"Thank you for coming with me," Abby said, picking at her nails as the two girls stared up at the LexCorp building.
"Of course, babe." Willa offered an arm to walk in together. Abby had a final interview for a sales internship and she was nervous because it was in person instead of a phone interview. Plus her mom didn't want her driving all the way to Metropolis alone, so Willa had offered to tag along.
The building was certainly impressive, state of the art technology inside and the kind of environment Willa felt immediately out of place. The only woman Willa saw was at the reception desk. She felt very judged by the older men in suits.
The receptionist led the two girls into an elevator and up to a waiting area where they took a seat. Abby's knee bounced and the other candidates gave her a side-eye. Willa put her hand on Abby's need to settle her. She took a few breaths and got into a headspace while Willa looked around. A door opened and two men walked out.
"Get me the blueprints for the new Reach drink factory, will you, Roger?"
"Yes, sir." The man walked out of the room, back to the elevators.
Reach drink, Willa thought, Dick was investigating it. Last time she checked, they needed a way to get inside information from LexCorp. Well, Willa thought, she's pretty inside. Dick would kill her if he knew what she was thinking, but luckily he wasn't here.
"I'll be right back," Willa said to Abby and followed the man into the elevator as it slammed closed. The elevator went up until it dinged on the 93rd floor. The man got out, unaware he was being followed. He led Willa to a row of offices and went into his. Willa walked through the doors, reading the job titles and seeing if any were empty. Other businessmen gave her strange looks but let her be. There were perks to looking young and unassuming, she thought.
She found an office at the end of the hall, Mercy Graves, the door said, and she pushed it open. It was incredibly boring, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing labelled 'REACH INFO'. This was dumb, she thought to herself, she wasn't a spy. Willa leaned on the desk and knocked over a small statue. The bookshelf opened, revealing a secret passage. She shifted her weight back and forth, knowing it was dumb, and yet... it was a secret tunnel, how could she not follow it?
It was dark, so she moved up the stairs with a hand on a wall. It was a short passage that gave way to the top floor, and by the signs everywhere, the whole floor must belong to Lex Luthor. Willa dived behind an exhibition wall as footsteps approached and the door to the staircase closed.
"I don't want any surprises from junior heroes this time," a voice said, which Willa realized was Lex Luthor, "and make sure we have defensive measures against the Reach."
"But they're your partners, sir."
"One born of shaky trust at best. I want to be prepared in case they turn out to be more than they appear."
"Yes, sir." The footsteps retreated.
Willa came out after a minute and looked around, making sure to pull her hood up to hide her face from the security cameras. She found Luthor's private study and went over to his desk. She made sure not to touch anything but took her phone out to take pictures of all the documents that mentioned Reach or looked important.
"Jackpot," she said to herself when she found exactly what she was looking for in a trash can, a summary of facility locations. It must have fallen out of the shred pile next to the copier. She snapped a quick photo, proud of herself and dialled Dick.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Hypothetical question, what did you need from LexCorp?"
"Why are you whispering?"
"And follow up hypothetical question, if, say, someone was on LexCorp's top floor, do you by chance know how to get back to the ground floor without being seen?"
"Will..." his voice had turned commanding, businesslike. This must be how he talks to his team, she realized with amusement. Kind of hot. "Where are you?"
"Um, where are you?"
"Willa."
"LexCorp." She heard Dick breath out, trying his best to not get mad at her over the phone.
"We'll be there in two minutes."
"Hey! You!" A voice from the entrance to the study shouted. Willa almost dropped her phone she spun around so fast. She put her hands up when she saw two guns trained at her. "What are you doing here, kid?"
"Looking for the bathroom?"
They exchanged a look and started walking towards her. Willa gasped and took off running down the hall, pressing the phone back to her ear, "any chance you could be here sooner?" She spun around a corner. She had no idea where she was or how to get out of here.
"Freeze!"
"I'm coming as fast as I can," Dick replied. Willa screamed as a bullet hit the wall to her right and ducked around corner. "Willa? Will, talk to me, where in the building are you?"
"Top floor," she wheezed out, zigzagging to stay clear of bullets, even though they looked like electric pellets, probably to incapacitate rather than kill. They still didn't look fun.
"What side of the building?"
"I don't- I don't know. Wait," she sprinted towards glass doors that led to a balcony and hid behind a tree as the two guards behind her ran past, saying something into their radios. "I can see the Daily Planet straight ahead. There's a Macy's to my right."
"Northwest side. Got it. Stay put."
"There!" A deep voice bellowed, spotting Willa, except now he had four more security people with him. Willa jumped to her feet and pulled the small potted plant through the door handles as the men slammed against it, trying to get them open. The doors wouldn't last much longer. Willa looked around but only found the balcony ahead of her.
"How far away are you?" She asked into her phone, failing to hide the fear in her voice.
"30 seconds. Just hang on."
The glass doors cracked and Willa started running away from them as a shot rang out. "Okay, I'm going to let you know exactly where I am, and you get me."
"What does that-"
Willa took off running towards the balcony as the doors burst open. She sent up a prayer as the sound of bullets filled her ears and she jumped off the edge. She screamed as she fell and extended her arms and legs, like she'd seen skydivers do, which slowed her but definitely not enough. She was going to die.
Another thirty feet and she saw a blue ship materialize to her left. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the ground get any closer and screamed when she got knocked to the side, going back up for a few feet, then dropping again. Someone had caught her. They slowed to a stop just above the red ship and dropped inside. She turned to see a red Superman symbol on the shirt of the guy that had caught her, and barely processed it wasn't Superman when she was jerked to her feet by her boyfriend.
"Did you just jump off a building?" His voice was low but like steel.
"I, um, told you I'd let you know where I was."
"This isn't funny, Willa." His hands gripped her upper arms, not enough to hurt, but enough to make her understand how serious he was. "What were you thinking?"
Willa unlocked her phone and handed it over, watching as he flipped through the pictures. "I was in the building and thought I could help." Nightwing looked up from her screen, his anger fading, begrudgingly. Willa watched his body relax and how he ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't be that mad given how valuable the files were. "You save me, I save you, yeah?" She asked with a small smile.
Dick was silent and ran a hand through his hair again, finally releasing the breath he'd probably been holding since he saw her jump. "Yeah. You save me, I save you." He turned away from her, needing another minute to let go of his anger, and Willa realized there were other people in the ship.
"Hi," Miss Martian said from behind her, sitting in what looked like the driver's seat. Willa was a little starstruck. "I'm M'gann."
"N-nice to meet you. I'm Willa."
"We've heard." Not Superman said, smirking. He walked back to put a hand on Miss Martian's shoulder, "I'm SuperBoy. You can call me Connor, though."
"You are lucky we were in the area," a familiar voice said from the front of the ship. Wally grinned and was in front of her in what seemed like a second, "I've only seen Nightwing that mad a handful of times. Good job." He punched her shoulder playfully then returned to his seat in another second.
"You..." He had superspeed. She looked in between Wally and Dick as the lightbulb went on, "you're Kid Flash." She had seen Kid Flash and Nightwing together on dozens of news reports, almost like they were best friends.
Wally smiled, "you are quick. Not as quick as me, but few are. And yes, well I was. I'm retired. Nice to meet a fan, of course."
Dick scoffed and turned around, the anger gone from his face, "you haven't met a fan in years, this must be pretty special for you."
Wally cracked his knuckles, "dude, don't blame me that your girlfriend likes KF more than Nightwing." The two boys laughed together and Wally turned back to Willa, "nice to see you again, Willa," he said, a bit more seriously.
Dick crossed back over and a seat materialized next to her. Willa jumped but Dick motioned for her to sit. "Miss M controls the bioship."
"Very cool," Willa said as Dick kneeled down in front of her.
"I know I said I'd always catch you, but please stop testing it, Will." A glint of humor came back to his eyes.
Willa laughed, "will do. I just thought I could help."
"And we appreciate it," SuperBoy said from Miss Martian's side, "but we don't need you putting yourself at risk."
"Sorry," she said sheepishly to the whole group.
Dick took her hand, "just promise you won't do it again?"
Willa raised her right hand, "I promise my heroic acts are behind me."
Dick stood up. "Good. I thought it was time you met my friends, anyway."