Here it is Chapter 2! Not as long as the first one but hopefully pretty good. I hope to get another one up sometime tomorrow. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except for Rachel/Adrienne.

writing4alllifes

Chapter 2

Cafeteria

When we finally navigated our party of seven to the cafeteria it was packed. The noise was deafening and we were all on the lookout for a table. Jinx spotted one and we all bunched around it. I'm not sure how but Jinx got me squeezed next to Rich, herself next to Wally, Karen next to Vic, and Gar with an empty seat next to him. We joined in the noise by talking and laughing about high school. I wasn't sure how I was laughing and everything. It seemed so new to me. And I was equally surprised that something hadn't blown up or landed in someone's face. Then a voice interrupted us.

"Can I sit here?" a girl with radiant blond hair, blue eyes, and a nervous smile asked. Her blond hair was falling in her eyes and she had one arm crossed, almost holding the other. She was wearing a black tee-shirt and brown shorts.

"Sure. I'm Rachel. You are?" I'm not sure why I was welcoming, but I didn't regret it.

"Terra," she sat down next to Gar and brushed her blond hair out of her eyes.

"I'm Gar. That's Rich, Vic, Wally, Jinx, and Karen," Gar motioned to each as he said their name.

"Karen? Karen Chee?"

"Yeah, why?" Karen asked.

"You're my roomie! Terra Boulder," she held out a hand and Karen shook it.

"Great. I'll show you the room after dinner."

"Speaking of dinner. Where is it?" Vic asked whiningly.

As if on cue, a voice boomed over the buzz of chatter in the cafeteria.

"Welcome, students of the new school year," we all looked around until our eyes set on a stage where a man wearing a Superman suit was standing with a microphone. Superman. The Superman. In the Kryptonian flesh. I was amazed.

Rich muttered, "You're drooling."

I gave him a good long glare and Superman started talking again, "I know you're all hungry and food will be out soon, but first I want you all to get comfortable. Get out of cover."

There were a flurry of noises all around the room. But what happened at our table I was more surprised with. Karen stretched out a long pair of leathery yellow wings and yawned. Gar and Vic pressed the red stones on their rings and an amazing transformation occurred. Vic was now full of metal. Mostly. You could see part of his bald head, one of his eyes, and…nothing else. He had a metal plate in his head, one eye was red, and the rest of him was made of electronics. He flipped open a panel on his left arm and punched some buttons. Gar's skin and hair turned forest green. He stretched and then morphed into an eagle, cried out happily, and morphed back. I gaped at my friends. These were the reasons why they were here. They had these secrets that they'd kept hidden for who knows how long. I guess in way I had too. Maybe more. But these were pretty big. Wings, a cyborg, and, um, some green thing. The others though I wasn't sure about. I knew Jin was a witch and I was sure that was enough. But what about Wally, Rich, and Terra? They looked around the table just as amazed as I was. Except Rich, he seemed to expect everything.

Superman started talking again, "All right now, settle down. Welcome to the University. This isn't a game, so get serious. Prepare yourselves for the experience of your lives, kids. Schedules will be delivered later tonight. First day of classes start tomorrow and then the weekend. Rest up tonight and dig in now."

Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, waiters had come out of the kitchen and, as Superman said 'dig in', placed platters of food on our tables. My mouth watered. Sure, it wasn't a grand feast, but it was a lot better than plane food. Tater tots, chicken, hamburgers, wraps, soda, salad, and…tofu? That's what Gar grabbed, along with a fistful or two of tater tots. I took a salad, Rich a turkey wrap, Jinx and Wally took tater tots and fried chicken, Vic and Karen snatched the hamburgers and toppings, and Terra got a little bit of everything. We all dug in, talking and laughing. Occasionally we stopped to look at Gar and Terra who were shoveling their food down like crazed machines. Gar was sitting next to me so, when the two stopped inhaling their dinners, I heard the most frightening words ever uttered by the lean, green, eating machine.

"You can have my tots," Gar smiled at Terra and pushed his tots over to her.

I stopped eating and stared at shock as Terra shyly popped a tater tot into her mouth. Then I looked at Rich and he had the same expression. Gar never gave ANYONE his food. He was strictly vegetarian and he didn't spare a crumb of food on ANYONE. Gar must have really like this girl. I just hoped she wouldn't break his heart. Not after that girl over the summer, Charlotte. Led him along and then brutally crushed him. I was amazed. I looked at Vic. He too had paused, inches away from his triple stacked cheeseburger. He watched, stunned, as Gar broke a tot in half and ate it. The others finally noticed our silence and Jinx looked at me and raised an eyebrow. She mouthed 'what?' and I mouthed back 'later'. We resumed our talk casually and once we'd finished, Superman spoke into the microphone again, "Students, dinner is over. Curfew is in thirty minutes. If you were smart, you'd get to sleep before you're supposed to wake up tomorrow."

That got a few chuckles and then the cafeteria started to clear out. But as we were about to get up Superman pointed to us, "I need to see all of you. Go through that door. We'll join you in a minute."

We all walked cautiously toward the door he'd pointed to on the far side of the room. Who 'we' was, none of us knew. But Rich didn't seem to be as nervous as us. I wasn't sure what was going on. Especially with him. Maybe he knew more about all of this than us. How, I didn't know. But I'd find out soon enough. Gar held the door open for us and, after I passed through with Rich, I saw him bow low while Terra walked through. I saw her blush and smile. I almost rolled my eyes. Way too cute for my liking.

We'd walked into a dark hallway that sloped downward as we walked along. The walls were made of brown stone and there was a metal railing along the sides. We walked on in silence. All of us unsure of what was about to come. When we finally came to the end of the tunnel we were met with a huge room. The ceiling stretched up higher than any ceiling I'd ever seen. The walls were lined metal plates and a huge TV screen was up on the far wall. A large table was in the center of the room and twelve chairs surrounded it. The rest of the room was bare. We looked around, amazed and confused at the same time. It was totally empty.

I broke the silence, "Sooo…"

"Yeah, what's going on here?" Jinx exclaimed.

I turned to Rich. He knew what was happening, I knew it. "What's going on Rich? I'm pretty sure you know exactly what's going on here."

"Me?" he looked surprised, but I wasn't going to fall for his act.

"Rich-."

I was interrupted by a loud swooshing noise coming from the ceiling. Then the rocky ceiling parted and Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern, who was surrounded in a green orb. They landed in chairs as a sharp whoosh of wind turned our attention to the large TV screen where a man in a red spandex suit with a yellow lightening bolt and matching mask was standing. The Flash. He zipped over to a chair and sat down. That's when we noticed the other man who'd sat down. He was wearing a black mask, black cape, grey spandex suit with a utility belt, black boots, and a bat symbol on his chest. Batman. We just stood there in awe.

"Welcome, kids," Flash chuckled at our amazement.

"Rich," Batman nodded at Rich.

I knew there was something going with him and someone here. How else would he be prepared for everything?

"Awright, anyone of you want to tell us what's happenin' here?" Karen questioned, raising an eyebrow.

They chuckled at her bluntness and Diana spoke up, "You eight have been brought to the University for a reason. You are the future of the Justice League. We know that, with the proper training, all of you will become the next protectors of our world and others to come. You will be pushed harder, drilled for excellence, and our expectations are high. Higher than they usually are. Yes, this is your first day here and you're probably wondering why we are giving you all this now. But tomorrow will most likely be the hardest day of your lives. And the weekend will be a blessing. Now get to bed. Prepare yourselves. Sleep."

We were all frozen by her words. Shocked, stunned, I was searching my mind for more synonyms. We, us right there, were the future super heroes of the world. It was a little hard to take in. The Green Lantern spoke gravely, although I was sure he was trying to sound amused, "That means go, now."

I slowly turned around with the rest of my friends and walked back into the tunnel. Rich, finally, looked faintly surprised. We were silent as we walked back through the tunnel. When I looked at my friends faces I felt an urge to laugh. Vic's eyebrows were knotted together in confusion, Karen's mouth was shaped in a small O, and Jinx's face was like stone, no expression except stunned graveness. Wally and Gar were smiling their heads off and Terra was just looking down at the ground. But I could see a small smile peek through all that hair. Rich had a contradicting smile on his face as we walked through the door into a dimly lit cafeteria. When we got back to the dorm room hallway I stopped. The others stopped too and we all turned to Rich.

"What's going on Richard?" I questioned, stepping closer.

"Yeah," the others agreed.

"I knew this was going to happen," he muttered. "Look, this is kind of hard to explain."

"Hard to explain? Dude, you've expected every weird thing that's come along, you weren't surprised when we ended up in that garden, and Batman knew who you were! It's been hard for us, man," Vic vented.

"I know and I'm sorry I couldn't have told you until now. But," he slipped something thin and black out of his pocket. He put it on his face, it was a mask. "I'm Robin."

I immediately saw it. I'm not sure how I hadn't noticed until now. Rich, or Robin, leaned back on his door and slipped inside before we could say anything. Wally raced in before we could enlist him as a spy and interrogator. And, I didn't know about anyone else, but I was dead tired. Gar and Victor headed into their room, yawning. As I watched them go in, I shook my head in amazement. I still couldn't believe that Vic was basically a robot and Gar was a green shape shifter. As us girls walked down the hall Jinx looked at Terra and smiled, "Girl, you're falling fast, you know?"

Terra blushed, "I guess."

"He really likes you, trust me I'd know. I've known him since elementary. Gar sharing his tots with you was a big step. In the right direction, of course. He's a good guy," I glanced over at her. We stopped outside the room Jinx and I shared. I looked back at her and said darkly, "But let me warn you. You hurt him, none of us," I jerked my head toward the boys' rooms, "will ever forgive you."

I stepped into the room without looking back. Jinx followed and whistled once she'd closed the door, "You scared the shorts off her. What was the deal with that little 'talk'?"

"He's had a history of chaotic relationships. I don't know if he could make it through another broken heart," I pulled on some black pajamas and sat down on my bed.

Jinx shrugged a black nightgown on and climbed under her blanket, "Ah, I see. I think Terra's a good one. A little shy, sure, but won't break his heart. She was on the verge of tears out there. If I were you, I'd apologize tomorrow and explain Gar's history."

"You're probably right," I muttered.

"G'night. Can you get the light?"

"Yeah," I used my power to flip the light switch and I sunk under my covers.

"See you tomorrow, future hero of the Justice League," Jinx laughed.

"Same, guardian of this world and those to come," I muttered.

We laughed and then muttered our goodnights.

I laid on my back, hands behind my head and looked at the dark ceiling thoughtfully. It had been one of the most eventful days of my entire life. I'd met that twelve year old, Adrienne, discovered I was a future guardian of the world, and found that my crush was Batman's sidekick.

Holy crow, Batman.

There it is, Chapter 2. Hope you got the 'holy crow, batman' thing. Thanks for the review, 718darkstar! Glad you like it! If you like it, please review! And thanks to all of those that favorited or story alerted this! Great to know people like it and are looking forward to more. Look for an update sometime tomorrow.

writing4alllifes