Chapter 6

The Martian asked her a few more questions before leaving Nightengale alone in the room. She waited patiently, looking around the room, trying to find something to focus her attention on. After about five minutes, she looked up when the door opened. Batman was standing in the doorway. She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off, saying only three words.

"Training room. Now." And then he walked out of the room.

Nightengale was at a loss. Should she follow him to the training room? Was this some sort of test? She decided to be safe and follow him to the training room. When she reached her destination, she looked around curiously. It was dark…what was going on? Was Batman playing around with her? Trying to get her into troub—

She suddenly ducked down and held up her left arm to block, barely deflecting the round-house kick that was aimed directly for her head. Nightengale knew what was coming. She did a back flip to avoid the left hook coming at her, then kicked up to stop the knee aimed for her face. Batman obviously wanted to spar with her, regardless of what the rest of the League said.

Rather than being on the defensive the entire time, the young heroine decided to take the offensive. She pressed a button on the side of her cowl to activate night-vision lenses and threw a punch at Batman's face, following up with a spinning kick when he blocked her fist. Her foot caught him in the thigh, causing him to lose his balance a bit. Nightengale took this opportunity to deliver a palm strike to his side, bruising a few ribs. But Batman didn't falter, his elbow driving into her left arm at a pressure point, rendering it useless as it fell to her side.

The young heroine backed up quickly, watching her opponent. She was hoping she would regain the use of her arm before he attacked again, but she didn't count on it. There was a good chance that he would take advantage of her weakened state. Sure enough, he jumped into the air and landed a well-placed kick to her left knee, sending her down to that knee.

But Nightengale wasn't about to give up. She brought up her right arm to block the next blow aimed for her neck, then a punch aimed for her face, then a kick aimed for the side of her head. She soon regained feeling in her left arm and delivered a fierce blow to his upper gut, at the base of his ribcage. He staggered back a few steps, giving Nightengale time to stand. She didn't waste the precious time she'd gained, diving at Batman's legs, knocking him to the ground. But before she could throw another punch, his heel connected with her jaw, causing a loud crack as her jaw snapped. Stars exploded in her vision as she flew back, her back slamming into the ground, and she stayed down.

Batman knelt next to her head, the white lenses of his eyes cold and menacing.

"And you think you're good enough to join the Justice League. Hmph."

With that, he stood up and walked toward the door. Superman opened the door just as Batman reached it.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Man of Steel demanded.

"Testing her."

Superman looked over at Nightengale, then back at Batman. "You and I are going to talk later, Batman." He then walked over, knelt next to Nightengale, and helped her up. "Are you all right?"

"…yeah…just dizzy…" the young heroine replied, wincing as her hand went to her jaw. "I'm cool…"

"Your jaw's broken," Diana said, walking over and touching the girl's jaw gently. "We should get you to the medbay."

Nightengale held up her hand and shook her head. The Leaguers, who had all gathered into the entrance to the training room, all watched in astonishment as her broken jaw snapped back into place on its own and the bruises faded.

"Wow," Green Lantern said, a grin sneaking onto his face. "That's awesome."

"Yeah," Nightengale replied, smiling a bit. "But it hurts like heck."

"Well…let's take a vote," Superman said. "We all saw how well she fought. All in favor of Nightengale joining the League, raise your hands."

Everyone raised their hands…except for Batman.

"All opposed?" the Man of Steel asked, as a formality only. Batman raised his hand, glaring daggers at the young heroine. "Well, that settles it. On a vote of seven to one, welcome to the Justice League, Nightengale."