Episode 5: Restoration

Gotham City, NJ

Clara felt no pain as the bullets pelted her body. She hovered a few feet off the ground, glaring at the men behind the guns. Her new suit remained as undamaged as she did, and she waited until the gunners ran out of ammo before she pounced. Guns flew everywhere as she disarmed and knocked out her assailants. Standing over them, Clara looked through her mask’s filter at the stunned people.

“Halt!” a voice shouted, as a police car drove up and an officer stepped out.

Ignoring the officer’s call, Clara looked up at the building above her. The dust around her feet began to stir. Then, with a sound like a thunder clap, she was gone. Leaving behind a pile of bank robbers, a surprised policemen, and a dent in the pavement.

The Bat Cave, Gotham City, NJ

“Today, a new vigilante stopped a bank robbery in downtown Gotham. The GPD’s Commissioner Gordon has refused to make a statement. All of Gotham is wondering who this new hero is and if she is an ally of Gotham’s vigilante, Batman.” a female reporter announced, a blurry image of Clara appearing on the tv screen beside her. Two more reporters began debating the issue, but their words faded as Bruce turned off the sound.

“It seems to have done the trick.” Bruce remarked without looking up as his daughter joined them in the Bat Cave.

“The channels are going crazy.” Richard accented, his fingers flying over his keyboard.

“Good. Have you found what we need?” Bruce inquired, keying for the Justice League comm channel.

“Yep. Sending the coordinates to them now.” Richard replied, typing a series of commands.

“I’m shielding the signals, but I am not sure how well the shield will hold under attack. I’ve never tried anything of this scale.” Clara added, her voice sounding a bit mechanical.

“Alright, Flash you’re first. Go.” Bruce ordered into the speaker as one of the screens flashed to life with the images from Flash’s mask camera.

Batman continued down the list strategically timing some strikes together, others minutes apart. Once all 4 of the other Justice League members had begun their assigned strikes, Batman began to monitor the big picture. Suddenly Clara gasped with pain, grabbing at Richard’s chair for support.

“You okay Babe?” Richard asked as his fingers flew across the keyboard in a counter attack.

“I’ll be fine. Did you get him?” Clara answered through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. But another hacker stepped up to take his place.” Richard responded, sounding a tad distracted.

“How many minutes do we have?” Bruce inquired, turning his head to look at his ward.

“7 minutes, tops. Once the government battering ram gets started, I won’t be able to make this look foreign.” Richard informed him, keeping most of his focus on the code in front of him.

“Pull out in the order you went in. Flash, you go over each site and make sure it looks plausible. J’onn will come behind you to do the final cleanup.” Bruce commanded and was satisfied to hear the acknowledgements. A few moments later, the team trooped into the cave. Clara forced the computer to shut down, and Richard turned it over and pulled out the main memory drive, handing it to Superman. He used his heat vision to melted it beyond restoration.

“And I thought having speed powers was cool.” Flash exclaimed, looking as astonished as Bruce had ever seen him.

“Thanks.” Clara responded from the floor, adding “I think.” as she placed a hand to her head.

“Is it a Kryptonian power?” J’onn asked, having returned from distorting the memories of the last hour from their enemies minds.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Superman answered before anyone else could respond.

“Did you get the data?” Richard said to change the subject.

Each team member handed him a small card. Taking the cards, Richard plugged them into a customized reader. While the reader did its work, the team sat down around the table. Alfred served snacks and handed Clara an icepack. After thanking Alfred, they fell silent.

“You didn’t answer J’onn’s question.” Barry commented, looking from Batman to Clara and back again.

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Clara responded quietly, closing her eyes and doing everything she could do slow her racing heart.

“It’s a pretty simple,” Green Lantern began,

“Leave her alone, Hal.” Diana interrupted before he could finish.

Clara gave Diana a grateful look before pulling herself to her feet.

“Here, let me help you upstairs.” Richard said quickly, moving to support his girlfriend and help her up the cave steps.

Once the entrance door to the cave closed behind them, Hal Jordan turned to his teammate.

“What was that for! It was a reasonable question!” Green Lantern exclaimed indignantly. Diana ignored him and turned to Bruce.

“How long has she been able to do that?” Wonder Woman inquired, giving Bruce a worried look.

“It began showing up shortly after I adopted her. I am going to guess it didn’t fully manifest itself until about 2 years ago though.” Bruce replied as he continued his study of the files Richard and Clara had gathered.

Wayne Mansion, Gotham City, NJ

“How are you holding up?” Richard probed as he helped Clara sit on the living room couch.

“I’m just exhausted, that’s all.” Clara explained, sitting up a little straighter.

“I wasn’t talking about that, Babe.” He responded gently, sitting down next to her.

“I know. I’ll be fine, I promise.” Clara replied gently, putting her hand on his cheek.

The Quiver, Starling City,

“Do you have any idea who that is?” Arsenal inquired as Green Arrow entered the main room having just returned from a mission.

“Any idea who is…” Oliver began, his voice trailing off as his eyes fell on the tv screen Roy Harper had indicated. Standing for a minute frozen at what he saw, Oliver Queen felt actual shock for the first time in a while. “I’ll be back.” He managed as he turned back around and headed for his bike.

Looking to Speedy, Roy shrugged and went back to going through police scanners. Thea watched her brother go, wondering where he was going.

CCPD Crime Lab, Central City, MO

“Barry, can I talk to you for a minute?” Oliver asked as he walked through the door of his friend’s lab.

“Sure Olli, what’s up?” Barry replied quickly, closing the case file he was looking at with to much haste.

“What do you know about the new hero in Gotham?” Oliver questioned, coming straight to the point.

“Who?” Barry responded too casually.

“Barry, I know you know who I am talking about. You aren’t very good at hiding things.” Oliver retorted, picking up the file his friend had closed and opening it.

“Dude, you know how much trouble I am going to get in if the captain sees you reading a case file.” Barry hissed, grabbing it from his friend’s hands and placing it back on his desk.

“Then tell me what is going on.” Oliver countered with his no-nonsense tone and frown.

“Look, I can’t talk about it. All I can tell you is that unless you are going to rejoin the team, no else will tell you either.” Barry explained quietly as someone passed his open door.

“I never left the team.” Oliver protested, moving to close the door.

“I know that, but that isn’t what it looks like. You know how Bats is about stuff like this.” Barry reminded him as the door closed.

“You’re telling me the only way I am going to find out the answer is by driving all the way to Gotham?” Oliver summed up what his friend had said exassporatedly.

“Pretty much.” Barry replied, sitting back down at his desk.