A Whole New World || Roxy & Ollie
Roxy knew that just as sure as her rocket was close to breaking the sound barrier, she was to break a promise. Both to the inexplicably caring Nemesis; that she wouldn't get into trouble, and to herself; that she wouldn't drag anyone else into her spiralling whirly-gig of trouble just because she got lonely sometimes. She had no right to ask for companionship, she'd chosen a life of adventure, and soaring the highest went hand-in-hand with leaving everything and everyone else far below. Still, it was her policy to welcome any volunteers who wanted a taste of her adrenaline-filled lifestyle, and Mr. Queen seemed keener than most. An odd quality for a guy not wearing a cape, but a cape would only get caught in one of the rocket's turbines anyway, and she'd rather not have her passenger turned to mincemeat mid-flight. Dorothy's engines would never recover. Approaching meet-up point west of the Iceberg lounge, she leaned forward in her seat, and dropped altitude to just above the height of the street-lamps. She had a deal with The Penguin that she could fly at low altitudes unbothered in exchange for a percentage of the proceeds from her spoils. Noticing the blonde man waiting on the designated corner, she smiled and brought her rocket to a screeching halt right beside him. "Come with me if you want to live," She called in greeting, tossing her admirer a spare glossy black helmet, though really it was more of a cheerful command.
Oliver wasn’t a detective usually, but after the Black Gate Prison breakout he was willing to try anything to try and get to the bottom of who this ‘Big Brother’ was, and Roxy Rocket had to know something about him, he wasn’t even convinced it was a him but that seemed the most appropriate pronoun for them right now. So he had gone for it , gone out on a limb and taken the risk. Besides he had always been interested in finding out the truth about the rocket riding, confident, extravagant and frankly attractive dare devil who had crashed her rocket into the side of a prison wall. He hadn’t exactly been one for detective work, normally he left that to the Bat Family, they were the ones who were usually did this sort of thing, but today Oliver had been forced to step up. So instead of a quiver full of trick arrows, bow and green leather suit, he had instead pulled on some more casual clothes that wouldn’t make him stand out in public. In reality he didn’t have any clue what he was meant to wear because wasn’t really sure what they were doing, so he stuck with jeans, a leather jacket, boots and a simple shirt, stay classic he guessed. Looking up at her he grinned and caught the helmet, pulling it on before he stepped up onto the rocket. “Well when you said you’d surprise me.” he said with a chuckle. “I had no idea you were going with the rocket kind.” he said with a chuckle.
Roxy had to laugh at his disbelief. You were always supposed to put your best foot forward, weren’t you? Her rocket was the one thing she had that was guaranteed to impress, and when you had a trump card like that, you used it. “It’s in the name, Sweetheart. Rocket-comma-Roxy. I’ve got a rep to live up to, is all,” she answered instead, downplaying how rarely she let anybody ride with her who hadn’t swung in forcefully by grapple hook. “Now, buckle up!” She instructed swiveling so she could point out the makeshift seatbelt she’d attached for her more acrobatic journeys, figuring a beginner could probably use it unless they wanted to ended up a sidewalk pancake. “From here on out, the sky’s the limit, Babe.” She announced pulling her aviator goggles into place, revving the thrusters and stamping down on the accelerator so hard she could almost taste it as the vehicle zoomed into flight. After a few minutes of climbing upward, on a gradient a lot less steep than she’d take when flying alone, but still thrillingly close to vertical, she leveled out, raising her voice above the whipping wind as she addressed her passenger. “So, I never caught your first name,” she inquired, hoping the small-talk might help lessen the overwhelming sensations of the high speed, cold air and 50 foot drop below. “Or is it just ‘Queen’, like the band? Because I could respect that.”
Oliver pulled himself up onto the rocket and he had barely pulled the helmet onto his head and buckled himself onto the surface of the rocket before she rocketed off into the sky, he was a bit of a thrill junkie, that was part of the reason that he was a vigilante, that and the gnawing in his stomach that he got whenever he saw injustice in the world, but he wasn’t sure that this was his type of thrill. In fact the shock of the launch took him by surprise so much so that he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist to steady himself. A bit awkward for a sort of first date right? “Oh don’t get me wrong.” he said still clinging on for dear life, he wasn’t sure if he was having a good time, or was just too terrified to know any different, but either way he didn’t exactly have time to ponder his feelings. “I love thrill seeking!” he exclaimed as he really started to get into it. “I bet you say that to all the boys.” he said with a smile and a laugh as they began to even off. “But lets not test that limit too much.” he said with a smirk as he felt the wind buffet him and he tried his best not to think about the fifty foot drop below him. “Oliver.” he said with a smile. “Oliver Queen, but my friends all just call me Ollie. Although if you’d prefer just Queen, or perhaps Freddie Mercury then that is something that I could respect and play along with.” he said with a smile as he looked around him at the frankly impressive view at the top of the Rocket.
“I’m liking the enthusiasm, but try not to break my ribs, okay?” Roxy suggested, patting his arm where it had her in a death grip. It wasn’t that she minded him holding on to her, but he didn’t seemed to realize his own strength. She shrugged at his next comment, shifting her weight to left so that the rocket would begin a slow arc in the opposite direction. It was possible she’d been at low altitude long enough for a passerby to put in a tip to the police, and she wasn’t going to risk having this rendezvous intercepted by flying in a predictable direction towards her target destination. “Just Batman,” She replied at last, when the truth was she hadn’t said that to anyone before, people weren’t actually willing to spend non-combat time with her all that often. “But he’s a huge stick-in-the-mud. Doesn’t appreciate my quality puns.” Completing the aerial loop, she maneuvered herself along with the peddles into forward flight position, headed towards Old Gotham. “Whatever you say, Freddie.” She chuckled, the blare of the rocket engines startling a flock of pigeons as they rounded the old Clock Tower. “Just don’t call me Roxanne. The musical comparisons are way less flattering.”
Oliver loosened his grip around her waist and smiled at her gently, not that he expected she could see, she was driving a giant rocket of course. “Sorry…” he said with an awkward chuckle, he hadn’t meant to pull her into the death grip but then again she hadn’t seemed to mind once he had loosened his grip a little bit. “Batman?!” he asked, faking his surprise and pretending to be amazed by the vigilante brand of justice as he always did when he was not being Green Arrow. “Well he deserves to be pun-ished for that atrocity.” he said with a smile and a laugh, puns were something that he really enjoyed, he always had thought they were funny since he was a kid. Chuckling he smiled and shook his head, being compared to Freddie Mercury, one of his childhood heroes wasn’t something that he exactly minded, so he kept his mouth shut. “I’ll stick with Roxy if you prefer that.” he said with a grin as he looked around him at the clock tower looming in front of them. “But Roxy you’re going to have to enlighten me on why we’re up by the clock tower.” he said with a grin. “Because I have literally no idea what we’re doing up here.” he said as he brushed his hair back into his helmet and out of his eyes, he was seriously considering getting his hair cut, it was being a real nuisance lately.
“You’re a real breath of fresh air.” Roxy let slip at Oliver’s response to her grievances towards the great and powerful bat. “The city needs more good-humored guys like you.” The comment was as usual, almost unbearably earnest. It always seem to her that if Gotham’s vigilantes harbored genuine hope for the city, that the cycle of crimewaves wouldn’t have to be as inevitable as the grim-faced masks always made it seem, not that it was any of her business. But, if just one of them had held any real hope for her, maybe she wouldn’t have ended up an inevitability either. Roxy laughed at Oliver’s next question and accelerated, bypassing the Old Clock Tower completely. “The tower we’re here for is Wayne” She clarified, racing towards the impressive, looming edifice. She zeroed in on her target landing zone, a stone ledge no more than a 10 feet wide, surrounding the magnificent glass pyramid that top the skyscraper’s roof. She brought the rocket down, not exactly gently, but with pinpoint accuracy. “And we’re here,” She continued dropping her voice to a significantly less shout-y pitch as she switched off the roaring turbines. “Because I promised to show you the high life.”
Oliver looked at her quizzically and couldn’t help but grin despite himself. “Thanks?”with he said with arched eyebrows. “I mean maybe it is because I’m not from Gotham really.” he said shrugging as if that was what made all of the differences, and not the social conditioning that he had received as a child or his environmental conditioning and stimuli. “So maybe you could start bringing in the Star City guys.” he said with a shrug and a chuckle. He had to admit that one thing he enjoyed about Roxy was her bluntness, in a city of veiled responses and answers someone getting straight to the point once in a while was something truly admirable to him and he couldn’t help but find himself like her more and more with every second, despite the fact he told himself over and over again why he was here. Ignoring that he focussed on the conversation. “Wayne Tower?” he asked curiously before raising an eyebrow at her, she likely didn’t realise who he was, that made it slightly easier. “Well I guess the high life can’t be that difficult to get into.” he said sarcastically. That had been some impressive flying that she had done, especially since he as an archer had an appreciation for the value of precision and accuracy. That landing might not have been gentle but it was impressive none the less. “So have you been flying Rockets long?” he asked curiously, trying to get a starting point in there somehow.
“Nope, just under a year.” Roxy replied as she slid herself over the side of the rocket, unfastening her helmet and goggles. In truth that [i]was[/i] a heck of a long time to stick to just one thing by her standards, she usually got used to a certain thrill after a month or so, and had to find a way to up the stakes for it to still be worthwhile, but so far the opportunities for new and interesting adventures with her trusty ship in tow had proved plentiful. Maybe after she figured out how to make it into orbit she’d get bored of it, but then she’d need a new name and a new shtick, and as any Hollywood agent would tell you, rebranding was a nightmare of a hassle. “Before that it was motorcycles, piloting this beauty is not so different, if you really stop to think about it” She patted the shining titanium hull of her beloved vehicle affectionate, before popping open the side compartment. “I wouldn’t recommended it though, stopping of any kind mid-air usual equals crashing and burning.” She shrugged, as if that were only a guideline, and the sound of those potential consequences wasn’t all that frightening to her. She pulled a golf club, a shiny new driver, deftly from the opened stash on the side of the ship, along with a container of golf balls and a portable tee. “I promised I’d show you how I play, right?” Roxy causally reminded Oliver as she set up the equipment on the narrow expanse of roof, taking her position to aim the ball towards the park complex hundreds of feet down and across the streets from the tower. With a powerful whack she sent the small white sphere flying, watching it’s descent with one hand shielding her eyes as it sailed over the park an rebounded of the backboard of the basketball court’s hoop, only narrowly missing getting it through the hoop itself. “Darn it! One day.” She swore, mostly to herself before she addressed her guest, holding the club out to him. “Try your luck, Queen.” Roxy instructed, scanning the sunset-stained horizon for potential targets. “The city’s vigilantes will be making there way onto those rooftops soon. Hit Batman and I’ll let you have five million points!”
Oliver smiled. “Well for just under a year of work that is impressive.” he said cheerfully. He was being completely truthful there at least. He had been training with his bow and arrow since he had been a child, though he hadn’t been as diligent in his younger years he still had 25 years of experience wielding his weapon of choice, with just under one year Roxy seemed to have mastered hers. “I drive motor bikes.” he said smiling, again that was entirely truthful, he did have a Harley Davidson in Star City, and the bike that he drove as Green Arrow to get himself around the city promptly. “I think motorcycles are more fun than cars, just you and whoever you can fit on, in the open air, speeding down the highway, but they really are nothing compared to a rocket.” he said with a smirk, he had truly enjoyed himself on the Rocket, but it wasn’t something that he was about to pick up. “I will keep that in mind when I next find myself flying a rocket.” he said with a smug smirk before he took up the golf club and pulled a new golf ball from the side of her rocket, taking the tee he placed his own ball down and aimed somewhere along the lines of Roxy’s shot, he had played Golf with his father as a pastime, but he had never really been very good at it and that had frustrated the rich brat who could have anything that he wanted, hard work and practice were not things that he usually wasted his time with. “Well this is definitely better than the country club.” he said chuckling before he took a swing that sailed towards the park but missed the headboard completely, if he had been really trying he was sure that he could have done better, but this was not the time to show off and ruin his secret identity. “Well if the Dark Knight ever turns up I’ll be sure to try and knock his head off, what do we get for hitting Robin?” he asked chuckling.
“Do you really think I’d terrorize ten-year-olds in fancy dress for sport? I [i]do[/i] have standards” Roxy chuckled, reigning in a frown a second after it appeared on her face, trying to pass the whole idea of as a joke. However, she couldn’t restrain herself from swinging her next shot a tad too aggressively missing the park completely, and landing with a dent-worthy bang on the bonnet of a parked Mercedes in the car park of the business complex. Whoops. In all honesty it was a little troubling, she knew her reputation as a ‘Big Bad’ would have ballooned after the Blackgate debacle, but she hadn’t thought it would have escalated to the point where members of the general public believed she wouldn’t hesitate to harm a child. “You wouldn’t be up here with me if I was capable of that.” Right? Roxy turned the question into a sure statement, scanning the blonde in confirmation. Carefully she selected a new golf ball, passing it to Oliver for his next tee-off, a friendly smile concealing the fact it was rigged to explode in a (probably) harmless scattering of dust when struck, a small revenge for the discomfiting comment. “You don’t seem like the type to go for pure, unadulterated, moustache-twirling evil.” She added with a twinkle of a well-laid prank in her eye. “A little mischief seems more your speed.”
Oliver shrugged and chuckled lightly as he watched her carefully. “I don’t know, I suppose it would depend on the ten year old. I’m sure that Robin has had to deal with worse than a golf ball blow to the head. Have you seen the size of some of the people that they go up against?” he asked smirking slightly. Chuckling at her next shot he smiled and shook his head, that poor BMW owner, what would they ever do? “But I guess I wouldn’t have come up here with you if you if you were a complete psychopath.” he said with a smirk as he accepted the golf ball warily. He didn’t exactly trust Roxy but he wasn’t about to admit that to her just yet. “I will admit that moustaches aren’t my type.” he said with a wry grin as he placed the Golf ball down and shrugged gently before getting ready to hit it off into the city scape. “I’m always ready for a little bit of mischief” he admitted with a smirk before he struck the ball and reflexively jumped back as the ball shattered into an explosion. Most of the shrapnel from the exploding ball went away from him but he got a little bit impact with his leg. “Was that you?” he asked before he chuckled lightly. He could see the funny side of it despite the potential danger from it. Handing the golf club over to Roxy he couldn’t help but notice the scorch marks on it from the explosion.
Roxy nodded with a small sigh, while going up against someone like Killer Shark would have been a dream come true for 10-year-old her, she doubted she would still be around if she had gotten her wish. It was hard to imagine any kid being equipped for that, no matter how much they were convinced they wanted it. “I keep saying, those sidekicks ought to get unionized, if they’re going to be thrown into unfair battles at every turn someone should be standing up for their rights.” Not that she cared for any of the snot-nosed self-righteous twerps personally or anything, but the scales were always tipped towards her is she came up against them, and there was nothing exciting about that. That was just unabashed bullying, and she refused to take them on unless their heroic babysitters were there too. “You’re only saying that because the Joker’s spoken for.” She retorted in mock seriousness, before the golf-bomb went off. The thief simply raised her eyebrows and shrugged at his ‘accusation’, an all-too-innocent smile plastered on her face to give her away. A shout, screech of tires and cacophony of honking horns from the street below made her look back at the mayhem her small explosive display had caused, barely pausing for a second to admire it before she turned back with a sigh. “I better get you out of here before you end up meeting Ol’ Mean, Purple and Green with ambiance of fluorescent lights streaming through prison bars to set the mood.” It was against every instinct she had to leave before the authorities to give chase, but she reminded herself she wasn’t doing it for her sake, besides there were other ways to make the journey back enjoyable. “C’mon, Handsome, I’ll race you!” She announced with equal parts enthusiasm and teasing mystery, tugging on her companion’s arm to indicate that he should follow her back to the rocket.
Oliver watched her intrigued, she was definitely a weird one, but maybe that was what was so endearing about her, though he wasn’t convinced that endearing was the correct way to describe a rocket riding lady like Roxy. Quirking both of his eyebrows at her he brushed his hair out of his eyes before laughing loudly, his booming tone echoing across the building and reverberating around a little. “You’re kidding right? Who would run a union for ten year old sidekicks, hell who would even be in it? I can’t think of that many sidekicks that are under the age of 18.” he said with a smirk as he looked at her with a bewildered look in his eye. The idea of seeing a younger, Speedy Era Roy Harper alongside other sidekicks as an adolescent was something that made Oliver chuckle, the idea that vigilantism might become and industrial trade was even crazier. But then again he wasn’t sure that Roxy wasn’t a couple of arrows short of a quiver. “You caught me, I take my maniacs with pale white complexions and green hair.” he replied sardonically. He didn’t bother pursuing the matter of the golf ball bomb, it was clear to him that it was her who had set it all up, but it didn’t matter to him, he doubted that if she had wanted to hurt him she would have used a golf ball bomb, she probably would have instead pushed him from the top of her rocket or something similar. That seemed to be more of her style. “You might be right,” he said with a spark of excitement flickering through his eye. Leaping onto the Rocket he grinned and secured himself as he had before, pulling his helmet on just in time for Roxy to pull off, instinctively he once more wrapped his arms around her waist, although this time it was more gentle, he was careful not to crush her.
Roxy shrugged, pulling herself into the driver’s seat once again. “I just think somebody should look out for them until they really know what it means to choose this kind of life for themselves,” she argued, but let it the subject drop beneath the rising engine noise. She wasn’t so sure the heroes who mentored those sidekicks could be trusted to do that, not with the single-mindedness that came with dedicating themselves to as daunting a task as saving the city. But she had no business saying so. “That’s a shame,” she quipped when he sarcastically confirmed his Joker appreciation. “Green’s not really my color.” Roxy lingered for a fraction of a second, waiting for Oliver to make himself comfortable before she accelerated away from the rooftop ledge. Despite her hospitality and the fact her passenger had experienced it once before, she was certain the sheer force of lift-off would still take him by surprise. It still even managed to wow her at times. “Ha! That would be a first,” she replied with a wry smile at the suggestion she could be right. That had been a blurry concept for her for as long as she could remember. “Right isn’t really my territory,” she reminded him, with a nod towards the gathering sirens and red-and-blue flashing lights below. “Then again neither is wrong,” she added, angling the front of her vehicle towards the gap between the pre-war buildings lining the Old Gotham street. She swept low over the assembling police squadron, a final dramatic flourish before she allowed the rocket to gain enough speed that there was no hope of the GCPD cavalry catching up. “I find the sweetest ride is to take straight shot down the middle.”
Oliver nodded along to her and smiled. “I know what you mean.” he said with a nod. “They should be at least old enough that decision for themselves without any interference from outside factors, and I’m not sure that at the age that many of those sidekicks are that they would be able to do that.” he shrugged though, there were many extraordinary individuals out there, some of those included the sidekicks who fought crime. “Ah well you can’t win all the battles, some people just don’t suit those forest greens. But he certainly does suit the neon green variety.” he said with a smirk that was both sarcastic and teasing in its nature. Of course he wasn’t attracted to the Joker, that would be insane! He was still taken aback by the power of the rocket as it launched off into the open night sky. He was glad that he had his arms wrapped around her, otherwise he wasn’t confident that he would have managed to stay on. “Well you know that there is a first time for everything.” he pointed out with a light smile that decorated his ruggedly handsome face, some people were just born lucky. “Really?” he asked with a grin. “What would you say your territory is then?” he asked, now they were starting to get somewhere, maybe he would actually be able to get her to open up about something, start finding out some information. He chuckled lightly as she swept low, though he was meticulously careful to make sure that his face was appropriately covered by his helmet. He didn’t want to risk another run in with the police, this one would likely be nicer than the kiss on the cheek they all but gave him after his run in with those would-be-kidnappers. “You know what Ms. Rocket.” he said grinning. “You might just be right with that one.”
