I am SO SORRY it took so long. I was hoping it wouldn't take all school year plus summer, but I did say I update slowly. I had my first AP class which was taking up most of my time, and then when we got into summer my grandma got dementia so we had to go up to SD to see her and her condo has NO WIFI and then we got home and my mom got put in the hospital for pneumonia and THEN I broke my leg and I feel so bad.

Any way, so sorry this took forever. The next chapter probably will, too. You might have it by next summer. I try to keep them long at least.

The song she sings is called 'The Truth about Ninja's' by S.J. Tucker and if you search it you can find it on YouTube.

The hashtag OnlyinGotham was NOT MY IDEA but it is a real hashtag on tumblr and I follow the person who posts most of them. They also had the idea of #Birdwatching. Their blog name is literally OnlyInGotham if you want to follow them.

And without further Adieu...

Chapter 4: #OnlyinGotham #BirdWatching.

The Cave

11:47 a.m.

3rd Person POV

"She is responsive in most areas, but she still is yet to wake up," Batman said. Superboy looked confused.

"What does that mean?"

"She's just sleeping and won't wake up yet," Canary explained.

"Oh."

"But, her auditory functions have been highly enhanced," Batman said.

"In English, please," Artemis piped up.

Wally understood before the rest of the team. "Oh. You said that she was knocked out by a recording of the canary cry, right? So instead of deafening her, like it would have had the cry been live, the cry made her ears hypersensitive!" The two leaguers nodded.

M'gann raised her hand. "How hypersensitive? Is it range, pitch, or something else I'm forgetting?"

Canary was the next to speak, "we're not sure. We haven't been able to thoroughly test for either because she isn't awake. For now, we've muted all the monitors in her room just in case it is a hypersensitivity to volumes. They will only go off if there is a major problem."

Wally spoke up, "Why are you guys willingly giving us information about this girl? We've never met her, and she is currently in the Watchtower. Seems more like that 'League Business' that you guys never tell us about."

Batman replied, "would you rather be kept in the dark about something that may affect the number of people on this team?"

Wally looked shocked. "But, you just replaced, sorry, added another member less than a week ago!"

Artemis looked at him. "You got a problem with that, Wall-man?"

"What they mean to ask is, this girl who is joining the team, what is her name?" Kaldur asked.

"Both the possibility of her joining the team and giving her name will be decided after she wakes up."

Watchtower Infirmary

12:53 p.m.

There was a low droning to the left. Extremely low, both in pitch and volume. It sounded like heavy machinery. Like in a train or a boat. The way her breathing echoed off the Pwalls in the room told her that there were two doors and one window. The doors were somewhere in front of and to the left of her, while the window was directly on her right.

She felt the blankets from her waist down, and the pillow beneath her head. Her eyes opened and she saw an extremely boring white ceiling with blue walls to her front, back, and left. True to her guess, there were two doors, on directly in front of her, and another to her left. The thing she thought had been a window (as it turned out, it was a picture of Earth) was, indeed, directly to her right.

She looked down and saw that she was wearing a white tank top and a pair of black pajama pants. Her hair was pulled back into a small ponytail. There was a patch with a cord attached on her neck.

There was an intravenous drip inserted into the inside of her right elbow, and the bag that was situated next to the picture was about half full. Wait. The picture.

The picture was moving. The Earth in that picture was rotating. That wasn't a picture, was it? Aika wasn't on Earth anymore. So she responded naturally.

She screamed. Or, at least, she tried to.

A horrible pain seared through her throat, and the only sound that came out was a hoarse whisper.

Aika's heartbeat monitor started beeping rapidly, and her breathing sped up. The high-pitched beeping from the monitor was causing extreme pain in her head. It felt like her skull was about to explode. Aika kept trying to scream but nothing was happening. Her eyes started to blur.

"The monitors turned on! Come on! She's awake!" An unfamiliar blonde cried as she rushed into the room. The blonde rushed over to Aika and started trying to talk to her.

"Honey, can you hear me?"

Aika knew she couldn't answer, but she just kept trying to scream. Everything was just so LOUD. Every sound was like a car horn blaring in her ear.

The blonde unplugged all the machines, and suddenly, most of the loud sounds were gone. The droning that Aika first noticed was still there. She slowly pried her hands away from her head and laid back down on the bed.

"Here, put these in your ears," the blonde said, handing Aika what looked like earbuds, but with a bat on them. "Can you still hear me?" Aika nodded. "Good. We'll get some better looking ones later."

"Tha-" Aika remembered the pain in her throat.

"Don't try to talk, Aika," the blonde said. "You're still recovering from all the singing you did last week." Aika nodded her head. Then she remembered why she started screaming in the first place. Pointing at the window, she made a face that said, "what?"

"Hmm?" the blonde said. "Oh, that. You aren't on Earth right now, you're in the Justice League's orbiting satellite. We call it the Watchtower." Aika nodded again. A man decked in green walked into the room. He smiled at Aika as he handed her an electronic tablet.

"You can use that to type."

'Thank you,' Aika wrote. 'You two look familiar.'

Both of them chuckled. "You've probably seen us on newspapers. I'm Green Arrow, and this is Black Canary."

'Canary said something about last week. How long have I been asleep?' Aika typed.

This time it was Arrow who spoke, "you've been asleep since last Thursday. It's Wednesday. Do you remember anything about what happened?"

'Pretty sure I remember all of it. Everything up to me blacking out after pressing a button.'

Canary looked pleased. "Okay, that makes this much easier. Why did you go after Music Meister? The three of us could've handled him."

Aika rolled her eyes and started typing. 'That's exactly what I didn't want to happen. Jasper is my father, and my only suitable legal guardian. If he went to jail I would have been put in an orphanage or foster home. I've heard enough horror stories out of Gotham to know that I would rather have a major criminal for a father than be sent to one of the girls' homes.'

Green Arrow looked confused, "doesn't Bruce Wayne fund the orphanages in Gotham? they shouldn't be as bad as they used to be."

'That's where you're wrong. I doubt Wayne knows it but the contracts that sign over part of Waynetech's profits to the orphanages actually say "boys homes" and not generic "orphanages" or "girls homes." It was some of the lawyers' way of shoving all the money into one place. When Wayne comes to inspect, they only take him to Boys homes. Those have gotten better, but the Girls homes and mixed homes have most likely gotten worse.'

Canary looked at Green Arrow. "You said Jasper was your only suitable guardian? You have other family?"

Aika nodded. 'I have an uncle Eddie. I don't know much about him. All I know is that he moves around way too often for CPS to allow me to live with him.'

Canary looked at Green Arrow and smirked. Arrow's eyes widened, "you aren't seriously considering-"

"You got a problem with it? Why not?"

"She... I... but... Yeah I got nothing."

Aika awkwardly raised her hand while they were conversing. On the tablet was written, 'Why is everything so loud?'

Black Canary read the tablet and handed it to Green Arrow. "Explain the situation. I'm going to go get Br-Batman." She then walked out of the room with her hand to the communications unit in her ear. "J'onn, I need you to call Batman. Yes, She's awake. Definately a sensitivity to volumes, not sure about pitch. If you could ask him to bring those prototypes we were talking about…" her voice trailed off as she got further away.

Green Arrow looked at Aika. "Did you understand any of that jumble?" Aika shook her head 'no.'

Arrow sighed. "Okay. So, you were knocked out by a recording of Canary's scream, right?" Aika nodded. "Okay, had it been a live scream right by your ear, where the speaker was, you would be deaf right now. But, since it was a recording, it was less powerful and weakened a bit. Instead of hurting your ears, the exposure has made them extremely hypersensitive to different stimuli. Considering the way you acted when you first came to, you definitely have a sensitivity to volumes, especially since the little beeping from the heartbeat monitor was causing you physical pain. That's why we gave you those plugs, and considering you can still hear us, it is a pretty sizable hypersensitivity. Those plugs tend to block out everything."

Aika just stared at him for a few moments. She finally motioned for the tablet, which Green Arrow handed to her, and started writing.

'So, let me get this right. my ears weren't hurt, they were hyped up. So now I can hear lots of shit that normal people don't hear and some of it causes pain,'

"Sounds about right."

Aika started typing again. 'Three more questions. 1) Canary had said something about prototypes. Do those have anything to do with me? 2) I just noticed that my necklace is missing. Where is it and can I have it back? And 3) what is this thing on my neck for? '

Green Arrow smirked. "Canary changed your clothes into what you're wearing now, and sent the original outfit to Batman for testing in case you were trying to sneak some sort of dangerous chemical in here. If he doesn't find anything, you get everything back, no questions asked. The patch on your neck was monitoring movement of your vocal chord since we knew you wouldn't be making too much noise when you woke up. About the prototypes, you'll see when Batman gets here." Aika nodded again, then started typing on the tablet.

'Any idea how long before they get back?'

"I don't know, five minutes?"

They sat in silence, both technological and vocal, for exactly three minutes and fifty-one seconds before the door opened and four people walked in. Aika recognized three of them, Black Canary, Batman, and Robin. The last person- Martian Manhunter- was a stranger, but she had seen him in the news a couple of times.

Canary was carrying a bundle of clothes which Aika assumed were what she had been wearing when last she was awake. Batman was holding some sort of vial with a blue concoction inside, a Robin was clutching...headphones?

Batman walked up and handed her the vial. Aika grabbed it but just stared at him with a confused look on her face.

"Drink it." The confused look turned to one of suspicion. Robin piped up, "it'll take care of your laryngitis problem." With that, Aika downed the vial. The blue liquid lozenge tasted of peppermint and spearmint. It slid down her throat, coating the vocal folds and bringing back her voice.

"Better?" Batman questioned.

Aika nodded, "much. Thank you." She handed the tablet to Green Arrow.

Black canary walked forward and placed Aika's clothing on the edge of the bed then pulled the patch off her neck. "Okay Aika, Batman is going to take the IV out of your arm, and everyone is going to leave while you put on more comfortable clothes. Then, we'll have someone escort you to our observation deck so we can see if the other prototypes work. Got it?" Everyone else was already leaving the room.

"Yeah, I think so. Do we know who the escort is going to be?" Batman was already taking the IV out of her arm.

"Well, batman and Robin have to help me set up the observation deck, J'onn has monitor duty, and Green Arrow needs to go to a day job meeting. I don't have a current list of who all is here at the moment..."

Batman had finished taking out the IV. "Both lanterns, but they're getting job assignments as we speak, Question, Zatara, Flash, and Superman. All are working on something except Flash. I'll call him." And with that, Batman left the room.

Black Canary giggled, "he's saying that you might want to get changed...quickly."

"Got it. Thank you," Aika said as Canary was leaving the room.

Everything that had been in her outfit a week ago was in the pile now, save for the microphone knife, but Aika had already assumed that would be missing. Her necklace has been clasped around the lace on her right boot, and that was the first piece of her getup she dawned. When she had finished getting dressed and no one had come to retrieve her, she lay back down on the bed, closed her eyes, and started quietly singing.

Paragon of dignity,

Untouchable and lethal

But there's more to life than shuriken.

.

Sudden death comes easy when you practice everyday

you'll think you're ten feet tall and bulletproof until you pass my way

And you will never see it coming

No one's sad to see you go

Within my eyes you'll glimpse the wisdom you were not prepared to know.

In fearing what you cannot see you'll fall beneath my hand

This is a ninja thing you wouldn't understand.

.

You will never know I'm here until it's far too late

It is a ninja's way to pass unseen and not to storm the gate

Moving quieter than kittens circumnavigating law

Tiptoeing merciless as nightfall.

Until I pounce and disappear again you'll never hear a thing

The soul has always been corrupted

But the heart and hands are clean

Sworn enemies fall lifeless though they never see my face

The game if glory but I take my joy in leaving not a trace

.

My actions quick as lightning unintended to hurt you

I'm only doing what a Ninja's gotta do.

Dada do da do dada do da

.

Following the way

Creeping night and day

I won't say life is hard

But I must restrain my urges to run naked through my yard

.

No ninja goes out streaking it just simply isn't done

My career would shrivel up and die but damn would it be fun

To see the neighbors eyes as big as saucers peering from their doors

I pirouette beneath the moonlight

days of skulking, hiding, sneaking, and assassinating enemies no more

Just one streak of brightness in a world of black and blue

I'd just be doing what a ninja's gotta do

Wouldn't you

Go skinny dipping like a ninja gotta do!?

.

After the song had ended, Aika looked up and there in front of her was a man dressed all in red, who she assumed was Flash. He was snickering.

"Shit, how much of that did you hear?"

"About half. Don't sing that one to Batman," He replied, still trying not to laugh.

Flash and Aika headed out of the room and into the hallway.

"So no one actually told me your name, what is it?"

"Aika Dewhurst"

"Dewhurst? Like Meister's kid?"

"Fastest man alive, huh?"

"If you're his kid and you have his powers, how come I didn't... Ya know?"

I have no idea. Maybe it's because I was bored and didn't think anyone was hearing me. Maybe it only works if I think someone can hear me? You probably should have made more noise."

Flashed snorted. "Usually I'm pretty good at drawing attention to myself."

After a couple moments of walking and talking, Flash suddenly became very quiet and put his hand up to one of the...antenna?... on his head like it was a Bluetooth.

"Flash...oh hey Kid... Gimme ten minutes. I'm playing escort...yes, her...still her choice...not unless she wants one...out."

Aika smiled, "ooh, who was that? Anyone I know?"

"Kid Flash, you know him?"

"I know of him. Pretty sure I've never met him. I'da remembered that."

"Oh?"

"It's Gotham. Gothamites post shit like that to Facebook. 'Guess who just crashed through my second floor window? Hashtag onlyinGotham' or 'This week in tips I received: one batarang, a ninja star, two canisters of fear gas, a deck of cards, and three riddles! Hashtag onlyinGotham!"

"Is that hashtag a thing?" Flash asked between laughs. Aika nodded.

"So is hashtag BirdWatching where all who follow it are dedicated to stalking the Boy Wonder."

They both started laughing then continued down the hall toward the training room.