The Darkest of Knights

Zero had never been more annoyed with Alice, even when she was Malice, then when she called right in the middle of him about to pretty much tell Ivy he detected a second life in her body and she was pregnant. He grabbed hold of Ivy, and- after making DOUBLE sure everything was ok, trating Ivy as carefuly as glass- he warped them back right behind Alice. "We're. Right. Here." He said, not bothering to mask tha the was less then amused.....
[had to cut short oPo]

(XDD Z's POed.)

"Hey Al." Ivy greeted, growing more confused by the moment. Zero was acting cranky all of the sudden. If it was, as she suspected, her being pregnant, then was he upset with the thought of having children? She shook that thought away immediately, knowing he couldn't possibly think like that. "Z, relax." She murmured.

"See Al, I knew they were doing it!" Karmy stated. "Can't anyone have sex around here without being interrupted? Sheesh."

"I don't mean to interrupt sex Karmy. Just counting heads is all." Alice said marking the two down on a clipboard. "Okay now everyone is accounted for we can start boarding. Karmy follow me." Alice said grabbing Karmy's hand violently and tugging her through her hangover. She walked her into the ship, past Dick and Barbara, past the seats to the back and behind the rear end of the ship. "Karmy snap out of it, I've got something else for you." She said retrieving a rather large box that was neatly wrapped. "Happy Belated Birthday."

If someone thought that Karmy was going to rip open the wrapping paper in a wild, savage, insane mess, they would have thought wrong. She slowly and carefully peeled off the wrapping paper, to preserve both the suspense and the wrapping paper. She was just a pack rat like that. After folding up and stuffing the paper in her bag, she practically squealed with delight and tackle glomped Alice to the floor when she saw what the box read. A chorus of "THANKYOU!!!" and "OH EM GEE I LOVE IT ALMOST AS MUCH AS I LOVE YOU!!" erupted from her. That lucky little... I want that camera!!

"Haha, just.. Just take care of it." Alice smiled hugging Karmy back. "Just.. Promise me you won't do that embarrassing stuff anymore... That camera was several thousand." She almost said hesitantly. True Alice loved Karmy, but she prayed she didn't create a monster.

"Oh I will Al!" Karmy said, scootching over so Alice could get up. She sat cross legged on the floor like a little kid with a new toy. Opening up the box, she handled the beautiful piece of machinery like it was an infant. "It's so *sniff* beautiful!" she ran her fingers over the camera. "Hey, wanna help me read this?" she pulled the manual out from the box and held it up to Alice. "Never really did learn how to read too well and I really wanna get this thing down!" she smiled.

"You don't know how to read..?" Alice asked shocked. "I mean I know you didn't like books, but I didn't know you were illiterate." Alice said picking th booklet up and spreading it out. "Oh its really self-explanatory. You push the big button for on, you adjust the lens for focus, and you press the big button to shoot. You have several different modes to shoot from. You can switch out your lense and it has a built in flash." Alice skimmed.

"I can sorta read.. None too well. Just like signs and all that junk." Karmy shrugged and listened to Alice like it was story time, looking at the camera every now and then to make sure she got everything right. When alice started getting into the Pixels portion of the booklet, Karmy lost focus and began to fiddle with her camera. In the middle of Alice's reading, Karmy popped up next to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and shouted, "Smile Al!" and took the picture.

Zero began to fume with all the comments about sex. Frankly, it was nobody's business what they were doing, even if it was. Which was PARTLY the truth. Then of course after calling them here Alice and Karmy scurried off together and ignored the rest of the world, as usual. Zero sighed and put an arm around Ivy. "Sorry 'bout that, Doll." He said, apologising for the frustration he had shown and the whole interuption thing. He planted a quick smooch on her cheek and led her out to the Batplane with everyone else.

Rose decided, when Astro ran off, that she was going to take the greatest of delight in messing with him from this point forward. Still chuckling at him loosing his breakfast so quickly, she followed everyone out to the planes also.

Slade was tempted to plant his foot into Crane's rear end, but again he figured he had far bigger fish to fry right now. He plodded after the two criminals, keeping to the shadows and remaining quiet.

"It's alright." Ivy replied, taking a seat on the plane. She kept hold of Zero's hand, looking at him expectantly. "Before, back at the tower, you were saying...?" she whispered, lowering her voice just in case it was something he'd rather not talk about at the moment.
---
Astro staggered out of the bathroom into the batplane, feeling like he needed a toothbrush in the absolute worst way.

"Karmy!" Alice yelled fixing her hair after the picture was taken, "What was that for?" She asked flabbergasted and upset that she just knew that she looked bad in the picture. "I wasn't even prepared for that! I look terrible!!"

"Hahaha!!" Karmy laughed hysterically. "I just love how I can still surprise you after all these years." she grinned idiotically as usual. "It looks good to me Al, totally gonna get this printed out! But first.." she giggled and scurried off to the front of the plane where everyone else was, camera in hand.

Zero figured better just tell her now. "Well, this morning, when I went ot wake you up, I detected something new in you...." he whispered, not sure if he wanted all of sundry to know. "Doll..... I think you might be pregnant." He told her quietly.

Cyrah ingloriously flopped into a random seat on the Batplane. Karmy had a new camera. Huh, she hadn't seen it before. She then recalled that she had never even gotten her something for her birthday. Craaaaaaaaaap. What kind of crap sibling forgot about her other sibling's birthday? Well, she could scrub herself from the sister of the year awards. She slunk in her seat, embarassed with this realization....

A portal suddenly appeared above Cyrah and Karmy popped out, upside down and snapped a photo of her. "Wow! That one came out real good, Cousin Cyssy!" Karmy squealed happily and flipped over before plopping down next to her. "Why the long face? It made for a great pic though."

Cyrah jumped about a foot when Karmy appeared next to her. After saying a four letter word that was most un-ladylike, she looked at Karmy. "For the lvoe of- why is it you're misearable when everyone i'm happy, and when I'm miserable you're bouncing off the walls!?" She asked. "And why didja' call me cousin?" Cyrah asked, still somewhat shocked.

Ivy let the words sink in, thinking it over. This confirmed her suspicions, at least. She could understand the gravity of it-Just look at Barbara, pregnancy and crime fighting do not mix well. At the same time, she was alright with it. She had just accepted his marriage proposal, after all.

"Oh. Well...I say we wait to tell the others, and, hey," She smiled, "I always wanted to be a mom."

"Because, that's the way the balance works around here." Karmy said as a matter-of-factly as she fiddled with her camera. "Oh and Cass didn't tell you?" she looked over at Cyrah with a grin slapped on her face. "My mom, Leah, is Cassius's cousin! Also told me that the people who had kidnapped me when I was a kid, was Phoenix Corps but, meeehhhh. I'm gonna focus on the cousin part. So that makes us family legitimately! Though, I considered y'all family anyways." she hugged Cyrah. "Cousin or not, you'll always be like a sister to me, just like Cassius will always be like a father."

At first Cyrah didn't know WHAT to think. Family, right in front of her? Across from wanting to whalop her father for not telling her, she did the enxt best thing she could think of: she yanked Karmy in for hug. "I KNEW we were related- no toher way we coudl eb this awesoem and NOT be." She said happily.

Family was on Zero's mind also, but a different form. He planted a kiss on Ivy's cheek. "Whatever you want, doll." He said to her, putting an arm around her and cuddling up with her happily.

[Do I still have Ra's? I need to do something evil. Not sure what, just something.]

"I know ri-ACK!" Karmy struggled in Cyrahs mechanical grip. "Ok, Cyssy, I kno-ERK- I love ya too its just that-ACK!!!" she coughed. "Too----strong- AIR!! Need- ACk - AIR!"

Through the hug Karmy accidentally let go of the camera, sending it flying from her hand. Alice grabbed the camera just before it hit the ground. "Hey Karmy! I said be careful with this!" Alice scolded. "It came with a strap for a reason.." She mumbled inspecting the camera for scratches or dents. She sat down at the seat adjacent from the intertwined cousins turning the camera on. She looked down the lens and snapped a shot of Karmy and Sarah. It was needed.

Alice laughed quietly to herself and opened up the folder with all the pictures Karmy has taken. "Wow..." She unintentionally gasped as she saw the number of pictures that was already taken. 234 pictures lit the screen in a tiny font.

(Awesome pics, Merc! My favorite is the first one, though, 'cause of Alice's expression XD )

Astro slumped in his seat, "I never tried fire whiskey before. I was curious." he groaned in reply to Luna. A lingering burning feeling in his mouth told him the day would not be a pleasant one.
---
Ivy couldn't believe the overwhelming events of the past few days. The EQ generator battle, Zero, this baby who was barely a day old...More than ever, she felt glad to be part of this ragtag family of heroes. To be making a new family with Zero.

Family. What a lovely word.

Cyrah released her deathgrip on Karmy. "Well, since we know WE'RE family, let's bug the REST of the family." Cyrah suggested devilishly. She looked at Zero and Ivy in the seat behind her, the two cuddled up in a scene so sweet she could swear cavities were forming by the second. So naturally Cyrah had to be obnoxious as possible and holler "HI MATTY, HI TIFF!" As loud as humaneley possible, using their normal names instead of their hero names. "HEY MATTY, GUESS WHO WE'RE RELATED TO??" She asked again, still at the top of her lungs as obnoxious as possible.

Zero was still cuddled up with Ivy at first, feeling like he was on top of the word. The most amazing girl in the world had accepted his offer to marry him, and nwo they were goving to have a child. In all, all was right with the world at this moment.

The along came his sister and he leapt out of his skin. "Jeezum..... crow...." he said, regaining hsi composture. "I dunno.... are we distantly related to, uh...... I dunno, Colonel Sanders?" Zero guessed blankly.

"Dude, we better not be related to that guy!" Karmy said, popping up next to Cyrah. "If we're related to that guy, then I'm gonna go destroy every single one of those KFCs!" she hissed. "Hiya cuz!" she waved at Zero and then at Ivy.

"Geeze louise!" Ivy cried out, half chuckling, half astonished. Cyrah's frantic yelling of who they were related to and Karm's greeting of "Cuz!" made it all clear.

"This family gets bigger and bigger everyday, huh?" She grinned, even though she had already considered both of them family. After all these years, it was hard not to.