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Chapter: 7
"This is weird," Tori said, repeatedly pressing the comm in her ear, "Why aren't they working?"
"They probably got fried when we did the teleport thing with the kid," Dick said, holding his dislocated shoulder. Stopping her fussing with the device she turned to face Nightwing,
"You need some help there?" she asked,
"Yes," he said stiffly. Tori walked over and placed her hands in the position to fix his shoulder,
"Wait…have you done this before?" Dick asked, right as she was about to pop it back,
"Of course I have. Why else would I offer to fix it?"
"Because you want to see if you know how to do it?" he supplied, Tori gave him a pout before twisting his shoulder forcefully back into its proper orientation. Dick let out a strangled cry before standing and moving his arm back and forth,
"Does that answer your question?" Tori stated, smirking and crossing her arms,
"Okay. I see I should have had more faith in you,"
"It is fixed right?" Tori asked,
"Oh geez, you've never done that before have you?" Dick groaned,
"I did it once! Jason dislocated his shoulder and didn't want to go through the trouble of fixing it himself so he taught me,"
"Of course he did. Other couples go for bike rides and long walks on the pier, you and Jason swap medical notes," Dick said with an eye roll,
"We do stuff like that too," Tori stated, crossing her arms and frowning at him,
"Let's find our bikes and get back to stopping crime," Dick stated, swinging his newly fixed arm in a wide circle,
"Sure a thing," Tori said with a salute, moving to run off in the direction of their bikes when a cry stopped her. It sounded almost too far away; almost out of range, but Tori could hear it,
"No! Stop!" it sounded like a kid, "I'm sorry!" There was a gruff response,
"Shut up you stupid piece of shit!" Tori didn't need to listen any longer, her blood boiled in anger. She turned on her heel and sprinted the other way,
"Talon! What the hell! Where are you—!" Dick gave up yelling questions at her and followed. They dashed through the shadows of Gotham's alleyways until Tori finally found the right one. There was a kid, no more than ten, crouched in a protective huddle on the pavement outside the back of a run-down apartment complex. A man, large and drunk swung at the kid. Tori winced at the muffled cry the kid gave and reached for her dagger. As she moved to throw it, Dick grabbed her wrist,
"Don't just throw," he cautioned quietly. They were still masked by shadows and they other two were oblivious to the heroes being there, "Think," he stated. Tori bit her lip and nodded. When the man raised his beer bottle to crush against the boy's skull, Tori's dagger sliced through the air breaking the bottle and dowsing the evil man in the brown frothy liquid. The man whirled around slowly as Nightwing leapt forward and punched him square in the jaw. The man slammed into the garbage bins with a loud crash. Dick then hurried over to the little boy. Tori on the other hand leapt right at the man and pinned him against the chipping brick wall of the apartment building,
"Wha—?" the man blinked stupidly at her,
"You think beating up little kids is fun?" Tori snarled, punching the asshole in the face, "You think you're better because of it?" she kneed him hard in the stomach. The guy doubled over and vomited a little as Tori leapt way. Once he stopped she grabbed him by the throat again,
"You're evil," she hissed,
"Talon," Dick said. Not angrily, "Loosen up," Tori realized the man was scrabbling at her fingers and threw him over her shoulder and onto the hard pavement. The man coughed and lay there moaning. Tori stepped forward to deliver another punch when a red and black caped figure leapt down to her right. Everyone froze. She stood where she was, arm raised for the hit, Dick stood a few feet over, an arm around the sobbing boy's shoulders.
At first Tori thought it was Tim. The color's were all there…but the R symbol was in plain sight and there was no winged harness. Tori narrowed her eyes,
"Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" she snapped. Damian was Robin. He was shorter and younger…not this impostor,
"I'm Robin. I should be asking you that same question," the faker said, snapping out a bo staff that crackled with electricity,
"We were doing our job," Tori said icily, carefully reaching for her dagger under her cloak,
"Beating a man senseless is your job?" the liar asked skeptically, "An abusive jerk yes, but that's not how it's done…and I've never seen you before,"
"I've never seen you before either. You're not Robin," Tori snapped,
"I think I know who I am. Now step away from that man and assume the position," Tori let out a laugh,
"That's cute," Tori said, "But you cannot tell me what to do. I'm a hero in this city same as all the others,"
"Only Batman has a say in things concerning our city's protectors," the boy growled, narrowing his eyes at her, "Now stand down," Tori glared and stepped forward slightly. The kid slid deeper into a fighting stance. Talon was about to pounce when Dick lightly grabbed her wrist,
"When did it rain in the past few minutes since we fell?" Nightwing whispered to her in Romanian, Tori glanced to where he was nodding to see puddles of rain and snow sludge…and now that he mentioned it, the air was warmer than it had been before. There was still an icy bite indicating that it was winter…but it was generally warmer. Dick stepped forward to stand next to Tori, the moonlight now illuminating his face and suit. Fake Robin's eyes widened when he saw Nightwing. But then his expression darkened and without warning he leapt forward. Tori threw her dagger just as he moved but he twisted to dodge it. Growling in annoyance Tori flipped over his attack and dove for her precious weapon, she worked hard on the blade and she wouldn't lose it. Dick already had his eskirma sticks out and was fighting off the fake's attacks. It was clear the kid was skilled…but not that used to fighting as he let on.
Tori sheathed her dagger. Yes, she could use her swords…but she's been trying to rely on them less than before and she didn't want to actually hurt the fake Robin or accidentally injure Dick. She instead sprinted forward and jumped up, planting a foot on the wall and pushed off off it to land a strong punch, but the liar rolled out of the way and she only punched pavement. Feeling a few knuckles…probably her whole hand…break she quickly rolled with her punch, jumping to her feet immediately and settled for a nice kick. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying into a swing from Dick's eskirma stick. Faker stumbled away shaking his head dizzily before standing up straight and moving to slam his electrified staff into Tori's gut. She dodged but only barely and felt the sizzle of the weapon before she slammed into the wall nearest her. Dick did a few complicated flips trying to confuse the kid, but was also knocked away by the staff. His suit was insulated like Tori's, but the electricity still stung slightly,
"We need to get out of here. Something strange is going on," Dick said in fight language. Tori nodded in agreement. But before they could move to the rooftops Fake Robin threw down a smoke pellet and threw a re-breather over his face while doing the same for the kid he'd managed to roll next to. It was too fast for her and Dick to get their gas masks on and once she got a smell of that stuff the world started to spin. She fell to her knees. Talons were susceptible to certain knockout gases as it turned out. Nightwing was slumped over beside her.
Well crap, she thought, before passing out.
A/N: Uh-oh alternate world mishaps! Next chapter on Monday and I'll try to get a short story up on Tuesday, but it's hell week(the week before break)and I have tons of work for school. I'll try though!
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