The New Generation: Earth-53

"A ride huh? Yeah I guess we can do that, it'll be fun as long as no one crashes and dies," Zoe said honestly before literally leaping up and landing perfectly on the seat of her bike. Obviously that was something that she had done before. At Rose's question Zoe just let out a small snort of a laugh. "Is there a city nearby? We're just a few miles outside of Gotham Rose, one of the most important cities in America," Zoe pointed out before fixing her helmet on there. "Course I hear it's also home to quite a few interesting characters," Zoe said as she recalled the stories of Gotham and its residents. "But don't worry I'm sure we will be fine.....wanna take the lead?"

"Gotham, huh?" Rose muttered, thinking for a moment. Wasn't Gotham where... no, couldn't be. She had never really paid much attention to where any of her teammates were from, but she was certain that none of them were from a place named Gotham. At least, she thought so, anyway. "Alright, just tell me where I'm going and I'll take us there," she announced, slipping her sleek black helmet over her head, long white hair flowing out the back. She could really get used to this.

"Fair enough," Zoe said before strapping her helmet down upon her face. Once making sure that her bike was in full working order she turned towards Rose. "We'll drive down this road to the end before taking a right. After that we follow the road for about ten minutes before accessing the freeway. Once we get there you should just pay attention to the signs until you see the one that shows the exit to Gotham. We cross a bridge and than we'll be in the city," Zoe finished explaining before starting the ignition on her bike. "Now let's move."

Twenty minutes later...

"This. Is. AWESOME!" Rose screamed, over the wind and the roar of her motorcycle engine. She usually wasn't one to get all giddy like a schoolgirl, but holy crap did this feel awesome. Speeding down the highway, wind whipping her hair, engine rumbling between her legs, adrenaline pumping through her.... It put her in a better mood than she'd been in in quite some time. She proved to be quite a natural at operating the vehicle, too. In spite of only having maybe an hour and a half of experience under her belt, she handled the thing like a dream. All that sense of balance from her martial arts training, maybe. Of course, she was going about a hundred, as they neared the Gotham exit... and even when she turned onto said exit, she only slowed down to maybe seventy, weaving between cars like a mad woman.

"Good god that woman is going to get herself killed," Zoe muttered under her breath. While she was fine with going at such speeds she just thought that it was ridiculous for Rose to do it after such little training. Sure she knew HOW to operate the vehicle, but that didn't mean that she should use it that way! Zoe just made sure to follow close to Rose in case something happened. If Rose got in to a huge wreck there was nothing she'd be able to do, the only thing she could do was watch and hope for the best.

At least they were close to Gotham though, that was a plus.

Rose was all smiles and laughs, as they came onto the Gotham freeway, continuing her mad driving. She was only going maybe eighty right now, but it was still quite excessive considering the speed limit was fifty. Her dangerous car weaving didn't help much either. But she didn't care, she was so high on adrenaline right now, she felt like she could fight lions.

Until... the red and blue lights began flashing in her mirrors. Rose's heart instantly sank, a nauseous feeling bubbling in her gut. Well, shit, she hadn't even thought of that. She didn't really want to stop for the cop, but then again, leading the cops on a high speed pursuit on her first night off the team was probably not the smartest thing in the world to do. And of course, with Zoe following close behind, they were both in the same boat.

"Son of a bitch..." Rose grumbled, as she slowed her ride down and pulled over into the breakdown lane. Well, this night wasn't starting off very well.

Once both motorcycles had come to a complete stop, the cop car pulled up behind them, lights still flashing. A second later, the door opened, allowing the young female officer inside to step out. The woman had her stone face on, nigh expressionless, with her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and officer cap tipped low over her brow.

"License and registration, please, both of you," she said, folding her arms across her chest. The small nametag on the left breast of her uniform read: "Montoya."

As soon as the familiar sound of cop sirens reached Zoe's ears she couldn't help but glance back. "God damn it," she muttered to herself. She was supposed to be in hiding right now, Deadshot had made it clear that he didn't want her out in the open and exposed where anyone could hear her name. Being stopped by a police officer was the last thing that she wanted right now!

Zoe just pulled up to the side behind Rose as the cop car followed them. This wasn't good, Zoe might be exposed but Rose didn't even have a license or registration! Zoe didn't know what they were going to do, but she just hoped that they were going to have a bit of luck tonight. As Officer Montoya asked for their registration Zoe was quick to fumble through her stuff. She had no idea what Rose was going to do, so the most that Zoe could do was go first and offer up a distraction.

"Here you go Officer," Zoe said before holding it out towards Montoya for her to inspect.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap..." Rose muttered to herself, as she quickly glanced back over her shoulder.

Officer Montoya waited patiently as Zoe began fumbling through her things for her license and registration. When the documents were produced, she took them and then turned her attention to Rose. "License and registration, miss."

Well, I don't have any of those, she thought, tapping her fingers against the handlebars. Well, time to get innovative. And desperate.

"Oh, of course, just a moment, Officer... Montoya," Rose said, in as sweet and seductive a voice as she could muster.

Please be gay, please be gay, please be gay. And... you know, not able to tell how young I am in this lighting. Reaching up to her helmet, she carefully took it off and shook out her hair, then looked back to the officer. "That's a lovely accent, by the way. Spanish?"

The officer narrowed her eyes a little, eyebrow lifting, though she didn't say anything yet.

Oh my god, I think it's working!

"...how old are you, miss?" Montoya finally asked.

Shit.

Damn it, Zoe had really been hoping that Montoya would take some time to try and look through Zoe's registration before giving her attention to Rose. Apparently that wasn't going to be the case though, Montoya wanted Rose's license and registration immediately. While Montoya spoke to Rose, Zoe reached for her back pocket. Damn it, she only brought her pistol.

Why today of all days would she not grab her tranquilizer!? As much as Zoe wanted to get out of this situation she knew that she couldn't just attack a cop. It wasn't the right thing to do, and it would only draw WAY more attention to themselves.

As Montoya continued to question Rose, Zoe just stood there. She had no idea what they were going to do to get out of this. What options were left!?

"I, uh..." Rose said, rummaging through her back pocket. "Well, I mean, if you just take a look at this..." A moment later, so produced a small piece of laminated plastic with her picture on it. "You can see my birthday right there."

Giving a curious look, the officer reached forward to take the identification, closely examining it. "Says here you're... twenty-one?"

"That's right," Rose said, leaning forward as seductively as possible against the handlebars. Color her determined, she wasn't giving up on the only game plan she had left. Which, in all likelihood would feel, because really, what are the odds that this woman was actually gay?

"But this is a state ID," Montoya said, handing it back to Rose. "I need to see your driver's license."

Clearing her throat, Rose sat up a little straighter. "Well, you see, funny thing... I guess I sort of... might have left it back home. Silly me, running out without making sure I have everything. But the registration is, well, hold on a minute..."

Surely the thing had a registration when Zoe bought the damn thing. You pretty much have to register it to drive it home, after all. A rather brief search in the small storage compartment later, Rose pulled out a document. "Oh, I think this is it. Yeah, here."

Taking the document from Rose, the officer carefully read it over. "You have any idea how fast you two were going?"

"Um... honestly, I kind of lost track a little bit," Rose admitted, with a small chuckle. "I just sort of got in the zone... you must know the feeling, right? Heading down the highway, adrenaline pumping, wind blowing your hair... I bet your hair looks amazing in the wind, am I right?"

Again, Officer Montoya lifted an eyebrow at her, confused. "Miss... Wilson, is it? Are you coming on to me?"

Clearing her throat, Rose clasped her fingers together and gave an innocent little shrug. "I don't know... would that be a bad thing?"

Zoe just couldn't help but roll her eyes as she saw the interaction that was taking place between Rose and Officer Montoya. Honestly, Zoe had dressed up as a prostitute in order to learn more about her dad....but flirting with the cop in order to not get busted? Wasn't that like the second oldest trick in the book?

She continued to exchange looks from Rose to Montoya as the two discussed. When Rose asked her final question a small mutter came from Zoe's lips. "Only if it actually happens," she said as quietly to herself as she could. She was glancing off to the side, not looking at either Montoya or Rose anymore.

Officer Montoya just stared, tapping her fingers gently against her arm as she shifted her weight. Ignoring Rose's answer, she said, "So, you don't have your license. And you were driving like a lunatic. And you're trying to hit on the officer who pulled you over. Anything I'm missing?"

"Um... no, I think that's everything," Rose muttered.

"I see," she said, looking back down at the registration. "Remain on your bike, please." And with that, she quickly marched back to her cop car, most likely to check for Rose and Zoe's records on the little computer in there.

"Well damn it," Rose said, folding her arms across her chest. Slowly, she glanced back at Zoe. "So... what do you think's gonna happen when she finds out I really don't have a license?"

"Well most likely she's probably going to take you in for questioning and is going to try to find out who you are," Zoe said before looking over at Rose. "Of course whether or not this takes place after you bed her is beyond me to figure out," the gunslinger said as she turned and looked back in the direction that Montoya was in. "I mean come on Rose, that kinda stuff only works on television. Real cops aren't that easy to trick or manipulate."

"Hey, you think I wanted to flirt with her?" Rose snapped back, crossing her arms. "I don't know about you, but short of leading her on a high speed chase, I'm not really seeing another way to get out of this. I mean, yeah, it was a long shot, but it was the only thing I could think of. Sue me for trying. Besides, she's got to be like ten years older than me. Gross."

Zoe listened to Rose and let a small sigh escape her lips. "Yeah I guess you're right, I'm sorry I shouldn't have snapped at you like that," Zoe admitted as she leaned against her bike once again. "I guess I just don't see how this is going to end well, a high speed chase might truly be our only option at this point," she admitted under her breath.

"As great as that would be," Rose said, in regards to a high speed chase, "somehow, I don't think that would do us any favors. I mean, sure, I might have been getting a little carried away there... okay, really carried away, but that doesn't mean I'm about to run from the cops on this thing. I don't feel like wrecking my ride. Or, you know, dying. Would probably only make things worse."

A few moments later, Officer Montoya returned from her vehicle. She handed Zoe back her license and registration, but said nothing to her, not yet. Instead, he turned her full attention over to Rose. "So, funny thing," she began, handing back the registration, "turns out, I can't find any record of you ever obtaining a driver's license of any kind, let alone one for a motorcycle."

"Oh, uh... haha... strange," Rose said, clearing her throat.

"Yes... strange," Montoya replied. "Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to get off the vehicle, please."

"Yeah, dying tends to make things worse Rose," Zoe said with a small laugh. She was annoyed at the situation, but ultimately Rose was still her Rose and Zoe wasn't going to hold this against her. She still wished that it hadn't happened in the first place though. It was only when Officer Montoya came back that things apparently got worse.

Damn, so the truth was starting to come out. Zoe should never have let Rose convince her to come out to Gotham of all places. Zoe should have known that the police would have been as strict as they say.

"Officer Montoya please. Can't we go away with some kind of a warning this time?" Zoe asked as Montoya ordered Rose to get off the bike. "I bought Rose this bike for her birthday and I guess that we just got a little too excited. Can you just let us walk away this one time? Please?"

"A little too excited is putting it lightly," the officer replied, slowly glancing back at Zoe. "Your friend here ha no license of any kind, was going over the speed limit by thirty easy, and putting herself and others at risk with how wildly she was driving. I can't, in any good conscience, let that go with a warning, and I'm certainly not letting her back out on the road. Now, please step off your vehicle."

Rose breathed out a long sigh and slowly dismounted from her motorcycle. Well, this was turning into a fine evening.

"Up against the bike," Montoya commanded, prompting Rose to turn around and place her hands against the vehicle. The officer then reached forward and pulled Rose's arms around behind her, cuffing them. "We just need to take you down to the station, answer some questions. The bike will be taken down to city impound."

As she began leading Rose into the back of the cop car, Montoya glanced back at Zoe and said, "You can pick her up at Gotham Central after questioning and after you pay her bail."

"Damn it," Zoe muttered to herself as her plea didn't work with Montoya. She didn't think that it would, but it was worth the shot. Course now Rose was being arrested and was going to be taken in for questioning. This wasn't good. Zoe was going to have to make a quick call. "Don't worry Rose I'm going to get down there as soon as I can," Zoe said before turning to Montoya.

"Thank you, and don't worry I'll have enough to pay whatever her fine is," she remarked before watching Montoya take Rose to her car. Zoe was quick to pull out her cellphone and hit speed dial number two. "Edward? Hey it's Zoe. Gonna have to call in another favor....."

---

Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Nevada...

"I've never seen a hotel suite of any kind before, let alone one from Las Vegas," Neal admitted as he walked next to his mentor. About a day ago Neal had agreed to become Zatanna's assistant, today was the day that he got to see what life he was about to become a part of. Despite Zatanna's very kind invitation Clint had to turn it down for "classified reason". Supposedly he was working on some kind of a case. Jordan said that she didn't want to go until she could be with her father, so Zatanna had decided to bring Neal alone for the time being.

"Is this place really as amazing as you say it is?" Neal asked as his eyes glanced from wall to wall. He bet that it was, especially if Zatanna was able to deck it out as much as she wanted. Even the hallways of this place looked cool, Neal could only imagine what Zatanna's personal suite looked like.

"So let me get this straight," Officer Montoya said, tapping her pen against her notepad. Rose sat across from her, leaning back in the chair in front of the desk and staring at the ceiling. The cuffs tying her to the chair didn't help her mood much. "Your name is Rose Wilson. You're sixteen years old. Grew up in Southfield, Michigan. Only child. Mother was killed last year, father went missing. No known other relatives or current address. That about cover it?"

"You know it does," Rose muttered. "You got my file on the desk in front of you."

Glancing over at the desk, Montoya cleared her throat slightly and leaned forward. "Rose, you know if you don't have anywhere to go, there are places you could-"

"You mean like foster care? Fuck that," Rose countered, glaring at the woman. "I have friends, and I have a place to live. I don't need you telling me I need help, or I need parents to set me straight, or any shit like that, okay? I had parents, but they're gone. I take care of myself now."

Folding her hands in front of her. "Alright, okay. Point taken. But you know you can't be let out on the streets without a license, right? The way you were driving, you were lucky you didn't kill someone. However, I can see to it that you're given proper lessons. You could get your license the old fashioned way, the right way."

"And why do you care, huh?" Rose asked. "You have me cuffed to your chair, and yet you're trying to tell me you give a damn?"

"You're just a girl, Rose. A young girl who's been through a lot. I'm not trying to compound your problems, in spite of what you might think. I'm trying to help you."

---

"Psh, did I have fun in college?" Zatanna said, answering Neal's question with one of her own. "Come on, my suite is up on the top floor." She opened the elevator, leading them both inside and hitting the button for the top floor. Of course, once the doors closed, she uttered a few words and transported them directly into her room. It was unlike any other room Neal could have seen before. In fact, she owned the entire floor, and it was more like a mansion than anything. Hell, there was even a pool in the main lounge, and the bathroom had one of those raised bathtubs shaped like a champagne glass, and everything else I'm too lazy to look up to describe.

"And here we are," Zatanna said, holding her arms out. "Home sweet home."

"Thanks Edward, I'll make sure not to make you come out this far again," Zoe said as she accepted the money in the bag that was passed to her. She glanced it, double checking to make sure that it would be enough.

"Don't worry I know the fines for Gotham, with the information I know on Rose I was able to look up exactly how much they'll be asking for. You won't have any trouble from them....just make sure you get her out before you draw more attention to yourself," Edward insisted as his mirror began to close. "Just be safe, both of you," he said before he drove off in his green car.

Zoe quickly closed the bag before making her way inside of the station. "Hi, I'm here looking for Rose Wilson. I'm here to pay her bail."

---

"Oh my god," Neal said as he looked around the entire area. The level of design and detail that went in to the place was extraordinary. No wonder Zatanna made so much money! Neal could only imagine her saving's account if this was what she spent on the floor that she lived on. "Okay....I don't know how much being your assistant pays, but just working for you has become the coolest thing that I could have ever freaking imagined," Neal said in awe as he looked around at everything.

"How long have you lived here?"

"I'm not getting my bike back, am I?" Rose muttered, glaring off to the side and watching the other officers of the night shift going about their business. Most of them were detectives, not yet out on a case. The large majority of uniformed officers were still out on patrol.

"Oh, you'll get it back," Montoya replied, filling out a small slip of paper. "Provided you pay the fine to get it out of the impound lot and find someone else to drive it home for you. Here." She passed over the piece of paper to Rose.

"What's this?" Rose asked.

"That's the address for the impound," the officer explained. "And on the other side is a number to call for one of the local driving schools in Gotham. I have a... a friend there, who works part time as a driver's ed instructor. She'll teach you everything you need to know to get your license."

Rose stared at the number for a few moments before finally stuffing the paper into her pants pocket. "Great, I guess," she said, releasing a long sigh.

"Now then," Officer Montoya said, leaning over and unlocking the cuffs from Rose's left hand. "No need to keep those on you anymore, right?"

"Right... thanks, Officer," she responded.

The woman merely smiled. "Please, call me Renee."

"Uh, Renee, then."

Standing up from her desk, Renee motioned for Rose to follow. "So... you really like my accent, or were was that all blowing smoke?"

"Oh, no, I meant that part," Rose said, scratching the back of her neck. "I mean, it's really subtle, but still noticeable. I don't know, it's nice. You Spanish?"

"Latina," Renee answered. "Which isn't Hispanic. People seem to make that mistake a lot."

"Duly noted," Rose assured. A few moments later, they made it into the waiting room, where Zoe would have been told to wait. "So... how much is the bail?"

Renee simply waved her hand. "No bail. Take the money and get your bike out of impound. Would hate to see a ride that nice gather dust in there. Just be sure to get someone else to drive it home, remember."

Suddenly, another voice interrupted them. "Hey, Montoya! We gotta go!" An overweight man with unkempt stubble dotting his jaw came jogging around the corner. "Robbery down on 25th! Driver and MacDonald are already there, but they called for back up. Let's get a move on!"

"Coming, Bullock," Renee replied, following after the man outside. "Take care, girls."

---

"I wouldn't worry about that," Zatanna said with a small smirk. "The pay will be plenty enough to help out your family and have some spending money left over. As for how long I've lived here... oh, going on five years now or so. Ever since I really broke it big time. Was doing stage acts in pubs and clubs for five years, until I started getting bigger gigs. Finally got a major performance in Atlantic City sometime after my thirtieth birthday. Once they saw me there, Vegas had be performing in a matter of months. Been here ever since."

Heading over to the kitchen area, Zatanna spoke a few words, instantly transforming her clothes from her stage uniform into something more relaxed, a black and white silk robe, to be exact. "Want something to drink? I got every kind of soda you could imagine... and I totally won't tell anyone if you wanted something a little harder."

Zoe was just about the place the bag of money down in order to pay for the bail when Montoya and Rose showed up. Well at least Rose wasn't in a straight jacket, that was a good start to see how the conversation had gone. It was then mentioned by Montoya that instead there would be no bail. Holy hell, was Rose that much of a fireball in bed that she somehow convinced Montoya to give up arresting her?

Zoe was about to ask this very question when Montoya and a larger man left in order to go stop a robbery that was currently taking place. Zoe finally turned back to Rose and eyed her up and down, as if looking for some change in the girl. "So.....wanna tell me how you just managed to pull that off?" Zoe asked as she was truly dumbfounded by the situation that had just taken place.

---

Neal smiled as Zatanna mentioned the money that he would be receiving. While he was mainly looking forward to working with Zatanna, Neal had to admit that the money would be a nice bonus. Clint worked far too hard and got too little for himself. He was a wonderful father and Neal wanted to help him, maybe even be able to save up enough to pay for his own college. Clint had always said that his goal was to see both of his children through college without having any debt. Zatanna might just make that a reality now.

"You must mean after your twentieth birthday," Neal said with a grin towards Zatanna. "We both know you haven't passed thirty yet," he joked before walking in the same direction that Zatanna was heading in. "Uh...you know if you have more of what we had that one night I'd be fine with that. We had wine or something didn't we?" Neal asked curiously. He couldn't remember exactly what they had shared that night.

“Uh… I didn’t really pull off anything,” Rose admitted, with a small shrug. “I mean, she pulled up my file – my real file – and then we just sort of… talked. She said she could understand that I’ve been through a lot lately and, I don’t know, I guess she just felt bad compounding the problems. So she just let me go… and gave me the number for where I can go take driving lessons. You know, for a real license. Said she had a friend who works there.”

She shrugged lightly, then started heading out the station door with her hands in her pockets. “So, I guess we can grab the bike now or later. Either way, we gotta get someone else to drive it back, since, you know, I can’t,”

---

“Oh, right, of course, what was I thinking?” Zatanna said, with a roll of the eyes. “Of course I meant my twentieth, because I was totally working underground clubs when I was fifteen.” In truth, Zatanna was thirty-five, though you certainly couldn’t tell it by looking at her. She only looked about twenty-five, maybe, and that was even without using her magic to make herself look younger. She was just that naturally gifted.

Opening the wine cooler, Zatanna rummaged about for a few moments before pulling out a large bottle of red wine. “I believe this is the stuff we had that night,” she replied, waving the bottle at him. “Have as much as you want, I can always fill it back up with water and turn it into the same wine. Yeah, that dude from two thousand years ago has nothing on me.”

"Huh....guess we really did get the luck that we needed this time around," Zoe remarked before watching Montoya disappear out the station. Maybe the cops in Gotham weren't as hard and strict as she had been lead to believe. It was nice to know that there were still some people that were willing to work outside the law to do something good. Given their profession, it was something that Zoe and Rose could respect.

"I'll probably just have Edward come pick it up later," Zoe remarked as they walked out of the station. "I may have quite the random selection of talents, but I can't drive two motorcycles at once," she added before placing a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Next time let's try and not get pulled over by the cops yeah?"

---

"Thank ya kindly," Neal said before pouring himself a glass of the wine. He couldn't help but laugh with Zatanna. She had the funniest way of showing herself off. Referring to Jesus as "the dude" was just another example of it. He took a long drink of the wine before exhaling a deep breath of air. Powerful stuff that was, but it was damn good!

"So, does being your assistant require me to wear a uniform of some kind?" Neal asked as his eyes went back to examining the room.