The One-Seven

Chapter 8: Hero Found

Dinah sighed as she fiddled with her gloves. Waiting was the worst part of jobs like this. Most heroes were people of action; they were act now and act fast types of personalities. It was a necessity when lives were on the line. And so, having to wait for seemingly hours at a time for a threat that might not even be real, could be hell on the nerves and the patience.

Her impatience was only doubled by what Diana had revealed about Gotham's newest detective. Part of her was still floored by the basics of it. The smaller more rationale part of her was telling her that the existence of demigods shouldn't be all that surprising. They had fought against myths and legends before, and that was nothing of the fact that she had at least three different aliens in her phone's contact list. But still, the knowledge that the gods of old were real, and had children running around doing their bidding was a troubling thought.

There was something immensely off-putting knowing that there were hundreds of children out there, born only to serve to the bidding of beings with power that bordered on incomprehensible. Then again, perhaps it wasn't as unsurprising as it should have been. Her gaze unconsciously drifting to her partner for the evening, an athletic sixteen-year old girl with long auburn hair that poked out the back of a bat themed cowl.

When Diana had first told her of the demigods, Dinah had been disgusted. Even as a trained psychologist, she couldn't fathom the kind of arrogance involved in having a child for the sole purpose of doing their bidding. To throw kids not even old enough to drive or vote, into a war that had nothing to with them. But the more she considered it, the more she found herself unnerved by the amount of similarities between the lives of demigods and mortals. It wasn't all that different to people like Batman, Arrow, or the Flash taking in their young charges and throwing them into the war against the evils of the world. Hell, it wasn't even all that different to normal kids getting drafted into military service during times of war.

She stifled a groan and tried to fight off an oncoming headache. Her antsy-ness was distracting her, which was always unacceptable but doubly so when she was here with one of the young...partners. She was supposed to be setting an example, not getting distracted by internal philosophical debates.

Thankfully, she was brought out of her musings by the sound of the click of the lock to the gallery room. She shot a look to Batgirl, who had been fiddling with something on her gauntlet, and with a nod, both heroes hid themselves inside the large storage room. Dinah hid herself between a stack of cracks, and positioned herself in a spot where she could sell see the majority of the room through a small crack between two crates. It took her a few moments, but she did eventually spot Batgirl's hiding place, among the top rows of a stack of crates near the back of the room.

Dinah figured that this wasn't the start to the heist, she was having her doubts if there would even be a heist if she were honest, but she preferred to err on the side of caution whenever possible.

Just after she had gotten into position, the door opened and voices began filtering into the storage room.

"See, I told you I could get us in here, you should have a little faith in me detective," came the silky voice that Dinah recognized. Her eyes widened in surprise as Selina Kyle strutted backwards into the room, her attention not on the room itself, but on whomever was coming with her. Dinah's fists began to tighten as her jaw clenched. She had thought that Selina had gone clean for good this time. She had told her as such the last time she had seen the former thief. Something about being serious enough about her desire for Batman to give up on heisting for good. Dinah knew she shouldn't have bought the act though. She knew better than most that some people truly couldn't help themselves.

If she had been surprised by Selina, then her companion caused Dinah's jaw to drop.

"You know, I should probably arrest you for that. I'm like, ninety-nine percent sure that having a lock-pick set violates your parole." said the smooth and deep voice of Percy Jackson, as his tall frame lumbered into the room. What in the hell was he doing here? There was absolutely no way that this could a coincidence. There was no way. One person did not just keep accidentally stumbling onto superheroes like this. Her thoughts went back to Diana and what she had told her, and Dinah tried to calm herself and reassure herself that if Percy Jackson had Diana's trust, then she should be ok with that. That was when she remembered the phone call she had overheard. Her breathing returned to normal as the tight constricting in her chest began to release.