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Post by Countess on Nov 11, 2024 21:34:32 GMT
It has only been a week since her night out trying to get back into being a true vigilante again. There were a few nights before it that were largely successful, petty crimes easily thwarted. Looking back, they made her cocky. She feels the ramifications from that with every breath. A report was put in, the higher ups aware and disappointed in her as she had expected. This was her fault, biting off more than she could chew and all.
Babs can't sleep at night, now. How could she forget who she had fought? Damian had gotten the footage of it all, and it is clear... she had fought for her damn life against an invisible assailant. Except... it was clear she, in the moment, could see them. Magic? More of it? Charles Dante taking his revenge? If so, why didn't he do it before? No, he had not been a fighter. Whoever she had gone up against, it had been someone uniquely skilled. Their blows, their stabs, their inflicted wounds had all been to hurt, not to kill.
It is driving her insane.
More than that, however, it has put a chasm between her and the rest of the Justice League. Self imposed, perhaps. She doesn't want all of them to see her and these injuries, horrific as they are, and go through... everything she had before. It is like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It is a quiet night up in the tower, and Babs has been hiding in her Ops Room to avoid everyone. Absolutely everyone. Sure, a report was put in, but she put a high clearance on it. On top of that, between all the people that would actually read it, they aren't the type to go around doing things about it. She already got The Speech from Diana, and that... was more than enough. Thank God Bruce is too busy elsewhere, Dick absent from her life, Tim too shy to talk to her about it all... J'onn had approached her only with kindness, and she had pushed him away. Props for trying, right?
Maybe she is like Bruce, at least in this. Being surrounded by so many larger than life people, with powers to change the world in so many ways, she's... just a girl. It has made a chip on her shoulder. She always has something to prove to these people. One of those things is that she isn't delicate, isn't fragile, isn't a stab wound away from death...
Barbara broods like this in her Ops Room.
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Post by Beriadan on Nov 12, 2024 20:43:53 GMT
"Hey Supes, have you seen Babs? Oh - alright, no worries, bud."
"Oh hey Diana, you're looking fabulous as always! Say, have you seen Barbara at all - Oh. Okay. No, it's alright! See you later."
"J'onn-y, my man, my brother from another planet, how is it hanging? Listen, I'm looking for Babs, have you - ah. Sure. Don't sweat!"
Johnny paced the halls of the Watchtower, his expression one of confusion and concern, like a labrador whose favourite toy has rolled under the fridge and now can't be seen or retrieved. He jammed his hands into his pockets, stopping to stare out of a viewing window across the beautiful blue marble they were sworn to protect.
All he could think of was the fact Babs hadn't talked to him for, like, a whole week. Had he done something wrong? Did he overstep his boundaries with Damian? Or with her? Had his impersonation of John Mcclain not gone down well? Johnny had apologised about the busted side table, after all. He frowned, pursed his lips, stared at Earth without really seeing it.
There had been the cryptic message from Damian. The kid had taken to sending him random photos on a daily basis. Everyday it was the same time; a cute cat, the New York skyline, a bird in a tree. Except - one day had been a picture of the back of Babs' head as she stared out of their apartment window, and an emoji without a mouth. The kid was trying to tell him something, but Johnny was too far from emoji culture to understand. Valeria told him so enough.
"Hey Carol, is that a new haircut? You're looking - Oh. Oh, she is? In the Ops room? Thank you, thank you!"
Johnny left Captain Marvel behind as he hurried up to Oracle Ops room. It should perhaps have been the first place he looked, but he wasn't a detective, now, was he? The Human Torch slowed as he reached the door, pausing before he knocked. Johnny kicked himself for not bringing some flowers, or something. He himself would have to do.
"Hey, Babs! You in there? I was just passing, and, uh, well I figured I haven't said hi in a hot minute. Wanna, like, hang out or something?"
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Post by Countess on Nov 13, 2024 3:33:15 GMT
Inside the dimly lit Ops Room, Barbara hears Johnny’s familiar voice through the door. Her fingers hover over her keyboard, her work forgotten as she freezes in place. Of course he’d come looking. Johnny was persistent like that—relentlessly bright, no matter how much darkness someone tried to bury themselves in. She had been purposeful in keeping the room dark- less likely for anyone to really see the extent of the damage. Maybe it will be enough. Maybe.
For a moment, she debates staying silent. Let him think she’s too busy or not here. But then again, she knows Johnny. He’ll just keep knocking or—worse—try to break in under the guise of “helping.” She sighs quietly, leaning back in her chair, wincing as the movement pulls at a half-healed wound. “Door’s open,” she calls out, her voice steady but a touch softer than usual. Any louder, it will jostle her broken ribs. She adjusts her posture as if bracing for the inevitable flood of Johnny Storm energy.
The door slides open, and there he is, all boyish charm and concern wrapped up in a leather jacket and lopsided grin. His presence shifts the atmosphere immediately, and Barbara isn’t sure if it’s comforting or enough to push her over the edge and really... feel. Maybe both.
“Hey, Johnny,” she says, glancing at him from her chair. She doesn’t bother spinning around fully. “You figured me out, huh? Guess I’m not as sneaky as I thought.”
Her attempt at lightness doesn’t quite land, but she pushes on. “So… hanging out, huh? You come all the way up here just to bother me, or did you finally get tired of bugging Carol and Diana?” Babs says, trying to make this not about her... The teasing is subtle, her usual sharpness dulled by exhaustion, but it’s there. She knows Johnny can handle it. He always does.
Barbara shifts her gaze to the screen in front of her, but she’s not reading any of it. “You sure you wanna hang out with me? I’m not exactly great company right now,” she murmurs, somewhat bitterly. There’s a slight edge of warning in her voice, but even as she says it, she knows she won’t kick him out. Has he read the report? Is that why he is here?
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Post by Beriadan on Nov 13, 2024 17:11:57 GMT
There was an atmosphere in the room. It's just Barbara in there, sitting in the dark like some kind of mole person, but Johnny feels it as he steps inside. It was palpable how much Babs wanted to be alone, but... why? He looked around the Ops room, his first time in Oracle's den of mystery.
"Well, it wasn't the hardest bit of detective work I've ever had to do."
Johnny grinned, but his eyes were taking in what he could see of Barbara. It wasn't good, he could tell that. It wasn't her physical injuries that worried him; this was a woman who had been paralysed but stubbornly decided she wasn't having any of it. No, this was worse. He could hear it in her voice, a tone he had heard many times before.
Defeat.
"I mean, hanging out with the gang is great and all, but I figured you hadn't seen my face for, what, a week now? I didn't want you to feel deprived of that, you know?"
Slowly, Johnny leant himself against a console, so he was still behind Barbara but could catch her eye. It was strategic, at least for him. He couldn't see the full extent of what had happened, and that was on purpose. Johnny was piecing things together, the tone that the other heroes had spoken about her. He figured she had had enough pity to last a lifetime.
"Valeria taught me an expression the other day, though she said I'd be "cringe" if I used it. Is this you going goblin mode? Reed used to do it all the time, when he was doing something important. He'd hate it if anyone came in and bugged him relentlessly, if they were bored or whatever. Said it was distracting to have someone so relentlessly optimistic and energetic getting in the way."
Johnny grinned again, more so at the memory than anything else. Nowadays Reed was in permanent goblin mode. Back then, it was just a passing thing. He leant against the wall in an even more non-chalant way, a skill he had perfected to an art.
"You're always good company, Babs, even on the bad days. I just wanted to bug you. Wanna hear a story of something great I did once?
He gave her a side-eye, a smile, a wink. As if she hadn't been reclusive for the past week, as if she wasn't sitting there battered and bruised. It would be all too easy to give her pity, or (what he assumed Diana had done) a lecture. It wasn't what someone who had been on the wrong end of a bad encounter needed. Johnny knew that from experience.
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Post by Countess on Nov 14, 2024 1:22:01 GMT
Barbara’s fingers tighten slightly on the armrests of her chair as she listens to Johnny, his lighthearted tone cutting through the heavy silence in the room. Then, she winces- her fingers are still in little splints. Dames is going to get upset if she messes them up again, so she relaxes. She glances over her shoulder at him, her face half-shadowed in the dim light. Babs really doesn't want him to see her face... most of it is a bruise. At least the swelling has gone down. For a moment, she says nothing, her expression unreadable. But the faintest hint of a smile plays at the corner of her lips, a quiet acknowledgment of his effort to lift her spirits.
“Goblin mode,” she repeats softly, almost to herself. She looks around, seeing the take out boxes and nasty sweatshirts. Most of them are Johnny merch. “Guess that fits.”
She leans forward a little, rolling her chair closer—not much, just enough to close the distance between them without fully moving into the light. The movement reveals a glimpse of the bruises and clean cuts along her arms, but she makes no effort to explain them, no comment to acknowledge what she’s clearly trying to keep hidden. Her injuries, her pain—they’re hers to deal with. She’s not ready to share the full extent of it, not yet.
“You didn’t have to come looking for me,” she says quietly, her gaze fixed somewhere past him. “But… I’m glad you did,” she says, nodding. There’s a weight to her words, an unspoken gratitude that lingers in the air. She doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t say why or how much it means, but the way her voice softens is enough.
She finally meets his eyes, her own guarded but sincere. “So,” she says, leaning back just slightly, her tone shifting, “What’s this big story? Something to distract me from all this thrilling Ops Room action?”
Her smirk is faint, but it’s there, a small crack in the armor she’s been wearing all week. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and she’s thankful that Johnny seems to understand without needing her to spell it out.
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Post by Beriadan on Nov 21, 2024 12:41:03 GMT
Johnny was quiet for a few moments before he started. In truth, he didn't know how to help Barbara. He was a man of action, not emotions, but... well, there were certainly ways he could make her feel a little better, at least. To remember that even heroes were human. "This was really soon after I got my powers, a wild and lawless age that they called the nineties. You might have heard of it, or read about it in history class. They'd just invented the flip phone. The Fantastic Four, well, we were in our infancy. The public was getting used to my handsome face, which has only refined with age, of course. Back then, though, I was filled with vigour and endless energy. I was the Human Torch, the unbeatable!"Johnny grinned at the memories flooding back to him, staring off into the middle distance as he spoke. "Reed... well, he's always been inquisitive, and always finds trouble whether he likes it or not. He opened up a gate into the Negative Zone. Not a great place, mind you, pretty, uh, negative. There... he met, and royally pissed off, a being called Blastaar. One of these, y'know, power-hungry lunatics that wants to rule the universe. The standard affair. Reed was trapped there, until he escaped. But in doing so, he brought Blastaar back with him.
"So this super powered otherworldly dude is suddenly in the middle of New York. I was on a date when it happened, with this absolutely gorgeous bombshell. Blastaar came across us in his violent path of destruction. I thought, hey, it's a bad guy. I'm the Johnny Storm, and at that time nobody could beat me or the Fantastic Four."Johnny shrugged, a pained expression crossing his face for a moment. "He kicked my ass. I couldn't do anything, not even scorch him. Blastaar tore through New York while I could just lie there, my pride wounded more than my body. Well, apart from the broken bones, and all. It took all four of us to eventually take him down. Reed trapped him back in the Negative Zone, and the rest is history."He looked up at Barbara, a level of serious sincerity in his eyes, mulling over his next words carefully. Then he shrugged again, raising his hands over his shoulders in an exaggerated movement. "I'm not here to lecture, or to teach a lesson, or whatever! You don't need any of that right now, I'm sure of that. But just remember that even the best of us get our asses handed to us. It's what heroes do. We go out looking for trouble, and when trouble beats us down, we get up again and again."Johnny sighed, shaking his head.
"It is just a great story of me, Johnny Storm, but in truth? Between you and me? That encounter left me scarred. It gave me a twinge of fear right here," he said, tapping a finger to his heart, "whenever I go into a fight. I got it when I saw Grodd, and this is three decades on. But you know what helped?"
Johnny aimed at fingergun at Barbara, skulking in the gloom.
"You did, Babs. It's easy to forget we've got friends and allies, but they're our crutch in shit situations. Don't forget, you're never alone.
"Anyway. Cool story about me over, unless you want to hear about the Molemen. Whatever you've got on your plate, I'm not gonna pry, but if there's anything I can do, like get you some ice cream or kick someone's ass or even just leave you to your own thoughts for a while, you just let me know."Johnny smiled, wide and warm. "It's what friends do, after all. That's what family is for."
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