Chapter 4: Zero Year 4
It had been agreed that whatever was happening to Mar'i was not affect her health as far as they knew. She was fine physically. Whatever was going on with her powers it was not life threatening it seemed. Dick understood they had to see someone about Mar'i's powers, but who on Earth knew Tamaranian biology and Human biology. There was only one person in the world who did, that person was Victor Stone, Cyborg.
Victor Stone, former member of the Teen Titans was now big shot Justice League member. He moved up in his years, actually climbing the ranks of the superheros in the league, now he was the leader of their Scientific Research department. He and a bunch of scientist helped the league by analyzing things for cases and creating inventions to help the average superhero on a day to day basis. Victor was living a good life. Dick hated to say this but he hadn't visited many people from his old Teen Titans days. He was still friends with them, and when he would see them on the Watch Tower or on some mission it was good to see them. But Dick admitted he hadn't been a good friend, he really should see them more often. Actually that was the of the things Babs always complained to him about. That he never checked in often enough, sometimes he would go months without talking to Babs and he would be in gotham the entire time.
When they arrived to the Watch Tower, Cyborg was surprised and pleased to see Nightwing, and of course he had offered to help in anyway possible. Mar'i was taken into testing immediately. Victor had his assistants take care of Mar'i while he himself talked to Nightwing about the situation.
"You say her powers are failing, correct?" Victor asked. "Are you sure she just wasn't in a bad emotional state? I seem to remember that holding Kory back a few times."
"She says that wasn't it, but honestly Mar'i doesn't know. She seems healthy but she can't fly. Sometimes she's able to hover a bit, but mostly she can't even get off the ground."
"That's weird." Victor commented. "Do you think it has to do with the mix of Tamaranian and Human DNA?"
"I thought that at first, too, but if it were she wouldn't be otherwise physically fine. Everything has turned out normal we've done scan after scan in the Batcave, but nothing has come up."
"So why come to me, you must realize I'm only going to do the same scans you did at the Batcave."
"You know more about Tamaranian biology. It could be a key factor that we can't see." Dick admitted. Usually when one of them was hurt, or something was wrong with them, they rarely look for outside help. Leslie is as about outside as it gets, but she was currently in Africa.
"I understand. I heard Kory just sprang Mary on you like that, I'm sorry." Cyborg apologized.
"What are you apologizing for, you had no way of knowing," Nightwing laughed. "It's fine. I've gotten over that now. It doesn't matter, Mary's here, and that's what matters."
"You're a good man, Dick. If I were I probably couldn't have handled it so easily." Cyborg said. "Now you saw it's just her flight that's gone, or going away?"
"Yes, we've checked her other powers. Starbolts are fine. Super strength is there, and you understand why we won't check the invulnerablilty. Other than that her superior sense are still fine. We're at a total lost, Victor."
"When the test come back in a few days I'll be able to tell what's wrong with her powers, till then I'm afraid you'll have play the waiting game." Victor said as Mar'i came out of testing.
"Thanks, Victor."
"No problems, man. If anything else changes before the test come back, bring her back in we may have missed something." Dick nodded, took his daughter by her hand took her home.
By the time they got to back to Gotham, Dick had decided that it may not be the best choice to go back to Blüdhaven at the moment. Mar'i had not said a word since she fell two days ago. She barely eat, not that she had eaten to be much to begin with. Maybe staying at the manor with everyone would help her? The moment they got back to the manor, Mar'i went straight up to the room Alfred had prepared for her, and didn't come down. Stephanie pleaded with the girl, but she refused to even open the door. Finally they gave up, realizing the girl only needed some alone time. What they did not know was that someone was checking on Mar'i. The only person that was willing to go into the room even though she didn't want them there, Damian.
Damian didn't care about what the girl thought of him. Honestly, he didn't care about her personal feelings or even her for that matter, but she mattered to Grayson, and that was really the only reason he was even bothering with the girl now.
"What are you doing in here?" She asked. Mar'i didn't even look at him only continuing to stare at the ceiling.
"Aren't you going to ask how I got in?" Damian asked.
"I'm not stupid, it was the window." Mar'i answered.
Damian smirked, "Close, but no." Mar'i looked up at him confused and he gestured at the vent, which cover was now barely hanging on by one screw.
"Whatever, why are you here, Damian? Don't locked doors mean anything to you?" She sneered
"No, not at all. You still haven't told your father about your uncle's death." He said. Mar'i noticed this wasn't a question, but a statement. "I thought I told you to tell him."
"I haven't had the time with the whole losing my powers situation."
"Bullshit. You have had time you just won't tell him, but let me tell you something, Small Grayson. You are a distraction, you distract him when he can't afford to be distracted. If he doesn't get his head in the game he might die, so you need to get your shit together. If something happens to him because he wasn't focused on the mission, I will personally blame you, Mar'i Grayson."
"Get out." Mar'i hissed, "Now." With a shrug Damian complied but before he left the way he came he turned back to Mar'i to say on final thing.
"You're scared, rightfully so, but in order to survive here with us, you have to get over that fear. And the only way to get over your fear is to break it wide open." Then as quickly as he came Damian vanished back into the vent. Mar'i wasn't sure if the boy wanted to help her or not.
It seems that emergencies tended to happen when you really not mentally prepared for them. Arkham was having another mass prison break, all gotham vigilantes were needed from Batman to The Question, and that meant Nightwing as well. Dick really wasn't on his game recently, but who could blame him, in a little over a week he had found out he had a daughter, and something was wrong with said daughter's powers, so yes Nightwing was a little off his game tonight.
"Watch out!" A soon as Batgirl said it, Nightwing ducked and back flipped kicked his would be attacker.
"Thanks, Batgirl."
"Where is your head tonight, Dick?!" on the comm in his ear Oracle was currently yelling at him.
"Sorry, I just got a lot on my mind." Nightwing admitted, flipping two more thugs into each other.
"I know, but we can't afford for you to be spacey." Oracle scolded.
"I know, I know. How many more left?"
"On your side? " Oracle asked. "About fifteen. By my estimate, you and Batgirl should be done in about 20 minutes. Then you can go help Red Robin and Huntress, They got stuck facing Killer Croc, and are a little fatigued with the rest of them."
"Alright." Nightwing said, "You got all of that, Batgirl." He called as he knocked out another thug.
"Every word."
"Good then let's finish up here."
"Alfred, I don't know how you do it." Mar'i said sitting at the Batcomputer.
"Do what, Miss Mary?" Alfred asked.
"Sit here, waiting and hoping that they all come back alright."
"With an extreme amount of patience, Miss. A very extreme amount." Alfred answered honestly.
"What was it like Bruce's first time out as Batman, were you worried?" Mar'i stared at the computer wishing she knew how to work it so she could listen in on their communications.
"Despite the fact, that Master Bruce had trained for years and years to be the man he is today, I worried. I still worry every night that he goes out that when I awake in the morning I will hear news of some villain who finally got lucky and killed the Batman. It still terrifies me to this day." Alfred answered handing the young girl a cup of tea.
"Alfred, do you maybe think that-"
"Hello, Alfred? Please tell me that you're at the computer." Mar'i looked over to the computer the once black screen now had a green symbol across it.
"Yes, Miss Gordon, I am here." Alfred pushed a button on the computer and answered.
"Great, this while go a lot faster now. Long story short, Batwoman and Black Canary were not able to contain Scarecrow. Canary got dosed with a healthy amount of his fear toxin, I usually have the antidote here, but I ran out after Batgirl and Robin's last encounter with him." She quickly. "I'm sending Lady Blackhawk to pick some up, she should be there in about seven minutes."
"Consider it done, Miss Gordon."
"Thank you, Alfred you're always a big help." With that the green symbol across the screen faded away, and alfred walked away to complete the task at hand.
"Alfred, Who was that?" Mar'i asked following him to the medical bay where the butler was looking through cabniets.
"That was the young Miss Barbara Gordon. She works as an information gather and master hacker for the superhero community, calls herself Oracle. She has been a great help all these years, and honestly we couldn't have done many things without her help."
"Okay, So she knows all about the computer, and things like that?"
"Yes, she does. She is probably the best in the world at what she does." Alfred answered Mar'i only nodded leaving the conversation there.
Two minutes later a black car pulled up into the batcave via waterfall entrance, and out stepped the blonde Lady Blackhawk.
"Thank ya, Alfred. I better get this back to the clocktower, Canary's supposed to be there in a few minutes. Poor batwoman had to sedate her to keep her from going crazy. Canary's not going to be happy when she comes to." Lady Blackhawk said taking the syringes from the butler.
"I wouldn't be either if I were her, Miss Blackhawk."
"I better get going. Thanks again, Alfred." The blonde pilot then hopped back into her car and sped away.
The butler turned back to the computer fully expecting the young princess to be standing right where he had left her, but found that she was not there. After extensive searching of the manor and the batcave alfred concluded that she was not on the grounds anymore.
"Oh dear, This can't be good at all."
"Hey! Let me go!" Cried Mar'i as she struggled against Lady Blackhawk's hold.
"Missy, I don't know who you are, or how ya got into the back of my car, but I'm gonna find out."
"Just let me go!" But Lady Blackhawk held tight to the girl's purple hoodie.
"Oracle, We've got a small issue." Lady Blackhawk said as she walked into the clocktower. In the clocktower was a computer with multiple screens, and at the computer was a red-headed woman in a wheelchair.
The woman spun around, "What happened? Did something happen to the- Is that a child?"
"Yes it is." Lady Blackhawk jerked the girl forward, "I found her in the back of my car when I pulled up here. I don't know where she came from though, I've only been here and the Batcave tonight."
Oracle wheeled closer, and got a good look at the girl, "It's okay I think I know her. You're Mary, aren't you?" The young girl said nothing only looking down at the ground. "Alright, if you want to be that way. Zinda, take the girl back to the batcave. " At this Mar'i looked up.
"No!"
"Ah, so you did want to come here on purpose." Oracle deduced. "Why are you here, Mary?"
"I just couldn't sit and wait." Mary answered.
"Umm can someone please tell me who this little girl is?" Lady Blackhawk asked. "And how she got in my car?"
"Zinda, this is Mary, Nightwing's daughter." Barbara introduced. Zinda looked alarmed.
"I didn't know he had a kid, specially not a what? Seven, eight year old."
"In all fairness." Mar'i interjected. "He didn't know about me until recently." Comprehension lite up on Zinda's face. "I snuck in your car when you were talking to Alfred. I'm sorry but I had to meet you, and this was the quickest way possible."
"You could have just waited till tomorrow." Oracle said. "Your father and I are good friends."
"Yeah, real good friends." Lady Blackhawk said under her breath. Oracle ignored her comment and continued.
"Why did you feel the need to come here, Mary?"
"I can't sit and wait anymore. I should be out there helping them." Mar'i said.
Barbara made face, "You sound like your father, and you're much too young to be going out there." Barbara said returning to her computer.
"Damian's out there." Mar'i argued.
"Damian is two years older than you, not to mention he has been trained his whole life for this stuff." Oracle put on her headset. "Oracle to Batwoman, what's your status."
"Trying to get Black Canary out of here. Having a little more trouble than I thought I would have." A voice from the computer said.
"Do you need back up?" Oracle asked.
"No, it just might take a while to get Canary there." Batwoman said.
"Alright, Tell me if anything changes." Oracle then turned back to Mar'i.
"I've had training, too." Mar'i said.
"Yeah training, while you had your powers." Oracle said. Mary looked at her with wide eyes. "Yes, I do know about that. Right now with your powers the way they are, and us not knowing why they are giving out it could do more hurt than help to send you out. "
"You're right. I can't go out there, " Barbara looked at the girl in surprise. "but that doesn't mean I can't help out from here. I've heard about what you do, you can still help while not being physically out there. I want you to teach me to do what you do." Both Zinda and Barbara gave looks of surprise this time.
"You want me to teach you?"
"I know I'm asking a lot because I haven't been on Earth very long, and I have a lot of catching up to do, but I promise to work hard if you give me the chance, and I will-"
"Yes." Barbara cut the young babbling princess off.
"Wait, what?"
"Yes. I will teach you, but you have to promise me you won't pull off a crazy stunt like the one you did tonight. That was very dangerous what if Zinda had been heading to Arkham?" Mar'i said nothing, "You could have been killed, and how can I face your dad if something happened to you under my watch. So, if I'm to teach you, no more crazy stunts, you need to be sensible."
"I promise." Mar'i swore.
"Good. Meet me tomorrow from two till five." Mar'i nodded. "Good now, Zinda,-"
"Oracle, this is Batman. Arkham is clear. Canary should be there in five minutes." Mar'i smiled at the gruff voice she knew.
"Alright, I'm ready for her. Who's still missing?" Oracle asked.
"The Riddler, Bane, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, and Scarecrow. Joker, Penguin, Black Mask, Killer Croc, and Mr. Freeze have been accounted for."
"Wow, there's a first. Harley and Ivy won't be a problem for a while, Ivy's smart she'll lay low for a couple months. Bane will lay low, too. Most likely get out of the country. Two-Face is really the only one we're going to really have to watch out for because Riddler will only stick his head out if it interest him."
"Alright, I'm going to be taking some of the injured back to the Batcave, then heading back out for patrol. Maybe catch some of the small fry we missed."
"Call if you need anything." Oracle said. There was only a grunt as a response.
"Oracle, We're here!" called Batwoman from the stairs. Coming up the steps was a passed out Black Canary being held up by Batwoman and Nightwing. At the sight of Barbara Nightwing flashed her, that smile of his before setting Canary on the table.
"I heard from Alfred that I had something here to pick up." Nightwing said eyeing his daughter. she hide from his gaze behind Oracle.
"It's okay, I already chewed her out about how stupid and dangerous that was. Take her home it's been a long night, I'll see you two tomorrow." Barbara wheeled away to go help Black Canary, while the Grayson walked out of the clocktower.
"Dad," Mar'i called. "I think I have something I need to tell you." She said finally.
"Well, I'm all ears." He said giving his full attention to his daughter.
"On Tamaran, the day of the Gordanian attack, it was me and Ryand'r flying and..."
Three days had passed faster than both Dick and Mar'i would have ever thought. With Oracle's lessons, and staying at the manor the days had passed rather quickly. Mary's nightmares weren't as bad after she told her father about them. He had been supporting and understanding, even offering to tell his own tragic tale. The story of how his parents died, and that sometimes he still gets nightmares about that told Mar'i that he wanted to teach her all the acrobatics he knew when they figured out what was wrong with her powers, and that when Haly's circus came back in town how he was going to introduce her to everyone there, and he would take her flying on the trapeze. In those three days Mar'i and her father became unbelievably close, maybe Hal was right. Just give it sometime,and everything will turn out alright.
"The results, Victor?" Dick asked. Praying this phone call wouldn't bring bad news.
"She's perfectly fine." Victor said. "Everything came back in order. Healthwise, she's alright." Dick let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
"Okay, and her powers?"
"Well, according to what I've got here, it just seems to be that she's outgrowing them." Victor said.
"What? What do you mean outgrowing them?!"
"It's kind of like how a child out grows Asthma." Victor explained. "How don't know long it will take but Mary's powers are all going to start to fade away a little at a time."
"And will she ever get them back?" Dick asked.
"I don't know, only time will be able to tell." Victor said.
"Thanks, Vic, you've been a lot of help."
"Anytime. If there are any changes in her health call me, I help her out as much as I can. "
"Alright, thanks again. Goodbye." And Dick hung up the phone.
"So my powers are just going to fade away?" Mar'i asked.
"Looks that way." Dick answered honestly.
"And I might not get them back?"
"I'm so sorry, Starshine." Dick Pulled the young girl into a hug.
"Starshine?" Mar'i echoed "I didn't know you knew what my name meant. Mother used to call me that all the time. I don't even know if she's okay."
"Have faith in her." Dick said. "If anyone can bet the Gordanians, it would definitely be your mother. If it were me I would be able to beat an entire army just to have you back, so have faith, and everything will turn out alright."
Final Notes:
Word count: 3571( not as long as the last chapter!)
Honestly, this was probably my least favorite chapter to write, but it needed to be done. Actually a lot of the stuff I wanted to do was cut out from the final draft, I might do them later, or not.
Special thanks to Victory Goddess, whose review was what got me through this chapter! You're Awesome, dude!
Don't forget to Favorite/Follow/ Review, and feed my muse. I won't stop writing if I don't get any, but it helps the process and makes me know you're reading!
Love always,
Miyu K. ~June 17, 2014