“Okay, so Jon has three times as many apples as Jill, who has one fourth as many apples as Jane, who has four. So how many apples does Jack have, if he has two more then Jon?” Terry read. He, Dana, and Emily were sitting in his room after school. Dana was sitting on the bed with Terry and Emily sat on the floor. They had brought him his homework.
“No one knows because no one can figure out who is who!” Dana yelled snatching the paper from his hands and reading it.
“Jill has one, Jon has three, Jane has four, and Jack has five,” Emily told them writing the problem down on her homework sheet. Dana and Terry just stared at her in amazement.
“What it’s simple. Jane has four apples; Jill has one fourth of that. One fourth of four is one. Now Jon has three times that, so three times one is three. So if Jack has two more then Jon, three plus two, Jack has five,” Emily explained. The two on the bed shrugged and moved onto the next question.
“If a TV screen was 24 inches by 18 inches, how many inches would the store selling it sell it as?” Dana read.
“A to the second power plus B to the second power equals C to the second power. Twenty four times 24 are equal to 576, 18 times 18 equals 324. So C squared equals 900, and the square root of 900 is thirty,” Emily told them still writing on her homework sheet. The two on the bed continued staring at her in amazement.
“You two look like this stuff is hard. That was just simple algebra.”
“Yea but you did it so quickly, you didn’t even have to use a calculator!” Dana told her.
“People in my family have good memories.”
“I guess so. I thought it was amazing that Terry memorized the multiplication table but, wow!” Dana said smiling. Emily smiled too and Terry huffed angrily.
“Just another thing she has to do better then me! If you ask me I think she got the answers from Max earlier,” Terry said.
“McGinnis you are glowing the richest shade of green I’ve ever seen,” Emily told him.
“Oh don’t blame him Emily, what guy would like a girl who’s better then him at everything?”
“She’s not better then me at everything! I’d like to see her try to pee standing up!” Terry said on his behalf.
“You know as well as I do I could master it if I wanted to,” Emily retorted.
“You can’t do everything Emily Grayson!” Terry told her.
“This coming from a guy who either doesn’t move or hobbles!”
“Hey this is partly your fault!”
“Oh I’m sorry I was there to catch you! I didn’t realize that I was in charge of making sure you don’t make an ass of yourself!”
“If you were any kind of a human being you’d at least have helped!”
“What the heck are you talking about?! I drove you to the damn hospital!”
“And how many laws did you break in doing so?”
“It’s not my fault I don’t know how to drive! But I think I learned damn well considering YOU were my teacher!”
“Well sorry I couldn’t instruct you better! Seeing has how my leg was broken!”
“You know I am so sick of being taken for granted by you! You think nothing except that I’m evil and out to take over your life!” Emily said while standing up, “well let me tell you this McGinnis! I do NOT want to take over your life! I wouldn’t even WANT your life! So just drop your bruised male ego for a single minute and think about what a dork you’ve been!” she yelled and stormed out of the room. Dana looked at the closed door in worry and Terry grunted in anger as he turned back to his math homework.

“I feel like hitting something!” Emily yelled as she walked down the steps of the batcave. Ace looked up from his seat at Bruce’s side by the batcomputer. Bruce continued typing on the keyboard. Emily walked over behind him and read what it was he was working on.
“Your will? You’re not going to leave anything to that idiot are you?” Emily asked him.
“You and McGinnis have another fight?”
“The last, I’m never going to talk to that joke Batman ever again.”
“That won’t help your partnership,” Bruce told her.
“Right now the only the thing that can help our “partnership” is if I go kick the crap out of a punching bag,” Emily said and walked off toward the training room. When she was out of sight Bruce sighed and banged his head on the keyboard.
“A lot like you and Dick,” a voice said from his screen. Bruce looked up and saw a face of an Asian woman with short black hair sitting in a wheelchair.
“How are you Cassie?”
“Well I got the holoroom up and running, I wouldn’t mind a couple of angered teenagers coming over and giving it a run for its money,” she told him.
“Next time they fight I’ll send Emily over.”
“Emily? Mad Emily? Hey I just want it tested, not destroyed.”
“Emily can keep her anger in check.”
“Even you can lose it in a fight sometimes,” Cassie told him. Bruce heard the sound of a punching bag hitting a wall.
“I’m only human, Emily isn’t.”
“I know. How’s she doing anyway?”
“It’s like having two Terry’s.”
“So they see the worst of themselves in each other?”
“Something like that.”
“That’s what happened to you and Dick.”
“He left.”
“No he didn’t, he just left your wing. Blaze has done that, no shadow for her.”
“Do you know why she’s even here? Why she became a vigilante in the first place?”
“You mean is it a girl thing? No. She’s still that little lost girl, stuck in that alley standing over her mother’s body covered in blood.”
“I’ve been there once.”
“Once? You were there every single night for like 20 years.”
“At least I had an alley.”
“Not this again Bruce! I became Batgirl because it was all I knew how to do. You should be thanking me for being good not bad. I’d have been a bitch to fight.”
“You were good Cassie.”
“Ah, that word, I hate it. “ Were,” a more dastardly word was never said.”
“I always thought “orange” was a dastardly word.”
“Yea I know, is it a color, or a fruit?”
“I don’t really like either,” Bruce said. He saw Emily walking out of the training room toward him. He pressed a button on the keyboard and Cassie’s image disappeared. As Emily neared him her Blaze costume formed over her.
“I’m going out,” she said as she hopped into the batmobile. Bruce turned around in the chair.
“In that?” he asked curiously.
“Don’t want her feeling neglected,” Blaze told him as the top closed. The batmobile lifted into the air and sped out of the cave.

“Yea but Dana, even though it’s raining and the clouds are covering up the sun, doesn’t mean it’s not shinning,” Terry tried explaining to her.
“Listen, the question is asking if the sun shinning and if it’s raining are mutually exclusive events. All be it rarely they do happen, the answer is-“
“Dana! Just because the clouds are covering the sun, doesn’t mean it just, turned off, or something! The sun is still shinning we just can’t see it!”
“You can’t really be sure of that Ter, it’s like the “if a tree falls in a forest…” thing!”
“No! It’s not! You see while the clouds are covering wherever we are they’re not some place else! The clouds just happen to be covering OUR view!”
“Terry why are you yelling?” Dana asked worried. Terry groaned and banged the back of his head against the wall.
“I’m sorry Dana I just… maybe you should go,” Terry told her. Dana nodded and stood up.
“See you tomorrow Terry, get some sleep,” she said as she kissed him on the forehead and walked out of the room. Terry sighed aggravated. Matt popped his head into Terry’s room.
“Terry loves Day-na!” he yelled laughing.
“Matt leave your brother alone!” Terry heard his mom yelling from the living room. Matt ignored her and walked into Terry’s room, closing the door behind him.
“What do you want twip?” Terry asked him annoyed.
“You should be nicer to Emily,” Matt told him seriously. Terry scoffed and looked away from his little brother.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about Matt,” Terry told him. Matt walked over and leaned on Terry’s bed.
“I know that Emily is a wonderful person, and that she wanted to watch Zombies Go To College with Mom and me.”
“You really have no idea.”
“Well I would if you didn’t keep scaring her away!” Matt yelled at him. Terry looked at him in surprise.
“Listen you little twerp, you have NO idea what’s going on with me and Emily, so stay out of it!” Terry yelled angrily.
“I know you love her!”
“You’ve gone completely mad! We don’t even like each other!”
“Every time Emily bursts out of here angry, Mom says to herself “when is that boy just going to tell her how he feels”!”
“I do! And that’s why she bursts out of here angry!”
“How you feel inside Terry! Not how you think you feel!”
“Just get out of here!” Terry yelled and threw a pillow at Matt. Matt glared at him angrily and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Terry grit his teeth and slammed his fist onto his bed.
“Even when she’s gone she’s annoying!” he yelled. He took his crutches and hobbled out of his bed over to his window. He opened the window and sat on the edge, overlooking Gotham City. He inhaled the fresh air and exhaled it slowly. He heard police sirens in the distance getting closer. Every muscle and cell in his body wanted him to go get his costume and follow the sound. He looked down and saw his leg with its cast around it and sighed.
“Bugger,” he said. He heard a car coming very close to him and he yelled as a purple station wagon flew quickly by his window. He did the best he could not to fall backward off the edge. His best failed him when the batmobile went whizzing by him. He fell onto his back and groaned as his head hit the ground. Everything about Emily Grayson was beginning to annoy him.

Blaze pulled off of the ground in the batmobile, keeping a watchful eye as two police officers shoved Ira Billings into a police car. She shook her head.
“Psychology is a dangerous field,” she said as she flew around a building. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of purple light. She did a loop and went in between two buildings toward a large ray of purple light coming from the sky. Her eyebrow raised as she circled the light a couple times.
“Hmm, seems to be quite the beam, eating away at all the electronics in that flower shop. Who would attack a flower shop? And so openly?” she asked herself. The beam of light quickly expanded and Blaze yelled as she tried to swerve out of the way. The beam caught up with her and she went at full speed to get out of it. She heard the engine stop and suddenly felt a little weightless as the batmobile began to fall.
“Oh crap,” she said simply as everything in the batmobile went black.

Blaze rolled over so her arm hit the bed under her. She moaned and opened her eyes.
“Ow, my elbow,” she said and she placed a hand on it. Her eyes widened as she sat up. She laid on a bed with dark purple sheets with dark purple drapes around it only letting enough light on the bed so she could see what was on the bed but not outside of the curtain. She looked down and saw that she was wearing purple T-shirt and sweat pants. She raised an eyebrow and lifted a hand to her face. She was still wearing her mask.
“We thought you’d wish to keep your identity hidden for now,” she heard a woman with a strong French accent said from beyond the curtain. Blaze stood up happy to realize that her only injury was a cut on her right elbow. She could hear the woman’s footsteps coming closer to the bed. She was wearing heels. Blaze got into a fighting stance. The curtains opened and Blaze saw a woman standing there. Standing next to her was three girls all dressed in purple and with their hair cut in the same way. They had purple masks on their faces so all Blaze could tell was that there was a blonde, a brunette, and a red head. Blaze got out of her fighting stance.
“Thanks for the thoughtfulness,” she said as her Blaze costume with the legs on formed under the purple T-shirt and sweat pants. She took off the sweat pants and tore the shirt off as and stepped off of the bed. She walked past the woman and past her bodyguards. The three girls circled her before she got to the door that she was heading out of.
“Hello, ladies,” she said looking at the ground with a smirk.
“No one disrespects her Majesty like that!” one of them said, Blaze didn’t see which one.
“Her Majesty, huh? Well you can tell her highness that THIS chick is moseying herself on out of y’all little club here,” Blaze said starting to walk toward the door again. The three stepped in front of her.
“Come on ladies, get out of my way, it ain’t nice to hit girls,” Blaze told them. One tried to kick her in the head but she ducked and caught the girl’s leg right where Blaze’s head had been. Blaze jumped and kicked the girl’s body into another one of the girls. She then got each of them in a headlock and leapt up to kick the third girl in the chin. When she regained her balance she let go of the other two and soon all three of them they in a heap on the floor. Blaze continued walking to the door.
“We could have given you everything,” the Queen said. Blaze stopped walking again.
“Are you still here? What was your interest in me anyway?”
“You’re a lot like us, aren’t you Blaze? I could feel it. You know what it feels like to be abandoned, unloved, underestimated. You could have joined us, be treated like how you deserve to be treated. Your life would be perfect. You’d be like a princess.”
“Listen up “Your Majesty,” a perfect life ain’t worth living, and I’m already a damn princess, so go find yourself a new spokesmen. Plus, purple ain’t my color,” Blaze said and walked out of the room.

Emily stepped out of the elevator when the doors opened. The batmobile had worked enough to get her back to the cave, but she was going to have to but in a lot of repair time on the thing. She walked up to the apartment door and knocked on it. After awhile it opened. Terry stood in the doorway, a crutch under each arm and a very unhappy look on his face.
“What the hell do you want?” he asked her.
“A “hello” maybe?” she said. He scowled at her.
“Tough,” he said and began to close the door. Emily caught it and walked into the apartment, closing the door behind her.
“Go away!” Terry yelled as he walked into his room and began to close the door. Again Emily caught it and walked inside of his room, closing the door behind her. Terry sat down on his bed and leaned her crutches against the wall.
“What you can’t speak English?” he asked her very upset.
“Iie,” she said staring at him. He grumbled and laid his broken leg down on the pillow.
“Couldn’t you just leave me alone for one night!”
“I could, but I won’t. You’re my partner McGinnis, despite my will I have to make sure you’re okay.”
“Oh I’m your partner now. Earlier I was an idiot.”
“I didn’t call you that,” she said and sat on the bed beside him.
“You came damn close,” Terry said. The two sat in silence for awhile.
“If it makes you feel any better, I damn near ruined the batmobile,” Emily finally said. Terry laughed a little, so Emily smiled.
“How’d “little Miss. Perfect” do that?”
“A big ray of purple light, out-shorted all electronics, damn thing snuck up on me.”
“Who made it?”
“Violets. Wanted me to be one of them, I declined.”
“Well obviously.”
“She said, “Your life would be perfect. You’d be like a princess.” So I told her “a perfect life ain’t worth living” and that “I’m already a damn princess.’”
“I bet she loved that.”
“I don’t know, I kind of walked out of the room after I said it.”
“She didn’t put up a fight?”
“Would you? I don’t think she’s much of a fighter, her three little bodyguards were though.”
“How’d they match?”
“Didn’t.”
“Didn’t think so,” Terry said and the two feel silent.
“When did Dana leave?” Emily asked.
“Awhile ago. I scared her.”
“Did your gorilla impersonation again? I told you not to.”
“Heh, nothing like that. Well, maybe not “nothing.” I was kind of mad after our tiff.”
“I broke a punching bag in half.”
“Why do we fight so much anyway?”
“Haven’t you heard the theory going around?”
“Nope.”
“It seems that you and I are exactly alike, and we see the worst of ourselves-“
“In each other. Gotcha. But we’re not really that alike.”
“I know! I mean if I was just like you I’d be beaten every other fight!” Emily said. Terry hit her with a pillow. She laughed.
“Well if you were like me you’d be kidnapped every other day. Though you’d also be incredibly beautiful, intelligent, brave, talented, and powerful.”
“You want me to hit you again don’t you?”
“Then again, if I were like you I would be able to pee standing up. You were right, that’s about the only thing I can’t learn. Not that I’d want to, ick!” Emily said. Terry laughed.
“McGinnis, 1! Grayson-“
“542!” Emily said. Terry hit her with the pillow. She turned around and snatched the pillow from his hand and started hitting him. He yelled for her to stop but since he was also laughing she didn’t.
“Okay! Okay! I give! I give!” Terry yelled. Emily threw the pillow on his face and stood up.
“Well, since we’ve made up, I have to go work on the batmobile,” she said walking for the door.
“Emily?” Terry asked. Emily stopped walking and turned around.
“What?”
“Are the sun shinning and rain falling mutually exclusive events?” he asked. She looked surprised.
“No. When it rains the sun is still shinning, we just can’t see it,” she said and left the room.
“Right,” Terry said and leaned back smiling.