When I woke, I was half under the impression that I was in my own bed. This blissful feeling didn't last though as consciousness took a firmer hold on me. My last waking hours filtered back to me slowly, as the unusual scent of the bed linens registered fully in my nose.

I turned over on my back, and opened my eyes. The light was dim in the room so they didn't take long to adjust. The panelling on the roof was unusual to me as well. Finally, the last few images assembled. Bolt and his men literally 'bolting' before I turned around and saw –

"Oh no." My voice cracked from sleep, horror swelled in my chest. I threw myself out of bed, my head blurring from being suddenly vertical. Once it subsided I made my way to the door and peered out into the corridor. "Shit."

I sprinted down the long corridor. The knowledge of where I was making me freak out a little. I followed the L. lighting the path as it twisted and turned for a good six hundred metres. When I reached the end I was panting.

I looked up and my fears were confirmed.

At the end of the corridor was an atrium. About the size of half a football field yet higher than it was wide. In the middle sat a huge computer expanding into four huge monitors, below which were hundreds of flashing buttons. Behind this computer were two huge tunnels rimmed with metal rings that turned clockwise, then anti-clockwise, electricity surged from them, creating tiny bolts of lightning every minute or so.

But it wasn't the machinery in the room that was scaring that hell out of me. It was the statues embedded into the walls that appeared to be made of rock. Statues of figures that I knew all too well from reading the newspaper, watching the news, looking into the sky every now and again. Figures that I appeared to be in the home of…

I really needed to get out of here.

But before I could even make an escape plan the weird metal tunnels started making a loud humming noise. The rings started moving faster, the lightning crackled louder and louder until the whole tunnel lit up in the whitest light I'd ever seen. I closed my eyes to get away from its intensity and when I opened them, three figures were walking towards me.

"Oh shit!"

"Ah," the one on the left said. He wore a red and blue suit with a white 'v' on the chest cradling a star, yet the suit was too shiny to be spandex or any other material. It was almost as if the guy were made of metal . "This must be the mutant you picked up off the street, old friend."

"She doesn't look like much," the one woman of the group spoke. Thick black hair cropped into a pixie cut yet her flawless chocolate complexion and high cheekbones allowed to pull the look off completely. Somehow she was able to make the clashing animal prints on her costume look classy. "Are you sure she is what you think?" She glanced at the man in the middle, the one I was most wary of.

Standing over six foot, all in black from boots to mask except for the yellow encircling the symbol on his chest and his utility belt was one of the most feared superheroes in the world to date.

I was so in over my head.

"She's everything I think she is and probably more, Vixen," Batman spoke in his trade mark gravelled tone. "Trouble is, she's a mystery. What's your name, girl?"

I swallowed, a little peeved that they were speaking as if I couldn't hear them. But I made the smart decision of keeping my mouth tightly shut while biding my time. There's no way I could escape these three without some sort of distraction.

"Fraya," I said truthfully, he wouldn't find my name on any systems anyway. "Fraya Fairburn."

Batman appeared to type my name into the inside of his arm. Suddenly the computer in the centre of the room came to life, its monitors lighting up with lists of names in neon colours.

"See?" He growled, confirming what I already knew. "Nothing on the systems. Where did you come from?"

"I don't really know." Once again a truth, but only a half-truth this time.

He glared at me from behind his mask but seemed to let this one go however as he continued the interrogation. "And what is your power?"

"I'm a mind pusher," half-truths seemed like the best chance at them not following me when I escape. "I can force people to do what I want."

"Is that why you're living in an apartment without paying rent?"

It was my turn to glare. Of course he would know something like that… he's Batman. I shrugged. "It's not like I live in a penthouse, and I pay rent the odd month, if I have the cash."

He walked towards me slowly, making me want to shrink back and hide in a corner. Get a grip! I chastised internally. Show some backbone here. So I squared my shoulders as Sadira did when challenging an older foe (i.e. me) and looked him straight in his eyes.

"And this 'cash' you acquire," he spoke slowly and deliberately making my stomach knot. "Is it from a regular job or Slade's errands?"

At the mention of my former boss I winced, then scowled at showing him weakness. I forced my voice not to break and sound somewhat calm when answering him. "My apartment's in his territory, he sensed a mutant when I arrived so I had to pay a small loyalty fee to him." The fee being an 'if you don't I'll kill you and your little friend' kind of thing. "I worked for Slade for about eight months and then left. You witnessed the first of him bothering me in nearly a year."

"Now why don't I believe you?"

I spoke before I even thought it through. "I dunno… trust issues emitted from an unstable childhood?" My eyes widened a little, as did Batman's friends behind him. I wanted to smack my hand over my mouth but decided that showing back bone here was needed. This so called 'superhero' drugged me and brought me here against my will!

Batman looked pissed and had opened his mouth to answer when another white flash exploded from one of those damn tunnels. This time when I opened my eyes there were about six mini superheroes coming towards us. Ranging from their late teens to early twenties. I recognised a few from their side-kick days but not many. It was beginning to feel seriously claustrophobic in this atrium.

"Hey!" One of them called. Tall and lean, wearing yellow spandex with red boots and finishes. His name came and went when I remembered his ability. "A new recruit!" He disappeared in a yellow blur and reappeared in front of me, his hand held out for a hand shake. He'd even taken off his glove to be friendly.

A speedster. Perfect.

I reached out to grip his hand at the same time Batman stepped forward.

"Wally! Don't –"

But it was too late. I'd already absorbed enough to keep his power for a few hours – I'd gotten a lot quicker over the years, no pun intended. In those two seconds I let go of him and darted away picking up such a speed that I could feel the world around me blur. It was incredible, just as the speedster did I crossed the atrium in less than a second. Unbeknownst to Batman, since I'd gotten up I'd been using Sadira's powers to tell me where the exit was. This entire base was made of machinery. So with the help of super speed I was sure to make a very quick getaway.

I was nearly free, speeding down six halls and through many, many doors. I'd even forced the huge entrance to open up into a ramp leading to the outside world. I could literally see the light.

What I didn't see was about a thousand tiny marbles placed in my path.

I took one super sped step onto the metal balls and began skidding out of control. My arms wind milled, the whole world tilted and I fell flat on my ass.

I groaned as my coccyx throbbed. Before I could even consider standing up some sort of metal device hit my wrists and bound them tightly behind my back. The same thing happened to my ankles. I fell sideways without my hands to hold me up right. My right cheek planting painfully into the ground.

"Mother fucker…" I moaned. Black boots came into my line of sight. I couldn't see above them over his shins, what being horizontal and all.

"No need to bring my mother into this." I deep guy's voice spoke from above me. "You did this to yourself."

With that he threw, and I mean threw me over his shoulder and began carrying me back in the direction which I came. A familiar gravelly voice crackled from some sort of radio unit on my captor's suit.

"Nightwing. Did she escape?"

"Of course not. I'm well used to catching super speeds living with Kid Flash all these years."

"Fine, bring her back to the atrium. And don't touch her skin."

"Got it… Nightwing out."

"Nightwing…" I muttered. That name rang a bell… "Oh shit! Really? Being captured and carried by an overgrown boy wonder!?"

Could this get any more embarrassing? More to the point I can't absorb this guy he's human. Looks like I'm going to have to wait once more for an escape.

Almost like he read my thoughts Nightwing spoke up. "If you stopped trying to escape for two seconds you'll realise we're not trying to hurt you."

"I'm sorry," I bit back savagely. "But since I've come into all of your company I've been drugged, captured, tripped and nearly broken my coccyx before carried like and animal ready for slaughter. Excuse me for not feeling the love."

He simply grunted in response and kept walking. When we made it back to the atrium Nightwing threw me into a chair where I felt the glares of way too many super heroes. I sighed, wishing I could rub my temples. I was getting a migraine.

"What did you do?" said a voice from my left. Kid Flash sat in a chair similar to mine hosting a bottle of water and giant bag of Doritos.

"She absorbed your powers," Nightwing answered. "Similar to Parasite's abilities."

"You've been holding out on us…" Batman's male friend whose name I finally remembered was Steel spoke, chastising me.

"Look," I spoke up. Maybe the good girl tactic will work instead of getting defensive. "I don't mean to hurt anyone; I only did those jobs for Slade so that he'd leave me in peace. I have no hidden agendas, no conspiracy theories to take over or blow the world. All I want is to live my life peacefully without the intervention of goons or any of you lot!"

"We know that," the woman who I finally recognise as Vixen spoke up. "We haven't brought you here to throw you in jail. You're here so we can offer you protection."

"Protection? Protection against what?"

Batman strode forward. "This ad was put up on every villain page in America; every villain page means every gang leader, every goon." Clicking another button the monitors of the computers flashed once before showing a clear picture of my face, taken when I first worked for Slade and need an I.D. to present. Underneath it was two words written in bold black font.

Wanted Alive.

Horror washed through me.

"I need to leave," I said in a voice I didn't recognise as my own. "Now."

And with that started moving, only fractions of a millimetre from side to side but so fast that my whole body vibrated. My molecules moving at such a speed that I slipped through my bonds.

I was gone before the ropes hit the ground.

Focusing carefully on the ground ahead of me for and more slipping hazards I sped out of the heroes' base. In seconds I was out, Happy Harbour the signpost said. I was miles away, not a problem I'd make it back to Gotham in minutes. But would that still be too late?

I rushed forward pushing my legs so hard against the ground that my muscles protested. I ignored the pain though as only one thought was racing through my mind. They were looking for a mutant who could control machines and the first place they'd look is where Jackdaw had been told I lived.

Sadira.