I WAS ROUGHLY DRAGGED through the halls of the Justice League's space tree house. Did you know they had a space tree house? Because they do.
"Ow, ow, hey! Watch the hair!" I yelled at Superman, who currently had me in a death grip, making me have to nearly run in order to keep up with his powerful strides.
"Can you be quiet for one second?" he grumbled, muttering some words under his breath I couldn't really make out. Something about "things I do," and "Bruce." I dug my boots into the ground as hard as I could and and stared at him wide eyed. He stopped momentarily and turned around towards me with a exasperated face.
"What now?" he asked impatiently.
"Did you just say Bruce?" I questioned.
"Bruce? Who's that?" he said, looking at me like I was crazy.
I looked at him suspiciously for another moment, before shaking my head, continuing to walk. "Never mind."
All that space travel was seriously getting to my head. Or maybe that scotch I sneaked at Lex's party. Or both. But I didn't have the time to think about that right now, since Superman, who, by the way, I knew was named Clark Kent (because unlike everyone else in Metropolis I wasn't stupid) pushed me into a room and locked the door.
I stumbled in and ungracefully fell to the floor with a groan. I blew a piece of my hair out of my face in frustration as I stood up and took in my surroundings. It was a dark gray colored room, with a sleek, black metal table in the middle and a chair on either side. In other words, an interrogation room.
"Okay, I see how it is," I called out to the cameras I knew they had on me, "if this is because I hurt your little team of wannabe heroes, I'm sorry!"
Actually, no I wasn't. Hurting the sidekicks was pretty fun, but I didn't need to tell them that.
After a couple moments of standing there, and seeing that nobody was coming to talk to me anytime soon, I let out a huff and crossed my arms, sitting myself in the cold metal chair. And little did I know, that chair and I were going to become pretty good friends, since I sat there for about two hours. Two hours! Man, the League really knows how to dish it.
I was busying myself playing with a bobby pin that I had in my hair, since the jerks which most people like to refer to as "heroes" took all of my fun toys away from me. And if you're now wondering why I haven't attempted to escape yet, just picture this. You're surrounded by some of the world's most powerful beings, in space, with no way of knowing how to get back to your planet. Would you try to escape? Smh. Yeah, that's what I thought.
Suddenly the metal door hissed open, making me drop the bobby pin and squint my eyes at the sudden light flooding into the room. A black mass stood in the doorway, with two little points atop its head. I snickered.
"Hola, Bats. Long time no see."
He strode into the room and sat in the chair in front of me. I let a smirk tug at corners of my red lips as I pulled my feet off of the table they were currently on. What? I figured it would be rude. Neither of us said a word as my eyes darted up to meet his. Well, it was more like mask to mask, but you get the point.
"Did you murder a man named William Kinley?" he finally asked.
I shrugged, briefly inspecting my nails. "Maybe."
He narrowed his eyes at me, before trying again. "Did you murder a man named William Kinley?"
I let my hand fall into my lap, using my other one to point a finger at him. "You know, Bats, murder's such a.. cruel word. I prefer the term.. 'dispose of.' Much nicer, hm? Now let's try that again. Did I dispose of a man named William Kinley? Yes, yes I did."
"Why did you do it?" he asked coldly, somehow managing to make the question still sound like a demand.
"I was told to," I answered, before adding, "but if it clears your conscience, it was quick and relatively painless. Although.. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that last one, I've never really been shot in the head before."
Silence once again fell over the room, the hum of what I could only assume was the generators droning on in the background. He seemed to be carefully choosing his next words, as if they could physically hurt me if he decided on the wrong ones. Or he was just plotting my murder. You know, whatever works.
"Who told you?"
I gave him a faux pout. "Unfortunately, I gave my word that I wouldn't spill any tea."
He threw one of his infamous Bat-Glares directly at me, when I held up a hand to prevent him from speaking. "Fortunately for you, my word doesn't mean jack," I said, sitting up straight and entitled as if I was a child who had just pleased their parents, "it was Fish."
"Mooney?"
"No," I rolled my eyes, sarcasm dripping off of my words, "the other famous crime boss in Gotham named Fish. Of course it was Mooney!"
"Why did she want you to do it?"
I shrugged. "Rule one of being a half-thief-half-merc, you don't ask questions when you get a job. Well, technically, she did explain to me, but it's not like I actually listened. Though knowing Fish, it probably had something to do with one of her ex's."
Actually, no it didn't. It's true, I didn't listen to her speech, but I knew it definitely had something to do with money. I mean, I already kind of ratted her out to Batman, of all people, so the least I could do was keep her reasons a secret. And so far? I'm pretty sure the 'World's Greatest Detective' was buying it.
"You're lying."
Or.. not.
I feigned shock, putting a hand over my heart. "Lie? Muah? Never! I just.. didn't tell the whole truth."
He was sitting so still to the point where it was starting to get creepy. How did he do that?
He's Batman, duh.
I glared at the wall in front of me, not even noticing that Batsy was saying anything.
Shut up, voice of logic! Wait.. I have one of those?
Yesー I don't like to come out oftenー but yes. Now focus!
It was like he molded into the shadows around the room. He was just a mass of dark black with two slits of white; the only thing keeping me sane was the fact that there was a human somewhere under there. And I can now say proudly that there was a human, because I had seen it. Ha! Still can't get over that. Man, he really looks intimidating in that cape. How dumb. I won't let myself be intimidated by fabric! Maybe I should get a capeー
"Blackout."
The stern voice pulled me out of my jumble of thoughts. My eyes snapped back to the whites of his cowl. I flashed him a quirky grin. "Hm?"
A small, almost unnoticeable growl. "What do you know?"
"I don't know. A lot of things," I said as I began to count each thing off on my hand, "how to count to a hundred, how to tie my shoes, how to shoot a gun from thirty yardsー"
"What. Do. You. Know."
I scoffed, crossing my arms. "Things. But why would I tell you? It's not like your actually gonna kill me or anything."
Silence.
Then the screech of a chair. The slamming of said chair into the wall in front of me. The door hissed open. He was gone.
I blinked.
"Alright then."
I swear to you I had barely sat back in my chair when a man appeared in the opposing chair where Batman had been mere moments ago. Thank God that over the years Selina had managed to hone my "fight or flight" instinct, or I would've jumped six feet into the air. I did what I had been trained, stay calm and assess what was happening.
I studied the man in front of me. Red spandex, yellow lightning insignia, goofy grin.
I almost sneered.
The Flash.
"Allen," I greeted.
If he was shocked at the revelation (I can use big words too, you know) that I knew his identity, he did a damn good job of hiding it. Or maybe I just didn't catch it. He was called the "Fastest Man Alive" for a reason. I wanted to momentarily chuckle at that. If I somehow didn't die trying to escape this place (oh, come on, you know I was going to have to try eventually) I was going to make so many jokes about that.
"You must be Blackout," he said.
I stared at him blankly with an eyebrow raised. "No shit. What gave it away?"
"I don't know. How'd you know I was Flash?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side.
I opened my mouth, and found that nothing would come out. "I.. touché."
He grinned, as I composed myself and began to speak. "Now, you're probably here to ask the same thing that Tall, Dark and Brooding did. Well, I'm not saying anything."
He put his hands up defense. "No, no. Actually, no one was supposed to come in. I was just bored, so I figured I'd stop in. Anyways, how's your day going?" After that, he pushed the metal chair back and propped his feet up on the table.
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. Come on! Don't tell me you wouldn't either. "Well, given my current situation, not bad. I guess I've had worse."
"Tell me about it. Like, today was so hard! You criminals don't enjoy sleeping, do you? Follow up question, do any of you even sleep?" he stared at me with interest, and even though he had a mask on I could still make it out.
I shrugged, a grin tugging at the corner of my lip. "On occasion. Follow up question to follow up your follow up question: do you heroes get any sleep?"
"Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and alternate Tuesdays. Except for Bats, he sleeps maybe once every full moon. Speaking of Bats, word is that you saw him unmasked. True or false?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.
"True," I answered, "have you ever?"
"Duh," he said, grinning widely, "I know who he is."
"Ooh," I sang, leaning in towards the table, "finally something worth my time! Any chance you'd let me in on the secret?"
"Nope," he said, popping the 'P.'
I frowned. "C'mon, Allen. Not even a hint?"
"Just one," he said with a sly smile, "you'd never guess it in a million years."
"Hiding in plain sight?" I suggested.
"..Something like that. Anyways, I just remembered, I actually have a question for you. So I have this case, right? Gorilla Groddー don't know if you ever heard the nameー good guy though. Smart. Like, smarter than meー"
"He must not be that smart then," I quipped. He frowned, but didn't let that deter him as he continued.
"And he was charged with a murder of a man who I can't disclose the name of. Let's just call him.. Bill. So Grodd kills Bill, okay? And he claimed that he killed Bill, but all of the money he stole from Bill went so another account that wasn't Grodd's. I figured that, hey, you're a grade-A criminal, so I wanna hear your take on it."
I rolled my eyes. "Obviously, someone hired Grodd to kill Bill and then transfer his money to their account. That's actually funny now that you think about it; how you came to me, I mean. I actually just killed a dude for this lady because he stole money from her andーwait."
My face fell as I realize I had just been outwitted by The Flash, of all people. I glared at him, but even I couldn't deny, that was a pretty good tactic. Get me talking and comfortable with him, then plant the bomb and wait for it to explode. He pretty much just got all the information out of me that he needed; something that even Batman had failed to do. And he didn't even raise his blood pressure while doing it.
I sighed as his lips widened into a cheeky grin. "Grodd didn't even kill anyone, did he?"
"Locked up in one of Belle Reve's highest security cells? I don't think so."
I groaned, pointing a finger at him. "You know I'm gonna have to get you back for this, right?"
He chuckled. "Who in their right mind would hire Grodd as a merc? And since when would Grodd ever stoop so low as to actually do it?"
I rolled my eyes and crossed my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. Go celebrate your little victory with the Justice Losers while you still can."
He stood up out of seat and smiled at me. I sneered at him, crossing one leg over the other.
"Until next time, Fair Maiden," he said, bowing mockingly.
I glared at him again. "Run yourself into a volcano, Bartholomew."
"I would just phase through it!" he sang as he giddily walked out of the room, the sliding door closing with a hiss. I stared at the wall in front of me with a sigh, before banging my hands on the table in frustration and shooting out of my seat. I began to pace the room, thinking.
I have to get out of here. I have to get back out there, flying through the streets of Gotham with Selina. Selina. What would she do in this situation?
A plan slowly began to form in my head. The Little League would all obviously be congratulating Barry for his "great achievement," meaning I had a small window to potentially get out. I turned back to the table, where the single bobby pin laid. And.. maybe I had lied to you the last time I said I had no fun toys on me. They didn't take everything off of me, I still had a small knife in the heel of my boot, which was lead lined. (No Peeping Tom's, Supey!)
So, I had a small window of time, a bobby pin, and a throwing knife. Also a little faith, to some degree, which I'm sure counted for something on some planet somewhere, right?
I cracked my knuckles.
Alright then, let's break out of the Watchtower.
* * *
I currently stood at the zeta-beam control panels. (That's right, ya girl did it!) And as suspected, the League was nowhere to be found. The only guy I ran into was this blonde dude who had a blue star on his chest and a weird robot thing floating behind him. What did he call himself? Gold Boot? Beater Blue?
He was fairly easy to take out, and also a big idiot for not just calling the League, who could've stopped me. He was also way too cocky, which I wasn't going to hate on, because, well, I'm me. But if you're going to be cocky, you've also got to have the skill to back it up.
But it wasn't like I didn't have a little help. On the way here I had found all of my toys cooped up in some evidence locker. Lets just say.. The League is going to need a new evidence locker.
Disregarding him, I still began to play around with the buttons. I had seen Lex doing something with a machine similar to this, but I couldn't remember the exact button. I eventually just ended up pressing any button I could get my hands on, and accidentally fired one of the lasers which hit a satellite a couple hundred yards away.
I paused momentarily, staring at it through the big glass window.
"Well," I muttered, "at least I'm not paying for it."
Now I knew I didn't have a lot of time before someone else came. "Come on, come on.." I pleaded, when suddenly a screen popped up in front of me.
PLEASE ENTER COORDINATES.
I grinned. "Bingo!"
Now, I didn't know the exact coordinates of Gotham, but I knew ones of a warehouse just outside of the city. (Selina and I had a stakeout for some purses one time, don't ask.) Punching them in, I walked towards the portal-looking-thing which had begun to active. As I passed the gold guy I knocked out, I noticed that some glowing-blue ball-shaped things of his had fallen to the floor. I curiously stared at them, plucking one off of the ground.
I shrugged, placing one of the floor not far away from the portal. I walked to the white circle and was about to go through when I heard a shout.
"Stop!"
I turned around to see Flash staring at me from across the room. I grinned, one hand up in mock surrender and the other behind my back, concealing the throwing knife.
"Make me."
He began to run towards me, and I threw the knife towards the ball on the floor. As suspected, he dodged it with ease and was suddenly in front of me, grabbing one of my arms to prevent me from moving.
"Missed," he stated smugly.
"Did I?" I asked, an eyebrow raised before twisting his arm around, making him drop me. I didn't look back as I haphazardly threw myself into the portal, not wanting to see the result of the whatever-it-was.
The sound of an explosion echoed behind me as I tumbled through the darkness.
* * *
Heyyyy!!! Good morning lovely people!! I DON'T THINK YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS BOOK!! ITS SOOO MUCH FUN TO WRITE, AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALMOST 100 READS!!!
xo Alexa