Author's Note:
Ok, hey guys! So I really haven't updated this one in a while and I actually got a review (positive one, thankfully) from Petrichorian Scarlet Wolf.
I'm going to dedicate this one to Petrichorian Scarlet Wolf! I'm EXTREMELY happy that you love this particular story because I love it too! LOL, so I hope that you will hopefully continue to read this AMAZING fanfic (sorry if I'm boasting, LOL)!
DISCLAIMER: GUYS, I THINK I'VE STATED THIS SO MANY TIMES, MY HEAD MIGHT BLOW OFF, BUT THE LAW STATES BLAH BLAH BLAH... YOU GET THE POINT BECAUSE - LIKE I SAID THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF TIMES BEFORE - WE ALL KNOW HOW YOUNG JUSTICE WOULD HAVE ENDED IF OWNED THEM ALL...
Richard Grayson
Katherine continued to walk down the hallways of her new home. She knew that she has to get used to the place, for she'd be staying here for a while.
The rosy pink on her cheeks never faded, just thinking about the passing moments with Red Arrow was enough to make her red. She always knew Roy Harper as always a character she loved, but never thought that she would come to love his almost as much as Nightwing. Almost.
Now taking longer strides through the corridors, she came across a room with an open door, light seemed to illuminate from the room.
Curious to find a different person to talk to about the team, she walked two times quicker than her long steps making it to the door in no time.
Taking a quick peek, she saw Nightwing sitting in one of four monitor rooms in the HOJ. He looked comfortable and laidback, his feet were up on the control panel and he had a one-pint mint flavored ice cream in one hand while the other held a batarang with some green smeared at the opposite end. He was scooping and eating the ice cream straight off the blade of the batarang!
Katherine couldn't help but giggle at something so… un-Nightwing-y. Her presence was known probably way before she let out a small laugh. She entered the monitor room number 2.
Grayson put his batarang-spoon in the half eaten ice cream carton and laid it down on the side of the control panel. His sat upright taking his feet out of its comfortable position.
"Yes, Scarlet?" Nightwing turned around in his chair and faced Katherine. He flashed her a momentary second of surprise before returning to normal. Well… if you consider normal to be a irritated glare, then yes. Katherine concluded that he was probably bewildered why she was no longer wearing a mask. She could also tell that he wasn't in the helping mood.
"Sorry, if your busy I can leave." She turned back around to go, half expecting him to stop her, half expecting him to let her leave. The latter was true.
She continued out the door, hearing nothing from behind her. Three quarters disappointed, one quarter embarrassed…
Dick
As he sits in the HOJ's second monitor room, he feels the need to eat something. He only realizes then that he hasn't eaten anything in the past 24 hours.
His stomach reminds him of what he needs.
Embarrassed even though there was no one around to hear it, he got up from his monitor duty. Actually, he has to tell himself that this is all Wally's fault because its him he's covering for.
Dick walks out of the room and takes the short cut to the HOJ's third kitchen.
Opening the fridgerator door, he looks through the food supply.
Nothing…
The shelves are completely bare, there's nothing. The door compartments of the fridgerator has nothing in them either. There's not even butter.
He can tell he's making faces at the emptiness, his stomach realizes its fate. It still begs, however…
Resisting the urge to slap his abdomen and tell it to stop growling, he opens the opposite door of the refrigerator.
He looks through the freezer noticing that its fully stocked. For a brief moment, it shocks him. But then he remembers that the only people, wait… He realizes that they aren't people at all. The only aliens that live here is Conner, Megann, Lagaan, and probably a few more that he hasn't yet gotten a chance to formally meet.
He can still blame that on Wally.
He takes the mint ice cream off the top shelf and slams the door shut.
He makes his way back to the monitor room when he heard shuffling. He stopped dead in his tracks.
Since he didn't take the same way back, he had to pass through the dormitory centre. He heard it emanating from one of the vacant rooms.
He knew that each room had a camera in it. Even the bedrooms.
It seemed wrong, yes, but it was safety precautions only. They would never invade on someone's privacy… He knew that he wouldn't…
He heard moving and the occasional voice. His curiosity was nagging at him, but his hunger was killing him.
Unable to hold back on the ice cream anymore, he ripped open the seal and took off the cap. He placed it underneath the carton and took one of his many stashed batarangs. He started scooping it into his mouth.
He had a lot of practice eating off of a blade
Eating with a batarang always irked Bruce. That's probably why he does it.
As Richard Grayson stood at the door straining his human ears to hear beyond the reinforced titanium alloy, he continued eating ice cream.
He could make out the voice of Roy and a female. It sounds like Scarlet.
He knew she looked familiar, and when Bruce informed him that he was getting a new member to the team, a female member named Scarlet, he looked up any information that would fit the code name 'Scarlet'. Nothing came up.
He knew that something was happening in the room, but what, he still wasn't sure about.
He decided that one of them could come out of the room at any moment, and he would be seen. Besides, he's supposed to be in Gotham, checking up on the 'important matter' that he had to rush to. He made the excuse so that he could get away from his mentor and the rest of his team.
They should know better, he doesn't work with rookies.
Knowing that he could always check on the video feed later, he made his way back to the monitor room.
He walked through the door and sat back down on the spinning office-like chair. He pulled up the news monitors from all over the world and sat back, swinging his legs up onto the dash.
A few moments later, he could hear someone walking down the hallway.
Assuming it was the replacement for the next time shift in the monitor room next to the one he was in, he didn't bother to close the door.
Big mistake.
He heard the footsteps stop at his open door. Only did he recognize the voice when it laughed.
Scarlet poked her head through the opening. He was surprised to see her, and without a mask.
But he knew that what he was really nervous about, was that he wasn't supposed to be there. 'And this is why you don't lie…' he mentally kicked himself in the shin. 'But then again… when do I not?'
He put his batarang in the ice cream as he pushed it off to the side of the monitor. He sat up slowly, he felt like just her presence was enough to make him fall over.
"Yes, Scarlet?" It was obvious that she was effecting him in some way or the another, but since he was raised by the Batman off all people, he learned to deal with irritating circumstances with hostility.
He couldn't bite back the habitual glare that forms when something was clearly nagging at him with much vigor.
He knew that he put her on the spot, but he couldn't help it… could he?
"Sorry, if you're busy I can leave."
With the last statement, she turned on her heels leaving Batman's protégé in a dilemma.
Every inch of his body urged to stop her, to say something to her that would prevent her from leaving. But he was trained mind over matter or in this case, mind over heart.
He watched her hair flow behind her, only realizing then what he had not noticed all along. A rookie mistake.
The name hadn't sunken in at the manor, but now, it feels like the fog that was clouding his head had dissipated.
The realization hit him, she wasn't just any ordinary person, she was the Katherine Summers.
Katherine
She had to find yet another person to help her around the HOJ. She still had no freaking idea where she was heading.
Trudging along, she slowly made her way down the third? She wasn't sure anymore, maybe it was the fourth…? Whatever number hallway she was down, she still hadn't come across some one since her Nightwing encounter.
As she watched her feet slowly lead her forward, she realized something like a ten ton freight train hit her. She didn't know where her backpack was.
That was supposed to be her saving grace.
Katherine got hit hard with a mini heart attack and started snapping her fingers out of habit of nervousness.
She abruptly stopped trying to think where she might have left it.
Then it dawned on her, its still at the Wayne Manor…
She facepalmed herself thinking about how stupid she could actually get.
She needed to get back to the Zeta tubes, however, there was a slight problem, she doesn't think she can remember the way back.
'Oh well… I guess I'm just going to have to hack into the database… since I haven't yet gotten approval.'
Lifting her head, Katherine located the nearest supercomputer which was actually back at the monitor rooms. She entered room number one and sat down with a thud.
'Ok, I got a maximum of ten minutes to time everything perfectly, to hack into the HOJ's database and retrieve the simple information that the League wouldn't mind me taking.'
Trying to reassure herself, she tapped one of the keys on the dashboard of the monitor and the computer awakened.
She walked, but the weird tingling sensation that was emanating from her entire body gave away the fact that she must have sped over to the door. She typed in a code that would seal the door shut unless it was cracked open, either in the cyber world or manually.
Katherine moved back to the monitor, but did not proceed to sit. She knew she'd be in for a joyride because, assuming that Grayson was still in the room adjacent from hers, there would be some resistance.
She got her hacking file opened on the monitor by plugging in a special hard drive that dangled from a chain on her neck. There were thousands and thousands of codes that displayed itself for her eyes.
Scarlet couldn't help but grimace at the kind of security that the HOJ uses. Its so outdated that even Avrill High's tech students would be able to jailbreak it… She would have to surface this important matter the next time they had a meet.
She hunched over the array of keys lay out in front of her. She worked diligently on the matter at hand.
It would have probably been easiest for Scarlet to go to the former Robin and ask him where the nearest Zeta tubes were. But really, what was the fun in that when she could have a little fun beating the boy at his own game?
Katherine smirked at her evil little plan as she proceeded.
Every time she cracked a code, a longer, more complicated one would show up mixing itself in the matrix. She knew that someone was at the receiving end of her hacking and was probably ten steps ahead of her.
Scarlet glanced at a different monitor screen and checked the time, seven minutes have gone by. She has exactly two minutes and twenty eight seconds before she would be cut off.
"Shit…" following, a long string of colorful vocabulary.
She types faster, trying to outsmart… Nightwing… she assumes…
She had one minute exact, and it kept decreasing.
Three…
She typed furiously, almost cracking the code, taking five steps at a time.
Two…
Katherine thought for a moment, why the hell is she doing this when she can just go next door and ask the man behind the screen in person?
One…
'Access Denied'
"Fuck!" she slammed her fists down on the keys. She hasn't used this much profanity in two weeks! And for her, that's saying a lot.
Kat had to face the fact that she needed to ask someone – NOT saying that it would have to be either Grayson or Roy – in person and cannot just hack her way into the database and gather the information she needed.
She was caught, once again, and busted… once again…
No avoiding the inevitable this time…