Chapter 13: Chapter 13
When the trio reached the crime scene, the thieves had already left, and the police were taping off the area. The officers noticed them approach and, while they gave nods of greeting towards Batgirl and Robin, they were a little wary of Big Chill. The only reason that they weren't drawing guns on him was because Batgirl told them that he was with them.
Big Chill looked at the store. The window was shattered and from what he could tell from his position, a lot of the jewelry had been taken.
"Aw, great," whined Robin, "Bullock is here." Big Chill noticed a particularly large detective walking towards them.
"Oh, whoopee, the kids are here," Bullock was clearly unhappy to see them. He raised an eyebrow at Big Chill. "And you brought another freak. Great, like I don't need another headache." Before anyone could respond, he turned on his heel and walked away.
"Well, he seemed likable enough." Big Chill's sarcastic remark brought smirks from Batgirl, Robin and a few of the officers that heard him.
"Come on," said Batgirl, "we need to take a look at the crime scene." Batgirl and Robin walked through the door, while Big Chill went intangible and floated through a wall.
"Show-off." Robin muttered, while Big Chill shrugged.
The two partners of Batman walked around the jewelry store, checking out every nook and cranny. Big Chill could tell that they were well trained; they left no stone unturned. After a few minutes, they came back to Big Chill.
"Well we know what was stolen…" began Batgirl.
"We know when the jewelry was stolen…" continued Robin.
"And we know how it was stolen, but we can't figure out who stole it!" finished Batgirl.
"Ha! I knew someday that one of you caped freaks would screw up!" the three turned to see Bullock leaning against the doorframe with a smug grin on his face.
"Hmm… maybe not," said Big Chill, "I've got an idea."
Bullock raised an eyebrow as Big Chill slapped the Ultimatrix dial on his chest, then covered his eyes as a bright green flash lit up the store.
"CLOCKWORK!"
All three of the people in the store had wide eyes as a copper robot appeared in front of them.
"What the heck is this!?" asked Bullock.
"Hang on," said Clockwork, "I'm going to try something." The winder on top of his head began to spin, and the room took on a green hue. The store had an afterimage placed on it; this afterimage showed the interior of the store completely undamaged.
"I can look into, and even show past events to others." If Clockwork had a mouth, he'd have been grinning at Bullock; the detective's mouth had hit the floor. Batgirl and Robin had done a much better job of staying composed, but they still looked impressed.
The afterimage of the window shattered as a sledgehammer flew through it. A woman dressed as a jester did a back-flip and landed on her feet. After picking up her hammer, she proceeded to load a sack with the jewelry in the store.
"Harley!" Batgirl stared at the afterimage with narrowed eyes.
"Who?" asked Clockwork.
"Harley Quinn," explained Robin, "psycho, criminal, the Joker's bi…"
"Robin!" warned Batgirl.
"What?" asked Robin, "She is!"
While this was going on, the afterimage of Harley was walking to the door.
"Oh no you don't," warned Bullock, "you ain't getting away!" he charged the image, but instead of tackling her like he expected, he passed right through her and hit his face against the floor.
"Um, dude?" said Clockwork, "This is just a replay of what happened; like a movie. You can't actually change what happened." Behind him, he could hear Batgirl and Robin snickering.
Bullock stood up and dusted himself off. "I knew that."
The afterimage faded, and Clockwork fell to his knees, panting slightly. Batgirl placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine," said Clockwork, "but using time-related powers always drains me a bit."
Batgirl smiled at him. "Don't worry, now we know who to look for. Bullock, would you put out an APB for Harley?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure." The detective sulked off.
"Oh, but I'll miss him," said Clockwork, "he was such a ray of sunshine."
The two other heroes laughed.
…
Later, at the Batcave, the three heroes sat down eating food that Alfred had brought. Unlike Batman, the younger heroes got distracted from their work without three meals a day. As they ate, Ben had a thought.
"So, who's the Joker?"
The other two paused and glanced at each other; apparently this was a touchy subject.
"Think of the complete opposite of Batman," said Batgirl, "and then put him in a purple suit and clown makeup. That's the Joker."
Ben shuddered a little. Then a realization hit him.
"I think I know why Batman sent me here."
Robin tilted his head. "You do?"
"Yeah; it's not because he doesn't trust the two of you. He's been working to help me get a place, and he had to come up with a new identity for me, and that included writing death certificates for my family; I think that what happened to me opened old wounds, and he didn't want it to happen again." He looked at the two. "It's not about not trusting you. It's about not losing you."
Ben knew what he was talking about when he said "old wounds". While adjusting to his new home, he had done some research on Mr. Wayne. He knew how his family had died. It had been tragic; his entire world had been shattered by a punk with a gun.
Batgirl and Robin looked down at the floor, ashamed that their trust in Batman was so easily shaken. Ben was probably right; they were the closest thing that Bruce had to a family, and they had all nearly died during the Thanagarian invasion. Batman was bound to be a little protective for a while.
"I guess you're right." Said Robin slowly.
Ben shrugged. "Hey, I might not know things right away, but when I do, I'm usually right."
Batgirl looked at Robin. "Let's play it safe until Bruce gets back." Robin nodded. Batgirl turned back to Ben and pulled off her mask with one hand while offering him her other to shake. "By the way, I'm Barbara Gordon."
Ben smiled. "Nice to meet you, Barbara." The two shook.
…
The next couple of days were pretty quiet; the worst that the three had to deal with were a few attempted muggings. Otherwise, they stayed at Wayne Manor. Normally, Barbara had to go to college, but her school had a series of financial meetings between the teachers, so she was off for a few days.
They had tried to figure out what Harley Quinn had been up to, but so far, no leads had come up. The rest of the time was spent training. Ben would transform into various aliens, and the other two would try to find ways of beating him. The ones that could go intangible were the most difficult to fight. Still, the skill possessed by the two was undeniable; Ben knew that if he ever tried to fight them as a normal human, he'd be toast.
When Batman finally returned, he gave a gruff thank-you, then told Ben to leave. Ben said his goodbyes to Barbara, Tim and Alfred, then headed home. He didn't know why, but the more good that he did, the better he felt about this whole situation. Maybe it was because he was preventing other families from mourning.
…
After Ben left, Barbara Gordon pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. After a few rings, the person on the other line picked up.
"Hello?" said a sleepy-sounding Kara Kent.
"Hey, Kara, it's Barbara."
"Oh, hi Babs, what's up?"
"You won't believe who just left Wayne Manor."
"Unless it's a cute boy, I really don't care; it's like four in the morning in Kansas right now."
"That depends; do you find Ben Tennyson cute?"
There was a short silence on the other line; Barbara smiled as she imagined her friend's face reddening in embarrassment.
"Uh, Ben was there? Why?" It could have been Barbara's imagination, but Kara sounded just a little too interested.
"Batman asked him to help out while he was away. I know, really not like him to ask for help, but let's just say it was kind of complicated. Anyway, Ben showed up, helped us out for a few days, and just left."
"How is he doing?" Barbara was a little thrown off by the question.
"Well, he seemed alright to me; there were a couple of times that he seemed, I don't know, off somehow. And he slept less than Batman would."
"Uh, how do you know how much he slept?" Now it was Barbara's turn to blush.
"It's not what you think!"
"What am I thinking?"
"Look, we're getting off-topic." Barbara took a breath. "For the most part, he seemed fine. He got along with Tim, and I think he's funny."
"Did he tell any stories about his adventures?"
"Plenty."
"He's done a lot, hasn't he?"
Okay, now Barbara could hear it in Kara's voice; she just had a little trouble believing it.
"Oh my god," she said, "you like him!"
"What!? I do not!"
"You totally do! You think he's cute, which he is, in my opinion, you care about his emotional state, and you went into 'suspicious-jealous mode' when I made that sleep comment!"
"…You think he's cute?"
"See! You just did it again!"
"Ugh! Babs, I'm not having this conversation right now; I'm going back to sleep!"
"Denial is the first step!" Barbara managed to call out before Kara hung up. After staring at her phone for a moment, Barbara began to think about it. There was just something about those two; she couldn't quite explain why, but Ben and Kara just seemed like a perfect match.
This could be fun, she thought.
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