Gotham Nights - Don't Say a Word

"Calling all Cars, Calling all Cars, we have a robbery in process at 4500 Washington Lane, repeat, we have a robbery in progress at the New U Synthetics factory. All units please respond, suspects are heavily armed and considered dangerous, hostages may be a factor."

This single call went out to twenty different units, and twenty units responded. The GCPD patrol vehicles coasted along the highway, sirens blaring, lights flaring, but still the time between there and the New U Synthetics factory was far off. A pull back on the throttle and a pressing of a few buttons sent the cruisers into the air, a parade of justice flying through the air toward their target location. They were a beacon of light inside the rainy night of Gotham City.

They were also the perfect distraction for the true knight in the city. Two rockets went off on the bottom of a pair of black boots, arms extended with red wings expanding out from underneath them. In a flash he shot past the patrol cars, catching more than one officer off-guard with responses like "Did you see that?!?" The shadow whipped between the cruisers, passing them and flying toward the scene of the ongoing crime.

The Dark Knight had arrived.

"Was showing off worth risking damage to the suit?", a voice in his head asked, relayed to him by the comlink set up inside of his cowl. He could only smirk, his video feed not relaying the expression back to the old man monitoring his actions from his cave.

"Relax, Bruce. Just giving the boys in blue a show."

The man tapped away at the keyboard that sat in front of him, eyes never leaving the giant screen overhead. He was always watching, always listening. He still didn't completely trust another with his mantle of the bat, but in his age he had no choice but to sit back and mentor. His trusty dog companion yawned by his side.

"The Royal Flush Gang aren't waiting for the encore, McGinnis. Move."

"Alright, alright!"

The bat set on, ready to encounter yet another hostile scenario, his mentor watching on for him.............and yet, the experienced eyes of Bruce Wayne were not the only eyes observing. Blank white eyes scanned the bat, picking up his velocity, the wing-span, intercepting transmissions between the suit and the cave. A painted grin under the eyes set off the truly grim demeanor of the masked figure. He adjusted the jacket over his frame, an electrically filtered voice speaking one phrase.

"Heh. Tea Time."

Feet hit the roof beneath him, leaping up to the edge of the building and pushing off with all of his force just as the cruisers began to fly by. A single arm extended, the wrist-attached mechanism launching a spear-like projectile, a heavily-woven cable connecting it to his arm. The spear pierced the hull of the final cruiser, expanding into a claw and bracing itself. The wire pulled him in, and he perched upside down beneath the vehicle. A free ride toward the target? Life couldn't get easier.

From the top of a nearby building, Gem O'Malley breathed out a "Wow" as the Batman flew by. She's seen him on the TV, or even as the occasional dot in the sky, but never so close. It was kind of amazing. She wasn't the kind to make a deal about the 'politics' of the city, but she couldn't help but grin. It was still kind of awesome.

Still, if the Bat was about, then it was probably time to head home. She wasn't usually out at this time, but she'd had the urge to do some roof-running and no real reason to resist the urge. But now she had a very to go home. Batman and trouble went hand in hand.

And with that, Gem began the dash back home.

It was really a sight to see. The shimmering lights of Gotham city were only made brighter by the sheer layer of rain upon the glass. If one didn't know better, they'd say this was a beautiful city, but under this beauty, chaos was brewing. The blank eyes of the masked man observed it all upside down, catching the sign off in the distance. A new hologram installed just days ago. Ever since Wayne-Powers picked up the rights to New U, the upgrades kept coming, and now a waving young lady invited all who saw her to stop in and waste some money on new looks.

The cruisers arrived outside of the rather large factory for such a relatively new business, slowly touching down in unison. The masked man took this as his sign to abandon ship, retracting his line and launching to a building near by, pulling himself up to the rooftop.

He was just in time to see the Bat land on the roof of New U. The officers were completely oblivious of the situation. They just filed out of their cruisers and began to set up the crime scene, as if anyone was going to show up and bother a robbery at midnight in Gotham. If his hijack of their communications was correct, there was the potential of hostages. It was strange, though. This was obviously not one of Gotham's higher-level criminals. A basic robbery like this wasn't worth their time, but there was no reason for one of the lowlife gangs to take hostages. It just seemed out of place.

He wanted to just sit back and watch, but his employer made it clear. No additional casualties, no exceptions. He sighed, running a top speed before leaping over the ledge and latching onto the roof of New U. He found the closest vent, pulling the grate off and climbing inside. He didn't care about the robbery, he just couldn't trust anyone with the safety of those people.

Not even the Bat.

Gem sighed as she continued her way home. Naturally the quickest way home had to be right by whatever the cops were doing. She should have taken the scenic route. Really she should have.

Sighing as she went to do just that, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Turning to look at it, she saw what she thought to be some sort of figure vanished into some sort of opening on the roof of the nearby factory. It didn't look to be the Batman, who she could see elsewhere on the roof. So who was it?

She didn't think it was one of the people who were causing the police grief. They probably would have attacked Batman, or even if they were smart and were going to warn their allies of his arrival, they wouldn't use such a strange entrance, would they? Even with all the police surrounding them, there had to be an entrance that could be used that wasn't what looked to be a vent somewhere.

The girl shook her head. She was over thinking things.

Nonetheless, her curiosity was not satisfied, and she had the urge to go and check it out. After a battle in her head between her curiosity and common sense (she could get ARRESTED or KILLED), she decided she would go take a quick peek and the get the heck out. If she got seen then she would try to do her thing to get them to not be interested in her and book it.

So, cursing her curiosity all the way, Gem followed the man into the vent.

As she entered the vent, nothing could be detected. there was no masked man, no Batman, no footsteps. An empty shaft greeted her, welcoming her inside to all the fun of crime and injustice. One could only fight back the chill down their spine seeing nothing there when a man should have been waiting.

The factory, for the most part, hard been left inactive for the night. A few scattered lights that hung overhead were kept on to keep the night watch comfortable. However, a night watchman in Gotham City was about as useful as a squirt bottle on a towering inferno, and the peace was just an illusion. Still, the silence was eerie. Assembly lines were left as if the building was abandoned, unassembled machines still left in their places for the morning. A spinning hologram sign with the company's name on it stood tall in the center, reminding the workers what they put so much effort in to achieve. An effort that, at this moment, was being stuffed into a large sack by a rather gargantuan figure. He towered over the room around him, muscles upon muscles assisting him as he hoisted a large machine onto one shoulder. The man was completely white from head to toe, his form completely faceless. In the center of his brick wall-like chest, a large black Spade emblem was painted. He strode easily across the room, setting the stolen product down on what appeared to be a large Ace of Spades playing card.

"Ace, the prosthetics as well."

The behemoth silently turned and walked off at the words of the regal male who spoke to him. Like his counter part, his body too was all white, but his features were clearly defined. He wore black and gold gauntlets and a black and red chest piece with a golden sash, a gold crown set upon his head. Pure red eyes looked about the room as one hand stroked at the beard of his golden goatee, a hand set on the hilt of his sword. On the other side of the room, two similar forms picked away at anything shiny they could see. One, a female, was split down the middle, half white and half black, the number 10 in black over the white wide of her chest. She smirked and looked with ruby eyes as she picked up a gadget she couldn't explain the function to, and shoved it in a bag. The other, a male, stood with a large red and gold chest piece and gauntlets, a black belt, and a golden crown. He brushed his black beard and hair out of his face, clenching his fingers around a mace that he held close, ready for the inevitable meeting with a cowled crusader. He eyed two men and one woman, all in lab coats. They shivered with the

The last member of the group had her attention on the large safe set within a wall of the factory. She wore a red belt and a black and gold upper body piece, ending with a black crown. She chuckled and aimed the tip of her staff at the safe, a red beam of light shooting from it and piercing the steel of the safe, melting it away like butter. She had made her way halfway down the safe, but stopped at the sudden clanging of a vent grate falling from overhead, and hitting the floor.

"The Bat!"

They all turned to face the intruder, weapons ready, but nothing was there. Just a grate set on the tile floor. The queen narrowed her eyes, staff loosening in her grip. The cheap construction of this place was going to scare her to death. She sighed, backing up to aim at the safe, only to come face to face with the white eyes every villain in Gotham feared.

"Actually, that wasn't me."

Batman smirked as the Queen panicked, setting off another laser just as the bat ducked, a fist rising up into her gut. He gripped her wrist, turning the constant beam of the staff toward, the Jack as he attempted to swing at one of the hostages, the blast knocking him back into the wall behind him!

In that moment, the silence turned to chaos. It was the perfect distraction for the shadow in the distance to move. It appeared clear as glass, but the darkness of the room served to further hide the form. He only watched as the Bat went to work, waiting for the right time to get to the hostages.

Making a face, Gem slowly continued along in the vents. Where was the other person? She hadn't thought that she was that far behind them...but then again, they were probably used to this and she was a random teenage girl. Their vent-traveling speeds were probably very different.

Eventually she came to the grate that had been somehow removed. Gem peeped cautiously into the room, trying her best not to be noticed by anyone. Luckily they all seemed to be very distracted by the Batman. Glancing around, she didn't see anyone that fit what she thought the mystery person to be. She saw only thugs, hostages, and said Bat.

She was about to leave, figuring she had imagined the whole thing and thinking that she was an idiot when she realized something. There were too many presences in the room. Gem quickly did a head/heart count to make sure she wasn't imagining that, and realized she was right. There was an extra presence in the room.

Looking at the spot where the feelings were, she saw nothing there. What was it? This had never happened before. Had she gone loopy? Gem squinted and continued staring at where a person should be, trying to find a person hidden in the darkness.

Batman dodged another swing of the staff, backhanding the Queen. He had prepared just in time to counter a swing of the King's sword with a forearm to his elbow! He turned in the time and let loose a batarang, sailing it into the forehead of the Jack just as he began to recover.

"Terry, behind you!"

The voice of Bruce Wayne spoke to him in a saving grace, prompting the bat to turn and guide the stab of the King away from his body just in time! He set the man down with a chop to the neck, stumbling him. It was the perfect chance for the phantom in the room to move closer to the captives. The female technician offered a slight gasp as she felt the ropes that bound her wrist loosening by an unseen entity. She wanted to scream, but a electronic whisper spoke in her ear.

"It's ok."

He was almost done with the knot, but the process of removing the ropes had clouded his vision. He never expected that the refraction of light around him had given way just for a second against the open floor, and it was all the time needed to doom him. A massive fist flew through the air, crashing into what he thought was his entire body! He tumbled across the floor, settling when he smacked into the wall, cracks visible through the invisible being. He coughed once, standing up and seeing the frame of the monstrous Ace, expressionlessly standing before him. He walked out from the shadows at a calm pace, the light beginning to reflect back off of the form until the masked man from earlier became completely visible. He laughed once underneath the mask, the large grin painted on fitting the mood.

"You know, thievery is illegal. You all look pretty guilty to me. I'm sure the courts would love to hear what a bunch of adults dressed as playing cards were trying to pull here, but that's boring! It's like I always say......."

His hand slowly reached down to the holster at his side as to not startle the beast into attacking. He gripped the handle of his pistol, drawing it in a flash and aiming down at the forehead of the blank attacker!

"Sentence first, verdict after!"

Gem put a hand over her mouth and breathed in deeply so as not to scream. A gun! The mystery person was there now and they had a gun! This was bad. This was bad bad bad bad bad. Without thinking of what she was doing, Gem sent out a wave of calmness, lethargy, and peace to all the people in the warehouse.

When she realized what she was doing she sighed but didn't stop. As much as she hated her powers, they could sometimes be very helpful. Granted, the girl had no idea if this would even work, and heck, for all she knew it could make things worse. But she should at least try, right? If she could do something that might prevent someone from dying, then she had to try.

Because everyone deserved the right to live.

The bat and the others had suddenly ceased their battle, lulled into a state of ease. They didn't speak on it, it was as if everything that had happened before never did. They just looked at their hands in confusion, not really knowing what to do in the sudden mood change.

The other two continued their stare down. It was like the faceless Ace was unaware of the happenings around him. He only looked down at the much smaller being with the weapon in his hand. the masked man felt his mood begin to warp and change. In this moment, he felt calm. He was at peace with the world around him, and he took a relaxing breath.

Then he pulled the trigger.

A bullet ripped into the chest of the large Ace, the hole beginning to spark upon impact! The masked man tilted his head to the left.

"Well........that's unexpected."

Ace looked down to the bullet hole in it's hull, looking back to the masked man. It said nothing, only charged, a large fist raised up and slamming down into empty ground as the target flipped backwards out of the line of fire! The floor cracked and buckled with the sheer force of the blow! The masked man landed in front of the hostages, turning to see that the woman he had helped assisted her co-workers from their bindings. With a nod, he signaled for them to run, and they did so without a second word.

Gem jumped and cringed as the bullet fired. Oh how she hated guns. She let out a slow breath, both to calm herself and to let out her disappointment. She hadn't been able to stop the mystery man from shooting the other person. At least the others didn't seem to want to hurt each other any more.

That, however, was that she noticed that the 'wound' created by the bullet was sparking. Both her hand and her jaw dropped. Was the big one a cyborg or something? She did another head/heart check to see when she realized something. There weren't any extra people in the room. It had been the exact right number before, but she had counted herself and the sparking man was hollow.

That was a freaking robot.

'Idiot, idiot, IDIOT' she mentally screamed at herself, too busy doing so to realize that this was the time that she should probably leave.

"Terry! Terry what are you doing!?"

The old man sitting in the cave tried his best at scolding his associate back into action, but it has of no use. The bat had been pacified for the time being, looking up to the ceiling. He had no idea another masked fighter had just faced off with the mechanical monstrosity of the Royal Flush Gang. The masked man placed his gun back into it's home, knowing it wasn't going to help him any. He thrusted up a quick knee and wrapped his hands around the hilt of a large knife that was strapped to his calf, pulling it out in a bright gleam. He held the weapon blade down, crouching down into a low position.

"You're not that scary, just a pack of cards."

The robotic Ace charged again, throwing a wild hook which was dodged by his target. The masked figure leaped up, spinning and connecting with a roundhouse kick to the head of the machine! It stumbled back, a surprising amount of force coming from the rather normal looking man against the huge foe. He didn't let up, thrusting forward and spiking his knife into the machine's chest and pushing it back even further, growing closer and closer to the ground below the vent system. Unmoved by the strike, Ace grabbed the annoying masked thing with one of it's vice-like hands, squeezing him tightly! He screamed in the grasp, completely unable to move. With that, Ace turned and threw him directly overhead! The masked man swung like a ragdoll, but still had full awareness of his surroundings. He brought a hand up, the spear-like grappling hook firing from his wrist and piercing the vent system! He swung in the air like a fully unraveled Yo-Yo, collecting himself.

Ace turned to face him, stomping closer and closer, the floor shaking with each step. The masked man waited, measuring up his target. As Ace stood directly below him, he pulled with all of his might, disconnecting a large portion of the vent system down and slamming it into Ace, landing on his feet! Ace was dropped and covered, dust kicking up from the impact! The masked man retracted his grappling hook, crouching low again, awaiting the first sign of movement.

Gem bit back a scream. That grappling hook thing had nearly hit her! What the heck. This was, she figured now, the time to leave. Admittedly she should have left a lot earlier, but better late than never, right? The moment she turned to do so, however, was the moment that the venting system decided to crash the party below.

That time she screamed.

She nearly screamed again when she hit the ground. That hurt a lot. She wouldn't be surprised at all if she had injured herself somewhere. It sure felt like she did, but Gem would have to check that out later. First thing was to get out of the rubble pile.

It took a bit (yes, she had definitely injured her arm or shoulder in some way), but Gem eventually fought her way out of the debris. The girl took a deep breath and looked around, only to realize that she had fallen straight in front of the man with a gun.

Well frick.

The masked man had flinched once when Gem had emerged, but before he made a mistake that cost someone their life, and more importantly, cost himself his money, he stopped. His emotion could not be seen from the motionless mask, but his tone was translated through the hood's speaker exactly how one would expect a man with an eyebrow raised to sound.

"Great. Come to see the show, little girl?"

He had no time to wait for a response. He charged, taking up the girl with his free hand and leaping over the rubble just as it exploded out, and a large white hand just missed clenching them both. The masked man landed, gently placing her down.

"You just made my job that much harder. We'll have to fix that arm, later."

The smoke had cleared, and a loud winding sound resonated in the room as the robot emerged again, a jarring limp in it's movements. "Skin" had been torn from all over it's frame, revealing the mechanisms within. It's right leg had been severely damaged, but it clubbed along on the tilted ankle. Just as the masked man readied himself, the sound of an explosion from the other side of the room cut him off. With her fall, Gem's wave had worn off, and the bat had sprung back into his job. Unfortunately, so had the rest of the Royal Flush.

"Retreat! We have what we require!"

The king had called to his troops, leaping onto one of the large ace of spades. The queen had ran to one with the large machines that Ace had placed on it, and Ten to the third. Jack attempted to mount his own, but was cut off by a flying tackle from Batman, a single punch leaving him entirely unconscious! The cards mounted by the gang members began to rose, flying in the air!

"Terry, the machinery!"

Wayne's voice caught Batman at the right time, and he turned to see the gang flying out at just the right time. The queen rose her staff, sending a blast into the garage door and blowing it to pieces, taking out a few police officers on the other side. The three soared out, gunfire filling the air as the officers traced their targets, but no shots connected! The batman swooped out after them, rockets igniting on his boots as he tailed the gang.

"Damn it!"

The Masked man cursed. His targets had fled. Well, not all of them. The Jack was out cold, and easy finish, and he had more than enough to worry about with the mechanical nightmare ready to tear him apart. He needed to work fast, his money was flying away! He ran at Ace, dodging a left and tearing into the arm just below the armpit. Wires sliced clean, and the arm fell limp on the body.

"That's it."

He had found the means of movement in the target. His line of success was drawn.

This had to be the strangest night of Gem's life. And it had to happen on a school night too...

Said girl just squeaked when the gunman pulled her away from the robot. She couldn't help but flinch. Robots creeped her out. Like zombies. And clowns. And guns. And a lot of other things but she should really be focusing right now.

Gem watched the Bat soar off after the rest of the gang and then turned to watch the mystery man fight with the robot. She had absolutely no clue what was going on or what she should be doing because standing and staring like an idiot couldn't have been the smartest thing to do, but Gem was rather at a loss.

So stand and stare she did.

The robot was backed up. It couldn't compute being on the defensive, as it was built to crush and overpower. The masked man had found his mark, and had been successful in taking them apart. The monster windmilled it's functioning arm, attempting to hammer punch the attacker, but miss as he slid to the left and leaped up, plunging the knife under the arm again and slicing identical wires as before. It was like the masked man knew perfectly where to strike just by seeing where he hit before, and moved almost exactly the same.

The robot's arms swung uselessly, and even without emotion one could sense an aura of panic among it. In a quick decision, it spun swiftly and sent one of it's flailing arms into the assembly line, smacking a large amount of machinery into the masked man, who crumbled under the force. With the distraction set, the machine began to flee, limping at a faster pace to one of the two remaining cards. It slumped down onto it, the card rising just as the pile of machinery began to move, and the masked man emerged again! The card began to fly away, but he reached into a pouch on his belt, tossing a small black device onto the underbelly of the card just as it zipped away!

With the final card gone, the masked man finally calmed. He placed the knife back into it's holster, letting out an electrically laced sigh. He turned back to the young girl. Why she decided to get involved with this scenario, he didn't know, but he did remember back to the sudden change in his emotion. Could it be? He didn't care.

"The cops will be in shortly. You should probably get out of here. Being here will look suspicious."

He couldn't offer much more advice than that, he had a job to do. Luckily, not all of the targets had escaped. The jack was still left unconscious where he lay. It was the ideal job. The masked man stepped closer to the fallen criminal, standing over him for a moment. He reached down to one of the guns at his side and drew it, aiming at the man's forehead.

Gem felt herself panic at the sight of the gun, and was vaguely aware that the feeling was leaking. This was not at the forefront of her mind however. Her thoughts, however, were not quite logical at the moment.

She realized that the gunner was pointing said weaponry at an unconscious villain's head. This probably meant that he was going to shoot him. This was not good. Killing was wrong. Her emotion power hadn't worked before. Or at least, it didn't work the way she wanted it too. So it might not work again. This was bad. She didn't want to risk the card guy losing his life by doing nothing. She couldn't. She wouldn't.

And so Gem did the first thing that came to mind.

She ran up to the gunman and kicked the hand with the gun up into the air.

The man's hand did not move much. It was like she had kicked statue, and yet this statue had turned his head to face her. From a quick look, one could see the exact point of impact had swollen up and solidified like a plate of steel, and then loosened and returned to a basic piece of the attire. There was no way this girl was going to let him finish this job. He felt his hand tremble, wanting to change the target of the firearm, but he sighed again. She had cost him the time, he could hear the cops entering the building.

"Another time."

He slipped the gun away and turned to walk away from the entire failed mission. Those were not the only targets he had been hired to......see to. He stopped, looking back to the girl. If he left her there, she would certainly be arrested. Time was ticking down. He hated the idea of helping someone who had cost him, but there was no harm in a tip.

"If you want to see the sun again, you might want to head to the roof. There's a fire escape just out that window."

He then took off in the blink of an eye, quickly disappearing out of said window and into the night, heading up to the roof.

Gem left out a shaky sigh in relief. He'd stopped. He hadn't killed the man. Or her for that matter. She forced a sense of calmness over herself to stop herself from panicking, and more importantly leaking said panic. It seemed that the person hadn't been affected by that either. Was he really immune? But it didn't matter now. Right now she needed to think of what to do.

The police were going to come in momentarily. Should she bother leaving? Gem was sure her fingerprints were somewhere in here and it was possible they'd find them. But maybe they wouldn't. But who knew?

She sighed again. Might as well try leaving and hope for the best. She put on her gloves (might as well try not to leave prints) and then proceeded to acrobat her way out the window and up to the roof. Her arm hurt like heck, but considering it wasn't actually preventing her from doing anything, it was probably just a very very bad bruise. There was a happy grin at the realization.

Gem said "Thank you" to the vanished person and the wind before taking off again, determined to not stop her roof-running until she was at home and in bed.

What a night.

Blank eyes watch her as she jumped from roof to roof. It was impressive to see such a young girl moving with such power. He almost felt glad that he had let her walk away, it would be a shame to waste such abilities. He then turned to the loud noises down at the ground. The Jack had been slapped in cuffs and carried out by two officers, the rest entering the building to take count of the goods stolen. They wouldn't have to worry long, as a pair of small rockets slid through the night sky like a flying candle, signalling the arrival of the Bat. He didn't stay long, his presence was still considered illegal, but card which trailed behind him, hooked by some form of cable, carried not only the two large pieces of stolen machinery, but the apprehended Ten. Ace must've been eliminated, he figured just as Batman shot into the air again and disappeared into the night It was a shame it had been finished before he could've seen to it personally.

They loaded the machinery into the back of a transporter, which left the scene in a jump. It had to be evidence, now. That wasn't about to be his issue, though. He looked into the corner of his eye, immediately the mapping system activated. A red blip showed the location his tracker had been sent to. The Bat was getting sloppy, he left before exploring. He'd see to it later.

Either way, he had to call in. He placed two fingers over the side of his helmet, a signal going out.

"Yeah, it's Cheshire."

The now named Cheshire listened closely to the voice on the other side.

"There was a complication, but both Jack and Ten are in custody, and Ace is dismantled. The King and Queen won't be safe for long, I tagged them."

The voice spoke again.

"Understood."

He ended the signal, taking one last look over the scene one last time before slowly turning and walking out of sight, his form quickly fading into invisibility.

--------------------------------------------

The GCPD evidence transporter coasted safely over the city. The two occupants, the driver and passenger, sat quietly for most of the ride, until the passenger attempted to strike up conversation.

"So, any idea what those whack jobs would want with synthetic skin machines?"

The driver sat silent for a moment, a sly smirk crossing over his lips.

"Yeah. Yeah I do."

He brought his hand down to his side, lifting up a gun and pointing it to the passenger. He had no time to react, and the trigger was pulled. The transporter then changed directions, travelling off into the night.

Gem handed a pass to her English teacher before heading to her desk in the corner. Her da (bless his crazy soul) had heard her come in late and decided to let her sleep in. He was going to let her stay home from school altogether today, but unfortunately she had a test so she had to come in. She'd convinced her pouting da that they'd do it another day, and then hurried to school with an excuse in hand.

Really, sometimes her da seemed more like a teenager than she was.

She quickly got out her class journal and began to work on the assignment on the board. But her mind couldn't stop drifting back to what happened last night. Or maybe this morning. Either way, she wondered what became of the villains and Batman and the strange smiling person. Probably nothing that she ever wanted to know in her lifetime. She liked her life simple, thank you very much.

Gem rested her head on her desk and vowed to never, EVER, follow a stranger ever again.

"Ah, yes, we've been expecting you, Mr. Henderson. We're about to take a test, but you can sit this one out."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

A new face had walked into the class, a soft grin to his face. He swiped his head, letting the curly auburn locks on his head bounce as he walked back, placing his bag that he had slung over his shoulder on the ground, and took his seat next to the girl with her head on her desk. She seemed like she could use some help. Maybe she was sick.

"Ummm, excuse me? Are you ok?"

Gem jumped a bit at the sudden voice. She'd gotten rather lost in her own thoughts and hadn't noticed anyone sitting next to her. Why was someone sitting next to her? All the cliques of the class had already been formed and no one had ever tried talking to her for quite some time...a quick glance to the side gave her an answer. New student. Huh.

The teen sat up and took a deep breath to try and calm herself. It didn't work. "A-ah, um, y-yes. Yes. Ah...I-I'm fine." She kept her eyes firmly on the desk while she said that. Gem did not do well with social interaction. At all. Ever.

Taking another deep breath and sighing from the relief of that ordeal being over, she quickly picked up her pencil and went back to her work.

"Ummmm.......ooooooook."

The new guy tried to keep his grin. The girl was obviously shy, and nobody had been sitting in this side of the class. Maybe that was why he decided to sit down there. He couldn't see someone so alone.

"Well, uh, I'm Davey. Davey Henderson. Pleased to......meet you."

He wanted to try and keep a kind face. She was awkward but she seemed like a nice girl.

Everyone deserved a friend.

Gem blinked. That was unexpected. She'd thought that would be it. The girl bit her lip, wondering if she should make him disinterested in her, but decided against it. She didn't like using her powers unless she had too, and he would probably lose interest on his own eventually.

"Ah, um, y-you too." She replied, still not looking up from her desk. "I..." She paused when the words got caught in her throat and then tried again. "I'm Gem."

Why did talking to people have to be so nerve-wracking?

"That's a really nice name."

Davey kept the smile, but he returned back to the test as well. There wold be plenty of time to speak after, as long as this girl didn't go running down the halls.

In the back of the class, a few of the students gossiped with each other. It was the usual, pointless dribble: crushes, parties, but one mention stood out stronger than any others.

"Did you guys watch the news this morning? Batman showed up again, took out a couple of card-looking idiots."

"Yeah, I did! It's weird, they said the officers had sent some evidence back to the station, but they never made it back. Now a cop's missing with all of the merch."