DC Genesis

Course when Rose suggested that Neal take this, the boy just had his mouth open as if he couldn't believe what Rose had just said. Clint was apparently not very happy with this either.

"Let me get this straight," Clint said as his eyes slowly moved from Rose to Neal. "That was the day that Rose came home in a crying and half-drunk state. Are you telling me Neal that in this condition you saw it as appropriate to have sex with her?" he asked as the venom in his voice became very apparent. After hearing Rose's story, he was not happy that Neal would do something like this.

"No no no no no no!" Neal said so quickly that it probably surprised everyone. "That's not how it happened at all. It wasn't like that, right Rose? I didn't take advantage of your emotional condition, we both wanted to do it right!?"

"Uh, whoa, hold on a second," Rose said, trying to come to Neal's defense. Granted, she was probably only going to make things worse, knowing her luck, but whatever. "That wasn't until after. I wasn't... like in the condition you found me in when we... were at the hotel. I was actually in a pretty good mood then... wasn't until the next day when I started to get real depressed and got drunk... after I told Neal to drop me off at the gym."

Clint was just silent for some time. "I see," Clint said as he glanced between Rose and Neal. He had several things that he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure if any of it was necessary. It seemed like Rose harbored no ill will to Neal despite her condition at the time, which he appreciated. It didn't sound like a cop out, she was being sincere in her words.

"So, is it going to happen again?" he asked rather bluntly.

Rose paused a moment at the question. Was that supposed to be a trick question, or...? Well, her counter question probably wasn't going to help much, but here went nothing. "Um... you mean going to the hotel or us having sex?"

Clint glanced over at Rose again, surprised that she was so blunt about her question. He decided to make his answer simple as well. "Do you two ever plan on having sex with each other ever again?" he said in a surprisingly calm voice.

Well, that hadn't quite been the tone she was expecting to hear, but she'd take what she got. Shifting her position in her seat, she crossed one leg over the other and folded her arms. "Well..." she said, glancing back at Neal momentarily. "...only if he wants to."

NOOOOOOO! That was what played in Neal's head as Rose gave that answer to his father. What was she thinking?! Did she not realize how this was supposed to work!? She was supposed to apologize and say that it was never going to happen again. Was she trying to get Neal shot!?

"I see," Clint said as he gained a thoughtful tone to his voice. He didn't look upset or angry. However he soon glanced up at Rose and Neal. "I take it you both know that doing this might make it harder for you two to say goodbye eventually when you leave Rose," he remarked as he looked at the girl. "I just don't want either of you getting so attached if this is already doomed to end. Your a good girl Rose and I like you, but I don't want to see either of you getting hurt by this. You have both been spending quite a bit of time together as of late."

"It's okay Dad, we understand that this isn't permanant. It's just....something we do," Neal said as he couldn't think of anything better to say. He glanced at Rose, wondering if she'd provide some actual backup this time around.

"Uh huh," Rose said, nodding slowly. "Besides, you make it sound like I'm supposed to leave the country forever or something. If I ever really got attached to him that much I'd just move here... problem solved. But yeah, for right now... it's just something we do." She gave Neal another brief look before focusing on Clint again. "Neal's a good guy... and I like spending time with him. That's just... part of how we spend our time. Uh... does that make sense?"

Clint was quiet for a while, not quite certain how to process what was going on here. Boy, was he going to have to have a talk with Neal and Rose individually later. From the way that Rose talked it sounded like she was becoming obsessed with the boy, and given the tragedy of her childhood Clint thought that this might be some sign of past trauma. He couldn't let Neal just take advantage of that.

"Okay than....well we might talk some more later, but as long as you two promise to practice it safely I guess that's all I have to say right now," he said as he stood up. "If you're going to have sex though, don't be at the house. I don't want there to even have a chance of Jordan being exposed to this kind of thing yet."

"Uh, yeah, right, good idea," Rose said, giving an affirmative nod. Made sense. Now that she thought of it, she didn't want anyone walking in on them either... well, unless that someone was going to join in, but Jordan definitely didn't qualify. Then, as if she couldn't make matters any worse, she leaned closer to Neal and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. "Guess you should call that motel back for those special offers, huh?"

Neal just let his hands fall in to his face as Rose made her very last comment. This girl...had to be the least helpful individual that he had ever met in his entire life. How on earth did she not know how to deal with a situation like this. "Yeah...maybe," was all that Neal managed to utter out as he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Right...well, you two kids go and, do whatever it is you plan on doing," Clint said as he made his way to the hallway. "Just let me know if anything bad happens," was the last thing he said before disappearing down the hallway.

"Well that was awkward as hell," was all that Neal finally said.

"Maybe a little," Rose said, with a quiet laugh. "But hey, he didn't seem so mad once we realized you didn't take advantage of me or anything. Actually seemed pretty cool with it. Maybe he's just proud his son is getting some? Well... figuratively speaking, anyway." Considering they weren't actually having sex, it was rather hilarious that Neal's dad now believed they were going to be spending long raunchy nights at the local motel together. "Anyway, come on. Beers are only three bucks at the club for the next hour."

Neal just sighed and shook his head. Well, he could at least appreciate the fact that this was behind him for now. He didn't exactly wanna keep talking about with his dad, this was just supposed to stay behind a closed door. And it wasn't even like he was actually doing anything with Rose!

"Yeah, let's get going before something else crazy happens," Neal said as he stood up and made his way to the door before opening it and waiting for Rose to get in to the car before starting the car and driving off to the strip club.

"Yeah, yeah, let's get going," Rose said, getting in the car next to him. As she put her seat belt on, she stopped to think for a moment and then added, "Hnh, I wonder how he'd react if he ever saw those pictures on your phone..."

A short while later, as they were driving on their way to their normal dinner joint, which they always hit up before heading to the strip club (because really, everyone likes to spend almost every night at a strip club, right?), Rose looked idly out the window at the people passing by on the sidewalk. A light snow was falling, and had been all day, creating a soft layer of snow coating the ground. It wasn't the snow that caught her eyes, though, but rather someone sitting alone on a bench, someone who looked to be in tears.

"Hold on, stop!" she shouted, glancing back over her shoulder as they passed the bench. "I think... I think that was Holly."

"Don't you dare say a word," was all that Neal said in reply to comment about the phone. He dropped it at that. He did not want his dad learning about the arrangement that they had going on. Unlike the other one, this one was actually real too!

As Neal drove he just thought about the music and atmosphere of the strip club, excited for where they would be going. After all Neal had been to this place on multiple occasions, and he even had a few favorites that he would enjoy seeing again. He hoped that they remembered him, maybe they'd give him one for free.

However, Rose's yell caused Neal to push on the brakes in order to stop the car. At the mention of Holly Neal quickly turned around to see the girl on the bench. "That is Holly," he said before switching the car to reverse and moving back to the bench. It wasn't long before they would be right in front of Holly and Neal opened his window. "Hey Holly," he called out to her.

Holly looked up quickly when the car pulled up in front of her. It took her a minute to realize who they were, but she soon remembered that night below the strip club. She remembered them both. "Neal? Rose?" she uttered, sniffling back another onset of tears. She had been crying, a lot. That much was plainly clear with how red and puffy her eyes were, along with the wet, sticky streaks down the sides of her face.

Rose lifted an eyebrow, leaning out of the open car window. "Are you alright?"

"Am I al- n-no, I'm not alright," Holly said, with a choked hiccup. "It's S-selina, they... they took her!"

Neal soon got out of the car, seeing that Holly was in some need of help. From his side it was obvious that she had been crying for some time, something had upset her greatly. He moved over towards her, just in time to hear her say what was going down. Selina?! Someone had taken her? Of course, tonight was Friday. IT was the day that they were going to the docks in order to rescue the girls.

"Holly, tell us what happened," Neal said as he moved to sit on the bench next to her. "What happened to the friends that were going to help you?"

"It-It was... it was the guy who Mac worked for," Holly said, sucking in a shaky breath. "The one in charge of the whole operation. He... he found out what happened that night, and he sent his men after us. Our friends... they killed our friends, and then took Selina... they're gonna sell her away with the other girls."

"Are you shitting me?" Rose said, a tight knot forming deep in her gut. They went through all that trouble to put down Mac and his sleezy business, to find out where those girls were being held, and it was all for nothing? Whoever this big boss man was, he really needed a knife up the ass. "They still being shipped out tonight at the docks?"

Holly shrugged, barely holding back her tears. "I... I think so."

Rose turned to Neal. "We're not going to the strip club anymore."

"Oh god," Neal said in a low voice as he heard what had happened. Somehow they had found out what had happened, and that could only mean bad news for all of them. If they had caught Selina after all, there was no telling if the men would be able to rat out Rose and Neal. They were all in danger.

"No we're not," Neal said in agreement as he looked towards Holly. "Holly, I know that you're scared right now but we're going to need your help. Can you help direct me to where exactly the men at the docks are? Maybe think of a way that we can sneak up on them? We're going to need every advantage we can get if we're going to save Selina."

"Um... I-I guess I can do that," Holly said, swallowing back a knot in her throat. She took a moment to gather herself, then stood up from the bench and crawled her way into the backseat of the car. "Just... just park a little ways from the docks, or they'll see you pull in."

"Don't worry, Hol," Rose said, giving a slow nod. "These fuckers won't know what the hell hit them."

"Fair enough," Neal said before moving in to the driver's seat and turning the car back on. Neal knew where the docks were but he really hadn't gone there that often. So he would rely on Holly to make sure that he got there right. "Let's go break these guys," Neal said before driving off down the road.

It would be some time later that Neal parked his car a few blocks away from the docks. He quickly got out of his car and locked it, waiting for everyone else to get ready. "Holly, did these guys have guns when you saw them?" Neal asked curiously.

Seemed like relevant information before running in like maniacs.

"Well yeah," Holly said, huddling with her legs pulled up to her chest in the back seat. She was clearly terrified. "They're trafficking women to foreign countries for profit... of course they have guns."

Rose shrugged, already starting to get out of the car. "She's got a point. But it doesn't matter, because they won't ever see us coming, now come on. Holly, you stay here, we'll handle this. You said they were on pier seven, right?"

"Uh, yeah, pier seven."

"Alright... let's go." Several moments later, she was leading Neal through the shadows of the docks, behind shipping crates and around warehouses, all the way to pier seven. She was going to make sure that everyone involved in this got her foot so far up their asses that they could taste her boot.

---

"Uh... hey, Batman?" Nightwing said, staring down through his binoculars at the pier. "You see what I see?"

Next to him, Batman turned his gaze towards the back of a warehouse, where two kids were running through the shadows, as if trying to sneak up on the same guys they were trying to stop. "I see them."

"Any idea what they're doing here?"

"No, but we'll find out," Batman said. "Whoever they are and whatever they're up to, they could ruin our plan if they get involved." He then held a hand up to the side of his cowl, speaking into the built in radio. "You get that?"

Another voice came in over the other end. "Yeah, I see them, too. I'll stop them before they get to the pier."

Neal rolled his eyes. Forgive him for asking a question, he figured the other guys they fought would have guns, but only like three of them did. But whatever, that wasn't important right now. They needed to get in there and save Selina. Despite the fact that Neal didn't really wanna do it, he knew that he had to. It was one thing to run around looking for crime, that was just crazy, but this was Selina in danger. She was a friend, and they couldn't just abandon here.

"Stay ducked down in the back Holly. Don't look up at all, we don't know if any of them are nearby. So stay out of sight at all costs," Neal said before eventually closing the door and locking it. Hopefully if anyone saw it they would think that it was just an empty car.

Neal and Rose moved forward, moving closer to the pier where Selina was supposedly being held. Neal was taking deep breaths as he felt his heart pounding. "Okay Rose, I'm going to make us invisible now. I don't want them to get the first shot off on us," Neal said before focusing and slowly making their bodies disappear.

"Alright, we'll get into position and then strike hard," Rose said. She was ready to start cracking some skulls. "If we move around the back over there, we should be able to get a proper-" She froze up suddenly, as an image began to flicker through her head. Instantly, she grabbed Neal and pulled him forward, rolling across the ground just as a figure from above landed here they had just been standing. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Oh, you can call me Batgirl," she said. It was a woman in a batsuit... who also happend to be wearing weird red goggles over her eyes. "And I don't know who you two are, but you both really shouldn't be here. Nice disappearing act, by the way. Too bad it doesn't fool my thermal imagers."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh my hell, this is not what we need right now. Okay, listen Bat-bitch, we're kind of in the middle of something here, so if you can just go swing away like a nice little girl, that would be great."

Batgirl narrowed her eyes. "Yeah... that's not gonna happen. You two are civilians, and you're about to wander into a very hostile situation. Or at least... what will be a hostile situation in about five minutes. So you both need to leave. Now."

Neal just listened for a moment, wanting to hear the plan that Rose was coming up with. She seemed to be a better tactician and fighter than he was, after all Neal really didn't like to get involved with other peoples' fights. If he didn't know Holly and Selina personally, there was no way that he would have been here tonight. He would have just continued to the club. But he did know them, and he couldn't just pretend like everything was okay.

"Woah!" Neal nearly yelled as Rose grabbed him and pulled him out of the way of a kick that was directed at them. As he saw who his attacker was only one phrase came to mind. "Oh shit," Neal said as he realized that Batgirl was standing right in front of them. He had not expected her to be here of all people. Neal just glanced from her to Rose as they exchanged hostile words to each other.

"Come on Batgirl our friend is in there, and we can help," he insisted as he was still invisible. "This may not have fooled you, but that doesn't mean that it's not going to fool them."