Episode 12: Homefront
Gotham City, September 22 2010, 07:28 EDT
Christine was sitting in the back of the black Porsche car. Alfred was at the wheel reading a newspaper as they waited. They heard the large front doors of the manor banged open and they turned to see Dick and Bruce both tumbling down the stairs, fully dressed but still slightly dishevelled. Bruce was still combing his hair back neatly the comb in one hand and his suitcase in another, and Dick's tie was askew.
She took one look at them and burst into laughter. It wasn't like neither of them could get up early enough; they both just spent too much time preening themselves like peacocks. Christine was already fully prepared in five minutes; her shirt was tucked into her skirt neatly, her black lace-up shoes brightly polished. The glamour charm the Justice League had gifted her had transformed her back into her old self, complete with dark brown hair and eyes which she quickly hid behind a phoney pair of rectangular reading glasses with purple and black rims.
No one would ever guess that she, this young slightly dorky almost fourteen-year-old girl, was one of the two formidable sidekicks of one of the deadliest Justice League members.
They sat on either side of her quickly panting for breath. For people who spent their nights punctually protecting the city, they sure found it difficult to get to the car on time for school or work.
"Come here you idiot" she pulled Dick close and began settling his tie.
"Dad your fly's still down," She said as she focused on tightening the knot.
Alfred smirked smugly at his charge who flushed with embarrassment. He quickly pulled up the zipper. Oh well, at least it had been Christine who had spotted it before he went out in public.
"Your skirt's looking shorter" Dick mumbled glancing down at her long legs peeking out from the school skirt.
Bruce and Alfred caught each other's eye in the mirror and rolled them together thinking the same exasperated thought.
Teenage boys!
"Yeah, I think I might've had another growth spurt over the summer" Christine blushed slightly completely unaware of the older men's silent exchange. "What? Does it look slutty or something?"
Dick quickly glanced down at her legs. His eyes swept over them. When standing, her skirt was just above the knees but when sitting down like this, it only reached her mid-thigh. He bit his lip.
"No! No! It doesn't. I mean it can't be any shorter than Candy-Candice's right?"
"I wonder what her plan of action for snagging you this year will be?" Christine broke away to let Dick put his seatbelt on before turning back to start again on his tie.
Candice "Candy" Delany was the bitch of their year. She was always trying to get Dick's attention ever since he'd been officially adopted by Bruce. Like Christine, she'd also came from an old prestigious family in Gotham, but he'd still never gave her the time of day, not even if she'd offer to pay him, which she had tried to do once before.
Dick rolled his eyes as Alfred hit the ignition. "Whatever it is it won't work. What about you? Speaking of avoiding people, how are you going to handle David?"
"David? Who's David?" Bruce asked sharply earing a groan from Christine.
"David Verdant. His mom's on the board of the Gotham Gazette and has been trying to set us up for ages because she knows I own the damn paper. He never used to pay me any attention until last year when I actually started to…y'know…fill out." she gestured to her chest and developing curves.
"He's such a creep." Dick agreed with a small scowl "He'll hit on anything with a skirt, but he's weirdly really keen on nabbing Chris"
"That's because I tell him to sod off. And it's not just me, do you remember how Babs slapped him last year?"
"How could I forget" Dick grinned "Man, that was one solid backhand"
"no kidding" Christine giggled and the two of them burst into laughter.
"Well it's good to know Gordon's daughter can look after herself" Bruce sighed frowning at both his wards "Though I fail to see why you didn't tell me of this last year when he was bothering you"
"That's because we knew you'd overreact. Besides, we've handled worse creeps on the streets" Christine shrugged and Dick nodded.
"She's right."
"Master Dick, Miss Christine we have arrived" Alfred announced as he pulled over in front of the open school gates.
Bruce smiled reaching across with a long arm to ruffle Dick's hair. "And now the two of you, please try to make it through to lunch without too much trouble?"
"Can't make any promises Bruce. Come on Chrissy" Dick grabbed Christine's hand.
"Have a nice day at work Papa" Christine kissed Bruce on the cheek as he handed her schoolbag to her.
She was too focused on trying to move quickly as Dick dragged her out the car doors that she completely missed the look of pain that flashed across her adoptive father's face.
"I will"
Bruce murmured as he shut the door and settled back in his seat. He wondered if she'd even noticed what she'd just said. Probably not…
"Master Bruce?"
Bruce didn't answer immediately but watched Christine's brown ponytail until a mass of honey blond curls crashed right into her. Christine smiled fondly at her friend and quickly waved back at their car, positively glowing. Alfred revved up the engine once more.
Bruce sighed waving back as she disappeared into the crowd "Mother would've loved her" Bruce watched the school get smaller and smaller.
"Indeed, she would've, especially since your mother was fond of the Ballet" He paused as he turned a corner "And so would've your father. I'm sure he would be proud of how well you've helped raise this both Dick and Christine… as are we all"
Bruce quickly turned around to face the front quirking his eyebrow.
"We?"
"Leslie and I…the league" The old Butler eye's softened his charge's eyebrows rose really high.
"They don't seem so happy about Christine now that she has her powers. Clark thinks she's dangerous" he muttered softly.
"If you don't mind me saying sir, but I hardly think Mister Kent really has a leg to stand on in that department when he himself is just as dangerous an individual" Alfred scoffed stopping at a red light "Besides. It hasn't all been that bad. Do you remember her first mission with you and the young master?"
"Of course I do." Bruce's lips quirked upwards into a small affectionate smirk "Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn both had Robin and I at their mercy with those blasted mind control spores. They were just about to get me to submit to their will and reveal my identity and then…Kathak!" Bruce pretended to swing something at arm's length.
"In the young miss comes, smashing the dirty janitor's mop right into both Miss Isley's face" Alfred's chuckles now joined Bruce's. "A cracking shot if ever I saw one sir."
"Stuart would've busted his gut if he could've… seen it…" Bruce's chuckles vanished as the pained expression returned.
"Sir?"
"What if he knew…?" Bruce gripped his hand tighter in a fist and his eyes widened. "What if he knew that Christine would have these superpowers? What if that's the reason he left? To find out where she came from-"
Alfred's eyes widened with dawning comprehension. "Shall I send you those files sir?"
"No," Bruce said quickly "If they are sent to my work computer Christine will figure it out. But please can you locate them, copy them to a file and quadruple encrypt them on the Bat-computer so I can read them when I get back"
"Very well sir"
"Thank you, Alfred,"
Christine had barely walked with Dick past the wrought iron school gates when a mass of honey gold ringlets crashed into her.
"CHRISSS! Oh-em-gee! I missed you!"
Freddy, Fredericka Lantern, was a fourteen-year-old, rather average in height and weight girl. She had light brown eyes and (as you've already read twice now) a mass of honey gold ringlets, tied in two high pigtails at the side of her head which when coupled with her sweet, cheerful and eccentric personality, gave the impression of a very excitable long-haired labradoodle.
"Hey Freddy" Christine grinned as she was kissed her on both cheeks. She'd known Freddy since she was four and was used to her open displays of affection for they were like sisters to each other. Christine even called Freddy's parents Aunty Jacqueline and Uncle Lui (short for Ludwig). They did everything together; they even had almost the exact same subjects every year at school with the exception of some extracurricular activities.
"Hey? That's all you can say? Babe, we've spent a whole summer apart and you can only say hey?" Freddy pouted but still linked arms with her besty.
"Well we've been pretty busy" Dick grinned as Freddy also linked arms with him so that she stood between the two of them.
"Busy eh? Pray to tell" She waggled her eyebrows and laughed at the way the two birds rolled their eyes.
"Not that kind of busy!" Christine groaned "we mean family business busy"
"Oh! I see." Freddy nodded slowly before adding in an undertone. "More bonding time with daddy dearest then?"
"Sort of…" but Dick broke off as a red-haired girl ran up towards them. She was Barbara Gordon daughter of the Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. A pretty girl with a stout heart Barbara was just about as loyal to her friends as Freddy. After Dick said hello he peered around her.
His face split into a wide grin.
"What?" Christine peered around and felt her eyebrows shoot right up. "Oh my god!" she grinned ecstatically.
There some distance away tugging at her skirt nervously, her long blond hair tied in a low ponytail was Artemis.
She looked especially nervous as Bette, a nice blonde girl from the year above Dick and Christine, came up to her to introduce herself.
"You know her?" Freddy whispered quietly.
"From the family business. I'll tell you later" Christine hissed smirking as Dick quickly rushed over to take a quick snapshot of him with school newbie Artemis before ninja stepping away.
"Dick, what was that about?" Barbara looked very confused.
"Nothing Babara, just being friendly with the new girl" Dick smiled as he archived the photo quickly into his Wayne Tech touchscreen phone.
They met with their other friends Martin and George Hamish at the front desk as they got their timetables printed out by the office ladies. Martin and George were identical twin brothers, tall lean with mousy brown hair and bright green eyes. However, over the summer it seemed, Martin had dyed the tips of his hair the same red as the school tie styled in a spiky do and George wore circular Harry Potter-like glasses.
As they looked at their timetables Martin hi-fived a deadpan Christine as they discovered that they were in the same ballet class again this year. After exchanging glances at each other's timetables, comparing teachers and complaining about boring classes placed at the worst of times, they all made their way to the large school hall where they sat for an hour as listening to the start of term assembly, which was boring as usual.
At the end of Assembly, they went to their respective homerooms and then off to class.
It was proving to be a rather fun day. So far Christine's first two periods had been devoted to Advanced English literature in which they were assigned to do an extensive comparative study between the film Blade Runner (Directors Cut) and the book Frankenstein for the entire semester. After recess was general mathematics where Christine was separated from Dick, who along with Barbara and George did advanced Maths. It bored the living hell out of her, Martin and Freddy as they sat gazing at a page of algebraic equations that they'd already covered last year but were being bullied to revise again before continuing with the course.
Then they had Gym and the group of six were all back together again in an epic boy vs. girl dodgeball game. The girls won, for at the end Christine and Dick were the only two players left, and she'd sneakily used her wind powers, to dodge all incoming projectiles. Dick knew this but was relieved the game was finally over because they'd been tying for over fifteen minutes already and he was really starting to get bored.
Christine, Freddy and Barbara gleefully gloated and Dick, Martin and George dutifully put up with it as they made their way to the cafeteria. Dick and Christine didn't need to buy any food because Alfred, as per usual had packed two beautiful lunch boxes, filled with homemade sandwiches, cookies, a slice of cake and a small carton of juice.
A little way away from them Artemis was sitting at a table with Bette. She was watching the two of them closely as she ate. They both looked very… familiar somehow…
"Uh, Bette?"
"Hmm" Bette grunted as she took a swig of water from her bottle.
"Who are they?" she pointed at Dick and Christine as the former stole a ring of tomato from the latter's sandwich sneakily.
Bette's eyes were wider than saucers. "Don't you know? They're Dick Grayson and Christine Hallows, Bruce Wayne's wards"
"What..?" Artemis looked positively bewildered now.
"Y'know Wayne, As in the Bruce Wayne?" Bette swallowed her gulp whole, vaguely reminding Artemis of Wally back at the cave.
"Yeah who doesn't?" she shrugged. Of course, everyone in Gotham had heard of him. With his heritage and money, he could've been king of Gotham ten times over.
"Yeah, they're his kids. Dick's a freshman but already such a charmer." Bette sighed dreamily as she watched the younger boy cackle loudly at his adoptive siblings' scowl as she spilt mayonnaise over her tie.
There was something about the girl's scowl that made Artemis frown. She could've sworn she'd seen that expression before…
"And that Christine girl?"
"Oh, she's alright I guess" Bette shrugged casually "Nerdy, straight-A student. Apparently very good at Ballet. I don't know, I've never seen her in action. Apart from her little troupe over there she's not very sociable. I wouldn't bother trying to approach her."
"Okay?" Artemis frowned, only to roll her eyes as a black-haired girl strode past their table, flanked by three other prissy girls.
"Oh god, slut alert." Artemis murmured, and Bette almost choked on her tuna roll.
Meanwhile, at Christine and Dick's table, the disguised girl wonder groaned.
"Oh no."
"What?" Dick looked up and saw the dark-haired girl and her posse "Shit! Cover for me." he dashed off quickly. Everyone shook their heads in exasperation.
"Coward" Freddy muttered under her breath as the black-haired girl strutted over.
She was pretty there being no doubt, what with her dark hair, pale skin and red lips, thin body and large boobs. All of which were out on full display in a school uniform that seemed two sizes too small on her.
"Hello Candy" Barbara smiled politely, but her eyes were cold.
Candice sneered down her heavily made-up nose at the two of them.
"I thought I smelt a rat" she muttered before turning her back on the redhead. Her cronies tittered behind her in admiration as if she'd just scored a spectacular goal.
"Oh this should be interesting" Bette, and the rest of the cafeteria turned from their friendly chats to watch with interest.
"Is there something you need Candice?" Martin asked his tone pleasant but his eyes full of loathing.
"No, and if I did need something I wouldn't ask a twinkle-toed faggot like you"
"God what a bitch" Artemis whispered disgusted under her breath as some of the thick blockheads cheered from a table.
Poor Martin turned bright red and George stood up abruptly looking ready to punch Candice's lights out. Christine put a hand on his arm and tugged him back down quickly.
"Don't bother, she's not worth it" she muttered low. George and Martin both grimaced but neither made another move.
"Oh. You're still around are you?"
"Obviously" Christine drawled turning back to her sandwich. "If you're looking for Richard he's not here"
"Then where is he?" Candice spat, looking around the table.
"Not here obviously" Barbara mumbled into her juice box.
"Oh really?" Candice sneered folding her arms. "Then why is his bag still here?"
"Uh...Because he's in the loo," Martin grumbled.
"Wasn't asking you twinkles!" Candice snapped only to back away as Christine fixed her with a nasty glower.
"Watch it, Candy. You wouldn't want last year's dirt to spread over my newspaper, now would you?"
Candice blanched.
"Whatever. I'll find him later, little bitch" she added in an undertone and Christine smirked.
"Rather be a bitch than a dumb slut" she shrugged.
From her table, Artemis nearly choked on her food with laughter.
"You find something funny?" Candice rounded on Artemis who was quick to cover her mouth to hide her snigger.
"Yeah, you" she coughed. "Seriously, what is it with your plastic attitude? Are you auditioning for Mean Girls three or something?"
The whole cafeteria started sniggering.
Christine meanwhile was staring at Artemis in surprise mixed with familiar amusement as Candice flushed a dark red.
"Hey, you're new, here aren't you?" one of the older girl's posse, a rather prissy-looking girl with a pink headband in her dyed blonde hair, frowned at Artemis who smirked.
"Yeah, so? What's it to you?"
"Don't bother with her Julia. This is obviously one of those Wayne Scholarship charity cases. See, look at her, she's probably from the narrows. I bet she washes her clothes in the sewers outside her house." Candice giggled maliciously as she looked over Artemis's standard uniform and less than posh backpack.
Oh no she didn't!
Christine's nostrils flared as she caught sight of the blonde archer's hands clenching into fists by her sides.
But before either girl could react, there was a scrambling sound and all eyes turned to see Dick Grayson clambering out from under the table to glare at a now very surprised Candice.
"Richard? What are you doing under there."
"Hiding, from you." Dick spat, not even bothering to put on a polite façade as he glared the older girl down.
"I think you should leave Candy. Don't waste your temper on her Dick; you don't want to be late for History." Christine grunted as she rearranged the books in her bag. "You see guys; my brother has a strict no-dating idiots policy."
Artemis's eyes were wide with astonishment as a positively wicked smirk flitted across the younger girl's "innocent" face as she passed the affronted girl and patted her on the shoulder.
"Later Candy."
"Why you little-" Candice growled.
There were several laughs and giggles as the bell for the end of lunch finally wrung. Candice skulked off, scowling foully as Dick ran over and slung an arm around both Barbara and Christine as they left the cafeteria.
As they and their friends passed Artemis and Bette, Dick's scowl morphed into a smug little smirk as he gave the blond archer a small wink.
"Welcome to Gotham Academy Artemis."
"…Thanks" Artemis frowned slightly. Then it hit her "Hey!"
But the group had already melded into the sea of students. She stared around wildly. How had Grayson known her name?
Meanwhile, outside the cafeteria, Christine and Dick fist bumped quietly behind their friends' backs.
"Good Job" Christine murmured.
"You know the rules. No one messes with our teammates" Dick agreed. "Not even at school"
?, September 22 2010, 14:52 EDT
"I see you've only given her the medallion?" the old man in the shadows murmured to the owl masked man before him.
"I told you, I have to play this carefully. If she disappears too suddenly, the Batman and the League will be on our tailfeathers."
"True. But what makes you so sure she hasn't told anyone about your meeting?"
"Because if there's one thing I know about Christine Hallows, it's that she is stubborn." The man in the owl mask folded his arms "She's trying to assert her independence, so she'll keep the truth hidden in an attempt to prove she can handle things for herself."
"Hmph! She truly is a chip off the old block" the man in the shadows smirked. "I suppose all we can do now is wait and see what will happen next. Until then we must do something about your blunder at the Hall of Justice."
"Rest assured father I am already working on a solution" the man in the cowl murmured "It might take a couple of weeks to fully come into effect but it will work I promise you"
"Does this by chance, have anything to do with that spy you have in Red Queen's forces?" the man in the shadows, pressed his clawed fingers together.
"Oh yes." The masked shadow smirked as he straightened up. "And once he has played his role, even his old mistress won't know what hit her"
"Good, very good" the man in the shadow's smile widened as a pair of yellow eyes glimmered eerily in the dark.
Gotham Academy, September 22, 15:45 EDT
Christine sighed heavily as she quickly made her way into the girl's locker rooms.
Keep it together Chris, it's just an audition. You've practised all summer, you got this.
She sighed as she took her ballet gear out of her locker and began to change.
Trust my first day of school to be the same day as the Nutcracker auditions.
She rolled her eyes pulling out her black leotard, gulping as she looked at her reflection in the locker door mirror.
She was still wearing the glamour charm around her neck. It looked like an ordinary thin black choker, set with a small purple stone that sat over her throat. Still, it was quite a shock to see her old dark hair and eyes staring back at her after two months of getting used to her transformation.
I hope Madame Fletcher doesn't force me to take it off.
She shivered as her fingers trailed around the glamour charm and down to the other two necklaces she had looped around her neck.
One was the chain with her father's military dog-tags, the other was the strange Court of Owl's medallion she had received barely a week ago.
Her fingers lingered on the silver pendant as it glimmered in the artificial light above. She hadn't yet shown it to anyone, not the team, nor Dick, Bruce or even Alfred.
I'll show it to them when I've got more information. Until then, I observe and record everything that happens just like dad told me.
She told herself as she carefully took off both the medallion and the dog tags and stored them safely in a small pouch which she then hid in the depths of her bag, before stripping off the rest of her uniform.
Even as she stashed them under her sports gear, there came a buzzing from her pocket.
"Damn!" she hissed as she scrambled to get the device and saw a blocked number. Great just what she needed. Her dad is calling her out for an assignment only when the opportunity of a lifetime was at her feet.
"Hello?" she muttered balancing the phone between her ear and shoulder as she rolled her pink ballet tights up her legs.
"Swift, it's me." a familiar deep voice spoke into her ear.
"Oh hey, Kaldur? What's up?" Christine sighed in relief as the Atlantean voice murmured.
"I've got something important-wait where are you?" Kaldur paused his voice grave.
"Yeah, I'm still at school. Don't worry; no one's around" she assured him only to grunt as she finished wriggling into her tights and moved onto pulling her leotard up.
"Are you alright? I could call back later-" Kaldur sounded unsure, but she just shrugged.
"No-no. It's okay. Actually, it's better you called now. I'm not going to be contactable for most of the evening anyway."
"Ah yes, your Ballet auditions. I heard Wally mentioning them yesterday" he added quickly, and Christine rolled her eyes. Damn Wally and his big mouth.
"One of these days I'm going to talk with that speedy hamster about the art of subtlety." She snorted, and Kaldur chuckled.
"Wally's bad secret keeping skills aside, allow me to as you surface dwellers say 'break a leg'. I've seen you practising in the cave, and you're incredible."
"Oh…th-thanks" Christine felt herself burn hotter than a solar flare and was glad that no one else was around to witness her face turn the colour of an eggplant.
"Swift?" Kaldur's voice interrupted her stunned silence, and she quickly coughed.
"Oh yes, ahem, sorry. So what was it you wanted to talk about?"
"I've decided to tell Red Tornado about the mole situation tonight, but seeing as you're not there to give your account, perhaps I should wait till tomorrow-"
"No-no Kal, we talked about this. We've got to at least tell Tornado about the issue before we tell the Bat-Boss!" she whispered the last word as she heard a couple of girls enter the locker room door behind her back.
"I take it you're no longer alone" Kaldur murmured into her ear, and she sighed as well.
"Yeah, something like that" Christine sighed as she caught sight of Freddy sneaking up towards her in the corner of her eye.
"Listen, I gotta dash, but you make sure you give Red the message tonight okay?"
"Okay, and Swift?"
"Yeah?" Christine gulped as she saw her best friend smirking at her slyly from her locker.
"Good luck. You'll be fine." Her cheeks flushed as she heard Kaldur's soft smile through the receiver.
"Thanks, and good luck to you too. Message me when you're done telling Red alright."
"Will do. Goodbye Swift"
"Bye Kal. Talk to you later." Christine mumbled, and despite herself, the corners of her lips quirked upwards in a small smile.
However, her enjoyment faded as she turned to face a very eager Freddy, who was grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh crap" Christine muttered as her best friend leaned in to smirk in her face.
"Chri~s, Who the hell were you talking to?"
"No one!" Christine gulped quickly stashing her phone away in her bag. "Just a friend from the volunteer gigs I do for Bruce."
"Just a friend?" Freddy gawked at the spot her phone had vanished. "Girl, he made it into the phone. The freaking PHONE! No guy has ever made it into the phone before-"
"Shh! Quiet!" Christine hissed as several girls she recognised to be on Freddy's hockey team glanced in their direction.
Quick as a flash she dragged her back to her locker and whispered. "Listen, we met at one of Bruce's charity galas at the beginning of the summer, and we've kinda been doing volunteer work together ever since."
"Oh yeah, what kind of volunteering?" Freddy mimed quotation marks as she watched her friend quickly pull her hair into a tight bun behind her head.
"Y'know the typical organising charity fundraisers kinda stuff. Anyways, he just called to tell me that he's gonna have to give some news over to one of the other organisers before I go all dark on him this evening."
"Uh-huh right" Freddy rolled her eyes still completely unconvinced at the half-baked lie "Whoever this guy is you must like him a lot to keep him in your phone."
"Uh yeah duh, he's my friend" Christine glowered as she stuck several pins into her bun to tighten it.
"No-no-no-no-no, friends don't blush and giggle all shy and sweet when they hang up on their other friends. Trust me I know" Freddy snorted as her best friend was quick to lock her bag and valuables back into her locker and shoulder her ballet gear under her arm.
"Right, that should do the trick." Christine sighed about to walk out the door only to be stopped as Freddy tugged her back.
"Oh no, you don't. Some bigwigs are coming for your audition today; they'll like to see you looking girly for the part." Freddy quickly snatched the makeup kit from the outer pocket of her friend's bag.
"Are you done?" Christine grumbled irritably as her friend finished applying her gloss and mascara and started to tweeze the long hair growing in the middle of her eyebrows.
"Almost, just hold still-"
"Ow!" Christine winced rubbing her T-zone as Freddy pulled back with a grin.
"Yep, perfect. You're set to go. Now go knock 'em dead."
Be careful what you wish for
Christine sighed mentally as with a heavy sigh as she trudged out of the girl's lockers.
Once she was outside the school hall, she stopped, sucking in a deep breath as she caught sight of the short line of girls queued to register in the row.
Amongst them, she saw, to her disgust one of Candices' cronies, Julia standing in her all pink ballet ensemble.
She spared Christine a dirty glare as she took her place at the end of the line, doing her best to ignore the archery group tryouts that were going on behind her back in the quadrangle.
Had she bothered to look around, she might have noticed Artemis sparing her a suspicious glance as she started to stretch her limbs out.
"Next" a tall grey-haired woman with a stern face barked and Christine almost jumped out of her skin. "Sorry Madame Fletcher"
"Ah, Christine, there you are" Madame Fletcher's face softened slightly "I was wondering when you'd show up. You've got your headshots and registration form ready I hope?"
"All here, plus the digital copy of my performance at last year's recital on USB like you asked." Christine reached into her bag and pulled out a yellow manila file labelled 'Christine Hallows: Ballet documents' which she handed to her teacher.
"Everything seems to be in order." The older woman nodded, a small smile gracing her features as she ticked off Christine's name on the list. "Now off with you and good luck."
"Thank you, madame" Christine sucked in a deep breath as she stepped into the assembly hall. Even as she turned her head to look at the shutting doors behind her, she couldn't help but feel as if something was going to go wrong.
Alright, now let's get this show on the road.
She shook out her head to clear it of the cobwebs, not noticing a shadow disappear from a corner of the hall.
Gotham City, September 22 2010, 18:57 EDT
Two shadows in owl masks watched on quietly from a rooftop as a young blonde girl in a green arrow suit walked over towards a disused telephone booth.
"It is confirmed. T.O. Morrow has sent his androids in to attack the young heroes at Mount Justice" one of them, the slightly shorter one with more unadorned black armour whispered as he pulled his finger from the com in his ear.
"Is Swift at the Mountain yet?" the taller shadow with the golden claw murmured and his junior shook his head.
"No, sir."
"Good. That'll make our mission slightly easier" they both fell silent as they watched a short thirteen-year-old boy with black hair and wearing a dark cape over his red and black bodysuit creep up towards the blonde from the shadows.
"Artemis?"
"Gah!" the girl, Artemis, wheeled around to face the Boy Wonder as he suddenly appeared at her side. "Robin! I-uh-"
"How random that you're in Gotham City, instead of Star City where your uncle Green Arrow lives" Robin smirked wickedly as he looked the now very nervous blonde archer up and down.
"I came to see my cousin" Artemis scratched her head nervously "She was in the state spelling B, here…in Gotham."
"C-o-o-l. Did she w-i-n?" Robin sniggered.
"N.O."
"D-r-a-g"
"Yeah! Let's go to the cave" Artemis scowled irritably at the younger boy whose smirk only widened as he mockingly bowed like a gentleman.
"Ladies first"
"Your town. You go" Artemis put her hands on her hips.
Robin shrugged and quickly opened the out of order phone booth, typing in the cave's co-ordinates before disappearing in a flash of yellow. Artemis sighed, but was quick to follow, leaving the alleyway empty.
Once the zeta tube had deactivated the two shadows leapt down from their high vantage point.
"Make it quick" the taller shadow grunted gruffly as his junior made to open up the door to the hidden portal.
"Already on it" the younger man smirked under his cowl as his fingers flew across the zeta tubes holographic keyboard.
After a minute of furious typing, he straightened up and smirked. "Done. Mount Justice is officially offline. No one can get in. And no one can get out"
"Good work" his superior nodded approvingly. "Now we move onto phase two"
"So, you and this Kal guy?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake would you just let that drop."
Christine was at Freddy's house in her room. It was a large room decorated in a lot of bright yellows and creams. Her bed even had a Pikachu quilt over it with matching pillowcases.
They'd played video games, fussed over Freddy's new baby sister Emily. The little infant was adorable and like her sister and parents was a little blonde angel. Christine didn't think she'd ever seen a sister so doting or so caring as Freddy, who was positively smitten and could even, to her best friend's admiration, bear to change the little tykes' diapers no matter how stinky they were.
Now it was evening and they'd both finally finished their homework, which had only been done at Aunt Jacqueline's insistence to keep the two of them quiet while Emily took a pre-dinner nap.
Freddy was in her PJ's, and Christine was still in her Ballet gear doing her best to ignore her best friend's teasing smirks and pokes when her phone rang on the desk.
"Ooh, another call from Kal, the guy really must dig you." Freddy mouthed, and Christine rolled her eyes as she reached down to connect to the call.
"Hello?" she quickly stood up and walked into the en-suite bathroom.
"Hello Christine" a familiar deep scrambled voice spoke into her ear. "Remember me."
"Chris? Is everything okay?" Freddy's face fell into worry as her friend quickly shut the bathroom door on her.
"What do you want?" she hissed once she had locked the door.
"Your friends at Mount Justice are in danger" The scrambled voice murmured urgently.
"What did you do to them?" she hissed, and the voice sighed.
"I did nothing. You remember what I told you about your mother hatching a plot?"
Christine's face paled the colour of parchment.
"You said they were at the mountain correct?"
"Correct." The scrambled voice grunted on the other end "You should get a move on now. You don't have much time to save them."
"Hey wait a moment-"
But too late. He'd already hung up on her.
Damn it!
She growled as she dashed out of her friends' bathroom door.
"Sorry Freds, gotta dash. Family emergency."
"What you mean the normal family emergency or a real family emergency?" Freddy rolled her eyes, and Christine narrowed hers.
"The latter."
"Oh. Alright…" Freddy's face fell to the floor. Christine sighed and reached out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Listen, I know it's tough but if I don't go-"
"Yeah-yeah! I know. End of the world and all that jazz I get it." Freddy folded her arms with a pout "Just make sure you're still alive when I call you tomorrow kay?"
"Kay" Christine quickly reached out to hug her before dashing out of the room all her gear in hand. She didn't even bother to stop as Freddy's family butler called after her.
"Miss Hallows is everything alright."
"Everything's fine Bertie!" Christine snapped as she quickly put her com in her ear.
"Come on Alfred pick up" She hissed as she walked out the front door and out into the front courtyard of the large house.
However, no matter how hard she tried, her comlink just wouldn't connect through to anywhere.
"Dammit! Come on Alfie!" she hissed as she quickly ran into a clump of bushes. As quick as she could she began to pull on her Swift suit over the top of her ballet leotard and tights, shedding only her pointe shoes which she threw into her bag along with the black and purple glamour charm.
"Screw this" she grunted as tucking her dog tags and the Owl medallion under the top of her suit as she zipped it up at the front, only to curse as she remembered:
Wait. Dad's taken the Batwing for a league mission-SHIT!
She quickly checked the Batcave's status on her holo-computer. The Batmobile was still awaiting repairs from last week's explosive encounter with the Joker. Double damn.
She growled to herself as she pulled on her black and purple cowl.
"Two minutes to get suited up. I'm impressed" a scrambled voice smirked behind her.
"I'm not" Christine rolled her eyes as she clipped on her purple utility belt and garters.
The owl masked man behind her merely folded his arms.
"So how are you going to reach your friends if your mentor has taken his plane?"
"I'm going to have to Zeta-tube it," Christine mumbled as she checked her co-ordinates
"The nearest Zeta tube is twenty minutes away in your Batcave." The shadow snorted "You'll never reach it in time to get to your friends."
"Oh yeah. Watch me" Christine growled as she pulled something that looked like a metallic backpack from the largest compartment of her duffel bag.
Thank god Dick took my real school bag home when Alfie came for him. Or else this would've been heavy.
There was a loud sound of metal plates moving as the X shaped straps slipped out of the pack which suddenly extended into a pair of full black and purple wings that connected to her arms.
"I see you've made some modifications to the design." the masked shadow nodded in approval. Quietly he watched the young girl zip up her bag and position the strap across her back with the bag strapped tightly over her front.
"Man, you have no idea", Christine smirked proudly as she crouched low to the ground. With a great push, she propelled herself into a high jump at the top of which she unleashed a large gust of wind from her super breath.
With a large beat of her arms and another large breath, she propelled herself into the air, bobbing a little as she tried to balance the new weight over her chest.
She'd never flown carrying anything before; she'd have to be careful not to stack it when landing.
Meanwhile down on the ground, the man in the owl mask allowed himself a small chuckle.
"Hmm, very impressive indeed."
Alfred Pennyworth wasn't a man easily rattled. Life amongst masked vigilante's tended to give one a rather tough shell. There were some small times his worry got the better of him. Like when the young teenage girl with mechanical wings almost crashed into the Batcave computer.
"Miss Christine are you alright?" the old butler rushed over to where his young charge had landed face first into the ground before the giant machine.
"I'm fine Alf. Just need to work on my landing" Christine panted as she got to her feet. "I need to use the Zeta tube. There's an emergency at the Mountain."
"Are you sure young miss?" Alfred quirked a confused brow "There haven't been any alerts triggered here."
"Maybe not on the Batcomputer but check this out." Christine snatched her phone out of the bag on her front where several missed messages from Dick and the rest of her team blared out at her in a red alert.
"My word" Alfred's face paled.
"I know. I've tried picking up their messages, but something keeps blocking me on my end. We need to contact dad" Christine quickly dashed to the Bat-computer and opened up a communications link.
"Swift to Batman. Dad! Come on pick up!" she hissed as she kept on hitting the call button.
It took her a good two minutes but eventually, the face of her mentor filled the screen, glowering down at her. From what she could see of the feed's background he seemed to be in the Batwing.
"Swift, what's wrong?"
"Dad I've just received several distress signals from Robin's holo-computer-"
"I know, he's tried contacting me too." Batman growled, "but all I get when I try connecting to him is-"
"Static?" Christine finished, and he nodded. "Yeah, that's all I've gotten too. And it's not just him. No one on the team is picking up their coms."
"That's because the Cave at Mount Justice is completely offline too. Even the Watchtower cannot connect to any of them" Batman explained.
"And I cannot remotely access the Mount Justice security system." Alfred piped in from where he was typing in at the computer. "Also I should report all Zeta Tubes in the Happy Harbour area seem to be offline also."
Christine's blood chilled to ice in her veins.
"We need to get to the mountain" her fists clenched as she dumped her bag on the ground "Now as quick as possible."
"No. The league will go to Mount Justice. You will stay with Alfred in the Batcave." Batman's eyes narrowed.
"But they're my team; I can't just sit back and wait here! Besides, I know that cave like the back of my hand!" Christine cried out.
"I agree with the young mistress." Alfred nodded unexpectedly "Perhaps it might be safer for her to accompany you. Her knowledge of her team and the mountain might prove valuable."
Christine stared at Alfred in shock. It wasn't often that Alfred ever sided with her or Dick when it came to Batman's orders. Usually, he kept silent when it came to the matters of their safety, reserving his opinions unless necessary.
Seeing as neither his goddaughter or butler was going to back down, the
"Alright, fine you may come. Take a Zeta Tube to the Hall of Justice and I'll rendezvous with you there, do you understand?"
Christine pouted moodily. She hadn't been back to the Hall since the shooting two weeks ago, and she wasn't looking forward to going back.
"Christine, do you understand?"
"Alright fine." she mumbled grumpily "I'll meet you there" she heard the click of the com, as it turned off on the other end and turned to Alfred.
"Thank's for the backup Alfie."
"Any time Miss Christine." The old butler's eyes softened "Now go. Save your friends and bring Master Dick back safe and sound."
"Sir yes sir" Christine playfully saluted him as she dashed down towards the Batcave's Zeta tubes.
Alfred sighed and shook his head.
They grow up so fast.
Happy Harbour, September 22 2010, 21:32 EDT
Christine was flying outside in the dark night sky in front of Wonder Woman, Superman, Captain Atom and Martian Manhunter whilst Flash, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Batman flew in the Batplane.
"Woah!" she cried out as a rogue gust of wind nearly unsettled her mechanical wings.
"Easy Swift, you must relax into the wind rather than fight it," Wonder Woman said gently as she flew up beside the young sidekick.
"I know it's just…I've never actually flown this high before, agh!" Christine gulped as she juddered midair again. Frantically she puffed out another super breath to steady herself, doing her best not to look down at the massive drop between herself and the ground far below.
"I know, it took me a while to get used to it too when I first started" the Amazon princess smirked "I found the best thing to do is to look forward and not look down"
"Forwards not down. Right got it" Christine bit her lip nervously as she looked up ahead. She could see the dark outline of Mount Justice in the distance, standing tall and silent in the night.
Guys, help's coming hold on.
She thought, hoping against hope that somehow M'gann at least could hear her thoughts.
Superman glanced at her worriedly. He'd never seen the girl wonder so on edge before.
"Christine I'm sure that they're fi-"
Shut it Clark Bruce hissed through the mental link Martian Manhunter had established between all the leaguers.
Hey I'm just trying to help
I know. But when things are like this, don't tell her things are going to be okay. It'll just make it worse. Trust me… I've tried
Superman scowled angrily wondering what Batman meant when there was a loud clap of thunder. Then suddenly, something flashed across his vision.
He was staring through what appeared to be liquid and a layer of glass. On the other side, two figures were talking. One of them was in a white suit and wore a black hooded cape which shrouded a white masked face. A wrinkled, pale claw-like hand reached up to press against the glass of the tank, murmuring something indistinctly as a small baby's hand reached out through the liquid towards it-then suddenly there was a jolt of pain as what felt like lightning shot through his veins.
"AHGH!" Superman's eyes flew open. He was now flying through a massive storm. Torrents of rain came thundering down from dark swirling clouds that had not been there moments before.
"What is going on?" Captain Atom yelled in shock. Martian Manhunter was clutching his head in agony.
"J'onn!" Wonder Woman flew over, but the Martian Man shook his head.
"No, not me! Help her!" He pointed with one hand towards Christine who had suddenly, horribly begun to fall.
Superman barely heard the almost terrified cry from Dinah in his com and immediately pushed himself into a perfectly controlled dive.
She was way further than he'd initially thought was and gaining even more speed as gravity pulled her down.
"Come on" he hissed pushing himself against the wind which pressed against him like pressurised water. He had to catch her. Not just for her safety but Bruce's sanity as well. He shuddered to think what would happen to the Bat if he should lose another member of his family.
He was gaining on her now. He stretched out his arms. He was almost there. He was touching her fingers. He could reach her arms.
He grabbed her close and pulled up sharply. He winced as his feet skimmed the tops of the trees that fell once again beneath them as he rose back up into the air.
The Bat-plane's ramp opened, and he flew inside at once.
As it closed, Batman switched the plane into autopilot and ran towards them.
"I got her" he puffed as Batman tore off his cowl, dark blue eyes wide and panic-stricken.
Without a word of thanks, Bruce took Christine out of Superman's hold and placed her on the floor to check her vitals. Barry, Dinah and Oliver all rushed over to look over his shoulder worriedly. After a few moments, he mumbled softly.
"She's just unconscious."
There was a shared sigh of relief.
"What the hell just happened?" Dinah slumped back into her seat her head in her hands. Oliver knelt beside his girlfriend rubbing her shoulder consolingly.
"I do not know. But that was an intense experience" J'onn also slumped back into his seat but had closed his eyes and was concentrating on his breathing. Barry, Captain Adams and Diana all turned to look out the windows. Superman kept his eyes on Bruce as the dark clad man stared down at the girl in his arms.
"The…the mountain" Barry's voice was dry as he pointed out the window. They all went back and strapped themselves into their seats. The Bat plane was aiming for a clearing in the tree's close to the mountain.
As they descended Christine groaned in her sleep from the air pressure. However, she seemed to be much calmer now that she was with him.
"Bruce" she murmured as she stirred somewhere between the worlds of waking and sleep.
"We can't take her in with us" Dinah shook her head from where she sat. "Whatever we saw in her head took a lot out of her."
"I know," Bruce pulled up the cowl again "Which is why someone has to stay here with her and man the coms from here. The rest of us must deal with what's inside.
"Flash, Green Arrow, Captain Atom and Superman should go inside" Dinah nodded.
"Hey, why us?" the four superheroes cried out in unison.
"Keep it down?" Diana hissed gesturing to the girl in Batman's arms. They all nodded quickly, muttering their apologies.
"Superman and Captain Atom because of strength and invulnerability Flash for speed and Green Arrow for long distance fighting" she whispered.
"Then by technicality shouldn't Batman, Martian Manhunter or Black Canary be going for stealth?" Flash raised an eyebrow.
Batman shifted uncomfortably in his seat quickly glancing down at Christine. Diana walked over calmly and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I will stay with her"
Batman looked up at her eyes narrowed.
"You don't trust me?" she raised her eyebrows dangerously.
Every male in the room gulped nervously, including Batman but he recovered quickly.
"It's not that…She's been a bit on edge with everything going on. Add Dick and me being in possible danger and she'll be…" He sighed. "Alright just be sure to stay with her twenty-four seven until I get back."
He gently deposited his partner back down to lay on the floor, as Diana kneeled beside her.
"I'll keep her safe Bruce; you have my word" the Amazon nodded as the Bat joined the others on the ground.
"Twenty-four seven?" Flash snorted as soon as the ramp was closed "I know she's your kid Bruce but isn't that a tad extreme?"
"If you don't keep a watch on her like a hawk she'll try and run into the fight no matter how tired she is" Superman explained with a shrug.
Batman nodded keeping his eyes on the side of the mountain where the "front door" was positioned. He pulled up his holo-computer and hacked into the systems. He didn't want the computer to alert their enemy too soon to their presence.
The grassy ramp slid down, and they quietly rushed down. They hid along the walls and shadows as Martian Manhunter tried to scan telepathically for the Team's presence.
They're here!
He cried out.
Where?
All the other mentors asked at once.
The hangar, there is no other presence
Not even one hiding their mind? Batman narrowed his eyes. Martian Manhunter shook his head but stiffened suddenly. The small patter of feet reached Superman's ears.
"Bruce" he whispered just as the Bat twitched as if to make a move.
"What?" Batman hissed in irritation but then he paused. He'd heard it too. A tiny sharp intake of breath from behind them.
"Get back to the plane" he growled turning as Christine peered around a corner behind him.
"No" she glared as she descended the ramp softly followed by a very disgruntled Wonder Woman. The Amazon princess gave Batman an apologetic look before joining Dinah at the back.
"You're still shaking," Batman grunted at his goddaughter, his anger and worry mounting.
"It'll wear off in five minutes. Besides, you'll need my help. I'm the only one here small enough to get through the ventilation shafts without setting off any of the alarms" she shrugged, only to glower up at her godfather as he continued to glare at her.
"What? You think I didn't think this through? I said I'd come with you-"
"And I said to get back to the Batwing. Now! That's an order."
"My friends are in there" she hissed. "And I don't care what you say I'm not going to leave them behind."
"Christine," Batman growled as raised himself up to his full, rather startling, height.
"Uh Bats, Kid. I hate to break this to you, but we really don't have the time for all this Angry Dad and teen rebellion stuff." Flash hissed, flinching as both sets of white slits narrowed dangerously down at him.
"Don't call me kid" Christine hissed softly. "I'm going in"
And before her mentor or anyone could say anything else she dashed into the Mountain.
"Damn" Green Arrow raised his eyebrows as they saw her slip into the main hall's shadows. "She's unrulier than Roy was at this age"
"Ollie" Black Canary elbowed her boyfriend hard in the ribs as Batman turned his back on all of them.
Agh! That girl! They heard the Dark Knight growl through Martian Manhunter's mental link. Why does she have to be so stubborn?
It didn't take Christine long to find her team. They were in the mountain's enormous hangar bay/garage, all bruised battered and unconscious.
"Holy shit! GUYS!" she rushed over frantically reaching Robin who was closest to her.
She placed her fingers on his neck and felt his soft pulse before placing her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat and feel his ribcage rise and fall with each breath. There was a tiny groan close to her ear.
"Dick, oh thank god!" She pulled away, sighing in relief as the white lenses of Robin's mask widened slowly.
"Christine" He coughed and spluttered, his throat sounding very dry indeed. He struggled slightly as he sat up "Red…Red Tornado he-"
"Shh…Dick, it's ok" Christine gently stroked the mop of black away from his forehead.
The sound of footsteps behind her and she turned as the other Leaguers passed them also went over to their sidekick's sides and checked their vitals. Flash and Black Canary went over to Wally and Conner who were both held up by a hardened grey cement-like mass. Superman shuffled nervously before heading over to Artemis and shaking her shoulder gently. Wonder Woman and Green Arrow quickly made to look around the corners of the cave for any sign of the attack as Captain Atom examined the heat ray. M'gann was revived telepathically by her uncle as Aquaman used his water sorcery on the small pool below the hangar bay platform, to gently spray Kaldur's dangerously dry skin.
With a gasp, the Atlantean boy revived almost instantly and immediately sat up. He saw Robin awake and cried out.
"What? Where did Red Tornado go?"
"Peace Kaldur'ahm. You're all safe now." Aquaman put a hand on his protégé's shoulder.
"What happened?" Batman strode over to where Christine was helping Robin sit up.
"Red Tornado…has …siblings." he panted, gulping down much-needed air into his raspy throat.
"What do you mean siblings?" Batman narrowed his eyes.
"Same creator, different robots, different abilities" He leaned heavily on his partner as she pulled him up to stand.
"What abilities?" Christine kept a tight grip on him as he swayed slightly. It was then she noticed that he was missing his cape and he had a large bruise blooming over his lower left jaw.
"One was pyro and the other hydro" he scowled rubbing his chin "Artemis, and I managed to bring them both down with an EMP burst, using the main generator. Then Red Tornado came and he…he…"
He coughed, clutching at his dry throat.
"One of them must've had a virus implanted because when Red Tornado tried to scan them he turned on us." Kaldur finished calmly as he finally shook off the last of his own disorientation.
Batman's eyes widened in shock.
"Do you know where he went?"
The two boys shook their heads in unison as two loud gasps announced Wally and Conner's awakening.
"It's alright for now" Aquaman put a consoling hand on Kaldur's shoulder "at least the six of you are alright"
They coughed and hacked violently as Captain Atom managed to get the heat ray working, just as Superman managed to rouse Artemis awake.
"Artemis! Artemis can you hear me?"
The blonde archer's eyes opened slowly.
"She's alright" He turned to the others as he pulled her to her feet easily. She looked around the room'
"What happened?"
"What happened? The Red's happened" She snapped at the Man of Steel brushing herself off of him "Red Tornado and his- wait where are they?" She looked around worriedly.
"Gone" Robin turned around gravely.
"All three of them gone. Oh!" he clutched his head as he swayed dangerously.
"Damn it" he hissed under his breath as Christine pulled his arm around her shoulders to bear his weight.
"Swift. Take Robin back to the Cave's medical centre and check him over. That goes for the rest of you too" he turned to the other members of the team who all nodded wearily
"On it. Come on Wonder Boy, up you get." Christine nodded and heaved Robin back to his feet. As she and her team hobbled towards the door of the hangar bay, she chanced a glance back.
Batman and the rest of the justice leaguers were all standing in a tightly bound circle, murmuring furiously. Despite her enhanced hearing, she could only hear snippets of the conversations.
"Tornado can't have gotten far-"
"-that doesn't explain how the other androids got in before he returned to the cave"
"Do you think he let them in?"
"Maybe it wasn't Red Tornado but a copy-"
"Where were you?" Robin's voice cut through her eavesdropping as they finally left the hangar.
"What?" She blinked in surprise.
"I tried calling you ten times" he grumbled, "And you didn't respond."
"All cave communications were down." She rolled her eyes before adding in a quiet murmur. "And I had shut my phone off for the audition remember?"
"Oh yeah. I forgot, how did it go?" he asked distractedly as they awkwardly led their teammates up to the infirmary.
"I don't know." Christine admitted "I mean I did my best but I won't know until I get a callback…if I get one that is" she added dully.
"I'm sure you did fine" Wally grumbled as he passed her by, patting her on the shoulder.
"But that still doesn't change the fact that you'd gone completely dark on us! Red Tornado and his relatives almost killed us! We really could've used your help!" Artemis scowled from behind folding her arms crossly as they finally entered the sterile white-walled medical bay.
"Listen, I'm sorry alright! I know what I did was dumb, but I did honestly try calling you guys back, but all I got was static! That's why I called Batman. I didn't know how else to get to you." Christine growled in frustration as she helped deposit Robin onto a nearby medical bed.
But Artemis was not convinced and had opened her mouth to retort, only to get held back by Kaldur.
"That's enough, what's done is done. We can't change what happened."
"Kaldur's right" M'gann murmured from the medical bed Conner had helped settle her into. Her green skin looked sickly pale and sticky from sweat, and she was still very woozy as she said "We can't keep fighting like this. That's just what the enemy wants-oh…"
"M'gann," Conner grasped at M'gann's hand as a wave of dizziness hit her.
"I'm okay…I just need to sleep it off" the martian girl sighed tiredly.
"That's a good idea." Kaldur nodded as he watched the rest of his team start to yawn "In fact, we could all use some rest tonight."
?, September 22 2010, 22:12 EDT
"Well done my son" the masked man in the shadows smirked "It would seem your plan to bring the girl into the fold is going to plan"
"I told you" the man in the owl cowl smirked folding his arms. "Anyone can merely kidnap and brainwash, but what would happen if that hold was broken. The hurt of betrayal would only spur them into rebellion. If we are to make her truly loyal, we will need her to trust us utterly and completely"
"So now what do you suppose we do next?" the old man drummed his claw-like fingers on his desk.
"Now we watch and wait. The one really responsible for the attack on the Mountain is sure to try their luck soon. And when they do, we must be ready to protect her at all cost"
The man in the shadows smirked. Finally, everything was going as planned
Mount Justice, September 23, 2010, 02:29 EDT
The entire mountain was silent as all the cave's resident teammates fell asleep in the safety of the medical ward.
All save one. Dick Grayson frowned up at the ceiling, his mask still over his eyes.
His partner Christine had just snuck out of the infirmary rather sneakily even by her usual standards.
Something's up with her
He mused as he turned over in the medical bed he'd taken for the night.
Something's rattled her bad. I've never seen her this antsy since-wait what's that?
The Boy Wonder quickly shut his eyes, leaving one of them just a crack open to watch as someone passed by his bed.
Kaldur? What's he up to now?
The boy wonder thought suspiciously as the Atlantean quietly crept out of the room. Dick had to admit; the older boy could move quite quietly when he wanted to. But the Robin was better.
As silent as a shadow, he slipped out of bed to follow Kaldur's footsteps, keeping his distance as he tracked him down all the way into the hallway where all the team's bedrooms were situated.
He was quick to stop around a corner as Kaldur came to a pause.
What is he-oh!
Dick frowned as he caught sight of Christine quickly poking her head out from her bedroom door to Kaldur's right.
"I got your message" the Atlantean whispered "What's wrong? You said it might be urgent."
"It is." Christine murmured as she shut the door behind herself. "I just found this on my pillow."
Dick's breath caught in his chest as he caught sight of the object in his partner's pale hand. It was a red mahogany chess piece.
"A pawn?" Kaldur frowned as he took the piece in his hands.
"Not just any pawn. It's a message from Red Queen"
"You mean the-"
"The Red Queen of the Hand of Eight. Yes. Her." Christine nodded solemnly.
"But why would a powerful adversary such as she, leave you a threat? Why not the league or the Batman?" Kaldur frowned. "What connection do the two of you have?"
Chris, wait, what are you doing?
Dick's eyes widened behind his mask as he watched his partner suck in a huge breath.
"Listen Kal…I want to tell you, but you must promise me something. What I say here and now must stay a secret. The only reason I'm telling you right now is because-well-because of what we heard in Taipei and-"
"I understand" Kaldur muttered. "And I give you my word; I will never betray your confidence."
Wait, Taipei? What happened in Taipei? Dick's brain was a whir of questions that only grew in number as Christine bit her lip and whispered:
"Red Queen is my mother. My real birth mother."
"What?" Kaldur's jaw almost dropped in shock.
"Yeah…I know" Christine rolled her eyes "Years ago when I was a baby, my father, my real father not Batman, and my mom, Red Queen, divorced. I was too young to remember anything, but somehow my dad got full custody of me and stripped her of all the entitlements she got when marrying him."
"I can imagine she was not too pleased with the outcome." Kaldur murmured and Christine snorted.
"Quite. So my parents divorced and my lovely mother, bitter world dominating bitch that she is, did everything she could to make my father's and my lives difficult. And I mean everything, including having me kidnapped and held to ransom one time, but that's not important." She quickly waved Kaldur off before he could open his mouth to comment. "the point is…I wouldn't put it past her to be one of the people behind the attack today and probably more."
"You mean when Sportsmaster said-"
"Yeah…that" Christine ran a hand through her messy white locks "Sorry…I know this is a lot to take in right now…but I thought it would be a good idea to clear the air before we approach Batman tomorrow-"
"No, it's fine. I'm glad you told me" Kaldur admitted as he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder "You've been very distracted recently, and when you didn't pick up our distress beacon I was worried that-"
"You thought that I was the one, didn't you?" Christine looked down at the ground ashamedly. "No-it's okay. I understand. With all this mystery we have to be cautious. And I am sorry I didn't pick up any of your distress signals. If I had known-"
"I wasn't worried that you had betrayed us," Kaldur whispered as he moved the hand on her shoulder to her chin, tilting her face upwards so that her yellow eyes looked directly into his pale green ones. "I was worried that they'd gotten to you too outside of the cave."
Crap. Not this again!
Dick's nostrils flared as he watched his partner flush and smiled shyly.
"Seriously, how are you still single with that one-liner up your sleeve?" She giggled, leaning into his webbed hand which opened to ghost over her cheek.
"Perhaps because you overestimate my prowess" Kaldur chuckled, though Dick could see his ears had gone pink as Christine smirked and playfully poked him in the chest.
"Or maybe you underestimate yourself"
Oh, no-oh no-no-no-no-no! That's it!
The Boy Wonder straightened up and was about to step around the corner when a pair of footsteps suddenly thudded into being from the other darkened end of the corridor.
"D-Dad!" Christine bleated, and Dick was relieved and amused to see the Dark Knight suddenly emerge from the shadows, tall and threatening.
"I thought I told you to stay in the infirmary with the rest of your team" he growled, sparing a rather hard glare on the Atlantean boy as he jumped away from his young protégé.
"Apologies Batman, but Swift has found something that might be pertinent to today's attack." Kaldur coughed looking sidelong at Christine, who quickly held up the red pawn for all to see.
"it was on my pillow in my room" She jerked her thumb at the door of her room behind her
Batman's eyes narrowed as he took the piece from her and inspected it closely.
After a full minute of silence, he sighed.
"We'll talk more about this in the morning. Until then go back to the infirmary. You have a mission tomorrow and you'll need your rest."
"Of course" Kaldur and Christine both nodded, and Dick gulped. Damn! He had to get a move on before anyone spotted him out of bed.
He was quick to dash back silently to the infirmary, only just leaping into bed and pulling the covers over himself as Kaldur and Christine entered the room, the latter sighing heavily.
"I'm sorry about my dad. He's a bit y'know overprotective sometimes" she whispered as they made their way over to two empty beds at the far end of the room that faced opposite one another.
"Yes, I know. Your other partner is also quite defensive of you as well." Kaldur snorted and Christine scratched the back of her neck awkwardly as she hopped into one of the beds.
"Yeah well…Rob's thinks because dad's not here he has to be the man of the house and guard me against all the guys." She rolled her eyes "Don't get me wrong, I love both those idiots to death but sometimes it can be, stifling."
"I don't know. I actually find it quite endearing that you have a family that loves you so much." Kaldur admitted as he sat on the one opposite her.
"Yeah…I guess I'm pretty lucky" Christine smiled to herself as she lay her head down on her pillow and yawned. "Oh well, Goodnight Kal."
"Goodnight Swift" Kaldur smirked as he too settled in for the night, not noticing the narrowed eyes of the boy wonder drilling holes into his back.
In the bed next to Dick, Wally cracked open an eye and shook his head.
Dude you need to take a chill.
And Episode 12 is up.
So yeah we get to see Christine and Dick at school. I'm rather enjoying writing Christine in her life outside the cave. I figure she'd be the kind of person who is prickly around new people but is close to the few friends she has. She just hangs back and lets Dick be the social butterfly that he is.
Speaking of relationships, she and Kaldur are getting close ;). She's not yet told him about her full secret ID, but I think given after what they heard about the team's mole, she would want to keep herself above suspicion, even if it means revealing a few of her secrets and incurring the wrath of both her partners. Yeah, Robin's still very overprotective but we shall discover why very soon ;)
Anyways I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this is progressing (and if it is any better than the original) because once I'm done remastering I'll be taking the original down (but I'll post a copy up on my Ao3 account). As this 2018 version will be the final edit of the fic, any events you see here might be referenced in the sequel Young Injustice.
So with that in mind, keep Reading and reviewing if you enjoyed and I hope to see you all next time.
Cheers
FuzzyBeta