“He did what?” Zander asked. He, Niklas, Aisha, Emily, Max, and Jerzy were walking through one of the school’s hallways ready to go home.
“He tripped over his own feet! I swear the guy is a complete oaf!” Emily told him.
“He was in good form the other day at the dojo,” Aisha said. He father had let her finish off the rest of the school year in Gotham; she now too stayed with Middy.
“He’s getting better on his left side?”
“Yup.”
“Good. Well, now he has a broken leg,” Emily told her.
“Which leg?”
“Oddly enough, the left.”
“I said better, not perfect.”
“I trust Dana is with him now?” Jerzy asked.
“Yea. The good thing is he tripped at the manor so Bruce is going to pay for all the medical bills.”
“Nice of him.”
“Terry called me last night, said he was going to be absent a whole month!” Max told them.
“Sounds like things are gonna be rather boring around the manor,” Jerzy said.
“The day things are boring at the manor is the day I become a ballet dancer,” Emily told them receiving a smirk from Max and Niklas.

“Ballet doesn’t seem like a bad idea…” Blaze said perched on a tall building’s rooftop. She looked around looking for anything bad.
“What?” Bruce asked her through the com-link.
“Nothing. And I mean nothing, there is nothing happening! It’s like no one commits a crime unless Batman is there to stop them.”
“You know that’s impossible.”
“I said ‘like’.”
“Why don’t you fly around the city once more?”
“Cause I don’t have to. Jokerz, five o’clock,” Blaze said and leapt off the building and flew downward. She landed on the back of a Joker who was hassling a woman. She heard the sound of his ribs cracking on the cement. She jumped off of him and managed to take out two more Jokerz before the others scattered. Blaze perched herself on a lamppost to watch the others run then one right below her caught her eye. She shot a line around his wrists and jumped off the other side of the lamppost then the line. The Joker hung in the air by his wrists as Blaze secured the line on a stationary object. She walked over to him and stared him in the eyes with what she dubbed “the death stare.” He looked back at her in fear.
“I know you,” she told him.
“N-no ya don’t!” he yelled.
“Yes I do,” she said and leaned in so they were basically nose to nose, “you’re the clown who hit Batman in the leg with that pipe.”
“W-wasn’t me!”
“You know I don’t like it when people go around breaking perfectly good partners.”
“Wasn’t me!”
“Of course it was. No one else could be as ugly as you,” she told him and stepped away.
“I think I have to teach you a lesson,” she told him.
“Don’t kill me, please!” he pleaded. Blaze narrowed her eyes. A ray of heat came from her eyes and broke the Joker’s belt. His pants fell down around his ankles, unveiling a pair of boxers with ducks on them. She started to walk past him.
“A fate worse then death,” She said as she unfolded wings from her arms and flew off propelled by jets in her boots.
“Feel better?” Bruce asked her.
“A favor, for McGinnis.”
“In other words you’re trying to boost his guilt for making you do twice the work for a month.”
“Something like that.”
“Well put that plan on hold. A Warren Jewelers alarm just went off. It just stopped.”
“I’ll check it out. Which one, there are like twelve Warren Jewelers in Gotham.”
“The one on 123rd street.”
“Ah, I know it well,” Blaze said and flew off in that direction.

Blaze landed behind a collection of police cars parked out side of a large jewelry store. The front window had been smashed and glass lay around it. The whole area was blocked off by police tape and cars.
“Looks serious, brought Babs out from behind a desk,” Blaze said as she walked up behind the commissioner.
“Looks bad,” she said.
“It is,” Barbara answered her. She turned around to look at Blaze; “I had a feeling you’d come for this one.”
“Yea well, Batman is taking a little medical leave. Who and what?”
“We don’t know who, but they only took one thing. A rose made out of diamond and ruby, worth over 500,000 dollars.”
“The Gardener’s Hope?”
“Yes, you’ve heard of it?”
“Yea, Andrew Opal bought it from an elderly Russian woman for 200,00 dollars. Her husband had bought it for that much a long time ago, but he died, so she sold it.”
“He should have spent that money on better security.”
“Grandpa was never robbed.”
“Yes well your grandfather had Nightwing for a son-in-law, not to mention powers of his own.”
“Yea, I’m surprised Grandpa gave the business to Opal, he has a thing against humans.”
“He always was a big pain in the rump.”
“Tell me about it. So can I get a look around?”
“Blaze has no business here,” Barbara told her. Blaze smirked.
“Then I guess I’ll come back when it’s some of my business,” she said and jetted off.

Emily stepped out of the shower the next morning and became fully clothes. She began to brush and blow try her hair. She had moved back into the manor after Cye and the rest had gone home to Japan. It had been weird being in Gotham and not being in the manor, plus she didn’t want Bruce to get lonely. Despite his arguments he was human. Now it was Saturday as she was going to take a little trip to the recently robbed Warren Jewelers on 123rd street. Her grandparents had started it years and years ago. When Emily’s mother was killed they moved back to the Moon, where they reigned as king and queen. Afterward she’d pay a visit to the injured Batman Junior.

Her grandparents had pretended to die and in their “will” they left small chunks of the business to their grandchildren, so Emily had a reason to be there. She surveyed the damage through a pair of dark red sunglasses, not really listening to what the police officer was telling her about the break in. The smashed window and smashed glass around where the rose used to be would suggest some punk that “what the hell?” But in fact the robbery occurred at the exact time the two guards on duty where counting the cash in the vault in the sound proof room on the complete other side of the building. This had been planed well. No amateur did this.
“I take it your brothers are as happy as my father?” a male voice said from right behind Emily. She blinked and turned around. A boy about her age stood there.
“I haven’t talked to them,” she said almost nervously. The boy was very attractive.
“Mr. Opal?” a police officer said walking up behind the boy, he turned around.
“Yes?” he asked.
“We found a piece of purple cloth by some broken class, we suspect it belonged to the or one of the robbers. Thought you’d like to know,” he told him.
“Yes, thank you,” he said as the officer waked away. He turned back to Emily.
“Jake Opal, my father is Andrew Opal,” he said and extended his hand. Emily shook it, hoping her palms weren’t sweaty.
“Emily Grayson, you already seem to know who my family is.”
“Hard not to. Well, my father sent me here to over see how bad things are. Yourself?”
“Curiosity. I suppose we should be lucky nothing else was taken.”
“Indeed, that will be the first thing I tell my father.”
“And the last.”
“Naturally, so you are familiar with making a bad situation seem better.”
“A road well traveled. “ The lake helped clean the car”.”
“I crashed the car into a lake once, when they towed it out there was a fish in the driver’s seat, still alive. We gave it to my grandmother for her birthday.”
“Yes, I heard she gave it a funeral when it died.”
“Quite the news worthy event evidently. Well, I must be going; it was a pleasure I wish to have another time, soon. Farewell,” he said and was off. Emily smiled as she watched him leave and when he was out of sight she bit her lower lip.
“Cutest guy ever!” she said hoping no one was around to hear her.

“Oh, hello Emily,” Ms. McGinnis said as she opened the door to their apartment to find Emily in the hallway.
“Good afternoon Ms. McGinnis,” she said as she was allowed into the apartment.
“Terry’s in his room, he’s been asleep all day, I was just going to wake him, but now you can do it.”
“Alright,” Emily said beginning to walk toward Terry’s door.
“Hi Emily!” Matt yelled from the couch smiling.
“Hey Squirt. You’ll get me when Techmen comes on right?”
“Of course, it’s a new episode!”
“Shway,” Emily said and entered Terry’s room. The lights were off but the afternoon sun gave enough lighting to see clearly. Terry was asleep in his bed; his left leg wrapped in a cast, was laid on a pillow at the foot of his bed. Emily smirked.
“They’re so cute when they’re asleep, “ she said walking over to the bed, “so quiet.” She added and Terry made a loud nasal sound followed by some mumbles. Emily sighed.
“Not exactly your most profound statement. Come on wake up McGinnis. You’re not in a coma,” she said slapping the side of his face slightly. He mumbled some and woke up.
“Rise and shine bat boy,” she said as she sat on the bed next to him and he sat up and stretched his arms with a loud yawn.
“What time is it?” he asked scratching his head.
“About two in the afternoon, I know ya need your beauty sleep McGinnis but come on…”
“I gotta pee,” he said and carefully found his crutches and hobbled out of the room. Emily sighed and lay down on the bed. She closed her eyes and saw Jake in her mind; she smiled. She played over their conversation in her mind. Not only was he cute, but he was refined and able to hold an intelligent conversation. Qualities Emily had almost forgotten guys could have.
“What’s gotten into you?” Terry asked hobbling back into the room. Emily opened her eyes and saw Terry through her sunglasses, upside down.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well you’re smiling, and you were making funny, giggling noises.”
“I was?” she asked, he nodded and hobbled the rest of the way to the bed. He sat down next to Emily.
“So what’s gotten into you?”
“Oh nothing. We got an assignment for you, purely research,” she said and outstretched her arm toward the bag she had brought with her. It opened by itself and a laptop flew from it into Emily’s hands. She sat up and shook the blood from her head. She placed the laptop between her legs and opened it. She pressed some keys and turned it so Terry could see the screen.
“McGinnis, meet Oracle,” Emily said.
“Hello Terry,” a voice said from the computer, Terry’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Uh, hi,” he responded.
“Okay Terry, since you can’t beat up people we’ll be working on the other side of Batman, using them brains of yours,” Oracle told him.
“Okay,” he responded and Oracle told him what they knew of the robbery so far.
“And you want me to figure out who?”
“With my help, you got a question, I got the answer.”
“Okay then, why is Emily so happy?”
“She met Jake Opal today, “head over he-“.” Oracle started to say but was cut off when Emily slammed the laptop closed. Terry smiled.
“Crush! Crush! You have a crush!”
“And you have ten seconds to stop before I break your OTHER leg!” she warned him and he shut up.
“Okay, so what do I do?”
“You spend your time researching and thinking, and when you find out who took the Gardener’s Hope you tell me and I’ll go get it and fill some jail cells.”
“You love filling them jail cells,” he said.
“You know me, anything to beat the boredom bug,” she said and Matt called her name from the living room.
“Oh! Techmen!” she yelped and sprinted from the room. Terry sighed and scratched the part of his knee he could under his cast.

“Come on Treknar! Come on you can do it!” Matt and Emily were yelling as they were watching to the TV from the couch in the McGinnis living room. They cheered when their hero became victorious.
“I knew Treknar was gonna beat that mean Wendon!” Matt told Emily.
“Well of course! Besides being the good guy Treknar has greater speed and agility.”
“Plus he has better discipline,” Matt said. Emily smiled.
“That’s right MATT! DISCIPLINE!” she yelled in the direction of Terry’s room. They heard him telling her to shut up through the door and they laughed. Emily’s cell phone went off and she opened it up.
“Hello? Oh hi Bruce. I’m watching Techmen with Matt. Yea sure, I’ll go tell McGinnis,” she said and hung up. She got off the couch and went into Terry’s room for a few seconds before reemerging.
“See ya Squirt,” she said and rubbed Matt’s head. She said goodbye to Ms. McGinnis, thanked her, and left.

“So he’s missing?” Blaze asked standing on one of Gotham’s rooftops.
“He hasn’t been seen for three hours.”
“Three hours?! God the guy might have gone for a walk! Whatever happened to 24 hours before saying he’s missing?”
“Opal has a body guard at all times, and if he gets away he calls them within half an hour.”
“Man he’s rich, I mean not only is he rich, but he acts like it!”
“He does try to get away.”
“Well tha- wait? Are you defending him?”
“I’m just saying he does try to get away, but he always cares enough to tell people he’s okay, and he hasn’t.”
“So what? He’s been robbed? Kidnapped? Knocked out?”
“My guess would be the 2nd.”
“Who would kidnap him? I know his family is rich but there’s a young Opal daughter as well, she’d be the prime choice.”
“He was here to inspect the robbery…”
“Think he found out too much?”
“Likely. Terry found out who the robbers are.”
“Really? So fast?”
“Hey don’t underestimate me,” Terry’s voice told her, it sounded farther away then Bruce’s. Bruce had connected the phone line to her com-link.
“Well don’t be shy McGinnis.”
“A group called the Violets. All female, wear the same clothes, hairstyles. Mostly made out of runaways. They steal from all over the world; numbers are unknown. They only steal flower related things, hence the Gardener’s Hope.”
“Any idea where I can find their Gotham, uh, base?”
“I got a list of three places. One place used to be a flower shop, one was a night club called “The Wild Rose,” and of course the botanical gardens.”
“You sure about this McGinnis?”
“Yup. Oracle got Bruce’s okay on it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was one of those “let’s test Terry” things.”
“You pass?”
“Heck yea, applied knowledge. I knew they loved testing me so I just asked Oracle if she knew and was just hiding it,” Terry replied as Emily jumped off the roof and headed for an old flower shop.
“Hey you can be clever sometimes.”
“What do you mean sometimes? I’m always clever!”
“Sure.”
“Hey don’t get started with me, I’m pissed enough that Bruce feels he still has to test me.”
“Well get over it and get back to work.”
“That’s rich. Hey, when you see Jake try not to faint okay.”
“I told you I don’t like him!”
“No you said you’d break my other leg!”
“Just because you wouldn’t shut up otherwise!”
“You could have tried asking! It’s good to try new things!”
“When you ask there’s a possibility you’ll get a bad answer!”
“Ya know! I don’t even know why I helped you find your little playboy!”
“God just shut the hell up! I don’t even know why I did that favor for you!”
“What favor?” Terry asked but Blaze cut the connection.
~ I can find Jake by myself, I don’t need that jerk’s help, for anything! ~ she thought.

“Doesn’t look so wild to me,” Blaze said as she walked into a broken down building. Tables and lights were still strayed about and everything was covered with layers of dust.
“It was once the hub of youth in its day.”
“When was that, 2010?” Blaze asked.
“This place closed down the day you were born.”
“Then the Violets are here. Place probably blames me or something. Karma’s a witch.”
“Buildings don’t told grudges.”
“Hey don’t forget that chair.”
“That was different.”
“Geez it’s cold in here,” Blaze said and her costume extended over her legs.
“It’s likely if the Violets were there they’d have some sort of heat.”
“Should I move on to the gardens?”
“Look around some more.”
“I hear something,” Blaze said and stood still, listening carefully. Bruce heard her gasp through the com-link.
“What is it?” Bruce asked her.
“Jake Opal on a stick, and about 60 feet off the ground. With a bomb about 65 feet,” Blaze told him looked directly up. She took out a three-sided ninja star type thing with painted on flames. She threw it into the air and guided it so it cut the ropes suspending Jake. He started to fall yelling through the gag. She raised her hands and his falling rate slowed and he landed on his feet softly. She untied his feet and arms and took off his gag.
“Can you run?” she asked him.
“Varsity team at St. John’s all boy’s school,” he answered.
“Well I lack a starter’s pistol so I’ll just tell you to run like hell out of here,” she told him and he thanked her and started running out of the building. Blaze smiled.
“He’s so cute,” she said to herself.
“Emily, the bomb,” Bruce reminded her.
“Right,” she said and looked up at it.
“There are no other buildings in this area, they were all torn down, this one was probably next. So I’m uh, I’m just gonna take my own advice,” she said and ran from the building. When she got out of it, she found Jake standing on the sidewalk in front of the building. She grabbed his arm and pulled him with her.
“Explosions do not stop at the sidewalk!” she yelled as she continued running and letting go of his arm as he kept stride with her.
“Where do they stop?” he asked just as the building exploded. Blaze dove to the ground and pulled him with her. She tried to cover his head the best she could. They lay in the street until the explosion blew over them before dying down. They stood up to the remains of the nightclub. A plank of wood landed on the ground three feet in front of them.
“There,” she answered him. Jake sighed. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and opened it. He pressed some numbers and held it to his ear.
“Hey Mike, it’s me Jake,” he said into. The reply was so loud Jake held the phone away from his face and Blaze could make out a few words. When they couldn't hear it anymore he began explaining what happened into it. He had asked around and gotten some clues and went to investigate. The clues had been right. Blaze especially liked the way he told Mike about the hero who saved his life. Blaze pressed a button on her belt and the batmobile appeared and parked beside them.
“Come on, I’ll take you to your hotel,” she told him.
“In that?” he asked putting his cell phone away.
“It’s a tight fit, and not very clean,” she said hopping into it, “I wasn’t expecting company.”
“Shway, I get to ride in the batmobile,” he said as he climbed in behind her. The door went up and the batmobile took off.

“It’s funny how you don’t think of these things until you’re bored,” Emily said siting on a cot in the batcave. Bruce sat in the computer chair watching her pull slivers of debris from her back using a mirror to see.
“Something that might cheer you up. An hour after Opal was returned a package arrived at his hotel. It was the Gardener’s Hope, with a note saying “Out of respect for Blaze”.”
“How about that?” Blaze asked pulling the last one out.
“I guess you got their approval.”
“Probably because I’m a girl in a guy’s game.”
“Probably, the Violets are somewhat known for their feminist ways. They favor women to men.”
“With good reason. I think they gave respect to me because I’m so like them. Heck if it weren’t for you I would be one of them. What I’m curious about is why did they kidnap him? Why not just kill him where they found him?”
“Wanted to keep the fear of women into him I suppose.”
“No, if it was that I’d have ruined it for them, and they’d still have the rose.”
“Maybe they just like playing with men.”
“Who doesn’t?” she said and smiled. She hopped off the cot and walked up the stairs to the manor.