A park in Gotham

[random_xtras]

All was calm, all was quiet.

Then a black-edged portal sprang into existence over the duck pond and two people flew through. The black-haired girl surfaced immediately and swam to shore, laughing heartily.

"Stronghold, yer such a fragbrain!" she hollered after reaching the shore and bounding to her feet. "Ya know what ducks do in there?"

Comments

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

Will was too shocked and surprised to remember how to fly and he was dumped rather abruptly into a body of water, his yell being cut off once more.

"Heeeeyyy!" he managed to gasp as he swam rather quickly to shore. His feet touched bottom and he dragged himself upwards with a glare. "That wasn't cool!"

[random_xtras]

She sniggered. "I thought it was freakin' hilarious."

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

"You like the misery and suffering of others?" Will huffed, folding his arms across his chest miserably. He glanced around, finally trying to take in his surroundings. It was dark. Darker than night, in a way.

"Where are we, anyway?"

[random_xtras]

"You ain't sufferin'." She tossed her head. "Gotham."

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

"It's coooold, I'm gonna get sick," he whined and tried to wring out his sodden shirt. Actually he probably wouldn't. He blinked in the darkness.

"Gotham? As in...Gotham City?"

[random_xtras]

"Wuss. Thought ya said ya were invulnerable?" She snorted. "No, Gotham ketchup; what's it look like?"

[random_xtras]

He got to the origin of the cries in time to see Mornbein launch herself into the air and plant a flawless snapkick in the face of the thug who'd been holding a female jogger. He staggered back with a hand to his jaw, then came back with a bellow of rage as his friends moved in to help.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

Will stared, mouth agape for a moment, watching the sudden explosion of violence. 'Is Gotham like this all the time?' he mused for a moment, before realizing that he ought to go in and help. A smirk breaking out on his face, he dashed in and smashed one of the thugs into the ground with more force than he should have.

[random_xtras]

"Don't kill'im, ya dumb bastich!" She slapped him upside the head in passing, then planted her fist in the gut of a lanky blond guy and followed it with a knee to his forehead.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

He winced at the smack even if it didn't hurt too much, helping up his rather beat-up thug and dusting him off. The guy was unconcious and drooling, and he sheepishly dumped him in a pile before moving on to thwack a beefy, crow-bar weilding fiend in the head with his hand. He was trying to hold back, but the thwack sent him flying into an alley and onto some garbage cans with a huge CRAAAASSHHHH! If that didn't wake the whole neighborhood, he didn't know what did.

"Hey, I'm doin' the best that I can here," he muttered over to Mornbein before she could say anything.

[random_xtras]

She reached over and gave him a fingerflick to the forehead, then ducked as someone swung a steel pipe and stomped the guy's instep with her borrowed biker boot.

"It's Batwoman!" Someone suddenly howled. "Run!"

"Heh." Mornbein watched them go.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

"Yeah...yeah, get out of here, you criminals! Stop doing...uh, bad stuff." Will winced and smacked his forehead. Wow, he really needed to brush up on that sort of dialog.

"Hey, not bad for my first time in the field," he murmured.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

"She said you know who I am." The emotionless voice managed to convey deep threat.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

And Will certainly picked up on that threat, even though most of the time he would be oblivious to such things.

"Well, not necesarily..." he gulped. "I mean, I do know who your male counterpart is in...the comic books. I'm assuming he's probably alive in some universe somewhere...but...I'm babbling and you're a very busy woman so I guess I should get to the point. Uh, is your last name Wayne?"

[random_xtras]

And a thought suddenly popped intrusively into his mind from where Mornbein was watching from behind a tree. She was no telepath, and elven thought sharing took effort with the brightest of humans, so this thought was forceful enough to find it's way out in speach. -Brenda Wayne!-

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

Will blinked, not recognizing where the thought came from, and was thinking it was pretty random.

"B...Brenda?"

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

There was a growl from Batwoman, then she put an arm around his chest and suddenly launched into the air, taking him up into the chilly Gotham night sky.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

She knew the girl... knew of the girl. A Traveller with a tendancy toward insane behavior, she was nontheless firmly on the side of good and didn't take her ire out on people unless she felt they deserved it.

"What did you do to @#$%& her off?"

She hated cursing, but 'make her mad' and 'anger her' were not scary words.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

Will was more than a little scared by her reaction, especially since it was probably due to his own actions.

"It wasn't my fault! Warren made me fight with him, I didn't wanna but he made me!" He realized he was babbling and slowed down. "Uh, see her husband is an alt. of my best friend who used to be my enemy and he forced me into a fight and I...accidentally broke his ankle or leg or something. I didn't mean to, really!"

He was careful not to mention that he had super strength.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

Inside the suit Batwoman cocked an eyebrow at the news that Mornbein was married, adding it to her file. "What's the source of your meta abilities?"

She'd been able to tell he was strong by the rigidity of his muscles as she'd held him, and she suspected he had flight capabilities too because of the unconcious body signals he'd put out while they were in the air once he'd stopped screaming.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

"Wha..." Will's mouth dropped open, he was astounded at her deductive abilities. He had no idea she'd been able to figure that out. He knew that Batman was like, really smart or something but to see it like this right in front of him?

He tried to play it off nonchalantly. "The source? I inherited 'em from my parents. So what's with this interrogation thing, huh, lady?" He didn't know why he had been emboldened all of a sudden, but maybe it was because now that she knew he was meta, she might be afraid of his powers. That's how it worked in his world, anyway, the people with powers were the superheroes, and it was rare for one without to take a powered person down.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

His face was suddenly inches from her mask as she once more seized the front of his shirt and lifted him. She growled, a deep and menacing sound calculated to inspire terror in lackies and cocky teenagers.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

She pressed another button and the doors popped open.

[flying-strong.livejournal.com]

"Sweet." He was so excited, and plopped into the passenger seat without any coercion.

[anotherbwayne.livejournal.com]

She reached in and fastened the five point harness, then hit a button so he couldn't undo it and stepped back as the doors closed and the Tumbler roared off into the night, following its programming to return to the Cave.