Hey guys, LLS here. Once again, same tune. Sorry for the wait, no its not going to get any shorter. I'm starting my freshman year at University on the 29th and I move in tomorrow, so if anything, lengths will get longer. I do have the next chapter partially written though, as I decided to shorten this one so I could still get an update out over the summer.
I have planned out a way to fix the whole "Robin telling Aika who he is" thing and it should sort itself out somewhere in the next few chapters. Again, I write most of these chapters according to a basic plan, but add in plot points as I think they could occur. So a lot of OOC stuff tends to happen and I have to fix it on the fly. Same problem tends to happen with my other fic, 'Techie.'
I do want to announce that I have another fic in the works. BTAS, based off the episode "If You're so Smart, Why aren't You Rich?" The fic forms a conspiracy surrounding Competitron and gives a darker reason for Nygma's firing, while also making Mockridge a slightly more complex character. As is my style, there is of course an OC around whom most of the plot surrounds, as she and her brother are the ones set out to bring the corruption within the company to light. I actually have the first couple chapters of it written, as I promised myself I would finish writing the whole thing before I ever posted any of it (you know, to avoid plotholes and OOC-ness).
So now my time is spread between three fics and real life.
So without further adieu...
Bialya
September 4, 04:16 EEST
She woke slowly, groggily. It was dark outside, but that was the only clue to the time. Aika rubbed her eyes, then realized that her hands were covered in sand.
'That's odd,' she thought. 'I haven't been to a beach lately.' She sat up, and realization that she was not in her bed dawned. Her face grew pale and she prepared to scream. But her voice caught before she could. It was gone, her throat was too dry. And there was no water.
'I'm going to die,' she thought as she looked at her surroundings. There was nothing for miles. She reached for her pockets, hoping her cell phone would be available and that there would be service. Neither occurred. In fact, these weren't even her pants! She stood up and twirled, trying to figure out just what she was wearing. It looked like a suit that the Justice League would wear. And it was much raunchier than anything she would ever think to own.
'Is this a corset? And a cape? What, am I the new Robin?'
The ensemble appeared to be made out of very sturdy fabrics. All of her joints were padded and protected, and she had what looked like two of Batman's belts slung around her hips. She pressed a button on one of the cartridges, and it popped open to reveal what looked like a small bluetooth speaker. Another one revealed a wireless microphone. A LAV that connected around her ear. Then she looked next to her right hip.
'Is this a gun?' She didn't dare try to fire it. The belt that held the holster and the gun also held multiple magazines, which cemented her idea. That was definitely a gun. Where did she get a license to carry a gun? She answered her own question, probably from the same people who put her in the corset. She moved to put her hand to her chin in thought, hoping that she was in a dream, only to realize that her mouth was covered by what looked like a plastic filter.
'Why am I gagged?' she thought as she pulled off the mask and hung it off one of her belts. No need to cover her mouth if her voice was already gone. And it was night-time, so she didn't need to worry about losing fluids quite yet.
Aika, having nothing better to do, decided to walk and see where this dream would take her. Her feet, protected by knee-high, military grade boots, sunk into the cool sand. It seemed to be at least a few more hours before the sun would come up, yet there was no nocturnal activity surrounding her. There were large boulders every few hundred yards, but that was the only shelter she could find while she kept walking. Once in a while, she would come across a sand dune and she would have to decide if she was going to try to walk around it or climb over it. Usually, she decided to walk around it and save the energy. One thing she was figuring out: in dream world, she had much more stamina than in real life, and she was smaller and more muscular than usual.
Something hit her as she was walking. She had no devices in any of her many pockets. No phone, no iPod, not even an MP3 player. But she was wearing headphones. Why was she wearing headphones? The sun was starting to come up, and it was starting to heat up a bit. Her throat was still completely dry, she couldn't make a sound. She took off the headphones to inspect them, then perked up. She heard something. It sounded like a car rolling across the sand. She could also hear the people in the car talking loudly in another language. She'd sung in a language that sounded like that. Was that Bialyan?
They sounded angry. Then she heard what sounded like guns being loaded. She decided that if she WAS in Bialya- even in a dream- it would be a bad idea for an American civilian to be caught without identification by government officials. She ran to the nearest boulder and hid. She waited for an hour or so, and while the sound got louder, she never saw a truck. Eventually however, she sound of the truck became so blaringly loud that she had to cover her ears and her eyes began to water. She grabbed the headphones, praying that they were noise-cancelling, and sighed in relief when they were.
Two minutes later, a truck filled with what looked like military officials passed by her. And the sun was up. She didn't know what time it was, but if she had to guess, it was around 11:00 in the morning.
'I'm starting to think this isn't a dream. That was too loud, and it should have woken me up,' Aika thought. Her breathing sped up, and she started to panic.
'I'm lost in Bialya with no idea how or why!' There was no one to help her. An American civilian in Bialya was bad enough, but she was dressed like she walked out of the Hall of Justice! They would think she was an official, which would cause an international event. Aika kneeled down behind the boulder and put her head in her hands, trying not to have a panic attack. She kept pinching herself, wishing that it would finally stop hurting in desperate hopes that her current predicament would reveal itself to be nothing but a bad dream. Unfortunately, that never happened.
She was lost in her panic, never noticing that someone was approaching. A hand was placed on her shoulder. She gasped and jumped backward into the rock, banging her head against it. She tried to groan, and remembered- again- that her voice was gone. Aika looked up and saw a kid about her age with black hair and a mask.
'Robin?' she thought, as she couldn't speak. He looked angry.
"Who are you?" he asked as he roughly pushed her back to the boulder. She tried to tell him that she couldn't talk, but all that left her throat were squeaks. He cocked his head to the side, not truly understanding her predicament. "Answer me!" Her eyes widened at his outburst. Obviously, something was bothering him. She squeaked again, trying to motion to her throat.
"You can't talk?" she nodded. "Do you know what the problem is? Dehydration?" She shrugged. Any guess he came up with was as good as her own.
"I don't have any water. Are you showing any other signs? Dizzy, weak?" She shook her head. "Then it isn't dehydration yet. Have you been screaming?" She shrugged. Then she mimed sleeping and waking up.
"You woke up like this?" Again, she nodded. "Who are you? Write it in the sand." She complied. 'Aika, American civilian.'
"Do you remember anything from the past six months?"
At this, Aika's eyes widened. Six months? What happened to March? Her panic set in again. It couldn't be September, where was her father? Robin noticed. He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.
"Hey hey, calm down. We'll be okay," he said as he looked her over, trying to figure out who she was. He didn't recognize her, but her suit was custom. It almost looked like something Bruce would design. He saw her mask clipped onto her belt. Then he stopped. Those were utility belts!
"Let me see your mask," he said, putting his hand out. It wasn't a request. Aika moved and unhooked the mask from her belt and let Robin examine it.
"This mask has a frequency mute on it. That means that whoever gave it to you intended for you to mute out specific frequencies when you talk." Aika tried to follow along, but was slowly getting lost as he kept using words that she'd never heard before.
"Do you work with Black Canary?" Aika cocked her head, trying to say no. Why would she? She's a civilian.
"I'll take that as a no. Alright, I'm not seeing anything else on the mask. Let's try the belt. Obviously, the one on the bottom is a holster with magazine storage, so we don't need to open that one. But the one on top looks a lot like mine. Have you checked all the compartments?" She shook her head no. Then started to open the compartments that she hadn't already looked into.
She pulled out things that she couldn't quite place. Some that looked like pellets, about five treble-clef shaped magnets, and a little bottle of something. Robin seemed to have answers.
"Alright. So these pellets do different things. The blue ones freeze, red ones are incendiary, yellow are knockout, and black are your average run-off-the-mill smoke bombs. I don't know what the green ones do, though. Something tells me it connects to this music theme you have going on," he said, gesturing to the symbols on her chest, thigh, and magnets. He kept talking, "the magnets are actually hacks. Attach them to anything with a circuit board and it should give you full access through your wristlet," he pointed at her glove on her left hand. "That means computers, TVs, automatic locks, electromagnets, the whole shebang."
He picked up the pill bottle and opened it. "I think I remember these. I'm pretty sure they're lozenges. Try one, if you had it in your belt it can't hurt you. Nothing in the belts are supposed to harm the wearer," he handed her the bottle and she palmed a pill. A cool sensation dripped down her throat, like honey mixed with spearmint. It was both numbing and rejuvenating. Aika coughed a couple of times, then found that her voice was back. Almost like magic!
"Better?" Robin asked.
She nodded, "much." She went about putting everything back where it had originally been, but was interrupted when Robin spoke.
"Now you can answer some real questions. What's your name? Who are you? Why are you here? And what is the last thing you remember?"
She sighed. "My name is Aika Dewhurst. I'm a Gotham citizen, I have no idea why I'm here and the last thing I definitely remember is being in my apartment watching 'Nailed it' on Netflix."
"You said your name was Dewhurst?" She nodded. "Do you know Jasper Dewhurst?"
"He's my dad. Why?" Now she was confused. Why would Robin know her dad? Robin watched her reaction. Obviously she didn't know about her dad's rampage. Hell, the only reason he knew about it was from Bruce telling him how weird it was to have Gotham turn into something out of 'West Side Story'. He decided that it was best for him not to tell her, just in case they got their memories back and she'd never known. He didn't want to be the one to deal that blow.
"No real reason, but I think I know why you have that mask. Put it on, you should still be able to talk through it." He suspected Jasper's powers to be hereditary, meaning that Aika would have them as well. That would also explain the new earplugs he had found in his own utility belt. The two of them must work together. But if she still thought she was a civilian, then she must be pretty new.
Aika had finished putting on her mask. "What now?"
"Well, we're stuck in the middle of a dictatorship that doesn't comply with UN police rules, meaning the Justice League and its associates- you and me in particular- have no authority here and are liable for capture. I have a few partial memories of Batman ordering radio silence, so we can't call for help. That means we walk and try to find some. He wouldn't have sent me here without other people, so we can't be totally alone. Right now, the hard part is finding everyone. And remembering who it is we're actually looking for."
Aika's eyes widened. He'd said all of that so calmly, like he was unbothered at the very high possibility of death. She tried to pretend she was the same way. "Well then, let's walk."
"Wait," he said. "You know my alias, but I don't know yours-"
"I'm pretty sure I don't have one," Aika interrupted. Robin rolled his eyes.
"Well, you're dressed like you have one, and in hostile territory we don't want to be using real names. Let's call you… Muse… for now. Might as well keep to the music theme. And keep the mask on." Aika nodded.
"Muse it is then."