Long Past Dawn

Batman sighs and rubs his brow again, I'd say that adds two more wrinkles to the list but who's counting. "The difference between life and death."

Ok... poetic but most definitely not helpful. "Umm, I still don't get it..."

Batman sighs and I'm starting to think that's a thing with him, "This here," he points at the image on the left, "is Jikan's test results. While this," he points to the one on the right, "is Dawn's. Any more questions?"

I slowly raise my hand like I'm back in school, "So, uh, what does it mean?"

Batman glares at me and, man, if looks could kill I would be six feet under at this point, "I'm starting to think that the more I know about you the less I can understand you."

I mean, I fully agree with you but that still doesn't answer my question. "This... chemical compound seems to have fused effortlessly with you while with Jikan it's done the opposite and is killing her."

"Then what's the difference? There has to be something that works with me but isn't with Jikan." If we find out what that is then we can just get rid of that and Jikan will be good as new.

Batman yet again sighs and at this point I'm trying to remember a time he wasn't sighing, "That's the problem, there is no plausible difference. It's not the genome, the age difference or anything else I could think of. Unless this... chemical... is alive and picking and choosing who it wants to live or die then I have no clue as to why this is happening."

That's when it clicks. "But what if that's exactly it."

Everyone turns to me confused, most of them look confused while some must be starting to see what I'm talking about. "Ok let's say you're rich, have a lot of spare money and resources, and for whatever reason want a super army of soldiers that can heal themselves, fly, stop time and who knows what else. So you create a... let's call it a serum... that is some microorganism that can choose its host. It would make perfect sense, that way that if you did start some world domination plan with these super soldiers if the other side got the serum chances are it won't bond with anyone and it will kill them eventually."

I stop for a breath and see everyone sees it now too. "If it mutates the host's body and mind then it would be a cohabitation since the serum is a living thing, even if it does fuse itself to said host..... But that would also mean that there's no hope for Jikan... Even if we were able to flush out the serum from her some would still have fused with her and that would still kill her..."

For all my great realization has brought it still hasn't done anything to save Jikan, I swallow and look down at my l.a.p.

"You're right... Why didn't I think of that?" Batman mutters before turning around and leaving, probably to do some more testing on my theory.

Stephen looks deep in thought like he's thinking about something, knowing him... well I don't have a clue what he could be thinking about.

Black Canary comes over to my seat, "Come on. Let's go."

"W-where?" I'm a little scared to think about where she wants to take me...

"Training." She turns and starts to walk away, "You coming?"

I get up and scurry after her, this should be fun. Nothing like breaking a few bones.

We walk down a set of stairs that I swear to you were not there last time I checked. When we get down to the bottom I try to hold in my gasp, it's a gym.

The same brick walls and cement flooring as in my room but the rest of the room is covered in weights, treadmills, and other machines that look almost like torture devices to me. And in the center of it all, a boxing ring.

Just looking around the room I can tell this is going to hurt.

Black Canary slips off her jacket and throws it to the corner before slipping into the ring, she then motions for me to come in too. I throw off my hoodie so I'm only in a tee and not even half as gracefully move into the ring after her.

As soon as I've got both feet in the ring she gets set into a fighting stance, I try to mimic it the best I can. Black Canary smiles and before I can even see what she's about to do she lungs at me, aiming a punch straight at my face. But it's suddenly like my bodies moving on its own, I grab her fist and throw it down before aiming to kick her away, she dodges and aims a high kick for my head again. I somehow catch her leg but she just smirks at me and raises her other leg to high kick me, this time I'm unprepared and the blow lands. I'm thrown across the ring and hit the ropes.

The breath leaves me and I'm panting to get it back, Black Canary walks over to me and I flinch away, expecting a blow. But when I don't feel the blow connect I open my eyes and see that instead of hitting me she's offered me a hand up.

I take her hand and shakily stand up, my ears are still ringing from her kick. She really couldn't go easy on me huh?

"Not bad for your first fight." She says when I'm standing on my own to feet. "I'll give you one day, use this room to train however you like but by tomorrow we're having another match. And I won't be going easy on you."

After she finishes speaking she walks out of the ring and back up the stairs, only stopping to grab her jacket. I sigh and slump down in the ring when I can't hear her shoes on the stairs anymore. God, Buddha, Black Canary have mercy on me!

I don't have a clue how I'm going to beat her by tomorrow... Ok let's review, her starting posture was with her right leg behind her and her left side facing me, as soon as I was in the same form as her she lunged forward with her right foot coming forward and swinging her right hand towards my face. Let's start with that for now.

***

Half an hour later I think I've got as close to her first position as I can. It also turns out that once you get into that position it's really easy to throw a strong punch. Maybe Black Canary's submersion course will get me somewhere.

I'm so busy in my own world that I didn't realize someone was in the room with me until they spoke up. "H-hey are you really ok?"

I spin around to see Stephen's face with a slight blush on it. I sigh and drop down onto the floor of the boxing ring so that I'm sitting down, I run my fingers through my hair. I don't know, that's pretty much been the one question I've been avoiding because I don't want to answer it.

"I..." I was just going to say that I'm fine but looking at Stephen's worried face for some reason I just can't lie to him, "I don't know..."