CyberTech Worlds Clash
Chapter XXXVIII
Spider-Bat
It had been just over three months since Harry moved to this new world, and apart from some robot animals back on his home world, things weren't too bad. Though, it had been decided for the time being that they wouldn't do more than observe the machines as they weren't very dangerous if left alone. The fact was, if they could be replicated only less dangerous, they would be great on farmlands and for the environment.
The machines from observation seemed to be a project to reform a truly fucked up and severely polluted world. Though, there were other possibilities; they seemed highly unlikely and really sad if they were true, but it could have been too little too late and the humans of that world could have gone extinct leaving the machines to go ferial, and start building and repairing themselves as it seemed the underground facility was most likely unmanned as they had sent in drones that showed a ridiculously huge automated factory system. It seemed to have slowed production down, maybe because of its unfamiliar settings in surrounding lands, or a more advanced AI somewhere could be controlling the system, and conditions were met to slow production – but that was just speculation, and truths were never that simple, maybe it was just some wishful thinking that it was that simple. At least the world's greatest scientists and ethologists had something exciting and strange to keep them entertained.
Harry didn't know and didn't really care much about the robot animals just then, as he had some people working both sides of the convergence on examining these machines. Therefore, Harry was humming a little tune as he sat at his desk in the 'barn' on Kent farm having set it up as a 'command centre' for when at 'home' as he liked the place. In other words, most things farm-ish about the place had been made more modern and locked up for his piece of mind. It had upper layers and had a huge platform where his desk and main computer system was set up on the upper level.
His desk was curved with angles looking out over the rest of the 'barn'. The huge barn doors were open, and he was using a holo-keyboard with several smallish holo-screens curving around his desk so he could have access to them all.
It had been a fairly easy few months as the last major convergence had been with the robot creatures on his other Earth. Though, there were a few small things, a few small towns here and there, and probably patches of nothing no one noticed, luckily the things people did notice arrived on one of the worlds that were in contact with each other.
Though, on a positive, S.T.A.R. Labs was actually making some money with CyberTech, and launching the new Cyberstream Open Worlds OS with a new holo-screen phone that released the week before once they bought into a mobile phone company and took over their manufacturers. He released the OS and two new computer systems within his Earth too. He figured he didn't need to launch different things on the different worlds, which should double the profits.
The comm. link between worlds was now stable, and just getting stronger with every passing day, which wasn't great if you hoped everything could return to how it was, but eventually travel between the worlds while in space would be fairly simple. He had amusedly wondered how many new phone numbers people would have to get so they were not getting a cross connection, which was why Harry had cleverly added an extra area code for this new world on all StarNet phone lines, mobile and landline.
CyberTech's network back in his home universe was also adding its own universe code to new numbers, and slowly implementing them for existing customers. They had also committed to change CyberTech's network brand to the StarNet for separation and a stronger commitment to improve services across both worlds, and it would help for when the Earths were finally one, but the internet could potentially cross worlds soon, which was going to have its own new sets of issues – or all three worlds if they ever gained contact with this third world before Completion Day. According to some sorcerers, power like this comes in three's, fives, and sevens, but it had been going on enough now to know it was only three in this case – it didn't seem magical, but who knew with the way the universes were kind of fucked up right then.
Harry had finished setting up the program Watch Tower, (or Watcher as she was Christened), a new AI sister for Seraph. Though, Tony had asked why he had to make them all girls, he figured he'll try making a male one next, but honestly, Harry preferred looking at girls, so he must have been biased as he was fine making male mechs – or male sounding as mechs didn't exactly have gender.
Tony had also settled on this Earth back in LA since the Bats set him up with some paperwork and Stark Enterprise was kind of up and running on this world too. Though, not as near complete as CyberTech, but that guy did procrastinate a lot more than Harry and was starting from scratch, but living with Kara, she sometimes made Harry's mind wonder. He had come to believe she had started realising the effect she had on him and wore tight clothes for his benefit.
Harry would swear Kara almost gave him a heart attack when she showed up in her Supergirl uniform the first time; she looked so bloody hot. He was a red-blooded male and must constantly remind himself that she was only seventeen, but that little devil over his left shoulder didn't seem to care and wanted Harry to take her, and the little angel over his right shoulder totally agreed with the devil that he should take her out and get his wooing on – he was British and she was Kryptonian, so slightly different rules, and it wasn't like he had to jump into bed with her after just one date, and she would be eighteen by Earth years in just over eight months.
He was a little concerned. His relationship hadn't been the best with the triplets. He had to wonder sometimes whether they preferred each other, but ever since they stopped dating properly, they had just been having sex. Hot, passionate, loving sex… those girls were incredible, but it wasn't fair on either of the girls or him to continue on like that. Though, he wouldn't judge, but it might be time to break off the fling for just a friendship and start looking for someone new, so they can all move on.
Harry had been amused that the Magical World did exist in this world but hadn't yet gone to check it out - or conquer it but knew he should get around to it. The summer holiday had just started, so finding whoever the poor Bugger/Buggers-Who-Lived were and rescuing their arse or arses was next on his list. Although it seemed for the most part the non-mage worlds people were vastly different, he was not sure what magic would play in this. He didn't want his magical world to get attacked by this one, so he needed to set motions into play. It helped that this universes timeline was several years behind his world. That meant that if any Whoever-Who-Lived existed they would be around fourteen, fifteen in a few months; maybe their life was much better than his had ever been – or even better than Amanda's, but he was worried to find out.
"Harry, mum said you're…" Clark Kent started as he interrupted Harry's musings when he entered through a side door looking around in awe, followed by a brunette woman. "W-what's all of this…?" he asked looking totally stunned.
"Oh, hey," he said with a grin swiping away his holo-screens they slid away into nothing. "Please… you must be Miss. Lois Lane, Clark's spoken highly of you, please take a seat," he said smiling as he gestured the two seats the other side of his desk.
They both climbed up and took seats looking confused. "Umm… Mr. Avalon, it's nice to meet you, thanks for agreeing to this interview," she said shaking his hand before she pulled out her notepad and pen.
"No problem, after all Clark and his wonderful mother are letting Seraph and I stay in their house," he said smilingly. "And Ms. Kent was also kind enough to let me set up an office here."
"Harry! Clark!" Ms. Kent cried out in panic while Seraph was trying to calm her down as she followed. "Something's happened to the tractor. I pulled off the tarpaulin and the tractor was brand new looking, turned into a huge robot thing before attaching the sower, and transformed back, and it spoke before singing a song and started doing the seeding. I was just going to get started and show Seraph how to do…"
"Oh, that's just Trackstar," Harry replied shocking them. "Hey, I figured you've been so good to me I would get you a little help around here. Seraph helped me build him, and I was thinking about some kind of oxen mech – maybe a small herd like those in Channel Valley back on my Earth, but I don't know how they work, and I'm not good at the farming thing and tractors are easy to figure out as it just needs to use the equipment you already have, so Trackstar."
"I tried telling you Ms. Kent, I'm sorry," Seraph was quick to say. "We just wanted to help out, and… well… and he can protect… well you know, if anyone found out Clark's secret with the way the worlds are changing."
Ms. Kent sighed in relief as she calmed down. "Oh… I'm sorry I overreacted, dear. I should have given you a chance to talk."
Clark groaned and looked to Harry. "You created a tractor mech while we already have mech issues from this mysterious Earth we can't even lock on to?"
He shrugged impishly. "Well… I thought he could help with all the fields and look out for things. This place is cool, and I know you can't fully cope around here with just me, Seraph, and Kara, as we're not that gifted as farmers – or gifted in anything farm related, and have lots of other things we need to do, sorry. Also, we can't lock on to that other world as they're not responding to our attempts to hail them, and without a signal from them we'll have to wait a while until complete convergence or a way to scan for their signature to get a lock and see what we're dealing with… but, sorry about the mech… we were going to reveal him after this interview."
"No, it's alright," Clark answered. "Just please… please try to tell someone before they stumble across a huge talking robot."
"Umm… will do… sorry, Ms. K," he said sheepishly as she laughed it off and Seraph led her back to the house looking apologetic for forgetting to tell her before she saw it.
"Hey, Harry," Kara said moments later as she trekked into the barn wearing a tight white top and a short light blue skirt that barely hugged her perfect round butt. "Did you know there's this singing robot tractor out in the fields sowing seeds? I wanted to be there for the big reveal," she asked and reprimanded smilingly and seeming to completely ignore her cousin and Lois, her perfect blue eyes sparkling behind her non-needed glasses.
"Umm… yeah, sorry, but Ms. K kind of found out beforehand," he agreed as she climbed the stairs with a wiggle in her step that caught his full attention. "H… h-he'll make life easier on the farm though."
"Oh, well, that's cool," she said sweetly.
"Kara!" Clark growled startling her as she paused on the stairs looking to him in surprise. "What do you think you're doing? Lois and I are here to interview Harry."
"Whoa, sorrrrry!" she whined rolling her perfect blue eyes. "I was just coming to hang out with my friend, Harry!" she said as a smile lit her lips. "But since you're monopolizing his free time, I'll go hang with Seraph," she said with a fake upturn of her nose as she turned around.
Clark couldn't watch as Kara was wiggling her butt even more as she walked back down the stairs. Harry even saw a slight bit of her white panties and resisted showing any outside sign of enjoying the show and hoping that Clark didn't notice the speed his heart was pounding.
"I think someone likes you," Lois couldn't help but tease as Kara slipped free from the barn and out of sight.
"N-no… it's just a crush," Clark interrupted trying to convince himself.
Lois rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a prude, Clark… this one's cute. I think they would make a lovely couple!"
Harry rubbed his brow. "Can we just get on with this interview? I knew we should have done this in my office at Star labs, but with the renovations and everything I figured here would be more comfortable."
While, Harry began his interview with Lois lane of the Daily Planet, Kara had returned to the house and quickly dragged Seraph upstairs and into her bedroom where they took places on the bed.
"I told you, Kara," Seraph said rolling her eyes as they sat on the alien girl's bed together cross legged (Seraph) and kneeling (Kara). "Harry seriously wants you. He's just stubborn and thinks you're too young for him. He's trying to be the perfect gentleman. I've never actually seen him act this way around anyone, and he's had quite a few girlfriends before."
"Are you sure?" Kara asked hopefully. "I wiggled and everything and he just looked sick."
Seraph laughed while rolling her eyes. "You did that in that tight little skirt. I'm surprised he didn't transform, kick your cousins butt and grab you there and then. What did his heartbeat sound like?"
"Oh, well…" she said thoughtful and full of hope before replying. "When he first looked to me, it seemed to pause before becoming louder and faster, and faster. It was pretty cool."
"See, they're signs of attraction, and want!" Seraph told her and the pair giggled and squealed. "You were probably making him feel uncomfortable getting a… hard-on over you with your cousin there."
Kara giggled with her hands over her mouth, her cheeks bright red. "M-maybe… you know, next time I should look through his desk to see?" she suggested giggling as Seraph had given her the proper and highly informative 'THE talk' since no one else seemed to want to (or were putting it off). Though, Seraph's 'THE talk' was a lot more detailed than anyone else's would have been by a long margin, and into the realms of a little too perverted.
Seraph smirked while giggling. "And look through his clothes," she suggested causing more giggles and blushes for both girls. "He might not be SUPER, but he has a great body, and a really big…"
"Seraph…!" Kara complained blushing, giggling, and shaking her head. "I think you need to talk to Starfire next, she's useless. She has less of a clue than I do… I mean did. Now I know why Robin is always staring at her and trying to get a date, but she doesn't get it. Though, I'm sure she is so crushing on him too."
Seraph grinned while rolling her eyes. "I'll have to keep that in mind for when I meet her. It was so fun embarrassing you with 'THE talk'."
Kara blushed and shoved her friend, but Seraph didn't budge much sticking out her tongue. Kara did enjoy having a great friend who was strong enough that she didn't have to be too careful.
"Don't be so mean," Kara playfully reprimanded.
However, a song playing interrupted them, and Kara grabbed her new holographic StarNet cell phone. "Hello," she answered while Seraph listened in.
"This is Watch Tower," a young woman's voice spoke to her. "Is big sister Seraph with you?"
"Umm… yes…" she answered. "Umm… I've put my phone on speaker, so she'll hear clearer now."
"A convergence is taking place, which is disrupting my comm. links," she replied. "Seraph, please note that more than half of your New York City has converged with this world, and the energy displacement of systems is making communications difficult for our main systems, and I have detailed some tech staff to make some comms. Modifications to fix the issues, so this shouldn't happen again."
Her eyes widened. "Damn," she muttered annoyed. "Watcher… how close has the city grown out towards Gotham?"
"Convergence has entered Gotham City by one tenth of a mile!" she replied straight to the point. "Some portions of Manhattans outer reaches have also converged."
"Okay, I'll send out Supergirl and… well, me!" she answered with a sigh. "Harry's a little busy with Superman, and some interview. It doesn't seem like it will be much trouble. It's not too far from us if we take the new jet."
Seraph stood with a sheepish grin. "You game for an adventure?" she asked as Kara stood and closed her phone off.
Kara shrugged sheepishly. "Sure, this might take my mind off of Harry for a while."
Spider-Man and Red-Spider had been having an easy time together taking care of a pack of jerk face Purifiers hiding out in New York City when a convergence put them on the border of New York and a city they had never seen before. At least, they didn't have to deal with any of those robot creatures they had heard about.
They didn't know what world they were on but being curious and having their comms. down they went to check it out - well, Spider-Man got curious, Red-Spider just followed her boyfriend to keep him out of trouble.
"This so sucks," Spider-Man commented after fifteen minutes of swinging through the dark and gothic city. "This place has a really creepy vibe to it; I feel like I should be wearing much darker colours; do you think I should go for a Film Noir colour schemes?"
"No," she replied while keeping her humour in. "But I won't argue that this city is creepier than New York, but the architecture of some of these buildings is awesome," she replied as she looked down from the roof they were standing on. "The tech in the city seems a little muddy though, but that sort of thing can happen because you have historical societies making sure you don't – future up the place when you have such artsy buildings."
Spider-Man hadn't the chance to reply when they were shook by a boom, and if it wasn't for Red-Spider's gravity manipulation tech or Spider-Man's mutation they would have fallen off the building. Looking down they saw some red-haired beauty with a slight green tint to her skin and vine like markings when their in-built Focus's zoomed and zeroed in towards a fancy looking arch with stairs leading up towards a bank. The red-haired woman was wearing a short green leaf dress with bare feet, and she had plump red lips, and bright green eyes with nicely plump boobs. She was controlling some huge plants, crashing their vines through the front of the bank.
"Well, looks like we have some plant-lady thief to capture… at least that's new," Spider-Man said with a sigh while his partner nodded in sad agreement. "No matter where we are there's always someone trying to take advantage of the convergence! The only reason none of the villains have kidnapped any of those robot animals is because of how thoroughly they're monitored."
Red-Spider nodded in agreement while sighing again. "Come on, let go introduce ourselves."
Spider-Man nodded as he jumped off the building, swinging down with his webs, Red Spider straight after him, her speed slower thanks to her bracelets, (and it didn't hurt that her bracelets made her lighter), as the banks alarms sounded, screaming their dissatisfaction with this woman.
They each landed on a parked car as the woman exited the bank ridding on a huge red rose and carrying some huge holdalls bursting with cash. "Hey, I don't think they belong to you!" Spider-Man spoke shooting two lines of web and taking the bags off her with a tug and swinging them back into the bank where they slid back towards the tellers.
The green tinted woman started and stopped, she glared at them. "Who are you two supposed to be?" she demanded in annoyance.
"I'm Spider-Man, and this is my partner, Red-Spider," he replied in a casual tone. "And you're in for a world of butt kicking Plant-Lady!"
"You forgot to actually ask her name," Red-Spider added. "I don't think you can name villains that have obviously been villains for a while."
The green tinted beauty snorted. "I'm Poison Ivy. I'm sure you're at least smart enough to understand why?"
"Yeah, you got the whole poisonous plant thing going on," Red-Spider said with her eye shields showing she was glaring too hard as the woman was barely wearing anything. She then dodged down rolling to her left as a vine slashed out and smashed the car she had been on. She flipped up and ran up a wall as she pulled her blaster riffle off her back and aimed, blasting at Ivy, but her vines blocked the stun blasts.
"Nice try girly, but not good enough," Ivy laughed as another vine shot up towards Red-Spider, but as Red-Spider flipped away and skidded on all fours along the wall Spider-Man shot some webbing and slingshot himself straight at Ivy.
Ivy cried out in shock as Spider-Man kicked her off her rose and he flipped up onto a wall in a crouch. She landed with a crash before rolling away to avoid the webbing from Red-Spider, then flipping back to avoid Spider-Man's web-shots next before a vine blocked some more webbing.
Ivy grit her teeth and rubbed her sore nose, brushing off some red blood while a huge rose grew from the ground picking her up while her green eyes glared in rage. "Who do you punks think you are? This is Gotham City… my city…!"
She started as she looked down to see a black bat-shaped blade thing come out of nowhere and stab into her rose by her feet. It had a red-light thing on it bleeping faster and faster, and she only had a moment to jump back onto the ledge of a building before it exploded into a flash of blue ice. Her rose froze over and shattered into 'glass' while she barely managed to keep her balance from the force.
Spider-Man and Red-Spider looked up from their positions to see him on the roof, silhouetted black, his cape bellowing. He made quite the dark impression on both members of Team Spider.
"Batman…!" Ivy hissed out in anger. "Fuck… if it wasn't for these two… 'spiders'… I would have gotten away with it!"
"Sorry I'm late!" The Batman replied sarcastically, his voice gruff and dangerous. "I had to take care of Joker. He seemed to think this mess would be the perfect time to strike! Fortunately I was already on his trail! You're going back to Arkham, Ivy!"
"What…?!" she tried to say before Red-Spider caught her mouth in web followed by Spider-Man grabbing her with a line of webbing and launched her into a wall where she hit her head and Red-Spider shot web at her sticking her unconscious body to the bank.
"Who are you!?" Batman demanded as the two 'spiders' climbed up to the roof with him.
"Spider-Man…!"
"Red-Spider…!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm The Batman!" he answered growling, his voice husky and dangerous. "What are you doing in my city!?"
"It's stuck on the end of ours Batsy!" Spider-Man said too cheerfully.
The Batman growled and made an angry step forward when Supergirl landed in front of him between them and placing her hands out in a placating gesture. "Whoa, Batman, cool it okay; they're Harry's people!" she said quickly and looking relieved he stopped moving to them.
Gwen looked to the new hero with a silent groan. She was stunning. She was wearing some slender blue spandex top that showed off her tummy with a weird S across her bust with a short red 'skirt' thing, and red cape and boots.
Next landed – a ninja girl – she was wearing what looked to be some dark grey/black super high-tech padded leather like material with bear arms and gloves with forearm guards with black metal plates. She had a slender body and a nice bust. She was also showing off her tone tummy, a hood up and a dull silver mouth guard over her mouth and nose with twin wings the same as on her back in a different shade, and a metal plated headband. Though, this girl didn't have any bagginess to her uniform, it was all perfectly tight except for the hood, but even that was firm.
Spider-Man and Red-Spider looked up to see a grey unmarked jet hovering, but it reminded both of the X-Men's Weather Strike Jet – maybe a new model. "Hey, it's me guys, Seraph," the ninja girl said turning too them slightly. "This is my new friend Supergirl, and you've met Batman. He's… a little unsocial."
"You're telling us," Spider-Man said with a laugh. "So… we're not on our world?"
"No," Seraph answered. "However… ah… it seems comm. links are back with Watch Tower."
"This is the Watch Tower to Spider-Man, Red Spider, Seraph, Supergirl, and Batman," the young woman called over their comms. "I've got an MPF van en-route to pick up Miss. Ivy. However, I have just picked up some trouble in New York City. It seems a Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and the Green Goblin have been converged, and… well, they've teamed up to stir trouble along with a few gangs they've rounded up between them."
"Send me their files, we're on our way," Batman growled out as he pressed something on one of his gauntlets and a cool looking bat-like jet pulled up to the roof. The hatch slid opened and he jumped in before the hatch closed before blasting away at high speeds.
"Friendly guy," Red-Spider said as the other jet lowered height and they all climbed in with Seraph at the helm.
Back with Harry after a crap ton of questions, he was glad it all seemed to be over as he never was much of a press man.
"Well, thanks, Harry, for the interview," Lois said after she had asked her last listed question. "But what is that flashing blue light?" she asked gesturing a holographic blue light flashing over his desk.
"Oh, nothing important," he replied shrugging. "Just telling me of a new cross-convergence…"
"What…?" Clark asked in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me? Where is it?"
He just shrugged, unconcerned. "I don't know… I just ignored it because we were busy. Its blue because it's being taken care of, and I did ask Watcher to hold anything that isn't important. You're not the only hero on Earth; this or the other, and they can cope without you."
He sighed, calming down and looking embarrassed that he overreacted. "Umm… yeah, sorry, I wasn't thinking much there."
"He does that a lot," Lois piped in sheepishly.
"Yeah, but I know how he feels sometimes," Harry replied shrugging as a holo-keyboard appeared, he pressed a few keys and a girl with short blue hair appeared on screen with a soft smile. "Hey Watcher, what's the deal?" he asked her, curious.
"Oh, it's nothing really daddy," she said causing him to grimace. He seemed to be getting worse at making these AI. They were a little mental, and Seraph encouraged their jokes. "Big Sister Seraph went to deal with it with Supergirl, and now they're with Spider-Man and Red-Spider… oh, and that mean jerk, Batman's there too," she whined about him, her southern (Texan) US accent accentuated strongly and making her seem extra cute. Harry had no idea why Hal wanted that accent other than something new and different to the normal, or he might be a perv with a thing for southern girls. Harry would have to keep an eye out for her, just in case.
"So, they're near Gotham…?" Clark asked her. She just nodded. "Well, I guess they'll be fine without assistance, but let me know if they get into trouble!"
"Will do, sir," she agreed with a smile as the comm. shut down. Her holographic self-sighed back on the space station, Watch Tower. She wore a cute little 'all in one' uniform in blue like all the techies, but hers was special designed for her. It was tighter to her body, and she left the tops zip halfway down to show off her huge cleavage. It had a cut out around her tummy like many of the hero girls showing off her tone stomach.
However, she also had her lips panted black with purple eye shadow and a CyberTech tribal marking of her own design on her left cheek with the CT cog logo and the S.T.A.R. Labs logo around the top of the cog. She wore fingerless gloves and small black boots. Her dark blue hair was tied back at the crown of her skull sliding down her back to her butt and tied again at her waist, looking short if you looked at her head on.
"Is something bothering you Watcher?"
She turned to J'onn while the techies did whatever they did. "Not really, it's just… it's a little boring up here sometimes. We don't even have any arcades or anything to do while it's a slow hero-day. I guess I can watch TV, but they never show what I want when I want it, and Superman says I'm not allowed to torrent anything – or use illegal streaming sites; he's too much of a goodie-goodie," she complained.
"D-don't you have to run the station?" he asked the strange 'girl' interestedly as he wasn't completely sure what she meant by that. "I would have thought that would give you plenty to do."
"It does," she agreed confusing him. "It's just… well I have needs too, and that doesn't take much thought, and I am playing several different MMORPG's, but I think something to do with other people, face to face would be better. I'm not averse to playing and having fun," she said smiling widely at him. "Would it be okay if I ordered some stuff and redesigned the mess? I'm sure the staff would appreciate some fun things while on break too."
"Well, I don't see a problem with that," J'onn answered with a confused nod. "I must admit to find myself curious about human entertainment. I have watched plenty of television to try understanding humans, but when it comes to games and such, I find myself curious to try some."
"Awesome! Thanks Uncle J'onn," she said happily. "I'm searching the net now for all sorts of awesome-cool things! We can send down Shuttleboom to meet with some station bound heroes to pick the stuff up as she's large enough to carry whatever we need."
"Umm… sure…" he said nervously as holo-screens surrounded her.
However, The Flash had blasted onto the bridge at that moment looking over Watcher's shoulder as she looked things over. "Hey, if we're getting some cool stuff, don't forget a pool, and snooker table, and maybe Ping-Pong and you can't forget pinball!" he said in a rush.
"Well, okay, let's see now," she muttered as she found some of these things. "Don't forget we still need space for tables, or you'll have to eat standing or sitting on the floor," she said laughingly as he started helping pick out some cool things to keep entertained.
Meanwhile, back in Gotham after a huge fight that – well, Supergirl did most of the arse kicking as she was in a rush to get home for some reason, a certain Batman returned home with some house guests.
Bruce Wayne groaned as he led the blonde-haired girl and the brown-haired boy up from the Batcave and into Wayne Manor. He had been stupid enough to offer them a place to stay since neither of their homes moved into this world and the planet on both sides were stuck with refugees who were stuck without their homes having converged so it made sense for heroes to put up other heroes, and without these spiders Ivy would have gotten away so he did owe them, and his job would be too much for him alone with all of the meta-human and mutant criminals from New York City added to his own.
"So, separate rooms or a double?" he asked the kids with a groan.
"A double please," Gwen said with a sheepish grin. "We aren't little kids you know."
"Please, this way, follow me," interrupted a white-haired old butler wearing an expensive black butler suit standing by some stairs leading up. They left Bruce Wayne as they followed the old guy up the stairs holding hands.
Bruce sighed as he watched them disappear.
"You don't have to make it look like these are the only kids you've had around to mentor, and they are quite a bit older than when you first got yourself a Robin – who is now his own hero!"
Bruce's thoughts were stalled before they began. He looked to his side to see a beautiful young red-haired woman sitting in an electric wheelchair in the space between the hall and main sitting room.
"Barbara; this is different…" he replied looking away back to the stairs.
She just snorted while rolling her eyes, which got his attention back. "Just because the boys a meta, and the girl has gravity manipulation tech… would you feel better if they were as normal as Cassandra…?"
He sighed again and shook his head. "No… she's… I mean…"
Barbara smirked smugly while wiggling her finger in mock. "I've read a lot about them from Watcher… well Spider-Man. He's quite the hero, but Red-Spider is new so I think that I should help her out a bit; you stick to the boy and Cassy! Neither of them needs much work, but if we're going to start integrating worlds, we need every hero on both worlds well trained, and you know it too."
"Yes, I know," he agreed with a frown. "Okay, I'll help teach the kid if you look after the girl… her skills show that she is best at support anyway, which is right up your alley."
Barbara smirked smugly. "With a little extra help, I'm sure Gwen will be even more awesome!"
Bruce just shook his head in frustration. "Well you've always wanted your own sidekick," he said after a few moments with a smirk.
She again rolled her eyes as she controlled her wheelchair to take her back into the lounge while he followed her. "Just… Bruce, everything is screwed up, but I'm thankful that a few MPF offices have materialised in our world with this latest convergence or else we wouldn't be able to cope. It seems that more and more villains are taking advantage whether they're from the other world or ours.
"Some of our people are there while theirs are here," she said rubbing her eyes. "We'll have to make good with what we have. That means working with heroes we may not trust fully, but they're in the same boat. It's just the way things are so we should make the best of it as we're not getting rid of them or their world – or vice versa."
"I know," he said slumping down onto a chair looking tired. "I guess I'll have to introduce Batgirl when she gets back, and Robin and Nightwing when they come by…"
She just laughed. "Come on, spiders can be as creepy as bats, Bruce if not more, don't worry, you can always adjust their costumes if you want to make them darker."
"That isn't what I meant," he replied glaring at her. "I've just… everything is changing so fast… that girls tech is more advanced than most of what I've ever seen. The other world is more advanced and with CyberTech now open in our world, having gained full control of Star Labs our… our world is advancing fast. Wayne Enterprises is having to start selling its black technology just to keep up, and that's with them holding tech back. That… New York City has holographic technology as if that is the norm.
"It's like their world is alien to ours," he said frowning. "Not to mention that they've revealed their magical communities… it's new and… I can admit I'm both afraid and pleased – kind of fascinated in some places. I wish I could use Shuttleboom and go and get some better info on their world, so I know what to expect better than I do now, but in due time, but right now I don't have that kind of time."
"Bruce, everything is going pretty well considering…" she answered as she pat his hand. "After all, a little mystery can be fun. If not for mysteries, you wouldn't be the great detective you are today."
"Okay, okay, yeah, yeah," he agreed with a small smile. "I get your point. I'll have to just deal with it like the rest of you."
She laughed while shaking her head. "Bruce, you can be a little slow," she said while continuing to laugh. "You have kids like Static and Gear in hero-worship of you, but when you're the one awed, you complain. If Wayne Enterprises is in trouble from Star Labs new CyberTech technology, and possibly Stark Industries, you should let your company take a few more risks. From what I've seen of Star Labs new policies, CyberTech collect scientists and let them work their own projects when they want. You never know, you might actually come up with something cool if you start playing the same way."
"Yeah, well, I don't have much choice now," he answered thoughtfully. "Though, maybe in the long run it might be for the better. The more advanced our tech the better we'll be against our new enemies when they get here."
Meanwhile, upstairs Alfred, Mr. Wayne's butler had left Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey as they were just checking out their new room before they decided to leave and look around. They had just left the room when they both started and almost fell over as a short teen girl with short black hair was in the hallway passing by their door at that moment, and almost bumped into them.
"Who are you?" she asked with a blank expression. "And what are you doing here…?"
"Umm, I'm Gwen, and this is my boyfriend Peter," Gwen was quick to introduce. "We're umm… friends of a friend of Mr. Wayne's and he offered to let us stay for a little while."
"I see," she replied eying them in suspicion. "My name is Cassandra Cain, and I'm not stupid. You're both heroes from the other Earth… from New York City, and Bruce let you stay here."
"Err, okay," Peter agreed with a sheepish smile. "So, umm… you must be this new Batgirl he mentioned."
"I am," she mentioned, nonchalant. "You best both be able to keep up in training because I won't go easy on either of you," she said as she walked off.
Gwen and Peter looked to each other and grimaced. "Well… she certainly has Bats' sense of humour."
"Yeah, no sense of humour…" she replied as they shrugged and quickly headed off to find out where Bruce was.
They reached the ground floor when.
"Miss. Stacey."
They were startled by a wheelchair bound woman smiling at them from the bottom of the stairs.
"Follow me…" she said as her chair rode off in one direction, Gwen shrugged and followed while Peter looked confused. "Mr. Parker, Batman and Batgirl will be waiting for you in the cave."
"Oh… that doesn't sound good," he said chuckling sheepishly as he gave his girl a kiss and ran off to find his way into the Batcave.
"Don't worry Gwen… I'm Barbara… or Oracle," the wheelchair woman said smilingly. "We're just going to get you that little extra training now you're cut off from a lot of your resources."
"Umm… well, thanks, that's nice of you," she replied nervously. "So, what are we going to do?"
"Have some fun and show that the Birds of Prey are so much cooler than the 'little' boys think," she replied smirking.
"Huh…?"
"Welcome to the Birds of Prey," she replied grinning smugly as they disappeared in a flash of light when they walked into a hidden room that was just a bright white tunnel to reappear in what was certainly a top floor tower looking 360 around Gotham with computers and monitors all around and just two doors leading to - well, she couldn't tell where, but it seemed downstairs.
Gwen was awed as she followed Barbara out of the new tube, they were in. "Its called a Zeta Tube – its reverse engineered alien tech, but we're still not sure how it works – we just copied the blueprint and it works," she said shrugging. "Star Labs has been trying to figure out the tech for years now with no luck."
"So, you found us a new girl?" interrupted an amused woman.
Gwen looked over to see a woman wearing purple with a crown like mask and long black hair with some noticeable crossbows on her thighs. "We could use someone new to keep up the slack since Cannery is stuck on the other world with her dickhead boyfriend… who is she?"
"This is Red-Spider," Barbara replied smirking. "And Red, this is Huntress, a member of the Birds of Prey… we're like an all-girl superhero team."
"Oh, well, that's cool," she replied as she shook the older woman's hand in greeting. "We… have, well the Angels as people have taken to calling them… Mr. Avalon's team of all girls back home…"
"Oww, maybe we could join up when the convergence has finished," she suggested smugly. "We're a little low on members with the League, Titans and Justice taking all our potential recruits. It'll be nice having you onboard though blondie…"
"T-thanks, I guess…" she replied laughing nervously while both Barbara and Huntress laughed with her.
To Be Continued…
