Gotham Knights Chapter 5

It was suppose to be a simple thing help a mother find her daughter, a new student like myself, at the school. I had seen her in the main hall before next to her mother, a small brown haired and hazel eyed Asian girl, standing out due to her diminutive size and distinctive coloring.

I had felt her hostile gaze on me, which is what drew my attention to her in the beginning. It was odd cause I usually get those type of gazes from other boys when their female friends pay too much attention to me and I had to give a long sigh over this, my personal demon.

After the Joker incident, I had worked religiously on improving physically and in training up my skill levels in various martial arts, no one questioning my sudden interest in self defence after my brush with one of Gotham's madmen.

The Dumas wealth allowing me to get the best trainers that money can buy, to get my body optimally conditioned in the weight-to-power ratio for a young preteen. I had felt very good about it too on obtaining a certain manly bulkiness on my frame, but it was not to last.

This reality seemingly conspiring against me, as I woke up one morning close to my 12th birthday in agony. It felt like I was back in the PROJECT REBIRTH chamber, being bombarded in vita-rays while the super soldier serum breaks me down transforming me into the pinnacle of human potential.

Captain America was back.

My transformation was not without cost, my vanity having to pay the price, cause I was back to looking like a tall, slender, effeminate boy.

Those being the obvious cosmetic changes, all other aspects as in the past enhanced. Where before I had to work myself hard to reach and maintain my optimal condition, this was now my new baseline. Doctor Erskine would no doubt have been fascinated with the growth potential of a child on the super soldier serum. I had the very real possibility of being twice as strong, fast and resilient than I was during my prime as an avenger.

Now this former avenger, ultra enhanced super soldier, is tasked in finding a little lost girl. I had literally walked into her mother as I was exiting the mens restroom. She was looking around frantically, calling Jade over and over. It took some convincing to get her to go to the Academy's campus security and report this so more people can help, while I continue the search. I told her that I knew the campus well, which was true, having moved in earlier on campus than everyone else. I felt no need to return to the main hall, having walked out of Mr. Wilcox's speech. I could only take so much eloquence on the generosity and support provided by the patrons to the Academy, and how the prosperity of Gotham is linked to it. Brown nosing no matter how beautifully phrased is never pretty, and still stinks.

I tried to anticipate how she would move if she was so dazed and confused as her mother described last seeing her. She was suppose to head to the women's restroom, so if she went pass and continued on this route.

That's when I see them, the indentations on the ground, looks like school shoe prints, but appearing to be getting deeper and deeper. That can't be right, it would imply that she was getting heavier, or maybe carrying something heavy. It leads me to the stairs to one of the Academy's storm shelters. The door is wide open almost ripped off its hinges, and the lock is crushed, I'm getting concerned for this girl.

I peer in to the dark storm shelter cautiously and see nothing, but a pair of blinking green lights. I then turn on the light switches next to the door, getting a huge surprise. A giant green skinned figure and for a second I thought I was hallucinating. "Bruce?"

She-Hulk not puny Banner" she shouts at me, slamming her hand against a stone support pillar. "She-Hulk a girl !" she continues to reply. Note to self do not antagonize a Hulk or She-Hulk in this case. Keep her here calm and maybe she will revert back to normal.

It had not escaped my notice that she knew who I had confused her with for a second, my mind prioritizing getting her calm. It seems someone managed to reproduce Bruce's accident and create another Hulk. What were they thinking, the world could barely handle one Hulk.

"Oh Okay" I tell her "She-Hulk we need to stay here all quite, and once everyone is gone we can leave". I say to her in a calm, soft voice. While doing so I am trying to read her face, and she does not seem to agree with my plan.

"Why must She-Hulk wait? Want to go now, want go out now!" she snarls at me, I tense up and get ready to move "Pretty boy mean to She-Hulk" and she takes a swipe at me.

I dodge it and go in deeper in the storm shelter, need to get her away from entrance give her a chance to calm down. I don't engage just avoid her, but she is not calming down if anything she is getting angrier and it shows in her size increase.

Bruce's size as the Hulk stayed relatively constant overtime, but increases only ever happened to him when he was truly totally out of control angry. I am not liking what these facts are telling me.

"Pretty Boy stop jumping!" she yells at me and I know I can't keep this up, I am running out of ideas on how to keep her here.

Then I run out of time, she does what Hulk's do best, she smashes her way out. Making a hole in the ceiling and jumps out, she ignores me as shout to her "No, She-Hulk!"

She-Hulk had pulverized alot of the support pillars chasing me and I am worried that all of this will come down soon burying me. Ultra enhanced child or not, unlike She-Hulk I can't jump that high so it's time for me to put my free climbing skills to the test. She-Hulk in her chase after me had made a a lot of cracks in the walls for me to use, as I am no Spider-man.

As I finally manage to reach the top of the hole and swing my body in I am greeted with a sight that changes everything.

Z-‐-Z

A chapel, but as in all things done by Gotham Academy, almost as big as cathedral. A very ostentatious cathedral.

The Roman twins are on the walls, as in they are sticking to the walls while flipping and jumping around using webbing on She-Hulk. Spider-like moves and fighting style suspiciously like a certain kid from Queens, New York I used to know.

Then I hear Petro Ramon say ,"Jenn ?" and it confirms it for me. Seems like more than one former avenger came to this new world, this new reality. It also explained the breakthrough in design for the medical scanner from Waynetech, Tony always said the kid had his level of brains. Still leaves me wondering who the spider-woman, Tasha Roman, is. There is something familiar about her moves, she almost seems to be adjusting to fighting Spider-man's way.

Then I see her, a blond girl in an Academy uniform, the boy's uniform. Guess she didn't like the girls dress uniform. She is standing too close to She-Hulk, but what is throwing me off is that she is seems to be unafraid.

Most people if a growling green giant is next to you, you run. She appears to be getting ready for a fight. Something about her is antagonizing She-Hulk, I can see She-Hulk tense up and launch a blow to her and it connects. The body send flying against the opposite wall.

I hear Petro shout "Jenn, no don't!" But it is far too late, I glance to the right expecting to see a bloody body against a destroyed wall. I got one out of the two right.

She is up, shaking off the wall's debris and walking in She-Hulk's direction. Seems her blond hair braids has come undone, but for what just happened I would say a small price to pay. She almost seems to disappear she moves so quickly, and then she is underneath She-Hulk. Delivers a blow that has She-Hulk flinching and flying into a wall, chunks of wall going in every direction.

She-Hulk is smiling, enjoying herself and it seems wholesale destruction is about to happen on the Academy's grounds. I glance at the twins and can see they like me is wondering how to minimize fall out, getting ready to save lives.

After today our secrets will be out, to our families and to the world. Then nothing, we all look to She-Hulk and she is immobile, I can see her straining against something, but it seems she can't move.

Next thing I know neither can I, no matter how much I push and pull myself, I don't move an inch. Luckily my eyes can still move and I see that Petro and Tasha can't move either, two spiders stuck on a wall. The only one I see that can move is the blond.

Rookie mistake Rogers!. I curse at myself, I was so caught up in She-Hulk's rampage and the implications of her and the Roman twins that I let my guard down. I hear She-Hulk scream at her opponent "You Cheater!"

A boy walks out behind a large chunk of wall still standing looking at the blonde. He is about my height and deeply tanned, with snow white hair.

Then he walks up to She-Hulk and places a hand on her back, and she starts screaming, then she falls silent. I have seen Hulk shrug of machine guns, tanks, space aliens and space whales with not even a scratch, and he has brought her down with nothing but his hand.

"Are you alright?," he asks the blond and she nods her head. Even with us all immobilized she is not letting her guard down, keeping an eye on us all.

Then I see She-Hulk shrinking, going from a green giant to a small child. A small, vulnerable naked child. I try to move again, straining against invisible chains to try and cover her but nothing happens. I see him lean over her body, obscuring all our views of her and then stand up again. I am left speechless as she is now fully dressed, in a school uniform, and I don't know how he managed to do that in less than 10 seconds.

Then we are free from whatever held us, and the Roman's drop down from the wall gracefully, while I move over to She-Hulk or Jenn. She appears to be fine just unconscious.

So now we find ourselves here, looking at each other .

"I think we all have questions, but now is not the time, soon we can expect company and we need to get our story straight" Tasha Roman makes clear immediately.

"Green giant rampaged, left a lot of destruction, last seen heading to the woods" Petro suggest.

"Short, uncomplicated, and about two thirds true," works for me I say. We look at the other two as they look to each other. "Agreed" they both say together.

He bends down and picks up She-Hulk "We need to take her to a hospital," he tells us.

"I know where her mother is or at least where she is suppose to be, let me take her" I tell him, but he is shaking his head.

"Unless you want a repeat of what just happened we need to take her to the hospital now and get some sedatives in her" he points out.

"Won't they find out about her?" I ask him, if I remember Bruce's blood work wasn't exactly normal.

" No " he says as the he and the blond begin walking away with "Jenn" in his arms.

"How can you be sure ?" Tasha asks him, raising her eyebrow, hands on her hips. The tone of her voice making her scepticism on this clear.

"I know cause she is just like us" he says while walking away, "like all of us".

I share a look with Petro and Tasha, then begin following them out of the partially destroyed chapel. "So what exactly do we call you two?" I ask.

"Call me Blanco" the white haired boy says to us.

"Blanco?" Tasha asks, then rolls her eyes "Oh funny" she comments sarcastically.

The blond looks back at us all and replies "You can call me Drake".

Z-‐-Z

On leaving the building we find ourselves surround with Campus security, who quickly hustled us away from the compromised building. Looking around I see a team get ready to go in. I'd say they were military trained, going in to no doubt clear the place of a green giant.

We had gotten out exactly at the right time, no one had seen our battle with She-Hulk or the aftermath. We had gotten lucky, I hate relying on luck.

Tasha Roman was frowning at me an giving me a bit of the stink eye, more than to the mystery duo. Which funny enough made it click for me who I was looking at; the red hair helped too. "You keep frowning like that you will age prematurely Widow" I say to her in a whisper, followed with a wink. The frown deepens now joined by a scowl. It wasn't often that I was the one able to tease Black Widow, as the situation was usually the other way around.

As a group we reach the school infirmary with campus security and find She-Hulk's no Jade's mother there, she almost breaks down on seeing her daughter. She follows the school nurse as they take Jade from Blanco's arms.

Its Petro and Tasha that spins the tale to Campus security of finding her unconscious under some bench rubble after the big green monster come up from underground and busted down a wall to get out. The story lines up very well, with what I am hearing around us, from the few other students that were there in the beginning.

My story, just adding that I was looking for her after volunteering to her mother to do so, heard an explosion. Thought to help people that might have been hurt. Got in the building and the rest follows their tale. I got a few looks of "are you an idiot?" from them on the entering the building part of the story, but they seem to be believing me. I think if it wasn't for all the damages, they would I have thought us all hallucinating the jolly green giant.

As it is, I think they still might be believe it to be one. Nurse staff insists we all stay in the school infirmary overnight, to be monitored. Then we go look for Jade, and find her in bed still unconscious, her mother next to her holding her hand. She sees us and thanks us, over and over for helping Jade, but never taking her eyes of her daughter.

Which makes it easy for Blanco to inject a sedative into Jade, without her mother noticing. Drake blocking anyone from seeing from the hallway. I hope it's a sedative, I have no choice but to trust him. Things would have gotten much worse if he hadn't stepped in. He has done nothing to show he means us harm, and seems to know "something" about all of us. Which is more than what I have figured out in my nine years since opening my eyes in this world.

We make our way out of Jade's room and I hear Petro and Tasha on their cell phones, talking to their parents reassuring them that they are fine. Informing them that they are just staying over night for observation, not a big deal as they are boarding here anyways. I hear the easy love and affection in their voices and I am jealous as I never managed to get that from my parents even after the Joker incident. We were better afterwards, but never the loving family I remember in my previous life.

Next I see Tasha a bit to casually next to the nurses office, and when we are assigned to beds for the night, I am not nearly surprised that we are all in the same room. Sitting on the bed I focus my hearing on the nurses talking about Jade. They are worried, nothing appears to be wrong with her and their diagnostics show she should have woken up already. If she doesn't wake up by morning they will transfer her to Gotham General Hospital for specialist to look at her.

Then suddenly my ears pop, and my skin feels like its vibrating, I look to my side and see Blanco with his eyes closed.

"What was that ? What are you doing?" Tasha whispers to him.

"Created some privacy" Blanco says, and opens his steel grey eyes speaking loudly.

I look to the nurses office and see that they are ignoring us, despite the distracting conversations from us.

Suddenly a loud clap and whistle follows, seems Petro is testing it out. No reaction from anyone around us, despite the noise. "Nice trick" Petro says, while his sister gives him a glare. "You have got to teach me that" he says with a smile.

"Its time for us to talk" Blanco says, while shifting around, we all now facing each other on our separate beds.

"Why don't you start" Tasha replies, clearly intending to let him take the lead in providing information.

"No, I think I have earned you answering my questions first, don't you think? He tells her "and I will tell you why you have the abilities you have, which you clearly don't understand" he continues.

"Why do you think that?" I ask him.

Blanco looks to me and emphatically says "Cause then you would have been able to stop her". Its tough to argue with that statement. I look at Petro and start off, by saying hi to an old friend.

"How have you been Queens, the new world treating you well" I greet him with a smile. I see it in his eyes when he gets what I am implying.

"Brooklyn!" he shouts back, comes over and gives me a hug. Kid was always the hugging-type, seems that hasn't changed.

"Steve ?" Tasha asks me incredulously, then gives me that teasing look I know too well. "Well don't you look different, your almost as pretty as me." She says with a smirk.

"I take it you all know each other then" Drake says finally speaking, looking at us.

"Yes, we know each other, at one time in a different life we were all on the same team" Petro replies "also She-Hulk , I mean Jenn, well Jade now" he continues on.

"We were The Avengers" he says proudly, smiling.

With those words Blanco and Drake's entire demeanour changes, me and Tasha feel their sudden tension, which makes us brace for conflict.

Drake's eyes is going to each of our faces as if searching for something, while Blanco is studying Petro's face as his smile slowly falters as he notices the tension in the room.

"Who or what exactly are the avengers ?" Blanco asks us saying each word slowly and clearly, leaving us with no doubt how badly things can go if they don't like our answer.

Z-‐-Z

MEANWHILE ELSEHERE IN GOTHAM:

Bored, I am so bored, no more puzzles left to solve, even Gotham's biggest one. Who is the batman ! Not that I'll ever tell, at least it provides some much needed distraction to see all the fools stumbling around trying to figure it out.

Then his phone rings. Oh ! Not many people have this number, and in order to get it takes a mind with great intellect. He should know, he created the puzzle that needed to be solved to obtain it. He prides himself on providing a stimulating mental challenge.

He picks up the phone, and hears the smooth, confident voice on the other end "Hello Edward".

Leaning back in his chair, phone to his ear a grin on his face, Edward Nigma has found things are never boring when you get a personal phone call from Lex Luthor.

"Lex ! What a pleasant surprise, how may I be of service to you on this beautiful day ?" he asks with anticipation.

"Nothing too strenuous to someone with your talents Edward" Luthor's voice replies "There has been an occurrence of some sort at Gotham City Academy, at their chapel. I would like an answer on what happened, as the reports are vague and inconclusive."

The Riddler frowns, not exactly the conversation he was expecting. "That particular institute has cameras everywhere Lex, they are very paranoid on the safety of the rich and powerful's progeny."

"It would appear that all footage has been lost Edward" Luthor answers.

"The recording at the chapel ? " Nigma asks, and he can hear in Luthor's reply how he knows he has caught The Riddler's attention, "No, for the entire Academy, everything recorded for the last month is gone"

"What does the report say Lex" he asks softly all his attention focused.

"Possible explosions, in storm shelter under the chapel, which caused structural damages to occur within it and the chapel above it. Noted as possible as no explosive residue was detected." Lex reads off.

"I think you will find this part of interest Edward, some students reported seeing a giant green human figure emerge from the chapel floor, after the explosions." Lex says while chuckling "It has been described by those more devout students as the devil emerging from hell to cleanse the world of the faithless.

The Riddler replies, hands folded in front of him "I will focus my considerable talents to solving this riddle for you Lex"

"All the best Edward, I look forward to when you bring the answer to THE LIGHT."