CHAPTER 6

Barbara, Jeff, and Barbara were alone in Barbara's classroom, with the door shut tightly and locked. Dinah had brought Jeff with her, telling her that they needed to talk to her immediately. It sounded urgent, so she made the time, and after hearing what had happened, indeed this was an urgent matter. "I'm so sorry Barbara. I messed up royally."

"Dinah, It's not your fault. There was no way you for you or even I to know that you can cause others to see your thoughts. This is something new. We may want to check your brainwaves, and see if there is any alteration that may explain this new talent."

"I really didn't mean to cause you this much trouble," Jeff apologized.

"You are not causing any trouble at all, Jeff," Barbara replied. "In fact, you have been doing exactly the opposite. I suppose I owe you a very heartfelt thank you for what you've done for me."

"It was no problem. I thought you and Dinah had a rocky relationship and I wanted to help. I care for Dinah deeply. Your secrets are safe with me; I won't reveal your secret hideout or anything. I do find it kind of cool though that you are the unseen part of the Huntress and Dinah being her partner in training."

Barbara laughed. "I believe you Jeff. Something has come to my attention, and I believe you are in danger, but I am not totally positive about it. If my information is to be believed, you may be in danger of being targeted for being kidnapped."

"What? Why?" Dinah demanded to know.

"Commissioner O'Reiley paid Danielle a visit at the Dark Horse. He revealed that some master criminal is looking for a meta-human with the ability to heal. Why, I'm not sure."

"How can we trust him? He is obsessed in putting Helena in Arkham," Dinah replied.

"Dinah, he thinks he saw the Huntress kill a cop in cold blood in front of him. He has no clue that it was actually a shape shifter by the name of Raven." Just the name of Raven brought chills down Dinah's spine. She was indeed the most dangerous villain that they had encountered. Not even Helena and all her special abilities could compare to her fighting skills. She nearly killed Helena twice. Helena was yet to come close to taking her down. "He appears to be an honest cop who wants to protect New Gotham. I have to take his suspicion seriously. Jeff, I want you to come to the clock tower with us and check your brainwaves as well to see if you may be a likely target."

"I think that'll be cool!" Jeff said excitedly.

~~~~

From outside the class room, a student was leaning up against the wall with all five fingers of his right hand pressed up against the door. Doing this, he could listen to the whole conversation in that room; this was his meta-powers. As soon as he heard what he wanted, he released his fingers from the door and walked down the school hallway, while pulling out his cell phone and pressing the speed dial. After a few rings, the other line was picked up. "I think I just found our healing Meta-human!"

"Excellent work, boy!" Commissioner O'Reiley's voice replied over the phone. "I had a hunch that that bar tender had connections to the Huntress and that they would be the best way of finding our meta-human."

"So, are you going to arrest her?"

"No, she will prove very useful as our informant and passing along false information to them when we need to. She will prove to be very valuable to the destruction of the Huntress and her friends."

* * * *

Back at the clock tower, the neural scan of Jeff's brain patterns was nearing completion. Dinah was looking on with Barbara to see the results of the test. Helena had entered the room in the middle of the scan, immediately noticing a new boy inside the hideout. "You know, a secret hideout gets it's name because it's suppose to be a secret, hence the name secret hideout," she said jokingly.

"This couldn't be helped. It was a freak accident that he discovered our hideout and what we do."

"So what are you doing to the poor boy, drain his brain of all knowledge of our existence?"

"Trying to confirm his special abilities. He may be a target for a kidnapping by a new criminal lord that has come to New Gotham. Commissioner O'Reiley paid Danielle and asked her if she was familiar with any meta who has special powers of healing. I checked with Delphi and his story checks out, a crime lord named Bill Donaldson has come to New Gotham. My records say that he is in the advance stages of a rare tropical virus in which there is no cure. Doctors believe he has less than a month to live."

"So, are we going to have baby sit him 24/7 until this creep dies?"

"Hey, you're talking about my boyfriend here!" Dinah looked at Helena agitatedly.

"I apologize," Helena quickly replied.

"I don't think that will be necessary. It will be a good idea if you can put some camera's overlooking the house and the street he lives on and around all the entrances of school."

"Done," Helena said, turning around and making her way towards the exit.

"The scan is complete. You want to help Jeff out of there?" Barbara turned to Dinah.

"Oh," Dinah ran to help Jeff out of the chair. He lifted the large clear headpiece from his head. Just last year, this was her in this chair when she had penetrated the clock tower in search for the girl who had rescued her as she first arrived in New Gotham.

She helped him out of the chair and the two of them joined Barbara on the platform. "So what is the result?" Dinah asked.

"Meta-human brain waves are very transparent. From the tests we take, it appears that you have the power to heal organs, blood vessels, and stuff like that. However with serious diseases, all your powers can only help strengthen the white blood cells to fight off the invading virus, not eliminate them."

"Wow, that does explain why my mother never got instantly better from the flu," Jeff replied.

"Did you get sick after you attempted this?" Barbara asked.

"Yea, for a short while. I thought it was just a twenty-four hour bug."

"No, according to my computer, when you attempt to heal someone with a virus, you help strengthen the white blood cells and your body soaks in some of the virus. I would be careful when you attempt such a thing."

"Thank you very much, Mrs. Gordon, for helping me understand the full potential of my powers."

"It's my pleasure. It's the least I could do after what you have done for me. There is a serious problem, however. We know about a criminal who is dying of a virus, and is planning to look for and kidnap a meta who has the exact powers that can heal him. He may think that you are the one, but in reality, it would probably kill you if they forced you to try. All three of us are going to make sure that you are safe, until the threat is over. We will be monitoring your street and the school. We are not going to let anything happen to you."

"Maybe I should let my parents know."

"I do not believe in hiding anything from your parents, especially something like this, but in this instance I think that would be the worst thing you can do. Your parents my not even believe you or if they do, they will hire police protection, pull you out of school, and do everything in their power to keep your safe. A crime lord like this will not be deterred and will outsmart the police. Also, we will not be able to monitor you whereabouts if they keep you hidden. The best thing for you now is for you to continue to live normally, don't tell anyone and don't go anywhere else but your school and your house. Besides all this, you and Dinah can go on doing what you want."