The Daughter's Diary
Chapter 9: The Cave's History
Dick squints his eyes and then abrades them. He finally sits up and sees the popcorn sliding on his right side. His blurry memory of last night's movie wasn't so clear to him, but he did remember sleeping on the couch with Maris and Zatanna. Although, when he turned his head to his side he only saw Zatanna and not Maris.
He looks around with a weary face, "Maris? Where'd you go?"
The 10 year old giggled from the shadows. Zatanna woke up in abrupt, "Wha-what was that?"
Richard smirks and kisses the magician on the forehead, "I have no idea."
Zatanna laughs and then asks, "Is Mar hiding?"
The young ebony haired girl went down the stairs with a blanket hanging on her back, "Look! I'm a suuuperhero!"
All of them laughed from the irony. Maris finally went down the stairs with the blanket like cape still on her back, "Morning."
"You woke up early," Dick chimed in.
The young homo magi shrugged, "I guess I got use to the time settings."
Zatanna nodded, "That's good, so why are you-"
Zatanna was gesturing her hands to the blanket on Maris. And again the young girl shrugged, "I want to be a hero."
Dick and Zatanna looked at each other and then talked in unison, "That's possible."
"Yes! I want to crime fight and kick and make people hap-"
"Wait," Dick paused her, "you need training and you're still too young Mar."
"But," Maris stopped herself and looked at both of them, "fine, but I am a hero, right?"
The blue eyed woman nodded again, "Of course."
...
After breakfast Maris went up stairs to get ready. Dick and Zatanna were in the kitchen cleaning up a little. Zatanna said, "Hey Dick, can you take her to the Cave by yourself? I have to talk to my boss."
"About what?" he asked.
"I'm going to quite my job."
Richard leaned on the counter, "Why? I thought you loved being a stage magician."
"Yeah, I did. I still do, but I think," she pauses and then says, "I think the main reason why I got into being a stage magician again is because I wanted to run away from everything. And I definitely don't want to run away anymore."
"Are you sure about this, Zee?"
"Dick, if I could choose between either a performer or a mom...well-"
Nightwing stopped her, "I know."
She smiles at him while finishing up, "Thanks."
The cerulean blue eyed man went closer to her and hugged her by the waist. Maris came in, "Do I have to wait in the living room for you guys to finish?"
Dick chuckled, "We're done."
The 10 year old smiled, "So where are we going?"
"You're going to train with the other kids."
"You're not training me?" She queried.
Richard grabbed his keys, "I have a meeting to go to that's really important in the Watchtower and Zatanna's going to umm somewhere, so you're going to the Cave where your friends are."
"Friends? Wait- oh yeah, friends."
Zatanna brushed her hair a little with her hands, "Yeah, just make sure you're careful okay?"
She nodded really quickly with a smile on her face. Dick already opened the garage doors outside, "Lets go."
...
Most of the children were in the Cave. After Nightwing hugged his daughter he left them with Red Tornado watching over them. Kailin and Amistad were still doing hand to hand combat with one another while the rest were watching them.
The caliber of their fighting abilities were pretty high and complex. They've probably trained more through the years since Kailin is fifteen and Amistad is fourteen. Although, no matter how hard Kailin tried to backlash or jolt, Amistad would always have a different trick up his sleeve. He reversed her punch and kicked her down.
The high tech computer announced Amistad's victory. After that the young 14 year old helped Kailin up to her knees. Red Tornado came in the middle of everyone and said, "It is mandatory for you to take a break at this time. Socialize is the right word."
Maris wanted to argue that she just got here, but she didn't. They went to the living room/kitchen quarters and took a breather. Jeptur asked, "How do you like it living with uncle Dick and aunt Zee?"
She smiled and shrugged, "They're pretty cool."
"Having fun in the game room?" Wesley asked.
The 10 year old laughed, "Yeah there's so much to play unlike Cadmus."
Abigail looked around, "We didn't really know that it was true about you-"
"It's true," Maris corrected her.
Kailin and Wesley looked at each other, but didn't say anything. Aaron asked, "So do you know how to fight?"
"Yeah, yeah I do. I really want to be a hero."
Aaron laughed, "We all do."
"Aren't you all-?"
Johnny shook his head, "None of us are. Not even sidekicks."
She was confused, "What? Why?"
Kailin started to explain, "Well ever since that incident with Mary Ella our parents got extra protective of us. We can train and everything, but we just can't crime fight until we're really old enough to."
Abi continued, "We rebelled, but it didn't help much."
Maris stuttered, "I thought you were the new heroes and this cave was your quarters or something."
Jeptur sat on one of the couches, "The Cave was originally for the first team which was actually also the last team."
"And our parents thought that it would be a good training course to prepare ourselves for the future in the Cave, so they opened this place up again," Amistad added.
"Oh, I," she scratched the back of her head, "I didn't know that."
...
Nightwing went in the conference room. There were only specific people there to talk about their meeting. As soon as Nightwing opened the doors he saw Artemis, Flash, Kon El and Aquaman sitting and waiting for him. Once he took his seat they started.
"Is she good in the Cave?" Aquaman asked.
"Last time I checked she was perfectly fine there," he answered.
Kon El sighed, "Nightwing, are you sure she isn't some kind of clone. Cadmus does many horrible things."
"She's not." He answered.
"Are you sure," Artemis questioned, "we know she might be Mary with a slight amnesia, but Kon could be right."
"She's not."
It was Aquaman's turn, "Nightwing, at least think of the possibilities that she might be some kind of test-."
"She's not!"
His rage of anger made everyone else quiet for some moments. Wally said slowly, "Dick, we're just trying to put out the possibilities. It doesn't mean it's true."
"She's...not-" he pushes his hair back.
Artemis inhaled and exhaled, "We all know that you and Zatanna love her so much and we think that she needs a chance in life, but we just don't want both of you to expect someone she's not."
Dick taps his fingers while his eyes furrows from thoughts.
...
Red Tornado announced that they could spar with one another again. Abi told Maris that she needed to stretch first while Johnny and Aaron spar for some moments. They stretched their legs and arms as much as they could before the computer announced the victor. Maris didn't really think that shy little Johnny would win, but he did.
Later on, the computer matched Jeptur and Maris to spar. Both of them got on the platform at the same time as they shook their hands. The young Atlantean wanted to make it easy for her since he thought that this was her first time.
Jeptur went towards her first and charged towards her with his hands pushing her forwards down by clasping her shoulders with both of his strong hands. She countered towards him by putting both of her hands on the crevice of his neck and puts both of her knees to his chest pulling all her weight towards the ground as Jeptur's back pounds to the ground.
Everyone else around them was speechless until the computer announced Maris's name as the winner. The young homo magi tried to help the 13 year old boy back on his knees just like how she saw Amistad do to Kailin. Jeptur's back ached a little.
Amistad, Jeptur's brother, helped him up too. Red Tornado authorized Amistad to take Jeptur to the med bay for some examination. Before the Atlantean moved he looked at Maris's sad face and shook her hand, "You sparred good."
The little comment made her smile. It made her smile again.
...
The young girl was one of the last to get picked up. Zatanna came in the Cave and hugged her. Before they left Red Tornado gestured for her to come to the side. They whispered with one another for moments, but Maris didn't hear anything. Although, she already knows what they're talking about.
1.) I hoped you liked this chapter because it was really nice for me to try writing fighting scenes again even if it was little.
2.) Kon El is Conner Kent and Aquaman is Kaldur'Ahm in the story.
3.) I'm also trying to end all of my chapter stories before I start school again, so this story might be almost done too. (Ugh)
4.) My friend finally convinced me to get a tumblr! So if you ever want to follow me, my tumblr name is doctorchalant
Review!