Batman, currently Bruce, woke up from one of his rare sleeps rather early. Alfred had made him go to bed right when he got back from patrol around three; it was now seven in the morning. He decided it was late enough to head over to the Mount Justice to train Avery. But as he put his costume on he noticed the Bat-Computer blinking away, indicating a message. It was from Robin, a video feed. He opened it up and saw Avery talking, confessing everything she said to the Team the previous night.
The part where Avery talked about being captured by Black Manta cinched it. Batman ran to the zeta beam and set the coordinates for the Cave. He had a bone to pick with a certain teen.
.:Back to Life:.
Recognized: Batman, 0-2
Nobody was awake to hear the zeta tube whirl to life and spit out one of the League's founders.
Batman charged ahead to the hallways that contained the bedrooms. He quickly located Avery's room and opened the door. Avery was still sleeping off the long night with the Team in her bed. She, once again, was tossing and turning with a nightmare. Not that Batman particularly cared at the moment.
As he was about to wake the teen up his feet made contact with something that crackled. He looked down to see paper, it was too dark to make out anything on it without night vision, but it wasn't important enough to look at just yet. So he returned to the task at hand.
The Dark Knight tore the blankets off the bed in a first attempt to wake Avery up. Apparently a first attempt was all that was necessary. Avery opened her eyes and blinked a few times to become adjusted to the light in her still dark room. After her eyes became accommodated, she sat up and looked directly at Batman.
"In my defense, you never told me what time to be up today," Avery pushed her tangled hair out of her face.
Batman promptly ignored the defense, "Get up, get dressed, and meet me in the gym."
"How much time do I have?" Avery scrambled up to go to her closet for workout clothes.
"Four minutes, thirty-three seconds," Batman answered and walked out the door.
"Wonderful," Avery muttered under her breath as she searched for her athletic shoes.
.:Back to Life:.
Batman stood waiting in the gym, trying to figure out a way to talk to Avery without angering her to the point of not sharing anymore information. He had heard what happened with Nightwing, so Avery's already expressed anger at an avoidable subject. Now just to work around the ones that were unavoidable.
Being blunt in this case could cause Avery to put up her defenses and refuse to answer, so that was out of the question. It was almost like trying to put Dick back to bed when he was nine years old. You had to coerse, bargain, and plead to get the acrobat to sleep. Sadly, that seemed like the only option to deal with Avery without the situation blowing up. Just as Batman finished his plan, Avery jogged up in her athletic clothes for the day.
"Did I make it?" She asked.
"With three seconds to spare," Batman walked to the center of the gym, where large areas of mats were set down for sparring. "Here's how this is going to work today. If you land a hit on me, you can ask a question. When I land a hit on you, I get to ask my own question. All answers will be truthful, got it?"
Avery hesitated at the edge of the mat, "There was actually something I wished to address before training started today."
"You mean your kidnapping by the hands of Black Manta? I've already gotten the information."
"Of course," Avery rolled her eyes and stepped onto the mat.
Before she could react Batman struck out and hit her in the shoulder, taking his question in turn.
"Why didn't you tell me about Black Manta before?" The Dark Knight asked as he retracted his arm.
"Alright, so this is just starting with no warning," Avery assumed a fighting position before answering the big bat's question. "No useable information was extracted during the interrogations, so there was no reason to tell you if there was no immediate risk."
Batman faked a hit to the left and then swooped in with his right fist to Avery's torso. "If there had been an immediate risk?"
"You would have been promptly informed," The teen justified.
The costumed hero jumped over Avery's head, letting his cape disorient her. With Avery confused, he kicked the back of her knees. Avery in turn crumpled from the hit and fell to the floor.
"Is there anything else you should've shared a long time ago that you haven't yet?"
"No, and that was a cheap shot," Avery stood up and began to rethink her strategy.
"Who ever said this was a fair fight?" Batman smirked ever so slightly.
Avery smiled and went in for a hit to a nerve cluster right under Batman's left arm. Batman saw it coming a mile away and pushed her arm far to the side so she would keep going and lose balance. To completely throw her off balance he gently kicked her in the lower back so she would fall face first to the ground. What Batman didn't expect was Avery falling into a handstand to catch herself, and in turn flipping over to stand back on her feet.
"Good, apply the techniques you know," Batman praised ever so lightly. "Why did you come to me instead of any of the other heroes?"
"You know what loss is, I can tell. Any other person would pity me and treat me like I was fragile. But you? You see me as who I am, that the loss shapes who I am. You do not try to change me, at least besides this intense training. I appreciate that."
Batman nodded in response and dropped down and spun with his left leg out to knock Avery's feet out from under her. Avery jumped up just in time and landed a hit on Batman's back as he completed his spin and was about to stand up.
"Who did you lose?" Avery asked lightly.
"Parents," Batman struck out and delivered a roundhouse kick to Avery's right side immediately after his response. "How long were you observing me to know I've lost people close to me?"
"Observing, five months and seven days total. I have known you have suffered loss for two months and twenty-nine days."
The Dark Knight blocked one of Avery's punches and kneed her in the gut, "What made you so sure?"
"What other person spends holidays out when there is no criminal activity, and goes out every night anyways to make sure criminals know their place. You have something worth fighting for; there are only a few things that could fuel that. Loss is the prime suspect, as you try to make sure no one else is familiar with the feeling."
"Maybe you should put that brain of yours to work trying to figure out how to beat me, you might stand a chance."
Batman promptly sidestepped Avery's kick of retaliation at the comment.
A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know it's just a filler chapter. I wanted to do a more content rich chapter but it wasn't working, and I didn't want to skimp out on writing, so I did this. Sorry if you don't like it, but better chapters will be coming later. Remember, 125th reviewer gets a prize, and we're really close to that number. Just something random to put in, I've gotten hit in the face with a volleyball twice in one week. That's not pleasent, avoid volleyballs to the face people. Have a nice day.
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