Fic: The Quest For Power. PG. Various characters, me.

[museofspeed]

Title: The Quest For Power
Fandom: DCU
Characters: Shana, Bart, Tim, Barbara, Dinah, Batman, Superman, Dick, Steph, Cass, Anita, Cissie, Kon. Mentions of Barbara/Dinah and Cassie/Kon. Bart/Tim hinted.
Prompt: 96. Writer's choice for fanfic100 . 27. OMG we forgot__ for wtf27 . Because I like to multi-task.
Word Count: 4,991
Rating: PG
Summary: I really, really want superpowers. And I go to superhero theme party.
Author's Notes: Written for dcdailylife 's self-insert fic where the writer is not a Mary Sue contest. Beta'd by my wonderful beta, julius12 . Takes place in my special, personal canon where Young Justice is around when all of the people are in high school and everyone is alive. So extremely AU.

It all started when my family went to Mexico back in my Freshman year of high school.

We had been in the air for half an hour when the captain told us all to buckle our seatbelts. Turbulence? No. Supervillains.

“Everything will be fine,” the captain assured us. “The JLA has been notified. However, it is the official policy of American Airplanes to review the Villain Safety Protocol in the event of an emergency.”

My little sister started to cry. “Now, Elise,” my dad said, “We might have to jump from the plane using parachutes, but once you’re down, you can’t come up and jump again.” That’s my dad. Always making jokes. My sister laughed, and my dad went back a few rows to talk to my aunt and our cousins.

My mom and my other younger sister were sitting together, talking about who knows what. I sat alone, not crying, not scared, just wondering vaguely if I’d die.

Then someone near the front gave a shout. Wonder Woman was flying towards us! We were saved! And I was right next to the window! I watched the fight, fascinated. It hadn’t been a particularly bad villain. Wonder Woman pulverized him and took the plane back to the airport. She even stuck around long enough for the few of us who hadn’t been pulverized with terror to stammer a thanks. She smiled at me- Wonder Woman smiled at me, and flew off to save someone else.

After that, I was a girl obsessed. I started reading the Daily Planet for stories of metahumans. I carried a camera around on the off-chance one of them would show up. I bragged about my near-death experience to anyone who would listen.

But it wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted to be one of them. I wanted to save people. I wanted superpowers.

I was willing to do anything to get them.

My first attempt to actually get superpowers was a horrible failure. I read about a magical ritual on Infopedia and decided to try it. At midnight during the next rainstorm, I drew the secret symbol on the ground in the middle of a field and held up the medallion I had made. I shouted the words I had read, and lightning struck me.

I woke up in a hospital twenty hours later. Apparently I had fallen into a coma, and the Flash had rescued me.

I muttered every curse word I knew after that. Not because I had gone into a coma, but because I had missed my meeting with the Flash.

My parents were annoyed that I had done something so stupid. Didn’t I know how lightning works? It always hits the highest object, and it’s attracted to metal! Standing in the middle of a field holding up a medallion made from metal was just asking to be hit!

I didn’t tell them that I had wanted to be hit. They wouldn’t have understood.

Later it occurred to me that Infopedia was accessible by everyone. If that ritual had been one that really worked, everyone would be metas.

Then I started chemistry. I hated the class. I couldn’t keep the number of moles separate from the acidity and I never really understood any of the formulas. Still, I was as attentive as I could possibly be. I’d done my homework. Tons of superheroes got their powers through a chemical accident. One day in the lab, I managed to somehow concoct a solution that glowed green and frothed.

I’m not completely stupid. I knew that drinking something frothy and green was a recipe for disaster. I decided to take it home and run some tests.

Admittedly, throwing a glass vial into my bag was a bad idea, even if I was fairly careful.

It broke as I was walking home from school. My bag burst into flames and the patches of skin that had been splashed started burning. I screamed and fell writhing to the ground.

I must have blacked out because the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital surrounded by doctors and a woman wearing black leather and fishnets. Black Canary, I thought dimly. Cool. I had bandages all over my skin.

Ok, I hadn’t been in this much pain since I’d been hit by lightning, but I was in the same room as Black Canary! This was almost cooler than meeting Wonder Woman.

She noticed me staring and smiled. “You ok?” she asked.

I tried to say that yes, I was perfectly fine, thanks to her, and by the way I thought she was the coolest person ever, and maybe I could have a picture or something?

“Nrghz,” I said, eloquently. It hurt.

“Right,” she said. “I guess you must have damaged your voice chords screaming. You’ll be fine, though. Oh, I have to take this.” She put her hand to her ear. “Yes?” There was a pause. “I’m on it, Oracle.” She turned to me. “Sorry, I have to go. Emergency. Good luck, Shana.”

“Thargkhs,” I muttered. Well, it was almost thanks.

“My associate’s calling your parents. Be careful with chemicals, okay?”

I nodded and tried to raise my hand in something resembling a wave.

She smiled and walked away. “Bye!” she said as she left.

My parents were there fifteen minutes later. I couldn’t focus on their anxious yelling, though. My mind was occupied thinking about one thing.

How did Black Canary know my name?

I was banned from the chemistry lab after that. My class counselor advised that I take theoretical chemistry and I told her that I would die. I ended up in a physics class.

Since physics laws only work maybe seven times out of ten, my teacher had a lot of trouble teaching us. When we learned about Forces, I was the obnoxious student who raised her hand to ask “What’s the force that holds Superman up? What do you call Green Lantern forces? How about forcefields? How does the Canary Cry work?”

I might have aced the class if I hadn’t been so reluctant to only discuss physics as they related to normal people. As it was, I passed. Barely.

I hadn’t given up on superpowers yet, though. Just because I hadn’t succeeded yet didn’t mean I wouldn’t succeed someday! Every spare moment I had was spent in research. I’d given up on Infopedia, but other web sites were fair game. Unfortunately, all the good ones weren’t available to the public. No problem, though, right? Whoever got what they wanted by doing what they were allowed to do legally?

Time to check out the library. Unfortunately, I’d read most of their books on superhumans and superpowers, and the few others they had weren’t much help. I decided, on a whim, to look through the books on computer hacking. Maybe I’d learn something interesting.

“Excuse me,” I muttered, moving around a pretty red-haired woman in a wheelchair. I hate looking for books with other people right next to me. It always feels awkward. Unfortunately, she seemed interested in the same books I wanted.

She looked up at me sharply. “Aren’t you a little young to start hacking?”

“Um,” I said, “I’m doing this research paper-”

“Save it,” she said. “You know, it’s easier to just study than to hack into school computers to change your grade.”

“What? No! I’m not that kind of person! My grades are fine.” I scowled. “It’s not your business anyways, but what I really am after is superpowers.”

“Superpowers?” She raised an eyebrow over her glasses. “You can’t get superpowers from anything on the Internet.”

“Not on the regular sites, anyways,” I said. “There’s a ritual on Infopedia, but it’s total bull.”

“You tried a ritual for getting superpowers that you found on Infopedia?”

I blushed a little bit. “It was a few years ago. I ended up struck by lightning.”

“That was really stupid.”

“I know. But all the more reliable sites will be locked so that supervillain wanna-bes can’t get superpowers.”

“There isn’t a reliable way to get superpowers,” she said. “If there were, everyone would have them.”

I frowned. “There has to be a way. I want to be out there, helping.”

“I wouldn’t suggest hacking your way into superheroics. They’d have to arrest you before you could do any good.”

“Well, what else can I do? I mean, wouldn’t it be great? You can’t tell me you’ve never wanted superpowers.”

The woman looked a little wistful. “No, I can’t. I know exactly how you feel. Look, why don’t you try martial arts or something? Not all superheroes have powers.”

“It wouldn’t be the same,” I said. “And like you said, if it’s that simple, more people would do that.”

“Try it,” she said. “And maybe one day you’ll get powers some other way.”

“Fine,” I said. “I could just get a job near some radioactive goo.”

“Come on, do you know the odds of that actually working?”

“Um, well, it seems to have worked for a lot-”

“You’ve got a 780000 to one shot at it working. There’s a 39000 to one chance that you’d even survive. Good odds?”

“So basically I’ve got almost no chance of becoming a metahuman.”

She smiled at me and patted my arm. “You could always become a policeman or fireman. They’re the real-”

“That is such bullshit.”

“My father’s a policeman, you know.”

“Sorry. They’re heroes too, I guess, but come on. Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Black Canary. They’re…so much bigger than us.”

“You know, only half of the people you mentioned even have powers, and Black Canary doesn’t even use hers in fights.”

“Really?”

“It’s true. I’ve seen them in action.”

“Huh.” Maybe I’d invest in those Karate classes after all.

I could feel her watching me as I left without the books on hacking. Instead, I borrowed a deeply researched history on Batman and the various people he’d worked with.

The next day my history partner Tim asked me if I wanted to go to a Superhero themed Halloween party in Metropolis.

“Bruce Wayne got me a bunch of tickets, and I know you really like superheroes so want to come?”

“I’d love to come,” I said. I couldn’t remember telling Tim about my infatuation, but knowing me, it must have come up. And there was the chemistry lab incident. Tim might have been in that class. “So we’re just supposed to dress as superheroes?”

He nodded. “Bruce said he’d take me and my friends there on his…um…private jet.” He looked a little embarrassed about this.

“That is so cool,” I said.

“I guess,” Tim said. “So meet at Wayne Manor at eight?”

“Sure,” I said.

I was a little surprised that he asked me. I mean, we are friends, but we’re not that close. I’ll say hi to him in the halls or eat lunch with him, and we’ve got some interests in common, but I’ve never hung out with him outside of school, except occasionally at parties we both went to and similar events.

I thought about my costume for days. I ended up dressing up as the Flash. I still wanted superspeed, though any power would have been great.

Tim was dressed in red and white spandex with yellow goggles. I recognized the costume. “Impulse!” I said, grinning. “My sidekick.”

“Impulse is not the Flash’s sidekick,” said a kid with big feet and lots of hair. “He’s his cousin. They only work together sometimes.” He was dressed as Robin.

“Bart’s from Manchester, Alabama,” Tim said. “They’re pretty defensive of their resident hero.”

“Hi, Bart,” I said. “I’m Shana. New to Gotham?”

“I’ve been here tons of times,” he said.

“Anyways, I’m sorry about the sidekick thing. I’m actually a big Impulse fan. Speedsters in general, really, but Impulse seems really nice.”

Bart looked a lot happier after that. “He is really nice. One of the coolest superheroes out there.”

I laughed. “Maybe you should have dressed up as him, if you like him so much.”

“I wanted to, but R- Tim wouldn’t let me.”

I looked at Tim.

“I wanted to go as Impulse. Left Bart with choosing someone else, so he took the Urban Legend route.”

“The one that everyone knows exists?” I asked.

“Robin totally doesn’t exist!” Bart said. “Well, the one that’s around now doesn’t, at least.”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure that there’d be pictures somewhere if Robin really existed.”

Bart grinned at Tim. “Totally not existing. Hey, since I’m Robin right now, do I not exist? Can I do that whole sneaking around thing that…um…Robin probably would do if he existed?”

“Bart, you’re talking madness,” Tim said.

“Grife,” Bart said.

I’d heard a lot of curse words, but I was almost sure I’d never heard grife before. “What does grife mean?” I asked.

“Idon’tknow,” Bart said. I hadn’t known it was possible to talk that quickly. “IthinkI’mgonnagoseeifDick’sreadywiththeplane.”

“Go slowly,” Tim said, catching Bart’s shoulder before he could run off. “You wouldn’t want to trip.”

“Uh, right,” Bart said. It looked to me like he ignored Tim’s advice entirely. That kid could run. He didn’t trip, though.

“Is he always like that?” I asked.

“Worse, usually,” Tim said.

“Really should have been Impulse,” I said. “He’s got the right hair. And he’s pretty fast.”

Tim looked amused. “I guess he could have been. Maybe next year.”

I nodded.

“Hey Tim!” Two girls walked over to us. One of them was wearing the old Batgirl outfit. Her hair was blond, not red, though. The other girl had short brown hair and a purple costume. I searched my mental database of heroes and came up with a name. Spoiler.

“Hey,” he said. “You dressed as Spoiler and Batgirl?”

The girl dressed as Spoiler nodded. “Eggplant,” she said, glancing at me and touching the costume. “Not purple.”

That was weird. “I’m Shana,” I said.

“I’m Steph and this is Cass,” the girl dressed as Batgirl said. “Has Tim been boring you with his geek talk?”

“I think it’s cool when Tim talks geek at us,” Bart said from behind us.

I turned, shocked. “How’d you get there?”

“I’m a sneaky Bat person,” Bart said, grinning at Tim. “I sneak up on people because I was trained by the World’s Greatest Detective.”

Tim shook his head. “Madness, Bart. Before you know it, you’ll be in Arkham.”

“Hey Bart!” Steph said brightly. “Nice costume.”

“Thanks,” he said.

A bunch of other friends of ours were showing up now. I knew most of them. Tim’s cellphone rang, and he told us that the plane was ready.

A man dressed as Speedy grinned at us from the cockpit. “Hey, Tim’s friends. I’m Dick and I’ll be your captain today.”

I sat next to a very fidgety Bart.

“Sit still, Bart,” Tim said from in front of us.

“I said I would,” Bart said. “I said if you let me come, I’d be good and not move around, and how do you know anyways? It’s so creepy when you do that.”

“I know you, Bart.”

Bart scowled. “I’m being good. Stop it, Tim.”

“So, what’s life like in Manchester?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. It isn’t as slow as you’d think. School is, though. Classes take forever.”

“Universal constant,” I said. “I’ve been in the Gotham area for my whole life, but I’ve moved around a lot.”

“Really?” Bart brightened. “Me too. I used to live in Keystone. But really,” he grinned. “I came from the future.”

“Quit it, Bart,” Tim said.

“I was joking, Tim. It’s more interesting than talking about moving around from relation to relation.”

“I’m all for interesting and completely untrue life stories,” I said. “Did you know I’m actually the result of a magical accident caused by Blue Beetle and Booster Gold?”

Bart snickered. “How ‘bout you, Tim? What’s your fake life story?”

“I don’t have one,” Tim said.

“Spoilsport,” Bart said.

I grinned. “Tell me about Impulse, Bart. I only know what I’ve seen in the papers.”

“Impulse is really cool,” Bart said. “He’s totally stopped tons of bad guys, and he doesn’t need stupid plans no matter what Max says or anything.”

“Who’s Max?”

“My uncle.”

“You talk about superhero plans with your uncle?”

Tim glanced at Bart. “His uncle’s sort of a master strategist. It bothers him to see a superhero go in without thinking, right Bart?”

Bart nodded, scowling. “Yeah, that’s it.”

The party was awesome.

I recognized Bruce Wayne in the Superman costume talking to a bespectacled Batman. Next to him stood a very sullen looking boy in a Wonder Girl costume.

Bart and Tim also noticed the boy.

“Cassie actually got him to do it,” Tim said. “I thought he’d lose the bet.”

Bart nodded. “Y’know, we have to go make fun of him now.”

Tim smirked. “Of course.”

Clearly this was one of Tim’s friends that I didn’t know. I wandered off in search of food.

“Excuse me,” someone said.

I turned around and recognized the woman from the library despite the fishnets and leather jacket.

“Oh, hi,” I said, pulling down the Flash mask. “Um, you probably don’t remember me-”

“Shana, right?” she asked, smiling. “Good to see you. Managed to get superpowers yet?”

It’s funny, my mind wanders a lot but I’m pretty good with details. I couldn’t remember trading names with her.

“Ha,” I said weakly. “I wish. Um, this is a little embarrassing, but I don’t remember your name.”

“Oh, that’s alright,” she said. “I’m Barbara.”

“Hi, Barbara. Dressed as Black Canary, right?”

“Yep,” she said. “And you’re the Flash.”

“Babs!” a blonde woman dressed as Wonder Woman called. She walked closer, and I only just managed to keep my mouth from dropping open in shock.

“Black Canary?” I asked. I looked at Barbara and back at Black Canary.

She grinned. “It’s Wonder Woman tonight. Babs is doing the Canary thing. How are you doing, Shana? Any more chemical accidents?”

Seriously, how did Black Canary even remember me?

“Um, no. I was…kicked out of Chemistry class after that. Seemed to think I did it on purpose.”

“Did you?” Barbara asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No! Well, not exactly. I mean, I was going to test it before doing anything with it.”

“You were entirely right,” Black Canary said to Barbara.

“What?” I said.

“Babs mentioned you after your little run in at the library,” Black Canary said, as if that explained everything.

“How do you know each other anyways?” I asked.

“We’re dating,” Black Canary said.

Seriously, I had to offer up my soul or something to Tim. The party was amazing.

I caught sight of Tim, Bart and the boy dressed as Wonder Girl. I walked over to them.

“Hey guys,” I said. “Tim, thank you so much for getting me a ticket here. Did you know that Black Canary’s here?”

“Really?” Tim asked. “That’s cool.”

“Black Canary’s really got legs,” the boy dressed as Wonder Girl said with a sigh. “Not many people can pull off fishnets like that. Zatanna can, and Black Canary.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, Kon,” Bart said innocently. “You’d look lovely in fishnets.”

“You brat,” the boy said. Bart hid behind Tim.

“Shana, Conner. Conner, Shana.” Tim said, waving between us. “Conner, don’t kill Bart. For some strange reason, I like him.”

“Listen to Tim!” Bart said. “Plus, you’re too delicate to get into fights!”

I laughed.

“Nice to meet you, Shana.” Conner grinned at me. “Nice Flash costume. Tim’s dressed as your sidekick, you know.”

“He is not the Flash’s sidekick!” Bart said, in front of Conner suddenly.

Conner and Tim snickered.

“Oh, fuuuunny, Wonder Girl.” Bart glared. “Where is Cassie anyways?” He looked around.

“Somewhere,” Conner said. “She dressed up like Empress.”

“Cool! Is Anita dressed as-”

“Superboy,” Tim cut in. “Anita dressed up as Superboy.”

Bart scowled. “That’s what I was gonna say. Geeze, Tim. I don’t need you remindin’ me every three seconds. C’mon, Kon, let’s find her.”

“You’ve got weird friends,” I told Tim.

He shrugged. “They’re alright.”

“Hey, nothing wrong with weird. Most of the people I know are weird. I’m weird.”

Tim grinned and opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly a woman screamed.

I pushed through the crowd to see what had happened. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Tim coming through too.

The woman was staring up at the big, glass skylight. Glass was scattered around her feet, and a panel was missing. She had a cut on her head.

“Are you alright?” Tim asked. The woman looked at him, dazed, and said nothing.

Suddenly, I felt something cold and hard against the side of my head and a hand on my mouth.

“If you want to live, Flashette,” a man’s voice said, “Don’t struggle.”

He pushed me out in front of everyone and shouted, “We want all of your valuables, now, or people start dying, starting with this girl.”

I looked out at the other guests. There were other thugs moving through the audience. Black Canary was moving towards the stage along the side of the room. Tim was glaring at the gunman, fists clenched. Barbara didn’t seem worried at all. I couldn’t see Bart or Conner.

I was scared, but panicking wouldn’t do me any good right now. I slowly moved my fist up a little. It would be so easy to bring it slamming down into his crotch. He could pull the trigger at the last minute, though. I could die.

This was the chance I’d been waiting for, though. Better to die a hero than to live in anonymity.

He yelped and curled around the pain, gun going off and missing my head by inches. I might have screamed, but if I did, it was lost in the chaos that ensued.

I barely had time to blink and suddenly I was in a cellar with Impulse. Not Tim dressed as Impulse, the real one.

“HiShanaifthat’syournameI’mreallyjustguessingityou’llbesafeheregottosavetherestofthepeoplebye!” he said.

He was gone before I could say. “What?”

One thing was sure. It’s a little creepy how many superheroes seemed to know my name.

Screw being safe. There was an honest-to-god Super Hero fight going on upstairs. There was no way in hell I’d miss that.

I darted in and ducked under a table. At least my Flash outfit was easy to move in.

There were a lot of superheroes. I could see Impulse clearing out a few of the last guests. Black Canary was trading blows with two thugs at the same time, and I saw Batgirl and the Spoiler fighting back to back. Superman was just hovering near the ceiling and I wondered why until I noticed that all the thugs had Kryptonite rings. These weren’t pushovers. I may have distracted the one thug easily enough, but he hadn’t been expecting me to do anything.

There was a small, polite cough from next to me. I wasn’t the only person hiding under the table. A girl with long blonde hair was wearing the costume of some character from Wendy the Werewolf Stalker. I forget what the character’s name was, but I’d heard that the part was played by Cissie King-Jones, Olympic Gold Medalist who, come to think of it, looked a lot like this girl.

“Oh, hi,” I said. “You interested in superheroes too?”

“I think Impulse just missed me when he cleared out the room,” she said. “I don’t have any interest in superheroes, really.”

“Oh,” I said. “I’m Shana.” I smiled.

“Cissie,” she said. Wow. First Black Canary, then a full out superhero fight where I was the hostage, now a famous archer? Best. Night. Ever.

“Nice to meet you,” I said. “I think this is pretty cool.”

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “I just hope it ends soon.”

I glanced out from under the table again. Apparently I was right about Robin existing. From where I sat I could see a swirling black cape and green tights backing towards our table and away from one of the black clad thugs.

“Robin apparently exists,” I whispered to Cissie, ducking my head back under the table.

“Wow, what do you know?” she said.

The green tights were leaning against the table, and it looked like Robin was having some trouble. I picked up the broken stem of a wine glass. It’d be so easy to reach out and stab the other guy in the leg with it. A little gross, but I could deal with gross. Quietly, slowly, I reached out and shoved the glass at his leg as hard as I could.

It didn’t actually break the skin, I think, but the guy cursed, and Robin managed to get his balance back enough to punch the thug out.

He bent down to look under the table. “Thanks for the save, Cis- oh.”

It was odd to see Robin looking surprised. “Um, hi,” I said. “I’m Shana.” He probably already knew that. All of the other superheroes seemed to.

“Nice to meet you, Shana,” he said politely. “Thanks for that. I thought Impulse evacuated you.”

“I came back,” I said. “I probably won’t have another opportunity to see a superhero fight for a long time.”

“That’s not safe.”

“Screw that.”

He scowled. “Look, I don’t have time to argue. Stay under here and don’t get into anymore trouble.”

“I know I’m not a superhero,” I said bitterly. “Go save all of our skins, Robin.”

When the fight was over, Black Canary pulled me out. She was still wearing the Wonder Woman costume.

“Hey, Shana,” she said. “You shouldn’t have come back.”

“I know it was dangerous!” I said, annoyed. “Look, I just wanted to see it happening in front of me. Is that so terrible? You were really cool, by the way. The way you took out those two guys by kicking one of them and punching the other at the same time? Wow.”

She smiled tightly. “Other people will be coming back in a few minutes.”

“You can tell Robin that the secret of his existence is safe with me, by the way,” I add. “If anyone asks me, I’ll vehemently deny everything.”

“I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear it,” she said.

“Um, me too,” Cissie said.

People were indeed filing back in. Tim, Bart and Conner walked over to us with two other girls.

“Hey, Cissie, Shana,” Tim said. “You two okay? I didn’t see you outside.”

Tim was friends with Cissie King-Jones too?

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. You don’t seem to have done as well, though.” Tim did indeed look pretty injured. He had some bruises on his face and was limping a little bit.

He shrugged. “Impulse wasn’t very careful carrying me out with about a dozen other people. I’ll live, though. At least I was out and safe.”

Bart shoved in front of Tim and scowled. “Didn’t Impulse save you? I saw him grab you and run out.”

“I…wanted to see a Superhero fight,” I admitted.

“Shana!” Tim said. “You could have been really hurt!”

“Hey, which one of us has bruises?”

Tim frowned.

“It was pretty cool. I saw Young Justice.”

“Did you?” Tim said. “Was your Urban Legend there?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t see him. I thought about it, you know. I think you’re right that he doesn’t exist.” I glanced at Cissie. She looked amused, but she didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Tim said.

Tim would never find out about Robin’s existence from me. No one would. It was fun having a secret. I just wish it could have been my own secret identity.

The rest of the night was fun, if a little boring after the fight. Conner got my number, then a rather painful looking punch from a girl dressed as Empress. Bart told me that she was his girlfriend. Conner had already pocketed my number, though. Bart and I exchanged IM addresses, and I fell asleep on the plane ride home.

I ran into the bathroom in Wayne Manor before going home. When I came back, Bart and Tim were talking together quietly. I could make out snatches of their conversation.

“…told you I can keep secrets…”

“I know, Bart, but you weren’t careful…”

“…suspected anything…”

“Bart…”

“…Rob…”

Who?

“…see you this weekend?”

Tim nodded, and suddenly Bart was gone.

That was weird. I went over to Tim. “Wasn’t Bart just here?” I asked.

Tim shook his head. “He left a while ago.”

I guess I must have imagined it. That happens sometimes. Especially when I’m tired.

“Thanks, Tim. This was the best party ever.”

“I guess, if your idea of fun is being held hostage.”

I grinned. “Well, there you go.”

“Glad you had fun, Shana. See you in History class on Monday?”

I nodded. “Night, Tim.”

It’s been a few years since that night. I enrolled in Martial Arts classes like Black Canary’s girlfriend Barbara had suggested. I’m no Robin, but I can defend myself. I haven’t told anyone about Robin. Even when he stopped being an Urban Legend, I still kept our encounter secret. Tim and I lost touch when I went to college, though I’ve seen him a few times. And of course, my vain attempts to become a metahuman have tapered off with time.

Except no, that’s a total lie. I still want superpowers. That’s why I’m writing this. There have been reports of abnormal energy near my school and I’m going to check it out. Without a safety suit. I decided I might as well write this, in case I don’t come back. If I do, I can hopefully burn it to ashes with my new heat vision, or something.

So Mom, Dad, my sisters, my cats, my friends, I love you all. Don’t blame yourselves for this. I’ve always wanted to be part of something bigger, and now I might be. Look for me up in the sky, fighting alongside Robin and all of the rest.