Young Writers Society

"We're not being dramatic," Dresden argued, even though he very much was being dramatic and kind of knew it. "It's a valid concern! Running into Batman is a bad idea-"

There was a startled yelp from over by one of the broken windows. When Dresden spun around and saw a girl clinging to the windowsill on their side of it and a shaded figure outside of it, he suddenly remembered his observation about a child being able to fit through the window and not many other people being able to.

"Maps," the shaded figure said—another teenage girl, by the sound of it—in a berating tone, "you told me you were going to be careful!"

The girl, Maps, dropped down to the ground. "I was! I just lost my balance. But I landed, so I'm fine. You should come in, too-"

Maps froze, finally noticing the group that was closer to the warehouse's actual entrance.

"Maybe you shouldn't," Maps stage-whispered. Dresden had the feeling it was supposed to be an actual whisper, but that Maps was very bad at actually keeping quiet. "I think I've been spotted. I failed my stealth check."

At the first sound of strangers Bobby was gone, vanishing into the hazy shadows of the rows of cars and boxes while all eyes were turned to investigate. He watched from his hiding place as the new stranger called in a loud whisper to the silhouetted figure outside the window.

They didn't seem threatening, but then neither did the Ringly heiress before her kill count started wracking up. Anyone could carry a gun, almost anyone could access magic, no one could be trusted to be safe.

Vankous

"Oh for the love of..." he said, with a sigh, before he raised his voice. " Now what exactly are you doing here?"

Kate frowned at him, looking at him like he'd just lost his mind. Vankous just winked and gave her a quick thumbs up. It was a force of habit. Harry would know exactly what that meant. Before he could whisper and actual explanation for his actions instead of a thumbs up, Kate gave him a nod, before she turned to the newcomers herself.

"Yes, I think we'd all very much like to know that. Awfully rude of you to just...drop in unannounced," said Kate.

Vankous stifled a laugh at the pun. He was almost thinking of a reply to the chiding he was sure was headed his way when he remembered, this was not Harry, and that had probably been an accidental pun.

Tempest Briar crossed her arms, drawing herself to her full height. Alis were usually over six feet tall, so he was definitively taller than this newcomer. “State your business or leave.” His voice deepened, his usual British accent becoming a bright shade of posh. It was a voice she had heard many times during her own run-ins with the law. Hopefully it would some use to her.

Something wasn’t right, though. The newcomer was clearly a child. Would this group really gang-up and a kid? Then again, Tempest Briar knew nothing about this world. Maybe children were the most dangerous here and excreted venom or had claws. He repressed a shudder. Here’s to hoping that’s not the case.

Tempest Briar gestured for the newcomer to speak. “Well?”

The name Maps was vaguely familiar, but Dresden couldn't put his finger on why. Maybe her name had been referenced in a fic Pres had showed him before? It did look like she was wearing a uniform, which probably would help him narrow him down where she was from...

As Dresden tried to remember anything about this girl, the other members of his group did their best to come across as intimidating and like they belonged here. The other girl that had arrived pulled herself through the window and down onto the floor with all of the balance that Maps had been lacking.

Both looked like teenagers. Robin-age, definitely, but neither had been Robins before, right? The only girl Robin was Stephanie Brown, or maybe Carrie Kelley.

Maps pulled herself up to her full height. It wasn't a lot.

"We're here for-" She paused and looked back at the other girl. "What are we supposed to say?"

There was something about the unnamed girl's eyes that just screamed meta, but Dresden couldn't put his finger on what it was. "Because you seemed suspicious."

Maps nodded in agreement. "Yeah. That." She thought for a moment, screwing her face up in concentration. "And if you're here for something evil or nefarious, we'll stop you!"

Vankous

With centuries of experience bluffing his way into way more than one place he wasn't supposed to be at, he scoffed.

"Do we look like the sort of people you want to go around joking like that with?' said Vankous. "Clearly if anyone is being suspicious right now, its you two. Do you have anything to say for yourselves? What nefarious deeds are you upto?"

Beside him, Kate, folded her arms and did a sort of stare. It was only several more centuries of experience that kept him from doing a double take at that. Even at the age of what couldn't be much more than 16, Kate Hardy had that frown which said "I can end your life in the blink of an eye but I'm too comfortable to move right now".

Bobby lurked in the shadows, caught between finding a way out and watching this play out. He wasn't afraid of the kids. They were his age, skinny and well-dressed, and neither looked like they were armed. They looked like the kinds of kids whose parents enrolled them in the school play every year.

No, Bobby wasn't worried about them. He was worried about the people he came here with. Never trust a mage. It was worse than trusting a cop. The moment anything got a little bit choppy this whole building would go up in smoke.

That settled it. Bobby began looking around for a discreet way to leave before this confrontation came to blows.

"We were investigating you first," the still unnamed girl said.

"Olive," Maps said in a not-so-quiet of a stage whisper again. "What if they really aren't doing anything suspicious?"

"They're having a meeting in an abandoned warehouse in Gotham," the girl, who was apparently named Olive, replied. "I don't trust them."

Dresden, not eager to see how well Olive did against Dr. Cerebro and Katherine, decided it was his job to step in right now. So he did exactly that: he stepped between the two so his left side was facing the girls and his right side was facing the group he had come here with.

Sans Bobby, who must have ducked for cover somewhere. Dresden couldn't see him anywhere, and hoped he hadn't left the warehouse.

"Calm down," he said, holding his hands up as he glanced between the two of them. "They're just kids being kids."

If Pres could see him now, he'd have died of laughter. Dresden was exactly the type of person who shouldn't have been calling Olive and Maps kids. They were old enough to be in the club. But if Dresden was going to be stuck in this situation, he'd very much use it to his advantage.

"We're not just kids!" Maps protested. "We're Gotham Academy's detective club's founding members-"

"Maps," Olive hissed, cutting Maps off before she could say anymore.

"Oh right, because every time someone wants to have a private meeting in a secluded spot, it must be for some nefarious reason," said Vankous, scoffing. "You mortals will never get over your ill conceived prejudices. If you want to play that card, then pray tell me how breaking into an abandoned warehouse at this hour is not suspicious. If we have to believe you're intentions are honorable simply cause you say so, what puts you in a position where you can't honor when we say our intentions are not evil in nature."

"What he's trying to say is, we have no reason to believe you, nor do you have any reason to believe us. But..we probably should, or it won't end well for anyone," said Kate. "Especially children. Ok, that's a bit ironic, given I'm probably younger than you two, but the point stands."

Vankous did his best not to react to the frankly surreal feeling that Kate was actually younger than someone. The firstborn of reality, at a position where she is actually younger than most of it.

"They are definitely kids to me, so the point definitely stands," added Vankous. "Amateur detectives or otherwise. Besides from my experience, detectives in Gotham are among the most likely to be doing the nefarious deeds as opposed to stopping them."

"Kids or not, it's impolite to burst into places uninvited." Tempest Briar huffed, readjusting his bag. "And I neither appreciate it nor approve."

He made a show of stepping forward, exasperation written all over her face. "And besides, what would you have done if we were nefarious? That's very unsafe." He crossed his arms, shaking his head in hypocritical disappointment.

If Tempest Briar wanted to lay it on thick, she could ask about their parents. But from his own experience, that question was much too easy to manipulate. All it took was a sniffle and a whispered, they're dead to make anyone feel like a shambling sack of garbage.

Not that he had ever done that. Goodness no.

Dresden had the feeling that if they really had been trouble, Olive's meta powers—whatever they actually were—would have kicked in.

Maybe the others were right not to trust a group of detectives in Gotham. But they were just kids, and Dresden was pretty sure kids were almost always trustworthy in times like this. He was biased, of course, but still. And maybe he was thinking it was a shame they went to Gotham Academy and lived on another version of Earth, because they would have been great in the club-

Focus, he reminded himself.

"We would have fought you," Maps confidently said, even though Dresden was very much sure it would be Olive doing the majority of the fighting. Maps got points for confidence, though.

Since Dresden very much didn't want a fight starting up, he decided to appoint himself unofficial team leader and make a decision someone was probably going to disagree with.

"You're probably not going to believe me," Dresden said, "but we all suddenly found ourselves in Gotham and want to get back to our homes. We also don't want to be found by Batman, so we came here."

Maps put her hands on her hips and stared up at him with her lips drawn into a thin, thin line.

"I think we can believe them," she said, spinning around to look at Olive.

Olive didn't seem as convinced. "Telling us you didn't want to be found by Batman makes you less trustworthy."

"Unless you also don't want to be found by Batman," Dresden shot back. He wasn't even going to bring the meta thing up. It'd be awkward if she somehow didn't know. "Because the last time I checked, it makes more sense to call Batman on us right away."

Maps shifted uncomfortably at that, gripping something in her pocket. Olive studied him for another moment, then nodded. "You're right."

Dresden grinned. "I knew it."

"You really like giving potential enemies the upper hand, don't you?" said Kate, rolling her eyes at Dresden's declaration of their current situation.

"At the very least we got some leverage in return," added Vankous. "It seems most of you would rather avoid batman for various reasons. Can't blame any of you for that."

"Well, if we're done with this little chit chat then, whatever it was. I suggest we all either work together to solve this issue or fight and get this over with, because time is of the essence when it comes to situations like ours," said Kate.

Bobby had made his way to the back of the warehouse where a piles of crates stacked high up to the rafters, giving him a path up to a row of broken windows. He didn't hesitate in starting the climb. There was no way he was staying here, not with those people who were all to eager to show whip out their magic at the slightest provoking.

He was hallways up the stack, a good eight foot drop between him and the closest crate, when his foothold snapped and his hands slipped, and in an instant the back of his head exploded in pain. His vision splotched black and white, and his back ached with scrapes and punctures from the bed of splintered wood and paper in which he now laid, but he didn't waste time rolling off of it.

The ground was littered with papers, and other odd objects peeked out from the wreckage. A glance at the papers showed them to be hand written, a mix of English and Latin ramblings about demons. Despite his better judgement - that crash would have the others over here in just a minute - his curiosity drove him to pick through the rest of the crate.

More occult paraphinalia filled the spaces. Masks and drawings, candles, a lighter (which Bobby pocketed, you could never have too many), and other weird stuff. Briar would probably be able to make sense of it all. He knelt down with one of the pages of notes and skimmed it. Demon summoning. It sounded like exactly Briars kind of bad idea. The kind only someone like her could pull off. There weren't many people like her.

This was...dangerous.

There was a loud crash from the back of the warehouse.

Despite himself, Dresden jumped. Maps jumped, too. Olive kept her feet on the ground, but it was clear the noise had startled her from the look on her face. When Dresden surveyed the group and then glanced back towards the direction of the sound, he realized that was probably Bobby.

That, or it was an actual enemy.

But it was probably Bobby.

Dresden awkwardly coughed and tried his best to regain his composure. He went to the source of the noise with Maps and Olive in tow. His guess was correct: Bobby was the source of the noise. He was digging through the contents of broken crates.

"Are you-" Dresden started to ask, but Maps cut him off with a gasp.

"Are you okay!?" Maps asked. She leaned down and looked at what Bobby was looking at. "What's all of that?"

Bobby jumped, and in an instant he was several paces away. "I'm fine," he mumbled. He should have just left.