Young Amazons

by Wanderer D

Chapter 28: Break

 
Sunset took a quiet breath as she leaned back in the chair during her seventh period gym class. She glanced over to see Barbara looking fairly bored as the class watched a movie one of the students brought.
 
It was now the last day of school for the students and despite it being gym class, Ms. Vann allowed the students to relax during the final week of classes due to most of the testing being done. Some voted to do some gym activities but were in the minority when more voted to spend the last week watching movies.
 
For Sunset, the summer break was a blessing ever since the fight with Uriah. If he was indeed telling the truth; she had little reason to think he was lying to her when he clearly had lost, then she was going to need training and skills that could come in handy when the eventual clash with the Lords of Chaos came.
 
At least, that was the idea now. Originally, Sunset returned to the Tower of Fate with the Gutt vu Kraaft in hand. If Uriah escaped incarceration, he wouldn’t have much in terms of power to threaten the city. She would make sure he was sent right back in a heartbeat.
 
After that, she had a long conversation with Zatanna about what Uriah said and what she should do next. Sunset originally was still burdened with the fact that it was due to her presence that the Lords of Chaos had their sights set on Gotham.
 
Her first idea, and looking back probably the simplest but damaging, was to just leave Gotham. She would remain in the Tower of Fate and focus more of her attention on just trying to return back to either Equestria or Canterlot High, like Zatanna had offered during Sunset’s first day in this dimension.
 
However, Zatanna pointed out that she also suggested that Sunset live her life like she had been this past year, and reminded her of all the good things that she had done by making that choice. Barbara and Pamela were who they were now thanks to her, not to mention all the people she had helped as Alicorn.
 
It didn’t take much to realize that plan was foolish; that running away wouldn’t solve any problems. If the Lords of Chaos were coming to Gotham, it wouldn’t matter if she was there or not.
 
That led to the current plan: Getting ready for the inevitable fight that was sure to come. She hoped that the Lords would take their time and not make their move within a couple of days or weeks. Summer break would be a perfect chance not only for Sunset, but Pamela and Barbara to hone their skills and powers.
 
The movie was suddenly stopped as the lights came on, followed by the groan of several students who were heavily invested in it.
 
“Sorry about that, everyone.” Mrs. Vann apologized. “Now then, we’ve only got a few minutes before final bell so I want to say a few words before you all leave. First of all, I want to thank several of our girls here who helped Gotham High win the state gymnastics this year.”
 
Sunset glanced over and gave Barbara a smirk. The redhead replied with one of her own.
 
“Next, I want to thank you all for the year. With many of you being freshman and transfers, I’m glad to have finally met a few of you and hope to see many of you again next year after the summer break. Now, to those seniors and those transferring away, I want to say it was a pleasure teaching and I hope you all do well in the future. Hopefully we might meet again somewhere down the road.”

She chuckled. “Sorry, don’t mean to preach but I like to say it after every year.” The final bell interrupted her. “And that’s it. Now, please leave in a calm and orderly manner; you wouldn’t want to start your summer break off by getting hurt.”
 
Sunset and Barbara slowly made their way out to the front steps of the school where Pamela was waiting for them. Her final class was closer to the front door than the gym was.
 
“I swear, none of these classes had anything important to do, so why make us come? Just let us go on break a few days early.” The girls heard Murphy say to Harvey and Jason as the trio of boys walked away.
 
“Murphy does have a point. Most of the classes were either watching movies or just having time to chat with classmates.” Pamela said as the girls followed the boys away from the school before turning a different direction towards Sunset’s apartment.
 
“This sort of delay with school could end up costing us if we didn’t know any better,” Barbara suggested.
 
“Hey, let’s not think like that. Okay, girls?” Sunset told them. “Look, we don’t know if the Lords of Chaos will be here tomorrow or months from now. Let’s at least get some training in like they’re coming tomorrow, and pray they’ll take their time.”
 
“Okay. So, is there any place we can train? I mean, we can’t really do much at your place if you don’t mind me saying, Sunny.” Barbara said.
 
“Yeah, it’s fine for me practicing some simple spells but not really for anything else. Especially for you, Pam.”
 
“What’s that supposed to mean? You meaning my plants or fighting?” Pamela asked.
 
“Both. Besides, I don’t mean to be rude or anything like that.” Sunset clarified.
 
“No, don’t worry, Sunny. I know what you mean. I really need to catch up with you and Red in terms of hand-to-hand.”

“You’ve been doing great,” Barbara said. “Dinah really thinks you’ve come a long way in such a short time, especially someone with little experience.”
 
Pamela chuckled. “I thought she was just being nice when she said all that.”

“Listen, how’s about we have a little celebration for getting through our junior year tonight, and then get to some hard training at Star City tomorrow?” Sunset suggested.
 
“Sounds like a plan. Maybe we can spend the night together tomorrow as well. Watch a few movies and just relax?” Barbara added.
 
“You mean a sleepover?” Pamela raised an eyebrow. “Do you think we may be a bit too old for that?”
 
“Pam, we’re 17. You’re making us sound like old women!” Barbara began to laugh which Sunset joined in.
 
“I’m just saying.” Pamela then joined her friends in the laughter as they made their way up to Sunset’s apartment.
 

 
Detective Lin sighed as she leaned back in her chair after filling out another piece of paperwork. A TV in the office was turned on to an episode of Live PD, much to her displeasure. She always hated the fact that so many of those police shows tended to leave out one of the most important aspects of police work: Investigating and paperwork. Shows like that tended to make the public think that police work was nothing more than patrolling around and busting criminals. That wasn’t it at all. There was a whole lot more going on that people did not see.
 
Speaking of criminals, she was grateful that Rojas had been keeping her off of more publicized cases. Cases that involved the super-criminals like she had when she first arrived in Gotham. In fact, the past few months almost felt like a repeat of what she was doing during her last months in Metropolis.
 
A knock on the door of her office caused her to look up from her desk. She glanced over to see Rojas looking in on her.
 
“Detective,” he said as he walked in.
 
“Ah, Chief. How can I help you?” she asked as she placed her pencil down.
 
“Just came by to check up on how one of my best detectives is doing,” he answered as he took a seat opposite of her.
 
“Finishing up some paperwork on a few cases. I already finished most of it.”
 
“Good to hear,” Rojas glanced out towards the window. “And how are we on the Mendoza murder?”
 
“That’s one I’m finishing up right now. Got our killer locked up, brought him in to interrogation, he confessed within five minutes. Wasn’t really thought out crime, we had plenty of evidence on him,” Lin explained.
 
“Good work, I’m glad to hear we’re making progress with more, well, you know, normal crimes.”
 
Lin raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”
 
“You know what I mean? Crimes that don’t involve a crazed clown trying to gas the city or a walking blizzard bringing winter in early,” Rojas said before he pulled out a cigarette. “Okay if I light this?”

Lin nodded. “Go ahead.” Rojas gave a small smile before he lit it. “And I see your point; best leave those so called super-criminals to the only four people in this city that can take them on.”
 
“Four…” Rojas coughed. “Shoot, my ex did tell me I should cut down on these things.”
 
“I thought you were married, sir.”
 
“On my third wife, Detective. Word of advice: If you meet a guy, make sure he’s the right one so you don’t end up chasing like I have.” He chuckled and Lin joined in with a chuckle of her own. “Anyways, yeah, four. You know I kept blaming the Bat for all those crazies that were coming out of the woodwork, but I guess maybe I should’ve suspected the opposite.”
 
“I have to admire those girls for willing to do what they do, especially at their age.”

“Well, I still have a problem with one of them: The plant girl,” Rojas pointed out.
 
“I think she goes by Poison Ivy. Let me guess, the Chlorogene building?”
 
Rojas nodded. “Exactly. I know Gordon said she was under the influence of Woodrue, but still,” he took another puff of his cigarette. “Woodrue, I hate the fact we had to let him go.”
 
Lin’s eyes widened. “Wait, he’s free?”
 
Rojas quickly realized what he said. “Oh, sorry. Wrong phrase. No, he’s still incarcerated, I meant we had to extradite him to the West Coast; he was wanted for the same crimes in a few cities out there.”
 
“Oh, I see,” Lin took a small sigh of relief. Last thing anyone needed was that eco-terrorist being allowed free reign to do whatever he wanted.
 
“Anyways,” Rojas stood up. “Just wanted to check up on you, so I’ll let you get back to work.” He walked towards the door. “Have a good day, Detective. Oh, by the way, someone is here for you.”
 
“Who?” she asked.
 
“I don’t know. He says you know him and that you would recognize him. I’ll send him in for you.” Rojas then closed the door.
 
Lin began to worry for a moment before the door was knocked on again. As soon as it opened, her worry vanished.
 
“Hey, partner. How you been lately?” Ethan Bennett smiled as he walked in.
 
“Didn’t think Rojas had a sense of humor,” Lin thought before she smiled back. “Well, in a much better mood seeing you. How have you been Ethan?”
 
“Way better since I’ve gotten all good in the head again,” he tapped on his skull before sitting  down. “I’ve been working traffic up on the north side of town up in Cherry Hill. You know, that suburb where a bunch of those 80s movies were filmed.”
 
“I hear it’s a nice area to be.” Lin said.
 
“Yeah, but kind of boring. One of the quietest areas of this city, and that really isn’t me. I want to be in a place where I could do the most good.” He then glanced at her desk before going back to her. “But enough about my route. What have you been up to for the past year?”
 
“Well, I’ve certainly got a few stories to tell you.”
 

 
“You sure you girls are going to be okay?” Dinah asked as she walked towards the door. She was going out on another nightly patrol of Star City while Barbara and the girls would stay behind and do some more training after a few sparing hours with her.
 
“We’ll be fine, Dinah,” Sunset assured her.
 
“Okay then, I should be back way late tonight, so don’t wait up, alright?”
 
“Take care of yourself, Dinah,” Barbara said from the couch she was laying on. The blonde superheroine gave them a wink and a smile before she left.
 
Barbara then turned her attention to Pamela. She was standing completely still, barefoot on a small plane of grass she summoned. “What exactly are you doing, Pam?”
 
“Just resting,” she explained. “I found out a few weeks ago that I can rest up and heal faster if I’m closer to nature.”
 
“Oh, yeah. I forget you’re part-plant sometimes,” Barbara chuckled.
 
“How’s your leg doing?” Sunset asked as she walked over to Barbara. Earlier in the day during training, her and Sunset’s spar got a bit too real and ended up with Barbara taking a hard hit to her leg. For the past few hours, a pack of ice laid on it.
 
“It’s doing fine. Just a bit sore now,” Barbara said. She rubbed her leg after taking the ice off. “Probably going to bruise, but nothing I haven’t had before. Just to quickly get our stories straight if and when my folks ask, I tripped and hit it on Sunset’s living room table, okay?”
 
“Got it,” Both girls gave thumbs up.
 
“I have to say though, that was a good spar before it went overboard. I honestly think you two are well on your way to getting some training from Dragon like I did.” Sunset said.
 
“Dragon?” Pamela asked.
 
“Richard Dragon. Let me put it this way, if Dinah is to be considered as a normal close combat training teacher, then Dragon is the advanced stage.” Sunset explained.
 
“Or to put it in other words, Dinah’s a black belt, but Dragon is like ten black belts?” Barbara guessed.
 
Sunset nodded. “Probably the best way to describe it. Zatanna led me to him after I felt like I needed to get some better fighting training. I was somewhat feeling a bit too comfortable with my powers and moves and ended up getting jumped. If it wasn’t for Batman, I know I wouldn’t be here right now.”
 
“If it’s okay with you, Sunny, I think I’d rather stick with Dinah for the time being.” Pamela said.
 
“I understand, but I would recommend we see him sometime soon; any advantage we can get on the Lords of Chaos, am I right?”
 
“Yeah,” Barbara nodded before a thought came to her. “Hey, Sunny, you and Pam should do some sparring right now.”
 
Sunset nodded at Barbara’s suggestion. “That’s a good idea. You haven’t been doing as much as Barbara and I today.”
 
Barbara watched Pamela blush as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, I didn’t want to get in the way of you two.”
 
“Come on, I’ll go easy on you if you want,” Sunset chuckled as the two of them walked towards the center of the studio where they got ready to spar.
 
Meanwhile, Barbara looked over at some of the spell books that Sunset brought with her, which were sitting on a table next to the couch Barbara was on.
 
“Hey, Sunny, mind if I look through some of your books?” she asked.
 
“Sure, I don’t see why not. Don’t think you could do anything with them anyways,” Sunset answered before she threw a fist towards Pamela who blocked it.
 
The sounds of the two girls fighting was drowned out in Barbara’s mind as she looked through the spell book. Mostly it was the kind of stuff that she expected to be found, and she was mostly just skimming her way through them before her eyes caught something.
 
“Sunny! Pam! Look at this!” she shouted, which caused the two girls to stop their fighting.
 
“What’s wrong, Red?” Pamela asked as she and Sunset walked over to Barbara.
 
“Well, Sunny, did you know you can fly?” Barbara turned the book around and handed it to her. “It’s a flying spell I noticed while I was just flipping through the book.”
 
Barbara saw Sunset’s eyes widen when looking at it. “I can’t believe I never saw this before,” she breathed. “I mean, I haven’t actually read this book. That’s why I brought it.”
 
“Is it possible? I mean, for you to fly using magic?” Barbara asked. “Flight is not something people tend to think of when it comes to things in spell books.” A thought quickly came to Barbara. She snapped her fingers. “Milan, 2001!” she exclaimed.
 
“Huh?” Both girls said.
 
“One of Zatanna’s shows! When she was doing some show in Milan back in 2001, she levitated into the air and began to fly around above the stage during the show. Now, most people would just assume she was on wires, but with us knowing the truth…” Barbara explained.
 
“That’s right!” Sunset realized. “Zatanna told me that she never does any false magic when she’s on stage; it’s all real stuff that she’s learned!”
 
“Wow! So that means you can actually take to the skies?” Pamela asked.
 
“Well, I don’t know exactly how I would be flying; doubtful I’ll be traveling like a jet or something like that. But…well, I’ll give it a try.” Sunset turned around and walked to the center of studio.
 
Barbara and Pamela watched as Sunset looked carefully through the book before putting it down and closed her eyes. After muttering a few things to herself, the girls’ eyes widened as they watched Sunset slowly lift off the floor.
 
“Hey, Sunny! It’s working!” Pamela exclaimed. Sunset opened her eyes as she continued to hover further up. “See if you can start moving around.”
 
“Okay,” Sunset nodded before trying to move her body, only for nothing to really happen in terms of directional movement.
 
“Okay, you’re just kinda floating upward in place,” Barbara observed as Sunset slowly began to be pressed up against the celling. “And now it looks like you’re lying on the celling.”
 
“Believe me, girls, this isn’t my intention,” Sunset answered in an annoyed tone. “And I can’t seem to get down either.”
 
“Feels more like a balloon spell rather than flying,” Barbara gave a small chuckle.
 
“Lucky we did this inside,” Pamela said. “Sunny, do you know any sort of cancel spells? Maybe that would get you down.”
 
“Yeah, I’ve got a few I’ve learned. I’ll jus- whoa!” Sunset suddenly began to fall back to the floor.
 
“Wait, wait! Let’s get you someth-” Pamela shouted before letting out a giant OOF! as Sunset landed on her back. “-to land on,”
 
“You okay, Sunny?” Barbara asked as she walked over to Sunset.
 
“I’m okay,” Sunset sighed. “Just let me lay here for a few minutes while the pain goes away.”
 
Barbara and Pamela gave a small sigh of relief before chuckling. They all still clearly had much to learn.