Hellfire Invasion(9): Rescue-1

Nightwing was not happy with this, his arms were crossed and his lips arched into a frown, "This is why," His voice matched his gaze, "This is why I moved out."

His voice echoed through the whole deck of the Jump Jet, none even refuted him, not Daddy's boy Damien, not Jason, not me.

Jason leaned back into the side-hull fixed seat he was in and sighed as a voice broke through his mask, "Nightwing," he let a small chuckle rise, "It surprised you?" I didn't know what he was laughing at…at his surprise or because he didn't anticipate it. He threw nothing back and let his head drop, reviving the silence that was only broken by the humming of the ramjet engines taking us to orbit.

I elbowed the one beside me, "This stuff happens a lot?" Damien pushed my hand off gently, "Father has…a tendency to carry out operations without informing anyone but those who absolutely need to know."

Right, that's Batman's MO. Really, why was I surprised? I was dumb as bricks thinking we were going to fight that Demon army head-on.

"Bat's like that kid," Green Arrow supplied from the co-pilot seat, "He does stuff like that, don't be too annoyed at him for hiding things."

"Annoyed at him?" I spoke up, "No not really, well maybe a little," That drew eyes, they were all looking at me, well doesn't really matter, "I am more disappointed in myself for not noticing something so obvious."

"Obvious? What about that was obvious? We even had the Air Force and the National Guard on the horn. We 'never' have the Air Force and the National Guard on the horn," Oliver the green hat man interjected, and I shrugged, "That Demon said he would remove his body jackers, why the hell would we even take his word for it? And do you think Batman would go to war with a potential mole looking over his shoulders?"

Green retorted, "We had magic experts to verify that—Dr. Fate, Con—" I cut him off, "Zatanna was taken over, what makes you think magicians are infallible?"

"But Constantine and Dr. Fate both checked up on each other, and the rest of our Magical crew was present, it's unlikely they were both infected and even if they were…"

"And more than that, Arrow, Batman he is not the type to fight a war, it's obvious really, isn't it?" A smile…no a sneer, directed at my own image gripped my lips, refusing to leave, I am an idiot, this was a man who had refused to kill his entire life, someone who had vowed to keep others safe, especially children, children like me, "He won't send a child to a war, not if he intends to actually fight it."

It's easy to forget, isn't it? That I am Mira Heylel, a ten-year old…not me.

"That was dumb, truly," My lips drew into a thin line, to miss such an obvious detail because I was too caught up in my idea of what was going to happen.

Fucking hell, seeing a tree not the forest at its finest right here.

"What do you even expect from yourself, kid?" Jason tilted his head as he eyed me, his arms crossed as he asked me, "Do you think you are an AI? A machine? Who can track everything? Do anything? Guess what, you can't. You are human, and at the end of the day, you will fail like one. So, get over it."

"Foul way to put it but Jason is right, for once, I share his blood but even I can't guess what he will do next," Damien chimed in front beside me.

A bitter taste bubbled on my tongue, and I let go of a breath that I had locked inside me for too long, "It's not about expectations…" I stopped myself, letting the silence stew for a second, "It's about understanding a bare minimum about the person you admire the most."

The deck shimmered, the light of the moon barely peeking in through the windows, it was like even Elun wanted to see, through her violet streaks what we were doing.

But it was silent, so much so that even the Ramjet afterburners would be preferable, they would be distracting at least.

"That's the thing, he knows, he knows your expectations and he knows ours, that's how he subverts them, and so easily at that," Nightwing shook his head, letting it hang low again as he smiled a mocking smile, "You say, he won't commit a child to a fight. No, that is not it. He won't commit a child to a fight they can't win. He would let you throw yourself into danger to let you grow…That's why, that is why I thought this was a real fight, not one of his schemes…" He stopped as he let out a bitter laugh, "Of course he is never going to trust any of us with his plans, not after we failed Gotham."

My eyes widened at those words, "What?"

He shook his head, lips still holding that smile, "Nothing."

I guess I would have to get that off the files.

———

——

—

'The danger has been elevated, the objectives have changed, the Titans will no longer be involved.'

It was a simple message over the wire, we were now being excluded. The sender was Batman. We had been discharged so to speak. Removed from the fight.

I felt…fine with it. I think I have proven myself plenty. Even if I haven't…well, that just means I failed. Fucking hell. Moving my weight to settle into the bunk, my hands moved to grab my phone out of the pocket, the PDA was taken back so I was back to this thing, not that it was bad. It was very good actually, probably better than the plus-sized PDA, in a smaller package even.

As I let the face recognition software run its course and unlocked my screen the door of my room slid open, my lips curled up in practiced motions even if I was not happy to meet most people, I could at least pretend to be.

Turning to face them I sat up on the bunk, just one gaze around the room and it reminded me of just how temporary my stay was, it was a tiny offshoot of the main hallway, barely holding a bunk bed, a power socket, and a few hangers, no one was meant to stay here rather just spend the day and move on.

Though it annoyed me that they did not give me one of the now empty rooms—Courtesy of the demons and the dead staff—I pushed it aside and faced the people who entered.

Starfire. Oh great, "Need anything Star?"

She did not answer, not even trying to look in my direction, just sheepishly looking off to the side, okay, what's that about?

"We have a plan," It was not her that answered, it was Damien, who stepped in from behind her, he was followed by BB and BB. They were all here and just from one look at their faces, it was something serious.

"We want to rescue Raven," Damien added, I nodded, "So? Everyone wants to."

He smirked, "We plan to do it without the league, just the Titans and a few friends," That's dumb, and most importantly not my problem, "Reckless and idiotic."

"Raven is one of ours, we are going to take her back, Father clearly does not intend to," He was sure of it, so sure , that he was willing to ask others for help, Damien does not ask for help.

Despite his seriousness, I heaved a sigh, this was an idiotic conversation, "Have you tried asking him why?"

He shook his head, "He won't tell us anyway, he trusts nobody but himself and the rest of the league are probably on a need-to-know basis."

I could almost see Santa Claus? shaking his head at how badly he was going to get railed by those three feet long claws that the Demons used. He was the patron St. of prostitutes after all.

"There is no way, I am going against him," my words were truly my intentions, after all, I did not want to become a bad girl, now did I?

He finally decided to close the distance and then take a seat next to me, "Look, Mira," He said as he put one hand on my shoulder, "Batman's ideas are his ideas. His goals are his own, ours are ours. I picked mine a long time ago. What are yours?"

That's a good point, what are my goals? I want to survive, that's one postulate, then? Then what—it was almost like a trigger, my mind washed itself down over a torrent of memories, games, movies, shows…things I enjoyed. Fuck me I just want to play video games, didn't I? Funny, through two lives, that's the part that remained constant. Hell, not even my gender and choice of music survived.

I am really dumb, aren't I? A monkey really.

A dumb smile formed on my lips and I couldn't help but ask, "What's yours, Brother?"

"Mine?" He shrugged, "To build the best future possible and to do it with ones I care about."

"Lofty ambitions," I stood up, pulling his hands off. I had a few options: go with them, tell Bats, or do nothing. The first would put me at risk, the second would sour a lot of tongues and the third would be sending them to their possible deaths.

Let them I say, they'll die and I would be rid of a headache, but then, if this world is truly the Dark universe, then by God we are going to need every warm body we can muster to throw at Darkside.

But there isn't any way, I am taking a risk over my life.

Still risking my relationships was…not something I was keen on.

A compromise then.

"Two hours," I faced the rest of the Titans still at the doorway, not Damien, "You all have two hours. I will tell Dad after that and drag the league into the fight. That's your timeframe. Tell me your plan and get lost."

"Wait what? Why do we have to tell you anything, you aren't coming with us AND you are going to tattle," It was Beast Boy who complained and I tilted my head trying to look confused at his idiocy, and began, "In case you fuck up they could at least try to rescue you that way."

"No," Blue narrowed his eyes at me, "You are just scared to face…" I let my eyes dilate, widen, my lips quivered in rage, "Of course I am! They have a fucking Superman, and I don't want to fight that, I don't want Damien to fight that, not even close. We are not the ones in fucking magic metal suit, and in case you haven't noticed you are. You could get a punch from him, we? We would become paste with a flick."

He didn't like me before, not sure how it started but he hates me now, not sure why, neither do I care.

Still, he just scoffed, "Coward, just a coward. Too afraid to do the right thing. So what if Superman is there if we fight together, Damien even has an answer—"

His words stopped as I could only feel a laugh bubble out of me, I pushed it down but a giggle still leaked out, shit Mira keep it together, "I don't think you understand the shit you are about to get into, but don't let me tell you that, just read anything about the time Superman cracked a mountain while fighting do it for me."

Damien stepped in, "I can take him down but we need to do something about the army there."

I nodded, so Kryptonite? "Fine," I turned to him, "As you said, you still have an army to fight and you aren't sneaking anywhere with Superman right there. He has freaking heat-seeking vision."

He nodded, "Right, we need a diversion and a way to demolish an army."

"So? What's your plan?"

"Hoping you would help with that."

I blinked, "…Excuse me, what?"

———

——

—

"I thought you said there wouldn't be any league," I elbowed Damien, He shrugged as stepped back and dogged it, "And you said you would get an actual outfit."

I gave up as I examined all those standing in front of me, Super Girl, Miss Martian, Aqualad, Oracle on the coms, Nightwing, Red Hood, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and of course the Titans—one more Zatanna, a surprise for sure, and a thing to ask about later.

Exasperation gripped my face, making me facepalm, "You know, outright lies are different from not having time."

He brushed it off and faced the team that had hurdled up in a secondary meeting rule, all on a semicircular desk, all of them in gear, all ready to do this, "Our objective will be to take back Raven."

"And how do we achieve that?" Green Arrow asked from his seat beside Black Canary at the center of the table.

"I can take out Superman, if I am allowed time alone with him," Damien announced to the questioning gazes of everyone else in the room.

Nightwing, Red Hood and the Arrow couple just nodded but that did little to alleviate other's suspicions, so I chimed in, "It's probably a secret as to how to do that. The reasons why are probably obvious, so let's move on."

"Right, the ten year old has more sense than those double her age," Arrow joked only to get annoyed gazes from the rest of the people and a chiding one from his wife who decided to continue on his behalf, "What my husband means to say is, she has a good point and we should not pry into how it works. Those are important secrets."

It was enough to make the high schoolers—everyone other than the Bat Family guys and the Arrow couple—give up.

"So we have a problem: how do we get you alone with the most powerful thing on this Earth? And one who has a whole army behind him," Nightwing interfered trying to move the conversation along.

Damien, all smiles turned to me, I sighed, they were all looking at me too. Why do you people even think giving a ten year old this job was a good idea, still I replied, "...So I called the military."

Oracle laughed over the comms, "Of course, you did, classic Mira, if at first you don't succeed, you just haven't used enough bombs."

I ignored her and the looks I got from the rest of the party and continued, "And we have…a lot of munitions to throw at them. Enough to turn a good chunk of that sand to glass."

"I feel I need to remind you that violence is not always the solution," Aqualad stood up from his seat and faced me directly, "We could also go in the route of silence."

I smiled at him and asked, "And how do you propose we beat someone in a game of hide and seek in a wide-open desert? That too when he has Super Speed, hearing, vision and God knows what else?"

His mouth constricted, "I concede on your point."

Returning to his seat he earned a nod from me, "It's his first time out on the surface world, first time on a mission too, cut him slack, will you?" Nightwing chimed in, I gave him a stink eye.

"Basically my first time in this type of fight too, you know," It was a good opportunity to make the Bat-family realize just how good they had it with me around, so, I heaved a sigh, "Besides he is fifteen, I am ten. He is supposed to be some prince while I am a kid from the streets. Why should I cut anyone any slack? Get with the program, this is not a fight to play house, it's one to save lives."

"Mira! That's not how you talk to others!" It was barking over the radio—Oracle, I gave in, "Fine," I turned to the lad, "Sorry, just this whole idea doesn't sit right with me."

His head turned down, shame flaked off his voice, "I will keep your frank opinion in mind. Thank you."

Not the YJ Aqualad are you? I don't remember you bringing in the Dark Universe either. God damn it, what kind of world am I in?

"Don't think of it like that," Canary put in her two cents, "Aqualad was a prince only trained in combat, he doesn't have the experience."

Her words made me tilt my head, "And I do?"

She took a deep breath, "You have the mind for it."

A giggle that's all I gave her, "I know you are trying to make me feel good but this is too much, this is normal. People who can't do this are stupid. I mean even Dina is good at this stuff and she ties her shoelaces to look like a snake."

"Oh," It was an almost collective reaction among the Bat-family.

"What?" I asked.

My coms light up, "Your norms are very twisted. Mira, they are not the stupid ones, you are just…advanced for your age."

"What?" Fabricating an exclamation I let it through my lips, "You guys are so full of shit, me? Advanced for my age? Bullshit."

"Mira," Damien raised a voice of concern, "What standards do you hold others to?"

"Others? The same that I use for myself: An idiot stumbling through life desperately trying to not fall and not completely failing."

"Seriously?" Red Hood asked and I shrugged, "Pretty much."

"Alright," Oliver cut in, "You need Bruce to be an actual parent, got it, I gotta talk to him about that."

Shaking my head I denied him, "What for? He is a fine father, he is always there when I need him."

Oliver elected to silence as his answer.

"Whatever," My lips churned out, "We have demons to kill and a Raven to rescue. You choose what you do afterward."