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The next day, Mallory couldn't keep from smiling as she anticipated the evening. She didn't exactly like Jr, not enough to date him, but she did kind of like being around him. She got in the shower early, counting on Dick staying asleep until she left.
Unfortunately, her luck wasn't that good. She was still in the shower when he knocked on the bathroom door.
"Hey Mal, you mind if I come shave? I'm going out with Barbara, and she'll kill me if I'm late again."
Mallory sighed. Well, at least he would be leaving before her. "No, come ahead," she called back. He came in and went to the sink. She heard the water turn on and the clink of the shaving cream bottle as he moved it closer. She chuckled and said, "I don't know why you feel the need to shave those two hairs on your chin, though. You can't even see them without x-ray vision."
"Ha ha," he replied flatly, and she could almost hear the eye roll that went with it. She chuckled, letting the water rinse out her hair.
"So, any of those applications look promising?" he asked casually.
Mallory sighed. "I just put them in yesterday. Most of them told me it would take a few days to review them. Don't be so pushy."
"Sorry. I just don't like to see you sitting around the apartment all day. It's not like you." He paused, then chuckled and added, "besides, I don't want the place catching on fire."
It was Mallory's turn to roll her eyes. "Ha ha," she said, mimicking the way he had said it earlier. "I've still been going out to let off steam. Besides, you know I don't explode anymore."
The water turned off at the sink, and the handle of the razer made a slight clink as he dropped it back in the jar. "Yeah, sure," he said, pretending like he didn't know it.
Mallory huffed, fighting a smile. "Go on your date, before I tell Barbara about the night you blew her off to catch the smugglers after you swore you were sick in bed."
He gasped in mock shock. "You wouldn't!"
She shook her head, thinking of all the things he could blackmail her with. "Shut up and get out of here!"
He laughed and went to the door. "I probably won't be back until tomorrow night, I'll just go straight to work from Babs'. Stay out of trouble."
Her heart skipped a beat, thinking for a moment that he knew about her date. She shook her head, though, and replied, "you, too. Say hi to Barbara for me." He shut the door, and she turned off the water. There was no way he could know, which meant that she was safe to get ready and go without having to hear any lectures about the stupidity of this decision.
She hadn't known exactly what she should wear on this date, considering the fact that he couldn't know her secret identity. She thought about wearing her suit, but in the end decided against it. If they were just going to a club, she didn't want to attract that kind of attention. She did make an effort to put together an outfit that was as close to her suit as she could make it. She wore jeans and combat boots, with a red V-necked t-shirt and her Inferno black leather-type jacket. She finished the look off by borrowing a pair of Dick's sunglasses, completely concealing her eyes. She gave herself a once-over in the mirror and smiled a little. It looked good, if casual, and her fire-dancer necklace complemented the shirt well. She pulled her hair into a braid and started to walk out of the apartment, but on second thought she grabbed her comm off the table and put it in her ear. Better safe than sorry, especially when she wasn't bringing her phone. She couldn't risk Jr taking it and reading all of her contacts.
She made her way through the streets, keeping a sharp eye out as always. No matter how long she lived in Bludhaven, she would never be completely comfortable walking around in civies. She made it to the street that she had seen Jr on the day before, expecting to have to wait, but he was already there, pacing the sidewalk impatiently. She tilted her head as she kept walking, watching his movements, her eyes darting around to see if it was a trap. As far as she could tell they were completely alone, except for a middle aged man covered in tattoos and piercings carrying some grocery bags on the opposite side of the street.
"Hey," she said, stopping a few feet away.
Jr looked up sharply, his face scrunching up in confusion and then moving into a grin. "Wow, you actually came!" he said. Clearly, he'd been expecting to get stood up.
"Yeah, I came. Now what?" she asked.
Jr grinned and started walking, leaving Mallory to double her pace to catch up. "Now, Inferno, we have fun."
He led her through the city, abrupt swerving into alleys and down narrow streets. She thought about turning around twice, but the sureness of Jr's steps had her curious, so she pressed on. He stopped at the front of a sleazy street lined with clubs and bars packed with people.
"Come on," he said, grabbing her wrist. She narrowed her eyes behind the sunglasses, but didn't say anything and allowed him to drag her to a club with a line down the block. Jr, however, went right up to the bouncer and smiled confidently. The huge man barely even looked at him and he was already opening the door to let them in.
"Do you come here a lot?" Mallory asked.
He shrugged. "Whenever I happen to be in the city. Trust me, this is the place you want to be." He led her through a short hallway, going into the coat check room without even looking at the dance floor.
"Umm, I'm gonna keep my jacket on," she said, trying to pull her arm out of Jr's grip.
"Yeah, I figured you would," he replied.
Before she could ask why they were in the coat-check room if they weren't checking anything, he pushed aside a rack of clothing items and pushed a button on the tiled wall. The tiles slid into each other, creating a doorway, and Jr went into the darkness without hesitation. Mallory was less sure of herself, and she paused to make sure that her comm was working before slowly following her date into the passageway. The tiles slid back into place behind her, making her feel trapped. Now that the door was closed, though, she could distinguish loud voices and pounding music coming from in front of her, not behind her where the main club was. She tilted her head and followed Jr around a corner, and immediately froze when she realized what she'd walked into. She recognized many of the faces in the underground club. There was the Tattooed Man over in the corner, drinking at the bar, and Giganta dancing by the DJ. She recognized King Shark, too, which unnerved her more than any of the others. There were also countless people that she assumed were henchmen. Someone announced Jr's presence, and some of them walked over to them. Mallory got flashbacks from when she and Dick had stumbled into the trap during the only mission the team had been on in Bludhaven, and she had to remind herself that she wasn't technically in her costume. Though, she was about as close as a person could get to it.
"Well, Jr, long time," Kiteman said. He looked over to Mallory and raised an eyebrow. "And, who is this?"
Jr looked back at her, freezing when he realized that he couldn't introduce her as Inferno and he didn't know what else to call her. Mallory put a hand on her hip, trying to seem confident in herself. "The name's Tana," she said calmly.
A woman to their right crossed her arms. "Inspired by goody goodies, are you?" she asked mockingly.
Mallory tilted her head. "What?"
"You look like that Leaguer, Inferno," she explained, her face anything but friendly.
"Nah, she ain't even a Leaguer anymore, G," a man behind the woman said. "I heard they kicked her out for being too violent for their precious standards."
The woman smirked. "Well, maybe she'd not so bad after all."
Jr glanced at Mallory nervously, and she could tell he was worried about how she would react. She just smiled and said, "yeah, better than the rest of those boyscouts up there. I mean, have you ever been interrogated by the Flash? My kid brother is scarier than him."
The faces around them softened a little, becoming more accepting as they started to believe that she was one of them. "The Flash put you away?" Kiteman asked.
Mallory shook her head. "Nah, he barely put up a fight when I told him I was just tryin to pay for my grandmother's surgery. What a sap."
Several of the people around them laughed and shouted in agreement. "Yeah, but I'd rather get put away by him than one of the Bats anytime," one of the goons mentioned. Several of them nodded.
Mallory shrugged. "Eh, Nightwing's not so bad. You'd think he'd be harder, being trained by Bats."
"So, Tana, where you from? I haven't seen you around before," Tattoo Man asked, coming over from his seat at the bar.
She shrugged. "No where in particular. I just finished a job in Star, that's where I met Jr here."
"Which job?" the man asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Mallory didn't miss a beat. "I was one of the guards for the arms deal, the boss was selling to Brick. But Inferno and Red Arrow showed up. There was someone else there, too, but they knocked me out before I could see who it was." She rubbed the back of her head as if it was still painful. "I wish the heroes would at least give a little warning before they start knocking people out. I had a lump for three days."
The goons nodded, understanding her pain, and all suspicion seemed to vanish from Tattoo Man's face. "Well, you kids have a good time," he said, and went back to his seat. His acceptance of her made the others step aside, and she and Jr went to the bar to get some drinks.
"You sure know how to handle yourself in a tight spot," Jr mentioned.
She smiled, knocking back her shot. "Thanks. I thought you were gonna give me away with the way you were panicking."
"Hey, I wasn't panicking," he whined.
The pitch of his voice got under her skin a little, but another shot in and she didn't even notice anymore. "Come on, let's dance," she suggested. He didn't argue, and she pulled him out onto the floor.
They weren't out there for long when the woman from the entrance, G, called, "Hey, Tana!" Mallory looked up, and the woman was grinning. She, too, had had a few drinks since the last time they talked. "You like Inferno so much, do you play with fire too?"
Jr shook his head. "No, she doesn't have powers," he said.
"Oh, come on, do a trick," G whined. Some of the people around them picked up on the conversation and joined in, trying to push Jr away so he wouldn't be protesting anymore. Finally, Mallory laughed and held up her hands. "Fine, fine, I do know one trick," she said. "You have a match?" G pulled a pack out of her pocket and tossed them over.
Mallory lit the match and held it for a second, deciding what to do, then she held it to her lips and blew. The flame shot out like a flame thrower, growing to a foot long. She made it die a second later, tossing the matches back to G. The murmurs of amazement were cut short by King Shark's growl, and Mallory looked at him to see that he'd been standing a little too close when she'd blown the fire, and his shirt was singed. "Oops," she murmured, just before the super villain charged at her.
She dodged the punch at the last second, and it landed on the poor person behind her, a smaller man who went flying into the wall after crashing into someone else. In seconds, the whole place had been reduced to an all out brawl, and Mallory and Jr fought side by side in it, dodging fists and bodies and chairs and bottles as they punched and kicked and Jr iced when he had too. He didn't look thrilled with the turn in the evening, but Mallory couldn't have been happier. It was the most excitement she'd had all week, and she was glowing with it. She didn't even care that she would have to explain the black eye and bruised jaw in the morning. Still, she felt bad for Jr, who wasn't exactly a hands-on kind of fighter. She sighed and threw someone over her shoulder into a second charging figure and leaned closer to his ear. "You want to go somewhere quieter?" she asked. He smiled, looking relieved, and pulled her closer, making an ice bridge under their feet and taking them over the fighting and right to the door. They left the club, laughing as they went down the streets.
"Ok, where do we go from here?" Mallory asked.
Jr shrugged. "I don't know. The Square?"
Mallory shrugged, and they started walking. The parks in Bludhaven were definitely not safe after dark, they were barely safe in the middle of the day, but Halyard Square was usually pretty dull. When they got there, it was pretty empty, with only a few couples stationed on benches and getting food from the stands. Mallory and Jr settled on a bench at the edge.
"This was fun," she declared, smiling as she leaned back on her arms and looked up at the stars struggling to peirce the smog hanging over their heads.
Jr laughed and nodded. "Yeah, it was," he agreed. He paused, then continued hesitantly, "can we do it again sometime?"
Mallory froze for a second, then let herself relax, the smile coming back to her face. "Yeah, sure," she said, almost indifferently.
Jr relaxed a little and leaned closer. He was about to kiss her lips, but seemed to think better of it at the last second and shifted to turn it into a peck on the cheek. "Good night, Inferno. I'm sure I'll run into you soon enough," he said, and he stood and started walking away.
Mallory watched him go, her mind replaying the evening. It was fun, and it showed her a side of Icicle Jr that she doubted many knew existed. It was nice to see.
Mallory practically circled the city when she left the Square, then she zetaed to Metropolis and took a different zeta tube back to Bludhaven, one on the opposite side of the city as where the club was, just in case someone was planning on following her. She didn't think anyone was, but she also didn't want to risk leading anyone to Dick's apartment. She was still thinking about the date as she walked the last few blocks to the apartment. Her comm clicked in her ear, and it took a minute to register before she answered it.
"Hey, Mal, I've been trying to call you for an hour, where are you?" Roy asked, sounding annoyed.
"Oh, sorry, I went out and I forgot my phone at the apartment," she apologized. "What did you need me for?"
"Well, nothing. I just wanted to let you know that I found proof about that gang in Metropolis. Icicle's the leader, all right, and he's building a pretty big following. I don't have a main location yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I know more. And keep me posted if you find anything. I'm kind of surprised you haven't heard about it by now."
"Oh, yeah, well, I haven't really been in Metropolis much lately," Mallory said, guilt twisting in her chest.
"Ok, well, I'll see you later."
"See you," she replied, and the line went dead. The last block to the apartment, she tried to sort out her guilt. She hated lying to Roy, and she didn't even really know why she was doing it, except that if they hit Icicle's gang, then it would affect Jr, and she didn't want him to get hurt. She shook her head as she climbed the stairs to Dick's apartment and let herself in. What had she expected to happen, getting close to a super villain? She spent the rest of the night trying to answer that question, but no good answers came to her.