Chapter 2

Rachel

Rachel drifted in and out of consciousness, but the scenes before her didn't make sense; a man in full black Kevlar standing behind Robin, her sitting in a black car racing down a road, someone out of view keeping her upright and then her lying on a hospital bed in what seemed to be a cave of some sort, two masked people, one with a needle, hovering over her. When she woke up for good, she tried to sit up, only to have a sharp pain in her left side, so she opted to stay lying down.

"Hey, take it easy" came a voice, one that she recognized from somewhere, "I'm surprised you're up and awake so soon, we only finished the op an half an hour ago, but your side is already healing…" She determined that the voice was coming from her right so she shifted to a position facing it to see Robin, the Boy Wonder, sat in a chair by her chest. "W-we?" she asked, "Yeah, you got the special treatment from none other than me and Batman himself." he answered. "You. And Batman. You operated… on me?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Robin smirked, "Yep, and you are in the Batcave, because Bats decided that taking you to the hospital that you got injured in was probably not the best idea, seeing as he scoped it out and deduced that you were right about the mob." He cocked his head slightly, "What happened there?" he asked curiously. Rachel frowned at the sheets she was under before answering,

"I-I was going to see my father, he was in hospital, and there were people that I recognized from the mob there in his room a-and they had already killed him and I surprised them so they shot me but I ran off into the alley before they got me too…" she trailed off as she remembered his body, broken and bloody, and she shivered. She looked back at the Boy Wonder whose mask lenses were wide in shock.

"I-I'm so sorry" he said in a small voice, lowering his head. Rachel felt bad, she should probably tell him what her father was like to ease his sadness, but she didn't want to go into too much detail of her life just yet. So instead, she smiled weakly and asked him if she was allowed to get up and take a shower. "Oh", he said, "I mean you seem to have a much faster recovery time than normal so I suppose if you feel strong enough, you probably should." She gave him another small smile which he returned before sitting up and gently pulling off the covers to her bed.

She hesitated, before standing up and putting a hand to her head to try to ease the spots dancing in her eyes, wobbling slightly. Suddenly, Robin was at her right and he put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him gratefully before walking slowly to the showers, allowing Robin to guide her. As they got to the door, he paused for a second, "So, do you have a mother, or other family at home?" he asked, "Uh…no, I never knew my mother and I'm an only child. Why?" she said tentatively. "I just wanted to know where you have to go. Do you have any other relatives?" he questioned, "N-no, my father was an only child too and my grandparents died when I was young. I don't really have anywhere to go." Robin nodded, telling her to take a nice, relaxing shower and he would get some clean, unblood-stained clothes. Rachel hopped into the shower, letting the water flow off of her body and thought to herself;

Ah shit, why did this have to happen? Why couldn't he have stayed out of the stupid gambling, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess…

Then she heard another voice in her head, a voice that wasn't hers, it was Robin's,

Uh Rachel? Did you know you that you're a telepath?

Oh, crap I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your mind! I hope you aren't offended!

Woah, woah it's ok! One of my superhero friends is a telepath, and sometimes on missions we have to stay quiet so she opens a group mind link, so I'm used to having people talk in my head, don't apologize, ok?

Oh, ok ok.

So, did you know you were a telepath?

Uh, yeah, I've known for a while but my father said to keep it quiet, he told me that it was wrong and I was a freak so I never let anyone know…

What? Well, your father is-was wrong. You're not a freak, you're a meta-human, and that does explain your accelerated healing too...

A meta what what?

Meta-human: they're people who can do things others can't. Like Flash, for example, can run at superspeed, so he's a meta, like you.

Well that does explain the name that Father called me; meta-freak. Rachel was getting out of the shower now, after rinsing off all of the soapy suds.

But you're not a freak, you're just special.

There was a comfortable silence for a while until Robin spoke up again, making Rachel jump;

So, this may be a bit early but I just talked to Batman, and he said that if you want, me and him could train you, and you could live with us until you recover and then, again only if you want to, you could join the team.

What team?

It's a team of superheroes like me, protégés of Justice League members who train, work and in some cases live together.

Really? I could be a part of that? Uh sure, I'd love to!

Of course, you'll have to recover first before you can train but great! I'm outside now with some clothes.

Rachel, now wrapped up in a towel, opened the door and stepped outside, gently taking the clothes off of the Boy Wonder and slipped back into the bathrooms to change. She grinned, for the first time in a while as she saw what he had given her, a light pink Hello Kitty silhouette on a black t-shirt and some faded denim jeans.

Once she had changed, she stepped back outside to see Robin leaning against the wall looking slightly bored. He turned to look at her and smirked as she raised an eyebrow, silently asking him about his choice of clothes. "Sorry, but it's all boys in the manor so we don't have that many girl clothes. We can go to your old place to get your clothes and other stuff but for now, you'll have to make do." Rachel grinned, "Oh whatever shall I do?" she asked, putting a hand to her head in feigned shock, before stopping and frowning at him.

"What?" he asked nervously. "You said manor" she said slowly, "Who are you when you're not Robin?" He smirked again, before peeling of his mask to reveal beautiful crystal blue eyes, "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Richard Grayson, but you can call me Dick." Dick said, grinning mischievously as he offered her his hand, "And I am Rachel Roth, but you call me Rache." She said grasping his hand and shaking it, secretly surprised. "Well then Rache, let me introduce you to my family." And he yanked her gently towards him, and off Wayne Manor above the cave.