Disclaimer: Falcon created and copyright Rachael Simmons 2004, all other characters
mentioned are property of DC Comics and their respective creators.
Story written by Jake Fox, copyright 2004, all rights reserved.
This story is aproximately 9 pages long in Microsoft Word.

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Falcon: Not Far From Home - © Jakazul 2004, All Rights Reserved

Rachael Simmons was perched atop a gargoyle, unmoving as the cold, bitter
air of Gotham rolled off the docks that were on the other side of town.
She had seen Batman, on of her mentors, in this position many times back
in her world, now she was in it herself. Although this did raise the question:
Her world?
Granted, she hadn't come from the same world, or rather the same
dimension, as she was in now, but was it truly not her world? She had been
confronted with this, by her brother who was now working for a secret
organization that had, at the time, been trying to bring her back and she had
decided to stay here.
To stay here in Gotham as a crime fighter, helping the world's greatest
detectives who she had, unknowingly, studied for years by reading comics.
She had the upper hand in that respect, knowing half this universe's
secrets when even the people related to the secrets didn't.
Knowing their pasts, present and futures. Their most intimate thoughts and
feeling and histories having been laid out for her in brightly colored panels
for a mere $2.25 an issue.
And yet, even so, there was still much to learn as she was finding out.
Her weight, roughly 120 pounds, was centered and her knees bent as she
stood, keeping herself at the edge without plummeting to the floor of Crime
Alley.
She heard the cry of someone far away. A cry of pain and fear. A cry
demanding a savior. A cry demanding her.
She could radio Oracle now, tell her that she was going to be late, but
there wasn't much point.
Barbara Gordon, the Oracle and her new legal guardian, was accustomed to
her being late by now. Having been a crime fighter herself once, before the
Joker ended it with a bullet to the stomach that crippled her for life, she was
probably one of the few people on any world that knew how difficult it was to
keep a curfew and kick bad guy butt every night without one interfering with the
other.
Not that that stopped her from having a curfew.
Rachael sighed, reached down for the com-link stuffed in a pocket of her
Falcon costume and leapt from the gargoyle in an elegant dive.

Clutching her six-year-old son close to her, the woman backed up against
the wet dead end wall. Dead end: The simple phrase seemed so true tonight.
Tears streaked her cheeks and her son's as they cowered against the wall
in fear, an automatic handgun trained on the mother's chest.
"Alright lady," the gruff voice said as the gun bearer stepped closer.
"Just give me your money and nobody has to get hurt tonight."
The woman looked up, her large blue eyes pleading, her throat soar from
screaming. "I... I told you." She whimpered her voice cracking. "I... I don't
have anything."
"C'mon lady, do I look like I was born yesterday? You don't just go
walking around Gotham without money." His thumb pressed against the cold steel
of the gun's hammer as he spoke, drawing it back slowly. Easing into death.
"I think," a third voice, this one younger and female, spoke from above.
Falcon crouched on the ledge above the woman, her eyes flitting across the
wet fire escape and the ground below to see her options. She was hidden from
below, partly by the metal grid of the fire escapes and partly by the shadows of
Gotham's full moon hanging in the blood-red sky.
"...That she said she doesn't have any money." She finished, poised for
action.
"What the..." The man looked up, providing the perfect delay for Falcon's
plan.
Guarded from any bullets by the fire-escape, Gotham's teenage avenger
launched herself from her ledge and into the air, flipping over and arching her
back as the wings on her costume fully opened and were caught by the wind
currents.
Riding the air currents down, combined by her own weight, Falcon glided
quickly downwards, forming a sidekick as she went that connected firmly with the
man's lower jaw.
With a crack, the man was hurled backwards, smashing into a trashcan and
dropping his gun.
In less time than it took the gun to slide across the alley floor, Falcon
had already executed a second sidekick, this one landing directly below the
man's solarplexis.
He grunted and collapsed, sliding down the wall and slumping on the alley
floor against a trash can.
Falcon turned, pleased with her success, and kneeled down so that she was
level with the six-year-old's face, his mother still squatting behind him and
looking frightened.
"It's alright." She said in a voice that was as comforting as she could
make it after the recent adrenaline rush of the fight. "Y'all will be ok. I've
called the police an....nnf."
Rachael crumpled to the ground and spread out on her stomach.
A second man had arrived, hitting her in the base of her neck swiftly with
the butt of a sub-compact sniper rifle.
This man, almost seven feet tall and rippling with muscles that only body-
builders possessed, wiped a hand across the shaven dome of his head and looked
at the 'mother' who had now straightened up.
She had pulled the fake wig from her head to reveal cascading brown hair
that covered one eye. Once standing, the gun strapped to her side and her
perfect form were apparent.
The child, the only one that still looked like he had appeared, faded as
the projector was turned off from behind the large man and a small legion of men
in black with night vision goggles and demon-head insignias emblazoned on their
chests stepped forward.
One bent down and picked up Rachael's feet as a second walked around and
lifter her by her shoulders.
The large man, known as Ubu in this circle, nodded to Talia, the decoy
mother.
Talia Head looked up, her eyes meeting Ubu's for a moment, and returned
the nod. "The girl shows promise. Father will be pleased."

Cloaked in darkness, Gotham's protector flung his tunic out from around
him. Spread out for a moment before the leap, he truly looked like some kind of
huge bat as he jumped off one building and swung on a d-cell to the building
across from him.
He landed firmly on both feet, his tunic already folding back around him,
and tugged on the line to make sure it would stay.
Once satisfied, a full-fledge exam that took only three-hundredths of a
second having been preformed, he stepped forward into the fifth floor parking
garage that was currently home to one of Gotham's most rapidly growing and
deadly gangs.
The souls of his boots absorbed the sound as he walked silently from his
entrance, a balcony five stories above the ground, to the end of the wide room.
Cars were parked on either side of the room, each next to a large cement
pillar bearing the paint-chipped number of the lot they were in.
Above him, dusty fluorescent bulbs filtered dim light into the room.
He could hear gang members on the other side of the door he was now
standing at and had to remind himself that he was only here for one of them.
One of them plus whoever happened to get in his way.
He slipped a handful of tiny smoke pellets from a pack in his utility belt
and tensed.
Ready for action, he kicked the door open off it's hinges and threw the
gas pellets to the floor before him.
The tiny beads of plastique that sealed the metal spheres burst as they
impacted on the floor and a heavy grey cloud began to fill the room.
A gasmask and night-vision lenses already sliding down from their
compartments in his mask, Batman stepped into the now chaotic room, elbowing
thugs aside as he went.
At the end of the room a tall man in a red suit with braided silver hair
couched, trying to get below the gas and breathe.
It may have worked, had he had time to do so.
Batman's gloved hand shot out and picked the man up by the back of his
suit jacket, then flung him roughly against a wall and dragged him to the
balcony.
Batman gripped the man tightly by his neck and shoved his head and
shoulders out over the ledge so he was staring down at the cars five stories
below.
"You're working for Ras al Gul." He spoke in a tone that the batclan had
come to call 'the voice' that could usually stop a criminal dead in his or her
tracks. "A girl answering to Falcon was kidnapped. Talk."
The man tried to move backwards from the ledge, only to find himself
pushed further out. "I can't," He said quickly. "They'd kill me, I swear."
Batman's eyes narrowed as he pushed the man out to his pelvis. "They get
through Arkham to try and kill you later or I kill you now. Which will it be?"
"They... They say you don't kill." The man said, trying to convince
himself.
"Are you willing to put their word to the test up against your life? I
hear you already have gambling debts, hate to see what that bet would cost you."
The man's eyes widened. "Alright, alright, I'll talk."
He rolled in Batman's grasp so that he was facing upwards and immediately
wished he hadn't.
The street below was scary. The Batman was terrifying.
"I'm working for his daughter. Talia Head. She says that Ras is on some
kinda talent search or something. I'm not allowed to know much, but I do know
that they got this Falcon bird you're talkin' about. She's being held somewhere
in Metropolis until the next plane comes in to wherever the big guy is. We don't
know where or I'd tell you."
"Good job." Batman said in a slightly eased growl.
Without another word, he pulled on the d-cell line he had left hanging
over the balcony, tied it around the man's ankle and gripped him by the
shoulders.
"This may break your leg. Don't struggle or it will break every bone in
your body." He pushed out hard and the man plummeted half a story before the d-
cell line went taut and jolted, leaving him hanging four and a half stories
above the ground
Batman was already gone.

Rachael awoke in a wide cell with a piercing pain in the base of her neck.
She stood slowly and stretched, feeling her neck pop slightly and
surveying her new surroundings.
The cell was dimly lit and lines with straw on the ground. A cement bench
was bolted to the floor on one wall and the walls were made of some metal
substance.
There were no windows in sight and a demon's head logo was stamped on the
back wall of her min-prison.
Her com-link, mask, wings and belt were missing as well as most of her
equipment and the top half of her costume which had been replaced by an
oversized t-shirt.
Her hands were free, but her legs were shackled to the ground and barefoot
with her Falcon tights on.
She could feel bruises developing on her neck and ribs where she had
fallen, but nothing seemed to be broken or even mortally wounded.
The fact that there were no windows made it impossible to see whether it
was day or night, but it felt like it was at least a day or two later.
'Barbara and Batman must be livid.' She thought. 'And Tim...' She closed
her eyes, trying to imagine how Timothy Drake, the third and current Robin and
her current...was it boyfriend? Maybe that was the term, maybe not... would be
reacting to this.
Her thoughts, however, were cut short as a hidden door slid open outside
her cell and a female figure stepped in, flanked by what seemed to be two ninjas
and a hulking genie from Arabian Nights.
After studying case files and hearing tales of Batman's encounters with
the Guls, Rachael knew who she was dealing with... Not how, but who.
"Where's Ras?" She asked in a voice that was weaker than she had expected.
She couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed that she must have been sedated
or drugged somehow so that she would sleep. The effects were apparently still
wearing off..
Talia said nothing, but instead walked to a small panel to the side of
Rachael's cell that was out of her sight and flipped a switch.
Suddenly the bars rippled and colors seemed to take on a more correct hue.
She must have been behind some sort of force field to keep her from escaping.
Ubu, the giant, set a tray of food down on the floor inside her cell and
commanded her to eat as the field was abruptly switched back on and colors
outside her cell dimmed again.
"Where's Ras al Gul?" Falcon repeated, then as an afterthought. "Where am
I?"
"You're in a private terminal in Metropolis that is under guard by
personal soldiers and a Lexcorp grant." Talia replied in a voice that was
completely drained of emotion. "Father has other matters to attend to while we
deal with you."
"What do you want me for, then?" Rachael asked, ignoring the food and
slightly surprised she had gotten any answers.
Ubu opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced by Talia's reply.
"Research. Father is studying you for your abilities. We assumed it would be
harder to catch a bat than a bird."
Rachael, now in Falcon mode though without her costume and array of tools,
raised her eyebrows. "So I'm here for some kind of assessment tests?"
"Of a sort." Talia said, saying the last word in a tone that clearly
stated that her end of the conversation was over.
Rachael looked up, having to ask the next question even though she knew
there would be no answer. "What now?"

Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake stepped off the rolling staircase that lead up
to the private Waynetech jet that was now residing in the hangar and waited as
Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne family butler, descended with the majority of their
baggage that they hadn't gotten already.
This meant everything save the twin bat-cycles that were waiting in the
back of the jet for later use.
"Master Bruce." Alfred said in a British accent. "Will that be all, sir?"
Bruce Wayne looked up from where he was loading baggage and nodded.
"Thanks Al'." He said, ad Bruce this time and not Batman. A voice that Alfred
hadn't heard since Falcon had gone missing, from either of the dynamic duo.
Still, he knew it was just an act. Batman acted his characters to the full
extent. What better example than the impersonation of himself?

The sun rising over Metropolis surged strength through Clark Kent as he
rolled out of bed and stretched.
It was 6:12. The sun had just risen fully and light was flooding into his
apartment. He should have been at work at least an hour ago. Perry Mason, head
of the Daily Planet, would not be happy.
He flipped the TV on and began to rush around in super-speed trying to get
ready in as little time as possible.
He was just darting out of the shower, already half dressed, when he
picked up a bit of the news feed that was coming in and came to an abrupt halt.
"And in further news, as one businessman, or woman in this case, moves out
another surveys for moving in.'
"After Talia Head's inspection of the city for her company last week,
Gotham millionaire Bruce Wayne arrived this morning to look at his own possible
development plans.'
"While, as we all know, Waynetech already has roots in Metropolis, Wayne
says..."
Clark stood up and darted around the room, fully dressed and well groomed
before he got to the door.
Bruce Wayne was in town to appraise the city? Something wasn't right... and
Clark was going to be even later to work than he had counted on.

Rachael smashed at the wall of her cell again with her metal tray, trying
to dig through.
There was already a considerable dent in the wall from her hour's work,
but it wasn't through yet and she couldn't turn off the force field until it
was.
The pounded at the wall again, this time the tray pounded through the
wall, but only a tiny bit. Barely noticeable really... But it was progress.
She grinned and tossed the tray aside, then went into fighting stance, her
knees bent and her feet spread apart, then axe-kicked the cement bench with all
her strength.

Batman hadn't wanted Tim to come.
No matter how many times Tim proved himself, Batman still saw him as an
inexperienced teenager at least to some extent... That and the fact that he had
way too much homework to be vacationing in Metropolis with a multi-millionaire.
But, against his better judgment, or possibly for his better judgment, he
had allowed Tim to come.
Now cloaked in Robin garb, Tim Drake ran from rooftop to rooftop after
Batman as they slowly, but silently made their way towards the special quarters
area of Lexcorp that Batman was certain Talia would be occupying.
Her hotel room had been cleaned out when they had gotten there over an
hour ago and almost all clues wiped clean.
You would need to be the world's greatest detective to figure out where
Talia would be from what was left. Luckily, he was.
It was night now, warmer than it would be in Gotham and drier, but still a
huge, crime-infested city in the dead of night.
Above them, Clark Kent, now in his Superman attire, sped through the sky.
He watched the two crime fighters as they went. It was incredible how
stealthily they went from roof to roof. He doubted even he, with his Kryptonian
powers and all, could move so quickly and silently.
He was one of Earth's mightiest heroes, but he relied on strength and
superhuman abilities 90% of the time to do what he did. Batman and Robin had
none of this, but still managed to seem almost invisible as they sprinted
towards Lexcorp.
He had met with Batman, then as Wayne, earlier that morning to 'discuss'
what he was doing in Metropolis.
It wasn't much of a discussion, sense Wayne had only said about twelve
words in the entire conversation, but it was still informative.
Batman hadn't been thrilled about Clark "tagging along on his personal
business", but he had let it go.
He wouldn't need the help, but there was no point in wasting the time and
energy it would take to stop him... And he was coming anyway, whether Batman liked
it or not. Just like Robin.

Rachael, now in Falcon mode with or without costume, rubbed her hands.
The skin was torn from gripping a concrete slab all afternoon and they
were bruised and cut in places, adding to the pain of her exhaustion, but it was
worth it.
She smiled in triumph as she slammed the concrete against the metal one
last time to reveal a circuit board lodged in the wall. The controls to her cell
door and force field.
Her area of expertise in computer hacking was more on the internal than
the actual hardware.
She could hack into the US Arms Department in a few moments, but raw
circuits were another story. There were no key combinations, no control-alt-
deletes or registries, nothing...
So she went with what she did know: When all else fails, kick it. She did.
Sparks showered the air and alarms echoed around the room, but it didn't
matter, the force field was gone and she could get past the bars with minimal
effort. She was a member of the bat-clan after all.
She was out of her cell in a matter of seconds, already looking around to
find the rest of her costume.
It was no where in sight.
What were in sight, however, were three of the knock-off ninja guards
running straight towards her with rifles slung over their backs.
"After five hours of labor and mind-numbing boredom, I get to fight some
guys out of a bad kung fu movie." She muttered. "Why am I so lucky?"
She pulled back into fighting stance and launched into the fray, her leg
already lashing out into a man's jaw in a perfect front-snap kick.
Taekwondo lessons had been one of the most useful things she had ever done
to get out of going to P.E in school.
The man fell back, firing a round into the ceiling as she initiated a
roundhouse and spinning-heel combination that took down the second man, then
fell back as a rifle was pulled up to her neck, cutting off her breathing.
She reached up and grabbed the weapon at either end, then jerked and
doubled over at the same time, sending the man behind her toppling into a wall.
She straightened up, still holding the gun in both hands.
"It's not nice to play rough with girls."
"It's not nice," Talia Head's voice came from the doorway behind Falcon.
"For the bird to get out of her cage."
She stepped into the room, her own gun, a sleek pistol that would have
looked more at home in a James Bond flick, raised and pinpointed on Rachael's
forehead.
Rachael looked at the gun in her opponent's hand and glanced around for a
method of escape.
Seeing nothing, she backed up. "Um... I was looking for the ladies room."
She said in a false joking, innocent voice that didn't cover her unease at all.
"Why?" Talia asked, cocking her gun. "You're already flushed."

Superman landed softly on the roof of Lexcorp next to the caped crusader
and boy wonder. He stood, arms crossed, and watched as Batman scoured the roof
for means of entry.
Robin, meanwhile, was bent over to the roof with heat-seeking goggles
pressed to his mask.
"The floor's lead." Superman said. "I can't see through it."
"It's actually the roof." Tim said in a tone that resembled Batman's
towards Metropolis's best boy scout. "And I can."
He continued looking around, trying to hit on something larger than a
rodent as Superman waited.
Batman stood. "Clark, punch a whole in the 'floor' for us." He ordered,
sarcasm in his voice when he said "floor".
Superman, ignoring the sarcasm, nodded simply and jabbed at the rooftop,
shaking the entire floor slightly in the process of demolishing an area about a
yard in diameter. "Be my guest." He said, gesturing to it. "But hurry, I doubt
they'll like our redecorating once they notice it."
"I decorate my cave that way." He said, the sarcasm barely creeping into
his voice or half-grin.
He leapt in, followed by Robin a moment later.
Superman stared for a moment. "Some sense of humor." He mumbled before
hovering down through the hole and into the lobby below them.

Ubu had been guarding the stairwell as Talia and Falcon battled below when
the building shook.
Muttering a curse under his breath in an Arabic language that he had
picked up on his globe-trotting with Ras al Gul, he loaded his sub-compact rifle
and rushed up the remaining steps to the top and out into the lobby.
Before him stood a familiar face. The one Talia called Beloved and Ras
called the Detective. The one known as Batman. Beside him stood the sidekick:
Robin. Behind them was a third caped crime fighter. Superman.
He shrugged and set himself firmly, taking careful aim in the split second
he had and loading a kryptonite-coated bullet magazine that had been prepared in
case of such a situation.
Ras had calculated all the possibilities out, Ubu knew what to do.
Without a second thought, he pulled the trigger.

Superman was hit in the arm with the first bullet.
It didn't penetrate. That was normal. It did however leave a fierce pain
on his arm. That was not normal.
The second hit him in the chest and he stepped back. Something was wrong,
he shouldn't feel pain from these. They were just bullets... Weren't they?
A third hit him in the side, digging half way into his flesh and driving
him to the ground.
They glowed green in his shadow... Kryptonite.
Batman, blocking them with his Kevlar-lined cape, saw Superman go down.
"Robin! See what's wrong with S, I'll take care of Ubu."
Tim shrugged backwards and shielded himself and Superman with his own
cape. "I thought you were invincible?"
Batman rushed forwards and lashed out with a left hook that would have
downed a bull.
Ubu dropped his gun, but remained standing. He lunged forward to get
Batman in a bear hug, but Batman jabbed at his throat with two fingers, sending
him backwards coughing. Satisfied with his second of safety, Batman side-kicked
Ubu in the stomach.
Ubu grunted and tripped backwards, rolling down the stairs to a stop at
the wall.
"Come on." Batman said to the two heroes behind him before racing down the
stairs.

Talia was a step closer now, her gun still poised for action.
"Father will not be pleased." She said in a calm voice. "He wanted to
study you and use you as a weakness, now we will have to capture the male bird."
She took another step. "One more inch away from cleansing and immortality, but
no matter. He's waited thousands of years already, a minor setback such as
yourself won't hinder him much."
"I'm just a minor setback?" Rachael asked, stalling for time. "Minor
setback? I'll show you minor setback!"
She ducked, to miss any bullets, and charged, plowing into Talia and
sending them both to the floor. "That's a minor setback. Want the major
setback?"
Talia slapped her across the face and brought her gun up, shooting a
bullet that narrowly missed Rachael's chest. "What do you have in mind?" She
asked, brushing hair back into perfection and re-loading her gun.
Rachael wiped a tiny trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth and
kicked out, knocking Talia's feet from under her.
Talia fell to the ground, her gun sliding across the floor where it was
suddenly melted by a blast of red energy as a slightly hunched Superman stepped
down into the room behind Batman.
"Ten to twenty in Arkham." Batman said coldly. "That's a major setback,
wouldn't you say?"
Rachael looked up, her eyes meeting with Tim's for a moment as she spotted
him helping Superman stand against the open wound in his side.
Tim managed a hidden half smile.
Rachael thought about how bad she must look, but didn't care. She was
almost out of here.
"Beloved, you don't understand." Talia tried, looking into Batman's opaque
eyes.
"I do." He said coldly. "And I'm not your beloved."

Clark Kent, blue-suited investigative reporter for the Daily Planet, stood
on the terminal lot among reporters and newsmen as Bruce Wayne, followed by
Rachael and Tim, boarded the private jet to take them back to Gotham.
The story was that Rachael was a 'friend' of Tim's that had just arrived
in town and had to be picked up specially since he was surveying the city
anyway.
Tim being Wayne's "neighbor" he had offered to take him specially.
The news ate it up. Bruce Wayne, millionaire businessman and renowned
Gotham playboy helping out two teenagers? Words such as "philanthropist" and
"Gotham's goodhearted" would be flooding the newspapers for weeks.
Clark Kent wasn't taking up this story. He knew the truth and there was no
way he could write something so far from it.
He had, of course, gotten an interview with Superman and an excuse from
the day's work he had missed by his doctor, but this story could be covered by
the tabloids for all he cared.
He grinned and waved to Bruce as they boarded the plane to Gotham.
Bruce didn't return the gesture, but an acknowledging grin was apparent on
his face. He waved to the reporters, then stepped back as the doors slid shut
and the plane started down the runway.
"Hey Smallville." A female voice said from behind Clark.
He turned to see Lois Lane standing beside him.
"Come to see the heroes off?"
"Yep." He said. "Is Mason mad that I missed a day?"
"Livid." She said as they turned and walked away from the terminal. "But I
told him you had to see a friend off."
"Friend?" Clark raised an eyebrow as they walked away. "Maybe."


Falcon was balanced atop a gargoyle high above Crime Alley. Just as she
had been a week earlier before she was kidnapped. The same thoughts running
through her head.
Was this really her world?
She had defeated Talia single-handedly in the end, but she had almost
failed. In this line of business, sometimes almost was too much.
Robin landed next to her on a second gargoyle and crouched, peering
straight ahead.
"You alright?" He asked Falcon, still not turning his head. "You look kind
of... Misplaced."
Rachael looked up and grinned. "Actually..." She said to him, pulling out a
d-cell line and firing it at a ledge about twenty yards away. "I'm right where I
belong."
She smiled, then leapt off and swung.



Falcon created and copyright Rachael Simmons 2004, all other characters
mentioned are property of DC Comics and their respective creators.
Story written by Jake Fox, copyright 2004, all rights reserved.