CHAPTER 6

Hyposmia

PART I

…

In all his years as a hero, Nightwing had never really considered how useful a sense of smell was. He usually relied on his hearing, sight, and touch more. Smell hardly ever came into play. Because of this, he didn't think twice about going on a mission when he was recovering from a bad cold.

"You sure you don't want me to go instead?" Barbara, decked out in her full Batgirl uniform, asked.

"Oh, not you too," Nightwing groaned as he pressed his mask on. "Kaldur specifically asked for me to partner with the kid for this mission."

"Right, you haven't met the new guy. He's cute."

Nightwing glanced at his partner with a raised brow.

"Dick, don't be weird! He's a kid, he's a cute kid," Batgirl protested.

"No names in uniform. And if he ends up having a crush on you, I'll totally tell him." Nightwing grinned.

"You can't do that, it's so mean!"

"I don't know, Jason's reaction was pretty adorable."

"Shut up, that's it. You just lost your date to the gala next week." Batgirl cross her arms, turned around and haughtily threw up her head. Nightwing's laughter was interrupted by a loud sneeze.

"You're really sure you're fine to go?" Batgirl's arms dropped to her side as she gave him worried glance.

"I'm so whelmed, totally feeling the aster, and ready to get traught."

Batgirl rolled her eyes at the butchered English, which Nightwing rarely did anymore.

"Relax, BG. It was just a cold. Fever's gone, and other than a bit of a stuffed nose, I'm fine."

"Fine. But if you die because a sneeze gave you away, I'll toss you in the Lazarus Pit just so I can embarrass you back to death. Deal?"

"Deal." Nightwing grinned and slapped Batgirl's outstretched hand. Having received her blessing, he headed out to the Gotham zeta tube and beamed to the mountain. He wasn't sure what to expect of the Team's newest recruit.

Garfield Logan, the boy the original Team (minus Kaldur) met in Bialya. M'gann's blood transfusion did more than save his life and turn his eyes green. It also gave him Martian shape shifting abilities. When Nightwing was out of commission, something big happened in Bialya and the kid was brought to Happy Harbour to live at Mount Justice. From the sound of things, he had all but begged to be put on the Team. This would be his first mission.

Nightwing stifled a sneeze and a curse as he materialized in the mountain. It would be kind of pathetic for Nightwing, first protégé of Batman, master of stealth and all out ninja, to be caught on a covert mission because he sneezed.

He pawed at his nose and grinned at Kaldur, who was waiting for him in the mission room.

"Nightwing, it is good you're feeling better."

"You're telling me. Batman wouldn't let me out of the house, I was going crazy." Nightwing stretched for emphasis, then looked around. They were the only ones in the room. "So where's Beast Boy?"

"M'gann is providing last minute advice," Kaldur answered with a small grin, and Nightwing mirrored the expression almost instantly. Of all the original Team members, she was easily the most emotionally expressive (Wally was a close second). She also worried the most. Nightwing, as the formerly youngest Team member, had been the subject of M'gann's sisterly concern on many occasions. He knew exactly what Gar was faced with right about then.

"Okay, sis, I'll be fine. I'm gonna be with the Nightwing!" A young voice echoed down the hall.

Nightwing turned to Kaldur, his grin widening, and mouthed silently to him. "The Nightwing?"

"He is a fan," Kaldur said.

"Just promise me you'll be careful, don't do anything reckless," M'gann said as she emerged into the mission room. Walking beside her was a rather simian looking Garfield Logan, and he was completely green. That wasn't something Nightwing expected, but it wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever seen.

"Hey, Garfield. You ready for the mission?" Nightwing asked. Garfield suddenly stopped talking and looked over at the older hero. There was a moment of silence, then his eyes went comically wide and he ran over at a speed that would impress the Flash.

"You're Nightwing!" Garfield shouted.

"I know." Nightwing smirked.

"It's so cool to meet you, sir."

"Sir?" Nightwing's question went ignored as Garfield continued to rant.

"Although, we've met before, because you're the first Robin. But you're so cool now! I mean, you were cool then, but you protect Blüdhaven. So I guess it's cool to meet you again, Nightwing, sir." Garfield beamed up at him.

"Just Nightwing's fine, you don't have to call me sir."

"Noted."

"You know the mission?" Kaldur interrupted, placing a hand on Nightwing's shoulder.

"Of course. I'll brief Beast Boy on the way over." Nightwing smirked and crossed his arms, turning to the new hero in front of him. "You know how to drive a motorcycle?"

Nightwing wasn't too surprised to find out that Beast Boy didn't know how to ride a motorcycle, but sometimes it was easy to forget that not everyone learned to drive when they were nine years old. Instead, Beast Boy morphed into a monkey and clung to Nightwing's shoulder as they drove to Providence. The mission looked to be an easy one. Enter the facility, find a computer, gather the intel, and get out without being seen.

They ditched the motorcycle at the edge of the city and took to the rooftops. If it weren't for the fact that Beast Boy had a beak instead of lips, Nightwing was sure his com unit would be spouting a steady stream of nervous chatter. He wouldn't blame the younger boy either. Beast Boy had training, but it wasn't nearly as extensive as Nightwing's had been when he was finally allowed on patrol.

When Kaldur informed him of the mission, Nightwing's first thought had been why wasn't M'gann going? Garfield was basically her little brother, she'd go over the top to make sure he's safe – not that Nightwing wouldn't do more than his best. It didn't take him long to figure out the reasoning behind Aqualad's decision.

Beast Boy needed a chance prove himself, just like they did at Cadmus all those years ago. M'gann might coddle him too much. But Nightwing? He understood that need in a way no one else could. He had always been the youngest, the smallest, the weakest looking hero, and had to prove himself time and time again. When he became Batman's sidekick, when he met the League, when they formed the Team. The months leading up to his big fight with Batman, which led to him becoming Nightwing in the first place. If anyone was going to give Beast Boy a chance, it would be him.

"That's the place?" Beast Boy asked. Nightwing had stopped at the edge of a roof, and the changeling flew down to perch beside him before morphing back to human.

"That's it," Nightwing confirmed.

"It looks really normal. I thought it'd be, like a—"

"Warehouse?" Nightwing chuckled. "It's true, lots of villains use those for the space. Especially if they're in the drug business. But some are smarter, and a little more subtle. Whoever we're after, they bought this building through legal means, with dirt money."

"Not all bad guys are obvious. Noted." Beast Boy nodded. "Will there be people inside?"

"Probably, but not a lot. This is in the middle of the city. Most activity would take place during the day to avoid suspicion." Nightwing focused on the holocomputer in his glove and started working his way through the security system. He didn't hack as much as Nightwing, but always kept a spare hologlove lying around should it become necessary. He made quick work of it, bypassing the firewalls, setting the cameras on a loop, overriding the motion sensors, and downloading blueprints for the building.

Beast Boy was fidgeting, the tip of his tail twitching and flicking as he waited for his orders.

"What kind of animals can you change into?"

"Anything I can think of. But I-I'm not really good with big animals yet." Beast Boy's head dipped, his voice wavering. Nightwing made a note to ask about the circumstances that led to the boy living at the Mountain when the mission was done.

"Fly over to the top floor, look in the windows. Find a room with a closed door and no visible lights if possible, then signal me," Nightwing said. Beast Boy nodded, and soon enough a little green bird was flying to the floor indicated. It was barely thirty seconds before a soft twittering reached Nightwing's ears. The green finch was hopping along a window sill, flapping its wings. Nightwing fired his line and swung over, seamlessly opening the window for both of them to slide inside. It looked like a storage room with several file cabinets and bookshelves filled with binders. There was no light under the door and he couldn't hear any movement in the hall.

"Keep your com channel open, and start browsing through some of the files here. We can't take any physical files, in case someone notices them missing, but look for familiar names. I'm going to find a computer. Tell me if you find something," Nightwing instructed. Beast Boy nodded, and the older hero was a little amazed at how obedient he was, in comparison to the first time they met. He certainly hadn't been so compliant during his early years as Robin. Or any time since then, really.

Waiting a moment to make sure the hallway was clear, Nightwing slipped out of the room. The facility was originally an office building, before the current owner repurposed it. Because of this, there were a lot of potential locations for a main office. Nightwing relied on his own business experience and went to the largest room on the floor, which would have been the boss' office, and probably still was. His hunch proved to be correct, and Nightwing wasted no time plugging into the computer and skimming through the files.

One minute later he realized something very important. There were a lot of files, and a lot of information, but nothing actually useful. All this was doing was wasting time.

"Beast Boy, report," Nightwing said. He scowled at the computer screen and absently rubbed his nose.

"It's just business proposals, and employee files. But they're old, and some of it's from Gotham," Beast Boy answered.

"Like what?"

"Um… this one says Jonathon Rance from the Elizabeth Institute?"

Nightwing frowned. There was something about both names that were familiar to him, he just couldn't place it. But he was getting the nagging feeling that this was all a set up, and it would be best for them to get out of there as soon as possible.

"I'm heading back to you, be ready to leave."

"Finally. Not that being on a mission isn't really cool, but this place kind of smells funny."

Nightwing froze. "Funny how?"

"Kind of bitter, and a little… smoky. Animal senses suck sometimes." Beast Boy's heavy sigh echoed in his ear, and Nightwing found himself running through the halls, but something was wrong. It wasn't right, none of it was right. It was like the layout of the building had changed. Beast Boy was still talking.

"You know, it smells sort of oily too. Kind of – kind of like car oil, just like-"

Nightwing burst through the door that should have led to the file room, but instead he was back in the office. He could almost smell something too, now, which shouldn't have been possible. He couldn't smell anything. It was sort of metallic. He could taste it too. It was like iron, like blood.

"I-I don't, why, why are you here? You, you're gone. I saw you."

Nightwing felt something rising in his chest. Panic? He didn't panic, he shouldn't be panicking. It was fear.

"Jonathon Rance, Professor Rance, Jonathon Crane!" It was an alias Scarecrow had used before. And the Elizabeth Institute, Arkham Asylum's full name was actually the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. "Beast Boy, it's fear toxin, you need to get out of the building now!"

Nightwing ran at the window, intent on bursting through the glass. Instead he rammed shoulder first into a solid wall. He wasn't in the office, at least not the same one as before. But this one was still familiar. Brick walls, old wooden desk. Suddenly it felt like he was nine years old again, staring up at the high backed chair where a Commissioner Gordon sat, informing him his parents were dead and he couldn't go back to the circus.

"M-mom, why are you saying that?"

"That stupid kid, I'll kill him!"

Nightwing whirled around and saw the silhouette of Tony Zucco being pulled along by another police offer go by the door window. But Zucco wouldn't be caught for another month. No, that wasn't right. Zucco had been caught years ago. He ran forwards and shouldered the door open, spilling into the hallway.

Zucco was there, wild eyed and struggling against some unseen force. When the mobster turned and spotted Nightwing, he struggled harder.

"You'll see them soon, bird boy!"

Nightwing scrambled back, but stopped when he bumped into something. A cold, mangled hand fell on his shoulder.

"You'll see us soon," a soft, familiar voice crooned in his ear. Nightwing swatted the hand away and ran, not even bothering to look back. He knew what would be there. Five twisted corpses, stumbling behind him and begging for his life.

"No, stop it, don't!"

There was a window up ahead, and Nightwing suddenly didn't care that he was fifteen stories up and only fields beyond the glass, nowhere for him to grapple to. He just needed to escape. He jumped, crashing through the glass, and tumbled to the floor. His roll was halted by a metal filing cabinet, the handle jabbing into his spine.

The pain jolted Nightwing enough to momentarily shake the hallucination. He wasn't in Gotham, or at the circus. Zucco wasn't there, and the corpses hobbling towards him weren't real. He was in the storage room and Beast Boy was sobbing in the corner.

"Gar, hold on." He didn't care about proper names right now. Nightwing fumbled with his utility belt. He only had one antidote with him right now. This wasn't his Gotham belt, he wasn't stocked for dealing with Scarecrow of all people. But he was used to fear toxin, and his body would work through it much faster. He pressed the needle into Beast Boy's arm, injecting the antidote. Beas Boy stopped shaking, and his breathing became more even. But he wasn't conscious, and the corpses were so close, he could feel there hot breath on his neck and their hands on his face.

Nightwing panicked and lashed out. The corpse – singular, just one, and not even a corpse – stumbled back but caught himself on a cabinet. Nightwing took in the crudely made mask and the plaid shirt.

"Interesting, very interesting. I don't think you've ever reacted this way before," Scarecrow droned, rubbing his jaw. "I'd like to see more, but someone has big plans for you."

The thematic villain pulled a device from his pocket. "I wonder, are you scared of bombs, bird boy?"

Nightwing didn't even remember seeing Scarecrow push the button, just the sound of the building crashing down all around them.

…

'See' you next time!