Chapter Four

The next day after school, Stella did as her parents asked. After packing up her textbooks, she closed her locker door with a sigh and caught up to her friend so that they could walk home together.

She had been doing a lot of thinking during her classes. It wasn't the first time she had drifted off into her thoughts during school, but today it seemed a little different. She couldn't get her mind off of what had occurred the previous day and what her brother had said to her sort of stuck.

His hero, huh?

It made her heart warm knowing she was someone's hero. It made her wonder, could she be a hero to others? Yes, she had been incredibly terrified. And yes, she realized that her taekwondo abilities weren't exactly enough to really keep her up during a fight. However, the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do something. There was a strong desire to be that person, that hero, Aiden saw her as, but she lacked the way to become one. Maybe if she had the proper training, she could overcome being scared during a real fight and be able to enhance her abilities.

The lame part of all this? She was only eleven years old and she definitely didn't have any connections.

"Stella!"

Stella nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden exclamation and she jerked her head to look at her friend. Her friend had an unimpressed look etched on her face and had stopped walking.

"You were doing that thing again. You know, getting distracted." Christina, one of her best friends at school and taekwondo class, said while rolling her eyes a little and walking again to meet Stella. Christina was used to it, but that didn't meant it wasn't annoying once in a while.

Stella smiled sheepishly and tugged the end of her hair a little. "Sorry. I was just thinking about what Aiden said."

"What'd he say?"

"Well." Stella said and twirled her hair with her finger. "He said I was his hero."

"You are. You help him with bullies all the time." The shorter haired girl said with a smile. They had known each other since Stella had moved to Gotham City all those years ago and knew how she would fiercely protect her little brother. No wonder Aiden thought of his older sister as his superhero.

"Yeah." Stella smiled too, but didn't say anything further. Christina wasn't as into the Justice League as much as her and, she was probably sick of hearing Stella talk about it anyway. Plus, she probably wouldn't approve of these 'wanting to be a real hero' thoughts. It was better to keep quiet about these kinds of matters.

Not five minutes later, they saw a huge crowd gathered in the shopping district that the two girls always passed by on the way home. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if there weren't police, firefighters, and ambulances on site as well. Also, the area in front of the crowd seemed to be sealed off with police tape.

The two girls exchanged confused and curious looks before walking towards the crowd. Sure, Stella's mom had told her to come right home and stuff, but this technically was on her way home. A little peek wouldn't hurt, especially since she was already curious.

They didn't get very far though.

"Woah, woah, kids." A police officer cut them off right behind the crowd. He didn't look all too pleased to be stopping two sixth graders. "Your teachers should have told you to avoid this area."

Their home room teacher definitely didn't say anything about this. Just what was going on?

"Our teacher didn't say anything. We didn't know, sir." Christina informed him.

The police officer frowned further and grumbled something about teachers not really listening to the police. He crossed his arms over his chest and didn't budge. "Go home, kids. It ain't safe here."

Spoil sport.

"Hey, hey. It's the Bat and his sidekick!"

Batman and Robin were here too?

Forgetting the fact that the police officer had told her to go leave and that her parents expected her to come straight home, she dropped her backpack faster than the blink of an eye and took off into the crowd. She could hear the distant calling of her name and the officer yelling at her to come back, but she couldn't worry about that now. She had to see Batman and Robin.

Using her small stature, she pushed into the crowd of people and maneuvered forward. They 'hey's and 'watch it's didn't faze her one bit and she muttered apologies and 'excuse me's to people.

At last, after pushing passed the last people in the crowd, her eyes darted back and forth in search of the big brooding Bat in a black cape. The moment she saw the flutter of his cape, she ducked under the police tape and ran towards them, ignoring the surprised exclamations from people. She only had one goal right now and she wouldn't give up now.

"Batman! Robin!" She called out while running as fast as her legs would take her.

By the time she had caught up to them, she was huffing and puffing from the fast run. But she had managed to grab the end of Batman's cape to get his attention, if she hadn't already.

"W-wait." She managed to say as she was catching her breath.

"Hey! You're the girl from yesterday." Robin piped up with wide eyes. He hadn't expected her at all.

Batman narrowed his eyes at her and he definitely didn't look pleased. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble."

"I-I know. I'm sorry." She said once her breathing calmed down a bit, and she let go of his cape. The police that had been chasing her stopped abruptly when Batman raised a hand at them and she watched them turn around to leave. That slight distraction gave her enough time to gather her immediate thoughts. "I-I wanted to ask you a question."

That got Robin's attention and he leaned a bit closer with interest. Batman didn't say anything, but she could practically hear his silent 'go on'.

Her heart was pounding extremely hard as the next words got stuck in her throat. She knew it seemed like a stupid thing to say, but she had to. He was the only connection she had, if he could even be considered one. Gathering up all the courage, she cleared her throat and prepared herself.

"Please help me become a hero."

There was a slight pause.

"No."

Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach and disappointment bubbled inside of her. Well...it wasn't like she hadn't expected that answer.

"No way. You can't, Batman." Robin spoke up suddenly and walked around to stand beside her so he could face Batman. Boy Wonder had a frown on his masked face and his arms were spread out to emphasis what he was saying. "I'm already Robin."

Okay, she hadn't been expecting Robin to speak up.

"I know." The hero said shortly, silently telling Robin he had no reason to worry about his spot being taken.

Stella couldn't just stand here. She had to explain herself, try to reason with Batman. "Please, Batman. I'll work hard!"

"No."

"But I- but Robin-"

"Is qualified."

Stella's heart sank even lower and she felt really discouraged. It was obvious Batman was very serious and he didn't show signs of budging. That only made her more disheartened.

"I just...I just want to help people. Like you both do." Her eyes pricked, but she would not cry. Not here. The silence wasn't helping much either. Batman's calculating gaze bore into Stella and Robin's frown expressed how he was feeling all too well.

"Go home." Batman finally said after a long silence. He didn't say much more than that and didn't spare her another glance. With his cape cluttering behind him, he turned around to continue on his way to meet Jim Gordon. Only Robin turned his head to give her one last look, his face very curious now, but he didn't wave like he did the first time they met.

She heaved a sigh and trudged back to where Christina was so that they can go on their way as well.

That night, Bruce Wayne sat in front of his computers in the Bat Cave, his mask on the desk beside the tray of tea and cookies Alfred had brought him. He stared intensely at the huge computer screen with his chin resting on top of his folded hands. His eyes were particularly trained on the picture and information of a certain girl.

"You can't be serious, Bruce."

Bruce leaned back into his chair and turned his head to see his protégé and ward, Dick Grayson, with his arms crossed over his chest. It was obvious Dick wasn't all that thrilled about Bruce's silence and the way he had the profile of the girl from earlier up on the screen. He was worried about his title as Robin being taken away from him.

"You are Robin." Bruce said firmly, reassuring the young boy that no one would replace him. After Dick's parents being murdered and then him leaving the Haly's circus, being Robin was one of the constants in his life. Bruce knew that better than anyone and he wasn't ever going to take that away from Dick. Bruce knew that well.

That seemed to ease the tension in Dick's shoulders and he let his arms drop to his side before walking over to the computers too. If Bruce didn't plan on recruiting this girl or training her, then why was he looking at her records?

"Stella Cho." Young, blue eyes darted quickly through the information displayed to him. "Hey, she's my age. Well, a few months younger, but same grade. And she has a brown belt in taekwondo."

"Yes." Bruce said simply, leaning back in his chair and propping his elbows on either side of the arm rests. "She has potential."

"So you're serious about taking her in?"

Bruce paused and pressed the side of his forefingers against his lips. His eyes followed yesterday's security recording of when Stella had tried to save that woman. Yes, the young girl had potential, but she lacked proper discipline and skills. Despite that though, she seemed genuine about wanting to help people. How far could that get her? She was naïve, childish, and brash. Even if she was certain about all this, could the girl handle what comes with being a vigilante or hero? Or was this just something she would do until push comes to shove and she would back out?

"No. Not me." Bruce said after some thinking. He couldn't show her, but he knew who could.

Hello! I decided I wanted to update today instead of Friday, since I have a lot of chapters pre-written already. Thank you kindly to everyone who reviewed, favourited, and followed! You guys are great :)

It's gradually moving along. Stella's only 11 years old, after all, and at that age you're pretty childish, have a lot of big dreams, and don't always make the best/smartest decisions. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from the childhood stories many of my friends tell me :) But, I promise everything will develop!

~Mari