Lost Hope chapter one
By Cyndi Smith
Chapter One
Gone with the Wind
No one had any idea what today would bring. Tim had the summer off and with his dad in Europe with his new wife, he was given a choice of staying at the school, going to Europe, or working part time at Wayne Tech and bunking at Bruce's house. He chose the latter, but unlike any other corporate part time job, he had connections, and was going to use them to get the weekend off. Wrong, how was he to know the JLA would have something for Young Justice to do? Equipment detail, to be exact. Clean or sharpen every piece of equipment they and the JLA owned. As luck would have it they also took various members on several different missions. He just returned with the Huntress when he heard of the Titans mission.
"An ocean liner lost power," Toni announced to a small gathering of others who arrived earlier. "It appears to be dead in the water, in the path of the hurricane. Nightwing flew Tempest and Roy out to help in a transfer of passengers from one ship to another. Seems the same cruise line was transporting an empty ship to their U.S. port when they picked up the distress call. Guess ever since the Titanic they don't fill the ship with people before they take it out on a maiden voyage."
J'onn, totally lost on the humor, tried to explain in simple terms the reason for the ship to have been in the waters with only a skeleton crew.
"Actually, the maiden voyage will be from Key Port to the south of France. They are only registered in Norway. For tax purposes, I am told."
They were sure he never noticed the child-like snickering as he excused himself from the gathering of mostly teen heroes, who swallowed their giggles even now, as he stepped into the transporter and fazed from view.
"Ya think he noticed?" The Boy Wonder heard one of them ask. He just looked at Toni, who rolled her eyes then continued her story.
"Ah...Anyway after everyone is clear of the dead ship, Tempest is going to attempt to move the crippled liner out of harm's way in hopes of preventing a major ecological crisis. Normally I would have gone too, but Nightwing didn't want to deplete the resources of heroes on standby with Superman still working the landslide in Australia, so I volunteered to stay behind. Supes should be back soon, then there will be plenty of us to handle anything that might happen "
It took nearly eight hours for them to complete the transfer, mostly because of the constantly changing weather and choppy waves. But once they were safely on board the other ship, they set sail for open waters to wait out the storm.
Nightwing was watching Tempest as he rode on top of one of the blue whales that was pulling the stalled ship. It wasn't easy keeping the T-Jet up in the air with the crosswinds that were battering it. Because Hurricane Willow was upgrading to a Category 5, he knew it was no easier for Tempest and his friends in the water. He was surfing the most outer winds of the storm. The whales were pushing and pulling the luxury liner and its skeleton crew farther out to sea against the same winds as well as the waves. It was a struggle, but he moved it. And they were getting distance between them and the storm.
"Hey, Tempest. Why is it Roy always gets the cushy jobs? A week on the 'Princess of France' cruise line's newest ship, while we get to go back to New York and wait for this mess to end, so we can begin clean up all over again," the Titan leader whined.
"Got me. Maybe it's the sunglasses," the Atlantean replied over the wash of wind and rain. "Although I get some kind of weird sense of revenge believing for at least two or three days he will have to deal with everyone on board having acute sea sickness."
"GARTH," Dick laughed. " Shame on you...And thanks."
Their conversation was interrupted by static as it started coming out of the headphones. At first Nightwing ignored it as nothing more than electrical interference from the lightning that was being stirred by the storm. Then he made out the faint sound of a voice. It was an SOS from another aircraft.
"...Air...4...7...lightning...damage...navigation...read..."
"Nightwing to Tempest. I have an SOS somewhere near the storm. I'm going to see if I can get them up on the scanners...can you handle this?"
"We have it moving now. We should be outside of the storm's range soon, so go ahead," the young ambassador from the sea acknowledged. "Just be careful."
Nightwing took the T-Jet up above the storm. It was easy to pick up the disabled jet once he cleared the interference. The jet was moving around the storm, but parallel to the coast. Nightwing decided he should remain in front of the storm. Better safe than sorry.
"This is Titan 1 to calling aircraft. Do you read me?"
Air...407...navigation damaged by light...we...still in...air but have no way to nav... Radio is n...re...pon...well.
"Words are broken but I understood. How do you read me?"
"...coming in...clear."
"I am coming up on your two o'clock." Nightwing confirmed, "Let me know when you have visual."
Dick watched as the outer rim of the storm played out its wondrous show of light. The lightning was becoming more intense, but if he could get them heading in the right direction they should be able to reach land before the arm of the spinning storm caught up with them again. When visual was made and confirmed, Dick slipped into the next step of his plan. With the skill of a Navy Blue Angel or Air Force Thunderbird pilot, Dick slipped the T-Jet next to the crippled craft so he could see the crewmen in the cockpit and they could see him.
"Captain do you have military background."
"...sir... Nav...retir...Ralph is...force."
Dick ran through a series of hand signals to confirm that both men understood him. With the damage to the instruments they had, he could not leave the chance that they were not receiving and understanding all of his directions. When they confirmed and the co-pilot repeated the instructions, Dick then began to rattle off the coordinates they would be following.
"I will take lead. We will bank 20 degrees. Stay to my tail at all times; once you are on the proper flight path, I will do a fly around and make sure you have no further external damage. You are to follow your nose. At no time can you vary from that direction. It will take you directly into Metropolis International Airport, and get you on the ground about thirty-five minutes before the first waves of the storm. Do you copy?"
After his communication was confirmed, he took lead and slowly banked. The large jet did the same after making sure the jet was on target. Dick pulled up and over the larger plane and performed a quick, inverted fly-by inspection of the top of the aircraft, then another over the lower half. The only damage seemed to be on the starboard side of the airliner. Coming slowly back to that side of the craft, he confirmed that as being the only external damage. His words no sooner got out of his mouth than his cockpit lit up like a Christmas tree. Sparks flew at him in all directions. He was losing control.
He had to pull away from the other aircraft or risk a midair collision. A second explosion within his cockpit whipped his head backward. In a flash of light and blinding pain he was thrown from his seat. Over and over he was slammed into the equipment until he had no alternative but to give in to the darkness that came for him.
Barbara Gordon monitored all of the rescues going on during that time. The liner had been pulled into a safe zone and the rescue ship was also out of the way, back in the ocean to weather the storm at a much safer distance. The members of Young Justice were coming in from their attempt to evacuate the outer regions of the coastlines with members of the JLA, and Nightwing had just placed an airliner back on course with the intention of leading it into Metropolis International, just ahead of the storm. Which meant he was not going to be making their date again tonight.
"Everything else seems to be in order, Captain," she heard him say. The reply from the jet liner was still inaudible. "We will maintain course and get home in time for a late lunch. With our...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuugggggggggh."
The connection to the T-Jet was gone. Barbara tried desperately to regain some kind of connection with the former Boy Wonder, including his personal cell phone, but received no answer."
She set off all of the emergency calls she had at her disposal. Superman answered, but she could see most of the team and Young Justice where sitting around the conference table staring up at a large image of the Oracle mask.
"What is the emergency Oracle?"
"Superman, I have lost all communications with Nightwing in the T-Jet." She could hear the chairs being moved away from the table and mumbling increase in the room.
"He was assisting an airliner near the hotspot of the hurricane," she explained, "then something happened and we lost... Oh, God...Oh, God NO!"
"Oracle, what's wrong?" the leader of the JLA requested, still sounding horribly calm.
Instead of an answer she switched over audio input to her receiver and played it over the comm.
"I repe...thi...is...rit...Airlines Flight 407...If anyone can hear us, please respond. We were...be...assist...by Titan...me...ber...Nightwing...at coordinates...23 south...niner... nor...when his aircraft...s...hit...exploded in a...fire...we are...currently...Direction... giv...prior to...God help us all."
Superman had to raise his voice to be heard over the ruckus of volunteers to form a search party. Robin was halfway out the door before Wally caught up to him. "Hang on, squirt"
"Let go! I've gotta find him."
Kon quickly moved to his side. "Man, I don't mean to dis your abilities, but if Nightwing couldn't fly in that storm you don't have a prayer. Me, on the other hand..."
"Superboy is right, Robin. He and I will go out, but Kon is going to lead that jet home. I'm gonna try and locate the T-Jet. Everyone else remain on standby. If anything comes up, let me know." Both Superman and Superboy were gone in the blink of an eye.
Robin struggled against the older man's grip "You're supposed to be his friend." He finally managed to achieve some leverage and tossed Wally across the room. "Why did you stop me!" Wonder Woman started to interfere, but Wally was up and back next to the distressed boy before the Amazon could move.
"Because I am his friend and you're his brother, and if anything happens to you because of this, he would never forgive me."
"Then change it. Bring him back. You've done it before."
"Yeah, and we're still struggling against the repercussions."
For a moment The Boy Wonder just glared at him, then easily broke free from his grip and stormed away.
"...And for that...I will never be able to forgive myself."
"Just like his mentor. Does he expect the world to revolve around him," Wonder Woman asked.
"BACK OFF, DIANA!" Wally snarled. "You don't wanna go there right now."
Suddenly she realized she was the object of everyone's stares, some angry, some shocked. Realizing how that must have sounded with Nightwing missing, she quickly apologized and walked away.
Superboy took control of the aircraft. With his powers, he would easily be able to get it to the airport before the first arm of the storm, and they wouldn't have to worry about losing power or fuel...barring of course him getting hit by lightning.
Superman began a search for the wreckage of the T-Jet. A quick scan of the waters around the coordinates Nightwing had given them just prior to being struck by what they were calling a ball of fire, showed nothing more than tiny particles of the materials that were once part of the Titans' aircraft. The explosion must have been enormous for the pieces to have been ripped into such small pieces. "Oracle to Superman, be advised the storm has changed course, believed to make landfall somewhere between Gotham and Metropolis. Just north of Blud... Bludhaven."
"Understood, Oracle. Have you been able to reach Batman yet?
"Negative..." she returned. He could tell that she was trying hard to maintain professional composure. "It's eleven-thirty in the morning, he's not at work, no one is answering the cave," she confirmed. "He...uh...may be asleep upstairs. I am trying to contact Azrael now."
"Don't bother, Oracle. I'm en route to that location now."
"Did you..." She noticed he turned off his tracer and adjusted his transmitter so the communication was directly to her and couldn't be unscrambled.
" No...Barbara, I'm sorry. I have found small pieces of the T-Jet. But...I really don't believe there's any hope Nightwing survived..."
By Cyndi Smith
Chapter One
Gone with the Wind
No one had any idea what today would bring. Tim had the summer off and with his dad in Europe with his new wife, he was given a choice of staying at the school, going to Europe, or working part time at Wayne Tech and bunking at Bruce's house. He chose the latter, but unlike any other corporate part time job, he had connections, and was going to use them to get the weekend off. Wrong, how was he to know the JLA would have something for Young Justice to do? Equipment detail, to be exact. Clean or sharpen every piece of equipment they and the JLA owned. As luck would have it they also took various members on several different missions. He just returned with the Huntress when he heard of the Titans mission.
"An ocean liner lost power," Toni announced to a small gathering of others who arrived earlier. "It appears to be dead in the water, in the path of the hurricane. Nightwing flew Tempest and Roy out to help in a transfer of passengers from one ship to another. Seems the same cruise line was transporting an empty ship to their U.S. port when they picked up the distress call. Guess ever since the Titanic they don't fill the ship with people before they take it out on a maiden voyage."
J'onn, totally lost on the humor, tried to explain in simple terms the reason for the ship to have been in the waters with only a skeleton crew.
"Actually, the maiden voyage will be from Key Port to the south of France. They are only registered in Norway. For tax purposes, I am told."
They were sure he never noticed the child-like snickering as he excused himself from the gathering of mostly teen heroes, who swallowed their giggles even now, as he stepped into the transporter and fazed from view.
"Ya think he noticed?" The Boy Wonder heard one of them ask. He just looked at Toni, who rolled her eyes then continued her story.
"Ah...Anyway after everyone is clear of the dead ship, Tempest is going to attempt to move the crippled liner out of harm's way in hopes of preventing a major ecological crisis. Normally I would have gone too, but Nightwing didn't want to deplete the resources of heroes on standby with Superman still working the landslide in Australia, so I volunteered to stay behind. Supes should be back soon, then there will be plenty of us to handle anything that might happen "
It took nearly eight hours for them to complete the transfer, mostly because of the constantly changing weather and choppy waves. But once they were safely on board the other ship, they set sail for open waters to wait out the storm.
Nightwing was watching Tempest as he rode on top of one of the blue whales that was pulling the stalled ship. It wasn't easy keeping the T-Jet up in the air with the crosswinds that were battering it. Because Hurricane Willow was upgrading to a Category 5, he knew it was no easier for Tempest and his friends in the water. He was surfing the most outer winds of the storm. The whales were pushing and pulling the luxury liner and its skeleton crew farther out to sea against the same winds as well as the waves. It was a struggle, but he moved it. And they were getting distance between them and the storm.
"Hey, Tempest. Why is it Roy always gets the cushy jobs? A week on the 'Princess of France' cruise line's newest ship, while we get to go back to New York and wait for this mess to end, so we can begin clean up all over again," the Titan leader whined.
"Got me. Maybe it's the sunglasses," the Atlantean replied over the wash of wind and rain. "Although I get some kind of weird sense of revenge believing for at least two or three days he will have to deal with everyone on board having acute sea sickness."
"GARTH," Dick laughed. " Shame on you...And thanks."
Their conversation was interrupted by static as it started coming out of the headphones. At first Nightwing ignored it as nothing more than electrical interference from the lightning that was being stirred by the storm. Then he made out the faint sound of a voice. It was an SOS from another aircraft.
"...Air...4...7...lightning...damage...navigation...read..."
"Nightwing to Tempest. I have an SOS somewhere near the storm. I'm going to see if I can get them up on the scanners...can you handle this?"
"We have it moving now. We should be outside of the storm's range soon, so go ahead," the young ambassador from the sea acknowledged. "Just be careful."
Nightwing took the T-Jet up above the storm. It was easy to pick up the disabled jet once he cleared the interference. The jet was moving around the storm, but parallel to the coast. Nightwing decided he should remain in front of the storm. Better safe than sorry.
"This is Titan 1 to calling aircraft. Do you read me?"
Air...407...navigation damaged by light...we...still in...air but have no way to nav... Radio is n...re...pon...well.
"Words are broken but I understood. How do you read me?"
"...coming in...clear."
"I am coming up on your two o'clock." Nightwing confirmed, "Let me know when you have visual."
Dick watched as the outer rim of the storm played out its wondrous show of light. The lightning was becoming more intense, but if he could get them heading in the right direction they should be able to reach land before the arm of the spinning storm caught up with them again. When visual was made and confirmed, Dick slipped into the next step of his plan. With the skill of a Navy Blue Angel or Air Force Thunderbird pilot, Dick slipped the T-Jet next to the crippled craft so he could see the crewmen in the cockpit and they could see him.
"Captain do you have military background."
"...sir... Nav...retir...Ralph is...force."
Dick ran through a series of hand signals to confirm that both men understood him. With the damage to the instruments they had, he could not leave the chance that they were not receiving and understanding all of his directions. When they confirmed and the co-pilot repeated the instructions, Dick then began to rattle off the coordinates they would be following.
"I will take lead. We will bank 20 degrees. Stay to my tail at all times; once you are on the proper flight path, I will do a fly around and make sure you have no further external damage. You are to follow your nose. At no time can you vary from that direction. It will take you directly into Metropolis International Airport, and get you on the ground about thirty-five minutes before the first waves of the storm. Do you copy?"
After his communication was confirmed, he took lead and slowly banked. The large jet did the same after making sure the jet was on target. Dick pulled up and over the larger plane and performed a quick, inverted fly-by inspection of the top of the aircraft, then another over the lower half. The only damage seemed to be on the starboard side of the airliner. Coming slowly back to that side of the craft, he confirmed that as being the only external damage. His words no sooner got out of his mouth than his cockpit lit up like a Christmas tree. Sparks flew at him in all directions. He was losing control.
He had to pull away from the other aircraft or risk a midair collision. A second explosion within his cockpit whipped his head backward. In a flash of light and blinding pain he was thrown from his seat. Over and over he was slammed into the equipment until he had no alternative but to give in to the darkness that came for him.
Barbara Gordon monitored all of the rescues going on during that time. The liner had been pulled into a safe zone and the rescue ship was also out of the way, back in the ocean to weather the storm at a much safer distance. The members of Young Justice were coming in from their attempt to evacuate the outer regions of the coastlines with members of the JLA, and Nightwing had just placed an airliner back on course with the intention of leading it into Metropolis International, just ahead of the storm. Which meant he was not going to be making their date again tonight.
"Everything else seems to be in order, Captain," she heard him say. The reply from the jet liner was still inaudible. "We will maintain course and get home in time for a late lunch. With our...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuugggggggggh."
The connection to the T-Jet was gone. Barbara tried desperately to regain some kind of connection with the former Boy Wonder, including his personal cell phone, but received no answer."
She set off all of the emergency calls she had at her disposal. Superman answered, but she could see most of the team and Young Justice where sitting around the conference table staring up at a large image of the Oracle mask.
"What is the emergency Oracle?"
"Superman, I have lost all communications with Nightwing in the T-Jet." She could hear the chairs being moved away from the table and mumbling increase in the room.
"He was assisting an airliner near the hotspot of the hurricane," she explained, "then something happened and we lost... Oh, God...Oh, God NO!"
"Oracle, what's wrong?" the leader of the JLA requested, still sounding horribly calm.
Instead of an answer she switched over audio input to her receiver and played it over the comm.
"I repe...thi...is...rit...Airlines Flight 407...If anyone can hear us, please respond. We were...be...assist...by Titan...me...ber...Nightwing...at coordinates...23 south...niner... nor...when his aircraft...s...hit...exploded in a...fire...we are...currently...Direction... giv...prior to...God help us all."
Superman had to raise his voice to be heard over the ruckus of volunteers to form a search party. Robin was halfway out the door before Wally caught up to him. "Hang on, squirt"
"Let go! I've gotta find him."
Kon quickly moved to his side. "Man, I don't mean to dis your abilities, but if Nightwing couldn't fly in that storm you don't have a prayer. Me, on the other hand..."
"Superboy is right, Robin. He and I will go out, but Kon is going to lead that jet home. I'm gonna try and locate the T-Jet. Everyone else remain on standby. If anything comes up, let me know." Both Superman and Superboy were gone in the blink of an eye.
Robin struggled against the older man's grip "You're supposed to be his friend." He finally managed to achieve some leverage and tossed Wally across the room. "Why did you stop me!" Wonder Woman started to interfere, but Wally was up and back next to the distressed boy before the Amazon could move.
"Because I am his friend and you're his brother, and if anything happens to you because of this, he would never forgive me."
"Then change it. Bring him back. You've done it before."
"Yeah, and we're still struggling against the repercussions."
For a moment The Boy Wonder just glared at him, then easily broke free from his grip and stormed away.
"...And for that...I will never be able to forgive myself."
"Just like his mentor. Does he expect the world to revolve around him," Wonder Woman asked.
"BACK OFF, DIANA!" Wally snarled. "You don't wanna go there right now."
Suddenly she realized she was the object of everyone's stares, some angry, some shocked. Realizing how that must have sounded with Nightwing missing, she quickly apologized and walked away.
Superboy took control of the aircraft. With his powers, he would easily be able to get it to the airport before the first arm of the storm, and they wouldn't have to worry about losing power or fuel...barring of course him getting hit by lightning.
Superman began a search for the wreckage of the T-Jet. A quick scan of the waters around the coordinates Nightwing had given them just prior to being struck by what they were calling a ball of fire, showed nothing more than tiny particles of the materials that were once part of the Titans' aircraft. The explosion must have been enormous for the pieces to have been ripped into such small pieces. "Oracle to Superman, be advised the storm has changed course, believed to make landfall somewhere between Gotham and Metropolis. Just north of Blud... Bludhaven."
"Understood, Oracle. Have you been able to reach Batman yet?
"Negative..." she returned. He could tell that she was trying hard to maintain professional composure. "It's eleven-thirty in the morning, he's not at work, no one is answering the cave," she confirmed. "He...uh...may be asleep upstairs. I am trying to contact Azrael now."
"Don't bother, Oracle. I'm en route to that location now."
"Did you..." She noticed he turned off his tracer and adjusted his transmitter so the communication was directly to her and couldn't be unscrambled.
" No...Barbara, I'm sorry. I have found small pieces of the T-Jet. But...I really don't believe there's any hope Nightwing survived..."