HOME | DD

Description
Family

I own nothing
 *************************

"So, like, you're a superhero?"

Atlas smiled as he flexed the muscles beneath the high tech fabric that made up his t-shirt. She was 25, totally hot, as dumb as a brick, and had no idea he was barely 16.

Although, to be fair, most people failed to realize that he wasn't old enough to vote. He was tall for his age and the thick, rippling muscles that covered ever inch of his body tended to throw most people off. Plus there was the thick domino style mask he was wearing (he made a mental note to wear the mask more often).

"Yeah, I'm a superhero." Atlas said, trying to keep his tone totally casual since this girl was WAY hotter than any of the girls he met in private school. "I'm the mighty Atlas...from the news. Maybe you've heard of me?"

"Wow." The girl cooed, then reached out to touch his bicep, "For a minute I thought you were Batman because you have that bat symbol on your t-shirt."

"Oh this?" Atlas purposefully stuck out his chest to the girl to demonstrate his herculean build, "I'm part of Batman Incorporated, I work for-I mean with him, I work with him."

The girl giggled, "Cool."
 "Yeah, it is cool."

The girl opened her mouth to respond and words did come out, but they were drowned out by the angry buzz of Wonder Woman shouting at him over his radio. "Atlas, is the street secure?"

It was bad protocol but he didn't have a choice. Atlas had never dated a college girl and he knew that scoring with her would totally send his friend Charlie West into a jealous rage.

So he decided to ignore his mother.

"So can I get your number?"

****************

The thick fiber of her purple cape didn't keep the chill night air from sending a shiver up Sparrow's spine. She felt the goose pimples forming on the flesh under her costume as she pulled out her nightvision googles for another look at the street below.

This was stupid. Look out duty was stupid.

It made zero sense why her father decided that Andrew Fox, who wasn't her real brother and didn't have super powers, got to wear the Robin costume while she had to stand outside in a totally weird new uniform and watch the street.

It was hard being ten years old sometimes. Sparrow wanted action, she wanted adventure, she wanted...

To get a closer look at the large van that pulled up across the street.

*****************

"I asked you if the street was secure!"

His mother was screaming in his ear now but Atlas was too busy scribbling down the girl's phone number. "I'm coming, I'll be right there." He wanted to shout into his transmitter. But he didn't get the chance.

There's a common misconception among normal people that being invulnerable or more resistant to damage means that you are also more resistant to pain. Not true or at least no always true. If your skin has a micro forcefield created through unconscious telepathy like a Kryptonian or Daxamite, you can take a nuclear bomb to the face and never feel the impact. But if your body is simply resistant to damage, either through magic or genetics, then you feel every bullet bouncing off your chest and every knife that doesn't penetrate your skin. It hurts like crazy.

That was the situation Atlas found himself in as the car, a mid sized sedan/station wagon combo, flew through the air and into his face. It knocked him off his feet and the sheer force of flying metal sent him flying into the coffee shop then feet behind him. As he impacted through the building's front facade, the car bounced into the nearby wall and shook the building's foundation. Drywall and wall studs collapsed inward as most of the coffee shop landed on Atlas' forehead.

Beneath the rubble and haze, Atlas could hear the distant laughter of Ibac, a Justice League level villain who was now using the unsecured street to make his escape.

He pushed the wreckage off his chest and rushed to his feet, running into the street with the full fury of a demi-god.

Nobody got the drop on a descendent of Zeus and gets away with it.

Atlas raced down the street, pumping his legs like machine pistons as he chased the retreating figure down the street with the speed of Hermes. Ibac was fast, powered by the demonic energies of Hell it self, but Atlas was faster and he threw himself towards the beefy villain with incredible resolve.

The concrete on the street cracked beneath them as Atlas shoulder tackled his prey, gripping Ibac around the waist with a powerful embrace that would've have done his titanic namesake proud.

It made Ibac laugh.

When he was born, Zeus himself informed Atlas' mother that he would become the next vessel for the power of the Gods. That he would grow to be stronger than Hercules, stronger than any mere mortal hero. One day the gifts that Zeus imparted to his mother during her birth would pass to Atlas in triplicate.

But that was later, this was today. And today Atlas was fighting a man that could go toe to toe with Superman or Captain Marvel.

Their climatic battle lasted all of six seconds.

*****************

Sparrow followed her training as she dropped from the fire escape just behind her quarry. The pads on the bottoms of her boots absorbed any sound and the hood on her cape lowered her profile in the dim gloom of the parking lot.

 She was like a ghost, a spirit, a living-"Hey who's out there?"

Rear view mirrors. Sparrow had forgotten all about the stupid rear view mirrors and now two goons with machine pistols were climbing out of the van. She could hear the click of their guns as they removed the safety on their weapons.

She smiled. Finally some action.

Whirling through the air like a ten year old buzz saw, Sparrow pulled the extend-able baton from her belt and brought it down on the first criminal's wrist to disarm him instantly. As he watched his partner collapse to the ground, the second criminal pointed his weapon at the small, angry looking shadow now assaulting him and took aim.

Sparrow didn't let his finger reach the trigger. Instead she pulled two poisoned darts from the pouch on her wrist and flicked them into the second criminal's neck and arm. The non-lethal drugs buried in the dart tips attacked the man's nervous system almost immediately and Sparrow smiled as he dropped next to his partner, writhing in pain.

Her first solo fight and she had taken out two armed men three times her age and twice her size. She gave a victorious shout and started cartwheeling around the parking lot in celebration. Letting the thrill of victory consume her attention.

She didn't hear the loud creak of a third person exiting the van or the shuffle of steel toed boots against concrete.

But she did feel the beefy slap as a thick hand smashed into her skull.

"You are very fast, little girl." The voice was rough like sandpaper and had a heavy spanish accent, "But, I fear, not fast enough."

She froze in awe at the hulking shape in front of her: Bane.

******************
 Two days later Ibac was on his way to the Slab with a broken arm.

Two days of six hour flights back to Gotham and raised voices and "you are grounded mister." Two days of being both the World's Mightiest Woman and a mom at the same time.
 By the time the door closed behind them, Thomas Wayne was stewing in his teenage angst and refused to talk to her. Skulking up the stairs towards his room.

And Diana Prince-Wayne was ready to kill him.

"And don't let me catch you on the internet!" She shouted towards the teenager's retreating back.

He gave her the finger, a gesture that would've earned him a swift smack on the head if Diana wasn't so exhausted. Don't let the little monster see you unravel, she thought as she turned back to the bust of Shakespeare on Bruce's desk and flicked open the hidden switch that allowed her access to the cave beneath.

She was greeted with a lot of yelling.

"I WAS DOING FINE!" Artemis Wayne shouted as she tossed her Sparrow costume at her father's head.

Bruce, a man who once kept totally calm during an alien invasion of Earth, was shouting back at his daughter. He was practically turning red with anger. "You nearly got yourself killed and you disobeyed MY orders! I TOLD YOU TO STAY ON LOOK OUT!"

"YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING!"

"THIS IS A CRIME FIGHTING ORGANIZATION, NOT A LITTLE LEAGUE GAME!" He was turning red, his blood pressure skyrocketing, "I GAVE YOU A SPECIFIC-Where the hell are you going?"

Artemis was stomping up the stairs, just like her brother, pushing past Diana with the dedication only an angry child can have.

They heard the door to the cave close with an angry slam and finally Bruce and Diana where all alone, out of uniform and exhausted.

"What did she do?" Diana asked.

"She tried disobeyed my direct orders, left look out duty and tried to fight Bane by herself." Bruce Wayne wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders and drew her close, "Where's Tommy?"

"In his room," She said as she dropped her head on his shoulder, "He's grounded by the way."

"What did he do?" Bruce groaned.

"He spent thirty minutes flirting with girls, then let Ibac knock him on unconscious."

"Lovely." Bruce muttered, "Still, it's a step up from Damien."

"Why did we think we were qualified to be parents?"

"Because we've had so many sidekicks in the past and that's totally the same thing as having children." Diana answered sarcastically.

A light on Bruce's computer beeped and a readout appeared in the bottom right window of the computer.

"Yours or mine?" Diana asked.

But Bruce didn't answer her, he was already pulling his cowl over his face. No rest for Batman. "I'll be home for dinner."

"I'll be asleep before you get back." She said as she settled into his vacant chair.

THE END