Second Chances: Stargirl - Rough Draft

Chapter 21

Courtney was currently walking home from Beth's house since both of her parents were working late, so she couldn't get a ride, but since it was a short walk home, Courtney decided that she'd just walk home, since while she could've called her staff to pick her up, that would've risked Beth's parents finding out about all of this and they'd agreed to keep their families in the dark about everything.

Anyways, as she walked, Courtney couldn't help but feel like there was someone or something following her home, though she didn't know why, but she slipped a hand into her pocket so she could call the police soon if she needed too, but more importantly, she was preparing to call her staff to her if she needed to, since one of the first things she'd learned while Pat was training her was that if she felt like she was being watched, it meant she probably was, but not to bring in the staff unless she had to.

She was about a block away from her house when she finally heard something that confirmed her suspicions. She was being followed, causing her to come to a stop.

"I don't know who you are and why you're following me, but it's really creepy and won't end well for you." Courtney said, since in addition to training with her staff, she'd also received a large amount of training in martial arts over the years to protect herself without her staff as well.

"Actually, you're the one things won't end well for." Cindy Burman said as she walked out of the shadows and Courtney turned to face her, only to be surprised by what she saw.

"Cindy, what are you wearing?" Courtney asked, since Cindy was not wearing her typical mean girl clothes, but instead was wearing some kind of bright green and red suit with her hair pulled up. In fact, if Courtney didn't know better, she'd say Cindy was dressed like a supervillain.

"What, you don't like my new outfit? Maybe you'll like it better with some accessories." Cindy said tauntingly as to Courtney's surprise, two sharp blades popped out of Cindy's wrists and Courtney immediately knew this was the kind of situation she'd been training for as she quickly sent a mental call out to the staff to come to her.

"What are you doing?" Courtney asked as she backed away, trying to buy time for her staff to arrive.

"Oh you know, just taking care of some business. You see, you've been taking up a very annoying amount of space in my head and it's getting on my nerves and there's only way to stop it. Remove the cause." Cindy said.

"What is wrong with you?" Courtney asked, wondering what the hell was taking her staff so long to get here.

"You have no idea what I've been through. But it's time to end my suffering." Cindy said as she lunged at Courtney, who barely managed to dodge in time.

"That was way too skilled to be lucky. I guess you're hiding something too." Cindy said with a grin.

"Yeah, you could say that." Courtney said with a grin as her staff finally flew into her hand and the second it hit her hand, Courtney felt her outfit change from being the shirt, jeans and jacket she'd been wearing originally to what looked like a teenaged girl version of her father's red, white, and blue suit.

"You're Starman's daughter." Cindy realized, thinking that this was going to be even better than she'd hoped.

"Call me Stargirl." Stargirl said with a grin as she took her fighting stance.

"Well then, call me Shiv." Shiv said with a grin of her own.

"You sure you want to do this?" Stargirl asked.

"Please, I've been wanting to put my blades through you for years. At least now I know the fight will be fun." Shiv said and Stargirl sighed.

"Have it your way." Stargirl said as she proceeded to blast Shiv backwards, though she quickly recovered.

"Is that the best you can do?" Shiv asked.

"You're going to be sorry you asked." Stargirl said as the two girls lunged at each other, Shiv's blades clashing against Stargirl's staff.

"How did you get your powers?" Stargirl demanded.

"That's none of your business, but you're going to wish I never got them." Shiv said.

"You act like I wanted you to have them in the first place. You're a big enough pain in the ass without having lethal weapons at your disposal at all times." Stargirl said as they continued fighting, their moves perfectly matched, Stargirl's staff clashing against Shiv's blades, both of them perfectly dodging each other's moves as Stargirl ducked down just in time to dodge Shiv shooting one of her blades out of her wrists.

"Gross." Stargirl said as she proceeded to use her staff to blast Shiv, who managed to dodge, only to get knocked off her feet when Stargirl used her staff to knock her off her feet. However, she quickly recovered and managed to slash Stargirl's right arm.

"You sure you want to keep doing this?" Stargirl asked as she tried to keep the pain out of her voice, since while she could tell it was only a flesh wound, it still hurt like hell.

"I can go all night." Shiv said, only to be knocked back by a green energy blast and Stargirl turned to see Jenni floating in the sky, green energy radiating off of her, her eyes glowing green.

"What took you so long?" Stargirl asked her.

"Sorry, I've never flown via ring before. At least you've got some practice with your staff." Jenni reminded her.

"Yeah, looks like we were right about the ISA being in town." Stargirl said and Jenni nodded as she landed.

"I'm guessing Cindy knows who you are under that mask?" Jenni asked.

"Yep. Which means that we need to get her somewhere secure, since we can't risk her running back to the ISA and telling them about me. Plus, who knows, if we can get her to crack, she can tell us everything she knows about them." Stargirl said and Jenni nodded as they noticed Cindy started to come to.

"We'd better make sure she doesn't wake up until we can get her somewhere secure." Jenni said.

"You go get Rex and Pat, I'll keep her unconscious and take her to the shop until the others arrive." Stargirl said and Jenni nodded as she flew off as Stargirl proceeded to knock Cindy out with the butt of her staff before looking at her with pity.

"I wish I knew what I did to make you hate me Cindy. But whatever it is I did, I'm sorry for it. I just wish I knew why you hated me and what caused you to be this way." Stargirl said as she picked her opponent up with some difficulty and loaded her onto her staff before using it to fly both of them to the Pit Stop, unaware that this entire event had been seen by Cindy's father and what that would set in motion.