rekindleme | We're not the ones with the big guns, some kind of shiny secret weapons

Entry tags:

We're not the ones with the big guns, some kind of shiny secret weapons

Who: Batgirl and Miss Martian
Where: One of many rooftops
When: Late night
Summary: Miss Martian comes bearing gifts
Warnings: None

Since her arrival in Saeng Seong patrolling had become less like a job for Steph and far more like a hobby. There wasn't a whole ton of crime to be stopped, nobody manning a computer giving orders through the com link in her cowl, no overzealous police officers to avoid, no realy cute detectives to flirt with...

But none of that really mattered. She knew it was a total cliche, but when she was up in the sky like this she felt alive in a way she just couldn't down at street level. So it got a little boring. She had plenty of time to work on her flips and handsprings, and she needed the fresh air and exercise. The costume was both some small defense against falling and breaking her neck, and a comfort. She was Batgirl (which, by the way, was still really freaking cool), and Batgirl ruled the rooftops.

She wasn't really expecting company, but then, the only company she tended to run into up here were all friendlies. She didn't make herself difficult to find.

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While she's keeping half her attention on the streets below, keeping at least one eye out for trouble, that's not M'gann's focus tonight. No, tonight she is finally on a mission, one of utmost importance! Or at least one that she's equal parts excited and nervous about. As she flies, M'gann keeps a careful grip on the metal tupperware that contains some precious cargo for her, and the person she's hoping to find.

And, as it turns out, that person isn't too far away. Her face lights up when she spots a familiar caped figure, and M'gann dives towards the roofs. "Batgirl, hang on a second! I've been looking for you." Oh, she's in full on grins now, as she pulls up and has the container held out as an offering of sorts.

Steph paused at hearing her name, turning to see where it came from. It sounded urgent, but from the look on M'gann's face it wasn't trouble. And... she blinked at the tupperware container in the girl's hands.

"Yeah? What's up?" She hesitantly reached out to take the box, not entirely sure if they were intended for her, or why.

"Well, actually," Okay, okay. Deep breath; she rehearsed this beforehand, now she just needs to actually go through with her little speech. "I wanted to give you this. Seeing as you've been working really hard at things, and I thought it would be a good pick-me-up! And sugar boost."

And as she says that, a little telekinetic nudge pries the lid off as M'gann holds the container forward. And presents a full set of sugar and frosted cookies...Specially bat-emblem shaped. It took some work to form a cookie cutter into the right shape, but she looks well proud of what she's accomplished. (And...She may have discreetly taste tested one or two, back at her apartment before setting out.)

Steph looked down into the pile of cookies and felt the smile growing on her face before the idea even fully registered.

"Oh, thanks! You made these yourself?" She turned and found a seat on the rim of the roof, setting the cookies in her lap and popping one immediately into her mouth."

"Yeah! I wanted to try this recipe out and...I thought you might like it? It looks like you do." She hazards guessing that, taking a seat as well...And then telekinetically snagging a cookie of her own from the tray, to slowly nurse and enjoy. M'gann kicks her feet out again, letting them dangle over the empty street as she grins.

"There's some nice treats here, but nothing quite like what I could find back at home. I wanted to try making those, see how they turned out."

She nodded and made a muffled 'mmmhmm' sound through the cookie in her mouth, holding the box out so that M'gann could reach it too. She didn't need to eat all these cookies herself.

Finally she swallowed, and could properly show her appreciation.

"These are awesome! Where'd you get the cookie cutter? Even in Gotham they only sell them around Halloween."

At that, M'gann's smile turns a bit shy as she taps her head. "Actually, I made it. Sort of. I could find a bat-shaped cookie cutter easily enough; from there I just had to adjust it enough to make it look something more like your symbol. Or what I could remember of Batman's."

Not that it was too hard; the Dark Knight being one of the most iconic heroes broadcasted to Mars, after all. She knew that symbol almost by heart, if not quite as well as the S-shield...Or her Uncle J'onn's emblem, which she glanced down to look at on her own costume.

"Cool," Steph exclaimed quite sincerely. It was good work. "I'll have to repay the favor some time." Baking was a lot easier than regular cooking, so she wasn't too worried in that respect.

"So hey, how've you been?"

"If you happen to know anything about making good waffles," she offers, recalling that half processed thought she'd picked up from before. The next question gets her to float up a little more, as she nods out over the city and gives the skyline a smile.

"Good! It's not the same as home at all, but I'm getting by. Handshakes, that sort of thing...Maybe even a few hugs. And there's always a little crime fighting in the evening, though there's not a lot of it here, compared to other places." Read, Gotham. "I can manage, though...Even if it's a little different without the Team." Or a lot different, as the case may be.

Steph chuckled sheepishly. She did know a thing or two about making good waffles.

"Hey," she offered suddenly, "if you ever want to spar or something, I've got a bit of free time on my hands these days." She gestured vaguely to the otherwise empty rooftop, indicating how she had plenty of time to sit and enjoy a box of cookies.

"If Red ever starts feeling a little less competitive we could invite her too." Steph didn't like to feel like she was competing, though she often did. She made a point of avoiding the sensation whenever possible, choosing instead to act as though she felt no need to compete.

"You would? Great! I've been hearing about some sort of sparring-thing people are trying to get off the ground; that's actually one of the things that's felt weird, not doing each day. Black Canary used to be really diligent about training us each day in that." Another kick with her feet, stretching them out into the air as she tests the muscles.

M'gann glances at the tray for a moment, wondering if she should bring up that she made some cookies for 'Red Batgirl' (as M'gann has started to call her, internally) as well. But, quick enough, she decides not to pursue that thought beyond nodding in agreement.

"...Might be good to get back to that, actually. When I meet Black Canary again, I don't...You know, don't want to disappoint her?" She'd already done that once, before. Slacking off from practice wasn't something M'gann wanted to add to her list.

Steph chuckles. Yeah, she knows that feeling. Dinah was a great teacher, and a good friend. She wasn't the sort of person you wanted to disappoint ever.

"I didn't know Canary was training the Titans. She's one of the best, you know."

"The...Titans?" She sounds genuinely confused, looking back to make sure she heard that correctly. (And maybe even making some minute shifts to her ears to make sure they're working properly.) "I've never heard of them, but I guess it's possible she might be?"

There's still plenty of things about the League and the heroing world at large that she doesn't know about, after all.

"The... Teen Titans?" Steph wasn't at all sure where the confusion stemmed from. M'gann talked about her team all the time.

"You know, Robin, Kid Flash, the team?"

M'gann shakes her head again, now looking REALLY bewildered.

"Robin and Kid Flash are on the team, yeah. Along with Aqualad, Artemis, and Superboy...Oh! And Zatanna, too; she's sort of a new member, but she's still part of the team." She's babbling now, M'gann knows, and tries to bring her words back on track. "And we are all teens...I just never heard 'Titans' on the end of that. I mean, if you're talking about my team?"

She points to herself as she says that, complete with index finger and half nibbled cookie in her hand.

Her frown deepened with every mismatched detail. By the time she mentioned Zatanna Steph was certain that they were not, in fact, from the same universe. It had been her own fault, she guessed, for assuming.

"I guess not. I don't even know who Artemis is and Zatanna is twice my age."

"...That doesn't sound right for me, either. You're older than the Zatanna I know." She probably should have really, consciously realized this possibility of different worlds, given the conversation between M'gann, Batgirl Blonde and Batgirl Red. M'gann shakes her head, just reminding herself that alternate dimensions and worlds ARE supposed to be A Thing heroes deal with; she's pretty sure her uncle J'onn has encountered more than a few during his time as the Martian Manhunter.

"Right; hello, Megan. Should've remembered the whole 'different worlds' possibility." She speaks out loud, leaving her cookie floating in the air as she smacks her palm against her forehead.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Steph couldn't help but feel the entire confusion was her own fault. "I haven't really studied the files like I should have." But, you know, she had homework to do. She shrugged sheepishly.

"It's okay...Though I'm not too surprised that your Batman has files on everyone." Really, not too surprised at all; it stands to reason her own world's Dark Knight would have information like that...Though she finds herself hoping that file isn't fully complete. It shouldn't be complete, either, with how carefully she's tried to hide and mask that facet of herself.

M'gann finds herself snatching that cookies back out of the air, and nibbling at it again to keep any nervous jitters out of her stomach. "What...Did you read?" She's not fully sure she WANTS to know the answer to that, but there it is out in the open anyway.

Steph laughed awkwardly, forgetting the cookies for the moment to turn all of her attention to her fingers, which began the apparently fascinating process of steepling and relaxing in turns.

"I may have... gone through most of the files for Young Justice, the Teen Titans, and the Birds of Prey. Just, you know, in my spare time." She had wanted to know more, wanted to be a part of their teams and lives. And maybe in a small way she wanted to be like Tim, knowing everything all the time.

"I was supposed to be studying all of the files when I was training as Robin, but I honestly forgot a whole lot of it." In her defense, the studying had been almost immediately followed by physical and emotional trauma and then a year in Africa thinking about literally anything else.

"Speed reading, you know, you only pick up so much."

"Robin?" She blinks in surprise, glancing over at Batgirl, before shaking her head and giving a nervous laugh. "Sorry...I guess I'm used to Robin being thirteen, a boy, and black haired. Though a girl Robin sounds neat, too."

Her voice switches to sincerity on the last, and M'gann relaxes a little. So there doesn't appear to be anything about her...Or an alternate version of her, at least. That's a relief; she can even start tasting the sugar in the cookie now, and lets her toes curl in the empty air.

Steph grimaced at her hands for a moment as she realized that she had just described basically every Robin that had ever been.

"No reason a girl couldn't do it, except that we tend not to put up with Batman's crap. He really hates it when people don't crumble under his disapproving stare." That was her story and she was sticking to it. It made her feel a little less like a failure and a little more like the independent young woman she had worked so very hard to grow in to.

That laugh gets swallowed fast when M'gann sees that reaction. That was the last thing she wanted to cause, and she sputters on some cookie crumbs as she tries to figure out something to say.

"Y-yeah, but," something to say WITHOUT tripping over every word, ideally. "But you're...You're doing fine now, right? I mean, look at you! Taking care of crime like it's not problem...Not that it is with you or anything." She's about ready to just try frantically gesturing, and only just manages to instead push herself off the edge of the building so she can float in front of Batgirl, trying to give her the most earnest look possible.

Steph's eyebrows rise and she purses her lips to keep a serious face. She hadn't expected the Martian to be so sensitive to her feelings. So all the Robins except for her looked the same, it isn't as though that was the reason Batman set her up to fail.

At least, it probably isn't... He couldn't possibly be that sexist, could he?

"Yeah," she finally answered with a smile, "that's me, kicking ass and taking names. Batgirl is much more my style anyway. Less primary colors, more purple." She tugs the edge of her cape out from under her to show M'gann the purple lining. It's almost but not quite eggplant.

"It's nice; dark colors can be really pretty." To drive the point home, she gestures to her own stealth suit...And even gives the elbow and knee patches a slight tweak, to give them a purple tinge as well.

With that initial jolt of panic gone, she manages to float a little easier in the air...And is left wondering if she should try a change in conversation. Or at least bring up something else to keep it on a more even keel, when it comes to talking about mentors and names.

"I didn't...Completely follow in my uncle's footsteps either, I guess. At least not when it comes to names; though Uncle J'onn did help me with figuring out a costume." She lets her own cape float in the wind as she says that. Maybe it isn't a perfect mirror, but she did pull a lot of inspiration from him.

Steph relaxed as M'gann did, and picked up another cookie to chew on while she listened. She looked the dark costume up and down with an amused expression.

"You don't say," she intoned sarcastically, though not cruelly. The costume was essentially identical to Martian Manhunter's, in much the way that Batgirl was essentially identical to Batman.

"Hey, so, if you're from an alternate universe, are you actually J'onn's niece?" She figured now was a good time to ask, and it would give the girl an opportunity to straight up lie if she wanted to. It wasn't as though it was particularly important in the grand scheme of things.

"Wh-what?" It's a wonder she doesn't drop straight out of the sky, with how much that question shocks all her focus out of her. M'gann DOES drop a few feet before she can gather her thoughts again.

Words, however, take longer for her to pull together and manage; at first, all she can do is stare in absolute confusion.

Before she FINALLY manages to speak.

"Of…Of course I'm his niece. He's my uncle through my mother. I know he has…Four hundred other nieces on Mars, but we are related." It's one of the few things about her family that she can be proud of, after all. M'gann hugs at her arms as she speaks, scared of what she needs to ask now.

"Why did you ask?"

Steph bit her lip until M'gann got her last question out. It didn't sound like M'gann was lying, but it certainly sounded like she had something to hide.

"I wasn't going to say anything in front of Red, but like I said, I read your file. In my universe you're not related."

"Well...Well things are different where I'm from." She wants to point to her own green skin to drive that point home, but her hands freeze up on even attempting that lie.

"But...Thank you for not saying anything? Until now, I mean. Thanks, though." But at the same time it's hard to quash that nervous feeling fluttering around in her stomach and chest. What ELSE did she read from that file? There's the temptation to reach out with her thoughts and try scanning, to find out for herself.

"Hey," she shrugged, her smile growing more relaxed, "I'm a Bat. I keep secrets like nobody's business. Not like I don't have anything to hide." She had no intention of putting M'gann in a tight spot with respect to her race. They weren't close enough yet to be sharing intimate details, and unlike Tim she didn't like to bring up the knowledge she had about other people when she wasn't supposed to.

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We're not the ones with the big guns, some kind of shiny secret weapons

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