My converses slap the pavement as I dart down the alley, the hooting coming from the guys chasing behind me. Adrenaline drugs my system into a high of unnecessary fear and exhilaration. I can teleport – there's no reason to be scared of these assholes. But some small part of me is.
Okay, maybe it's time to poof away now? My nagging logic begs from the back of my mind.
Or maybe you should turn around.
My veins jetstream ice through my veins and I my foot catches on the curb. The ground flies up and my elbows jar against the pavement as my arms leap to the defense of my face. Cheers from the boys as they slow and circle around me, jeering as I clamber to my feet, looking around at their faces which have turned uglier in the shadows from the streetlamp a few paces away. I look past them to the corner where I can make out a nightwalker, but she quickly scuttles away. There are cars all over and people quickly moving away from windows.
So much for solidarity amongst neighbors, huh?
I hear the first guy as he moves forward, taking a grab at me while I have my back turned. I weave out of the way, but that brings me closer to Grease-ball, who grabs me, pinning my arms to my sides.
Your way isn't working… how about mine?
I thrash against Grease-ball as one of the others comes towards me, grinning. So I kick him in the face.
He screams and staggers back, and I squirm as the other guys laugh.
"We got ourselves a scrapper!"
"You alright there boy'o?"
"I think it's time you put the lady down."
The last one is distinct from the others – flat and full of disapproval. We all look around, and that's when I spot him – sitting on the edge of an awning for the Chinese Laundromat. The suit is difficult to make out in the dark at first, but the moment I strain to make it out the dark clears again. It's like all the pictures – body armor and yet… not. It's composed of different lightweight hardened materials, the underneath a mesh fabric sealed over with heavier duty almost plastic like plates where they won't interfere with mobility. Most of the suit is black, the shapes of the armor bits made both esthetically pleasing and practical to cover the vital parts. At the shoulders and dipping down to a point on the chest was a strip of dark blue with the black bird symbol placed in the center. Where Batman has a mask that covered all of his head and most of his face, Nightwing's suit ends at the neck and his eyes are covered by a black mask whose shape closely resembled that of a bat or a bird. His hair hangs around his face casually, black and just barely too long to be called short, not quite shoulder length.
I see the guys around me exchange looks. Oh, so there is some flicker of sense in the empty caverns of their skulls?
My lips flatten together as I feel the anger begin to roil around inside my skull, leaking down into my whole body. Oh, so they see Nightwing and suddenly their boy scouts? How many other people have they hurt – any one of them could be replaced with Dad, they're all exactly like him. How come they aren't afraid of girls, because we're easy targets? I could be just as dangerous as Nightwing. I am just as dangerous as him – I'm the weapon of Gotham's fucking apocalypse!
The arms around me loosen, and I feel a strange tugging inside of my chest.
We can make them regret. We can make them tremble. The voice whispers in my ear.
It feels like standing on the brink of a chasm, crouching down and staring into the pit. Even tossing a stone in, there's no way of really knowing just how far down it goes. But the truth is… I want to jump. The more I look at their upturned faces, the more I see my father – fat and slovenly and repulsive. This power inside me – whatever, whoever she is… she can make these bastards pay. She can make them squeal.
Go get em. I think, and for the first time I welcome that darkness in.
Heat pulsates through my skin, and my lips curve into a smile that's somehow sexy and terrifying at the same time. My hand rises to touch the arm holding me, and I see my fingers curl around the exposed wrist. The man stiffens, and the veins close to my hand begin to darken from blue to black. I turn round to look at him, his eyes wide and fixed on mine. I let go of his wrist to turn fully, and then I lay my hands gently on his cheeks, tilting my head.
"You didn't answer my question, Lover." My voice murmurs, the black spreading out through his face. "Are you scared of the dark?"
"N-no." He splutters, and I feel him trying unsuccessfully to break eye contact with me. I've got him trapped now. He's all mine to play with.
"What are you doing?" Nightwing's voice is distant as I laugh softly.
"You should be."
I sink my nails into the man's temples, and it's like his veins are being pumped full of the same mixture in mine. They bulge up against his skin, and his eyes roll back in his head as he screams.
"Jesus Christ!" One of the others curses.
"Get her off!"
One of my hands moves off Grease-ball to swat aside the large body that comes barreling at me. I barely touch him, but he goes flying backwards like a semi hit him. The guy whose nose I kick runs for it, but the other three come in to their friend's defense. I draw my fingers out of the man's head, and I realize they're elongated – black and almost talon like with their sharp edges. I turn to face them as Grease-ball hits the deck, and I don't try to back away as they dive for me. They travel through my body like smoke, slamming into each other as I move away, entirely black where I've become impalpable. Even as I step back, the darkness spreads through my whole body until I'm a single flawless form again – my hair floating around me like I'm underwater. I raise a hand for my own appraisal as the men try to stand, along with the one I punched.
"Stop – whatever you're doing."
Nightwing is on the ground – I somehow missed that. He's eyeing me uncertainly, holding out a hand. "They're down."
"Are they?" My brow raises as one of the guys from the dog pile manages to get standing. "Doesn't look like it to me."
"Why do I feel like it's them I should be protecting?" He frowns at me, trying to gauge what my trick is.
Leave him alone. I warn the voice.
"You fellas don't like killing, do you?" I tilt my head again, and give off a coy smile.
His face hardens. "No."
"Then that's probably why."
I step out of the streetlight and suddenly I'm behind the guy. My body stands perfectly still until Nightwing finds me, and then my hands jerks forward.
NO! I scream silently, but it's useless as my body lifts the man up screaming all the way, five black points sticking through the other side of his chest. Nightwing's eyes widen. The dark laughs. The men scatter. And the fingers retract. The guy falls coughing to the ground, scrabbling uselessly at the leaking holes in his chest. I step back, the blackness falling off me like dust as my color returns and my hair falls to my shoulders. I raise the fingers of that hand to my face and yank it back as they leaves behind dots of red.
"Oh shit." I breathe, shaking my head. "What did you do?"
We, comes the singsong reply. You're the one who let me out.
To scare them! I think back. This was your fault.
It's not Hyde's fault Jekyll lets him out.
"I'm going to need to take you in."
His voice his steady, soothing, but I can see the genuine shock in the way he comes towards me. His batons are out, not threatening but prepared. I take a step back instinctively. "Where?"
"Well, I'm guessing a normal cell isn't going to cut it."
"To Batman?"
He frowns, then nods. "Yeah. Now are you going to come along quietly or is this about to get tough."
Oh you have got to be kidding me. You want to go with tall dark and boy scout?
I feel that tug in my chest again – this time much more insistent. I take a sharp breath in, clutching my chest. "Knock me out."
"What?"
"She's trying to get out. If I'm unconscious- "
He understands and swings in one simple instant. But even that is too long. My body jerks back away from the club and swing up a leg, clipping the side of his face and sending him whirling.
"She'll take a rain check on the tour." My voice tells him. I duck under his other baton but the first one comes in again, ramming up into my chest. I gasp, but as I lean forward my hand slams onto his exposed neck. He lets out a sharp clipped yell and black spreads through him and I straighten, panting with narrowed eyes. "I could kill you right here, Bird Boy."
No. No please don't – please.
My body sighs in mild disappointment. "But she doesn't want me to. So I'll have to come up with some other punishment."
I move closer, a wicked grin raising on my lips. "I know."
I move onto tiptoe, hovering my lips just above his as he stands pinned in place. He's a much better toy than Grease-ball, who's still lying on the ground. I let out a slow, long breath, and black smoke trickles from my lips into his. I watch – internally in horror, externally in delight – as his eyes turn black. Entirely black – iris, whites, all of it. When my voice comes out, it's suddenly two voices – mine and his. "Tell Batman… when you see him? Tell him to come out and play."
He nods, and I remove my hand from his neck. He crumples to the ground and I shake my head, stepping over him and onward into the alley. "He's not much use, is he?" The darkness asks me pointed. "Two people dead, and he hardly does a thing to stop us. I think he likes you. Maybe I should have killed him after all."
Leave him alone. We want his help!
"No, Rachel, you do." I sigh again, flipping my hair as I come out onto a street again. "I think you aren't giving this a fair shot. I mean seriously – did you see what we did to those guys? They're just the beginning, Kitten. From now on, you don't need to be scared of anyone. Just point… I'll shoot."
We aren't shooting anybody!
My body cocks a hip to one side, placing a hand on it. "Oh sweetie, we have got to get you loosened up! I'm not going anywhere. So you just, take a breather. And when you're calmed down, we'll talk."
Darkness falls over me, and I'm hit with a sudden heavy drowsiness. My body staggers as I try desperately to grab hold of the control again. But I'm like Atlas trying to hold up the sky. The weight smothers me, and I go under into nothingness.