The One-Seven

Chapter 5: Different Perspectives

As soon as Percy was out of ear shot, Dinah turned a glare on her young student, "That was a little rude, don't you think? He was only trying to help?"

Artemis snorted in derision, "Help? What could he possibly help me with," she lowered her voice, "We're freaking superheroes, he's a cop, pretty sure I can take care of myself just fine,"

Dinah, who was no longer watching her student just said, "Didn't stop him from knocking you flat on your ass though," and she missed whatever Artemis' comeback was going to be, as she hopped out of the ring and ran to her bag. She fished through quickly before she found what she was looking for, taking the earpiece out, she stuck it in her ear. Syncing it up with the lenses in her eyes, she synchronized with Wayne Tech satellites and got a patch into Percy's side of the conversation he was having on the phone.

Was it an invasion of privacy? Absolutely. Should she be doing this? Absolutely not. But there was a lot about this mysterious man that was just not sitting right with her for whatever reason. For one, she found it suspicious that he just happened to wander into the one gym in all of Gotham that catered to heroes. For another, he had a run in with two of the young proteges for prominent leaguers. Batgirl and Artemis.

That, and if what Ted had been telling her was true, this guy was probably a meta, or at least enhanced in some way. Then there was the way he fought, it had been quick, but his single-handed smack down of Artemis spoke to training. She had seen the tattoos on his arms, and she recognized military ink when she saw it, John Stewart had similar designs and she had seen them on Ted before as well. But military training alone didn't allow someone to counter someone who had not only been trained by former shadow operatives, but Green Arrow AND herself.

All in all, there was more to Percy Jackson than he was letting on and Dinah was going to figure out exactly who he was, and what he was doing in Gotham.

She heard the click in her ear as her earpiece connected, and she heard the man's deep voice begin to rumble in her ear,

"Jimmy Olson, I've been trying to reach you all day. How ya been buddy?"

Jimmy Olson? Wasn't that Clark's photographer friend from the Planet? What the hell was Percy doing talking to him?

"That's great to hear man! Hey listen, I've got a bone to pick with you, why the hell did you use that picture from the arms bust for the photo? I looked like I had spent the last three months living out of my car!"

Percy was laughing, and Dinah fought to ignore the slight tingling she got from the sound, focusing on the conversation,

"No, no man I'm only teasing you, believe me I am more than flattered that Lois decided to write a story on me. It was beautiful and did me way more justice than I deserve. Hey man, I appreciate that. No thank you, between you, me, and Lois, we made sure a lot of bad people got put away for good. Yes, yes the boy scout helped too. What do you mean pot meet kettle? Oh wow ok, I see how it goes, you know if we're going to go down that road then I just might have to ring up that pretty girl down in the sports column and tell her about that night at Bigsies. Yeah that's what I thought. So how's Lois doing? I tried to get a hold of her earlier but I'd have better luck trying to track down Batman.

Lois? As in Lois Lane? As in Clark's Lois? Just who the hell was this guy?

"Ah, well that makes sense, I'm pretty sure if she stopped working she'd take over the world so maybe it's in everyone's best interests. Yeah for sure man, well listen, unfortunately I didn't just call to catch up, I need to pick your brain for a minute. Yeah, yeah, I picked up a case literally my first night here, didn't have my GCPD badge or ID yet. Now you know the score, can't talk to anyone about this yet, but you get a full run of the notes when this is over. Yes I realize this is Gotham and not Metropolis but this is going to be a big one, and I think you're going to want to hear me out on this. Alright, what do you know about the St. Cloud family?"