Birds of Prey

Disclaimer: I do not own DC, Marvel, or any other characters outside of OCs.


Chapter One: Today is the Day

Neo Gotham City – December 31, 12:00 EDT

New Year's Eve in one of America's biggest – and in the opinion of many, the most crime infested – city in America was both an occasion of great celebration and notions of fear. Neo Gotham was well known for its huge celebrations for major holidays and the New Year was known to be the biggest party in Gotham history. From the bright lights and street wide festivals to the traditional countdown ball welcome the New Year – Spider-Girl argued that New York was better. But every year around this time, some psychotic supervillain would make a New Year Revolution to kill as many people as possible in one swoop; meaning new security was added annually. And, unfortunately, this year was no exception.

Gotham's Financial District was the center of commerce in the city and the location of Wayne-Powers Enterprises, Gotham's largest business franchise. It seemed like another semi-normal afternoon, ignoring the regular street thugs hanging around the corner, when the glass doors were inexplicably shattered in a blast of emerald fire. There was instantaneous panic as everyone either ducked for cover or high-tailed it out of the building.

Emerging from the collection of sifting smoke, charred rubble, and menacing-green flames was a man whose skin glowed in a vibrant-green manner and was completely transparent, displaying his mutilated skeleton. His attire consisted of a black and copper hazmat suit with a glass dome over his head, leaving only his hands exposed. (Derek Powers – Blight)

Everyone recognized Blight – arch-enemy of Gotham's greatest hero and a living nuclear reactor. Some of the smart ones had already turned and ran with their tails between their legs at the first glimpse of the glowing skeleton. But some workers were too terrified to move, one of which included the new intern working at the front desk. Blight stepped up to the whimpering woman, looking ghoulishly smug as he leaned over the desk – his hands hissed against the wooden desk.

"Excuse me, miss." Blight said politely. "I have an appointment with Mr. Wayne that is long overdue."

"Guess you'll have to reschedule, Powers."

The nuclear skeleton swiftly turned on his heels, which was swiftly met with a red and black bat-shaped boomerang to his protective dome. The tool hadn't committed any damage to Blight, but the sudden assault caught Powers by surprise and caused him to flip backwards over the desk – the intern quickly fled, screaming as loud as she could. Blight glowered dangerously as she pulled up himself using the desk for support; the wood charred at his touch.

Unsurprisingly, the man he despised more than Wayne was standing at the shattered entrance with his arms crossed and that same smug expression on his face. His suit completely black with the exception of the scarlet-red bat insignia on his chest, the visible fins on his wrists, the pointed ears on his cowl, and the silver belt strapped around his waist. (Terrance McGinnis – Batman)

"You really don't know when to quit, do ya, Powers." Batman smirked confidently. "I guess you would be bitter since it took you almost forty years to get Wayne Enterprises and then you ended up losing it in front of a global audience. That must have been rough."

"Oh, I'll get my company back, don't you worry about that." Blight proclaimed, collecting a mass of energy in his right hand. "First I'm gonna take care of you, and then I'm going to take care of Wayne. I'll kill two birds with one stone, Batman."

But before Blight had the chance to release his energy attack, the nuclear villain was thrown forward by a large weight dropping on his back. Powers smacked head-first into the desk, slightly cracking his protective dome, and the weight was lifted off his shoulders followed by a distinctive of flapping cloth. Blight lifted himself quick enough to see the Batman's annoying partner expertly flip through the air and land gracefully at her mentor's side. And he wasn't referring to the Spoiler brat either.

Batman's newest sidekick appeared to be closer to his age based on the height between them. Her costume was more closely resembled the Dark Knights costume than Spoiler including the full-black body, the finned wrists, and the pointy-eared cowl. The distinct differences between them were the yellow-rimmed bat insignia on her chest, the darkened eyes, the addition of a cap, and the symbolic stitches surrounding the mouth of her mask. (Cassandra Cain-Wayne – Batgirl)

"Oh…and Batgirl." Blight grumbled. "Typical. Always sending the girl scouts to do your dirty work, Batman."

"Whatever…you are planning…is ogre, Blight." Batgirl proclaimed slowly.

"Over." Batman corrected; Batgirl flinched at her mistake. "Whatever he is planning is over, Batgirl."

"Uh…right." Batgirl nodded.

"Oh, this is rich!" Blight laughed loudly; Batgirl groaned embarrassingly. "I heard rumors that your new sidekick was a little slow, but I didn't think she was mentally retarded! You really know how to pick 'em, Bats."

Batgirl narrowed her darkened eyes dangerously and stepped forward to thrash him, but was quickly pulled back when her mentor tugged at her cape. Just in time too as Blight tossed a sphere of searing-green flames at the area where she was previously standing. His first attempt failed, Blight filled his hands with a clustered of emerald flames and tossed them in the direction of the dynamic duo. The Dark Knights quickly punched their fists to the high ceiling, releasing the grappling lines hidden in the forearms of their suits. When the claws latched on to the ceiling, Batman and Batgirl quickly tugged back before they were propelled upwards, barely dodging the fireballs at the last second.

With a grunt of annoyance, the glowing skeleton reignited his hands and started lobbing the flames in the general area of the Dynamic Duo. The bats were fortunate to dodge the oddly-colored fireballs while in midair before unlatching their suits from the grappling lines, allowing them to land safely onto the second floor. The Batman and his protégée quickly ducked behind the low wall railing as Blight started bombarding them with green flames. But despite the dangerous situation they were in, Batman didn't appear the slightest bit worried as he started digging around his belt.

"Sorry we had to put the trip on hold, Cass." Batman apologized, shrugging in his partner's direction. "I know how important today is for you. Spoiler's been waiting for this for a while now."

"It is…all right." Batgirl replied slowly, flinching as another fireball exploded over their heads. "But…I would like…to harry this…up."

"Hurry, Cass." Batman corrected. "The word you're looking for is hurry."

"That, too." Batgirl nodded.

Snickering slightly under his breath, the Dark Knight finally found what he was looking for and revealed a cluster of silver-plated pellets from his utility belt. Batman waited for the briefest moment when Blight would slowly display an opening in his attacks, allowing him the opportunity to jumped from his hiding place and throw the pellets in his direction. Blight watched curiously at the small capsules snapped against his hands until he realized that they were flash frozen in the blink of an eye. This wasn't a problem; he could just heat his hands and break free. But the opportunity eluded him before Batgirl dived from her perch and swiped her foot against Blight's protective dome, shattering the glass upon impact.


Star City –December 31, 9:01 PDT

Star City wasn't as bad as Gotham or Bludhaven, but it was well known to be the home of several criminal underworld gangs that had been driven out by Batman or Spoiler. And even though they no longer had to fear the wrath of the Bat Family, they had a new adversary to deal with. One who was learning from example had tried to make a flashy entrance in Star City's Tinder-Smith Garden Arena, home of the Star City Mercenaries – maybe he wasn't a hockey fan. It had only been moments earlier when the stadium was crowded by widespread hockey fans until the match was unexpected interrupted by a blast of purple flames.

The originator was standing high above in the rafters – only a flicker of purple flames spotted in the shadows. The newcomer jumped down from the ceiling and stomped into the center of the hockey rink, fracturing the ice and causing the players to lose their balance. The intruder was a hulking man in what appeared to be a black and white containment suit where the only thing visible was his deteriorated skull, which was coated in unnaturally colored purple flames. (Joseph Martin – Atomic Skull)

As the audience naturally stampeded out of the stadium like a herd of frightened animals, Atomic Skull thrust his hands to the electronic scoreboard and blasted the monitors with a pillar of purple flames. As the fractured around was showed in sparks and glass, the flame-headed psychopath bellowed proudly at his work. That was…until two pairs of colored arrow heads – green and red – stabbed against the front of his containment suit and ignited in a brief explosion. The Atomic Skull was sent flailing backwards into the wall, slamming his flaming cranium through the paneling.

"I'm not a big fan myself, but aren't you going a little overboard?"

The Atomic Skull sneered indulgently, ripping his flaming head through the wall and glaring at his attacker. A woman in her late teens with golden-blond hair tied into a low ponytail grinned at the poor supervillain, acting like this was a game rather than a fight. Her costume consisted of a moss-green V-line mask, a moss-green midriff shirt with a lime-green arrow on the front, elbow-length fingerless gloves, a band on her right arms, and moss-green pants with lime-green lining. She also had black pads on her knees, black combats boots, and a pouch strapped to her left thigh. As an archer, she naturally carried a green compact bow with a similarly colored quiver stocked with arrows. (Serah Grayson – Artemis)

Standing next to her was the archer's young protégée, who looked roughly pre-teen. Her costume was roughly much simpler than her mentor's: a scarlet-red body suit with golden bands on her forearms and knees, the traditional golden arrow insignia on her chest, and a golden cape with a hood thrown over her head. She also wore a black domino mask over her eyes and a small strand of golden hair poked out from underneath her hood. Like her teacher, she carried a red compact bow and a quiver of arrow beneath her cape. (Mia Dearden-Grayson – Speedy)

"Finally." Atomic Skull said gratefully, filling his palms with purple flames. "I was wondering what a guy had to do to get a little attention around here."

"If you wanted our attention, maybe we should invest on our own Arrow Signal." Speedy suggested, jumping away to the side to avoid a flying fireball. "That would be so cool. We could be like Batman."

"If Batman has one, there is no way in Hell we're getting a signal." Artemis said finally, earning a depressive moan from her protégée. The green archer quickly equipped her bow with two arrows, firing them at the flame-headed villain. "Besides, a search light in the sky isn't exactly the most discreet way to catch villains."

"But it's still cool." Speedy argued, firing an arrow from behind the seats.

The green archer rolled her eyes as she ducked a violet fireball – sometimes there was just no arguing with the logic on an eleven year-old girl with a superhero fixation. Pulling another trick arrow from her quiver, Artemis rolled into view and released the drawstring when the Atomic Skull wasn't looking. Unfortunately, the lack of eyes didn't mean he was blind and immediately turned to incinerate the arrow with his brightly-colored fire. The radioactive supervillain gathered another cluster of fireballs in his palms and tossed them into the air, letting them fall in random directions. The pyro spheres scattered an exploded in every direction of the sports arena, leaving Artemis and Speedy to scramble for safety.

When all was said and done, the arena went deathly silent – clouds of purple smoke cluttered the stands. The Atomic Skull searched left and right, seeing and hearing no traces of the Robin Hood heroes possibly surviving the impact. Oddly enough, the flame-headed supervillain looked worried for a moment, almost as if he had messed up somehow. His attitude quickly turned around when Artemis and her protégée dashed through the smoke clouds, appearing unharmed, and simultaneously released their arrows. The flame-headed barely had a moment to gasp in shock before the steel-plated projectiles slammed against his forehead. The Atomic Skull was thrust into an instant state of unconscious as he defeated body slid into the goal post at the end of the arena – the horn blared in the background.

"I always thought he was a bit soft in the head." Artemis joked, replacing her bow against her quiver.

"Ok, we beat the bad guy." Speedy said excitedly, clasping her hands and turning to her mentor pleadingly. "Can we go now, please?"

"What's the hurry, Speedy?" Artemis laughed at her protégée's childish games.

"You know why." Speedy said eagerly, practically bouncing on her feet. "It's the moment I've been waiting for since I became a superhero. Today is the day."


Los Angeles – December 31, 9:02 PDT

Los Angeles, home of swimming pools, movies stars, fame, fortune, and the occasion mutant vs. mutant fighting. While most of the average people – meaning people who could afford to live their – were going about their ways, they remained blissfully ignorant to what was happing up at the famous Hollywood sign. There was a brief flash of light before someone was shot through the hole in the letter "O" and plowed a ten foot trail in the dirt. Once the dust had cleared away, the person was actually revealed to be an unfortunate teenage girl with short dark-hair as she steadily picked herself up. It was almost difficult to tell who she was due to was due to her costume: a yellow hazmat suit with black outlines forming a radioactive symbol on her chest and yellow helmet with a glass visor. (Jennifer Takeda – Hazmat)

The young Hazmat shook her head clear of any dizziness, quickly turning her attention to the two heroes standing at the top of the "W" with her eyes narrowed dangerously. The first of them was a grizzly-looking man with unnaturally pointed teeth and, in her personal opinion, very hairy arms. His costume was all bright-yellow with navy-blue texture on the sides and shoulder, which also had bright-yellow stripes and a bright-red on the left side of his chest. He also wore navy-blue boots and gloves, a golden-yellow belt, and a bright-yellow mask with navy-blue devil curls over the eyes. (James Howlett/Logan – Wolverine)

But while the bright-yellow wild man had a more kindly disposition towards the radioactive girl, his partner didn't share the same expression of kindness. He looked roughly into the stage of adulthood and possessed intricate covering the left side of his arm. His costume was roughly close to that of Wolverine; only the color scheme was revered for a dirt-brown and copper tone. And another distinct difference between them was that while Wolverine had three metal claws ripping from his knuckles, the other man had two bone claws extracted from his knuckles and one from his wrist (Akihiro – Daken)

"Hey, go easy on her." Wolverine warned, waving his claws to his partner. "She's just a kid."

"She's in the way!" Daken growled impatiently. "If we didn't have a little side trip for this stupid brat, we would already be there!"

"Ya need to control that temper of yours, bub." Wolverine said strictly, looking very surprised at himself. "Wow, did I just say that?"

"Look out!" Daken warned.

Daken ducked away in time, but Wolverine was still left ponder before he was blasted off the sign by a bright-green beam to the chest – that was gonna sting a bit. With the big man temporarily disabled, Hazmat turned her sights on Daken and shot out to hands forward, creating radioactive beams of light from her palms. The grizzly man dodged to the right to avoid the first shot, flipped backwards to avoid the second, and simply ducked down from the third aimed for his head. This kid didn't even know how to use her powers properly; that just ticked him off. After avoiding a fourth blast aimed for his feet, the dark-colored beast made a dash for the teenage mutant – his claws digging into the dig along the way.

Hazmat seemed to panic for a moment and randomly flailed her hands ahead, hoping to get a lucky shot. But Daken was able to effortlessly dive between the two radioactive rays and find a clear path to the young mutant. Once she was within his reach, Daken slashed his claws upwards, effectively leaving a large rip in her suit and helmet. As she felt backwards in surprise, the teenaged mutant slammed her head into a large rock, effectively knocking her unconscious. His prey defeated and out cold, Daken wasn't nearly satisfied with how the fight had ended – she interrupted a very important day. With a soft growl, the dark beast stabbed her claws to aim for Hazmat's chest…only to be intercepted by Wolverine's metallic claws.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, bub?" Wolverine leered, pushing his partner way from the radioactive mutant. "That's not the way the Justice League handles their problems. She's not evil, just a little misguided little girl."

"Whatever." Daken scoffed, retracting his claws. "You've gotten soft in your old age."

"Maybe I have." Wolverine replied, gently lifting Hazmat into his arms. "But that's the difference between me and the monsters I fight."

"Whatever, let's just go." Daken scowled. "Today's the day."


Central City – December 31, 11:03 CDT

Like every day in Central City, there was always some kind of excitement going around – pretty fitting place for an excitable guy like the Flash. This time, the location of choice was the famous Central City Flash Museum; a dedication to all the Flashes from Jay Garrick to Barry Allan to Wally West. And one day, a shrine to Bart Allan would be erected in these very halls, but that's getting a little ahead.

It was an average visit to the Flash Museum until the monument depicting the original Impulse was unexpectedly blasted through the window – Bart was not particularly happy about that. As the throngs of people were fleeing the building as quickly as possible, the source of the disturbance continued his rampage through the museum, crushing everything dedicated to the scarlet speedster. The man in question wore starry suit with golden lining on his sides, around his face, and wore matching golden boots. (Benjamin Krullen – Reactron)

The strangely-suited supervillain pressed his hands against the gilded statue of the first Flash, watching with glee as the monument literally melted in his palms. The radioactive supervillain was moving on to eradicate the next statue when he was suddenly knocking off his feet by two blurs – one red and yellow, the other red and white. As the villain quickly moved to his feet, the twin blurs were already circling around him in typical fashion. Reactron scowled underneath his mask – he didn't need to see them to know who they were. The first was a young man where a full-body red suit with yellow lightning bolts on his wrists and waist, the bright-yellow knee-length boots, and the white marker on his chest with the symbol lightning bolt. (Bartholomew Allan II – Flash)

His young partner in crime-fighting was a little girl – probably not even ten years-old – with vibrant-red hair tied into two long pigtails by lightning bolt hairclips. Her costume was a lot more complicated than her mentors: a red strip running down the center and the inside of her legs, white segments covering her sides, arms, and the outside of the legs, and a lightning bolt pattern separating the two colors. She also wore scarlet-red boots, matching fingerless gloves with straps, and a scarlet-red mask with yellow lenses built-in over her eyes (Iris West II – Impulse)

As the speeding partners circled endlessly around Reactron, the starry-costumed villain attempted to blast them with the radioactive beam emitting from his palms, but had very little success nailing his target.

"I don't get this guy's problem is." Flash commented, ducking another radioactive blast. "He's not even one of our villains. Come to think of it, shouldn't he be getting his butt kicked by Superman or Supergirl right about now?"

"Who cares?" Impulse shouted back, jumping a blast aimed for her feet. "Let's get this over with quick before we're late!"

"If you feel that strongly, go for it, kid." Flash offered like a gentleman.

With a gleeful smile on her face, Impulse circled around the radioactive supervillain until she was directly behind him and curving around towards his direction. Reactron was too focused on the scarlet blur whizzing around him that he failed to notice the younger sidekick sliding across the polished floor until she crashed into the back of his legs. The radioactive supervillain fell on his back from Impulse's kindergarten tactics as the little superheroine kick-flipped back to her feet. Reactron started to push himself back up by his elbows, but was consequently knocked back down by a quick kick to the face courtesy of the friendly neighborhood Flash – Spider-Girl was going to bill him for that later.

"Nice work, kid." Flash complimented, clapping his hands victoriously.

"Can we go now? Can we go now?" Iris jabbered hyperactively, practically bouncing in her mentor's face. "Please? Please? Please?"

"Whoa, whoa, settle down there, squirt." Flash chuckled amusingly, prying the excitable off himself. "We have plenty of time to get there after we drop of old glow face at the police station."

"But I wanna go there now!" Impulse whined childishly. "I've been waiting for this moment my whole life!"

"You only just heard about it last week." Flash countered.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a whole week!" Impulse improvised. "The day I have been waiting for is here! Today's the day!"


Metropolis – December 31, 14:00 EDT

Metropolis – a famous city for many things including the home of the world famous Superman and his arch-enemy, Lena Luthor. It is also the sight of the Apokoliptian invasion headed by Darkseid that eventually led to the disbanding of the original Justice League. But now, the famous city was home to the earthbound headquarters of the new Justice League: The Metrotower. Settled in the center of the city, the Metrotower stood stores high even above the Daily Planet building – though Batman always felt it was a little much for such a small group. A small park for tourists was located behind the tower, two fountains were settled into the front on either side, and placed directly at the base of the headquarters was a set of bronze statue dedicated the founders of the original Justice League from Aquaman to the Martian Manhunter.

Batgirl was wide-eyed at the very height of the Metrotower – she had been to many cities and seen many cities in her seven years of solitary travels and she had never seen a more impressive structure. Speedy occupied herself studying the statue of the original founders, feeling kind of disappointed that a Green Arrow monument hadn't been erected. Daken just stood next to Wolverine as Batman and Artemis wrangled in their starry-eyed protégées.

"Today's the day." Batman smiled, placing a hand on Batgirl's shoulder.

"Welcome to the Metrotower, kids." Wolverine grunted.

"The Justice League's central base on Earth." Artemis informed. "And our secondary headquarters next to the Justice League Watchtower."

"Will we…get a chance…to see…the uh…wat…wat…" Batgirl struggled worriedly.

"Don't push yourself, Batgirl." Batman said comfortingly. "Sorry, but you guys aren't ready to see the Watchtower just yet. Even the new members have to wait a while before they are allowed to go up there. But don't worry, I promise I'll personally give you guys a tour of the Watchtower…when you're ready."

"Sounds like a rip of if I ever heard one." Daken grunted.

"Just be grateful that we even let you into the Metrotower." Wolverine scolded. "A lot of people have been trying to join the Justice League, when we don't just invite anyone in our little group. We only take the best."

"Like that Shock kid or that Spoiler brat?" Daken retorted. Before he even realized what had occurred, the darker version of Wolverine felt a pressure in his left shoulder and seized up. "What…the…hell…"

"Spoiler…is good…hero." Batgirl glared menacingly, jabbing her fingers further into Daken's shoulder. "Take…it…back."

"Easy there, Batgirl." Batman reprimanded, pulling his protégée's hand away. "You don't need to stoop to his level."

"I am…sorry." Batgirl said earnestly. "He made me…angry."

"Yeah, well, he does that to a lot of people." Batman said; Daken huffed indigently. "Just ignore him."

"Wow, things are already getting heavy and we haven't even walked through the doors yet." Artemis commented, patting Speedy on the head. "It's a good thing I've got a sidekick that knows when to be good."

"I kinda expected Impulse to make it worse." Speedy commented. "Speaking of which, where is…"

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

The heroes turned and quickly jumped out of the way as a red and white blur whizzed past them, stopping only when it had successfully flipped into the fountain and submerged into the water. Just as the Flash arrived, Impulse splashed surfaced and splashed her way to the edge. She giggled bashfully and scratched her head embarrassingly under all the stares of her superhero buddies.

"Still have to work on the breaks." Impulse said jokingly.

"Well, that's one way to make and entrance." Flash laughed, plucking his sidekick out of the water and drying her off with a quick vibrated shake. "We're not late, are we? Impulse was throwing a fit back at Central City."

"I was not!" Impulse pouted, trying to squirm out of her mentor's hands.

"No, we were just about to go inside." Artemis stated, pulling her partner to the entrance. Batman, Wolverine, and Flash gathered their own sidekicks and stood at the entryway of the Justice League's headquarters. "This is it, kids." Daken grunted at the commented. "And over-arrogant, self-absorbed pricks. You're first official day as junior members of the Justice League. Ya ready for this?"

"Born ready." Speedy smiled confidently.


Please, read and review.


Hero Profile

Name: Batgirl
Real Name: Cassandra Cain-Wayne
Age: 17
Relatives:
David Cain (Father), Lady Shiva (Mother), Bruce Wayne (Adopted father), Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake (Adopted brothers)
Mentor/Partners(s): David Cain (formerly), Batman, Spoiler
Affiliation(s): League of Assassins (Formerly), Bat Family, Birds of Prey
Powers/Abilities:
- Peak Human Conditioning
- Master Martial Artist
- Master Assassin Training
- Advance Body Reading Ability
- Resistant to most toxins
Notes:
-
Overly Severe Dyslexia
- Most experienced
- Guilt-ridden History
- Unusually Large Appetite
- Emotionally Unstable