Spirits?

-_-

the Wayne cousins (Jane and Olive): WE SAID WE WANTED MCDONALD'S

Bruce/Batman: yeah, and i bought you McDonald's

The Wayne cousins: WE MEANT A BIG MAC OR CHICKEN NUGGETS NOT THE ENTIRE COMPANY GRANDPA WTF

Terrors of Gotham

Chapter 1: The Warehouse

The south side of Gotham, where crime and international business came together. Plus the proximity to Black Gate meant that many people avoided living near the ports and let hero groups, like this one, settle in and keep a close eye on the arms trade.

The Warriors Society held its meetings on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays it was patrolling in the other sectors of the city and from the afternoons the teams were organized to keep everything in order and avoid intervening in Batman's affairs.

That day, Thursday, only 8 members of the then almost 20 were around the main table, with Jim directing the business to be transacted.

"I'd call the roll, but I'm too lazy," he said, tossing the sheets containing our names to the floor, "Next week is Casper's birthday, we'd give him the day off but...

"...But I have nothing to do that day, so, patrolling with my brothers?" interrupted Lightningale, trying to talk at average speed and not like he always talked to Mike or the League speedsters.

"We've got Bruce Wayne's granddaughter, and we're not even going to buy her a cake?" Jim asked after he pulled a paper clip out of one of the table drawers and threw it in my face, as a sign for me to settle my feet on the ground, although this time I was paying attention and the shadow stopped the small metal object and absorbed it.

"Thanks for ruining my plans, Bullock," I said, throwing the paper clip back at him.

Actually, it had all occurred to me in those few seconds. I had completely forgotten the date of that day. And with Casper's birthday came Jason's birthday. That month was all about spending money on gifts.

And with it came asking Grandpa for money, which was funny but I didn't like doing it. In the future, I would ask him to get me into his company in some small job to make good money.

"I'm sorry, now... I have three missions, one in Star City, one in Qurac, and one last one here," Jim continued, tossing the three folders on the table, a quick inspection of the table and starting to rule out options for the mission in Qurac.

Oswald, Casper, James, Henry, Sam, Alice, Jim and me. Bullock didn't like or find the missions in the field intriguing, preferring to stay behind the screen coordinating the missions. Henry was out of the question, he would probably be better off at Star, and with Oswald, who knew the city well and could keep him in his sights. Casper, James, Angie, and I, plus everyone who was missing, minus the team that was going to Lexcorp.

"I'm sure Arthur will ask for Qurac, and with him will obviously go Alice," Alice commented in front of me, playing with a stream of air in her hands.

"How are you so sure about that?" asked Sam, who for some time now has been even more attached to me and a thousand times more alert than before, maybe I should follow her example.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Alice, leaving the little clean air in the area alone, making the papers on the floor fly around us, "Those two have something, and I'm sure they like each other.

The reaction of more than one was the same, turning to look at me with intrigue. By way of distraction and to avoid yelling at my friend I decided to pull out some of the shade and play as she was doing a few moments before.

"As long as the little romance doesn't interfere with our affairs," I said, answering the silent questions of my companions.

And with that Angie, Arthur and Alice were ruled out of the mission to the Qurac. The situation was only getting more stressful as time went on. I had to think things through clearly, look at things from every possible angle, and analyze the results.

"I suggest that Jane and the 3 warriors talk it over calmly and give me the members of each team for the next meeting, where I hope we will all be there," said Jim, probably noticing how overwhelmed I was by all of this.

The Warriors Society was a very large group, so from the beginning, it was divided into 4 teams, with a leader each called a Warrior. James, Oswald, and Sam were all capable enough to control their team on patrols and simple missions, but with new developments, it had become common to start breaking these teams up.

The meeting was adjourned as soon as the sun went down, shortly after Alice reminded us that the courtyard was no longer an available place for training.

We all got up with masks, visors, face shields, or weapons in hand and slowly made our way out the front door, some on foot and others on one of the motorcycles. For my part, I stood near one of the computer screens, pressing a couple of keys, a new window opened, showing the location of the rest of my colleagues who did not show up that day.

I quickly passed that information to the visor and left the warehouse, closing the door behind me. The harbor at that time of night seemed a quiet place. The sound of the water lapping against the boats could lull anyone to sleep. I walked slowly through the alleys until I came out onto one of the busy streets near the Fashion District.

Arriving at Wayne Manor this early in the night wasn't an idea I was too fond of, especially knowing who was staying that night, but I had nothing else to do, and postponing a problem wouldn't make it go away.

Walking slowly to the train tracks, watching the night sky for a moment I thought about what it would be like to disappear, to fake my death, and make everything I worked for these past few years go to waste. When I least noticed, I was already crossing the Robert Kane Bridge, from Gotham to Bristol. I had crossed almost the entire city in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, the cape of the suit had transformed into a long coat, I was grateful for it, but I hoped no one had seen me do that.

If James decided to end his patrol early, we could get down to discussing the missions and who knows, ask Tim, who was also leading a team of heroes, for some advice.

Terrors of Gotham

Chapter 3: High Enough

I remember when I was a child, my father was the clear example of what I would never be, alcohol and cigarettes seemed to be the most horrendous things, drugs were an atrocity. I thought about what would be the reasons why people would try those things, and whatever they were, I hoped I would never have them.

Memories, because in that alley, after stepping on the end of the cigarette to put it out, I took the syringe and the bottle of green stuff that Cheis offered me. Fear toxin, for many, deadly, for the Batfamily something like a poison, for me, a simple drug that little by little lost its effectiveness.

The first time I tried that stuff was in that same place, two months after meeting Angella, I woke up near Wayne Enterprises, but that didn't stop me from continuing to kill myself slowly, besides it seemed that the shadow liked to be subjected to that fear.

At that point what hurt the most was the needle piercing the skin, after that a shiver all over my body, and little by little the sensation of the muscles starting to loosen.

"Ven niña, let's go get some beers," said Cheis, taking the empty syringe from my hand to throw it to the ground and break it with the heel of the boot, then they put their arm over my shoulders making me start to walk with them.

For many, seeing a Gotham vigilante with the granddaughter of the richest man in the city would be strange, especially considering Cheis' reputation, but there came a point where rumors no longer mattered.

"You're only 18, I don't think they want to sell you anything," I complained, feeling lighter than before and with a smile on my face.

"It's Gotham, I'll find a place," answered my companion.

Of all my colleagues, Cheis was the one I trusted the most. I had met them shortly after founding the Warriors Society. I never offered them a spot, they just came to me and ordered me to put them on the team, the more shooters the better, to tell the truth. They were a living arsenal, they could handle any firearm and had taught me how to assemble and disassemble guns in record time.

They never offered me the drug, one day I simply saw them smoking something that was clearly not a simple cigarette and asked them to get me some, at first they refused but eventually agreed on the condition that I would only do it in their presence. Despite being only two years older than me, they were among the most mature people on the team. They were always on my side and the simple fact of letting them see my weaker side said a lot about that relationship.

"Will you tell me what's tormenting you, or will you make me read another book to find out," they asked, still hugging me, but this time with a look of concern.

"Admit it, Crime and Punishment was very good," I joked. That had been one of the books Bruce had forbidden me to read at the mansion, but Jason had about three copies in different languages in our apartment.

"What a man can't do, the devil does," they said, with a smile on his face, like someone who remembers a good joke, "Although I really liked the one by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, what was it called?

The quotes in the books were like our secret language, I would read it first, mark the most important phrases and then lend it to them, weeks later they would return it to me, with new phrases marked and we would discuss them in private. With each book, we seemed to understand each other better.

"No one writes to the Colonel," I answered, remembering one of the books that still remained in the bookcase of the old Hart house, "And in the meantime, what shall we eat?"

"Shit," we both shouted at the same time, quoting the end of the book. We squirmed with laughter and at one point had to stop to catch our breath.

Moments like those were the ones I treasured the most, and the ones I hoped my mind wouldn't twist or erase from my memory.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you," they asked again as we began to walk through the busy streets.

"I thought I had a boyfriend, but apparently not. There may be a spy or spies on my team. I need a rescue team to LexCorp and because of the spy thing I don't know who I can trust to go," I said quietly and as quickly as I could, hoping no one had to hear.

"Pretty much, then. Well, how about a beer, tomorrow we all go to that taco place I recommended and then we worry about the rest," they suggested.

"The problem is that the more time passes, the more information they will take from us and the easier it will be for them to destroy us," I needed someone to finally understand my reasons behind everything I was doing.

"Your friend outside can't help us?"

"I don't want to torment her with all this."

"If you really are that close friend she will understand, and honestly I don't think you are paranoid, I too have noticed a strange attitude in some for a few months now. My recommendation, train a team with people to whom you can entrust your life, with whom you don't have to talk to understand each other, that team will discover the spy and his allies, and if you want, among them can be your mysterious friend," they said, bringing me closer to them so I could listen to them better.

"Would you join that team if I asked you to?" I asked after a few minutes of walking in silence, still under their grip as they seemed unwilling to let me go. So far they seemed to be the most suitable person for the job.

"We'll have to be more than two, princess," they said, stopping in front of a liquor store, of which I had no idea it was there.

"Please don't call me that," I said, running my hand over my face in embarrassment, finally I was released to enter the establishment, "And what are we doing here? I thought we were just going for a beer," I asked, grabbing a bottle of brandy.

"Mike offered me 50 if I could get him a good tequila, I told him that 40 would be enough, but he said it was my pay for the effort. But you need it more than he does," they explained, strolling down the aisles of whiskey and wine.

"So are you planning to steal two bottles of tequila, or pay for one and steal the other?" I asked, picking up another bottle and reading the alcohol content on its label.

"I was actually thinking of letting you pay...but I don't think you brought more than 10, so I'll ask them to put it on my tab and I'll come to pay early tomorrow morning," Cheis replied when they finally found the area they had been looking for since the entrance.

"Don't you think it's strange that this place is open at this time of night?" I asked, putting my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt.

"These people open and close when they feel like it, neither the government nor the police is going to be telling them what to do. Besides, they earn well, in these areas there are drunks las 24 horas los 365 dias and they don't ask for identification," they said smiling, as they picked up two bottles to check them in detail.

"How long have you known this place?" I continued, looking around. At the back, there was a cashier, next to a young man who seemed to be counting the money in the cash register. There were several mirrors that served as security cameras. It was a big place, with several aisles and hanging cold white lights.

"About a year ago, but I almost never buy, there are always drunks at the entrance who won't let me in," they explained, examining another bottle on the shelf. "These two will be fine, the sodas and beers we can steal," they said, turning to look at me to wink at me and head for the cash register.

After paying, or something similar since apparently, the young man recognized not only Bruce Wayne's granddaughter but also the vigilante Cheis, we headed back out to the street.

"Hey, not to worry you anymore, but I can't put up with this much longer," they began to say when we had already crossed a few streets towards the real park, "If there is a spy, he will try to get very close to you and your family," Cheis said, and when they finished speaking we had already arrived at a small grocery store, perfect for buying beers and sodas.

"Why do you say that," I asked, entering the place to check first of all how many people were there and its security system.

"Alice confessed yesterday that she liked your brother and that she was really looking for something serious," I felt as if a bucket of cold water fell on my head, how was that possible?

I didn't wait any longer, the effect of the toxin was null in those moments and I needed to stop thinking about it once, losing consciousness for a few hours because the alcohol wouldn't be bad. I opened the refrigerator, took two lime sodas, while I indicated Cheis where there was a beer box. They took it and we ran out, but not before grabbing a pack of disposable cups, the place was actually totally empty, there wasn't even a vendor or security camera, anyone could have done the same thing.

The walk to the park took forever, I knew that Cheis' intentions were the best, I didn't know and I didn't want to think about what my reaction would have been if it was Persia herself who told me. All those talks that as a demigoddess she could not relate in that way with any mortal could go to hell.

When we arrived at the park we took a bench and started with the lightest thing, the beer, the carton had 12 bottles completely full, we divided them so that each one got 6. Although we were not one hundred percent prepared for this, Cheis' arsenal surely had something to open all the bottles, and if not, surely the bars of the bench would work.

"Salud, for life," said Cheis, clinking his bottle and mine.

"Salud," I replied, before taking a good swig. I had never really been a fan of alcohol, the raspor in my throat was the worst, and every time I took a bottle I remembered Roy's threats, saying that the last thing he wanted was for me to end up like him. I tried to quit once, but I missed the light feeling it gave me, the problems slipped away, my mind thought of nothing.

Three bottles of beer later and our true selves were beginning to show, we laughed at everything and everyone, we brought out every rudeness, on one of those we even played music on my cell phone to lighten the mood. Someday we will regret that but not for the moment, we were still young and, in my case, life was only enjoyed twice.

The beer bottles were completely ignored at three in the morning when Cheis opened the tequila and started pouring.

Again, we toasted.

"Salud, to this horrendous city," he said, already slurring his words as his free hand pointed at the huge buildings surrounding us.

"Salud, because one day this pigsty will respect us," I replied, almost in the same tone, and then began to laugh.

This is the Dumbledore we should've had and we missed:

A Dumbledore that should've been an example and a father figure for the students.

A Dumbledore that fights for the injustice of the Wizarding World. The discrimination against muggleborns. Someone who never lets kids fight a war that isn't up to them. But lets them fight for their rights and their opinions.

Someone that understands kids and teens and their needs according to their age. Someone that has fun when he needs to have fun. And also someone who is an authority and scolds when he needs to scold.

Imagine a Dumbledore that is friends with James Potter and encourages him to change and grow up from his immature self. To realize what it is important in life. To try to gain Lily's love by showing her his true self. Not by showing up.

Imagine Dumbledore being a parent figure for Sirius. Letting him know there is nothing wrong with him if he is different from his family. Being a gay guru for him and helping him realize his feelings for Remus. But making sure he doesn't lose himself for love just like he did for Grindelwald.

And imagine him helping queer youth, because he is queer himself.

Imagine a Dumbledore giving Remus confidence. Letting him know that he is not a monster and he deserves happiness and love. Asking him how he is every month. Inviting him for tea and distracting him around the full moon. And with his power, helping him destroy the prejudices people have of werewolves and doing the impossible to change the law against them.

Imagine a Dumbledore making Peter be more sure of himself. Encouraging him to study, letting him know that he is not stupid, that he just needs a bit more effort to learn. Making sure he is not sad about feeling alone or being scared about the war. Because he is the most vulnerable of the Marauders. Making sure Peter knows his friends love him no matter what.

Imagine a Dumbledore that helps kids that are lost, or are forced to take the wrong side. Not by punishing them but by helping them realize their beliefs are wrong or they are more than their pureblood families. Like Regulus, or Barty.

Imagine a Dumbledore that doesn't discriminates muggleborns. In fact, he gives them more importance and love, to demonstrate that they deserve attention as well. And a Dumbledore that gets angry and wild when an injustice occurs.

Imagine a Dumbledore that is Minnie's best friend. Someone that not only cares for her and the rest of the teachers as staff. But as human beings. Someone that understands their personal problems. Imagine Dumbledore helping Minnie realize she deserves a happy ending as well, no matter how much she had suffered. And how much she had lost. Perhaps helping her encounter her past loves again.

Just imagine Dumbledore going against the Magic Government and annoying parents who want to keep the school a conservative elite pureblood place. But tries to transform it into a respectful school for anyone no matter their blood status or skin color or religion or sexual orientation.

Dumbledore should've been a Godfather that is always for students, teachers and staff no matter what. That helps when he is needed. Someone in who people should trust. Students should've loved him as a father. And Dumbledore should've loved the students as his own kids.

Dumbledore shouldn't have been someone that manipulates people. Not someone that gives a false image of himself. Not a selfish asshole that only thought about winning a war. Not someone that used everyone as a pawn in a larger game.

I think Dumbledore had the potential to be a king, a saviour, a role model, a real hero. But he wasn't. He just tricked everyone but he was a coward.

Princess of Gotham

Chapter 16: Heroes or Vigilantes

"Is it normal for there to be so many heroes on patrol at this hour?" Cheis asked, walking on the edge of the roof of a building, pointing towards the street. The rest of us were sitting, watching as a group of girls in costumes quite similar to ours, tried to stop a car that was going at high speeds.

"It's not normal," Sound-Road replied, "Should we help?" he turned to look at me. If I knew it was one of Batman's enemies we would have blown up the car by now, but since they were probably civilians, we couldn't do much without at least flattening a tire and then paying for it.

"Let's go down," Hakan said, running to the edge of the building to jump off.

"Let's go down, let's not try to commit suicide," I scoffed, also jumping in the same direction as Rai, but not before preparing my shadow to break my fall.

Malowe, who had arrived a few minutes earlier, arrived downstairs before Hakan and me. Mike didn't take that long either, since he could travel/run at the speed of sound, he wasn't as fast as Flash or his pupils, but it was something compared to those of us who ran at turtle speed in Sports class.

The car passed close to us, almost running us over. Cheis, still from the roof, shot at one of the tires, unfortunately, this caused the driver to lose control and was about to crash into a building. My shadow would not be enough to cushion the crash, let alone stop it.

I turned to look at Parallel, who apparently had read my mind, and was already trying to stop the car with his telekinesis. The girls who had been following the vehicle came close behind us, while I picked up my shadow and Sound-Road approached to see the damage.

"Greetings, fellow masked colleagues," said one of the girls with a huge smile on her face. I turned quickly so I could see her face. The face of many of my nightmares. My companions only gave me looks full of confusion. "My name is Genesis, leader of Black Mamba. These are my partners: Nova, Agape, and Shayra," she pointed to each of the girls.

The first one wore a white suit with gold details and a hood, the second one wore a bright pink suit, and the last one wore a green suit. Genesis, on the other hand, wore a blue suit, with details quite similar to Nightwing's suit. They all wore black masks, but I could still recognize these figures anywhere. It was almost a mockery that they thought I wouldn't recognize those names.

"Eclipse. Leader of the Warriors Society," I said, shortening the distance between us, realizing that I was a few inches taller than the other girl. I stretched out my hand in greeting, more than anything else to cover appearances: "We are vigilantes of Gotham, Metropolis, and Star City," Genesis squeezed my hand, looking at my companions, who were behind me.

"We had already heard about you, quite a lot in fact, many criminals think we work for you. The... What did they call her, Shay?" Agape asked.

"The Princess of Gotham," said the other two at the same time, with a dramatic voice and exaggerated hand movements. It didn't bother me that they called me that, what bothered me was that they made fun of me because my father, Jason, had been the first one to use that nickname on me and it meant a lot to me. I let go of Genesis' hand and prepared to introduce my companions for the night. I shouldn't have, because they had known each other before but didn't know it, and I didn't feel like fighting that night.

"These are some of the members of my team: Parallel, Sound-Road, Blackbird, Hakan, and Pandora, my right hand, but I'm sure you already knew that. Unfortunately, I can't introduce you to the others because they are in other parts of the city, or they don't want to come down," I excused myself, pointing to the building from which Cheis was still pointing his gun.

"Wow, your little green-eyed friend is cute," Nova whispered in my ear, pointing at my brother. I tensed, for she was too close to me.

I took a few steps away from her and smiled at her as best I could. I advanced towards my cousin and signaled her to move away from both teams who were already starting to have a friendly conversation.

"They give you the creeps, don't they?" I hated that she could read me so well with that mechanical eye, I couldn't hide anything from her.

"No, this is much worse than just a feeling, we need to talk to Shade urgently," I said quietly.

"Calm down, we'll be leaving in a few seconds and we probably won't see them again," he replied, starting to walk towards where our companions were socializing.

"You don't understand the gravity of this situation, do you?" I warned, grabbing her robotic arm.

"I understand you better than anyone, but we need to keep up appearances," she argued, releasing her grip on me.

I stood there for a moment, trying to process the situation. I approached my team, signaling them that we should retreat to watch other streets.

"Sound-Road, report the damage to the base," I ordered when I was relatively close. Mike nodded and turned to contact Jim.

"Since when are you a hero?" Shayra asked me, again too close for my liking.

"I don't plan to share that information with someone I barely knew," I answered without turning to look at her, as her gaze made me uncomfortable, "Besides, I've always felt that the title of hero is still too big for us."

"So you are a vigilante?" She asked again. I could simply answer that I have not left.

"We are not judges or jurors in this crusade," I commented, almost reciting, pulling out my shadow to serve as a rope to climb up to the roof of the nearest building.

"Why are you talking about yourself in the plural? I mean, I don't think that's everyone's opinion" I was shocked, how could I let that happen? The 4 girls turned to look at me.

"Eclipse, we have to go now. Black Arrow and Callan are having trouble with some of the Joker's helpers," James reported. I thanked him internally and motioned for everyone to leave right then and there, leaving the other team with words in their mouths and doubt in their heads.

James gave us the exact direction as we ran across the rooftops, some faster than others. A few meters later I texted Poison and Scorpion to meet us in case the Joker showed up.

I remembered my father's warning, stopping near where Callan would probably be butchering those madmen. In my mind, I began to strategize where I would not disobey Jason and where I could help Batman.

I walked the remaining meters to my companions, ready to help capture the stupid clown.

^-^

Cheis: relax just act mature

Jared/Poison: mature, got it

*Jared on his date*

Rai/Hakan: so what do you do for fun?

Jared *in a deep serious voice*: taxes

I NEED HELP

So, the other day I was talking to a friend of mine and I said "sometimes I would like to rewrite the Harry Potter universe and make it a little more logical," and I regret that. Because now I hace the idea of making my own magical universe.

I have a goggle doc in which I am writing the basics of the story, my world building and some character sheets. I also added a few designs of uniforms for the school and now I'm working on my Villain design (because is the arc that has the most develop until know)

Now, I may have my basics but I'm still missing a lot. If someone would like to help in character design, reviewing and beta reading the story, helping with new concepts for the world building or even helping with the designs of places in this universe you can send me a dm and I will send you the Google doc. For now I only have de doc in Spanish but I can translate it to English.

Thank you in advance

I mean, there are a lot of people saying they want to help (including me). We can totally start it with a little organization

I'm just saying

there should be an AmRev webtoon

Por favor no sean alegóricos a decir gracias, hola, adiós, como estas. Se ven mal si no lo hacen, es decencia humana.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

Clarifying

I need to clarify a few things about my last four pots and the future of this blog.

In reality, I only posted two different things, translating them into English. These posts do not form part of any of my stories.

Currently, I only have two stories published here, being the ones tied to my oc's from DC comic's

There's another one that I've intended to translate and post, but my time has not been right, and I haven't posted it. But the title is already on my list of "Stories on this blog" or something like that. I don't remember the title of that post.

The things I published today, along with a few stories of mine with the length of one or two chapters, will be labeled as "Independent mini-stories", including some of my ideas and stories I write for school.

I say this because last weekend I wrote a story for my philosophy class and my teacher liked it.

As you may have noticed "Princess of Gotham" will be on an indefinite hiatus because my main focus at the moment is "Terrors of Gotham", a prequel to my first story.

The last thing I want to ask, to anyone who reads my works on this platform, is to have patience. I'm about to start my college admission tests. I also have other million things to do.

R.Cabrera