Think of the worst reality tv show on network television… Viktor has probably sat down and enjoyed it, or perhaps
enjoy isn't the right word. He did watch it enough that he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it. None of the others besides Aleen'a watched reality tv with him, leaving him by himself in the lounge most evenings but being alone never bothered Viktor.
Tonight there was a marathon of all of the retro seasons of the long running show, The True World and he couldn't help but get pulled in. He could… relate to it. A show about several strangers from around the country living in one house. He was
hooked, watching episode after episode despite the night creeping closer to midnight. All the while, everyone in the headquarters either retreated to their rooms or slumbered. Hell, it was a Wednesday.
The more of the show he watched, the more he noticed something was lacking in his current socialization. It seemed very often that the people on the show "went out" and enjoyed the nightlife. There were so many people he could observe that the opportunity to go do the same pulled at him. However, he could not go alone and everyone was asleep… no. There was one person who was always awake. The curfew was an obstacle, but Viktor never let an obstacle stop him.
"A." After turning off the television he went searching for her, and it didn't take long either. Viktor entered the lab where he found Alisa working on a new hand augmentation.
"A. I… Hmm. I need you to break your curfew." He requested rather seriously.
“Gah!” A pencil clattered to the floor as Alisa, startled, jumped into the air. At this hour, she was nearly always alone. She had planned on being productive, making herself a new hand with a flash drive component, but the blueprints had proved a bit more challenging than she had originally thought. She wanted to be able to install and access information without putting herself at too much risk of a cyberattack, but in order to do that she had to both integrate the drive and isolate it from her core systems… confusing stuff that even she could barely wrap her head around. Before Viktor had come into the room, she had been hunched over blueprints, pencil in hand, drawing out the problem. It wasn’t going well.
Alisa turned around to face him, eyes still wide from fright. She laughed.
“You scared me!” she teased. If she had been paying attention, she would’ve heard him coming down the hallway, but she evidently hadn’t. She raised her brows, amusement turning into curiosity at his request. Of all of her teammates, she probably would’ve placed Viktor as the most straight-laced. It was nearly two hours past curfew, and Red Tornado had been very clear that they weren’t to leave past it. Ultimately, she settled on a wide, cheerful grin.
“You are speaking my language, man!” she crowed, starting to put away her blueprint materials.
“I mean, you should know I only help bury bodies on a case-by-case basis, but I’m totally down. What are we doing? Also, more importantly, how are we not gonna get caught?”"Well… Wait you bury… Ah, a joke." Viktor sighed at his inadequacy in figuring that out in the first place.
"We won't get caught if we don't use the Zeta Tubes. They're loud and I'm positive they have some type of log system." He placed a hand on her shoulder with a slight smirk he had been practicing for the past two days.
"You and I are going out to experience the nightlife. Just meet me outside of the garage… Suit up." He ordered with his expression going back to "normal".
“You’re getting better at jokes!” Alisa laughed again, this time at his smirk and misunderstanding of her joke, and set away her materials in a drawer. Maybe a bit of time away from it would help her focus. And she would’ve been lying if she had said she wasn’t excited to go to her first party. She wasn't sure what the ‘nightlife’ was like in Happy Harbour, but she had never done anything like that. Nevermind that alcohol had no effect on her- just dancing and talking to people sounded so fun.
“Alright! I’ll wear stealthy clothes, don’t you worry. See you in 10.” "Perfect." He said as he watched her leave before raising an eyebrow.
"I hope not too stealthy." He briefly imagined Alisa in League of Assassins gear before heading to go change himself.
Exactly 10 minutes later, Alisa stood at the entrance to the garage, wearing what she thought constituted “stealthy clothes”. Dark skinny jeans hugged her legs and a black hoodie with a floral design concealed most of her upper body. She wore black Converse on her feet, and her hair was down (as usual). She looked around for Viktor, eyes glancing to and fro. It would be
so awkward to explain to Red Tornado what she was doing in the garage at this hour…
"A!" Viktor whispered sharply from behind her. He was wearing a fitted black short-sleeved henley shirt, dark denim jeans, and black mid-top sneakers. He decided to keep his hair as is.
"I like what you've chosen. Stealthy but stylish." He managed a compliment, trying to add some inflection, but it sounded forced. He didn't mind testing out his socializing with Alisa due to how well they got along. No animosity, nervousness, or judging.
“Thanks, and I like yours too, but I wouldn’t call this stylish,” she jested quietly, turning back to him. This time, she had heard his approach, and was duly prepared.
“This is me trying to be low-key.” She gazed around the garage.
“Are we going to take the Jeep or something? I hope they don’t check the garage cameras…”"Not if there's nothing to be suspicious of… But as a contingency, I'm going to back the jeep up until it's not in view of the camera overhead. Then you're going to quietly get into the back seat and duck down until we're clear." Viktor gave Alisa a confident nod before going to the jeep and reversing the vehicle exactly as he planned. Once Alisa snuck into the backseat and shut the door, Viktor put the jeep in drive and exited through the garage's automatic doors.
"Stay down, there are a few more cameras… and… there! We're free." Viktor glanced at the backseat.
"Climb up here, so you control the music."Once they were out of the garage, Alisa awkwardly climbed over the center console to sit in the front. She finally sat after a solid 30 seconds of wriggling and trying her best not to fall. She buckled up her seatbelt.
“Really? It’s usually the driver's choice, but alright…” She messed with the radio for a moment, until it settled on Top 40. She leaned back, content, and stole a glance at Viktor through the side of her eye. Was that almost a smile on his face?
“What’s gotten into you tonight? You seem… well, different,” she commented, a smile on her face. What she really wanted to say was less grumpy, but calling someone grumpy tended to make them grumpy.
"Different?" Viktor raised an eyebrow while keeping his eyes on the road. If Alisa had not brought it up, Viktor wouldn't have really noticed. He had always tried to ease up on his seriousness whenever outside of a mission or training but it was never by much, and it just came across as forced when he did. Being the quiet blunt serious guy was just natural to him
"I think it's because I'm trying to be more like the others." His face was pensive as he said this.
Alisa scrutinized him for a moment, trying to read his face and failing. She couldn’t tell what he meant.
“I didn’t mean different in a bad way. But… like the others? How so?”"Social. Like you, Zach, Ja, and even Daphne. It's not easy, but… Actually I am not sure how well I'm doing. Maybe an assessment? Perhaps you can assess me. You're quite honest and you are a social butterfly." He used the term but didn't understand it. Butterflies didn't appear to be social. To Viktor, social ant or bee would have made more sense.
Despite herself, Alisa burst out laughing. The loud, raucous sound of her cackles broke through their previously quiet voices as she slapped her knees, laughing so hard she couldn’t talk. After a moment, she recovered and drew herself up again. All the while Viktor appeared a bit confused as to why she was laughing so hard.
“Viktor… no offense, but you do realize you’re asking the girl who isn’t even… well, a real girl for social tips, right? Up until about a month ago, I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t even know anyone who could be my friend. I think that I might be just as new to this as you are.” Truth be told, Alisa
did feel lost. While she enjoyed making friends and being friendly, she found it confusing and difficult. She could only try to please people the best she could, and juggling that with staying true to herself had proved harder than she thought.
“Although, I’ve heard it said that the way to be friendly is to just be yourself and to be kind. Does that make much sense?” A smile barely crept onto Viktor's face.
"So I'm not kind?" Viktor asked as they turned onto a street with a brightly lit strip of bars, clubs, restaurants, and even food trucks wherever they could fit in between. For a Wednesday night there was a decent-sized crowd, but sparser than Viktor anticipated.
“I did not say that,” Alisa insisted as her eyes drifted to the window. Happy Harbor
had nightlife? It looked to be only one street, but it was still shocking for such a small town.
“You’re not mean. At least, not most of the time. You just could be nicer to some people.” She meant Nymph, but she hoped that was implied. He nodded almost to himself as Nymph came to mind. His thoughts briefly went back to when he was piloting the jet and shared his feelings about his teammate.
“Do you know where we’re going?”"Um… well on the True World, they always went to a bar or club… It's my first time out, but I've watched enough of the show to see that it was easy to get in." He pulled into a parking lot next to a dive bar called Catcher's Bait. Music could be heard from the outside and the bar seemed quite lively.
"Come on, A. Time to experience the nightlife."“Alright, whatever you say!” Alisa opened the side door and hopped out of the jeep. True World had to be one of Viktor’s reality shows. Back home, she had watched that sort of thing when she was bored, but she had never heard of it. Maybe it was new?
The two plodded across the parking lot to the entrance. There wasn’t a line, like Alisa had thought- just a door and what appeared to be a bouncer. She peered inside. It looked frightfully boring. There was no dancing, no loud music, no neon lights… just a bar and people talking. She frowned. Alcohol was well and nice, but it didn’t do anything for her.
“Are you gonna get like drunk or something?”"Should I? Hmm. Can I?" He pondered as they walked towards the bouncer at the entrance.
"You don't seem too excited, A. Is this place not adequate?" Before she could answer. The bouncer spoke to them.
"IDs." Viktor raised an eyebrow.
This was not in the show. They never showed this part, but he took out his wallet and handed his ID to the bouncer.
"Here."Alisa slid Viktor the most incredulous look of her life as he handed over his
real ID.
"You're kidding me. 21 and over. Sorry but you're gonna have to find someplace else. What about her?" The bouncer was handing Viktor's ID back.
"We'll just go." Viktor furrowed his brows before looking at Alisa and shrugging.
"Your turn to choose a place."Alisa opened her mouth and closed it again, still looking at Viktor incredulously. She grabbed his sleeve and stomped off back to the car.
“What the hell was that?” she hissed as they returned to the Jeep. Her nice demeanor had vanished, replaced by an angry stare and wide, scared eyes.
“I thought you were going to say you forgot. He could’ve called the cops! We could’ve gone to jail!” Alisa stuffed her hands in her pockets, trying to conceal how they shook. There was no way the Justice League would let her get disappeared again, but the possibility shook her. Wasn’t Viktor supposed to be smarter than this?
"Jail? No crime was committed. Just a lack of planning… I should have had a better plan… with contingencies." He was avoiding eye contact with Alisa as he tried to think about their next move.
"What if we…" As he looked up at Alisa, he could see how visibly upset she was.
"Sorry. I'm going to figure this out." His expression was serious, as if this whole thing had become a mission. He placed a hand on her shoulder to reassure his friend.
"I promise."Alisa made a sighing noise.
“It’s alright. I just… I don’t like cops, so if we could avoid situations where we might run into trouble with the law...” She didn’t elaborate, instead pulling out her phone. She searched “teen-friendly nightlife” and a few appealing options popped up.
“There’s a late night bowling alley on Cornwallis Drive. We could try that?” she suggested. He removed his hand from her but peeked at her phone to see what she had found.
"Bowling… Let's do it." And it's right down the strip. He got the car less from his pocket.
"I'd race you there on foot, but we're trying to be covert. No… low-key." He used her term with a genuine smirk. It was mild, but not forced this time around.
That got a genuine laugh out of her.
“And I’d win!” Again, the two got into the car and drove. It was only a little ways down the street, and they were parked in less time than it had taken to almost get into the dive bar. Alisa hopped out of the car again.
“Alright. Bowling.” She started to walk to the front. She had seen bowling in movies and sitcoms, but had never actually done it herself.
“I’ve never bowled before,” she told Viktor.
“But we don’t have to bowl. There’s dancing inside, some arcade games, a bar if you want to have the full “nightlife experience”...” She shrugged.
"Hmm."“I’ll stick to games and dancing. Alcohol doesn’t have any sort of kick for me. Tastes bad.” She slid a suspicious gaze to him.
“Just… if you’re gonna buy drinks this time, say you forgot your ID. Don’t give the bartender your ID.”"I wasn't trying to buy…" He started off defensive but stopped himself mid-sentence.
Be kind… and myself. He let loose a light sigh.
"I'm not out here to drink, A. I just wanted to experience the nightlife... with a friend. My best friend I think. So… We are going to stick to the games and dancing too." Alisa’s face lit up.
Best friends? She had heard all sorts of things about best friends, but had never had one. They were supposed to be very important. She nodded vigorously, unable to keep the smile off her face.
“Awesome! We could try bowling too if you wanted… I think it’s like soccer. Or football. And then you throw the ball at some pins.” Viktor raised an eyebrow.
"Roll the ball at some pins." He corrected.
“Oh, roll. It’s not like basketball, then.”"You'll see."They entered the bowling alley and headed to the counter, where they paid for a few rounds of bowling and rented shoes with their team-issued credit cards. The alley was nearly dead at this hour- there was only a group of middle-aged drunk men sitting at the bar, a group of teenagers by the end of the alleys, and another group of laughing teenagers in the arcade. There was cheesy pop music blasting on the speakers, and apparently, it was black light night, because everything was glowing in the dark.
"This is different." He commented as he looked around at the black lights and neon-themed bowling alley.
"We should bowl first. Since you've never done it before. It's simple… I think the hard part for us might be regulating our strength." Viktor nodded towards a teen rolling a bowling ball down a lane.
"See."“Ooh, yes. I see.” Alisa sat on one of the chairs and put on her bowling shoes. They were ugly things, but there was probably a reason why bowling required special shoes. Then, she began to set up the overhead score counter. Finally, she got up and picked up a bowling ball- blue, her favorite color.
She scrutinized the lane. Viktor was right- she would need to watch her strength. Hurling the bowling ball would certainly be fun, but they’d probably get kicked out. So, like she had seen a few other people do, she firmly rolled the ball across the lane.
It only hit a few pins- her aim had been off, but she understood the concept.
“Your turn, then!”"Your first roll could have been better, but I think you'll adapt. Especially with a little competition. And you actually get to go again." Viktor gave a nod towards the overhead monitor where Alisa's name was highlighted.
"Since you haven't ever bowled, what did you ever do with… the people you lived with?" He didn't know whether he should use the word "family" for them.
Alisa turned quiet and contemplative for a moment before giving a small snort.
“Nothing. My… parents never really let me do anything. Sometimes we would go on a hike or they’d let me go to the store with them, but otherwise they never really let me leave the property.” Despite saying such terrible words about her family, Alisa felt a flash of homesickness. She had spoken about them so little since she had gotten here.
“And you? What did you do for fun in Gotham?” She sat in one of the chairs and leaned back. Viktor took the seat across from her, thinking about how to answer her question in the most efficient way.
"Before HIVE, I'm pretty sure I did everything any young boy did. Watched baseball games with my father, rode my bike around the neighborhood, played with the other kids, went to the movie theater, and of course bowling. My father wasn't always there, but I remember being so happy when he was, because he'd always take me to do something enjoyable." He winced during his natural pause.
"After HIVE though… I guess… I guess I rarely do things just to enjoy them anymore. Well until recently anyway." He forced a smile and got up for his turn, grabbing the standard black ball.
Alisa frowned.
“That’s terrible. I never left the house, but at least I was allowed to have fun…” No wonder Viktor was the way he was.
“HIVE. Those are the villains that trained you, right? What was that like?” Alisa regretted saying it the minute it came out of her mouth. What a dumb question!
"It was interesting. Very strict, like I was not permitted to have any distractions or friends. They granted me one constructive hobby that had nothing to do with combat or missions. It was just something to give my mind a break. At least that's what I think." He reached into his pocket and showed Alisa a sheathed knife.
"Wood carving."“Oh. Nice knife. Do you still wood carve?”"About a click away from the tower, I've done a bit on a few trees. I actually went back to doing it after our mission. I'll show you some time. But what about you? If your family wanted to bring you into this world, why didn't they have you do much?" That was a tough question. Alisa leaned forward in her chair and sighed.
“They wanted me, but they were paranoid,” she ultimately told him. It was true.
“My mom- the woman who programmed me- was terrified that “the feds” or something would come and take me away, because… I’m not supposed to exist. My creators, they were, well…” Alisa paused awkwardly, and then settled on the most accurate word,
“Anarchists. The government wouldn’t’ve liked them creating a sentient robot.”"Anarchists? To think they would build you and for you to eventually become a hero sponsored by the Justice League. But this is also coming from me, a guy who was trained and operated under a criminal organization… We're more than what we were meant to be. I'm not just some super soldier and you're not just a sentient robot. I honestly think that one might believe I'm the robot between the two of us." He chuckled but appeared surprised by it. He briefly covered his mouth before speaking again.
"Are things better here for you? On the team?"Alisa giggled at Viktor’s joke.
“Well, they didn’t exactly have a choice in the whole superhero thing! It just sort of happened.” She considered his other question for a moment as Viktor took his turn.
“I think they are. It’s really nice to have friends and to go out and do things. This is… well, it’s not exactly what I wanted, but it’s pretty close. I never really thought I’d be a superhero, you know? But it’s… it’s nice.” "Agreed. It is nice, but… what exactly did you want?"She shrugged.
“A life. Friends. Normalcy. Freedom, I guess. I didn’t get all of that, but I also didn’t set out wanting to be a superhero. It just sort of... happened.” Alisa got up and rolled the bowling ball, this time getting more pins.
“Sweet!”"That. That is something that I like about you. You may not be very experienced, but you're a quick learner." He looked up at their scores.
"A loser, but a quick learner." He leaned back with his arms spread across the seats beside him.
“Oh, come on!” Alisa jumped out of her seat and stared, flabbergasted at the results. She had lost to Viktor 7-2.
“You had an advantage. We’re playing another round and I’m gonna win!” she yelled at him with conviction, a fiercely competitive look in her eyes.
"Bring it." The next game led to another, then the arcade, a few attempts at dancing to cheesy pop music, and then the night was pretty much called. All in all it was a great time filled with laughs, conversation, and more importantly, bonding. As the two left and headed towards the jeep, Viktor gripped the keys with an idea in mind.
"Catch!" Viktor tossed the keys to Alisa and made his way towards the passenger's seat.
Alisa walked down the parking lot with him, carrying an adorable stuffed frog that she had won at the claw machine. She caught the keys and fixed Viktor with a strange look. He wanted her to… drive? She had never driven a
car before, although she was quite good at piloting planes.
“Hopefully not too different from driving a plane,” she muttered, under her breath, and boosted herself into the driver’s seat. She was painfully short, so she had to adjust the seat, but she ultimately got herself comfortable and started to drive down the road.
“The right pedal is the brake, right?” she half-joked.
"Not funny." He smirked.
"This should be easy for you. And if you crash… I think we'll survive." Though it seemed like a joke, he was quite serious.
“I’m sure I will. You? Eh,” teased Alisa.
The rest of their ride went by alright- Alisa was terrible at clean stops, and accidentally ran several red lights. Ultimately, they drove to the secret garage entrance on the edge of the mountain. A bit of anxiety was starting to rise in Alisa. If they were to be caught, it would be now.
She turned and looked at Viktor.
“I had a lot of fun tonight. Thanks for asking me to come with.” She smiled, and started to hit the brake to get ready to park.
Or what she
thought was the brake. Instead, she hit the gas, and the car sped up right before slamming into the mountainside.
"Shit!"The Jeep crashed into the mountain with a nearly deafening sound. Alisa’s face smacked against the wheel just as the airbags inflated and the car alarm started to go off.
I crashed the car I crashed the car I crashed the car HOLY SHIT-“Viktor? Are you alright?!” She shook the boy next to her, voice panicked.
“I am so sorry, oh my God, I thought I was hitting the brake- do you think that woke them up? Are you okay?” They were in
so much trouble.
Viktor groaned with his face against the deflating airbag. He sat himself up looking more irritated than hurt.
"I'll be fine… Shit…" He hadn't looked Alisa in the face yet. Not until he spoke again.
"If you're quick you can… too late. He's here." Viktor sighed as Red Tornado landed next to the driver's side of the jeep with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, Jesus…” Alisa buried her face in the airbag, cheeks turning red. His robot eyes were
so judging.
"Cybergirl. Rain.""We can explain Red Torn-""Get inside! You will both explain why one of you was breaking curfew and why an unlicensed driver was behind the steering wheel of the team off-duty vehicle that is now disabled. The lounge. Now." Red Tornado was stern and not looking for excuses now, especially when the two teens appeared to have come out of the accident intact. The two left the vehicle where it was, and Red Tornado quickly disabled the alarm before heading inside after the two.
"You know despite this, I had a lot of fun too." Viktor said on their way to the lounge.
Once the two young heroes were seated side by side, Red Tornado stood before them and gave them the longest and most in-depth lecture of all time. Then came the actual punishment.
"You will both be subject to reduced allowances and no leisure outside of the headquarters for two weeks. You will also explain to the rest of the team why the Jeep is under maintenance no later than tomorrow evening. Finally, effective immediately, the established curfew will apply to Rain until further notice. Do you both understand?""Yes."“I understand.”"Now, if there are no other issues I would prefer you two go to your respective rooms." Red Tornado turned away from Viktor and Alisa, making his way to the Communications Complex to report on the situation. Viktor sat silently for a moment before sighing.
"Not a successful mission, but worth it." A soft smile on his face despite being grounded.
That made Alisa smile.
“We were almost successful! I bet Red Tornado wouldn’t even have caught us if I hadn’t crashed the car. Totally worth it, though.” She then snuck a glance at the other robot’s retreating figure and sighed. Being grounded would suck… but at least she had a good memory to go with it.
“Let’s get to our rooms before he talks to Black Canary or someone and makes us clean the bathrooms for the next month. Come on.” The two shuffled off to their bedrooms, thoroughly punished, but having had a fun night to remember.
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