Warning! Chapters 14-18 were all posted back to back, make sure you pick up the story in the right place ;-). 

Chapter 15: Recruiting

Alyssa was trying really hard not to second guess herself as she waited for her guests. It had been easy to dismiss revealing the base. Nothing in it was irreplaceable. In fact, having set it up once, she could do it faster and better a second time. Even if she had to abandon it for some reason, scrubbing everything and setting back to point zero, it would cost her maybe a week. At most.

No, what she was second guessing was the fact that she’d taken off her visor and its identity protection features.

There was logic to the choice. Talia Wagner was a known identity, Nocturne unable to hide behind the civilian ID some people used, but not really needing to either. Heteromorphic Quirks were a thing, even if they were far more common in Asia than the United States, and Talia was officially licensed in North America for doing the whole Hero thing. Dinah Drake was a bit more like Alyssa’s own case, though. She could have hidden behind a mask. Many would even have said she should have, given that she was a Vigilante. Yet she’d never bothered, making it easy to track her down.

Alyssa knew who both of her potential recruits were. Only she had a hidden identity between the three of them. Which wasn’t a great way to build trust. It was why she’d removed her visor. She was taking a chance, on people she knew very little about. Them knowing who she was would be a far greater setback than just knowing where the base was. Not an insurmountable one. Between her Force Powers and Motoko’s skills, she could eventually forge an entirely new identity. Yet, she’d already become somewhat used to being Alyssa. Unlike the base, the civilian identity she’d created for herself would be an actual loss.

Between one heartbeat and the next, her fretting had to stop, as her two guests appeared right in the center of the ‘garage.’ It was the biggest single open space, which is why she’d given its specific coordinates. Though the precision with which Nocturne had just brought them exactly to the center of it told Alyssia the precaution had likely been unnecessary. The pair blinked, looking around and letting their eyes adjust from the erratic light of night in Gotham to the well-lit garage, and Alyssia took the moment they needed to orient themselves to look them over.

They were something of a study in contrasts.  

Black Canary was by far the easier to describe and physically profile. Blonde hair, blue eyes, five foot seven and classically gorgeous. Dressed in a leather jacket, a slightly damaged band T-shirt, and fishnets. Long, exposed legs that showed the clear, subtle muscle of a serious martial artist. Something backed up by her stance and how quickly she recovered from the teleport.

Nocturne, of course, was considerably more colorful. Literally, and that color was mostly blue. Light blue skin, actual skin, in defiance of the fur Alyssa knew Nighcrawler had. Darker blue hair, yellow eyes that glowed just a bit. Only three fingers and a thumb on each hand, pointed ears, and a sinuous tail that her files on the woman revealed as both prehensile and somehow retractable. Strikingly beautiful, in a much more exotic way than Black Canary, and dressed in a more professional red-and-black bodysuit. She, of course, hadn’t been disoriented by the teleport at all. She’d still taken a moment to glance over the room, likely by trained instinct after teleporting into an unknown location. Which was fair enough.

Alyssa stepped forward and did her best to smile as she waved to the pair.

“Hello you two. Glad you could make it, and welcome to the otherwise currently unnamed Heroic Lair.”

Both women had quickly locked onto her, even as they stepped apart slightly. Alyssa saw Nocturne’s eyes widen a bit as she realized Alyssa was maskless. Dinah didn’t seem to process the detail as important as immediately, showing her relative lack of experience compared to Nocturne.

“My name, by-the-by, is Alyssa. Given I know who both of you are, it only seems fair. Now…tour or talk first?”

Giving her name did get the same widened eyes from Dinah for just a moment, though it was Nocturne who spoke first.

“I confess I’m a bit interested in a tour. The setup is already more professional than I’d expected, and a tour implies there is more.”

Talia waved first at the pair of high-tech motorcycles Alyssa had made mostly for fun and practice, then at the various tools and equipment scattered around the garage/workshop. Even if she hadn’t had a reason to use most of it yet, Alyssa had gone to a fair bit of effort to equip the place well. A little bit pleased at that fact being recognized, she nodded and gestured for them to follow.

“I’m afraid the place isn’t huge. Only about 10,000 square feet. Technically, the building is twice that, but the upper floor is currently pretending to be a factory in the process of being retooled for automated manufacturing. I only converted the bottom floor, which was easy to hide the existence of, into a base.”

The two women followed after her like ducklings, looking more and more impressed as she showed off a well-equipped gym, an even better equipped computer/command room, a lounge, medical bay, and the two small bedrooms. In truth, the biggest two rooms were the garage/workshop and gym, but all of it was extremely well appointed. Finally, Dinah was the one to voice an obvious question with a bit of incredulity.

“Okay. I’ll bite. Who the heck is funding you? This place is way too well equipped for someone who was a complete unknown a month ago.”

Nocturne nodded, eyes narrowed just a bit, and Alyssa sighed.

“I’m self-funded, actually. I’m a modestly wealthy software developer in my civilian identity…but I admit there’s a bit more too it than that. I’d very much prefer what I’m about to show you to remain not officially known about my powerset, though. I do my best not to abuse it, but quite a few parties would be a little too tempted to try coming after me if they realized I could do it.”

Both women looked a mix of curious and skeptical as Alyssa took off the gloves of her armor and held out a hand. In it, she formed a chunk of the same 18k gold she’d been selling off. There was a brief burst of light, followed by the gold forming, and she tossed it to Talia. The woman nimbly caught it, glanced at it, then did a double take.

“Wait, is this gold?!”

Dinah’s head whipped around to stare, even as Alyssa chuckled.

“Yep. Eighteen karats. Completely real and permanent. I very specifically don’t make a ton of it at once, since I both don’t want to screw up the market and don’t want to be tracked by selling it off. But…”

Another burst of light, this time with her hand placed against the tabletop in the lounge. A cellphone formed right there, and she pulled her hand away.

“…I can make anything I fully understand. I do have to fully understand what I’m making, right down to the molecular structure of the materials. But a good chunk of the secret to how I equipped the base so easily is that, well, I just made most of the stuff. It was good practice, honestly. I’d never made anywhere near as much in such a short period before.”

Obviously. But, then, they’d likely think she’d had her powers longer than she had. Both of them were looking a little shellshocked, even as Nocturne placed the gold nugget on the table. Dinah had picked up the phone, powered it on, and looked startled that it worked. Of course, it didn’t have a sim card, so it wouldn’t make calls or pull up a map, but it did turn on. Alyssa moved to the fridge in the lounge and opened it as both women worked past their shock.

“You two want anything to drink? Water, Coke, Sprite, Tea, Gatorade? Nothing diet, I’m afraid, my metabolism runs pretty high so I don’t bother.”

Canary shook herself and asked for a Gatorade, while Nocturne asked for water. Getting a coke for herself and using telekinesis to drift their drinks to them, Alyssa floated over to a chair and gestured them to the couch across from it. They both shook their heads at her showing off, but accepted the drinks and sat on the couch.

“So! Nocturne wanted to talk, and I told her that I’d actually been hoping to approach both of you anyway. Obviously, given what I’ve set up here, I’ve never intended to run this whole war on Gotham’s underworld solo. But I admit I expected to have to stick it out that way quite a bit longer before getting a chance to pitch working together with anyone. With that in mind, what, exactly, were you interested in Nocturne?”

Alyssa wasn’t going to make assumptions, putting the ball in the blue woman’s court. The woman took a sip of her water, before looking around and shooting Alyssa a wry grin.

“I have to admit, I originally was just thinking that you seem to have all the information and contacts. I was hoping you’d partner with me and I could help with some of the big raids you’re doing. After seeing all this, though,” Talia waved at the based in general, “I get the feeling I underestimated just how big you’re thinking. This is the seed of a new city-sponsored team, isn’t it?”

Dinah proved she was nobody’s fool, despite having far less experience than Talia, by not looking the slightest bit surprised at that assertion. In fact, she quickly added to it.

“Has to be. That’s why you went big right from the start, too. Why you’re playing the game completely different to what the Bats do. Daylight patrols, major anti-crime busts. You’re setting yourself up to hit all the right notes. A major shift in crime statistics, rooting out the GCPD corruption by having the Feds investigating them. If you can recruit a team, that’s just about the last major check mark you need. Which means approaching local independents or attracting some Metas from outside Gotham…”

Alyssa nodded.

“That’s the general shape of the idea, anyway. As much as I at least respect his efforts, the Bat has proven his methods just flat don’t work in Gotham. He spends most of his time dealing with his own Rogues Gallery, and has almost zero connection to the regular people in the city as a result. Gotham isn’t going to change unless we can rip the roots of at least some of the organized crime out, then get the population on board with pushing the corrupt politicians out too. He’s not doing either of those things. In fact, he seems more intent on driving off other Heroes from trying to help.”

Talia nodded sharply, even as Dinah looked pensive. The blonde spoke up, playing devil’s advocate.

“He’s not all bad, you know. Gotham was worse without him, and he does keep a lid on the loonies. If you end up leading a city-authorized team, you’ll have to deal with those types as well, not just the gangs.”

Alyssa nodded without hesitation.

“I know. Like I said, I respect his efforts. Doubly so since I’ve got a pretty shrewd idea who he is under the mask and his civilian self is making a hell of an effort too. But it’s not enough. He can’t be in enough places at once, and he’s not willing to make the jump to leading a true team. Which Gotham is going to need to get on track. As far as I can tell from the numbers, he was actually making progress, at least a bit, before Robin broke off to become Nightwing. But progress stalled out when it shifted down to just him and Batgirl.”

Talia nodded slowly, obviously working through Alyssa’s train of logic.

“The city is screwed up enough it needs a full team, not just a couple of part timers who only haunt the night. If he’d brought White Tiger and a few others who have come and gone together and made a full team, he’d probably have managed to make a much bigger dent. He’s trying to do it all himself, and that just…doesn’t work. I knew that even when I was working at chipping away at Gotham myself. I’d been counting on my efforts helping tip the scale even without direct collaboration.”

Dinah snorted.

“Collaboration you won’t get. The Bat doesn’t really work with anyone but his own minions. White Tiger, occasionally, but I’m pretty sure that’s all Tiger’s doing. Even I know that, and I’m hardly tapped into the city’s super-gossip. Hell, I knew that just as someone who was born and raised in Gotham. There’s a reason Batman is more feared than liked. Lots of reasons, really. Not only does he interact almost purely with the criminals, but he’s got a nasty habit of leaving dockworkers with broken bones when they were just trying to make ends meet. Not a lot of demand for manual labor in Gotham that isn’t a little shady.”

That…actually wasn’t something Alyssa had considered. Despite thinking his methods weren’t working, she hadn’t put together that he might be actively making his own PR worse by hitting the people that most needed help where it hurt. Literally. Pushing that aside as speculation that might not even be true, Alyssa focused on the here and now.

“Right, well, enough about the Bat. Frankly, unless he turns outright combative, he’s honestly a non-issue. Everyone else has treated Gotham like his territory. I, on the other hand, intend to simply ignore him. He can keep playing with this rogues gallery while I actually get things done. Or, possibly we, if either of you are interested?”

Nocturne and Black Canary looked at each other, before Nocturne shrugged.

“I’m willing to give it a try. I’m certainly not making any headway alone, and an actual base with training facilities, high end computer hardware, and so on? That’s a heck of a lot more than I was expecting going into this.”

Dinah hesitated for a moment longer.

“I’m not…against it? But I sort of still have a dojo to run. A…mentor, I guess, left it to me. It pays the bills, but I still have to actually teach the classes. I can’t promise to always be available.”

Alyssa nodded and very carefully chose her next words. Heroic types could be…ticklish…on this topic.

“Just as an FYI, if we form up into a team, I’m going to make sure everyone is getting a stipend from it. Anyone doing Heroic work shouldn’t need to do anything else, unless they want to. I’ll never try pushing someone into full-time Heroing if they enjoy their other commitments, but know that it will always be available. In fact, long-term, I’m intending to legitimately have the factory upstairs running on full automation and turning a profit making a few bits and bobs the team will own the patents for. I hadn’t gotten there yet, but I want the whole thing to be self-sustaining even without the support of the city or a rich backer.”

Dinah looked…conflicted. Talia was nodding along with hesitation, though.

“That’s a good idea. The X-men have something like that going on, with a few technology-focused mutants having donated patents to the team. The teams aren’t fully self-sufficient, since they do accept some level of government funding these days. But something like seventy percent of X-men operations are internally funded and everyone on any of the various teams gets a pretty generous living stipend.”

Canary blinked, her conflicted feelings seeming to vanish under surprise.

“Wait, really? I mean, I don’t really know how I feel about getting paid to do the right thing?”

Alyssa let Nocturne handle responding, figuring this particular lesson in practicality would be better coming from someone who’d been around as a Hero for awhile. Talia had nodded along with Dinah’s comment, but was quick to riposte. Gently, thankfully.

“Yep. This is an actual thing they teach in Heroic Ethics for the X-men. A lot of people, basically anyone who you’d actually want being a Hero in the first place, struggle with that same emotional stumbling block. The way we’re taught to look at is that we aren’t getting paid to do the right thing. Instead, we’re just having our time freed up, and our stress managed a bit, so that we actually can do the right thing without screwing ourselves. Like it or not, everyone needs money to live, and it’s hard to be a Hero and hold down even a part-time job. If there’s an emergency, you’ll respond like a Hero would, but then the pizza you were supposed to be making for delivery to some office party doesn’t get either made or delivered.”

Dinah looked like she really needed to chew on that, so Alyssa shifted the conversation slightly.

“Honestly, the Dojo thing is one of the better jobs you could have, since I imagine you set your own hours to an extent. So it’s not like it’s a huge deal. The stipend also honestly isn’t really all that much compared to the team gearing you up, anyway. You are absolutely rocking the leather and fishnets look. Even if you want to keep that look, though, if you decide to work with us I’m going to armor the fuck out of a copy of that jacket for you. You might have a Meta ability, but so far as I know you’re not bulletproof.”

Talia nodded instantly, jumping in the new conversational direction readily.

“Absolutely! Which is one of the reasons I’m on board. The X-men are willing to keep my uniform in good condition just from being an affiliate, and it is stab and low caliber bulletproof. But other gear is all out of pocket for me, and I’d love to have access to supplies I don’t have to feel guilty about how I got them.”

She pointed at the phone still sitting on the coffee table between them, and Dinah’s eyes moved to it. The blonde considered for a moment, then nodded.

“Hold on the stipend idea, please? I need to…process that one, a bit, I think. But I’ll take you up on the armor and other gear. I can try to be available at least a few nights every week for now, too, if that’s enough?”

Alyssa nodded instantly.

“More than enough. I wasn’t expecting to be able to recruit anyone at all for a while yet, so even occasional support is enough to make me happy. We can easily work out whatever details work for each of us. It can also be a bit of a trial run for a few weeks, to see if we even work well together or not.”

Nocturne nodded agreement, but then brought up a point that Alyssa had barely given a passing thought to so far.

“So…uh…what are we calling ourselves? Did you have a name in mind?”

Sighing, Alyssa shook her head.

“Nope. I’ve never been great at naming things, and I figured it would be better to get whoever joined up first to agree anyway. I suppose that topic, along with some equipment upgrades and a schedule, can be one of the first things we sort out. You two want to do that now, crash for the night in the bedrooms, or go home and come back later? We’ve all had a long night already, after all.”

Black Canary shrugged.

“I’m a night owl, and the safehouse bust wasn’t actually all that hard.”

Nocturne nodded and spread her hands.

“I’m literally and biologically nocturnal. I’m wide awake and normally sleep during the day.”

Alyssa snorted and lifted off the chair to float toward the small but well-appointed kitchen on the other side of the lounge.

“I barely need to sleep at all and only really do so when I feel like it. Since it’s almost dawn, how about I make us all some breakfast and we can at least make a start on sorting everything out. Omelets sound good to you two? I’m not a fantastic cook, but I can make a mean omelet.”

Both of the other Heroines perked up, easily agreeing to the idea. As Alyssa started collecting what she’d need to make a decent breakfast for the three of them, they all started firing off ideas for names. It was a place to start, at least…

... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: I know some people will likely think it's a little weird that Alyssa is showing some of her cards so easily. The truth is that this is intentional. She is, essentially, overcompensating in a nerve-fueled attempt to recruit the pair. Despite having Motoko's skills, she's still an introvert that doesn't People well. Thankfully, Nocturne and Black Canary aren't the sort with whom that's actually a mistake.