Chapter 10: Taking Stock

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We ran Batman to ground in the Hospital wing.  He accompanied a tall thin older woman with gray hair, clearly a doctor, as she made her rounds.  Despite the urgency of Dawn's news, I held her back and watched as they approached Gypsy's bed.

Gypsy was sitting up, her left shoulder and arm in a cast.  She looked at Batman and smiled bitterly.  "Come to chew me out for screwing up so bad?"

Batman stopped abruptly.  "I came to see if you are feeling up to more action."

The older woman with him snorted.  "In spite of the drugs, she is in a lot of pain and that shoulder needs to stay immobilized.  More action, as you put it, will only aggravate the injury."

Batman turned to her.  "I need Gypsy, Leslie."

"You still trust me after how I screwed up?"

Batman turned back to Gypsy.  "I screwed up.  It's only because of you and a few others that we still have a chance of turning this around.  But if we are going to stop Luthor, I need your help."

She looked at him curiously.  "You know he's dead?"

From the set of his shoulders, I knew Batman was giving her his almost smile.  "If you want to know the truth about that, come to the briefing in the main conference room in fifty minutes."

Gypsy looked at him a moment longer and then nodded.  "I'll be there."

Leslie sighed in exasperation.  As they walked away, she murmured, "Do you always have to get your way, Bru...."

He turned and glared at her.  She laughed.  "No one's close enough to overhear."

"Actually, I am."

They both whirled around.  I walked up to them, smiling and wondering who this Leslie was.  The name sounded vaguely familiar, but I knew I had never met her.

"Ah," Leslie smiled, "You must be Diana.  I have heard a great deal about you," she looked mischievously at Bruce, "and clearly none of it was exaggerated."

I looked wide-eyed at Batman, who actually looked discomfited.  "Oracle likes to gossip."

"Oracle isn't the only one."

Now I was really curious about this woman.  I smiled ingenuously and asked, "Aren't you going to introduce us, Batman?"

I noticed Leslie frown briefly as I said 'Batman'.

"This is Leslie Thompkins.  She is helping out Dr. Mid-Nite with our wounded.  The Atlanteans have provided medical facilities but they are not familiar with 'surface dweller' physiology.

"Leslie, this is Dawn, the wife of Manitou Raven, our newest member."

Dawn, looking as serious as always, bowed.  Leslie bowed back.

"Diana, clearly, does not need an introduction," Batman finished up.

"I thought you were going to take stock of resources?" I asked.

"That includes knowing which of the wounded can still help out."

I nodded at that.  "Dawn has urgent news."

He nodded slightly.  Dawn told her story, simply and starkly.  Leslie gasped, then determinedly bit back further response.  Batman's face was as cold and shuttered as always.  I wondered why it bothered me, and why I had thought it would be otherwise.

After Dawn had finished, Batman said, "Since you are down here, Leslie can run some tests on you.  We also need blood donations.  You are AB positive, I believe."

Leslie and I both looked at him in shocked surprise.  That was unfeeling, even for him.

Dawn, who had been perfectly composed while telling her story, suddenly turned pale.  She stepped back.  "No."  Her voice shook.  "I, no, I can't."

Leslie said gently, "After such an ordeal, it is a good idea to make sure you are all right, my dear."

Dawn shook her head, trembling.  "No."  She paused, groping for words.  "Your machines... they would steal my soul.  No."

Leslie sighed but said firmly, before Batman could interrupt, "Very well, dear; as you wish."

Batman grunted.  "A blood donation at least.  Your blood type is very rare."

Dawn kept shaking her head and backing away.  Abruptly, with a loss of composure I had never seen in her before, she turned and ran away.

Leslie turned on Bruce.  "Really, Br... Batman, that was incredibly rude!  What would Al..." she caught herself and continued, "what would your parents say?"

He flinched, ever so slightly, and I felt a moment of sympathy for him.

"So it's all right to beat up on gang-bangers and thugs as long as I am polite about it?" he shot back.  My temper went red-hot again.

"You have the manners of a pig!" I hissed.  "No, a pig would be more courteous.  Dawn is not a thug or a gang-banger but a friend who has been through a horrifying experience.  I am going to comfort her if I can; you can go to...."

"No."

"No?  Are you presuming to dictate to me, Batman?"

His tone changed not at all.  "There are more important things I need you to do."

I ground my teeth together but I knew he was right.  We were in a desperate situation; Dawn would have to take second place to that.

"What?" I demanded.

"See to the congressmen.  Make sure they are comfortable, but also make sure..."

"You want me to play nursery maid to the congressmen?  Their comfort is more important than Dawn's distress?"

"... make sure they talk to the people around them, that they understand all the pain and... distress... this has caused.  We need them on our side, Diana, emotionally as well as intellectually.  So, yes, their comfort is more important than Dawn's distress.  If you stop thinking with your emotions, you'll know I'm right."

We stared at each other for a long moment.  He continued, "You are the most diplomatic of us; you are the only one I trust with this.  But don't take too long.  I want you in the main conference room in thirty minutes so we can review strategy before the main meeting."

"I had better get some answers then," I growled.

"You'll get some."  My eyes widened in surprise.  Some answers, I noted, not all.  Still, it was a start.

"Very well."

"But first," Leslie interjected, "I need to check you over."

I shook my head.  "I am fine."

"So Amazon complexions are normally black and blue?  Over an underlying pallor?"

"I was injured but I heal very rapidly.  The bruises will be gone in a few hours.  I am somewhat tired, it is true, but I do not take artificial stimulants, so there is nothing you can do about that."

"We're testing everyone," Bruce interjected.  "Nightwing is upstairs arranging it right now.  No exceptions," he added ironically, "except for religion.  However, I think we can skip the blood donation in your case."

I nodded.  All members of the league were blood-typed for obvious reasons.  I remembered J'onn's comment when he typed my blood.

It appears to be type O negative, he told me, the universal donor.  But I got some odd results in the other tests, possibly because of your magical nature.  I would recommend you not give blood unless it is absolutely necessary.  I am not sure what effect it would have on the recipient.

"Then," Leslie said briskly, "as soon as we see to a couple of patients I will check you over."

Batman turned away.  The delay was probably for the best, I thought.  I was not feeling very diplomatic right now and I had better take a moment to regain my calm.

They approached a woman sitting in a chair and sipping from a cup.  Her long black hair fell down around her face as she looked into the cup, but I recognized her fishnet hose, top hat and tails.  Zatanna, stage magician and real magician in one, looked up and gave a tired smile.

"This stuff may have all the right metabolites and vitamins, Leslie, but it tastes like crap."

"That's so you know it's good for you."  Leslie took her wrist to measure her pulse.  Zatanna looked very pale and she was shivering.  She looked defiantly at Batman.

"I got them all, Batman, every last one.  They're all here, safe and sound.  But so many teleports in so short a time," she shuddered, "it really takes it out of you."

 I realized who had been Batman's other pick up team.

"Which is why you should be in bed resting."  Leslie shined her pen light in Zatanna's eyes.

Batman nodded.  "Get some rest, Zatanna.  I'll need you later."

Zatanna smiled sardonically.  "Such fulsome praise, Batman.  I'm overcome."

"You don't need me to tell you, you did a good job."

Zatanna's smile became more genuine.  "No, no, I don't."

Batman and Leslie moved on to Impulse's bed.  He had a cast on his left leg to the hip and on his right arm and shoulder.  His color was good, however, and he had no IV hooked up.  He was playing a hand-held video game with his left hand, but then he looked up and saw Batman approaching.  He paled.

"Batman, I'm sorry, I triedtogettoherbutthereweretheserayblastersandtheywentoffwhenI-triedtogetclosewelltheywereinvisiblebutIcouldseewheretheyknockedpeopledownandIhad-torescuethemandJaywashitandIhadtotakehimhomeand...."

"Impulse," Batman interrupted firmly, "you did fine."

Bart's jaw dropped.  "You're not mad at me?"

Batman frowned.  "Am I such an ogre that everybody expects me to be mad at them?"

Bart looked confused.  "Is that a trick question?" he asked suspiciously.

Leslie roared with laughter.  I had to smile as well.

"How many people did you save?" Bruce asked quietly.

Bart thought for a moment.  "Fifty-three?  Fifty-four?  I didn't keep track."

Leslie stopped laughing and I was taken aback.  So many?

"That's a good job in anybody's book, Impulse," Bruce replied.

Bart digested this.  Then he looked straight at Bruce.  "Not Impulse.  Kid Flash."

Bruce smiled slightly and nodded.  "Wally will be proud."

"But," Leslie interjected, "he is staying right here.  We had to re-break the bones, they had healed all wrong." She turned to Bart.  "If you don't stay still and let them heal right this time, you may limp for the rest of your life.

Bart froze.  Every muscle was rigid with the effort not to move a millimeter.  Beads of sweat started to form on his brow.

Leslie chuckled.  "Not that still.  Just don't move that leg or your right arm and don't get out of bed."

Bart let out a breath of relief.

An Atlantean came up to Batman, whose face turned to stone once more.  He stepped away from the bed and I heard the Atlantean whisper to him.

"Green goo... seeping up from the ocean floor into the basement... never seen anything like it... could it perhaps have something to do with you surface dwellers?"

He looked at me and I couldn't repress a grin.

He turned back to the Atlantean.  "Wonder Woman will investigate as soon as she has been tested."

He walked off without a backward look, his cape swirling around him.  He could be so cold to Dawn, then turn around and treat Bart like that and just walk off without a word.  Impossible man.

Author's Note: According to Impulse #50, Batman gave Bart the name Impulse, only he intended it as a warning rather than a name.  Leslie Thompkins was Bruce's guardian (together with Alfred) after his parents died and doctors all the Batclan, although she does not altogether approve of their activities.  Zatanna is noted for appearing and disappearing in a puff of smoke.