Prompt Post - Part Two! [CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS]
THIS PART IS NOW CLOSED. YOU CAN CONTINUE POSTING FILLS, BUT PLEASE PROMPT ALL NEW THINGS HERE
Part one here!
Feel free to reprompt posts from part one in part two once. If you do so, I'd reccommend leaving a link to your fill on the original prompt, in case somebody is tracking the first thread.
Please note that you can still fill over at part one- ( Read more... )
-i just checked with alfie. he disappeared for a bit then came back and said the connection was just fine.
Dick's eyebrows knit together. Grasping the phone in his hand he made his way over to the laptop again, scanning his fingerprint. “Welcome, Dick Grayson,” the screen said, then “eff off” again.
-I still can't get on.
-well, just ask b to look into it. gotta go, cookie time!
---
By the time Dick woke up, it was nine in the morning and Bruce was typing away on the laptop. “I won't be able to re-grant your account access until we return home,” he said without turning around.
Dick rubbed his eyes as he came up behind Bruce, who was manually entering commands into the computer. He frowned. “But you have access just fine. Can't I just write the reports - ”
“No. I'm running a full-body scan to make sure nobody got in. It's going to take a while.”
Dick slapped his palm against his face, causing Bruce to turn around in his chair raise an eyebrow. “Great. So what now?”
The larger man stood and pushed the chair in. “I believe we covered this already. What would you like to do today, Dick?”
There was a pause as Dick processed that, his eyes growing wide. Part of him was embarrassed at the huge, eager grin that threatened to split his face, but the rest of him was too excited to care. “Really? I'm off the hook?”
“You will simply have to add these reports to your homework load,” Bruce said slowly, fixing his tie. There was something odd in his movements - embarrassment? - but he folded his hands behind his back and looked down at the boy, a grin that was not quite Billionaire Doofus and not quite Batman Smirk on his mouth. “But for today, yes.” He looked back towards the laptop's screen, which seemed to be doing its best impression of the Matrix. “As am I.”
Huge, eager grin won out. Dick would have hugged Bruce if he wasn't afraid that it would cause him to spontaneously combust.
Bruce cleared his throat. “So...what would you - ”
“I know exactly what I want to do.” The grin dropped straight off of Dick's face, his eyes growing very serious as he stared up at his mentor. “But first, I need you to tell me that you're absolutely certain that you can't invent us some shark repellant.”
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Thanks a million to anyone who happens to still be waiting for the update; you guys are the best :D ♥
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3-
“Tracking training,” Batman had said.
Robin had, at the time, wondered why he hadn't said “Agility training-part-two.” After all, it was supposed to have been the follow-up to last week's session. The exercise wasn't hard: the “runner” was designated a three-minute head-start, after which the “chaser” was to pursue until either he fatigued or caught the runner. There had never been any particular rules-it began as quickly as it ended, one, two, three, go, among the simplest of their exercises.
But this time, there had been no simple flick of the wrist to signal the game's start. Batman had said “Tracking training,” and then pulled the cowl over his head, systematically checked the compartments of his belt, and turned to Robin. “Today I'll be utilizing my entire network in evading you. Your job is to locate me by taking advantage of every non-shared resource you own.”
“You're going to be hiding?” Robin blurted out. He was supposed to find Batman? Nobody found Batman!
The older man shot him a look, promptly shutting him up. “There is a time limit for this exercise. If you can't find me within twenty-four hours, you fail. ” Robin tried not to let Batman see him gulp. Did he have to sound so ominous about it?
If Batman saw - which he probably did - he gave no indication as he adjusted his gauntlet. “Start.”
-
“So...why come to us?” Wally tilted his head to indicate that he was listening, though his eyes remained glued to the flickering T.V. screen. The others were giving him a bit more of their attention.
Robin ran a hand through his short hair, sighing in frustration. “I told you; Batman's gonna be giving his A-game, and I won't even get a glimpse of his bat-dust if I don't do the same. That means I need you guys.”
Megan grinned and clapped her hands together. “I think we should do it! It sounds fun!”
“I don't get it.” Superboy scowled, his eyebrows knitting together. “You're playing hide-and-seek? What's the purpose of it?”
“It's not hide-and-seek,” Robin said, flustered. Artemis gave him an amused sort of half-smirk, and he glared at her before looking back at Connor. “It's a training exercise, and it'll be good practice for all of us. You know, working on our ability to follow leads and track down someone who's actively evading us.”
“Not a bad idea considering we're supposed to be the covert team,” Artemis offered. Superboy pulled his mouth into a thin line, apparently satisfied with the explanation, and Kaldur nodded in agreement.
The five looked over to Kid Flash, who continued listlessly hitting the channel button on his remote. Eyes narrowing, Superboy moved next to the television and reached his arm behind it. The picture suddenly burst into static and a message that said “NO SIGNAL”.
“Dude! I was watching that!” In response to Wally's cry, Superboy wordlessly tossed a few wires to the side. Robin reminded himself to fix the T.V. later. Again.
Seeing that Superboy clearly wasn't intending to feel remorse for his actions, Wally threw his hands up. “Okay, okay! I'm in! Jeez.”
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“Yeah. Twenty-two hours, now.”
“Then we should begin as quickly as possible. Do you have an idea of where Batman might be hiding?”
Robin shrugged, but brought up his gauntlet and activated the built-in projector. A large hologram of Gotham City sprung up over their heads. “He'll stay in Gotham, but that's all I can tell you. He knows it like the back of his hand, has most of his contacts there, and probably expects me to be coming back with you guys.”
“Then we are already at a disadvantage,” Kaldur muttered. His eyes flicked to Megan. “Perhaps your telepathy?”
“Don't even bother,” Robin cut in. He tapped two fingers against his right temple. “Batman's got more blocks up and running than Blackgate.”
The martian nodded, biting her lip. “Uncle J'onn once told me that Batman's mind is one of the most resilient ones he's ever experienced. And that he really doesn't like it when you try and peek inside.”
“Hey, don't get yourself so down about it! Who knows what kind of creepy-crawlies Bats has in there, anyway?” Wally raised his hands and wiggled his fingers nefariously, only to be stopped by Artemis' swift hand of justice across the back of his head. “Ow! Hey!”
“Won't he get tired? Make mistakes?” Superboy spoke up. Twenty-four hours was a long time for a human to go without sleep.
Once again, Robin responded in the negative. “He won't even slow down until the forty-three mark. It'll be pushing fifty before he starts messing up.”
Megan put a finger to her chin. “What if we split up?”
“We don't even know what to look for,” Artemis challenged.
“Then what have we got to lose?” Robin began highlighting sections of the hologram, splitting the entirety of Gotham into six color-coded sections: blue, green, black, white, yellow, and red. “Everyone takes a part of the city and does what they can.” After a moment of deliberation, Robin switched off the hologram and smiled uneasily at his teammates. “And guys? Try to subtle. As far as Gotham citizens are used to, the only super-powered guys in town are the ones trying to kill them.”
-
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I almost missed this. I've been watching the ff.net version, and you haven't updated there yet, so...
I'm itching for more, but it was thoughtful of you to throw us a bone. Thanks!
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The first thing Superboy had learned about Gotham was that nobody liked it when he used his powers, and that he liked it even less, because it always ended in people cowering before him with wide, frightened eyes.
When he first began, he'd covered distances by jumping, but the people didn't like that. Every time he landed there was someone backing away. Husbands would step in front of their families. Little girls with pigtails would scream and run, abandoning their toys in the street. Wary eyes would filter through blinds in the surrounding apartment windows. Perhaps they were afraid of how he dropped from the sky and slammed into the ground with a shuddering crack, or small crater he'd create upon each landing, or just the way he'd walk up to them and ask where Batman was.
One guy even pulled a knife on him as he approached. Knives wouldn't hurt Superboy, but it was annoying, so he took it and crushed the blade. The man ran away before Superboy could ask him anything else.
He'd stopped jumping after that. But walking was much slower, and there was a lot of ground to cover. And people were still afraid of him when he approached and asked if they knew anything about Batman. Some would answer him-usually to say that the Bat was a harmless bedtime story, or that he was a lunatic pervert, or something outlandish and stupid that made Superboy angry. Most of the time they would go away after he harshly corrected them, but it didn't matter. They were useless anyway.
Robin had warned him of this, and up to a point, he felt as though he'd been very patient and fair-but he hadn't expected people to be so very fragile. He understood what it meant when they recoiled from him, when his rising voice or narrowed eyes sent them stammering for excuses to leave even when he wasn't threatening violence. It was slightly disturbing and incredibly frustrating. And it left him wondering, not for the first time, whether or not the only thing he was ever good for was punching things.
He didn't like not knowing. And he hated the idea that he might be right.
Occasionally, he'd run into someone who recognized the 'S' symbol emblazoned on his chest. They were usually more willing to talk to him, but they annoyed him the most. They often just asked if he was hunting Batman, and when he replied yes, they'd shake their heads and click their tongues and wonder aloud what Batman had done to get Superman on his tail.
He managed to ignore the first one that did it, but eventually he had to firmly tell them that he wasn't Superman, and that Batman wasn't in trouble, and then they'd lift their eyebrows, apologize, and then be on their way. They were all a waste of time, but they didn't matter, either.
What mattered is that when he was making his way to the next neighborhood, he happened to pass a street clock sitting in a community park. He hadn't glanced at it for more than a moment before he had to double-take-and realize that he'd already wasted two hours with no answers and only a few miles of covered ground to his name.
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Gotham City. What was so great about it, anyway? It was dark and dirty and everyone in it were cowards! It was nothing like Batman-noble, authoritative-even less like Robin, who commanded a room with his sideways grin-and seemed to spit on both of them in either ingratitude or ignorance, and both concepts made the blood boil in Connor's veins.
Why struggle so violently for a city that hated them, or even refused to acknowledge their existence? He'd have given up on this trash hole long ago, let it burn itself to the ground. But Batman and Robin wouldn't, for whatever reason, because Superboy knew that they always had a reason and it was always a good one. He might have doubted that before, but then he remembered that his fighting Cadmus was their reason for letting him join the team.
When he was being honest, Connor was angriest that he never had a reason for anything.
-
Robin had told them to cooperate with Gotham's law enforcement. It would make their lives easier, he'd said, if they didn't have bullets flying at them from the good guys and the bad guys, and best of all, he and Batman wouldn't need to clean their mess up later. Batman apparently had a thing about letting other heroes operate in his city, and the fact that he'd turn away seasoned Justice League members but let a group of teenaged superheroes run around unfettered might tick some eyebrows.
Superboy decided to ask Robin, when he got back, if letting himself sit in the back of a police car in handcuffs is cooperating too much.
The officer who arrested him was on the police radio, relaying his report. According to him, he'd been dispatched to apprehend a violent teenaged male who was going around and harassing everyone on the street. It was a lie-the “violent” part, at least. He hadn't punched anyone. But the police car had pulled right up beside him, the man inside eying that symbol on his chest and the grim expression on Connor's face, and that had been that.
“Hey,” he tried, leaning forward into the grate that divided the car in half. This was worth a shot, at least. “I came with you like you asked, but I'm wasting time. Could you let me go?”
The officer turned around to peer at him behind the grate. He stared in silence for a few seconds before turning back around with a shrug. “Sorry, kid. You want my opinion, you look harmless. I was told to be on the lookout for a rampaging nut with an apparent Superman complex.”
Superboy managed to not growl at that. It was very difficult. “So let me go, already.”
“We probably will. But first I gotta take you downtown so we can ask you some questions, ID you...it's all just protocol, kid, you don't gotta worry as long as you never actually clocked anyone.”
Connor's mind flashed back to the street clock, bent like a pipe cleaner over the sidewalk. Wally would probably find that really funny. “Fine. How long will it take?”
“Depends on how long it takes to process you. Probably not more than a couple hours-oh, quit it, kid, it ain't that bad,” the officer chastised. Luckily, he didn't actually turn around to see the dent Connor's forehead left in the grate. “You'll give yourself brain damage.”
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It's great to see things from Superboy's perspective, and even better to see what he thinks of Gotham and Batman and Robin. The sentiment is probably shared by most League members - and other vigilantes, and villains. I loved angry!Superboy trying to keep his cool.
Great update! Will wait patiently for more! This part might just overtake 'tag' (or 'Agility Training', if Batman insists) as my favorite if this keeps up!
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He never got to finish, thanks to the explosion. Abruptly, a building not several houses away erupted into flames, fire and debris spewing from its shattered windows. The police officer cursed loudly and slammed the breaks. Tires screeching, the car swerved sharply before it rocked to a halt.
“Shit!” The officer yelped again, palm slamming into his steering wheel. He grabbed the radio and began yelling into it, but Connor's attention had shifted to the building-it looked like an apartment complex, four stories. The fire was pouring only from the second story's windows, but he knew a few things about fires, and it wouldn't stay that way for long. Already there were people streaming from the building, tripping over each other as they bottlenecked at the entrance.
“You!” Connor's attention snapped back to the officer, who glared at him through the division. “Stay here. You understand? Don't move a single inch!” Without waiting for a response, he threw open his door and rushed out.
Connor pressed himself up against the grate, watching the scene unfold. The officer had begun directing everyone trying to escape from the building, but wasn't doing a damn thing about the fire itself; Connor looked up and saw the third-story windows belching flames as well. He could hear sirens already blaring in the distance, but they may as well have been whispers in comparison to the screams he could hear within the building.
He growled, throwing himself back against the seat, and closed his eyes. “Hey! Is anyone there?!” He had done the mental equivalent of screaming into their mind link, but after a few moments, nobody had replied. Connor grit his teeth and tried again. “Anyone! Robin! Kaldur! There's a fire! I need help, here!”
Dammit, the line was dead. They must have been too spread out for M'gann to keep them linked. That tore it-literally, as Superboy ripped his cuffs apart, hand flying to the radio hidden in his ear. As soon as he hit the button sharp static burst into his ear, and he jerked his hand back, cursing under his breath. He didn't know what was wrong with their regular comms, but he was getting pretty sick of “cooperating”-a fact he decided to make clear by kicking the door off its hinges and leaping outside.
The entrance was still being blocked by panicked civilians, so Superboy took the next best thing-he charged straight for the building, ignoring the officer's cry as he did so, and slammed his shoulder into the wall. It crumbled like wet sand, and immediately Superboy was greeted by smoke billowing from the newly-created entrance. He picked himself up-he'd landed in some kind of kitchen-and dashed for the next room.
It was a living area filled to the brim with oily smoke. But that wasn't the eye-catcher-in the middle of the room was a man pinned beneath a cabinet that had probably tipped during the explosion. His watering eyes went wide when he saw Superboy; wheezing, he pawed at the carpet, trying to get out some kind of plea.
Connor bent and lifted the cabinet in one easy motion, tossing it to the side. The man sucked in a greedy breath and was immediately wracked by coughs, but continued scrabbling at the floor, finally managing to grab Superboy's pant leg.
Superboy crouched down and lifted the man slightly. “Are you injured?”
“M-my daughter,” he choked out, eyes growing impossibly wider. He snatched at Superboy's collar. “Sofie-she's d-down in the-”
“Superboy!”
The sudden, harsh voice in his ear made him freeze. His hand flew to the radio in his ear. “Who is this? How did you get this frequency?”
“GCPD-look, we can go over the logistics later, but right now we've got to get these people out of here.”
“Working on it,” he growled, focused on the man's eyes which were rapidly glassing over.
“Listen carefully-leave the upper floors to us. This is an old building. The infrastructure was compromised during the explosion, which means the bottom floor is the most susceptible to failing-”
That's was when the floor collapsed.
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