126 Sparrow
Life was a sick joke. That's what Jubilee felt in the small honest corner of her heart. God was a pervert who enjoyed giving with one hand and passing on consequences for that gift with the other.
He had to love watching the struggles of us, mere mortals. Life was a long string of hurt, pain, and boredom separated by a few brief moments of happiness to break up the monotony. If God was truly watching, then he had a sick sense of entertainment.
How else would you explain a father she loved with all her heart, only for him to abandon her to the streets so he could join some sick gang that emulates the crazy of one of Gotham's craziest villains. Who probably didn't even know they existed.
In the alleyways she was dumped in, she learned early that long hair and a clean face meant trouble. So, she cut the long hair she loved so much with a rusty knife she kept on herself for protection and made sure her delicate features were smeared in dirt.
The horror of going through puberty alone in the alleys about drove her mad. A rare act of kindness from a street hooker was the best and only source of comfort at that time. Days later she found the same woman dead, strangled to death in the very alley where Jubilee had the womanhood discussion with her.
She learned to be a ghost on the streets and alleyways. Never staying in one place long enough to be noticed. Steal and run, that's what she did to survive. Never fight, it took too long.
The worst thing that Jubilee felt that could happen to her is to draw attention and damned if that crazy pervert in the sky didn't give her the most eye-catching thing possible. Fucking FIREWORKS exploding from her Fucking hands any time she didn't want them to.
Just as she was learning to deal with that, she came across a crazy tricked-out car in her newest alleyway. She tried to get inside to steal the stereo or steering wheel, but it was locked tight. All she could do was go after the tires with a tire iron that had red flakes all over it from a couple of blocks back. She worked as fast as she could but only got three tires off before she heard a noise behind her.
Without thought or looking at what the noise was she darted away fully intent on never looking back. She was just under a fire escape ladder and in mid-jump to reach it before she felt a rope tangle around her chest and arms so she couldn't reach out for the lowest rung. She also couldn't raise her arms to catch herself when she fell to the pavement face-first.
Waking up, she felt an odd sensation. She wasn't cold, or wet. It also smelled too good for an alleyway. Holding still she gave no outward sign that she had woken up and strained her ears for any sound.
"I will offer you two choices girl. It is within my power to send you to a school and provide a life of opportunity limited only by your effort and wishes." The voice stopped there to let that sink in.
"Or I can train you to reach the peak of the human body's ability and use that training to help clean the streets of this city. That path will be painful, fraught with danger, and little if any recognition. Take your time to decide."
Jubilee opened her eyes to see a shadowy figure of a large man walking towards the door of the enormous room.
Quickly she thought of the two choices in her mind. One was easy and bright, it sounded wonderful. But the price for such a life from that sick ever-watching God would be that much worse.
The second option sounded like hell, and maybe if she suffered enough then maybe, God would look away from her and allow a bit of unseen happiness.
"I choose the training, but if it's more than what you say, I will run and return one day to burn down everything you have."
The figure stopped with one hand on the doorknob, "Then get some more sleep and be ready to start training in the morning."
She was surprised to learn in the following days that she had tried to steal Devilbat's wheels. Learning that he was Matt Wayne meant nothing to her as she had no idea who that was. The alleyways didn't exactly have a list of the richest men in town.
She learned though. Being taught manners by the stuffy and fussy busybody butler was almost a deal breaker in her opinion. What did it matter if she knew what table manners were? She hadn't sat at a table to eat in years.
Being clean was nice though. The rich food twisted her belly something fierce for the first week or so. It seemed like she had to run to the bathroom as soon as she got up from eating. She was almost certain the damn butler was poisoning her or something. Not that she really minded so long as the poison tasted this good though.
Jubilee struggled to focus her mind, some guy in a grey outfit just attacked Alfred and her during training, then walked out like it was nothing. She struggled against her bindings, but they wouldn't loosen at all.
For the first time, she tried to intentionally use her fireworks to set her free somehow. The adrenalin of seeing Alfred frothing at the mouth and twitching on the ground seemed to connect her to the ability and she freed herself by blasting the cable. Earning no small number of burns in the process.
She quickly made her way to Alfred. "Come on Stuffy, hang in there. You can't die on me; this is our first time watching the house together. It would set a bad precedent." Her mind sent howls of frustration at the damn sick God, she fell on her butt and almost lost herself in the panic.
She stopped crying in her head and started focusing on a solution as Matt had taught her. Her body moved on reflex, and she moved Alfred's body to a cart he used to set her food on and then pushed him toward the main computer room.
When she got there, she studied the figure in grey again and made some guesses about his purpose. She had been warned about the wall of small safes and what damaging them could do so she pushed the cart Alfred was on far away from herself and made her way quietly to the first safe she could reach and placed her hand on it.
"Mr. If I use my powers to damage this lock then all items in every container will be instantly transported to another location. No one but the Boss knows where that is, and he isn't around right now."
Owlman paused in his exploration of the files on the computer and turned to look at the little girl.
"I would kill you. Very painfully and then go looking for the item I need."
Jubilee smiled, "Sounds like a long process, you sure you have time for that?"
"Leave Girl. I will give you my word I will not chase you."
"I will take that offer and add in the antidote for my friend here. Your poison left him in a bad way and I need him."
Owlman smiled and started to move toward the man this girl clearly cared for. Quite foolish to show such a weakness.
"Stop right there. You will have to deliver the antidote from there, get any closer to him and the deal is off. Put the antidote on a needle or knife and deliver it to his bloodstream that way. Once I see it work, then I will take him away and you can get what you came for."
Owlman stopped and gave the girl a deeper look. He pulled two wings out but only allowed her to see one. Then he poured the poison antidote on one blade and made to throw it at the still figure. His eyes stayed on the girl.
"Just to keep it friendly, I don't recommend you hit any part of his body that won't heal completely. And if say, you miss and the blade comes my way or if I am hit with something else, then the power I have saturated this lock with will go off automatically. I wouldn't want any mistakes or misunderstandings here after all."
Owlman smiled a bit, "Well played girl, perhaps there is something to be said for raising the next generation after all." He threw his wing with the antidote at Alfred, and Jubilee could tell that the butler's breathing became less labored shortly after.
Now for the most dangerous part, the walk to Alfred. It was a good thing she placed him near the elevator. It could go directly to the medical floor. She slowly pulled her power from the safe and started to walk towards Alfred's body, but she kept her hand pointed at the safe as though to say she could hit it at any distance.
Owlman watched her with some amusement on his lips. "Betray me and you will plead for me to kill you."
Once the girl had taken her teacher into the elevator, Owlman returned to the computer and found where the trigger was kept. He retrieved it and briefly thought about chasing the old man and girl down and killing them, but he shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't matter anyway. They are dead like everyone else now." He made his way towards the well he entered from and once out of the cave system, he used his portal device to return to his world.
