Work - Or the Lifelong Scam - August 7th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 7
Title: Work - Or the Lifelong Scam
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/DCAU
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or DCAU people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Summer has disappeared and managed to remain that way. Finding her own way to live her life - sorta.
Notes: Follows “ Live - Or Just Don’t Die”
Seasons: Post-“Gift”/DC Universe
Word Count: 2050
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Batman demanded.
Commissioner Gordon sighed. He needed to retire. This night was already giving him a headache, and he did not need a missing kid on top of it. Especially because the kid had caught the interest of Batman. “The SWAT team got her and Harley out of the building, she informed them about the explosives. They called in the bomb squad and retreated to the initial barricade and ordered it to be moved further back. Harley was put in police custody and the girl was placed with the freed hostages. From there they lost track of her in the chaos.”
Batman growled low in his throat.
“According to the hostages, she was quick to knock out Harley and save them. The SWAT team said she was forceful. They wondered if her parents were in the service.”
“I have found her escape route,” J’onn J’onz announced as he landed next to Batman. “She escape the locked children’s ward through the bathroom ceiling. She got down the elevator shaft and pulled off the hatch to get into the ceiling on the bottom floor. From there she dropped down in the middle of the hostage situation.”
“It suggests training,” Gordon told them.
J’onn nodded. “It raises questions about what she is.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s nothing,” Batman cut them off. “She’s a child and she’s on the streets of Gotham, alone.”
88888888
Metropolis - Four Months Later
Summer looked up at the clear sky. She loved the sunshine. She blamed it on being a California girl at heart.
That was a different life, one she could only recall some times. She was never able to pull specific details, like her name. She knew that there were monsters and demons and gods and she had fought them. Sometimes just to save random people, other times to save her friends or her mom or her sister. She knew about the Watchers who had looked after her, but she did not remember the names of any of hers. She thought there might have been two or three.
One thing she did know after spending nights in cemeteries, there were no vampires here. There were no demons, at least not any she vaguely recalled in her dreams. Instead, there were metas, people and creatures that were altered in some way. Some of them used these powers against others.
Summer sighed and brought her face down, stretching her arms out. Her days started early most of the time, but she had been told that today she could not work in the fish market. It was amazing how many people would hire kids and pay them under the table. It helped that she knew how to act like a responsible adult even though she had never really been one.
She would need to leave soon to get to the diner to wash dishes from the breakfast rush. Then it would be on to the library to study things that were too advanced for her - whether she was twelve or twenty.
She stood and rolled up the sleeping bag. She strapped it to her bag. She checked her appearance in a small hand mirror. Her hair was getting long but her budget was too tight to allow for something as frivolous as a haircut.
Maybe an investment in scissors? she thought.
Her small mat was rolled up and tied to her bag as well. The few things she took out were easily repacked in familiar places. The nice part of staying in abandoned places was that rent did not cost anything. She was also subject to much less scrutiny as she tried to figure out what had happened. She knew this was something she had done before, several years older, but the same basic function. At that time she had been able to apply for jobs legally and rent a motel room.
For now, she was relegated to jobs she could do in the shadows. And she quite preferred that.
Summer climbed down the fire escape. She paused to look up as Superman flew overhead. She grinned regretfully at not going directly to Kal when she knew she could. But when she got to Metropolis and started looking into how things worked here…she realized she was one girl where he served the whole world. Possibly a big portion of the universe, if the theories were true about the Justice League.
She continued down to the alley.
88888888
Lois Lane had earned the name Bulldog as an investigative journalist. She found a bone anywhere and would not let go. It may also have had something to do with her bullheadedness. So when someone had whispered about violated child labor laws, she had slowly gone snooping. For three weeks, she had been trying to find the businesses that were allowing children to work. She had a lead on the fish stall and had dragged herself out at three in the morning to work the dock.
Nothing had come of it.
Tired, frustrated, and smelling of fish, Lois walked through the streets. She was aware of her surroundings. She looked carefully at every person who came close to her. And her eyes darted down alleys.
It was because of this that she noticed a girl no more than fourteen. She stepped out of the back door of a diner.
“See you tomorrow, Ange,” the girl called with a wave before throwing away a trash bag. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small stack of bills. She counted them with a smile before extracting one and storing the rest in a wallet inside her backpack. She pocketed the one bill and sealed her bag. Then she moved out of the alley to the sidewalk and started walking.
Lois followed the girl at a distance, keeping some space between them. It was not long before she saw the girl head into the library. She finally had her lead, she was sure of it.
88888888
Summer closed the book. Her head was aching. She hated math and science. There was someone she used to go to for answers, but for the last few months, she had to become her own research party.
She grinned at her thoughts. It was nice when things were not dire and dark.
She returned the book to the shelf. It was still early. She would be able to grab a shower. Tomorrow she would have to go to the laundry mat to clean her clothes.
She left the library and went just down the road to the community gym. She paid the few dollars to get in and headed straight for the locker room. She changed into a workout outfit and used her own lock to secure the locker.
Summer enjoyed the workouts she managed at the gym. They were low-intensity, nothing like she recalled being drilled on as the Slayer. She was almost always under the watchful eye of someone, so she kept the Slayer-strength to a minimum. Plus, her body was that of a twelve year old, for the most part it acted like the body of a twelve year old - untrained and ungainly.
About ninety minutes after she started, she finally headed back to get cleaned up. After a shower, fresh pair of clothes, deodorant, and brushing her hair and teeth, Summer was finally ready to leave.
She needed to grab dinner and check in.
She exited the gym. It was twilight, she had spent just a little too long in the shower. She picked up her pace. She jogged down four streets before stopping in front of a simple Italian place.
The tables were covered with red and white checkered table clothes, they were obviously plastic. Pictures of caricatures of famous people lined one wall. From the kitchen, someone yelling in muddled Italian and English could be heard.
“Hey, Summer,” the waitress, Julia, greeted.
“Hey. Can I put in an order?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“Chicken parmesan with spaghetti. A Caesar salad. And a large half-pepperoni, half-cheese pie divided into as many slices as possible.”
Julia nodded. “Take a seat, we’ll get that out for you in a minute.”
Summer sat at one of the booths. She mentally counted her money and reached into her bag to pull out what she needed. She loved little places like this. The people rarely asked questions. They knew something was not quite right, but she ordered, waited, and paid without causing problems. So they tended to look the other way.
She mentally mapped out her day. She would be getting up and going to the fish market early. Then her post-breakfast shift at the diner, do her laundry, followed by dinner and the movie in the park. It was one thing she would say about this place, the community events were great. Almost anything done was either free to the public or free for kids under fourteen. It allowed her some semblance of normal. She scheduled her days around working and free or cheap events. She went to the gym three days a week to exercise and shower. And every four days she spent the better part of her afternoon in the laundry mat, cleaning her handful of clothes.
Some of it was lonely, other days it was just…hard. This was not what being a kid was supposed to be. There were others who had it worse, kids who were known by the police and social workers. They were often sent back home to abusive family only to return to the street after days. Some kids were part of the broken system, and had long ago slipped through the cracks between juvie and foster care.
Summer knew she had made her own decisions. After facing off with Harley and the Joker, she had left. The League and the hospital had been focused on finding her origins. But she had known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they would not find them here. Not in this place. Her study of the complexities of the multiverse theory had led her to believe she had slipped through from a parallel universe.
At least, that’s what she hoped. Otherwise, she had severe psychological issues. Maybe she did anyways…
“Here ya go,” Julia startled her from her thoughts.
Summer paid and took the large, oversized pizza box with a bag of takeaway containers on top.
Julia set down a large disposable cup with a lid and red straw. “A large cup of ice water.”
Summer smiled. “Thanks, Julia.”
“See you next week?”
“Yeah.”
“Be careful.”
Summer grinned and hefted her things off the table, leaving through the front door. She headed down three streets and a side alley. She kicked the door of an old warehouse.
It was a moment before the door slid open and she was bade enter. The door slid closed behind her.
“How many are here tonight?” Summer asked.
“There are only a dozen or so,” a boy responded.
“Any trouble today?”
“Nothing big.”
Summer raised an eyebrow but set down the box of pizza. She lifted off the water and bag. “Chow time, come get it!”
There was a quick lineup of children. The smallest, some not even older than her, to the largest. The oldest was Marco and Candice, both were seventeen. They worked during the day and came back to the old theater each night to look after the younger kids.
“Summer,” Candice said in relief, “we were worried you may have gone down to the docks today.”
“No, I was warned off by Cam late last night.”
“Good.”
“Any idea what’s going on?”
“No. But if Cam doesn’t want us around it’s probably as much for our protection as his.” She looked her over. “Did you go to a shelter today?”
“No, stopped by the gym.”
“Ah.”
They watched in silence as each kid got two thin slices of pizza.
“You have a place to bunk down for the night?” Marco asked in concern.
“I’m all good,” she promised. “In fact, I should go now if I want to be in before the cops start on that street.”
“You are always welcome to stay,” he reminded her.
“I know. I just like my time alone.”
He hesitated but nodded.
Summer left with her drink and bag of food.
Title: Work - Or the Lifelong Scam
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/DCAU
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or DCAU people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Summer has disappeared and managed to remain that way. Finding her own way to live her life - sorta.
Notes: Follows “ Live - Or Just Don’t Die”
Seasons: Post-“Gift”/DC Universe
Word Count: 2050
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Batman demanded.
Commissioner Gordon sighed. He needed to retire. This night was already giving him a headache, and he did not need a missing kid on top of it. Especially because the kid had caught the interest of Batman. “The SWAT team got her and Harley out of the building, she informed them about the explosives. They called in the bomb squad and retreated to the initial barricade and ordered it to be moved further back. Harley was put in police custody and the girl was placed with the freed hostages. From there they lost track of her in the chaos.”
Batman growled low in his throat.
“According to the hostages, she was quick to knock out Harley and save them. The SWAT team said she was forceful. They wondered if her parents were in the service.”
“I have found her escape route,” J’onn J’onz announced as he landed next to Batman. “She escape the locked children’s ward through the bathroom ceiling. She got down the elevator shaft and pulled off the hatch to get into the ceiling on the bottom floor. From there she dropped down in the middle of the hostage situation.”
“It suggests training,” Gordon told them.
J’onn nodded. “It raises questions about what she is.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s nothing,” Batman cut them off. “She’s a child and she’s on the streets of Gotham, alone.”
88888888
Metropolis - Four Months Later
Summer looked up at the clear sky. She loved the sunshine. She blamed it on being a California girl at heart.
That was a different life, one she could only recall some times. She was never able to pull specific details, like her name. She knew that there were monsters and demons and gods and she had fought them. Sometimes just to save random people, other times to save her friends or her mom or her sister. She knew about the Watchers who had looked after her, but she did not remember the names of any of hers. She thought there might have been two or three.
One thing she did know after spending nights in cemeteries, there were no vampires here. There were no demons, at least not any she vaguely recalled in her dreams. Instead, there were metas, people and creatures that were altered in some way. Some of them used these powers against others.
Summer sighed and brought her face down, stretching her arms out. Her days started early most of the time, but she had been told that today she could not work in the fish market. It was amazing how many people would hire kids and pay them under the table. It helped that she knew how to act like a responsible adult even though she had never really been one.
She would need to leave soon to get to the diner to wash dishes from the breakfast rush. Then it would be on to the library to study things that were too advanced for her - whether she was twelve or twenty.
She stood and rolled up the sleeping bag. She strapped it to her bag. She checked her appearance in a small hand mirror. Her hair was getting long but her budget was too tight to allow for something as frivolous as a haircut.
Maybe an investment in scissors? she thought.
Her small mat was rolled up and tied to her bag as well. The few things she took out were easily repacked in familiar places. The nice part of staying in abandoned places was that rent did not cost anything. She was also subject to much less scrutiny as she tried to figure out what had happened. She knew this was something she had done before, several years older, but the same basic function. At that time she had been able to apply for jobs legally and rent a motel room.
For now, she was relegated to jobs she could do in the shadows. And she quite preferred that.
Summer climbed down the fire escape. She paused to look up as Superman flew overhead. She grinned regretfully at not going directly to Kal when she knew she could. But when she got to Metropolis and started looking into how things worked here…she realized she was one girl where he served the whole world. Possibly a big portion of the universe, if the theories were true about the Justice League.
She continued down to the alley.
88888888
Lois Lane had earned the name Bulldog as an investigative journalist. She found a bone anywhere and would not let go. It may also have had something to do with her bullheadedness. So when someone had whispered about violated child labor laws, she had slowly gone snooping. For three weeks, she had been trying to find the businesses that were allowing children to work. She had a lead on the fish stall and had dragged herself out at three in the morning to work the dock.
Nothing had come of it.
Tired, frustrated, and smelling of fish, Lois walked through the streets. She was aware of her surroundings. She looked carefully at every person who came close to her. And her eyes darted down alleys.
It was because of this that she noticed a girl no more than fourteen. She stepped out of the back door of a diner.
“See you tomorrow, Ange,” the girl called with a wave before throwing away a trash bag. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small stack of bills. She counted them with a smile before extracting one and storing the rest in a wallet inside her backpack. She pocketed the one bill and sealed her bag. Then she moved out of the alley to the sidewalk and started walking.
Lois followed the girl at a distance, keeping some space between them. It was not long before she saw the girl head into the library. She finally had her lead, she was sure of it.
88888888
Summer closed the book. Her head was aching. She hated math and science. There was someone she used to go to for answers, but for the last few months, she had to become her own research party.
She grinned at her thoughts. It was nice when things were not dire and dark.
She returned the book to the shelf. It was still early. She would be able to grab a shower. Tomorrow she would have to go to the laundry mat to clean her clothes.
She left the library and went just down the road to the community gym. She paid the few dollars to get in and headed straight for the locker room. She changed into a workout outfit and used her own lock to secure the locker.
Summer enjoyed the workouts she managed at the gym. They were low-intensity, nothing like she recalled being drilled on as the Slayer. She was almost always under the watchful eye of someone, so she kept the Slayer-strength to a minimum. Plus, her body was that of a twelve year old, for the most part it acted like the body of a twelve year old - untrained and ungainly.
About ninety minutes after she started, she finally headed back to get cleaned up. After a shower, fresh pair of clothes, deodorant, and brushing her hair and teeth, Summer was finally ready to leave.
She needed to grab dinner and check in.
She exited the gym. It was twilight, she had spent just a little too long in the shower. She picked up her pace. She jogged down four streets before stopping in front of a simple Italian place.
The tables were covered with red and white checkered table clothes, they were obviously plastic. Pictures of caricatures of famous people lined one wall. From the kitchen, someone yelling in muddled Italian and English could be heard.
“Hey, Summer,” the waitress, Julia, greeted.
“Hey. Can I put in an order?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“Chicken parmesan with spaghetti. A Caesar salad. And a large half-pepperoni, half-cheese pie divided into as many slices as possible.”
Julia nodded. “Take a seat, we’ll get that out for you in a minute.”
Summer sat at one of the booths. She mentally counted her money and reached into her bag to pull out what she needed. She loved little places like this. The people rarely asked questions. They knew something was not quite right, but she ordered, waited, and paid without causing problems. So they tended to look the other way.
She mentally mapped out her day. She would be getting up and going to the fish market early. Then her post-breakfast shift at the diner, do her laundry, followed by dinner and the movie in the park. It was one thing she would say about this place, the community events were great. Almost anything done was either free to the public or free for kids under fourteen. It allowed her some semblance of normal. She scheduled her days around working and free or cheap events. She went to the gym three days a week to exercise and shower. And every four days she spent the better part of her afternoon in the laundry mat, cleaning her handful of clothes.
Some of it was lonely, other days it was just…hard. This was not what being a kid was supposed to be. There were others who had it worse, kids who were known by the police and social workers. They were often sent back home to abusive family only to return to the street after days. Some kids were part of the broken system, and had long ago slipped through the cracks between juvie and foster care.
Summer knew she had made her own decisions. After facing off with Harley and the Joker, she had left. The League and the hospital had been focused on finding her origins. But she had known, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they would not find them here. Not in this place. Her study of the complexities of the multiverse theory had led her to believe she had slipped through from a parallel universe.
At least, that’s what she hoped. Otherwise, she had severe psychological issues. Maybe she did anyways…
“Here ya go,” Julia startled her from her thoughts.
Summer paid and took the large, oversized pizza box with a bag of takeaway containers on top.
Julia set down a large disposable cup with a lid and red straw. “A large cup of ice water.”
Summer smiled. “Thanks, Julia.”
“See you next week?”
“Yeah.”
“Be careful.”
Summer grinned and hefted her things off the table, leaving through the front door. She headed down three streets and a side alley. She kicked the door of an old warehouse.
It was a moment before the door slid open and she was bade enter. The door slid closed behind her.
“How many are here tonight?” Summer asked.
“There are only a dozen or so,” a boy responded.
“Any trouble today?”
“Nothing big.”
Summer raised an eyebrow but set down the box of pizza. She lifted off the water and bag. “Chow time, come get it!”
There was a quick lineup of children. The smallest, some not even older than her, to the largest. The oldest was Marco and Candice, both were seventeen. They worked during the day and came back to the old theater each night to look after the younger kids.
“Summer,” Candice said in relief, “we were worried you may have gone down to the docks today.”
“No, I was warned off by Cam late last night.”
“Good.”
“Any idea what’s going on?”
“No. But if Cam doesn’t want us around it’s probably as much for our protection as his.” She looked her over. “Did you go to a shelter today?”
“No, stopped by the gym.”
“Ah.”
They watched in silence as each kid got two thin slices of pizza.
“You have a place to bunk down for the night?” Marco asked in concern.
“I’m all good,” she promised. “In fact, I should go now if I want to be in before the cops start on that street.”
“You are always welcome to stay,” he reminded her.
“I know. I just like my time alone.”
He hesitated but nodded.
Summer left with her drink and bag of food.