-Day Out-
Gotham City
The girls, or Titans as they now affectionately referred to themselves, were perched on the edge of a flat-roofed building overlooking Gotham Bay. The night had began with them simply on patrol, for the third night in a row, but had rapidly deteriorated into the kind of conversation many would deem 'normal' for a teenaged girl.
"How about... Bruce Wayne?" Melina asked them, she was lying along the edge of the building, and occasionally placing a marshmallow into her mouth.
"Oh god no... Just... Just no!" Stephanie suddenly cried indignantly from her place, sitting cross-legged just beside Blackhawk.
"Okay geez, Donna?" The other blonde urged.
"I think we've established I hold no interest in modern men" the eldest raised a brow.
"True... Then how about Oliver Queen?" Batgirl said.
"Nopa" Melina casually dismissed.
"Are there any people you have a thing for?" The youngest inquired exasperated.
"Well... Hawkwoman's pretty alright... But blondes are my thing, so if she weren't my aunt, Black Canary would count... Which is weird" Melina admitted.
"Wait... They're all girls" Wonder Girl noticed.
"Yeah, and?" Blackhawk stuffed another squishy treat into her maw.
"Not anything wrong with that, it's just... Well you never really expect to meet someone whose..." Steph attempted to justify.
"Gay. It isn't cancer, or Voldemort, just my sexual orientation" the girl sat up to stare out over the bay "besides, I get enough flak over it at school half the time" she frowned.
"Maybe we should get back to work?" Donna asked.
"Why, uncomfortable?" Melina pushed.
"Not by the conversation" the black haired girl raised a hand to point at a rapidly incoming meteor, hurtling for Gotham Bay.
It hit the water, and despite being about the size of a taxi, the impact caused an almost tsunami-like wave of the murky water to wash out over the shore and streets.
"Let's check it out" Melina ordered. After her successful plan in taking down Devastation, Melina had been elected to remain as team leader by both girls, until they could all work as a fully cohesive trio.
The pair of blondes pulled out zip-line devices, and rode down the thick cables to the water where their fortunately unscathed jet-skis sat waiting. They leapt off their lines, and each landed directly onto the vehicles, starting them up, and speeding across the bay to the crash site, while Wonder Girl flew behind.
They came to a stop above the approximate location of the meteor, and Stephanie pulled on a rebreathing device, diving into the dark depths toward the green glow of what was most likely a remnant of the kryptonite meteor the League destroyed about a month earlier.
Down below, Batgirl swam up to what she could now safely identify as a pod of some sort, with strange markings on the sides. She quickly sent a message out for Batman to recover and investigate the capsule, before resurfacing.
"Anything?" Melina asked with a distinct tone of boredom audible.
"Oh yeah" was all the youngest offered.
The sound of another body breaking the surface of the water drew their attention of Stephanie's jet-ski, where a figure was pulling itself out and onto the object.
"Hey, you!" Donna shouted. The figure gave a feminine yelp, and slipped. Her hand must have hit the ignition, as in seconds the jet-ski began barreling back towards the shore, with the unidentified girl still on.
"Wait, stop!" Blackhawk tried to warn, Batgirl now clinging to her back. The warning went unheeded, or unrecognised, as soon the jet-ski. Ploughed through the side of a docked boat, hitting it's engine block, and destroying both in a horrendous ball of flames.
"New game plan" the leader announced "I'll investigate on land, in case they survived, Donna will keep an eye out from above, and Steph, you check on the remains of that boat, until Batman arrives, then debrief him." They nodded, and quickly split up to check out their assigned places.
As her teammates left, Stephanie tentatively shuffled through the flaming wreckage of the boat, trying to keep an eye out for a charred corpse, or any other sign that the person was dead. She failed to notice a completely unblemished figure crawl out from the wreck, and sprint away from it.
Once she was happy there wasn't any evidence of a body, she remounted Hawk's jet-ski, and waited for her mentor to arrive and retrieve the crashed pod.
Back on land, Melina was running along the tops of uniformly stacked shipping containers, and leaping over gaps between the boxes where dock workers and shady characters went about their nightly 'business'.
Unlike Batgirl, she did not miss the sight of a body sprinting between the crates, and when they ran through the light of the moon shining between two containers, Melina noticed she was stark naked. Now this was interesting. She continued to follow through the shadows, leaping across containers to keep an eye on the surprisingly fast girl, and stopped when she saw her step into the light of a warehouse loading dock.
"Hey, Jim" one of the workers directed another one's attention to the girl.
A larger man stalked over to her with lecherous grin. "Hey there honey, how about I take you someplace quiet?" He placed a hand on her bare shoulder, and Blackhawk almost intervened. Suddenly she grabbed his hand, and bent his wrist back to the point of a sickening crack sounding.
The first worker walked over, "hey, I know Jim can be a dick but-" he was cut off when the girl threw Jim away several feet, and into a stack of wooden pallets.
"W-w-wait, don't hurt me!" The other man dropped to his knees in fear. The girl began to speak threateningly in a foreign language. "H-here, take my coat! Just don't hurt me!" He threw the long coat he was wearing at her, and she slipped it on to now cover her body. Melina frowned in disappointment.
The girl took off running again, her light blonde hair whipping in the wind behind her, and Blackhawk decided she should put an end to this.
The young hero dropped to the ground in front of the other, and called out for her to stop. She turned and kept running in the opposite direction, with Blackhawk in pursuit.
"Don't you understand me!? I said stop!" She shouted. The girl's head turned, and out of nowhere two bright red beams of energy spewed from her eyes, burning Melina's arm.
The girl screamed and threw her hands over her eyes, stopping the flow of lasers.
"Superpowers much?" The hero girl muttered. The chase quickly led into the city, and the girls began winding through streets and alleys, the blonde trying to escape, and Melina trying to stop her.
Blackhawk was eventually able to trap the girl in an alleyway, and held her hands up to show she meant no harm. "Woah, calm down, I don't wanna hurt you" she took a few tentative steps forward. But as she approached, the girl's legs lifted off the ground, and she ascended towards the sky. Melina's jaw dropped as the girl panicked and squirmed in air.
"You gotta burp Charlie!" She shouted, before groaning, and firing a grappling line up to the roof of the building beside them. She shot up and landed on the ground, but the other girl continued to rise upwards.
Her short flight was cut short however, when a familiar girl in a black unitard flew through the air, and tackled the girl back down through the roof of the building. Melina jumped down the new hole, and marched up to Wonder Girl, who was standing up over the downed blonde.
"Is there even a brain in that thick skull?!" She yelled.
"I don't know why your'e complaining, I caught our perp."
"Well our 'perp' doesn't know she's doing anything wrong, and doesn't even speak english"
"What do you-" Donna was cut off when the girl stood back up, seemingly undamaged from the fall. She began to babble in her language again, backed away from the pair of heroes in fear.
"Calm down, I'm not with her" Melina ignored Donna's indignant cry, as the girl ignored Blackhawk's attempts at sounding peaceful.
She continued to back away, her chest rapidly rising and falling with ragged breaths of fear. Her back hit a solid wall, and she turned to find herself face to face with the man most anyone in Gotham would attribute to fear incarnate. Beside him, a girl in a matching suit stared down at the blonde with an inquisitive expression.
Batman lifted a small canister of gas, and unleashed the fog in the girl's face. It swirled around her, seeping into her mouth and nose, before her eyes rolled back, and she fell roughly into the arms of Blackhawk, who had quickly moved forward to make sure Batman caused as little intimidation as possible.
"Was that really necessary?" Stephanie asked her mentor.
"I'm not arguing" Melina smirked, hugging the unconscious girl tightly.
Batcave
Batman stood by his impressive computer, and analysed samples of DNA he had taken from the girl. He had noticed that the unique genetic structure of the girl was strangely similar to Superman's.
Batgirl stood by the bed the girl lay on, and kept an eye on her vitals, ensuring that the encounter between her and Wonder Girl didn't cause any damage. Wonder Girl was leaning on a wall, and sharpening her sword monotonously, and Blackhawk spun around a wheelie chair she had procured out of boredom.
"This is so boring" she moaned.
"Then find something to do" Batgirl noncommittally replied.
"But the only thing I want to do is unconscious" the other blonde complained. Both other girls gave her shocked looks which were left ignored.
The sound of the restraints on the mystery girl's wrists snapping drew their collective attention to her. The turned, and saw she was slowly floating upward again, panicking as she rose. The sheet that had replaced the coat she wore slipped off, and fell directly onto Melina's face, who sighed in disappointment.
Donna was about to fly up and stop her, when a hand gripping the small ankle of the girl prevented her from rising any further. She was wrapped in a flowing red cape, and pulled into a calming embrace, just as Melina threw the sheet off her face.
"Curse you Superman's flowing cape" she scowled.
The two began to converse in a foreign language for a few minutes, as the girl's expression rapidly changed from confusion, to disbelief, to anger, and finally happiness.
The descended and turned to the other present heroes "Batman, girls, this is Kara Zor-El... She's... She's my cousin" he smiled, and they understood the happiness he would feel at meeting a member of his race.
"Great, I've been fantasising about Superman's cousin for the past hour and a half" Melina ignored a fresh round of shocked looks.
Fortress of Solitude
Months had passed, and during the entire period, the girls had often visited Kara in the quarantine Batman forced on her. It only took a week for her to learn fluent english, and after the first few months, she had learnt all human history and languages, had gotten a strong understanding of the sciences, and learnt basic self-defence. She was obviously a quick learner.
Melina had decided to visit this time in the hopes of convincing Batman to let Kara out for a while. The poor girl had been cooped up endlessly, and there was only so much human knowledge one could absorb.
"She entered the icy fortress, and made a beeline for Kara's room, where she found the other blonde lying on a bed, casually flicking through the pages of a Charles Dickens novel.
"Hey there alie-anna-rama" she greeted. The Kryotonian looked up and smiled brightly.
"Hey" she replied. Melina collapsed onto the bed next to her, and remained silent for a minute.
"How would you like to go outside?" The human asked suddenly.
"I'd like that very much, but Batman refuses to lift my quarantine" Kara frowned sadly.
"You leave Bat-bot to me, and focus on batting those eyelashes for your big-blue-boy-scout cousin" she stood, and dragged the alien out of the room "we can meet up back here before I take you out"
"If Batman lets me, you mean"
"When Batman lets you" Melina grinned, and tore down the hall, quickly finding Batman inspecting the pod Kara arrived in.
"Hey Bat-brain!" She called.
Batman sighed deeply "what is it Blackhawk?" He never looked up from his task.
"I was kinda sorta hoping that you could maybe let Kara out more an hour? Please?" She gave him her sweetest grin.
He turned to her for a split-second "no" and turned back.
"Oh come on, pretty please?"
"No"
"With a cherry on top?"
He waited "you won't leave me until I say yes, won't you?"
"Hell no"
"Fine, but be back before ten" he called out as she left.
"Yes mom"
She sprinted back to the room where Kara stood nervously, and grinned inside while she put on a disappointed face.
Kara sighed deeply when the expression upon Melina's face became clear "he said no, didn't he?" She frowned.
"No, he said be back before ten" Melina's face broke out into a wide grin, but it took a second for the words to register with the extraterrestrial, before she too gasped in happiness.
"I'll message Donna and Steph, tell them to meet us in Metropolis" Melina pulled her phone from her pocket as the two giddy girls walked to the exit from the the fortress.
Over the past months, Kara had also worked with Superman on honing and controlling her powers, leading her to have a comfortable grip on her strength, speed, flight, and laser-vision. This came in handy, as to greatly shorten the travel time, Kara could hook her arms under Melina's, who would in turn grab Kara for dear life, as they flew to Metropolis, making sure to remain unseen by the public of course.
The human directed Kara to descend into the large park at Metropolis's centre, where she had told Donna and Stephanie to meet them in their civvies. Melina ducked behind a shrub, and exchanged her costume for the civilian clothing she had packed in a backpack with expert speed, before jumping back out to stand beside Kara and wait.
Fortunately, both the other girls had the skills and equipment necessary to arrive in the park within the hour, avoiding suspicion all the while.
Both girls approached from the right angle to see Melina clearly waiting, but have their view of Kara obstructed by a thick tree beside them.
"So why did you-" the Amazonian's question was cut off when both girls finally noticed their friend's companion.
"Kara! What are you doing out!?" Stephanie asked in a mixture of disbelief and joy to see her newest friend out and about.
"Batman let me out for the day" the alien shrugged.
The leader of their group butt in and explained they should get going to beat the saturday crowds to all of the better shops in the area, and set off, leading them to her personal favourite store.
It was decidedly... cozy store, where clothing could be bought for a reasonable price, without sacrificing too much style. The girls spent a good hour or so there buying a while wardrobe for Kara, and left with Donna holding all the bags. She didn't complain, she was happy Kara was having fun.
Next, Stephanie took charge to lead the girls to the second important component of becoming a real Earth teen, and easily the one thing her two other friends ignored, make-up. She spent some time in a high-end boutique with Kara, while Donna and Melina stayed outside to peruse the displayed items in other shop windows.
Finally, Donna took the lead to show the Kryptonian girl the final part of Earth culture. Food. They traveled a short way to a greek style café, and took the foreign blonde in to try her first real taste of Earth food, and needless to say, the bill indicated she was a fan.
It had been a fairly successful day, but it was nearing the end of Batman's allotted time for Kara to be allowed to roam free. The girls finished the day with a walk through the empty park, enjoying the quiet night breeze.
"Melina, I just want to say thank you" Kara suddenly informed.
"Oh?" The shorter blonde asked.
"Yeah. Today has been the best day of my life in a long time, and it's all thanks to you" she smiled. They came to a stop beside a large bronzed statue in the middle of the park.
"My cousin, they worship him?" She looked at the statue depicting Superman in a traditional 'victory' pose.
"Try, idolise him" Stephanie corrected.
"But not just him, they idolise the whole League, Batman too" Donna continued.
"In fairness, they don't idolise the League-" Melina explained "-so much as they idolise what they, and all other heroes, do. Which is help people. For better or worse, a hero puts their life on the line to stand up for other people's way of life."
Kara nodded and stared back up at the statue with a wistful look. Suddenly, a rustling and some rough chuckling could be heard. Melina immediately pulled a spare domino mask from her pocket, and covered her identity with it, Stephanie doing the same.
Turning a corner of hedges, a large group of men spotted the girl's and their faces broke out into vicious grins.
"Well well, lookie here boys" one with a cap on under his hood said.
"Yeah, some... lovely ladies" another with dirty looking hair nodded.
"Maybe we should help 'em out" one boy who had shaved the sides of his head, but left the top long stepped forward.
The boys and their goons circled the girls, who readied into combat stances. Cap-guy laughed at this, and mad a move for Melina, but was stooped short when Kara grabbed his arm with a scowl.
"Aw, do you wanna go first?" he moved toward her, but she tightened her grip and bent the wrist back. A very loud crunch was heard, and the guy yelled in pain.
"Leave, now" the girl demanded, but the guys weren't having that.
Dirt-hair stepped up to help his friend, and swung his fist at Kara's face. It connected, and a crack sounded, but her was instead left grasping his now broken knuckles with a white face, and Kara directed a dirty look at him "I warned you"
The entire group ran at her, and ignored the other girls, but were dispersed quickly with Kara employing a variety of moves Blackhawk had taught her, and added her own level of strength to brake bones, and bust faces.
Soon, it was just Cap-guy, Dirt-hair, and Shaved-head left.
Shaved-head, who hadn't yet sustained any injures ran at her and threw his leg at her abdomen, but it was caught, and a swift smack to the knee bent the limb backwards, leaving him crying in the dirt.
Next, Cap-guy ran, clutching his crushed wrist to his chest, and swung at her, clearly not learning his lesson. He threw one more punch, and Kara caught it. She tugged his arm swiftly, before bending it at an awkward angle, which simultaneously dislocated and brome his previously uninjured arm.
Dirt-hair understood the message, and turned in a heel to sprint away from the scene. Melina swore she saw a darker wet patch around his groin as he ran away.
"Can't argue with results, but methods may be a little brutal" the blonde leader said.
"Me and Donna will call the paramedics and wait here, you two go back to the Fortress" Stephanie offered. Melina nodded, and was lifted up by Kara once again.
As they flew, Melina shouted up to the alien to be heard over the rushing wind.
"Y'know, you'd make and awesome hero" she said.
Kara never replied, but Melina could see the corners of her lips curve upwards ever so slightly out the corner of her eye.
