Second Chances: Stargirl

Chapter 22

Stargirl was currently sitting on her staff while she flew through the skies of Blue Valley, being careful to avoid people seeing her, since she wasn't quite ready for the world to know about her or her team quite yet. Besides, she liked how peaceful things were up here in the clouds.

However, she was pulled from her thoughts when she suddenly had to grip Cosmo tightly to avoid being thrown off as Cosmo suddenly changed directions and headed downwards.

"Cosmo, what is going on?" Stargirl asked as she held onto the staff tightly as it sent her flying down to the ground to an old warehouse that was actually pretty close to her school.

"What are we doing here Cosmo?" Stargirl asked as she looked around, wondering why the staff would suddenly make her land.

Cosmo simply warbled again before Stargirl heard a voice behind her.

"You do look like your father. Especially in that get up." a male voice said and Stargirl turned to see a man that she immediately recognized as Brainwave from the old JSA files.

"Brainwave." Stargirl said.

"You know who I am? Excellent. That makes this easier." Brainwave said and he didn't need to be a mind reader to see that the girl was getting angrier.

"I know who you are and what you are and what you did. You helped kill my father and a lot of other good people." Stargirl said angrily, trying to stop herself from just blasting Brainwave on the spot before she realized something.

"How do you know who I am? My father did everything he could to make sure no one knew I existed." Stargirl demanded.

"If you know who I am, then I think you know that I have my ways. Especially since your father never bothered to learn how to shield his thoughts from me." Brainwave said.

"You knew about me all this time. But you never tried to find me." Stargirl asked.

"We did, but your father was at least smart enough to keep your location hidden. Besides, until now, you weren't much of a threat. The staff hadn't chosen you and as far as I could tell, you had no idea what you were a legacy of." Brainwave lied, since they'd only found out about her a few days ago, but she didn't need to know that.

"And as far as I know, I haven't done anything to let you know I had. So what changed?" Stargirl asked.

"Nice try, child. But you can't stall me. Especially since you're even worse at hiding your thoughts than your father was Courtney." Brainwave said with a smirk.

"Get out of my head." Stargirl said, since even she couldn't feel Brainwave in her mind, she believed that he was in it and she didn't want to think about the things he could pull from her thoughts.

"Interesting. You're not the only JSA legacy in this town. In fact it's filthy with them. Wildcat, Hourman, Black Lightning, the Flash, in fact, those last two are actually still alive. Well we knew about Black Lightning, but the Flash is alive too. This is all very interesting." Brainwave said, only to finally be blasted by Stargirl.

"Enough talking." Stargirl said, since she knew that she couldn't let Brainwave give all that intel to his friends in the ISA.

"I see you want to play with Daddy's toys. Let's see if you're anywhere near as good as he was." Brainwave said as he got to his feet and began using his telekinesis to chuck things at her, which Stargirl was quick to blast out of her way.

"You have potential, perhaps in time, you could become a threat to us. But sadly for you, that time will never come." Brainwave said as he then forced her back against the wall and caused her to drop her staff, which went dark as it hit the ground.

"It's a shame that I know that you won't ever willingly join us and the staff won't work for you if I just made you think like me. But I can't leave a legacy running around to threaten everything we've worked for. And you're just the first. In fact, once we're done here, I think that my next visit will be to a certain cat." Brainwave said and Stargirl felt anger overwhelm her.

"If you even think about touching her." Stargirl said as she tried to open her hand for the staff to return, but Brainwave was keeping it shut.

"What, what will you do? You're powerless without that toy of yours. You're no Starman. And everyone you love will die because of that." Brainwave said and Stargirl didn't know why, but it was as if his words had unlocked something inside of her.

"You're right. I'm not Starman." Stargirl said as she closed her eyes and felt some strange warmth come from inside her as she let it fill her up to the point of almost bursting out of her.

"What?" Brainwave asked, shocked her body started to glow and she opened her eyes to reveal they were glowing a bright golden yellow.

"I'm Stargirl." Stargirl said as she released the energy, which sent Brainwave flying backwards and released her from his hold, allowing her to call her staff back to her.

"How did I do that?" Stargirl asked, since from what she knew, neither her father or grandfather had been able to do what she just did. And she didn't have much time to think it over, since she felt exhausted, since whatever she'd just done had tired her out, since she was now leaning her staff to stay on her feet.

"Interesting. Looks like the daughter is even more powerful than the father who came before her. But that won't save you. Not from me." Brainwave said, as he managed to get to his feet, only to freeze as he felt something pierce his back and he turned to Cindy Burman shoving one of her wrist blades into his back.

"You." Brainwave said.

"You shouldn't have strung me along for so long." Cindy said as she pulled her blade out, allowing Stargirl to see her.

"You're welcome Stargirl." Cindy said to her, seeing her former rival barely able to stay on her feet.

"You killed him." Stargirl said.

"Hardly. He'll live. But if I were you, I'd let your toy do something to keep him from talking." Cindy said and while Stargirl was no fan of Cindy's she couldn't deny that she had a point.

"You heard her." Stargirl said to Cosmo as she chucked the staff towards Brainwave, since she was in no shape to fight and since Brainwave was still recovering from his stab wound, the shields he put up were so weak that the staff tore right through them before colliding with his head and causing some kind of chain reaction that rendered him unconscious as the staff flew back to Stargirl.

"I know you don't trust me, but I did just save your life." Cindy said.

"What do you want?" Stargirl asked her.

"To help you. I know everything you need to know about the ISA. Everything I've done has been to keep them off my back." Cindy said.

"You know that just because you saved my life doesn't mean I trust you or that the others will right?" Stargirl asked.

"I know, but." Cindy said.

"You could've killed me, but you saved me instead, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Don't make me regret it." Stargirl said.

"Done. Now, do you need a hand?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah. Whatever it is I did, it took a lot out of me." Stargirl said.

"Then let's go." Cindy said.

"Just to be clear, you know that even if you hadn't saved my life, I wouldn't be the one you need to worry about." Stargirl said.

"I know. But I'm hoping that since I saved your life, you'll be willing to hold her back." Cindy said.

"No promises." Stargirl said as she actually put her arm around Cindy's shoulders to let the other girl help her to her feet.

"Hold on. Fastest way home is to fly." Stargirl said and before Cindy knew what was happening, they took off and she had to stop herself from screaming.