"This is our new member…." Batman waited for Jemma to introduce herself.
"Jemma…..I don't have a last name."
"Well, Jemma, this is your new team. Here are some of the leaders. This is Red Arrow and Artemis's mentor, Green Arrow," A modern day robin hood came up and shook her hand. "This is Huntress and the Question," Jemma stared at the Question; it was the first time she had seen a person without a face. "And I think you've met these three. They'll be your future teammates."
"Hi, I'm Artemis. Let's get along!" She hugged Jemma tightly. Jemma looked confused. She didn't know what to do so she just stood there. "The rest of the members aren't here right now, but you'll meet them soon."
"I'm Red Arrow, but my real name is Roy Harper." He grinned then patted Jemma on the head. In return, she patted his head. "Haha, she's pretty interesting. Dick, come out of there and say something." Dick came out of the corner and walked towards her.
"Welcome to the team, newbie." Dick turned around and walked out of the room.
Jemma yawned as she lifted herself off from the couch. The heroes had spent an all night fighting villains and creating tactics to outwit the superheroes. She, on the other hand, decided that she would sleep. She didn't see herself as part of their team; she was more like a visitor. She didn't see a reason why she had to go out of her way to help them out.
"Hey Jemma! You awake!" Artemis came into the resting room where Jemma slept in. Her brown eyes were shining brightly and she was full of energy, even though she stayed up the whole night. "Hey why are you looking at me funny?" She chuckled.
"Where's your visor?" Everyone at the NSH had worn a visor to cover their faces so they would not be recognized. Jemma had thought that they wore them all the time.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you! We don't need to wear our mask around fellow team members. It's only when we're on missions," Artemis grinned then grabbed Jemma's arm. "Come on, let's go to the cafeteria and get some breakfast!" Jemma's eyes twinkled at the sound of food. Last night she was only able to eat some fruit that she found in the cafeteria. Everyone was too busy to eat so no food was made.
"Oh hey girls!" Roy waved at them to come over. A girl with striking orange red hair sat next to Roy. "Oh let me introduce you to Barbara Gordon. She's a daughter of a cop that works with us and she's also one of Batman's protégés." He smiled.
"Yeah, after I basically begged him," She laughed. "I mostly do tech work here and information gathering," She shook Jemma's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Jemma."
Jemma nodded with recognition and sat beside Artemis. "Here Jemma, sorry we don't have much of a selection. The cooks are dead tired from yesterday, haha." Artemis laughed and placed a plate of waffles in front of Jemma. Jemma stared at them in awe. She had never seen something so interesting and delicious in her life.
"Uh Jemma are you okay?" Roy cocked an eyebrow with amusement. Jemma didn't seem to hear him. She was still captivated by the plate of waffles set before her.
"Don't tell me you've never seen waffles before?" Barbara chuckled. Jemma looked up at her and nodded furiously. "No kidding? You've really never seen or eaten waffles before…"
"Where I came from all we ate was stuff that was homegrown," Jemma could feel her mouth water. "I've never tried outsider food before…" Jemma began poking her stack of waffles with her fork.
"Haha well then you should go ahead and dig in." Artemis grinned and waited for Jemma to take her first bite. Jemma poked her fork into the waffle and put a small piece into her mouth. Her eyes opened wide and they began to gleam. Artemis, Barbara, and Roy began to laugh. Jemma reminded them of a squirrel when it takes a bite out of an acorn.
"By the way, have you seen Dick, Barbara?" Roy scanned the cafeteria.
"Mr. Dark and Broody? Last time I saw him he was in the training room," Barbara frowned. She had dated Dick once before, but it did not end on a good note. "Who cares anyway? That guy always wants to be alone. He doesn't even trust us enough to take off his visor around us. It's like it's glued to his face." She growled as she jabbed her spoon into her bowl of cereal.
"It's kind of a waste don't you think? Dick is really handsome and has a nice bod. Don't you think he's got that cool lone wolf image, Jemma?" Jemma nearly choked on her waffle. Dick cool? More like a jerk who thinks he can do everything by himself. "Heh, sorry about that Jemma. I didn't think I would make you choke." Artemis chuckled.
"Jemma, Dick, come into my office immediately…" Batman's voice echoed from the intercom. Jemma stared at her unfinished waffles intently. She wanted to continue eating. What ever they needed her for wouldn't be that important right?
"Oh you better go Jemma! Here I'll put these away!" Artemis grabbed Jemma's plate. Jemma looked up her with puppy dog eyes. "Come on Jemma, that's not going to work," Jemma's eyes grew larger and twinkled again. "Fine, you can finish. Just hurry." Roy and Barbara began laughing again while Artemis let out a sigh.
After Jemma finished eating, she took her sweet time getting to Batman's office. When she walked in, Dick was already there, waiting impatiently, while Batman was tapping his pen against his desk. "Nice of you to join us." Dick scowled, but Jemma simply ignored him.
"What I called you guys in for was because I want you, Dick, to give Jemma a tour around the facility. She hasn't met the other members yet and I don't want her to get lost around here," Batman looked up at Dick. Dick clenched his fist tightly. "Understood?" Dick looked away.
"Understood…" Dick gritted his teeth then left. Jemma sighed then followed suit. She missed out on eating more of delicious outsider food for this?
When they both left, Batman turned around in his chair and sighed. "What am I going to do with that boy?" Dick always wanted to do things on his own, never wanting the help of others. Batman was glad that Dick was independent, but that would not make him a great leader. Dick needed to understand how to trust and get along with others. Since Jemma seemed to be a type that wouldn't deal with his attitude, Batman thought that she could break Dick's rough exterior.
Dick began walking down the hall, not checking to see if Jemma was following him. He didn't understand why he had to babysit her. There were larger priorities at hand than giving a tour. Dick frustration began to boil. He didn't care what Batman wanted; he had more important things to do. "Hey you," Dick looked back at Jemma. True, he was fascinated by her, but that didn't stop him from thinking of her as a nuisance. "You're on your own with the stupid tour. I have more important things to do than babysit you." He began walking down the hall.
"Idiot." Dick stopped right on his track. Had he heard correctly? Did this girl just called him an idiot.
"Jerk. Pompous. Arrogant. Stupid. Egocentric. Fool. Narcissistic. Dumbass." Jemma had let out a long breath. She did not want to deal with his crap. Like she needed him to tour her around. If it were not for the fact that she needed food in order to travel she wouldn't have come here in the first place. "Now that we got that established. I don't need you to look after me. I'm fine on my on, always have and always will." She smirked then walked in the other direction.
"What an annoying woman…." Dick mumbled to himself as he headed down to the Criminal Archives Room.
"Uhg! I've never met such a…" Jemma thought to herself.
He's an interesting fellow though. First time I've ever seen someone actually give you attitude, hehe.
"Oh shut up…" She growled at Sorrow. She wandered down the hall. She didn't know how to get to the cafeteria and all the doors seemed the same to her. She cursed under her breath. The NSH was like a giant technological maze and she was the poor lab rat that got stuck in it. "What's this?" She looked up to read the label on one of the doors. Technology and Research Room. She opened the door slightly and peered in. No one seemed to be inside so she entered on her own.
The room was filled with screens and other technological stuff she didn't understand. Each screen had some sort of image on it, whether it be a chart or a blueprint of something. The room was dark and gloomy, but Jemma enjoyed the peace and quiet. The soft purr of the computer reminded her of the animals that used to live among her back home. She had enjoyed the company of animals. They weren't fearful of her and they quietly stayed by her side. She began to rest her arm on one of the desk, reminiscing old memories.
"Don't touch that!" Jemma's hand immediately jumped off the desk. A large African-American boy with half of his face covered with technology as well as the rest of his body. "Heh, sorry….didn't mean to startle you, just didn't want you to accidently activate the defense system." The boy came over and began typing into a floating holographic-like keyboard. "You must be the new girl I've been hearing about. I'm Cyborg." He grinned. Jemma nodded back at him. "I should introduce you the rest of the team. We mostly do tech work, but we go out of the field too so we might work together sometime. Hey Tim get your butt out here!"
A boy with raven black hair came out of the shadows. His bangs covered his eyes and his clothes were a bit disheveled. He faced downward looking at the ground. Out of curiosity, Jemma came closer to him so that she could get a better look at his face. Tim began to panic and retreat backwards, his face red as a tomato. "….. H-hi…" He murmured. Then suddenly a girl with bright blonde hair came beside him and jabbed him in the stomach.
"Haha sorry about this guy. He's a bit shy around girls," She laughed, but Tim merely retreated back to a computer screen. "Haha sometimes I wonder why I'm even dating the guy?" She smacked Tim on the back. Jemma looked at the couple; she was loss for words. She could easily tell who was the 'man' in the relationship.
"Don't be so mean to the guy, Stephanie," Cyborg placed a hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "Well Jemma, I assume you've already met Barbara. She's the leader of the Technology and Research Room." He grinned. "Hey, you wanna take a look at this?" He gestured Jemma to come over. Unwillingly she came over and looked. A bunch of numbers and symbols appeared on the screen. "Isn't it beautiful?" Cyborg began to tear up.
Jemma stared at the screen dumbstruck. She was never learned any of this back at Utopia. She had learned a bit of math and science from Master Ra's Al Ghul, but she ditched most of his classes so she could play in the river. "Uh do you wanna try it?" Tim whispered and gestured to the screen. Jemma stared at the screen and vigorously nodded her head no.
"Aw come on! Nothing will happen!" Stephanie grabbed onto Jemma's hand and pressed it against the holographic keyboard. "See not that bad!" Jemma had a bad feeling about this. Suddenly, all the computer screens turned black as well as the lights in the entire facility. "Aw man…."
"MY BABY!" Cyborg began to panic. "Seemed like the system just shut down! Our defenses, our offense forces, everything shut down..." Cyborg began to cling onto the computer screen. "Baby, come back to me!" Jemma sighed. What did she get herself into?
It took hours for the system to get back in running. Jemma just patiently sat in the cafeteria as all the lights went back on. She knew that being on a team and being surrounded by all these foreign objects she never seen before would cause trouble. She sighed then rested her head on the cool metallic table, stretching her arms out. Footsteps suddenly filled the quiet cafeteria and Jemma felt a shadow loom over her.
"Um…everything is fixed….." Jemma looked up to see Tim. He stared at her quietly as he shuffled his feet. "Sorry…..about Stephanie…" He murmured. Jemma did the okay sign then went back to resting her head on the table.
"Hey watcha doing, lil bro?" Another voice entered the room. "Oh is this the new girl?" Jemma looked up to see a boy black hair, but with a random white part in the middle. "Hey is that a Glock?" The boy's eyes began to gleam.
Jemma looked up and scanned the boy. "Yeah….hey is that an automatic handgun?" Both of them looked into each other's eyes and automatically knew they would get along.
"I'm Jason Todd. I'm Dick's little bro and Tim's older bro," Jason smiled and lightly punched Jemma's arm. Jemma was surprised. She didn't think Dick would have any siblings. He seemed to be the only child type. Suddenly a loud ringing came from the intercoms. "Aw crap, these stupid things always hurt my ears."
"Jemma, Dick, my office now…" Batman's voice echoed throughout the cafeteria. He seemed to be pissed. Jemma let a large sigh and dragged herself out of the chair.
"Hey, see ya later! Maybe we can hang sometime!" Jason grinned as he waved goodbye. Tim did a small wave as Jemma left.
When Jemma entered the office, Dick was already there and Batman was staring at him intently with arms cross. He gestured Jemma to stand next to Dick. "5 hours…" Batman let out a long sigh. "5 hours we didn't have any power, 5 hours we were defenseless…. Do you both realize what could have happened during those 5 hours? How many people we could have lost?" He looked up at Jemma. "I understand that you didn't know better and it seems that Stephanie dragged you into it," Batman's eyebrows furrowed. "But Dick, you have no excuse to have ditched Jemma when I gave you deliberate orders to show her around. We could have avoided this entire mess if you actually listened."
Dick clenched his fist tightly. "It wasn't his fault," Jemma interrupted the silence. "I ditched him. I didn't think I needed him so I went off on my own." Dick faced her surprised. Had she stuck up for him? Batman rubbed his forehead.
"When I give you two an order, I expect you to listen. Next time, you both, will receive a harsh punishment. Understood?" Jemma and Dick nodded slightly. "I will not tolerate this again." Batman gave a glare that could freeze hell over. Jemma had actually felt a shiver down her spine. "Now leave, I have to check if all our files are okay." Jemma and Dick both left Batman's office silently. "Selena, could you help me with some of the files?" Batman called to his secretary through the communicator on the side of his arm.
"I'll be there soon, Mr. Wayne. I'll make sure that everything will look puuurfect." His secretary replied back.
Dick and Jemma stood outside of Batman's room. The silence was heavy and unbearable. Jemma was about to leave when Dick spoke out. "Why did you stick up for me? I didn't need you to do that." Dick growled.
"I didn't stick up for you. I told the truth, simple as that," Jemma pointed out. "I shouldn't have been entering into strange rooms, that was my fault. So you don't need to get your little boy panties in a twist about whether you owe me something or not." Jemma snorted then began walking away.
"Heh, wouldn't even dream of it…" Dick smirked then began walking down the hall.