Yeah, what I said at the end of the last chapter? Just teasing. It's not happening yet. This part is awkward, but whatever. The story is still good, right?

aspiringTechGuy: I totally get what you mean. The New 52 isn't as great as I thought it would be. I haven't read many, but I have seen enough to not get excited.

Chapter 12

She stared blankly at the five people standing around the table. The Flash encouraged her to walk further into the room, but she didn't move. They were all staring at her. Batman, Superman, and the one with green skin didn't look happy to be there, but Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were smiling. Well, Green Lantern was grinning.

Since she wasn't moving any farther into the room, the conversation started with her and Flash by the door. Batman stepped forward, glaring at her. Typical. "When did you discover your ability to fly?"

CJ blinked, her mouth opening, but nothing came out. He shifted angrily, and she snapped out of it. "Um, how do you know about that?"

Batman narrowed his eyes into glaring slits, but before he could growl out an answer, the man with the red S on his chest stepped forward, closer to her than Batman was. "We haven't officially met. I'm Superman." He smiled friendly.

She blinked again. "Uh, hi?" How was that relevant?

He glanced back at Batman, his expression hidden for a moment. Then he looked to back at CJ. "We recorded the incident at the bridge. We saw, mostly, what happened."

CJ looked to the floor. "Oh. Well, um-" she shrugged, looking up to Wonder Woman, but didn't meet any of their gazes. "I found out when it happened. I realized that I wasn't falling anymore, and I opened my eyes, and I was flying. But it was only for a few seconds..." She quieted near the end. They were staring at her... oddly.

"That was your first time?" Superman asked her, and she nodded. "Interesting," he mumbled, glancing at the rest of the team.

"You're surprisingly taking our whole situation very well," Flash said beside her, folding his arms across his chest, but he sounded like he was telling the other members.

The six of them glanced at each other, but CJ couldn't tell what they were thinking. Three of them were wearing masks, which kind of prevented her from seeing their expressions, if they even showed any, but the green skinned man was wearing a blank expression, where Wonder Woman and Superman were just thinking, in some way. CJ felt helpless.

Finally, Superman spoke again, turning away from the rest of them. "We appreciate your help, CJ."

He was referring to the bridge, and saving those people. She shrugged. "I was just doing what I had to."

Superman nodded at this, his eyebrows lowering in deeper thought. She was very uncomfortable in the room, having six powerfully skilled people surrounding her. They wouldn't hurt her, CJ knew, but it didn't mean she wasn't intimidated.

She knew she should leave. No one spoke, and everyone looked at her, as if they wanted to speak, but they didn't want to in front of her. She knew she was informally dismissed, and so she gave a short nod, then backed out into the hall.

Taking a deep breath, she looked both ways down the hall as the door slid closed behind her. The whole situation had been odd. Flash had brought her in there, and they asked her two questions. Were they expecting something from her? And why?

She decided to head back to her room, to go relax. When she got there, though, she sighed. Theodore Wallace was still at the table, doing sciency stuff. He didn't notice her stop in the doorway, and she could have left then, but something made her stop and look at him. He was probably the only "normal" person on this space station. Everyone else was a hero, going out of their way to save others' lives, where Wallace could possibly be doing the same thing by sitting at a table, taking notes, and looking at computer screens all day.

CJ paused, thinking this over. He could be a hero, someday. Possibly even to her, if he could find a way to send her back home.

She sighed to herself then, stepping into the room, and approaching the table. He looked up, finally noticing the movement. He was too caught up in his work before to have seen her, but now that she was right in front of him, he jumped slightly at the surprise. He stood, realizing who he was looking at. His tone was full of worry when he said, "CJ. When I saw you jump off that bridge, I thought you were..." He shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "I thought maybe you were hurt."

Hearing those words from him, directed to her, in that tone…. Something deep down inside of her turned, but she didn't know what it was. She had never felt the tightening feeling of her stomach before, or the burning in her arms. She was uncomfortable, and felt pressured under his worried gaze. She tried to shrug it off, looking away from him and at his table. "So, uh..." she thought of something to say. "What were you going to tell Batman earlier?"

He looked away from her, too, but CJ barely saw the disappointment flash across his face. "I figured out how to open the portal."

CJ's eyes widened in shock and she almost yelled her next word. "What?"

He shrunk back, confused. "I gave all the information to Batman. With both of our research, we had found a way to open the portal. I thought I was clear before...?"

She didn't know what to say. He had figured it out, but she was doing nothing. She started for the door, but barely got through it without Wallace shouting after her. She paused and turned back to him out in the hallway, waiting for him to speak. She didn't know why she stopped, though. If she really wanted to go home, she would have ignored him, wouldn't she? "It's going to take another day to set everything up for the portal. Even then, Batman still wants to test it. We don't know if it's safe to go through, or if something will come out on the other side."

"Are you kidding me?" She almost yelled. It could have possibly been considered a yell, but she knew she could get louder. Nevertheless, Wallace shrunk a little at her sudden outburst. "I came through that portal. It's fine. And you're the one that said only I could go through the portal. It's my world. There's definitely no threats over there, besides your typical criminals." She didn't know why she was upset, and was immediately guilty for getting angry at him.

He straightened his wrinkled shirt, and CJ wondered when the last time he had taken a shower was. "Only you could have walked through that portal. Another one could be made, for someone else. All someone would need is DNA to put into the computer."

She blinked. "Batman's still doing tests. I'm not going home."

Wallace just stared at her, unwilling to answer.

CJ looked down. She told herself that she wanted to go home. Normal was better. Here, anything could happen, and she wasn't sure if she could handle all that came her way. But... she liked her powers. No one had them in her world, and she could help people. She didn't need training, because the powers seemed to be a part of her. She was better in this world. She had saved those people from the bridge, mostly because of the teleporter, but also because she had destroyed the seat belt around the boy. In her world, she hadn't been able to do that.

Then her thoughts strayed back to her first moments in this world. She had destroyed that car and the people in it, because she was scared of getting run over. In her world, she wouldn't have done that. She would have either gotten run over or caused the car to swerve and possibly hit someone else.

Which world was better? One with powers, or one without them?

She turned and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" The Doctor asked from behind her. His voice was clearly layered in worry, but he didn't follow her.

She didn't look back as she said, "I just need to be alone."

She had found the very large room with the glass wall and the view of Earth. She sat right next to the glass, staring at a planet that looked exactly like her own. Instead of thinking about the portal and all the questions that came with it, she thought about herself in this world. Was she considered an alien here? Technically, from what she understood, she had different DNA than the humans here. She had something called the metagene, but Dr. Wallace had said it was nothing he had seen before, and he had seen other metagenes.

The possibility of this being a dream was definitely out of the question. Her dreams had never been this elaborate and extreme. It definitely not the afterlife; they were supposed to be happy, but this was too cruel. It was real life, but was she alone. Were there other people that could go through the portal and lose or gain powers?

The Earth below was still covered in white clouds, but beneath the gaps, she could see blue and green. She had to stare intently at the green, the outline, and factor in the possibility that what she considered a map could be rotated. After a lot of thinking in her mind, which distracted her from the two worlds' situation, she discovered that the continent below was Asia, and she could barely see Australia.

She sighed, fogging up the glass in front of her. Tiredly, she reached up and pressed her pointer finger to the glass. Slowly, she dragged it across the glass, making a line through the mist. She lifted her finger again, and made another line. Within thirty seconds, she had drawn a crude picture of some kind of bug. Near it's rear, she added five lines coming off of it. When she was finished, it was a firefly, the one that lit up. She was about to wipe it away, but the fog had been slowly disappearing, and then it was completely gone, leaving only the outline of the bug. She decided to leave it. It didn't seem like people would come in here and see it anyways, so she didn't bother.

She sighed again, this time away from the glass.

Thankfully, a bustling out in the hall caught her attention. She stood and rushed out, searching for the source of the commotion with everyone else. A few people were walking and talking, but they sounded confused and concerned. CJ followed them, curious. They walked into a big room with a high ceiling, and when CJ looked around, she swore she saw a platform up above that looked similar to what the teleporter place looked like.

Superman was talking to Batman, who was glaring at him, and besides the four others that were standing on the other side of them (Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the green skinned man), Red Tornado, a man in blue and red, a woman in brown that looked like animal skins and animal teeth formed into a necklace, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and the four teens that had teleported days before, plus two she couldn't really see, were all standing on this side of Batman and Superman. CJ stood behind these people, trying not to be seen.

"We don't know what would happen if you went through," Superman was saying. "You're human. The portal could kill you."

Batman continued to glare. "I'm the only reliable option. I know how to make the portal to come back, and I know what we're looking for."

"It's too risky," Superman stated, crossing his arms.

Wonder Woman stepped closer to the two. "Superman's right, Batman. You could die."

Batman's glare deepened, and he opened his mouth the disagree again, but a voice from the spectators stopped him. "Then send me."

All eyes turned to Black Canary, who had stepped forward and had folded her arms across her chest. Superman's arms fell to his sides, and all who were in the small group stared at her, surprised.

Green Arrow was the first to react beside her. "No-"

She didn't let him state his opinion by glaring at him, then looking at the three. "From my understanding, she has a form of the metagene. I have the metagene. If I go through the portal, I'll lose my canary call." She shrugged. "I can do the objective without it."

The crowd stared at her, thinking over what she was saying. CJ didn't know what the objective was, but she knew they were talking about going through the portal.

Green Arrow came up and stood in front of her, so that she would look at him. "You don't know that you'll be fine. It's not our world."

"It's close enough. We've been to stranger Earths."

He shook his head. "What about the portal? How will you make one on that world? You don't know how to."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll make one."

"There's no time!" Arrow growled, getting frustrated. "You'll be stuck there."

Meanwhile, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman had been looking at each other. CJ assumed that they were close enough to know what the looks meant. Superman nodded to Black Canary. "You leave in an hour."

Black Canary nodded back, then she left the room, and Green Arrow followed her. CJ knew somehow that he would continue to try to change her mind until time was up.

When she looked back to the rest of the group, she found Batman glaring at her. CJ swallowed, cringing internally. Dang it.

Superman didn't seem to see her yet, and Batman didn't stop him from talking. He and Batman spoke to each of the people still around.

"The rest of us are going to New York. Titans, construct a larger team and make a perimeter. Evacuate the area."

"Atom, you'll help me contain the portal."

"Lantern: You're on prisoner duty. Your ring will contain all of them once we're done."

"Everyone else, approach and disable."

The crowd dispersed, giving strange glances at CJ, all but Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Batman continued to glare at her.

CJ stirred up some courage. "Something happened. With the portal."

Superman and Wonder Woman glanced at each other, then at Batman. "She has a right to know," Diana said quietly. Batman shifted his glare to her, but when he looked into her eyes, his glare softened, only a bit. CJ barely noticed it, and she was only five feet from him.

After another moment at looking at Wonder Woman, he glanced at Superman. Then he turned to CJ. "Another portal was opened. Multiple, actually. When one closed, another opened. About a dozen. When the League got there, we couldn't find anyone."

CJ's breath hitched. "There are others?"

"From nearby security feeds, we saw no one near the building when the portals opened." He glared again, but it wasn't directed at CJ. He just seemed angry. "There has been someone with powers attacking a nearby bus station. We can assume that they all have powers, and that someone from your world is purposefully sending people through the portals."

"They're creating an army," Superman stated, as if he just came to the conclusion himself. He turned to CJ. "That's why we're sending Canary through. Whoever is doing this is a threat."

CJ didn't need to hear anymore. "I want to help."

Now it was Wonder Woman's turn to talk to her. She stepped from between the two men to face her. "We're grateful for your help, but the League can handle it. It's still dangerous for you."

CJ clenched her hands into fists. "I can control my powers. I can help."

She placed a hand on her hip. "You can't help evacuate, and you can't fight if it comes to that. In both situations, you'll hurt people, and that is not what we want."

She had to think a moment, but she came up with a solution to her problem. "I can absorb fire, too. If there is a fight, and things start to blow up, I can always help put the fire out."

The three looked at each other once again, but this time, CJ knew that they had changed their perspective. Could Fire, or anyone else who could control fire, absorb it? Was CJ the first one they had encountered? The three didn't speak, but they must have been close acquaintances to read each other's' body language. They all turned back to CJ, but Batman was the one to speak. "You'll stay with the Titans. If we need your help, we'll contact you."

After he spoke, he made to move, but CJ was both shocked and angry enough to stop his movement. "You're sticking me with a bunch of teenagers?"

He paused and turned to her, his glare deep, and his voice low and hard. "They are not just a group of teenagers. They have training, they trust each other with their lives, and they have been doing this for over a year. You, on the other hand, have been here for a week. You have little training, are still learning the extent of your powers, and have shown that you are not in complete control." He paused, letting it sink in. "I trust them more than I trust you. They may be young, but you will do as they tell you." Seeing that the point was made, he left. Superman and Wonder Woman glanced at her in sympathy, then turned to follow him.

CJ followed them as well, glad that she was going to help. Batman was completely right. She had no training in this, but she had proven that she could help with the incident on the bridge. Even though she didn't like it, she met up with the Titans. She was going to help more people. At least she was doing something in this world.

If you didn't know: The Founders, Teen Titans, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Atom, and Vixen were in this chapter. And the Titans are the Teen Titans, but I don't think the League would always call them Teen Titans. Titans sounds more natural.

The part with the Founders and the part after with Dr. Wallace was just me being bored and making her question. Green Arrow and Black Canary might have had a little awkward scene, too.

Oh, and CJ doesn't really know what's happening, and she's not going to ask. Similar portals that CJ walked through are being opened up, and people are coming out of them. They all have their own unique powers, and somehow master them almost immediately. They're going to send Black Canary through to destroy whatever it is that is making the portals, and then somehow come back. That part is too confusing for me to understand or write, so I'd say to just use your imagination and pretend you know how.

Thanks.