Growing Pains

Growing Pains - Chapter 29

“You know you guys are going to need to kick it up a notch if you actually want to beat me!” I taunted as I flipped over another trick arrow.

Of course as soon as I said that a green arrow sparking with electricity almost hit me in the chest and only a quick twitch let me pluck it out of the air and throw it back toward the Emerald Archer’s sidekick.

“Stop doing that!” Speedy shouted as he dove out of the way.

“No!” I called back.

In order to make the fight more interesting I decided I was only going to use their own arrows to attack.

It was actually really fun because I didn’t always know what was going to pop out of each arrow. So far I’d seen boxing gloves, bolas, tasers, and some sort of glue arrows, not to mention some more explosive ones.

Both of them stopped using the last type pretty quickly after I managed to snag one and almost hit Green Arrow in the face with it.

And then there were the trick shots!

Sometimes it was something simple like an arrow curving instead of going straight, or ricocheting off the ground or a storage container. And then sometimes they got weird.

I wasn’t even talking about how they sometimes randomly shot straight up and then herded me into its path by predicting my dodges. Those failed spectacularly more times than they worked. I was talking about the times they would ricochet an arrow off three surfaces so it was coming at me from the opposite side they shot from and then shoot that with another arrow that had some crazy combination effects.

The two part expanding foam was particularly nasty. The stuff hardened almost instantly and looked really sticky on top of that. They were both lucky I didn’t get my tail stuck in it or I was going to hang them from a flagpole by thier underwear.

“C’mon Kid, you could be helping the bad guys here!” Green Arrow tried again, even as he shot another arrow.

“I still don’t see a warrant, Arrowman!”

“The judge is so far in everyone’s pocket he golfs with the biggest crime names in the area! No way is anyone getting a warrant without tipping everyone off!”

“Sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”

“...”

“She makes it a lot easier to kick her ass when she acts like that, huh?” Speedy snarked from the side.

I smirked at him. “Is that what you’re trying to do? Cause you suck at it.”

Yeah that wiped that annoying smirk off his face. Good.

He reached back for another arrow only to come up short when it turned out he had nothing left. Guess that means our game was pretty much over.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

“Out of arrows then? Guess that means I win. Better luck next time, or when you have a warrant I guess.”

Speedy scowled harder. “I can still hit you with my bow.” He said, gripping the weapon like a staff and stomping forward.

I was actually tempted to let him try, just to see what would happen when Green Arrow pulled him back by his shoulder.

“Whoa, hey, calm down, Speedy” The archer waved down his sidekick. Not that the redhead was following his suggestion.

“Calm down? For all we know everything we need to prove Medtech is smuggling drugs into the city is in that crate, and we’re being stonewalled by a muscle brained idot with a tail!” he raged. “Why aren’t YOU more upset about this?!”

“Hey!”

“I mean, if we were trying to get into that crate then, yeah, I’d be upset.” Green Arrow shrugged. “But! This time we’re just the distraction. So its all good.”

Wait, what?

“Wait, what?!”

Both Speedy and I stared at the blonde haired man with the same thought, even if Speedy was the one to actually blurt it out loud, and then my head snapped over to the shipping container I was supposed to be guarding.

At some point during the fight, the door had been opened enough for someone to slip into the container. That by itself was probably enough to make me fail the job.

The fact that Batman was standing next to it with a bunch of papers and what I suspected was a sample of whatever Green Arrow thought they were smuggling?

Yeah, I wasn’t getting paid for this job.

“We were a distraction?! Why didn’t you tell me?” Speedy demanded while I was mourning the loss of a paycheck and the trip to a Brazilian steakhouse I had planned for it.

All that delicious meat…lost because I didn’t expect the goddamn Batman on the other side of the country working with another hero.

“Relax, Speedy. Bats was out here getting my reply on joining their little club. When I told him about the drug smuggling issue, he decided to help out.”

“Wait, we’re joining the Justice League?!”

Green Arrow rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I’m joining the League – we talked about it and everyone agrees. You and your friends are a little too young for that yet.”

“I– you– I can’t believe this…” Speedy snapped. “I’m out of here!”

And on that note the hot-headed archer stormed off leaving me with the two older heroes.

“You should go after him.” Batman suggested after he stalked over and handed Green Arrow the things he took out of the container.

“It’s fine. He just needs some time to cool off.” The Archer waved it off. “Besides, I need to get these to the right people if we want them to be worth anything.” He said, raising the papers a bit before turning to me. “Uh, we’re not going to have an issue with that, are we?”

“No, you won’t.” Batman said like it was a fact.

And he wasn’t exactly wrong. Even if I felt like taking the stuff Green Arrow had back, Batman probably had a copy somewhere anyway.

“Great.” Green Arrow started walking away. “Then I’ll catch you later, Bats. Oh, and Kid, try not taking jobs for the bad guys okay? Cause the idea of fighting you for real one day is really, really scary.”

“No promises.” I quipped. “Besides, I wanna fight you and Speedy again sometime. I’ll count this time as a draw because you got to the container so we’ll settle it next time.”

Green Arrow shuddered. “Really, really scary.” he repeated and slipped between two containers leaving me alone with Batman.

…I’m in danger.

“Right! So I’m just gonna go–”

“Follow me.”

I slumped forward. “–follow you, yeah…that…”

-o-

I was fully expecting a lecture about what I was doing delivered at the end of a Batglare, but to my surprise I was quietly herded into the Batmobile instead.

Ten silent minutes later, followed by probably the funniest trip through a drive through I’ve ever seen, we were sitting at a park bench going through a small mountain of food.

And Batman still hadn’t called me out on what I’d been doing.

Weird.

This was weird.

And for some reason I really didn’t want to ask why he wasn’t saying anything.

“...So…not that I mind the food or anything,” I finally cracked. “But what are you doing?”

“You’ve been taking security jobs on the black market.” He said instead.

Dammit.

“I mean, yeah, I kinda needed it for training…and they were legit jobs! Just, you know, through the black market…” I rambled.

Batman nodded once.

“And it’s not like I could just–”

“Califa.”

That one word shut me up.

“I’m not mad.” Oh great Oozaru, it’s the ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ speech! WHY? He’s not my dad! “You had a problem and found a solution.” He continued. “And you did so while respecting most of the rules Wonder Woman and I asked you to agree to.”

“...Okay?” So he wasn’t disappointed? Now I’m confused.

“You’re bored. So you’re looking for ways to fix that while respecting the boundaries the League decided on. That you chose to do it in a way that didn’t hurt innocents and got you what you wanted shows your growth in maturity over the past few years.”

And now there were compliments?! “I– uh...” I squirmed.

“In the future, try not to hinder other heroes. If it becomes an issue, contact me. We’ll set something up.”

“Okay…?” I was so freaking lost.

Batman just nodded again, stood, and jumped back into the Batmobile, leaving me with a pile of food, a bigger pile of questions, and the feeling that my brain was overheating.

-o-

“So you talked to her?” Wonder Woman’s voice asked over the hum of the Batmobile’s powerful engine.

“I did.”

“And you didn’t say anything about her working for criminals? That seems unlike you.”

Batman scowled. He didn’t like that Califa was working with the underworld even through the mostly harmless ‘gray-zone’ security jobs. Unfortunately the Green Lantern’s info suggested young Saiyans would nearly always search out ways to test themselves, usually through violence, and trying to restrict those activities when they had no alternative to offer might end up pushing the girl away.

The training with the Amazons had obviously done wonders for the Saiyan’s self-control but while most of them were still clearly more skilled than the young teen, few of them could match her in power.

Too many restrictions – too many rules – might have her looking at crossing a line none of the heroes wanted for her.

“She followed the guidelines we set when we asked her to trust us.” He deflected. “Changing them just because she found an interpretation we didn’t like and punishing her wouldn’t help.”

“I agree.” Wonder Woman said unsurprisingly. “I just thought you would push her to work with the heroes more.”

“We don’t have the infrastructure yet. Or the time to set it up. The fact you are letting Califa run around the country while you’re doing your ambassador duties is proof of that.”

Besides, Batman didn’t want Califa to be a hero.

If she reigned in her more chaotic, childish side, she would probably be a fantastic one, but this job took a toll. He didn’t want to see another child dragged into the fight against crime when they had the chance to live a more normal life.

He already felt like a failure for being unable to stop Dick from dedicating his life to the fight. Not after he lost his parents to a gangster and vowed not to let it happen to anyone else. He didn’t want to push another into that hell just because she was powerful.

“You think it was a mistake?”

“No, she’d have run off on her own anyway.”

“But you think I should have done something.”

If possible Batman would have liked her to assign Califa someone who could come with her on her jaunts off the island. It would give the girl someone that could keep up with her. But from what he understood the list of Amazons that could really push Califa in strength was already small. The list of those willing to leave the Island was limited to just Wonder Woman.

“The Watchtower is going to be completed tomorrow. Will you be able to step away from your responsibilities?” He changed the subject.

“...yes, I’ll be there.” Wonder Woman sighed.

“Truthfully I’m a little excited to see what you’ve been building. It sounds incredibly impressive.” She continued with a more upbeat tone. “I’m also looking forward to seeing our friends in one place again. It’s been a while.”

“Mhmm.” Batman hummed as a notice beeped on his dash. “I’ve got to go. A silent alarm just tripped on a robbery.”

“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” There was a small click as the call disconnected.

The Batmobile’s engine roared louder as the Dark Knight sped through the city streets.

It might not be Gotham but as long as he was nearby, criminals would learn they weren’t beyond the reach of Justice.