Jason and the Argonauts Chapter 1 Kick-Off

Last time on Wayne's Boys: Bruce settled down with Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian and Cass, and Dick and Babs and Tim and Steph maintain steady relationships while all eight run around Gotham, righting wrongs and kicking bad-guy butt. An investigation into new kid on the block Huntress reveals her to be an extra-dimensional daughter of Bruce and Selina, prompting Bruce to adopt her into the family.

AN: As everyone liked the "everyday" adventures in the last arc, I'll be flipping between the main storyline (starting here) and extra mini-adventures. For this reason, please pay attention to the dates heading each chapter.

Friday, 12th December

Dick was bored. He raised one hand, balancing upside down on a fixed trapeze with just his left. His right swept back, releasing the trapeze, sending him swinging forward. He turned it into a triple flip and hooked his knees onto the next trapeze. Then he sighed. Still bored. "Hey, Tim?"

"Hmm?" The boy, technically on spotting duty (really, Bruce didn't trust him not to fall?), didn't look up from his microcomputer. Bruce had taken it back after his fingers healed enough for him to use a normal keyboard. He'd then sulked for a week until Bruce had returned it. The fourteen-year-old and his gadget were now inseparable.

"D'you want to go out with me tonight?" the acrobat asked, closing his eyes to enjoy the slight swaying effect of the trapeze.

Tim made an odd strangled sound. "Have you discussed that with Babs?" Dick snapped his eyes open, bunching his eyebrows together at the strange look being sent his way. "I mean, I never thought I was your type," the younger boy continued. "And, sorry, but you're not really mine. I'm quite happy with Steph. And the incest thing; does it apply in adoption?"

Dick swung away, landing in a handspring on a half-height platform and back-somersaulting to the floor as he attempted not to fall in an undignified heap. "Tim, I meant patrol, not a date, and-" the teen's smirk cut him off. "And you knew that, you devious little-!"

Tim was clearly deriving far too much pleasure from the deliberate 'misunderstanding', but wilted slightly under Dick's disappointed gaze. "Sorry, sorry, okay?" he said. "Yeah, I know what you meant. I have a Titans meeting this evening…" His voice tailed off, muttering something about the League's teleporters.

"Is everyone off with teams today?" Dick groaned. "Bruce was planning to take Damian along to the League meeting, Cass is doing something with the Outsiders, Jason's touching home-base with his contacts, Babs and Helena are chatting with Black Canary about forming their own group…Everyone's busy."

"Erm…Steph's coming with me?" Tim offered weakly.

Dick collapsed against the wall next to Tim. "I'm. Bored," he complained. "Haven't heard a peep from any of the Arkhamites for a more than a month. Gangs are quiet. No mysterious murders or thefts or anything. What's there to do?"

"You're upset that things are quiet?" Tim asked.

"Frustrated," Dick corrected.

"Well, just have a nice long patrol and burn off the excess energy," Tim said, rolling his eyes.

Dick grunted. Tim was right; he was just so worn down by the monotony. Not even his studies at college offered much distraction; a serious downside to studying a subject he'd pretty much mastered by his twelfth birthday. Perhaps a new language? He'd been teaching Helena Romani lately, but she wasn't around…

"Yeah, I'll go prepare for patrol," he decided, rising to his feet.

Before he could go more than two steps, Bruce looked through the door. "Dick, there you are," he said. "You can take the night off. Barbara wants to give her group the run of the city." He disappeared before Dick could protest.

Dick fixed the now quietly-giggling Tim with a glare. "Life," he decided, "sucks."

Another place.

Another time.

They could not be found. If they were found, they would be disbanded. And that would break them all.

It was generally easy. As technology advanced, so did they. Cameras fooled with distortion fields. Eyes-in-the-sky bamboozled with stealth training. Keeping the secret, keeping going.

But now there were some new kids on the block. New kids with new talents and new priorities and thus a new threats. Which led to new schemes and new contingency protocols. There were even plans to turn their discovery to their advantage, not just damage control.

And it seemed those plans were about to be enacted.

The girl ran, desperate. Usually she was the predator, now she was the prey. Her pursuers were hot on her heels. She bobbed and weaved; sprinted and slid into shadow. It was futile. She could not outrun them; they were too fast. Nor could she hide. For all her skill at stealth (and that was her speciality), her opponents had the edge there as well. It was only a matter of time before they caught her.

And when they did, she'd lose everything.

But that was no reason to roll over and yield. One of the many principles drilled into her all her life was that of no surrender. Her people simply weren't the kind to allow anything to curtail their business until they'd taken every option.

Which would make her run until cornered, and when cornered, fight until overwhelmed. The greater the attention she brought to the pursuit and eventual combat, the more warning her people would get. It was just a matter of balancing the warning she'd give with revealing her existence to the world in general.

She ducked into a long dark shadow, pulled her black cape close around her, and reversed course. She twisted through the darkness, hoping she'd lost pursuers, but knowing it couldn't last long. All too soon, she emerged into the light, and ran for the next shadow.

The process repeated several times over, until finally she ran into someone. She staggered back, regaining her footing in an instant. She turned, and collided with another of her pursuers who'd seemingly come out of thin air.

She twisted, trying to get away, but more of her predators arrived and boxed her in. A pair of nunchuks found their way into her hands, and moved in a swirl of force and velocity, smacking soundly into the first one who'd stopped her. That one flew back, but the second was out of range for the rebound. She tried to advance, but a third attacker grabbed her, pulled her back and tried to get her in a lock.

Several minutes, some intense struggling, a couple of injuries and one lucky blow later, she slipped free. But two steps later, a massive pressure pushed her down, focusing on her hands, feet and waist. She twisted and struggled, but could not free herself.

"Stop struggling," a voice instructed, and she looked up to see the leader of her opponents, flanked by his two seconds-in-command. "You'll only hurt yourself."

The girl pulled once more, deliberately wrenching the shoulder she'd dislocated minutes before. Pain blossomed throughout her system; and rather than supressing it, as was standard, she focused on it, until her entire mind was filled with the agony, except for a small slit of consciousness though which she could see her captors. "Let me go," she demanded.

"Not after what you've done," the male second said and knelt next to her. He dug his fingers under her mask, and the security system kicked in. Electric sparks flew, and the female second winced, before the mask came away, baring the girl's bluish eyes. She ducked her head, her wealth of long black hair pooling around her shoulders. The leader sucked in a breath.

"How old are you?" he asked. "Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Old enough," she retorted. The leader and seconds exchanged glances.

"If you come with us, be one of us, we'll forget everything," he offered. "Stop what you're doing. There's so much good you could be doing."

The girl considered for the briefest moment. This was what the contingency plans led to; to give her people the best chance. "Okay."

The leader smiled. "Excellent. What's your name?"

The pressure vanished and she forced herself upright. "Huntress."

AN2: If you want to find out just what's going on in the last section, you'll have to come back.

Also updating today: Black and Red, another story in the WB-verse.

Please, please review!

Katara