DC Genesis

"I might suggest stepping away from the car," a voice said from behind her, "but then, I don't mind the view too much, either."

Rose froze momentarily, slowly lifting her head and looking back over her shoulder. From her position, bent forward over the driver's side seat of the car with her rear end sticking out behind her in rather tight jeans, she could just make out some guy dressed in a weird black and blue outfit, complete with mask. This might have surprised her if she didn't already know Gotham City's rep for costumed vigilantes, though it didn't necessarily please her, either. As it stood, she was currently working to hotwire the vehicle. It wasn't her fault, though, really. She wouldn't have to steal a car if someone hadn't already stolen her motorcycle an hour earlier. That was what she got for wasting the night away in a bar, she supposed, and for using a fake ID to get in. Karma? Maybe. That or just God spiting her. Not that she believed in a god... but if there was one, He would go out of his way to mess with her.

"Then I don't suppose you just want to stand there and enjoy the view some more while I take care of this?" she said, as she pressed the two exposed wires together. The car engine emitted a shrill cry, doing its best to start in the cold, winter air.

"As much fun as that sounds," the vigilante said, "that's not my style."

Huffing out a quick breath, she leaned herself back a little and stood up. "Oh really, then what is your style."

"Stopping people like you from making a mistake," he said. "I don't normally make it a point to stop carjackers, but it's been a slow night."

"I'm sure," she muttered, arms folding across her chest. "And what am I supposed to call you, huh? Bird boy?" Her eyes drifted down to the blue bird symbol on his chest.

"Nightwing, actually. Now, I'm going to give you a chance to get out of here. You seem like a nice girl, and I don't want to see you making a mistake you'll regret later."

Rose snorted out a laugh, smirking at him. "Oh, wow, I'm sorry, but that sounded so... nauseatingly heroic. Look, how about you just turn around and let me do what I need to do here, okay?"

"Not gonna happen."

"Ugh, you're a real spoil sport, aren't you?"

Nightwing shrugged. "It's what I do."

"You know what, fine," she said, taking a step back from the car. "I'll go." She briefly looked down to a metal pipe just lying randomly on the ground, considering something for a moment. Then, without warning, she kicked the pipe upwards, straight at Nightwing's head. As soon as she saw him jumping out of the way, she jumped back into the driver's seat and clicked the wires together until she got the engine to start, then shifted into drive and took off.

Almost as soon as she did this, however, something hit the front wheel, popping the tire. The car jerked out of control, crashing straight into a brick wall of the building in front of her. They were in a back alley parking lot, so fortunately no random people stopped to investigate the crash, but that didn't solve her bird problem. With the car ruined, she shoved the door back open and jumped out, taking off in a run. Nightwing appeared in front of her a moment later, aiming for a quick takedown. Too bad he didn't know who he was dealing with, as she pushed his fist to the side and brought a knee up into his gut. The blow appeared to surprise him more than anything, but it did stun him long enough for her to get away, racing back into the nighttime streets of Gotham.

She ran until she was sure that she had lost him, taking back alleys, cutting across busy streets, and finally finding her way to the park. She slowed down to a walk, looking around carefully, and when she was certain that she was alone she dropped herself onto a park bench and hung her head. Here she was, Rose Wilson, alone in Gotham with no money, no means of transportation, and nowhere to go, in the middle of a cold winter night. A small shiver ran down her spine as she laid down on the bench, removing her leather jacket to use it as a makeshift blanket. She wouldn't freeze to death, that was for certain, but it was still uncomfortable something fierce, but where else was she going to go? She'd have to figure it out in the morning...

Five minutes after she laid down, though, another presence made itself known. "Hey, you there. No sleeping in park, get going," a voice said.

When she opened her eyes, she noticed a uniformed police officer standing there, holding a nightstick and waving it at her to get up. "Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me..." she muttered. Sitting back up, she glared up at the man and frowned. "Look buddy, I've had a long day, so do me a favor and just fuck off, alright?"

"Excuse me?" he said, recoiling at the comment. "Look, either you get up and get going or I take you down to the station, your choice. And think carefully before you speak."

"Well this is just fucking great," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "God this city is full of assholes."

"That's it, hands behind your back!"

"Alright, and with that last item your total is going to come to just about...four hundred eighty three dollars and ninety nine cents," the teller said as he checked out the last time for the boy that was standing in front of him. It was getting close to December, and this kid wasn't the first guy to come in and start buying items in bulk for his family. He had to admit though, it was a serious bit of cash to drop on your family, for someone his age.

"Yeah that sounds about right," Neal said with a smile as he looked in to his wallet. He had about a total of thirty dollars, surprisingly they were all in ones though. Neal slowly pulled them out, but as he did they suddenly seemed to turn right in to Benjamins in his hands. He slowly handed them over to the cashier. "There you go, five hundred," Neal said with a smile as the teller went to get the change. The man had received five dollars, and was now gonna give Neal nearly twenty dollars back. "Merry Christmas" Neal said with a smile before leaving the store with gifts and receipt in hand.

Neal always used his power for stuff like this, but he didn't hold it against himself. His dad was single and was a cop, hardly the highest pay grade. He worked so hard in order to provide for both Neal and his sister without ever asking much from them. At least this year Neal was going to make sure that his dad had a giant smile on his face on Christmas morning. As he left the store Neal saw one of those men dressed up as Santa Claus asking for money to support a local charity. Neal took the change that he had received from the deal and placed it inside before walking to his car.

Neal moved to his car and placed the gifts inside, hiding them in the trunk so that he could get them later once Clint and Jordan had gone to sleep. After that he began to drive, wanting to visit one of his favorite food places. It was a small joint that was open all night, they were one of the few places that Neal never cheated money out of. They were kind people, struggling like he was after all.

---

Neal was walking back to his car, heading through the park that he had originally crossed through to get to the food stand. He had a hot dog in each hand and a smile on his face. He had ordered a third but had already taken the time to consume it before heading to his car. He always enjoyed this time of the year. Everyone was happy, cheerful, friendly...

"That's it, hands behind your back!", a voice shouted.

Neal stopped in his tracks as if he was worried that someone was yelling at him. When he looked around though he saw a very strange sight. There was one of the GCPD, yelling at a girl who had apparently been out in the snow for quite a while..her hair was pure white! Neal just stopped for a moment, wondering what exactly was going on. Had she been sleeping on that bench?

Out of curiosity, Neal began to move towards the scene to figure out what had taken place.

"Ugh, this isn't even worth my time," Rose muttered, as she stood up from the bench. "I'm going, alright?"

Apparently, that wasn't good enough for the officer, however, as he made a grab for her wrist. Bad move on his part. Her reflexes kicked in instantly, turning the hold around on him and spinning his arm, causing him to flip over heels and land with a thud on his back. He rolled over, groaning in pain as he pushed himself back up to his feet, and by the time he did, Rose was already fleeing the scene.

"Hey! Stop!" the officer shouted, lumbering after her. He was a big man, though, and couldn't come close to competing with her foot speed, especially when taking into account the little "extra" she had.

"Ha, loser," she said, glancing back over her shoulder at the guy. When she turned to look back in front of her, however, someone was suddenly standing their in her path, some stupid boy with a hot dog. "Fucking- watch out!" But it was too late. She hit him going full speed, though at least she managed to turn her body at the last second to soften the impact. Still, she spun off to the side and went head firs over the guardrail next to her.

Neal just watched what happened next with wide eyes, not certain about what was happening. The girl tried to leave only for the officer to move and grab at her. She then moved in such a way that she flipped the guy over. Damn! Was that girl built like a truck or something? He didn't think that she'd be anywhere near strong enough to do that!

Of course Neal's surprised suddenly went away as he realized right where the girl was running, a direct collision with him. "Oh shit" Neal said and tried to move, but his foot caught on a slick piece of ice that covered the road. Before he could say or do anything, he and the girl crashes, her going over the guardrail next to her and Neal being pushed to land flat on his back. He dropped both of his hot dogs as he was more interested in protecting his head.

"Oh god damn it," Neal muttered as he slowly pushed himself up. He was a bit dazed but it didn't take him very long to recover. His head never hurt for super long when things like that happened. "Hey....hey are you alright?" Neal asked as he moved over towards where Rose had fallen.

By the time Neal got to the guardrail where Rose had fallen, however, nobody was there. Rather, she seemed to have disappeared into thin air, leaving behind only an empty sidewalk in her place. When the police officer finally caught up to the scene, he doubled over slightly with his hands on his knees, sucking in deep breaths of air. "

"Did you... see... a woman run by here?" he gaped, looking up at Neal. "Long hair... white... eye patch?"

Meanwhile, Rose watched from out the window of Neal's car. In the time that it had taken him to recover from the impact, she had already got up, ran to the passenger side of his car, and hopped in to hide. Fortunately, the cop had no idea, and he'd be long gone before anyone realized where she was.

"What the hell?" Neal asked himself as he looked around the area. Where had she gone? He saw her fall over this guardrail didn't he? Damn, maybe she had hit him a lot harder than he originally thought. He scratched his head, still looking around the area until the officer showed up.

"Uh...you know to be honest I did. She crashed in to me and knocked me over. I thought I saw her come over here but now she's not here," Neal muttered as he kept looking around as if Rose was right around a tree or something. "Sorry officer, wish I could be of more help to you."

"Goddamn it..." the cop muttered, as he got his breath back. "Thanks anyway." A moment later, he hurried off down the street to see if he could catch any trace of the fleeing woman, as unlikely as it was.

When the cop was finally gone, Rose uttered a breath of relief and opened the car door, stepping back outside. "Was almost worried I wasn't gonna shake him," she said, leaning over the top of the car and looking at Neal. "Lucky me, you you had a car. Of couse, if you hadn't been dumb enough to get in my way, I wouldn't have needed it."

"Goodbye officer," Neal said as he watched the cop head down the road. Apparently he really wanted to get rid of this girl, what could she have done that was so bad? It wasn't like she had been running until he tried to grab her after all. She couldn't have killed anyone or stolen something. So what was it?

Just when the officer left Neal's line of vision, suddenly a sound alarmed him. He turned around and saw Rose stepping out of his car, thanking Neal for having a car while at the same time blaming him for not getting out of the way in time when she originally tried to make her escape.

"Well sorry about that, the ice got in my way," Neal explained as he looked over at Rose. She didn't look dangerous of like a villain, except with maybe the eye patch. "Why was he chasing after you anyway? He didn't tell me what it was about."

"Uh huh, the ice, right," Rose said, narrowing her eyes at him. Something in her tone said she didn't believe him, or just didn't care what his lame excuse was. "Wasn't anything important, trust me. Fat bastard over there just didn't want anyone sleeping in the park, so he wanted me to leave." Blowing away a stray strand of hair from her face, she turned her gaze and shook her head. "As if I have anywhere else to go."

Neal listened in silence as Rose explained that the officer had wanted Rose to stop sleeping in the park. That was a law that Neal never really understood. He got the point of it, but it kinda seemed like a waste of time to enforce a law that really didn't cause any harm. Despite this train of thought Neal couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at what Rose said last.

"What do you mean? Do you not have a place to stay the night?"

"Well, I had a place," she explained. "Well... not really so much a place as money to buy a room at the nearest motel. But any money I had was in the storage compartment on my motorcycle... which someone stole while I was drinking in the downtown bar." She paused a moment, then quickly turned her gaze back at him. "And before you ask, no I'm not twenty-one, and yes I have a fake ID. A good one, actually." Hell, if her ID got people to believe that she was twenty-one instead of seventeen, then it had to be good.

"Oh I see," Neal said as he listened to what Rose had to say. He wasn't quite sure what to say other than that. The girl didn't have a place to stay and apparently even her motorcycle had been stolen. It had been quite the rough night for her. Neal scratched his side for a moment as he thought about what he could say.

"Well you know, that's pretty rough there," Neal said as he looked right at Rose. "You know...if you need a place to stay I'm sure that you could crash on our couch or something. I doubt you'd be much trouble."

Rose lifted an eyebrow at him, pushing herself a little off the car. "You'd give up your couch to a complete stranger? Man, you're either generous or stupid." She paused a moment after she said that, then pursed her lips as she actually thought the offer over. "I mean, sure... that would be great and all, actually... but wouldn't your parents have an issue with you bringing some strange girl home to sleep on your house. Because I gotta warn you, I'm trouble alright."

Neal just raised an eyebrow as Rose said that he was either generous or stupid. It wasn't exactly the kind of comment that you made when you really wanted to make sure that your spot on the couch was secured. When she finally made up her mind to accept Neal's offer, he only gave a small laugh. "Well my Dad won't mind, he's a cop but I'm sure that he won't give you any trouble. Long as you're polite and don't do anything......not cool I'm sure it'll be okay."

"Hnh, well if you're sure..." she said, tapping her fingers gently on the car roof. A second later, she slipped back into the passenger's and shut the door. "Drive on."

Neal moved over in to the driver's side and buckled himself in before starting the car. It wasn't long till he pulled out and began to drive home, heading at a normal speed back home. He was quiet for a while before he glanced over at Rose. "So....sorry about your motorcycle," Neal said as he was unsure of what to say. "Have you always lived in Gotham? Or did you just get here?"

"Eh, was a hunk of junk to be honest," she said, with a small shrug. "Though, it was my only way of getting from point A to point B. I was just supposed to be passing through Gotham... not that I was on my way to anywhere in particular, just... sort of going wherever. Guess I'll be sticking around a little longer than I though, though." She didn't go into details, obviously. There was a lot of crap in her past that led her to her being here right now, none of which she wanted to divulge at the moment. Instead, she glanced down at the radio and then quickly changed the station to the first one she found playing heavy metal. "My kind of music... wild and angry."

"I see, sorry to hear that," Neal said as he kept driving. At least the motorcycle hadn't been worth that much, cause otherwise that really would have sucked. But still, it sounded like it was one of the few possessions that Rose owned right now. It must have been very hard for her to just lose it like that, even if Rose acted like it didn't matter. At the very least it must have been a pain in the ass.

When the music station changed Neal gained a smile on his face. He was also a fan of metal. "Very nice choice," he commented as his head was bobbing to the music. "I'm more of a Judas Priest fan myself."

"Ah, good, you're not a stiff," Rose said, leaning back in her seat with her hands held behind her head. "Because I don't really think we'd get along very well if you told me to turn it of. But Judas Priest is nice, too. Big fan of Leather Rebel." She looked out the window a moment, noticing quite a few snow flurries starting to come down. "Huh, well sleeping in this would have sucked... so, where do you live, anyway?"

"Ah Leather Rebel, always a good choice for a night like this," Neal said as they kept going. It was amazing how well the trip seemed to be going. Whenever Neal came to an intersection, no matter how many other cars were around, his light would always turn green while everyone else's would turn red. Unnatural really.

"I live just a few blocks from here, it won't be much longer," Neal said before a few minutes passed and he eventually pulled in to a drive way. "Well here we are, home," Neal said before hopping out of the car and looking over towards Rose. The snow was starting to come down a little stronger now, but it was only a few feet to get inside. "Just talk to my dad about what's happening, he'll understand I'm sure," Neal said with a smile before making his way inside.

"DAD! I'm home," Neal called as he walked inside. Instead of Neal's dad though, it was a young girl with long blonde hair that was sitting on the couch watching some television. In her lap was a Calculus book and a calculator that she was working on.

"Hey Neal, who's the friend?" Jordan asked as she looked over at Rose curiously. She wasn't quite sure what to make of her yet. After all it wasn't every day that a white haired girl with an eye patch and biker jacket walked in after all. Jordan had no idea what to make of her.

"I told you not to yell," a man's voice was heard as he emerged from the kitchen of the house. He stopped for a moment as he glanced from Neal to Rose. "Well well Neal, mind explaining who your friend is. I don't think I've seen her before." Clint said as he looked to Rose.

"Dad this is Rose," Neal said as he motioned to Rose. "She...had a bit of a bad night, and I was kinda wondering if she could stay here the night?" Neal asked curiously.

Clint glanced over at Rose, with a look that was hoping that she would say something that would convince him that letting a stranger stay over with his family was a good idea.

Rose looked around the quaint interior of the house. Not a bad set up, really. Certainly better than what she'd been accustomed to, lately. It almost made her actually want to spend the night here. When Neal's sister appeared, she turned to the girl and gave her a curious look. "Uh... hey there... you." She had no idea of this girl's name, nor did she really have a mind to learn it.

Then, Neal's father arrived. So, this was the big man of the house. He didn't look too difficult to outwit, even for a cop. Still, she had to play nice for now. Well, as nice as she knew how. "Uh, yo, how's it going?" she said, taking one of her hands out of her jacket pocket and giving a little wave. "I, uh... sort of don't have anywhere to go right now.... kinda homeless, so... I guess a place to crash for the night would be cool."

"Oh sorry," Neal whispered as he leaned towards Rose. "That's Jordan, she's my little sister," he explained rather quickly. He would have mentioned his dad's name but Clint came out too quickly and he and Rose were already talking to one another.

Clint just stared for a minute as Rose explained her situation. He bit down on his lip, thinking about the situation. He wasn't quite sure what to say or do, but he knew that if Jordan needed a place to stay that he hoped someone would help her. "Alright, I think that we can make this arrangement work," he said as he scratched his chin slowly. "I'm Clint by the way, but call me whatever you wish," he added.

"If you only stay here for the night, what do you plan on doing in the morning?"

"Clint, sure," Rose said, with a small nod. She held her arms across her chest, rocking back and forth on her heels. "No idea what I'll be doing in the morning... I'm sure I'll think of something, though." It certainly wouldn't include sticking around here. She'd be out of Gotham by morning, if everything went according to her plan. "But, yeah, thanks for letting me stay and all. Beats sleeping in the snow. Now, uh... it's getting pretty late, huh? Think I'm feeling a little tired already."

"Right you are," Clint said before looking over at Jordan. "Jor, do the rest of your work in your room. Neal can help Rose get ready for tonight," Clint said as he motioned for Jordan to stand up and follow him. The girl obeyed immediately, giving a small, shy, nod towards Rose and wishing her a good night.

Neal walked over to a closet and pulled out two spare blankets and a pillow before walking back over towards Rose and offering them to her. "Well, I hope that this is enough for you to sleep well," he remarked as he looked over at Rose. "Do you think that there's anything else that you'll need? Or should i just let you sleep?"

"Yeah, that's plenty," Rose said, taking the blankets and pillow from him. She examined them closely for a moment, noting their warmth, and how soft they were... it almost made her want to stay. Almost. "Nothing else I need, really, I'm good. You, uh, just go get some sleep yourself and I'll be crash." Forcing out a yawn, she sat down on the couch and set the pillow down. "Feeling pretty sleepy."