Why Heroes Can't Sip Champagne and Apples Are a Girl's Best Friend
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Chapter 27: The Sirens Woke Me in the Early Morning Light
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Kori and Dick worked tirelessly as of that time to make accommodations for Mari and her mother to Move not to Gotham, but close. Not in Blud, yet another city west of it. New York city wasn't Gotham, she was sister to it, divided by bridges and a land mass that doubled over the city of Darkness and crime. So far though, hope was coming through those grey clouds, all thanks to something Bruce had forgotten. It turned out the last lead was false. He was after all in their hearts, buried away. Talia came to show her respects at the memorial and not too little Mari hit it off with her cousins and family in the manor right away.
They even brought their pit baby, Haley as she had a few years left to romp, despite needing the occasional nap. Titus and Damian's bat cow and cat, Alfred, all got along as if they'd never forgotten. Just as time marched, Mari grew up a little. Her mind collectively surrounded by the fact that her family….
Was amazing.
Yes, the best gift she had ever known and it was all hers! She went to a private school with Wayne money to stay safe from those who had beef with her family, like a real princess. It never went over her head though. She loved to explore, even at thirteen. Her feet left the ground and sge flew home before. Poor Alfred had to make sure that Kori and Dick were handling things since their jobs kept them so busy.
Her mother was in New York city at a photo shoot when she came one late afternoon, after-school to pick up Mari, herself She wanted from her car, seeming pleased to see that Mari wasn't going off on any scouting in this city on her own.
"My bumgorf. Do listen…we will, be going away from home. Just fir a little while." As they drove, Mari tried to understand the swap. Her mother was tense on the wheel, her eyes straight ahead of the traffic in front if them.
"Where? Was dad….is he ok??"
"It, we will be moving into the manor again."
They had decided against staying and found a penthouse in Manhattan that was enough for two she was there for close to a year, before this news. "We moved before our of Jump, but…mom! What's going on?? I need to know what to pack, why and…. are we going out of the country?? I can't long distance chat!"
"It will be all the right." Her mother only spoke in her broken English when she was nervous. Mari shifted in the seat beside her mother's and fell into it with a huff of her own breath. "No, we won't. Something major is happening right now, and you won't tell me…"
"M'ari –
"Mom! What is wrong…please…"
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They got to the rocky stretch as Wayne Manor stood there, a wall if secrets and seclusion. As soon as she'd entered the main gate with their car, her mother turned in to meet Alfred and Duke up by the drive. "Ah, good of you to join us again, Mistress Anderson and young Lady Mari." Alf smiled back, yet Mari didn't try to impose. "Is my husband inside, friend Pennyworth?"
Slowly, he nodded, walking with his head still high enough for others to follow. "Your things shall be delivered and store accordingly as you requested earlier, Miss Anders." Alfred told the red headed model. "Mari? The children are all in the drawing room." He told the girl as she shook her head. "I'm thirteen, I can handle-
"You will do as he instructs, my bumgorf." Kori turned to her daughter with eyes as bright as a comet's lowered clash down to earth. "Do as we ask; it is very the important that you listen for today." She said, somehow softer this time.
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"I'm not staying put." Mari sat on a cushion on the floor while Cass, Lian and Robert, Jason and Babs's son at age six, all were impossible to be bothered by. Damian and the others were older than Mari, so if ticked her off that she was left to babysit besides the former assassin known as Black Bat once. Now under a new alias.
"Are we going to get to see my dad yet?" Mari hand signed to Cass, since she was nonverbal due to a long-standing trauma in her life. ( making her use sign language throughout this.) "Isn't uncle Tim of Aunt Stephanie going to stay too?"
~ They are included in this debate. I'm sorry, Mari. Just wait a few more minutes. These younger children are important to the society that our families have carved out. You just don't know it yet. ~
Mari blinked back, thinking that did sound like a prophecy to her. "How so? Am I really as special as them, just because of my flying abilities? It's not enough. They have to tell me." She rose, Cass being bombarded by Robert's crying fits as she held Lian and sighed. ~ You understand that this was a direct order from our head bat in charge. ~
"Dad cares, he doesn't want me to know too much because of being afraid right now. But, afraid of…what?"
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The group was in a chat through the bat computer with multiple members. Titans East, West, The Birds of Prey, The Night wings of Bludhaven. The JLA and globally, there was a crisis.
"A powerful event is going to destroy all we've built together, and so far….this will lead to a possible ice age like none if the likes any of us has seen before." Dick said, Kori clutching onto Bab's arm as she knelt beside oracle in her powered-up wheelchair
"The event was forced by an excavation a few months ago in the Siberia wilderness. First, we thought the plates would hold, but there was a danger to that trip that the United States itself should deeply be held in contempt for attempting. Because, it was partly funded by the board of Wayne enterprises while under our watch. Whoever took that plunge while there was a warning against searching for more rare minerals to mind, and we warned them constantly…they found a way and now…(I'm borrowing the day after tomorrow into this.)
"Our home….it will, be forever solid…" Kori swallowed.
"On ice." Jason grunted. "All because some stupid megalomaniac wanted to push away your warming mot to?? You think he'd listen to that?? I should have gone there myself, had him charged for a crime easily that would put away that piece of –
"Jason." Babs punched his side as he winced out of shock. "S – sorry…but Dick was in the right. It's not ok. We can't stop this!"
"We have an option, but the trip involves up going to the core where it split to inject a device that lay reverse the process. Freeze it back and even if we have any other option-
~ The delicate ecosystem right now is tirelessly trying to heal. ~ Martian Man Hunter's niece, M'gann told the teams from the screen out at the watchtower. ~ Anyone who can brave through below freezing temperatures is welcome, yet there will still be a problem if we succeed. The earth will get its winter. ~
~ If it does, my powers and Starfire's won't work as well. It will take months or longer to recover and see to the destruction that an unnatural phenomenon can have on humanity. The use of electricity might take off, or wind and solar. We are hoping to propose a ban on non-renewable resources and a restriction on mining in ecosystems like this one. ~
~ That would be sweet!~ Gar grinned from ear to ear at the news. ~ We have to beat a big disaster to make a change at all. Those kooks, minus the fact that half the world's villains are in on stopping the disaster shows we have to have hope. Right team?~
Kori smiled, while Dick had trouble thinking too far ahead. "Anyone has their agenda. What Bruce did teach me was to never expect a problem to simply vanish. To always pay close attention in case someone steps out of their promises. Like that. You don't think Luthor and the rest of the world isn't helping to stay on our good side? When this ends, they may just take that good faith for granted to have what they want. It won't happen. I plan to do as Clark said. Change this world as much as I can so they can't invest in its destruction once we've gone through a mess like this, nuclear winter."
Starfire flew to his arm as he started to regress into a darker side of himself. "Kori. We've all come to another…conclusion. That….Roy, Lian you, Robert and anyone who won't survive this, should see if Wildfire can help you find refuge for a little while. I've already said you'd make contact and he isn't opposed to it –
"Dick!" Kori pulled away, as if that whip of love had come between them both. M'gann even looked terribly guilty. "Megan is even offering some of her younger teammates to stay on Mars for a bit. We can't lose you and…earth won't be doomed if this winter breaks eventually."
"You…you do not have the powers I have…you will perish!" She felt her eyes grow wet as they did, all for them. Dick never even once tried to cry. The person she remembered dearly, was locked away for this new war. "What about M'ari? Our family?" She begged to heard him reconsider.
"I'll be alright, as long as o know you two are waiting for me." Dick took her hands into his, and for that, was all he could do without the cowl to mask his fears as well.
"You'll be ok, and that's all I want to happen right now. They are getting bunkers ready and we have a special source of power that can generate for decades if it has to. The cave has a bunker too, further under that if I lose power once, it won't go out. That flame, it won't go out." He choked back, his eyes staring on her and only her.
"Go, do this for us…. Kori, I know ..I know the sun won't rise long enough for you to take off."
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"Twenty eight hours left." Damian scowled and packed only what he would need for his trip to Mars. "M'gann realizes that I will take time, to adjust…more importantly-
"She did this because you said Djinn will need more help." Babs reminded the young adult. "Did you tell her yet?"
"That would…not until we are on solid ground, Barbara." He shifted his clothing into his suitcase, the easy part almost done. "I do not want her to think I am taking advantage by manipulation of our time together…I…I care, very much. How though?"
"You've made immortal romances work for you before." Shrugged the older bat. "You are after all Bruce's flesh and blood."
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Kori took Mari by the hand and she told her once more, "We are leaving, and I do not know when we shall return again."
Mari broke out in a shout right in front of Robert and Lian. Roy was too busy scooping up Lian as he needed Cheshire to pack their things. Jason had to tug his son up and cradle him to stop crying. He was nothing like Babs, such a brat. Maybe like his old man, after all. Or his uncle Dick.
"We're waiting on the call. We can get a zeta beam up to the next port. Then, fly it outta here."
"What about everyone else??" Mari suddenly exclaimed. "Why are they staying put?? That's not fair!"
"We will have them relocated as well. There will be planets even on Tamaran, yet these are humans who…must learn to change." Kori told her child bitterly.
"It's because people shut their eyes to everyday catastrophic events like this, that nothing gets done." Jason said, cooing on the side to Robert, the cry baby with an equally sensitive heart. "I gotta get him out, he's going to be a bit on a handful, either way…"
"Wait…" Mari spotted the crying, the clinging. "Does Robbie…have autism?"
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It was more in the middle of sensory processing, Cass explained. He was diagnosed as a baby, so the reason Jason wasn't trying not to baby him, was due to the severity of his case being so hard to pin down. "It's not a big deal. He's a little upset. I was the one who put him in here too soon. I know…it's not his burden, we love Robert like it doesn't need to hold us back. That's why the world should wake up to this."
Jason wasn't leaving his side, Babs however…she had elected to stay to help the civilians until it was done. Until, she could join her family.
Tim was fine in staying by, yet Stephanie took their cat and the promise that Bernard would pull through for Tim to propose already. That was…a ways away. She was only a cheerleader, and that was all she'd decided on. Catwoman, Ivy, they stayed put. This was their city. Duke was going to help Babs with Luke Fox, and Cass had decided to go with Lian and Cheshire so Roy would be first to arrive on their new planet.
"I'm hoping you'll chicken out, actually." She stood by him no matter what. Yet today, Bernard was holding them both back. "What if he says, no?"
Tim chewed his lip. Thinking, knowing it could be the case in any case scenario. "You, won't get that next shot at me –
"I wasn't…" She grumbled, stomping her foot. "You're the smart one, figure it out! Tell him about your real life's work. About…about, dad…" She whispered. "Tim, I hope you the best happiness in any multivariate, but I'm not staying if can't go home to see us all together. It's pointless. Bruce…he'd be like you. And…. I hated what he did to us without knowing it. He made us more like him and….I'm glad. I really am glad that Dick won us back." She wiped her eyes while Tim could only hold his checklist in hand.
One thing he had missed to do by that list, he put it down just for her and embraced her tightly. "It's not the end of the world, you dummy. I'm still going to be in and out before it freezes. Life, will go on." He grinned over her shoulder. "It always has. Dad never changed that. We may…have changed him. Who knows?"
She did not think less that he didn't…Bruce was older in mindset then too. Called a lot of things by his peers. But one thing he wasn't, was a deserter.
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Eh, Bruce has actually. More importantly, we are gonna be in to the next few chapters and get this, very dismal. Find out!!
