family. It was nice to be included in something that had a purpose, something that she could contribute to…if Bruce would let her.
A/N: New ability! Okay so a little family dynamic with the Batfamily plus Tori, a lot more of that coming up! Hope you like this story as much as the old one! REVIEW!
