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Language:
English
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Published:
2019-01-28
Updated:
2019-02-24
Words:
2,090
Chapters:
2/?
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13
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57
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More than a Sidekick

Summary:

What if someone did a documentary on the lives of the "sidekicks"? What would they say about growing up fighting crime?
In this groundbreaking documentary, filmmakers take a closer look at what it takes to become a sidekick and a hero. See an insiders peek at a hidden world, the world of superheroes.

The scene cuts to show each person as a question is asked: “What was it like growing up as a sidekick?”

The scene lands on the shadowed figure, he chuckles. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the whole hero world. I owe everything to that world, but… well, it definitely had a lot of negatives. I mean, we were just kids in an adult world. When I started I thought that I was really mature and old, but man…” he shakes his head, “being out on the streets every night really forces you to grow up fast.”

Notes:

Let me know if you find any mistakes! I welcome constructive criticism!

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

More than a Sidekick
   

     Scene opens over the Gotham City Skyline

     Music starts to play, wandering piano music with no lyrics

     Scene shifts to show other cities with known members of the league

     While scenes continue to flash across the screen a female’s voice begins to talk. “How did I become a vigilante?’’

     Scene cuts to show Tigress sitting in what looks to be an old warehouse with brick walls. Tigress chuckles to herself. “Well, that’s complicated”

     Scene shifts again to show a shadowed figure, he starts to talk, “I was so young when I started working with Green Arrow, though at the time I thought I was so mature and grown up…” he shakes his head wistfully, “I was just a clueless kid.’’

     Scene shifts once more this time showing Aqualad in uniform sitting in a similar room as the one Tigress was in, “King Orin selected me to become his partner to fight battles on the surface world…’ he pauses and looks to the side, ‘it was… well, it was an honor to have my skills recognized by the king… though now… well, I wonder if I made the right decision leaving Atlantis.’ The camera stays on Aqualad as he sits reminiscing.

     The scene changes once more to show a man in civilian clothes, black leather jacket with blue detailing, on his face was a simple domino mask. “I was one of the first, no actually… I was the first sidekick, though I hate using that word, we were partners. But that’s not really the point, I wasn’t even 10 when I became Robin the Boy of Wonder…” he smiles wistfully, “I’ve actually been a vigilante for the majority of my life.” He said nodding.

     Scene cuts to show security footage and phone videos of Tigress, dressed in her Artemis costume, fighting alongside Green Arrow. “I guess you could call me the white sheep in my black sheep family.” Tigress’s voice plays over the footage. Scene cuts to her sitting in the chair, “The criminal underworld has many groups that form what is basically the anti-justice league. The two main groups are the Shadows and the Light. My whole family is or has been members of both these groups. Um… my dad trained both me and my sister to become assassins at a very young age. So, by the time I started helping GA I already knew how to take down people twice my size. As for why did I switch sides and fight for the heroes? Well- I guess I just wanted to help people.”

     Scene cuts to the former Robin “Helping people, that’s what it’s really all about. Ask any leaguer, ask anybody in the hero business- that will be their answer. Sure, it might be phrased differently ‘I want to make to world a better place for my kids,’ ‘I want to help serve justice,’ so on and so forth, but it’s all the same. People want to help others, now how they got there is different. Some have powers and saw other vigilantes and thought ‘why not me,’ others start with a quest of justice for themselves then once they achieve that they keep going, some were even chosen by an outside force.”

     The scene cuts to show each person as a question is asked: “What was it like growing up as a sidekick?”

     The scene lands on the shadowed figure, he chuckles. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the whole hero world. I owe everything to that world, but… well, it definitely had a lot of negatives. I mean, we were just kids in an adult world. When I started I thought that I was really mature and old, but man…” he shakes his head, “being out on the streets every night really forces you to grow up fast.”

     The scene shifts to show Aqualad, “I missed out on a whole life I could have had in Atlantis. Life there didn’t stop because I was on the surface world. The more time I spent on dry land, the more my relationships suffered. My friends there grew further and further away. Sometimes when I went back to visit I felt like an outsider, a stranger in my own city. But I also formed lifelong friendships with new friends while working as a vigilante.”

     “It was lonely,” Tigress said, crossing her legs. “There aren’t a lot of people who know what it’s like to have two lives. It was also exhausting.”

      Scene cuts to the former Robin, “Oh yeah, I would definitely say that it was exhausting. I don’t think the public really understands the pressure that is placed on younger vigilantes. We still have to go to school, do our homework, participate in extracurricular, have a social life to maintain our cover, we have to train, and then at the end of the day we suit up and head out on the street. My day was so hectic.”

     Scene cuts back to Tigress. “There were a lot of early mornings and late nights. There was actually one time where I didn’t have time to sleep for 36 hours, and I had a test at school that day.” She said with a chuckle. “My whole week was wake up, go to school, do homework, go do an extracurricular, because it’s not like I can write a killer essay about fighting crime to get into college, then I would train, go out on patrol, and then flop into bed just to do it all over again.”

     “My day would typically begin at 5:00 am,” The former Robin said with a sigh. “I would wake up at 5:00 and train for an hour, then I would shower get dressed for school eat breakfast and leave the house. The drive to school was about 30 minutes, so I would use that time to catch up on any homework I wasn’t able to finish the night before. Classes started at 7:30 and went until 2:30. I stayed at school until 4:00 doing after school activities. Then I would go home, again doing homework on the ride back, get back at around 4:30. Do homework until 6:30. Have dinner, then start training. I usually tried to train for about 2 hours. This training was different than my morning training because in the morning I tended to do weight lifting, cardio, and some other non-combative exercises. My evening training mostly consisted of perfecting my fighting style by sparring with Batman. At 8:30, I would take a break and do some more homework. Then at 9:00 I would suit up and Batman and I would start patrolling. We patrolled until 11:30 or midnight depending. As soon as I got home I would flop into bed, and do it all the next day.” The camera pans out as the former Robin sat there in silence for a beat.
“Oh, yeah no, it was crazy,” the former Robin said, “no doubt about that.”

Chapter 2

Summary:

The heroes talk about how addictive the hero life is and discuss how the Justice League handles death

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Scene opens showing Tigress peering over a rooftop edge at night, it's cold, every exhale hung in the air. Suddenly an alarm starts going off across the street and Tigress springs into action. She fires an arrow across the road with a wire attached to it and swings across to the other side. The camera stays on the rooftop but zooms in to the other side of the street. Two criminals leave a jewelry store only to run right into Tigress. The takedown was quick and methodical. Within 2 minutes the two criminals were handcuffed, and Tigress fired a grappling hook and swung off as police rounded the corner.

Scene changes to show the former Robin sitting in his chair. “The hard part of being a hero is stopping. It consumes your life, anytime something bad happens and you weren’t there you can’t help but wonder ‘could I have done something?’”

Scene cuts to the shadowed man.

“I left the masked life about 6 months ago. I won’t call it the hero life because at the end of my career it was less about helping others and more about helping myself. I had been living behind the mask for so long I didn’t know who I was without it. My identity was tied to the mask that I wore every day and every night. I had no friends who didn’t wear a mask and even then a lot of my friends left me because I was in a downward spiral to nowhere. I didn’t have a job, I didn’t go to college, I bounced from abandoned apartment to abandoned apartment calling them ‘safe house’ as if that made the whole situation sound better. Even though I managed to pull out of my spiral that would have ultimately ended up with me dead in an alley, I’m not completely done with the mask. If my friends need me to put it back on I will. Once this life has its hooks on you it doesn’t ever let go.”

Scene changes to show Tigress sitting once again in an abandoned warehouse. “After I got into college I decided to hang up my mask and focus on my future. I know some heroes who chose an easier college to attended or decided to not go to college at all but I got into one of the top colleges in America and I just didn’t have time to get an education and focus on getting my degree. I wasn’t going to sideline my life because I was a Justice League affiliate.”

“What changed? Why did you put the mask back on?” a voice asks behind the camera.

Tigress pauses and looks down and takes a deep breath in. “Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I lay in my bed wondering if putting on the mask again was a good idea. When I initially decided to put the mask back on it wasn’t supposed to be forever, just a couple of months then back to my life. My friend asked for my help and I felt as though I couldn’t say no. And after I finished helping……” her voice becomes choked with emotion, “after….. aft….”

Tears start falling down her face, her hand come up to cradle her forehead as she turns away from the camera, “I’m sorry… can we cut please,” she asks.

The camera slowly fades to black showing.

Scene cuts to Aqualad.

He seems pensive, mulling over his answer before he answers, he takes a deep breath. “This job is not without danger. The Justice League has lost people before. The Justice League is also very secretive and does not tell the public when heroes have passed.” He pauses to take a breath. “We mourn the loss of heroes but we have to do so in private, we do not wish to give away their identities and endanger their families or loved ones after their death.”

Scene cuts to the shadowed figure.

“It’s bullshit is what it is. They say that the fallen’s memory lives on every day when the League continues to carry out their mission to help others. It’s fucking bullshit.” He shakes his head. “They sacrifice their lives to protect others and the world and the Justice League can’t even be bothered to put up a memorial in the hall.”

The interviewer's voice comes in and asks “Have you lost…”

“We all have lost someone,” the shadowed man cuts in, “but no one in the public gives a fuck cause they don’t know. All they know is that a hero hasn’t been seen in a while.”

He takes a breath and moves his head to look off to the side, “It’s not the publics fault though, it’s the Justice Leagues.”

The scene cuts back to the former Robin, still in his civilian clothes. He rubs his face, contemplating what he is going to say. “If a main leaguer, that is Batman, Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, you get the gist, if one of them went missing the world would notice, but for smaller leaguers or their partners, it's easier for their deaths to go unnoticed. The Justice League hides the deaths of lesser-known heroes in order to save face.”

He paused, it’s easy to tell that this topic makes him very angry. He opens his mouth to speak again and his voice cracks with anger and sadness, “I lost my best friend. He saved the world and the world doesn’t even know his name.”

Notes:

Ok so obviously "the former Robin" is Nightwing, would yall be ok if I call him this? I didn't originally because I didn't want to separate him from his time as Robin.
Also the guy in the shadows is Roy (Will) is that obvious? I don't want to say his name since it wont be mentioned in the documentary (Secret identity and all that) and I don't want to give his hero name since he is "retired"