"Social Outcasts"

By: Faita

16 year old Shay Edwards walked down the hallway of Hamilton High School with his hands in his coat pockets. Other kids walked along the other side of the hall, some of them watching and laughing at him. He hated being the boy from New Park Row, the poor kid that needed charity to have a decent house, but he had a secret, and he loved that. He smiled as he remembered how many times he had saved their lives and the lives of all of their families as Robin, if he hadn't been the kid from New Park Row, they probably wouldn't be alive to laugh at him.

"Hey Shay," a girl said running up behind him. He stopped walked and turned around as she clasped a hand on his shoulder.

"Hi Danny," he said. She smiled as she walked in front of him; her long dark brown hair hung around her shoulders.

"So did you make it?" she asked him, he smiled again. "Yeah," he answered, her smiled widened.

"Congrats! That's great! Who else made the wrestling team?" she asked, his smile faded.

"That's a little bit of bad news there, Nick Nash and Matt McGinnis made it too," he said, the smile faded off if her face too.

"I bet they're happy about that," she said.

"You have no…" he was about to answer but got cut off.

"Well if it isn't the New Park Row kids, heard you made the team Shay," a red head boy from behind them said. They turned around to see him; some other boys were standing around him, laughing.

"You gotta problem with that Nash?" Shay asked.

"No, just wondering how a little poor boy from New Park Row could be as good as, oh, I don't know, me," he said.

"Get a life Nick," Danny said. Nick was just like his older brother, so was Matt. The Nash-McGinnis war was going to go on forever, Danny and Shay were just helpers, but for no apparent side, for they fought with both.

"Why do you hang around with this loser Jones? When you could hang around with me," Nick said.

""I rather hang around with a loser, than a jerk," she said. Some of the guys behind Nick owed.

"Pretty clever for a New Park Row kid," he told her. Danny took a step forward to attack but Shay placed an arm in front of her to stop her.

"We have other things to attend to, more important things," he said. She looked at him and nodded. The two of them began to walk away, Nick and the guys around him laughed. As they rounded the corner they stopped suddenly. They ran into a boy their age, he had black hair that fell to his ears, a green and red jacket, a red shirt, and gray pants with red pockets.

"Watch it!" he said. The three of them looked at each angrily.

"Well watch it as you turn the corner McGinnis!" Danny yelled at him.

"Sorry, I didn't see the caution sign!" he yelled back.

"Hey look Matt just get out of here, Nick's around the corner with some guys," Shay told him, Matt and Danny calmed down.

"I'm not afraid of him, like some people I know," he said looking a Danny. Danny had the largest part in both fights, she took the "New Park Row Kids" more seriously then Shay did.

"I'm not afraid of him either! I just have better things to do," she said.

"Like what, look through garbage?" he asked. That was a little too much, Danny punched him straight in the jaw. He fell to the ground, his chest arched upwards as he landed on his backpack. Some of the girls in the hall screamed, all the kids ran over and circled them. Shay looked around then down at Matt in surprise. Matt looked up at Danny and wiped some blood off the corner of his mouth. Danny looked down at him, not caring about all the wide eyes and whispering around her, or the dumbfounded expression on Matt's face, angry and kind of proud of herself. If she was going to have a bad reputation, she was gonna earn it. Shay grabbed her wrist.

"Let's get out of here before it gets ugly," he said as he pulled her through the crowd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I hate that guy!" Danny yelled as she slammed he backpack on the huge oval shaped table in a corner of the batcave. The table had a black stripe down the middle and ten chairs around it. The eight people in the room jumped. Shay just stood by her calmly and sighed.

"Hate who?" Terry asked as he, Marlena, and Chase stood close to the table. David, Alisa, and Adam stood on the other side of the table; Bruce and Emily stood by themselves around the table.

"Your brother," Shay answered him.

"What he do now?" Terry asked.

"He went a little too far," Shay answered, Terry frowned.

"What did you do?" Adam asked Danny.

"I decked him," she said with a smile on her face, Terry smiled.

"He bleed?" Terry asked.

"Oh yeah, right in front of everyone," Danny said gleaming with pride.

"If you don't mind, we do have things to attend to," Bruce said as he sat down in the biggest chair that made the front of the table. Everyone else sat in chairs around the table quietly. Bruce pulled a cloth bag out from under the table. He opened it and removed eight small devices and placed them in a perfect row on the table in front of him. Each of them looked like they would open up from the bottom. Each was a pattern of different colors, and each had a different name on it, except for one that had two names. He passed half of them to one side of the table and the rest down the other side. On his right side Terry got on first, the Emily, then David and Chase. On the other side Adam, Alisa, Marlena, and Shay got the other's, Danny and Shay's had Batgirl and Robin written on it. They looked at and frowned at Bruce.

"Come on Bruce, we're not kids anymore," Danny complained.

"We're only a year younger then Terry and Emily were when they started," Shay said. Bruce frowned at them and Emily and Terry hid their faces in their hands, slightly embarrassed that they had even been so young and inexperienced.

"So what do you want?" Bruce asked with his cold expression, spending the last seven years with kids less then half his age didn't seem to lighten him up, he wasn't very pleased with all the members of the GB, neither was Barbara, but Bruce enjoyed being in charge. He also enjoyed watching how much better all of them became, except Emily. She surprised him the most, she hadn't changed really, but she was still as good as the rest of them, maybe even better then all of them, even Terry.

"We want one for each of us, we don't need to work together all the time anymore," Danny said.

"We're two separate members of the GB," Shay said.

"And we want to be treated like it," Danny finished. Everyone else around the table looked at them, then at Bruce, who just looked at Danny and Shay, his expression not changing. They all watched him waiting to see what her would do, not hiding the impatient feeling they had.

"Fine, Danny, you help Alisa and Terry handle Spellbinder, he escaped again. Emily, you, and Marlena handle Cyber; she's infected a few corporate computers, including Wayne Powers Airforce Center. David, you and Shay handle the Jokerz, keep them out of trouble. Chase, and Adam, you have watch duty, unless you want to run an errand for me Chase," Bruce said.

"Running is what I do best," Chase said proudly.

"Fine, suit up kids, Chase I'll talk to you when everyone's gone," Bruce said. They all nodded. Terry, David, Danny, and Shay walked over to the changing rooms, they had to add more since there were more of them, and they even have girls and guys changing rooms. Chase was gone and back as Moment in a second. Emily and Adam appeared in their costumes, a trick Emily had taught Adam. Marlena also appeared in her costume. Alisa took off the jacket she was wearing, her Python costume lay underneath, and she placed her mask on her face. Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin walked over to the table. Everyone picked up their devices and placed them in their belts.

"Bruce, what are these things anyway?" Batman asked as he realized Bruce hadn't really told them what they were.

"They're communication devices, helpful devices. Each of them has a link to the batcomputer, ask it something, and it will give you all the information you need. You can also call each other, or every one. Each of them also have a small holographic image," Bruce said.

"The VA?" Blaze asked him hopefully. He nodded, and she smiled. Everyone looked at the two of them confused.

"What's the VA?" Green Lantern asked as she pulled a small thing from her pocket and placed it on the table. She aimed her ring at it and a flash of green light aimed at her ring. She smiled at everyone.

"I love that it's so small now," she said.

"The VA is the Virtual Alfred, he will give you information, he can be life size, or fit on the inside of the device," Bruce said as he pulled another one out of the devices and handed it to Batgirl.

"You can tell it what you want it to say, what name, the hero name, your real name, or no name," Bruce said.

"What's it called, or do we just call it device?" Python asked.

"You can call it CAD," Bruce said.

"Fine by me," Batman said. Everyone else agreed.

"Then go now, Moment I'll talk to you now," Bruce said as everyone walked towards the door outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Remember, don't look at the..." Batman started, Batgirl and Python looked at him annoyed.

"Yeah you probably do remember, Ok let's find this guy," Batman said. The three of them too sat on a rooftop by the edge.

"Hey look," Batgirl said and pointed to the street below them. They looked and saw the Jokerz riding their motorcycles down the street, with Nightwing and Robin following them from above. Robin looked up and saw Batgirl watching him, she could see him smile lightly, and she smiled too.

"You sure you don't wanna join them, we can handle Spellbinder," Python said resting a hand on her shoulder, she looked at her.

"Just like stop sucking your thumb, just quit all at once," Batgirl said.

"Jeez I hope Blaze didn't think of me like that when we were first posted apart," Batman said. Python and Batgirl looked at him curiously.

"Well we did work alone for a long time," he said protectively.

"Yeah one day you're going have to tell us what happened between you two," Batgirl teased.

"When you're older," he said grinning.

"Stop teasing her Batman, we both know you've never done anything like that in your life," Python said, Batgirl laughed.

"Oh be quiet Python," he said meanly, and Batgirl and Python laughed. They saw a flash of light zoom by them. They saw it jumped over to the rooftop in front of them. They heard running and felt hands separate them.

"Excuse me!" Blaze yelled as she jumped off the roof and turned on the jets in her shoes and just flew over the street to the rooftop. They felt another pair of hands separate them and saw Green Lantern fly across too.

"Sorry!" she yelled. Batman, Python, and Batgirl just looked at each other and shrugged.

"Let's go now, and remember..." Batman said.

"We know, we know," Batgirl and Python complained at the same time.

"You're beginning to sound just like Bruce," Batgirl said.

"Never ever say that," Batman said.

"I think he's more like Nightwing probably was," Python said.

"What do you mean by that?" Batman asked.

"You only have one weakness," Python said.

"And what's that?" Batman asked curiously.

"You're ability to feel emotion," Python answered.

"Let's go already," Batman said as he jumped off the rooftop.

"I wonder if Bruce ever ended a conversation like that," Batgirl said.

"You wanna ask him?" Python asked. Batgirl thought about it with her finger on her chin.

"No he creeps me out," she said simply.

"I think that's what he try's to do," Python said, Batgirl grinned.

"Let's go," Batgirl said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You are so childish Nash," Danny said. Nick Nash and a bunch of his friends had cornered Danny against some lockers. Other kids watched from outside the circle in curiosity of what would happen. Shay walked around the corner with his backpack on his back and a book in his hand. He stopped when he stepped around the corner and quickly hid around the corner, peeping his head out to watch unnoticed by anyone.

"Look I just wanna talk to you," Nick said slyly.

"Well I don't wanna talk to you!" she said.

"Sorry to hear that Danny," he said and some of his friends began to approach her, running really. She jumped up and flipped backwards so she landed on top of the lockers. Her sneakers squeaked on the metal top and some of the girls screamed a little. The guys that had come after her had kept on running and ran right into lockers. They looked up at where she sat perched on the locker top; she waved and smiled at them. They jumped up and touched her shoes. She stood up with plenty of headroom above her. She ran along the top of the lockers, the guys chasing her from below, jumping up to touch her sneakers. Her shoes still squeaked as she ran, kids yelled as they saw her and if the guys ran into them as they were at their lockers. Shay watched as she ran and held his breath as she jumped across the hall from one set of lockers to another, but she made it. The guys ran into the hall, one of them running into a guy and falling to the ground. Shay walked over slowing so he could still see her; he shrugged at some kids that gave him questioning looks. When he got into the hall she had jumped into the turned to the right, he saw Danny stopped on the locker top, the four remaining guys standing still below her. Two of the guys lay on the floor with another student beside them, one right at the corner, one down by Danny at the end of the hall. The one at the end of the hall had run into a girl, and she slapped him across the face. Shay then noticed the tall man standing in front of Danny and the rest of the guys, and Shay gulped. That man was Mr.Austin, the vice-principal. He didn't have as much power as the principal, Ms.Taylor, but was just as creepy. Shay looked and saw Nick right next to him trying to slowing walk away. Shay quickly grabbed the back of his coat collar and dragged him backward down the hall. Mr.Austin looked at watched him, so did the other guys and Danny, still on top of the lockers, Danny smiled as Shay pulled Nick down the hall, Shay smiled at her.

"Mr.Edwards what are you doing?" Mr.Austin asked him.

"Mr.Nash here ordered is friends to attack Danny Mr.Austin, Danny was just, ah, defending her," Shay said as he shoved Nick into the rest of the guys.

"By running on the locker tops?" Mr.Austin asked him. Danny grinned nervously.

"It was the only thing I could do Aus," she said and jumped down from the lockers and landing perfecting next to Mr.Austin, "they had me completely surrounded by all sides, bigger, taller, stronger. So, I jump, as highs as I possibly can, back flip up onto the locker tops. I ran, as fast as I possibly can, but they were catching up to me. Faster and faster I went, then, my road came to an end. I'm up there, running out of time and space, so what do I do, what do I do? I'll tell you what I do, I jump, I take a flying leap of faith, over the hall, over the people, and I land, right on the other set of lockers. They're still chasing me, so I run again, this time they're slower," she said waving her hand in the air. Mr.Austin looked at her not amused, she frowned.

"Detention, Ms.Jones," he told her, she frowned again.

"Lay off her Aus," a male voice said from behind him. Everyone in the hall turned around and saw two people standing there, a girl and a guy," she was just defending herself."

"Mr.McGinnis, and Ms.Ryan, what are you doing here?" Mr.Austin asked them.

"Mom wants me to pick up Matt," Terry answered.

"Wayne wants me to pick up the girl you were about to put in detention and Shay," Alisa answered.

"Ms.Ryan what are you doing hanging around with McGinnis? You were such a nice quiet girl," Mr.Austin asked her, Terry frowned.

"He's a friend of mine, we have, certain things in common," she told him.

"Well you can't take them now," he said.

"Why not, school's out," Terry said.

"They have detention," he answered.

"All of them?" Alisa asked.

"Why?" Terry asked.

"That fight yesterday," Danny said, Terry grinned.

"Oh that's right, you made him bleed. He burst in my apartment that afternoon, he hates you," Terry said, Danny smirked.

"Yes well the smaller McGinnis went to the nurse's office after Ms.Jones' "lucky" punch he called it," Mr.Austin said.

"Oh shway!" Danny yelled happily. Mr.Austin glared at her coldly and she shut up.

"Isn't there anyway they can get out of it?" Terry asked.

"At least Danny and Shay, when Wayne says he wants to talk to them, London sinking into the sea shouldn't keep them away," Alisa said.

"Fine, when London sinks into the sea, then he can talk to them," Mr.Austin said and turned around. He motioned all the kids and they began to walk towards his office, including Danny and Shay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Now I can't be to sure, but I'm pretty sure we're in like, SO much more trouble now," Shay said as he and Danny walked up to the secret door to the batcave.

"So what if we snuck out of detention, we didn't do anything wrong in the first place. And I thought you couldn't be sure," she said.

"Well I lied, so there. And you did do something, and dragged me in as usual," he said.

"I never dragged you into anything Shay, you always seemed to volunteer," she said s she pressed her palm on a small panel. A door slide open and the two walked into a section of the batcave.

"I never volunteered for you to get me into trouble," he complained.

"Well you never tried to get out of it when you could've, we are two different people you know," she said as the walked in. Batman, Nightwing, and Myst already stood in the cave, all watching the two fight.

"Yeah I know, maybe we you should try and remember that!" Shay yelled. They both stopped in the middle of the cave.

"Me! Oh that's it! Maybe we should just stop seeing each other at all!" she yelled back.

"Fine with me!" Shay yelled.

"Fine!" Danny yelled back.

"Fine!" Shay repeated. The two stormed off in different directions. Everyone else watched them in curiosity.

"That was odd," Batman said simply.

"Not as weird as what we have to do tonight," Blaze said walking over to them, flipping through some paper's a sliver clipboard.

"Where's Bruce?" Nightwing asked.

"He's, ah, taking time off tonight, so I'm taking care of things tonight," Blaze answered. They looked at her in shock.

"Bruce, taking time off a night, you gotta be kidding be!" Myst said.

"Well I'm not. Nightwing, get on the horn, get everyone here, now, I'm allowing a 15 minute time period for them to get here. Myst, when they get here give out the assignments Bruce gave me. Bats, we need to talk," she said handing the board to Myst as Nightwing walked over to the batcomputer.

"And Myst, tell the people to go out, Batman will join them, I'll be staying here," she said as she walked away from them into a separate part of the cave. The three of them shared a worried and confused glance then Batman quickly jogged after Blaze. He found her leaning on her hand against the case with the old Batman costume, which had been moved with the other classics to make room for the GB's. She was looking down at the floor. Batman slowed as he approached her, stopping and looking at her several feet away. She slowly turned her head to look at him, she looked like she was about to cry, and Batman's face turned to pure worry and fear.

"Blaze, what's wrong, is Bruce sick?" Batman asked her. She leaned up off the case.

"He's not sick, he's dying," she answered him. He gasped and held his breath in his throat. He couldn't talk, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't do anything, just stand there in shock.

"Are you sure?" he managed to choke out, even though he knew the answer. She wouldn't have told him unless she was sure.

"Yeah, I'm sure, Bruce is sure. He's know it for sometime, I don't know why he told me now," she said turning away from the case.

"Who else knows?" he asked. "Dad, and Mark, Pete may know I'm not sure," she said.

"Are you going to tell everyone else?" Batman asked, he was full of questions, some he couldn't form into words, he hoped she would answer all that he could though.

"No, they're not going to know till he's gone," she answered him.

"Then why did you tell me?" Batman asked.

"Bruce wanted me to, he doesn't think he could've told you, so he asked me to," she said.

"How long does he have?" Batman asked, gulping back tears, he wanted to cry, he knew Blaze wanted to too, but she couldn't, neither of them could.

"Days, weeks, months, we only know less then a year," she answered sadly.

"So who's he leaving in charge?" he asked trying to get to business.

"He hasn't decided," she said.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"Yeah, either you, or me," she answered.

"You!?" he asked not believing he even thought of her, he was Batman, Bruce was Batman, Bruce would leave him in charge. But on the other hand, she was family, and he trained her longer then he had trained him, and her father trained her, as did Barbara, and Tim long ago. She had been learning since she was seven, almost ten years before him.

"Yes me," she said solemnly, but not angrily.

"Sorry, I just didn't," he said.

"I know, you're Batman, logically he should leave you in charge. But, in truth, I'm more like him then you are; I don't know how it happened. I must have learned it from him, and Dad. He probably knows I'm like him, and that's what he wants to leave," she answered.

"Like an impression," Batman said, Blaze nodded.

"What's he going to do about the company?" Batman asked.

"Dad's buying it. It'll be Wayne Grayson from now on," she answered him; he looked at her surprised.

"What do you mean?" Batman asked.

"Dad is buying Bruce's half, and Mark is buying Paxton's," she answered.

"Has he agreed to sell, Paxton?" Batman asked.

"He will, he has a business weakness," she told him. "What?" he asked.

"He's greedy and impatient," she answered.

"Blaze," Batgirl said peeking her head around the corner.

"Yes?" Blaze asked over Batman's shoulder.

"Can I talk to you, privately?" she asked as Batman turned around to see her.

"Oh, girl stuff, I get it. See, see ya later Blaze, keep the com link open at all times," he said turning back to her and walking out past Batgirl walking backwards. Batgirl shyly walked over to Blaze.

"Blaze, can I ask you something?" she said walking over to Blaze, her hands behind her back.

"You know you can Batgirl," Blaze said.

"You've worked with Batman, and Terry for a long time, right?" she asked. Blaze nodded.

"Seven years," she said.

"Well, did you ever, you know, feel anything for him?" Batgirl asked.

"What kind of feel?" Blaze asked, knowing perfectly well what she was talking about, but just wanted to hear her say it.

"I don't know, just a, feeling, in your chest and stomach," Batgirl said shrugging. Blaze smiled, she had to, Batgirl was so nervous.

"Yeah I have, it's perfectly normal to have a feeling about a guy you've known that long, placed your life in his hands and he into yours, spend almost 24 four hours a day with him and so on, but it never lasts too long, less then a day. When you wake up tomorrow, it'll be gone," she said, Batgirl smiled. She began to walk away but stopped when she got to the doorway, and turned around.

"Can you give me two words to describe you as a kid my age?" Batgirl asked simply, Blaze looked at her surprised.

"Social outcast," she said finally. Batgirl smiled.

"I suppose it's kind of a must to be where we are," Batgirl said, and walked out of the room. Blaze smiled, then turned back to the cases, and stopped smiling.

"Please help him Batman," she said to the costume, "please help them all, let them get away from this, they don't really belong here. It's too late for me, I know that, I've been training for this for 17 years, but help them. Let there be no more causalities of these war, of that mask," she told it. She remembered when she a little girl, she'd come down here and sit in front of that costume and talk to it, asking it to help her, and it always seemed to work. She had told it what she wanted most in her life at the time, and that's what she wanted now. She wanted to be the only one the mask would consume; she wanted Adam, Alisa, David, Chase, Marlena, Shay, Danny, maybe, even Terry to leave the mask behind. She wanted them to have a life, and a family, to not end up like Bruce, hurt and alone, like she would be one day. She squeezed her eyes shut trying to get rid of the image of her as an old woman, all alone in the darkness.

"Please spare them, help them get away. I know Batman's been a prisoner of the mask for years, but if Dad could do it, so can Terry, I just hope Terry can get out before he begins to act like Dad. Help him Batman, please, help them all, let them live their lives as happily as possible. You always helped me before, please help them now, for me, and protect Bruce, like you always have," Blaze said setting her fingertips on the glass. She didn't see the dark figure of Batman standing in the doorway, arms folded across his chest, and a sad smile on his face.

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