Ranger's POV
13
Blast from the Past
I'd never thought to place a bug on her when she left. I didn't think to tell one of my men to watch her. And now all I know is that she's headed for the bus station. How am I suppose to find her if she's already gone? And how am I gonna play the big badass bounty hunter if I can't even find a goddamn little girl? But then there was a knock on the door.
I frowned. She had fiery, golden red hair and the biggest brown eyes I'd ever seen. She was tiny, and dressed in a gold colored cotton sundress. I also didn't know her from Adam. "I'm sorry. Do you have the wrong door?" I asked her.
She smiled. "That depends. Are you Carlos Manoso?"
"Yes. . ."
She stuck her hand out to me. "Hawkgirl. At least, to Stephanie and the rest, I am. I hear you gonna need help." She cocked her head.
I stared at her for a long moment, not speaking. Finally, all I said was, "Hawkgirl? Care to explain?" A jubilant grin spread across her face.
"I met Steph and the rest on base when I was six. We were all Army Brats, and, we were all waiting for our fathers to come home. I'm not sure how it all started, exactly, but when I met Steph, she was running around with two other little boys and two other girls. We followed one of the guys lead and called ourselves the Justice League, ya know? That's where Steph developed her obsession with it." She paused, then cocked her head. "I hear she calls you Batman." She waited for my nod, then continued. "Cool. We never had Batman before. Oh, we had Superman - Alex, who you've already met - and we had Hawkgirl - me - but we also had Aquaman, and Wonder Woman, and Vixen, and Steph herself was Airy - Black Canary. And likely, Airy's hiding out with one of the J-League's members. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say Aqua, but, ya know, she did come to Supe first, so, anything's possible." She smiled kindly.
"Why are you doing this?" I queried once I could finally manage to speak again. She cocked her head to the other side, stared up at the crack where wall met ceiling above the threshold of my door, and finally answered.
"Airy needs to know that we care about her enough to keep track of her. We all have connections you wouldn't understand, Ranger - since that seems to be what you prefer - even Airy can call in military official you haven't even a high enough clearance to meet. I want her to know that we're not going to let her live her life like a rat in a maze with a cage over top. She'll be free. No matter what I have to do." She finally met my gaze dead on. "All we have to do is wait for Wonder and Aqua. Vix is unavailable, Supe's on Airy's side, and it's unlikely any of the J-League outside of our closer knit group is going to be able to come out for this." She grinned. "Just you and me for now, though, Batman!" She pushed past me into my apartment, and pulled off her high heels before plunking onto my bed. "So . . . what do you do for fun?"