Disclaimer : I don't own the characters, I just play with them.
This is, like, the longest chapter I've ever written, so ya'll better be happy :P Here we gooo
"So why did your mom bring you here?" I asked her, watching as she ran on the treadmill.
Sweating, Adriel shrugged. "She's going on some secret government thing," she said, increasing her speed. I felt slightly jealous that a kid could run faster and longer than I could, but then again, this was Batman's kid, so she didn't really count.
"You never answered me, in the elevator," Adriel huffed, turning off the treadmill and sitting down on the side. I sat beside her.
"What was the question?"
"If Dad is Batman and Uncle D is Superman, what am I?"
I rolled my eyes, my cheeks flaring. "Uhh, well.. Batgirl."
Adriel mimicked my eye-rolling routine. "I've been called worse," she shrugged.
We sat there in silence, watching Bobby and some other employee that I didn't know wrestle around on the mat nearest us.
Connie and Lula both say I'm hella lucky, to work with these bunch of ex-army muscular body-builder hunks, but sometimes they scare the bejeevus out of me. Of course, they're a good thing to have around when there's a psycho clownerized stalker after you.
"So," Adriel said, stretching her legs out in front of her, "What did you think about my aunts and uncles?"
Oh shit.
"They were.. pleasant." Way to go Steph, we're talking about people here, not flowers.
Adriel snorted. "Right. You know, you're not a good liar. All of your emotions show on your face."
Oh really.
"Oh, so what are my emotions on them?"
"Well, according to your face, you found my family absolutely bonkers, and judging from earlier, you don't seem to like Tony too much. You haven't talked about Diego or Tia or Carla, but judging from your facial expressions just now as I said their names, I'm guessing you liked Diego, thought Tia was sweet, and thought Carla was bossy. But then, that's just my interpretations of your facial expressions."
Holy Christ. This kid is telopathic. ESP at it's goddamn finest.
"And now you're wearing an expression of admiration and surprise, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say, no, neither my father nor I have ESP, your face is just easy to read."
Well shit. Ranger's weapon is ruined.
"How old are you?" I asked her.
She frowned, then raised her eyebrow (how the hell do they do that?). "I'm twelve."
Christ. A twelve year old that is more philosophical than freakin' Yoda.
The world is going to hell in a handbasket.
"So," she said, changing the subject, "I heard from Les that you're being stalked by a.. clown?" She was frowning, though I didn't know why.
"Evil clowns," I muttered.
To my surprise, Adriel shuddered. "I agree. Clowns scare me."
I couldn't believe it. Batgirl was scared of clowns?
Maybe I'm not as weird as I thought.
"I got spit on by the clown yesterday," I said, shivering at the thought.
I can take rolling around in garbage, getting peed on by dogs, even getting "marked" by naked old men filled with Viagra.
But getting spit on by clowns draws the line.
"Ladies," said a voice from behind us. Both Adriel and I jumped, which caused us to get tangled up and fall to the floor.
"Dammit," I muttered, trying to un-tangle my hair from her headband. We stood up, still connected.
Ranger stood, looking down at us, silently shaking with laughter. Adriel glared at him while she, herself, tried to take her headband off.
"Don't sneak up on us like that," she shot, yanking the headband out. I unwrapped my hair from it, then she put it back in.
"Be more aware of-"
"Your surroundings, we know, we know," Adriel and I said together.
Holy shit, she's my twin.
Ranger raised an eyebrow at us, but did not comment. "Dri, your mother wants to talk to you, she's still upstairs."
Grumbling under her breath, Adriel left me with Batman.
"Bonding?" he asked with an almost-smile.
God, I hate how he does that.
"Up yours." I stomped out of the gym, him on my tail. When I reached the elevator, however, I realized I didn't know where I was planning on going.
Ranger seemed to, however, because he gave me the keys to one of the SUV's. "If you want to, go pick up the files for RangeMan from Vinnie's," he said.
I nodded and hit the "down" button on the elevator. A second later, the doors opened and I stepped in.
Ranger watched me as I stepped in.
"Try not to blow it up," he grinned. Before I could retaliate, the doors slammed shut.
DAMMIT.
Griping about bosses and bombs and Batman and pretty much anything else that came to mind, I stomped over to the SUV and got in. Within minutes, I was on my way to Vinnie's.
In the rearview mirror, I saw a black SUV similiar to mine. I rolled down my window and waved, then turned my attention to the radio.
As soon as I parked the SUV in Vinnie's lot, my tail parked beside me. I walked over to them and tapped on the window.
"Bombshell," said a grinning Lester. I looked over him and saw that Hal was driving.
"Hola," I said, then turned and entered the office.
"Hey white girl!" yelled a bored-looking Lula. She was, as always, decked out in spandex : today's colors were neon green and black.
"Where the hell have you been?" yelled Vinnie from his office.
"Dammit," Connie swore, moving objects on her desk around. "VINNIE," she yelled, "WHEN I FIND THAT BUG I'M GOIN TO SHOVE IT UP YOUR-"
She was interrupted by a big "bang" outside that caused everything to shake. The bang was followed by another "bang", which was followed by gunshots.
"Holy shit, we're under attack!" yelled Lula, throwing herself at me. While I was worried about not being squished by the 200 pound woman on top of me, a thing ran into the room with us from outside.
"CLOWN!" I screamed, hiding further under Lula. Lula looked at it, then at me.
"Sorry white girl," she said, and jumped up and ran, jiggling with every step.
Yeah, thanks.
The clown was about three feet away when it fell, a bullet through its scull. I screamed again, although the clown's body fell away from me. I looked behind me in time to see a very scary looking Connie put away her gun.
Jesus christ. Two encounters by clowns within two days.
I inched away from the body, until I was under Connie's desk.
Lula was staring, wide-eyed, at the body, and then at me. Connie was swearing a blue streak in Italian.
About two seconds after Connie broke her stream of curses for air, Ranger, Tank, Cal, Juinor, Bobby, and Woody all entered, guns drawn. They quickly looked over the scene, then all but Ranger exited.
"Christ, Stephanie," he groaned, pulling me close to him.
I froze. Ranger rarely showed me any emotion whatsoever whenever we were in front of people. Connie and Lula both stared at us, jaws slack.
Ranger gave them a nod, then, with his arm around my waist, steered me over to the uncomfortable couch near Vinnie's office door. He had me sit down, then he swung open Vinnie's door.
"Get out from under the desk," he ordered him. Vinnie was still zipping his pants when Ranger pushed him down on the opposite side of the couch.
"Connie," he said. She sat beside me, and Lula beside her.
"Don't move," he told us, and then he was gone.
We sat there in silence, distantly hearing the sirens. Ranger soon reappeared, this time with blood on his shirt.
"Oh my God!" I gasped. I had forgotten Lester and Hal.
"They will be okay," he said, knowing what I was thinking.
By now, my emotions were in dangerous zone. "Wh-what happened?" I asked him, my lip trembling.
I. Will. Not. Cry.
He pulled me into Vinnie's office, leaving the other three sitting on the couch. Then, he wrapped me in his arms, my head on his shoulder.
I couldn't help it.
The tears started streaming.
"I p-put even m-more of your m-men in the hospital," I sobbed, knowing full well that I was getting snot all over his painted-on shirt. "D-did the SUV blow up?"
He looked down at me, then nodded slowly. "Yours blew up, which caused Lester and Hal's to blow up. They weren't in the vehicle-" he said hastily, seeing my saucer-wide eyes, "They had gotten out and were walking around the building."
I sobbed harder. "I b-blew up a c-car and I wasn't e-even near it! H-how am I e-ever going to b-be a g-good bounty h-hunter? R-Rex deserves a b-better mother than me."
I knew as well as anyone else that Rex had nothing to do with it, but I felt I should throw that in as well. "S-stupid clowns," I cried.
I was not prepared for what Ranger did next.
He started laughing.
Hard.
"Babe," he groaned, laughing harder. I was revolted.
How could he laugh at a time like this?
I started to pull away, but he held me tighter. "I'm sorry," he said, chuckling.
"Hmph."
I would've argued more, but a shadow appeared in the doorway.
"Am I interrupting?"
Weeeeee.. mk.. and I had trouble starting out the beginning of the chapter, so it starts out kinda dull and borin' but anyway
Review!
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV