Trigger Warning for [mentioned] attempted sexual assault on a minor.
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Queens, New York|
August 14th, 2013|
1:26 AM, UTC|
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The mission had gone bad at the last possible second. They were at the core of one of the biggest trafficking rings in New York. The mission was simple, Robin, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Batgirl, Cruesock and Bloom Blaster were to gather the last piece of information the League needed to pull a full on take down and the key the city Judicial system needed to finally put away the ring leader Pierce Donne for good. Unfortunately, one of the captives had noticed them at the last second, and in his hope of being rescued, accidentally gave them away.
Needless to say, their reconnaissance mission had become a rescue mission. Thugs came at them guns blazing and Cruesock easily deflected their bullets while Kid Flash worked to get the captives out. It was a slow process and just when the final few were being delivered to their freedom, something blew up. Of course.
A mission gone bad just wouldn't be complete unless there was an explosion.
Zemirah rolled her eyes and moved to contain the blast zone. The fires were quickly put out, but that did nothing to slow the next wave of goons. Bloom Blaster reached for her comm, but heard nothing but a faint buzzing.
Great, the communicators were down too.
"Miss M, link us up!" she called to the Martian girl.
Without missing a beat, Miss Martian established the telepathic link.
'Is everyone online?' She asked.
'Yes ma'am,' Bloom Blaster.
'You bet Beautiful,' Kid Flash.
'Affirmative,' Cruesock.
'Yup,' Batgirl.
'Wait, where the heck is Robin?' Bloom asked.
Sure enough, the Boy Wonder was nowhere to be found.
'Seriously Rob?' Kid exasperatedly projected. 'We freaking talked about the ninja thing!'
'Um… Kid, Robin's not linked; I can't sense his mind anywhere,' Miss Martian said, telekinetically knocking to goons together.
Kid Flash's pang of worry did not escape Bloom. Nor did Miss M's. Batgirl was calm, but her façade was tainted with unspoken fret. The only one unconcerned was Cruesock.
'Wait, that means Robin's unconscious! He could be in serious trouble right now!' Kid Flash snapped.
'Not necessarily. He could just be blocking you out.' Batgirl rationalized.
A plausible excuse, but highly unlikely.
'I can track him,' Bloom said, already searching for Robin's life sign. 'Kid Flash: you're with me. Miss Martian: contact the League.'
'Wait, who put you in charge?' Kid questioned.
Bloom glared harshly at him, 'Wallace…'
The speedster gave in quickly, 'Okay, you're in charge. Let's go.'
He carried her piggyback style as she directed him through the compound. As they closed in, she fearfully urged him on. She was sensing an overwhelming fear from Robin.
Robin was never afraid.
He let her down and he rammed down the door. It fell with almost no effort. The sight that greeted them had them frozen for a few seconds. There was Robin, gloves, boots and cape gone, his uniform torn and open and his torso exposed. He was gagged, bound and blindfolded; arms above his head, legs spread and tied at the ankles. And if that wasn't horrifying enough, sitting on top of him, was the leader of the twisted business they'd busted. Pierce Donne.
Bloom didn't have to use her empathy to know Kid Flash was seeing red.
She saw it too.
In a split second Kid Flash had body slammed the bastard off his best friend and immediately began to take him down. Hard. Bloom on the other hand, all but flew to Robin's side. She burned away the ropes binding her teammate and began examining him for internal injuries. Somewhat satisfied when she found none, she removed his blindfold, thanking the heavens above that his mask was still on. With that knowledge, she turned to Kid and Donne, the speedster had already done a number on the monster. From what she could tell the fool had a split lip, an already blackening eye, a broken arm, a fractured leg and some cracked ribs.
They'd be nice and broken if she was lucky.
Taking an authoritative tone, she called the redhead back from his rage, "Kid that's enough. You'll kill him at this rate."
At the word "kill" the speedster instantly stopped. He surveyed the damage he'd already inflicted, and taken aback he jumped away. He stared in rightful shock. Bloom placed a hand on his shoulder, taking him out of his daze.
"Kid, take Robin to the rendezvous-point, the League will be waiting," she quietly commanded.
The speedster obeyed, picking up his dazed (and likely drugged) companion princess style and began toward the door. He thoughtfully paused and turned back a question on his mouth.
"What about him?" he asked, sending a dark look toward the stunned crime lord.
Bloom matched his look with a cold glare of her own; the man squirmed under her gaze. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him," she said coldly, vines beginning to wrap themselves around Donne's legs.
With that, Kid Flash left. Donne gave a small mewl at that pressure the vines put on his body, giving a strangled cry when thorns began to prick his skin. She sauntered over to him, crouching to eye level. She roughly took hold of his broken arm. Giving him a cold stare she snapped at him.
"What are you whining about? I haven't even started yet." The frown on her face was quickly replaced with a toothless, saccharine smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~=YJ=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Queens, New York|
August 14th, 2013|
2:15 AM, UTC|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~=YJ=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where is she?" Superman said, worry lacing his voice.
As expected, the majority of the Justice League had arrived. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the Green Lantern Hal, and Martian Manhunter had shown up. Black Canary and Manhunter along with Wonder Woman were doing damage control, while Superman and Green Arrow were waiting for Bloom to arrive, Hal debriefed the team and Batman dealt with his son.
Batman was torn. On one hand he wanted to wrap his arms around his boy and protect him, hide him away from the rest of the world. On the other, he was ready to find the sick son of a b**** who dared to touch his child and rip him limb from limb. Eventually the need to make sure that Robin knew he was safe is what won out in the end. Robin was in shock. He wouldn't speak and he flinched when people came close. The only ones who could even go near him right now were Batman himself, Batgirl and Kid Flash. And the redheads had yet to leave his side.
"I'm back…!" a sing-song voice called.
Everyone looked up. In her unmistakable lavender and violet uniform, Bloom walked out, dragging Donne on the ground by the vines that bound him.
Superman rushed out to her, "What took you so long?"
"He's heavy and I don't have super strength, you do the math," she shrugged.
Rolling his eyes he took hold of her burden and decidedly dragged him the rest of the way. He let go and Donne was face down on the grass, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Everyone who saw him gave him cold looks, except Robin, who looked away, hiding his face in his friend's shoulder. Batman took a step to move in on him but a lavender garbed hand stopped him.
"I'm not finished with him yet Batman, wait your turn."
With that, Bloom marched up to him and harshly tapped him on the head.
"Get up," she commanded.
Donne stayed recumbent. She glared and hit him harder.
"Don't play possum with me. I know you're awake, now sit up," She hissed.
When he refused a second time, she grabbed him by the ear and pulled his head up savagely. Her glower was so cold, even Superman flinched.
"Don't forget who the hell's in charge here! Sit up you punk-*** son of a *****!" She growled.
At this point all eyes were on her now. Bloom almost never swore. Donne was surely a goner. Reluctantly, Donne wisely obeyed and remained sitting up under his own power, his face blank and emotionless. That didn't fool Bloom. This man, nay, this devil, was absolutely terrified. Then his gaze travelled towards Robin, who was still staring at her in stunned silence. She could sense the befouled lust rising up in him. If at all possible, she stare grew colder.
She back-handed him harshly.
"And you dare even look at him like that you depraved, filthy boor!?" she snapped. "Perhaps my message wasn't clear enough for you. Eyes on me at all times, lest you wish for the Bat to deal with you, hmmm?"
Her rage was subdued by his ardor disappearing and his fear devouring him wholly. Batman took no small measure of relish at the impudent swine of a man cowering at the mercy of the short fourteen-year-old.
"Good. Now because I'm so good hearted, I'm going to have some leniency with you," Bloom said, the sweet yet feral smile returning full-force. "I'm going to give you a warning."
"Wha-"
"Did I ask you to speak?" she said; her down low and dangerous.
Even the adults, barring Batman, flinched.
"Good. Now, first of all the thorns on most of those vines you've got on you are poisonous," she paused, allowing him to pale considerably before continuing. "Oh, don't worry, it's not deadly. I don't use lethal force. …But you'll be sick for a week, and have splitting headaches for a while. Also I think I might've healed your arm wrong and they'll have to break it… Again. Also, they do use lethal force in prison; which is exactly where you're going!"
His stare became fretfully confused and she smirked.
"Don't think you're getting outta this one bub. We've got plenty of evidence, hell we have you at the freaking crime scene. No army of lawyers all the money in the world could buy is gonna save you from the big house. And do you know what inmates do to people like you in prison?" she asked, her voice taking on a mock-cheery tone.
He tentatively shook his head. She gave him a truly predatory grin.
"Well first of all you should know that…" her voice lowered as she whispered part of the explanation in his ear. "… Before the rapists and the murderers."
His eyes grew wide.
But she wasn't done there. She smirked and continued. "And they will most likely… with a rusty pipe or something like that. And then they'll…" Her voice lowered to a whisper at certain intervals in her monologue, likely to spare Robin the gruesome details.
"What is she saying?" Hal asked the Kryptonian.
The Man of Steel shuddered, "You don't want to know."
"And then if that doesn't actually kill you they might actually just…" her voice lowered one more time as she finished up her animated speech. "And then when I know you're dead, I'll come visit you and burn "Robin's Revenge" right into your corpse so the Grimm Reaper will know to send you straight to hell!" she snapped, releasing her iron grip on his shoulder.
With the physical support gone Donne fell over, his whole body white as a sheet and his countenance haunted. Batman almost felt sorry for him.
Almost, but not quite.
"Alright Bats, he's all yours to interrogate. Take him away." Bloom Blaster said cheerily.
The Dark Knight didn't miss a beat and promptly took the monster away, the barbarian madly squirming and pleading for mercy as he was dragged off to the shadows.
"Bye-bye!" Bloom Blaster blithely called after him. "I hope a big prisoner named Bobo decides to make you his girlfriend! Bye!"
As soon as they were gone, her smile dropped and she spat where he once was. "Good riddance, *****-*** lout."
The remainder of the League stared at her as she sauntered towards Robin and Kid Flash. They had never seen this side of the flower-child before. Wordlessly they decided they never needed to see it again.
"Hey," she quietly greeted.
"Hi," Robin returned in a voice that almost wasn't there.
He was hurting and she felt it. It was sharp yet numbing at the same time. Cautiously, she reached out her hands and hugged him when she met no resistance.
"I'm sorry," she murmured against the torn Kevlar.
"Why?" he asked softly.
She swallowed a sob, her own worry slowly giving way to relief. "That I wasn't there for you." She whispered.
The sixteen-year-old gave a small twitch of the lips, some small level of joy returning to him.
"You already are," he said, slowly returning her embrace.
Her quiet sniffling gave way to sobs as she cried relived that Dick Grayson was here. He was alive. He was safe. And that she wouldn't have to mourn another loved one. She was almost happy.
