I own nothing. See below the story.
As the weeks went by, everyone became more skilled with their powers. Even Mari got to work on her strength with her mom.
Fridays meant that the teens had a break. They often watched a movie while eating pizza. Tonight, they planned on actually leaving the tower. The only problem was that they couldn't decide what movie to see.
"If we go see Marooned Ninjas 5, we won't get out 'till late and we wouldn't have time to get pizza," Joey said. He was hogging the newspaper.
"We can go see the new Johnny Malcolm movie," Elle suggested.
"The only reason that you want to see that movie is because he supposedly takes his shirt off," Kevin countered. All of the girls wanted to see Vampyre Spy Academy with Johnny Malcolm, Kevin and Scott wanted to see Marooned Ninjas 5, and Joey just didn't want to go.
"You know who I heard was in it?" Mari said, trying to get the boys in. "I heard Vasilisa Hathaway was in it." That was all that needed to be said. All of the boys, including Joey, jumped up.
"Count us in!" All of the girls started laughing. Claire walked over to Joey.
"Better stop drooling, boy. You have a girlfriend," she reminded him. Joey smiled and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.
"TMPDA!" Cam said, pretending to gag.
"TMPDA?" Elle asked, trying not to actually gag.
"It means 'Too Much Public Displays of Affection'," Mari said. "Now, let's get going. I seriously need some..." Mari was soon interrupted by a blaring alarm and flashing red lights.
"What's going on?" Ivy yelled over the blaring alarm with her hands over her ears.
"Trouble," Richard said, appearing out of nowhere. He was dressed in his Nightwing outfit. Appearing soon after was the rest of the adults dressed in their superhero outfits. Tim soon fell in with Titan and Lily following behind.
"What's up?" Tim asked as he came up to Nightwing.
"Something's up about ten miles outside of town," Cyborg answered, standing in front of the computer.
"Yeah, baby! Time to show the world what we can do!" Kevin said, pumping his fists in the air.
"NO," Nightwing said, whipping the smile off Kevin's face. "You kids aren't ready yet. We're going, you're staying."
"But Dad... Come on, they've been training really hard," Mari pleaded, walking up to her dad.
"Do you want them to go or you?" he replied. By now, Nightwing and Mari were standing right in front of each other.
"We've all worked really hard. Give us all a chance."
"No. You're never going out to fight. That's an order." Mari didn't reply to that, she just kept staring at him. Mask met sunglasses. "Let's get going, Titans." Titan started following Nightwing until Mari gave him a dirty look.
"I finally get to work with the Titans, cool," Tim said with a triumphant smile.
"No. You make sure that the kids stay here." Tim's smile fell.
"You're not my boss," Tim countered, starting to follow Nightwing.
"You're not in Bruce's jurisdiction here. I'm in charge, which means you'll listen to me," Nightwing said, starting to walk out. All of the teens looked at the other adults, Tim and Mari staring daggers at Nightwing. Starfire walked up to Mari and put her hands on her shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Sweety." Mari didn't respond. She just kept staring angrily at the door where Nightwing stood.
"We need to get going," Nightwing said and walked through the door. All of the adults followed, giving the kids encouraging smiles. Raven stopped and gave Lily a quick hug before she left.
When the last adult left, Tim walked up to Mari. "Listen, your dad can be a major jerk sometimes, but he's trying to protect you. Try not to take everything he says to heart." When he tried to put his hands on Mari's shoulders, Mari walked towards the door.
"Leave me alone," Mari said as she walked through the doors.
"Well, there goes our plans," Claire sighed. "I'm heading to my room."
"Is she going to be okay?" Elle asked. Kevin, Scott, and Ivy all looked worried as well.
"I don't know," Cam said. "I just don't know." Everyone just stood there.
"I'm heading to my room," Joey said. walking out the door.
"Well," Elle said, picking up Lily, "looks like it's TV and whatever we can find in the fridge tonight." Tim continued not to move, seemingly ignoring her.
"I know what you want to do," Cam said to Tim. "But if you go to her, she'll just get even more upset. Just let her ride this out." She handed Tim a carrot. "Just relax a little. She'll be fine." Tim took the carrot and went to sit with the rest of the kids after taking one last look at the door.
"I thought I would find you up here," Joey said as he walked onto the roof.
"Hey," Mari said, looking straight ahead at the ocean. She sat closer to the edge than normal with her arms hugging her legs. Her hair was down too, allowing the sea breeze to play with it. "You know you're making me nervous just standing there."
"Sure, thanks. I would love to sit down," Joey said, sitting down next to Mari. He could see that she had tear stains on her cheeks. "Are you okay?"
"Fine. Just peachy," Mari said with bitterness to the ocean.
"You know what's funny?" he asked. Mari looked at Joey with confusion. "It's very hard to lie to an empath." Mari turned and shook her head. "You know, you're right," he continued.
"Huh?"
"You're right. We should get the chance to go out and fight. Especially you. You train harder than any of us. But your dad has a point."
"Wait, you said..."
"I know what I said," Joey said, looking at Mari. "But your dad is just trying to protect you."
"You're starting to sound a lot like Tim," Mari mumbled. She looked at Joey.
"You're his only daughter. When you're practicing, I can feel his emotions. He's worried about your safety. He just wants to keep you safe," he said gently. Mari looked at Joey.
"That was really insightful. Did you come up with that on the walk up here or did you make it up as you went?" Mari said with a smile.
"A little bit of both, actually." Joey smiled too. They sat there for a little bit until a strong wind came and tried to push both of them off.
"Stupid wind," Mari said, getting up and walking farther away from the edge.
"So, when were you going to tell us that you're scared of heights?" Joey said, standing up to sit next to Mari.
"What? I'm not scared of heights," Mari replied. "I'm not scared of anything!" She put her hands on her hips, doing a superhero pose. "You're not buying this, are you?" Joey shook his head. "Thought not. Look, I'm not scared of heights. In fact, back in Gotham, I would climb to the roof of Wayne Manor and watch the stars. I am scared of falling, though. Oh, and storms freak me out a little bit." Joey kept looking at her. She was now wearing a sarcastic smirk. "Funny, isn't it? The daughter of Batman's famous ward and an alien warrior princess that can fly is scared of falling right out of the sky."
"I don't think it's funny. You put too much pressure on yourself. Look, being scared is perfectly okay. It means you're human." Mari turned and opened her mouth, but he spoke before she could. "Okay, in your case, half human. It just means you're normal. And don't even think about trying to correct me," he added when he saw Mari turn and try to correct him. "Really though, falling isn't that bad when you have people who will do everything they can to catch you." Mari just smiled. "I have an idea," Joey said, standing up and and holding his hand out to help Mari up. She hesitated. "Do you trust me?" Mari looked from the hand to his eyes. There was something in his eyes that said he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. "Do you trust me?" he repeated.
"Yes," Mari said before reaching for his hand. "Now, what are you doing?" Joey smiled.
"Just look at me and follow where I lead you." Joey took both of her hands in his and started walking. Mari did as she was told. After a few feet, he stopped. "Alright, you can look wherever you want."
"What are you talking..." She looked down to see them standing on a thin, black disk. Mari screamed a little bit. In doing so, she lost what little balance she had on her own and grabbed the only thing that could help keep her on the disk: Joey. It took a little bit for her to realize what she was doing. "Sorry," Mari mumbled, removing her arms from around him.
"Um, no problem," Joey said, hiding his face for a second. "Do you want to sit?" Mari nodded her head. Joey expanded the disk and helped her down. He sat down next to her before he lowered the disk at a slow speed. Mari cringed a little until she realized that nothing was going to happen to her. "See, nothing wrong at all with falling," Joey said. He levitated a rock and tried to skip it. It landed in the water with a loud "bloop". Mari started laughing. "Oh, so you think you can do any better than that?" Joey asked with a huff.
"Yes. In fact, I know I can do better than you." Joey smiled and levitated several more rocks up and put them in the space between them. Mari grabbed one and skipped it twice. "So," Mari continued, grabbing a rock and holding it, "how are practices going?"
"Fine. My mom has me working on transporting to different rooms in the Tower. I did have a problem when my shoes stayed in the gym and I transported out here on the rocks." Mari laughed. "Yeah, it's funny, but it hurt really badly." Mari stopped laughing a little. "So, how are your practices going with your mom?" Mari threw the rock and it skipped only twice again.
"Okay, I guess. I can lift a lot more weight than I thought any person could." She picked up another rock and sighed. "It's just, my mom keeps hoping that I can shoot starbolts and fly. I hate seeing her face when I fall on my butt or can't hit the targets. It makes me feel like I'm letting her down." Mari threw the rock and it only skipped once.
"You don't give yourself enough credit. Look, your parents would be proud of you even if you didn't have powers and were girl that couldn't hold her own in a fight." Mari looked at Joey and smiled.
"Aww, Joey's a little soft," Mari said. Joey looked at her and flexed his arms.
"I'm not soft. I'm a tough guy!" Joey picked up a stone and skipped it three times.
"Oh, you're so strong. I could never be as strong as you," Mari said, sarcasm in every word. She went to reach for the last rock at the same time as Joey. Their hands met for a few seconds before Mari pulled away, letting Joey have the rock. "So, do you charm Claire up here with your smooth words?"
"I've never actually brought Claire up here. She hates the wind, says it messes with her hair. Besides, she can do this," he said, motioning to them hovering over the ocean, "and more on her own." He levitated one last rock for Mari and they threw them at the same time. Joey's skipped four times. Mari's just kept skipping and skipping and skipping until it was out of sight. "I hate your super strength."
"You wish you could be a fourth as strong as me," Mari said, flexing her arm. Soon, she started laughing and Joey joined in. It took a while for them to calm down a little.
"Hey, why is your hair down?"
Back on land, unknown to the pair, someone was watching them with hateful eyes. "That's it. Here's where I draw the line. That girl is going to pay."
So, there you go, my new chapter. Only a little bit left in this story till the end! And then I have a sequel! Yea! Tell me, love it, hate it, send me in the reviews! Also, I started my sophomore year in High School. I'm taking all advance and honors classes, except Spanish. No hablo espaƱol. And I have to show choirs. So, my writing may come slower than normal, but faster than it took to put this up. Again, review and tell me what you think.
