30 Days of Demonfire

Symbiosi (Part One)

So, because Aunt Barbara used to work at Gotham University, Firewall's pretty close to the school. It's where I've been going when I needed to train. Wayne Tower has a few sub-basements and the bunker dedicated to Bat-stuff. There are a few Bat-safehouses decked out with a gym and stuff located uptown near crime alley, but those aren't anything fancy. Dad put in a mini-Batcave near Amusement Mile since he owns that and he spends a lot of time there. And there's the Manor in Bristol.

That puts us in the suburbs, uptown, midtown, and downtown. We're pretty much everywhere.

All of the Bat-headquarters are pretty decked out in the newest, most advanced tech Bruce could get his hands on. But since Firewall is Oracle's domain, we have the best stuff. The training exercise has a program for each one of us, and the floor below us tracks our movement and records it. That way, we can see how we did last time and try to beat our own records. Mine's not bad, but it's way behind Cass and Damian's times. Everyone's is.

I'm doing alright. A projection of me is way ahead of me, but I'm not going for time. I'm trying to work on shooting starbolts from my eyes. My mother can do it and I can feel the power in me, especially when I get angry, but I can't focus it. I have no idea how. It's like trying to force myself to sneeze.

I'm trying not to fly or use starbolts to store up my solar energy for eyebeams, so I'm using eskrima sticks, my weapon of choice. Since I'm not using flight, I'm focusing on flips and acrobatics, which admittedly I usually neglect. I push off one of the practice droids and land in a low crouch, sliding back a few feet. I throw one eskrima stick at another droid and spin on my side, slamming my heel into a third droid.

"You're not balancing your flips correctly."

I jump, startled, and a light shock passes through me, signaling that one of the droids hit me. The program flicks off and I'm lying on the ground, which is suddenly bare, and I prop myself on my elbow to glare at Damian.

I thought that since we have bases literally all over the city, Damian would have somewhere else to go. Apparently, that is wishful thinking.

As politely as possible, I say, "Isn't the bunker the secret hole in the ground you usually spend your time in?" Mentally I add, 'go away'.

"Yes," he answers, "but I am not working today and have no reason to go downtown."

Yes, he does. He has to go downtown because I'm here. "Oh," I say.

His eyes flick to Oracle's main screen, where my time is flashing in bright green numbers. "Your time is deplorable," he remarks, and I huff as I scramble to my feet.

"I wasn't going for time," I snap. "I'm practicing. It's superpower stuff, you wouldn't get it."

He doesn't appreciate that. "I was referring to your fastest time."

"Yours isn't the fastest one logged, you know," I remind him.

"No," he admits. Cass's is faster, but only by a small amount. Besides, I get a penalty because of my powers. "But it is a good example of what you should use for a model."

"Do you wanna go, Boy Wonder?" I don't always think before I do things. It gets a little annoying.

"Not particularly," he says with a shrug. "I have nothing to prove. The evidence is there."

"So you're going to insult me and then you're not even going to back it up."

"It was not an insult," he corrects me. "It was fact."

Wow, Damian really bugs me. "That's it. We're going."

"If you wish," he says, and he drops his bag on the floor.