The final bell of the day finally rang, dismissing all the students from their classes. After school, the kids who drive home like to hang in the parking lot and talk before heading home. That's where Max, Xia, and Terry currently are, sitting on a stone wall, people watching.

Their extremely nerdy and dorky friend, Howard, is going around to the popular kids, trying to get them to come to a party he's having this Friday. Ami is following him around, floating above his head curiously.

"Social meltdown," Max comments.

"It's too painful to watch," Terry adds on.

Xia rolls her eyes. "Shame."

"Hey, guys, I think we're lookin' at a packed house on Friday," Howard says, walking up to the three.

"Relax, Howard. Forget the 'A' list. It's degrading. Only politicians chase after people who don't like them," Max says.

"Terry, Max, and I are going to be there. Think of it as quality over quantity. Gotta go. I got some fun planned with grandpa today. Anyway, a small party will be fun," Xia says, standing up and grabbing her things. "See ya." She waves and heads over to her motorcycle. Ami follows beside her.

"Bye," Howard grins with a wave.

"See ya," Max and Terry voice.

Terry watches her leave.

"I appreciate what you guys are saying, but I still want a cool girlfriend like Chelsea or Blade. Or maybe even Xia herself. Actually, nevermind... she kinda scares me. Anyway, then kids would come to me. It's a sign that you're somebody," Howard says.

"Somebody pretty shallow," Max says.

"Shallow but popular," he says, spotting some other popular kids. "BRB." He scampers off after them to invite them.

Terry sighs as Xia goes out of sight and rubs his temples.

"What's with the agitated sigh?" Max questions.

"Max, I'm in trouble."

"What'd you do this time?"

"Ever since the fancy dinner with Xia's family, I haven't been able to get my mind off of her."

Her eyes widen, looking at him in disbelief. "Whoa. Are you saying that you're crushing on her?"

"No!" he shouts. "No, I... maybe? Ugh! I don't know. Max, she was wearing a dress. A hot dress."

"Maybe you have a dress kink?"

"Max."

She shrugs with an amused snort. "Just saying. Maybe you like a dom?"

"Max!"

She laughs. "Oh you know I'm right. Well, how is this any different than when you dated Dana?"

He sighs. "It's... I don't know. It feels different." He rubs the back of his neck in thought.

"Would you want to, you know... kiss her?"

"Max, what I meant by couldn't get my mind off of her that included my dreams."

"Whoa, okay. Wet dreams then already?" Max blinks. "That's... wow."

"I know, and I can't make them stop!" he groans, rubbing his temples. "It's driving me nuts and making me lose sleep."

"Wow, you're in deep, dude."

"Guys! I think I got some more people to come," Howard interrupts them as he rushes over to them.

Max stands up, grabbing her things. "Well, I gotta get going to the library. Gotta get some research in for a class. See ya, guys. We'll talk more about that later Ter."

"Yeah, alright," Terry says. "See ya."

"Bye," Howard chimes, watching her leave.

Terry stands. "I should probably go to."

Howard follows behind Terry. "What'd she mean by talk more later?"

"Nothing important, Howard, just a little problem I'm having that only she can help with."

"Ah, okay." He nods then brightens upon seeing Terry's ride. "Hey, the boss' car. How about a lift?"

"Sure, if you don't mind a side trip. I have to run an errand for Mr. Wayne."

Howard moves around the car, admiring it. "Aw, if I had wheels like these, I'd get more girls than a rock star."

"Max did mention the whole shallow thing, didn't she?"

...

The next couple of days are a bit odd. This fairly pretty chick comes out of nowhere and is seemingly Howard's girlfriend. Her name is Cynthia, and she follows Howard around like a loyal dog. Then Nelson randomly gets hurt by the lockers toppling over on top of him in the boy's locker room. Cynthia doesn't really seem to be all that caring, believing he deserved it as he is a big jerk. Xia couldn't really disagree with that though. Xia has been suspicious of her from the get go. Cynthia smells of metal and electricity, letting her know that Cynthia is not a human but a robot. She kept that to herself though.

Terry and Xia walk up to the little group around Howard.

"Like I was saying, kickoff time for the party of the century, my party, is 8pm tonight. When it ends is up to you," Howard says all suave like.

"If you're not too busy being Mr. Host, maybe I can pry you away from Cynthia for a dance," Chels flirts.

Xia rolls her eyes.

"You're talking to Howard Groote. All things are possible." Cynthia gets jealous and accidentally squeezes his notebook she's holding too hard. "My notebook!"

Cynthia gasps as he takes it from her grasp. "I'm very sorry, Howard. You know I didn't mean to. I would never do anything to upset you."

"Th-That's ok. It happens. They don't make plastics like they used to," Howard says.

"See you tonight, Howie," Chels says, strutting off.

Xia watches as Cynthia glares in her direction. After Xia saw that, she decided to walk Chels home to protect her. "Hey, Terry? I'm gonna head off with Chels for a bit. I'll head home later if ya want to go you can."

"Yeah... sounds good. Don't cause any trouble."

"Yeah, yeah," she answers with an eye roll before chasing after Chels. "Hey, girl. Let's go get some ice cream or something."

"Sure, sounds good," Chels says. "I know a good place."

~~~

Chels and Xia arrive at the party to find the place already packed, and Terry nowhere in sight.

"Where's chore boy?" Xia asks, finding Max. "Figured he'd come with you."

"He said he'll be a bit late."

"Loser always misses all the fun stuff," Xia scoffs, eyeing Cynthia move to shove Chels to the floor after a comment she made to Howard.

Max and Xia immediately head over.

"Whoa, Cynthia, come on, it was nothing!" Howard gasps.

Cynthia moves to continue beating Chels only for Xia to grab her upper arm.

"I don't take kindly to someone who hurts my friends," Xia growls.

Cynthia moves to try and throw her off only to not be able to. Instead, she uses her other arm to aim a punch at Xia's face, only for it to be easily caught.

Howard grabs his robot's arm. "That's enough! You and I are going to have a little talk." He drags her off upstairs into a bedroom.

"You okay?" Xia asks Chels, helping her up.

She dusts herself off. "Yeah, thanks."

"You should probably not flirt with someone who already has a girlfriend," Xia says. "It's rude, shallow, and slutty."

"Yeah, noted."

A few minutes later, Howard comes rushing down the stairs, ushering everybody out. "Okay, that's it! No more nachos! Party's over! Get out!"

Everyone huffs and complains at his pushiness. Then everyone gasps, seeing electricity swirl around Cynthia as she makes her way through the floor.

"Howard, you can't do this to me," she says.

He makes his way up to her. "Cynthia, please."

She grabs him by his collar with one hand.

Max quickly grabs a chair and smashes it over Cynthia's head, making her drop Howard and fall to the floor.

"Alright, Robo-bim, it's over," Max says.

Cynthia snarls, springing up from the floor like some scary movie monster and lands straight in front of Max.

Xia slides between the two quickly, giving Cynthia a killing glare. "Back off, bitch."

Cynthia aims a right hook, that Xia easily evades and grabs her arm and throws her over her shoulder in one quick motion. Xia slams Cynthia to the ground so hard that cracks form underneath the robot.

"Chick fight!" someone shouts out.

Xia rolls her eyes as she watches Cynthia stand up. "Stand down, robot. I won't ask nicely again. You won't beat me."

Her glare makes Cynthia flinch back a second before snarling and leaping at her. Xia dodges to the left, elbowing down hard onto Cynthia's back as she moves past. That makes some cracks form along the back of the robot's back. She crashes to the ground, and Xia backflips away before Cynthia can grab her.

Batman makes his appearance, crashing through the window. "How is it that you're always involved with whatever trouble I'm dealing with?"

"I'm a trouble magnet, what can you do?" Xia shrugs. "You didn't have to come, Mr. Reckless, I can handle this myself. Was it really necessary to break and come through the window?"

All the party goers look on in awe before they all scream and leave. If Batman is here, that means nothing good follows.

"I don't think so."

Xia crosses her arms with another eye roll. "You're a pain in the ass, you know that?"

"Could say the same to—oof!"

He's cut off by Cynthia ramming herself into his stomach.

"Oh, yeah, watch out," Xia mutters plainly.

"Ugh, little earlier would be nice," he groans, dodging the next attack from the robot.

Xia sees Howard watching on not sure what to do. She heads over to him, dodging the room wrecking battle and pulling him out of the way. Cynthia sees the two try to escape and jumps in front of them, followed by Batman jumping in front of her to block her from them. Robogirl begins walking towards the three and they all begin to step back.

"Cynthia, c-can't we work something out?" Howard pleads, hiding behind Xia. "Just because I wanna date others doesn't mean we can't occasionally see each other."

"Howard, don't you understand?" Cynthia's voice becomes soft as the electricity fizzles out around her. "I was created for you."

Howard moves out from behind the two. "I know, but people change." He grips her upper arms. "Synthoids get reprogrammed. These things happen. We can still be friends."

Batman slaps his forehead with a groan. Xia sighs.

"Friends?" Cynthia agitatedly says, eye twitching and electricity returning. Her whole body begins to glow. "Friends?!"

Howard backs away, blocking out the light with his arm and stopping beside Batman. "Wrong thing to say?"

"Is it ever the right thing?" Batman retorts a little annoyed.

"We need to go," Xia says, watching Cynthia's eyes and mouth begin to glow. "She's gonna blow!"

Batman grabs Howard under both arms as Xia jumps on his back and blasts out the glass ceiling as she exploded beneath them. All the party goers scream as they watch from the street the house blow up before they all begin to cheer. Batman drops Howard in front of them on his butt as Xia gracefully jumps and lands on her feet. She watches Batman fly off.

"Howard!"

"Now that is a party!"

"Schway party!"

Max and Xia help Howard up to stand. Everyone begins to leave, satisfied with the crazy turnout of events. Howard looks on at the house in shock.

Blade and a boy, Jurgen Blaine, walk up to Howard.

"Schway party, Howard," Jurgen says. "It takes real guts to blow up your own home."

"Yeah, kids are going to talk about this night for years," Blade continues. "It was as slammin' as Xia's party. You're a legend, Howard."

That makes Howard grin happily. As the two leave, his face drops again at seeing his house in ruins then sees Chels and smiles again, racing up to her.

Max and Xia look at each other, knowing he's getting rejected. Max runs up to him as Xia crosses her arms.

Terry makes that his appearance. "Whoa. What the heck happened?"

"Cynthia was a robot and exploded in anger," Xia says, watching as the flying fire trucks begin to put out the fire.

Max, Xia, and Terry leave after Howard's parents pull up in anger.

"I think Howard needs some quality time alone with his folks," Max says.

"Think they'll ground him?" Terry questions.

"No doubt about that," Xia says. "I don't even know what I would do if my kid blew up the house."

"I don't think I can imagine you with kids," Max jokes.

"Haha, you're so funny," Xia retorts mockingly. They stand beside her bike. "Well, the night is still young, and I got places to be."

"Yeah, home," Terry says. "I'm sure Wayne won't be too happy you aren't home before midnight."

"Well, it is only 9," Xia says, checking her phone as she gets on her bike. "Which gives me plenty of time left. See ya." She speeds off.

"You should probably go after her," Max says.

"Nah, I've gotta go on patrol," Terry says. "If I need to find her, I can just track her phone or Wayne can. She can handle herself."

"No kidding," Max says in thought. "She's strong. Cynthia could lift a table out of the ground, and Xia blocked her punch with zero effort. Cynthia couldn't even get out of Xia's grasp."

"She was spliced," Terry says. "She still has the strength. Need a ride?"

"Getting spliced with a fox wouldn't make you that strong," Max says, following him to Wayne's 'limo'.

Terry thinks about it as he gets in the limo. "Well, she isn't blood related to her cousin, but her cousin could fly."

They both get in the car and head off.

"Are you serious?!"

"Yeah, he's the son of Damian Wayne and Nightstar, so he's part alien."

"You're joking," Max says. "Wow, that's a complicated family."

"You have no idea," he groans, rubbing a hand down his face. "I'm led to assume that Damian Wayne is Megabat and his son is Nightwing."

"No kidding... Her family is full of supers," she gasps. "And she knows nothing about it?"

"She knows that her family has aliens, but I don't think she knows that they're superheroes. She does know about Starfire and Nightstar though, so she might be hiding the fact that she does know, or she doesn't care to look into it. I think it's the second option though."

"Maybe she just thinks that her family doesn't seem like the hero type?"

"Possibly."

"Now tell me more about this crush you have on her."

"I don't have a crush..."

She gives him a look. "Really now?"

"I mean... I don't really know. I'm not going to deny that I find her attractive. Xia is really hot, but I don't know. She's... too..."

"Hardheaded? Much of an ass? Rude? Arrogant? Narcissistic? Out of your league?"

"Hey!"

She laughs. "Just kidding."

"She's... just so different from Dana."

"Maybe that's why you're crushing on her."

"Huh?"

"I think it's because she's so different. She's pushy. Dana just admits defeat usually. Dana is sweet and too kind for you. Dana is too different from you which is why you two repeatedly never worked. Xia is more similar to you. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah... I think so," he replies. "I'm just not sure I'm crushing on her. It's more... fascination and curiosity or something."

"Well, when you figure it out, come and talk to me about it. We'll, come up with a way to tell her or something," Max says, seeing her house come up.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Terry replies, stopping in front of her place.

"Thanks for the ride, Ter," she says, grabbing her bag and opening the car door. "Be careful."

"I try to," he responds.

She closes the door and heads inside with a wave behind her. He watches her until she disappears inside before dropping the cloaking and turning the car back into the batmobile. He gets in his suit and begins patrolling.

"Party over so soon?" Bruce appears on the screen in the jet.

"The house blew up," Terry responds. "Cynthia exploded in anger, literally."

"What about Xia? Where is she at?"

"I don't know," Terry responds. "She went off on her own."

"Didn't I assign you to watch her? Who knows what sort of trouble she could be getting into at this moment!" Bruce scolds.

"I'm sure she'll be fine."

"I'm not worried about her well being! I'm well aware that she is plenty capable of handling herself. I'm worried about her getting into further trouble. She's not a hero, so she could get in major trouble."

"Maybe you should make her a hero then."

"I can't. Jason and his son don't want her or Xavi in this life. It's best to keep them away."

"I don't think it's fair to her to not know. It's not their decision to make whether or not she wants to be a hero or not. It's her choice. She's already been in the middle of it too much. I have a feeling one way or another, she's going to be apart of this. She practically already is involved."

"I said no. Now find out where she is."

"Alright, alright," Terry grumbles. "Computer, where is Xia currently located?"

"You put a tracker on her?"

"In her phone," Terry answers.

"Xia currently resides at her friend Chelsea's house."

"See? She's fine."

Bruce's eyes narrow. "Call this Chelsea girl to confirm."

"You sure are paranoid, you know that?"

"Paranoid or being cautious?"

"Paranoid," he answers. "Call Chelsea, would ya?"

"Calling Chelsea," the computer responds.

A few rings go off before it's picked up. "Hello, Terry? What are you calling for?"

"I was wondering if Xia was with you."

"No, last I saw her was at the party, fighting that robot girl Cynthia," she answers. "Why? Is something wrong? Is Xia okay?"

Terry flinches at her mentioning her fighting Cynthia, knowing Bruce is gonna be annoyed. "No, nothing's wrong. I just wanted to know if she was with you."

"Oh, okay. Well, I gotta go. See ya at school Terry."

"Yep." He hangs up.

"She fought the robot?"

"Yeah," I reply. "She was handling it better than I was."

"I have no doubt about that. She would've made sure the house didn't explode."

Terry rolls his eyes. "Can't prevent everything."

"I figured she would've known about the tracker," Bruce sighs. "That girl–"

"Is paranoid just like you?" Terry cuts him off with a grin.

"I was gonna say just like Jason. We'll talk more about this later. There's a break in at Gotham Bank. The alarm just went off."

"Got it," he responds, adjusting his course.

He pulls the jet in front of the bank, hopping out before it comes to a complete stop. He enters through the broken door, immediately spotting a figure ahead. He quickly shoots out a bola batarang to wrap them up.

The figure as if sensing it, jumps up and flips over it. "Chill out."

Batman lightly jerks back at the scary feminine sounding voice. "Don't rob banks then."

"I'm not," she answers, turning to him and tugging a group of men tied up together into view. "I just finished getting rid of the actual thugs."

He glares at the woman. "Who are you?"

"I'm you, but better, hot stuff," she responds, walking into view. "And obviously female."

Batman's eyes widen upon seeing the purple bat symbol spread across the front of the suit. Her suit looks exactly like his own except fit for a female and purple where his suit is red. He looks at the knocked out thugs thrown at his feet.

"Again, I ask, who are you?"

"You can call me Batwoman," she answers.

"No, I don't think so."

"Call me anything else, hot stuff, and I'll beat your ass so bad, you'd wish you never called me anything else."

"That a threat?"

"It's a promise."

"How did you get here so fast?"

"I was in the area," she responds, tightening the ropes around the thugs. "Police are on their way. We might wanna get going." She passes him, dragging her hand seductively across his cheek as she goes.

He breaks out of his short trance, following behind her outside. He tries to look for her, but she's already gone. "B, did you see all that?"

"Every part," he responds.