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The Next Generation
Tangled Web
Disclaimer: Has nothing to w/ Spider-man, sorry anyone who wanted it to... And as I have said, I DON'T OWN ANY OF IT!!
A/N: Welcome back! And congrats to Tana-Babie for guessing the correct answer from the last chapter. The answer was: The Riddler. Now, shall we continue? ((PS: Flashback/Dream is in Italics, but don't worry, I'll warn you before I start it!))
"You okay?" Brianna's voice broke through her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, I guess..." Tanya sighed, slumping against the police car behind her. "What time is it anyway?"
"About eight thirty." She answered, glancing at the clock on her cell phone. "Jeez, time flies when you involve the cops."
Tanya almost smiled. "My parents are gonna kill me... Several times... Each." She shook her head. "D'ya think they'd buy that I was stuck in traffic?"
Brianna raised an eyebrow. "For about four hours?"
"Good point..." Tanya pushed herself off the car and started walking. "How about..."
"How about you stay over at Wayne's tonight?" Brianna interupted. "Tell your parents you'll be at a sleepover, if they ask who just say a friend from school. You could say me or someone else."
Tanya looked at the Gothic girl. "You really have done this alot, haven't you?" The other girl just smiled and walked alongside her.
By then, the doctors hadalready loaded the boy into the ambulance and driven off. Pandora was sitting with her parents on the steps leading to the door of their house, the three talking in low voices. The police were rolling the yellow tape back up, a few of them were sitting and drinking coffee that seemed to come from nowhere. The two girls walked around, eventually coming to the back yard. Brianna tested the lock on the gate, looked over her shoulder, then pulled something from a pocket in her trench coat and in seconds, the lock sprang open. "Too easy." She muttered, swinging the gate open.
There was one way to describe Pandora's backyard: Jungle! It was full of so many different flowers, trees, and other plants that Tanya couldn't see the ground at all. She followed Brianna in and had the strangest feeling they were being watched. 'Okay, I'm being paranoid now.' She thought, shaking off the feeling. 'Yeah, I'm being watched by plants.' A few minutes later, and the two girls were at the base of an old oak. Tanya could just see what looked like a treehouse high in the branches.
Brianna surveyed the tree a bit before she nodded and started to climb. 'That girl has to be part monkey or something.' Tanya thought as she watched the girl scurry up the tree, stopping halfway up to ask Tanya if she was coming up. Tanya sighed as she got a hold onto the tree and slowly made her way up. 'I know her for about four hours and she's already trying to kill me...'
"What did she tell you?" Brianna asked, her eyes still on the picture. "While Dick and I were with her boyfriend in the other room." She looked away from the picture, scanning the walls and floor. 'It's not here...' She thought, frowning. Pandora had always kept her 'secret box' up in the treehouse. She'd said it was a gift from her grandma, who she'd never met. But it wasn't there now. She shook her head. 'It's probably not important.'
Tanya looked at her, suprised. "She told me that she'd done something like this before, some guy in Star City."
Brianna nodded. "Anything else?" She walked around the treehouse, not quite sure what she was looking for. Eventually she stopped and went to stand by the window to the left of the door.
"Uh, no..." Tanya tried to think if there was anything else. "She said, not in these words, that her parents weren't exactly shocked, she said her dad mentioned 'it skips a generation', or something." The blonde shot the other girl a confused look. "Why?"
Brianna ignored the question. "Are you going to tell?"
"No." Tanya said instantly. "I won't."
"Good." Brianna turned to the blonde. "We should leave, they'll be missing us soon." She went back to the door and lifted a board at the edge and a rope ladder dropped down. Brianna ignored the other girls look and climbed down the ladder.
A few minutes later, Brianna and Tanya stepped back through the gate and spotted Dick over by hissmall blue car. "Ready to go ladies?" He asked as they approached.
"You bet!" Tanya said with a smile, sliding into the back seat.
Brianna shrugged and took the passenger seat. "Lets go."
Dick smiled, waved to the Commissoner, the started the car.
'I'm gonna die...' She thought, taking a deep breath. "Hi daddy!" She said in a slightly forced voice. "How are you?"
"Tanya?" Her fathers voice was a mix of confusion and anger. "Where are you? You were supposed to be home alm-"
"I know, daddy. I just got a little...sidetracked. Anyway, I'll be staying over at a friends house tonight, okay?" She said in a rush. "Uh, her parents said it'd be okay..." She glanced at Brianna, who'd picked Luna off the floor and was now standing near the stairs.
"Who's your friend? Not one of those girls you got in a fight with, Tanya?" He demanded. "You know, your brother says that school is a bad example for you, and I'm beginning to agree with him!"
Tanya had to struggle to keep the scowl out of her voice. "Daddy, I'm a big girl. And no! So, is it okay?"
"Sorry, sweety, but I have to be gone in the morning so you need to be here. I'm sure her parents will be fine with it." He yawned. "Get home soon, hun'." He hung up.
Tanya wanted to throw the phone, then handed it to Brianna and went to find Dick. "He said no..." She stopped, looking back to the other girl who was still at the stairs. "Uh, where'd he go?" The dark haired girl just shrugged. Tanya almost rolled her eyes. "Hey, Dick? You still alive?" She called out. "If not, can I have your car?" She heard the other girl chuckle slightly. A minute later, Dick came through the door.
"You called?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I need a ride back to my place." Tanya shrugged.
Dick looked at the clock. "It's nearly ten now, Tanya. You couldn't have asked earlier?"
The blonde fought a scowl. "Never mind, I'll call a cab." With that, she stormed out of the room.
Dick turned to Brianna, a confused look on his face. "What was that all about?"
Brianna smirked and, with Luna in her arms, began walking up the stairs. "If you don't know, I'm not tellin'."
Dick watched her go up the stairs, at the same time, he heard Tanya talking on the phone in the other room. He shook his head. "...Girls!" Hemuttered.
He blinked. "I put it in one of the rooms, second hall, third door." He walked away before she could ask more.
'And they call me weird?' She thought, walking back to the second hallway. She then counted down three doors, and tried the knob. It opened easily.
The room was big, but not overly huge. And dark. She liked it already. Wayne'd put her bags on the bed, a queen-size, all black, bordered by a dark greenvine pattern and a single blood-red, thorned rose 'growing' up the center of the top cover. The room was full of different shades of purples, blues, reds, and more, all closer to the 'dark' side of the spectrum than anything. Semi-transparent, dark blue drapes covered the two windows the room had. Pulling them back she was struck by the view of a forest, eventually leading out onto a beach, the moon hovering over the tops of mountians in the far distance, reflected in the water below. 'Cool, a room with a view!' She smiled slightly.
She began to unpack her bags, spilling it all out on the bed then either shoving it in a drawer, closet, or putting it on top of one of the three tables. She spotted something in the room that made her split into a grin: A computer! It was kind of an old modle, but it looked like it ran and probably had access to the web. 'It might not be so bad here...' She thought as she finished putting her things away and sitting on the bed. 'Hmm, comfy.' She rubbed her hand over the top sheet, feeling both cool and warm at the same time. She yawned, and looked at the clock, which was on the wall above one of the drawers and shaped like a rose, it was about an hour before midnight. 'Where does the time go in this city?' She wondered as she quickly undressed and redressed in a night-gown and crawled into the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.
Within minutes, she was asleep.
'I'm three, I'm allowed to be small.' She answered the voice. She nearly lost her balance for a moment, but she quickly shifted and regained her footing. The wind blew from behind her, as if telling her to keep moving. She listened.
The fence had to be at least ten feet up off the ground, she looked to her side and saw a HUGE yard, but the fence wrapped around it like a boa constricter. Another, harder, gust of wind nearly pushed her off the brick fence, but she managed to stay on. This was fun, and one of the few times she didn't mind being left alone.
Suddenly, a door nearby swung open with a bang. She looked in the direction of the noise and saw a big black dog running at her, barking and hit the fence and jumped up towards her, barking. She walked faster, stumbling a little but staying up higher than the dog could jump. Fear prickled her skin and she wondered why no one was coming to help her. The dog hit the fence again, hard, in her mid-step and she lost her balance, falling backwards. Gravity hit her and the ground, and the dog, came up to meet her.
Just before she reached the snarling dog, two arms grabed her out of the air and pulled her close. "Hush, Brianna, it's alright." A warm male voice said comfortingly, she calmed down a little and put her head on his shoulder. She shivered and felt the man start walking away from the fence. The dog, which had stopped as the man appeared, now turned and came closer to them, growling. She tensed up, tightening her hold on the mans neck and shoulders. He held her closer, yelling at the dog to "Keep away, Ace!"
With her over his shoulder, the man walked back inside, closing the door before the dog- Ace?- got in. She was beginning to feel better, but she still didn't release her hold on him, even as she felt him walk up a set of stairs and turn twice before opening a door. The room was dark, just like the bed he set her on before he turned and left, closing the door behind him.
She yawned, shivered, and laid back on the bed. She could hear the dog barking out side as she drifted off to sleep.
A/N: Annnnnd...CUT! End flashback/dream thingy! Remember, I'll review ANYONE'S story who can guess who that was and where! And they can pick the story! ((Hey, I ain't got nothin' better to do!))
She drew the black nightgown around her, playing with the white-lace ends as she walked down the hall. A small meow alerted her that Luna was awake too. Eventually she got to the stairs and, hearing what sounded like someone knocking over a rhino, went down and headed for the kitchen. Opening the door, she had to hold back a laugh at Dick, who'd tripped over a stool, on the floor covered in pizza and ice cream and soda. "You okay, Dick?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't notice the laugh that escaped into her voice.
He picked himself up and turned to look at her. "What are you doing awake?"
"I heard sleeping was popular, so I decided to boycott." She said sarcastically, a smirk forming on her face. "Besides, don't children pick up the actions of their elders? I'm up because you are."
"Oh, joy. Blame me." He said in a mock-pout. "Care for a midnight snack, Bri?"
"It's not midnight." She answered simply, ignoring his rolled eyes. "But sure." She reached for one of the containers of ice cream. Her favorite, Cookie dough! ((A/N: YUMMY! I LOVE cookie dough!)) Dick handed her a spoon and grabed a slice of the pizza from earlier.
"So, still the night owl, I see?" He said between bites. "What was it this time?"
She heasitated. Sure he was a family friend, hell he was her friend. But she didn't like talking about her 'personal business'. "A dream." Was all she said, hoping he'd let it drop.
He didn't. "Good or bad?"
"Both, neither." She shrugged and reached for a soda. She'd once heard her elementary school teachers telling her parents that she was 'cryptic'. As soon as she figured out what that meant, she decided she liked it. It was helpful in certain situations.
"Wanna tell me about it?" There was no trace of mocking in his voice, unlike when most adults asked someone younger than them that or a similar question.
"Not really." She answered quietly. Luna, feeling ignored, jumped onto the table between them, suprising both of them. "Off the table Ms. Kitty." Brianna scolded her cat. Dick laughed as she forcably removed the cat from the table, earning a small scratch as a reward. The cat glared up at her before curling up on the floor next to her chair.
"I'll never get what it is between girls and cats..." Dick said, still laughing. Brianna hit him with the spoon. "Hey, what was that for?"
'Guys!' She thought, rolling her eyes.
