Gotham City
August 27, 6:17 ETD
Treble had no idea what to do. Her mind was blank- well, there were no foreign voices filling it. The mind link had been cut off as soon as M'Gann was knocked out, and she and Aqualad were the only two still conscious. Her voice was gone, and she was already out of ammo as it would just get stuck in Clayface's abdomen. She couldn't remember how Batman took out Clayface last time, but whatever it was she couldn't figure it out.
Lost in her thoughts, Clayface managed to get a good shot at her head. She was dazed and fell over, just enough to watch the same thing happen to Aqualad. A few seconds later, just as her vision was swimming out again, she heard glass break and a large, black form fall between her and the monster. He shot a taser and Clayface melted into nothingness. 'Was it really that easy?' she thought to herself.
Batman just saved their asses. And he probably wasn't too happy about it, but she didn't care. Treble tried to lift herself off the ground, and crawled over to where the rest of the team lay unconscious, and tried to wake them up.
Apartment above Sax in the City
August 27, 7:02 EDT
Aria almost fell through the entryway to her apartment, hair still dripping from her shower back at the cave. She felt she needed three more, but she wanted sleep first. She looked at her clock, which read that it was just past 7:00 in the morning, so the store below her feet opened in under two hours. If she wanted any money, today was the day to work. It was a Saturday, which meant that she and Ryan were going to be working for most of the day.
"If I jump in the shower right now, wash my hair and then jump in bed, it'll be mostly dry when I wake up," she said to herself.
Fifteen minutes later, Aria fell into bed, set her phone to go off at 8:45, and passed out cold.
Sax in the City
10:30 AM
Aria leaned on the glass counter containing the violins bored out of her mind. Ryan was in the back, restocking guitar strings and she was working the cash register. She had clocked in at about 9:15, but made up for it with a dozen donuts from the shop a few doors down, so Ryan didn't care. Especially since no customers ever really came until after lunch, being a little late wasn't going to put the store out of business.
She sighed and walked out from behind the counter, activated the doorbell in case someone came in, then went to the back to see if there was anything she could do that was useful. Aria opened the door just in time to see Ryan fall on his butt. Apparently, he was trying to throw the boxes of guitar strings onto the shelf on which they belonged, as opposed to grabbing the step-stool like a normal person.
"Are you okay?" she asked as the boy got up, dusting himself off.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "I was just trying to get the guitar strings up on their shelf. I couldn't reach."
Aria rolled her eyes and just stared at the step-stool that lived in the corner. Ryan looked around trying to figure out what she was staring at. She dramatically sighed and rolled her eyes again, then kept staring at the step-stool. Ryan finally saw the stool, and his entire figure slouched forward in defeat.
"I didn't know that was there."
"Obviously."
Aria walked over to the back door, which led to a stairwell to her house. Near the door was a hook on which her nametag's lanyard lived. The uniform for the store was long pants with any solid-color top. Today, Aria was wearing a purple crew neck with black jeans. Her hair was pulled in front of her ears to cover the earplugs. She grabbed her lanyard off the hook and pulled it over her neck. Then the doorbell rang. The two looked at each other, and glared. They each made a fist, and banged it against their other hand.
"Rock, paper, scissors, SHOOT!" Ryan's flat hand was his downfall as Aria chose scissors, leaving him to go work with the customers. He sighed, and walked into the main area. Aria grabbed the step-stool and started to restock the guitar strings.
"Hey Aria?" she heard. She turned around and saw Ryan standing behind her, looking quite starstruck. "Dick Grayson just came in asking for you. I didn't know you knew him."
"I don't. Did he have anyone else with him?"
Ryan, still looking as if he'd just seen God himself, shrugged. "Some redheaded kid that he called Wally."
Aria's eyes widened as she jumped off the stool and ran into the store. True to Ryan's word, Wally West was standing next to the media-famous Richard Grayson. Thoughts raced through Aria's head. How did Wally West know who she was? She'd never given him any name other than 'Aika,' and there was no more record of Aika ever existing. But the look on Wally's face told her that he definitely knew her, especially since he'd seen her face more than once. But that still didn't explain why he was here with THE Dick Grayson. Or how he knew her name. Unless…
She focused on Dick's jawline.
Yup. That explains it.
"Ryan?" She called. He popped his head back through the door.
"Yeah?"
"Go take a lunch break," she said. "Don't bother clocking out, I'll cover you."
"...but-"
"Go. Take. An. Early. Lunch." She didn't look away from the two boys in front of her as she ordered Ryan out of the building.
"Okay." he said, defeated, went to hang up his lanyard, then walked out the front door toward his favorite deli. Once he was out of sight, Aria turned to Wally. "He told you my name?"
The redhead smirked, "Did you know his?"
"Just figured it out now," she turned to the black-haired boy. "Does B-man know you're here? That has a double meaning."
Dick nodded. "Yeah. He sent me with a delivery." At this, he pulled a pill bottle out of his pocket and handed it to her. "We finally got you a solid prototype. They're not perfect, but they should work better than the liquid vial."
Aria's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh!" she announced as she ran to grab the pills. "Thank you!" She hesitated before speaking again. "You want to come upstairs while I put these away?"
Wally looked confused, "Don't you have to watch the store while Bryan is away?"
"No one ever comes in before 1:00, and RYAN is only a couple of doors down," she said as she started toward the back door. "Are you coming up or not?" She kept walking and went upstairs. The boys looked at each other, shrugged, then followed her to the apartment. The hallway up to the entrance was narrow, only wide enough for two people, which was fine considering only one person continually used the stairwell.
Upon entering, there was a small kitchen to the left that was barely used. A dining table blocked immediate entrance to the kitchen, though. Four chairs rested at the table, but only one was ever used. Its was the only spot with a placemat to keep the table clean. The kitchen was fully equipped, but not fully stocked as Aika rarely cooked. Most of her food consisted of TV dinners and microwave ramen. Immediately in front of the entrance and in view of the kitchen from a built-in-bar, was the living room which held a mediocre TV, couch, recliner and a coffee table. To the right of the TV rested a large glass door that led to an empty balcony. The view was nothing to be impressed at, half of it was a brick alleyway while the other half showed a grey street. If you walked by the kitchen and into the hallway, you would run into a full bathroom on the left and a bedroom on the right. Both were exceedingly normal, save for the bright green bedspread and dark purple pillows.
"Love what you've done with the place," quipped Wally, noting the unused kitchen and lack of decor. Dick rolled his eyes and nudged him. "I-I mean it looks… cozy?"
"Gees you don't have to search for a compliment," Aika rolled her eyes, not quite offended, but slightly annoyed with the redhead. "I'm barely here. Pretty much sleep and get dressed, then I'm out the door." She then started walking into her room, and toward her closet. The boys followed her.
"Where are you going?" Asked Wally. "Don't tell me you keep your suit in your closet. That's so obvious."
"I keep my suit in my closet. But at least it takes a while to find," Aika replied as the opened the door and shoved a bunch of empty hangers to the side. What looked like a blank wall save for a string dangling from a light in the ceiling. She pulled the sting once… twice… thrice
The light turned on and off, then back on again. Nothing else happened.
"Umm… Aika? Nothing's happening," Dick said.
She smirked. "I know, just wasting your time. She reached up and unscrewed the lightbulb, then touched her index finger to the copper filament that connected it to the wiring in the apartment. The wall in front of her slid downward and showed a plexiglass case containing one of her three suits. Dick's eyes lit up, recognising the design from a similar case in the Cave that held his suit.
"Canary had it installed when we figured out there was no good place to keep it," she started. "The light fixture is a pressure-oriented fingerprint scan. Then there's a hidden retina lock that scans before the wall slides down. So you have to know what you're doing for the case to open. Otherwise you just look like a perv who's going through my closet."
Wally was flabbergasted. He just wore his suit 24/7. Or it was under a flap of fabric at the bottom of his backpack during the school day. "Doesn't that seem like overkill?"
"You should see the contractible suit Bruce made me that lives in a glasses-case in my backpack." She got out the belt of her suit and replaced the vial of blue lozenge with the new pill case. Then she turned to Dick. "Do you have any more of these that I could put with the other two?"
He laughed. "The first bottle is already with the suit at the cave," he pulled out a second bottle made to look like a store brand lozenge, "and these are for your traveling suit."
"Dude, you're the best."
Then, a cellphone rang. All three checked their back pockets even though they all had different ringtones; the specific song was the chorus to ACDC's "Back in Black." Dick pulled out his ringing phone and answered. He grunted a few times after listening to the person on the other end, then finished with an "I'll be there in ten minutes."
He hung up, rolled his eyes, then said, "Sorry guys, I've got to go. Bruce wants me for something but he wouldn't specify." It seemed like something had hit a nerve recently. The topic of Bruce Wayne looked like it angered him. Aika noticed, but didn't say anything.
"Okay," she started. "Well, thanks for dropping off the pills, and I guess if I'm home you're welcome to crash in. I'm always bored."
He smiled, then nodded at Wally before high-fiving him on the way out the door. The redhead turned back to Aika. "So, my grandad is having a birthday and you look bored…"
She put up a hand, "I'd love to go, Wally, but I don't get to work often and I'm running low on funds. So I'm gonna have to get a rain check."
He gave her a lopsided grin, "you're just looking for excuses to spend time with that hunk, Brian." She rolled her eyes and playfully shoved past him.
"Spare me." Aika started to walk downstairs, Wally trailing behind her. When they got to the front of the store, he turned back to her.
"Don't work yourself too hard."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Sax in the City
August 27,5:00 PM
After Wally left, Aika ran over to Ryan's favorite sandwich shop and grabbed him. Then, suddenly it seemed as if the fall crowd decided to all file into the store at once.
It was school season, and for some reason all the middle-school orchestra students waited until the last minute to choose an instrument and come in to have it sized. There were even some trailing band members who hadn't made the summer rehearsals. A mom and a daughter became three moms and six kids, then ten moms with twenty kids. Ryan was working the register while Aika was helping the sixth-graders figure out what instrument they wanted to play for the next three years.
"Why can't I play the guitar?"
"Because your school doesn't offer guitar as a class, Pick a different string." Replied the mother, gesturing to a double bass in the corner.
"Can I play the violin?"
"Can I deal with the hearing loss?" said the father looking wistfully at a cello.
"What the heck is a viola?"
"It's a less-famous violin. And if you keep playing it you'll find more jobs."
Aika was running between families, often with multiple instruments in her arms trying to appease both the parents and kids. To the boy who wanted to play guitar, she explained that the double bass has the same finger patterns as a bass in a rock band, so the transition is easy. To the girl who wanted to play violin but whose father wanted her on the cello, she explained that she wouldn't have to lug the cello to and from school everyday as most schools have a set of their own cellos and bases. And finally, to the girl who really had no idea what to play (but whose parent was pressing the viola), she explained that as long as she practiced, she'd learn to love her instrument.
The store was super busy, and Ryan was flocked with parents trying to check out and leave to go get lunch or go home. The store didn't keep too many actual instruments in stock, this WAS Gotham and that would be stupid, so when a family decided what instrument they wanted, Aika would fill out a little yellow slip with the parent's name, the instrument's information- type, brand, size, and case (if it was a larger instrument you could get a soft case or a hard shell case)- a phone number for contact, and whether or not the family was paying in full, through layaway, or renting the instrument. The yellow sheet was on top of a pressure-activated pink slip, which stayed with the family, while the yellow slip went into a registry in the back, which Ryan would then go through later when the store was less busy.
Aika was so busy that she didn't realize who some of the people walking into the store were. Dinah Lance came in behind a short boy and his abnormally tall mother, then hung around the keyboards as she watched Aika working with about four families at once. The blonde noted that she was juggling the parents quite well, while her awkward counterpart had trouble handling one person at the register at a time. However, there was a job ready for Aika that required specialized help, a way for the team to see how well she could work under light cover. Lance walked over to the corner where Aika was currently helping a young boy size a viola, and stood off to the side, waiting to be noticed. It didn't take long, as she was directly in Aika's line of sight when she finished with the customer. The teenager walked up to her mentor.
"What's up?"
"We have an assignment for you. You'll need a suit."
"I have three suits-"
"An actual suit. Not your gear. You're dropping off a subject of interest at STARR labs." Dinah handed the girl an envelope for briefing. "Go upstairs, get dressed in business attire. That packet will tell you everything you need to know to get the job done. When you're done reading it, zeta over to the cave, a briefcase with the specimen will be waiting for you, zeta back and take it to STARR labs. Everything else should be explained in the briefing pack."
"The League trusts me to do this alone?"
"I'm supposed to say yes, but I also happen to be assigned to watch over you via Tower Surveillance in case you do run into trouble, but nothing should happen. No one on the surface knows the specimen is here yet."
"Alright. Let me clock out and close up. The crowd seems to be lightening up anyways."
And with that, Dinah left the shop, Aika started ushering people out, and closing up. She also managed to convince Ryan that, since his lunch break was unrecorded, he could leave a half hour early and have the same pay as if he'd gone to his normal lunch. By 5:45, she was in her apartment, reading a file on a very peculiar sea star.
The file had been packed in a simple, tan envelope. Within had been three items. The first being a single sheet of thick, white paper that described the sea star in layman's terms. Approximate size of the original star, size of the current specimen (as most of the original had been destroyed in an attack on the Atlantean science center), approximate speed of regeneration, and any properties the Atlanteans had discovered about the star before the attack. The second article was a packet of six pieces of paper detailing exactly what Aika was supposed to do, The step-by-step instructions looked daunting at first, but once they had been read through, it actually seemed quote simple- Pick up the briefcase with the specimen at the cave, zeta back to Gotham and transport it to the STARR labs in Gotham City. Then, Aika would be escorted most of the way into the locked laboratories and freezers that would house the specimen while it was on the surface. The escorts would take her as far as they could, but eventually Aika would be on her own. The last part of the briefing pack was another single sheet of paper that contained all the codes Aika would need once her escorts left. That way, she couldn't go back to the specimen, and they wouldn't be able to get all the way in. This was specifically done so that only League-appointed personnel would be able to examine or have access to the specimen, as the Black Manta attack proved that there was further interest in it.
So, Aika walked to her closet and started to put on her black suit and a pair of heels. She contemplated wearing her mask, if only to increase credibility, but decided against it when a fourth piece of paper fell out of the briefing pack. An ID. A REAL ID, with her original name and everything.
'Aika Dewhurst. League Official,' it read. It even had her picture, Odd. WHy would it use her real name? And why would the League even bother having identification of her old self.
'I thought they'd just deleted everything, MIB style,' she thought. Aika shrugged it off, picked up the ID and tucked it inside her bra. There's no way it would have stayed put in any other pocket. It was unlikely she would need them, but Aika also tucked away the pill bottle Dick had given her that morning. Then, she was on her way out. The packet instructed her to use her father's motorcycle for transport to and from the zeta tubes. So, she took a cab to the garage where she was keeping it, as she obviously couldn't keep it at her apartment. It was quite the statement piece.
Mount Justice
August 27, 9:30 PM
'Treble B-07' Announced the computer as Aika walked through the Zeta entrance and into the main meeting area of the cave. Kaldur was standing there, looking a little forlorn, and holding a briefcase. He was looking her in the eye, but just barely. Now probably wasn't the best time to ask him about what happened.
"So if you're free, why was I asked to do this?" Aika asked as she walked up to him.
He handed the briefcase to her, along with a chain to lock it onto her person. She looped it around a belt loop and then around the handle of the case. "Your's is not a publicly known face; the League wanted to keep this drop off somewhat discreet."
"I guess that makes sense. I'll see you later."
"Good Luck, Treble."
And with that, she walked back through the Zeta tube to the Gotham transport point. Then hopped back on her motorcycle and sped off to the STARR labs facility.