Lian's Superhero Debut
DISCLAIMER: Don't own em. Wish I did. I don't. It's a sad world.
Lian crouched into the shadows as she leaned against the walls of the Titans Tower not daring to make a sound. If he found her now it was all over. Taking a deep breathe she counted to 3 before slowly poking her head around the corner, completely unaware of the looming figure behind her. Looking up and down the hallway she frowned slightly and sensed --too late-- the presence behind her, even as strong hands snatched her from behind.
Lian shrieked loudly and started to laugh uncontrollably as her attacker set upon her with the most ferocious tickle attack ever. Squirming wildly she tried to twist her way out as she attempted to plea for her life. "I give up! I surrender! I give UP Uncle Nightwing!!", before continuing her earshattering shrieks.
Nightwing couldn't help grinning evilly as he put on his most innocent sounding voice, "What's that? You want MORE?"
Lian's soft brown, almond shaped eyes opened wide as she started to shake her head vigorously, well as vigorously as one can when being tickled relentlessly. "NOOOO! NONONO!! That's not what I said! Uncle Nightwiiiiiiing!!" and she couldn't help it as she collapsed into his arms in another fit of giggles.
"Hey 'Wingster! Quit torturing my kid. The neighbors have started calling asking us what we're doing to this poor innocent little girl."
Lian and Nightwing paused their battle of wills for a moment to look over at Arsenal, A.K.A., Roy Harper a founding Titan and mostly known to Lian as 'Daddy'. They looked at each other in confusion then back at Roy.
Roy broke into a grin and finished, "And besides...she's MINE to torture!"
Nightwing and Lian looked at each other in mock surprise, as Lian shrieked again. This was more like Roy, all for fun and none for order. Lian wriggled out of Nightwings grasp and ran behind him, clutching his neck as she cried out, "Save me Uncle Nightwing!"
Nightwing smiled as Roy grinned back and they advanced on each other as Nightwing called back to his neice, "Don't worry Princess...I'LL save you from the evil dragon!"
Roy stopped in his tracks and pretended to look wounded, "Dragon?! Waitaminute...how did I become the dragon? I thought that was Wally's job?"
Dick stopped as well and looked at Roy, "You don't want to be evil?"
"No, I can be evil, I just don't want to be a dragon. My fourth grade math teacher was a dragon."
"Allright then you can be the evil Sorcerer."
"No that's Garth..."
Lian giggled then sighed and turned to leave the adults to their bantering. It would go on for quite a while and in all honesty she wanted to do something more interesting. Maybe Uncle Garth would give her a swimming lesson today. She made another turn down a second hallway and pushed her way through the heavy double doors that led to the pool area.
The room was empty, no Garth, which meant sadly, no swimming. Lian gave a heavy sigh and again turned from the door to trod down the hall feeling more bored than ever. Why did rainy Saturdays have to be so BORING??
* * * * * *
Outside the tower, a man was standing on the mainland. His long black overcoat flapped in the wind, as a sharp spray of rain pelted him in the face. He paid no attention to the small drops of water rolled down his sharp hawk-like nose. His eyes were trained on the T shaped tower, even as he smiled and gave the order, "Fire."
Even as Lian walked down the hallway, dragging the toe of her sneakers with every step and lamenting the rainy day weekend, an explosion suddenly rocked the Tower. Lian fell to her knees as if someone had pulled the carpet out from under her. The alarms went off everywhere, the bright red siren lights near the ceilings twirling like an ambulance. Lian clapped her hands over her ears and looked around, but no one was in the hall. Then in the next second the overhead lights cut out, leaving only the eerie intermittent flashing of the alarm lights.
* * * * * *
The boys were still pounding out the details of Roy's so called villain, when the explosion hit. Both men were thrown but managed to stay on their feet with the help of years of superhero reflexes. Nightwing and Arsenal looked around immediately, their eyes searching the cooridor for the familiar ponytailed little girl. After making a full sweep their eyes met and locked, Roy's green eyes reflected the panic he was trying to force back as his mind asked the same unasked question in Nightwing's concerned look, where was Lian?
There was a movement at the far end of the corner and both hero's turned, their hearts lifting for a moment as they caught sight of black hair. Roy could barely contain his disappointment at seeing his fiancee and long time friend Donna Troy, who he usually drooled at the very sight of, come around the corner at a hurried walk.
Donna saw them as well and picked up her pace to jog over to her teammates. "Dick! Roy!". The expressions on their faces was enough to tell her they were concerned and it didnt' seem like it was about the attack either. Her eyes scanned around her, as a familiar dread began to build in the pit of her stomach, and she looked back at the two friends in concern, "Where's Lian?". Her dark blue eyes were troubled as she looked from one to the other.
Nightwing almost flinched inwardly as he heard Donna call him by his civillian name, if there were intruders about it would be best if they DIDN'T find out Bruce Wayne's adopted son was a member of the Titans. Figuring that Donna was simply stressed, as she rarely let things that important slip, he chose to ignore it. Instead he held up a hand and asked pointedly, "Lian's not with you?"
Donna bit her lower lip, chewing on it more out of worry for the little girl than anything else, as she shook her head slightly. She looked over at Roy and could see that even under the red flash of emergency lights his already pale face was getting paler. The red flashes accentuated his orangish-red hair, and would bounce off the lenses of his customary sunglasses situated atop his head.
Roy closed his eyes for a moment and had to tell himself to breathe, after all this was all probably a false alarm. This is what he told himself but somewhere deep inside he had a gut feeling that wasn't what it was at all. He was faintly aware that Dick was asking Donna a question and opened his eyes to focus on the situation.
Donna was shaking her head again, as she answered, "We dont' know who it is yet, Vic's in the control room with Garth, Wally's running perimeter checks...." their Titan communicator's beeped right then and Vic's deep baritone voice came through their recievers, "Guys we got movement on the Island...North side, it's comin' in fast!"
Nightwing immediately nodded though it was a useless gesture as Vic couldn't see him through the recievers. Though he was willing to bet Vic was somehow accessing the Tower security cameras. He looked to the others as he gave a verbal reply, "Right! We're on our way. Tell Wally to get over there!"
Roy was shaking his head, as Donna stood beside him hesitating a moment. "You guys go on , I gotta find Lian."
Dick nodded as he moved out of the way to let Donna fly ahead, but not before she looked back, sympathy and worry etched into her face.
Roy turned to head down the same hall as Lian had, and he got as far as the corner turn before the world went black.
* * * * * *
Lian meanwhile, was looking around the hallway standing frozen in the middle of the floor as the lights flashed around her. Her first instinct was to find her daddy or uncles, or aunts but for some reason she found herself glued to the spot. And then she heard it. It was difficult to hear over the wailing siren, but it was the unmistakable sound of a man's voice. A strange man's voice that she didn't reconize, and it was getting closer.
Spinning on the rubber toe of her sneaker, her eyes darted around until they fell on a small panel near the bottom of the wall. It was an a/c vent she knew, one so small that an adult would never fit....but a 9 year old girl was something else. She also knew that Uncles Vic and Nightwing had shown her how to pry the grate off quickly. She hurried as fast as her small, nimble fingers could, stretching them through the metal grating for the realease catch on the inside.
Lifting the grate she climbed inside and curled up, closing the covering behind her properly so nothing looked out of place.
Not a moment too soon either, for just as she closed the vent, she heard the man's voice again, this time much closer, as if he were standing right outside the wall. Sure enough, a pair of boots came into view and walked past her, giving orders to several other pairs of boots that followed. Soon they were gone, as were the voices.
Lian looked around the venting shaft as well as she could given the fact that the only light came from the vent itself. Crawling on her hands and knees she moved forward a little bit to explore and immediately felt something soft under her hands. Looking down she picked it up, and rubbed it between her fingers. It felt like clothes. Lian, patting the floor carefully, found more items like it and picked them up as well. Turning around (it was a tight fit but she managed to scrunch up enough) she crawled back towards the vent for light, on her knees and hand, using her other to hold the clothes tightly to her chest.
Once she was close enough, she pulled her legs under her in a kneeling position, and leaned forward, holding up the cloth to the light. It was a red shirt.
Confused she looked through the other clothes and found among them: A yellow jumpsuit with a red lightning bolt on it, a green pair of short pants, another red shirt though this one felt harder than the other one, like it was made with something heavier. A yellow cape and belt, green pixie boots, a star-spangled skirt, sandles, and red tank top shirt.
She also found a red shirt with white and black stripes around the neck and cuffs and blue short pants. By this time though she wasn't paying much attention to it. She went back to the red tank top and marveled at the Wonder Girl emblem on it.
Growing excited with this discovery and a growing suspicion she quickly went back through them, turning the red shirt that had felt odd over, and smiled as she saw the familiar R blazing proudly. Lian understood immediately that these were old costumes of her uncles and aunts from their teenage sidekick years. This vent must have been one of the various caches they had for storing spare costumes in case the others should meet with 'accident'. Feeling satisfied that the mystery was solved she placed the costumes beside her and leaned back against the wall.
Lian pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her cheek against her knee as she waited in the dark for the sirens to stop, and her Daddy or one of the Titan's to come find her.
* * * * * *
A few hours later Lian woke up feeling a little disoriented. She wasn't quite sure where she was at first and why she was in the dark or how long she had been asleep. Listening closely for anything outside the vent she realized that the sirens had stopped. Or had been cut she thought.
Slowly lifting the grating, the young girl cautiously looked around, finding the hallway empty she clambered out as quietly as she could. Taking one more glance over her shoulder, she trotted off to the hall corner and then on down the hall.
She made her way up to the control room, and was standing right outside the door, peeking in through the window slot, when she saw a man with long hair and a nottingham beard, kind of like a close shaved version of Grandpa Ollie's, coming.
Nearly frozen with panic, she looked around, there was nowhere to hide...nowhere except up. Lian had precious few seconds to survey the corner, where the doorway was hinged to the wall. Between the doorway and the wall, was a small space barely a foot in width, but more than enough room for a set of hands and feet.
Taking a deep breathe, Lian leaped up, kicked one foot into the doorway space, and used the other foot to wedge her between the wall. With the help of her hands she quickly managed to scoot up towards the ceiling, her arms already shaking from the effort of holding her in place when the door opened to admit two men.
For the third time that day, Lian could hear the low rumble of the strangers voice, and for once she had a good vantage point to listen in. Being this close she could tell that the man with the beard had a faintly english accent, and judging by the way he was talking to the other guy, was obviously the leader of.....whoever they were.
"I mean it Owen. I want every Titan accounted for, and taken to the safehouse in THIRTY minutes. Not sixty, not forty, THIRTY. Do I make myself clear?" The man with the beard had stopped right outside the door and had turned to look directly at the younger man behind him. His tone made it clear there was no alternative answer as 'Owen' nodded meekly, mumbling a small yessir. The man nodded, certain that his wishes would be carried out and turned to walk down the corridor, calling over his shoulder, "Remember: Our trap for the Justice League will only work if the Titans are TRULY our hostages, so make sure they are unable to spoil our little plans."
Owen continued to nod until the man turned the corner, and disappeared from sight. Giving an obvious sigh of relief, the subordinate officer brought his attention back to the matters at hand and returned to the control room to relay the boss's instructions. The quiet shadow in the corner above the door had gone unnoticed.
* * * * * *
Lian had once again retreated to the a/c shaft in the corridor. Closing the grate behind her she sat in the dark for a few moments trying to gather her thoughts. Her father and the Titans...her family, had been taken hostage. Bait for the JLA, that guy had said. Surely the JLA could handle this.
But what if they couldn't? Lian bit her lip, an unconcious immitation of Donna, as she wondered when she developed such an annoying little voice in her head that seemed to have nothing but negative thoughts. However much she disliked that nagging little voice she knew it was right. The intruders were about to leave, hostages drugged and in tow. How did she know the JLA could even FIND them? What was she supposed to do?
She sighed in frusteration and once again leaned back against the far wall, her hand falling to the floor beside her. She looked down when her hand hit the costumes she had put there earlier, instead of the cold metal floor like she was expecting. For a moment all she could do was stare at them. Slowly a smile spread across her face as the wheels in her minds eye began to spin. With both hands she shifted through the clothes, pulling out the items she was looking for, The yellow archers hat came first.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own em. Wish I did. I don't. It's a sad world.
Lian crouched into the shadows as she leaned against the walls of the Titans Tower not daring to make a sound. If he found her now it was all over. Taking a deep breathe she counted to 3 before slowly poking her head around the corner, completely unaware of the looming figure behind her. Looking up and down the hallway she frowned slightly and sensed --too late-- the presence behind her, even as strong hands snatched her from behind.
Lian shrieked loudly and started to laugh uncontrollably as her attacker set upon her with the most ferocious tickle attack ever. Squirming wildly she tried to twist her way out as she attempted to plea for her life. "I give up! I surrender! I give UP Uncle Nightwing!!", before continuing her earshattering shrieks.
Nightwing couldn't help grinning evilly as he put on his most innocent sounding voice, "What's that? You want MORE?"
Lian's soft brown, almond shaped eyes opened wide as she started to shake her head vigorously, well as vigorously as one can when being tickled relentlessly. "NOOOO! NONONO!! That's not what I said! Uncle Nightwiiiiiiing!!" and she couldn't help it as she collapsed into his arms in another fit of giggles.
"Hey 'Wingster! Quit torturing my kid. The neighbors have started calling asking us what we're doing to this poor innocent little girl."
Lian and Nightwing paused their battle of wills for a moment to look over at Arsenal, A.K.A., Roy Harper a founding Titan and mostly known to Lian as 'Daddy'. They looked at each other in confusion then back at Roy.
Roy broke into a grin and finished, "And besides...she's MINE to torture!"
Nightwing and Lian looked at each other in mock surprise, as Lian shrieked again. This was more like Roy, all for fun and none for order. Lian wriggled out of Nightwings grasp and ran behind him, clutching his neck as she cried out, "Save me Uncle Nightwing!"
Nightwing smiled as Roy grinned back and they advanced on each other as Nightwing called back to his neice, "Don't worry Princess...I'LL save you from the evil dragon!"
Roy stopped in his tracks and pretended to look wounded, "Dragon?! Waitaminute...how did I become the dragon? I thought that was Wally's job?"
Dick stopped as well and looked at Roy, "You don't want to be evil?"
"No, I can be evil, I just don't want to be a dragon. My fourth grade math teacher was a dragon."
"Allright then you can be the evil Sorcerer."
"No that's Garth..."
Lian giggled then sighed and turned to leave the adults to their bantering. It would go on for quite a while and in all honesty she wanted to do something more interesting. Maybe Uncle Garth would give her a swimming lesson today. She made another turn down a second hallway and pushed her way through the heavy double doors that led to the pool area.
The room was empty, no Garth, which meant sadly, no swimming. Lian gave a heavy sigh and again turned from the door to trod down the hall feeling more bored than ever. Why did rainy Saturdays have to be so BORING??
* * * * * *
Outside the tower, a man was standing on the mainland. His long black overcoat flapped in the wind, as a sharp spray of rain pelted him in the face. He paid no attention to the small drops of water rolled down his sharp hawk-like nose. His eyes were trained on the T shaped tower, even as he smiled and gave the order, "Fire."
Even as Lian walked down the hallway, dragging the toe of her sneakers with every step and lamenting the rainy day weekend, an explosion suddenly rocked the Tower. Lian fell to her knees as if someone had pulled the carpet out from under her. The alarms went off everywhere, the bright red siren lights near the ceilings twirling like an ambulance. Lian clapped her hands over her ears and looked around, but no one was in the hall. Then in the next second the overhead lights cut out, leaving only the eerie intermittent flashing of the alarm lights.
* * * * * *
The boys were still pounding out the details of Roy's so called villain, when the explosion hit. Both men were thrown but managed to stay on their feet with the help of years of superhero reflexes. Nightwing and Arsenal looked around immediately, their eyes searching the cooridor for the familiar ponytailed little girl. After making a full sweep their eyes met and locked, Roy's green eyes reflected the panic he was trying to force back as his mind asked the same unasked question in Nightwing's concerned look, where was Lian?
There was a movement at the far end of the corner and both hero's turned, their hearts lifting for a moment as they caught sight of black hair. Roy could barely contain his disappointment at seeing his fiancee and long time friend Donna Troy, who he usually drooled at the very sight of, come around the corner at a hurried walk.
Donna saw them as well and picked up her pace to jog over to her teammates. "Dick! Roy!". The expressions on their faces was enough to tell her they were concerned and it didnt' seem like it was about the attack either. Her eyes scanned around her, as a familiar dread began to build in the pit of her stomach, and she looked back at the two friends in concern, "Where's Lian?". Her dark blue eyes were troubled as she looked from one to the other.
Nightwing almost flinched inwardly as he heard Donna call him by his civillian name, if there were intruders about it would be best if they DIDN'T find out Bruce Wayne's adopted son was a member of the Titans. Figuring that Donna was simply stressed, as she rarely let things that important slip, he chose to ignore it. Instead he held up a hand and asked pointedly, "Lian's not with you?"
Donna bit her lower lip, chewing on it more out of worry for the little girl than anything else, as she shook her head slightly. She looked over at Roy and could see that even under the red flash of emergency lights his already pale face was getting paler. The red flashes accentuated his orangish-red hair, and would bounce off the lenses of his customary sunglasses situated atop his head.
Roy closed his eyes for a moment and had to tell himself to breathe, after all this was all probably a false alarm. This is what he told himself but somewhere deep inside he had a gut feeling that wasn't what it was at all. He was faintly aware that Dick was asking Donna a question and opened his eyes to focus on the situation.
Donna was shaking her head again, as she answered, "We dont' know who it is yet, Vic's in the control room with Garth, Wally's running perimeter checks...." their Titan communicator's beeped right then and Vic's deep baritone voice came through their recievers, "Guys we got movement on the Island...North side, it's comin' in fast!"
Nightwing immediately nodded though it was a useless gesture as Vic couldn't see him through the recievers. Though he was willing to bet Vic was somehow accessing the Tower security cameras. He looked to the others as he gave a verbal reply, "Right! We're on our way. Tell Wally to get over there!"
Roy was shaking his head, as Donna stood beside him hesitating a moment. "You guys go on , I gotta find Lian."
Dick nodded as he moved out of the way to let Donna fly ahead, but not before she looked back, sympathy and worry etched into her face.
Roy turned to head down the same hall as Lian had, and he got as far as the corner turn before the world went black.
* * * * * *
Lian meanwhile, was looking around the hallway standing frozen in the middle of the floor as the lights flashed around her. Her first instinct was to find her daddy or uncles, or aunts but for some reason she found herself glued to the spot. And then she heard it. It was difficult to hear over the wailing siren, but it was the unmistakable sound of a man's voice. A strange man's voice that she didn't reconize, and it was getting closer.
Spinning on the rubber toe of her sneaker, her eyes darted around until they fell on a small panel near the bottom of the wall. It was an a/c vent she knew, one so small that an adult would never fit....but a 9 year old girl was something else. She also knew that Uncles Vic and Nightwing had shown her how to pry the grate off quickly. She hurried as fast as her small, nimble fingers could, stretching them through the metal grating for the realease catch on the inside.
Lifting the grate she climbed inside and curled up, closing the covering behind her properly so nothing looked out of place.
Not a moment too soon either, for just as she closed the vent, she heard the man's voice again, this time much closer, as if he were standing right outside the wall. Sure enough, a pair of boots came into view and walked past her, giving orders to several other pairs of boots that followed. Soon they were gone, as were the voices.
Lian looked around the venting shaft as well as she could given the fact that the only light came from the vent itself. Crawling on her hands and knees she moved forward a little bit to explore and immediately felt something soft under her hands. Looking down she picked it up, and rubbed it between her fingers. It felt like clothes. Lian, patting the floor carefully, found more items like it and picked them up as well. Turning around (it was a tight fit but she managed to scrunch up enough) she crawled back towards the vent for light, on her knees and hand, using her other to hold the clothes tightly to her chest.
Once she was close enough, she pulled her legs under her in a kneeling position, and leaned forward, holding up the cloth to the light. It was a red shirt.
Confused she looked through the other clothes and found among them: A yellow jumpsuit with a red lightning bolt on it, a green pair of short pants, another red shirt though this one felt harder than the other one, like it was made with something heavier. A yellow cape and belt, green pixie boots, a star-spangled skirt, sandles, and red tank top shirt.
She also found a red shirt with white and black stripes around the neck and cuffs and blue short pants. By this time though she wasn't paying much attention to it. She went back to the red tank top and marveled at the Wonder Girl emblem on it.
Growing excited with this discovery and a growing suspicion she quickly went back through them, turning the red shirt that had felt odd over, and smiled as she saw the familiar R blazing proudly. Lian understood immediately that these were old costumes of her uncles and aunts from their teenage sidekick years. This vent must have been one of the various caches they had for storing spare costumes in case the others should meet with 'accident'. Feeling satisfied that the mystery was solved she placed the costumes beside her and leaned back against the wall.
Lian pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her cheek against her knee as she waited in the dark for the sirens to stop, and her Daddy or one of the Titan's to come find her.
* * * * * *
A few hours later Lian woke up feeling a little disoriented. She wasn't quite sure where she was at first and why she was in the dark or how long she had been asleep. Listening closely for anything outside the vent she realized that the sirens had stopped. Or had been cut she thought.
Slowly lifting the grating, the young girl cautiously looked around, finding the hallway empty she clambered out as quietly as she could. Taking one more glance over her shoulder, she trotted off to the hall corner and then on down the hall.
She made her way up to the control room, and was standing right outside the door, peeking in through the window slot, when she saw a man with long hair and a nottingham beard, kind of like a close shaved version of Grandpa Ollie's, coming.
Nearly frozen with panic, she looked around, there was nowhere to hide...nowhere except up. Lian had precious few seconds to survey the corner, where the doorway was hinged to the wall. Between the doorway and the wall, was a small space barely a foot in width, but more than enough room for a set of hands and feet.
Taking a deep breathe, Lian leaped up, kicked one foot into the doorway space, and used the other foot to wedge her between the wall. With the help of her hands she quickly managed to scoot up towards the ceiling, her arms already shaking from the effort of holding her in place when the door opened to admit two men.
For the third time that day, Lian could hear the low rumble of the strangers voice, and for once she had a good vantage point to listen in. Being this close she could tell that the man with the beard had a faintly english accent, and judging by the way he was talking to the other guy, was obviously the leader of.....whoever they were.
"I mean it Owen. I want every Titan accounted for, and taken to the safehouse in THIRTY minutes. Not sixty, not forty, THIRTY. Do I make myself clear?" The man with the beard had stopped right outside the door and had turned to look directly at the younger man behind him. His tone made it clear there was no alternative answer as 'Owen' nodded meekly, mumbling a small yessir. The man nodded, certain that his wishes would be carried out and turned to walk down the corridor, calling over his shoulder, "Remember: Our trap for the Justice League will only work if the Titans are TRULY our hostages, so make sure they are unable to spoil our little plans."
Owen continued to nod until the man turned the corner, and disappeared from sight. Giving an obvious sigh of relief, the subordinate officer brought his attention back to the matters at hand and returned to the control room to relay the boss's instructions. The quiet shadow in the corner above the door had gone unnoticed.
* * * * * *
Lian had once again retreated to the a/c shaft in the corridor. Closing the grate behind her she sat in the dark for a few moments trying to gather her thoughts. Her father and the Titans...her family, had been taken hostage. Bait for the JLA, that guy had said. Surely the JLA could handle this.
But what if they couldn't? Lian bit her lip, an unconcious immitation of Donna, as she wondered when she developed such an annoying little voice in her head that seemed to have nothing but negative thoughts. However much she disliked that nagging little voice she knew it was right. The intruders were about to leave, hostages drugged and in tow. How did she know the JLA could even FIND them? What was she supposed to do?
She sighed in frusteration and once again leaned back against the far wall, her hand falling to the floor beside her. She looked down when her hand hit the costumes she had put there earlier, instead of the cold metal floor like she was expecting. For a moment all she could do was stare at them. Slowly a smile spread across her face as the wheels in her minds eye began to spin. With both hands she shifted through the clothes, pulling out the items she was looking for, The yellow archers hat came first.