Of Gods and Demigods

2

Barbara Gordon had a tiring but easy day at school. She took her usual detour home by the police station, not only to see her father, but also to help him, even though he never knew. She saw how hard he worked to protect this city from criminals that seemed determined to destroy it. She also saw how Batman had effectively put away a good deal of those criminals that the police would have never been able to get to. She had trained hard for years and still worked hard to help her father and Batman, whether they wanted it or not, make this city safe. And so it was that she happened across her father talking to a young man who treated what her and her father worked hard on with such disrespect that she just had to prove him wrong.

"Sorry about that Babs." Her father sighed sadly. "Don't take it personally. He is just worried."

"What's his story?" She asked.

"His girlfriend flew in four days ago, but never turned up for her interview."

"What interview?'

"Internship for some type of architecture firm."

Barbara noticed the brochure lying on the desk and picked it up. "This firm? That's top notch organization. They are really hard to get into." She must be good to get interest from them." She mused.

"Really?" Her father really was clueless when it came to some things. But brilliant hen it came to others. She loved him for it. "Don't worry about it. We'll find her."

"Lieutenant Gordon, your presence is requested at the debate." a police officer stated.

"Is it that time already?" her father looked at his watch. "I've got to go Babs." Get home safely." He kissed her on the forehead and left.

Barbara immediately took the opportunity to whip out her phone and photo copy all the documents on the file of Annabeth Chase, Percy no last name's girlfriend. The picture they had of her showed a stunning girl with blond hair done up in curls with a perfectly tanned body. She reminded Babs of the snobbish rich girls at her school. Once she had everything she headed home to change. It should be an interesting night.

The first place she wanted to check out was where she was last seen, the airport. She made it there in relatively good time and she knew just how to hack the system to look up footage that would show her what she needed to know. What would take the most time would be to scan all the footage from four days ago. She found the access box on the roof of the airport and started hacking into the system. Once she was in their system, she began downloading the four day old footage. She was only a couple of minutes in when she heard a ruckus. She scanned the roof and crept toward the sound of the noise. She looked over to see the same guy that had been sitting at her fathers desk (what was his name? Something dorky, oh, yeah, Percy) holding what looked like a bat toward a guy twice his size. She didn't see how he stood a chance, and was about to intervein when the big guy charged toward Percy. She watched as Percy slide between his legs and pop back up on his feet in time to deliver a vicious whack across the guys neck. She was all for defending ones self, but a blow like that could be deadly, she immediately made her way down with a few well placed leaps and landed behind Percy.

The guy instantly reacted, and swung his bat around toward her. Luckily, her instincts kicked in and she ducked in time. "Watch it. You could seriously hurt someone." She complained.

Percy looked at her with some shock. When he recovered, his reaction was not what she would have expected. "You're one of those bats."

"I'm Batgirl." She corrected.

"Obviously." He turned away from her.

"You can't go around swinging sticks at others."

"What?" He looked at her as though he didn't understand what she was saying, then he suddenly changed expression as though he just understood. "Oh right, sticks."

"Do you even know how to fight?" She complained. "There are places you just don't hit."

He was looking at her as though she were boring him. "Okay? So are you going to give me a ticket, or can I go now?"

"You could have killed him." She pointed to where she thought she saw the body fall, but there was no body. "Where'd he go?"

"Who?" Percy asked confused.

"The guy you hit!" She said exasperatedly.

"Oh, him. He probably ran home." Percy smirked as though he said something funny.

"Where's the stick you just had?"

"What stick?" Percy asked back.

"The stick!" She scanned the entire ally and couldn't find anything that looked like the stick he had just had. Percy was edging away from her as though hoping to get away. Barbara took a deep breath. "You're Percy, right?" That stopped him. He gave her a concerned look. "I've decided to take your case."

"My case?" He acted as though he didn't have a clue about what she was talking about.

"Your missing girlfriend." She was seriously having doubts about this guy.

"Huh, didn't realize the police worked so closely with the bats."

Barbara tried to take a deep breath. He was seriously getting on her nerves. "I just though you'd like to know."

"I see." Though he didn't look like the he did. "Well, good luck."

"You don't think I can do it." She challenged him.

He looked at her funny. "I'm sure you are great, when it comes to . . . cases. But . . . there may be things you don't see."

"You think you could do better?"

"I hate mysteries." Percy admitted. "But I'm not going to stop until I find her."

She realized then that he was a loaded gun that could cause a lot of trouble if not controlled. Then she had a brilliant idea. "How about we team up." He looked unsure of the idea. "I'll do some snooping around and we'll meet each other here tomorrow night."

He still looked unsure, but for whatever reason said, "Sure, as long as you don't lecture me about sticks."

Barbara gawked at him. "I don't lecture." Percy raised an eyebrow. "Well, you were being really dangerous." His expression stayed the same. "Fine." She held out a hand. "Deal."

Percy looked at it unsure for a moment before finally taking it.

Satisfied with the arraignment she started climbing the building and said. "See you tomorrow night."

Percy didn't say anything as he watched her climb up. Once she was back on the roof, she saw that she had finished downloading all the footage. She decided to head back home and watch it from the comfort of her bed.