“Good to see you up and about Terry,” Jerzy told him. She was walking beside Terry in the school hallway; Dana stood on his other side, their arms woven together.
“Heck you know me, can’t keep me down for long!” Terry said ignoring his slit limp. His leg had healed so he could go back to school and not leave Blaze alone at night. His friends had brought him all the homework he had and Oracle helped him with the stuff he didn’t know. He and Oracle seemed to have become good friends; he’d have to meet her one of these days. At least be able to see her face.
“Will Terry McGinnis and Emily Grayson please report to the principal’s office?” the secretary’s voice said over the hall speakers. Terry gulped and the bell rung for seventh period. Dana wished him luck and she and Jerzy ran off to class.

Terry took his time getting to the principle’s office. He was in no hurry to get in trouble. With Emily also being called he did wonder what he had done. As he walked past a window that had a lovely view of the parking lot, he saw two police cars parked by the entrance to the school. Neither of which was inside the yellow lines. He hurried up his pace, having a gut feeling that the police weren’t there to watch a hockey game. His feeling was right, when he opened the door to the office he found the commissioner. The principle wasn’t there but Emily was, leaning against a wall with an unhappy look on her face.
“Sorry I took so long,” Terry apologized closing the door behind him.
“It’s all right McGinnis, please sit down,” Barbara said walking behind the principle’s desk.
“I’ll stand thank you,” Terry said. If Emily could stand so could he.
“Very well. I have an urgent request of the both of you, hence my being here. I got a phone call from an old friend of mine, begging for my help. It seems her daughter was kidnapped yesterday. My boys could easily handle it, but I want you two to try it first,” she explained.
“Oh, that kind of friend…” Emily said.
“What do you mean?” Barbara asked her.
“She means that this friend of yours used to be a superhero or something, and you’re asking us for help because you don’t want to be tied in with a superhero publicly,” Terry explained. Barbara stared at him before continuing.
“Dinah can’t go to the police with it. So she’s coming to me, so I can go to you.”
“Dinah? The Black Canary?” Emily asked curiously. Barbara nodded.
“Black Can-, you mean you know the Black Canary!” Terry asked Barbara.
“You know of her?”
“He’s been doing research while his leg was broken,” Emily explained.
“Well, Dinah gave up the role as Black Canary when she married her husband. Unfortunately she made the mistake of telling her daughter about her past.”
“Kid take the mantel?”
“Yes, there’s a problem though, she’s only 13.”
“So? When I was 13 I could throw a palm strike that would drive a man’s septum into his brain.”
“She has no training,” Barbara said. Terry and Emily looked at each other and hurried out of the room.

“That girl has to be stupid, thinking she can do this with no training,” Batman said as he and Blaze searched different parts of the city.
“Only 13 too, she’s going to get herself killed.”
“Why would she want to be a vigilante anyway?”
“She was an orphan, her mother killed herself and her father died several years later, a drunk till the end.”
“How do you find all the stuff out so quickly?”
“Dinah told me. And yes I know Dinah Lance, well, Dinah Duncan. Her daughter’s a good kid.”
“You just know everyone don’t you? Unh!” Batman said.
“What’s going on?” Blaze asked him calmly.
“Jokerz.”
“Stay away from pipes,” she warned him.
“Ha, unh, ha.”
“You need help Bats?”
“Nope! Whoa! Come back here smiley!”
“Don’t have too much fun McGinnis.”
“Ha ha! What?” he asked. Blaze shook her head smiling.
“Never mind. Don’t take too long, we have to scour the entire eastside before dawn.”
“I know I know. Tell that to mister happy over here, well, bloody.”
“Just hurry up and get move on will ya?”
“Sure thing head master,” Batman told her. Blaze smirked and jumped off the building.

“Well we couldn’t find anything on the east-side,” Terry said ducking in the boys’ bathroom talking into his self-phone. He checked each stall to make sure he was alone, which he was.
“Anything on your end?” he asked.
“I can’t pin point anyone who’d want to kidnap her. There have been Hero Hunters in the past but I thought all of them were in Arkham,” Cassie told him through the phone.
“Did you say “Hero Hunters?”” Terry asked her surprised.
“Yea, back in the olden days there were people who used to capture heroes has a hobby.”
“A hero collection huh? When I was little I couldn’t decide to collect stamps or bugs,” Terry told her grinning.
“Stamped bugs, yea I know. I read that Calvin and Hobbes too.”
“What is it with you people and ruining my fun?”
“I don’t know. Also, there were some Hero Hunters who where bounty hunters. Then there was that cult but that broke up long ago…”
“Wait, what cult?”
“Just some wacko cult. Their motto was “only good vigilante is a dead vigilante.””
“Glad they broke up. What happened?”
“They were going to blow up JLU h.q. But, well, have you ever heard of Guy Fawkes?”
“No.”
“Well learn. Anyway, to get back on subject-“ Cassie was saying but got cut off by the door to the boys’ bathroom opening.
“Wait a sec,” Terry whispered to Oracle as a guy with baggy jeans, green and blue over-sized jacket, sunglasses, and a baseball cap walked into the bathroom. Terry turned to the mirror and watched the guy in it. He walked over to the stalls and opened the first one then the second one, like he was looking for something. Terry wondered what he thought he could find in the boy’s room. The guy walked over to the mirror beside Terry and straightened his sunglasses. Terry closed his cell phone and put it in his pocket. He pretended to fix his hair, hoping the guy would leave. The guy turned to Terry.
“Pretty cool huh?” he asked. Terry looked over at him and saw him with his hand on the rim of his sunglasses.
“New JX style, currently only 100 in make. Pop knows a guy,” he said smiling. Terry smiled and nodded and turned back to the mirror.
“I don’t see what’s so hard McGinnis,” the guy said. Terry turned to him in surprise.
“Do I know you?” Terry asked him. The guy lowered in sunglasses on his nose smirking and revealed a pair of familiar brown eyes. Terry’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Being a guy ain’t tough,” a girl’s voice said.
“Emily! What- what are you doing in here? This is the boy’s room!” he yelled as he wrapped his coat around himself. Emily laughed as the baggy clothes changed into her normal clothes.
“There’s something outside you should see,” she told him.
“Couldn’t you knock!”
“I woulda, bit you mighta, you know, been busy.”
“So you just walked in?”
“I just would have waited till you were done, with my eyes closed. But forget that come on! You’re wasting time!” she said as her clothes formed back into a guy’s and grabbed his wrist, pulling him out of the bathroom. Max was leaning against the wall outside of the bathroom and there was a lot of shouting coming from outside the school. Max started to shove Terry in the direction that led outside. She held back and started talking to Emily. Terry could make out laughing and Max saying she didn’t believe Emily did that.

Terry walked outside followed by Max and Emily. There was a huge crowd and he heard people yelling and saw placard signs but couldn’t read what they said.
“What’s going on?” he asked the girls yelling. Emily grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer. The crowd came to an end and then there was a large circle of people dressed entirely in black protesting. Terry’s eyes widened as he realized what they were saying. One woman stood up on a crate and addressed the public.
“People of Gotham City! People of Earth! This is OUR world! Earth belongs to the human race! Yet even in Gotham, our home, we have aliens! We must eliminate the infection! Eliminate the super heroes and the vigilantes that work with them! Bring Gotham City back to the human race!” she yelled followed by shouts of agreement from the other protestors.
“Hero Hunters…” Terry said simply. Emily nodded taking off the baseball cap and sunglasses, letting her ponytail fall onto her back.
“Afraid so,” she said.
“So what do we do now?” Terry asked her as the walked back into the crowd.
“Well first we hope they don’t win this crowd over, then we find Black Canary as fast as we can,” she told him.

“5th SE sector, clear,” Batman said as he walked out of an abandoned building.
“6th SW sector, clear,” he heard Blaze’s voice say through the com-link, “you’re getting behind Batsy.”
“You had to add that didn’t you?”
“Starting 7th SW sector,” she replied.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” he said as he flew to the top of the next building. He heard Blaze sigh angrily.
“Something troubling ya?” he asked.
“Dodging stones, Hero Hunters. Awe damn, I’ll just blow the damn things up.”
“The stones right, not the Hero Hunters?”
“Right. Ya know I can’t wait until these people figure out the truth.”
“What truth?” he asked entering the building he was on in camouflage mode.
“Ya know Edison, and Da Vinci, and Gutenburg and all those great inventors?”
“Yea.”
“Lunar. My people have been coming here for thousands of years. Most of the great people in “human history” aren’t even human. Caesar, Harriet Tubman, Lincoln, Washington was half and half, Da Gama, Picasso, most of the Egyptian royal family, Montezuma, Jack Webb, all of them.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. We’re also responsible for the calendar we have today.”
“And the history teachers think they’re so smart.”
“Miss. Winston is.”
“Mr. Bayer’s student teacher?”
“Yea, she’s Lunar.”
“Really!”
“Yea, so is the leader of the Hero Hunters, oddly enough. Acidus was a follower of Olil Family, the ruling family when Saien began teaching about Neoism. The Olil family was overruled and each follower was given eternal life by Hayjen, but their powers were taken away by Daniel and they were banished to Earth,” she explained. Batman was stunned speechless.
“Are you speaking English?” he finally asked. Blaze laughed.
“Yea. I could say it in Lunar if you like. Sie aws e llowe et Olil-“
“No that’s okay!” Batman yelled, “so that’s why Acidus is against aliens, because she had her powers ripped from her?”
“Pretty much. Her followers must be Olil followers.”
“Any way to get them off of our backs?”
“Only one, see, the Olil family has forgiven Saien and Neoists. They are pacifistic now. Only their followers refuse to give up.”
“So we get the Olil to talk to them?”
“Yea. I’ll work on finding them after we’ve found Elisabeth.”
“Hey, how do you tell when someone is Lunar.”
“We know our own.”
“Yea well can you do something with that?”
“I could… talk to Acidus?”
“Worth a shot.”
“Yea, besides, she’s only human, how tough can she be?”
“Ha, ha. Just go talk to her. You don’t have to pick on the human race.” “Well I’ve been getting bashed by humans I think I deserve a little human bashing.”
“Just go get Acidus.”
“Why don’t you?”
“Mutiny?”
“No, common sense. She’ll know who I am, we know our own. Besides, my family was the one who banished her here.”
“Wait, you’re like the great whatever granddaughter of like, Jesus?”
“No, Saien, and it’s not as many greats as you’d think. Only, three.”
“Wait, so if Saien isn’t the, 6th SE sector clear, son of the god or whatever, what is he?”
“He’s just, 7th and 8th SW sectors clear, a prophet. He was chosen by the gods to be their voice to the people. He is the only man to stand in Daniel’s presence.”
“And you’re his descendant?”
“Hell I’m named after his wife.”
“He was married?”
“Saien wasn’t like Earth religions prophets. I’ll tell you about it, 9th SW sector clear, later.”
“Well I’ll, 7th sector clear, get Acidus’ address from Cas and head on over.”
“Good. 10th SW sector clear. Getting behind Batsy.”

A woman in a black trench coat swung a wooden kitchen chair while yelling an inaudible phrase. Batman jumped out of the way, hoping he wouldn’t land on something in the dark apartment.
“Geez lady I just wanna talk!” he yelled as she swung the wooden chair again at him. He leapt backward over her couch and the chair broke on the couch’s back. She still had pieces of it in her hands that she was swinging at him.
“I don’t want to talk to a monster like you!”
“I gathered!” he yelled dodging her again.
“Die!!” she yelled as she stabbed one of the pieces into his arm. He screamed and got away from her. She seemed a bit calmed down after her slight victory.
“Geez you’re pretty quick for an old chick,” he said holding his wound. Her eyes widened in surprise.
“I see that little wretch told you about me.”
“She’s not a wretch, the falling of Olil was not her fault.”
“It was her family!” the woman yelled and charged at him again. He threw a net at her and it pinned her to the couch. She struggled for awhile but couldn’t get free. When Batman was sure she was secure he walked over to her, still holding his wound.
“Now, you wouldn’t happen to now about a little girl going around as Black Canary, would you?”

“She said they were holding her at some abandoned clinic just outside of New Park Row,” Batman told Blaze as he swooped around buildings in the batmobile.
“I’m in the area and en route, ETA 5 minutes.”
“You’ll get there first, my ETA is 9 minutes.”
“I’ll have the place cleaned up before you get there.”
“With the faces of Hero Hunters no doubt.”
“No doubt Bats. I hope Liza is okay.”
“Liza?”
“Our little lost bird.”
“You worried?”
“Do I look worried?”
“I don’t know, do you?” he asked.
“Yea, yea I do.”

Blaze stepped off of her hoverboard and onto the top on an old building. She was afraid the rooftop would collapse under her. This building must have been around back in Bruce’s time. And things back from Bruce’s time were old and fragile; she laughed a little, like Bruce. She walked over to a vent and silently removed the grate covering it. She lowered one leg down onto the ventilation shaft and closed her eyes tightly, hoping it wouldn’t fall under her. She shifted all of her weight onto it keeping a good grip on the roof floor. The shaft creaked under her feet and she gripped the rooftop tighter. She made sure it was safe before she let go of the rooftop and crawled into the shaft, using a palm computer to guide her to a place where the Black Canary might be held. She heard a young girl scream and crawled as fast as she could. She stopped as she heard the shaft creaking around her. She felt the section of it she was currently in drop about an inch from the other parts. She quickly crawled toward one of the more secure parts but couldn’t reach it in time. She began to fall.

Batman walked into the abandoned building in camouflage. The building looked like it could fall over any minute. Most things from Bruce’s time did, Batman smiled, just like Bruce. He walked along the wall of a big room that probably took up most the building. This had probably been a factory in its day, been gutted out when they moved or whatever. Batman saw a girl tied to a pole on the other side of the large room. Black Canary. In the middle of the room he saw what looked like a piece of a ventilation shaft mixed with people. He saw some red and a familiar shade of brown hair. He turned off his camouflage and heard the little girl gasp.
“Batman!” she said. He put his finger to his lips to tell her to quite.
“You don’t have to worry Batman! There was only one man watching me and he’s been out for a few minutes, Batman!” she told him. He walked over to the middle and smiled. Blaze had fallen right on the guy; both of them were out. He pulled Blaze out of the piece of shaft and moved it off of the guy. He put handcuffs on him and they carefully slung Blaze over his own shoulder. He walked over to Black Canary and untied her.
“Batman, uh, you’re not gonna tell my mom are you?” she asked. His eyes widened in shock.

“You are a failure to your own dreams.”
“You are a disappointment to your heritage.”
“You are an affliction to your own name.”
“You are a disease to this world.”
“You are a failure…”
“A disappointment…”
“An affliction…”
“A disease.”
“I try,” Emily said on her hands and knees looking at the ground. A ray of light and then darkness surrounded her.
“It is not enough,” one of many voices told her.
“You are a failure…”
“I help people.”
“It is not enough.”
“A disappointment…”
“People care for me.”
“It is not enough.”
“An affliction…”
“I care for others.”
“It is not enough.”
“A disease…”
“I fight,” she said as tears ran off the tip of her nose and onto the ground below her.
“It is not enough,” she heard Terry say from behind her. She looked over in shock and saw Terry emerge from the darkness. She quickly got to her feet.
“I help you!” she shouted at him.
“Failure,” he said.
“I believe in people!”
“Disappointment.”
“People respect me!”
“Affliction.”
“I help hold this city together!”
“Disease.”
“NO!”
“YES!”
“I am the fire that protects the innocent! I am the ghost that punishes the wicked! I am the shadow that watches over the city!” “You are a failure.”
“I am not.”
“Your are a disappointment.”
“I am not.”
“You are an affliction.”
“I am not.”
“You are a disease.”
“At least I’m real!” she yelled as she swung a fist at him. Her arm went right through him but she still heard a yell in pain.
“What-?” she asked as everything around her disappeared. She gasped as she was suddenly looking up at Terry moaning and mumbling as he had his hands on his face. She was in the batcave on a cot in the medical section. Terry was sitting on the cot beside her.
“McGinnis…wha-?”
“Oh geez I think you broke my nose!” he yelled at her. She sat up and put her hands on his arms pulling them apart so she could look.
“It’s not broken. How’d I…”
“I was just checking on you and suddenly you punched me in the face!” he said as Emily floated some towels over to her so he could wipe away the blood.
“In my dream I… What happened?”
“Well,” Terry said in a funny voice because of the towel on his nose, “when I got there I found you laying unconscious in a section of the ventilation shaft. Under you a found the man you was watching Liza. She was tied up about ten feet from you. I put the two of you in the batmobile and came here”
“Where’s Liza?”
“With Dinah, she’s talking to Bruce in the other room.”
“I must look like a fool,” Emily said. She looked up at Terry who was looking at her with a bloody towel on his face; he had an eyebrow raised.
“Yea well, you knocked out the bad guy.”
“And you saved my ass.”
“So you punched me in the face.”
“Sorry I… I… had a weird dream.”
“Not another memory from the past?” “Worse. There were voices, so many voices, telling me I was a… a failure, a disappointment…” she said as her eyes began to tear. Terry’s face quickly became full with worry. He wiped the last of the blood away and set the towel down. He outstretched his arms and held Emily against his chest.
“They said I was a failure to my own dreams.”
“You are not.”
“A disappointment to my heritage.”
“You are not.”
“An affliction to my own name.”
“You are not.”
“A disease to this world.”
“Emily if you’re anything to this world it’d be its pride,” he said and felt Emily’s hold around him tighten. He smiled and rubbed her back.
“I mean hell, even I like you, and that’s saying something.”
“Not much though,” she joked. Terry squeezed her tighter and she made a noise and started laughing a little.
“Cassie got in touch with the Olil family in Gotham. She said they’ll talk to Acidus as soon as they can.”
“A shame we have no proof that linked her with the kidnapping.”
“I got the guy you landed on to confess everything, got it on tape.”
“Good boy.”
“Ya know the press can’t come up with a reason why “Annie” would hate vigilantes so much.”
“Just as well. And there’s a Lunar judge who will probably take the case,” she explained and the two were silent for a bit.
“Emily?” Terry asked.
“Yea?”
“Remember that time, when we danced?”
“At the ball?”
“Yea.”
“What about it?”
“What was that ball for?”
“Helping orphans.”
“No disguises I hope.”
“Not for the orphans, maybe for the patrons though.”