**Note: Ronnie is 16, will be 17 in 2011
Veronica Grey's pov
Gotham
Thursday, November 25th, 2010
Roy walked me home last night, kissed my forehead goodnight before I watched him head to the zeta tube. I made sure my parents didn't see him. I don't want them to meet him yet. For right now, I have him all to myself without people pestering me for details. It makes everything a whole lot easier. That kiss, may not have been Roy's first, but it was mine and it was one hell of a first kiss. I now know what it means to experience fireworks and that heat I felt with him before, has been intensified by the experience. But right now, I'm sitting at the table with my family with their guests. There are three other families, slightly larger than ours at our massive dining room table. All eating my father's turkey, all but me.
"You okay, Veronica? You've hardly touched your food." My father addresses the current pile on my plate. I snap out of my daydreaming.
"Y-yeah I'm fine." I look down with a smile on my face, beginning to shovel the room temperature food in my mouth. Some of the people give me sideways glances and my parents just shake it off. Everyone here is awkward around me because they know I was missing for those twenty days and they are aware I attended the science programs' conference in Star City where two assassins attacked a room full of participants, including myself. I can't help but have a quiet laugh to myself. They all think I'm thinking about my trauma or they think I'm just off after the incidents. But in reality, I'm thinking about a fair skinned, fiery redhead guy that I can just get lost in his arms.
When I finally finish my plate of food, the pie is served and we all dig into the sweet and smooth texture of the pumpkin pie. I twist the forkful of pie in my mouth, ignoring the droning of the other two families around the table. I know my parents were happy to host, but this is supposed to be a family thing. What I wouldn't give to be at the Cave with the others. But this is where I'm supposed to be, with my parents. When everyone finishes their pie, things get moved to the living room. I manage to get the chair in the window, so I just lounge the best I can in my dress and tights without being inappropriate in front of the guests. After a bit of talking, the doorbell rings.
"Veronica, would you be a doll and answer the door? Carol is in the middle of her story." My mother looks to me. I nod and get up, walking out of the room and into the front hall. Without even thinking, I just open the door, and to my surprise, it's a familiar face.
"What are you doing here?" I hiss at the man, taking a defensive stance in preparation for his attack. This man was my handler, the one who brought my to the warehouse, my kidnapper.
"I thought I would pay you a visit, little girl." He says in a grumbling tone that reverberates to my core. He tries to side step inside, but I cut him off and send a shock through his body.
"I did my research, Sportsmaster, I know who you are." I spit at him, he only gives a smile, Like he is impressed with my amount of knowledge after being the helpless little girl that he had to shoot to keep down.
"In my civvies and everything. You must have been tracking the scientists and I non stop." He says, getting closer, but he stops when my fists clench and the metal railing of the front porch creaks and groans in my current alteration in the surrounding magnetic fields.
"Leave now, or I bring you to the league." I glare at him. He just laughs.
"Why not just choose the latter? You know you want to." Sportsmaster taunts me.
"Oh, your time will come, don't worry. But I'm giving you the choice, leave, or be crushed." I threaten, electricity visibly escaping my hands. I hear someone coming up behind me.
"Veronica? Who's at the do-" she stops and stares at my hands. I glare back at her.
"Mom, go back into the living room and do not say a word. I will take care of this, but if I tell you to run, you run." I tell her quietly as to not alert the people in the living room. She just re-composes herself and walks back to the living room. I shut the door behind me and begin to close the space between Sportsmaster and I while keeping a defensive stance.
"You think you can go one on one with me? I'm sorry but that is pure stupidity." He laughs, taking his own stance. Just like Canary taught me, I make the first move to dictate the fight. But, that may not help me since he isn't a teacher and won't let me try again. I kick him in the face but he uses my momentum to put me on the ground. I electrocute the hand touching my leg and get back up, sending a right hook at his face, somehow I managed to catch him off guard with this. In retaliation, he goes for a quick jab undercut, but to my surprise, everything slows down.
The experience is like in the mall before the bomb exploded. As sportsmaster swings at me in slow motion, I step to the side with ease, watching him stumble as the hit goes past me. I grab the back of his neck and throw him up against the brick wall of the house. He reaches back and it continues to be in slow motion, his hand flying past my face. I don't know what is going on but I'm fine with this. I swing my leg around and kick Sportsmaster to the ground. I somehow slip out of the slow motion and he pulls me down with him. I emit electricity but he just fights it, gritting his teeth.
"See, little girl? You can't beat me." He strains as I electrocute him. After a few minutes of my in his choke hold, fighting to keep consciousness, someone tackles him off of me. The girl in green and the mask kicks him in the face and I cough and sputter on the ground, getting my breath back.
"You are disobeying orders! Boss made it clear not to engage!" The messy haired woman says as she continues to beat him. I'm completely confused. Sportsmaster catches her leg and throws her.
"It's bad for my rep if I don't continue to cause fear in my marks, Cheshire." He states, spitting her name. The two face off as I continue to mull over my confusion.
"This isn't about your rep and you know it! After all those years being raised by you, I know what's going through that thick skull of yours! Now, stand down!" The woman yells. She sees me stand up and throws daggers at me, probably to pin me, but I focus on the metal and stop them mid air, letting them clatter to the ground.
"Last warning, Sportsmaster. Leave now, and you'll get off scott free… for now." I call over to him. He is in my neighbor's front yard.
"Get out," Chesire snaps at him, "Now!" She yells in a commanding voice.
"Until next time, little girl." Sportsmaster says as he and Cheshire run. This is my moment. I run back inside and up to my room to my computer. I put my hand on the machine and focus, calling out to the thousands of power lines, electronics and machines all over. They all emit electric pulses, traffic cameras giving me eyes on the streets. I cybernetically stalk the two assassins. After twenty minutes or so, the two of them end up in an alley, pulling what I recognize as a boom tube. Before they can use it, I lock onto it's energy signature as to continue tracking them. When they disappear and reappear somewhere else in the world, I track them too Taipei. That's it, no more waiting. I guess they've run out of time, because they are employed from there. I have a target.
I get changed into my hero uniform and mask, the thermodynamic fabric absorbing some of my extra currents of electricity, warming me up in preparation for the autumn weather and whatever weather I'm about to experience in Taipei. I open my window and take hold on the different magnetic fields around me to levitate myself out the window and into the sky. The sun is setting, so I have perfect cover with my dark uniform. I propel myself forward through the sky, finding the zeta tube and taking it to the asian city.
Now that I'm here, I'm honing in on the location. Like in Gotham, I take hold of the magnetic fields here and throw myself into the air, finding the next fields to transport myself as I go along, like following a current. I've been waiting for this, to take them down. I don't even care that it's been a little over a month of training. I'll be able to take everyone down with a strong enough burst of energy. When I finally stop right outside the structure that Cheshire and Sportsmaster are inside, I can't believe it, this is a base for the League of Shadows.
I lie in wait in the trees. When I can't see anything, I move closer and hide on the roof on the outer wall of the compound. I see people but I can't hear what they are saying, so I reach to the holo computer on my wrist and send a message to the nearest electronic device to be my ears.
"You disobeyed my orders, Sportsmaster, and it is not the first time that this has occurred under my employment." The greying man in the high collared, green cloak. I analyze his face and sift through online files for his identity. Ra's al Ghul.
"I apologize, it won't happen again." Sportsmaster promises, but the connection to the electronics in the vicinity emitting energy waves pick up a change in his heart rate. He's lying and he's going to come back for me.
"I was fortunate to have an operative at my disposal that knows you as well as she does, or you would have damaged the plans completely. Mr. Luthor would be very displeased." Ra's speaks in a forceful and condescending tone to Sportsmaster, giving me satisfaction. I'm nearly ready to make my move, hundreds of volts of pent up energy inside for the right moment, but someone emerges into the courtyard of the compound.
"Yes, and my displeasure is not something to be sought out, Lawrence." A bald man in a suit has this threatening tone that passes through me, but my focus remains in tact. I recognize him as Lex Luthor. Why is he here?
"My apologies, Luthor." Sportsmaster smirks as he looks at the ground. He's sick.
"But there is an upside to you mistake, you seem to have baited the specimen." Ra's states, this is a point where I freeze in my tracks. I see shadows running at me on the slanted roof of the compound's wall. In a defensive retreat, I jump of the roof, two distinct cracks sounding from my legs. I run through the pain as I heal. Multiple shadows throw knives at me, but like earlier with Cheshire, I stop them all mid-air, but this time, I re direct all of them. Some hit the deck, others dodge and keep running. I get as close as possible to Lex and Ra's before physically exhibiting electric currents all over my body. This much energy, I feel my insides burning and healing on repeat.
"Halt, assassins!" Ra's al Ghul commands as I stand before him, just about ready to burst. I don't even care that he thinks he is going to preserve his precious assassins. I take a stance as I prepare to release all of the energy I have built up inside, but someone yells.
"Ronnie! No!" I hear as an arrow with red tips flies into the ground next to me with a rope attached. I see Roy zipline in next to me, dressed up in his Red Arrow uniform. I hold in the energy and watch him come between me and Ra's.
"Red, get out of here! I'm handling this!" I yell at him as I fight to contain the energy, waiting to use it on the co-conspirators.
"This isn't the right thing to do! You could end up killing them!" Roy yells at me, hoping I'll back off.
"These two are the reasons I was ripped apart, I can't just let that go!" I'm on the verge of tears. The wet anger is the only thing I'm holding onto right now to fight the pain and keep hold of the energy.
"Ronnie, let me get you out of here." He looks me dead in the eye, his face illuminated by my electricity. The tears are falling and the pain is growing.
"Okay." I whisper to him and almost immediately, I crouch, slamming my hands into the ground, channeling everything I have into the ground. The ground shakes as I release everything I have, a scream escaping my lips as everything slips away from me, even my consciousness as I crumple to the floor, Roy reaching for me and carrying me out of the compound, everyone around us is frozen from the events that just unfolded.
**A few hours later**
When I come too, I'm back home in my bedroom. I bolt straight up in bed, looking around the room only to see Roy sitting across the room, looking right at me. I pull myself out of bed, glaring at him as I walk to my closet. I'm still in my uniform and there could still be people around the house. When I emerge in a fresh pair of pajamas, he is standing with his arms crossed.
"Are we gonna talk about this or are you just going to walk around in a temper?" He asks with an eyebrow raised. I push back my hair with both hands in stress.
"I had them, and you got in the way." I snap at him, he seems surprised that I even said anything.
"You could have killed them, you're supposed to be a hero." He defends, I know he's trying to make me feel like I make a mistake. We are drifting closer.
"If you had experienced what I did then you would have gladly killed them." I retaliate, clenching my fists to hold back the full extent of my infuriation.
"You're not a killer, Ronnie. If you went through with it, it would have eaten away at you." He tries to convince me as the two of us are know face to face.
"I wanted my revenge and you stood in the way of that!" I shout at him, awkwardly looking up at him because of the dramatic height difference.
"What you need is justice. I will gladly help you get that, but the minute you decide to start murdering people, I'm out." He raises his voice. I don't know what to say, but I look at his stupid face and my furious expression fades and I jump up and he catches me, the two of us locked in a kiss. He holds me up by my thighs as my legs wrap around his waist, my arms wrapped around his neck.