Author's Notes:

Here it is at long last: the epilogue! Please R&R and enjoy (to the best of your ability on that last part)...

Metropolis

Present.

Coba finished her narrative in just barely under an hour. Her throat was sore and raspy from talking for so long, but she was able to soothe it between sentences throughout the telling of her experience with the Justice League with a swallow of herbal tea. Now that she was finally done speaking the lengthy part, she was able to drink more of the tea until her throat felt better. She knew Waller would start asking her questions concerning the events of the story in a moment—that is, after the woman had considered what she heard. I'll be a bit surprised if she manages to take in all of what I said, Coba thought, suppressing a smile. It was certainly overwhelming for me!

After almost half a minute of silence, Waller finally spoke. "There must have been more to why you chose not to join the Justice League," she stated bluntly.

The girl was a bit surprised. "How'd you guess that?"

Amanda suppressed a chuckle, managing to keep her solemn facial expression. "I have been reading people for over fifty years now, Miss Brooklyn. Nothing—and no one—gets by me unnoticed."

"Except Starro," Coba pointed out. "And you weren't able to guess what all Superman had been hiding from you until I told you."

"I guess I meant almost nothing and no one," Waller admitted with a small smile. "I'll bet nothing gets past you, though: you're sharper than I."

The young warrior shook her head, grinning a little herself. "I wouldn't say 'nothing,'" she said modestly. "There are still things I am unaware of that are basically right under my nose." Like how I'm related to Bruce, she thought grimly.

The woman grinned bigger. "You are definitely honest." Her smile vanished. "What was the main reason why you chose not to join the Justice League?" she inquired.

Coba shrugged dismissively. "It's basically superstitious nonsense, really." She could tell by the look on Waller's face that she was not about to accept such a short and unspecific answer. Letting out a quiet, uncomfortable sigh, the girl continued. "Well, there was something Starro had said about me not being bad for a person in the League—although I'm not an official member—that got me thinking. The members had been very cold to Batman and me when we first arrived. Not only that, but after I stopped Superman and got Starro off of him, he became rather icy towards me as well. They all softened to us after we saved them, but that was—well—after we saved them. I can also tell that they're not ready for us to join just as much as we're not ready to join them, if not more. Aquagirl had confided in me earlier that they need to work on being more sincere with each other. At least until that happens, I won't be joining: it's dangerous to work with people when you don't feel comfortable about putting your trust in them. I can't say anything on my brother's behalf about the subject matter, though."

"Nor do I expect you to," Amanda said solemnly. "Would you help the team every now and then when called upon?"

"Absolutely," was Coba's response. "I know it's supposed to be that the League needs a Batman, but I also know there'll be times when just Batman in the League is not enough."

Waller nodded sagely. "You're absolutely right, Miss Brooklyn." She gestured towards the doorway. "You are—" she started.

"—free to go home," Coba finished, masterfully hiding her relief as she spoke.

Although she was caught off guard by Batgirl finishing her sentence, Amanda nodded once more. "Yes." She extended a hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Brooklyn."

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Waller," Coba returned, shaking the woman's outstretched hand. She stood up from her chair carefully, as her legs had fallen asleep from sitting still for so long, and exited the room. Just as she turned the corner after leaving the building, she bumped into a large man and just barely managed to regain her balance in alarm. Both of them looked at each other in surprise, immediately recognizing one another. Warhawk! Coba almost yelled, but managed to keep quiet in case someone were to be listening. "Mr. Stewart! What brings you here?" she asked curiously.

Warhawk, dressed in his civilian clothes instead of his armor, recovered from his shock and grinned at her. "I was going to ask you the same thing, kid," he said good-naturedly. He lowered his voice and leaned in a little closer to the girl. "Amanda Waller asked me to come and talk about the most recent incident in the League. Everyone else did already."

Brooklyn nodded knowingly. "She asked me to do the same thing, too," she replied quietly.

"Has she asked your brother about it?"

"She did, but he hasn't been able to come or say anything."

"I'm guessing he's been busy?"

"Yep."

Rex nodded in understanding, though he was silent for a brief moment. "Hey, Coba," he spoke up, keeping his voice low. "I'm sorry I didn't say this the other day, but, thank you..." he paused, swallowing his pride, "for saving my life."

Coba nodded. "You're welcome, although I was going to say the same thing to you." She noticed her friend's confused look. "Barda had me pinned down, remember?" she whispered.

The man's eyes seemed to flash in recognition. "Oh yeah," he breathed. "I remember."

"Something tells me that it scared you more than it did me," Coba observed. "Mind sharing your feelings about that incident?"

Warhawk nodded slowly. "I felt that you were still too young to die. I was terrified, when Barda had you pinned down like that, that you she'd kill you."

"And she would have," Batgirl said grimly. "That is why I thank you."

"I forgot to thank you as well, Coba."

Stewart and Coba spun around to see Clark Kent standing directly behind them. The large man continued. "You saved all our lives even when we doubted you, and I was one of the top doubters. I thank you for that, and I also apologize for my behavior. I was out of line with my behavior."

The small teen grinned reassuringly. "You're welcome, and you are forgiven," she said quietly. "I was out of line to talk to you the way I did, as well, and for that I apologize."

Kent grinned. "That makes us even then, kid. I'd better get going," he said suddenly. "I'm picking up cries of distress from—"

"—the parking garage just a few blocks away from here," Batgirl finished. She noticed his and Warhawk's surprised faces. "I'm a bit psychic and I have strong hearing, remember?"

Rex was the first to catch on. "Oh yeah—psychic sidekick," he teased good-naturedly.

Coba smiled. "A fitting title, really."

Superman stifled a laugh. "Well," he said in a serious tone, "I'd better get going if I want to reach those screams in time." The man prepared to take off, but suddenly stopped and glanced meaningfully at the girl. "Oh, and Coba, try to stay out of trouble." Without waiting for his companions to say a word, he soared majestically into the air and steered his powerful body towards the nearest parking garage to aide the owner of the cries.

"I'd better get going if I want to be to that meeting on time," Warhawk told Coba. "I know Kal can handle this on his own." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It was good to see you again, kid. Could you tell your brother hi for me?"

"Of course I can," Coba said with a grin. "It was good to see you again, too. Take care of yourself, okay?" Wow, the former patient is telling her former doctor to take care of himself! Coba thought, successfully stifling a chuckle.

"You too, kid." Warhawk removed his hand from her shoulder before he walked into the building, leaving Coba by herself.

Brooklyn continued walking down the sidewalk of Metropolis for a few minutes until she came to the nearest subway station. Just as she was about to enter, a man came running from the direction of the parking garage Superman had been heading towards and made a lunge at her, although Superman was hard on his tail. Coba instinctively sidestepped and tripped him. So much for staying out of trouble, she thought grimly.

The man grabbed Coba's right leg and flipped her to the ground. She quickly kicked him away from her as he tried to tackle her and stood up, ready for him to stand back up and come at her again. Without warning, the man jumped up and pulled out a knife and swiped it at her. Since she knew ahead of time that he had a knife, Coba did not delay in dodging the attack. He swiped the dangerous blade again, but this time Coba tightly gripped his arm before shoving her small body under him and using it to flip him onto the cold, hard cement. She tightly pinned his arms behind his back, causing him to grunt in pain.

"Had enough?" the girl inquired gruffly.

The man grunted in painful confirmation.

"I'll take care of this, kid," Superman said from behind as he bent down to grab the criminal.

Coba could not help but smirk as she let him pull the man up. "Yeah, cause you did such a good job of it a minute ago," she said sarcastically, though in good-humor.

The Man of Steel noticed two security guards walking in their direction and called them over. "Make sure you get this man to the police station," he instructed. "He's been wanted for murder for several weeks and just tried to kill a woman in that parking garage back there."

"And was taken down by a tourist in a matter of seconds," Coba muttered.

"What was that?" Superman asked sharply, whipping around.

"Nothing," Coba said innocently, shrugging.

"We'll take care of him, Superman," one of the guards said bluntly. He led his companion and the murderous man away from the two heroes.

"Are you okay, Coba?" Kal asked concernedly once the guards and their prisoner were out of earshot.

Batgirl quickly checked herself over, and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good." Superman narrowed his eyes. "Didn't I—" he started sternly.

"—tell me to stay out of trouble?" Coba finished. "Yes, you did, but that man came straight at me. Trouble caught up with me."

"Why didn't you try to get yourself out of it?"

"I knew it would be useless," Coba answered gravely. "If I ran, he would've caught up, and I'd be dead right now."

Kent grinned a little. "You're too much like Bruce for your own good, kid," he teased, although Coba could clearly tell that he was also serious.

Brooklyn nodded sagely. "I know." She raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Although something tells me you know more about our relations than I do."

Superman's grin faded. "Bruce and Waller told me about it themselves," he explained solemnly. "Bruce will tell you when he feels that you and him are both ready for it—if he ever does."

Coba knew too well what Superman meant: Wayne had always had a tough time exposing secrets that had been hidden for so long. She simply nodded at the Man of Steel. "You're right." She glanced at the subway station. "I'd better get going."

"See you later, kid," Superman said. "And thanks for your help with taking that man down, although I didn't ask you to."

"You're welcome. See ya!" Coba called as Superman took off into the air once more. She turned around and headed into the station. Well, for a trip that was supposed to be serious and uneventful, it was certainly serious and eventful, she thought with a grim grin as she boarded the next train to Gotham. Kinda like when Terry and I were brought into the League, now that I think about it! Her grin faded. I really need to ask Bruce about how I'm related to him: chances are really slim that he'll tell me without being prodded a bit first.

That does it for this story! Many thanks go out to those of you who followed this story even though it took so long for it to be updated, especially to FanFiction members T2 Angel and Sailor Sacred Moon for posting reviews while the story was still in the process of being written. If not for your support, this story may not have been written faster (let alone at all).

Once this epilogue is posted, I will be on something of a hiatus from writing fanfiction for a while to resume working on my non-fanfiction novel, which is already three years in the making. I might take a break from my novel writing to write a one-shot of Coba talking to Bruce about their relations, but again it's just a possibility and is not set in stone. Who knows? I might even keep writing my other fanfiction stories off and on as I work on my novel!

The character poll for the series is still on my profile page and will be there for a over a month (maybe even several). Still, since I'm not completely certain with the level of my impulsiveness, it would be better if you voted right away if you want to. I'm not trying to force ya: I'm just stating.

Please leave a review in the box below stating what you like about the story and/or the chapter and what you thought could've been done better. It's fine if you don't want to, but I'd appreciate it if you did.

Until next time, have (a) good day(s)! :)