Starships

Chapter 16

My throat goes dry. This is the moment that I never wanted to happen. My parents always lectured to Komi and I about concealing our powers. But now here I am in question about who I actually am.

I am sitting at a small table. Bruce is across from me, Richard is to my right, Jason to my left. My hands are shaking under the table. I am shooting star bolts between my fingers to ease my nerves.

"Okay Kori, I am going to ask you again. Where are you from?" Bruce asks me for the twentieth time. I try telling him Ohio, but Bruce is too smart. He knows I am lying.

"I am from a planet called Tamaran. It is outside of the Milky Way galaxy." I explain briefly. I can feel tears build in my eyes. What is he going to do to me?

"And why are you here?" Bruce follows up.

"My planet was under attack," Tears are going down my cheeks, "my people and I tried to fight back, but we grew weak. My parents along with my sister and I had to flee, before they kept us captive."

"What would happen if they kept you?" Bruce asks.

"We would be slaves." I am now in tears. I look down at my shaking hands. My finger tips are fading in and out with green.

"Now your powers? You care to explain those?" Bruce leans back in his chair.

I wipe my tears away with the back of my hands, "Tamereans powers are based on their emotions..." I explain, "But I can fly, shoot starbolts, I have super human strength..."

"I want her to battle me." Jason volunteers. Richard and I both look up at him. My tears are no longer flowing down my cheeks. Jason gets up and gets his weapon of choice from a nearby table. The escrima sticks. Bruce also gets up following Jason.

"Star, you don't need to battle Jason." Richard leans over the table towards me, "You don't need to do any of this. I will take you home and we can act like none of this happened."

"But Richard, it all did happened." I cried, "I promised my parents that I would never get caught, but here I am. Caught." I pulled my hands over my face so I can block my face and cry once more.

"Star." Richard grabs my hands and pulls them away from my face, "Star, you are only in trouble when you get caught. We caught you, but your secret is safe with us. Look around you are in the same room as Batman, Nightwing, and Robin."

I look and see Jason and Bruce talking to each other. I look back at Richard, his eyes are sincere. His hands are holding onto mine tightly in a careful way.

"How about this," Bruce says as he comes back to us, "instead of battling Jason, you just show us what you are made of? I bet you are dying to let your powers out."

I look at Richard as if he knows the answer. I look back up to Bruce, "Okay Bruce. I will show you what I am the made of."

I get up, releasing Richard's grasp. Bruce leads the way, and I follow. I can hear Richard walking behind me as well. He brings me to a mat that is stained with old and new blood. Bruce stands at one end of the mat and I stand on the opposite facing him. Richard stands next to Jason. Bruce gets in his fighting stance, I just stand there. When Bruce gets ready he comes running at me with full force. I simply fly above him, and he goes crashing into the wall behind me. To my surprise he comes leaping up to my level in the air. His arms are reaching out to grab me. I take hold of his wrist stopping him, and crash his body down onto the mat, making the edges go up. Bruce gets up once again, it is my turn to run towards him. I run, and he is ready to get ahold of me. He gets me in a bear hug, and I take my force of flight and strength and lift Bruce onto my back and launch him into the wall. His eyes are wide.

"What else did you say you have?" Bruce asks me.

"Well I can shoot starbolts." I show him my glowing hands, I even make my eyes glow green to show him.

Bruce smiles in excitement.

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After hours of being in the Batcave, as I learned from Jason, Bruce let Richard and I go. Richard guides me back through the hallway that I came through. Richard asked if I can use my starbolts to give us some light, and I do. When we get to the shelf, Richard does a series of knocks for it to open. We are back in the basement. We both sit on the couch, the bookshelf moves back to its spot.

"I am sorry Richard." I tell him, "I did not want people to know my family's secret."

"I'm sorry that Bruce was being an ass to you." Richard said, he pulls my body in closer to his, "But not going to lie Kori. The powers that you have are really cool. But why keep it a secret?"

"My parents are afraid of what humans would think of us." I  testified.

"Well this human thinks it's pretty cool." Richard says, keeping me close to him.

I put my head on his shoulder. Richard moves his body. I get up looking at his eyes. He is uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?" I ask him.

"Yeah, why do you..."

"Richard, don't lie to me. I saw that bruise yesterday and I now know your secret." I point at him.

"Well, I guess I am just sore." He tells me.

"Okay, I will be more careful." I lay my head back down, but keeping his soreness in mind.

We lay there in silence for a moment. I even closed my eyes to relax, listening to Richard's heartbeat. Richard's voice wakes me up, "Star?"

"Yes?" I ask, keeping my eyes closed and relaxed.

"Would you mind telling me more about your home?"

I haven't talked about Tamaran in eight years. I dream about going back, but I am afraid of what the Gordanians have done to the planet. Did they destroy it? Make it their new home? I don't want to know the answer.

"Well, it's beautiful. I might have a few pictures at home of it." I tell him waiting for more questions. I know he has questions, I can see him shuffling through them in his brain.

"How about school?"

"We didn't really have school. We would learn about the history of Tamaran and would learn how to fight. But we didn't have the math, the English, or the sciences."

"Tell me about your family."

"Well, you met my mom and sister. I don't think you met my dad. We were actually rulers of Tamaran. My mom and dad were the king and queen..."

"Making you a princess?" Richard interrupts me.

I take my body off of him so I can see his reaction, "Yes, I am."

Richard leans back deeper into the couch, putting his hands behind his head for support. The bruises are peeking out from under his shirt, "So I'm dating a princess?"

"Dating?" I look at him.

"Oh, well I did ask you on a date. So I just assumed..." Richard relaxes his arms.

"You assumed that we are dating?" I am confused.

"Well yes. I am sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." Richard says.

I didn't know what to say, either does Richard. We sit there in silence, both processing what just happened.

"Should we watch our movie?" Richard asks me.

I nod and wait for him to get up first. He gets up and I follow him to the theater that Alfred brought me to earlier. When we entered there is a cart of popcorn and candy. Richard tells me to help myself to the snacks and he would set up the movie. I grab some popcorn and a box of candy for myself and for Richard. I sit in the nearby chair and wait. The lights begin to dim and I can see the movie being projected on the screen in front of me. I lean back to get comfortable. Richard comes walking down the aisle and joins me in the seat next to me. I give him the candy and he thanks me. I bring my attention back to the screen and I see the title of the movie: Baby Driver.